Fort Bragg, garden, burning
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ranunculusFriday was go to Fort Bragg and see Richard day. He fixed both Donald and my backs. As usual I went in with pain and emerged an hour later pain free. Nice drive, easy and almost traffic free.
Garden. ( Cut for pics )
There's no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard
sovay(no subject)
loganberrybunny
Comedy-drama | Letterboxd 4.2/5 | IMDb 8.1/10 | BBFC 15
I don't particularly care about Wes Anderson per se. I do care about his film here. It's an absolutely wonderful, spectacular, superbly made movie which is both a very human story and a clear look at the rise of fascism in Europe. Ralph Fiennes is amazing in the lead role,¹ and my initial discomfort at his repeated use of blatant US English in a very British accent turned into enjoyable discomfort as I realised that was surely the point. The film is full of brilliant dialogue, the cinematography is stunning, the cast is sensational, and the hotel itself is as much a character as any of the humans. Or indeed paintings. ★★★★★
¹ He didn't even get nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. Boo!
Sunday
susandennisI had a lovely sleep. It's still wonderfully dark when I wake up. So I internetted and coffeed and leisurely wandered down to the pool where dawn finally showed up during my swim which was kind of lovely.
I've already done a load of laundry. A few months ago, I got wind that GE had invented a new and better filter for my washer/dryer and I bought one. I had been so frustrated by the damn machine for so long and turns out, it was just the filter. The new one makes all the difference in the world. I spent some time sucking out the extra lint from all inside the machine and now it no longer even builds up in there - just on the filter which is very easy to clean. I'm now back in love with the machine. And everything is clean and put away.
I have no other plans for today. I may watch the baseball but Spring Training is kind of boring this year. I may watch some scripted TV or I may just listen to my book. I have new crochet project in mind to do in conjunction with the creatures.
We had a fair amount of snow again yesterday morning but since then, nothing but melting. Our excitement appears to be over and we can now just revel in the joy of having electrical outlets that work.
Dream Report
moon_custafersovay and I were watching an old movie titled, iirc, Coral Island, though it had nothing to do with the Edwardian boys’-adventure novel of the same name. I’m pretty sure Robert Newton was in it, though his character disappeared from the plot midway through. sovay then learnt of some recently-discovered footage in which the camera had been kept running between takes, and the chatter of the actors was audible. In the manner of dreams, the footage was immersive, and we could walk into it. Apparently we were visible to them, though they took us for extras and mostly ignored us, except for somebody from Wardrobe who ran up and handed me some more-appropriate stockings and shoes.Somehow this then segued into a different dream in which I was editing/writing speeches for the Democrats. I kept telling anybody who’d listen that I was Canadian and I wasn’t sure if I could legally work for them, but nobody paid any attention. Also the speech I was writing eventually turned into a script about the protagonist seeking advice from a magical cat.
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
james_davis_nicoll
Hodge would like nothing better than to study American history. Be careful what you wish for.
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
Get Rec’d with Amanda – Volume 110
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smartbitches_feedWelcome back!
This round of recs came from the bookish people and communities in my life. I love finding new books through friends and colleagues, and it really solidifies the importance of readers to connect with other readers.
Do you have any recommendations you’d like to share? Drop them in the comments?
The Art of a Lie
A historical mystery with some added food history knowledge! This recommendation came from my bookish friend Jamie and her newsletter Multitudes Contained. She’s a great resource if you want mystery, thriller, and horror recs, though she does read very widely.
“Astonishing. The Art of a Lie is Laura Shepherd-Robinson at the height of her considerable powers. Of course it’s beautifully written and richly detailed, but it’s also fiendishly twisting and properly thrilling. A rare and wonderful story.” —Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author
In 18th-century England, a widowed confectioner is drawn into a web of love, betrayal, intrigue, and a battle of wits in this “twisty” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) historical novel from the author of the USA TODAY bestseller The Square of Sevens.
