The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by FranW:

Show all comments by FranW.

Posted on entry The inner lives of small rodents ::: December 09, 2007, 12:44 AM:
One thing we learned the hard way: never give a hamster an unshelled hazelnut. He will spend all night gnawing-gnawing-gnawing-gnawing at the shell to get at the nut.

Nonstop. All night. Really loud.

On the other hand, if you wanted to drive your partner mad: give the hamster an unshelled hazelnut, then go spend the night in a motel :-)
Posted on entry Weirdly Similar.... ::: October 16, 2007, 10:29 PM:
Yup, Lili. And sorry for spelling your name wrong in my previous post. Typos seem to be contagious!
Posted on entry Weirdly Similar.... ::: October 16, 2007, 10:04 PM:
Lily 745: Actually, I think Ms Pillsbury was posting a self-descriptor, but accidentally put a D instead of an L for the middle letter of the word.
Posted on entry Weirdly Similar.... ::: October 15, 2007, 09:18 PM:
A truly stupendous one-word post by Ms Pillsbury:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lanaia/message/336?l=1

Die of envy, all you writer-types!
Posted on entry Weirdly Similar.... ::: October 14, 2007, 11:48 PM:
Over on Noveltalk.com (http://www.noveltalk.com/AskAnAuthorPrevious.asp), Ms Lee (Mary Kellis) asked in July how to get out of a POD contract, and then in August how to get a cash advance on royalties. Admittedly, I'm not sure if this argues for, or against, her being utterly clueless about how publishing works, but it does seem she has previously entertained doubts about her publisher.
Posted on entry Weirdly Similar.... ::: October 14, 2007, 10:59 PM:
James, they just say that the book reviews will be *sent* to the NY Times etc. Not that the newspapers will *print* them.
Posted on entry Weirdly Similar.... ::: October 14, 2007, 09:55 PM:
Unfortunately, Ms Lee appears to have posted "her" prologue in several places:
http://www.poetstageforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2465&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=&sid=f396c412181ed748a2a54651f697129e
http://www.poetsandstorytellers.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2785
http://forums.gotblack.com/viewthread.php?tid=21640&page=1#pid294879
http://sick66.forumco.com/topic~TOPIC_ID~3409.asp
http://creativeconsciousness63643.yuku.com/topic/15017/t/Prologue-from-my-new-novel-Of-Atlantis.html

I think she's got a lot of deleting to do.
Posted on entry More Republican gay bathroom sex ::: August 30, 2007, 10:35 PM:
There's *should*, and there's *is*.

It should be safe for a man to go into a public toilet and take a crap without being intimidated, propositioned, or exposed to other men having sex. And it's totally unfair to say, "If you don't want to risk those things happening to you, then don't use public toilets. Cross your legs, or wear a Depends diaper."

It should be safe for women to walk down the street or through a park after dark without being raped. And it's totally unfair to say, "If you don't want to risk being raped, then don't ever go out by yourself at night. Spend your kids' food money on a taxi rather than walking half a mile home from the bus stop."

Women have lived with this problem for centuries. And, me, I'd rather the cops worked on making the streets safe from rape than making the gents' toilets safe from suggestive hand gestures. But admittedly I'm a woman and so probably have a skewed view.

