Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Having exhausted (I think) a lot of the well-written HP fic I could find on AO3 (that was a lot of reading) I consulted my saved fic links and ended up re-reading an SPN RPS AU that is very AU (the only kind of RPS I'm into) and clicking subsequent links lead to me to new fic and I've been reading a lot of new to me J2 AUs this afternoon. One such fic ended in a note from the writer (a Brit) asking for American (particularly Texan) readers to Ameri-pick for regional or linguist errors. The main thing that tends to throw me out of J2 fic is "Texan" food that is neither Texan nor remotely palatable in combination (enchiladas served with chicken fried steak has got to be the winner in that category.)

So I left a comment about a few dialogue choices (meant vs supposed; "Let's go back to mine" "Don't mess me around, yeah?" etc) that didn't sound particular Texan or US southwestern and then commented that having Jared long for his mother's chili served with Madeira cake was a little odd. We tend to have chili with cornbread or Fritos around these parts, and the likelihood of a Texan having Madeira cake as a fave would probably suggest an English mother or grandmother.

The author commented back very cordially, but commented that she was under the impression that cornbread was not something people ate anymore and she was leery of its racist connotations. Um. What?

( And now this post will go all over the place )

ETA:

Annie buzzed me on Facebook to see if we were okay post-tornado, so I thought I might give a quick drive-by post to say that Caza, Jonah and I are fine. The tornado went to the southeast of us (as it usually does -- the May 3, 1999 tornado system that destroyed much of southeastern Oklahoma City and hit its outlying suburbs struck the same area.) 6 people were killed in yesterday's storm, including a child who was struck with debris while waiting outside of a convenience store.

I'm not afraid of tornadoes (and I'm not a storm chaser like some) but I am respectful. I was on the phone with cityphonelines when the tornado siren went off, so I checked the weather, keeping her updated. As soon as TV's Gary England (as seen in the movie "Twister") told me the tornado was headed east from Yukon (home of Garth Brooks) I told Vin, "Gotta go" and quickly cleared the bathtub of all ducks, conditioners and glass bottles and got Jonah's toddler mattress ready to place over us.

And then I prayed like mad that I wouldn't have to climb into a bathtub -- under a monkey strewn mattress -- with 2 toddlers, a weenie dog and a radio. The storm went east, leaving us pea-sized hail (hail up to double-softball size was found south of the city) and that scary yellow tornado sky.

It's springtime in Oklahoma. Although the damage is terrible to see (my cousin's wife's sister -- that means we're kin -- lost her home yesterday) and the loss of life is always shocking, it's something I've grown to be respectful of but somewhat inured to. I figure I'm far more likely to die of a stress-induced heart attack in response to Oklahoma's back-asswards politics than I am to have a house fall on me. I hope.

Happy Centennial, Oklahoma!

It's the 100th birthday of my home state today! Flist, on behalf of all Oklahomans, you're welcome for The Flaming Lips and Christian Kane. I've already apologized for Color Me Badd and Toby Keith - I can't control everything.

In honor of the 47th state, I've been Googling Oklahoma a bit today, and discovered that, as 1/16 Cherokee and a buttload of mutt + German, I'm pretty much the textbook census ethnic make-up of Oklahoma. Sweet. Besides the waving wheat (it sure smells sweet) and the fact that we're the 2nd largest producer of Natural Gas, we're also a very pretty state -- giving the country (and dare I say the world?) five Miss Americas, in addition to Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard, Kristen Chenoweth and James "Cyclops" Marsden. I'm not sayin' we're like, Texas, or sumpthin', but we're doing our part.

( 10 REASONS OKLAHOMA KICKS ASS )

Happy Oklahoma Day, y'all.