"Once in a purple moon, there is a special young witch who shines above the rest..."

The past couple of days I've been overtaken by a desire to read Simenon and bake, or possibly cook something very slowly for a long time, like onion soup or apple butter or mincemeat (which I first made some years back as a historical exercise, only to find that I liked it. Go figure). Obviously, my brain has decided that summer is over and has begun its preparations for autumn, my favorite season. Funny how it does these things without warning me first.

This morning I randomly stumbled onto a TV show based on Jill Murphy's Worst Witch books, which was a pleasant surprise (thanks, CBC!). Did anyone else read these as a kid? Mildred Hubble and her misadventures at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches were the first thing that came to mind back when I first heard of Harry Potter, before he was a phenomenon. Poor Mildred is something of a cross between Ron and Neville- she tries hard, and she has a good heart and lots of courage, but she can't resist getting into mischief, she's rather clumsy, and things just seem to go wrong all around her. But she's very sweet and appealing, and her world is full of public school shenanigans and cozy potion-and-wand magics. I read my copies to pieces as a kid. And I was terribly lonely and homesick my first year in graduate school, so when I saw the complete set of the books in this children's bookstore that I haunted, I pounced on them. Very comforting and enjoyable. I recommend them highly for any fan of children's books.

( More Worst Witch babble- the show and the movie )

Anyway, while I'm here and chattering, here's some... stuff. I still wish Troy's Achilles were anyone but Brad Pitt (though I've never really liked Achilles, so I suppose it's a small loss), but this cartoon made me think of that pic of him in his cute little Greek cheerleader skirt, so at least that was funny.

Here's a fun essay (with recipe) from the Hungry Tiger (good food blog), on what the most functional shape for gingerbread would be, based on a comment by the architect Adolf Loos. And speaking of food, here's an interesting post from Appetites (another good food blog) on out-of-season produce, Alice Waters, and corn souffle. I'm with Robert on this one- it's an admirable philosophy that Waters, Tower and friends espouse, but it's not exactly practical for most of us.

( And a couple of quizzes )

More action figures. They're like crack.

One word.

Dernhelm.

Gorgeous figure, looks exactly right. Every detail is spot-on, the facial sculpt is beautiful (cheekbones! perfect!), and the chainmail, helmet, weapons and costume are just as I'd hoped they would be. Dernhelm can proudly take the spot between Eomer and Theoden in the first rank of LotR action figures. A triumph of a toy. Argh, I need to see RotK right now.


I also got Pelennor Fields Aragorn. Face is meh as usual- doesn't look like Viggo, but looks fairly Aragorn-ish anyway. And he's yelling or something, so we can see his nice teeth. The costume is wonderful- snazzy chainmail, the White Tree shiny and prominent on his chest, Ring of Barahir on his finger (gotta love the details for geeks on these figures), big dramatic cloak... he's not wearing Boromir's vambraces, but no doubt that's because they're tucked away someplace for safe-keeping. Can't have them getting marred, after all. Overall, the nicest Aragorn figure yet, I think. Not a patch on Eomer or Dernhelm, though. Now those are gorgeous toys.