Richardderus 2013 thread 23

Man Reading at Sea
Photo and enhancement by Rosemary Sheel.

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 6 & 7...thread seven.
Books 8-11...thread eight.
Books 12-19...thread nine.
Books 20 & 21...thread 10.
Books 22-25...thread 11.
Books 26 & 27...thread 12.
Book 28...thread 13.
Books 29-31...thread 14.
Book 32...thread 15.
Books 33 & 34...thread 16.
Books 35-38...thread 17.
Books 39-42...thread 18.
Books 43-45...thread 19.
Books 46 & 47...thread 20.
Book 48...thread 21.
Books 49-52...thread 22.

Books are reviewed in post:

53. Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics...#22.

54. Six Months, Three Days...#70.

55. We Need New Names...#115.

56. The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland For A Little While...#146.

*smooch* for the new thread. Hope you are having a good, coffee filled day.

Happy Day After Coffee Day! I'm sure you are celebrating appropriately.

Love that thread-topper.

First Place, calm! It's a beautiful day, thanks, and promises to be a lovely week. I so love the fall!

>4 ronincats: Hi Roni! Appropriate celebration = drinking coffee and eating cake, so yep.

>5 laytonwoman3rd: I thought it was really cool too, Linda3rd.

Good coffee + perfect autumn days + good books = heaven. No graphics needed.

LOVE the thread topper! Congrats on thread 23, BigDaddy!

>8 tututhefirst: I waved the flag on anti-graphics a while back. I'm not prepared to give in to the Anti-Caffeine League's evil perorations, though. I've been sermoned at enough in life. I'm waiting on a good book, I must admit.

>9 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! Isn't that a lovely image?

I'm here xo

Great thread topper RD.

>11 mckait: Hi sweetness! xp

>12 johnsimpson: Hi John, here even though there cannot be cricket talk? I am impressed.

Hi RD! Congrats on the new thread! I LOVE the photo at the top! That is so perfect. Our fall weather continues to be breath-taking.

Oh, I hope our 80-degree weather doesn't make its way to your neighborhood, Padre. Enjoy your fall!

Hallo, RD! Ain't fall grand? My favorite season.

*smooch*

I love the picture at the top! I want to go on a sea voyage vacation! Especially, sun shine on the sea.

OK, never mind. I'll go read my book. There's another storm coming in this evening, I think, and then it will cool down even more after tomorrow. Autumn, it is.

The photography show has been a pain in the butt with pictures taking turns falling off the wall and breaking their glass. I had one nibble to buy a print, no frame, no mat. No money yet so I can't count that chicken.

Dang. But Life is Good and I'm carrying on...

I am with you in preferring autumnal weather to the sweltering heat of summer. The changing hues of the leaves as they part from their arbour....ahhhh......shit it's hot over here.

Congratulations on another thread dear fellow.

Fall is my favorite time of year too Richard and this one has been particularly lovely:) I also love your thread topper.

Autumn is without doubt the best season ..... despite the absence of Cricket

I love autumn.... always have. The last few years have been spoiled by those bugs though. Porching is impossible. They dive bomb you and you see them crawling around everywhere. Even leaving the doors open will result in having them all over inside... the are opportunists and they fiy come in when you open the door or crawl in through the small crack at the bottom. ...Dan left the inside doors open the other day when I was at work and it was horrible. Angus will find them and just stare until we get them. There must have been 20 in here that day, mostly in the dining room. The worst door to leave open is the back, because they are even more plentiful there than the front, due to that being the west side of the house and the siding is warm in the afternoon. It makes me so sad to lose that small pleasure. Even taking Dunkers out is terrible, as I feel them landing on me.. and they stay.. until found and removed. Stephen King must have hand a hand in inventing them.

Hope you're feeling okay? and enjoying some peace and quiet....?

Review: 53 of seventy-five

Title: GAHAN WILSON SUNDAY COMICS

Author: GAHAN WILSON

Rating: however many stars there are

The Publisher Says: Gahan Wilson is probably best known for his macabre Playboy cartoons, filled with charming monsters, goofy mad scientists, and melting victims, and his cutting-edge work in the National Lampoon, but he’s also one of the most versatile cartoonists alive whose work has appeared in a wide range of media venues. Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics is Wilson’s assault from within: His little-known syndicated strip that appeared in America’s newspapers between 1974 an 1976. Readers must have been startled to find Wilson’s freaks, geeks, and weirdos nestled among family, funny-animal, and soap opera offerings. (The term “zombie strip” — a strip that has long outlived its original creator — takes on a whole new meaning in Wilson’s hands.)

While each strip, at first glance, appears to be a standard, color Sunday strip (albeit without panel borders), each Sunday Comic is a collection of one-panel gag cartoons, delineated in Wilson’s brilliantly controlled wiggly-but-sophisticated pen line. The last gag cartoon on each Sunday is part of a recurring series, either “Future Funnies” or “The Creep.” Some Sundays are a freewheeling mélange of board meetings, monsters, and cavemen (with cameos by Wilson’s Kid character from Nuts, his gimlet-eyed view of childhood, collected last year by Fantagraphics), while others riff on a topic or subject (clocks, plants, wallpaper, etc.). As is his wont, Wilson mines the blackest of black comedy in the banal horror of human nature. Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics collects, for the first time, each and every one of these strips, luxuriating across a 12” x 6” landscape format, with Fantagraphics’ trademark high production values, innovative design, and succinct historical commentary.

My Review:


What else need be said? It's Gahan Wilson, and it's either your kind of thing or it's not. It's very much my kind of thing.



I feel like these sofa-sitters about most of modern life. I don't get it. I feel like I have sixteen thumbs, mostly on my feet, and color-sensing seismographs instead of ears, in the rap-infested, reality-show-obsessed, Fox-as-news world I'm in. I don't fit, and I don't want to.



Goodness knows, there is no reason to assume it ever will, at least for very long. I keep slugging. Books like this, humor from 40 years ago, show me that there is in fact nothing new under the sun. Some people have always felt, as I do, that the world makes no sense, that up is in fact down, and the best we can do is cope.



I paint what I see.

Hi Richard, you would not have been that impressed if I had gone into the intricacies of the Duckworth/ Lewis method of deciding rain affected one day cricket games.

>23 johnsimpson: Hi John! I have no idea what any of that means. I do not wish to be enlightened.

>24 richardderus:, very wise my friend.

Excellent opening painting.

Gahan Wilson..... well...... I get it and I chuckle but I'm sort of relieved to move on. I don't delight in it as some, ahem, do!

>25 johnsimpson: I have become very very self-preservationistic. The idea of being confronted with facts about cricket fills me with dread and loathing. Therefore go with gawd to your ten-year-long matches, and be blessed with your unspeakably dull and meaningless statistics!

I'll be at home reading, or whatever it's called, Gahan Wilson.

>26 sibylline: Not for everyone, and certainly not in such a concentrated dose! 176pp of anything can be wearing, if it's not perfectly to one's taste. And it is to mine! I feel, well, understood when I read Wilson's utterly absurd and preposterous funnies. I see stuff the way he does.

I suppose that should bother me more.

Naw. Everyone must find a niche, and Wilson found a unique one which is rare. I keep Wilson where he belongs - in the comics. You'll also likely be a fan of the dark humor of Kurt Vonnegut.

>28 mldavis2: Heh. I am a Vonnegut fan, though I don't see his humor as dark so much as clear-eyed.

Happy new thread, Richard love. I hope you are feeling well-ish. Many hugs from Wicked land. ;)

Re the picture up top, that's where I was last week - but somehow the sun was a no-show. Oh well,a good time was had anyway. Can I crawl into the picture for a while to catch that light ?

Hi RD!
Finished your cake, but as luck would have it I can now walk, so am working it off already :)
*smooch*
PS, I hope your government sorts itself out soon, it seems a frustration and a half for it to be happening at all!

1. I missed mug clinking with you on National Coffee Day but no day goeth without coffee.
2. I love Gahan Wilson.
3. I also love autumn. Best time of year, hands down.
4. That is a very appealing painting up top, Ricardo. I would love to read at sea.

>21 mckait:: what bugs are "those"?

>30 TinaV95: Ah, the Wicked Mrs. Lisa! Thanks for the hugs. I'm better than I have any right to be.

>31 ffortsa: A good cruise, good good, Judy! I thought that image was so deliciously peaceful...sorry the sun didn't co-operate with y'all's trip.

>32 LovingLit: Maude! That cake was a killer. Glad it pleased you, and happy 29th birthday for the eighth time.

>33 tiffin: Hi Tui! Ah yes, the National Coffee Day celebrations were epic: I drank two mugs instead of one. Of course, MY mug is 48oz.

Ain't Gahan Wilson grand?

Autumn. Ahhhh

It sounds so, so, hmmm I think the word I'm looking for is "decadent." Summoning a steward to bring another beverage to one's lounge chair while basking in the sun and breeze, and absorbing a good book...aaahhh

"Those" bugs are Kath's nightmare, the stinkbug.

Re: your posts on cricket RD. Please let me know when you make your mind up whether you like the game or not.

Congratulations on your new thread, Richard!

Something you wrote a while ago made me start reading Louise Penny. I just finished Still Life and I'm a fan. Thank you! x

'Morning, RD! Happy Wednesday.

