Pixel Scroll 6/5/18 Scroll Is A Pixel, And I Want My Money Back

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Brian Keene. Photo by Scott Edelman.

(1) BRIAN KEENE BURN INJURY. Horror author and podcaster Brian Keene is hospitalized, reports Stephen Kozeniewski, who has started a “Brian Keene Burn Fund” at GoFundMe:

On June 5, 2018, author, podcaster, philanthropist, and father Brian Keene was badly burned in an accident.  At this time he is conscious and in good spirits but has first degree burns on his face and second degree burns on his body.

As a freelance author, Brian does not have health insurance.  We’re not sure at this time how long he’ll be in treatment, or how much the bill will be, but any visit to the hospital is expensive, and will only be compounded by lost wages from not being able to work.

We’re asking the community of writers, horror fans, and just decent human beings in general to chip in a few dollars to help get Brian back on his feet and spending time with his loving girlfriend and sons.  We’d be very grateful for anything you can afford to contribute.

The appeal has raised $14,415 of its $15,000 goal in the first four hours online.

Keene co-hosts of The Horror Show with Brian Keene. Last May, they held that 24-hour telethon and raised roughly $21,000 in support of Scares That Care.

Kozeniewski added in an update, “What we know right now is that the wind shifted while Brian was burning brush.”

(2) ALL YOUR COMIC CONVENTION ARE BELONG TO US. Those lovable knuckleheads who run San Diego Comic-Con International would like a federal judge to award them several million dollars in attorney fees after winning their lawsuit against the Salt Lake Comic Con. Courthouse News has the story: “San Diego Comic-Con: ‘Comic Convention’ Is Ours”.

…U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia heard a host of posttrial motions Thursday, including San Diego Comic-Con’s request for over $4.5 million in attorney fees which have already been paid in full.

San Diego Comic-Con attorney Callie Bjurstrom with Pillsbury Law told Battaglia Thursday he should find the case is “exceptional” so that attorney fees and costs can be awarded.

“This was a very expensive case; the reason this case was so expensive was because of defendants and their counsel and the way they litigated this case,” Bjurstrom said.

She pointed out Brandenburg testified at trial he knew about San Diego Comic-Con’s trademarks but still used “Comic Con” to name his Utah convention. Bjurstrom said the Salt Lake owners engaged in a “public intimidation campaign” once San Diego Comic-Con sent them a cease-and-desist letter to stop infringing the trademark and that Salt Lake’s attorneys filed meritless motions, “flip-flopped” on legal theories and violated court orders throughout the three-year litigation.

“If this case isn’t exceptional, I don’t know what is,” Bjurstrom said.

San Diego Comic-Con also asked Battaglia to permanently bar the Salt Lake convention from using its trademarks, arguing its reputation has been irreparably harmed by the confusion to consumers.

During the trial, San Diego Comic-Con presented evidence its attendees had contacted its employees about the Salt Lake convention, believing the two events were associated.

But San Diego Comic-Con’s request went a step further than simply asking Battaglia to enjoin the Salt Lake convention operators from infringing its trademarks: it asked the judge to bar the Salt Lake convention from using the words “comic convention” or phonetic equivalents to “Comic Con” or “comic convention.”

Bjurstrom said the injunction should include any spelling variation on “Comic Con” which is pronounced the same as the San Diego trademark, including spelling it with a “K” or “Kahn.”

“Whether you spell Comic Con with a ‘C’ or a ‘K’, it’s pronounced the same. It is exactly the same when you say it,” Bjurstrom said.

San Diego Comic-Con also asked the judge to order the Salt Lake operators to destroy marketing and advertising materials which make reference to “Comic Con” and to cease operating websites and social media accounts which reference the trademark.

Battaglia took the motions under submission and will issue a written order.

(3) WIKIPEDIA. Juliet McKenna asks “What can SFF fandom do about the inherent bias of Wikipedia?”. The author looked into the question because the Wikipedia entry about her was flagged for deletion, on grounds that she is not sufficiently notable:

It seems Wikipedia is aware of its systemic bias, as detailed in this article. Read this, and related pieces, and I imagine many of you will note, with the weary contempt of familiarity, the repeated insistence that it’s up to women themselves, and other under-represented groups to do all the hard work here. Though I haven’t found anything addressing the issue I raise above, explaining what we’re expected to do when sufficient acceptable citations simply do not exist, and those references that do exist are not deemed acceptable. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

On the plus side, I have learned that there are dedicated groups of female and other special-interest Wikipedians spending considerable time and effort updating and expanding pages, intent on correcting this bias. Mind you, I also learned their work is frequently challenged and even undone by other Wikipedians applying the all too prevalent and far too often white western male logic of ‘not of interest to me personally = not of interest to anyone’. And of course, such challenges can very easily be a thinly veiled cover for actively discriminatory behaviour. Having read the Wikipedia page on handling tendentious editing, I am not in the least reassured that this is in any way satisfactorily addressed.

