tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196781952024-03-14T01:40:25.968-07:00Mad Cow vs Bird FluYou can get it from your contact lens solution.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.comBlogger323125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-36268141817980014102019-10-22T08:25:00.001-07:002019-10-22T08:25:35.214-07:00hereBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-80377842335554384912019-07-09T11:04:00.001-07:002019-07-10T12:59:11.459-07:00a sneak peek at my new Stockholm guidebookAlert readers (hi Karl!) may already know that I have a new guidebook out -- well, a few of them, actually, but the subject of today's post is Stockholm Pocket Precincts, a very cute and practical guide to Stockholm's neighborhoods.
Is it not adorable?
This is the first book I've written in a while that was mine from scratch, rather than an update of an existing work. So I used it as an Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-25356582217701589332019-05-24T13:32:00.002-07:002019-05-24T13:32:38.679-07:00deadliningThoughts I have when I'm on deadline, pretty much every time:
this seems like a good day to organize my bookmarks
and my bookshelves
I deserve to watch that new movie - no ALL the new movies
definitely need to redesign my resume
baseboards are looking awfully dusty aren't they
let's put 27 books on hold at the library for when we're done
Buffy/Alias marathon?
I should work out
spring clean! Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-63747565620009074142019-05-19T10:47:00.003-07:002019-05-19T10:47:40.026-07:00disappearing dives
If you know Portland, you know it loves its
dive bars. I mean, this is the city that revived PBR. We like to drink cheap. But these days the really divey bars – the places you'd hesitate to recommend to
out-of-town visitors – are rapidly disappearing. (Anyone remember the Paragon? It came up in conversation the other night. I don't mean the one in the Pearl. I mean the one that had a cage at Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-22999878304133763682019-02-09T09:20:00.000-08:002019-02-09T09:20:02.849-08:00secrets of guidebooking, revealed
Those of us who write guidebooks for a living like to make a big deal about how it's totally a real job and we're not just getting paid to bum around checking out cool stuff on some fat company's dime. It's work, you guys! We are working.
Real talk, though: guidebook writing is not rocket surgery. Mostly it's a lot of wandering around with a notebook and a cellphone, looking like a dork Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-48049099179795545862019-02-02T10:56:00.003-08:002019-02-02T10:56:56.485-08:00just keep walkingWalking is a great way to think. Lots of important thinkers have written about it, from Emerson
and Thoreau to Nietzsche to Kierkegaard – who supposedly said, “If one just keeps on walking, everything will be alright.” (Seems worth a try.)
Walking and writing go well together, too – just look at Wordsworth, or for something a little more contemporary, Rebecca Solnit (who wrote the wonderful Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-44510597950594681112019-02-02T10:50:00.004-08:002019-02-02T10:50:51.387-08:00Portland...oh no Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-43355565990505584052019-02-01T20:18:00.001-08:002019-02-01T20:18:16.936-08:00New edition of Walking Portland out Tuesday! Coming SOON! A brand-spanking-new edition of my guide to exploring my rapidly changing but eternally weird hometown, Portland, Oregon:
Walking Portland: 33 Tours of Stumptown's Funky Neighborhoods, Historic Landmarks, Park Trails, Farmers Markets and Brewpubs
It's due to publish February 5, just in time to seriously test your devotion to walking in the rain. But why wait? You can pre-orderBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-17854408518795156752016-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:002016-02-11T10:19:24.614-08:00Book Review: Heart of the Original
In his 1984 essay “On Reading to Oneself,” William Gass
admires a sentence by Gertrude Stein: “It looked like a garden, but he had hurt
himself by accident.”
“If, when we say we understand something someone’s said, we
mean that we can rephrase the matter, put it in other words (and we frequently
do mean this), then Gertrude Stein’s critics may be right: you can’t understand such a sentenceBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-84513772844998816022015-10-05T16:55:00.002-07:002015-10-05T16:55:22.107-07:00cabin-etteWell, here I am, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Yesterday morning around 6.30 I opened the front door and interrupted a little red fox trotting alongside the edge of the fish pond. He froze and stared and sized me up – “harmless; smells funny” – and then he got on with his day. (Or she.) It wasn’t even really light out yet, sort of a misty, grayish-yellow, unripe morning. Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-44840064247454188492015-07-03T17:45:00.000-07:002015-07-03T17:45:11.868-07:00one-bike garage
[drawn by Mike Russell, obviously]
Well, the Hawk has the whole garage to itself now. I finally decided to sell the little race bike. Should've probably sold it years ago, but I kept thinking maybe I'd want to race again. But I never did. Some of the guys borrowed it now and then, but mostly it just sat in the garage, looking cute for no one. So - it was time. The guy who bought it will be Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-43623628405695871632015-05-10T19:06:00.000-07:002015-05-10T19:06:44.754-07:00roadtrip reportTrip report, so far:
1) The day I left, when I woke up and went downstairs to make coffee, there was a little bird flittering around in the living room. No windows were open. No idea how he got in. How long had he been there? It's not all that big an apartment. Anyway, I opened the front door and out he flew, happier no doubt.
