While stopped at a light on my commute today, I was mystified by a signboard printed in a fancy curling script that appeared to advertise an upcoming "Holy Gross Armenian Festival." Apparently this event will include a food fair and dancing -- but I couldn't fathom why anyone would want to eat gross food, and what exactly would the dancing involve ( Read more... )

Let me show you it:

Save the WordsOkay, it's only awesome if you're a word geek, but if you are, I promise you will love this. Please note: the site has sound. Awesome sound ( Read more... )

Hey, Chicagoans: Am I right in thinking that there's an area (or possibly more than one) near O'Hare that's mostly big industrial headquarters-type buildings? Where exactly is that? Does that neighborhood have a name ( Read more... )

I dreamed last night that Abraham Lincoln was a friend of mine, and he was into trying out new hats. Every week or so he'd have a different kind of hat -- beret, tam, porkpie, etc. -- and it was sort of his thing, and we'd all tease him about it. And then one day he showed up in a stovepipe hat, expecting everybody to make fun of it, and to his ( Read more... )

For my many gamer friends, who really ought to see this (and who will probably get more from it than I did, though I still thought it was awesome). And yes, that's Felicia Day, of "Dr. Horrible" fame.

Click to view

If you had to come up with a name for a two-headed fire-breathing snake-monster who eats people -- but has her civilized side -- what would you call her?

I don't mean a classification, I mean a name. Like Shirley or Babs or Gladys. Except those don't quite suit.

Suggestions?

I'm typing up the chapter I wrote yesterday (4000 words! In one day! Eeee!) and just had my most amusing typo in a while: rather than arranging to legally carry a firearm as planned, my heroine acquired a bun permit.

Dude. Those cream fillings can be dangerous, yo.

I had lunch with a friend last month who, in the course of a wide-ranging conversation, mentioned his amazement at having discovered some sort of underground movement in which real people dress up as costumed heroes and take to the streets, seriously trying to fight crime. And that police don't always know whether to see this as a good thing or a ( Read more... )

Remember a while back when I posted pictures of jewelry I'd made?

Well, I've made a lot more; beading turns out to be the perfect activity for when you've got small, unpredictable periods of time to work with and not much brain. And I've finally set up an Etsy store, under the very apt rubric Emily Procrastinates. (Hat-tip to sanj for coming up ( Read more... )

My niece is turning 14 this weekend. I have only just now remembered this. With amazon prime, I can order something this afternoon and it will arrive on (or near enough) her birthday that I won't feel like the deadbeat aunt. She loves to read, so surely a couple books would fit the bill. Yet I am drawing a total blank on what the classic young ( Read more... )