Morning Coffee (12/31/14)

Happy New Year's Eve! You should check out the Google Doodle, of course.

John Green has a great video up about systemic racism.

More evidence Mayan civilization collapsed because of drought

Aaah, Wolf Hall trailer!

11 Muppets You Wouldn’t Invite To A New Year’s Eve Party

How late the world stays up on New Year’s, in one map

The science and magic of mulled wine

Here's some interesting stuff about Kindle Unlimited.

Charles Dickens’ Internet Search History

Morning Coffee (12/30/14)

(Hello out there!)

Here's another great story about my neighbor Mae Keane, the last of the radium girls.

No, Argentina's president did not adopt a Jewish child to stop him turning into a werewolf

Breaking news: Ladies can drink whiskey too!

Our Windowless Megachurches Are Killing the Stained Glass Industry

Wow: NORAD's Santa Tracker Began With A Typo And A Good Sport

OH MY GOD Tom Hiddleston Sang a Christmas Carol with Puppy in His Lap

Deck the halls with Nobel physicists

The Cost of Things in Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ Music Video

Morning Coffee (12/19/14)

Why Sony Was Wrong to Pull The Interview

Probably a LOT of us could benefit from taking a break and reading this right now: The Holiday Hellidays Stress Test Shit Show: Starring You!

Someone Invited a Vegetarian for Dinner? DON'T PANIC

I'm so excited about the new Judy Blume book.

Moving wind forecast puts beautiful weather in your browser

A New British Show Will Feature a Space Ark Piloted by an Android Bear

Oooh, book socks.

How to Tell If You Are in a Baby-Sitters Club Book

Morning Coffee (12/18/14)

Sony won't release The Interview Christmas Day after all

Why we're reporting on Sony's leaked info

The Doomed Sandy Hook Lawsuit

The Trouble with Teaching Rape Law

Church of England Names Libby Lane as First Female Bishop

Questions were raised about The Toast's contract terms earlier this week, and I'm impressed with how they're handling it.

Funny but also useful: Your Quick & Easy Guide To The 5 New Instagram Filters (And What To Use Them For)

Instacart and Di Bruno: Because Sometimes You Just REALLY Need Your Cheese Delivered to You in an Hour (My cousin works for them in Philadelphia and obvious I am very impressed with her work. CHEESE DELIVERY.)

Amazing: A Spinster’s Holiday Gift Guide: What To Buy For The Woman Who Loves Solitude

Morning Coffee (12/17/14)

Please check out this very important op-ed by my mother and her colleagues: Connecticut is dismantling its system of mental health care for children

Sorry, But You Can't Wear Your Pats Jersey To The Aaron Hernandez Trial

Whoa. SUPPOSEDLY Comcast is going to let Roku have the HBO and Showtime apps. I'll believe it when I see it, but this would be awesome.

This piece about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees is interesting. I didn't know there was DISCO CONTROVERSY.

Worth hours of fun: Google's year in search.

Huh: The fastest-growing job in each state

Sarah Wendell of the great romance fiction site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a new Hanukkah romance out and it's only 99 cents.

THESEUS: OH
Stringy
the, the helping girl
no I
I had a vision from the gods
they told me to leave her here
for god reasons

Morning Coffee (12/16/14)

Check out today's Kandinsky Google doodle.

17 Cosy Reading Nooks To Get You Through The Winter I WANT ONE.

The New Cosmopolitan & the Slow Climb Out of Lipstick-and-Lasagna Land

Go Fug Yourself's Holiday Gift Guide is always a delight.

There's another great book-related gift guide at Novel Novice.

This is mesmerizing: What Colour Is It?

I kind of want to make these Anna and Elsa stockings just for MYSELF.

Doctors Performing Surgery For The First Time In Western Art History

Morning Coffee (12/15/14)

Me elsewhere: TV news for the week!

I love Vox's list of Books to Read to Understand the World.

So, Northeastern's radio station has been playing Oasis 'Don't Look Back In Anger' on a loop for hours

"Soon we'll have a peppermint bark origin story. Very dark. Very gritty. I worry about franchise dilution. It used to be about the BARK, man."

Quiz: Which Disney Heroine Are You? (Belle, of course.)

Here are some fun book-related gift ideas.

The Whole Foods Holiday Help site is pretty great.

Whoa: Tiny Flip Books Create A Miniature World In Your Hands

Signs You May Be At Risk For “Space Madness”

Morning Coffee (12/11/14)

Make sure you check out today's Annie Jump Cannon Google doodle.

Enlisted is coming to DVD!!

Shocker: That DNA Evidence Identifying Jack the Ripper Was Wrong After All

"There is no need for the child playing princess to imagine herself as Henry Potter's secret twin sister Henrietta to make herself the hero: the princess is already the hero."

The Elf on the Shelf is the greatest fraud ever pulled on children

I just read and loved Claire Legrand's Nutcracker retelling Winterspell, and she's doing an awesome giveaway.

The Fictional Spinster Classification Index

Hee: Millions Of Holiday Travelers Return From Parents’ Homes All Caught Up On ‘The Mentalist’ (Full disclosure: I watch The Mentalist and my parents do not.)

Morning Coffee (12/10/14)

Yes, Virginia, there is a system of injustice.

How Paperbacks Helped the U.S. Win World War II

NPR's Book Concierge is my favorite.

Cecilia Grant is one of my favorite historical romance authors, and she's got a free Christmas novella out.

Ooh, a Frozen short is coming before Cinderella.

Important Agent Carter information! I will be picking up the nail polish, at least.

Hey Ladies are back!! "My only teeny tiny ish is I would literally never wear a floppy hat."

Heh: Disheartened Man Expected At Least One Text While Checking Phone After Flight

Morning Coffee (12/9/14)

Here's President Obama on The Colbert Report.

Hasidic Enclave Keeps Its Secrets Amid Elusive Rebbe's Tight Control

I need to get reading: I've read none of the Times's 100 notable books of the year and only two of the notable children's books.

Emails Where Shit Got Real

The Comprehensive Guide to Dating a Book Nerd

These statistics about common names are interesting but I'd like to see it with different spellings of the same name combined, as well.

How Well Do You Know “You’ve Got Mail?” (I got two wrong and I'm so ashamed.)

Heee: Local Woman Asked to Leave Friend Group Due to ‘Weak Personal Brand’

Morning Coffee (12/8/14)

Wow: Missing Masterpiece Discovered in the Background of ‘Stuart Little’

Ooh, these snowflake photos are awesome.

