daemonluna

...to your semi-regular dose of fanfic links.

CSI, Fibonacci A cracktastic premise (hooker!fic), made into real. Greg/Nick. "I know how this works," Greg had said. "You don't have to wine and dine me. Cops get freebies." And it was kind of hilarious in retrospect the way Nick's eyes had widened in unexaggerated horror, how he'd said, mortified, "I meant coffee! Real coffee!" and how Greg had been so shocked stupid all he could say was "Oh."

Kormanverse, I Want to Go Home, Five Things That Hang On the Wall Of Rudy Miller's Home Office 1. A green pennant, with the following text, slightly faded, printed in white: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO TRIVIAL PURSUIT CHAMPION. One day, eight weeks since the last time Mike and Rudy had a moment alone together. Sequel to A Very Long Summer and AVLS Epilogue: II. MAde of awesome.

SGA, A Slightly Different Quality of Light John sees, for a single split second, every single atom in Atlantis, every piece of information and stream of data, every problem and interface and the answer to every single mystery--the full weight of a city and its people and its 10,000 year old history and then he sees nothing at all because it's being pulled out of him, like a black hole draining a star.

SGA, Tab A Slot B "The men spend the entire meeting trying not to stare at each other's tits and failing miserably."

SGA, Two-Stepping "I didn’t know what had happened then, really." Katie’s still talking to her knees. "But I thought – some of what he said didn’t sound like Rodney, so..." Laura Cadman/Katie Brown

SGA/X-Men, With Wings So Bright They Burn "He blinked, and looked again. Where every other expedition member had their mutant abilities listed, there was a short, black line in McKay's file. McKay was human. Entirely human, and maybe John had sensed that somehow, maybe that was the reason for his spontaneous dislike, despite McKay being actually kind of cool underneath his asshole exterior."

Torchwood, Employee Benefits "He wants to see how much I want this job, I think for a minute, and then we’re back and working and it doesn’t matter, because I’m thinking; working; my brain’s ticking like I’m high on something other than Neapolitan pizza and coffee and the results are starting to make sense, I can see a pattern emerging and I’ve got a grin the size of the Bristol channel because this is just fucking brilliant." Jack/Owen

Supernatural, Under Hill "Can't we just kill a bunch of elves without having to talk about our feelings?" Dean said. "We don't know anything, okay? Maybe we hate each other's guts. Maybe we're just partners, like cops or something."

Okay, I still have seven windows of open tabs, but they're, um. Less densely packed than before.

Rick Mercer is my seekrit TV boyfriend.

If you keeping refreshing the main page at www.neilgaiman.com, eventually you'll get a picture of Neil witha plushy Cthulhu on his head.

heresluck is sharing Monday poems, yay! Last week's is Trying To Raise the Dead. And this week... When I was in high school, we were instructed to bring in a Canadian poem for English class. One of my classmates brought in Carrots.

These Poetry Month ecards from Endicott Studio are fantastic. So are the poems, like Journeybread Recipe by Lawrence Schimel ("1. In a tupperware wood, mix child and hood. Stir slowly. Add wolf.")

Speaking of poetry (only a month late), the first two Edna St. Vincent Millay poems here do indeed make sense after that snippet of biography I caught on CBC in the car. (And I got to where I was going JUST as they were discussing her many conquests in her all-female college...)

Portland changes its name for a day

And truly inspired, violetisblue writes ODE TO A SUPERMARKET CHECKER WHO FLATLY REFUSED TO BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAID THE SINGLE YELLOW FRUIT IN THE PLASTIC BAG WAS AN ATAULFO MANGO

Icons, mostly Doctor Who and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

***

Angel/BtVS, techsupoort@demons.com "To: wrosenb@ucs.edu From: queenc@lanet.com Subject: Question" Epistolary and apocalyse-y mid-series goodness.

Firefly/Sandman, Everybody Dies Alone "You’re Death," he said. She smiled and tapped her nose. "But . . . ain’t you s’posed to be ugly?"
"I think you’re confusing me with dying," said Death wryly. "That can be an ugly business, I’ll admit."

GA, Christina commentfic "Cristina lost her virginity to a boy in high school, because it seemed like something to do."

GA, Seattle Grace's Scandalous Lesbian Affair, as Told Through Sports Terminology 1. First Base: When Izzie and Addison first kiss, they're arguing. Izzie starts respectfully disagreeing with Addison on the walk from a patient's room, until they're both too upset to continue to disagree respectfully, and Addison steers Izzie into an empty patient's room so she can lose her temper.

GO, Trials and Tribulations In which Aziraphale dodges evangelists.

House, Observations Did anybody else notice how Wilson still never got his DVD player back?

SN, The Memory of Hurts "Casey." Dan was earnest. "Just think of it as another assignment, okay? One where we got incredibly lucky with the travel agent, and we know that no one is gonna look at our expense reports."

