http://www.readertravels.com Trip with me... Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:32:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you didn't know this about me already, I happen to be a white girl. But the year that Ella Fitzgerald died, I wanted to be her for Halloween, so I went out and got some dark brown theatrical make-up and slapped it on. I made a few mistakes that ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/10/playing-othello/ So, Halloween is coming up, and there are decisions to be made. My costume tradition is to pay tribute to someone famous who's died in the last year, and I have a few interesting options this year. There's: » Jeff Healey, blind guitar player extraordinaire » Bobby Fischer who kicked ass at chess and ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/09/death-and-possibilities/ I don't know why I find the subject of syphilis to be so fascinating. Maybe because you have these great minds through history that turn to madness with the aid of a tiny bacterium. Maybe because I'm also fascinated with Hansen's Disease which has a similar but more nefarious stigma.  People ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/09/syphilitic-speculation/ I gave Scotland, PA three stars on Netflix, but I gave it three-and-a-half on Flixster. The trouble with the Netflix rating system is that you can't give a movie half a star. Like many, this film for me was more than "Liked It" but less than "Really Liked It." What ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/09/macbeth-meets-mcdonalds/ So, despite my dresser, I'm more inclined to believe in karma than an after life Hell.  I'm all about the golden rule. I believe that what goes around comes around. I believe that to live by the sword is to die by the sword and that fighting monsters can turn you ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/09/who-needs-hell/ When I was a pensive seventeen year old, I stared at the beautiful antique dresser inherited from my grandmother and interpreted the art of it. Through my powers of observation, I saw in the dresser a scene of the afterlife.  The top part is carved to represent heaven, and the bottom ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/09/at-least-my-panties-live-in-heaven/ I'm only one season behind on Lost now.  When I started watching, I was three years behind, watching scenes that happened before, feeling as if I had slipped back in time to the year 2004, watching time progress again to 2005 and 2006.  So, I'm a little slow in jumping ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/08/time-tripping-again/ I had a thing for bad boys ever since kindergarten.  I think they represented a kind of freedom I longed for in my hyper-controlled, good-girl world. My name was Sparkman, so the bad boy in my class called me, "Sparkplug." I didn't know what a sparkplug was, but I knew ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/08/some-of-us-need-a-bad-influence/ Bruce Ogilvie wasn't anything like Willy Loman. He was successful and popular, a football star in high school who grew up to be a star on the local golf courses. He only sold a product if he believed in it. And he didn't outlive his usefulness as a salesman, a ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/08/death-of-a-salesman/ I have friends who belong to the gay religious right, family who epitomize the religious left, parents who sit around singing 60s peacenik songs while spouting unadulterated Republican rhetoric, a sister who cried and didn't talk to our parents for weeks after W got reelected. Me, I'm a corporate ho ... http://www.readertravels.com/2008/08/hippy-ho/