1. HBOTW [Human Being of the Week]: A young man named Cody who works bagging groceries, etc. at our local grocery store. He's always so kind to us--has a (clean) joke to tell us--has some information about the movies he's seen recently (he loves them!)--has questions about how we've been doing. He really brightens our experience there--and I hope we make his day a bit better, too. We look forward to seeing him every week.
2. I finished just one book this week--Rachel Cusk's 2019 collection of essays, Coventry.
I read (and loved) Cusk's Outline trilogy (thanks to former WRA student Alexxa Gotthardt, who introduced me to Cusk's work), and I'm going to dive into her other books as soon as I finish some other ... obsessions.
I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of Coventry, whose title, by the way, comes from an English expression--getting sent to Coventry (i.e., getting in trouble--usually at home, I guess)--and Cusk's second essay bears that title--and talks about it in her own life.
Early in the book are pieces about drivers (some annoy her as much as some annoy me--I guess this is an international problem!), a piece on rudeness, some ruminations about her (failed) marriage and motherhood and finding time to do her work. I was very moved by much of what she wrote--dazzled by other parts of it.
The final third of the book I didn't care for so much. Here are Cusk's essays on other writers and books, and my interest slid away like snow from a roof in sunlight. Yes, they are well written; yes, they are bright. But I find as I gallop into dotage that lit-crit just doesn't interest me so much (odd thing for a book reviewer to say, I realize).
Anyway, Cusk is a talent, and I look forward, as I said, to swimming through her other novels, ASAP.
3. Quite by accident we found on Britbox a show we're enjoying. It's called Shakespeare and Hathaway and deals with a couple of contemporary private investigators (one--Hathaway--is a former cop, whose boss was named Marlowe ... hmmmm). The stories take place in contemporary Stratford-upon-Avon (childhood home of ... uh ...), and in the first episode we meet Shakespeare (a woman's surname), who is actually, at first, a client of Hathaway's.
The writers have fun--lots of lightness (so far). In episode 2 we meet a character named Falstaff (!), and I know we're going to be seeing lots of this sort of thing as the seasons progress.
It's a good show with which to end our hour's streaming each night--not too stressful, amusing, and perfect for a couple of Shakespeare Nerds.
4. I was thinking this morning how odd it is that we have made such a social event out of eating, which, of course, is one of the grossest things we do: opening a hole in our faces, depositing therein some organic material, mashing it with our teeth, then propelling it down into our gastrointestinal system, where it ... well, you know ...
5. We haven't been out to the movies in quite some time. Something about the dark, the cold, keeps us at home with books and bed and streaming. It's weird, this change, because we used to go every weekend--sometimes twice--weather and light be damned!
6. Speaking of which: In less than a month the days will once again start getting ... LIGHTER!
7. Last Word: a word I liked this week from one of my online word-of-the-day providers:
- from dictionary.com
usageaster [YOO-sij-as-ter] noun
a self-styled authority on language usage
ORIGIN OF USAGEASTER: usage + -aster
-aster
a diminutive or pejorative suffix denoting
something that imperfectly resembles or mimics the true thing: criticaster; poetaster
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