Mr. Psmith has mentioned several times wanting a Gryffindor scarf, so a couple of weeks ago I commissioned irishredlass to make one (she is so talented!!) for his birthday. It arrived a couple of days ago, and although his birthday isn't until the 27th, today's forecast (18" of snow, low tonight of 8, below zero wind chill) inspired me to give it to him early. I'm glad I did so -- not only is he ridiculously happy with it/proud of it, but we have a foot of snow already and it's still coming down like nobody's business! Here he is in our back yard, resplendent in his House colors :)

So it's still snowing here (ugh) but Mr Psmith and I were amused the other morning to wake up and see that the nasty weather hasn't stopped the mice in the neighborhood from venturing out on their daily rounds. I can only imagine what their sub-surface tunnels must look like, and how annoying it must be when the walls start to melt!

View from our front porch:



Close-up of the plunge into the snowbank:

I liked Her Fearful Symmetry quite a bit. It was unexpected in a lot of ways, constantly surprising me by going in directions I did not anticipate, and presenting me with complicated situations and emotions that challenged me to think about things differently. The turn towards darkness was so gradual that I didn't even notice it until all of a sudden I found myself in the midst of the horrifying stuff -- like when the sun starts to go down and it's late afternoon for what seems like hours, and then suddenly it's night.

Written in 1912, The Favor of Kings is possibly the earliest novelization of the life of Anne Boleyn, ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII. Bradley's Anne is passionate and lively but also young and headstrong and proud. She initially enters into her relationship with Henry partly out of awe for THE KING! and partly out of a hot desire to revenge herself on those who have insulted and hurt her, seeing him as her path to power at court. She does so with a certain innocence about his character, without fully understanding the consequences, and once in she has no idea how to extricate herself. Once she has begun, she has no choice but to see it through. In this she is probably closer to the real Anne than many later incarnations, which attempt to turn her into either a scheming witch or a religious reformer. (As a side note, the author is the mother of noted science fiction author James Tiptree / Alice Sheldon.)

I think I liked Tours of the Black Clock, but I'm not at all sure that I understood it. The writing is compelling, almost hypnotic -- I found it difficult to put down -- but I always felt as if the actual meaning was hidden just around the next corner. Or as if the true meaning had trickled out of the sentences just before I got there, leaving only enough shape to hint (or misdirect?) as to what was going on. Mulholland Drive meets Jorge Luis Borges meets The Guns of the South?

This is a story about...well, I'm not just sure. It's about Geli Raubal (but not the real one). It's about Dania, a woman who isn't Geli Raubal (except sort of, in someone else's head). It's about Banning Jainlight, who is in love with Dania (or maybe he just invents her). It's about Jainlight's pornographic stories about Dania (or maybe they're true stories of his love affair with her). It's about "the most evil man in the world," i.e. Hitler, who is obsessed with Jainlight's porn about Dania because in his head it's about Geli Raubal, (and who ends up a sad, pathetic, senile old man). It's about Marc, the son of Hitler and Dania, or maybe Jainlight and Dania, or maybe just Dania herself (or maybe he's fictional too).

All these people cross back and forth between realities, or maybe between reality and unreality, in a weird braiding of time and space. Some of them seem to have doppelgangers, or alternate versions of themselves, like Jainlight/Blaine, or Dania/Geli; sometimes their worlds intersect or bleed into one another; sometimes one is the other's dream. It's never clear what's real and what isn't. The most extreme example may be the silver buffalo, which you'd think pretty much have to be a metaphor since they come perpetually pouring out of a black cave and some people can't even see them, but yet they're substantial enough to trample Dania's mother to death in Africa and rampage through the streets of Davenhall Island off the coast of Washington state. Are they the hours and minutes of one reality pouring out into another?

But the book is also about love and hate and cruelty and pity and obsession and fear and loneliness and forgiveness and good and evil. The main character, Jainlight, refers to Hitler as the most evil man in the world, and about himself and occasionally the entire twentieth century as irredeemably evil, but I ended up thinking that this book is much more about the redemptive power of love/forgiveness, although it's sort of tucked into the corners of the story as it were. I don't know what Erickson's intent was, but I ended up feeling desperately sad for every single person in this story, even crazy senile pathetic old man Hitler.

If all of this makes it sound like the book is strange and puzzling and perhaps unsettling, that's good because it is. Don't let that stop you from reading it. But don't expect a straightforward narrative: it's more like a spiral or a double helix or one of those complicated Spirograph patterns.

(NB: I have to admit the metaphor of the "black clock" was entirely lost on me -- no idea what that was meant to be about. Why black? Why a clock? What is this about numbers falling? Why is Marc listening for ticking icebergs at the end??)

I want to write a picture book and have it illustrated by these people.

Also leather armor corsets, just because. Hubba hubba.

...and not one but TWO of my prompts got claimed already -- squeee! You are looking at one happy little fangirl :) It's almost enough to compensate for the truly horrendous amounts of snow and frigid temperatures we've had for what seem like YEARS, and which are rapidly driving me into terminal cabin fever :P Where is the sun?? ::mopes::

Oh how much do I love thee, Canada, let me count the ways. Not only do you have a brilliant ice skating team, you do things like this:

"...The hilariously controversial LGBT public service announcement responds to the Russian government's anti-gay policies and was released Thursday by the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion, an equal rights organization..." Rest of article here


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A bunch of Friday random fun stuff, for your edification and jollification:

Too much snow? Bored with snowmen? Try a lovely snow-pig!

For you fabric artistes in the audience, I bring you Spoonflower, where you can design your own fabric. I expect to see lots of peacocks from shiv5468.

Ever pondered why your state is so ________? And perhaps been curious how most people would fill in that blank? Wonder no more!! io9 has mined the data and brings you the answers. Unsurprisingly, the answer for Texas is "big" but some of the others may make you scratch your head.

Did you know that the NFL, which grossed $9.5 billion last year, is a non-profit? This is a true thing. If you think it's stupid, which apparently 87% of the public does, you can sign a petition to change it. (On another football-related note, there's more at stake in this year's Super Bowl than just a big silver trophy: a Frederic Remington and a Japanese painting.)

Want a few LOTR-related giggles but can't face another Legolas/Gimli slash fic*? Visit The Tolkien Sarcasm Page, a collection of very funny things indeed, including Saruman's diary and "Tales from the Prancing Pony," the story of three British adventurers who spent four months in Middle-earth in the late 1880s, with a genteel and well-mannered Uruk-hai as their guide. Oh, and there's also the Crackpot Tolkien Theories page, featuring a well-argued theory that Tom Bombadil is actually the Witch-King of Angmar. Really.

Then when you want something a little more serious, meet Clint Smith. I can't really describe him, you just have to listen.

OK, 'nuff said. Have a nice Friday, y'all!

* Apologies to anyone in the audience who actually likes Legolas/Gimli (what do you call that pairing, anyway? Legimli? Gimoglas?)

So, you know how so much of what we do happens on a little screen, and/or over headphones/microphones, and involves pixels instead of people? Here are two VERY funny takes on what if some of those things happened in real life. My favorite is the first, which only makes me laugh, but I identify more with the second, which makes me laugh AND cry.

How funny would it be if Google were a person you actually had to talk to? Very damn funny.


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And a conference call in real life:


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On the other hand, the Old Spice guy has a new ad out. I luuuuurv him.

Also, it is STILL SNOWING. Grrrr.

For all of you who claimed titles from the Great Weeding of 2013, your books are en route!

For those of you who haven't yet, there are still some good 'uns left. You have until Sunday, when they go to my favorite local second-hand store down the street.