BTT- The Cold, an Award and a Giveaway!

The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now… So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch … what kind of reading do you want to do?

When it’s really cold, I like get into my bed, snuggle up under my warm covers, and then read.  I’m not particular about the type of book, though I don’t think I’d read anything that required me to think.  The problem I have, however, is that I always fall asleep!

read other Booking Through Thursday answers here 🙂

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I’d like to say thank you to Reagan at Miss Remmers’ Reviews for my first award for 2010.  It’s quite a lovely award, don’t you think?

A Prolific Blogger is one who is intellectually productive… keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content.

There are a couple of rules for this award:

1. Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Spread some love!
2. Each Prolific Blogger must link to the blog from which he/she has received the award.
3. Every Prolific Blogger must link back to This Post, which explains the origins and motivation for the award.
4. Every Prolific Blogger must visit this post and add his/her name in the Mr. Linky, so that we all can get to know the other winners.

Miss Remmers’ Reviews is one of the blogs that I first visited during Bloggiesta as part of the comment mini-challenge, and I enjoy Reagan’s posts, especially the Thesis Statement Video, which has the Thesis Statement Rap in it.  LOL! Had to put it in there 🙂

Now for my magnificent seven nominees:

Care’s Online Book Club – While Care is currently UNPLUGGED, I enjoy reading her posts, particularly the Virginia Wolf ones (I argue I don’t like stream of conscious, and yet I loved Push.  Maybe I should give Ms. Wolf a shot, since it really was the movie The Hours that made me run from her.)  Looking forward to your return, Blogging Buddy 🙂

Wrighty Reads – Debbie has great reviews and I enjoy her “So I was just wondering…” posts.  AND she’s a fellow left-hander 😉  Lefties RULE!

Unfinished Rambler – Poor Unfinished.  He’s lost his favorite blog home, Humor-Blogs.com, and he’s been going through the various stages of grief about it.  I think he might be at acceptance now, but I’m not quite sure… He’s definitely still snarky about it, but he’s usually snarky anyway, which is one of the things I enjoy about his blogs.  Did you know Elvis is the janitor at his library?  He’s probably too cool for this award, but here it is all the same 🙂

Lady Gwyn’s Kingdom – This is a fairly new-to-me blog, but quite enjoyable.  I found it through my Google Alerts.  She had “Reading Challenge” and Welsh on the same page, so Google thought it was the same as “Welsh Reading Challenge”… erm, not quite, but I’m glad for GA’s loose extrapolation, because I would have missed this one.  It’s a lovely blog, playing chamber music while you read reviews of books about Tudors and other royal members behaving badly (and some not so bad, too;-) ), books by Sharon Kay Penman, and you can read about what happened on this day in history, as well.

Reading In Color – Ari is probably another one who is too cool for this award (really, she is, go check her blog out 🙂 ), but it’s what I’ve got to show my appreciation for what she’s doing, so here ya go.  She’s working with Doret and Laura on a project to find the most diverse YA/MG publishing company, so if you have any ideas, pass it along!

Debbie’s World of Books – This is another great blog I first visited during the Bloggiesta mini-challenge, and I’ve enjoyed ever since.  Great reviews, fun memes, and I love the blog theme (purple’s my favorite color 😉 )

In Spring is the Dawn – Also a Bloggiesta find, Tanabata focuses a lot on All Things Japanese, whether that be in book or movie form, or the traditional music of Japan.  It’s fascinating to learn about translations, and her blog’s layout is fun and beautiful.

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Also, don’t forget to check out my giveaway!  I’m giving away a copy of Push by Sapphire, and the more people sign up, the more prizes!  If 50 or more people enter to win, I’ll add $10 to spend on Amazon.com for the grand prize!

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Free Books and an Award, WINNING ROCKS!

You are a winner!!!!

 

Who doesn’t want to hear those four words?  I’ve been hearing them a lot in the last couple weeks and I’ve gotten behind a bit on sharing it, not to mention I have the Great Goblins! Giveaway winner to announce!

First, I’ve got a funny story to tell…  It would seem that it has been decided by the book gods that I MUST read The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson, because I’ve won it three times now in three different blog giveaways of it (I only accepted the first one and asked the other two to draw another name so someone else could enjoy it 🙂 )  Thank you Joystory, Fresh Ink Books, and Gramma’s Reads for  hosting these giveaways 🙂

The latest book giveaway that I won was for Shanghai Girls by Lisa See from Devourer of Books.  I have both Peony In Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, but haven’t gotten to them as yet, and I think I’m waiting to just have a big Asian book read-a-thon or something… lol.  Thanks Jen!

