Heard in NY:

“I like your glasses.” Good, I still have doubts about them.

“Have you lost weight?” This guy must have had a really fat image of me. I am of course at a higher weight than at any prior point and was not wearing something particularly slimming.

“You don’t change!” But everyone around me does! Everyone I knew looked so gray.

Look at them askance, kind of blurry. I think the top one is particularly interesting if you make it blurry.

I came across another article in Spin-Off about paying attention to value more than hue. Same concepts used by Deb Menz in COLOR IN SPINNING, though I don’t know if she invented them; the top is an attempt at “high major” and the bottom is a “medium major”. Major means spanning light, medium, & dark values; and high means emphasizing light, and medium means emphasizing medium.

NOW the Xmas shit can come out.

What’s next? WOLF HALL, the t-shirt! WOLF HALL, the coloring book! WOLF HALL, the lunchbox! WOLF HALL, the flame-thrower! (Kids love this stuff.)

Never thought I’d be putting those two words together.

I can’t wait for this shit to be over.

No not really. I just have one of those faces that naturally looks kind of down.

by Lionel Shriver

This is a mash-up of three of Shriver’s other books – THE POST-BIRTHDAY WORLD; SO MUCH FOR ALL THAT; and a dash of THE MANDIBLES. A couple decide in their 50s that they will commit joint suicide when the younger of them turns 80. All the permutations of what might happen ensue, in different chapters. To wit:

• She chickens out, he goes through with it
• She goes through with it, he chickens out
• The kids discover what’s going on and have them committed
• Instead, they just plan ahead and enjoy a boring old age in a retirement home
• They chuck the idea, live long & prosper
• They chuck the idea, & get cryogenically frozen
• They chuck the idea, & humanity discovers the means to live forever
• They chuck the idea, & live long enough to see the world disintegrate

I’m sure I’m leaving some out. It differs a bit from POST-BIRTHDAY in that there are multiple paths, not just two; and the paths diverge at different points. It echoes POST-BIRTHDAY in the fact that most of the stories echo each other with little details (a stain that looks like the shape of Norway, wild mushroom fajitas, etc.). Oh, I forgot to mention that Shriver even playfully throws in a reference to herself during the MANDIBLES alterna-plotline. Definitely fun. I am kind of glad it’s over, though; I didn’t much like either him or her.