Link Salad

fan_eunice, who has a very rare form of breast cancer, is auctioning her formidable vidding skills on behalf of the the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation. (Knitters, I don't know if this foundation is part of the usual breast cancer charity drives - but are any of us going to turn down yet another good reason to knit?)

havocthecat is having a heck of a time finding multicultural children's books. A few options for finding some are on the post, but she would be grateful for specific book suggestions.

For the bento users, (and the Bollywood fans), the Washington Post has an interesting article: Newly Frugal Indians Revive Tiffin Tradition by Emily Wax. (You can get past registration with bugmenot, maybe.) To condense, while the rising Westernized class in India had been eating out in restaurants, the economic crash has led to a major renaissance for dabbawalas - men who pick up hot homemade lunches from the worker's homes and then run them to the office at lunchtime. ( Excerpt. )

If you want a do-it-yourself tiffin, Ebay usually lists a couple of traditional tiffin tins, but a better version in the West would probably be one of the thermos lunch jars, of which Zojirushi's Mr. Bento seems to be the most universally available. (Not cheap, just available.) I've always used mine to keep food cold and reheated it in the internal bowls, but they can also be used to keep food hot. There are billions of links out there, including one to "Mr. Bento Porn" which is nothing but pictures and descriptions of the food people put in theirs, so there are plenty of ideas.

Pharyngula has a rather depressing article on the book Idiot America: How Stupidity Became Virtue in the Land of the Free. ( Another excerpt )

Links part 2 - "Don't drive without a warranty"

I've just been sent an article about those proliferating phishing calls saying you're driving without a warranty. Hang Up by Marcy Gordon explains how the scam works, an idea of the number and breadth of complaints, and how we are (at last!) on the verge of Federal response to "robo-dialer harassment."

Nea's Classic Trek Book Recommendations

A bunch of people on the flist have been making or asking for recommendations for classic Trek novels, so I started digging in my library to see what I had thought was worth keeping through multiple moves over multiple years. It's been a while since I've read any of them, so YMMV (and at least one case, I'm looking at it going "You must be joking, I kept Spock Messiah? What in hell FOR?")

But these, off the top of my head, are the books worth having, if you can find 'em. Some are obscure, all are long out of print. Get 'em on ebay before the demand drives up the price.


Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah. Frankly, her fanfic was better because she wasn't stuck within Paramount's limits. (If you can score any of the Twin Moons fanzines, grab 'em quick!) But she had an understanding of Sarek and Amanda as a loving couple that is unparalleled. Murders centers very much on them as opposed to the TOS Enterprise crew, although there is, naturally, plenty of Spock and some of Kirk & McCoy.

How Much For Just the Planet by John Ford. The crackfic against which all crackfic is measured. How Paramount let the man write a musical comedy as a tie-in novel may never be known, but imagine The Trouble With Tribbles with musical interludes and the insanity cranked up to 11. [ETA: My memorial post A Book With Yellow Pages was about this novel.]

Dreadnaught! and Battlestations by Diane Carey. Yeah, Piper's a bit of a Mary Sue, but so's Mary Russell. If you like Mary, you'll probably like Piper, especially as Piper does not marry a main character.

Ishmael by Barbara Hambly. This one will be tough to find because it disappeared off the shelves as soon as Paramount belatedly realized that Hambly had managed to write an unlicensed crossover with Here Come the Brides without them noticing. (I may have kept this more for the novelty of owning it rather than the merits of the novel.)

The Romulan Way by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood. I list more Duanes below, but this one was a particular favorite, focusing on a federation sleeper agent among the Romulans. The Romulans are treated with dignity and respect, which is one reason I liked it; another is that the only TOS character to have a large role is McCoy.

Spock's World by Diane Duane. A long-term history of Vulcan and the evolution of its people. She has some bits with their language that linguists will appreciate.

Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan. Everyone in TOS is in it, but as the title suggests, Uhura carries the story. Lots of vibrant worldbuilding as they seek for the cure to a plague on a planet of intelligent felines.


These books I haven't read in so long that I'm not sure if I should be recommending them or not, because I don't really remember a thing about them. However, I found 'em worth keeping at the time, so I'll list them:

Pretty much everything else by Diane Duane. I've got Doctor's Orders, The Wounded Sky, and My Enemy, My Ally.

Crisis on Centaurus by Brad Ferguson. After listing what action the K/S/M trilogy is up to, the blurb on the back continues "Now Lt. Uhura, left alone in command, must jeopardize the crippled Enterprise to save, Centaurus, Kirk - and Joanna McCoy!" So probably one for the Uhura fans.

Demons by J.M. Dillard

There was also something about a world of singing fur seals that I remember enjoying and which also had a lot of Uhura in it, but it's not coming to hand tonight and I don't remember the name. {ETA: Named in comments.]