Sayonara, Mimi.

[air_and_angels]

I'd like to offer my first recap/snark, thanks to a visit to my local used bookshop this afternoon. I kind of went round and round over the choice of book (I picked up three), because it seemed kind of harsh to snark about The One Where Mimi Dies.
But stuff that, we can't be squeamish. On to the cover, courtesy of Dibbly Fresh.

Comments

[flight__]

This is one of the very few BSC books that I actually remember vividly (this is because it was bought for me right after my father died, and I kind of went insane with tears for like a week after I read it. Who the hell bought this for me anyway? I was eight!), and I do remember that they (AMM and her ghosties) actually did a really good job with it.

What I didn't remember is all the awesome stuff you pointed out -- the vaguely racist Japanese stuff they had going on with Mimi, the weird thing with Corrie who was never mentioned again, the Addisons' D/s ring (which is obviously what Kristy's mom and Watson were doing with all the time they weren't watching Emily Michelle). But my biggest question is this:

Claudia signs to Matt, leaving me to wonder if she actually knows a sign for papier-mâché or has to give a long-winded explanation.

When did every last one of these fucking thirteen and eleven year old girls become fluent in sign language? I thought only Jessie learned it, and wasn't even like, super great, she just knew a little. When do these kids have time for that kind of thing?!

[air_and_angels]

Man, I'm sorry to hear that. Do you feel like it was cathartic, or did it just exacerbate your sorrow?
And re: the sign language, yeah! I wonder whether Ann et al realised that Ameslan is actually an independent language with its own grammar, not just English rendered as hand signals. Even if they fuck up the grammar all the time, how much vocabulary can the Baby-sitters really have? I was pretty surprised Matt took the art class on his own without Haley to help interpret. Maybe his lip-reading is getting better.
Here is my favourite fact about sign language - it's from the New Zealand dialect so I don't know if it holds true arond the world. Deaf people can see clapping but don't hear applause so they made up their own applause equivalent, without wasted sound. You hold up your hands and make spirit fingers! It's awesome.

[design_star_21]

Are you an interpretor too? My sister is studying to be one.

[air_and_angels]

Nope, just a person with a lot of curiosity.

[design_star_21]

It's a fascinating field.