The Haunted Weblog

Saturday, June 29, 2002

Update -- Dracula Land is dead. For now . . . In a surprise victory for the forces of good, the Romanian government has dropped plans to build a Dracula theme park. Perhaps it was because of the environmental impact. Perhaps it was because it would have ruined a medieval village. Perhaps the idea just sucked. But stay tuned, there is always a sequel.

114,487 books were published in America last year. Sturgeon's Law predicts that 11,448 of them are not crap. The trick is to read only those. Better hurry, there will be another 11,000 to read next year. Although publication of fiction is up slightly, overall book production is a bit down. I don't know if this means anything, but it was certainly nice of the good folks at R.R. Bowker to break the numbers down for us.

Book 10:00 PM [+]
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The second coming has already happened. A fine group of people called Lightning From the East want you to know the Messiah is here, and she is Chinese. They want you to know this so much they are willing to kidnap and brainwash you.

Here is Friedman's latest column about Iran in the New York Times. There is opportunity here, if the U.S. will pursue it.

You just missed your chance to own Captain Kirk's chair. It sold on E-Bay for $265,000. And worth every penny.

There has been a lot of chatter regarding this story about the FBI checking out what people are checking out at the library. While I'm never thrilled to have Big Brother (or even Big Uncle) looking over my shoulder, I'm not too upset by this. The new law that allows this surveillance requires that a warrant be issued by a judge, that the reason for the requested warrant must be for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, and that if the investigation is of an American it must not be done solely on the basis of activities protected by the first amendment. Twice a year the administration is required to tell congress how many of these applications they sought. Am I concerned about abuse? Of course, all governments abuse power. On the other hand, if someone the feds have reason to believe is a bad guy is doing research on concentrated rat poison and municipal water supplies, then I think it would be good if the FBI found out. During wartime we have to take security measures that we would be more reluctant to take during times of relative peace. Reasonable precautions seem to have been put in place, and we must have the wisdom to keep a watch on our watchmen to see that they do not abuse their power, but we must also remember that lives are at stake here.
Book 10:04 PM [+]
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It is illegal for women to wear pants in Swaziland. Really. This is because in that country all women are legally minors.

Why is it that some people in this world dislike the U.S.? Sometimes it may be with good reason. Sometimes it may be because blaming the U.S. for your problems is easier than blaming yourselves. Sometimes it is because people just like to believe foolish things. Read about the America's secret conspiracy to take over the amazon.

A Random Book From My Haunted Library -- Do you read Cemetery Dance magazine? If you love horror short fiction, and want to keep in touch with the cutting edge of the genre, then you should. If you need to get up to speed quickly, then you could do a lot worse than The Best of Cemetery Dance. Editor Richard Chizmar gathered together this monster tome about four years ago, and it pretty much defines the state of the art of the spooky story today. It was a really big book, so when it came time to wrap it in paper covers they split it into two volumes. Two sentence review of the stories in these books: A few fall short, most are terrific, some astound. Sometimes as you are reading you get socked in the guts by a well turned phrase or amazing concept. That's why I read this stuff. Some of the biggest and best names in the field are here. In volume one you get Stephen King, Douglas Clegg, Jack Ketchum, Ed Gorman, Norman Partridge, Bentley Little, Ramsey Campbell, and a pile more. In volume two you get Poppy Z. Brite, Thomas Tessier, Joe Landsdale, Richard Laymon, Melanie Tem, Steve Rasnic Tem, Edward Lee, and another pile more. All together this is a fine anthology. Not the best I've ever read, but it certainly defines horror fiction as it stood in the 1990s, and pretty much stands today.
Book 8:24 PM [+]
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Yesterday I reported a spark of hope in U.S./Iran relations. That spark has been snuffed. Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari has said no. Although they obviously could use a hand. Pity. Well, as we say in Red Sox Nation, maybe next year.

Taking 'bout baseball: Charlie Pierce touches all the bags with this essay about what is wrong with The American Pastime.

Here is an amusing review of an amusing book by an amusing fictional person.

