As per rockinlibrarian 's request, today I'm taking a look at angels. Everyone has heard of angels, but just what ARE they? Well, the earliest Biblical references portray them as basically messengers of God, and in fact the term "angel" is based on the Greek translation of the Hebrew term for "messenger." I forget where I read it, but I remember seeing a mention that one difference between...

rockinlibrarian recently did this experiment , which she didn't intend as a meme. I'm also curious about who's reading my journal, though, so I'm going to duplicate it: "Hi whoever is reading this! If you are reading this, even if you just so much as glimpse the entry, leave a comment... yes, no, seriously. This is not a meme, this is just an experiment. But since it is an experiment and...

As I mentioned to rockinlibrarian a little while ago, one thing I like about fantasy is that it can deal with real-world issues without quite addressing them directly. I suppose there are occasions where this could be a cop-out, but in many cases it works quite well. Fantasy can, for instance, make comments on politics or religion without actually mentioning any specific people. This differs...

Are you interested in what I've been reading recently? If so, this post is for you! If not, wait until tomorrow, when I plan to cover albums I've been listening to. The Castle of Llyr , by Lloyd Alexander - The third book in the Chronicles of Prydain was pretty fun. It had a giant cat, and was a good way to take up time while waiting around at jury duty. {g} I think the next one in the series is...

Hey, how about some reviews of three books I read recently? Watership Down , by Richard Adams - I'd been meaning to read this one for a while. Actually, I did read the first few pages when I was waiting for a computer at the local library some years ago. Recently, though, I saw the book on therealtavie 's shelf and read an interview where Neko Case said it was one of her favorite books...

Okay, first of all, I'd better reveal the answers to that lyrics quiz . 1. What's the matter with the songs he's singing? Can't you tell that they're pretty lame? "It's Still Billy Joel to Me," by "Weird Al" Yankovic ( nova_one , rockinlibrarian , revme ) 2. I can understand why you'd want a better man, but why you wanna make him out of me? "Spitting in the Wind," by the...

Happy birthday to rockinlibrarian ! You probably won't be interested in the rest of this post, but these first two sentences are just for you! {g} In The Emerald City of Oz , we get our first detailed description of the Royal Athletic College run by Professor Wogglebug. The field in back of the college building is described as follows: In one place they played football, in another baseball...

I haven't had quite as much time to read recently (and I've been spending a lot of the time I HAVE had on the computer), but I've still finished some books in this new year. The graphic novel adaptation of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic - Although I believe Sir Terry Pratchett isn't too keen on graphic novels (I remember reading a chat transcript where he said Detritus the Troll...

Hey, remember Mike Huckabee? You know, the guy who ran for president on a platform of marginalizing anyone who wasn't a conservative Christian, and then went on to have a show on Fox News? Well, apparently somebody does, because his book Do the Right Thing is on the bestseller list. I haven't read the book, and I'm not even totally sure what it's about, but that title reminds me of how annoyed I...

Okay, the general theme for this week's They Might Be Giants review is the B-sides from the early nineties, from EPs released to coincide with the Flood and Apollo 18 albums. James K. Polk - The original version of this song had more of an appropriately bombastic sound and better instrumentation than the remade one on Factory Showroom . No singing saw, though. Stormy Pinkness - This is...