Crazy about Nancy, Day 3

Thrillionth Page exclusive: Interview with Nancy Drew!
Part 1 of 2

Nancy, it is such an honor to have you as a guest! We are such fans of yours - thanks so much for joining us.

Okay, you've been sleuthing a long time. Can you say a little bit about your first case, and how you got your start in all this?

ND: I got my start in the sleuthing business thanks to Josiah Crowley whose final will I had to hunt down in The Secret of the Old Clock. I showed up those snooty Topham sisters too.
I’m a magnet for mystery, or so my friends say! Sometimes it’s a lot of work and sometimes it’s plain luck and a clue materializes just when I need it. Like those times that I’d be walking down the street and a note will just fall out of a suspects pocket!

You've run up against some pretty frightening foes. Could you tell us about your most memorable or scary villain(s)? 

ND: One of the most memorable crooks I nabbed was Frank Semitt from The Sign of the Twisted Candles case. He was such a bumbler and I made him eat my dust when I outran him in my spiffy roadster and he drove into the ditch!

One of the most frightening foes was Bush Trott, when he tied me up in the secret room next to the attic of Pleasant Hedges in The Secret of the Old Attic. He left behind a poisonous spider to do me in. The thought of being bound and gagged and left in the dark with a spider crawling my way was horrifying! Thankfully Ned rescued me at the psychological moment and stepped on the spider!

A lot of books nowadays feature mystery-solving girls getting together with vampires, werewolves or demons and so forth. What are your views on that? 

ND: I don’t believe in ghosts. And every “monster” I’ve ever encountered was some crook who was trying to pull a scam over some innocent victim. Like that Natham Gomber from The Hidden Staircase who was pretending to haunt The Mansion and scare the Turnbull sisters!

Or, those pesky treasure hunters Al and Sid who were trying to haunt the ranch in The Secret at Shadow Ranch with the phantom horse. And that vampire I ran into in my Nancy Drew Ghost Stories case, haunting that cave in the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, was just a creep trying to use the cave for nefarious purposes!

Your girlfriends - fun, boy-crazy Bess and tomboy George - have such different personalities. What it's like to sleuth with them?

ND: They’re like oil and water and I’ve learned over the years to try and stay out of their disagreements and not take sides! Poor Bess, she’s such a fraidy and likes to eat all the time! And George, she’s such a tomboy and enjoys picking on Bess. Their constant bickering aside, they are big helpers! George is always up for adventure and her judo comes in handy sometimes like the time she nailed that fake detective flat on my hallway floor in The Clue in the Crossword Cipher who was trying to steal my big clue—the crossword cipher! And Bess, though she often gets left as a guard on sleuthing ventures or waits in the car, she really came through in The Phantom of Pine Hill when George and I were knocked out by the villain and she managed to knock him out and run for help!

~ Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of this exclusive interview! ~
The Spider Sapphire Mystery

Aka Nancy Gets Her Passport Stamped. (heh. no. That is not a euphemism for anything)
by Kim

I loved everything about Nancy Drew books. The mystery, the camaraderie, the food, the adventure, the titles (Back when they knew how to title a book, yes I am pointing at you Harlequin) and the covers.

The titles told you exactly what to expect in the book and the covers gave you so much more. This was never more true than with The Spider Sapphire Mystery. Just the mention of the word spider made the book scary for me but then you throw in jewels too, and I am soooo there. It also gave me a spelling lesson. Sapphire has two “p’s”. That was a 4th grade “High Hat” word. So WIN! The cover had a big-as-your-head (seriously, it is as big as Nancy’s head) sparkly blue sapphire with a huge black spider imbedded in it with Nancy gazing up at it from behind. It scared the crap out of me and I loved it.

This book had a lot of peril and DANGER! in it for our intrepid heroine and pals. It starts off with a suspected jewel heist, takes us along on a safari in Africa, and we find a missing person. Here are a few hijinks our brave companions faced.Nancy’s purse snatched!

• Ned kidnapped!
• Warning notes!
• Nancy attacked and suffocated with a bag!
• George snatched by a man in a gorilla suit!
• Ned, Burt and Dave hurt while chasing attackers!
• Acid on suitcase handles burns Ned and Nancy’s hands!
• More warning notes and a Death mask!

This book also had a character that I hated. She wasn’t the villain, she was a classmate that went along on the safari with Nancy. I call her Gwen the Whiner.

She was a brat. I imagined my 10 year old self sitting behind her in class and cutting her hair with my brand new 4th grade issued pointy end scissors. Yeah, you heard me. No more blunty end scissors for me, sistas. I was moving up in the world. My BFF’s and I were chugging the haterade for this chick. Then Bess gave Gwen the Whiner a make-over and washed her hair. So now everyone liked Gwen the Whiner. Now that she was pretty. And. Had.Clean.Hair. Yeah. Hmmmm.

Anywho, we get to learn about spiders who may or may not have had spinneret’s, jewels, safari’s, African animals and tribes, bad hotels where people break in your room and set your clothes aflame, food, medical attention and care of acid burns and wood carving. We took out the bad guys and we found a missing person. It was a great adventure.


A few more random notes from Nancy’s Mysterious Letter
by Carolyn Jean

Okay here is a little scene I rather liked. Look what a great driver Nancy is! This is a scene that will unfortunately never happen between my husband and me, for numerous reasons:

Parking was allowed only on one side and she had to go to the next block before finding a space.

Ned teased her by saying he was sure she would never squeeze her convertible in such a tight parking place. However, after several skillful twists of the wheel, Nancy maneuvered the car in the vacant spot. Ned admitted he could not have done a finer job.

Onto the shoe clue - I should've asked Nancy about this shoe business in the interview, because it was very odd, and went nowhere: the random shoe clue.
A little background: The alert little boy who had been so helpful earlier, getting a description and partial license plate for the villain, Edgar Nixon, brought this shoe to Nancy, claiming it belonged to him. When this happened, I thought, well, what are they going to do with a shoe? There wasn’t any footprint evidence.

Nancy was determined to bring it to the police, and I sort of thought, the police are just going to laugh at her. But they didn’t. They just accepted it, without comment. I figured the shoe would come into play somehow (an APB for a man with one shoe? Find the match in an incriminating situation?) but the shoe clue never came to anything.

At the end of the book, the police simply handed it back to Nancy, saying, well, we couldn’t do anything with this. Was this one of those threads an author puts out, just in case, but then never ties up? Was this the author’s sly way of suggesting that the police sometimes humor Nancy? Or was it put in to show the reality of an investigation: some leads are strange, some leads go nowhere?

Newsy Nancy Drew items:

Okay! WHAT is this I hear about Nancy and Frank Hardy?

