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

I think the 'thrown clear' idea is quite a local one. I live in the Netherlands and have never heard it cited by anyone. Do British and Australian people talk about that, or is it a purely American thing?

Here I don't know anyone who is still grumbling about wearing a seat belt. Now if we could only eradicate cell phoning while driving, but also while cycling and walking - those people are all traffic hazards as far as I'm concerned.

On the other hand, I wonder about my own attitude to bike helmets. The are a couple of kids in my sons' classes who wear them, but only a few. They look weird and over-protective to me and probably to most Dutch parents, since so few of us use them. All people who would never take their kids out in their car without car seats and booster seats and seat belts. Are we still in denial? Overly reliant on out (admittedly great) system of separate bike lanes and the safety-in-numbers that comes with so many people on bikes? Must think some more on this...

For a good primer on the bizarrity of Dutch politics, see the Quirksmode Dutch politics homepage. Peter-Paul knows what he's talking about, and he explains it better than most of us Dutch could, I think.

Anna at #45, I recognize the problem. It's why I'm very glad that my 9-year old son who has a tendency to get bored with math exercises does taekwondo, where you have to practice practice repeat repeat and then practice some more on the same old exercises for years and years. He knows he gets better that way, and I hope the realization will carry over into his school work. Because I myself feel still mostly lacking in this department: if I'm not super-good at something at the first try, I despair of ever becoming any good.

My boyfriend has a theory that the uproar about the sockpuppets is part of the plan: generate even more publicity for the movie by purposely upsetting the LJ community and getting them to talk about the outrage.

Not sure how that would actually benefit the product being promoted here, and the theory makes my head hurt, but, yeah, can't exactly put it past the complicated minds of viral marketers.

Thank you, Stephen G. Must watch that movie again, then.

I'm sorry to bring this up (don't mean to sound dense or flip), but could someone tell me who the guy in the glasses is and why he's at the top of the post?

Also, Wil Wheaton and Dahlia Lithwick. Bless them.

I am very sorry for all of you. I'm afraid I only knew him through Neil Gaiman's blog (and here, of course) where Neil once posted a lovely version of the muppet song about rainbows Mr Ford did: The Final Connection.

Steven Johnson calls it the Gatorade Bomb Plot, which also sounds nice and silly.

Dori: you're a WaSP! Of course you're cool!

Wow! Dori Smith! You guys know all the cool people. And I'm only 37, but I'm selecting the larger type option, so thank you for this additional functionality.

Rickman was also a delightfully tormented and human Colonel Bradford in Sense and Sensibility, in which he married Kate Winslet's Marianne Dashwood. If that's not a (semi-)leading man in a romantic comedy...

Jackie, I have a very bad head for gas prices, so I couln't tell you the prices off the top of my head, but I looked it up.

Currently, Shell's advisory price in the Netherlands (probably not the price at the pump, because owners are free to sell at their own price) is 1.49 euro a litre, that's 5,64 euro a gallon, currently 6.85 dollar.

On July 1st, this was 1.37 euro a litre, 5.19 euro a gallon, which is 6.30 dollar.

Eep! I guess we do pay a lot.

Kip Manley, thank you for the link to the potter puppets. Harry looks endearingly like Scott McCloud, in my opnion, and I love the flappy arms.

And Jeremy Osner, thank you for mentioning kefir. My mother used to make that during on of her seventies DIY phases (that included spinning (both wheel and that-twirly-stick-like-thing I don't know the name of in English), dying, macrame, embroidery and lots of sewing of clothes), and my sister and I were fascinated by the process. We also drank lots of it, so I don't expect ours contained alcohol in any significant way, because otherwise my mother would certainly not have let us drink it.

I'm getting a little bit lost on what has and hasn't been posted here, so apologies if this isn't new: Rebecca Solnit has a lovely article on bad weather and good government in Harper's Magazine. It was written before Katrina, but the web edition has a long added paragraph on those events and Slonsky & Bradshaw.

Thank you, Kathryn, PJ, Emma, for those explanations of eminent domain. That's just terrible, but it's good to be informed.

Alex and Kathryn, could you explain to me what 'Eminent Domain' is?

Or come to Holland. Most of my country may be below sea level, but after the flood disaster of 1953, we've implemented the Delta Works and now everything is (reportedly) up to speed for conditions that occur once every 10.000 years. As opposed to once every 50 years, as I heard knowledgeable guy from Rijkswaterstaat (our Army Corps of Engineers) say about New Orleans, where he'd been for talks with his USA colleagues. 'Well, they do things differently over there,' he said.

Now if we can only keep the neo-con agenda out of the country, all will be fine. I hope. I expect.

I'm going to watch some West Wing! Sweet, intelligent presidents helped by capable people. Plus Rob Lowe, who makes me happy. And then some Sue Townsend in a hot bath. Thank you for the most timely and compassionate post, Mr Ford.

Georgiana, if I'm not very much mistaken, you are the person who sent Neil Gaiman a message about her meningitis ages ago, right? And didn't he write this incredibly sweet reply? I'm sad to hear that you're still so troubled by the aftereffects. That sucks.

But perhaps it will give you just the tiniest of lifts to hear that I recently completed a novel about a guy who struggles back to health after the same illness, and that that particular novel most likely started with reading your message on Neil's blog.

I hope the operation goes well and that you regain all your powers soon. And YES you deserve the decent care!

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