Welcome to the Salon!

This used to be the Jolly Molly's thread; the thread, if I recall, centered on darts, beer, and banter (or was it "bant"?) I believe the title to the thread got cutoff.

Let's welcome our newest member, amaranthic. A student of Arabic, amaranthic has a blog devoted to Arabic studies right here: http://atheling.wordpress.com/

Anna, fullmoonblue, are you familiar with amaranthic's blog? Now that we have three Arab experts here, seems like we should have some Mahfouz (in the least) listed up above as a future group read. Glad you found us amaranthic!

Thanks for the warm welcome; I'm embarrassed! But please, I'm by no means an expert on Arabic. I have just begun my studies of that beautiful language and its accompanying literatures, and my blog I'm afraid is largely filled with sophomoric attempts at journaling in said language. I'm planning to create a Chinese teaching blog in the near future that will be more useful to passerby, though. (shameless and premature advertisement)

Mahfouz, now - I'd love a group Mahfouz read one day, although that Proust looks like it's going to take a while. I am attempting Karnak Cafe in the original right now, which is going very slowly but is exciting indeed.

I actually have been lurking here for a long time, but when I saw that the Salon might quickly become very private, I thought it best to join instead of just remaining on the list of watchers, so as to make sure that I get access to all your erudite and/or humorous musings.

Thank you amaranthic. You really should connect with anna_in_pdx and Fullmoonblue (assuming you haven't already), as they're all over Arab writing and culture. And I believe Ben Waugh has a great North African, Arab writing group, though the exact title slips my mind at the moment, that's definitely worth checking out.

And yeah, that Proust may be a bit over-ambitious. We'll probably limit it to Swann's Way at first, before tackling the next installment.

here's a link to that group I mentioned above: http://www.librarything.com/groups/arabicnorthafricanan

Welcome Amaranthic! My ear twitched at the mention of a Chinese teaching blog. Please do tell us more!

I'll definitely keep those two names in mind for Arabic literature recommendations and conversation. And someone mentioned to me that group the other day, so now that it's been pointed out twice, I guess I'll have to take a closer look!

Chinese teaching blog - Right now I'm thinking recordings with transcript in pinyin and simplified as well as maybe traditional. Sorry, I can't type zhu yin fu hao and don't want to handwrite it, although I wish I could include it as I find that learners of the Taiwanese phonetic system end up with much better pronunciation!

Thanks for expressing interest; it's really encouraging to me that this project may be useful to others.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome the newest member to the salon, my friend, wisewoman!

wisewoman, as most of you probably know, is one of the most prolific writers here in LT of quality reviews. Nary a week goes by when she doesn't have something on Hot Reviews. In fact, she had three Hot Reviews simultaneously just this past week.

Welcome aboard, you woman of wisdom!

*waves* Thanks for the welcome, Enrique, and hello, denizens of the salon! I've been lurking here for a little while and have finally taken the plunge. I'm not sure if this is a group I would normally have joined, but it's good to be exposed to new people and ideas.

I think I will try to join your group read of Les Misérables. I read it for the first time a few years ago and it quickly vaulted into my top three books of all time. Hugo was a genius. I've read it twice now on my own, and I think it will be interesting to reread a third time with a group. So thanks for letting me join you :)

Has anybody read "The Colossus of Maroussi" from Miller ? Is it worth reading ?

#7/8: I saw those three simultaneous hot reviews this week. Très impressionnant!

>9 Macumbeira:, yes, Mac, I have. Definitely worth reading, especially after your sojourn in the isles this summer. Among other delights it has an interesting portrait of Lawrence Durrell in it. An evocation of pre WWII Greece - a vanished age and place.

Fabulous reviews everybody, and welcome Wisewoman!

thanks
up to amazon

Thanks Medellia and Mr. Murr. I've seen your reviews there as well. I never thought of reviewing books as a competitive sport, but it does give it that extra spice!

The Saloon is very pleased to welcome its newest member, one of LTs funniest and feistiest citizens, richardderus! Richard gets around. Just take a quick glance at Hot Topics to see how active he is in LT circles gallore, fighting whatever good fight needs fighting for. Somehow he's also made time to be a prolific reviewer knocking out high quality reviews one right after the other, the majority of which end up Hot. And do take the time to peruse at your leisure his eclectic reading list on his profile page - very interesting & impressive & erudite. What more can be said, other than, welcome once again to the saloon, Richard!

Welcome Richard! Do you like herring?

A shoutout to our newest member, theaelizabeth, who is not only ahead of the curve in reading The Master and Margarita, but also In Search of Lost Time! As soon as I figure out where she lives, I'll be sneaking over under cover of darkness to steal her Folio Society Proust.

Only the picture of it, my friend, on the picture. The books are borrowed. Thanks for the welcome!

For the first time in the salon's ignoble and sordid history, we have a member of royalty in our midst. Let's welcome, everybody, Princess Paulina!

Princess Paulina is also one of the few members among us who speak Russian, joining Pim & Lola (anybody else?) as our in-house Russian speakers. Very happy that you've joined us Princess!

Please join me in welcoming my friend castel15(Luis) to the salon. He will be joining the upcoming M&M group read. Luis is an invaluable resource of information about all sorts of literature and has created an excellent and exhaustive website(en espanol) on El Modernismo authors and poets and related literature.

Welcome Princess Paulina! We do have another blue blood in the group. Tomcat Murr is a descendant of Puss in Boots(see Ludwig Tieck and E.T.A. Hoffmann).

Welcome to both of you!

Enrique that is no way to address royalty. you should say Your Royal Higness, in your first post, and thereafter Ma'am.

Here is a guide.

http://www.debretts.com/forms-of-address/the-royal-family/other-royals/addressin...

I apologize for the lack of etiquette, Your Royal Highness, and hope you will forgive this serious breach of manners.

Oh do forgive me, Ma'am!...What can I say - other that I'm obviously an ugly American!

'But that's the point!' the young man cried,
'The puzzle that I wish to pen you in -
How are the public to decide
WHICH articles are genuine?'

('The Majesty of Justice', 1863)

Hello everyone, and thanks for the welcome :)

As a bilingual/native proficiency speaker in English and Russian, I would love to join your M&M group read!

Like most of my Russian friends and family, this is one of my favorite books ever and I've read it numerous times (in Russian). It would now be both culturally and linguistically fascinating for me to re-read it from an English perspective.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to check in regularly during September because this is a busy travel month for me; however I look forward to joining you discussion full-steam in October!

Great having you here Paulina! We'll be looking forward to hearing what I'm sure will be some insightful commentary come October.

I would like to say hello to new member inaudible, a smart dude from the Lit Snobs group. Welcome to the friendly fun! Inaudible and I share an interest in Jeanette Winterson, and many of you here, I know, share his love for Pynchon.

Very pleased to welcome our newest member to the salon - and his impressive collection of over 10,000 volumes - eromsted. Yes, I realize you don't actually own all 10M, but who cares, fascinating collections nonetheless. Welcome aboard! Glad to have you.

henry !!!

Big Mac !!! thumbs up, my favorite Belgian!

If you've been around here at LT for awhile, and have routinely spied out Hot Topics, then there's no way you haven't encountered the prolific postings of the salon's newest member, geneg. geneg gets around, whether it's in Pro & Con, or my favorite group to spy on, Lit. Snobs, or a host of other locales.

Happy to have you aboard, geneg! And is it really true you can't stand The Book of the New Sun?

Welcome Geneg! Another Dickens fan!

Thanks for the welcome! :) Currently reading Dostoyevsky.

I found this group from a post in Snobs. It pays to advertise!

As far as my relationship to The Book of the New Sun, I read the first section and found it too fantastic for my taste and the sense of ennui is stifling. I think Wolffe may have been aiming there, but it's not generally where I want to go. I have spent the last year trying to find SF as good as I remember from my youth, but as it turns out, the SF from my youth really wasn't that good, and for the most part, based on the group reads I've participated in (always looking for someone else to tell me what to read) SF still hasn't found its stride. Someone said the Golden Age of SF is thirteen. I think there may be more truth to that than one might like.

Dystopias seem to be the order of the day, or some anti-hero driven destructo-mashup, neither of which I care for as themes or settings.

I'm a romantic at heart. Stories about ordinary people living ordinary lives, but engaged in living rather than lamenting the vagaries of life are my cuppa. The book I return to over and over is The Heart of Darkness.

And yes, I'm a big fan of Dickens. I think Our Mutual Friend is the sign of a master story-teller at his most mature and at the height of his powers.

I'm not a fan of series and SF is eat up with them. I love the classics and find comfort in them. It's true, it's possible to write really well and tell a whopping good yarn at the same time.

Lay on, MacDuff! (I'm a big fan of Shakespeare, too).

Gene! a Herring!

I'm totally with you on OMF!! What Dostoevsky are you currently reading?

Demons. I don't have the time to devote to it that it deserves, but I'm trying to clear some so I can plow on it a while.

I'm reading the second volume of Orwell's letters, reviews, and general writings, as well. Since it is mostly short stuff, one or two pages, I keep it in the throne room. I'm really enjoying it. He is the most astute observer of his own time I think I've ever read.

Oh good, all my favorite Snobs are becoming Salonistas....

veritable Snobanistas!

Hey geneg,

I know what you mean about the golden age of sci-fi being 13. I've tried re-reading Dune on occasion as an adult, and the magic just isn't there anymore. I'll admit Foundation still did it for me at 30, and I'm glad it did, but beyond it and maybe Childhood's End and The Sheep Look Up, I just can't get "in" to it anymore. Have you read or attempted Dhalgren by any chance? I couldn't finish it.

Flaubert said you should never touch your idols, Some of the gold might come off on your fingers. I have always taken this as a warning not to revisit the books that rocked your world when you were young.

There are of course exceptions.

Never read Dhalgren but I tried Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand and didn't make it out of the prologue.

But then I tried M&M (yes, the same one this group is currently reading) and really couldn't get into it. Since you have it up through November, I might try it again. I ran out of time and had to turn it back to the library just as it was beginning to pique my interest (one reason I like to own my books).

I think Flaubert was really on to something. In another group I told the story of my reading In Dubious Battle at 17 and having it "rock my world" and trying to reread it a couple of years ago. Couldn't get past the first thirty pages.

Funny, I read the Foundation trilogy at around age forty, for the first time. It didn't make a lick of sense, as I recall. Everytime I read the word "mule" I thought of the line from Visions of Johanna about the jewels and binoculars hanging from his neck. Very distracting.

Flaubert rocks ! Read his letters and journals when he went to the East with his buddy Maxime. Super ! he prefigures Celine's fury !

LOL, geneg. Hey I remember that "mule" reference, but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you right now who or what the "mule" signified. Was the mule Hari Seldon? Or did the mule have something pertinent to do w/the secret, hidden foundation? I don't know. Don't ask me.

Forget the mules, we've got ourselves a panda bear who's just joined us. Joining the salon from Louisville, KY, let's give a hearty welcome to...ToTheWest! Welcome to the salon, ToTheWest!

She, self-admittedly, wasn't around to see the Middle Ages, but she saw WWII firsthand. She's got a great sense of humor, she obviously likes cats, and she's written some stellar reviews. Joining us from Ohio, let's welcome MarianV! Pleasure making your acquaintance, Marian!

The Mule had no other name but The Mule. He was a mutant capable of altering the emotional makeup of entire populations and as such posed the only serious threat to the Seldon Plan. A good portion of the last two books is involved in Foundationers trying to thwart him.

I'm still a helpless Sci-fi fan, I figure all the dreaming of fantastic futures keeps me young.

Here's a shoutout to our latest & greatest new members: Oregonreader and Torikton. Welcome to the fun!

Welcome! Gee, now there are at least 4 oregonians on this list...

Hey, thanks for the welcome. I joined because you guys are reading M&M, which is one of my absolute favorites. I'd join in and read it with you, but I loaned my copy to my mom. However, I am going to try to secure a copy of The Octopus to read with you this month.

I'm not from Oregon, I just like the airport. (only kidding!)

From Melbourne Australia, let us welcome mattplozza! Welcome to the salon, Matt!

I no get welcome?

I so sad tonight. Cold here, dark, no friends, no Katrina, no poetry.

This verdammte country has no poets. I love Holan. Hora. Milosz. Seifert. Pushkin. Esenin.

But I have all my poetry books back in Brno and poetry in English too hard for me.

Is no hope.

Oh virapol, do forgive me (and the mother$%#@*^&) salon, for not officially welcoming you. Everyone, do please personally welcome, virapol, to le salon litteraire du peuple pour le pueple! I could've sworn we already did! But perhaps we didn't. Who can really say for sure. Sometimes the salon, to my shame and chagrin, is very lax when it comes to welcoming. Way to go slickdpdx! Not welcoming poor virapol!

Did you know that when you're welcomed into a group, you're 97% more likely to remain in that group?...unless you're already a snob, apparently.

Oh please, virapol!...I'd (we'd) I'm sure, love to hear some English poetry. Also, might you enlighten us as to what it was like growing up in Check-us-slovakia? (sp?) - that's for you Urania!

edited to change "de" to "du" since I obviously don't know my French muy bueno.

virapol,

I refuse to welcome you to the group even if you do have good taste in poetry. You're a wicked, wicked woman. How dare you??????

I'd like everyone to welcome our new member devondoyle. Just clap your hands once or twice, or leave profane comments on her (her, EF, not his!) profile page (while being sure to goad her into taking part in discussions and group readings & to not be a lurker like I once was!-----for she feels--and she related tihs to me personally--not smart enuff for the Salon! Bullhonkey!).

She's really big on alligators and Heinekin.

I asked you to welcome the young man, Todd (!), your friend, not mercilessly insult her him like that! Damn you! He might leave now! Devon, Todd is having a most unusual day today, I think the notoriety has gone to his head. ;-) Welcome, I'm truly glad you've joined us.

And may we also welcome semckibbin! semchibbin, I just looked at your profile page and saw that you live literally like 20 minutes to the east of me in Riverside, just a hop, skip & a jump down the 60. I love old town Riverside, especially during the holidays, around The Mission Inn, in particular. There used to be some nice bookshops in old town too; I think only one remains now. My family regularly hikes to the top of Mt. Rubidoux overlooking old town, except in the summer, when the rattlesnakes are out. Thanks for joining!

Enrique,

I know I no speak English very good and I miss many good joke.

You told that you from from Cuba and you show picture of muscle granny. Is joke? You live is USA? Riverside? Highway 60? Is like Bob Dylan? Or is joke again?

I think I cry now. I need my Katrina.

Enrique,

Ignore virapol. She's just looking for someone in whom to sink her teeth. I say, "Let her eat 'stake.'"

Thanks for the kind welcome Toddells, specially after making me join the group! ANYWAY.

EF, I am a girl, not a guy. Promise. And no worries about Todd, he’s always that mean, once you get to know him. Thanks for the welcome. :)

!!! And I like Heinlein, not Heinekin. :(

Welcome, welcome ! Jenna Opfer to Le Salon! You shall fit right in here among all the anti-intellectual delinquents & Brent. Just promise not to disappear and/or become a lurker! Devon: it's your turn.

WELCOME Jenna!!! Thanks so much for joining. Now speak UP!

urgh. hi.

53...No offense Virapol (uh-oh, here comes some offense!) but maybe it's time you took yourself, say, an online English course to better help your communication skills. And you know, everytime you mention "Katrina," people here in the United States can't help but think about those poor people in New Orleans, many of which are still suffering, so thanks for bumming everybody out Virapol!

