The Secret Life of Walter Knitty

Julie over at Samurai Knitter gave a list of 30 books she digs.  She gave the option for others to do the same.  I love to read and 30 seems like a small number, but here we go and in no particular order:

1. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Euxpery – Technically a childrens book, but every time I read it I find something new about life or life lessons.  It’s very charming and the illustrations are nice. 

2. The Sparhawk series by David Eddings.  It’s fluff reading and a lot of fun.  There are 6 books in the series.  It’s about a bad ass Knight and a sassy Queen who becomes his wife with magic.  Lots of adventures and hijinks by the time you get to the end.  The two series are titled The Elenium and The Tamuli

3.  The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.  This is a well written novel, the kind that crawls inside you and doesnt let go.  It’s about a family in India in the 1960’s and how unnecessary cruelty shapes the family for years to come.   It’s one long heartache with glimmers of joy until the end which is heartbreakingly sad.

4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.  I picked this up for free from a garage sale while vacationing in San Francisco.  It’s a deep novel about life, what is found meaningful to someone can be pointless to another, and how to find joy in your situation.

5. Trojan Women by Eurpidies.  Be careful what translation you get.  Translation makes all the difference.  I have a thing for tragedy and wept at the end of this play.  Everything those women went through and how Hecuba fought to retain some small shred of dignity while at the same time being taken into slavery.  A powerful play on what the emotional consequences of the victims of war.

6. War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges.  American Fascists was preachy but this is much better.  Chris Hedges was a war correspondent for the NY Times from 1983 through the Balkan War in the late 1990’s.  He talks about how war can be addictive, how nationalism can take over even the most rational people in the run up to war, how the media can be manipulated to work people into a frenzy . . .  It’s an interesting read if you want a take on how war is used and manipulated by culture and vice versa.

7. Sappho A Garland translated by Jim Powell.  Not sure how easy this would be to get.  It was printed by the University of Iowa several years ago.  One of the best translations I’ve read of Sappho’s work.

8. Lysastrata by Aristophanes.  I discovered how important translation is when I read this.  I have two copies, one translation I hated and thought was crappy, and one which was good.  Yes, it’s about war, but it is entertaining and has some interesting insights on women in Greek culture.

9. Lamb.  The Gospel According to Biff,  Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.  I enjoy satire almost as much as tragedy.  This book made me laugh out loud.  Biff tells his version of the Christ story including all their wanderings from the time Jesus was 12 until he was 30.  All their wanderings throughout the Middle East, India, along the Silk Road, etc.  I laughed my ass off at this book.  With a title like that how could you not.

10. Red Meat Cures Cancer by Starbuck O’Dwyer another satire.  Sky Thorne has worked for a fast food chain Tailburger  (a job he hates)  for almost 20 years, he’s about ready to get his pension so he can retire and find his own inner Tahiti.  One small problem.  His boss “The Link” tells him if he cant get their market share up to 5% by the end of the year he’s out on his ass with no pension.  With two kids to support and a lawsuit pending from SERMON (Stop Eating Red Meat Now) to handle, he’ll do nearly anything to keep his pension.   I’ve read this book at least 3 times and it still makes me laugh.

11. Waiting for the Galactic Bus and The Snake Oil Wars by Parke Godwin.  Again, more satire.  Two brothers, from an alien race of energy beings whose chosen purpose is to see planets with intelligent life, come to Earth for a party with some classmates.  They get drunk, are left behind, and forgotten for several million years.  One brother comes to operate Topside (which is supposed to be Heaven) and the other operates Below Stairs (supposed to be Hell) but nothing is quite like it seems.  They get a glimpse of the future and have to intervene in human existence again to thwart Armageddon.

12. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.  Made me glad I’m a vegetarian who rarely eats fast food.

13. Twinkie Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger.  One of the most interesting food books I’ve read.  Lots of information on what and where a lot of ingredients in processed food comes from like Polysorbate 60.

14. Secrets of the Night Sky.  The Most Amazing things in the Universe you can see With the Naked Eye by Bob Berman.  Bob Berman used to write an astronomy column for Discover Magazine.  This was an enjoyable read and is still used for reference.  He explains how to find stars, planets, constellations, satellites, etc in layman’s terms with humour.  Very informative.

