The drought is over, finally?

Posted October 22, 2006 7:38 PM by P J Evans

It's notable just how much the Night-mare Life-in-Death and that awful Coulter woman seem to share: in appearance, and in morality...

Posted October 22, 2006 7:47 PM by Nix

The rain it raineth on the just,
And also on the unjust fella;
But mostly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just's umbrella.

Not mine, alas. I can't remember where it comes from.

Posted October 22, 2006 7:50 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Feast in my hall, O foemen, and eat and drink and drain,
You never loved the sun in heaven as I have loved the rain.

GK Chesterton

Posted October 22, 2006 8:10 PM by Sam Kelly

"Think the rain will ruin the rhubarb?"

"Not if you put it in cans."

"What, the rain?"

"No, the rhubarb."

Posted October 22, 2006 9:18 PM by Daniel Boone

Open Thread Squeal-of-Incensed-Outrage time.

Your bureaucrats have lost it. Seriously. Invading countries or electing, supporting (failing to throw into a deep hole) a congenital idiot is, heaven knows, bad enough. But now, they have banned Vegemite.

They are searching incoming Australians and confiscating their carefully packed jars. My expat friends are very sad indeed. Call this a
Free Trade Agreement, 'cause I sure as hell don't.

Posted October 22, 2006 9:20 PM by Vian

The water has drowned the Matterhorn as deep as a Mendip mine,
But I don't care where the water goes, if it doesn't get into the wine.

also G.K. Chesterton

Posted October 22, 2006 9:20 PM by Barbara Gordon

There is a Mark Foley action figure for sale on EBay. The congressman is depicted holding a bottle in one hand and a cell phone in the other, and with his pants puddling around his ankles.

I am not making this up.

Posted October 22, 2006 9:31 PM by Lizzy L

I don't know if anyone's noticed it but Julie Philips's biography of Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree Jr.) has a 3/4 page review in the latest TLS. They're a bit late, but welcome to the party.

Posted October 22, 2006 9:38 PM by jim

Vian #6: But now, they have banned Vegemite.

Patched the link you wanted. I tried Vegamite once on impulse (bought it at the corner store, I think). Seems odd that its been banned because it contains folic acid; I thought that was available as a supplement.

Posted October 22, 2006 9:41 PM by Rob Rusick

More on Vegemite: my husband, over there on the computer that actually works, went to the FDA site and came up with a long list of refusals for import certification, all of which had to do with labelling problems, none of which had to do with Folate (which, as B6, is easily available OTC).

The creepiest one was "food composed of more than one ingredient without all ingredients listed on lable."

Posted October 22, 2006 9:58 PM by JESR

Apparently, only bread may be folic acid enhanced.

Might be some law bought by the bakery lobby.

Posted October 22, 2006 9:59 PM by Stefan Jones

Ahh, Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Gotta love the classics.

Of course, Chesterton's great too:

The great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad.
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad.

In other news ...

Who wants to start a pool on:

A) How many Homeland Security alerts we have between now and Nov. 7 to remind us who we should believe is the real danger;

B) How much lower the gas prices will plunge between now and Nov 7 to (1) lull people's concerns over republican ties to oil, and (2) bugger the social security formula so payout are lower;

C) How many times after Nov 7 (if God still loves the US) GWB comes out to say that the elections were NOT a referendum on Iraq and his presidency?

Posted October 22, 2006 10:00 PM by Pedantic Peasant

Rob #10

Thanks, Rob. I tried to patch it meself, but I suspect I just deepened the hole.

Apparently by US FDA fiat, folic acid can only be added to bread or cereal. Of course Vegemite is added to bread, which should be good enough for most folk, IMHO. Not to mention that it was bought a few years ago by an American company, so sales benefit Americans, which adds injury to insult.

I mean, folate. Beware the evil side effects of folate consumption - eating folate can seriously help the development of foetal neurosystems and prevent spina bifida. Quake with fear!

This, from the people who seem to think olestra is a good idea. Gah!

Posted October 22, 2006 10:04 PM by Vian

It is an ancient moron-er
He lies two times in three.
'By thy lazy smirk and shiftless eye,
Now wherefore speakest thou for me?'

Now six long years had trickled by
And he had trickled us more
The country grim could now see him
Past the platitudes of yore.

He pleaded him with a grasping hand
'We must see it through,' quoth he.
'You've lied!' we cried, and still he tried
To convince despite what all could see!

Posted October 22, 2006 10:13 PM by pedantic peasant

Hey, how did the Capclave silent auction thingie go?

Posted October 22, 2006 10:33 PM by elise

On vegemite @6 and 10,

No, there isn't a ban, I'd bet a large bottle of a much tastier yeast extract on that.

I predict snopes will be covering this story soon, based on how far it's been spread. It doesn't pass the sniff test. Looking around the internet, the sources all seem to be extracts from an ur-rumor, with no link to actual government data.

Supplements that have been banned get heavy coverage on US gov't websites (search on ephedra or stevia as examples). But supplements aren't often banned, and essential nutrients- no, there is no law *against* folate. (Looks like there was a fight in New Zealand about *requiring* folate in breads.)

Just looking about my desk... the "nutrition bar" (the 21st century reality of meal replacement pills) I had earlier today supplies 20% of my USRDA for folate.

Posted October 23, 2006 3:35 AM by Kathryn from Sunnyvale

OK, so who watched Torchwood?

Death, sex, alien monsters in the Cardiff sewers, and Captain Jack "Scarlet" Harkness. Plus some seriously cute young ladies with not a blonde in sight.

Posted October 23, 2006 3:44 AM by Dave Bell

Ah, good old Samuel Taylor, the dope fiend... no; not my observation, but that of the incomparable Hunt Emerson, whose interpretation of the pome deserves a place on every bookshelf.

Apropos of Chesterton, I find myself drawn to Lepanto of late.

Posted October 23, 2006 3:54 AM by Harry Payne

Haven't seen Torchwood yet. Thanks for the reminder to go off and find a torrent!

Posted October 23, 2006 4:30 AM by David Goldfarb

More on the Vegemite rumor...

That really is an annoying story. How did it get in there? Could they not do fact checking? I mean, if only there was a giant interconnected network of computers containing every trivial fact... perhaps we'll have that in the 22nd century.

I can imagine the equivalent story in the US: "Australia bans import of peanut butter." I can find that the largest grocer in Australia is Woolworths and that it carries peanut butter.

Similarly, with 10 minutes of online searching, one ought to find online grocery stores in the US and see if they stock vegemite. [15 minutes pass. Unable to make clever example work. Darn, because I know I've seen it recently here in the US]

Hey- I found what looks like a source of the rumor. People were trying to carry bottles of vegemite in their carry-on luggage, and they couldn't persuade security that it was an essential medicine. Seeing as how people couldn't even carry essential medicine as essential medicine, the confiscated vegemite jars aren't surprising.

