albatross #62:
You mean, like, in a commonwealth? With civility and mutual defense?
You radical. Pretty soon you'll start quoting Voltaire.
I do, however, wonder if this isn't some odd echo from Paul Wellstone's funeral - when the MSM screamed abuse at the family and their supporters for daring to have feelings of grief and resentment about Wellstone's death.
“Best of all, he’s rich, desperate, and lashing out like a drunken fratboy.â€
We have abundant empirical data suggesting this is not a prudent choice. Boy, do we have data. And bodies.
Lenny Bailes @ 12 - And exactly how will they prove this patient competent? Passage of time hasn't helped so far.
Xopher @ 11 - Thank you. Glory Road is a long time ago for this tired memory.
Bruce Cohen @117, JESR @ 118; I installed Ubuntu Linux on my old PowerBook Pismo along with OS 9 and OS X. There are some not-bad alternatives, JESR, to OO and the standard apps out in the Linux world. I don't know if the prep work and HD reformat would be something you'd want to try. MacAddict had a decent how-to in last November or December's edition.
When I work with .doc stuff under OS X, I use Nisus Express. It's been handy and compatible so far. Nisus Writer looks even more capable.
Politically-correct disclaimer: I work neither for MacAddict (now MacLife) or for Nisus Software, but I do work for the return of democracy in the United States.
It's amazing just how many have suggested this procedure is in fact treatment for a cranio-rectal impactment. But how do you sterilize a tow truck and chain? And what if one of those polyps they snip is actually The Head Of State?
Okay, for those of us insufficiently cool, who was Igli in the Heinlein canon?
Okay, so it's either chalk or 'reduced-fat' / 'low moisture' cheese.
Then why in hell is it walking?
Let's see; she's wanting to distract us with warm, runny, melty cheese and 'taters and pickle. Therefore the truth must lay in the opposite direction.
*Gasp!* What is that?
I, for one, welcome our ignoramus overlords and the death of our Constitution (which is, after all, just a piece of paper people have died to defend).
He's just a guy. Who cares what he thought about Howdy Doody in 2002? Does it make us wiser to say he was wrong?
Ten days ago Bradbury gave his annual talk for The Southwest Manuscripters in Torrance, CA. The strokes have taken a heavy toll. He no longer hears well. He has difficulty pressing down firmly with a ballpoint pen. Bradbury is just a frail elderly man in a wheelchair -- who has been writing professionally a little longer than I have been alive. Some of his work has been great. Some has been very good. Yes, some has been less good. But the story he told of Fahrenheit 451’s origin had to do with police harassment during a late-night walk during the days of HUAC and McCarthy. Memories slip and slide as we age. Deliberate or not – who can say?
Bradbury signed books for an hour before his talk. He spoke for forty minutes. He went back to signing books after his talk. He's 87.
Do I ask you to give the man a pass? Hell, no. I do remind you that when your health and energy begin to fail, and then continue to fail, and the love of your life dies, those Simple Solutions to Big Questions are awfully tempting. I also remind you that something in even polite bloggish discourse seems to encourage piling-on.
Patrick is correct. We should not be rigidly judgmental, nor should we ignore unpleasant truths. Here's my true wish for all who gather here: may we all be so hard-working, so talented and so fortunate that we produce an oeuvre such as Ray Bradbury's.
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!
JC@8; " . . . it's been 52 days since I sent a story off to Strange Horizons and 31 days since I sent a story off to Asimov's."
According to the folks kind enough to teach me, tracking this info is part of the 'biz.' It has to be taken in hand if you're serious about doing business. And it's work, no question about it.
Good for you, I'd say. Press on!
Xopher@5 - " . . . or even C.J. Cherryh, alas."
You reminded me of something. Back in STL around 1981, some hanger-on of Glen Cook's told me C.J. was "nothing but a hack with a word processor."
Talk about magical thinking . . .
I'll be so bold as to claim her acquaintance. She has less fear of hard work than any but two other writers I know, she loves the work for its own sake, and she's willing to do 'the biz.'
So we come around again to that analysis of self-delusion by Dorothy Leigh Sayers . . .
Happily, it looks as if Cook has done all right for himself, too.
Here's to having at least a little bit of grounding in reality. Skol!
How did you happen to capture that, Patrick? DLS is one of my favorite practical philosophers!
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.
Tina @ 5, Steve Taylor @ 6, Elusis @ 8- I believe you're very close to the truth with your questions and observations. There's a kind of magical thinking involved. I was a SAG/AFTRA agent for a while; the parade of the self-deluded was sad to behold.
Everyone has a dream. Not everyone has a grip on reality firm enough to deal well with their dreams.
Xopher@691 - Savage may appear to have his knickers in a twist, but I think it's for purposes of creating a deliberate misunderstanding, much the way Windows pundits talk trash about Macintosh to raise their site hits (which raises income).
In other words, I think it was a ploy.
As read one of the comments following the Savage screed, it seems like a case of frame, distort, smear, smear the frame, smear some more, smear until target unrecognizable, smear until target smeared indelibly - kinda like the Swift Boat Gang's technique.
Having read Keillor for a long time, I doubt his commentary was anything but a satire. I could be wrong, but I just don't see him as a homophobe. A human-o-phobe, yeah, pro'lly, but I'd bet he has enough views askance to go around.
abi @ 47, Julie L. et al -
Holy smokin' Toledo!
Do you take requests?
g.
Teresa@p0 - Do you mind if I quote your summation of how the Big Business of Industrial-Scale Bullying works? It surely does match my experiences . . .
Anna@26 - I'm sad to hear your story. Hope your confidence is reintegrating itself. I was a target of opportunity for several months, back when the National Writers Union was worth a damn. The endless factional assault had an effect, and it takes real work on my part, every day, to undo it. Some days I succeed, some days not. Ma domani, domani e un otra giorno.
Thanks to you all. These insights about trolls and bullies and mobs are quite useful to me.
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