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I AM FEELING MUCH CALMER TODAY.

Which is just as well since depending on my whims it may be kind of a long day. I have a chiropractor's appointment at 4, and I'm hoping to be done fairly quickly so that I can grab some food and go see a movie tonight. It's part of my ongoing "get out more" plan. (I'm easing into it.)

Every morning, after I finish handling my email, I open a daily bookmarks file, which contains a mixture of news sites, blogs, and webcomics. About a week ago I added a site that I found in random wanderings and decided I liked. I'm not really sure whether it gives me perspective or reminds me about time passing or what, but I like to keep it open in a tab in my browser and occasionally refresh it just to see where the light is.

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A couple of years ago I was coming back from a camping trip with some friends when I got us truly, deeply, spectacularly lost in rural Missouri. This is easier than it sounds.

As we were getting ourselves found again, we either passed through the town of Skidmore or passed a sign announcing its presence, I don't recall which. Small heartland towns tend to look alike from the window of a minivan. Either way, something prompted one of my friends to turn to me and say, "Do you know about Skidmore?"

( Ken McElroy, Skidmore, and 'In Broad Daylight' by Harry N. McLean. )

I can't really recommend In Broad Daylight as pleasure reading, though if you enjoy true crime as a genre you may get more out of it than I did. But the story of Skidmore is definitely interesting, though I imagine they'd prefer it be less so.

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Origami: it's what's for dinner!

I found folding instructions for a reasonable facsimile of a gorilla yesterday, although my first attempt used rather brightly patterned paper and looks a bit like a demented clown. My second try went a little better.

I think he looks jaunty.

So as Coworker Crush was coming back from getting coffee (99% of our conversations occur while she is either on her way to or back from Starbucks, 98% of them concern the weather) I told her "I have something for you!" and presented her with the gorilla.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's, uh, a gorilla," I said.

And then she LOLed and said thank you, and asked what I was folding today.

"Frogs," I said. "Having a meeting."

"You're not the paper hat type, are you?" she asked, but she was summoned by the boss before I could reply. Just as well, I didn't have a snappy comeback for that.

(no subject)

So, when my interest in 'In Broad Daylight' started to wane, I picked up another book I'd checked out of the library along with it: 'The Professional Thief'. It's a weird combination of true crime and sociology, published in the mid-thirties and not, apparently, revised since.

The book is "Annotated and Interpreted" by Edwin Hardin Sutherland, but the bulk of the book was actually written by a veteran professional thief in response to Sutherland's questions. If nothing else, it's a nifty look into how crime functioned in America in the early part of the 20th century, particularly during the Depression.

( The Professional Thief, Annotated and Interpreted by Edwin Hardin Sutherland. )

What emerges from the book is a portrait of criminal life in the early part of the century: a code of ethics, a sense of isolation from society that leads into the formation of a second society amongst thieves, the rules of that society, and the skills and talents needed to enter into it. I've always thought it was rather nice if unrealistic to believe that there is a moral law among professional crooks, but I didn't really think there ever had been. This book goes pretty deep into it, and even if it's just a historical document it's kind of thrilling to read.

[Cooper] gives a detailed description of a conference of confidence men held in Chicago in which they attempted to formulate a code which would prohibit their colleagues from excursions outside their own field.
Footnote: A confidence man, when asked regarding this conference of confidence men in Chicago, said that Cooper's writings regarding it should have been entitled "Mythologies of 1935". -- p. 199 - 200