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

[ealgylden]

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.


I only saw a bit of it, but the show seemed nice enough, if not quite so charming as the books. Mildred, best friend Maud and another girl discovered that the new computers were inhabited by some sort of evil, mindcontrolly beastie (not Moloch the Corrupter, but close) that wanted to get into the Internet and rule the world. Mildred and co. stopped it, of course. Along the way there was an interesting little conflict between Miss Cackle (the headmistress), who wanted her school to provide the students with every advantage, including such newfangled devices as computers, and Miss Hardbroom (potions teacher and Mildred's form-mistress, a bit like Snape but less awful), who's a traditionalist and feared the loss of the tried-and-true teaching methods in the face of shiny new distractions. What appealed to me about the way this pretty standard conflict was presented, though, was that neither side was definitively proven to be wrong- in most kids' shows I've seen, Cackle's progressive philosophies would have won the day, even with the demon in the Internet (though a quick nod might have been given to Hardbroom's side in the interest of fairness). In this show, the good and bad points of both sides were acknowledged and given credence. It was quite nice to see, actually.

But! Much more fun (if infinitely cheesier) than the "Worst Witch" series is the TV movie from 1986, a pretty accurate adaptation of The Worst Witch and The Worst Witch Strikes Again. I loved that movie; I taped it from PBS back in the day and promptly wore it out through overwatching (See? Even as a kid I had regrettable taste). Mildred was played by Fairuza Balk, fresh off of traumatizing everyone I've ever met in Return to Oz. Miss Hardbroom was the excessively cool Diana Rigg and Miss Cackle (and her evil twin!) was Charlotte Rae from The Facts of Life, another favorite of mine. Sabina Franklyn was Miss Spellbinder, the flying teacher, and I had a terrible crush on her. The theme song was about how growing up isn't easy, typical stuff thematically but surprisingly melancholy and well-done in presentation. But best of all was the Grand Wizard, sex symbol of the magic community, played by Tim Curry at his weirdest and campiest. He was just so cool. He swooped around in this vast cape in front of a blatantly obvious bluescreen, and did a really strange song/ music video thing about how anything can happen on Halloween (your dog can turn into your cat! Woo, freaky!). So 80's, and so strange. It was such a fabulous 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.




You're a fan, but you avoid the raving rabidness of
a fangirl. You have your favorite guy, but you
don't obsess

Are you a rabid Pirates of the Caribbean fangirl?
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I would have thought I was a much bigger fan than that, until I looked at the other answers. This is as close as I get, thanks very much. I miss my summer fling pirate fandom already, though. Where's that DVD? I can't wait!



You see your Hobbit as more of a pet than a person,
someone you can look after and teach tricks.
But remember before running out and getting
one, owning a Hobbit comes with
responsibilities. Awww but how can you resist
him? Isn't he cute.


LOTR - If You Owned A Hobbit What Would You Use It For?
brought to you by Quizilla


Aww, Pip. Cutest of cutes. Can I have him? With Merry, of course, can't break them up. And Boromir. To... um... protect them. Yeah, that's it, to protect the hobbits. La la la...

Comments

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

not just that it's set in the ocean, it's that it feels like the ocean and the deep parts of the mind, huge and dark and dangerous and incredibly beautiful.

Okay, you and declineandfall have made these books sound really enticing, especially Deep Wizardry. If they aren't at the library, I'll definitely have to trek off to the bookstore soon (gee, darn). Yay, fun books to look forward to! :)