I said I was from Cuba, didn't I? Past tense. Meaning I no longer live there. There's no joking goes on that I'm aware of in this salon. And if you're making fun of my grandmother, God so help me....

Thank you for the warm welcome, Enrique. You have a good group.

And it is a very pleasant hike up Mt. Rubidoux, I go often myself; perhaps members of your family and I have crossed paths---I'm the guy with the dog. Wait a minute, that's everybody on the mountain.

Thank you for the welcome. I started reading your group posts and was hooked! I'll be reading The Octapus this month and look forward to the discussions.

Enrique,

I so sorry.

You mad now. I no try to hurt. I am poor Czech girl who know few people in this cold cold country. I no understand many joke.

I stop talk about my K. I only call her MostLoved now.

Is OK you from Cuba and now on Highway 61 with Dylan. Nobody make fun. You start poor and now you rich American. Is good.

I love my grandmother Anastazie and I sure you love your beautiful muscle granma. Is good to love granma.

So sorry.

Hello - I'm not sure if the protocol here is to introduce oneself or wait for another to do so.

I'm fannyprice, which I know disturbs some people, but there it is. The wonderfully feisty Murr made me aware of the salon but I've been out of the country for a while with no internet, so I'm just now joining.

Like Miss Price, I am far too serious for my own good. I lack the delicious sense of humor so often found in this group. Unlike Miss Price, I am (I hope) not an irredeemable prig. To plagiarize from my own profile, "My background is in Middle Eastern studies, with a focus on Judaism & Islam, Arabic literature, and Middle Eastern history & politics, and although I have fled academia, I still try to read a lot in these fields." I also have a moral and intellectual failing in the form of a serious weakness for young adult urban fantasy and dystopias.

I am a reviewer on Belletrista, avaland's recently-debuted web magazine celebrating women's literature from around the world.

63: Welcome! I just finished yet another re-reading of Mansfield Park! I also lived in the Middle East for about 10 years. Glad to see you! I already think we are kindred spirits.

Fannyprice, I read Mansfield Park for the first time just a few months ago, and I just loved Miss Price. I might be jealous of your LT name, if my own literary shy-girl heroine wasn't Agnes Grey instead. But I've been Medellia so long here that I think I'm stuck with it.

I see another new member, marciliogq, has also joined us. Welcome! Marciliogq is a Clarice Lispector fan, so we look forward to your contributions next month when we read The Hour of the Star!

63 Hello - I'm not sure if the protocol here is to introduce oneself....

Hello fannyprice

1. You can start by buying us a drink. ( Chilled Zubrowka please )
2. Say three times "James Joyce is great" !
3. Dance the "dance of the seven veils"

Mac

4. And swallow a herring whole, (don't forget that one mac!)

Welcome Fanny! and marciliogq (geeeeze could that be any harder to type...)

Yes, welcome everbody!

I love this salon, so erudite. Welcome fannyprice, and thanks to all for clearing up my confusion with Fanny Brice and Gosford Park (seriously). Like Paul Atreides, I fear to trespass on the eternal feminine.

>67 QuentinTom:, Murr, as long as I am not required to eat lutefisk, I think I can cope.

>66 Macumbeira:, Macumbeira - how about Nyquil shots? I'm nursing one hell of a cold. ;)

Anything to stop the drip !

It has been a long time, but wasn't that one of the themes in Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me?

Robert

Le salon is blowing up!

your library is stunning, southernbooklady! Welcome to the salon!

Another welcome, belatedly to southernbooklady. Not only do you have an awesome library, your hair is also fabulous. (Looks like a lot of work!)

Southernbooklady,

you much remind of my MostBeloved. I only a poor Czech girl now working hard in Canada, but my K., she read many many books, like you. You have beautiful library, beautiful hair. I wish I could know you.

I have been perusing The Le Salon threads here and this looks like a group of literary punishment gluttons. I have just ordered a copy of Melville's Clarel, his 500 page epic poem about a journey to the Holy Land. Anyone game?

not me, but I'll love to read your review !

1. I am not a masochist.
2. I have Clarel
3. Why do you want to read it? And please dont respond you want to read it because you are a masochist.

A love of epic poetry and of Melville, and a curiosity about great though unusual works overlooked by the makers of canons (though I note Bloom likes Clarel, even if everyone else overlooks it). A curiousity about an odd rhythm and its ends. A desire to understand more of Melville's evil thoughts on the diety.

And as winter comes on (it snowed today in Boston), it's good to have a really big book nearby.

A_musing, if you want to start on the first day of winter Dec 21, I am in.

Rock and roll! That's about right for me - I always have a week with a lot of reading between Xmas and New Years.

Is there any telling which is the better edition of Clarel? I see that the scholarly edition has about 400 more pages than the trade paperback and costs two and a half times as much. Is there any telling ahead of time what those extra pages are used for?

Robert

Couldnt tell you, Robert. I have the 2008 Northwestern University Press edition. It has only an 18-page Preface by Parker.

I found three available editions, all from Northwestern University Press. Yours apparently is the $20 trade paperback weighing in at about 500 pages. There is also a 1991 scholarly edition weighing in at about 900 pages, available for a little over $100 in hardcover and under $50 in paperback. I think I'll put the scholarly paperback on my BN.COM wishlist and see whether it draws me in.

Robert

If you go to addall.com there many copies for under $20.

Let's welcome edierose to the salon! - and to LibraryThing! A new LT member since Oct. 10th. Great having you here edierose.

Hmm. I ordered the non-scholarly Northwestern edition. But now I want the other one. If no one else gets one, I think I will, so we have someone else's brilliant thoughts to lean on while reading. As long as I'm getting others into this.

A_musing, I also found this (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Melvilles-Clarel-and-the-Intersympathy-of-Creeds/William-Potter/e/9780873387972/) for those of us who like to hear expert opinion. I will probably not order one without the other, and I am leaning towards ordering them.

Robert

Where's Wilf? He's a Melville fan.

Just arrived, hibernating with the snows of October. Fortunately, the Titans did not bring their snow game.

Not a Melville fan per se, but a fan of Moby-Dick. Also not a fan of author biographies in general, but I did like Melville, his world and his work, which I had to read because it was a gift. It spoke more to Melville's works than details of his life, because the latter apparently wouldn't fill a book. That's actually why I like it.

Alas, Delbanco's bio of Melville did not encourage me to pursue his other works, except for Bartleby. I see more of a literary connection to Camus, and, through Camus, Don Quixote and Don Juan. Amazingly, I just learned from cracked.com that Don Juan was written by Lord Byron. Where was I during that class?

I'd like to welcome theoldman to the salon. Can I get a show of hands, er, the online equivalent of that, whatever it is, of everyone who has received a lovely, unsolicited poem from theoldman during their tenure here in LT? And the poems he sends, I've noticed, seem to somehow mysteriously apply to the sendee personally.

Welcome aboard oldman!

welcome theoldman!
PekoeTheCat has not received a poem (sigh).

After all the poetry I posted all over, I am truly heartbroken not to have made an earlier acquaintance of theoldman either. I would LOVE a poem.

You know, I didn't want to say anything, but since the subject has been breached: I, or, two of my sock puppets, received poems from theoldman, but I, EnriqueFreeque, have yet to receive a poem either. I do hope that will soon change. Everybody needs the right poem at the right time every now and again, and nobody provides that service any more superiorly than theoldman.

What a coincidence! I was surprised with a poem today from theoldman, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It's a lovely poem and a great way to start my day.

Very cool Oregonreader,

Hey OldMan, where's my poem?! And what about a poem for the salon? I may send you a poem, OldMan!

How about a welcome for redkit of New Zealand.

And an official welcome for Porua too! So glad you've joined the salon, and I'm very curious to find out why you don't like The Time Traveler's Wife. Do tell, please!

Mihess was welcomed in another thread, but I thought I'd say hi here, too. Welcome, mihess!

Whhhy thank you Medellia! Glad to be aboard. Also, anyone is free to call me by my name, Marie.

As the Clarel begins arriving, I'm wondering what I should do about a thread - it's not really in the stream of planned reading, but it sounds like several of us are aboard. Should I open a Clarel thread or create a separate group (perhaps add a "non" or two to the group's name)? I had invited a couple other groups, but these were the grounds where the fish took the bait.

fish (n.)
O.E. fisc, from P.Gmc. *fiskaz (cf. O.H.G. fisc, O.N. fiskr, Du. vis, Ger. Fisch, Goth. fisks), from PIE *piskos (cf. L. piscis). The verb is O.E. fiscian. Fishy "shady, questionable" is first recorded 1840, perhaps from the notion of "slipperiness," or of giving off an intrusive odor. Fish story attested from 1819, from the tendency to exaggerate the size of the catch (or the one that got away). Fishtail (v.), of vehicles, first recorded 1927. Fig. sense of fish out of water first recorded 1613.
"Of all diversions ... fishing is the worst qualified to amuse a man who is at once indolent and impatient." Scott, 1814

Oh do start a new thread here A_Musing! I'd be very interested to follow along. In fact, I've kept my eyes open since you brought up Clarel for a lucky, needle-in-the-haystack find of it in my weekly rounds of the used shops.

105...btw I've edited the salon's title page to reflect the Clarel read. Dec. was the start date right?

Thanks - yes, Dec.

We'll start on the equinox.

From the land down under, Sydney, New South Wales, let's welcome ChocolateMuse!

And while you're welcoming her, be sure and read her fine review of Ghostwritten - http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=ChocolateMuse - that she just posted today. Well done, ChocolateMuse!

Thanks Enrique. A 'fine' review. I shall savour that. I see it pays to be in this group - three thumbs already... I've never had so many in my life before! :)

Something about the way non-Australians say New South Wales, even in writing, makes it sound so colonial. That metallic sound you hear is just my convict chains clanking...

Do call me Rena if you like, since my screen name is annoying to type.

Welcome Chocolatemuse!

Welcome ChocolateMuse!

And hello everyone! This is the former martinmccarvill, who has had some of the advantages of online anonymity drawn to his attention of late, and has thus changed his name. But please (please) feel free to call me Martin:)

Okay, i stumbled in here on the way to WhereTheHellEver....i don't read fast (spare me that one) and do really shitty on GroupReads..but i'm here until i get my compass fixed.........

Welcome, jdthloue! I always have the best intentions of participating in group reads, but I never seem to follow through. I'm hoping the Salon will cure me (starting next month with Lispector).

Another welcome to karenmarie! Your profile makes me hearken back to my own high school band days. Memories!

But why read Shamela without reading Pamela beforehand?

That's a good question, Irene. Pamela is about the most virtuous lady who ever lived, as imagined by Samuel Richardson, facts you probably already know. SR so idealized Pamela as to turn her into a veritable Virgin Mary: perfect in thought and conduct, allowing no misdeeds or immoralities into her upstanding, halo'd life whatsoever.

In my opinion, that's all you need to know about the character (and the book) Pamela, in order to be equipped to read Shamela. I could be wrong - and if I am, someone please set me straight - I'll admit you might miss a detail or twenty not having read Pamela before Shamela, but SR rakes you over the head repeatedly with how pristine and perfect prissy Pamela was, that reading it start to finish, very well could induce vomitting. I would not wish Pamela on my most worst enemies. Clarissa, however, is a different story (but very tedious, like Pamela, too).

I did consider a quick one-two punch: Pamela and then Shamela, but Pamela, while no Clarissa, is still pretty darn long.

You simply must join this group Irene! Le Salon Litteraire formally requests that you become a member.

So, welcome to the salon, in advance.

Hello to you, too Medellia...and i've duly noted the Lispector...

Shamela/Pamela notwithstanding..i loved all gazillion pages of Clarissa and downloaded it to my Kindle so as not to get a Hump from lugging the actual book around...

Le Salon is pleased to welcome its newest member, dchaikin. dchaikin has a voluminous catalog of eclectic reviews, ranging from children's books to non-fiction and politics to genre fiction and literary fiction. Well worth a look!

Welcome also to janeajones. I've been a lurker in your Club Read thread this year--and yours too, dchaikin.

Uh oh, ClubRead is infiltrating the Salon!

You'll have to blame A_musing with his lure of Clarel -- I've just ordered my, non-scholarly, copy. I'm afraid I may be toe-dipping rather than plunging into it, but I'm intrigued.

Let the brilliant ClubReaders arrive in force! Where's avaland, highly esteemed creator of ClubRead and Reading Globally (and who knows what all else)?

OMG!! We have another LT author in our midst!http://www.librarything.com/author/jonesjaneanderson

janeajones, I do hope you'll feel at home here and perhaps Porius (you around, Porius?) could introduce you to the three poetry threads he started hereabouts in Le Salon.

Yes sir.

Thanks Por. You're gettin' some lovin' in those other threads! Woo-hoo!

Joining us from Manchester, England, is reading_fox. reading_fox has written 532(!) reviews (and these are not one or two liners, salonistas). Welcome to Le Salon reading_fox!

Welcome also to alceinwdld. Her profile states that she is a therapist with a special interest in trauma--I think we could've used you in the Salon post-Ulysses, Sheri! ;)

I just wanted to point out that as of 4:07pm (AZ never-changing-time) we have 100 members! Woo!

Good eye mihess!

100 members now...wow...a goof that turned into a triple-digit group. I'm thankful for EVERY member.

Welcome ta yis, Fox. I also feel it only fair to warn you that I will be gunning to beat your lifetime review total. Currently I've got 401, although not all of those are quality.

Welcome to number one-oh-one: maryjanemanolos. I saw your list in the top 10 favorites thread, and we share three (since I finished Les Mis a week ago, it is now a part of my top 10). I remember that you're a Forster fan--you'll find friends here.

thank-ee kindly, medellia

Welcome to joezbar!!

Joe gives 5 stars to Melville and Dostoevsky but only 2 to Hemingway. He's going to fit right in.

Le sigh...I love Hemingway...am I going to be ostracized? Run out of town by cowboys, and/or a mob with pikes? Stealthily hunted down by the tomcat fellow? Should I be nervous?

Settledown there mjm old Hem is not the cat's meeow but he has something to say to us. He was reacting to the romantic excess of a former world. One consolation: he would never have jumped out of an upper-story window to prove his admiration for a writer whose characters, very few of them, had much money and were wormwood to the Russell Square hunta.

Thanks! I feel right at home. Been having a lot of fun reading the many wonderful posts in this group. I'm presently in the throes of preparing an outline for my thesis on the nature of cultural capital in online literary communities, and there have been some truly inspired examples I've found on here. There we go - I just demonstrated some of my own cultural capital.

Hemingway is the bain of my existence, as my partner continues to try and force him and his stilted prose upon me. Moby Dick I read while on a European adventure, and helped me discover a love of whaling lore I never imagined I could have.

If you want some very fine examples of Australian writing, have a look at Breath by Tim Winton, The Boat by Nam Le, and Wanting by Richard Flanagan. Each one of them superb in their own way.

Looking forward to being active in this group!

Ah, welcome, welcome. Looks like we get to initiate you two with a three round bout over Ernest. Well, then, Queensberry rules, and we want a clean, well-lighted fight. Winner gets to fight the bull. And, yes, plenty of bull about.

