you know you've been a fairy-tale critic for too long when...

[freckles_and_doubt]

... you vaguely summarise Tolkien's arguments against visual or dramatic fairy tale in two sentences, from memory, then come all over insecure and check it in the actual text, only to:
(a) open the book randomly at precisely the right page first go, without checking, and
(b) discover that your vague from-memory summary is exact, accurate and succinct.

I want a proper lecturing post now. I'm all growed up, I am. Either that, or I'm channelling Tolkien, in which case I've got it made. LotR: The Sequel. Now with more naked Legolas. And, I would imagine, some seriously interesting side-effects (squinting, grunts) as I wrestle my possessing spirit into submission.

Shire political meltdown update: conflict resolution session yesterday. Results:

• Lots of things written down, stuck to the walls and reshuffled;
• a new dismissive catch-phrase among my immediate social circle ("Well, you can just write that down and stick it to the wall");
• running an hour and a half over time;
• me leaving the room twice because I was too angry to trust myself to speak or stay silent;
• a great deal of self-justification, stubborn adherence to personal viewpoints, misunderstanding, refusal to actually listen, and anger;
• my undying admiration for khoi_boi's wife;
• some slight advances towards honesty and dialogue, but no actual resolution, so we have to do the whole thing again on Friday.

Aaaaaaaaargh!