2009 Reading #51: Devil In a Blue Dress

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.

51. Devil In a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. I've had a few of the Easy Rawlins mysteries for years, but I hadn't read any of them because I wanted to start from the beginning. So a couple of months ago I went to Uncle Edgar's and picked up the first three, and now that I am both wiped out from Sycamore Hill and laid low by the heat, this is perfect stuff to be reading. My context for Mosley is a couple of short stories and the Socrates Fortlow books, which are fucking amazing. So it's not Easy's fault that I don't find him as compelling right off the bat. Which isn't to say I'm not interested, but I'm more interested in Mosley's setting--L.A.'s Watts neighborhood circa 1948--and the weird Doppelgänger relationship between Easy and Mouse, his sociopathic best friend. I also like the fact that these books are told from a long perspective, as Easy at some later time in life narrating certain pivotal events, and the way he's able to pinpoint the moments when he learns important things about life or detecting or both.

Also I Have Decided To Stop Buying Wedding Presents For You People

The Schwartz family is planning a reunion, and half a dozen or so mass emails have been exchanged in the past couple of weeks. This morning this one arrived:

"Hi - just want to let you know that I'm not in your family and have been getting emails from you for the past few years. Please take [email@redacted] off your listing.

Thanks-"

This may be my favorite thing ever.

Elephant News

The Philadelphia Zoo's two remaining elephants, Kallie and Bette, are being moved to the Pittsburgh Zoo's 724-acre International Conservation Center. Despite the protests, this seems like a good move, or at least a step in the right direction.

Follow-up to the reports of poisoned Sumatran elephants in my last update: the Sumatran government estimates that fifteen elephants have died of cyanide-laced fruit in the past year.

CITES (The International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) has authorized an increase in the number of elephants Mozambique is allowed to kill annually.

Paleontologist Emmanuel Gheerbrant has discovered a 4-5kg (about the size of a rabbit) elephant ancestor, called Eritherium azzouzorum. It's one of the oldest ungulates (i.e. hoofed mammals) related to elephants. Eritherium lacked a trunk, but it had an enlarged front incisor which presaged the tusks of its modern descendants.