The Surge

It’s been a very quiet month here at darrelplant.com. I know. I haven’t really had a lot to say on politics except in reaction to things, and I usually leave those in comments at other sites and blogs. I fire up Twitter only every couple of days, mostly just to see what other people are up to, although I did have a brief exchange with iPhone author @jeff_lamarche the other day about 1970s editions of Dungeons & Dragons boxed sets. And I’ve been checking in on Facebook to keep in touch with Director-Xtra-developer-turned-poker-pro Tomer Berda as he’s been playing in the European Poker Tour events in Estonia and Portugal this month.

But the main reason the blog’s been so quiet is that all of a sudden I have a handful of projects. Not just any projects but Director projects. And just to crank the bizarre to 11, they’re Director 8.5 projects. Technically, I guess that would be cranking the bizarre back from 11 (or 11.5). I’ve even had to buy a couple of Xtras (from Tomer, natch) for the first time in seven years.

I’m not chalking this up to some resurgence in Director, but the work is certainly welcome after several years of drought.

The Internet Did It

The Huffington Post featured a piece yesterday consisting of short essays on the future of literary reviews in the world of the internet by the editors of journals ranging from Agni to The Yale Review. I guess that’s an important topic now that the web’s been around for more than fifteen years. Always good to mull these things over.

For my own part, of course, I’m proud to say that the internet had nothing to do with the demise of my own review. Plant’s Review of Books was able to collapse entirely without me saying “The computers did it!” or “Nobody reads any more!” 100% human failure. I take the rap.

Bimbo Eruption

Grupo Bimbo Logo

Food 4 Less still has the durian fruit in their produce section. While Barbara and I were shopping there today I noticed another less exotic though still amusing import.

When we were in Mexico a couple of years back, I saw the Bimbo bakeries logo everywhere on signs, trucks, and shops. We got a bit of a chuckle remembering Barbara’s research a couple decades back to demolish an opposing attorney’s argument claiming that “bimbo” wasn’t really a derogatory term. I guess it’s a good thing he hadn’t spent much time in Spain or Mexico or he’d have claimed it just meant “bread”.

We wondered at the time how the brand would fare in the US, little knowing that Bimbo was already the corporate owner of well-known US brands like Orowheat, Entenmann’s, and Boboli. And now you can get your Bimbo bread here in Portland.