(4) LUCRATIVE SFF AUCTION. Fine Books & Collections was standing by the cash register: “Sci-fi from the Stanley Simon Estate Breaks Records in Swann Literature Auction”.

Science fiction ruled on May 15 at Swann Galleries’ auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature. Selections from the Estate of Stanley Simon, featuring 84 rare and first editions of cornerstones of the genre, boasted a 98% sell-through rate. All of the offered titles by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick and Stephen King sold, with many achieving auction records.

Leading the pack was a signed first edition of Dick’s dystopian novel The Man in the High Castle, 1962, which was purchased by a collector for $10,400, above a high estimate of $6,000, a record for the work. Another record was achieved by a signed first edition of Ubik, 1969, at $5,500, while the auction debut of the rare galley proofs for Valis, 1981, reached $5,000.

Simon had acquired several uncorrected proofs of important works, none of which had previously appeared at auction. While not strictly science-fiction, material by Stephen King outperformed in this category. The highlight was the presentation copy of an uncorrected proof of The Stand, 1978, which sold to a collector for $9,100. Also available were one of apparently 28 copies of proofs of King’s The Shining, 1977, inscribed, which sold for five times its high estimate for $6,250, and the complete six-volume set of uncorrected proofs of King’s The Green Mile, 1996, exceeded its $1,200 high estimate to sell for $5,200.

Another highlight from the Simon estate was the complete Foundation trilogy, 1951-53, by Isaac Asimov. Together, the three signed first editions achieved an auction record of $9,750. Also by Asimov, a signed first edition of I, Robot, 1950, reached $6,250, above a high estimate of $3,500. Important editions of Ray Bradbury’s magnum opus Fahrenheit 451, 1953, were led by the limited author’s edition personally inscribed to Simon ($7,500). The popular asbestos-bound edition reached $5,200. All six editions offered were purchased….

(5) LE GUIN’S LAST EARTHSEA STORY. The Paris Review has a story by Ursula K. Le Guin. And not just any story, but a final Earthsea tale, written a year before her death. (So I’m guessing it’s the last one.)

He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing that little boat with Vetch, not on the western sea but eastward, past Far Toly, right out of the Archipelago. It was not a clear memory, because his mind had not been clear when he made that voyage, possessed by fear and blind determination, seeing nothing ahead of him but the shadow that had hunted him and that he pursued, the empty sea over which it had fled.

(6) BUMBLEE TRAILER. This movie will be in theaters at Christmas.

Every adventure has a beginning. Watch the official teaser trailer for Bumblebee, starring Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena.

 

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY PRODUCER

  • Born June 5, 1953 – Kathleen Kennedy

(8) IT’S A JUNGLE OUT THERE. Of possible interest to Sarah Gailey fans (because of a hippo reference) is this segment from the June 3 episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, on the subject of guardianship for the elderly. The relevant portion starts at about the 13:20 mark. That’s where John Oliver introduces a new PSA on the subject, starring several celebrities – including William Shatner.

(9) DOG DAYS. This perfect poem inspired a thread of deep appreciation for the artist…

https://twitter.com/DelilahSDawson/status/1001854513492488192

(10) DINO APPRECIATION SUMMIT. Chuck Tingle and Jeff Goldblum had an internet encounter —

(11) WALL POLITICS. And they’ll make the schwein pay for it. (Oh, wait, that’s something else….) “Denmark backs fence on German border to keep out wild boar”.

Denmark’s parliament has voted to build a 68-km (42-mile) fence along the border with Germany in a bid to protect the pork industry from the spread of African swine fever.

The vote aimed at keeping out wild boar is controversial for several reasons.

Environmental campaigners doubt it will stop the animals entering Denmark, while others say Germany has no trace of the virus.

Some in Germany have condemned the move as gesture politics.

