A subscriber emailed with the subject line aren't I a member, which reminded me of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?"

Who wants to apply a song about a dead logger love to the world of online journals? If Andy Holloway were still reading this journal he'd be a prime candidate. I used to think that …

Last night I went to a Salon party where subscribers met Joe Conason, one of our most popular writers. I took it upon myself to circulate and mingle with guests, since the event was pretty …

Tired and demoralized. Endless email. Update ten minutes later: I reread The Preacher's Story and that helped.

I got to meet Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen last night. Leonard and I went to the Berkeley Sur La Table kitchen supply store, where he gave a class. Christopher Kimball, …

Krugman on his career and becoming an economist:I have a self-serving theory: interesting ideas have very little to do with interesting life experiences. According to this theory a person who has grown up in eight …

Reading Dostoyevsky's Notes From the Underground, which has so many quotable lines. The fragment that really affected me when I read the first few pages, years ago: "...in that fever of oscillations, of resolutions determined …

Notes From the Mystery Department and Stereolabrat could be by the same person in two universes. A funny bit from the former: "We were walking around on our lunch break yesterday and found a really …

If you want to knit a sweater to give to your beloved by Christmas, then you should start very soon. But beware The Sweater Curse! Also, last night I was watching an early Good Eats, …

Helping Zack move occasioned me wishing we were all Anarresti from Le Guin's The Dispossessed so moving would be easier. This applies to me as well, as I have moved four times in the past …