One book that I was uber-geeked out about since I first saw it’s banner in Shelf Awareness, then saw the website and trailer for it, is BoneMan’s Daughter by Ted Dekker.  So I was doing the happy dance when The Literate Housewife announced she was hosting a giveaway for the book.  When I saw my name as one of the winners, I actually screamed with joy… Missy, my little rat terrier, came running to see if her mommy was okay, even.  Thank you, Jennifer! 😀

AND I’d like to say THANKS! to texasheartland of Texas Banter Book Reviews for giving me this lovely award:

Here are the details of this award:

1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs which make you feel comfy or warm inside.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

Okay…. comfy and warm inside?  Well… I’d say winning books there makes me feel warm and comfy inside, so all the afore mention bloggers are 5 of my nominees, and for the other 4 of the “up to nine” I’m going to stretch a little 🙂

• Lost In Books – great blog and great Twit 😀 (which is not an insult, 😉 )
• Must Read Faster – relatively new blogger, just a month since she popped her blog’s cherry 🙂  She is learning fast, reading fast, and tweeting fast 🙂
• Wrighty Reads – a LibraryThing friend, fellow Zombie Chicken blogger, and, most importantly, fellow left-hander!  YaY! for LEFTIES!
• Books and Movies –  Carrie’s Blogroll is a directory of the best blogs in the blogosphere 🙂  (and yes, Mt. TBR is on it 😉 )

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And now for the Great Goblin! Giveaway winner…

I cannot tell y’all how much fun, absolute and plain FUN, I had reading Goblins!  And I was happy that there were so many entries to win it… if only I had a copy for everyone who entered!  But, alas… I only have one to give away.  And the winner of that copy is….

Carrie K. ! 

 

There are two more book giveaways coming soon, one for The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy and one for The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, so keep an eye out for those announcements!

Thanks to everyone who visits Mt. TBR, to my fellow LTers, BookMoochers, PBS’ers and Tweeps.  Y’all make reading and blogging so much fun!

MWAH!! Big Kisses of THANKS!

 

Viral Video Wednesday ~ LOST

 

Welcome to Viral Video Wednesday, May 27th 🙂  For anyone who noticed, last week’s VVW was skipped because it coincided with my book blog tour stop of They Plotted Revenge Against America, and I wanted to give the book the whole day.  But we’re back this week, and this week’s installment topic is LOST.

I am a Lostie, for sure… though not quite as much of one as some people.  I keep acquiring, but haven’t read any of, the books that are mentioned in the television series LOST.  I guess since the next season won’t start until FEBRUARY OF NEXT YEAR 😦 , then I have time to read said books, but my point is that I’m a middle of the road Lostie.  I do my best to watch every episode, I’ll probably be working my way through the whole series to date between now and the next (and final) season, and trying to get caught up on a lot of the theories floating around.  I’m not so much of a fan that I’m going to build a SIM for it on SecondLife (they already have one, btw, been there… not much going on at the time), nor am I going to make a fan site, change my username to FRECKLES629, or start hiding in the bushes whenever I see a puff of black smoke nearby.  But, I do enjoy the show. 😀

So, in honor of the shows recent season finale, I’m dedicating my VVW to some of the fan and funny LOST vid clips.  I’d love for you to share your favorites, too, either leaving a link in your comment or posting a VVW on your blog and linking up 😀  So, on with the vids!

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During the first half of the series, they showed some silly Lost parodies. So I had to go on YouTube and see what other people were doing. The Fine Brothers have quite a few really funny ones, and they remind me of when we were kids playing with an incomplete set of toys. Barbies, He-Man toys, and Star Wars figures would fill in for whatever character we were lacking, and as kids, we never batted an eye. But, as an adult looking back, sometimes they were funny or even bizarre substitutions. The Fine Brothers make that very point:

Star Trek meets Heroes meets Lord of the Rings meets LOST meets Bill and Ted meets Matrix meets Back to the Future (in other words, just like the season finale 😀 ):

I loved reading Mad Magazine when I was a kid, and loved it when they made a TV show. Here’s MadTV’s LOST, guest starring Jeff Probst from Survivor: 

And The Bohemian LOST Rhapsody, with a Weird Al Yankovic touch:

Jimmy Kimmel’s also a Lostie, and he likes to visit Hawaii… so he decided to combine the two and visit the set of LOST:

And I’ll end my VVW with this LOST clip from fellow Hoosier and Lefty, David Letterman (btw, I sat through all ten… you’ll get that if you do to 😉 ):

So, what’s your favorite thing from the show LOST? Who’s your favorite character? What’s your favorite LOST memory?

