I just want to say that "Savage" is a great last name to have. John Savage, Dan Savage. It's a disgrace that Michael is blessed with a fine last name like that.
Xopher - I was responding, not to you, but rather to Ray Radlein, who said that he thought that Chicago was the code-name of Windows NT.
And the joke about XP went right over my head until you explained it - I don't know the Greek alphabet - I barely know the English alphabet past LMNOP.
John M. Ford - I'm somewhat surprised to hear that some people didn't get that "The Iron Dream" was a pastiche; the indications were pretty obvious. I mean, it's a novel supposedly by Adolf Hitler, there's got to be something going on there.
"The Iron Dream" is about, among other things, the power of symbolism. In the universe of "The Iron Dream," a full-dress Nazi uniform is as innocuous as a Star Wars stormtrooper costume in our world. (But, as you note, how innocuous is that stormtrooper costume?)
We see the power of symbolism in the real world when the occasional person comes along, every few years, who is attempting to use the swastika in its more innocent, pre-Nazi meaning. Asian Indian heritage architecture is festooned with swastikas; these buildings were built many centuries before the Nazis. Likewise, swastikas appear in American Indian decorations. But people who publish photos of these things today will likely be criticized by people who see the swastika as irrevocably linked to Nazism.
Likewise, Microsoft recently had to re-release a set of dingbat fonts after a swastika was discovered in the set.
Here's my story about costumes and symbolism: As I've said elsewhere, I don't go to many cons (even though I have enjoyed all the cons I go to). Once, about 10 years ago, I was attending one of the Silicon Valley cons, and drove off the hotel site with Mark Kreighbaum and Connie Hirsch for dinner. As we were returning, I commented about the hall costumes. I'm ever the armchair psychologist, so I noted that sf fans, as a group, tended to be picked on as children. I noted that so many hall costumes included multiple weapons, especially impressive edged weapons, big-ass knives and swords. I said I thought the people wearing those costumes were, perhaps, afraid.
I didn't mean to suggest that these people were actually, literally afraid of attack or ready to do violence. I was commenting on psychological symbolism - that whatever was happening in their minds was happening on a subconscious level.
But Connie and Mark weren't buying it, they said I was overthinking the whole thing.
This discussion happened while we were cruising the parking lot, looking for a space. Meanwhile, we approached a car that had just parked. A guy got out of the front seat, he was dressed in a long black robe. Obviously a con-goer in a hall costume. He went around the back, opened the trunk, and proceeded to pull out and don the rest of his costume: crossed swords at his back (katana and the other one, the Japanese thingies). Long sword and dagger at his waist. Another, long dagger or short sword horizontally, at the small of his back. Yet another knife vertically, between his shoulder blades. Total of seven swords.
We watched this silently for several minutes, and then Mark said, "You know, Mitch, you may have a point."
(If I were Jonathan Vos Post, the passengers in the car would've been Eleanor Roosevelt and Isaac Asimov.)
I am not commenting on this from the Cosmic Observer point of view, by the way - I was a bookish kid myself, and got a share of beatings, and I freely confess that part of the fantasy of action-adventure stories is the vicarious pleasure of kicking the asses of people as have asses what need kickin'.
And I think part of the appeal of vampire stories is the fantasy of being a powerful, conscienceless creature who can torture and kill people just because they're annoying.
I'm sorry about your head, Teresa, but I'm glad to see you seem to be feeling better.
Chicago was windows 95.
Cairo was, depending on who you talk to either the original code-name for a version of Windows NT, or a set of technologies that eventually got broken up and put into multiple Microsoft products, sort of a concept car for operating systems. Or it might have been simply vaporware all along.
The CIA.
I use and swear by POPfile, one of the oldest and best Bayesian e-mail filters. It doesn't just separate spam from non-spam, it separates any class of e-mail from any other class. Some people use it to separate mailing lists from other mail, others use it to separate business mail from personal mail.
I'm using it to separate normal mail, spam and pitches from PR people (which are very like spam - they shotgun out identical messages to thousands of reporters at a time to try to convince the journnalists to write articles about their clients, regardless of whether the journalists cover that kind of thing - for instanc, I get e-mail about seminconductors, storage and remote learning sofftware, none of which I actually write about.)
The overall accuracy of POPfile is a whisker less than 99 percent. Interestingly, I have a colleague with no news judgment who keeps forwarding me PR pitches that HE receives, according to some apparently random algorithm of his own - POPfile is pretty good at sorting those messages into the PR folder while his regular messages go to my normal folder, as they should.
mythago - Actually, calling someone "PC" isn't equivalent to calling them a "pinko commie" in past decades.
"Commie" is strong language. "Commie" is an insult. Commies were seen as evil, an enemy whom we would probably have to fight to the death.
The equivalent to the word "PC" is "pinko," or "parlor pink," or "limousine liberal." It suggests a person who is foolish.
