In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

Katherine, that is so amazing to hear! Did he happen to tell you the most unusual thing he's ever eaten, what he likes to cook for himself as comfort food, or what his favorite cookbook is? I have always wanted to ask him how he made the transition from Kansas City to New York City. If I ever made that move, I would probably go to every restaurant and play and exhibit and performance until I dropped dead of exhaustion!!

[serious crayons]

Katherine, that is so amazing to hear! Did he happen to tell you the most unusual thing he's ever eaten, what he likes to cook for himself as comfort food, or what his favorite cookbook is? I have always wanted to ask him how he made the transition from Kansas City to New York City. If I ever made that move, I would probably go to every restaurant and play and exhibit and performance until I dropped dead of exhaustion!!

He didn't talk much about food. Someone asked him if he'd eaten any interesting food since arriving in our city, and he immediately said "No." But to be fair, he'd just gotten off the plane.

I was curious about whether he ever still missed the Midwest. But I agree with you about New York. I was fortunate to live there for nine months. It wouldn't be a good fit for me long term, probably, but I loved having that extended stay.

[Jeff Wrangler]

The December 3, 2012, issue is just full of Wyoming attachments.

There is Judith Thurman's account of cooking trout while participating in a two-week wilderness living course offered by an outfit in Lander.

Then, having been to Dubois, on Roundup, I was tickled over lunch today to read Philip Gourevitch's account of his very brief career as a skinner of bears in Dubois.

[Front-Ranger]

Thanks for the info, friend. I've unburied that issue so I can peruse it again. Right now I'm reading an interesting article about the rewilding movement in Europe. Possible to bring back the aurochs? Intriguing!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I highly ... highly ... HIGHLY recommend Daniel Mendelsohn's account of his "corresponding friendship" with Mary Renault (Jan. 7, 2013, issue).

[Jeff Wrangler]

Thanks for the info, friend. I've unburied that issue so I can peruse it again. Right now I'm reading an interesting article about the rewilding movement in Europe. Possible to bring back the aurochs? Intriguing!

Finished that one over lunch today. Aurochs is an interesting word. Apparently it's both singular and plural: one aurochs, two aurochs, a herd of aurochs.

[serious crayons]

I highly ... highly ... HIGHLY recommend Daniel Mendelsohn's account of his "corresponding friendship" with Mary Renault (Jan. 7, 2013, issue).

OK, good. I've started it, but hadn't actually been hooked yet. Essays by successful writers fondly recalling youthful correspondences with other writers have come to seem kind of cliched. But Mendelsohn is a good writer. With that high recommendation, friend, I'll stick with it.

[Jeff Wrangler]

OK, good. I've started it, but hadn't actually been hooked yet. Essays by successful writers fondly recalling youthful correspondences with other writers have come to seem kind of cliched. But Mendelsohn is a good writer. With that high recommendation, friend, I'll stick with it.

Of course, my high recommendation is also based on my being a Mary Renault fan. Someone who doesn't enjoy her books may find Mendelsohn's essay just plain boring. Plus, it's also yet another coming out story (groan). 

Also, since I finished the article, I've been thinking, "Well, I guess I'm really not a writer, then, because I could never be as self-dramatizing as Mendelsohn is in this essay!" 

But the article "spoke" to me for a couple of reasons. I figure from the dates and school years that he mentions, Mendelsohn is about three years younger than me, but that still puts us fairly close in age. I came to Mary Renault's novels at a few years older than he did, but I love them, too, and Mendelsohn has got me wondering what influence they may have had on my own ideals of love and gay relationships (I might be a little older than Mendelsohn, but, hey, I was a late bloomer). It's rare that I can say that a magazine article has stayed with me after I've completed it the way Mendelsohn's essay has.

I've also found myself wondering how and why it is, that so many of my favorite authors are English women: Alison Weir (Tudor history), Mary Renault, Ellis Peters (real name: Edith Pargeter). 

[Front-Ranger]

I've started the article too but before I could finish it I got distracted by the account of Sebastian Junger's group RISC which means Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues. As a journalist, the article leaped out at me.

[Front-Ranger]

Finished that one over lunch today. Aurochs is an interesting word. Apparently it's both singular and plural: one aurochs, two aurochs, a herd of aurochs.

What is the weird sensation called when a word keeps popping up? Today, I was reading a review of the new movie Beasts of the Southern Wild (recommended by Dave Cullen) when aurochs appeared yet again: http://www.denverpost.com/movies/ci_21055216/bracing-beauty-beasts-southern-wild-triumphs-child-hero