London 1749: Following the murder of her husband in a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to turn a profit at her confectionary shop on Piccadilly as her suppliers conspire to put her out of business.
So when she learns that her husband had a large sum of money in his bank account, the surprise is, at first, extremely welcome. But her financial windfall attracts the attention of author-turned-magistrate Henry Fielding, who believes the money might have been acquired through ill-gotten means and seeks to confiscate it.
Endeavoring to prove otherwise, Hannah enlists the help of William Devereux, a friend of her late husband, who also tells her about a new Italian delicacy called “iced cream,” which she believes might transform the fortunes of her shop. As she and Devereux delve into the mysteries of her husband’s double life in Georgian London’s gambling dens, Hannah unravels secrets even more devastating than his murder.
The Best Dog in the World
This is a new release! Edited by Alice Hoffman, and containing over a dozen authors, this is a collection of essays about dogs and the bond between pet and owner. Tuck this away for any dog lovers in your life.
Fourteen beloved authors celebrate the life-changing bond with their canine companions in this heartwarming essay collection edited by New York Times bestselling author and lifelong dog lover Alice Hoffman.
Anyone who has ever been fortunate enough to share their life with a dog knows the experience is both profound and transformative. Here, in this charming collection of essays, fifteen celebrated authors share unforgettable tales of the dogs who left their pawprints on their hearts.
With contributions from Isabel Allende, Chris Bohjalian, Bonnie Garmus, Roxane Gay, Emily Henry, Ann Leary, Tova Mirvis, Jodi Picoult, Elizabeth Strout, Amy Tan, Adriana Trigiani, Nick Trout, Paul Yoon, and Laura Zigman, The Best Dog in the World captures the full range of the canine-human connection, from the joy of welcoming a new puppy to the heartache of saying goodbye to a beloved friend.
A love letter to the loyal companions who enrich our lives and teach us about empathy, joy, and unconditional love, this anthology is the perfect gift for dog lovers everywhere, offering a blend of laughter, tears, and inspiration that will resonate with anyone who has been fur-ever touched by the love of a dog.
The Incandescent
I have a wonderful coworker who shares a similar taste in books. Every Thursday, we wind up yapping about what we’re reading or trading recs. We recently talked about dark academia settings with main characters who aren’t students, and she loved this one.
Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
“Look at you, eating magic like you’re one of us.”
Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school’s boundaries from demonic incursions.
Walden is good at her job—no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself.
Invitation to a Banquet
Shoutout to my colleague Jane for this one! She recommended this particular piece of food writing and warned everyone to not read while hungry.
The world’s most sophisticated gastronomic culture, brilliantly presented through a banquet of thirty Chinese dishes.
Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese laborers began to settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese has the curious distinction of being both one of the world’s best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of its richness and sophistication—but today that is beginning to change.
In Invitation to a Banquet, award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the history, philosophy, and techniques of Chinese culinary culture. In each chapter, she examines a classic dish, from mapo tofu to Dongpo pork, knife-scraped noodles to braised pomelo pith, to reveal a distinctive aspect of Chinese gastronomy, whether it’s the importance of the soybean, the lure of exotic ingredients, or the history of Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. Meeting food producers, chefs, gourmets, and home cooks as she tastes her way across the country, Fuchsia invites listeners to join her on an unforgettable journey into Chinese food as it is cooked, eaten, and considered in its homeland.
