“Not bovvered” in Downing Street
(US readers: for background that will help you understand / get the joke in the above, first check this page and the video on it)
[tags]Downing Street, Comic Relief, Tony Blair[/tags]
I roared. Someone email this to JKR, quick…
The seventh and last installment of boy wizard Harry Potter and his antics at Hogwarts, sinisterly titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Gallows…
Whoopsie! (snicker)
[tags]J. K. Rowling, JKR, Harry Potter, deathly, Hogwarts, July, 21[/tags]
You didn’t disguise your identity as thoroughly as you may think you did. I will have my revenge.
Meanwhile:
1.What is your favorite Christmas carol/song?
“Fairytale of New York”, the Pogues.
2.White lights or multicolored?
White.
3. Do you have a cut tree, live tree or an artificial tree?
Artificial.
4. Eggnog, mulled cider, or hot chocolate?
Eggnog. And only one possible recipe, the one passed to me by the divine Miss S. Mulled cider?? You have to be kidding. Optional alternative: Gluhwein (see this video for one of the best places to see it made.)
5. Do you decorate your house with lights?
Only on the inside.
6. Do you write a Christmas letter?
Nope.
7. Do you like receiving Christmas letters/photos?
Don’t mind.
8. What is your favorite Christmas story/movie?
A Christmas Story.
9. Have you ever made a gingerbread house?
Yes. Sometimes repeatedly.
10. Poinsettias or holly?
Holly.
11. Do you display a nativity scene?
No.
12. Do you bake Christmas cookies?
Sometimes, usually ones from Festive Classics: Holiday Baking in the Swiss, German and Austrian Traditions.
13. Ham or turkey?
Turkey.
14. In what languages can you wish someone a Merry Christmas (without cheating)?
Merry Christmas
Frohe Weihnachten
Feliz Navidad
Joyeux Noel
15. Do you know all the words to Jingle Bells?
No.
16. Do you put presents under the tree?
No.
17. How do you eat a candy cane?
Only under duress. That ribbon candy, though, I really like that. Probably a good thing I can’t find it around here. 🙂
18. What is your biggest holidays pet peeve?
Not being able (without consequences) to run down the street shrieking “Io Saturnalia!” and insist that major public officials swap jobs with me for the day.
19. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
Recovering from it.
20. What was the best present you ever got for Christmas?
A Patty Play Pal doll.
(And I’m adding two questions:)
21. What’s your favorite holiday TV special?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
22. What’s your favorite fictional holiday TV special?
The Six Tasks of Snowman Hank.
(sigh) OK, that’s over with.
(Disclaimer: The above should not be taken as evidence of adherence to any personal religion, discipline or belief system. Void where prohibited by natural law. NOT A FLYING TOY.)
I was sitting in one of the cafés in our nearby shopping town this morning, listening to the (sigh: inevitable, this is Ireland) Christmas music playing in the background. What they had playing was actually fairly pleasant, for a change — a compilation CD — and I started thinking idly about blogging a list of my ten favorite pieces of Christmas music.
Having finished the errands I’d gone out for, I came home and fired up the machine and prepared to get back to work on the screenplay I’m finishing at the moment. And while hunting down a couple of things on the Web, I found…this.
It’s a rendition of “O Holy Night” that bears the same relationship to the general performance- level of recorded Christmas carols that the inimitable and invaluable The Eye of Argon bears to the general class of published heroic fantasy.
Oh me. Oh me. Do NOT have liquids anywhere near your mouth while listening to this.
[tags]Christmas, music, carol, O Holy Night[/tags]
Goodle. It’s Google News…but all good.
Including:
World Peace sparks outpourings of joy
George Lucas to refilm all three Star Wars prequels
Spam drying up
Scientists pack up: “Everything explained”
Rivers, lakes of wine and beer
Golden age back
And more. (sigh) Just the headlines, unfortunately.
[tags]Google, Goodle, humor[/tags]
I now have a personal referent for the phrase “horrified fascination”. It’s the inability to stop watching this unfold.
The latest developments:
Haha, I’m partying with Paris and you’re not.
Boo hoo. Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’m gonna go eat worms. (Noises off: “Yes, you’re right, we all hate you, just STFU.”) Also: Im sorry, I luv u, pls tk me bak…
No way. What do I need you for? I’m so important I can show everybody my crotch. Repeatedly. And I’m gonna have a big important show in Las Vegas. And I’m gonna go there for New Year’s and be the star of a big party in the club where you recorded your last flop, and you’re so not invited. AND I’m gonna be the hostess of the Billboard awards with Paris. NYAH NYAH!
(However: inferred but not yet confirmed — Britney gets wind of something that Paris has supposedly said about her. And immediately thereafter:)
And I thought you were my friend! So I’m not doing the Billboards, and you can just stand there and be host all by yourself and everybody’ll know why, you traitor. Take that!
(Paris Update: Well, I’m not doing them either. I didn’t like the jokes they wrote for me. Which were probably about you.)
(headclutch) Dear Goddess, it’s like watching a train wreck. It just keeps… on… going… It can’t get worse than this, really it can’t.
(waits in a resigned manner for the world to prove her wrong)
[tags]K-Fed, britney, spears, federline, paris, hilton, train wreck, gossip[/tags]
Somebody at the BBC deserves a cookie for this one.
Transgender MP in toilet fracas
Pity, though: I had hoped it was a British MP. Turns out the story hails from Italy.
An Italian opposition MP and former showgirl has expressed outrage after meeting a transgender colleague in the parliament’s ladies’ toilets.
Elisabetta Gardini, spokeswoman for former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s party, said she felt ill after the encounter during a break in Friday’s session.
The incident led to heated debate about which toilet the transgender MP, known as Vladimir Luxuria, could use.
Initial response: I want a transcript! (Update: and lo, the wonderful aynathie has given us one. Hilarious.)
Secondary response: I think Signora Gardini needs to grow herself a skin. (Or follow Silvio’s example and go have some work done on the one she’s got.)
[tags]Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Luxuria, Elisabetta Gardini, toilet[/tags]
Something I saw long ago and loved, and forgot about: the link is to a four-minute video at YouTube. (Via Mark Evanier’s website. Thanks, Mark!)
Our major satellite TV provider, Sky, will shortly be showing all six Star Wars films at once on Sky Movies. As part of the promotional campaign for this, they’ve constructed some amusing little thirty-second spots, a couple of which are styled like their own ads and use Sky voice talent and onscreen presenters. (The “VI” visual motif they’re using for the six movies turns up here and there.)
[tags]Sky Movies, Star Wars, Sky Travel, Sky News Weather[/tags]
Okay, now I’m rolling my eyes really hard. Not yet completely freaked…until this happens twice.
Via the excellent kerithwyn:
Unfortunately, I need to report an “oops” regarding the lulu.com printing of Raetian Tales 1: A Wind from the South. I ordered it and received the shipment very quickly…only to find that while the cover was correct, the interior text was that of another book entirely, some sort of evangelical text: http://www.lulu.com/content/387049
And goodness, just look at the blurb on this:
Written from a completely Christian perspective, Steve Aiken has just released his fourth book: There Will Be No Rescue. As a former police officer, bodyguard, D.C. lobbyist, and radio talk show host, Steve tells the story of his fascinating life with a self-help approach that will certainly encourage the reader. From the pinnacle of success to absolute ruin and public scorn; from breaking his neck to coming back years later and winning a state racquetball championship; From running one of the most heated congressional campaigns in the country to losing almost everything in his life again, Steve holds nothing back in sharing the life lessons he has learned.
Um, well, neither do I. Is it too much to hope that Lulu will reverse the compliment and publish the contents of A Wind from the South inside that guy’s covers?
…Oh, well, okay, I guess it is. Never mind. But back to —
Life Lessons DD Has Learned and Holds Nothing Back in Sharing:
*Never tug on Syndrome’s cape.
*Never play cards with a woman called Doc.
*Never get into a land war in Chryse Planitia.
*And the best of the rest of them are here.
[tags]Diane Duane, A Wind from the South, Raetian Tales, fantasy, science fiction, Lulu.com, whoops[/tags]