(no subject)

[cleolinda]

I have felt like crap all day, including but not limited to breaking out in a cold sweat at the grocery store and nearly blacking out, so you're going to have to wait a bit longer for the Lost recap.

Mom's having knee surgery tomorrow. It's a short, common procedure, and she'll be back at work on Monday. But still. I'm probably going to be running around for her a good bit this weekend, so you may not hear from me much. Or maybe you will. There's no telling.

(Have been having weird food cravings all day--starch, mostly. I really, really wanted bread pudding or rice pudding, which is really weird considering that I've never had bread pudding or rice pudding. I also felt a deep urge to try out a shortbread recipe [can you make shortbread with margarine, or is there just really no point to that? I can't remember if Sister Girl has any more butter around from baking or not] and possibly a gingerbread recipe to take to class. You know, when I have it again next week. Why am I so bake-y all of a sudden? And then I found englishteastore.com and was in big trouble. Which reminds me: 101 Great British Foods, a must-read.)

Got a Click-n-Ship notification for a BPAL order, which is exciting--it might be the big Carnaval Noir order I made a while back.

Also got an email from my editor, who says that my copies of the book are on the way over. That's going to be surreal. If I can get my camera phone to work (it works; it just doesn't want to send pics to my email so I can post them, which is kind of the point of having it), I'll post a picture of them when they get here.

Linkspam:

Had a request last night, so: Charlie makes faces at the baby, who seriously does have a turniphead.

"The Feel Good Hit Of The Summer!"

Flight attendants outraged over Jodie Foster film. (Warning: major spoilers, apparently.)

The Penny Arcade boys vs. Harlan Ellison. "I said that I had [in fact 'at least finished high school'], but you couldn’t really hear me because the audience is laughing at me along with Harlan. So once they stop, I turn to him and I say, 'While I’ve got you here I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Star Wars stuff you wrote.'" OH NOOOOO.

*writes that one down*

(I in no way condone PA fans' subsequent trolling on Ellison's website or the remarks about his wife. I'm just saying.)

It's Banned Book Week and nobody told me! Bonus: Astonishingly stupid reasons why these books were challenged.

And now I'm off to find something to eat. Be afraid.




   

Comments

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Hope your mom's surgery goes well, and she's back on her feet real soon.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Actually, the problem's going to be keeping her down. We all have bets on how early in the day on Friday she's going to attempt to start cleaning the house.

[koritsimou.livejournal.com]

IMHO, never sub margarine for butter when baking. If you're wanting to make something nummy and delicious, it just cuts it off at the knees.


And THANK YOU for the Charlie pictures.


Also, plz do not die.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to die. : )

[notalent.livejournal.com]

Anyword on US release of your book? Hope you feel better, and wait to see corpse bride. So not paying for

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

No word yet. :/

[skyblade.livejournal.com]

Ellison will get midly bent out of shape if you so much as call him a "science fiction writer", because a writer just writes regardless of the genre or something. Using the word "sci-fi" is like firing point blank at a powder keg.

Good luck on your mom's surgery, and I hope you feel better.

[handlet.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I saw that recut "Shining" trailer earlier today, but I just had to click the link again. So funny! I love the use of "Solsbury Hill."

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

First off, hope your mom's surgery goes well!!

Second, speaking as an Ellison fan of many years, I read that PA account and it didn't wash with me, so I went to Ellison's message board and read his explanation, and that's the one I can believe. From reading his writings, he always struck me as someone who would zap you completely-- if you did something to deserve it, not just out of the blue.

And yay! Banned Books week! Time to update my to-check-out list. ;-)

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

Yeah, same here.

[tania.livejournal.com]

Feel better, girl, and good luck to your mum!

Those wacky PA guys. ^_^;

[rorqual.livejournal.com]

Fall always makes me bake-y too, I think it's my subconscious telling me to plump up for winter. As if I need to be told. I have a great gingerbread recipe (not cookie gingerbread, loafy gingerbread), if you require one.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm actually looking for cookies, since we're reading House of Seven Gables and Hepzibah has gingerbread animals in her cent-shop, but loafy is also good. : )

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

Hope you feel better soon!

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Hang in there - please don't die - we will survive the wait for lost-y cleoish goodness.

I would bribe you with shortbread but it never ships well and i fear you would not be impressed with a box of crumbs.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'll be fine. Besides, I just passed a whole shelf full of Walker shortbread at the store today, so it's not like I couldn't buy it if I wanted to. : )

[kilted.livejournal.com]

I've read (or have had read to me) 11 books on that list at least. I own even more than that... haha

Feel better and can't wait for your book to come out!

[mokeyhokey.livejournal.com]

Cold sweat, nearly blacking out and a craving of starchy foods sounds like a blood sugar crash. Were you nauseated and/or shaky too?

My body enjoys hating me and likes to do this from time for no reason other than vexing me. Goodtimes.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was pretty sure at the time that it was a sugar crash, actually. I've had some appetite problems lately--basically, I knew that I needed to eat but nothing appealed to me at all--and I'd finally managed to get in a couple of meals today. But they were very small, and I think I needed to eat again, was the problem.

[khaman.livejournal.com]

Yay, BPAL!

I'm so saddened that the Carnaval is over simply because Gypsy Queen rocks so hard. Hope you get some that work for you!

