Resolution Update, Part 4

26,225 words @ 846 words per day--most productive month so far in 2006

98,884 words total @ 824 words per day through 120 days

Estimated finish at current pace: August 9

HRH

I can't let this go without comment. The lead in The Washington Post's story about Prince Harry's military service:

If it's war Harry Wales wants, it's war he shall have.

Harry Wales? Isn't the prince's last name Windsor?

E-Z does it

Reds 4, Nationals 2.

Much has been made in the Cincinnati papers about Elizardo Ramirez's changeup, which was, as advertised, effective. But he didn't throw that many. Javier Valentin says he threw maybe six or seven, but I don't remember that many. When he did throw them, they made the Nationals nearly break their backs trying to stay back after they had already started their swings. Nice. Thank you, Mario Soto.

The most impressive thing about Ramirez was his poise--which was helped by occasional encouragement from Valentin. He got out of a tough spot in the sixth, when Austin Kearns let a ball get by that should have been caught and Edwin Encarnacion rushed what would have been an inning-ending double play and threw the ball into the Reds dugout. Then he came back in the seventh, after getting his first big-league hit, and struck out two and got a line drive out to center. All in all, quite impressive. Let's hope he can keep it up.

Three more things:

1. Livan Hernandez is tired. It shows. But Livan Hernandez is a great pitcher. Why? After the first inning, he virtually shut the Reds down, getting strikeouts and ground balls when he needed them, even though his stuff was tired. He threw everything he had at them but the rosin bag: he got Felipe Lopez to pop out with a changeup that flopped in at 68 miles per hour.

2. Livan Hernandez has Adam Dunn's number. Dunn's RBI ground out? Pathetic. And he followed that by grounding into a double play with a man on third.

3. I noticed that the Reds made the biggest one-week move of any team on CBS Sportsline's power rankings, jumping from 22 to 13, ahead of the Braves and the Blue Jays. The Sportsline writer, however, devoted his brief write-up to sneering at Ken Griffey, Jr.'s latest trip to the disabled list. Forget Jerry Narron; we need Rodney Dangerfield.

Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Red?

I'm going to the Reds-Nationals game tonight at RFK. At first I was disappointed that the Reds were calling up someone from Louisville to pitch because Milton torqued his knee, but now I am rather excited. Elizardo Ramirez has been a solid pitcher in the minor leagues, including some strong outings this year, helped by granting very few walks. Last year he was not so great in his few starts with the Reds, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he has.

The real question is: which Reds will show up? The ones who lost 11-0 to the Brewers on Saturday behind feeble efforts from pitchers and hitter, or the team that bounced the Brewers 11-0 on Sunday behind a complete-game shutout and standout performances from their young infielders?* We'll see.

*And let me take this moment to say, at the risk of jinxing the whole thing, that Wayne Krivsky looks like a genius for picking up Brandon Phillips from the Indians for Player T.B. Namedlater (to say nothing of the deal for Arroyo). 17 RBI in a week? A week? Phillips has been with the team for 15 minutes and he's tied for the team lead in RBI? What the...? With Phillips, Lopez and Encarnacion on the infield, Reds fans--well, this Reds fan can't help himself--are already starting salivate about what MIGHT be possible from those guys.

Resolution Update, Part 3.5

more than halfway: 92,254 words
Days: 108
Pace: 854 words per day
Date of goal at this rate: August 4

Now reading: Spin.
Now playing: My Favorite Encores, Van Cliburn.

Various and sundry

I want to write something meaningful about House of Leaves, but I'm not sure what I think about it yet. Typically, I can't do books that are even the slightest bit digressive, and House of Leaves is NOTHING if not digressive. I would dare say that the vast majority of the book is actually one enormous digression--or multiple small ones. Nonetheless, I tore through the book and when I reached the end I found myself even more intrigued and not at all disappointed in the open-ended (or un-ended) way the book closes.

House of Leaves is a book to explore, not so much to read. Its stories are chilling, even if its narrative is not. I have quoted twice from the book here in the blog, but I think the line that frightened me the most was the book's very first.

This is not for you.

I get chills just thinking about it.

In other news, I am now reading Robert Charles Wilson's much lauded Spin. Excellent so far; so many things are done so well. I am also reading Andrew Bridgeford's 1066: The Hidden History in the Bayeux Tapestry, which is surprisingly easy to digest.

