Since I have a pretty wide range of interests which no one reading this would completely share, I'm going to make the effort to add topical headings to my posts, so that, say, Dr. C. can bypass my theological musings and Pablo the descriptions of CD purchases. That said...

On the Job

M.D. got another job and so is leaving us in mid-July. I won't miss him. Aside from the fact that we have nothing in common, I got annoyed by his entangling me in painfully long, one-sided conversations, his frequent requests to switch night and weekend shifts with him to fit his personal schedule, and his using my computer when his was too slow for some particular task. On the other hand, I can imagine much worse behavior, so whether or not his departure is a blessing depends on who replaces him.

I'm still sifting through the reference collection, a tedious task somewhat relieved by the nuggets of weird or interesting information that turn up. I found a glossary of criminal slang from the 1960s that reads like dialogue in a pulp detective magazine. I particularly liked "bale of hay" as a term for "blonde woman" and "cold meat party" for "funeral." Learning that "alley apple" was slang for a brick used as a missile in street fighting may be my long sought after key to interpreting the phrase "Shine up the battle apple" in Steely Dan's gangland paean "Josie." Now if I could only figure out what "prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire" is supposed to mean.

Music

Speaking of the Dan, Becker and Fagen announced dates for the second leg of their tour, and it turns out that they're playing Albuquerque in September. That's about a four or five hour drive from here. I'm considering taking vacation time to go, even if it means sitting through a lot of their crummy recent stuff.

Weather Report

Thunderstorms every day this week so far, but all of them too late in the evening for me to get good snapshots. Still, impressive.