Omnivores

The lineup for the next four months is:

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The weekend began with a bang when the Windows part of my new computer crashed on April 23rd. Luckily the Mac part kept running just fine, but I had to reinstall all the Windows XP applications. There were some mighty blue clouds hovering over my comfy chair .If only Worldspan would get with the program and let me make airline reservations on the Mac side, all would be well.

Anyhow, we had a lovely, if full of tornadoes, weekend. Deb came in Thursday night, and she and Blake, my super cleaning teenager from next door spent Friday getting the house beautiful. Saturday I made the brown rice, broccoli and cheese casserole and Deb marinated chicken thighs in Italian salad dressing and baked them, then we put the chicken on top of the rice and left them on low in the slow cooker about three hours. Just about 430p when we were getting the chairs all arranged, the tornado sirens started to wail, and it was really exciting for the next 45 minutes.Mary showed up first with folding chairs, then came Nancy and John, Linda and Paula, Zeke and Kathryn and last of all Chris. B. Everyone got here in one or two pieces and no one's home was destroyed or even damaged, but some places around town did get wind damage. Now the weather gremlins are telling us it will be much the same for this weekend. There is nothing like spring in St Louis.

The Omnivore meeting was great fun and lots of good food. No one liked the book much so we had a great time tearing it to pieces. It was Scavenger by David Morrell, an author several of our group really enjoy most of the time. We picked this book because it had game playing and GPS systems.  Jerry and Zeke, our famous Geocachers soon pointed out that the author hadn't done enough research on his techno toys, and the rest of us were not too happy with the setting and the invented history for the mining village in the Rockies where everything took place. Somehow, we have lots more fun with books we can criticize than with books everyone likes. However, once we had fresh strawberry pie and wonderful brownies and Zeke's home made trail mix we were some very well filled happy campers.

Next month's meeting is going to be at Deb's in the park, so I will be going out for a visit to see all the greenery and animals. The book is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. If you haven't found a copy yet, the county library has lots available, in book form and audiobook form. The meeting will be Saturday, May 15th, and people can come early if they want to play in the park, or in Jerry's case, play near the park. Deb has stocked up a fresh crop of small, crawling and biting insects, so bring proper sprays, lotions, kerosene, vinegar or DEET. There will be a contest to see how many each individual can collect. For those brave souls planning on hiking off the roads, bring fresh clothes, and you will be able to shower and change when you get back to the house. Do not, if planning to hike, wear shorts and flip-flops. And if you go down by the river and meet someone resembling a water moccasin, remember the lessons from Scavenger. They can be easily irritated. According to one herpetologist, the copperheads are much calmer and less combative. The garter snakes that come with one or three stripes down their backs are very nice, sociable, and friendly. The box turtles harm no one unless someone puts their car in a skid trying to avoid them as they sun themselves in the middle of the road. The two large gray and white fur bearing beasties are also harmless, until they step on your toes.

Dinner will be about five, unless we get starved earlier than that. Discussions of movies, books, comic books, music, food and chocolate may occur at any time. Discussion of Blink will be after the meal, if we can stay awake long enough. Deb is waiting for inspiration for the main dish, but it will probably contain quinoa, fresh from South America, which I believe is gluten free and yummy. I will probably fix something chocolate, so that we don't have to worry about going without.

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The Moss Garden In The Broiling Sun

Temple Grandin

is the

Diva of the Animal World

 

As the sun slowly slunk slowly toward the horizon, many and varied strange humanoids gathered in the central eating and talking glade. Soon shrieking was heard from the cooking pit, and everyone ran to food supplies and piled heaps of eadibles on large containers. After this point, nothing was heard for awhile except for the sound of munching and chewing and the occasional fight over the wonderful cookies which were hand crafted by Zeke and Jane. Hamburgers and grilled corn and several types of salad were devored and then once the beginning types of food had been consumed chocolate cherry cake and chocolate chip and raisin almond flour cookies finished the eating binge.

Present and eating were John and Nancy, Mary, Deb, Chris B., Jerry and Chris C., Kathryn's parents Jane and Dan, and Kathryn and Zeke. Once the last burger and corn cob and cookies disappeared, the conversation broke out, with computers and cell phones and Chris C's jewelry all being fought over.

The book under discussion is Temple Grandin's Thinking in Pictures: My Life With Autism. This book is a combination of Thinking in Pictures which had been published earlier, and comments at the end of each chapter from her current experiences and recent developments in the understanding of what happens in the Autism Spectrum. Zeke criticized the book as being too long, and needing more editing. Mary mentioned how much inmpact Grandin's first book had, Emergence: Labelled Autistic. Chris B mentioned how she was waiting to see how our group reacted to the book. Chris B mentioned the number of geniuses and computer wizards who fit into the spectrum, and are choosing to not have children, and so the Autism gene may disappear from the gene pool. Zeke brought up the string theory of evolution which allows for branching of the Autism continum. Grandin studied psycholgy for her bachelor's degree, and specialized in animal behavior. Austictic p eople have trouble understanding emotions and social transactions. Animals are easier for Grandin to understand, as she sees the world in pictures rather than using language to describe the world she sees. She describes how she views the world and compares it to the way animals must view the world. She is able to focus on things that will disturb animals and which most of us would not even notice.