What Disney Movies Taught Us About Girl Power

RUDOLPH IN LATIN

The Tricky Ethics of Intergalactic Colonization

24 Things All Young Adult Fans Are Tired Of Hearing

Ruin Your Own Happiness, Part I: How To Be Disappointed By Good News

Hee: Hear Kristen Bell and Straight No Chaser's 'Text Me Merry Christmas'

Morning Coffee (12/4/14)

Eric Garner’s Killer Won’t Be Indicted

Swedish PM calls first snap vote in 50 years after far-right force budget defeat

Socioeconomic Class in Contemporary YA Lit: Where Are The Poor Teens?

Are you a Game of Thrones fan? If so, you will enjoy this puppet reenactment of the Purple Wedding. Then you'll want to watch everything else these hilarious, adorable characters do at Classic Alice. Start here.

The Sony Pictures hack is a big deal. Here’s why.

Someone at Wellesley is doing some interesting research on the propagation of Twitter rumors.

Heh: New York Times’ most popular stories ever

This DRIVES ME NUTS: If you’ve got ‘another thing coming’, you’ve got another think coming

Morning Coffee (12/3/14)

I know I'm the last person in the world to find this bandwagon, but I finally started listening to Serial and it's as compelling as everyone said.

Yay: Twitter is taking steps toward better harassment reporting and blocking.

Best birth announcement ever.

Aaaaaah, information about the Life After Life sequel!

Fascinating: Inside the Weird Brains of Real-Time Translators

I love books about books and I've somehow only read two of these, so I should get on that.

Why Don't You... Rent a Llama for Your Wedding? Why don't you... NOT DO THAT?

Unhappy Families in Western Art History

What I Read: November 2014

Betrayal in Death by J.D. Robb (Dallas/Roarke #12): A particularly enjoyable entry in the series, thanks to an interesting mystery case, ties to Roarke's past, and the usual strong character dynamics. I love that (so far, at least) Robb is keeping Dallas and Roarke in a good place while still dealing with the differences between them, and the relationship between Peabody and McNab provides a good secondary romance plot.

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving: I knew the basic story but had never read this one, so I figured I should read along with the Classic Alice plot! I enjoy Irving's writing, and the Arthur Rackham illustrations in this edition were gorgeous. And, you know, ghost bowling. Absolutely here for the ghost bowling.

Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg: Quite funny, as expected - plus it made me want to go read or reread a bunch of the books it parodies IMMEDIATELY.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton: Read for book club. I'm not a fan of magical realism, generally, so I had trouble getting into this - when people suddenly turn into birds or are so tall they block the sun, my automatic reaction is to roll my eyes. That said, while I was never sold on those aspects of the story, Walton did a good job of making me care about the characters. And I liked her prose style; the bakery descriptions were definitely my favorite part of the book.

White Snow, Bright Now by Alvin Tresselt: This caught my eye when I walked past the picture book bins at my local library, and I'm glad I grabbed it! The narrative was charming, and I really like the illustration style.

A Demon Summer by G.M. Malliet (Max Tudor #4): I continue to really enjoy this series. While I missed the village stuff a bit in this one, the look at nunnery life was fascinating. The mystery itself was a little slow to get going, but satisfying in the end. And I'm so excited about the developments in Max's personal life.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame: I'd read this for a history of children's lit class in college, but my memory was hazy, so I reread along with Classic Alice. As is often the case with classics, I was delighted to rediscover how FUNNY it was. It was also genuinely touching, and while I'm not always the biggest fan of animal stories, I mostly got past that here. (I did have to make myself stop trying to figure out exactly how anthropomorphic these animals were supposed to be, especially when it came to things like how large they were compared to humans - the illustrations made them human-sized - and exactly how the animal/human justice system worked.)

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: This was delightful - hilarious and clever and compelling. I only wish I'd done more background reading first, as I fear a lot of things were going over my head because I'm not as familiar with this period of history as I should be.

Morning Coffee (12/2/14)

My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK

Huh: Supposedly Alois Brunner died several years ago in Syria.

Winnie the Pooh banned from Polish playground for being 'inappropriate hermaphrodite'

Whoa: Online Girl Scout cookie sales are coming. I am actually not that huge a Girl Scout cookie fan, but I like things that make it easier to help faraway family/friends' kids with their fundraisers.

Ooh, need a gift book recommendation? Check out the Penguin Hotline. Penguins are standing by!

Speaking of Penguin, I desperately want their new line of Christmas classics.

Everything I need to know, I learned from 'The Holiday'

This sounds like quite an auction.

Morning Coffee (11/26/14)

The Thanksgiving Recipes Googled in Every State

Cheddar ice cream for apple pie?!?!

Russia is considering a reindeer police force, about which I really just want an adorable movie.

Awesome: Martha Stewart Launches Line of 3D-Printable Home Products

Follow That Bird is my favorite.

The Rice portrait and the great Jane Austen debate

I have always wanted to see Queen Mary's Dolls' House.

23 maps and charts on language

Morning Coffee (11/25/14)

Like everyone else, I've been glued to the news watching events in Ferguson; my thoughts are with Michael Brown's family and all affected. If you want to catch up on overnight developments, here are liveblogs from the Guardian and Vox.

Also from Vox: How to Survive Your Family's Thanksgiving Arguments

I haven't had a chance to read this yet, but I bookmarked it for when I have a moment over the weekend and you might want to as well: A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA

I lost track of whether anything came of this last night, with everything else going on, but someone hacked Sony.

Check this out, The Good Wife fans: LetMeChumHumThatForYou.com

Netflix's Marco Polo series looks epic and lots of fun.

Is Your Governess Really a Spy?

Reasons Why I Would Make An Excellent Druidess And You Should Consider Me For The Position

Morning Coffee (11/24/14)

Programming note: Posts may be erratic for . . . the rest of the year, really. I'm traveling a lot, and taking random days off to do things like bake a ridiculous number of cookies, and my schedule is generally out of whack. I'll try to keep getting link posts up MOST days, but it may not be every day, and sometimes it might be later in the day than usual. Thanks for understanding!

Me elsewhere: TV news; Haven recap.

This is my new favorite thing: TV’s geek girls need to rise above being tech support

Sad: The Duchess of Alba has died.

