An odd but appealing mix of whimsy and horror, turning portal fantasy tropes on their heads. Baba Yaga, the ultimate witch of Russian folklore, is the quest-giver. Summer’s home life is shaped by her mother’s severe anxiety. A wolf isn’t a threat, but a staunch ally (and a were-creature who turns into a migratory house at night – you thought Baba Yaga’s house was the only one that walked around?). A lich refuses to move on until he finishes his to-read list. Geese are fierce warriors (OK, that part’s realistic, except these geese carry spears too), which is fortunate, because 11-year-old Summer herself isn’t going to be able to take down the mysterious Queen-In-Chains causing the rot that’s slowly destroying Orcus all by herself…or is she?
It’s a bit less cohesive than some of Vernon/Kingfisher’s more recent YA/older kids’ novels like Illuminations and A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, partly because it was originally a serial and partly because it’s a very kitchen-sink kind of fantasy world where anything goes, from an officious but kind-hearted goofy birds to creepy spider-horses. But it’s stuck in my head more than Minor Mage.
Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a time.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson
★★★☆☆
A cross-country road trip with a Sharpie pen, correcting grammatical and spelling errors in road and shop signs.
I’ve mellowed on the subject of typos since this came out, but it was still an interesting read. The best road trip stories are not just a list of events and locations, they’re about how the travelers change over the course of the journey. Deck starts out so hyperbolic and grandiose that he comes off as pretentious, but quickly discovers the issue is more nuanced – and more socially fraught – than he’d expected.
Retail workers vs. corporate policy, trying to avoid stepping in racial stereotypes, indie shopowners who might be more interested in fixing a misspelling but not have the resources to get it fixed.
It’s also a bit more complex than the “two friends on a road trip.” He has three different companions, one on each leg of the trip, each of whom brings a new perspective, and they get into the prescriptive vs. descriptive approaches to grammar.
And in the end, the legal consequences of doing the occasional “stealth” correction without asking first, as the National Park Service pressed charges for “vandalism” of a sign at the Grand Canyon.
Personal Notes
When I was in college in the mid-1990s, I kept a “Bent Offerings” newspaper cartoon on my bulletin board. One person was scrawling “I before E…” on a wall. Another was correcting a menu, muttering, “It’s Brussels Sprouts, not Brussel Sprouts!”. A third was examining someone’s T-shirt, disapprovingly asking, “Is that how they taught you to use an apostrophe?” The strip was captioned, “Roving Gangs of Rogue Proofreaders.”
So this seemed like a perfect choice when NPR ran an article on the book shortly before it was released in 2010, but I never got around to picking it up until 14 years later.
While I still collect photos of mistakes in signs, I tend to be more on the “at least you can tell what they meant” side of things these days, unless the typos themselves are funny. Autocorrect and autocomplete have made for an entirely new class of typos that look like they mean something else. Otherwise I’m much more inclined to snap a photo of a deliberately weird or funny sign.
My son, however, is currently in the “You mean ‘you’re’.” phase, and I’m surprised he hasn’t cracked it open himself.
Also, I may have actually seen the sign they corrected at the Grand Canyon, because I’m pretty sure my family stopped at the tower they mention back in the 1990s.
I finally tried Stellaris after buying it who knows how long ago. Probably around the same time I bought No Man’s Sky, only I tried that first and stuck with it.
It’s an empire-building game. Not a type I tend to play much - in fact my main experience with this type of game is the Heroes of Might and Magic series (the map parts, not the battle parts). Though I played a lot of Heroes 3 back in the day.
And just like with Heroes, you start out exploring, gathering resources, establishing towns colonies…and then in phase 2, other factions start invading and you frantically try to fend them off while building up troops fleets on the opposite side of where you expected the attack to come from.
Unlike Heroes, in Stellaris you can also engage in diplomacy, espionage and alliances with the other factions, and so forth. It’s a much more complicated game.
Still, I stayed up waaaaaay too late last night trying to fend off an invasion when I should’ve just hit “save” and picked it up again later.
I wanted to like this keyboard. The other Fossify apps have worked out well, and unlike, say, GBoard, I know nothing’s leaving my device. And it does support multiple languages, which helps when I’m practicing Spanish in Duolingo. But it only supports tapping, not swipe gestures or auto suggest, and I just can’t seem to type reliably that way.
The problem is that I have a lot of trouble tapping the right letters with my thumbs. (I swear this has gotten worse over time – I’d assume my hands had just gotten clumsier, but I’ve gotten better at touch typing on a real keyboard in the same timeframe.) That’s been mildly annoying with GBoard, but GBoard also supports swiping gestures, and autosuggest usually includes the word I wanted if I’m a little bit off. And I think the hit boxes might be a bit bigger, or adjust based on what autocomplete thinks is more likely.
So with Fossify Keyboard, I frequently end up with severalbwordsblumpedntogethrt because I keep hitting “b” or “n” instead of space, and then I have to go back and fix it (which of course is a pain on a touchscreen).
I gave it about three weeks on my phone, during which I used it for all the usual text messaging, social networking, email, and so on. I’ve since switched back to GBoard.
It seems to work better for me with a tablet, though, where I can sort of touch type or hunt and peck. I’ll keep it on there for a while and see how it holds up.
Good coffee, pastries and sandwiches, maybe a bit expensive. They also sell artisan honey and beeswax products. Lots of tables inside, and a large patio with covered tables outside. Free WiFi and a couple of outlets in the dining area. Small parking lot plus street parking. Restroom door is outside.