15. Harry Potter by JK Rowling.  Exciting reads with characters you get attached to and who grow and change as the series moves along.  Funny, sad, adventurous.  Have read each one except The Deathly Hallows twice.

16. Bush on the Couch by Justin Frank.  Lots of interesting insight into the workings of the mind and family of our (thankfully) former President George W. Bush.

17. The Plague by Albert Camus.  About a community quarantined and isolated by a terrible plague.  The people left try to find a way to live with dignity and compassion in the face of a force they cannot control.  But then, anything by Camus will have something to say about human nature and/or human society.

18. Watership Down by Richard Adams.  Like The Little Prince, there is a lot more to this book than it seems.  The rabbits have their own mythology and gods.

19. NP and Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto.  Two separate books with separate characters but by the same author.  Two soulful tales.

20. Censored Newsfrom Project Censored.  Every year Project Censored puts out it’s top 25 most important news stories that you havent heard about through the mainstream press.  Lots of interesting stuff.

21. Shame of a Nation, Amazing Grace, and Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol.  Jonathan Kozol went to Harvard in the 60’s and became an educator, mostly working in inner cities.  His works show how extreme poverty and neglect in inner cities effect the quality and equality of education children receive and how this directly effects their chances of succeeding in life especially compared to public schools in more affluent communities.

22. American Furies by Sasha Abramsky.  An intense read mostly about the private for profit prison system in America.  He goes into some detail about kids ending up in adult prison, how private, for profit, prisons suck money out of poor communities, how guards for these prisons are poorly trained and are unnecessarily cruel to inmates.  Intense, and difficult subject matter, but eye opening.

23. Confessions of an Economic Hit Manby John Perkins.  John Perkins used to work for the US Government and IMF (I think, I havent read this in a while) He talks about how the IMF, World Bank, US Government and other intuitions have used economics with brute force to keep impoverished nations impoverished when they have resources more developed nations or corporations want.  He talks some about the privatization of water in Bolivia by a major corporation deprived poor citizens of necessary clean drinking water because it became too expensive for them to afford.

24. House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger.  Goes into detail about the deep links between the Bush family and the Saudi Royal family.  Interesting read.

25. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.  Satire about Armageddon (again?!)  The Snake from the Garden of Eden and the Angel who was supposed to guard Eden with his flaming sword (which he gave to Adam for protection) get word from above and below that the End Time is here.  They like Earth too much to let that happen.

26. Ancient Myths by Norma Lorre Goodrich.  Not sure if this is still in print but it has good translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh and other ancient stories.

27. Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan.  Feminist French literature from the 15th century.  Woo-Hoo!  Christine de Pizan was the only woman of her time to speak up for Joan of Arc.

28. East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  I will admit that I’ve recently developed a weakness for John Steinbeck.  He did a modern translation of some of the King Arthur stories and I enjoyed Grapes of Wrath.  He has such an interesting insight into human nature, and human nature in the face of adversity.  His landscapes are lovely.

29.  From Hellby Alan Moore with illustrations by Eddie Campbell.  Yup, it’s a comic, or more precisely, a graphic novel.  Much better and different from the film.  An in depth study and theory of Jack the Ripper.

30. She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb.  Two different books by the same author.  Different stories and different characters.  When I read She’s Come Undone, I had to keep reminding myself that it was a man writing this book.  Each has a lot to do with dysfunctional families and family secrets.

There’s my 30.  I didnt touch on Herman Hesse, many of the graphic novels I’ve enjoyed over the years, all the books on US politics I’ve read, or Arthurian Legends such as Sir Gawain and The Green Knight . . .  I’ll tag Emms , Samer and anyone else who chooses to participate

Emms posted this video on her sight and I’m re-posting it here. (She’s all cool and stuff because she can embed video’s.  For some reason I havent been able to figure out WordPress wont let me embed videos unless they’re from google or youtube)

I’ve known several gay people in my short life.  My best friend Micheal is gay.  In March 2004, Mayor Vera Katz, ok’d marriage licenses to be issued to gay couples.  Unfortunately, it didnt last long.  In 2004 there was a ballot initiative, Measure 36, that changed the wording of the Oregon constitution to state that marriage was between one man and one woman.  It was passed by a large majority of voters.  Larger than I expected.  Micheal and Chris (his husband now for almost 6 years) had their marriage invalidated as well as several hundred other couples.    If you want some very amusing reading here is a link to the 2004 Oregon Voters Pamphlet  for arguments in favour of Measure 36.  Some of them are true arguments in favour, some are satirical arguments in favour which are quite amusing.  It makes me glad that at least Oregonians have a sense of humour.

