...but at the moment, I'm suffering from the Cold of Death, which has broken me to the point where all I can handle is watching episodes of Fringe on Hulu.
I love Pacey. And this guy*.
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*We've been watching him on The Wire, too.
We failed.
We've watched all the others in the series (except #6, in which, I believe, Warwick Davis revisits the hood), and we couldn't do it. After watching just over thirty minutes of the movie, it's our considered opinion that Warwick Davis' contract only requires him to appear for approximately seven minutes.
We could have handled downright BAD, but it was BORING. So we watched an episode of The Wire instead.
After we're done with the Leprechaun series (thank God there's only one more), it's my turn to pick: I've decided on the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise. I'm especially looking forward to the fifth one, which, according to Videohound, involves "vicious stuffed animals". Rad.
She deserves much praise for suffering through the film version of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas... so that we don't have to.
Thank you, dear. Thank you so very, very much.
From the Guardian, a list of things Madonna's kids must and mustn't do while they visit their father:
Some are quite sensible, or at least understandable: the boys are not allowed to read newspapers or magazines; Guy should not discuss the separation; they should be allowed to call their mother; they shouldn't be introduced to any new female friends Guy might have accrued. Then there are the less understandable ones: all water they drink must be Kabbalah water, their toys must not be "spiritually" unsound - but these are par for the Madonna course. What really raises the eyebrows is the last order: David must be read the English Roses books that Madonna wrote.
My emphasis, obviously.
The Jonas Brothers are starring.
Sadly, not as Walter. I was kind of hoping they'd do the I'm Not There thing and have the boys all play Walter at different points, but nooooo.
...
...
...
Sigh. HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO WALTER???
EXTERMINATE!! EXTERMINATE!!
We should totally have a Dalek cake party. It would be SO RAD.
(Thank you, Brian.)
Credit where credit's due: This was my sister's find.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I stupidly waited until the last minute to RSVP for the John Green event in Cambridge, and so of course it's totally full with a long waiting list. I don't know WHAT I was thinking. As I'd be driving down from Maine, it doesn't really make sense for me to chance it, you know?
I think I'll drown my sorrows by watching Twin Peaks (yes, AGAIN) and re-starting my t-shirt sweatshop. I'm about to make my first 'Real vampires don't sparkle.' shirt. YES. And at least I took today and tomorrow off. YES.
I guess I'll survive.
Oh, I should probably write about Paper Towns sometime this weekend! And pick up Mansfield Park again! And finish the other three books I'm in the middle of! And do some Cybils reading! So I'm not going to wallow in the fact that I'M AN IDIOT or anything.
The Fug Girls on the Twilight poster:
It's like the people who made the film read the book and got to the approximately 403,328 pages about how flawlessly gorgeous Edward (the fussy vampire boyfriend played by Robert "Cedric Diggory" Pattison here) is and looked at each other and were like, "Let's skip that part." AND WHY? It seems to me that the crux of the attraction of a book/movie about a super hot vampire boyfriend would be THE SUPER HOTNESS. And the other thing is that CEDRIC DIGGORY IS HOT ALREADY! It's like they've DE-HOTTED HIM against ALL REASON.
(via my little sister's Facebook page)
The baby Renesmee Bella Stephenie story has been updated -- ultimately, the baby ended up with the adoptive parents*, who promptly renamed her.
(via Shayera, who pointed me to Cleolinda, who had the link)
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*Maybe after the mother discovered that babies don't age super-fast in real life OR project pictures into our minds by gently and carefully pressing their adorable little hands to our cheeks...
As I was checking in the new School Library Journal just now, I noticed an its/it's mistake in the Table of Contents.
Blecch.
I am so depressed.
From comcast.net:
A man assigned "The Crucible" in an adult education English class doused his teacher with a nonflammable liquid and threatened to burn her as a witch, police said.
(via Guys Lit Wire)
*Don't pretend you don't know the quote.
"The Da Vinci Code is written like a kids' book."
No, it's written like a crappy book. There's a difference.
