A Bucolic Moment
Posted on February 5, 2021 Posted by John Scalzi 10 Comments
It’s been an eventful week here at the Scalzi Compound, mostly for good reasons, although some reasons were unexpected, and others deeply annoying. Be that as it may, I’ve been getting work done, and I’m happy with it, and because of that I’m mostly able to tune out the world to focus on my own knitting. More accurately, I’m not tuning the world out entirely, but I’m caring less about it because the world I’m working in is more interesting to me at the moment. Sorry, world.
It’s been cold and snowy here, and next week is going to be miserably cold: single digit highs, negative digits lows. But there is some beauty in it, of course, as this picture of my Amish neighbors heading down the street shows. If not for the reflective bits on the buggy, and my plastic mailbox, this picture could have been taken anytime in the last hundred years. It’s a reminder life does go on, and can be lovely no matter what. It’s good to be reminded of that.
— JS
I think it would be really interesting to see how the Amish responded to e.g. a zombie plague sweeping the world.
In fiction, I mean.
My impression is they have withdrawn from the modern world but are not unaware of it. How would they deal with a disaster that threatens them and the “English” alike?
They did do Mennonites in an episode of Z Nation on syfy in 2015, so there is one take
I lived near an Amish community. You could tell which vehicles belonged to the youth because they had multiple slow moving vehicle warning signs with various sizes. Adults just had what was required.
A beautiful image of timelessness… Best to you and yours, always much love and success to you, but most of all, happiness! Thank you!
What? Nobody linked to Weird Al’s “Amish Paradise”…?
I have to admit, the SMV sign on the back aside, it looks like something out of the late 19th century. The snow hides the plastic of the mailbox perfectly….
Because I know linked posts tend to be held, and maybe never allowed through, I waited for a separate post….
“Amish Paradise” by Weird Al Yankovic
email conversation between me and my sister, edited for brevity
Sister: the very first time he writes the plural as “emperoxs” it is so clear how he must be pronouncing it that I can’t believe anyone even had to ask after that.
Me: My first thought on Emperoxs was Why even invent the word ‘emperox’ if not to use the lovely ‘emperoces’?
Sister: you should tell Scalzi that, so his alternate dialect speakers can use it.
Although there was something about nodding off after starting book three at 12:04 in the morning, that was clearly blamed on the sleep deprivation, not the book.
The topic of this post is your very enjoyable writing, right? Right?!
I say that if we have to have Canada’s weather, we should get their health care system as part of the package.
Wayne Gretzy in exchange for universal health care? Is it a deal?
I say that if we have to have Canada’s weather, we should get their health care system as part of the package.
Wayne Gretzky in exchange for universal health care? Is it a deal?
I’ll let you have the cold. Last time Atlanta saw a single digit low temp was 2014. It is supposed to get down in the 20s next week which is damn cold for us.