SGA, Poltergeist "Sleep to sex in under ten seconds. Maybe I'm not sorry I woke you after all." Non-work-safe snippet.

SGA, Offer Extends to the Pegasus Galaxy "You'd think the mission reports would be enough to silence the gossip. Since Elizabeth just tends to sigh, shake her head and say 'I was warned about this, I can't say I wasn't prepared. I brought it on myself by agreeing to head this mission. Did you get the grain shipment?', you'd think they'd stop. But no, it just seems to fuel the nay-sayers."

SGA, 2010 "Just try to remember not to mention aliens in your acceptance speech." And a related ficlet, Class As

SGA, The Scientific Method
"Congratulations, Colonel, I suspect you've just managed to be the first person in history to have an accidental orgy." Ancient techology made them do it!

SGA, Headbangers Ball "Traditionally, Teyla’s people sing only on the most formal and solemnof occasions, mainly to commemorate the fallen. This is music like nothing she has ever known – fiercely, relentlessly joyful, tumultuous and noisy and disorderly, and it haunts her, a thunderous tide at theback of her mind. It feels blasphemous to sing. It feels necessary. She thinks she may know why this is."

SGA, Missionary Position The Wraith was looking at Rodney again, fixedly. "Proceed," it said. "Describe your non-lethal mating procedure." One of the funniest things I've read in a good, long while.

SGA, Hold Hands and Try To Look Sincere
"for a brief moment, John was utterly, utterly sure that Rodney was going to open his mouth again and say something completely and positively true and also completely and positively inappropriate and regarding their sometimes usually-when-under-alien-duress sex life." Hee! Much fun.

SGA, Welcome to the Working Week "Oh, and by the way, it's not actually your job to make coffee. I mean, it's not in your job description or anything. But I'm telling you now: make the coffee. First of all, it's something to hold over Dr. McKay's head, because technically you could stop and he'd shrivel up like a raisin. Second, the days here are twenty-eight hours long, so trust me, you are not going to make it through the period of adjustment without your friend and mine, caffeine. Third, you only have to make the first pot, and anything after that is their job-- yeah, I think the guy before me insisted on that. Anyway, when Dr. McKay is being mean, I usually make the first pot so it makes about a cup and a half. Then I have a big cup of coffee." Fantastically realized futurefic.

SGA, The Last Full Measure of Devotion "So he sets his teeth and lets it happen." Rodney dreams of a better world. Dark. (Easily the creepiest thing I've read since Seven Circles Twisting.)

Traders, Love and Kisses Grant learned about ‘kissing on the mouth’ when he was four. Pyjama’d and teeth brushed and tucked up in blanket next to his Nana on the couch, watching actors in a black and white and gray movie, he asked: "What are they doing?"

Wilby Wonderful, ficlet "Say you meet this genie, and he tells you can have whatever your heartdesire. Anything you want," Duck says, and then he waits.

Behold, vid recs!

Dr Who, Clocks Some really good timing and clip choice here.

Dr Who, Exile No going home. Nicely bittersweet, and probably spoilery.

DS, Out Here makes me want to watch DS again and reminds me how much I like Benton Fraser.

DS, Icebound Stream is a brilliant combination of Fraser, Victoria, and polar bears. If you haven't seen it already, you should download it right now.

DS, Pavlov's Bell Very well-done Fraser/RayK vid.

DS, Needful is another fantastic Fraser character vid. The song choice is dead-on, and it brings the whole series together wonderfully.

Firefly, Hallelujah It may just be because I saw it first, but this is my all-time favourite vid to this much-vidded song. A love story, about Mal and his ship, and all from one episode.

Sports Night, Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard would be spiffy-keen just because it's a good SN vid, but with the emotional impact figured in, ouch. (But that's a good ouch.)

Supernatural, The Way We Get By, just plain fun.

SGA, Welcome Home I didn't think I liked all-instrumental vids much, but this is a incredibly well done combination of clips and timing. The song choice struck me as odd for about twenty seconds before I realized it was perfect.

SGA, Last Resort is a good Rodney vid.

SGA, Stress is another good Rodney vid, and is much fun.

SGA, Creep takes a song I thought really didn't fit with the clips and convinces me otherwise. Irony lives!

SGA, Mr Jones & Me is a commentary on Atlantis and dating. Hee!

SGA, When I Grow Up, Teyla gets to be kick-ass, which is always good.

Seeing as I'm getting ever-shorter here with my editorial-ish comments, I think I'd better stop for the night and leave the fic links for later. Enjoy!

My new computer, it is waiting to be picked up! *happy dance* I'm minorly annoyed because I didn't get any notification from Purolator that it was there, and found out by checking my online order status. Also, the pick-up place is only open M-F, 10am-6pm. But realistically, I still have to spend a day or so sorting out and backing up everything on my current hard drive, and cleaning up my incredibly messy desk, etc.

