Olio: (n.) a hodge-podge or miscellany
May. 1st, 2003 07:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyI 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.
1. The plot requires Ferguson to be seriously schizophrenic: he must be a man of morbidly exact mentality, but also the sort of person who could put a tube of paint in his pocket and forget about it.
2. Strachan, too, must be simultaneously cold and unflappable (when dealing with Sir Maxwell) and possessed of a hasty temper and absolutely no forethought (when confronted by Lord Peter). Perhaps he's secretly twins?
3. The story of the encounter between Gowan and Campbell just won't wash. Campbell, operating with a pair of nail-scissors, at the side of the road, in less than optimum lighting, and DRUNK, could not possibly get enough of the beard off Gowan's face for wee Helen to describe him as clean-shaven, especially since the blackness of Gowan's beard is much commented on.
4. She gets tripped up in her own timetable at least once (although this may be a copy-editing goof rather than a plot mistake). Wimsey asks Mrs. Green about the Monday morning, when in fact Campbell was killed Monday night, and the relevant morning to the inquiry is Tuesday.
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.
*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.
1. The plot requires Ferguson to be seriously schizophrenic: he must be a man of morbidly exact mentality, but also the sort of person who could put a tube of paint in his pocket and forget about it.
2. Strachan, too, must be simultaneously cold and unflappable (when dealing with Sir Maxwell) and possessed of a hasty temper and absolutely no forethought (when confronted by Lord Peter). Perhaps he's secretly twins?
3. The story of the encounter between Gowan and Campbell just won't wash. Campbell, operating with a pair of nail-scissors, at the side of the road, in less than optimum lighting, and DRUNK, could not possibly get enough of the beard off Gowan's face for wee Helen to describe him as clean-shaven, especially since the blackness of Gowan's beard is much commented on.
4. She gets tripped up in her own timetable at least once (although this may be a copy-editing goof rather than a plot mistake). Wimsey asks Mrs. Green about the Monday morning, when in fact Campbell was killed Monday night, and the relevant morning to the inquiry is Tuesday.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 06:17 am (UTC)Not as in rigour mortis, no. We do have the spelling rigour, mostly surfacing in 'rigorous', obviously, but not for Latin. I take it you have a rogue misspelling, then?
no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 06:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 06:55 am (UTC)Oop never was very good with Latin.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 07:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 06:36 am (UTC)Heh. But it IS entertaining. There's something to be said about preaching to the choir.
Diana Wynne Jones's new book, The Merlin Conspiracy, is out. WANT!
If you're nice to melymbrosia, she might pass my copy on to you when she's done with it. It's a galley, so I'm not really concerned about condition or about getting it back.
O
Date: 2003-05-01 11:25 am (UTC)Re: O
Date: 2003-05-01 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 11:59 am (UTC)I'm the choir's lead soprano as regards DLS, but it's great fun to hear someone else's take on how each book fits together. (I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle Five Red Herrings, in fact, because it's my least favorite of the lot.)
no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 01:10 pm (UTC)Talking about DLS makes me bounce with happiness.