This Saturday, October 14th, I’ll be in Cheltenham. I was supposed to do an event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in support of the National Library for the Blind. Circumstances have now forced that event to be postponed.
However, because I’m going to be in Cheltenham anyway, here’s the deal. I have to eat, and if anyone else is going to be in town I’d love to see you. I’ll be ordering a big pizza at the Cafe Paradiso. Stop by and have a slice. I’ll be there at noon on Saturday.
Cafe Paradiso: Hotel Kandinsky, Bayshill Road, Cheltenham GL50 3AS.
Note: this morning my daughter told me she expected a new blog post by this afternoon, and gave me two potential topics: (1) the vicissitudes of fate, or failing that, (2) my prophetic powers. Honey, I think I covered number 1 here. And yes, I am proud that you can spell “vicissitudes”.
12 responses so far ↓
Snart // October 13, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Sorry, but I can’t pop over the Cheltenham this Saturday. How about you save me a slice and deliver it in Paris…say on Thursday?
Hey, read the review of Kill Chain on Amazon-UK. Excellent!
Enjoy your literary outing!
jim // October 13, 2006 at 7:33 pm
C’mon be honest - anyone else have to look up “vicissitudes”?
Yep, my folks are proud of me…
Meg // October 13, 2006 at 9:09 pm
After four attempts at typing the word, I finally checked the spelling and definition. And I’m told that I still don’t get the reference, which is to “V for Vendetta”. Wachowski brothers movies, anybody? Or the gunpowder plot?
jim // October 13, 2006 at 10:30 pm
(Ahem)
It’s reference to the movie rather than the comic (sorry graphic novel). V, our hero - a man always to be found wearing a mask - appears and rescues our heroine, Evey, from the cluches of the kind of people who have clutches and wish to do villainous things with them. When she asks him who he is he launches into a speech brought to us by the letter ‘V’, a section of which is as follows:
“Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.”
So, uh, there you have it. Good film, incidentally, but the comic (sorry, graphic novel) is vastly superior.
Yes, I have way too much time on my hands. And, yes, I should really be out at this time on a Friday.
Kate // October 13, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Did you not learn the art of deriving the definition of a word from the context in which it is used? It’s an extremely useful skill.
jim // October 14, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Yeah, but after I spent all that money on the My First Dictionary - with the thick pages and the pictures and everything - I figured it’d be a waste not to use it.
Meg // October 14, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Most impressive quotation. Virtuoso.
And I think the rebuke about derivation and definition was meant for me. D for d’oh!
Susan // October 16, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Well, I’m sure sorry I had to miss a pizza fest that no doubt involved intellectual repartee among the black olives and double cheese. But geography (5 time zones’ worth of it) and triple booking on Saturday intervened.
I have to admit that until I was recently required to read the word out loud, I’d always thought of it as ‘vissitudes’. Let’s face it, ‘vicissitudes’ sounds like a stammer (or is that a stutter?)
Susan // October 16, 2006 at 2:30 pm
post #2, re Kill Chain
Thanks for pointing out the review at Amazon UK, Snart. I think the last paragraph hits it right on: “Kill Chain is a story about how far we’ll go to protect our loved ones….” Yes. That kind of compelling reading keeps us turning pages in the first four books.
Itching to get my copy so I can start turning pages and staying up all night finishing it.
Meg // October 16, 2006 at 3:08 pm
While I was driving around England’s west country, my daughter was writing a term paper on the Tudor succession, which she has now asked me to read. Yup, there it is, right on page 3: “Despite their attempts to the contrary, Empson and Dudley could not escape the vicissitudes of fate. Henry VIII would not tolerate subversion in his government.” They were executed for treason.
Okay, honey, I get the point. I will not poke fun at your spelling ability ever again.
And Susan, it was triple cheese.
Patti // October 16, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Sorry to have missed the pizza-fest, but the same number of time-zones as Susan and the vicissitudes of parenthood intervened, unfortunately. It was the all-important Cub scout apple day, followed by shopping for not-to-appalling items for birthday party treat bags, and then a concert. Gotta love my kid (10 years old today)–his geeky mother takes him to a flamenco concert (El Viento Flamenco, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and fabulous) and he loves it. Children are so gullible, er, adaptable.
Meg // October 16, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Apple Day! I thought I knew every cub scout event there’s ever been, but that’s one I haven’t experienced. And I don’t know that you should be surprised your son enjoyed flamenco - they stomp and shout and clap and pound on things while spinning each other all over the place, so what’s not to enjoy? Congratulations, mum, on ten years.
And, going back to Snart’s comment above - thanks for noticing the Amazon review. I must be honest and admit it’s very gratifying to get an enthusiastic review from a reader. And someone who’s not even related to me…
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