I missed my chance to ask about this in the interview, but Sarah mcq, who clearly knows what she’s talking about, made this comment in the Nancy day 1 comment section in response to another commenter who mentioned the Hardy Boys:

Since you enjoyed the Nancy Drew appearances in the old Hardy Boys, you might also consider looking for the more recent "Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mysteries". They're more recent paperbacks in which Nancy and the Hardys each start out on their own mysteries, only to discover(gasp!) that their cases are related. Regular appearances from George and Bess too, but less Ned, since there's also some great Nancy-Frank tension...

Oh boy, this is distressing. I can see where Frank and Nancy would have a lot in common, but poor Ned!

Another blog is also doing Nancy Drew week:

The Stiletto Gang, which appears to be a group of woman mystery authors, is doing a thing on Nancy Drew week too. There can never be too much Nancy!

Nancy Drew on the Web!

In doing this week, I've found a number of interesting Nancy Sites. The Nancy Drew Sleuths is an International organization of fans and scholars with annual conventions and an ongoing discussion groups. Site features a Sleuth Shop, annual Sleuth conventions, Sleuth Awards, a series magazine The Sleuth and Sleuth charitable endeavors, as well as ND Sleuths: Jr. Detective Squad Club.

The Nancy Drew Sleuth unofficial website is another great one, chock full of information on the books, history, collectibles and more, and is related to ndsleuths.

Giveaway Details:
Comment, contribute or pimp Nancy Drew Week by tomorrow and you’re entered for the following prizes:

Clues for Real Life: This fun book is filled with witty and often tongue-in-cheek quotes, interactive quizzes and trivia as well as humorous insights. “It is a great nostalgia ride in that blue roadster down memory lane for any Nancy Drew® fan!”

Nancy Drew Tote: Who doesn’t need another tote? It is made of leather and the cover of the Secret of the Old Clock. And hey, it’s Nancy.

Gift Certificate: A $15 gift certificate to the bookseller of your choice that’s not Amazon.

More Nancy Fun!
Tomorrow: Part 2 of the interview, Tracy's review of a 2002 Nancy Drew mystery and possibly another item.

Friday: Winners announced and I go out of town.

Nancy Madness, Day 2

Thrillionth Page Scoop!
The Secret of the Slush Pile: Never-published Nancy Drew Mysteries
By Ellen

The successful debut of the Nancy Drew series in 1930 had a tremendous impact on purveyors of popular published works. Series originator Edward Stratemeyer had discovered an entirely new market of consumers with disposable income: American girls who were old enough to babysit but not yet old enough to drive. To meet the demands of this lucrative readership, Stratemeyer employed several ghostwriters to produce stories featuring the titian-haired teen sleuth and her easy-to-tell-apart friends.

The true identity of series writer “Carolyn Keene” did not remain a mystery for long. By the early 1960s, Stratemeyer’s use of ghostwriters was an open secret. However very little has been known about the would-be authors who hoped to make the cut but failed to grasp the essential framework and formulae of the Nancy Drew franchise.

This mystery, perhaps the last and longest-held secret of the Drew dynasty, was solved in 2006, when an anonymous donor left a four-drawer filing cabinet at a Goodwill in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Goodwill volunteers discovered that the cabinet contained more than 70 years’ worth of rejected Nancy Drew manuscripts. It appears that, within weeks of the release of The Secret of the Old Clock, Stratemeyer’s family business was deluged with spec submissions from penurious novelists, playwrights, poets and other liberal arts graduates—each hoping for a slice of the lucrative juvenile mystery pie. It is evident from the contents of the cabinet that the stream of unsolicited material endured into the 21st century.

Several are marked with doodles or coffee stains. Some bear handwritten notes, such as “Well-plotted but creepy,” or “Lacks basic understanding of English syntax.” Many appear untouched.

Like Nancy Drew herself, this collection of never-to-be Nancys reflects our changing times. Unlike their published counterparts, the rejected manuscripts provide a fascinating, perhaps unwelcome, peek into the preoccupations and proclivities of three generations of failed writers. The following list is a representative sampling.

The Original Hair Color (1931)

The Secret Lady Spot (1934)

The Tax Forms in the Attic (1947)

The Box at the Back of the Closet (1951)

The Clue in the Pants Pocket (1958)

The Message in the Bottle of Valium (1964)

Return to the Secret Lady Spot (1968)

The Ancient Chinese Secret (1973)

The Clue to the Brownish Condiment (1979)

The Abruptly Discontinued Eye Shadow (1983)

The Smell in the Old Condominium (1990)

The Map to the Secret Lady Spot (1992)

The Thing That Went with That Thing (1996)

The Whereabouts of the Good Tweezers (1997)

The Hollow Tree at Hazelden (2001)

The Assembly Instructions for the Ikea Bookcase (2002)

The Mystery of Christopher Hitchens’s Career (2005)

Find Ellen at the very entertaining A Girl's Garden of Menopause


My Adventures with Nancy ‘Super Sleuth’ Drew
by Kim

The mair I kissed her the mair I lo'ed her
The mair I kissed her the mair she smiled
An' I forgot my mither's teaching
Nancy soon had me beguiled.

I began my adventures with Nancy Drew books in the 4th grade. The first ND book I read was my mother’s 1930’s copy of The Secret of the Old Clock. Being in the fourth grade, the vernacular of this old school book confused me. I am pretty sure it made me want to die. I didn’t know what the heck a roadster was. So, my mother took me to the library and we checked out a revised edition of The Clue in the Old Album. Thus began my love affair with Nancy and the gang. She did everything boys did, but she did it in a dress and heels. I soon spread my addiction to my 2 BFF’s. We rode our bikes to the library every week to check out the Nancy’s. We even called ourselves Nancy, Bess and George. I was Nancy because I was the only blonde. Hey, don’t mock me; I was in the fourth grade.

My favorite book is The Clue in the Diary. This is the book that introduces Nancy’s man, Ned Nickerson. To a ten year old, the best thing about ND books is the exclamations. Everyone exclaimed! I was all about exclamation points. Ned’s coolness factor soared because he did a lot of exclaiming. I loved that about him! He thought Nancy was the bee’s knees. In this story about mail and insurance fraud, Ned often admires Nancy’s smarty pants, isn’t afraid to compliment her on her detecting skills and he jumps right into the mystery to help her. And, yes, he even takes her to a dance. He was this ten year old’s perfect man.

“You’re being very mysterious,” Ned complained good-naturedly. “How about letting me in on the secret?”

Nancy laughed. “Maybe you shouldn’t beg too hard, Ned. You may find yourself being called upon to do all kinds of outlandish sleuthing jobs.”

