The Literary Salon

A free salon wherein patrons and passers-by may view or contribute ideas on literary and generally intellectual matters. The blog will strive to maintain its commitment to wit, humour and perspicuous analysis.

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Location: Toronto, now Ottawa, Ont, Canada

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Update from Ottawa

In this edition:

-the latest from Ottawa
-in praise of Edith Hamilton
-Paris Hilton

After a fairly predictable journey which involved some heavy lifting (3 suitcases bursting at the seams, a laptop and a heavy carry-on), I arrived at my new home in the Sandy Hill area of Ottawa. I'm minutes away from campus and, to boot, there's an excellent used book store about 2 minutes away called Benjamin Books. In fact, I bought a volume there today, The Poetical Works of Gray and Collins, a 1961 Oxford hardcover in excellent condition for 8.50 CDN. The shop has some rare and obscure items at very reasonable prices (I imagine rent is lower than downtown Toronto, though).
I've bought some basic supplies, including some basic hermit food. My neighbour and her boyfriend are nice, and he just recently helped me to hook up to the outside world through the net, so I offered him a glass of Beaujolais, a wine that sounds better than it is.

I was reading an old anthology of Greek plays last night, and in it I read Edith Hamilton's pithy and simple commentary to Prometheus Bound, a play I'm not crazy about. Her commentary is only three pages long, but it's the best criticism I've read in some time, to say nothing of its concision.
In other academic news, I will pop by the department early tomorrow (5 minutes before they open should do the trick) to register, etc, and hopefully meet the other big time prof in my area I did not get a chance to meet.

My room came with a free TV, an old analog left by the previous tenant. Of course I refuse to pay for cable, so I receive CTV and CBC (Radio Canada, en francais). I also pick up Global but it’s too fuzzy.
Anyway, on CTV, I heard that Paris Hilton’s “album” has a successful single, but the CD itself is doing terribly, selling only 75,000 copies. The number would look impressive if it were my CD, but those are dreadful numbers for a well known celebrity who is well known for, in Wilde’s words, the art of doing absolutely nothing. If you ask me, 75,000 copies is impressive for someone who is not a musician.

Oh yes, the landlord came by today so I gave him my first payment. It's the first time I've used a cheque. Sniff. :)

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

sounds like you're settling in! when is your first day of class?

6:38 a.m.  
Blogger Pious Labours said...

Class don't begin until September 7 or 6, and there's a welcome day for us incoming PhDs on the 5th. Right now, I'm off to the office to register, etc, and Igotta go back at around noon for "training days." I don't even know what my Assistantship is, so I don't see the point :)

10:24 a.m.  

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