OR

Do you hate (strongly dislike) LOST and wish people’d just shut up about it already? If so, What’s wrong with you? Why do you dislike the show? 😀

Next week’s VVW topic is: I didn’t make it on American Idol, and look at me now!

Left-Handed Catch-Up

This past week has been a very busy one for me with dentist appointments, meeting with teachers and trying to get some housework done.  LOL… I just realized a few minutes ago that the reason this week’s Booking Through Thursday post already had 115 comments is that today is FRIDAY… dur.

As a result of my busy week, I forgot to edit the daily “Lefty’s Corner,” so I thought I’d post the hmissing three days here.

For St. Partick’s Day, Tuesday, March 17:

Cecil Adams is generally assumed to be a pseudonym of the unknown author of “The Straight Dope,” a popular question-and-answer column published in The Chicago Reader since 1973.  Whether Adams is the author’s real name is known only by the author and the Chicago Reader.  According to his bio, however, Adams is an accomplished traveler, resides in Chicago, and is left-handed.  He apparently attended Catholic school, Northwestern University, and is of Irish decent.

Lefty Birthday for March 17th:
Singer Billy Corgan

For Wednesday 18th:

Animated Lefties
Bart Simpson from The Simpsons
SpongeBob from SpongeBob SquarePants
Gromit from Wallace and Gromit

Lefty Birthdays for March 18th:
Author Richard Condon
South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk
Actor Peter Graves

For Thursday, March 19th:

Loius II of France was the eldest son of Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orleans. Known as Louis the Stammerer, this royal lefty succeeded his younger brother in Aquitaine in 866 and his father in France in 877. He was described as “a simple and sweet man, a lover of peace, justice, and religion.” In 878, he gave the counties of Barcelona, Gerona, and Besalu to Wifred the Hairy., His final act was to march against the Vikings in 879.

Lefty Birthday for March 19th:
Actor Bruce Willis

Lefty’s Corner ~New Widget Added

For those of you who might not know, I am left-handed.  I am unique in that I am one of the approximately 10% of the population who are in their RIGHT MIND! 

This past Christmas I got one of those “fact a day” desk calendars devoted to left-handed facts, quotes and trivia.  I finally tore off the pages to today’s date (and actually, for some screwy reason, tore down to March 16th instead of February 16th) and placed the small booklet of daily facts in my pocket to read at the dentist office today.  As I sat there, being wowed by who can be found in the sinister pack (The Free Dictionary, definition 3 for sinister: On the  left side; left.  From the Latin sinister, on the left) and by interesting facts about left-handedness, I thought it might be fun to add a widget to Mt. TBR with the daily facts from The Left-Hander’s Calendar.  So, in honor of one of my favorite stores (one I’ve missed terribly since it closed when Indy’s Union Station closed.  *sniff* Christmas has never been Christmas since… but that’s a tale for another post), I’ve named it Lefty’s Corner.

Since I’ve missed about six weeks’ worth of facts, I thought I blog the best of the Lefty facts thus far:

1)  799 A.D.:   Father of Europe and the Emperor responsible for our present calendar, Charlemagne established an extensive library, founded an academy for educating young Frankish knights, and made a strong effort to produce an educated clergy.  This royal lefty also established a system of justice in which nobles and clergymen traveled about the kingdom, hearing court cases and bringing the law to every town and village.  What’s more, according to MrDonn.org, Charlemagne established “a system of trial by panel. Under Charlemagne’s system, each accused person would be heard by a panel of honorable men, men who had taken an oath to listen and to judge fairly based on the evidence presented.” From this, our modern “trial by jury” system was born.

2)  Left-handers really are special, and brain scanning, along with the latest genetic technology, is finally enabling scientists to crack the mysteries of what makes us left-handed.  Research geneticist Clyde Francks of Oxford University found that left-handers tend to share a variant of a gene named LRRTM1.  This gene, however, appears to influence handedness only if it is inherited from the father.

While genetics play a role in handedness, there are no guarantees. Handedness does run in families, though not in an easily predictable way. Left-handers are about twice as likely as righties to produce left-handed children, but most of their offspring will still be right-handed. Personal fact: My father was ambidextrous, I’m left-handed, as is one of my nephews. Two of my three daughters are right-handed, while my middle daughter is ambidextrous.

Also, whites, blacks, and North American Indians are more likely to be left-handed. Just over 9% of Asians and Hispanics are lefties.