Sunday Word: Eidolon
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1word1dayeidolon [ahy-doh-luhn]
noun:
1 a phantom; apparition
2 an ideal
Examples:
The gods send an eidolon (an image of Helen, made of air) to Troy instead. The war is fought over the eidolon and the city is destroyed. The Greeks finally reclaim eidolon-Helen, whereupon she disappears into the air from which she was made. (Natalie Haynes, Helen of Troy: the Greek epics are not just about war - they're about women, The Guardian, November 2019)
There the eidolon sits, flickering like a neon light deep in the library stacks, swinging her legs atop the sliding shelves where the crumbly books by dead men wait in dusty darkness for the touch of human hands. (Lauren Groff, Judith Shakespeare, Grinning Literary Ghost: Lauren Groff on the Nuances of A Room of One’s Own, Literary Hub, January 2025)
A dark wisp of smoke - Percy guessed it must be an eidolon - seeped into a Cyclops, made the monster hit himself in the face, then drifted off to possess another victim. (Rick Riordan, The House of Hades)
You have never seen Mr Wakem before, and are possibly wondering whether he was really as eminent a rascal, and as crafty, bitter an enemy of honest humanity in general, and of Mr Tulliver in particular, as he is represented to be in that eidolon or portrait of him which we have seen to exist in the miller's mind. (George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss)
Origin:
1801, 'a shade, a specter,' from Greek eidolon 'appearance, reflection in water or a mirror,' later 'mental image, apparition, phantom,' also 'material image, statue, image of a god, idol,' from eidos 'form, shape'. By 1881 in English as 'a likeness, an image.' (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Maybe the Last Time
austin_dern While I had thoughts about the show, it's a little more convenient for me to get through the rest of the Six Flags America pictures before posting them. Also I want to organize my thoughts some. So, sorry bunny_hugger, but there'll be narrative soon.
A sign for The Wild One declaring that, so far as the park was concerned, they considered it to be the same coaster that opened in 1917.
View from the exit path from the ride, looking back at the station and particularly the operator's booth.
Like many legacy Six Flags parks they have a Looney Tunes section. We rode the Coyote-and-Road-Runner roller coaster in there but this time took a look around with pictures.
Miniature train ride with the Looney Tune you first think of as a train person ... Forghorn Leghorn.
Yosemite Sam's Hollywood Flight School makes sense because ... there was probably some cartoon where Sam was a Red Baron-esque figure? I'm guessing? That sounds like something they might have done in the late 50s or early 60s when the studio was kind of burned out.
Now I know what this looks like, but this isn't all folks, not even of my Looney Tunes section pictures.
Stroller parking's advertised by that one baby from that cartoon. Finster? Something?
Not sure what this building was, but we had the feeling it predated Six Flags's takeover of the park. There's a bunch of signs added to the top that suggest midway fun.
They also had Bugs Bunny's House here and I was curious what might be in there.
Inside there's moulded plastic shelves of canned carrots.
bunny_hugger enters to confirm what I saw in Bugs's home.
And here's the other side of the shelter. You can see the mailbox on top there.
Trivia: After Julius Caesar's murder the Romans, trying to follow the new leap-day-every-fourth-year, would run two common years and then a leap year, bringing the calendar very out of date quickly; however, we do not know with certainty just which years were erroneous leap years. Source: Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar, Duncan Steel. See, the Romans counted inclusively, so that, like, ``the fourth year from 2026'' would count 2026 as the first year, and so 2029 would be ``the fourth'' and how did these people conquer Europe? Europe must have been unbelievably easy to conquer is all I can figure.
Currently Reading: The Book on the Bookshelf, Henry Petroski. So I know the past was a different country and all that but for centuries after the creation of books in their modern form factor --- hard covers, identically-sized pages, bound spines --- the spines were kept on the insides of bookshelves? I'm sorry, old timey folks, you were just wrong about this one.
our house. in the middle of our creek
the_siobhanI looked out the back window at one point and realized the drainage ditch was completely full of water. Like an inch from overflowing. The opening to the pipe from the sump pump was completely submerged. Now that the snow has melted I can open my back door again so I went to have a look, and the walls I had built up with broken concrete had collapsed and there had been several clay landslides into the ditch.
I should have expected that really. Lesson learned. I have some pea gravel I had intended to dump on the top, now I realize I should have been using it to fill in the gaps between the larger rocks, both to give them support and to try to keep the silt from settling in the cracks. When the soil is dryer I'll dig it out and re-do it properly. Fortunately Facething Marketplace has tons of people giving away left over rocks from their landscaping projects because I'm mostly out.
