The Wordsmith's Forge

Here is a list of 15 utterly bizarre and mostly unappetizing thematic restaurants. I think the only one I'd try would be the Hobbit House.

The coolest thematic restaurant I've heard of is The Stinking Rose. I sent a vampire character of mine there, once.

I find this bit of news encouraging for two reasons. 1) It helps a less-developed country protect its own environmental resources. 2) Here is the World Bank actually acting with thought for global issues that aren't money, because the Amazon rainforest is important to the whole planet. Score one for the monkey brain!

Brazil Gets $1.3 Billion for Environment
The World Bank approved a loan to the Brazilian government for the improvement of environmental management programs.
Focus areas for the programs are forests, water conservation, and energy efficiency. (Climate change will be addressed with an integrated approach that includes all aspects of the programs.) For example, destruction of the Amazon rainforest causes biodiversity loss and contributes to climate change, so decreasing deforestation protects biodiversity and prevents additional global warming.

Today is Pimp-A-Friend day. LiveJournal is a wonderful place to connect with interesting people. Feature one of your Friends, with a brief description of what makes their journal worth reading, and share the joy. Readers are encouraged to visit the featured journal and/or reply to this message with recommendations of their favorite Friends.

jpsorrow is one of my writer-friends. I first encountered him by reading his book The Skewed Throne, an interestingly twisted work of fantasy. Then he popped up on the journal of another friend, sleigh. Both of them are wont to host guest bloggers and do interviews of other writers, which makes their journals fascinating to read. There is always something -- and someone -- new there. It's really great for networking. jpsorrow also writes about writing, and occasionally about teaching. Writers and readers alike will enjoy his blog.

This is just a quick reminder that I will be hosting a poetry fishbowl here on Tuesday, March 10. This month's topic is "hidden, lost, or microscopic things." I hope to see you here tomorrow, my lovely muses!

This week's reviews over on Hypatia's Hoard of Reviews were:

Music Review: Emergence
Book Review: Camping in the Old Style
Book Review: The Book of Night with Moon
Book Review: Diplomacy of Wolves
Book Review: Emerald Covenant

Most of these I've seen. Some are relatively harmless. And then there are the others. Still, it's a cool list.

For those of you reading this blog as a writing class, here is your assignment:

1) Pick any two animals from the list.
2) Mix and match their features into an alien species.
3) Devise an evolutionarily plausible scenario to support those features.
4) Write a short story or poem about your victims alien species.