Tomorrow, I will turn my attention back to my own novel (yes, Sisyphus let go of the rock for a few days, but don't worry, he started writing a Western in the interim). Nearly 90,000 words already on toward 182,500 (for the year, not for the novel--I have a beard, but I'm not Robert Jordan).

Another gem from House of Leaves

People always demand experts, though sometimes they are fortunate enough to find a beginner.

That kind of counterintuitive insight permeates this book. I'm going to be disappointed if it turns out to fall far short of my meager expectations in the plot department, but I think I'll be glad I read it either way.

I also love how the copious and over-the-top academic footnotes cite these long, discursive exegeses of The Navidson Record that supposedly appeared in such noted journals as Redbook and Ladies' Home Journal.

Queen & Country et al.

ComicCritique.com has my review of Queen & Country #29. Also check out reviews of several new #1's including Storm, Blue Beetle, American Virgin and the intriguing Mouse Guard.

Interesting Reds statistics

1. Adam Dunn has two sacrifice flies this year already after only one last year to break his string of some 1,000+ at bats without one in his career.
2. Chris Hammond's ERA is 189.00, although he did finally get someone out.
3. The Reds scored 11 runs against the Pirates Saturday, but only four runs came from home runs. J has put the lie to the oft-repeated claim that Great American Ball Park is a Midwestern Coors Field; there have been many runs scored there in its short life because during that time the Reds pitchers have sucked so badly. Harang was great today, giving up only one dinger--a vast improvement.

Now reading: "Why I Became A Plumber," Sara Maitland, in Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 17. I can't read House of Leaves at night. Too creepy weird cerebral, not necessarily in that order.

History is bunk meme

Via Andrew Wheeler.

Get thee to Wikipedia and enter thy birthdate (leaveth out ye olde year). Reporteth thine findings of three events, two births and one death.

June 3

Events
1098 - First Crusade: Antioch falls to the crusaders after an eight-month siege.
1800 - U.S. President John Adams takes up residence in Washington, DC (in a tavern – the White House was not yet completed).
1937 - The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.

Births
1930 - Marion Zimmer Bradley, American author (d. 1999)
1936 - Larry McMurtry, American author

Deaths
1963 - Pope John XXIII (b. 1881)

Now reading: House of Leaves

Gospel of Judas

Check out the National Geographic site and the NYT article about the newly revealed 'Gospel of Judas' found in an ancient Gnostic codex that has shuffled about the earth (including a brief stay in a safe-deposit box in upstate New York) for the past 30 years. The NYT article also includes a bit of "inside baseball" about the translation and unveiling of the document.

For all the attention that The Da Vinci Code gets, with its veneration of ancient texts and imaginative take on their meaning and dissemination, the truth about such scholarship is that it is a real and vital undertaking with a host of players, in this case including well-regarded scholars (James Robinson), noted authors (Elaine Pagels, which is not to say that Ms. Pagels is not a scholar), shady antiquities dealers (of various nationalities) and former technology executives (Ted Waitt, erstwhile leader of Gateway).

A simile for me

Sometimes a writer will render an image that is particularly evocative and poignant to me. This, from Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, is one of the best I have ever read.

At first I figured Zampano was just a bleak old dude, the kind who makes Itchy and Scratchy look like Calvin and Hobbes.

Brilliant.

Process and product

The New York Times has a summary of the vitriol surrounding a posthumous collection of Elizabeth Bishop's unpublished poems, many of which were in fragmentary or obviously draft form. Some, most notably Helen Vendler in The New Republic, have excoriated the new edition, saying that the private, perfectionist Bishop would have been mortified to have these snippets and castoffs come to light. Others say that any insight into the craft and creative process of such a poet is valuable.

I am not a poet. To those few of you who have ever been subjected to one of my efforts at verse, my most abject apologies. But I tend to agree with those who want these fragments and drafts published. Making choices is really what writing of any kind is all about. Do I use this word or that one? Imply this or overstate it? What one word crystallizes this image? Should she blow out the candles before she hits him over the head with the candelabra? Seeing how and why authors, poets and writers of all ilk make these decisions is useful and worthy of attention.

I disagree with The New Yorker's decision to publish some of these drafts without noting that they were indeed drafts, but I think the endeavor is worthwhile nonetheless.

Now reading: Misquoting Jesus, Black Juice. The library is clamoring for these books' return, so I am focusing on these two to beat the deadline. Then it's that time of year: on to something about the Norman invasion and William the Conqueror.