The Remains of the Day

• First off, my Christmas wish: Stephen Fry calling me madam every morning, and noting that the Prime Minister likes my shoes. Butler alarm clock, yes please! Birds tweet, the clock has six months worth of recorded messages in it.  And, it’s FRICKING JEEVES!
• Other Brit wonders: Shameless.  A TV show starring a young James McAvoy, with lots of male nudity and neighbors who drink.  It’s the kind of comedy that wins drama awards, and the kind of writing that is a marvel. It’s not perfect, but it is a Netflix wonder.
• In a memo sent out from Peter Carey to all those who have tussled with National Novel Writing Month, the writer gives the irritating advice of killing your television and writing every day.  He says “If you wish to watch TV, you do not wish to be a serious writer.” I say he can suck it.  There are many ways to approach the fountain, and it’s a cold view to think that the classic (and Mailerian) huff of “write every day and make art and behold my labor!” is the only path. My reaction to the memo wasn’t really “suck it.” It was “how dare you,” followed by “am I being defensive because I don’t write every day?” followed by “what if he’s right?”  then followed by “suck it.”
• Great response on Jezebel from Latoya and Dodai about writing about race for the site, and the lackluster comments that follow. The conversation keeps going on the original post.
• Lots of talk about the stolen climate change emails from the University of East Anglia, but almost no talk about who stole them or if the theft itself is something to be investigated.
• And what do we do with this? There might be a gang of murderers beheading people and rendering their fat for sale to cosmetics companies. The Canadian radio show I was listening to last night suggested that it all might be a corrupt police department’s claim to fame…and that selling human fat is kinda hard. But there are no real answers yet, just lots of administrators stepping down, and a supposed two liters of fat.  Plus, the group has been dubbed the Pishtacos after a legend of tall white man that hunted travelers for their fat. As Wikipedia rightfully notes, not to be confused with pistachio.
• This month the UK reassigned the one officer who answer emails and a hotline about UFO sightings for the Ministry of Defense. They decided that over 55 years, the UFO departmen showed there was no defense threat from UFOs, and they could save 44,000 pounds a year by shutting the operation down.  Here’s a link to their archives of sketches done by UFO witnesses—notice they have an actual form with directions.
• It’s December.  Be sure to pick up the Pfeffernusse from Trader Joe’s.