Chat

New topic for general chat about the group, as per @GSSex-noob's suggestion here. The idea is to use this thread for chat that isn't about any specific book or cover. Other than that, anything relevant to the group (within the LibraryThing TOS, of course, and please not politics or religion) is fair game.

We have the occasional politics-adjacent comment in GSS.

I just asked AI to draw me narwhals upon the parapets. It came up empty. Proof that AI cannot reach the sublime heights of UAI.

>2 GSSex-noob: I'm well aware of the occasional politics-adjacent comment: I may have made a few. But GSS was a sort of closed environment: LT is not. Despite the general warmth and friendliness of say the Green Dragon, some other places on LT aren't so friendly. I have no wish to be involved in a flame war (however much against the TOS it is, it happens). Basically, the same reasoning by which you didn't link to a certain author's name.

This is also why there is an LT group called Pro and Con: to create a space where the political and other debate can be carried on without disturbing anyone else.

Having said which, we might get away with the occasional one.

I've updated the ones I had which had had their photos disappear.

My brain hurts.

Hope you feel better soon!

I recovered well enough to go to the store and buy many domestic and imported seasonal sweets.

Although I wouldn't swear to my eyesight being 100%

Hi, everyone.

Just haven't had time to poke my nose in here. Hope all is well.

Baked a crustless pumpkin custard this past weekend. It turned out pretty decently. Good with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream.

>7 Hammy_JLK: Good to hear from you. Hope you'll have time to participate in the future.

And that sounds delicious. (Now I want some pie...)

I could definitely go for that crustless pie. The innards are always the best part of punkin pie anyway.

We got dinner in from the expensive grocery store this T-giving, and the pie crust was the only disappointment. We didn't bother eating it, it's not like we didn't have plenty of other carbs and calories.

Well, that's two upvotes for the crustless pumpkin custard/pudding. Here's the link to the recipe:

https://www.theflavorbender.com/best-crustless-pumpkin-pie-pudding/

The blog author has an interesting background. Born in Sri Lanka, raised in New Zealand, lived in Australia and the USA, now settled down in Canada.

>10 Hammy_JLK: Looks like basically the pie recipe off the back of the pumpkin can, with added cornstarch. Which seems unnecessary; pies set up just fine without.

>11 GSSex-noob: Probably. I like the touch of maple flavor from the maple syrup (and that there's no refined sugar used). Maybe the blogger decided that the maple syrup would make it less viscous and threw in the cornstarch to offset that.

All I know is it tastes good, particularly with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream.

Damn, I have a Lovecraft cover that's a companion to one we had on GSS. But I can't find a picture of it on Amazon or ISFDB.

I still have the photo I took of it, but getting images here is still beyond me.

The thing you have to do is to host the images first. You can do that from your homepage by utilizing the Junk Drawer feature. Upload the photo there then copy the image address and use light html to display it in a talk message.

Instructions on this thread near the top -

https://www.librarything.com/topic/177029#n8737242

Thanks.

Last night I was listening to some randomly-generated suggested playlist and I thought of the old place, because one of the songs was AAND III-YIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOOVE YOOOOOUUUU.

Nice flashback.

>16 GSSex-noob: Yes, where is A R Yngve?

ARY, as an author, has a website, and the website has an email address. I've sent him an invitation to join our happy band.

I've also added a small update to the group description.

>18 haydninvienna: Oh, I do hope he joins us here!

The gang over at our Reddit equivalent has found a doozy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/badscificovers/comments/1lqm5bn/%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B...

Do read the comments. As one says: 'That "seriously wtf" tag was never more accurate.'

For spooky season, I reread "Our Lady of Darkness". Leiber was a grand master. (Literally)

I didn't read it after dark, though, because it's proper scary.

It's been 5 years this time around, so I'd forgotten many of the details.

Surprisingly, despite 50 years and infinite techbros, the city hasn't changed that much.

>22 GSSex-noob: Although he had his occasional missteps when it came to his longer works, when Leiber was firing on all cylinders he was very good indeed. Aside from numerous separate short stories, I'm rather fond of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser collections.

Huh. I've been so concerned with eye problems (I had bleeding in the back of my eye and apparently, I have a retinal tear, which will require laser surgery) that I've forgotten to do anything Halloween-related: I usually watch horror movies I haven't seen before.

>22 GSSex-noob:, >23 bam2001:

I adore Fafhrd and the Mouser.

I read Our Lady of Darkness as a teenager and again more than three decades later. It's a wonderful book, and both times my reading was beset with eerie circumstances, but in neither case did I find the story terribly scary in itself.

