Good, Clean Fun

I finished reading Dorothy Sayers' Strong Poison, and I seem to be inching back to reading a book a week, as long as I dedicate some time each week to actually reading. (Moreover, I seem to be inching away from watching as much television; I feel rather saturated by TV lately and will probably drop a few more shows that I watch, such as The West Wing and Law & Order.)

Anyway, Strong Poison seems to suggest a change in the Peter Wimsey series. For one thing, it introduces the love of Peter's life, Harriet Vane, a mystery writer (Sayers' critics contended that Sayers wrote Vane as herself so that she could marry Peter, whom she was infatuated with according to the critics), who is on trial for the murder of her former lover, who was poisoned with arsenic. Vane had just finished writing a novel about arsenic poisoning, and had been one of the last people to see him alive, and seems to have been the only person to have had the opportunity to have poisoned him. The novel opens with her trial, which ends in a mistrial. Peter, having fallen hopelessly in love with her, is convinced (for no rational reason) that she's innocent, and sets out to prove it.

In many ways, this book is the opposite of Unnatural Death; in that book, Peter finds a murder where none was suspected, and her Peter must prove that the murder everyone believes in is not the truth. But the essential feel of the book is similar: Peter has to tease out the facts, and goes through a moment when he's not sure how to proceed any farther; everything seems to be played out. It's a little more personal to him here, but not essentially much different.

The high point of the book is the employment of Miss Climpson's female detective agency (actually, more a resource for Peter to draw on than a true agency), called the "Cattery". Miss Climpson herself spends an extended stretch doing some investigation, and one of her ladies works as a secretary to investigate another aspect of the case. Miss Climpson is a slightly more reasonable character than the comically extreme figure from Unnatural Death, and overall these are perhaps the most enjoyable part of the book. Alas, I felt the actual details of the mystery were somewhat disappointing.

The style of Sayers' writing also seems to be evolving in Strong Poison, feeling ever more formal and noble and less casual than in Peter's earlier adventures. From the two later Peter Wimsey novels I've read, I suspect I will enjoy the series progressively less from here on out. (Not to mention that the novels get much longer from here!)

Yesterday I woke up and did a whole bunch of laundry, at the same time spending the morning in my bathrobe lying in bed and reading. The cats loved it, and it was wonderful to just relax for a morning. (I woke up a little after 8 am, so there was plenty of morning!)

In the afternoon I ran a number of errands. I picked up the new novel by Steven Gould, an author I enjoy. This one seems to involve the melting of the polar ice caps and subsequent flooding of much of the world's coastline. I also bought some new jeans, and some things I needed for home (like new file folders for my filing cabinets). And, at Cost Plus World Market I bought a wicker-like basket to keep on my dining table. My Mom has several such baskets around her home which she uses to hold random things, and I thought it would add a touch of decor to my home while keeping my piles of stuff from spreading out too much. We'll see how it works.

And, it's been raining pretty much all weekend. Not a really hard rain (sadly), but steady.

This afternoon I decided to finally take the plunge and start listing some comics on eBay, since it seems like visitors to my comics for sale pages have largely dried up since the advent of Web auction sites. You can take a look at what I'm selling through eBay, if that interests you.

You know, I've never seen the original Toy Story movie from a few years ago? Since Toy Story 2 has been getting rave reviews, I figured I should go see it while it's still in theaters, but that I should see the first one first. So tonight I rented it. (I invited Tom over to see it, but he was working, and having already seen it, declined. I also called Bill and Julie, but they weren't home.)

Well, it's certainly a treat of a movie, if you haven't seen it. The animation is as impressive as advertised, mainly because they get the jangle of loose objects down just perfectly, and define body language for all the characters so well. And of course the story is just perfect: The toys of a boy named Andy are 'alive' when he's not watching them, and are dedicated to being the best toys they can be. They're led by Andy's favorite toy, the cowboy Woody, whose position is threatened by the arrival of the spiffy Buzz Lightyear, and who becomes jealous. Between Buzz believing he's a real person rather than a toy, and Woody's jealousy, the two get into all kinds of trouble, ending up in the clutches of a sadistic, toy-wrecking neighbor child.

Buzz and Woody are both completely endearing, and the supporting cast of toys and humans all work perfectly. The animation of the humans is a little peculiar, as they seem stuck between being life-like and being cartoons, but that's not hard to overlook after a little while. And there are plenty of chuckles along the way, and a terrific ending. I'm glad I saw it, and I'll see if I can catch the sequel in the next week or so.

Time for more cat photos. First up, I think I've mentioned that Newton loves to lie in the sun during the day (now that I have an apartment that gets direct sun; my apartment in Madison faced northeast, so we got some morning sun and that was it). Here he is:

Second, here's Jefferson in the basket I bought yesterday. As you can see, I haven't started using the basket yet, but it does add a little something to my "urban curb"-style table: