Unthinkable Wings

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 12:05:36 GMT

Merry Christmas to all celebrating!

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Thu, 02 Dec 2021 13:47:29 GMT

Happy birthday, commodorified!

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Wed, 01 Dec 2021 16:44:16 GMT

Thank you, anonymous person who gave me points! Much appreciated!

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Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:43:09 GMT

I've just had a (pretty obvious) fannish epiphany.

The Mandalorian. It's quite a lot like Firefly, only without the (possibly) unintentional neo-Confederatism, or Joss Wheedon's tiresomely obvious fetishes. Which is a big improvement, obviously.

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Sun, 24 Oct 2021 11:12:58 GMT

Managed to miss the Yuletide sign-ups by less than twelve hours. *is quietly furious with self*

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Sun, 10 Oct 2021 09:36:04 GMT

A belated happy birthday to sovay!

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Tue, 05 Oct 2021 08:12:04 GMT

Belatedly, happy birthday oursin! I hope you had a lovely day.

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Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:37:13 GMT

I had some grilled aubergine slices left over from a barbecue, and I made rather a good salad with them.

Boil a cup of well-salted bulgur wheat, and allow to drain and cool.

Chop the grilled aubergine into small pieces. Chop up some fresh flatleaved parsley. (this would have been even better with dill, but I didn't have any).

Put all this in a bowl with 1/2 tsp sumac and at least a teaspoon of pul biber (Turkish pepper flakes), more to taste. Pour over a tbsp good olive oil and lemon juice to taste, and stir well to combine.

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Tue, 18 May 2021 14:55:51 GMT

Happy birthday nostalgia!

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"Piranesi"

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 14:34:07 GMT

I finally read "Piranesi", and I did indeed love it. I was not expecting quite so much intertextuality with The Magician's Nephew (in fact, can you argue that it's set in the same universe*?), nor that the theme Clarke picks up most strongly from that book would be "magicians with bad research ethics".

( Spoilers below. )

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Minor mystery of the day, inspired by the Grauniad

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 12:12:28 GMT

Why do people describe the bob as a low maintenance haircut? It's a great look, but that's blatantly not true.

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Thu, 18 Mar 2021 18:27:49 GMT

A splendid book meme, from aedh, via naraht.

Pick a number to get an answer from me. Or give your own answer to someone else's question. Or just borrow the meme – it would be amazing to see this one get some traction!

1. A book that haunts you

2. A book that was an interesting failure

3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have much preferred to read that one)

4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you

5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold

6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work

7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately

8. A book that feels like it was written just for you

9. A book that reminds you of someone

10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber

11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time

12. A book that came to you at the wrong time

13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that

14. A book balanced on a knife edge

15. A snuffed candle of a book

16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers

17. The one that taught you something about yourself

18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion

19. A book that started a pilgrimage

20. A frigid ice bath of a book

21. A book written into your psyche

22. A warm blanket of a book

23. A book that made you bleed

24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to

25. A book that answered a question you never asked

26. A book you recommend but cannot love

27. A book you love but cannot recommend

28. A book you adore that people are surprised by

29. A book that led you home

30. A book you detest that people are surprised by

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Thu, 18 Mar 2021 14:24:39 GMT

Happy birthday, perennialanna!

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Fri, 01 Jan 2021 11:48:41 GMT

Happy New Year, everyone. May it be a bit better than the last.

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Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:08:26 GMT

Happy birthday nineveh_uk!

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Wed, 02 Dec 2020 14:12:25 GMT

Happy birthday, commodorified!

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Sun, 04 Oct 2020 20:02:24 GMT

Happy birthday, oursin!

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That somewhat American food meme, via a number of the flist

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 12:43:04 GMT

1. Made biscuits from scratch? I am taking this as US biscuits. No, although I intend to next time I get buttermilk. I know the conventional British attitude to US biscuits is either bafflement or sneering, but I really like them.

2. Fried fresh okra? Assuming the meme means breaded in cornmeal? No. I've got a recipe I'm vaguely interested in trying, because I have enjoyed them when I've had them, but if I buy okra I tend to end up making gumbo. It's good in curry, too. I suspect it's easier to deal with the slime when it can just be stirred into the sauce to thicken it (I have a very simple recipe that just involves simmering it with the contents of a tin of passata with some Cajun spices that's pretty good, too), so I'm inclined to think it's hard to do the cornmeal breading well.

3. Made sourdough bread? Yes.

4. Fried chicken? Yes. Lawyer is better at it, though, so he tends to do it.

5. Made spaghetti sauce from scratch? I mean, yes, I make various kinds of pasta sauces from scratch and never buy the stuff in jars. If the meme means "red sauce" yes, but not generally unless I'm also making meatballs. I also usually use tagliatelle instead of spaghetti.

