999 comments left to go.

New thread, yaay. Sounds of distant thunder outside, if it gets closer I'll pull my laptop off the power source. (Internet is wireless all over the house except in the sun porch and kitchen.,..)

Whoops, it's now happening overhead. Pulling plug but not closing Internet connection just yetl.

I've spent the last hour and a half leading my high school sister through a poem, in hopes of turning it into a paper (due tomorrow, but she's been trying all month). I wonder what would have happened if she'd turned in three pages of poetry analysis on this gem?

As someone who has always wanted to go to Antarctica, I wanted to share that the National Science Foundation has put out this year's request for proposals for the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program (NSF 07-550)

The purpose of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program is to enable serious writings and works of art that exemplify the Antarctic heritage of humankind. In particular, the program seeks to increase public understanding of the Antarctic region, including the continent and the surrounding oceans, as well as the associated research and education endeavors.

The Antarctic Artists and Writers Program provides opportunities for professional artists and writers to travel to Antarctica - at research stations, field camps, and aboard ships - to make the observations necessary to complete their proposed projects. While the majority of award recipients are established artists and writers, the program also seeks to support early career artists and writers in an effort to broaden participation.

ML seems to collect a good number of creative types, maybe someone here will be inspired. Me, I figure I'm probably going to have to go as an employee for Raytheon Polar Services.

#6

Having had a most-expenses-paid year in the Arctic, on salary in the US military....

Ah, Theban bands.... the many ways to tie men and boys together in fatal attractions...

A post about posting on ML: The box which says "Don't make me type all this again" won't stay checked for me. This has become a problem only recently. Any ideas why that might be happening? Is it happening for anyone else?

Rob @ #7: It should only need to be checked once, if your name/address/URL are not appearing. If they are, they're already set and will continue to be remembered. If they're not, have you perhaps installed a cookie-blocker, or cleared all your browser cookies?

Re: The 'Doctor Who and the Beatles' Sidelight. According to the Wikipedia entry on the episode, the original plan had been to film the Beatles in makeup as their aged future selves, but in the end a clip from Top of the Pops was used instead. This clip of the Beatles used on Dr Who is the only surviving clip of the Beatles appearing on Top of the Pops.

Clifton: I hadn't installed any cookie blockers, or cleared cookies (unless I had somehow did it by clicking on the wrong button, which I don't think I did), but I did lose my earlier name and address entries a couple of days ago, and had to re-enter them (not a big deal). I would have sworn that when I had checked that box earlier, it stayed checked.

Paula @ #5 - I do understand your point. Heck, I live in the sub-arctic, why would I want to go to the other pole? I don't know why, but I do! Every year I look at the Raytheon jobs, and think about the possibilities.

Strictly being nosy, where did they send you? Reykjavik? Thule? Somewhere at sea? Adak? One of my uncles is living on Adak, he seems to be enjoying it.

BTW, I always admire the passion in your posts on political topics. Thank you for lacking the complacency gene.

Imagining a painter in the Antartic:

Bring along a good supply of titanium white.

Actually, would regular oil or acrylic paints freeze up in the Antarctic? Would you need to get specially blended paints with antifreeze in the mix? Would brush bristles freeze hard enough to embrittle and shatter?

The Doctor Who classical music joke reminds me of the episode of Futurama where Fry was listening to "Baby Got Back" and Leela came in, turned it off, and said "You can't just sit around all day listening to classical music!"

Bruce Arthurs in #12 writes:
Actually, would regular oil or acrylic paints freeze up in the Antarctic? Would you need to get specially blended paints with antifreeze in the mix? Would brush bristles freeze hard enough to embrittle and shatter?

I don't know the answers to these questions.

I do know that Peter Kokh once wondered what kind of art lunar settlers would make if it was expensive to import materials from Earth.

He studied the minerals available in Moon soil, and figured out pigments and carrier that could be made from available substances.

Then he went out and obtained samples of these substances from chemical suppliers, played around to get the right consistency, mixed up a batch of paints, and made some paintings.

It wasn't the greatest of art, but I was delighted at the originality of the whole project-- that's Peter all over.

bruce,

Actually, would regular oil or acrylic paints freeze up in the Antarctic?

i imagine acrylic would, being water & plastic based. oils, i'd think would work better, but i'm just thinking of how long they take to harden in room temperature. does oil have a lower freezing point than water?

Speaking of Spartans...

It's Raining 300 Men

(Gacked from the Smart Bitches -- apologies if someone's already posted it else-fluorosphere.)

Is there a parenthetical subtext to the Antarctic Writers and Artists Program? Before it melts we'd really like to get on record just how special it was?

Linkmeister #17: My brother and his wife of almost a year have been trying to plan a belated honeymoon (their work schedules didn't allow for one after the wedding), but can't decide where to go. My mother suggested going to see a glacier while they still exist, and my brother countered with the idea of going to see a coral reef, same reason. Deeeepressing.

Rob Rusick @ 9:
Re: The 'Doctor Who and the Beatles' Sidelight. According to the Wikipedia entry on the episode, the original plan had been to film the Beatles in makeup as their aged future selves, but in the end a clip from Top of the Pops was used instead. This clip of the Beatles used on Dr Who is the only surviving clip of the Beatles appearing on Top of the Pops.

The clip is from an episode of a serial called 'The Chase' which was released on VHS tape some years ago, but not yet available on DVD. What intrigues me about this is the clip was presumably taken from that VHS release, which means it was included for that release and not excised from it, as I'd expected. Given how expensive it is to get the rights to music for such releases and how this has led to music bits having to be replaced or to it making it prohibitively expensive to release a show on DVD (WKRP In Cincinnatti), this surprises me. Did the surviving Beatles waive the fee because they liked the show (the reason they were going to appear as their older selves on Doctor Who in the first place), or does the shortness of the musical clip mean no fee is required? I note that new Doctor Who is getting around the problem by having in-house composer Murray Gold write the songs people were dancing to at the wedding in the last Christmas special.

If you liked seeing the Beatles on Doctor Who, you might enjoy this fan video of clips from the Eccleston season set to Beatles tunes. I thought it was fun, if just a tiny bit long.

I have a question for the editorial and proofreading types. (And, heck, the readers of encyclopedias).

I'm writing an encyclopedia of characters. I have three types of names: first name, last name (Sherlock Holmes); title, last name (Doctor Silence); and pseudonym (Captain Future).

What is the best way to list them? That is, what is the best order to put the names in so that a casual reader, flipping through the book, will be able to find a character?

a) last name, first name, for every entry? (Future, Captain; Holmes, Sherlock; Silence, Doctor).
b) last name, first name or title, and first name, last name for pseudonyms? (Captain Future; Holmes, Sherlock; Silence, Doctor).
c) last name, first name, title, first name, and first name, last name for pseudonyms? (Captain Future; Doctor Silence; Holmes, Sherlock).

Thanks in advance.

#21 - I'd go with "last, first" for anything that sounds like a real name and "first last" for anything that clearly isn't. I would also include "last, first" with a brief "See first last" entry for those that I do put in "first last" position.

Hope that makes sense...?

I'd also do something to indicate titles as distinct from names, and have cross references that used the title as if it were a name

So for your examples, I'd have:

Holmes, Sherlock -> article
Silence (Doctor) -> article
Doctor Silence -> See "Silence (Doctor)"
Captain Future -> article
Future (Captain) -> See "Captain Future"

Rob Rusick... About the Beatles, and their appearance on Doctor Who... This reminds me of the episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus where Ringo appeared. Of course, you do know that George produced Life of Brian and I think he also was in the scene of the Sermon on the Mountain that ended in a fight after one joke too many about big noses.

In the Hugo thread, people were talking about Naomi Novik's Téméraire books. Peter Jackson bought the rights to the books. My wife told me yesterday that Novik originally envisionned the main human character as being played by Russell Crowe, but that she also thought Hugh Jackman would be quite suitable. (That'd no doubt make TexAnne very happy.)

[Robo comment spam from 67.85.231.137 ]

From memory:

The honours that the people give, always
go to those use-besotted gentlemen
whose numbskull courage is a kind of fear,
a fear of thought, and of their oafish mothers
('or with your shield, or on it') in their rear.
Spartans cannot retreat, why then their praise
for going forward should be left to others.

But we, actors and critics of one play,
of sober-witted judgment who could see
so many ways, and chose the Spartan way;
what has the popular report to say
of us, the Thespians at Thermopylae?

-- Norman Cameron

Swan @ 26, you've posted here twice, and both times without relevance to the topic at hand--once with appalling insensitivity for which you were disemvoweled, in fact. I suspect you are either an automated spambot or astroturf.

My, what big shields those Spartans have.

Recognizing Mr. Macdonald's source poem within the first two lines made me feel even geekier than recognizing the Tolkien. How is that possible?

Of course I'd forgotten that in 1965 everybody on Top of the Popa still mimed to the record. Notice that there are no vocal mics in that clip. In fact they're not actually playing at all.

Of course I'd forgotten that in 1965 everybody on Top of the Popa still mimed to the record. Notice that there are no vocal mics in that clip. In fact they're not actually playing at all.

Sorry about that.

Hi I invented a new literary genre.

See it here!

Someone wanting to travel from New York to Cardiff in Wales consulted Google. Turns out you can do this fairly easily, as long as you can handle step 23:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=new+york,+ny&daddr=Cardiff,+Wales

Harkening back to an earlier thread, I found the following two passages in the Rex Warner translation of Xenophon's Anabasis (to be clear, these are the modern translator's or editor's words, not Xenophon's):

... young [Spartan peers] were put through an education system of astonishing severity which included being encouraged to steal and being whipped for stealing so unsuccessfully as to get caught. Cf. Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 17, and H. Mitchell, Sparta, p. 177f.

[The Persian Empire] brought justice; though the famously just Royal Judges make no appearance in our book, the formal trial of Orontas may serve as a reminder of this aspect of Persian rule.

Tania -

An old college acquaintance of mine is in Antarctica right now. They appear to have plenty of time on their hands.

Susan... Busy fighting off 7-foot tall penguins with a sting and tentacles ?

Aconite #28: Yes about Swan, but what is the topic that he/she/it wasn't relevant to? We've already segued (or non-segued) from Teresa's Spartans to acrylics in the Antartic and Top of the Pops...

Aconite, John @39 -- Yes, and it does say "open thread" way way up at the top. There is a kind of protocol for topics on open threads, but I don't think I could explain it in a sentence at this point. Any takers?

In fact, we started out offtopic, and never got back. So ... it's really not surprising that the Spartans wouldn't retreat. It's kinda hard to turn around when your best buddy is right behind you and neither of you is wearing any clothes. Just ruins the whole violence vibe. Make Love Not War, eh? Doesn't work well in modern combat: ballistic armor isn't terribly sexy.

and just to prove that not only is my mind in the gutter, it is currently circling the storm drain:
When I read the first line of the poem I thought it read: "It looked extremely sticky for the Theban band that day."

Rob #35: LOL on that step 23.

Theban Band? some kinda heavy metal, huh?

#44 John Stanning, with a brass section that killer.

Oh, goody, I was hoping for an open thread! I'm not a wine drinker, really, but after hearing somebody mention a Bonny Doon wine named "Bouteille Call," I checked out the Bonny Doon Vineyard website. Fun website overall, with a great theme, art, and copy, but I especially liked the video Vive le Screwcap (under "Dooniverse: Learn Our Ways").

I found the "come back with your shield, or on it" line inappropriately entertaining in the movie, because I was muttering it to myself three seconds before the character said it onscreen. I guess this makes an argument for that particular scene being very well set-up and performed for its purpose...

Fun poem. Fregano @#27: I like the question in that one, too.

New Open Thread? Thank you! Thank you! (BTW, I was surprised when the previous one got *past* 1066.) I have also noticed that "Faren's computer" is becoming a sort of meme on the site, right along with those *other* dinosaurs. But even if I got a brand new one [I was going to say "brand spanking," but that might relate too directly to the 300 discussion], I probably couldn't afford wireless, so the downloads would be as slow as ever. Oh well....

Faren Miller #48: You might get a brand new sodomizing Spartan dinosaur--who's into spanking? What for? Also, where do you find something that specific?

Aconite @ #63: I don't know what you mean. I changed my rss feed to "show newest first" and your post at #80 appeared.

Remember the Hercules episode where Cory Everson played a Spartan lady?

(Heck, I'll post this here too)

Welcome back to America, abi!

OK, I haven't seen the movie, but here's what came to mind at 3am.

Three hundred tasty Spartan men in line:
A hopless stand against the Persian might.
And in among them, ready too to fight,
Is Mary Sue, her armour polished to a shine.
Like Éowyn, with Aragorns to spare
(And yes, they're straight, or straight enough to suit,
With just that taste of half-forbidden fruit!)
They're doomed to die, but too in love to care.
The hour comes, the brotherhood contracts
Around the precious flower at its heart.
She will not leave; she wants to play her part!
She takes the lead in their heroic acts.
(But in this version, Sparta's heroes won
And Persia lost to the three hundred one.)

I blame the jet lag.

John Stanning @ 39, Victor S @ 40:

I didn't express myself well. Swan's previous post was in the David Honigsberg thread, and contained the same words as this one, including "Off topic" at the begining. While a newbie might not know there is no "off-topic" in an open thread, this shows the signs of a generic copy-and-paste with that phrase thrown in as an attempt at disguise.

Stephen Granade @ 50 and 127: Ah, good. So that's been fixed now.

abi... I blame the jet lag.

And one ocean.
And one continent.

Have some strong coffee.

By the way, didn't Leonidas get suspicious when one of his boys insisted on wearing armor?

For those interested, the Beeb has just put the Doctor Who season 3 trailer up at their area on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/BBC

abi @ 53

Just can't let the boys have their fun by themselves, can you? I didn't know the Battle of Thermopylae was a Title IX activity.*

Incidentally, is a "hopless" someone on a more stringent diet than a "hoplite"? Or is the answer "more coffee"?

* For the non-USians among us, Title IX is a Federal law that mandates the equal financial support of men's and women's athletic activities in state-supported colleges in the US. It's become quite controversial in the last few years as college budgets have been tightened. The controversy (I heard that mutter from the direction of the UK! The accent is on the first syllable, damn it!) has become focused on the claim of many male coaches and players that Title IX effectively discriminates against them.

Rob (#56): Unfortunately, not for all of those interested; unless they've taken the Dr Who Season Three trailer off in the last few minutes, I don't think it's accessible to US (and possible non-UK) IP addresses - I got a 'this video is not available' error message. Sigh.

And Netflix still hasn't replaced to messed up Season 2 DVDs that were supposed to have come out several months ago.

I have the feel, on reading the verse at the head of this thread, that "Play ball!" might not be an entirely inappropriate warcry...

Aconite (#54), also others' earlier comments; I've seen that same post from the same 'Swan' on other threads in other blogs. So it's either some kind of spam or spam-like trolling.

Victor S., here's an attempt at a descriptive protocol for Open Thread posting, in more than one sentence:

Posts may relate to the Opening Post, to a Particle or Sidelight, or to an ongoing topic of conversation at ML (dinosaurs and sodomy; politics; food and recipes; grammar, language, etymology; poetry; books; favourite television shows; bats in Susan's house; etc.). From there, posts may refer to previous comments. Posts that refer neither to the opening post, a previous comment, a Partical/Sidelight, or topic of ongoing discussion may also be appeals to (and responses from) the hivemind, "lookahere!" pointers at something of interest to the general ML community (usually with accompanying text explaining to whom this pointer may be of interest, which accompanying text refers to some Usual Topic of Discussion), updates or news from regular posters about some item of ongoing interest, running theme, or news about a member of the extended community.

What have I missed?

Jennie @ 61... What have I missed?

Let's see. You did include Susan's bats.... How about Bugs Bunny and cross-dressing?

jennie @ #61:
What have I missed?

A really obvious typo? (ducks and runs)

(Your list makes me wonder how many inappropriate things I've posted here. Eeep.)

Susan @ 63: Oops. Caught that one on re-read. Tyops hpapen, especially when one is multi-tasking. I don't think the bat saga was inappropriate.

Serge @ 62: I figured the other topics might be covered by "etc."

How about a shy little "lookahere!" for my latest bit of editing, which just arrived yesterday: http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?isbn=0-7864-2827-9. Also available on Amazon. I think Tolkien and Shakespeare are frequent enough topics of discussion here...

Jennie, 61: Knitting.

Here's my one-sentence attempt at an Open Thread posting protocol:

Perform; riff; entertain!

debcha@56:

Rob (#56): Unfortunately, not for all of those interested; unless they've taken the Dr Who Season Three trailer off in the last few minutes, I don't think it's accessible to US (and possible non-UK) IP addresses - I got a 'this video is not available' error message. Sigh

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten that. OK, try here:

http://freemaagyeman.com/news/2007/03/29/bbci-red-button-video-clip

I don't *think* there are geographic restrictions on that site (though I could be wrong) and it's also got lots of other interviews and clips if you trawl around on it a bit.

For the encyclopedia: I would say that, of course, any reasonable place to have the article should have a "See(article)", and the actual article location should be handled in a case-by-case manner.

For instance, Captain Future should be under "C", but Captain James T. Kirk should be under "K". Similarly Doctor Midnight, Doctor John Watson, Doctor McCoy, and Doctor Who (D, W, M, D, I would say). The hard part is persons with a variety of pseudonyms frequently used. Do you put him under Batman or Wayne? Worse, the Shadow, who had not only his nom de guerre, a "real name" and a "realer name", but a variety of false identities.

Jennie #61: hamsters?

Clifton Royston @ 67: nice!

TexAnne @ 66: d'Oh! Of course! I plead being so bloody sick of my current project that discussion of knitting fills me with despair and disconsolation. Such discussions inevitably lead to thoughts of all the fun projects I will be able to do someday, which then run into sad thougts of too many narrow stripes, and all the ends I'm going to have to weave in if I ever come to the end of this stupid scarf.

It will be a very long time before I do anything with narrow stripes again, I think.

jennie... You also forgot Claudia Black. No "etc" for her...

I'm not recognising the original poem here, but dang does that go nicely to the tune of the verses of "Ghost Riders in the Sky", which by the principle of associativity means it also goes to the "House of the Rising Sun".

#73--There's no reason why you should, as it's a piece of late 19th century popular verse about a very American subject.

Jennie, 71: Narrow stripes? Can't you carry the resting yarn up the side of the project?

TexAnne, I've been wondering that myself. When I asked my mom how to do this, she said to snip them and weave the ends in, so I did. The stripes are an awkward 5 rows, and there are four different colours, which I think means that one could do it either way. Perhaps I'll try carrying the yarn up the sides for the next few switches and see if that makes me any happier.

Finishing the scarf will make me happy indeed.

BSD 69: Doctor Who is the name of the show, not the character. The character should be listed as "Doctor, The."

What have I missed?

Faren's computer.

Bruce@ #12: Alan Campbell, an artist whose son went to high school with my daughter, went to Antarctica. Lovely paintings resulted. He does work in watercolor, but it's possible he did sketches and/or photos on site, and the paintings later (possibly even after he got back home).

As for painting in the Antarctic, Edward Wilson (who accompanied and died with Scott on his last expedition) was a watercolourist whose work was recovered and is on display in various places, I think. Apsley Cherry-Garrard is very positive about the results in his memoir of that expedition The Worst Journey in the World, which I highly recommend if you are at all interested in the Antarctic.

Aha - apparently Wilson used to draw in pencil and then finish the sketches as watercolours in his hut or on board ship. There is a brief life of Wilson here, which has plenty of illustrations. ("Discovery" and "Terra Nova" are the two Antarctic expeditions.)

Which is pretty much what Lila just said.

jennie, #76: I'm new here. What exactly are you working on? An inquiring craft addict would like to know.

victoria, it's not a very exciting project. I'm still at the long-straight-things stage of my knitting career, so this is a long, k4-p4 ribbed scarf in Blue Sky cotton, striped in four colours: brown, green, orange, brown, cream (there was twice as much brown as any other colour available). The Gentleman is allergic to wool, and wanted a scarf to replace the one I knit from something fluffy (he wore all the fluff off and it now itches him), so I embarked on this scarf. It's taking a very long time.

Serge @OT82#940, Neil Willcox @OT82#957:

There are a couple of notes about the size of Thor's hammer in the online Sandman annotations.

Regarding the scene mentioned, in Issue 26:

Symbolically, Mjolnir is an agent of destruction, fertility, and resurrection. It was used to hallow brides before weddings; its phallic nature is obvious here. It was also used to raise Thor's goats from the dead, and is able to shrink so that it may be hidden inside Thor's shirt as needed. Perhaps rubbing is how it is made to return to normal size.

And earlier, on Thor's first appearance in Issue 24:

Thor's weapon is the hammer Mjolnir. When Mjolnir was constructed by the dwarfs, a trick by Loki caused its handle to be too short to use properly. Now, Norse war hammers were two handed weapons, so Mjolnir's short handle simply means that it was too short to allow the hands to grip far enough apart to get good leverage. Thor was able to use the hammer without the "necessary" leverage because of his great strength. Some references, including Bullfinch's, make the mistake of assuming that Thor had small hands to fit the small handle, which leads to such amusing depictions as that given here. In fact, Mjolnir probably resembled Marvel Comic's depiction more closely (normal-sized, but clearly only usable one-handed) than this depiction.

Tim May @ 84... It was used to hallow brides before weddings (...) It was also used to raise Thor's goats from the dead

Zombie goats?

In the Chinese folk-epic-turned-novel Xi-You Ji (Journey to the West) the Handsome Monkey King wields the Compliant Nine-Hooped Rod, which also grows and shrinks on command (he shrinks it down to the size of an embroidery needle and hides it in his ear when he's not using it). Phallic weapons are apparently pancultural.

On a completely unrelated note, the Slacktivist's current thread includes mention of a phenomenon horrifying on more levels than were available in Dante's Inferno:

Left Behind slash. *shudder*

#83 Jenny: Ah. From the window pane pattern I assume this is not knit in the round project. I'm just a little farther on the self-taught knitting road. May I recommend that you work with two balls of each color, leaving long leads for the carrier lines and plenty of play in each jump? Be sure to untwist the yarn at regular intervals. You may still have to cut the carrier bits and weave them in, but you won't have to stop knitting until you reach the end. Stopping and starting color changes is what takes the most time.

If the two balls and long jumps don't work, just do a quick square knot to join the different colors and keep going. There's a way to knit the loose ends into the project as you go (I watched a friend do it once), but I've only used that technique with crochet projects.

Tim May @ 84... My apologies for the zombie joke, and my thanks for the information about Mjolnir.

We've got zombie sheep and zombie horses,
zombies naked, zombies in heavy coats,
we've got zombie zebras, zombies for courses,
zombie dogs and (wait for it) zombie goats.
Zombies Haitian and Trinidadian, zombies come
from every land; zombies both white and of colour,
zombies talkative and zombies that are mum,
zombies degenerate zombies of pallor;
we have zombies, zombies for every taste,
zombies slow, and zombies half-eaten,
zombies angry and zombies in haste,
zombies whole and zombies all beaten.
Whether it's sunny, or whether it rains,
all of them cry out for bbbbbbraaaaaaaaaainns.

Fragano Ledgister @ 89:
Excepting vegan zombies, who only want the graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains.

(Barbara, I owe you for that one.)

Aconite #90: Those would be from Nebraska?

jennie @ 83

You could do stripes lengthwise, then the ends would become fringe. (Then it would be stockinette and reverse stockinette, to get the ridges running along the length.)

Thanks for the advice, Victoria. I've been using square knots and wondering why I can't just snip the ends; I used to knit all my ends in, and that worked, but was very tedious, so I stopped.

P.J. Evans, since I'm over halfway through, I don't think I'll change the orientation of the stripes now. Maybe next scarf. However, since I have two scarves for winter wear, and I have the yarn and pattern for the next project (I'm not allowed to buy the needles until the dratted scarf is done), and it's a sweater (knit in the round), I think I'll hold off on lengthwise stripes for the time being.

Not zombie goats; zombies are Not Food, and (like most of the Áseir) Thor had magic animals that could be eaten and then restored to life.

In the case of the goats, this is not so much; one god, two big goats, plausible amount of roast goat, even given Thor's reported appetite.

Slidrugtanni, now, the magic pig whose flesh feeds the entire host of fallen heroes in Valhalla, that one takes some capacity for belief.

Three hundred naked men
Walking down the street...

Now it comes to mind that I once made this great work fit in words of one beat:

Big Man at the Bat

(A Song of our Great Land. Sung in the Year MDCCCLXXXVIII.)

The hopes were far from bright for all the Mud Town nine that day;
The score stood four to two and there was but one round to play.
And then when old "Zip" died at first, and "Wheels" did much the same,
A grim hush fell like thin mush on the home fans of the game.

A few weak souls got up to go with heads hung low. The rest
Clung to that hope which does not die but lives on in each breast;
They thought if only Big Man could but get a whack at that --
We'd put up one-to-one odds now with his hands on the bat.

But Flynn went up 'fore Big Man, as did no good James J. Blake,
And the first named was a weak sis and the next was but a cake;
So o'er our heads a black cloud, grim and full of cold rain, sat
For there seemed no chance at all that our Big Man might get to bat.

But Flynn legged it to first base, quite a shock to one and all,
And Blake, who no one cared for, tore the horse hide off the ball;
And when the dust had gone down, and the men at last could see,
There was J.J. safe at base two and old Flynn camped out on Three.

Then from each throat and pair of lungs rose up as one a yell;
It rolled down 'cross the plains and bowled the cows down in the dell;
It knocked the sides of hills and came to bounce back on the flat,
For K.C., mighty K.C., now had his turn at the bat.

There was cool ease in the way he stepped up straight to take his place,
There was pride in how he stood, and how a smile shone on his face.
And when as he turned to the cheers and did but doff his hat,
No strange eye in the crowd could doubt just who was at the bat.

Stands full of eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
And all their tongues did laud him when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while his foe, lithe on the mound, ground horse hide on his hip,
A gleam like knights of old shone in his eye and sneer-curled lip.

And now the hard-packed sphere flew at him through the air,
The big man stood and watched it like a king who could not care.
Close by his side, yet he flinched not as to the mitt it sped --
"That ain't my style," he told us. "Strike one," the score board said.

From the stands, so full of men and rage there rose an earth quake roar,
That washed forth like the storm waves on a far and storm-worn shore.
"Kill him! Kill that blind ump!" came a shout down from the stands,
And they might have done it, too, had not the Big Man raised his hand.

With a smile all great and pure which on his clean-cut face then shone;
He stilled the cries of blood lust; he bade the game go on;
He waved once to the mound and then once more the horse hide flew;
But still he paid it no mind and the score board said, "Strike two."

"Fraud!" cried the crowd as one man, and the far hills rang back 'fraud';
But one look of scorn from K.C. and the home team fans were awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw him flex and strain,
And they knew that sure, he would not let that ball go by him then.

The sneer is gone off from his lip, his teeth are clinched in hate;
He pounds hard like a mad zoo ape his ash bat on the plate.
And now the mound man holds the ball and now he lets it go,
And now the air is split by all the force that's in his blow.

Oh! in this glad land there's a place the sun shine's warm and bright;
The band plays in this place and in this place all hearts are light;
In this place men laugh loud and the kids all run and shout;
But there is no joy in Mud Town -- Big Man K.C. has struck out.

My great aunt -- reliable barometer of the conservative zeitgeist -- sent me and 34 or so other people a SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW message about Barack Obama, Sinister Muslim in Christian Clothing.

It was a spittle-flecked digest of the Insight article debunked awhile back.

I responded to everyone on the CC list with links to the CNN investigation and Snopes debunking.

I'm not totally down with Obama, but I'll be #$#$^%@ if I let crap like that go unchallenged.

Three hundred naked men
Walking down the street...

singing do wa diddy diddy dum diddy do ...

Aconite @ 90 - I shudder to think what might be owed me for that joke...
-Barbara

I'm soo grateful that I was busy today and didn't read this at work. Though the ones that made me laugh most were posted after work hours CDT. (But I spent four hours working on something and near the end noticed a discrepancy that, when I pointed it out the client she went "Oh. My. God. Stop working on that! There is something wrong with the data!"

I'm glad that I had a couple things I COULD complete successfully that made my day end with a positive).

Oops. I meant to say
300 naked men
Just walking down the road...

(NSFW, for most values of W)

I watched Galactica's season finale tonight, and I understand the frustration expressed in thread #82 about having to wait until 2008. Argh.

Serge #102: I'm right here! I can hear you! Hush!

Just kidding. Talk about your BSG of the future (my future, anyway) as much as you'd like. If there's anything spoilery please please give advance notice...pretty please?

Don't worry, ethan. I wasn't planning to talk about specific points. I do wonder what women see in Baltar though.

Of course the answer to my question in #104 is easy... The show is written by men.

The simple fact of BSG being written by men doesn't nec'ly explain Baltar's appeal outside the show, though; within the show, they could be plastering him with babes left and right without the female audience buying into it (think of Steven Seagal movies; sorry, you can stop thinking about them now).

Without myself being a Baltarette, I can kinda guess that much of his appeal would be based on his close attachment to Six; he thinks of her almost constantly (whether he wants to or not) and often in very sexually-charged situations in which he's at her mercy. It's not quite romantic devotion, but it could be construed as such in some ways.

OTOH, I've only seen the first two seasons and a few isolated episodes of season 3, so I'm not entirely certain of his present situation.

Shush!

(Can you tell I'm about to go back to school for Library Science?)

Julie L... Are you telling me that ladies in the real world (not just in the fiction of BSG) actually like Baltar?

Julie L... I have the feeling that #108 didn't come out right. It's none of my business whether or not a character appeals to this or that person. No offense was intended.

ethan @ 107... If I ever again come across that action-figure of a Librarian, I'll have to get it for you.

Serge, ethan: I know I saw them at the main Powell's in Portland in January. You could probably order from there. Actually, I'm sure they must be made by Archie McPhee's.... oh yeah, baby, here you go. Deluxe edition, with a cart full of books, reference desk, computer, and "amazing shushing action"!

Deluxe Librarian Action Figure

ethan & Serge - it's the Nancy Pearl action figure. Apparently she wanted to have an exploding bun, but that wasn't feasible.

I think they have some at my local independent bookstore. I'll look when I'm there tomorrow AM.

ethan - good luck with library school!

Thanks, Tania and Clifton. An exploding bun? Sounds like a way to tie in with the "kids today" thread...

Serge @ 108/109: no offense taken, but then (as mentioned) I'm not particularly a Baltarette myself. I wouldn't say no to a nice serving of Helo, however.

But IIRC someone around here mentioned (but could not explain) a fondness for Baltar recentishly... aha, here it was.

Julie L... Hello, Helo, eh?

Kip@101: Would it disappoint you very greatly if I pointed out that was a Particle about three years ago?

Serge @ 115: Ack. Now I'm trying (not) to envision a Sanrio version of Helo.

Kip W @ #95

Three hundred naked men
Walking down the street...

We get the funniest looks from
ev'ryone we meet:
Hey, hey, we're the Spartans!
People say we're Spartan around
but we're too busy looting
to throw any booty down.

&c

(How about this, Julie L?

You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say Helo
Hello, Helo
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say Helo
Hello, Helo
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say Helo

I say high, you say low
You say why, and I say I don't know
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say Helo
Hello, Helo
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say Helo
Hello, Helo
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say Helo

(Well, you get the idea.)

Serge...some time ago the one I wrote was

...I don't know why you say Saul Tigh
I say Helo.

Oops, Xopher... Slinking away in shame. Heheheh...

OK, another stupid Windows problem. I made the mistake of downloading the latest Adobe Reader. The godsdamn thing set my default picture viewer to the stupid Adobe one, which requires me to accept the license agreement each time I want to open a photo. This is obviously unacceptable.

So, I went to my Admin user, went to Folder Options, and set the default viewers to something vaguely reasonable. This was fine...for the Admin user.

The limited user still has the Adobe POS. And of course the Change button on the Folder Options is disabled for the limited user.

How do I get rid of the stupid Adobe thing and set my limited user to open photos on a doubleclick with something reasonable? (Yeah, I can right-click and select two levels of menu to get to a reasonable viewer, but that's quite a PITA too.)

I have just skim-read this thread and I am left wondering: did the Band of Thebes ever appear on Top of the Pops? In an episode of Doctor Who? And if so, what were they miming?

Fragano @ #89: I have this nagging feeling you're leaving something out there, but my resolution isn't quite high enough to tell what...

Did I say resolution? I meant, er, something else.

zHeresiarch #124: Not enough limbs falling off?

Serge, ethan, Clifton: I got all excited thinking you meant an action figure of a hirsute orange librarian with a bananary aroma and limited vocabulary.

Phoo.

You know, I'm not really sure why the comments are appearing all jumbled out of order. Listen: firefox has come unstuck in time.

Sorry, Lila. If we ever come across an action figure of Bob Newhart from those Librarian TV movies, do you want us to tell you?

Xopher #122: I guess that your limited user doesn't have the rights to the registry that would let the Adobe thing set its flag saying "accepted the license agreement".

I suppose you could give your limited user admin rights (while off the network) for long enough either to make the license agreement acceptance stick or to change the file associations, then set the user's rights back to limited.

Alternatively, when you installed Adobe Reader, did it have a "custom" option that would let you choose which file types it associates itself with? I think it must have, because I've installed it too, and it's not associated with picture files for me, so I must have been able to stop it doing that. So maybe if you uninstall Adobe Reader it'll lose the associations, then you could reinstall with "custom".

Of course, being Windows, probably there's a way to change things by tweaking the registry, but probably also it's easier to do it some other way.

Serge: I'm going to ignore that.

Except to say that, apropos of Bob Newhart, did you know the costume designer on The Bob Newhart Show was actually colorblind?

A librarian action figure with an exploding bun? An action figure of Terry Pratchett's librarian? How delightful.

Tania #112: Thanks! Really right now I've been in my current state of inertia for so long that just putting together the (very simple) application seems impossible, so I think I'll need it.

Xopher@122:

I've had a similar problem with other software I've added. My kludge of a workaround:

-> log in as admin
-> change the permissions of the limited user
-> log in as the limited user
-> fix the @)(*% setting in whatever program it was
-> log out as the limited user
-> log back in as admin
-> and change the permissions of the limited user back to where they belonged

As I said, it's a kludge, but it fixed the problem.

Lila @ 130... I'm going to ignore that.

In that case... How about an action-figure of Jane Curtin, also from The Librarian? When she shushes you...

Does anybody know what was originally used in the pre-computer days to make the sound of the TARDIS coming in and out of time? It reminds me of a car that needs its transmission oil changed, along with its fan belt, and all this in the middle of a harsh winter.

Serge, 134: I'm pretty sure it was a double-bass bow on the strings of a grand piano.

John 128: That's probably the problem, but you'd think Adobe would have understood that...and of course when I installed it I was logged in as the Admin user, or no installation would have happened.

glinda 132: Yes, that will work, but it seems to me that not even Microsloth could be stupid enough to design their OS in such a way that that's the actual solution. OTOH every time I think I've found the limit of MicroSoft stupidity I'm proven wrong, so maybe it really is the only choice.

Lila @ 126

Are you talking about a Conan the Librarian action figure? If there were such a thing, it would look a little like this
I bet you could make one out of a real Conan action figure.

Xopher @ 136

not even Microsloth could be stupid enough to design their OS in such a way that that's the actual solution.

Wanna bet? To sort-of quote Scott Ambler, from his famous rant: "In what parallel universe is deleting my file without my asking and without telling me a feature?"

TexAnne @ 135... Thanks. Speaking of sound effects, I think I read somewhere that, in 1953's version of War of the Worlds, the Martian deathray's sound as it primed up was guitar strings, maybe played backward. Not sure though.

Bruce (137): I'm pretty sure she's talking about Terry Pratchett's orangutan librarian. Not that a Conan the Librarian action figure wouldn't be pretty cool, too.

TexAnne @ 135: Do I remember rightly that it was supposed to be an air-raid siren? Or have I entirely confused that with something else? I don't know what an air-raid siren sounds like; in the last three states I've been in, tornado warnings are given by the fire departments' sounding their alarms in a sustained pitch, instead of the rising-and-falling pitches they use for emergencies that involve getting out the trucks. I've always used that as a vague model for an air-raid siren, but the TARDIS noise sounds nothing like that.

Aconite: I have no recollection of an air-raid siren being mentioned, but college (which was the last time I was active in fandom) was quite some time ago.

Aconite,

Back in Oklahoma, we had sirens mounted on poles that were dedicated to tornado warnings. Probably they'd've been used for nuclear war, too, but they never were--at least, they haven't yet.

adamsj #143: are there places where you can hear the sirens during the kind of weather which causes tornado warnings? The most they ever did for me was let me know it was noon on Saturday.

Whan that Aprille doth March displace,
with weping, walinge, and cryes folk do disporte
for there beth ne shelter ne resorte;
the IRS doth every fotestepe trace,
and will nat grante even a minute's grace,
an ye paye not, thenne the kyng his courte,
shall distrain on ye, and ye shall fallen shorte.
Empty will be thyne pockets,and longe thyn face.
The reeve and miller shall with bailie strive,
the wyfe of Bath shall kepe a civil tongue,
and franklin shall kepe cheke upon fre thoughte;
tis not the time for knight or squire to wyve,
the prioresse shalle nat of love have sunge,
and all take care to do the thinges they oughte.

Todd,

That's a good question. Got any others?

Bruce @ 137: Mary Aileen @ 140 is correct. I wouldn't mind a Cohen the Barbarian figure, though. (Actually I currently only own one action figure--Taejitsu Lois from Family Guy.)

adamsj@ 143: we had the same thing in the small central-Georgia town where I grew up. They called them CD sirens, used them for tornado warnings, and set them off every Wednesday at noon just to be sure they still worked. I don't know if they're still extant or not.

Ethan - my store up here is sold out of Nancy Pearl and Casanova* right now (they are the Archie McPhee figures, btw), but I did find a reference about the exploding bun prototype on BookBitchBlog.

One of my dearest friends got her MLS from UIUC, or as she likes to call southern Illinois "flatland". She works as a youth/children's librarian and loves what she does. She also has a funny story to tell about when C.J. Cherryh moved to the greater Spokane area. But I digress (as usual). Get thee to a library school, the young minds of the world need your help! Then you can have friends that call when you're working the reference desk, disguising their voice, and ask really ridiculous questions, just to have fun.

*another famous librarian

Xopher@136:

OTOH every time I think I've found the limit of MicroSoft stupidity I'm proven wrong, so maybe it really is the only choice.

Never underestimate the stupidity of M$. (I know whereof I type; I'm embarrassed to say that I worked there as a contract tech editor eight or nine years ago.)

Todd, 144: Yes. There are some not far from where I live, and I heard them repeatedly yesterday.

Fragano, 145: Wow.

#89 Fragano Ledgister: "zombies talkative and zombies that are mum,"

Oh, I suppose you've got us, er, them, in there after all. Carry on.

Serge@134; Back in my public radio days, our resident radio historian was much enamored of BBC sound effects. The Tardis whooooooooop-whooooooooooop, he said, was created in the decidedly analog BBC Radiophonic Workshop of the 1960s with a microphone and a length of flexible dryier-duct hose.

The engineer whirled the hose around overhead like a lariat. IIRC, the mike was inside the duct at the fast-moving top end.

The difference in pitch, I believe, occurred at the end of each completed circle of the duct hose above the engineer's head.

Belated props to Rob Hansen (way back at #68) for the non-UK link to the Season Three Doctor Who trailer. You're my hero.

Looks like Google has their April Fool up and running.

GMail Paper

As usual, they've made me chuckle.

re: #154

I just want to know how Google produces "96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum" in industrial quantities... I mean how does one get a consistent level of mastication and regurgitation necessary to produce a decent pulp analogue? And who [or what] is doing the actual work to create the stuff? [assuming I parsed that phrase correctly...]

Sadly Google itself is not forthcoming with this information, since searching on that phrase (at the time of this post) on Google produces no results, not even self-referencing the press release... Trade secret? or Conspiracy? And how are dinosaurs, sodomy, and zombies involved? (Just because all truly worldview-destroying conspiracies need to involve dinosaurs. And sodomy. And zombies for good measure.)

;-)

Tania @154,

They're also offering a new free wireless internet via plumbing service.

adamsj, #143, our city still has sirens on poles. They were used for air incursion in WWII (not that there was any), and they're mostly historical now. We also have the two big gongs from the post-Civil War days still set up, although the hammers are bolted to the posts because people like to try them out.

Kathryn @#156- Nice!

I just got ThinkGeek's in my email a few minutes ago.

Slashdot has an April Fool story pending, it's rather silly.

I love this day. I can't think of anything this year that isn't cruel, so I suspect my April Foolery will be limited.

I noticed that Doctor Who had a rather radical solution to our local hospital's problem with parking spaces.

I'm seriously behind in my Making Light reading, so my apologies if this news from Albuquerque has already been mentioned.

Hamster races canceled due to ordinance
Mayor allows recreational hamster racing

Oops! Those two links weren't supposed to go to the same place.

Hamster races canceled due to ordinance

Serge at #134

This doesn't answer your question on the origins of the Tardis sound, but if you feel like knowing far too much about hte history of the Dr Who theme, try

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Ayres/DWTheme.htm

I want to be able to type absolutely anywhere in odd moments of spare time, and accordingly am thinking of getting myself a secondhand Psion 5m.

Would anyone who's used Psions like to tell me that's a really good idea, or a really bad one? Alternatively, is there any machine being made these days that has the same form factor as the old Psions? I've certainly never seen one.

Thanks for the link, Steve.

gurnemanz @ 152... People sure were creative, back in those days, eh? I wonder if sound-effect people build everything from scratch on their computers these days. I remember Cinefantastique's double issue on the making of the original Star Wars and how Ben Burtt came up with some of the blaster sounds by hitting a hammer on the cables that held tall radio-station antennae upright.

Coming soon to a theater near you...

Ethan the Librarian

Cue narration by Mako, and music by Basil Poledouris...

TexAnne #150: Thank you.

zHeresiarch #151: Thank you. Now, let me see where I left my duppy runner....

Now, which of our Aussie friends wants to claim responsibility for this?

Has this been Particlized? And if not, why not?

Fragano @ 168... "...An event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, drew nearly 900 "Zombies" in October 2006..."

Seen on the magazine rack this morning while waiting in line at the grocery store, the latest issue of Glamour with Liv Tyler on the cover, and, next to it, a reference to an article that discusses...

"The secret things that men do when women aren't around."

That immediately reminded me that, the next time my wife is out running errands on her own, I should take advantage of that to do some weeding in the backyard.

Xopher@122
If you're still having problems, and are happy to edit the registry, then open regedit and look at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes (as the limited user).
On my XP machine there are only three subkeys ("CLSID", "MIME" and "Software"). Any subkeys like ".jpg" or "jpegfile" should be safe to delete and Windows should then use the file associations set by the Administrator account.

BIG green gherkin

Am I the last person on the block to realize this? I used the search function on this site to locate on of my old posts, and it also showed my e-mail address. Just for giggles, I used a different address for this post. But seriously, I didn't know about the e-mail address revelation feature.

Americans Defeat Russians In First Space Quidditch Match

Serge #170: They're everywhere....

Fragano @ 176... I'm not sure that zombies would do too well further north, like in Montréal or Québec City. A bunch of frozen stiffs just standing there doesn't sound that scary.

Kathryn from Sunnyvale... I think there is a typo in the email you've recorded here.

For those who like vampire/crime drama, Blood Ties premieres tonight on the Lifetime Channel. I think it's based on stories by Tanya Huff.

Serge #166: Yikes! Maybe I should re-think this...

Dunno who has seen this yet, but John McCain not only has no sense of humor, he has no clue either.

ethan @ 180... On the other hand, ethan the Librarian would get to work with Grace Jones. Now, with her in that library, all kids would make sure to bring the books back when they're due for fear of a visit from Miss Jones.

Serge, would she sing her version of "Ma vie en rose" at any point? If she does, I'm in.

Grace Jones doing Edith Piaf, ethan? Now that's a scary idea. Still, she might say yes if you ask nicely, very nicely.

Serge #177: Summer comes, even to Canada, and zombies shuffle slowly.

I seek the wisdom of the fluorosphere: Back in 1969 or 1970 I read (in an anthology) an after-the-holocaust story in which the world had been saved and was organised by SF fandom. This involved such things as people flying by Heinleiner, use of the Bradbury Ray, and attendance at the Worldcon by delegates from the frosty North Pohl. What was this story, and who wrote it? More importantly, where can I find it?

Pixelfish @ 181: Check the "help me" link on that page. It's an April Fool's day prank, though I was also all too ready to believe it at first. Says something, doesn't it?

Fragano @ 186... That doesn't ring a bell. Sorry.

Serge@179
Yes,it is based on Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson books-it's not bad.

Thanks, Nina.

Tania @158,

unfortunately I missed this years
Saint Stupid's Day Parade, put on each year by the First Church of the Last Laugh. I guess I could costume up and parade tomorrow- that'd be a right proper act of stupidity.

kathryn - that would be funny! We haven't had any good April Fool's as of yet. I think I'll just slap myself in the forehead, and call it good.

Locus finally has their April Fool's stuff up, apparently Neil Gaiman is going to be canonized!

Fragano (#168), yes, well. That was in Brisbane, State capital of Queensland, our Deep North. Things are a bit ... different ... north of the border, even below the tropics. It got a quick run in the (serious ABC) Sunday night news here in Sydney, played (if I may say it) pretty deadpan.

Looked at (their site), and got links to the Youtube of the 2006 Event, and some Flickr photos.

Serge@190-you're welcome.

Kathryn from Sunnyvale... Is Wavy Gravy still around to be part of the Saint Stupid parade?

Serge said (#170):
Fragano @ 168... "...An event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, drew nearly 900 "Zombies" in October 2006..."

I enjoyed the fact that the 2005 Zombie Lurch in Madison, Wisconsin, was in fact a zombie protest march.

Favorite protest signs: "Zombies for Higher Education: Tastier Brains"; "Zombie--Mad Scientist Solidarity"; "Romero/Raimi '08"; the quote from Zombie Emma Goldman ("If I can't eat brains, I don't want to be part of your revolution"); "Argh"; and, of course, "Braaaaaaaaains".

Peter Erwin... Romero/Raimi '08

...who will no doubt face stiff competition from the Republican Party.

Coming to San Francisco's Castro Theater on April 7/8...

The Sing-along West Side Story

Considering the subject matter, it probably wouldn't have the overall silliness of what my wife said it was like when they did a sing-along version of The Sound of Music. Besides, should yours truly start singing "I feel pretty", it might cause a rush for the exits.

Another convert for Teresa!

Sheep made from telephones.

Oh, it's zombie, this and zombie that, and zombie go to the back,
but it's 'advance, mister zombie' when we comes under attack.

--zRudyard zKipling

New earthquake and tsunami, in the Solomon Islands.

Patrick, Teresa: So where is Judith's office going to be?

Help wanted on a topic which I hope is unconnected to publishing scams:

Has anyone here heard of "The Cambridge College Programme LLC" with US headquarters in the John Hancock Building in Chicago? My youngest just got mail from them (not yet opened). This wouldn't be THE Cambridge, surely?

The John Hancock building had had Gillette corporate offices... Proctor & Gamble bought Gillette and announced that it was going to stop leasing that space...

There is I think a Cambridge College in Cambridge, MA.... It is not anywhere near the Harvard or MIT level.

#204 -- heard of it, got the invite for a couple of years, looked legit, couldn't afford it. But looked fun!

Never mind, I withdraw the question. Judging by their web presence, they share at most a name and an approximate location with U.Cantab.; and they appear to be the latest in a long line of "rip off smart kids' parents" programs.

Oh, I dunno -- some kids have put up pictures of their experiences there, and if the one I saw wasn't actually meeting Stephen Hawking, he was meeting a darn good impersonater... http://thepayne.net/~bgordon/cambridge.html Looks like he was doing the things they talked about in their brochure. But they sure do have a pretty crappy web page.

If I may call upon the all knowledge contained in Making Light's readership:

In what Phil Dick novel did a character have some collector's item and a certificate of authenticity, which occasioned the characters discussing how the certificate could be a forgery, and so warranted its own certificate of authenticity, and so on ad infinitum?

Weightless Running

200 miles above the Earth, halfway to space,
running 2 miles with every step, each footfall
matches one in Boston. Floating near a wall,
restrained by cords she runs a marathon pace
to match her sister on the ground. The grace
of motion changes without weight, but will enthrall
the viewers down below. She hopes that recall
of her run by kids will spur them on to race.
She's wise to help the young enhance their time,
using her place to lead them into winning
some measure of the grace she can apply.
But those of us who've watched the rockets climb
and hungered for the worlds' new beginning,
might wonder how this race will help us fly.

