still coughing; still uncool.

Category: dribblings

i’m still coughing the cough of doom. it’s pretty gross. but at least i’m back to work.

on saturday at work one of the regular families came in (sounds mafia! it isn’t.) and they were checking out their usual 100s of books. they’re a really sweet family. it’s a mom, dad, and two sons. i guess the boys are probably 11 and 8? something like that. so the mom wants to set up a password for the youngest’s account so they can do stuff online.

so she asks the son, “did you want your password to be Yoda?”

“yeah.”

so i say, “i’ve a cat at home whose name is Yoda.”

“really?” he asks.

the mom is all, “i guess you’re a fan too?”

“oh sure.”

so then the older son is all ears because, you know, Star Wars is one of the languages boys speak. the mom further proves this point by saying, “they quote those movies all the time. sometimes i don’t know what they’re talking about.”

so i ask the oldest, “which movie is your favorite?”

his face lights up! because now i’m no longer just some schmo, now i’m a Star Wars Fan. i’m cool.

and he says, “Episode Two is my favorite.”

and here’s where i was cool for 2 seconds and then drop the ball. “i… i’m not sure which one that is.”

the mom is all, “i know. for us it’s like there’s two episode twos.”

“exactly!”

his face falls. i’m back to the same level of cool as his mom. he says, “Attack of the Clones.”

“oh.” so then i ask the younger, “so which one is your favorite?”

“Attack of the Clones.”

“oh.” the kids, both of them are now looking at the floor because they know my Star Wars kung fu is OLD. and if i had been thinking i would have stopped talking but no, i had to prove my oldness by saying, “my favorite is Empire.”

i swear, they rolled their eyes as if to say, “of COURSE it is, lady. you’re OLD.” and right then, in a move that sealed my uncool fate forever the mom says, “Empire is my favorite too!”

yep. zero to cool to uncool in seconds.

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i’m not lazy, i swear!

Category: dribblings

sorry that i haven’t posted in a while. i haven’t been online for days because i’ve been sitting on the couch coughing up lungs and horking up my toenails. it’s been so pleasant.

i did manage to finsh reading one book and i started another, but then when i slept that one time back on friday the two books were in my dream and they blended together and i have no idea what the secpnd book is about so i’ve stopped reading. i have caught up on some movie watching though. of course, i’m at the mercy of whatever’s on TV, just getting up and going to the bathroom has been exhausting, there’s no way i’m messing around with the DVD player and two controllers and blah blah blah.

things i’ve watched this weekend:

All About Eve with Bette Davis and those guys and those two other girls
Julia about Lillian Hellman (this dead woman is stalking me) with Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave; also, has Jason Robards ALWAYS been 100 years old?
Hot Shots part deux i can’t tell you how many times i laughed. every site gag got me.
Crocodile Dundee Goes to Los Angeles which was just as good as it sounds
Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Derailroaded a documentary about Larry “wildman” Fischer it was very interesting but hard to watch. i had Popsicle come over and watch it with me; i cried twice.
Elizabeth with Cate Blanchette and that guy who’s always a bad guy
Employee of the Month
Blazing Saddles (twice, thanks AMC.)
Suddenly, Last Summer which, as you know, i would have watched even if i had not been sick because i simply cannot look away. mr, fleegan is all, “what, this one again?” and i’m all, “how many times have you watched Alien?”

i also watched a western with Marlon Brando in it. i was on fake NyQuil though so it made no sense.
i watched some Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. loads of cartoons and VH1 Classics. i’m not bragging about all of this, just making a point of I HAVE NOT SLEPT IN TWO DAYS.

went to the doctor (and guess what he told me, guess what he told me?) (sorry) this morning because i’m finally That Sick. (i would guess that my That Sick and your That Sick are two different ideas of That Sick. (your That Sick was probably Friday or Saturday. my That Sick is days after yours and borderlines on going to the ER. i even had mom drive me because i figured it was a bad a idea to drive. have i mentioned that i keep seeing bugs moving out of the corner of my eyes? i’m guessing that’s due to lack of sleep?) i’m constantly out of breath and that’s such a nerve-wracking feeling. i was afraid it was going to be one of three things:
The Flu
pneumonia
consumption and/or whooping cough 

the doc says it’s acute bronchitis (dodged those bullets!) then gave me a shot and three meds, one of which is an inhaler.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the inhaler.
also, thank you, Lord Jesus, for cough syrup with codeine AND phenergan COMBINED, you are A GENIUS and TOO GOOD TO ME.

