pensnest | Entries tagged with meme

starturtle0977 asked for my favourite boyband songs.

Nsync is the easiest: I Thought She Knew. I adore this. It's a very well-constructed song, it tells the whole story of a relationship so elegantly. And of course, it is a beautiful thing as sung by these young men. Really gorgeous.

I have variable fondnesses for the rest of Nsync's oeuvre, but that one is consistently at the top.

As for the solo efforts, I think my favourite JC song has to be Build My World. I cannot help but sing along, and I love the chorus. I have a lot of affection for most of his songs (wish he hadn't made Some Girls a single, though), but that one's probably my favourite.

I can't say the same about Justin's solo efforts, as most of them I just don't like at all. I do enjoy all but the end of LoveStoned/I Think She Knows, which makes my shoulders want to groove along, and I like the harmonies on the chorus of Losing My Way (even as the lyrics make me want to smack him with a fish). But I do have a favourite Timberlake song now: Wings. The (curse it) hidden song on the latest album. It's so pretty, and simple, and lovely. The fact that he seems to have been channelling my dragon story as he wrote it is also a bonus.

Of Chris's handful, my favourite is the one about vomiting. (Get Out)

It's a lot more difficult to pick a favourite Backstreet song, because I have a surprising amount of affection for many of them. But, hmm. Undone, from This Is Us might well be the winner. I also really like Bye Bye Love from the same album. 10,000 Promises is another favourite, not least because it inspired a story out of me. Just Want You To Know is an ordinary song but I have unending love for the video.

I've not listened to either of Nick's solo efforts, or Howie's, often enough to have decided what I like there, and I haven't listened to Brian's at all. But AJ's solo album is a precious and wonderful thing. I… think I'll have to go for I Hate It When You're Gone, as a very particular love song (for a relationship idiot, probably). I like lyrics that tell me a bigger story than they're saying.

I didn't actually notice other boybands in any particular way, so no offerings from New Kids, or Take That, etc. Except that I must mention that I absolutely adore Dujour's masterpiece, Backdoor Lover. As, surely, do you all.

Seven days unclaimed, here.

kira_j asked for: art! what is art? are you artistic? examples of art pieces you like?

( I can burble on for quite a while, so it's under the cut )

Today: is there a fic you desperately wish existed, but, for whatever reason, don't feel like writing yourself? (Any fandom) from

brandywine28

Well, I'd really like to be *able* to write my Wallow, but I certainly don't seem to feel like actually writing it.

However. Hmm. Since watching an episode of House that featured Jeremy Renner, I feel there really ought to be a House/Avengers crossover featuring House and Hawkeye achieving a sly alliance of similarly cynical minds. I would very much like to read such a fic.

No subject tomorrow! And there are a handful of free days left besides that one, so to fill in with a request, go here.

Requested by

ephemera

A post about cats. Well. Hmm. I do have a cat (see icon). I call her Pusskin, and Puddytatkin, and Pestilent Cat, and Wretched Cat, and many other things besides, but her name is Socks. She is eighteen and talkative, and has achieved her lifelong ambition of being able to sit on The Man's lap so that now she spurns my lap when it is offered. Hmph.

But, oddly, I don't think I have much to say about cats in general.
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Being British [what it means to you, how to do it, things you love/loathe about it- whatever hits you!] from

msktrnanny

Hmm.

I've been pondering this one and haven't really come up with a good answer. I suppose I don't really think about being British, particularly. It's a fundamental part of who I am, but it doesn't need attention. I'm proud of it, but not in a way that needs to be expressed. I wouldn't want to be anything else and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else (although, I dunno, sometimes I get so *cross* with my government).

I like my country's shape. Temperate climate, compassable size. (I like, in particular, this little bit where I live, that's not too hilly and not too flat and not too windy or rainy or snowy... Goldilocks land.)

I like my country's history—not, I should add, that I like all the details. We've plenty to be ashamed of as well as plenty to be proud of. But there's a lot of it, and pre-history, too, and it is interesting. I like that there's a lot of it left lying about the place, in the shape of tumbled castles and monuments and cobbled streets and stately homes and ruins and round blue signs and horses carved into hillsides and peculiar traditions. I like the way all this history everywhere makes me feel rooted.

