I wrote that title a couple of days ago and I don't remember why. I guess I'm just phishing, as they say, wondering whether anyone reads this. I have almost finished reading Julie Powell's book Julie and Julia, based on her blog about cooking her way through (volume 1 of) Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I gather she reeled in a lot of people who followed her adventures in the kitchen, so many that her report warranted a book, and then a movie, thanks to Nora Ephron, RIP. I must say that I enjoy her cooking more than her swearing. Maybe it's a generation gap. Next I will read Dearie, a bibliography of Julia Child, given to me for my birthday. I won't be able to pedal with it because it's too heavy. I work out on a stationary bicycle in the late afternoon, one without handlebars to I can hold a book but it mustn't be too heavy. I usually read mysteries, partly because I'm writing one, partly because they're lighter and easier to hold and mostly because they grab me enough to make me come back the next day and pedal/read again. The question is, what makes you come back, if, indeed, you do? Would you like a recipe or a mystery?

I still haven't found the name of the flappers in Swift's Book Three of Gulliver's Travels, but I did find the correct name of the country: Laputa, not Lakota. That's not too bad for not having read it for 65 years. Right now I have to dash off to meet a friend to wander around the AGO. I'm not at all educated when it comes to art. I knew an art critic who dismissed people like me, that is, people who say "I don't know anything about art but I know what I like" when what they are really saying is "I don't know anything about art but I like what I know." I have a daughter who is really knowledgeable and gifted and I would love to get inside her head to understand what she understands and to see what she sees. It doesn't work that way. No shortcuts. SOW if I don't stop rambling I'm going to be late for my friend. No shortcuts. Of course, now I want to look up shortcuts and see where it comes from. Does anyone know? Off the top of your head? Anon,anon, sir.