(link via Books, Inq.)
From the Guardian:
Van Helsing and his intrepid band of vampire hunters might have disposed of Bram Stoker's creation Dracula more than a century ago, but a sequel to the novel by Stoker's great grand-nephew will see them under attack from the undead once again.
I hope you know how hard it was for me to NOT make a 'bloodsuckers' crack.
Remember The Jewel of Medina? How Random House dropped it and Gibson Square picked it up?
On Saturday, Martin Rynja's house (which doubles as the Gibson Square office) was firebombed. According to everything I've read, he's okay and going forward with publication.
Found this over by the computers:
As my coworker said, "Well, at least we don't have to worry about his self-esteem..."
From the Guardian:
Douglas Adams's increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy is to be extended to six titles, after Adams's widow Jane Belson sanctioned a project which will see children's author Eoin Colfer taking up the story.
Okay, so on the one hand: I hated Artemis Fowl and I generally don't like it when people continue the work of much-beloved-but-sadly-deceased authors (see Anne of Green Gables, Harriet the Spy, John Bellairs, etc.).
But on the OTHER hand: Douglas Adams wanted another book in the series, I was totally devastated by the end of Mostly Harmless (I was also, like, twelve), that new-ish Eoin Colfer book does sound pretty awesome so I've been meaning to give him another chance anyway, and Eoin Colfer is so popular that this book will introduce the work Douglas Adams to a whole ton of teens. Also, he seems very humbled by the idea.
And then there are the things that end up on both hands, like the fact that he's not trying to emulate Douglas Adams. So, on the one hand, what's the point? But on the other, I could see that as a good thing, too.
It is way too early in the morning for me to be dealing with something this large. I might have to go back to bed.
From Electronic Frontier Foundation (via Slashdot):
Over a period of twelve hours, between this Thursday night and Friday morning, American Rights Counsel LLC sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology.
I am so NOT there.
Remakes of Rocky Horror and Suspiria are in the works.
Ahem.
Ahem.
(Okay, I'm ready.)
Ahem. Here goes nuthin'.
From the BBC:
A giant inflatable dog turd brought down a power line after being blown away from a Swiss museum.
I am definitely in the shudder-at-a-moment's-glance camp.
It keeps inserting little squares all over my posts.
Will post later when (IF?) it is cleared up...
[Later: Huh. Figured it out. Apparently, Typepad is anti-double-spacing at the moment. Grrrr. Apparently, it is also anti-images. Double-grrrr.]
This blog had us both howling last night -- highlights include the nekkid cake, the Chuck Norris cake, the (ahem) Naked Mohawk Carrot Jockeys, the herpes cake, the weeding cake and the scariest wedding cake I've ever seen. Don't just look at those -- go back through and look at 'em all. So worth it.
(via the SPOGG blog)
From the Telegraph:
A Welsh Government minister has apologised after announcing the wrong winner of the Wales Book of Year at an awards ceremony in an embarrassing gaffe.
A genius, I tell you!
"Patterson himself came up with the tagline “for readers age 10 to 110,” which is now featured on the books' covers."
I am SO impressed! However did he come up with something SO BRILLIANT?
Bah.
Including (gag me)...
That nonprofit? Looks like it's a fake too.
There's a bookstore in Damariscotta that runs a trivia night.
Number One: Kennebunk doesn't even have a bookstore.
Number Two: No one* in Kennebunk runs a Trivia Night.
NO FAIR**.
(link via the ABA blog)
*Not even the Irish pub! Isn't it, like, a requirement for Irish pubs to run a Trivia Night?
**Yeah, yeah, I know I could start one. But then I wouldn't get to play, and where's the fun in that?
Oh, this is all we need.
Yeesh.
Aaaand the author most recently exhumed is...
From the NYTimes:
... I sometimes wonder how any self-respecting author of speculative fiction can find fulfillment in writing novels for young readers. I suppose J. K. Rowling could give me 1.12 billion reasons in favor of it: get your formula just right and you can enjoy worldwide sales, film and television options, vibrating-toy-broom licensing fees, Chinese-language bootlegs of your work, a kind of limited immortality (L. Frank Baum who?) and — finally — genuine grown-up readers. But where’s the artistic satisfaction? Where’s the dignity?
