Have held off listening to the new Soft Boys record until the time when I can really hang on its every word and note, but I did pop in the new PG CD this morning for all of two seconds before I had to leave. I have no opinion yet.

In book news, I finished the Styron, which was elegant and sad. It left me wanting more, but the library was plumb out of all his books. I noticed that both Styron�s and Stegner�s novels are situated next to younger female Styrons and Stegners�a daughter and daughter-in-law respectively. Here I am discovering these fellows for the first time, and they�ve already had careers, lives, and children following in their footsteps.

I am now reading Mark Salzman�s Lying Awake, about a nun/poet in a contemplative order. Me big-heap Salzman fan, and I�m fascinated by nuns and the monastic life, so I�m riding out the novel�s somewhat unpromising beginning. He�s obviously done his research about nuns, and that�s cool, but there is a falseness in the tone that irritates me�We�re supposed to be seeing into the everyday life of a nunnery, but the thoughts and dialogue are abstract and lofty and precious and not what real people say or think. Not even nuns. But I�m only a third of the way through, so we�ll see what happens�

The first rule of the Dog Park is: No one talks about�themselves. Really, the conversation is always centered on the dogs, which is good in a way. No social pressure, the anonymity of a chat room. Although yesterday there was a guy�a �dude�, technically�who didn�t know the rules, and told us a little about himself: he lives on a boat behind the Dyker Heights Golf Course,and has just sailed up from Miami so his girlfriend can attend med school.

I just found out on Urban Hound that the future of the Dyker Heights dog run is doomed unless we fight city hall.