anna_wing | Reading

I’m posting Wednesday Reading Meme a day early this week, as tomorrow I am heading out on my Massachusetts trip! Not planning to take my computer with me so probably will not post until I return, bearing news of a Katherine Hepburn film festival, fancy tea at the Boston Public Library, and (if all goes well) a visit to a maple sugaring operation.

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Eliza Orne White’s I, the Autobiography of a Cat, a charming book from 1941, with adorable illustrations by Clarke Hutton (one features a cat batting at an ink pen; cats never change). A cat tells us about his life with a lovely old lady in her beautiful home, where our cat accompanies her on her daily walks around the veranda. (She is blind so uses the veranda rail as a guide, and he walks ahead so she can stroke him from time to time.) Delightful. Always happy to read another book in cat POV. My main contemporary source is Japanese works in translation, but there was clearly a boom in this sort of thing in mid-century American children’s publishing.

I also finished E. Nesbit’s The Wouldbegoods, which perhaps suffered very slightly because I didn’t read The Treasure Seekers first (mostly because I spent the entire book wondering “Who is Albert and why are the Bastables staying with his uncle?”) but overall a pleasant read about children getting up to shenanigans in Edwardian England. Loved the bit where the children decide to walk to Canterbury like the pilgrims of old.

What I’m Reading Now

Zipping through Sarah Tolmie’s The Fourth Island, which is a delight! There is a fourth (magical) island of Aran, where lost people wash up from time to time, and the locals help them build houses and fit into the local community. A little bit Dinotopia although without the dinosaurs.

What I Plan to Read Next

Plotting my trip reading! I have four books on my Kindle: Patricia C. Wrede’s Caught in Crystal, Andrea K. Host’s Stray, George Gissing’s New Grub Street, and Kaje Harper’s Nor Iron Bars a Cage.

mindstalk

Train back to Taipei Main, wandered and browsed shops.

( Read more... )

When I lived in Osaka in 2019, my minisplit had a dehumidifier mode that puzzled me. Later research suggested it's supposed to dehumidify the air (duh) with minimal effect on temperature. What is actually did was function as a super-duper air conditioner mode: despite being fairly quiet, it would quickly push the temperature lower than my remote control allowed me to specify. It also seemed to help dry my clothes.

This time around, I was more interested in the heating function of minisplits, but here in Taiwan I've been using the A/C again... and the dehumidifier mode. And it behaves the exact same way. After not that long, my room has gone from 20 to 15 C in temperature, and 80% to 55% RH, or dew point from 16 C to 6 C.

oursin

Happy birthday,

dichroic and

fairestcat!

james_davis_nicoll

Canada Roles Awards seeks to celebrate the games and art created by the Canadian tabletop Roleplaying Game Industry.

2026 Canada Roles Awards

sovay

I have been made the unexpected recipient of an unbirthday scarf. It is patterned as if with fossil leaves and irresistibly striped.

Current Music: Tegan and Sara, "I'll Be Back Someday"

mtbc

At the weekend, I happened to be further up the Clyde at the right time to see the bow of a new Naval frigate being transported up the river to the shipyard where the warships are assembled. I didn't know what kind of ship it was for at first, I learned that later online.

Glasgow has a great city center, rather walkable and with the subway for longer hops. Next to Central Station is a fancy building some decades older than the converted Victorian mill that I live in. At least, there was, until a vape store somehow caught fire. Now there are cordoned-off streets, the smell of smoke, and a considerable number of sad, shocked people and even more rather inconvenienced ones.

I have no love for vape stores in the first place, I tend to avoid patronizing establishments that expand their range to vapes. Given vapes' propensity to catch fire in waste processing centers, etc., goodness knows who thought it a good idea to allow a vape shop to locate next to a critical transit hub in a historic landmark whose construction substantially predates fire safety codes. Perhaps we shall find out, with luck when I am not feeling grumpy and vengeful.