Book 8:58 PM [+]
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Tragedy in Iran could be an opportunity for peace -- The terrible earthquake in that country could be just the entrée that the U.S. needs to help re-establish relations with our old foe. President Bush has offered the branch: "We stand ready to assist the people of Iran as needed and as desired," he said. If moderates in the government take him up on it, and our government goes in with the vigor that we have shown in Afghanistan, then look for a major change in relations. In many Islamic countries the old men at the top love the U.S., while the angry young people in the street despise us. In Iran it seems to be the other way around, with a large group of pragmatists in the middle working for normal relations. The image of open-handed Uncle Sam flying to the rescue could be the beginning of a major change in the Middle East. Stay tuned.

Fortune Magazine has released its annual list of the top 100 celebrities in the world. On the downside, there are only four authors, Tom Clancy, J.K. Rowling, and the two horror biggies, Dean Koontz and Stephen King. On the upside it is nice to know that all of them are bigger celebrities than Anna Kournikova.

Not long ago I pointed out the casino that featured tic-tac-toe playing chickens. Now PETA have noticed, and they are not happy. They say it is cruel to force chickens to play games and it conveys a message of disrespect to the birds. Well for once I am with PETA. Chickens should not be forced to gamble. Instead they should be breaded and deep fried. Mmm.
Book 9:57 PM [+]
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Academia, at its worst and best -- While this article from the Village Voice gets a bit shrill at times, the point it makes is a good one. Celebrity plagiarists are not simply dishonest, they are shameless. On the other side, all lovers of truth will agree with Prof. Donald Foster who said "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar," in this New York Times article.

Also from the Times, this article tells us about the new trends in the world of "cheat notes," including the upcoming cheat for Harry Potter. That book just a little too long for you? Missed that classical reference with Fluffy the three-headed dog? Thought Rowling just made up Nicholas Flamel? Now you can save valuable leisure time that might otherwise be taken up by tedious reading! SparkNotes, the new competitor to CliffsNotes, is going to give it to you, pre-chewed for your convenience. Never heard of SparkNotes? They're the new kid on the block, competing with Cliffs and MaxNotes. Competing may not be the right word. It seems that the 900+ Barnes and Noble and B. Dalton (a B&N subsidiary) stores and the 300+ Barnes and Noble College Stores have decided to stop selling Cliffs and start pushing Sparks. It might be because they are new and exciting. It might be because they were created by a couple of recent college graduates, so they are more in tune with today's readership. Or it just might be because Barnes and Noble has a large ownership stake in SparkNotes. Perhaps.

Now here is a new cookbook that is after my own heart. And most of my arteries. Everything Tastes Better With Bacon by Sara Perry (God lover her). And ain't it the truth. Beautiful photographs, swell recipes, useful information. What more could you want? Fourteen variations on a theme of peanut-butter and bacon sandwiches? They've got it. Man, I am dying.

I read the second volume of DK2. The Dark Knight Strikes Again #2 is as good as the first volume. Again, this is a comic book for fans of superhero comic books. If you don't know what it means when you see Wonder Woman's golden lasso in Superman's hand when they are making love, or don't know why Batman would choose to carve a "Z" in Lex Luthor's face, then you will not get as much out of this book as those of us who wasted our youths reading about people in tights. If this sort of thing turns you on (sad pathetic fanboy or fangirl that you are), then you don't need to be reading this weblog to know that you want to read Frank Miller. Great fun.
Book 10:11 PM [+]
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Archeologists in Israel have discovered a 2000 year old Roman stadium. This is an interesting find, and will soon be destroyed to make way for a luxury hotel.

Further proof that Winston Churchill was a great man: He wanted to make sure his men were getting enough beer.

I just read The Dark Knight Strikes Again #1 by Frank Miller, illustrated by Lynn Varley. If you read the original Dark Knight you know you want to read the sequel. For those of you who are not familiar with these books, the Dark Knight is Batman. This is a graphic novel, which is fancy talk for a comic book. It is hard to judge based on this one volume but I think DK2 is pretty good, just not as good as DK1. We again visit Miller's dystopia, a future DC universe where heroes are outlawed, crime and decay are everywhere, the media is mostly soft-core porn, and the government is totally corrupt. It is sort of a Judge Dredd cum Bladerunner milieu. Against this we get to see several of the great old DC heroes, their lives imagined to logical if bleak extremes. For an old DC comics fan like me, this is great fun. If you are not a superhero fan, then this is just a little better than most comic books. I'll read #2 shortly, but the concluding volume won't be published until late July.
Book 8:12 PM [+]
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Sure, matter transporters are just around the corner. Except for that little thing Heisenberg said.

I had to read this story twice to figure out what the writer was saying. No matter what your native language, it translates as: Pork is Mighty Tasty!

Maybe if we do everything they say and let them do to us as they will, perhaps they won't kill too many of us. That's what this gang of idiots has to say. It seems to them that September 11 is just something that happened to other people.
Book 9:00 PM [+]
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First up a bit of fluff from the world of entertainment. I read in the latest issue of Hellnotes (an indispensable newsletter for anyone interested in horror) that Michael Keaton is talking about doing another "Beetlejuice" movie. He is quoted at FOXNews.com thusly: "You have to remember that a lot of what we did was made up as we went along. A script would never reflect what we would shoot. All that stuff that everyone likes is us riffing." I know we all like to think that movie stars make up the movies as they go along, and I'm sure that the talented Mr. Keaton's contributions were very important, but that quote does seem to show a lack of class. I'm sure the family and loved ones of the man who wrote "Beetlejuice" were less than thrilled.

From Hollywood fluff to real world horror. This story from the BBC is disturbing on two counts. Pain, echoing in the mind, and felt just as strongly today as when the physical injury occurred, is terrible thought. You must know that it is not real, but at the same time it is as real as a stubbed toe. Our subconsciouses can be cruel masters. The other disturbing thing about the story is the concept of using amputation as a weapon of terror and control. It is reminiscent of how the Belgian army treated the people of the Congo. Men can be cruel masters too.

I finally finished reading Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. It is a long book, and while I would like to say it should have been trimmed, and I sure it could have been, I'm just not sure where. While the plot is deceptively simple, it is also quite complex. The action takes place over just a couple of days, which sounds like it should not fill 879 pages (mass-market edition). However, most of the book is in the digressions and memories of the characters. This is really a book of the mind and the imagination. The fights, escapes, and chases that make up the bare bones of the plot are just that, bones on which the meat and muscle are hung. The meat and muscle of this book is what takes place in the minds of the characters. I can't say it better than Janet Maslin did in the New York Times (Yes, I know, registration is required to read this. It's painless.): "In this craftily phantasmagoric story about dreams, telepathy and extraterrestrials, the emphasis is less on fear than on the shared will and capacity to survive."
(By the way, I think Maslin gives away too much of the plot in her review. It is a long book and knowing what will happen in the next few hundred pages can be a downer.) Ostensibly a story about alien invasion, this turns into a story of telepathy and the nature of humanity itself. At first I was surprised that he was using such a well worn trope as little gray men from space, but he did it his way, and made it work. My only real criticisms are minor. I think he may have enjoyed himself a bit too much with the scatological details (alien implants burst out of people's butts preceded by amazing flatulence), and the human villains, the men-in-black types, are mostly two dimensional. Otherwise the book is beautifully written, disturbing, fascinating, and rewarding. Here, should you need it, is a link to Amazon.

I've just started reading Wide As the Waters by Benson Bobrick, a history of the Bible in English and how it changed our world. It seems pretty good so far, and I have already learned something I did not know. Like all good Protestants I learned that one of Martin Luther's grievances with the Church was the practice of selling indulgences. If you haven't heard of this you should know that it was a sort of "get out of Hades free" card. If you were a sinner you could buy official forgiveness and still go to heaven. What I did not know is that there was a theological theory behind this. It was based "in part on the doctrine of the superabundant merits of the saints, who were supposed too have been better than they needed to be for their own salvation. Their excess credits could therefore be stored in a celestial deposit box called the 'Thesaurus meritorum sanctorum' (Compendium of the Merits of the Saints), and from this treasury 'the pope could draw and make transfers to anyone whose account happened to be deficient." And since the infinite goodness of Christ himself was in this lock-box, it could never be exhausted. How can you not love that? Imagine if the practice was continued today. The Vatican bank would probably issuing Karma Cards and home equity lines of goodness. Who needs confessionals when you can get absolution at the ATM?
Book 6:16 PM [+]
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First up: Sports! Yes, I've got worldcup fever! Well, no, not really. After all, I am an American, which means I can have no more than a passing interest in the event, but my it does make for some interesting news stories. This one for instance: I know the Koreans are sports-mad, but the fellow in the top story on this page has taken it to a new level. This is horrific, of course, but I love the spiritual aspect of it. Self-immolation as a means of destroying the weak material body in order to free the mighty spiritual body within to go on and do greater things. There is a great story element if I ever heard one.

