storytelling

First: some great entries on the rewrite this! contest. Keep 'em coming. I'll close the comments tomorrow afternoon, and then I may ask the Mathematician to pick the winner. Or maybe the Girlchild. Certainly my mind is not in proper working order for such an important decision.

Okay so, when I'm sick I tend to be more obsessive than normal. Maybe that's true of everybody, I don't know, but it seems unlikely that there are many people in the world who, when they have a fever, find themselves utterly wrapped up in the idea of, say, Cherry Garcia ice cream. So wrapped up that it's the primary thing on the mind, in the dreams, everywhere.

I know that doesn't sound very odd. Lots of people adore Cherry Garcia. What could be more natural? Those huge chunks of cherry, the way the the dark chocolate sets the sweetness of the fruit off... a perfect ice cream.

Where was I.

Okay, so here's the really weird thing. Yesterday I ran across a food weblog (and yes, there are tons of those) and a post on that weblog from last year discussing a European sweet swap. I read that entry about six times. It seems these clever Europeans got together and set this up. You put together a box of delicacies. The one the blogger got was from somebody in Sweden, and had two kinds of homemade cookies (each described lovingly, with photos), and lots of local chocolate and candy.

Can you see this? Homemade cookies from Sweden. In the mail. With chocolate on the side.

Immediately I started looking. Someplace there must be somebody arranging this kind of swap on a larger scale. An International Sweet Swap. Once a month, as I imagined it, you send out a box of stuff, and you get one back. From Japan, from Scotland, from Hungary, France, Portugal, India. This sounds to me like an excellent idea. The reason the internet was invented was to introduce me to more ways to ingest interesting combinations of carbohydrates and fats, after all.

And then the reality: no such website, weblog, notice board. No place on the planet (as far as various search engines could tell me) were such things being planned.

You'd think it would end there, but no. In my fevered mind, an idea: I could start the thing going. The Internationsl Sweet Swap. All I would need is another weblog installation, easy peasy. Yes! Yes! Soon all your cookies are belong to me.

Luckily the Mathematician is familiar with my fevered preoccupation mode. His first question: so, these are all strangers, right? Sending you food through the mail? Um, have you thought about... food poisoning? A box of cookies in transit for a week, butter and sugar and nuts, excess heat... you do remember that last time you had food poisoning.

To which I said: you merciless pooper on parties. Fine. No International Sweet Swap, but let's have a talk about Cherry Garcia.

There is (sometimes) a method in my madness.

Posted by at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a proverb: Birds of a feather flock together

And here's the deal:

1. Rewrite it.
2. Be alliterative.*
3. On Wednesday afternoon I'll open the comments to this post.
4. The comments will stay open for one day and will close on Thursday afternoon.
5. While the comments are open, you can post your rewrite.
6. You have to use a valid email address when you post your comment.
7. One entry per person.
8. You can't edit your entry once you've posted it.
9. I'll pick one winner. That person will get a free, signed first edition of Queen of Swords.

*Alliteration is not a repetition of letters, it is a repetition of sounds. These phrases are all alliterative:

reason to write
fan of photos
score the school
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
suffering succotash

These phrases are not alliterative even though they start with the same written letter:

see the shell
thwart the twin

Final note: this is actually supposed to be fun. Give it a try, you'll like it.

Posted by at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (41) | TrackBacks (0)

My current state of misery has at least provided me with some time to catch up on weblogs I like. I have missed out on a number of bruhahas, small and large (no big deal). But I also missed out on some really good stuff. Such as this post by Alison Kent which made me laugh. Especially wonderful today.

An excerpt:

1. A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired.
2. A will is a dead giveaway.
3. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In a democracy it’s your vote that counts; in feudalism, it’s your Count that votes.
6. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
7. If you don’t pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.

This is the kind of humor I appreciate at the moment. Word play that makes me giggle without starting a hugh coughing fit. Thanks, Aliaon.

Posted by at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)