NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and such other fine retailers as your local independent bookseller – if you ask them to order it! 
Also makes a fine addition to your local public library, if you ask them to order it; it’s already available as an e-book on the Libby and Hoopla library apps/websites. My personal gratitude included at no extra cost!
Tag: books
My first best friends.
Another Roadside Promotion
AND IF THE earlier Prosatio Silban news isn’t thrilling enough (well, for me at least), I’m scheduled to talk about him on KSVY this coming Tuesday, May 12th, at 10:40 a.m. during Cat Smith’s “Hollywood and West Napa” show. From outside the range of Sonoma Valley’s 91.3FM station, find us at http://ksvy.org – just click the “Listen Now” button, and “Bob” will be your uncle!
The Cook For Any Price: Now With Art!
JUST A QUICK NOTE to announce that, thanks to the talents of locally famous Sonoma artist and musician Jon Shannon Williams, my e-books now have handsome new covers – which (I strongly believe) are reminiscent of The Brothers Hildebrandt (Google same if you weren’t a Lord of the Rings fan in the 1970s). Please check him/them out and bask in the glow!
Ageless Speech
SPEAKING OF H.P. LOVECRAFT, as I was in the prior post, it’s easy to dismiss him for what some have called his “overly purple prose.” He can, I admit, become extremely flowery at times, but as mentioned here and elsewhere, the man was a true poet at heart: his writing is evocative, and justly so – its literary power is derived from the consent of the reader to simply and happily wallow in it. By way of illustration, I offer the following sonnet from a collection of same on weird topics titled Fungi from Yuggoth. It speaks to me, and deeply; I hope it does the same for you.
XXXVI. Continuity
There is in certain ancient things a trace
Of some dim essence—more than form or weight;
A tenuous aether, indeterminate,
Yet linked with all the laws of time and space.
A faint, veiled sign of continuities
That outward eyes can never quite descry;
Of locked dimensions harbouring years gone by,
And out of reach except for hidden keys.
It moves me most when slanting sunbeams glow
On old farm buildings set against a hill,
And paint with life the shapes which linger still
From centuries less a dream than this we know.
In that strange light I feel I am not far
From the fixt mass whose sides the ages are.
Who Knows?
“Was I tottering on the brink of cosmic horrors beyond man’s power to bear?”
— H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Reading Assignment
WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW, stop – and order from your favorite bookseller Liel Leibovitz’ How the Talmud Can Change Your Life (Surprisingly Modern Advice from a Very Old Book). It’s a breakneck-speed, 272-page survey of Jewish history, bringing to life the key sages and lively times of the Talmud like never before, with illustrations drawn from Aldrich Ames and Billie Holiday and Weight Watchers and the Dewey Decimal System. I read it in three days, only grudgingly taking time for sleep and meals; it’s mildly profane and very learned and joyful and engaging and funny and sweeping and heartbreaking and really, really, real. You owe it to yourself, and to your understanding of Judaism, to read this book.
Seriously. Do it now.
5 Thoughts: Extended Identity
0. IT TAKES A PROTRACTED MOVE to realize how much of one’s sense of self is tied up in one’s Stuff.
1. After 26 years within the same walls, circumstances – specifics are unimportant – have forced us to find other lodgings. But the same circumstances have dictated that our upcoming relocation actually necessitated packing our Stuff some months ago. Thus, we have spent a long time in box-cramped quarters with all but a sparse assembly of representative possessions.
We have spent a long time in box-cramped quarters with all but a sparse assembly of representative possessions.
2. This decidedly isn’t a complaint: at least I still have all my Stuff. Some of my friends lost all theirs to different iterations of NorCal’s sporadic and frightening wildfires, including one friend who was iterated twice. (He likes to say that all his Stuff “overheated.”) And there are refugees around the world whose circumstances have included war, flood, famine, earthquake… I won’t belabor that point, because it’s not the one I’m addressing. What I want to say is something quite else: it’s very disorienting to live without what reminds me of who I am – and which embodies my memory and identity.
3. Chiefly: books.
4. As a student and teacher in our local Jewish community, books are essential not only to my work, but also to my sense of self. Although we all live in a digital Golden Age of Jewish study, thanks in part to Sefaria and My Jewish Learning and the Academic Torah Institute, all my sixty-three years of curiosity-reflexes are geared toward finding answers (as well as more interesting questions) by laying hands on and flipping through books.