And you know what? For years I've had trouble articulating why I find the terms "PC" and "politically correct" offensive, and I think I've finally figured out. To call someone PC is to call them foolish. Since most of the views labelled as PC are views that I either agree with, or am sympathetic to, I am inclined to get offended at being called a fool, even indirectly.
I mean, yes, those people who want to call all black people African-Americans - even if the black people in question aren't actually Americans - are being silly, but, you know, they're trying to avoid being offensive, and what's wrong with that?
mythago: As I recall it, "political correctness" was always derogatory, taken to refer to the scary, hostile far-lefties who not only believed in one set of values, but only one correct road to those values.
I think you recall it incorrectly. Before the term got picked up by neocons, "political correctness" was a term invented on the left, and it was used lightly and tongue-in-cheek. "It may not be politically correct of me, but I'm really jonesing for a nice thick steak now," you'd say to people who were not, themselves, vegetarians and might be inclined to join you for dinner.
To preface an argument with "This may not be PC, but..." is just as silly as saying "I'm not a homosexual, but..."
And why should a person feel the need to point out that they are not a homosexual, unless that person feels that it would be bad to be mistaken for one?
Well, there is one circumstance I can think of. It's called "letting the other guy down gently." It's happened to me a couple of times, when attending parties thrown by a gay friend. Kind of awkward at first, but then I realized that the only thing worse than being hit on at a party attended by a lot of gay men would be not being hit on.
Xopher: On the other side of "you can't tell by looking," there are several scam artists I know by sight in the city. One of them hangs out at the train station and claims to have just been mugged. She wears a nice skirt suit, albeit a mussed one; sometimes she wears one high-heeled shoe; she "just needs enough for a ticket to (city in Long Island)." The first time any given person sees her, she seems genuine; the second time, you know she's scamming.
What a coincidence - I was just IMing about scams and con jobs with Teresa yesterday, and I mentioned that this particular scam was pretty commonplace in New York about 10-12 years ago.
Or, rather, a minor variant: the con artists back then were usually girls who appeared to be about 19, dressed like respectable suburban girls come into New York for a night of clubbing. And that's what they claimed to be; they claimed to have befallen mishap and just needed $20 for bus fare to get home to New Jersey. It got so I'd be accosted by at least one of them every second or third time I came into the city.
colleen @ del rey: You can think that's as callous as you like, but I would bet you that there are an awful lot more people that agree with me than might admit publicly to their "PC" friends.
And this is why I find the label "political correctness" to be preposterous - youre are trying to put on the mantle of a brave soul willing to speak the truth in the midst of a herd of people who are unable to think for themselves.
But in fact you are espousing the death penalty, and you state you are against panhandling, especially violent and angry panhandlers. There is nothing at all dangerous about espousing these views, they would be applauded at any Republican Club in the country. They are the 21st Century equivalent of being against the Great White Shark and in favor of motherhood, apple pie and respecting the flag.
And you know what? I don't find any of your views particuarly shocking. I'm against the death penalty myself, but, jeez, I'd love to put bullets in the heads of cannibal serial killers. I know many good people who are in favor of the death penalty, and I'd rather discuss the issue with them and bring them around than call them names. And we lived in San Francisco 1993-97 and the homeless problem was certainly a factor in getting us to leave.
My apologies; I didn't read your post clearly. For me, the term "politcially correct" has always meant something derogatory. To me, it describes a particular kind of mindset, the mindset of those people who would automatically protest your right to say something that does not hold with his or her [usually liberal] political views at the time.
Um, in what way is what you are saying not derogatory? Hello?
I do not "protest your right to say something that does not hold with [my] political views." Indeed, I uphold your right to speak your views - and I exercise my right to disagree with them, in vehement terms.
The label "political correctness" assumes that conservative politics are under siege, that it is somehow dangerous to speak certain political views.
In fact, in America, it is dangerous to speak certain political views. Since 9/11, people have been beaten by police, jailed, and denied their right to air travel for speaking unpopular political views. Others have been cordoned off into small "free speech zones" while trying to stage political protests, out of the way of television cameras and journalists who might spread their message. But those people have not been conservatives.
But, you're right. I'm losing sight of what's really important. What's really important is that we don't know what to call black Canadians. Ha ha those liberals sure are a silly bunch, aren't they?!
Tim Walters: Perhaps "politically correct" is the new "commie."
Actually, "terrorist" is the new "commie."
Also, "commie" is the new "commie." Or, rather, "Communist" and "Socialist" are words that get bandied around a lot in political discussions with neocons, who seem to inhabit a universe where those two political philosophies are thriving. Apparently, neocons can't even go to the supermarket without having to elbow through crowds of Wobblies singing the Internationale. Arise, ye prisoners of starvation, yes, yes, very good, but I just want to buy some whole wheat bread, please.
And how can you tell the actual homeless from the Homeless By Choice? Do you perform a quick needs assessment followed up by an on-the-spot psychological evaluation?
