Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:55 PM

If you can't tell from the photo, what we got is a 2007 Camry LE (same model as our old car), in a shade they're calling Blue Ribbon Metallic (with Bisque fabric interior).

The only optional feature was one we considered mandatory: traction control. As longtime readers may recall, we have a steep driveway that's tough to climb in the winter (we actually blew out our transmission one icy winter). We're hoping traction control will help us get up and out on such mornings.

The car is brand-spanking-new. Ian and I actually watched the odometer roll over from 99 to 100 this evening.

FWIW, we were between the Camry and the Hyundai Sonata, which has been getting some impressively good reviews.

Although the last year or two I'd been hoping that our next car would be a hybrid, we asked our mechanic's advice as we started our research, and he's not 100% comfortable in the technology. He's been trained in them, but he's not totally confident that the technology is as perfected as it could be. So, our next car will probably be a hybrid.

I'm confident this will be a good reliable car that I'll be happy with for many years.

Right now, though, I'm going thru a serious case of post-purchase regrets and jitters.

Big-ticket purchases can be scary, and I've already been feeling overwhelmed lately over other matters, so I could really benefit from a little reassurance that we made the right choice...

Thanks.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:35 AM

Been thinking about this Cat and Girl comic since somebody pointed it out to me.

Anybody else remember that early-1980s Twilight Zone episode in which the character finds a stopwatch that can stop time?

I could really use one of those to get done everything I'm wanting or needing to do...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:10 PM

Busy busy busy

Too much to do; too little time.

And too darn hot.

I actually checked with the people in the neighboring cubes, and one's too cold and one's just right, so I won't ask Facilities to turn up the A/C.

How are you?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:05 AM

Oh, how I love Barbara Stanwyck...

She's smart, sexy, snarky and a heck of a lot of fun.

Last night, we caught a double feature of films costarring her and Henry Fonda:

The Mad Miss Manton was their first screen pairing (there were three in all), written by Philip G. Epstein, who also authored Casablanca. And the quips just crackled.

The Lady Eve is the more famous of their films. She's a con artist who falls in love with the mark.

Roger Ebert calls this clip (right) "the single scene in all of romantic comedy that was sexiest and funniest at the same time ... an unbroken shot that lasts three minutes and 51 seconds."

Frankly, as good as it is, I would've preferred to show you a different scene, in which Stanwyck breaks her heel and asks Fonda to put the new pair of shoes on her. What legs...

Given the skill and fun Stanwyck had playing lower class dames falling for wealthy men, if anyone had done a gender-swapped Thin Man, she'd be perfect in the Nick Charles part.

I'm less interested in the rest of the Brattle's series. Call me shallow, but I'm more interested in the screwball comedies from her younger years than seeing her later more serious roles.

I may try to pick more of these up on DVD, though.

And for those of you who are interested in big screen blockbusters, this weekend the Brattle will be running a Charlton Heston Apocalyptic series, featuring Planet of the Apes, Earthquake, The Omega Man, and Soylent Green.

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:05 PM

[See this July entry for an earlier encounter]

This time, I was trying to jump directly to the last page of results so I could repeat the search with the omitted results included.

Instead, Google loaded this screen:

No matter how many times I went back and tried to resubmit the query, Google refused to show my results.

Wondering if the problem might come from skipping directly to the end, I tried following the Next links and paging through that way.
But anything past the second screen of results gave the same message.

Needless to say, I found the whole situation extremely frustrating, since the query generates over 400 results and this error prevents me from seeing more than the first 200...

And no matter how I tweaked the query string, it still wouldn't let me past that point.

Didn't even offer me a CAPTCHA to prove my humanity.

Somebody at Google has to finetune their error handling!

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:10 AM

Some time last night, I thought of several minor tasks needing to be done today. And, so I wouldn't risk forgetting them, I wrote them up as a list, grouped by priority (must be done/should be done)

Then, when I woke up this morning, I realized all that had been a dream.

Those items from the list that I could remember are legitimate to-dos, but I have no physical list. That's the part I dreamed up.

Sigh. So close, and yet so unhelpful.

Oh, reading a little further in the book, I found clarification that the prostitute had stolen the watch from a vicar.

Somewhat more plausible.

I still have doubts that a vicar would have a watch, but the story's been making hints that characters are meddling in the affairs of very powerful people, so I'm now wondering if the watch might be a clue that its (former) owner might be more than he seems.

Although none of the characters seem terribly surprised that the vicar would have a watch.

Who knows...

Suffice it to say, I haven't given up on the book yet...

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:50 PM

Well, I've continued reading An Eye of Death.

And in the very next paragraph, their little fling is interrupted when a visitor is announced:

“Sweet Jesus, I forgot about him,” said Rosie darting a hand beneath the pillow and pulling out a watch. “It's his time.”

The story is set in Elizabethan England, sometime around 1590.

Rosie is a prostitute living in "the tenements of Coldharbour in Thames Street" where the narrator moves after poverty forces him from his previous lodgings into cheaper ones.

I know watches existed at the time (however inaccurate they might be at keeping time), but have trouble believing a character like Rosie would have one.

Can somebody better-versed in the period check my assumptions here?

I'm wondering about the availability of portable timepieces in Elizabethan London.

I did so want to like this book; I'm hoping this is an instance of the Tiffany problem* and not sloppy research on the part of the author.

^* “The Tiffany problem is when you're right about something but the reader thinks you're wrong anyway. Tiffany is a genuine medieval name, it's a short form of Theophania, and it's attested in England and France back to the twelfth century -- but you can't call your medieval heroine Tiffany anyway, because the reader will know they know better than you... even though you're right.” — Jo Walton

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:25 PM

I've been reading and enjoying George Rees' An Eye of Death when this line snuck up and blindsided me, knocking me completely out of the story:

Rosie was no great beauty but she was pretty enough with a fine pair of bubbies...

*screeeeech* Ugh! No.

I understand what the author was trying to convey: describing Rosie's breasts was the lead up to a quick sexual encounter.

But that knowledge won't bleach out the first image that comes to mind upon seeing this word.

 Advice for any writers out there:

I associate the word bubbe with meine yiddische grandmother.

If the word is used in any other manner, I still first and foremost think of grandmothers, before my brain begins to consider the possibility of alternate meanings.

So, under no circumstances do I want to see the word "bubbies" used in a sexual context.

I do not consider the word an erotic one: in fact, there are few surer ways to kill my romantic mood than an accidental detour into little-old-lady-land.

So let's not go there, okay?

As much as I'd been enjoying the book, I find myself reluctant to resume -- wondering where else that word might be lurking.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:40 AM

a.k.a. Hey, Joss! Your muse is showing!

Wembley (Fraggle)	Wash (Firefly)

What do you think?

PS: Tonight's plans include Free Shakespeare in Arlington, followed by Meatballs at the Brattle. If anyone cares to join us for either, Ian blogged the details last night.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:20 AM

Anybody willing to apply the latter to the former to record the following, and then loan us the results?

HBO Films presents director Kenneth Branagh's imaginative adaptation of Shakespeare's classic AS YOU LIKE IT ...
The film debuts TUESDAY, AUG. 21 9:00p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on HBO.

via

PS from Ian: Sheldon webcomic does Shakespeare. Storyline starts here and continues for the next three strips, plus today's Sunday color strip.