February 13

It's gloriously spring-like in Carson City today, with temperatures in the high 50s and bright sunshine. The weather has been tending in this direction all February, which pleases me because this is precisely what I was hoping for from the climatology of my new residence: short, mild winters (so I can still get some use out of my overcoats!) and early springs. It appears that the winter hereabouts is effectively December and January (of course it's a different story up in the mountains). This year's Carson City winter was rather colder and snowier than usual, so everyone tells me; still, compared to Wisconsin, it was not bad at all. And Northeast Wisconsin generally wouldn't see weather like we're seeing here today until May, and cloudy days would still predominate. For someone who suffers the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder, this is a welcome change!

Roger Ebert has discovered the oddball mystery writer Harry Stephen Keeler, known to cognoscenti for his mad, intricate "webworks" novels. Excellent selection of cover graphics here:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/pages-for-twitter/the-strange-case-of-the-oddlyp.html

Interested as I am in my Irish heritage, I am delighted to learn about a new nine-volume Dictionary of Irish Biography. Historian Roy Foster gives it a thorough and enthusiastic review in the Times Literary Supplement:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7013481.ece

At the Times Higher Education supplement, Peter Lennox puts forward a charming perspective on living with chickens:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=410238&c=1

As is always the case when one approaches animals, tame or wild, with respect and curiosity, there is much to be learned! And the process of doing so is delightful.

A bet between the Indianapolis and New Orleans Museums of Art over the outcome of the Super Bowl means that a beautiful Turner canvas will be taking up temporary residence in The Big Easy:

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/4685

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear put up a lengthy two-part post about the groundbreaking 1963/64 television drama series East Side/West Side, with George C. Scott and Cicely Tyson, urgently needed on DVD:

http://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com/2010/02/do-you-really-want-me-to-comment-on.html

http://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-think-that-those-quivering-masses.html

If you get your Justice Society of America confused with your Justice League of America, you need this post from io9 -- although, given the convolutions of the D.C. universe, it may only confuse you more.

http://io9.com/5465095/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-smallvilles-justice-society

Allan Kozinn at the New York Times ruminates interestingly on performance practice in modern (and early) music:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/arts/music/07modern.html

Among notables born on this date are economist Thomas Malthus, bass Feodor Chaliapin, soprano Eileen Farrell, painters Grant Wood and Sigmar Polke (Germany), novelists Ricardo Guiraldes (Argentina), Geza Czath (Hungary), Kate Roberts (Wales), and Georges Simenon (France), Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, children's writer Eleanor Farjeon, Russian fabulist Ivan Krylov, crime writer William Roughead, English naturalist Joseph Banks, composer Colin Matthews, pianist Leopold Godowsky, aviator Chuck Yeager, rock musician Peter Gabriel, country singer Tennessee Ernie Ford, film directors Leontine Sagan and Costa-Gavras, and actors Stockard Channing, George Segal, Oliver Reed, Kim Novak, and Mena Suvari. Stockard Channing gives one of my favorite performances as Ouisa in Fred Schepisi's terribly underrated film version of John Guare's play Six Degrees of Separation, a role she originated on stage in both New York and London. I can sit here and hear her inflections in my head; she is simply wonderful.