A Murderer Among Us

Season 3 is now underway on Hallmark. Last night was Gemini, and as I haven't yet capped that, here's a pleasant alternative.

Divided by a common language

Professor Higgins in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady knew it. English and American have diverged so much that there are now occasions when we can't understand each other. Ann has been busy translating English terms into American ones on her blog, and I was reminded of a story a British journalist told on the radio.

He was talking to a woman from a southern state - let's say Kentucky, though I can't actually remember which one he said - and she expressed surprise that he spoke English.

"I didn't know y'all spoke English in England." He assured her we did.

"How long have y'all spoke English in England?"

He thought back to Chaucer and the Middle English of the 14th century, and said, "Oh about 600 years."

The woman replied, "Oh we've always spoke English in Kentucky."

He gave up after that.

Yahoo Group

Syvell wanted the address of the Vincent D'Onofrio Groupies group. The other day I discovered I could post one of these to help people join.



alt="Click here to join vincentdonofriogroupies">
Click to join vincentdonofriogroupies

Post 850

Where does the time go?

Not that I want to wish my life away but - roll on Season 7!

Meanwhile, here's a celebratory selection from Masquerade.

Bad Timing

In last night's episode of Boston Legal, Alan Shore (James Spader, below left) was acting on behalf of a man who had been wrongly detained at Guantanamo Bay. The man was an aid worker, and his friend, who was detained with him, had committed suicide. When asked what the friend was, the man replied, "A doctor." The message was clearly that doctors save lives, they don't become terrorists and kill.

As this programme has aired over here a matter of days after terrorists tried (but fortunately failed) to take life in car bomb attacks, the message has been warped slightly by the fact that the terrorists in this case are all doctors and other workers in the National Health Service!

But not as much as the terrorists have been warped by whatever dogma has made them think that murder is as valid as saving life.

Two Bites of Zoonotic

For some reason only known to themselves, Hallmark have shown the closing episodes of Season 2 twice only days apart, as their weeknight showings have caught up with their Saturday night screenings. THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT!

Syvell, this is what we mean

Syvell wondered what the certificate for Wendy was all about. As she is fairly new to Vincent Blogdom, she hasn't yet had the pleasure of discovering the works of Wendy Wootton aka Portia Da Costa, writer of erotic romances.

So, for Syvell and and other relatively new Vixens who haven't yet come across them, here are the works and characters by Wendy/Portia inspired by the lovely Vincent.

Firstly she wrote Entertaining Mr Stone, the story of the sexy shenanigans of young Maria Lewis and her boss Robert Stone (clever Bobby Stone), who was inspired by big, beautiful Bobby Goren and his creator. It's knicker-wettingly good.


Wendy wrote a short story about Bobby and Maria which was included in an anthology called "Sex On The Move". But she hadn't done with them yet.

She includes them in her latest book, Suite Seventeen. But this time the sexy story revolves around middle-aged Annie and a younger, cross-dressing, ex-porn star with long dark hair called Valentino. If it makes you think of Vincent's character in The Velocity Of Gary, that's because it's inspired by him. It is a very HOT read.

Suite Seventeen isn't out in the US till August, but you can get the UK version from Amazon.co.uk. Of course, Entertaining Mr Stone is available from the same place, from Amazon.com, and any online bookseller worth its salt.

These are not her only books, by any means, and all her titles are guaranteed to reach the womanly parts other authors don't know exist. Treat yourselves!

Wendy's blog is at wendyportia.blogspot.com, and she is a member of the Yahoo group.

The book covers above are the copyright of Wendy and her publishers, Black Lace Books.

When Bobby Blinked

Somewhat bizarrely, of the 163 pictures I captured from Blink, 83 are of Bobby and Alex walking through the cloister discussing the meaning of the formula they got from Penny Chai's computer.

I didn't get as far as the scene on the highrise building site where Bobby nearly takes a header off the side. Clever Bobby uses the experience to point out the lack of increase in blinkrate of the suspect who just saved him. But just listen to what he says: "When someone nearly takes a header off a tall building - for me example..." I had to listen to it several times before I realised Vincent really did say the words in that order, to express Bobby's fear at his near-miss.

Or did clever Bobby say it on purpose after PRETENDING to almost fall off the building?

Tagged

JoJo, I too am an open book, so how can I come up with 8 facts you don't already know?

1. On the night I was born (at home), my dad was settled in for a long stint, but I arrived quite quickly. When he heard me cry, he went outside to chase the cats away.

2. Same event. When I was halfway out, the midwife said to my mum, "You have a lovely baby boy here." I think that set the future trend for me to be a tomboy.

