mstrust #2- Cold Comfort BBC

Welcome! I want to get that in before you meet the staff of The BBC. If this is your first visit, that stands for Books, Booze and Chocolate. This is our third year of business, and we happen to have every book you're looking for, you just have to find it in our ever mutating building. We also have a beautiful patisserie and tiki bar full of regulars.

2018 Reads

1. Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails- 5 stars
2. Backstrom: He Who Kills The Dragon- 3 stars- Nordic Mysteries Group
3. What Does This Button Do?- 4 stars
4. The Man in the Picture- 4.5 stars- Gothic Mysteries Group
5. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles- 4 stars
6. Once Upon A Dreadful Time- 4.5 stars
7. Addicted to Americana- 5 stars
8. The Hidden Art of Disney's Late Golden Age- 4 stars
9. Mrs. Harris Goes to New York- 3 stars
10. Thanks For The Money- 4.2 stars
11. Fairest Of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen- 3 stars
12. The Subway Chronicles- 3.5 stars
13. It's In The Book- 3 stars
14. Grifter's Game- 4 stars
15. iZombie: Six Feet Under and Rising- 4.2 stars
16. Hottest Heads Of State- 4 stars
17. Henry VIII- 4 stars
18. They Do It With Mirrors- 3.5 stars Female Sleuth Group
19. Piracy, Turtles and Flying Foxes-3.5 stars- ScaredyKit-Survival/Disasters
20. iZombie: Repossession- 4.5 stars

The BBC staff have built themselves quite the reputation. I can say without a doubt that you'll never experience customer service like this anywhere. Anywhere.

Bernard, Manager:


Assistant Manager Dwight handles any situation. Currently, he's training the sales staff. His technique will definitely draw more customers.


Toni and Candace are still around providing "help", and Shirley, Mrs. Padmore and whatshername are running the patisserie.



Father Jack is our new hire this year. He's in charge of Complaints and shows a real aptitude for heading off returns.


I was going to introduce the bar staff, but it seems to be too early for them. I need to change my shirt.

We're open!

I'm in! Where's the booze??!!

Sir, your table is ready. To thank you for being my first visitor at the new digs, you get one of each on the menu. I hope it's an enjoyable twenty minutes.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Jennifer!

ETA: The vinegar pie I've made was like a lemon meringue pie (only no meringue). I didn't end up making one yesterday, but I've got the eggs and butter out now to put one together after work.

Happy new one, Jennifer!

Happy second thread, Jennifer!

Happy 2nd thread, Jennifer! It looks like the staff is in great form! Anxiously awaiting the appearance of the bar staff!

>5 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori!

>6 harrygbutler: Thank you, Harry! Your pie sounds really good, just leave me a piece at the front desk.

>7 Crazymamie: Thanks, glad you found me!

>8 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita, glad you're here!

>9 Carmenere: Thanks, Lynda! We don't get much call for meeting more of our staff, but I was able to root out one of our bar staff, Dee. She was just telling some customers about how great it is to work here and I'm the best boss and everything...


Ha! There aren't any bus lines around here, she'll have to wait for a semi.

>4 mstrust: Well, Bernard's here so I'm sure the first three minutes will be hell but things should pick up nicely after that.

Happy new thread!

>10 mstrust: Hi, Jennifer! I tried a new recipe for the vinegar pie, and sadly it didn't quite turn out. The taste is good (our cat Elli seemed to like it, though her favorite is boysenberry), but the consistency is off. I'll definitely go back to the recipe in our Pennsylvania Dutch cookery book next time.

>10 mstrust: How nice of Dee to step out into the daylight!
haha"she'll have to wait for a semi." Is maintenance prepared to tidy up?

>11 SomeGuyInVirginia: I hope you had an afternoon you'll never remember. And I know you made off with three of those tiki mugs.

>12 rretzler: Thanks Robin!

>13 harrygbutler: Awww, it's always sad when baked goods go down the wrong path, but I'm glad the cat had a treat. I haven't baked anything since the Christmas cookies over a month ago.

>14 Carmenere: We don't have maintenance around here, unless you count dogsbody Daisy in the kitchen, and we rarely count her. We occasionally hand out rags to the customers and tell them to dust as they go.

Happy new thread!

Thank you, Kathy! That's a great face on that mug.



12. The Subway Chronicles edited by Jacquelin Cangro. A collection of essays about experiences on the NYC subways or stations by a variety of writers such as Lawrence Block, Calvin Trillin and Francine Prose . In "Transfer" Leigh Stolle tells of taking her elderly, visiting parents on the subway, where her gallant father allowed everyone into the car ahead of him until it was too full and he was left behind as his family was whisked away. "Encounter" by Jessie Koester, is about the time the author's subway came to a sudden stop on a July morning. Left in a hot sealed car, the passengers became angry, and then aware that among them was someone very different, and things would become even worse once they were escorted from their car. In "Straphanger Doppelganger", Robert Lanham recalls a time when his friends kept telling him that he had an exact twin in the neighborhood, someone who rode their local subway and looked so much like him that the author felt compelled to seek that man out.

But the thought of some imposter who looked just like me showing up on the New York public transit system shook me to the core. I decided I'd have to kill him. Or at least do a little detective work to ensure he wasn't making me look bad. After all, if he had the audacity to walk around looking like my twin, he at least better not be doing anything stupid." 3.5 stars

Happy new thread Jennifer to all at the BBC.

Happy new thread!

That sub'emway book sounds like a hoot. Even on the DC subway you see the damnedest things. And New York is like everywhere else cubed.

Happy new thread. This Tiki mug has a split personality. ; )

>18 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, good to see you!

>19 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle!

>20 SomeGuyInVirginia: There are some pretty funny essays there. Calvin Trillin's is about how hard it is for New Yorkers to admit when they're happy about something, such as the subway cars being repaired or the stations being cleaned up. Another essay, I can't recall the author, is a rant about all the awful things she's seen on the subway. Some of the essays are introspective, and the one about the subway car stopped in July ends horribly, like the author must have been traumatized for years after. But it is an interesting book and I'd definitely recommend it for anyone interested in subways or New York.

>21 Berly: Now that's very different and cool. It's like a Picasso. Thanks for finding that, Kim!

Something cool for Friday:

The Oceanographic Museum in Monaco. I saw a picture of this room years ago and never forgot it. It's beautiful, terrifying and amazing.

Happy new thread, Jennifer and what is up with all that snow in the thread topper pic? Brrrrrr.....

>22 mstrust: - Yikes! Not sure I agree with beautiful but I will agree with terrifying and amazing.

Happy Friday!

>22 mstrust: Whaaaaa??!! Titled rich people have the worst taste on the planet. Except maybe the Italians. Maybe. There's Murano glass to consider. Buckingham Palace puts my teeth on edge. And Imma start a blog called 'Hideous English Wallpaper'. About wallpaper an' stuff and egregious mistakes that people make.

3D wallpaper is a thing. A new thing. It's coming for you, Barbara. Frankly, it's kind of awesome but it is the sequined shoulder pad of the 2020s.

>23 lkernagh: Hi Lori! Yes, our new local is in a very cold place, and as you can see, we haven't shoveled a path for the customers. And the men in the photo? That's Dwight throwing a customer out, so things are back to normal very quickly.
Happy Friday to you!

>24 SomeGuyInVirginia: Dude, what's going on with people hating on the giant, realistic, scary octopus? Is it because it looks like it would spot you hurrying across the floor and drop? The suctions the size of dinner plates? That it has body parts called "suctions"?
I think it's so stunning, and this is coming from someone who hates the sight of anything with more than four legs. The BBC had a road trip to the aquarium a few years ago, but maybe we'll need a part two this year.
I was unaware of 3D wallpaper, but I'm already wary.