*smooch*

Here's hoping today is a good one for you. Kelly's was fun, but weird last night... John sang during commercials when the pirate game was on...it was still fun and funny. In bed by 10:30 so... not bad.

Morning Richard Dear. Happy Wednesday to you and Stella! Smooches form Angel and I

>36 PaulCranswick: After much deliberation, Paul, and some serious soul-searching during my recovery from the coma that watching cricket in the flesh induced in me, I'll have to fall on the "cricket is, next to spontaneous human combustion, the least pleasant imaginable pastime engaged in by humans, not excluding human sacrifice" side of the debate.

>37 wilkiec: Thank you, Diana! I'm so please La Louise has a new fan.

>38 karenmarie: O frabjous day, callooh callay! *smooch* for my dear old Horrible

>39 mckait: Sounds like a weird one, all right. But hey, an evening out and entertainment! Not a bad thing at all.

>40 MonicaLynn: Hi Monica! Stella is pasted to my side today, I don't know what's making her feel clingy...we've played Duck, we've been for our morning constitutional, we've had our allergy pill so we're not sneezing up a storm...and yet her nose is wedged in my armpit and her little black eyes are imploring me for something that isn't a treat or a head-scratch or a tummy-tickle.

Girls don't make no sense. Species irrelevant.

Having gained my skewed world view from the deck of a dirigible (do dirigibles even have a deck?), Gahan Wilson speaks to me, too.

Re Stella: maybe she just likes hanging out with you, as closely as possible.

I like Gahan Wilson but a little of him goes a long way.

Not sure I could sit down and read a whole book of his stuff.

>42 jnwelch: Dirigibles are ALL deck! He's a laugh riot to me, and one of my all-time besty-westy toons is in this collection: A man looking in the bathroom mirror sees a horrifying tentacled monster looking back, and shouts, "Come here, Agnes!"

I still howl.

>43 magicians_nephew: Oh I don't think of this sort of book as a straight-through read. It's a browser's delight, Jim, as I think all cartoon collections are.

36 / 41 > I still don't think we are clear on the matter you seem to swinging the ball

Even the PLAYERS are bored. Napping on the diamond or links or whatever.

On top of that, this seems much more interesting than the usual cricket match . . .

*knocks*

Is this where the Fundamentals of Cricket class is being held? Great! I have my text books, What is a Googly?: The Mysteries of Cricket Explained by Rob Eastaway and Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka, so I'm all set.

Rugby 101 is in this room too, right?

>47 jnwelch: How can you tell?

>48 kidzdoc: The rugby players hang out here, I don't know why, but I ain't complainin':

#46 hahaha they have all dived for cover as they just heard that Baseball is coming to town.

I heard there was a bowling clinic going on here, but I see they meant THAT kind of bowling, not the real thing, which is this:

Girls don't make no sense. Species irrelevant.

One word response to that ---- :P

Oi, leave rugby out of this!

Careful now. I was the scrum-half in college!!

>50 PaulCranswick: At least baseball makes sense. I mean, a person of sound mind can comprehend the game without being dosed with LSD or having some genetic mutation allowing preternatural levels of boredom to wash over one.

>51 laytonwoman3rd: That kind of bowling's boring, but it's positively scintillating, it's the Algonquin Round Table of sports, compared to cricket.

>52 TinaV95: *smooch*

>53 tiffin: Not as long as the men look as good as those guys do, I ain't leavin' 'em out. NUH-UH!

>54 Berly: ...girls play rugby...?

BORING????? The hell you say. I can't wait for the PBA broadcasts to start. Form. Precision. Personality. It's all there. AND, I can do it myself.

What Tina said.

I'm tempted to hop on my soapbox here, so forgive me as I have some strongly held biases regarding sports, in which I participated as a youth.

Good for kids, not so much for adults. There is a divide between childhood learning, friendly competition, participation and exercise on one hand, and the contentious, polarized, egotistical, Walter Mitty adult couch potato screaming during professional event watching. Pro sports have corrupted college athletics in the U.S. with coaches and staff "earning" more than the college president. "Student-athletes" are nursed through mostly useless "majors" thus guaranteeing their continued academic eligibility, while being paid "under the table" in any manner of ways to avoid NCAA oversight and detection. Pro teams are built around athletes "earning" egregious salaries for display of God-given talents often more a function of DNA than of hard work. Personally, I don't choose to support these businesses with my hard-earned cash, choosing instead to purchase an occasional book for personal enrichment.

And apologies from here on, as I am on a self-imposed exile from the internet and will have no wifi capability until sometime in November. Love your threads, Richard. Keep on keeping on.

I'm with you about Vonnegut - there is so much sweetness and in his writing as well as humor and suffering. Eliot Rosewater has to be one of my favorite literary people. Just his name!

#49 Nommy :) Gotta love a Hakka.

Red velvet cake, cream cheese icing, and a cup of coffee.

A slice, anyone?

>56 laytonwoman3rd: Boring. Boring, boring, boring. I mean, no skimpily dressed men, no tight uniform pants? What's the point?

>57 mckait: Okay. I'm too lazy to go figure out what that was.

>58 mldavis2: No argument from me, except the aforementioned skimpily clad men in prime physical condition. Heck, have beauty pageants for these yahoos, prize money and all, and ban the sports. Works for me.

>59 sibylline: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater! is easily the chirpiest book Vonnegut ever wrote. I enjoyed it.

>60 BekkaJo: Yup!

Gimme gimme gimme. Cake I mean. Or rugby players. Not picky.

>63 BekkaJo: I'll have one of the gents bring you a slice and a cup after he gets out of the shower. I *might* (if you're very nice to me) forget to remind him to dress first.

Excellent. He is bringing a cocktail too right?

Hmmm...cocktails and studmuffins...hmmmm

Hope that's a MMmmmmm not a Hmmmmm (think about it).

Also, they come bearing plates of pristine books too?

Edited to add... wow I'm needy tonight!

>62 richardderus: Well, I didn't say it was sexy...there is a little more to life, after all. On the other hand, tell me this guy isn't hawt:



Besides, professional bowling can claim one of the best moments in TV history, in my opinion, when they congratulated pro-bowler Scott Norton on his marriage to Craig Woodward without hoopla, hype or self-serving comment. Norton previously had said publicly, "It is extremely important for me to come out to show other gay athletes, both current and future, that it is important to come out to show that we are just like everyone else. Being gay doesn’t define who I am as a person or as a professional athlete....It's important to show people that being gay has nothing to do with one's ability to... compete at the highest level of sports."

>67 BekkaJo: There's a specific word for that kind of needy, dear.

>68 laytonwoman3rd: He's charming. Hot, well...no. But charming. And that stuff about coming out and gayness should be trumpeted to the entire world! He's correct in all particulars.

Review: 54 of seventy-five

Title: SIX MONTHS, THREE DAYS

Author: CHARLIE JANE ANDERS

Rating:

The Publisher Says: NBC is putting Charlie Jane Anders’ Six Months, Three Days into production and we could not be more excited! Tor.com published the Hugo award-winning novelette in 2011.

From Deadline Hollywood, NBC is adapting the story into...

...a light procedural about a mismatched pair of San Francisco private investigators — an upbeat, free-spirited idealist and a swoon-worthy, brooding fatalist –- both of whom can see the future. Forced to team up, the pair knows their relationship is destined to grow from antagonistic rivalry into fairy-tale true love… but only if they can stop him from being killed in six months and three days. The adaptation will being written by film and TV writer Eric Garcia, author of the novel Matchstick Men, on which the feature film was based. Ritter, Garcia, Janollari and Silent Machine’s Lindsey Liberatore are executive producing.

Charlie Jane had this to say over on io9...

I was really blown away by how many people connected with this story, both with the characters and with the ideas. After a decade and a half of toiling in obscurity as a fiction writer, it's beyond intense when something you wrote takes on a life of its own like that. Knowing that something that came out of your head is living in other people's heads, is enough to make your head explode. I felt way beyond lucky.

So then hearing from other creative people that they want to turn my story into something brand new and different is kind of that same feeling of astonishment and luck — only maybe even more so, because of the realization that smart people are putting time and energy into the idea of adapting your story. Whatever happens with this deal, I will never stop being thrilled about that.

A huge congratulations to Charlie Jane Anders! And a thank-you to editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden for acquiring the story for us. This remains one of my favorite stories we have had the honor to publish. If you haven’t read it yet, you can do so here. And then get the popcorn ready for TV night!

My Review: "O wad some Power the giftie gie us/To see oursels as ithers see us!" --Robert Burns

That quote has always chilled me. I don't want to see myself as others see me, thanks. Burns's point is that we should not wish for that, ever, because the burden of knowing what another person thinks, sees, feels is quite impossibly heavy and unbearable. Think of how many times in this good life you've wanted not to know what you yourownself thought, felt, saw.

Charlie Jane Anders, a smallish fixture in the SFnal world with a good reputation as a storyteller and a nice lady, imagines for two people the horrid, heavy burden of seeing the future...exacerbated or ameliorated by their discovery of each other and their subsequent, doomed relationship. After all, seeing the future means knowing how it ends, right?

