observations

I am enjoying a bottle of Hefeweizen from Gordon Biersch, a local brewery, when I notice that the label describes the beer as being full of "citrus, bubble gum, clove, and banana" flavors.

I stop and imagine what it would be like to mix those ingredients together in a bowl and dip a spoon into it.

Gak. I am no longer enjoying my bottle of Hefeweizen.

~ ~ ~

Alain de Botton's The Architecture of Happiness is quite good. It's a look at the buildings and styles that have inspired us throughout history, woven into a convincing explanation of what that all means about our own beliefs and longings as humans.

However, I'm noticing a certain undercurrent in de Botton's similes and asides that makes me wonder if the author's home life wasn't on a, uh, solid foundation at the time he was writing the book...

P.12: People "...have imagined living in unattainably expensive houses pictured in magazines and then felt sad, as one does upon passing an attractive stranger in the street."

P.22: "We may need to have made an indelible mark on our lives, to have married the wrong person, pursued an unfulfilling career into middle age or lost a loved one before architecture can begin to have any perceptible impact on us..."

P.182: "Over generations, these codes prevented architects from using their imaginations; they hand-cuffed them to a narrow palette of acceptable materials and forms, and, like the institution of marriage, restricted choice in the name of delivering the satisfactions of restraint."