They are calling it Snowmageddon

And I'm loving it. Mostly because I seem to miss the worst of the weather here - I'm always stranded in some airport hotel unable to get home because they've closed Minneapolis airport.

And now I'm not in an airport hotel at all. I'm home. And it looks like this. Over 18 inches since midnight, and it's still snowing...

The dogs are more or less loving it. Well, half-loving it.

Which is to say, Lola bounces through the snow and enjoys it, and Cabal walks through the snow and doesn't really. Which puzzles Lola because can't he see that this is the best thing there ever was? And he won't even play-fight with her. So she bounces off and vanishes into snowdrifts, then pounces and bounces and bounds and explores, and he walks along like a respectable gentleman who can't wait to be home again, where it is warm, and tries to persuade her to settle down.

Still photographs of dogs do not give you the full effect.

Hang on. I will see what I have on my phone. It's a bit fuzzy, mostly because of snow on the lens but this may give you an idea...

Music is by the Puppini Sisters - http://www.thepuppinisisters.com/ - from their yummy new Christmas With the Puppini Sisters CD. (The YouTube link is http://youtu.be/Fn00Eb8Zn5E if anyone can't see the embedded video.)

There. Bouncing Lola in the snow.

Labels: Just like a bouncing ball baby that's all I am to you, L-0-L-A Lola, more snow, Yes it's still bloody snowing in case you were wondering

Gene wolves

LOOK AT Gene: a genial smile (the one they named for him), pixie-twinkle in his eyes, a reassuring mustache. Listen to that chuckle. Do not be lulled. He holds all the cards: he has five aces in his hand, and several more up his sleeve.

I once read him an account of a baffling murder, committed ninety years ago. "Oh," he said, "well, that's obvious," and proceeded off-handedly to offer a simple and likely explanation for both the murder and the clues the police were at a loss to explain. He has an engineer's mind that takes things apart to see how they work and then puts them back together...

My essay on How to Read Gene Wolfe (of which those are the first two paragraphs) is up at the F&SF website. And so is Michael Swanwick's essay. And so is Michael Andre-Driussi's. I recommend getting the magazine in question, of course. Meanwhile, I just got sent a proof of Gene's next book, called, I think, Pirate Freedom. (Gene Wolfe and Pirates. Two tastes that go great together.)

(It was the matches on the ground, by the railway tracks, that Gene pointed to, in the old press clipping murder case, that cracked it; but of course by then the tramp was ninety years dead...)

Here's the cover of A Walking Tour of the Shambles, which I post because it has a Gahan Wilson caricature of me and Gene on it. Gene is the one with the moustache. I am the one looking troubled.

Labels: A Walking Tour of the Shambles, Gene Wolfe, Yes it's still bloody snowing in case you were wondering