orichalcum

So, because, unbelievably, this story has received only local reporting, I'm going to mention it here, because it's important, and because today there is at least a sort of happy ending.

On March 24th, two sixteen-year-old New York girls, a Guinean immigrant named Adama Bah and an unidentified girl originally from Bangladesh, were arrested by the FBI and taken into a maximum-security detention center in Pennsylvania on the grounds that they were would-be "homicide bombers who posed an imminent threat to the security of the United States." (Articles are here,, here, and ( a summary of all the initial articles) here.) Their families were not allowed to see them; they were not provided with lawyers, initially, and they were not charged with any crime.

According to the FBI, which refused to discuss the evidence against them, "The arrests took place after authorities decided it would be better to lock up the girls than wait and see if they decided to become terrorists willing to die for a cause, law-enforcement sources said."

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It was announced yesterday that Walden Media, the production company that is making my beloved Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe and possibly the other Narnia books into a movie, has also optioned the rights to Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, and the other books in the series. They plan, very logically, to start with the second book, DR itself, rather than with Over Sea Under Stone (which is much weaker, and doesn't have our boy Will Stanton in it).

Now we just have to hope they make good movies. But the trailer for TLWTW came out today on TV and it looks gorgeous, if much, well, brighter than LOTR. Lucy's a little cutesy, but apparently a good actress. The sets look beautiful, and the centaurs, crucially, real. And they have mermaids in the trailer! Anybody else remember Susan reminiscing about the mermaids singing to them at Cair Paravel? The full trailer is getting attached to Revenge of the Sith, which gives me at least one good reason to see that movie. The only bad news is that the current plans, if it goes well, are to make Caspian, Dawn Treader, and Silver Chair, but not necessarily the others, which is a pity, because I love Magician's Nephew. (OTOH, I can't even imagine a cinematic Last Battle.)

And TLWTW has a release date of December 9th, right after Northwestern's quarter ends. Guess what my birthday party is going to be this year, somewhere or another?

If only I had ladybird97's power to make Time Pass.

Update: Dark is Rising casting musings - mild spoilers if you haven't read it, but then you probably don't care much anyways.
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