Posted October 23, 2006 4:39 AM by kathryn from Sunnyvale

Dave @18, alien monsters in the Cardiff sewers? Couldn't they think of something unlikely, as in something that doesn't happen every week? ;)

Pedantic Peasant @13, I don't think even GWB can directly influence the gas prices (except by declaring war on more Middle-Eastern countries, which is of course quite likely to happen simply because declaring war always boosts the party in power, *sigh*, Thatcher, Putin, and Bush, a gallery of rogues and incompetents).

And, um, I'm not sure which way the elections would go 'if God still loves the US'. After all, the party which most alleges (with ludicrous fervour and occasional acts of criminal stupidity) to 'love God' is the one which every thinking person would rather spent some time out of power (including a considerable number of that party's own members!)

Posted October 23, 2006 5:27 AM by Nix

I am quite unreasonably pleased that Gwen in Torchwood has the same bookcase as me.

Has anyone who didn't read the Radio Times or another spoiler source guessed where the hand in the jar came from?

Posted October 23, 2006 6:46 AM by Eleanor

So, now that the high-profile Tiptree biography has attracted attention overseas (pace #9), I keep wondering when someone's going to do a high-profile reissue of Tiptree/Sheldon's actual work. Nothing yet on the shelves of even the specialist SF store in Cambridge, MA....

Posted October 23, 2006 8:27 AM by "Charles Dodgson"

Lies two times out of three? That's got to be inaccurate and way low.

Posted October 23, 2006 10:02 AM by Paula Lieberman

Random (?) Chesterton connections: I just happened to have re-watched the Buffy Season 1 episode "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" which always reminded me of the Chesterton story "The Invisible Man." Essentially they have the same theme. "'Nobody ever notices postmen somehow,' he said thoughtfully; 'yet they have passions like other men, and even carry large bags where a small corpse can be stowed quite easily.'"

Posted October 23, 2006 10:31 AM by Jon Sobel

kathryn from Sunnyvale #21: More on the Vegemite rumor...

Someone on this thread on MetaFilter asserts the problem was Kraft Foods failure to file proper licenses with the FDA; but it does sound like it has been banned on account of this.

Posted October 23, 2006 11:27 AM by Rob Rusick

[mild Torchwood spoiler warning]

Eleanor @23, yeah I understood the hand when Captain Jack showed he cared more about it than pursuing the monster-of-the-week. I saved reading the inevitably spoilerful Radio Times article until after I'd seen the episodes. That said, I think RTD's minions showed a new subtlety in the info-dump

[severe Torchwood spoiler warning]

with a nice bit of misdirection in having biographical data on all the members of Torchwood and implying how each of them will develop.

Posted October 23, 2006 12:30 PM by Andrew K

Xopher @ #489 on the previous open thread -
Off all previous topics: Anybody going to Philcon? *raises hand*

I'm probably going to be there Friday night, part of Saturday, and maybe briefly on Sunday. I have a gig in Gettysburg Saturday night which will take me away from the con that evening.

Posted October 23, 2006 12:56 PM by Susan

Seen, one bumper sticker:

"I sacrifice to the gods, and I vote."

Posted October 23, 2006 1:03 PM by Laurence

re: #30

I had friends in college who made up stickers reading:

"I feed on the flesh of the living, and I vote."

The same crew was also the source of my favorite t-shirt:

"Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study hard.
Be evil."

Posted October 23, 2006 1:11 PM by Sarah S

I think several people might be a little disappointed if I don't go to Philcon ...

Posted October 23, 2006 1:31 PM by Charlie Stross

Anyone know when Torchwood is coming to the US?

Susan, we'll talk later about how we can meet during the con (though if I can get my boyfriend to come (to the convention, I mean), my reliability for meetings will not so much fly as plummet).

I love bumper stickers, but I never buy them, because I utterly lack a bumper.

Posted October 23, 2006 1:32 PM by Xopher

Oops, Charlie, now I have to hurry up and read all your books! (I think I HAVE them, or some of them, just...my TBR pile hasn't moved in months.)

Posted October 23, 2006 1:34 PM by Xopher

Xopher -- If you've got enough bandwidth and know how to use BitTorrent, Torchwood is here now.

Posted October 23, 2006 1:41 PM by Avram

Arrrggh. I have the bandwidth and I bet I can figure out how to use BitTorrent, but my conscience won't let me do it.

One of these days I'm going to have my conscience removed, or at least replaced with a smaller, weaker model. But for now, I'm stuck with it.

Posted October 23, 2006 1:46 PM by Xopher

Is there anything in the American diet that is remotely similar in taste to Vegemite?

Posted October 23, 2006 1:57 PM by Greg London

Greg, I've had Vegemite, and the closest things I know of are in big lumps in cow pastures. Not that I've tasted those.

Posted October 23, 2006 2:11 PM by Xopher

Hm, maybe I should have directed that question at someone who actually likes Vegemite.

Posted October 23, 2006 2:13 PM by Greg London

#39 Greg

1) First, find a Vegemite fan (this may be harder than it sounds -- even the Aussies I've known aren't particularly enamored of the stuff)

Posted October 23, 2006 2:29 PM by Linkmeister

I hear that Vegemite is used in the hazing rituals of particularly nerdy fraternities.

Posted October 23, 2006 2:31 PM by Stefan Jones

Rob @27,

Interesting- an importer forgot to fill out standard paperwork for importing vegemite from the UK.

I was wrong: the FDA does prevent folic acid from being added to certain foods because of claimed health risks from too much folate. (The FDA mandated reporting the level of folate, and adding it to bread, in the 1990s ( short history here).)

However, that alone wouldn't cause the story in rumor form, because individual travelers can bring in just about any prepared food*.

Given the choices of rumor source:
1. Tourists have their vegemite confiscated from carry-on luggage, during a time when almost everything of a paste texture was forbidden in the cabin, Or

2. The food regulation agency stops imports from the UK because standard paperwork isn't filled out, the label isn't standard, or it contains a food coloring not approved in the US. Or

3. The food regulation agency gets the border agency to single out Australian tourists for searches for their stereotypically favorite food.

Source 1 has far more rumor explaining power than 2: it contains actual confiscation from tourists.

* except alcohol- must be declared. Raw cheeses (boo). Low-heat prepared meats (boo). Raw vegetation (not-boo. Plant diseases are worth worrying about.)...

Posted October 23, 2006 2:42 PM by Kathryn from Sunnyvale

Nix at 22:

I don't think even GWB can directly influence the gas prices (except by declaring war on more Middle-Eastern countries, which is of course quite likely to happen simply because declaring war always boosts the party in power, *sigh*, Thatcher, Putin, and Bush, a gallery of rogues and incompetents).

All true. But also, Bush worked for oil companies and there is a sort of symbiotic relationship: He supports them, with middle-east war, oil reserves, and not looking too closely into gas prices, and they support him by lobbying. Furthermore, oil is one of the biggest of big business, which at some level has a vested interest in keeping Republicans in office. Whether GWB is responsible or not, oil companies drop the price around election time to try to "dim" gas prices as an issue ...

Likewise, the annual drop of gas and oil prices each year in Sept. and Oct. could have nothing to do with big corporations and/or a Republican party that wants to reduce the expenses under social security. It is entirely possible it is an annual event triggered by reduced demand for driving and AC as summer ends and before heating needs go up. But with a steady drop of at least 36 cents per gallon in the past two months, with no other obvious outside reasons, one is entitled to question the likelihood of a motive, or at least the possibility of price fixing.

And, um, I'm not sure which way the elections would go 'if God still loves the US'. After all, the party which most alleges (with ludicrous fervour and occasional acts of criminal stupidity) to 'love God' is the one which every thinking person would rather spent some time out of power

Yes, which would be my argument for why He/She/It may not like us anymore ... "You did what in My Name?"

But seriously, don't by into godless Ann Coulter's -- I mean Godless's Ann Coulter's -- claims for everyone who does not support the Republican (far) right. Just because we don't agree with or believe in their version of God doesn't mean that we have none (OK, it doesn't mean all of us do either, but still.), or that their view of God is the only one, or even the correct one.

In many ways the Republican Right seem like the Puritan Predestinationists: Based on their behavior, they would seem to believe that they are saved by their very belief, and need not subscribe to the actual actions demanded by their own faith.

Either that or they're just hypocritical. I'm not sure.

But, to paraphrase Patrick Henry, "There is a just God who presides over the destiny of nations, and he shall raise up friends to fight our battles for us" ... Hopefully in Congress.

Or if you prefer Lincoln, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time" but hopefully he can't fool the people (again) this time.

Posted October 23, 2006 2:49 PM by pedantic peasant

Blushes and curses

That should, of course, be don't buy into godless Ann Coulter

Sorry

Posted October 23, 2006 2:59 PM by pedantic peasant

Greg, vegemite tastes quite salty and somewhat yeasty. I think the secret to eating vegemite is to spread it as thinly as possible. A little goes a very long way.

Posted October 23, 2006 3:06 PM by JC

Point of general information:

Live Journal, and apparently all or most of Six Apart, is down.

Posted October 23, 2006 3:15 PM by JESR

Everyone knows that the one true yeast extract is Marmite (which I am forbidden to eat, alas, because of its salt content). Vegemite is but a pale Aussie imitation of the true nectar.

Posted October 23, 2006 3:34 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Followup to JESR in #46: LJ et al. are back up.

Posted October 23, 2006 4:08 PM by Andrew Willett

The "Rain it raineth all around" above is Ogden Nash.

And if spreading Vegemite very thin tastes better, imagine how good spreading none at all tastes!

Posted October 23, 2006 4:33 PM by rams

"Charles Dodgson": I keep wondering when someone's going to do a high-profile reissue of Tiptree/Sheldon's actual work.

Don't hold your breath...

Posted October 23, 2006 4:35 PM by Jeffrey Smith

If you spread it homeopathically thin, I suppose it might have some beneficial effect, without tasting too bad...but actually, I'm not entirely certain that it wasn't Marmite that I tasted once. Hmm. I'm not inclined to find out by a retaste, for some reason.

Posted October 23, 2006 4:36 PM by Xopher

It's odd that vegemite has a taste that doesn't map to anything american. Yeast? someone was just telling me a couple weeks ago that they're on a diet and use brewers yeast because it was OK for their diet but tasted like salted butter, sort of.

I didn't actually try it, but vegemite as a salty-butter spread doesn't sound as bad as everyone's making it out. do yeasts have different flavors? I guess I'll have to try the international section of the grocery store next time I'm there...

Posted October 23, 2006 4:52 PM by Greg London

#31 Sarah, the band Ego Likeness is now selling the "Study Hard, Be Evil" shirt! I bought it from them last year around this time.

#52 Greg, I've never tried Vegemite, only Marmite, which I adore, but yes, different yeasts have different flavors. Ask a brewer or a baker! This is why sourdoughs have such individual characteristics.

Posted October 23, 2006 5:41 PM by Rikibeth

A random observation of the really obvious which someone else could still find helpful:

Really sharp kitchen knives are a wonderful thing. I recently found my set of good German knives, the ones I'd let get buried in a box during my last move. I'd forgotten how much ease they add to cooking.

They add a +2 to all things culinary- shopping at farmers markets, browsing recipes- because any ingredient's food prep time/ effort is cut by half. Thus the complexity of recipes I'm willing to try for a given time-budget has gone up correspondingly.

And it wasn't that I was using butter-knives on raw squash, just good, not great, knives.

(Now, should I add a santoku knife?)

Posted October 23, 2006 6:02 PM by Kathryn from Sunnyvale

Having tasted Vegemite when I lived in the South Pacific, and later in New Zealand, my reaction was that it tastes very much like soy sauce only more concentrated. Think of soy sauce boiled down into a paste. I didn't think it was as horrible as some people claim, but also not much to my taste. I put shoyu on some stuff, e.g. vegetables or tofu, but not on plain rice and definitely not on bread!

Posted October 23, 2006 6:02 PM by Clifton Royston

Different flavors, different textures, different colors even. I used to eat something called "nutrient yeast" on popcorn; it also enhances the flavor of anything with mushrooms in it. It's pale yellow and has a sour, tangy flavor.

Brewer's yeast, which I tasted only once years ago, is dark reddish brown and tastes so bitter that even I who love strong flavors never tried it again.

Bread yeast is beige and tastes—beige. Not a flavoring yeast at all.

Posted October 23, 2006 6:04 PM by Xopher

WRT the rain sub-thread thing, here's one of my favourite poems:

There are holes in the sky
Where the rain gets in
But they're ever so small
That's why rain is thin

Posted October 23, 2006 6:48 PM by Madeline Kelly

A completely random question--well, random in the context of the thread, though I need to know for mundane and dull reasons--that I pose here because, having had no luck with Wikipedia or general googling, I turn to the largest source of intelligent people from a variety of backgrounds that I know:

How long can a seal stay awake? (Any type of pinniped will do in a pinch, though I'd prefer answers for the phocidae.) If this information is entirely unstudied, how long can a seal stay out at sea, awake or otherwise?

I know this information must be out there somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it.

