Norabelle414's part I: In which High Hopes are Had

Happy New Year!

For those who don't know me, my name is Nora and I am 24 years old (and absolutely TERRIFIED of turning 25 in a few months). I live in my very own apartment in Arlington, VA and I have a really boring government contractor job with crazy control-freak coworkers. I love books, Washington DC, and science (in that order). Also I love cats so maybe I will get one this year. Stay tuned!

As for my reading habits, I like science fiction, fantasy, really weird fiction, classics, science non-fiction (especially biology, genetics, evolutionary biology, anthropology), a bit of historical fiction, Young Adult science fiction and fantasy, literary fiction, short stories, and books about books.

I also watch wayyyyy too much TV. However, I ONLY watch scripted TV shows (no, not even that one reality show that you really like and isn't like all the others!), and mostly science fiction/fantasy and period pieces.

Um, I don't have any good pictures around, so here is a picture from Target of a dress I bought yesterday. I have nowhere to wear it, and it doesn't look as good on me as it does on the rack, but isn't it lovely?!



My goals for 2013 are lighter than usual, as I think I overdid it last year:

• Attend the big giant Philadelphia spring LT meet-up
  
• Help plan (and attend) the Washington DC spring and fall LT meet-ups
  
• Read 75 books
  
• Finish Wolf Hall
  
• Read War and Peace
  
• Catch up on my LTER reading / reviewing
  
• Read more books than I acquire (acquire fewer books than I read?)
  

Previous Threads:
2012, module eta
2012, module zeta
2012, module epsilon
2012, module delta
2012, module gamma
2012, module beta
2012, module alpha
2011, chapter 5
2011, chapter 4
2011, chapter 3
2011, chapter 2
2011, chapter 1
2010
2009

2012 End-of-the-Year Summary

Books read: 75
Books purchased (paper+audio): 86
Books acquired (purchased+free, not audio): 94
Books borrowed (friends+library): 43
Books read that were on the shelf for a year or more: 9
Books deaccessioned: 9ish

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Books read: 75 (paper+audio)

Paper books: 53
Audiobooks: 22

Pages read: 20,082 (no audio)

Average paper book length: 379 pages
Median paper book length: 372

Average pages read per day: 55
Average pages read per week: 386
Average pages read per month: 1,674

New reads: 70
Rereads: 5

Fiction/Nonfiction

Fiction books read: 67
Nonfiction books read: 8

Best new books:

Ready Player One
Feed
Leviathan
The Diviners
Under the Jolly Roger

Worst books:

Divergent
Absurdistan
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict
On the Road
My Week with Marilyn / The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me

Books read in 2013:

January:
1) The Country of the Blind and Other Science-Fiction Stories by H. G. Wells
2)

February:

March:

I'm going to try keeping a closer eye on the books I acquire throughout the year. Perhaps that will keep the numbers down.

Books acquired in 2013:

January:
1)

February:

March:

Currently reading:
The Country of the Blind and Other Science-Fiction Stories by H. G. Wells
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby (borrowed)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Currently listening to:
In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber by L. A. Meyer (20%)

Coming soon:
??

BOOKS READ: 0
BOOKS BOUGHT: 0
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 0
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 0

DAYS REMAINING: 365
BOOKS REMAINING: 75
DAYS PER BOOK: 4.87

(Hermit days in the past week: 3)



Stories from The Country of the Blind and other Science-Fiction Stories by H. G. Wells

The Country of the Blind: A story inspired by the idiom "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". A hiker in the Andes gets trapped in an isolated valley of people who have been fully blind for 14 generations. Spoiler: he does not become king.

The Star: A formerly-unknown planet from the outskirts of our solar system crashes into Neptune. The two planets fuse and go hurtling toward the Sun. Their trajectory will not send them anywhere near Earth, except that Jupiter is in the way. Jupiter's gravitational field pulls the "star" just far enough off its path to send it toward Earth.

Bright blessings for a new year!

I liked "epochs" but I guess it's too grand for threads. Roman Numerals?

>6 Morphidae: Thank you Morphy!

>7 qebo: I like epochs too but "module {greek letter}" was a little 'grand', as you say, so I'm doing something tame this year. Next year is going to be "option {letter}", then maybe epochs after that :-)
Yep, uppercase Roman numerals.

Nora - Nice to see you back in situ. I know I said it in last year's group, but Happy New Year.

>9 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! Perhaps in 2013 I will have better luck at actually reading your thread, instead of only having time to scan it for pictures and statistics and book purchases ;-)

Happy New Year Nora!
That dress is so nice! I bet you look hot in it!

Hello :) delurking to wish you a happy New Year. I have noticed that we share quite a few books, so I will watch your thread closely for some inspiration.

>11 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle! I really hope I get somewhere to wear it in 2013. Or perhaps I will just wear it around the house . . . *twirls around in circles*

>12 drachenbraut23: Welcome Bianca! I'm no Stephen or Richard or Paul, so I hope you will not feel too intimidated to comment, if the mood should strike.

Happy New Year and Thread!

Welcome back! The dress is great! Hope you have a chance to wear it soon. :)

Thanks Leah and Jim!

Oooooh, a cat, what if it tries to eat your face while your sleeping? :o

I'm kidding, that almost never happens. I look forward to stalking following you...I mean...ummm, your thread, and your book reading. *Nods* Happy New Year! :)

Looking forward to seeing what you read this year :) Happy New Years

Hi Nora! Great new digs. And very cute dress. :)

You've been such a faithful follower on my thread, that it's about time that I return the favor. Happy New Year, Nora, and that dress is adorable. I'm sure it looks fine on you, and I hope an occasion arises so you can wear it. :)

Thanks Melis, Micky, and Eris!

Nora! Don't be afraid of turning 25. I turned 25 last January and my friend told me to stop freaking out because look at Lindsay Lohan who is also 25. It could always be worse. :)

Haha, I turned 34 a few days ago. The whole week I kept thinking I was turning 36. When I woke up on my birthday and did the math, I realized I was 2 years younger than I thought! So the dreaded day turned out to be a pleasant surprise! :D

I don't wish to be 25 again, but I wouldn't mind being 20. Of course, with all the knowledge and experience I have now.

Don't stress over the birthday Nora! Enjoy 24 as much as you can until then. :)

Happy 2013, Nora! I hope to keep up with your reading adventures this year.

Happy New Year!!! Love the dress. Why wait for a special occasion? TO THE GROCERY STORE WITH YOU!!! You'll be the best dressed person there, and won't that feel wonderful? Well, until the lettuce dribbles on you and you get a grease stain from the checkout counter.

Never mind. Wear it around home for a bit? A few twirls should do it, and no one can judge. :)

I totally wore the dress around the house today. But then I changed to go to family dinner. The dress is a bit too boob-y for our casual family dinners. Plus it has a crinoline which gets smooshed if I sit on it for too long.

Thanks Marie, Kathy, Julia, and Faith!

