The “Would I? Would I?” joke is here. But the fun of the joke, beyond the enjoyment of figuring out how often one can respond to a beloved’s query by saying “Would I? Would I?”, is coming up with variants. Here was one example. And here’s another:
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Sure, the architecture is fantastic, but you’ve probably seen photos of that before.
Why did you read this book? I didn’t. Beckie read it to me, while I drove our rental car across New Zealand. She chose the book because she liked a previous book by the same author, with the wonderful title The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland on a Ship of Her Own Making.
Has Beckie read it? Apparently you weren’t listening. Yes. She read it out loud. To me, while I was driving.
42 word review: Novella reimagines Snow White in old West. Excellent turns of phrase throughout. Good pacing and clever plot choices. Tone uneven: loses sense of whimsy for middle third, becoming very dark, then introduces screwball-comedy elements later. Magic elements creepy but not necessarily coherent.
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 dwarves (Bashful and Grumpy refuse to participate in the rating system, for different reasons)
“Ramen noodles” has always puzzled me. Is it some kind of Asian word, or were they invented by some guy named Ramen? (Could be both, I suppose, if invented by an Asian guy.) “Two-minute noodles” emphasize how quickly they can be prepared, which I would have thought of as their third-most appealing feature, after (1) how cheap they are, and (2) how decent-for-dirt-cheap-food they taste, if your constitution can handle the salt. “Two-minute noodles” gets some nice assonance going with the “oo”-“oo”, and affords the knowing acronym TMN.
Jeremy’s winner: Continue reading
This was a former limestone quarry. This part was just lit naturally, but other areas had images and light projected on the walls (and floor and ceiling). The light show was amazing.
(Pressing the balloons against our faces was probably the best part.)
So, this was a fundraiser for Deaf Australia called 4senses. As from their own description: 4Senses is a multi-sensory live gig, which uses sight and touch to make music accessible to everyone, including people who are deaf and hard of hearing. This is only 3 senses, but there was also a bar.
How’d it go? So they had a band playing, and a very active guy up front signing the lyrics. The lyrics were also projected with all these fun colored videos on three walls. There were also subwoofers to sit on, and (as in the photo) balloons to press against your face.
The band we stayed for was good, but it was also sorta like standing around in a gym. The big problem, honestly, was that the crowd just didn’t seem very into it. Sure, people would wave their hand in the air to express approval when the song was over, but mostly folks were just standing around and chatting, whether by voice or by signing. Maybe it got more lively as the night went on, but I left with the feeling that, for a rock concert, the patrons of Deaf Australia were a pleasant but tough crowd.
Would you do it again? Glad to have gone, but probably a one-and-done experience.
An odd thing here is that the place where the vegetable is less popular is the place that abbreviates the name. Australians put beetroot on pizza and hamburgers. In the US, you only see beets at restaurants that have many, many other vegetables on their menu or in old references to how kids should “eat their beets.” (And borscht, I suppose.)
“Beet” is a quirky little word, whose quirkiness is lost when the “root” is added. But “root” in Australia is another word for “sex” (“have a root), so they manage to make one of the most boring vegetables into something vaguely naughty.
Jeremy’s winner: Continue reading
Why did you read this book? I was looking for something by an Australian author, and I’d enjoyed one of the author’s books before (albeit in high school).
Has Jeremy read it? No, and it’s another one he won’t.
42 word review: The book started with an unsolved murder, but then focused on the characters whose relationships were affected by the crime. Unfortunately, the characters’ motivations were unconvincing, the revelations about the murderer came out of nowhere, and the prose was workmanlike, at best.
Rating: 2 red herrings (out of 5)
Near Huasca de Ocampo, Mexico.