Book Talk

Here’s an old article from the Atlantic Monthly that’s long, but worth a read. I enjoyed The Shipping News, but it might have been because the strange sentence structure and repitious, adjective-heavy prose made me feel I was reading a revolutionary new form of Literature. On the other hand I couldn’t stand Snow Falling on Cedars (get… on… with… it… Guterson?). Anyway, you should at least peruse it, especially if you’re a writer.

Kid*Lit(erary) is pretty much my dream blog, with a focus on the sort of children’s literature every aspiring YA writer pores over. A few weeks ago, Laurel focused on the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, which my first-grade teacher read to us during storytime in January-February 1988. My brother had pneumonia (again) that winter and was quite lethargic, so I entertained both of us by reading ahead in the books. In class, the accuracy of my predictions for “what happens next” drastically improved.

via Heidi: Cooked Books, a blog by Rebecca Federman, explores The New York Public Library’s culinary collection. Recent entries have featured recipes for Jacques Pepin’s Fromage Fort and The Lily, a cocktail comprised of Lillet, gin, and Creme de Noyau (possibly my three favorite things).

Other Goodies

Highlights For Children’s Hidden Pictures

Masterpiece Theatre’s The Railway Children (also available to locals here)

Pangolin!

Cort Delano Tonight

Just in case you forgot, Cort Delano is playing at the Boscawen Inn tonight from 7:00 till about 9:00. Food starts at 6:00, cover is $5. You could have dinner, catch a live show, have money for tip and a bit for the hat and not spend more than $20.

Be there or be a cold rotisserie chicken. It’s up to you.

Ding, dong, bell

Kitty’s in the well.
Who put her in?
Little Johnny Green.
Who pulled her out?
You can bet your ass it wasn’t me.

Emma and Isaac visited over the weekend, and aside from an epic battle in which we tried to force a hysterical, sleeping 7-year-old to take her asthma medication and some general snottiness on Sunday, it went very well. Isaac was a dream.

But, ahhhhh. The third charge. That damned cat. When we stopped by to feed it on Saturday afternoon, it had scratched dirt out of two houseplants.

“Oh, George, you bad cat,” said Emma. “You did it again!” [cuddle, cuddle, love love]

I took this to mean that he routinely scratched dirt out of their plants, and stopped there. I didn’t question Emma, because I didn’t want to take the extra breath that would have required. I assumed that it didn’t mean he was gearing up for that other thing cats do to houseplants when they’re pissed. Mistake.

We stumped in Sunday after gymnastics to an even-worse-than-usual cat odor. Whatever could it be? I wondered casually, having previously eliminated that possibility.

But no.

Cat. Shit. In four different houseplants.

Potting soil flung all over the apartment.

Dirty pawprints on all the carpeting.

Mr. Mistoffelees eyeing us from the scratching post.

My sainted husband cleaned up the whole mess as best he could without paper towls, disinfectant and a haz mat suit. I put the cat out on the patio with food, water, previously-neglected litter box, and a string of curse words I didn’t know I knew.

I hate you, cat.

Classic

A favorite of my Grade 11 English teacher’s.

Just Like Starting Over

This week I’ve been working on my YA novel and it’s going surprisingly well. I’ve cleaned up the cringe-worthy dialogue in chapter five (something that I’ve felt paralyzed over for months), and while it’s still bad, reading it no longer discourages me so much I quit AppleWorks anymore.

For me, writing successfully is all about rhythm. Repeating the process daily, so I don’t forget where I was headed in a particular scene— subscribing to the Hemingway Method ‘when you get going good, stop— and so I feel the momentum building under me. This way it seems as though the story is writing itself rather than me painfully struggling for the next word every time I hit the space bar.

Tomorrow, though, my rhythm will be interrupted. We’re agreed to take my former wards for the weekend, and every time we do there’s always some unforeseen complication.

This time they asked me to look after a cat they’re baby-sitting. I agreed to make sure it was watered and fed daily, but I had every intention of bringing Emma and Isaac here so I could be half-assured of a decent sleep every night. I enlisted Richard’s niece to feed kitty on Saturday and possibly Sunday, and no one would be any the wiser. We’d go apple-picking and Geocaching, and generally leave the kids fuller of fresh air and organic produce than we found them.

