formerly a fearless temp

Today I finished a reread of Sylvester, which was one of the first Georgette Heyer novels I read when I started picking up her books on your recommendation a few years ago. I took it out of the library back then, so I haven't had it lying around my house for the past few years for me to pick up every so often and refresh my memory by paging over my favorite parts, and so I had completely forgotten the plot and was forced to reread from cover to cover. The experience was, as you might imagine, awesome, and has tempted me to impose on myself something like the Disney policy of releasing movies for public consumption - they should only be available for a few months, and then should disappear for several years, so that when they appear again I've just about forgotten the plot and can enjoy the book anew.

Sadly, I lack the self-control to put away Heyer novels, and the only ones that will stay off my shelves are going to be the ones that haven't been rereleased lately and whose out-of-print copies I haven't purchased for myself online.

But the point of my entry was supposed to be this: Sylvester was awesome. Even better than I'd remembered, and I'd remembered it as pretty wonderful. It's so rare to come across a book that isn't just fun, or funny, or involving, or entertaining - this was one of those books I itched to finish because it was so great to read, a book that I seriously considered reading as I walked out to my car after work, so desperate was I to get back to it after I'd had to put it down at the end of lunch.

Now that I think of it, I've been kind of indulging a Heyer resurgence in my reading habits over the last few months - a few new to me, most rereads.

Rereads Found to Be Totally Awesome:

-Frederica - One of the funniest, in my opinion, and Frederica herself is just so great.

-The Corinthian - I find Pen totally endearing.

-Black Sheep - Almost identical to Lady of Quality, and I enjoy Black Sheep a lot more.

New to Me, Also Totally Awesome

-These Old Shades - I took forever to read it because the subject matter sounded weird and unappealing - an old duke falls in love with a young girl masquerading as his page? Creepy! And yet when I read it, of course I TOTALLY LOVED IT!

-Devil's Cub - Took forever to read this one because it was a sequel to the above - and, of course, totally loved it. Mary Challoner is so great.

-The Talisman Ring - I had this lying around my house for a few years and never read it because it sounded adventure-y and not very funny and/or romantic, but when I finally gave it a good try a few months ago I found that it was really quite hilarious and sweet. It's also a good example of her talent in writing about and respecting a variety of character types - she treats both the melodramatic couple and the practical couple with affection and respect.

Books Whose Good Bits I Reread Too Often For Me To Ever Have A Satisfactory Rediscovery Of The Text:

-Cotillion - Possibly my favorite ending of all Heyer books.

-Venetia - No, this has my favorite ending.

New to Me, and Rather Disappointing

-The Black Moth - I couldn't even get to the end of this one.

Now the real problem: What do I read as a follow up to the greatness of Sylvester? Clearly the only option is a Heyer novel I haven't read in a while. I think I've got Arabella squirreled away somewhere . . .

.i. cinderella complex

On my way into work today, my shoe came off as I was going up the outside cement steps to my building, which would be annoying anytime, but was made particularly wretched because (1) it was raining, (2) my forward momentum was unstoppable and so I stomped right down on the dirty concrete with my knee-highed foot, and (3) there were two people hot on my heels who saw it happen.

I am familiar with embarrassing moments like this one, and the truth is that most of the time other people are pretty cool about it. If you face up to your embarrassment with a rueful smile, like, "Not a foot in a puddle AGAIN!" then people are usually all "Ha ha! It happens to the best of us!"

Sadly, the people behind me were the kind who, in moments like this, respond with blank looks that say, "Wow. Lame explosion. So glad I'm nothing like her!"

And so that kind of stunk. And then. AND THEN. I made it worse by waving my hand in a dramatic way and announcing, "Don't worry, I've got it!" before hopping down a step to put my shoe back on. Why? Why did I say that? Did I expect one of them to snatch up my two-year-old Target brown flat and place it on my foot? DID I? Some small part of me must have!

.ii. tetanus tales

While I was at Target yesterday buying Enchanted on DVD (I tried to resist but lasted only one day), my brother called my cell phone. He told me this story that started with a night out at a bar and ended with him tripping over a bike rack while running across his yard, and was followed up by asking me when he'd last gotten a tetanus shot. I informed him that I do not carry his medical records on my person, and so he would be best off calling his doctor.

Tonight he called to check in at home and I ended up on the phone with him. He told me he'd found out that he was up do date on his tetanus shot, and I said, "Oh, so you talked to the doctor?"

