Daisy Bateman

I Would Also Accept Shrubbery

I recently was in Santa Fe, where I had a chance to visit the Georgia O’Keefe museum. It’s a lovely place and I highly recommend it. They, quite reasonably, have a lot of restrictions on taking pictures of the paintings, but none at all for the quotes posted on the wall. This is about painting, … Read more

So You Think Finland Can Dance

Do not ask why I was searching for “Finnish Tango” on YouTube in the middle of the day. Just enjoy this video about the hairstyles and leisure activities of the mid-eighties in Finland, and appreciate this quote from the intro: “. . .A country where gloom is pervasive. Melancholy, sorrow and shyness abound. All this, … Read more

Watch Out For Frogs*

When we last spoke** I mentioned that I was back from Vegas, and then vanished again. Not, as you might imagine, to sleep off the hangover, but to head up the coast for a relaxing long weekend in Bodega Bay, a place with no showgirls at all. It was a lovely trip that was exciting … Read more

Programming Note

There won’t be much going on here for the next week or so, except for one Ugly Clothes for Rich People post that I am going to write now and set to go up at some random time, because I am going to be in Vegas, testing the effects of heatstroke on a hangover. It … Read more

Arizona: Canada’s Eleventh Province?

When coming up with adjectives to describe spring in Arizona, “Canadian” is not the first thing that springs to mind. It comes in well behind “dry,” “hot,””arid,” “baseball-y” and “sere.” But evidence of the presence and cultural impact of our neighbors to (or, in this case, from) the North, from the guys sitting behind us … Read more

I’m Not On a Boat

Unless you’re reading this at some point in the future* when I am. But for the moment I remain landlocked. The cruise was a lot of fun, if a little on the cold and wet side, and I will get into that presently** but it’s almost Christmas and it doesn’t seem like the time. So … Read more