Somewhere Quiet

Besides yours, who do you think deserves "The Best Mother in the World" award?
Submitted by Connie.

Nope. I refuse to consider anyone but mine.

Show us your favorite tool.
Submitted by Maraschino.

House

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Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Here's a confession...I own exactly one, a college writing guide. I only use it to remember the difference between MLA and APA formatting. I don't use dictionaries, I use the spell-check on my computer. I don't use a thesaurus, I use the thesaurus tool on Microsoft Office.

It's kind of shameful, actually, because I profess to value good grammar. I mean, I do find it important, but all of the "formal" rules of grammar get lost on me. You could say mine is a more "intuitive" grammar. I just know if things look or sound correct. Since I'm fairly well-read, it usually works out. At the very least no one calls me on it. ;-)

What fictional character do you relate to most and why?

I think I relate to a lot of characters, and then I remember that they have "real" (well, in the context of fiction) problems and I don't really, which makes me feel a little self-indulgent.

There is one character, though, who I've talked about before, a character who is relatable and so normal: Pam Beesley. Love her.

...but I had to share, because: dang.

Omar Epps

Wow, War & Peace is slow going.

I picked it up again after about a month's absence, and found it a bit easier to follow. I'm still only on page 144, which is pathetic for three or four days worth of reading. It's okay, but it hasn't sucked me in yet. I have yet to get into "the zone" where pages fly by and the story engages my whole attention. It doesn't help that the book I have is quite small with tiny print.

People who have read W&P, does it pick up, or is this as good as it gets?

Miley Cirus has issued an apology for a "racy" Vanity Fair photo shoot with legendary photographer Annie Liebovitz. Considering the photograph is just of Miley's back, do you think this apology is necessary?

It's kind of dumb to apologize regardless. I mean, the pictures weren't taken by accident, they were part of a heavily planned-out photo shoot.

I don't have an answer for whether or not she should've done the shoot, as I haven't seen the pictures.

Hey everyone! House is back on tonight! I hope you're all as excited as I am. It's on at 9, on Fox. To help pass the long 10 hours until then, please enjoy this picture of the ruggedly handsome Hugh Laurie.

000ae24b

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You're welcome.

Edit: I can't vouch for the video (I'm not a fan of music videos in general) but the song is really good.

Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome- This book took me a surprisingly long time to read, considering the fact that it's only 135 pages long. The thing is, pretty much every line deserved my full attention, either for the funny (and shockingly modern) anecdotes or the deautiful descriptions of the Thames.

The premise of the book is pretty simple: three men (the narrator, J., and his friends George and Harris) decide to take a vacation boating down the Thames. Oh yeah, and they also take J.'s dog, Montmorency. That's it. That's the plot.

The real fun is in the writing and the anecdotes. Jerome reminds me a lot of Wodehouse in that they both use language to make even the most everyday situations amusing. I mentioned before that the situations were shockingly modern. For instance, the book begins with the reason for the boat trip. Basically, J. and his friends are hypochondriacs, checking various medical books and pharmacutical ads to find out what horrible diseases they have:

It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therin dealt with at its most virulent form.

I mean, people do the exact same thing today with online sites like WebMD, and this was published over 100 years ago!

There are so many more instances, like the incomprehensible (to J.) tendency of tourists to flock to the nearest graveyard to read interesting epitaphs, or the 34/26/23 pound trout on display at a public house that no less than four people claim to have caught. (Of course, the fish turns out to be paper mache.)

It's a pleasure just to read the chapter descriptions at the beginning:

Mrs. P arouses us.---George, the sluggard.---The "weather forecast" swindle.---Our luggage.---Depravity of the small boy.---The people gather round us.---We drive off in great style, and arrive at Waterloo.---Innocence of South Western officials concerning such worldly things as trains.---We are afloat, afloat in an open boat.

Does that not intrigue you??

Grade: A

As a sidenote, I've heard that there is an audiobook of Three Men... read by a certain Hugh Laurie. I haven't heard it myself, but I imagine it's pretty awesome.