Tomato cages turn out to have uses outside of the garden. I like this one as a place to display Christmas cards. The lights are a nice touch.
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Christmas Card Season Has Begun
We have only four out of town cards to send so I’ve given myself a goal of getting those out this week. I’m such a putz, though, and it takes me forever to do each card.
For this first one, for instance, I envisioned a felt tree with some small red and green buttons I’ve had forever sewn on as ornaments.
Then I thought of the fun I had one day in the button aisle at Joanns. Oh, and how about some of those Christmas beads I grabbed last year? This card is going to weigh a pound.
I added embroidery and beads.
Then a load of buttons and some sequins.
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
It's E'ls graduating year, and things aren't off to a good start. She shares homeroom with a group of freshman. Worse yet, as the school year unwinds, she begins to feel protective of them. Nobody needs that.
The deadly school kills hundreds of kids a year. Helping someone else could mean you die.
El has an alliance with several people she is astonished to call friends. There's no room for anyone else in the mad, desperate dash towards graduating and making it out of the school alive.
Somehow, once these kids have gotten in under her careful guard, El begins to ponder if she can save everyone. All of the graduating class. All of the kids in the school.
Once the idea takes hold of her, she balances survival, schoolwork and a master plan that will require every student to help get themselves, their allies, their rivals and their enemies out the front door.
This second novel of the Scholomance trilogy manages to be as terrifying as ever, but it's also emotional. The kids all have a desperate and foolish task ahead.
If they do make it out, how will they be received in their homes and communities? What effect on their whole world if this essential part of society does not function to save their children from certain death on the outside?
For once, the Scholomance itself has a say in things.
I can't wait for book three.
Monday, November 29, 2021
Book Notes November 29, 2021
But Which One Did It?
What part did you like?
How to find a mate, Victorian style. This reminds me of Victoria Thompson's Murder in Murray Hill where grim fates befell some who were placing ads.
https://daily.jstor.org/the-dating-apps-of-victorian-england/
Here are the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2021 for all ages and interests.
https://www.nypl.org/spotlight/best-books-2021
As we suspected!
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Merlyn's Cipher Sunday Answer Key for the November 21, 2021 Puzzle
Our puzzle is the opening paragraph of Craig Russell's Hyde. Click to enlarge!
https://craigrussell.com/
Sunday Puzzles: A Fallen Phrase November 28, 2021
Good morning Fallen Phrase fans. I've used Discovery Education's Fallen Phrase maker this week to try it out, and because the EduGames puzzlemaker I usually use, put in extra symbols and spaces and my tiny mind said, nope.
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Doctor Who: Village of the Angels
The fourth episode of this season was really excellent, bringing in the always frightening Weeping Angels.
Weeping Angels actually appear in the Tardis, attacking as they do when you look away or blink for a moment.
Landing in 1967 they are in a village just at the beginning of an attack by the angels.
Two villagers, a man and woman, are looking for their ten year old ward Peggy. Yaz tries to use her police service questioning techniques to learn more about the girl so they can help find her, but the man is impertinent and won't answer her questions, acting as if she's silly for asking. There's an arch to humor to all of the characters in the town, and to the Doctor as well.
While Yaz and Dan end up in 1901 with the missing Peggy, the Doctor finds herself barricaded in a house with a professor of paranormal studies and a woman who can see the future. Angels surround the house, ringing the doorbell!, pressing in at the windows, and driving the Doctor and her companions of the evening into the basement of the house.
The Doctor gets permission to enter Claire's mind. There she finds a rogue Weeping Angel, using Claire's form, has been hiding in Claire's mind from the others outside. They're after her, she says, and she tries to bargain with the Doctor to get help escaping.
The Professor interrupts, pulling the Doctor out, as the Angels have broken into the house and have made their way to the basement.
As the Doctor, Claire and the Professor make their way outside through an old tunnel, filled with Angels, they finally come out side only to be surrounded by even more Angels. The Rogue speaking though Claire informs the Doctor that the Angels and The Division want the Doctor even more than they want her, and the Doctor is transported and turned into a Weeping Angel herself.
