Tidbits
The URLs, they sure do pile up.
- All of the Hugo-nominated short fiction is available for free online, as usual. I continue to be immensely pleased that this has become standard practice. I still haven't read a bunch of this year's, but I will before I vote.
- A 1997 piece from the Atlantic called "Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Lamentations of the Father," by Ian Frazier, that y'all parents might enjoy, though I suppose it would be marginally more appropriate for Father's Day than for Mother's Day. It starts out: "Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the living room."
- Syne Mitchell provides a Response Time Calculator that tells you the elapsed time between two given dates. This is how I know, for example, that the story of mine that Gordon just rejected from F&SF took 108 days.
- Tempest has posted a rant about the Nick Berg murder that, while I don't agree with it in every particular, does a reasonably good job of capturing my feelings on the issue. I do want to note that the Berg murder is utterly horrific; I pondered whether to go watch the video clip on the web, and decided that, for now anyway, I don't need those kinds of images in my head. I am deeply saddened that I live in a world where that kind of thing can happen. Also where all sorts of other atrocities can and do happen regularly, many of them perpetrated in private. I think I'm not as angry at the "It's worse 'cause he's an American" crowd as Tempest is; mostly, I'm sad and horrified and revolted at a lot of things lately, this among them. I won't play "which is worse"; I am appalled by people who do horrific things, and statements that support such people, and I don't think there's much value in arguing that one side or another is better or worse because their appalling crimes are more horrific or less horrific.
- On a much much more pleasant note (although not a work-safe one), Literotica is providing free RealAudio recordings of erotic phone calls: you can call in and leave a voicemail recording of yourself having sex or reading something sexy, and they may post a copy for all to listen to. No pay, but I like the idea, and I like some of the available recordings even though there's no way to know how authentic they really are; they feel less staged to me than, say, some smut movies. (I'm not sure whether to name the person who pointed me to this or not, but thanks!)
- Also on a light note, Jay and Jeremy T point to a cute Flash movie: To the Moon!, which purports to be the record of Isaac Newton and Samuel Pepys traveling to the moon, to a catchy Japanese pop tune, with subtitles that purport to be translations of the song lyrics but I think were actually completely made up.
- Because no oddments entry is complete without some LotR fanfic: Aragorn and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Thanks, Wendy!
- The alleged three-headed frog is apparently actually a multiple amplexus, which is to say a mating ball. Which is to say, a hot frog sex three-way! The links from that page to other examples of multiple amplexus photos are excellent and astonishing, and more or less even work-safe if you don't work among prudish frogs. Also of potential interest: a Frog Porn movie, though you may want to turn down the sound on your computer if you're playing this one at work, due to the cheap-porno-flick-style music.
- No Pants Day was Friday, May 7. But it's not too late to get into practice for next year, when it'll be May 6.
- If you liked Brazil, you'll love The Electri-Clerk, a "fully-functional retrofitted prop computer." Yes, it's a 1988 model Macintosh, with a 1923 Underwood typewriter for a keyboard, and a fresnel lens that you can swing down in front of the screen just like in Brazil. Sadly, it's not for sale. But it sure are pretty.
- It hardly seems possible, but apparently I have never posted a link to the Heavy Boots story. "If you're standing on the Moon holding a pen, and you let go, will it a) float away, b) float where it is, or c) fall to the ground?" About half the college students who were asked this question in an informal survey in 1992 got the answer wrong, according to a classic Usenet posting. It's a lovely story, and aside from the obvious "most people don't understand science very well" moral, I think it has some interesting subtext about how people learn "facts."
- National Lampoon has a brief amusing piece on Thor and Loki, College Roommates, by Tony Carnevale.
- Finally, as a reward to you for continuing to the end of this list, here's my favorite link of the past couple weeks: the Chekov mission, in which an improv group performs a reading by "Anton Chekov" at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square in NYC. And then later, "Chekov" signs books for passersby. Totally brilliant.
Sadly, there's lots more where those came from; they come in faster than I can post 'em. But this'll do for now.