Weekly Roundup: Presidents, Love Stories and Scotch

I’m thinking of doing professional-type posts during the week and personal-type ones on weekends. Will that stick? Probably not. But the Sunday Weekly Roundups will: it’s been a feature for a year, I can’t stop now.

Also, If I’ve talked about something elsewhere, I try not to be lazy and reuse it here. So if you catch me at it, call me on it. But that means these roundups will stay random. (You’ve been warned.) So here goes, because you don’t need either legs or jaws to type, and that’s lucky, because mine aren’t perfect today. It’s been seven weeks since I’ve sparred, there were only two guys and they were years ahead of me, I’ve been killing myself doing boot camp and Zumba and whatever else – but none of it changes that I just plain didn’t move out of the way fast enough, so I can’t chew or walk quite right. It’ll heal. Anyway, so not the point. On to the links. Short -  only three – but well padded.

• I thought I’d love this White House Tour with Jacqueline Kennedy on her restoration of it (which John never saw, it being finished during his trip to Dallas) (Via Gael ) – but made it only halfway, amazed by how annoyed I was by her. I never knew she spoke with that obnoxiously wispy, unplaceable accent of old film stars – ironically enough, it reminded me of Marilyn Monroe. And she really wasn’t that pretty. Hair enormous, eyebrows massive, eyes too widely set, nose large and bumpy, jaw of a linebacker. But most of all, she just seems fake. I was always head over heels for Camelot, but it’s surprising what photos miss.

• As Kevin puts it, social media is not a final destination. I love what it offers, but if all your reading is on a screen, I don’t understand you. There’s something vital about libraries and pages and paper. This week I’ve read In Her Shoes , Goodnight Nobody , and Freddy and Fredericka , and while none are buyers, I ended up liking each in its own way. Jennifer Weiner is the best of chick lit (and writes a great blog.) In Her Shoes had me frustrated, but her characters eventually became, if not relatable, sympathetic. Goodnight Nobody felt like a cross between chick lit and all the Mary Higgins Clark I read in high school. Freddy and Fredericka , I think I liked best – it was unexpected and took longer than I thought it ought to, but I liked its warped fairy-tale story and its funny little portrayal of love.

• Gary Vaynerchuk departs from wine to cover Scotch. In memory of my Papa, I watch.

Happy August. Four more weeks dodging heat and humidity till we get to my favorite season. Till then I’m going to go enjoy this beautiful gift of an afternoon.