les triplettes de belleville

i finally saw the movie les triplettes de belleville and i loved it, though i don't really know why or how to explain it. the music is so catchy and fantastic! i admit to having a particular weakness for music that sounds like it was meant to be played on an old victrola record player. bonus points for music that sounds like you hear it on the wind coming from an old parisian cafe. this soundtrack has that in spades. i want to be one of the belleville triplets! i'm such an unabashed lover of all things french, but i'm not one of those gals that has pictures of croissants and steaming mugs of coffee up in the kitchen with flowery script that reads "bon appetit" or anything like that. Mais non!

Ankah found a fun game-- sort of like literary mad libs at her fave site, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Here's how it works:

1.Take first five novels (I didn't use all novels) from your bookshelf.
2. Book 1—first sentence
3. Book 2—last sentence on page 50
4. Book 3—second sentence on page 100
5. Book 4—next to the last sentence on page 150
6. Book 5—final sentence of the book
7. Make the five sentences into a paragraph.
8. Feel free to “cheat” to make it a better paragraph.
9. Name your sources
10.Post to your blog.

So here's my attempt:
Begin by preparing yourself to be a survior. She drove Helen to the Coronado. It suited her exactly; and soon she began to imitate the manners and conversation of those about her: to put on little airs and graces, use French phrases, crimp her hair, take in her dresses, and talk about fashions, as well as she could. Because of her seduction, she cannot pray to God any more. Also the muses fell silent, but their songs live on to this very day, and the constellations put up by the gods still glitter on the dark blue vault of the sky.

Book 1: The SAS Survival Handbook by John "Lofty" Wiseman
Book 2: Shop Till You Drop: A Dead-End Job Mystery by Elaine Viets
Book 3: Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
Book 4: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology by Rossell Hope Robbins
Book 5: D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

A Worthy Sentence I liked but didn't make the final round:

"they made their holy water as follows: the goat pissed into a hole dug in the ground, and with this undiluted water the celebrant sprinkled them all with a black aspergillum" (from the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology, not Little Women as you might immediately conclude)

(this post guarantees that all the people googling "Goat Piss" will land on my blog! Hee hee hee! I get a lot of strange hits. My fave ones so far that landed people here are "how bleach yellow toenails" and "skull boat")