Exploring the Utility of Whimsey
Yogurt
Yogurt is easy to make. You heat up some milk, let it cool, stir in either yogurt starter or old yogurt, and then keep it in a very warm place for 4-8 hours. Easy. Done it plenty of times. I normally use a nice, round, 2 quart glass jar, but the last time I made yogurt both of mine were already in use. I dug out a square one of equal dimensions instead. It was only after stirring the starter into the cooled milk that I discovered the square jar didn’t fit in my round yogurt incubator (a discovery that brought with it a strong sensation of deja vu). But that’s fine, right? Thousands of generations of yogurt makers subsisted without electric incubators. I don’t have the hearth that these ancient crafters probably would have used, but I decided I would just warm the oven up a bit and put the jar in a heavy pot with boiling water. That should be close enough, right?
More ...Walden, Notes on
Preface
Was surprised how young Thoreau comes across as. And how privileged.
Foundation, Notes on the book series
Last Updated: 2026, May 1st
Foundation and the Individual
A few years ago I went through Project Gutenburg and read dozens and dozens of classic sci-fi short stories and novellas. I was surprised, on re-reading Foundation, how like it was to these. I remembered it as more modern novel - more convoluted. The thoughts and motives of the main characters more complicated. More full of suspense and questions. But the four stories in the first book are each dominated by a single, confident, and invariably correct protagonist. I couldn’t help being reminded of Murray Leinster and H. Beam Piper, especially the latter. The idea that the best and only way to rule was is tyranny, where the tyrant has the long-term good of the people at heart, seems to have been a common assumption in the 40s and 50s. The happy belief that men like this not only should arise, but could and would, is sprinkled all over these stories as well. In this world of openly inconsistent leaders, of movers and shakers with palpably short-term plans, such a belief is as comforting as it is naively frustrating. It also makes me think of Terry Pratchett’s infallible tyrant, Patrician Vetinari. And of course, to a lessor degree, of Captain Kirk and his spiritual successors. What do we encourage when we portray people as theoretically capable of leading? What do we encourage when we don’t?
2026 TBR & BDR
Last Updated: 2026, April 23rd
A rolling list of (some of ) the books I’ve read and plan to read in 2026. New books added to the top.
My goal this year is more fiction and non-fiction and fewer murders.