Harry Potter - spoiler-free

Kerry and I finished Harry Potter and the Unbelievable Piles of Money on our way to West Virginia last weekend. (OK, we really finished it after arriving that night, but there were less than 10 pages to do at that point.) It was good, maybe the most twisty of the books yet. We like the way the series keeps growing through its characters. (All credit to J. K. Rowling for letting Harry become a whiny git in book 5, but thank heavens he's passed that phase.) So we're marking our calendars for a few years hence, when we'll re-read books 1-6 and be properly prepared for the conclusion of the series.

By the bye, the author's name rhymes with "bowling", not "howling". I've been botching it all along.

Unsettling Adam Smith

1. William is as passionate and insightful about commercial media as anyone I know.
2. He has worked in IT since undergrad and is now going to law school.

In light of (1) and (2), I'm having a hard time with the free market's efficient allocation of resources.

Natural Wonder

The Holler is blessed with a kind of firefly that neither Kerry nor I have seen elsewhere. The same size, color, and brightness as typical fireflies, these distinguish themselves with short, repeated flashes of light, like a strobe, and by flying and flashing to the very tops of our trees. They also swarm in great numbers well past sundown. Last night, we walked to a small wooded park in the neighborhood and saw a line of trees filled with these fireflies. It looked like a stadium full of people taking pictures. Or in my mind, always trying to find patterns, I could see moments of chaser lights around a marquee, or a flashing arrow ("We're Open!"). Most of all, though, it was simply an amazing sight, a wondrous sight that I would never have imagined.