a wolf angel is not a good angel

The Napping House

Which children’s book are you?
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Never read it, but it’s awfully appropriate.

You’re Quebec. You’re convinced that you are
absolutely right on any issue. In your mind,
your word is bond. But to make up for it,
you’re fiercely loyal and supportive of those
you care about. But it wouldn’t be bad thing to
be more open-minded.

What Canadian Province Are You?
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Yes, I could figure out pretty much which province each answer corresponded to.

via Rana

I finally got Cloud Atlas from the library.

It’s an interesting, unusual book. We start with the diary of Adam Ewing, an American with a brain-destroying disease on the way home from New Zealand. Abruptly we change to letters by Frobisher, a bisexual composer who has found the first half of a diary . . . Then we reach the story of Luisa Rey, caught in a conspiracy who gets the copies of some correspondence. We get to the story of Timothy Cavendish, a book editor reading a crime novel about one Luisa Rey, and then to the story of Somni-451, a clone who has broken free and who once saw a movie about an editor. Finally we reach the summit, the world past collapse.

You hurtle back down the stories, faster and faster, as the unfinished plots wrap up, as the relationships between the stories are made clear. It’s a story about lies; it’s a story about power; it’s a story about how little accomplishments end up mattering. It’s meta-fiction, where the entire story is a puzzle, intricately pieced.

Sadly, the pie that I wanted to try isn’t very good at all, certainly not worth a good pie crust which could have been filled with apples instead. Mmm, apple pie. My grandmother cuts holes in the top crust to *say* apple pie on it (or peach pie, when she makes peach pie; I hope that one day she cuts something like “this is not a pie” on it — she won’t, but I might).

Lattice topped pies are pretty, but so much effort.

This had no top crust, actually, it was just a pie filled with something like cookie dough, and it really wasn’t successful. It tasted fine, but not wonderful . . . sigh. Oh well.

I also made my favourite baked mushroom penne thing, which I haven’t made since the last time I made it and had too much and had to eat it pretty much every day for two weeks. I was sort of sick of it. But a year later and it’s good again.

Do you ever wonder if you’re crazy? I think I must be crazy.

You are tired,
(I think)
Of the always puzzle of living and doing;
And so am I.

Come with me, then,
And we’ll leave it far and far away–
(Only you and I, understand!)

You have played,
(I think)
And broke the toys you were fondest of,
And are a little tired now;
Tired of things that break, and–
Just tired.
So am I.

But I come with a dream in my eyes tonight,
And I knock with a rose at the hopeless gate of your heart–
Open to me!
For I will show you the places Nobody knows,
And, if you like,
The perfect places of Sleep.

Ah, come with me!
I’ll blow you that wonderful bubble, the moon,
That floats forever and a day;
I’ll sing you the jacinth song
Of the probable stars;
I will attempt the unstartled steppes of dream,
Until I find the Only Flower,
Which shall keep (I think) your little heart
While the moon comes out of the sea.

-e.e. cummings

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I’ve never had a cat who particularly likes cat toys. Sam & Matilda like those little fake mice, but only the ones with long fur (which they sometimes *groom*. Is that not weird?) and also little pompoms, which are what I usually buy, because you can get a zillion of them for a dollar, unlike the more expensive mice.

Matilda has a darling little trick of storing her toys (Sam can’t store them anywhere, cause they stick to his fur so he runs around with a half dozen brightly coloured balls stuck to his belly and it’s very funny).

Now, it’s sweet that she puts them away so carefully (I don’t know where she got this idea from, certainly not me), but I rather wish that she could find a better place to keep them than the toilet.

Augh.

Deaf students like Lane who have relied their entire lives on the shorthand of sign language to communicate often have a tough time catching on to the subtleties of the written word, which can be as hard to pick up as a second language.

Sign language is not a “shorthand”, it’s a language. And learning English if your first language is ASL (presumably) is exactly learning a second language, without the speaking/hearing part of it.

Sign language is visual, and isn’t always translated word for word into English.

Yes. Funny how that happens when it’s ANOTHER LANGUAGE ALTOGETHER.

I already knew that Jerry Orbach[1] was going to be in Law & Order: the show that keeps on giving (or maybe it’s called Trial by Jury). But apparently so is Bebe Neuwirth[2]. And I’m hoping against hope that this will turn into a musical version of the show, where they both are lawyers by day but on Broadway at night and . . .

[1] Billy Flinn in the original production
[2] Velma Kelly in the original revival

Sam loves him some catnip.

My cats photograph fairly badly. She looks like she’s very mad; perhaps she is. Cameras are not her favourite. (Sam photographs badly because he’s so grey.)

One day I am going to make her dislike of cameras turn into an active hatred, because one day I will be consumed by the urge to take a photo of the cute black splotch inside her mouth and there’s just no way to sit there with a camera waiting for her to yawn.