Selma Diamond

June 11, 2008

 I haven’t been posting lately, sorry.

I just finished my teaching semester last week and this week I started teaching summer school, so I had about, umm, three days off in between. They call that a weekend.

On top of that i’ve got a cold, that feels to me like bronchitis, and I even lost my voice yesterday and for part of today (both times before or while I was teaching my class). Fun times. I’ve never lost my voice before.

Now I just sound like a cross between Demi Moore and James Earl Jones (I was going to say I sound like Selma Diamond but does anybody even know who Selma Diamond is anymore?).

I’m going away for the weekend– and promise to blog more when I get back.

I’m especially excited about Louise Erdrich’s new book, The Plague of Doves, that I started a few days ago. It’s stunning. Michiko Kakutani calls it her “most ambitious and … most deeply affecting work yet” in the NYTimes.
It originated as a short story in the NewYorker four years ago– read it here. I’ll talk more about it next week; i’ve already been picking out my favorite lines.

And finally, today, while parking at the mall in La Jolla, no less, to buy my nephew a birthday present I saw a bumper sticker that said : The Dixie Chicks Were Right! (photo from Adelphia.net)

Awesome.

********************************** Editor’s Note:

This Just In! I just discovered that Selma Diamond had an album (at least one, there might be more) out in 1960. It looks like a comedy album. Here’s the photo of the album and description:

STLP 5001 - Selma Diamond Talks…and Talks…and Talks… - Selma Diamond [1960] About “NOW”/About Being Single/About Men And Marriage/About “THEN”/About Four Minutes, 25 Seconds Long/About Her Aunt.

I’m SO Ebaying this.