Nonsense Verse

I am handy, oh yes

I love to assemble furniture. I've decided it must be the adult manifestation of my childhood zest for assembling jigsaw puzzles. I relished poring over all those little pieces of different sizes and shapes and colors that had to fit together just so for the picture to be complete. Sometimes I would finish a puzzle and, not ready for the fun to end, immediately disassemble it, have the nearest big person mix up all the pieces while I wasn't looking, and then start right back in, on the same puzzle.

Twenty-six years ago...

-- Elvis died. So did Vladimir Nabokov.
--"Star Wars" broke all box-office records; other big movies were "Rocky" and "King Kong"; "Annie Hall" won Best Picture.
--Alex Haley's "Roots" broke TV-audience records; it also was the most popular nonfiction book; "Laverne & Shirley" was the top TV show.
--"The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien was the most popular work of fiction.
--The Apple II debuted at a San Francisco computer trade show.
--Jimmy Carter was president.
--The Trans-Alaskan pipeline was finished.
--The Raiders won the Super Bowl and the Yankees won the World Series.
--ABBA's "Dancing Queen" was in the Top 10; record of the year was The Eagles' "Hotel California."
--Amnesty International won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The temptation of paper

Awhile back Dervala wrote about being wooed by the Moleskine notebook. So when I was in San Francisco this past weekend and in search of a journal, I was delighted to come upon a shelf of Moleskines at the never-fails-you Cliff's Variety in the Castro. There were pocket-size books and larger, real-book-size books. Lined, squared, pocketed and blank pages. All in the telltale black leather with built-in ribbon bookmark and elastic band to keep the treasures inside safe and snug, just as Dervala had described. I snapped one up immediately. And now, I'm addicted.