Auld Lang Syne

Christmas/New Year’s went just fine. The family gathered, made merry, and departed without incident. I can’t think of any rational reason to think I messed up in any major way as a host. Which doesn’t, of course, stop me believing I did.

We got enough snow today to justify my going out and blowing it out of the driveway after work. Interesting snow. It was in no way sticky (it’s far too cold for that), and yet it tended to clump up in the chute anyway, having to be cleared out. Which could generally be done by jerking the front up and down, because the dry snow fell right out again.

A Facebook friend alerted me to this video of Sissel doing “Auld Lang Syne” (mostly in Norwegian). The version I first saw was somebody’s creative mash-up, incorporating a rather banal poem and pictures of cuddly forest creatures. Fortunately I was able to find a clean version:

I don’t like the androgynous look on Sissel at all, but I think I’ve never heard her in finer voice.

Happy New Year.

Toasting the Professor

Today at 9:00 p.m. local, we (meaning me and whoever wants to join me) are toasting Professor J.R.R. Tolkien on his birthday. There’s a Facebook page about it and you can read other laudatory comments at the Tolkien Society site.

So far, I'm doing pretty well

New Year's Card

I’ve been remiss in making Achievable New Year’s Resolutions the last few years. As I’ve explained in the past, it’s my custom to celebrate a high self-esteem holiday by setting achievable goals for myself during the upcoming swing around the sun.

So here are my Achievable Resolutions for 2011:

I will not learn to speak Classical Korean.

I will not make a solo voyage across the Atlantic.

I will not ask my congressman (Keith Ellison) to recommend me for a place at West Point.

I will not go into the Organic Foods business, either wholesale or retail.

I will not throw a wooden shoe into a steam loom.

I will not go on an all-escargot diet.

I will not attempt to give a ninja a wedgie (I’ve learned my lesson on that one).

I will not sign a non-aggression pact with Germany.

I will not pursue the legendary White Buffalo.

I will not paint an armadillo blue.

I will not steal a manhole cover.

I will not play hard to get with Gabrielle Anwar.

And a happy New Year to you, too!

Fairy Tale as Crime Fiction Contest

John Kenyon has a short story contest announced on his blog, Things I’d Rather Be Doing. He calls for stories that update a fairy tale as crime fiction. This could be pretty good. Many fairy tales would make crime stories without any alteration at all. Snow White has at least two counts of attempted murder. Another story with Snow White and Rose Red has stalking, bribery, and a manhunt. Rumpelstiltskin has kidnapping. Many of them have what amounts to drug abuse.

Not to mention gnomes, the scariest, most wicked creatures in the whole forest. If you see a tiny cone-shaped hat while walking in the woods, don’t wonder, don’t call out, don’t get out your camera. Just run. Run like you’ve never run before.

GHENT, BELGIUM - DECEMBER 05:  An art installation titled 'Dance of/with the Devil' by German artist Ottmar Horl, featuring hundreds of Nazi-saluting garden gnomes, forms part of the the Flanders Expo - LineArt Exhibition on December 5, 2008 in Ghent, Belgium. The international 'fusion' art fair runs from Dec 5-9. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images)

Reading Poll – L.A. Times

The L.A. Times Jacket Copy blog asks how many books you’ve read (this year (Sorry for the omission, Michael (2 more demerits for you))). Not many answers yet. Perhaps the left coast is still waking up. The highest percentage of votes has been in the 101-150 category, followed by 51-75. I don’t keep a clear number of books I’ve read, but comparatively, it isn’t that many.

Let me ask for your comment on this idea. Not all books need to be read completely, that is from cover to cover, to be considered read. Some readers may take them in completely, but many readers should feel no compulsion to read all of a book they don’t like or don’t need to read. I’m reading The World Encyclopedia of Coffee this week, and I don’t plan to read all of the recipes in the last third of it, but if I get through most of it of the rest, I will consider it read. Other books have only four or five chapters suitable for a particular reader. Can’t that reader consider the book read, once he has read from it? Isn’t thoughtful reading of a portion better than cover-to-cover reading for the sake of it?

Wednesday, with lefse

Lefse on griddle

Picture credit: Lance Fisher

I apologize for not posting anything yesterday. The day worked out differently than I’d planned, and I didn’t get home until after 10:00 p.m. (That’s 22:00, for our European readers.)

At noon I tried out my Christmas present to myself (made possible by a gift card, given by my neighbor in thanks for clearing the driveway, plus a very deep sale discount at the store). It’s a GPS device. I bought it because I came to see with intense clarity, while spending two hours driving around Chicago last October, looking for my motel, that I’m lousy with maps, have no sense of direction, and lack a wife to sit in the passenger seat and navigate. I’m the man GPS’s were invented for.

I plugged the thing into Mrs. Hermanson’s cigarette lighter, allowed it to acquire the signal, and then did a search for Culver’s Restaurants. I love Culver’s, but the only ones I knew were too distant to visit regularly. The GPS found me one just 3.5 miles away. (The hamburgers are great, but I particularly crave the deep fried North Atlantic Cod dinner.)

So this looks like a good thing.

Then I got a call from my friend S. S. had talked to me about collaborating on an epic lefse-making effort. We had planned to do it on Thursday (that would be today as I write), but he thought the weather forecast for today looked bad (ice storms, for the record; in fact the temperature was high, so the streets were mostly just wet), so could I come over now?

I did this, and spent an intense afternoon and evening exploring the mysteries of the sacred lefse. Continue reading Wednesday, with lefse

2010 Book Lists, Recommendations

Family Reading Together on Christmas Eve

The Millions has been summarizing the year in books with a month’s worthy of posts. Here’s the month long index with scads of links.

I doubt any of the books praised here by Aaron Armstrong are in the posts above. He has focuses on Christian theology, living, and biographical books.

Author Mary Demuth has a different list for 2010, one of regrets.

The Tattered Covers blog has several author recommendations, by which I mean recommendations by authors. Click the Older Posts link to read more posts in this category. This is getting to be like a big literary party, without the spiced eggnog, by which I mean spiked eggnog.

Spiked eggnog may be the reason The Thinklings have not posted a 2010 book recommendation list, despite their claims of tee-totaling. They could be innocent, but where’s the list, I ask you? Where’s the list?

Patrol's 14 Worthy Writers

David Sessions of Patrol, having given us ten writers in Christian media whom he considers unworthy, provides a list of 14 worthy writers for our consideration: Ross Douthat, David Gibson, Matthew Lee Anderson, James K.A. Smith, David Bentley Hart, and others. (link defunct)

Book Reviews, Creative Culture