Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards--

* Thanks to Dave Lull, who notices that a collection of letters and postcards by the exuberant and irascible Edward Abbey will be published very soon. (I'm as big a fan as can be of Abbey's "Desert Solitaire.") Dave spotted online excerpts from the book here and here.

* Take a break from the long-windedness of 2Blowhards with Alicatte, who posts one-paragraph-long discussions of cultural events. Alicatte isn't just to-the-point. She's also witty and intuitive, and she has her own intriguingly-quirky ways of responding to (and discussing) culture. Even her self-description -- "I'm a pessimist who expects everything to go right" -- hits the perfect, off-center note.

* Cupcake or muffin? Jane and Justin deconstruct a delectable-looking lump of floury, buttery sweetness.

* Thanks to visitor Sajai, who called my attention to a very absorbing personal blog written by a young woman who describes herself as "an Indian girl who is stuck between traditional values and the modern times." I'll say. Heavens: the traditional-style search for a suitable husband sounds like an awfully trying thing. Well, the blog at least is often funny, often dramatic, and always vivid.

* Charlton Griffin points out a very well-done page evoking what life in Charles Dickens' London was like. "Until the second half of the 19th century," one passage goes, "London residents were still drinking water from the very same portions of the Thames that the open sewers were discharging into." There was one event that was literally called "The Great Stink of 1858." 1858 -- that's not so long ago!

Best,

Michael

Ed Abbey fans might like to subscribe to "The Canyon Country Zephyr" in Moab, Uah, which regularly channels Ed to say nothing of his buddy the artist Dupwee -- um, Duprey -- Dupooey -- Oh, heck. If you're an Abbey fan, you'll know. He does spooky ghost Indian dream figures.

Jim Stiles, the editor, is beginning to be a known environmental writer, as is Martin Murie, the gentlest of environmentalists, who has a column. But the real action is the cartoon drawings of any and all named people and dogs involved, including politicians and including ads. It's sort of a community disservice.

www.canyoncountyzephyr.com

"Clinging hopelessly to the Past since 1989."

Prairie Mary

Posted by: Mary Scriver on August 17, 2006 6:27 PM

That's a great motto, or tagline, or whatever they call it.

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on August 18, 2006 8:07 AM

The young Indian woman, Apaarnaa, who is being married off by her father writes one heck of a vivid account of the process. I was struck by her relatively calm tone, given the circumstances--she mostly contents herself with a little irony and sarcasm. Of course, she does go a little further once in a while:

At this stage I must give a description of the fellow [i.e., the prospective husband]. He was tall, worked as an engineer at Infosys and therefore had an attitude as big as a crater and it was quite revolting, dirty feet and hair that resembled a bird's nest and for Gods sake I wish somebody had told him about deodorants. He was stinking!!

My parents thought that he was a very charming and handsome fellow. I still think otherwise. All through the ordeal he stared at my boobs as if he had never seen any and I was stuck by an insane desire to gouge his eyes out.

What a position to be in.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on August 26, 2006 2:02 AM






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