It turns out that John Scalzi writes fiction the same way that I do -- no outlines, just a general idea of where I'm starting, where I'm going, and a few neat things I want to see along the way -- and he does it for exactly the same reasons. Call it pseudo-validation, since actual validation would involve an offer from a publisher.
Still, I slog on: yesterday the novel-in-progress passed the 100,000 word barrier, with the story now approaching the conclusion of the second act, in which I basically leave everybody just about on death's door. Cool, because that means soon it will be on to the climactic third act, in which I get to squash characters like bugs on the way to the finale. It probably sounds demented, but I'd be lying if I did not admit that a large part of the appeal of writing is the ability to kill people vicariously.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
Monday, January 26, 2004
Oh, that whacky Bart!
Wonderful moment from last night's episode of The Simpsons: Marge takes Bart and Lisa into a huge Borders or B&N-style bookstore called something like "Book-opolis", and upon their entry, Lisa says, "I'm going up to the fourth floor, where they keep the books!" And Bart responds, "I'm gonna go taunt the Ph.D.'s." Whereupon he goes up to the cash register, where three people are working, and says, "Hey, I hear there's an assistant professorship opening...." And all three employees lean forward, hanging on his every word. Priceless.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Won't someone PLEASE think of the CHILDREN!!!
(I make fun of a "family values" activist here. If that offends, skip this post.)
There is a letter to the editor in today's Buffalo News that boggles the imagination.
A little background: Buffalo's main theatrical venue, Shea's Center for the Performing Arts, does a "Family Film Series" every year where they offer free screenings of "family" movies -- generally PG or G-rated fare. The letter in today's paper registers a complaint about one of the films recently shown. Here are some selections from the letter:
As a parent and an educator, I am writing to express my appreciation for your support and sponsorship of family-oriented events, but also to bring to your attention the lack of family values portrayed during the Jan. 11 event.
....The other adults and I were appalled at the vulgarity that was shown in the film. I am not in favor of censorship. I am, however, in favor of age-appropriate material for children, especially when presented under the auspices of a "family event."
I have to believe that not one of the sponsoring agencies viewed the film to assess its appropriateness. Had they, I would imagine the film would not have been selected, or at the very minimum, the multiple utterances of expletives would have been beeped out or voiced over and the sexual overtones edited for content.
Furthermore, the amount of smoking that was portrayed in the film was astonishing. Granted, the film was released in [year]. Today, however, the clear message being conveyed is that of a smoke-free lifestyle.
It is unsettling to me that an organization would agree to have its name and reputation associated with a "family event" when clearly the values of respectful and appropriate language and healthy lifestyle are not a part of the event.
I hope The News continues to support family events, but takes greater care in selecting experiences that foster positive values."
Wow, that's a pretty strong condemnation, and I'm sure that you're wondering just what R or PG-13 rated monstrosity was allowed to sully the imaginations and moral lives of these poor kids. Die Hard, maybe? There's a lot of smoking and swearing in that. Or maybe A Fish Called Wanda, which has smoking, sex, and lots of swearing.
Nope. The movie with such display of staggering immorality, with smoking and sexual overtones and vast amounts of potty-mouthed depravity that was nevertheless inflicted on the poor little angels was Ghostbusters. From 1984.
Can you imagine this woman's reaction if her kids were to watch, say, Casablanca? That movie has smoking and sexual overtones galore! There's not much swearing, but I imagine all that gambling and drinking would make up for it. The horror! O the swooning in the aisles!
And I always love the phrasing of such missives: "I am a parent and an educator", as if this has anything to do with, well, anything (and raises the question of just what an "educator" is -- is it a teacher? a guidance counselor? a homeschooling parent?); "I am not in favor of censorship", leaving out the implied second clause: "But you can't expect me to exercise my own responsibility for judging a film's content before I show it to my kids, especially a movie that's been out for twenty years."
I swear to God, every time I encounter something like this, part of me wants to sit my kid down and have her watch Pulp Fiction. You know, just to balance out the world.