“I don’t think you’re any more or less powerful than me. Our powers are just different,” Doug says. “But I think you’re a selfish person. I think you’re used to the idea that you can cheat on everything, and it’s made your soul a little bit rotten. I think you’re going to hate me for the next few weeks until you figure out how to cast me out. I think I love you more than my own arms and legs and I would shorten my already short life by a decade to have you stick around one more year. I think you’re brave as hell for keeping your head up on our journey together into the mouth of hell. I think you’re the most beautiful human being I’ve ever met, and you have a good heart despite how much you’re going to tear me to shreds.”

Or does it, wonders Judy, mean that she can make changes in small things and thereby change the future? Is it in her power to alter the inevitable? Doug doesn't think so. Doug is a committed and convinced determinist. He sees only one future, and he's sure he's correct about its inevitability.

Judy sees, on the other hand, a multiplicity of possible futures, and must weigh in a matter of a blink which one she will choose. Pause a moment and consider that. Doesn't that degree of personal accountability for one's life's course sound appallingly dreary?

And now imagine for a moment the sheer relief of finding and spending time with the one other person on the planet that fully, as fully as humans can anyway, Gets You...while knowing that your love is doomed. (See the title for a clue.)

Do you lie down and weep for what can't be changed? Do you rail against the cold, merciless gawd who lumbered you with this "gift?" Or do you break the rules, test the limits, fight for yourself and your happiness, by doing something, anything, to take your future into your own hands?

Well?


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Sounds interesting Richard.

But I remember "Flashforward" based on a great book and cancelled with all the plot threads left hanging like the hem of a cheap suit.

>71 magicians_nephew: It's a fun premise indeed. And that's precisely what will happen to this show as well. I'll watch it on Netflix after it's canceled.

>61 richardderus: Yes, please!!! Six Months, Three Days sounds interesting. :)

Nothing to add about scantily clad Rugby players, other than "enjoy, Richard my dear." ;)

**Fly by smoochies**

What a highly entertaining thread - I had fun catching up here, dear. And YES to the cake. There IS still cake, right?

>73 avidmom: I shall, thanks. *dreamy drool*

>74 TinaV95: It's free at Tor.com. There's a link on my blog.

>75 Crazymamie: Good! Entertainment is always good. *smooch*

Dear RD - I see your love of all sports continues to shine through. I hope I am in time for a generous slice of that scrumptious looking red velvet cake above which I will devour while I update my cricket stats.
Cricket is not my favourite sport but is close to it - I mean how many games give you bright red balls which spin when tweaked sufficiently?

That's a great review.. Did you not post it here? I wanted to thumb.. Must investigate further...
xo

Morning, dear. It's FRIDAY!!

>77 PaulCranswick: If there are muscular young men in a state of near nudity involved, I'm there. Otherwise, I'll be at the bar hittin' on the closest thing I can find to the above.

>78 mckait: I can't figure out how to add it to my library. Clicking on "Add to My Library" doesn't give one much joy.

>79 Crazymamie: It's the end of the world as I know it. The Italian Mob will be here from cocktail hour today through Christmas.

I'm trying not to feel suicidally depressed.

What Kath said, Richard. Where does one apply the thumb for that good review of Six Months, Three Days?

Happy Friday, too, o skilled dirigibilist.

P.S. Going through Add Books at the top of the page seems to work.

Of course I should have thought of this: The Library of Congress isn't going to have an online-only piece. I used Amazon and *poof*!

I didn't think it was much of a review, but thanks. It's posted now.

Wren library, Cambridge. Ain't it purty?

Classy joint. How come, all of a sudden, I feel the urge to go study something?

This too shall pass. Imagine that all the books are Harlequins inside the spiffy leather covers.

The only adult sports I enjoy are the ones with men in shorts. Used to love basketball in the 70s when they wore those itty bitty things, but not a fan of the knee-lengthers. I think I agree with Mike (#58)--adult sports are just too much--too much money, too much egos, too much publicity-hounding....

I also love your opening picture, and if I had any calories left for today, I'd be going straight out to buy me a cake just like yours that you posted further down. But I've been out of town for a week, and I'm sorry to say, I have been eating like there is no tomorrow. You wouldn't think a li'l ole Missouri capital city would have such good places to eat, but there it is! Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow I shall diet...

*smooch*

Anywheres they's politicians, they's good eatin'.

*smooch* for an all-too-rare TLo visit!

Howdy Richard! Not much to add to the conversation except athletic men in short pants are always ok with me....just turn off the sound and look at the pretty pictures! :p

>88 Cobscook: Yeup. Yeup yeup. Purty, purty pickchers. Mmm mmm.

>54 Berly:: Berly, I love that you were a scrum half!

Yeah, I agree with Terry--basketball hasn't been the same since they went to knee-length shorts. I miss those thighs...

Oh, and check out the cephalopod in this window!
http://blog.lionbrand.com/2013/07/17/get-inspired-by-our-under-the-sea-window-pl...

Hi RD- Just swinging through and hoping you have a nice weekend, filled with bookish things.

Richard is the place to go for men in shorts. I'm here despite the same to wish you a lovely weekend dear fellow.

Dropping in to say hello. Thanks for the rugby players but I'll just take that red velvet cake if there's any left. Hope all is well, I see you going through various incarnations of username over on GR.

#80 so sorry about the Italian mob. And for so long.

Tea and sympathy and hugs and smooches from your own Horrible.

>90 tiffin: ...I so don't know what to do with that...

>91 ronincats: How MUUUUCH is that octopus in the window...?
SO COOL!! I love the jellyfish hanging from the ceiling, too. Amazing! Thanks, Roni!

>92 alfalakiii: That was random.

Well, Richard, the scrum half takes the ball from the back of the scrum and passes it to the fly-half. They make the call on a lot of the plays, so they have to be canny and sharp. They also feed the scrum and sometimes have to be a fourth loose forward. You see now?
*cackling*

>93 msf59: Hi Mark! Thanks for the wishes. I'm hell bent for leather on making them come true.

>94 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul, but a weekend with muscular young men in minimal clothing is by definition a good weekend.

>95 avatiakh: Red velvet cake is yours for the asking, Kerry. Help yourself. I'm still, two and a half weeks later, so angry at the hamfisted and wrongheaded censorship of those silly little girls that I can't enjoy myself unless I protest.

>96 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible. However nice the young people are, and they certainly are, I do not like being with anyone except Poochie every day. It's one big reason marriage wasn't a good choice for me, and every one I entered into was doomed to be temporary.

>98 tiffin: Clearly one of us has had a cerebrovascular accident, because either that IS word salad or my brain made it INTO word salad.

Having a lovely weekend, are we? Italians, eh? Do they cook? Did they bring wine? Sometimes you just have to retreat and bury yourself in a book! Best wishes for as much fun as you can squeeze out of the weekend.

I took my not yet working perfectly eyes into some Agatha Christie. A great way to waste a morning.

So, Rdear, hope the terribly long visit goes as well as possible. Weather is shaping nicely here, at last. Porch reading almost daily.
The rest is...never mind.
Saturday smooches from Danny.

see? one day nearly done already! wahoo!

My idea of perfect home decorating.

>101 maggie1944: Dame Aggie! Lush stuff. I love a comfort read. Eye-better-glasses-workin' whammy

>102 Matke: Danvers! Darling! So glad you're here. Porching is good, especially there in the sludgy-aired south. *smooch*

>103 mckait: For me, done. Miserable neck pain for the fourth day in a row. It's encephalitis. I'll be dead shortly, so you get all my books for the liberry. Don't know what you'll do with the porn...

I'll take it!

Judy and I had a decorator in a few years back and she set out to re-arrange our furniture in new and interesting ways.

But she could never get it into her head that the books on the shelves were books we READ and not just room wall decorations.

Like the liberry in 104 but you would need a "steps" or a lazy tongs to get to books on the tippy top shelves.

>106 tloeffler: I'll just bet! And fill it up in about 2 minutes, too.

>107 magicians_nephew: Decorators have a really bad mental habit of thinking of books as decor items. It makes me sigh and roll my eyes. How did you learn your trade, sir or madam, if not FROM BOOKS?!?

I'm pretty sure it's Spiderman's pad.

I don't often lose it to the point of writing a blistering piece of snark when I see dumb things done with books in design magazines but the time I saw all the covers ripped off of books and the defaced books on the shelves as "an interesting textural installation", I just totally lost it. They printed it too but took out words like "puerile conceptual piece wannabees". The other thing that makes me snort with derision is when they cover all the books in white paper so you can't tell what any of the books are, for pity's sake. Sorting the books by colour just merits a slight lift of the lip in a faint snarl.

>109 tiffin: Oh myyyyy to quote Le Takei. I'd love to see that letter!

I always start by wondering if the color-arranged books are all in a series, like the old-fashioned orange Penguin spine, or the beautiful trade paper edition of A Dance to the Music of Time, which had a gorgeous painting on the spines.

What a gorgeous cover! Never saw the likes before....

I agree, it's a beauty and unusual too.

Wow!

>113 avidmom: I KNOW, RIGHT?! I mean who knew New Zealand had so many yummy hunky men in it?!

...or was that not about the rugby players...

Review: 55 of seventy-five

Title: WE NEED NEW NAMES: A Novel

Author: NOVIOLET BULAWAYO

Rating: 2.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A remarkable literary debut -- shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize! The unflinching and powerful story of a young girl's journey out of Zimbabwe and to America.

Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo's belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.

But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America's famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. NoViolet Bulawayo's debut calls to mind the great storytellers of displacement and arrival who have come before her-from Junot Diaz to Zadie Smith to J.M. Coetzee-while she tells a vivid, raw story all her own.

My Review: Okay.

Someone please, I implore you, please sit down in front of me, where I can see your lips and hear your words, and in short, simple, declarative sentences, please please oh please explain to me how the Booker people could NOT shortlist TransAtlantic, an amazing novel by an amazing writer, but CAN shortlist a novel with this in it:

I don't like going to church because I don't really see why I have to sit in the hot sun on that mountain and listen to boring songs and meaningless prayers and strange verses when I could be doing important things with my friends. Plus, last time I went, that crazy Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro shook me and shook me until I vomited pink things. I thought I was going to die a real death. Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro was trying to get the spirit inside me out; they say I am possessed because they say my grandfather isn't properly buried because the white people killed him during the war for feeding and hiding the terrorists who were trying to get our country back because the white people had stolen it.

Gosh, never heard that before. Never thought of telling a story about an African country's poverty from the PoV of a child before. Why no, it's just unique and unprecedented.

And it's not like it's ever been done before, even Dave Eggers (not a favorite of mine) did it in What is the What, and then there's Say You're One of Them...but what is that objection falling from your lips, those are BOYS telling their stories, not GIRLS telling theirs?

Which is it, all experience is human, or gender creates a special and different relationship to the world? Both cannot be true. Think carefully before answering that question, because one answer makes a chink in the armor protecting a very very very touchy equality argument....

But each experience of the world is unique! All should be celebrated! Uh huh. So you'll be buying a Joyce Meyer book about how she survived incestuous sexual abuse by the healing grace of gawd through Jeebus. Oh no? Too white-church-lady conservative, all because a Man helped her find resolution and a measure of peace because a girl can't do it herself?

What happened to all experiences being celebrated?

The above roughly encapsulates a call-and-response session I had with a fan of the book. She (naturally) stated I was behaving in a sexist manner and implied, with dark tones of voice, that I was probably a racist too, because I don't think this is a particularly good book, and *certainly* don't think it's Booker-worthy.

This is not a long book, and it's not, regardless of the cover, the title page, and the sales bunf, a novel. It's interlinked short stories that share a background. The author has used a rather flat, matter-of-fact tone to deliver her stories, and that's just fine for a story in a collection. It's wearing as hell when it's the ONLY tone used. It does not lend itself easily to a smooth, page-turning read. It required of me that I expend mental effort to stay engaged for the ~10-12pp the story lasted.

Now that is something, laddies and gentlewomen. In only 12pp, an author can make someone who has spent most of his life (48/54 years) reading and savoring many, many kinds of books by every conceivable terrestrial human phenotype feel the need to force his attention back to their work.

I certainly didn't hate the book, and I don't think the author should be put in the stocks thence to learn the error of her ways. I dislike the book, yes, but I commend the person who struggled to bring it forth and make it as good as she possibly could imagine it being, for doing the work, making the effort, creating an artwork that rings true in her ears.

I assume many agree with her. I am not one. I think it's a decent first book. I would pick up another book of NoViolet Bulawayo's to sample, if I happened across it. Contrast this with my response to that Purple Bruise and Yellow Sun woman Chimamanda What's-it: how fast can I run, how far can I hurl, how hard can I stomp the next and the previous books she's written.

But this isn't a particularly good book simply because it's not horrible. If you find my copy on the train, pick it up and idly leaf through. Maybe you'll like it, because goodness knows I didn't.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Other than that???

The jacket is butt-ugly, too.

Thanks for the alert and a good Sunday morning to you, Youngster.

I'm in the middle, sort of, of a book that has been widely praised but I find just so-so. Not bad writing, merely run-of-the-mill. Plotting average. One interesting character. I'm going to finish it, though; Don't want anyone to think my review isn't a review.

Great warning there rdear... that one has been popping up.. thanks for taking one for the team :)

So, any kitchen fires or near misses yesterday?

Most of us have had the same opinion about We Need New Names; I gave it 3 stars. I thought the first half, set in Nigeria, was solid but not spectacular, and I disliked its second half, set in the US. It's a decent debut novel, but it should never have been chosen for the Booker Prize longlist, nonetheless the shortlist.

ETA: The jacket cover is hideous. I'm glad that I bought the e-book instead of the hardcover edition.

RD- "hell bent for leather." I think that was a Judas Priest song. That was a group that loved their leather. You don't strike me as much of a heavy-metal fan, LOL, but they were a lot of fun. And the lead singer, came "out" years later.
Have a great Sunday!

>118 Matke: Danny dearest, so glad you're here! I think the ~meh~ books make me madder at the waste of my time than do the truly awful ones. The ~meh~ ones always have that glimmer of hope that never quite fades...this WILL get better...I know it will...and then the emm-effin' garbage cans betray us by staying ~meh~!

Grrr.

>119 mckait: The downstairs bathroom flooded. Grease backup. No, not kidding. Guess from whence the grease came? G'wan! Guess!
>120 kidzdoc: What are the Booker judges smoking? I want some. If it can distort reality enough for this book to be a short-lister, it's gotta be some stellar weed.

I didn't buy my copy, thank Goodness, and the local liberry was pleased to get another copy. Oh the guilt, the guilt! of passing it to the unsuspecting locals without drawing the international "toxic" symbol on the jacket!

>121 msf59: Metal "music" is unknown to me in its particulars and specifics. Like rap is. That expression's an old one of my father's. It says it all, doesn't it? No wonder those metal laddies liked it enough to make a "song" out of it.

So, it's Sunday, it's 70° (19C), and it's very cloudy but no rain predicted. So what are the folks a-gonna do? They's a-gonna go to the beach!

The skies are now cued to open.

Here’s a simple science fiction and fantasy book-related meme (with a “last” theme) for a lazy Sunday…

For each question, you can name one or more science fiction books, fantasy book, and/or horror books. For extra credit, you can add to each answer if you wish.

Copy the questions below and paste them into the comments with your answers.

The last sf/f book I finished reading:
The last sf/f book I did NOT finish:
The last sf/f book(s) I bought:
The last sf/f book I bought that I already owned:
The last sf/f book I shared with someone:
The last sf/f book I raved about:
The last sf/f book I did not enjoy at all:

*******************************************************
The last sf/f book I finished reading: TIME TRAVELERS NEVER DIE, solid 3.5*
The last sf/f book I did NOT finish: THE GODS OF MARS, just not in the mood
The last sf/f book(s) I bought: I can't say, there are so many here lately
The last sf/f book I bought that I already owned: too embarrassing to answer
The last sf/f book I shared with someone: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, sent to a reading pal with a huge sigh of relief
The last sf/f book I raved about: DRAGONFLIGHT, in 1974
The last sf/f book I did not enjoy at all: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, as usual for me and Mr. Gaiman just not good enough.

Hey, Richard, knowing how much you liked Elizabeth Bear's Sebastian, I thought I'd let you know that the only vampire who could possibly be his superior is featured in Kindle's Book of the Day in Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly for $1.99. Also a Spaniard, by name of Don Simon, but this one came first!

And then I got sucked in by your meme.

The last sf/f book I finished reading: Hounded by Kevin Hearne
The last sf/f book I did NOT finish: Deepsix by Jack McDevitt
The last sf/f book(s) I bought: Silverlock by John Myers Myers
The last sf/f book I bought that I already owned: Necessity's Child by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller I forgot I had pre-ordered the hardback and grabbed the Kindle version when it became available a few days early--then was surprised when the hardback showed up a couple of days later.
The last sf/f book I shared with someone: Fool's War by Sarah Zettel
The last sf/f book I raved about: Finity's End by C. J. Cherryh
The last sf/f book I did not enjoy at all: Beyond World's End by Mercedes Lackey

Didn't enjoy Deepsix, eh? Had you read The Engines of God before reading this one? Or is this a "stalled and will return to" kind of unfinished?

Silverlock! Good gracious, there's a moldy goldy oldie!

Beyond World's End sounds dreary.

Definitely a "stalled and will return" type of unfinished, Richard. I just wasn't in the mood for a dozen more deaths of stupid people before we got to the interesting part. And yes, I read Engines of God and have Chindi in the tbr pile.

Yep, Silverlock was the Kindle Daily Deal yesterday--it's a classic and it's been years since I've read it and I culled my copy some years ago from my home library, so I grabbed it.

Did I tempt you at all with Don Simon?

*ignores the nice lady posting in his thread as opposed to staking her through the heart for being a temptress causing spending not crucial to survival*

Hi Richard!
Since I don't read much in the S/F genre, I'll skip the meme, but I wanted to check in, catch up.
I have We Need New Names on hold at the library and will be interested to see if I have a reaction similar to yours. I have no idea when I'll actually get it but at the very least, after reading your review, I am glad to be getting it from the library rather than purchasing it!

>128 EBT1002: Free is good, and the fact that it's short is even better.

122> Oh dear. Clearly a case of double too little too late.