That being said, I have the usual eclectic mess of recs and links:

Battlestar Galactica/[Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Stargate Atlantis, Sports Night, Alias], Domo Arigato "Look," Izzie said. "We're all really stressed right now. We all handle it different ways. Cristina moved in with Dr. Burke, I'm having sex with Alex, Meredith's having sex with... everyone... [...] Look, if George needs to think he's a robot, I think that's a perfectly valid choice." Izzie smiled at him. (Insanely, cracktastically brilliant!)

Barbie, Doll Parts Femmeslash, yay! "The thing about Barbie is that she's not as dumb as she looks."

SGA, Out of Bounds Fantastically cracktastic figure skating AU. (which mockingspike should read and tell us what he thinks, because that's the kind of t hing we make him do.)
Part one: 'Get back out there.' – 'No. I'm taking up hockey. It'll *hurt* less.'
Part two: 'So why do we have to skate in the nude again?'
Part three: Naturally, John had brought the boom box but had forgotten to bring any music.
Part four: Rodney wondered if John knew 'Mustang Sally' was a favorite with strippers the world over.
Part five: 'This is hero worship, isn't it?'
Part six: 'Me coach. You student. You keep forgetting that lately.'
Part seven: It was just hockey, not a cardinal sin.
Part eight: I'm sure when we were being chased by sabre-toothed tigers we did all kinds of neat tricks.
Part nine: 'You want to be alone?' Kim-the-unutterably-stupid asked.


SGA, The Illustrated Rodneysaurus I know I've linked to this before, but this one has pictures. Pictures!

SGA fanart, Steampunk Victorian London

Dan Brown, Cover Your Eyes: Gay Porn 'Da Vinci' Adaptation to Be Released Same Day as Ron Howard's 'Da Vinci Code' (reads premise) (dissolves into helpless giggles)

This one's also for mockingspike: Flashbacky Filky Things

The Calls of Cthulhu (looking at alessar...)
SOLICITOR: Hello, Mr. Cthulhu?
CTHULHU: Yes?
SOLICITOR: Do you have good car insurance?
CTHULHU: I am an Elder God of the Damned. I don't need that simplistic mode of transportation.
SOLICITOR: Well, I understand that you, as an elderly person, must pay a high premium.

And on a tangentially related note, Living dead take prize as oddest literary title The winner of the Bookseller magazine award for the year's oddest book title is the US volume, People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders - and What to Do About It, by Gary Leon Hill, which is said to have sold 15,000 copies.

To Cuddle a Mockingbird "A new survey for World Book Day [...] found that most readers would far rather read a novel that ends happily ever after. Pride and Prejudice was voted the happiest ending in literature, followed by To Kill a Mockingbird and Jane Eyre. In that spirit, therefore, I have begun rewriting great literature to bring it into line with popular sentiment"

An excerpr from Meg Cabot's new adult book, Queen of Babble.

From library activist Sandy Berman, Classism in the Stacks: Libraries and Poor People, and a very reasonable response, On Libraries and the Homeless.

More links coming in the not-so-distant future, now that I've fixed my internet.

Sign-up is open for the Get Cordy Laid ficathon. On the anime side of things, yuri_challenge is now open to claim a request. (Yuri=femmeslash, for the non-anime folk on my flist.)

Some icons, including HP fanart, and Libby Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty books.

Meg Cabot posts a vid-lit of a day in her life as a writer.

Buffy and Angel, Five Lovers Cordelia Chase Could Have Totally Had, If She'd Wanted Them "Touch her again and I’ll kill you." Oddly enough (for one of my recs), all het.

Firefly, Serenity as Told By the Muppets More fan art than fanfic. Must be seen to be believed.

Grey's Anatomy, Addison kisslets "Kissing Meredith *was* to get back at Derek. If it were for her, it would have been Izzie, all blonde and pretty and competent."

QAF US, Why Alcohol and Justin Don't Really Mix “Hey,” he says... or rather, slurs, but since everybody else at the table is also slurring he figures this is no big deal. He holds his drink aloft, some pink concoction that Emmett bought on Round Whatever-The-Fuck, and continues, “Have I mentioned that these are really, really good drinks?”

SGA, Coup! Badfic challenge. "Rodney and Atlantis trade bodies and a fight for John's luv ensues. Rodney tries to figure out a way to get his body out while Atlantis finally figures out what a man can do." [...] "When John is summoned to an early-morning meeting, he's more than happy to leave his 2IC with his hangdog expression and another two hours worth of inventory, even though Elizabeth's got that weird tone in her voice that means 'problematic' but also 'kind of cool'."

SGA, More Than "The wall clock said it was 1:45 in the afternoon; he'd left for lunch at 1:00 and a quick bank run--which gave him half an hour before Carter started calling at mind-bogglingly annoying three and a quarter minute intervals. Then, he'd call Rodney who'd send in the Air Force, so John figured that in the interest of saving NORAD, the United States Air Force, the local FBI bureau, the Colorado Springs police force, and himself a terrifyingly humiliating public relations incident he should probably get out of this hostage situation on his own."