I like my country's language, and the millions and millions of wonderful words written in it by incredible people. Though I also like the way it has mugged other languages and rifled through their pockets for more exact ways to express concepts it didn't have its own words for. I like the way the language has spread across the world and mutated in all kinds of ways, and that the English spoken here has reabsorbed the mutations. It's a bit of a giant sucking monster, but it's mostly a good one.

I like our traditions of theatre, professional and amateur. I like the idea of pantomime (interactive theatre!) even if I don't like panto very much...

I like... hats at weddings. Talking about the weather. Doctor Who. Radio 4, which is a national treasure. The Proms. Red double-decker buses. I like sub-post offices in shops. I liked the volunteers at the Olympics. God, that's a middle-class list. I'm not sure that I like the infinite fine gradations and signifiers of class, but they're interesting, and I do like the way they're quite a lot irrelevant nowadays for practical and everyday purposes.

I don't like the newspapers. I don't like the way our educational system works. I don't, I really don't like politicians who keep trying to pick the NHS (another national treasure, albeit somewhat tarnished) to pieces while pretending to be trying to improve it. (I don't consider "making it more like what the Americans do" to be an improvement.) I don't like our national tendency to xenophobia or the whining fools who don't want to be a part of Europe.

I do like the general tolerance I perceive in the society around me. It's not a perfect place, but it is improving, it really is. I like the understatedness of the British character, and the self-deprecating humour, and even the way we're embarrassed to be thanked. I like the way most of us are slightly puzzled by overt patriotism—because that sort of thing just doesn't need to be said.

To pick one of the remaining days, go here.

letterboys asked: Why are your favourite people your favourite?

Eep.

I'm not absolutely sure who my favourite people are… I suspect it depends who's been irritating me lately! I won't include my Brats on this list because, well, they're my children. Even on days when I'm not very impressed with them, it's pretty much my job for them to be my favourites. And I won't include anyone who's dead, not even my Grandma.

So, let's see. In sort-of alphabetical order.

nopseud introduced me to popslash and to LiveJournal, which leaves me forever in her debt. She's funny, an admirable writer and a really splendid story doctor. She's honest, and full of enthusiasm.

My friend D. She's rather admirable. The first year I met her, she was coping with a severely disabled teenager, a non-disabled teenager and a husband dying of cancer. And a minor role in a musical. She's incredibly strong, without really having any idea of it. And she's a thoroughly nice person, cheerful and generous of spirit.

Beast is regularly available for cuddles. He's calm. He's smart *and* sensible. He's capable and thoughtful. He makes me laugh (usually unintentionally, because he's essentially an innocent). His integrity isn't exactly why he's my favourite, but it's an amazing bonus.

Lance Bass is unpredictable. He keeps surprising me, and I love that. He's sincere. He is a great big sap, and he tries to make the world a better place.

And I guess, in general terms, that You are my favourite people. Fans. Fans-who-care-about-fanfic. Fans-from-my-heart's-fandom. The particular subset of fans who are Camp Sparklers. I have such fun and so much satisfaction in the company of fans, whether it's squeeing over ridiculous footage or Lance's latest tweets, or learning to think, or reading incredible stories, or… you know. All that.

Okay, then.

There are a few dates left if you'd like to fill in here.

Today's request: Your favourite holiday cookies/biscuits to bake (and why! Especially tasty? Family history?) from

fleurrochard

I think this might be a very short response. Okay, knowing me, that seems unlikely, but, well, I don't bake cookies, or biscuits, for holidays or any other days.

I do, it is true, have a yen to do so. I actually bought suitable food colourings with the intention of making Unicorn Poop Cookies. It is possible I shall be the only person who will *eat* Unicorn Poop Cookies, though, that said, Bun is pretty open-minded and Beast will eat anything. And yet...

I like the American custom of producing delicious cookies for Christmas. I remember with great pleasure the charming little box of delicious treats that

quiet000001 gave me several years ago. But I never actually seem to have time to get it done. Possibly this year I shall set Bun to the task, as she and Boy are planning (I think) to be home on the Saturday before Christmas, and they will need to be kept occupied. Not that Boy will undertake such domestic usefulness without prodding, I fear, and obviously I shall have to intervene at some point during the Unicorn Poop Cookie construction process, but still.

