I had posted earlier on the Times report about Hollywood removing the anti-religiosity from the movie adaptations of Pullman‘s “His Dark Materials” books, implying that the changes upset me, but trying to be reasonable about it. Well, Jessa over at the irreplacable Bookslut notes today that Pullman has something to say about that article, and it makes me feel somewhat… Read more →
Month: December 2004
Chris Moore on NPR
While I was wandering in blizzards, Christopher Moore was doing an interview with NPR nominally about his latest book, The Stupidest Angel. I’m a big Moore fan, although I think his most recent two (Fluke, and The Stupidest Angel) don’t live up to his previous work. They just seem somehow slighter than the other stuff, which is an odd complaint… Read more →
BabyTour 2004: Maybe Biff Is Right…
So, I am writing this from a hotel in Fredericton. I was supposed to be home today… We left Ontario yesterday, and we don’t really need to be back until tomorrow (I return to work Wednesday), but we had high hopes for doing the whole trip in two days–in the pre-Sarah days we would normally do a 12-hour leg the… Read more →
Baby Tour: Weather in Ontario
So, two days ago it was -30 Celsius. Today there is a storm of doom. Later this week, when we’re supposed to be at Mom’s they are calling for almost -40. Meanwhile, at home in Halifax it’s 11C. Madness. This is what we saw this morning outside our hotel room: Read more →
Baby Tour 2004
Blogging will probably be sparse until Dec. 29th or so, as we are currently in the middle of Baby Tour 2004, an eleven day road marathon where we will cover more than 5000 kms in order that everyone can meet Sarah. Next year they can all come to Halifax. Read more →
The essential question
“¿Quién es más macho…?” Read more →
Making Light Of Gerald Allen
I was getting pretty depressed about the whole Gerald Allen story (which I had previously commented on) and then I read Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s take on the piece. She skewers him so thoroughly that I felt immensely better. (Later on, of course, when I start wondering why the mass of Americans, and the Administration in particular, doesn’t see what she… Read more →
Like unto a God among my people
Have I mentioned that Bruce Schneier is like unto a God among my people? I mean the deep geeks, like me, are into him because he’s a leading cryptographer–his Twofish algorithm (which I actually implemented in a product at the last company) was an AES candidate–and he’s written interesting technical books on cryptography. However, he’s also a writer on more… Read more →
Do you not understand how this looks to the rest of the world?
I just spent a week in Boston. While there I read the Globe. And I saw this article about the plans to return people to Fallujah now that the “insurrection” is over. Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing… Read more →
Should I laugh or cry?
According to the Times, in an article I saw on Locus, it doesn’t bother Pullman, who seems to be taking the Alan Moore philosophical approach to what Hollywood is doing to his books, but I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry… THE Hollywood adaptation of Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials, in which two children do battle with… Read more →
You got some ‘splaining to do…
Some of my friends in Kentucky (you know who you are) are going to have to submit to a lot of good natured teasing about the latest cultural center to be founded there. (I will save the raw hatred for the people actually doing the founding, of course.) (This is not to say there aren’t some embarrasing museums in Nova… Read more →
Krugman strikes again
Once again Paul Krugman looks at an issue that has had a lot of spin put on it (and surely has a lot more to come) and lays out the facts clearly. But it’s a problem of modest size. The report finds that extending the life of the trust fund into the 22nd century, with no change in benefits, would… Read more →
Inspired by tonight’s Daily Show
First of all, let me just say that no matter how much the world blows dead goats, at least Jon is there for me. The worse things get, the angrier he gets, the funnier he gets. That being said, all I have to say is: “She’s a man, baby!” Of course I mean the alleged Isabella Rossellini, who we all… Read more →
H. L. Mencken
In one of my earlier posts on the evolution debacle, I was lamenting the lack of Mencken-like reporters. Now (via William Gibson) I find a quote that causes me to lament even more for the broader political arena “…the larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, the first-rate man occasionally fights his way through,… Read more →
Irony Overload
Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker “Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle,” Allen said in a press conference Tuesday. Well, he gets one thing right. Can the universe please stop with the irony now? Read more →
