Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I just caught up with missmurchison's answers to the "dork" meme from last night, and I have to confess that

1) I, too, own nearly every book ever written by Georgette Heyer, and would not dream of surrendering any of them -- even the duplicate copies, and even the attempt-at-contract-busting mystery novel Penhallow. For the record, I first discovered Heyer when I found Frederica, Charity Girl, and Why Shoot a Butler? on the bookshelves of an Irish minister's wife in the summer of 1974, and once we moved to rural Wisconsin and I no longer had ready bicycle and pedestrian access to a public library, I began buying my own Heyers and Andre Nortons with baby-sitting money, starting with a 60-cent paperback copy of Sprig Muslin. I'll always love Frederica best, I think, even though I've re-read it so often that I've got it pretty well memorized, but the expectation-busting Cotillion comes in a close second, and who can resist the combo of These Old Shades and Devil's Cub, I ask you?

And as for the parallels between Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign and Heyer's regency romances, I too served on the convention panel with LMB and Miss Murchison, and I too can talk about Miles' cousin Ivan or anyone else in the Vorkosigan orbit as though they were members of my own family, and do the same for most of Heyer's heroes and heroines. I wonder which one I should re-read tonight?

2) I do not own a toga, but I do own some medieval garb (some bought from a lovely huckster/tailor named Felix Needleworthy, and some made for me by my mommy), even though I have never belonged to or even attended a gathering of the Society for Creative Anachronism. I just wear it at SF cons, for no particular reason except that as I get older and fatter, the bodice et al is a lot more flattering and comfortable than the glittery, slinky, emerald lame or orange organza "alien floozy" costumes I sewed for myself many years ago.

3) I, too, am seriously tempted to spend the MERE $27 required to pre-order and ship (free) the complete first season of Remington Steele on DVD from amazon.com. I loved all of that series, even the after-thought partial final season that kept Pierce Brosnan from starting as James Bond in "The Living Daylights", but the first season is high on my list of favorites. I thought James Read as Murphy Michaels was almost as adorable as Pierce Brosnan, so the loss of Laura's original office partners/co-workers after that first season hit me hard, initially. Also, Mildred Krebbs just annoyed the hell out of me until the third season or whenever it was that she finally found out that Laura Holt really WAS the boss and the only trained detective on site, and stopped treating Laura like an anti-feminist caricature. After that, Mildred kind of grew on me.

4) I've seen all the Dr. Who episodes starring Tom Baker (numerous times) through Sylvester McCoy (once was enough) and I even kind of enjoyed that lame made-for-TV movie from the late 90's in which Eric Roberts became the Master, though I know others hated it. And yes, I have crocheted MANY colorful 6-foot scarves in my time, for friends and family.

However, what I'd really like to be able to get hold of on DVD is every episode of The Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I thought Bruce Boxleitner was cute as James Arness' nephew on How the West was Won and I watched every episode of the short-lived Indiana Jones rip-off series called Bring 'Em Back Alive because I so enjoyed seeing Bruce in the starring role, but long before he became Captain Sheridan on Babylon 5 and died and rose again (for a while) to save the galaxy, while falling in love with Delenn, I adored watching him playing the brash young secret agent playboy slowly falling for the mature charms of Kate Jackson's Arlington housewife-turned-part-time-spy. I haven't seen any of those episode uncut since they were first broadcast, and it seems like it's been years since they were showing on cable, but it still makes me smile to think about Lee Stetson's working and personal relationship with Amanda King.

5) I haven't had much practice with spreadsheets, but I'm incredibly addicted to buying up back issues of puzzle magazines (only the Logic Problems and Math & Logic Problems are worth the effort, since those are the puzzles I always do first) and keeping a stack of them in "the littlest room in the house." Sum Totals (or whatever Dell is currently calling them) are my absolute favorite, followed by Math Mazes and Trigons and ALL Logic Problems (I make it a point never to use the grid provided, since that just makes it too easy and you run out of puzzles that much faster). I just love figuring out the only possible answer that fits and knowing that I've solved the puzzle -- unlike in my academic life, where questions of human relationships and faith and Biblical interpretation are NEVER answered with one right answer that means you'll never have to think about this problem again.

If anyone needs more than five reasons why I might rightfully be considered a dork, I have at least a dozen more popping into my head right now. But most of those are really embarrassing (unlike the examples above!), so maybe I'll just stop right here.