Work on constructing the fence is unlikely to start until autumn, after an assessment by Denmark’s environmental protection agency.

(12) MORE WALL POLITICS. Security décor from another era: “The 12 best posters from the very odd NSA archive”.

Long before it was at the centre of a huge spying scandal, the US National Security Agency had the communist threat to deal with – and wanted to make sure its staff did not spill secrets.

A vast archive of posters, apparently for display at the spy agency’s offices, has been posted online thanks to a freedom of information request from governmentattic.org.

The website asked for “a digital/electronic copy of the NSA old security posters from the 1950s and 1960s”, although confusingly it also got one featuring John Travolta.

Here are some of our favourites. The full, 139-page document, can be found here.

(13) CASTLE COCKY. More trademark hoo-hah: “Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your trademark restrictions”.

Rapunzel, the long-haired maiden locked in a tower by an evil witch, has been immortalized in countless bedtime stories and adaptations, from the Brothers Grimm to Disney. There is even a teenage rapper who goes by the name RapUnzel.

Now, a private company wants to lock the princess’s name in a castle fortified by United States trademark law.

But this attempt to register the trademark for the name Rapunzel has unleashed fervent opposition, not from Hasbro or Mattel, but from an impassioned group of Suffolk University Law School professors and students.

(14) DINO DUBIOSITY. The BBC asks “Does Jurassic Park make scientific sense?” Can you guess the answer? I knew you could…

In 1993, Steven Spielberg’s film Jurassic Park defined dinosaurs for an entire generation.

It has been credited with inspiring a new era of palaeontology research.

But how much science was built into Jurassic Park, and do we now know more about its dinosaurs?

As its 25th anniversary approaches, visual effects specialist Phil Tippett and palaeontologist Steve Brusatte look back at the making of the film, and what we’ve learned since.

So, first of all, what did Jurassic Park get wrong? It started off by inheriting some complications from Michael Crichton’s novel, on which the film was based.

“I guess Cretaceous Park never had that same ring to it,” laughs Brusatte.

“Most of the dinosaurs are Cretaceous in age, that’s true.”

(15) SWEET WRITING. Cat Rambo tasted these chocolate bars for Green Man Review: “Chuao Chocolatier’s Chocolate Bars with All the Add-ins”.

Here in America we like our add-ins, ice cream and candy full of other candy, nuts, random sweets, and sometimes savories. Chuao (pronounced Chew-WOW) has a shelf-load of such, chocolate bars with all the goodies, created by Venezuelan chef Michael Antonorsi.

Most of the bars I tried were terrific but some are more successful than others. Idiosyncrasies of taste may make a difference; when I tweeted about the one I really disliked, someone mentioned that was their favorite, and bemoaned not being able to find it. And it’s not entirely fair to stack dark chocolate up against milk, particularly given that my sweet tooth resembles that of a six-year-old’s. Still, I present them in order of how much I liked them, from most to least.

First up, the “Baconluxious”. Described as “delicate maple sweetness, a sprinkle of bonfire smoked sea salt and crispy, uncured bacon in milk chocolate.” This had a nice aroma and when tasted, an immediate smoothness to its mouth feel, followed by a wash of saltiness and not-unpleasant grittiness before the final bacon note, leaving just a few salt crystals to be crunched between the tooth and savored. This was delicious to the point where I thought I would and then did readily pick one of these up again. And probably will again and again….

(16) A BOY AND HIS ROBO DOG. The AXL Official Trailer came out recently.

In the vein of classic ‘80s family movies SHORT CIRCUIT and FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR, A.X.L. is a new adventure about a down-on-his luck teenage bike rider, Miles (Alex Neustaedter), who stumbles upon an advanced, robotic, military dog named A.X.L. Endowed with next-generation artificial intelligence but with the heart of a dog, A.X.L. forms an emotional bond with Miles, much to the chagrin of the rogue military scientists who created A.X.L. and would do anything to retrieve him. Knowing what is at stake if A.X.L. gets captured, Miles teams up with his smart, resourceful crush, Sara (Becky G), to protect his new best friend on a timeless, epic adventure for the whole family.

 

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Robin Reid, Cat Eldridge, JJ, Jonathan Cowie, Martin More Wooster, Chip Hitchcock, K.M.  Alexander, Rev. Bob, Dann, Mike Kennedy, Michael D. Toman, Carl Slaughter, Steve Johnson, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Stoic Cynic.]

