I found the Monterreys...

I intentionally spelled it wrong above, as in, I spelled the name of the Spanish General correctly, but not the name of a type of Birkenstock that we thought was long out of production.

Those are the Monterey, a style of the famous hippie sandal (that Germans only wear in the house as slippers and think Yanks who wear them outside the home are a little nutty) that is slightly different from the ubiquitous Arizona.

Once shopping I unknowingly purchased a pair of the Montereys only to notice they were ever so different than the normal Birk, and fell in love with them. And then I could never find them again.

That minor difference, of course, being that the strapping covers more of the bed of the sandal. Here are some pics for comparison:

The Arizona

The Monterey

It's a slight and subtle difference, and I'm not sure the practical realities of that extra length, or why I got so obsessed over it, but it's back! And a whole c-note more expensive! So there's that...

But they do look pretty sleek:

..in a hippie sort of way...

Is This Our Man Pynchon?

In what's likely a murky legal move, someone snapped a photo of an older dude riding a bike in Manhattan of whom it suspected that it's Thomas Pynchon.

You be the judge:

There is an interesting Reddit read about someone who is pretty sure Pynchon lives in their building, and their description isn't necessarily the same as this guy, but it could be...

You can judge that on its merits here as well.

As if living through a Pynchon novel ween't enough, the world shrinks around him in a way he would have guessed.

Best Old Review of Gravity's Rainbow

I came across the best review of Pynchon's magnum opus, Gravity's Rainbow, a few days back. It's so good, and I call it "best" without the luxury of having read every single other review of the prosaic novel.

But I call it best because it says everything I've ever wanted to say about the book, but in a more collected and professional way than I've been able to do.

If you get the time to check it out the grand picture of the basic structure and the book's rhythms will be shown off.

Just click right here for the review by scholar, writer, and teacher Richard Poirier.