Sigh: ESPN Suspends Keith Law From Twitter For Defending Evolution (Okay, they now say it wasn't because of his opinions [on scientific fact] so was it . . . disagreeing with a coworker?)

Your Monday would probably be helped by the Disneyland cats Instagram account.

I have been calling for 24-hour bookstores for years and I'm glad someone is finally listening.

Oh my gosh. Pumpkin Tetris.

How to Successfully Hijack Your Family's Thanksgiving

25 questions about Band Aid 30's new version of "Do They Know It's Christmas"

How are we feeling about the Peanuts movie trailer? It's . . . much better than I'd feared, really.

Morning Coffee (11/21/14)

Quick departure to the non-happy but time-sensitive: Daniel Handler, Racist Jokes, and the Disclaimer. If you want to help make good come out of this, Handler is matching donations to We Need Diverse Books today.

Now for your regularly scheduled Happy Friday links:

"Unnecessary apostrophes hurt Tiny Tim." How to Make Your Last Name Plural This Christmas Season

Author Alexandra Duncan is doing a great holiday giveaway with a prize pack that includes her book Salvage (which I LOVED) AND a $50 donation to the charity of your choice. Enter here.

15 feminist-improved pages for the computer engineer Barbie book

Study shows the media has a clear bias — in favor of dogs

What to Read if You Love Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” Video

Classic Houses In Literature Go On the Imaginary Real Estate Market (I got all these answers right and am very proud.)

Hee: Famous Author Bios

Just What You Need: Cats Sleeping in IKEA Dolls Beds

Snuggly Bookish PJs for Winter Reading Time

Morning Coffee (11/20/14)

Me elsewhere: Thoughts on last week's Elementary.

NBC Has Killed Its Bill Cosby Project

Sigh: Barbie book about programming tells girls they need boys to code for them

New Cinderella trailer!

A taco emoji may be coming!

Words That Should Actually Be Banned

This is long but fascinating and worth the read: The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare’s Histories in the Age of Netflix

Guy Tries to Hook Up With Wife's Nurse in Worst Craigslist Ad Ever

The Onion: Report: None Of Good Cousins Coming To Thanksgiving This Year

Morning Coffee (11/19/14)

People's new Sexiest Man Alive: Chris Hemsworth. I'll allow it.

The one basic thing men still don't seem to understand about women

Living on a Prayer: Why Does God Kill So Many Children in Idaho?

Ugh: Oprah Expects Hula Hoopers to Accept Payment in the Form of Exposure

At Brigham Young, Students Push to Lift Ban on Beards

Oh good: Twitter is allowing URLs in DMs again.

Lower Education: How A Disgraced College Chain Trapped Its Students In Poverty

Five ways Sesame Street changed the world

Morning Coffee (11/18/14)

Visiting the U.S.: Pope Francis; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Awesome: Church of England clears way for female bishops

You Can Now Send Cash to Friends Via Snapchat, and doesn't THAT sound like a terrible idea?

The Harry Potter Alliance’s #MyHungerGames Brings Awareness to Stories of Income Inequality

The Butter has launched!

Uh-oh: We're running out of chocolate.

I hate "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with the passion of a thousand suns, but if for some reason you don't, here's the new version.

Billy Joel on Taylor Swift: "She catches a lot of junk, maybe because she's so popular with young girls." YEP.

Morning Coffee (11/17/14)

Me elsewhere: TV news, Haven recap, Bones review.

Every year, my friend Beck writes a hilarious review of the Oprah's gift guide. Here's this year's.

This potential New Yorker documentary series sounds interesting.

Jude Law as an Arthurian villain? Yes please.

So, on New Year's Eve, Ryan Seacrest's show will have Taylor Swift in New York and now Harry Styles in Hollywood. Hee. I hope she plays "Style."

Huh. Greg Berlanti is writing the Oscars.

Fascinating: Some Guy Scooped The Baseball Media On The Biggest MLB Contract Ever

This cannot actually be efficient: Westminster gardener ordered to remove autumn leaves one by one

you guys didnt have to do this!
i honestly would have been fine with just like half a dozen putti
and three or four handmaidens
like a dozen handmaidens max would have been FINE honestly

Morning Coffee (11/14/14)

Happy Friday!

Today in Christmas ads that made me cry: Sainsbury's. (It's set in 1914. I'm sure you can guess where this is going.)

Eeee, Netflix UK is making a giant epic drama about Elizabeth II's reign. I am beside myself.

Ooh: Clinton Library wins 'West Wing' scripts

How love and integrity made Welcome to Night Vale a massive success

My friend Laura accidentally baked 404 gingerbread men. Trust me, you want to read this.

Caveat: My parents are very good at understanding/learning about my various jobs. That said, I have run into all of these with other people in my life: 22 Things That Happen When Your Parents Don’t Understand Your Job

This is a great Q&A with Taylor Swift.

The Rise Of The 'Lumbersexual' (I am in favor.)

Video Games Set During The Protestant Wars Of Reformation That I Wish Existed

Morning Coffee (11/13/14)

Ooh! The First Close-Up Image of Comet 67P From the Philae Lander

I love this: Taylor Swift and the Myth of the Mean Greedy Artist. I can't even decide on a line to quote. "The bottom line is that artists’ rights are workers’ rights. You are not being progressive or radical by denying artists the right to control their own work. You are not helping the underprivileged by making it impossible for anyone who isn’t already rich and privileged to take up artistic careers. Your pirated Taylor Swift song isn’t feeding the poor."

You probably already saw this, but Time's annual word-banning poll is terrible in general and includes "feminism" as an option. No. Let's not ban that.

Escape from Jonestown

This essay on Mallory Ortberg is great.

About The Time Shonda Rhimes Gave Me A Christmas Cat Intervention

21 Times Tumblr Told the Truth About Cats

Songs You’ll Never Hear On A Sufjan Stevens Album

Morning Coffee (11/12/14)

Me elsewhere: Sleepy Hollow thoughts

Amazon won the auction for the .book domain. I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that people are freaking out about this.

An important read: “Did You Ever Mind It?”: On Race and Adoption

The Online Legacy of a Suicide Cult and the Webmasters Who Stayed Behind

Michael Chabon is now a lyricist.

Here's the trailer for the Grumpy Cat Christmas movie, if you're into that kind of thing.

I am totally this person: Man Has No Idea What To Do With Visiting Friend Between Meals

What Shakespeare character are you?

Sorry I Murdered Everyone, But I’m An Introvert

Morning Coffee (11/11/14)

Happy Veterans' Day, and thank you to all who have served. The Google doodle for today is cute.

And it's a good day to show you the video from the NatPro race my family participated in to benefit the Veterans' Oasis my dad is involved with at the college where he works. (Well, my brother and his fiancee participated. My parents and I volunteered.)

The new Taylor Swift video is amazing. (And filmed at the Royal Pains house!)

Martha Stewart has some great-looking meatless Thanksgiving recipes.

Ooh, you can stream Kristin Chenoweth's new album.

I want to go to The Last Bookstore.

Whoa: Jennifer Lawrence Hunger Games cake wins gold

"Out of the Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Morning Coffee (11/10/14)

Me elsewhere: TV news roundup for the week, Haven recaps, thoughts on Bones and Elementary.

Some of the SiriusXM holiday stations start tomorrow! (But my favorite one is apparently now only December 24-26. When I won't be in my car much, if at all. Boooo.)

Today in Christmas ads that made me cry: Marks and Spencer.

Also: John Lewis. (Penguin alert!)

Also: Coca-Cola. God, I'm a mess.

NBC is staging live production of A Few Good Men. Interesting.

A Playmobil movie?!?! I'm . . . listening. Cautiously.

Hee: Mallory Ortberg summarizes classic books in 140 characters or less

Women Rejecting Marriage Proposals In Western Art History

Morning Coffee (11/7/14)

Happy Friday!

Promising news: Twitter is working with an advocacy group to investigate the harassment of women

There's a new Into the Woods trailer, and . . . fine. I'm in.

If your Friday could use twenty minutes of pure delight, I highly recommend I Ship It, a romantic comedy set in the world of wizard rock, by Yulin Kuang, who's making a good case for become The Nora Ephron of My People. It stars Mary Kate Wiles of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Sean Persaud of Shipwrecked Comedy, and Joey Richter of StarKid. (If none of those words made any sense to you, you might not entirely get this, but it will still be funny and adorable.)

Ooh: Vlogbrothers Bring “Crash Course” Videos to PBS Digital Studios

I read this oral history of Sports Night and now I need to rewatch the entire show immediately.

OPI has Peanuts nail polish and I want "WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!?" with every fiber of my being.

Speaking of things I want, look at this Rainbow Brite bib necklace.

20 Style Tips On How To Wear a Plaid or Flannel Shirt I didn't necessarily realize this was a difficult subject requiring 20 tips, but this is absolutely speaking my language.

Two Words: Kitten Graduation

What I Read: October 2014

A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne: A delightful romp. An unusual take on the "chosen one" trope with hilarious British magicians, diverse characters, and swoony romance (both gay and straight). So many references to tea and scarves. So many things I love. This comes out next Tuesday (11/11) and I highly recommend it.

Burned by Sarah Morgan (Miller Sisters #2): I didn't like this as much as the first Miller Sisters story, but it was a fun, quick romance.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: I was going to say that I am so over dystopians, but I'm not at all sure that I was, as they say, ever really under them. That said: This is a magnificent book, beautiful and terrifying, and Mandel's gorgeous writing kept me turning pages even though the subject matter usually wouldn't interest me.

All Fudged Up by Nancy Coco (Candy-Coated Mysteries #1): An entertaining cozy of my favorite flavor - a female small business owner who gets thrown into a murder investigation in a quirky small town and meets a hot detective. The townsfolk were a little too quirky at times here, but the main character was likable and had a nice edge of humor. I didn't love this, but it gave me a nice evening curled up under a blanket drinking tea, and I'll probably try the next in the series next time I'm in the mood. My main quibble was that it could have used a good copy editor.

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando: Loved this one - sweet but real, warm and heartbreaking and funny and poignant all at once. I thought Zarr and Altebrando did a really good job of getting into the characters' heads, and though I'm long out of college, their correspondence (and their thoughts about it and the meaning of friendship) made me think about my faraway friends I text/IM/email/etc. all the time who often know more about me than the people I see every day do.

Cloche and Dagger by Jenn McKinlay (Hat Shop Mysteries #1): A decent start to a cozy series. The hat shop stuff was fun and I liked the supporting cast, though it took me a while to warm up to the main character because a lot of her thoughts and actions seemed neither rational nor particularly supported by the text. I really liked the romantic interest, so I may check out the next one at some point to see where that dynamic goes.

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen: A fascinating experiment and a charming, funny, and thoughtful memoir. Van Wagenen is clearly very talented and I can't wait to see what she does in the future.

(Disclaimers: I know A Hero at the End of the World's publicist and she gave me an advance copy; after reading and loving it I started chatting with the author on Twitter. I got Burned from NetGalley and the rest of the books this month from the library.)

Morning Coffee (11/6/14)

Me elsewhere: Haven recap

Eee, Kirkus gave The Shadow Cabinet a star and a great review I very much agree with. I love this book.

7 Brutal Literary Breakup Texts (Which is to say that Mallory Ortberg's Texts from Jane Eyre is out and I'm very excited.)

Whoa: Scotland Shut Out of World Whisky Bible Top Five in International Booze-Ranking Surprise

Finding Marlowe

For knitters: Do I really have to knit (and wash, and block) a swatch?

Ooh, trailer for the new show by the Borgen people.

How a Secret Squad Saved London From Flooding in the WWII Blitz (Do we really have to specify WWII? Do people not automatically know which blitz we mean, these days? Sad.)

Why I Think I Would Make An Excellent Vestal Virgin And You Should Consider Me For The Position

Morning Coffee (11/5/14)

Me elsewhere: Thoughts on the most recent episodes of Sleepy Hollow and Elementary

Local people, check out this charity event with Amber Benson in Lawrence.

An interesting take: The Right to a Sexual Narrative: On the Lena Dunham Abuse Claims

Should Boston Become A City Of Canals? Sure! Sounds fun!

Nifty: The British Museum Will Now Let You 3D Print Copies Of Its Artifacts

Whoa: My Grandma the Poisoner

Feast Your Eyes on This Beautiful Linguistic Family Tree

This Is What Happens When You Send Tinder Guys The Emails From “You’ve Got Mail”

WARWICK: will your marriage settle the question of succession?
EDWARD IV: oh my god no not at all
her name is Elizabeth and she’s literally nobody
WARWICK: why did y–
EDWARD IV: idk
she seems nice
itll work out

Morning Coffee (11/4/14)

Happy Election Day! The Google doodle is cute. Go vote!

Sad news: Car Talk's Tom Magliozzi has died.

Whoa: CNET is starting a print magazine.

My friend Sarah wrote a great essay on living with her daughter's spina bifida.

An important clarification from Ann Patchett: commas are important and she did not marry her dog.

Read All the Things – it’s not WHAT we read, it’s HOW we read that matters.

Hee: Literary Starbucks

We Regret To Announce That Your Request Of “Gotta Hear Both Sides” Has Been Denied

Morning Coffee (11/3/14)

Me elsewhere: Thoughts on last week's Bones, pilot posts on The McCarthys and Benched, the week's TV news.

A few belated Halloween links that I found on Halloween:

7 charts that explain Halloween

When Did N.H. Towns Start Calling The Shots On Trick-Or-Treating?

This Halloween history video featuring Kate Hackett of Classic Alice is cute.

Whoa: Starbucks delivery is coming. Probably not coming here, but still.

#GamerGate's scary plan to wipe Gawker Media from the face of the Earth

They're publishing the first bilingual Goodnight, Moon. Awesome!

Sarah Rees Brennan is parodying The 100 and it's as funny as you might expect.

Amazing: Dirtbag Mrs. Whatsit

Halloween Morning Coffee (10/31/14)

Happy Halloween!

Me elsewhere: Haven recap

I love these L.L. Bean jack-o'-lanterns.

I bet your Halloween also needs Tom Mison and John Noble in a pumpkin patch.

What if your favorite books were Halloween candy?

Eeee! AMC picked up that John Le Carre limited series starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston.

I want these Kate Spade for GapKids gift bow flats with every fiber of my being.

I love the cover of Sarah Dessen's next book.

LOOK AT THIS ANNE OF GREEN GABLES WEDDING PHOTOSHOOT.

Trust me, you probably want to watch this behind-the-scenes video by the director of Taylor Swift's Diet Coke kittens ad. (Hint: The director is a cat.)

How Well Can You Decode Taylor Swift Songs Through Emoji? I had an embarrassingly hard time with some of these.

The Taylor Swift/San Francisco Giants conspiracy, explained

I love England: 'Tree of the Year' competition finalists announced

Morning Coffee (10/30/14)

Me elsewhere: Review of this week's Sleepy Hollow

Tim Cook: "So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy."

Oh good: Suspect named in national park vandalism across 4 states

Do you know about Jian?

Intriguing: A documentary is claiming that some of Bach's most famous music was written by his wife.

John Green's Zena Sutherland lecture on the state of YA is worth a read.

Person from a portrait: Ira Frederick Aldridge, the first black Othello

Perfect: The Secret Fantasies of Adults

Women Having A Terrible Time At Parties In Western Art History

Morning Coffee (10/29/14)

If you're going to read one piece on Jian Ghomeshi, make it Kate Harding's.

Whoa: I feel so vindicated in my hatred of the Suzuki method now.

In other violin news, this true crime story is fascinating.

Warning: This is disturbing, but interesting and important: By Noon They'd Both Be in Heaven

800 year old Magna Carta manuscript reveals its secrets

The Igorrote Tribe Traveled the World for Show And Made These Two Men Rich

China: Don't call yourself Dumbledore

Heh: The Only Problem with The Maze Runner

Morning Coffee (10/28/14)

Make sure you don't miss today's Jonas Salk Google doodle.

A Literary Atlas of Ireland

Oh my gosh: A Pride & Prejudice/X-Files mashup.

I knew the Courant was old, but I didn't know it was that old.

With Guile and Tiny Torah, Women Hold a Bat Mitzvah at the Western Wall

Useful! The Best Scotch to Buy on a Budget

The Football Genius of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Interesting: The Argentines Who Speak Welsh

Morning Coffee (10/27/14)

Me elsewhere: TV news roundup.

Taylor Swift's new album is out today. Here's a funny (and useful) glossary.

I bet your Monday needs 12 British Actors Rocking Cravats in Period Dramas

The Queen has started tweeting!

I mean, if you were J.K. Rowling, wouldn't YOU just build Harry Potter things whenever you felt like it?

This is awesome: The Age of YA: A Timeline of Historical Fiction

I didn't know much about Sofiya Tolstoy, so this piece fascinates me.

A Human Pulp-Fiction Factory Becomes a Cult Hero

APOLLO: we havent met
but you know me
DAPHNE: sorry?
APOLLO: ever seen THE SUN

Morning Coffee (10/24/14)

Happy Friday!

Austen fans, make sure you don't miss Death Comes to Pemberley starting on PBS this weekend. I have a lot of feelings about Matthew Rhys as annoyed!Darcy.

And here's a hilarious Pride and Prejudice refresher to go with it.

Look, footage from Into the Woods with people actually singing! I remain blithely optimistic, and fairly sure that just Chris Pine singing "Agony" will be worth the price of admission anyway.

YAY: Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski have been promoted to lead figure skating broadcast team for NBC for the 2018 Olympics.

Here's a trailer for the Hallmarkiest Hallmark movie ever. Christmas! Kittens! Hot firefighters! Brandon Routh!

15 Awesome Bookish Jack O’Lanterns

Fascinating: How the Met hangs tapestries

Hee: The organic genderless gingerbread debate

"I’m sure they’re not even aware of the latest technology in the mason jar pinterest scene."

Morning Coffee (10/23/14)

Me elsewhere: My recap of last week's Haven.

How We Got Rolled by the Dishonest Fascists of Gamergate

And Felicia Day's take is great.

I love this kind of thing: What kids around the world eat for breakfast. (I am eating oatmeal as I type this. If you care.)

Interesting: A Home of Catherine, Before Greatness, Fitfully Regains a Bit of Glory

The Pentecostal Serpent

Hee: "DON’T fall prey to the fallacy that there is a single day on which the fall colors are at their peak. That peak actually occurs over a three-day period, from October 22nd to the 24th, during which time you should drive around all six New England states at maximum speed in a leaf-peeping frenzy."

Virgin of Valme pilgrimage near Seville – in pictures

A Literary Child’s Guide to Her Dead Mother

Morning Coffee (10/22/14)

Me elsewhere: Thoughts on this week's Sleepy Hollow.

Ben Bradlee has died at 93.

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has also passed away, and Go Fug Yourself has a great retrospective.

And in even more death news (sorry), I'm very curious to see what happens with the Duke of Marlborough's estate.

In case you were concerned, the Hallmark Channel has named an official commissioner of the Feline Football League.

Taylor Swift Just Went to No. 1 on iTunes Canada With Eight Seconds of Static

Interesting: What we get wrong about Lord Elgin

Your day could probably use these pictures of Prince Harry.

Hee: Songs From A Decemberists Album Where Nobody Gets Murdered

Morning Coffee (10/21/14)

(Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. The bookmarking service I use was down for a bit, so I had no actual links for my links.)

Me elsewhere: This week's TV news; thoughts on last week's Bones.

What tolerating online harassment costs us

Interesting: Italy Just Pulled Out of Recession Because It Began Counting Drug and Prostitution Revenue

Baskin-Robbins is doing thematic ice cream for one of Hallmark's new Christmas movies. What a world.

Haiti wreck not Columbus flagship

Ooh: Richard III’s reinterment route is announced

What It Feels Like To Be Killed Off A Popular TV Show (And Come Back) Tommmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyy.

"These clowns are luxuriating in warmth and enjoying feeling in their extremities, but I’m saving $37 and proving my hardy New England mettle."

Dirtbag Henry IV

Morning Coffee (10/17/14)

Happy Friday!

So many things I love: Taylor Swift. Diet Coke. KITTENS.

If this Derek Jeter sweater were sold in knitting pattern form, I would probably buy it. Not sure I would ever get around to knitting it, but I would totally buy the pattern.

I am obsessed with these Christmas village sheets from Pottery Barn, even though a) I fear they would be too distracting to actually sleep on and b) I really don't need to pay $129 for Christmas sheets.

Princess Anne is semi-secretly really awesome.

Ooh: Crime writer Agatha Christies's lost diamonds to be auctioned

I've realized that when I think "tiara," Queen Alexandra's Kokoshnik is the one I automatically picture.

Online quizzes usually have lots of questions that make me think "I don't like ANY of those answers" or "Why does everything ask about Beyonce?? I HAVE NO ANSWER." So I was super impressed with this one, because it seemed very thoughtful or maybe I just liked the questions better: Who is your TV vampire soulmate?

I just enjoy this headline: Japanese zoo fails to breed two hyenas after both turned out to be male

Morning Coffee (10/16/14)

Me elsewhere: Pilot post on Marry Me, which I hated.

All of Friends is coming to Netflix streaming on January 1st!

Here are the finalists for the National Book Award. Obviously my plan to read a bunch and blog about it didn't exactly go according to . . . plan . . . but I'm still hoping to get a few in.

HBO will offer standalone streaming sometime next year, but we don't know the details yet.

Yesterday was Baby Loss Day and my friend Miryam posted a powerful essay.

This obituary of David Greenglass was fascinating.

Christmas creep, explained: Do early holiday sales really help stores?

Interesting: Headscarf ban turns France’s Muslim women towards homeworking

The Onion: Facebook Offers to Freeze Female Employee's Newborn Children

Morning Coffee (10/15/14)

Me elsewhere: My pilot post on Jane the Virgin (which I loved!) and thoughts on this week's Sleepy Hollow.

'Massacre' threat forces Anita Sarkeesian to cancel university talk

Let's all put this on our Christmas lists: Washington Post Dismisses 500-Page Civil War Nonfiction Book As Girly

Noreen Malone's takedown of "basic bitch" is great.

11 ways race isn't real

The Evolution of Nobel Prize Betting

Senate Control Could Come Down To Whole Foods vs. Cracker Barrel

Fascinating: In Spain, Politics Via Reddit

Ooh, dishy: Confederate Officer's Wartime Diary Decoded

Morning Coffee (10/14/14)

Taylor Swift has a new song out! Here are the lyrics and here's the iTunes link.

Sports Company Says It 'Clearly Messed Up' by Ignoring Female Athletes

Angry misogyny is now the primary face of #GamerGate

#Gamergate Trolls Aren't Ethics Crusaders; They're a Hate Group

The truth about trolls and the men they worship

My friend Melissa did an AMA about her years being stalked, her stalker's arrest, etc.

The Revenge of Rand Paul

The GOP Intensifies Its Attacks On The National Science Foundation

Morning Coffee (10/13/14)

Me elsewhere: weekly TV news; pilot posts on Cristela and The Affair; thoughts on last week's Bones and Haven.

Sad news: author Zilpha Keatley Snyder has died.

The main thing that surprised me about this study is how late everyone apparently goes to bed.

When it is diversity that needs to be justified

Reza Aslan is always worth reading: Bill Maher Isn’t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion

A fascinating read about Microsoft: The Empire Reboots

I agree that hug culture is out of control.

Apparently Danica Patrick is writing for Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune, and her first piece is interesting and thoughtful.

The funniest thing I have ever read: Commenting Comment: A Magazine Dedicated to Internet Comments

Morning Coffee (10/10/14)

Happy Friday!

Oh yay! Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

And speaking of the Nobel, if you want to know where to start with Literature winner Patrick Modiano, Slate has you covered.

Whoa: Amazon may be opening a store.

Joe Biden Eats an Ice Cream Cone While Wearing Aviators. Spectacular. Hey, it's Friday.

Here's Hot Neville Longbottom in military gear. (IT'S FRIDAY. I make no apologies.)

Happy local news: Polly's Pancake Parlor is expanding and will be open year round.

Ooh: The Untouched Beauty of Uzbekistan's Silk and Ceramics

Security Questions for Single, Childless People

Women Wearing Spectacular Hats In Art History

What I Read: September 2014

(Sorry this is a little late. Reviewing all the new TV shows is eating my brain.)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: I read this partially because of Frankenstein M.D., and it made me very worried about what's going to happen on the show. But anyway. This was very good, which I expected, but also very different from what I expected, somehow. It's clearly an essential book in a history-of-literature contextual way, but it was also an entertaining and surprisingly quick read. Give it a try, if you haven't!

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries #3): This was a strong entry in the series, with a mystery that spanned generations and yet all tied together in a satisfying way. Clare is a compelling, complex main character, and her relationship with Russ is developing in an interesting and somewhat unexpected - if excruciatingly slow - way.