“I’m at your service,” Ned replied quickly.

Little by little, Nancy told him the details. When she finished, Ned said, “You’ve certainly done some terrific detective work!”

This was a great story about Nancy and her friends eating, discovering the intricacies of the mail system, insurance fraud, eating, learning Swedish, finding out about the history of diaries, eating, and mostly about helping others in need. At the end of the book Nancy holds a victory celebration at her home.

“It really was a gorgeous party!” Bess sighed blissfully. “Such fun!”

“Say,” said Ned, “I have a notion to start a diary of my own!”

“Why don’t you?” Nancy asked lightly.

She became conscious that Ned’s eyes were looking straight at her. “I will if I can fill most of the pages with entries of dates with you.”

My thoughts upon re-reading Nancy's Mysterious Letter 

by Carolyn Jean

It was so interesting to re-read a Nancy Drew book after all this time.  I remembered particularly liking this one as a girl, mainly because I was super into mail and had numerous pen pals.

Anyway, this mystery begins as Nancy and her friends drive past old Ira Nixon the mail carrier, who looks tired and bedraggled. I was immediately alarmed for Ira; I remembered something awful happened to him. In fact, many awful things happen to Ira, but the first is that his mailbag is stolen while Nancy and pals are serving him cocoa.

It soon comes out that there was a letter to Nancy in that bag, informing her of a large inheritance, only the letter was meant for a different Nancy Drew. Basically, Ira’s evil brother is trying to get the other Nancy Drew, who doesn't know she's an heiress, to marry him before she learns about the windfall, and Nancy is trying to stop the wedding and let her know Ira Nixon’s brother is a bum.

Early in the book, Nancy gets an excellent clue from a quick witted boy on a bike—a description of the mail thief’s clothes and a partial license plate. She relates this to mail carrier Ira:

“Mr. Nixon, do you know a tall, slender man who wears a yellow overcoat and hat, and has a beat-up car with the license plate TJ12?”

To the surprise of Hannah Gruen and the girls, Ira Nixon uttered a cry of dismay. The blood drained from his face. He put his hands over his cheeks and exclaimed, “No, no! It couldn’t be! Oh, what will I do?”

Ira Nixon slumped forward in a faint!

I totally forgot how delightfully dramatic these books were. I was also surprised at how short Nancy can be with certain tedious people. ("Can you please get to the point, Mrs. Skeets?") But Nancy is polite to authorities, like the Postal investigator:

The young man looked at her superciliously. She judged that he was not very many years older than she and his attitude annoyed her. But our of respect for his position, she said nothing.

Here is a passage that is so Nancy:

As soon as luncheon was over, Nancy told Hannah Gruen she was tired of staying in the house and waiting for news “I’m going to do some investigating,” she announced.

Her investigating takes her to the home of Sailor Joe, whose every exclamation is a sea thing (“Heave your anchor lass, come into the parlour.”) He tells her this really random and sort of insane story about being kidnapped because he was mistaken for a pearl diver, but when he'd said he was a pearl diver, he'd meant a dishwasher.

Sailor Joe laughed uproariously. Nancy wondered what was so funny about this. Instead, it seemed tragic.

Later, a stone is thrown at Nancy, and a window is broken. She muses that the suspect must be “getting desperate to try such a villainous method to keep her from trying to solve the mystery.” Villainous indeed.  Ineffective, too!  The stone thrower, it turns out, was paid $25 bucks to do the deed. Ned gets hold of him and says,

“Suppose you turn over some of it to me to have a new window put in our fraternity house.”

Otto was reluctant to do this, but seeing the determined look in the husky football player's eyes, he changed his mind and handed over five dollars. Then, quick as a ferret, he dashed off among the cars.

I loved quick as a ferret. Anyway, later Nancy is also chloroformed and somebody tries to run her over, too. That sort of surprised me too--Nancy really goes through a lot.

More Nancy fun!

Tomorrow: Part 1 of a surprise interview, more ramblings of mine, and giveaway details!
Thursday: Part 2 of surprise interview, Kim reviews The Spider Sapphire Mystery, and Tracy's mystery contribution.

Giveaway! Comment at any time this week and you're entered to win a $15 gift certificate to a bookstore of your choice that's not Amazon, a funky Nancy Drew tote, or a signed copy of the fun-filled Nancy Drew "Clues for Real Life" book. If you contributed to--or if you pimp Nancy Drew week, you get an extra entry!

Nancy Drew Week, Day 1

Welcome to Nancy Drew week, celebrating our fabulous teen sleuth friend, Nancy Drew!

Today: Fun facts, plus recollections from Sarai and KB.
Tuesday: Kim's recollections and review of The Clue in the Old Diary, I review Nancy's Mysterious Letter, and Ellen reveals the secret of the slush piles.
Wednesday: Part 1 of a surprise interview, more ramblings of mine, and giveaway details!
Thursday: Part 2 of surprise interview, Kim reviews The Spider Sapphire Mystery, and Tracy's mystery contribution.

Giveaway! Comment at any time this week and you're entered to win a $15 gift certificate to a bookstore of your choice that's not Amazon, a funky Nancy Drew tote, or a signed copy of  the fun-filled Nancy Drew "Clues for Real Life" book. If you contributed to--or if you pimp  Nancy Drew week, you get  an extra entry!  

Fun facts about Nancy and her gang * Compiled with the help of Wikipedia, my vague memory, and Nancy Drew Consultant Jennifer Fisher (find her--and a ton of Nancy info at this awesome website: www.nancydrewsleuth.com)

The books:
Edward Stratemeyer created Nancy Drew.

The first 56 titles in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series were published between 1930 and 1979 by Grosset & Dunlap. The credited author for all Nancy Drew titles is Carolyn Keene, but different authors worked on them—sometimes as many as three different people worked on a single book.

The first three books in the series: The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, and The Bungalow Mystery all debuted on April 28, 1930.

All about Nancy:
Our sensible, independent-minded teen sleuth Nancy Drew has solved over 500 cases!

Nancy is 16 in the early books, but her age was changed to 18 later on. You can kind of see why--in the books, she is graduated from high school, spends weekends with Ned at Emerson, and gets into life-threatening situations all the time.

Nancy’s mother died when Nancy was ten in the early books, but it was revised to her dying when Nancy was three later on.

Consultant Fisher points out that in the early books, Nancy often wore glamorous heels and fashionable frocks while chasing suspects, climbing ladders, and sleuthing for “ghosts” in secret passageways. Click here for an entertaining "through the ages" look at Nancy's looks.