(I edited the letter, obviously, to withhold the name and release date of the film for maximum effect in my post. The unexpurgated letter can be read here.)
There is a letter to the editor in today's Buffalo News that boggles the imagination.
A little background: Buffalo's main theatrical venue, Shea's Center for the Performing Arts, does a "Family Film Series" every year where they offer free screenings of "family" movies -- generally PG or G-rated fare. The letter in today's paper registers a complaint about one of the films recently shown. Here are some selections from the letter:
As a parent and an educator, I am writing to express my appreciation for your support and sponsorship of family-oriented events, but also to bring to your attention the lack of family values portrayed during the Jan. 11 event.
....The other adults and I were appalled at the vulgarity that was shown in the film. I am not in favor of censorship. I am, however, in favor of age-appropriate material for children, especially when presented under the auspices of a "family event."
I have to believe that not one of the sponsoring agencies viewed the film to assess its appropriateness. Had they, I would imagine the film would not have been selected, or at the very minimum, the multiple utterances of expletives would have been beeped out or voiced over and the sexual overtones edited for content.
Furthermore, the amount of smoking that was portrayed in the film was astonishing. Granted, the film was released in [year]. Today, however, the clear message being conveyed is that of a smoke-free lifestyle.
It is unsettling to me that an organization would agree to have its name and reputation associated with a "family event" when clearly the values of respectful and appropriate language and healthy lifestyle are not a part of the event.
I hope The News continues to support family events, but takes greater care in selecting experiences that foster positive values."
Wow, that's a pretty strong condemnation, and I'm sure that you're wondering just what R or PG-13 rated monstrosity was allowed to sully the imaginations and moral lives of these poor kids. Die Hard, maybe? There's a lot of smoking and swearing in that. Or maybe A Fish Called Wanda, which has smoking, sex, and lots of swearing.
Nope. The movie with such display of staggering immorality, with smoking and sexual overtones and vast amounts of potty-mouthed depravity that was nevertheless inflicted on the poor little angels was Ghostbusters. From 1984.
Can you imagine this woman's reaction if her kids were to watch, say, Casablanca? That movie has smoking and sexual overtones galore! There's not much swearing, but I imagine all that gambling and drinking would make up for it. The horror! O the swooning in the aisles!
And I always love the phrasing of such missives: "I am a parent and an educator", as if this has anything to do with, well, anything (and raises the question of just what an "educator" is -- is it a teacher? a guidance counselor? a homeschooling parent?); "I am not in favor of censorship", leaving out the implied second clause: "But you can't expect me to exercise my own responsibility for judging a film's content before I show it to my kids, especially a movie that's been out for twenty years."
I swear to God, every time I encounter something like this, part of me wants to sit my kid down and have her watch Pulp Fiction. You know, just to balance out the world.
(I edited the letter, obviously, to withhold the name and release date of the film for maximum effect in my post. The unexpurgated letter can be read here.)
Should auld acquaintance be forgot....
Scots everywhere celebrate today the birthday of Robert Burns, the great national poet of Scotland, who gave us the lyrics of "Auld Lang Syne" and others. Perhaps next year I shall attend a Burns supper, and yes, I would try Haggis: although this dish would surely test my heretofore unquestioning love of sausage, I'll try anything once. No, I'm not Scottish. I'm not Chinese, either, but that doesn't stop me!
(For the purposes of this post, I have tried valiantly to find a nice, large picture of a cooked Haggis, but I have come up dry -- every picture of one that I can find is either a distant shot, or thumbnail sized! This is the same Net where I can find pictures of beheadings, surgeries-in-progress, and Nick Nolte's mugshot. How can those pictures be less disturbing than a boiled sheep's stomach that has been stuffed with meat, oats and spices?)
UPDATE: Aaron comes through, finding a pretty nice picture of a Haggis after it's been ritually cut. It doesn't look that nasty, really.
(For the purposes of this post, I have tried valiantly to find a nice, large picture of a cooked Haggis, but I have come up dry -- every picture of one that I can find is either a distant shot, or thumbnail sized! This is the same Net where I can find pictures of beheadings, surgeries-in-progress, and Nick Nolte's mugshot. How can those pictures be less disturbing than a boiled sheep's stomach that has been stuffed with meat, oats and spices?)
