it's come to the point where i've realized that i can bring so little with me that i'm just letting go entirely, and treating it like starting anew, ala israelites in the desert. went for one last dinner with WH a few days ago and he looked absolutely crestfallen when i told him i was leaving most of my books behind, as if that was the moral equivalent of killing kittens. what i will undoubtedly end up doing is buying doubles of everything in a frenzy of insecurity, and then ruing it when i next relocate to tanzania or wherever the hell it is this stupid life brings me.

and, to you-know-who-you-are, from the power and the glory, graham greene:

It is one of the strange discoveries a man can make that life, however you lead it, contains moments of exhiliaration; there are always comparisons which can be made with worse times; even in danger and misery the pendulum swings

First Sunday-sized puzzle. Difficulty *** (out of 5)





Incid., I really wanted to get BYE BYE BIRDIE as a theme answer in here, but ended up leaving it on the cutting room floor. Alas. Still love the title though :)

not having to be in the lab every day is taking its toll on me. i hesitate to use the word withdrawal, but there it is. spent last sunday to tuesday in san antonio, where i had a ridiculously large room overlooking the alamo all to myself, and drank a lot of shiner, and gave a highly unscintillating talk to a room of very bored people. re: the alamo, always thought for some reason that it involved armies of thousands when really there were only several hundred combatants in all. weird. i blame hollywood.



oh, and philly beer week wasn't all i hoped for, but i did get my brewdog stone bashah, which will do for now.

one of the (many) things i'm going to miss when i leave is the incredible variety of beer there is in east coast cities. was telling the mother the other day that my general experience with beer before the age of 23 was that it was foul-tasting water, more or less. only over the past few years has it come to me that microbrews all over the united states and europe are making incredible, affordable stuff, next to none of which is available in south-east asia. boo.

apropos of that, philly beer week starts tomorrow, and i'm on the hunt for:

* brewdog stone bashah (apparently delicious)
* either brooklyn chocolate stout or ommegang chocolate indulgence for the mother
* stone arrogant bastard
* dogfish head chateau jiahu
* gouden carolus from brouwerij het anker (not hard to find, but exceedingly delicious)
* anything and everything from the lost abbey

come along if free!