What does this say about my mood? Read more →
Author: Mr. McLaren
Something Great: Courtney Crumrin
This is the first in what I hope will be a series of positive posts about things that are great. It seems like I should balance out all my ranting in some way, and this seems like a good way. This time out I want to talk about Courtney Crumrin and the Fire-Thief’s Tale. I read a lot of comics… Read more →
There’s A Chance To Flip It Back Over
You know that inverted flag that’s been over in the right sidebar for more than a year now? If you don’t remember why it’s there, then click it and read the (lengthy) post. Then read this. (If you’re not reading this more-or-less contemporaneously with my writing it you might need to read this instead–that’s the permanent link to the press… Read more →
Thought for the day
“We are here to witness; if we were not here the show would play to an empty house . . . .That is why I go for walks . . . to keep an eye on things.” –Annie Dillard While I am unsure about the teleological implications, I am sure I love the quote. I believe that nature is a… Read more →
Yes, Yes I will blog about this
He’s Out To Get Me
And in recent Catholic Church news, possibly relevant to the ongoing discussion between my friend Biff and I in another post’s comments, we have the current Pope lashing out at… atheists: Pope Benedict, in a new encyclical released on Friday, said atheism was responsible for some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” in history. … The… Read more →
CoIntelPro Redux
Please allow me to quote a couple of paragraphs from Steven Grant’s Master of the Obvious column for this week–as I’ve mentioned before, this nominally comic book column often does a great job of simply explaining some of Bush’s nasty moves. Well, this week it’s not so much Bush… Jeez, do we have to fight everybody all the time? If… Read more →
My Country Embarrasses Me
For years now I’ve been known to laughingly comment on the fact that you hear all these wacko religious groups opposing Harry Potter, but you never hear anything about groups opposing Pullman‘s His Dark Materials–a series that is also marketed as YA, and that sells if not Rowlingesque numbers, at least very impressive numbers. This is an especially amusing discrepancy… Read more →
Nasty
It should not be possible for a child that small to produce so much vomit. Apparently my hard-earned parenting experience has made me blase about all other possible organic messes, but has not really protected me from child vomit. I mean, I can do what needs to be done, but that stuff is nasty. Back in the diaper days there… Read more →
Smart, curvey women?
A certain high school English teacher of my acquaintance (now retired) famously posited a definite inverse correlation between the intelligence of his female students, and the size of their breasts. Well, science is suggesting that this might have been a false conclusion. It was already known that men find curvy women more attractive and that they live longer. Now research… Read more →
I (heart) public domain
From Japanator: Did you know that right now you can get a handful of Akira Kurosawa films for free? Like, as in legally for free? That’s right! The nice people over at Japan Probe have pointed out that some of the master’s films have fallen into the public domain. Archive.org has them available for download right this second. Among the… Read more →
Am I Getting More Childish?
One of two things is true: either my sense of humour is regressing, or the quality of the humour purveyed by Cracked in the Internet age is much improved from the last time I read the print magazine (approximately 21 years ago). I remember Cracked magazine as an inferior reflection of Mad magazine–itself not known for highly intelligent humour (horrible… Read more →
SurveillanceSaver again
Following up from the recent post on SurveillanceSaver, I saw that very talented writer M. John Harrison had also been playing with it. Just let me quote him: after a bit, the narrative possibilities collapse, the intensity of your gaze subsides & these are just empty corners of the world again. It’s a bit like hitch-hiking & not getting a… Read more →
Fear The Dreadhawk
Offered without comment. Read more →
Massey Lectures 2007: Follow-up
You may recall my lengthy post about attending the first of the 2007 Massey Lectures. I just wanted to point out a couple of things about that: Ideas is currently hosting MP3 versions of the lectures. If you subscribe to the Ideas podcast, you would already have them, but you can download them directly as they appear on the podcast… Read more →
