Frog Readings

A quick post, fueled by guilt... I've been on the road for two weeks, and I was sick last week, so while there were interesting goings-on in Paris, Cambridge, Madrid, and Boston, I haven't shared anything. "Sick" for me means that I was maintaining an almost normal work schedule from 8 to 5, then taking the T (I was in Boston) back to the hotel, crawling under the covers with three aspirins, and trying to sweat out the fever so I could restart the same grind the next day. That may be crazy, but the MIT Media Lab visit and discussions were, as usual, superbly motivating.

Then I also had a miserable 15-hour trip (door to door) from Boston to Austin -- but I'm not even really mad at Delta Airlines: it wasn't really their fault, they rerouted me as well as they apparently could, and my bag made it before me. Next time, perhaps I should travel in my bag.

I am reading two books now. They could hardly be more different. "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely is about the ways in which we make economic laws useless because our decisions are not based on rational calculations -- but interestingly, those irrational decisions follow some pretty stable emotional laws, such as the fact that "free" has an irresistible appeal. The author conducted fascinating experiments (on unsuspecting MIT students...) that illustrate his points, and he tells the stories with wit and perspicacy. He's a little less convincing when he makes sweeping generalizations to public policy, but he may be onto something. It's an excellent read anyway.

"The End of the World Book" by Alistair McCartney could be described as the modern, gay man's version of Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary." It is presented in the form of short A-to-Z articles that range between facetious, literary, surrealistic, and erotic. If you thought you might guess what word you can find under the letter F, think again... you might be suprised by some of the entries (no, I haven't reached F already, I just couldn't resist getting an early peek). Alistair McCartney is the long-time lover of Tim Miller, the performance artist. I love Tim Miller's work, and I think I've seen each of his shows (well, I can remember at least five). So when he mentioned McCartney's book in his newsletter last week, I ordered it from Amazon. Now the challenge will be to get the autograph. Miller's is easy to get, if you can catch one of his memorable performances -- he is quite happy to chat with the audience after the show. But his BF doesn't travel with him, as far as I know, so this may require some plotting...