A new look, and an interactive feature!

You're right: the dramatic title of this post doesn't match the tedious reality.  But as you may have noticed, this half of the Romantoes writing team has been AWOL for awhile, so I needed something to motivate me to get back into the swing of things.

Plus, I was tired of the dark look of the old template, and the annoying sans-serif font.  We'll see how long it takes for me to tire of the "sunshine, lollipops" look of the new template.  It's good for summer, though.

I've also added a couple of new blogs to the blogroll on the right:  my friend Beth recently started a blog, Daily Devil, where she's going to try to post a photograph every day for the next year--a project that Spines over at alt.tedium recently completed (congratulations!).  And I just learned last week that my friend and former student Catherine has been blogging about all things frugal since 1996!  Apparently, she's kept her blogging secret from some of us until just now.  So naturally, I'm going to out her even further by mentioning her blog here, and encouraging you to check it out.  Her blog has advertisers, folks.  Advertisers!

My life over the last few weeks has been consumed by giving four different presentations at three separate teacher institutes in town.  It's the part of my job that's the most exciting, and the most nerve-wracking--working with teachers and trying to encourage them to think about English/Language Arts in new ways.  But because it's the part of my job that I'm most excited and most nervous about, naturally, I overprepared for all four presentations.

The upside is that I learned a lot, too--about Jack tales, Appalachian folk artists, and John Ashbery (the last I could've done without, but--oh well).  The downside is I've gotten very little writing done, either here or on my academic work.  So, consider this also an attempt to push through my writer's block and get the pen back to the paper, virtually speaking.

So, by now you're probably wondering about the interactive feature.  Well, it's this:  last week I bought, on impulse, a miniature Cake Wreck at Kroger's.

It's a doll cake made out of a single cupcake, bathed in icing.  What I found irresistible, besides the seventy-nine cent price tag, was the sultry, sideways glance on the doll's face.  It reminded me of the original Barbie doll, which was much sexier than today's All-American version.

The fact that it had been encased inside an upside-down deli container added to my horrified delight.  How could I resist "Princess Under Glass"?

I think there's a story here, but I'm not feeling clever or inspired enough to come up with one.

So, that's the interactive portion of this post, and the challenge I'd like to put to you, dear readers.  We know you to be a witty and sardonic bunch, so tell me:  what's the story here?  How did this unfortunate creature get trapped inside her plastic dome?  Did she deserve the horrible fate she met when I brought her home?

A postscript...somehow, the doll also reminds me of this book, which I never has as a kid but a neighbor did.  I thought it was just about the creepiest, most perverse thing I'd ever read at the time, but have subsequently met other women my age who read it as girls and loved it.  If you remember it, too, I'd like to know what your thoughts about it were and are.