I'm just a casual viewer, but I have to say I haven't been taken with the Division story line or the Timeless Child story line. Clearly if the Division controls (?) the Angels as is hinted here, then why turn the Doctor into one? What do the Division have to do with or say about the Flux?
Bel and Zinder's story line, though charming enough, must have some large payoff if it's included in these sparse few last episodes.
DOA's Answer Key for the November 21, 2021 Rebus Puzzle
From the ever wise Albert Einstein:
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Friday, November 26, 2021
The Wheel of Time Ep. 4: The Dragon Reborn
Our travelers make their way east in this episode, still separated.
Egwene and Perrin have the easiest journey with the Tinkers they've fallen in with. They get a chance to think about where they've been and where they're going.
The Tinkers no longer seem suspicious to me, but as peaceful in their ways as they are, I now fear there will be an attack by some dark forces and these kind people will be decimated.
Mat and Rand now travel with Thom Merrilin, escaping they hope, the darkfriends and other dark dwellers.
At a small farm where they stop for a night, Thom tells Rand he thinks Mat may be beginning to channel the One power, and that it is drawing him into madness. The real problem is that the Ruby Blade picked up by Mat in Shadar Logoth is in fact driving him mad.
When Rand wakes in the barn from a nightmare to find Mat gone, he finds him in the farmhouse with the entire family dead. Mat is speaking eerily to a shadow and wielding the dagger. Has it made him do this?
Suddenly a Fade (the faceless rider in an unmoving black cloak) leaps out from behind a curtain and attacks. Rand and Mat flee, leaving Thom to fight it. Was this some agreement they had?
Moiraine is healed by one of her sister Aes Sedai in their encampment. We're introduced to two other types of Aes Sedai here.
The Reds seek to find all of the false Dragons and take away their powers. They are a group who do not have Warders.
The Greens are warriors and protectors. They have Warders.
Nynaeve spends time talking with Liandrin who she instinctively dislikes and distrusts.
She sees a bit more of Lan and finds he's more complex than she thought. She spends the evening with the Warders at their fire and they're far more human and likeable than she would have guessed.
It appears she is coming to like Lan, and since his relationship with Moiraine isn't a romantic one, you wonder if they will grudgingly come to like one another.
In a cave, the self proclaimed Dragon Logain Ablar bides his time in a containment field kept up by the Aes Sedai taking turns.
Logain's followers find the encampments and there's a great battle showcasing the Green Ajah's fighting skills and the complementary fighting skills of their Wardens. Even Nynaeve is caught up in the battle though all she has is a small dagger.
As his followers attack, Logain uses his full powers to take down his prison. One of the Green Ajahs is killed in his attack.
When the full complement of Green Ajah's reach the cave to help, the Warder of the dead Green Ajah attacks Logain with his axe. It's splintered, injuring everyone. Nynaeve kneels over Lan who has blood spurting from a wound in his neck. Putting her hands over the wound she tries to staunch the flow of blood but it's useless. In her anger and helplessness she screams Noooo! and unleashes a wave of white light that heals him and everyone in the cave.
The Sisters immediately group to pull Logaine's powers from him, ending his claims.
I'm reading the book Eye of the World for the first time as well as watching the show. I'm up to page 200 of 820. Our heroes haven't reached the silent city of Shadar Logoth yet. Otherwise, events are much the same, but fleshed out quite a bit.
I love the characters in the show and they are very true to the characters of the book. They've tinkered with Perrin's and Mat's backstories a bit, and Egwene is the same girl who is ambitious and anxious to see the world. Nynaeve is a strong Wisdom, the town healer who also wants a say in decisions made by the Council.
The gleeman Thom Merrilin traveled with the group from the beginning in the book, as he was there in Two Rivers for the festival as a performer. I completely like him now and am concerned about his being left behind to face the Fade alone in tonight's episode of the show.
Rand and his father have the best relationship, and you see more of that in the book. Instead of just putting his father on the back of a horse after he's injured to get him to town, he's forced to create a litter for him and it takes him all night to work his way quietly through the woods to town.
The book is well written, with engaging characters and a fascinating world.