At this point, Deb found out that her park camp-ground lost electricity on this very hot day. Then we segued into big cars and the cost of fuel and Windmills and solar power. Flying cars, Sequays, jet back packs, insurance, and AntArtic GeoCaching popped up in the discussion, and the editor of the newsletter decided to hide out until things made more sense. A second helping of the almond choclate chip cookies helped to restore order and sanity to the meeting.

Nancy began showing off her new autographed copy of Craig Johnson's Junkyard Dogs, and was busy explaining to Jane and Dan what a great author he was. Dan looked at the author's picture on the back flap and decided he was a rugged, handsome example of a westerner. When Chris B. started talking about meeting Craig at the library the week before, they were excited to hear that some of us had actually met the world famous author, so I showed them the great pictures Chris B had taken the night of the library meeting, and we told the story of the six pack of Rainer I couldn't get, and the Rainer t-shirt I did get, and showed the picture of Craig laughing out loud at the sight of the tacky t-shirt. We reminded all present that Craig would be back next year with Hell is Empty, and they could all come meet him then themselves.

The July meeting will be July 17th at Linda and Paula's and the book is Assasin by Ted Bell. The August meeting will be August 21st at Zeke and Kathryn's with main course by Jerry, and the book may be Wake by Robert Sawyer, or Michael Pollen's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, or we may change our minds entirely which has never happened before.

Zeke has promised to share the recipe for the almond chocolate chip cookies with all the Omnivores. Jane and Dan have promised to come to another meeting the next time they are in town. Nancy and John are in Colorado enjoying the mountains and hopefully cooler weather. Josie is having a nap, and I am rereading Kathy Reich's second book, Death DuJour. If she can have a great t v series featuring Tempe Brennan in which Tempe never goes to Montreal, Craig and Walt Longmire ought to be in like Flynn. But let's pray Walt stays in Wyoming!!!

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It all started with a Fish Story. Zeke said he was going to cook a salmon, so I had to write a story about How to Cook a Salmon. No one wanted to cook parasites, or eat them either, come to think of it. The book was Peeps by Scot Westerfeld and the Omnivores in attendance were Jerry and Chris, Linda and Paula, Mary Ellen, Chris B., Barb and Deb, and of course, the hosts, Kathryn and Zeke.

The food in attendance was said salmon, yum-yum, two salads, sweet potato pineapple stuff, crunchy yummy thingees, chocolate thingees times four or more, and a sandwich thingee by Jerry although he claimed not to have baked the bread. Everything was more than good, and I ate so much chocolate that I was flying days later.

The book discussion left much to be desired. Comments like, “Ewww Yuck!” and “What was he thinking of?” were bandied around. Those few of us who liked the book, were drowned out by those who thought it was a bad topic, or bad writing, or bad choice of point of view. I suspect that parasites, real and imagined were not the favorite subject of contemplation for the group. Some spoke up that the audience the writer was aiming for was no doubt teenage males. Others agreed heartily, and there was the question of did such teenagers actually read? Which led to Linda passing around a graphic novelization of Genesis. I admit to great prejudice against graphic novels of all types, and cast my eye over the pictures and text briefly and once again pledged my allegiance to the King James version of Genesis.

Was I ever surprised yesterday when my copy of the Phi Beta Kappa Reporter arrived containing a review of said graphic Genesis, proclaiming it to be very well done and a marvel of its kind. I fainted! Later I after I scraped myself up off the floor, I reread the review and it still said the same thing. I think I may have to consider turning in my Key, if I can find it.

Oops!!! There goes the tornado warning siren. It is 130pm on a Thursday, so no chance it is the usual test run at noon on Mondays. My weather alert radio hasn't blasted my eardrums yet, it is a beautiful sunny day with scattered clouds. Well, there goes the radio warning and we can all breathe safely again, it is a test warning tornado alert. Made my adrenalin go right through the roof, for sure. Now they are telling us that the weather is 67 degrees and sunny, just like I thought. Maybe Josie and I should go hide in the bathtub, just in case.

