Worlds Collide: Still The Locked Room

Ruth and Nelson are about to break every rule in the covid lockdown book (while Nelson’s wife is away in Blackpool, spending the lockdown with her diabetic mom). What is wrong with self? She was so quick to condemn Bojo for breaking lockdown social distancing protocol, but she’s cheering this new development in the Ruth/Nelson saga.

Back to the book: Nelson comes over (conveniently after Kate, eleven has gone to bed).

Ruth goes into the kitchen to heat up the sauce and put the water on for more pasta. Flint follows, complaining loudly, probably about Nelson. She placates him with more gourmet cat food and pours two glasses of wine. When she comes back into the sitting room, Nelson is reading the back cover of Kate’s copy of The Hunger Games.

— the locked room, pp. 184 – 185

It is not all lemony fluff, however. Ruth notes that Nelson “turns on the television — without asking — and seems mesmerised by some football programme . . . It’s not even a recent match. There’s no live football, or any other sport, because of the pandemic.”

Ruth, you can thank your lucky stars it was Michelle, not you, living with Nelson all these years!

Stay tuned.

Just One Person from Around the World: San Mateo Farmers Market

The Just One Person from Around the World Photo Challenge is hosted by ThatTravelLadyInHerShoes. Read more about the challenge, think about participating, and look at the wonderful contributions.

During the California primaries, early last year, self campaigned for Elizabeth Warren. While she was tabling for Warren at the San Mateo Farmers Market, a young girl stopped by the table to chat. She was carrying a book, one of self’s favorites. Self just had to take her picture.

Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.

Everlark: The Great Bake-Off

The baking teams, final round:

• Gale/Delly (???????)
• Cato/Clove (stole Peeta’s cupcake recipe, BOO!)
• Peeta/Katniss (Katniss can bake???)

The Judges: Effie, Haymitch and Cinna

Master of Ceremonies: Caesar Flickerman (but of course!)

First Person Point of View, Peeta

“So what do we have here?” Caesar bounces up to our table.

“It’s a dandelion and pear cupcake with a honey buttercream and walnut garnish.”

“This is lovely,” says Effie. “Such unusual flavors, and yet you balanced them nicely.”

Cinna nods at us. “Pear can be a delicate flavor. Speaking of which, nice job with the dandelion!”

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Ten Years of THE HUNGER GAMES

All Hail to Suzanne Collins, Queen of Everything.

• The Hunger Games Aesthetic:

Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark (Hi-jacked Capitol Peeta Mode)

Self will mourn the passing of this franchise when the final film opens on Nov. 20. J-Hutch, you did a great job bringing Peeta Mellark to life!

Sorry if this is a repeat of last week’s elk sighting. Something about the snow adds immeasurably to the viewing experience, in self’s humble opinion.

 

Cato in THE DECLINE AND FALL

Aside from her Real Life, self writes a lot of fan fiction, all in The Hunger Games universe. In her AU, she has come to use the following characters over and over:

• Seneca
• Plutarch
• Cato

Hunger Games Plutarch is manipulative, a consummate politician. Hunger Games Seneca is a tool, pure and simple. Hunger Games Cato is a blonde, physically powerful type who ends up in a battle to the death with Katniss and Peeta. Guess who wins?

Now that she is reading The Decline and Fall, she is reminded that the above names actually belonged to real people.

In The Hunger Games, Cato is very much a bully.

In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon on p. 348 writes “we may learn from the example of Cato that a character of pure and inflexible virtue . . . ” In other words, RL Cato is a good guy.

#what

Self will stop here, as she’s having conniptions over some #APBreaking news about Paul Manafort and it is putting her in a very sullen state of mind.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

In Honor of International Women’s Day

Books that rocked self’s world:

• Break It Down, by Lydia Davis
• Empty Chairs, by Liu Xia
• The Charm Buyers, by Lillian Howan
• Yes (A screenplay), by Sally Potter
• The Hunger Games Trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
• Night Willow, by Luisa Igloria
• Palayok: Philippine Food Through Time, by Doreen Fernandez
• The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin
• Bad Behavior, by Mary Gaitskill
• Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Memories Flow In Our Veins: Forty Years of Women’s Writings from Calyx, edited by the Calyx Editorial Collective
• The Infernal Devices Trilogy, by Cassandra Clare
• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
• Going Home to a Landscape: a Filipino Women’s Anthology, edited by Virginia Cerenio and Marianne Villanueva

Quote of the Day: Suzanne Collins

• Having no work, grief buries me.

— Katniss Everdeen, Mockingjay, Chapter 25

Tiny: Daily Post Photo Challenge, 11 November 2016

• I’ve always loved tiny versions of things: toys and collectibles, furry animals, even houses.

— Cheri Lucas Rowlands, The Daily Post

This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is TINY.

Last week, self saw a fabulous exhibit at the Asian Art Museum, on The Ramayana. Afterwards, she hung around on the front steps, taking pictures of the passing scene.

She loves how this whimsical sculpture of an animal of some kind seems to dwarf the passersby, making them look tiny.

Asian Art Museum, Larkin Street, San Francisco: November 2016

Wider View, from the Front Steps of the Asian Art Museum, Larkin Street, San Francisco

Final picture: self’s print of La Llorona, which she bought last year from the Mendocino Art Center:

Self bought the print because it reminded her of The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

from Dutch Warlord: Hunger Games/Battlestar Galactica Mash-Up

Six months after the destruction of the Twelve Districts, Viper pilot Peeta Mellark is training several rookies when they are ambushed by an enemy fighter patrol. Ordering the recruits to retreat, he engages the enemy patrol alone and destroys most of them but not before suffering critical damage to his own fighter and being dragged into a nearby moon’s gravity well.

DUN DUN DUN!

Stay tuned.

Details 4: Surprises Reward Close Observation

For this week’s challenge, try to look past the big picture and take a more intimate approach . . . zoom in on details in unexpected places.

— Jen H., The Daily Post

Today:

Interesting Adornments for a Mercedes Benz!

At the 2015 AWP Conference in Minneapolis, The Loft had a kind of raffle: You wrote the name of your favorite book and dropped it into a big tumbler. Then you picked out a card to see a book someone else had recommended. Self wrote: Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES Trilogy. The card she picked out had this book recommendation.

Just in time for the upcoming U.S.Presidential Elections, a book with a very rad picture of Hillary, doing a kind of Dirty Harry pose. ROFL!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.