The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Bob Oldendorf:

The suggestion to "Buy an ice cream cone and eat it really messily" is a nice if subtle touch - because there really are wingnuts on the record as being offended by such crass enslavement to carnal appetite.

Most famously, Leon Kass, the wingnut ethics advisor to George Bush:

Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone – a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive. … Eating on the street–even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat – displays [a] lack of self-control: It beckons enslavement to the belly. … Lacking utensils for cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions, just like any animal. … This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if we feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior."

Ah, wingnuts - impossible to parody.

#31, from CHip: wrt to distances...London to Istanbul (most of the way across Europe) is a little over half the distance across the US.

(Like just about everyone else here), I had that same conversation with some German engineers who came to visit GE's Schenectady works.

They figured, that as long as they were already IN upstate New York, they should run over to see Niagara Falls and check it off their life-lists. I had to break it to them that the Falls were still a good ten-hour roundtrip.

We got to talking, and I pointed out to them that "NY-to-LA" was comparable to "London-to-Tehran".

londonbard at #17: There is a kosher Chinese restaurant in Golders Green, London. That must be a real cultural mix, too - but it's too expensive for me ever to have tried the food.

Calvin Trillin wrote about that in The New Yorker about 30 years ago. On his say-so, we tried the place when we were in London about 25 years ago: and yes, it was a bit pricy, but pretty good.

In other cross-cultural cuisines: the town I grew up in had an Italian/Mexican couple who opened a place (now gone, sadly) called "Mike's Pizza Adobe".

Pendrift at #602: It reminded me of why I generally dislike taking pictures - the fear of missing something significant while I'm fumbling with the camera.

I used to worry about that, too. Then I ran across this quote:

When asked how he felt about missing photographs while he reloaded his camera with film, Garry Winogrand replied "There are no photographs while I'm reloading."

OHIO OBAMA (CBS prediction 9:23)

#324 ::: Bruce Schneier 09:02 PM:
At this point, I see no reason why we can't celebrate Obama's victory. Can anyone come up with a reasonable path for McCain to get to 270 EVs without PA?

Well, I don't know about "reasonable", but there's still plenty of time for Republican vote-stealing.

#238 Who has called PA?

ABC, about 8:15

I'm here in suburban Albany NY, and my daughters and I are about to walk over to my Town Hall to pick up my wife, who left at 5:30 this morning to work all day as Election Inspector. (Yay, democracy!)

I'll get my local precinct results, too, but they won't be a surprise, as we're now a solidly Dem district.

Back from voting. (NY's Albany County.)

This is in the 'burbs, so only a minimal wait: there were three people ahead of me. (That's still noticeably heavy for what's usually the morning lull.) New York's old-style "ca-CHUNK" mechanical voting machines.

As of 11:30am, my precincts already report 35-40% turnout. We usually run around 70% turnout, so this year is on track to be even higher.

Bruce Schneier at #75: Oh, yes. That appeared shortly after the Republican convention, when the Palin 'bounce' had McCain briefly leading in the polls.

I've had it hanging over my desk since then, for encouragement,

The obvious explanation is that the McCain campaign is giving up.

The more paranoid explanation is "Why bother even going through the motions when the Fix is already in?"

Given all the purging of electoral rolls going on, and all of the black box voting, the second possibility still makes me lose sleep at night.

So, some pundit at Newsweek is asserting that "America is in its essence a “center-right†country" ?

That explains the 10-to-14%-point lead for Obama, who strikes me as the center-right candidate.

Serge at #602 - Thanks for that news, I've been looking for it ever since it aired.

Another vote here for Dinosaur Cookies. They've been an annual tradition in our household since well before parenthood: our kids wouldn't know it was Christmas without the Annual Baking of Dinosaur Cookies.

(And the ritual decapitation of same....)

Hmm. I could do a long list of 'second-order' stuff (...yes, we have Too Much Stuff...); but the one item at the very top of my list is my father's Starrett combination square.

I use it every time I do woodworking - and it still connect us, nearly 20 years after his death.

What's hilarious is that - despite how reverently I was taught to treat it - as a pure anonymous object, it would be surprisingly cheap to replace.

My list of 'second-order' stuff would start with the Family Picnic Blanket, the one that's slightly older than I am, the blanket that I parked my own children on, in their turn...but that's probably enough for now.

Lizzy L at #207: Thanks for the news about Jim Killus. I never met him, but in reading his blog I was startled to read about people that I did know. (It really is a very small world, isn't it?)

My condolences to those who knew him.

Re: my query at #58 about "Schism" flow charts:
thanks to
John Mark Ockerbloom at #59,
Paul A. at #70
Tlönista at #88 / Julie L. at #129
and geekosaur at #147 for the help.
(Apologies if I've missed anyone.)

geekosaur's link to the Overview of World Religions site shows proof-of-principle (and hey, it's interactive!) - that flowcharting this question does make logical sense; but I still dream of seeing a version that also shows the decision point for each split.

Earl Cooley III at #43 etc: I sure could use an ecumenical dogma checklist spreadsheet...

I've had a similar idea - I've long wanted a flow chart that shows the history of Christianity as it schisms (is that the correct verb?) down through the years, and to note the theological landmarks.

IF (Nicene Creed) THEN (mainstream western?...)
.
.
.
IF (95 Theses) THEN (Lutheran)
.
.
etc.

Tania at #23:

I think that's Wollheim's Secret of the Martian Moons

That's an interesting question.

I suppose an obvious answer is that it might be a bad idea to give one Federal agency complete veto-power over who the American people could choose to be their President?

One wonders what J. Edgar Hoover would have had to say about George McGovern.

Debs ran for President from his prison cell, and all.

TNH @#150:

Welcome back. (And thanks for that.)

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