Nancy's hair color is usually described as "red-gold" or "titian blond.” I never really got what titian meant, and it always bugged me, but I was too lazy to look it up. But I looked it up this week. Titian means a reddish-brown or golden-brown color, and it’s derived from an Italian painter, Tiziano Vecellio.

Nancy Drew packed heat, according to Fisher, carrying her father Carson Drew’s revolver in two early mysteries—the 1930 text of The Hidden Staircase and the 1931 text of The Secret at Shadow Ranch. Fisher points out that in contrast, in the 1965 Nancy Drew book, The Spider Sapphire Mystery, when confronted with guns, Nancy and her pal George Fayne tossed them into a brook.


The gang:
Nancy’s two close friends, George Fayne and Bess Marvin, are cousins.

George is short for Georgia in the revised editions, but she was named for her grandfather in the original editions. She is tall and slim, with short black hair, and made being a tomboy look cool. Early in the series, George Fayne is described as bold, slightly clumsy, blunt, and forward, resulting in the nickname "George the Terrible" from series fans. According to Jennifer Fisher, George’s favorite catch phrase was “Hypers!” (Like—Wow!)

Bess (short for Elizabeth) Marvin is slightly plump with luxurious set hair (but not clearly described as blonde until 1936) Bess has the most girlish appearance and attitude of the three, and loves to talk about boys. Bess tries to be proper, and is also easily frightened — once wrecking a car simply because she saw something unusual. One of Bess’ favorite foods was a gooey chocolate fudge sundae.

Nancy’s father, widower Carson Drew, is the most respected lawyer in River Heights. He assists Nancy on many cases and guides her in the right direction. He also looks up things for her because of the access he has to many files. He never seems to get very upset about Nancy’s peril, in my memory. His attitude is usually that of, “That’s my girl!”

Ned Nickerson, Nancy’s boyfriend, has been described as “tall, handsome, and athletic looking, with wavy dark hair, a ready smile, and brown eyes.” (The Mysterious Letter). Ned’s always excited to help with Nancy’s mysteries, and frequently finds clues dropping in his lap. He’s a star football player at Emerson college, and frequently invites Nancy up for dances and weekends. Bess’ and George’s boyfriends, Dave Evans and Burt Eddelton, attend Emerson, too. They also play football, but they’re on the second string. In some books, the descriptions of football games can go for pages!

Housekeeper Hannah: Nobody knows what the Drews' housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, actually looks like; she has never been described in any of the books. In the early stories, Hannah is depicted as Nancy’s servant, and follows her directives down to uniform appearance, menus and groceries. As the role of the middle-class and their servants changed, Hannah became more a member of the family, like Alice on the Brady Bunch.

River Heights: The Drew family lives in a three-story brick house in the fictional town of River Heights. According to Fisher, collectors and scholars have long argued that a basis for River Heights may be found in Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and even New Jersey, home of famous "Carolyn Keene," Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.


Nancy Drew and I go way back!
by Katie(babs)

My earliest memory of Nancy and me is around nine years old and reading The Hidden Staircase, which is actually the second book in the series. Soon after I would go back to the first book, The Secret of the Old Clock. By the time I was a freshman in high school I had read all 56 of the original series and went on to read the newer ones that equaled to 172 books. Even though these short, less than 200 page books where written over 70 years ago, Nancy Drew still stands the test of time. She was the epitome of "girl power!", a woman who can accomplish anything if she put her mind to it. She was always surrounded by wonderful friends and family, including a boyfriend who treated her with respect and love. Nancy was beloved by all and was able to solve any crime, big or small in a matter of a few days.

Carolyn Jean's idea for a Nancy Drew week couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I was in a quandary because I had no clue what type of birthday gift to give my cousin, who was turning nine years old. When CJ posted about her love for Nancy, a light bulb went off in my head! Why not give a few Nancy Drew books as a birthday gift? I quickly went to the closest Barnes and Noble, and in the Young Adult/ Kids section was almost every single Nancy Drew book that was ever published. There were too many rows of Nancy Drew to count, more so than any other series book I could see. I couldn't help smiling as I picked up both, The Secret of the Hidden Clock and The Hidden Staircase, which still has those old fashioned vintage covers that I remember from over 20 years ago. I was holding a piece of my childhood in my hands and a precious memory I didn't want to let go. I had to hold back from buying every single one of those Nancy Drew titles.

Because I had a few days before I would give these books away, I couldn't help myself and began reading The Secret of the Old Clock. I felt like I was coming home. I hoped that my cousin would feel the same way I did. When I finally gave her the books, I held my breath, hoping she wouldn't roll her eyes. As she unwrapped the package, her eyes lit up and she was so excited to finally read Nancy Drew. I could breathe again. The next day we would see each other again because of another party. She was quick to give me another hug and mentioned how much she loved her present. She started reading, The Hidden Staircase and wanted to act the scenes and pretend to be Nancy Drew.

The Nancy Drew Mysteries are the perfect books to hand down from generation to generation. Knowing that I was able to introduce another person to this treasure is a gift within itself. Hopefully when my cousin has a daughter or another child in her life who is of the perfect age to start reading, she will remember my present and will give her a few editions of Nancy Drew and share the love of reading, much like I have done with her.

Find Katie(babs) at Ramblings on Romance, as well as a lot of other sites.


Random Thoughts on Nancy Drew

by Sarai

Okay, first off this was a girl that solved mysteries and not just any mysteries but ones that could end up with her dead or hurt. I thought she was so cool. She was so cool in fact I used to go around trying to solve "Mysteries" around my neighborhood. My neighbors, God love them, were mainly old so they would humor me. I still have my collection of old mysteries lying around the house. I had the whole yellow book collection and of course after that I went out and bought all of the Hardy boys (they were blue in case anyone cares), mainly b/c Nancy would sometimes make an appearance.

Those were fun times. 
And do you guys remember all the times she traveled? I mean for Crap Sakes the girl was always going somewhere far away from home to solve mysteries. (Probably b/c all the thieves and killers were scared of the little shit, I mean think about it if every time you even thought about a heist near her you’d probably break out in cold sweats. The girl was that good.) I wished as a kid I could do all that traveling. And what’s worse, she would travel for fun then ruin the vaca by finding a mystery to solve. (Seriously girl, just once relax on the beach.) 
Oh and what about Bess and George? I mean, I would so be one. They got the free trips and all the great bonuses without any of the effort or work. Seriously how could you go wrong with that?

Okay moving on to my favorite Nancy Drew book: The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes. And once again Nancy is flying to another place far away, this time Scotland—and her dad feeling bad for her, he allows George and Bess to join (seriously my dad would been like you are SOL— get used to life sucking.)

