luscious . . .

. . . le Carre

yes, John le Carre's latest is a gem, every syllable, every twist and turn, every reflection and refraction, every crackling bit of interrogatory dialogue.

I venture to say it is among his best, but make that pronouncement prematurely, only residing on page 116.

Buy it.

Our Kind of Traitor.

Tell us if you agree.

Or not.

E-Peekaboo-hoo-hoo

The New York Times reported how a college student complained on his blog about the cable provider Comcast. The young man, Brandon Dilbeck, thought no one was listening. (Who doesn't at times feel as if no one is listening [existentially, socially, or psychotically] at times? Huh?) After all, he hadn't gotten any comments on his blog, called Brandon Notices, in months, he said.

"It feels like nobody ever really reads my blog," he is reported to have declared.

Then -- poof! -- shortly afterward he gets an email from a Comcast dude!

You never know who is watching or reading your blog.

A similar thing happened to me about 1.75 years ago. I got an email from the BBC because someone there had read, ON MY BLOGGER PROFILE!, that John le Carre's A Perfect Spy was one of my favorite books.

The BBC invited me to pose a question to him, which I eventually got to ask him live, on the phone from my office (when I had an office, boo-hoo)! That was very, very cool.

Ya never know.