SGA, Mission Reports "As of right this moment, mission reports will include only details pertaining to the status of negotiated treaties, trade agreements, or possible ZPMs. All medical details will be filtered through Dr. Beckett. As far as the Atlantis mission is concerned, don't ask, don't tell has been replaced by I don't want to know!" Flashfic documentation challenge.

SGA, Plants Flashfic documentation challenge. Short and sweet Katie fic.

SGA, Program Results "Subroutine: Daedalus\engineering\alphashift\boardroom.exe" Hermiod is perplexed.Flashfic documentation challenge.

SGA, Executive summary of the 2,037th ICCAAS human population assessment. Carried out by the Standing Committee on Statistics and Research of the Interstellar Commission for the Conservation of Ancients and Ancient-like Species (ICCAAS) during the 29,856th Wake Cycle. [Translated from the Wraith.] Flashfic documentation challenge.

SGA, Twenty Four Hours With a Rodneysaur "Rarr!" Rodney said, which didn't reassure John, but spending the evening trapped in a room with a small bored dinosaur was probably not going to be much fun.

SN, kissing snippet "Happy birthday," Casey said, and stuck an envelope under Danny's nose.

Check out the Wilby Wonderful Fanfiction index, maintained by pearl_o!

Here's a Buffy-centric but widely applicable essay on writing fight scenes.

An interesting post on language and gender.

Between the Female Gen ficathon, I Saw Three Ships, and the SGA Badfic Summary Minificathon (which I have barely started to read), I have many, many recs. Some of them are as follows:

Angel, Three Vital Rules for Staying Stylish, Even (Especially) in a World Overrun by Monsters "Look, you might know ancient prophecies and demonic dialects, and you might know axe-blades and street-fighting kung fu moves, but *I* know clothes, okay?"

Dead Like Me, Ship of Dreams Because it's about Penny.

due South, Kowalski "Even when she'd first thought about divorcing Ray, she'd never considered changing her name. Part of that was practical-— she'd battled to get where she was, and people knew her as ADA Kowalski. Part of it was simple courtesy; her mother had always told her it was devastatingly rude to return a gift given in good faith. And partly, she felt she owed it to Ray."

Firefly, Catching Snowflakes on her Tongue "The snow can't feel," River says. "It's just a thing, doesn't feel at all, no how. Not like a girl."

Firefly, Daughters of Jerusalem River's toes are always cold. This is the way she likes them. She can feel each of them at the end of her feet, count them without looking. The press down on the metal floors of Serenity, they wiggle and skim the ground (it's not ground, but it is, it's her homeland, she remembers coming from here and everything before was a dream, in utero), and when she pulls them up to sit on the chair with her, she can see white spots on the bottom of them that fade again to red as she watches. White spots like stars. "When stars fall," she tells Mal, "they turn into toes." River/Mal, eventually.

Firefly, Making New "As Inara puts the kettle away, she hears someone moving from the bridge to the kitchen. The footsteps are quiet and firm, the easy stride of someone who knows the ship and their way through it, but who is being considerate of others sleeping."

Firefly Where Circles Begin "They say most men are a little bit sly, and it may be true," Zoe mused. "But I should've known no man who used to have that mustache could be a hundred percent upright."

Grey's Anatomy, Grey's Apocalypse "The world ends on a Saturday and the first George hears about it is when a nurse comes out of the cafeteria and she walks right into him without saying anything. He's all set to get indignant when he sees that she's crying and then he just feels bad, so he apologizes for getting in her way and then gets out of it."

Grey's Anatomy, Indecisive, Thy Name Is "Later, after bad Chinese food and too much tequila, George let himself be maneuvered into service as a body pillow. Meredith lay stretched out on the couch, her head on his lap, his hands playing in her hair. Izzie tossed kernels of corn at both of them from her position on the floor, leaning against George's left leg, his right propped up on the coffee table."

Grey's Anatomy Just a Daisy in the Shadow of the Sun "His mother taught him manners, taught him to be polite to women. You open doors for them and buy them dinner and pat their shoulder when they cry and you love them, even when they break your heart, because some girls can't help but do that. Pick up their books when they drop them, pull out their chairs, never make lewd comments, never let your eyes linger below their neckline, women have eyes, they have brains, they should be respected. George knows how to treat women, but he never gets them in the end."

Grey's Anatomy, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year "This is not hate-filled rage-baking, she thinks as she grabs another armful of ingredients from the cupboard. Nor is it panicky, stressed-out avoidance-baking. No, this is Christmas-morning-in-her-slippers-with-chocolate-baking; the oven is warming up the whole kitchen and everything smells homey and the early morning quiet is just perfect as she leans her elbows on the counter and licks the wooden spoon."

