for those not in the know!!!

you guys do know almost everyone can apply for the pua funds along with unemployment even if self employed, get like 600 feds. and 275 weekly or so unemployment state money.
you dont have to have paid in. and its retroactive to march so you may get 5000.

google pua your state. its real.

Same. I have a troubling suspicion I'd be underwhelmed and end up laughing at my HS self who loved it, but who knows, would be cool to be wrong.

Ukridge, by P. G. Wodehouse. Inspired by a comment from Phat Mac, I finally purchased and read this uproarious and wonderful collection of the misadventures of Ukridge, who wears a mustard-colored Macintosh everywhere.

I now know why Phat Mac finds Ukridge his favorite and the best example of the pinnacle of human endeavor- Ukridge is essentially Phat Mac’s own autobiography. And I mean that as a genuine compliment.

Compliment or not, this is an outrage. I once held a job, I think maybe it was in the 1980s, and could probably prove it if given the right motivation.

2 week ban.

Oh, and I'm going to need to borrow a tenner 'til payday.

I've been reading "Facing the Congo" by Jeffrey Tayler.

It's the story of this guy who decides he needs to come down the Congo river in Africa using a native craft.

At this point, he's still heading upriver to his starting point, so the story's been about trying to get organized/permissions, learning who he should listen to, getting that small boat and a guide, etc, etc.

IDK, it's enjoyable, but so far not something I'd say "wow, you have to read this."

Started on "Ghost Rider" by Neil Peart.

Peart, the late drummer from Rush, had a couple of tragedies in his life in a short amount of time: first his daughter died in a car accident, then his wife succumbed to cancer.

This is the story of him taking a long motorcycle journey to try to work through things.

So far, I like it. Fortunately, I don't identify with the grief, but this is the kind of travel writing I like: here's a normal person going around, telling the story of who they meet and their experiences along the way.

I was 13 when I read war and peace in slightly over a day. Anyone else done anything as pretentious as this?

Wodehouse created some of the best characters ever. Surprisingly, the greatest of all these was a pig.

I was too busy throwing footballs over mountains to read that much.

Just started Charles Kuralt's America. Seems like another of the travel books I like to read--stories of someone's trips and who they meet along the way.

Not pretentious at all. I keep telling people that War and Peace is one of the greatest pulp novels of all time. I couldn't put it down until I found out if anyone was going to bitchslap Natasia. Or Pierre.

Continuing with Gibbon, got sidetracked with the Koran because I reached that point in Gibbon when The Prophet rampaged out of the shadows onto the pages of History. Also got sidetracked on some P. G. Wodehouse, thanks to Phat Mack and his monkey wench.

Gibbon's footnotes are in a class all their own. I'll post at least one soon, in a spoiler. Because there is no way is it suitable for work or for the eyes of the innocent.

i'll save reading War and Peace for when I'm on my death bed.

Greatness Gibbon footnote is below as promised. FYI, Moseilama was a contemporary rival to Mohammad. In the spoiler BELOW is Moseilama's” love poem” exchange to the prophetess Segjah.

NSFW, for church-lady types, the innocent, or you sanctimonious moralists, and etc. [From Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 51, Folio Society Edition.]

I am rereading Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections for the 4th time, still flat-out brilliant. I honestly believe it to be the best novel written in the last 20 years. And I'll take this over Infinite Jest any ****ing day of the week.

The family dynamics in the Corrections were so relatable. Aging family members etc. Emotionally draining but in a good way. I don't think I could read it again though. I might re-read Infinite Jest just because there's so much I didn't connect together on the first reading.

Anna Karenina deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, and rural vs. city life.
Pretty ambitious to try to do this in my opinion
Without checking, I also recall that only one chapter has a sub-heading, the single word “Death “

For Zeno’s information “ Church Lady types” are capable of acts that stretch your imagination, the boundaries of physical possibility, and your ability to pay the resultant cleaning bills.

An unassuming coming-of-age tale about love, religion, and repression, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit conducts a moving psychological study of a young British lesbian. Across the novel’s eight chapters, Winterson follows a fictionalized version of herself, Jeanette, as she grows up in a strict, working-class Protestant household; in plain but incisive prose, the author considers the teen girl’s struggle to reconcile her sexuality with her faith, charts the highs and lows of her first romances with women, and paints a vivid portrait of an unaccepting, conservative mother. Embedded within the main plot are hypnotic fairytales and Arthurian legends that illustrate key themes, from the emotional toll of patriarchy to the impossibility of returning home unchanged. The first-person novel has often been read as thinly veiled memoir, shocking in its time and tame today, but Oranges is really rather experimental and literary, in that Winterson glosses over central events, hops around in time, and muses on the nature of storytelling. Well worth checking out.

I thought Winterson's new novel, Frankissstein, was a fun romp. Very different from Oranges, but recommended!

Who are some of the good essayists writing today? I just finished Jia Tolento's book (excellent) and am now reading one of David Foster Wallace's collections (D F Wallace - always good, especially the footnotes). Any recommendations for current writers who are good?

Read essay collections by Zadie Smith and Teju Cole recently. Both great.

Have read some of Smith's fiction. Have requested essay collections by both of them.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019 is a collection of interesting essays. This is a series that comes out every year. Also best of series collections in science essays are worth checking into.

If the above doesn’t float your boat, for $1,000 I’ll write you an essay, complete with pics*.

*And footnotes.

If you have access to the BBC website some of their long reads are worth a go

Starting on The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. An explanation of string theory. So far, still in the fundamentals, explaining Newtonian and Einsteinian physics and some of the history that lead to string theory.

Not super-approachable, but pretty good. Definitely some concepts I don't get, but mostly following along.