My commute may be quite unaffected: when I pass close to the area of the fire, I'm in a subway tunnel on my way to Queen Street, the other main railway station; I hope that tomorrow's train to Edinburgh isn't overly crowded by passengers displaced from Central which won't be open yet.

I refueled our car this evening, I figured that gas prices aren't dropping anytime soon. In probably 2003 I tried holding off filling the car with gas, back when I drove an old Ford Crown Victoria (with around a seventy litre fuel tank), but eventually I had to give in and pay the higher prices. At least, with mostly just driving around the city in our hybrid in the near term, today's gas should last us for a good while.

Update: My morning train's quite full but I arrive comfortably early enough to have snagged a seat easily. A pox on the selfish passengers who use their coat and bag to occupy two seats while others are still boarding.

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museum-of-radio-technology

The museum is a time capsule devoted to broadcast technology.

The Museum of Radio & Technology explores the birth and evolution of electronic communication and entertainment with artifacts ranging from the earliest broadcast radios to mid-century televisions to vintage computers.

Founded in 1991, the museum grew from a passion project into one of the nation’s standout collections of historical electronic gear. It preserves not just old radios but the stories of how communities connected, from the uses of Morse code to the golden age of radio broadcasts to the dawn of television.

Visitors can wander among cathedral-cabinet radios, early broadcast equipment, military communications gear, and even a working ham radio station. A dedicated section honors the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame, celebrating more than 200 local figures from radio and TV history.

The museum’s volunteer community also hosts events like swap meets, repair classes, and club gatherings that bring enthusiasts together to teach and share skills. The result is a space that’s less a polished corporate museum and more a lively clubhouse of stories, nostalgia, and tinkering that reflects both technical evolution and local culture.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museum-of-radio-technology

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/choum-tunnel

When the Mauritanian iron ore railway was being constructed in the 1960s, this line of track through the desert had a problem.

Officials within the region, at this point still under the auspices of French colonialism, indentified that the most convenient route for the train would in fact briefly go through Western Sahara, at this point territory controlled by Spain.

Rather than the involvement of diplomacy, and likely monies given to the Spanish government, it was instead decided to tunnel through two kilometres of granite in the mountainside near the town of Choum.

Initially, the iron ore train did run through this tunnel. However, in 1991, it was decided by railway bosses within the now independent Mauritania that it was actually more convenient to run a small part of the track through the now contested territory of Western Sahara after all.

The tunnel now lies abandoned a few kilometres from the revised track, a silent monument to colonial obstinacy of decades past.

The tunnel is still open to drive or even walk through, though once you are few metres into it you can expect to be in near total darkness until coming out on the other side.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/choum-tunnel

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/griffith-feil-soda-fountain

Dine beneath the metal ceiling and among the walls decorated with pieces of local history.

When you walk through the door at Griffith & Feil Soda Fountain in Kenova, it feels like someone flicked a switch back to another era.

Here, in a pharmacy with roots stretching back to 1892, the soda fountain isn’t a decorative relic; it’s a living centerpiece where locals and visitors gather for milkshakes, root beer floats, and burgers. Beneath the metal-tiled ceiling, soda jerks pull tart-sweet phosphate drinks and sling sundaes across the counter the same way they were made over a century ago.

But it’s not all sweets and comfort food; the store is still a working pharmacy. Current owner Ric Griffith and his daughter, Heidi, keep the drugstore alive as well. Sip a malt while you wait for your prescription or grab a BLT and put a favorite tune on the jukebox for a relaxing retro lunch.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/griffith-feil-soda-fountain

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jim-s-steak-and-spaghetti-house

The warm exterior of Jim's at night.

In a cozy restaurant in downtown Huntington, steak and spaghetti have enough star power to draw presidents, boxers, and musicians.

The story began in 1938 when Jim Tweel opened a small restaurant serving cheeseburgers and milkshakes in an old dairy store. By 1962, Tweel merged the eatery with a local spaghetti house and, after a bit of remodeling and menu tweaking, christened the restaurant Jim’s Steak and Spaghetti House.

