Sidekick?
“Here’s something interesting from the inbox,” says Admin. “‘We are pleased to inform you that To Fetch a Thief has been nominated for the Left Coast Crime 2011 Watson Award, for the mystery with the best sidekick. The awards will be voted on at the convention and presented at a banquet on Saturday, March 26th, 2011, at the historic La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.'”
What’s this? Sidekick? I hope Bernie won’t be too upset: I’ve always considered him a full partner in the Little Detective Agency.
Tags: Left Coast Crime, Little Detective Agency
This entry was posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 8:07 am and is filed under Chet The Dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
8:15 am on January 24th, 2011
Congratulations! Chet and Bernie are equal partners. I wonder if the Watson Award defined sidekick.
9:13 am on January 24th, 2011
Way to go guys! So the awards people are a little confused. “It is an honor just to have been nominated.” Either way you look at it, we can’t imagine that there could be any real competition!
9:40 am on January 24th, 2011
I agree with Chet. I hope that Bernie is not too upset for being nominated as Chet’s sidekick. Woo Woo Woo at my friend Rio would say. Wookie
9:59 am on January 24th, 2011
New Mexico!… Hey! Our guys are bound to win….snort!… Do you think Chet and Bernie will attend the banquet? How far away does SiberH live from Santa Fe I wonder…sniff!
10:07 am on January 24th, 2011
Here are the nominees (in alphabetical order):
1. Sandy Ault, Wild Penance (Berkley Hardcover)
2. Rachel Brady, Dead Lift (Poisoned Pen Press)
3. Chris Grabenstein, Rolling Thunder (Pegasus)
4. Craig Johnson, Junkyard Dogs (Viking)
5. Spencer Quinn, To Fetch a Thief (Atria)
Has anyone read the other books?
P.S. Finally it is -5 this morning. Going to be a good day.
10:16 am on January 24th, 2011
C. Harris — sounds like a real warming trend where you live. If it gets any warmer, you may have to break out the Hawaiian pants to celebrate. Wookie
10:19 am on January 24th, 2011
Writers!… I’ve never heard of any of those other guys…heh!… Chet’s going to win for sure!….Wooo!
10:20 am on January 24th, 2011
Congratulations Chet and Bernie. Maybe they consider the car a sidekick.
Harris,
We beat you today; it was -15 when I went for my first walk.
10:21 am on January 24th, 2011
C.Harris – I’m on my way to your house. It’s -11 here.
10:23 am on January 24th, 2011
Tyb – That;s what you get for getting up early. Mom slept in until 8 a.m.
10:41 am on January 24th, 2011
Hotel!… The Historic La Fonda Hotel is absolutely beautiful!…snort!… What a lovely place to drink margaritas on the patio and then go to a banquet …heh!
10:43 am on January 24th, 2011
I think Siber-H has to get to Santa Fe.
10:53 am on January 24th, 2011
Good morning, y’all! Santa Fe is one of Mom’s favorite towns in the whole wide world. Too bad it’s so far away from here! Mom started reading Chris Grabenstein’s first book, but just couldn’t get into it, so she doesn’t remember much about the sidekick — maybe he/she hadn’t been introduced yet by the time Mom gave up reading.
10:54 am on January 24th, 2011
That was my first thought too. I hope Bernie is okay being “Watson”.
It will still be winter here in March, I hope all the Cape Cod gang gets to the banquet.
Okay C.Harris . . . The sun has been up for over 3 hours and we’ve warmed up to -5 degrees! Enough sending the weather this way.
Dan and I were watching the weather channel and they had a 30 minutes program on winter in Burrow, AK. Jeez!! Talk about frostbite. Some guy grabbed the handle of his car and his hand turned black for 3 weeks.
Hope you live further south than that!
10:55 am on January 24th, 2011
Hi TYB, the Pack is loving the cold. We are not. Tonight we are supposed to warm up to -1 degree.
10:59 am on January 24th, 2011
Okay, one more post then I have to rest again. The hotel is supposedly haunted.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-lafondahotel.html
10:59 am on January 24th, 2011
Oh, I take that back. I just read the blurb for the first book in the series, Tilt-a-Whirl. Apparently the sidekick is the first-person narrator, but Mom read it so long ago that she forgot who was who!
10:59 am on January 24th, 2011
Mom and Dad were staying at the La Fonda Hotel when Dad proposed to mom. That was before I came along, but I’m sure that they had a great time.
Are we allowed to vote???
Chet, you always make me laugh! Congratulations big guy and Bernie. And congratulations on your winning picks yesterday!
It’s +58 here in California. Mom doesn’t even need to wear a jacket to work now. Not to brag, or anything.
11:02 am on January 24th, 2011
New Mexico!… This state is also Wookie’s Pa’s old stomping grounds…heh!…I wonder if Wookie and the gang would make the trip to Sante Fe?….sniff!
11:12 am on January 24th, 2011
It’s paws down that Bernie will win as the best sidekick.
11:14 am on January 24th, 2011
I would love to be there to see Chet and Bernie win the award. Darn! We are too far away.
11:28 am on January 24th, 2011
Banquet!… I’d go but I’m not allowed to leave my yard…sniff!… I’d love to check out that banquet table….slurrrp!…I bet I could beg a bite of everything off of Bernie…heh!
11:32 am on January 24th, 2011
Congrtas! Bernie, you make a good sidekick! Hope the whole entourage can travel to Santa Fe. Will give them a break in the winter. End of March can still be pretty darn cold. We have not read any of the other books.
11:48 am on January 24th, 2011
Congratulations Chet! Chet is the Best Sidekick!! I’m trying to politely say this, but he has no competition. Mom just said that I can’t say the competition sucks.
I consider Chet and Bernie equal partners, but that also makes them both sidekicks. Both Bernie and Chet are one of a kind.
I’m an hour from Santa Fe. It is not one of my favorite cities in the world, but I can tolerate it, and I can understand how someone that doesn’t live here can find it interesting. I would have loved the old, historic, Santa Fe, before it became trendy and ritzy, and celebrities started moving in. That was way before my time, but mom talks history to me.
The La Fonda is old and nice and historic…a worthy place for Spence to receive the award.
11:52 am on January 24th, 2011
Congratulations Chet & Bernie! I’m sure you will win.
I have read books by Craig Johnson. They are good, but the Chet & Bernie books are better of course.
12:00 pm on January 24th, 2011
Invitation!… I bet this banquet is an Invitation Only kind of ceremony… sniff!… I don’t think SiberH or Wookie could just show up and expect to eat off the banquet table… grunt!
12:04 pm on January 24th, 2011
Ok, Kirby gave you a review of one of the other authors and I can tell you about two more of them.
Sandy Alt: NO She writes about Northern NM and she is so far out there in woo woo land that mom gave up on reading her books. If the sidekick in Alt’s books is the wolf…NO, again, and I love wolves. Alt gets wolves all wrong. Spence gets dogs right.
Craig Johnson: Mom reads his books and likes them okay because they are set in Wyoming and are rural. We think the sidekick in Johnson’s books must be the Native American. A great guy and we love him, but no competition for Chet.
12:06 pm on January 24th, 2011
Congrats Chet and Bernie! We agree with Siber that Santa Fe isn;t all that it used to be. When the Woolworth’s on the plaza left and Banana Republic came in…well, we just didn’t bother with it anymore. But La Fonda is lovely and after all it IS in New Mexico. ummmm Chet…if you go to pick up your award, do you think you could maybe possibly take a eensy little side trip to Hatch and get us just a few chili ristras?
12:12 pm on January 24th, 2011
Yeah, Mom loved that Woolworths.
12:17 pm on January 24th, 2011
In mystery novels the sidekick is traditionally the narrator, for example, Watson in Sherlock Holmes and Hastings in the early Poirot novels. It’s so that the reader doesn’t know what is going on in the “genius'” mind.
12:27 pm on January 24th, 2011
That is interesting because the sidekick is not the narrator in Alt or Johnsons’s books.
12:31 pm on January 24th, 2011
Siber-H: You are right. That’s interesting.
12:39 pm on January 24th, 2011
SiberH!… You guys have read both books that Alt and Johnsons wrote in 2010?….snort!
12:39 pm on January 24th, 2011
My dad grew up in Albuquerque and remembers Santa Fe as the dumpy state capitol, but that was before it became trendy. My mom and dad have been to Santa Fe a number of times in more recent years and generally enjoy the city just fine, although you can cut the pretentiousness with a knife sometimes (whatever that means). I’ll work on dad to see if we can go, but my dad has some stuff at his busy place around that time that he has to tend to, so it may not happen. In addition to chiles, there is another New Mexico taste treat that I’ve heard is quite yummy — called sopaipillas, which are fried dough pillows that you break open and poor honey in. Grandpa in particular is a big fan of sopaipillas (it’s that sweet tooth of his). He spent most of his adult life in Albuquerque following WWII until he came to live with us in 2004 (although he grew up in New York CIty area).
Gilly and Tupper — tell your mom that if she wants ristras or some good chile stuff, she can order it on line from the Chile Shop in Santa Fe — http://www.thechileshop.com — that is where we got the ristras for our Christmas party and we have ordered some jarred green chile from them that is pretty good (the stuff you get in cans here on the East Coast can be a bit dreadful).
Wookie amigo
12:39 pm on January 24th, 2011
Rio – I would not count on Bernie for any tasty bits. He is always turning down offers for food for Chet, saying he has had all he needs, or he is trying to be healthy. Then again he might take a look at you and decide it was too late now! snortle, heh
12:40 pm on January 24th, 2011
In Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series, Archie Goodwin is the sidekick/narrator. I haven’t read any of the other novels on that list. Does anyone else know examples of the narrator being the genius detective?
SH: Do you remember how Alt and Johnson novels worked? I can’t remember who the narrator was in the Edgar Allen Poe crime stories. I’ll see if I can find out.
12:46 pm on January 24th, 2011
Wookie, mi amigo, I can just see you in a sombrerro. I know you would wear it well.
Mom says, in her best spanish grammar, ha, that soppappillla es muy bueno. There is a restaurant just up the street that makes some that are so good mom always wants to skip the meal and get right to them. No doggy bags, ever!
12:49 pm on January 24th, 2011
Poe’s detective was Dupin and the narrator was his close friend who remains nameless. Here’s the Wikipedia article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Auguste_Dupin
12:51 pm on January 24th, 2011
I’ve had sopaipillas before and they are delish!
12:59 pm on January 24th, 2011
Sam, we just caught up on last night. We had to stop reading since we were watching the games on DVR and did not want to know what was happening. Anyhoo…it must be very scary to be hawk bait. I wonder what their weight limit is for picking up. It seems to me that once you get all fluffed up the hawks would not even recognize you as potential lunch. A pillow maybe, but lunch?..
1:14 pm on January 24th, 2011
Stover, I’ve got the worst memory of all the plunderers, so I don’t remember how the Alt and Johnson novels worked. Maybe Mollie (ABP) can come to our help on the Johnson novels. Mom has given all those books away so we can’t look up your question. The next time mom is in B&N she will check out Alts’ books and get you an answer. Johnson’s new book doesn’t come out till June and she will be ordering it from Amazon so we can answer the other half of your question then. You have got us curious now.
Rio, Mom has read Johnson’s latest book and will continue reading them. They do not show up in the bookstores here so we have to order them online. We thought his first book was slooow, but stuck with it and were rewarded with all his other books being entertaining.
Mom read a couple of Sandy Alt’s books and just couldn’t take them anymore. No more Sandy Alt.
2:24 pm on January 24th, 2011
Okay. Thank you SH.
I’m currently reading Laura Levine’s This Pen for Hire and the detective (except she’s really a freelance writer and simply got interested in a murder investigation when one of her clients is accused) is the narrator.
I suppose when you have the “genius” detectives such as Holmes, Poirot, Dupin and Wolfe, you can’t be inside their minds. For one thing, it wouldn’t be a linear narrative and for another it would give too much away.
2:36 pm on January 24th, 2011
Levine!… Is Laura Levine the one who is supposed to be very funny?…snort!…. We tried to find one of her books at the used book store, but could not…grunt!
2:36 pm on January 24th, 2011
Siber, I know Santa Fe is not your mom’s favorite city, but since it is a just 1 hour away, would she go to meet SQ? Rio may be right, though, that it will not be open to the public, and is a more formal affair.
We haven’t read any of those and may not. The reviews seem to be so-so. Barb’s daughter just finished reading DOI and she loved it. She is moving on to THAT, but with 3 kids, her reading time is limited.
2:52 pm on January 24th, 2011
Rio: Yes Levine is funny. I ordered mine from Amazon onto my Kindle.
2:53 pm on January 24th, 2011
Has anyone read Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford? We read some good reviews and then one that said it was predictable and forced. One of Barb’s friend thought it was really good.
2:58 pm on January 24th, 2011
Levine!…Is she funnier than Chet and Bernie? …sniff!… Because I don’t want to waste my time on kind-of-funny stuff….grunt!
Laura!…We started another Laura R. King novel called A Monstrous Regiment Of Women.…sniff!… This is the second in a series. We can’t remember if Wookie told us to read these in order or not. We have to take what we can get at the secondhand book store…snort!
3:38 pm on January 24th, 2011
Laura Levine is LOL hilarious. The author was a comedy writer on numerous tv shows befoe she became an author. THe protagonist is named Jaine Austen and she has a sidekick as well (of sorts), which is her cat named Prozac, although the cat is more for comic relief rather than necessarily integral to the plots. We are currently reading Shoes to Die For.
Rio, on Laurie King, the order of the earlier books in the Mary Russell series is not that critical, so I hope your friend enjoys A Monstrous Regiment of Women as a good introduction to the Mary Russell series. If she enjoys that, I think she will want to track down The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, which is the very first book in the series, and which sets the whole picture up very nicely. Sequencing becomes more important in the later books in the series, but is only truly critical for the two last books (which are essentially like a two-part television show). Wookie
3:46 pm on January 24th, 2011
Stover? Is there a word for when a book is written in a straight novel form…a book that isn’t written in the first person or narrated by a sidekick. Would that be a linear narrative?
3:53 pm on January 24th, 2011
Levine is not as funny as the C&B books. It’s a different kind of humor. I quoted a funny part on my blog several days ago under the title “New Author.”
3:57 pm on January 24th, 2011
Maggie, to answer your question, mom would go but I don’t imagine it will be open to the public. I would go but there is no way they would let me in the La Fonda.
There is a lone guy in Santa Fe that is robbing people in the downtown area at gunpoint after it gets dark. He has even been so bold as to rob two people walking together. They haven’t caught him yet. I will keep you posted if the Tourist Board doesn’t get me first.
4:13 pm on January 24th, 2011
SH: I’m not sure what you mean by straight novel form. Linear narrative simply means that it’s told with beginning, middle and end…chronologically.
4:14 pm on January 24th, 2011
The Left Coast Crime Watson Award has a website. Spence is not listed as attending, but Sandy Alt and Craig Johnson are. The La Fonda is sold out.
4:16 pm on January 24th, 2011
B. & Siber-H: In the Craig Johnson books, the narrator is the main character, Sheriff Walt Longmire. I love the books. He does have the Native American friend, Henry Standing Bear, who I think must be the sidekick. He also has a dog named Dog, but the dog does not do much but ride along with the Sheriff. His books have won a lot of awards.
In the Ault books, I think the narrator is the main character who is the woman that has the wolf as a pet. I tried a few of these books, but for some reason I was not really impressed, so I did not read any more of them.
4:17 pm on January 24th, 2011
Rio — I did respond to your inquiries re Laura Levine and Laurie King, but that response is awaiting moderation, so please check back later. Wookie
4:17 pm on January 24th, 2011
Thanks Stover, I wasn’t sure how to ask the question so it made sense. I’ll think about another way to phrase the question.
4:20 pm on January 24th, 2011
The committee is looking for volunteers to help in the book rooms, registration, etc. That sounds like it might be fun.
4:20 pm on January 24th, 2011
Siber-H: I know what you want to ask, but I don’t know how to say/ask it either…
4:20 pm on January 24th, 2011
Thanks Mollie (ABP) I was hoping you would show up to help.
4:31 pm on January 24th, 2011
Admin!… I wonder if that Left Coast organization waited until the La Fonda was sold-out to notify Admin of the nomination….heh!… Maybe they sent the email to Spencer originally and he never replied…snort!
4:43 pm on January 24th, 2011
SH and Mollie: I wonder if you’re referring to omniscient narration–the all-knowing narrator?
4:49 pm on January 24th, 2011
Hey!
Spencer Quinn gets nominated for an award that is being presented at the La Fonda Hotel and one of the Plunderers got proposed to at the La Fonda. That’s a sign, that is. A sign of what, I don’t know, but a sign nonetheless.
Chet and Bernie are equal partners even though Chet’s name always comes first. I’m not going to tell Bernie he’s a sidekick.
5:28 pm on January 24th, 2011
Stover, I am trying to think of a book that I know we have both read. The Harry Potter books…is that omniscient narration?
5:32 pm on January 24th, 2011
Siber-H: Do you mean a story told by someone who is not in the book but tells the story????
5:40 pm on January 24th, 2011
SH: The Harry Potter series is third-person limited narration…told though the thoughts and senses of one character.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is omniscient narration.
5:47 pm on January 24th, 2011
Hooray for Chet (and Bernie), congratulations on the nomination and I can’t imagine anyone else would win but our heroes.
I’ve missed some interesting things, obviously – B’s avatar is now herself! I’ll have to go back and check what i missed the last two days.
5:55 pm on January 24th, 2011
Bee – is the Harry Potter third person the narrator? Omniscient?
Congrats to Chet and Bernie!
Anyone else on AOL and not able to log in? An odd day…
6:09 pm on January 24th, 2011
Ok, I think I understand it now Stover, Thank You.
You are correct also, Mollie (APB) I think you came up with a good way to ask my question.
We have not read Pride and Prejudice. We will get pick up that book and look through it so we will know what omniscient narration is.
6:14 pm on January 24th, 2011
Dawson, I hope it is a sign because if Spence doesn’t get this particular award I will be howling so loud that they will hear me at the La Fonda.
6:22 pm on January 24th, 2011
Bluecat: Harry Potter is told in third-person limited. In other words, we get the story through the experiences of Harry but he’s always referred to as Harry/he; the narration doesn’t use I. Here’s a sentence from Chamber of Secrets: “He missed Hogwarts so much it was like having a constant stomachache.” We’re getting the story in third person (he) and the focus is Harry, his thoughts and feelings.
Here’s the first sentence from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” That is not focussing on one character. Think of it as god’s eye view.
6:27 pm on January 24th, 2011
SH: Did you read Lord of the Ring? I haven’t but I believe that it’s written in omniscient narration. I think most of Charles Dickens is omniscient narration also: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (Tale of Two Cities.) How does A Christmas Carol start?
6:34 pm on January 24th, 2011
umm, no I haven’t read Lord of the Ring, but you will be pleased to know I have read some Dickens. I don’t know how A Christmas Carol starts, but I know The Tale of Two Cities.
Your examples are good ones and I am grasping it now. Thank you
7:01 pm on January 24th, 2011
Jeez, your questions of narratives are beyond my rattled mind.
7:15 pm on January 24th, 2011
Well, that’s it. Got to go to bed again. Did drive the van today. Stopped the meds, had a clear head, drove the car, came back and had to take the meds.
So right now,
clear head vs pain
hmmm. I see the doc on Wednesday.
B.Stover: Your’s is coming up the 27th, right?
Macy: Did your mom ever see the doc? How is she doing?
7:25 pm on January 24th, 2011
Barb and Maggie,
I read that book (Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford) and thought it was wonderful. Very moving and a slice of history that was quite interesting to me. I recommend it highly.
