| |
[Nov. 22nd, 2008|02:41 pm] |
Happy birthday, ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) limyaael! |
|
|
| |
[Nov. 22nd, 2008|02:03 pm] |
Masque of the Red Death has updated twice in the past two weeks. After only one or two updates a month, this is a pleasant surprise. I have to wonder about the speed-up -- the print version of Volume One just came out in October. A fear of losing their momentum (and therefor their audience)? Or did Wendy just have the most recent chapters backlogged, and other business matters were responsible for the slooow schedule before?
In any case, the party's started. And there's BOOBIES! |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 29th, 2008|01:22 pm] |
Late October is the time buy paper-white narcissus bulbs to force for Christmas: They take six weeks.
Masque of the Red Death is finally starting to get to the goddamned party. Note for slashers: flick back to chapter 8 of part one for some nekkid hot guys doing it. |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 27th, 2008|06:00 pm] |
In Germany, the Oktoberfest is a month of feasting. This custom was begun in Bavaria in 1810 to celebrate the wedding of the future King Ludwig I.
Beginning of Book-Reading Week in Japan, when people are encouraged to stay home in the evening and read books. |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 22nd, 2008|04:59 pm] |
|
Happy birthday, tehrin! |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 17th, 2008|04:00 pm] |
Never was a newspaper so heavy as this 1965 Sunday's New York Times. It had 946 pages and weight 7 1/2 (3-4 kg).
Wait until any possibility of Indian Summer is over to plant tulip bulbs.
Clear moon, frost soon. |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 16th, 2008|02:09 pm] |
Pare a small pumpkin, about four pounds, and take out the seeds. Steam till soft, and strain through a colander.
Beat in three eggs, three tablespoonfuls of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of ground cinnamon, one of ginger, two teaspoonfuls of salt and two quarts of hot milk. If more sweetening is needed add a little sugar. Bake with an under crust only. This recipe will make five pies.
(If anyone tries this recipe, let me know how it turns out!)
Onions keep best roped and hung up in a dry cold room.
Small cabbages, laid on a stone floor before the frost sets in, will blanch and be very fine, after many weeks' keeping. |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 15th, 2008|05:39 pm] |
It is bad luck to peel peaches, pears or apples alone.
American farmers used to make a pear cider called "perry".
A waistcoat is worn for the first time, in 1666, by Charles II of England. According to Samuel Pepys, it was "a long casscoke close to the body, of black cloth and pink white silk under it". |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 14th, 2008|06:09 pm] |
An apple tree puts to shame all the men and women that have attempted to dress since the world began. -- H. W. Beecher
October is the apple harvest month. There are many beliefs, sayings and games associated with apple. A game of bobbing for apples in a tub originated at apple harvest celebrations; if you throw an apple peel over your shoulder, the letter it forms will be the initial of your future husband; stick two apple seeds on your cheeks and name each one for a suitor -- the one that sticks longest loves you most.
Apples shouldn't touch each other in storage. Marble shelves are especially good for keeping apples.
To preserve apples: Dry a glazed jar and put a few small stones in the bottom. Fill the jar with apples and cover it with a piece of wood that fits the top exactly, spreading fresh mortar over it.
(Good lord -- you need a jackhammer to get at your apples?!)
Finished Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller and scored a Komarr in hardcover at the library for 40 cents. |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 10th, 2008|01:16 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your blog.
melannen gave me C.
( C ) |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 5th, 2008|03:45 pm] |
There is an old American belief that you could get rid of ann infestation of rats by writing them a letter and persuading them to go elsewhere. The letter should be rolled up a nd put into one of their holes. Following is an example of such a letter dated October 5, 1888. A writer of the time assures us that as a result of this letter "the number of the pests had been considerably diminished."
Messrs. Rats and Co., --- Having taken quite a deep interest in your welfare in regard to your winter quarters I thought I would drop you a few lines which may be of some considerable benefit to you inthe future seeing that you have pitched your winter quarters at the summer reisdence of ****** No. 1 Seaview Street. i wish to infomr you that you will be very much distsurbed during cold winter months as I am expecting to be at work through all parts of the house, shall take down ceilings, take up floors, and clean up every substance that would serve to make you comfortable, likewise there will be nothing left for you to feed on. as I shall remove every eatable substance; so you had better take up your abode elsewhere. I will here refer tyou to the farm of **** No. 6 Incubator Street, where you will find a splendid cellar well filled with vegetables of (all) kinds besides a shed leading to a barn, with a good supply of grain, where you can live snug and happy. Shall do you no harm if you heed to my advice; but if not, shall employ "Rough on Rats". |
|
|
| |
[Sep. 29th, 2008|09:37 am] |
St. Michael's Day or Michaelmas -- the oldest of the "Angel" festivals. St. Michael is regarded as the protector against the devil and the guide to heaven. This autumn holiday marks the beginning of the dark time of the year.
Michaelmas is one of the four days upon which quarterly rent is commonly paid. Goose is usually eaten at dinner. Magistrates were traditionally appointed on this day, and rulers were propitiated with the gift of a goose.
By tradition, one may sleep late on St. Michael's Day:
Nature requires five,
Custom gives seven;
Laziness takes nine,
And Michaelmas eleven. |
|
|
| Mad Men musings |
[Sep. 20th, 2008|04:19 pm] |
Dan Draper is a dick.
Crane is shooting himself in the foot by not keeping whatsername on as his assistant
Crystal ball says something's going to set Peggy off soon, possibly with the priest. |
|
|
| |
[Sep. 14th, 2008|03:50 pm] |
I've been raiding the library lately: mostly true crime, with some other non-fiction, and young adult and children's books I used to read. An old friend from school has a little girl, and asked for some titles of stuff I used to read. So I've been scanning the shelves.
It's weird. The books I remember as being huge are actually... pretty skinny. The cataloging is peculiar, too.There didn't used to be separate categories for children's and YA, only the picture books/preschool to kindergarten had their own area. Why is some of Louisa May Alcott's stuff in children's section and some of it in the young adult? Why is Tiger Eyes in the children's section, and not the YA along with Forever? Treasure Island? YA. Kidnapped!? Children's.
Why is Richard Peck's Are You In the House Alone? in the children's section?
The library itself isn't as big as I remember. I think I got spoiled from the library at my old place. New, huge (two floors, plus a basement for storage), they'd even buy tv-show and gaming tie-in novels. The science fiction section was mostly hardcover.
There isn't a sf-only area anymore, here. It's all mixed in with general fiction. Which is where I found the Kushiel's Dart series. Part of it, anyway. The rest I got through ILL.
I liked it. The "don't hate us because we're D'Angeline!" schtick got old, as did the constant 'twoulds and 'twas. I'd been hearing how erotic it was; to be honest, I didn't think it was all that graphic, or that hot. Carey hit my description button, though, and I like how the focus of the series shifted from Phedra to Imriel. He's emo and self-absorbed, but he pays for it, and in Kushiel's Justice shows signs of growing out of it. I'm curious to see if mommy Melisandre will ever show back up or not. |
|
|
| August |
[Aug. 1st, 2008|11:42 am] |
In the old Roman calendar, this, the sixth month, was named Sextilis. Because of the auspicious events that ocured during it, Augustus chose to confer his name upon this month instead of his birth month.
Known in Britain and in early colonial times as Lammas Day. This was the end of the farming season in Britain, where the harvest starts earlier than it doesd in the United States. It wsa the farmers' thanksgiving time until 1863.
Americal families would take the first loaf of bread from the new grain to church to be blessed by the minister. The word "Lammas" was originally "Loaf Mass".
Institution in 1469 of the French order of knighthood -- the Order of St. Michael. The thirty-six knights could be degraded only for heresy, treason, or cowardice.
New London Bridge opened by King William IV and Queen Adelaide in 1834. Old London Bridge had been build ing 1209 and carried a nearly continuous row of four-story buildings, interrupted only by an open area used for jousting in medieval times.
Swiss Confederation Day. Commemorates creation of the Swiss confederation in 1291 for defense against the Austrians. |
|
|
| |
[Jul. 25th, 2008|08:17 am] |
Day of St. James the Great, patron saint of Spain.
Festival of St. Christopher. French fishermen say that the flounder has a crooked mouth because it made faces instead of listening when St. Christoper preached a sermon to the fishes. St. Christopher, who carried Jesus on his back across a stream, is the patron saint of travellers.
If you plant turnips on the twenty-fifth of July,
You will have turnips, wet or dry. |
|
|
| |
[Jul. 21st, 2008|12:18 pm] |
To get rid of the sting of a nettle or other vegetable: Rub the afflicted part with balm, rosemary, mint, or any other aromatic herb and the smart will cease at once.
It was once believed that milk should be used to extinguish fires caused by lightning. |
|
|
| |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|05:29 am] |
|
Happy birthday, notjo! |
|
|