Today's Reading, Vol. 2

1) Scads of bargaining-related documents. I feel more than ready to purchase a used car. Or negotiate a a frillion-dollar raise.

2) My union's new blog. Not much reading involved here, but please note my bold taming of technology in the name of labor solidarity.

3) "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," Christopher Marlowe. I memorized this on my own in sixth grade. Yes, I was an unpopular nerd who read her grandmother's college English textbooks. But look where I am now: writing about it on a semi-anonymous blog. That no-one reads.

4) "To His Coy Mistress," Andrew Marvell. If you don't like this poem, you don't deserve to live. The last six lines alone should make you weep for the inadequacy of every lusty proposition you've ever delivered, or received:

Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life;
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Other projects: Greek-Style Potatoes with Lemon and Thyme, from A New Way to Cook, by Sally Schneider (Artisan, 2001); Honey-Glazed Carrots with Lemon and Thyme, from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (2005).