Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

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I can’t count the number of books I’ve read about libraries and the librarians who work there.

Being a librarian seems like an amazing job to me, especially if I could work behind the scenes repairing and preserving books and other manuscripts for future generations to enjoy.

I was once fortunate enough to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the book repair offices at a Toronto library. it’s amazing to see what the folks there are capable of doing for books whose bindings are coming loose or whose pages have grown fragile with age. They have so many tricks up their sleeves not only to repair current damage but to help prevent it in the future.

If the job market for this profession were better, I’d be quite interested in going back to school for it.

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Honestly, it’s been years since I read a book that included actual recipes in it, But I do love stories that describe food, especially when they goes in great detail about it.

All of these dishes seem simple enough to reverse engineer recipes for, so I figured that’s close enough for this week’s prompt. 🙂

Tarts from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

In the next moment, her eyes fell on the White Rabbit that was serving the court as a herald and was reading the accusation that the Knave of Hearts had stolen the Queen’s tarts. In the middle of the court, a large platter of tarts was on display.”

(In my imagination, they’re strawberry tarts!)

“Dickon made the stimulating discovery […] there was a deep little hollow where you could build a sort of tiny oven with stones and roast potatoes and eggs in it. […] Very hot potatoes with salt and fresh butter in them were fit for a woodland king—besides being deliciously satisfying.”

Blueberry Pie from Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White:

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 I can’t wait to read everyone else’s stories! This is one of those WWBC topics I’ve been looking forward to all year long.

Story #1

My extended family is interracial and multiracial. Various versions of this conversation have happened multiple times over the years, and I hope I always see the amusing side of them.

(Yes, I do share relevant details with medical professionals or friends. I simply choose not to explain the intricacies of my family tree to every nosy stranger in the world).

Them: Who’s that person?

Me: They’re my <cousin, etc.>

Them: But they’re Black! <Cuban, etc.>

Me: They sure are.

Them: Okay, I get it. You’re biracial.

Me: No, I’m Caucasian.

Them: Are you sure about that? I mean, you do have curly hair.

Me: Yes, white people have curly hair, too.

Them: So are they biracial then?

Me: Nope. (Well, not in most cases).

Them: I’m confused. Are they your real <cousin, etc.>?

Me: Yep.

(repeat ad infinitum).

Story #2

This happened at the end of an exhausting holiday shift right before Christmas at a retail job I had years ago. Normally, I would have been much more responsive, but my brain was fried from the long hours, rotating shift work that made it impossible to get enough sleep, and frantic workflow for retail workers in the weeks and months leading up to Christmas. This customer had been inspecting our pans for a few minutes before she waved me over.

Customer: Excuse me, do you sell adamantium* pans?

Me: Sorry, we don’t sell them.

Customer: Do you know where I can adamantium pans?

Me: I honestly have no idea!

*That is to say, the fictional metal alloy used to coat Wolverine’s skeleton and claws in Marvel comic books. (And I still have no idea what she meant or why anyone would want to make baking pans from that material if it really existed).

Story #3

The most recent story of them all. A few years ago, I noticed a weird-looking mole slowly growing bigger on my body and decided to ask my dermatologist to take a look at it.

The dermatologist asked me a few questions about the history of the mole and then brought out some specialized tools to peer more closely at it.

He was silent for a moment and then exclaimed, “your mole is bland!” It looked a little odd,  but it wasn’t cancerous like I’d feared it might be.

I still chuckle at this memory ever so often. My name is Lydia, bearer of bland moles. Ha!

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I have three answers for this week’s prompt.

Several other WWBC participants are also fans of Lord of the Rings, so I might horrify some of you a little by admitting that I think the films based on them that came out in the early 2000s were better than the books.

J.R.R. Tolkien was a wonderful storyteller, but he could be longwinded at times. This was especially true when it came to his descriptions of settings. I’d much rather see a windswept hill or an ornate hall in a castle than read pages of descriptions about every little detail of them.

As much as I liked the original novella version of The Shawshank Redemption, the details and character development added to it when it became a feature length film made it even better. Stephen King had the opposite problem that Tolkien did here. He didn’t spend enough time describing things in this novella for my tastes. 

Honestly, I want to lock King and Tolkien into a room together and have them rub off on each other a bit. 

My final answer is Children of Men by P.D. James. The novel spent a lot of time focusing on the psychological burden faced by all humans on Earth once we stopped being able to have babies.

It worked well for the original form, but this story became even more compelling to me once the thriller elements were added. I’m saying that as someone who generally enjoys introspective fiction! There does come a time when characters need to step away from their ruminations and spend more time directly dealing with their problems.