What I've been reading

"July's People" by Nadine Gordimer. Short but really beautifully written story about a white family rescued by their black servant, July, during a revolution. In my opinion, Gordimer really deserved her Nobel Prize for Literature.

and

"The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005" ed. by  Jonathan Weiner (of the excellent book "The Beak of the Finch"). I had a few quibbles about the selection process, but overall, I was really impressed. One of the best pieces was "The Curious History of the First Pocket Calculator." It has great ingredients, from Nazi death camps to the tiny nation of Lichtenstein to very steampunk-ish technology. You can read it as a PDF document here.


My full comments on both books here.

It's official

I am officially a disbeliever in those Zicam nose-swab thingies. I was already skeptical, but willing to give them a try. I've used them during three different colds. For the first, I didn't start until the symptoms had been noticeable for 24 hours and I was sick as a dog. I figured maybe I'd started them too late. The second cold, I started within 12 hours of the first symptoms, and my cold was milder and shorter than usual, but I'd also heard from others that this particular strain of the common cold was a mild one. This current cold, I started the Zicam right away when I noticed a tickle in my throat and used them religiously. I'm 5 days in and pretty miserable, with this cold having dived into bronchitis around day 3.  I'm wheezing so bad at night that I'm waking myself and J. up.

I'm not wasting my money on those Zicam swabs anymore. Back to rest and fluids for me.

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