I can only imagine this whole article is a prank, but it is one of the all-too-rare ones where the comments are the best part: [link]

Happy Birthday, Tep!

In your honor, I took the family out to Rockaway Beach today.

Ok, it was mostly a coincidence, but still, we had so much fun and ate flautas and coconut ice and holy god I'm exhausted. Fortunately Aeryn is now napping and Dylan is more than happy to spend the rest of the afternoon playing Lego Star Wars so I can veg on the couch.

Why do only 12 episodes of a 13-episode season fit on a DVD when you burn it? It's so unfair. It's like hot dogs coming in packs of 8 and buns coming in packs of 6.

Look at it like a dealer: the first one's free, but you have to sign something over if you want to borrow episodes 2-13.

So I mentioned this on FB, twitter, and DW/LJ, but there is a huge forest fire in the mountain suburbs here, maybe 15-20 miles from my house. But because it's a mountain, I can see the flames. I should just walk away because I'm not in any danger and wouldn't be for at least several hours, but it's freaking me out.

This isn't so much a comic question, not even a geek question--who's the second most iconic female superhero comic book character? Third? I just read an article that didn't even raise the shadow of Storm, even to throw her away. But I have no perspective on that, obviously.

Catwoman?

Except she's not even a superhero, more of a villain/anti-hero most of the time. And yet, I can't think of any other contenders off the top of my head. I suppose Supergirl and Batgirl aren't really as iconic.

So, in the end, I did find a big mason jar and put the lemon, simple, and gin into it for the French 75s, and they and my deviled eggs (with capers and lemon, mostly) were well-received, but I'm pretty sure the guy who scotched the eggs before deviling them won. Scotched = wrap in sausage and then fry, fyi.

Crap, trying to type I realize I'm at least half-drunk already, but I have to change clothes, put on makeup, and go to a wedding.

Good times.

So, Storm's not? Counting or not counting the X-Men movies?

And, while I'm trying to work shit out in my head--the idea that studios carefully craft an actor's persona to the degree where they're "in character" during junkets and TV appearances related to other roles...I'm trying to work out how best to express that that doesn't make proper sense for Kristen Stewart.

I mean, she's contractually obligated to be awkward and mildly unpleasant because Bella's an everyman? But RPattz is not prohibited for making fun of his character? I mean, is that happening *that* much in the 21st century? It sounds like a relic of the early Hollywood studios, but these days actors seem more likely to be acting at the behest of their own representation than be so owned by a movie.

And by "so owned" I don't understand why anyone would act less-than-charismatic unless maybe they were going for moody and misunderstood (surely that would be what you'd have RPattz doing, right?) to keep the mystique going.

I mean, look at Jennifer Lawrence. Same general target demographic, and she took gorgeous-as-hell and dorky-as-hell and worked the fucking daylights out of both of them. Neither of which are Katniss--they're just "our star is great, isn't she???" Would Twihards ditch Bella if the actress smiled more? Or the general public not buy it?

Why is that more plausible than "she's just not that polished and not that excited by all this and really most people forget the times she's just fine"? Which...why the fuck not?