131 maryjanemanolos

I love Hemingway. I continue to love him. I have been slapped around repeatedly by friend and foe here but I remain unrepentant. I have heard from a Great One that Hemingway is Dumb. H. does have a great many faults, no doubt. His machoism is offputting to a great many. He is uneven. But I believe he also possessed genius. Many of the Nick Adams stories are examples of perfection in the short story form.

You will still feel at home in this group and we will allow no one to run us out!

>135 polutropos: - a resolution with no punches thrown? Come on. What kind of Hemingway fan are you?

On a mildly more serious note, after reading The Garden of Eden, I found the rest of Hemingway better, and went from a Hemingway hater to one who could read it without unpleasant incident. And I do see his poetic voice, even if it is a bit of a monotone one.

A punch must be thrown? All right then, here it is:

"Is dying hard, Daddy?"
"No, I think it is pretty easy, Nick. It all depends.'

They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father rowing. The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. Nick trailed his hand in the water. It felt warm in the sharp chill of the morning.

In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure he would never die.

The conclusion of 'Indian Camp'.

So is that the best he's got? I mean, it's sweet, perfectly readable, not a bad cadence at all, and probably makes sense in context. Better than most commercial writers, certainly.

But I'm trying to figure out whether to counter with one of the better stretches of the Octopus or some nice, clean language from one of Faulkner's mysteries. Either way I'm pulling the punches.

So I am going to have to obfuscate now???

Even on Olympus there is a whole pantheon of gods. There is Zeus, and then there is Demeter or Ares. They would not pit themselves against Zeus.

No point in you bringing out any lines from Faulkner. I throw in the towel. Faulkner wins.

Now Norris. that is a cheap crack not worthy of you. I took a thirty second glance at that masterpiece and will not spend any more time. He does not make it into the Olympian conversation, IMHO.

OK, OK, we'll leave Norris down on earth tilling the wheat fields (where he wants to be, anyways), while we let Ernest clean Zeus/Faulkner's spittoon up in Olympus.

Fight's over. Let's head to the Salon Saloon for a drink.

Gore for Myra !

Thank you for Hemingway !

Thank you for letting us hold a 1000 kg Marlin on a thread in the gulf of mexico

Thank you for pinpointing to us that frozen leopard on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro

thank you for the bullet holes in the ceiling of the Bar of the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi

thanks for the boozing and the brawling

and thank you mister Hemingway for taking care of the cats in cuba

Hemingway is great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Camus sucks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who is An Raynd ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Ernest went fishing
While Ayn Rand was knitting
And fought the fascist Falange

He wrote good books
About women with looks
And all the good men gone wrong

While Rand ran away
To Hollywood to play
And didn't write well but wrote long

OK, someone help me finish. What can I say about Camus that rhymes with "long".

Although I was the dirty bird that suggested Hemingway's inclusion on "The List" (viva "The Hills Are Like White Elephants") I will say Vote Gore for Myra! and be done with it. (Ah, does only seeing the movie count?)

"While Rand ran away
To Hollywood to play
And didn't write well but wrote long"
Camus penned The Plague
A classic for every age
Despite Mac's belittling: Mac is wrong!

#145 A_musing: What can I say about Camus that rhymes with "long".

Depends on how blue you wanna go. :)

While rand ran away
to Hollywood to play
And didn't write well but wrote long,

Camus held the fort,
"Maman, elle est morte"
With that old existentialist song.

Hm. I am not a poet.

I like it, Anna. Mine was obscene and censored. But yours is much better.

My first draft had Hemingway writing about "good men sans _ong" - it's hard to avoid the blue sometimes.

I think we're getting somewhere here.

Just so long as its full of Mac and cheese.

146 No, the movie doesn't do justice to the book. Myra's voice is what makes the book so great.

talk the hand because the face ain't listening

Well, um, back to welcoming new members: hi, LisaCurcio! We're glad to have you here. And your puppies are just so cute, I wanna give 'em a little squeeze! Is the one nearest us in the picture a Westie? My sister has a Westie--at 14, he's a cute little old man dog.

# 102 Oh no! I’m so sorry! I missed my welcome! It’s just that what with exams and assignments and deadlines I’ve been really distracted for the past few months and it’s only getting worse! Anyway, thank you for welcoming me!

And as for hating The Time Traveler’s Wife go to my 50 Book Challenge thread for my full rant,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/72408

or read my review,

http://www.librarything.com/work/3067/reviews/50748759

and find out why I do so!

"If I could time travel and stop my three days younger self from reading this book, I would. The plot summaries on various web sites (which is one of the things that got me interested in this book in the first place) are actually better than the real narrative.

And the sex scenes! Oh the dreadful sex scenes and the use of appalling words to describe them! Words that actually made me cringe"!

Hysterical Porua! Thank you for starting my morning off right w/your wonderful rant!

#157 You are so welcome! I'm glad that you’ve enjoyed my rant. At least some good came out of my reading that awful mess!

#155--Thanks for the welcome. Actually, both of the dogs are Westies and they are only 2 now. Not siblings, but from rescue at the same time. We had one that lived to 16--wonderful dogs.

And I joined partly because of you, Medellia, and "Les Mis"! I lurk in your Club Read thread. Tracked down the Modern Library, unabridged, Wilbour translation and I am so looking forward to December 1.

Not much of a poster, but lurking in the Salon is the one of the best entertainments of the day--and you all add to the TBR pile, too.

Lisa--How nice to know! You have a great read ahead of you.

Aren't these latest "top 10" threads just too delicious? Dangerous for my pocketbook, I'm sure, but the fun I'm having creating a wishlist, ah!

117: EnriqueFreeque - Just noticed the really nice welcome you posted here. Thanks. I've only been lurking here — I've been too busy trying to keep up to actually post anything. I did pick up a copy of Les Miserables Friday...

>#159;
Hi Lisa. Did you end up having to order the "mass market" paper back of Les Miserables? I don't want a hardback but cannot find a trade paperback anywhere. I think the Wilbour translation is the only unabridged one.

And to you (you know who you are) no roaming in and out of the room, rolling your eyes and going "wow".

thanx,
belva

I promise no eye rolling or going wow from these parts, but I may indeed wander in and out of the room. Sometimes I'm just lost...

I downloaded mine, and am going to listen to Les Mis rather than read it. 66 hours. I'm preparing for a charity bicycle ride and will listen while on a stationery bicycle in a room full of sweaty people - I figure I'll be pretty miserable.

OK, now YOU stop rolling your eyes at me. I saw that.

I love L.T. Hey, did you really know I was talking about you, oh yeah-----------I guess I did call you an amusing smartarse, didn't I? And I do understand; sometimes I get lost as well. Tee hee.
What is the charity you are riding for? Duhd I end that sentence with a preposition? Oh, well. St. Richard says that they changed that rule.
belva

Brain tumor research. I have a relative fighting the battle now. The ride isn't for 6 months, but I'm about to start the prep.

That is very important research. They know so little about the brain.
My niece is recovering from a (given a 3 per cent chance to even live) brain injury and it is beginning to look as if she may make an almost complete recovery. From removal of a 2 inch square section of her brain and losing almost a third of her skullcap in the injury, the coma, the "meeting" (no hope, no hope) to now walking with a walker, making noises and attempting to talk, writing random words, laughing, flipping her doctor off.....................I could write a book and if you go back through my 50 book challenge, you will probably find one in my Chrissy updates.
But, please....now or later....P.M. me the info and I will pledge or send you a donation for your hard work and your ride for that very worthy cause.
I wish your family member a complete recovery and I know that miracles do happen. I also know that when things like this happen it is not just to the patient, but to the entire family and all their loved ones, even communities. Another one for my evergrowing list.
Good luck to you as you prepare for your "battle" against brain tumors.
big hug,
belva

Wow, Belva, good luck to your niece! That's so great that she's come so far along the road to recovery. Thoughts and wishes to you all.

Le Salon has now passed the Harry Potter group for activity here at LT. Where are your royalty checks, Freeque?

#162--Belva,

Sorry, it was a hardcover and I found it at--believe it or not--Borders. The paperbacks were the new translation that has been pretty universally panned. It is a heavy stinking book, but I just won't be carrying it anywhere :-).

Lisa

168> Yeah that's something (if only for one day, I bet). Must've been a slow day for Hogwarts. Proverbial check's in the mail I presume ;(

So, this is the gathering place. I guess I took a wrong turn about seven forums back.

Well I jumped out of the salon a few months ago, but it is just too irresistable. I've found myself lurking about quite a bit lately.

So, I've jumped back in!

Yay!

Welcome again, Sandydog1. I've been meaning to drop by your profile and tell you that I attempted to buy a copy of The New Lifetime Reading Plan. Love books about books! I say "attempted" because I have apparently, for the first time, been ripped off by an Amazon seller. I'll get that book yet!

Welcome, Sandy. Are you the one we've been waiting for?

Silly A_musing. We are the ones we've been waiting for.

Glad you're back too Sandydog! Sandydog's one of the original salonistas, or, rather, BTUers from The Quest for the Last Page of Ulysses days.

Did you finish Ulysses Sandydog1? Don't mean to put you on the spot...I didn't finish it myself. And I'm proud that I didn't too.

And another new member today: Allie_Mag_79. Another Austen, Brontë (both Charlotte and Emily), and Forster fan--I like. Welcome!

Welcome Allie! (Wow, this salon enthusiasm is contagious...)

Yes, EF, I did finish Ulysses. Mrs. Marian Bloom's concluding monologue was a bit of a challenge. But I went back to my old crutch (an audio version) and wouldn't you know, that chapter turned into a perfectly understandable internal conversation?

I'm a Bronte and Foster fan meself. Speaking of dysfunctional family stories, I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov.

177 and 179: I thought there were many chapters much more difficult to get through than Mrs. Bloom's monologue. In fact her monologue was like a dessert after a dinner filled with strange food I was not very familiar with. Skip some of the other chapters and read it!

Yea! A cohort who likes audiobook crutches.

Sometimes I don't walk at all, just swing on two crutches.

Unbeknownst to anyone, while the salon was doing its Ulysses thing and I wasn't paying attention, I was listening to Ulysses in audio book form (I haven't yet finished, but will some day). I've been contemplating going back and inserting comments in all of the threads as if I were there at the time.

Welcome to Chanale!!

She's got a kitten on her profile page - could she have been lured in by our puppies and kittens thread?

So that's what it is. Bait!

Welcome to all the new peeps!

Welcome to Le Salon, freckles1987. You've joined us at a very troubled time in our history, so glancing through the delectable photos in your wonderful blog - http://phimberly.blogspot.com/ - is welcome relief!

How long has your dog had it's drivers license?

Yes, welcome freckles, but Chuck is WAY TOO young to be driving!

Welcome to joltbklyn. I'm all in favor of giving Bklyn a big jolt!

Yes, joltbklyn is my best friend. I'm glad she's here! We share enough books that you'd think we are married or live together or something..

Thank you, A_musing and slickdpdx. Must confess that joltbklyn is a nickname left over from a former life. I really should change it to joltpdx after six years here in Oregon. I bought les mis today at Powell's, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

I was convinced he was a sock puppet. I publicly "denounced" him as a sock puppet! And did so w/out any concrete evidence to support my claim, just going on a hunch. Oh he possibly still could be a puppet, but he'd have to be very very crafty if indeed he were one.

I do apologize, Third_Cheek, for falsely accusing you of vile sock puppetry. There's no excuse for what I did, but let me provide one anyway.

See, having a sock puppet genetic predisposition myself, I possess an innate understanding of sock puppet psychology and practice. I believe it takes a sock puppet to know a sock puppet, and as a, now reformed, sock puppeteer, I thought I had you nailed.

But you're sounding less and less like a sock puppet to me now as the days and weeks go by.

So, with that said, welcome to Le Salon, Third_Cheek!

Vive le SockPuppet, AKA Marionnette Chaussette.

Vive la Revolution! Vive le Dictateur!

Thank you Comrade Polutropos!

Viva Las Vegas!

And welcome to Talbin!

There's been an influx of these people with dog profiles. I think Medellia was on to something with that puppies and kittens thing.

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

180:

You speaketh the truth, anna.

Hey, who wants to spend the next 10 years in the maternity ward, where we could analyze the 30 or so different stylistic forms?

Maybe next time. For now, I'll keep my analyses limited to Me Write Book.

That Me Write Book is a monstrosity, Sandydog! I certainly hope Anna doesn't make a bad decision and decides to pick it up at the library and actually read it. She might review it then, and give glory to Sasquatch when glory to Yeti is due.

>192 A_musing: Thanks for the welcome, A_musing. I've been lurking for at least a month, drawn by the idea of reading Les Miserables with the group, but now that I've read and reviewed The Hour of the Star (wow - a reread will be coming this week) I figured I should jump into the fray.

Hello to all!

Aw, Enrique, I don't care what Malcolm Gladwell says. There is no cultural evidence that ice cave-phillic hard working Tibetan Yetis are any smarter or better than good ol' indigenous North American, beer swillin', moldy-smellin', Nascar-lovin' Sasquatches.

I thought Sasquatch and Yeti were cousins. Like the Native Americans and the Chinese. Sasquatch followed the Native Americans across the Ice Bridge, searching through their camp sites for beer and jerky.

196, 197> Everybody knows, at least anecdotally, that Sasquatch are wimps and Yetis are real men (and women).

Here's a shout out to Singout, the salon's newest member! And only on LT since Nov. 10th. Welcome to LT too!

Welcome soylentgreen23! Is it possible you have joined us in anticipation of the Les Mis salon read? :)

Le Salon is very pleased to welcome alwaysafutilecloche to the group! alwaysafutilecloche is both a friend of ImNotDedalus and an aficionado of Sylvia Plath, which automatically makes her a friend of the salon's, imo. Welcome alwaysafutilecloche! Say hello to Ded for us when you can. We miss him here.

This is a BIG Sunday - three new initiates beyond alwaysafutilecloche.

Welcome to AlexAustin, another in the ranks of LT authors to join here. He has an oldman poem. Eat your heart out, Enrique.

The_bastard is also an LT author, and we can tell from the beginning that he'll be a fun new edition to the salon.

Clunita has been welcome by Todd on her page with a simple post, to wit, "Yo!" Clunita's random books when I looked at her profile included books in three languages (Spanish, French, English)! Clunita, check out the mini-salon Todd has started up focused on Faulkner, but, please, come on back afterwards. Yo!

I'd like to welcome copyedit52 (a.k.a., Peter Weissman) a real-live published writer (woohoo!) to le salon. What better gift, I say, could he have given himself on this his birthday, than joining le salon? Happy birthday dude!

Le Salon, as a matter of fact, sometime this weekend, once all the food has sufficiently digested, will be starting what I hope becomes a monthly thread (one writer per month) devoted to spotlighting "real live, underappreciated authors here in LT" - or something like that.

A forum of spontaneous Q&A, laid back interviews, etc. Peter Weissman will be the first featured author. So mark your calendars, sometime this weekend. Those who won't be reading Les Mis in Dec. might want to chew the fat some with Peter Weissman.

Le Salon is also very pleased to welcome MoiraStirling!

Check out this quote from MoiraStirling's profile: "My books are my most prized possessions..."

Here here! I think a few of us around here can relate to that, eh?

Uh, Medellia (do hope you're feeling better) but have you met Moira? - she plays the cello!

Hey Enrique,

the Empire she groweth!

Vive le Dictateur! (And remember to watch your back LOL)

Cheers, all.
Here's to witty banter and eye-opening discussion!

New members over Thanksgiving!