>22 mstrust: That is really impressive. I'd like to see it in person. Puts me in mind of the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Happy new BBC! The Tiki Bar sounds like the perfect place to while away a cold winter's night - set em up, Dude!

>22 mstrust: Wow, that picture is frightening! I hope that some day I can see it!

>26 harrygbutler: It is impressive, isn't it? And I agree that it looks like it could make a submarine fight for its life. Imagine the size of the beak!

>27 DeltaQueen50: Thank you, Judy! Our tiki bar is very inviting and Dude is kept busy making White Russians and discussing the thread counts of carpets.

>28 The_Hibernator: I'd love to see it in person too. I don't know how the people in the picture aren't staring up. I would keep an eye on it.

13. It's In The Book by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. Mike Hammer finds himself being approached by multiple representatives about an infamous ledger. The recent death of Mafia Don Giraldi, who Hammer did jobs for now and then, has left everyone scrambling to find the legendary ledger that the old man had filled with every murder, pay-out and exploit. Hammer isn't convinced the book really exists, but he doesn't mind telling everyone he'll look for it in exchange for cash.
This is part of The Mysterious Bookshop series that I picked up in Tribeca. At just 65 pages, it's a novella or long short story. The manuscript was begun by Spillane, then finished by Collins, who explains that it seems that Spillane was working on it in the 80's, so that's when Collins set it. It's a tidy little story, one that seems pretty tame aside from some language, and then a sudden burst of gunfire and case closed. 3 stars

Oh, and Mike came home from his convention last night, and for the first time ever, he didn't come home sick. Yes, he could be incubating as we speak, but every year he comes home with a full-blown cold and within two days I have bronchitis. Every year. This year he starting taking Airborne a few days before he left and took hand sanitizer.

Well, just make sure he gargles with the hand sanitizer regularly and you should be fine.

>25 mstrust: It's the whimsey that I find so distressing.

Ack-shully, I think it's cool but very unsettling. It reminds me of that William Morris quote, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be capable of eating someone's face off."

>32 RidgewayGirl: He can add that to his regular routine of wiping his face down with rubbing alcohol once a day.

>33 SomeGuyInVirginia: Just focus on the photographic proof that even in Monaco there are guys walking around in black shorts and white sneakers.

>34 PersephonesLibrary: Thanks, Kathy! So far, so good.

I'm sitting in my new office chair that Mike put together yesterday. The up/down lever on our old chair had broken in the lower position, so I've spent the last three weeks using a dictionary as a booster seat.
We had apples and blueberries, so I made a crumble with oats and cinnamon last night.

Oh oh oh! Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players is on Kindle sale today for $1.99.

Happy new office chair, Jennifer!
I've got Googie : fifties coffee shop architecture home from the library and I'm loving it! Addicted to Americana : celebrating classic & kitschy American life & style is waiting for me at the library! woo hoo!!

>36 SomeGuyInVirginia: You know, I've played Scrabble just one time in my life. As a kid, we had Monopoly, checkers, Life, but no Scrabble.

>37 Carmenere: Thanks, Lynda! It's very comfortable, but then most things would be in comparison to sitting across the edge of a five inch thick book.
I'm glad you're loving Googie, so I think it's guaranteed that you'll love Addicted to Americana. Everything is just more attractive when it has fins or a giant spinning Saturn.

>30 mstrust: Hi, Jennifer! I think I still haven't read any of the Spillane stuff finished by Collins, though I have The Goliath Bone around somewhere. This one seems to be available only as an ebook or audiobook, so I'll have to think about getting it for my Kindle at some point.

>35 mstrust: Congrats on the new office chair. I think the office chair in nearly every hotel room we've stayed in has had issues with the up/down lever, but so far our current chair at home is holding up.

Dictionaries are useful things. One of ours is used as a monitor shelf.

Trust me, I bet you'd like the book. I've never played the game in my life.

>39 harrygbutler: This was my first Spillane, even if it was only partially his and I don't know what percentage. I've been meaning to pick some of his work up, but for some reason his books aren't ones that I stumble upon. Christie, Marsh, Stout, they're everywhere, but not Spillane. But mine is the book, which was impossible to find listed for some reason. The audible comes up instead.
Yeah, our chair was maybe eight years old, maybe ten, so it was time for a new one. And every once in a while I actually use that dictionary to look up words. :- D

>40 SomeGuyInVirginia: Oh, ha! I thought you must be a super Scrabble fan. Ok, I'll have to look it up when I've cleared a few off my Kindle. I've just downloaded a couple two days ago- The Night Gardener and A Scanner Darkly.

14. Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block. Joe Marlin goes by many fake names and pulls just about any grift, from theft to skipping out on hotel bills to conning wealthy women and gigolo work. Escaping his latest con in Philly, he heads to Atlantic City to see what he can get away with there. First thing, he steals expensive luggage in the hopes that it has cash, or at least some clothes in his size, but is startled to find an enormous amount of heroin inside. Joe doesn't have a drug connection anymore but it's too valuable to throw away, so he begins hatching a plan for how it can make him money. In the meantime, he's also surprised to find that he's fallen in love with a blonde he meets on the beach, one who is unhappily married to a very rich older man.
As much pulp as a glass of orange juice. Joe is a scoundrel who you almost root for as he turns each action around to look at it from every angle. This was Block's first published novel, originally titled "Mona". 4 stars

Happy new thread, Jennifer. I can see why you never forgot the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco.

>42 mstrust: I enjoyed that, but thought the ending was really horrific. What did you think?

>43 Familyhistorian: Good to see you, Meg! Yeah, the sight of an octopus that covers the entire room is memorable. Even better that it has a softly glowing head.

>44 SomeGuyInVirginia: Absolutely! This was one of those reviews where I kept reminding myself not to give anything away as I'm writing, so that's why it's just the basic plot and I kept my own opinion so short. Especially with mysteries, I always worry that I'm going to say too much and then someone will come back with, "Oh, I figured out the end from your review". Maybe because I was that smarty-pants once in a writing class and guessed out loud the ending to someone's story arc and really upset the writer. : D The ending of Grifter's Game is so shocking it could have come right out of a Jim Thompson novel and I wouldn't be surprised to find that Block was a Thompson fan.

>45 mstrust: The head glows? I had to go back and look. Ooh, even more creepy.

Hi Meg

I love the clarity of the opening image. It made me smile.

>41 mstrust: Hi, Jennifer! Good to know there's a book version, as I'm much more likely to read it that way. My dad is a Spillane fan, and a re-reader, so I got my exposure to the bulk of Spillane's works fairly early.

I don't think I've ever read any of Lawrence Block's books. Is there a good place to start? (I'm assuming the Hard Case Crime book wouldn't be that place.)

>45 mstrust: Outside of school, I took one writing course in my life. Play writing. Everyone hated my play, especially the teacher and this shrink who was also taking the class. They both said it was 'too jokey and commercial'. The teacher, well, he was a teacher, and the shrink wrote an interminable monologue given by a talking eyeball. Yeah, cast that, asshole.

'OK, you'll be reading for the part of the eyeball and you'll be in a full body costume.'
'But this is, like, 300 pages long.'
'Start on page 43, please.'
'What's my motivation?'
'At the top will do.'
'So I blinked, or didn't blink, does it matter...
'Wait, wait. Could your eyeball come off as less Jewish?'

>22 mstrust: Wow, Jennifer! I can't look away from that giant octopus! It's very cool, yet disturbing at the same time.

>38 mstrust: I must have had the same games as you. We played a lot of Monopoly, some Life and checkers - a lot of cards and that was about it. We did have a Scrabble board, but my mom didn't like to play it. I was an only child, and my mother hated board games. My father died when I was 9, and although I would get board games as gifts for Christmas, no one ever played them with me. I think that's why I have such a fascination with them now. We have an entire closet filled with board games!

>46 Familyhistorian: Oh, to be in the romantic glow of an octopus head...