I'm trying to get back in the swing of borrowing from the library. Partly to keep from buying books, but mostly as a way to force myself to get out of the house more. Here's what's on my hold list right now (some of you might recognize your own recommendations):

Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore / Robin Sloan. 44 of 66 holds
Anna and the French kiss / Stephanie Perkins. 1 of 1 holds
Redshirts / John Scalzi. 3 of 3 holds
Pyg : the memoirs of Toby, the learned pig / edited by Russell A. Potter. 1 of 1 holds

Anna and the French Kiss and Pyg should be ready for me this week. I've been on the hold list for Mr. Penumbra so long that I had actually forgotten that I put myself on the hold list in late November.

Also, I'm taking another Coursera course! It is called Introduction to Genetics and Evolution, and it starts on Friday.

Happy new year, Nora. I'm headed for 35 this year, myself, so let's you and I lend an arm to each other, shall we? I remember 25 as a very good age, so chin up! All will be well.

De-lurking to wish you a Happy New Year, Nora and to say that I LOVE that dress in your opening post! We don't have a Target where I live - although they are going to be opening some stores here in the next 4 to 6 months, which I am rather excited about, having never shopped at Target before.

>28 beserene: Thank you Sarah!

>29 lkernagh: Hi Lori! I'm glad you are getting a Target soon, because Target is THE BEST. I moved offices in May and my new office is right above a Target and so I shop there ALL THE TIME. It's good because I can get my toiletries and groceries there without having to make an additional trip, but it's bad because they have cute cheap clothes.

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Stories from The Country of the Blind and other Science-Fiction Stories by H. G. Wells:

The New Accelerator: A man invents a "medicine" that allows the user to speed up, to the point where the world seems frozen around them. He and his colleague take some and see what happens. The interesting part of this story, to me, was that although they intended that the medicine be used for time-saving and scholarly purposes, they fully admitted that it could be used to commit crimes, but they decided they would sell it anyway and that would be someone else's problem. That certainly wouldn't happen today!

The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes: A scientist has an accident with an electromagnet, and can only see a tropical beach and the ocean, though he is actually in a laboratory in London.

Bah, your reading of that book is giving me a strange craving for a book of short stories. I don't like short stories. It's all very strange.

Weighing in on the turning 25 issue: as a relatively new 26 year old (back in November), I can say 25 was actually a really decent year. I did kind of freak out about it for about half of the year before I turned 25 but then I sort of just chilled. You're still in your twenties and it's awesome. :P Although, if you have a quarter life crisis, I totally understand.

Yay for Anna coming your way! Looking forward to your opinion of St. Clair. :)

they fully admitted that it could be used to commit crimes, but they decided they would sell it anyway and that would be someone else's problem. That certainly wouldn't happen today!

I'm not sure I know what you mean here, Nora-- certainly it would happen today that someone would sell their drugs or gadgets, knowing full well they may be used to commit crime. Or do you mean they just might not get away with it, because the criminal would implicate them in the criminal trial/lawsuit?

Ooooh, beautiful dress! And I totally used to wear fancy dresses around my apartment when I lived alone. One of the awesome things about having one's own place, no?

>31 Ape: Short stories are great. You should read some. Check if your library has Fragile Things or Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman. Or Long after Midnight: 22 Hauntings and Celebrations by Ray Bradbury. I first started to love short stories when I was a kid and I got a literary magazine called Cricket which was full of short stories. Every time I read them I'm reminded of how much I love them. I'm hoping to get to My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me soon, and then I will totally inundate you with story reviews.

>32 MickyFine: I'm in full-on freak-out quarterlife crisis mode. I don't feel bad that I haven't done a whole lot with my life, but that I don't have the slightest idea what direction I want to go in. I try to think about where I see myself in 10 years and I come up utterly and completely blank. Not even the slightest hint.

I'm excited for Anna too! I got the hold notice early this morning but I'm going to wait a day or two to pick it up so that I can pick up two books at once.

>33 UnrulySun: A little of all of those things. I don't think their "supplement" would be allowed on the market at all, and if it was it would be restricted almost immediately. It might be sold illegally under the table, but if they wished to sell it as a company (which they said they did in the story) they would get shut down immediately. It's not just that it *could* be used to commit a crime, but that I think very few people today would use it for anything but crime. Except for LTers, of course, who would use it to read 75 books a day.

Actually, the idea of using the Accelerator for scholarly pursuits reminds me a lot of the Ritalin/Adderall abuse that I saw in college. I think the availability of such an accelerator drug would put students who were NOT using it at a distinct disadvantage. So would using it become the norm, or would it be outlawed like steroids in professional sports?

>34 scaifea: I'm glad I'm not alone! I wrote on Facebook about wearing my fancy dress around the house and no one seemed to understand.

36. That's their problem. I dress up at home all the time - why not?

>37 PawsforThought: I know, I know. But it would be nice to be understood. *over-dramatic sigh; faint onto chaise lounge*

___________________________________

Well, I just went back to Target and the dress is now SEVENTY percent off. (It was 50% off when I bought it on Monday.) So I bought myself an Oscar de la Renta purse, also 70% off, to console myself.



I don't have a white purse. Also, my 3 previous purses were from Goodwill. Plus I can fit at least 2 books in it. So I feel totally justified.

38. Nice bag! Anytime you buy something that A) can hold books, B) was more than 50% off and C) you didn't have before is good.

>35 norabelle414: I still think you should volunteer at a bunch of different places and see what kind of stuff you like.

Also, I think there's a high probability that any given LT user actually wants to be a librarian.

Nora, if you are having a quarter-life crisis, you can probably make yourself feel better simply by comparing yourself to yours truly. Trust me, you are a LOT better off than I am. Not only have I acheived nothing, but the best I can hope for is a minimum wage job in a small town chain store. And that's if I'm lucky. *Shrug*

That dress is beautiful, Nora, and I'm sure it looks wonderful on you!

Believe me, you will get through the quarter life crisis and feel amazing afterwards. I won't tell you not to have a little one, cause sometimes it's good for you, but once I got pass mine I felt life was so much better. Now, 27 was a hard one for me, for life reasons rather than age really. 30 was scary but somehow liberating and I'm actually feeling on top of the world right now. I'm kicking 30's ass!

To help with your Target shopping: they have a very reliable system of discounting items.

Target Markdown Rules:

-Target marks items down with percentages: 15%, 30%, 50%, 75% & 90%.
-The upper right hand corner of the price tag will tell you the percentage off.
-Item will remain at a percentage off for usually two weeks before progressing to the next level.
-Consumable items, furniture, and electronics are generally the only things that go 15%.
-Target’s full prices end in 9. Thereafter each price drop will reduce the final digit in the price to either an 8, 6, or 4. (eg. A $9.99 item at 30% off will be priced $6.98)
-The lowest the last digit will drop is to 4. If you see something you want and the price ends in 4, buy it. The price won’t go any lower.

