I found this blog today, which shows the work of an artist who specializes in scratchboard.  It's a kind of reverse art style that starts with a solid black surface and removes the black coating to create a design.

Tags: art
Current Mood: busy

http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2009/12/26/12645.html

Karen Healey has posted her Christmas story: "Queen of the Kitchen." As she notes, "It is a pleasant wee thing about fairies and food and there is a recipe at the end." To which I would add that it is fun and sweet and worth reading.

http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2009/12/26/12644.html

We were playing Carcassonne yesterday, and we started discussing the real-life city of Carcassonne, and the following conversation ensued (loose paraphrase):

Naomi: They had a plague pig! They were under siege, so they infected a pig, and then they threw it over the wall with a trebuchet!

Laura: But wait, how would that work? Are there diseases that can pass from pigs to humans?

Jed: SWINE! FLEW!

I was inordinately gleeful to be handed that opportunity. I was so pleased with myself that I repeated the line a couple more times. I crack me up.

Turns out, alas, that Naomi was conflating two medieval siege stories: first, the story about Dame Carcass and the pig:

Charlemagne lay siege to the town. [As] food was running out one of the town's women came up with an idea [...]. She fed the very last remains of food (probably grain) to the very last pig in the town and then threw it over the wall. Charlemagne's soldiers on the other side of the wall were shocked to think that the town had enough food to throw away fat pigs so, believing that their efforts would never succeed in starving the people out, they ended the siege.

Also described a bit differently on a different page:

The Emperor Charlemagne besieged the town in 795, which was held by Dame Carcass, a Saracen princess. After a five year siege, the only food left was one little pig and a bag of corn. Dame Carcass gave the bag of corn to the pig and sent it out to the ramparts. Charlemagne raised the siege, since he thought there was enough food even to feed a small pig.

Apparently there are stories of diseased cows being lobbed at armies via trebuchet, but I'm having a hard time finding an authoritative source for that via TSOR. Perhaps it's a pre-urban legend.

But I can't resist quoting two snippets that came up when I did that search:

I decided to switch my single Trebuchet to cow mode[....]

And:

This future history will make death by falling cow seem almost humane.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas. Spent the Eve with my bro and his family and ate fettucine and lasagne and ice cream pie, and the next did a brunch with hubby's family and then a dinner with my sister's family (my folks were at all three). Mostly I ate a lot. And there was much paper ripping, laughter, conversation and teasing. It was just as it ought to be. Viggo is worrying me a littie because he's not wanting to eat, but his energy is up so I'll keep an eye on him.

The only major issue is that thing I had weeks ago is still making me fall into a coma sleep. Yesterday I dropped out for an hour at 1 in the afternoon, then again at 9. Just shut down. Today I gave in and just said it's coming, I'm going to bed. And the dogs jumped up with me and there was snoozing all around. I guess I just have to give into the idea that my body wants to recuperate from whatever it's recuperating from. I supposed it could also be the stress of the semester and all that we've been up to. *shrug* still don't like it.

We took a lovely long walk today on a geocache hunt and it was green and warm, though slightly overcast. Wasn't hungry at all today (imagine that). Oh, made rosemary rolls for dinner the other night. It grows outside here all year and mom has a huge mount of it in the front yard. Can was say I'm a tad envious? Sigh. But it was fun to bake.

I did go into one store today on account of getting some cold medicine for girly girl. She is scared to cough because a couple of times when she was sick awhile back she would induce vomiting by coughing hard. But she's got a chest cold and need to get it broken up. So I bought some stuff to help with that. They of course all had their Xmas stuff on sale and we did wander through but did not succumb. Though boy and girl wanted these hair antenna things that were antlers and candy canes and so on. But they wanted them for the dogs. So . . . no.

How was your last couple of days? I am still hoping to see SH and Avatar. So want to see them both.

Tags: updatery

So we did some Boxing Bay shopping, looking for deals. We stopped in at the Best Buy on Fairway. Parking there is always a bear and today we should just parked in Fairview and walked over. Unfortunately thos only became clear once it was impossible to change our minds.

Part of getting into the lot involves driving down a somewhat narrow road. To one side there is a hill, which had been turned into a sea of mud by people using it as parking. As we were driving, someone in a truck crested the top of the hill, clearly convinced a truck can drive anywhere, hit the mud and then slid sideways towards the two lanes of traffic in the lane. He hit the bottom and the edge of the paved lane, teetered for a bit and then settled on all four tires before proceeding on his way.