>47 Whisper1: Very cryptic message, Linda. Are you giving a nod to Meg of >46 Familyhistorian:, or to me, Jennifer? Could be that we're both deserving. And if you like my topper, thank you. I think it captures a dark, snowy day perfectly.

>48 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! This was just my second Block, my first being A Diet of Treacle, which I really liked as it was all beatniks and druggies and I thought it was fun. I think Grifter's Game would be a swell place to start, as it's the beginning of Block's career. I suspect he became less pulp and more grit later on though.

>49 SomeGuyInVirginia: Now things are getting weird, because my writing class was also a playwriting class, and we had a therapist who would drive up from Tucson each week.
But when I figured out the other guy's whole story line (>45 mstrust:), I wasn't even trying to. We had read a couple chapters of his script and the floor was open to comments, and he'd asked for input in getting his characters from point C to point D, and I opened my mouth and said something like, "Because ultimately you want them to time travelers and she's really his grandmother?" Seriously, it was a very "Back To The Future" conclusion that any audience would have seen coming, but when I said that his face fell and he said yes so sadly, and our instructor told me politely that we shouldn't announce spoilers. And the worst part was that after class I was walking to my car in the parking lot and a few rows over, I see the man walking through the parking lot with our instructor, who had his hand on the guy's back like he was consoling him. Then I felt bad because he was elderly and it was very possible he had never seen "Back To The Future" and thought he'd had a cool idea.

>50 rretzler: I sorta want an octopus lamp now.
Awww, that's a real shame you didn't have someone to play them with. It seems like I had a window of just a few years when my older sister was willing to play them. But then board games weren't my favorites anyway as we had lots of kids in the neighborhood and we had two dogs.

Well of course you took a play writing class, all the best people do! Just remember, it's not your fault you crushed that man's spirit and pushed him into a downward spiral ending in his tragic demise in a bus station men's room. ODing on Sterno and nicotine patches was his fate.

This shrink was a pissy troll, seriously he just went after me and all I could think was 'Hey buttmunch. A. Talking. Eye.' I wonder if my smirk in the face of his criticism drove him to new heights of vituperation?

Oh, I don't blame myself for trying to help his writing, but I do feel funny about following him home and setting his house on fire.
Sounds like the shrink in your class had that "I've been to medical school, bow to me" syndrome. I looked up "vituperation" in the dictionary I used to sit on. Handy!
The therapist in my class was a nice guy, everyone in the class was. Here's how I corrected his work: he wrote a scene about a guy getting drunk, I believe he was a Vietnam vet. He's getting very drunk and dreams up a sexy fantasy woman, then begins recalling his father, as you do, and the fantasy girl and the father begin reciting poetry to each other. It struck me as weird. And I told the guy who wrote it, "Why would he conjure up this beautiful woman and then have her totally ignore him in his own fantasy? And prefer his father?" The guy said something like, "Oh yeah. Huh," and started writing himself notes. He took criticism well.

15. iZombie: Six Feet Under and Rising by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred.In this third issue, it begins with zombie girl Gwen solving a murder Scooby-Doo style with the help of her friends, Ghost Ellie and were-terrier Scott. The good times don't last long, as Portland is soon over-run with starving, rotting zombies and no one can figure out where they're coming from, but Gwen and her boyfriend Horatio take them on together, which proves detrimental to their relationship. Gwen's memory is fading in and out too, but she finally remembers how she died, and who drove her to it.
I'd been itching to get another issue and I'll be continuing with the series. At times, the artwork is worthy of a 50's "Creepshow" comic. 4.2 stars

No more book bullets! Must resist zombie mayhem!

Meh, this guy was a therapist, not a doctor, if I remember correctly. I could put out a shingle and be doing what he did by COB this afternoon. By now he's probably doing something else, like running a babysitting service out of a public phone booth.

It sounds like you had a good class. Mine was pretty crappy.

No, no, these are irresistible! iZombie's great!

>55 SomeGuyInVirginia: : - D I like it when you say horrible things.
You cannot resist iZombie! Why try? You will read it. And then compare the series to the tv show but find that they are very different plot lines that are like comparing apples to oranges. (Apples usually win.)

>56 drneutron: See, irresistible is right. I've just watched the series again on Netflix in anticipation of the fourth season.

>51 mstrust: I am not sure if I would describe it as a "romantic glow".

Surely I'm not the only one who would meet for a kiss at dusk under the glowing octopus head? I believe it brings good luck in all aquatic pursuits.

January saw 15 books finished and that's very surprising.

Hey! Tomorrow is The BBC's Third Annual Chocolate Day! Bring a roll of paper towels!

>59 mstrust: I think you just might be the only one meeting under there at dusk. LOL

Chocolate day you say. Mmm!

Chocama chips! I'm in. I have discovered Amazon Pantry at work. For lunch I had lasagna and Ben and Jerry's.

>60 Familyhistorian: >61 SomeGuyInVirginia:
The day is here! Ring the bells!

It's Chocolate Day!



Some organizers might make you learn about how chocolate was discovered, how it's processed, blah blah. You already know, and let's not waste time pretending that we're interested in the historical aspects right now. Don't be coy with me, we have eating to do.
So here's a tall mug of rich Mexican hot chocolate to get things started. There will be refill stations throughout the day.


And let's pair that with a famous NYC Black & White cookie. Spongy cake with vanilla and fudgy icing. They must be large enough the cover your whole hand, or the entire face of a one year old child.


And here are homemade marshmallow fudge cookies:


And these will wake you up. They're dark chocolate chunk with chili powder.

We have delectable whoopie pies. So sooooft....


I need to point out that everything here isn't made of chocolate. The velvet ropes back there are, but don't think-

Ok, he got lucky. *I've been using that door for three years!*

Isn't this a beautiful mousse pie? Fudgy. I usually eat around pie crusts, but not if it's chocolate pie crust.


And here's how you get those servings of healthy fruit:

.

I know someone's going to arrive in a few days and ask if there are leftovers. We'll have the tables replenished throughout the weekend. But you really should have gotten here when it was fresh and I didn't have a chance to have licked everything. Just sayin'.

Are you ready for a slice of chocolate peanut butter cake?


Awww, yeah, time for a bite of Caramel-Filled Brownie Husband!


Enjoy our chocolate feast!


Don't worry, we have plenty of napkins.


Well, I'm full. Now you have some.

ER! MAH! GERD!

I'd like a cup of the Harry Potter magic refilling hot chocama, please.

Bah, I can't stop watching the gif of the guying eating the door handle!

Once upon a time I made a wedding cake - the chocolate triangles had been made by a local chocolaterie though, all I had to do was make the cake and attach them. It was VERY DIFFICULT to avoid eating them all. And then of course when I accidentally broke one, I was obliged to eat it.

How did I miss Whoopie Pies??!! Nature's perfect food!

I'm glad there is some healthy fruit to cleanse the palette because I am ready to go through all that delicious chocolate again.

So glad I got here in time for Chocolate Day!

>67 evilmoose: Holy Moly!

>66 SomeGuyInVirginia: Isn't it delicious? I like plain hot chocolate, but I also love a little cinnamon in chocolate too.

>67 evilmoose: That guy went on to bite a monitor, a stapler, and Carol our office manager, none of which were chocolate.
Awesome job! That's a beautiful cake!

>68 SomeGuyInVirginia: I love whoopie pies and I don't care if the trend is over, they defy silly trends. On that subject, let's all agree to bring back bombes. They've been forgotten for 100 years, so it's time.

>69 Familyhistorian: Yes, we must consider nutrition occasionally. I recommend that you also count any mint/chocolate treat as having your greens.

>70 RidgewayGirl: Glad you made it, grab a plate!

>71 majleavy: She is talented!

It's the Fortress of Solitude made out of chocolate. I could cry for happy!

Ha! Go ahead and cry, it'll make salted chocolate.

