A Day Late

I forgot that yesterday- September 15th- was Agatha Christie's 120th birthday. Someone has come up with a cake (recipe) for the occasion called Delicious Death "inspired by a passage in one of her Miss Marple books called “A Murder is Announced” in which housekeeper Mitzi bakes it for Dora Bunner’s birthday tea. ‘Impossible to make such a cake. I need for it chocolate and much butter, and sugar and raisins’ she tells her employer."

Beans, beans, beans

The more you eat...
I just learned that Pythagoras promoted bean-eating abstinence. (Thanks for telling me this, Ben.) Or did he?

Evidently there's a passage about this directive in the book "Moby Dick". I didn't get the joke at the time (actually, didn't even remember it) but now I do.

New Favorites

Radio Show: Snap Judgment

New Artist: Caitlin McGauley

Male Name: The Situation ("Everybody loves me, babies, dogs, ya know, hot girls, cougars. I just have unbelievable mass appeal.")

Color: Puce (think belly of a flea)

Book: still deciding

Movie: "There Was A Father"

Magazine: Lonnymag

Must Read

Super Sad True Love Story: the trailer

Want To Join?

Don't ask how I found out that Bewitched fans have a Book Club!

Throughout the series, books added to the comedy on Bewitched through action (Darrin levitating a novel with his gifted powers), amusing titles (The Stephens’ burglar finds their book on “the criminal mind”), or as a source of Tabitha’s storybook playmates and adventures (Bobby the Dodo Bird, Sleeping Beauty, Jack & The Beanstalk, Hansel & Gretel).

At times, books also added to the supernatural element (Clara’s ancient book of curses & spells, and the Apothecary’s dusty old book of remedies).

With the advent of digital remastering of Bewitched episodes for DVD, more and more of the Stephens’ omnibus has become easier on the eyes and various titles have been spotted by viewers.
by Arfies, Maurine, Wizzy, Ling Ling, CosmosCotillion and Joe

In # 15 "A Vision of Sugar Plums," Samantha reads the classic fairytale "Tom Thumb" at bedtime to her Christmas guest, Michael. This German story titled "Daumesdick" was included in the collections "Kinder und Hausmarchen" (Children's and Household Tales, 1812-15) by brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. The book is translated by Mrs. EV Lucas, Lucy Crane, and Marian Edwardes. It is illustrated by Fritz Kredel of the Junior Library, and published by Grosset & Dunlap, NY, MCMXLV.

Mrs. EV Lucas was the wife of the prolific writer I met on July 21st, EV Lucas. Coincidence?

"What A Life": E.V. Lucas (1868-1938)

Paraphrased from Wikipedia:

Edward Verrall Lucas was a versatile and popular English writer whose style is generally found insipid by contemporary readers. Some of his cricket writing has lasted but he is now remembered for his essays and books about London and travel and his biography of Charles Lamb.

He wrote a lot of books:

Bernard Barton and his friends: a record of quiet lives (1893) Quaker biography
A Book of Verse for Children (1897)
The War of the Wenuses (1898) with C. L. Graves, parody of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds
Charles Lamb and the Lloyds (1898)
Willow and Leather (1898) cricket essays
The Open Road (1899) anthology
The Book of Shops (1899)
Four And Twenty Toilers (1900) poems
What Shall We Do Now? (1900) with Elizabeth Lucas, games book
Wisdom While You Wait (1903) with C. L. Graves, parody encyclopedia
Works and Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb (1903-5) editor
Highways and Byways in Sussex (1904)
The Life of Charles Lamb (1905) biography
The Friendly Town (1905)
A Wanderer in Holland (1905)
A Wanderer in London (1906)
Listener's Lure (1906)
Character and Comedy (1907)
A Swan and her Friends (1907 about Anna Seward
The Hambledon Men (1907) cricket
The Gentlest Art (1907) anthology of letters
Another Book of Verses for Children (1907)
Anne's Terrible Good Nature (1908)
Over Bemerton's (1908) novel
Hustled History, Or, As It Might Have Been (1908) with C. L. Graves
The Slowcoach (1908) fiction
Mr. Coggs and other songs for children (1908) with Liza Lehmann
A Wanderer in Paris (1909)
One Day and Another (1909)
Good Company - A Rally of Men (1909)
Sir Pulteney (1910) as E. D. Ward, fantasy
Mr Ingleside (1910) novel
The Second Post (1910) anthology of letters
Old Lamps for New (1911)
What a Life! (1911) with George Morrow
William Cowper's Letters (1911) editor
A Wanderer in Florence (1912)
London Lavender (1912)
A Little of Everything (1912)
Loiterer's Harvest (1913) essays
Swollen Headed William (1914) parody
A Wanderer in Venice (1914)
Landmarks (1914)
A Picked Company: being a selection of writings (1915) editor
Her Infinite Variety: A Feminine Portrait Gallery (1915) anthology
The Hausfrau Rampant (1916) novel
Cloud and Silver (1916)
The Vermilion Box (1916) novel
London Revisited (1916)
A Boswell of Baghdad (1917) essays
Twixt Eagle & Dove (1918)
The Phantom Journal (1919)
Quoth the Raven (1919)
Verena in the Midst (1920)
Roving East and Roving West (1921)
Edwin Austin Abbey, Royal Academician, The Record of His Life and Work (1921) biography
Rose and Rose (1922)
Vermeer of Delft (1922)
Giving and Receiving (1922)
Ginevra's Money (1922)
Advisory Ben (1923)
Luck of the Year (1923)
Michael Angelo (1924)
Rembrandt (1924)
A Wanderer among Pictures (1924)
Encounters and Diversions (1924)
The Same Star (1924) play
Zigzags in France (1925)
John Constable the Painter (1925)
Introducing London (1925)
Playtime & Company (1925)
A Wanderer in Rome (1926)
Events and Embroideries (1926)
365 Days and One More (1926)
Frans Hals (1926)
Twelve Songs From "Playtime & Company" (1926)
The Joy of Life (1927) anthology of popular poetry
A Fronded Isle (1927)
The More I See of Men (1927)
The Flamp and Other Stories (1927)
A Rover I Would Be (1928)
Out of a Clear Sky (1928)
Mr Punch's County Songs (1928)
The Colvins and their Friends (1928) biography
Windfall's Eye (1929)
Turning Things Over (1929) essays
If Dogs Could Write (1929) anthology
Down the Sky (1930)
Traveller’s Luck (1930) essays
And Such Small Deer (1931)
French Leaves (1931)
Visibility Good (1931)
Lemon Verbena (1932) essays
Reading, Writing, and Remembering (1932) (autobiography)
English Leaves (1933)
Saunterer's Rewards (1933)
Postbag Diversions (1933)
At the Shrine of St. Charles (1934) for Charles Lamb anniversary
Pleasure Trove (1935)
The Old Contemporaries (1935)
Only the Other Day (1936)
London Afresh (1937)
All of a Piece (1937)
As the Bee Sucks (1937)
Adventures and Misgivings (1938)
A Hundred Years of Trent Bridge (1938) editor
Cricket All His Life (1950) edited by Rupert Hart-Davis, cricket writing