2) My travel buddy, the Admiral 589 (a kitty), hated me for about a Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-75744097276933563222015-05-03T07:43:00.000-07:002015-05-03T07:43:21.259-07:00contest!I'm road-tripping through the Rockies this spring for Lonely Planet. One thing I like to do on these trips, strictly for my own entertainment, is to give myself some kind of quest, a secondary mission. Lately this quest has taken the form of an informal contest to determine the greatest possible version of a signature food item. (For Sweden: kardemummabullar. Platonic ideal found on the southern Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-15705645464827023642015-04-13T12:25:00.003-07:002015-04-13T12:29:22.073-07:00revising tonyAlert readers may recall that I've been working my way through the fitness program P90X, thanks to my awesome brother (hi Karl!). It is super fun, and of course I adore Tony, but sometimes you want to just do the workout and not necessarily watch the video. For those occasions it's helpful to have a brief description of each move, to complement the official worksheets where you commit your Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-8769141152179123112015-03-29T12:32:00.001-07:002015-03-29T12:32:32.257-07:00entertainmentsI would watch any movie of any length in which any or all of the following occur: 1) Matthew McConaughey walks across a room (2) Benicio del Toro says "creepy" (3) Joaquin Phoenix.
(Inherent Vice has two of the three. You guys should go see it - so much fun! And it is a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, so every single frame looks gorgeous, not just the close-ups of Joaquin.)
*
The other day Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-17238580901292134842015-03-09T12:20:00.003-07:002015-03-09T12:20:41.622-07:00crossed wiresIf I ever say the word "turnip" to you, please know that what I mean is "parsnip." I will never mean turnip. I don't know that I've ever even had a turnip; I think they're like big ugly radishes, but I'm not sure. Parsnips, though, I love, especially roasted. "Parsnip" is also a much cuter word. But somehow those wires are crossed in my head, and after years of trying to get them uncrossed, I've Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-86427090733259578222015-02-16T10:26:00.000-08:002015-02-16T10:28:58.321-08:00sprung
Well hey, would ya look at that. Oregon is Genesis. Who knew?
I may have been wrong about this spring -- it might not be a trick, after all. It seems real! I won't hold my breath. But at least the season of Awful Holidays for Single People is over. I like being single, but not at parties from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day. No, thank you.
This year I spent about half of Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-81814196120703836682015-02-11T10:46:00.002-08:002015-02-11T13:13:25.822-08:00NOW SEEDSIrritating weather. It's not winter anymore but it isn't spring yet, either. All the plants are confused, trying to bloom but sure to get the smackdown any minute now.
(Or maybe not? Maybe this spring is real? Yeah, yeah. That old trick. I know better but I fall for it every year.)
Just in case, I put a couple of seeds in little pots in the kitchen window yesterday. So far nothing.
Sigh.
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-3463364215605935642015-02-03T09:32:00.000-08:002015-02-04T21:10:46.809-08:00animal house
Each year, in the deepest darkest depths of winter when everything seems sort of gloomy and pointless (to me), I am rescued, wrecked and revived by my motorcycle club's annual retreat. This is when we load up on beer and liquor and fireworks and food and head out of town for a few days to plan the year and just hang out with each other, free of all rules and responsibilities so long as we Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-17832510114100926372014-12-24T12:56:00.001-08:002014-12-24T12:56:46.272-08:00xmasI love this holiday because it celebrates two of my very favorite things: driving in traffic and shopping for stuff. Hoho. Some of my funniest xmases were spent with John Graham ages ago. One year we were both so broke that I wrapped up a library book as his gift, which he had to return when it was due two weeks later. Another time we were so thoroughly in denial that we neglected to buy any Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-37761103481244848212014-12-21T20:23:00.000-08:002014-12-21T20:23:28.464-08:00wintryToday is the first day of winter (so I hear). I think one of my winter projects might be to design myself a course in Tove Jansson. I love the Moomins of course (who doesn't) and have read and loved one or two of her other books (The Summer Book is classic and the best-known; I read it this summer, in fact, in Sweden, getting ready to visit the archipelago with my dad - but it would be an Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-84395268075430374882014-12-17T18:33:00.000-08:002014-12-17T18:33:17.911-08:00bad behavior/good excusesA possibly relevant thing from this article / interview with Kelly Link in Gigantic, which is great in its entirety and might even get me to watch The Vampire Diaries one day:
Look, think about how gossip works. What are the best stories? When you're telling stories, you're telling stories about people who have made a really poor choice, who do or say the kind of thing we all know you shouldn'tBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-81167542463572137862014-12-14T21:55:00.000-08:002014-12-15T19:16:23.241-08:00spooky action at a distanceEveryone's doing their Top 7 movies of the year, etc., but to save time I'll just tell you my very favorite, the movie that made me the most swoony and obsessive: Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive. I would live in it.
And it's not even the only movie this year in which dancing saves the day!
There were lots of others I loved, same as anyone: Edge of Tomorrow, Under the Skin (!), GuardiansBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-44485900567462020472014-12-10T23:28:00.001-08:002014-12-11T12:11:11.886-08:00miscI meant to write something half-serious today, but then I got distracted by Tom Hardy-on-a-stick:
Looks like it might require beer. :)
Anyhow, now that I'm distracted, here's another one I'm pretty excited to see:
Lot going on there.
[deleted scene]
I should go. No doubt I'll have something more interesting to say on Sunday, if I keep to the schedule which BY THE WAY is not likely, let Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678195.post-23342208253484791112014-12-07T10:04:00.000-08:002014-12-08T10:32:59.385-08:00lagom
The other night I told somebody that if I had my way, from Halloween to Valentine's Day I would probably curl up and hide. It's the cheerful party season. I'd like to stay home but I don't want to wake up in the spring with no friends. Also whenever I do venture out, I have a nice time. So I'm not really complaining. But to work as well as play requires an unsexy strategy: moderation.
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17991192198021390049noreply@blogger.com2