UPDATE: Aaron comes through, finding a pretty nice picture of a Haggis after it's been ritually cut. It doesn't look that nasty, really.
Sail on, Odysseus!
I'm about three-quarters done with Homer's Odyssey, and I have a couple of thoughts:
:: First, I suspect that for many people, when you mention The Odyssey, they think of Odysseus lost at sea and having all manner of amazing adventures – the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis, the Lotus Eaters, and all the rest of it. Having reached the point in the book where Odysseus returns to Ithaca, but under disguise, I am struck by how little of the book is actually about all those adventures that constitute the most famous part of the story.
:: Second, the non-linear structure of the story surprised me a bit. Here my expectations were undoubtedly colored by the "simplified" version of Odysseus's adventures way back in seventh grade, but I sort of expected the book to open with Odysseus leaving the shores of Ilium and then having all manner of difficulties on his way back to Ithaca. However, Homer's actual telling of The Odyssey is decidedly different: it actually doesn't begin with Odysseus at all, but rather with Telemachus, his son, who despairs of his father's return as a group of suitors gathers around Penelope, looking to carve up Odysseus's estate among themselves.
Thus I expected to start with Odysseus and follow his exploits on the way home, but instead the book begins with him already missing. Rather than a straightforward adventure story, the Odyssey begins as a mystery, a "missing persons" story. We follow Telemachus as he embarks on his own journey to search for his father, which has the further purpose of letting us learn how the war on Troy ended after the death of Hector at the end of The Iliad. Telemachus goes to the courts of Nestor and Menelaus, hears stories of his father's exploits; we learn about the hardships suffered by all of the victorious Achaeans on their journeys home, before we finally join Odysseus in Book Five, as he is held captive by Calypso.
:: Third: repetition of motifs and verbal cues. There's a lot of this in The Odyssey, whereas I didn't notice nearly as much recurrence in The Iliad. The best example is that, whenever a day begins in The Odyssey, Homer uses a line like "When Dawn with her red fingers rose once more…." And in Book VIII, "A Day for Songs and Contests", Odysseus is twice moved to tears by the proceedings at the great feast in the Phaeacian court; both times he casts his cloak over his face, seeking to conceal his tears, and both times Alcinous – who, in fact, later saves Odysseus by providing him a ship to take him back to Ithaca – is the only one to notice Odysseus's tears and intercedes to lighten the mood. The repetitions seem, to me, to more reflect the poem's legendary oral genesis, even though it is far from certain to what degree the poem, as we now have it, springs from a tradition of oral performance.
:: Fourth: I haven't come yet to when Odysseus literally cleans house and kills all the suitors, but it's pretty obvious. What a delicious bunch of villains they are; I can only imagine Greek audiences, hearing the poem in whatever manner it was performed, hissing at their mere mention.
:: Fifth: I think that a Peter Jackson-directed version of The Odyssey would be a pretty nifty movie.
:: Finally, reading these books sort of makes me understand why Greece converted to Christianity. I imagine they were pretty relieved: "Whoa, you mean, we don't have to believe in those guys anymore?" asked while jerking a thumb at Mount Olympus. These Gods are a pretty creepy bunch.
:: First, I suspect that for many people, when you mention The Odyssey, they think of Odysseus lost at sea and having all manner of amazing adventures – the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis, the Lotus Eaters, and all the rest of it. Having reached the point in the book where Odysseus returns to Ithaca, but under disguise, I am struck by how little of the book is actually about all those adventures that constitute the most famous part of the story.
:: Second, the non-linear structure of the story surprised me a bit. Here my expectations were undoubtedly colored by the "simplified" version of Odysseus's adventures way back in seventh grade, but I sort of expected the book to open with Odysseus leaving the shores of Ilium and then having all manner of difficulties on his way back to Ithaca. However, Homer's actual telling of The Odyssey is decidedly different: it actually doesn't begin with Odysseus at all, but rather with Telemachus, his son, who despairs of his father's return as a group of suitors gathers around Penelope, looking to carve up Odysseus's estate among themselves.
