(Image by Jason Chan, click for larger wallpaper version)
No, the Angel of Death hasn’t come sweeping down to collect me, but if you had been anywhere in my vicinity the past few days you might have suspected such–I brought back an extra special gift from my anniversary trip…a nasty cold. On Tuesday evening my voice started to fade. By Wednesday, much to the delight, no doubt, of my employees I could barely talk and sounded like a boy with a bad case of laryngitis going through puberty. 🙂
The cold remains but my voice has somewhat returned and with it some energy and time to get back to posting and visiting others’ sites. No Friday Favorites as such today (shed no tears) but there is a bit of art, some comedy, and a prize winner following the break!
(Wallpaper image by Gregory Manchess. Click image for 1024X768 version)
The Tor website has a couple of great wallpapers up this week, pictured above and below. If you want these and need other sizes, feel free to visit their site for a wide range of desktop sizes. This week’s free wallpaper selections couldn’t be better as one speaks to my affection for science fiction (and I was thinking of you Deslily when I saw this one as I know how much you love astronauts) and also my love of fantasy. The wallpaper below features the work of former Friday Favorite (see, I worked it in!) Kinuko Y. Craft.
(Click image for 1024X768 wallpaper)
By way of tying this back into the aforementioned anniversary, one of my gifts was a puzzle that was on my Amazon wishlist featuring this Craft image from Patricia A. McKillip’s novel, The Alphabet of Thorn:
It is one of my favorite Kinuko Y. Craft cover illustrations. Maybe we’ll get some family puzzle time in over this long weekend!
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My friend Cameron took a moment during guys-night-at-the-comic-shop on Wednesday to share with us this great program he was watching on BBC America, That Mitchell and Webb Look.
I found my first taste insanely hysterical and so spent yesterday afternoon recovering in front of the PC watching episodes on You Tube. They have many single sketches but fortunately have several entire episodes broken up into 3 or 4 parts. This is my kind of humor. Please accept my apologies, especially if you are not a fan of sketch comedy. Some minor NSFW content.
A few favorites to share with you this fine day:
1. World War II bit, perfect for this Memorial Day weekend.
2. People from my generation fondly remember the adventures of Scooby Doo and the gang. True fans also are Scrappy Doo haters in my opinion, but that is a discussion for the comments section. I found this one hysterically nostalgic.
3. Sir Digby Chicken Caeser and his faithful sidekick Ginger are certainly the kind of bizarre sketch comedy that I can see you all shaking your heads at and thinking, ‘oh dear’. I am sorry. Again, I find their many adventures very funny.
4. A bit of Christmas in May!
5. And finally, a sketch whose appropriateness for this very weekend will become apparent as it plays itself out. Love it!!!
There is much more to be had on You Tube, so if you like what you see, be sure to check it out. Thanks Cameron, you are the man!!!
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And of course there is a book to give away!!! The winner of this fine novel, horse cover and all, is:
Congrats Fence, I think I have your addy but can you email it to me again.
Have a great 3 day weekend everyone. I hope to have an Indiana Jones review up here on Sunday and next week seems to be ripe for another _______ Week! Keep an eye on your email for more details.
Scrappy Doo = evilspawn.
I have much hate for that little runt.
On a completely unrelated but hopefully interesting (since we are all book people) note, my final project for reader’s advisory will be on hard-boiled/noir mysteries…I am soon to know more about the subgenre than I ever dreamed. 😉
I mention it because one of the requirements for the project is that we provide at least one novel that was translated into English from another language. I thought these types of mystery were an American thing, and it’s true that they are PRIMARILY so, but certain other regions of the world have latched onto the subgenre with a vengeance. Japan, unsurprisingly, loves it, and so does Scandinavia. I have been listening this afternoon to a sort of seminar with some international noir authors and find it quite interesting, so I thought I would share the link: http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/937/prmID/1064
Enjoy. 🙂
Our family gathered round the screen for those 🙂 Thanks for the laughs!
Congrats to Fence! I hope that your cold goes away soon 🙁 And by the way, I have that EXACT same Kinuko Craft puzzle! I haven’t even opened the box though and I’ve had it for a couple of years…I just feel bad opening it for some reason :/ I’ll muster up the courage to break the seal one day though.
Sorry to hear you’ve been sick, Carl…I hope you feel better soon!
Those wallpapers are great. Thanks for sharing. And congrats to Fence 🙂
Glad you’re on the mend – you get a pass this week on the Friday Favorite thing, but we expect BIG things next week . . .
“That Mitchell and Webb Look” has become one of the few shows we watch with any regularity – along with “Corner Gas” on WGN.
Hope you are feeling better. Lord, I almost spit my soda all over the monitor watching the Scooby-Doo Clip. How funny!!
OOh, love the Craft illustration! much envy here that you and Chris have the puzzle of it too…..I’ll just have to pull out my copy of the book at stare at the cover again!!!
Sorry you are sick – we are too with a bad cold, youngest is really sick with it, which means no rest for yours truly (also sick)…..we just had our long weekend last weekend, so I hope you enjoy yours and get the puzzle out and get well!!
Glad you’ve discovered Mitchell and Webb – they did three series on BBC radio before appearing on TV (you can get them on CD from Amazon in the UK) and I have some of the best bits on my iPod for those just need a bit of a laugh moments….
Feel better, Carl. Congradulations, Fence! I hope everyone have a good weekend.
hi, hope you feel better soon.
the wallpapers are great, i’m off to check out the site now.
enjoy your weekend 🙂
and congrats to the prize winner.
Glad you had a good time, shame about the cold, they really are evil things! I keep wondering if colds actually have a purpose, or whether our scientists should be working harder at getting rid of them forever…
Mitchell and Webb are wonderful. I have (JB has) their radio show on CD and it’s managed to make me enjoy being stuck in a traffic jam several times. Genius. Must recommend Peep Show as a follow up!
Sorry to hear about your cold – hope you keep getting better. That photo of the puzzle is gorgeous – but those Kinuko Craft puzzles are always so maddening. I’m still trying to finish the Sleeping Beauty I started on Christmas Day!
Hope you’re feeling better, Carl!
Congrats Fence!
And now I have to admit a parenting failure on my part…my youngest likes Scrappy Doo. *shudder* I simply cannot seem to get him to see the error of his ways.
Debi: Do you have the number for the abuse hotline in your area? I think I need to make a call…its for your own good and the good of your child. Scrappy Doo…ugh!
Jlshall: I have to admit that I love the complexity of the Craft puzzles. We generally make a big playlist on Rhapsody and all sit around and do different sections of it.
Stormfilled: Colds were manufactured by the drug companies to drive their business…that is their purpose. 😉 They have some of the audio programs on You Tube as well. I’m going to have to check those out as well. I actually stumbled across Peep Show and watched an episode the other day. I like it!
Bookworm: I’m getting there, slowly but surely.
Vasilly: Thanks! 🙂
Bride: I’ve been listening to them all weekend so far…so funny!
Susan: It is bad enough when you have to deal with your own illness, but dealing with kids is the most exhausting. I think I’d rather be sick myself. That craft puzzle was only $9.99 I believe on Amazon. Good deal!
Stephanie: That one is great, isn’t it. I’ve watched it, and shown it to others several times.
Ken: I’ll have to look up Corner Gas. Big Things next week, eh? Oh, the pressure!!! 🙂
Nymeth: Thanks, I hope to not be dealing with this all weekend.
Chris: You’ve got to do your Craft puzzle. They look so great when they are put together. This is my third one.
Tasses: Glad to hear it! 🙂
RB: Glad to know that we share the same hate! Your project sounds great, especially intriguing since I’ve been stumbling across detective/noir stuff at every turn lately. I’ll be checking out that link.
I’m a winner! How cool 🙂
I get those Tor updates, but haven’t managed to actually click on the links in a while. Probably because I tend to get them at work and so really should be doing other things 🙂
I really must make it a habit to stop by more frequently, because i often find myself at the tail end of something very funny or at least fun happening over here! It probably has to do with reading posts late at night after children have gone to sleep….. with me fighting off sleep as well!
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I have to say the Scooby Doo clip was HILARIOUS!!!! and I will admit to not being a fan of You Tube at all (irrational I know – had to do with a very slow server in the past) …. but these two guys were hysterical ….. their descriptions …. shaggy, scooby and yes, that evil spawn of a runt: scrappy!
lady blue
Thanks, Cameron, for sharing , That Mitchell and Webb Look with us. The are pretty funny. I love the Football (AKA Soccer) bit, and the Scooby Doo skit was hilarious.
congrats to fence!
i find myself quite regularly watching mitchell and webb. each year or show they have a new season of some sort and so are regularly on tv.
i still can’t quite make up my mind about them. perhaps i never will. its a weird thing, though, ’cause their writing is definitely funny and quite inventive and fresh (which sets it apart from many similar shows), and i like their humour a lot but i find their actual acting a bit funny (not in the good way).
sometimes i watch and forget about that reservation, though…
but yeah, i love that kind of humour. i’m glad you’ve discovered them!
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