Sentential Links #257

Join us for the two-hundred-fifty-seventh iteration of Sentential Links! Or don't. See if I care. Jerk.

Anyhoo....

:: Watching the world slide slowly back into recession without a fight, even though we know perfectly well how to prevent it, is just depressing beyond words. Our descendents will view the grasping politicians and cowardly bankers responsible for this about as uncomprehendingly as we now view the world leaders who cavalierly allowed World War I to unfold even though they could have stopped it at any time. (That's actually the entire post, but I agree spot-on.)

:: These are my mother-in-law’s hands, she has arthritis and so her hands are somewhat twisted and gnarled and she can no longer play the piano fully.

:: I was very, very disappointed when I realized it was just a dream and the place doesn’t really exist. I want to go there.

:: Actors hate having to give exposition. It’s dry, it’s informational, it’s not fun. Unfortunately, SOMEONE has deliver the exposition. The trick is to spread it around, find ways to hide it, and make it entertaining. Necessary information woven into a joke is a great solution. (You can switch the word "actors" with "readers" and be equally correct here. In my current Novel-In-Progress, I recently reached a point where some stuff had to be explained, and I was concerned about that passage for quite a while leading up to it. And I'm still concerned about it. My solution was to reveal the absolute smallest amount of information that I had to, and then have someone change the subject. More stuff will get revealed later. I hope that works. Anyway, there's a reason why my favorite infodump of all time -- the "Council of Elrond" chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring -- comes about 200 pages or so into the book.)

:: Because if you lock ten children under the stairs for the first eleven years of their lives, I'll bet you a Time Turner that you'll get four supervillains, three deeply wounded individuals so desperate for love they will do anything they're told to by the first person who hugs them, two completely shattered psyches incapable of meaningful speech, and one Harry Potter, a basically normal, gently dented boy who is good at sports, naturally likeable, and willing to sacrifice himself for the group of your choice.

Them's some long odds, D-man. Glad that worked out for you.

:: So, fans, does that count as a "cop-out"? YOU MAKE THE CALL!! (I call shenanigans.)

:: You could read it in a tree.

You could read it with some tea.

I would not read it in a tree.

I would not read it with some tea.

I do not want to read that book

I will not take a single look. (I knew I should have taken a picture of that book....)

More next week!