Kay Thompson’s infamous Eloise lives on in a newly published book “Eloise Takes a Bawth.” Thompson had just about finished the book in the late 1960s but decided not to have it printed. She also, reportedly in “a dramatic fit of pique”, decided that none of the Eloise books except for the first one should be in print. Her estate has since decided otherwise and reissued them all. The “Bawth” text has been reworked and original illustrator Hilary Knight has redone the drawings as well. Also, Julie Andrews will be portraying Eloise’s Nanny in two movies for ABC-TV/Disney. As you certainly remember, Andrews has already taken on incorrigible children for Disney before.

Wasn’t it just October? What happened to November? The passing of time has become ridiculously fast for me, and it’s most distressing that our perception of time goes faster and faster the closer we get to the end of our lives. I had a digital clock with a seconds display on it when I was a child, and I remember watching a second go by and thinking that it was a pretty long span of time. Now I watch the second hand on my analog clock swoop around with the tiniest of pauses, and I wonder how it will look after another thirty years goes by. Scientists don’t need to make me live forever, I just want my childlike perception of time back.

Michael “Mickey” Bookspan was 24 when he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra and he went on to perform under the baton of three successive music directors. Holder of the principal percussionist position, he died in September at age 73. The search is now on for a replacement for the coveted position, filling the shoes of “arguably the principal percussionist in the greatest orchestra percussion section there ever was.” First they’ll go through resumes (due this week), then there will be auditions in February. The final few candidates will likely be asked to play for a few weeks with the orchestra to test their fit with the section. They’re not doing much publicity to recruit candidates; they don’t need to. As one percussionist said “Jobs like this open up once every 10 to 15 years.”

Arriving to prop up my continued pondering of the “scan all your documents into a searchable database” concept, Microsoft is working on a database to hold your life memories. The MyLifeBits project is a “lifestore” as envisioned by Vannevar Bush. Microsoft’s prototype is storing emails, online purchases, phone conversations and meetings, and could potentially store everything you ever look at or hear. Imagine an even more futuristic device that would allow your brain to recall the taste of that $200 bottle of wine you once splurged on, or the feeling you had when you first fell in love. For now, though, keyword and date indexing will allow you to supplement your perhaps faulty (but sometimes rosier) memories of correspondence, image, and text information. (via eatonweb)

Happy Thanksgiving! Back on Monday.

Female turkey suffrage! OK, not quite, but this year’s presidential turkey pardon was the first one to grant a stuffing-free life to a female turkey. Unaccustomed to the gender change, President Bush referred to Katie as “he” for his first few impromptu remarks until he got to his written speech. Katie and male alternate turkey, Zach, will join last year’s pardoned turkeys at a farm. All previously pardoned turkeys have gone on to those turkey-safe woods in the sky.

Here’s a site for the tea connoisseur, 763 tea caddies collected by a Czech Republic resident. What? Your tea comes in a bottle with a “Snapple” label? Maybe you’d prefer a related site, World of Napkins, selections from a collection of over 13,000. That’s a lot of napkins. (via Coudal Partners)

Very nifty: a book design weblog. Most people don’t think about how books get to look they way they do, but there’s a designer behind the choice of fonts, layouts, cover art, author name placement, and all those other elements that can help convince us to pick up a book and keep on reading. (via Typographica)

Expensive sparkly ice will be coming from Canada soon as high-class jeweler Tiffany & Co. begins production early next year on diamonds from the Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories. Tiffany used to get their diamonds the old-fashioned way by buying cut stones at the diamond markets in Antwerp, Tel Aviv and New York (most likely funding DeBeers’ hefty cartel in the process). But with the bad press of African conflict diamonds and also their wish to control more of their jewelry manufacturing process, Tiffany has invested instead in Canada’s mining operations. Not to be left out in the cold, so to speak, DeBeers also has invested in a Canadian diamond mine, but production won’t begin until 2006 because of permitting delays. The negative publicity about conflict diamonds has certainly made an impact.

Moved by my plea for fall apples, someone sent me information about the Apple Hill Growers Association. It’s a group of ranches out near Placerville, California who banded together to market their apples. Now they also have wineries and Christmas tree growers in their ranks. (thanks Melissa!)