(1) Some weeks ago, as we discussed here, I re-read Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins. Toward the end of the book the narrator notes that he hears the cry of a kingfisher in the swamp. I don’t know what that sounds like, thought I. Funny that I live in the same part of the country but have never seen a kingfisher. Except in pictures, that is, which is how I recognized it when, a couple of days later, during my usual twice-daily walk with the dogs, I stood watching the bay, heard a sort of chattering cry, and watched a kingfisher land on a branch no more than twenty feet away.
(2) Yesterday I saw a note on CNN that the fantasy author Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s. I’ve never read anything by him and only know his name because one of my children has read (and recommended) him. Last night my wife and I went to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. When I went to the cash register to pay (this place still does it that way, rather than take your money at the table), there was a young man ahead of me. He had a book under his arm and laid it on the counter while he paid. It was a novel by Terry Pratchett.
(3) For several months now I’ve been wanting Chris Rea’s Blue Cafe. It’s out of print in the U.S., and I could only find it as an import in the $40 range. I buy a fair number of used cds from SecondSpin.com, and have had Chris Rea on my watch list there for at least a year or so. I started checking frequently for Blue Cafe, hoping to find a used copy for a reasonable price, but it never showed up. Last week, with a $30 Amazon gift certificate in my possession, I decided to squander it, plus the additional $10 or so out of my pocket, on BC. Within 48 hours it showed up on Second Spin for $13.99.
No conclusions. It’s just weird.
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Light On Dark Water 
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