Sentential Links

Time for linkage!

:: This past year, for spelling, there was this predictable pattern for the homework of approximately 20 words. (I'm fascinated by the acrostic exercise, and I wonder if it would have helped the terrible spellers I knew. On a side note, I often wonder about spelling. I can think of few areas where lack of ability is so divorced from, well, general intelligence. This is to say that I've known more than a few folks who are very bright and very articulate and who read a lot and who can hold forth on many topics, and yet, they can't spell 'cat' without three Ms.)

:: Look at that curved beak, it is made for tearing apart his prey.

:: Using corsairs as the pirates is a good move too. I usually enjoy the liberty and style of Western pirates more than the structure and uniformity of the Barbary corsairs as presented here, but so many pirate films focus on the Caribbean that The Sea Hawk is a nice change of pace. (Until I read Michael May's post, I had no idea there'd been an earlier film called The Sea Hawk, different from the Errol Flynn film that is one of my all-time favorites!)

:: But Elvis stayed scattered on the table for the entirety of the week, in case anyone felt like working on it.

:: All I ask is a little bit of Bobo every so often. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have Dr. Teeth and Rowlf back--some of you may remember that Rowlf the Dog is my favorite Muppet--but a little bit of Bobo is a grand thing.

:: The novel Fight Club only sold about 5000 copies, according to Palahniuk, and the rest of the print run might have been pulped if it hadn't been for the Fincher film encouraging the publisher to get the copies back into circulation. That the film was no great financial success is a well-known story, as is the disastrous marketing campaign that Fincher still regards with chagrin—he recalls the head of marketing saying “You've found the perfect nexus—men don't want to see Brad Pitt with his shirt off and women don't want to see fighting.” (I never liked Fight Club, but almost purely on the basis that it simply isn't my cup of tea. I honestly can't cite anything that I specifically think is a flaw in it. I wonder what a return to that story will look like.)

:: In my not inconsiderable experience, even the most intelligent and literate authors have between 300 and 800 mistakes in an average sized novel. (Oy...my work's cut out for me....)

:: It needn’t have been this way, and it still needn’t be this way. There are those who still dream, who understand the call to space, and who are devoting their lives to make it reality. We’ve faced adversity before, and have not let it stop us.

I think we can overcome our own petty blindness. Sometimes we humans look up, not down, and see not just the Universe stretching out before us, but also our place in it.

We’ve done it before and we can—we must, and we will—do it again.

More next week. Or possibly not. You never can tell!!!