Richardderus 2013 thread 6

I have a category called Orphans, which will still catch all the other reading I do in 2013. Thinking 60 reviews as my target.

My 2013 ORPHANED books ticker:




I want to treat the Short Story collection challenge as a ticker-to-itself thread, thinking 48 reviews as my goal. I'll keep the thread over in the Short Stories forum.

My 2013 SHORT STORY collections ticker:




I'm going to keep a mystery-genre thread over in Crime, Thriller, and Mystery forum, with a goal of 50 reviews. Way way way too many of my reviews this year, in all forums, were mysteries and thrillers, and while I love them, I don't want to get too rut-ified and read only those books while keeping up my self-made review writing census.

My MYSTERY & THRILLER books ticker:




THIS THREAD is the 75 challenge for 2013, which will be non-fiction and non-genre-fiction books published in 2012 and 2013, plus recommendations from other 75ers.

My last thread of 2012.

My 2013 NEW books ticker:




Book 1...thread one.
Books 2 & 3...thread two.
Book 4...thread three.
Book 5...thread five.

Books are reviewed in post:

I would happily marry the lady whose shelves these are.

RD since everyone else is no doubt asleep, I will grab first spot and wish you all the very best for another installment of Book Porn and great conversation.

Yay! I slide in close to the top. *smoochies*

Oh hey look I found your thread before it reached 30 posts! :)

You've got yourself a nice new thread again, Richard, congrats!

Congratulations on the new thread Richard, and on finally having a repair man show up who actually paid attention :)

Caught this thread early! Yay!

Morning RD... Wishing you toasty warmth all day long.

Good morning! I am feeling a little better health-wise and found that I could pick up some books to read. Not sleeping all the time. Whew. Lots more antibiotics to take, though. I'll be around.

Congrats on #6, RD! Hope your week is going well.

Good morning, RD!

*smooches and gentle hugs* to you.

Love the word of the day:)

Hope your boiler is staying fixed and that you and Stella are having a good day.

Snagging a spot while there is still room! Good Morning, dear!

Top o the morning, cuz. I'm mulling over the word 'anserine'. Have to find some way to insert it into a conversation. That is the challenge of the day. And about my level. Answerine enough for you. Honk.

Good morning, Richard!

Goosies get a bad rap. They can't help it if they're dumb enough to drown themselves trying to drink rain as it falls from the sky. Oh, wait. That's domestic turkeys. And it isn't true anyway.

Good morning, and thanks for the happy new thread wishes!

>4 PaulCranswick: I love the book porn just above your post...I'd even go straight for a woman who has shelves like that, all not-tidy and not-tchotchked up.

>5 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! *smooch* back

>6 Ape: it...it...it cannot BE! The Ape visits me in my own thread! *faints*

>7 wilkiec: Thanks Diana! Glad you're here.

>8 fairywings: I can't tell you how happy I was this morning at 6a, when the temp goes from cold-so-I-can-sleep to warm-so-I-can-shower all by itself!

>9 TinaV95: Hi Tina! *smooch*

>10 maggie1944: Yoo-hoo! Keep the antibiotics on schedule, you need that tooth seen to. Tooth pain is horrible.

>11 msf59: Thanks, Mark! So far so good, reading-wise anyway.

>12 karenmarie: Good morning, dear Horrible, and much luck getting through another day of the cranky idiot gauntlet that is called "work."

>13 calm: I do too, it is, she and I are, and the same sentiments heartily returned, calm.

>14 Crazymamie: Good morning, Mamie me lurve!

>15 sibylline: Yo ho ho, cuz, now walk the plank over those puns.

No, seriously, this knife's real, get up there and do the right thing. Buh-bye now, vile punster!

>16 norabelle414: Hi Nora! Glad to see you!

>17 laytonwoman3rd: Geese aren't stupid, so much as susceptible to suggestion. Even then, though, they have a cussed streak.

Turkeys, domesticated ones, are in fact too stupid to know how to mate by themselves. I find that amusing and appalling at the same time.

Message #3, I would love that book case, but I am OCD and would have to arrange all the books neatly.

Happy Wednesday to you!

My Aunt Ada had geese on her farm...they would chase me when we came to visit. She told me to wave my arms and yell at them, because they would then be more scared of me than I was of them. I was too little and timid to take that advice, though, so she did it for me, and shoo'd them back into their pen. She loved me. I liked them a lot when they were behind wire.

Linda

"I liked them a lot when they were behind wire."

That's how I feel about a few family members. If you count Will's cousin and Aunt, then I'd have to say I would prefer they were behind an electric fence wire. Just the two of them causing misery for each other and not for others.!

Oh, I am bad!

>23 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda, and to you too.

>24 laytonwoman3rd: Timidity wasn't a problem of mine, particularly, but geese bigger than me gave me pause as a toddler. The hissing and the long snaky necks weaving around weren't making them seem to be cuddly-wuddly birdos.

>25 Whisper1: Naughty! But completely justifiable.

Oh Grand Supreme Imperial Pooh-Bah of the Multiverse,

I have been missing in action and had time only to read one thread today. I mistakenly (?) chose yours but then realized that I was 4 pages behind. However, I took my punishment and made it through. I do, however, need your clarification on two of my own verbal pet peeves.

I "axed" you to do it for me. When did hatchets get to be a verb?

IS there a way to convince the world that "she goes/he goes" is not a way to state what someone said?

As some penance for my lack of visits, here is some book porn for you.

Hi Cheli! Oooooooooooooooo "axe" as a verb!!! Ooooooooooo *steam arises from ears*

I'm less fussed about "goes" because it's so stupid that I gloss over it. I just don't hear it.

*smooch* for the book porn!

OK, you found a pet peeve: "axe" as a verb, and "he goes/she goes" as a way to describe someone's conversation is a way in which an under class of people define themselves as "us" and "they" are the ones who speak correctly and use the words "ask" and "said". It starts out as first language in the home, and only becomes a second language when the speaker learns that commerce in the wider world might require being able to speak more than one dialect.

Correcting spoken English for young people is a perilous task. I'm constantly reminding a certain 12 year old that it is not "when me and Bob"; and it is "when Bob and I". He yells at me that he does not care. Rightfully so, until he needs to care.

*crawls off the soap box*

*wanders off to read threads elsewhere*

I hope I have not made myself persona non grata here.

Why would you have done that?

Oh for gawds sake. Now I can't even play Monopoly anymore! The stupid Parker Bros people crowd-sourced the axing of one of their ancient lineup of game tokens, and the iron got it. Okay. Fine.

But what did they replace it with? The Great Unwashed spoke. It is...
...
...
...
...a cat.

Oh dear. Thank goodness they didn't replace the shoe. The shoe IS still there, right? Right, Richard?

As long as the top hat is still there, I'm alright. I don't like when they meddle with things like that, but the iron was never a token I cared about.
I always take the top hat or, if it's already snatched up, the thimble.

I thought of you when I saw the Monopoly news this morning. I was hoping you would shielded from the horror, but alas, you have heard.

One of the Hasbro spokespeople said something to the effect of 'for a long time, people have wondered since we have a dog, why not a cat?' To which I though 'why not a cow, a horse, a moose, a hamster, a sloth, or a boa constrictor?' But a cat?

I await the black market for iron pieces so we can replace the cats.

>28 richardderus: how about this axe as a verb, it is something Wilbur has said (should I be worried?)
"Im going to axe her head off"
EEK

eta: >31 richardderus: lol, I just heard that on the radio now. Poor you RD, the world is against you it seems, but at least there's no iron anymore, I never did master the use of those things

>32 Crazymamie: ...what shoe? The shoe's been gone for years! The robot replaced it.

>33 PawsforThought: I'd forgotten the thimble existed.

>34 ty1997: I'd've voted for a sloth!!

