Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Tara - *hugs* Glad you're employed. Sorry about other matters.
  

    
Oh, good! She finally did it. I gave Tara my info when she left, and
have been chiding her for not using it ever since.

Megan and I just watched Secretary, which is now one of my favorite
films. It was wonderful. At the end, I applauded and Megan exclaimed,
"That was so cute!" which is probably an indication of the reasons
we're the black sheep of our fairly straight-laced family.

Everyone who is sick, get well. 
  

    

Hey Tara! See you in September..(now I've got that song in my head.)

Maure -  Wasn't that a suprisingly wonderful movie?  And yeah, that
ending was pretty sweet.  That ought to satisfy my James Spader jones
for awhile.  ;>
  

    



From Dodge (hnowell)

Welcome back Tara. Beams to you to help you through the Suddenly Singles.

Happy Birthday to all April birthdays.

Get Well Soon to all who are ill.

I still haven't gotten my copy of Brief Lives but it's on the way. Read Black
Orchid and Signal and Neverwhere. Notice in Neil's blog about how the brass
bed got in the tube. Hope he posts that soon. It makes me curious. I might
buy some of the Tube books.

Went to an Annotation site which I can't recall off the top of my head right
now. I notice in one of the posts they are talking about what Dee says to
Dream - all the insults when he's fighting him - and they post that they
don't know about the connection to SKOOKY birds. The very next sentence is a
notation about the Adams Family theme song that was in part. Now, I don't
have the words to that theme song with me but wasn't the word SKOOKY part of
the song? I think the line is "and altogether SKOOKY."

The Annotations are great. Now I have to print them out and go back and read
the books again and pay CLOSE attention to some of the artwork.

Have a nice week.
  

    
"SPOOKY"  they were spooky.
  

    
"They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're altogether ooky,
The Addams Family."

No guarantees on how the word is spelled, but that sounds as likely as
anything, and it's defniitely not "skooky."  Dunno whether the
lyricist went in intending to do that, or had one of those
beat-your-head-for-a-third-rhyme sessions and realized that it didn't
matter.

This has been brought to you by DEJAVOONS, the cherry-flavored
chewable  remedy for chronic nostalgia.  Use only as directed, or until
the trails get really bright.

"Everyone who is sick, get well."
Maure, you have your high beams on.  Perfectly all right, of course.
  

    
Mike,  sorry for the glare..
  

    
This may be my favorite answer for a question ever:

"I think my answer is yes, and no, and also, what?"

(from Kelly Link's topic . . .)
  

    
Ooo!  In three days, I've named a topic, inspired a pseud, and gotten
quoted in the Well Digest conference!


Just thought I'd share.
  

    
Lacking a point, or a purpose, or even a general direction, i thought
I'd post a few rambling shambling gambling thoughts.

the new show opens tonight. It's a fine show, and should do well. I'm
very pleased to be playing a small part in it, as my health
considerations over the last few weeks would have made a large part
rather hellish for all parties concerned. funny how destiny works, eh?
I'm currently sporting a pencil-thin moustache for the part, which is
making me mildly self-conscious in my day to day life. fortunately, my
hair is light enough that it isn't all that apparant unless you look at
me for more than a few moments. I have to darken it with makeup for
the show, and when combined with this bizarre red white and blue tweed
jacket, light blue pants, grey vest, and yellow dotted tie... I look
like quite the unsavory turn-of-the-last-century salesman.

A plant I was convinced I had killed has proven more resiliant than
expected and has begun sprouting leaves again. This amazes me because
it means that in three years I have failed to completely kill a single
plant and my status as a "brown thumb" is seriously in question.

I am currently reading a book that I'm not particularly enjoying but
feel obligated to finish since I'm over halfway through it. It's the
first novel I've read by this author, but I'd read a few of her short
stories and liked them very much. I'm feeling rather annoyed by this,
but it's my own fault for not just putting it down. 

I get to stop taking the Cipro tomorrow, and am quite happy about
that. I am meeting with the doctor on Monday and am moderately happy
about that. I have yet to pass the murderous kidney stone and am not at
all happy about that.

Work is boring and I want a nap.
so there.
  

