Holdouttrout

Okay, so I have to say that at least one of the pairings was completely not fair, that being Joe Woodard/Mandie Shaw. That's not particularly fair because I don't know how many people outside the conservative Christian circle have actually read the Mandie Books. This is a highly subjective list, seeing as it was taken entirely from a friend's bookshelf--it was her party, after all. Perhaps you can discuss in the comments.

Here are the answers: 


Guesses, unfortunately for those of you who didn't, were counted in these totals. (assuming you would get about half correct if you guessed, you can adjust the numbers accordinly if you want, but I'm just going off what I have).

seldear	38
mrspollifax	36
agent_nica	34
supplyship	34
la_tante	33
likethesun2	31
beanpot	31
poetressforgod	29
knightedrogue	26
caladria	26
thekatebeyond	25
spiletta42	24
pepper_field	24
vflick	23
aurora_novarum	22
peri81	19

I have to say that I was very amused by some of the crack pairings some of you came up with.

Here are some questions you had:

1. Dude. Did You guys leave off Wesley and Buttercup?
*checks list* Apparently. That *is* quite the travesty.

2. When you give us the answers, will you also tell us what story they are from?
*grins*

And yes, context *is* everything. Someone remarked about Boaz and Ruth taking them a while, and I did the SAME thing, where I was like, "Who is Boaz? Which Ruth--OH!" Not like I read that book of the Bible (along with Esther) entirely too much when I was a kid and forced to sit in church without a Mandie book. *grins*

So did you have fun?

Remember when you were a kid and you couldn't get enough of pushing the limits--going just one block farther, one branch higher, one more bounce on that trampoline?

Well, this week, it's time to recapture some of that exploratory genius. I guess you could call it "Take a Walk Week," but...exploring isn't about the walking as much as it is about the seeing. Don't just take that old house on the corner for granted. Snap a picture and think about it. Develop a theory. Try not to look creepy. ;-)

Your mission: to find something interesting. Anything interesting. An old bike you used to own. A really cool crack in the sidewalk that looks like Jesus. The view from a tree you never climbed because you thought you shouldn't. A favorite storefront.

Then report back.

Disclaimer: I take absolutely no responsibility for any illegal actions (like tresspassing) resulting from this post. Use your own judgement, peoples.

I know what you're thinking. "Read a book? But I read books all the time!"

But it makes sense, I swear! For one thing, books are awesome. For another thing, people throughout history have believed that books are some of the most dangerously daring objects ever created by man. More dangerous than operating heavy machinery while on cold medicine!

Okay, so banned book week isn't until like, September, but the Young Reader's Choice Award nominees are quietly stalking library bookshelves near you. And if there's one thing about YRCA books, it's that some of them are regarded as very daring indeed.

Looking for Alaska, in the senior division, is a book about Miles "Pudge" Halter and his friends and experiences at a boarding school in Florida. It tackles some pretty hefty issues, and even has an (hilarious) almost-sex scene (on which grounds it was challenged by parents at Depew High School near Buffalo, New York for being "pornographic").

Or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in the intermediate division, which has controversy following it simply because it's Harry Potter. (It also has some pretty mature themes.)

Of course, there are also some plain good reads among the nominees--and I don't think you can go too wrong with any of them. Personally, I love reading good YA literature, possibly even more than reading good "adult" literature. (I mean the normal fiction sections, you gutter-minded people.)

What books have you read recently that challenged you? Doesn't have to be YA or challenged...just challenging.

Languages are always important for a dangerously daring person to know. For instance, it is vitally important that, should you travel to a foreign country, you can ask where the bathroom is, and also be able to tell someone you love them. Everything else can be covered with pointing and charades.

Now, the boy's book has Latin phrases, which are interesting, but not terribly useful. And the girl's book has Spanish phrases, which are useful but not particularly interesting--except for the Spanish equivalent of "The real McCoy," which makes me crack up. So I went with Spanish and decided to do a (very little) bit more research.

Oh, yes. I'm sure you're thinking to yourself: She is going to talk about Spanish vocab words, which I have no use for at all. Why bother clicking on the cut?

Because I'm going to give you some unusual Spanish phrases, that's why.

( The real McCoy! )

In the comments, if you have unusual phrases you think everyone should know, you should share them.

After reading countless summer camp books, I always wanted to short-sheet someone's bed. I bet most of you know how, but I never did--it's really simple, actually. All you have to do is tuck the sheet in at the top of the bed and fold it over. I'm sure I could have used this knowledge sometime in the past 20 years or so!

Of course, now I don't have anyone else's bed to short-sheet. *is sad*

EDIT: I'll give 10 million bonus points to the first person to write me fic about SG-1 while somehow mentioning short-sheeting. Bonus points if there's mini!folk involved.

Anyway, what's more amusing to me than this week's topic are the Amazon reviews on the two books. It's like fandom_wank, but without the fandom! On the one hand, you've got the "OMG! Such nostalgia!" folks, and on the other, you have "This book has elements of the occult and should be burned!" folks. Then, to spice things up, there's the guy who says: "This book says a boy should go out and kill an innocent animal! That's murder!" And then there are the, "Why is this book marketed to teens?" people (who actually have a point, in my opinion, but if people can't figure out a 15-year-old girl might not want a book that tells her about stuff she already knows, that's their own problem).

I bet kids' book reviews are a great place to find teh crazy.

I couldn't for the life of me come up with anything useful to do with knots, so today I gave up. Instead, I got out my cache of Mardi Gras beads and my Vala action figure (still no Sam--mail is running slow!) and came up with a little illustration of why knots are so important.

(WARNING: these knots don't actually work that well with Mardi Gras beads. Proceed with caution!)

( Vala demonstrates knots while escaping from my room! )

Also, I now have a profound respect for people who do action figure theater. This was entirely too hard. And my pictures kind of suck.

Our adventure through the Dangerous, Daring world of both boys and girls continues this week with a brief-- but absolutely essential-- lesson in knots. You can follow Sam Gamgee's advice and pack all the rope you want before setting out on an adventure, but if you don't know how to tie anything but a granny knot, you're in trouble. The last thing you want when scaling a cliff is for your knot to slip, causing you to plummet to an early and painful death.

The Dangerous Book for Boys has five essential knots, four of which are located on this page: the square knot, the sheet bend, the bowline, and the clove hitch. The last knot is the figure eight knot.

(By the way, Knotting and Knots is the main page for the site. It looks like a great resource for knotting, with animated examples for a lot more knots than I mentioned here.)

I did manage to make all of them, though I definitely need to get actual ropes to try these out again--or maybe I can dig up some of my old shoelaces?

My challenge to you is to learn at least one of these knots and then find something to try it out on. Hitch a horse. Hang something up you've always wanted out of the way. Tie up a coworker (with their consent, people!). Then report back. And if you have other knots that someone absolutely must know, you should say so in the comments.

Some of you mentioned that you'd be interested in doing something with me from The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls.

So each week--next week I'll start posting on Mondays--I'll post a subject/activity, and links where you can find more information about it.

This week is paper airplanes. There are instructions for two paper airplanes in The Dangerous Book for Boys. You can find the instructions by going to Amazon and looking at the excerpt from the book, or you can find other paper airplane instructions that look interesting and try them out.

( What I tried )