BOOKS, BIRDS, BASEBALL and OTHER BEAUTIFUL B SUBJECTS

B for Books - I was going to Borders Bookstore yesterday to use my 20% coupon for Norman Rush's Mating (see yesterday's post, if you care) but somehow, before logging out and leaving the house, I took a peek at Jobert's blog (and was again blown away by the guy's interest in the world of tech). Jessica Zafra made a comment to one post, and I used her link to hop on to her site. There I learned that the Nobel for Literature was awarded to Orhan Pamuk of Turkey.

I don't know how I missed this announcement from my homegrown media(I previously read Miami Herald's feature on the 2 American doctors winning the prize for medicine) but was pleasantly surprised by the Lit selection. Pamuk's Snow was one of the many books I scanned about a week ago - a habit I practiced everytime I intended to buy a book - and I almost decided to pick it for the purchase were it not for Rush's Mating which I thought was a more engaging read at this time of the year.

"The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver.", goes the first line in Snow which I just read before I typed this. Which means, with my 20% coupon, I bought Snow instead of Mating if only because it won the Nobel (my only great collection, aside from sins and baseball caps, are books by Nobel awardees) - even if, as it happened a few times before, I may regret my turncoat (not all Nobel winners are winners, and if you wanted to find out the years The Committee horrendously erred, e-mail me, and I will spill my wrath on those times I wasted my money).

B for Birds - I promise to be a serious birder (not just a birdwatcher, which I already am) next year and I guess the first step to that resolve is to accept the invite from National Audubon Society which, my shame, I snubbed twice already.

On birds, here's a funny trivia: I was looking at a NAS bird index (with pictures) one time and I chanced upon this tiny birdie which resembled the Philippine maya. You won't believe what it's name is: Pipit! I also realized that the birds we see here in South Florida during the winter (they're obviously migrating birds) were frigatebirds and not cormorants as somebody voiced out. Up in the air these frigatebirds were awesome and looked like hawks. During the height of winter, they sometimes number about 30 in a radius of one mile, hovering up in the air like mighty gurion kites in the Philippines of my youth.

B for Baseball - So the Detroit Tigers swept the American league. Fine. We just have to wait the National League Series before we call it The Game. World Series is the King of Championships to me (not the Superbowl, sir, not the Superbowl), and if I may choose a worthy opponent for the Motown Boys, I would want to see the Ny Mets relive their miracle year. This shortstop, Jose Reyes, IS awesome.

B for Bossing Rolly - Sir, I read your poem to your oldest, and should I say it is amazing: very honest and captivating, very pert and pertinent, and my first instinct was to translate it for whatever it may be worth translating (Tumbalikang Tungkulin, for Reversal of Roles) even if, I can fully assume, there is no way to nearly approximate the quality of that text.

to be continued...