bats over romancelandia and school

Of all the blow-ups exploding on the blogs, I find Carol Stacy's response to Lauren B to be a blow-up in itself . . . as in the most disheartening--and my vision of RT is blown up. Heck, I love the magazine and the gloriously silly, fun event (that I've never been to). But UGH.

1. We'll take your money but we won't treat you well and we think you're wasting your time because our readers don't like your stuff--comes across as bigotted. Not to mention dumb--she doesn't seem to know many of her own readers. It's clear that most of the m/m readers are hetero romance-reading women, in other words, the people who buy Romantic Times.

I say the other two batfuck [copyright jmc] crazy moments are just entertaining.

2. Kathryn Falk at Karen's. As far as I'm concerned, KF can be whatever she wants. She's too colorful and eccentric and just out there to keep down. I'd hate it if she stopped being Kathryn Falk. (Same with Karen being Karen, btw. So of course she had to gleefully take KF to the woodshed . . . and show her something nasty. I'm all over Cold Comfort Farm these days.)

3. And Tony at SBTB--if it is Tony--is too over-the-top silly to take seriously. The gomba. Unless the bitches disappear. Then we better notify the police to search his caddy.

Okay, bring on the next round. Punditry is more fun than writing. Speaking of which, I have a letter in today's Courant. yappity yap, yap, yap

OH, please play pundit. Tell me if I'm just out of it and this is perfectly normal:
First, a note: I love our public elementary school. Love, love, love it--it's better than the private school I went to as a kid.

So every year there's an auction and dance event fundraiser. We usually don't go--kind of expensive and I'm kind of rotten at that sort of event.

The silent auction stuff includes some high-priced fancy goods, like a weekend in someone's beach house, a full dinner catered by a good cook of a parent, that sort of thing. Last year, the only time I've gone, I won a lot of beer. [raffle not auction] So you know you're not going to hear me complaining about a public school fundraiser with alcohol.

However...

This year, the auction included a botox treatment. No, really.

If that showed up in a book wouldn't you think, no flipping way. Nuh uh the author is exaggerating. My response was what the heck kind of community is this? 90210? When I tried that omisweetbejeebers that's wild! on the various people from the school, I got blank looks. One woman said she bid on it. Kate = foot in mouth. See why I don't usually go to these things?

They just don't get it OR maybe I don't. Maybe my version of off-the-wall-only-in-too-wealthy-appearance-obsessed America is outdated. Maybe botox is mainstream? I hear the treatment went for about $100. Hmmm, now that I think of it. I have these lines between my eyes. Maybe I should get some poison jammed in there. . .