Usually called the doctor. Or the caretaker.

Finished Mister Monday, the first book of The Keys to the Kingdom.

First impression: I liked it a lot. Garth Nix is a good solid YA writer with a lot of technical skill and an engaging voice that reminds me rather powerfully of the tone of Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising. I'm looking forward to Grim Tuesday; I really hope that he sustains this level of excellence over the series.

One of the things that bothered me quite a bit about the Rick Riordan books was the generally poor quality of the editing. There is simply no excuse for retaining the easy speech malapropisms that occurred in his books. It's poor writing on his part, it's poor editing and proofing from the no doubt several layers of editors and proofreaders through whose hands the material passed before making it to the finished books, and the worst part is that every time one of those malapropisms makes it into print and a younger reader reads it, the malapropism implants itself in the reader's brain, and they then go on to themselves copy the error because, having seen it in print, they think it's correct.

If anything, YA publishers have a greater responsibility than publishers of adult novels to make sure that they don't allow these errors to creep into their output, because they aren't just serving the young readers of today--they're creating the writers and communicators of tomorrow.

A Utah bill passed by the state House and Senates has been sent to the governor's office. This bill amends several state laws in order to make it possible to prosecute a woman for criminal homicide if she loses a pregnancy due to what is deemed "criminally reckless behaviour". She is not liable for criminal homicide if the miscarriage was caused by simply negligent behaviour, although apparently an early version of the bill read that way. She is also not liable for criminal homicide if the miscarriage results from her failure to follow medical advice.

Unfortunately, this doesn't protect women who accidentally fall and lose a pregnancy, speed while pregnant and are hit by another car and lose a pregnancy, fail to wear their seat belts and get into a car wreck which causes a miscarriage, etc.

Penalties include prison sentences, including the possibility of life in prison. For having a miscarriage.

RHRealityCheck.org's coverage here, and the text of the bill can be viewed online here.

Link thanks (I think) to hammercock.