The ACLU of PA (my home state, a swatch of red menace tacked onto civilization by the twin blue push-pins of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) has a blog of the Dover "intelligent" (cough) "design" challenge that is going on as of this past Monday in Harrisburg. Worth reading.

I managed to send a rougher than rough draft of my thesis committee progress report to my advisor, who will no doubt shit all over it. I remain hopeful that he will just get it over with and not drag out the torture like he did last year. On the other hand, if your own advisor is the scariest person on your committee, that is not too bad.

For some reason I am flashing back to Glasgow a lot today. It's not the weather, which is sunny and bright, with that New Englandy crispness and clear sunlight. It's funny how I remember some things so clearly but then I can't remember what the street at the bottom of Byres Road is called (Dumbarton Rd?) or the name of the other bookstore in town that was not Border's, although I can picture it perfectly, how it smelled, the black felt of my coat draped over my arm, the color of the twilight that lasts all day in November, the thickness of the coffee cups and the dim buttery lighting on the escalator at the mezzanine. Funny how I can remember the taste and texture of chips and cheese from Bar-B-Que King but not the name of the street that it was on the corner of, which went over a bridge and past the red church where I saw the hedgehog and up to the street where my boyfriend lived.

Funny how one can be in so many places at the same time.