the inhaler has sort of added to my tweakiness but i’m hoping after i get some more sleep that will all work out. did you notice that? that i said, “more sleep”? that’s because this afternoon i slept for FIVE GLORIOUS HOURS. actually, the first two hours i didn’t sleep very well because i kept waking up every two minutes to someone saying either, “huh!” or “eh!”

it was me.

once my vocal tic calmed down i finally slept so hard that i woke up soaked (sweat it out!) and freezing. fever, why you gotta do me like that?  and once the cough syrup wears off it’s all, “done!” and i am back to coughing so hard i pee a little bit. this just started today, so i don’t know if this is an age thing (so looking forward to this) or just a “i’ve been coughing for days now, something’s gotta give.”

mom made me a huge vat of homemade Paula Damn Deen chicken noodle soup. it’s really good but i haven’t been eating much (what with the horking). the only thing i want is water, but i know it’s bad to drink tons of water when it’s going right through you. so i tried drinking pedialyte. it’s kinda syrupy-sweet so i cut it with water. i call it pedialyte and branch.

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i should stop reading crime fiction for a while.

Category: dribblings

but you know i won’t.

i think that maybe it’s making me paranoid? lemme ‘splain.

weeks ago this guy came in the ‘brary wanting to get a card. he’s probably in his 40s. he was really charming and i liked him but had the thought in the back of my head, “he’s really charming. probably a serial killer. ha ha.” he told me who he was and that he’s related to this mom and daughter pair that come in about once a week.

the mom and daughter (let’s see, the mom is probably in her 70s and the daughter is in her 50s, and i figured they’re both retired cos they come in during the morning time usually) are some of my favorite patrons. they are both so sweet. the sweetest. the daughter gives us money for the fine drawer for poor kids who have fines on their cards and can’t pay. that’s how nice she is. the mom and the daughter have the same first name, and their last names are also similar. obviously i can’t tell you their names, so instead i’ll make up names: Hope Johnson and Hope Johnstone. seriously, their names are that similar.

so he says to me, “do you know Hope Johnson and Hope Johnstone?”

“i do know them. they are very sweet.”

“they are. that’s my mom and sister, the Hopes.”

“well, it’s nice to meet you.”

blah blah blah.

he came in two weeks ago and so i ask him, “hey, how’s the Hopes? i haven’t seen them in a while.”

and he tells me that they went on a cruise. well how cool is that? the sweet Hopes out on a cruise!

so okay, it’s been weeks now and i haven’t seen the Hopes at all. he comes in today and i ask him, “hey, where are the Hopes? did they have a nice cruise?”

and he, not smiling or anything, says, “they’re sleeping.” and that’s it. he doesn’t say anything else. not even thank you or good bye. nothing.

oh my gosh, you guys. they’re dead. i just know it! he’s murdered them! they’re buried in the backyard! they’re “sleeping” in the ground. *gasp* he’s a stone cold killer. and he’s killed the Hopes! the sweet, sweet Hopes! who could kill the Hopes? what kind of monster?!

i know! and i thought about calling them and acting like we had a book on reserve for one of them, but then i mean, what if they were just sleeping? i didn’t want to wake them up.

they’re totally in the backyard, aren’t they?

i should probably read something other than crime fic, huh?

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anticool

Category: dribblings

every so often (daily) i prove to the world i am anticool. this usually involves me talking to other people.

por exemplo: yesterday a teen (perhaps ‘tween? it’s hard to tell.) was checking out a stack of Nancy Drews. a tall stack, hee, of Nancys. so i think to myself, hey self, talk to the teen so she knows that we’re a cool library and that we think teens are people too. she’ll think hey, this is a cool library and the library workers here are really nice and cool. yeah, that’s how it will go down.

lemme interrupt to say that most times i don’t comment on what someone is checking out. it seems rude. sometimes, if it’s an adult checking out something like Berenstein Bears but they don’t have the kids with them i’ll tease ’em and be all, “ah, doing some light reading?” or if it’s a book i’ve read i’ll tell them that it’s a good one or a weird one or what have you. but mostly i don’t even notice what people check out. plus, a lot of times people are checking out things you really shouldn’t comment on, “oh, getting a divorce? good luck with that!” see?

so it’s really easy to work all day and not think about books at all. they become rectangles. but anyway, there’s the girl with the stack of Nancys. so Jan is scanning the books and i’m putting the dates on them and i say to the teen i say, “so, you like Nancy Drew?” and the girl is all, “yeah.” and i ask, “is she still dating Ned?” and the girl is all, “yeah.” and she takes her books and walks away.

i turn to Jan and say, “DON’T LET ME TALK ANYMORE.”