Glenn @ #203 - The linky went all hinky, I'm assuming you meant this news blurb from the April 1 Locus Online?

I liked the zombie reference, myself.

Serge said (#197):
Peter Erwin... Romero/Raimi '08

...who will no doubt face stiff competition from the Republican Party.

Arrrrrrgh. (The sound zombies make when they hear a bad pun.)

Peter Erwin @ 212... Ah! You're jealous that I thought of it first.

Epacris @ 193: Speaking of less-than-usual phenomena North of the Border, the Kransky Sisters, from Esk, Q, (one of the shorter Australian addresses) are embarking on another tour in their Morris Minor. You can listen to their interview and musical talents in the podcast of The Conversation Hour for 3rd April, 2007 (following the Voice of Dorothy the Dinosaur).

Bruce Cohen #210: Not bad!

To run the simulacrum of a race
in microgravity high above the air,
eyes focused firmly on our sphere
feet on a treadmill in outer space;
that seems so odd in a small place,
a little hut located just up there
where burdens should be easier to bear;
this is a gesture of enchanted grace.
What thoughts come looking on this ball
where human life seethes and explodes,
while racing in a city far below?
Emotions formed running in free-fall
give sense and meaning to imagined roads
which we on earth may never truly know.

Saith Zed:

In what Phil Dick novel did a character have some collector's item and a certificate of authenticity, which occasioned the characters discussing how the certificate could be a forgery, and so warranted its own certificate of authenticity, and so on ad infinitum?

Could it be the Phil Dick novel in which characters entertained themselves by submitting the English-language titles of various works to translation computers, translating them into Russian and then back to English, and using a globe-spanning telecommunications/computing network to entertain acquaintances (whom they'd never met in person) with the results? (I don't actually think so, but I still love knowing that not only did PKD envision the Internet, he envisioned what people in boring jobs would use it for.)

On a side note, I have a modest proposal. Unlike Swift, I mean mine. Being innocent of the mechanics of Constitutional amendment, I have no sense of the practicality of this one's ratification, but it seems to me that just the threat of it would, in the words of Guy Grand, "make it hot for them."

Rob Hansen wrote: "Someone wanting to travel from New York to Cardiff in Wales consulted Google. Turns out you can do this fairly easily, as long as you can handle step 23:"

It's actually feasible to drive to France from the US.

Just drive to Newfoundland, then take a ferry over to Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a small bit of populated French territory close to the coast of Canada.

The main problem is that you either have to take a very long ferry ride from Nova Scotia, or else drive all the way around the eastern dangly bit of Newfoundland, which is quite a long drive, and probably moose-infested.

#209: That sounds like it might have been one of the stoned discussions in Through A Scanner Darkly, though I don't recall that one specifically. (I can never forget the lengthy argument over the stolen 10-speed bike and "What happened to the other three speeds? We got ripped off.")

#216: I remember that bit too, now that you mention it. Is that in Galactic Pot-Healer?

Zed @ 209; Clifton @ 218: Also sounds like one of the themes in The Man in the High Castle.

I remember the discussion of collector's items and "historicity" in The Man in the High Castle, but I don't remember a discussion of infinite recursion.

Thanks Tim @84. I think before I went away for the weekend I meant to say that what was good about the scene was that, in order to illustrate the culture clash between Norse and Egyptian Gods at the dinner table, Neil Gaiman had used an inappropriate knob joke that was over a thousand years old.

I've been at dinner parties like that, and the expression on Bast's face is exactly right.

On the Antarctic Artists thing, I saw an exhibition of some pieces from the New Zealand version in Christchurch a couple of years ago. I don't remember in any great detail, but it included some things made by a jewlery designer; an impractical but quite startling dress*; and an eerie whisting-wind type soundtrack.

* Mostly white

Do Knitting Machines Dream of Dialup Sheep?

Bob @ 216: I think Clifton's right; the translation game is from Galactic Pot-Healer. I don't remember whether the certificate discussion is part of the same book or not.

Neil @ 221: My father told me the following joke, which I later found in a 12th-century source:

Q: When a rooster wakes up in the morning, why does it stand on one leg?
A: Because if it picked up the other leg, it would fall down.

Fragano Ledgister (186): I seek the wisdom of the fluorosphere...

I never saw that story, and I really, really want to read it. It sounds like it might have been in one of those anthologies edited by Yvec N. Fybbs that I've been looking for ever since I found out about fandom. If so, I congratulate you on having seen it, and please let us know the outcome of your search, or if you remember any other interesting details of the work.

Dan Hoey #224: It is a genuine request on my part. I recall reading the story when I was 13 or 14. It certainly was not a piece of April Foolery. If you read it that way, I'm sorry to have offended you.

Fragano (225), I'm not offended, and I apologize if my request for confirmation was offensive. I'm even happier that it was a genuine request (my hints to the contrary notwithstanding) because I really do want to read it. So please do tell me if you find where the Bradbury Ray and North Pohl were. The only work that I remember even approaching that level of Pro Fan à clef is Niven's The Flying Sorcerers, with its narrator "As a shade of purple-gray".

Dan Hoey #226: I asked because, strong as my google-fu is, I could find no references to the story on the Internet (though, curiously, a couple of references to a woman with the surname North-Pohl). I knew nothing of fandom back in high school, and I merely wished to reread the story now with more mature eyes. I hoped that the collective wisdom of the folk here might lead me to it.

#186 (Frangano) re: the world saved by Fandom.

I too read that story, and I believe (if this helps) it put forward the idea that after the fall of civilization (WW3?) fandom was a natural locus of rebuilding because fans trusted each other and they had mimeograph machines. OTOH, there was also conflict between two fan organizations (forget which ones, and maybe it was democratic, electoral conflict). The story was in one of Those Big Collections, and my guess is it was originally published in the fifties or early sixties.

DaveL #228: That does sound like it, and the date (50s or 60s) sounds right. It was in a big collection (at least, I seem to recall it was).

BTW,who's Frangano?

You may recall, back in Open Thread 68, discussion of the dating of a colour photograph of London, that was reference in a Particle.

Jo Walton has now revealed that the photo is part of the cover design of her book, Ha'Penny, and inspired one of the scenes.

This feels kind of neat.

Which reminded me of the discussion of such things as Bertie Wooster and Cthulhu. And a note from John M. Ford on the history of Simon Templar.

I feel a little sad, now.

But think of this. James Bond, as depicted by Fleming, lasted for 12 years, first novel to last.

Modesty Blaise started in the Sixties, and carried on as an active character until 2001.

But what if Modesty Blaise was a cover identity, for a string of female agents. They'd need training. Who do we know who recruits a series of glamourous women into the espionage business? John Steed.

And we all know where they end up when they retire.

I think I'll go and have a lie down.

#229: Frangano is you in an alternate reality where SF fans rule the world! (Otherwise, a typo, but that's so boring...)

I've found it, I think: "A Way of Life," by Robert Bloch, originally published in Fantastic Universe, May, 1956. Collected in "Out of My Head," an (alas) out of print NESFA collection. Good luck!

The latest Astronomy Picture of the Day is worth checking out -- a Mysterious Hexagonal Cloud System (on Saturn).

Dave Bell @ 231

And we all know where they end up when they retire.

Yes, in a particular segment of the Glasshouse.

Be seeing you!

Dave Bell @ 231: Did you know Dodge is now selling a car called the "Avenger?"

I'm just wondering how long it will be before I see one with the vanity plates "Steed" or "Mrs. Peel."

Speaking of where spies retire... What's going on with Christopher Eccleston and the new mini-series based on The Prisoner?

DaveL #232: A thousand thanks!

DaveL # 232 and Fragano #237
According to this page at ISFDB, the story has been reprinted in several anthologies that may be easier (or just cheaper) to locate.

Wristle #238: Thanks very much!

Bob Rossney @ 216 I still love knowing that not only did PKD envision the Internet, he envisioned what people in boring jobs would use it for.

Check out E.M. Forster for an impressive prediction of the Internet from 1909.

Thanks for the suggestions as to the PKD book, folks; I'll look through them.

#93 Jennie:

You can do square knots and snip the ends. However you will have to keep the ends from slipping free and ravelling -- which is a problem because yarn stretches. I've tried knotting without treating, but something gives way sooner or later. There is a commercial product called fray check that acts like fabric glue and is washable.

Or you could paint the knots with clear nail polish. However, you will have scratchy lumps.

Fragano @ 215

Thank you. I like your poem too.

Heads up if you buy stuff from Overstock.com...

It'd appear that somebody hacked into their site and got some of my wife's credit info. Our credit card's company had noticed suspicious activity a few days ago, early enough that the card could be cancelled before any harm was done.

Lila@204 and 207: I don't think the Cambridge College Programme is actually a scam, although the web presence doesn't exactly inspire confidence. It looks to me like one of the many summer programmes that they run here in Cambridge for US high school students - usually based at a single college, and usually involving junior faculty and graduate students[*] who get paid per class/lecture. So the people may be the same as will be lecturing the undergraduates, but the teaching won't necessarily have much in common. Still, you had already worked out that it wasn't likely to be the equivalent of a term's full teaching as a Cambridge undergraduate.

A friend of mine taught for one of these courses - at Jesus College, whereas the CCP seems to be at Queens' - when she was finishing her PhD, and it seemed like everybody enjoyed it fine.

So it depends what you are looking for, really. A nice summer programme with some (generally junior) members of the Cambridge teaching staff, scaled down for high-schoolers ... all you are really missing is the level of teaching and a slice of independence from what would probably count as the 'real' Cambridge experience.

So I have my doubts as to whether it's likely to be worth the money, and if you are at all interested you should look around a little more, because there are multiple programmes going on here all the time, some of which may be more immediately reassuring. And very few of them are likely to be administered by the University in any direct way. But they are probably not scams.

I should probably add - I do currently teach at the real Cambridge, although not in any of these programmes. (Although obviously you have no proof that this is me, and the university is terrible at keeping the details up to date.) Still, it's odd to see familiar graffiti labelled as anti-American , though, since I never really think of it that way.

[*] I suppose it's a good thing that the CCP claim not to use graduate students, although they can often be better teachers and have more time to prepare than do temporary or junior staff.

Oh, and my pocket guide to PKD tells me that the translation game is definitely in Galactic Pot-Healer, and the certificate of authenticity is in The Man in the High Castle. Both of which were said already, but I thought I could confirm them if there was any lingering doubt. Also because there are a limited number of fora in which I can talk about the day-job and Philip K. Dick in such rapid succession.

Bruce Cohen #242: Thanks.

Serge, #236, Eccleston is on Heroes right now.

Thanks, Marilee. But no Number Six for Eccleston? Drat.

Fragano (#186): Sorry, can't help on that, but it reminds me of a story in a 50s issue of "Space Western" where "Spurs" Jackson lets his sidekick know that some "fen" are coming over to the ranch as part of their "descon." When the alien craft lands, the sidekick comments to himself on how realistic the space ship is, and when chitinous would-be overlords come out, he is impressed by their costumes. They reveal their sinister plot, and the fen show up and... come to think of it, I'll just post the scans on flickr.

I was led to this by a diary on Daily Kos.

Remember those folks who were turned back by the cops at Gretna when trying to leave New Orleans after Katrina?

Court rules it was legal on the grounds that no court has established a right to intrastate travel.

Apologies if this has been posted previously...

Which Serenity character are you?

For Fragano (and anyone else who is interested):

I remember something about how you were/are interested in island culture. This came across Marginal Revolution this morning:

Why do Jamaicans live so long?

#241 Victoria (and others who use FrayCheck)

One trick to using FrayCheck is not to let it air dry. Apply to whatever you want to keep from fraying, cover with a press cloth, and then press gently with a steam iron (on about medium, I think) until the FrayCheck has dried.

If you let it air dry, it dries hard (not quite as hard as clear nail polish, but close). If you steam-dry it, it's soft and almost imperceptible.

That sounds like a fascinating piece (of interest to me certainly, but of more interest to my first wife). My grandfather, who smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish, and fornicated like it was going out of fashion lived to be 103. My father lived to be 81 and several of his siblings lived into their 80s (one is still alive).

Little Keefy, snorting snow,
Stirred Pop's ashes in the blow.
Said he, when the press had come,
"April fool! 'Twere really Mum."

Reverse of the Merkel sidelight: Oh, God, I expect to be laughing for hours. Thank you, Patrick.

My senior editor, to whom I told the story of Teresa's untrained copy-editor, just snickered as she marked up a page and muttered "non-ital!" under her breath.

Am I the only person who, while walking to work and singing "My Ride's Here", finds himself unintentionally singing "Mister Oswald thought he had an understanding with the law"?

Kip W #255: Brilliant!

Fragano @ 254... I wish you plenty of that familial longevity!

According to the most recent Locus. Jeff Vandermeer sold a long story to PS Publishing...

"...The Situation has everything: incompetent managers, back-stabbing co-workers, a giant grub creature, a fish with a human face, and a lot more besides..."

Best quote ever, in the Guardian:

Mention of his name sets Perrett off on a heartfelt rant about declining standards of morality among drug addicts. "Junkies nowadays are really disgusting," he huffs, genuinely outraged. "In my day, being a drug dealer was a respectable fuckin' profession. Nowadays, it's something you really feel ashamed to be associated with, the way most junkies behave."

Serge #260: Thanks. I wouldn't mind it in the least. I have to point out, though, that I have an uncle on that side of the family who died at 45.

Fragano @ 263

Ah, but did he die jumping out of his girlfriend's window when her husband showed up?

I dunno, Clifton (262), I rather liked the gothic poetry of this sentence in the Guardian:

As for the young man himself, all he can offer them is the faint recollection of an abbey.

Fragano @ 263... Nevertheless, I will be thinking positive thoughts about your longevity. That won't change Reality one darn bit, mind you, but I'll be thinking it anyway.

Serge #266: Many thanks.

Question, has anything happened on the lawsuit regarding the suppression of Air America and the concerted effort conspiring to financially punish stations which had the temerity to have Air America programming on them?

[I remain thoroughly disgusted with the biased "news" reporting available over the supposedly once "public" airwaves in this area. Clear Channel for a while had Air America on and then with no warning put on Hispanic -noise-... no, I do NOT regard Hispanic audio as necessarily noise, but the crap that Clear Channel spews out on those two stations, makes the English translations of whatever that long-running German serial SF that someone with only high school German classes could read, look like Fine Art in comparison...]

[Segovia's recorded performances I liked, for example.... that is NOT salsa crap-noise... and not to be found on Clear Channel, either...]

candle @ #245: Thank you!

Susan @ #250: that is almost as appalling as the original incident.

Kip W #249: That looks like a fascinating story in itself.

Just for the interest of archivists -- the redoubtable Abi S dropped by The Other Change of Hobbit this morning, and I'm hoping to get to have a dinner with her, David Goldfarb, and various other ML regulars next week in Berkeley. Perhaps a small item devoted to potential meetings of regulars here would be a good thing?

Fragano, thanks! The scans of the "Spurs" Jackson story are on my flickr page, but after someone mentioned a certain inconvenience in the interface, I posted a set of direct links to individual page images in my LJ for ease of use.

I'm boggled by the 'Space Western' comic concept in general.

Clifton has perhaps never heard of Bat Durston, Space Marshal.

Boggled by the 'Space Western' concept, Clifton? You'd better stay away from Firefly.

Tom Whitmore @ 271... the redoubtable Abi S dropped by The Other Change of Hobbit this morning, and I'm hoping to get to have a dinner with her, David Goldfarb, and various other ML regulars next week in Berkeley

The redoutable Abi? I'll be seeing that for myself on Monday evening. (Redoutable? Maybe it's the other one that you came across, the one from the Evil Universe, and you don't want to know what she uses for her book bindings.)

On a different subject . . . we may be near to 'growing' our starship hulls and bike frames.

http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/news/25734/Carbon-fibre-famine-could-be-ended-by-carrots

See? Your mother was right - carrots *are* good!

Helvetica, the movie.

Tom @271,
Serge @276
Redoubtable? I hadn't had my coffee at that point - that tends to redoubt me pretty well. Particularly Peet's.

Thank you for showing me those bindings, Tom, and for letting me in before the shop was officially open.

See you Monday evening!

Serge@236-Eccleston denied that rumor-apprently they are talking remake-unfortunately not with him in the title role. Boo,I agree.

my new reason #15 why I like living in San Francisco:

The Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race down Lombard Street. It's the 7th annual. (I hadn't heard of it until today, and so must share.)

