Over at Vary the Line: James Wright, orangette, and radishes

My subscription to Martha Stewart Living is free (aka, my reward for participating in a focus group), and it's a recurring source of hilarity. No matter how fussy or "out there" or other variations of PITA I'm being around the folks who have to put up with me, I can always turn to MSL and reassure myself that there are other people even more fussy and over-the-top. In a recent issue, for instance, Martha casually notes that she has "three dogs, five cats, and 22 canaries. So it's important to be organized" (in an item about creating a storage system for pet food). Elsewhere in the issue, there's a feature of a Maine home for which the owner sculpted ceramic dog -- using a fettucine maker to replicate the hair of the shih tzu, and a garlic press for the fur of its companion.

(To be clear, I'm laughing at and admiring of these. My idea of relaxing last night was to make vegetable stock and ginger-lentil stew, and to tuck the results into my fridge in little plastic tubs and large Mason jars. My stack of pebbles inside my glass chateau, let me show you them.)

Also from the pile of clippings: pianist Jeremy Denk on re-studying Bach: "I get real pleasure out of writing in a really good fingering. It is like relearning the piece, and it makes you not take any note for granted."

And from Hentoff's At the Jazz Band Ball:

Off the stand, Duke was often writing -- or hearing in his head what he'd later work out on the piano. ...In his hospital bed, he was still composing; and that spring [he died May 24], he sent out Christmas cards. (I was privileged to get one of them.) Duke was always planning ahead -- as in his music.