August heat...

"A word a day" yesterday began its introduction, "August is the hottest month of summer".

It is? I'd be willing to bet that here in Ottawa, July is the hottest month. August usually has cool evenings, especially by the middle of the month. Stratford this week was cool - I wore my jacket often, and not just because of the rain.

Where does one find such weather statistics?

Sir Percy Blakeney, Chauvelin, and heoism...

I love The Scarlet Pimpernel. One of the most romantic books ever written; one of the most romantic movies ever made. I like the Anthony Andrews version (with Ian McKellen as Chauvelin) best, which tends to horrify the Leslie Howard fans - which is okay, since Leslie Howard is wonderful and I like that version too. I hated the Richard E. Grant Pimpernel, but can't completely discount that version because Martin Shaw, Elizabeth McGovern, Denise Black and Jamie Bamber were all so good that it compensated for having a dead-loss Pimpernel.

Sir Percy Blakeney is one of the literary progenitors of Francis Crawford of Lymond, which would appeal even if he had nothing else going for him. But he does. All that muted heroism, all that deception and being misjudged... Ahhh. He's yet another heroic con man of the style I love so much.

So why am I happy that when I do the "Which character are you in The Scarlet Pimpernel meme, I get the villain? Well, maybe because Chauvelin is such a wonderful villain, so beautifully charismatic when done by McKellen or Shaw, such a Grey Eminence powerhouse....




This test brought to you by Blakeney Manor.

Find out:Which Scarlet Pimpernel character are you?

Cool beans!

(Later, you become Magneto and square off in a really big chess game against Patrick Stewart, which leads to some serious re-grouping and you decide to mend your evil ways and travel back to the time of Middle Earth where you become Gandalf the Grey and help all the little people.)

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And, I add, earlier you were a curly-haired Professional who got to shoot big guns and run a lot and hang out with Bodie, the best partner ever.

Memories of childhood...

I think everyone remembers favourite candy from when they were a kid. My very favourite candy was Maple Cream, a concoction my mother made on Dec. 24 every year, and only then. It was a recipe from an old edition of The Joy of Cooking and it involved stirring brown sugar and cream on the stove for a very long time. The result was a kind of hard fudge: the most delicious thing ever.

Sadly, I have never been able to replicate the recipe, even though I have the clipping with my mother's notes in the margin. What I am able to make of it isn't bad, but it isn't the heavenly butterscotch-flavoured concoction she was able to produce.

Another memory of a favourite candy was Caramac. It was a non-chocolate candy bar that used to be sold in corner stories in Ottawa, and I loved them. But they disappeared at some date and I never saw them again. I thought they weren't made any more. I didn't think about it much, except for the occasion wistful memory.

Then yesterday, passing throught Toronto, maaseru and I stopped at Eglinton Square for lunch, and we went into the British import shop there. And there, for the first time in decades, I saw Caramac bars. They still have them in the UK. No wonder I wish I could live there.

I just ate one of the bars I bought. It tastes exactly as I remember - though, oddly, the colour is paler than I remember. It's wonderful.

I wonder if there's anywhere in Ottawa that sells Caramac bars? It might be better not to know. Or perhaps regular trips to Eglinton Square are necessary.

FIC: Torchwood drabble - 'Sporting Chance'

Title: Sporting Chance
Author: fajrdrako
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Challenge: tw100, challenge: sports
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of the BBC.
Notes: Spoilers for Torchwood episodes "Cyberwoman" and "Fragments". Cross-posted to my LJ and to tw100.

( Sporting Chance )