Wish I Could Have Seen This!

Edited to add some information about the video below. See Frozen Grand Central to learn more about this improv group called Improv Everywhere.

Public Service Announcement from Your Friendly Internet Librarian

All of the political stomping lately has gotten me thinking about our voting behavior and how we research (or don't research) those running for public office. There are the obvious speeches and debates that allow us to get a "feel" for a candidate, but ... really ... they can say anything. Speeches and debates do give an idea of someone's ability to make a compelling argument and persuade, but this does not inform us as to what a candidate does or will do when it comes time to make decisions.

I prefer to look beyond what political candidates say; I want to see what they do. How do they vote in the legislature on issues? Which pieces of legislation do state governors sign and which pieces do they veto? These are things that speeches, debates, and YouTube sound bites won't tell me. Even voting records don't tell all of the story since deals are made and constituencies must be represented, but I believe I get a truer picture of what to expect in the future by looking at some facts.

Here are a few websites I point students to for research purposes.

A few good places to research Senate and House votes and activity:
United States Senate Roll Call
THOMAS
The Congressional Record
CQ Weekly (Consult your public library or a Federal Depository Library near you.)
Congress.org

A few good places to find out what the issues and votes are in your state:
Find your governor's website here or here
Find your state legislature website
Find your state website
National Conference of State Legislatures (I just discovered this site and haven't analyzed it yet, but it looks very interesting.)

Campaign Finance
Federal Election Commission

Happy researching!

My Apologies to Ms. Meyer: An update to my review of her Twilight series

I reviewed Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series in October 2007. I re-iterate my overall enjoyment of the first three books in the series and I stand by most of my criticisms and my decision not to send the books to my young teenaged granddaughter. Heck, if the books got an old married lady hot and bothered, what effect would they have on a hormone addled teenager just looking for surreptitious titillation?? So, if you're over 18, go for it. Yeah. I'm old.

So, as for that apology ...

In my original review, I comment on Ms. Meyers' use of vampires and werewolves and my desire to see the use of these dangerous and mythical creatures tied to a commentary on the human condition . I'm not sure what distracted me from noticing it the first time, but most of Ms. Meyers' vampires continually struggle against their baser natures and show an astonishing amount of self-control. Edward even thinks of himself as a monster and does not wish this existence on Bella.

I did not want to let my original review stand with such a glaring error in commentary.

BOOK REVIEW: Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell

Title: Dreamers of the Day
Author: Mary Doria Russell
Publisher: Random House
Published: to be published March 2008

Advance Reader's copy of Dreamers of the Day graciously provided by Random House through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

First Line: "I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me."

Dreamers of the Day is a historical novel set mostly in Egypt during the Cairo Peace Conference of 1921. Agnes Shanklin is a forty-year-old, unmarried, Ohio schoolteacher who has lived through the Great War (WWI) and the Great Influenza of 1919. Having lost her family and inherited a great fortune, Agnes determines to take a trip to Egypt and the Holy Land. She arrives in Cairo with only her long haired dachshund as company. Very soon after arriving, Agnes meets and falls into the company of T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell. We know these luminaries of history for their roles inventing the modern Middle East.

Ms. Russell sets her novel during this momentous time in history, but the story does not so much focus on the historical facts as they do on the characters themselves. We meet Lawrence, Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell in a way that gives insight into the personalities that drove the redrawing of Middle Eastern borders; decisions that continue to affect relationships between people groups and world events to this day.

The character of Agnes is fictional and tells the story of a middle-aged woman coming of age in a very romantic setting. Imagine lush hotels with marble floors and columns, potted palms, and blue tiled pools of water. Further imagine a trip by camel to visit the Great Pyramid and the mysterious Sphinx ... a journey into the desert that includes a full British tea under tents hastily erected by servants who serve the meal on fine bone china and silver. It is in this bigger-than-life setting that Agnes interacts with the aforementioned historical characters. It is also in this setting that she experiences her first love affair and comes to know her own mind and heart as a woman. Agnes' discovery that Karl, her lover, is a German spy adds an element of intrigue to the already full plate of historical, coming of age, and romantic aspects of the novel.

Ms. Russell shows great insight into human nature within the context of her characters and their relationships. One such insight occurs during a painful yet illuminating conversation between Agnes and Karl -- a conversation about her mother and the nature and effects of tyranny. Ms. Russell does not neglect cultural and political commentary in her novel, but I found these a bit jarring as they come from the mouth of a character enmeshed in a "history" still in the making. It seemed a bit of 21st century hindsight was leaking into early 20th century cultural and political insight, but this small "bump" in presentation did not affect my overall enjoyment of the book.