Thus I expected to start with Odysseus and follow his exploits on the way home, but instead the book begins with him already missing. Rather than a straightforward adventure story, the Odyssey begins as a mystery, a "missing persons" story. We follow Telemachus as he embarks on his own journey to search for his father, which has the further purpose of letting us learn how the war on Troy ended after the death of Hector at the end of The Iliad. Telemachus goes to the courts of Nestor and Menelaus, hears stories of his father's exploits; we learn about the hardships suffered by all of the victorious Achaeans on their journeys home, before we finally join Odysseus in Book Five, as he is held captive by Calypso.
:: Third: repetition of motifs and verbal cues. There's a lot of this in The Odyssey, whereas I didn't notice nearly as much recurrence in The Iliad. The best example is that, whenever a day begins in The Odyssey, Homer uses a line like "When Dawn with her red fingers rose once more…." And in Book VIII, "A Day for Songs and Contests", Odysseus is twice moved to tears by the proceedings at the great feast in the Phaeacian court; both times he casts his cloak over his face, seeking to conceal his tears, and both times Alcinous – who, in fact, later saves Odysseus by providing him a ship to take him back to Ithaca – is the only one to notice Odysseus's tears and intercedes to lighten the mood. The repetitions seem, to me, to more reflect the poem's legendary oral genesis, even though it is far from certain to what degree the poem, as we now have it, springs from a tradition of oral performance.
:: Fourth: I haven't come yet to when Odysseus literally cleans house and kills all the suitors, but it's pretty obvious. What a delicious bunch of villains they are; I can only imagine Greek audiences, hearing the poem in whatever manner it was performed, hissing at their mere mention.
:: Fifth: I think that a Peter Jackson-directed version of The Odyssey would be a pretty nifty movie.
:: Finally, reading these books sort of makes me understand why Greece converted to Christianity. I imagine they were pretty relieved: "Whoa, you mean, we don't have to believe in those guys anymore?" asked while jerking a thumb at Mount Olympus. These Gods are a pretty creepy bunch.
O for a time machine....
It's always fun to conjecture as to those moments in history when we think that, if just one teeny-tiny little thing had happened differently, everything after would be better, or at least vastly different. The Star Trek original series episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" turns on this idea, for example; so do the Back to the Future movies, on a smaller scale.
William Burton has one that's....well, it's....hmmmmmm.....you figure it out.
William Burton has one that's....well, it's....hmmmmmm.....you figure it out.
I bow to the four corners of the world.
Wil Duquette is reading aloud to his kid one of my very favorite books, The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, which was really my first encounter with multi-volume epic fantasy. (I read Tolkien two years later.) Now I want to read that series again….lucky for me I own it in a one-volume omnibus, although I'd like to get the individual hardcovers with the original cover art someday.
And speaking of Wil, I followed up one of his recommendations from a month or so ago and read Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. This book is just wonderful; it's one of those beautifully-crafted fantasies where a poor villager's home faces a terrible threat unless he can find the magical talisman that will banish the evil. In this case, the villager is Number Ten Ox, the threat to his village is a strange "wasting" disease that strikes only the children, and the magical talisman is the Great Root of Power (a particularly powerful form of ginseng). Ox, it goes without saying, can't do it all alone, so he enlists the aid of a sage named Li Kao, who has "a slight flaw in his character" (his own words) but who also knows, well, nearly everything.
The book is episodic in structure: Ox and Li Kao go from one adventure to the next as they try to figure out how to get the Great Root, and they must first execute certain tasks in a certain order to do so. But the tasks aren't merely sequential in terms of revealing the mere location of the Root or how to get it; Ox and Li Kao's quest is also (or moreso) a quest for the wisdom they will need to achieve it. So each "episode" in the story ends up tying back, in the end, to the basis of the whole problem in the first place, and like any good fantasy a small problem facing a tiny village ends up involving Goddesses and the Ruler of All China and grievances a thousand years in the offing. There is a lot of mythology here (though I have no idea how much of it springs from actual Chinese mythology, knowing as I do very little about it); there are moments of great beauty, great sadness, and some absolutely wonderful humor, like this:
"....Master Li turned bright red while he scorched the air with the Sixty Sequential Sacrileges with which he had won the all-China Freestyle Blasphemy Competition in Hangchow three years in a row."
