Author Archives: Garrett Wollman

How many non-heterosexual people are there?

Posted on 2014-01-13

Attention conservation notice: 1400 words about a topic which, if you were really seriously interested in it, you would already have read the research I’m summarizing. Nearly since the modern conception of sexual orientation was invented, there have been serious … Continue reading →

Posted in Law & Society | Tagged , ,

Diane Duane’s Tessinerbrot

Posted on 2014-01-11

Back in the summer of 2011, Diane Duane published a recipe on her blog for Tessinerbrot, which is the German name for a white bread from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. She adapted the recipe from the Web site of … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Introversion and growing older alone

Posted on 2014-01-07

A few Sundays ago, I turned 41. That day, I had a nice birthday dinner and a chocolate tart (the result of a mix-up — I asked for a torte — but lovely nonetheless). But I didn’t consider it to … Continue reading →

Posted in States of mind

Cosma Shalizi on programming as expression

Posted on 2014-01-03

I don’t agree with everything he says in his advice for students in his Intro to Statistical Computing class, but I like this a lot: Programming is expression: take a personal, private, intuitive, irreproducible series of acts of thought, and … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2014-01-03 | Tagged , ,

Musing on accent accommodation

All this reading of Diane Duane novels reminded me of something I observed a while ago. Back in the summer of 2012, I heard, in relatively quick succession, recordings of two Americans living in the British Isles: a podcast interview … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2014-01-02 | Tagged ,

While I’m quoting Diane Duane…

Posted on 2014-01-01

This made me tear up (not least because it’s never happened to me, of which more later if I can manage to get it written): But normally the concept of the date suggests something besides just going out to have … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2014-01-01 | Tagged

A lovely short meditation by Diane Duane

Posted on 2013-12-31

I’m not one for meditation, but I thought this was lovely: I’ll meet cruel people today, cowards and liars, people eaten up with envy and people drugged out or wasted on booze. They’ll be like that because they’re not clear … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2013-12-31 | Tagged

The economy of ideas

Posted on 2013-12-27

Even the best of us have only a few ideas. Bill Gates, our era’s wealthiest entrepreneur, arguably had only one big idea. Giving wealthy people like him tax breaks will not suddenly encourage them to have more ideas. It is … Continue reading →

Quote | Posted on 2013-12-27 | Tagged

Literature and emotion and Deep Wizardry

Posted on 2013-12-16

Early this morning (or actually, all too late) I finished reading the “New Millennium Edition” of Diane Duane’s Deep Wizardry. I have the first edition (in multiple copies, even), and in fact read the first edition as a library book … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Music, States of mind | Tagged , , ,

Chocolate caramel walnut tart

Posted on 2013-12-15

One of my favorite holiday-time desserts is a chocolate-caramel-walnut tart from Cook’s Illustrated. I first made it in 2007 after picking up the recipe in CI‘s holiday baking annual; searching today, I found the original recipe was from the November, … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged , , ,