currently reading: orthodoxy, by g.k. chesterton
from g.k. chesterton | collected works, volume i
heretics, orthodoxy, the blatchford controversies
sample: “… it became evident that if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small. even the haughty visions, the tall cities, and the toppling pinnacles are the creations of humility. giants that tread down forests like grass are the creations of humility. towers that vanish upwards above the loneliest star are the creations of humility. for towers are not tall unless we look up at them and giants are not giants unless they are larger than we. all this gigantesque imagination, which is, perhaps, the mightiest of the pleasures of man, is at bottom entirely humble. it is impossible without humility to enjoy anything — even pride.”
— from chapter two, ‘the suicide of thought’
verdict: buy it. read it. buy it for your friends.
well, national bike to work week is over, but it’s still national bike month, so i biked to work again today. (actually, i think i’ll bike as much as possible until it gets too unbearably hot to do so … which could be tomorrow, if this muggy, augusty weather keeps up.) the bicycle entry on stuff white people like says we won’t ride them to work because we can’t wear spandex. well, i bicycle in a skort — so there! :)
truly, though, it’s been encouraging to see the progress i’ve made this spring. and the muscle development doesn’t hurt, either.
but i won’t bore you with another post entirely about cycling. (sidenote: does anyone know anything about critical mass? i was invited to the lawrence gathering this friday but can’t go because of obligations and lack of skills.)
sunday afternoon miss b. and i took a shopping adventure to westport and the plaza. i use the term ‘shopping’ lightly, because most of what we did was ‘looking’ … then again, looking is intrinsic to shopping, and shopping does not necessitate ‘buying’ as the resolution. thank goodness for that! as much as i like to look at things i’d be broke, otherwise. but i did buy some ginger bears at world market.
we quickly realized that such expeditions in the future might require more time than we allotted because we felt the need to show each other everything in our favorite stores. as we have similar tastes and a similar amount of indecisiveness, you can see why that might take awhile.
world market, as usual, was full of many wonderful (and strange) curiosities. i never did understand what was up with this pumpernickel bread. perhaps i’ll have to pay westphalia a visit to find out (but seriously, is it made from pure rye? that sounds intense).
i’d never given much ponderance to wine labels before, but miss b. and i toured the entire wine selection (which seemed fairly extensive to me, and is organized by regions) admiring the clever artwork, bottle design or winery names. i think we should develop a rating system for wine based primarily on these three categories. the wine, of course, would get bonus points for an appealing taste (neither of us is much into wine). then we also browsed the beers, porters, stouts and ales, and i found an adorable line of apparently japanese beer that sported red owls on the labels. cute! but not enough to make me like beer.
it was hot on sunday, so we stopped into murray’s ice creams and cookies for something to mitigate the heat a bit. one of their featured flavours was maple-bacon-walnut. i kind of wanted to try it, but wasn’t brave enough to request a sample (yes, i am that shy sometimes — or let’s call it ‘conversationally averse’). they also had something called ‘chocolate flake fromage,’ more or less. when miss b. was paying for her cream i asked her if she thought they realized that ‘fromage’ means ‘cheese’ in french. maybe it was chocolate flake cream cheese … i don’t know. i wanted to take a picture of it to add to my funny sign collection, but i was afraid they might think i was making fun of them. and of course i’d never do that.
i got a new york egg cream, actually, instead of ice cream. follow the link, if you want to know what an egg cream is, or if you’re a food history buff. or just curious. basically, though, it’s just milk, chocolate syrup and seltzer water — no egg, no cream. it’s deliciously frothy, creamy without being slick, and sweet without inducing a coma. which i always appreciate.
afterward we agreed our adventures, while not very daring, perhaps, had been a grand success. next time we’ll do something that takes a little more moxie than left-hand turns in westport.
