The Houdan Hen

The Houdan hen was never drawn into the cult of Sredni Vashtar. Conradin had long ago settled that she was an Anabaptist. He did not pretend to have the remotest knowledge as to what an Anabaptist was, but he privately hoped that it was dashing and not very respectable.

(from Sredni Vashtar by Saki)

Some Anabaptists are certainly dashing and not very respectable. Others sound quite conservative. I suspect that the Houdan hen was a Universalist or a Unitarian. I was going to suggest that she might have Humanist leanings, but then she's a chicken.

gender bending

According to the Gender Analyzer, there is an 84% chance that Stroppy Rabbit is written by a man. Well, a friend did once tell me that I am a gay man trapped in the body of a woman...

distractions

It's so easy to get distracted from writing. This morning I put some clothes in the washing machine, emptied and refilled the dishwasher, read some email and some friends' blogs, and wrote two blog posts (about the Antichrist and pavement poetry) before I started. Probably the secret is to download all the articles you want to cite before you start writing, otherwise the temptation to digress is too great. But that's not really the way my thought processes work; I make a point and only then am I reminded of the article from which I got the idea for it.

I also wrote the previous post just before going to make some lunch. I've just invented a yummy combination: wholemeal tortillas fried in butter, with a topping of mackerel in green peppercorn sauce, and little gem lettuce. Now that was a worthwhile distraction.