The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Mez:

Sorry Greg, It looks like your obscure joke didn't click.

I can't bring the precise reference to mind, but the image of a roomful of women screaming in Greek ...

Try looking up references to Maenads, Bassarids, or Bacchae. Not so much check exits as 'Start moving carefully towards exits, but don't turn your back. Check for possible shelters, or impromptu defence weapons.'

BTW, speaking of mob scenes, did any NYC persons notice this at all? Or was it as widely reported & noticed as the visit of our Prime Minister 'Honest' John Howard, prominent participant in the Coalition of the Willing, a coupla months back?

"I wouldn't use *this* particular storm as evidence of global warming"
Well, if you load a pair of dice so that they are twice as likely as 'natural' ones to turn up ... er ... whatever the number is that people like to get — sixes? (non-misspent yoof) — how can you say which of the sixes that turn up are due to the loading and which would have happened naturally?

Virginia has four and a half million registered voters, of whom two million voted in last November's election for governor.
Well below half. That is so depressing to a (lower-case d) democrat. How on earth can someone call themselves a 'representative' if not even a majority of your constituency makes the choice? If you win 49/51%, say, then about three-quarters of your electors haven't voted for you. It's one major reason why I support our compulsory voting here.

Chiming in late on the tattoo theme, like Clifton and Mary I'm dotted - a trio - for enqvngvba gurencl. I was planning decorative additions at the 5-year mark, but it's less than that yet, and it now looks like I might be getting another set for another batch in a different area in spring (Sep/Oct).
Am currently in purzbgurencl, which is causing 'interesting' effects, hence my long absences from online discussions.

Do any of the tattooists/tattooees 'round here have experience with (non-touching) additions to these dots, and the attitude of enqvngvba bapbybtvfgf to dealing with them?

You will find if you spend some time 'round here that the 'hard-hitting moderator' of the threads, our gracious hostess, has a fine hand for such links — tho' it's only a quite small part of why I respect her.

You mean there isn't an independent Remuneration Tribunal in the US (set up here in Australia in the 1970s under Labour, I think), that sets Parliamentary (i.e. Congressional?) salaries without, supposedly, interference from the members and parties?

I have heard that the Battle of Culloden, in 1746, was the last time that the "throw off your plaid and charge screaming, 'naked', at the opposition" technique was used. Certainly the Scots/Celts did not triumph there.

"my love life is like my pet unicorn: lovely, but imaginary".
Reminds me of a quote I read once, it may have been about Bette Davis. An actress was asked about how she was able to bring up different emotions and said words to the effect of:
"When I need to laugh, I think about my love life; and when I need to cry, I think about my love life."

Indeed, yes; I can identify with that.

Marilee, was the senator talking about something sinking? I suppose people might flounder around a bit then. Or was he confusing a fish with someone who started something?

I've read that Illinois (pron ill-en-noy) was originally how the French wrote down phonetically what the local natives called that discrete area, presumably pronounced ee-en-wah.

Is it true that locals there call Greenwich Village "green witch" instead of "grennitch", or is this a mere calumny?

Still trying to work out what a "laugh ride" is ... <she hinted discreetly>

Larry Brennan wrote: "I would, however, have loved to see a giant [rain lamp] version, if only for the outsized mocking it would inspire." May I present ...

Australia's (& "the Southern Hemisphere's") first "shopping - community centre" - Roselands - opened on October 11th, 1965. Its centrepiece and symbol was the Raindrop Fountain: 15 miles of clear nylon thread suspended from the ceiling, with drops of water constantly trickling down into a pool. An image: Raindrop Fountain, Roselands
It was removed in a remodelling project in 1988. A new, quite different fountain was recently installed.

See Suburban Icons: A Celebration of the Everyday, by Steve Bedwell (ABC Books, November 1992 ISBN 0733301908 a "45,000 word (160pp) humorous Australian social history book") for more.

Lawrence Watt Evans wrote: "I've written a novel for Tor that plagiarized The Count of Monte Cristo"
Did you actually lift chunks of the original French, or translated, text and plonk them straight into your book? Or did you just use the story and characters?
There seems to be a confusion between plagiarise (literal copying of the words) and what mostly seems to be in dispute here, which is using the invented world, characters, events & such in your work.

I'd like to keep the distinction, tho it's annoying there doesn't seem to be a simple single word for the deed discussed.

PS: Mr Watt-Evans, your authorlink from Tor goes to your old page. Altho the redirection works, it might look better if it was updated.
(Note to cat-vacuumers everywhere; checking links-to-you are correct is probably an excellent time-sucker-up; possibly with a higher temporal vanishing index than re-checking your links out. There is probably a tool that helps.)

Ah. That Wikipedia entry on 4/20 (US dating) makes some kind of sense of the original remark. Another odd thing I've learned thru' here.
The first thing it means to me is the birthdate of Adolf Hitler (1889), which I've always remembered as the first of a strange trilogy - not quite consecutive. QEII (aka Betty Windsor) is getting all the publicity this year for her 80th. William Shakespeare being the (attributed) third, on 23/4/1564 (UK dating).
I think that birthday was mentioned as a reason for the date of the Columbine school shooting - an event that rather spoiled the memory of several nice things of that name.

Re valuables in floods: in travel and surfing shops, among others, I've seen both waterproof soft pouches, suitable for putting in those money-carrying travel belt/pocket things, and smallish waterproof hard containers attached to a belt or lanyard you can take to a beach. You could put things like flash drives and a few papers (insurance policies, deeds, ID etc.) into one of those and keep them about your person. Possibly useful for attaching contact & ID info to children in case they get separated.

Kier, that sounds more like cassowary than kiwi, but I may run off and check, if I can work out how.

Rather contradicts "Cleanliness is next to Godliness".

Greg, and others: You might take a look at Wikipedia's Kiwi disambiguation page too.
I've noticed in other countries sometimes Kiwi fruit is abbreviated to just 'kiwi', which in reading can cause some strange mental missteps to us Oz 'n' Enzedders.
It's not long to Anzac Day, either; see Ghosts of the Great War, 2005, and here for a very quick idea of that.

Susan, the Dan Simmons' story discussion is part of the 466 comments on Open thread 62.
I was out of computer contact for a couple of weeks dealing with a medical emergency, which is still taking most of my energy & time, and can fully sympathise with trying to 'cover the waterfront' on Making Light with little time.

But were they exit polls, reporting what voters said they'd done, or prospective polls, asking what voters think they'll do?

There's often quite a big difference in the results, especially these days, when it appears that some are 'gaming' the poll-takers.

Alas! Regrets;
To post so late
So cold and stale.

But be assured
My wish for you
Is fresh and warm
Like morning loaves:
A Happy Birthday.



(Blame the doctors.)

Further to sump pumps: does this mean people are building in places where it wasn't realistic before such luxuries?

Or are they just expecting dry basements where earlier centuries used them as a sump to stop water flooding into inhabited areas, or priming rising damp? I've heard this was one of the original functions of castle dungeons.

I wonder what will happen if/when fuel gets to luxury prices? Perhaps they'll get linked to 'alternative energy' supplies.

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