Santa, on a Big Wheel, on a Narrow Windy Road on a Steep, Steep Hill, on Easter. No worries, there. And I'm going to be eating chocolate or mayhap peeps while watching, just to make it perfect.

Does anyone know what's up with this site?

Mikescollection at Amazon

The seller appears to be someone selling off the book collection of the late, much-missed Mike Ford. Among other things, they're selling a $500.00 copy of Scholars of Night that is claimed to be a "personal copy of John M. Ford."

Is this legitimate? Where is the money going?

(Apologies in advance if this is a much-asked question. My Google-fu may be weak.)

Kathryn #281: That looks pretty great, but you might want to warn people about the music that plays when you click that link. I happened to have the volume turned up pretty high and I nearly crapped my pants.

Of course, the insomniac internet time-killing at 5:30 AM doesn't help with the jumpiness to begin with, but still...yikes!

abi @ 279... So, a coffee-less abi is a redoubtable abi? Duly noted, and I'd probably try to make a roses-are-red-violets-are-blue rhyming thing out of it, but we're about to hit the road for our California trip.

Ethan @283,

I apologize- I have no speakers attached to the computer for exactly that reason, so I should know better than to not plug in the headphones and check.

Oy, yes, yikes.

You know, when I was four or five years old and had a bigwheel, I'd have been thrilled to know adults are allowed to take their bigwheels down steep streets. And I don't think me-of-then would quite understand why me-of-now isn't actually going to do it.

I just found out here that since the Foley scandal the house Page program has gotten a record number of applications. The year before, the program couldn't even fill all it's available slots.

Dan Savage, being Dan Savage, encourages his readers to insert their own "available slots" joke.

I suspect the kids just heard more about the page program and how all the graduates of it say it was one of the greatest things that ever happened to them, rather than that they all want to have sex with repulsive hypocritical Congressmen.

Oh, rats, forgot to mention: you have to scroll down past the sex-advice column to see that article. No partial references on that page.

Friday afternoon chuckle from Wired

Top 10 Reasons Geeks Are Better Lovers

Slacktivist's commentary on the Left Behind books[1] is always worth reading, but today's is particularly good. Don't miss the comment thread, in particular the story fragment from Raka Goes Fishing.

[1] Well, book; he's 260 pages into the first one after 3 1/2 years of working on it.

The most recent NPR's Open Mic podcast is Whisperado's "Never Been to Nashville" off of their terrific EP, Some Other Place.

Congrats!

This is an Open Thread, so I have an appeal to the collective wisdom of the fluorosphere:

I'm seriously considering canceling my cable TV service and getting the handful of shows I actually watch via downloads and/or DVDs.

Has anyone here used iTunes to download TV shows? How was it? Specifically, how are the download times? (I have DSL.) The picture quality? Prices? Are they really available 24 hours after first airing?

Are there any other low-cost sources for TV downloads I should use instead of/in addition to iTunes? I'm avoiding Bittorrent for copyright reasons.

Anything else I should consider before making a decision to drop cable?

JC - that's what I was coming over to share too!

Here's the link to NPR.

Nina Armstrong @ 280... I am bummed.

abi @ 279...

Redoubtable,
And Terrible
Without coffee,
That is abi.
Without a Peet,
She'll bite your feet.

(I blame the trip from New Mexico for this.)

Xopher (#286), I find it all too plausible that teenagers are interested in the Congressional page program because of the sex scandal. I started high school in 1982, around the time of a different congressional page sex scandal. Some of the kids I knew thought it would be glamorous and exciting (two boys who worked for the Republican National Convention in 1984 were disappointed that nobody tried to seduce them.) These were kids I knew through competetive debate, mostly boys.

Xopher wrote:
I suspect the kids just heard more about the page program and how all the graduates of it say it was one of the greatest things that ever happened to them, rather than that they all want to have sex with repulsive hypocritical Congressmen.

My impression was that they thought the sex might be somewhat distasteful (or it might not...it's nice to be wanted, and an old adulterer might know what he's doing in bed), but it would totally be worth it to have the attention of powerful people.
I could understand the decision, though I wasn't really tempted in that direction. The whole thing was way too scary for me, and I've never found the attention of externally powerful people to be all that much of a draw.

Mary Aileen #291: In my limited experience with television on iTunes, it seems pretty clear that their main focus is getting the image to be really good on iPods, and that if you intend to watch it on anything bigger it's not so great--a little grainy, a little jerky. Not entirely unwatchable, but pretty bad.

ethan (296): Thank you. That's very helpful.

Mary Aileen @ 291

You might consider Netflix. We've been using it for several years, and only in the last few months had a satellite disk installed, largely because we could get HD on it. We weren't tempted by cable or sat before that. Also, Netflix' library is quite large; they have a lot of DVDs you'd only be able to find by searching awhile online.

Seen in the Onion AV Club:

Q: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Ha! You mean you don't already know?

Q: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Oh, I have that on vinyl.

BTW, I agree with the plug for Netflix as an alternative to cable. (Though I still wind up just letting the movies sit there and not watching them...)

298, 299: Netflix is a source of DVDs, correct? So it could be an even cheaper solution to that part of the problem. Thank you.

But I'm also trying to figure out an alternative way to watch shows when they're fairly new, so I don't have to avoid spoilers for six months to a year while I wait for them to come out on DVD.

Serge @ 293-I agree-I can't really imagine anyone else I'd enjoy watching in that role(as a remake anyway)
According to Mr. Sftv the most recent announcement had no indication of who was going to do it-maybe'll we'll get lucky.

Mary Aileen @ 291

I quite like iTunes for TV, and even movies, though movies take several hours. TV shows generally take half an hour to an hour to download on my house DSL. They are quite viewable on my laptop and desktop, via iTunes or QuickTime MoviePlayer, or, we can connect a video iPod to our TV and watch there; it's quite acceptable.

http://www.sexoteric.com/blog/index.php/__show_article/_a000018-003038.htm

dinosaur sex exhibit from museum in Spain.

Making Light are not the only people interested in the topic, apparently.

Mary Aileen, would it feel right to buy the shows from iTunes and then download them from somewhere else with higher quality? You'd still be passing some money on to the creators.

Amazon also has some tv shows available for purchase & download. I don't know how the selection or prices compare with iTunes. The user experience is pretty darn good if you have a Tivo, but since you're wanting to be rid of the TV, I'm guessing you don't. If you don't have a Tivo, you have to have Windows and run some Amazon software I've heard conflicting opinions on.

Speaking of television on demand, I just poked around at the new watch-now-on-your-computer feature on Netflix and was peeved to discover it only works on Windows and not on my pretty Macintosh.

And then, embarrassingly, when I wrote them an e-mail asking if there were plans to extend the service to Mac users, I spelled "there" wrong. As in, I spelled it "their." And for a second, after I recovered from the shock (I never, ever do that and just yesterday visiting my parents I was talking with my mother about how irritating it is when people do that), I was like, no, it's OK, I'm just previewing it and I can edit it.

Not everywhere is Making Light.

Re TV shows on iTunes:

I've generally been pleased with the image quality -- I'm watching the shows on my 15" laptop -- and given the size of the files (about 500 MB for an hour-long show), I'm not sure the quality would be that much higher on something obtained via bittorrent. (Though I've never tried the latter, so I could be quite wrong.) I have to admit that I download TV shows when I'm at work, so I don't have a good idea of the time a DSL download would take. I'm also using this as a way of catching up on US TV shows while living in Europe, after several years of not watching TV, so my experience isn't necessarily the best guide for answering the "Can I use this to replace cable?" question.

There are occasional free shows you can download, including some pilots, so you could use that as a way of testing the system out without paying anything (go to the iTunes main page, then scroll down to "Free on iTunes").

Lisa (302), Peter (307): Thank you. I guess I'll have to check the quality for myself. Nice to know there are free ones. (They won't give me a list till I download their software, which I didn't want to do unless I knew I would be using it.)

Diatryma (304): That's a thought. Hmmmm. Have to think about that one.

Todd (305): I wouldn't be getting rid of the television set, just the cable connection. On the other hand, I don't currently have a TIVO. (I still use videotape. How antiquated!) I'll have to check Amazon, to see if they have the selection I want. Thank you.

If you think that the age of great myths is gone, that tales of epic struggles of superhuman beings, and titanic clashes of the forces of Good and Evil aren't told anymore, then you need to see Breakfast of the Gods: The Last Good Morning. And if you don't think any of that, but just want a laugh or two combined with mild nostalgia for breakfast cereal, you should also see it.

#309: "Breakfast of the Gods" is one DARK comic.

Oregonians may want to look for a copy of Friday's "The Oregonian." It has a nice cartoon profile of "The Last Good Morning's" author / artist.

Nyeaahhhhh!

The local ION TV (Family Friendly Pap Our Specialty) is running a Battlestar Galactica marathon.

Not the edgy modern version.

My, has time not been kind to it.

I saw at least one commercial touting the Book of Mormon, and I'm wondering if there's a connection.

Stefan Jones #311: I've seen it said that the original BSG was a very very Mormon show, but as all I know about BSG is from the edgy modern version (I've reached Season 2.5 already!), and all I know about Mormons I learned from "God and I" by TNH, I've no idea in what ways. Perhaps it's about Jewish tribes exploring space, turning evil and brown, and forgetting the use of the wheel?

Stefan Jones @ 311... Time was not kind to the original BSG? Heck, it took only a few months for that to happen.

Oh, I remember thinking BSG:TOS was juvenile and hideously sloppy (scientifically speaking) when I saw it in high school. But I don't remember it looking so tacky.

I just switched back to watch the last two minutes of an episode. Jonathan Harris voicing a robot with a long sparkly robe, blue Christmas tree light brains, and a blinking mouth. Eh?

You'd have to try really hard to make something deliberately stupider than that.

Ethan@306: Just recently I made a post to Usenet in which I used "it's" where "its" would have been right. It made me wonder if my mind was going!

Gee, am I going to be the first one here to mention Grindhouse? The Locus Online reviewers have seen it (no link provided, since everyone here must know how to find that site), and I'd say their take is spot-on. Both flicks may be a little too long ("Planet Terror" at the end, "Death Proof" at the start), but the overall effect is gleeful exhilaration. And I too would love to see more of "Machete", beyond the looney pseudo-trailer.

My husband and I even got a free pass to it, thanks to some "use any time" tickets for the big multiplex in the next town over, a gift from a friend. And we emerged from the three-plus hours in a mostly empty theater (Easter weekend, here in hicksville) with one overall reaction: Whee!

PS: Did anyone watch the new Wind in the Willows adaptation on Masterpiece Theater last night? That was a lot of fun too, especially Hoskins' growl (as Badger).

I'm seeing Grindhouse tonight and I'm about to pee myself in anticipation. I'll have thoughts tonight.

I saw Grindhouse on Saturday and totally enjoyed myself. I like the Tarantino half better than the Rodriguez half, mostly due to my ambivalence toward zombie/horror movies and my enthusiasm with chick revenge tales.

A co-worked also liked them, but preferred "Planet Terror"; he said he found "Deathproof" to be too talky. I wonder if it breaks down along gender lines. I felt the talky bits in "Deathproof" were necessary to make us feel like we knew and cared about the women so as to give the last third of the film more drama.

I did like "Planet Terror" well enough, but it led to today's Making Light Open Thread Somebody Here Knows The Answer To This Question: At a certain point (zrygvat gnenagvab nangbzl, for those who've seen the film) I had to stop munching on my candy. For reasons I still cannot fathom, I stashed my M&M package in my pocket. The next day I neglected the pocket check before doing laundry.

So, how do you get melted-in chocolate out of heavy cotton pants? Anyone?

Faren Miller @ 316

PS: Did anyone watch the new Wind in the Willows adaptation on Masterpiece Theater last night? That was a lot of fun too, especially Hoskins' growl (as Badger).

Yes, I watched it, and greatly enjoyed it. I could swear there were times where Hoskins was channeling Leo McKern. How very weird: Rumpole the Badger.

For reasons having to do with a Suze-Orman-overloaded Pledge Week (although it seems like Pledge Month if not Pledge Semester--I *know* they've been going since before St. Patrick's) my Tivo's date with Ratty and Mole is postponed until Thursday. It'll probably be some time before I actually get to it, what with several previous episodes of Masterpiece Theatre already standing round yelling "watch me!" every time we look through the recordings on hand.

nerdycellist #318: So, how do you get melted-in chocolate out of heavy cotton pants? Anyone?

I have a lot of mutually contradictory information.

Joy of Cooking (1975) suggests "sponge w/ cold water or soak 30 min. or longer. Rub gently w/ soap and rinse. If stain persists, apply commercial grease solvent."

How to Repair Food (1987) says: "soak in cold water. Sponge in hot sudsy water. Bleach w/ hydrogen peroxide if necessary. Wash in hot water (warm for colored fabric)." [I feel the peroxide sounds a bit dangerous.]

Only thing that works at all for me is copious application of Spray'N'Wash, letting sit for long time before putting in the wash (after scraping off as much chocolate as possible). If it doesn't come out, try again *without* going through the dry cycle, since drying seems to set it even worse. Mind you, I never did get the chocloate gelato out that I spilled on a white skirt in Ravenna, but I blame that on having no Spray'N'Wash until I got back to the States three months later.

more on getting the chocolate out (from a cleaning place):

"For best results, try pretreating the area with drycleaning solvent and then place the affected area over several layers of white paper towels and blot.
If the stain remains, blot with a mild detergent and then rinse with water.
If these efforts still do not remove the stain, try using a solution of one teaspoon of white vinegar per cup of water. Rinse with water.
If all other methods fail, you may need to use a bleach, but remember to test for colorfastness. Any remaining stain may be removed by laundering according to the care label instructions."

Generally, you let the chocolate harden, then scrape as much off as you can, before you do the rest of the procedure. They say chocolate is more difficult than most stains.

Drycleaning solvent? Not one of the cleaning fluids I have lying around my apartment.

I washed the pants in warm water, and the chocolate kind of melted into the fibers. I tried scraping the stain, and very little came off the surface. I didn't tumble dry them.

Maybe I'll try the vinegar and water and then Spray & Wash when I get home. They're not terribly expensive pants ($10 at Marshalls) but they are from the one brand that fits my freak-show lower half, and one that no one in SoCal seems to carry. I'd hate to lose them!

I just know this is the right place to find font geeks.

I'm looking for a suitable font which is documentable to the early 1900s (by 1914, or - better yet - by 1907). That means no "in the style of the era" dodges. It needs to be something that will enlarge nicely for posters containing only a couple of words ("tango" "one-step" "schottische") and be readable from a distance - nothing with too many curlicues.

I'd be happiest with something I happen to already have (surely one of the gazillion installed fonts on this Mac will work) or can get as shareware.

I know zippo about fonts, so I do not want to guess and then get sarcastic commentary from font geeks about how I've used a font that wasn't invented until 1975. I also don't have time to turn myself into a font expert in the next couple of weeks. But surely someone here already is one....?

Help?

Faren @ 316... Somehow I telescoped what you said and found myself thinking of Tarantino's Wind in the Willows.

Susan - Check the Solotype catalog, then look at Fontage ( > period fonts) for the original or a link to it. There are a lot of fonts from that period. I'm at work, so I can't check easily, or I'd give you names to look at.

A request for Fluoropherii wisdom

I'm helping to clean out a house. It belonged to a relative who passed away at 91. We haven't had a tag sale estimator in (doubt it'd be worth it): we'll just use craigslist and a garage sale for most stuff. The cleaning triage (junk, donate, sell) is not difficult for most items because of time, the net and Ebay(1).

But I don't know how to approach / how to be ruthless in cleaning out:
1. The linen closet. Bedding, tablecloths, lace, towels, blankets. Most likely all from the 50's to the 80's, but could be as old as the 1910's. Likely all bought in the US, but some could have been brought from Russian or China (if the latter two then would date from 1910-1940s). Smells like mothballs. I can separate the polyester from the naturals (feel or flame test), and silk from the rest, but I can't tell cotton from linen.
2. The sewing room- fabrics from the 50's to the early 90's. Smells (and is) musty and dusty. Mostly polyesters.

To donate or put these out for a garage sale I feel like I'd need to run 20 loads of laundry, and I'm not keen on that(2). But I'm also not keen on just tossing it all. Searches online haven't been helpful, not compared to all the guides for furniture, kitchen goods, etc.

Should I care? Can I just toss away the musty stuff guilt free?

