She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls

Consistently from the time I began attending UTS at age 12, my hair was never longer than a bit below chin length. During the spring I was 14, I got a really cool short haircut (it was exciting because literally people in every grade complimented me on it, and albeit UTS was small, but not that small) which I proceeded to ruin later that summer when I got it cut even shorter and more boy-like. That was a big mistake because my hairdresser made it too short on top so I always had so much hair sticking up. Luckily I grew it out that fall, but my hair continued along in a very boring, predictable pattern of fairly straight (even though I had curly hair as a little girl), not that exciting a shade of brown, and pretty short.

I moved to Berkeley with my usual chin length hair cut, and sometime during my first spring there, when I was 19 (one of my favourite numbers and ages!) I decided to grow it long. By that fall, it had already gotten fairly long. Sometimes I miss that fall, the one in which I grew my hair, met B., listened to the Strokes non-stop, and became best friends with L. While I was desperate for longer hair, she chopped her long golden hair off to above her chin. She cut hers to get at who she really was, while I grew mine in the hopes of discovering the same thing.

I knew I had made it hair wise (ah that sounds so cheesy but it's true!) when I was home in Toronto sometime during the fall of 2004. By that point I'd had long hair for over a year. I went to a bbq with some friends from high school and a girl I hadn't seen in two years asked me if I had gotten a perm. I was so happy to tell her that no, my hair naturally looked like that and my only explanation for why it hadn't looked perm-like in high school was that it was now much longer.

Later that same fall, L. and I went shopping for Halloween costumes at a few vintage stores along Telegraph in Berkeley. I decided to be Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's and so I tried on this long black evening gown. L. and I stood in the change room looking at my reflection in the mirror and she told me that looking at me she was reminded of why she'd always wanted to be a brunette. I found (and find) this a bit odd (and of course also very flattering!) because L. has the most beautiful golden honey coloured hair in the world - the type of hair colour that is coveted the world over. But it was very sweet; and partly thanks to her I began to appreciate my dark shade of brown and definitely find it much more interesting and attractive than I did in high school.

The summer after I left Berkeley, I realized my hair - halfway down my back at least - was just too long. It was really hot that summer and by August, my hair felt permanently knotted and tangled. So I cut it pretty short, and ever since then I've gone back and forth between cutting it short and letting it grow. I get it layered a bit now and so I don't think it will ever grow as long as it was in Berkeley. But that's okay - it feels like that period of my life should be the really long hair days and so I don't mind that it'll never get that length again. For now I am happy with its decently long length. I think my ideal hair style would be long with curls. (My hair inspirations: a. the picture of the red headed woman below (except I'd have bangs). I like how her curls start near the top of her head; mine start lower down. And b. the blond hair woman at the top.) L.'s (a different one than above) wedding was last weekend, [side note: she was a lovely and absolutely gorgeous bride!] and I got to have my hair done. I decided to go with my hair pulled back, half up thing with the rest of it in long curl/ringlets. I really liked it a lot, and I'm glad I picked that because I wanted my hair pulled back like that. I think though, that maybe over winter break I'll go get my hair done and ask them to do it more like either the redhead or the blond below and above, just to see how it would like.

My hair and I are both big participants in the wavy versus curly debate. Which one better describes my hair? You'd think I'd be satisfied just saying I have wavy hair, particularly since both E. and E. and my aunt (whose name also starts with E. funny!) have all gotten perms just to have wavy hair. (And by the way, all their perms look amazing! Wavy hair is awesome! except when what you really want is curly hair...) But I'm not. My hair really lives firmly on the border between wavy and curly (although once in some emails B. and I were discussing wavy v. curly hair (his hair being decidedly wavy) and he wrote: "I always thought of your hair as pretty curly, but not too curly.") - some days it is so curly and some days so wavy and some days a mix of both. My favourite part about my hair now - and my strongest evidence that my hair is really curly, and not wavy - are the ringlets I frequently (although, much to my chagrin, not everyday) get. I even took a picture last Thursday specifically to post here and show what they look like, so look at it below. I have no idea why they are sometimes there and sometimes aren't, but I do wish I had them everyday. However in any event, I am just glad I have (sometimes) curly hair, and that I like my hair so much more than I did when I was a teenager.

In closing, here are the best ways (in my opinion) to make your hair curlier (provided your hair is either semi-curly or wavy to begin with): 1. go swimming the ocean and then let it dry without washing it first. This is guaranteed to give you lovely (in appearance, although your hair will feel very dry) salt water curls. 2. Use Rosemary Mint Aveda shampoo. I have tried so many different curly hair shampoos (Sunsilk, Herbal Essences, and even Aveda's Be Curly) and none of them have made my hair curlier than Aveda's Rosemary Mint. I first used it this summer because it was the shampoo in A. and L.'s guest bathroom in LA and I quickly fell in love because it made my hair so curly. However, the downside is that it is pretty expensive, so I've only bought it once since then. But I need to buy it again because it really does give me great curls. In fact, I think I'll go buy some this weekend.

Louisiana is for Vampires

I bought Twilight in May 2009 when I went on a field trip to the Book People bookstore in Austin with the class of the two grade 5 kids I tutored. Each kid got to choose a book at the store, and a lot of the girls were choosing later books in the Twilight saga. Having had Twilight recommended to me on a multiple occasions, I bought it. I then read the whole thing on a plane a few weeks later. I did thoroughly enjoy it, and I went on to read the rest of the saga (I love how it's called that...) that summer. But I have to admit I sort of wish my introduction to vampires had not come from Twilight. Sure, those books were mostly fun and entertaining to read, but there were a lot of annoying things too. More importantly, all the other vampire things I've read or watched since are so much better.

L. also read (and really liked!) Twilight, and she then recommended Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels (also called Southern Vampire mysteries because they are set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Side note: I have a magnet on my fridge that says Louisiana is for Vampires which I love.) which I have now read all of (except the most recent one which is still in hardcover) and which I love a lot. I don't think the Twilight books even come close to the Sookie books. A part of that stems from the reality that the majority of the Twilight books take place in high school and I find life/people/pretty much everything way more interesting once people are out of high school, and are living more adult lives. I also find it really interesting that the vampires in the Sookie books are 'out of the coffin' (the Japanese invented a synthetic blood called 'True blood' which sustains vampires, thus stopping them from having to drink humans' blood to stay alive and allowing them to be open about their true natures), because it brings up a lot of interesting issues surrounding vampires' acceptance (or lack thereof at times) in mainstream society. (So much of the Twilight saga seemed devoted to Bella discovering Edward was a vampire, and then having to keep that fact a secret from her parents/everyone else in the world.) Hands down the biggest reason why I love the Sookie books is because I love Sookie. All the books are first person Sookie and she is a wonderful person/narrative! She's really funny, smart, pretty, practical, brave, loyal, caring, understanding, and she loves reading. I like a lot of the other book characters too - particularly Eric, Pam, Amelia, and Claudine; all in all, they are very enjoyable and addictive reads.

The books and the TV show based on them, True Blood, are pretty different, and I actually like it better that way. The show only loosely follows the books (I think season 1 definitely followed the closest) in that it has multiple characters that either weren't in the books at all, or weren't developed in the books. So I now have a lot of characters that I really like from the show (namely Jessica!) that I have no book opinion about at all. It's also fun to be surprised so I like that the show has really differed from the books. True Blood has also done a lot of cool things with making current day comparisons between vampire rights and minority rights. The two main things I dislike about True Blood are how short its seasons are (12 episodes, only lasting from the end of June to the second week of September is not long enough!), and how thoroughly different (and worse) show Sookie is from book Sookie. Hardly any of the qualities that I listed above as loving about book Sookie exist in show Sookie. I find show Sookie impatient, selfish, self-absorbed, and way too concerned with whatever vampire she is currently dating to the neglect of her friends/family. Not liking Sookie puts a damper on the show. Fortunately though, unlike with the books in which Sookie, as the narrator, is the star, the show's many main characters and (perhaps too) many story lines means Sookie is not in every scene.

I think the prevalence of the internet has increased the popularity and ubiquity of tv shows. Back in the early to mid 1990s when I was obsessed with Beverly Hills 90210, I only ever really discussed it with friends. The internet didn't exist (or at least not for regular people) and the idea of going online to talk or read about a TV show would have been so totally foreign to me. Now, however, whenever I see a movie or watch a show that interests me, I love googling it and reading what other people have to say about it online. (I sometimes do that with books too, but usually I talk about books in person more.)

True Blood is the first show I've ever watched where I've gotten really into the analysis, and where I religiously follow vlogs or podcasts about the show. At the end of the third season, I found out about this blog talk radio program where two black women had a weekly show analyzing True Blood from a racial and feminist perspective called Talking True Blood at Merlotte's. I only listened to their episode for season 3's finale but I loved their analysis. They articulated a lot of what I thought about certain characters on the show, and it was fascinating to me to hear people engage with and be critical of a lot of the social aspects of the show. This past June when season 4 started, I discovered they had started up a regular website called Fangs for the Fantasy where the two women - now joined by one gay man - analyze lots of fantasy books and shows from a social justice perspective. I subscribed to their weekly podcast and absolutely loved listening to their assessment of the episode each week. I share all of their dislike of Sookie, and enjoyed both being made aware of other small things from each episode I had sometimes missed, and reflecting on the way the show sometimes does perpetuate negative stereotypes about minorities.

The one thing I can't get fully behind the Fangs for the Fantasy bloggers/podcasters is their negative opinion of Charlaine Harris. They really really don't like her, even though they keep reading the Sookie books, and have read some of her other books too. I like Charlaine Harris because I think the Sookie books are really great, fun, smart and interesting reads; and I also admire her after watching this interview she gave once in which she explained that writing the Sookie books was a conscious career move. She was getting a bit bored with writing mysteries and wanted to expand her readership, so decided to go into fantasy. I liked how she took control of her career, and has been so successful. I've read the first book of two of Charlaine Harris' other series: the Aurora Teagarden mysteries and the Lily Bard mysteries, and I've really liked both. But at the same time I've felt a bit guilty for doing so, particularly liking Aurora Teagarden, because the Fangs for the Fantasy people are so critical of it. In fairness, they particularly don't like the later books because they say there are very few minorities, and the ones that are present are often pretty obvious stereotypes. I haven't read enough of the books to know if I agree with everything they say, but I do think it enriches my own reading experience if I am aware of things like that. I am eager to read some vampire books by L.A. Banks who was a black writer and I am sure writes from a different perspective than Charlaine Harris.

The other True Blood commentary I made sure to watch each week was this vlog at a website called Camp Blood. M. told me about it at the beginning of season 3, and I've been watching the two men who make it ever since. Their vlog is a funny contrast from Fangs for the Fantasy as they are way way less critical of the show. Their vlog is funny, very silly, and doesn't take
the show - or themselves - very seriously at all.

The first time I lived alone, that September in my Hilgard apt, I remember joking with a friend that I needed to leave some garlic out to keep the vampires away. Vampires were something I knew nothing about (and was somewhat surprised when I discovered just how far back vampire fascination and vampire culture goes) and probably never imagined I'd ever know about. But I am very glad to have gotten into vampires over the last few years. I am excited that I now read another genre of books - fantasy - which I rarely touched before. There are so many fantasy books about vampires out there - next on my list are the Anita Blake vampire novels, the LA Banks ones, and finishing up the Blood books series by Tanya Huff (which takes place in Toronto in the early 1990s.) Fantasy has, actually and cheesily, through all its vampires, werevolves, telepaths, and shape shifters made me think about what it means to be human, and how humans, and what we do, appear odd/different to creatures like vampires. I may have many months to wait for True Blood to start up again but in the meantime I have many more vampire books to read.

The Lights of LA County They Look like Diamonds in the Sky

Soon after I moved to Berkeley, I found out about the “divide” between Northern California (Nor Cal) and Southern California (So Cal) that people from their respective parts of the state liked to talk about. Not being from California, I didn’t have an opinion at first but not too long later, completely enamoured with the Bay Area, I found myself firmly in the Nor Cal camp. I’d been to Los Angeles a few times, and while it seemed like a cool, (mostly) sunny place, it didn’t leave any lasting impression.

Then, however, I realized that a lot of the musicians I liked loved LA, and wrote these really great songs about it. (Listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under the Bridge - best line ever: "I walk through her hills cause she knows who I am"; and Joni Mitchell’s song Court and Spark where she sings at the end: "But I couldn’t let go of LA, city of the fallen angel"; and Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’, everytime I hear the line about vampires moving west along Ventura Blvd I smile.) On M.’s recommendation I read Anthony Kiedis’ (lead singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers) autobiography and his descriptions of LA, particularly living in the Hollywood Hills made me want to get to know LA much better.

Fortunately, my brother A. moved to LA in the fall of 2006. I first visited him, and (his then girlfriend, now wife,) L. there in the first four days of 2007, and happily S. drove there to see me too. From the fall of 2006 to July 2011, A. and L. lived in Laurel Canyon, this hilly canyon which separates LA from the San Fernando Valley on the other side of the hills. S. described their house like a tree house the first time she saw it, and she was totally right. It was a truly lovely little house. It had so many windows, (the room I always slept in had windows on three walls, and the kitchen sink had a window over it) and two great balconies - one big one with a hammock and a big dining table, and another small, sunny one with two chairs, perfect to sit on and read. The view from their house to the sides and the back was of a few other homes. But the view facing straight was of the side of a bright green and lush hill. Something I never realized until I started going to LA is how green of a city it is, especially in the spring and summer. Laurel Canyon is also a nice neighbourhood to go for steep walks up to Mulholland Drive at the top of the hill which separates LA from Studio City, on the other side. It's a cool view during the daytime, and at night, when you can see so many lights (which really do look like diamonds in the sky, as per Lyle Lovett's song).

Neither S. nor I knew L. very well that first time we visited, and so when A. asked us what we were going to do our first day there we were at a bit of a loss. He then suggested we take Sunset Blvd (which we could pick up at the bottom of Laurel Canyon) all the way through LA until it hit Pacific Coast Highway, and then head north up the coast to Malibu. We followed his suggestion to a T. and soon found ourselves walking on a beach in Malibu, our feet in the Pacific in early January, where the places we both normally lived were covered with snow. After that visit, I started planning my next trip there.

