I use too many parentheses.

(I really do.)

Seriously, next time any of you see me use them, please give me a smackdown. It's a bad habit and I need to break it.

So it seems there's a full-on hate toward Natalie Morales going on at the USA White Collar boards. For the life of me, I cannot figure this out. From her very first appearance she suddenly started generating this overwhelming negativity, which has flabbergasted me completely. Not only have her acting and the character she's playing been criticized to death, but I went in there tonight and found her being referred to as "Agent Bug-Eyes." (!)

If she were a terrible actress hired strictly for her looks and dragging the show down, okay, I would get it. Been there, seen that, been driven up the wall by it. But this woman is a fully competent actress (can I get a witness, Middleman fans?) in a relatively small part. People have different tastes, it's true, but even if she were as bad as they say -- and that would take some doing; I doubt that even Tommy Wiseau could be as bad as that -- she still couldn't ruin the entire show. I think a few people are still mad that she replaced the actress from the pilot, whose name escapes me at the moment -- Marsha Something? -- but it's common knowledge that that actress had other commitments and left of her own accord. Same thing happened on Psych and lots of other shows. It's hardly Morales's fault.

The obvious explanation suggests itself to my mind -- the green-eyed monster, anyone? -- but I hesitate to believe it's something that silly and childish. Then again, "Agent Bug-Eyes" doesn't exactly scream maturity. Another possibility could be racism, I guess, but everyone seemed fine with Marsha Something, who's African-American, so that doesn't seem to make sense either.

I suppose I rattle on too much about a silly message board, and it's probably yet another sign that I need to get a life. But it's kind of sad, you know? There used to be such a great group of people on that board way back when, and we used to have such fun discussions. I don't know what happened to them all. I got away from posting there for a while, and now that I'm back, it's all "Monk + Natalie 4eva!!! DIE ALBRIGHT DIE!!!!!!!" on the one forum, and "Agent Bug-Eyes" on the other. At least the Psych forum seems to contain a few sane fans -- for now . . .

I said to my mom the other day that one could watch White Collar with the sound down and enjoy it just as much. :-)

Actually, that's not strictly true. While Neal's surpassing gorgeousness is certainly an attraction (and Peter's not bad-looking either -- it's just his misfortune to have to stand next to a Greek god all the time), I enjoy the stories too. And the characters, and the relationships, and the dialogue, and the locations! And the fedora. It's not as good as Psych, but in many respects it's just the kind of show I like: fun and snappy and with just enough drama mixed in to keep things exciting. It's brain candy as well as eye candy. And sometimes -- especially now that most TV seems to be all about the angst -- a little candy is just what the doctor ordered.

(Using a Psych icon because I haven't yet found a White Collar icon that I really love.)

Oprah, in tones of awe: "And Stephenie Meyer had NEVER EVEN WRITTEN A SHORT STORY BEFORE."

New meme:

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."

• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

Here are tempestsarekind's questions and my answers:

1. Would you rather hang out with Shawn or with Gus?

I have to say Shawn. Now, I would feel safer with Gus, because he doesn't pull quite as many insane stunts (at least not without giving them careful thought beforehand). But life with Shawn would always be fun and exciting and never dull!

Also, if I hung out with Shawn, I could shake the stuffing out of him and yell, "What are you DOING with Abigail, you dolt?? Juliet is totally the girl for you!"

2. I have not yet seen any of the Sayers adaptations, but I've gathered that there are in fact two separate series. Which one should I watch?

If you watch only one, it should be the one with Ian Carmichael. I kind of hate to say that, because Harriet Walter is such a great Harriet Vane in the other series. However, Edward Petherbridge is too languid as Lord Peter. Carmichael gives him more energy and just plays him as a more multifaceted character in general. I always say that Petherbridge had the right look and Carmichael had the right personality for the role, so together they would have made the perfect Peter Wimsey. But if I have to choose just one, I choose the one with the right personality. And then, I think the Carmichael series is a little more faithful to the spirit of the books and the characters.

3. Related question: What is your favorite film/miniseries adaptation? It doesn't have to be the one that you think is most *successful* as an adaptation--just the one you love most.

That tends to change. Right now I think I love Little Dorrit most. Of course, I haven't seen nearly as many adaptations as most of my LJ friends, which makes me feel quite ignorant. But maybe I'll manage to catch up one of these days.

4. Who is your favorite female character in Dickens?

Miss Betsey Trotwood, because she is made of pure awesomeness. She's strong and kind and funny and she strikes back against the forces of evil, whether they happen to be represented by donkeys or Murdstones!

(Now, if I had to choose a favorite Dickens heroine, it would be Amy Dorrit. She has that core of strength under all her quietness, and she knows what she wants and holds onto it no matter what.)

5. Aside from 19th/early 20th-c. literature, do you have another favorite period?

Ah, there you have me. I gave that a lot of thought last night, and every time I thought, "Well, I like this group of authors," they all turned out to be from the 19th and 20th centuries. :-) I like isolated authors from different time periods (e.g., Dante, Shakespeare), and I like reading history from various periods (especially Tudor history), but as far as literature goes, it seems to be just the one period. However, some of my favorites do extend all the way into the mid-20th. Some members of the group that one of my professors called the Oxford Christian Writers -- Lewis, Sayers, Tolkien, et al. -- were writing well into the '50s. And I have a great fondness for many of the early New Yorker writers, especially Dorothy Parker and James Thurber, who also were still going in mid-century. So that's about the best I can say for myself on that front!

So if anyone wants to be asked five questions about yourself, leave a comment saying "Resistance is futile!"

My interview with Gerald Dickens, great-great-grandson of Charles, is here. You will be pleased to know that I managed to say, "Hello, Mr. Dickens?" without dissolving into fangirl giggles!

My review of A Christmas Carol is up. By and large, it's a very approving one.

I have waited YEARS for these guys to tackle this movie.

(Cross-posted at Dickensblog.)

This morning I came across an article about the devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines.

Damaged textbooks and workbooks for public school students will be replaced by the Department of Education, but not all other books. Whether used or new, books don’t stand a chance against mud and water, and had to be all thrown out. Many public schools need donations of story books (series from Scholastics, Adarna, Anvil, Hiyas, Lampara; classics like Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen etc.), reference books (encyclopedia, dictionaries, atlases, charts), SRA kits, wall clocks, bookshelves, copiers, tables and chairs for their libraries.

As you'd expect, the word Dickens got my creative juices flowing!

I've started a campaign to donate classic books -- including Dickens books, but other classic books as well -- to the Filipino schools. My friend Jason, who's from the Philippines and has been helping with the disaster relief there, will take care of getting the money where it needs to go.

Click here to send an online donation. If you'd prefer to send a check, please send it to Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, c/o Jason Bruce, 6139 Leesburg Pike, Unit 107, Falls Church, VA 22041. Make the check out to Student Christian Movement of the Philippines and put "Classic books donation" in the memo line. (Don't send any actual books; only money will be accepted.)

We thank you -- and, I suspect, so would Mr. Dickens if he were here!

I talk about A Tale of Two Cities a lot. Okay, a LOT. More on Dickensblog than here, actually, which is why I'm putting this here instead. I don't want to turn it into SydneyCartonblog instead of Dickensblog, but honestly, it's hard not to sometimes. I just love this book so much. And of course it doesn't help that I'm rereading it via weekly PDF installment from Dickens for Breakfast in honor of its 150th anniversary (or that I'm planning two different essays about it). I've just read the chapters "A Hand at Cards" and "The Game Made" again, and, wow. If I were a novelist -- which I would like to be one day, but I'm not yet, so I can say this -- I think the beauty and power of the writing here might just make me throw up my hands in despair.