On the plus side, the drainage ditch did operate entirely as intended in that there was no flooding of the rest of the yard. The basement stayed bone dry and the pump didn't get any backwash.
***
Saw a rat back behind the shed while I was out there. I kind of figure rats are like the coyotes, they're always there, just sometimes we also see them.
Still. He was a big fucker.
***
Left the house today to go to a seed swap that was happening a couple of blocks away. Didn't swap any seeds but I did have a lovely conversation with a man from a local group that runs workshops on things like pollinator gardens and composting. There were also some people there from the Anishnawbe food & medicine garden.
I remember walking past a storefront on my way to the gf's place last week and passing what used to be a big art supply store. It's been divided in half, part of it is now a medspa and the other half is a thrift store.
That kind of encapsulates the current state of the neighbourhood perfectly, we have condos and gentrification and chic designer stores. But we also have the Community Centre with the needle exchange program and the lawyers who will give you advice about your immigration case or your lawsuit against your landlord. The slumlords who own the highrise behind me lost an attempt to shut down a food bank that was started in a couple of empty units by the tenants. There are signs on every light pole supporting the latest rent strike against yet another slum lord.
There's also a goth/industrial club right at the end of my street, and do you think I've managed to drop in there even once? No I have not. Maybe when it warms up and the wastewater numbers are less dire. I know about a half-dozen DJs who hold nights there, so I should get one of those straw holder thingys you can fix to your mask.
Actually, now that I think about it, that would be a good idea for the days I have to go into the office and it's too cold to eat outside.
Doggies
bill_schubert
I went over to the shelter yesterday and did about four hours of intake assistance. Not exciting work since what they really need is to be sure the paperwork, all the computer entry, is done so they can get the dogs ready to be adversised and closer to adoption. But it is work I don't mind doing and it really makes such a difference for the staff who can focus on what they do working with the dogs. And I don't mind doing that kind of work. And I get to see the dogs all I want. I can always just go back and grab a dog and take them for a walk.
I thought that I'd be working on the Chihuahua intake forms but they had not even gotten to them yet. They had a different set of 9 puppies and a couple of adults that had come in the previous day. Entirely different but needed the processing documentation entered so I was doing that. It is an endless job. The staff is actually pretty amazing. They never seem to be overwhelmed.
Welcome armiplage!
maladaWelcome to the Zoo Crew!
I don't know how you found me... do tell the tale.
Is armiphlage a "Fire on the Deep" reference? It sounds familiar. Great look.
Error, Error
yourlibrarian2) I confess I don't really follow the Oscars race or even nominees since I only see movies once in a while and usually well after they've been released, but I thought this was an interesting summation. I was particularly struck by the discussion of costs, and how chasing Oscar prestige outranks movie ticket sales, since so many potential contenders crowd into the end of year period. This almost guarantees many people will miss a number of them.
What was interesting about this survey is the data on how people have changed their opinions of last year's Oscar nominees. "Americans are much more likely now than they were last year to say they love "A Complete Unknown" (51%, up from 39%). They’re less likely to say they love "Dune: Part 2" (43%, down from 53%)."
3) On the same day in which NPR's 1A did a show on the value of acknowledging mistakes, someone also posted about The Ctrl-Z Award’ to honor researchers who correct the scientific record. This latter seems like a much needed antidote to our times (and can also be immeasurably helpful). I hope it does well.
RE: the 1A episode, here's a quote: "So, you know, theoretically, you could make a decision that was the wrong decision, but if it doesn't have a bad outcome, you're not even judging it as a mistake half the time. And that that's actually potentially the difference between a little mistake and a big mistake...we talk about this three act structure, what happened before the mistake, the mistake itself, and then how we deal with the mistake thereafter...It's not the crime. It's the cover up. Right? And that's an act three problem. But because people haven't gone through the process of saying, okay, what actually happened in act one, act two, and and now how am I gonna deal with it in act three? They make an even bigger one."