“what? why?”

“i just asked her if Nancy and Ned are still dating. as if they are real people. as if, somehow, the storylines and plots of books written 70 years ago have… changed? OF COURSE NANCY AND NED ARE TOGETHER. HOW WOULD THEY NOT BE? what, like suddenly in book #108 there’s a love triange with Ned, Nancy, and Bess?”

“heh.”

“don’t let me talk to any more patrons tonight. i’m the blackhole of cool. if coolness comes around i just suck it up, and it disappears, and i become more dense.”

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if only…

Category: dribblings

finally! a cell phone that’s also a harmonica!

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

this is the bee’s knees.

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last week at my little bro’s house

Category: dribblings

last week Popsicle and i went to Good Ol’ Floppy Top, TN to visit my leetle brather. it was a great trip! he was feeling good and we went out and played tourist and not once did we turn on the TV. awesome!

we visited Stones River National Battlefield, which is called “Hell’s Half Acre” because it was one of the bloodiest battles of the  Civil War. something like over 25,000 people died (both sides combined).

 it was a gorgeous day. i took some pictures.

first, i had to take a pic of the gas station so Laura can add it to her gas station with questionable names pics.

then we went to the Hazen Brigade grave monument. there are only a few graves here and they’re in this stone wall enclousure. really small. this monument is the oldest intact Civil War memorial in the nation.


yes. i too, thought the graves seemed really close together. we assume that maybe it’s more like a mass grave?


and maybe the grave markers are sort of separated into sections by rank?


every grave marker looks different, and two apparently are missing.


it feels just as disturbing as it looks.

 

then we went down the road a bit to Stones River National Cemetery. it’s huge!

here’s justin and popsicle checking out a cannon.

but they couldn’t do anything with it because some a-hole had welded all the cannon balls together.

can you see all those graves in the background?

 


hey, what are those turkeys doing?

if i remember right, all of the graves are union soldiers. since the battle was fought in the south most of the confederate soldiers were sent to their hometowns to be buried. and the ones that could not be identified are buried in a mass grave… somewhere close by. i wasn’t paying close attention. sorry. i’ll do better next time.

then we went to the battlefield (well, the part that’s left) but it’s kinda bland and really quiet. the cemetery was filled with birds and noise, but the battlefield was too quiet and no birds, just a couple of joggers. kinda weird, i thought. we did the tour through the visitor center and saw all the dioramas and such. the park ranger was glad to get to do her spiel.

then we went down the road about half a mile and saw a Buddist temple. if this seems out of place to you well, that’s because it is.

that place was far creepier than the battlefield. all of the gold was so shiny. there were two weird building and everything was surrounded but this dark red and gold fence. i cannot describe to you how crazy gold all the gold was.

after that we went to the park/wetland/museum house thing in the ghetto. but i’ll post those pictures tomorrow or over the weekend.

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Character Tuesday

Category: dribblings

i know most public libraries (and probably public places in general) have their characters. yesterday, most of our recurring characters came in. we see these people once a week but usually we’ll just be blessed with one a day, maybe two. but yesterday? WE HAD THEM ALL. let me give you an idea:

Office Max – he comes in to use the computers. he prints out things every day and makes copies every day. then he comes up to the desk to “borrow” paperclips, scissors, highlighters, pens. he’s an ass because he KNOWS he’s going to print out stuff and he NEVER brings any supplies.  he’s a liar.

Voldemort – also a computer user. he did not come in yesterday only because we did not say his name. if one of us says his name, his real name? it never fails. he’ll come in. he is a menace. there’s not enough cyberspace for me to name all of his offenses. just know that several times he’s had his card revoked. he lies a lot.

Misery Guts – this guy. he comes in and sighs loudly. like he hates being at the ‘brary. he groans, he mumbles a lot. always sighing. he is so loud with the sighing and mumbling. and on the days he uses the computer he’s always, “why isn’t this working?” in a loud, almost whiny voice. maybe he has really bad back pain? so maybe whenever he moves it hurts so that’s why he’s always grunting and groaning and sighing? i dunno. but he’s NEVER happy.

