(1) MOOMIN FAN. She remembers the Moomin scape her father made for her: “My family and other Moomins: Rhianna Pratchett on her father’s love for Tove Jansson” in The Guardian.
I don’t remember the precise moment I was introduced to the Moomins. They were always just there; a cosy, comforting and slightly weird presence in my childhood that has stayed with me. My father called Tove Jansson “one of the greatest children’s writers there has ever been”, and credited her writing as one of the reasons he became an author.
My father’s family were the kind of postwar, no-nonsense British people who didn’t really do hugs or talk about their feelings. Instead, they showed their love by building things: toys, puzzles, go-carts, treehouses. It was a tradition that my father, still very much the awkward hugger himself, would continue during my childhood. He built me a market stall, a beehive (complete with toy bees), a stove and, most memorably, Moominvalley.
It was crafted out of wood and papier-mache – a staple of all art projects in the 70s and 80s. It had a forest and a river and even a dark cave. He also made the Moominhouse and crafted all the Moomin characters out of clay; then painted and varnished them. Many years later we would turn over an entire attic full of junk trying to find a box that I thought might contain a solitary hand-made Moomin. He’s still out there somewhere.
(2) GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN. Declan Finn says something’s missing from Amazon. It’s the reviews he’s written about people’s books, and some of the reviews others have written about his books. Why? He calls it “Amazon’s War on Users”.
Has Amazon declared war on authors?
It would seem so at first pass. Last week, I had 315 reviews spread out over my various and sundry projects. Honor at Stake, for example, had 63, 68 reviews.
Today, I only have 238 reviews over all of them. Honor at Stake in particular having only 45 now. When I ask Amazon via email, they know nothing. Could I be more specific? It’s literally EVERY BOOK. They need a road map?
The mystery depends when I looked at reviews that I myself have written. They’re all gone. Poof. Vanished.
What the Hell?
And I’m not the only one. In fact, one writer’s group I’m a part of has had a lot of the same problem.
The Conservative Libertarian Fiction Alliance.
Funny that. And the one person outside of CLFA who had also had problems is friends with three of us.
However, I’m not about to declare enemy action just yet. For that, I need your help, that of the average reader. Because there is a problem. We can’t ask people outside the group, that we don’t know, if they have the same problem. Why? Because if we don’t know them, it’s hard to ask. And if we know them, it can be construed as guilt by association.
Camestros Felapton joined the investigation. The conspiracy-minded won’t find his thoughts nearly as pleasing as Finn’s: “Amazon Purging Reviews Again”.
(3) FEAST FOR THE EYES. A cover reveal for Latchkey by Nicole Kornher-Stace, sequel to Archivist Wasp. Art by Jacquelin de Leon.
(4) THE MONEY KEEPS ROLLING IN. BBC reports — “Black Panther film: ‘Game-changing’ movie takes $1bn”.
Marvel’s superhero film Black Panther has taken more than a billion US dollars (£794m) at cinemas worldwide.
It is the fifth movie based in Disney’s Marvel Universe to hit the milestone.
(5) WAKANDA. A group hopes to run Wakanda Con in Chicago, IL this summer. Right now they’re building a list of interested fans.
WAKANDA CON is a fan-driven, one-day celebration of Afro-Futurism, Tech, and Black superheroes in film, television, and comic books, and of course, Black Panther. Our event will be held in Chicago, IL in Summer 2018. Join fellow citizens of Wakanda for discussion, education, networking, and festivities.
Marvel’s Black Panther has ushered in a new wave of thought about issues surrounding the African Diaspora and a new future for Black people around the world. The image of an African country with advanced technology and equality has inspired some of the world’s greatest thinkers and all of Black Twitter to create, think, and respond. WAKANDA CON is chance to take the conversation about Black Panther offline and into the real world.
(6) BRING KLEENEX. John Scalzi gives people lots of reasons to want to see A Wrinkle in Time.
(And, you may ask, what do I think about the film’s multicultural and feminine viewpoint and aesthetic? I think it works very well, and it’s a reminder that things that are not designed specifically for one in mind may still speak significantly and specifically to one, if one is open to it. I would not have imagined A Wrinkle in Time the way DuVernay has — I seriously doubt I could have imagined it this way — and yet there I was crying my eyes out all the same. I do not need the world to be imagined as I would have imagined it. I want the world and the things in it to exceed my imagination, to show me things I cannot make for myself but can take into myself, hold precious, and make my imagination that much wider from that point forward. As I noted before, this movie was not, I think, made for me, and still here I am, loving it as much as I do.)
