And these are not the Elysian Fields

[sovay]

Last night, while watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) at ericmvan's with gaudior, rushthatspeaks, nineweaving, eredien, raxvulpine, sharhaun, and captainbutler, I discovered caffeinated root beer. This was not a good discovery.* The film, however, was spectacular, as harrowing and funny and no-holds-barred as I had imagined from the words on the page; no one is innocent and no one is unsympathetic and the camera work almost never lets you get enough room to breathe. When it's over, your ears are ringing. And that's how you play Get the Guests.

My poem "Plague-Bearer" has been accepted for a future issue of Lone Star Stories.

Outside, the sunlight is as thin and brilliant as autumn. Last night, I slept under an extra quilt. When I was in seventh grade, I wanted to live in an ice age.

*Barq's. I didn't even think to check. This was root beer, like ginger ale or cream soda; what did it need caffeine for? In the very unlikely event that I want to imitate a character in Scanners, there are more than enough caffeinated drinks in this world, thank you.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

In the very unlikely event that I want to imitate a character in Scanners

I saw that when I was far too young. If I had to come up with a list of "Made me the Man I am Today" and the number was greater than 5, that would be there.

Barqs is kind of a mean trick to a lot of people.

Not me.

But a lot of people.

[sovay]

Barqs is kind of a mean trick to a lot of people.

Caffeine gives me migraines. I'm sure it helped immerse me in the atmosphere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but it did not help at all with my conversational fluency afterward.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I have the exact opposite problem. No caffeine, yes migraines. It's worse right now with my upstairs neighbor's mom and aunt visiting (both of them are chimneys, and will smoke on both sides of the house when they cannot get along with each other, therefore leaving me without a safe place to breathe).

[gwynnega]

But one of the good things about root beer is that it doesn't have caffeine! Sheesh.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Last night, while watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

One of my favourite movies ever.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Congrats on placing your story. It has a promising title!

[sovay]

One of my favourite movies ever.

I had read the play six years ago and been wanting to see it ever since. It was amazing.

[sovay]

But one of the good things about root beer is that it doesn't have caffeine!

We live in a wired world . . .

[sovay]

Huzzah poem!

Thank you!

[sovay]

It has a promising title!

Thanks!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the acceptance.

And I'm sorry to hear that Barq's did that to you. Wish I could have warned you, somehow.

The caffeine is supposedly in there for the bitterness, ABIR.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the sale! I think we'll be TOC neighbors--I just sold "And the Other" to Eric this week as well.

I miss drinking Barq's. It's my favorite root beer of all time, but the caffeine makes me crazy.

[sovay]

I think we'll be TOC neighbors--I just sold "And the Other" to Eric this week as well.

Awesome. Congratulations!

It's my favorite root beer of all time, but the caffeine makes me crazy.

I grew up on A&W. Anything else is an unnatural substitute.

[sovay]

The caffeine is supposedly in there for the bitterness, ABIR.

Bizarre.

ABIR?

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Bizarre.

I suppose it is. I'm not sure why they use it instead of some other bittering agent. Then again, I'm not sure what that would be--hops?

ABIR?

As best I recall.

Sorry for the confusion--I suppose that is a fairly non-standard acronym.