Happy Hallowe’en, everyone! One of the dominant themes of the holiday is to turn the scary into something safe. Often this is done by turning the scary into the funny or the cute: dressing children up like ghosts or monsters. Sometimes this is done by inuring ourselves to the scary by participating in it in a safe way: watching scary movies that we can turn off or walk away from.

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Despite the heat LA has experienced in the last few days I know it’s October at night. There must be something about the proximity & angles of the moon to the northern hemisphere in October, because I can tell what month it is by looking at the moon regardless of where I’ve found myself of an October. It’s big, orange, and slightly obscured by clouds in a painfully romantic way.

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This is born of discussions here & here about sex in “His Dark Materials” and violence in Harry Potter. The gist is this: books for children or young teens often skimp on sexuality, whereas they are free to be graphically violent. I’d like to explore this from two directions: first with regard to the unacceptability of sexuality and second with regard to sexuality as violent in itself.

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I’ve heard arguments for and against DST and the reasons generally center around “we’re used to it” or “we’re not farmers”. Recently I heard that the Candy Lobby (there’s a lobby for everything, it seems, and all of them have more votes than me) wants DST to occur before Hallowe’en so that kids can go eat candy while it’s still light out. Which defeats the purpose of going out, in my mind (part of the fun of Hallowe’en is that it’s dark out—it’s scary, it’s not something you’re normally allowed to do, &c.), but ignores a major point: standardization isn’t.

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Halloween Cupcakes, originally uploaded by gwendygay.

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I had occasion, a long time ago, to drive to Santa Barbara with a friend. We had our iPods (of course!) and traded off driving and DJing. And we both sang along with the music. Halfway there, I realized that my husband rarely sings along. This struck me, because, I am self conscious about singing along to music in the car, but only when there are other (strange) people around. By myself or with my husband: not so much. After I mentioned this to him, he started tentatively singing along with songs he knows.

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SoCal Fires., originally uploaded by mind on fire.

I was frustrated by the fire maps available on the web. The LA Times site had a link to this interactive Google map,

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While visiting my in-laws most recently, my step-mother-in-law had occasion to be horrified that I’d not read the “His Dark Materials” series by Philip Pullman. “Could I borrow your copies?” I asked. She became, if possible, even more horrified. “No,” she replied, “I read them too often.” Later that day, I had a set of my own.

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I don’t feel that I’ve been pulling my (don’t joke about my!) weight recently, as the resident female, with regard to posts about feminism. So I thought i’d share a few tidbits from working in a technology store.

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One of the teas to which I always return (though other tastes and fads may come and go), is Earl Grey, with whom I am so familiar that I often refer to him as “EG”. Legend has it that one of the Earls Grey, while stationed near a tea-growing-&-drinking area, saved someone’s life & was rewarded with the recipe which is: a blend of harsh black tea (like an Assam) with milder black tea (e.g. a Ceylon…couldn’t resist) and a hint of bergamot (berg-a-moe) essence.

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