The Victors
My mother is hosting her monthly game of bunco at our house this evening. When my father & I learned of this alarming development last month, we stammered, "But… but… but that's the night of the Sugar Bowl!" I admire the long-term success of her bunco club & have no objection to her playing hostess, but the timing is diabolical. I wouldn't give a tinker's damn for the Sugar Bowl were it not for the valiant Wolverines' participation, but I have a vested interest in the Sugar Bowl given the fact—inconvenient though it may be to the bunco ladies—of the valiant Wolverines' participation. A solution, unsatisfactory but sufficient, has been found & we are going to watch the game in the home of my mom's best friend, herself a member of the bunco club, alongside her husband, himself a friend of our family of long standing. All's well that ends well; now the only worry is the game itself.

Go Blue!

The Queue
You'll note that I've removed the backissues of Hellboy & B.P.R.D., et al., from all three divisions of the queue. I haven't stopped reading my accumulation of comic books & intend to continue reading them 'twixt prose books, but I've been reminded that they are read so quickly that to list them alongside the prose is to distort "The Queue's" reporting function. During the last week, when my time was filled with kith & kin, my travels were far & many, & I didn't have a chance to get to the library to borrow The Jewel of Seven Stars, I read four B.P.R.D. miniseries & one Hellboy miniseries & several one-shots. I love what used to be called "the Hellboy universe" & is increasingly known as "the Mignolaverse."

Recently
Christopher Moore, You Suck: A Love Story
Christopher Moore, Bite Me: A Love Story
Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden, Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire

Currently
Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars

Presently
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes
David Ignatius, Body of Lies
Len Deighton, City of Gold

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Ninth & Tenth Days of Christmas
The Klezmonauts, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" from Oy to the World: A Klezmer Christmas (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I adore "We Three Kings," but strive to husband it 'til near the end o' the Christmastide, when the Epiphany commemorates the homage paid to the Christ by the Magi.

Montag, 2 Januar
Sufjan Stevens, "Once in Royal David's City" from Songs for Christmas (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: For clarity's sake, since "Once in Royal David's City" appears twice on Sings for Christmas, today's R.B.D.S.O.T.D. is the 3:40 version with lyrics, not the 2:01 instrumental rendition.