RIP Diana Wynne Jones, also Geraldine Ferraro

[magid]

I remember having a book by Diana Wynne Jones since I was single-digits young, The Ogre Downstairs, which very fun, and had me trying to figure out the pseudo-Latin she chose for her alchemical substances. It took years until I found more of her books, but I loved them all. She had a talent for characters and interesting worlds, though some later books weren't as amazing as I would have liked. Still, her not-best was far beyond many others' works, and I always looked for her new books (a quick check of Wikipedia shows that there might be a couple more I haven't yet read, so I can defer the sadness of no-more-books a little while longer). In fact, Deep Secret is part of the reason I chose my LJ name (that and what it means in Hebrew). She wasn't young, but wasn't that old either, and I'm sad to have one less live favorite author.

Also gone this weekend, Geraldine Ferraro. I remember her candidacy, and how I took it for granted that a woman could be picked for VP, even though I knew it was a first. I just assumed, in my young naivete, that it was a first that would show how the world had changed, that many more would follow. Of course, it was decades.


It feels like a pathetic side note to this, but getting news via FB/LJ is both disturbing and helpful. Disturbing because what will I miss, and helpful since apparently my friends are interested in things that I am. No surprise there, I suppose.