Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris

Book 3

As I was saying, Dead Until Dark is the first novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris.  The "Southern Vampire" novels, they are also called.  Not sure the Swedish sheriff would appreciate that, but whatever.

Do you all know the premise?  The Japanese have invented synthetic blood.  Since vampires are no longer compelled to drink blood from live people, they have "come out of the coffin" and want to be recognized as citizens.  Those that choose to live in human communities are known as "mainstreamers".

There is just enough of the fantasy/sci fi geek in me to debate whether the rules of this particular vampire world make any sense.  Mostly, I buy it so I won't bore you with the details. 

True Blood, the TV series, is nasty.  In a graphic-sex-beyond-my-imagination way.  The blood was cool, though.  The novel isn't quite that nasty, but one of the reasons is that the novel is told in the first person, and Sookie would have no way of knowing about Jason and that blond girl in the parking lot of Merlotte's, or about his ending up in the emergency room after drinking that vial of vampire blood.  So one the one hand, the TV show is cooler because it follows the other characters around - they are more developed and very interesting.  The book is more intimate with the heroine.  Because she is the heroine.  On the other hand.  Jason is nasty.

The other way the TV show is cool is that in the portrayal of Sookie's gift (or curse, depending on your point of view).  She can read minds.  The director or whomever did a really good job of showing how loud and awkward freaking crazy that would make you if you couldn't turn it off at will. 

But I was talking about the book.  And the TV show is not entirely faithful to the text.  For example, (slight spoilers here) when Long Shadow is killed, the TV show is very clear that Bill did it.  The novel is not.  It has Sookie blacking out and thinking that Eric did it.  Now, perhaps that is simply what she thinks, and another truth will come out later.  But it still a pretty big departure.

The character of Tara doesn't even exist in the novel.  I love Tara.

Anyway, if you like the show and would like to a) get further into Sookie's head or b) have a whole bunch of brain candy to get you through to the next DVD release, this is a good pick.

Score Two For Kindle

I had watched several episodes of True Blood before I took a look at the novels on which it was based.  The Sookie Stackhouse series is on Book 9 or 10.  When I decided that I like it, I figured I might as well read the books.  Or at least the first one.

I went to Borders.com, to see if I couldn't burn through the rest of that gift card.  Too expensive.  Amazon, B&N, I don't want to pay retail, I don't want to pay shipping blahblahblah.  Then I went back to Amazon to check out the options for the Kindle. 

Books 1-8 in one box set download for $28.80.

I started mulling this over.  30/8 = less than four dollars per book.  Certainly within the realm of reason, assuming that I like them and read them all.  As if I need to read some more trashy vampire novels.  As if I didn't blow past that quota in the 10th grade.  And then I look at my bookcase and do the need vs. want debate in my head.  Then I tell myself that I should use the Kindle more because it will make my brother happy.  Back and forth, back and forth.  So I go to my mother.

"I need you to talk me out of spending money stupidly," I say.  And tell her my lame little dilemma. 

She tells me to buy the books.  Then she says, "Didn't we determine there is a $50 minimum on having these debates?"

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why I cannot stop spending money.

So I buy them, and I start reading.

Here's the good part.  Just as Utter Scoundrel was talking about people being pretentious with the books they read (or pretend to) in public, I was discovering that if you read your trashy vampire novels on the Kindle...no one knows.  No one knows!

(until I blog about it.)

What Women Pay

I read this article on MSN Money when I was out of town - Seattle, I think – so I didn’t write about it. But MP Dunleavy (with the help of Consumer Reports) dug up a whole bunch of scenarios where women are charged more than men for essentially the same service. Of course, this is not exactly news. And while I have noticed such things before, I think I had rationalized them to “women have more hair, so a haircut costs more” or “there are extra fragrances added that lotion” or “men push harder in negotiations/bargaining”.


Then there was mention of a lawsuit. Two ladies sued Saks for charging them for alterations on their evening gowns when alterations on men’s tuxedos are done for free. It sounds like wealthy women with too much time on their hands, but I guess the battles must be fought by those who have the means. It becomes scarier as Dunleavy notes the differences in mortgage and insurance rates and then the bottom line:

“When you look at each product or service individually, the affront doesn't appear so egregious. But it all adds up: a few bucks for alterations, a percentage point or two in mortgage interest, higher health care co-pays. Then consider that, on average, a woman still earns about 78 cents to a man's dollar (or $78,000 compared with $100,000 paid to a male colleague with the same level of experience).”


The moral of the story is that while there are larger battles to be fought here, the average women can make her statement by being a more educated consumer. Vote with your wallet!

Goddam Salinger

Chicago blogger Erin Shea wrote a piece about JD Salinger yesterday. She had been listening to the NPR report with an English teacher. ““This is the book they keep,” he said. “This is the one they never give away.””