The show is one of my favorites this year. Memorable.
Thursday, November 25, 2021
Wheel of Time Episodes 1-3 (Amazon Prime)
I had the Wheel of Time marked on my calendar, but my ongoing Cold From Hades kept me from remembering to watch the first three episodes, released November 19. I watched them Tuesday night, one episode after another.
Not having read the books in the series, I'm not coming in with expectations. In fact, I thought the previews for the show looked and sounded a bit hokey.
Never fear, I was completely captivated by the show and wished I could have zipped through a few more episodes.
After watching, I dug around on my shelves and read the first few pages of the first book Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.
I've read some reviews of the show so far, and its one of those things where I swear others watched a different show than I did.
So, as far as I know so far: there is a eons long, recurring battle between a Dark One and a Dragon. Sometimes the Dragon is influenced by good, sometimes by evil.
As we come into the story, a Wise Woman named Moiraine and her bodyguard/companion Lan hunt for the new incarnation of the Dragon, trying to get to him or her before the minions of the Dark do.
Episode One Leavetaking
We meet the villagers of Two Rivers preparing for a festival.
Egwene becomes one of the Circle of Women in her village, having her hair in a braid for the first time, and undergoing a ritual and test.
Rand accompanies his father to town reminiscing about his youth.
Perrin the blacksmith drinks in the tavern letting his wife do the work at the forge. I thought he seemed to have a crush (?) on Egwene in the first tavern scenes, and was then surprised he was married.
Mat tries to make money gambling or stealing in order to provide for his sisters who aren't cared for by his drunken and uncaring parents.
Enter Moiraine, who looks at all of them intently, but can't tell which of them is the Dragon.
In the middle of the festival next day, strange creatures that look like some incarnation of the devil attack the village, killing everyone they can. There are dozens of them, completely vicious.
Moiraine is able to fight many of them off with the help of Lan, but afterwards she tells the four friends they need to leave their village and follow her east, even as a host of three hundred more Trollocs are seen headed down the mountain towards the village.
Wanting to save what remains of their families, the four get horses and follow Moiraine.
Episode 2 Shadow's Waiting
Oof. This opens with a cruel man eating some gross food, then taunting a woman who seems to belong to the Aes Sedai along with Moiraine, and he burns her at the stake while he continues to eat.
He is apparently one of the Whitecloaks, and a special one called a Questioner. They're some sort of religious order.
There are tense moments when our travelers come upon these men on the road. Moiraine hands her ring to Lan to hide while she is Questioned. It would be excellent to never see the Whitecloaks again, as they are the sort of cruel, hard men who instill dread quickly.
The relentless Trolloc army catches up with the group near a ferry. While Trollocs don't mind water, they can't tolerate deep water. There's a near capture of our group, but they manage to get to the other side.
The ferryman, despite the army of monsters on his home side of the shore, wants desperately to get back over to help his family escape, and to save his son who was expected home any minute. I felt for his desperation in an impossible situation.
Once more the travelers find the Trollocs have found them. They enter a huge ancient city without a single living thing in it. Warned to not touch anything in this cursed place, Lan tends to Moiraine's worsening wound received in the fight at Twin Rivers.
Everyone sleeps but Mat is wakened by something, and follows a shadow a few doors down to a room with a chest in it. Of course he opens it. There's a curved dagger with a red glinting stone.
Almost immediately, something black and fast moving attacks the horses, turning one to dust. All of the companions are separated as they try to find a way out of the city, the black rolling moss closing in fast.
So far, the pacing of the story and the flight of our heroes is just pulse pounding. What a strange, strange world.
Episode 3 A Place of Safety
Rand and Mat are paired in their flight. They argue most of their journey, with Mat wanting to return home and Rand determined to get to wherever Egwene might have gone.
They go down into a valley that looks like there is no outlet at the other end. Agh why trap yourself? From what we've seen of the world so far, nothing good can be in this place. This is reinforced by the corpse of a man in a cage pierced by arrows at the outskirts.