Happy shopping!

>41 Ape: But see, you have goals, albeit not the same as my goals (or what they would be, if I had them). You want to get a job. Possibly in a library. That's a goal! My only goal is to have goals. But I don't.

_______________________________

ATTENTION FANS OF GAIL CARRIGER AND/OR YA BOOKS IN GENERAL:

Enter here to request a free galley copy of one of three YA books, including the upcoming Gail Carriger book, Etiquette & Espionage:

http://littlebrownlibrary.com/unshelved-galley-giveaway-from-little-brown/

Woohoo!!

>42 bluesalamanders: Thank you, Blue!

>43 leahbird: Thanks Leah! I have seen the Target markdown scheme before, but not put as succinctly as you did. I wonder why this stuff was marked down 70%? Maybe because it was one of their special designer collections.

I think the percentages are subjective and change, but I have noticed that the number hint works every time. That's really all I pay attention to. I included the rest to be thorough. ;)

>44 norabelle414: Yay, galley requested! Although it's barely more than a month until the book is actually released anyway :D.

Also, maybe I'll make it a goal to help you find a goal. I like coming up with goals.

>41 Ape: BS, Stephen. There's no reason for you not to achieve your dream of working in a library.

At age 25 I hadn’t graduated from college (I’d dropped out, didn’t return until my late 20s), and was subsisting on near-minimum wage with temp clerical work. Things didn’t coalesce career-wise until I was about 30, when vague sporadic efforts in various directions suggested a common factor. Not a path I’d recommend (with a chance to do it over, I’d get a degree in something sciency), but from my perspective you seem to be in way better shape.

I hesitate to mention, because I hate inflicted advice myself, but this is a book site... What Color is Your Parachute may be too focused on career but seems worth a skim if you haven’t already. Refuse to Choose seems meant for your situation.

I don't think there's a great solution for the quarter-life crisis. Even if you have goals, it's not easy to figure out how to achieve them, and even if you have a plan for that, actually getting your foot in the door can be hard too. However, I find that these two videos while in no way solving any of the quarter-life freakouts at least made me feel much better: 20-Something Crisis and How to Become an Adult.

>46 leahbird: I do pay attention to the numbers but I was initially concerned that all of the Neiman Marcus for Target merch would go really fast. But all the racks and shelves are full! I'm not sure why. The stuff is stunning.

>47 _Zoe_: But this way it's freeeee!

You find me all the goals you want. My current goals are a) read 75 books this year, b) finish watching the entire series of Mad Men (no time limit), and c) decide what I want for dinner before 8pm tonight, and it cannot be soup or anything delivery.

I agree. Those librarians are sitting around his library right now waiting for "that nice, shy young man" to come in and ask them if he can volunteer, so that he can get experience, so they can hire him to work there.

>48 qebo: I know that I'm doing fine. I'm not really worried about that. But I feel like if I were doing worse I would at least have something to reach toward. I know, first world problems.

I appreciate your recommendation more due to your reluctance to give it :-)

On a happier note:

Stories from In the Country of the Blind and Other Science-Fiction Stories:

Under the Knife: A man worries about a surgery he is going to have, sure he is going to die. During the surgery he has an out-of-body experience.

The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper: On Nov 10, 1931, Mr. Brownlow accidentally gets a newspaper from Nov 10, 1971. He tells his friend about what he sees (and doesn't see) in it. This story was particularly excellent, as half the fun of reading Wells is his prophecies about the future.

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Book #1: The Country of the Blind and Other Science-Fiction Stories by H. G. Wells - Great! None of the stories were outstanding, but they were all solidly great. My favorite story was "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes". The collection was a little short for my taste. More short stories, please!



Currently reading:
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby (borrowed)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Currently listening to:
In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber by L. A. Meyer (28%)

Coming soon:
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Pyg: The Memoirs of Toby, the Learned Pig by Russell Potter
The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales by Kate Bernheimer

BOOKS READ: 1
BOOKS BOUGHT: 0
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 0
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 0

DAYS REMAINING: 362
BOOKS REMAINING: 74
DAYS PER BOOK: 4.89

(Hermit days in the past week: 5 (I hate people! Get off my lawn, you crazy kids!))

>49 MickyFine: WATCHING VIDEOS OF JOHN GREEN DOES NOT MAKE ME FEEL LESS LIKE I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE. I do like the first video though because that girl's hair is really, really cute.

So felt like going to the library after work and so I went, despite when I said earlier that I wasn't going to go until Pyg was ready to pick up. But then Pyg was ready anyway, they just hadn't sent me the email yet! So I got two books.

I was also reminded that the guy who works in the library is kinda cute. So this could have further benefits beyond getting me free books to read and getting me out of the house. Now I just need an excuse to spend more time at the library.

If you finish reading Pyg before me I will know I'm failing. I started it almost a month ago and it's so short. Must get off internet and read books!

Cute purse! I don't think I could do white, though, not with a preschooler who likes to touch things with chocolatey or otherwise sticky hands... Sigh.
I do love Target, though.

>54 leahbird: I'll read very.very.slowly.

>55 scaifea: Oh, don't worry. I just finished putting on the first layer of ScotchGuard. Two more layers, coming up!

Yeah... can't do white! But it's a nice shape and obviously we gotta love a sale.

I don't mind Target. We have several around here and we shop there regularly for basics and sometimes fun stuff. They tend not to carry some of the brands we like though, so it's far from a one-stop for me. I used to LOVE shopping for my daughter there-- they have just the cutest baby clothes. She's outgrown all that now and is into neon and Converse. Le sigh.

Hi Nora,

I'm just now catching up on your thread.

If you want to adopt a cat this year, do so through the Baltimore Humane Society. My daughter, a law student in Baltimore, works there as a volunteer. She gets to play with the cats & kittens once a week. Now she is fostering a mother cat with four kittens until the kittens are old enough to be adopted. She and her fiancé have two cats of their own.

The dress is great, and I hope you'll find the perfect place to wear it!

I and a friend are seriously thinking of coming up to Philly for the spring meet-up weekend. I really want to meet Darryl, and that might be my only chance as he never seems to get to DC.

Let's have a great 2013, shall we?

*wishes she were 24 (or even 25) ... sigh*

> 40


Also, I think there's a high probability that any given LT user actually wants to be a librarian.

Zoe, I was a librarian in a previous life! :)

Oh gosh, I would never want to be a librarian. (I don't particularly like being organized, or people in general)

But I would absolutely love to own a little bookstore. And hire someone to be organized and deal with people.

I don't want to be a librarian in the sense of getting a library science degree and all of that; I just want to re-shelve books all day in the stacks. No, seriously. That (after teaching, which I've already done) is my dream job. Dream Job #3 is flower shop delivery person.

