It is just barely 10:00 as I sit down to write this and already today I have learned so much:

I have learned from reading my friend Sean’s blog that my beloved Kurt Vonnegut passed away.

I have learned that Americans apparently still don’t know or care what a great person he was, because when I googled for details (sounds like the name of a new game show – Googling! For! Details! – the first one to find the most inane trivia about a particular subject wins a New Car!), the vast majority of sites that mentioned his passing were British. Or Dutch. Thank goodness for the Dutch.

Maybe it’s just too early in the day for we Americans to have gotten around to writing about it yet. But that’s the sort of thing I would have gotten up to write about, if it was my job to write about such things. Which it’s not.

I have also learned that Kurt Vonnegut shares a magical birth date with my youngest child.

I have learned that it has been too long since I read Slaughterhouse Five.

I have learned that I should have thanked Mr. Young for encouraging and nurturing my love of satirical literature, even though I got shitty grades and by all rights he should have ignored me.

It’s not shocking that an old man died. But he was an old man that was special to me (and I have a soft spot for old men, so that’s saying something) and who was a big influence on a lot of people, just by doing what he did and being who he was. So I need to note it in some way. If only just to say, “thanks, Kurt”.

Other actual writers have written and will write more eloquently than I can about his work and the kind of man he was, so I will leave the real eulogizing to them. Instead, I will close with this quote from “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater”:

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies — 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'”

Thanks, Kurt.

So it goes.

Reading:
Almost done with Lolita. It's not a long book. It's just that I am lucky to get an hour of leisure reading a week. One more chance to sit down and read and I think I'll be done.

I reckon I'll be reading Slaughterhouse Five again after that.

Hearing:
The phone ringing and people yelling at me because I deposited a check they gave me. Happy times.

Playing:
Some interesting stuff for this concert. All new to me. Rhythically challenging, but the notes are easy to play. Which sucks for me, because I hate to count.

Needing:
A massage.

In My Car:
SModcasts 8 & 9
Shuffling: Keane, The Shins, The Killers, The Thorns, Suede, The Wondermints, Spamalot Soundtrack, Stereolab (I think I am supposed to remind duffiemoon that she likes them)...