jmc_bks

It's Monday, which normally means it's time for SBD. But it's also a holiday, so who knows?

I've had this thought bouncing in my head for a bit and it needs out, so here goes: how often have you read something and then thought, that doesn't seem quite right. And you haven't been able to put your finger on exactly what the problem was, but it was like there was a pebble in your shoe, running the entire experience?

I read Joanna Bourne's latest book feeling that way. If I hadn't read Lynneguist's post on dialectical differences between American English and British English for the word slut, I would not have thought twice. But in one passage, the characters are observing sluts and other people of low morals doing business in a bad neighborhood. Except at the time, that doesn't seem to have been the exact usage of the word. I read that passage a couple of times; maybe I was reading too much into the word choice? I don't know, but even looking up the etymology of the word online didn't make me feel better about its usage in the text. It felt too modern, despite the relative age of the word, because the usage was more suited a 20th or 21st century American speaker than to a 19th century Briton.

Unrelated: Hello Cupcake is open. Yum. On Friday, despite the holiday weekend and rain, there was a line out the door at 2pm, and a limit on the number of cupcakes any customer could purchase. My goal was a "maya favorite" or a "peanut butter blossom" but since they were out, I made do with a root beer float. Wow. The cream cheese icing was sweet but not too heavy and the root beer cake rocked.

Also unrelated: I may have mentioned once or twice before the terrible crush I have on Rafa Nadal and his arms. Plus, the rolling of the rrrrs -- Rrrrrrafa Nadal. Anyway, today, during his very long match with Sam Querrey in the fourth round of the U.S. Open, CBS slow-motioned his serve to show the working of his upper arm. There may have been drool. Certainly there was snickering on the part of my company as I had to stop talking and listening in order to watch. But since he's ogling one of the Williams sisters now, he has little room to comment.