Evens and middles...

My annoyance at Kindle book pricing has about reached the boiling point, as the difference in price between a paper copy and a Kindle copy of quite a number of titles I am interested in buying has slimmed dramatically.

For example, John Sandford is one of my favorite authors. His Stolen Prey costs $15.98 in paper from Amazon, but only $14.99 for the Kindle edition. And the pre-order price for a paper copy of his upcoming Shock Wave is actually $3.86 cheaper than the Kindle edition.

Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot?

Keeping in mind that a Kindle edition has no resale value, I will have to simply wait until books I want to read come out in more affordable versions.

* * *I stopped by a small pet food shop on what is now commonly called "NASA Parkway" and saw, among other items, packages of plastic bags designed to aid in picking up dog feces. What caught my eye was the package labeling, which claimed that use of the product would reduce my pet's "carbon footprint." The mind boggles, as my dogs have never, ever used plastic bags to begin with.

* * *Back when our country had ongoing plans to send humans into space aboard US vehicles, the name of the main drag from I-45—past the Johnson Space Center—to Highway 146 in Seabrook was "NASA Road 1." It was certainly a direct name, if a bit awkwardly geeky. Of course, having a "Road 1" sounds an awful lot like you're planning on an eventual "Road 2," and so on, to accompany expansion, but the fact remains that the name has quietly been changed to the more neutral "NASA Parkway." Nothing more need be said.

* * *The current issue (Vol. 5, No. 2) of the Journal of Russian and East European Psychology hit my mailbox today. In checking to see they got my name right as translator, it would appear that, with the exception of the issue editor's foreword, I translated all the other material published in the book. (Regarding getting the name right, a book on art I translated a while ago actually misprinted my name, for which I was eventually grateful, as the post-translation editing was gruesomely awful.)

More things as they occur...