Commonplace Book, pg. 2
Letter No. 123: Includes paleolithic emotions, some woozy ideas about how to make pictures, and a history lesson for those younger than Dr Essai, which will be just about everybody.
Apparently, the urge to climb could not be knocked out of me
Letter No. 122: Includes risking prosecution in Singapore, a mountaineering dog, and a solitary boy in a tree.
Book report for August 2025
Letter No. 121: Includes disparagement of a canonical author, a subtle knife, and the only book I’ve ever read about fashion.
Commonplace Book, pg. 1
Letter No. 120: In which Dr Essai experiments with a new sort of transmission; includes batshit physics, Hannah Arendt, and hints of desperation.
Book report for July 2025
Letter No. 119: Includes spies, spies, and damned spies; Iceland when travel there was really fun; and stories worthy of slow reading.
No thinking, please, we’re a university, and besides, what good is it?
Letter No. 118: Includes the usual grousing, a writer named Zena, and a jaundiced view of higher education, just in time for back to school.
Revealed! Clandestine humor at The Gray Lady!
Letter No. 117: Includes ferocious teeth, a terrifying mutant predator, and much concern about language.
Book report for June 2025
Letter No. 116: Includes more completed reads than usual, one book about a crow and another about horses, and impenetrable verse.
Because…puffins
Letter 115: Entirely given over to some insufferably cute images from Dr Essai’s recent excursion to Iceland.
Book report for May 2025
Letter No. 114: Dr Essai returns after an unplanned hiatus due to various distractions and misfortunes.
