Writing.

[regard budget those]

She regarded the reports on her desk for a long moment, keeping her attention focused on her desk and away from the window. The budget was going to be tight this year. Those people outside weren't going to like it, but there was nothing she could do.

She stood up and took a deep breath, fiddling with the feminine shell buttons on her businesslike pink jacket. The demonstrators knew nothing of managing and industry; to them it must seem much easier and simpler than it actually is.

Staring out at the crowd, she wonders how many she'll still be able to employ in another year - or even another quarter.

Oddities of the hard and soft G.

A grubby rowboat is a dingy dinghy.
If you scorch something while carrying a tune, you are singeing while singing.
I'm pretty sure "margarine" is the only word in American English where the G sounds like J before A.
But if you run afoul of the law in London, you might end up in gaol.

Reading.

PEOPLE OF THE WOLF (O'NEAL-GEAR): to Chapter 45. The People (the POV tribe in the story), led by Wolf Dreamer's aggressive twin brother Crow Caller, launch their first retaliatory attacks against the enemy tribe. The younger men get their first taste of violence and cruelty, and find that they like it. The passing of two beloved figures forces both Wolf Dreamer and Dancing Fox to make difficult choices. The shaman Heron, in her final vision, glimpses a warm land to the south - an alien landscape filled with strange creatures. Meanwhile, Ice Fire, the shaman of the enemy tribe, harbors a disturbing secret - and a mystical connection.

KING OF THE VAGABONDS (STEPHENSON): to Saxony, April 1684. Jack encounters an ostrich in Oesterreich, and makes his getaway from the Siege of Vienna with Eliza, whom he has liberated from a harem. Jack reveals the nature of an unfortunate accident that has left him short-changed in the romantic department. He and Eliza roam the Bohemian countryside through the winter of 1683 - '84, subsisting on a limited diet that leaves Eliza weak. Eliza, smuggling the precious ostrich plumes, hatches a plan to buy mining shares. They travel to Leipzig, where they meet a certain scholar, "the Doctor", who is working on certain mathematical discoveries rivaling those of the Englishman Newton. The Doctor is everything Newton is not - urbane, sophisticated, a ladies' man (which Newton definitely is not), and able to enjoy a trashy romance novel with the best of 'em.

Stewart (Calculus, 9th ed.) states that Leibniz "sought to develop a symbolic logic and system of notation that would simplify logical reasoning. In particular, the version of calculus that he published in 1684 established the notation (dy/dx) and the rules for finding derivatives that we use today." The priority dispute between Newton and Leibniz is one of the main themes of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.

Alex Perez on the ideal literary editor.

https://alexperez.substack.com/p/the-ideal-literary-editor

'My ideal literary editor is someone interested in all of America and wants to read as many different American stories as possible. There are hundreds of different Americas, and I want them represented in the books I read. I want urban stories and suburban stories; I want to read about rural folks and southerners and even the annoying rich people on the Upper East Side; I want to know what’s going on in Native American reservations and the inner city and every American locale in between. This is a selfish desire, because I’m genuinely interested in America and its people; I think tons of readers—and writers—have the same desire, but they’re not currently being served by the mainstream literary marketplace. We want to know what’s happening outside the big cities and the “cultural” centers over-represented in literary fiction. It’s a massive, beautiful, strange, infuriating country, and I want to know all about it. ...

The ideal literary editor is drawn to American messiness and rejects the bubbles. He understands that America is the land of Elvis Presley and James Brown and Ralph Ellison and Dusty Rhodes and Bob Dylan and Barry Hannah and Joan Didion and Tonya Harding and Dennis Rodman and so many other messy, unclassifiable freaks. He understands that America’s magic comes from its messiness, and any to attempt to constrain it, is pure folly. ...'

Go to the link to read the whole, magnificent thing.