5. It’s funny how temporary deprivation can heighten one’s experience of reality, much as the Yom Kippur fast can reveal one’s relationship with food. Before we packed my library, I used to think of books as my friends. Now I think of them as part of my soul. What of your Stuff reminds you of who you are? And: why?
Welcome To An All-Text, AI-Free Zone!
DEAR PATIENT READER (and anyone else who’s happened by),
Now that you’ve arrived, there are three things to know:
1. If you’re eager to meet Prosatio Silban, the self-defrocked holyman in a fantastic land who teases out a meager but honest living as a mercenary cook, allow me to introduce you!
2. You may also/instead browse at leisure a mellow mix of rusty recollections, offbeat observations, friendly particularism, tasty recipes, unpretentious poetry, entertaining quotes, recreational science, and wry spirituality.
3. Whichever you choose – please enjoy!
Thank you for your patronage,
First Graf (rather, Line): The Lord of the Rings
OF THE 90% PETER JACKSON got right in his 11-hour and 22-minute adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s best-beloved work – the lush landscapes, the Balrog, Elves, the Nazgul, Sauron, Orcs and Uruk-hai, Gollum, Ents, hobbits (MY GHAWD! THE HOBBITS!!!), the Ring, Grima, the very different cultures and props and sets and cities and overall “look” – he got right in abundance.
But that other 10% … oy.
Read the actual books and you’ll discover that Aragorn is not a timid wimp, Gimli is not comic relief, Arwen isn’t an avenging angel, Saruman and Gandalf never duked it out with magic staves, Faramir didn’t try to bring the Ring to his father, the dialogue is more formal and less modern (except for the rustic hobbits), there’s a wonderful character named Tom Bombadil, and the book features a single climax instead of three simultaneous ones. And that well-traveled literary road begins, quite simply, like this:
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.
Where Are You Most You?
IN CARLOS CASTANEDA’S EPIC FANTASY, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, his titular shaman Don Juan Matus describes “places of power” — those locations where we can experience deep wisdom and indomitable purpose. No two are the same for everyone, and when you find yours, it’s best to stake it out and pay attention.
In my case, it’s the kitchen.
Our kitchen is a small one, measuring roughly 7’x9′ – a mere 63 square feet. (It’s also and actually the model for the inside of Prosatio Silban’s galleywagon.) That cozy space contains a refrigerator/freezer, double sink, drain rack, electric stove/oven, toaster, four drawers, and a trio of small counters with seven cabinets above and three below (not counting the one under the sink). In it are all things necessary for providing and consuming tasty fare: knives, pots, pans, dishes, tableware, pantry goods, raw ingredients, assorted seasonings, and a handful of small appliances and wall-hung utensils. In it I have prepared breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, holiday feasts, and endless cups of tea. After a quarter-century of daily use, I know where everything is and should be, and I daresay I could find it all in the dark The size doesn’t bother me – it’s where I learned to cook, and I don’t know any other. (Besides – tight-space discipline is good for the soul.)
Perhaps most important of all is the boombox, either tuned to our hidden gem of a local radio station or filling the savory-scented air with background music from the CDs and cassettes stored atop the refrigerator. (I have occasionally been known to spend more time and energy selecting appropriate music than making the meal or washing the dishes that the music is supposed to accompany.) Few things can better motivate good cookery than listening to or singing along with the right tunes. Often, I will prop a book on the counter beside the stove while whatever’s cooking is cooking, standing a studious watch until the timer goes off.
Our kitchen is one of the two or three places I feel most like myself. What are yours?
“Room 101 Amusement Park”
RELAXING IN PUBLIC CAN SOMETIMES bring unexpected consequences.
Seated in the Walnut Creek BART station in the spring of 1980, I was reading my well-thumbed copy of 1984. So engrossed was I in Orwell’s pessimistic prose that I didn’t hear the man approach.
“You’re only reading this NOW!?” he demanded in an outraged bellow.
His intensity belied his nonchalant appearance: mid-30s, cleanshaven, plaid shirt, blue jeans, loafers. Although he seemed a normal human (for some values of the words “normal” and “human”), it also seemed best not to provoke him.
“No,” I replied with calm sincerity. “I’ve read it a couple of times.”
His blue eyes speared mine with an emphatic glare.
“Good!” he declared, and stalked off toward the escalator.
I guess it pays to be polite.
Best Advice Ever
LAUGH. SEE?”
— J.R. “Bob” Dobbs