Wednesday, July 19, 2006

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!

11 comments:

blackbird said...

I thank you thank you thank you...

shuna fish lydon said...

actually being a heroin addict is all about waiting. it's why they are so crazy--- there is always the idea that the dope sickness will get them before the 12 year old drug runner will deliver their package.

but I love the quote. I am one of those awful people who just likes the taste of coffee.

Badger said...

Tell me H isn't the one who told you you need to lose 60 pounds. Or failing that, tell me why I shouldn't put a hit out on him.

Oh, and my Star Wars name is Katman WooWoo. Which sounds all sorts of wrong, doesn't it?

Suse said...

It IS a lame meme, isn't it? Sorry.

- Chartreuse Aardvaark.

Joke said...

60?

If your headless pix are anything approaching an accurate representation of you from the larynx south, the only way you could drop 60lb is by having a leg surgically removed.

-J.

Caro said...

I loved the coffee quote.

All that talk of yummy food made me grumbly in my tumbly.

Sarah Louise said...

On The Last Lessons of Summer: (writes the librarian who recommended it)

The writing is not the best in the beginning. I probably would not have stuck through had it not been an audio book. But it gets better. Tell me where you are and I'll coax you. Because the story will blow your mind and I HAVE to have someone to talk about this with.

And you look fine. Tell H he can jump in a lake.

--Sizzle Wizzle

lazy cow said...

Oh luvvie, I adore Nigella. I'd turn for her, I would ;-) My best friend and I would do monthly bakeoffs from Domestic Goddess for over 2 years. Maybe we could do a virtual bakeoff??!!
I KNEW that you would have that encyclopedia blog idea too! I've been planning an A-Z of blog entries since I read the book last week.
See, we were separated at birth.

Kathy said...

From your pictures, I cannot see anyway for you to lose 60 lbs without becoming a stick figure and that's ridiculous. I'm with Badger on this one.

I love the coffee quote and would had why should people who have a genuine medical need for coffee have to wait in line behind one person who is ordering coffee for the 60 people in his office?

Happy Birthday, Blackbird

Sarah Louise said...

Oh, I love the Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life too! I read it over Christmas last year.

BabelBabe said...

To be scrupulously fair, H said, "What if *I* were sixty pounds overweight? Wouldn't that bother *you*?"

Which I inferred meant, "YOU are sixty pounds overweight."

And he did not see fit to object.

LC, the fun of the bake-off is EATING : )and SL, I am getting into Last Lessons now....