we must move in different circles, because chocolate with mint or peppermint is super popular around here (even in summer! Mint chocolate chip ice cream, for example). I don’t like coffee, but I will regularly let a candy cane dissolve in my hot cocoa throughout the winter.

Your first paragraph is exactly why I’m looking for an alternative to Goodreads. 5 star reviews on a book that has not been published or read (or in some cases, even written) yet are utterly pointless, and the increasing reliance on GIFs and stupid little pictures to illustrate every thought and reaction is just…

I really like what you’ve written here about DFW. I’m a big fan of his writing, and I don’t like that annoying fanboys have caused it to be devalued. I also think you are right that he was a complicated person like most of us, capable of both good and evil, not a hero or a villain. One of the things that struck me…

It’s exhausting, though, that constant fear.

Way back in the first episode Brainwave was ruthless enough to just straight up kill Courtney rather than compose elaborate escapable death traps, and too tough for her to credibly defeat permanently. So putting him almost immediately into a coma made sense. But he’s awake now, and even though he’s a comic book…

I wish I could star this a thousand times. Cooke’s art is the best I’ve ever seen of Catwoman, and such a palate cleanser after <shudder> Jim Balent.

Oh, that kind of thing fills me with rage. Save the bookshelves for people who actually have books!

One of the monks at the abbey of Saint-Martin-du-Canigou in the Pyrenees.

If I have no other popcorn options I will accept microwave popcorn, but it has a weird taste no matter what brand or flavor I get. If I’m too lazy to do it properly on the stove, I get my kid to do it for me (not hard, he loves popcorn almost as much as I do).

“Puerto Rican American” Jennifer Lopez? Courtesy of the Jones Act, we Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917; phrasing it that way is like saying “Californian American.”

Leland’s rage at the incel’s carelessness and stupidity was something else, too. If I recall correctly, he was close to tears.

For a brief, shining moment when I saw that bit in the trailer, I thought this movie was an adaptation of House of Leaves. If you think a house bigger on the inside than the outside isn’t scary, I urge you to read that book.

I don’t think the show has stated it explicitly, but that’s how Jenna became a vampire; Natalia had her drink some of her blood. I think.

This was great! I went to Staten Island for an afternoon once, and that was enough for me.

He speaks as if he is quite a bit older than his age, in addition to being just plain terrible, so maybe so! I’d still prefer him to die on the way back to his home planet, though.

Oh, I’d completely forgotten about that intro. So ... thanks?

I thought it was great! Kermit’s final plan to get rid of Josh Groban, for example, had me laughing out loud. And my muppets-obsessed SN kid loved it, too.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is very good and worth reading. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is also excellent.

My mom has been making the Bacardi rum cake for over 40 years. And if there is some Christmas where she can’t, I do it. It’s amazing, and it’s how I discovered the wonders of adding pudding mixes to cake mixes.

The screams were hilarious, but it also was a nice touch that she was super competent throughout the whole thing. Actually, no one was incompetent with respect to the birth: no one fainted, or hyperventilated, or got hysterical, or caused a disaster. Even the firefighter* was competent at delivering the baby.

* I love…