First person, that is all I know.
7:35 pm on January 24th, 2011
Melanie: Yes, this Thursday is my Bscope. Why were you driving? I don’t think you’re ready yet.
7:42 pm on January 24th, 2011
Hopefully Melanie was driving the automatic and not the shift one.
How is the Raven doing? And the Zoe?
7:51 pm on January 24th, 2011
Growl!… Melanie makes me so mad! She’s just like her Dad!…grump!…Your knee will NOT heal if you don’t stop doing stuff you are not supposed to…dammit!
Wookie!… I did finally see your monitored post about the Laura’s ….snort!… I’m not being drawn into the whole Mary Russell character yet, but we haven’t gotten very far yet…sniff! …We do need a good laugh and we can’t wait till September, so she might have to order some Laura Levine soon…heh!
8:17 pm on January 24th, 2011
Cooks!…Does anyone watch Worst Cooks…heh!…Those guys are all trying to make a unique tasting burger…snort!… This is good stuff, but it really makes me hungry…dammit!….She is heating up some of that roast and potatoes from last night too, so maybe that is what is really making me hungry…snuff!
8:29 pm on January 24th, 2011
Who is it that reads Steve Hockensmith? Anyway, he has a new book out called World’s Greatest Sleuth. Big Red & Old Red enter a contest to see who can solve the death of Sherlock Holmes.
8:42 pm on January 24th, 2011
What!?….Did Sherlock Holmes die?…sniff!… I did not know this….gasp!…I don’t think he will ever die!…snort!
8:43 pm on January 24th, 2011
Melanie, Stop over doing it! You need to rest that knee.
Staff, Thank you, Barb is going to order that book by Jamie Ford.
Haven’t read Hockensmith.
8:56 pm on January 24th, 2011
Siber-H – you might enjoy Lord of the Rings. It took me a couple of tries to get into it, and starting with The Hobbit helped. Just an FYI.
8:59 pm on January 24th, 2011
Ok, Thanks Bluecat. I know a lot of people who love those books.
9:07 pm on January 24th, 2011
Geeze!… My friend started reading those books, starting with The Hobbit when she was in 10th grade….grunt!… She has read the whole series at least 2 times, probably three…snort!…I’m sure you can handle it SiberH!…mmmmm!
Worst!…These really are the dumbest people on the Earth, these worst cooks ever…grunt!…Does common sense even come into play with these freakin’ idiots… wheeze!
9:10 pm on January 24th, 2011
We hope the Lord of the Rings is better than the movies. HATED those movies!! Way to long and could not relate or empathize with any of the characters. Mom has not read any of the Harry Potter series either, although alot of the extended family has and thinks they are great. The Harry Potter movies are somewhat enjoyable.
Rio, check out Laura Levine. Mom took Wookie’s advice and ordered a couple of them and they are LOL funny. Fun to read if you need something light.
Congrats to C&B for the nomination. We’re with Chet…didn’t realize they thought of Bernie as a sidekick.
9:19 pm on January 24th, 2011
Puss N’ Boots!… If you have not enjoyed the movies, it is because you Have Not read the books to have enough background to go on…grunt!… The Lord of the Rings trilogy is absolutely amazing – but you will have to read The Hobbit first…heh!…Then the other three books after that. This is not painful, it is a JOY!…snort!snort!
9:26 pm on January 24th, 2011
Don’t know, Rio. That’s a big leap of faith for us since we hated the movies that much. But maybe that’s true. If we had the background and detail from the books, maybe the movies wouldn’t have seen so AWFUL!!
9:34 pm on January 24th, 2011
I liked the Lord of the Rings movies. They did a good job with “Gollum”…Precious…
9:37 pm on January 24th, 2011
Don’t worry everyone, it will get cold up here again but not for the rest of the week so you guys bundle up as you are to get arctic temps. Sorry, but I needed a break. I was actually outside in my blouse with short sleeves at -5 for a bit as I didn’t feel like putting on my coat.