And the book's climax hinges on one of those wonderful revelations that make you laugh with delight as you realize how everything that has gone before leads to precisely that conclusion, while at the same time making you curse yourself for not seeing it coming a mile away. I loved this book, and while I'm told that the subsequent two books by Hughart featuring these characters aren't quite as good, I look forward to tracking them down. And as for the publishers whose lunacy led Hughart to stop writing these books altogether, may their villages be afflicted by locusts and tax collectors.
And speaking of Wil, I followed up one of his recommendations from a month or so ago and read Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. This book is just wonderful; it's one of those beautifully-crafted fantasies where a poor villager's home faces a terrible threat unless he can find the magical talisman that will banish the evil. In this case, the villager is Number Ten Ox, the threat to his village is a strange "wasting" disease that strikes only the children, and the magical talisman is the Great Root of Power (a particularly powerful form of ginseng). Ox, it goes without saying, can't do it all alone, so he enlists the aid of a sage named Li Kao, who has "a slight flaw in his character" (his own words) but who also knows, well, nearly everything.
The book is episodic in structure: Ox and Li Kao go from one adventure to the next as they try to figure out how to get the Great Root, and they must first execute certain tasks in a certain order to do so. But the tasks aren't merely sequential in terms of revealing the mere location of the Root or how to get it; Ox and Li Kao's quest is also (or moreso) a quest for the wisdom they will need to achieve it. So each "episode" in the story ends up tying back, in the end, to the basis of the whole problem in the first place, and like any good fantasy a small problem facing a tiny village ends up involving Goddesses and the Ruler of All China and grievances a thousand years in the offing. There is a lot of mythology here (though I have no idea how much of it springs from actual Chinese mythology, knowing as I do very little about it); there are moments of great beauty, great sadness, and some absolutely wonderful humor, like this:
"....Master Li turned bright red while he scorched the air with the Sixty Sequential Sacrileges with which he had won the all-China Freestyle Blasphemy Competition in Hangchow three years in a row."
And the book's climax hinges on one of those wonderful revelations that make you laugh with delight as you realize how everything that has gone before leads to precisely that conclusion, while at the same time making you curse yourself for not seeing it coming a mile away. I loved this book, and while I'm told that the subsequent two books by Hughart featuring these characters aren't quite as good, I look forward to tracking them down. And as for the publishers whose lunacy led Hughart to stop writing these books altogether, may their villages be afflicted by locusts and tax collectors.
Best of luck, Jim.
The truly esteemable, and even estimable, James Capozzola has decided to leave Philadelphia, a decision that must be a lot more gut-wrenching than he's letting on: he puts up a nice air of "It's all good, ya do what ya gotta do, et cetera", but his deep love for Philly always shone brightly in his writings about his home. I hope he doesn't have to move so far away that he can't get back there now and again.
"Why Mars?" Well, why not!
I've been forgetting to link this fine op-ed about the "new space initiative" (which, in turn, comes via A Voyage to Arcturus) for about a week now. A representative graf:
It really is a good idea to go back to the moon and onward to Mars, for reasons so long-term that they barely get mentioned in the usual debates: the survival of the human race and contact with extraterrestrial life. The payoff on these two issues, if it ever comes, is probably at least several centuries in the future -- but they are still important issues.
I confess that I'm less convinced now that the President meant what he said two weeks ago, mostly in light of his failure to even devote a single sentence to the thing at the State of the Union -- if it was as important as he'd previously said it was, surely he'd have mentioned it to the Congress and the entire country. Still, here's hoping.
