Skip to main content

Monday Miscellany--The Fruitcake Edition

1. I got the first season of Everwood on DVD a little while ago and, man, I love that show. I know it was (supposedly) family friendly, or whatever, but it's another fine example of teenage characters done right--sarcastic, self-involved, dramatic, but totally relatable at the same time. (CALL ME EPHRAM!) And I cry at least every third episode.*

2. Dear Winter, if you could pick either rain or snow, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

3. I have heard the hype about Harry & David pears before, and I always thought "jeez, how good could it be? It's a pear." Yes, it's a pear and I'm an idiot, because Harry & David pears are The Best Pears I Have Ever Tasted In My Life. If you have the opportunity, try one, but make sure it's ripe.** I ate one before it was ripe, and it was just another pear. But a ripe Harry & David pear? Worth the wait.

4. We had the annual potluck at work last week, and I have to say that the people in my division can really cook! I cannot, so I made cookies from a mix (which everyone loved and some people asked for the recipe for***), but there were some seriously accomplished things at the lunch. And then afterwards everyone rolled back to their desks and tried to stay awake for the afternoon.

5. Why do I eat more oranges in winter than in summer? Is it because they look like little suns? Or is it because I like paying higher prices?

~~~

*What? I have a soft spot in the middle, like a bad apple.

**It's ripe when the bottom is slightly soft to the touch. Not the top, the bottom.

***They were Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Shortbread cookies. Very easy (I don't make any other kind) and tres delicious.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jay Takes A Stand

Moonrat, still at Editorial Ass, is making me think a lot lately. She did a recent post here about sexualized violence in print ads, and connected the dots to sexualized violence in books and other media, which got me thinking about how I treat girls and women in my books. To be clear--I'm a feminist. I believe in equal pay for equal work and reproductive choice, and the whole ball of wax. I'm not going to go into detail about all that here because, frankly, there are people out there whose blogs are dedicated to that kind of thing (like Jezebel *) and they do it way better than I ever could. But that's my political orientation, in case you care. So when I was writing The Book, it was very important to me that my female protagonist S did not fall into any of those "heroine needs saving by the hero" tropes that so many books for teenage girls do. Sure, there's something very "romantic" about the hero swooping in and rescuing the heroine, right? ...

Monday Miscellany -- The New Year Edition

1. I saw "Harold and Kumar Went To White Castle" this weekend. It's not really my kind of movie, but it was mildly amusing and the scene where they sing "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips? Totally worth the price of admission.* 2. This? This is an awesome video: The United States of Pop 2009, by DJ Earworm. 3. Janet Reid has this to say: The Perfect Time Is Now . 4. I don't mind winter so much,** but I hate it when my feet are cold. Seriously. I will go to any extreme to avoid cold feet. 5. Happy 2010! ~~~ * I got it on Netflix, so there wasn't admission. But you get the point. ** This is true. I spent four years in New Mexico, where there really isn't winter, per se (we would sunbathe in February, no joke) and I really missed winter. I don't mind shoveling snow, or driving in it, and I love winter clothes. And cocoa, of course. So winter's all right with me.

On Mary Sue

I recently read a Very Popular Book in a Very Popular Series, which I was going to talk about here until I read the second book in the series and realized--OH NO--that the main character of the book is a total Mary Sue. sigh. For those of you who didn't spend time in the fanfic world, a Mary Sue is a character who everyone else loves. She's a stand-in for the author (fanfic is written mostly by women, which is why "Mary Sue," although there are some Gary Stus out there as well).She's beautiful (but not too beautiful), she's funny, she's self-deprecating, she's smart, and all the other characters will fall head over heels in love with her and think she's awesome. (An example, if I wrote Friday Night Lights fanfiction, Mary Sue would move to town and become Riggins' girlfriend, and Jason Street would have a crush on her, and Lyla Garrity would like her and even Tyra would must us some grudging respect, and their lives would all be better for k...