3)  I’m smarter than you are! Tests conducted by Alan Searleman from St. Lawrence University in New York found there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people. Personal Fact: my IQ is 169 (not that I’m bragging 😉 )

4)  A Danish legend says that on the twelfth night after Christmas, if an unmarried woman walks to bed backward, throws a shoe over her left shoulder, and says a verse to the Three Holy Kings, the man she sees in her dreams will one day marry her. HOWEVER, it doesn’t say that it’ll be a happy, long-lasting marriage or if it will end in an acrimonious, War-of-the-Roses style divorce. AND what of lucid dreamers? If I don’t like who I see, I’d just change it. (BTW, does “a verse to the Three Holy Kings” mean to sing a few bars of the Christmas carol “We Three Kings”?)

5)  Four of our last six presidents have been southpaws: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The country has turned increasingly left-handed. Before Ford, only James Garfield, Herbert Hoover and Harry Truman were lefties. (Of course, most children were discouraged to write with their left hands, painfully so with rulers and other whacking tools, so it’s not a surprise there weren’t more.)

PLUS! Our new president, Barack Obama, is also a lefty 😀

6)  W.C. Fields was a lefty born in Philadelphia,, but when he was born is up for debate. Some say he was born on April 9, 1879, and jokingly say he was born again on January 29, 1880. His grandson believes the 1880 date is correct.

7)  The official Boy Scout handshake uses the left hand instead of the right. Although Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, was ambidextrous, he chose the lefty shake because the left hand is nearer to the heart.

8)  On the cartoon The Simpsons, each character has appeared as a lefty at least once. In fact, there are Web sites devoted to tracking just who is left-handed in each episode. It’s no surprise – Matt Groening, The Simpsons’ creator, is left-handed.

9)  There are more than 500 million left-handed people on the planet 😉

10)  Edwin “Buzz Aldrin (Gemini 12, Apollo 11) was the first lefty to walk on the moon. Other left-handed U.S. Astronauts include James Lovell (Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, Apollo 13) and Wally Schirra (Mercury 8, Gemini 6, Apollo 7).

Some famous southpaws:

Paul McCartney, who said: “In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Henry Rollins– singer, songwriter, spoken word artist, author, actor, and publisher. He was also the frontman of punk band Black Flag.

Actress Kim Novak

Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz

Baseball player Lenny Dykstra

Journalist Ted Koppel

Singer Natalie Cole

Baseball player Babe Ruth

Actor Rip Torn

Actor Brent Spiner -he played my all-time favorite Star Trek character, Lt. Commander Data, and his hillbilly character, Bob Wheeler, on Night Court was hilarious! Threshold is another one of my favorite shows in which Spiner was cast as the hippy, conspiracy-theorist Dr. Nigel Fenway.

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey

Tennis player Martina Navratilova

Author Lewis Carroll

Actor James Cromwell– The man is a legend and highly credited actor, and yet… when I think of him, Farmer Hoggett from BABE is what always comes to mind… “That’ll do, Pig! That’ll do!” Second to Babe, The Sum of All Fears pops into my head. In Sum he played President Fowler, but it wasn’t the last time he played a US Pres. Recently, he starred in W, cast in the role of former President George H. W. Bush, who was also a lefty 😉 .

Actor Scott Glenn

Vincent D’Onofrio, who appeared in Full Metal Jacket  (he was Marine recruit Private Pyle who, after the continual harangue from the D.I., played by real former Marine, Gunny Sgt R. Lee Ermy [I highly recommend checking out Gunny Sgt’s site 😀 ], ate the end of his rifle.), Mystic Pizza, Ed Wood, Men in Black, The Cell, The Break Up, and more. However, he is now best known as Detective Robert Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Actor Gabe Kaplan, best known for his role as the title character in the television show Welcome Back Kotter.

Actor Balthazar Getty

Actress Diane Lane

Actress Mare Winningham

Actor Telly Savalas, the man who made bald sexy and lollipop sucking acceptable for adults.

Comedian George Burns

Countess of Wessex, Sophie Rhys-Jones

Actor Michael Crawford

Actress Tippi Hedren, who is best known for being chased unmercifully by massive flocks of birds.

Singer Phil Everly, of The Everly Brothers. Songs best known by The Everly Brothers are “Bye, Bye Love“, “Wake Up Little Suzie“, “Crying In the Rain“, “Let It Be Me“, “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and “Cathy’s Clown” (I’ve always loved Dream), and so many more! One more treat: “Gone Gone Gone” -not that it’s all that great of a song, but WATCHING the video, particularly the girls dancing, made me laugh. I thought that kind of thing only happened on The Corny Collins Show!