Wow, that's a lot of chocolate! I'll take some of the chocolate chunk with chili pepper. Awesome!

I had to include something spicy, as I've very recently started to like a little bit of spicy food, with chocolate and chili powder or cinnamon being the gateway drug.

YUM! I will guard the chocolate peanut butter cake. :D

Chocolate Friday can't be over, are the Fates that unkind? No, I'll not believe it!

So, guess what I did this afternoon? I'll tell you, I found the Bird in Hand restaurant in Bird in Hand PA on the interwebs. I think I ate there as a kid. They make their own shoo fly pie and whoopie pies.

And they deliver by mail.

I'm at Dad's and he's doing better than he had in months.

>72 mstrust: Well, you don't know unless you try. I for one salute his persistence. (and thanks!)

>77 rabbitprincess: As in guard it from everyone else? I don't blame you. Dark chocolate cake, milk chocolate frosting and peanut butter between layers. That's a dream.

>78 SomeGuyInVirginia: Were you still here when I locked up? I'm going to follow the whoopie pie crumbs and find you!

>79 SomeGuyInVirginia: Are you telling me that there is a town called "Bird in Hand"? For real? Just how many birds are we talking about?
You'll have to put up a pic or two when the stuff arrives. And that's really, really great news about your dad, I'd been wondering how things were going. Sounds like you're going to have a very good week!

>80 evilmoose: That's true. I believe it was Confucius who said,"Bite it and see what happens."

Not only is there a Bird in Hand, but it's pretty close to Intercourse, PA. 😁

Do you get the feeling someone in Pennsylvania was filling out forms, throwing back Scotch, and saying, "Let's see if this gets approved..."? :-D

16. Hottest Heads of State: Volume One: The American Presidents by J.D. and Kate Dobson. A book to help you pick out which American president would be the best love interest for you. Each guy's personal and presidential highlights are discussed, plus a listing of "Why You'll Love Him" and a rating of his looks, physique, charisma, and other necessary info for making your decision, like how adept he is at avoiding assassination. Spoiler- some of them weren't very good at avoiding assassination.
Along the way you'll probably learn something about each president, such as young James Garfield was smokin' hot or that Andrew Jackson was free with the death threats, and have The Gold Standard and The Federal Reserve System explained. There is some really funny, entertaining stuff here. Who doesn't want to play "Which President Has A Secret Crush On You?" I have just one complaint (of course I do), and that's that the writing becomes uneven near the end of the book, with both Bushes and Obama getting really softball sections, Bill Clinton getting hammered, and then Trump, who likely had not even taken office at the time of writing, getting ripped apart worse than anyone. It just ended on an angry note that didn't fit with the rest of the book, so I have to take half a point off. 4 stars

This was an LT ER win!

Must resiet Zombie madness....

Stopping by to get caught up and double congrats - Mike returning home bug free and the new office chair!

I missed Chocolate Day! *sobs uncontrollably*

Halp! I'm locked in the BBC with all this chocolate! Send someone. No later than noon tomorrow!

>85 BBGirl55: Resistance is futile. Give in, it's a cool graphic series.

>86 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! I like my comfortable new chair very much. I think I'll eat some chocolate while it sit in it. ; )

>87 SomeGuyInVirginia: Sorry I missed that deadline, but Sundays are always busy here. But you're okay, right? Nothing happened?


Larry? Larry? Did all these people spill daiquiris down their fronts?

We took Coral to the park this morning, then we went to PePe's Taco Villa, where we shared a platter of street tacos, and I had mole for the first time. I'd been curious about it for years but never wanted to get a whole meal of it that I might not like. So I was able to get just a single chicken mole enchilada and I liked it. Sort of a bitter, unsweetened chocolate with smoked chilis.
We also went to a new Indian grocery store that's opened in our area, and picked up a bottle of mango lassi, a big can of mango pulp that will make about ten smoothies, a bag of masala flavored Lay's potato chips, paneer and a couple of packages of paneer sauces and a can of "Thums Up" soda. That's how it's spelled on the can, it also has a big thumb drawing, and I have no idea what the flavor will be but I couldn't just walk by.
And I managed to talk Mom into coming next week, by mentioning that the gigantic book sale at the fair grounds is next weekend! And so is the Chocolate festival.

I'm jealous of your Indian grocery store. We now have two Asian grocery stores, which is really helpful for cooking, but we could use a place that stocked things like tamarind paste and fenugreek.

I've made note of Hottest Heads of State as I have a friend who would get a kick out of it. While sticking it into my list, amazon helpfully pointed out that they also sell a Rutherford B. Hayes scented candle and I had to close my laptop and walk away before a large quantity of items were purchased. I'm really, really curious about what Rutherford B. Hayes smelled like and I'm wondering if it's worth the $20 to find out by making my living room smell like a dead president. They also offer a Justin Trudeau candle, but I'm assuming that it just smells like maple leaves and hope.

The spice aisle of this store is phenomenal. I bought a jar of dried mustard, pretty pedestrian I know, but I have a big jar of curry powder and fenugreek in the cabinet already and I had a bunch of fresh mint in the cart. So many things that need to be researched, and I'm kind of used to international shopping, what with the huge international store in Vegas and Lee Lee's 10 minutes away, but there were so many things in this store that were new to me.

A Rutherford B. Hayes candle sounds so great, even if I can't imagine the scent. Andrew Jackson would smell of hickory of course.

What part of Rutherford B. Hayes? Or the man in general?

Those grocery stores sound very cool.

Andrew Jackson would smell like aged hickory and genocide.

How often did people bathe back then? This may just be a body odor-scented candle.

Ok, after looking over Hayes' section again, I think I have it. He was a teetotaler, so his candle would have a lemonade note. He created the White House egg roll Easter tradition, so there would have to be a hard-boiled egg note, and he once followed an attractive woman home to see where she lived, then lost interest in her when he saw the dirty curtains hanging in the window, so... notes of clean linen and stalker pheromones. Nailed it!

Btw, here's a picture of presidential era Hayes:


And here's young Hayes. Yes, really.

Well, I can see why he's candle-worthy. I'd smell that.

I didn't even realize that iZombie was based on a graphic novel until my friend told me yesterday. I always thought it was loosely based on White Trash Zombie because she works in a morgue.

>93 mstrust: Exhibit A in the case against men wearing beards.

Oh Fudge! I've missed Chocolate Day at the BBC. What's the use of going on *sob sob sob*

>94 RidgewayGirl: Indeed. I wonder how young Hayes would react to a whispered, "You smell delicious."

>95 The_Hibernator: I watched the show for three seasons before I found out it was a graphic series, then I got the first two while in NYC. In the graphics, at least where I'm, still very early in the series, the main character is named Gwen and she works in the cemetery, not the morgue, and there are many different types of monsters/creatures running around.

>96 SomeGuyInVirginia: Exactly. Why cover up that handsome face? And how 'bout another presidential surprise?

James A. Garfield:

James A. Garfield:
Boom! Get lost in his eyes...

>97 Carmenere: Dang it, Lynda, run into the kitchen and keep them from washing the plates! There's got to be something left!

Apparently, hot US presidents is a thing.

Here's Teddy Roosevelt as a young runaway auditioning for a 'part' in a Bruce Webber 'ad' for Calvin Klein.

Ha! You can almost make out that it's Roosevelt. Would have been much easier if we could see that big tooth gap.
Okay, so you're getting the 100th post prize, 'cause I can't give it to myself and you've shown an interest in our presidents. So, here's an 8x10 of Ol' Jug Ears Coolidge, just for you. Frame it! Enjoy gossiping about Harding with him!


Btw, I've been watching your recommended "Dead Set" and enjoying it a lot. And wow that must have been a tremendously expensive show to produce! I'm also watching "Man Down" and the third season of "Just Add Magic" has been released on Prime and I love this show about three smart young girls and their magic cookbook. It's the polar opposite of Dead Set.

