December 16th

by mollykl

I can’t believe this almost got away from me: today is the anniversary of Jane Austen’s birthday!

And of course it’s also the anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge.

There’s just something for everyone today.

Why oh why do you torture me, writer-people? WHY?!?

by mollykl

And now the upside to to be being laid-up for two weeks: I’ve read about 20 books. Even though I’m now back to work, I just finished The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook and am telling everyone I know about it. Unfortunately, no one I work with reads, save for D and R (and I just gave R a bag full of my old Austen paperbacks, which are, amusingly enough, older than she is, since I bought them in college and she’s only 19). So I’m telling YOU. You, whoever reads this, go buy The Iron Duke. It’s wonderful and you won’t be sorry.

Unfortunately, I’m now hooked, and I see from the author’s website that I have to wait 11 WHOLE MONTHS for a new book. Can you die, actually DIE, from waiting on pins and needles? I mean, the phrase had to originate somewhere. Surely there must be something pin-and-needle-like somewhere in the world that could do me in.

It’s going to be a long 11 months.

So a Shakespearean actor walks into the Marvel Comics offices…

by mollykl

I know I always say I’m going to make it to movies…and then I rarely do. But since I have very fond memories of seeing Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V, three times no less, I’ll have to make it to Thor next year. The first trailer is out and while it looks like your average superhero movie (and thank god “average” now means Iron Man, and not X-Men 3) I’m hoping that Branagh will bring something special to it. No, I’m not expecting Thor to suddenly spout Shakespeare, but if anyone’s going to do a story with some sense of the epic to it, Branagh’s the guy.

Some guys in Wales have too much time on their hands.

by mollykl

If you’ve ever had a drink, or two,  with me in a bar you’ve probably had to endure my “YouTube is a meaningless waste of time” speech/rant. And I still think it is, but this made a laugh. And, hey, it’s from Wales, so by virute of that alone it’s better than anything else out there!

If I could, I’d do a happy dance.

by mollykl

Apparently my sacrifice of pain and boredom was deemed worthy: Varitek will be returning this season.  With Martinez off to the Tigers they’ll definitely need him, even if he is only playing a partial season. It’s only a one-season, 2 million + incentives, contract, but that’ll do for now. For the time being, I’m happy and relieved he’s back in Boston, where he belongs.

Besides, I look horrible in ocean blue.

And a happy December

by mollykl

Strangely enough, when I look at the statistics for this blog, this is the post that garners the most views. I don’t know if that means there are an awful lot of Joyce fans in the world or what, but since it is December, and WordPress has once again graced us with snow, and this is still the Sacramento Valley (so we won’t be seeing the real stuff), I present you with one of my fondest memories from college: reading James Joyce’s “The Dead” while watching the snow fall heavily to the ground.

“Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly on the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crocked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last, upon all the living and the dead.”

James Joyce