SUCCESS - I found the YA book I've been looking for almost 20 years!

Book lovers, you know my plight -

You read a book back in your teen years or in your 20s that you loved, or that affected you in some way, and yet the title of said book has maddeningly flitted right out of your brain. And no matter how many web inquiries, bookstore sleuthing, and questions thrown out to the ether asking - "Does anyone know the name of THIS BOOK?", you have come up empty.

Well, have faith dear friends. It may take years, but eventually someone, somewhere, out there on the interwebs will throw you a bone. The Internet is sometimes awesome, is what I'm trying to say.

My two-decades long search ended today when I randomly was on the Goodreads site and wandered into the "What's the name of this book?" forum, a place that I had been several times doing my elusive search for my YA novel. This time I decided to search the "Unsolved" folder to see if there were other people like me searching for this particular book. I did a keyword search of "Woods".

What happened next was something that only happens on internet forums - in response to a poster's inquiry about some book regarding twin teen siblings who get lost camping, a commenter had suggested that the name of the book that they were searching for was something called "Coming Back Alive". And then another commenter had jumped in and said that no, the first commenter was wrong, and proceeded to get into a drawn-out nerd fight over books and who had the most knowledge of YA books from the 80s and 90s.
Sometime during this back and forth one of the arguing commenters had posted a picture:

You guys? It was like the Earth broke in two and shooting sparks flew up into my brain. THAT'S THE COVER OF THE BOOK!! MY BOOK!! I FOUND IT!

So, thanks to a person being wrong about the answer to another searcher's book question, I indeed was able to solve the mystery that's been plaguing me for years. And I ordered the book off of Thriftbooks.com 2 seconds later. It's on it's way to me from Oregon and I can't wait to read it after all of these years.
I'm sure it won't live up to my expectations or remembrances, but I don't care. I've haven't been this excited in a long time!

OOTlander

I don't have Starz. It's pretty much the only premium cable channel that I don't have. And boy, have I really regretted not having it this year; the main reason being that I haven't been able to watch "Outlander" the series this season.
I got to watch the premiere episode of this season on the Starz website where they let non-subscribers watch for free. My friends John and Dan have Starz, and I got to see the second episode, but beyond that, besides resorting to illegal downloading methods - which I refuse to do, I'm going to have to wait months before I'll be able to watch this full series, and I'm pissed about it.

I even tried to buy the full season on iTunes and guess what? It's not for sale! Will it ever be? Other premium cable channels sell their shows, why not Starz? Maybe they're waiting for the full season to be over, which would mean that I would have to wait for some time. Grrrrr...

Meanwhile, the "mid-season" finale just happened this past weekend, and we had this scene:

VERY intense. In other news, Sam Heughan is effing hot!

Presented without comment...

Okay, I lied. ONE comment -

Why the fuck does Phil Collins have a tambourine shoved into his sweatpants in this photo?!

For the love of..."Big Business"

Yesterday I revisited an old favorite of mine. I probably hadn't seen this movie all the way through in almost 20 years.

Big Business is an infinitely stupid and predictable film, but boy is it the perfect anecdote, when you've had a shitty day and all you want to do is veg on the couch while eating a crapload of carbohydrates. I'm not sure why more movies like this aren't streaming on Netflix etc. Films of this ilk - "Ruthless People", "Troop Beverly Hills", "Outrageous Fortune", "Baby Boom" ,"First Wives Club" - are great things to put on when you want a few laughs, have 90 min to kill, and/or just want something brainless, yet enjoyable on in the background as you cook, clean, or nap.

Back to Big Business - Can I just say that, Ratcliffe/Shelton sisters aside,  this movie is really about the love story of Moramax's most faithful employees, Graham and Chuck. They were making their relationship work, even while working together, in what was probably a very homophobic environment. Sadie and Rose both seem to know and happily accept their coupledom. Graham and Chuck were gay pioneers! We're talking over 25 years ago!

Edward Hermann's facial expressions throughout this movie are priceless.