strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive
Adventures with an unreliable narrator.
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Aug 28 05: scenes from a pub
—How are Bob and Whitney?
—They’ve got a dog. A lab, called Nebuchadnezzar.
—What do they call it? Neb?
—Nebbie.
—Does it have a big one?
—…um. It’s a girl.
—Nose.
Yes, even the most casual conversation becomes fraught when you’re drinking with a lexicographer. (From the Old English neb, now chiefly regional to northern England and Ireland; seen as recently as 1993 in J. Torrington’s Swing Hammer Swing!. Who knew?)
Hi. We’ve meandered about, we’ve gone punting, we’ve eaten and drunk, we’ve seen interesting things. All wonderful. We’ve been given an introduction to cricket, watching what I was told was the most nail-bitingly exciting thirty minutes of cricket to have been shown on English television in many a year. I can therefore report to my countrymen that cricket, once you have a clue as to what’s going on, can indeed be both comprehensible and fun. In its way.
Anyway, mustn’t tie up the dialup. More when I return. Cheers.
Aug 26 05: from the road
Greetings! Paul and I are in Oxford, UK. I’ll be back in NYC on Tuesday afternoon. Until then, all we have is very… slow… dialup… access… and much as I love you all I can’t tie up their telephone for the time it would require to remain caught up on my email et c. I’m sure you can keep yourselves entertained until then.
Aug 25 05: virality
Serenity geeks—and you know who you are—need to be aware that oneathem viral marketing thingummies has been underway for a coupla weeks: strange “leaked” video clips have been showing up. They are not clips from the film. Anyone who knows even a little about the Firefly backstory needs to go check them out now. There are three of them so far. Watch them in the order they were released, starting with ‘Session 416.’ Creepy, riveting, and oh so much fun.
Aug 19 05: anniversary
Eighty-five years ago today, the United States finally repaired a fundamental injustice in its midst.
Amendment XIX
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Let’s hear it for the those who fought, yes? Our grandmothers, our mothers’ grandmothers, and generations of women before them—women who, I devoutly hope, are still watching over us from somewhere. We could use their help; we’re not all of us equal treated yet.
Aug 16 05: Cat 1.0
Aw, nertz. The whole postfeline thing? A hoax. When I rule the world though, this sort of thing will happen, and there will be new hope for poor paraplegic cats.
In the mean time, “Elvis Robokitty” would still make an excellent band name.
Aug 15 05: change and counterchange
One thing I did not realize back when I saw my first Punch and Judy show last June was that the bleed-through of current events into the script was not a new thing. Apparently, Hitler and Mussolini did time in Mr. P’s rogues’ gallery, too, back in their day; and now Osama bin Laden is just doing the same. Who knew?
However, it seems that I’m not the only one to find the whole thing kind of unsettling: a Professor in a seaside town in England has been asked to take bin Laden back out of his show. Whether this is a blow for or against Punch and Judy tradition, I am not qualified to say. (via Neil Gaiman.)
Cat 2.0
The story of Elvis the roboticized cat went up on the indispensable BoingBoing today. Elvis Robokitty: the world’s first postfeline!
(“Elvis Robokitty” would also make a superlative band name.)
EDITED: The page BoingBoing sends people to is broken. It won’t actually show you the movie of the robocat. However, because I have mad google skillz, I have managed to dig up an actual link to the actual movie. Enjoy.
ding
I really hope this posts. I broke my MT installation in a big wiggly way earlier today. I have spent several hours attempting to fix it. I am very tired now.
Watson, come here; I need you.
EDITED: Yay! I’m going to bed now.
Aug 9 05: lunch break
Hokey smokes. I have just discovered a new beloved lunch place to add to the shortlist. Oh, heavens.
The Kati Roll Company is on 46th between 6th Avenue and Times Square. They sell kati rolls, which are six-inch rounds of paratha bread wrapped around a filling. It’s Calcutta’s street-food answer to the wrap sandwich. Apparently they’ve had a teeny tiny little place down in the Village for a while, but I’d not heard of them until they opened their new spot a half-block from my office. It’s a long skinny restaurant with a few tables and a mess of Bollywood movie posters. The posters featured the same actor over and over. I’ll need to find out who he was.
KTRC only serves the one thing: kati rolls. I bought two of them. The first was a shaami kabab roll. Shaami is ground lamb spiced with cardamom and plenty of black pepper. It had a crumbly texture, with plenty of crispy bits, reminiscent of a really good griddle-fried hash. The meat was mixed in with a vegetable pickle (peppers, sweet red onions). The dense paratha was warm and just a little greasy. By the time I finished the thing, my sinuses were singing, and my taste buds were dancing. Yow. So good. The other roll was chicken tikka—spicy, a little sour (lime juice?), a little charred—again served with the pickle. Other rolls contained a spicy potato mixture, paneer cheese, other grilled meats—even one with meat and egg, which I’ve since learned is one of the most traditional forms. You can bet I’ll be back to sample the menu further. Damn, that was tasty.
The two rolls made for a filling lunch, and cost me about $9, which is at the high end of their price spectrum. Depending on what you order, you can do two for $6. If you’re not all that hungry, or just looking for a snack with some substance to it, you’ll be fine with one, and the most expensive of them costs under $5. Check it out.
Aug 8 05: Merrye O. Englande
I’ve just made what passes for a rash decision in my universe, buying myself a plane ticket to the UK for the end of August. Paul has to go to Oxford on business. I’m going along for a long weekend. Should be fun. I’ll be taking an overnight flight, which under other circumstances I would consider a terrible idea. Certainly, the last time we tried this, it required extreme measures to keep us functional. However, Hugh has offered me an Ambien for the trip. Those things are like gold where red-eye flights are concerned. Like gold, I tell you. Anyway, I’m flying out late-night on my birthday and then I spend Friday through Monday bouncing around with Paul and our Oxonian friends and then Tuesday I come back. And then I spend the following week in Rhode Island, kicking back and playing cards! Huzzah! Can’t wait.
Meanwhile, back at my desk, I just had a weird cognitive-dissonance moment. I’m reading the Language Arts & Reading standards for the state of Texas, see, and one of the first headings on page one says…
Subchapter A. Elementary
And I immediately read it as a spam name and tried to skip past the text below it. The bastards have got me spamming myself now…