News in brief

Skiing: Gore, not bad, a little slushy and I was a little tired. Did a mess of diamonds, though the groves were more than I was up for. Movie: About a Boy. Good, not as good as the book, but good. Only film in memory where I felt like many of the deleted scenes should have been left in. Music: The Weakerthans, Left and Leaving. Canadian. Really good. Lines like "Rely a bit too heavily On alcohol and irony Get clobbered on by courtesy In love with love and lousy poetry" Book: Summerland, by Michael Chabon. His first foray into children's writing, but it maintains his honesty. For instance, the father of one of the characters is a drunken asshole. You don't see a lot of that in children's books, and you see plenty of it in life. I'm going on the assumption that he's going to skip the obligatory homosexual encounter in this book, though. (Fathers in children's books are either absent or buffoons. Mostly absent. Don't get me started.)