Shea continued:

“I never have either. Yellow, worn and frayed, I have never let go of my original copy, the one my parents bought me for Christmas when I was in 7th grade. I’m looking at it right now, searching for underlined words, my name scrawled in the margins, dog-eared pages. Do you ever open a book and find something inside like that? As though these books you’ve been carrying around with you for years and years suspend time for you somehow by keeping those things for you?”

Oh, hell. So I went to into my library to look for it. It took awhile because it was still wrapped up – in a book cover way, with the actual English assignment – “supposing that our district was facing the prospect of having Catcher in the Rye banned…” There appear to be Diet Coke stains on the piece of paper – which also have my name and the title of the book written in purple ink in handwriting that was once mine and the word “pesadia” on the back in pink ink, in handwriting that I don’t quite recognize. Kris used to write in pink, though. What does “pesadia” mean, anyway? Cursory Google search gave me nothing.

Also in the pages was a little card that came with the candy cane – my school did a fundraiser every holiday where you could send treats to your friends – from Matt my sophomore year. I won’t even tell you what he wrote, but it was vulgar. I do not have dog-eared pages, underlining or notes in the margins.

I couldn’t say that this book changed my life on any conscious level. But around that time – the half-way point of my sophomore year - was when I started to like being in a classroom again. When I stopped hating the world and started to get over myself. If I had to be there I might as well learn something, right? How many teenagers do you know whose rebellion was substantially over before they even turned 16?

Anyway. I ought to toss that old, damaged thing in the trash and get a nice new copy, but I won’t.

“It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

Crazy as 10 Plastic Surgeries

As much as I enjoy the spa, I have always loathed paying money for a manicure.  Two reasons:

1. I can mostly do it myself.  I even have a bloody paraffin bath!
2. I will never have really nice nails again, so why the heck would I spend money to have them groomed?

However, now that I am old and my skin is dry...

For the last couple of years, my fingernails have been peeling.  Not breaking, not splitting.  Peeling off in layers.  I have tried many products and nothing is helping.  It is definitely worse in the winter.  I have been told by the professionals, over and over, that if I would get regular manicures, it would get better.  That has always sounded like a sales job to me.

However, you may have noticed that there are deals everywhere on the mani-pedis.  (I hate that term.)  Apparently the reasonable people have determined that if we are all going to try to save more money, blahblahblah.  So I went in.

The nail technician (as I believe they prefer to be called) told me that the issue is taking care of the cuticles.  Makes sense.  How?  Rub baby oil into them every day.

Baby oil?  I can't run around my house with baby oil on my hands!  How would I even touch the computer?!

Gloves, she says.

Well, I only have one pair of moisturizing gloves, I would have to wash them much more regularly than I do and anyway, I don't think they would hold up to actual baby oil.

Wear latex gloves, she says.  It sounds weird, but you get used to them.

Would you believe I actually went to CVS and bought a box?

I will not be doing this every day.

Five Cent Bags

I heard a lot of grumbling about this last week and I was going to wait a bit to watch the (r)evolution before commenting, but the AP just ran an article on Washington DC's new tax on disposable bags.  Every time you buy something in DC, the cashier will ask if you want a bag (or how many).  You are then charged 5 cents per bag.  The article talks about people avoiding it by shopping in Virginia - where other taxes are higher - or imperiling their purchases.

Apparently, the tax is an attempt to clean up the Anacostia River by reducing litter. My plastic bags almost never end up in the garbage.  In fact, I let up on using the reusables a bit because we kept running out of plastic bags to hold our recycling.  And the smaller ones I brought to the library for use at the Used Book Store. 

Here is my favorite part of the piece:

"This is like a behavioral economist's dream," Dan Ariely, an economics professor at Duke University and author of "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions," told the Washington Post. "Here we will see people go to extreme lengths to save very little money."

It seems that since its January 1 effective date, the estimate is that plastic bag use has been reduced by 50%.  I expect there will be some sort of counter-revolution.

Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

Book 2

It is absolutely no surprise to me that 23 days into January I have only finished two books.  I can't get off the Internet long enough to watch TV, let alone read a book.  Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, has been on my shelf for about ever.  I pulled it down because some friends chose it for a Book Club pick. 

It is a study of the split-second decisions we make.  Conscious or unconscious, good or bad and how they happen.  There are several case studies, including that of Amadou Diallo, the immigrant from Guinea who was shot to death by police in New York in 1999.  Gladwell does an excellent job of breaking down how such a horrible, horrible thing could happen, and how it might be prevented in the future.

Interestingly, several chapters included things I have learned in school over the last couple of years.  One was about a company that set up testing that tries to determine unconscious prejudices.  I remember going online and trying it, and I could swear that I wrote about it, but I can't find the entry.  Another was about New Coke.

I don't want to do much more analyzing before the Book Club discussion, but suffice it to say that I liked this one.

And now I shall go to Paradise Lost.  But only because I can be reading that along with the Internet.

