I am greatly disappointed at any anagram server which, to the input "Ronald Wilson Reagan," does not reply with "Insane Anglo Warlord."

For movie quotes, and adequate searchability, I still go to www.imdb.com.

True, we'd probably find you in a bookstore in London...

This has nothing to do with your mail situation, however. Sorry.

Back when I was Mg. Ed. at Tor, I was ranting one day about how I was going to move to Lubbock, live in a double-wide, work in a hardware store, and never again admit to having any acquaintance with the universe of books.

Beth Meacham, who'd heard that rant before, sweetly informed me that it was no use; they'd already phoned all the hardware stores in Lubbock and warned them that I was a dangerous lunatic.

Simon: It doesn't? Does it at least know that "Spiro Agnew" anagrams as "grow a penis"?

My all-time favorite: "eleven plus two" is an anagram of "twelve plus one".

Avram: You're right, of course. Black, it's just for funsies. Pink with a Hello Kitty on it, you've got yourself an evil weapon.

Hey, as long as you like IMDB, feel free to look me up there...(John Farrell VII).

(Although, to be fair, I understand that Texas Tech has more than its share of looniness, but that's only to compensate for the horror of the surrounding town. it's like keeping sanity in Dallas requires an appreciation of George Romero movies and "King of the Hill".

Or persue my dream career of being a bag changer for a prairie dog vacuum.

It doesn't? Does it at least know that "Spiro Agnew" anagrams as "grow a penis"?

Yes, I checked that first. Though it doesn't give the words in that order.

On the other hand, Dad went to Tech, and Lubbock is where I finally found a copy of the score for "Porgy and Bess." It was expensive at $35, but it's astronomical now.

Oklahoma City. I really like OKC, in some ways more than Tulsa, but I'm considered rather weird by those who know me and love me. OKC has lots of tornadoes and is very flat. On the other hand, it has character and some neat old buildings. And Norman, home of the University of Oklahoma, is a mere 30 minutes away.

MKK--genuine Okie even if I am living in Seattle

MKK

This message brought to you by United Popcult Service: This has been obliquely referenced where what is obliquely referenced must be.

http://lightinfo.org/maitreya/bsblanco.htm

hope to make friends with you .

Mr. Ford: You is very silly. Everybody knows Ma Joad only drinks Seattle's Best.

MKK

Bruce, I'd have felt paranoid but vaguely relieved. Then I'd have checked to see what happened to Panix.

I hereby award two points plus the keyboard printed on the side of my face for "This has been obliquely referenced where what is obliquely referenced must be."

(What? Because they wear Hawaiian shirts, of course.)

I know that my life needs simplifying in some way when I begin to have fantasies about going to live in Phoenix or some other very sunny place, being a waitress, hnever again having a meaningful conversation with anyone, nor making a decision of any importance.

Are you implying that waiters and waitresses never have meaningful conversations with anyone? As a veteran Boston restaurant gofer and fishmonger, I resemble that remark!

Incidentally, I stumbled across this site

http://www.everyonewhosanyone.com/

which is one of those sites run by one of those poor deluded middle-aged white men who can't understand why he doesn't get published. Was anybody aware of this? Tor is only mentioned parenthetically as an imprint of St. Martin's.

MKK

Hmm. How about this: a friend of my dad's once bought a huge warehouse and turned it into a self-storage building. Offered me $20,000 a year to mind the place full-time. Told me all I'd have to do is sit at a desk all day—I could even do my creative writing on the job.

I turned him down, but it occurs to me that might be the kind of job for you. Self-storage proprietor, if that's the proper title....

:)

Now I live in Brooklyn and he doesn't. Does this mean I won?

nominal aphasia's got me

Thanks Mary Kay! I have it bad, but I forgot what it was called.

MKK

My own experience with Preditors & Editors (tm) is that it's better to give out only information that is known to be accurate and verified, if possible from multiple sources though there are reasonable limits. Additionally, P&E doesn't list email addresses unless asked or authorized by the editor, agent, or publisher to post it. Probably, that's a significant part of the reason for P&E's survival in the past seven years despite threats from those it doesn't recommend.

By the way, I didn't make it with my last sub to Tor, so I'll try again when I have something new. Sure did hope it would catch your interest, but that's how it goes.

Regards,
DaveK

There are so, so many kinds of aphasia. It's really fascinating. For me, the really terrifying kind is Broca's. Patients with Broca's aphasia talk gibberish, and give no sign of understanding anything said to them. They apparently believe they're speaking normally, but no one is sure: there's no way to ask them.

