So I had my cry out yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, a particularly angry cry for some reason, and then pulled my shit together. I curled up and reread The Golden Compass, which I remembered so little of that it was like a completely new book, and felt better afterwards. (For those of you wondering about the flurry of related posts here lately, a quick synopsis, with only minor first-quarter-of-the-book spoilers to set the scene.)
Something interesting that turned up in the comments of the previous entry: several people mentioned wanting to know where they could buy the Fifteen Minutes book I wrote (no, really, they did!). I was kind of surprised given how thoroughly I felt I'd plastered that information both here and
m15m, but to be fair, that was a year ago, and there are people reading now who weren't reading then. So: if you live in Europe or the UK, you ought to be able to find the book in shops, or get a shop to order it for you. (ETA: You can also get it in Australia and, IIRC, a few Asian countries as well.) If you're in North America, the only way to get it is from Amazon UK (which you can also use in Europe or the UK). Unlike Amazon US, which is being a bastard about shipping times in order to get people to stop using the Super Saver Shipping and switch over to the $79-a-year plan, Amazon UK has great, fast shipping. The book ends up being something like $11-12 (US), and then about $22 after shipping. And it's a 400-page hardback, ten movies not posted online, etc.--you're getting your money's worth rather than a flimsy half-assed paperback, is what I'm saying. And, like I was fond of saying last year, it's an excellent Christmas present for people who are hard to shop for, as long as they're okay with a LOTR/15M pull quote on the back cover containing the word "shit" (I still can't believe they did that).Meanwhile, I remembered an old joke I've always liked:
Q: What's worse than a worm in your apple?
A: The Holocaust.
Awful, and yet funny in an absurdist way because it's true. It's kind of a "It sucks, but it ain't Darfur" way of looking at the world, I guess.
(Random thought: While Christmas shopping on Amazon, I saw that Mattel has a Twelve Dancing Princesses Barbie thing going on now. This is the most brilliant marketing strategy I have ever seen: in order to properly act out the story, you have to buy at least twelve dolls [thirteen, including Prince Derek]. [Prince Derek?] )
Gunmen kidnap 10 children in Haiti.
Fla. senator defies Bush, visits Syria.
Mass. gay marriage critics sue lawmakers. I didn't even know you could do that.
2 convicted of killing tsunami victim ("killing a woman who survived the first waves of the 2004 tsunami but then was pushed back into the sea by the pair after they snatched her gold necklace." Aaaaaand there went my faith in humanity again).
Parton pledges $500,000 to hospital.
Big fine for underage 'Girls Gone Wild.'
Wisconsin hunter bags deer with 7 legs.
Man pulls 7-foot python from toilet.
A mouse hitches a ride.
A monkey and his duck (why yes, this is the all-animals edition of Cleo's Linkspam).
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