Believing

There is power in music - power to set the mood, change the mood, and be the mood - but silence is beyond powerful.  The daily news pains.  If there is an omnipotent, omnipresent deity in charge, it should be ashamed of letting things fall apart this way.  Monday night football should be available on a network channel and I shouldn't have to sneak into restaurants and bars to watch it. Even if Halloween falls on a Sunday, kids should be allowed to trick or treat on Halloween itself.  Nationalized health care works for Canada and Australia.  The wealthiest in this country have too much wealth. Every child in this country should be well fed, well loved, and have access to dental and health care.  This I believe.

God.  Gods.  Bringing children into a world that will be a better place when they grow up.  My cat will someday behave for more than ten minutes at a time.  Joni Mitchell is a better artist than Joan Baez.  Ndamukong Suh is a good investment for the Detroit Lions.  Politicians will put aside partisan bickering and asshattery to make tough choices to help those who need it the most.  Resources will be distributed in a fair and equitable manner.  This I do not believe.

The Detroit Lions will win their division.  Children born today will know the level of peace and prosperity I enjoyed while growing up with Clinton in the White House.  There is an omnipresent, omnipotent deity watching over us, waiting for the perfect moment to make it all better.  True love exists.  Kids will be allowed to be kids, allowed to run, laugh, dance, and play without fear or worry.  This I want to believe. 

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

One of the more charming aspects of our new town is the local library. It's small, but I've yet to search for a book that I can't find in their collection. Even more excitingly, I've yet to look for a book that was checked out. It's a college town, and if the undergrads here are anything like I was when I was in college, they can't even tell you where the local library is located. Why bother when you can get anything you want from the university library?! So the library is always quiet and I can always find the books I'm looking for.*

But the library itself is not what I cheer about the most. What I adore is the "remarks from readers" page that the library has provided at the front of each book. Here readers can add their own book reviews. I just love it. I recently checked out The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King and this is what I saw when I opened the book:

Click to make larger

Remarks from the reader...

dull

6/4/05 No, very dull.

8/09 No, extremely delightful, written in the manner of Jane Austen or the Brontes - a period piece written by a modern woman.  I look forward to reading the next book in the series.  Possible the "dull" and "very dull" comments were written by admirers of Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich - I, too, enjoy those writers, but the books are not the well-researched, intelligent books this one is - they are interesting for sure, and American, not British in tone.

I just love it. I was a bit confused because so many people had recommended this book to me, so I had assumed it was just a well loved piece of fiction but the discourse here reminded me that, once again, people are so hard to predict.

For my sake, my addition says this (on the back of the page pictured):
10/2011 This is a great book.  If you've read any Sherlock Holmes stories, this is great fun.  I've always felt the lack of a strong female character was a weakness of those stories and this book fixes the problem.  Do read it - it's fun!

I've seen a few of these in the library, but this was by far the best one. I'll post more if I see any more controversies brewing in the stacks!!

*The major exception to the "find the books I'm looking for" rule is young adult books. This is no different than any other library I've ever been to, but things are always shelved incorrectly or missing in this section and it drives me batty. But I guess that just means I'll have to start reading more grown up books.

Coup d'kitten

Hi all. My name is Zelda.  I am approximately four months old and absolutely adorable.  The adorableness is a distraction so my people won't know my true evil nature.  My people spoil me senseless, buy me lots of toys, and play with me all the time.  I, for my part, give love and cuddles to the girl person, especially when she's covered in my favorite fleece blanket (see above) and chase the boy person's legs all the time because he's usually kicking a ball for me to chase, so I say, hey, skip the middleman here, Imma gonna chase the legs.

As far as I can tell, my life is very difficult.  All the time, those people stuff me in a carrier and take me to this office with other animals and then these people in blue outfits poke things in me!  Also, they don't let me climb on the table, the entertainment center, or even go into the bedroom at all! What's a kitty to do?  I'm plotting an overthrow of the apartment so I can whatever I want to do.  And that girl person is always cleaning my ears, touching my feet, and brushing me. I find myself appalled at her audacity in touching me like that.  Someday I'm going to stuff my paws in her ears when she isn't paying attention.

I sleep a lot, but when I'm not sleeping, I'm totally looking for trouble.  I try to eat the houseplants, climb up everything, and bite things.  I'm teething right now, so I like to bite. I like biting my people best of all, but I'll bite just about anything - paper, plastic, wood, you know, whatever someone leaves handily about for me to bite.  I also like to dash out of our apartment and watch my people drop whatever they have in their hands to come chase me down the hall. It's so funny to watch people run - run for their lives.

My favorite sleeping place is on the female person.  The boy person is too sharp for me.  How come he doesn't have nice padding like the girl?  I will, of course, accept sleeping on the couch as a second place substitute, but I really like to be the only one on the couch at the time.  Sometimes I like to keep my people on their toes by sleeping in really weird places like the bathtub, but most of the time, I like to be sleeping on something soft.  Up next I'm devising plot to force them to allow me into the bedroom where there's a thing that looks really big and soft to sleep on.

I'm five pounds right now and I seem to be getting a little bit longer every day. I have really short legs and so I miss a lot of jumps which makes my people laugh like crazy and I think it's mean that they laugh at me, but I am getting longer and longer and pretty soon I'm going to be so big I take over and show those humans that Zelda is the one in charge in this house.  They'll learn, mark my words.  I won't be a little kitten forever.