Posted October 23, 2006 6:52 PM by Fade Manley

Re #54 on the usefulness of good kitchen knives - the best one I've ever owned is a ugly-looking square-ended blade recycled from part of a car suspension spring. It's carbon steel, and whilst not ultimately sharp (I like my chopping boards relatively intact, so whilst a monomolecular edge would be extremely cool in principle, it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea. Come to that, I like my kitchen counters relatively intact. And the floor) it's a lot easier and more pleasant to sharpen than the stainless steel ones. The sound is a pure pleasure.

Posted October 23, 2006 7:03 PM by Sam Kelly

In a world of Tivo and DVR's, this might be tough info to find, but here goes: There's a Volkswagon Beetle commercial going around that has John Mayer playing guitar on it. Anyone know the name of the song he's playing?

Posted October 23, 2006 7:07 PM by Greg London

#58 Fade,
Try writing to these folks at the U of Hawai'i Marine Mammal Center, or the Dolphin Institute, also affiliated with UH.

Posted October 23, 2006 7:23 PM by Linkmeister

Vegemite and Marmite, both of which I've tried, remind me of misu.

Kathryn @ 54, don't cut raw squash. Stab them all around and zap them. It's much easier to cut them and take out the seeds & strings then (use a hotpad). (I had acorn squash stuffed with mushrooms, kielbasa, and cheese yesterday.)

Posted October 23, 2006 8:41 PM by Marilee

#55 ::: Clifton Royston ::: Having tasted Vegemite when I lived in the South Pacific, and later in New Zealand, my reaction was that it tastes very much like soy sauce only more concentrated. Think of soy sauce boiled down into a paste.

Excuse me while I boggle ... I'm quite familiar with the taste of both Vegemite and soy sauce, and I wouldn't have said they resembled each other in the slightest. I think at least one of us must have very strange taste buds.

#57 ::: Madeline Kelly ::: WRT the rain sub-thread thing, here's one of my favourite poems:

That's a Spike Milligan you've got there, I believe.

Posted October 23, 2006 8:46 PM by Ross Smith

#63 Ross,
Clifton resides in Hawai'i, as do I. Everything's laden with shoyu. It's permeated our taste buds.

Posted October 23, 2006 8:59 PM by Linkmeister

#58 Fade -- a seal? Or a selkie?

Posted October 23, 2006 9:07 PM by Rikibeth

I know that Cory Doctorow wrote his own "I, Robot" (not to mention "I, Row-Boat"), partially to demonstrate that different authors can use the same title to create different (and legally unrelated) works.

So, if I write a story called "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Have Ice Cream" which bears no other material resemblance to the classic Ellison story, what are the chances that I will bring the Litigious Hammer of Doom (+2) down on my head?

Note that I'm asking for a probability of "Will I be sued?" rather than "Should I be sued?". I understand the difference.

Also note that I'm not (at least as far as I know right now) writing a parody, or otherwise trying to antagonize. And it sounded like a good reason to write a story about ice cream.

Please respond with your unofficial legal advice, as well as your favorite ice cream flavor--real, imaginary, or complex.

Posted October 23, 2006 9:09 PM by The Avocado Of Death

Marilee @62,

Usually cutting them raw can't work because of all the bumps. But last night I made Moroccan winter squash and carrot stew with quinoa (yum- I give it 3.75 forks, also added cinnamon) using butternut squash from the farmers market. The good knives made peeling and cubing it almost as easy as cubing summer squash, no worries about overcooking it (or cooking my hand peeling it hot).

Before regaining my good knives, I may have thought twice about the recipe. Overall, this change of knives counts as the biggest effect by a single kitchen item for me in recent years. I love cooking: if I could forget the difference, perhaps others have too.

Posted October 23, 2006 9:15 PM by Kathryn from Sunnyvale

The Mark Foley action figure noted by Lizzy at #8 is auction number 230039721735 on ebay. And very nice it is too...

Posted October 23, 2006 9:27 PM by Julia Jones

Re #3, Fragano Ledgister:

The rain it raineth on the just,
And also on the unjust fella;
But mostly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just's umbrella.

Not mine, alas. I can't remember where it comes from.

I've used that as a Usenet sigquote for years.
 
 
Re #22, Nix:

I don't think even GWB can directly influence the gas prices....

Posted October 23, 2006 10:24 PM by Raven

Oh, and the version I know has...

The unjust steals the just's umbrella.

Posted October 23, 2006 10:28 PM by Raven

Weep, weep for our nation:

http://billmon.org/archives/002871.html

Posted October 23, 2006 11:26 PM by Stefan Jones

From a page one article in today's "The Oregonian":

"Human beings are not machines. They need time to recharge their batteries."

Posted October 23, 2006 11:30 PM by Stefan Jones

the paper on human stupidity is down.

And thank you for the middle english cooking dictionary. It's made explaining some things a whole lot easier, and will make teaching this class a lot more fun...when I get around to teaching it.

Posted October 23, 2006 11:57 PM by Sisuile

Speaking of Torchwood, I did not like it: too glitzy, not enough depth and somewhat on the cliched side (more on my weblog).

Meanwhile, this is the funniest Torchwood commentary I've seen so far. (Requires .GIF animation)

Posted October 24, 2006 1:09 AM by Martin Wisse

On kitchen knives: Got the sharpening stones down from the top shelf earlier tonight and did a (somewhat overdue) session on one of the larger kitchen knives. Ahhhh... 16th/inch slices of tomato and onions for tonight's hamburgers. I'd forgotten what a difference a good sharpening can make; need to do the rest of the knives (and more often).

(What I'd -really-like to learn is how to replace knife handles. Most of our knives go back to the early years of our marriage -- close to thirty years -- and some are from previous generations of family, passed on to us. The blades are fine, but some of the handles are wearing out.)

Posted October 24, 2006 1:26 AM by Bruce Arthurs

#72:
That's the Oregonian, all right. A bastion of unmatched writing prowess and careful copyediting.

Posted October 24, 2006 1:45 AM by little light

Kathryn: After my wife bought me a set of Wusthof knives as an anniversary present one year, I added onto them a bit and bought the Wusthof Santoku knife. It's a thin stainless blade with a Granton edge, probably the one knife I use most when cooking, followed by their "sandwich" knife, which is sort of like a 5" long paring knife. (Not that I'm doing much cooking lately...)

OTOH, I love ugly high-carbon knives too, even if they're more work to care for. I found a genuine bolo knife from the Philippines for $25 in an import place here, which I now use for all my yard work chopping brush and vines. It was a pain to get all the rust off, and I've got to keep it oiled or it rusts up again, but man does it take an edge! (Gardening in Hawaii has less to do with coaxing things to grow, and more to do with keeping them from growing, or at least from overgrowing and pulling down your house.)

Posted October 24, 2006 2:00 AM by Clifton Royston

Ross @63,

Vegemite, like soy sauce, anchovy sauce, nam pla, and marmite is a very umami flavored sauce, that is, it is tickles our umami taste buds, one of the five basic tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, umami and sour).