Even all these years later, retro touches abound, from the green vinyl booths to the servers in crisp uniforms to a menu that has changed very little over the years. The signature spaghetti sauce has been made with the same recipe since the 1930s, and the ribeye steak dinner, haddock sandwich, and classic homemade pies have become favorites among lifelong locals and even a few celebrities. Presidents John F. Kennedy, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton have dined here while campaigning, and Muhammad Ali and Billy Joel are among the famous faces captured in signed photos on the walls.

The food may be simple comfort fare, but its exacting execution and the surrounding ambience have earned the restaurant some serious accolades. In 2019, Jim’s won a James Beard “America’s Classics” award, an honor reserved for regional eateries that reflect their community’s culinary heritage.

Thanks to its renown, Jim’s can get a bit crowded at peak times. But it's worth the wait to dine at a historic spot where nothing much has changed because nothing much needed fixing.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jim-s-steak-and-spaghetti-house

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-poky-dot

The nine-pound banana split sundae is best when shared.

When you step inside the Poky Dot, it’s hard not to instantly feel cheerful. From the bright yellow booths to the hamburger wallpaper to the towering milkshakes served in chocolate-dipped mason jars, everything appears bigger and more colorful here.

With a soundtrack of 1950s music and retro decor, the ambience feels like a candy-colored time capsule. Whether you’re tucking into the nine-pound banana split, a pile of onion rings, or s'mores French toast, every meal feels a bit like a celebration.

The menu includes standard diner comforts like burgers and breakfast platters, but the true standouts here are the homemade desserts. Clocking in at nine pounds, the banana split is a particularly decadent delight. But for a true challenge, try the He-Man breakfast, a gargantuan assortment of four eggs, four pancakes, four strips of bacon, two biscuits with gravy, two sausage links, two sausage patties, one slice of ham, two slices of toast, and a side of home fries. Those who finish the meal in 45 minutes get their breakfast for free and a coveted T-shirt.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-poky-dot

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/watoga-state-park

The night sky at Watonga truly lives up to the park's name.

Nestled deep in the Allegheny Highlands, Watoga State Park offers a rare refuge from the glow of city lights. Its name itself comes from a Cherokee term meaning “starry waters,” a poetic reminder that the sky overhead is as much a part of this landscape as the pine and hardwood forests.

In 2021, Watoga—along with adjacent Calvin Price State Forest and Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park—became an officially certified Dark Sky Park by DarkSky International, a global nonprofit dedicated to protecting night skies. That designation means Watoga meets exacting standards for darkness, lighting control, and public engagement, making it one of the darkest publicly accessible skies in the eastern United States.

At night, the Milky Way sprawls overhead in astonishing detail, planets shine undimmed, and meteor showers seem close enough to reach for. The perfect darkness results from a combination of the park’s elevation, sparse nearby development, and intentional lighting practices.

But nights at Watoga aren’t just for looking up. The park’s quiet forests are home to fascinating nocturnal creatures, from owls to the rare synchronous firefly whose tiny lights flash in unison in summertime.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/watoga-state-park

flemmings

Finished Strange Houses and then went to the internet to find out what I just read. Internet was mostly reddit, whose black-out spoiler redactions do not appear when highlighted. But a lot of people had the same suspicions as I about the architect jumping at once to 'murderous child killer cult' while other people noted that that's just the way Japanese horror rolls. Which, fair enough. And also noted that what's important is once again the things not said, sigh. But the general impression was that everyone but the narrator and the architect are lying and what's actually happening is a conspiracy, yes, but not the one we think. Although people did seem to think the weird cult thing was true, which to me is, ok, if you say so. Do not think I'll be reading more of his work.