Harry Potter, Twenty Random Facts About Ginny Weasley "7. For most of her first year at Hogwarts Ginny was teased mercilessly by Vera Goldman and Henrietta Wainthropp because of her second hand robes and taped together books. By second year she had learned not to let bullies get to her. She had also learned the Bat Boogey Hex."

Harry Potter, three ficlets, The Ugly Duckling, Rumplestiltskin, and Beauty and the Beast "I don't want the second one free. I don't want either one," the Goblin said. "In fact, there are still twelve minutes to go...I'm going to tell you my name, and then you'll know it and the deal will be off."

Pirates of the Caribbean, Of Swords and Flowers "Bodies were buried feet pointing east, and soon Anamaria could point due east from any point in town. Jacques called her La Boussole, and soon she was betting the other children she could point due east even blindfolded. Children who took the bet and then claimed they had no compass and thus could not confirm whether she was correct woke up to fish in their beds the next morning. Anamaria did not take kindly to losing."

RPS, Illegal Zombie-Actor Cage Fighting "You're supposed to be the guy to call if an actor wants to learn to fight zombies." This is utterly insane and I know I'm missing a lot of the jokes, but way too funny, none-the-less.

Six Feet Under, Uncertainty Billy once told Brenda that there was no such thing as a candid photograph. He sat cross-legged in the center of their parents' bed, accentuating every few words by slapping one pajama-clad thigh. "Every human being, Bren – you and I and Mom and Dad and even Dr. M.-D.-P.-H.-D. Gareth fucking Feinberg is always being observed, and any attempt to construct a narrative in which any individual can divorce himself from the gaze of the other in some arbitrary fashion long enough to be considered candid, is an imposition of false consciousness and belongs on the scrap heap of outmoded art forms."

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue, What D'Ye Lack? A drabble, Mary/Doll.

SGA, Acts of Contrition When the engines finally roar to life, Rodney McKay is not in the engine room, one fist victoriously upraised, clutching a wrench, scorch-marks on his fingers and coolant smeared across his cheek like a red badge of courage. He does not make any speeches, does not loudly proclaim his own genius, does not even offer his team a pithy, "Good work, people. Let's bring her home." When the engines start purring, when the Ancient warship Helios stirs and shudders like a cat stretching out after a ten-thousand-year nap, when the systems all start coming online at once and Rodney's crack team of highly trained scientists are in the engine room squealing like a high school pep squad, Rodney is down the hall in a utility closet.

SGA, An Aesthetic Solitary Thing "My people--" He paused again, shoulders tense, hands curled into white-knuckled fists. He was looking around at them, obviously waiting for the freak-out to come. John's pulse picked up and he was aware of the gun on his hip, but he held himself still. Rodney went on. "We can 'seed'," he made air quotes, "other races. We can pass for human." Cracktastic wingfic.

SGA, Dex In which this summary "OMG So Jon n Rodny want 2 go back 2 Lantis but sum EVOL aliens capture them! and make them make out and wear eyeliner and stuff!1! Will they EVAR get back home?!?! also, Ronin eats a cookie." becomes a partial comic, and Ronon is tricksy.

SGA, Spanish Melodies and Bones Rodney McKay/Laura Cadman/Katie Brown. Rodney looks around the empty corridor, then leans close to her and whispers. "Just because we happened to share a body once, Cadman, doesn't mean you have the right to, to," he flaps his hand between their bodies,"insinuate things."

SGA, Pull Back to Reveal Rodney/John/Ronon, A Canadian, a Satedan, and an American, in twenty steps. Exactly one week after Ronon arrived in the city, Rodney caught him standing shirtless outside Sheppard's quarters and panting. Envy trounced sensibility. "Very impressive," Rodney said. "Very muscley. And seriously, if you were trying to seduce one of the marines, or maybe Elizabeth I'd say you've got a, oh, I don't know, one in three shot? One in four if you get one of the heterosexual ones. But either way, a great initial move."

SGA, Under the Sea "You went to a frat party and tutored them in physics?" Morgenstern pulled out his chair and sat down and rubbed his face. "Of course you did." College AU! John the drunken princess! Rodney being... Rodney!

SGA, Mixing Memory and Desire “A pen?” Rodney continued. “Loose change? Scrunchies? That’s the best you could offer for me? I’m sure I’m worth much more than that on a competitive market, not to mention the fact that--ooh! Are those, what’s the word, powerbars? Is that the peanut butter flavor?”
John frowned. “Rodney, are you all right?” he started, but just then Rodney made a move for the shiny foil wrapper and John had to focus all his attention on placating the outraged Neerian, who refused to calm down and stop making explosive and most likely rude gestures until John proved that he had sufficient control over his slave by tying the piece of string around Rodney’s wrist. “You really do bring these things on yourself,” John said, as he led Rodney away.

