Today I’m answering five questions for the Friday Five. These are all about something that was last.
- Who was the last person you called? The last person I called on the phone would be my mother. I planned to send her flowers for her birthday, but something in a group text made me think she had decided to go visit my sister, and I wanted to be sure she would be home before I arranged for the floral delivery. As it turned out, I misunderstood; my sister is visiting my mom this week, not the other way around. So I had the flowers sent, and she loves them.
- What was the last book you read? I recently finished a collection of essays and other short works from one of my favorite authors, Ursula K. Le Guin. The book is called Words Are My Matter. I especially liked her discussions of the publishing industry, particularly the problems caused by the fragmentation of fiction into more and more specialized genres. Some of her book reviews that made me want to rush out and buy the books. And I loved her journal entries from a week she spent at a heavenly writer’s retreat in the Pacific Northwest.
- What was the last television program you watched? Seaside Hotel (Badehotellet). My husband and I are working our way through this excellent Danish series, and are currently on Season Four, which is set in the summer of 1931.
- What was the last food you ate before reading this? A molasses cookie from the Dairy Godmother. And it was amazing.
- What was the last piece of music you listened to? A chamber piece my son wrote, called “Kaleidoscope.” I came across the file in my computer. He wrote it when he was 16, and it’s still among his best work. Here it is, below, as performed by the Worcestershire Chamber Music Society at the Boston Conservatory of Berklee College of Music. Click on the video to see the performance; my son takes a bow at the end.
The Petrini Page 