In other news from the Martian front, the Opportunity Rover has landed on the red planet and begun sending back its own pictures. (Maybe the operative verb there should be "bounced" or even "boinged"?) This one they put down in a place where the terrain isn't the rock-strewn flatlands so familiar from the Spirit, Pathfinder, and even the Viking missions. (This story, by the way, features a very goofy headline: "Rover Reveals Alien Mars". Ummmm....how could there be anything but an "alien" Mars?)
And finally, if you want to make your very own Mars rover, the fine folks at Lego have you covered:
Just stir some red paint into the nearest sandbox, wind this baby up, and it's hours of fun for the whole family!
It really is a good idea to go back to the moon and onward to Mars, for reasons so long-term that they barely get mentioned in the usual debates: the survival of the human race and contact with extraterrestrial life. The payoff on these two issues, if it ever comes, is probably at least several centuries in the future -- but they are still important issues.
I confess that I'm less convinced now that the President meant what he said two weeks ago, mostly in light of his failure to even devote a single sentence to the thing at the State of the Union -- if it was as important as he'd previously said it was, surely he'd have mentioned it to the Congress and the entire country. Still, here's hoping.
In other news from the Martian front, the Opportunity Rover has landed on the red planet and begun sending back its own pictures. (Maybe the operative verb there should be "bounced" or even "boinged"?) This one they put down in a place where the terrain isn't the rock-strewn flatlands so familiar from the Spirit, Pathfinder, and even the Viking missions. (This story, by the way, features a very goofy headline: "Rover Reveals Alien Mars". Ummmm....how could there be anything but an "alien" Mars?)
And finally, if you want to make your very own Mars rover, the fine folks at Lego have you covered:
Just stir some red paint into the nearest sandbox, wind this baby up, and it's hours of fun for the whole family!
Friday, January 23, 2004
Film music sites
As a final throw-away post before the weekend, I figured I'd list some of the film music sites I regularly visit; but then I realized that there are only three. Weird....I used to be more active than that. One of my old favorites, Jason Blalock's Scoreland, has been gone for some time now, and thus I'm left regularly visiting these ones.
:: FilmScoreMonthly.com. The home site of a monthly (duh!) magazine devoted to film music, this one usually has pretty good news (especially on Fridays, when they gather up all the news from the week), reviews of obscure film music releases (sometimes really obscure), and other stuff. The discussion forums there are generally good, as well, with a lot of flamewars being permanently disabled since the moderators imposed a strict "No politics" rule. The forums tend to be rather heavy on the idolization of Jerry Goldsmith, but generally that's OK.
:: Soundtrack Express. Just a good review site, really. Not much to add.
:: Filmus-L. This is actually the website that archives all of the messages posted to the Filmus-L mailing list. I'd join, but I had my fill of debating film music stuff a long time ago; it's really not a hobby that has a lot of "new and exciting" issues cropping up. About the fiftieth time you debate the merits of, say, Hans Zimmer's approach to scoring versus, say, Carter Burwell's, you've pretty much seen it all. They don't get too wildly off-topic, and being able to read everything at once on the Web rather than by subscribing (and thus being tempted to reply) is nice.
And that, surprisingly, is about all of it. There are lots of other film music sites, obviously, but these are the only ones that have held my attention for very long.
:: FilmScoreMonthly.com. The home site of a monthly (duh!) magazine devoted to film music, this one usually has pretty good news (especially on Fridays, when they gather up all the news from the week), reviews of obscure film music releases (sometimes really obscure), and other stuff. The discussion forums there are generally good, as well, with a lot of flamewars being permanently disabled since the moderators imposed a strict "No politics" rule. The forums tend to be rather heavy on the idolization of Jerry Goldsmith, but generally that's OK.
:: Soundtrack Express. Just a good review site, really. Not much to add.
:: Filmus-L. This is actually the website that archives all of the messages posted to the Filmus-L mailing list. I'd join, but I had my fill of debating film music stuff a long time ago; it's really not a hobby that has a lot of "new and exciting" issues cropping up. About the fiftieth time you debate the merits of, say, Hans Zimmer's approach to scoring versus, say, Carter Burwell's, you've pretty much seen it all. They don't get too wildly off-topic, and being able to read everything at once on the Web rather than by subscribing (and thus being tempted to reply) is nice.