While they're given dirty looks by everyone, nothing bad happens to them from the locals. Arriving in a tavern, hoping for some food and a place to sleep, they meet a troubador and the owner of the tavern. The troubador is somewhat creepy, I thought, and he took an interest in Mat pretty quickly, stealing all his money.
The tavern owner offers the boys work for a meal and a place to sleep. Agh, the food. Some sort of soup, it looked to me like she dumped out any uneaten soup back into the pot, and then there was what looked like part of an arm on the counter and she whacked it with her cleaver and tossed that into the pot too.
Even so, she seemed really nice until revealed later to be a "dark friend," someone trying to find the Dragon for the Dark One.
Egwene and Perrin escape over a wall just in the nick of time into a pool of water. They begin traveling east again, looking for their friends as they go.
Wolves have been following Perrin, and now they're close on the heels of he and Egwene. They seem to be herding them, and when the pair come upon wheel tracks, they decide to follow, hoping to find help and shelter of some kind.
As they get closer to the source of the tracks, but no one is in sight, I thought it was interesting how they approached with caution and fear. Fear being their companion since leaving home.
Suddenly, they're surrounded by people who demand to know if they know a particular song, and they have both Perrin and Egwene recite a statement. Once they do, everyone's friendly and they are taken to a camp of a people who seem very much like gypsies. The folk are friendly and feed them and seem cheerful, but who can trust anyone in this land?
Lan and Moiraine are the only ones to leave the city through a gate. Nevertheless, the poison from the Trolloc weapon has her completely asleep. While Lan tries to help her and decides what to do next, an astonishing thing happens. Nynaeve, the Wisdom of Two Rivers, who planned to apprentice Egwene as a healer, shows up with a sword to Lan's throat.
We had seen her last being dragged off by a Trolloc. She was dragged, but dropped while her captor went to a wounded Trolloc. There was a moment where he looked concerned about him, putting a claw on his shoulder. Then all of a sudden he's tearing his fellow apart, entrails everywhere. While he was busy, Nynaeve ran and escaped. She would not say how she had tracked them to the silent city.
As a healer, she reluctantly attempts to get the poison out of Moiraine's shoulder but it's too strong.
Leaving the women temporarily, Lan rides out, and from a high vantage sees possible help.
As they approach as a group, Moiraine and Liandrin, a sister warily greet each other. In a wagon behind her is a man who has claimed to be the Dragon.
The series has only eight episodes, which will air on Fridays through December 24. I really enjoyed the first three episodes. I had to know who the Dragon was from the characters presented. It's sort of obvious from the way Moiraine looks at the characters, one in particular early on.
The characters are well fleshed out, the scenery beautiful, ruins of all sorts are the stuff of nightmares. If I'd read the books I'd know how long their journey was going to be. At this point, with everyone split up, it's hard to see how they'll all come back together.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
What’s Cooking November 24, 2021
Time to start thinking of those Christmas Cookies, and cookies in general. Here's a nice place to start.
I'm looking for a bigger scoop for my cookies. I steal my son's two tablespoon scoop sometimes, but would rather have my own :)
The picture I first saw showed this being used for filling cupcake forms, and I could use help there. I can't seem to ever fill any of them "two-thirds" full. I know this would help!
I would indeed love these prices. Also, I'd like my turkey to come out looking as it does in this picture.
Isn't this brilliant? I never seem to have just the right sized pan, or, I'd like to make a recipe in a small size.
Speaking of turkey, I need this chart to see how long to cook my 10 pound turkey. Maybe I should have gotten a little bigger one, but there was my ten pounder or a selection of five hundred pounders. (Exaggeration.)
In brief, a few recipes I marked this week by taking a screenshot while my iPad wouldn't respond to touch (again).
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
Arthur Hastings is back providing narration. He makes a point, however, to say there are some chapters included where he did not witness the events, but has very good information from sources involved that the tale told in those chapters is accurate.
Poirot has received an anonymous letter.
Mr. Hercule Poirot,--You fancy yourself, don't you, at solving mysteries that are too difficult for our poor thick-headed British Police?
Let us see, Mr. Clever Poirot, just how clever you can be. Perhaps you'll find this nut too hard to crack. Look out for Andover, on the 21st of the month.
