When you train for your first marathon it’s a wild sprint into the unknown. You truly have no idea how attainable the goal is or how you might get there — much like sitting down to write. Somehow, if you just maintain your focus it happens.  Yes, this is the part where we mention Haruki Murakami. Because we can’t quite put into words the value of writing and running, we’ll let him do it. In his 2008 book with the Raymond Carver spinoff title “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” Murkami says, “To give up running would be like giving up writing, which would be like giving up living.”

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“It sounds a lot like Danzig,” he says, “but only the first two records.”

He stumbles around my kitchen, in a brown leather jacket, with a hammer and sickle around his neck.

He walks into the corner of the stove. I hand him a bottle of vodka.

“I am Russian.” He says. He takes a drink from the bottle. “I kill.”

I laugh, feeling nervous.

“No no no,” he says. “Listen to me. You — ” putting his finger on my chest –

“You are not Russian.” He says very seriously, “I AM Russian. I will kill you.”

“I am Russian.” I say quietly.

“No,” he says, “You’re not Russian. You don’t know Russians. You don’t even know.”

He drinks from the bottle, he looks at me. “Have you ever fucked a Russian?”

“You’re so — ”

“I have.” He says. “I’ve fucked Russians. I’ve fucked a lot of Russians…

“Listen to me.” He says, “I AM RUSSIAN.”

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Those Are NOT Our Mandals

Our mother raised us to properly thank gracious hosts and gift givers. Oftentimes, though, we’re told that we say “thank you” and “I’m sorry” too much. Which brings us to this past weekend: A platonic female friend helped us catch some crabs. No, not those kind of crabs; the kind you eat. Nevertheless, saying “thank you for the crabs” is, to say the least, awkward. And “thank you for catching crabs” sounds like it necessitates an “I’m sorry” as well. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on how this perplexing drama is resolved. But for now, on to the reading. Here’s an interview with Eva Illouz on consumer love addictions. Speaking of addictions, some people are addicted to places. At least that’s the case with many of the stories found in Joseph Epstein’s new collection. Soccer/football is on the mind for the next month, so Worldhum gives us the World Cup’s sense of place through the eyes of travel writer Steve Bloomfield. The Wall Street Journal evokes certain geographical specks through the eyes of philosophy. Gosh, traveling this much sure does make us hungry. So let’s finish up our last leg with a giant helping of Anthony Bourdain’s food porn. Thank you for reading, and we’re sorry if you don’t like the links. — Andrew Geer