The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Laurie D. T. Mann:

If you want to read more about traumatic skull fractures, read Lee and Bob Woodruff's book In An Instant. It's about his being injured by an IED in Iraq in early 2006. The book includes photos of what his head looked like without some of his skull. They also included an X-ray of all the crap that hit the upper part of his body. Fascinating and scary reading.

I've only ever broken 2 bones - my collar bone (from falling down a flight of stairs when I was 4) and a small bone in my left foot (while wearing sandals with a tiny sole a few days before the '99 Nebs in Pittsburgh - I wound up in one of those "broken foot shoes" for most of the weekend). I don't remember much about the collar bone other than starting to fall, then, later, having my left arm in a sling and trying to do sewing cards one-handed. As to the foot, I didn't think it was broken as it only hurt when I walked on it. It started to swell a little, so I went to the ER early in the evening. As it was spring, there were about 20 Little Leaguers ahead of me, but so long as I was sitting, I was OK. After about 5 hours, I finally got seen, got an X-ray and went home with crutches.

Kathryn: Wow can that man keep a secret or what!?

Well, congrats, I'm sure you'll both have a very busy but a swell time. And the best seats in the house when you want them.

I spent about a week in Montreal for a software-related conference in '88. I only met one person running a fast food restaurant who spoke no English, but I know enough tourist French and I could still order breakfast and get what I expected to.

If you go to Old Town, the most interesting part of Montreal, you might find a few out-of-the way places where English is rarely spoken. Still, get yourself a French/English phrase book and don't be too intimidated. Montreal and Quebec aren't Paris and you probably won't be taunted for speaking poor French.

A slight change of subject, but I'm very happy to hear that David Hartwell and Tom Doherty will be GoHs at Anticipation. It seems like Tor is finally getting more of the accolades its long deserved.

Charlie, I should have said "Andrew Burt, acting in the name of SFWA" rather than purely "SFWA." I've watched SFWA for years, and I understand there are often huge differences of opinions among the members. Very imprecise language on my part. Sorry.

JC, I usually stop reading Jerry's screeds after about 10 paragraphs, so I missed some of that.

James Nicholl has posted a link to Jerry Pournelle's opinion on all this.

While I don't agree with Jerry, I think his posting crystalizes the difference between how SFWA sees this problem and how Cory and many of the rest of this see this problem. SFWA only sees this as a piracy problem, and they need to respond vigorously (even though, when you get right down to it, it isn't their problem). Cory and many of the rest of us see this as a group imposing their version of what piracy is...when their help has not been requested.

Geri, yeah, the MagiCon Hugo statue is still my favorite Hugo statue.

I recognized the statue on the Japan award as something I SHOULD have known. Jim correctly identified it, which instantly reminded me of why I'd forgotten what it was... ;->

Congratulations and ABOUT TIME!!!

Lawrence, thanks for the clarification,

Adam, that's just lawyer talk. I am not a lawyer, I cannot give legal advice, but I still trust Cory's reaction to this bruhaha.

PJ: And I hear a lot of meth production has been "outsourced" to Mexico, which has no restrictions on sale of Sudafed.

#51 - so that means Michael Capobianco is just Bush to Andrew Burt's Cheney, but Burt's way more obvious?

TNH - isn't either Michael or Ann a lawyer in real life? Wouldn't one of them have noticed that this was a really bad idea? I'm not a lawyer and what SFWA has done just reeks legally.

Y'know, the other day we had to buy Sudafed by taking a card to a pharmacist and getting this "restricted material." Yes, it's true, an ingredient in Sudafed can by used to help make meth.

The US Sudafed restrictions are, somehow, attached to the Patriot Act.

The round-and-round "logic" of a few SFWA officers use of DMCA is similarly bizarre, overreaching, and way, way inappropriate.

Time to pull out my Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch avatar...

I never watched VM when it was being broadcast because it seemed to be marketed too much like Nancy Drew by another name.

A friend of ours, knowing of Jim's intense love for Buffy and Angel, said we really had to watch VM, so we've been renting it from Netflix. We're about 2/3rds of the way through the first season, and I've liked it much more than I expected to. But, I really like season-long arcs and don't like "the mystery of the week" so much. So I may stop watching it once Jim starts renting season 2.

I really like both Enrico Colantoni and Kristin Bell (for folks who don't rely on IMDB, he was one of the aliens in Galaxy Quest and played Elliott on Don't Shoot Me). Bell is headed for Heroes this fall! The kids are generally a blur; no one really sticks out but her one friend who isn't seen much after the first six episodes or so.

And here I thought "gobsmacked" was geek...

Until I read yesterday's posting, I always thought "whinge" was FANNISH not BRITISH. I didn't think I was being pretentious...it's not like I say "colour" or anything like that...

Gee, under those stupid rules, that means Jim's godparents wouldn't really be married!

And what about couples who adopt? Does that mean they aren't married either?

Nuts-nuts-nuts!

I normally would rather see questions put to a ballot, but given the fear-mongering tactics the right uses around questions like this, I'm glad the legislature did what it did.

It's OK, Madeleine, stuttering happens.

I love awards shows, I often watch them and thought this year's Tonys was one of the worst-directed awards shows I've ever seen. They even made the Emmys look good.

I couldn't remember where I'd seen Julie White before (I recognized her immediately, but couldn't figure out from where at first). Interestingly, she's mostly been a TV actress and won a Tony anyway.

Adina, I'm joking, I didn't rot13. Message 33 has a purely random line and message 41 should be reasonably clear from context.

The Oscar nominations for that year gave away the "spoiler" for The Crying Game!!

Heck, I even knew Rosebud was a sled before I watched q,e5ocjs akek because Peanuts "spoiled" it. Still a good movie anyway.

The Sopranos ending was given away in multiple news headlines today, so I guess you'd have to not read news online either.

I hardly watched the show after Adriana got whacked three years ago.

We also quit HBO after Rome ended because there was no original programming we wanted to watch. We got Showtime briefly, because we had high hopes for The Tudors, which were dashed after one episode (though I watched two to see if it got any better. It didn't). And while I found I enjoyed Weeds, I think I'm more likely to rent whole seasons from Netflix in the future. So, for the first time in 27 years, we have no premium cable stations.

asd sdfww0er sdkwk dkeb dhsadd kso "kasd" dkh uw!!

I watched the Tonys last night, which was surprisingly badly directed. It was worth it, though, to hear Julie White, Frank Langella and David Hyde-Pierce's acceptance speeches.

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