Needless to say, I don’t remember everything but as usual Nancy got the bad guys and a nice pat on the back. Man I loved those mysteries. In fact, I think that is why I still watch Scooby Doo to this day b/c they always get the bad guys in the end.

Find Sarai at Thoughts of an Aspiring Writer, Sarai is Reading What? and elsewhere.

The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes: The blurb
Warnings not to go to Scotland can't stop Nancy Drew from setting out on a thrill-packed mystery adventure. Undaunted by the vicious threats, the attractive young detective, with her father and her two best friends, goes to visit her great-grandmother at an imposing estate in the Scottish Highlands, and to solve the mystery of a missing family heirloom.

And there is another mystery to be solved: the fate of flocks of stolen sheep. Baffling clues challenge Nancy's powers of deduction: a note written in the ancient Gaelic language, a deserted houseboat on Loch Lomond, a sinister red-bearded stranger in Edinburgh, eerie whistling noises in the Highlands. Startling discoveries in an old castle and in the ruins of a prehistoric fortress, on a rugged mountain slope and in a secluded glen, lead Nancy closer to finding the solutions to both mysteries.

Wearing a time-honored tartan, Nancy climbs the mountain of Ben Nevis in the dark of night and plays a tune historic heroism on the bagpipes -- all part of her daring plan to trap the sheep thieves and to recover the valuable family heirloom.

True Blood cast photos

Okay, I'm still worried that the series, based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, will be more silly & goofy than exciting and romantic.  That is, more Gilligan's Island than Buffy.

Please, no!  But anyways, being in a time wasterly mood, I found these cast pictures interesting. Here up top you see Tara and Sam Merlotte.  They seem like good picks. 

And below Sam and Tara we have Eric. I'm not so sure. He seems like a pretty good pick, but not perfect. It would be hard to approximate the Platonic Ideal of Eric that I have in my mind, though. And by that, I definitely don't mean platonic as in Three's Company. Anyway, this guy, I don't know. But maybe he has great screen presence! 

And below, Jason and Sookie.  Bill in the sports coat.  See more here.

Annnouncement, question and mystery

Midling-to-late-adapter of blogroll

I've converted my blog list at left to blogroll, which shows the titles of posts on the most recent posted-to blogs.  It has occurred to me that blogroll rewards catchy post titles and frequent updates, whereas my old list rewarded alphabetical earliness and fun blog names.  

After a feverish night of soul searching, I decided catchy post titles and frequent updates have more merit. Sorry, cleverly named, alpabetically early blogs. Now I just have to update my TBR list. I can't believe how old it is. 

Twitter: Please advise

I am also thinking about twitter. But will it suck me in?  Will I waste more time? It seems to be popping up everywhere, but once people are in, they don't talk about it, they just do it. Is there a central forum where everyone twitters together and you get constant twitters at you? And then, if you ignore them, are you an ass? Sometimes I think I need to be less connected, rather than more. But I suspect there are secret merits to it. Please advise

The mystery of The Duke & I

Right now I'm reading The Duke and I by Julia Quinn, lent to me by lovely Sarai. it's a fun book that I look forward to reading at night, which has been my book barometer lately. The plot is cute: Simon the somewhat reluctant duke never wants to get married and is tired of society mothers and daughters dogging him at every party.  He makes friends with Daphne Bridgerton, who is a marriagable girl weary of the whole suitor scene, so they pretend to be engaged to get everybody off their backs. 

So here is the thing: every once in a while, I read a book that sort of seizes my imagination, and my subconcious can't stop churning over it, so after I read it at night, I go to sleep and have dreams about the plot, and generally a non-restful, low quality of sleep.  And if it gets bad enough, I have to relegate the book to day reading only.  

Historically, this has happened with books that are horribly dark and/or exciting, or shockingly smutty. But for some reason, it's happening with this book, which is a frothy and light confection. I mean, there isn't even a villain here.  And I know what will happen. SPOILER ALERT for the 2% of people who have read this far and haven't guessed - Daphne and Simon will fall in love. 

Not that I'm not enjoying it, it's just that now there's this mysterious element of it.    

Nancy Drew week details

Nancy Drew Week starts Aug 18th!

Stop by and help revisit and celebrate our old friend Nancy, and have fun looking back at the books. 

There will also be prize drawings, and maybe some interviews.

And if  you want to contribute you're invited! Write up whatever you please, any size.

Deadline:  Email them to me Sunday, Aug 17th. (Or soon after. I'll take stuff as late as Tuesday. I'm easy!) Email:  carolyn7000 (at) earthlink.net. (note lowercase c) I’ll post what contributors send me with links to blogs, if you have one.  Send me text, or if you have an image, I’ll run that, too, or add one myself.

  
Ideas, if you want to participate:

Book reviews
Re-read all or part of an old Nancy and tell us about the experience, the plot, your thoughts, your memories. Excerpts welcome! I’m traveling to my folks’ place where my Nancy books are, and I may actually reread one or two. I’m thinking anything between 150-700 words per book. They don’t have to be formal reviews, of course.

Recaps
Do you remember having a favorite, but can’t/don’t feel like actually rereading it? No problem! But it might be fun if you go to Amazon or somewhere and refresh your memory as to what the plot was if you don’t recall it, and give us a little recap, and maybe say why it was your favorite, or let us know about any scenes or things that stuck in your head from it. Length: 150-500 wds per recap

Nancy moments & memories
Is there a scary scene in a book that you have never forgotten, or a 

favorite Nancy and Bess moment. Which set did you have? Did you sneak a flashlight under the covers to finish them? Did you know her only through the TV series? Did you ever try to be like Nancy? George? Length: open. Feel free to discuss one moment or more.

Characters
I’d love for anybody to discuss a favorite character, even if it’s just 100 words about how exciting it was when Ned Nickerson appeared or the way George influenced your fashion decisions. Feel free to do a full profile, too. Any length.

Favorite cover, art
Email me a jpg of your favorite cover, with or without commentary. Though any cover discussions of any kind are welcome.

And anything else
I’m open to any other ideas. If you want to make a little quiz, or a list of your top favorite books or ?? (nothing x-rated, though!)

You guys have all been really wonderful. I will be back very soon.  

AWOL from blogging

Look how long it has been since a post.  An unexpected family tragedy has taken me out of blogging for a bit. I'll be back, oh, in a week or two.  

 

Real & perceived hugeness

The Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole
Book #2: No Rest For the Wicked

What’s funny is that when I was writing about A Hunger Like No Other below and thinking about all the different scenes, I decided then and there that was my favorite book of this series. But now that I’m thinking about No Rest For the Wicked, gosh, this one was so good, too! Maybe this one is my favorite! Maybe I have two favorites. What the heck, it’s my blog.

This is the first book in the series that revolves around the Hie, a kind of road race/scavenger hunt for the immortals.

The hero is one Sebastian Wroth, who was turned into a vampire against his will… “Burdened with hatred and alone for ages, he sees little reason to live. Until an exquisite fey creature comes to kill him, inadvertently saving him instead.”


The creature is Kaderin the Cold Hearted, a Valkyrie assassin sent to kill him. Their super lusty encounter shocks them both, but Kaderin takes off - she can’t think about Sebastian; she’s in the Hie, and the prize is the ability to go back and change history (save her dead sisters!) Sebastian decides to enter the Hie, too, though he just wants to seduce Kaderin and win the prize for her, or help her. This is a very fun and sexy book, which in fact spawned a certain infamous question of the day.

Real hugeness
Here’s what I want to talk about—one of the things I most love about this whole series: Kresley Cole doesn’t do anything halfway. Everything is HUGE!

In book #1, Lachlain didn’t just hate vampires, they burnt him to death repeatedly for 150 years. Kaderin’s not just cold-hearted, she hasn’t felt emotions for centuries, ever since her sisters were killed by a vampire she spared on the battlefield. It is her fault!

And Kaderin is sent to destroy Sebastian, but when she encounters him, she doesn’t just change her mind or fall for him—nothing so minor as that. Rather, her feelings come back, and his heart starts beating again (and they have a fabulously lusty encounter in his castle where he has hitherto suffered, tormented and alone for ages). And yeah, people here live in castles. Not condos. Not houses.

The Hie is also huge. You have minefields and shark infested waters and all-consuming immortal hell fires.

This hugeness of plot just makes everything more fun somehow. I really think this series is even more clever than it appears.

Perceived hugeness

Okay, here is another observation on hugeness: did you ever notice that in this series, as well as many many others, the heroes will frequently worry that they will hurt the women with their huge cocks?

It happens over and over—I would say the majority of paranormal reads in this very blog feature this idea on the part of the hero. Yet never once has a heroine felt upset or complained or been like, Yow!

I find this somewhat humorous, and I don’t think it’s exactly intentional on the authors’ parts. Taken case by case, I believe it’s supposed to suggest, well, yes he has a huge cock, but these two are perfectly suited so…

But when you look at it as an overall trend, it can only suggest that heroes have unrealistic assessments of their own sizes. Because they always seem to think it.

More opinions

Many of my esteemed colleagues have reviewed this series, including Sula, and Lisabea whose book this is, LesleyW, whose reviews on this series are way more thoughtful than mine, Taja who just finished them, too, and probably about 10 other people on my sidebar.  And you'll find MaryKate's fab reviews of #4 and #5 here!

A Hunger Like No Other

Oh wait, hold the presses, this is a blog about BOOKS? Not DVDs? Not Kitties? Yes. And believe it or not, I have been reading and finishing books. Maybe not as fast as some of you high performance readers, but I have. And three of them are the first three installments of Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark. Does it seem strangely like I only read books that everybody else has already read? It does to me.

In a lot of ways I was predisposed not to like this series. I’d read a few tepid reviews, then heard the only good one was the first, then it was the third. Though some people like these quite a bit. Then I ordered #3 by mistake and I was like, shit, now I have to read the first two or I’ve wasted my money. I bought the first and lovely soon-to-be MBA Sula lent me #2.

So anyway, that is the pall under which I started #1, A Hunger Like No Other. Add to that I sort of sensed the hapless, gadget obsessed, slightly shallow-seeming heroine, and I don’t tend to like that sort of heroine.

But wow, this series totally grew on me. You know when you look back on books, and you have a kind of image or feeling about them? Maybe with one book it’s a nice feeling, or another it’s just blandness, like, what the hell was that even about? Or for me, Lara Adrian and BDB is dark broody sexorin. 

I look back on these Immortals and it's brightness and newness. To me, they’re these bright, clever reads that don’t take themselves seriously, but are quite fun and smart—in a way that sneaks up on you.

This is the story of werewolf Lachlain MacRieve of the Lykae Clan. This guy was chained under the catacombs of Paris for decades by vampires, where he was repeatedly burned to death, though being that he’s an immortal, he always revived for it to happen again. So it’s this terrible torture, and then he finally gets this new energy to be free when he sense his predestined mate walking the streets above him. And it’s Emma, a half vampire.

So he's mad, since all that kept him alive was visions of retribution against vampires. And she’s not into him either, as he seems like a big, backwards monster freak to her - okay, here, from the back: “…her fear of the Lykae—and their notorious dark desires—ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.”

Can I just say that’s some fine back cover copy? Also, I must say there were a lot of scenes where I was like, OMG, I can’t even believe this author is doing this. Various shower scenes come to mind. Yet I found them enormously fun and dirty! 

I really liked this book. I think of the three, it was my favorite, and Emma is my favorite of the heroines, and Lachlain MacRieve is my favorite of the heroes, too. I know people are partial to Bowen (Ana). In fact, bring back DIK and Lachlain would have been in my hero mix. Who got him anyway?

But Emma had such a strong character arc; she grows out of her timidity in a way that is very satisfying. I also like the writing in her sections. Like this, from very early on:

Starving in Paris. And friendless. Was there ever such a predicament?

Couples strolling hand in hand along the gravel walk seemed to mock her loneliness. Was it just her, or did lovers look more adoringly at each other in this city? Especially in springtime. Die, bastards.

She sighed. It wasn’t their fault that they were bastards who should die.

There is just a kind of coy darkness to the sections on her that I really like. Also, I enjoyed the Valkyrie…after a while. More on that later. With this book, there were moments when I wearied of their standoffishness, but on the whole, wow, grand and unexpected fun!

Nancy Drew Week starts August 18th !

Who doesn't love Nancy Drew? (Except maybe those chumps the Hardy Boys, because brilliant Nancy makes them look like bumbling fools!)

Next month, starting August 18th, will be Nancy Drew week here at The THRILLIONTH PAGE, full of mini-recaps and reader reviews of  favorite Nancy Drew adventures, recollections from the books or series, opinions, and more!  

Got a favorite Nancy Drew mystery?  Burning insights on Bess, or Ned Nickerson? Does Nancy hold a special place in your life? 

Be part of Nancy Drew week! (Details here) You don't have to be a blogger or anything to join in, just a fan. I'll send out details in the upcoming week on the many ways you can participate.  

True Blood pilot pre-review location, and I tell an arcane insect fact

True Blood Pre-pilot review!

