The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Charles Dodgson:

Show all comments by Charles Dodgson.

Posted on entry Open thread 34 ::: January 03, 2005, 04:34 PM:
I've seen quite a few "fun with Nigerian scammers" stories, but my favorite remains Quit While You're A Head, in which our friendly neighborhood Nigerian crook enters a business partnership with one Thomas Mallory, whose severed head is on life support in the basement of Miskatonic University. (You'd think Mallory's puppetmaster would have all the best lines, but it's the scammer who gets to say, "Like I told you last time before your death...").

See also this exchange, in which Randolph Carter enmeshes a poor, unassuming Nigerian crook in a tangled web involving the Necronomicon, Cthulu worshippers in Kentucky, and a certain Detective Sipowicz...

Posted on entry Common fraud ::: December 04, 2004, 10:32 PM:
For what it's worth, MyCorporation.com has been offering point-and-click incorporation (and management of the requisite Delaware maildrops, etc.) for something like five years now. That's made it a whole lot easier for independant consultants and the like to do things that they really should have been doing anyway, but it hasn't reshaped society yet, at least not that I've noticed...
Posted on entry Open thread 32 ::: December 02, 2004, 12:31 PM:
On a side note, if anyone is still chasing down "Bad Magic" in the Boston area, Pandemonium (the SF specialty shop in Harvard Square) had at least a couple of copies in as of yesterday evening. More details at their web site -- where those so inclined can also order on line.
Posted on entry Playing against type ::: October 24, 2004, 01:47 PM:
An incoming wind generally helps pitchers -- except for knuckleballers. This may well have had something to do with Wakefield's sudden wildness yesterday; see here.
Posted on entry Playing against type ::: October 21, 2004, 12:30 PM:
If anyone wants to write about this season in a magic realist vein, a little more material:

Last year, the illuminated CITGO sign in Kenmore Square was out of order during the playoffs. This year, it's again under maintenance, but they're being very careful to make sure that the side of the sign facing the ballpark stays lit.

A few years ago, the Sox started playing "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the 8th inning. A crowd of Red Sox fans behind the visiting dugout were singing it in Yankee Stadium as the Sox closed out game seven. (Recent games have also featured a punk-rock update to "Tessie", the anthem of the Royal Rooters for the last championship Red Sox teams, way back in the twentieth century).

There has recently been some controversy over the eviction of Johnny Pesky from the Sox dugout. Pesky is a Red Sox player from very long ago who has been working for the team one way or another for literally decades, but the league office apparently dictated there be no supernumeraries in the dugout.

And Schilling's sutured ankle was bleeding in game six, as shown repeatedly on TV; no one writing in this vein should neglect the ritual possibilities of his bloody red socks.

That all said, the Red Sox may wind up confronting yet more of their past in Houston; Roger Clemens and Jeff Bagwell await...
Posted on entry Playing against type ::: October 21, 2004, 01:35 AM:
The real problem with the Red Sox is that for decades they were cursed with a phenomenally pigheaded and ignorant front office -- about many things, race certainly not least among them. The classic example of their idiocy is that they had a chance to sign Jackie Robinson before the Dodgers and Willie Mays before the Giants, and passed on both.

The last major hires and hangers-on from that group lost their decision-making roles just a few years ago...

Posted on entry Playing against type ::: October 21, 2004, 12:35 AM:
I never have the TV sound turned on for Fox telecasts if I can help it -- the Sox radio guys generally do a much better job. (Fox almost never shows you or tells you how the fielders are positioned; what's up with that?)

BTW, while the Sox weren't really out of character here (they're known for inspirational victories laying the ground for vaster and more crushing defeats), perhaps the other team was...

Posted on entry Playing against type ::: October 20, 2004, 11:29 PM:
It's just that our hostess seemed so certain that they were to be reliably expected to lose this game... completely closing off the possibility of greater disappointment down the line...
Posted on entry Playing against type ::: October 20, 2004, 11:09 PM:
A Bostonian perspective: reliability isn't really what Red Sox fans have come to expect. The glory of the team is that they find new and different ways to lose. And even if they get out of this one, they still have another series to do it in...

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