on my way to and from work, i see this sign:

report the wet paint rag vandals

the wet paint rag vandals? is that supposed to be some scary gang name? like: say your prayers, we are the wet paint rag vandals.

and oh, oh, let me guess what they do.

and they haven't been caught. can't be too hard to spot them though. i guess it's safe to say they're walking around carrying rags and buckets of paint.

i wonder if there's a reward for their capture.

a couple of years ago, i found this book which had the most incredible blurb i have ever read. to this day i regret not buying the book. but, to share my enthusiasm, i am posting the blurb here (yes, i copied it. it was that worthwhile):

Harriet escapes the harsh life of a flother-lass in a Yorkshire fishing village, and goes in search of a new one.

Samuel is a gentleman. He is a Quaker, a philanthropist and he is a collector of photographs showing working-class girls in their working clothes. He wants Harriet's photograph for his collection.

Set in New York in the late 1800s, "The Sweetest Thing" is an intimate story played out in the shadow of the cocoa factory and the asylum, the photographic studio and the meeting house. A brilliant contemporary novel about late Victorian life, it gives us a world of morality, espionage, and cocoa, where one man believed he could make his fortune from a mouthful of sugar and a pin-up girl.

dang. espionage and cocoa. why oh why did i not buy this? and what on earth is a flother-lass?

available at the end of the week at the UP Press bookstore. will be in national and powerbooks in about 3-4 weeks time pa. and it's cheaper - yey! only P195 (but i can give discounts haha).

cover artist bernie sim.

and - unlike the first cover - i did not pose for this one haha!