We get to know the Belsey family. Howard is a professor of art history at Wellington College and his wife, Kiki, is a nurse. They’ve been married almost 30 years and have 3 kids, Jerome, Zora, and Levi. We also learn of the Kipps family. Monty Kipps is an academic rival of Howard Belsey and when he gets a job at the same university Howard teaches in, their rivalry takes a new turn.

I was surprised to have an intense dislike for a majority of the characters in this book but that didn’t take away how interesting they were. Howard cheated on his wife and tried to hide it in all sorts of ridiculous ways. I found Jerome to be, for lack of a better term, a wienie (read about the short lived affair of him and Victoria) and Zora to be brash and self-centered. Who writes 34 emails to their professor?!?!  I also found Monty Kipps to be an obnoxious, pigheaded character and Victoria’s portrayal as a Lolita bothered me. I did love the unsympathetic manner that Zadie Smith wrote these professors and their offspring. Both of these professors committed heinous acts and they both get found out, which I loved. Their prestigious positions didn’t save them from the consequences of their actions.

I loved the vivid descriptions of London and Wellington, and the opposition of the two opposing worlds in Boston, the Wellington University world and the world of the Boston streets, which Levi has chosen to immerse himself in. I found the ending to be a bit unnecessary, if it would have ended 10-15 pages earlier, that would have been better. Other than that minor complaint, I loved the book. The EW list has not led me wrong yet : )

Gettting back to these games, let’s talk about the good stuff:

1. Michael Phelp’s historic 8 medals; he is awesome in the pool and seems like he’s a pretty awesome guy out of the pool. The minute they showed him playing with his dog, he had me.

2. The US womens sweep in sabre fencing; great way to start off the Olympics.

3. James Blake defeating Roger Federer in mens singles.

4. The US mens gymnastics team taking the bronze medal in team competition

5. Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson going 1-2 in the womens all-around competition, balance beam (except in reverse order), Liukin’s performance in uneven bars (got screwed out of a gold medal IMO) and their 2-3 performances in floor exercise.

6. Shalene Flanagan taking the bronze medal in the womens 10,000 m. This race is the territory of Ethiopians, it’s nice to see an American do well in the long distance races.

7. Oksana Chusotivina grabbing a silver medal for Germany in the womens vault competition. She used to compete for Russia and moved to Germany when her son was discovered to have leukemia. Her son is in remission and, btw, she’s 33 years old, how freakin’ awesome is it to see her compete with women half her age?

The Disappointments of the Summer Games (so far)

1. Tyson Gay not making it to the finals of the mens 100m; i guess his injury was more serious than initially thought.

2. James Blake losing to Fernando Gonzales in the semi-finals of the mens’ tennis.

3. Bernard Lagat failing to make it to the finals of the 1500m, quite a shock!

4. The whole controversy with the Chinese girl singers

I’m sure there are more disappointments but I can’t think of them now. There are 4 more days left and then 4 more years until the London Olympics…

After almost 3 days with short hair, I already have a list of advantages of having short hair over longer hair:

1. Less prep time in the morning and before going out.

2. Running with short hair is a pleasure, I feel so much lighter.

3. The looks of surprise on the faces of my family and friends when they see my haircut for the first time. This has been a nice little boost to my ego although I worry that I might have the first signs of ‘big-head syndrome”.

4. Along the same vein of #3, I’ve had people tell me that I look older, mature, and more sophisticated. Instead of people telling me that I look 21, 20, or even 18, I might get to hear that I look 23 or 24 instead.

5. Letting go of old thoughts and making room for new positive thoughts. Previously, I backed off of getting a major haircut because I didn’t think I would look good with short hair. I’ve always had long hair and the shortest I ever had was shoulder-length hair. This makes me look back on negative thoughts I’ve had in my life and might still have and gives me some hope that it is never too late to change for the better.

Last week was rough for a few American politicians. Let’s start with Kwame Kilpatrick, the mayor of Detroit. At the beginning of this year, he was charged with perjury along with his former chief of staff, and now he has these accusations to contend with as well.

Now we move on to John Edwards. When the National Enquirer came out with a story of him having an affair, I instantly thought it was false. Who would take a tabloid paper seriously? It turns out that the story is true. What a disappointing story, I remember when the whole Clinton/Monica affair took place and that took years for that whole story to finish. Now the Democrats have to deal with the aftermath of another affair. Geez, can’t any male politician keep it in his pants anymore?!?!

Speaking of situations that the American government could have done a better job with, read this article about the closing of a FEMA trailer park in Baton Rouge. It’s been almost 3 years since Hurricane Katrina and it’s heartbreaking to realize that some people in Louisiana are struggling to survive.

On the lighter side, read about a 50-something lady who is bringing the art of belly-dancing to the suburbs of Westchester. 

The Olympics start in 4 days, and the New York area has a substantial group of athletes representing in a variety of sports from swimming to soccer. You can find out more if you click here.

This week’s Modern Love story is written by a young woman, now married with kids, who got tattoos after breakups and what these tattoos meant to her then and what they mean to her now.

More people in the NY/NJ area are using public transportation and carpools, this story illustrates the lengths that people will go to in order to save a buck or two. I consider myself very lucky, I walk to work everyday except in cases of inclement weather, then I go on the bus. After reading this story, you better believe I will not be giving up my job anytime soon without a fight. There’s also a story on the increase of people who ride their bikes to work.