Attack of the Evil Muffins

And now for something completely different – evil muffins.

What happens if you use rotten eggs for baking? Find out in the short film by Hannah Charles below. Whoah, it’s a bit scary.

But first a couple of updates:

1. Brain scientist Livia Blackburne , who prompted the whole Why Writers Shouldn’t Blog discussion has joined in the debate – sparking off still vigorous back and forth. The latest comments are here.
2. People keep leaving funny stories about The Day I Met… in comments. There’s one about Keith Chegwin from Jake Kale and a funny one about the actress Rula Lenska by Charles Dickens London in the comments here. You can still enter – details here. The next winning entry will be published this Wednesday. It’s from Noble Cause Corruption – but listen up NCC – you won’t receive your glittering prize unless you email me your address. (I’ve a feeling the prize may not be quite enough to tempt him to blow his cover and breach his undercover cop anonymity. Come visit on Wednesday to find out – and to read his tense tale.)
3. I found out this weekend that I will have another chance to confront my nemesis. Now just need to decide what to wear on my head.
4. And after my own shameful behaviour was revealed, the burning question of what my Dad would do with the painty water after cleaning brushes and rollers is answered in the comments here.

And now – just when you thought it was safe to go back in the kitchen – The Attack of the Evil Muffins…

That was fun. Hannah Charles is

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What I Am Reading 26th September 2009

1. The Boy Who Followed Ripley–Patricia Highsmith. Refreshing assumptions of amorality, selfishness and ruthlessness. I’ve not found Highsmith’s short stories so enjoyable, and the Ripley series, of which this is the fourth, tails off a bit too. But it’s still fun. And Ripley as a character strongly reminds me of a good friend of mine. More for reasons of style and decisiveness than a total lack of moral compass. (Nor does my friend emit the startling flashes of anti-semitism that trouble me in Highsmith’s Ripley books.)
2. The One from the Other: A Bernie Gunther Mystery –Philip Kerr. Ex-cop, ex-SS man, current private investigator Bernie Gunther is still poking around the affairs of Nazis, this time as they try to flee to new identities in 1949, post World War Two defeat. Always best when bringing Germany vividly to life pre, during or post war. This one, so far, flags only during a trip outside that familiar territory to Tel Aviv & Cairo, along with Adolf Eichmann of all people. (To be fair, in A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery, Gunther’s wanderings round Nazi haven Argentina were convincing.) Hard boiled Chandleresque.
3. Still reading:The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One – David Kilcullen. (See previous reference to jihadist v. takfriri.) Kilcullen quotes a Chinese Colonel Qiao: “The first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.” Apparently he said that strong countries would not use “unrestricted warfare” against weak countries because “strong countries make the rules while rising ones break them and exploit loopholes… The United States breaks UN rules and makes new ones when those rules don’t suit its purposes, but it has to observe it own rules or the whole world will not trust it.” This was in the context of US complacency about threat levels pre-9/11.
4. Finished: Death at the President’s Lodging (Classic Crime)–Michael Innes. One of those attractively presented Penguin Crime Classics. Thankfully a lot less annoying than The Moving Toyshop (Classic Crime), but still far too contrived. The solution is revealed thanks to the injection of “the unexpected aid of three precocious undergraduates.” In other words, after much brow furrowing and erudite conversation, a new eye witness appears near the end of the story with vital evidence, making most of what has gone before irrelevant. Er, isn’t that cheating?