>Let's welcome another musician to le salon, wflooter480! Listen, wflooter480, we're more than just some run-of-the-mill online group (we're family... amen everyone?!) so, if you need support and encouragement to get that tattoo, we're here for you!

>from London, let us welcome another blessed Brit, stephen-boldre. And with stephen-boldre now among us, we also have yet another Austenite in our glorious midst. Stephen, or anyone from Britain, when oh when is Prince William going to pop the question and put this ridiculous they're-on-they're-off business to bed?!

>and new both to LT and le salon, welcome winterpere! I do long to say more about you winterpere, but I'll wait till you've had time to acclimate to your new environs....

Long-time lurker, loving the back and forth among some very smart and witty people. I'm joining to participate in the group reads, and looking forward to it.

Very glad you've joined us, arubabookwoman!

Hi Debroah;
I am really glad you are here. The group reads here are awesome and my world has grown considerably the past few months since I have been here. This group reads books and authors I have never even heard of so even at 62, I am still growing up. Love it.
hugs,
belva

You are an inspiration, Belva, setting an awesome example that one's literary education (or education just in general) never need come to an end as long as you look to keep growing and learning. Your enthusiasm is contagious!

I do what I can.
belva

Wow! EnriqueFreeque, thanks for the warm welcome. I have been lurking in the shadows for some time now and finally decided to join this amusing and very interesting group. I am very much looking forward to reading Les Mis and to making many witty and charming friends here in the group. This is truly a group after my own heart!

I may very well need the support to get that tattoo!

I've always wanted to read les mis and excited to start it as soon as I finish Eleanor Rigby. Thanks for the warm welcome!

anytime winterpere wflooter480.

Let's also welcome FinanceMinister, also relatively new to LT.

I would like to welcome my friend TonyH to the group. I've been hanging out at his reading threads for some time now. He's nibbling away at Infinite Jest and is also reading Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

Yes, welcome indeed TonyH! Lovely sunset logo you've got there. And if you're friends w/Medellia & tomcat, you're certainly a friend of the salon.

TonyH, I see that you're also a Mary Oliver devotee. Excellent! Welcome to the Salon.

saphi has just joined le salon so let's be sure and welcome her and make her feel both at home here and as a brand new member to LT.

Glad you found us saphi!

Welcome to le salon, delbertmills!

I absolutely love that you're a volunteer w/IRIS and that you read stuff over the radio for the visually impaired. That is so cool! And I'm with you on having that dream of opening a small cluttered bookstore someday.

Glad you found us and hope you like it here.

Hey, thanks Medellia for linking me to this -- and thank you for the welcome and Enrique and theaelizabet too (yes always good to meet other Oliver fans). I'm looking forward to some of the reads you've set up - especially Infinite Jest (it should help me get on with the last 500 pages or so), the Proust (another I have unfinished) and some of the shorts, have Paradise Lost caling to me from the shelf recently.

Two blank messages in a row!! Dare I attempt a post? Will it be eaten by the LTMonster lurking below my left wrist? Only one way to find out!

My copies of Les Miserables, Paradise Lost, and Miss Lonelyhearts arrived today.

I am digging into Les Mis as soon as I hang up and will meet others over in that corner of the Salon.

Welcome to le salon Celine! Celine-dupont is French!

Welcome to le salon Mr. Durick!

Also, let's welcome Mark to le salon. Mark has great taste in literature. How do I know this? Because four of the last six books he's entered, I own. That's how. Thanks for joining, Mark!

Joining us from Hemlock, NY, is....hemlockgang! If you're a dog lover, be sure and click on "larger" below her logo.

I can't believe, hemlockgang, that we share over 400 volumes and yet I can't recall ever having bumped into you around these LT parts. Very delighted to have you on board, and hope you'll enjoy your stay....

Henri, I have a philippine women in my inbox begging for money. As my esteemed leader, can you tell me what to do ?

she says :

Hello Dear Friend,
I'm sending you a special greeting which I hope it will meet you in good health, I am Mrs Gloria Pelaez a complete citizen of philippines,There is something i will like you to handle with faith and trust, please get back to me for more details. for more details
contact me via this Email: mrsgloriapz1@sify.com ,

Waiting to hear from you soon.
Thanks And God Bless You.
Mrs Gloria.

Notify Tim Spalding. She says she's from the Phillipines, and yet she's actually operating out of Cote 'd Ivorie, Africa. I know this because she sent me the same message and because I have a Visitor tracking-thing, I know she's lying when she says she's from the Phillipines.

THIS IS COMPLETE, OUTRIGHT FRAUD, AND NO ONE SHOULD EITHER RESPOND TO HER OR SEND HER ANYTHING.

I made the mistake of deleting her post before notifying Tim. I would let Tim know of this immediately. I really hope no one falls for this operation's ruse.

I had the same message. Revenge of the Pinoy Spammers!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad she is a complete citizen of the Phillipines, and not just a small bit of one.

229>

Your comment made me think of Amos Tutuola's Complete Gentleman in The Palm-Wine Drinkard. For those of you who do not know who I am talking about, go forth and read this book of my childhood! Alternately, being lazy, hear me and know that the Complete Gentleman is neither Complete nor a Gentleman, being in fact a mean-spirited skull who leases all his body parts from various forest-dwellers.

The skull as complete gentleman!! One of my favorite parables. I loved The Palm-Wine Drinkard.

I was so completely obsessed with that book as a child - that and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. It's funny because as a preteen I thought these books were totally sexy and now I come across childhood annotations and just go, WHAT???? I must have been a prepubescent sadomasochist because I was especially excited about the episode in the red town where the narrator and his wife get tortured by having all their hair crudely shaved off/peppered/set on fire and then all the little kids play hopscotch on their heads after they are buried up to their neck and pissed upon. (Why do I remember this in such detail?) I also have an old copy of Ulysses that is absolutely pristine except for the Circe chapter, which, while thankfully devoid of strange stains, has clearly been well loved.

Go figure.

Lolol. Here my preteen friends and I thought we were totally wild with our trashy bodice-ripper novel that we passed around (the sexy bits were highlighted, of course).

232, 233> Woohoo you two!!

There's this bit in Erica Jong's Fear of Flying about the narrator's adolescence where she and her friends are just passing around this typewriter and writing an erotic story together. It's a funny passage - I think one of the kids was especially fond of the phrase "paroxysms of passion" which felt very true to life for me - but reminded me of exactly how secretly uptight and paranoid I was circa middle school. I would write vaguely pornographic stories and then I would rip them up and eat them because I was so scared that someone would find out. "Oh my god!!! Look at that little girl writing crappy love stories!!! Quick, put her in a reform school!" If you had told the preteen me that you and your adolescent friends were (gasp!) actually SHARING the bodice-rippers with each other, I probably would have fainted, if only so that I couldn't be incriminated when Authority came to cart you away to juvie.

234: LOL. If this was a porn film, you could cue the house music any moment now!

I'm dying amaranthic! Perhaps you might regale us with an excerpt of your middle school "paroxysms of passion" writing, inspired by Erica Jong?

LOL ;-)

Well, because I was soooo paranoid that someone might know I was what I was up to, I managed to destroy almost everything racy. The remaining fragments are a feat of disguise and camouflage if I do say so myself, sounding pretty much like your average piece of shitty purple teenager emo poetry:

You cry black tears into
the deep dark Abyss
of my writhing soul
(Black like My heart)
i watch from darkness
as your life Leaves you
it is my turn, to Cry

Now replace "soul" with "vagina."

Woo-Hoooooooo

Although thankfully I left that particular stage of my life far behind, I often apply the same "decoding" process when reading others' writing.

At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.

If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb inside of his skin.

etc.

I'm sure many of us do this but I am a loud laugher and have gotten kicked out of libraries before for such juvenile antics.

(apologies to anyone who was offended by my candor)

Let's welcome pyrocow to le Salon. "Hey, pyrocow, welcome to le Salon!" pyrocow just recently added Peter Weissman's book, I'm pleased to see.

Just joining us too is Pawcatuck. Welcome, Pawcatuck!
Pawcatuck majored in beer and is now presently lazy.
Though you'd never know it from all those reviews: one review per every book owned!

Yes, welcome, pyrocow! And Pawcatuck, who knows a great book when he reads one: The Invisible Man

Holy cow, pyrocow!

You're here for Infinite Jest are you? Suh-weet! Have you read the greatest piece of postmodern fiction ever penned before? That's right, you heard me all you Pynchon pundits, I posit here right now before God, the Cosmos, and Everyone, that IJ is more readable and meaningful a work than even the hallowed, much loved, Gravity's Rainbow. Beginning March we'll find out why.

Very excited, pyrocow, to have another Infinite Jester in our mix.

That story kills me, pyrocow. He should still be with us.

I'd like to welcome steven03tx to the salon. Steven recently had two reviews hit #1 and #2 simultaneously on HR, his reviews for American Psycho and The Iliad, and he's currently got The Odyssey on HR. Glad to have another fine writer and thinker join our midst. Welcome aboard, Steven!

Thank you for the invitation to the salon and the warm welcome, Enrique. I'm looking forward to joining the group readings very soon as well as other discussions.

cakefriend is the latest LTer to join le salon. I love your logo. I want to be there. Soon. And I couldn't help but noticing (do pardon my eavesdropping) that our very own veritable writer-in-residence, Peter Weissman, was being, uh, very humble regarding his book on your profile page. Don't listen to him, cakefriend, just buy it.

;-)

Hey, cakefriend! It's you! Yes, welcome to the salon. And listen to Enrique; he's a very wise man: buy my book.

I don't believe it! I'm so happy! For about the last 10 months I haven't been a member of this group. However, with all the recent changes that Tim and Co. have made in the group pages, one apparently has been the ability to rejoin a group you've created after having left it!

Woohoo!

My life is complete now! I'm an official salonista!

Welcome to Le Salon Litteraire, EnriqueFreeque!

Why thank you, EnriqueFreeque!

Oh don't mention it. We welcome everybody here, even the weirdos.

That's very kind of you. I want you to know that it makes me feel very welcome; a part of the community, if you will.

Well, you're welcome. It's my pleasure to welcome you, EnriqueFreeque.

Gee, thanks.

Hope you have a great new years! Any plans?

Why yes I do have plans. Thanks for asking! I'll be attending a New Year's Eve wedding of all things, followed by a mandatory cocktail party reception. What a bummer, huh?

Oh that sounds just awful. Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll get a flat tire on the way.

That would be so awesome wouldn't it? Then I wouldn't be forced to down a couple cocktails right?

Right!

Well, I better get to bed now, so I'm well rested in case I have car trouble on the way to the wedding tomorrow.

You are very wise. Thanks for joining Le Salon Litteraire!

Lol. hurrah! Vive le Dictateur!

Welcome, Enrique. We'll do our best to make sure you don't feel left out as you become acclimated to the group. Feel free to ask us any questions as you get settled in; we'll be happy to help!

;)

Thank you for the warm welcome, wisewoman! This seems like a really neat group with lots of cool people! I really can't wait for the Infinite Jest read. You know, that book opened up the possibilities for me in fiction, and pointed to heretofore unperceived literary pathways that have led me for the past eight years into fiction hamlets I didn't even know existed. It's really great to be a part of a community now that both appreciates the classics and innovative stuff, but also aims, it seems, from what I've gathered in the threads when I was just lurking, to give lesser known works and lesser known writers both historical and contemporary some exposure. Though I don't think James Joyce or Victor Hugo necessarily needed anymore exposure, but it's nice to see a Clarice Lispector or John Hawkes and William Gaddis being featured, isn't it?

Thanks again for the nice welcome.

I'm confused. I guess that's what happens when you leave your thread for less known places.

Here's the sordid story in a nutshell, Peter. I do love telling it (apologies to anyone who's heard it a dozen times already).

Back in March, when this group was called, "The Quest for the Last Page of Ulysses," we were using the motif of getting to the top of the mountain (like Mt. Everest) in comparison to actually completing Ulysses. Halfway up the mountain, around page 356 in the Gabler ed., I, EF, was swept tragically off the mountain in an avalanche to my death. However, three days later, I rose again, as EnriqueRessurected - a three-headed Yeti who had it in for Sasquatches (ER was also a nefarious and illegal, tos violating sockpuppet - do not do what I did at home).

Well, ER hung around for awhile, but then he got suspended (with a horde of his illegal siblings) and hasn't been heard from since.

So....EF had no choice but to return to the salon. However, there was a computer glitch somehow which prevented the creator of a group who'd left his own group, from re-joining the group, and so for the last 10 months I haven't been an official member of the very group I began.

But! Recent LT developments and improvements to the Groups pages has miraculously allowed me to finally, officially return and become a member of this group! O the tangled web Freeque weaved!

So that's what all that silly dialogue up above was in reference to.

You do lead a complicated life, it seems.

I can't help but bleed over from the other thread in the matter of EnriqueResurrected: Patrick Malone, about whom you've heard a lot about, would periodically announce to whoever was around: "You are looking at the new Patrick Malone! The old Patrick is dead!" He did this just about after every acid trip he took, until people got tired of hearing it.

Still, I'm glad you made it back. Welcome to the Salon (whoever you are)!

The first member to join le salon in 2010?...cweller.

cweller is what I'd call a renaissance reader if there ever was one, based on the wide ranging topics both fictional and non-fictional in their library. The fact that you scored so highly in all four areas of the nerd test, intimidates me immensely, but I'm very pleased that you've joined us. Welcome!

EnriqueFreeque, thanks for welcoming me. As for the nerd test, I was quite thankful that the last one came in so low. :)

261 > Amen! No one aspires, I hope, to be a dork, dumb, or awkward.

And the second member to join le salon in '10...blackdogbooks.

blackdogbooks is no stranger to these who keep a regular eye on Hot Reviews. In fact, as we speak, his review of a rare Robertson Davies work is presently hot. He's quite prolific, and you'd do well, if you haven't already, to take some time and peruse his vast, high quality backlog of reviews.

Catching up on the last four members who've joined the salon this past week:

Dragonrouge....Great handle. Great logo. Great quotes. Welcome to LT and to the salon! Have you met DavidX? He's a fellow fin de siecle (sp?) romantic.

Kayferz....joined LT just yesterday and immediately found us before anybody else....isn't that incredible?! Welcome!

desimark...another fairly recent newcomer to LT. I see We Need to Talk About Kevin in your library. I think we should all talk about Kevin at some point, as that book seems to divide people into camps like few others. Welcome desimark!

avatiakh....wow, look at all the books over here. I'll be spending some time here for sure. Forgive me if I don't properly introduce you as I'm presently lost in your voluminous aisles. But welcome! nonetheless.

Welcome to janepriceestrada, another Club Read member. She also happens to live in my neighborhood, so I can only assume that she is completely awesome for wanting to live in the place that I also want to live.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome Medellia.

PurplePsychoKitty (nice handle!) welcome to le Salon! You play futbol (er, soccer) it looks like. How's Chelsea doing? I ask because I know Steve Jones (of the Sex Pistols) is a fan. He used to have a popular radio show here in So. Ca. before the suits axed him and his radio station.

Very glad to have you aboard! Welcome!

Let's welcome the salon's newest member, katieinseattle, who just so happens also, coincidentally, to have a review of Infinite Jest on Hot Reviews at the same time she joined us! It's an enticing summary and well worth a look:
http://www.librarything.com/work/903/reviews/52136358

All righty, five new members have joined since katieinseattle did (and katieinseattle, btw, has reviewed two more DFW volumes since the 21st - isn't she awesome! but enough about katieinseattle, for now at least), and get this: of the five new members who have joined in the last few days, two (2!!) of them have books in their libraries! Woohoo!

The two with books are steven03tx and errata.

steven03tx has a stellar, superb library, and exquisite taste in literature (and I say that not just because we share over 600 volumes) but because it's true! Welcome steven, though I could've sworn you were already a member. Am I hallucinating? But no matter, very glad you're here. And be sure and check out his reviews too. He writes good ones.

errata - I love the handle! errata is a word that David Foster Wallace used to describe all his footnotes in IJ, titling the end footnotes section, "Notes and Errata". Is that, by any chance, where you got your name errata? errata is an Aussie. Welcome aboard!

welcome to skinz also, and welcome to witherford, and to shahlajm, our newest bookless members to join. shahlajm, I see you're friends with booksfallapart...my condolences...ah hahahahaha!, am I on a roll or what?

Welcome everyone. As I said over in salon des amateurs de la lengue, I've been cooped up all day since 6am in hospital waiting rooms, so do forgive any extra weirdness this evening on my part.

Ha ha, Shahla says hi. She is a lovely and brilliant fellow-student of mine (a lit student--Thomas Hardy fan--not a language weirdo like me), and I hope she will soon add some bookz, because I bet she's got interesting ones!

I hope you haven't been bleeding this whole time, Enrique.

Thanks for the welcome Enrique. I must confess I haven't read any David Foster Wallace ... but that could change any time now.

I picked errata because marginalia was taken and I wanted a word to do with books and/or writing.

I love the salon, I've been a luker for a long time.

Glad you're no longer lurking!

Now, Everyone! Let's welcome our newest member: only, it's an invisible member! I've seen this happen before. Look just to the left of "shahlajm" in "Recent Members," and you'll see a comma to that user's left, but no user name. We were at 146 members last night, and there was no comma to the left of shahlajm (I swear I'm not imagining or hallucinating - look for yourself!) and now this morning when I check in, we're up to 147 members and there's that comma separating the invisible user from shahlajm.

So, welcome to le salon thou invisible user! How do you do that? I would like to be invisible sometimes too. Have you ever read Invisible Man? It's a great book; you might like it!

Re Msg 268 - Enrique, you are not hallucinating (at least not about my temporary disengagement from the Salon). It was a sudden attack of too-many-reading-groups-too-little-time syndrome. But having sworn off sleep, food, and booze (well, at least sleep and food) I am back and ready to begin My Name Is Red at 12:00:01 AM Monday (does the time zone matter?).

Time zone does matter. You may begin at 12:00:01 AM Monday EST. Thanks for running that by me!

Seriously, I can relate to too-many-reading-groups, etc. I've had to drop out of several even though I feel bad doing so but they're all groups, at least, that were doing exceptionally well and I felt, wouldn't miss my absence. There's at least one salonista here who's quit the group three times and joined three times. But I won't say who.

These time zone questions remind me of good ol' George Carlin. It went something like this:

George: "Hey Faddher -- what if I miss going to confession befoah Eastah --but then I cross the International Dateline?"

Priest (as his head explodes): "Well son, err, I'm sure uh, God will take that into consideration."

And God would. How Godly is 'Fearless Leader?'

Robert

275> Not very, Praise the Lawd! ;-)

We've got another Wildman among us, Chris Wildman from CapeTown, South Africa. Welcome to Le Salon, Wildman! And welcome too to LT! And I see slick has already engaged you. Slick is on it!

Joining us from New Jersey, is internisus. Welcome to the Salon young lad! I see you've a copy (or at least it's wishlisted, since you do have quite an impressive wishlist there) of The Age of Wire and String, a book I've searched for forever (refuse to order online until absolutely desperate). Glad you found us.

I'd like to welcome LT author Ted Mooney to the salon. I will try not to express too much giddiness over Ted Mooney joining us, because I want everyone who joins us to feel the same level of "welcome" as everybody else does and, so, I try not to exaggerate any one individual over another.

However, it's not exactly everyday in the life of Le Salon when a National Book Award Finalist for First Novel in 1982, Easy Travel to Other Planets, and an accomplished, award-winning novelist ever since - Traffic and Laughter, Singing Into the Piano - decides to join our humble little salon. So please overlook, any recent newcomers, how exceedingly- (perhaps embarassingly) pleased I am over Ted Mooney's arrival, just in case I didn't seem quite as excited over your arrival.

In September we'll be reading Ted Mooney's forthcoming novel, The Same River Twice (published by Alfred A. Knopf; scheduled for release: this May 11th). If you've never experienced the pleasure of reading Ted Mooney, I hope this will be the perfect opportunity for you to do so in September.

Thanks again for joining, Ted, glad to have you here!

Here's a great interview with Ted Mooney, in case you're unfamiliar with him and his work: http://www.altx.com/int2/ted.mooney.html

Hi Ted!

What if we're reading Heraclitus in September and haven't finished it by then?

Robert

Actually, on the surface at any rate, one might think that reading Heraclitus prior to "The Same River Twice" (no touchstone for this book) would give greater depth to the experience.

Heraclitus! On the surface! Depth! You guys are cracking me up.

Well, most of us will be reading Herodotus's Histories (yes, I'm a terrible optimist), but I've no problem with interspersing that with some of Heraclitus's Fragments. He's the guy who thinks everything originates in fire, so he really foresaw the Big Bang.

He also had his own river to step in.

Robert

Mr.Durick (Robert) you will be reading The Same River Twice regardless if Heraclitus or Herodotus or any other book beginning with "Her" is already on your damn docket, you hear? Even if it means I must purchase the hardcover ed. for you and priority mail it to you, you will have it in your possession come Sept.

Brent

Let's welcome us some newcomers this Valentine's Day shall we?

Joining us from Madrid, is marcasate. I will come back in a moment marcasate and link your blog here as well. Very happy to have you aboard! Here's marcasate ecletically satisfying blog: http://elestuporsehizomarmol.blogspot.com/

Anandora just joined us (and LibraryThing) a few days ago. Do drop by and say hi and make Anandora feel welcome won't you?

vkern, from Poway, hop, skip and a jump down I-15 from me, also just joined, and is also a member of bardsfingertips fantastic group, San Diego Bibliophiles. Exquisite taste in groups, vkern. Welcome!

Check out citygirl joining le Salon! citygirl needs no intro if you've been around LT awhile. Active since '07, she always has fresh, insightful takes on everything she reads (peek at those 105 reviews of hers and read for yourself). Glad you found us citygirl, and hope you'll join in the festivities soon.

I don't know whether I can read a hardcover novel even at a 32% discount. But if you buy it and mail it to me, I'll put it on top of something.

Robert

I see that Belle Yang's book is coming out at the same time with the same discount. Priorities will demand weighing.

Robert

Mr. 'Rique seems to welcome everyone else who arrives, but not me. I joined over a week ago and where is 'Rique? It's as if he doesn't want to acknowledge my existence.

Must I welcome myself?!

Well, welcome Knot, make yourself at home. I don't mind if I do.

>289 HaughtyKnotty:.

Excellent name, btw.

>289 HaughtyKnotty: But how do we know that you are who you say you are, huh?

>290 aethercowboy:, Why thank you, Mr. Cowboy. I like your name as well.

>291 copyedit52:, I promise you I am Knot.

Well then, wecome, Knot! Not since Costello beleaguered Abbott has anyone been given such an opportunity as you offered me to deliver a straight line. Alas, I must admit, I didn't see it coming.

Leaving you, um, tongue-tied?

And that don't happen often!

Are you knot or nought? The pun works better with nought than knot.

I am nought, tho' you tie me in knots.
Slow, slower, the knots melt away as the nautical miles flow past.

If I were nought I would not be Knot, now would I?

But I am Knot, and Knot is not nought, though I have sought that which ought to be aught and so it seems that I am to be, a Salonista, of course, that is.

You seem to be channeling Urania.

Robert

A real nowhere ma'am. I'm in stiches!

I'd like to welcome the HaughtyKnotty to the salon. The HaughtyKnotty's favorite author is Anonymous.

Hopefully, since the HaughtyKnotty's intentions seem to be for fun so far, they are using (assuming they are what I think they are but I'm not going to say what I think they are because once it's said and possibly, while improbably, turns out to be untrue, you can never take it back and are left with scrambled eggs on your dome) a separate computer (hint hint) and are being extremely cautious because this thread, what with a veritable geyserish spurt of posts the last couple hours, has vaulted into the top 70 on HT. If it climbs much higher, why actual LT officials could be alerted looking to see what all the fuss is about with an HT thread in le Salon, thinking perhaps another A.R. dustup is in the mix in need of immediate intervention, when in fact it's an issue of a whole nother sort.

This post will self-destruct in... very soon

Knot again!

The Gourd-ian Knot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS9evnStrto&feature=related

>301 absurdeist: Top seventy, top shmeventy. (I am aiming here to reproduce Porius's cogent brevity.)

I aim for the knottypine. Tu art petrus. Tho a goddinpotty would be nice, and just might suff-ice. It's been a long day and I have been dealing mostly with real life problems.

"Anandora just joined us (and LibraryThing) a few days ago. Do drop by and say hi and make Anandora feel welcome won't you?"

I feel very welcome, thank you all very much! :) You guys are awesome.

What's going on here? All these unwelcomed people. Where's the butler?

If you wear the sock on your hand, and type on a different computer using that socked hand, is that okay? Or does it also have to be through a hole in a sheet?

Lets welcome dry diggins! And when I say "welcome," I expect somebody else to welcome the new person too! Otherwise they might think it's only me welcoming them and not everybody. dry diggins, your last name rhymes with my last name.

Lets also welcome beatles1964, who's no stranger, and who, I believe, is a member of more groups in LT than just about anyone, except for maybe "thebastard" and "ladygata". I prefer beatles1967, but I'm still glad you're here.

Yo digz; yo beatz.

Hi all,

Can I serve you a drink ? Wodka is the rule in the salon ... but there are exceptions.

Four new members this week. So (the following spoken, pause between each word, like a caffeinated game show host) "LETS GET WELCOMING"

WinterMoonLight: Another Aussie from Sydney. WML has been to Bhutan & Nepal! Nice. Dream trip for me, Nepal and/or Antarctica. WML says, and I quote: "I visit just about every second hand bookshop and book sale in my area on a regular basis." Amen!

detailmuse: Has been around LT forever, a regular over on Club Read, and one of the few ever in LT history (I am envious) to have composed a review which generated three digits-plus worth of thumbs for her piece on A Leader Becomes a Leader.

LizzieD: is presently reading Infinite Jest! Woohoo! Your library is fantastic, or, should I say, "vast-tastic"! I would so love to spend an entire year reading like you are this year.

Kryseis: Clever handle. Great Suite Francaise and Main Street reviews. I'll be back later to read the rest and perhaps properly pimp them. Welcome aboard; glad you found us.

the divine in me salutes the divine in each of you!

Welcome gang! This is a really cool club. Bright people. Clever dialog.

'Think of LT's Literary Snobs without the snide remarks.

Three hurrah's for Sandy for this witty remark !

hurrah

hurrah

hurrah

: )

Let's officially welcome K.J., author of Impaired Ocular Acuity and Other Demented Synapses.

Also, EvaPasco has joined this week, author of Underlying Notes.

Please tell us about your books, K.J., and Eva, if you like; what they're about, why'd we be fools not to read them.

And cabegley just joined today, I believe. We share nearly 500 titles cabegley. We are awesome, and have exquisite taste in literature, don't we? Welcome to you all, glad you're here and hope you'll all stick around forever.

All right Sandydog#1 and Big Mac Daddy, take it away....

My pleasure, EF:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1vH2rjUshk

Welcome, K.J. As chief talent scout for the Nature: the Sequel thread, I invite you to drop by with some musique au naturel for us naturalists:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/86448

From the heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD2yosZ9qDw

(finally) *waves hello* thanks for the welcome!

I followed Infinite Jest's trail of footnotes and found the Salon but wow! a whole trove of sparkly threads here. Feels a bit like standing on the high-dive :) but here I go

Check out the top three hot reviews : all Salonistas !
The number one is... wait a minute.... our beloved Dictator !!!

We expect no less from new members : )

Welcome, welcome, all new Salonistas!

And even though I am far from new, someone will have to explain to me how a review becomes a Hot Review, and how long it remains so, and how is it not something easily manipulatable. (E.g. right now the Dictator's review has 13 thumbs -- yes, I added one. But Kidzdoc's review has 19. Why is Enrique's higher? And if it was truly important to me, would I not just ask 20 people to give my review a thumb, and I would rocket up? Am I missing something?)

323: It has to do with time frame. A review is hot based on how many people have thumbed it in the past however many hours. Otherwise the legendary reviews such as taanstafl's review of the Book of Mormon would always be at the top of the list.

323> Don't you EVER question why my review is higher! Kidzdoc's was number one yesterday, so I get to be number one today. You got a problem with that, polutropos?!

And as far as asking people, even if you ask them, will they thumb the reviews, polutropos? NOOOOO. Just a few days ago I demanded that the salonistas thumb slick's six review-quote reviews so that they would all simultaneously (all six - 6 - of them) be on HR. But would the salonistas follow that SIMPLE EFFING INSTRUCTION! No, they wouldn't, the damn free thinkers, and so only five (5!!!!!) of slick's review-quote reviews made it on there. And slick was devastated, and is still having to deal with the salonistas rejection of his review-quote reviews. Not very nice, not very welcoming, and certainly not the type of behavior I seek to promote here in the salon.

Enrique, my friend: spring is here. Chill out.

How can I be expected to chill out when the salonistas have slighted slick, and especially when I just GOT HANDED A $350.00 PARKING TICKET for parking in a handicapped spot; never mind I have a handicapped placard for my daughter at home! But what good, I ask you, Pierre, is the HANDICAP PLACARD AT HOME when it should be in my EFFING AUTOMOBILE?!!

Slick's not perfect. That last quote review just wasn't up to standards.

Now, if you want a quote review: http://www.librarything.com/work/4307/reviews

Splendid, A_musing, splendid. Got my thumb. Don't know if it will receive anybody elses.

>327 absurdeist:. That's too bad about the ticket, Henri. Had I known, I wouldn't have said anything.

Can you appeal it, O Dictator? In Toronto, they just admitted that they have had secret guidelines for the past 20 years for how a parking ticket can be made to disappear. I think that your circumstance (genuinely having the right to use the spot and some, let's just say forgetfulness, on the part of the driver) would qualify. Attempt to fight it. And if all else fails, reveal that YOU ARE THE DICTATOR!

And yes, following your orders, I just gave A_Musing's review a thumb.

Alas, now my "Green Eggs" review ranks north of my Ivo Andric review. What was the dirty word we Salonistas were called? I don't think it fits. If it did, Andric would be winning.

Here's a new review, which I'm dedicating to Freeque: http://www.librarything.com/work/6001038/reviews

>331 polutropos:. Alas, polutropos, this is America, where lawn order rules.

332> HOEL (Howling...Out...Effing...Loud)

Salonistas! I think you know what needs to be done!

Ok A_musing, I give you my thumb.

Poulo send us one of your reviews and we'll thumb it up to heaven, isnt that right Dictator ?