And that, surprisingly, is about all of it. There are lots of other film music sites, obviously, but these are the only ones that have held my attention for very long.
Goodbye, Captain....
Bob Keeshan, who played Captain Kangaroo, has died.
I don't really remember anything at all from his show, aside from the fact that I liked it a lot when I was five years old or so. But I do remember liking it, and it occurs to me that I thought he was older than a mere 76.
Friday Burst of Weirdness
Via Outside Counsel, I see that today is National Pie Day. That inspired me to dig about for the weirdest pie recipe I could find, and here it is. (It's actually the first weird pie recipe I found, so there may well be some out there that are even stranger. I also haven't clicked the links on this site to other weird recipes, so who knows what lurks....)
And then, if you want to observe National Pie Day but you don't feel like eating a pie, well -- this place has all you'd ever want to know about what Monty Python once termed "the edible missile".
And then, if you want to observe National Pie Day but you don't feel like eating a pie, well -- this place has all you'd ever want to know about what Monty Python once termed "the edible missile".
Uh-oh....
In promos the last couple of days, NBC is referring to "the last three episodes of Ed". Not the last three of this season, but the last three, period.
I know, it was pretty much pure luck that the show even made it to a fourth season, but still: NBC is run by jerks and pinheads. But maybe they can save the show by introducing the town sheriff as a cast regular, and renaming it Law and Order: Stuckeyville.
I know, it was pretty much pure luck that the show even made it to a fourth season, but still: NBC is run by jerks and pinheads. But maybe they can save the show by introducing the town sheriff as a cast regular, and renaming it Law and Order: Stuckeyville.
Feeds! We got yer feeds here!
Blogger now has a syndication feature of its very own, so you can have your very own RSS feed for your blog. Which you should. When updating, go to "Settings" and find the "Site Feed" tab. Proceed from there. I suspect that bloggers who use Blogger to maintain blogs that aren't on BlogSpot have some URL stuff to do, but I'm not one of those, so you're on your own. (And "blog", as word and root, appears way too many times in that sentence.)
Wanna be a "Big Head"?
Check out Popular Science's Mental Muscles of Steel. I, uh, didn't perform so well on their quiz (just under fifty percent).
Via Paul Riddell.
Via Paul Riddell.
Hmmmmmm....maybe there were TWO turkeys....
I'm not sure what the person doing this search was looking for, but I'm feeling a bit of paranoid conspiracy coming on....
Thursday, January 22, 2004
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Interior view of the dome inside the Buffalo Savings Bank building.
I read this Christopher Alvarado post earlier today, and I was struck by the building he pictures there: I thought I was looking at the Buffalo Savings Bank, one of Buffalo's most beautiful buildings. The Buffalo dome isn't stained glass, but gold filigree on the outside (it's really stunning on a sunny day) and ornate painting on the inside.
The Buffalo of the early 20th century must have been a beautiful place.
MOVE YOUR CARTS!!
In the last year or two I've noticed a new habit of grocery shoppers: the parking of the cart, while they wander off down the aisle to look for something. Occasionally they'll try to leave their cart in a position that's not inconvenient for others, but come on, we're talking shopping carts here; there's really no way to do this without being a pain-in-the-ass.
So, I'm mulling over adopting the following strategy: Whenever I encounter one of these "parked carts" whose shopper is more than ten feet away, I would remove one item from their cart and deposit it later someplace else. Of course, this won't result in any kind of "lesson" being learned, but it would at least pose an inconvenience for people who evidently believe their carts become non-corporeal objects when they release the handlebar and turn away from it.
(Or is this too evil?)
UPDATE: In comments, Sean points out that sometimes parents get overwhelmed by their kids, thus necessitating questionable cart behavior. I can understand that, to a point, but I haven't seen too much of that, believe it or not. The main grocery store we frequent here has a playroom where we can sign in our daughter and leave her there for an hour while we shop, and they also have those nifty carts shaped like trucks so the kid can "drive" through the store. Shopping with the kid isn't that much of a headache, really, for us!
