Cleolinda everywhere

I love it. The entire month of October: deep, gorgeous, honeyed sunshine. The red-hot moment the calendar strikes November: Cathy's sprinting across the moors wailing for Heathcliff. Too bad I only just ordered my winter coat last night.

Also, can I complain about my calendars? I have a Lord of the Rings calendar that SUCKS, because it has one giant main image (top page) and three smaller images (lower page) for the month. Anything picturesque or attractive is on the lower page; the giant picture up top is inevitably a huge shot of Saruman grimacing or an extreme closeup of Crusty Theoden's pores (I am not making either of these up). For the month of July we did have Aragorn shouting on the wall at Helm's Deep, and I think I skipped ahead to that one and had it up for like three months rather than stare at grimy hobbit stand-ins and Crusty Theoden. Even better: the month that New Orleans was half wiped off the map, we had the flooding of frickin' Isengard. I turned the page, saw a GINORRRRRMOUS picture of Shelob chasing Frodo, and decided that the calendar needed to come down for the good of humanity.

My other calendar is Lemony Snicket-themed. Some months it's okay, with really nice Brett Helquist artwork. Other months it's artsy b/w photos purportedly from Snicket's life. This month? A coffin. Forget this shit. I am totally asking for a Kinuko Craft calendar this Christmas. And maybe one from the Narnia movie. I would get a Goblet of Fire calendar, but knowing my luck, it'll probably be giant pictures of Moody and Babybirdemort.

Linkspam:

Bush Outlines $7.1B Flu-Fighting Strategy

Bird flu risk hinges on computation, mutation.

Democrats close Senate doors in Iraq protest.

Ralphdemort speaks!

'Saw II' Wins Duel with 'Zorro': "The blades that audiences wanted to see over the weekend did not belong to the dashing hero in The Legend of Zorro but to the slashing villain in Saw II. The horror movie grossed, you'll excuse the expression, $30.5 million -- well above most forecasts by box-office analysts. It was the biggest Halloween weekend opening in history and the best opening for any Lions Gate film, exceeding the $23.9 million earned by last year's Fahrenheit 9/11. By contrast, The Legend of Zorro earned just $16.5 million, well below the $22.5 million earned by the original The Mask of Zorro in 1998. Two other new films were not expected to draw much of a crowd -- and they didn't. The Meryl Streep-Uma Thurman comedy Prime picked up a not-so-prime $6.4 million, while the Nicolas Cage film The Weather Man washed out with $4.2 million, slightly above last week's winner, Doom, which sank to $4.1 million. Once again, the overall box office total slipped below the comparable week a year."

Apple sells a million videos in new service. 

I don't read fanfic, so I'm not really in the habit of posting recs or anything, but here's one from enders_girl: "moony_swears is a wonderful collection of Marauders fics. The three latest are in the writer's series called "Twelve Decembers" (Part 1: First Year, Part 2: Second Year, Part 3a: Third Year) and they're really wonderful and really deserve some attention. Thanks!"

Wal-Mart's war room: "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" vs. "Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People Crazy."

Twin pop stars with angelic looks are new face of racism.

Happy Aussie bookday! I have asked my agent what the situation with Asian distribution is, also--I know Orion has the rights, but I don't know if they're exercising them. katharhino also notes that you can, apparently, buy the book at The Book Cellar for about $18 and get free shipping to the U.S.