Damn, my vote for A_musing has pushed our Dictator's review to the last place,
LOL, I'll try to un- thumb it

I don't know where else to put this and I'm sure you are all on tenterhooks wondering where I've been. Well, we're in Georgia now, Woodstock to be precise. We're having a hell of a time getting set up on the intertubes. We are forced to use AT&T DSL and they are forcing us to buy an obsolete router for $100 to get wireless, so right now I'm sharing a wire with my wife and her business and my son and his gaming. I will only be here sporadically for the near future.

I hate American business, they are so short sighted.

Hang in there, buddy. And welcome to the other Woodstock.

Geneg, do like me surf at night when wife and kids are sleeping !!!

More reading time Gene!

Geneg, I wondered where you'd got to!

I'm afraid most reading will have to be done at night. We've moved into my father-in-law's old place (he died six weeks or so ago and we inherited his house, pond and property. It hasn't been kept up very well and there is just a ton of work to do here. I'm going to have to learn how to live the life of the landed gentry, something I have no experience with. The closest I've come is Middlemarch. Once I figure out how, I'll post some photos of the estate over in the second nature thread.

Anyway, I'm devoting a lot of my time with unpacking and getting everything set up. We are finally on a wireless network, and so far DSL doesn't seem to be the nightmare I anticipated, but we'll see.

I have gotten some reading done, I'm still working on Les Miserables so I'll be a while catching up, and of course LT has been for me the major time-waster of my life. I'm thinking of dropping everything except the Salon, just so I'll have time to live the country life.

I'm thinking of starting a blog about my new life. One thing I have learned over sixty-five years is while everyone is the star of their own life, and cares immensely about it, unless you can make your life compelling to others, pretty much no one else cares. There are already too many blogs out there now. I will need a journal of some sort just so I can keep up with stuff.

>341 geneg: I'm thinking of dropping everything except the Salon, just so I'll have time to live the country life.

Good advice Geneg, I did just that, because LT has the potential to be a terrible timewaster. The Salon has just what it takes to feed you with a regular flow of new surprising titles to collect on the TBR...

That and of course the occassional laugh !

#341

Gene,

I would be fascinated in your blog of how someone at the age of 65 lands in the life of landed gentry. Of course you are right about how ultimately we are convinced of our own stardom, which no one else sees, but sometimes, just sometimes, it can be made compelling to others.

Cheers with Veuve Cliquot!

Welcome newest-member, DanMat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyYloJyq9M

And while we're at it (where'd Henri go?), welcome tc53591, also known as Tani, who's been a regular on the nature thread since she joined the Salon.

Oh I know. I've really fallen off the bus here. I haven't introduced any of the new members who joined since tc5 up to DanMat. I'm rebelling against welcoming people. Is it a phase? Or is my rebellion permanent?

I think Sandydoggydogdog#1 makes a fine welcomer. As do you Pierre. And BigMacDaddyMacDad? He's a fine welcomer too. As is Martin, and Anna, and others over time too.

Anybody a drink ?
Feel comfortable ?

Welcome back to the welcome thread, Henri.

We've painted, and gotten rid of that horrible easy chair.

Now can we change out that ugly wallpaper in the foyer?

Word that.

Hey welcome there, SammyZanKnitz!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spl5rHq5psI

Thanks, All! I have really enjoyed the camaraderie on the nature thread. I found you all quite by happenstance, actually. I had pulled up a query of threads that contained books in my library and, why there you all were. The book by the way was The Mountains of California. ;-)

Hey, a rousing welcome to tros, Jaime from Brazil (LT lurkers are welcome - I was one once, and a damn good one at that!), Televoid, et multi al:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP9BI5mIIw0

Standard Salon Warning: Listening to this video for durations longer than 20 seconds is more damaging to the brain cells than snorting Yoppo in the back woods of Amazonia....

Jaimes' food blog is great!

The smell of oven-roasted robalo permeates the salon!

Just the time, for a peaceful, subtle, but somewhat garbled welcome to cstack and snykanen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8IGlwPQ--M&feature=related

Thanks to all for the warm welcome to the salon! Or perhaps I should say "Muito obrigado!" (or is Portuguese restricted to the Reading Globally group?????)

I'm looking forward to daily encounters here, whether the aroma of oven-roasted robalo is drifting from my kitchen or not (and also whether I'm sipping a icy-tart caipirinha or not!)

What could be farther from Brazil than Finland? And a warm welcome as well to snykanen, who might well need the warmth, living up there, far from Rio.

Oh hai. Got the name right, close enough. Actually it's a nice warm spring day today, by our standards. I can even venture outside my igloo without a polar bear pelt! Right now it's ten degrees Celsius or whatever your preferred scale. Americans, just think Maine; Canucks, you already know what I'm talking about.

Sorry about that, snykanen. Maine is good. I like Maine.

Vancouver today is sunny and invincible!

I've been gyrating back and forth between here and the nature thread, and for a moment there, books, it seemed I was on the wrong thread.

'swhat I get for being smug.

Keep that weather on hold, will you? I'll be in Seattle in a few days, and I'd like to feel invincible too.

Welcome to LT and especially to the salon, longsel!!!

We've even provided a warm welcome from the little creepy dude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D7AebhY4qg&feature=related

Put out the welcome mat for the new LT F.N.G. (Freeque'n New Guy).

Welcome, Matt!

Look carefully here and you might get a glimpse of the exterior of the salon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GZlJGERbvE

Based on this architecture, I think the salon has a branch office in Warsaw. I could be wrong tho, Mon.

Music for I and I
Jah rastafariiiiiiiiiiiiiii
ever living
ever faithfull
Haile sellassie !

Doggone One (#365),

you have managed to thoroughly confuse me with that welcome. I thought at first that you are saying there is a new Salon. Checked, and since it is not listed in the Dictator's groups, I guess there is not. So the welcome is for Freeque's new homie? Is that it? And looking through new members, I am guessing it is the one with the lovely octopus? Truly freekiiieee, mon.

That last welcome was selected merely because the title had "welcome" in it. Everything else was mere dawg blather.

As for welcoming jdthloue, with all those crazy/wacky/tacky tags, we'll provide a warm Ohio welcome with your basic Ohio tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lY45e4rAzk

Forget Joe in the sweater vest, forget the babe in the black number on bass, that ol' dude on the pedal steel is a hipster!!!

Welcome, welcome, welcome, Hil.

Music makes us loose control, too. Just check out some of the Salon discussions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ek3eCbfqp0

Hi Salonistas, all. I recognize quite a few friends from other groups. So, this is where you've all been hiding!
It's going to take me a couple of years to get caught up.

Great having you here tros and Hilary!

Thanks to Slick for "pimping" my review, I think. Thanks to LizzieD for alerting me. I, in my innocence, didn't realize that reviews got "pimped". I can tell this is going to be an educational experience. ;-)

Pimped?

That's a ref. to the "pimping reviews" thread in this group
where my "review" of Dope Thief is mentioned.

For anyone interested, Dope Thief is excellent. Evidently, Dennis Tafoya was a EMT. Easy to see how a front row to the aftermath of a drug war could influence literary material.

Welcome Tybalt!

I see right now you are exclusive to Le Salon. There are other cool LT Groups out there.

But not many, not like this petit room.

;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeNhsdehf3c

Tybalt is my own dear husband and has joined the Salon because you guys are the coolest cats on LT. I have told him so. He is very busy with work these next several weeks (so I'm speaking for him & thanking you for him), but will join us in July for the Trainspotting group read.

Welcome Meddy's husband!!!!!!!! how nice! now there are two of them!

(perhaps that's just the vodka. Hm.)

Keep up the vodka, MurrMurr. I'll have that extra husband cleaning the apartment in no time.

Welcome from Santa Clara, Piemouth!

I hear that's the parkour capital of the world!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXU9IyMzmvY

(...I just made that up)

Welcome to the Salon, Dave, all the way from Crooklyn!

Loosen the tie and chill out. There's some Chianti left in that 1/2 gallon jug over there. As you can see we all look like either Ignatius Reilly or Courtney Love, in here. Play clothes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWZSeBPEkOQ&feature=related

David works for Library of America, I just noticed. We've an industry insider in le salon.

Whattaya say 'Rique,

Let's give a warm welcome to Susan and her massive, voluminous library!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug-TDCFRJJc

A hale & hearty welcome to Booksontrial, Gerry (keep clacking away at those titles), BJ (my pal from the book challenge), waffle and current:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLzGlRWBW38

Hi everyone. I'm new, and I joined this group to help with In Search of Lost Time. I'm late, and I'm in over my head so here's a hearty 'thank-you' for the wide coattails.

In order to store some of the many bookmarks offered here, I created a new folder in the bookmark menu. After saving a couple of new bookmarks, I realized I had named the folder 'poust'. I share this anecdote because I think it nicely encapsulates me at the start of this journey. And no, I have not yet chosen to correct the spelling.

That should be added to our list of special words, right after plnats.

: ) yeah , after plnats we should discuss Poust. It sounds like the black guy in Asterix : " Have you 'ead P'oust, A la 'eche'che du temps pe'du ?"

For you, Tequilasunrise78, the salon's newest member (and welcome to LT as well), an old song for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0z6nfvFENw&feature=related

Welcome, Saratoga!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLvk-qsKonQ

oh and of course, welcome bibliolee, aterman and jd!

'lee, here's one for your new puppy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhRJK6W7Oic

And kudos to toastmaster Sandy, and his exclamatory welcomes!

390, Yes it is a good tradition in the Salon. I too was positively surprised that someone noticed I arrived aeons ago

Humility AND the most perfect of male forms?

Yeah sure, Mac, even us heterosexual males are to this day, stunned, gobsmacked, at that unbelievable Adonis physique of yours.

a beautiful body is often a burden.

Stud in a tub.

I myself, still wish I was born rich instead of beautiful.

Welcome Bookmonk!

As a LT lurker, I can't think of anything more fun than clacking 3,000-odd titles into a library. When you get through with that form of literary asceticism, we'll be checking it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdv0Wm5RGsk&feature=related

I think a particularly special welcome should be given to our very newest member: EnriqueFreeque.

Nice of you to finally join, sir dictator!

How many times can the same person join the same club? This is a philosophical conundrum, non?

Here's a rousing (somewhat immature) welcome for nova' and her hubby!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoFDCyq9ySg

Welcome ameriga. I'm also, an audiobook junkie; 'great for the commute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5acivuYh4Q&feature=related

#397
I don't give a hoot about the super Freeque. But as for Reading Girl (1897) she can join the Salon as many times as she would like.

We haven't had that spirit here since the knotty hottie, or the haughty naughty or the marta hari, aw, you get the point...

Some dance to remember, dog, some dance to forget...

Hey, not to harp on this or anything, but if Reading Girl (1897) hooked up with Macumbeira, just think of the beautiful children they would produce.

No kiddin', dog. I can't wait till he returns from the Greek bath houses so he can be properly introduced to Reading Girl.

Greetings! It's me, formerly booksfallapart, now MeditationesMartini, happy to still be called Martin, which is my name. Let's drink cocktails together!

All you gotta do is change your name to be welcomed into the Salon as a newborn? Even if it means welcoming yourself? Well, welcome, then, Martini. I am Piero, sometimes known as Wilson.

Welcome, Piero! Illegitimi non carborundum.

nice new name, Martin. is that gin or vodka martini?

Gin, I should hope.

Not just gin damn it, Bombay Sapphire gin. There must be little teensy weensy ice crystals just on the verge of melting (but not quite) when the martini is served.

And screw your filling the martini glass half-assed way full. Fill it to the brim. Two olives. And never, ever, drink your martini dirty. That disgustus.

damn rights. gin, wet, stirred not shaken, olive not twist.

Wet? Screw the vermouth!

I also endorse everything in message 409. BUT i you guys see a bottle of Victoria gin in your upscale boozer of choice, do try it. The distillery is round the corner from my parents' house and they are currently taking the west coast by storm. I'm not gonna say better than Bombay, but almost more jewellike.

I want a martini soooo much. I knew this new username would be bad for my liver.

>411 absurdeist: sorry dude! it makes the magic happen.

I agree with all the above, but it must be vodka, not gin. AND KEEP THAT BLASTED VERMOUTH AWAY FROM MY VODKA@£$%£YW

Why all the vermouth hate? I've been known to drink it straight.

Murr, I'm there with ya on the Wodka... but, make mine a Lime Drop, k? And darlin' tomcat... you can have my share of the herring, too.

Best martini I ever had? Well, I suspect it had a touch of sweet vermouth.

thank you tc. would you like these pigeon feathers? they go very nicely with vodka

Most agreeable, Murr... thank you.

Let's give a warm welcome to new LT member and new Salonista Dalan, from the Emerald Isle: another Joyce fan, yes, Dalan?

I actually like vodka tonics but when drinking a martini I think it should be gin. Not that I am much of a booze expert. (didn't drink for about 13 years due to living in Islamic countries, desultorily practicing Islam, and just not caring very much about booze)

I think the idea of the super dry martini comes from Churchill's instruction that the vermouth bottle should be waved in the direction of the martini glass. Personally, I like gin and tonics, but not martinis so much. My current fave drinks are Lucid absinthe, Crown Royal XR, a gift for Father's Day, and Wild Turkey 101.

BTW, Dalan, not everyone here is being straight with you with regard to Joyce, or at least Ulysses. Be prudent in how you answer. It's okay to like him, but if you do, you may want to keep it on the down low, lest you be enticed into the spider's trap.

I'm glad i read Ulysses. Not sure if I can use the verb "like" for how I feel about the book though. Dalan, look through the reviews of it and you'll see it has quite a history with this group. Welcome, by the way!

My father had an extraordinary affection for me. He was the silliest man I ever knew and yet cruelly shrewd. He thought and talked of me up to his last breath. I was very fond of him always, being a sinner myself, and even liked his faults. Hundreds of pages and scores of characters in my books come from him.

JJ to Miss Weaver, 17 January 1932

Yes, do be very careful, Dalan. Guys like tomcat and Por-Man like to pretend that they really really love Ulysses, when in fact, they loathe it. Don't be fooled by them.

Seeing how successful Ulysses has been, I think we should read Finnegans Wake. A way a lone a last a loved a long a muse ...

I think Our Great Beloved Leader North Korea should read FW, and report back on it to us. After all, he is our leader and wiser than us all.

si? no?

aljljflssajskf;askjdioepwyruyw ljfm,.n;vlksajflkafnmv;ljkhs;lkg halkj;jf;alksajsfkl;alfjka;flksja; flkjas;fkls;diowyrugiydfsl;kjas;'jwioppurqofnlakj;falkjsaupwiorpuwoiutpas;fkjlajfkapoiwqyrpuypuasfa jgpoiwutjpoiufpja;iwptpjk ... sjflskjfsoeioy66 quowruw qljfapiw?! Asfjsljfspqoiwurjfasowuijfa;slkfp wurpwoiruuisfhslfjnbaslj;sguwworupqotjslfjapowutajsgjpgoiwurtuwfj;as;owirupoquwporuisfjslfkdguowprtuiw pogiupio ifgpayssfjspo eirywass jfpowiry wtiuwtpuij gkpaosiug pygastgfyg gjaspow iuyguywrwu asfjslkduwpotuiy gajslgkpsogpyu piweiytpqjslfkj apoiwepyowrjs gopgyapos wiwue poirupqoiuw ouiogjlasjlajsfljaoeur owuoruw jgfja;sjfmvlsjaljlsuwelm nmgfakjpowupq ogjlg japowierajslksj ogiuawjtpgoiuaj elwpoituqaja;jlgjapo pwiurpqaupo quwpgj;aowptriu wwurugjalnbnz.mxlas;jsfpowimv.m;z.v,nzv/zjks;aklupwio urfj;fjas;slgnfzv;lksa;up;aoguiapajg;aosaiupwquijlgkpauwpwpuuita;skjfapgoi uwutqqqlg fjalspa oiwourquq uipqpuiqj kglapuwp ruoipuoitja pfaowiruwp qjgapo wiruq.

edited to correct jmvlskuap fjlasauwj afjjxvm.x ajsflsp;woiur.

