Monthly Archives: November 2007
A Small Clarification
Posted on November 13, 2007 40 Comments
In the aftermath of yesterday’s Creation Museum report, I’m getting comments and e-mails from Christians who are both thanking me for taking the hit for the team and also wanting to make sure I don’t think all Christians believe in creationist clap-trap. My response to both of these: 1. You’re welcome. 2. Of course not. […]
Have Another Cup, Plus Limited TGB Shipping
Posted on November 13, 2007 33 Comments
I’ve had a ton of folks asking me if there was ever going to be another printing of my book on writing, You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop into a Coffeeshop, because the first print run of 500 copies sold out before its release date. Well, now I know the answer, and […]
The Sagan Diary: Available Online
Posted on November 12, 2007 26 Comments
I’m delighted to announce that Subterranean Press has decided to post the complete text of “The Sagan Diary” at Subterranean Online. For those of you unfamiliar with TSD, it’s a novelette (about 12,500 words) that’s set in the Old Man’s War universe, between the events of The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony. It’s the […]
Your Creation Museum Report
Posted on November 12, 2007 568 Comments
Yes, finally, ladies and gentlemen, I present you with your Creation Museum report! Thank you for your patience. Our report today has two parts: The first part is a photographic tour, with all the snarktasticness you’ve been no doubt hoping for. Click on the first picture and cruise on through. It’s long — 101 pictures […]
Coining a New Word
Posted on November 11, 2007 22 Comments
Dioramageddon. Which means: “A scale model representation of the end of the world.” At this very moment (5:17 pm, 11/11/07), this word is nowhere to be found on Google. I claim it for my own! Yes, it has something to do with my Creation Museum visit. You’ll see why, soon enough.
Anita Esterday for President
Posted on November 10, 2007 12 Comments
“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.” — […]
What I Did With My Saturday
Posted on November 10, 2007 53 Comments
I took care of some delayed business: Full write-up in the next couple of days. And pictures. Because I took, oh, about five hundred.
Obituaries for Himself
Posted on November 10, 2007 17 Comments
Norman Mailer is dead. Heading out the door so I can’t discuss it right now (other than to say: Damn), but please feel free to do so if you want.
Away Today
Posted on November 10, 2007 23 Comments
Taking care of some stuff. So until I return, here, have an open thread. A topic, to get you started: Why, precisely, was she singing “do-wah-diddy diddy dum, diddy do” as she was there, just walking down the street? And it have something to with clapping her hands and shuffling her feet, or were those […]
Snip Snip
Posted on November 9, 2007 50 Comments
Here’s an interesting ethical dilemma: A divorced man decides to convert to Judaism and also decides to have his son, for whom he is the custodial parent, circumcised. Wrinkle #1: former wife, who is Russian Orthodox, opposes the circumcision. Wrinkle #2: the boy in question is twelve. Is it in the courts? Sure is. This […]
Jeff Vader, Brother of Chad and Darth
Posted on November 9, 2007 18 Comments
LEGO meets Star Wars meets Eddie Izzard. There is nothing but upside here for everyone.
Adorable Nexus of Chaos
Posted on November 8, 2007 40 Comments
Athena’s home from school today due to parent-teacher conferences, which is putting big puncturing holes in my work day. Indeed, she just now walked into the room and announced “I’m bored,” with the subtext there being and if you do not amuse me I will make your life an unremitting hell from now until I […]
The Big Idea: Ekaterina Sedia
Posted on November 7, 2007 1 Comment
The Big Idea is back over at Ficlets, and this week author Ekaterina Sedia explains why she’s revealing The Secret History of Moscow. I mean, aside from the fact that someone paid her to do so. It’s really very interesting stuff, and makes me sad that her Moscow isn’t the one that actually exists. Although […]
Even Conservatives Need the Help of the Activist Courts From Time to Time
Posted on November 7, 2007 32 Comments
A bunch of politically conservative authors are suing Regnery Publishing for business practices which artificially deflate the authors’ royalties. More specifically, the suit alleges the Eagle Publishing, which owns Regnery, “orchestrates and participates in a fraudulent, deceptively concealed and self-dealing scheme to divert book sales away from retail outlets and to wholly owned subsidiary organizations […]
One of Those Little Things
Posted on November 6, 2007 71 Comments
As an indicator of where the zeitgeist is regarding waterboarding, I do find it instructive that when I made a waterboarding joke in the previous entry, there were quickly a couple of comments along the line of “well, no one deserves waterboarding,” followed by some sort of suggestion of another form of torture for humorous […]
In Today’s Edition of “When Critics Overthink”
Posted on November 6, 2007 33 Comments
I present to you a Los Angeles Times music reviewer trying to salvage his own personal idea of self-worth by declaring Miley Cyrus (aka “Hannah Montana”) a “young experimental artist”: The entire show operated at a frenzied fever pitch, but its David Cronenberg-like climax came right before the encore, when the regular girl sang a […]
The Standard Back From Long Trip E-Mail Post
Posted on November 6, 2007 7 Comments
As I am back home, I’ve turned off the vacation setting on my e-mail and have commenced to drill down on all the e-mail I may have missed/was ignoring until I got back home. If you sent me an e-mail in the last week, and I haven’t responded to it by close of business today, […]
Back Home
Posted on November 5, 2007 7 Comments
And basically a mere husk of a human being, because traveling most of a day will do that to one, won’t it. Back tomorrow. Now: Sleep.
Ugh, Travel
Posted on November 4, 2007 13 Comments
Packing everything up now. Leaving tomorrow morning to come back to the US. Loved being here in France. Hate having to travel to get back home. Bring on the transporters, or bring back the Concorde. Be back late tomorrow. Be brave until then.
I’d Be Having Even More Fun in France…
Posted on November 3, 2007 26 Comments
… If I just weren’t so damn tired. No idea why. Lord knows I’m getting tons of sleep. And I’m pretty sure it’s not jet lag. I suspect that fundamentally not being able to understand all the very nice people around you may ultimately be fatiguing. So: Still having fun. But I might pack it […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying