Happy birthday to or_mabinogi! I hope you have a good day and a good year!

A new entry is up at Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog, as of last week: "Ryddles for the Holidayes." I was so bold as to post possible answers to some of them (skipping the ones that others had already answered with what I thought to be correct answers).

I've been waiting for Geoffrey to drop by again and confirm or deny my answers, but he hasn't. I think I'm right.

This discovery is awesome: Anglo-Saxonist Elaine Treharne, showing students an early printed text of Chaucer, found a Latin poem pasted in back that other people must have seen but ignored. So Prof. Treharne, in a sense, discovered a new, early modern Latin poem, by a woman, to her tutor. Read the article here; it's not long, and lots of fun. Patrick Conner, another Anglo-Saxonist, manages to get mention in the article as well.

Anglo-Saxonists can work in later eras and often do, quite successfully. Take that, pro-modern bias!

At the start of December, methylviolet10b asked for prompts for holiday Holmes ficlets. I gave ice.

I am now very happy to send you to "Like Finding Out Santa Isn't Real" (BBC-verse). Go read it!

(I'll have a few more Sherlock fic recs when I get time, but this one shouldn't wait. And it's for ME!)

Happy Boxing Day, y'all!

So yesterday I posted Every time I turn around, there's Martin Freeman because it really felt like it.

( Cut in case anyone really doesn't want casting spoilers for 'The Pirates', though yeah, my previous sentence kind of gave one of them away )

( A few thoughts on the movie I actually SAW; spoilers for 'The Muppets' )

kristen_mara wrote me a Primeval fic! (There are a couple of illustrations here, but don't look until you've read the story.)

If you've seen Primeval series 1 and 2, go read the fic. NOW. (Just a friendly suggestion.)

I posted this yesterday, but things went kind of blooey on me, so I'm not sure if everyone saw it and no one felt moved to respond (quite understandable!), or no one saw it because it showed up among posts that had been made hours earlier. (That's how it showed up when I went to my Friends Page; I'd posted it at 9:30 pm, and it appeared before posts made at 6 pm.) If at first you don't fricassee, fry, fry a hen.

Back to the meme again:

Pick a number, any number, and comment with it, and I'll tell you something I think is awesome about you. :) Comments are screened.

The original post is here in case you've forgotten your number: you can see your own comments, but no one else's.

My post to the first few respondents is here. I've since received more numbers! So here goes:

4: You are amazingly generous with gifts and fic and compliments. I love that we enjoy and laugh about so many of the same things. I really enjoy your stories and other . . . creative works. You have a wonderful sense of humor!


I have two 22s. I will respond to them by date. You can look back at your posts to see which you are, if you're in any doubt (or ask me, if you get desperate! You can PM me).

22 (responded on the original, screened-comments-only post, 24 Nov): You tell a great story. Whether it's something at work or adventures at home, you really know how to relate an incident. I wish fewer of the stories were about things that were aggravating or painful to you, simply because you have surely had enough aggravation and pain to last the next few years! I'm glad you share.

22 (responded on a later, unscreened post, 27 Nov.): I don't hear from you very often as I used to do, but I'm glad you still make time to check in with me! You're loads of fun, and you have one particular icon that I especially like, even if it's a bit sick (it looks like an image from a cartoon or comic strip). We may have originally bonded over fandom, but it turns out we have other interesting things to share, and I'm very glad. I've learned some interesting things from you!


27: You are one of the best betas ever—you are so fast, and so accurate, and so helpful that I can't quite find the right superlative (but you probably could). You write great fic yourself, and you're very generous with your time. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you when I was out your way earlier this year, but I'm hoping some other time it will work out.


57: I have had a great time with you, especially when we were playing in the SGA universe and even commenting on Malozzi's blog! We had a better plan for saving Carson than he did, didn't we? I think we had a few other tidbits along the way! You were the first LJ person I met in real life that I'd only known on LJ before we met. I hope we'll get together again some day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow denizens of the US!

A few days ago, I posted these meme rules:
Pick a number, any number, and comment with it, and I'll tell you something I think is awesome about you. :) Comments are screened.

Only three people gave me numbers! It's not too late; I can make another post. You can still comment on the original post, and I'll make another post like this at a later date.

15: You are always here to share a laugh or offer comfort or empathize. You give me virtual hugs, you make some great posts, and I can't remember LJ without you. (Have we always been friends? Must be.) You're an amazingly great-hearted person.

31: I love that we share many of the same fandoms, though some are obviously connected to each other and others aren't. I love your fic (and have to make efforts not to nag you for more, because I don't want you to feel guilty just because I'm greedy). Sorry we didn't get to meet in person as I'd hoped, but maybe some day!

76: You are one of the very best fanfic writers I've seen. I'm very glad we have a mutual fandom again! You've also made some amazing posts about where you live now and where you grew up.

Happy birthday to rhymer23! I haven't heard anything from you in a while. I hope all is well and that you enjoy the day!

Fun little video from The New York Times: the Lewis Chess Set at the Cloisters.

See also a cool slideshow here.