pittsburgh

i meant to post something about this yesterday, but was tired and cranky and it slipped my mind. i just wanted to note my sadness over pittsburgh mayor bobby o'connor's diagnosis with a rare form of cancer; he started treatments today, the same day the all-star game is being played in pittsburgh. o'connor is actually a friend of my parents' so this news was especially heartbreaking. my dad tells me that less than 50 cases of this kind of lymphoma are diagnosed a year, so it's hard to get good data on prognoses. my thoughts and prayers are with him and the city right now.

i'd been dithering on what book to read next--somehow i have a big stack, and several are epic-length--but now i think it's time for a reread of annie dillard's homage to pittsburgh, an american childhood.