This post is going to be a little like a Steve Martin monologue from the 70’s – a lot of pickin, grinning, and ra-a-a-a-a-m…blinnnn. And bad fashion. Just so you know. I haven’t been terribly productive around the house for, oh, a little over a year now. Which is just about exactly when I started the blog, coincidentally, but never mind about that now. Really, it started before that. No, wait, I’ve never been terribly productive around the house. I was more productive when Stuey (who now inhabits the Memorial Tea Caddy on the mantelpiece) was around, because I kind…
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Today, so many have popped up – pledging support of everything from people with diabetes to victims of the Asian tsunami – that some find the trend laughable. “Putting a ribbon magnet on your car is an empty gesture,” said Jay Barnes, the author of AntiMagnet, a Web site devoted to ridiculing the trend. “It’s prepackaged sentiment for a profit.'” Jeff Poirier joined with friends to launch Support Our Ribbons, which offers magnets displaying messages such as “Support Our Ribbons,” “I Support More Troops Than You,” and “One Nation Under Ribbons.” “Ribbons support many causes,” said Poirier, 25. “Isn’t it…
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James Tiptree Jr. Award Winners: Joe Haldeman and Johanna Sinisalo The award is “presented annually to a work that explores and expands gender roles in science fiction and fantasy…” James Tiptree, Jr was actually Alice Sheldon. She wrote a memorable book that featured not only gender-role swapping, but complete body and consciousness and species swapping called Up The Walls Of The World. It’s at least 15 years since I read it, and I still remember the intriguing, liberating, and disturbing issues she raised and the characters that played the story out. Tiptree/Sheldon was an amazing writer, and she led an…
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Let’s see – there’s a recap of the premiere up, which I got around to reading the night before the second episode aired. The title, whch is usually only visible when you look at the whole list of recaps, is “Peru-ff Beyond A Reasonable Doubt.” Miss Alli has this to say about the state of TAR thus far: Previously on How To Endanger Your Franchise With One Drunken Casting Session: First, it was awwwwwesome (Ed: TAR1). Then, it was great (Ed: TAR2). Then it was great, except for the part where Flo won (Ed: TAR3). Then, it kind of sucked…
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Okay, they’re serious. This is unprecedented in the long history of fan “save our show” campaigns: Fans of UPN’s soon-to-be-canceled Star Trek: Enterprise formally announced that three anonymous contributors have pledged $3 million to a fund to finance a proposed fifth season of the show. The TrekUnited.com Web site reported that the promised contribution will come from “investors” in “the commercial space flight industry.” It’s one thing to take out impressive ads in national magazines or pull off clever ploys for garnering the attention of network suits (such as the time fans of Roswell sent thousands of bottles of Tabasco…
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Holy crap, the recaplet for last night’s episode is already up: From our old friend LAX, the teams take off for Lima, Peru. There is much talk among some of the other teams of the presence of Rob and Amber, whom I will tell you right now I personally like and don’t care who knows it, and do you know why? Because every time they grin broadly, it chaps the shit out of Lex somewhere in the world. At any rate, sand-pit digging reveals that there are a few teams who will need to pay a bit more attention to…
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And they’re the first team eliminated from TAR7 – I’m disappointed because they both spoke pretty decent conversational Spanish and they were funny – on the zip line task, Ryan looks into the camera with his belly hanging over the rigging straps and says “We’re about to step off the side of this mountain, and I believe we’re the first to load test the line.” And with that, Chuck hit bottom at the beginning of the first zipline. Then from the bottom Ryan observed “What do we do now, sit and wait for Fat Boy to come down?” It was…
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I read a recap of the TAR6 finale (which aired while we were in Maui) so I knew who won. Feh. Kris and Jon was robbed! Chicago, I hate you! You are not my city, and you never were. Oh, why is it that cities where I’ve lived or near where I live screw the teams I love and let the teams I hate win? Seattle, you screwed Ken and Gerard in TAR3, and now this. I’ve never lived in Phoenix and so I didn’t really care who won (TAR4, Chip and Reichen) and I can’t stand Dallas so naturally…
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I’m going to do a little hacking around with the “books” portion of the left column. I’ve grown tired of seeing the “Unreadable Culls” titles and will repurpose the category to “Soon To Be Read.” As you might guess, I picked up a few books on the trip, which will eventually released via Bookcrossing I got a “buy 2/get 3” deal at the Maui Borders, plus I got another book at the Borders Express next to the Kihei Safeway. Read Be Cool, by Elmore Leonard A fast, fun read. Not as original as “Get Shorty”, of course but still breezy…
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It’s been a while since I’ve listened to AAR – I think the mourning period is over and it’s time to get back into it. Al Franken’s show is about to start so I’ll tune in via the Internets link at their site. I used to listen to Majority Report every night before the election, too (except for Fridays, when Janeane’s dad Carmine was on). Dammit, I should have listened last night – Archbishop Desmond Tutu was on.