Olio: (n.) a hodge-podge or miscellany

I was going to post last night, with all kinds of wacky & profound stuff, but there was this thunderstorm. For like three hours. Stupid Midwestern weather. At home (which is how I still think of Tennessee, regardless of whether I want to live there or not), a thunderstorm comes in, shouts for half an hour, and goes out again.

*grumble*

Weird, vivid dreams last night: the Musketeers as demon-hunters; a world that was a post-apocalypse type of place crossed slightly with the Arabian Nights, witnessing the second coming of Alexander the Great; sf dream about overthrowing a race of mind-controlling insectile aliens who were seriously nasty (but their technology was cool; it took two humans to use their computers: one to type on their very weird keyboards--which actually looked kind of like my beloved Kinesis, come to think of it--and one to mimic their antennae movements for the computer's visual input). At least these dreams were all entertaining, rather than disturbing. Okay, well, disturbing, yes, but they had good stories attached. I'll forgive my subconscious a lot if it will just give me a good story.

Remembering that many dreams that vividly is a sure sign I didn't get enough rest. So I'll probably be cheerfully scattershot today. I'm hoping to get enough thoughts together to post about Strong Poison, but I'm having a little trouble getting beyond, This book is great! You should all read it! And love it!, which is (a.) grossly biased, and (b.) not helpful analysis. Any suggestions for things y'all want to see talked about would definitely be considered--although I make no promises about actually using them.

Also reading The Five Red Herrings and making a list of plot howlers.

( Four so far. Wanna see? )

And speaking of odd things in Sayers books, could someone familiar with British English kindly tell me if the "rigor" of "rigor mortis" is ever spelled "rigour" in UK orthography?

Diana Wynne Jones's new book, The Merlin Conspiracy, is out. WANT!

My favorite headline from this week's Onion: Ashcroft Rejected By Newly Created Bride of Ashcroft.

Am continuing to fail to work on dis. V. disappointed in self and lack of resolve. Today, must rectify. Excelsior.

DLS: Freddy Arbuthnot

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 2.

I'm feeling chatty today. Rather than merely spamming LJ with witterings and fluff-posts, though, I'm going to work it out on DLS.

In her reply to my post this morning, naomichana suggested devoting some time to Freddy Arbuthnot, the most faithfully recurring minor character in the series. I'd intended to give him a paragraph and move on, but then my paragraph kept getting longer and longer, and I've decided to give Freddy an essaylet.

Canon-wide spoilers behind the cut-tag.

( Lord Peter and the Honourable Freddy Arbuthnot, looking together like an advertisement for gents' trouserings, strolled into the dining-room at Wyndham's. (Whose Body? 56) )

Next up, Strong Poison. [Well, actually, Miss Climpson. --Ed.]

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WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. 1936. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, n.d.

---. Unnatural Death. 1927. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1995.

---. Whose Body? 1923. New York: Avon Books, 1961.

DLS: Miss Climpson

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 2.

I lied. Although this post will discuss Strong Poison, it's really about Miss Climpson, Spiritualism, and Lord Peter as Mephistopheles.

Spoilers, of course.

( I send a lady with a long, woolly jumper on knitting needles and jingly things round her neck. (Unnatural Death 28) )

Next up, Strong Poison. This time for sure!

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WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Strong Poison. 1930. New York: Perennial Library-Harper & Row, Publishers, 1987.

---. Unnatural Death. 1927. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1995.