an apology, sort of, rant really I guess; sorry :(

I am sorry if I offended anyone by dissing Vampire books. Let me be clear. I do not see anything wrong with enjoying a book for sheer pleasure, and not just because it won a prestigious award or offers a unique and artistic world view. I just think we should differentiate between "my favorite" and "the best". I may say that Napoleon Dynamite is one of my favorite movies, but I would be an idiot to claim that it is one of the best movies ever. For categories such as best, there should be some discernment and standards, such as the people who hand out Pulitzer and Booker prizes use. ( this does not necessarily apply to the people who hand out Oscars. Titanic?! right.)

I may not always like the books that win these awards, but I recognize that they have some merit. Of course in this society there seems to be some resistance to trusting authority, as in "so what if he is a Nobel prize winning climate scientist, what does he know about global warming",and, "who cares if my president is a moron, I would like to have a beer with him", and, "who cares if those people are authorities on English literature, my Vampire book was the best book of the year." You have every right to have your favorite book be a vampire book. But, you know what? If you read the pulitzer prize winner, you might actually even like it better!

OK so this has turned out not to be an apology really, but more like another rant. As in I am sorry if you don't like my opinion, but there it is; even though there is the word sorry in that sentence, it is clearly not an apology.

Sorry.

monarchs and butterfly weed.PARENTAL WARNING: ADULT CONTENT

Hello. i love butterflys. Doesn't everyone?

Flitting about the sky with colorful wings, eating plant nectar, harming no-one, nary a vampire among them.

I was at a plant nursery the other month, and noticed a plant that was attracting monarch butterflies. i talked to the proprietor about it and he said that monarchs were very attracted to the plant, and laid their eggs on it. Impulsively, I purchased a small plant and took it home.

Within a day, there was a butterfly arial-dancing about the plant, sipping the nectar and laying eggs. Soon i had caterpillars. They began to eat the plant, and the realization came to me that they would soon devour the plant and be left to starve. Of course the only thing I could do was to return to the plant nursery and buy a nother butterfly weed. This time i bought a bigger one. A few days later there were two butterflies flitting about. They seemed angry with one another. I noticed that one was trying to kill the other, pinning it to the ground and beating it with its wings! On closer examination they appeared to be doing the monarch version of the mattress mambo. I was shocked that such beautiful creatures would engage in such brutality. But I guess the trip to the butterfly bush counted for the flowers and dinner. Who am I to judge? Nature is a mystery. Also red in tooth and claw.

Still, they are not vampires.