This is a particular kind of bookmark where the page slips into a cloth pocket. They go by different names, but this one, by Dane Jane Designs of Cambridge, is called a corner bookmark. I thought it made sense to pair it with “cat” in the OED, which made for an awkward entry at the top of the page. Oh well.
Book: The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
I think every mystery story is a magic trick, with the author trying to put one over on us. The challenge is to try and catch their sleight of hand and guess how the trick is being done before the big reveal.
As with a magic act, one of the key tools is misdirection. And, again as with a magic act, the audience knows it’s being misdirected, just not how. So it’s all a dance of deception.
We’re back in a familiar setting here, with the regular gang of friends getting together to solve a mystery put to them by Sir Henry Clithering, ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard. One thing that’s changed since the Tuesday Night Club started up, however, is that now everyone defers to Miss Marple and her method for coming to a solution. Which she employs again here by decoding some British gardening slang (which is itself a kind of misdirection). But Christie plays fair with the clue we get, even pointing it out, and if I’d put enough thought into it even I might have twigged to what was going on.
The thing is, when our Jane points out the clue you immediately have to wonder if she’s directing us to something important or if we’re being presented with a red herring. But seeing as it’s Miss Marple herself who draws it to our attention, you can probably take it to the bank. Where the misdirection comes in is when the killer attempts to put the police on a false trail. The killers in mystery novels are magicians too, and especially in Christie where they have a real thing for putting on a show, complete with costumes, disguises, and other props.
You can’t go wrong with the classics. Like these day lilies (sometimes spelled daylilies). You see these guys everywhere, and for good reason. We have a lot planted around where I live. According to Wikipedia, however, they are not actually lilies.
I’ve never been on a cruise. But I know people who have. I guess some cruise ships have small onboard libraries, even though print is about as dated now as the age of sail.
Anyway, if you took a book out of this ship’s library they gave you a bookmark as a reminder to bring it back. As if that $25 deposit wasn’t enough of an incentive. That seems pricey to me.
Book: Angel of Vengeance: The “Girl Assassin,” the Governor of St. Petersburg, and Russia’s Revolutionary World by Ana Siljak
No this is not a dandelion gone to seed. In fact, I have no idea what it is. It’s a tall stalk (nearly five fee!) and it has these globular flowers at the top. It just looks weird.
Studs are up and things are coming along nicely! Getting ready for flooring and insulation. (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)
This is the first of the Asterix comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo, and was published in 1961. I grew up reading these in English translations, and I think I had a French edition of one of them too. But this time I wasn’t the English version I remembered, as it was an “all-new more American translation” done in 1999. Back when I read the comics the village druid was named Getafix, but here he’s Panoramix, which is actually his name in the original French even though I don’t like it as much. And I wondered if, when Panoramix says he can make soup in various flavours, including “bacon cheeseburger,” this was a literal translation or something more “American.” Did they have bacon cheeseburgers in France in 1961?
For being the first in the series they hit the ground running with Asterix the Gaul, as the series was basically born full grown with everything in place. Except maybe for Dogmatix. I might have missed Obelix’s little dog but I don’t think he was here. And they even let Cacofonix sing at the final feast, which wasn’t going to happen again very often.
The story has a nice a mix of goofiness (the Romans playing musical chairs to see who will be the secret agent sent to the Gauls’ village), wordplay, and basic moral instruction. When Panoramix explains to Asterix that he doesn’t need the magic potion to beat the Romans but only has to use his native wit, it’s a point that a lot of superhero comics like to make.
The real star though is Uderzo’s art. It’s what impressed me the most when I was a kid and it still does today. And it’s all the more impressive because I can’t think of any comic artist who has created anything quite like it in all the years since. One panel here that really stood out has a Roman troop marching beneath a tree, with Asterix and Obelix perched in silhouette on a branch overhead. There’s so much action and information put into that one drawing, not to mention just how beautiful it is to look at. There aren’t many books you can return to after so many years that hold up so well.
On the flip side of the pendant it says “Rêve.” Because Canada is bilingual.
Book: The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne
The last volume – or is it just the season one finale? – of the Bone Parish saga. And up to the final issue I was wondering how they were going to manage to wrap everything up in the few pages remaining. Well, much to my surprise Cullen Bunn managed to pull it off. It’s a quick ending, and feels a bit rushed, but it’s satisfactory and does manage to tie up most of the loose ends while holding out the promise of the story continuing. Colour me impressed. I didn’t think it was going to work.
There were no big twists or revelations, while the action seemed bloodier than usual even though the regular gang violence was toned down and the mutants created by the bad batch of Ash weren’t back. I was getting used to Jonas Scharf’s art, and while he has a real weak spot for faces, especially in profiles that he tends to just repeat, he does some good action scenes here, including a couple of nice fights and one great explosion drawing.
So that’s a wrap, with most of the Winters family now deceased and bottled up. But what might be going on in the land of the dead is left a little vague. Is there a voodoo king of the underworld, or is it all just hallucinations? Maybe if the series is continued things like this will be explained, but I’m fine if they just leave it the way they did. Solid work all around.
Because the lotus flowers are so big they don’t last long. So there’s never an explosion of giant blossoms. But this pic shows the pond at its seasonal best. That’s a wrap for this year! Thanks to the owners for putting in all the effort to make it happen! (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)
Alex Good 