Friday, April 10, 2009

Snatch this award from my hand, Grasshopper

I am a double recipient of a Grasshopper Award, from D.J.'s Krimiblog and Mysteries in Paradise. Thanks, Dorte and thanks, Kerrie, though why am I so often associated with green creatures?

This award seeks to recognize good bloggery, throwing around words like taught, entertained and inspired. I blush a deep shade of green.

But what blogs make me think of insects of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera?

Well, how about:

1) Declan Burke's Crime Always Pays, a wellspring and an inspiration presided over by a doting father figure to a sprawling range of Irish-crime-fiction-related projects and blogs including

2) Adrian McKinty's Psychopathology of Everyday Life, which is more than just a cool name. Drop him a note and let him know how much you love U2 and Clive James.
Congratulations on your Grasshoppers, gents.

© Peter Rozovsky 2009

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22 Comments:

Blogger Kerrie said...

I wasn't sure to start with whether being called a grasshopper was a compliment. It made me think of Jiminy Cricket!

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

No worries. The little green thing is kind of cute.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Peter

You know I was reading The Weekend Australian today and in it Clive James haa a very astute piece of criticism of the show Mad Men of which he is a fan. The only thing I wish he'd resisted was going on about Joan Holloway (Christian Hendricks)'s bum. He calls it the second lead on the show which is a bit cheeky (no pun intended). Clive of course got his start as a TV critic on the Observer so his opinions on the crystal bucket are always worth listening to.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Oh and congratulations. Its very well deserved.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Yes, it's too bad he appears to have the occasional difficulty with facts. There is much to be said for someone whose interests range as widely as his.

I should read him more regularly and also watch Mad Men.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Much obliged. You, of course, now have a cricket of your own.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Peter

Ha. Lets not get that started again. I think we've established that Mr J's knowledge of Wehrmacht helicopters circa 39-45 could do with brushing up. However his piece on Mad Men is very good. Unfortunately the Australian doesnt make it available on line. You should give MM a try and not just for Joan's bum. Think you'd like it.

And thanks for the nod. do I get to pass it on too? isnt that more like a locust?

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

A locust or a virus.

Yeah, I've read about Mad Men and heard some enthusiastic recommendations. Thanks.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

As a fellow Grasshopper awardee I would also recommend Mad Men as a record of 1960s society. The only inaccuracy I can see in the program is that the characters do not smoke as much as people really did back then.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Uriah

Yikes. I was just old enough to remember people smoking in cinemas. That was pretty awful.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Declan Burke said...

Ta for the nod, squire ... much obliged.

Gosh (smiles and sighs, remembering fondly), TV. Is it still as good as it used to be?

Cheers, Dec

V-word Tyrous - the original Greek tyrant?

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Uriah, could the producers be as skittish about depicting smoking as the makers of Watchmen were?

Back in the sixties, when I was in my earliest years of elementary school, I remember the driver of the school bus smoking heavily on the job.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I'd say a school bus trumps a movie theater. The best is that the bus company had such a nice, innocent name: Uncle Harry.

Well, some of Uncle Harry's child-movers smoked like a factory.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

"Gosh (smiles and sighs, remembering fondly), TV. Is it still as good as it used to be?"

It's way better than it was. Can you believe that once upon a time, people actually watched Scooby Doo?

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Dana King said...

Congratulations, Peter. I am constantly amazed at how you are able to post new material every day about things that don;t just naturally wash up on anyone's doorstep. This is the go-to blog for international crime fiction.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Sucharita Sarkar said...

The grasshopper is called 'ganga-foring' in Bengali and is much loved by children, because of its bright green colour, and because it can do 'tee-ring-bee-ring'(jump quickly). Congratulations for becoming a "tee-ring bee-ring ganga-foring", because you do have this amazing ability to jump from ome book/author/event to another, with grace and alacrity.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Dana, you'd be amazed how much I accomplish through the simple expedient of neglecting domestic responsibilities such as housecleaning.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I blush at that compliment, Sucharita. You know, you have a bright future ahead of you as a teller of folk tales. You do a wonderful job of imagining me into the role of a ganga-foring -- or at least of getting ganga-forings and humans to that imaginary space that they share!

April 11, 2009  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

No on Mad Men they smoke like chimneys, I think Uriah was being ironic or else grew up in a terrifying chain smoker world. And yes ok it may have miniscule ratings which would have got in cancelled long ago on network TV but the opening titles already has become a simpsons parody so it must have penetrated the zeitgeist to some extent.

April 11, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

That's pretty odd theme music for a series set in the 1960s. I'm surprised to hear that the rating are dismal, though, since the series has generated such intense discussion and critical enthusiasm.

April 12, 2009  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Adrian this is one occasion when I am not being ironic but accurate. I did grow up in a world where everybody smoked. Despite my youthful appearance I was a student in the 1960s when smoking while eating, and doing almost everything else was compulsory.

April 12, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I don't remember the ubiquity of smoking as clearly as you do, but then, I'm young enough that my horizons were limited during smoking's heyday. But that school-bus smoke sticks with me. Here were guys whose job was transporting children, who spent their working hours with children in the confined space of a school bus, yet who smoked on the job. It may be hard for someone just a few years younger than I am to believe that our world was once so thick with blue cigarette smoke.

I also remember the "Don't smoke in bed" public-service ad campaigns from when I was a kid. If people smoked in bed (cigarettes and cigars and pipes, that is), one can be sure they'd do so anywhere.

April 13, 2009  

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