15 Authors

Working its way around the blogosphere: List 15 authors you love or who have influenced you. Here's my attempt (in no particular order):

1) Edith Schaeffer
2) Lucy Maud Montgomery
3) Charles Dickens
4) Laura Ingalls Wilder
5) C.S. Lewis
7) J.R.R. Tolkien
8) A.A. Milne
9) William Shakespeare
10) Gene Edward Veith
11) Harper Lee
12) Amy Dacyzyn
13) Connie Willis
14) Douglas and Nancy Wilson (OK, so that's two. I cheated.)
15) Robert Louis Stevenson

Tomorrow the list would probably look different.

Fruitcake

Man of the House likes fruitcake, and in twenty-three years of wedded bliss I've never made him any. Shame on me! This year I decided to give it a whirl. I used this recipe (Christmas Wreath) from Living on a Dime. At first I thought that the ingredients were going to cost a packet for just a cake, but I decided Man of the House is worth it. As it turns out, the recipe actually made two and I have enough for two more! Here's a picture of the cakes in all their glory:



Now they are safely stored away to season until Christmas. (Is that just a fancy word for "to get stale"?)

Making fruitcakes reminds me of my favorite scene from my favorite episode of All Creatures Great and Small~~series 2, episode 14, "Merry Gentlemen." I don't think my Christmas cake can rival Mrs. Hewison's, though. Alas. (Begin about 7:10 and then finish the scene in the next video.)

Happy All Saints Day!

All Saints Day is properly recognized on Nov. 1, but if Nov. 1 doesn't fall on a Sunday, it is celebrated the Sunday after, which in this case is today. Reformation Day last Sunday; All Saints Day today!

This video was made for Issues, Etc. (see sidebar) and reminds us Christians that we are a part of something much bigger and much more ancient than our own local church.

Links O' Plenty

For your enjoyment and edification, I offer the following links:

Flanner O'Connor on teaching fiction

On Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Lite

More on Thomas Kinkade

Free Classical Music Downloads

Rousseau's Maddening Legacy

Daniel Hannan, British author and MEP, offers this warning to America. It's long but so worth it: