This week in the Slacktiverse, February 10th

(posted by chris the cynic)

The Blogaround

Coleslaw wrote:

Monday we went to see Stand Up Guys, and I wrote a brief review. (Content note: references to violence, including one reference to violence against a woman.) A thread on a message board asked Where Do You Leave Tracts? I have some answers. As with my Cassandra post, I have another example of someone using a cultural reference incorrectly, but then it turns out to apply after all. So I ask, Is There a Word for That? Finally, I am still convinced that my choices in the District 65 special election are between Tweedledum and Tweedledummer.

Catherine wrote:

Hi all!

I started back at work this week, so the blogging has been down rather. I’ll have to fix that!

On Cate Sings, I seem to be in a bit of a Grand Opera mood at present. Monday’s music was from Puccini’s Tosca, which is a seriously bloodthirsty and horrible opera with a magnificently evil villain. Va Tosca is one of his arias… but then I had to show his comeuppance, too… I’ve recently been given a gorgeous knitted Viking helmet (which I view as a Valkyrie hat), and consequently Friday’s bit of silliness was all about Wagner, featuring Anna Russell’s brilliant comedy sketch in which she explains the entire Ring Cycle with great sarcasm and musicality, as well as the Cambridge Buskers playing the ride of the Valkyries on sopranino recorder and piano accordion. And as if that wasn’t enough, I found an animated version of the Ring Cycle in two minutes. I’ve never actually seen or heard any Wagner, and still find these hilarious – I suspect if you do know your Wagner, you will find Anna Russell, in particular, hysterical.

On Cate’s Cates, I reviewed a glorious sweets cookbook called Sugar and Spice: Sweet Treats from Around the World. This is an amazing, gorgeous, wonderful cookbook and I need to make everything in it. And today, in honour of Chinese New Year (because I don’t know the first thing about Chinese cooking), I made a golden snake bread to usher in the year of the snake. I’m incredibly excited about this bread, because it is one of the most delicious breads I’ve made, and it’s also totally vegan.

The vegetarian lunchbox challenge is still running, and though I shamefully haven’t contributed to it myself yet, storiteller has, which is very exciting!

And that’s my week done. Hope yours was a good one.

Contemplating some lovely comments she’s received over the years, Storiteller describes how much she enjoys it when other people show their appreciation for her gardening or volunteering in It’s All About the Little Things.  She also describes how she’s using one of her most unique Christmas presents, a mushroom growing kit.  She explains how they grew indoors and how she’s been able to harvest one set of shiitake mushrooms so far in The Fungus Among Us.

TRiG wrote:

I try to keep a record of books I’ve been reading, and to write up short responses to them (I don’t call these reviews: they’re too short for that). I’m rather behind on this, and have a stack of books sitting beside the computer waiting to be written about. Anyway, I while ago I wrote a post about a few books I’d read, including The Silmarillion. But I didn’t say much about The Silmarillion, promising to catch up on it later. I finally have, so here’s TRiG’s introduction to The Silmarillion.

Meanwhile, on my links blog, I wrote Were you there in the aspen grove?, which won’t contain anything new to people who’ve been reading Slacktivist (and following links from the comments of Slacktivist). It’s about nature, history, and Creationism.

chris the cynic wrote:

It has again reached the time of year when I desperately try to figure out a way to make $4000 dollars, give or take, so I can spend three weeks traveling Greece with one of my favorite teachers and get credit for taking a class at Harvard as well. I got some weird traffic from Taiwan that I can’t explain.

In interesting ways of making word salad, post two I again asked commenters to give me words with which to work. Could still use some help on that front. Three days later post three showed the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice with nouns, adjectives, and adverbs replaced by those from Moby Dick. And I made addition and multiplication tables for Base 12 math.

On the topic of the Blizzard I asked, “Why are there only blizzards when I have to walk between cities for an appointment?” and added a couple of images later I actually ended up getting a ride and hearing there could be thunder-snow and airborn manhole covers. That night I took some pictures. As I did the following morning and pictures taken while shoveling and showing the results.

Finally, an email petition I got sparked off a post where I said everything I know about the US Postal Service’s supposed financial problems (short version they have to pay retirement benefits so far in advance that that some of those they’re paying benefits for won’t be born for another 15 years.)

Thing you can do

Here’s the petition from the email that sparked off my post on the Postal Service. Unlike me they didn’t write from memory and did cite sources. So if you want to save the Postal Service from a law passed in a lame duck session of congress with the intent to destroy the, it might be a good idea to sign.

–Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

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