22 February 2006

Oh, right. It's Wednesday already.

Time flies when you're researching walruses.

I'm not actually kidding there. That's how I've spent great chunks of my day: watching curling and hockey; writing a story called "Tusk and Skin"; researching walruses. I'm also reading Robert McGhee's The Last Imaginary Place: a Human History of the Arctic World. It has some of what I wanted and some stuff that just seems to skim over the surface. I suppose I'll keep picking up more books on the Inuit, the Saami, and the Siberian peoples. One book doesn't have to do everything, and some of the more unified view is helpful. It's just not quite...I don't know. Not quite there.

I got a form from one of the charities we supported last year, asking if I wanted to be listed in their annual report. I hemmed and hawed and finally decided on no: they list it by amount given, and I'm really not comfortable with that. It feels too showy. That's not why we do this, and if someone else is motivated by knowing that we gave $N, well...I think they need to reexamine their priorities. Still, it's the most political of the causes on our list, so it was more of a question than usual: would it detract from the giving not to have names attached to it? I'm not sure that it will. I don't know. Maybe we'll choose differently next year. Hard to say.

Back to The Mark of the Sea Serpent, and after that "Tusk and Skin." Which is not Tooth and Claw with walruses, in case anyone was wondering.