If you are of a certain age, you may remember the kind of glue they had in school before they had glue sticks. It came in pots, was a sort of a yellowish brown colour, and it never quite seemed to set. I haven't seen it in years.
Someone seems to have filled my chest cavity with it, though. And much of my head cavity too.
Have drunk more hot-honey-and-lemon-and-ginger than any man should consume.
Ah well. I'm dragging the family away tomorrow for a week to somewhere much less cold than this, where I plan to sit on the beach and write introductions, a film script and a short story. Not sure if there will be much internet access, though.
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Right. A few tabs to close...
The LA Times gave Noisy Outlaws etc... a mixed review, such that I was almost surprised to read that Gaiman (of "The Sandman" graphic novel fame) provides an exquisite take on the mythical phoenix � this time rising from the ashes of gastronomical greed � in his baroque "Sunbird."
I've mentioned a few times here how fond I am of J. P. Martin's UNCLE books. The Economist --
http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5323657&no_na_tran=1 -- writes about the books and the reasons why they've never been a publishing success. (I bought the Red Fox edition, though, and suspect that the appalling design job they did might have had something to do with its failure to sell copies.) Still, Maddy, who likes being read to, requested that I stop reading Uncle to her, when I tried, some years ago, because it was "boring". It may be more an adult pleasure...
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The Tattered Cover in Denver will be podcasting author readings and Q&As -- http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/4937/C39/L39. In coming weeks, the program will be expanded to include podcasts with Franken, Didion, Susanna Clarke, Robert Hicks, Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, Clive Barker, Andrew Weil, Monty Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, Dan Savage, Zadie Smith, Michael Connelly, and others.
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The Independent have already sealed off the John Clute Obituary of Robert Sheckley behind their "please give us money to read this" wall, so here's the Guardian's review, by Christopher Priest, instead.
Interesting article on the combinations of food colourings, flavour enhancers, and artificial sweeteners over at http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/news/0,8363,1671820,00.html; meanwhile the strangest story, and one that, in different circumstances he probably would have liked to have recounted on the air, and put it into context with something unlikely like Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle and the Meat Inspection act of 1906 -- Alastair Cooke's bones were stolen on the bone black market: http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1673270,00.html
And there will probably be one more American post from me tomorrow, and then it's scribbling on a beach. Wish me luck. And, in case I forget to mention it when the link comes in, Terry Pratchett and I have written Aziraphale and Crowley's New Year's resolutions. They'll be up somewhere at http://www.harpercollins.com/ just after Christmas...