Posted on entry This is not about "intellectual property" ::: May 26, 2007, 07:31 PM:
Call my a cynic, but with regards to fanfic writers abstaining because a particular author (such as Jo Walton) says they really, really don't want fanfic written for their stories/characters/worlds, I'm not sure how much of it is respect and how much of it is fear of lawsuit. I think that Jo's "no fanfic" edict might be read by fanfic writers as having the subtext of "and if you do, my lawyer will come kick your ass." There's a difference between fanfic writers not writing stories because they respect the original author's wishes, and writing the stories but making sure they're not available where the original author (or her lawyer) could find them.
Posted on entry Hard-won convenience ::: August 14, 2006, 08:44 PM:
I love you, Dori Smith! My eyes love you! My monitor loves you! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.
Posted on entry A postcard to the folks ::: June 14, 2006, 09:38 PM:
We breed and hand-rear a cattlebeast each year for the freezer, and I swear home grown beef is unbeatable for flavour, tenderness, and overall yum factor. If TNH, PNH, Ms Brite (swoon!) or anyone else here wants to come visit us down on the arse end of the world, we'll give you the best steak you've ever tasted.
Posted on entry Absolute Write is gone ::: May 29, 2006, 05:11 PM:
It's TNH's blog, dude. She gets to define civil any way she likes.
Posted on entry Absolute Write is gone ::: May 25, 2006, 12:26 AM:
I did my part, too, both by blogging it and by asking Miss Snark to blog it -- which, bless her little stiletto heels, she has done. By now pretty much the entire planet must know what a plonker BB is.
Posted on entry Dreadful phrases ::: May 02, 2006, 12:29 AM:
swing your partners, dosie dough
Posted on entry Ain't misbehavin' ::: January 09, 2006, 09:47 PM:
Call me clueless, but I totally fail to see why this memorial, even if it is a crescent facing Mecca blahblahblah, is problematic.

The anti-abortionists who bomb clinics and kill doctors do so, they say, in the name of their Christian God. Yet their actions are hardly in line with true Christianity, the vast majority of Christians denounce the bombers' actions, and those constructing memorials to the bombed clinics or murdered doctors do not eschew Christian symbols such as the cross.

The terrorists who perpetrated 9/11 did so, they said, in the name of Islam. Yet their actions are hardly are hardly in line with true Islam, the vast majority of Muslims denounce the terrorists' actions, GWB himself has assured us that he respects Muslims and their religion.... so why would any Islamic association with this memorial not be acceptable?
Posted on entry New model patent crank ::: November 17, 2005, 03:10 PM:
Another problem with patents is that they are way too broad.

I just did some research for a company to test their dietary supplement for its effects on weight gain in a particular species of a particular age and gender under particular environmental conditions. I produced adequate data; in addition, because I am such a scathingly brilliant scientist (yeah, right) I found that the product caused a small but statistically significant change in one particular aspect of one particular kind of immune cell.

They are now applying for a US patent that states this product will have a positive functional effect on *all* immune cells in *all* mammalian species of *all* ages and genders....and they'll get it. No proof required to expand your claims once you've got a bit of data showing one claim. (In case you can't guess, I've got issues with this.)
Posted on entry Out of the Slammer ::: October 03, 2005, 09:21 PM:
A joke currently making the rounds, in case you haven't seen it already:

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. Nothing is moving. Suddenly a man knocks on the window.

The driver rolls down her window. "What's going on?"

"Terrorists have kidnapped President Bush. They want a ten million dollar ransom, otherwise they're going to drench him in gasoline and set him on fire. We're going car-to-car to take up a collection."

"How much are people giving?" the woman asks.

"About a gallon each."
Posted on entry Winning Hearts and Minds ::: September 26, 2005, 08:19 PM:
I think they should get Michael Brown to investigate these abuses. He'd be perfect for the job.

Well, after he finishes with his _new_ job, that is.

His new job. As consultant. To FEMA. To evaluate FEMA's response to Katrina.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/22/national/main878583.shtml?CMP=ILC-SearchStories

Somebody please shoot me now.

Posted on entry Terrorist Targets ::: September 26, 2005, 04:52 PM:
Wow, this really doesn't bode well for New Zealand's Taupo (Mordor), Upper Hutt (Isengard), and Lower Hutt (Helm's Deep). I suppose a movie trilogy makes it three times as bad? Maybe I should've taken that job in Auckland after all!

Posted on entry Busted ::: September 21, 2005, 08:04 PM:
And then there are those of us who always assume the absolute worst is coming, and we feel panicked or depressed or terrified because of this. So we obsessively follow the unfolding event: anything less than the worst relieves the looming, oppressive panic/terror/depression, and the sooner we're aware of the outcome the shorter the period that we have to suffer the panic.

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