3. I used to tuck my skirt into my knickers and say I was a boygirl.

4. My mum gave away my childhood dolls to someone deserving but poor. I found them many years later in an antique shop. The bride doll was still wearing the replacement shoes I had put on her, the black "mama" doll was dressed as a sailor boy (I lost her dress on the day I got her, but I NEVER dressed her as a boy) but was recognisable from the missing eyelashes from one eye. They wanted £90 for her!

5. When my sister put my hand under the hot tap, I put the breadknife to her throat. Or the other way round...

6. As a teenager, I found two of my favourite actors in the telephone directory and phoned them up. I had a long chat with both. (One was Jon Finch, who played Macbeth in the Roman Polanski film).

7. When I was about 5, I begged my mum to allow me to let out the budgie. She said no, but didn't explain why. When she left the room, I let him out. And the cat killed him.

8. I once got pulled over by the police in Croydon when I was on about my third - very slow - tour of a large roundabout (Croydon is ALL large roundabouts). Instead of being nervous and apologetic, I berated them for the useless directions and signposting in their town. They asked me what I was trying to find. When I told them, they looked up - and I saw they had stopped me right outside it! (I still didn't apologise though).

OK, it's now the turn of:
Tess
Cathy
Pauline
Michael
Tamara

Look what I did!

I designed Wendy an award, and after a few false starts, I got it into a format that I could post on the blog!

Not exactly as great as what Wendy does, but at least she has a bit of the recognition she deserves from the Vixens.

Congratulations, Wendy.

Thanks to Pauline

Pauline just nominated me on her blog, Cursuum Perfidia (dysfuncdiva.blogspot.com) as a Rockin' Girl Blogger. And all for services to VDO! Many thanks, Pauline, and to Roberta Ferguson for coming up with the idea. You can find her at robertaferguson.com.


And now for my five nominees. Sorry I don't know how to make your names link to your blogs by turning them pretty colours. Why can everyone do that except me? Still, you all know where they are.

Firstly the Queen of VDO-dom, thanks to whom so many of us have learned to flood our blogs with pictures of the D'Evine one, the wonderful Eliza. Her talents never cease to astonish.





Next a joint award to Diane and Tess at The Valentine Cat. Seldom have women gone to such lengths - in Diane's case a few thousand miles - to hunt down the subject of our obsession.





Then there's Ann, whose ongoing story, At Home With The Gorens, keeps us all on tenterhooks as to what will happen next to Mrs BG. Then, of course, there is her dedication to the poetry of Robert E. Howard, so brilliantly portrayed by our man.

JoJo keeps us all amazed with her fantastic photos, her gorgeous beadworks, and her great sense of humour. Just a bit more Vincent, JoJo, and your blog would be perfect...

Finally, a blogger who brought a whole new dimension to Vincent fandom by publishing her own pictures of Vincent, taken at filming locations and at the signing at the NBC store. Please blog more, Jenn - we know you don't have any new pictures, but we love you to post anyway. You are our strongest direct link to our man.

There are so many honourable mentions, all of whom could so easily have got awards - Madi, Axe, L'Oreal (love the new story, we're ready for more!), Tamara, Cathy, vpdzoo, vdo_lover, and Claire. I'm sure I must have missed someone. I visit so many great blogs now that I have to set aside hours each evening just to have a peek at each.

But we need a whole new award (would someone please invent or design one?) for Wendy Wootton, our very own Portia Da Costa, whose literary skills give us such a thrill in the VDO deaprtment. I wish Vincent knew he had inspired such torrid writing. I wish he'd try her scenarios out with me...

Wet Dreams on Wheels

Something about Olee before his accident, arriving at the stadium in his sports car, reminds me of Bobby in the Ferrari.

I'd take either one, with or without a flashy car.

An Evening Jaunt

My journey took me on to the notorious M25 motorway (freeway), otherwise known as the World's Biggest Car Park - it's a giant ringroad round London that's supposed to move traffic quickly, but is frequently at a standstill. My return journey was about 75 miles, almost all of it on "fast" roads with speed limits of between 40 and 70 mph, but the return trip of only 75 miles took a total of 2 hours.

On the way there I was beside this van at some traffic lights. If only... Anyone here who wouldn't have him in the back of a van?


This is TickTock, the new baby alpaca. He wasn't thriving, and has been partly hand-reared.

Here are mum and dad. In the background foster mum is getting her baby ready for a bottle feed.

He is feeding better from mum now, and barely touched his supplementary feed.

The older boys have been moved to another field so that they don't try to mate with their own mothers...

After their feed, TickTock started to rub around his young half-brother Pipkin. Apparently alpacas play a lot when they are young, part of the herd-bonding process I guess.

I have 2 alpaca teddy bears which are really soft, so it was no surprise when I stroked TickTock to feel how incredibly thick and soft his coat was.