SGA, Release Mechanism "Ronon was pretty sure it was weakening their bargaining position to stand here yammering all night. Anyone who called himself a warlord was going to notice that they had a slight issue with chain of command in this outfit, and for a people who demonstrated their prowess through the quality and quantity of the slaves they controlled.... Ronon was no diplomat, but it seemed to him that they should be taking steps to disguise the fact that there wasn’t anyone on this mission who could compel the KP sergeants to give them extra whipped cream on their sweet potato pie, let alone keep a slave in line."

SGA, In conclusion, John totally likes Atlantis best "As they're attempting to leave with their trade agreement--in the form of an enormous ark filled with painted, wooden representations of agreed-upon goods--the eldest of the four Ho'llan princes bursts into hiccupping sobs and clings to Sheppard, eyes huge and artistically red with grief at the loss of his true love."

SGA recap of 2x16, The Long Goodbye "Dude. Weir has a pimping big screen. She totally has her Playstation hooked up and plays Katamari Damancy all day while making important 'I'm working very hard' noises."

Sports Night, Imaginary Husbands of the African Savanna "One night, feeling punchy, Dana cut a picture of Joe Crede out of an old Sports Illustrated and taped it to the control room desk. Looking at him made her more confident in her producing abilities. His mild face and powerful home-run-hitting biceps had a calming effect. Natalie approved of Dana's addition to the control room décor. 'Your baseball husband should have a place of honor,' she said. Natalie, who had been loyal to Derek Jeter for as long as Dana had known her, understood baseball husbands. She understood, for instance, that it did not constitute polygamy to also have a basketball husband, a football husband, and a tennis husband."

Sports Night, I Will Be With You Again "1988 was the year Dan spent falling into bed with pretty nearly anyone, male, female, whatever, anyone who'd smile at him, anyone who'd laugh at his jokes. That was the year of the New Year's Eve party where he slept with, well, no, nobody slept, but anyway, slept with at least three of the girls there, never learning any of their names, not caring. And 1989 was the year when he was plagued by a painful, burning sensation, the year when he learned more than he had ever wanted to know about the nature of antibiotics." Six New Years' for Dan Rydell.

Then there's Fellowship of the Peep, which is LoTR, only more... marshmallowy.

From trull_sengar comes Amusing Typos from Church Bulletins "The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon."

A New Yorker article on Mary Poppins: "In the midst of the celebrating crowd, it would have been easy to overlook the sixty-five-year-old woman sitting there, weeping. Anyone who recognized her as P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, could have been forgiven for assuming that her tears were the product either of artistic delight or of financial ecstasy (she owned five per cent of the gross; the movie made her rich). Neither was the case. The picture, she thought, had done a strange kind of violence to her work. She would turn the personally disastrous première into a hilarious dining-out story, with Disney as the butt of her jokes. But she had a premonition that the movie she hated was about to change everything for her. Writing to a friend, she remarked that her life would never be the same."

Horn Book's Narnia Chronicled has a series of articles and editorials, including the 1950's original HB reviews of the books.

Out and Ignored Why are so many school libraries reluctant to embrace gay teens? From School Library Journal.

Firefly/SGA, Of Mistletoe and Other Magic "Kaylee's got the mischievous look in her eyes of a girl who's been to the botany lab and's been spreading mistletoe all 'round 'Lantis, and she can't keep the grin off her face when a tiny but extremely peevish mob catches up with her." Complications ensue, Atlantis-style.

Fried Green Tomatoes, The Night Idgie Threadgoode Fought a Vampire in Alabama "Idgie Threadgoode. You been gone three days. No word, no news. You are not going to walk into my restaurant and tell me you've been fighting vampires."

Good Omens fan art here. Crowley, Aziraphale, and a chess board.

House, three snippets "So there's a *person* in Exam Two; that doesn't mean he's a *patient*. What if he's not actually sick? What if he's here because he skipped work last week to go golfing and now his boss wants a doctor's note? Then he's not a patient, he's just lazy."

House, In Gear "What?" House assumed as innocent a look as he could muster. "I just think we ought to christen the car." Slash.

SGA, Twenty Random Facts About Atlantis 1. There’s a working ZPM recharger in McKay’s lab. It was mislabelled as a broken Ancient hairdryer. They’ll find it one day. (But the idiot who mislabelled it will have been Wraithed by then.)

SGA, Kept By Ourselves In Silence and Apart McKay had complained bitterly from the moment they were taken prisoner until the first time they took him away. When they brought him back he was beat up and quiet. Ronon had asked him if he was okay. McKay had said: "No." and when Ronon came over to look at him he said: "Don't."

SGA, Ring Out the Bells Sora/Teyla "Sora bit into an Athosian fruit, red and firm-fleshed. The spurt of tartness shocked her. She caught Teyla's eyes across the table and licked the juice from her fingers. Her heart tripped over itself, racing."

SGA, untitled snippet, When John turned into a giant bug, he refused to leave his quarters.

SGA fan art for A Beautiful Lifetime Event.