>104 richardderus: my idea of home decorating too, think of how much time you'd spend on the stairs, too! *exercise*

>115 richardderus: Gosh, never heard that before. Never thought of telling a story about an African country's poverty from the PoV of a child before. Why no, it's just unique and unprecedented.
Ouch!
I have not heard much goodness abut this book, and am also enraged at the exclusion of TransAtlantic from the SL. (as well as being enraged at the inclusion of A Tale for the Time Being in said SL)

For your SF meme, I fear all my answers would be the same ;)

>130 mckait: Yeup. Cost me $220. No one else was home when the plumber came.

>131 LovingLit: I sampled the Ozeki and wasn't drawn to continue. Just ~meh~ writing in the first ~15pp.

Ha! Yes, all answers would be "ummmm", wouldn't they?

Here to check in.... I'll have to give that meme some thought though. Hmm. Back with answers later.

Something to dream on.

I wish I could get my husband to admit the truth of that!

Ha! Yes, all answers would be "ummmm", wouldn't they?
Ummmmmm, yes.
:)

>133 TinaV95: *patpatpatpat* ...well?

>135 ronincats: Husbands view bedtime differently than wives do, pretty much across the board.

>136 LovingLit: Heh.

Morning, Richard! Hope your cup of coffee is making you as happy as mine is me. (-;

>138 maggie1944: Hiya Karen44! I suspect it is, after all. I'm savoring it. I made pineapple upside down cake last night and my mojo's back!! After two flops in a row (one exploded in the oven, the other I grabbed lemon extract instead of vanilla *yuckickptui*) I'm so pleased this one turned out well! It must have. There's a teensy little sliver left. The diners had two pieces apiece!

The jacket is butt-ugly, too. LOL! I haven't seen it, but I see Darryl agrees. Thanks for the helpful review of We Need New Names, which I'll steer clear of. There are plenty of meh books out there and I feel no need to read another.

>140 jnwelch: I do not believe you'll regret your decision, Joe.



I ask you...butt-ugly or not?

We Need a New Cover!

LOL!! Oh, that's good, avidmom. Yes, butt-ugly. :-)

Pineapple Upside Cake is a fav of mine, also! My Mom used to make the best! Back when I was little and she still did some cooking. Hmmmmm. I might have to try to make some soon.

>142 avidmom: I should say so!

>143 jnwelch: I knew you'd agree once you saw it.

>144 maggie1944: This one, thank GOODNESS, is excellent! After the one that exploded in the oven and the lemon-extract fiasco, I was afraid I'd lost the mofo.

Review: 56 of seventy-five

Title: THE GIRL WHO RULED FAIRYLAND FOR A WHILE

Author: CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In which a young girl named Mallow leaves the country for the city, meets a number of Winds, Cats, and handsome folk, sees something dreadful, and engages, much against her will, in Politicks of the most muddled kind.

My Review: The Fairyland books ROCK. This novella is a prequel to the action in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which I adored. It is quite a lovely tale in and of itself, but reading it after reading the first published book of the series is extra toothsomely yum. The magical occurrences and the source of much of the full novel's wonder is just that much clearer to me after reading this little gem.

As always, there's Valente's simply magical way of saying so much in a few words:

“Tell me about your love,” Mallow sighed, observing form.

Mabry Muscat looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Oh, it’s a long and exciting story, sure to charm and make you swoon over me. Let’s call custom satisfied and skip the tale, shall we?”

Mallow’s attention sharpened to a point. “It must be a very good story if you don’t want to tell it. Everyone wants to tell theirs. When I first set up my house I could hardly keep Myfanwy Redbean from reciting the tale of the boy she loved for seven years before some kirtle-tying trollop named Janet stole him away. In alliterative verse. With a tambourine.”

“It is the very best of stories. She left me for a cat and a cloud, ring down the bluebells-o. She left me for a storm and a coat of green. Down fall the lilies-o.” His voice was so sad and gentle that Mallow felt tears coming to her eyes all unbidden.

There's Valente's sheer, audacious, unstoppable descriptive brio:

The buildings of Pandemonium must have been lovely once, must have been diamond towers and golden storefronts and winding wrought-vine balconies, open flowers and briars and mosses genteelly drooping trees, violet peony-windows and blue lobelia-doorsteps. It must once have bloomed, the whole city, fruits and flowers with gem-spires and silver streets winking and glittering through the fertile, greening riot of the living capital. But no longer. Leaves had gone brown, vines had shriveled, flowers shrunk and wrinkled up, thorns gone dull and mosses gone grey. Where stone and jewel and metal showed through, the flank of a bakery or terrace of a bank or clerestory of a grand theatre, huge, gaping holes showed through, as though some awful giant had taken bites out of the city itself, in its highest and deepest and most secret and most open places. Applemas approached, high summer, and yet Pandemonium seemed to live in the dregs of autumn, when the brilliant colors have gone and left only brown sticks waiting for snow.

But most of all, there is Valente's clear-eyed character analysis, precluding falling in love with her creations and making falling in love with her creations inevitable, and daring you not to give every bit of your heart to someone who just might not deserve it:

Mallow looked him levelly in the eye, and hardly a soul in the world has yet to be half-smitten and half-frightened by a level look from that girl. She told him the truth. “I have never lost a love and I do not intend to. One can only lose love if one is careless, and I am never careless. You might say, really, that of anything I am best at caring, at paying close attention and minding what I’ve got. The King says I must go to the Foul—very well, I shall go. And I hope to find a Wet Magician or two while I am there, and learn, and buy several new books if I can.”

I can't force you to read this free online novella, but if I could...I probably wouldn't...you can't make your heart open like a cherry blossom, waiting for just the right bee to come make it a cluster of red, beautiful, sweet gifts ready to give to an unmet magical love.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The last sf/f book I finished reading: Chasing the Dragon Justina Robson
The last sf/f book I did NOT finish: The Edge of Reason Melissa Snodgrass
The last sf/f book(s) I bought: 3 at once, Elizabeth Moon The Legacy of Gird Once Hero and Liar’s Oath
The last sf/f book I bought that I already owned: Ha Ha! Does asking for it twice count? If so that would be Iain Banks’ Transition
The last sf/f book I shared with someone: Once a Hero
The last sf/f book I raved about: Once a Hero
The last sf/f book I did not enjoy at all: If I’m not enjoying a book I stop reading it.

Hello Richard!

Hey cuz! I didn't finish the Snodgrass either. In fact, I didn't buy it. I was put off by, by, I dunno something. Are you of my mind about it, or does it lurk on your TBR even yet?

Transition is a double-ask, but a not-received?

Once A Hero, in the Serrano books? And The Legacy of Gird? Are you on a Moon-binge, or just that much in love with her stuff?

I made it.

you?

I did, I think.

Hi RD- Just checking in, on this fine Monday. I'll have to give that first Fairyland book a go. It does sound like a lot of fun.

>151 msf59: Heck, the novella's free Mark! Start there, and you'll know if you like the style of Valente's writing before wasting a library trip. The books are a hoot.

Hello mister! xoxo to you and Stella.

Hi there Satanic Book Warbler! *smooch* Hope Mom's asthma is calming down.

Lots of neb treatments and some extra prednisone for poor mommy but she is home and not in the hospital. Woo!

Satanic? If you would read the series you wouldn't limit me to one pantheon like that.

*smooch* right back at ya!

hullo, my dear curmudgeon. it's been *ever* so long! i do dote on the top photo. a beautifully shopped piece.

i didn't know, amongst the many gazillion other things i don't know, that Valente had a new one out. sadly, not available anywhere in audio yet. not like i'm without books to read or anything. winds again? how lovely.

*smoooooooch*

eta the following as it seemed somehow apposite



from word porn

Very well written review of We Need New Names. I always appreciate a critical review that gives me reasons why the person did not enjoy the book rather than simply....this book sucked. I will be steering clear of that one. Just the excerpt you quoted let me know that style of writing is not for me.

Hope you are having a lovely week!

Well, I have to at least crack the spine on We need new names because it's one of my "assigned" books for Maine readers choice, but at least I won't feel so guilty if it goes onto the Meh pile. I've actually been trying to read a sizeable chunk of my 25 assigned, but if I get to page 50-75 and it's not grabbing me, then I know it's not going to get my vote to go on to the next round.

I feel like a judge on America's Got Talent, or some such stupid show...

>155 luvamystery65: Nebulizer technology has probably extended QoL for more people than almost anything except knee replacement technology. Miraculous.

*not listening to Satanic Book Warbler*

>156 mirrordrum: Buk has that right!! The Valentes will appear in audio, I feel sure. But they're such delicate flowers, the *exact*right*narrator* must be found.

I'm hoping for an Ellie-moon on the 19th, for the eclipse. See what you can do about whammying that up, k?

>157 Cobscook: Hi Heidi! I'd've predicted that you wouldn't care for We Need New Names...it's tricksy, and I don't think you're up for that. I think a *review* as opposed to a reaction should contain some reasoning. One might not agree with my assessment of a book, but it's an assessment, and not simply a shout. (Sometimes it's just a shout...see Gone Girl.)

Thanks for the spot-on review of We Need New Names which I completed only because I had purchased it on Audible rather than waiting for the library copy....How it made the Booker short list is beyond me.

