Gillian Kearney was in The Tide of Life, and I liked her because:

1) She is a sweetie, and
2) She has leftover goodwill from being in The Forsyte Saga, where she was repeatedly whacked with the short end of the stick.

But she should just be lucky that she made very few bad decisions in that miniseries, which made her the only one.

When I saw The Forsyte Saga back in 2004, I wrote it up for Defenestration, because I was amazed that you could yell, “What a terrible plan!” at EVERY character you saw EVERY time ANYONE did something and it would ALWAYS be right. I saw it again last year, and seriously, it’s like a How Not To Do This of bad decision-making.

(Disclaimer: At the end of Forsyte Saga: To Let, I cried so hard I basically bruised a lung. So don’t think that just because I’m snarking means the miniseries isn’t good. It’s good; Damian Lewis and Amanda Root carry even the dull parts of the original series, and Damian Lewis pulls the entire second series basically by himself, and his performance is good. It’s really good. It’s so good it bruises your lungs when you sob like a nerd through the end credits.)

1. At some point, I will have to take the plunge and start using my Twitter. I keep going to the point of logging on and then shrinking back as if from crystal meth.

2. If someone like Junot Diaz ever blurbs MY book as “Cool as fuck,” I will tattoo those words. On someone else. (I don’t like pain. Plus, when you’re cool as fuck, people do what you want!)

3. Spring is coming; the guy whose backyard backs up to my building is out in his plastic chair, barefoot, shirt open, reading the paper. I also know this as “that time of year when I keep my blinds closed all the time.”

4. The exhibit book that accompanies the Gothic fashion exhibit contains about fifteen photos of material actually in the exhibit. The exhibit had something like seventy-five pieces. There will be more about this.

5. In better gown news, Megan Mylan’s mother stopped by my Oscar dress post to give me the details on her daughter’s Oscar dress, which was designed by Megan’s grandmother, who went to the Pratt Institute as a fashion illustrator. Megan promised to wear it if she ever got nominated. Basically, it is the coolest, sweetest thing ever. For once I have used the internet for good, and not for evil!

Because it gives you a recipe for salted water:

When salting water for cooking, use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 4 quarts of water.

And the eight hundred reviews of the recipe.

* As a Canadian, I am on the metric system and have no idea what a quart is. Furthermore, I had to substitute beavers for the salt, and beer for water. The boiling process caused my igloo to melt, leaving me homeless. Two forks.

* I used iodized sea salt and added an extra 1/8 tsp. Definitely upped the ante. My guests were begging me for the recipe.

* I have been making something similar to this since it first appeared in Gourmet magazine in 1992. But I misplaced the recipe years ago and have had to improvise since, with out much luck. Thank you Epicurious for reacquainting me with this oldie but goody!

My own review: this website gave me my review for lemon icing. Proceed with caution.

New Watchmen Photos are up.

Largely spoiler-free take: This looks by far like the most faithful Alan Moore movie adaptation; not that I expect him to emerge from his lair and go see it, but I’m excited to see stills from a movie that looks like it took the graphic novel seriously. (I actually like V for Vendetta as a film [haters to the left!], but it’s like a second cousin of the graphic novel, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was like a guy at a frat party overheard someone in a back room explaining part of the premise and was like, “Holy crap, I am going to make the SHIT out of this movie!” So for me these pictures are very exciting.)

ETA: The comments have some minor spoilers.

Well, this is awfully useful.

(And by useful I mean, I think I want a yellow coat, even though I always look like I died of consumption where I wear it.)

ETA: I wish she had links to all the outside sources! Clearly this is for general inspiration and not hard-core research.