I hereby propose Wagner's Law: Use of the phrase "This may not be Politically Correct, but-- ", or some variant, is simply another way of saying, "I don't know what I'm talking about but I'm about to pull an opinion out of my ass anyway."
And the 60s sure ARE over. The 60s were a time of increased tolerance for non-majority ethnic groups and lifestyles, along with relaxed drug laws. Now we have the largest prison population in the developed world, and we got that way with our modern drug laws! USA! Number one! Woo-hoo!
Also, the 60s was a period when national politicians dragged us into a bloody and pointless jungle war to further their own petty political ambitions. Now, it's in the desert, so that's, like, completely different too.
"Term not heard much today" in 1899? It was quite thriving among 11-year-old boys on Long Island in 1972.
It's such a wonderful word for that biological phenomenon.
The verb form is, "Pop a boner," which is not a synonym for the male orgasm but rather a synonym for the word from "Wayne's World": "Shwing!"
jennie - If you are using the word "boner" as a synonym for "penile erection," then I am shocked, SCHOCKED at your adolescent language.
I prefer the words "chubby" or "woody" myself. Or "one-eyed trouser snake."
Patrick Weekes:
Regarding Tor potentially closing themselves off to unagented, unsolicited fiction, Mitch wrote (to PNH, not to me):
"Patrick - If you didn't have an open submissions policy, how would you develop new talent? Or would you just not bother with that - leave it to other publishers to develop the new talent and cherry-pick the best?"
That's an inherently loaded question.
Actually, no.
An example of an inherently loaded question is, "Patrick Weekes, why is it that you accuse me of attacking Patrick Nielsen Hayden? Why do you assume I am attacking Tor, when even the Tor staff resident in this blog do not indicate that they feel attacked? Didn't your teachers ever teach you how to read? Are you the product of a public education?
Actually, those are three loaded questions. Or four, depending on whether you consider the first sentence one question or two.
Madeleine Robins: On the other hand, just after we moved out here to San Francisco, a local independent bookstore, Cover-to-Cover, announced that it was closing--blaming only the landlord (who raised the rent) and the recession. The neighborhood rallied--found them a new space, raised $40,000 to pay off their debts, signed pledges to buy a hardcover a month for a year. They're in their new space now, and holding on...
Cover to Cover? That was on 24th, right, in the general vicinity of the supermarket? It seemed like it was a very small space, and I'm not surprised they ran into problems, but I'm glad to hear they're hanging on. Where did they move to?
--just in time for Phoenix Books, the neighborhood used bookstore, to be faced with the rent dilemma. They're not blaming anyone either.
Phoenix Books is in trouble?! Argh! That was the very place I was talking about earlier in this thread, the one where the owner gave us a compilation tape just because he thought we might like it.
Jack Womack: ... the night clerk who threatened to kill me when I asked him to mop the floor (his day job was coke dealer, so his threat carried some weight),...
He couldn't have been a very good coke dealer if he had to work nights at a bookstore to make ends meet.
Lis Riba: Oh, I'm not having any problem reconciling them, Mitch. James also personally wrote an essay to his son on how to be a proper king in which he directly condemned sodomy.
You don't have any trouble reconciling them? How do you reconcile them?
I'll advance two more theories: (1) James was, like the Jimmy Swaggarts, Jerry Falwells and Roy Cohns of today, a big ole honkin hypocrite. (2) I do know that definitions of sexual identity have changed over time. Even 100 years ago, men would occasionally have homosexual sex for recreation, but considered themselves 100% heterosexual he-men. I'm told this is still pretty commonplace in non-Western cultures. Likewise, in some cultures, it's considered OK for men to pitch, but not to catch.
How was it that James himself could be a homosexual and yet also commission the King James Bible with its prohibition of homosexuality?
Two possible answers: (1) Compartmentalization and denial are wonderful things. (2) The ban on homosexuality was considered obsolete, like the kosher laws and laws about segregating lepers and selling daughters into slavery.
There have long been rumors that Shakespeare was a bisexual, citing the sonnets as evidence - a recent documentary says that the sonnets seem to in fact have been written by Shakespeare after the death of his 11-year-old son, Hamnet. I don't remember the sonnets all that well - I don't remember whether there are any sexual references. Certainly, "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" and "bare ruin'd choirs where late the sweet birds sang" can be read as a father's lament over a son who died as a boy.
Thinking back in greater depth on my own experiences with indie bookstores, I found that I had some bad experiences: surly clerks, mainly. Also, some great experiences - I mentioned the place in Newton, N.J, which I went to so often that the staff and I knew each other and they gave me a gift of a book I liked. Also, there was the used bookstore we frequented in in San Francisco where the clerk was always playing eclectic music, which we frequently and vocally admired - one day he just gifted us with a compilation tape.
From which I draw the profound conclusion that indie bookstores are businesses, like any other, and some are good and some aren't.
1000.22 KB! Woo-hoo!
I can die fulfilled and happy now.
This page is now 997.27 KB. Can we drive it around the block a few times until the odometer rolls over?
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