6. Made any kind of yeast bread? Yes.

7. Baked a cake from scratch? . Yes. Never from a kit, though!

8. Made icing from scratch? . Yes, duh.

9. Cooked a pot roast with all the veg?. Yes. Not a favourite, though.

10. Made chili from scratch? Yes. Favourite in this house in the winter months (with stewing steak, ideally shin, and a bit of coffee in the sauce).

11. Made a meatloaf? Yes, but not for a long time - Lawyer isn't a fan, and it's not really a one person dish.

12. Made scalloped potatoes? I am somewhat surprised to discover that this probably means gratin. Yes. Faffy but worth it.

13. Made mac/cheese from scratch? I think we did this in Home Ec, so if so, yes, and if not, not. It's not my favourite (it's the white sauce. I'm sceptical about lasagne for the same reason).

14. Made a jello salad? No. Nor have I eaten one, because I don't attend a Lutheran church in the Mid West. Mind you, I have eaten sülze, and once you get past the texture of the aspic it can be really nice, so I can see how the idea got started, but it's definitely become a monster...

15. Made peanut brittle? No

16. Made fudge? No

17. Made cookies from scratch? Yes

18. Cooked a pot of beans from dried beans? Yes. Since I got a pressure cooker it's how I normally do them.

19. Cooked a pot of greens? Not in the soul food sense, no.

20. Made cornbread from scratch? Yes.

21. Made a pie dough from scratch? Yes

22. Cooked a whole turkey? Every Thanksgiving. It generally tastes reasonable, too.

23. Snapped green beans and cooked them? Yes, but in common with other Europeans, I use a knife to top and tail.

24. Made mashed potatoes from scratch? Yes. Though I must say the pressure cooker turns out to make very good mashed potatoes.

25. What’s the most people you have (alone) prepared a whole meal for? Entirely by myself? Not actually sure. Three or four, probably. I've done three courses for twelve at Thanksgiving, but Lawyer and I shared the preparation and someone brought a supplementary pudding.

26. Poached an egg? Sort of? I've done them in those glasses with a holder you hang into the pot. I've never tried the traditional method - I'm not that much of a fan.

27. Made pancakes from scratch? Yes

28. Roasted vegetables in the oven instead of boiling them? Yes

29. Made fresh pasta? No, but I periodically make Spätzle.

30. Made croissants from scratch? No.

31. Made tuna salad? . No. I hate tinned tuna and I'm not all that keen on it fresh.

32. Fried fish? Yes.

33. Made baked beans? Yes.

34. Made ice cream from scratch? No

35. Made jam or jelly? Yes, frequently

36. Zested an orange or lemon? Yes

37. Made grits from scratch? Yes

38. Made an omelette? Yes

39. Lived in a house without a dishwasher? Yes. Grew up in one, also frequently as a student.

40. Eaten a bowl of cereal for supper? No, mostly because I don't like cereal.

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Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:45:52 GMT

On a completely unrelated note, I was poking about on Wikipedia, and discovered the entry for R.A. Bevan, a distinguished figure of British advertising with extensive cultural interests, daddy issues, and a complicated private life which involved a menage a trois with Randolph Churchill.

He was also involved in the New York ad business in the early sixties, and was, apparently, the model for Mr Ingelby in Murder Must Advertise, all of which does rather suggest that the British take-over plot in Mad Men could have been done rather differently. I wouldn't mind the AU fic...

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Sun, 26 Jul 2020 14:28:54 GMT

Happy birthday, shewhostaples!

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Tue, 21 Jul 2020 12:18:17 GMT

Happy birthday, coughingbear!

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Sun, 28 Jun 2020 13:13:08 GMT

We have resumed our watching of The Americans, as I've been on a bit of a spy kick lately - I've been reading Ben MacIntyre and rewatching Tinker, Tailor and Smiley's People.

If I had any icon slots left, I'd make one of Elizabeth Jennings captioned "Moscow Centre Hood".

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Mon, 22 Jun 2020 11:47:49 GMT

I have a weakness for trope pics that take an, on the face of it, implausible premise, and make it work. Clone Wars "fake marriage fix-it au", in which Mace Windu agrees to get fake-married to Cody in order to take advantage of loopholes in galactic law and custom that would make the clones citizens falls under that heading for me, but blackkat's novel-length hunting towards heartstill is really well done, and comes with action adventure on a deliciously creepy trip to an apparently abandoned Sith planet, too.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 09:37:46 GMT

Did the slightly gloomy job - in view of the probably-LJ leak of data - of removing access from old LJ account and from DW accounts that appear to be dead.

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Wed, 27 May 2020 13:31:08 GMT

In non-plague news, today I learned that Val McDiarmid was inspired by childhood reading of the Chalet School:

in one of the more bizarre examples of literature influencing life I was guided by the Chalet School books, which I loved. It is through these that I realised that being a writer was actually a job. And all these girls went on to higher education at either the Sorbonne, the Kensington school of Needlework, or Oxford.

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