25 Comments on “One Week Break”

1. You can’t get Tor to spring for a business class seat when you fly clear across the country?

2. I usually ask for premium economy, which suits my needs on most domestic flights. The only real advantage to business class is a couple extra inches of seat and free drinks; I don’t drink alcohol and I can fit into a standard seat just fine.

3. Bring a warm sweater! This has been an unusually chilly May (and a wet one) in New York, and the forecast for the first half of June remains unsettled – cool and occasional periods of rain. Still, it’s better than 90. Have fun!

4. You realize this means that this will be the week that Trump initiates the gulags or bans Hindus or something else equally insane. Insert snarky prediction here.

5. Oooooo, Sir John is out of the loop for a week so we can play here! At least until he turns off the comments. So let’s play an informative game called, “Get to Know the Perennial Whatever Commentators.” How, you ask? No real names are required in order to preserve privacy. But let the other readers know something about you. “Greg” has commented here for years and years and I do wonder what region of the world he (or she) hails from, occupation, political affiliation, if any, and anything else of interest. I will go first.

   Born, raised, and live in Texas. Retired MBA, CPA. Retired university English & Accounting instructor. Retired secondary English, Chemistry, Math, and Physics teacher. Anglophile for all things British and particularly Scottish. Last Republican voted for in a Presidential Race–Richard Nixon in 1972. Not missed voting since. Science fiction fan and published poet.

   That ought to be enough. Please Whatever veterans, follow all John’s rules for playing nice; do not go out of your way to offend anyone. I am curious about all of you regulars who post comments here at Whatever.

   Sir John, I do understand if you choose to delete this comment, as this is your blog, not mine. Please, let it run a wee bit until the normal comments cutoff so long as everyone plays nice. I have never seen this done on anyone’s blog sites.

6. Actually, you may see me at the Book Festival in Berkeley next weekend. And it’s been chillier than usual here this month too, although it should be up in the low 70’s by the weekend.

7. It is more than likely I’ll be in church during your panel/presentation, so best of luck!

8. I wish I was short enough to smoosh into an economy seat comfortably. I mean I still do, when I fly, just not comfortably. Oh well, could be worse. Have you seen Ryanair’s latest proposal to stack people into their planes tighter than cattle in a cattle truck?

9. Safe travels Scalzi.

10. Have a good trip!

11. That schedule would give me the cold chills, so it’s just as well you’re the professional who gets to travel around like that *shudder*. If possible, I want a bit more space between episodes of Sardine Class seating.

12. Scalzi: “Be decent with each other until then, okay? Thanks.”

    Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.

    Gary: “political affiliation, if any”

    when I take the political compass test, I consistently score next to Gandhi and the Dalai Lama,i.e. the very bottom, far left quadrant.

    https://www.politicalcompass.org/test

13. Thanks Greg. Not a bad place to be, that.

14. Greg,

    I followed your link and here is my result, closer to Ghandi than anyone else. I had done that analysis years before, but had forgotten how close I was to the dead center of the chart (0,0).
    Economic Left/Right: -2.75
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.15

15. I got -6-ish for left and libertarian which is odd because I’m often accused of being too authoritarian.

    I imagine most of John’s audience lands somewhere between me and Greg.

16. But think of all the wonderful covfefe you’ll be missing

17. I scored to the left and the libertarian side of Gandhi:

    -6.63 left/right
    -5.28 social libertarian/authoritarian

18. -7, -7 in a +7,+7 nation.

19. When John’s away, the Whateverites will play.

20. Down and left of Ghandi …
    Economic Left/Right: -5.25
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31

21. Interesting survey. Glad I took it.
    Economic Left/Right: – 8.75
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.08

    My father is probably spinning in his grave so if you live near Altoona, PA I apologize for the unexpected seismic activity.

22. Also – looking forward to finally meeting you at BookCon this weekend, John.

23. I’ve got -6.something in both axes.
    I’d guess most here score similar?

    Interesting as that was, I have to say that I felt some of the questions were rather leading, and I’d strongly prefer a “neutral” answer option.

    Also, some of the answers were a coin-toss between “agree” and “disagree”, simply because it’s a matter of interpretation.

    At least one question didn’t make sense to me – how can a “free” market be free if there are regulations?
    And why would it ever be any good for the consumer?
    (Am I the only one thinking of Bioshock at that?)

24. Rejutka, often in economics the term “free market” is compared to a “command economy”. There are many gradations of “free”, but regulations are sometimes thought of as a way to prevent/remedy market failures that would otherwise occur due to imperfect information, transactions costs, or unclear ownership of resources. An example: who owns the Mississippi River and its watershed? How would nearby residents know that the water was safe to use without performing costly testing every time they wanted to use it? What is to prevent someone upstream from diverting the river to a water bottling plant and selling the bottled water to someone else? In the purest form of a command economy, on the other hand, the government decides what is produced, by whom, and what is consumed, and by whom.

25. I’m familiar with having to check in with one’s supervisor when going on a break; it must be weird to have to check in with, like THE WORLD.