2006-12-05 - a post on The Musings of an Idle Mind
Inasmuch as it is mid-July, a post about a Christmas story seems most appropriate. Bear with me.
| First, let me quote this:
| | MacGuffin | | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | | This article is about the plot device. For the block cipher, see MacGuffin (cipher). | | A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device that motivates the
| | characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story. | | | | The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized both the term "MacGuffin"
| | and the technique. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Hitchcock explained
| | the term in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University: "[W]e have a name in the studio,
| | and we call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in
| | any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the
| | papers." | Next, let me quote from the back of Santa, Baby, an anthology by Jennifer Crusie:
| | "Hot Toy" in the anthology Santa Baby | | Trudy Maxwell goes looking for the Hot Toy of 2006 on Christmas Eve to keep her
| | nephew's faith in Santa Claus and life in general, and runs into toy hijackers, the CIA,
| | | Chinese spies, and the lit professor who dumped her after three dates. Then the
| | shooting starts. Anthology includes reprints of stories by Lori Foster ("Christmas
| | Bonus") and Carly Phillips ("Naughty Under the Mistletoe"). | | "Yeah, so?" you're asking. | | What do you suppose the "hot toy" in Hot Toy is? Let me quote from the first scene:
| | Trudy Maxwell pushed her way through the crowded old toy store, fed up with
| | Christmas shopping, Christmas carols, Christmas in general, and toy stores in
| | particular. Especially this toy store. For the worst one in town, it had an awful lot of
| | people in it. Probably only on Christmas Eve, she thought, and stopped a harried-looking
| | teenager wearing an apron and a name tag, accidentally smacking him with her lone
| | shopping bag as she caught his arm. “Oh. Sorry. Listen, I need a Major MacGuffin.”
| |
| | The kid pulled his arm away. “You and everybody else, lady.”
| | | | “Just tell me where they are,” Trudy said, not caring she was being dissed by somebody
| | who probably couldn’t drive yet. Anything to get a homicidal doll that spit toxic waste.
| | I have seen Crusie styled "the queen of romantic comedy." She gets my vote.
|
| ( 4 comments) | steveh11 | Based on what I've read of her so far she's certainly a contender - and I'm
| darned if I can come up with an alternative name. | | Queen Jennifer. Works for me! :) | | vinnie_tesla | | She should collaborate with Neal Stephenson some time: "Hiro Protagonist
| | and the quest for Major McGuffin" | | | gary_jordan
| | | RODL! | | | | | | Naturally, this one is a Christmas/Romance/Spy Thriller. The male protagonist
| | | should have been Hiro LaVentriste. | | | | vinnie_tesla
| | | | I had to say that out loud to myself half-a-dozen times before I got it.
| | | |
| | | | Good thing I live alone...
I've mentioned the webcomics I follow. As a follow-up to the comments above, Grrl Power has this character:
