In which there are rainbows, ponies, and dinosaurs
- On sensory disabilities and superpowers: it's not that every cloud has a silver lining because lol NO, but I've noticed that a side-effect of my increasing photosensitivity is a wider range of vision for faint light sources which means I now see more rainbows, and more complex rainbows with supernumerary arcs and secondary arcs, and more iridescent clouds (even without sunglasses, although my use of those also increases my ability to perceive certain spectral phenomena), and more moon halos. I know that many disabled people have been force-fed the narrative about disability superpowers until they're sick of it, but... I still get more pretty skies than my fellow humans with average vision. So. WIN.
- "Horses recognise human emotions": MIND-READING PONIES!!1!! (@BBC) ;-)
- Girl with Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from The Odd Emporium
- Reading, books 2016, 26.
23. Fanny and the Monsters, by Penelope Lively, 1976-80, three short stories combined into an innocent children's novel and not the infamous BDSM puppet pornography with a similar name. My 1983 paperback has a pink mammoth logo on the spine. :-D This would have read as old-fashioned even in the mid-70s and not because of the conservative Victorian setting, but I wanted to read it because it includes an encounter with the Crystal Palace dinosaurs that haunted my childhood (I sometimes consider trying to read every children's novel featuring them - I wonder if anyone's made a list?). The first two stories are rather dull, but the prose is lively (ahem), and I enjoyed the last story very much. (4/5)
• FS: She began to pray. First she thought of all the things she had done wrong since last Sunday and said she was sorry about them. I am sorry, she said silently, that I pinched Emma (but it was because she spoiled my book so I hope she is saying she is sorry to You, too) and I am sorry I wouldn't eat my rice-pudding (but You created rice pudding which is a pity and if You had not I wouldn't have to eat it) and I am sorry I was rude to Nurse. She paused to try to remember if there was anything she had left out, as God would know anyway since He was supposed to know everything. And anything that I have forgotten, she added. And please make me good. She always asked this. And it seemed to her that God was not being very successful. But perhaps in her case it was a great deal more difficult than in most and was just taking longer.
• FatM: For her tenth birthday, in 1866, Fanny received as presents a doll, a needle-case and embroidery frame, a story-book and a seed pearl necklace. She had been hoping for a microscope, a geological hammer, a book about fossils and a butterfly net. She did her best to smile nicely, and looked with particular hatred at the doll, which was from her godmother, Aunt Caroline.
• TBoPP: Mamma and Mrs Robinson were seated on the sofa wearing their best clothes at each other. Mrs Robinson had the advantage of a very elaborate bonnet - a visit-paying bonnet - much decorated with ribbons and bows, and a pink silk parasol with artificial roses on it, and could therefore perhaps be said to have won.
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- "Horses recognise human emotions": MIND-READING PONIES!!1!! (@BBC) ;-)
- Girl with Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from The Odd Emporium
- Reading, books 2016, 26.
23. Fanny and the Monsters, by Penelope Lively, 1976-80, three short stories combined into an innocent children's novel and not the infamous BDSM puppet pornography with a similar name. My 1983 paperback has a pink mammoth logo on the spine. :-D This would have read as old-fashioned even in the mid-70s and not because of the conservative Victorian setting, but I wanted to read it because it includes an encounter with the Crystal Palace dinosaurs that haunted my childhood (I sometimes consider trying to read every children's novel featuring them - I wonder if anyone's made a list?). The first two stories are rather dull, but the prose is lively (ahem), and I enjoyed the last story very much. (4/5)
• FS: She began to pray. First she thought of all the things she had done wrong since last Sunday and said she was sorry about them. I am sorry, she said silently, that I pinched Emma (but it was because she spoiled my book so I hope she is saying she is sorry to You, too) and I am sorry I wouldn't eat my rice-pudding (but You created rice pudding which is a pity and if You had not I wouldn't have to eat it) and I am sorry I was rude to Nurse. She paused to try to remember if there was anything she had left out, as God would know anyway since He was supposed to know everything. And anything that I have forgotten, she added. And please make me good. She always asked this. And it seemed to her that God was not being very successful. But perhaps in her case it was a great deal more difficult than in most and was just taking longer.
• FatM: For her tenth birthday, in 1866, Fanny received as presents a doll, a needle-case and embroidery frame, a story-book and a seed pearl necklace. She had been hoping for a microscope, a geological hammer, a book about fossils and a butterfly net. She did her best to smile nicely, and looked with particular hatred at the doll, which was from her godmother, Aunt Caroline.
• TBoPP: Mamma and Mrs Robinson were seated on the sofa wearing their best clothes at each other. Mrs Robinson had the advantage of a very elaborate bonnet - a visit-paying bonnet - much decorated with ribbons and bows, and a pink silk parasol with artificial roses on it, and could therefore perhaps be said to have won.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/570232.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.