Monkey Wrench Puppet Lab. These Seattle puppeteers describe themselves as the “most creative, most courageous and most disturbing puppeteers, dedicated to creating ridiculous, inappropriate and artistically excellent puppet plays and events”. I recently saw their rendition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (after brushing up on the story with SparkNotes!). I found their performance “creative” and “artistically excellent”, perhaps mildly “disturbing” and “inappropriate”, though not at all “ridiculous”. One might not think that watching adults play with dolls is entertaining, but it absolutely is—and stimulating and thoughtful entertainment at that. (Thank you to the person who introduced me to them.)

Right- or left-brained? It’s an optical illusion and, like most optical illusions, is simultaneously perplexing and fascinating. If you have difficulties making her spin in the opposite direction, look at another part of the page (i.e. not directly at her) and purposely blink a few times.

Autumn in New York. Not the movie—the beautiful song as sung by the lovely Billie Holiday. Autumn has settled upon Seattle and, as expected, is gorgeous… and I hope I shall have the opportunity to experience autumn in New York City next year.

How does it feel to die? An interesting article, if not mildly distressing. I personally experienced the most discomfort upon reading the section about decapitation—I feel compelled to rub my neck to reduce my anxiety, presumably because I want to ensure that my own neck is still intact.

The Now Habit. I snagged a copy of this book upon learning about the “Unschedule” as a means to increase productivity. The methods in the book follow the tenets of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Aaron Beck would be proud. And Neil Fiore would appreciate your patronage—I think it’s a useful book, even if only as a counterpoint to the rabid fanaticism associated with Getting Things Done.