Umami comes from the free glutamate content of foods- foods high in glutamate include tomatoes, mushrooms, and some shellfish. Plus msg.

Posted October 24, 2006 2:33 AM by Kathryn from Sunnyvale

Stefan, #72|, I've seen that "recharging batteries" line somewhere else, very recently...

Well, I saw it recently. Freighter Tails is quite irregular, and that's not been that many strips. There's other moments that might appeal to the regulars: cats, hot sauce, robots and unicorns, oh my!

Posted October 24, 2006 4:02 AM by Dave Bell

On Vegemite whose champion I am, and its taste which is unrivalled (and even its detractors must agree with that):

It tastes of salt and yeast, like soy sauce or even fermented shrimp paste. I use it as a substitute for nam pla or shrimp paste - I don't eat seafood, and I have vegetarian friends who also use Vegemite where you need strong salty savoury taste. Unlike marmite or promite, there's absolutely nothing sweet about vegemite. Marmite and promite are jarring (npi) because yeast is supposed to taste savoury, dammit.

It doesn't taste like anything other than itself, which is why it tends to divide people, but for Vegemite Kids it's the breakfast, lunch and tea of champions. Hence, the song.

Now, to taste: Have you ever tasted a really good morbiere cheese? I appalled a bunch of high-falutin' gourmets recently by enthusiastically noting that it tasted like a Vegemite and cheese sandwich, the perfect and iconic Aussie school lunch. Vegemite grilled cheese sandwiches taste like Welsh rarebit, only better, and you get to drink the whole bottle of beer instead of mixing some in the cheese.

Some people are traumatised when they spread vegemite like it was chocolate spread (which young Vegemite might be mistaken for - it gets darker as it gets older), or even like it was Marmite, which is milder. A couple of people I know were scared by vegemite sandwiches as children and suffer culinary PTSD to this day.

It seems that our newspapers did their research (ZOMG - the FDA have banned Vegemite on a technicality!) in response to Sad Little Vegemites having their stash confiscated, and assumed a causal link between the two. The Australian Embassy has been making enquiries about the heinous and cruel partition of wayfaring Aussies from their culinary heritage.

Posted October 24, 2006 4:47 AM by Vian

On Vegemite whose champion I am, and its taste which is unrivalled (and even its detractors must agree with that):

It tastes of salt and yeast, like soy sauce or even fermented shrimp paste. I use it as a substitute for nam pla or shrimp paste - I don't eat seafood, and I have vegetarian friends who also use Vegemite where you need strong salty savoury taste. Unlike marmite or promite, there's absolutely nothing sweet about vegemite. Marmite and promite are jarring (npi) because yeast is supposed to taste savoury, dammit.

It doesn't taste like anything other than itself, which is why it tends to divide people, but for Vegemite Kids it's the breakfast, lunch and tea of champions. Hence, the song.

Now, to taste: Have you ever tasted a really good morbiere cheese? I appalled a bunch of high-falutin' gourmets recently by enthusiastically noting that it tasted like a Vegemite and cheese sandwich, the perfect and iconic Aussie school lunch. Vegemite grilled cheese sandwiches taste like Welsh rarebit, only better, and you get to drink the whole bottle of beer instead of mixing some in the cheese.

Some people are traumatised when they spread vegemite like it was chocolate spread (which young Vegemite might be mistaken for - it gets darker as it gets older), or even like it was Marmite, which is milder. A couple of people I know were scared by vegemite sandwiches as children and suffer culinary PTSD to this day.

It seems that our newspapers did their research (ZOMG - the FDA have banned Vegemite on a technicality!) in response to Sad Little Vegemites having their stash confiscated, and assumed a causal link between the two. The Australian Embassy has been making enquiries about the heinous and cruel partition of wayfaring Aussies from their culinary heritage.

Posted October 24, 2006 4:48 AM by Vian

When I went over to the US, the Aussie taste that everyone deplored wasn't Vegemite, it was musk lifesavers. Ah, poor fella my country!

Posted October 24, 2006 4:59 AM by Dave Luckett

Ah, musk lifesavers. It's not just for deodorant any more. The flavour also comes in chewy sticks and 'muskettes', which approximate lifesaver holes.

My corresponding experience in America was wintergreen lifesavers, which taste like Dencorub (q.v. IcyHot) smells. They also seems to be the same flavour as root beer.

Posted October 24, 2006 6:22 AM by Bez

Raven #69: Thanks! I had a thought that it was Sir Walter Raleigh, who wished he loved the human race, but I also had a thought that it wasn't.

Posted October 24, 2006 8:06 AM by Fragano Ledgister

Not only is the "Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" page down, a Google search for alternate sources reveals copyright issues that mean that it is unlikely to be back up.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:32 AM by Paul A.

in #85 ::: Paul A. said:
Not only is the "Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" page down, a Google search for alternate sources reveals copyright issues that mean that it is unlikely to be back up.
Meh, I found three different sources (albeit one was a google cache.) The weird/funny/racist(?) illustrations that accompanied it in the Whole Earth review were on a separate site, though, so if you want the whole thing you have to open the first eight or nine search results to find all of it.

Posted October 24, 2006 11:03 AM by rhandir

found over on keromaru,
"If bestselling authors were Transformers, what would they turn into?"

Sample response: (see the link, above for more)
Carl Sagan: Voyager 1
Dan Brown: a weird, floating pyramid that shoots lasers out of its eye.
...
George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, and Ursula K. Le Guin would all join together to form Fantatron.

The last one cracks me up, but then again, I watched a lot of Voltron* as a kid.

-r.

*Golion, I know, I know.

Posted October 24, 2006 11:17 AM by rhandir

It's time to put the lawn furniture away. I was sitting here, struggling to get my eyes open and sorting out my breakfast batch of pills when the flock of BlacK Brandts flew over, several hundred of them in a scribble across the sky, yipping like pomeranians.

Posted October 24, 2006 11:50 AM by JESR

Couple comments about knives.

"high carbon" and "stainless" aren't mutually exclusive categories; Grohman knives, available on the web via knivesdirect.com, manage both quite nicely. (My kitchen knives are a mix of antique Sabatier knives from France and quite modern Grohman knives.)

While sharpening stones, whether oil or water, are handy to have around for lots of things, for kitchen knives -- assuming you're not brute-force jointing buffalo carcases or something -- you generally don't need them. Normal cooking operations don't damage the edge enough. Fine ceramic stones (the stuff over 2000 grit) or a good strop with some honing compound or those clever 3M mylar backed abrasive sheets will give you a finer edge and a longer lasting knife. (Since you grind less of it away.) Regular honing in particular -- a couple-three strokes a side before each use -- will do a lot of good for the edge and very little bad to the blade.