Melanie: I had a contract job in Barrow one summer. The first time I went, the plane circled for an hour and couldn’t land because of weather. So we flew back to Anchorage–a long 12-hour day for nothing. The next day we were able to land. It snowed all of June and all of August. A hard place to live. However, we have a teacher who taught there 8 years before getting a job with our district. He says it is a lot colder where we live. Go figure. I live about 1.5 hours south of Barrow by plane.
9:41 pm on January 24th, 2011
STOP!…Saying those movies were Horrible!…grunt!… Stupid Kats! Those movies are the closest thing we lovers of the Characters of Lord of the Rings have seen outside the books…grump!…Time! Unless you invest the time to read the whole story, Do Not think you are in any position to say anything about the movies….grunt!… SO Stop with your reviews of something you don’t know diddly squat about…wheeze! growl! grump!
Forget It!…Don’t bother reading the beloved books – they are NOT for YOU!…snarl!
9:47 pm on January 24th, 2011
Mollie!…Gollum was played by an actor who is a friend of a friend of my friends…heh!…Andy Serkis is his name and she heard of him from her English friend way before he got the part of Gollum….snort!…Everyone was so very excited because of how much we all LOVED the characters in Lord of the Rings….heh! …Good memories for my friend…snort!
9:49 pm on January 24th, 2011
Hi everyone – we know we are jumping into the conversation kinda late tonight, but we saw B.Stover’s question about how Dicken’s Christmas Carol starts – “Marley was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that” as per the book. As per the absolute best movie version, with Alistair Sim, “Old Marley was dead. That must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am about to tell you.” This sentence does actually appear in the book, a couple paragraphs in.
(Mama’s very favorite story in the world is Christmas Carol – guess some of that rubbed off on us.)
Hi Wookie – thanks for the chili website. How we long for a Christmas plate of tamales…..
Siber – there will never be another Frito Pie like the ones from Woolworths…sigh….
9:51 pm on January 24th, 2011
Mollie!…Dammit! I actually meant to say a friend of my friends friend from England….So only twice removed…grunt! …Not a friend of a friend of a friend…sniff!…Now I am confused…snuff …The spelling of the word ‘friend’ looks funny to me….huff!
9:55 pm on January 24th, 2011
Mollie: We read Hockensmith — but only his Big Red and Old Red books — not the mutant things he’s been writing lately. We’re already on hold for World’s Greatest Sleuth.
Rio: Not to worry. These books are set back when Conan Doyle was still writing the Sherlock Holmes adventures, and he had killed the great detective off — Old Red and Big Red don’t know about Holmes’ survival yet!
9:59 pm on January 24th, 2011
Breath!… We are going to settle down and watch Lie To Me in a few minutes… sniff!…Nothing makes us more upset and angry than Kats who shoot off their jaws about something they don’t know Friskies about….grunt!… breath!…breath!…snort!
10:11 pm on January 24th, 2011
Magpie,
Does Barb want me to send you my copy of the Jamie Ford book? I can do it if you remind me of your address. It is on your envelope back in North Dakota. Somehow I didn’t think I would need those here this winter.
Then there will be one less book in this house. Dawson has filled up the shelving with books that are too heavy to ship back to the far north. She/we can’t resist a good book. Or any book really.
Rio, I just loved the Lord of the Rings. I read it first in high school and made my parents by me a boxed set in the early 70’s for my Christmas present. I too thought the movies were really wonderful.
I have to admit that when I read I saw the landscape and the people and the beauty, but the movie also had me seeing the evil orc’s and the scary land of Mordor. At the end when they returned to Hobbit town I was faced with the destruction of their lovely green land. I was able to gloss over that when I read the books. I too have read them many times. 5 or 6 at least.
I suspect you have to like fantasy.
And Gollum was Exactly like I had envisioned him.
I have got to go to bed now. It was busy today and will busy again tomorrow.
Night all
10:13 pm on January 24th, 2011
Relax Rio,
Not everyone HAS to like what you like. We are all made different. Try for a little calm my puggish friend. You will feel better. Don’t let the little things get you down. And this is a very little thing.
Hugs,
AbbietheKitty, who is waiting for some hot lunch.
