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SF writer Peter Watts beaten and arrested at US Border

skzb — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:25:41 +0000

You can start your link hunt here if you haven’t seen this yet.

SF writer Peter Watts beaten and arrested at US Border

Word definition question

skzb — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:17:25 +0000

Reesa and Nathan have been watching re-runs of the old Addams Family TV show. I approve of this, in part because it’s refreshing to see a 60’s sitcom where one can believe the couple actually had sex. But it produced a question which has been bothering me, lo, these many days, even to interfering with my sleep. So, weary and desperate, I turn to the internet as my last hope.

Can someone tell me what “ooky” means?

Thank you.

Word definition question

I added my name

skzb — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:39:37 +0000

When Cory Doctorow and Neil Gaiman both say to sign it, I’m inclined to sign it, so I did.

I added my name

I have something important to tell you

skzb — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:58:53 +0000

To all writers, and especially TV writers, just thought you should know that the riff where someone says, “I have something important to tell you,” and then gets interrupted before being able to tell it, is now played out. In fact, it was played out the first time it was used. If your goal is to make me think, I guess it works; but what I think is, “Geez, what a lousy writer.”

Maybe you can come up with some clever twist on it, where that is what happens, but it doesn’t seem to be what happens, so that the audience doesn’t realize that you’re pulling that stunt until the reveal. If you can do that, fine. If not, I think you ought to take that gimmick and put it into the bag next to woman-who-kicks-ass-because-her-kid-is-threatened and drop it into Lake Michigan; with all the pollution already there it’ll hardly be noticed.

Thank you. That is all.

I have something important to tell you

Copy of email sent to Jonathon Frid

skzb — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:37:50 +0000

I just sent the following to JonathonFrid.com, and thought I may as well share it here as well:

Back in 1993, I published my 12th novel, AGYAR, my only vampire novel. I was one of those kids who raced home from school to catch Dark Shadows at 3:30. Until recently, when I’ve been watching DS again, I didn’t realized the degree to which Jack Agyar was influenced by Barnabas Collins. Now that I am aware of it, it seems only fair to acknowledge it, and to say thank you.

Warm regards,

Steven Brust

Copy of email sent to Jonathon Frid

Miss Manners, me, and begging for alms

skzb — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:51:50 +0000

So, I sent Miss Manners a letter, and she printed and answered it. A): I think this is really cool. 2): I think she has a valid argument. III): It doesn’t address the whole of the problem. d): What do you think?

Miss Manners, me, and begging for alms

On Roman Polanski

skzb — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:22:59 +0000

All right, this is getting to be too much. I ignored it when a friend warned me not to “defend rapists” on her LJ for linking to an article (See sidebar for the link.) Now another friend has signed a petition calling for this 76-year old man to “receive justice.” The cynicism is appalling.

There many issues and sides to this, but three of them come to mind: One, the power of the media to sway even smart people. Two, as an example of PC thought: if you say rape, or child molestation, or racism, or certain other words, then suddenly nothing else matters, and people must line up and declare their allegiance or be A Bad Person. Three, the way the wishes of the victim are being systematically ignored, as if she has no interest in this whatsoever, with the result she and her family are forced to be victims still and again. That is what really pisses me off.

On Roman Polanski

Interview

skzb — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:17:05 +0000

A friend of mine did a rather weird interview with me. If you’re interested, it can be found here.

Interview

…but I’m his biggest fan!

skzb — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:14:29 +0000

…but I’m his biggest fan!

Urban myths, gullability, conclusions

skzb — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:20:28 +0000

It started with reading the sidebar of Making Light–a habit I encourage. On “PNH’s Sidelights”, I came across this. It’s brief, take a moment to read it.

Now, here is my problem. A certain Walter Williams says “Thirty, 40 or 50 years ago, no one in their right mind would have believed the Merv Grazinski urban legend possible, but not so today. Personal responsibility has taken a back seat in our increasingly immoral and litigious society.”

The author of the blog, John Cole, responds thus:

“This is a particular example of wingnut argumentation that I find rather amusing, and it always takes the following form:

Sure, I’ve now learned that X is not actually happening, but the fact that I believed that X could be happening is not, as one would think, a commentary on my foolishness and gullibility, but rather it is a scathing indictment of our societal decline.”

I think they’re both wrong. John Cole is wrong in implying that one can’t learn anything from widespread mistakes and urban legends; Walter Williams is wrong about the lesson of this one.

For example, In my opinion, the question is not whether Kennedy was killed as the result of a conspiricy (in my opinion, if the CIA had wanted him dead, they’d have found a better patsy than Oswald and given him a semi-auto, but that’s beside the point). The question is, what is going on in this country if something like half its citizens find it believable that its own Government was involved in a presidential assassination?

Yes, it is possible to learn from urban legends and widespread false rumors–the trick is drawing the correct lessons.

In my opinion, such urban legends as the Grazinski Winnebago tell us that it is in the interest of certain sections of society to attack the legal system from the Right–in other words, it warns us that efforts to remove the minor protection from big business that the court system provides. Even though most of us cannot afford to bring a lawsuit, even though even if we do we haven’t the resources to compete fairly, it is still too much protection for many elements in our society–corporations must have nothing to fetter them in their drive for profit, particularly responsibility to the poor bastards who get hurt.

Urban myths, gullability, conclusions