Eleventy-six!

I can't let Saturday, January 3rd, come to a close without shouting,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, J.R.R. TOLKIEN!!

He's 116 today.

I think I'll read some more of The Children of Hurin tonight. Which (pulling foot from mouth) is actually pretty good.

What, in your opinion, is the moment in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings that deserves more attention or appreciation than it gets? Put a spotlight on it for us.

Me? I love this, from Chapter 3 of The Fellowship of the Ring:

'Hobbits!' he thought. 'Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There's something mighty queer behind this.'

Little touches like that give us a sense of a grander, richer world in which even the animals have lives and thoughts of their own. That's why this is one of my favorite passages in the series.