Hi there! I have a few quick links to share:
1. I'm deeply in love with Juan Ortiz's new retro-style
Star Trek: The Original Series art
here. 2. Speaking of love, I highly recommend Martin Berman-Gorvine's
Seven Against Mars, a science fiction novel just published this month (YA but also great for adults). You can
read my review here.3. To celebrate the series finale of
Cabin Pressure, you can
make your own Captain Crieff hat. The hat is paramount! (Thanks to
killerweasel.)
4. Is anyone else planning to check out
Vikings next month? It's Vikings. It's Gabriel Byrne. I have to give it a try.
5. My latest "Looking Back on Genre History" segment for
StarShipSofa, which is the second of a two-part segment about Edward Bellamy's classic novel
Looking Backward, 2000-1887, is now available. (The first part is
here.) You can
listen or download it here. An updated list of all of my podcast appearances (with links) is available
here.
Happy birthday to
mr_earbrass and
mollypunkin, and happy early birthday to
cookiefleck,
firiath,
alicia_stardust,
ankh_hpl,
dqg_neal,
xerum525,
homespunheart,
jagash,
settiai,
rosamundeb, and
kalquessa. May all of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all! In honor of today's occasion, a quote:
Hail Bishop Valentine, whose day this is,
All the air is thy Diocese,
And all the chirping choristers
And other birds are thy parishioners,
Thou marryest ever year
The lyric Lark, and the grave whispering Dove,
The Sparrow that neglects his life for love,
The household bird, with the red stomacher;
Thou maks't the black bird speed as soon,
As doth the Goldfinch, or the Halycon;
The husband cock looks out, and straight is sped,
And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed.
This day more cheerfully than ever shine,
This day, which might enflame thy self, old Valentine.
Till now, thou warmd'st with mutiplying loves
Two larks, two sparrows, or two doves,
All that is nothing unto this,
For thou this day couplest two Phoenixes;
Thou mak'st a Taper see
What the sun never saw, and what the Ark
(Which was of fowls, and beasts, the cage and park,)
Did not contain, one bed contains, through thee,
Two Phoenixes, whose joined breasts
Are unto one another mutual nests,
Where motion kindles such fires, as shall give
Young Phoenixes, and yet the old shall love.
Whose love and courage never shall decline,
But make the whole year through, thy day, O Valentine.... from John Donne, "An Epithalamion, Or Marriage Song, On the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine Being Married on St. Valentine's Day"