    
Tara!!!!  <<waves like maniac>> E-mail coming as soon as I get off
this board.

Maure!!  <<waves frantically>>  After the Janah fanclub contingent of
the Unusual Suspects get back from Atlanta, (and if I survive Easter),
we have to get together & do *something*.  Anything, really.  I miss
youse guys. 
Um, I have nothing to say, really, other than Break a leg, Dan!

Called a friend from grad school that I haven't seen in 10 years
tonight to warn him I was coming down next weekend.  I just left a
message, and I'm hoping we can hang out.  I'm so excited about Atlanta
I can't stand it.  I got to have dinner with another friend from UGA
who was in town on Tuesday.  It was so cool.  I hate being so far away
from so many of the people I went to school with--we're scattered all
over the country now.  But it's so cool when I do get to see them.

'K, gotta go e-mail Taraaaah, and grade papers.  Feh.       
  

    
Wonder if I can post this one EXACTLY 24 hours after the last post?

Anyway.

Dodge --
> Happy Birthday to all April birthdays.

Why, thank you!  :D

SOMEday, when I have read _Sandman_, I shall be able to read your
recent posts without fear of spoilers.  Have to just scroll past them
really fast, for the time being.

Dan, I hope the show went well!  And, ooh, I'm sorry that on top of
your other recent health problems, you've got a kidney stone!  Beams!
  

    
Oooh, missed it by two minutes.
  

    
Yep.

Off to watch _John Doe_ now.
  

    
Y'all would have liked it; this episode involved a "Jack the Ripper"
copycat.  (I know a John (actually, João) Ripper.  He has gotten teased
all his life, and has been known to make Brits nervous.)

Hey, Davey, were you the "David Snyder" that got quoted in the Journal
last weekend?  (I don't know if your given name is David or not....)

I found that recent vignette about the beach utterly delightful.  It
did my heart good, and it made me want to take a vacation (dangit)....

Neil -- Don't forget that Mary's teaching _Neverwhere_ at a high
school.  (Or did you count her already?)

And speaking of underground complexes, someone in <well2002.pri.> was
recently talking about this one, in Missouri:

http://www.huntmidwest.com/Subtropolis/WhatIsSubtropolis.shtml
  

    
I don't think her given name is David but then again I can't swear to that.
  

    
Stranger things happen.
  

    

Anyone here in the SF Bay Area and interested in going to see Guster tonight
at the Warfield? I have an extra ticket and I'm interested in seeing it not
go to waste. Drop me an email if you think you might be interested...
  

    
Oh, oops, Christy, I'm awfully sorry, I lose track of which of my
friends online have met me and who hasn't. My given name is Deborah, my
Hebrew name is Davida (I'm named for my mother's father David who died
the summer before I was born), and I'm female. I grew up as a "Debbie"
but only my family still uses that (and I really like being "Aunt Deb"
to my niece and three nephews); everyone else I care about calls me
Davey.

Would someone please tell me where the heck the thermostat for this
part of the planet is? We had another half-inch of fluffy white
"spring" yesterday, and _sleet_ today, and the temperature isn't
supposed to get _up_ to freezing again until Monday or Tuesday. It's
April and my crocus still aren't blooming. Feh.

My birthday was quite fine, thanks for everyone's good wishes. The
best card this year was the one from my middle sister: a series of
instructional drawings for "How to Properly Fold a Cat for Storage in a
Sweater Drawer." It looks so neat and tidy in the drawings... Christy,
when this month is yours? Here, have a happy furry birthday party
gerbilloon to celebrate with!

Chip and I have been taste-testing raspberry chocolate bars this week.
The bowl on the kitchen butcher block almost always has a bar of
dark-chocolate-with-something-in (raspberries, orange peel, coffee
beans; unfortunately my former favorite, cranberries-and-almonds, is
now permanently off due to my having suddenly developed an allergy to
almonds last summer), but on his last grocery trip Chip decided to
bring home all three of the raspberry choices and have them all open at
once to decide which we liked best. Life is rough. I think I'm
favoring the 55% cocoa solids bar; the 64% bar is too grainy and the
34% too sweet although it has the best raspberries.

Hi Tara!