And yes, the other school of thought is that a thousand grit water stone gives you an edge that has some "tooth" and will bite better on the tomato. My preference is for the surgically fine edge all the same.

Posted October 24, 2006 12:26 PM by Graydon

I have serrated knives that "never need sharpening" and in any case can't be sharpened. They're great for things like bread and tomatos, and the minor loss when chopping with the rocker knife is hardly noticeable. Their only serious drawback is that scraping a bunch of chopped whatever from a cutting board into a bowl isn't as effective.

Posted October 24, 2006 12:47 PM by Xopher

in #90 ::: Xopher wrote
Their only serious drawback is that scraping a bunch of chopped whatever from a cutting board into a bowl isn't as effective.
I was taught that the way to go is to flip the knife over and use the dull, flat, edge to move stuff. (Keeps the blade sharp, longer.)

Graydon, do you have a link to a site that tells (or shows) proper sharpening technique? I've never gotten it right. (A specific product name for those 3m sheets would be nice, too. And a pony.)

-r.

Posted October 24, 2006 12:54 PM by rhandir

I use a serrated knife for tomatoes and bread, and a Wusthof for everything else that's large. (I had a Sabatier years ago, but wasn't totally pleased; nor was it with me.) I do a lot of stuff with a super-cheap paring knife from Target that was bought specifically because of its very small size; I'd have gotten a more expensive one if they'd had one that small. (I have very small hands that can barely do an octave on the piano.)

Back when I was a kid, we had a set of kitchen knives that looked exactly like table knives (some sort of plastic handles resembling bone, dinner knife shape) that received no care, looked like hell, had nothing that could be called balance, and magically remained sharp (too sharp! say any number of old scars) for at least 20 years. The metal had turned a mottled charcoal grey with brown spots. I should check this Thanksgiving and see if any are left.

Posted October 24, 2006 1:03 PM by joann

Kathryn @ 54

Should you add a santoku? Yes.

Well, maybe. If you have a chef's knife and you love it lots, then you might not have much need for a santoku. I've never quite been able to get the hang of a chef's knife (I, like joann, have little hands), but my santoku (can't recall if it's Henckels or Wusthof) does all that I've ever wanted out of a chef's knife and then some. Plus, with it, I can slice meat into the nearly paper-thin shavings that are required for Japanese dishes like sukiyaki and shougayaki--and I'm nervous around knives. (I like to cook, but have the mutant ability to find sharp objects with personal body parts--I will unfailingly slice my foot open on the single tiny shard of broken bowl that escaped the broom, or accidentally attempt to remove my thumb with the paring knife sitting innocently on the counter.)

Posted October 24, 2006 2:41 PM by alsafi

thanks for the description alsafi,

I'll have to look at getting a santoku. I've been using a big chinese cleaver for a number of fiddly trimming procedures, and the fact that it is big helps keep my fingers much further away from the operative end than regular large knives. (The heaviness helps with edge control too, since I'm not actually using it to chop, but to slice instead.)

Posted October 24, 2006 2:47 PM by rhandir

A short while ago someone here posted a link to a short story about predestination. It was written as a warning sent back into the past, and involved a small device that gave off a signal several seconds before you pressed a button. Can someone provide a link? I keep thinking I read it on Popular Science's website, but I haven't been able to find it there and I remember the site layout being different so I may be mistaken.

Posted October 24, 2006 2:51 PM by Pantechnician

Pantechnician @95,

You'll always know What's Expected of Us. (Which I'd linked to in the End of author productivity thread.)

Chiang falls into my "only read during daylight" category of authors. Because when you're done, you ought to walk outside and see that there's a bright big world around you, which *might* be enough to prevent the stories from burrowing too deep in your mind.

Posted October 24, 2006 3:43 PM by Kathryn from Sunnyvale

Behold, I am Marmite Man. I feel panicky if there's less than a half pound jar of the stuff in the kitchen cupboard.

However, Marmite has a fairly high salt content. (When evaluating foodstuffs for salt content, beware mistaking the quoted amount of sodium per 100 grams for the salt content. Sodium has an atomic weight of 23 Daltons, but it's only one component of salt; NaCL weighs 58 Daltons, so multiply by 2.5 to get the actual salt content of the product. Bloody lying nutritional statistics ...) So I recently went searching for lower-salt yeast extracts to put on my daily bread.

Trouble is, they all taste sufficiently different that they're distinctly unpleasant to my Marmite-tuned palate. Even though they're all salty as hell, the underlying other flavours are ... well, let's just say that Vegemite is bogging and leave it at that, shall we?

Yeasts: they're near as dammit a whole kingdom. Expecting two different yeast extract products to taste similar is a bit like expecting a piece of broccoli to taste like green peppers.

Posted October 24, 2006 3:59 PM by Charlie Stross

#96 Thanks, Kathryn!

A friend of mine brought up the topic of free will a few days ago and I couldn't find the link. I was beginning to think I'd imagined reading the story, which would be scarier in a way.

Posted October 24, 2006 4:26 PM by Pantechnician

Charlie, I bet they'll come out with a low-salt version soon. (In the US we have low-salt tamari, which to my mind is just wacky.)

About your NaCl calculations...isn't the sodium the dangerous part? That is, the Na+ ions are the ones that cause the trouble in your body, not the Cl-? Hmm. But I guess if you're given a number of grams of salt you can have per day, that doesn't work. Of course you could divide that number by 2.5, and just compare THAT to the listed sodium. I'd think that would be more convenient (make the calculation once, rather than every time you pick up a jar), but maybe I misunderstand your situation.

From my brief stint in hobby-level liqueur-making, I also had this idea: Try mixing some Marmite with distilled water in a small, transparent jar, closing up the jar, and letting it sit undisturbed for several days to a week. If it doesn't settle out, throw it away and give up. If it does, carefully open the jar and taste the liquid at the top. If it's salty, do the same thing with a bigger jar and a lot more Marmite and water; decant it and reduce the residue until the texture is about right. You now have somewhat desalted Marmite.

I have no idea if this will work. That's why I'm saying start with a small amount and see what happens. Maybe Marmite will sit undissolved in water like a lump of rancid butter. It might work and completely destroy the flavor, for all I know. But it just might get you the flavor you've been craving, with less salt.

By the way, I assume you have some specific medical advice to cut your salt intake. Even high blood pressure doesn't automatically indicate that course of action, because only one in seven hypertensives is salt-sensitive (that is, their blood pressure goes up when they eat more salt). But I'm sure you know that.

For the rest of us: if you eat more salt, drink more water and sweat a lot. No problem.

Posted October 24, 2006 5:27 PM by Xopher

Xopher, here's the fun bit: we're generally told how much salt we should have in our diet per day, but food vendors tend to quote the sodium content instead -- same information, kinda-sorta, but it understates the actual salt content by 60%.