The thing is, it's never been cookies, here. It's mince pies. I think I have probably made mince pies, in the dim and distant past. I have vague memories of customising mincemeat from a purchased jar (not that it tasted particularly better, or indeed, different). I have very fond memories of eating the mince pies my Grandma made—as I've certainly rhapsodised before, her pastry was *awesome*. My father in law had a tendency to make his pastry with brown flour (after his diabetes diagnosis, anyway), and it was not, actually, very nice, so his mince pies just weren't much of a pleasure to eat. Anyway, Grandma's gone and Grandpa is in Australia, so any mince pies eaten in this house are likely to have been bought from Sainsburys or the local baker (though apparently we have a new Aldi supermarket in town, which I must certainly try). With sufficient brandy-infused cream, mince pies are pretty reasonable eating.

Yeah, I thought that'd be short. Sorry, Fleur!

As requested by

ladymoonray

My grandma was born in the East End, was fiercely proud of being a Londoner (and not altogether secretly felt rather superior to my 'country boy' grandad), and always loved going to London for whatever kind of occasion. We took her for a tourist bus ride for her eighty-fifth birthday, and it made her very happy.

London's always been my favourite city too. When I was a child/teenager, we had to 'dress up' to go into Town, which was usually for a show or some kind of event, or to a museum. I think the first time I was allowed to go to London without an adult was just after O-Levels; four of us from the boarding house went to see Tommy in the West End (and staggered out with our balance mechanisms completely fucked by the incredibly over-loud sound).
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as requested by

solariana

When I was a child, my Dad used to record the Top 30 from the radio, and every so often we—I don't know quite who 'we' is in this context, probably my mother and I—would listen to the them. We had more early-sixties than late-sixties stuff, and no fresh pop music on tape at all after mid-1969 until I started taping it myself when I was at boarding school. *pause* Okay, I was at boarding school from April 1970, but I don't think I taped stuff for a few years, not until my Dad also gave me his old record player.

So I got to be very familiar with the most popular songs that were just a little bit out of date, and familiarity, of course, tends to mean that those are the songs a person loves.

Among other things, this meant that I loved the early Beatles stuff, when they were pure and joyful pop. And increasing consciousness came as the Beatles got more experimental, or, as I probably put it, weird.

All this changed gradually, of course. For quite some years I owned Abbey Road and the red album and the blue album (but not the White Album) on vinyl, only getting them out of the house a couple of years after the record player had gone… eh, I procrastinate, it's a thing.

But nobody who grew up then, even if a little too young to be really 'into' popular music (my coming-into-awareness decade was the '70s), could fail to notice the Beatles. I, as a good girl, very much preferred them to the Rolling Stones (still do). I had a mild crush on Paul, and subsequently George. If I'd been a little older, I could well have become a Fan, but by the time I was old enough to be buying records and sticking posters on my wall, the Beatles weren't together any more. And Wings never lived up, never. I kinda liked George's solo stuff, though.

By and large I prefer the songs which John sang lead on, which I *think* (somebody will know) were the ones he mostly wrote, as he was a much more interesting lyricist than Paul. (I have a suspicion Paul was more musically interesting—certainly an accomplished pianist of my acquaintance admires McCartney harmonies.) Although I have always loved 'The Long and Winding Road', which would seem to be a Paul song, and of course Yesterday. I still have great fondness for Love Me Do, and Please Please Me, and And I Love Her, and I adore the bass line on Can't Buy Me Love, which is so adventurous, it goes off on a little journey all on its own which miraculously works with the song everyone's actually singing. Brilliant. Also very fond of The Fool on the Hill and—unexpectedly—Back in the USSR. But I can probably make a good go at singing along to any of their songs. I toy with the idea of having All You Need Is Love played at my funeral. It kinda depends on me dying soon enough that there'll be people attending who actually know how to sing along!

I was too young to be much interested in their breakup (I do so envy the people who were in the right place at the right time to hear that rooftop concert!), and wasn't quite the right age to be devastated by Lennon's murder, but I was pretty horrified. I was pleased to see Paul McCartney at the Olympics, although… not sure he should still be singing. Sometimes you need to retire.

To fill in the last few days, go here.

ephemera suggested Christmas music - favourites, pet peeves, and when should it start and stop.

A-HA!

I was in Sainsbury's on Tuesday, and by the time I had worked my way through the fruit and veg section I was ready to kill, and Johnny Mathis was warbling about When A Child Is Born.