My mother's ears, honed by her protective instincts, picked up this statement from across the room. "What? Is Jimmy okay? Is something wrong?"

"Is it okay if I tell her?" I asked him, because I had been under strict orders not to tell her the day before because he knew she would freak out.

"Yeah, go ahead," my brother said at the same time my mother said, "TELL ME WHAT?"

"Jimmy tripped over a bike rack and cut up his leg, and he called me yesterday to find out if he was up to date on his tetanus."

My mother said, "Well, I have no idea if he is!"

And then I said (and I feel kind of bad about this after the fact), "Well, he's been feeling kind of weird, like, when he bites into something, sometimes he can't open his mouth back up."

"Tell her I've been having muscle spasms," Jimmy piped in over the phone.

"And he's been having muscle spasms," I said.

"Oh my God!" my mother said.

"What's that, Jim?" I said into the phone, "And you've got a fever?"

"He needs to go to a doctor! Is there on call down there in Texas? He needs to go to on call!"

And then I told her that we were kidding, and she almost threw the meatloaf she was mixing together right at my head.

.iii. scout status

The last time I updated I think I was all in a tizzy over my little cat Scout. I am happy to report that she's doing better, though not fully recovered. We're giving her pain medication and her leg seems to be getting better by the day. So that's good!

I just came across someone on LJ who posted saying that they didn't know whether to support Obama or Clinton on Tuesday, could people please try to convince them? It was too tempting for me to pass up, and so I ended up typing up this long-ass list of why I'm supporting Hillary Clinton, which I'm going to include here under a cut tag, mostly because if I don't and she goes on to lose Super Tuesday, I will totally believe it was my fault for not posting this list. Kind of like how my brother's been wearing the same sweatshirt every Sunday since the Giants started winning.

First things first: I'm a registered, die-hard Democrat who will support whoever wins the nomination. My reasons for supporting Hillary Clinton are kind of light on policy because I feel that she and Obama are pretty close on policy - so close that their differences wouldn't be enough to swing me one way or the other. My loyalty is, first and foremost, to the platform of the Democratic party, which I believe has the best ideas when it comes to creating a more inclusive society that's prepared to face the new challenges of the future. I also believe that the Democratic party is more committed to promoting the welfare of all Americans (not just the wealthy and privileged).

I believe Hillary Clinton is the candidate that will take that platform to the presidency.

( Why I'm Voting for Hillary Clinton )

.i. a festivus for the rest of us

Happy Festivus, one and all! Time for the airing of grievances and feats of strength. I wish you all the best of luck in wrestling the host/hostess of whatever Festivus gathering you attend (for, as you know, the holiday only ends when the host/hostess is pinned by a guest).

.ii. adorable stories

Yesterday I had my weekly tutoring session with R., the guy I tutor through Literacy Volunteers. I wanted to get him something for Christmas but I didn't know what would suit him (and since he was just diagnosed with diabetes, my usual fallback of nice chocolates wouldn't work), and so I picked out this nice messenger bag for him to carry his stuff to our tutoring sessions. I know, HOW EXCITING.

Anyway, I had it all picked out, and it wasn't that expensive (less than thirty bucks), but I worried because I wasn't sure if R. was going to give me anything at all, and I didn't want him to feel awkward, etc etc. And so I downgraded to a smaller nice fabric-covered portfolio thingy, which was around fifteen bucks. And then I went and met with R., who handed me two (2) presents which so outclassed mine for him that I think I have to go back and get the messenger bag.

First, he gave me a super-cute Santa ornament with my name on it, which I love and was the first thing I put on the tree when we decorated it yesterday (yes, we were horribly late and lazy and procrastinatey this year). That would have been nice in and of itself.

And then! AND THEN! He gave me this box which I thought was just a nice small jewelry box, cute and small and very nice. But then I opened it and there was a watch and bracelet set inside! And it wasn't anything super-expensive or anything, but pretty and more than I expected, and then he said, "I remembered how you said your watch broke a while ago and so you have to use your cell phone to check the time when we meet, and so I thought this would be good."

!!!! R! SO THOUGHTFUL! I have often talked of how you resemble Santa Claus and then yesterday you WERE Santa Claus, giving me the most thoughtful present! R!

So that was very nice. Near the end of the session we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas and I had another attack of OMG This is Awesome-itis, encountering something as an adult that I loved as a child and realizing it is just as great if not better (other example: Charlotte's Web, Sesame Street). I put on the watch and bracelet as soon as I got home (they were stuck in the box with those anti-theft plastic rings so I couldn't get them out when we were at the library) and wore them all day and talked about them so much that my family is ready to kill me.

The other adorable story is that when I went to hide my brother's birthday present in my mother's closet just before leaving to pick him up at the airport at eleven last night, I discovered my mother in her bathroom with rollers in her hair. Getting all dolled up to pick up her little boy at the airport! For some reason, I found that sweet.

.iii. do you love me

I continue on my Astaire/Rogers kick, and one of the games I like to play while watching Astaire/Rogers movies is called: Quantify Ginger's Greatness. It's fun and challenging and there is no real end, and I recommend it to one and all! Because it's clear to me, and to cinematic history, that Fred and Ginger were the best on-screen dance pair there was or is. With Astaire, it's easy to see and also to quantify why he's so incredible - he's a great dancer, a wonderful singer, and he had a lot of technical influence behind the scenes through choreography and cinematography.

Ginger is harder to pin down because while she's clearly a talented singer and dancer, Fred Astaire had more technically gifted dance partners. And yet she's clearly the most fun to watch with him (and, for me, the movies she made with him are the only ones I really like). The more I watch the movies, the more I realize that as much as I love Fred Astaire, I think I love Ginger Rogers a little bit more - most of my favorite small moments in their routines belong to her.

I think Katharine Hepburn said of them that Astaire gave her class and she gave him sex appeal - I don't really see it that way. What I think Ginger Rogers brings to the table is a certain groundedness, a sense that she exists in reality (at least more so than Fred Astaire does, who, while charming and fun and funny, always feels like a movie character). And as her characters meet Fred Astaire and are charmed by him, so are we; it's like we get to fall under his spell with her. And Ginger Rogers was so good at conveying that. Most of the dances in their movies were shot from a distance so that the audience could see the dancers' bodies (which was Fred Astaire's wish, and a good choice). Her face was so expressive, though, and she was so good at using her body to act even while dancing, that she always sold that transition from, "Who is annoying nut?" at the beginning to "THIS IS GREAT!" at the end, so that by the end of the dance not only do we believe that Ginger's character is a little in love with Fred already, so are we.

Exhibit A, a dance scene from Shall We Dance, my second-favorite Astaire/Rogers movie, and the one that earns the Most Coherent Plot Award. In this movie, Ginger plays Linda Keene, a famous musical comedy star who's just announced her retirement because she's sick of being pawed by her costars, and has chosen to marry a dorky banker (you'll see him grinning idiotically in a reaction shot). Fred is an internationally known ballet star, Petrov, who is actually Peter P. Peters from Pennsylvania. He's smitten with Ginger from the start, and is attempting to charm her into both liking him and returning to the stage. I always loved this movie because, like His Girl Friday, it's a love story where the male love interest is dedicated to keeping the woman in the profession she loves (instead of lots of the post-WWII movies, where women are supposed to return to the home, etc.). In this specific scene, Ginger sings and then dances with Fred, and it's a nice opportunity to hear Ginger in a solo - I think she's got a nice, expressive voice and a lovely conversational way of singing (which Fred Astaire had, too), and also to see that transition through dance I babbled about up there - the move from uncertainty to joy. There is an awkward cut between the song and the dance made by the YouTube uploader, which I understand but which gets rid of an exchange I always found cute.

Ginger: What am I supposed to do?
Fred: (in ridiculous Russian accent) Twist.

They All Laughed

And finally, this is a wonderful compilation someone made using clips from a number of Astaire/Rogers movies - whenever I saw these on YouTube, I was always all snooty, like, "Pshaw! Why would one do that? The routines as they exist are PERFECTION!" And then I saw this and it was so hilarious and great and captured the energy and fun of their routines across the movies, and I had to include it. It also includes a lovely non-dancing moment at the beginning from the movie Swing Time, which shows Ginger's lovely natural screen presence, and another reason why she was such a great partner for Fred: she always seemed strong enough to stand up to him, not to be overwhelmed by his charms.

Do You Love Me?

And I think that's all for now!

.i. uncertainty principle

Yesterday at work, I was laughing at something my brother said and my father's secretary said, "Your laugh is so infectious, it makes me want to laugh. I was telling my kids that I want to tape record it and bring it home and play it for them!"

Kind of weird! But in the neighborhood of a compliment! So I stopped guffawing like an idiot and said, "Wow, thanks."

And then I thought about it for a minute, and remembered how once when I was temping, a coworker came in wearing shoes so hideous that I actually found myself staring at them for so long that said coworker caught on, and I covered by giving her a compliment on them (I totally felt like Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls). Was my father's secretary doing the SAME THING? I had been laughing for a while when she asked me.

So then I asked my brother if I laughed like our aunt Amy, a wonderful woman who has a nasal honk of a laugh.

And my brother said, "Yeah, kinda."

The horror I felt at this must have been written all over my face, because then he backtracked, all, "Well, not completely, just a little. Mainly the beginning, like, the 'ha!' part."

And so ever since, I haven't been able to laugh properly! Because whenever I do, part of me is all, "Wait, what do I sound like? A high-pitched foghorn stuck on rapid repeat? Or a normal person?"

I know I have an obnoxiously loud sneeze! Are none of my uncontrolled reflexes unoffensive?

.ii. austin, we have a ljagu

Peeps, my brother is moving to Texas. TEXAS! I KNOW! SO FAR AWAY! A bunch of his friends from college are moving down there, and he's tagging along, and I'm glad for him, happy he'll have an adventure, relieved he'll be escaping the MyLastName Law Firm.

But what if he finds a nice Texan girl and stays there forever? Who will help me move or carry heavy things or run ridiculous errands for my father instead of me?

I will miss him. He makes me laugh more than anyone else I know, and we're pretty much two peas in a pod. But I'm glad he's going, because I think it will make him happy. Also, before I got my new job, I was becoming obsessed with the fear that neither of us would ever leave our childhood home and we would end up like Matthew and Marilla, having to adopt an orphan in our middle age to give our lives meaning. OUR NAMES EVEN START WITH THE SAME INITIAL! SCARY!

But now Jimmy's moving to Texas! And I have a job! Our lives will almost definitely not follow the trajectory of Anne of Green Gables supporting characters!

ANYWAY. If anyone has any advice for Jimmy, aka LJAGU, aka Little Jimmy All Grown Up, it'd be appreciated. I know Kate is down there and I think there might be others familiar with the area, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice or helpful hints about Austin.

.iii. awesome things

I read the Sweet Valley High books as a kid, and the Sagas were my favorite - specifically, the family sagas, the huge book that would trace the twins' ancestors back a few generations. The books were terrible and sometimes offensive and yet I LOVED THEM. A friend from college once gave me the two versions of the Wakefields of Sweet Valley, and MAN, that gift made my birthday.

The other day I found a link to someone doing a review of the Wakefields of Sweet Valley - !!!! I found it awesomely hilarious, and am linking part one here and part two here.

Key plot points: Being separated at Ellis Island! Running away to the circus! Going to speakeasies and speaking in unintelligible slang! Teenagers working for the French Resistance! Hippies!

Another awesome thing I'm into lately is the cable channel A&E, specifically The First 48, which tracks homicide detectives as they try to solve a murder case. Apparently if detectives don't have a suspect in the first 48 hours, the chances of solving the crime go down by 50% or something. I don't know, the point is, the show is ADDICTIVE. Typically each hour tracks two murders and you get to see how the cops look at the crime scene, talk to witnesses, work with CSI and forensics, interrogate suspects, etc.

Totally unexpectedly, YouTube has a clip, AND it features my favorite Detective, Sgt. Mason! She's awesome. She always arrives at the crime scenes fully done-up, hair, nails, high-heeled shoes. And she's a great detective. She's hilarious in this clip.

And I think that's it!

Happy birthday to the awesome sinsense!!!! Grover and I celebrate your greatness and wish you many happy returns!

.i. interview anxiety

I have an interview tomorrow at the school where I taught last year, for the position I held last year, and I feel like this should be less stressful than most interviews but instead it's much more stressful. I keep trying to type out why that is so, but you can probably figure it out for yourself, and every time I try to write it up I end up with 87 rambling sentences.

.ii. expression theft

Instead, I am going to present you with this question: Is it just me, or is Daniel Craig's default James Bond expression in Casino Royale a modified Blue Steel? In case you are tragically unfamiliar with the film Zoolander, Blue Steel is male model Derek Zoolander's signature look in the movie Zoolander. I feel like I talked about this before in my LJ, but since I (personally) feel that one can never talk too much about the cinematic masterpiece that is Zoolander, I'm presenting it again.

