Kat > Recent Status Updates

"She turned pale, her porcelain skin silky white."

An editor was fine with this sentence.

"Wicked, worthless people go around telling lies.
— Proverbs 6:12"

Apparently this is from the Good News Translation, but with the first two words switched. I'd never heard of this version, so I was suspicious, but apparently it's a well-regarded "common language" translation. Just a bit old, perhaps, since it's from the late 1970s.

"She knew if she tried to exit this room, Tico would block the door and bark."

Well that isn't terrifying in any way....

I thought maybe the one female officer mentioned in this special got her own book, but it turns out, no. There is one in the main series where the heroine is one of the officers, but she isn't in this book 😔

Hopefully these spies coming in from the cold do better than Le Carre's ...

Ooh, Michter's. Funny to see my preferred whiskey in something!

The dolphin liaison who read them Das Kapital rocks.

"Don't try to swim with the dolphins during a labor dispute...."

Sounds like solid advice. Dolphins are jerks!

...the National Parking Association and Parking Magazine do indeed exist. I checked.

Trying to parse the floriography of these funeral bouquets, and the enshittification of the Internet since AI is making it really difficult. If I were at home, I would just check my reference books, but as it is, I may have to go to the local library.

"So you name your cat Sugar, or Smudge, or Zeus...."

Poor Spice, being left out!

"'That's a Princess Bride reference,' I explained.
"'No, no, I got it,' the woman assured me."

LOL I immediately love Mathilda. I empathize with "Oh, no, I got your reference; I'm just judging you for making it."

"I didn't need another cat.... But then, no one ever needs a cat these days. That's not why we have cats. We have cats because they amuse us and because otherwise our clothes would lack the texture only cat hair can provide."

Very true. I'm out of town for the holidays and my clothes have a faint dusting of glitter instead of cat hair. Terribly unfashionable!

Oh no, not an unwanted marriage proposal! Cue the awkward turtle 🐢🐢 🐢

"Many people crave it [sex]"

I really appreciate the acknowledgement that not everyone does! Hooray for not erasing the ace spectrum!

I wonder if the restaurant being named Joe Fish is an extremely obscure reference to The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, wherein the damsel in distress, named Jane Finn in the published version, was originally supposed to be named Jane Fish?

Gotta love Agnes's mother for telling her dad he can sit on his money and spin if he thinks she regrets the life she chose.

I'd forgotten how visceral the descriptions of the awful children are. One can only hope that once they're exposed to social consequences outside of the family, it isn't too late for them to become worthwhile human beings.

Barnes & Noble on Boylston? I guess she must mean the one in the Prudential Center. The only other ones I know of in the city are actually university bookstores.

An extra bedroom? Within walking distance of Harvard Square?? As a grad student???

Lest anyone think otherwise, I regret to inform you that the only good Mexican food in Boston (or its environs) is in the East End.

I find myself caring way less that Leo is a psychotic killer and more that he's an arrogant asshole

When this book was set, Freddie could still have gone to Rigby & Peller 😔 They closed all but three stores in the US and now the closest is in NYC 😤

The Friendly Toast is great! And at that hour, they might even be able to get a table without waiting ☺️

Never talk to the police / it's shut the fuck up Friday

Leo gets it

A diner in Copley Place? LOLOLOL

(It's the fancy mall with the Tiffany's and such. The more standard mall is the Prudential Center, across the street.)

Wow, I hate Leo now.

It's so fucking "guy in your MFA" to suggest to a woman writer that a woman character be sexually assaulted.

Applause for the author! Squirrels can indeed carry plague and rabies. A kid in Colorado caught plague from a dead squirrel about a decade ago -- they found it and gave it a funeral.