>35 LovingLit: *mental note: check w/Maude more often as Wilby gets older*

36. There's a robot? A #€&% ROBOT? Come on!

I'd've voted for a sloth!!
me too!
If I was the kind of person to have a totem animal, it's be a sloth. I love those guys. They are so, calm, yet the claws can do major damage to those inclined to interrupt a sloth's slothing about.

I am literally laughing out loud at you folks on this thread! I love the 75 group! :)

If I had to choose a new token I'd go with an owl.

Another vote for the sloth.

The shoe is gone? *sob*

>37 PawsforThought:, 42 No, the shoe is still around. I'm agitating for the robot. It was one of the choices to replace the iron. Instead of a way cool robot, we get a nasty disgusting evil cat.

>38 LovingLit:, 41 Who could resist a sloth?! I'd play it every single time!

>39 TinaV95: It's seldom boring around here.

>40 PawsforThought: 'Twasn't one of their choices.

It is "aks" not "axe" LOL!

Don't care a fig for the orthography only the iggermunt sound of it.

Richard look up Only in Laredo on Facebook. So proud of my hometown. My current favorite by the local news station "Justice of the Piece". My all time favorite is "on sale Monster (Muenster) Cheese".

>3 richardderus:: that's what mine looked like before I did a recent purge...except for the slanting thing. But Ouch re >19 richardderus: at not liking shelves all tchotchked up...family photos all over mine, plus my plastic Will Shakespeare figurine. Oh well, I'm already married. ;o)

XO

>46 luvamystery65: Oh my Laredo! Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot place. So hot. Very hot. Oh my gawd is it hot.

>47 tiffin: I grew up in tchotchke hell. What wasn't pink, had ruffles; what wasn't flat, had photos. I hate that. I have the wild urge to pick things up and drop them with a loud "oops" and "oh dear" and "clumsy me."

>48 mckait: *smooch*

Well Mr. Shakespeare is plastic, he'd just bounce. But I do understand tchotchke overload.

49 > I am picturing young you dressed in pink ruffly clothing. It's delightful.

iggermunt

And the word of the day goes to.......that's right- iggermunt!

*awards sash adorned in sloths*

I want to play as the sloth! Sloths rule, down with cats...

43. I know it wasn't one of the choices. But if I could pick anything - it'd be an owl.

Richard Dear, So glad I can see again, Yay book porn, you really burnt my retina's with the Honey Boo Boo pic in your last thread. I thought I was never going to recover LOL. So glad to hear you boiler is finally working. How are the red patches were you able to make them disappear or at least figure out what they were? I hope all is well dear!!

Glad to hear the heat is on! I sure hope the storm doesn't affect you :P

I've heard that if you play Monopoly with the sloth as your piece you have to wait 5 minutes between rolling the dice and moving your token.

#57 LOL

Loving the monopoly pieces conversations! But why were the thimble and the iron even choices at all? It seems like there should be some locomotion possible with the choice as there is with the car and the dog and now *gasp* the cat.

57: Hah! Feels that way to me every time I play Monopoly, no matter what piece I am.

>50 tiffin: My threshhold is zero. More than zero and I begin to twitch.

>51 ty1997: *shudder* Our definitions of "delightful" are polar opposites.

>52 LovingLit: The Coveted Sloth Sash Award! *does the Betty Windsor Wave* And We should like to thank the Little People whose sacrifices We appreciate....

>53 BekkaJo: If they make a sloth token, I will buy a gross of them and make myself a sloth regalia.

>54 PawsforThought: OIC

>55 MonicaLynn: The red patches are probably a skin irritation as they've begun to itch.

Or else I have leprosy and m about to die.

>56 mckait: "Nemo" will snow on us some, then rain on us some, then blow on us some. Nothing spectacular....

>57 norabelle414: Oh. Yeah, well, no.

>58 Cobscook: They needed girlie pieces. No seriously.

>59 LauraBrook: *snerk* Well then, whip it up there girlie!

Today, a dismal dank miserable lightless awful day, is appropriately enough the 201st birthday of Chuckles the Dick. As my personal contribution to the crape-hanging and mirror-covering miseries, I'd remind all who enter here that 'What the Dickens' predates the man by a few centuries. Its first recorded use is in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor - "Dickens" was a euphemism for "devil."

#60 Awfully strange and hilarious brain image of Richard surrounded by a massive monopoly piece sloth army...

57. Hahaha! Brilliant!

58. Don't say a bad word about the thimble - thimble > car and dog.

I always assumed the thinble and the iron were symbolic of the garment industry...don't know why. There have been several other tokens used and discarded over the course of the game's life. I have an old version with a cannon in it.

I see I am showing my age again...I had no idea they have changed the tokens over the years. I wasn't trying to put down the iron and the thimble honest!! LOL

>63 BekkaJo: So long as I'm not wearing pink ruffledy stuff like Tom said upthread, I'm good with that.

>64 PawsforThought: The Scottie Dog rules all. That is so obviously true as to forestall all discussion.

>65 laytonwoman3rd: Garment industry! Huh...I was told they needed pieces to appeal to "girl players." Why an IRON should appeal to anyone at all was, and is, a mystery to me. Thimbles are kinda cool.

>66 Cobscook: The first set I ever played with had a horse-and-rider token, which I've never seen again, but that set also had a cannon.

67. Scotties = bleurgh.

Hey! Don't pick on the Dog! Scotties do Rule, and if you are ever around one, don't forget your place. You will be told.

The wheelbarrow was always my favorite, because my grandmother used to give me rides in hers when I was little.

And now the Iron speaks out about being let go.

>68 PawsforThought: Oh you poor little thing! Did the head injury hurt much? Do the doctors expect full function to return one day?

>69 maggie1944: I testify, sister woman!

>70 laytonwoman3rd: Why was a cat ever even an option?

71. Haha! I'll have you know my head has never been in any accident.
I have, on the other had, been jumped on and knocked down by several dogs (of different breeds) through the years. There is a reason why I don't like dogs much...

Must've been a cat standing behind you. Every bad thing, in the final analysis, can be traced to the presence of cats.

Blizzard warning? 10-14 12-18 inches of snow???

Not a fun thing to hear. We were supposed to be out of the storm's sights! Ugh!!!

Plus there are rumors of an asteroid passing nearby

sigh

I didn't hear about this until I talked to my mother this afternoon. Philly is only supposed to get 2-5 inches, but NYC is supposed to get 12-18 inches, eastern Long Island 18 or more inches, and Boston 2 feet or more.

Northeast Braces for a Major Snowstorm

I hope that the forecast models are wrong.

>76 maggie1944: There is one passing indeed. We're supposed to be safe from it hitting the earth. Which is a good thing.

Isn't it?

>77 kidzdoc: I hope so too!!

...and now you have 60 new posts since I last visited. *Sigh* A person has to be truly committed to follow your thread, Richard, I hope you appreciate all your regular posters. :)

The dog in my grandfather's Monopoly looked like a dachshund. I always liked the car, which looked like a 40s roadster. Have never seen a set with a cat, nor a wheelbarrow.

The snow has started in earnest here (2 hours due north of Lake Ontario).

I'm loving all this monopoly chatter! Sorry to see that your hated cat become a piece, but you could always just throw the cat piece out and use the other pieces? I don't have a normal monopoly board anymore. I have Whovilleopoly instead ... got it as a present because I made the mistake of telling someone that I liked The Grinch movie when it came out ...

Hope you don't get the amount of snow that is called for! My area is due for about the same as you and I don't much care for the idea of 40cm of snow!

79... So true. Richard has legions of loyal & devoted fans! :)

Hi RD- I think all the crap we had all day, mostly rain, some sleet & snow, is heading North East. Buckle-up, my friend.

This is The Onion's take on the latest USPS announcement. Pretty freakin' funny:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/postal-service-and-wait-until-you-cocksuckers-s...

It was clear and cold here tonight; but I think I smell Spring i the air! Hope this storm is less dramatic than the forecasters are making it out to be. Please. I have friends.....

>79 Ape: Has to be committed? As in, placed in custodial care? Hmmm

>80 tiffin: The cat is the new piece, Tui, so none of us has seen it in a set yet, and I for one won't be seeing it at all! The wheelbarrow, I admit, is fuzzy to me. I saw a set with a lantern once. It was OLD.

>81 ChelleBearss: I don't know where the Monopoly board is, Chelle, but there's one around here and honestly I don't see replacing it any time soon. No danger of ne getting a cat-infested game. No sirree bob!

>82 TinaV95: Hi Tina! Legions of loyal and devoted fans?! You have me confused with Paul Cranswick!

>84 msf59: I saw that on FB, Mark, and about laughed myself into an aneurysm! Hit that on the head, didn't they? *chuckle*

>85 maggie1944: Oh yes indeed, from your keyboard to the goddess's inbox! I don't want 50mph winds plus 18in of snow!! NONONONONONONO

I've reviewed the 4.5-star short story collection Widow: Stories by Michelle Latiolais in my thread...post #16. Simply put, excellent stuff.

Good thing I already have a Monopoly set! I can't believe it is now a collector's set.

Oh, yes, by 'committed' I meant 'certifiably insane,' of course. ;)

>87 richardderus: Nice review, and a thumb from me to you.

I hope you have plenty of reading and bacon laid in for the blizzard!
Stay warm :)

Widow: Stories.....now you've done it! I'm off to hunt this one down. I love the genre and your reviews have never led me astray as to quality of writing. Smooches.

And......(dare I believe it?) Amazon Kindle version actually contains real page numbers!! Be still mah beatin' heart.

>89 Ape: Of course, just being sure.

>90 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl!

>91 mckait: No bacon, I ate that, but a solid oodle of reading. I am as prepared as an old crip can be for Snowmageddon.

>92 tututhefirst: *goggles* ACTUAL PAGE NUMBERS?! How did they let this slip through? Report the fault immediately, Tina, so they can convert it to inconvenient mode!

I think you'll very much enjoy the read.

swooping by with a *smooch* ere i fly out the door to the allergy shot store. i worry about all y'all and the Flying Snow Monster. by the time i get back, y'uns will be under a frosty siege.

never could find the beginning of the sloth thread. i dote on the sloth. just found out about honey badgers. fascinating to look at, terrifying to contemplate. holy cow. no wonder they're not at all endangered. they endanger or ignore all threats.



mwah mwah

Hi there Ellie! We're not due to get Snowmageddon until around 7p.

I just hope the weatherguessers are wrong again!

ETA Rory the Type A Sloth

#92 tututhefirst - you make me laugh. Page numbers indeed! At bookclub the other night fellow member Nancy and I were discussing the next read, Then Again by Diane Keaton. Nancy said that she'd read 42% of it - I had to think a minute before I realized that she was reading it on her Kindle.

Hang in there, RD! Hope the weather guessers are wrong, but don't think so.

I love Rory!

*smooch*

*smooch* back, me ol' Horrible!

Book porn!

#98 My kinda book shelves - except I'd probably commit the heresy of adding a few well placed tschokes

>68 PawsforThought: Im not fond of scotties really either, but that monopoly piece is satisfying to hold, something about its robustness I think.

Oh my- that's some books there on them shelves.
Quick- $1000 goes to the person who gets best estimate of how many!

No non-book stuff for me. Just books.

I like the way the top shelves are all filled up and organized and the closer you get to the middle the more ... activity.... there is. Bottom shelves have activity but not as much as the middle shelves.

I want them.

tchotchke. oh girl, oh girl! new word. and they actually make tchotchke shelves? who knew?

my kind of bookshelf, too. but 'cept if i put tchotchkes, the books would squarsh 'em.

>95 richardderus: Good to see my family getting some publicity.

Loved your review of Widow:Stories Richard. Big thumb from me!

ooooo I like those bookshelves above.

Good luck with the storm. We've had mostly wind rather than snow.

But, but, but...all those leaning books, if straightened up, would make room for another 50 books or so! What a waste! Now the setup is similar to my Elfa shelves although mine are on a smaller scale (7 shelves, 6.5 feet long). If I had a wall that big, though...

Roni, my first thought was that they were wasting some good shelving space too! What a loverly set-up though. And to have a whole wall that size, without a window/door/alcove/fireplace would be wunnerful too!

*smooch* to you Richard, that you make it through the storm in good shape. Shame about no bacon, though.

Rory the Type A Sloth was hilarious! I'm off to google some more...

Good luck with the upcoming storm, my friend! It looks like a nasty one. I hope you are safe and prepared.

Goodness! It even snowed here today in my Southern California town! I pulled my kidlet out of school early and got to see the California kids run to the doors/windows (with their teacher's permission) and ooooh and aaaah over it. It struck me, a native Midwesterner, as very funny.
And awesome. XD

I've written my review of the curiously monotonous, though quite well-written, collection of Southern American Black Male stories called I Got Somebody in Staunton. I gave it three stars. Review is in my thread...post #19.

>99 tututhefirst: Heresy! Evil! Sinful!!

>100 LovingLit: Heh, so I guess a bajillion and nobody can prove me wrong!

Amazon money will do fine.

>101 karenmarie: I want the wall space!!

>102 mirrordrum: "Tchotchke" is so old-had to me I can't imagine when I learned it. Learning to spell it came years and years later, though. Mama had a tchotchke shelf, it was called a "vitrine." Had spindly little gilded legs and foofy little carvings and shit all over it. It had little thises and thatses all inside it too.

I broke it. It was an accident. It was, I swear.

Heh.

>103 jnwelch: *snort* So you're the Type A Sloth!

>104 phebj: Thank you, Pat! I appreciate the comment and the thumb.

>105 sibylline: They're enviably expansive, aren't they?

Just saying hi.

>106 ronincats: True, they would, and someday no doubt will. But the first rule of shelf-building is to leave room for collection growth! And as you point out, the expanse of wall is *divinely* large.

>107 LauraBrook: Hi Laura! I like the "Savage Chickens" cartoons. Rory the Type A Sloth is but one amusing panel. So far no major issues, since we still have power.

>108 msf59: It does *look* nasty...maybe it's saving itself for the overnight hours. Gawd I hope not!

>109 avidmom: Isn't it cute when kids get that first glimpse of snow? Makes me all warm'n'fuzzy. Wait...no...that's my sweatpants. Never mind.

ETA >112 jadebird: Hi Ren! *smooch*

Thanks. That makes me feel better. :)

Good! You did sorta sneak in mid-stream, so I hadda adda howdy. So you get the smooch!

All this chatting about Monopoly pieces means I need to pull down the ladder to the attic, climb up the steps and try to find my old Monopoly game amid the stacks of old toys, old photos, Will's computer graveyard, and boxes of clothes that he and I set aside in the hope that one day they will actually fit.

If you don't hear from me again, you will know that I am lost in the black hole of Linda in Unwonderland.

I sorta feel like I'm getting a cold, so of course I want attention. Smooch accepted with gratitude.

>116 Whisper1: Heh, the attic space isn't Wonderland, Linda? I haven't seen the attic or the loft over the garage in years. I think I'd be like Ali Baba finding the cave! "Ooo why is THIS up here? Where has *that* been!"

>117 jadebird: *there there, pat pat*

>110 richardderus: Heh, so I guess a bajillion and nobody can prove me wrong!
Amazon money will do fine.
I think a bajillion could be a tad high, so I am witholding the (Monopoly) money from you for now.
hehe

Good luck with your storm, do you really need another one, I mean you did just get one recently. (*ahem* storm hogger)

I'm wishing I could have invited you all over for breakfast. It is chilly, but clear, here. We have predictions of a dry, almost warm, week.... mid 50s. I'll have to go clean up my back yard now but that is small beans compared to having to shovel snow.

I hope,miracle of miracles, that you do not lose power this time. POWER UP AT RICHARD'S

I hope that works, pretty simple magic chant but it might work....

Hmmm. LInda, now you have me wondering if I still have that old Monopoly game in my attic! lol
Do you have power rd?

LOL at Megan...

Good book porn as usual RD but them there shelves were not full. Send them over to Malaysia and I'll get 'em double stacked and groaning.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one bothered by the leaning books!
It is lovely book porn though despite the mess ;)

>119 LovingLit: The money! Noooo! I need my grand for Amazon purchases!!

>120 maggie1944: It did, since we never lost power at all. It's been roasty-toasty all during Snowmageddon, which (here) meant ~14in/30cm of snow -- or, as we called it back before cable TV, "it snowed last night."

>121 mckait: All nice 'n' powered up! *smooch*

>122 PaulCranswick: I wonder if the poor shelved would survive the experience, Paul! You're the bookshelf's version of Simon Legree, you are.

>123 ChelleBearss: Mess? It looks used and loved to me. I detest tidiness.

I don't much like her writing, but I do like this quote a lot.

hehe, I was about to say, I bet there's a few people out there who wished she had not....breathed or sang or cried out, but mainly that she had not written. Having not read her writings, I couldn't possible comment. :)
She sounds an interesting person though.

>127 LovingLit: She herownself was fascinating, but The Delta of Venus was so humidly female a book that I recoiled in revulsion, and her diaries were so overheatedly onanistic that I recoiled further.

I finally got up the nerve to write a review of Guards! Guards!. It's in my Orphans thread...post #38.

It only got three stars because there are a couple of quotes I liked enough to add to my collection.

....and dont even get me them started on Atlas Shrugged....

Are we talking about Atlas Shrugged?

Anaïs Nin was a great favorite of mine when I was in my "over-heated" 30s. I could not read more than one or two sentences today, I think.

Megan, I think you're confusing Anais Nin with Ayn Rand. I agree with your sentiment, however, as well as yours, RD, about the,diaries. Yuck.

129. Might be a stupid question, but what does Anaïs Nin have to do with Atlas Shrugged?

Thanks, Paws. Saved me from asking it.

I suspect Judy's right, Nin was confused for Rand.

I've written my review of How to Be Alone: Essays, Jonathan Franzen's collection of personal reflections, over in my Orphans thread...post #42.

Underwhelmed.

>131 ffortsa: um, yes. You are very correct. That is exactly who I was confusing Nin for. *woops*

>134 richardderus: underwhelmed by Franzen's essays? EEK, off to see why.

135. I thought that might be it but as I've never read Nin and only read a little of Rand (I couldn't stomach much) I wasn't sure if I was missing something or not.

I really liked your review of How to Be Alone: Essays, Richard. The one and only book I've read of Franzen's was Freedom and I enjoyed it. I'm going to look for this book of essays in the library because I think I'd like the one on his father's decline and I've never read the Harper's essay.

>137 phebj: Thanks Pat, I think those two are a good reason to borrow the book, esp. if you've enjoyed his other work.

RD- Sounds like you are doing okay in NY! 14 inches of snow is a lot but I guess it's better than some areas. How are the streets?

Ours is plowed, and the main roads seem to be in good shape, too. That's in our village, of course. There look to be bigger problems out east than here.

A good Saturday evening and a happy Sunday to you, Rdear.

I too find Nin's work to be less than whelming.

My son collects Monopoly games, and as such, he owns a 1935 edition. The "Playing Pieces" are differently shaped wooden things that look like pawns. The houses and the hotels are also wooden, as are the dice. Another in his collection is the National Park edition. Those pieces are: a bear, a tent, a robotic-looking backpacker, a covered wagon, a hiking boot, a Smokey the Bear hat, a cannon, and a canoe.

I should look at his Dogopoly and see what those pieces are.....

I remember Monopoly with wooden houses and hotels but the playing pieces were made of some sort of metal. We used to play for hours. I guess it was intended to make good little capitalists out of us all but because I really "sucked" at the game, I became a socialist. Ha!

Monopoly changed for me when it went to a debit card instead of paper money. Both my sisters kill me at the game, anyway...

I'm just glad they didn't get rid of the thimble.

A debit card? That sounds so weird.

Monopoly changed for me when it went to a debit card instead of paper money.
WHAT?

*disgusted*

>141 Matke: Because it's kind of squicky. Yeah.

>142 tloeffler: Gosh! So many variations on Monopoly it's hard to imagine how he'd ever find them all.

>143 maggie1944: I think they were lead. I know I used to be able to twist them into unrecognizability when I was just a wee thing. (Pissed my sisters off, which was a bonus.)

>144 bell7:, 145, 146 WHAT?!?!? That HAS to be a goof, right?! No way! Nonono!

I have Dino-oply, now, very cool fossil motif (sorry about contributing to your agony, Richard).

Okay, I admit that I'm just skimming through, trying to find out how folks are reacting to the new Monopoly piece. It's a cat. It was a vote. Let the people decide!
Hard to argue with replacing a piece representing household chores. Yuck.

Hi Richard :)

I catch you more often on FB than here, but just stopped to say hello :)

I love Monopoly, had one year or two of my life when I would play every Sat for hrs with my brother and his wife. The kids left us alone after few times in which they could not keep up with the arguments and yelling about plastic houses, and paper money :))

I guess the perpetual negotiator in me loves it. I don't even mind if I do not win, as long as I get to tell everybody what they should negotiate and ask for so they get more money :D

Running now, have a great day and look... i found a nice library to dream about :P

Just sharing cos it's a Monopoly funny... it got banned in my Dad's house when he was a boy - three brothers, single mother... it was banned after my Nana had to stitch one of the boys head up (lucky she was a nurse) after a Monopoly 'incident'. Dad has never played since :) Nana was a tiny lady but I think she put the fear into them after that particular debacle!

LOl @ Monopoly banning, but I admit...we had a rowdy game or two here, too!
I hated playing LIFE. I loved Playing SCRABBLE...Monopoly was in between..

So are things back to normal in your neighborhood rd?

Morning Richard Dear, Stopping by to say Hello and glad to hear you weathered the storm well and didn't lose power. Love the book porn :) As far as monopoly I enjoy the game once in while if I had anyone to play it with. Maybe for your sake the shoe will kick the cat ;) just kidding I personally wouldn't kick the cat but we all know your dislike for them LOL.. Anywhoo, here in Northwestern PA we didn't get alot of snow thank goodness but when I arose this morning my thermometer said 14 degrees F. Brrr.. Although it is supposed to warm up some soon. Hope you stay warm and snuggled up and don't lose poor Stella in that snow..

Happy Sunday, Richard!

I'm blessed with springlike weather here. Will be driving into town to Meet-Up with some lovers of Books On The Nght Stand, and Booktopia Bellingham, at Elliott Bay Books. Could be interesting.

Lucky for me I'm not lusting after any new acquisitions just now and having played with all the new TBR books I'm aware of how much reading I've set myself to do. Maybe I'll get a little done before I leave.

Meantimes, I hope today is a sweet day for you and the lovely Stella.

Mornin' Rdear. Have you read other of Waltari's books? I'm tempted by The Etruscan, since I know less than nothing about them, and by The Roman, as I know quite a lot about them. Are they much of a muchness, thus needing to be read, say, a year or so apart?

Please pat Stella for me and have a g. and t. as soon as the sun's over the yardarm. Or just have a mimosa right now.

((Hugs)) and xx smooches xx

Please stay safe and warm - snuggling with Stella should help with the latter :)

#144 Debit card?? We just received a Monopoly set for Christmas, and it had the usual paper money.

Howdy do, all and sundry. It's sunshiney and a hair over freezing point today. All our roads are plowed and the essentials are all good. Yay!

Yay!

>149 jadebird: I think that one sounds cool! "I wanna be the ammonite! MMMOOOMMM!! He won't let me be the ammonite! Can I hit him with the stegosaurus?"

>150 EBT1002: The cat violates my civil rights. Who ever heard of voting on something as important as Monopoly tokens? I mean, President sure fine great, no way is that going to have the impact of a major iconic game piece. Even one that represents the grimmest of household chores, below even plunging the toilet.

>151 tigerlyly: Hi Liliana! How's the new job working out? *smooch*

Bright sunny here too, but so many big drifts, our little plow man is having to go Verrrrrrr slowwwly to plow out all the private roads (state and town boys only do the big ones). So we are watching the sun melt down some of the snow, but also dreading the ice layer that will now form on roads.

We have plenty of sand/ice melt (ashes from the fireplace make great traction on icy surfaces) but when you can't open the doors to get out.......................

So Coffee, reading, stitching, and just plain relaxing is in store. Glad your furnace is working and hope the coffee has arrived in your mug. Smooches....

>152 BekkaJo: Monopoly: Full Contact Version was not unknown in my youth, either. No one ever needed stitches, though.

>153 mckait: Scrabble has always been my fave rave. *smooch* All is well!

>154 MonicaLynn: Monica! *smoochiesmoochsmooch* Ughickyuckptui on fourteen degrees, I hate to say it since I loathe heat so much but that's TOO cold.

>155 maggie1944: Happy Sunshine, Karen44! Have a wonderful meet-up, and keep your resistance high. Elliott Bay could prove disastrous to your budget otherwise.

>156 Matke: I read The Etruscan once a long time ago, and never got around to The Roman. I didn't feel there was any special need to separate the reads back then, but I was under 20 at the time and more of a reading machine than I am now.

Stella sends rightward wags and a small hand-slurp.

>157 alcottacre: *smooch* back, dear Stasia!

>158 laytonwoman3rd: Heh, I'm sure Mary's just funnin' with the old folk, Linda3rd. She's unaware of how very *dangerous* it is to yank the chains of old and nostalgic people whose entire lives are subject to change, and who therefore respond with Extreme Prejudice to Perceived Threats....

>160 maggie1944: Agreed!

>162 tututhefirst: Not able to get out the door...oh my...that FB photo you posted of the bucket vanishing made me think of the dog-walking implications. Still, melting will take care of the problem. Black ice is always the most unpleasant part of a snowstorm's legacy.

Need more coffee. Must procure. *smooch*

>145 ffortsa:, 146, 147, 158 etc. - Maybe it's a special edition thingummy, but it's what they have at my parents' house. You have a card loaded with money (I think you start with 2 million, everything's more expensive), and to pay your rent for properties, you put one card in one side of a machine, the other person's card in the other, and tell how much to take from one and put in the other. My fifteen-year-old sister's always the banker 'cause I never figured out how to use the thing.

But it's nice to know that most normal new Monopoly sets are not like this.

>166 bell7: NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

How unbearably ickily cyber! Hideousness!!!

>167 richardderus: Oh, just figured out what it's called - Monopoly: Electronic Banking

Yeah, definitely not my thing...

*tackles Richard with a hug and smooch* Oh, you have no idea how I've missed your thread! I love the Grandiloquent words. Falcate and anserine? I learn something new every day.

Glad you're doing all right today, and that the roads are plowed and that everything is together.

169. The TARDIS going to Hogwarts? Oh, you're wonderful!

#170 - In my head canon, it EXISTS. This is not something that is photoshopped and giffed together - it's real. Nobody tell me that isn't!

>169 ErisofDiscord: *smoochiesmoochsmooch* Eris!! You're back! How wonderful, and I agree with Paws that the GIF is the bee's knees!

171. Oh, head canon is a wonderful thing. And as I firmly believe the versions of various books/TV-shows/movies/whatever that I have in my head is canon I'm certainly not going to tell you your version is wrong.

Hey ho, RD!

Glad you've got power. Bad that it's below freezing.

Husband is running the generator, as he does every month or so to make sure it's working. I would like some snow, but not 2 feet or so. Whenever anything I remotely not normal, we lose power. Stinkin' Duke/Progress Energy.

Glad you didn't get too much snow and have your power.

I'll be posting a great Tardis photo soon on my thread. At my daughter's high school they have Winter Races this week - the school is designed in a large rectangle (with inner lines straight across the longer sides - anyhow they make wild contraptions with wheels, with a seat for one person and handles on the outside and the teams 'run' them around the perimeter rectangle - prizes for the coolest, fastest, funniest etcetera. Everyone in the school loves it - anyway - there's never been a Tardis but we got a new refrigerator recently and they all took one look at it and grabbed the box and ran with it. It's not quite finished so I have to wait...... but it is a thing of beauty!

Hi Horrible! It's going to get close to 50 tomorrow, with rain (blech), but it's a lot better than 14in of snow melting and refreezing. Black ice is scary.

Black ice= good for nothing

Take care RD, dont go anywhere :)

Well Richard after having 14 degrees this morning it is now at 41 degrees here in Northwestern PA and we are looking for Rain what a difference a few hours makes!!

>169 ErisofDiscord: love the tardis, which is OF COURSE real.

*smooch*

And now I will dare to tell you that MY version of Monopoly--it was a gift, mind you, and it's never been opened--is this:



You note that NONE of the pieces are cats, however.

166 -- That 'electronic banking' version of Monopoly just sounds terrible! Give me the old version any day!

Roni - I'm thinking you may have just given RD a heart attack, panic attack or seizure by the previous post / picture!! ;0)

Black ice: I totaled my Mustang on black ice one winter. I have a experienced fear of it. I. do. not. drive. in. icy. weather. Period. No discussion.

I finished Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight. If you like quirky autobiographies, this one is a good one! I put a review on the book page.

Next, I'm reading the book I bought at Elliott Bay Books. Could not help myself, but the good news is that I only bought one book. Buying The Farm: Peace and War on a Sixties Commune. I knew some people who were involved with the commune and I need to revisit my "childhood", so to speak.

The Meet-up was fun. Met three women who will also be going to the Bellingham Booktopia and one young man who was promoting his book. All were charming and we had a lovely conversation about books, movies, and various fun things one can find on-line. I did however find myself resenting that it takes 35 miles of freeway driving for me to get to Elliott Bay Books, and more so, how much My City is changing! Wow. It took me a little extra driving around to find it, and I had to ask a "man on the street": "hey, where's Elliott Bay Books"? He allowed as much as it was on kind of a short, hard to find street, but he did give me great directions. This is in a neighborhood where I lived when I was in 7th grade! How humiliating.

>177 LovingLit: Thanks, Mignon, I'm in for the duration.

>178 MonicaLynn: Hi Monica! *smooch*

>179 mckait: I won't even play like I don't think so too.

>180 ronincats:

Let me make it up to you, Richard Dear. I see that there are airings on TLC tonight of Honey BooBoo's Halloween, Thanksgiving, AND Christmas. I'll be watching the Grammies, but didn't want you to miss out.

>181 TinaV95: Hi Tina! I know, can you even imagine having an ATM kind of a thing in Monopoly?! Horrible.

>182 maggie1944: Upgethumbed the review, and looked up the memory lane ramble. My eldest sister wasn't commune-y and my second sister had rich boyfriends who bought her things, so that facet of the hippie culture passed me by.

Oh, dear.

>187 ronincats: ...and you are...?

>180 ronincats:, etc. LOL!! Love it.

Poor Richard....

I hope you're managing in the storm, Richard. Do you have anyone coming over to shovel and salt your driveway for you?

182. I wish I had the choice of not driving in icy weather. Unfortunately, if I did that I wouldn't be able to hold down a job. I hate driving in winter, the ice in and of itself is bad enough but when paired with drifting snow and bad sight due to both snow and near round-the-clock darkness - it's hell.

I hate icy roads too. I hear another storm may be forming ? BOOO!
So, rd are you important spots cleared so you can get in and out with ease?

Dh paused briefly in his channel surfing (oh, the agony; thanks be that I have earplugs) and said, "What the hell IS this?" at the Honey BooBoo fest. "Never mind, Darling, just change the channel before your eyes start to bleed." He was horrified by it.

Hope your day goes smoothly and with as little pain as possible.

*smooch*

>189 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! *smooch*

>190 cameling: All done, and as of now it's raining so the remaining snow will dissolve shortly. Yay. Happy New Year!

>191 PawsforThought: Wintertime driving is always challenging in snow-and-ice climates, but I suspect the gloomy half-light contributes to the most accidents.

>192 mckait: Indeed I do! Did you get your schedule yet?

>193 Matke: Thanks awfully, old thing, and same back atcha! *smooch*

I still have my old 1960s version of Monopoly, complete with the old money and supplemented by money from some other games I got rid of over the years. It's in a box that is falling apart, but that just means it is much-loved. I have to admit though, that some of the new versions sound intriguing, but not ones that would use debit cards.

>195 thornton37814: The whole electronic-payment Monopoly idea makes me uneasy. Something about the idea of divorcing value from paper makes my readerly heart quail.

Yes, there is great value in the tangible nature of money, even play money. I usually use a credit card when I spend, because it enables me to keep track better, but if my budget were to get tight, I think I'd switch to cash because of its power to restrain my spending.

194. "Gloomy half-light". Well if it were that. Most of the time it's just pitch black.

black ice= the steps of the university building where I work.
It was scary this morning. Neck fusion that is starting to fuse + ice do not equal a comfortable feeling.

Judy, how right you are that cash has the power to restrain spending. My grandmother never owned a charge card and did not believe in "buying things on time", which was the expression pre charge card.

Roni--catopoly? Most likely this is on your do not give me for Christmas list Richard.

Good to hear you're dug out from the heavy snow, Richard. Somehow Nemo doesn't sound very scary compared to Snowmaggedon.

I do NOT know how I got so far behind on your thread. I am shocked that by the time I got all the way down here, this thread was still going. Sorry, Richard! But I was glad to learn that you were just joking about the shoe because it is my personal favorite. I still have the one from my parents' Monopoly set because one year my Dad gave me this little ring box with a tag that said: A token of my affection. Inside the box - the shoe from the Monopoly game of course!

We have The Chicago Cubs version of Monopoly. Buy and sell players.

Stopping by to get caught up and to wish you a good week, Richard! 'Full Contact' Monopoly is a new on for me. I am just happy they kept the wheelbarrow..... how else is one to cart one's loot around? As of the electronic-payment Monopoly..... isn't that kind of how - insert bankers as players here - we hit this economic crisis in the first place.....just commenting.... ;-P

>197 ffortsa: Hi Judy...there's nothing quite like handing cash money to another person to make it clear you have LESS than you did before. Cards can't do that.

>198 PawsforThought: That would get depressing to me.

>199 Whisper1: Oh my goodness I can imagine why not, Linda! Very uneasy-making.

>200 jnwelch: Snowmageddon has a ring to it, doesn't it? And Nemo, pace Jules Verne, means a clown fish to me now. Naming storms, well, jeez.

>201 Crazymamie: Ha! Like the birthday card my mother gave me one year: "Here's something shiny and new to drive!" Inside was taped a nail.

To be fair, there was also a car, but that was a real heart-stopper.

>202 cindysprocket: That sounds like fun!

>203 lkernagh: Hi Lori...fully agree with you there. *smooch* for stopping in!

Hi RD- Just checking in. Thanks for the P.O. article. It really touched on everything perfectly.

Just swinging through on my way to RL Book Club where we will discuss Guards! Guards!. Karen Pearl-ruled it and my reactions were spot on with the review you wrote a little while ago. I wonder if others in the group will have more positive things to say about it. Perhaps those who are younger and still believe on some level that they will be able to read everything they want before they die.

I'm glad you're getting rain instead of snow now!

Good morning my friend. What sorts of things are happening in your world today... ?
Whatever they are, I hope they are all good.

Good morning. Hope the snow is melting away and little signs of Spring are popping up.

Yesterday's RL book group discussed, and mostly loved, Guards! Guards!. I think I was the only person who stopped reading it.

I brought all the swag from the ALA for people to handle, and possibly borrow. I think I went home with about 10 fewer books and there were only 4 people borrowing! Books are so tempting, aren't they!

Hope you have a grand day.

>206 msf59: The Shrub administration and its Congressional hench-rats shouldn't get away with taking away the USPS from us so their disgusting greedy owners can make even more money. From whose pockets do the sheeple think this money is coming anyway?

>207 EBT1002: Me too on rain vs snow; hope you enjoyed your discussions!

>208 mckait: *smooch* thanks me lurve

>209 maggie1944: Why am I unsurprised that people mostly loved it? I suspect I'm flawed in some heretofore unsuspected way in that this will be the only Pratchett I consume because, well, why?

Stand strong, soul sister!

Yeup.

Behind again, RD. Smooches as I swing through!

>212 TinaV95: *slings smooches back at swinging Tina*

>211 richardderus:: oh YES! But sometimes they are so good that while we are reading them, we ARE in them and they seem more real than our reality...if you get what I mean.

>214 tiffin: Agreed, Tui, sometimes coming down from the "high" of immersion in a really good book is almost as bad as kicking smack.

Not that I would know from experience.

It takes a really good book to do that now but when I was a kid, that's how reading always was...I hated being called for supper or made to go to bed.

>183 richardderus:/186 woah, looks like the "talk to the hand" treatment from RD! lol

>201 Crazymamie: one year my Dad gave me this little ring box with a tag that said: A token of my affection. Inside the box - the shoe from the Monopoly game of course!
That is such a sweet and thoughtful gift!! What a guy your dad sounds.

>215 richardderus: me too RD. That feeling of chasing that high is tough. Aaaaaah, the book high.... I mean can anything really live up to A Tale of Two Cities?
*dig over*

*titter snigger guffaw*

We have the Lord of the Rings Monopoly game, of course.

I long to buy the Doctor Who monopoly. I'm just not sure I'd play it. I'd always end up cheating at the end of every Monopoly game I've ever played.

#211 = (-:

I love that room, and the shelves, and the sentiment.

Happy Day, Evening, whenever it is chez toi!

Hallo, RD!

*smooches* from your own Horrible

#211: Exactly!

((Hugs)) and xx smooches xx, RD

>216 tiffin: It takes so much more for me to get *interested* in a book than it used to, still less become ensorcelled that way.

>217 LovingLit: Heh...Roni knows I'm playin' with her.

So A Sale of Two Titties did that for you, did it? Ah, I see. *calls International League of Unfit Parent Removers for a pickup*

>218 sibylline: I suppose the money is all food, and the tokens are rings?

>219 ErisofDiscord: Bags I the TARDIS token in perpetuity throughout space and all alternates thereto!

>220 maggie1944: Thanks Karen44, you too! *smooch*

>221 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! *smooch*

>222 alcottacre: Stasia! How wonderful! *smooch*

Book porn!

