Nobel Update and Life Update

A quick life update.

I spent the past weekend in Boston, up from CT, where I work. The point was to celebrate Thanksgiving, albeit early. For actual Thanksgiving I'll be in Ithaca, surrounded by cold and grey.

My family is split, and has been as long as I can remember. In Singapore I had to make Thanksgiving dinner on my own, with a surrogate family of expat friends and acquaintances. Also on that day my long-term girlfriend broke up with me.

Last thanksgiving I was seeing someone, but that ended in June. It's now been about two months since I've seriously been seeing anyone. The interval has, however, provided dating.

Dating sucks. Due to the 80 hour a week commitment of my job, I long ago took the millennial route with an online profile. So here are the dates I've had so far this fall:

The one where she told me she didn't like politics and generally would be considered center-right, because she hates Obama.

The one where after getting coffee I offered to walk her home, only to find it was 45 minutes, and then she said she wanted to remain Platonic.

The one where it went well, and we kept rescheduling a second date, and then she cancelled last minute, telling me her place burned down, and did not reschedule further.

The one where it went really well, and after a really nice date she messaged me the next date saying she liked me and unfortunately she can't date anyone right now, and deleted her profile.

So I'm not particularly optimistic about this Thursday's date, if it happens, but hey - the dates are going better each time, even if the reactions are also getting more ridiculous as a consequence.

Regardless, this past weekend was filled with turkey and mashed potatoes, stuffing and pie. It was good. I'm getting better at scrabble as well. Maybe I need to give dating a break and focus on food instead - that's where I can find real happiness.

Or maybe not.

In Other News:

Two-plus years ago I listed the living Nobel laureates, and their ages. That included all five categories, but after Doris Lessing's death the other day, I revisited the list, as can be seen below:

Literature 20

Nadine Gordimer – 1991 Age – 89 South Africa

Dario Fo – 1997 Age – 87 Italy

Gunter Grass – 1999 Age – 86 Germany

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – 1982 Age – 86 Colombia – Longest Holding

Imre Kertesz – 2002 Age – 84 Poland

Derek Walcott – 1992 Age – 83 St. Lucia

Toni Morrison – 1993 Age – 82 USA

Tomas Transtromer – 2011 Age – 82 Sweden

Alice Munro – 2013 Age – 82 Canada – Shortest Holding

V.S. Naipaul – 2001 Age – 81 UK

Wole Soyinka – 1986 Age – 79 Nigeria

Kenzaburo Oe – 1994 Age – 78 Japan

Mario Vargas Llosa – 2010 Age – 77 Peru/Spain

Gao Xingjian – 2000 Age – 73 France

J.M. Coetzee – 2003 Age – 73 South Africa 

J.M.G. Le Clezio – 2008 Age – 73 France/Mauritius

Elfriede Jelinek – 2004 Age – 67 Austria

Orhan Pamuk – 2006 Age – 61 Turkey

Herta Muller – 2009 Age – 60 Germany

Mo Yan – 2012 Age – 58 China