"baaa," from dakiwiboid

Who posted five questions in her LJ for me:

1. How do you feel about Mark Vorkosigan?

"I like the fat little creep." I do. I like how he's overcome his beginnings. I like how he's managed to keep his sense of right and wrong intact. I like how he overcame what happened on his excursion to Jackson's Whole; even though a lot of it was his fault, nobody deserves what Ryoval did to him, and watching him overcome it and its aftereffects was nothing less than triumphant. And his romance with Kareen is just sweet, not to mention a just reward for both of them [g].

2. Elizabeth Peters, Barbara Michaels, or Barbara Mertz?

Well, the Elizabeth Peters persona wrote my second favorite fictional hero of all time (Ramses Emerson). But I have a soft spot in my heart for the early Barbara Michaels gothics (House of Many Shadows and Ammie, Come Home in particular). I'm not a big Egyptology buff (sorry, Emerson), so I haven't read her Mertz books.

3. Swinburne associated lilies with virtue (and "languors" (see Dolores). Do you think of virtue when you smell a Stargazer?

No, not particularly. I tend to think of talcum powder [g].

4. What's your favorite Kenneth Branagh movie?

Probably still Much Ado About Nothing, mainly because it was the first thing I ever saw him in, and I fell head over heels for Benedick. There was a point in my life about 13 years ago where I was watching it once a week whether I needed to or not. But I own copies of just about everything else the man has committed to film, including early obscure BBC Belfast television programmes.

5. What's the most evocative quilt or quilt pattern you've ever seen? (I ask
because the St. Louis Art Museum has one of the Gee's Bend Pine Burr
Quilts, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Every time I see it, I feel as
if I'm transported out of the museum to a tiny Georgia town I've only
read about.)

Wow, what a spectacular variation on a Folded Star pattern! I've done the basic Folded Star, but nothing anywhere near that complicated. The most evocative quilt pattern I've ever seen? The APNQ (Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters -- http://www.apnq.org/quiltfest/2006Winners/index.php) show has some incredible quilts in its show every other year in Seattle, and there was one several years ago that looked like an Egyptian wall-painting (that alas seems to have been taken down from their website for some reason) which had me standing in front of it for quite some time. But I am a quilt show junkie, and I can't count the number of quilts I've been enthralled with over the years, so call it first among equals? Or something like that.

Anyone else want to be tagged? I can and will come up with five questions for you if you're interested...

questions from carbonelle

1. What book have you re-read the most times?

Lots and lots and lots... I'm a compulsive re-reader, and I like to go back and visit old friends (the characters). I don't think I could pick out just one.

2. What's the worst thing a patron has ever done on your watch?

Personally? Called me a racist. For doing a slight doubletake when she signed "Buddha" on the internet sign-up list (back when we had such things).

3. Nicest thing?

Again personally? Brought me a signed copy of his book (Winnie the Pooh on Success by Roger and Stephen Allen) with my name in the acknowledgements for "finding answers to the difficult questions."

4. Does "fandom" make sense to you / feel like a part of your life or do you feel otherwise?

I had never run across SF fandom until I joined the Bujold list in 2000. The concept took some getting used to, although I had been (and still am) a part of what I guess you'd call Shakespeare/Branagh fandom for a number of years before that. I find it fascinating to observe from the sidelines...

5. Nuke it, baby--! See michaelmichael and kalquessa's questions (above): what's on your sh*t/s) list?

The whole expletive deleted publishing submission process. Hands down. There has got to be a better way. Preferably one that starts and ends with a level playing field, so that the reason people get their novels published is because the books are good, not because of who they happen to know. [deep breath]