I met a Real Harlequin Hero!

I had a customer today who asked for a Harlequin title, for his daughter. I looked around for it and realized it had already been stripped to be returned (it was last month's set of books.) When I returned to tell him, there was a woman with him, but she looked to be his age (30s?) so I figured this was his wife, not the daughter. As we were ordering the book she told me that they're buying it because her husband's on the cover, and he 'fessed that the daughter thing was a cover.

At first I thought it was a joke. I looked at the cover on my computer screen, then looked at him and said: "Oh my God! That IS you!" He was pretty bashful, but his wife was Appropriately Proud.

And I can tell you... he didn't just have a pretty face. And he was even better looking in person. Must have been the Bashful Look. It was irresistible. ;-)

Did you have this board game?

A radio announcer mentioned it today on CJAD, because he remembered one of the songs from it: "Bonjour my friend, how are you mon ami, ça va très bien, thank-you!" Oh my days I totally remember the songs and the game. It was given to us free at school.

Now one of my favourite games to play alone in my room was School. I was always teaching, and I loved to *teach* French. This was before I came to Quebec and knew any French. I used this game to *teach*, and also a little blue book of travel French (how to order eggs etc.) Hours of fun I tell you.

I had a little green chalk board, but I used it so much it became shiny and un-write-able. So one year, in my late childhood, the folks bought me a Brand New Chalkboard. It was beeootiful. It's hard to grow up believing the world is a harsh and terrible place when you grew up with beeootiful chalkboards. Maybe if we all had chalkboards, there would finally be world peace.

Love Song of the Day: From one of the great bachelorettes of all time

I wanted to post a later Joni Mitchell song called "Come in From the Cold" but it's youtube-banned. So here's one of her classics: "A Case of You." Either written about Graham Nash or Leonard Cohen.

Just before our love got lost you said,
'I am as constant as the Northern star.'
And I said, 'Constantly in the darkness.
Where's that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar.'

tweets is for gossip!

I've finally figured out what Twitter is really good for. There was a bit of an upset in the Tour de France today--the Garmin team didn't let George Hencapie take the yellow jersey, which everyone wanted him to get since he helped Armstrong to win all his Tours.

But forget the news reporters--the best thing to do is go to Lance Armstrong's Twitter page, and the twitters of those twittering with him. Gossip! Even the news sources are turning to twitter as a source.

If this were an Agatha Christie mystery, Poirot would be guessing that a murder is gonna happen anytime soon. And we'd find out that Hencapie's been sleeping with the wife of someone on the Garmin Slipstream team!

Alas... it's more likely something as boring as dissing each other's TTT.

Love song of the Day: For the Buffies & Spikes

"I Do What I Have to Do" - Sarah McLachlan

I've always read this as a I'm-in-a-fucked-up-relationship-and-can't-get-out song...

Deep within I'm shaken by the violence of existing for only you

But that's just my take. A lot of people see it as a romantic love song.


And then the Teen Angst version. (How did I know there would be multiple Buffy & Spike videos for this song?) "Addicted" by Kelly Clarkson.

My favourite youtube comments of the day

...You know... you could make a whole blog based on funny youtube comments. Send me your faves as you come across them, and I'll post them!

Posted at "Where Do the Children Play" by Yusuf Islam

GreatGrumbledook (2 days ago)
@obdaddy: We do not have such words like "redneck" in France but we do have virtue and horror: For virtue is helpless without the horror and without virtue the horror would be pernicious, as citizen Robespierre said once; and with both Cat Stevens and the likes of his are easily dispatched and it is high time as I will not dine until I see the same done!

obdaddy (1 day ago)

Don't sell yourself short, Grumbledouche, you can be both French and a redneck, and your thoughts can be both bloody and worth nothing.

Love song of the Day: The First Cut is the Deepest

Okay, it's not like I post a love song each day. But I like calling things "of the day." Good ole Cat Stevens... he wrote some beeootiful songs. (Like this one. And this one [check out the funky pianist]. And this one. And he's so cute and funny!)