Well, many of the RL book club folks thought Guards! Guards! was swell, but I thought it was absurd and almost lousy. Karen loathed it. Still, we're all dandy book folks who are disinclined to squabble, so we had a lovely time. On the way home I enjoyed my bit of solitude (thankfully the traffic was light so the commute went flawlessly). By the way, this weekend P and I are planning to have a delightful time on the breathtaking Olympic Peninsula. And, with reading time being so precious, I wish I had the audacity to call in sick tomorrow and stay home reading my sorrowful novel, eating scrumptious chocolates, and contemplating my cat.

My proper mother taught me not to stay up to late so I must put on my pajamas (in which I look downright fetching) and skedaddle. Otherwise I shall feel peckish in the morning.

I realize that I did omit several gruesome possible examples of this abominable wit.

*smooch*

#225 - I'm proud to say that I use most of those words on a regular basis. It's the fault of all the British telly I watch and the books I read! They seep into your brain after a while. What you let in affects who you are, I suppose.

>228 ErisofDiscord: Actually, I use a fair number of them pretty often, as well. Maybe not "cleave."

225. Like Eris and Ellen, I use many of those words regularyl. Especially "lovely" (which you'll notise if you skim through a couple of my posts).
I think "baldersdash" and "skedaddle" are my favourites in that list - I'm going to try and use them more often. I'm at work now and should not be whiling my time away on LT so I'll skedaddle and get back to you later (see!)

Hmmm seems Pratchett is not for everyone but then nor is Dickens or Franzen ...... variety is the spice of life !

#226 Drooling over that room. Although I probably wouldn't last long in there before I started rearranging shelves.

As usual, not much to say... but wanting to be sociable and say hello to my friend...

>225 richardderus:: grand list of words and pleased that I do use these somewhat regularly.
>226 richardderus:: oh my yes! Even a sturdy desk for reading the thumpers.

It's abominable how discombobulated I get when I visit your breathtaking, resplendent thread, Richard.

>235 jnwelch:: mayhap you are in thrall to his fetching audacity?

>236 tiffin: Yes, it's true, Tui. Even when there's a hullabaloo or squabble going on here, I find his winsome wit enthralling.

I no longer feel secure.

And I'd like to add: "secure"??? Really?? That's a word I might have omitted from this list.

The list is a lie. It does not contain the best of all possible words: laspididious. It is a word my father may have invented. When you Google it, the only hits are to posts of mine. I hereby grant everyone full usage rights. I refuse to tell you what it means, however, so take care.

>227 EBT1002: Oh how simply abominable that your audacity is so far in desuetude (my addition to the list)! I myownself am a bit book-peckish, so I would have an abominable time turning my hand to any purpose.

>228 ErisofDiscord: It does! And good on ya for using any of them regularly. I am afraid to use "winsome" and "plump" too terribly often, as there are many persons of femaleness to whom those are not acceptable word-choices.

>229 EBT1002: I can't remember ever using "cleave" in any converational setting. That is outside the ever-so-winsome (!) joke about Beaver Cleaver.

>230 PawsforThought: "Balderdash" is a wonderful word! I want to ramp up its presence, too.

>231 roundballnz: Yes indeed, variety is good! Except Dickens. Dickens isn't variety, but rather abominable claptrap.

>232 fairywings: Heh! Not being a neat person, I'd have the same effect but in reverse.

>233 mckait: Hi sweetness! *smooch*

>234 tiffin: I like the variety of the words listed. And yes, that's one scrumptious desk! We mustn't squabble over who uses it. That would be abominable.

>235 jnwelch: "Discombobulate" is such a wonderful word, isn't it? Communicates flawlessly the precise meaning it has.

>236 tiffin: Fetching! I've never in all my life been called fetching!

>237 jnwelch: Hullabaloo means "1960s dance show that wasn't American Bandstand to me.

>238 EBT1002:, 239 I think the list is meant to move words that are in some way aesthetically pleasing to the top of one's list. It's the only reason I can think of that "secure" or "intrude" or "purpose" are on there.

>240 laytonwoman3rd: "Laspididious"? What a weird word. *skedaddles off to find context for it*

>243 richardderus: Yes, that's the Hullabaloo we meant. Every once in a while a 60s dance show seems to break out here.

#226 - I adore that room. Big comforter, stretched out on that lovely old chesterfield with a marvelous book...... happy thoughts.

One of my favorite words is hence - wasn't on your list, but isn't that common.

It's abominable how discombobulated I get when I visit your breathtaking, resplendent thread, Richard.

*hopes no one notices the post I stole off Joe*

hi Richard dear

here is some book-porn for you, I was in Germany for vacation and visited the Karl May museum in Radebeul, this is his library:


hugs
Anita

Drive by smoochies :)

I've reviewed Death of a Cozy Writer, first in a series about Inspector St. Just the Cornish policeman, in my thread...post #34.

This series by author G.M. Malliet is one I will follow, unlike her later Max Tudor series which got off on the wring foot with me.

Hullaballoo is every bit as lovely as shenanigans, which is one of my personal favorites.

Poor Max,I rather like him

>245 jnwelch: Huh...why wasn't I invited?! It's my thread, after all.

>246 karenmarie: I like "hence" too, Horrible. We'll lead the recrudescence of that one ourselves, shall we?

>247 LovingLit: *blink* That sounds familiar, Maude....

>248 FAMeulstee: Anita, how lovely to see you! And such scrumptious book porn, too! I love the look of the library, even those kooky curtains.

*smooch* for seeing a welcome face

>249 BekkaJo: *smoochings* right back, Bekka!

>251 Crazymamie: Mamie me lurve! So glad you're here. Shenanigans and malarkey are excellent, and underused, words indeed. But hullabaloo is so tainted with dance-show effluvium that I don't know if I can get behind its revival.

>252 mckait: Hiya smoochums...well, I won't be competing with you for the available supply of those books, so that's a good thing, right?

Mamie, we know that shenanigans is a favorite of yours.

I also like sesquipedalian.
And crepuscular.

>255 EBT1002: "Sesquipedalian" is as good as "elephantine." I'm always in two minds about "crepuscular," since it's got "pus" in the middle.

Right~ Hey... There is a slim chance I am going to be in NY ( for like a day) in June....

I like "ish kabibble" which my 2107 Curious Word Origins,Sayings & Expressions from White Elephants to Song & Dance says no one knows from whence it came. It was thought to be Yiddish for "what me worry?" but experts say no, that is not right.

*wham bam thwack*

This is the Thread Police!

When I use most of the words listed in daily conversation I get blank stares. I have to try to find synonyms that are understandable. I've learned to do it pretty well, because in my first nursing home job a friend pulled me to the side to tell me that no one understood the words I was using. *I didn't really think I had all that stellar of a vocabulary, but when you work in health care you'd be amazed at what folks of all ages DON'T know.

Anyhoosie, now I talk and write (sorry y'all) like a normal person (for the South) and folks relate to me very well. UNLESS I have a migraine or any sort of headache. It's like my brain can't get the more basic word and I find myself using larger words because I'm in pain. That's the weirdest thing for me.... losing the synonyms that I have to reach for instead of the words that feel more natural to my brain.

Sorry for the long hi-jack story RD. You started it! ;-)
*Smooches*

((Hugs)) and xx smooches xx for today

>258 maggie1944: Ish Kabibble was a Jewish comedian....and the name of my big white cat...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ish_Kabibble

;-}

Just passing through to drop a smooch. Hope all is well :)

>257 mckait: OOO! Where? When? I'll find a way to get myself in!

>258 maggie1944:, 262 Ask and ye shall receive, eh what?

>259 LovingLit: A new thread policeperson! Well, ossifer, I go to 300 now nyah nyah nyah.