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117 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 6/5/18 Scroll Is A Pixel, And I Want My Money Back”

  4. @Andrew

    +1
    ——————————————–

    (16) number five is alive! ( not actually five, sacrificial forth)

    ———————————————

    Yay, for title credit!

  5. 6) Well, it’s nice to see that Bumblebee is back to being a VW Beetle like he originally was portrayed. Though the implications of Transformer/human romance could very easily cross over into the same territory as the implied Shia LaBoeuf, Megan Fox and Bumblebee threesome in the first Transformers movie.

    11) I’m not in Schleswig-Holstein, but I’m pretty sure that if we had a swine flu outbreak in Germany, I’d have heard of it. And while wild boar can be dangerous and you’re well advised to keep away from them, if you chance to spot some in the woods, I strongly suspect that wild boar are not the only or even the main type of immigrant this border fence is supposed to keep out.

  6. I heard that there’s a lot of good buzz about BUMBLEBEE!

    The John Oliver segment was actually pretty good, not just for the hippos. But doesn’t Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cameo deserves a mention?

  7. That Bumblebee trailer makes it look like the movie… might… actually… be… fun.

    I’m not used to that, from a Transformers movie.

  8. @11: well, that means there won’t be Asterix in Denmark; Obelix would be desolated to find there were no boars….

  9. @Bruce Arthurs

    FWIW: of the Transformers franchises the best might be Transformers Prime. My stepson is not a morning person. For at least a year in Middle School the best way to wake him was stumble him to the couch and put Prime on for 30 minutes till he was actually awake. Then send him to the shower. Put the show on since it was playing in that time slot but really it was pretty good and much better than the movies.

  11. Heads-up for UK Filers buying Raksura books – Volume 1 of Stories of the Raksura doesn’t appear to be available in ebook form from Amazon UK, but it is available on iBooks and may be available elsewhere.

  13. @JJ

    Yeah, the collection, not the first novel. 🙂 One of the stories is available in a solo volume, but since it’s the same price as the collected volume elsewhere I wouldn’t recommend it unless having an Amazon copy was absolutely required.

  14. (15) good lord that bacon chocolate sounds absolutely vile. Popping candy is actively painful for me to eat so I’d be avoiding that one too. Also “non-GMO” is nonsense – we’ve been messing around with our food for as long as we’ve been into agriculture, at least.

  15. Oneiros: good lord that bacon chocolate sounds absolutely vile

    Thank you for saying that! I’ve got nothing against bacon (I just hate it when it’s been cooked to the point where it breaks, rather than bends) and I enjoy it with eggs and on BLTs, but I do not understand the fixation on putting bacon or bacon flavor into everything*.

    *or, for that matter, taping it to cats <side-eyes Scalzi>

  16. I will speculate on nothing but anecdata that the obsession with bacon-plus-something-incongruous came from commercializing the bacon-maple syrup combination. I mostly like my breakfast items rigorously separated*, but it’s hard to avoid that combination, and hard to hate it (though I don’t love it).

    Once that taboo was broken, dogs and cats lived together, like chickens and waffles.

    And you know what those dogs ate? Bacon. Taped to cats. The cats ate it, too, tape and hair and everything. After all, it was bacon.

    *Though my dear Aunt Martha introduced me to bacon crumbled into scrambled eggs when I was twenty-two. Now I often crumble my own in restaurants to this day.

  17. (5) now I have to find a copy of the Paris review …

    @ Cora
    You’re quite right. The current Danish government is quite weak, and given to political theatre, e.g. the recent burka ban “ to support equal rights for women”.

  18. (2) Does this mean what’s his name of the Utah con will say some more dumbass stuff in public again? With the crap he says in public, I can sympathize with San Diego’s claim of besmirched reputation.

    (5) Ack! Was really getting into it when it literally faded out. Great credential description.

    (8) See, this is what happens when you don’t have proper hippo ranching. Hee.

    (10) One of the most internet moments ever!

    (14) Listen, the sequels don’t even make dramatic sense. Stop building the damn parks, people!

    (15) I want all of them. I’ve had most of them, but they’re a bit pricier than my usual… I generally pick them up at the grocery store, sigh, drool, and put them back. Unless we’ve got mo’ money than expected (almost never) or it’s been ridiculously stressful and the choc outweighs the money-spending guilt (rarely).

