藍色情懷

 DID YOU KNOW?

No, an extremophile is not an enthusiast of extreme sports (though 「-phile」 does mean 「one who loves or has an affinity for」). Rather, extremophiles are microbes that thrive in environments once considered uninhabitable, from places with high levels of toxicity and radiation to boiling-hot deep-sea volcanoes to Antarctic ice sheets. Scientists have even created a new biological classification for some of these microbes: Archaea (from Greek archaios, meaning 「ancient」). These extremophiles might have a lot in common with the first organisms to appear on earth billions of years ago; if so, they can give us insight into the evolution of life on our planet.

Moe: My cleaning lady is a whiz on the computer.

Joe: You're lucky. Mine doesn't do Windows.

Have a happy New Year with the Women Who Do Too Much calendar! May this year be happy, healing, sweet, successful, and 「spot-on.」


A Victorian novel with a decidedly un-Victorian bent. Faber's novel is in many ways like a lost work of Dickens's: The sights and sounds of London are vivid, gritty, and intricately detailed. The cast of characters is as motley, the plot as gripping, and the length as impressive (it's 900-plus pages long). The subject, however—a prostitute's rise from squalor to security—gives it a contemporary bent. The result is 「an old-fashioned page turner」 (The Washington Post Book World) that transports the reader to another time and place. No wonder it was named a best book of the year by People, Entertainment Weekly, and the Chicago Tribune.

THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE, by Michel Faber (Harvest Books, 2003)

DETAILS
Find where each detail appears in the big picture.



Hint: Details are same size. Detail 1 is in the upper right.