I think it was in May 2008, when S. and I drove my car from Austin to LA, that my conversion to the So Cal camp took place. We did the exact same drive down Sunset Blvd to the PCH and Malibu, walked on the same beach and watched little kids at surfing camp (or maybe gym class since it was still May? either way... so cool!), and while doing these activities it dawned on me how fabulous LA is. It has great weather, amazing and accessible beaches (the last time I was there I went to Santa Monica Beach and it was so nice! S. we have to go there next time!), lovely blue skies, mountains in the distance, hills, great shopping and restaurants, palm tree lined streets (perhaps my favourite part of LA, so pretty!) and a relaxed, laid back vibe. There are a few downsides, as there are everywhere, and for me LA's is always having to drive. It's so big and the distances between a lot of the places I like to go are pretty big, so a car is pretty much a necessity. But all in all, LA is a great place to visit. It reminds me of New York, Toronto, and Buenos Aires in that it seems like so many cities within a city. Every time I go to NY I seem to go to parts of Manhattan or Brooklyn I'd never been to before, which makes visiting there really exciting. The same thing happened when I visited J. in Buenos Aires last February, as she lived in a different part of the city than I'd spent much time (read hardly any) in the previous times I'd been there. Every time I visit LA, I discover new parts too.

When I heard A. and L. had bought a house and were moving to this other neighbourhood called Silver Lake, I was happy for them but also, totally selfishly, a bit sad that they were leaving their Laurel Canyon house behind. I didn’t think I could love another part of LA as much as Laurel Canyon, or a LA house as much as I loved the Laurel Canyon house. (I was also sad they were no longer going to be living just on the other side of the hill from Studio City. If you've never been, and are ever in LA, go! Ventura Blvd is the main street and is very pretty and palm tree lined, and there are lots of great shops and restaurants.) However, it turns out that Silver Lake is pretty rad (see picture below). It is a very hilly neighbourhood, which I always love, and the Silver Lake reservoir is quite big and attractive, and the water sparkles in the sunshine. A. and L.'s new house is so nice - lots of big windows again! The house also has an amazing, huge, wrap around deck from which you can see, albeit far away, the Hollywood sign. The deck is perfect for reading or tanning as it gets a lot of direct sunlight, and for longer than the little balcony in the Laurel Canyon house that I used to like to sit on got. I am looking forward to spending lots more time on that deck the next time I visit.

The last time I saw L. (a different one) in person, I told her how I am now firmly a So Cal fan and, having mostly grown up in the Bay Area, she was shocked. I still (and always will) love the Bay, but LA has a lot of the things I love about the Bay (hills, big full moons) and things the Bay doesn't have, like consistently warm weather and better beaches/access to the ocean. I want L. and I to go to LA together so I can convince her why it's so great. So to conclude my little LA love letter, I will say that I think I will always love that Laurel Canyon house because it really did show me how great LA could be.

Back when S. and I visited in May 2008, A. gave me a key to the Laurel Canyon house which I put on my keychain. And even though they don't live there anymore, I still have it on my key chain. I know I should take it off, but I think I'm going to leave it there a little longer.

The Strange Yet Fascinating World of Internet Advice Columnists

Sometime during our last year at Berkeley, S. introduced me to the "Since You Asked" advice column on Salon written by a man named Cary Tennis. I had been complaining to her about how I couldn't sleep well when sharing a bed with someone else, and she sent me the link to a Since You Asked post about that exact topic. [Side note: I still don't particularly like sharing beds. The only people I can get as good a night's sleep sleeping beside as I would if I were alone are my mom, or my friend S.G. But I hardly ever sleep in the same bed as either of them :) My "problem" (although I don't really like calling it that) arises whether I am sleeping in the same bed as my mom, a friend or a guy. As a result, I always read articles I come across about couples who have separate beds or separate bedrooms with interest. For example, after Helena Bonham Carter got into a relationship with Tim Burton, he bought the house next door to her and they put in a connecting door. So they both have their own separate houses but they are attached. I'm not sure I'd need my own house, but my own bedroom and bathroom would be nice.] Ever since that fateful link to Cary's answer about sharing a bed five and a half years ago, I've been reading his column more or less regularly. I probably check it about three times a month. He updates pretty regularly - so I usually have about 3-4 questions to read each time I go there.

