Slay Ride

Posted on June 14, 2023 by JE

The latest round of student papers gave me a chance to use one of my favorite cut-and-paste comments.

The principal parts of this verb are: slay, slew, slain.

“Bob slays monsters. Joan slew monsters. Hey, all my monsters have been slain!”

Tenniel's illustration for Lewis Carroll's JABBERWOCKY
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?“
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To Werror Is Human…

Posted on June 14, 2023 by JE

Typo of the day is werror (where I intended to type error).

I figure a werror must be some kind of mutant werewolf produced by an experiment gone horribly wrong.

“They were neither human nor wolf! You will never escape from the terror of The Werrors!”

still from YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Frederick asks, "Werewolf?" Igor answers, "There."
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Serifer Madness

Posted on June 12, 2023 by JE

I know lots of people love the sans-serif type of font, but I hate its guts because it elides a significant distinction, between lower case L and upper case I, both appearing as the same glyph. For highly literate people dealing with their own language, this isn’t normally a problem, but change either one of those prerequisites and there are problems–ones that are wholly unnecessary, created by the ambiguity of the font itself.

This has been another episode of “Things Only I Get Mad About”.

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Foreshadows of Hanuvar

Posted on June 9, 2023 by JE

Aya Katz talks with Howard Andrew Jones about LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND, his great book coming out soon from Baen.

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“Numberless Are the World’s Wonders…”: Clifford Simak’s CITY

Posted on June 8, 2023 by JE

Here’s Davis Meltzer’s cover for the 1970s-era Ace edition of Clifford Simak’s City, an early entry onto my “Always Reread” list.

via @70sscifi

I disliked this cover when I was a kid because of the anthropoid greenmetal skull with human teeth. Now I think it’s great. It has all the essential elements of the book (hyper-intelligent & hyper-friendly dogs, robots that are more human than most human beings, antagonistic super-ants, uncounted parallel Earths, space travel, the hauntingly empty Webster House) all of them contained inside the robotic head and heart of Jenkins, a minor character who becomes the protagonist of the series deep in the posthuman future.

The book is an indisputable classic of midcentury science fiction, but it’s probably the hardest sell of any book that deserves that description.

Continue reading →
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R.I.P.

Posted on June 7, 2023 by JE

George Winston (December 26, 1949 – June 4, 2023)

Omnia mutantur; nihil interit.

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She’s Gone Walking

Posted on June 6, 2023 by JE

Omnia mutantur; nihil interit.

Astrud Gilberto (March 3, 1940-June 5, 2023)

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A Trialogue

Posted on June 5, 2023 by JE

ME: “But the claim in that post is NONSENSE. I can prove it!”

MYSELF: “Or I could go back to writing those books I say that I’m writing.”

I: “WHY DRAG ME INTO THIS?”

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Ms. Misty Misprision

Posted on June 5, 2023 by JE

Typo of the day is mistura (where I intended mixture). This isn’t exactly a typo, but more like my brain slipping from English to Italian, helped by the fact that, on a QWERTY keyboard, S is right above X and A is just below and to the right of E.

But in the cold climate of an English sentence, mistura looked less like a mixy Italian word than a brandname—say an industrial-strength deodorizer.

“Even the foulest stench vanishes like mist after a spritz of Mistura™!”

A pair of spray bottles with clipart of a wet dog pasted onto them. The caption by the smaller bottle is REGULAR. The caption by the larger bottle is EXTRA-NIFFY!
Use only as directed. Not legal in most jurisdictions. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
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Solid!

Posted on June 4, 2023 by JE

It’s the right time for some dramatic funk. Because it always is.

https://soundcloud.com/dramatic-funk-themes-3/09-dave-patterson-solid-funk

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