What Critic2 has on his turntable today (please don't read)

[linda_lakeside]

Well, lookie here, I seem to have caught up with a whole bunch of you at once!

Re: JLS - forgive me one and all, I don't even have the T-shirt!

Margaret: The pearls are nice when strug on a single strand of thin chain. Pearls of wisdom? Hah! If I were so vain as to think my little freshwater pearls were those of wisdom, I would keep them all for myself! If I didn't, do you know what would happen? I would offer them in good will to others. They would think I'm conceited because they'd feel I thought my pearls better than theirs. Insults would be fired out. I would be (try as I might not to be) angered or hurt. Fighting would ensue. Then the whole point of the exchange would be lost.

Re: The vinyl LP's - find a min-record player thingy, enjoy the records through the mono-speakers one last time, then tape the damn things! Then you can have your cake and eat it too!

It's 5:45 AM on Chrismas Eve morning here - I tuned in to read Pete's latest installment (hopefully now on board) - then off to the stores with everybody else within a hundred mile radius (I do this every year). Last stop liquor store - come home, fall into my chair and me and the ol' man can 'ave a toast. Then put this whole thing behind us until next year!

I'm really hoping I find William Shatner's (you know, the first Captain Kirk) new CD under my Christmas tree! The man is an utter genius!!!

[lizzytysh]

I never realized there was a movie, either. I read the book years ago, and really enjoyed it.

Linda ~ Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Go ahead and buy that book. You may know all this already, but I listened to an hour[?]-long segment on NPR about the book and the author. It's her first ever. The author was in the studio, and read from the book. It took her 10 years to write it, and it's rising to incredibly high acclaim. Her writing is being compared to the Harry Potter books [which she hasn't read], but more importantly to Jane Austen, Tolkien, and another great writer, I think Charles Dickens ~ book about the revival of magic in olde England. It's only just been published in the U.S. and should be published in England soon [I would hope so ~ she's from there]. Everything that was said about it was intrigueing. It sounds like the ideal, holiday reading experience . Go for it .

~ Lizzy