I don't know that I'm salt-sensitive, and I'm not trying to cut salt out -- but I have a taste for Marmite, which is very salty, so trying to keep it under control appears to be prudent. (Mind you, earlier this week I got a reasonably plausible blood pressure measurement that was half what my BP was 18 months ago, so there's some hope I'll see 70 yet ...)

Posted October 24, 2006 6:27 PM by Charlie Stross

Clifton @ 77 and bought the Wusthof Santoku knife. It's a thin stainless blade with a Granton edge, probably the one knife I use most when cooking

I love my Santoku knife, although I bought a cheap Wusthof from Target. I use it mostly for slicing and when neat dicing is required. It's also my favorite for handling onions. It's not so great for chopping garlic or herbs, though.

I also have one issue with the design. Since a Santoku has no bolster (the thick bit of metal right up against the handle) it's really easy to knick yourself with it if you're used to holding your knives right next to the blade. (Well, I find it's really easy to knick myself.)

Still, despite the occasional bloodletting, it remains my second most used knife. The big chef's knife remains in first place.

Posted October 24, 2006 7:49 PM by Larry Brennan

Rhandir --

A site? No. There are books, though; I've seen care-of-chef's-knives books, they're out there. (I'm in that category of people handed a file when I complained about the state of the ax used to knock ice out of the watering trough when I was 10 or so. Three hours later, I almost had the idea and the ax worked much better.)

The 3M product can be found for sale here

The most basic thing is to remove as little metal as you can, as gently as you can. Which isn't much help but it's a subject that needs diagrams and many pages.

Posted October 24, 2006 8:51 PM by Graydon

I am sorry to burst in with an irrelevance, but this place is the best to ask advice on this topic.

I am ethically challenged. (Yes, yes, I know, but this is serious.)

I review fantasy for the local daily newspaper. (This is the only daily in Western Australia, with a paid circulation of 300K or so, small beer I know, but important locally.) I have been given the new Raymond Feist novel, Into a Dark Realm. The wordage requested means it will get a half-page or so in the Saturday review section.

Those who've read the book know (semi-spoiler coming) that there is a graphic torture scene early on. The good guys torture a baddie to make him tell them where his boss is. He won't talk, but someone reads his mind once the pain has broken him down so much that he can't help thinking it. And we are then treated to a Wise Old Man telling the boys that sometimes, you just have to do this sort of thing to keep the world safe for (insert value here). Or whatever.

There might have been a time when I'd have passed over this, but not now I've had my "Making Light" shots. Now it seems to me that I am looking into the face of a monster, and I've fallen right out of the book. The author has drastically forfeited my goodwill.

So I find myself very resistant to the rest of the text: wincing at the clunking word choices, tutting impatiently over the swodges of past pluperfect exposition, shaking my head about badly realised action, that sort of thing. Yet I know it's a big seller, and I'm sort of aware that, wearing my fantasy reader's hat, I'd have passed over that stuff before, to get at the meat of a story and to revel in a setting.

OK, so the question: what do I say? I know that I hate the book. I know I can make a case that it's badly written. But would I be making that case if it hadn't outraged me? I think perhaps not - although in the nature of things, I can't absolutely know that. Yet if I am to pan a book because it espouses values I find repulsive, am I not in the very same position as the bigot who excoriates "Brokeback Mountain" because it generates sympathy for homos?

I appeal for your understanding, and ask your counsel.

Posted October 24, 2006 8:55 PM by Dave Luckett

Dave @ 103

No. (IMHO.)

Posted October 24, 2006 9:01 PM by P J Evans

Nix and PP at #43 and above -- I'd been wondering when somebody would ask this kind of question. Gas prices have dropped here by a dollar a gallon since August. As for direct influence on prices by the executive, I wonder what the fill level of the strategic petroleum reserve is right now... though I honestly don't have any idea whether releasing crude oil would actually ease gasoline prices.

In defense of the oilmen, I have to note that this is shaping up to be an El Niño year, suggesting a warm winter in the Northeast US with reduced demand for heating oil.

Posted October 24, 2006 9:03 PM by Victor S

On knives and sharpening things: Leonard Lee's Complete Guide to Sharpening is a comprehensive treatment of the subject, and is available through many libraries. It's definitely aimed at woodworking, but covers kitchen knives as well.

I've used a number of devices with mostly poor luck, and fall back on two tools for sharpening: the manual Apex Edge Pro for when I'm prepared to do some work, and the electric Chef's Choice 100 for when I'm in a hurry. I'm never happy with the edge I get from the electric, but it's better than not sharpening the knives.

Of course, my two favorite kitchen knives are a large and a small cleaver, each of which I got for under $10. I may not be in the mainstream of culinary thought here.

Posted October 24, 2006 9:21 PM by Victor S

Oddly enough, the View Single Posts style sheet appears to have wigged out grotesquely. The banner is huge-huge and the comments go the full width of the screen, black TNR on gray. No sidebars present.

(Firefox 1.5.07 here.)

Posted October 24, 2006 9:46 PM by Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little

Boy, all the posts here tonight are huge! (Hi-keeba!)

Wow, that's strange: the posts go back to normal Making Light size when previewing...

Posted October 24, 2006 9:55 PM by Bruce E. Durocher II

Dave, have you finished the book? There's always the chance that the events of the novel prove the torturer wrong.

Anyway, your job as a book reviewer is to review the book. That includes commenting on any ethical issues that strike you as you read it.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:00 PM by Avram

Dave @ 103

If your assignment is to provide a review, then it's entirely appropriate that it should include your opinions on the work. Let them know you didn't like it, and why.

As a bookseller, I almost always provided a summary rather than a review. Only the most egregious of offenders earned a personal comment - but for something like this I may well have made the exception.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:06 PM by Alice Bentley

#102 Graydon - you didn't respond to the Lepanto link in #19, just to knives? I recall that you introduced me to that poem, a yoink or two ago.

Leonard Lee wrote a book on sharpening; Lee Valley has it at this page and also listed is a video. The latter sounds like a good idea.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:08 PM by Henry Troup

Here's the best Web article I've found on knife sharpening. I resharpened my kitchen knives using the "mousepad trick" and the difference was nothing less than startling. It feels like I don't actually "cut", but just sort of guide the knife.

BTW, I found that there are a couple of "meta-tricks" in the mousepad trick. I'll post some notes if anybody's interested.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:16 PM by lightning

Dave #103:

IMO, what you said here is just fine for your published review. If one of the purposes of fiction is to remove us from this world, and this one fails to do so in some way, then you shouldn't feel restrained from noting that fact.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:29 PM by Bruce Adelsohn

Dave #103: finish the book. Trash the shit out of it.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:49 PM by Xopher

#61 Linkmeister:

Thanks for the link! I'll drop a hopeful little email in the direction of the address they provide and see if they have time to write back. (I'm terribly self-conscious about writing to organizations with my questions, despite answering exactly those sorts of emails for a few years in my last job. I always wonder if I'm going to be bothering someone with more important things to do.)

