On a totally different note, was any one else chuckling like a twelve-year-old about Steele Johnson? Just me?

Edit: Yes, this has been explained to me below. Feel free to laugh at my expense.

Here in Sydney we have both, but tend to only use the fans. I guess our house is just built well enough that AC isn’t really needed unless we have several days over 30c (i.e. the 90s fahrenheit) - the front half is from around 1880, when technology for keeping cool meant ‘build it so the walls keep out as much heat…

Ummigawd, as a hermit who enters a movie theatre maybe once every three years, this would definitely be my three-year in-seat appearance.

Charles Harpur, a 19th century Australian poet - very early Aussie lit; he was among the first generation of white settler children born on Aussie soil. Sadly forgotten and really underestimated. If I can pull it off, I’d love to help establish him as a very good Romantic (not just historically important but unread…

You could easily be right! Especially if you’re an Emily fan, you’re most likely better-informed than me. It’s been a while since I really got to Brontë out; been starting a PhD about a far different lit topic that has taken up all of my fairly pathetic abilities for concentration ...

Charlotte? Yeah, she was sort of the prim one of the sisters - esp. as she got older and wanted to dispel the early reactions to the Brontë sisters’ novels (when they first hit, published under male pseudonyms, they were like literary Sex Pistols of their time). There’s word-of-mouth evidence - I think I read it in…

Charlotte tossed good ... not sure if it passes as ‘shade’, for as an Olde, I am unhep and sorely un-with-it regarding the clever slang of The Yoof Of To-Day ... but, she tossed good something at Jane Austen* too:

Well, this solves my dilemma of what to serve my husband as dinner to-night. Answer: to my cats.

When I moved to Australia, I was all ‘roos! koalas! platypus ... es ... platypi?’ and the incredibly beautiful birdlife turned me into an amateur birdwatcher, but slowly I came around to realising the wombat is my antipodean totem. Something about them is just so cool and adorable. And they’re tough. Their backside is…

As an old big gay poofterhead, I agree manspreading on mass transit or in close quarters is Bad & Wrong.

Huzzah! Another Anne evangelist! I tried to force my pro-Austen, anti-Bronte partner (as well as any other actually-read-books friends) to read ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ when I finally got to it a year or two ago. Didn’t work, but I at least got him to sit down & watch the BBC adaptation.

I remember when my big toe swelled up & hurt like a mofo, and the doctor said ‘oh, that’s gout’. I laughed in his face because I thought it was a made-up old-timey thing that had long ago ceased to occur after being folded into some other, real, modern diagnosis.

I want a copy of this plaque to put on my house, and I live in Australia.

I think I’m the only gay man in the world who was prevented from coming out by disco.

I haven’t touched my Twitter account for at least half a year, but between this and other recent great comments from the Divine Miss M, I had to go open it up just to click ‘follow’ for Bette Midler. Guess I’ll check back in another six months - see you in August, Bette!

Agreed on the real vs supernatural! I remember reading ‘The Amityville Horror’ as a wee pubescent and being spooked - til I realised it was a matter of belief. Then a short while later reading ‘Helter Skelter’ whilst my parents were out and I was alone in the house, I quickly found myself terrified and running through…

Uh-oh. Bad enough to have ghosts, but lecherous ones with no boundaries? Call in the exorcist (lechxorcist?).

But have you unbricked the room? I’d be dying of curiosity. Well, that and envisioning getting a whole ‘nuther room to play with (‘at last! a spot for the bear rug, bar, and huge aquarium I’ve always wanted!’) ...

I’m more worried that he dissed Dick Gregory. Unfortunately bad capitalisation skills, there, Mr Rock.