News You Can Bruise for 2005 April 21

Sometimes we have people over for dinner and then Sumana wants me to play the gee-tar for entertainment. Recently we had Riana over and Riana was surprised that I play music. Clearly I am not that good at self-promotion if people I've known for years don't know I play music, even though there's a music link right there on my home page. I blame all the other stuff I have to do that has kept me from finishing my new album and achieving the musical superstardom I obviously deserve.

At the opposite end of the self-promotion spectrum, Riana also thought Jake Berendes is someone I'd made up. That's a common misconception, but a misconception nonetheless. Jake is doing installation art pieces on the other side of the country. How could I fake that? I can't even sew. I think I sewed a little stuffed-animal-size pillow once, but it split apart.

What is up with the really cheap, thin paper used in mass market paperbacks published in the 60s and 70s? I got a used 1972 copy of The Sot-Weed Factor and it's about as thick as any other paperback novel, but it turns out that's just because the pages are one micron thick. It's actually as long as (and more obscure than) frickin' Quicksilver.