Since You Asked is always interesting to read for a number of reasons. First, Cary's answers are almost always very convoluted, full of metaphors and dense writing. (A blogger on Gawker once referred to one of Cary's columns as "an incomprehensible treatise" and while that may have been taking it a bit far, there was a grain of truth there.) Second, Cary's pretty new-age. He's really into telling people to breathe, to spend some time sitting still and concentrating on feeling every inch of their body, starting with their toes. He also recommends therapy a lot. Very occasionally Cary gives some concrete advice like "do x, followed by y" but usually his advice is much more abstract and is aimed at getting the person to dig deep into themselves and find the answer. And that was possibly the cheesiest sentence I've ever written! Third, Cary's a kind person and that really comes out. He is always kind and respectful to the letter writer, and he really empathizes with their position. He has been through a lot in life too (he had a pretty serious cancer and took about 6 months (or maybe longer, can't remember) off from writing the column a few years ago; and he was an alcoholic and is still in AA) and he often puts himself in the exact same boat as the letter writer, which is really cool, and refreshing. Fourth, the commentators are a real mixed bag on the Salon site as a whole. The positives about the commentators for Since You Asked is that they give a lot of advice to the letter writer and are honest with their opinions on Cary's advice (ie. aren’t shy to say they think his advice is ridiculous). The negatives are that some of them are complete assholes and write really horrible things. Even some of the ones who don't say horrible things but just offer advice are often condescending and self-righteous. I think Salon should do a better job moderating the comments across its site and not allowing people to post rude, sexist, racist, stupid and misogynist things. Fifth, and finally, Since You Asked gets the best range of letters; people write to Cary for advice on so many varied things that it's always thought provoking to read.

I started reading this website called the Hairpin pretty regularly in June and I quickly decided that their advice columns are my favourite part of the site. The Hairpin has so many advice columns! Weekly they usually have "Ask a Lady" and "Ask a Dude" (but recently this has been "Ask a Married Dude.") They also have "Ask a Clean Person" and "Ask a Queer Chick" maybe two times a month? The latter two are always answered by the same person each time, whereas the Ladies and (Married) Dudes rotate and it's never entirely clear (at least to me) which one is answering. They never reveal their names. Overall, I really like the A Lady column. Most of the ladies give good, practical advice and aren’t afraid to call out advice seekers when they say something really pretentious or obnoxious in their question (which happens maybe about 1 in 4 letters?) The ladies also usually seem like kind people, which is important. Most of the dudes are good too. (One dude in particular wrote the best answers once! So the best that I wish he gave his name and lived in either Toronto or Montreal and that I could date him ☺) It’s fun to read guys giving relationship advice. I’ve only read a few Married Dudes but they are not as good. The most recent one was kind of annoying in his answers, and gave plain bad, totally off the mark advice to one of the advice seekers. Fortunately, this bad advice was saved by the fact that the Hairpin commentators are fabulous and give the best advice, often better than (or at least expanded versions of) the Lady’s or Dude’s. Reading the comments is 70% of why I like reading these posts, and I always make sure I don’t read the posts until they’ve been up for a while and enough people have had time to comment. Overall, I’d say the pros of the Hairpin’s advice columns are reading the comments, and that the questions almost always have to do with romantic relationships. The cons are when the Married Dudes are obnoxious, and that the questions almost always have to do with romantic relationships.

The last Internet advice column I’m going to write about is one I actually found out through a posting on the Hairpin, talking about how the woman behind the “Dear Sugar” advice column is apparently going to reveal her identity soon. This made me curious so I ended up going to the Dear Sugar page and reading a bunch of her past columns. I’m torn as to what to I think about her column. (I am curious to find out who she is though because she’s a published author and I wonder if I have heard of her.) On the one hand, Sugar seems/sounds like a kind person and seems to genuinely empathize with the person to whom she’s writing. On the other hand, I feel like her column is way too much about herself. Each answer is more like a creative non-fiction column than an advice column. Her answers are so long because they are 90% about her life and then the last 10% applies her life lessons to the advice seeker’s problem. Now, obviously I love reading about other people’s lives, but somehow it just doesn’t do it for me in an advice column. Cary Tennis is also a writer, and infrequently (borderline rarely) works in things from his own life to his column; but Cary is clear on what his job is: to give advice, not long rambly pieces about his own life, with the letter writer’s issue thrown in as an afterthought. Evidently some people really enjoy Sugar’s style as the comments section on her site is full of people gushing over how amazing her answer was that week, and how, as usual, Sugar got it exactly right. Their fawning over her is a bit much for me. Most annoyingly, the commentators rarely give their own advice to the letter writer because they’re too busy saying how perfect Sugar’s (non) advice was. Even with some of Since You Asked’s obnoxious commentators, it is always good to get other perspectives on the letter writer’s question; and the fact that that seems to be mostly missing from Dear Sugar is not good.

Since I have just written an entire post about advice columns I feel it is not fair if I end without admitting that I have once or twice toyed with the idea of sending in my own question to either Cary or A Lady. But before I even actually think about how I’d phrase my question, I decide against it. It appears I am more of an advice column reader than advice seeker. However, it is nice to know that Since You Asked and A Lady/A Dude are there if I ever change my mind.

The Ins & Outs of Book Dedications

Every time I read a book, one of first things I do is check the front for the dedication page. I love reading dedications as they can be very interesting and/or sweet, and usually reveal a little bit (sometimes more) about the author's personality/feelings/state of mind etc.

Quick disclaimer: I've never read any of the Harry Potter books. But I searched multiple image sites for most of the dedication pages listed below to no avail. The only dedication page I could find on google images was the one to the last Harry Potter book (and I actually kind of like the dedication, so that will have to do for a picture of a dedication.)

In May 1999, when I was 15 and had just returned from my three month exchange to France, I had to write a history paper for the half course on 20th century World History that I had missed almost all of because I was in the little town of Beaupreau. My teacher, Mr. Bentley, said I should write a paper about an event in 20th century French history. I chose the liberation of Paris at the end of World War II. I don't remember much about my paper (except that I enjoyed writing it and found the topic super interesting) but I have always remembered the dedication in one of the books on the topic which I checked out of the library (unfortunately I can remember neither the name nor the author of the book). The dedication said: "For Eugenia - for making even happier my happy memories of Paris." I remember thinking then and I still think now, what a wonderful dedication and that Eugenia was a lucky lady to have someone write such a nice dedication about her!! And that the author and Eugenia obviously loved Paris as much as I did/do was a bonus!

Continuing in the academic book vein, here is another dedication. This one is from the book Winning the Ph. D Game by Richard W. Moore, which J. happens to have on his book shelf (a gift from his cousin). When I was glancing through the book, I read the dedication, which I liked so much I had to write down: "This book is dedicated to Yvonne T. Guy, Ph.D, fellow graduate student, critic, motivator, and most recently, my wife." It's sweet, it's cute, and it explains that Yvonne is the author's wife.

I am going to write a post either next month or September about vampires and vampire books and True Blood and I will talk a lot about Charlaine Harris (the writer of the Sookie Stackhouse books) in that. So for this post, I'll limit what I want to say about her to her funny and sweet dedications. My personal favourites are from the third Sookie book, Club Dead, where she writes: "This book is dedicated to my middle child , Timothy Schultz, who told me flatly he wanted a book all to himself." I find that such an endearing and funny dedication! And if I were Timothy, I know I'd want a book all to myself too! My other favourite is from Touch of Dead, a collection of Sookie short stories, where Charlaine Harris writes: "For all those readers who want every last sip of Sookie." I love that one too because a. I am one of those readers who wants every last sip of Sookie, and b. I like the vampire reference. Charlaine's dedications are good because they are funny, and they reveal the relationship between her and the person (people) to whom she is dedicating the book.

I first heard about the writer Elizabeth McCracken last spring when I read Ann Patchett's memoir Truth and Beauty (which I highly recommend!) - the bulk of the book is about Ann Patchett's other friend, Lucy Grealy, but she also discusses how she met and became friends with Elizabeth McCracken. (Interesting side note: Ann Patchett's book The Magician's Assistant is dedicated to both Lucy Grealy and Elizabeth McCracken.) After finding out about her thanks to Ann Patchett's memoir, I googled Elizabeth McCracken, discovered that her books sounded very interesting and I ended up taking her memoir An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination out of the library. It was so good that I ordered one of her novels The Giant's House on Amazon. I have yet to read it but I did take a sneak peek at the dedication page and I really liked it: "for Robert Sidney Phelps a giant of a friend" It's a good dedication, in my opinion, because it is concise, kind, relates to the title of her book, and explains her relationship to Robert Sidney Phelps.

Another dedication I like is L.M. Montgomery's in Anne of the Island: "To all the girls around the world who "wanted more" about Anne." I enjoy this one because it's nice to all her fans around the world, and I'm sure it made them all feel very special - and glad that they had another book about Anne to read!

Elizabeth Gilbert is probably best known as the writer of Eat, Pray, Love but she also wrote a short story collection and a novel back before all the events of EPL ever took place. I actually recently bought a (very slightly used) copy of her novel Stern Men for very cheap. Despite not yet reading it (although I am looking forward to doing so) I really wanted to look at the dedication page because I had once read an article about Gilbert's first husband (the man she divorces at the beginning of EPL) and how she had dedicated her novel to him. The dedication reads: "To Michael Cooper - for playing it cool." I have to admit I like the dedication; it's intriguing. In what ways did Michael Cooper play it cool? I want to know!! But I also don't like when writers don't explain their relationship to the person to whom they dedicated the book. I know Michael Cooper is her ex (current at the time) husband's name, but only because of that article I read. Other people probably wonder who he is... At the same time, maybe I would find it annoying if she had dedicated it to: "To my husband Michael Cooper - for playing it cool." That just doesn't sound the same...Clearly I can't be satisfied :) I wonder if Elizabeth Gilbert regrets dedicating that book to him now. I hope she doesn't; because in some ways it would have been weird for her not to have dedicated a book to her husband, as most people presumably don't go into their marriage thinking they'll eventually get a divorce. I was so into G. in June 2004 and when we parted ways for the summer, I gave him this really gushy card in which I said all these really nice things about him. When I came back to Berkeley in the fall and he turned out to be an asshole I was so mad at myself for having written him that card. But I then realized that the card was a reflection of how I felt in June, and I think the same goes with dedications. Michael Cooper must have played it cool during their marriage, and how was Elizabeth Gilbert to know that eventually they would have a terrible, messy divorce?

