Do you like gadgets? What red-blooded American doesn't? One of the newest gives us a way to read an e-book wherever and whenever we want to. I'm talking of course about the Kindle. Actually the Kindle-1, the Kindle-2, or the Kindle-DX (which sells for $489) I'd like to get in on this "reading revolution", but that's way too pricey for an old man like me.
If you are thinking of buying one of these reading devices, you might want to first check out Nicholson Baker's analysis piece in the August 3rd, 2009 New Yorker magazine. (Baker is usually a novelist: next one: The Anthologist to be published in September)
I don't think Baker was impressed with the Kindles and suggested that if you want to read an e-book, you might just want to buy an iPhone and upload the free "Kindle for iPod" application onto it. Much easier to manipulate and read book pages. Sounds good to me... however, at the moment, the iPhone is also a bit too pricey for me. Maybe when my income tax return comes in.... or when "my ship comes in"....
Speaking of ships coming in.. over many many years, my Massachusetts Vaughan family has been serenaded with lawyer promises of great wealth when Spain settles with the owners of ships that it sunk during the Spanish American War in 1898. One of the ships had cargo that was the property of my great, great grandfather, who had a few bucks. I don't know how much money in lawyers' fees has been extracted from my relatives over this promise of a fortune. Luckily, I have never been contacted. Would I have gotten hooked?
War reparations take a long time to resolve.. some are still going on from the war in the Balkans. But over a hundred years? Doesn't sound good to me. Since I am involved in warning people about scams, if my relatives get contacted again, I will have to let them know that I believe it is a cruel scam.
I'm missing my cat, Lucky, who is spending the night at the vets. He is suffering from hyperthyroidism and had been pulling out his fur. He had lots of bald spots for a while. However, recently he stopped that and has instead been biting his rear end. Also, he has been having a hard time eating. Today, the vet said that he had a hole in his tongue that had become infected.. and that was causing the horrible stink that he was wafting throughout the house.
So, Lucky gets a night away from us.. a nice bath.. some special medication and shots.. and he gets to come home tomorrow afternoon. I hope he realizes that this treatment was done to make him feel better. He is a very intelligent cat you know.
There were two appointments at 4 pm.. my Lucky and a Siamese cat also named Lucky. The Siamese Lucky was not happy to be there at all and was growling as only a Siamese can growl. I hope that our little Su-Zee never learns how to make those sounds. I read somewhere that a Siamese has a repertoire of 150 different sounds. So far, Su-Zee only knows a few of them. ......................................................................................
2 comments:
Wow - I wonder what mysterious treasures our ancestors had on that ship.
Sorry to hear about Lucky; I hope it all works out.
Lucky is back home. They gave him a much-needed bath and I bought some very high calorie cat food that he loves to eat. Maybe he will get fat again.. Only problem is that he continues to drool and I have to follow him around the house with a paper towel, cleaning up the mess.
The cat food is very soft so I can get his medicine mixed in with it and he eats it.. and Elaine and I don't have to wrestle him to get it down his gullet any more.
I hope that Figaro is doing ok.
Im sure there is some website somewhere that talks about cargos that were lost in the Sp-AM war. I will put that on my list of things to look up. Maybe we are all rich beyond our wildest dreams!
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