Bunny, Cute As A

Awww. It's baby Thumper in the woods!

Actually, it's just the view outside my office window. I have windows now. They're like walls, only you can see through them. Except when a co-worker's dog parks her butt there to stare droolingly at all the tasty wildlife.

The fruit scattered all over the ground are crabapples. Not the usefully edible kind. At least, not by me. Thumper seems to like them.

Now With 150% Less Gangsta

So when did Silver Ravenwolf's Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation get a new coffee-table-esque paperback edition release? In its current incarnation I might actually read it. The new cover photo looks all healthy and wholesome, reminiscent of the sort of book one's parents gives one when one turns eleven and the You're Becoming A Woman talk is just around the corner. It looks like the kind of activities parents desperately try to generate interest in, in hopes of distracting one from drugs and hormones.

In fact, that's where I saw it misshelved in Borders the other day. It was on an end cap with books entitled stuff like "My Changing Body" and "Help I'm A Teen What Do I Do Now?" Apparently what you should do now is convert to Wicca where you will find true friendship and moon magic and, like, lovely skin and glossy hair. And good information on feminine hygiene.

Remember the old cover?

Like, "Here I am with my posse coven, and if you look at me the wrong way we will cut hex you." No wonder the first place Google found the image was in the archives of Sharon Hughes' "Blogging Truth in the Midst of Changing Worldviews." Sharon blogs, among other things, about how Harry Potter and Silver Ravenwolf and Starhawk and, I dunno, Gandalf and Aslan maybe, are leading kids away from Christianity and into *gasp* WITCHCRAFT, and I swear, the original cover of Teen Witch was totally designed to scare her. I bet the direction given the artist was all "So, you know that frightened Christian lady, Ms. Hughes? With the changingworldviews.blogspot.com URL? I want you to completely futz with her head."

On the other hand, given that she seems to be still flogging the "Saddam had WMDs I swear!" talking point memo, maybe her head is permanently futzed, I dunno. Maybe it was shooting fish in a barrel.

But speaking as a Wiccan who doesn't want the Sharon Hugheses of the world to fear her religion (however futile my desires may be), I disapprove.

So, about this new cover: Well done, Llewellyn! A tasteful move on your part! Very nice. I am now about 86% less embarrassed of you.

So They're Not All Hairless Rats?

I've seen Chihuahuas, and I've seen long-haired Chihuahuas, but have I never before seen a long-haired cookies-n-cream-colored Chihuahua.

Sooooo cuuuuuuute!

The "ugliest dog breed in the world" prize is still up for grabs, y'all, 'cause this little puppy disqualified Chihuahuas from the running.

On Second Thought

It's actually a Leo Sun trine Jupiter with Cancer rising at this very moment. A waning gibbous Moon is in Pisces in the Ninth House. Saturn is opposite Neptune.

It would take someone who actually

1. believes in this stuff, and
2. knows this stuff

to decide what that means for this blog's future. Maybe this blog should avoid pickles, or eschew unagi. Maybe it should beware the Ides of September.

(As to why I have software that plots an entire astrological chart when I don't fit descriptions A and B above, the record remains strangely silent.)

Taurus Sun with Aries Rising

Once upon a time a wise witch told me, "Astrologically speaking, your sun sign isn't nearly as important as your ascendant. If your sun sign is a car, your ascendant is the driver."

Help! I've got an Aries driving my Ford Taurus!

It's a terrifically dependable car, from what I hear. It gets you there. You start a journey with that sucker, you're gonna finish on schedule. But what's that easily distracted lunatic doing at the wheel? I don't know, but whatever you do, don't invite it into that thought-box of yours. The one involving LEDs and tiny parachutes. Aries will make a shopping list and ask you where you want the troops deployed. Don't answer. It will happen. Because the Taurus is that dependable.

"Pinky! Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so, Brain, but how will we get a pair of Abe Vigoda's pants?"

Don't even say that around Taurus With Aries Rising. She will get you a pair of Abe Vigoda's pants. And then she will make you wear them, because you asked for them, didn't you, and she went out of her way to acquire them, totally inconveniencing Mr. Vigoda in the progress because you had this need, now don't you dare not put them on!

"Poit!"

In other words, whimsy followed by meticulous, unstoppable doings.

And blog posts that are much shorter than this.

Usually.