Daily Ambivalence - Peanuts

Where did Peanuts go?
I haven't seen him in ages.

For one, Peanuts was the name of a comic strip featuring Charlie Brown. I could Google the reason why Charlie Brown's comic strip is called Peanuts, but I worry the reason might be that Peanuts was an unpopular character Charles Schulz murdered in the comic's second year.

Actual peanuts are used in cooking and baking. They have a distinctive taste and can be found in all kinds of dishes ranging from appetizers, to main courses, to desserts. Peanuts can even be added to foods that somehow don't fit into one of those categories.

I like peanuts, but it concerns me that a character by that name might have been murdered by Charles Schulz.

Peanuts . . . eh.

Perfect Movie Scenes - Deep Impact

Deep Impact is a show I like to pull out every once in a while and watch again. It has a few deeply emotional moments that really shine for me, though the moment that should have been the best didn't quite achieve its zenith, and that is because of a brief lapse in the writing.

The movie features a bunch of great actors: Elijah Wood before he became a hobbit; Morgan Freeman as the President of the United States (sidenote: in my opinion, the best job an actor has ever submitted as president); Vanessa Redgrave; Robert Duvall;  Leelee Sobieski; Maximillian Schell; and last but certainly not least, Tea Leoni.

 Yes, I know, not from Deep Impact, but this is
a good picture of Tea's legs

I mean, look at those legs. I'm glad I'm typing this because I'm speechless. Tea was perfect in this movie as Jenny Lerner, a driven, talented reporter who makes the best of an opportunity when it falls in her lap. At the same time, as the movie delves into Jenny's backstory you also start to see a vulnerability lurking behind her eyes, which traces back to a troubled childhood and a father who likely cheated on the mother. Jenny loves her parents and spends much of the movie playing referee for two adults who should be the ones imparting strength to her.

Daily Ambivalence - Striped Shirts

Striped shirts supposedly slim when vertical. Horizontal stripes make you look fatter.

I was in a room full of science fiction/fantasy nerds today (I do not except myself) at Life the Universe and Everything listening to Megan Whalen Turner talk about censorship and I was thinking about striped shirts.

A guy sitting in front of me was fat and he was wearing a horizontally-striped shirt. He looked fat.

Three rows up and a little left there was a thin guy wearing a shirt with vertical stripes. He looked thin.

There was a girl sitting a few seats over from the thin guy. She was kind of medium-sized and her shirt had horizontal stripes. She looked kind of medium-sized.

Striped shirts. . . eh.

Sour grapes

I was doing a little research about wine and vineyards and grapes the other day. It's kind of interesting that drier conditions in a grape-growing season tend to produce better wine.

In other words - arid stresses, harsh conditions, unkind circumstances - these are good things. Look for them in a year and you find the best wines.

It makes me wonder if you can transfer that concept to authors and what they produce? Do authors who work under unfavorable conditions produce the best stories? Take a lonely guy typing away at his Mac for instance, a total loser, a "guy unwept, unhonored, and unsung," completely ignored by the reading public. Is that the guy you should go to if you are looking for a truly superior read?

Hey, if the answer is "yes," maybe I should feel good about myself.

I will be offering three books for free in a couple of days. See for yourself if what I have stated above equates to any kind of writer's maxim.

Alone with you Somehow will be free 2/13 - 2/15.