Admit it. We all had someone we couldn’t wait to see featured in a Tiger Beat centerfold. Mine was Jonathan Brandis. Who was yours? Continue reading
I love long-distance train travel. When I was a kid, we took an overnight train trip every Easter, with roomettes. I’d lie awake and listen to the rattle of the train, see the dimly-lit little stations that we stopped at at 2am, 3am, one or two people got on or off then rattle rattle off we went again. You could see the far-off yard lights of isolated farms, close to the track but far from any major road. Breakfast in the dining car!
We went from the wilds of northern Ontario to Toronto, to see the big department stores’ fancy Easter windows. Stayed at a reasonable hotel, with a big lobby the way old-fashioned hotels have, big sofas, an enormous crystal chandelier overhead. Ate at restaurants, of which my small town had none. The Grill didn’t count, it was just a diner. Whatever the opposite of glorified is, it was that kind of diner. So real city restaurants were a revelation, and an education.
Total Bird Propaganda
Man, I used to hate those pigs. Who the fuck are these pigs, to steal these nice birds’ eggs and take them to their castles? It’s just not cool.
Then I started to wonder. Continue reading
Once upon a terrible time there were no helicopters. Then along came a lot of clever-clogs inventors, and now there are. Helicopters. Very useful, and a little romantic, too.
For a long time now I’ve wanted to start a website named pleaseinvent.com. I got a few things I’d like someone to invent. Continue reading
Welcome back to Officer Rick and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Last week we were treated to a close-up of zombie footwear and a lesson in what happens to Bambi later in life. Hint: Kerblammo! Oh, and there’s still one kid missing (Sophia), and one kid with a bullet in his gut (Karl). Continue reading
Welcome to the week Crasstalk. Hang onto your hats, it looks like it is going to be an interesting ride. Continue reading
How about we pretend like today is Tuesday. There, isn’t that better? Continue reading
In the spirit of Occupy Wall Street, this recipe sticks it to the man – and it also embraces the conservative ideal of being self-sufficient. By making your own “condensed soup in a can” from scratch, you are saving $1.39 and not giving money to huge corporation. Wait, but that takes money out of the economy. Hmmm, that’s a conundrum. But, since we all need a full stomach to really consider big questions, why not make this old-fashioned chicken casserole while you ponder the question. Continue reading
Some of you are experiencing Autumn, which would be normal because it’s late October. Some of us have to look at pictures to know what this season is supposed to look like. Continue reading
For several weeks after George R. R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons was released, I debated over how to proceed with reading it. Should I go back over all the preceding books that I hadn’t read in five years? Or should I read it side by side with A Feast for Crows, attempting to match chapter to chapter in chronological order? Ultimately, I decided to just dive right in, with some help from the wiki to refresh particular names or details.
Structure:
The fifth book in the series was the result of a publishing fiasco where the sequel to A Storm of Swords was split into two books due to its unwieldy size. Rather than dividing it chronologically, the volumes were split by region and character, with Feast covering southern Westeros and Dance focusing on the events in the North and the Eastern Continent. Unfortunately this resulted in a rather lackluster fourth novel that consisted of mostly fruitless plotting and intrigue and devoted the bulk of POV chapters to unrelatable or uninteresting characters like Cersei, Brienne, Sansa, and the Greyjoys. Continue reading