I know better than to go for a blood draw on a Monday especially a Monday when I've just lost an hour of sleep, but it's going to rain all week and then snow. So out I went at 10 new time and came in to a posted 45 minute wait. But I waited, and then waited some more when they called my name because they said the room available was too narrow for me. Told them I could walk without the rollator but they were all No no just wait. And when they called me again I went without my walker just to show them. But the nurse got my vein first try, no having to use the other arm as in December, which is either her being more skilled than the other or my veins being pumped up from my water drinking. Whichever, I am grateful.

Could have done without the two large guys who barged into the elevator before I could get off it as I was leaving. Men, said Jessica. And am now headachy and am going out to dinner with bro and s-i-l tonight, but again, nobody made me get my draw this morning.

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gesellschaftsspiegel-society-mirror

Installed in 2020, Gesellschaftsspiegel is a public artwork in Hamburg by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Two brown-black patinated brass sculptures, each about 28 feet (8.5 meters) tall, stand on raised legs, allowing visitors to walk underneath. Their geometric forms, a triangular base and a diamond shape, contrast with the ornate historic buildings nearby. From a distance, they resemble abstract rockets on stilts. Inside, a kaleidoscope of angled mirrors reflects fragments of the surrounding architecture and sky, creating shifting patterns that change with light and movement.

The title Gesellschaftsspiegel translates as “society mirror.” Eliasson has said the work is intended to draw attention upward, toward the open air above, which he describes as a shared element of the urban landscape. By framing views of it within mirrored structures that function as both interior and exterior spaces, the pavilions invite visitors to slow down in the busy city center and consider the relationship between public space and private perception.

The sculptures were installed as part of a public art commission tied to the redesign of Alter Wall, an Old Town street, into a pedestrian precinct. During planning, members of the Green Party proposed planting trees along the route, but the project’s architects opposed this, citing concerns that trees would obscure the historic facades. Ultimately, only the two works at either end were realized.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gesellschaftsspiegel-society-mirror

james_davis_nicoll

The corebook and 19 supplements for Tab Creation's tabletop fantasy roleplaying game Age of Ambition.

Bundle of Holding: Age of Ambition

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-temple-scotland

The Temple

Hidden away in woods of the old Cally Estate is a little gothic tower, simply known as "The Temple".

The Temple was built as a folly in 1779, as a decorative feature to be seen from Cally House across the parklands. The Temple is now surrounded by trees but these are the result of the Forestry Commission who purchased the land in 1933 and would never have previous blocked the views.

The Cally Estate grounds were laid out by James Ramsay an architect turned landscape gardner. Although there is no concrete evidence of his involvement, the construction of the folly is attributed to him.

The Temple was once occupied by William Todd, a cow herd who looked after the estate’s black cattle. This is unusual as follies are usually decorative structures with no practical purpose. William occupied the tower from around 1782 to 1792, and brought up his family there.

After the sale of the estate grounds The Temple became dilapidated and lost its roof over time, but it not m its charm. In 2015 a restoration project was undertaken that saw it the folly restored for future visitors to enjoy.

The Temple has an external staircase leading up to the first floor, but visitors can go no further than the top of the stairs.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-temple-scotland

osprey_archer

We begin Hornblower and the Hotspur with Horatio Hornblower standing at the altar with his blushing bride Maria, desperately informing himself that they’re not married just yet! There’s still time to run for it! Only he can’t bring himself to commit the cruel act of leaving her at the altar, so instead he stands there like a lump and gets married.

This is one of the most inexplicable marriages I’ve ever encountered in fiction. It appears that Maria confessed her love for Hornblower and Hornblower was unable to think of any response except “Will you marry me?”, despite the fact that he doesn’t love her, in fact doesn’t think he should ever marry, and lives in dread of passing his temperament on to his children. (I should note that he is in no way honor bound to her before the wedding: she’s not pregnant with his child and he didn't seduce her. He didn't even flirt with her! He just existed in her general vicinity and she fell for him.)