Sports Night, Sixteen Random Acts
"Dana, we've got like 16 random acts of unpredictability taking place in the last two hours in professional sports. Why do you think it's impossible for us to have film on any one of these?"
"Well, Casey, seeing that it's us, that we're five minutes nineteen seconds short on the show, and that we're on the air in 11 minutes, I would assume that God or someone has ordained that it's impossible for us to have film on any one of those 16 .. whatever you just said."
"Eleven minutes? Natalie just called 10."
"Natalie's wrong."
"She's wrong?"
Dan joined them and tapped his watch with authority. "Natalie's wrong."

This one's for chaleur23. There's a new fanfic community, dedicated to hockey slash. 2mins4slashing. Too perfect.

5ideways is an awesome web comic (that seems to be more comic book than comic strip style in its storytelling than than the author's other project, Friendly Hostility) "Something went wrong the night I died." Has a similar sort of feel to a Neil Gaiman story.

On Brokeback Mountain, cowboy movies, and latent homosexuality, from The Guardian.

Joss whedon on the future of TV "Many people have asked me, "Joss, what is the future of television? What will we watch? And how will we watch it? Surely you must know, for you are wise, and slender." I usually smile and say nothing, because I wasn't actually listening to the question. But it's a good one, and I think it's time I let you in on a few highlights of Television-to-Be."

Discworld/LOTR, Partners in Crime, 1/? "A dwarf who liked a bit of excitement and didn't mind danger could go far in the Watch. Gimli Gloinsson was both."

Discworld/Smallville, Clex-in-Discworld, or, Disclexia: A Crossover "When Lex had graduated from the Assassins' Guild, he'd thought he'd never have to see Ankh-Morpork again. And yet here he was again, his shoes dissolving in its effluence, for no better reason than that Lionel had had another of his stupid whims and really, what was new?"

DS, The Eskimo Thing "I just want you to know, Benny, this is the last time I'm going on vacation with you." And anyway, it wasn't like griping was going to get them any less naked and tied to a tree in a clearing in Fraser's woods, on Fraser's own property, captives of a squat and naked tribe of previously undiscovered Eskimos.

Firefly snippet "Say goodbye to the old street that never cared much for you anyway / And the different colored doorways you thought would let you in one day"

Good Omens, Courting Disaster
The office party had been a disaster, even by Hell's standards.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Five things that never happened to Tommy 'Gnosis' Speck

Sandman Dream, deferred One of my favourite moments in the whole of Sandman is Delerium/Delight facing down Destiny in that hard-won moment of lucidity. This plays off it wonderfully with a near-perfect Delirium voice. "It hurts" indeed.

Sports Night/Muppets, Five Muppets Isaac's Pretty Sure He Never Hired "Just... don't hurt the pig, Casey. It's just not a smart plan."

SGA, The Second Time "The next time he was the angry one, still burning up from inside and fighting to keep it from showing, fighting the way he had been since he'd woken up able to form complete sentences."

SGA, Five Ways Laura Cadman Didn't Get Laid "To put it in American terms, you can't ask, and I can't tell."

SGA, Five Ways John Sheppard Didn't Keep it in His Pants "Do not *ever* tell anyone about this," John said sharply, giving the puddle jumper a stern glare.

SGA, Three Drabbles about Ronon Dex. Slash.

SGA Natural Aptitude John, Rodney, alien sex drugs... Hot and snarky, which really, is what much SGA (fanfic) is all about.

SGA, Militant Aliens try to make them do it. John/Ronon.

Good Omens fan art, Aziraphale.

From book_icons, Hitchhiker's Guide and Good Omens icons, and Harry Potter and Narnia icons.

I am using my happy wombat icon, for though I don't have carrots, I do have chocolate-dipped ginger. Mmmmm.

Links! Many, many links! More later, when I finish with the rest of my tabs.

Babysitter's Club, Postcardathon results. This one's for queenzulu.

BtVS, Miraculous "Giles, you have to do something," Buffy said, and there was more panic than whine in her voice. "I'm not ready for this! It's too much responsibility! I don't have room! I don't have those little walkie-talkies! I don't have--a college degree!"

BtVS, Fallen Princesses "Slayer!" Drusilla gasped through a split lip that trickled down blood. "Naughty slayer come to finish me off....the stars...! the stars....they whisper lies and.....no....no...no..."

BtVS/Angel, Burkle, W., & Calendar, J. (1995). A non-linear representation of eight months in the lives of two graduate students. Really, the title says it all.

DS, more kidfic from pearl_o here and from the same continuity by lalejandra here. Ray Vecchio died in June, two weeks after Carrie came home for the summer.

HP, Cedric Diggory is very very gay a love story told in screencaps.

SGA, Pegasus in Flight About the boy who wanted to fly.

SGA, Alterations John hadn't always wanted to be a doctor.

SGA, Still "On PX-3456 Ronon gave Sheppard a clump of dirt."

