signal-boosting for 7j

7j:
My company recently got a new black and white plotter. While the new plotter is superior in many ways to our old plotter, we have discovered a tendency to jam when the 36 inch roll has (roughly) 20 feet or less on it. Currently we are replacing the 36 inch roll when it falls below a certain point, and piling up the extra rolls in the back room. We also have a few full rolls which have had the core damaged so they cannot be loading into the machine. I am planning to take a few rolls home to use for art projects, and I have tasked myself with finding an efficient use for the rest of this paper. We might end up recycling some of it, but I would prefer to have it go to a good home.
So, if you draw or paint or collage, and could use 36 inch wide sheets of plain white paper, please contact me. In the past schools have used this paper for doing body tracing, so if you want to pass it along to your kid's class, that's cool, too. We can set up a meet in Harvard or Davis Square. Comment for contact info or if you are reposting my request.

And me:
If you want some, you should comment here rather than in my journal. :)

pie reminder

We are having our annual Thanksgiving pie breakfast once again this year. It is open to all, which is why this post is public. It will be held on Thanksgiving morning, which is in two weeks minus one day, 10 am. Everyone brings one pie and the extra pies go to a homeless shelter, Rosie's Place. We live in Davis. If you don't know where, send me an email and I'll fill you in. You do not need to have met us to attend.

mysteries

I was in the mood for mysteries this week.

Seeking Whom He May Devour is the second Fred Vargas mystery. I liked it just as well as the first, and in different ways. When I saw that the Inspector's love interest from the first book was a main character in the second, I was suspicious - downright wary, in fact. But it was very well done, and the book had plot turns that I found impossible to foresee, yet seemed obvious in hindsight. Brilliant. Four stars. This is an author to watch.

Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton is a mystery that takes place within a community of knitters. It's not as cheesy as it sounds, and it's better than many modern "cozy" mysteries I've read. It's also not stuffed with knitting references - it would be pretty accessible to non-knitters. It was nice, if not enormously memorable. It was pretty obvious who had committed the murder, and the small-town cast of characters was so friendly and welcoming that you feared they would either start passing around the Kool-Aid, or bursting into song, at any moment. Three stars - it would be a good plane book.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss

This book was recommended to me by katkt, and it really tickled my fancy. The subject of this extremely funny runaway bestseller? The history and correct usage of punctuation.

You do not need to be an English major to enjoy this book, although if, like me, you are one, it will probably make you laugh out loud. Unless, of course, it makes you shake your fist in the air and cry, "It's about bloody time!" If you have ever cringed at a sign that said "Fresh Tasty Pizza's" then you should read this book. Heck, if you know what makes "Fresh Tasty Pizza's" an incorrect turn of phrase, you'll probably enjoy it too. If, on the other hand, you feel you don't really understand the rules of punctuation, then you'll definitely want to read it, and probably keep it on hand for a while. It's much more fun than The Elements of Style.

I am definitely not as fanatic as the author. I do not think that the Internet is dragging the English language down into the roiling pits of chaos, as she suggests in her conclusion; nor do I carry around a Sharpie in my bag to correct grammatical mistakes on signs (although if a random stranger handed me one in a moment where I was feeling particularly inspired, I might very well use it). I didn't feel that I was that far from her position, though, and I found the book very entertaining. Who knew grammar could be funny? Er, those of us who know grammar, of course, but who knew it could be intentionally funny?