Category: Food for thought
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Some of us prefer darkness
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Maybe I am a vampire. My hubby’s been insisting for a while. For the most part, I don’t like sunny days – except for photography, and in the winter when they perk up the weeks of dreariness. I prefer my days cloud-covered and moody, and if there’s a bit of…
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Why haven’t I written a vampire tale?
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Keeping up with everyone who’s now referring to this month as ‘Augtober’, dreaming of the impending Halloween season, I thought I’d address this burning question. (At least to me, maybe not anyone else 😉) I’ve been enthralled with vampire stories and movies ever since I first saw the superb Christopher…
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Tea, beyond the cup and saucer
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Did you know that every kind of true tea that you drink, from white to green to oolong to black to pu’erh, all comes from the same plant, in fact the top three leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant? The look and taste of the tea in your cup depends…
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Be like a writer: Stop and smell the lilacs
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When I was growing up, we had a lilac shrub in the back yard, and each spring my mother would clip panicles of the lavender flowers and bring them inside. Sitting in a vase in the living room, they would fill the house with scent. The smell of things is…
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Are mirrors dangerous?
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I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five. Steven Wright Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody… How do you feel about mirrors? Are they annoying…weird…creepy? We’re in the final week of Halfoween. It’s also Folk Horror Week, something celebrated on…
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April fun in a crazy world
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Why are you looking at a graphic of Halloween stuff above? Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of the world at the moment! It’s finally Spring, and I want to have some fun after a long and stressful winter. April is “Halfway to Halloween” month –…
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March Madness in Bookland
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‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’ Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll Do you also feel as if we’ve all tumbled down a rabbit-hole into a strange world where nothing makes sense? When I…
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Being a bold woman today
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“And I may say, once for all, carefully weighing my words, that in no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical precision and admirable skill as in Peru, and in no part of Peru are there any to surpass those which are scattered over the…
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Characters from books to screen: good, bad, misguided
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About 30 minutes into the first Lord of the Rings movie, I was ticked off, and spent the next three hours fuming. Now, for that movie my problem wasn’t with the casting – except for the ridiculous choice of actress to play Lady Arwen – but with the many, many…
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The Lost Ark, a real-life treasure hunt
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If you were going to bring back the early adventure epics to the big screen, what better story than a roguish professor and archeologist searching for the greatest lost treasure in history? The Ark of the Covenant was the most important artifact of biblical times – the repository of God’s…