Popemobile, picnics, Styx, book club, NOLA

I want to talk about a few things today and don't feel particularly focused.

1. First, the Pope's outta town, which I comment on only because I don't have an excuse to insert the word "popemobile" into sentences any more. I liked this one from the NYT coverage of yesterday's Mass:

At the new Nationals Stadium, with a gorgeous view of the Capitol and Potomac, the outdoor mass combined the spiritual with the spectacular: Some 46,000 people waved Vatican flags and shed tears when Pope Benedict arrived in his transparent popemobile, in a ball-field setting complete with sausage and $20 souvenir pope hats.

(I'm pretty sure the story has an error though: doesn't the new stadium look out on the Anacostia, not the Potomac?)

2. I just had a picnic on a grassy knoll with coworkers, which means I just had a dejeuner sur l'herbe. It's beautiful outside, and I made a dandelion chain necklace for the first time in about 12? years. Oh, to be 10.

3. I like this review of Jason Segel's new movie because it references one of my favorite Freaks and Geeks moments.

4. I finished the new Jhumpa Lahiri book, Unaccustomed Earth, last night. While I can't help but feel that she keeps writing about the same thing (and there's so much cheating!), I thoroughly enjoy reading her stories. It all feels wonderfully alive, and I was sad to be done (the ending itself's also just sad). I could get all English major here, but I don't have the book with me to cite properly, so I'll leave it brief: read it. The book I finished right before it was similarly vibrant, and author Kiran Desai has a knack for finding perfect, inventive adjectives. I am going to keep with the general author theme and read The God of Small Things next.

5. I will not be blogging next Monday and Tuesday because I will be in Louisiana doing stuff like this. It's going to be great.