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (Emily Byrd Starr #1): An old favorite, reread this month for book club. Still love it!

Conversion by Katherine Howe: This one enthralled me from the start, with its combination of an historical Salem witch trials story and a contemporary mystery involving an outbreak of what seems like hysteria at a girls' prep school. I was slightly surprised to find that I liked the modern sections better - the historical chapters were fine, but I was always eager to get back to the modern story, and I think that's mainly because this was one of the most realistic-feeling portrayals of high school that I've read recently. I was also extremely impressed by both the book's fluency with social media - I don't think I've ever seen the term "subtweet" casually used in a novel before - and its depiction of a New England winter; it got the constant on-and-off of boots and coats exactly right.

The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black (Magisterium #1): First of a very promising new series. Compelling, diverse characters, interesting magic system, and plenty of plot twists. Plus boarding school! I love boarding school books. Can't wait for the next one.

Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan (The Lynburn Legacy #3): A perfect end to the trilogy. Hilarious, heartbreaking, swoony. I already can't wait to reread them all. I don't want to say anything specific and risk spoiling the earlier books, because I want you all to read them. Start with Unspoken.

(Disclaimer: I know Sarah Rees Brennan, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare. All books this month were either purchases or from the library.)

Morning Coffee (10/9/14)

Me elsewhere: Pilot post on The Flash.

An important read about women, the Internet, and harassment: Trouble at the Koolaid Point

And author Sarah Rees Brennan has some good and somewhat related thoughts about women taking credit for their work.

The culture wars are back, and this time, everyone can win

God knows I like data, but the Cancellation Bear is terrible, and make sure you read this for the amazing last line from Todd VanDerWerff.

Librarians won’t stay quiet about government surveillance

“A Woman Too Soon”: Rilla of Ingleside and World War I

I love this kind of thing, that just shows how people live: Student life in Russia – in pictures

Heh: Man Infected with Ebola Misinformation Through Casual Contact With Cable News

Morning Coffee (10/8/14)

Me elsewhere: A look at new show Mulaney; thoughts on this week's Sleepy Hollow.

The inventors of blue LEDs won the Nobel Prize in physics.

Why We Need To Fight Online Trolls, Not Just Ignore Them

Don't Love or Hate Lena Dunham. Create More of Her.

Here's Alan Sepinwall on the VERY quick rise and fall of the Say Anything remake.

Ooh! FCC fines Marriott $600,000 for jamming hotel Wi-Fi

Matters of Privacy

Did you know that there is a UK Roundabout Appreciation Society? And that they name a Roundabout of the Year? Here's this year's winner!

People Almost Playing Sports In Luxury Advertisements

Morning Coffee (10/7/14)

Eeee: Hugh Laurie & Tom Hiddleston to Star in Le Carre Miniseries

This is both true about Ello and has some interesting stuff about gender and tech that definitely matches my experiences: You’re Not Stupid; Ello Is Badly Designed

Speaking of: The Forgotten Female Programmers Who Created Modern Tech

Interesting: A Day In The Life Of “The Vampire Diaries” And “The Originals” Executive Producer Julie Plec

How to Get a Knitter to Make You Stuff: A List

The secret history of Jews in baseball

My friend Christine has another great set of history links up on her blog.

“Well, you shouldn’t have eaten all that lady’s candy or whatever,” Aslan said.

Morning Coffee (10/6/14)

Me elsewhere: Weekly TV news roundup; new show evaluations Bad Judge and Gracepoint; reviews of last week's Haven and Bones.

Intel buckles to anti-feminist campaign by pulling ads from gaming site

Important: The American College of Pediatricians is not the equivalent of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

‘Stalker’ creator says the show is meant to raise awareness. It’s really, really not. Also: here's the Stalking Resource Center's open letter about the show.

An amazing read: On Poisoned Apples, the “Great YA Debate,” and the Death of the Patriarchy

Lawsuit accuses Nicholas Sparks of racism, antisemitism and homophobia

“You are not Walt Whitman,” he said. “The 21st century is different in so many ways from the 19th that the comparison is meaningless. No one is forbidding you from self-publishing, but neither is anyone required to pay attention.”

Everyone is excited about this adult Book It! Alumni program but I'm enraged because you just sign up and get pizza. You don't even have to read any books.

Unhappy Mothers in Western Art History

Morning Coffee (10/3/14)

Happy Friday!

More of my new show reviews: Happyland (cute!), A to Z (very good with one big caveat), Stalker (NO NO NO DO NOT WATCH).

I have never seen Murder, She Wrote, but this makes me want to watch it all.

Likewise, I don't have a waffle iron, but these latke waffles make me want to get one.

This is quite the combination of things I like: The creator of Foyle's War is writing a new authorized James Bond novel about Formula One.

They found a lost Sherlock Holmes film!

Would an excerpt from a Christmas historical romance by a writer I like improve your Friday? Of course it would.

Have they discovered "Dracula's Dungeon"?

This was a great read: Who Killed Bugsy Siegel?

The Reclusive, Doll-Collecting Copper Queen of Fifth Avenue

Secret societies are fascinating, even ones that sound terrible.

what if a duck was sad
i don’t know
what if a pine tree were lonely

Vampire Legal Issues, Season Five: The Mystic Falls Exists in a Legal Black Hole Edition

NOTE FROM KATE: From time to time, I make/let my friend Christine, who is a real life lawyer, go on about vampires and the law. Season six starts tonight, so let's legally recap season five!

Vampire Legal Issues, Season Five: The Mystic Falls Exists in a Legal Black Hole Edition

So Season Five was a season of The Vampire Diaries that was on TV! I have to be honest, it wasn’t my favorite season (too many villains, too many doppelgangers). But there were legal issues! These are kind of picked at random from what I remember and some recaps I skimmed over the summer, so this isn’t at all comprehensive but is rather a table of light refreshments, if by “refreshments” you mean “1,500 words of Christine complaining about the imaginary undead.”

I Guess It Depends on What You Mean By the Word “Move”

In the finale, the Travelers decide to change the boundaries of Mystic Falls by MOVING THE SIGN. Oh, says Markos, “we’ve reset the official boundary of Mystic Falls” so that it’s the same as the boundary of the spell. Um, no you haven’t. Have you EVER worked with a planning board? THAT WOULD TAKE YEARS. I suppose the Travelers could have inhabited the Mystic Falls planning board, but what about the other towns’ boards? Mystic Falls certainly ACTS like it exists in a vacuum, but surely it has bordering towns. So sorry, Markos, no dice. You did nothing to the official boundary, and you're going to have a dickens of a time sorting out your tax base.

