Delta Sierra

106 posts
Book-industry lifer.

QOTD: Do You Belong to a Book Club?

I know a lot of you do, did, or are considering joining a book club. Got any good stories to tell us?

A few years ago I joined one briefly. It met in a large, accommodating coffee shop and I couldn’t hear half of what was said. So, pulled the plug on that.

Now I belong to one that a friend very kindly invited me into. They’re a very nice crowd, accomplished, talkative. It seems mean to say they’re boring, but I fear this is the truth. Well, no, wait. They’re not all boring, or at least they’re not all boring all the time. I can be funny, when on my game. My friend is funny, or can be when not held back by the general atmosphere of… well, let’s take a peek inside and see what the various book-club members are like.

We have the married couple who seem determined to turn the event into a thinly-disguised marital fight for control. They’ll go around and around about a particular point and won’t stop until one or the other concedes. So tedious. Continue reading →

British Pubs in Pictures

On a recent trip to the U.K. we spent as much time in pubs as possible. We’d snoop out the proper pubs – old, dark buildings with low ceilings and beams with padding on them so when you walk into it you don’t hurt your forehead too badly.

Mainly we were in search of bitter beer, which is hard to find in SoCal, where we live. The pub food… well, the fish and chips were greasy and the chips didn’t taste as much of potato as they should. Anyone wanting a light meal was out of luck (try the antipasto plate, it’s as close as you’ll get to a salad, most places).

No one even seems to offer a ploughman’s – a trad lunch of Cheddar and/or Stilton Cheese, pickled onions and good bread. Continue reading →

Prom Season!

Some guys are so thoughtful - his eyes match her dress!
The dresses! The suits! The music! The barfing!

Whaddaya got for us for prom stories? Names can be changed to protect the innocent, um, ok, the vengeful.

I don’t have any particularly good stories, but I did have some nice dresses, some nice dates, and one really awful date, but no need to go into that story, let’s just say he was conversationally challenged, as in, he didn’t have any. Continue reading →

The Somber Ritual of Clearing Out Someone’s House

Surely there’s a better word, or term, for this function than what I’ve come up with in the title here, but I can’t lay my hand on it just now.

What it is, is when someone has died or gone into a long-term care facility, and someone – you – has to go into the house and deal with its contents.  The object is to get all the person’s belongings out of the home so it can be sold, or rented out again if it’s an apartment. Continue reading →

QOTD: Were You Ever Bullied?

I was.  I was a meek sort of kid, and my father was the public school principal.  And a bully himself.  My older sister and I might as well have had targets painted on our foreheads.

Bullying is a miserable experience for the child on the receiving end of it.  It’s a miserable problem for teachers or parents to have to deal with, supposing that they even try, or get any support when they do try.

And what of the bullies themselves?  Are they working off their own anger, fear, or learned behaviour?  Where did they learn their behaviour?  Their parents and extended family, presumably. Continue reading →