catching up on podcasts...and other things...

Research on the basis of the "time flies when you're having fun" concept

What can I add to my spaghetti? at Metafilter has some interesting (and easy) ideas

Banks come up with new fees for credit card customers reinforces the buyer beware rule.

Heard a breathtakingly snobby report on the ails of the champagne market in a down economy where they talked to ONE "wine expert" and ONE random French person who declared champagne king and other sparkling wines, including--especially?--prosecco, as cheap wanna-be's that should never be substituted for the "real thing." I'd hoped obnoxious and blatant wine snobbery had died years ago, but I guess not.

For about half the globe New Year's Eve have be a blue moon because it will be the second full moon in December. For the other half (Asia, etc), January will have a blue moon since the full moon will occur on New Year's Day.

Speaking of astronomical events, check out the awesome International Year of Astronomy Prints by Simon Page. I know that it's the end of the year of astronomy already, but those posters are classic and gorgeous! I so want one.

Romeo and Juliet as remembered by people who read it in high school sounds hilarious! Too bad it's playing in New York....

i really need to start reading afterwards...aka authors are on crack

I have to mention the afterward of an amusing if completely and totally cliched (and utterly ridiculous) BL novel I just skimmed. The lovers are an undead killer and a quiet, unassuming high school student. In the afterward, the author mentions that the undead killer was supposed to be less human-like than he was in the book, as in his natural state being gel-like. So even if he took human form most of the time, he could just turn into black goo. Partially or fully, so that if he only partially turned to goo then the human-like portion would be attached to a floating blob of goo. She'd like to write such a character, if not a main character than as a side character. She then speculates if such a character engulfed the crotch of the other guy and also had part of him inside the other guy, would he be uke or seme? Or reversible**?

My reaction to reading that was a WTF? Then I laughed. Then I contemplated the question and decided it didn't matter, I'd probably be squicked if I did read a serious sex scene like that. I was squicked by a sex scene between a doll-sized guy and normal-sized guy, for goodness' sake.

**What is the English term for people who switch uke/seme? Is there one? The Japanese term the author used was "riba," obviously a shortening of "reversible." I don't want to search the internet for a term blindly because I may come across something scarring.