Sherry Chandler

Because I seem to be letting other people do the blogging work for me this week, I thought I’d share this little gem from Our Mutual Friend that I found at Heraclitean Fire. (Inadvertent pun there, I guess, because for some of us Harry is “our mutual [virtual] friend,” though in this case I refer to the Charles Dickens novel.) As Harry explains, this bit of dialogue is between Silas Wegg, who has been offered some money to go and read a book for Mr Boffin, who’s illiterate:

“Half a crown,” said Wegg, meditating. “Yes. (It ain’t much, sir.) Half a crown.”
“Per week, you know.”
“Per week. Yes. As to the amount of strain upon the intellect now. Was you thinking at all of poetry?” Mr Wegg inquired, musing.
“Would it come dearer?” Mr Boffin asked.
“It would come dearer,’ Mr Wegg returned. ‘For when a person comes to grind off poetry night after night, it is but right he should expect to be paid for its weakening effect on his mind.”

And you all thought poetry was harmless.

I’ve also been following a few of Harry’s links. If you’re a fan of Terry Pratchett at all, as we are in this house, you’ll like this Discworld Cake, constructed for the baker’s daughter’s wedding. I love the cake but I’m also glad I have only sons and will never be called upon to do anything this elaborate in the way of baking. Or sculpting.

Donna and Rebecca, my queens of the needle, might love this knitted digestive system, though looking at the rectum I think some Preparation H might be in order.

Speaking of Donna, this spot looks good for highlighting the link she sent me to a post on Crochet in the Expanded Field. Agata Oleksiak’s crocheted camouflage Cadillac is worth seeing — it looks pretty much full sized — but I really like Yvette Kaiser Smith’s “Misconception,” done with crocheted fiber glass. (Isn’t fiberglass itchy?)

Gin nudged me into following Harry’s link to these Hobo Nickels. “Amazing work!” says she who does amazing work herself, “That’s true folk art…”

Rory Kennedy, perhaps best known around these parts as the producer/director of American Hollow, has produced and directed a new film called Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and gets a rare 8.3 rating at IMDb.

It’s showing on HBO, the kind of event that spurs a rare wish that we had cable or dish or something. In the end, though, I stick with Netflix. It’s cheaper and subjects me to fewer commercials.

Regardless of your thoughts about Kennedy’s liberal bias, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib is the kind of thing we all should watch. It is necessary to look at the very worst take on what we’ve done to ourselves and others in order to decide if what we did was justified.

I will make my position clear. Torture is never justified. We have become the mirror of our enemy.

Here’s a YouTube sneak preview that I found at Have Coffee, Will Write as Part 1 of 8:

Jeff is featuring Part 2 of 8 here and I infer that he will finish this series over the next few days.

Keep a watch on his blog, Have Coffee Will Write. It’s always worth reading.