why must otherwise decent books have stupid lines in them? Is it the curse of the darling? Does the author think 'my god, this is the best line ever, the editor will cut it over my dead body?"

Cause, I'll tell you, I'm very careful with my darlings, as i don't want to be so in love with a line that I ignore the fact that it just doesn't fit. I have some wonderful lines. But if they don't fit, they don't fit, and beauty won't change that.

The culprit this time?

"Her eyes were hazel syringes of truth serum, searching for an injection site."

Yeah. Just...there...in the story, where anyone could trip over it. Nothing else in the book--NOTHING--would lead you to believe that there would suddenly be a sentence like that, hidden in an otherwise innocuous paragraph.

I'm speechless, really.

Tags: i suffer so you don't have to

So, let us consider two moms, and their relative awesomeness. Mom 1: Left the dog. Mom 2: Walked the dog for multiple hours.

Highlights of the walk: Unlike his previously mentioned habit with hannah, of bolting ahead, he likes to dink along until I pull on the leash, whereupon he runs up ahead as if to emphasize that *he* could be moving faster, it is my fault that we're moving so slowly. He also got to walk along Mass Ave on a summer evening, which meant checking out all the people sitting at sidewalk tables. He got fussed over to his heart's content by multiple tables, and then when I finally got to the pizza place--well, actually when the pizza cooled enough to eat-- he (re?)discovered that the world can combine his two favorite things--walking and begging food. If you were wondering (as I know hannah and I have discussed) how far the dog can walk backwards, the answer is: about a half block. After that point, he bounds up ahead, sits and waits for me to notice what a good dog I have. There was leaping, spinning, begging, etc. In related news, ( hannah close your eyes )