He then spends the rest of the book asking himself “What would a good husband do?” and then enacting the part of a good husband, in much the way that he sometimes enacts the part of a good captain.

littlerhymes and I discussed many possible explanations for Hornblower’s behavior, none of which were entirely satisfactory, but to be fair, what WOULD be a satisfactory explanation?

1. Hornblower is a deeply closeted gay man who is marrying Maria for reasons of social pressure. However, there seem to be plenty of bachelors in the Navy, so it’s unclear how much social pressure he would actually be experiencing, especially since he seems to have no family clamoring for grandchildren/an heir.

(Whether or not he’s gay, there is alas little evidence here that he sees Bush as more than an excellent lieutenant, although Bush is clearly still nuts about Hornblower. The bit where Hornblower fails to mention his own act of heroism in a letter to the Gazette and Bush is like “It isn’t RIGHT, sir.” And also the bit where Bush is tells Hornblower he’s worried about Hornblower’s health and Hornblower is like who cares about this SACK of MEAT that is my BODY.)

2. Hornblower is SO deeply repressed that he can’t cope with the fact that he is experiencing the weakness of having a human emotion (“love”), but actually does love Maria on some level. He keeps feeling surprising upswellings of tenderness for her. Also, he castigates himself severely every time he DOES experience an emotion (or also human weaknesses like “sleepiness” or “hunger”), which I feel has probably damaged his ability to recognize emotions at all.

But even if he loves her, he clearly doesn’t have a lot of respect for her. Might love her purely in the sense of feeling an animal attraction, and also gratitude for the fact that someone cares about him? He muses at one point that it’s strange to be going to sea with someone on land who gives a damn about him.

3. Hornblower doesn’t think that he deserves nice things, so he marries Maria to make sure that he will have a wife who is ill-suited to him, as he deserves.

Oh, also there are some sea battles and stuff. Hornblower is sent with the fleet to capture some Spanish ships carrying a fortune and then has to hare off chasing another ship at the opportune moment so he doesn’t get a share of the massive amount of prize money. But then the Crown takes the money anyway so he actually would have gotten nothing even if he had been there.

I’m pretty sure these Spanish treasure ships formed the basis for a similar incident near the end of Post Captain, only you better believe Jack Aubrey was on hand to win his part of the prize money. I finished Post Captain confident than Jack could pay off his debts and marry Sophie, but now it looks like maybe he won’t be getting the money after all…?

We will find out in HMS Surprise, but not for about a week, as I am setting off on a trip to Massachusetts on Wednesday!

littlerhymes and I will resume our sailing voyages once I return.

heleninwales

Last year I didn't go away anywhere until the trip in mid-November to stay with our daughter. I used to rely on G organising our trips away and it took me rather a long time to realise that he just doesn't want to travel any more. He used to travel because he wanted to give a paper at a conference, but he doesn't want to do that any more. Now he has everything he needs and wants here. He's busy with his projects and has some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK to go for walks in. However, I felt I'd got into a rut and so we had a conversation about going away for short breaks and G said he was perfectly happy for me to go on my own.

The weather has been so bad up until now, that I didn't want to go anywhere. However, there was a post on Facebook from a friend saying that she was planning to visit Birmingham art gallery to see their pre-Raphaelite paintings on Good Friday of the Easter weekend and did anyone want to join her? That prompted me to actually arrange the trip I'd been vaguely thinking of since I saw online that the gallery had reopened.

I've just booked a hotel for one night. You can do Birmingham as a day trip, but not if I want to get there for 10 a.m. So I'll have half a day on my own on the Thursday and then get an early afternoon train back after meeting with friends on the Friday morning. It should be enjoyable. As a precaution, I've paid the extra so I can cancel up to the morning of the day I intend to stay. I won't buy the train tickets too early either. Early April can be lovely, or it can be awful with rain and floods or even snow. The railway companies also have a habit of arranging engineering work at Bank Holidays. But hopefully all will be well and I'll get a nice mini-break.