And in re: the drugs... you're right, it certainly wouldn't be approved for public sales, but it would be a street sensation. And yes, they would get shut down immediately because the gov't would want to keep the technology all to themselves. ;)

Regarding being a librarian: Libraries don't sort books the way I want to sort books = libraries are infuriating.
(Obviously MY way of sorting books is superios to the library system - no matter what system they happen to use.)

61: Agreed, just give me a giant pile of books and tell me to shelve them, although I probably wouldn't be very good at it. I'm sure I'd be lucky to shelve more than a few books per hour because I'd spend more time looking at the books than shelving them, plus I would probably pull more books out to read than I would put back on the shelves. Not to mention the probability of being permanently lost in the shelves, and needing a rescue team to find me.

But, ummmmm, don't tell my local library any of this, plesae. ;)

I wanted to be a librarian, too. Still do, but man, the pay is crap. I also wanted to be a bookstore owner. Still do, but man, how many independent bookstores do you still see around? Yeah.

Stephen: My college boyfriend had a work-study job in the IU library re-shelving books (talk about a dream job - HUGE library, floors and floors of stacks! Sigh. I miss that library.) and he kept getting reprimanded because it took him so long to finish re-shelving a cart of books and they kept finding him sitting in the middle of an aisle reading one of the books he was supposed to be shelving. They solved the problem by assigning him to the Slavic language stacks, where he couldn't read a word! Ha! Librarians are clever folk.

Lovely story Amber. LOL.
I would also have loved to have been a librarian but might have foud myself in a similar predicament.
Nora, I am about to start my weekend here with a visit to the cinema (Jack Reacher) and I hope your weekend, though slower in arriving, treats you wonderfully.

>57 UnrulySun: But Target has whole sections and sections of clothes and shoes by Converse!

>58 SqueakyChu: Hi Madeline! Unfortunately Baltimore is too far away for me. They don't let you take cats on the bus!

Hopefully I will be able to make it to Philadelphia too! I am very excited.

>61 scaifea: Mmmm. I love reshelving things too.

>65 Morphidae: I feel the same way. I started applying to LSIT graduate programs (my previous contracting company was willing to help pay for it, since I do work with computers) until I realized how many unemployed or underemployed librarians I know. Then I had a panic attack.

>66 scaifea: LOL what a great solution!

>67 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! My weekend might get here later, but yours leaves earlier! So there! I'm hoping to go to the movies this weekend as well. I've been craving it.

Ha ha, this is a fun discussion to read as a librarian-in-training. Morphy is right, the pay is crap...but the patrons are usually really fun to work with. I love putting books into their hands.

66: That is so funny!

My work/study job my last two years in college was in the library. So much better than working in the dining hall - they made all freshmen on w/s work in the dining hall. It was awful. I loved the quiet down in the stacks...

But Target has whole sections and sections of clothes and shoes by Converse!

Yeah, but it's no fun to shop for. But then, tweens in general are no fun to shop for. It's Justice and department stores.

Tweens in general are no fun.

Haha, true. She can be a lot of fun when she keeps her little attitude in check. But she's a master sulker. Surely *I* was never so moody, right??

That's a really cute dress Nora!

>74 UnrulySun: Of course not! Me neither! And I'm definitely not STILL that moody upon occasion.

>75 The_Hibernator: Thanks Rachel!

Of course all of us women were never that bad as tweens ;)

Back in my youth, there wasn't such a thing as a "tween." That's a modern marketing term for sure.

>52 norabelle414: Sorry. :( I found that video vastly comforting when I was unemployed post-grad school in reminding me that I was not alone in my crappy condition. Why don't you try this?

I like being a librarian but I'm in research & assessment so I'm almost never on the public floor and I very rarely browse the shelves at all. It's all about holds for me.

Back in my youth (not so long ago) there wasn't such a thing as a famous and adored Justin Bieber. It was a better world indeed.

>78 Morphidae: Yeah that's a very recent term. I don't think it even existed when I was one. I like it though; I think it's an onomatopoeia for the sound that they make.

>79 MickyFine: The only thing is that John Green had the opposite problem that I do. He knew what he wanted to do, but he didn't know how to get there. I'm really good at figuring out how to get there, but I have no idea what I want to do. Not even the slightest idea. All I know for sure is that I hate writing, and sports, and riding in vehicles.

>80 lunacat: Back in my youth there was no Justin Bieber but there was a Timberlake. And the Spice Girls. And Britney Spears. And all kinds of crazy things that I have blocked from my memory.

78. Back in my younger days what people now call a "tween" was called a "child". Then they became "teenagers". Shocking, I know. And I was a teenages less than a decade ago.

I remember now! We were called "Pre-teens" when I was that age (~9 - 12)

We call them tweens because it's an appropriately alien-sounding term.

There are always pop-culture icons that disgust the parents. I was a grunge kid, need I say more?

Before tween became popular usage, my friends I were already noticing the disturbing trend of what we labeled Prostitots. They disturbed the hell out of me, these little girls who acted and dressed like they were man eaters. I still shudder to think. This term was coined while I was living in New Zealand, where the Prostitots were particularly noticeable because of the juxtaposition of all the girls in their long, plaid uniform school skirts.

Nora they are still called "Pre-teens" now. My "little one" is thirteen now and just turned into a "teenager". He actually cracked me up yesterday. He bought for the first time his own deo, shampoo and soap LOL. It all had to be "Playboy" London and New York. So, after he came out of the bath last night we all started choking and had to open all the windows. I then had to explain to him THAT you do not use deo allover your body *shudder*.

And don't worry too much about turning 25 :) Age is absolutely irrevelant. It all depends on how you feel. I am 43 now and still feel like I am in my twenties.

I used to be a goth kid in my early teens and then I found that grunge suited me much better :)

I've always (except for when I was that age myself) felt sorry for those children more than anything else. There's so much going on with them and there's so much they're going to learn - the hard way - and I pity them. I really, really pity them. Poor things. I wouldn't want to go back to that age for anything in the world.

85: I know just what you mean; it's sad and disturbing. Thankfully we don't have too much of that in our town, unless you count the youth competition cheerleaders and pageant girls. ;)

Happy 2013 Nora and I love the dress up top. I have a particular weakness for Target handbags, myself.

Good luck with the turning 25 anxiety--I have a milestone birthday coming up this year too but it's approximately twice yours.

>81 norabelle414: Well, at least you have a couple things knocked off the list. :) Finding what you want to do can be hard. But I'm rooting for you! And whatever you do or don't do, remember, you're still totally awesome. :D

Hmm, maybe tween is a Canadian term? Because when I was in the 10-12 category, I called myself (and was called by others) a tween. And I'm a couple years older than Nora.

>90 MickyFine: "Tween" does sound like it would be invented by the same country that invented Justin Bieber.

#91 by @norabelle414> BWAAAAHH! ::giggles until it hurts::

Wait, what's wrong with Justin Timberlake? Have you seen him on SNL? He's hilarious! And I happily admit that I like his music, and I was even past my teens when he came on the scene.