Tweaky – this lady comes in quite a bit. she never checks out books and never (that i can remember) uses the computers. the only thing she does is buy books and magazines out of the book sale section. nearly every day. and she appears to be on drugs. something that makes her twitchy and nervous. she is also creepy.

The Demon Lady – she has demons. very creepy. also? i’m not the only one who recognizes that she has demons.

Columbo – he comes in at least once a week. he’s an old guy always spouting off all this polical bullshit. (he writes a lot of letters to the editor in our local paper. he wouldn’t be satisfied if we lived in Utopia.) he knows i don’t vote republican (he guessed from my hair color a while back) so now he makes it a point to slam President Obama. yesterday he had me read a paragraph out of a set of 30 year old supermarket encyclopedias about Herbert Hoover and how his public works system didn’t work. i’m not allowed to discuss politics with patrons (nor do i want to) so i pretty much have to grin and bear it. and he knows this. the reason his name is Columbo (Jan came up with the name and it’s brilliant) is because JUST when you think he’s going to leave he’ll turn around and come back up to the desk with “just one more thing…” just like Peter Falk did in EVERY episode Columbo.

we’ve lots of other characers, but

1. they aren’t usually unpleasant per se.

2. they didn’t come in yesterday and

3. i don’t have great nicknames for them. mostly they have titles, like: The Thief. The Lady Who Always Wears Pink Lipstick Who Has No Business Wearing That Shade Of Pink Lipstick. The Annoying Lady With No Volume Control and Has the Two Most Ill-behaved Children but I Think It’s Because She Ignores Them and Then Beats Them Instead of Correcting Their Behavior, But Then Again What Do I Know? The Very Demanding Old Lady. The Lazy Brainless Wonder Who is a Retired Teacher and Acts as Though She Could Never Find a Book By Herself to Save Her Life.

oh, there’s Sunglasses. she usually wears sunglasses, even at night. she isn’t blind.

Talkie and The Deaf Lady. a married couple. he’s a talker (and i always get stuck with him.) and she’s going deaf, but i’m wondering if she’s lying about the deaf thing and is just sick of listening to him talk?

The Mean Deaf Guy. he’s mean. and deaf.

but there’s also The Really Sweet Blind Lady. The Old Flirty (but not in a dirty gross way) Teacher Guy Who is Super Nice. there’s a couple of Home School Mafia that come in and most are really great. some of them have a sense of entitlement, like they should be able to check out 5 books on Japan because that’s what they are studying, and then they get all huffy when we only let them have two. because that’s the rule, only two books per subject, because we’re a small library and we don’t have infinite resources here. some of them whine all, “well i’m not a teacher and so i don’t have all the resources so i need 5 books on Japan.” and i want to be all, “well if you’re not a teacher and you don’t have all the “resources” maybe you should get your kids vaccinated and send them on to public school so we can all get on with our lives.” but i can’t say that. that’s mean. i just tell them sorry, those are the rules. two books. when you finish with those return them and get two different ones. geez, like it’s rocket science?

and i’d even understand if they lived 20 miles away and it was hard to get here, but they don’t and it isn’t. and the ones who DO live far away? good as gold. never ask for special treatment. they’re the best.

most of the HSM are really great. there’s just a couple i dread.

actually, most of our patrons are AWESOME. no kidding. we have the BEST patrons. there’s only a mere handful that are a… handful. i love my job and the patrons and i’m actually excited when i get ot work cos i wonder, “who is going to come in today?” and sometimes? they bring us cookies.

you can’t beat that.

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7. Stay by Nicola Griffith

Category: 50 Books

7. Stay by Nicola Griffith

This is the sequel to The Blue Place. They are both fantastic books, but they’re different. The Blue Place was sort of this hardboiled crime thriller while Stay is more of a story about character growth. I liked The Blue Place so much that I was afraid to read Stay because I didn’t think it could be as good as the first one. It’s not so much that I doubted the author exactly, it’s more like how many times do we all get burned from a series, right?

Well, I should not have worried. Stay was great. It was almost like a reward for reading the first book. Not that the first one wasn’t it’s own reward… maybe I should say it was like a bonus reward? Two rewards for one book! Which is actually two books! Okay, moving on.

