Jennifer K. Breedlove

Charming movie. Really enjoyed it. And the cast—my God, the cast…

Late Night Sads. Yeah, that’s what they’re called I guess. (Me too.)

Le sigh.

BTW-I’m reading Ardemore now and LOVING it. ❤️ (You and I seem to share the “neurodivergent woman inherits creepy mansion with generations of family secrets” genre😆) Delighted to have found you.

Christmas tradition: watching Hallmark Christmas movie mysteries and trying to guess who’s the body, who’s the red herring, and who’s the killer before the plot even begins.

I’m pretty good at it. 😆

Had a joke about Cassandra, but she already knew the punchline—no one could believe it.

Another solution is make apple crumble pie instead of using a second crust…but then you don’t get the little extra pastry bits.

(Gluten free household. Gluten free pie crust is so much less satisfying…:-()

Suitable for all meals. With butter for breakfast, nut butter for lunch, pesto and a slice of cheese for dinner, a nice jam for dessert. Indispensable foodstuff.

I tell people about Time War all the time, and Bigolas Dickolas is the best part of the story.

(Except for Time War itself, which is an exquisite story all on its own)

(We smoke ours, breast down. Easier to carve, white meat stays moist, whole thing cooks evenly.)

Ah, it’s that day of the year when all social media platforms are flooded with people pronouncing with great assurance either that “turkey is awful and everyone hates it” or “turkey is delicious, but ONLY if you make it THIS WAY!” but no two have the same plan.

Oh yeah, I see that now—I’m pretty comfy making adjustments; between my gluten allergy and this recent nut allergy, I’m used to it. (My son dated a vegan for a while—THAT was interesting, cooking without gluten, nuts, OR animal products!) I bet the pecans in the topping are amazing tho…

Thank you! I bought extra cranberries this year because a new nut allergy in the house has required a change in our sweet potato recipe (woe! Change! Thanksgiving RUINED! 😆) so I may actually get to try this!

That sounds lovely. My family are all creatures of habit and turn up their noses at anything that strays from The Same Recipes Always, but I may have to make a third pie to try it out since I don’t much like the apple by itself.

This makes me want to try all kinds of prompts on the stock sites like “turkey food poisoning” “bad pie” “politics dinner table” “kids table exile” etc…probably not good for much, but it would be fun…

The Day After Tomorrow. My favorite trashy disaster movie. It hits the perfect balance of improbable storying, pathos, grandeur, impossible escapes, near-laughable stakes-raising, teen love, daddy issues, cute one-liners, and somehow a happy ending despite something like half the world perishing.❤️😆

STORYTIME: I want to hear about people's most memorable Thanksgivings.

Mine: the year I couldn't go home & stayed in Chicago to make dinner for two Australian friends who wanted to experience an American Thanksgiving. They were my sous chefs, I called my mom a lot, there was much wine. Lovely.

Agreed.

It does get confusing when everyone has their “failsafe” way to make the perfect turkey and they all differ significantly.

(Mine is to cook it breast down. Looks a little different on the platter, but the breast meat gets basted by the fat from the thighs, and carving is a breeze.)

We said no to traveling for the Big Family Gathering, had quiet at home thanksgiving for just the 4 of us (who happen to like each other and share a dislike of Big Family Gatherings). All the food, none of the chaos, plenty of pie for breakfast the next day.

No. No it will not.

It might help…but I think I’d need at least 3 days to be actually fixed. 3 or 4.

Shall we say maybe a week? (Extra batches of scones will be required.)

Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:

Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.

--W. H. Auden

(Happy feast day, sweet muse :-))

Farfalle. Those dreaded little bow ties can be floppy on the ends but still rock hard in the middle and they’re impossible to cook properly.

Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...

Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.

Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."

You should read Gigi Pandian’s “Secret Staircase” mysteries—about a former magician who comes home to work for her family’s renovation company, but instead of normal renovations they specialize in secret rooms and stairways and stuff.

This entire thread has made my morning.

No, but in college I turned every freshman philosophy paper into a Thing. I did my Socrates paper in the form of a Socratic dialogue, and my Kant paper turned into a fantasy short story exploring why the categorical imperative doesn’t work in real life.

I can see the blurb now: "Your anthology made my uterus whisper 'finally, someone gets it'"--Random AI scambot that probably doesn't have a uterus

(I didn’t mean to suck with my first comment, and I apologize if I did…I GENUINELY didn’t know there was a whole body of humans outside of franchise-chasing studio heads who long for more Bond movies; now that I know I’ll STHU. :-) I hope they reboot it and it’s the best Bond ever. 🍸)

I can blame anybody! I’m a crabby old person now! 😆

But really, I hope they don’t “undo” his death. Heck, at this point they could do a total reboot, back in the sixties, start fresh.

(Also I’m a writer who kills characters just to give them great death scenes…I hate to see gifts rescinded…😆)

Fair.

It’s a pet peeve of mine, when writers are like “let’s raise the stakes! Mortal injury and death!” and then undo it, which of course obliterates the stakes.

(And I do like Bond—my forever fave is Dalton sledding down a mountain on a cello case.) (Guess I’m getting old and crabby. 😆)

Oh totally—if people want them, for sure, go for it. But…the way the article frames it as “Ohmigod he must live how can we get past the whole death thing” feels…squicky to me.

There are options, of course—any storyteller can find them—but if death is so easily undone, IMO, doesn’t it lose meaning?