Planning for 1984

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Typing on My Underwood

I love typing on old typewriters, especially the big desk models with elite typeface. (Elite is 12 characters per inch.) The music I'm listening to is by Pat Martino.

This Underwood typewriter is the same model formerly used by the writer Tom Wolfe.

The nativity scene at United Methodist Church in Claremont.

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Watching my Buccaneers

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Merry Christmas 2020

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We don’t get a whole lot in the way of fall colors, but when the light is right some of the reds and yellows do stand out. #blogpost

Southern California is noted for its late autumn colors. We don't get a whole lot of colors, but around Christmas we do get some significant reds and yellows. If the light is right, it puts on quite a show, at least for us anyway.

James Yerkes, Dilvo Ristoff, and Rabbit at Rest

Dilvo Ristoff

In order to nurture my love of John Updike, I used to visit The Centurian — an eclectic resource for John Updike research and study — until it suffered a server crash sometime around 2009 and lost almost all its pages. James Yerkes maintained the site and also edited a book about Updike entitled John Updike and Religion: The Sense of the Sacred and the Motions of Grace. Nowadays, the go-to Updike page is no doubt The John Updike Society.

I recently purchased a used book called John Updike's Rabbit at Rest: Appropriating History by Dilvo Ristoff, a book which at one time was apparently owned by Mr. Yerkes. The book is autographed thus: "To James Yerkes, with Best Wishes." I don't know why Mr. Yerkes let such a prized possession slip from his grasp, but I am happy to be the new owner of this remarkable book, one which explains John Updike's use of topical references and how he framed his narrative around them.