Yay! I'm famous! And not for insider trading like my yearbook said!

I'd like to thank all the little people who helped to make this possible, and the Academy and my parents. And a great big thanks to Bejinki and he knows why! -pause for laughter- But especially I want to thank my personal God as I understand Him, who like all of us used to be Harvey Weinstein (I'm as shocked as you are, folks!) but now is Buddha. Thank you, America! And Montana go to bed, you're up past your bedtime! -endearing grin, pause for 'ahhhs'- (Humble wave, look right and left like I don't know to walk toward the enormous sign offstage that reads 'EXIT HERE!' Immediately call my ex to rub in fact that I'm a recognized talent on the silver screen and how's that pharmacist in, what, Peoria, working out for you and I still want my sweaters back. Second call to my shrink for a refill on whatever he gave me last time.)

>98 mstrust: Those look like the pale cold blue eyes of a killer if I ever saw them. Roald Dahl gave me a life-long prejudice against people with light blue eyes. I only realised on re-reading some of his books that he was the probable source of this prejudice, but it's too late to change now. James A. Garfield is obviously evil, and possibly a vampire.

OH NO!! I think I missed Chocolate Day for the second year in a row!! I would have joined you in inhaling as much chocolate as I could too! :(

So, you never said, but which President would have been the best match for you?

While we were cleaning out the last few things from our house I found this octopus lamp and since you said you wanted one:



Enjoy!

>101 SomeGuyInVirginia: ;- D I do believe that if LT is giving out awards for Weirdest Thread, I'm gonna win.

>102 evilmoose: Oh. Hmmm... I'm unfamiliar with that Dahl story, but I think several people in my family would scare the bejeezus out of you. My grandfather, aunt and great grandmother had the very deep set, pale blue eyes that used to be more common in the South. Great granny's eyes were so deep set that she seemed to be looking out from caverns. You're right about Garfield though, the book did determine him to be a "Sexy Vampire".

>103 DeltaQueen50: I'll take it! That's so cool!
President-wise, I like McKinley, who was known to dote on his wife and insist that she sit next to him at dinners at a time when it was the norm to seat couples apart. This may have just been because she had seizures, but it seems loving anyway. Also, he had a nice cleft chin. I also like Andrew Jackson, who was tall, had unusually high hair, and invaded Florida whenever he felt like it. His attempt at genocide would drive a wedge between us though. I've never been attracted to JFK. He looks like a tall version of my dad with the reddish hair and freckles and nearly invisible eyebrows.

>103 DeltaQueen50: Not to worry! There are lots of chocolate days in a year. I think chocolate cake day was January 31. October 28 is National Chocolate Day. I think Valentines Day can always be called a chocolate day too -- and probably Easter as well. I think there are a couple in the summer as well.

It's true, there's Milk Chocolate Day, Dark Chocolate Day, Doughnut Day...



17. Henry VIII by William Shakespeare. Henry has decided to divorce his first wife, Katherine, after twenty years of marriage, in order to marry Anne Bullen. At his side is the manipulative Cardinal Wolsey, common born yet with the King wrapped around his finger. Though Katherine pleads with her husband, Wolsey is instrumental in her downfall, and in the execution of the Duke of Buckingham, accused of treasonous gossip. The whole court holds its breath waiting for the day the King will realize he's been Wolsey's puppet.

Clearly written to be performed for Elizabeth I, Shakespeare is currying favor. Henry VIII is a man who was manipulated into treating Katherine badly, and who rejoiced that Anne had given birth to a daughter (ha!). Anne is a sweet maiden who worries about Katherine, and the play ends with a gushing speech about Elizabeth herself. This probably won't make anyone's list of the best of Shakespeare, but it is interesting and there are some good scenes, such as Katherine ripping into Wolsey. 4 stars

Hey Jennifer! Nice review of Henry VIII.

Thanks, Lynda! I know the book image is ugly, but that's the edition I have, from the Yale Shakespeare Library, 1922, I believe. It's ugly alright, but small and lightweight with good notes.

>108 mstrust: "It's ugly alright, but small and lightweight with good notes." That's what's important. Looks aren't everything and what a gem to own!
:)

Absolutely. I believe I have the complete Yale series. I bought them at a swap meet when I was maybe twenty years old, for $2.50. It's still one of my greatest book finds.

Good lord, that's sweet. And I can't believe the price! I don't read enough Shakespeare, and by enough I mean any. It's criminal, really.

There's this guy, see... He's on Etsy and sells weird decorative items he's designed himself. One thing I like and have almost bought a dozen times are these octopus tentacle candle sticks.

I know, that price was incredible and I jumped on it. There are thirty-nine volumes, with a few of them being books of his sonnets.
I get in Shakespearean moods occasionally and pull something off the stack. Even his not-so-great plays have sparks of genius.
Ha! A heart shaped vase! Very cool and weird stuff, and those candlesticks are great. As long as the wax doesn't melt down into the suckers.

>106 mstrust: Excellent review, Jennifer! We saw Henry VIII at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival a few years ago and enjoyed it. It was one of their "Extreme Shakespeare" productions, which they describe as "...rehearsed the way Shakespeare’s company would have: actors arrive with their lines learned, rehearse on their own, wear what they can find, and open in a matter of days. No director, no designers. Just great actors, a compelling play, pure adrenaline, spontaneity, and creativity." This summer's "extreme" play will be All's Well That Ends Well.

>110 mstrust: That does sound like the complete set — and what a great price! I have the set now (possibly missing one volume, as I think I only have 38, but maybe it's a poetry volume), but it took quite several years to amass.

Now that does seem like an interesting way to stage a play. I've been to a staged reading before, but the actors stayed glued to their spots.
Oh, yea, someone else has this collection too! I've never had anyone say they have it too. I've enjoyed reading from these as the notes are helpful, and my only criticism is that sometimes the editor explains stuff that doesn't need explaining, but he's way back in 1922, so maybe it was needed then.
I have the beautiful Riverside Shakespeare but only pull it down for the very rare stuff as it's huge and heavy.

>105 thornton37814: Thaks, Lori, it's good to know that I have Valentines Day, Easter and National Chocolate Day to look forward to. Somehow I suspect Jen and the BBC will celebrate those days as well. :)

>114 mstrust: We really like it. In fact, we've yet to go to one of the "regular" performances at the festival. It's about 90 minutes away, so we can only manage weekend shows and have prioritized the usually more obscure plays that they've chosen for this style of performance.

I think the Yale volumes are awfully handy. I have the Riverside Shakespeare, too, and I agree that it's unreadably unwieldy.

I've seen way too many Japanese horror movies to be ok with half the crap I see every day. Someone has put some sort of cling film over all the windows of an entire office floor across the street from where I work. Like they're too busy chopping up bodies to even lower the blinds, now they just want a 24/7 expectation of privacy.

This is how the worlds ends, not with a bang or whimper, but with a cough. You get on the metro at Dun Loring and it's the zombie apocalypse by the time you reach Metro Center.

>115 DeltaQueen50: You think I'm interested in pushing some kind of chocolate celebration? Pshaw. Pshaw, I say!
Btw, our annual Chocolate Affair in Glendale is this weekend!

>116 harrygbutler: You would think that all of Shakespeare's plays would be in heavy rotation worldwide, but I was unaware of The Two Noble Kinsmen until a year or two ago. It's the ugly stepchild of Shakespeare. Pericles is another that seems forgotten. I haven't read either yet.

>117 SomeGuyInVirginia: Just say it- "I hate people!" Ha, it's a frequent wail in my house. Here's how to kill two birds:


You see, it makes the zombies think you're one of them, while keeping you from inhaling the virus.

It's genius! Plus, I got my own seat on the subway!

