Kids! Don't mistake Colfer for a writer!

I read Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl a few years back with moderate enjoyment. The opening pages of his The Supernaturalist, which my ten-year-old niece read aloud to me, were so intriguing that I borrowed the book from her and read the rest of it the other evening.

( I don't remember Artemis Fowl being so poorly written. )

I hate to think avid young readers like the ones in my family come away with the idea that Colfer's a good writer. A pretty good storyteller, yes. Writer? Not so much.

On the other hand, much can be forgiven an author who imagines a crack team of super-armed, high-tech, parachuting attack lawyers, and dubs them "paralegals."

SOTU Drinking Game

The 2005 State of the Union Drinking Game

Compiled by serenity_valley, a wise, witty and politically aware friend of mine, who, ironically, doesn’t drink...but, facing the next four years, is considering it.

• Bush enters the room with a smirk: 1 drink


• The top of Cheney’s head comes off and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse gallop out: 2 drinks

( Proceed at your liver's own risk. )


• Bush accidentally refers to Cheney as Senator Palpatine: 2 drinks using the Force, young Padawan

With any luck, you’ve now passed out.