Now on to wrestling! Mexican masked wrestling, Lucha Libre. If you have not heard of this amazing piece of nation-defining weirdness, you have missed something my friend. Consider this article as a primer on the subject. After that you might want to consider the film career of the greatest of them all El Santo.

That is enough for sports now, and back to another interest that I mentioned in my last post, birds. This gruesome little piece delves into the larder of one of my favorite feathered friends, the shrike.

You've probably read about this one already. Developers want to trash a medieval town to build a pseudo-medieval Halloween theme park. Great idea. It reminds me of another plan, about twenty years ago if memory serves, to plow over the Hundred Acre Woods, where Christopher Robin used to play with a bear named Winnie-the-Pooh, to build the Hundred Acre Woods Shopping Plaza. The campaign to stop it was successful, largely because they got ancient Christopher Robin himself to say a few words against it. What are the poor Transylvanian villagers going to do, dig up old Vlad Tepes?
Book 4:37 PM [+]
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Having an internet connection is like having a ringside seat at the fall of western civilization. Case in point: Here is an article in the Times about the new editor of Rolling Stone. His mission? To get rid of most of the words. Here is a swell quote from owner Jann Wenner "There is so much media around. Back when Rolling Stone was publishing these 7,000 word stories, there was no CNN, no Internet. And now you can travel instantaneously around the globe, and you don't need these long stories to get up to speed." Up to speed? I thought the point of reading longer articles was to deepen understanding and appreciation of the subject, be it music or movies, sports or sailing. MTV News gets you "up to speed," a useful service, but is that all one needs? If Rolling Stone devolves into pretty pictures and captions, what is its function? Tiger Beat for grown-ups?

Soccer seems to be in the news lately, but what drew me to this article was, of course, the witchcraft. Frankly, the story ticks me off. The Confederation of African Football has banned witchdoctors from advising teams. They issued this statement: "We are no more willing to see witchdoctors on the pitch than cannibals at the concession stands. Image is everything." That's a pretty lousy attitude, if you're asking me. Their religion may be different, it may seem weird, it may even look foolish, but it is their religion. It is something that is sincerely believed, that people have faith in. Their faith is as deeply held as yours or mine, and their spiritual feelings just as powerful. Where do these image obsessed bastards get off banning it? I am reminded of a Superbowl a few years ago. A guy I know slightly (I went to school with him, we were in a couple of classes together), Mark Bavaro, scored a touchdown in a winning effort for the New York Giants. Upon reaching the end zone he dropped to one knee and crossed himself. Later that evening I heard some jerk call up a radio show and criticize him for it. This guy said he was making a show of his religion. As it happens Mark Bavaro is a very sincere and devout Catholic. Overcome with the emotion of the moment, he did what came most naturally to him -- making a prayer of thanksgiving. There are times when some people feel the need to call on higher powers. Whether they wear a rosary or a juju bag, that is and must be their right. Don't like it? Too bad. Image is not everything.

A few months ago I was watching birds, and realized that I had been surrounded by them my whole life, yet knew next to nothing about them. So, I did what I usually do when confronting my own ignorance -- I read some books. I started with the two Sibley books, and that was a very good grounding. This afternoon I stepped out of the bookstore for a moment and looked up. Not too far up, just a few feet really, were two birds. They were about the same size and at first I thought they were flying together, in formation like a fighter pilot with his wing man. Then I noticed that they were two different species. A peregrine falcon was flying low, probably on the lookout for a meal. Following his every wing-beat, and harassing him all the way, was a crow. The peregrine was apparently unconcerned, patrolling the sky. The crow was having none of it, sometimes right on his tail, sometimes swooping and diving, once clipping a wing and causing the falcon to struggle a bit to keep up speed. I watched the dance until they flew out of sight. It occurred to me later that I appreciated the beauty of it all the more for having read about the hunting habits of the peregrine and the intelligence of crows and other corvids. I suppose I could have just used some flashcards to "get me up to speed" on species identification, but I think I would have missed something.
Book 9:23 PM [+]
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The print version of the Boston Globe prefaced this article with the line "E is for Edward, who died on the Cape". The Gashley-Crumb Tinies is probably Edward Gorey's most famous work (it is available in Amphigorey). My personal favorite is The Curious Sofa: a pornographic work by Ogdred Weary. If you are not familiar with it please seek it out. Consider a group read-aloud at your next party. It should liven things up.
Book 8:51 PM [+]
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Witty musings on the OED at the VLS.