Yours, etc.,
A B C
Poirot's frequent companion in crime investigation, Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard believes the letter is a hoax of the sort sent to his own offices daily. Hastings is inclined to agree. However, something in the letter has Poirot wary.
The 21st comes and goes, and Japp is happy to tell Poirot all is well in Andover. Shortly thereafter, Japp calls to say a woman in Andover, last name Archer, was indeed found murdered in her small shop. It seems her husband may have murdered her, but things don't add up. There is also the matter of a well placed, open face down to Andover's train schedule in the ABC Railway Guide on her counter. It is not a guide she carried in her shop.
Poirot and Hastings question potential witnesses in Andover to no avail.
They must wait for another letter, and Poirot is certain there will be one, to try to avert another murder. Or solve it once it tragically occurs to make sense of the murderer's plan before he kills again.
Luckily they lived in an age when "chain" or "series" murders were not a common thing. It's fascinating as always to watch Poirot at work, connecting clues that anyone would miss, looking to the psychology of the killer as much as at his work.
https://www.agathachristie.com/
Monday, November 22, 2021
Book Notes November 22, 2021
From CrimeReads, Colleen Cambridge talks about the research she did on what a below-the-stairs housekeeper would do in her duties, and why such a position is perfect for an amateur crime solver. Fascinating article, and I want to read her book Murder At Mallowan Hall.
However, I could not get away from wishing she had not set it in the household of Agatha Christie, because if there's a fictional murder in fictional Agatha Christie's house, I want her to solve the crime.
https://crimereads.com/the-downstairs-world-a-fascinating-setting-for-a-murder-mystery-sleuth/
Thinking of giving or asking for a cookbook for Christmas? Bon Appetit has 21 suggestions for their favorites of 2021.
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/best-cookbooks-2021-gift-guide
Here's a super fun post from Jungle Red Writers: Books that made us fans and writers of crime fiction.
https://www.jungleredwriters.com/2021/11/the-books-that-made-us-fans-and-writers.html
Marie Lu's Legend is being developed for television. Intriguing plot! From Deadline:
The best-seller is the first of a trilogy and was originally published in 2011, going on to sell over 3M copies worldwide. It’s set in a futuristic world where what was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Eighteen-year-old Day lives on the streets as the country’s most wanted criminal, while eighteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed by the Republic’s highest military circles. The two teenagers cross paths when Day becomes the suspect in a high-profile murder case.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/legend-marie-lu-series-adaptation-bound-entertainment-lindsay-sturman
It's time to vote in the Goodreads Choice Awards, 2021!
The opening round goes till November 28. I have located my old Librariandoa login, so I've voted with that account. Somehow I forget about about it till too late, most years, but I'm in! There are some tough choices.
https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2021
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Merlyn's Cipher Sunday Puzzle for November 21, 2021
I hope you like this cipher form, it's likely going to be the standard one used. Blah blah.
Doctor Who: Once Upon A Time
Ack, moments before this week's episode, my small thoughts on last week's episode.
Very frenetic again, but not in a good way. Too much splintered time, the dialog could barely be made out over music and sound effects.
Though the Doctor was supposedly protecting Yaz, Dan and Zinder, she came off as being more selfishly interested in her own part in the time stream and the possible causes of the Flux.
Not a good episode.
Sunday Puzzles A Rebus for November 21, 2021
Here we go, the old Festisite Rebus maker made a nice puzzle for Rebus Week. My other Rebus maker site warns you not to go to the site, so that one is kablooie. Kind of like all of last week :)
Saturday, November 20, 2021
Saturday Random Maze November 20, 2021
From Maze Generator.net tonight
A good maze
is a tricky maze
here it is
DOA's Answer Key for the Cryptogram of November 14, 2021
I hope you enjoyed the puzzle and the new Puzzle Maker. The quote is from the Curse of Edwin Grange by James G. Tipton, appearing in the November/December 2021 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Magazine. It's a tale of Dr. Watson after he's lost his wife and his friend Sherlock.
Friday, November 19, 2021
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