If you like the John Wick franchise or if you have ever wondered why other people like it, this essay by honigfrosch will delight and enlighten you. It gets at all the reasons I love the franchise and many more. (I haven't been able to come up with my own words to explain my feelings about it, the icon I chose for this post is the closest I can get.)

Action As Mythology: A John Wick Résumé
https://honigfrosch.dreamwidth.org/162051.html

(I haven't seen the fourth installment yet; my covid avoidance urge is still greater than my urge to see even this film at the earliest possible minute.)

Will Shortz’s Life in Crosswords (in The New Yorker)

This conversation with NYTimes crossword editor Will Shortz addresses the increasing diversity of vocabulary in crossword puzzles, which I’ve noticed and I appreciate. And then at the end he comes out as gay and talks about falling in love for the first time at age 70. My heart melted.

This vodka ad starring Daniel Craig as “himself” and featuring Taika Waititi makes me absolutely gleeful. As Kitty on Lucifer didn’t quite say, it’s “like porn and my Hello Kitty blanket and a stuffed crust pizza all rolled up into one.” Includes a blooper reel.



The competition under the cut.
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The Kiva microloan charity organization lets individuals lend money to individuals or small groups in areas like Africa and Asia via the Internet. You don't get interest on the loan, but it is repaid to you, and you can either lend it out again or withdraw it.

Kiva initially repaid lenders at the end of the loan term (typically 10 months to 18 months), but they've just changed their policy so that they repay lenders each time the loan recipient pays an installment (typically once a month). So you can get your money back faster.

I just went online to lend out my accumulated "Kiva credit." A lot of other people were doing the same thing, presumably because of this change in policy. I was refreshing the pages of several loan requests and watching the "amount still needed" drop every minute.

It is cool to watch people trying to help other people.

My lender page: http://www.kiva.org/lender/firecatstef

....go to http://www.bethelstreetgallery.com/index_flash.html, click artists, click Chris Campbell, and enjoy.

Since I like all four, I'm enjoying a lot. Some of my favorites: "Summer Heat," "Cat Fight," "Floating Flower"

(via BBW Art: The Broad Band http://francesca.net/broadband.html via liveavatar)

Bacon brittle

Bacon baklava

I would make them, but bacon has a tendency to go from the draining and cooling stage directly into my mouth.

I pass on (from kyubi, who has the good fortune to look at these things as part of her line of work) the blog http://www.kittyhell.com/

The first entry at the moment is for the "Hello Kitty Etch-A-Sketch Purse."

The author of this blog taunts his ambivalent readers by refusing to reveal where to buy the products he blogs about.

Cool!

http://bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com/375773.html

(note, contains photos of shirtless man)

I don't remember which person on my friends list posted the link to the Making Light thread in which LOLCatz (and other Internet phenomena such as 1337) meet literature, but thanks to whoever it was. I haven't laughed this hard in months.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009050.html

Taxidermy Reversal for Beginners !

http://www.techshop.ws/take_classes.html?a=1&i=415449