Well, maybe that's a little too hyperbolic. It's not like nothing else beautiful or powerful has ever been written. But still . . . wow.

And she was right, Natalie is totally an enabler.

Another skating season is upon us, and with it another round of virulent Scott Hamilton-bashing on the skating message boards. Since he started commentating, it has apparently been declared unwritten law that we go through this every year. EVERY. FREAKING. YEAR. It is utterly incomprehensible to me how these people could have put up with Dick "Please will you shut up about irrelevant inanities for JUST ONE SECOND FOR THE LOVE OF HEAVEN!" Button for all the time he was on, but hate Scott with the heat of a thousand suns because he gets carried away with enthusiasm. Give me excited yelling over an unending stream of verbal diarrhea any day. (Sorry for the mental image.)

If they'd just state their objections and be done, I'd be fine with it, but they, in their turn, cannot shut up about it. It's more than just a preference; it feels like there's a real streak of malice underlying it that bothers me.

Ah well. Thus endeth a fruitless complaint about something that will never change, but I just had to get it off my chest before the next competition and the next wave of hatred begin.

According to Hermione Lee's biography of Edith Wharton, she and Henry James may have been friends, but that didn't stop her from parodying him, like so:

. . . It was not that, as Mrs. Byas said, one couldn't always buy a new umbrella.

From the visibly permissible assumption of the conjecturer's solvency one might, it was clear, predicate without risk of tenable refutation, his congenital capacity for the spontaneous gratification of even more considerable exigencies. Figuratively & literally, Mr. Valentine Grope would, one instantly surmised, be always able to buy a new umbrella; but then, as he, with a not wholly unapt delimitation of her axiom, permitted himself to point out to his admirable friend, it would always be a new umbrella.

"There, my good woman, is the rub."

She glanced at him with a sense of the after all never wholly evitable hindrances to complete communion.

You GO Edith! It sounds exactly like him.

I'm still waiting for an answer to prayer about my big project.

I'm still waiting for an answer to another prayer that I've been praying even longer.

I'm really, really, really bad at waiting.

Go here to check it out!

I know very well that country music is not for everyone. Actually, I know very few fans outside my own family, and most people just look at me funny when I mention it. (My best friend threatened to fumigate the house after I sang her baby to sleep with Kenny Chesney songs.) If I had the proverbial nickel for every time I've heard "YOU listen to country music??" I could retire tomorrow.

But regardless of your feelings on the subject -- at least, if you're pretty sure you can bring yourself to listen without actual retching -- I challenge you: Just give this song one try. See if this voice doesn't turn you into a puddle on the floor, the way it does to me every. Single. Time.





(Oh, and the face ain't bad either. ;-) )

In Borders the other day, I came across a shelf of Georgette Heyer's mystery novels in nice bright new covers. I was glancing at them without much interest -- nice bright new covers notwithstanding, I'd only heard of Heyer as a writer of historical romances that didn't sound like my cup of tea -- and then this met my eye:

"Miss Heyer's characters and dialogue are an abiding delight to me... I have seldom met people to whom I have taken so violent a fancy from the word 'Go'." -- Dorothy L. Sayers.

Well, that's it, then. I now have to read every one of them.

I don't know where this came from originally (I got it from the MST3K community), but I LOVE IT.

First of all, I bought a Rex Stout book that I already had. (Can I help it if the covers of all the Nero Wolfe books look more or less alike?) So I decided to put it up for sale on Amazon. After quite some time, Three for the Chair finally sold. I went to ship it today, and realized that I had put the wrong book up for sale. The book of which I had two copies was Three Doors to Death.

Can I help it if the titles of all the Nero Wolfe books sound more or less alike?

*facepalm*

I just now realized that on Monday nights I watch two different shows about men who are named after places of residence. Interesting.

However, I'm not THAT slow, because I figured out the Strangers on a Train thing before Castle & Co. did, and I've barely even been paying attention.