Apologies, Oh GReat Leader, my version of IE doesn't support Korean type. I am unable to decipher your words of wisdom.

423 etc – Thanks geneg for your kindly warning but alas it came too late – I have already been lured & snared, jejeune fool, reflecting as I lie helpless and bound on how many of the welcome messages I’ve had refer to ‘new blood’ or ‘fresh blood’...

In the meantime I have so much new to learn. Before these first days on LT I’d never heard of Infinite Jest, A. Theroux, 16 in fact of the 23 writers on my sponsor’s American pomo list, Bolano – and the rest. I never dreamed I would have a Stephen King book on my To Read list. I have been wasting my days! But not any more. Internet poker software – deleted; private browsing – never again! Sky Sports – unsubscribed. All my forces between now and Christmas will go towards preparing my fitness for the Salon’s 2011 reading list starting line. Till then at least, please, dear friends, be gentle.

We are nothing if not gentile.

Ah, Dalan... They are all just a bunch of teddy bears. 'Cept maybe the beloved Dicktatur when he hears JJ's name. Then you better duck.

Welcome, Velkommen, Bienvenido, Huānyíng, Va'ohtama, Iiwy em hotep, Kalos orisate, Baruch haba, Khanog illinga vet, and certainly Céad míle fáilte romhat!

Don't forget Im Hotep, either, or his brother Bubba Hotep.

#432
Dalan, that was a great post - about me too!

Been there, done that, got the tatoo and the t-shirt. But I was much worse. I used to post things on LT like, "Uhm, isn't Kipling a childrens book author?"

It's a great thing to be reading, as I roll into the third half of my life...

BTW...

Welcome Red (Moira!). If you look carefully, you'll see several salonistas in this little gesture of greeting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5PyIVVKoWU

And Minnesota Maars; remember that our spam is fry-able:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-KS99BU_2A

And of course, Steven of Colorado:
http://www.highlightskids.com/Stories/NonFiction/images/NF0900_headtotoeCowboy.j...

Welcome to the salon, Zebastos!

'And glad to have you with us, Marc. We don't mind dirty fingernails. I'm sure a lot of salonistas dig your vocation!

I do, I do! ;-)

About 15 years ago, there were frequently archaeologists on the neighboring property behind my house. I used to stop by and check out those 1 meter square, shallow dig sites scattered in these New England woods. The volunteers were way down (about 6 inches into the woodland duff) and were so excited about a couple stones here, a fleck of charcoal there. I've forgotten how many thousands of years old this Native American site, was.

Alas, it's all Mcmansions back there now...

Maybe they should dub you Sandydog2?

LOL

Looks like Sandy burped! ;-)

Hey, jfthing! Welcome to the Salon! I am glad you took me up on the invite! Take a look around and enjoy! (and don't let the smackdown on the nature/photography thread bother ya none... 'sall in fun... well, mostly but, shhh, don't tell Mr Freeque!) ;-)

Yes, bonjour jean!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSP4vOt38ds&feature=related

Welcome, Wild Bill! Whenever Salonistas need some legal advice....

(oh, and we need it more than we'll ever know)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE0EJInhPkw&p=880CF90CC86F0DE1&playnext=1...

Feel free to quit licking your balls, Dog, and get welcoming the newcomers!

Hrmmff? Huh?

Oh yeah! Hey, welcome Ifihadwords, Jello and Bethany! I think I should team up with my favorite chick from Hollywood on this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chrP2MukhIQ

I wonder who the 200th member of Le Salon will be. Shall we place bets? Betrayer was our 199th member, but I refuse to welcome betrayer (welcome, betrayer!) because I suspect betrayer could be a sock puppet. I wonder whom betrayer will betray first in Le Salon?

Has anybody seen Medellia? Oh where for art thou, Medellia? Le Salon (and EnriqueFreeque) certainly does miss thee, Medellia!

Did anyone else notice that the latest newbie was EF, yet agin? Wad up widdat?

Please join me in welcoming -
http://www.librarything.com/profile/BethanyBourgeois#comments

Wadd'ya mean?

Cabinet of Curiosities is certainly not me; no, but a book by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child that came highly recommended to me by Geneg.

I can't even pronounce the name of the latest member. Martin something-or-other?

The funny thing is, with history in mind, nobody would believe me anyway, were I to adamantly deny having taken a rib from the hottie and thereby helped elicit the genesis of the salon's newest two entrants.

But I deny (regardless) the accusation completely. Talk to my lawyers, if further enquiry is required.

Freeque no mas play dat.

Two more people I share no books with. How will I communicate with them?

Just send them a friendly welcome, Piero, something like this: "What a DISGUSTING library you have, CabinetofCuriosities". Absolutely GROSS & MORBID.

What a ridickulous book Cabinet owns! http://www.librarything.com/work/8155961/book/62104841

You overplayed it, Henri. Now we all know the virtual character's true identity.

First of all,

Advice, Meditations, and Wisdom for Men Who… who what???

Second, I love Giraffes.

It looks like I'll be sniffing about that old musty cabinet quite a bit....

Hahahahaha ... I love it! I love that you think those are mine. But ... neither of those are mine, Piero! This is classic. Of course you won't believe me, but just like the HaughtyKnotty ain't mine, or Viragodiva ain't mine, or PekoeTheCat ain't mine, or that weird Eastern Euro whose handle I forget ain't mine, neither are these. Those puppets (alleged sp's) can actually post and get away with it. But not mine. An "alert Tim" message pops up in the top left corner if I do so (only happened once, by mistake, since the suspension, so I know better than to screw around anymore with them).

I think it's fun, however, (next best thing) to create the impression that those are mine, what with my history, when they know, and I know, that they're not. I can't make them talk, and sp's that don't talk, are useless to my evil purposes. I'll be curious to see if they'll engage us now.

What a welcome! To be equated to le freeque himself (and that with only 23 books catalogued)! But a sock-puppet? Mon dieu*! Couldn't you at least make it a little bit more bourgeois? At least a garter-belt-puppet is not too much to ask for.

My username does not derive from the book mentioned above, but from the "Wunderkammer" that were frequent in the old times. I thought of only cataloging my "Giftschrank" but that would have been too boring.

* or dieux , wherever your preferences lie...

Mes dieux!

Robert

LOL

# 461, you are of course right, Mr.

# 462:

Tell me about your mother, Cabinet!

A teacher, my dear, a teacher.... that's why the "Volksmund" says: "Lehrers Kinder, Pastors Vieh, gedeihen selten oder nie"

Have you read Cabinet of Curiosities, yet, EF? It is by no means what I would call literature. It's pure genre, but you know what? A good genre read is still a good read.

Welcome sods! It's great to have one-a them there young folks, comin' 'round this here Nursin' Home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6EbaQNa9c8&feature=related

Merry Christmas to you too sansdee.

Welcome, Roooooooooooooooooood!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hn3lJnwL8

New blood for All Hallows Eve?!

Goodie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob8W6-rmcok&feature=related

Welcome Glimpse, welcome Starbucks!

And you too, Alwinn! Just remember, when we're in the Salon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPWenQxryr4

Welcome Ali from South Carolina! 'And your literate dog, too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUXkkNbxtcg

Hmmm, what could the old salon use? I dunno, maybe yet another Amazonian Queen? Welcome Penthesileia!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHJCyHYeaRY

Welcome literary.feline!

I love cats and books too. We have a literary feline here who leads some of our group readings, TomcatMurr. He's pleased to make your acquaintance aren't you Murr?

Poor Dictator-for-life Enrique. He is literarily herding cats here.

Meyowwww, literary.feline!

hfeq gnreoqug bdeq

(secret welcome signal known only to felines)

What is it people see in an animal that will run as hard and as fast as it possibly can to the highest branches of a 150 foot oak tree, come to a full stop, look around, and then go Oh, shit! Then spend the next two days howling it's ass off for some dumb sucker to come save it, before finally being carried off by a large hawk or eagle. Dumbest animals on earth. I will admit kittens can be entertaining, though, crashing into walls, trying to leap through doors.

It's beyond me.

watch it you! the dumbest animal on earth is surely the human.

As the fire chief said, I've never seen a cat skeleton in a tree, and we don't have raptors around here.

Robert

I've been reading the old threads in this group for a few days, and especially enjoyed your discussion of Miss Lonelyhearts, which I too read this past year. Thought I'd say hi.

I'm Matt, I'm from the midwest but most of my literary interests lie south of the border (with Mexico) and across the ocean (the Atlantic). I'd like to join you all in reading 2666, I read four of its five books last year but got really busy with work and never got around to finishing the last part. Maybe I'll try them all again, because I really enjoyed the first four. The tastes of this group seem to often coincide with mine, so hopefully I'll learn a lot from all of you and get some good ideas for future readings.

Anyway, I'll chime in where I see fit, and I'll continue to enjoy your literary banter.

Hi back at'cha, Matt! You sound like a kindred salon spirit, and I know we (not just me) look forward to getting to know you. Hope you'll chime in often!

Welcome to Le Salon Asylum!

Welcome, Matt. I notice you have 201 books in your library, which is a magic number of sorts. That is, you might "try to add books as I read them," as you say in your profile, but unless you cough up some dough, the PTB (the powers that be; we're crazy for foreshortening around here) will not let you do it.

This has been a public service announcement.

@483: Yeah, I was surprised by that the other day when I tried to add a book. I've been trying to sort out my Paypal account for the past few days so that I can rectify that issue...All in all, I think I'll definitely get my money's worth.

Welcome peach! Keep adding your books, join in, kick back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DJv0rx5g-c&feature=related

Best $25 i ever spent on the internet.

Word that, Gene.

Hey, welcome from Changwon, Pat! You, your rabbit, your cat (yeesh, yet another one in the salon - everywhere I go in here I smell cat dander), and your eclectic library.

We found these guys hanging around the Salon, and they jumped at the chance for a shout-out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw70w_ibYUA&feature=related

Let's welcome Ampersand!

Amps, you'll be right at home here. The Salon is virtually identical to your scene to the South:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxs3OIo1m44&feature=related

Gosh, Buenos Aires is my next destination.
Are these girls for real ? Or is that photoshopped ?

Welcome Rise!

Wow, another fan of Leopold and Wilson. You'll fit right in over at that little Nature Obstreperous chat of ours. We love plnats here at the Salon; we're a regular bunch of botanists!

Maybe we can all come by some time to join in one of your parties:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPASnc8vEZQ

Hey EF et multi al,

We've another scholar amongst us. The literary annelid, Saroshig!

Welcome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve1fzkvHMTA

Montreal is one of our favorite places over on the nature thread, saroshig. We won't hold being a scholar against you. Or hold Leopold and Wilson against Rise, if he drops in.

I did ok in obedience school a while back...

And you learned how to BookMooch, too! Good dog. ;p

Sit. Stay. Speak! BookMooch!

Heel.

Welcome (Soon to be) Dr. Maynes!!!

Yeah, more academics! (I actually lecture once and a while at New York Medical College - it's a good school, though, honest).

Hmmm. Hmmm. An appropriate welcome song for a Johns Hopkins scholar...hmmm.

Ah, yes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFmX0MdGzvs&feature=related

Bienvenido, mgauna!

(My paws don't have the dexterity to make those upside down exclamation points).

Two Argentines in a about a week! More southern flavor for the Salon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN0o_ZgdCL0

Welcome Lydia-Leah!

Wow, you've got the mother of all wishlists, there. Great stuff!

Let's give a warm welcome to Linda, who loves to sail...

Here's a salon favorite for you. It has something to do with Topsiders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI4BZ2AbokI

Welcome Jesse!

Folks in this here salon share a lot of your favorite authors!

'Great to get a new member from a quiet, peaceful, pastoral, relaxing place:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPy1Gtz0bvM&feature=fvw

Yes, welcome Jesse! Anyone at all familiar with Pro & Con knows Jesse well -- at least as a lurker. Huntington Beach resident to boot. Love that town.

And welcome Linda too! Name sure sounds familiar. Hmmm.

A grand welcome to all new Salonistas from the past couple of months and a special shout out to Jesse, whom I met briefly in some religion group awhile back before deciding that my passion for the subject was, er, well, lacking, especially in comparison to some who posted there. Welcome all!

Jesse?!? Jesse Wiedinmyer!?! Welcome, son! What took you so long? I can honestly say I have not missed a moment of Pro & Con. The Salon is my momma and my poppa. the Salon is Le Dictateur El Freeque. "And he loved El Freeque." - George Orwell.

Where are you guys seeing Jesse? Maybe my thread is...weird?

If you go to the Group page for Le Salon you can find a list of most recently joined. He's in that list.

This is not a Wikileak, citygirl, just good old fashioned reportage in the Internet age:

http://www.librarything.com/profile/Jesse_wiedinmyer

Hi everyone! I joined a while ago because I really like the books that this group chose for the group read. Then, I got very busy with unpleasant, non-reading-related things, followed by an episode where I lost my LibraryThing password (along with the laptop whose motherboard died). But now, I have finally got back on board.

So, thanks to EnriqueFreeque for the welcome back in March! I'm glad you liked my reviews; I really like Nemirovsky's books. I don't like Main Street as much. It is a good book, but there's something depressing about the progression of heroines that one relates to. When I was little, I liked Jo March from Little Women because I wanted to write books when I grew up. Then, in high school, there was Fanny from Mansfield Park, because I saw Mrs. Norris in every teacher and the snobbier Bertrams in my classmates. Then, in college, there was Becky Sharp (Vanity Fair) and then I'm presented with new literary heroines like Carol Kennicott and Miss Lonelyheart.

Anyways, thanks for the welcome and I'm looking forward to literary banter.

You write very good reviews, Kryseis, I hope the unpleasant, non-reading related things will abate for you in 2011 so that you can both write more of them, and spend some time here too in the salon pimping them and bantering about. Looking forward myself, to future literary banter. Glad you're here!

Pimping, bantering, drinking, purring, barking, sniffing around, tail-wagging - ain't this Salon the bomb?

Welcom pel_t, y'all gotta start somewheres and this here Salon is as good as inny!

Welcome Trandism! We're mostly lovers, not fighters here, but some of us enjoy a good, friendly brawl once in a while:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzrap8Vtyq8&feature=related

oh, and here's another!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOvZP5ylimo&feature=related

We've still another new teacher, scholar and all-around expert on plnats. Welcome hiking-Keith.

We see some shots of Dauphin Island. Is that coastal Alabama, where the spring bird migration fall-out occurs? Poor, tired birdies. (Stay away, Murr).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8YmBHmBf-I

Sandydog1 you're the best welcomer period! The best that ever was. Ruff ruff (and I mean that).

Did you notice that we've got ourselves a new member who's quite familiar with the number of the beast that's just joined us? I'm very excited!

