Body scan

serial killers, loud neighbors, and controversial office reads

Hair: This morning I called in sick, deciding that I would use the day to lie in bed and finish Dorothy B. Hughes’ In a Lonely Place, which is just as riveting as Nicholas Ray’s 1950 film noir adaptation. (Fans of Tom Ripley’s many misadventures, which began with Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1955, will appreciate Lonely’s con man protagonist, Dix Steele, whose powers of social parasitism are driven by perverse rage, deformed lust, and bitter class resentment). Instead, I’ve answered emails,