-
(Untitled)
Happy birthday, ann1962! -
Shall we blow a bubble, boys, glittering to distend
There is something of a small, personal and perhaps entirely trivial pleasure in opening up the file of a review one is working on, thinking it needs a lot more work, and looking at it and realising that it's more nearly done than one supposed. Then tapping out a couple more paragraphs and deciding that, no, really, this is probably all that needs ( Read more... ) -
Wednesday now has a supply of the nicer margaritas direct from supplier
What I read
Two more Mick Herrons, Spook Street (Slough House #4) (2017) and London Rules (Slough House #5) (2018), keeping up the high level.
This could not be said of Jonathan Kellerman, City of the Dead (Alex Delaware #37) (2022). This at first seemed to promise that the victim was murdered for some reason to do with her scammy, scammy, ( Read more... ) -
Rediscovery; and er, same old, same old
This, I think, does count as actual rediscovery of a neglected, if not entirely forgotten, author of the 60s/70s: Lost Beneath the Waves of Time: Jane Gaskell in/and the ’60s (and reading that I realise that she was a lacuna in those studies of Angry Young/Rebel Women Writers of the same period, but probably she was just too Out There and In Genre ( Read more... ) -
These are a bit random, I think
Meant to flag this up before for anyone who's interested: Chuck Upchurch, A Masterclass: Queer History: When did the popular ‘GAY’ LGBT+/Human Rights Campaign really start?
How about the ‘Gay’ Reform Movement of the 1830’s!?
Pioneering research by US Historian Charles Upchurch, whose specialist area is the first half of the 19th century, has ( Read more... ) -
Culinary
This week's bread: essayed the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book Buttermilk Loaf (which I made 50:50 strong wholemeal/wholemeal spelt) again, and this time factored in the second porrofing, and turned out quite well, if still slightly crumbly.
Friday night supper: the somewhat ersatz nasi goreng, with 2 kinds of salami and red bell pepper.
Saturday ( Read more... ) -
Literally larfft liek drayne
You be the judge: should my husband keep his motorbike in the house?
Really, this guy has a very odd relationship with his motorbikes, and sounds generally a bit of a liability around the house:
With the Z1, I do admit that it was difficult to walk past in my old place. I remember one time my bag got caught on a hook and split and the shopping went ( Read more... ) -
Rounding up some of the links
Heritage things:
This year's English Heritage blue plaques to include the 1888 Matchgirls' Strike, the Ayahs' Home in Hackney, and a pioneer of humane psychiatric care, Dr John Conolly and the Hanwell Asylum.
Campaigners are celebrating a victory in the battle for public access to the countryside, after the government agreed to cancel a deadline to ( Read more... ) -
Somewhat point thahr, misst?
I would have thought that the whole point of buying one's cocktails premixed in a bottle was, you know, so as not to faff around with mixing the ingredients, doing the poncey shaker thing, straining the stuff into an appropriate glass, but just sticking an appropriate measure into a glass, with or without ice, to taste.
However - the other week, ( Read more... ) -
Wednesday has resisted crossing Twitter streams
What I read
Stephanie Burgis, Good Neighbors: The Full Collection (2022), which somehow didn't quite do it for me, somehow the central romantic relationship seemed dashed off. Also Stephanie Burgis, Spellcloaked: A Harwood Spellbook Story (2021), short story, slight but pleasant.
Ruthanna Emrys, Deep Roots (The Innsmouth Legacy, #2> (2018), which ( Read more... )