my father's brain - sandeep jauhar (2023)

this is a painful read, especially towards the end of his father's life. he is honest about the indignity of advanced dementia the stress of caregiving and the distress of surrogate decision making. i am humbled as an aging person a daughter a care provider and a fellow human.

they need to make this required reading for somebodies.

he writes best when describing gritty unpleasantnesses, by the way. like the choked toilet. you want to retch along.

senior moment

time was when a pencil wuz a pencil.

now you have exam-grade pencils.

existential problem

what i say is, perhaps they have a vegetarian copywriter.

another sunday

all my life you have been faithful - all my life you have been faithful - with every breath that i am able - oh i will sing of the good ness of God. - Jenn Johnson (2019)

playing in the band today and thinking there are few more satisfying moments than when everyone plays their different part and we all sound a voice together. the cello, of course, makes me want to take up a new instrument. or just weep.

excuses

hot day. mother's day. sunday. good day for the affogato. delizioso.

byronic moment

flow gently, sweet Afton among thy green braes

flow gently, i'll sing thee a song in thy praise

my Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream

flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream

thou stock-dove, whose echo resounds thro' the glen

you wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den

thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear

i charge you disturb not my slumbering fair

i chance upon these words again and am wondrously swept into rolling green fields and braes and echoing glens and waiting to be picked up at my piano teacher's home. redintegration is real.

why Q needs U - danny bates (2025)

sweeping fascinating amazing breathtaking and all manner of other superlatives.

once in a while you find a non-fiction book about a topic people don't look twice at that holds you in thrall and teaches you gasp-worthy bits of stuff every chapter and this is one of them.

we like real words to have at least 3 letters. semivowels are consonants that sound like vowels. the great vowel shift is responsible for a lot of inconsistencies. americanisms are older than britishisms! (that's reverse snobbery for you)

totally worth reading even if you can't remember most of it eventually.