Post 267

So the labor M-N was assisting on ended up lasting a good 24 hours. That means I was still parent-in-charge until midday Friday, which gave me an opportunity to catch part of The Price Is Right. Bob Barker, I read, is retiring next spring. Sad as that may be, what I saw on Friday makes me understand why.

First of all, apparently no one won on the entire episode I saw. They play 6 games, then the showcase showdown. I saw just the last game, then the showdown. You'd think it'd be hard to have both contestants lose the showdown, but they both went over. One guy bid $25,000 on a showcase that was mostly just new carpeting and some dining room furniture.

But the main reason I think Bob is stepping down is the big wheel. He's been doing this so long, he knows where it'll land when the person begins the spin. It's sad. He says, "Ok, you got 25 cents in your first spin, you need 75. And, oh, it's not going to come around again." "But Bob, I haven't let go of the wheel yet." "Yep, sorry, next!"

In other news, I gave up on Proust. I was attempting to read Proust for a reason I can't now recall, probably something relating to its being a classic. I tried three times and couldn't get past page 2. And since I'm going to be travelling this month, I don't want to have a 700 page book I can't get into with me.

So I got a collection of Alice Munro's short stories. So far, so good. I read one and a half stories yesterday, the first being "Royal Beating," and I think this is a keeper. I got Jonathan Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn" as a back-up.