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

There's a short story by Connie Willis called "Ado". It's in her collection Impossible Things, but I first came across it in a different collection (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0440218985/qid=1128051201/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-3923159-5265446?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), about book banning and political correctness and censorship. It's very good.
Some of those books I'm not sure are appropriate for certain age groups (a friend of mine told me she remembers being traumatized by the rape scene in Clan of the Cave Bear, I didn't read it until I was in college), but who the heck things that kids shouldn't read Pulitzer Prize winning novels? A Doll's House was subjected to censorship when it first opened, and I think the ending was changed for certain showings. People were afraid that if men took their wives to see it, the women would get ideas in their heads or something. But it's one of my favorite works of literature, and Ibsen's f'ing brilliant.
And the PA/Ellison thing? Hilarious. I'm totally willing to accept his version of events, but he certainly doesn't come across looking like the good guy.

[princessstarr.livejournal.com]

A Doll's House was subjected to censorship when it first opened, and I think the ending was changed for certain showings. People were afraid that if men took their wives to see it, the women would get ideas in their heads or something.

The German ending cracks me up the best. Just because they have Nora look in at her children and she's all "OH NOES! I cannot leave them!!!!!"

[outinthestorm.livejournal.com]

If you are still craving rice pudding, just try putting cream, sugar and cinnamon and nuteg on some cooked white rice and heat it through in the microwave. Doesn't end up as creamy and flavoursome as a good rice pudding, but it is lovely for those days when you just crave it and don't have an hour to cook it in.

And I hope you feel better soon. and that your Mum's surgery goes well.

[promise19.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that sounds yummy! I'll have to try it. I love rice pudding! (and bread pudding) but I'm the only one in my house with such love. So it makes little sense to make a whole big pan of it.

Also, just a little aside to share, I was supposed to be going to New Orleans on business August 28th for a week, and I already had plans in my head for at least one indulgence meal at "Mother's"-- a Debris sandwich (which is a roast beef sandwich with au jus that has all the little bits of beef that fell into the jus when they carved it --- everybody say YUM! --- and bread pudding, which is to die for. Needless to say, the trip didn't happen, and "Mother's" will have to wait for another day.

[arpeggiodreams.livejournal.com]

"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank. Modern Library.... Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee (1983) called for the rejection of this book because it is a "real downer.""

Oh. my. God.

That's the fucking point!

[shesnotallthere.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[shesnotallthere.livejournal.com]

I went down to Montgomery for the Alabama Highland Games last weekend, and tried haggis for the first time.

The haggis itself? Not bad. The crowd of people that surrounded me to watch me eat haggis? Pretty fucking annoying. It's a festival, people, not an episode of Fear Factor. New Rule: If you're from a state where chitlings are served in restaurants, you can't be freaked out by haggis.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

*big hugs* for you and your mom. I'm sick right now as well - I'd say "something's going around"...but that would be pretty far for it to go! Anyway, feel better.

Speaking of baking, have you ever made molasses cookies? I have this amazing recipe from (really) the American Girls cookbook - it was about the only thing I wasn't too lazy to make back when I first got it (years ago).

Copies of the book, yay! That will be great.

And the only reason I knew it was Banned Book week was b/c Neil Gaiman mentioned it on his journal. So don't worry, you weren't the only one who missed it.

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

Not to be cruel ... but how can you tell if Charlie's making faces?

I had a dizzy spell yesterday, but I think it's improbable we could both have the same thing. Unless it's BIRD FLU, which will wipe us all out pretty soon, don'tchaknow.

[elyim.livejournal.com]

Gosh, that 101 Great British Foods list has made me rather hungry, and also question my vegetarianism (toad-in-the-hole. Oh, lord.)

I shall now go scour the house for cheddar and pickle.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee. He does say that vegetarians are simply "people who eat their meat in private."

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

Argh, do NOT try to make shortbread with margarine - you use so much fat that you'd end up with an awful taste of margarine; the whole point of shortbread is the taste of the butter.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, you'll notice I suspected as much. Which would you recommend, salted or unsalted?

pimping?

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

If you're in the mood for pimping and wouldn't mind adding another link, Serenity (http://www.serenitymovie.com/) opens today. There's a lot of fans who have wanted this to happen for a long time. It's a continuation of the short-lived, but rather excellent series Firefly (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AQS0F/qid=1128082330/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9326357-0873503?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846). Us fans really want this movie to do well so that Joss Whedon (of Buffy and Angel) gets to make a sequel. The more people we can get out, the more likely our dream is.

Thanks for considering my request!

Re: pimping?

[stefficus.livejournal.com]

i knoooooowwww! yay! YAYAYAYAYAAAAA! *wiggles around like a black lab on speed* i have been DYING to see this, hugged a total stranger on opening night of "hitchhiker's" when the trailer for it came up, and... yeah. note the icon. *grin*

my only (vanishingly small) reservation is that i hope ben edlund had a hand in the movie as he did in the series.

.....

yeeeee! toniiiiiiiiight, toniiiiiiiight...

[sweetdaddydavid.livejournal.com]

I read the PA/Ellison thing. There is nothing sadder than when nerds fight other nerds.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. My favorite was Ellison's assertion that any moron would know what foolscap is.

[stefficus.livejournal.com]

the disclaimer about the PA/foolscap incident on wikipedia's harlan ellison entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison) is greatly amusing. to me.

[anonymisty.livejournal.com]

In my humble opinion, the world would be a happier, richer place if all soldiers were made of bread. But not air force pilots, because then the planes would crash.

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!! Thanks for leading me to anw's list - I'm stuck in a testing lab all day today, and I needed something to make me laugh.