>260 TinaV95: I'm accustomed to people not understanding me. Most don't ask me what I mean anymore, but honestly (since I don't need to do a job-type job) so what? Look it up.

>261 alcottacre: *smoochings* for dearest Stasia!

>263 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle, things seem to be pretty smooth chez moi. I hope they stay so! *smooch* to you too!

Happy Single People Suck and Should Feel Horrible About Themselves Day!

Also reviewed the amateur-sleuth cozy, set behind the scenes at a zoo, called The Anteater of Death in my thread...post #35.

HI Richard *wave and a smile*. Very interesting review on The Anteater of Death, also I think I will give this one a pass.

Hope you stay warm and comfortable, according to the news over here you still have lots of snow?

*snuggles and cozies* Sending my love your way!

I have learned, and am happy to say, that being lonely in bed by myself is less lonely than being in bed with someone and still feeling lonely.

Valentine's Day is a good day to remember that being shot in the butt by an arrow from a toddler's bow is painful, not fun.

So it's Thursday, another weekend looms.. I''m not reading.. can't focus. Not to mention I have no blasted time. But mostly, cant focus or I would find time. I admit that I will be very happy when all of this is sorted and I am at my new job.

I can't believe the NYC thing either. I would love to stay 2 days, but we shall see how this develops... I will keep you posted. The whole thing seems impossible. . . still? It could work out, right?

I thumbed your review of Anteater of Death, sir.

Hello, Darling. Ish Kabibble is familiar to me as my dad used to do a take-off of his shtick.

Running over to your mystery thread to read those reviews. Maybe you could give Max Tudor one more try? I too was disappointed by the ending, but because it was just far-fetched and stupid, imo.

Why would you let an over-hyped, commercialized piece of claptrap like V. Day bother you? Fie upon them.

>268 maggie1944:: Couldn't possibly agree more, Karen. And there's always a book and a pet, no?

Yes, so true: there is always a book, and a pet, or more.....

Well, that fits....

Cupids/cherubs seriously freak me out. Naked flying babies! Who on earth thought that was a good idea?

274. I wholeheartedly agree. It's creepy.

*knock knock tap tap*

The is your friendly community thread police outreach visitor doing a friendly reminder of the upcoming need for the planning of a new thread sometime in the near future.

*smile*

The bright spot in my day: Skyping the Cutiepooh and him showing me his handmade dirty Valentine, captioned "Be my Al Capone."

What a great kid.

lol- talk about a twist on the traditional!

endlessly, hopelessly, eternally behind. however, just wanted to drop off a valentine thought:



at last, after the nightmarish grade school and high school years when all we had were cutesy terror- and ick-producing yet obligatory valentines that i neither wanted to give nor get.

a Wallyteems *smooch* for you, RD.

p.s. i loved Guards, Guards. oh, well, á chacun son goût.

>267 drachenbraut23: Hi Bianca! *smooch* We're warmer than ever. It's over 40F (6C) now, at 5pm, so snow is vanishing steadily.

>268 maggie1944: Amen!

>269 mckait: This would be an amazing trip for you, and I sure hope it materializes because it's a must-do convention of book people. LOTS of publishing types.

>270 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl!

>271 Matke: Hi Gail! *smooch* I suspect that I won't be Max Tudor-ing any time soon after the fury I felt at the stupid ending.

>272 maggie1944: Pets are a lot nicer than people.

>274 BekkaJo:, 275 The Romans...Amor...ew

>276 LovingLit: Hello there Polizei! I am happily ignoring you! *smooch*

>278 LovingLit: He's been good for a surprise twist since I met him. It's kinda fun.

>279 mirrordrum:, 280 Heck, so are all the rest of us! Caught up around here is as fleeting as caught up on laundry.

Well, love, you're certainly in the majority, while I am a lonely outlier on that subject.

Smooches for Valentine's Day!!

Hi RD- Just checking in! I hope the day went well!

Sending you and Stella smooches today!!❤💚💛💙💜

rdear... were this to actually work out.. where should we stay?
None of us have a clue

>284 Berly: *smooches*

>285 msf59: It went well enough, thanks, and ended better than it began.

>286 EBT1002: Thanks sweetiedarling! Slurps to all.

>287 mckait: Holiday Inn Midtown, 57th St btw 9 & 10 Aves. $225 per person per night. Transportation to and from Newark, WHERE YOU SHOULD FLY INTO AND OUT OF!!!! It is many many miles closer than JFK or LaGuardia. Believe me when I warn you, there could be cheaper places but the risk of bedbugs is simply not worth the savings. Book through the BEA website to get the best rates, and do it SOON.

((Hugs)) and xx smooches xx for a wonderful Valentine's Day

>289 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! *smooch*

>288 richardderus: . $225 per person per night
EEEEK
That sounds pricey.
I stayed at the YHA a hundred years ago when I was there, Upper West Side. I loved it when I saw a man in a hospital gown (and only a hospital gown) on the subway. And a man pointing his umbrella like a gun and making shooting noises......all sorts!

Heh! $225 is *cheap* for a hotel in Midtown. C.H.E.A.P. Most are $350 or more.

I bet.
*sigh*
Inflation.

"Happy Single People Suck and Should Feel Horrible About Themselves Day!" - Love it .....

up there with my quote of the day “Keep an open mind, but not so much that your brains fall out “

Morning Dear! Stopping in to wish you and Stella a weekend full of fabulous. It's Friday (my favorite) and the sun id OUT - so wonderful after multiple grey days! I think I need to make pancakes tomorrow morning - I NEED them!

Good morning RD!

I've got a day off and daughter and I are going to run errands and have lunch out I've already beaten her at Hand and Foot. Ha! Makes up for last night when she whupped me.

Have a scrumptous day.

Recrudescence, eh? Good word! Had to look it up, hence the delay in getting this posted.

*smooch*

Happy week-end, Rdear. Enjoy loving Stella and getting that unconditional love right back. So nice.

I've calmed down enough to write a rational review of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, my latest and last foray into reading the work of Connie Willis. It's in my thread...post #24.

It's taken over a month for me to be able to behave sensibly instead of screaming insults and hurling baboon feces every time I see the jacket illustration.

>293 LovingLit: Yeah, the hidden tax, inflation.

>294 roundballnz: Good quote, Alex!

>295 Crazymamie: Pancakes!! Pancakes!! *zooms to Mamie's thread*

>296 karenmarie: I shall scrumptious my day as directed, Horrible, and you do the same for your weekend!

>297 Matke: *smooch* for dear Gail

300. Grammar police here. "Scrumptious" is an adjective, RD, not a verb.

Leave it up to the cops to show up just when we were having a good time. Screw the rules. Scrumptious you day as you will, sir!

299 -- I LOVE that Richard!!

*bam wham slam*

This is the thread police, open up.

haha gotcha, its just me :)

>301 PawsforThought: I have diplomatic immunity. I'm from that foreign clime called "Smartopia." Nyah!

>302 maggie1944: Precisely, Comrade Ambassadress of Smartopia.

>303 TinaV95: Ain't it grand?

>304 LovingLit: *smooch*

I've reviewed the charming first-in-series mystery Mrs. Malory Investigates in my Crime, Thriller, and Mysterythread...post #40.

Lovely to see Anita complete with visiting Germanic book porn. Like the list of words to use more often. Now who is it likes to use mayhap? Have a great weekend RD.

Have a wonderful weekend, Richard!

(-:

Just stopping by to wish you and Stella a wonderful weekend Richard! Please be so kind and give her a little treat from me *smooch*

Happy Saturday, RD!

Gotten hold of any John Hart yet? (Iron House, The Last Child, King of Lies, Down River).

I thought all four fun reads - a little bit of plot clanking, but all in all good prose and worth reading.

Happy weekend, Paul Diana Karen44 Bianca and Horrible Herself!

New thread is up!