BROWSERS RULE!

Few things in life are better than the morning paper, a cup of coffee, and a long look out the window, especially when the paper holds a RB treasure as it did last week: an almost hidden reference to Lincoln Kirstein anecdotes in a review (ST 4/18/11) by the local restaurant reviewer of Jacques d’Amboise’s I Was A Dancer which matters because a Roseledge Books neighbor has ties to Lincoln Kirstein. So RB will definitely have the book as soon as it is out in paperback and hope the neighbor waits.

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Green and blue and forsythia, too; ideas hover. Where are you?

Morning browsers (clearly) are superior people. Their favored content and format may vary, but not the with-it-ness they almost certainly have. Some Washington aides browse for others (NYT 1/18/11) which insures the others’ up-to-dateness and the aides’ importance, but I always hate it when I can’t browse myself, as I couldn’t when library stacks were closed. So much learning goes on as the browser decides what to look at more closely and what to skip over. John Kennedy used to scan dozens of newspapers folded back to editorial pages. I can’t remember — if I ever knew — if the papers were arranged geographically, alphabetically, by subject or perspective, but what a good way for a pre-Internetter to stay in touch.

Paul Krugman writes of “systematically” reading mostly economic newspapers and blogs and no conservative sites because, as he explained to his readers who asked, he knew of none that “regularly provide analysis or information I need to take seriously.” (NYT 3/8/11) Charlie checks online sources –he won’t say which ones, even though I am his mother — but he is usually on top of things that matter. Surely RB readers are browsers. Now I have to figure out what they look at and what just-right book mentions might crop up.

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If you don't remember this nifty new sign, you've been too long away.

Marilyn Stasio reviewed (NYTBR 4/24/11) the latest Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne adventure, (Julia Spencer-Fleming’s One Was A Soldier) so its available, but not to RB readers until the paperback arrives for summer 2012. I’m hoping the early eager readers who are also RB Regulars will have missed enough details to make a reread part of their next summer. Meanwhile, I’m thinking mightily and trickily to come up with a must read for them this summer.

Four weeks from now, RB will be open and waiting for you to come. I know the time is nigh when I’m watching the PBS show New Scandinavian Cooking almos nightly, more for the ocean views than the food. They use too much butter, but the scenery is spectacular. Reminds me of Tenants Harbor and environs.

Note from breakfast: surely someone eating a wedge of pink grapefruit is one of the least attractive sights possible, but oh my it’s good and accessible to those of us who struggle with the serrated spoons. Now I am hungry for a TH Schoolhouse Bakery cinnamon roll. See you soon.

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