#65 Rikibeth:

...yes, I'm extrapolating from seals to selkies. I mean, so long as I have shapeshifting creatures with oddly-shaped souls I probably could just make it up, but it seems more elegant to sneak in actual research when making declarations about these sorts of things.

Posted October 24, 2006 10:50 PM by Fade Manley

Dave at 103: Write your review, and say in it what you just said to us. You may trash the book or not -- but such a review, asking your readers to look squarely at a real moral issue, is a gift to serious adult readers of genre and non-genre fiction alike.

As for the non-serious, non-adult readers; if they're disappointed, that's too bad.

Posted October 24, 2006 11:23 PM by Lizzy L

Dave: echoing others, I advise that you review the book and say straight up that you're not sure your comments on style, plot etc. are objective because of your moral objection.

A review that says "This book or movie sucks" is useless. A review that says "I didn't like it because a, b, c" gives the reader a good chance of predicting whether he'll like the book based on whether he shares your opinion of a, b, and c. (For example, people who are bothered by torture but not by clunky writing; those bothered by neither; those bothered by both; and those bothered by clunky writing but not torture.)

Posted October 24, 2006 11:40 PM by Lila

OK, I've now watched the first two episodes of Torchwood. Interesting setup, though the whole "time-space rift" thing seems too reminiscent of Buffy's Hellmouth. Like John Barrowman, like Eve Myles, think the two have good chemistry (though I hope they don't have the two characters get together). Didn't like the plot of the second episode -- I'm sure they thought it was edgy and adult, but it struck me as downright teenage.

At one point watching the pilot, I thought, "Hey, they sound like Jo"; and then I thought, "Well, duh..."

Eleanor @ 23 asks if anyone has guessed the nature of the hand in the jar without seeing spoilers. Well, I haven't seen any, and I have a guess I'd bet money is right -- it follows, rot13'd.

V guvax gur unaq pnzr sebz gur Qbpgbe; vg'f gur bar gung tbg phg bss va gur svtug fprar va "Gur Puevfgznf Vainfvba". Frrzf n gevsyr hayvxryl gung vg jbhyq fheivir gur snyy naq or erpbirerq, ohg jr pna unaqjnir gung vg jnf vashfrq jvgu gur "pryyhyne raretl" gung yrg gur Qbpgbe tebj n arj bar, naq guhf jnf zber qhenoyr guna gur nirentr frirerq unaq. V fcrphyngr gung Wnpx Unexarff pna hfr vg fbzrubj gb xabj jura gur Qbpgbe ergheaf gb Rnegu, naq ybpngr uvz.

Posted October 25, 2006 1:11 AM by David Goldfarb

OK, I've now watched the first two episodes of Torchwood. Interesting setup, though the whole "time-space rift" thing seems too reminiscent of Buffy's Hellmouth. Like John Barrowman, like Eve Myles, think the two have good chemistry (though I hope they don't have the two characters get together). Didn't like the plot of the second episode -- I'm sure they thought it was edgy and adult, but it struck me as downright teenage.

At one point watching the pilot, I thought, "Hey, they sound like Jo"; and then I thought, "Well, duh..."

Eleanor @ 23 asks if anyone has guessed the nature of the hand in the jar without seeing spoilers. Well, I haven't seen any, and I have a guess I'd bet money is right -- it follows, rot13'd.

V guvax gur unaq pnzr sebz gur Qbpgbe; vg'f gur bar gung tbg phg bss va gur svtug fprar va "Gur Puevfgznf Vainfvba". Frrzf n gevsyr hayvxryl gung vg jbhyq fheivir gur snyy naq or erpbirerq, ohg jr pna unaqjnir gung vg jnf vashfrq jvgu gur "pryyhyne raretl" gung yrg gur Qbpgbe tebj n arj bar, naq guhf jnf zber qhenoyr guna gur nirentr frirerq unaq. V fcrphyngr gung Wnpx Unexarff pna hfr vg fbzrubj gb xabj jura gur Qbpgbe ergheaf gb Rnegu, naq ybpngr uvz.

Posted October 25, 2006 1:13 AM by David Goldfarb

Sigh. When it said the server stopped responding, I assumed that the post hadn't gone through. Sorry. (Perhaps some helpful deity can remove one of the two twins, and this post?)

Posted October 25, 2006 1:33 AM by David Goldfarb

David, look on the bright side: if we rotate our screens (or heads) 90° and let our eyes assume the thousand-yard-stare position, we can read your doubled post in stereo!   Such depth!   Such perspective!   Such three-dimensionality!   We may never go back to reading flat prose again!

... until our necks start hurting, maybe....

Posted October 25, 2006 4:58 AM by Raven

Dave @103:

I'm with these other guys: say what you think, regardless. Be honest. If you find you're hating the book (and it sounds like for very good reason), then say so. You're doing nobody any favours if you for whatever reason hold back.

Posted October 25, 2006 7:56 AM by Adrian Bedford

“test”

Posted October 25, 2006 8:33 AM by “test”

“test”

Posted October 25, 2006 8:51 AM by “test”

#123 ::: “test�? exclaimed:
“test�

Gesundheit!?

Posted October 25, 2006 8:51 AM by xeger

I'm trying to get curly quotes and such to print correctly.

I've removed the line <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> everywhere it appears in the templates, without getting special characters to work.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Posted October 25, 2006 8:55 AM by James D. Macdonald

Dave (@ 103),

It's entirely reasonable to say something like "the protagonist's attempt to justify torture ruined my suspension of disbelief, and before I could regain it I noticed these other problems."

Turn it around: you're also in the same position as any number of reviewers who praise books for teaching ideas and ethical positions they agree with. Which means you can reasonably point out that the author has joined a long line of people who want to believe that evil, including torture, isn't evil if people in white hats do it. (It would be disingenuous of me to suggest that, by Feist's own reasoning presented there, it is sometimes necessary to behave unethically in order to achieve a higher good, so he has no business complaining when it's done to him.)

Also, you're under no obligation to give a book a good review because it, or the author's previous works, sell well: if your editor thought that way, they wouldn't have asked for a review, just printed "Much-loved author Feist's newest book, $title, now available in local stores!" in large friendly letters.

Posted October 25, 2006 9:14 AM by Vicki

Re #126, James D. Macdonald:

Are you using the tags “&ldquo; and &rdquo;”, ‘&lsquo; and &rsquo;’?

Posted October 25, 2006 9:58 AM by Raven