This is Just Wrong.

Now, I don't object to Christmas music on principle. There are many jolly tunes, most particularly Santa Baby (preferably the Eartha Kitt version, because nobody does golddigger sexkitten like Eartha Kitt), Santa Claus is Coming To Town (Springsteen), Rocking around the Christmas Tree (?) (I used to know a tap routine to this one), Driving Home for Christmas (Chris Rea) and Merree Christmas Everybodee (or something like it, by Slade). Why yes, I did grow up in the 1970s. Less cheerful but also worthy are Last Christmas (by Wham), Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (by Judy Garland, accept no substitutes), Lonely This Christmas (Mud) and of course, O Holy Night (by Nsync, no other version is as good) (once, once, I actually heard this in a UK shop, and stood there happily until it was done). And I do not object to actual Christmas carols sung by choirs. But crooning is *not* appropriate for Christmas carols (and the little bloody drummer boy does not count as a carol anyway).

However. These tunes should be leavened through the day like little hints of tinsel. They should not be played non-stop throughout December. They CERTAINLY should not be played before December 1st.

There are incredible numbers of hideous, schmaltzy, monstrously sentimental Christmas songs around. It has been a long time since I enjoyed listening to Chris de Burgh wittering on about a spaceman. I have never, do you hear me, never wanted to hear Perry Como sing about anything involving chestnuts or snowmen or reindeer. There's a horrible sincerity that too many American singers bring to all this appalling crap that renders it unforgiveable. A little irony goes a long way, guys. Bing may sing about a White Christmas, and that's your lot.

You know the culprits. You know what they are. Sometimes I've been driven out of shops by the ghastly noise. And these excrescences are visited upon the hapless staff in supermarkets across the land, solidly, from the beginning of December. It is inhumane. One day, a checkout cashier will snap and rampage through the store with a cosh made of £1 coins in a felt stocking and destroy all the festive seasonal merchandise. And who shall blame her?

If the good Christmas songs were sprinkled across the month in a delicate way, and the bad ones featured only during the seven days leading up to Christmas, they might (I suppose, grudgingly) enhance the experience of fighting through trolleys in search of the last packet of stuffing in the shop. Except for the ones that should be incinerated, of course.

That's it.

(*whew!*)

Do you know, I think my Christmas icon might be quite appropriate here.

If you'd like to fill in any of the empty slots, go here.

turlough asked for Colours.

It's been quite a challenge to even figure out where to start with this post, because… colours!

I love colours. I love soft, subtle combinations, and rich, bold ones. I love deep purples and blues, bright oranges and reds, light greens and yellows. Anyone who has seen me knitting anything will know that I can't resist… colours. Okay, that's a bit silly, as it would be a challenge to knit without any colours at all, but still. There are so many gloriously coloured yarns, I only wish I had time to knit them all!

I've been trying to figure out honestly what my favourite colour might be, but I don't think I can. However, I wandered into one of the art shops in St Albans not long ago, and fell in love with another picture, at which point I realised that all the pictures I've ever fallen in love with are in the red/brown/orange/gold spectrum. This particular one is brown and gold dandelion heads on a textured bronze background. It's gorgeous. Of course, it's not just about the colours, there is interesting textural contrast too, and the thing is only slightly representational. I like the mostly-abstract.

So, red-brown-orange-gold it is. Probably not surprisingly, these are the colours of our living room, and the two Kerry Darlington pictures fit in there very nicely. Its not that I don't love blues, greens, purples, or even pinks and yellows, but I suppose the reds are more Me. My lounge, as

turlough knows, has soft orange walls (not quite terracotta, but tending that way), a dark brown sofa, a dark red sofa, red blinds and fabulously embroidered orange saris hung at the windows (as decoration, not curtains). It is unfortunately marred by the jarring green of the DVD boxes and the really-needs-replacing off-white of the ancient carpet. Oh well.

