Sunday

I had no idea that James Fallows was blogging. And here he posts some scary evidence of Shanghai air quality.

It's great when Jonathan Yardley praises a book. He can whip up enthusiasm like no one else. He can eviscerate just as well as seen here. Then there is Hagedorn's prose. In her acknowledgments she makes particular mention of the Wall Street Journal, "where I learned how to write well," a quite astonishing boast in and of itself but all the more so when one considers the more than 500 pages of evidence to the contrary.

Post Secret continues to amaze. If you haven't seen it, it consists of anonymous messages printed on postcards. They tend to the deeply sad, like this one, and this one, but then you get a suspicious message like this one to liven things up.

If you can find the Flemish beer Duchess de Bourgogne, then buy it and drink it immediately. It is such an interesting flavor. I was chatting about it with another customer at Beaumont market and she said that if there was a beer tree, this beer would be the fruit.