Actor Jim Carrey– My favorite Jim Carrey movies are How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Mask, Liar Liar, Lemony Snicket, Dumb and Dumber and Bruce Almighty.

Benjamin Franklin– Inventor, statesman, author and one of the U.S. founding fathers, Benny also appears in Benjamin Franklin: The Punctual Plumber’s commercials (ads played here repetitvely sing out “Benny! I got your number 867-5309!”, a toll free number utilizing the ubiquitous Tommy Tu-Tone’s Jenny’s number) and, along with other money-starring U.S. historical figures, in the Turbo Tax commercials.

Comedian Steve Harvey

Actor Cary Grant -my favorite Cary Grant movies are Arsenic and Old Lace, The Philadelphia Story and His Girl Friday.

Comedian, actor, dancer Danny Kaye -Love! The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, White Christmas, and The Five Pennies.

Saint Joan of Arc

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.– Everyone, of course, knows King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and along with the full speech, I found an interesting short versionthat has incorporated a Spiritual in the clip. In the past year, King’s Dream was revisited in the will.i.am “Yes We Can” song, which incorporated the line

…a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

from Barack Obama’s speech (now President Obama, a major step toward the realization of Dr. King’s dream). Oh! King and Obama are both lefties… 😀

Inventor Thomas Edison

Kurt Cobain– Ah, yes… The anthem of my teenage years, “Smells Like Teen Spirit“. I bought the album, Nevermind, which also had “Come As You Are” and “Stay Away” (a song that was more my anthem than the first one). These songs make me feel like I’m an acne-battling, high school student sitting in the corner of the cafeteria by myself, trying not to look friendless. Oh, those were the days…

Billy Ray Cyrus -Okay, everyone over twenty-five KNOWS “Achy Breaky Heart“, and those under 20, or with children under 20, knows Billy Ray Cyrus as Robby Ray Stewart, Hannah Montana’s father and real-life father to Miley Cyrus who plays Hannah.

Lauryn Hill -I love the Fugees’ version of “Killing Me Softly” (Lauryn was a member of the Fugees).

Pink -“So What“, “U + UR Hand” and “Get This Party Started” are my favorite Pink songs, and are on my MP3 player. Besides both of us being left-handed, Pink has the same real first name as I 😀

Prince– Raspeberry Beret is one of my favorite Prince songs. “U Got the Look“, “1999” and “Batdance” are a few others.

Lou Rawls

Paul Simon– forever my favorite, “You Can Call Me Al” is one of the best songs and funnest music videos I’ve heard and seen.

Boxer Oscar De La Hoya

Actor Jason Bateman –Hancock is my favorite

Actors and brothers, Dennis, The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia  was my introduction to those special, warm-tingly feelings, and Randy Quaid, whose character “Cousin Eddie” (Fried Pussy Cat makes me laugh just as hard for the millionth time as it did the first) from the National Lampoons Vacation movies has made Christmas Vacation one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Mary Kate Olsen

Doctor and missionary Albert Schweitzer

Director Joel Coen (of The Coen Brothers) -my favorite Coen Brothers’ movie is O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and a second clip for good measure… and The Sirens Song. LOL.. I love it when Everett and Delmar wake up after drinking with the Sirens, and Delmar screech/squeals when he looks over and sees Pete’s clothes, sans Pete, and a toad hops out of Pete’s shirt.

Them syreens did this to Pete. They loved him up and turned him into a horny toad.

 k… I’m going to my DVD drawer to grab this movie now.

Former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (whose portrait can be seen on the US $10 bill)- said “A well-adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.”

Singer Phil Collins, Against All Odds is one of my favorites

Singer Crystal Gayle

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence

Actor and singer David Bowie– said, “We can be Heroes, Just for one day.” I loved Labyrinth! The Dance Magic scene is great, and I love-love–LOVE the ball scene. After watching Labyrinth, I had a little David Bowie crush for a while.

Actress Diane Keaton– Because I Said So and Baby Boom are my favorites

Author James Baldwin– African-American writer and essayist who penned Native Son, among others.

Last thing I want to leave you with is a quote from John Diana’s The Left-Hander’s Guide and Reference Manual.

The Average Lefty:
Thinks Like Einstein
Looks Like Redford
Paints Like de Vinci
Leads Like Schwarzkopf
Sings Like Newley
Fights Like Corbett
Clowns Like Chaplin

Plays:
Baseball Like Babe Ruth
Soccer Like Pele
Tennis Like Conners
Golf Like Charles
Runs Like the Devil and
Swims Like Spitz

BTW… All the people mentioned in that quote are lefties!