Emergency Preparedness, Gastropod Style

As I confessed to folks in my Newsletter—which was sent a day late—this has been one of those sluggish weeks for me. (Gastropod folks, please forgive the conflation of snail pics and slug metaphors.) I am far too lethargic to saddle my words with extraneous letters (colour? really?), but the Brits have many other quirks of verbal expression worth adopting. The word treacle comes to mind. This has been a week of wading through treacle to get anything done. (Doesn’t that sound so much nastier than warm and fuzzy molasses? Except—for the record—molasses will mold, i.e. get gray and fuzzy, Read more…

Stories I Love: Shetland

The United States and I are both Cancers. That’s not an existential or political statement; we were both born in early July. If they weren’t so dog-traumatizing, I’d pretend the incessant fireworks were celebrating my arrival. (The little 4.6 earthquake we had last week was probably not in my honor either, even if it was on my birthday.) I’m sharing this not to guilt you into belated well wishes, but because a birthday gift prompted this post. Thanks to the wonderful hubby, we are currently re-watching Seasons 1 and 2 of Shetland, an ITV adaptation of the Ann Cleeves books. Read more…