The Logician's Apprentice

My job ended today. Never before have I been so utterly charmed, challenged, and amused by a job. Never before have I been paid to have this kind of fun. I am so proud of this book, which, as Jim put it, has our fingerprints all over it. Sweet Reason is clever; it's laugh-out-loud funny; it's rich and deep and long. It has history, it has mystery, it has ... logic.

I am besotted.

Tomorrow I'll be home, and I'm quite glad, as I've missed my family, but this was an experience not to be missed.

I highly recommend that you read the book. You won't regret it.

Hard at Work

Today's duties included, among other things: Boolean algebra, relevance logic, and drawing a picture of Jim attempting to fly.

Dedeuce

Yesterday the other apprentices and Jim and I invented a card game, Dedeuce. It's sort of like Clue meets Go Fish: each player gets four cards (only using hearts and spades) and the other players have to guess what they are. You win when you guess somebody's hand. The catch is that you can only ask questions that are logical formulas. For example, "9 arrows Jack," "Queen or King," etc. It is intense, heavy on the bookkeeping, and fun.

This is the third game we've made this summer, along with Sweet Reason Rummy and Predabble (a logical version of Scrabble). The first twelve chapters are in Australia even as we speak, where they will have their pilot run at the end of this month. Just three more days to go...

Outing

Today Jim and his wife, Portia, took some of us apprentices on an outing. It was good fun. Our first stop was the Empty Set Project Space in Pittsfield.

Notice that the sign contains an error: that's actually not the empty set- it's the set containing the empty set.

Next we went to the Hancock Shaker Village, where we saw how the Shakers used water power and heard their Shaker song "Simple Gifts" roughly twenty times. Kep tried her hand at spinning wool, Juan learned how to use a loom, I milked a life size fiberglass replica of a cow, and Penka and I (at her suggestion) dressed up in Shaker clothes and had Jim take our picture.

Because you just haven't lived until your math teacher has seen you play dress-up.

At the Shaker village I also accosted Juan with questions about Chinese animal sounds. Chickens apparently go "ji ji," which I thought was funny since the word for chicken is "ji."
"So it's like they go around saying 'chicken chicken'!" I said.
"No," said Juan, looking a little confused. "Because it's a different character."
I asked Penka about Bulgarian animal sounds, but they were not too different from ours.

Our last stop was The Mount, Edith Warton's house. We took a tour, strolled the gardens, and had some tea.


Over tea, I asked whether everyone would rather be Shaker or Edith Warton-style wealthy. Juan and Kep chose Shaker. Jim and Portia chose Edith Warton. I can't decide. If I were Shaker, I wouldn't get to do any of the things I enjoy - reading, drawing, learning things - but I would have the certainty I was going to Heaven. I think that would be agreeable. Jim said that really neither option was ideal; that, in fact, the ideal would be more or less the life he had now. I found this quite cheering and actually I think it's true for me as well. In any case, any changes I might make would not be in the way of opulent wealth or religious fanaticism.

The clever pup learns with delight/ he has a chance to set things right.

A common source of speculation in our house is Rupert Bear's feet. Rupert has human hands, but we never see his feet- are they bear feet or human feet? The Official Rupert Website has this to say:

...Rupert is really a small boy with a bear's head - although a furry back has been spotted whilst Rupert is having a bath. He has hands and feet - not paws. Only Edward Trunk- is cursed by real animal's feet ...

This is by far the most disturbing thing I've heard in a long time. A small boy with a bear's head? WHY? Is he some sort of mutant? And what does that make Edward Trunk? I like that the website acknowledges the tragedy of Edward's extremities- we've always felt bad for him.

Rupert... a small boy? No. This can't be true. There are actual small boys running around in Rupertland -where do they live? Nutwood? Something like that - and Rupert is nothing like them. He's clearly a bear. His LAST NAME is Bear! If that's not proof of species, I'd like to know what is.

A rant about Kavalier and Clay for no real reason

One of my exercises in the book is a bunch of statements, and the reader has to write an argument for each. They range from "The United States should repeal the Second Amendment" to "Books should never be made into movies."

"Make it more specific," said Jim. "Can you think of any particular book that should never be made into a movie?"

I thought about it. "John Irving novels should never be made into movies," I volunteered.
"John Irving novels should never be made into novels," said Jim, echoing another of my favorite rants, which we'll leave it aside for now.

I have to say, although Wonder Boys was a good movie with good acting, despite a dubious casting decision in Tobey Maguire as James Leer, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is probably going to be a terrible movie. They're going to insert animated sequences, maybe (my mum thinks this is a good idea), and the casting is going to be all wrong. Here are some possible Sam Clays: Tobey Maguire and Ben Stiller. BEN STILLER? How OLD is Ben Stiller?! Am I not remembering who Ben Stiller is? Are they? Tobey Maguire? Please!

The nominations for Joe Kavalier are even worse. Jude Law? Jude Law is not Joe Kavalier!

If I may make a suggestion,
THIS is Joe Kavalier. He's absolutely perfect. A little old, yes, but he has such a fantastically large nose and sad eyes and he looks like an Eastern European Jew. Jude Law? Not an Eastern European Jew. Well, maybe he is, actually, I have no idea, Jude is a Hebrew name, but that doesn't change his appalling wrongness. And as for Ben Stiller- well, I would cry. But I have no better suggestion for Sammy. I'll have to keep looking.

This American Life

(Three episodes of TAL tonight, working on my book stuff)

I really want a CD of all the This American Life background music, and I'd play it all the time- while making my bed, or folding laundry, but especially talking to people. And my life would seem so profound, and poignant.

The Hive

Jim Henle has offered me the staggering opportunity to try my hand at drawing a cover for the book, as well as some comic strips to sprinkle throughout in places where there's extra white space. I have been working on these things most of the day today, listening to This American Life. I listened to six episodes today: Notes from Camp, Music Lessons, Babysitting, Act V of Hamlet performed by prisoners in a maximum security prison, and more.

This American Life is just one of several bees in my bonnet this summer, a glorious summer in which I spend all my time flitting from one obsession to the next. This summer has been devoted to logic, of course, but also cooking, P.G. Wodehouse, Sherlock Holmes, This American Life, Laura Cantrell (I listen to her new album about three times a day on average), and drawing, among other things. It's pleasurable but also tiring- at all times I am focussed like a laser on some pursuit, and I have trouble quieting my brain enough to let me sleep.

The Lap of Luxury

I have been cutting loose a bit of late.

It started with the strawberries I got at the farmers' market last Saturday. Not just strawberries, but a whole tomato. They were gone in three days' time but the taste lingered. They tasted of luxury. I wanted more.

Yesterday, Kep and I took the bus to the Asian grocery on Route 9, next to the adult bookstore. It was marvelous! Exotic produce and candy and spices were everywhere you looked. I got a bag of steamed red bean buns, a can of coconut milk, and a moon cake (not to be confused with a moon pie), which I shared with Kep. I've only had moon cakes twice before because for one thing, they're rather hard to get, and for another, they're traditionally eaten on the Moon Festival in the fall. So that was a very special treat.

For dinner that evening Kep and I steamed some of our red bean buns and made some instant Thai noodles and some vegetables in coconut milk. The bean buns were very soft and puffy and sweet; the noodles were chewy and hot; the vegetables were smooth and rich. It was the finest meal I've had since Jim's house.

Today I went to Stop and Shop and purchased yeast, fresh mozzerella cheese, and 8 Kalamata olives. I am going to make a pizza.

I am being positively decadent. What has come over me?