What I will NOT be doing tomorrow: making homemade candy corn. That’s nuts! I’d sooner make homemade Peeps (and you know how I feel about those).
Wake Up Cat. Hahahahaha… This is exactly what Dr. Amy does in the morning. Actually she’s added something new to her repertoire as well: she tries to eat my bedside lamp. I don’t understand it. The Snook has the exact same lamp on his night table, except his is black and mine is blue. She apparently only likes the blue ones. So she sits there next to my head chewing on my lamp until I get up and toss her to the floor. Stupid cat.
Edited 30/04/2025: Link is dead and not archived.
Apparently my Grumpy-Old-Womanness does have its limits. I was serving a real G.O.W. in the shop this morning when, apropos of nothing, she decided to share some outrage with me.
Me: Just the single skein? That’ll be $1.20, thanks.
Old Lady: I was just walking up York Street, in front of the Grace Hotel, and I passed a man and a woman walking. And he was very tall, and she was very small. And he had his hand RIGHT DOWN HER BACKSIDE! Right down there! I couldn’t believe it!
Me: (just holding my hand out for the money)
Her: So I slapped him on the wrist! I told him that his behaviour was DISGUSTING, and that he should get a room, and how would he like it if that was his daughter, and someone was FIDDLING WITH HER PRIVATE PARTS in public? Don’t you think that’s appalling?
Me: Well… I can think of worse things. I mean, I find spitting or littering in public really annoying because they directly affect me… but two people who are in love…
Her: HE WAS FIDDLING WITH HER PRIVATE PARTS.
Me: I get that, and I’d probably go home that day and say, “You wouldn’t believe what I saw this morning,” but I don’t think it’s the worst thing.
Her: Well, I’m AUSTRALIAN, and I was raised with–
Me: I’m Australian.
Her: (confused) But–
Me: I’m Australian.
Her: You sound like you’re from North America.
Me: I’m AUSTRALIAN, with an Australian passport.
Her: Okay, fine, you’re Australian. I just mean that I was raised here, and I was taught that certain behaviour is wrong.
Me: I was raised in the Bible belt, and I was taught to mind my own business.
She got me outraged all right, but not in the way she expected! I mean, I can think of lots of stuff I find more objectionable than PDA. Smokers. Public urination. Golf umbrellas. The existence of leggings with zips. Two consenting adults making out on the street is pretty low on my list of triggers.
The TV gods have finally come up with a way to get me to watch Grey’s Anatomy: They’re putting Pacey on it. DUDE, I’M THERE. (Link courtesy of Jenny.)
This is an Official Halloween Party Reminder for those of you who haven’t told me whether you’re coming to the party this weekend or not. We’re planning food, so drop me a line or SMS and let us know whether to count you in. And for those still looking for a costume, the Snook gives you: The 30 Most Unsettling German Halloween Costumes.
My favorite is the mobile phone.
I have seen the future, and it is Araucania. Specifically, Araucania Ranco Solid and Ranco Multi. Both are 75% wool, 25% nylon. Both have over 340m per 100g skein (compared to a miserly 267 on Jitterbug). And both were in my hands this afternoon in the shop. I actually GASPED when Albert pulled them out of the bag. They’re beautiful. I told him they’re going to be a massive hit, so he should get a couple packets of every colour. Get ready!
Oh, and also coming: the breathtaking Mirasol Hacho (a 100% merino 8ply) and Mirasol Cotanani (a 60% cotton, 40% wool 8ply). Yes, you read that correctly. A wool/cotton blend READILY AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA. I swooned.
56 American roller coasters… from the front seat. AWESOME. I haven’t been to Cedar Point in more than seven years, so I loved getting to “ride” the Magnum once more. I hadn’t even heard of that new Maverick coaster. Anybody try it this summer?
Dumbledore is gay. Interesting! I especially like Rowling’s astute observation that the fanfic world is going to go nuts over this news.
Last Friday I finished the second of Eileen’s book recommendations, Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. I knew absolutely nothing about it before I started, and I deliberately avoided the introduction at the front of my edition. I needn’t have worried. The big “hook” of this story – that it’s being narrated by a hermaphrodite – is given away on the first page. It’s not so much the story of what Cal is, but how he came to be what he is. So instead of immediately gratifying my curiosity (and voyeurism), Eugenides’ narrator abandons his intriguing opening in favour of the story of how Cal’s grandparents immigrated to the US. They escaped the Great Fire of Smyrna (it was eye-opening to be reading this while the debate about the Armenian Genocide is going on) and eventually ended up in Detroit. Eventually the story skips ahead to follow the romantic tribulations of Cal’s parents, first-generation Greek-Americans who had no idea what the previous generation had gotten up to. By the time Cal(liope) is finally born halfway through the book, I couldn’t put it down.
That’s not to say the book is perfect. The family stuff is certainly compelling – and the hermaphroditic element is undeniably interesting – but overall I never really warmed to Cal as a person. I liked Calliope and I sympathized with her confusion, but I didn’t find her sudden transition to Cal to be very believable. This review from the New York Review of Books spells it all out much better than I can. Still, the characters are all vivid and fascinating, and it taught me a little bit about a period in history I knew very little about. (My favorite part was probably the reintroduction of Desdemona to the narrative. I had actually thought several times to myself, “What happened to her? Did I skip a paragraph where she died?” Ha!)
Now I’m on to The Accidental by Ali Smith, as recommended by Brittanie. Again, I’m going in cold. So far it’s a very different read to Middlesex, like the difference between an impressionist Art Film and a sprawling Scorsese narrative.
Stories about poker seem to keep cropping up now that I have a semi-relative that plays professionally. Check out this exposé about a cheating ring at an online poker site. Fascinating. (Link courtesy of Daring Fireball.)
My name is Kris. I’ve been blogging since the 90’s. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I spent most of my career in the tech industry.
No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.
Woot, my knee-jerk don’t-overthink-it pub-quiz answer was Iran which seems to be [✓]. I ‘knew’ it was more populous than…
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