    I’ve had bacon chocolate in both milk and dark, and although I normally insist on having my chocolate at 85% or above, bacon chocolate really needs to be milk. It makes a nice contrast between the sweet and salty-savory. Sooo good. Vosges is better than Chuao in that department.

  19. (5) LE GUIN’S LAST EARTHSEA STORY.

    My library has an e-subscription, but they don’t show the June issue as being available yet. I am going to have to make a note reminding myself to keep checking until it’s available.

  20. @JJ: Right? I don’t get the obsession with bacon. I like it well enough as part of, eg, a full English breakfast, or in a burger or other sandwich-type foods but it’s not like it’s the greatest thing ever. I can only blame the internet hype machine.

    ETA @John A Arkansawyer: crumbled into scrambled eggs does sound pretty damn good though.

  21. @Cora:

    11) I’m not in Schleswig-Holstein, but I’m pretty sure that if we had a swine flu outbreak in Germany, I’d have heard of it.

    The fence is about something called African swine fever, not swine flu. African swine fever is a disease that’s deadly to pigs but not apparently to boars. (And it doesn’t transmit to humans.) But yes, the closest recorded case is in Poland, so the Danish fence is a bit odd but I think they’re working from a better safe than sorry-perspective. The pork industry is huge in Denmark, but struggles with diseases and high antibiotics use already so I think they’re pretty desperate to avoid one more disease.

    And while I understand your implication about other immigrants, Danish politics being what they are, that truly doesn’t seem to be a factor. For one thing, a 1,5 m high fence is an annoying but hardly uncrossable obstacle for a two-legged immigrant.

  22. 3) Yeah, the systemic bias of Wikipedia extends far beyond SFF, but Juliet has a point in the particular. Wikipedia is not as broad in its sources and editing as it appears. That conservative version that Camestros sometimes pokes at shows this problem in miniature.

  23. @Johan P: If there’s a case in Poland, then I completely understand the Danish vote from a “permitting takes a long, long time” perspective.

  24. (6) Should that item title be Bumblebee rather than Bumblee, or have I missed something?

    (13) STOP with the trademarking words and names in common use since forever. Just stop.

    (15) Eat what you want. Just gimme my milk chocolate with nothing in but maybe caramel or vanilla cream, and nobody gets hurt, or has to drive me to the hospital. Deal?

  25. 6) Not sure that’s what I’m looking for in a Robert Cormier adaptation.

  27. Should that item title be Bumblebee rather than Bumblee

    It’s a typo, therefore the article is on the receiving end of some bumbling, therefore it is in fact the bumblee.

  30. Pixels strike curious poses,
    They scroll the heat,
    The heat between me and you.

  31. Her name is Godstalk and she dances on the file
    Just like a pixel scrolling through a book-filled pile

  32. @ Oneiros, JJ: Thirded. I like bacon well enough, but I absolutely do not get the fad for putting it into everything, and salty chocolate has a special place in the cafeteria of Hell (with the exception, for some weird reason, of chocolate-dipped pretzels on occasion). I’ve never had the inclination to pay for salty caramel, but I suspect my reaction would be similar.

    Frankly, none of those bars would tempt me to try them — I greatly prefer dark chocolate, and the only add-ins that really add value for me are mint flavor, peanuts, coconut, and chipotle. (Singly, I hasten to add!) I will totally sample any dark-chocolate chili-pepper bar I come across; so far, my favorite brand is Dagoba.

    @ John A: I deeply sympathize with wanting to keep the maple syrup away from the bacon, and even moreso, the eggs! Bacon crumbled into scrambled eggs is okay because they’re both savory flavors; it’s the combination of sweet with savory that I generally dislike.

  33. Mildly dubious Meredith Moment — Soulless, the first of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate is currently $2.99.

    (Described as “mildly dubious” because the other four books in the series are $8.99 each, but there’s an eBook “boxed set” of the entire series for $16.99.)

  35. The reactions to bacon chocolate are fascinating. I’ll try almost any modification of dark chocolate (leaving the milk-diluted chocolate for @Lis and whoever else wants it), but IME the results vary widely; I haven’t found an orange-peel chocolate I like recently (Chocolox is too sweet, and Lindt-sold-in-the-US kind of greasy-blah), but like salted and recently found that Lindt-sold-in-Canada includes a wonderful bar flavored with lime zest. I’ve only tried one bacon bar that I recall; it was pricey and I didn’t think much of the base, so I’m hoping to find other brands that do this. I also like salted caramel (IFF it’s decent caramel to start with, instead of salted to disguise its weakness) — cf Trader Joe’s gelato, and a food columnists’ survey concluding that salted caramel was the best of ~27 flavors then on tap at greater Boston’s best ice cream store.

