music: Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Scored a three-record set of early Springsteen for cheap yesterday. Music of my youth. Ben Hamper had a great line years ago in Mother Jones to the effect that Bruce Springsteen was a working class hero to middle class suburban kids who weren’t members of the working class. That was me.

books: Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague. Full disclosure: Al Zelicoff is one of the smartest people I know, and also is very persuasive. And he’s been softening me up for a while in regards to the theme herein, which is that we need to think differently about how to watch out for the microbially unexpected. Plus he gave me the book for free. And wrote something really nice in it.

movies: Word Wars, a documentary about the really weird people who play scrabble. I mean really weird. Fun film.

rides: I don’t wanna make a big deal about this, but it is, to me, a big deal. Fifty-two days ago I had my knee cut open in an attempt to repair damage caused in a basketball game 18 years ago. I love to ride my bike, and for the last 52 days I have been unable to. I’ve been able to pedal on an indoor trainer. That’s exercise, but it’s not riding my bike. Today there was wind in my face, and the most beautiful row of sunflowers along the ditch in the far south valley, and a moment when it just seemed right to pop the chain over onto the big ring and go.