In this book Aud is grieving. And it seems she’s not very good at it, but also maybe she’s the best at it? She takes herself out of the “real world” and moves to North Carolina to a part of Appalachia (right?) to build a log cabin, just like you or I would do. Eventually her pal Dornan finds her and asks her to come back and find his girlfriend who has gone missing. She doesn’t want to because his girlfriend is not a good girlfriend really, and Aud never liked her, but Dornan is one of the few pals she has so there you go.

I don’t want to tell you the rest of it because YOU SHOULD TOTALLY BE READING THESE BOOKS. There were two parts in the book where I stopped reading and was all, “WHAT?! Did that just happen?! Did she…I think she just… no way!” But in a good way. But I don’t want to ruin the surprise(s).

My favorite parts were the ones where Aud has to interact with the children, Luz and Button. Good stuff. I can’t wait to read the third one.

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Praise Report Confessional

Category: dribblings

confession is good for the soul, but it’s hell on the pride. which is probably the point. and when it comes to spiritual/supernatural things i am one of the biggest fools out there. i mean, no kidding, my idiocy is very wide and well deep. whatever bigness and deepness you’re picturing? make it bigger.

bigger.

almost.

there! see? it’s huge.

and trust me, i don’t want to be dense. i don’t.
but, i am. and it’s so embarrassing. because i am so blessed, often, (i mean like, *often*, dig? a lot of “a lots”.) with supernatural things, mostly from God, i’d say. wouldn’t you, laura? liz?

and so here i must confess a really dumb thing i did. because it might be important to someone else, and also because maybe if i say it out loud i won’t screw it up next time? we’ll see.

several weeks ago at church there was a guest speaker. he was, let’s see, not really my cuppa tea. in fact, i’ve been referring to him as The TV Preacher. i’m not sure he’s an actual TV Preacher, but he was dressed as one, had hair like one, and spoke like one. he… he even testified. i think. my experience with TV Preachers is kinda limited.

so the TV Preacher was preaching his TV Preacher message and i was not impressed, but i was actually not pissed about it. which is huge. i mean, usually something like that would piss me off and i’d have negative thoughts about it all day, but the whole time i was all, “this is totally not for me. but maybe it’s for someone else? and that would be cool.” so really, i was sort of ambivalent the whole time. but i figured that maybe someone in the church needed to hear a TV Preacher speak so God brought in TV Preacher.

so that’s good, right? there’s growth and maturity in that.
right.

but at the end of the preaching there was the altar callin’ part. which, obviously, whatever.
(i’m trying to tread lightly here.)

then there was this strange prayer part where he’d be all, “is there someone in here who has asthma? we’re healing asthma now!” and so, well, THIS IS OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE.

and so maybe i’m in panic-mode now? LIKE YOU WEREN’T? come on.

so i was sitting there thinking that if i hadn’t been on the worship team and didn’t have to take down my bass gear, I’D BE HOME BY NOW. but as it was, i was sitting there thinking, hoping, that everything would be cool. let the TV Preacher put on his show, something good would probably come of it. i know that it’s not all about me and my comfort zone; i’m not a total selfish asshole.

i am *often* a selfish asshole, but not always.

so i was cool. i sat there and watched and didn’t even have too many heebie-jeebies. and a lot of what he said i couldn’t understand because he had a really southern accent and talked all TV Preacher-y and would sometimes refer to himself in the third person, and jaime has a hard time following that sometimes.

i know, always with the joke cracking, am i.

plus, i was sitting next to liz. and she’s like a wall of calm. so i thought maybe i could blend in with her calm. so i’m there… blending… all camouflaged by liz. and this thing is going on forever. so i’m sitting there all, “Lord, please don’t let him call out my name. just… please? don’t let him say my name.”

and the TV Preacher says, “there’s someone here with a kidney infection. come up and get healed.” or somthing like that.

now, for weeks, WEEKS, my kidney has been bothering me. but i’m an idiot. do i go to the doc? no, of course not. why? because… i mean, it might not be my kidney. it’s probably my lower back. you know how tricky back pain is. plus, sciatica. i get that pain a lot, so it’s probably just that. and i’m not a big baby, no not me. so i don’t even tell anyone about my kidney pain. because it’s not my kidney. i am well good at denial.