So, I'm mulling over adopting the following strategy: Whenever I encounter one of these "parked carts" whose shopper is more than ten feet away, I would remove one item from their cart and deposit it later someplace else. Of course, this won't result in any kind of "lesson" being learned, but it would at least pose an inconvenience for people who evidently believe their carts become non-corporeal objects when they release the handlebar and turn away from it.
(Or is this too evil?)
UPDATE: In comments, Sean points out that sometimes parents get overwhelmed by their kids, thus necessitating questionable cart behavior. I can understand that, to a point, but I haven't seen too much of that, believe it or not. The main grocery store we frequent here has a playroom where we can sign in our daughter and leave her there for an hour while we shop, and they also have those nifty carts shaped like trucks so the kid can "drive" through the store. Shopping with the kid isn't that much of a headache, really, for us!
Oh, come now!
Surely I'm not the only one who thinks that there's endless opportunity for speculative humor based on the idea of Presidents owning overly-talkative parrots? Come on, folks! Make me laugh!
Of Intermittent Bloggers....
:: Nefarious Neddie has returned to posting, after a month-long hiatus. It seems that January is a pretty busy month for him, but he had time to report on possible Star Wars sequels to be filmed after the completion of Episode III. I withheld comment, since it was only a rumored thing and since I'm not sure I'd want more Star Wars movies after next year's: I like the whole idea of the Extended Universe, even though I don't much follow it anymore, but for the purposes of the movies, I prefer keeping it centered on the story of Anakin/Vader. Any post-Return of the Jedi films would have to find another "angle".
But, TF.N reports today that it might not be a series of sequel movies, but a television production of some sort, telling stories of Vader's "Reign of Terror". That would be interesting.
:: Somehow it escaped my notice that fellow-Collaboratory mate Jason Streed is posting again. I can't really single out any one of his posts for mention, because he's really good (and not just when he's telling his readers how good I am!). Oh, and can anyone figure out why his blog never seems to display correctly? I always have to hit F-11 twice to get it all to show up.
:: Another of the Original Collaboratory Gang, who disappeared from blogging for a long time, is Christopher Alvarado, who will be going up on my blogroll as soon as, well, I remember to get him up on my blogroll. Interesting stuff there, especially his Cleveland-centric posts. Living in Buffalo, for a number of years now I've thought of Cleveland as an example of what Buffalo could be like if they'd ever get things figured out; it turns out that all isn't entirely rosy at the other end of Lake Erie. Check him out.
:: Finally, I figure that Michelle will start posting again once she finally finishes reading all twenty of Patrick O'Brian's "Aubrey & Maturin" novels. Of course, by that time, Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel might be out, and that will delay her again (probably for only a few hours, though).
But, TF.N reports today that it might not be a series of sequel movies, but a television production of some sort, telling stories of Vader's "Reign of Terror". That would be interesting.
:: Somehow it escaped my notice that fellow-Collaboratory mate Jason Streed is posting again. I can't really single out any one of his posts for mention, because he's really good (and not just when he's telling his readers how good I am!). Oh, and can anyone figure out why his blog never seems to display correctly? I always have to hit F-11 twice to get it all to show up.
:: Another of the Original Collaboratory Gang, who disappeared from blogging for a long time, is Christopher Alvarado, who will be going up on my blogroll as soon as, well, I remember to get him up on my blogroll. Interesting stuff there, especially his Cleveland-centric posts. Living in Buffalo, for a number of years now I've thought of Cleveland as an example of what Buffalo could be like if they'd ever get things figured out; it turns out that all isn't entirely rosy at the other end of Lake Erie. Check him out.
:: Finally, I figure that Michelle will start posting again once she finally finishes reading all twenty of Patrick O'Brian's "Aubrey & Maturin" novels. Of course, by that time, Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel might be out, and that will delay her again (probably for only a few hours, though).
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