chrysanthemum

It was indeed rather cold here in Nashville yesterday, although the temperature had risen to 19 F by the time I left the house. What's important, though, is that it was sunny. Piercingly bright, piercingly cold -- I live in a beautiful city.

I'd never really noticed the Litterer Laboratories building across from Howard School until yesterday. Looking it up led me to this Bill Carey article about Abraham Flexner's 1910 expose of American medical schools.

(I need another research interest about as much as I need another ladder in my stocking, but saints this stuff is fascinating.)

These banners on the Howard School construction barriers amused me (click images to enlarge):

From Nashville

I am not above rejoicing in Citigroup's downfall and Chase's relative success: I can't help seeing it as a reflection of my customer service experiences with said companies.

Spending much of today with the BYM, even if it was related to home-renovation tasks. (I know normal people are keen on this sort of thing, and I wish I was, but I'd rather practice scales and drill verb conjugations than go to a home show. (It might be genetic, come to think of it: my mom never got around to updating her carpet or her curtains, but she took algebra for fun.))

Listening to the BYM chastise the dog for snacking on former parts of the bathroom floor. You guys think I'm kidding when I tell you she's part goat?

Bun Thit Nurong (vermicelli with grilled sliced pork and mixed vegetables) for lunch yesterday, at Miss Saigon.

Traded in some things at McKay's. The copies of Vassalord I'd considered acquiring were gone (it's a manga series that involves gay vampires -- one who's also a Catholic cyborg-assassin, and "a mysterious branch of the Unitarian church" -- in other words, it may well completely piss me off, but I can't not check it out, and people whose tastes run pretty close to mine have told me that it's hysterically funny). However, I still left with a fun haul: the first volume of FAKE (for a friend), volumes 2 and 4 of Japan in Your Pocket (an illustrated series), and three manga volumes in Japanese (Banana Fish 6, Igano Kabamaru 4, and X5 (CLAMP)... and, from one of the free bins, Odette Keun's A Foreigner Looks at the TVA (1937). Hee!

Cross-eyed
after passing no-crossing signs
she redraws her mind's maps