Brrr.

Also, it's absolutely permanent, because it comes from severe damage to Broca's Area in the brain. They can be completely healthy in all other respects, but they have to be institutionalized, because there's just no way they can function.

My solution of last resort is to forget about it and go on. Some time later, usually when I least expect it, it comes to me.

I think it is a chemical imbalance, because when I am drunk, it doesn't happen as often. Also when I am writing a lot of words a day for a sustained period, it's like the mental exercise keeps my neurons limber, because it doesn't happen as much then, either.

Very strange.

Jeff: several years ago, when I had ECT, the same type of aphasia happened to me for a few months. My vocabulary shrank exponentially and all I could come up with were those wrong words: "sounds like...looks like...feels like..."

In absolute frustration, I started slogging through NYTimes crossword puzzles compulsively, several a day. And for whatever reason, whether because my brain got better or the mental exercise limbered up my neurons, the incidence of the aphasia gradually lessened. It still happens, but not nearly as often, and now (sigh) it's just as likely to be age.

MKK

I frequently feel vaguely relieved to be paranoid. (The nice thing about paranoia is that Everything Makes Sense! Life actually has a -plot-? Man, that is -such- a relief to know....)

Scratching head here on the "oblique reference" reference. Did I make an oblique reference? Did you. Wasn't aware of it, either way, if so.

I have it bad. My assistants laugh because I give them affectionate nicknames instead...Once, there were two girls who basically helped me keep the library open during a strike, coming in every day at 7:30 in the morning...and I called them "sweetie" and "corazoncito" for months! (I found out through the grapevine they had nicknamed me "honeybunny").

---L.

This happened a lot during bar review. Get up, go to lectures, come home, sit in front of computer and organize notes from lectures into outlines, read more outlines, write flashcards, practice flashcards . . . Chad would come home for dinner and I would be unable to remember the names of anything, because I hadn't *spoken* all day.

It was very strange. I could almost feel the gears of my brain trying to turn through the rust on them.

Just one of many reasons I'm glad the bar is over.

His letters are funny, like listening to those excerpts from the cable company's answering machine of people calling to complain because their cable is out.

But he certainly does seem to want to make that hill as steep as possible.

I don't think there's any useful clinical data out there, but my nominal aphasia got markedly worse when I started taking Effexor. I also lose adjectives and adverbs, which worry me more. For a while, though, I seemed to be losing verbs, and that downright scared me, but that seems to have stopped happening. Any gate, my psychiatrist seemed unsurprised at the nominal aphasia, said it could be a side effect, and not to worry. She did frown when I mentioned the verbs, though.

I can feel the noun I want hanging there just out of reach. I know its shape and often its initial letter. But I can't grab it. I can usually describe it which is enough to let someone else supply it or carried on long enough, brings the word within grabbing range. It's a very peculiar thing.

The first time I ever heard the term, Scott Imes said that the way around it was to describe it in words and keep on until the word popped up. He said that usually you can see it in your mind. "Big box, the doors open sideways, in a hotel, it has buttons on the inside, it takes you up and down -- Elevator!!!" That technique works great for concrete nouns, I can see them and describe them. It's lousy for adjectives, though.

Ah, drugs. Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em (or, at any rate, I suspect that mainlining Effexor would be a Very Bad Idea).

I once worked in Dewsbury for a year. Then I escaped.

Just goes to prove that every place has its own small corner of hell. Some have big corners.

In Rome, I only understand a dab of their language, but all the consonants are there so I at least have a fighting chance. Whereas in the North -- you know the joke about the guy giving directions who says to turn left at the vacant lot on the corner where the Grange used to be? In the North, the words are full of vacant lots where the consonants used to be. Whole sentences go by where I can't pick out a single word.

I had this one terrible moment on the road when I realized that it was getting late, I needed to find a room for the night, I was wearier than I'd expected, and the only people anywhere near me whose English I was sure I could follow were the Indian immigrants running the gas station and convenience store.

Snarkiness is in the eye of the beholderess. Name-calling is name-calling, it's not in the "guise" of anything.

"And he repeatedly printed the email addresses of people who asked him not to, claiming that no one has the right to stop their email addresses from being published..."

I didn't claim anything, an e-mail address is an e-mail address.

"I figure it's only a matter of time until you can choose where or when your web address is printed, as well."

So much for Google; it was cool while it lasted. G.

Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you, MT Blacklist.