Random Musings, April 12, 2009

It is Easter Sunday and so IGA is closed. But the mall is open. The kosher butcher is open, which is interesting, because he is normally closed on Sunday. He was open last Sunday as well, the Sunday before Pesach*. It is cynical, it seems to me, to stay closed every Sunday except during the busy season. It’s practical I guess, but it seems that it’s practical for the business, not so much for the customer.

I went to the Pharmaprix, got some bathroom tissue, some chocolate, a bag of Bisli. Most of the stores are closed today.

That didn’t prevent hundreds of people from congregating at the mall. Seniors, dozens and dozens of seniors. This is, as my kids like to point out, a geriatric community.

But my mission was not accomplished. We need things, and I won’t be able to go back until tomorrow after lunch, because I have commitments tomorrow morning.

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I finished that pulp novel by Jacqueline Park. She claims to have done much research, but her research didn’t turn up the fact that married Jewish women use a mikvah. That was as true in the 16th century as it is now, more true perhaps. There are other things that mark her as an outsider writing about a life she has no experience of.

And the story isn’t even that good.

The other book I finished reading is a history of disco, called Turn The Beat Around, A Secret History Of Disco. The book is by Peter Shapiro, and it’s kind of disjointed – a bit here, a piece there. 90% of the music I’m unfamiliar with, and much of it isn’t disco.

So I just started reading Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark, and reading Muriel Spark is (almost) always inspiring. This was written in 1970, so it was before she started to burn out; I picked it up at Book Events in Alexis Nihon Plaza.

An aside: I found Book Events when I first came to this city, just before my first day of work, which was a half day on Wednesday afternoon, I detoured into Alexis Nihon and came upon the mid-mall book counter. In those days they sold a lot of tech books; they are all but gone now.

So Spark, I found it there, for $4.00, the original price was $18.99, and the book is a small paperback, just over 100 pages long. Wow. The Ariel Sharon autobiography I’m reading is a good read, but it would be better if the author (co-author presumably, or possibly an uncredited translator) didn’t keep using “insure” when he means “ensure;” once or twice he uses “assure.” It’s not that difficult, really. The random split infinitives don’t do him any credit either.

Then aside from that there is the diary by Alberto Manguel. It’s not all the interesting, but it’s fascinating, if that makes sense. It always impresses me how people can write about nothing, and do it well. I think that’s what I’m trying to accomplish here.

I’m certainly writing about nothing, I’m just not convinced that I’m doing it all that well…

*Passover