But ho! Now there are more complications. Emma has a birthday party Saturday afternoon and the kids both have gymnastics Sunday morning. So my choices are:

1) Suffer though the cat* and the nail-filled sleeper sofa mattress, or

2) Spend five hours schlepping them back and forth all weekend.

Also, the birthday party falls right into Isaac’s nap time on Saturday. He’s a real treat by 7:00 pm if he’s skipped his nap, I assure you.

*Can they sense the histamines flooding my bloodstream? Is that why they insist on sleeping on my face/curling up on my lap whenever an opportunity arises? They’re really that evil?

Anyway! My rhythm. It will be interrupted over the weekend even more than I was planning, so what to do?

Fellow writers: how do you get your groove back after some time away?

Library Programs this Fall

In the September/October Library Guide (for the Halifax Regional Library System), they’re announcing a series of lectures for people like us who don’t get to travel a lot, but really wish we could.

Some programs that caught my eye:

Author Reading: Silver Donald Cameron
September 18 at 7:00 pm; Spring Garden Road

Scott Walking Adventures* (discusses Nova Scotia’s geological past)
October 2 at 7:00 pm; JD Shatford

Adventure in Peru*
October 17 at 7:00 pm; Keshen Goodman

Literary Tour of Tuscany*
October 18 at 2:00 pm; Keshen Goodman

Off the Beaten Trail in Nova Scotia
October 24 at 7:00 pm; Keshen Goodman

Peru and Brazil*
November 6 at 7:00 pm; Spring Garden Road

Author Reading: Len Wagg
November 7 at 7:00 pm; Alderney Gate

Faces of India*
November 14 at 7:00 pm; Keshen Goodman

Amazing Africa*
November 20 at 7:00 pm; Spring Garden Road

All the astrisked talks have a Rough Guide book as a door prize, and— this is what captured my interest— for every event you attend, you can enter to win:

• two return train tickets from Halifax to Quebec
• $75 gift certificate to The Prince George
• brunch for four at Sugar Moon Farm

One entry per person per event. Not bad for free entertainment.

Happy Birthday to Me

I stumbled across this meme months ago and squirreled it away just for you, sweet reader.

On this day in history:
1. Charles VI of France expels all Jews from France (1394)
2. United States Constitution signed* (1787)
3. Camp David Accords signed between Israel and Egypt (1978)

I share my birthday with:
1. Sophia Alekseyevna (1657)
2. Billy the Kid (1860)

And it’s the anniversary of the death of:
1. Spiro Agnew (1996)

*I’ve always considered the Constitution to be the true founding document of our fair nation. Sure, it lacks the flash of “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”, but The Preamble is a lovely piece of hopeful, ambitious philosophical writing:
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility….”

We (or, hey, I) tend to think of the Founding Parents as fierce men stomping about in Philadelphia’s streets in their stockings and glorified deck shoes yammering on to each other earnestly about obscure points of law; but really, they were just starry-eyed dreamers like the rest of us. To wit: the “promote the general welfare” bit. I wonder if that would get shoehorned in today.

Anyway, before I get distracted, I thought I’d share some hard-won nuggets of wisdom I’ve accrued, lo these 25 years.

• Regardless of the proverb, it’s very easy to love a poor man instead of a rich one; plus, bonus points for not having to drag a camel through the eye of a needle in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So that’s handy.

• And speaking of camels, to avoid being spat upon while standing in their presence, it’s best to keep yourself about level with the front legs.

• If you’ve got a sunburn and haven’t got access to aloe vera gel, you can make a soothing paste of water and baking soda to help stop the pain.

• Everyone loves a handwritten thank-you note, plus it gives you a legitimate opportunity to play with sealing wax.

• Never pass up the chance to pee.

• Listening to Car Talk is a great mood-booster, even when your mother calls to say ‘happy birthday, oh, by the way, we almost had your beloved childhood dog put down last Thursday.’ You get to learn the names of a lot of different bits of the combustion engine (which share the names of many human parts: knuckles! joints! shafts!), if not how they fit together or work (suck! squeeze! bang! blow!).

• It’s always a good idea to have a pen and something to scribble on somewhere on your person.

• Old Hollywood classics are usually a let-down, so always get a back-up movie rental.