So Dan, how was opening night? What's the show? Interesting wardrobe.
Ouch! for the stone.

Madman, I'd also like to read that Zelazny story. Post the link?
  

    
Davey -- I'd thought I remembered your being a girl, but I've learned
not to assume you still couldn't be named David.  I mean, I've got a
step-niece and a step-nephew named Carson and Bailey; nope, not
respectively... but you couldn't have been sure without asking, could
you have?  ;)

I know a Laura on another message board who goes by her Hebrew name
online, Atarah; they both mean "crown."  Atarah the Tiara....  Hehe!

(So the Hebrew for "Deborah" is "Davida"... that yields some
interesting parallels in my mind between the judge Deborah and the
subsequent famous king... cool.)

Good thing your crocuses aren't blooming, or they'd have been killed.

That birthday card sounds hilarious.  I can't believe I haven't seen
that one; I'm getting rusty since the local Hallmark store closed.

My birthday is the 17th, and thanks for asking!  Ooh goody, a
gerbilloon!  Wheee!!

Ohhhh... taste-testing raspberry chocolate bars sounds like a
WONderful way to spend a weekend.  What brands were these?  Sorry about
the almonds.

-The girl who's known as "Lark," but everyone still thinks she's a guy
  

    
Just for the record, Tiger Balm patches DO work remarkably well. 
Thanks for the recommendation, Neil!
  

    
And mine is the 18th. 

I saw Spider tonight. Oddly commonplace, and strangely slow and
predictable, but interesting on some levels.

Mary,  helloo! Yes, let's do *something* -- but not when I have to be
up at 4 the next morning, as all the meetup dates so far have been. 

Dan,  I hope you are well. It sounds painful. How went (goes?) the
show?
  

    
Oh, that's right!  We're practically birthday twins!
  

    
A Midsummer Night's Dream, performed by The Baron's Company, enjoyed
in the company of a goodly portion of the Barony of Carolingia--that is
definitely one of the best ways I know to enjoy Shakespeare. Never
mind RenFests, they're mostly commercial anyway, but the SCAdians I
know _do_ know how to share Shakespeare. It's a real delight to be
sitting in a hall full of people laughing or hissing or tense right
along with a troupe giving us the play as a living work. (Dan, you
would've loved this audience; it's a darn good thing there wasn't an
orange- or nut-seller in the place, or they might've become even more
"authentic" in the heat of a few moments). We even had a real Bergomask
at the end. Tra-la. An excellent night's entertainment.

Ohmyword, Mike, I caught up with Electrolite when I got home and
almost choked laughing. It's even funnier written out. I don't know
which to say first: 'you ROCK' or 'your imagination has slipped its
leash again...'

And a slightly early happy furry birthday party gerbilloon to Maure,
too!

Christy, actually Deborah is more usually the translation of the
Hebrew "Dvorah" but my folks wanted a namesake for my grandfather and
they also wanted an Anglicized version that wouldn't be too unusual in
school, and Deborah was close and comfortable. I remember the argument
between my mother and the rabbi when I was first enrolled in Hebrew
school--he wanted to have the teachers call me Dvorah and my mother
wouldn't have that. At all. At some length and a decibel level that we
heard down the hall in the classrooms. "She was named for my father,
and that's Davida." Mom won.

Lark? That's pretty. What's the backstory?

The raspberry chocolate I'm favoring is the Chocolove bar, in a
raspberry-pink wrapper. The higher % bar is by the Endangered Species
Chocolate Company (it's a "Grizzly Bar" according to the label), and
the lower % bar with the excellent raspberries is by Cloud Nine.

A cold snap almost never kills crocus, it's heat that does them. The
year we had a week of upper 60s at the end of March, now that was
ugly--they basically melted, gooey dissolving crocus all over the
garden like a Dali painting.

I hope whatever has caused you to discover the efficacy of Tiger Balm
Patches isn't serious?
  

    
The third FAQ-er from today (the one beginning with "In regards to
your comment about Mark Ridley's article...") took a LOT of words right
out of my mouth.  It's nice to know that if I shut up long enough,
somebody else may come along and say what I wanted to say, only better
and with no effort from me.  ;)