Clearly Markos is not a details man and has just had his minions mark his desired boundary by moving the sign. This is obviously an excellent plan, because all you have to do to make a new town is mark the boundary in some way- signs, a chalk line, breadcrumbs- and it will WORK and no other towns will be annoyed or even notice (though I suppose if Mystic Falls’s neighbors were going to be annoyed they’d have popped up by now, and on second thought maybe vampires have killed most of central Virginia).

Also, if they did the spell to extend to the boundaries of Mystic Falls, how does that work? Does MAGIC just KNOW what the boundaries are, or do they have to do something like, “[magic talky-talk] and this extends to the boundaries of Mystic Falls as recorded in Book 2, Page 2894, Mystic Falls County Registry of Deeds”? Hee. I’d love to see them translate THAT into whatever the hell language they’re babbling.

You Think Coming Back From the Dead is Complicated for Our Beloved Characters? What about for their LAWYERS?

I feel really bad for the lawyers of Mystic Falls, because the precedent on people coming back to life after their estates have been probated is pretty light. I mean, YOU try to draft an estate plan for someone who could come back from the dead over a year after they died. It’s happening ALL OVER!  Assuming that your client will stay dead is basically malpractice at this point and there are probably no sample wills that contemplate that situation. Someone go to the boardinghouse and give the lawyers all of Damon’s bourbon.

Imagine:

LAWYER: *Sits in office, reconciling client trust accounts and wondering why she didn’t become a marine biologist.*

PHONE: *rings*

ELENA: Hi, this is Elena Gil-

LAWYER: *opens office supplies cabinet, takes out bourbon*

ELENA: -bert, and Alaric has come back to life. Can he have all his stuff back?

LAWYER: *CHUGS*

Seriously: when someone dies, their estate has to go through a process called probate- that is, the court-supervised process of re-titling assets in the name of the deceased person’s beneficiaries. (This can also be done by trust, but let’s not complicate issues.) So Alaric dies, or Bonnie (and her dad!), and hypothetically their heirs should be probating their estates- you know, selling the house, getting rid of furniture, changing the names on their bank accounts. That stuff wouldn’t belong to the dead person anymore, because there’s no dead hand control in property law. DEAD PEOPLE CAN’T OWN THINGS. (See: all my former Vampire Legal Issues columns, in which I complain about this at length.)

But what happens when the dead COME BACK? Do their heirs just give their stuff back voluntarily? Even if they did, surely at some point all that re-gifting would trigger the gift tax.

Anyway, the closest situation I could think of was people who have been presumed dead (sailors who disappeared at sea, prisoners taken captive and never heard from again). However, in Virginia you have to be missing for seven consecutive years (cite) to be presumed dead, and I have no idea what TVD's timeline is but it hasn't been that long since any of these people died.

I looked for cases of people returning from the dead and wanting their stuff back, but had a hard time finding anything really relevant (especially with a search limited to Virginia). There is, of course, The Return of Martin Guerre (and Sommersby!), but that’s more identity theft than a return from the dead. Of course, people are kidnapped or run away and return, but I didn’t find anything recent involving someone who had a lot of assets; in those cases, people can go to court to be declared alive again, but I didn’t find anything about the property complications, and presumably many of them had no property. There is Guillaume le Gentil, an 18th-century French scientist who was gone so long in his attempt to chart eclipses that, when he returned to France eleven years after leaving, his family had had him declared dead, his wife had remarried, and all his property had been claimed by others. It took tons of litigation and even the king to restore him, and I have doubt he was completely made whole.

The problem with all of those situations is that there was never a body, as there has been on TVD. So honestly, I have no idea how that would play out because I have never heard of a single case of actual resurrection (er, barring the religious). My best guess is that there would a LOT of litigation. Or, you know, that Damon would take care of it in some non-legal way. (I know he’s dead but whatever, we all know he’s coming back.)

EXHIBIT:

Yay Alaric! He’s charming and also has been dead long enough for his estate to be probated. Didn’t he at one point give Elena the numbers for all his accounts and contact information for his family? Is his family dead? Who did he leave his property to? Does Elena just keep the loft for storage purposes? Did he own or rent the loft? What’s he living on now? Did someone save his license and passport or does he need new ones? Can you IMAGINE the paperwork?

Who the F*&$ Even Owns Those Houses Now?

I suppose this question is academic, since the gang can’t go back to Mystic Falls right now, but who owns the Salvatore house NOW? Did Damon have a will? Does Elena still own it?  Who’s managing his investments? (You KNOW he has some.) Matt invites Katherine into the Lockwood House! So he still owns it, then? I wonder if Tyler will want it back now that he’s human.

Man, the chains of title on these places must be INSANE.

Aaron Whitmore, Beneficiary of All the Trusts, Apparently

Remember Aaron Whitmore? Blond, Elena seemed to like him until her boyfriend killed him and she shrugged it off? What was his deal?

His guardian, Wes, ran the Augustine Society (which: vampires seriously couldn't escape some rural doctors? really??) and Aaron, once he finds out, pulls the funding by saying this spectacularly opaque thing: “My family’s trust came through.” Um, did it? What the hell does that mean? Was he going to get control over the trust at, say, 21, and he just happened to turn 21 in time to cut off Augustine’s funding? Was the Whitmore family PERSONALLY funding Augustine, or was it through the college? SURELY Aaron must have had a personal trust, entirely separate from the college’s funding.

I suppose that Aaron could have had Wes removed as trustee, but that process would depend on the terms of the trust. Perhaps he went to probate court, but I’d like to see him explaining that Wes was mismanaging the funds by spending money on vampire experimentation. Ha!

Furthermore, was Aaron living off the same money that funded Augustine? How does Whitmore College work? Did Aaron just own it, or did he control its funding? It was all very confusing. Anyway, I hope there was a residual beneficiary for that trust (trusts?)! It would be SUCH a shame for it to escheat to the state.

So that’s it for now. Season 6 starts tonight and I’m quite sure I’ll be back soon with more irrelevant questions about the legal arrangements of the imaginary undead. Find me on Twitter @twtrlessfriend or on my new blog, Reign of Terrible, where complain about TV, share history links, and generally babble.

Christine