I dont understand this.  I dont understand what some people here in the States are so afraid of.  Gay marriage does not and will not invalidate straight marriage.  Gay people getting married does not invalidate what straight people do behind closed doors in their bedrooms.  Gay marriage does not do anything to lessen the value or cheapen straight marriage.  The love two people of the same sex feel for one another has absolutely no effect on the love two people of the opposite sex feel for one another.

The religious argument against gay marriage comes from Leviticus which has a lot of other rules that these people who use religion for their argument choose to ignore. (eating shellfish is an abomination, wearing clothes woven of two different types of cloth [wool/linen] is an abomination, if a woman is raped she must marry the rapist, etc)  To paraphrase Bill Maher  “What other Bronze Age laws and beliefs do we still cling to today”  And many of the arguments against gay marriage are the same arguments used in the 1950’s and 60’s against interracial marriage. 

The Constitution of the United States says “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” it doesent say “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, only for straight people”  And it says “All men are created equal”, not “All straight men are created equal”

The Constitutional ammendment prohibiting gay marriage in CA was found unconstitutional by the CA Supereme Court.  Most of the judges were appointed by Ronald Regan.  Yes, it was unpopular with a certain part of the electorate, but anti-discrimination laws usually are for a while at least.  Yes, Ken Starr is an major ass hat for doing what he is doing, but, equality for gays is coming.  It’s going to take a while yet and the road will have some more set backs but it is coming.

Crabiolis?!  Crabilois you say!  WTF are crabilios.  Like most things there is a story behind crabilois.

Just after my now ex-husband and I moved to Oregon I wanted to make a fancy dinner for our family.  I decided on home made ravioli’s, corn on the cob, and chocolate cheesecake.  Everything  was going smoothly until I found out the oven didnt work and had to cook the cheesecake at the neighbour’s up the road.  Then the pasta dough had to be made from scratch and rolled it out by hand.  That took for freaking ever.  I was supposed to get help shucking corn but the two boys who promised to help me decided to disappear and get intoxicated instead.  If you’ve never shucked corn before it is a rather time consuming process, especially when it comes to getting as much silk out of the ear as possible.  By the time it was time to cook the ravioli’s it was nearly 11PM.  I was frustrated, tired, and hungry.  Some of the ravioli’s started sticking together on the plate and then started falling apart in the water.  I had had enough.  I screamed, smashed the metal pasta spoon on the pot (did a good job denting it), ran upstairs, and started crying.  It didnt help that Jim (now ex-husband) and the two intoxicated boys were laughing at me.  Jim and the two boys (now no longer intoxicated) had to finish.  And Jim had to come upstairs and kind of reprimand me for getting so upset.  That didnt help at all.  When the food was finally cooked and it was time to eat, everything turned out well.  The crabiolis were really good.  This happened nearly 10 years ago and I’ve only made crabioli’s twice since then.  A half batch once as a birthday gift, and once when my parents came to visit my Dad insisted we have ravioli’s, but at least that time my parents helped with the whole process.

Now that I’ve found out you can use wonton wrappers instead of making the dough from scratch and rolling it out.  I have a pasta maker but it doesnt save much time.  But, using wonton wrappers would be sooooooo much easier it may just be ravioli time again.  The recipe is for spinach, herb, and cheese, they are very good, and it’d be a nice change from noodles with sauce.  Hopefully there will not be a tearful repeat of the now infamous crabioli incident.

That’s right.  I nearly forgot.  February 14th is National Condom Day!  Spread the wealth and spread the love with a rubber glove.

Sorry folks.  Here at Walter’s house of fiber and fur there’s been a lot of distraction.  I ordered a bunch of yarn to knit this jacket from Twist Collective and when it came it wasnt the colour I was expecting.  It’s going back to Webs today with a note for exchange.  Oh well.  I’m still trucking along on the Anne Shirley scarf.  It looks about the same as the last photo only longer.  There is so much yarn left in the ball I have idea whether or not I’m making any progress.