I think the main thing that stops me from just throwing out the musty stuff is analogizing to if it was the same volume of books. If someone else was cleaning out a book closet I'd be hopping mad to hear they just tossed them all(2). But used books aren't used linens, and are there people who care about old linens the way I care about books? I don't know. Do you?

Also,
Can you clean and how would you clean old leather that's got some mildew? I found a 14 foot python skin (likely bought in Burma or nearby in the 50s) that I'd like to keep *if* it can be cleaned.

-----------
(1) enough time removes the feelings of raw nostalgia or of being an interloper. Ebay removes the "it all could be hidden treasures" feel. Most all is worth $2 plus $5 to ship.

(2) I couldn't just put it out unwashed for free, because what if a craphound finds it? They'd just take it from addiction.

(3) knowing full well this is a dangerous analogy to make, because books to me: gold to Smaug. Although I can get rid of books that'd damage other books (mildew) or would damage the reader (not worth reading, could not in kindness let friends borrow).

nerdycellist @318: Real Simple suggests removing chocolate by soaking the fabric with an enzyme-based detergent, which is somewhat more convenient than using solvents. They have a nifty poster, too.

"Grindhouse" was a mostly-positive experience. Really long, but then it WAS a double feature.

"Planet of Terror" went on too long, even with the deliberately missing reels. It was, dare I say, a little too sophisticated in concept to be a wretched 70s B movie, even an updated one.

"Deathproof" was too farging talky upfront, but when it got moving it was a blast.

The trailers were hilarious. "Don't!" was just marvelous. I remember seeing previews in that mode at the Saturday morning horror double feature at the Glen Cove theater.

(Glen Cove WAS a grindhouse to some extent. Double features! "Asylum" and "The Legend of Hell House." "Vanishing Point" teamed with "Bless the Beasts and Children!" For one glorious summer, an older theater at the other end of town showed Italian SF movies and Mexican wrestling movies for $.50! And Sunn Pictures nature films. Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to. Thank God.)

Kathryn (327): I don't have experience removing mildew from leather in particular, but spreading it out in the sun on a dry day might help kill the spores. My mother successfully de-mildewed several mattresses using that method. I can't remember whether you need cold, or just low humidity, but sunlight is the crucial thing.

Kathryn FS #327:

I believe there's a bit of a market for lace and things that have lace or threadwork on them. Anything in that line would be worth at least taking to the charity shop if not somewhere perhaps more lucrative. (The older, the better, of course.)

I now really regret that my mother, a confirmed modernist with a complete lack of sentiment for objects, caused all my grandmother's hand-crocheted and/or hemstiched table runners to disappear.

Kathryn, there are people (I'm one) who would buy musty vintage linens if they were cheap enough. I have a nice collection of 100% linen tablecloths and napkins, both inherited and bought, and some of them were musty and/or stained to start with. I buy sheets at estate sales because 30+ year old sheets from Sears or Pennys are far better quality than expensive "luxury" sheets today -- better fabric, better thread count, really soft. (Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find vintage sheets any bigger than double bed size.) I figure that if I can't get the smell out in a couple of washes, or the stains out by soaking (sometimes for days) in a Biz solution, then I can put them in my own yard sale and get about what I paid for them. Or give them away -- I don't pay a lot for them. You may very well be able to sell the linens and the fabric on eBay or at a yard sale, even with a disclaimer about the mustiness. Do you have Freecycle where you live? Don't worry about the craphounds -- you can't save them from themselves.

Even very old linens and clothing can be rescued from must and stains with patience, as long as they're hand washable in cold water.

From my local extension service, this wisdom: To clean the mildewed leather items, take them outdoors, wipe them down with a soft cloth and rubbing alcohol diluted 1:1 and air dry. You might have to do this a couple of times. If mildew remains wash with a sudsy solution of leather soap, wipe with a damp cloth and air dry. The worst thing you can do is ruin the item, but if you don't clean it, it's ruined anyway.

Kathryn - most quilters I know don't like polyester, but other needleworkers do. I have friends who hunt down vintage fabrics for costuming, restoration, the pure joy of the patterns*, etc. I think a certain amount of mustiness/dustiness is a given when dealing with vintage items. For some it is part of the charm.

If I were shopping the top two things I would want to know are:

Is the fabric in bolts, yard lengths, fat quarters, or is it a scrap-a-palooza?

How was it stored? Even if it's dusty and musty**, if it has been out of the light, that's better than being exposed to UV.

Since fabric is heavy and shipping costs add up, maybe a quick notice to your local fiber arts/quilting/costuming groups would get you the people who would be interested?

*Me, I'm a sucker for vintage Marimekko prints.

**I have fabric that has been in storage for only about five years, and I know I'm going to wash it again before I finally use it.

Kathryn, I had a saddle get mildewed, I didn't realize it until I wanted to sell it (long, sad story, got married, got bit poor, had to quit lessons, then when I wanted to ride again, discovered I'd become violently allergic to horse dander). I just saddle soaped it, rinsed it good, then let it get sun and air. I guess it worked, the guy I sold it to didn't complain.

Then again, I don't know how fragile your snakeskin is, but like someone pointed it out, if you don't do anything it's trashed. Which would be a pity.

This site recommends different procedures for treating stains from milk vs. dark chocolate, depending on whether the first line of attack is against the cocoa butter or milk proteins.

Kathryn @327
As I said to you in person this evening, the way to kill a mildew infestation in leather is to bag it up (Ziplock), put it in the freezer overnight, then spread it in the sun for a day. Three freeze/sun cycles should do it.

(It did for the leather in my bindery that got mildewed this last summer. This technique also works on paper.)

I wouldn't recommend the alcohol, not as a first resort - it dries leathers and skins out.

My Grindhouse plans for today fell through, goddammit. Hopefully tomorrow.

Hello, open thread! I'm maudlin and mooning over my fiction of choice. Does anyone here know when the next Rosemary Kirstein "Steerswoman" book (she said in an interview that it would be The City in the Crags) is likely to actually emerge from behind the dark curtain?

It's rare I run across a sciencefictional fantasy world written with that kind of startling clarity. If anyone has seen a thing like it, also, do tell.

Susan @ #324: I am not a font geek, but I get my fonts at The Scriptorium. If you email them what you're looking for it's likely they can tell you what they've got that will do the trick, and their prices are good. Also you can look around the art/font collections part of the site and see what you can find - some of their fonts come from old books.

They take their business pretty seriously and they've been around for ages, so I don't think they'd try to pass something off that wasn't legit.

ethan (337) My Grindhouse plans for today fell through, goddammit. Hopefully tomorrow.

Please be sure to change your trousers first.

Kathryn, 327: Check with your local community theater before tossing the fabrics. Costumers love polyester.

And I second the recommendation to put all handworked pieces aside. Those can be worth money, depending on age and condition.

Kathryn, 327

What TexAnne said, and you can include local college theater departments as well.

Re: Kathryn @ 327 -
Burn testing to distinguish cotton/linen

From Claire Schaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide (it automatically falls open to the burn test page):

Cotton burns rapidly with yellow flame, continues burning, afterglow, smells like paper, resideue is brown-tinged end, light-colored, feathery ash.

Linen burns more slowly, smells like rope, ash maintains shape of swatch.

Re: Antarctic Artists

Does anyone else remember a story by Ursula LeGuin (all details hazy) that involved a number of women having a retreat at a station in Antarctica? One of them was from Brazil, particularly wealthy so helped subsidize it? Published in the New Yorker some time in the 70's? One spent much of her time in a chamber making ice sculptures which would never be viewed unless there in person (ah, before the internet and Flickr et. al.).

The Denver Public Library has bound copies of tNY that certainly span the possible years, but I'd appreciate any help getting closer.

Through the ensuing decades, comparatively unrelated things will pull me back to this story. Is there a term for this time-machine-surprise element?

I remember the story, Carol, and thought of it myself.
A quick Google on the name of one character gave me
"Sur: A SUMMARY REPORT OF THE YELCHO EXPEDITION TO
THE ANTARCTIC, 1909--1910" which was in The Compass Rose.

Carol: It's in LeGuin's collection The Compass Rose (representing the direction South, naturally.) The story title is 'Sur', and the acknowledgments note that it was published in the New Yorker in 1982. It is indeed a fine story. (I won't spoil the details for those who haven't read it.)

Oh, if only we lived in a world where the Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel really existed. (Although I understand that the quality of Mexican food in NYC, esp in Brooklyn, has risen considerably over the past decade.)

Heck, how about a Waldo Tunnel Extension, shipping burritos from Tiburon to Burien? I'd take that in a hot second.

Regarding stain removal: I've had very good luck soaking old linens in a solution of oxygen bleach, with some laundry soap mixed in for good measure (Era is enzyme-based, so good for protein stains). I just leave them overnight, and scrub at the spots only if they don't respond to the soaking. Never tried it with chocolate, though.

And yes, many of us who love fabric will buy even musty or stained pieces, provided they are otherwise in good condition, and the price is right...

AAAAH! I just saw my copy of The Compass Rose! I remembered the story being in a chapbook which got separated from the main LeGuin body in multiple moves. About to trot right back and pull it out...

Many thanks!

Not a hamster story, but we've got cat people here, too, and it is an open thread...

Mystery cat takes regular bus to the shops

That's one smart cat - knows how to live the good life!

In the US I don't doubt someone would call it in to a pound, where, in many areas, it would likely be killed.

Carol Kimball #344: I recall that story. I keep thinking it was in The Wind's Twelve Quarters.

A hamster powered paper shreader

Carol, the Fabric Sewing Guide you mention looks wonderful. Is the rest of it as good as that test? When was it written? I rarely see such sensible details in recent references -- it's more common to cite numeric measurements than "smells like," though there are still occasional "looks like."

I suppose I could test this, but I'm asking because I have neither sacrificial linen nor rope. Does burning linen smell like burning rope, or like raw rope?

Yesterday night, I met with a few people I correspond with on Making Light. Kathryn from Sunnyvale knew I was going to be around the Bay Area, and Abi from Scotland had flown in to visit her own family. Thus did Kathryn and her significant other, along with David Goldfarb and his significant other, and Abi and I meet at Berkeley's bookstore The Other Change of Hobbit, from where owner Tom Whitmore took us nearby to a Tibetan restaurant. Good food. Good conversations with people I had never met in the flesh before, except for Kathryn. After that, we were walking down Shattuck Street until we came across a mailbox made up to look like R2-D2. So, of course, we had to stop dead in our tracks. Which gave a local loonie the chance to come our way, gesticulating and repeatedly screaming "I'm a Moor, I'm a Moor!" None of us thought much of his acting abilities so we sort-of ignored him. He eventually walked away.

In other words, I had a great time.

Serge 355: "I'm a Moor, I'm a Moor!"

You should have tied a boat to him.

Adrian @ 354: In Knitting Rules, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee describes burnt linen as smelling like burning grass, having a large and steady flame, and leaving behind soft gray ash.

Burnt cotton smells like burning paper, has a large and steady amber or yellow flame, and leaves behind a small amount of soft gray ash. It ignites more quickly than linen, and when the flame is blown out, a travelling ember is left.

TexAnne @341,

How do you define "handworked pieces"?

Do you mean lace? Other than (possibly) some of the lace, the only other obviously handmade stuff are patchwork sheets- sheets turned into sacks (like a sleeping bag) made of several pieces.

Xopher @ 356... I was ready to tie him down if he came any closer to Kathryn, who had her back to him, in case this Othello decided she was his Desdaemona.

Serge @359, 355,

That was an odd moment, wasn't it?

My normal reaction* is to ignore the raving person, because attention just rewards their behavior. But ignoring a person yelling right behind you, who seems to be getting louder the longer he's ignored? Hard to do.

--------------
* learned from a summer of riding to work in a bus with a fairly high % of riders who spoke every thought out loud. Their commentary-gaze would sweep by every few minutes, unless you caught their attention.

Kathryn: Those sacks are probably worth the fabric in them, then. (As someone has already pointed out, old sheets are better than new ones.) Lace's value depends on condition, age, and technique. At least, as I understand it--I'm not up on antique lace, since I've always preferred to make my own. I do know that there are books on the subject, but I can't think of any titles at the moment. Probably something like "Antique Lace." You could probably find a needlework or heirloom sewing shop somewhere. There's usually at least one person obsessed with old things on the staff.

Kathryn @ 365... Yes, it was rather difficult to ignore the would-be gentleman. By the way, at first, I thought he was yelling that he was, not a Moor, but a moron, an utterance I could not disagree with.

We saw Grindhouse last night. I was rather disappointed. My own reaction to "Planet Terror" is that it was an overextended joke that went on longer than it should have, but still managed to make me sort-of smile. "Death-proof" bored me out of my skull, but luckily had no zombies to pick my brain up. The fake coming-attractions were just right though, amusing but not overstaying their welcome. I especially enjoyed Nicholas Cage as Fu Manchu.

Serge @ 362

I thought he was yelling that he was, not a Moor, but a moron, an utterance I could not disagree with.

That would have made him an oxyMooron. Take that, Xopher!

Serge #355: Leaving aside the fact that I'm envious, I would have thought the obvious response to the gentleman proclaiming his Moorishness would be to ask if he were from Venice.

Kathryn from Sunnyvale #360: It could have been worse -- it could have been the bus driver commenting on every blasted thing on the road. There was a driver like that on one suburban bus route in Atlanta. After riding on her bus a few times, I was impelled to change the route I took to get to the community college where I teach part time.

Kathryn from Sunnyvale (#360): My normal reaction* is to ignore the raving person, because attention just rewards their behavior. But ignoring a person yelling right behind you, who seems to be getting louder the longer he's ignored? Hard to do. That sounds like my cat, calling for food in the middle of the night. Sometimes indulgence is the only way to shut him up!

I also enjoyed that link to the Mystery Cat story. It's been a good week for cat lovers, what with a Cat Column from Jon Carroll on Monday and an ongoing series featuring the cat in Pickles. (Link is to the site that shows it in glorious color.)

Bruce @ 364... That would have made him an oxyMooron.

Ba-da-bing.

Fragano @ 365... From the looks of him, I doubt that the gent in question would know where Venice is, or where he himself was at the moment. Then again, maybe he was a Method Actor who wanted to see if his performance was fooling anybody.

My recollection is that we had a different Desdemona, a rather frightened-looking young woman who attached herself to the other side of our group (while talking on her cell phone) until our Venetian (blind, if at all, only in his drunkenness) moved on.

Kathryn was unflappable - even her grammar did not suffer.

(And Fragano, the last thing we wanted to do was encourage the man to talk to us. We were rather trying to discourage him.)

Serge #368: Fortunately, I'd put down my mug of tea before reading your last comment.

Abi #369: That was, I suppose, the sensible thing to do.

abi @ 369... Ah, yes, there was that young woman who indeed thought it was safer to hang close to us. As for Kathryn being unflappable, she didn't look that way to me, as I was right next to her. All right, Kathryn, time for you to settle the question. Heh heh heh...

I can catch up here, or do anything else at all, and since it's still April, the "anything else at all" is defined as "everything all at once."

The roses and cattle will have to wait, today, as there has been some kind of burrowing mammal confluence, and the path under the rustic pergola has experienced such an upwelling of the sod that the male residents of this farmstead can no longer walk under it. So today, I must cut sod and regrade that part of the lawn.

(That eight-foot square of the pergola is planted to: roses Darlow's Enigma SE, Alberta SW, Felicite et Perpetue NW, Wisteria sinensis outside NE and Clematis viticella Barbara (Betty?) Corning inside NW and SW).

This Kos post made me laugh:

Act Now And We'll Throw In A Gilette Razor, Which In The End Times Will Be Traded As Currency

"Visions of barbershop massacres, book burnings, Muslims breeding like rabbits, polygamy, Europe under the domination of the bearded menace and an Amerostralian counteroffensive based primarily on a campaign of frantic boinking?"

It is now possible to find Edward Elmer Smith on Gutenberg.

Remember, these books may still be in copyright outside the USA, where Berne Conventions rules have applied for far longer.

Susan @ 374... Ah yes, the Muslims breeding like rabbits. That old chestnut that always winds up being used against whatever ethnic group happens to be the threat du jour. I am reminded of graffiti in a Bay Area theater's washroom. It went...

"(scratchedout) multiply like rabbits"

And someone added...

"So do bigots, and they can't add or subtract either."

