At the store yesterday I saw crispy rice mint M&M's in honor of Indiana Jones. Not really interested in seeing the 4th movie, but I am curious about why crispy mint is a flavor for him. Or maybe it is just a good marketing tool, and there's no other association.

Beet risotto. The beet juice makes for a very fuchsia dish. How many naturally occuring fuschia food items are there? Pomegranates. Raspberries. The risotto was rather bland despite the lovely color -- the tangy flavor I associate with beets is a function of the pickling, I think, rather than the natural beet taste.

I had to restrain myself last night from calling T to gloat. Well, not so much once I remembered it was Card Night, so he wasn’t home watching The Most Overrated Shortstop Ever make an error that resulted in six (SIX!) unearned runs in the first inning. I almost felt sorry for Mike Mussina, going only 2/3 of an inning. Almost.

And why did Jim Palmer have to mention the 2-hit shutout? Cabrera gave up a hit and then a 2 run homerun immediately.

Tis SBD. Share and then go tell Beth.

I finished From Dead to Worse late last week and have been pondering it ever since. While I enjoyed the book, parts of it also made me uncomfortable and I had a hard time figuring out why.

I liked the book; it was better than the last book of the series, at least. Am I going to keep reading? Maybe, although I stopped buying the books in any format three books ago. Several questions and story threads were wrapped up in FDTW, while new ones were established. My biggest criticism is that the book was crammed too full of characters and events. Harris must’ve used a shoehorn to get them all in.

I’ve mentioned before that Harris tends to place her protagonists in very vulnerable positions, more overtly vulnerable than a lot of romance and fantasy authors do. Their security – physical, financial, etc. – is tenuous, and the threat against it is often a key to the storyline. In Sookie’s case, she is balancing her humanity with the appeal of the no-longer-completely human. Yes, the supernaturals accept her “disability” and value it in a way that the human cohort does not, but she runs a much greater risk of violence as she negotiates the supernatural community. And she recognizes this, as well as the toll it takes on her.

I was a poor Christian and a decent survivalist.

As we drove through the dark, I pondered the chasm yawning right in front of me, waiting for me to take that extra step. I felt stranded right on the brink. I found it harder and hard to stick to what was right, when what was expedient made better sense.(p 92)

Here’s the thing: while I find her struggle to remain human fascinating, Sookie’s constant appraisal of herself on the “Christian” scale makes me uncomfortable. The evaluation of good and evil on a Christian scale seems exclusionary in terms of every other religious or ethical/moral code. And frankly, because she is the narrator, considering herself Christian and struggling to be “good”, whatever good is, casts the behavior of others who aren’t interested in her same scale or measure automatically into a not “good” category that strikes me as ugly and judgmental.

I know Sookie is a small town Southern character. I am aware that my discomfort stems from the fact that my experience of self-proclaimed Christians has not been good -- hypocrisy, pettiness, and intolerance have been my experience of them. But framing her ethical dilemma with that adjective still bothers me.

Afterthought: If you find yourself considering who to take for a lover because of his ability to defend you, you’re getting pretty close to selecting a mate because you think he has desirable traits to pass along to future generations. (p 92 again) Are we not doing this subconsciously when we select mates? Aren’t we conditioned to do so by thousands of years of socialization and biology?

Tea is not compatible with porn.
Oliver Morris was a new character for the fourth series of Coupling, created to fill the void left by the exit of Jeff Murdoch (Richard Coyle). I thought the producers were trying too hard with him; he was supposed to be zany and sort of sexually desperate in the way Jeff had been, but it didn't really work for me. However, this line of dialogue? Works. 

The tag line for this article was "From literacy to digiracy: Will reading and writing remain important?"

It's all Mac's fault, apparently.

I've watched interviews in which the interviewers ask Jon Stewart about being a journalist; his standard response is that he isn't a journalist but a comedian. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism recently compared TDS to traditional news media. Their article is here. Courtesy of The Biochemist.

I keep meaning to email Ilona Andrews, author of Magic Burns, to ask if the naming of the molly (Ninny) in that book was an homage to Fat Ninny, Miles Vorkosigan's horse, or just a coincidence.

Have managed to start From Dead to Worse. The fairy part of the story feels awkward and forced, as does the mention of Hadley and her ex, as well as one almost throw-away mention of Alcide's thoughts about Sookie in the aftermath of a Big Bad Thing.

Obama.

The question was: who will John Edwards endorse?

The Biochemist's review of MCR @ MSG cracked me up, mostly because it was so full of glee, but especially this bit:

Hello, Jersey hair. I missed you. You are distinct from Texas hair in a way that is indescribable, but nonetheless significant.

Both areas have what I would call big hair, carefully arranged hair, but each with a different aesthetic.

Also courtesy of TB, also on the music front: The Cab will be opening for The Hush Sound later this summer, and will be returning to Ottobar.

It is true, I am a musical purist. The original version of pretty much any song is the one I like best. The Garth Brooks version of Billy Joel's Shameless? Is just wrong. Clapton's acoustic version of Layla? Strikes me as melancholy rather than seductive. Oh the shock of my college boyfriend, how could I not love this version? Well, it could be sexy...if I hadn't known and loved the original version (which rocks) first. Etc. So it should be no surprise that I like the (slightly) earlier version of The Cab's Take My Hand; the album version seems too produced and orchestrated. Having said that, I still like the whole album.

Random things:
1. cache /= cachet
2. orientated < oriented if you are writing an American character
3. cross to bear, not cross to bare

I want to see Patrick Stewart as MacBeth.

The O's beat the Sox last night, which was a shock. 20-19, another surprise.

Reading: I've finished Passage, which I loved and need to reread immediately. My library copy of Meredith Duran's The Duke of Shadows arrived, but I'm stuck about half way through and can't be arsed to finish it. C has lent me her copy of From Dead to Worse and I'm not in any way intrigued enough to read past the first chapter. I think maybe I need a reading hiatus.

Check out the opinion issued by the Maryland Court of Appeals in Aleem v. Aleem. In this case, the court declined to extend comity to talaq, Pakistani Islamic divorce, because it lacks due process. Via WaPo.

Every time I watch The History Channel, I wind up thinking, "That would be a great setting/character for a romance novel. Or any novel really." The great set up this time? Castner's Cutthroats, a group of Army scouts who were the advance men for the Aleutian battle of World War II. Brought to you (and me) courtesy of Alaska: Dangerous Territory.

You know the sad thing? I had no idea that the Japanese occupied any of the Aleutian islands. Most of my scant knowledge is related to the European and African theaters of battle, and very little to the Pacific front.

One thing I forgot to mention the other day when writing about The World Without Us: there was a section on zero population growth and a bit on the end of humanity as the end of reproduction rather than an event that caused immediate extinction. The description of a society aware of its end as offered by proponents was rather idyllic and reflective. It's pure speculation of course, but I found it interesting that the scientist's view or the theorist's view was so very different from social breakdown that is predicted in fiction