Oddly, I have not knitted very much in these colours. I did do browns for Beast's sweater and later for his Dad's, and black-and-reds for Boy's sweater, and a shades of red and orange which… I don't even know what happened to that one. But for myself I've mostly created blue, purple or pale things. I wonder why? And these days, somehow the most tempting yarns seem to be blues and purples, or pale colours. I do have quite the collection of interesting scarves and shawlettes now, in purple-and-black, different blues, yellow-and-pink, hmm. I should remedy the lack of hand-knitted reds at ~~once~~ some point by knitting a symphony of scarlet, gold and brown. However, it'll have to wait. I do have a lot of stash to go through, and have created a few 'stash buster' shawls which are quite successful: what I do is decide on a basic palette, then put all the balls of yarn together on the floor in the sunlight and put the ones that don't fit back into the drawers. I'm quite good at this.

I'm not so good at figuring out which colours I should wear. Bun and I had a Go at my wardrobe a few years back, and draped me in all the garments to see whether the colours worked on me or not. We should probably do that again this Christmas, as I've forgotten a lot of the rules we established. I have a tendency to fall for garments not because they suit me but because they are exciting, which as often as not means, they're fabulous colours. I wish I had the self-discipline to figure out the right palette and stick to it, but I suspect I will always succumb to the wrong things…

And, really, is something 'wrong' if it's a gorgeous colour that just makes you feel happy?

To add a prompt, go here.

starturtle0977 asked for Your favourite knitting project.

The thing is, I don't know! I really don't…

Was it the very first thing I knitted from 'Glorious Knitting', the 'Outlined Star' sweater for my five-year-old daughter? The stars were dark blue on the shoulders graduating to light blue at the waist, and the background was dark green at the waist graduating to light green at the shoulders, and the stars were outlined in neon pink, orange and yellow. I… let's say, I learned a lot, knitting that.

Was it my tumbling blocks sweater in blues, greens and yellows (I had a lot of yarn left over from the first two), the first adult-sized garment I ever knitted? Technically it's a mess, but the tumbling blocks are so cool! I should knit another one, since that one is now relegated to cat's travelling basket.

The small steps sweater for my man, or the small steps shawl for my BFF? The zigzag sweater for my bro-in-law, in shades of cream and brown with bright turquoise highlights, or the zigzag jacked that I still wear—it's *incredibly warm*—in blues, purples, pinks and lilacs? Or the black/dark red/brown diamonds for my son, much more recently? I dunno.

And then there's Phase Two, which has seen me knitting socks, and seamless, and lacy things… maybe it's the newest socks, which have a trellis of cabling on the feet. Maybe its the Metallurgy shawl, knitted in Baby Camel and Silk, which feels so nice and is such a great pattern, except that it was a bugger to do, because the first part was basically garter stitch and rather dull, and the second part was a concentrate-like-mad 44-line every-line-different repeat which made my eyes cross. The entrelac shawl? Adorable Niece's Owls sweater (with the not-entirely-satisfactory underarm seaming) or Adorable Nephew's cabled sweater which he hasn't got yet (and which at various points sent me nearly mad with rage)?

I just don't know. I have a feeling that none of the things I've made is my favourite. I have a feeling my favourite knitting project is one I have not knitted yet. It might be the peacock shawl for which I bought a lovely, vibrant blue and purple yarn at Fibre East this year. It might be the chic cardigan with awesome buttons which I plan to make for my BFF. It might be the next lace shawl, or the infinity cowl that starts in the centre and spirals out in both directions, if I can get my head around that. Or another magnificent jacket for me, or a shawl for an as-yet-unconceived grandchild, or, or...

So much yarn, so little time. I'll get back to you in a decade.

(Quite a lot of these are up on Ravelry, where my name is Nestholder, if you want a look.)

To add a request, go here and pick a date.

Today's entry: Star Trek, including your favourite episode if you have one. From

turps.

Star Trek. Ah, yes. My gateway drug, back in the early 1990s.

I was aware of the original series, of course. I expect I must have watched some episodes, though I was probably a bit young when they first came out. But it was Star Trek: The Next Generation that captured my heart. Yes, I watched most of Deep Space Nine (except the last couple of seasons, probably, as I have no memory of them) and enough of Voyager to know that I didn't like it, but ST:TNG, that was *my* Trek.
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Very jolly Zumba today, as the instructor has started taking requests for favourites, and one of my favourite numbers is a jive-esque one which is a lot of fun.

And I remembered to polish myself with RubRubRub *before* I turned the shower on, and so I am Perfectly Polished Pen, wonderfully smooth. And, my latest pair of socks fit beautifully. Go me!

Today's subject, chosen by

nopseud, is Songs you would choose for a Lance solo album.