Oh, I am such a lame poster!  But for those of my buddies who are excited about True Blood series, Voxy over at Suburban Trash has mysteriously been able to view the pilot, and has a very thoughtful review here.

And she has pictures!  Very intesting--and a fine blog, too. 

Late breaking update: Okay, Marta Acosta at Vampire Wire weighs in on this troubling tidbit: Alan Ball has never been a big fan of vampire mythology, hasn't seen an episode of Buffy, and has never read Anne Rice.  Whaaa?  Read about it here. 

Wasp in my kitchen

A wasp was in my kitchen tonight as I was trying to make dinner and really unnerving me. Further, I have actually never been stung by a bee or wasp, so I could be horribly allergic! Anyway, after watching it warily for 10 minutes, because I don't like to kill them but I have to be in a certain mood to catch and evict them, a duty usually reserved for DH, who was not present, I thought, I wish it would just magically disappear.  

And then it went on a window behind a blind and it disappeared!!  

But then I looked out the window and saw other wasps flying around outside the window, and also, a baby wasp was on the window, and I realized, shit, wasps can get in and out of the kitchen and there is a nest outside of it.  And then I ate dinner.  If it continues to escalate, I know that it will be very easy to fix this wasp's nest hole-in-window frame problem.  In fact, the only tool I will need is a telephone.  One of the great beauties of renting vs. owning. 

Bee and wasp fact taken from a dubious but delightful source

I'm actually not sure if the following is true, because it's taken from the body of amateur entomological literature created in the early 1900's which I was sort of fascinated with at one time. Basically, it was guys who would spend all this time watching the behavior of ants and bees and bugs and write these highly entertaining essays on insect toils and habits and lives and sometimes draw serious philosophical conclusions.  

Actually, it's really delightful stuff, specifically authors like playwright Maurice Maeterlinck, (Life of the Bee is his best work, but Life of the White Ant is kind of interesting, where he makes the case of the superiority of termites to humans) and The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre is one of my personal favorites. 

Anyways, in The Life of the Bee, Maeterlinck talks about how he and his buddy would have these long arguments on whether bees or flies were superior beings.  Maeterlinck's friend, solidly in the fly corner, would point to how, if you trap a fly in an open bottle that is laying on its side, the fly can fly right out, because it follows air currents, but the bee will always try to fly upwards toward the light and never get out.  Maeterlinck took the position that this merely proves that the bee is a more pure and spiritual being. 

So when a bee or wasp is trapped in my place, I always think about that. 

Contributing to my deliquency

Dearest Kristie (j) and Katie(babs) (and Sula, too!),

Is it not enough that I have joined your crusade? Is it not enough that my mind is now addled with images of Margaret and Richard, er, John Thornton?  And images of their hands, and people looking out windows and things?  

Please, for the love of God, I have work to do.  I have kitties to feed!

  

But no, it is not enough for you.  No, now  you deliver me this.

**klunk**

North & South - finale!

Great moments from last night’s viewing

Once upon a time I would see those video montages of North and South, frequently at Katie(babs) and KristieJ’s place, and occasionally I’d play them, and it would be like, people walking around in an atmosphere of cotton fluff, or else looking out windows at each other, and I was like, hmmm. WhatEV.

No more! Now I will play those videos and relish the moments they call up. Without fear of spoilers! For I have come to the end of North & South! Twice, because once was just not enough.

Le moments:

The hands at the train station. I have to say, the way that John and Margaret sat together, and then put their hands together, pressed them over each other, that was even more satisfying than that kiss. It was so, just, perfect. Not that the kiss was chopped liver, but oh, those hands!!

It made me think of the way the hands are all the way through. Like, in the beginning, Margaret won’t shake John’s hand, then at the party, that fine handshake I mentioned in a previous gushing post. Then, during the proposal, he leaves his gloves and she picks them up. Empty gloves - deflation, absence, lack. No hands! And then the lovely train station scene, of hands joining!

Margaret has pleasantly plump hands which makes this scene all the more sweet and wonderful. I first saw this video at Sula's, and I just love it. Thanks!





Mrs. Thornton and Margaret in the empty factory. I love these two together in scenes. Now, I am not a good line rememberer, but Margaret says something like, you once accused me of not fully understanding the man I rejected, and you were right. And I felt at that moment the mother got it. Oh, the mother is perfectly written. She is the ultimate complex three dimensional character.

John Thornton’s voice. I love his voice, especially when it goes a little gravelly, which it tends to when he gets emotional, like at the end of the proposal scene, or when he bitterly tells Margaret that he’s looking toward the future after her rejection of him. I think my fellow crusaders know precisely what I am talking about. I also watched the Armitage interview - gosh, what a gracious fellow! - and his voice is just as enchanting in real life. I like him better with the cravat, though, than that little necklace.

n.b.: Look how he smiles as he is about to kiss her!

The extended proposal scene. Thanks, Sula, for pointing out the existence of this. Why did they cut this? This scene made so much more sense. I mean, I suppose they had to fit the series into a time slot, but now it is on DVD. They should stick in all the deleted scenes!

She goes back to the South. That was such a great way to highlight the journey of her character, how she suddenly saw the South as suffocatingly simple. And in a way, it brings the father to light as an intellectual. In the beginning, I felt the father seemed a bit stupid and selfish, but you really see what was going on with him by the end. He was rejecting that suffocation.

Okay, question. The one thing that seemed weird was that the old Oxford friend of the father’s owned the properties Marlborough Mills occupied. Wasn’t that a weird coincidence? Did they go to Milton because his old friend owned property there? It seemed actually, unnecessary, too, that she would inherit that property. It seems like it would’ve been enough to inherit money and invest it. Not that it detracted from my enjoyment of the series, of course!!

The expressiveness of Armitage. John Thornton is a character who contains many emotions at a time, or a fluid series of them. Almost in any scene, esp. with Margaret, he’s consumed with love, anger, worry. And actor Armitage has this ability to embody all that at once. Because really, the character of John Thornton is a highly emotional character. I love photos like this. Look at all the different emotions here!

North & South & Kitties!

North & South update: I haven't had time to watch it!  Not that I don't deeply desire to, I've just been horribly busy. I have been eating standing up! I know I'll watch it tonight, though.

Okay, I can't even imagine how mind-numbingly boring this blog must be this week to those who have not seen North and South, or don't want to see it.   Almost as bad, I'm sure, as blogs about people's pets. 

So I promise to do this only once.

But look at the new addition to our family!  This is Otis, who is now the new BFF to our other new kitty, who we are calling Kyrie, short for Valkyrie. Sometimes Kyria. 

Favorite past time

As you see, they share a passion for the bird feeder.  They get particularly excited by pigeons. 