That surprises me. I would think you'd have to actually be foaming at the mouth and lunging to get anyone to even look up on the subway.

Nope, I've always found that if you're wearing a mask people will give you your own space.

>120 mstrust: *snerk*

>121 SomeGuyInVirginia: My mom will be here in a few hours, as the conversation about the book sale tomorrow finally tempted her. I know that tonight we'll be taking her to The Fry Bread House, which is the meal she looks forward to the most. Then the chocolate festival in Glendale, and tomorrow we'll be getting up early to get to the VNSA book sale!
So far, the plan is to spend about three hours at the sale (my normal time), then go out to Cave Creek for Mexican food, and then if I can finagle it, the tiny Cave Creek Museum.

Book sale and Mexican food! Sounds like a great day to me!

Larry, I don't know why I directed my message specifically to you, but there it is. :-D

Chelle, I think it'll be a good weekend. And this Mexican restaurant has a little pond in the courtyard that has become a sort of bird sanctuary. They have ducks.

>123 mstrust: That sounds like a great day planned. I hope you do manage to get to the museum. Looking forward to hearing about the book finds.

Because you knew that a book sale that large and 2,000 miles away would cause me actual, physical pain?

It's amazing, there's not a sale that large that I know of anywhere in the DC metro region. Swag report!

Have fun at the VNSA booksale!

Your day sounds pretty much perfect to me, Jennifer. Enjoy your time with your Mom.

Ooh, love the book sale picture! Next one a book sale with about 50.000 books will happen close to me. Not that I lack reading material - but I will go windowshopping a bit. Just in case, you know. :-) Chocolate Festival sounds marvellous! Have a great time!

>126 harrygbutler: Unfortunately, we didn't get to the museum. But that's because we did so much, and we have more to do.

>127 SomeGuyInVirginia: I know you're trying to exert some control over your book buying, but that just means that, somewhere out in the universe, someone else has to pick up your slack. That someone is me. Why you doin' me like that?

>128 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, I did, and I have the long list to prove it.

>129 DeltaQueen50: Thank you, Judy!

>130 PersephonesLibrary: Yes, just stroll past the books and then walk away... And what a good dog, waiting patiently while her lady reads.

My books! Mine now!

Get Shorty
Mr. Monk Goes to Germany
An Old Faithful Murder
The Big Year
The Last Bookaneer
Last Night at The Lobster
The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library
Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry-n.f.
Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain-n.f.
Pictures of Perfection
Jane and Prudence
Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon
The Buddha of Suburbia
Old School
I Should Have Stayed Home
The Night Listener
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Revolting Rhymes
The Lost City of Z-n.f.
Spontaneous Human Combustion-n.f.
Queenan Country-n.f.
44 Scotland Street
His Excellency: George Washington-n.f.
Tales of The City
The Life of Andrew Jackson-n.f.
I love Everybody( and other atrocious lies)-n.f.
Put A Lid On It
At The Villa of Reduced Circumstances
Pepper: A History of the World's Most Influential Spice-n.f.
One Bloody Thing After Another-n.f.
The Devil's Teeth
Black Hornet
What Now, King Lear?
The Fortieth Birthday Body
Strip Jack
Brooklyn Secrets
Danse Macabre-n.f.
Maigret Goes to School
Purged by M.E. May
Silent Spring-n.f.
The Girl in Blue
Let The Great World Spin
Jack the Ripper by Michael Burgan
The Flanders Panel
Under the Glacier
Coin Locker Babies
And Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England-n.f.
Last Man Off-n.f.
The Paying Guests
The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman-n.f.
The Road to Little Dribbling
A Short History of Nearly Everything-n.f.
The Tall Trees-n.f.
Unlikely Friendships-n.f.

The last two are going home with Mom. So, you can see that I took more than my share. Ha Ha! I'll be back in a day or two to give a rundown of the festival and book sale.

That is an AWESOME haul! :D

*boggles*

Nice list! That was one good book sale.

>132 mstrust: Quite a haul, Jennifer!

Nice stack of books you have there!

Woo Hoo! A nice haul, Jennifer!

Most excellent.

Did they loan you some strapping young men to help with that haul? ;)

OH. My. Word. Very nice haul, Jennifer!

Wow, that's quite the book haul!

>132 mstrust: I'm soooo jealous! What a great haul! Driving Mr Albert has particularly caught my eye.

Thanks everyone! I counted 54 books for me, Mike bought about six for himself, and we spent just over $100, as some of Mike's were old booklets from the "Rare and Unusual" section. Mom bought seven books for $8.

>140 MickyFine: That would be nice, but luckily I own a rolling cart that carries the majority of my books at the sale, and I bring my own strapping guy too. At 6'4", Mike is like a beacon for someone needing something lifted.

>143 rretzler: I know I've heard about that particular book before, maybe on NPR?

Mom left for home just a little while ago. So let's see, while she was here we went to The Fry Bread House for Navajo tacos, the chocolate festival, where she got a huge turtle covered apple that she and I shared. I also got some caramel and chocolate covered pretzel rods and dark chocolate orange peel, Mike got honeycomb and big turtles, and I had a chocolate frozen banana, and Mike had a root beer float.



Then we were up by 6:30 on Sunday morning and hurried to the fairgrounds for the book sale! Mom had never been before, and despite years of me telling her how big it is, she kept saying, "There are so many people in line. I didn't think it would be this big." We spent two and a half hours there, and I lost them both immediately, but that was okay, you can't be glued to someone with thousands of people looking. It was an excellent sale. I switched my plan this year. Usually I head straight to "Classics" or "Fiction". This time I went to "Suspense" and "Mystery" first and filled half my cart right away.

internet pic

Afterwards, we went out to Cave Creek to El Encanto's Mexican restaurant. We sat outside by the big duck pond and the weather was cool and breezy. I had a prickly pear margarita. Then we went around Frontier Village shops, then went to the Carefree sundial and bought stuff for all the dogs.

El Encanto -internet pic.

We had her pick out a birthday cake last night and she blew out the candles and opened her birthday presents. Her birthday is actually nearly two weeks away but she didn't want to take them home and wait. Oh, and she wanted to watch "Longmire" on Netflix, so we saw the first three episodes. And we've shopped. I've been kept busy, as Mom has more energy than anyone I know. She likes to keep moving.
We took her out for breakfast this morning, then she had to leave. We'll send flowers on her birthday. Now Mike has gone back to bed and I have a day of laundry and putting away the books. They've been stacked on my treadmill since Sunday.

This is all I've got to say for myself in all this time:


18. Murder With Mirrors, aka They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie. Wealthy school friend Ruth asks Miss Marple to go visit Ruth's sister Carol Anne. Also wealthy and currently married to a man determined to find a cure for criminal behavior in young men, Carol Anne has always been rather dreamy and aloof, yet she is surrounded by people who adore her. At any time there is her housekeeper, granddaughter, two step sons and various troubled young men hanging about the house, all trying to make Carol Anne comfortable and happy, even when Carol Anne's former step son, staying over just one night, winds up dead.
I place this one right in the middle of the pack of Christies. Unusual plot, yet with that beautiful yet callous young woman who seems to worm her way through so many Christies. 3.5 stars
I read this for the February Female Sleuth group.

What a great weekend you had! As for all those books - I'm both speechless and jealous!

I absolutely love that picture of the chocolate festival! How pretty!

>144 mstrust: Sounds like a terrific weekend, Jennifer! That's quite the book sale.

>145 mstrust: I need to get back to reading Christie. I started through her books in order but ran out of steam. There's been enough of a break that maybe I can manage a few more now.

>146 DeltaQueen50: A good time was had by all. Except Coral, who voiced her displeasure while we were out to dinner last night by jumping on the kitchen counter, pulling a new, unopened bottle of juice down and chewing the plastic cap off. I think it was a 32 oz. jug, so we had to mop the floor twice to get the stickiness up. She's had enough of us being gone for hours.