Thing is, my long-languishing wallow story has a playlist. And it probably isn't in Lance's style (at all)—I don't know what Lance's musical style *is*, but I suspect it's a lot more up to date than mine. Also, I tend to choose songs based on the kind of singer I want Lance to be, rather than on the kind of singer he is—whatever that may be. I guess we'll soon find out.

But the question isn't what I expect to be on Lance's album, it's what I would choose, so.

Amoureuse (in English). I actually have the video in my head for this one, though it kinda requires Lance to be quite a lot younger than he is now.

There Goes My Heart Again, from a Gordon Haskell album.

Gone. (You're probably familiar with this one.)

I Don't Care If You Love Me Anymore, which I have on an album by The Mavericks. Quite jaunty!

Holding Out For A Hero. I think this would be awesome fun with Lance bellowing it out (if he can do that), and some *immense* drumming. In my head, there's a video which involves Joey in a heroic caped costume.

What are you doing the rest of your life? A song for Lance's wedding!

In contrast, Jesse by Janis Ian is rather lovely. Yes, I'm tending towards the ballads.

And It's Not Fair (by Lily Allen), because it has such a sly sense of humour, and would be hilarious.

Finally, I'm not sure if it would belong on his album… but I have a mental aural-equivalent-of-vision of Lance singing Santa Baby, and it fills me with joy. Actually, it… does involve a red and white costume with tight shorts.

Of course, all this would be rendered obsolete if only Lance would play The Cat In The Hat in Seussical, the Musical, and do a recording. *wants*

So, people. What else belongs on Lance's album?

If you want to nominate a topic for the rest of December, the post is here. Please do!

One of my teeth broke! A piece has come off. Very peculiar. Beast says there is a crack from the gap to the root, too, which does not bode well. Dentist appointment booked for Thursday.

My meme subject for today, suggested by

solariana, is Horses.

I've never had a lot to do with horses. Which is a shame, because like every other girl, I had horse phase, although in my case it mostly came down to reading 'The Green Grass of Wyoming' books (and then, the 'Thunderhead' series, and further backwards to 'My Friend Flicka', which is a thing that happens when you and your dad cannot walk past a second-hand bookshop and your mother is a librarian by profession). And 'Black Beauty', of course. *sniff* (I guess this was supplemented in my adult years by an addiction to Dick Francis books, before Dick Francis started writing them, at any rate.)

I have ridden, but not often. I have dim memories of attempting a rising trot at some point during my childhood, but I've no context for it. I remember that at one point my little sister and my stepbrother had riding lessons—why I did not share the experience, I have no idea—and my sister was thrown from her pony when it was stung by a bee, in consequence of which she had the most enormous bruise and a strong disinclination to mount up again. I never encouraged my daughter to be interested in riding lessons, because although our current situation is pretty handy for such things, being as how we are surrounded by farms/riding schools, riding lessons are quite expensive. And ponies may be stung by bees.

However, Bun and I did go for a 'pony trek' on our first visit to DisneyWorld back in 1998. I was quite excited about this, but it turned out to be incredibly dull. I think Disney were so wary of lawsuits that the ponies were practically sedated. We certainly went at a very sedate pace. Unlike every other Disney experience, this one did not have Totally Unnecessary Excitement injected into it*, and there weren't even cute things to see en route, which I must admit I had sorta expected. We meandered through the woods in a long, slow line, and that was it. The most exciting thing about it was barely being able to stand up after a couple of hours (?) astride something not unlike a barrel.

I like the look of horses, and the romance of horses, but I know very little about them. If you read the second part (and the third part) of the Chronicles of Lancyn and Ser Chrisfer, you will see that I fudge a *lot* on that subject. Although I do have a fondness for

ephemera's post about which boybanders are like which horses, which sadly I cannot find or I should link it for you!

* I was so unimpressed by 'chasing poachers' in the Animal Kingdom's Safari ride, and really disappointed in the missed opportunities of Body Wars, where the chance for a fascinating experience was squandered in a dizzying and disorienting dash for the exit BEFORE TIME RAN OUT. Bah.

If you'd like to pick a subject for any available day in the rest of December, the post is here. Please do!

Today's request was for Your favorite types of sandwiches, from

frausorge.

I don't think I've ever mused on this subject before, so I shall have to ponder.