Then the second truck appeared. Rinse, lather and repeat, again narrowly missing a collision with traffic because the hard edge of the lane stopped the wheels abruptly.

This was pretty nerve-wracking from my side of the road so I can't imagine what it was for the people on the other side, the people who were in cars inadvertently serving as shields for my side.

Once we were in we had no trouble finding parking around the side, in a legal, marked spot.

I made a point of mentioning the problem and was directed to someone I assume was in authority. He told me that they did not have the man-power to deal with the problem. As far as I know, nothing was done. This was about 3 PM.

Family and I went to see "Sherlock Holmes" this afternoon. As someone who has read the books and stories many, many times, I'd seen enough of the previews to know that I'd better leave any expectations home if I was going to enjoy the film.

Robert Downy Jr was brilliant, as always, even if this interpretation of Holmes is a bit of a stretch. Same for Jude Law as Watson. I enjoyed them both very much, so long as I didn't make any comparisons. There were moments when they were spot on, and moments when they were very out of character with the books.

But their handling of Mary Morstan, Watson's fiancee, and the ever scheming and beautiful Irene Adler, "the woman" in Holmes' mind, were very well done. Lestrade was just right most of the time, too. The bad guy was wonderfully bad. Holmes treatment of his landlady, Mrs. Hudson, however, was abominable. As bad a tenant as he was, the real Holmes was always gentlemanly with her.

Oddly enough, much of the deduction revelations were given to Watson and Adler. Holmes didn't really shine until the end, and then there were some plot holes.

The overall plot felt like fan fiction to me and got rather muddled here and there, though there were a series of very good set pieces. But it is a visual feast, fast paced, often funny, with some little details here and there straight out of the books to delight a purist like me. And Watson's "bull pup," mentioned in "A Study in Scarlet" and never again in the Canon, has a very nice role.

Interestingly, a line from the previews, someone—Irene, I think—joking about Holmes and Watson "flirting" does not make it into the final film. Given the general choppiness of the plot and and the holes, I suspect a lot of good stuff got left on the cutting room floor. Too bad.

Overall, a fun, lively romp. If you're a fellow purist, try to forget the books and just relax and enjoy.

Tags: movie

Just finished and filed my review of Sherlock Holmes for Tor.com (short version: it was awful and I loved it), and before that, I made some candles. See, I used to commit chandlery fairly often but had fallen out of the habit, and yesterday cristalia mentioned she was thinking of taking it up, which inspired me to break out the wax and crayons.



I'm still staring meaningfully at The White City, trying to figure out how the damed thing works. It would be nice if I could finish it by year's-end. But it all depends on if the story tells me how it ends.

 I guess tomorrow I start rereading it again.

It's finally raining out there, and the wind is gusting fiercely, but it's 41 degrees, which seems positively balmly.

Tags: chandlery
Current Mood: groggy

calendula_witch explains today better than I can. Easy travel (relatively), quiet day, family stuff. All quiet here in the Witchnest, with the_child watching anime on her laptop and me about to sink back into Living With Ghosts, a very fine book by la_marquise_de_.

Most importantly, I'm back with calendula_witch. Yay!

Tags: calendula, child, family, klog, personal, travel

As a forty-fourth begins, you display
Such surety of gesture that younger
Women for worlds you fathom must hunger
As you show how it's done, walk as you may
With depths and sillinesses as entwined
As always; young wiles won't deem that longer
Practice counts, yet their hauteur's that wronger
As you've always bloom and prime combined.
So if you're the same as ever and yet
You're ever better, what's remarkable?
It's this: that now you know it, now you show,
Yes, that confidence abounds no sweat
With vocal warm mature poise enviable
To be: I see it clear, you are aglow.


 

Tags: celebration, love, nonprose, praise

 I know it's after 9 p.m. the day after Christmas and likely very few people will see this before next week, but I had to share the very awesome review for an incredible debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (forthcoming in February 2010 from Orbit).  And I quote, "This is an astounding debut novel.  The worldbuilding is solid, the characterization superb, the plot complicated yet clear.  Yeine is a fantastic protagonist and her journey is compelling and memorable....Look no further for an original and thought-provoking novel."  Romantic Times, Top Pick Gold rating!  This after a rave from Publishers Weekly as well.  An incredible start to an amazing series.

Tags: debut, fantasy, n.k. jemisin, review, romantic times, the hundred thousand kingdoms