Feel like writing a horror story and need some inspiration? This nasty news snippet should give you nightmares.

The HWA has given out their Stoker awards. I'm not sure what the value of literary awards is to readers, but they are surely worthy of consideration. I have nothing to say about these winners (and congratulations to all of them) because I haven't read any of them. American Gods by Neil Gaiman is on my summer reading list. I've heard good things, I've heard not-so-good things. I'll let you know, you Lucky Reader.


Book 9:39 PM [+]
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Random book from the stacks here at the Book Depository -- Josepha Sherman is a charming lady. I've met her a couple of times, and I could listen to her all night. Beyond being a wit and a raconteur, she is a writer of fantasy and science fiction, and a folklorist. Of course a lot of SF&F has its roots in folklore. Who better to trace those roots than an SF&F writing folklorist? In Once Upon a Galaxy Ms. Sherman does just that. This book is a collection of folk tales that could easily serve as an introductory text for a course on world folklore. If you are not interested in SF&F, you could skip the introductions and just read the tales. Some of the connections she makes are fairly obvious. It is no stretch at all to see that Bugs Bunny is our modern version of the trickster tale. On the other hand I'm not sure that Gene Roddenberry had the Argo in mind when he created the Enterprise. Perhaps he didn't have to. Perhaps that is the point. These tales are a part of our consciousness, whether we know it or not. They will continue to bubble up in our imaginings. Some of the tales she relates here are familiar, some more obscure. All are told well.
Book 9:38 PM [+]
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Fundamentalist Christians read! And there are a whole lot of them. This interesting article in the New York Times is a look inside the large and growing evangelical (as fundamentalists seem to prefer to be called) niche of the publishing business. It explains what they want to see in their bookstores (books about converting the Jews, for one thing), and what they don't want to see (pretty much anything that might challenge their world view). Of course we'll all stop laughing when the rapture comes, won't we? Fortunately, this guy has written a post-rapture survival guide for us poor rejects. It has loads of helpful information and suggestions, such as stocking up on multi-vitamins, with a "particular emphasis on anti-oxidants such as C and E and minerals." That's nice to know.
Book 10:34 PM [+]
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I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. A newspaper in China reported some news they picked up from "America's Finest News Source."

The sad plight of another industry hit hard by on-line competition. Writers of pornography.

I took a walk through the Fens today. I saw a beautiful cormorant stretching its wings like this. Why do they do that? I also saw a man and a boy on a small foot bridge over a slow moving stream. They were playing Poohsticks, of course. It doesn't get much better than that.
Book 12:39 AM [+]
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Hey fella, wanna buy a bridge? Here is a good article on the enduring popularity of the con man in literature. (NYT requires free registration.) There is even a brief etymology tracing the path from Mr. Poe's "diddler" to Mr. Melville's "confidence man."

New discoveries in Egypt. The final resting place of some priest and some poor scribbler have been dug up. They found an intact pyramidion (how's that for your cool word of the day?). No pictures, but I'm betting that none of these tomb raiders looks like Lara Croft.

Barnes and Noble has a new feature that sounds interesting. Meet the Writers.

G'day Lolita! An Australian filmmaker has started a worldwide search for "a 12- or 13-year-old actress who is crossing the threshold into her teens and is confused yet exhilarated by her burgeoning sexuality" to play Wendy Darling in his new version of Peter Pan. Peter Pan as kiddie porn? J.M. Barrie is whirling dervishly in his grave.

Where shall we go for our vacation this year? How about Evansville, Indiana to play high stakes tic-tac-toe with a chicken?

