"I have come to feel that everything, even the most ordinary daily affair, is enriched by the lessons that can be gleaned from art: that beauty is often where you don't expect to find it; that it is something we may discover and also invent, then reinvent, for ourselves; that the most important things in the world are never as simple as they seem but that the world is also richer when it declines to abide by comforting formulas...The best amateur has the skills of a professional but true professionals stay amateurs at heart, keeping a lid on the cynicism and irony that can pass for sophistication in some circles." Michael Kimmelman

Image above, chairs at the UW Union, thanks to nielsb via the Isthmus Pool @ flickr

Reading to share, both highly recommended.

Love to cook? Reading Bill Buford's "Heat." The subtitle says it all "An amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker, and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany." Fun read. Amazon info here

Love to write? Read? Reading the new Francine Prose book "Reading Like a Writer." A gem, Amazon info here

The numbers are in: Spare me the sampling bounce arguments, duh. Let's give Katie and CBS some credit here. 13.5 million viewers put Katie's first night in first. Nightly 7.7 million, World 7.5 million. Largest margin of victory in total viewers since Sept of 93 the first data point in the CBS Research database. 25-54 - Katie 3.9, Brian and Charlie each 2.3 rating in the money demo. I'll stand by my earlier forecast, Katie to place (nothing less) in Nov. So much for all the bad reviews of this morning. Hacks! Nobody likes Katie Couric but the viewers. Congrats to Katie and Company. Cheers to Sean and Les. First is first or as my colleague Don Kelly likes to say "There's a name for those who do not finish in first place...loser" and in the words of my mentor Paul Drew "Being #1 requires no explanation."