Thousand Dollar Weaver

#NatureTwinning Part 34: Brought to you by the birds and the color pink

Columbine--Tuesday, 2/13/18

Today's outfit formula: black and white plus one color, a salmon-y pink for Valentine's Eve.  I doubled down on birds on this one with a lovebird print blouse and a peacock pendant.

Outfit cost per wear (OCPW): $14.81

It feels a bit creepy but appropriate posting a photo of the flower columbine after the Florida school shooting that has brought other shootings--Sandy Hook, Columbine--back to our thoughts.  At the time of the massacre at Columbine HS, I didn't even know that columbine was a type of flower.  I'm of the generation that will always think of columbine primarily as a term for a school mass shooting.

Missouri Botanical Garden

Salvadori's Weaver--Wednesday, 2/14/18

For Valentine's Day, instead of doing a major pink/red thing, I decided to go very sedate with the background outfit and let a statement scarf do a pink splash. OCPW: $16.20

The birds on my scarf are some kind of fictional Old World sparrow-bunting, and since the Reverse Inspiration has not yet caused this bird to appear in the wild, we will have to substitute a different bird: the Salvadori's weaver (aka Juba weaver, or you could just call him Sal) from the Horn of Africa.

Henry Doorly Zoo

In other news...For my sister's consideration, and the amusement of those of us not about to give birth, realistic birth announcements.

Today's Half-Assed Book Review:

Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas

Did you know that the creator of the TV show Veronica Mars has written two books as well?  This one is, well, very like the show--lots of snark, a strong dose of southern California culture at its most annoying, the whole noir Nancy Drew in a sexy costume worn with an eye-roll.  Veronica is 10 years older than in the show, but not appreciably different as a character, so you know what you're dealing with.

However, the mystery itself was pretty weak sauce.  The premise was promising enough--college girls on spring break start going missing, a national TV personality is warning people to stay away from the dangers of the Neptune scene, and Veronica is hired by the head of the local business bureau to find the girls and save the local economy--but Veronica did not bring her A game to solving the mystery.  There were multiple times I was sputtering in my head: But, but, but...isn't it obvious that...Come on, V, get your brain gear!  I thought Mac let us down on the cyber-investigation front as well.

There was also one big hyper-implausible development, but I was like, OK, I guess I'll grant you that.  But it cost.

Another caveat: I was a bit confused by the fact that there was a lot in the early chapters outlining Veronica's return to Neptune as an adult that was confusing to me--why wouldn't you start the book with all those major events instead of giving what feels like a recap?  Then it occurred to me that I haven't seen the Veronica Mars movie yet so I looked that up and yep, the movie sets up the situation in the book.  So if you were planning to see the movie, you should probably do that first because the first few chapters of this book is a big-ass spoiler.  But I don't think there's any confusion if you skip straight to the book.

Nevertheless, I believe fans of the show will find it a quick and entertaining, if sometimes exasperating, read.