At the end of last week our friend Meghan got in touch and said that she could get use of, that rarest of rarest things, a car and that if we were of a mind to, we could all head upstate to do some apple picking and enjoy the late summer / early fall. Lauren, Byron and I met up with Meghan and our friend Kat (recently back from a sojourn abroad and a residency in La France) in the Bronx and then headed into Westchester county, across the Tappan Zee bridge and on into Suffern and then Orange counties.

On my flight back from getting married I read Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. As many will attest, it’s hard to stop reading the Southern Reach trilogy, of which Annihilation is the opener, once you’ve started. One dynamic that really interested me was how VanderMeer’s writing can be conceived of as a post-DNA-theory, “bio-philic” Lovecraftian horror. Describing Lovecraftian Horror “Lovecraftian” summons many images. In order to rightfully merit that appellation I propose these criteria:

One of the real perks of living in NYC is the longevity and vitality of some of the city’s pubic institutions: The Met, the MOMA, the parks, and (sometimes) even the subway.

But hail hail the New York Public Library who is always innovating!

Where their considerable collection and desire to share it intersects is their blog where I found this gem from librarian Meredith Mann.

“Despotic Characters: Researching Shorthand at the New York Public Library”

Mann gives a history of fast-writing disciplines, highlights their use in the library’s Gütenbeg Bible, shows the reference documentation for Gregg and Pitman’s systems, and shows how shorthand for musical notation once existed.

How blissfully Umberto Eco!