  36. @JJ — Yeah, they sell a single stand-alone package containing all five books for $16.99, or you can buy the individual volumes for $38.95 (which includes the $2.99 price for Soulless).

    FWIW, I think there’s a similar situation with the Finishing School books.

  37. @Msb & @JJ: Thanks for your comments about the Paris Review. I hadn’t started reading, so I hadn’t scrolled down, and hadn’t realized it was just a teaser for non-subscribers.

    @Joe H.: “Her name is Godstalk and she dances on the file / Just like a pixel scrolling through a book-filled pile”

    One of my favorite songs by Pixel Pixel! 😀

    @Lee: “. . . it’s the combination of sweet with savory that I generally dislike.”

    Yeah, I’m usually not a fan of it either. One of my friends tries to extoll its virtues, “Aw, man, but it’s the sweet and savory together!” And I’m like, “Yeah, that’s what I don’t like!” There are exceptions, like some Chinese restaurants’ sesame chicken, which tends to be pretty sweet and I love it.

    I love omelets with mix-ins like bacon or ham.

    @John A Arkansawyer: Separate plates for syrup-carriers and salt-carriers for me, please. There’s no other way to be sure/safe.

    @Various: I’ll try some of the weird chocolate concoctions, but generally prefer bacon for breakfast or on a fast-food sandwich, separate from chocolate, which deserves mix-ins like vanilla, nuts, peanut butter, or fruit.

    The real crime against chocolate is putting spicy pepper garbage into it, though. Bleah!

  40. I see what y’all are up to. You’re just trying to remind me of the über-chocolate ice cream I have in the freezer, waiting to be eaten. Chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cup pieces, and a fudge ribbon (which, as it turns out, is solid rather than the more syrupy variety in Chocolate Ripple).

    You should be ashamed of yourselves… 😉

    ETA, @JJ: Bundle vs. omnibus. The $38.95 price is for a bundle of five ebooks. The $16.99 item is one ebook which contains all five novels. Amazon allows you to buy a whole series at once, or even “all the ones I haven’t already bought from Amazon.”

  42. Rather than spend a lot of time annoying decent folk with what I don’t like, I’ll mention one thing I do like: Salazon Organic Dark (57%) Chocolate with Sea Salt & Coffee. They sprinkle the coffee around and then make the chocolate on top of it, i guess. They had them in the Olympia, WA, area when I was out there, and my sister sends me one or two now and then. Wegman’s had them here for a bit, but it was all too brief.

    There also was a time when Lay’s made these Wasabi-Ginger kettle chips, and if they still did, I’d still be addicted to them. Well, in a sense, I guess I still am. I just can’t get them any more.

  43. I am enjoying reviewing because it gives me a reason to try new candies. I hope you all appreciate the sacrifice I’m making, hurling myself onto that delicious grenade.

  44. @JJ: JJ’s Corallary: Except when they turn into book recs.

    @Cat Rambo: You’re so giving! 😉

  46. My nomination for Best Chocolate is a one-two combo: the Lindt 70% Cocoa Extra Dark Chocolate Truffle followed by the Lindt Caramel with Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Truffle. (I favor salt with chocolate AND caramel for some reason). The result: pure yumminess.

    [and click]

  47. Ah, dark chocolate….
    Especially dark chocolate with candied orange peel. Yum.
    And one especially memorable groom’s cake – a really dark chocolate cake, with marmalade between the layers and a frosting that had more cocoa in it than some chocolate bars. Never been able to recreate it.

  48. Cat Rambo on June 6, 2018 at 8:57 am said:

    I am enjoying reviewing because it gives me a reason to try new candies. I hope you all appreciate the sacrifice I’m making, hurling myself onto that delicious grenade.

    “Throw yourself on that unexploded dessert, boy!” Ivan grinned. “It’s your duty to save the Emperor from indigestion.”

  49. Steven Brust’s Book of Jhereg (1st 3 Vlad Taltos novels) currently $1.77 at Kindle Store.

  50. But at my back I always hear
    Chocolate cherries hurrying near;
    And yonder all before us lie
    Desserts of vast eternity.

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