Saturday Trip to the Library

I ran over to the library today to donate my text book to the cause.  My old textbooks have been earning decent returns on the Used Book Store's Amazon site.  The regular (termporary/construction) parking lot was completely full so I parked over in the commuter lot by the train station and walked back by the new library.  I posted these pictures on the new UBS Facebook Group page, but I am re-posting here to give myself some perspective.  From these, I can almost believe that it will be done in November.  This was the view from the corner of Jackman Park.

Actual walls and something roof-like and shape.  Over on the right-hand side, you can almost see that there were lights on inside the building.  We were told that if they got enough done before the winter really set in, if there was enough structure to protect the workers from the elements, that construction could continue through the early months of the year.  It seems they succeeded in that.

.

This is the corner of Glenview and Harlem.  There are bricks!   I have seen the blueprints dozens of times and am still not sure where the entrances are.  But this looks like there will be doors here, I think.  I know the parking lot is going to be where the current library stands. 

So I went in to donate my book and the lobby was just packed.  I am not sure what was going down today, but there were lots of kids checking out lots of books and that made me happy.  Maybe we are getting somewhere.

Another Health Care Rant

The diagnosis was chronic sinusitis and an allergy to mold.  The treatment was three different allergy medications and weekly shots.  A year later, I have dropped one of the prescriptions and have graduated to bi-weekly "maintenance" shots.

In the past, say six months, I have come to the conclusion that I will never entirely kick this allergy.  I might be taking Allegra D for the rest of my life.  There are way worse things.  However:

Several months ago, when I went online to re-order my 90-day supply of the drug, I was shocked to find the cost had gone up:  $340 and change.  Now my insurance pretty well reimburses me for the cost, but still.  $340/90 days = $3.78 per day.  For one drug.

Claritin D has been available over-the-counter for awhile now.  Both drugs are aniti-histamines and both have a decongentant.  My insurance won't cover Claritin D, but my flexible spending account will.  Claritin D costs $20 for a 15 day supply on drugstore.com.  $20/15 days = $1.33 per day.  About 35% of Allegra D. 

I have pretty well determined that the decongestant, rather than the anti-histamine, is important to me.  So I gave Claritin D a try.  I bought a box on drugstore.com.  It seems to be working.  So I went back on line to order a 90-day supply.  Do you see where this is going?

Drugstore.com gave me the message that my state regulates the drug and I can only order one box at a time. You know, because of the meth-fiends.

Unacceptable.

There is no way I am going to pay shipping every two weeks for this drug, and there is no way I am going to go to the actual drugstore every two weeks to pick it up.  I will just keep my prescription, thank you.

This is me, one of the trying-to-be-good people, leaving the conscientious-consumer party because the regulations are lame.  I am sorry, Blue Cross, but I ordered the Allegra D.

Reconnecting with the District

I had a horrible moment Monday night:  Checking into the hotel, it hit me that I wasn't particularly happy to be there.

I am always happy to be back in Washington.

So I quickly determined that it had been rather too long since I made a pilgrimage to President Lincoln's shrine and set out to do so after work on Tuesday.  The first awesome thing that happened was that walking along..what is that, Independence Avenue?..when I reached the back garden of the Smithsonian Castle.  Or is that the front garden?  The front door faces the Mall, right?  Anyway, something caught my eye:

I'd forgotten how pretty those gates were.  Forgotten is not the right word.  I'm not sure I ever noticed before.  I have walked by that garden dozens of times, on my way to someplace "more important" and barely looked at them.  I'm sorry that I only had my lame camera phone, because it doesn't remotely do it justice.  The half-dead Christmas decorations seemed both oddly and appropriately pretty in the 50-degree mid-January late afternoon. 

So I had my content little moment of "always something else to see" and then I moved on.  When I crossed over to the Mall, I caught a glimpse of my Favorite Museum on the Face of the Earth and remembered that I hadn't gone through the entire thing - post-renovation.  So I went in and toured the Military History exhibit.  Loved it.  There were several pieces that belonged to George Washington, including his uniform and camp gear.  They also had General Grant's camp chair. Oh!  And a uniform that General Powell used in Desert Storm.

Seriously, I would love to know how that came about.  Did someone from the Smithsonian actually call him up to ask if they could have his old clothes?   It's not exactly an inaugural gown.

Then I hurried back to the Lincoln exhibit because I loved that the last time.  I stayed so long I was actually kicked out at closing time.  Walking down the steps, I saw this:

Has this always been there?  Have I walked into this building a hundred times and not noticed it?  What the heck does this have to do with American History?  I actually looked it up.  I believe the sculpture is called "Infinity".  A curator named David Shayt wrote in a piece last year:

"Large works of public sculpture outside our museum doors reveal aspects of a museum’s

self-image. They beckon, reassure, or confront visitors with new ideas about what might lurk inside."

Now, this museum has always celebrated industry and technology, but even with that understanding, I'm just not feeling this piece as representing the essence of the place.  I don't think the concept of "Infinity" really tell helps tell the story of American History.

Whatever.  I don't know anything about art.

I never made the official pilgrimage, but at least I will look forward to it on the next trip.  For real.