Daily Thoughts 8/25/2010 (Bring On the Books For Everybody, the Facebook Era)

English: Interesting Story, 1898, Laura Muntz Lyall (1860-1930)

Daily Thoughts 8/25/2010

I have been reading more of Bring On The Books For Everybody.  I like Jim Collins description of many of the newer womens novels being "romantic consumerism".  It fits nearly perfectly with books like The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.  He also uses another term postliterary novel for books like The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Jay Fowler which has a nice ring to it.  He is showing how books and films are tied in knots together.  I can see how shows like Sex and The City are a natural extension of modern "chick lit". 



On the subway home, I finished reading Bring On The Books For Everybody. Jim Collins excerpts a paragraph from The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon in the final chapter of the book.  It is about the "cemetery of forgotten books" one of my favorite places in literature.  The author is challenging the idea of Fahrenheit 451 in the final chapter, offering us a vision of popular culture which combines literature with visual mediums like film and television.  It is much closer to my own view of the future of books.








Today was another quiet day.  We discussed vendors today.  I am going to take a look at Ingram.  Ingram has slightly better discounts than the other vendors for hardcover and paperback books.  We also discussed how we are going to keep track of missing books.  I spent quite a bit of time on the floor helping patrons with reference. 


Last night was kind of interesting.  I had to work on cleaning up a trojan on my machine.  There were a lot of attacks on computers focused on companies spoofing other peoples machines and asking them to buy their antivirus software.  The warning comes as a popup, then says your machine is not properly protected.  I went through Computer Associates, Microsoft, and another company to get my machine back up.  It took many hours to clean up.  Microsoft had me use a company called Esoft to finally clean up my machine.



I also had a chance to read a bit of the Facebook Era.  There is a concept which is introduced called the "online social graph" which is a map of all the people on the internet and how they are connected.  Clara Shih reminds us that the internet is about people.  In her view social and consumer networks are beginning to merge and old fashioned advertising is no longer working.

Pete's New Haven Style Apizza - Ten-Frien

Ten-Frien!  That's Tenleytown-Friendship Heights for the uninitiated.  The newest Pete's outpost is in between the two red line stops, not quite part of the shopping fiasco that is FHeights, but also not the Big Box hubbub at the AU stop.  There appears to be a cute newish coffee shop and pet shop nearby, and an unfortunate Italian/pizza joint across the way. 

Pete's has become our latest "why not?" on nights we don't feel like cooking or we have guests who want some local flavor.  We can walk there, which is convenient, and although there isn't any outside seating yet--likely due to a permit delay--the walk to and from gets enough of that muggy, summer air for this gal.  The food is great, mixing up my own Boylan's soda is fun (because I'm 5), and the pies are huge.  HUGE.  We always have leftover, and it makes my workday lunch that much more interesting. 

New Haven-style apizza (a-BEATS, rhymes with a-TWEETS--not Pete's Apizza = Pizza Pizza) has a super thin crust.  Now, I'm no NH expert.  I only drive through/fly over Connecticut, for the most part.  But the apizza has a nice chewy/doughy end (or as my mom calls it, the bones), and the bottom is impossibly thin and crisp without being burned.  HOW DO THEY DO IT!?  It must be magic.  You can't even really fold this pizza if you try, because it's that crispy.  Nosh nosh.

Shall we look at some dishes?  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it, and luckily I just baked 2 lbs of banana bread. 

Fried goat cheese.  Can you go wrong?  (Answer: no.)

Mmmm fried eggplant (named Edge of the Woods)--we've gotten this pizza TWICE.  And the 2009 World Series Champions!!!

Arugula!  So fresh and tasty, like having a salad (with dough underneath).

Deeeelightful antipasti plate with housemade pickles (so crunchy and fresh and light), roasted corn and tomato salad (I loved this the most), fried risotto balls (dec.a.dent.). 

Solid salad. 

Halfsies--eggplant from earlier (this is a separate occasion, you see) and meatballs on the Boola Boola!

We really like Pete's.  These people are series about their apizza.  Just check out this ride:

Yes, I got permission (in writing...sort of) to use this image.  Because you know, it's shady to take pictures of people's license plates (I'm talking to you, Facebook friends who think those mobile uploads are an Olympic sport).


Pete's New Haven Style Apizza
4940 Wisconsin Ave NW
Metro: Red Line to AU/Tenleytown or Friendship Heights--it's really in between.  Maybe a little closer to FH if you take the Jenifer St exit.