>160 vivians: If I'm honest, I don't see how it made the LONG list. I think it's just...ordinary. We've been here before, most of a decade ago. Why is this being touted as new and fresh at this late date?

I think I do this a couple times a day.

Hello, Richard dear! Sorry about the plumbing issues, what a pain the patoot, not to mention the wallet.

Thanks for the warning about We Need New Names - I do believe that someone in one of my book groups was toying with the idea of picking it for us to read. I've referred her to your review, hopefully it will steer all of us clear from this book. Not that I wouldn't mind flipping through it, but I'd rather not "have to" read it.

Would you be interested in my copy of Those Who Hunt The Night? I just finished it and liked it but didn't love it.



An oldie, but a goodie!

>163 LauraBrook: *happy, happy sigh* Looking the way he does, I wouldn't care if that book was Fun With Dick and Jane. OOO. AAAH.

You are a dreadful human being, dreadful I say, for tempting me like that! Yes, free book...but possible series addiction...mean! Mean Laura!!

*evil, Muttley laugh* Oh, but it's only 2 books in this series, so you won't need quite as many pins for my voodoo doll. ;) Will mail it out to you today!

"Thanks"...?

*grumble* how many Satanic Book Warblers ARE there around here anyway

#163 OMG NSFW!!!! Why doesn't someone warn a person??

>167 laytonwoman3rd: ...ummm...Linda3rd, this is RICHARD's thread, nekkid mens is a given to appear at some point...and that's pretty tame compared to this:



*oh happy happy sigh*

*warbles* I can mail you books too! Books of a hot naked Celt who loves dogs. Just saying my friend. *warbles*

xoxo to you and Stella

>169 luvamystery65: EVILEVILEVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How...how can you sleep at night, how?! Knowing you're purveying the most insidious, most irresistible of drugs, The Sacred Book, in its purest, most addictive form, The Series?!?

Have you no shame, Senator? At long last, have you no shame?

I'll PM you my address.

My work here is done. Bwahahaha

Egads! I'd never thought of it that way before!

I like that one above!!!

Re Snodgrass - I just found it instantly lame/cliched or something. Hopeless. Luckily I didn't buy it new, it was just a 'what's to lose' kind of purchase.

Having finished with Cherryh's full SF (haven't gotten into Foreigner yet - hoarding going on) I had to find something. I'm also totally absorbed in the Liaden uni but I had to wait to get another Theo Waitley installment...... actually I am totally overwhelmed by all the books I want to read, gargle, gurgle, can you drown in books???

The Banks was redundancy due to inefficient xmas list - somehow two people got the same idea and no one discouraged them. One hardcover one pbk...... I gave the hardcover to the local library. Aren't I a nice lady?

OIC on the redundancy...yeah, I did a favor for an editor friend and, in lieu of money, got an Amazon shipment. Sadly I hadn't updated my wishlist. *sigh* But frabjous day callooh callay I was able to horsetrade the dupes for stuff I wanted!

And molto nice-oso to give them the hardcover. Maybe TOO nice, you'll spoil 'em.

Once upon a time when I lived in Texas, I had a seven-foot-tall bookcase that was six feet wide. It was a weentsy widge tippy, and one night came crashing down on my bed! Scary. Closest I've come yet to drowning in books!

You related to Leonard Bast?

I'd just as soon not father a bastard and get killed by a major a-hole, but yeah, the whole "what means this illogic of 'too many books' you speak?" is me to the life, always trying to cram in a little more information, and not sure where the money for dinner's coming from.

Happy Tuesday.

It is a glorious day. The temp. a little cool and the leaves are just beginning to turn. I hope you are resting, reading and relaxing.

Did you know it's international octopus day? Neither did I. The wonders of FaceBook.

Living in the earthquake zone, such as I do, I've always been very careful about what is above my bed. No heavy pictures, no big bookcases next to me, or behind the bed. Paranoid? No, I've lived through several earthquakes by not being near any heavy falling objects. (knock on wood)

Scared I am of those things.

Hope your Wednesday is perfect!

>177 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda, it's been a very pleasant day. Cool and breezy! I love fall.

>178 tiffin: Actually, I think it's cool. International Octopus Day! it has a ring, doesn't it?

>179 maggie1944: Texas hasn't had an earthquake worthy of the name since before people were there. At least, none before the fracking started in South Texas, but so what? South Texas ain't none too purty.

Milady Boo's triumphal march through the prizes continues:

Congratulations to Katherine Boo and her book Behind the Beautiful Forevers for winning the 2013 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award!!

http://www.pen.org/literature/2013-penjohn-kenneth-galbraith-award

>163 LauraBrook:, 168....Sure, sure, I know....but it's been a little while since such delights were featured, and you know...I've been lulled into carelessness. I just must remember not to check in with you while the boss is prowling the halls behind me, which he is wont to do.

Just stopping by... working today and it will be a doozy ... lots of new kids books to cover and shelve... and no decision made on what will be where.
whateva !
ope today is a good one for you and Stella.. quiet... no floods... fires... etc...

>182 laytonwoman3rd: I've been remiss in my postings of nekkid mens, I see. Must crank that up! And don't you just loathe bosses who prowl?

>183 mckait: Probably will be. Both roomies will be here all day. Sigh.

Oh, that's good news with K. Boo and Behind the Beautiful Forevers. What a book.

Glad it looks to be a disaster-free, if not roomie-free, day.

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living. --Jon Krakauer

>185 jnwelch: They're lovely young people. The issue for me is that they're people. I wear down quickly in constant company. It's worse since the pain factor is so bad.

Got it. And you can't escape to the workplace for respite, which has been my solution with long-staying visitors.

Good morning, Rdear. Sorry about Too. Many. People. for too long. five days is about my usual tolerance level for a visit. Er, that would be my absolute total tolerance.

Anyway, nothing much new in Danny Land. I did get to escape go out alone for about 2.5 hrs. for b'fast with a friend. Nice.

Oh, I know. My copy of 84, Charing Cross Road came in about 2 weeks ago. I picked it up last night just for a look-see and fell in love. Now I have to the other Hanff book around here somewhere...

Quiet time is wished for you.

>188 jnwelch:, 189 At least these are not noisy, boisterous youffs! They're in their mid-twenties and trying to establish professional careers here in NY. It's just that I've lived entirely alone for over 20 years and I love it that way. Weekend visitors are fine, small parties are okay, but for the giant bulk of my day I want solitude, book, computer, and dog.

Dig we must, as the saying goes. They are, I go back to this, good and considerate folks.

Danny darling, Helene Hanff's first was such a gem! 84, Charing Cross Road is another peak reading experience for me. So lovely. I'm pleased you're enjoying it.

I am reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers right now. Just spent a lovely 30 minutes with it during my lunch break. It is excellent but the subject matter is heartbreaking. I keep thinking, 'these kids are the same age as my kids'.

>191 Cobscook: That's the hardest thing about reading that book, indeed. Just...indescribable, really, the feeling of knowing that our privilege is so outlandishly different from their reality.

I'm of the "fish and company stink after three days" school of thought. Totally understand needing your alone time.

I must say I've been pretty much unaware of their existence today. It's been heavenly! *smooch* for the understanding.

*waves wearily *

Glad it was a good day there!

Hi RD- Beefcake galore, I see! Someone is feeling frisky. Thanks for the prank video. That was a lot of fun and I shared it with a few others on FB.

I was also a big fan of the Boo book! Go Boo!

ETA- Check out Bonnie's terrific review of Let Him Go. That might be the nudge you need. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Smooches love!!

I'm shocked to see you love Valente. I consider her writing to be of the dreaded F word variety. No?

It's morning!!! Where are you ?

Turkey Breast in the oven here.. chicken veg soup on the stove... I would invite you over, but don't want your head to explode...

Coffee is delish! mmmmm and started my motor nicely this morning! You?

>195 mckait:, 198 You just have that dinosaur-meat fest with a happy heart, there, sweetness. I'll be eating pig flesh. Or some leftover fish. Just NOT a dead dinosaur.

*smooch* Late start, Stella slept in because it's drizzling.

>196 msf59: She really liked the book! Better than Montana 1948 even! I am so amazed. Looking forward to reading it, as it sits here and smiles its wicked, emotionally devastating smile at me, waiting to remove my lungs through my earholes.

>197 TinaV95: Silence Madam! The F word does not apply to, to, these sweeping tales of, of growth and change and learning to orient one's self in the strange vastness of the Universe! Never! Impossible!

I'm bummed...my six-word autobiography entry on Twitter didn't even get a mention! I thought it was a good one, too: "And then it all changed, again."

Wah. Poor me.

Richard, you have reminded me (>200 richardderus:) of that short story assignment a prof set for his students, to write the shortest possible story combining the elements of royalty, mystery, disaster and one other thing I can't remember. The winner was, "Oh dear, I'm pregnant," said the Queen. "I wonder who it was?"

Richard, I like your six-word autobiography!

And that short story (201) would have to be the winner!

I wish I could sleep in when it's drizzling...... oh, wait. That would be most days.

*smooch* to you (and of course to Stella, too!), Richard.

That's a heckuva teaser in a story, Tui! Disaster indeed.

my six word summary of the Bible.