Hopefully my landlord won't see this.  My landlord would be nowhere near as excited as these two kitties to see that my birdfeeder is bringing pigeons.  

They also discovered a way to get under the cupboard system and under the dishwasher. When I deduced they were under there, and noted that they were silent and not responding to my calls, I actually began to cry. I was a bit overtired, frankly. Then the kitties came out!

Night of passion

The day before they were scheduled to get spayed and neutered, Kyrie went into heat and the kitties started trying to have sex! At first I was like, No! I think of you as cuddly little muppet brother and sister!  But of course, that's stupid. 

 

They're just a step away from wild animals. They are beasts, really, with sex and food uppermost on their minds, and if I was magically reduced to the size of a Barbie doll, I'm sure they'd gladly tear me limb from limb and devour me in their bloody jaws, even if they knew it was me. 

The sex didn't seem to work out that well, because Otis' little kitty body is too short. Kyrie was VERY frustrated, as I would be. That is one romantic conflict in a novel I have yet to read about.

Anyway, yesterday they were spayed and neutered respectively. Kitties are doing well. 

Please Advise!

Well!  As I said before, due to dear husband's summer schedule, I have total control of Netflix and I am relishing North and South as my dinnertime viewing instead of stuff we have to agree on. Luckily we agree on a lot - in fact, he is a bigger Buffy fan than I am, but he would rather have needles poked in his eyes than watch a romantic comedy.

Thanks to my insanely busy life, dinnertime is the only time I ever do any passive viewing.  And movie theaters? What are those? I have a huge hole in my mind where romantic comedies should be! 

Which brings me to my request: What other fabulous chick flicks should I be renting? I have Princess Bride coming after this. Though I do like fun, clever, sappy contemporary romantic comedies. 

I loved:  The Truth About Cats and Dogs.  Also, Serendipity with John Cusack, Moonstruck, Miss Congeniality. MaryKate had a post on romantic comedies recently, and people seemed to enjoy The Holiday. Maybe I'll try that. Any other ideas???

Dark night in Milton

Great moments from tonight's viewing of North and South

Spoilers ahoy!

Dear readers, you find me very worried about our Milton friends tonight. I am maybe halfway through episode #3.

Worry #1: Poor John Thornton's heart. So I saw the proposal - oh, how crushing.  I actually watched the scene several times.  Please, do not continue in that way!  

I was surprised, in a way, that he even proposed, given that they were arguing, and it seemed a bitter exchange, and then he was like, actually I came to ask you to marry me (not in those words).  What's interesting and what I sort of love about him is that he's a man who'll do what he does in spite of potential rejection and that's why he went ahead and asked after that exchange. He told his mother he had to ask, even though he knew she'd turn him down, and he went and did it.  And Margaret tells him she doesn't even like him!  

Heroes get put through a lot. I felt confident in his resilience until he came to their door later to visit father and Margaret wouldn't let him in...and he saw Frederick's things and he felt so hurt! 

Worry #2: I am still really worried about that doctor who she spurned in the first episode.  He seems mean! And I feel like they wouldn't keep showing his angry face if he wasn't going to do something terrible.  

Worry #3: Frederick, of course. Hurry back to Spain, Frederick!  It seems naive on the part of the family that they might imagine he could wiggle out of a mutiny charge. 

Really, this entire family is sort of interesting in that way.  Are they a bit naive? Do they not see things, or choose to take things at face value?  Do they expect the best of people, and are they right to?  And they have their prejudices and blind spots.  It's funny how they don't know what's going on with their own daughter, for example. 

And the mother asks Mrs. Thornton to care for Margaret, not reading the signs of her

 reluctance--or does she choose to deal only with Mrs. Thornton's higher nature? I continue to absolutely love Mrs. Thornton. She is totally my favorite character here. She is full of self knowledge and honesty.

And in a way, Margaret seems to be sort of changing away from that in a positive way. In that scene, for example, where  Frederick speaks poorly of all tradesmen, including Thornton, Margaret defends him, not just because, well you know, but because she is seeing people and the world in a more complex way.  Maybe that is her journey.  At least it struck me that way in this episode.  We will see. 

Worry #4: Will Margaret misguidedly fall for Higgins?  NOOOOOOO!  

Favorite moments from tonight's viewing

Well, I watched a portion of episode 2 of North and South tonight. Yum! I forced myself to turn it off in order to save some for tomorrow, but it wasn't easy.

Hurry, Netflix, hurry! But I know it won’t come tomorrow.

Oh, the moments! A few favorites:

The mother tells Richard that Margaret loves him, citing the way she rushed out to him on the balcony and clung to him. I am loving the mother. She is such a rich character! And I love when characters point out stuff to me that I stupidly don’t catch. Like the significance of that. I wouldn’t have drawn that conclusion, but I think mothers have certain psychological powers around their children, so I bought it. And it was so touching, she asks him not to go to Margaret, and that she wishes to be first in his affections, if only for one more day.

Also, I wonder if Margaret only realized she loved Richard at that moment. She tells him to go out there, and then he goes and then, after he’s out of the room she says “…and take care.” And then she rushes after him.

The handshake. Or perhaps I should say the titillatingly slow release from the handshake.

Our hero and heroine look back on the balcony scene. Richard looks back and the image that comes to him is her laying there wounded. Margaret looks back and it’s the brief embrace she recalls most strongly. What a great touch!


Richard removes his cravat. Katie(babs), I believe, said in recent comments here, “Isn't Richard so sexy in his cravat?” Yes indeed he is. The sexiness of Richard in his cravat, however, is but a dim candle compared to the brilliantly blazing sun of him ever so casually removing his cravat in a scene…what scene WAS it? What was happening? I don’t recall. All memory functions were overridden by the staggering view, there within the stiff V of starched shirt, of Master Thornton’s fine and masculine neck.

Margaret. Overall, I love Margaret, and I love the way she looks, and her sort of wonderful plumpness. Oops, that’s not a moment.

This isn’t a moment either, but people really look out windows a lot in this series. I’m sure it’s been mentioned in the many posts on it, which I tended not to read as not to spoil things, but I like it thematically. To me, it sort of heightens the sense of the series being about separation and perspective, in addition, of course, to Richard’s cravat, and one’s feverish hopes that he will remove it again.

Okay, question: I’m not entirely clear on Richard’s position vis a vis the strike. He won’t back down…is it because he can’t? Is there no compromise here? Do the strikers have no merit? I am having a hard time evaluating his position. At the dinner party, Richard seemed to appreciate her seeing different sides of an issue, but then he’s like, it’s horrible to bring them food.

Oh, how I could go on!