Departures and Arrivals

Over the past two days we attended separate memorial services — one for a departed friend, and another for the departed mother of a friend. Maybe it's the very cold weather we have been experiencing and the way people dress because of it, but somehow funeral services seem to take on a more somber aspect in February. Even without the rain.

We're into the second month of the year, and in a couple of weeks it will be the first day of the Lunar New Year, which is an important date for much of the population on this planet, especially those of Chinese ancestry. There will be many festive gatherings, and we were invited to an early one last night. Many friends. Much laughter. Great fun.

And so it goes. Sad farewells in the forenoon, and happy affairs in the evening. Would that there were fewer of the former.

* * * * *

I've just begun to read Vikram Chandra's massive "Sacred Games" review here, a real page-turner of a crime story plus social and cultural study about the largest city on the Indian subcontinent.

Just finished "Empires of the Word" by Nicholas Ostler review here, a delightful history for anyone interested in languages and how they spread, adapt, and in some cases, become extinct. The author is a gifted linguist with a flair for telling a great story.