Funny How "Breen" Is Made Up of Letters from "Berlin"

ericberlinblog is writing a book for puzzle-solving eleven-year-olds. Because he's a classy guy, you can read it as it's finished, thanks to the magic of the Internet. So go find out about Winston Breen, and tell all of your fabulously wealthy publishing friends.

Now, I'm off to accomplish the most popular thing on my to-do list for the weekend.

Progammable Tablesaw, Day 1.

Let's see how I've stacked up to what I've been told to do . . .

As promised, I visited Barnes & Noble to spend my Christmas gift. It almost didn't happen. After wandering around and selecting three books, I went to the counter only to discover that my gift card was gone. I checked all my pockets and my wallet. Nothing. I checked my car. Nothing. I drove back home and looked for it. Nothing. Finally, I drove back to the store and found the card waiting peacefully in the SF section. Apparently, it was a slow day for whoever gets alphabetized above Terry Pratchett.

At B&N, I was mostly directed to buy books for reading, and so I did. Following the advice for books, I went first to graphic novels. They were the most popular choice, but a choice difficult to live up to. This store's selection of graphic novels is pretty meager if you don't count the huge pit of liquid hot manga. Which I don't, because I think of them more as graphic serials, and I don't want to keep running back to B&N to get the next ones.

Anyway, I expected this problem, so I was planning to buy another volume of the Sandman collection. But they only had one volume. The volume I already had. So, that sucked. I ended up getting Fables: Legends in Exile because it looked interesting. Most popular book, grabbed.

Next, I scanned the SF section. Eventually, I settled on a book that looked interesting: Guns, Drugs, and Monsters by Steve Niles. It's apparently a gritty detective story set in a Los Angeles where monsters . . . well, basically, Angel, I guess. But it has a good feel. If it turns out good, I'll let you know. Second-most popular book, grabbed.

As I was wandering around, it occurred to me that I never managed to finish Foucault's Pendulum back in college. WIth all this talk about The DaVinci Code, I thought it'd be good to restart and complete it. And Eco certainly counts as nongenrey Captial-F-Fictiony fiction, right? Third-most popular book, grabbed.

So, on to the next two most popular items on the B&N subpoll, buying DVDs and buying some other random thing. Well, I had a plan for the DVDs, so I set that aside, but I couldn't find anything of the random B&N crap that grabbed me, so I skipped it, and left with a few bucks still on the card (once I'd found it again, of course). Besides, this means I have an excuse to go back and find morganlight, per her request.

Oh yes, the DVDs. Well, it turns out I also had a gift certificate to Suncoast, which has lots and lots of DVDs. So I drove over there. For buying DVDs, animation just barely edged out comedies, musicals, and porn. (Also, guys? I'm not going to spend my hard-earned money buying porn from the mall. That's why I have Internets.) Suncoast has a big ole anime section, but nothing jumped out at me. At least, nothing jumped out at me economically. I considered calling for help, but my cell phone had died—I was on my own. Eventually, I found the animation I was seeking in the Television section, which had Batman: The Animated Series, Volume Two on sale. Because it was on sale, it cost only slightly more than Castle in the Sky which, despite the recommendation of two Marcs, was deficient with regard to the ratio of viewing time to dollars. I'll have to rent it.

Of course, I made the mistake, after deciding on Batman, of looking at the other animation shuffled into the family section. That's why I also have The Black Cauldron now. That other one wasn't covered under the gift card, I just had to get it on me own.

So, on that count, I followed your instructions fairly well, I think. I also started my Mystery Hunt post (second-most popular item) and spent a little time solving the December Enigma (very low on the list, but the deadline for sols is tonight). I didn't do to well on the December issue, mostly because I was to busy to look at it most of the time. Quite a few of my answers are just guesses that will probably be wrong, and I'm sure that many of the holes could have been filled with a bit more time. As promised to joecab, my holes were: 19, 20, 24, 35, 39, KU2, 43, 44, 47, 48, 56, 60, 64, 66, F1, all extras except X2, and all crypts. I'll deal with the kudos later tonight.

So, a pretty good start to the weekend. Thanks, guys!