>93 scaifea: I was just joking around :-) But the JT of today is certainly not the same JT from NSYNC. A teen idol growing up to be a functioning, successful human being! Who woulda thunk??

He is pretty great on SNL. And not too bad in his funny roles in movies. Never been a fan of his music, though.

Oh, no, I don't care for the boy band stuff, either. I met The New Kids on the Block once (back when they first became famous - they and I were in the Macy's parade in the same year), which was a bummer, really, as I never really liked them.

ET Change Backstreet Boys to that other, way earlier boy band that I'm still trying to remember...back in a mo...

Aha! The New Kids on the Block! I knew it had something to do with a street, or something. Gawd, I'm getting old.

I like Justin Timberlake. He makes great music for dancing. That is, not just music that has appropriate rhythms and beats for dancing, but songs that are good and you can sing along to while you dance.

And while I was never a fan of Nsync - they were a thousand times better than Justin Bieber.

>97 PawsforThought:: He definitely has catchy dancing music - Charlie loves dancing to his stuff.

Nora - hahaha touche - you will still be basking in your Sunday whilst I am picking up the pieces of my Monday morning. x btw Reacher was pretty good.

>91 norabelle414: :PPPPPP Keep in mind we're the same country that invented insulin. And the CanadArm. And other cool stuff. And I know for a fact you like our embassy. So there.

>99 PaulCranswick: That's excellent, Paul. I'm not really a fan of action movies myself, but I certainly appreciate an escape to the movies, no matter what one's genre of choice.

>100 MickyFine: Everything I know about Canada I've learned from Degrassi, Being Erica, and Lost Girl. It sounds AWESOME.

>100 MickyFine:,101 Also Canadian: Niall Matter. *drool*

I had intended on reading Anna and the French Kiss alternated with The Cosmic Serpent (the former being entertaining and the latter being not so much) but I accidentally read half of it the moment I got home from the library. Whoops!

Now I've put both of those aside for a bit and am devoting my time to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which is slower going but still fascinating. Then I'll finish Anna and the French Kiss and the Cosmic Serpent, then I'll read Pyg, then I'll find something fluffy to alternate with Wolf Hall.

> 86

My daughter , when she was a teen, wasn't really Goth, but dressed that way. I used to fear that all of the safety pins on her clothes would tear the hell out of all the other clothes in our washing machine and dryer. If I'd have removed those safety pins, she'd have known. Plus I'd have had no idea where to pin them back on after the laundry cycle. So it usually resulted in me doing her laundry inside out.

She cracks me up now. She's 26 years old, a law student and comes home to visit (when going on job interviews) in the most conservative, but lovely, suits! :)

Tweens and teens are a challenge!

Ahem. Yeah. I was the type of kid that wore exclusively black, most of my shirts depicted skulls and fire, and I had the stereotypical ball-chain necklace and whatnot. I still almost always wear a plain black t-shirt in public, but for different reasons. It makes me look less fat. :P

Nora: For some reason I just I love that you are reading Anna and the French Kiss and The Cosmic Serpent at the same time. :)

>105 Ape: It makes sense to me. One of them is complete drivel and the other is about a teenage girl who goes to boarding school in Paris ;-)

Haha!

I think to go along with my tagging-books-by-decade project, I'd like to set a goal of reading one book this year that I've tagged with each decade since, oh, let's say 1770s. That should be fun and easy enough since most books fall into there somewhere. And the tagging project and the reading goal should motivate each other, I think.

I like that idea, in the past I wanted to try to read a string of books set in subsequent decades, but it was difficult to search for the right books.

Another reason why I'm jealous of your project, I guess. :)

Yeah if you were looking for books in a library it would be more difficult. You'd have to either read books written in that decade, or pick an event in that decade and search for a book about it.

It's a bit easier for me since I actually have at least one book from each decade in my TBR stack ;-)

I'm envious. This is the trouble with being OCD and lazy at the same time.

111. I hear you!

>111 Ape:, 112 Oh don't worry. I only spend time tagging my books when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

>101 norabelle414: Lol! Yes, Canada is pretty awesome. Other good-looking dudes we're responsible for include Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling. And depending on your tastes, some other guys too. ;)

>103 norabelle414: Yeah, I basically devoured Anna and the French Kiss in two days. I find your restraint impressive.

114. My idea of Canada is "huge version of Scandinavia on the other side of the Atlantic". Which is great. And like norabelle I've also been fed Degrassi. Which is also great. I'd love to go to Canada.

And the world has agreed that Ryan Gosling is the perfect man, hasn't it? That's the impression I've got.

>114 MickyFine: Absence from St. Clair makes the heart grow fonder. Or something. I dunno, I'm just making stuff up.

>115 PawsforThought: Yes.

116. That is one of the best memes of all time and that particular one is one of the best. Great pic (yum!) and great writing (hate dog-eared books).

When I was a grad student in the late '90s working as a teaching assistant to the very large Classical Mythology course (500 students per quarter), the other TA's and I would each pick a freshman girl out of the crowd and take bets on the first day which ones would turn goth by the end of the course. The rules were that you had to pick a girl who was dressed very perky and had that eager omg-I'm-a-college-girl-now! look about her, which usually involved a high ponytail and cute tiny clothes. It was fun to watch as the quarter progressed how the clothes would get sloppier and darker, the ponytail got lower and less perky, dark eyeshadow would appear... The danger was in mis-picking and ending up with one that ended the course wearing sorority paraphernalia.

>118 scaifea: That's too funny! I didn't see a lot of goth kids when I was in college (though I knew a lot in high school). My theory is that wearing black year-round is a much bigger commitment in the south than in the north ;-)

That is a great story, scaifea. I lived in a dorm full of goths my freshman year in college, it was part of what freaked out the rest of the students, I think (people thought it was a "scary" dorm, which all of us who lived there thought was hilarious).

I used to consternate my goth students (once I was teaching my own courses) by telling them how adorable I thought their new piercings and dark clothing was (in front of the rest of the class, of course): "Oh, Jared, is that a new chain you've added to your nose? That's so adorable!" The last thing a goth who takes himself too seriously wants is to be called adorable. I had fun with those sorts of kids. I didn't have many rules in my classes, but not taking oneself too seriously was one of them.

>115 PawsforThought: Hmm, living here I think Scandinavia is way cooler than us (not temperature-wise, although that might also be true). Also, we don't have our own crime novel sub-genre. ;)

>116 norabelle414: Lol. Keep making it up, Nora. It's entertaining. And really there are few words for how much I enjoy Hey Girl, I love the library. :D

122. We're about the same level of coolness temperture-wise, I think. We're cooler than you? Well, thank you! Not that I agree, but thank you.

And as you pointed out earlier (and norabelle was kind enough to illustrate): you have Ryan Gosling.

I just had to google "Hey girl, I like the library too." Cute site! A bunch of my friends have sent me some of the booky, non-librarian pics before, but I never knew where they came from. I found some new ones to pass around! (Although my favorite is still Equestrian Ryan Gosling.)

Ryan Gosling is nice and all, but I think I agree with Nora: Niall Matter is the shizz.

It seems like a goodly portion of objectification-worthy guys are coming from up north lately. What did Canada put in its water 35 years ago?

>122 MickyFine: You should totally try to make CanaCrime a "thing".

I'm rather partial to the feminist "hey girl," memes myself, but the bookish ones are good too :-)

>124 alsvidur: What did Canada put in its water 35 years ago?
I know, right?! Some sort of breeding program, I'm guessing.

125. The feminist Hey Girl meme is amazing! Love it to bits. I didn't know there was a library one too - I've dived straight in.

I'd definitely read CanaCrime. Bit like ScandiCrime, but with larger distances. And mounted police.

Boo! How come I can't see the Niall Matter pic back in Message 102?! I didn't mind too much at first, but now it's clear I'm really missing something. :-)

>126 PawsforThought: And greater potential for male characters to be played by Niall Matter or Ryan Gosling in the movie adaptation . . . .

>127 rosalita: Poor dear. Here's another:

127. I can't see a pic in that post either. You're not alone.

128. YES! Maybe they could team up?

YUM :)

Oh. Oh my. Oh my goodness.

I'll be in my bunk.

>127 rosalita:, 129 I couldn't see it either earlier today, but now I can? I don't know why? Computers are weird.

>129 PawsforThought: Maybe they could team up?
That brings all kinds of delightful images to mind . . .

>130 lunacat:, 131 I know!! He used to be on an amazing show called Eureka, but that show has ended. And now he's on a Canadian spinoff of the British show Primeval, which does not air in the US. *pout*

129. Naughty.

132. There's a spinoff of Primeval? But Abby and Connor WERE that show, how could you do a show without them? And I'm still mourning the loss of Stephen. :,(

And if I had any actual photoshopping skills, I'd make a "promo still" from this Canadian crime drama (based on the best selling crime novel) starring Ryan Gosling and Niall Matter.

>133 PawsforThought: I'm afraid I have not gotten around to watching the original yet, so I don't have much to say on the subject. It's in my queue as soon as I finish 4 seasons of Torchwood and 3 more seasons of Mad Men and 3 more seasons of Futurama and keep up with all the shows that are coming back from winter hiatus this month. So, um, it's going to be awhile!

The CanaCrime still (or poster, maybe??) would be funnier with poor photoshopping though . . .

134. Hey, I'm not any better - I have 500+ episode of Doctor Who waiting for me...

Do we have a title for the show?

"Shirtless in Saskatchewan"

As brilliant as that is (and it is), maybe at least hint that it's a crime show? ;)

Shirtless and Spying in Saskatchewan

Shirtless Spies in Saskachewan!
(Tweaked it a little)

More than one?! Even better!

Naked and Nosy in New Brunswick

Well, they're both in it. Figured they might as well both be shirtless.

WHATEVER you guys. it's not like "the girl with the dragon tattoo" sounds like the title of a crime novel either!

Abs and Arson in Alberta

Buff and Bad in British Columbia

All I can think about when discussing toplessness in Canada is frostbite. I know, I know, it's not ALWAYS cold there, but coming from the South, you just think Canadian toplessness= frostbite.

Hot and Handcuffed in Halifax

Hot and Handcuffed in Halifax definitely wins :) I'd watch that in a shot!

If it's too cold for shirtlessness there's always

Sexy Spies in Saskachewan

Crap.

I wanted "... Murder in Montreal" but couldn't think of a good word.

Hello and Happy New Year.

I love the dress (posted at the top of your thread)! I have to visit Target more often. I also have to get a waist small enough to wear that dress...

>150 PawsforThought: Muscles and Murder in Manitoba!

YES!

Or Montreal. Montreal means French. And French is sexy.

>154 PawsforThought: "La masculinité et magouille à Montréal"

Hahah!

>151 Whisper1: Hi Linda! I'm sorry your post almost got lost in all this nonsense! Thanks for visiting! Happy New Year to you too.

Which do we like more, "Luscious and Lying in Labrador" or "Lickable and Lying in Labrador"?

Personally I like the latter, but the former has the advantage of containing real words.

Tough call. Tough call, indeed.

*giggles hysterically* You guys should really send a pitch to the CBC. And I think I vote for the former. Luscious doesn't get used nearly enough these days.

All these fantastic titles need to be used. Maybe they should be episode titles, but then we still need a title for the shw itself.

Thumbs up!

Oh dear. Side effects of reading at work include cackling loud enough to startle coworkers. Good thing there weren't any clients here.

All of those are awesome titles, and I would watch them in a heartbeat!

Edit: The photo went up as I was typing. I think I'll make that my desktop at home!

>160 MickyFine: Oh good Micky, you're here. I thought I had horribly offended all of the Canadians somehow, and they were ignoring me.

165. Why would anyone be offened by a crime show featuring hot guys in various states of undress?

All I can think about when discussing toplessness in Canada is frostbite.

Naked and Nipply in New Brunswick!

Whoo! More people joining in!

I missed all the fun :-(

Buff and Burgled in Banff?

>169 katiekrug: Ahh! Good one!

All: we still need Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and PEI.

Crap, we were doing provinces? I was working on one for Moose Jaw...

Pretty Boys and Petty Theft in PEI?

Underdressed and Overheated in Ontario?

LMAO at Moose Jaw! That would be a mouthful!

(er, get out of the gutter)

Muscular and Misunderstood in Moose Jaw.

means we can all go and 'understand' them ;)

Nude and Nailed in Nova Scotia

Nailed as in arrested. That's all I meant. Honest.

It's not all provinces/terrotories. Cities and town (or tiny villages) work too.

175. Sure you did. Sure. Keep telling yourself that.

You're all coming up with great suggestions. Just remember the formula: word related to hotness + word related to crime + place name

I hope you don't mind if I've been skimming the vast majority of the last 50 posts or so, Nora. I'm finding it difficult to read and blush at the same time.

Overdressed and Under Arrest in Ontario. And by overdressed, I mean he's wearing pants :-P

>171 katiekrug: Cities/towns/igloos are fine too, but I think we should get all the provinces, at least.

>172 UnrulySun: Oh that's good!

What about "On Top and On Patrol in Ontario"?

Captivating Quatuorvirate Capturing in Quebec - we just need two more hot people ;)

Promiscuous Policing in PEI

172. I agree with norabelle, that's a good one!

I was at the library today, and would you believe it? In the "just in" section there was a CANACRIME novel! I was sooooo very tempted.

>180 lunacat: Quebec is a tough one. I looked at a scrabble dictionary of words starting with Q and NONE of them worked.

___________________________________

The theme for the year seems to be "biting off more than I can chew". I realized on Sunday that I've signed up for two Coursera courses at the same time. The other one is called "Game Theory" and I signed up for it awhile ago, before the genetics course (which I am more interested in) was posted. I seriously doubt I can handle two classes at once, but I'll give it a couple weeks and see how things go.