“someone? anyone? kidney pain? come get healed.”

no one goes up. cos no one has kidney problems. and i mean, it’s not *my* kidney, how *could* it be my kidney? my kidneys are just fine, thank you. now, would someone who has an actual kidney problem get up there so we can end this thing? gah, someone take one for the team here. but i mean, not me, obviously. i’m not going up there. and i nearly turn to liz to say, “why don’t you go up there so we can get this over with?”

always with the joke cracking.

but i didn’t say that to liz because she was taking a drink of her coffee.

and right then. RIGHT THEN. the TV Preacher, getting no hits on the kindey, says, and i swear to God, who knows this because He was there, he says, “is there a painter here? some one who paints?”

liz nearly does a spit-take with her coffee.

i said, “shit.”

mr. finlayson turns around and looks at me as if to say, “dude, you’re up.”

because i can’t deny painting. i can’t say, “oh, he means an artist. so that’s not me.” because damn if i don’t have an art degree and damn if i didn’t major in PAINTING, of all the asinine things to get a degree in. and i can’t say, “oh, he means a house painter. some poor schmuck who has to paint houses for a living.” because half of everyone at the church knows i paint houses.

so shit. it pops in my head that if i just get up there it’ll go away faster, like ripping off a band-aid fast instead of slowly pulling it off, right? plus, i figure if i stay in my seat two things will happen:

1. everyone, all my pals, will call me a chicken shit. and

2. i’m certain the next thing out of that guy’s mouth will be something like, “is there a pickle here? pickle? anyone?”

and like, the one thing i asked God was to not call out my name. and so far he’s made good on that but even i know when not to press my luck with The Lord. so i get up and go to the front, which i’m sure took 3 seconds but my legs felt like i’d never walked before, so i’m sure i Frankensteined my way up there.

The Lord, who loves me, threw me a bone because Mr. B. was up there so i grabbed his arm and i think i said to him, “don’t leave me.” then the TV Preacher, who had been kinda normal in his TV Preacherness so far, which was nice i thought, he grabbed my head with both hands (which was not startling at all. ha. HA.) and then, THEN proceeded to speak in tongues. which he had not done all day for which i had been grateful, because i’ve never gotten used to hearing people speak in tongues. who gets used to that? really? who?

shut up, you.

so, there it is: me, in a headlock, TV Preacher speaking in tongues.

typical sunday afternoon with jaimie.

ha.

when it was over i went back to my seat and did not look at liz. after a few minutes she says to me she says, “did you notice how, this whole time, he didn’t speak in tongues until he got to you?”

“yeah. i noticed.”

“heh.”

all of that to say (i know, right? longwinded much?) it was just today that i notice my kidney has not bothered me since.

so on one hand, “Praise report!” and on the other, oblivious hand, i’m a total ass. i always thought i’d be like the one leper who came back to thank Jesus. surely i wouldn’t be one of those ungrateful um, como se dice?… previously… leperous schmos (o, knights who.. till recently said ni!) who never come back to thank Jesus for healing them. but apparently? yes. that’s me. total my bad.

so, in short, (ha.) Thank you Jesus, for being so good to me. You are amazing and I’m so glad you have more patience than I do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Amen.

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6. In the Shadow of the Master: Classic Tales by Edgar Allan Poe edited by Michael Connelly

Category: 50 Books

6. In the Shadow of the Master: Classic Tales by Edgar Allan Poe edited by Michael Connelly

I just finished this slightly gimmicky anthology celebrating the 200th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe. It was very entertaining. There would be a classic Poe story or poem and afterward there would be an essay by a modern mystery writer/Edgar Award winning/nominated author telling about their love of Poe or their first experience with Poe. That kind of thing. So it was kind of a “Best of Poe” with bonus essays that were entertaining and not critical essays.

My favorite essay (I had three or four faves, but this one was my favorite fave) was Laurie R. King’s (not because I just read one of her series) but because it was so funny.

It was also interesting to find out that many of today’s mystery authors were introduced to Poe through those Roger Corman B-movies that are so awesome in their badness.

My favorite Poe story will remain Cask of Amontillado, but I also like Descent into the Maelström, and not just because it has an umlaut in the title. I did not like The Gold-Bug, which you’d think I’d love, I mean, code breaking and pirate treasure? Who doesn’t love that? But to me the story was weak, and of course the way he wrote the slave was way too condescending. I mean, I know EAP was from the south and probably owned a slave at one time or another, but it was just too much. So I wasn’t too keen on that one.

Oh, and while I was reading William Wilson I couldn’t help thinking hmm, Fight Club? Awesome. I am Jack’s homage to Edgar Allan Poe.

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