The Girdle of Melian

Not what you think ! But here's a library they didn't use: The Osler Library of Medicine at McGill University

Another great thread over on Compuserve (I hope the link works!)... I tend to buy books at a faster rate than I can read them, even while reading ten or more at a time - that To Be Read pile just won't stop growing! In a way, though, the pile acts as a kind of "buffer zone"; when I've finished a few books at once, or want to escape some of the more "serious" books I'm reading, and if I don't start rereading an old favourite, then I can scan the TBR pile and wait for a new book to strike me. Odd things happen sometimes, with this method. I was straightening a bookshelf one time when Dickens' The Chimes - a very tiny hardcover copy published practically 100 years ago - caught my eye. I sat down on the floor right then and there and read the whole thing. It was lovely :-)

Jenny has a recent post about Tag Lines for one's novel. I've been thinking about this all day and have come up with three for The Face of A Lion : Meeting the cat was only the beginning... (This might be better as: Meeting a talking cat was only the beginning...) Can Austin prevent history from being erased? What if Rome had never invaded England?

Check out this knitting pattern, courtesy of Jeloca  (pattern for sale here ): And now, some scenes from downtown Montreal:

The geese are flying north - I've been seeing them every morning on my way to the train station. Somehow they never fail to lift up my heart. My camera's not equal to taking still shots of them so high up, so I've borrowed a public domain image:

Tag! I'm it! I've been tagged by Carol ! The rules: a. Link to the person who tagged you. b. Post the rules on your blog. c. Write six random things about yourself. d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog. f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up. The six random facts: 1. I can count to 5 in eight languages (English, French, German, Turkish, Spanish, Russian, Welsh and Swedish) 2. My dreams are mostly like video games – lots of running, jumping, chasing, car crashes, wild animals, near-escapes... lots of fun! 3. I’ve never eaten at: Burger King; Kentucky Fried Chicken; or Quiznos. I’ve only ever eaten at Taco Bell once, and Denny’s once. Denny’s was the worst! I haven’t eaten anything but ice cream at McDonald’s in about ten years. 4. I once almost bought a Dali statuette at the Dali Museum in Paris – it was of Alice, skipping, and only cost 1000$, which was...

The blog of unnecessary quotation marks, here . How about unnecessary apostrophes? I still remember my boss at Dairy Queen, who once wrote up a grocery list for me that included banana's [sic]. Shudder! Why is it that people who can't spell/write coherently always add items? You'd think more ignorant would equal more simple , yet that never seems to be the case. They should teach kids early on: when in doubt, leave it out!