Also, I went a little crazy on the library website last week and now I have waiting for me on the Holds shelf: Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne (for my Coursera class) and Redshirts by John Scalzi. And I'm #1 on the Holds list for John Dies at the End by David Wong. So this should be interesting. At the very least it should be a new experience for me, because I will probably have to renew or return unread a book or two. Which I've never done before, being a crazy perfectionist and all.

#184

Indeed. That was the best I could do as well, having looked at all the Q words in the dictionary!

Not a lot of crime-related or hotness-realted words beginning with Q. Poor Quebec.

>185 lunacat: Hmmm maybe we could do that one in French too. I'll take a look in my French dictionary when I get home this evening and see what I can find.

Quivering and Questioning in Quebec!

ETA: Because, you know, quivering is a staple of the romance genre and seemed fitting. And because it makes me think of shivering, which is what I think when I think of Canada. ;)

>188 leahbird: That's great! Excellent job!

I was trying to figure out how to fit quorum in there somewhere, but alas, I had to leave it in the queue with the quarkbeast...

Is it safe to return to this thread? I feel so old...

184: Also, I went a little crazy on the library website last week and now I have waiting for me on the Holds shelf: Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne (for my Coursera class)
I considered taking the course, especially after Jerry Coyne recommended it on his blog, but I really don't have the time to spare. I got Why Evolution is True not too long ago, not sure when I'll be reading it.

>191 qebo: I'm glad you're not scared off permanently, as I assume has happened to my other regular visitors. Maybe we need a separate thread for Canadian hottie worship.

The nice thing about the Coursera classes is that you can come and go as you please, since they are free and open. I suggest the following:
1) Register for Coursera
2) Look at the list of courses
3) Sign up for EVERY SINGLE COURSE THAT INTERESTS YOU EVER
4) Forget that you signed up for courses and be surprised in a month when you get 12 emails reminding you that you have an exam coming up
5) Sign up for the genetics course
6) Randomly watch whatever video lectures you feel like watching! There is an interview with Jerry Coyne this week.

The genetics course does not actually have any assigned reading, I'm just reading Why Evolution is True because it is suggested. I'm 100% certain it's going to be a "preaching to the choir" type of read :-)

__________________________________________

I just had a major breakthrough in my decade-tagging quest. I've been working on the Parasol Protectorate books, which were proving more difficult than I had expected. They are solidly Victorian, which means 1837-1901. Even if you eliminate the 1830s and the 1900s that still leaves a bunch of decades. So I've been reading interviews that Gail Carriger has posted on her website to see if I could find any hints as to the date. I picked up bits and pieces and had narrowed it down to sometime after 1865. But then this morning I found an interview in which she says "I try to stay as accurate to 1873 England as possible."

Hooray!

All I could come up with was En Queue au Quebec, which I'm not sure is grammatically correct.

Quivering and Questionable in Quebec?

Quivering and Quarrelsome?

I suppose Quarrels in Quebec could work too, if the episode was about warring neighbours or something.

"Quivering" makes me think "bodice ripper". Ugh.

>195 PawsforThought: These aren't "bodice ripper"s, they are, um.

codpiece rippers?

Quicker to quench in Quebec.

This whole conversation... I'm in stitches. I really want to contribute a title, but my mind has gone blank. You guys are the best! XD

How did I miss all the Canadian fun on this thread?!?

#167 I missed the rest and started reading here All I can think about when discussing toplessness in Canada is frostbite. Naked and Nipply in New Brunswick! And I just about died laughing!

My favourite is still Hot and Handcuffed in Halifax.

Also, as a Canadian, I should clarify that I was not offended but just travelling yesterday.

Oh good, the Canadians are here!

No offence to all of you, but there are only two Canadians I want stopping by ;)

I'm half-Canadian - do I qualify? :D

195. Codpieces on a crime show? Is there an episode where they borrow the TARDIS and travel back to the 15th century?

202. You are quite right.

Two more:

Yummy and Yanking in Yukon

and

Nice-looking Narcs in Nunavut

>202 lunacat: Now, now. Be nice!

>203 ErisofDiscord: Yes.

______________________________

Decade statistics for books read in 2012:

1170s BCE - 1
700s BCE - 1
950s - 1
1490s - 1
1550s - 1
1590s - 1
1800s - 4
1850s - 1
1860s - 1
1870s - 5
1880s - 0
1890s - 1
1900s - 2
1910s - 9
1920s - 3
1930s - 3
1940s - 3
1950s - 2
1960s - 2
1970s - 5
1980s - 2
1990s - 9
2000s - 19
2010s - 9
2020s - 0
2030s - 1
2040s - 1

Significant events: Napoleonic Wars, Victorian era, WWI

>204 PawsforThought: Well, I was looking for a male equivalent to a bodice.

Yummy and Yanking in Yukon
Which one of those is the crime-related word, hmm???

Yanking! As in stealing something. I worked hard on that one!

Hmmm.........yeah, of course. That's exactly what you meant by yanking.

YES IT WAS!

Get your mind out of the gutter, you!

suuuuure.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/yanking?s=t

I don't see "steal" anywhere. I see jerk, tug, and "an abrupt, vigorous pull" :-P

Moi? Innocent as the day I was born, me. It's you that's got the dirty mind, coming up with things like that.

Quality! *Headsmack*

Quivering and Qualified in Quebec. That's my last offer.

210. Yanking a handbag, for instance. Slang, people!

My mind is perfectly dirt-free.

212. Quixotic and Qualified in Quebec

I don't know, yanking a handbag can sound kind of dirty too...

215. Anything can sound dirty if you want it to sound dirty.

You try coming up with a crime-word beginning with Y. Not easy. Unless it's an episode about the yakuza.

If only it were set in the UK, it could be Yanking and Yardmen.

217. Yummy Yardmen (or Yeomen) in Yorkshire?

Not sure there are many yummy yeoman as they only really hang out in London and dress like this:



Don't think even Ryan Reynolds could carry that off.

Well, that's part of the mystery Ryan will be trying to solve! What are the yeomen doing in Yorkshire?

(The alternative would be Yumminess and Yeomen in Yorkshire. Not the best grammar.)

Or it could be Yummy Yanks and Yeomen in Yorkshire, in which a couple of hot American guys also inexplicably show up in Yorkshire - a mystery only Ryan can solve.

This discussion continues to be hilarious.

But in that case, how do we advertise the presence of him? Otherwise we'll tune in simply expecting Yanks and Yeomen.

Plus the mystery isn't completely obvious. How many of the general population will know that yeomen SHOULDN'T be in Yorkshire.

True.

We still need a name for the show itself. We only have episode titles.

*lost in giggles*

Nora I think you're going to catch up to Richard at this rate. In fact I'm surprised you haven't sufficiently distracted him with this train of thought as to keep him from posting on his own thread!