Dreamers of the Day will take you on a leisurely journey through an intriguing place and time in world events using both historical and fictional characters. It is a well written and atmospheric book that I did not want to end.

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
-- T.E. Lawrence from Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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Also reviewed by:
Rose City Reader

Desert Dreams

Smell of the desert after a rainstorm ... sage, pinon, wet rock.

Azure sky ... red earth ... brilliant green of the palo verde.

Vistas so high and wide you can see forever.

Canyons so deep only the noonday sun reaches the bottom.

Gurgle and splash of a hidden desert wellspring.

Sharp jagged purple mountains against a pink sky at sunrise.

Black silhouette of a palm tree against a tangerine sky at sunset.

Incense of a mesquite campfire.

Midnight blue sky sprinkled with millions of tiny winking lights.

Moon so bright it throws shadows.

Violent show of lightning.

Bite of desert frost.

Sweetness of palm dates born of a blazing sun.

A land of harsh and spare beauty.
Some days I miss it so much ... it hurts.

Latest Obsession and Baking Mishaps

Cupcakes! I really like cake, but with just two of us in our household I don't really like to have an entire cake laying around. My waistline doesn't need that much cake and Mr. Distortion must limit sugar and carbohydrates to keep from going into diabetic shock. Enter mini cakes ... more commonly known as cupcakes! Lovely little individual cakes that can easily be shared with others.

I consulted my Fannie Farmer Baking Book a couple of months ago in search of a good cupcake recipe. A friend was having a birthday and I decided that he needed cupcakes. Of course, there was the expectation that he would share [smile]. Fannie Farmer provided several yummy sounding recipes and I settled on a yellow vanilla cupcake with a butter cream frosting. I pulled together the ingredients and began baking.

I must admit here that I hadn't done any baking in awhile, but I was confident that my baking skills would return ... just like riding a bicycle. After allowing the little cakes the appropriate amount of baking time, I pulled them out of the oven. They smelled heavenly. But ... they were a bit on the short side. Hmmm. I really expected them to, you know, rise more than they had. I chalked it up to the 1800s recipe I'd used ... maybe people preferred short, chewy cupcakes in the 1800s? So I made a notation next to the recipe that these were dense and chewy and not really to my liking.

Fast forward to Christmas. The baking bug struck again and I decided to make a pumpkin roll as my contribution to Christmas lunch. I have made this recipe many times in the past and am the go-to-girl when someone in the family gets a hankering for pumpkin roll. I once again gathered my ingredients and began baking. The house was quickly permeated with the smells of cinnamon and pumpkin. I whipped up some cream cheese frosting while I waited for the thin cake to finish baking. I couldn't wait to slather on the frosting and roll it up into a log. When I took the cake out of the oven I had the most amazing sense of deja-vu -- the darned thing didn't rise. Yes, it is supposed to be thin enough to roll up into a log, but it also needs enough loft to make it flexible and cakelike. I wasn't sure what to do, so hoping for the best I frosted it and attempted to roll it up. Guess what ... a wee bit on the stiff side. Really, you shouldn't need to strong arm your pumpkin roll. Once rolled, it looked like a dehydrated log with gaps between its inner rings. Hmmph. Merry Christmas.

What was going on?? Had I lost my ability to bake? What did the cupcakes and the pumpkin roll have in common ... besides me? I started looking over the recipes to see what ingredient or process might keep things from rising and cause the baked item to be dense, tough and chewy. I finally narrowed it down to the baking powder. It was the baking powder. Did you know that baking powder expires??? I guess I didn't realize it has a shelf life. Apparently I've never had baking powder expire on me. I think I've had the same can forever, but at some point in "forever" the stuff just went way past the limit. So ... if you've got baking powder that expired in 1991 (Yes. You heard me correctly. I hang my head in shame.), GET RID OF IT!

[Sidebar] I did discover a test you can perform to see if your baking powder is still effective. Add a teaspoon of baking powder to a cup of hot water. It should start bubbling right away. If it merely fizzles a bit (or if it just sits there congealing like mine did), hie thee to the nearest store for new stuff. Fortunately it's cheap. [End Sidebar]

I am happy to report, dear internet, that after replacing my baking powder I found that I can indeed still bake. This leads me to the "latest obsession" part of my post. I know ... you thought I forgot that part of the post since I got sidetracked onto the mishap part for so long. Sooooo ... back to cupcakes!


I found this cookbook while wandering around in Williams-Sonoma fondling all of the beautiful kitchen items that would really look swell in my kitchen. But ... I digress. I found this specialty cookbook and decided that I want to spend the next year perfecting my cupcake baking skills and trying out all of the yummy possibilities. From Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes to delicate Spring Bouquet Tea Cakes, 2008 will be the year of the cupcake.