Chicken, with bacon, and a bit of lettuce, possibly some thinly sliced tomato, and plenty of mayonnaise on the lettuce side. The chicken side, of course, gets only butter. Granary bread, or slices of the Low GI loaf our local baker sells, which is nice and textured. I like bread that actually needs chewing. Cheap white bread is good only for rolling into little balls and sucking. (No, I don't know why.)

At least… hmm. I recall that when I was at work, ever so long ago, I used to really like a tuna salad sandwich—oh, yes, by tuna salad I mean tuna mixed with mayo and little crunchy things, some of which may be celery, into a sort of paste (the deli in Shepherd's Market did a really nice one which I have never been able to reproduce, though I try), rather than tuna chunks + lettuce, tomato etc. I mention this because on EtiquetteHell I have seen confusion on this point, although mostly in reference to chicken salad. I think that here in the UK we tend to name our chicken mixtures—it'll be 'Coronation Chicken' or 'Chicken Tikka' etc. A request for a 'chicken salad sandwich' is most likely to get you slices of chicken, plus assorted greenery.

Anyway, where was I. Oh, another one is avocado with crunchy bacon, those dried, smoked, streaky rashers you can buy in packs from the supermarket. But they have to be properly crunchy, because 'crispy bacon' is not supposed to bend. With tomatoes, and mayonnaise on the tomato-y side.

Or warmed roast beef with loads of horseradish sauce. Multi-purpose eating, which satisfies the stomach *and* clears the sinuses.

Now, on the matter of hot sandwiches, there's not a lot better than a nice Croque Monsieur. At least, I think I'm remembering it properly, as it is a very long time since I had one in France. But bread spread with duck fat and then toasted, and with Emmenthal or Gruyere melted onto it, and a decent helping of ham, om nom nom.

Although if there is anything better, it would be a bacon sandwich, probably involving a generous smearing of HP sauce. Or a bacon+bratwurst sandwich, ditto. In fact, on reflection, this is the best of possible hot sandwiches.

Incidentally, I don't think of burgers in buns as 'sandwiches', because to me, a sandwich is something between slices of bread. And a burger is, well, a burger. In the UK, that seems to be the term for the entire edifice as well as for the meat… thingy… inside it.

It does seem to me that a 'sandwich' ought to be something one can eat without deconstructing it. Club sandwiches provided in restaurants tend to fail on this particular criterion, as I am a normal human being, not a snake, and cannot relocate my jaw sufficiently to get a mouthful of everything. This is also true of the best burgers, although those supplied by Messrs McDonald and B King are flat enough to be eaten like sandwiches, with a firm hand.

Right now, though, my favourite sandwich might be the one Beast brings me, meaning that I don't have to prepare it myself. [Note: I do not 'fix' sandwiches, for they are not, as a rule, broken.] I hear faint noises which might be coming from the kitchen… or might not. Probably not. Sigh. No, he has been sorting out and emptying the waste paper baskets. Ah well. Melted cheese with Worcestershire sauce, then.

This has turned out to be a musing on language as well as sandwiches. Okay.

If you'd like to pick a subject for any available day in the rest of December, the post is here. Please do!

I'm saddened by the demise of

crack_van, but ten years going strong as a community is pretty impressive for anything in fandom. So I've spent quite a lot of this evening going backwards through the popslash recs and tabbing up stories to revisit. Of course, a lot of them won't be there, but it should be a nice, nostalgic wallow.

Picking up a meme, on the grounds that I like to witter on, it's good to have an excuse, and I like to have something fresh on my reading list, so I expect you do, too. Even on Christmas Day.

Pick a date below (more than one, if you like) and give me a topic and I'll ramble on.