• When baking, if you measure your oil first, you can used the pre-greased cup to measure sticky substances (molasses, peanut butter) and they’ll slide right out.

• A gift of monogrammed handkerchiefs is a good choice for anyone.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. We’re off to celebrate my birthday with our usual Caligulan levels of indulgence. Have another round on me, and a happy birthday to you from me, whenever that may be. See you tonight at the Circus Maximus.

In closing, here’s a poem by Jack Gilbert.

Getting Away with It

We have already lived in the real paradise.
Horses in the empty summer street.
Me eating the hot wurst I couldn’t afford,
in frozen Munich, tears dropping. We can
remember. A child in the outfield waiting
for the last fly ball of the year. So dark
already it was black against heaven.
The voices trailing away to dinner,
calling faintly in the immense distance.
Standing with my hands open, watching it
curve over and start down, turning white
at the last second. Hands down. Flourishing.

Part I: How to Spend a Winter on The South Shore

So, on the South Shore, it’s easy to have fun if you’re here in summer and have vacation money weighing heavily on your wallet, but for the other nine months, everything is slower. The air is cooler, the Atlantic is frosty, some museums and restaurants close, and you’re left with nothing but your library books and bittersweet memories of summer.

…Or that’s what you’d think if you were us, last winter. Having an excellent winter here is perfectly possible, you just have to keep your ear to the ground, and your finger on the pulse of the… county, I guess.

This list isn’t comprehensive at all. Since I live in Lunenburg, I’ve kind of focussed on Lunenburg. But I’d love to include the whole South Shore all the way to Yarmouth, so if you have a hot tip about festivities in Shelburne or Liverpool, leave a note in the comments, and I’ll paste it all together in a permanent page for the left sidebar. So let us commence.

Upcoming Events
First! What’s coming up this month, so you don’t miss it.

Boscawen Inn Wednesday Patio Series
September 12 at 6:00; The Boscawen Inn (150 Cumberland Street, Lunenburg)
Bluesy-roots singer Petunia is joined by Vancouver’s one-man Minimalist Jug Band for a fun afternoon.
cover charge: $5 (meals for +/- $12), donations welcomed

St. Cecilia Concert Series: A French Connection
September 12 at 7:30; St. John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg
Soprano Suzie LeBlanc and pianist Robert Kortgaard perform a program of Debussy, Poulence & Kurt Weill
tickets: $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, $10 for students

The Chester Playhouse
September 13-16 at 8:00, Saturday matinée at 2:00; The Chester Playhouse
Playwright David King introduces us to a series of fast-paced scenes that illustrate some of the essential life skills of contemporary urban society, in his play Life Skills. (More info at The Chester Playhouse website.)
tickets: $15 for adults, $12 for students

Lunenburg Summer Concert Series
September 16 from 2:00 till 3:00; Lunenburg Bandstand (in rain, at St. John’s Parish Hall)
Grass Market Folk Festival Winners
donations welcome

Events at The Biscuit-Eater
September 17 at 7:30; The Biscuit-Eater in Mahone Bay
Juno-Award-winning blues musician Morgan Davis

Lunenburg Sessions
September 18 at 7:30; Lunenburg Academy Auditorium
Folk musician Bruce Jollymore
tickets: $5

Boscawen Inn Wednesday Patio Series
September 19 at 6:00; The Boscawen Inn (150 Cumberland Street, Lunenburg)
The Klunkers offer a fun blend of country and folk for a memorable evening.
cover charge: $5 (meals for +/- $12), donations welcomed

The Chester Playhouse
September 20-22 at 8:00, Saturday matinée at 2:00; The Chester Playhouse
Playwright David King introduces us to a series of fast-paced scenes that illustrate some of the essential life skills of contemporary urban society, in his play Life Skills. (More info at The Chester Playhouse website.)
tickets: $15 for adults, $12 for students

Events at The Biscuit-Eater
September 20 at 7:30; Biscuit-Eater in Mahone Bay
Vancouver-based indie-folk-rock singer-songwriters Jeremy Eisenhauer & Sheree Plett
price of a drink; donations welcome