"God created the world. Complications ensued"

Hello lovely man. I used to live alone with my three dogs. It was heaven. Then my cousin Joe moved in for a spell. Then I took in my Mom. Cousin Joe is on his feet enough to leave but has elected to stay to help me with Mom. I love him dearly for that. I love my Mom, but some days I miss going to the kitchen in my undies to get the coffee started.

I miss TV free zone too.

xoxo to you and Stella

>202 EBT1002: Ellen, thanks...yeah, sleeping in on a drizzly day in Seattle would mean spending life unconscious, eh? *smooch* and slurp

>204 magicians_nephew: Succinct. Inarguably correct. Bravo.

>205 luvamystery65: The TV part would make me nuts. The youffs have the sound way down, which I appreciate and I also do!

Joe deserves your kindest, warmest thoughts for this. *smooch* for Joe.

I've posted my review of Catherynne Valente's 5-star deliciousness at Shelf Inflicted, the group blog I post at. THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING is superb, jaw-dropping writing. I'll be very surprised if this isn't a lot of people's favorite childhood read in the year 2040. (Which I hope to be around to see.)

My six word autobiog:
Met Malay girl, handbags new priority.

>207 PaulCranswick: Ha! I wonder, are handbags better or worse a womanly fetish than shoes?

Probably worse mate by several hundred dollars at least.

We buried my mother in a pair of Jimmy Choo (or was it...no, I think they were Choos) shoes that cost a grand.

I think that's revolting.

I am so not normal for an American female. I worship neither shoes nor handbags; in fact fashion seems to be ultimately silly and a waste of time and resources. I'm so happy in my blue jeans and t-shirts, or sweat shirts, for retirement clothes.

Easy to spend money on books then. And spend time reading.

>211 maggie1944: yep. 100% with ya.

Add me to list of American females who would rather buy books than shoes or handbags....or food....or... :)

Actually, I am really wondering why anyone would need more than one handbag? Wouldn't it just be a pain in the arse to transfer your wallet, etc between the bags? I have always been confused by the handbag thing.

Oh HI Richard!

I know, right? *I* only have one handbag. Actually it's a shoulderbag. Well, a messenger bag, if we're being precise.

*smooch*

See I also fall into this camp of being a woman (non-American albeit) who'd rather not buy clothes/shoes/bags (and indeed does not unless absolutely necessary and then mainly from charity shops) and would instead spend the household money on books, rum and coffee. However... RD you have to get this - I also have an unhealthy obsession with Project Runway and Top Model...

Project Runway (Murrikin finale part I tonight!) is about competition and creativity! The medium may be clothes for skinny rich white women, but it's not about them per se.

My mother would've loved PR a lot.

Seems legit.

Oh Richard, post this one on FB so that I can steal it! It's so true!

I mentioned you in the comments!

*laughing at the thought of being included in a group of fashion conscious women*
I honestly think there are fewer of those than marketing would lead us to believe. I have 4 pairs of jeans.. two for work.. 2 not for work. I also have some dockers...

I did recently buy a denim jacket with sparkles on it. ( 50% off at Boscov!) and it fits.

Erhmahgerd, it's Paris Fashion Week next!

Karen, Heidi, Bekka and Kath - where were you all when I was looking for spouses - I would have saved meself a small fortune!

Good morning RD! Happy Friday to you. My daughter's home for 4 days of Fall Break, the weather is cool, literally, and I've started a new book. Joy indeed.

Off to see the wizard today. Or go to the store, or something.
errands
blah

Have a good'un

>217 richardderus: Yep, I agree.

>222 PaulCranswick: Ain't that always the way...taken when the right one comes along.

>223 karenmarie: What a wonderful day-starter! I take it you're off from work, too, so the trifecta only improves.

>224 mckait: Errands, however blah, beat the annoyance of the alternative.

>225 EBT1002: I suspect most of us serious readers do. After all, we're routinely involved in the intense catharsis of living alternative lives.

Good morning, Dear Boy (note how I acknowledge your extreme youth in comparison to my not-so-much), hope all is well with you.

I see a trend here...book-buying women seem fairly uninterested in clothes. My mum, with an impeccable eye and a harridan's tongue, chose most of my clothes for me until I was, oh, maybe 40. Now all I want are jeans, tees, sox, flannel shirts cut for women...um, and pedal pushers for summer. I hate with a passionate hate, clothes shopping. Unless my daughter takes me. Then she picks out the clothes, we laugh, we talk books and movies...oh. I see.

#222 Itching to say something rude about primary school...

"extreme youth" *purrs* "extreme youth" *purrs some more*

Clothes are what I put on to avoid arrest when I go outside. Clothes shopping is, next to laundry, my least favorite chore. Both are detestable.

Happy weekend, Danny darling, and read well.

OK. Me, too. Hate clothes shopping. Laundry is not so bad. Reading is always better!

Reading is, as always, better.

It's Secret Santa Time! Caroline has volunteered to do the duty this year, since Mark was so unhappy with it.

Woohoo!

I guess I'm the odd woman out here. I love purses and jewelry and makeup.

BUT, I'm not the high fashion kind of gal. Again, I prefer to spend money on books so my purses and bags are Thirty One (but they are relatively inexpensive and I sell so I get discounts) -- not talking the $300 bags here; my jewelry is silver or costume, never gold; and I only occasionally splurge on really great mascara and foundation and anti-aging cream cause I'm getting wrinkly. ;)

So most of my spendable money is still afforded to my book problem, but I do have other loves.

I also detest clothes shopping. *bleh* But, I have a job interview on Wednesday and I don't think my "casual Friday" everyday wardrobe is gonna make a good impression so I'm forced into it. On a happy note, my favorite bookstore is in the mall. It'll soothe the pain of clothes shopping. :)

hullo, dear.

>217 richardderus: truly!

and thanks for the info on K-Boo. for some reason, i thought you didn't like her.

purses, bags, lipstick, shoes with any kind of elevation? oh isssh! i don't understand voluntary foot abuse.

the only reasonable use for a handbag came from a friend of mine who was an editor at Time. when JFK was killed, of course they all had to put in horrible hours getting material from Time's morgue and preparing the memorial edition. she hadn't left the Time-Life building or slept for 72 hours. she finally left to go to the Village and change clothes. she was walking down 7th toward Christopher and some guy flashed her. she carried a very large, very heavy handbag and she had absolutely had it. she hauled off and roundhoused him with it and yelled, if a successful lady from Savannah could yell, "don't you *ever* do that again." now that is how you use a handbag!

and to bed i go.

#228; Bekka - *Slinks off to quiet corner emasculation duly executed and feeling every day of his 47 years* xxx

RD have a lovely autumnal weekend.

#226 RD - no, didn't take the day off. Daughter was perfectly content to veg out on the couch with her Xbox. She deliberately did not take TV/Xbox to her apartment so she could concentrate on school, so deserves the down time. The three of us went out to dinner last night and I had some very good grilled salmon. (I'm going to California Oct 16 - 29 to visit family, so didn't want to take too many vacation days at the same time).

Happy Saturday to you!

RD- You never fail to crack me up, my friend. Hope you have a great Saturday. Glad you are joining the Swap.

Love you story of the handbag attack :)

I need to carry a bag. I have downsized for every day use since I began walking to and from work...the big one was just to hard to lug around. I used to carry a medium sized slouch bag with a "kangaroo" inside. This is an insert with pockets that you slip into the bag so that changing from one to another is easier and so you are less likely to forget to move something. I find that I don't miss the stuff I no longer carry. I do try to make sure that my bag will hold necessities and a kindle. And I have a very handy nylon tote bag that will fold up and go into my handbag. I use that when it's raining, or if I have books to carry. So I now own two small bags and two larger ones. I purged last summer. I also own a dreaded fanny pack. I have never used it, but one never knows....

Add me to the apparently long list of ladies who don't like shopping. It's partly because I'm broke and spending $ is depressing, partly because I'm plus-sized and despite the fact that most ladies around here are too, the clothing options are sad and ridiculously small, and partly because I'd rather spend my hard-earned dough on books. I've gotten extremely good at finding deals or freebies, so it's more like some king of a hunt when I'm shopping for books.

Happy Saturday to you!

How's this for an aside: for all the plus sized ladies - go to Hawaii. The K-Mart and Target and similar bargain stores all have wonderful plus sized clothes. The people who live in Hawaii all year around do have some numbers who are a bit larger than average. It is an excellent excuse for a good vacation!

I have been so excited by the "donations" from my friend Jo.. things she can't or doesn't want to wear any more. it's like, yeah! Free clothes! What's funny is that most of them are things I would never have bought for myself. I wear them anyway, and find that they look fine, so it's kind of expanding my horizons. For a while there I was having to shop more than I wanted to.... it was nightmarish... but I had some help from some very nice women who worked at Kohl's... so aside from needing a sweater or two.. I'm good.

ok.. I really do need to leave for work now.. byeeeee

ah the joy of being retired! I don't have to "dress up" any more. If it's comfy and clean, it goes on. But back when I did have to spiff up a bit, I did it all online because I can't stand shopping and trying things on in those claustrophobia inducing change rooms. Hot, sweaty, bored, frustrated and aggravated, with my glasses all askew vs. sitting in my den, with a nice cuppa. No contest.

And one passion not, it seems, common among folks around here is clothes shopping! I knew I was in the right place.