December 01 - Your favorite types of sandwiches. (

frausorge)
December 02 - Horses (

solariana)
December 03 - Songs you would choose for a Lance solo album. (

nopseud)
December 04 - Star Trek, including your favourite episode if you have one. (

turps)
December 05 - your favourite knitted project (

starturtle0977)
December 06 - Colours!

turlough)
December 07 - Christmas music - favourites, pet peeves, and when should it start and stop. (

ephemera)
December 08 - The Beatles (

solariana
December 09 - London (

ladymoonray)
December 10 - Your favourite holiday cookies/biscuits to bake (and why! Especially tasty? Family history?) (

fleurrochard)
December 11 - Why are your favourite people your favourite? (

letterboys
December 12 - Being British [what it means to you, how to do it, things you love/loathe about it- whatever hits you!] (

msktrnanny)
December 13 - Cats (

ephemera)
December 14 - is there a fic you desperately wish existed, but, for whatever reason, don't feel like writing yourself? (Any fandom) (

brandywine28)
December 15 - art! what is art? are you artistic? examples of art pieces you like? (

kira_j)
December 16 - your favourite backstreet / nsync / any boyband songs (

starturtle0977)
December 17 - your plans for the zombie apocalypse? or if you have none, your favourite book, and why (

dine)
December 18 - Earrings (

ephemera)
December 19 - Family (Kate)
December 20 - if money/travelling were no issue where would you host the next camp sparkle and what activites would you have on the agenda? (

pixiebeanz)
December 21 - the best Christmas gift you've ever given and/or received! (

brandywine28)
December 22- Your favourite museums (

nopseud)
December 23-
December 24-
December 25-
December 26-
December 27-
December 28- What is your Patronus memory? )

letterboys)
December 29- Favourite fandom memories (

ladymoonray)
December 30- Fandom Secret Santas (

ephemera)
December 31- your personal style (fashion, makeup, tattoos, however you define it) (

kira_j)

Kaffe Fassett exhibition today at the Fashion and Textile Museum. *Lots* of colour! I think the most glorious things were several of the quilts, which were stunning. I've long had a dislike of many of the motifs he uses in knitting—I just don't think they're attractive shapes—and most of the things I've knitted myself from his book(s) were not on display, which meant I didn't like very many of the knitted items, but the quilts were amazing. Lots of great embroidery, too, but as that is mostly much more figurative I find it admirable but not compelling. There was a picture of snails in rich browns, creams, peachy pinks and pale lilac/blues, absolutely wonderful use of colour.

I went with a bunch of ladies from the knitting group, so it was excellent fun. Most of us continued, via lunch along the way, to I Knit London, a shop near Waterloo, purveying all kinds of beautiful yarn. I bought a skein of silk which contains 750m. Yep, it's very fine. I kept petting it, as though it were a particularly tame hamster. Imagine a petting zoo of silk/alpaca mixes in a variety of shades! Wouldn't that be adorable? No, I'm not drunk, honest.

Just spent some happy minutes browsing http://thatbadadvice.tumblr.com/
For those responses Agony Aunts *ought* to be giving. Wicked, but spot-on.

Got home and finished Miss de Bourgh in Bath, a quite delightful story based on the minor character from Pride and Prejudice. Lots of really nice character development, and beautifully written.

And, why not, a meme: I currently have 101 works archived on the AO3. Pick a number from 1 (the most recent) to 101 (the first thing I posted there), and I'll tell you three things I currently like about it.

1 - Your current OTP
2 - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind
3 - A pairing you have never liked and probably never will
4 - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t
5 - Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what
6 - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom
7 - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it?
8 - Do you prefer characters from real action series or anime series
9 - Has the internet caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why
10 - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr your social network sites
11 - How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom
12 - Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for?
13 - Your favorite fanart or fanartist
14 - Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor
15 - Choose a song at random, which OTP does it remind you of
16 - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
17 - A ship you’ve abandoned and why
18 - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships
19 - Show us an example of your personal headcanon
20 - Do you remember what your first fanwork was?
<ahref="http://pensnest.livejournal.com/383853.html?thread=3297901#t3297901">21 - Self-rec: What's your favorite fanwork you've created?
22 - Are you one of those fans who can’t watch anything without shipping
23 - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms
24 - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms
25 - A fandom you’re in but have no ships from.
26 - Ask me a different fannish question!

So - pick a number?

There seems to be a meme about song-derived titles going around, so here are mine in rather random order.

( stories with titles derived from songs )

Actually a surprisingly small percentage of my stories have song-derived titles. A few are poetry-derived...

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Pen's Nest

penned in another moment of madness

Entries tagged with meme

Meme thingy

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Meme: on a ariety of topics

Meme: today's topic is London

Meme: on a variety of topics. Today: The Beatles

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Meme: on a variety of topics

Nostalgia and a request to request

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Spotted a fandom meme on Turps' journal...

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