The doors in our accursed house are the kind with just the four panels, two long ones on top and two shorter ones below. They actually form upside down crosses, which I worry now might be like catnip to a Dracula!

The problem is we have but three cord of wood to last the winter. Despite this, I do occasionally indulge myself and light fires when its still in the teens outside and it turns the house into an inferno! Its sweltering, like the Sahara, its wonderful!

I also can’t not laugh whenever Dracula is used as a generic term for a vampire. “I’m beginning to suspect the professor is, in fact, a Dracula.” The funniest phrase in the English language though, is “Run, its a Frankenstein!”

I’m dreading autumn. People are under the delusion that I’m an autumn person because I dress exclusively in earth-tones. I hate autumn! Its the coldest season for me because its not yet cold enough for us to have a fire going. So I shiver in my many earth-tone layers, hopping up and down to warm myself, freezing…

The last two weeks I’ve returned to where I left off a month ago with the Hammer Dracula series.

Yes, that is how I feel too when an animal appears! This is why I’d prefer the “no animals were harmed” message appear at the beginning of the movie rather than the end! Thanks for the heads-up about The Abyss. I’ve totally forgotten it and am bound to watch it again one night so I’ll lock away a mental note to not…

Rats are really smart and cute! We had a pet rat, it would sit on my shoulder like a parrot.

I spent my movie nights this week somewhat randomly, with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. There turned out to be considerable similarities between these two movies. Both involve an absent father and have an Oedipal subtext (considerably greater in the latter.) …

You did all your homework early! I’ve never done that. I’ve planned to do it many times but I’ve never actually done it. I’m proud of you! So you absolutely truly and totally have no schoolwork at all at least until September? I’ve learned that even when you say you are done with school there is always somehow MORE…

Its called Tintin and the Blue Oranges. Watch with caution though because the censor label warns that it “Contains mild violence and references to violence and smoking.”  I’m looking forward to finding out what a reference to smoking is.  Does someone describe a cigar?

I’m glad this feature is back! Its the only non-TV article AVC still posts at an hour when I’m at my desk.

I just went on Big Thunder Mountain on Youtube! It looks like the most fun ever! The sides of the caves though look so close, I was worried people were going to hit their hands! The bats really surprised me and freaked me out a little. Were you expecting them? Okay, wait a minute because now I’m going to watch the…

It has been way hotter here than usual, but its still not hot enough for me to actually call it hot! The chocolate bark I make for movie nights is all melty so I have to eat it with hashi but otherwise I’ve been enjoying the heat! But I know your heat is a million times worse. I’ve seen articles about how hot it is in…

I think in the movie Christopher Robin is all grown up and the animals are kind of scruffy looking like real stuffed animals. The Pooh in the movie might look just like Mimipuff’s, like he’s been through the wash a few times. I watched some clips and Pooh’s voice is completely right! I think they might even have got…

I’m reading old Mickey Mouse comics now and I get so nervous sometimes that Minnie Mouse is going to sprain her ankle. Claudia, her shoes don’t fit! They look like they’re three sizes too big and in the older comics the heel is really narrow and crooked. They’re real ankle-sprainers! And she has to run in those things…

Is school really totally over for summer? Sometimes you say its over but then there’s a catch! Like, its over but you still have to go in on Mondays! And also Tuesdays and Thursdays! I hope its totally completely absolutely OVER! No classes at all ever for at least a month!  Its not fair they gave you homework.  

I always stop drinking as well as eating just to be safe. Even if I’m told otherwise! I refuse to risk having to make a return visit to that ghastly place.  If they tell me to stop breathing the day of the test, I’ll manage it somehow.

What are your feelings about Gandhi? The man, I mean, not the movie! I am a reasonably cynical person, and as a general rule I believe the weight of history moves the world rather than the will of individuals. But at the same time I certainly would like to believe that particular people in particular circumstances can…

I watched this week Gandhi, spread over both movie nights. Generally I avoid bio-movies because I find their cliches excruciating. But I didn’t mind Gandhi. India is fascinating, and the picture was nearly always filled with interesting things. And not just views of India, the movie was a parade of familiar faces:…

I watched this week the third Hammer Dracula movie: Dracula, Prince of Darkness. This is actually the sequel to the first movie, the middle movie is more of an adjaquel. The important thing is Dracula is resurrected! And then once again destroyed. This sequence of events is going to be repeated many more times before…