Truth!

Saying hi from the Berkshires, Ricardo. I don't catch PR often, but I was rooting for the dancer/ proposer to his boyfriend who made it to the finals.

Hope you and Miss Stella are having a good weekend.

>245 maggie1944: Ain't it?

>246 jnwelch: He's in the finals...I'm very much hoping that the deaf dude wins, though three of the four people showing each deserve to win. The fourth is another Gwretched, a tall blonde skinny closeted lesbian designer of neutral-toned baggy schmattes, this time named "Alexandria." As one of my stepsisters is named Alexandria, I was sorta thinkin' of suing her for defamation on Sandy's behalf. Lawyer says I don't have standing.

Well, actually, I do enjoy clothes shopping. I just don't like the way they look on me when I'm the weight I am now. And since retirement, yes, I pretty much live in jeans and tees, with occasional sweaters.

>248 ronincats:

You do. Really. Mmm.

I do!

>248 ronincats: since retirement, yes, I pretty much live in jeans and tees
That, along with reading and reading and reading and reading, is the one thing I most look forward to about retirement! Luckily, I live in a region that has a very casual dress code.

Hi Richard!

Richard, please tell Stella that Dubs got some national television attention today.
Not as much as a handsome canine deserves, of course, but he did us proud.

>250 ronincats:
Oh. Ah.

>251 EBT1002: Hi Ellen!

>252 EBT1002: Stella, who is alpha female, responded by licking her chops, stretching front and back legs, and sitting pertly alert.

I don't like clothes shopping. I do, however, enjoy wearing nice clothes that fit well and suit me. So when I find something that works for me, be it shoes, blouses or slacks, I buy several at once, and then don't have to do it again for a long time.

>254 laytonwoman3rd: +1 (except the liking to wear clothes bit)

>254 laytonwoman3rd: +1 from me as well. Different colors, same styles and sizes; yes indeed, the nirvana of the shopping experience.

I love that your thread has turned into a fashion discussion! This is such a cool place to hang out!!

>256 Matke: Well, really, is there another sensible way to shop?

>257 Cobscook: I never know what's going to take off around here. I show up and wait to be surprised. Keeps my days interesting.

Happy Sunday to you Richard Dear. Hope you and Stella have a wonderful Fall day today.

I shop in spurts, and have that size issue too. But I encountered the ultimate shopping deterrent this week when a friend and I went to Macy's flagship store and discovered the Broadway half of the ground floor had been turned into a video game. This is the floor with the jewelry, cosmetics, perfume, etc. It's become a cacophany of sound and lights and mirrors - how anyone could make a choice in that atmosphere is beyond me.

We left.

>254 laytonwoman3rd:: that might explain why I have about 8 pairs of "perfect fit" pants from a certain northeast coast Maine online shop!

Morning has broken....etc...

>261 tiffin: Aaaayuh.

>259 MonicaLynn: Hi Monica! Thanks for the good wishes, and Stella sends snores. She's a lazy critter today.

>260 ffortsa: YIKES. That's my least-favorite part anyway, as I have to run through breath held to get past the stink...but this sounds flat-out evil.

>261 tiffin: Ayuh, they fit, so they get bought. That's how business empires, the good ones anyway, get made. I have a jacket from them that I buy once a decade, same basic model, and it *always* works. It's just they keep making the sizes smaller, darn 'em!

>262 mckait: It's pretty broken, all righty all right. *smooch*

>263 laytonwoman3rd: Yep. Yep yep.

>262 mckait: LOL!

All caught up here, BigDaddy. I loved your six word autobiography and Jim's summing up of the Bible. Big shocker here, I am sure, but I also don't love to shop for clothing and am very happy in my flip flops, thank you. I do love me a good purse, though.

>265 Crazymamie: The only shopping I really enjoy is food shopping. Poking around a greenmarket is a blast to me. Other than that, it's more or less a chore.



Yeah!

Well, I'm another who just buys multiples of clothing items that work well. And if it can be done via internet shopping, so much the better. I would rather go to the dentist than clothes shopping in a mall or other in-person outlet. Thank goodness for on-line retailers in Maine and Wisconsin!

Richard, I agree with Cobscook; your thread is ever surprising.

*smooches* for the alpha female in your household

I went to the "S-MALL; I bought new clothes. It was a pain!!!! Then, after that, went off and bought new books. Book shopping was much more pleasant. My son came with me - that made it better. :)

Also a fan of a certain midcoast Maine online retailer...they have the best flip flops! Also their smartwool socks have changed my life!

>168 richardderus: looks like he has a metal g-string on!

>151 msf59: (and before) re: dress codes.
My area has no dress code! I dont think. Although that time I actually went into a mall I did notice that most people appeared to be wearing the same things....luckily I was able to suppress a cry of WHAT IDIOTS YOU ALL ARE. As do have done that would have been extremely judgmental and inappropriate
*resumes being perfect*

>267 EBT1002: Really, how did we get along without online shopping? Many love to hate on Amazon, and it has a lot of downsides, but the fact is without it I for one would be very, very greatly reduced in my circumstances.

>268 avidmom: Whatever it takes...company does make the experience of shopping better, assuming it's the right company.

>269 Cobscook: "Smartwool" sounds very Orwellian. But I have hot feet, so wool sounds like the pedal equivalent of waterboarding to me.

>270 LovingLit: I never thought of it as a metal g-string....

Yes! The right company makes a difference when shopping. Still, I prefer online. Now that Kohls and Old Navy have jeans and shirts with names... I can find them online should I need to. Shoes are trickier. But since Zappos pays for returns, that works too.

rd and all... check out our Gail's thread

http://www.librarything.com/topic/159793#

>274 mckait: Thank you for letting me know! Darling Danvers needs the support.



Perfect expression of fall's beauty.

Felt a need to post a library photo.
This is somewhere in Wisconsin and you can rent it and stay there -- it's a treehouse!

That is a cool room! And the bookloft...wow. I'd have to read up there, since climbing down that ladder with a book sounds...problematic. Heck, Perkins can bring me my meals up there. Who needs a living room?

Richard, I need a library with certain facilities closer at hand. Climbing down a ladder to get to them is not feasible at my current stage of life.

*tsk* Tui, you must bring the drinking under control! Not being able to be out of arm's reach of a bar is disgraceful.

;->

>275 richardderus: Gorgeous pic. Thanks for sharing. I love my desert California existence but I do miss the gorgeous colors of fall.

Hi! I'm too far behind to tarry.

>280 avidmom: Fall color will winkle the nostalgia out of all but the leatheriest desert hearts.

>281 maggie1944: Hi Karen44! *smooch*

Book porn!

The Oxford Union library.

HOLY crap ~~ that leaf picture is gorgeous!!

Return of the book porn YAY!!

Tired of our (lack of) fashion talk, huh?

Oh Richard.....your gorgeous leaf photo has knocked out the book porn slide show I had running for my desktop. Such beauty deserves to be gazed upon.

>283 richardderus: *GASP* i would fit so nicely in one of those leather chairs. i could curl right up and have room for, er, for, um, er an animal companion of some unmentionable sort.

I do, I fear...since those people can also make one rant and scream!

>284 TinaV95: Never tired of talk...but refreshing the conversational ingredients never hurts.

>285 tututhefirst: I know, it's a stunner. Makes me smile big and bright!

>286 mirrordrum: See #287, Cat Woman.

>279 richardderus:: kettle & tea pot more likely

Good morning to you! I hope the day brings you success in whatever endeavors you were unable to achieve yesterday due to that pretender, Columbus.

'Morning, RD! Happy day to you.

Today is my last day of work for TWO WEEKS. Tomorrow I go to SoCal for 2 weeks to visit family. Yay. Verily I say unto you, Yay.

^ I'm jealous.

I think we should all rent that cabin in Wisconsin and have a LT retreat.
Well, maybe not.

Happy Tuesday, Richard and Stella!

>289 tiffin: Excellent way to hide the tipples! :-)

>290 mckait: Village called, trash dump reported. All's well!

>291 karenmarie: Have a wonderful visit!

>292 EBT1002: A retreat...yes...in Hay-on-Wye during the book festival!

It's a sunshiney fall morning! I'm always bright and cheery and chipper (as much as I can be) on days like today.

"cheery"?? "chipper"? RD? I think not. Who's hijacked this thread?

Wasn't "Chipper" the youngest kid on "My Three Sons"?

>295 laytonwoman3rd: Ahhh shuddupp you. (There, feel more like home now?) xo

>296 magicians_nephew: Ye gawds. I'd forgotten that show! Yeah, Chipper was one of the kids. I think there was a younger one, but can't swear to it. I do know there were, in the end, five not three.

> 296 Yes, until they adopted Ernie.
>297 richardderus: Ah...yes, the world is spinning properly again. *whew*

Chipper huh?

If you say so.

>298 laytonwoman3rd: Ernie! That was the brat's name. Once the oldest was disappeared, and then the cute gay one got married, they needed another kid. I always liked Uncle Charlie. But then I would, wouldn't I, since he's one of My People. (The curmudgeonlies.)

>299 mckait: YES. CHIPPER. I AM CHIPPER AND CHEERFUL AND GAY, DAMMIT!! (Well, gay anyway.)