Serge #376: We shouldn't forget that the same bigots' great-grandparents were worrying about Jews and Catholics breeding like rabbits. Not to mention the possibility that the world could eventually be ruled by the International Jewish Conspiracy ('Everyone will eat bagels with lox') and the Pope would be making tyrannical laws ('Learn Latin, or else...').

Serge and Fragano @376 and 377

The same bigots' parents were the ones who were convinced that JFK would make everyone become a Roman Catholic. (I think, from here-and-now, that that one was spread by Nixon's campaign. It wouldn't have been the first time his people started an ugly rumor.)

#377: ('Everyone will eat bagels with lox')

And this is a bad thing how?

I can't wait until Tancredo's campaing is high-profile enough to start getting mocked by everything from The Daily Show to Law and Order. (Although, come to think of it, his base probably won't be able to provide him with much in the way of donations, unless the campaign treasurer starts accepting piglets and deeds to trailer homes.)

(Sorry, that was mean.)

That too, Fragano and P J... I remember reading an Ed Gorman mystery set in the late Fifties, where the hero questions some old buddy of his who is convinced that the local chapter of the Catholic Conspiracy is in the basement of the church. The hero, a Catholic, does point to his buddy that, before the latter left the Church, he too had been an altar boy and had seen what was in the basement and there was nothing going on in there. Does that change the guy's mind? Of course not. He clarifies himself by saying that the Conspiracy really is in the church's sub-basement.

It's elephants all the way down.

PJ Evans #378: That the Nixon campaign came up with that one seems likely.

Stefan #379: ('Everyone will eat bagels with lox') And this is a bad thing how?

Indeed, it's not.

I also took Latin, albeit at a very late age as such things go.

Guess hell froze over.

Stefan Jones #379: I was mocking anti-Semitic paranoia. I like bagels with lox.

Serge #380: Elephants in soutanes.

Open thread stuff:

Scalzi linked to this over on Whatever. Yowza. Lee Iacocca tears GWB a new one.

I like this quote:

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies.

#385: Next on Fox News: Why does Lee Iococa hate our troops?

Typewriter fetishists, check out this very cool Underwood-ish keyboard mod.

The NY Times is reporting that Kurt Vonnegut passed away today. I'm sure lots of readers of Making Light were admirers. I was always particulary fond of Cat's Cradle, myself.

I just wanted to pass on two opportunities to participate in distributed science:

Blogger Bioblitz, in which you the blogger pick a spot and inventory its life, write it up in your blog, and then send in the data and the link, and somehow a grand report is done of the whole thing.

Project Budburst, for the US only I guess, where you report the "phenological milestones" of selected plants in your area, like first flower, first leaf, etc. It only started this month so in my climate there's not going to be much to send in (our "firsts" happen in January and February mostly). But it's going to be fun looking for stuff to report.

I think this is one of the most exciting things to come down the pike in a long time.

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

-- Kurt Vonnegut, 1922 - 2007

Oh, here's another US citizen science project:

Frogwatch USA

#354 Adrian
[re: Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide] ...looks wonderful. Is the rest of it as good as that test? When was it written?

My copy is a copy decades old, but it's still in print, check Amazon et. al. Yes, it's a treasure trove.

Does burning linen smell like burning rope, or like raw rope?

Burning rope. Also kind of like burning grass (hay). We used to do burn tests on unlabeled fabrics when I taught Theatrical Costuming. Our area dean was showing around a group of Big and Powerful People when we thus engaged, and they hovered in the doorway as she gave brief intros and asked what we were doing. She then asked what we were testing?

"Hemp."

"Oh, great!" and they all trooped in. There was a brief moment in there when my universe tilted sharply sideways and then realigned, and I realized (again) what a wonderful woman she was.

#361 TexAnne:
...You could probably find a needlework or heirloom sewing shop somewhere. There's usually at least one person obsessed with old things on the staff.

Quilt shop personnel are also up on this stuff.

"I'm A Moor"

Othello was a successful military guy, right? What are the chances this walking derangement was instead saying, "I'm Amor"? In the hope that love might indeed conquer all? Watch out for those STDs.

"My copy is a COUPLE decades old..."

David @388,

If I drank, I'd want to mix up an ice9 for myself. I imagine that it's a drink that looks like frosted water, but is of sufficiently high temperature that it just about instantaneously hits your blood stream to knock you off your feet.

But instead I'll curl up with my Cat's Cradle and a cup of chamomile tea, thinking about a karass of others also curled up with their books.

Carol, when the loon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moor, eh?

Serge #355: "I'm a Moor, I'm a Moor!"

or perhaps I'm Amur! I'm Amur!. Not everyday you meet a weretiger.

If you folks keep making those bad jokes about Berkeley's own Othello being amorous, I'll have to trot out my Pépé le Pew impersonation.

("Nooooooo!!!")

Meanwhile, Kathryn from Sunnyvale still hasn't said if she WAS unflappable during the whole incident. There was no danger, really, with all of us being around, especially Abi, who had had that cup of Peet's hours ago and thus was probably reverting to her redoubtable state.

",...must... have... Peeeetttt'sss..."

Serge, that should be "Le noooo!"

I think the only time Pepe le Pew made me laugh out loud was him pretending to be a sled dog. Le bow! Le bowwowwow!

Another entry in the pun department (from a very silly conversation my husband and I were having last evening) -- Lipidoptera: congenitally obese butterflies and moths.

I think Lipidoptera could be simplified to include butterflies, but not moths. What other fattening insects are there?

Diatryma @ 398... that should be "Le noooo!"

Mais bien sûr.

My, oh my... One item in my employer's newsletter today used the word 'truthiness'. And correctly too.

Stephen Colbert, what have you wrought?

Thanks to all who answered up-thread about my melted chocolate on pants problem; I got an enzyme cleaner, soaked the hell out of the chocoltate stains, tossed the pants in the wash and crossed my fingers.

No more chocolate!

I'm very happy that the pants were saved.

Faren Miller @ #399: that's very good. Phoning my dad right now to tell him...

abi... Best wishes flying back to Scotland tomorrow. Stay away from any Othello wannabes at the airport.

Serge @397,

Yes.

Kathryn from Sunnyvale @ 406... Still, let's hope that, the next time we meet, we won't be running into more of this street thespianism.

abi,

Have a good flight back to Scotland, and good luck on the move.

So I just finally got my copy of the first issue of Buffy Season 8 and tore the frack through it. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Now to track down issue #2.

Still no Grindhouse for me, galdarnit. Tomorrow for sure.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Events warrant.

I just did something very strange: I went to the mall, bought a comic book (S8 issue 2!), went to the food court, got a slice of pizza, ate my pizza while reading a comic book in the mall food court, and then saw the Ninja Turtles movie. One part of all that was good; guess which one it was.

ethan: It's out?! It's out?!

Oh, gods. I've just rearranged my entire morning schedule in seconds to plan to be at the comic shop when it opens.

Please tell me I'm not alone in this fangirlish glee.

Aconite: For a second I was disoriented and thought it was TMNT that you were excited about, but then I noted the bit you said about the comic shop and stopped planning your intervention.

You are not alone in your fangirlish glee. And #2 is gooooood.

I...will...not...get...into...Buffy...comics!!!!!

Xopher @ 413-
Resistance is futile. Get thee to a comics store already.

xopher,

I...will...not...get...into...Buffy...comics!!!!!

why?

i know why i won't, it's because i never followed the buffy series, & it'd take too long to catch up. but if you are up on your buffy, comics are cheap, really quick to read, & only come out once a month. where's the big commitment?

miriam, I definitely see a lot of long-term frustration and stress in my future because of these damn comic books. I can understand why Xopher would try to resist.

But he will fail.

Xopher, 413--do what I'm doing, and wait for the collection.

Just what I need. One more thing to knock Wheadon's X-men comic-book out of schedule.

Mary Dell (#404): Thanks! Puns are fun to play with.

In recent weird news, a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil that was found a while back with some soft tissue still relatively intact has gone through analysis, and the proteins isolated from that collagen have been compared to modern animals. The punchline is that the closest match to the tissue is to that of a chicken.

The Slashdot response included spontaneous sonnetry:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two former drumsticks, turn'd to stone,
Stand in Wyoming. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And razor teeth and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those proteins read
Which yet survive, stamp'd in this lifeless thing,
The hand that mock'd them and the mouth that fed...

Munchy porn

Randolph, those photos remind me that at my old office, I scanned some neatly arrayed Cheez-its and made a desktop pattern out of them. Very tasteful.

"Oh, what is a tyrannosaur to do?
For years we've been the kings of the Cretaceous,
the plains we marched upon were wide and spacious
as all the other creatures hid from view.
But mammals now will give the kids a kickin'.
Our reputation used to be invinc-
-ible: but now they're all excited since
they found tyrannosaurus tastes like chicken."

But T-Rex knew there could be no escape:
the beady eyes were watching them like hawks,
as furry things emerged from burrows; and, as
they quietly advance with knives and forks
the past takes on a terrifying shape:
were dinosaurs wiped out by Colonel Sanders?

There's a certain amusement to opening Making Light and finding the big Google ad to be for the 'Conservative Book Club'.

#420, Skwid:

Dinosaur--tastes like chicken!

Spoilerish questions for Buffy 8.2, from someone who has trouble recognizing people in general and has little comic book experience:

The slayer training the others in teamwork: was I supposed to know who that was?

The one showing recent interest in comic books and drywall: is that the same one who was flirty with Xander in episode 1?

On the theory that someone here knows pretty much everything, I'm appealing for assistance.

My mother is looking for a children's book she remembers from at least 40 years ago. All she can remember is that it was poetry, and one of the poems started with the line, "The Ibex is a most unusual beast." I've tried Google, and can't come up with it.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? I'd appreciate any input.

Todd, question #1: count four words in to post #426.

Question #2, sure looks like it, although her feather earring has moved from her right ear to her left.

Juli #427:

Now I need to know too, because it sounds familiar. I tried Hillaire Belloc because that's the sort of line he has, but didn't find it: and I tried Edward Lear, and didn't find it. But somebody will do better than me, I'm sure.

Okay, it's Friday. Here's your obligatory YouTube moment: "thou shalt always kill" by dan le sac vs. scroobius pip.

PJ @ 424 - Yep. Cognitive dissonance galore. I wonder what they pay per click-though?

Kip, cool. Aren't those amazing, though? I haven't really dug into that blog, but it seems to be a treasury of small strobe technique.

Ogden Nash did quite a bit of light verse regarding animals, which has been re-used in a number of different ways & forms. Though I can't find that particular quote, it does sound like him.

"The trick is to catch them at school -- before they become generals and senators and presidents -- and poison their minds with humanity."

Kurt Vonnegut, 1922 - 2007

Juli Thompson, #427: The poem itself doesn't ring a bell, but I'd bet on Jack Prelutsky. He's got several books of "animal" poems, including Zoo Doings from at least 25 years ago.

Or--come to think--Shel Silverstein.

juli @ 427: try abebooks.com's BookSleuth. I'm betting it will turn out to be Ogden Nash, though.

I think it's either Ogden Nash, or from The Raucous Auk, by Mary Ann Hoberman (I think). I'll check later, but my copy isn't handy right now.

Does anyone know what copyright the eye of Argon is under? I just got a really evil idea.

I know the soap opera that is the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville sports program is of limited interest to those who don't live here, but still:

Get it while it's hot!

The Ibex is an unusual beast,
Parlez-vous,
Its head can't turn round in the least,
Parlez-vous.
They say, whenever danger warns
It leaps off a crag and lands on its horns!
Hinky dinky parlez-vous!

Arrrgghhhh.

Many years ago my aunt (julia's mom as it happens) gave my parents a big wooden dresser. Contemporary horizontal model, very plain and unadorned.

It ended up in my teen-hood bedroom. It got soaked around the base from a flood, but I never looked really closely at the damage.

Against mild objections it followed me to California. I missed a chance to ditch it when I moved to Oregon.

A few weeks back I decided to finally ditch it. I moved the clothes to a wire-frame shelving unit, and vowed that this weekend I would be rid of it.

I moved it out to the landing, and in full daylight, with the drawers out, I saw the mildew, scratches and delaminated, chipping veneer. No way a charity would accept it.

So . . . bust it up? It turns out to be built like a brick shithouse. Screws. Dovetails. Solid wood panels. Someone with time and money could probably restore it . . . but I don't really want to take the trouble of finding the somebody.

Any ideas? Short of paying money to have it hauled away, or taking a sledgehammer to it?

A really interesting video on the gun market at Darra Adam Khel in the Pushtu region of Pakistan. Guns and ammunition are made by hand here, everything from the traditional Khyber muzzle-loader rifle, to Mauser pistols, to full-auto Kalashnikov knock-offs, to rocket launchers.

Largest illegal black market of guns in Pakistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9xf62PKC5M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Evideosift%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2FLargest%2Dillegal%2Dblack%2Dmarket%2Dof%2Dguns%2Din%2Dpakistan

One may differ with the conclusions of the narrator, but it would be unwise to ignore the content of this video as a factor. This is the kind of factor some of us were thinking of when the US invaded Afghanistan. Winning short-term - very possible. Winning long-term - a lot harder to define and even harder to do.

But even if you don't want to think about heavy stuff, it's fascinating to watch. One of the interesting moments is the craftsman carefully engraving into a pistol slide "Made as China by Norinco".

The little grass hut has been tumbled down
And scattered across many lands;
And the little stick house has been spread around
Carried off by various hands.
Time was when the little grass hut was new,
And the stick house was trim and fair;
And that was the time when those Little Pigs Two
Lazily built them there.

"Now don't come in to my house," they said,
"By the hair of my chinny-chin chin!"
And off each went to his flimsy bed
And slept with a piggy grin,
And, as they were dreaming, a wolf so bad
Came to their small dwellings and blew
Oh! so very strong were the lungs he had
And the grasses and sticks, he did strew.

Ay, off on the winds of the Wolf they went,
And nothing remained in place--
Not one single stem or twig was unbent
To shelter a little pig's face,
And they wondered, they wondered, as they did flee
And they ran through the woods so thick:
Would they find shelter with Little Pig Three
Who they mocked when he built with brick?

[after Eugene Field]

bryan @ 438

You'd have to ask someone at Wildside Press - they reprinted it last year. Wikipedia has the ISBN - just google "eye of argon" and it's the first thing that comes up.

For those of you in New York City, an exhibit of off-planet landscapes opened today at the American Museum of Natural History. via. NYT review.

Stefan --

Something like Goodwill, where they teach people how to restore stuff on donated furniture, or a saw. (Permit me to vote for "not the saw".)

Breaking solid wood furniture with a sledge is a good way to wind up with a woodscrew in your kneecap.

#446: My experience before my last move suggests that charities are really picky about donations.

(The Salvation Army guys tried to hit me up for money to dump the furniture I was trying to donate! Fortunately, the head of a large immigrant family living a few apartments down from me saw me struggling to get a big chair up stairs. She not only wanted the chair, but the bed, the desk, and the table . . . all heavy wooden beasts. Her sturdy sons moved it out the next day.)

However, I'll see if Goodwill has a (furniture) rehab program.

In any case, I bought a couple of pieces of molding this afternoon. I plan on staining them, rounding the ends, and tacking them with brads over the frayed bits of veneer. That, and a thorough vacuuming, might make the thing pass inspection.

(It remains a sturdy and useful piece of furniture; however, the twenty year old mildew stains visible from the back and bottom would be a real turn-off.)

Could it be refinished and made nice again? This past summer, after picking up a cheap but nice nightstand and refinishing it, I turned to a couple older tables-- both were veneer, so they aren't exactly good as new (power sander WHEE!) but one had twenty years of heavy use and the other, um, had my houseplants on it. I overwater. There was mold growing on and into it.
The first table came out pretty well, certainly an improvement, and the second still has a black spot, but isn't actively fungal any more.
Of course, that's more for if you want to keep it.

I have no doubt it could be refinished. But I don't want to put in more than minimal effort, because I don't want it. It's bland and dowdy and bulky.

The maker's mark says "Drexler" and numbers that suggest that it was made in 1960.

Stefan @ 441 - How to get rid of just about anything you don't want anymore...

1 - Freecycle. There are many Oregon chapters. I unloaded a pair of ugly, unloved nightstands this way.

2 - Craigslist. I got rid of a box spring and an old sofa on the "Free" pages.

The great thing about these methods - people come and get your junk. List your dresser in both places. Link some pictures. Someone will want it.

Clifton, Michael Palin visited one of the gun markets in Pakistan in his Himalaya TV series. See also the book version on his website.

