Lenora Rose - Connie Willis' latest book, Passage mixes the somber and screwball elements both seamlessly and shockingly. If you thought Doomsday Book was good, you want to grab this one right away.
I should clarify that I have not actually read Crewel Lye, a Caustic Yarn. I stopped reading Anthony after Race Against Time, another pun-titled book (hint). I was referring to the title as a truly excellent pun, but I didn't go any further.
I'm waiting for someone to try to make trouble for my friend Dave over our email domain name.
T.B., when I referred to Coulter as "Skeletor sprayed blond," I was referring as much to her vicious grin as to her thinness.
I remember years ago seeing a commercial that began with an extreme closeup of an emaciated girl's face. "Oh, no," I thought, "this is going to be one of those heartbreaking Save The Children ads." I swear that's what I really thought. But it wasn't; it was a Calvin Klein perfume ad, and the "emaciated girl" was Kate Moss, who I'd never before seen.
Kate Moss wasn't just a "skinny girl." She was the beginning* of the "heroin chic" fashion craze -- models were really trying to look like starved and strung-out heroin addicts, and makeup assisted in that effort.
I won't insult you if you're thin. But if you're so underweight that you look preadolescent, or look like a strung-out heroin addict, or you tell me your periods have stopped (and you're not pregnant or on the pill), or if your body fat percentage is below ~7%, I will not only try to get you to eat, I will try to get you to go to the hospital.
'Skinny' =/= 'anorexic'. Kate Moss was a toxic image for women everywhere; Ann Coulter's physical appearance is the almond flavor that covers the cyanide. Therefore we diss both.
*or the middle. I'm not a fashionista and I'm not sure if Moss began or simply epitomized this hideous trend.
Andrew Post, I can't see how "three literary and four scientific" is an answer to "Has he met Samuel R. Delany?" but there it is.
Seriously, that's pretty impressive. BTW blogging doesn't have to eat your life. Fond as I am of your dad, you're not him.
I agree, James. And I think the Bush administration will make sure they "miss some connections" to allow that to happen if they think they're going to lose.
I think we're talking Reichstag fire.
Tina - these things are real, and people perceive them and name them as gods...their other traits are culturally determined, but there are forces in the world which we as humans feel the need to recognize.
Take a look at Hekate, Kali(-Durga), Morrigan, and Sekhmet for a good group of cross-cultural sister goddesses. They all have different traits, but the core personalities are very similar.
Oh, who knows? Maybe they were all the same Goa'uld, dressing up in different clothes as she visited various parts of the world. :-)
Jakob, OED is the ultimate reference on word origins, dates words entered the language, etc. It takes too long to compile, however, to really be a good reference on current usage. AH4 will be out of date in a few years, but for now it's about as good as it gets. (For American usage only; it does have some references on UK usage, but I'm sure there are better ones.)
Kate, Ganesha as the Remover of Barriers is always the first god invoked. He's the gatekeeper, as it were, to the other gods.
Happy July 4, fellow Americans! (Hi there, everybody else.)
Hearing the Declaration of Independence read on the radio Friday morning, I noticed that several of the denunciations of George III (UK) can equally (or similarly) be applied to George II (US). You can attack, debate, or cheer (heh) my list here.
(Yes, I realize that Bush 43 isn't really the second George to hold the Presidency.)
David Goldfarb: Apology warmly accepted; friendly discourse restored. Yay!
I WAS being stubborn, of course. The only thing you missed was that I was laughing at myself for being so.
By the way, the Holy Book (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) agrees with you, lists it as a pronoun, and even uses it in the possessive (with, I need hardly add, an apostrophe). There's not even a Usage Note to indicate any controversy. Thus I am utterly refuted by the highest possible authority. Namo, nama.
So now we have to say that there's only ONE pronoun in the English language whose (!) possessive contains an apostrophe. Fortunately, it's easy to remember which one!
cd, I had in mind a woman and a cucumber, but yours works too.
Alex Cohen, reread LeGuin's story. It's about a vegetable love, ultimately. Of course, if your novel is about something quite different (example tastefully deleted here), it might not be an issue.
David Goldfarb, read the rest of my posts on the topic. Or even the rest of the post where I (initially) suggested we agree to disagree. "Oh, well, perhaps you're right" (indicating a shift in thinking from my initial paragraph) does not appear to have impinged on your consciousness, and neither does "but then again I know that analogic change can't be imposed by force" or "It's just annoying. That's all."
Also, if 'one' is NOT a pronoun, I still have my rule, but the possessive is as you've given it. And I've repeatedly conceded that there are exceptions all over the place, and even (not without grumbling) admitted (obliquely) that this might be one.
Frankly, I can't see why you're going out of your way to be snotty. All the rest of our conversation has been friendly; I'd like to go back to that, please.
I once based a whole GURPS campaign around this idea. It was the mystical undercurrent to a geopolitical Celtic fantasy campaign.
I'd assume you don't want them growing in your yard, so (I guess) yes.
Folks, you don't want Strange Fruit growing in your yard. Trust me.
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