With the kids napping and the wife away and the skidding Twins not on till tonight, I type into Google "Reading suggestions" and find myself here, where you enter the name of an author or book you like and then scroll through the suggestions. I begin playing around just to see what amusing thing might occur. I try "Shakespeare," and under that choose "Four Tragedies (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth)." The fourth suggestion is The Fairy Tales of H C Andersen and, farther on, between The Iliad and The Odyssey, is an intriguing title with which I am unfamiliar, "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping," by Paco Underhill.
Next move is to google "The Science of Shopping," which lands me at the website of Malcolm Gladwell and a post called "The Science of Shopping," a review of "The Science of Shopping" that starts:
Human beings walk the way they drive, which is to say that Americans tend to keep to the right when they stroll down shopping-mall concourses or city sidewalks. This is why in a well-designed airport travellers drifting toward their gate will always find the fast-food restaurants on their left and the gift shops on their right: people will readily cross a lane of pedestrian traffic to satisfy their hunger but rarely to make an impulse buy of a T-shirt or a magazine.
Which raises the question: Would the pedestrians in the line of traffic being crossed get fat from eating on a full stomach but never purchase a single souvenier?
I saw somewhere the headline, "Republican Congress attempts to block Obama effort to buy office supplies."
Where did my wife go, anyway? Oh, yes, she is in Chisago City, doing her "packet pick-up" and learning about the course for tomorrow's Chisago Lakes Triathlon. I will go along to be "supportive" and find myself wondering how far to the nearest casino? Running Aces looks close; I won't get skin cancer in there. Let's see, what can I remember about basic strategy for blackjack? Don't break if the dealer shows six or lower, hit on 16 or lower if the dealer has 7 or higher. But hit on 12 if the dealer has a 2 or 3. Always double with 11 and always split aces and eights. Once, on a road trip with a bunch of guys, we decided we'd all put in $20 and stop in for one hand at the Ho Chunk Casino in Wisconsin. Wouldn't you know we got "soft 18," the hand for which the rules are maybe most complicated. Can't remember what the dealer showed, but we stood, and lost, and got somewhere later and poorer.
When my mom was alive but dying I sometimes, like right after waking up, couldn't think of why I wasn't happy. Then I'd remember her and how sick she was. Now I just remember that she's gone, which is better.
Things are starting to happen: minivan in the driveway and a cat scratching behind a closed bedroom door. He didn't sleep for as long as the girl. I bet I get a good pasta meal tonight, carbohydrate loading and all that.