The section in the second episode, at the border crossing between India and Pakistan, is pretty mind-blowing for anyone who has seen a formal parade by the British Army.

bryan: You were thinking of submitting it to one of those "literary agencies", weren't you?

"You were thinking of submitting it to one of those 'literary agencies', weren't you?"

No, I have a fantasy world where quite a number of stories take place, everything from Heroic fantasy, to fairytales/folklore, ghost stories and so forth. It is a pretty adaptable world, and the Eye of Argon could be put into it.

submitting to one of those literary agencies would be a prank, and if there's one thing my various postings on this site have demonstrated it is that I am a very serious fellow.

I figure using the Eye of Argon as a serious literary component is the most evil thing somebody could ever do. In the future people will be Argoning threads by comparing Hitler to me.

Y'all, can I tell you I just finished The Female Man by Joanna Russ, after having neglected to ever read her before, and my conclusion is that she's just way too smart for me?

Had to get that out somewhere.

You. Yes, you. Stop what you're doing. No, really. Stop what you're doing and go read the Side Particle titled "An Easter Story". The future of the world is in your hands*.

* if you have a future traveling time machine in your hands, of course.

Stefan, #441, my city has a "too good to waste" covered area at the dump, where you can leave stuff free. Maybe yours does, too.

All this talk of chicken is making me think of putting shoes and a coat on and going to get some Popeye's. It's stopped raining, and the car is bound to be warmer than the condo (the heat pump died while I was at Minicon -- new heat pump Tuesday!).

I just took a hit from my inhaler and looked at my matched set of Ogden Nash books (Little, Brown, 1942 -- they were my mother's and she tucked bits of Nashiana in them -- good thing I took them to college with me!) and didn't find any titles with "ibex" in them.

Recently discovered:

An exquisitely extemely symmetric bipolar nebula, the "Red Square" nebula.

While I think they could've been a tad more creative with the name*, it is right up there with the hexagon in "universe surprises us with geometry" news.

---
* it'll be the Burning Man Nebula in the burner crowd.

Project Dresser:

After another good look, I decided that the thing ("PARALLEL BY DREXLER 9/60") would be too hard to bust up. Harder, in any case, than fixing it. And paying to have it hauled away would cost more than materials.

I called 1-800-SATRUCK and scheduled a pickup for next Saturday. I have that long to gild the lily.

I will take pictures this evening.

This morning I:

i) Glued down the loose veneer and the stuff the veneer clings to.

ii) Sanded and smoothed the edges of the molding that will cover the banged-up veneer on the bottom edge of both sides.

iii) Dabbed wood filler on the chipped spots that won't be covered by the molding.

iv) Sanded off and vacuumed up the black and white mildew spots from the insides and bottom.

v) Discovered that the guide rail for the bottom drawer was useless and warped. Bought two hardwood squares that, glued together, more or less match the guide. I'll notch the ends and glue it in later in the week.

vii) Stained the molding. The stain I had on hand is much too dark and ruddy, and more to the point the molding's wood grain doesn't look anything like the veneer's. But I'm not going to go crazy finding a match. The molding will hide and secure the veneer's rough edges. If a "picker" discovers the piece, all they'll need to do is pry them off .

The "Easter Story" particle reminds me of my brother's wedding cake.

It's hard to tell in that picture (and because of the limitations of the cake medium), but it's meant to be a UFO descending in a forested-type area.

Dresser! On its side. There are eight drawers -- four small, four wide -- behind the folding doors.

Close up of the farged veneer. You can see how thick the wood underneath is in this shot. The amount of fiber in this piece Ikea could turn into a whole room of particle board flatpack stuff.

Lore Sjoberg praises the TV Tropes Wiki.

The set of Google ads I just got:

Literary agents
Seat Buckle Adjuster
Find a Literary Agent
Need A Literary Agent?
Before You Hire An Agent
Literary Agency
Lit Agency
Seat Belt Safety
Literary Agent Poland
Writers Literary

Only at ML.

Kathryn of Sunnyvale said (#457):
Recently discovered:

An exquisitely extemely symmetric bipolar nebula, the "Red Square" nebula.

Whoah. I was actually a co-author on a paper studying the central star of that object back in 1992, before I went to grad school. Hadn't thought about that in years.... (Alas, back then we had no idea about the amazing nebula around it.)

There's an even better picture of it here, at the home page of one of the authors.

For what it's worth, I believe they chose the name "Red Square" because it really is very similar to the previously known and well-studied "Red Rectangle", except for being more, y'know, square-ish.

Re "Have you been in any peace marches?"

See Ed Felten's remarks on Prof. Walter F. Murphy's complaint about being questioned at the airport. Prof. Felten is actually familiar with how the no-fly list works, having served on the Secure Flight Working Group.

Briefly, names get put on the list by a secret process:

In short, nobody outside the intelligence community knows much about how names get on the list.

The airlines check their customers’ reservations against the list, and they deal with customers who are “hits”. Most hits are false positives (innocent people who trigger mistaken hits), who are allowed to fly after talking to an airline customer service agent. The airlines aren’t told why any particular name is on the list, nor do they have special knowledge about how names are added. An airline employee, such as the one who told Prof. Murphy that he might be on the list for political reasons, would have no special knowledge about how names get on the list. In short, the employee must have been speculating about why Prof. Murphy’s name triggered a hit.

It is also true that if a no-fly list exists at all, false positives are inevitable. See Felten's further remarks.

Murphy writes: "I confess to having been furious that any American citizen would be singled out for governmental harassment because he or she criticized any elected official, Democrat or Republican." This would make me furious, too. However, the evidence that this has actually happened in Prof. Murphy's case is mighty weak.

Stefan @ 460 - Pity it's messed up. I think that it's got very clean lines and is very much to my taste in furnture. Unfortuately, any restorer would have to re-do the veneer. That may or may not be the kiss of death for this really very nice dresser.

There are stores in Seattle (e.g. Collective) that would know furiture restorers who might be interested in the piece, or who could clearly tell you that it's junk. There must be similar stores in Portland.

Bill Higgins -- Beam Jockey #464: I concur. I organised a teach in on the Iraq War just before it began, and certainly did not take a position that the Bush Administration would find palatable, but I've never run into the no-fly list.* Were I to appear on the list (which, btw, my congressman has), I would, however, doubt it was a false positive: how many 'Fragano Ledgisters' are there?

* OTOH, I'm not a professor at Princeton.

The American Conservative explores alternate realities.

#465: The damaged veneer is very small in area. Is it required to replace entire sheets, or can a restorer splice in a slice?

I just about done with my repairs. I just have to sand and stain a few patches near the base that I hit with wood filler. Oh, and nail in the re-created drawer rail.

I think it's now more than acceptable as a Salvation Army donation. I'm thinking of wrapping up the can of stain (just bought, a close match) and taping it inside one of the drawers so whoever buys it can persue things further.

Now I'm picturing it appearing on Antiques Roadshow, and the expert rattling off the things I did to it that reduce its value from $10,000 to $50.

I sent the pictures to my aunt. She replied that it was the only piece of furniture she'd ever bought new!

Via Sheila Finch - the massacre at Virginia Polytechnic touches the SF community.
**********************************************
Sheila wrote:
I just learned that the son of Michael Bishop (the SF writer) was the teacher killed in the Virginia massacre today.

**********************************************
There needs to be a special hell for narcissists who slaughter the innocent.

From a copyrighted story in the LA Times:

'Personable' professor among shooting victims
By Greg Miller, Times Staff Writer
8:43 PM PDT, April 16, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Monday's session of the class in introductory German was nearly an hour old when the shooter entered the classroom in Norris Hall and fired dozens of rounds.

One of the first was aimed at the head of the teacher, Christopher J. Bishop, who wore his hair long, rode his bike to campus and worked alongside his wife in the foreign languages department at Virginia Tech.

Authorities had not publicly identified any victims as of late Monday, but colleagues confirmed that Bishop, 35, was among the 33, including the shooter, killed during the rampage.

His friends said they were struggling to comprehend the violent death of an instructor who was known for his gentle manner and generosity toward students.

"I don't think he was the type of person who had an enemy," said Troy Paddock, a close friend whose wife also teaches in the German program. "He was a very friendly person. He did weekly gatherings for students out of class to practice German where they could talk about anything. He was a nice and helpful person."

On the Web sites where he posted samples of the art he created with his digital camera, Bishop described himself as "mild-mannered" and "bespectacled." He was an avid hiker and movie fan, a Georgia native who paid close attention to the wins and losses of the Atlanta Braves.

Bishop wrote online that after earning bachelor's and master's degrees in German at the University of Georgia, he spent four years in Germany "where he spent most of his time learning the language, teaching English, drinking large quantities of wheat beer, and wooing a certain Fraulein."

Colleagues said the fraulein was Stefanie Hofer, the woman who became his wife. The two were the only tenure-track professors in the German program, according to Richard Shryock, the chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Locus Online also mentions Christopher Bishop's death, with a few links. What a damnable shame all this is! Even a slight sense of "knowing" a victim (or reading the online obits that are starting to emerge) really brings it home.

I'm sorry to hear about Bishop's son. My condolences.

Veneer usually can be replaced in areas, unless it's some very fancy sort of veneer that the grain is impossible to match closely.

[My father did museum-grade furniture restoration of antique furniture].

There's also the possibility of removing the veneer completely and using the wood below, in the case of e.g. mahogany furniture....

Found on the LA Times website:

Suspects accidentally dial 911 while trying to reach drug dealer

Two Pomona drug suspects were arrested this morning after mistakenly dialing 911 when they were actually trying to reach their drug dealer, police said.

"No one said criminals are smart," said Pomona Police Sgt. Michael Olivieri.

The 911 call came in about 3 a.m. today. Police believe the suspects, Paul White, 38, and Ryan Ogle, 25, were trying to page their drug dealer with an emergency request, using the code "911." Instead, they got the emergency dispatch center.

Police traced the call and, as is standard practice, sent a patrol car out. Officers found White and Ogle standing next to the pay phone and a car outside the Pack A Bag convenience store, Olivieri said. A run of the car's license plates showed it was stolen. So officers moved in to arrest the pair in the 1000 block of West Mission Boulevard. A search turned up drug paraphernalia, a set of burglary tools and a shaved ignition key, Olivieri said.

Anyone out there worried about "the metrosexualisation of short sf"?

http://www.tangentonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=386&Itemid=1

No? Me neither.

What a very strange article.

From the Washington Post (but I'll believe it when I see it):

Dennis Kucinich declares intent to file Articles of Impeachment against VP Cheney

Not here, but in this old and closed-to-comments post.

Like I said in my other comment spam comment today, I've been rereading Teresa's wonderful publishing-related ML posts, which she compiled (along with a whole bunch of useful publishing info links for the aspiring author) for Neil Gaiman here.

Steve Taylor #475: My strongest reaction on reading that essay is, "Good Lord, proofread!"

I also find it bizarre that Mr. Truesdale seems to think that, in order to be interesting (or daring or political or traditionally heterosexually male or whatever glowing descriptor he feels like using at the moment), fiction must be a) right-leaning and b) bereft of style.

And I am fucking sick of "the liberal elite."

Apropos of nothing upthread, I would like to point out a drawing of our gracious hostess as the Patron Saint of Copyediting, by a friend of mine, based on a Mike Ford anecdote:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53474366/

The anecdote is retold below the image.

ethan at #478 writes:

> I also find it bizarre that Mr. Truesdale seems to think that [...] fiction must be a) right-leaning and b) bereft of style.

Well it is a significant market niche :(

> And I am fucking sick of "the liberal elite."

Hot buttons for me are "the chattering classes" and any reference to "latte sipping" or variants thereof. I just know what comes next.

To whom it may concern,

We're sick of him, too.

Sincerely,

The Liberal Elite

OMG!!!111!!!!!!!!!!!

You have a whale in your neighborhood, Teresa?!

COOL!

I just came across an interview with Zack Penn, who's involved in the new Hulk movie. It looks like it'll be a reboot, which means we can thankfully ignore the first movie's mutant poodle. And Bruce Banner will be played by Edward Norton. That should be interesting.

(Found today in Jon Carroll's column)

"...According to IMDB.com, there hasn't been a film called "Skeleton in the Closet" made since 1913. It's a natural horror title. I envision "Skeleton in the Closet III: The Search for Flesh." Yours for the taking..."

What foolishness is this, to jeer at dust?
They cannot hear you. Nothing that you say
Can break the silence at Thermopylae.
They lie obedient, as all men must,
To law that binds all flesh: what lives, must die.
Yet they lie there, atop the windy pass,
Not in the soil of home, where Eurotas
Gentles its valley. What law was this, and why?

A heavy law it was, but one they made
Themselves, no tyrant's word. So when it came
To trial, they hearkened to it. They obeyed,
And died, and left, beside undying fame,
This legacy: the law we own is still
The law we make ourselves. Now jeer who will.

Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey @ 464: An airline employee, such as the one who told Prof. Murphy that he might be on the list for political reasons, would have no special knowledge about how names get on the list. In short, the employee must have been speculating about why Prof. Murphy’s name triggered a hit.

This is true. However, after a while, any reasonably observant person could begin to see patterns emerge in the kinds of people they find on the no-fly lists. It's not definitive proof by any means (for many reasons), but even the fact that the employee would see--or think they were seeing--such a pattern is suggestive.

Apropos of nothing above, this video just made my day.

And this one was not far behind. As it were. Work safe, despite the title.

dave luckett,

i'm glad you came back.

As things Not Being Rocket Science has been brought up elsewhere* - isn't Rocket Science supposed to be about making things as simple and robust as possible? As in moderation; it is quite like Rocket Science.

Or is that Rocket Engineering, in which case Rocket Science is 18th century Celestial Mechanics and 50s chemistry, stuff which I learnt at school. I've helped build (teeny-tiny) rockets, and if I can do it, it can't be that hard, surely.

Or to put it another way, you don't have to be a Brain Surgeon to do Rocket Science.

</semi-serious>

Any Rocket Scientists reading, please feel free to make fun of my ignorance of rocketry.

* This comment might also go on Death Of A Cliche, but rather than confuse one of those two threads, I've put this tangent here.

"Soylent Green is Oompa Loompas!"
(From the movie crossovers defined in one line dept.)

Please forgive me, I'm having a rather silly moment.

Dave @485,

I wanted to thank you for your detailed answer (in an earlier thread) to my question about slushpile statistics.

Your stats helped me make a big decision for myself:
I will not read raw blogs*. Reading raw blogs is like reading the slushpile. That one can spend all day reading raw blogs is no more relevant (or is exactly as relevant) as that one can spend all day gambling. The random reinforcement of a rare gem makes it (gambling, blog reading) more addictive, not less.

I couldn't in good conscience read a slushpile and then leave it, as is, for the next person to spend exactly as much time on. Similarly, if when reading blogs I cannot at the minimum provide- as Gary Farber does- a "read the rest scale," then I shouldn't be reading them.

---
* raw: not known to me to be consistently worth reading, either for quality or for personal connections.

"... You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that cross. You need me on that cross."
-- A Few Good Disciples (1998)

Neil Wilcox @ 489

I Am Not A Rocket Scientist (IANARS) but I used to work at a software company* where one engineer used to work at Jet Propulsion Lab, and another was a Pyrotechnic Engineer on the Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster. We had a complicated product that we used to say did require a Rocket Scientist to understand. When we said it was Rocket Science we meant it was complicated, hard to understand, and liable to bite you if you didn't pay attention.

* GemStone, the best job I've ever had. Also, the longest lived startup company ever. It was a startup from 1985 until 2001, at which point they laid all but 4 engineers and 3 managers off and sold the company to the managers. It's still around to this day, and they've even hired back some of the employees who were there before the layoff.

Neil @489

And also the "kids these days" thread. As I anecdoted there, my dad was experimenting with model rockets in high school. As a teenager he was able to violate an international treaty on missiles and related flying items. Then later on he worked on the Gemini and Space Shuttle programs.

All to say it doesn't take a rocket scientist to be a rocket scientist. Or that rocket science is that which a rocket scientist points to when asked 'what is rocket science?' Or brain science isn't rocket surgery.

Supermarket Circular Product Description of the Week:

"Wild Troll-Caught Chinook Salmon Fillets"

So, do they use their hands, or a gaff?

Dave Luckett: Excellent sonnet.

Alas, the whale has died.

Jaysus, how much do I want the TV-B-Gone from the Particles?