I found this idea on a blob somewhere: take a wire hanger and unwrap the top part, then re-twist it up a certain way. A few uses I saw online were to put your library books by the door so you don't forget them and to keep periodicals all in one spot.

I've decided to put my reading book next to my bed! I made one for Miss Bee so her library books wouldn't run all over the place. I'm not so much a Do-It-Yourselfer, but this was pretty simple.

Upper left is a picture I drew for Miss Bee with some markers that she bought for me. Lower left is a place mat I got at a restaurant in Scotland. I expressed interest in it and the waiter told me to take it. I think it was at the hotel in Troon - don't remember the name but I remember having a Belhaven 90 +/ on tap there.

Here's the best part:

I think the following rules will cover most cases:

i.	Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
ii.	Never use a long word where a short one will do.
iii.	If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
iv.	Never use the passive where you can use the active.
v.	Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
vi.	Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable.

Extremely interesting article in the New Yorker about itching and scratching. Fascinating throughout. It's by Atul Gawande, an excellent writer that happens to be a doctor. Miss Bee says his book Better is "wonderful". Read all about itching here.

Oh, here's a teaser.

...the feelings people experience in their phantom limbs are far too varied and rich to be explained by the random firings of a bruised nerve. People report not just pain but also sensations of sweatiness, heat, texture, and movement in a missing limb. There is no experience people have with real limbs that they do not experience with phantom limbs. They feel their phantom leg swinging, water trickling down a phantom arm, a phantom ring becoming too tight for a phantom digit. Children have used phantom fingers to count and solve arithmetic problems.

In my "What We've Been Reading" post I forgot about a book that I started the next day, from the Tempe Library. It's called "Altruistic Armadillos, Zenlike Zebras", and it's by a fellow named Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. It's really engaging, looking at 100 different animals, writing a few pages about each, and injecting personal feelings into usually dry subject matter.

In the section on gannets, I found out that Bass Rock near North Berwick, Scotland is considered by no less a nature expert than David Attenborough to be one of the twelve wildlife wonders of the world. Check out the Bass Rock wikipedia page for more information. Here are my photos of Bass Rock, taken mostly from North Berwick golf course.

This one's from town, with the dyke in front protecting the road during high tide.

Gannet flying:

The seabird center in town. Inside there is a bunch of CCTVs broadcasting from Bass Rock, so anyone can watch the estimated 150,000 gannets, cormorants, eider duck, gulls, and other seabirds that congregate on the rock.

Bass Rock, although volcanic in origin which could theoretically explain the coloring, is actually colored white on top due to the large volume of bird droppings, which release a staggering amount of ammonia into the air and sea over and around Bass Rock, which is about a mile away from the mainland.

Sorry for the sideways photo. This is my dad hitting his first shot on the par 3 ninth hole. According to our caddie Doogie, the ship in the background is a passenger ferry, and would be heading for Continental Europe, probably Bruges in Belgium.

Here's one of those damn gannets, barking like crazy on the road dyke. They're quite loud.

Finally, the rock from further up the beach near the hotel where we stayed. This would be a point north and west of the golf course, closer to the landmass known as Craigleith.



Here's a link to the Scottish seabird center in North Berwick (pronounced Berr-ick).

Here's a few of the books lying around our house:

1. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Self-explanatory. What would the world be like without humans. Non-fiction from the library.

2. On Ugliness, by Umberto Eco. A compellingly thorough look through social opinions of ugliness, starting with the ancient Greeks. This one's going to take some time. Miss B. bought this for me on Amazon - it's normally like 45 bucks at Border's.

3. The Healthy Southwest Table. The library.

4. He Said Beer, She Said Wine, by Sam Calagione and Marnie Old. Sam's the head brewer at Dogfish Head in Delaware, Marnie is a serious wine critic. Both claim that their beverage is a better choice with your meals, and for good reasons. Got this one in an online contest for free.

5. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, by Roald Dahl. A favorite from my childhood. This edition was to be thrown out during our school library's spring cleaning, so we rescued it.

6. A book of Scottish folk tales, a book called "Black Fairy Tales", and two kids books about horses. Ditto.

7. The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White. Ditto.

8. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and the sequel Rodrick Rules. These are great books by Jeff Kinney; the idea is that he's keeping a diary as a sixth grader and then into seventh. Great for pretty much all ages (as long as they can read, obviously). Borrowed from a fifth grade teacher.

9. The Encyclopedia of Animals from DK Publishing. Got this one at Costco. My kids are going to love this one next year.

10. The book club at school just finished The Fifth Child by 2008 Nobel laureate Doris Lessing. Coming up is Persepolis, and then a Janet Evanovich.

11. Two holds at the library, try to guess which is for whom: The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies by Bryan Caplan, and The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol Adams.