Music at the Three Churches
September 21 at 8:00 pm; St. John’s Lutheran Church in Mahone Bay
A varied program with Dartmouth, NS-based all-women’s choir The Aeolian Singers
tickets: $15, children under 12 are free

Music at Lane’s Privateer Inn
September 21 at 7:00; Lane’s Privateer Inn in Liverpool
Clas Larrson Quartet
price of a drink, donations welcome

Lunenburg Summer Concert Series
September 23 from 2:00 till 3:00; Lunenburg Bandstand (in rain, at St. John’s Parish Hall)
Banjo musician Old Man Luedecke
donations welcome

Lunenburg Art Galleries
September 22 & 23, all day; Lunenburg
Autumnal Equinox Gallery Hop— better than any collection in the province; there are 19 galleries in Old Town Lunenburg, and much as I hate the phrase, something for everyone

Boscawen Inn Wednesday Patio Series
September 26 at 6:00; The Boscawen Inn (150 Cumberland Street, Lunenburg)
Spend the evening with Calgary-based singer-songwriter Cort Delano.
cover charge: $5 (meals for +/- $12), donations welcomed

The Chester Playhouse
September 28 at 8:00 pm; The Chester Playhouse
South Shore’s own piano-based pop-jazz trio Flat Fifth
tickets: $15 for adults, $12 for students

Music at The Lunenburg Arms
September 28 at 8:00; Risser’s Casual Dining (at The Lunenburg Arms)
Clas Larrson Trio
price of a drink; donations welcome

Events at The Biscuit-Eater:
September 29 at 7:00; The Biscuit-Eater in Mahone Bay
Scary Stories, part of the Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival— listen to the spine-tinglers or tell one yourself…
price of a drink; donations welcome

The Chester Playhouse
September 29 at 8:00; The Chester Playhouse
Beloved Canadian comedian Ron James previews his newest TV special at a show to benefit The Chester Playhouse
tickets: $25

Little River Folk
September 30 at 6:30; Petite Riviere Fire Hall
Halifax singer-songwriter Joel Plaskett joins forces with banjo king Old Man Luedecke and Little Miss Moffat as part of the Petite Riviere series
tickets: $15

And now, the day-to-day stuff to keep you sane through the winter…

Parks
Nobody brings the outdoors in, do they? Stamping across the icy grass towards a park bench with a thermos of hot mulled cider or (possibly alcoholic) cocoa on a weekday afternoon has to be one of the Northeast’s greatest pleasures. Wear a scarf, fingerless gloves, and a tweed cap and pretend you’re at Dartmouth.

There are lots of parks and green space in every town lining the Atlantic Coast. In Lunenburg alone we have six in easy walking distance, and there are four more in Mahone Bay.

Trails
If you’ve got cross-country skis or snowshoes, you’re set; if just have a pair of warm, waterproof boots, you’re not badly off, either. And in summer, of course, all you need is a pair of comfy shoes. The Rails-to-Trails network spans the entire South Shore region and beyond…

Nova Scotia Trails Federation— South Shore
Shared Use Trails— Lunenburg, Queens, Shelburne, and Yarmouth Counties
Kejimkujik Trails
And there’s rails-to-trails in almost every community

Beaches
Just bundle up against the wind, and a walk along the beach is a great way to spend an afternoon all year round. Hundreds of miles of nearly-deserted beaches line Nova Scotia’s coast in summertime, and they’re completely deserted in winter… you may as well be alone on the planet. Or, if you’re feeling sociable, get together a group of friends and a pot for mulling wine, build a bonfire and have a convivial evening.

As a bonus, winter brings in a dozen species of rarely-seen oceangoing ducks and other seabirds. Here are my favorites on the South Shore, listed in order of preference; please note Queensland Beach is nowhere to be found. I’m not familiar with beaches farther South, especially around Yarmouth, so if I missed your favorite, let me know in the comments.

Risser’s Beach*
Hirtle’s Beach*
Bayswater Beach
Carter’s Beach
Beach Meadows
Crescent Beach (demoted because people park their cars on the beach)
Cleveland Beach
*denotes boardwalk

Year-Round Concert Series
Lunenburg Sessions doesn’t seem to have a website, I’m sorry to report. Every third Tuesday of the month, they present a $5 concert at the Lunenburg Academy auditorium.

