I continue to work my way alphabetically by artist through my mp3 and ogg collection; I am now about half way through Apocalyptica. Earlier in the evening I ended up with “Hall of the Mountain King,” a Grieg cover from Cult. As kitschy as the whole Apocalyptica schtick has become (or became, given that all these albums are old now), there are gems, and that would be one of them. It was unexpected.
Aretha Franklin and Arlo Guthrie are next.
And then Arockalypse.
After doing laundry this afternoon down the street at the closest laundromat (which is so generic it doesn’t even have a flashy name) I came home, had lunch, and then headed to Mother Fool’s for coffee and wireless.
Coffee is $1.90 there for a large cup, which isn’t particularly large but does come with one refill. It’s not the most generous offer in town, but if bulk coffee is what one wants, Panera and EVP are options. The latter is closer to me and I still mean to get out there for a weekday morning coffee (and donut?) session.
Evidently all the baked goods at Mother Fool’s are vegan; curiously enough, they still taste good.
I took the sofa and ended up next to a wall of small, photocopied images on paper on which dozens and dozens and dozens of different captions or speech bubbles had been written. The painting above me had an asking price of over $900, which, frankly, seemed a bit excessive given the work itself, but I’m clearly not the intended purchaser.
All sorts of folks show up at Mother Fool’s, arguably the hippiest coffee shop in town these days.
Across the way to my left and behind me a bit a group of mothers and expecting mothers sat down, all likely mid-30-ish, though I’m really a poor judge of such matters. For private conversations one takes the back room, I wager. The focus of their conversations dealt with other women, seemingly of the coworker variety, who were either finishing degrees and/or expecting children. Late-30s fertility was a topic of discussion, but I was too involved in my own writing to pay much attention.
It is a topic about which I do give thought from time to time, especially as I grow older and older, fail to establish the types of relationships that move one toward family founding, and remain in a profession full of childless people. When I do manage to settle down and then furthermore find myself settling, it will likely be in my late 30s or 40s with someone of similar age and tendency to settle for what is available, and whenever I think of it, I realize that the my chance of ever having children is getting smaller and smaller, approaching not-worth-mentioning.
I won’t be an exception in my (extended) family, as one of two second cousins has no plans for children, my brother is not particularly fond of kids, and three of four children of friends-of-the-family remain single, in their 40s, and non-breeders. The elder of my two step-brothers has spawned, so if my father wanted grandkids, now he sort of has them.
Back to the coffee shop. It also attracts knitters, such as the one that, for a while, sat down on the other end of the couch from me.
Regarding links-of-the-day or similar, I was interested by and in a recent mini-book-review of Richard A. Posner’s The Little Book of Plagiarism, Plagiarism: Everybody Into the Pool. Not the most important part of the article, but relevant to teachers: “No wonder young people are confused, and no wonder they continue to plagiarize in record numbers, with more than 40 percent of college students admitting to copying from the Internet in 2001.” Yeah, but if you get caught plagiarizing in my course, you fail the assignment, at the least.
Now back to season 7 (2 DVDs to go … then the series is done. complete … reading for reruns!)