SGA, Office Space and Other Tools of the Villanious Plot For the undermistletoe challenge "The Billionaire's Bodyguard." “You made him wear a collar?” “Yes, though the bell was more the point of it really,” Rodney says, the corner of his mouth slanting into his distracted ‘idiots, idiots, why am I fixing the mistakes of idiots’ expression.

SGA, Bell Curve, 9/10 "You know I have this thesis I'm working on?" John asked sarcastically. "You're just looking for an excuse to cheat on me with Norton," Rodney shot back, and handed John a muffin. "Here, it's cranberry walnut. Eat it before I steal the top." And John would, because he recognized a love token from Rodney when he saw one.

SGA, The Top of the List Rodney comes to the rescue. “That guy was—look, you don’t have to deny what—happened to you, I think, I mean, I saw—“

SGA, The Spare When she pressed her back against the ridged back of her chair, her fingers white against the armrests, Elizabeth said, "It is your duty to the empire to marry Rodney McKay."

SGA, Feeding Frenzy The pairing is anyone/everyone. Incredibly un-work-safe, incredibly funny.

SGA, WWII desktop No, not fic, but damn nifty.

Young Wizards, drabble. The pairing? Lone Power/Nita.

Some Macdonald Hall quotes on icons.

girlwank, the watch journal for femslash_today, is collecting holiday fic challenges with femslash. So if you know any that need to be added to the list, let them know! (That would be things like the saffic holiday challenge!)

And speaking of challenges, there's The Alantis Urban Legend Slash Challenge.

A new SGA community, stargate_legos. Hee!

Cool Roman legion T-shirt from glarkware.

Neil Gaiman's blog: Here at www.neilgaiman.com we're painfully aware that, after five years of me blogging, we're alienating a whole new generation of blog-readers for whom a middle-aged male author maundering on about writing stuff is, frankly, pretty stale. We need a breath of fresh air, just like Winnie the Pooh. Therefore the rest of this blog entry will be written by Skippy, a fictional six-year-old tomboy and computer genius, with a small number of endearing catchphrases.

I wholeheartedly agree with spike21's 10 things that technology seriously needs to invent right now.

Same-sex marriage ruling a positive step South Africa will be the first African nation to legalize same-sex unions.

The American Library Association makes members pay the registration fee to speak at conferences. I cannot tell you how wrong this is. Gyah.

And now, I need to go get some shopping done. I am afraiiiid...

Pratchett--Monstrous Regiment, This Little Chapel,"There were plaques up all around the Grey House, hanging over them as they worked. Magda once found Tilda Tewt tracing the curvy letter with the line across on the wall below, her lips moving. Abomination. Sister Marcus was walking just behind Magda, so she cleared her throat loudly. Tilda was startled and drew her hand down just in time. That was before they really knew each other." Grim in the right places, and hopeful at the end.

Sports Night, Good Idea, Bad Idea "Whose idea was it to send us to Pittsburgh to cover the Steelers' game? Both of us? I'd be a lot happier if I were watching you suffer through this wind chill from the comfort of a nice warm studio."

SGA, Bell Curve, 7/10 They ate dinner on the living room floor, watching the lights blink and The Christmas Story on television and trading off "My worst Christmas ever…" stories until John fell asleep on Rodney's shoulder, snuffling into Rodney's neck, hair soft and warm against Rodney's cheek.

SGA, Northeastern "The snow didn't bother him, like it did to some of the other students. Whenever someone else came into the lab while he was working, they talked about how much they all wanted the winter to end. Frankly, Rodney started to tune them out; they just interrupted his train of thought. He had been yelling at them at first and of course that earned him no new friends, but he wasn't in school to make friends." Plus, there's a cute kitty!

SGA, blood in old snow Sheppard/Ronon/Teyla, "Two against one is bad odds!"

SGA, untitled snippet, "Afterwards John could never quite remember the worst moment. He remembered with terrifying clarity the time before - the way he’d stood warily in the cell as the three guards came in instead of taking him out, not what he’d been expecting, the way he hadn’t tried to get away because he knew it was pointless, the way he’d struggled anyway, hopeless, helpless instinct, when they pinned him across the table in the corner, his back bent mercilessly double, arms wrenched above his head, and the third one grinned at him and opened his pants and reached out for him." Also related, this snippet.

SGA, Quiet "What Rodney says when he says nothing."

A list of the extras on the SGA DVDs.

Whedon: Buffy Lives In Comics Joss Whedon told fans on the Whedonesque.com fan Web site that he will be continuing the story of the Slayer in a series of Dark Horse comics, which he will write.

So You've Decided to Raise the Dead, a discussion of zombies from scifi.com.

Otters winning battle of wits "In an admission that the slick-furred creatures refuse to respect boundaries imposed by man, authorities want to officially abandon their otter-relocation policy."

Amusing little animation thingie here, Interview with an Honest Boss.

And an addictive pig-stacking game. No, really!