It's inhumane to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who view it as a kind of recreational activity.

I bet this kind of thing does not happen to heroin addicts. I bet that when serious heroin addicts go to purchase their heroin, they do not tolerate waiting in line while some dilettante in front of them orders a hazelnut smack-a-cino with cinnamon sprinkles. - Dave Barry

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National Meme Week continues...

A meme for a Monday morning, on a Wednesday evening. It's still a bit of a lame-o meme (hence the Monday morning-ness of it), but please just go with it.

From Suse of Pea Soup (who nicked from Pavlov's Cat who stole it from Quirkie).


YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME
(grandfather/grandmother on your father's side, your favorite sweet/lolly):
Tecla Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups


YOUR FLY GIRL/GUY NAME
(first initial of first name followed by "izzle", first two or three letters of your last name followed by "dizzle"):
Vizzle Swedizzle


YOUR DETECTIVE NAME
(favorite color, favorite animal):
Green Shark

YOUR STAR WARS NAME
(first 3 letters of your name- last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name repeated twice):
Valduk SepSep


YOUR SUPERHERO NAME
("The", your favorite color, the automobile you drive):
The Green Matrix

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In other news:

I have been READING.

I finished Kathryn Davis’ The Thin Place. It wasn’t quite the blow-me-away experience I was anticipating, based upon Jessa Crispin (of Bookslut)’s reviews. Best book of 2005? I am not so sure. But it WAS an intricately faceted little gem of a novel, filled with both clarity and mystery.

I finished Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life last night, sitting in the Sharp Edge with a Yuengling and a plate of buffalo bites. At first I thought, “Eh,” but she grew on me. And now I’d love to give my own life encyclopedia a shot. Maybe someday...I’ll bet a lot of it could be culled from blog entries, come to think of it...

Sarah Louise recommended Margaret Maron’s The Last Lessons of Summer; in fact, she – wielding, and some might contend, abusing, her considerable librarian powers – checked it out under my account and brought it home to me. Now THAT is service. I consider myself an excellent librarian, but even I don’t do that sort of thing for my patrons. I like Margaret Maron; I have enjoyed several of her Deborah Knott mysteries in the past. But I am not feeling the love here yet, people. And I want to like it – it’s a cool plot, and I like the author’s previous work, and SL likes it. I’ll give it another thirty pages or so...

And then I will move on – to Laurie Notaro’s Autobiography of a Fat Bride which had me laughing so hard this morning, I think I may have scared the neighbor children, if not my own; and Literacy and Longing in L.A., recommended by both Gina AND SL.

To wrap up – I still haven’t finished Getting Stoned with Savages because H ran away with it to read, and I have no idea where it is now. Laurie King got put aside for more pressing library books. I was LOVING No Angel but it also does not have to be returned anywhere.

I AM grooving on Nigella Lawson at the moment. I got Domestic Goddess from the library and now I MUST own it. (I have to pick up How to Eat from the library tomorrow and I am sure I’ll want that one as well.) I find myself, even in this ninety-five degree weather (that’s 35 degrees for you Down Under Celsius types), jonesing to bake things called Fairy Cakes and Muscat Syllabub. It’s a toss-up what’ll get baked tomorrow to take to the final swim lesson on Friday for the swim teachers, and for the moms to munch – the damp chocolate loaf cake (spread with cream cheese per Nigella’s instructions) or the jam-doughnut muffins. And I really, really, REALLY want to make the Blueberry Boy-Bait with all the fresh blueberries I just bought at the grocery store last night. But H is off sweets, and I need to lose – ahem – sixty pounds according to SOME PEOPLE, and about twenty according to people who live on this planet – so I will content myself with baking for others.
Nigella is so homey – her books read like she’s sitting at your kitchen table, coffee cup in hand, chatting away about the kids and your husbands and school and whatever. She mentions Laurie Colwin – which I found interesting because she very much reminds me of Colwin’s homey, down-to-earth style. (And in fact, one of Colwin’s recipes (for Black Cake) that I have been dying to try for YEARS, is included in Goddess, minus the burnt sugar essence, so maybe I’ll give it a whirl come Christmas time).

I am in an excellent book groove at the moment, and am enjoying it thoroughly. It’s nice to have risen from the slump.

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It’s Blackbird’s birthday today.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dearest Blackbird!
Happy birthday to you!