autumn distractions

I was reminded this weekend that my blog was still exhorting people to vote, nearly two weeks post-election (a brief huzzah! for the results, by the way--I'm not over-optimistic that all will improve, but as someone whose first vote was cast in 2000, this was my first happy election, the first time I voted and got to enjoy the results). I've had plenty on my mind since, but much of it has not been blog-worthy (or if it is, it's to closely related to work, which has involved a fair amount of Turkey/EU-related advocacy of late). And I've been swept back and forth between a sugar rush of busy activity, and a sort of listless hüzün. The latter has a way of producing text, of course, but it's not necessarily the kind I want to share here. I'm thinking about creating an alterative space for some of it; we'll see.

Anyway, in the meantime, some fragments of the last two weeks buzzing past: Saturday nights illuminated by West African jazz in Harlem, expensive but oh-so-tasty brunches at Perch, a history of nineteeth-century Delhi and an Ishiguro novel, the pro bono editing of the enviously brilliant work of some scholar-friends, red maple leaves, visits from Princetonians, superior fried bhindi, old photographs of Damascus, and an impossible search for a decent pair of brown leather boots.