Back to the Omnivores meeting, after killing off the parasites many books were passed around for everyone to take a gander at and talk about whether they might be good selections for future meetings. Since I didn't keep track of titles or authors, I can only report that none seemed to be chosen for the April meeting. The March meeting will be the 27th at Linda and Paula's house, so we can all admire the new Kitchen and meet Callie who is a real charmer. The book for discussion is Connie Willis' tiny little satirical gem, DA. It has been known to take a half hour to read and is maybe 75 pages long. James Cameron will probably not make a movie from this book. I do not remember any food being mentioned in those seventy five pages, so it is probably up for grabs, as to menu choices. I think that as long as whatever you bring is chocolate, you can't go too wrong.

Apologies for taking so long with this newsletter. I think I have spring fever, or cabin fever, or hay fever, or something like that. Last Saturday, Deb and I went off to Ronnies to see Avatar in 3D. Deb had it in her head that we needed to see it, before it disappeared as a 3D movie. Neither of us had been to a movie in ten years or more, and were we ever blown away. I have never seen popcorn and diet soda cost twice as much as the movie before. Next time we go, we smuggle in a can of soda and a package of something chewy, and pass right by the wonderful smells of the popcorn vendors. The move was astounding. I had seen 3D movies several centuries before, and didn't think much of the concept. This was way better than anything I had imagined. Later I saw a comment by Roger Ebert who said he felt the same way he had felt on leaving Star Wars the first time. The whole movie really stretched the bounds of storytelling, film making, music, and special effects. Remember the first few minutes of Star Wars when the space ship fills the screen and you begin to realize just how big it is? Cameron took that feeling of awe and ran with it. I am sorry it didn't win the Oscar for best movie, but I am willing to bet that it will have an effect on science fiction films for years to come. On our way home I was giving Deb my Heart of Darkness lecture, since there were so many similarities in the movie to Joseph Conrad's book. She hadn't read HOD, so I was telling her the plot and mentioned how Scorsese had used the same idea for Apocalypse Now. She was so impressed that she is willing to read my copy. I would suggest Heart of Darkness for a Omnivore selection, but it is a really dark book. But if you are interested, just let me know and I will have Deb send it along after she finishes it.

Once again, so sorry to be so late, but then better never than late, isn't that the saying?

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It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Well, maybe not the worst, but the book and restaurant were flops. Still, we all managed to make it to the meeting this month, and that really is the best. It has been a long time since all seven of us have managed to sit around the same table to discuss a book. Restaurant and book not withstanding, it was great.

The book for the month was Graceling by Kristin Cashore. It was a bust in that several of the Oms don't like fantasy, and Graceling is unabashedly a fantasy. Add to that some of the fantasy readers among us (including me) did not get it finished in time. I can say I liked the part I've read, and plan to finish it off. And Susan finished it and liked it just fine.

The restaurant was also somewhat of a disappointment. We went to the Apollonia on Gravois in South City. I'm always on the lookout for another Greek restaurant and was excited to pick this place. But things didn't go so good.

The weather was still cold, and it was not much warmer inside. Unfortunately we were seated down in the vestibule right next to the big front window, which made our table even colder. The food was only so-so, as was the service. The place was not crowded but our glasses remained empty for extended periods of time. Perhaps they were short handed. I'll try this place again on the hopes that it was just an off day.

It was sure nice to see everyone again. When get right down to it, that made it the best of times.

~jon

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Jon is a celebrity! He was interviewed by A. M. Harte at Ergofiction Magazine. Go have a look!.

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Sad to report the death of Dick Francis today. The Omnivores read his novel Reflex in 1984.

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I have been working my way through the Omnivores History, trying to find sources of information about the subjects of meetings, i.e, book covers, authors' photos and web-sites, etc. Janet Morris, author of Dream Dancer, which the Omnivores read in 1984, has been a real mystery. I found her on Wikipedia, where you can see a list of her fiction works, but I couldn't find any photos. Granted, she pretty much left writing in 1999 before the surge of the internet really took hold, but still...

I finally did find a couple of pictures.

Janet Morris started the company M2 Technologies, specializing in non-lethal defense technologies.

She and her husband Chris also breed Morgan horses, and own Paradise Morgans in Versailles, KY, which also takes and rehabilitates damaged animals.

In short, these folks are (hopefully) carrying their social consciousness into the business world. However, I do wish I could have found a picture from the 1980s when she was writing SF. Check the Authors Gallery for more pictures.

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Susan, Monica, Michelle and Steve met at Lemon Grass, a Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of Grand and Juniata. The restaurant was bright and cheery. I particularly liked the metal sculpture of a lobster with glowing red eyes that adorned the wall. The food was delicious and artfully presented. The waiter left us alone to enjoy our discussion and did not seem in a hurry to rush us off.

We all enjoyed the book, "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher. It was a well told detective story but with magical characters, such as wizards and vampires.

The book did not lend itself to great philosophical thoughts or discussions, but it was a fun, quick read. For those of you who liked the book, know that there are more stories to be enjoyed as Harry Dresden, the wizard detective, continues his adventures in a series of books by the author.

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