Goal: Read 12 Novels in 2010

Currently Reading: #4. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

When I was in the second grade, I went to an event at Logos Bookstore in Oak Park, Illinois, where Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time, read and spoke.  Some of my classmates and I got to meet her after the event and ask questions.  I asked her what advice she had for young writers and I remember, to this day, her answer:

"Read.  Read and read and read and read and read.  And write."

I realized that, though I've been writing more than ever, I've fallen down on that reading part, particularly when it comes to novels.  I manage to read lots of short stuff - stories, essays, news - but a lot of times I'll pick up a novel, read the first 100 pages, then put it down and not pick it up again.  So, inspired by a colleague's list of the books she'd read in 2009, I decided at the end of January to read 12 novels this year.

My general plan is to try to knock off a novel every 3 weeks or so, in order to have 11 novels read by sometime in October, then use the last part of the year to read a long work, like Infinite Jest or Underworld. I'm going to keep this front and center here so that my readers (Hi Mom!) can see where I'm at and, hopefully, keep me on track.  Here are my lists:

Read So Far:

1. Wicked by Gregory Maguire (approx. end of February)
2. The Hours by Michael Cunningham (re-read, approx. end of March)
3. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (April 24)

Possibilities for the rest:

• Oh What a Paradise It Seems by John Cheever
• At Swim, Two Birds by Flann O'Brien
• At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion (re-read)
• 1984 by George Orwell (re-read)
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• Tinkers by Paul Harding
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
• Gilead by Marilyn Robinson
• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
• Underworld by Don DeLillo
• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (re-read)
• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Fruits of the Earth by Andre Gide
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (re-read)
• 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (and finally get past the first 50 pages)
• 
  

Last Minute Oscar Predictions

My last minute Oscar predictions.

Best Picture: Avatar

This is probably the category where I'm most likely to get it wrong. I guess I'm betting on Hollywood's tendency to be self-congratulatory about the money it makes over any sort of consideration for artistic merit.  But don't be shocked if Hurt Locker pulls an upset.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow

She won the DGA award, plus there's massive buzz that this will be the year a woman finally wins that seems to be feeding on itself.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges

Not only on his own merits, but to make up for snubbing Mickey Rourke last year.

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock

Call this one the Gwenyth Paltrow "We Like You" Award.

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique

I mean, come on. She killed it. Shoo in.

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz

Not sure why everyone is going so nuts over this guy, but they are, so he will.

Best Original Screenplay: Hurt Locker

Quentin Tarantino could pull an upset here, but I'm banking on voters going for quality over flash.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air

I think they'll want to give something to this movie, and nothing else fits.

HAPPY WATCHING!

Torture is never "legitimate"

I was reading some bloggers' accounts of how a homophobe was booed off the stage at CPAC, when I came across this:

“If you really want to find an example of bad behavior at CPAC, you should look into the fact that Bob Barr got booed during his remarks for the perceived sin of speaking out against torture. While it is fine and proper to shout down anyone who might engage in hate speech against any group, it’s another thing entirely to disrupt someone over a legitimate disagreement on policy points.”

Use of torture is NOT a legitimate disagreement! The United States is a signatory to the Geneva Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention against torture, ALL of which recognize torture as the crime against humanity that it is. Who are these crazy conservatives who think that torture is a viable tactic? And if they succeed, what will they suggest next? Rape?

Seriously, for the party of the "Christian Right," they're awfully far off from Christian teaching. Do they really think Jesus "turn the other cheek" Christ would condone torture?

Quote of the Day: Gay Republicans, WTF?

From a comment on a post about GOProud, the new-ish gay Republican group, on Queerty:

“I suppose it is good to have people who support equality in the GOP to TRY to counter those who would oppose that equality (and going back to the old adage that it is hard to hate those you know personally), but I can't get over the hump that ultimately these people care more about conservative issues on the economy than they do about their own personal relationships and rights. What kind of person cares more about their wallet and their property than they do their partner or children?”

Well said, Caleb.  Well said.

Baker Baker: Chocolate Babka

As most of my readers know (Hi Mom!), I've been a bit of an amateur baker for quite awhile.  I've even gotten a bit of a reputation for good cakes and have gotten requests three times now.  I've been really interested in bread baking for a while, but couldn't stand all the kneading.

I finally (baking) geeked out about a month ago and bought a stand mixer.  Since then, it's been the Brooklyn Bread-o-Rama up in here.  I've made Semolina Bread with Fennel & Currants, Raisin-Pecan Bread, Hot Cross Buns, Lemon Blueberry Bread (a quick bread), and a few different kinds of sourdough.  I even raised my own sourdough starter!  Which reminds me... time to feed mine...

With my latest creation, I realized I should start taking pictures and posting them here.  So, without further ado...

(click for bigger version)

Chocolate Babka!  The recipe is from The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger, but split in two and baked in loaf pans instead of the single bundt pan she recommends.  I didn't think to start doing this until after the babka was baked, so no pictures of the process, but I'll include some of those next time.  One of the loaves had a blowout — the chocolate filling tried to make a break for it by busting through the top of the loaf on one side — but it was no less delicious.  Next time I'll try not rolling it quite so tight.

I'll be submitting this to YeastSpotting: a sort of "hall of fame" of bread on the Wild Yeast blog.  If you're at all interested in bread baking, Wild Yeast has taught me a lot.  I highly recommend it (and the YeastSpotting pics are pretty inspiring).

The kinda, sorta courage of her half-assed convictions

It's already everywhere that Sarah Palin — who now says she's open to running for president if it is “the right thing to do for our country and the Palin family” — has a serious hypocrisy problem.  When it was leaked to the Wall Street Journal that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had called some Democrats “f---ing retarded” in a closed-door meeting, Palin took to Facebook to criticize him and call for his resignation.  Yet when Rush Limbaugh used the phrase repeatedly — in his case to refer to advocates for the developmentally disabled who he said were having a “retard summit at the White House” — she defended him during an interview with Chris Matthews.

I've seen less written about how this is just par for the course for Palin, who seems to only care about anything for as long as it is politically expedient.  It's been well documented that she has consistently sought federal pork for Alaska, both before and after disingenuously claiming she had turned down money from earmarks, including the funds appropriated to the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." She signed an executive order backing cap-and-trade emissions limits while governor of Alaska and told Gwen Ifill she supported this strategy for combating climate change during the vice-presidential debates, yet wrote a Washington Post op-ed opposing them when President Obama went to Copenhagen for an international environmental summit.  After very publicly announcing that she was going to reject nearly one-third of the federal economic stimulus money for Alaska on principle, she quietly vetoed only a token 3% of it.

Let's not forget her biggest abandonment: she wanted to be governor of Alaska, until it was no longer convenient and she resigned after serving just two-and-a-half years of her four year term.  I'm just completely baffled as to how anyone thinks that Sarah Palin has a chance of being elected President when she couldn't even stick it out for one term as governor.  It's clear from her actions that Sarah Palin doesn't really care about anything but Sarah Palin (and, to be fair, the members of her immediate family).  Is this kind of political opportunist really the person anyone — even teabaggers and birthers — really want running the country?

Anti-marriage activist tells gays to "get married"

Hypocritical idiot of the day award goes to Kerry Messer of the Missouri Family Network, who told same-sex couples in Missouri to "get married or live with the status quo." Did he somehow forget the fact that Missouri has a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage? And that his organization helped PASS IT?!?

The context of the quote is a heartbreaking story about Dennis Engelhard, a gay Missouri State Highway Patrolman who was struck by a car and killed in the line of duty on Christmas day, leaving behind his parnter of fifteen years, Kelly Glossip. since then, the state has denied Kelly's request for Dennis's survivor pension benefits, which would be readily given to any opposite-sex spouse. To add insult to injury, the BackStoppers Police and Firefighters Fund — an organization that raises money to help the families of officers killed in the line of duty — has refused to give Kelly any support even though they are USING DENNIS'S DEATH TO RAISE MONEY!!!

The whole situation is disgusting and illustrates just how desperately same-sex couples need laws that will include them in the protections that married opposite-sex couples take for granted. But in terms of sheer hypocrisy, disingenuousness and cold-hearted cruelty, this quote from Mr. Messer — which appeared in an AP story on Dennis and Kelly — just takes the cake.

Kerry Messer, founder and president of conservative Missouri Family Network, said that even in the case of unmarried heterosexual couples, rights defer to blood relatives first.

"Common law marriage doesn't exist in Missouri for a very good reason," he said. "It throws other laws into a tailspin and muddies every other policy. The state says 'get married or live with the status quo.' That's true for gays and heterosexuals."

Hear that, Kelly? If you wanted to be protected in case your partner died while serving the state, you and Dennis should have gotten married. Except you couldn't. Kerry Messer and the voters of Missouri — who Dennis spent his career protecting — made sure of that.