How to use this Page

Posting a Sunday Summary on Tuesday morning is quite appropriate, given that my boyfriend and I interpreted our move-out date of last Friday to mean… also Tuesday morning. I hope to cod that by the time you read this, my move is finally, finally over. On to the summary:

Finished last week:

• Only THE HOT ROCK, the first DORTMUNDER book by Donald Westlake. If you can get past the datedness (let’s just say the female characters are not ones I recognize as human), it’s a really fun caper novel. And I love clever caper novels, especially ones filled with many non-obvious reversals of fortune. THE HOT ROCK fared excellently on that score.

Reading this week:

• I’m hoping to finally get my latest batch of LGBT teen romance novels today (due to the move, I had them sent to me at school; what better use of a departmental mailbox?). This weekend was Madison’s Pride — I had a great time marching in the parade and celebrating the mass wedding ceremony — so it’s particularly fitting.



• In the meantime, I have been working on my inaugural Read or Die! pick: Trotsky’s MY LIFE. Every time I read anything by Trotsky, I am struck by how excellent he is at characterization. It comes out in very enjoyable fashion when he recounts his school days:

The percentage of freaks among people in general is very considerable, but it is especially high among teachers. [... Here he starts describing his headmaster, Kaminsky] He was a physicist by profession, a humanity-hater by temperament. He never looked at the person with whom he talked; he moved about the corridors and the classrooms noiselessly on rubber heels. He spoke in a small, hoarse, falsetto voice which, without being raised, could be terrifying.

…He goes on from there, on Kaminsky and all his other teachers (none of whom come across hugely well). One of the things that makes it a great memoir is that Trotsky applies the same skill to himself; he judges himself, including his limitations and the changes in his ideas, very thoughtfully.

My status as a sociology grad student compels me to quote one more passage:

Casting about for activities, we decided to organize a university on the basis of mutual instruction. There were about twenty students. My department was sociology. That was high-sounding. I prepared for my course with all my powers, but after two lectures, which came off satisfactorily, I suddenly realized that my resources had been exhausted. The second lecturer, whose course was the French Revolution, became confused as soon as he began and promised to deliver his lecture in writing. Of course he failed to fulfill his promise, and that was the end of the enterprise.

The two of them then go on to try their hand at playwriting (”We had, it must be said, no shortage of monologues.”). I recognize myself all over these quotes, and feel immense gratitude that my own early writing and teaching efforts have been largely forgotten.

Cooked last week:




Pattypan squash, light of my casserole, fire of my stew. (Image from Potomac Vegetable Farms.)

• I’ve become obsessed with pattypan squash. I made a squash casserole (layers of squash — and zucchini, but I liked that less — and cheese, topped by bread soaked in milk and baked); when I fried some leftovers with an egg every morning for breakfast, it was like eating French toast with buttery squash. Delicious.

And I put a ton of squash into a shepherd’s pie inspired by my new favorite comment thread. I used blue cornmeal for the polenta topping, which was also quite beautiful: red tomato sauce, yellow and green squash, and purple crust. I kind of wish I hadn’t eaten it all day so I could eat more right now. *