Back several years ago, I tried, every once and a while, to write short stories. (I have now mostly abandoned that pursuit for writing non-fiction, but I do still have a Word document with story ideas and I suspect I will at some point try again.) Part of my problem with short stories was that I always wanted to include way too many details about each character. It was actually reading Elizabeth Gilbert's short story collection - Pilgrims- that made me realize that a lot of backstory wasn't necessary, and wasn't conducive, to short stories. I think the same idea probably applies to dedications - the shorter, the better; and then add sweet and sincere, and you have the ideal book dedication.

Berries Galore

My order of preference for berries is: 1. Raspberries 2. Strawberries 3. Blueberries and 4. Blackberries.

Raspberries, along with my spaghetti, are my favourite food. If I were to be confined to a desert island and was only allowed one food to bring, I’d choose raspberries without missing a beat. I love spaghetti too but on a hot desert island I think raspberries are a more practical choice. My favourite way to eat raspberries is on their own, something I do pretty much every single morning of the year. This past May, there were lots of specials on raspberries at my grocery store (2 for $5, and once 3 for $6) and I bought the special every time. It was great because I then had a few days where I could eat the entire package of raspberries. Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favourite writers but a few years ago I was reading a book of her essays - Small Wonder - and I came across this passage where she was talking about the importance of eating local and in season fruits and vegetables. She told this anecdote about being invited to a friend's house in New York in the month of January and how the friend was excitedly telling Barbara on the phone about the amazing raspberry dessert she had planned for her. Barbara's response (which I hope/think she kept to herself) was: "Fresh raspberries? in January?" I know eating local and in season is better but raspberries are one thing I won't stop eating... even in January! Plus, what I more took away from that story was how the friend was just trying to make Barbara a nice dessert and she had to use it as an example of how shocked she was that her friend wanted raspberries out of season.

I also like raspberries with chocolate cake or other chocolate desserts. Café Figaro in Montreal has an amazing raspberry mousse cake – so good! A good friend of mine (who was actually my student when I taught English in Paris and then we became friends) F. and her husband S. live outside Paris in this nice little town called Perreux-sur-Marne, right on the Marne river. F. invited me and our other friend G. (also an English student/turned friend) to her house a few times and cooked us an amazing lunch. Prior to eating, we sat around and S. served us raspberry kir royales (a classic kir royale is champagne with creme de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) but you can substitute the creme de cassis for raspberry or blackberry or peach liqueur; a classic kir is white wine instead of champagne) using S.'s mom's own creme de framboise. It was delicious and they knew I liked it so much that the next summer when I saw them again they gave me a bottle of it to take back to Toronto. After our kir royales and our lunch, we went for a long walk along the Marne, which is a really pretty greeney colour. Those two times we went for lunch at her house are among my favourite memories from France.

Strawberries not only taste delicious but are also my favourite berry to have in non-edible forms. For example, I have little dessert plates that I bought in Tokyo that have strawberries around the edges, I have a hand knit strawberry pot/kettle holder, and some strawberry stationery. I also want to eventually get a poster with strawberries on it to hang on my wall. I always love going to N.'s house in Toronto because he has the best, most lovely and most comforting and calming kitchen in the world. During the summer, N. and his family often go strawberry picking, and if I'm lucky enough to go over soon after they came back, we get to sit around in his kitchen and eat the freshly picked strawberries. N. puts the leftovers in his freezer and when he opened it to show me, it was nice to see a freezer filled to the brim with bright red strawberries. I have vague (but fun) memories of going strawberry picking as a kid and I really should make more of an effort to go in the summers.

Once a long time ago, E. told me she smiled whenever she ate blueberries. When I reminded her of this a few years ago, she denied ever saying that. Whether I got her mixed up with someone else, or she has since changed her mind doesn't matter, because now whenever I eat blueberries I think about someone smiling, which in turn causes me to smile. I like blueberries on their own; however, I particularly like to eat blueberries in baked goods. Of all the berries, I think blueberries are best for baking. I love to bake blueberry cobbler (see picture below) -delicious on its own or with vanilla ice cream- and blueberry muffins. I've never baked but like to eat blueberry pie, and blueberry buns. When I was a kid my dad and I used to go get bagels at this place near our house on Sunday mornings and in addition to bagels, this place made these really good blueberry buns. I looked forward all week to eating them. In addition to blueberry baked desserts, I adore chocolate covered blueberries. Unfortunately, Peet's Coffee and Tea (a coffee shop originally started in California, but also located in some other states) - home to the most amazing chocolate covered blueberries on the planet (I think their secret is that the chocolate is dark blue and is blueberry flavoured, as opposed to just dark chocolate) - does not have any locations in Toronto/Montreal or all of Canada for that matter. Well actually, I should amend that to "fortunately" because whenever I am in California and am able to go to Peet's, I go through a package in 2 days. So it is good I do not have unlimited access to them. L. worked at Peet's for a while in 2006 and got me hooked on them, and five years later I am still obsessed.