There has been a nasty virus going around work and I spent much of the last week lying in bed blowing my nose every 10 seconds and hoping my head would stop hurting enough to form coherent thoughts.  Chris called to check on me Tuesday and all I did was whine about how bad I felt.  Not one of my finer moments.

We had a date last Saturday to see “Coraline”.  I feel protective about stories I really like.  This is one of my favourite creepy stories.  Coraline is a good heroine.  Although she has help, she figures out how to win the day on her own.  All on her own.  The film was animated with stop motion animation, even the grass was animated.  That was cool.  Unfortunately, the film does not follow the chronology of the book well and does not carry the creepy aura of the book well at all.  At least imho.  But, like I said, I feel protective of stories I like and want films made from these stories to carry a certain integrity contained in the original story.  I felt the same way about “Stardust”.  In the book/comic the Star does not love Tristan and longs to return to the heavens but makes the best of her situation.  I suppose that doesnt make for a very “Hollywood” story.  “From Hell” was the same.  A long, in depth study of Jack The Ripper turned into some slop.   This is a long and rambling way to say that while I was impressed with the ambition of the animation in “Coraline”, I was not overly thrilled about the film.  Take that for the little it’s worth.

I dont get too into Valentines Day.  Of all the Holiday’s it is the most contrived.  Made up to sell cards, chocolate, and flowers.  I dont buy much into it.  That being said, I have caved and am making a special dinner tonight for us (unless Chris has come down with the same virus I had).  Salmon, home made rolls, some kind of roasted veggies, wine, and this cake.  I’ve been obsessed with this cake since I first saw it.  This happens to me sometimes (like the cupcake pies.  the last time I made these it was a dozen blueberry pies for a party.  who doesnt want their own individual blueberry pie)  All that being said about not getting too into Valentines Day, this is worth doing.

Pink Panty Warfare!  Yeah!  I feel a trip to the Dollar Store or Goodwill coming up so I can participate.  If you want to participate here the website for the Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose, and Forward Women

I talked to Jim (my ex-husband) last night.  I’ve been told several times how weird this is, that we get along as well as we do.  We get along better now than when were married.  He’s come a long way in the 12 years we’ve known each other.  When we first met about the only things he would eat were: white pasta with Alfredo sauce with and without chicken, and highly processed, thinly sliced meat, with mustard, on Wonder Bread.  He drank Coke, Kool-Aid, and milk like it was going out of style and he wouldnt touch garlic with a 10 foot pole.  Now, he loves garlic and eats a much wider variety of food than I ever thought he was capable of.  Part of this change came about when he found out he was sensitive or allergic to several foods (milk in particular) that were having an adverse effect on his health.  Instead of Coke, he will drink fruit sodas, coffee, or water (gasp!) and doesnt eat Wonder Bread any more.

This was the first election he’s been excited about.  Ever.  The whole time I’ve known him he’s been very jaded about the American political system.  This election is the first time he’s voted in 8 years.  He was so excited to be able to vote for Obama.  And in the face of adversity (he lives with his family in Iowa who still supported GW until the end and hates Obama) can still find hope and be excited about the new direction America is going.  He wrote this on Inauguration Day and although it’s a little late I’d like to share it with you.

=/\= To boldly go where no man has gone before…

at this moment i feel an amazing elation and definite connection to roddenberry’s vision of the future. we have taken those steps starting with dr. king and those steps have become a path that has led us to this moment in history. what would dr. king say today if he could have been here? would he have expounded and expanded on his famous “i have a dream” speech? would he smile silently with tears of joy brimming in his eyes as so many in the crowd had in theirs? we will never know…

at this moment in history, i ask you to reflect on how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go. what can you do to personally make this a better world? how can we as a human race move us towards a future envisioned by gene roddenberry? i for one, am proud of how far we have come. i am proud of what has occurred today. i am only saddened by the fact that it took so long. for it is readily apparent that not all people share the dream of a bright enlightened future. i am sad for these people. i take hope and dream that these folks will see the light and realize that our blood is red just like every other human on this planet no matter what color the skin the blood belongs to.

i hope to see you all in this bright new future and i will help you walk the path if needed. you have only need to ask my brother, my sister, and i will lend you my hand…
p.s. i am glad i had that box of tissues next to me for the inauguration

Here’s a photo of us from a couple of years ago