Thank you, Teresa, you've finally explained to me what the use of those Utilikeys is. Up until now my reaction has been, "but I already have a pocket-knife!" I'm not sure how I could have been so dense... I guess I just failed to think about the perception of the form, because I could tell that it was a knife. Given how much traveling I do, I should really look into getting one of those.
Dammit.
Coming back from the airport a couple days ago, I saw a couple on the T who reminded me a lot of Scraps and Velma, though I don't think it was them -- about their ages, and he'd obviously had a stroke and was recovering. Despite that they seemed very happy, and I sent positive thoughts skyward for all of them. Words are inadequate at this latest development, but -- keep us posted.
I think a lot of Republicans expect liberals' faces to "go rouge" at the release of this book, but I'm pretty sure the joke's on them in the long run.
Apropos typos, there's a warehouse just north of the MIT campus which, when viewed from the right angle, reads "Metropolitan Rage Warehouse - Ire Proof". (Picture here.) Always amuses me when I walk by, and some days I wish I could store my rage there.
Allan Beatty @602: MITSFS is mysteriously missing a copy of your index, so there will be an e-mail incoming to your inbox shortly.
Ack, apologies for the double-post. Weird connection lag.
John Houghton @552, Tom Whitmore @567: Ah, indeed. My apologies. I glanced through the list briefly and saw The Aldebaran Review (clearly a Star Wars reference... except, come to think of it, Star Wars is well out of period for them, oops), Quark, Software, and a few others I thought I recognized as SFnal. Thanks for setting me straight.
On the upside, that's a $125 purchase I don't need to recommend to my library...
Superman began in a zine? That's wicked cool.
John Houghton @552, Tom Whitmore @567: Ah, indeed. My apologies. I glanced through the list briefly and saw The Aldebaran Review (clearly a Star Wars reference... except, come to think of it, Star Wars is well out of period for them, oops), Quark, Software, and a few others I thought I recognized as SFnal. Thanks for setting me straight.
On the upside, that's a $125 purchase I don't need to recommend to my library...
Tom Whitmore @501, Teresa @Particle, could you clarify what you found objectionable about that page, for those of us who remember mimeograph only from papercraft projects in Kindergarden? It seems relatively unobjectionable to me.
Is it just that such an index already exists? MITSFS has one, by Bob Pavlat and Bill Evans, but I have no idea how current it is, or how comprehensively it covers the period in question.
Rikibeth @188: Yes and yes. I've complained about them here before, but it wouldn't surprise me if other people have had similarly bad experiences with them.
As to self-checkouts, the local Shaw's has a bunch, and I've got the prompts down pretty solidly so I can get through them quickly. When most of the customers are like that, they're really nice, but at this store everybody else has to labor through the prompts, it seems, and so the self-checkout lines are just as slow as all the rest. I find myself getting very impatient with people who don't know how to use the system, and so I often just default to using the staffed lines. It doesn't help that it's a particularly busy supermarket. I don't know what would free up the self-checkout lanes to be faster -- possibly just staffing more lanes. But queueing theory is hard and not always amenable to common-sense analysis.
The only time that I can recall ever being invisible was in one of the local alt/goth/whatever stores. I wanted big black stompy boots for dancing, like you do, and I wanted to try them on, dammit, because if I was going to drop several hundred dollars on a pair I wanted to be sure they fit. But I was doing this on my way from work to someplace else, so I had on my hat (a fedora), a T-shirt, a fleece jacket, and a pair of hiking pants that pass for khaki slacks at a distance -- (software) business casual, in other words. I spent a long time standing around the store trying to get somebody's attention before they'd help me, and when they did I got the distinct impression that they didn't care about my custom. No, they didn't have anything in my size. Period. Not "but we'd be happy to order something for you," not "but here are other stores you might try," not "but this is a good place online," just "no" and walked away. I'm convinced they thought I looked too straight-edge to bother helping. It was an uncomfortable experience, and it sucks that people have it happen to them more frequently. I do my best to help everybody when I'm in a service position, but I probably have unconscious biases and assumptions too.
Going into my local CVS dressed in the aforementioned boots (which I finally acquired online), stripey stockings, a skirt, and a fitted T-shirt in the middle of the day and trying to get help was also eye-opening. It wasn't that I was invisible -- on the contrary, I was VERY visible -- but the staff was also very obviously uncomfortable in my presence and would practically run away as the last syllables of "I'msorrywedon'thavethat" left their mouths. There, self-checkout was a serious blessing. I have no idea how my transitioning trans friends cope with that kind of treatment all the time.
This seems like a face of the beast of which Prosperity Theology is another face -- which we've discussed here before, I believe. Change the espoused belief system from a horrible mélange of Native and ghods-know-what-else to Christian, change the situation to a faith-healing, and the results are the same.
Leroy @27: Then again, the PM of the UK apologized for the UK's treatment of Turing based on a web petition. Want to get the man who saved the world from nuclear annihilation nominated? No better way than to ask.
Michael @54: That's an interesting point, and certainly a point of view I've observed. I can't figure out how to address it... some kind of voluntary exchange program to send high school kids in the rural Midwest to cities out East for some months and vice-versa, perhaps. The only real cure I've found for fear of that kind of society is living in it and discovering that it's just made up of people and they're no more scary than anyone else.
Bill Altreuter @42: In Erie County, where I live and ride my bicycle there is a local ordinance that requires all cyclists to wear a helmet, and I'll let you know the first time I see someone get cited for not doing so. As a practical mater the effect of the statute is to create a defense in mitigation of damages. If you sustain a head injury in an accident the burden shifts to you, the plaintiff, to show that a helmet would not have made a difference. Good luck finding a neurologist that'll take the stand for you.
This to me sounds like the best justification I've heard yet for not having mandatory helmet laws. My understanding is that most bicycle accidents are caused by car drivers failing to see a cyclist and disobeying the rules of the road, and shifting the burden of proof to the victim is severely counter-productive there.
Teresa @47: I don't like bike helmets because... [t]hey make me look more like a picto and less like a human being. I am safer when the rest of the street traffic (vehicular and otherwise) registers my existence as a human being.
I would amend your last sentence to "I am safer when the rest of the street traffic registers my existence, period." (With the caveat that I haven't encountered the active hostility to bikers that other commenters here discuss.) Most of the bike accidents I'm aware of have happened when the driver wasn't paying attention and failed to see the bicyclist, and the bicyclist's wearing or not wearing a helmet would not have made them more apparent to the driver.
Hrmm. I doubt she lasts long. Once the hubbub about her hiring dies down, she spends a couple months bunting softballs and is quietly let go. I mean, Joe the Plumber isn't still on TV, is he? He was going to be an Iraq war correspondent, though what beyond name-recognition motivated that, I'll never know.
Bravo, sir. Thank you.
The finished MITSFS seal.
I played around with scrollwork a lot but ultimately decided that cleanliness and readability were the better part of valor. Thanks to all who helped with the Latin.
CHip @363: I think both our reading of the motto has changed and fandom has changed. Very few of the people currently involved in the Society were involved in the fandom of 35 years ago (to say nothing of being alive to be involved in fandom). The modern fandom that our members partake of is its own kind of beast -- still not part of the Society's core mission, viz. the Library, and well-enough served by existing institutions that there's less pressure on us to expand to encompass them.
Vicki @278: Neither is quite Cambridge or Somerville, alas -- I've not yet been brave enough to venture into Harvard Square for clothes-shopping -- but if you're willing to cross the river, I've personally had good experiences with the service at the REI in Boston, and my friends, including my trans friends, have good things to say about Fluevog's on Newbury Street. A lot of Fluevog's stuff that's not heels, ie the boots and stuff, is actually ungendered, so I'd be surprised if the staff gave you trouble. For the other, I've definitely bought things out of my age category at REIs before, though not my gender category -- I imagine it depends some on the individual salespeople you get, too.
(I've always thought that women buying mens' clothing was a fairly common thing, so I'm surprised the staff gives you trouble, but it's not something I have personal experience with, my friends are weird so my view of the world is warped, and stupidity abounds about those sorts of things. Le sigh.)
Online, I've had good luck with Vixens and Angels for New Rock boots (also ungendered) -- they were very patient with me as I ordered a size too large, returned them for a size too small, and then finally hit on the right size. (I paid for return shipping each time, but after the first order they paid to send my replacement merchandise to me. I figured that if I was going to spend $300+ on a pair of good boots, I should spend enough to get the Right Thing, dammit.)
I was also very pleased with my experience with Zappo's, where I also ordered a size too large -- their return process is even better, just print out a return label online, tape it on, and mail it back, with free shipping all ways (and free second-day for the replacement item, IIRC). These both work somewhat less well if you don't live or commute close to a UPS store or drop-off point, and even with that it usually took a week of the box sitting taped and ready to go in my front hall before I actually got it sent, but sometimes it beats the hell out of being condescended to by a bad salesperson.
An anti-recommendation for Hubba-Hubba in Central Square in Cambridge, which nominally carries New Rock and other boots -- their size and style selection is worse than spotty, and every time I visit, I get the impression that the staff don't care one way or another whether they get my business or not, certainly not to the point of (gasp!) ordering something for me.
Brother Guy @97: Oh, bravo! That's wonderful. Non fanatici tantum lectores -- your contact does have the right of it, it's reading for the delight of it. I'll work the finished version up over the weekend and post it here when I'm satisfied with it. Thanks to everyone for the Latin advice -- I always appreciate the breadth and depth of knowledge on display here.
Avram @195: Twitter doesn't have a business model, which is part of what makes it so maddening. It's the first dot-com bubble all over again. Then again, Twitter can survive for a lot longer without a business model than Facebook can...
Hrm, an Open Thread just when I wanted to impose upon the Latinists of Making Light. Very convenient!
I'm involved with MITSFS, an organization I know some of you know. In a fit of something-or-other I decided that the existing MITSFS parody of MIT's seal, which converts the blacksmith and scholar into SFnal figures, needed to be turned into a proper seal in the fashion of MIT's with rings and our name and the whole nine yards. (This will decorate the electronic check-out computer -- creating it is a displacement activity, but it's got me making something that feels like progress on our conversion to an electronic check-out system. It's not quite actual progress, but it is movement, however slight, in the right direction, and more movement than the past year or so has seen!)
I got this far before running aground on the motto. What passes for MITSFS's motto[1], "We're not fans, we just read the stuff,"[2] is rather long to fit readably in the space under the two beings. A friend and fellow Society member suggested "Fanatici non sunt, lectitant" as a Latin translation -- better both because it's shorter and because the MIT motto on the seal is in Latin as well -- but suggested I run it past another Latinist for sanity before engraving it in relatively permanent form. So, Latinists of Making Light, I put to you the question -- fair translation or no? If the latter, what would you suggest?
[1] Barely beating out "OH SWEET MERCIFUL CTHULHU, MORE BOOKS? WHERE WILL WE PUT THEM?!"
[2] Somewhat anachronistic, since some number of us are fans, but it's Traditional.
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| 2008 | 36 |
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