Sandi's comments (member since Oct 20, 2008)

Sandi's comments from the Terminalcoffee group.

What I loved best about Motown was the choreography. Those artists were awesome dancers.

Here's a good example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MDzoOF0F...

Don't you love those outfits?

I don't think I've ever actually tasted it. The name sounds so awful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MDzoOF0F...

BunWat wrote: "I like chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. Also lemon sugar cookies. "

I like my chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal. I have the recipe that my mother and my grandmother always made. It says "Toll House Cookies" on the typewritten index card my mother has, but I've never seen an official Toll House Cookie recipe that's the same.

That sounds kind of familiar.

Angie wrote: "My mom usually makes snickerdoodles and the peanut butter kiss cookies RA posted an image of (some people call them witches' hats?) and my favorite, known as leprosy cookies (her doctor named them ..."

I usually make snickerdoodles too. I love their cinnamony softness.

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "well said sandi. can i nick that comment, repost it and call it mine?"

I have no problems with plagiarism where holidays are concerned.

I am confused. Who are we recommending the book for?

For people who love good literature, I recommend Let the Great World Spin A Novel by Colum McCann. I won an ARC of it through FirstReads and was blown away. Since I've read it, it won the National Book Award. I think it should get the next Pulitzer. (I've been working my way through Pulitzer Prize winning fiction.)

For fantasy fans looking for something totally different or people who would like fantasy if it wasn't so Tolkien-ish , check out The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. I loved how it re-imagines the whole genre. I have the next two books in the series and am looking forward to reading them too. The Mistborn series by
Brandon Sanderson is excellent also. It's more traditional fantasy than the Abercrombie, but it seems very fresh and the pacing is excellent. (I usually have a problem with the pacing of epic fantasy.)

For science fiction fans, check out Blindsight by Peter Watts or the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons.

For fans of action thrillers, read anything by J.D. Rhoades. His books are brutally violent, but so well-written it's easy to get past it. Sadly, you'll have to order his books online. He is published by St. Martin's, but he is really promoted well. The action/thriller/mystery section of the bookstore tends to be dominated by the superstars of the genre who really aren't as good as Rhoades.

For just general fiction, some of my recent favorites have been:

The Rapture by Liz Jensen

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Gilead A Novel by Marilynne Robinson

I could just go on and on and on. Since I joined GoodReads, I've been led to more wonderful books than I have time to read.

My 14 year old son recently discovered Gustav Holst. Until this discovery, he was strictly a rock & roll kid. However, he really likes instrumental rock pieces, so he was kind of primed to like something classical. I'm hoping an early appreciation of Holst will lead to other things.

Personally, I like just about all kinds of music, except maybe rap and hip-hop. Classical and classic jazz are two of my favorite genres for listening. They really help clear my brain. In today's crazy world, brain clearing is very relevant.

I'm a Christian, hopefully not one that gives Christians a bad name. Here's my take:

In the public sphere, Christmas has become a secular holiday in this country. In my opinion, nearly everybody has forgotten or minimized the religious symbolism behind Santa Claus, Christmas trees and all the other Christmas paraphernalia. From my perspective as a Christian, it may surprise you that I do NOT want to see nativity displays in malls, government offices, and other secular environments. I don't want to see the representation of Christ's birth become as secular as Santa Claus. I think it's wonderful for people to display nativities on their front lawn and in front of churches, but I think they don't belong in public commons because those areas are for everyone, not just Christians.

Because I think that we really have two Christmases, one secular and one sacred, I don't have a problem with public school children singing songs about Santa Claus or Christmas cookies or whatever. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is great, "Silent Night" isn't appropriate in that setting. (However, I wouldn't punish a child for singing "Silent Night" spontaneously at recess. I can picture that happening.)

Let's face it, secular Christmas is a huge deal. It's the time of year when retailers make all their money and people get together with friends and family that they ignore all year. The decorations are gorgeous.

I try to emphasize the sacred aspect of Christmas by attending church, using nativities in my home decorating. Putting the emphasis on the religious aspect gives me a way to enjoy the holiday without driving myself crazy. We do the full-blown secular Christmas too. We just keep them separate.

When I was in sixth grade, our teacher read "The Tell-Tale Heart" to the class. It scared the crap out of me and I went on to read all the Poe I could get my hands on. My favorites, other than "The Tell-Tale Heart" are "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Masque of the Red Death". I love his poems too.

BunWat wrote: "Until two days ago Mapquest did not believe in the place I lived. It always said it could not find that address, but would start me from the center of the zipcode. Now I am in LA and it knows whe..."


If Mapquest says your address doesn't exist, can you really live there?

BTW, welcome to Southern California. I'm down in Orange County. My address exists, but not if I use "street".

RandomAnthony wrote: "Yes, Happy Thanksgiving! I'm in the Wisconsin Dells, trying not to injure myself on waterslides, so if I'm not around much, have a great time, everyone!"

It sounds like your Thanksgiving will be a lot more fun than mine. I'm getting ready to have 40-50 people here at 1:00. At least the turkeys are cooked and ready to go.

Mary, I totally agree with you about The Terror. I thought their write-up of it was spot-on too. The monster on the ice was the least frightening aspect of the book.

That is really messed up. It reminds me of a chapter in The Children of Men by P.D. James. For a while after people stop being able to have babies, women start treating dolls like real babies.

I had a physics teacher in high school who loved to take photos of weather. He'd show them to the class when we had our meteorology unit. He said that he used to always take pictures of sunrises until he realized that sunsets look the same.

He took some great lightning photos.

Sunsets are better because they're over the ocean. On the other hand, we get some pretty spectacular sunrises over the local mountains.

When I was a teenager, I read every Steinbeck book I could get my hands on. 30 some-odd years later, I can only remember a few. My first Steinbeck was The Red Pony. I probably read it for school, or because it was in the Scholastic book club flier and about a horse. (I had been a huge reader of horse stories as a little girl.) I loved it. I think Of Mice and Men might be my favorite Steinbeck. The scenes of the Dustbowl and the lives of migrant workers he created in The Grapes of Wrath are indelibly etched in my consciousness.

I think what I loved best about Steinbeck was his ability to paint an image with words. As a reader, I always felt like I was there with his characters, tasting the dust and seeing the brown summer grasses of the California landscape. As a Californian, I appreciate how well he did capture that landscape.

I probably need to re-read some of those books that have escaped my memory.

Happy birthday, Buns!

OMG! That is absolutely the worst Christmas music I've ever heard. I'd listen to the Chipmunks before I listened to anymore of Dylan's Christmas music. My ears are bleeding.

I've always liked the songs that Bob Dylan wrote, but I always thought they were better when somebody else sang them.