Photographic evidence!



Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale





Derek Zoolander's Blue Steel






.iii. epistolic hillary

Has everyone seen the recent news story detailing a series of letters Hillary Clinton wrote while an undergraduate at Wellesley? A sample excerpt:

Befitting college students of any era, the letters are also self-absorbed and revelatory, missives from an unformed and vulnerable striver who had, in her own words, “not yet reconciled myself to the fate of not being the star.”

“Sunday was lethargic from the beginning as I wallowed in a morass of general and specific dislike and pity for most people but me especially,” Ms. Rodham reported in a letter postmarked Oct. 3, 1967. . . .

“Can you be a misanthrope and still love or enjoy some individuals?” Ms. Rodham wrote in an April 1967 letter. “How about a compassionate misanthrope?”

I ran a poll a while back in which I had people predict which Democrat was my candidate for '08 (it seems kind of ego-centric to me now that I did that, but whatevs, such is the corrupting power of poll-making), and I think I mentioned in the comments there but not directly in my LJ that my candidate for '08 is Hillary Clinton. I admire her a lot and think she's tremendously capable, but this was the first time I've felt a real rush of affection for her, or at least her-as-she-was. Her persona is now so tightly controlled and managed (to great effect, I think) that it's hard to imagine her ever moping around all day, too depressed to go to class, struggling with her Republican upbringing, etc. I know I'm predisposed to like her, but I still think things like this are interesting, when you're given a bit of a window into the personal history of a figure usually known only from a distance. There aren't a lot of personal details in the letters (not many that I've seen), but I think what's there (in the few excerpts quoted) is more interesting - the evolution of how she thought about herself, her role in the world.

I remember feeling this way when I tried to read the recent John Adams biography and got to the part of his diary excerpts as a young lawyer. In them, he detailed how he hadn't completed his to-do list, and how he should be accomplishing so much more and isn't, and how this made him feel worthless and lame. My words, not his, but the sentiment was pretty close to that. Which reminds me, I have to finish that biography. Or maybe read a romance novel. One or the other.

I consider it my sacred duty to alert all in LJ-land of potentially enjoyable cheesy TV movies (such as: The Cutting Edge II, this Tim Daly movie), and in that vein, I must let you know that Lifetime Movie Network (or "LMN" as those of us who watch it embarrassingly frequently call it) is featuring a Christmas in July film festival, featuring such classics as Eve's Christmas, a movie starring the girl who played Amber in Clueless, and Under the Mistletoe, starring the girl who played Kristina on GH and one of the main guys from the original Stargate.

The next one is called Road to Christmas, and it has the honor of being the lowest rated of the ones I just listed on IMDB (coming in with an average of 1.6 stars). It also stars Jennifer Grey - yes, that Jennifer Grey! Of Dirty Dancing and transformative nose job fame!

I'm totally tuning in. And actually, it's starting right now, at 9:45. But feel free to tune in anytime; somehow, I always manage to pick up the narrative thread no matter how late in the movie I tune in. And really, she looks so different with the different nose that I had to go to IMDB and double check that she is, in fact, the same Jennifer Grey. It is!

More news as it develops.

While I was in California visiting the fantastic foxyfrau, we had many adventures, one of which ended with a group of us waiting outside for an hour and a half one night for Triple A (keys got locked in the trunk). During that wait, we found many ways to pass the time - embarrassing revelations (such as Anna's mastery of early-nineties R&B), trips down memory lane, and finally a riddle put forth by one of Anna's California friends.

California Friend said, "Marine is a six-letter word where every two letters is the abbreviation of a state - what is the seven-letter word that follows the same pattern? It also starts with M."

We stood around for a while trying to solve it out loud, and then decided we needed paper to use. One of us pulled out a book from his/her bag and said, "There's blank pages at the back we could use here! Who's got a pen?"

Now it's poll time! About this and a couple tangential issues.

[Poll #1020360]

Tomorrow is the last full day of school with the students, and so as a team we decided to show a movie for a chunk of tomorrow. Each of us is supposed to bring in our own G or PG rated movie for the students to watch. I am having intense self-doubt over my ability to select a movie they would enjoy after I brought in the Simpsons on DVD for them to watch during the last twenty minutes of Friday's half day and a number of kids said that they'd NEVER SEEN THE SHOW!

And so, a poll!

[Poll #1005577]