Blackberries are too tart for me to eat them on their own. Instead, I like to eat blackberries in two ways. First, by adding two to a glass of champagne. It is very good and the blackberries add just the right little something. Second, I enjoy eating blackberry lemon cake. Back in Austin, I used to sometimes get a piece of delicious blackberry lemon cake at Wholefoods. I've found a recipe online and plan to make it sometime.

Berries are wonderful! In addition to everything I wrote above, I love how berries are very good for you. Overall, they are a winning food!

Where Lovely Mermaids Flow

A few years ago, I read an article about this place in Florida called Weeki Wachee Springs State Park (it's on the Gulf Coast side, not too far north of Tampa) which has a mermaid water park. (Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/fashion/06mermaids.html) I thought it sounded really cool. (The pictures above are of Weeki Wachee mermaids.) The sweetest part of the article for me was that kids who come to the Mermaid park really believe that the mermaids who work there are real. One mermaid said kids often ask her what she eats for lunch and sometimes she answers "seaweed sandwiches." Then just a few weeks ago, I came across a post of a woman who attended mermaid camp for adults at Weeki Wachee: http://thehairpin.com/2011/06/last-weekend-i-went-to-mermaid-camp#more (If interested, you should also check out the same woman's post on five ways to become a mermaid: http://thehairpin.com/2011/03/five-ways-to-become-a-mermaid) The camp sounded like a lot of fun! I doubt I would ever attend it, but I suppose if the opportunity ever presented itself (which is unlikely, but you never know...) I would take it. The fact that both the mermaid theme park and the mermaid camp exist is what makes me happy. If I'm ever in Tampa, or the Gulf coast of Florida (which I would like to visit one day) I will definitely go to Weeki Wachee and watch a mermaid show.

The mermaid water park's location seems perfect given that I've always associated mermaids with warm water, and the Gulf is (at least during the summer) as warm as bathwater. Maybe because all the Caribbean islands are in the Atlantic, but I associate mermaids with the Atlantic, and not the Pacific, ocean. Although I suppose the Pacific is warm in parts of Southern California, Mexico, and Hawaii. However, I still think mermaids go better with the Atlantic ocean. My warm water theory also finds opposition in the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen (see picture below), which I hope to see in person one day, because I imagine the water must be cold there. I wonder if Hans Christian Andersen was imagining a warmer sea than around Denmark when he wrote the Little Mermaid. Or maybe he thought mermaids are just fine in cooler waters too.

I remember as a kid both seeing (and really liking) Disney's The Little Mermaid, but also reading (and liking) Hans Christian Andersen's much darker story. My favourite part, which I still remembered all these years later (but googled to check I was right), is how mermaids turn into sea foam when they die. It makes sense to me because then mermaids will always be a part of the sea. I've heard of people who have had their ashes dropped into the sea after they died, and it just seems an extension of the mermaids turning into sea foam thing. I think the idea of mermaids wanting to be human - central to both the Disney and HCA versions - is just an example of the grass is always greener. Or simply makes for a good story that some humans would like. (The kind of humans who think we're the best species ever and of course everyone would want to be like us if they had the chance.) My guess is that most mermaids love being mermaids and would want to remain mermaids for their entire lives. The ocean would be a lovely place to live, and swimming around all day would be fun. Plus, mermaids can come up to the surface when they want, can talk below and above the water, can be friends with fish (like Flounder!) and dolphins, and could go for trips through all the oceans of the world. I think if I were a mermaid, I'd want swim through the Panama Canal and then go explore the Pacific Ocean.

When I went to Playa del Carmen on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula in July 2004, I saw a lot of souvenirs (like matchboxes, purses, t-shirts) with Mexican loteria images. Later, back in California, I found postcards with the same images at Avant Card and bought a whole bunch of them. There are so many cool ones (like La Luna) but La Sirena (see picture below) is one of my favourites. I love her red tail, and how she's half in the ocean/half out. And, I like how she looks very different from Ariel. It'd be interesting to see representations of mermaids from all over the world as I'm sure different countries must see them differently.

Back when I was 19 and first growing my hair long, my goal was to have my hair be long enough to cover my breasts like a mermaid. I can't actually remember if it ever got that long but I do know that if I were a real mermaid I'm sure I would have just above the shoulders hair as I don't think I'd be able to deal with all the seaweed which I know would get tangled into longer hair. Plus, I also like mermaids' sea shell bikini tops, and shorter hair would let me show mine off. :)