Two Orphan Snaps from France

OK, so I already did my holiday flypast, but I really have to pick the brains of my readers: What do you do with a fish like this? How do you cook it? More to the point: What is it? This one was in the market in Nimes.

It made me think of Marje - The Trash Heap in Fraggle Rock.

And then I really do have to share a picture of the pile of books that Andreas and I hauled with us from Vancouver, then on to London and then on to Beauvoisin and finally home again. Whew!

Time for electronic reading devices for The Schroeder & The Moi.

Actually, we thought we were quite smart choosing books that both of us would enjoy reading. OK, I knew before we left that he wouldn't be up for The Hongkong Bank in Late Imperial China 1864-1902. Fair enough. It was my second read of it, and I really wanted to reread it all before stopping in at the HSBC archives in London, and I did. On the other hand, I do have to confess that I did not read Farrell's how i got to be this hip nor John Irving's latest. Maybe I should have.

The point is, The Schroeder and The Moi are clearly at what Malcolm Gladwell would call The Tipping Point. In fact, if our pile of books were any higher, we would be at a literal, not merely a figurative tipping point.If we had any doubts, the fact that the left wheel on our luggage bit the dust on Day One of our trip made it excruciatingly clear. The way that you walk when you haul luggage with a gibbled wheel makes people take pity on you. They think you have probably had a stroke. It is a little uncomfortable to have to explain to kind onlookers that it is only the damned books.

That being said, it was a damned good pile of books, and made for a helluva good time with some excellent conversation. Thanks to Anne Enright, Julian Barnes, Muriel Barbery, Barry Farrel, John Irving, David Bergen, Patti Smith, Hilary Mantel, Eric Enno Tamm, and finally, Frank H.H. King - my hero when it comes to crafting readable arcane economic history. You made our holiday even better. All of you.