The fear of error is also talked about here: "what I see in the therapy room is sometimes it can take folks a while to really come around to admit to themselves actually that a mistake even happened because there's so much shame. It gets kind of locked up because as we've been discussing, as a culture, we do a terrible job of admitting to ourselves and to others that mistakes actually are how you learn. And so we get have so much shame that's wrapped up in it. And from that end, when there's shame, depression, anxiety, trauma, you know, are not far behind. So talking through mistakes, processing mistakes, learning not to avoid coming around to kind of, unpacking the Russian doll, if we stick with that metaphor, that's a huge piece of therapy." I can really recommend reading the episode transcript (you can also listen to the show).
4) What these incidents made me think of was fear on the Internet. "One of the phrases we like is curious, not furious. And so whether you're thinking about yourself, oh, I'm so angry at myself. Why did I do this? Or you see someone else make a mistake and you're kind of angry that they did it. The more that you can use curiosity as opposed to anger, I think we would all get along a little better. And then to your point, it's so helpful to talk with someone else. We believe you have to talk your mistakes to death. And it's helpful to write about them, sure, if you really don't have anyone with whom you can speak."( Read more... )
5) And speaking of mistakes, it's nice to have unexpected support even when you make them. ( Read more... )
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Books Received, March 7 — March 13
james_davis_nicoll
Seven books new to me: four fantasies, one science fantasy, one science fiction, and I am not sure how to categorize the Shepard. At least three are series books.
Books Received, March 7 — March 13
Which of these look interesting?
The Lion and the Deathless Dark by Carissa Broadbent (July 2026)
4 (11.1%)
Teach Me to Prey by Jenni Howell (December 2026)
0 (0.0%)
Heart of Thieves by Jessica S. Olson (September 2026)
0 (0.0%)
The Dagger in Vichy by Alastair Reynolds (October 2025)
14 (38.9%)
Crows and Silences by Lucius Shepard (December 2024)
14 (38.9%)
Engines of Reason by Adrian Tchaikovsky (September 2026)
18 (50.0%)
The Heart of the Reproach by Adrian Tchaikovsky (July 2025)
15 (41.7%)
Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.8%)
Cats!
23 (63.9%)
Snow is melting and the lights are on
susandennisMy emergency hardware did great. Especially, my portable power station. It's the size of a children's shoe box and has all manner of DC outlets and 2 AC outlets and a big light. It cost me about $70. (not available any more so no link but look for 'portable power station' - there are a bunch the size of children's shoe boxes that have the outlets.) I charged it up when I got it in the fall of 2024. When I turned it on yesterday, the charge was showing 100%. I plugged my bed into it and got the head raised for sleeping. I plugged my toothbrush/water pick in and got my teeth ready for sleeping. My plans this morning were to have plugged my coffee pot in to make a cup, plug my induction plate in for scrambled eggs and my toaster in for, well, toast. All easy and doable. And, doable, probably for several days with no more charge required.
Another thing I could plug in but maybe wouldn't would be my toilet. For more than a decade now my toilet has sported a bidet that includes a heated seat. My ass is just used to the finer things and sitting on a ice cube is just a shock it does not appreciate. But, I guess, sacrifices need to be made. It (my ass) loved that the juice was back on this morning.
Timber Ridge sent an email last night saying breakfast would be served at 10 this morning, lunch at 1 and dinner at 5. They totally know how to handle buffets for all of us now. AND the meals today would be complementary. I'm guessing they are still going with that plan. And then tomorrow back to normal.
Oh and unlike last time, when the wifi came roaring back as soon as the electricity did which was very nice to see.
In other news, the IRS sent me an email saying there was news so I checked Where's my Refund which is way easier than logging into my account and, sure enough, they are promising the refund in my account by Thursday.
Volleyball was called off for today yesterday afternoon. Elbow coffee starts at 10 but that's when they are serving breakfast downstairs so it may be a no go.
I may watch the Mariners game. I for sure will be putting all my emergency supplies away, hopefully for a long time.