*waving* at Nora - sorry to be so late on checking in for 2013

Yeah, I never would have thought Yanking meant stealing. I admit to being disappointed now that it does...

>223 PawsforThought: Wait hold the phone. I thought these were books, which later get movies made out of them starring Niall Matter and Ryan Gosling?

>225 UnrulySun: I'm not sure he lurks here. Perhaps we need more half-naked men?




>226 alcottacre: Hi Stasia!!

>227 scaifea: It totally does not mean stealing. According to urban dictionary, it means 1) lying on a gross bed and watching cartoons or 2) dipping one's penis in someone's drink
(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yanking)

Word will travel fast where half-naked men are concerned! Like a homing beacon.

Yanking is wanking for yanks.

Since you enjoy cats, check out some of the topics in the "Cats, books. life is good" group. It's a fun bunch of threads.

228. Yes, that was the idea. But book series have titles too, no? There's "A Song of Ice and Fire", Millennium", "Dark Materials", etc.

According to Urban Dictionary anything and everything means something related to sex.

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary yank means "pull with a sudden sharp tug" which you would do if you nicked someone's handbag, for instance. That is, honestly, what I meant.

This entire thread has me grinning from ear-to-ear. Good job!

>299: *snork!* So the logic follows, then, that if wanking is what a wanker does, then a yankee is getting someone else to do it for him, no?

That sounds perfectly logical to me, Amber. Plus, I think we can make a whole spin-off series with this line of thinking.

Yummy and Yanking

Jacked and Jerking

Pumped and Pulling

Tantalizing and tugging

These books sound dirty, but they are actually about perfectly innocent things. Stealing candy, gaining control of a run-away jackhammer, airing up the tires of a tow-behind trailer, and so forth. What else would they be about?

>231 PawsforThought: Bah, series titles. Can't we just call it "Canadian hotties" or something?

I do agree that yank means pull, but I don't think it means steal.

>232 Morphidae: Glad we could entertain :-)

>233 scaifea: Most definitely.

235. Well, if you're yanking something away from someone, you're stealing it. ;)

Omigosh, it WASN'T a tease! You ARE posting shirtless mens in your thread! Why didn't you say so, silly girl, I'd've been here every day waiting for the latest beefcake.

Oh...sweetness...if you're heading for your 25th birthday, it means you're already 25...birthdays commemorate the END of a year.

How about "CanaCrime" for the series title? The slogan/tag line could be "They won't let you get away — and you won't want to!"

At least one episode should be "Rough and Ready in Revelstoke".

rosalita, you're wonderful! That's a great tagline!
And a good epi title too!

@Rosalita - I think we have a winner! I would so watch that show.

How about a few more episodes?

Flirty Felons in Fredricton

Fit Forgerers in Fredricton

Irresistable Investigators in Iqaluit

Temptation and Treason in Toronto

Seduction and Stalking in St. John's

Pretty Policing on Prince Edward Island

Stunning Surveillance in Saskatoon

Charming Criminals in Calgary

Winsome Witnesses in Winnipeg

Ravishing Robbers in Regina

>241 PawsforThought:: I hope that last "i" is a long one (at least it is in my head)...

242. Not sure I follow. Which "last i"? The last in the post (Regina) or the last in a particular episode title?

>242 scaifea: Regina rhymes with vagina, if that's the i you're asking about.

Zoe: It does? Yes! That's what I was hoping for!

245. Are you going to use this to annoy some poor Reginians?

Electrifying Escapees in Edmonton. (had to do one for E-town).

247. Rightly so.

245. Or are you working on CanaCrime's first fanfic?

>246 PawsforThought:: No, it just makes the title that much funnier. Clearly my humor is much more childish than everyone else here...where's Stephen when I need him...? ;)

250. More childish than the people who've spent days making up titles for a non-existing crime novel/crime show, titles like "Hot and Handcuffed in Halifax", "Muscular and Misunderstood in Moose Jaw" and "buff and Burgled in Banff"?

I think you're in very good company.

#251 I don't know what you can mean. Nothing but extremely mature, sensible and responsible adults around here, who would never indulge in daft and ridiculous behavior.

>251 PawsforThought: That comment made me laugh out loud.

252. Of course. Silly me.

#254 Consider yourself reprimanded. Your punishment is you have to choose one of the men to reprimand you. But only one ;)

19 new messages since I was here last! Well, I guess I know what I need to say to get the party started.

>237 richardderus: Helloooo Richard! Yes, my thread seems to have gotten quite popular since the introduction of the half-naked Canadians.

Very true, but it is not the reality of the situtation that scares me; rather, the bright red "25" that I will be forced to wear on my chest come April. They do that, right? Otherwise I have been woefully misinformed . . . .

>238 rosalita: CanaCrime is good; it'll bring more name recognition for our new genre.

LOL! That's my new favorite book in the series.

>242 scaifea: Ha! Vagina!

>247 MickyFine: Will you make a cameo in that one? Perhaps as a pizza delivery girl?

>250 scaifea: I think we need Stephen to make this conversation more mature. Oh Stephen, where are you?? *rattles bag of Doritos*

>251 PawsforThought: Don't forget my Google Translate skillz for Montreal.

>255 lunacat: Only one?! That is a terrible punishment.

255. Oh, what a terrible, terrible punishment. (Oh, and I don't mind what's-his-name, he's good-looking and all, but Ryan ANY DAY.)

257. Yes, you're a linguistics genius avec Google Translate.

>256 norabelle414: I could do pizza delivery girl. Although I might be more believable as either librarian (c'mon who doesn't want one of these CanaCrimes to involve a library?) or a grocery store cashier (the gig I did through all of undergrad).

Scrolling, scrolling, scroll...hello message #228!

259. There has to be libraries in CanaCrime! Of course! The detectives/spies/whatever they're playing know that the one true institution dedicated to information and service is the library - and what would an investigation be without information?

Oooh, there could be a climactic scene (minds out of the gutter, please!) in the library! Bad guys are cornered and Ryan and Niall have to take him out (assisted, obviously, by a librarian).

You mean, every single week they catch a bad guy in the library and batter them into submission with books?

250: Ummm, hello, short overweight nerdy guy in a thread of women discussing hunky men, you're on your own here! I was reading and eating chocolate.

Sigh. Thanks for backing me up, Stephen. Sheesh.

I think Regina jokes are hilarious, I was just explaining why I wasn't around.

How big is Regina? Does it have an airport?

Perhaps Regina is a rural area. In that case, there must be lots of farm animals in Regina, unless it's the kind of place that's mostly full of vegetables.

I want to see Regina someday, I know it's really far away, but I'd go to great lengths for a little piece of Regina.

Is that better? :P

*SNORK!!* Thanks, Stephen!

Let us continue this conversation somewhere more comfortable, shall we? There's wine, tea, poundcake and Doritos on my new thread, for all snacking tastes.