10:14 pm on January 24th, 2011
Staff!…Thank you! I feel so much more calm now…sniff! wheeze!
10:14 pm on January 24th, 2011
Rio, now you know how we felt when you trashed the Jack Reacher series without even taking the time to investigate them!! So Hiss and Spitt right back at you!!
AND we did admit that maybe the movies would have been better if we had read the books first!! Unlike you, who dissed the Reacher series and vowed never to read even one of them because Mom isn’t eloquent enough to describe them to you in an interesting way. Others on the blog did but that didn’t change your mind.
Tell you what…We’ll make Mom read The Hobbit and you read one of the Reacher books.
10:16 pm on January 24th, 2011
AbbieTheKat!…Stay out of it!…snort!…This is about spouting off about things you have NO CLUE about…grunt!…Now I am MAD as HELL again!…growl!
10:32 pm on January 24th, 2011
Rio, what do you mean “spouting off about things you have no clue about”. We know what we like and what we don’t like. Gosh almighty, take a chill pill. We didn’t call you out because you do like them. And you have every other plunderer saying they feel the same way as you. Perhaps we had best agree to disagree on this issue.
10:34 pm on January 24th, 2011
T&G: In A Christmas Carol the “I” is not a character in the story right? It sounds like the intrusive omniscient narrator. It was a convention of Victorian novels to have the “author” comment. I don’t think I have a copy of the novel.
10:49 pm on January 24th, 2011
Puss N’ Boots!… I agree to disagree with you. You should have called me out if I dissed Reacher in a way that was uncalled for at the time…grunt!… She has an Aunt who loves Reacher, but that Aunt is a horrible person, so maybe that influenced our opinion …Gawd knows!….sniff!…But don’t just take IT! Tell me off At The Time if you don’t agree with me!…sniff!…. And in turn instead of blasting off saying the Lord of The Rings movies are “AWFUL”, say “ We did not like them because…..” grunt!
10:52 pm on January 24th, 2011
night all
Peace and Goodwill to All Dogs and Cats
10:56 pm on January 24th, 2011
Stover!… Poor thing she’s right in the middle of an argument still trying to make us all see sense and sensibility….heh!!
10:56 pm on January 24th, 2011
Hi B. – Christmas Carol is interesting in its format. The “I’ starts the book out with an overview, a setting of the stage, and then disappears until the final page, to do the sum up of how Scrooge becomes as good a friend, as good a master…etc, and ends with the “I” giving a blessing to the audience.
(Maybe Rio could use that blessing – poor dear does seem to have his curly little tail wound tight tonight)
11:03 pm on January 24th, 2011
T&B: Yes, that sounds like the convention of author intrusion.
Good night all.
11:09 pm on January 24th, 2011
Staff, We would love to borrow the book we discussed. Barb will email her address to you tomorrow.
G & B, we have never read Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter either. Fantasy doesn’t appeal to us, so guess everyone has their own tastes. We love Billie Lettes, and really liked the Kim Edwards book we just read, and apparantly no one else has read either one of those authors. To each their own.
Thank you, and good night all.
11:13 pm on January 24th, 2011
The quotation I used in my blog today would help Rio and G&B.
11:17 pm on January 24th, 2011
And so as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!
Good night friends.
12:02 am on January 25th, 2011
Friends!….If we can not have a good argument between a friend or multiple friends here, then where is the fun? …snort!… Because in real life you have to defend something you believe in against nonbelievers …grunt! …No matter how ignorant they may or may not be…gruff!
Puss N’ Boots, please do not take it personally. We think you guys are becoming very good at arguing your point!….Wooo!…Stand up and MEOW for what you think is right! Even if you are wrong…heh!….Unfortunately you guys are under the impression I have everyone believing what I want them to believe….snort!… I disagree. I think they all are thinking very independently these days ….wheeze!…I think they are able to write their own thoughts out far more specifically than ever before….snorkel!….This is a very good thing!…Wooooo!
10:34 pm on April 12th, 2011
If I could write as well as you, I’d do it all the time. Thanks for sharing!
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