16 Sept 96 
 
Stop this girl before she buys books again! aaaaaaaaaaaaagh! 
 
So I bought about 9 books this weekend, I promise I couldn't help  
myself.  First was on Saturday, I started out at Forbidden Planet, buying  
some frivolous mags, and then I headed on to The Strand, supposedly the  
largest used book store in the world.  How could I resist?  I found out  
that one can get almost any new hardcover book for half price there --  
you just need to know the author's name.  They get the new books that  
publishers send to book reviewers; the reviewers generally don't want the  
books and they have to go somewhere.  So this is the place to go.  One of  
the books I bought was _1001 Things Everyone should know about the  
South_, and I've read most of it already.  It's kinda cute. 
 
Then on Sunday I went to Barnes & Noble, a bad idea at any time, I know.   
What I want to know is why B&N have two stores within 4 blocks of each  
other off of Broadway...hmmm?  I had a legitimate reason for going there:  
Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times Crossword Puzzle and former  
editor of GAMES magazine, was there for a book signing and he did some  
puzzle contests.  One of the contests was a crossword contest with an  
upcoming _Friday_ crossword.  For those not in the know, the easiest  
crosswords are on Monday, and they get progressively more difficult as  
the weeks go on, finally culminating in the gargantuan Sunday Crossword  
Puzzle.  I tried a Sunday one before.  I think I got twenty words filled  
in.  Anyway, let's just say Mary didn't win this one.  Here is where I  
picked up 4 more books. 
 
Enough with the book sagas!  I did some other stuff this weekend as well  
-- Saturday evening I went to Mass in the Byzantine rite.  That was  
different; quite a bit of chanting and hard on the feet.  But I do love  
any ritual involving incense...mmmmmmm.  Sunday morning I went to the  
Picasso and Portraiture exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).  A  
little costly, even with the student discount (9 bucks), but very  
wothwhile.  (an aside, I'm still getting to all this by spawning xterms  
from a library computer running netscape.  They really should put more  
protections in, I could read their mail & stuff...)  Most people don't  
realize that for most of his life, Picasso painted in a neoclassical  
style as well as his distinctive cubist style.  He was a very prolific  
artist, and much of what he spawned was very good.  Unlike Andy Warhol. 
 
Speaking of which, I got to see one of his many Marilyn prints, as well  
as some Roy Lichtenstein, and other junk.  But the people at MoMA are  
really smart: they put all the same type of work in one room.  So in one  
room was all the monolithic monochromatic pieces.  Yes, there is some  
kind of mental tranquility evoked by 3 white canvases with a small border  
of color, but I wouldn't pay thousanda for it.  Dali and Magritte are  
displayed in the same room.  I got to see the Persistence of Memory -- I  
never realized it was so _small_.  Wyeth, O'Keefe, and Hopper had  
paintings in the same room.  Though the set-up isn't terribly  
imaginative, I'm glad they did it that way.  Much more harmonious. 
 
Finally, on the tippy-top floor is a gallery devoted to industrial and  
graphic design.  There are very modern-looking posters from the 1890's  
and 1910's as well as some neat couches and light fixtures.   
 
That's it.