No prob, EF, your quaint little salon has become a megalopolis, a meta-population, an entire masacreed movement! (One's gotta delegate.)

Welcome to the newest wave from Europa: ekebivibeke, paratritis, doro, etc., etc., etc!

An in - stint -two -shun!

Who let you out!?!?

Sorry all. Just checked the thread out now. Thanks for the welcome. Nice to see some familiar faces.

I think you may have posted the wrong vid, Sandy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xOdgD5g2nQ

What? But there are no cute, frollicking dolphins!

Hey, welcome historic haylan!

And, welcome aboard, Leogreen. Let's have the whole Salon, sing along (you know the words):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUCn4w-S2KM&feature=related

Pass the Hennesey around, Salonistas. Welcome, Ellen-from-the-Bronx!

And a warm welcome to your 2 wonderful ferrets and 4 smelly cats (did I get that right?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI_oe5kUJ9A&feature=related

Welcome, Ellen. If any of dese people make funna your accent, I got your back.

Peter from Brooklyn

Welcome Beth, from the Republic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffo2Oqt8bIM

Welcome Tamster, to the ever-burgeoning Salon. We Salonistas know too well, that, "the beginning...is a very delicate time..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg06ZBdHb5M

Whoops, the old dawg sneezed again.

Anywhoo...

Welcome VB600! We, in the Salon, are more drinkers than eaters, but there's always room for another gourmand!

So much is in the presentation, isn't it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeWQoAWeAZ0

#491: Thank you for the worm, errm warm welcome, Sandydog! I have been a lurker on LT for quite some time and le salon to a lesser degree, but I felt it was time to brave the masses and come out to play and read. As for being scholarly, I'll accept the honours only if I may add self-deprecating to the term.

I feel that there is such an effusing warmth and delicious banter and camaraderie in this room - enough to forget my beloved city's harsh winter.

Cheers,
Saro (transitioning from saroshig to sarine)

Fellow Salonistas, check out the wonderful books in Pandora-from-California's library! Great stuff. I spent 10 minutes in the Classics, alone.

Welcome, Pandora.

Hey Saro! LET'S talk about the state of Canadian film. I maintain that "The Saddest Music in the World" is our historical high-water mark.

#492: I happen to be very partial to Montreal and consider it home, copyedit, though I'm transplanted here like so many others. I'll have to look for the nature thread.

Strangely enough, I stumbled upon your profile last week and here you are, again!

Cheers,
Saro the inevitable scholar

>527 Sarine: Saro! Warmest welcome! Glad you're here!

>526 MeditationesMartini:

Hey Martin,

Most people recount the usual suspects in any discussion of Canadian film or in my experience, I meet with derision. Perhaps it explains my intent in writing my blurb: I want to relinquish the usual cliches about the state of Canadian film or lack thereof. On the other hand, Maddin's "The Saddest Music in the World" deeply resonated with and delighted me in a quasi perverse way. However, I hesitate to agree that it's our historical high-water mark! We have so many jewels yet Maddin loves to shake things up - beautifully, fantastically, and loudly.

I'd like to declare that "Margaret's Museum" is just as deserving of your claim. :)

Saro

>526 MeditationesMartini: I've been meaning to see "Margaret's Museum" forever! Thanks for giving me the initiative to finally download it. It sounds a little like "Saddest Music" from what I've heard--like, starts out as a period piece and then gets heartbreakingly surreally amazing? Except that "Saddest Music" starts as sort of a surreal period piece already.

I dunno--do I have the right idea about "Museum"? Who/what should I watch out for? How long before somebody disciplines me for talking Canadian movie nonsense on the welcome thread? Questions.

now that's my kind of welcome

>530 MeditationesMartini: I cannot recommend it enough.

Although it's not surreal in itself save for Margaret herself, it is just heartbreaking and a darkly beautiful story of 1940s Cape Breton's mining town and the effects that this harsh and thankless job has on the town's spirit.

It reminds me of Mon Oncle Antoine, but Margaret's Museum resonates more personally, intimately with me.

Is there a movie and nonsense thread?

The nonsense threads come and go all the time. Movie threads at the Salon, on the other hand, have been lacking. Why not start one, sarine?

Just click on Post new topic in the left column, near the top of this thread, then fill in the name you want for your movie thread where indicated, affiliate it with the Salon among the choices beneath it (or Henri will get indigestion), and voila, you're in business.

533> Movie thread right here: The Movies that Matter most to Us. Revive, sarine, by all means. I think maybe I'll drop a few recent views of mine in there that were superb.

I'll be back in a sec with the "nonsense" thread you requested.

533> and here's your nonsense thread, sarine: compleat and udder nonsense studies that needs you to revive it!

You got a dormant Alzheimer's thread, Henri? I forgot all about that movie thread, though I posted on it several times.

#525:

Awww. Thanks, Sandy! I feel so loved now that I got an official welcome on this thread! :)

And, color me flattered that you spent 10 minutes admiring my Classic Tomes alone! Quite a compliment there, considering the volumes we share.

Much Bliss & Happy Reading!
~Pandora~

Welcome to all the newcomers! the salon is getting crowded. remind me to order more wodka and herring! Wooohooo

>534 copyedit52: I thought I'd listen and read a bit, but okay. Thanks for the thumbs up, Peter. :)

>535 absurdeist: It seems like you have revived it, Enrique. I'm getting lost on some wonderful posts from last year, so many choices echo my own, but for quite different reasons. I'll contribute my own humble views tomorrow.

Saro

Did you hear that everybody?! Tomorrow Saro gives us reviews! ... Woo hoo woo!

The perfect Canadian movie (and I'm decidedly not Canadian) would be a full length Red Green vehicle. Or maybe something based on the Trailer Park Boys. Now that's Canada!

You guys remember Canadian Bacon?

>542 geneg: Not my Canada, but I respect your choices. :)

>544 Sarine: oh come, hosers are an ineluctable part of anyone's Canada.

Two words I never thought I would see in such an intimate relationship: hoser and ineluctable. I think more emphasis can be imparted by just the simple trick of raising and lowering diction in unpredictable ways than through all the learned arguments strung end to end (or is it stringed, yet. Just typing that set my teeth on edge.)

Smartini, you just made my day and gave me more to think about.

>546 geneg: awwww, thanks buddy! it's my favourite trick, and sometimes I think my only one.

And in my dialect, it's definitely strung (and snuck, and I think even sometimes drug--I'd say "we drug him outside", but "we dragged it out of him".) Down with the tyranny of the standard! Take off, eh!

I believe that's a meta-formulation of negative capability, Gene.

When I lived in California, Martin, I had a notion of America influenced by being out there; a different culture, of sorts. Is there a Canadian equivalent, living out there on the edge of the continent, in Vancouver?

At the Edge of History as William Irwin Thompson would say.

>550 copyedit52: oh, absolu. I think the east-west divide works in similar ways on both sides of the border, and is as important as the north-south line. The interior of BC has its uniquely contrary right-wing hippie political culture, where everybody's doing seasonal work and then "seasonal work"--picking fruit six months a year, working in a cafe the other six, and buying an acreage off the back of their grow-op.

That's a isogloss between Alberta, which has more or less the red-state US god-and-guns-and-oil culture, and the Coast, which is not a separate political entity but is nevertheless a different world, our California (although I've heard it said by British Columbians and Kiwis both that the place culturally most like the Coast they've been is New Zealand). Outdoorsy; progressive but given to tantrum votes that stick us with awful governments that wreck everything in sight in bizarre and spectacular ways (our last FIVE elected premiers have been forced to step down by intra-party revolt, scandal or plain public rage); multicultural (almost 50% of Vancouverites were born outside Canada) but with all the contradictions that entails, meaning we're kind of like a big rainy elementary-school gym where the Chinese kids sit over here and the white kids over there and the First Nations kids etc., and nobody talks--although this is slowly changing). Vibrant gay community compared to the rest of the country (exception, Montreal. Montreal and Vancouver have a lot of intercourse, a lot of back-and-forth traffic. There are cultural similarities, except that it's gritty and cold and French.) Ugly inequalities, which people deplore but seem to have no will to fix (one of the richest provinces, but the lowest minimum wage and highest poverty rate in the country). Not a lot of social cohesion by some standards: my friend from Winnipeg says that there everyone's a dick and all up in each other's business, but they'll aways push you out of a snowdrift, whereas here it's al smiles and sunshine and "how's it going" but nobody actually gives a shit or wants you to intrude on their bubble. We're into individual freedom on a personal level and big government on a political level, I guess.

Certainly the Coast, Lotusland as Allan Fotheringham called it, has some of the same pull and mystique for Eastern Canadians as Cali does for you guys-less glitz, perhaps, and more Ecotopia crossed with City of Glass. A lot of young people come out here to get less pale and doughy and live the way they always wanted, with, I presume, varying degrees of success. A lot of old people too--Canada is cold and the Coast is not, which makes it our Florida as well as our California (and is a contributing factor, though no excuse, for the large homeless population--perhaps you've heard about the human tragedy that is our Downtown Eastside, putatively the poorest neighbourhood in North America, though land prices are so high here and gentrification so virulent that I wonder).

Shit, I'm writing another book here. We are a mix of hippie and hipster and retiree and film/videogame-industry shithead and street person and Asian. We like marijuana and kayaks and sushi. It rains a lot, but we're still the closest thing Canada's got to a promised land.

Ah I just noticed the kind welcome I received in this thread! Thank you! I've mostly been lurking since I joined (I wish I had joined a few weeks earlier, I had read the Brothers K just a couple of months before the group did!), but I look forward to posting a bit more as I get the feel for the place!

I copyedited that Gods and Generals in your library, Jeff, and two others written by Monsieur Shaara, before he demanded another editor. Just as well; I prefer my history straight up, without being told what famous people were supposedly thinking.

Welcome Steve, from Mizzurah!

You've a great collection of books and favorite authors. 'A fine addition to EF's little gathering of distinguished booky-philes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzKsNIRrV4&feature=related

#553

Lurk away, Perfessor Maynes. I keep saying, I'm a reader, not a writer; a lover, not a fighter.

Hey, that reminds me of some sage advice I got way back: "Never get in a bar fight with an ugly man - he's got nothing to loose."

Welcome to LT, Dr. Mary and a special welcome to this entanglement of literary fiends...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gqTT31pwV8

Welcome, Ian. Chill a while, get yourself a drink (are you old enough?). The bar is over yonder, in the back. Brazilian Mahogany and mirrors, Deco style, can't miss it.

We just had a windfall from Bingo night. 'Bought a case of Domaine Leflaire Puligmy - Montrachet Premier Cru Clavoillon (2007). There are still a couple bottles left from last night. 'Next to the bowl of stale Doritos. Absinthe is all gone - Urania bogarted it. I could fix you a nice Paregoric and Ginger, too. Billy Burroughs taught me how to make those.

Arrggghh! A Hale 'n hearty welcome aboard, Jen!

Has anyone told you, that you bear a remarkable 'semblance to Clemmie from "Reno 911!" ?

Welcome Alabaster! You're going to like it here.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if SALONISTAS have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg9pdd9nu3c

You're too harsh dogwithsand.

I keep trying to quote Buddha but Lewis Black keeps creeping in.

Welcome Axel!!!

Heard throughout the Salon: "The dog - of the founder and lead developer of LT - is a good friend of mine."

Bow-bow-woww-wawr-wawr-waw...woof!

Welcome Thorold, another wonderful LT veteran. What took you so long to join us?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5DZexDYyuU&feature=related

Welcome JWhitsitt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLNAogLy2w4&feature=fvst

Oh yeah. And here are some fairly worthless orientation materials!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/108435

Basic orientation advise: smile, write something, don't take anyone here too seriously.

Except EnriqueFreeque. Always take HIM seriously.

That's right, Muse. Is it just me, or did LibraryThing suddenly turn French on us?

Juste vous

Welcome, Oppie!

You share the name of someone who tried to poison his Cambridge teacher (oh, yeah, and he did go on to do some other things, I guess).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VULtV-yUh2g

Very long thread, this.

*whisper* Okay, guys, be on your best behavior. We don't want to scare this one away! Or the others! *end whisper*

Welcome, Oppie! (a real life philosopher)

And Helena! Quite an erudite one, it appears.

And, EnriqueFreeque! I hope you'll feel comfortable here. Watch out for the Dictator. He's completely out of his mind. If he finds out you're impersonating him, who knows what he'll do.

And beelzebubba. You should get an award for that handle. And just so you know, not that you asked, I don't believe in white chocolate.

(I hope you don't mind, SandyDog.)

Thanks for the welcome, cg. This looks like a fun place to be. And I, like you, used to deny the existence of the pale form of ambrosia. But when coupled with macadamia nuts, and in the form of a cookie, it is a thing to be worshipped. Besides, it's the only cookie that goes well with vodka.

did I hear vodka?

I've been away on business, (ok, now for my best Peewee Herman imitation: stomp-stomp-stomp-stomp...Deep in the heart, of Tex-as!). The dog is even more portly thanks to all the wonderful Taquerias and BBQ joints.

I do LOVE that musica Banda! The music in CT is Puertoriqueno, not Tejano.

No problemo atall, all. Allow me to reference a couple of the more byzantine passages in EF's "Salon Code of Six Sigma Quality and Standard Work":

"Under no circumstances should any Salon topic thread length exceed 587.5 messages."

and,

"All Salon members have a moral obligation to welcome new members, regardless of whether they, (ie, members, or newcomers), are Goofballs."

Yes, all welcome, Helena!

More philosophers, yeah!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-buzVjYQvY&feature=related

And speaking of the Great Republic of Texas, welcome beezlebubba!

You've a brilliant profile page; I've got to post some of it here. We especially appreciate your vocation, your knowledge of the Western Canon, and your current life's goals:

"I work in a library. For me, that's akin to being an alcoholic, and working in a liquor store.

I believe the WHITE CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA NUT COOKIE to be the crowning achievement of western civilization, and dare anyone to prove otherwise.

I've managed to make it to ripe middle age without ever having accomplished a single thing of import. No mean feat, I can assure you.

Currently, I have two priorities in my life:
Priority No. 1: making my daughter laugh until she pees herself
Priority No. 2: making sure I get enough fiber"

Great stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOr5vpowr9M

Wow, thanks so much for the warm welcome, Sandy! I'm all ablush over here. I hope you enjoyed your time in Texas.

That is a classic opening line to your "About Me," beelzebubba (God I enjoy saying your name, "beelzebubba, beelzebubba" over and over): "I work in a library. For me, that's akin to being an alcoholic, and working in a liquor store."

LOL. You be drunk on books. And I think that's the best drunk there be, amen salonistas?

I'm glad you happened upon tomcat's review of Carpenter's Gothic -- William Gaddis' most accessible novel -- and accepted his invite here.

Here's to future fun and fellowship with ... beelzebubba!!!

edited to add tomcat's review: http://www.librarything.com/work/156695/reviews/9639971

Ok, but we still must continue to avoid saying "Beetlejuice" thrice, or "Biggie Smalls":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXqFTMBcwMU

"Bubba" - I heard that a million times in South TX last week. Everytime I had to chuckle. It always was used in the same context as "guffin" (Wodehouse) or "goofball" (Salonistas).

Change of subject - let's extend a warm willkommen to another prolific reader, Sandra of Germany!

ANOTHER wonderful LT author joins us. Welcome Claudia, from Michigan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3utG9E-LOm4