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Groucho Marx famously once said: "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." Wise words, to be sure—but what if you could combine the two?

I’m a dog person. I used to be a cat person, and I do still love my fluffy feline, but when I met my husband he came with a dog, and, well, I’ve gone to the other side. Fortunately for my bookish tendencies, the dog book is a well-established form.

Heck, Lassie was published in 1940, and The Call of the Wild in 1903. Yet it seems there’s been a resurgence of popularity in dog stories. I can’t seem to stop running across them. I usually finish a dog book in a puddle of tears reaching for the tissue and burying my face into my sweet puppy’s fur. A great dog book reminds us why we’re dog people in the first place—and maybe that makes us cry.

Here are my favorites in no particular order. Even though the summer is almost over, they will be a great addition to your future “Dog Days of Summer” reading list.

The corpus of contemporary golf literature (All Fore Revenge and The Swinger being two notable players in this niche) attempts to fuse the masochistic game of inches with the human experience.

Whatever worth you might place on, for example, Golf in the Kingdom, know that it has literary links (hehe!) to works on par (hah!) with the green jackets (HA-HA!) of the canon. In honor of the summery pastime, here’s a list of some classics that feature the game of grass and iron.

Wilson?

Imagine this: you’re a FedEx executive on board when your plane crashes and you’re marooned on a deserted island with no human contact, far away from your home. You have to find your own food and stay alive. It sounds like the plot to what could be a pretty good movie, doesn’t it? Oh wait.

Well, we may not all be Tom Hanks but if you are for whatever reason marooned on a desert island, you need to know how to survive. Turn to none other than the Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: History to find the answer. Maybe you’ll grow a beard half as impressive as Chuck Noland’s. 

Chocolate, geekery, and Do-It-Yourself-ing: 3 things we love, so why not celebrate them all? Follow these 5 simple steps to make delicious melt-in-your-mouth chocolates inspired by your favorite geeky interests. You can even add special goodies to your chocolates with our bonus tips on additional ingredients!

Gather your materials:

·         Double Boiler – the easiest way to melt chocolate effectively is with a double boiler, but if you don't have one you can heat water in a shallow pan and use a smaller pan or heat-friendly bowl to hold your melting chocolate.

·         Water – enough to fill your double boiler, or the larger of your two pans.

·         Chocolate – grocery store baking chips are fine, pure chocolate bars work well too. Start with a bag or two of semisweet or milk chocolate.

·         Molds – a silicone mold is perfect for chocolate-making because it can stand heat and can make sharp details pop. The molds in this tutorial are available online here: Carbonite Han Solo, TARDIS.

·         Silicone Spatula

·         Small Table Spoon

·         Special Extras – once you've got the basics of the chocolate-making process down pat, you can try adding special elements to your candies. For this project, I used Andes Crème de Menthe candies.

1. Heat the water, prep your chocolate Heat the water in your pot/boiler on your stovetop. While the water comes up to a near-boil (some bubbles on the bottom, but a fairly undisturbed surface) pour your solid chocolate into the melting pan. Pro tip: the volume of chocolate will get smaller as it melts down, but it's easy to add more once the melting has begun.

2. Melt your chocolate Once the water is at a near-boil, you're ready to melt! Gently lower the melting pan into the water. Watch your chocolate carefully and don’t rest the melting pan on the bottom of the water pan. Wait till the chips begin to glisten before gently stirring (more like spreading frosting than actual stirring) with your silicone spatula. Once the chocolate looks smooth and reaches the consistency of warm creamy peanut butter, it is ready to pour.

Pro tip on melting: Don’t put your chocolate on direct heat – it’s very easy to burn it! Using the double boiler method heats the chocolate evenly and keeps the heat at a constant temperature. The science works like this: water boils at 100°C or 212° F and can't get any hotter than that without evaporating. That makes hot water a perfect way to regulate heat! Just make sure the surface of the water is calm, you don't want it to splash into the chocolate.

3. Prep the mold and pour Silicone molds are flexible, so rest yours on a baking sheet or cooling rack for stability. When your chocolate is melted fully, remove the pan from the hot water and gently spoon/pour chocolate into the molds. Be careful not to let any water drip on the molds! Pro tip: use your spoon or a toothpick to ensure that the chocolate has made it into every detail of the mold and remove any bubbles.

4. Let your chocolates cool Let your mold cool in a clear, undisturbed part of the refrigerator. Let it cool for at least 2 hours for a shallow mold like the tiny Carbonite Solos and longer if your mold is deep like the TARDIS. These chocolates were allowed to cool and solidify overnight.

5. Enjoy your chocolates! You can wrap your chocolates as tiny gifts, decorate cakes with them, or lay them out with your spread for a series premiere party, nerdy book club, or sci-fi crafting circle. Just remember that like all chocolate, the more you handle it or leave it in warm places the more it will melt.

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Have you tried making candy with a silicone mold before? Leave a comment to tell us all about it!

Faux (gorgeous!) poster via Master Never

As we speak, in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars Episode 7 is already in production.

We’ve been teased by casting announcements, script rumors, and Carrie Fisher’s Twitter (which also features lots of pictures of her dog, Gary), but as hard as the wait is 21st century Star Wars fans can find solace in at least one thing.

Namely, unlike a previous generation who had to agonize years between Empire and Jedi we have access to tons more Star Wars stuff to fill the gap. Before the age of home entertainment, fans had to rely on multiple in-theater viewings to burn the beloved trilogy into their brain. And even after the trilogy had concluded and the VCR Revolution made it possible for people to own a piece of the magic fans felt themselves wanting more. That’s where the books came in.

It started as a few one-off novels in the 1970’s, then exploded in 1991 with The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. Ever since, Star Wars novels have given fans a steady stream of battles, complex plot twists, new planets, new characters, and the growth and development of older ones. And the best part is that George had the foresight to insist that anyone who wanted to write a Star Wars book had to take into account what was already established. It wouldn’t make sense to have Chewbacca die in one novel and then have another author write a book where he was alive and well and celebrating Life Day. That continuity got fans even more invested in the world they came to view as an extended family in space.

So, while J.J and company get busy filming let’s take a lesson from an older and wiser generation and get busy reading!

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Sometimes you want your burger well done. But too well done can become a problem when a fire erupts from the grill where you’re cooking your dinner. Barbecues are common in the summer, but accidents can happen. Here’s how you put out a grill fire, thanks to The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: Great Outdoors.