You may well wonder how an oblique reference to one Mr. Oscar Wilde has to do with the word “dilated.” Well, it’s simple:  I’m sitting in a cafe near West University, Houston, Texas, waiting for my eyes to recover from my annual eye exam (thus the “dilated”) AND I wanted to pass on an interesting reading service that feeds you a bit of a work, day by day via email. I chose Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” as my first read, thus the Wilde connection. And besides, I need an excuse to post these shots of his dandy self from the Dublin trip, so voila:  a cheap blog post pulling three concepts together!

The reading service is called DailyLit. Essentially, it sends you a daily snippit of a work via email on the theory that anyone has five minutes to read something. Thus, over time you can complete a book or play you might not otherwise take the time to digest. Selections are from the public domain, so lower your expectations accordingly. I’ve just received the first email today, so no comment from me yet on whether it works, is worth it, or I stick with it.

As for the eyeballs, I just love putting on those wrap-around sun shields and looking extra dorky for a couple of hours after dilation. On the other hand, one can’t go outside without these, so it’s a win-suffer proposition. I’ll wait it out another hour or so, then I’m off to Cafe Piquet, a favorite Cuban restaurant down the street where I’ll consider The Importance of Ordering Ripe Plaintains and be a happy camper once again (partially creditable to the anticipated Mojito, I’m sure).