>147 Miss_Moneypenny: It is pretty. Some of the trees have blinking butterfly lights in them too.

>148 harrygbutler: I spent about two years with an A.C. group on GoodReads where we read a book a month in order of publication. I dropped off GR because they allowed people to promote their own books and writing, which became so intrusive, especially in the Short Story group. It was too ridiculous to have to sift through all the self promotion.
I'm pretty sure this is the biggest number of books I've ever bought at once.

>149 mstrust: LOL, Coral certainly knows how to express her displeasure!

Honestly, I can't think of a better use for a treadmill than as a place to stack books.

>150 DeltaQueen50: Yes, and unfortunately she thinks everyone needs her opinion. The narcissism!

>151 RidgewayGirl: ;-) I just needed to have them somewhere that Coral shows no interest in until I had the time to be sorting and putting them away. Oh man, I need to be weeding as I'm trying to fit the new ones in. This is going to be a process.

>149 mstrust: I've not really been tempted to sample GoodReads, as I started out cataloging here (well, after disappointment with a stand-alone software alternative), and I know I wouldn't care for constant promotion, so I doubt I'll give it a try.

My problem with Christie is that I don't actually care for a lot of her earlier stand-alone (or short series) books, and so when I bumped up against yet another in my planning, I found it easy to set aside, and I just haven't gone back to it; too much else keeps jumping in front.

I'm not sure what my biggest single purchase haul would be, though I got 68 at a bookstore's 25-cent and half-off sale last May, and that has to be up there.

>132 mstrust: That is a lot of books, Jennifer, you lucky girl!

>144 mstrust: The book sale picture is how I imagine paradise ;-)

>149 mstrust: I hope Coral won't have to be on her own again for a long time, well at least until next years book sale.

>144 mstrust: That sounds so full of fabulous, Jennifer!

So this is where all the fun is! It's been a while since I've visited and look at what I've missed. My calendar (bought at the dollar store so it must be accurate) tells me that it is Library Lovers Day. Who knew? And I thought it was Valentine's Day.

>106 mstrust: Nice review of Henry VIII. I thumbed it. Now I have to find it on the shelf and re-read.

Great haul of books! What a fabulous event.

Love the header picture. That's sort of what I'm seeing this morning as I look out the window. A lovely fresh fall of pristine snow.

>153 harrygbutler: I see that you've read a whole lotta Christie. It's true that with some of her novels, you can kind of see her re-using her tropes, which can be endearing or aggravating, depending on your mood. Someone in another thread pointed out how very often she has maids named Ethel, as if it's the same woman going from job to job, which reminds me of Ol' Gil on "The Simpsons" who can't catch a break.
Now that's an excellent book purchase!

>154 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! I'm still shelving books. And attempting to weed, which is much harder and slows the shelving down.
The sale is so great, but when you look at the picture, imagine about three thousand people swarming over the tables. And some additional good news: I think they finally got the animal urine smell out of the building!
Coral's in for another unhappy night, as we're going out for Valentine's dinner. I'll have to hide treats around the house to keep her a little busy.

>155 Crazymamie: It was pretty great!

>156 VivienneR: Glad to see you back! If it's Library Lover's Day, I suppose we should be celebrating. Hugging the building? The librarian? Maybe I'll stand back and blow kisses.
Thanks for thumbing my review! It seems I enjoyed that one a little more than most reviewers, but it was clear early on that it had been written to please Elizabeth, so I just enjoyed it for the brown-nosing it was.
Our weather finally turned overcast yesterday after spending weeks in the 80's and even getting near 90F. It was cool and breezy Sunday, perfect for the sale and wandering around Cave Creek. The restaurant even had the giant heaters on outside and Mom found a table where she could practically cuddle with one. We've had a tiny bit of rain, and they had some snow in northern Arizona, finally. Enjoy your snow, it must make for a pretty Valentine's.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Jennifer!

>159 SomeGuyInVirginia: >160 rretzler: Happy Valentine's Day, Larry and Robin! I hope you're both having good ones. We're going to Tonto's tonight, where I will be having prickly pear margarita(s).

19. Pirates, Turtles & Flying Foxes by William Dampier. English adventurer and sometimes pirate Dampier kept diaries of his world travels and many, many brushes with death. In this book, part of the Penguin Great Journeys series, he and his shipmates have to make it across the Caribbean on foot while evading Spanish troops, and later he spends twenty days in an open canoe til making land in Sumatra, where the locals nurse the crew's fever. Dampier describes the natives of Australia and The Philippines, the behavior of sea creatures, and becomes a partial owner of a painted (tattooed) island mother and son. 3.5 stars
This was a re-read, for the Scaredy-Kit Survival/Disaster group.

Book, ok. Group, awesome!

>162 mstrust: I want to read that one. I will have to see if the local library has a copy.

>163 drneutron: I do love me a good disaster.

>164 alcottacre: I hope they have it! I've read a couple from the Penguin Great Journeys series and they've all been worth it.

Find a way to make yourself this happy over the weekend:

Hi, Jennifer! Have a terrific Friday!

>165 mstrust: That dog is incredibly happy!

Thanks, Harry- I was just at your thread!
Yes, if only a good lunch made us all this contented.

>165 mstrust: *melts* Aaaand now I want a hot dog. :D

Ha! He makes it look good, doesn't he?

Hi Jennifer. You have read quite a few books already this year.
>144 mstrust: WOW! What a book sale. It must have felt like you were in heaven!

That book sale is incredible and I so look forward to it each year. This year I was a little distracted by having my mom with me and I thought she would stick close by, but once the doors opened, I didn't see her for two hours!

Good Monday, Jennifer! Hope you had a frighteningly awesome weekend!

It's Monday and I'm still alive! #winning

Have you started reading any new books, yet? I thought the pic of the Chocolate Festival was a Christmas pic! God, I'd have run out of there with a bag full of stuff like a burglar out of Rihanna's house.

>172 Carmenere: Hi, Lynda! My weekend was pretty good, filled with shopping, cake and laundry. I hope yours was fun too.
We've had an overcast morning, then ten minutes ago, a sudden downpour. Now it's still raining lightly and the sun came out, so I went on the back porch and spotted the rainbow. One time I was driving to Vegas in a light rain and there was the rainbow right ahead of me. I won $1750 on that trip.

>173 SomeGuyInVirginia: There you are. I was wondering why you haven't been around and just figured, dead or in jail.
I have been reading some new ones. For the survival/disaster group, I'm reading The Martian, and I've also been pecking away at Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling by Bret Hart. I can usually remember when, or at least where, I bought my books, but I'm blanking on this one. It's been on a shelf in my library closet for a couple of years and just seems to have appeared there on its own. Anyway, it's almost six hundred pages long and I expected to read a chapter or two and be done with it, because I didn't expect the writing to be as good as it is. So that's why I haven't had a review in days, one book is 600 pages, the other is nearly 400.
I can't remember if I told you that I finally watched "Dead Set" and it was great.

And anyone who has Netflix streaming- "The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale" started yesterday! And my dreams have come true, because it's a reboot of "The Soup"! Watch it, and maybe it can go on for eleven years too! They're treating it like a regular tv show, with one episode released each Sunday.

Hi, Jennifer! Wrestling has been on my mind a bit, too, as I've been in the mood to watch They Live again. Luckily our library system owns a couple copies, so soon I should have it in hand to watch "Rowdy" Roddy Piper once more.

Big waves from Davos.

>175 harrygbutler: Wrestling has been on my mind...
A sentence you don't see every day, so I'm glad it happened here. I know that I've seen at least some of "They Live" but I'm not sure I've ever seen the whole thing. The Piper movie I remember more of is "Sam Hell Comes to Frogtown".
I can highly recommend Hart's book if you're in the market for a wrestling autobiography. There's no co-author listed and Hart says he wrote using his diaries from over the years, but he's very talented if he wrote this book himself. It has everything- a huge, dysfunctional family, underhanded promoters, groupies, drugs, money, behind the scenes fights and murder...

