book pairings

ive been reading a lot lately and have been meaning to put together a little list of books that really should be read together:

homage to catilona/1984 - george orwell. written roughly about the same time. orwell's hatred of communism comes from his experiences with the anarchists during the spanish civil war.

black boy/native son - richard wright. if i remember correctly native son was written directly after wright finished black boy.

gravity's rainbow - thomas pinchon/the kindly ones - jonathan littel. insanely long, graphic, complicated books about nazis/WWII. not for the faint of heart or those not wanting to marry a book for several months.

those are the ones i can think of right now. look for more.

on a very special blossom

kitten season is fast approaching and the cats are coming back to the yard. and recently there is one that has decided to make the shed home. she (thats only a wild guess. i havent been able to catch a peek at any bits) is consistantly there and allows me get pretty close to her. the last two times ive left out food, ze's come out to eat it while we are still playing in the backyard. i wonder if ze is a recently dumped cat. that might explain why ze would pick a "home" so close to people and doesnt instantly run away when we appear. and augustus decided to name the cat blossom, not after the eccentrically dress television character, but after ruff ruffman's cat. ze isnt black, but is grey tabby and white with what i could only describe as white "tears" on zur's face.

ive got a list of potentials i need to fax in so i can start trapping again. and a few weeks ago, i trapped another cat. he didnt really strike me as a cat with much personality so i didnt really name him. and when i picked him up from the vet's, the tech said she didnt think i was feral. he seemed pissed off enough to not like people (although being in a small trap wasnt all the fun either) but i figure if i happen to catch an unaltered, untagged animal on my property, you're pretty lucky he didnt go the way of poison or bb gun which i can only imagine would be some of the other animal control options in texas. and it's dipshits that dont fix their outside male cats, cause it's not like they will have to worry about finding homes for unwanted kittens, that impregnate my feral females and make more cats for me to trap.

And regarding Sarah Palin, Feministing, link on the side, has been covering the issue quite well so there's really nothing more i can say on the subject. But one thing i will add is that Sarah Palin fired a Wasila librarian over censorship issues, only to reinstate her after the public protested. In honour of upcoming Banned Book Week, i suggest donate a copy or two of some of the many challenged books to your local library in Sarah Palin's name. Apparently, there is also a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in the same vein, because PP will send a thank you card to the person.

herb, bud, weed, and other drug references

so the mass-tastic amounts of rain we've finally gotten has been like crack for my plants. went to home depot over the weekend and got a huge 32 gallon garbage can for a water barrel. just putting it under the drippy part of the porch, it filled in two hours.

the spinach and mesclun (husband thought i said mescaline) has done really well. the wildflower seeds are coming out gang-busters. my purple double-bloomed datura is finally showing life. the backyard vegetables are going great - the cantaloupe seeds i thought were dead actually were alive. i need to check the seed packet, it must have just have a long germination time. i lost the carrots and broccoli, but threw some new seeds in the ground. the raspberry bush might not be completely dead.

i also transplanted some morning glories along the chain link fence; hopefully they will work. i just need to clear away all the kudzu/viney weed crap. and speaking of weeds, rather than put done chemicals, ive been clearing away all the chickweed and other stuff in the backyard by hand. slowly but surely, it's looking more like a yard, and less like a vacant lot. ive now got a huge pile of crud lying on a pallet to die before i add it to the compost bin.

AND!!! And!!....i have a redbud tree!!!! the tree next to the pecan on the property line between us and the business is a redbud!!! theres a beautiful redbud at the end of the street ive been coveting and then, the other day, we were riding bikes in the parking lot and so some purplish petals were on the ground. i look up and see more on the branches. i was so excited. it's not in full bloom like a lot of the others ive seen around so im hoping it's healthy. all this rain should give it a kick in the butt.

whatelse... finished reading the world without us. not as completely depressing as i thought it would be, though the section on plastic made me want to never buy a non-wooden toy again. now, im dividing my reading between corpse, rackkety tam, lord brocktree, and taggerung (book on tape).

and i tried the lentil and rice casserole from tightwad gazette II. i had to season some cast iron grates for the grill we bought i figured if i was going to have the stove on for 2 hours, i might as well have something to show for it. i would make again, just tweak it a bit. the stock i use doesnt have much salt so it needed a bit, i also put a bunch of ritz crackers in it and that made it quite tasty.