Why is it that so many horror novels include long nostalgic passages about growing up? Mostly because of Stephen King, that's why, as if you didn't know. Just about every writer who occasionally punts his boat along the river Styx owes something to Mr. King, and childhood just happens to be where his sub-conscience goes when he rest the digits on the home keys. The problem is that most people don't do it as well as SK. I just read a passage in Dreamcatcher that was so well written, so true, that I had to mark it to show to my friend at lunch. She doesn't read Mr. King, but when I made her read the paragraphs she laughed aloud over her chicken sandwich and fries. It was just a little thing about junior high school and remedial math, but it was perfect. When reading this stuff I do not find myself wishing he would pick up the pace and get on with the monsters or murderers or whatever. I'm just enjoying the ride. Not everybody can get away with this. Take for example Straight On 'Til Morning by Christopher Golden. This is another work that would have poor J.M. Barrie spinning. It is a pretty good book (but not nearly as good as Strangewood, in which Mr. Golden answers that age old question "what if Dark Riders invaded the Hundred Acre Woods?) that spends a lot of time stuck in the teen angst of its characters. Not a bad book, as I've said, but I did find myself muttering things like "who cares, just get on with it." That never seems to happen with King. Of course, I'm only a couple of hundred pages into this literary doorstop. Next time I have something to say about this, it might be that I just want to strangle the little bastards. But somehow I doubt it.
Book 5:48 PM [+]
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A random book from The Stacks here at my Book Depository.

Remember, when you assume, you make an ass of u and me. Why is it that when people see you reading a book they often make assumptions about you based on the book. Get caught reading Anne Rice and drippy pseudo-goths will gush about how much they love her too, and isn't it wonderful the way she re-invented the vampire mythos (Ack!). If you are reading non-fiction folks will often assume you are an expert on whatever it is you are reading. Sometimes I am, but quite often I read to learn. My library is large, but my ignorance is larger, and I am trying to address the imbalance. Several years ago I read a book on Judaism. My protestant upbringing had left me with something of a knowledge gap and I figured a book might go some ways to begin filling that up. A waiter at Denny's saw me reading the book and assumed I was a rabbi or something. He was on a bit of a spiritual quest himself and asked me for any advice I could give him. As I munched on the sausages and bacon from my Grand Slam I gently suggested that he might try the same approach I use. A book.

That said, I should not need to point out that just because the random book of the day is about rock music does not mean that I am in any way an expert. I listen to it now and then, I like much of it, and I know a thing or two, but a Music Geek I am not. That is why I decided to read Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll by Ed Ward, Geoffrey Stokes, and Ken Tucker. Sounds like a good place to start. I knew of Ed Ward, having heard him on NPR occasionally. Anybody who looks like this can't be all bad.

It turns out to be not all that bad a book either. Each of the authors takes on a different period in rock history. Ward did the sixties, and did it well. A terrific read, interesting anecdotes, and some well made points about the music. Stokes was good too, but he didn't like the Beatles as much as I do, so how smart can he be. Tucker lost me by defending disco and finding more value in punk than I think exists. It was a pretty good place to start on the path of being marginally less ignorant.

By the way, no one accosted me while reading this book assuming I was a rock star. A religious fanatic spotted the title as I was walking by and offered to tell me about the real Rock of Ages, but I passed. I hope that wasn't a mistake. At least he didn't mistake me for someone who wasn't ignorant.
Book 9:51 PM [+]
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Who's killing all the whales? Eco-tourists. We should have known.

I was watching an episode of Fawlty Towers on the tube last night. It was the one when Basil entertains some German tourists with his impression of Hitler. Now I read that the Germans are getting sick of WWII references whenever anybody has anything to say about them. Pity that. Odd how it takes a long time for the rest of the world to forget about a little thing like world war, fascism, and genocide.

If you've got an ox or two to spare, then it's good to be the king.

All they are saying is, give nuclear war a chance.

This story is a few days old, but I just love it. It's not every day that you get to read about a real life fearless vampire hunter. Thank Bast he had a priest there to tell him what to do. We should all have a Van Helsing around in time of need.

I've starting reading Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. One of the characters thinks he might have a drinking problem. This occurs to him when he finds himself leaving a catatonic woman alone in a lean-to to hike a mile in a snowstorm on a bad leg to get some Budweiser. Yea, that is a problem. Now if it had been good beer, that would have been another matter.

Book 12:22 PM [+]
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Had lunch with a librarian Saturday. She's moving and is not sure if she can take her cat. If she can't, she can always try bringing it to work. That way she'd at least get her library on the map.
Book 11:58 PM [+]
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Here it is, my very first post to this weblog. This one is really more of a test than anything else. Lucky reader, you can get in at the ground floor! You can watch as this blog goes from nothing to slightly more than nothing! See the world through my eyes! Watch me develop new ideas. From here I shall bloviate to the world!
Book 8:52 PM [+]
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