>176 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! Can you see me waving back?

>177 mstrust: Disappointingly, neither my library system nor Amazon Prime Video had Hell Comes to Frogtown available, as I'd certainly be up for watching that one again, too. Maybe there's a 1980s post-apocalyptic megapack out there; if not, there certainly should be! (Oh, and I just learned that there's a sequel, Frogtown II, starring Robert Z'Dar in the Roddy Piper role, which I don't think I've ever seen.)

The Hart autobiography certainly sounds packed! No wonder it's so lengthy.

Getting...ass...kicked...at work...

Wresting books sounds very cool.

>178 harrygbutler: You'd definitely have an easier time seeing Piper on his "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" appearance. I think he was on a couple of episodes. And now I recall he appeared with his wife on one of those house hunter type shows. Huh. I suppose he's done enough acting that you could put together a Piper-Fest night.

>179 SomeGuyInVirginia: Well kick it back! Bite its ear! Spit in its coffee!
Oooh- guess what? "iZombie"'s season premiere is Monday! That's right, "The Walking Dead" returns Sunday, then "iZombie" on Monday. Zombie week!
On Sunday we dropped in a comic book store because I was looking for the fifth volume of the iZombie graphic, which I couldn't find online. The employee told me that it didn't make it past the fourth graphic (17 or 18 comics), and that it was an old series. :-(. I'm so uncool. I did find two comics from the 30 Days of Night series though. Oh, and I thought of you when I saw that there's a Z Nation series.

>177 mstrust: Yep, I can see it. :-D

>181 Ameise1: :-D



20. iZombie: Repossession by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred. The last of the series. Ancient, immortal Amon proves to zombie Gwen that he's spent hundreds of years fighting to save the planet from something bigger than she ever expected. It isn't just zombies and vampires out there. 4.5 stars

Like The Walking Dead, the graphics and the tv series of iZombie are so different that you're getting two very different stories.

I am getting excited for the return of The Walking Dead - let's hope this second half of the year finally sees Rick and the gang kicking some Negan a$$!

I am too, even though I expect this first episode to be heart-breaking. And after that, Rick will have no choice but to crush Negan. Right? We get to see Negan taken down, right? I feel like they made a barter with Carl's life. Scott Gimple is ice cold.

It's not just a flesh wound, Coral!

Z Nation jumped the shark for me when they did the Saw rip-off last season. The Unknowns are 'bigger than the apocalypse?' Really? Because hell being full and the dead walking the earth to feast on the living sounds pretty big. Like 'can be seen from space' big.

I've never seen "Saw", even though a couple of them have Luke from "Gilmore Girls", because I can't stand torture horror. I was watching a documentary on Netflix last week called "Haunters", about regular people who turn their homes into haunted houses at Halloween, and got maybe an hour in before dumping it. This one guy really gave me the creeps. He was trying to appear like a guy who just loved extreme haunted houses, but he filmed everyone who went through and enjoyed watching the recordings later as people cried and screamed and threw up. His wife seemed way too calm and drowsy.

Finally, this morning we're going back to the tiny Cave Creek Museum. I've been trying to drag him there for over a month. And A huge basket of breads, soups and cake will be delivered to Mom this morning from her local Kneader's. It's an extra birthday present from Mike and I since we won't be there on her birthday Sunday. Luckily, my sister got to her house yesterday.

Hi, Jennifer!

>186 mstrust: I'll stick with the folks who turn their yards into wonderlands at Christmastime, I think. :-)

Enjoy the museum! And that certainly sounds like a tasty and practical gift for your mom.

I'm with you on torture horror, I walked out of Hostel about 15 mins in. I did see the first two Saw movies, but haven't been able to get past that. The first one was effective at causing dread, but after that it was all about people I'd probably like in real life getting hurt. And newp, if what you do for fun makes someone throw up, you've caused a problem and a mess. I walked out of the last Rambo movie and asked to speak to the manager because I was pist and wanted my money back. When he asked why, I said, 'Because children getting blown up isn't entertainment.' He said he agreed with me and he left the movie, too. For someone who is perfectly OK with a slumbering family getting eaten by zombies, or a bunch of teens getting chased by a guy in a mask, I've never been comfortable with anything horrific that could actually happen in real life, or was too realistic.

Oh oh oh! Kayser's has opened a bakery about a half a block from me. To dye! I might take a few tentative steps to becoming a foodie.

>187 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! I know, what used to be a fun way for someone to show they loved Halloween (making some kind of yard haunt), isn't so innocent anymore.
We went out to the museum, which is about a 35 minute drive for us. We parked, walked around the tiny botanical garden, then when we went up to the door, we saw the dang thing didn't open til 1pm, and it was 11am then. A nice woman inside quickly opened the door and talked to us. Totally my fault for not looking the hours up for that day, as they seem to have a whole variety of opening times depending on the day, month and which way the wind is blowing. But we had lunch at Big Earl's Greasy Eats, shopped a little and it was a cool, breezy 53F. Nice.

>188 SomeGuyInVirginia: People are doing really grim stuff now, and the haunters interviewed discussed how the public expects "extreme" scares now rather than the jump scares of the past. The creepy guy had changed his haunted house into something where you had to apply online, be interviewed, talk about what terrifies you, then if you were accepted, he customized the experience to what would likely cause you to have a mental breakdown. Seriously, he filmed people crying hysterically, begging to be let out, throwing up...and then posted them online as advertisement. What is wrong with people that they would put themselves through this? Like you, I like my horror with a bit of camp, something unlikely. I don't know if they discussed admission fees later on, but I can't imagine all that effort was done for free, even if he is a sociopath.
On the total flip side, I'm really glad that both "Baskets" and "Schitt's Creek" have returned for new seasons. They're both a lot of fun.

>188 SomeGuyInVirginia: I just looked at the Kayser's site. Yum! It looks like they have a little personal crockpot of coq au vin, and so many pastries. Yes, you might have to sample 80% of the menu. Is there anything prettier than a pastry covered in bright red raspberries?

I don't do torture horror either. Yech.

Amazon has the audiobook version Theft by Finding by David Sedaris on sale today for $4.95. Whoo-hoo!

>189 mstrust: Too bad about the museum! We've had that happen to us once as well; we planned to stop in at a museum about 45 minutes away on a leisurely trip back from an overnight trip, but we got there a good hour before it opened and didn't want to hang around that long. On the other hand, we were fortunate in being able to visit the Mike Weaver Drain Tile Museum outside Geneva, N.Y., during a day trip one time.

Friday!
And I may regret this one, but here it is. Do you like cooking but wish it was a little grosser?

The Bogeyman Egg Separator. Sold on Amazon.

>194 mstrust: Just the thing for the cook who has every gadget!

>191 The_Hibernator: Yeah, it's just bizarre that there are enough people watching stuff like "Saw" and "Hostel" that they've become franchises.

>192 SomeGuyInVirginia: That's a Sedaris I didn't know about. I don't have audiobooks though so I'll have to look for it in hardcopy or Kindle. He's hilarious.

>193 harrygbutler: This is the second time I've been pulling on a museum door to find that they weren't open. When we first moved to Phoenix I went to the art museum downtown and a guy came out to tell me they weren't open on Mondays. Very disappointing, but I went right down the street to The Heard Museum. You can't keep me down!
A drain tile museum, huh? That sounds...cool.

>195 harrygbutler: And a strong stomach, ha! Goes well with the Jesus cheese grater.

>194 mstrust: LOL

>194 mstrust: I love that!

Ha! I think I'd laugh at it, then never use it again because I'd hate washing the crap out of it.

My new thread is up. Come see the new BBC!