>25 paradoxosalpha: It's the atmosphere and the relentless build up that increases in tempo perfectly as the book goes on.

Also you've -got- had the link to the wrong book by that title! Which I've also read but don't need to again. But I see you've fixed it now.

Our old pal AR Yngve has a thoughtful if scary essay this week:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-176926681

>27 GSSex-noob: That's pretty powerful, there.

>28 Hammy_JLK: He writes a lot of good stuff. I was glad to have found him there; he doesn't post often, but it's always quality.

Hope someday he writes a novel of it.

ARY has put up a delightful short story:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-164866868

I just want to put this here, since the subject is near and dear to our heartts, whose floating head is a courageous defender of GSS eyes against the objectionable:

Happy 127th birthday to C. S. Lewis, born November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland.

Happy birthday, Mr Lewis. You have served us well. We're glad you didn't have to see some of the covers that were put on your books.

Wow, that means my grandma would be 127 too, but she died in 1978. Lasted longer than Mr. Lewis did, though.

ARY has another short story up:

https://aryngve.substack.com/p/short-story-the-invasion-that-never

I have 2 pairs of glasses. Both have gone missing. A friend is coming over to help me look.

>34 GSSex-noob: Ack! Good luck to you and your friend in finding your glasses.

I always keep a couple of pairs of previous prescriptions around (mine doesn't change quite so much since I had intraocular lens replacement for cataracts a few years ago), just in case. Also pairs of dollar-store reading glasses in the car, in the bedroom, in the living room, in the computer room....

I found one, which is sufficient to drive. I also found a neon chartreuse glasses leash thingy to put on them for around the house.

With the bifocals still walkabout, I have to put the book right next to my face. Reading glasses just make it a bigger fuzzy blob. I was hoping as I got older, the nearsightedness and farsightedness would cancel out, but now I'm just blind at all distances.

Now I've lost the leash.

I'm blaming that on the 3 foster cats, who would have seen it as just a fun string.

However, I've still got one more night of the great soup my friend made the other day, and I get to meet even more cats tomorrow.

>36 GSSex-noob: I wear monovision contact lenses. My right eye is corrected for distance and the left eye is backed off from that prescription so I can still see up close. I do sometimes need cheaters for microscopic print on certain labels. Without my contacts in I can still read perfectly, thankfully. I have been a contact lens wearer for 48 years. The best thing about contact lenses is I can't take them off for a minute and leave them somewhere and lose them. I have an expensive cheaters in every room of the house. Although sometimes they seem to migrate on their own.

Found the leash. Unfortunately ran my hand into a prickly pear sans gloves. Friend who owns said cactus keeps really good tweezers for that. No white glue in the house, but second best is duct tape so that's my plan for tomorrow to make sure. Also I met 2 cats and a 10 week old kitten, so that was fun. The fosters had Words for me after leaving them alone for 1o hours and daring to smell of other cats.

I'm hiding in the house all weekend. On the couch. With my glasses on. Quietly. Not moving except for feeding myself and the cats and necessary hygiene.

I have just returned from a really good con.

While I didn't spot any egregious covers either from dealers or on the freebie tables, I was unsurprised that someone couldn't get rid of LRHubbard books no matter how they were arranged on the tables.

I hope someone deposits them in the appropriate bins tonight.

The cats had WORDS for me and also some puke.

>40 GSSex-noob: "The cats had WORDS for me and also some puke."

Hence the title of this thread?

I have some friends who used to be breeders and who would refer to going to "chat shows"... :-)

>41 RobertDay: Hence the title of this thread?: Well, maybe not specifically. But if our good friend @GSSex-noob wants to chat about les chats, or anything else in the whole wide universe, she's absolutely welcome to. As is anybody else, of course.

Les chats have been glued to me every time I or they aren't in closed bedrooms. So I guess it's nice to be missed/forgiven, but OTOH a long weekend away from the allergens and in air conditioning was great too.

I am still recovering.

I wish I could post a screen-clip of it, but on the main page here on LibraryThing, I noticed that someone has posted a rating of "The Ship Who Searched", with the authors listed as Anne Mercedes and McCaffery Lackey....

>45 Hammy_JLK: That's the LT app (or indeed, some other data sources) not being able to cope with putting two authors in the 'Author' field and getting the parsing all muddled up. Though it doesn't usually come out as well as that one...

>46 RobertDay: Honestly, I don't blame the app/data source at all. I get confused about stuff like that, too, sometimes. ;-)