The St. Cecilia Concert Series often makes stops at St. John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg, though it’s mainly based in Halifax, They’ve announced their season to the end of the year, but there’s more to come in 2008.

Live Music While you Sip
You can’t beat it when a pint is the price of admission…

As you might have gathered, The Biscuit-Eater in Mahone Bay features concerts, prose and poetry readings year-round for the prices of a cup of chai. All the food and drinks are terrific, too, and the place doubles (triples?) as a used-book store.

The Mug & Anchor in Mahone Bay has live music on the third Thursday of every month from 8:00 till midnight, which attracts everyone who’s anyone in the music biz on the South Shore. But seriously, just have the beer.

Lane’s Privateer Inn also hosts a variety of shows all winter long. I believe last year there was a ukelele series (!!!). In Yarmouth at Kelley’s Pub, every Saturday brings the Blues Band & Jam, and I understand there’s also a fellow called Simon Leblanc who performs there with his own one-man band machine.

The Knot Pub in Lunenburg also hosts live music, but they live in the stone age (no website) so I’ll have to physically check their posters later this week. I can tell you that during the winter at The Knot, every Thursday Night is Trivial Pursuit Night.

Theatres and Playhouses
Of course, live theatre is alive and well all over Nova Scotia. On the South Shore alone, we have half a dozen options. The Chester Playhouse has a fabulous fall season lined up already— I really hope we can get to the Ron Sexsmith-Jill Barber concert on October 11. And at The Pearl Theatre in Lunenburg has an upcoming Garnet Rogers show on October 6, and another with Matt Andersen on November 10. The Unicorn Theatre in St. Margaret’s Bay features children’s theatre (nothing on right now), and Th’Yarc has a few new shows opening in November.

If I’ve missed something, I urge you— I implore you— to let me know. Drop a line or leave a comment. I’ll add any oversights, promise.

Still to come: Museums & Festivals. Just let me catch my breath.

Six

Three things I think everyone should know how to do:

1) Chop an onion. There’s only one proper method, and it’s easy. Stop hacking at that poor fellow!

2) Tell a ghost story. One with local flavor is good, but any classic well-told makes for a pleasant evening.

3) Stop a serious wound from bleeding.
a. Grab anything absorbent
b. Apply pressure, and lots of it
c. Don’t peek!

+++

Three Illuminating Women’s Issues Stories from China

Doctors in China discover 26 sewing needles embedded in the body of a 31-year-old woman. They suspect the needles were inserted by the woman’s disappointed grandparents when she was just days old.

China’s gender imbalance has reached critical mass, and the government is finally, FINALLY acting.

Senior Chinese government official Pang Jiayu is kicked out of the Communist Party after eleven of his mistresses denounce him. Their husbands were his underlings who coerced their wives to perform sexual favors in return for promotion. Several of their husbands have been executed for crimes that can be traced directly back to Pang.

+++

Holy crap, there’s a lot to do around here! I’m just waiting for a few final emails, then I’ll post my completed list.

Walk Score Update

I got this note from Mike at Walk Score:

Hi Kristina,

Thanks for the great feedback and questions. We currently rely on Google Maps for our listing info and have found they’re not as accurate as we hoped. The only way we know to update/change business info is for business owners to go here: [http://tinyurl.com/27yed9]

This might explain why some of your local coffee shops are missing from your Walk Score.

We acknowledge the importance of parks and greenbelts in an area’s walkability and in a community’s overall health. We don’t currently have a way to update this information but are working very hard to improve this as well as add features like distance to public transit and crime statistics into Walk Scores in order to make the site as accurate as possible.

We hope you keep your eye on us as the site evolves.

Thanks for the note and glad you visited Walk Score!

Best

Mike

+++

I replied, suggesting that, in addition to public transit and crime statistics, they also factor in proximity to schools, museums, and laundromats.

I’ve been hard at work this afternoon compiling lists of things to do on the South Shore, with a particular emphasis on activities under $10 and places open in the winter. Did anyone local know that the Boscowen Inn has a Wednesday patio concert series during the summer?

Also, thanks to Alice Burdick’s comment on my last post, we have place to rent DVDs locally ($3 for an indefinite period), and he has about 70 Japanese titles alone. Excellent. They also rent DVDs at the SaveEasy.