Tiny Round Spectacles Again

As you know, I don't "blog" anymore, except when Lee Durkee tells me about farting on the moon, or when I read a book with an owl in it, because I keep a list. Megan Abbott and I are reading a book about celebrities in Rome in the 1950s, in which it is claimed that King Farouk's "tiny round spectacles" give him "an owlish aspect." I tell you, people's tiny round spectacles are always giving them an owlish aspect, I can't count the times I've seen an author resort to that image... well, you know what? I could probably count the times, I mean, maybe that's why I've been keeping my list all along. But it sounds like a lot of work. For your information, King Farouk also appears in the book I wrote about cigarette lighters, though his spectacles do not, despite the fact that three of the books in my bibliography are SPECTACLES, LORGNETTES AND MONOCLES by D.C. Davidson, FASHIONS IN EYEGLASSES FROM THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT DAY by Richard Corson, and THE STORY OF OPTOMETRY by James R. Gregg. You see, the question I felt compelled to address is whether glass lenses were originally made for magnification or to light things on fire. I probably didn't bother to draw any conclusions. Once again, it sounds like a lot of work.

Latest News From the Moon

Urgent communique from Lee Durkee. He's reading a book from which he learned that, to quote Lee, "Swedenborg reported that the beings who live on the moon are afraid of their own farts."

This And That

Speaking of cigarette lighters, as I was some weeks ago, I should mention that this Larry Brown novel spends a solid four pages on the lighting of a cigarette, culminating in the double entendre, "Honey, you can flick my Bic all day long." Brown's four pages, I should say, cut a veritable swath through numerous subjects covered in my book CIGARETTE LIGHTER. If only I had read this before writing that.