Responses by Gwenda, Ed Champion, Matthew Cody, Andrew Wheeler and Scott Edelman (who's hoping that Ursula K. Le Guin will perform a smackdown) as well as at SF Signal, Finding Wonderland and GalleyCat.
We continue to get closer and closer to the world of Feed.
Those of us on the Cybils nominations committees only have a few days left to finalize our shortlists -- posts here will be few and far between until we're done.
Hope everyone has had a super holiday!
His legs look six inches long!
Is Jughead getting engaged?
BAH.
Yes, yes, I read the post. It's temporary. Whatever. Still don't like it.
(via GalleyCat)
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Beauty queen Ingrid Marie Rivera beat 29 rivals to become Puerto Rico's 2008 Miss Universe contestant, despite applying makeup and wearing evening gowns that had been coated with pepper spray, pageant spokesman Harold Rosario said.
Rivera was composed while appearing before cameras and judges throughout the competition. But once backstage, she had to strip off her clothes and apply ice bags to her face and body, which swelled and broke out in hives twice.
"We thought at first it was an allergic reaction, or maybe nerves," Rosario said. "But the second time, we knew it couldn't have been a coincidence."
Okay, methinks we need a list of books about beauty pageants. I'm at a loss, as I don't think I've ever run across one. Plenty about modeling, acting, etc., but beauty pageants? Help!
From the Telegraph:
Lindsey Gardiner, who has written and illustrated 15 children's books, claims publishers banned youngsters from walking alone in one novel and removed sharp objects from another.
Her latest book, Who Wants A Dragon?, originally featured a dragon toasting marshmallows on flames from his nostrils as he sat around a campfire. She said her publishers insisted that she change the scene because "it looks dangerous and goes against health and safety".
Laaaaaaaame.
Watch TV! While shopping for books!
(via Ed)
The most amazing article I've ever read.*
(Via Roger, who has suggested that people re-write the story in the style of various YA authors. It actually sounds like something that could happen in one of Korman's Son of the Mob books, though the main character/birthday boy himself would have put a stop to it, it would have been his brother who called the stripper, and calling the stripper in the first place (rather than a gorilla-gram) would have been deliberate.)
*Yes, yes. I know I have a habit of saying that. So: It's the most amazing article I've read this week. So far.
But used copies are available at Amazon, starting at a mere $92.77.
I'll give you one clue -- guess before you click.
Yeah, I'll wait until Dina Lohan writes one, thanks.
But I had to share the pain. I'll be singing it for the rest of the week.
Sorry. I couldn't control myself. Blame Fuse. People were talking about Kids Inc. in the comments section of the post I pulled this Robert's Snow video from:
1. JKR -- Fugged.
2. Is it true that they're killing off John Black on Days? Like, for good? I haven't seen it in years, but if it's true, I might have to go into mourning.
This has been around for a long while (like, forever), so I was surprised I hadn't run across it before... but I hadn't, and it's so scary that I figured I should share.
Experience the horror that was Weight Watchers in the 1970s over at Candyboots, where there are many recipe cards like this:
(Link via my mom, who says she remembers making some chocolate roll confection thing with COTTAGE CHEESE FILLING! Gross!! And she made it multiple times! Grosser! What if she gave it to the baby version of me?? Auuugh!!)
From Dear Author's Top Ten Tips for Plagiarists:
7. Don’t set up a website and post the plagiaristic material. If it is on the web, someone is bound to find it, particularly when google indexes it.
6. Don’t do interviews. Again, the more people that hear about you, the more likely that your stealing will be sussed out. Try to rip as many people off before the gig is up.
Wow. And the story progresses as you read down through the comments section. Who needs Days?
After reading the two LG quotes in the article, I thought, "Well, there must be better stuff out there -- he couldn't have made the Top Ten due to junk like that."