(7) HEARTFELT STORY. Charles Payseur is just as persuasive in getting people to read his short fiction reviews: “Quick Sips – GigaNotoSaurus March 2018”
GigaNotoSaurus offers up a beautiful short story for March that might have been a bit more appropriate for February and Valentine’s Day because it is adorable and wonderful and sweet and just good! I’m a sucker for romance, and so the focus of this story for me is refreshing, especially because it refuses to tread the same tired paths of angst and powerlessness that seem to dominate so many romantic story lines. It’s not without darkness or sadness, but it’s a story to me about the triumph of love and humans over despair, loss, and death. To the review!
(8) TODAY IN HISTORY
- March 12, 1971 — Andromeda Strain was first released theatrically.
(9) COMICS SECTION.
- Chip Hitchcock studied the canine cosmology in Pooch Cafe.
(10) COMEDIAN SECTION. Today’s relevant joke, from the just-late Ken Dodd: “Ken Dodd: 17 of his funniest one-liners”.
So it turns out that if you bang two halves of a horse together, it doesn’t make the sound of a coconut.
(Other 16 are NSF just about everything….)
(11) BEYOND THE FAIL FRONTIER. ScreenRant delights in finding these contradictions: “Star Trek: 17 Memes That Prove The Show Makes No Sense”. They begin with an infographic —
(12) INCLUSIVE OR NOT? Dave Huber, in The College Fix story, “MIT Librarian: Tech Posters Plastered With Star Trek Posters, Other Geeky Stuff Is Non-Inclusive to Women,” says that MIT head librarian Chris Bourg has said that students should “replace Star Trek posters with travel posters…and generally just avoid geek references and inside nerd jokes” if they want to be inclusive for women.
Since the many incarnations of “Star Trek” are considered some of the most diverse shows in the history of television, not to mention that about half those attending Star Trek conventions are female, The College Fix contacted Bourg about this particular reference.
She responded by pointing out her advice “comes directly from the research,” and provided a link to the study: “Ambient Belonging: How Stereotypical Cues Impact Gender Participation in Computer Science.”
The 2009 study examined whether “stereotypical objects” like Star Trek posters “signal a masculinity that precludes women from ever developing an interest in computer science.” Or, as the authors dub it, how the “ambient belonging” of women is affected by tech-geek ware.
While conceding that the tech-geek “masculinity” in question may not refer to a “traditional definition” (think “strength, assertiveness, and sexual prowess”) the authors argue the “stereotypicality” of the group still has a “profound” effect on the ability to recruit people who do not see themselves as fitting that stereotype.
(13) PROPHET OF DOOM? “Tim Berners-Lee says net has ‘heaps of problems'”. [[Voice only]]
The inventor of the World Wide Web says the internet as we know it is “under threat” and faces “heaps” of problems.
Monday 12 March marks 29 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. This year is expected to be the first time that more than half of the world’s population will have internet access.
Sir Tim spoke to the BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones about the challenges faced.
(14) ELON MUSK. More blue-skying? “Elon Musk: Mars ship test flights ‘next year'”.
A Mars colony, he said, would reduce the chance of an extended new Dark Ages if a nuclear conflict was to wipe out life on Earth.
But, aware of his reputation, he added: “Sometimes my timelines are a little… y’know.”
…
But enough about reality.Elon Musk is unquestionably the most interesting businessman in Silicon Valley – arguably the world – thanks to his almost single-handed reignition of the space race.
(15) MONITORING TV. Rich Lynch says tonight’s “Literary L.A.” Category on Jeopardy! had a Bradbury clue. It even showed a photo of him.
The contestant got it right.
(16) TENT TECH. It’s not your grandfather’s yurt — “To Fight Pollution, He’s Reinventing The Mongolian Tent”.
In Gamsukh’s office those possibilities seem endless. Books, papers and sketches cover a desk and table. Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, Gamsukh, whose dark hair has a slight orange tint, comes off as artistic. But the sketches he produces are not dreamy musings. They are technical drawings supported by mathematical calculations. They are solid, like the sturdily built Gamsukh. Many are already being implemented, including a partially completed passive solar heated immobile ger that adds windows, insulation and solar collectors to the traditional model. Passive solar heating design uses windows, walls and floors to collect, store and distribute heat in the winter and reject it in the summer. Designs vary depending on the climate in which they are built, but shade can be used to block the sun in summer without taking away from warmth in winter because the sun is higher in summer.
When it is finished, Gamsukh plans to call it home. He is also testing another modified ger that uses solar power and those underground pipes he tried to dig in winter for heat.
(17) SHORT ORDER ROBOT. “Burger-flipping robot begins first shift” at Cali-Burger in Pasadena, CA. See a video of the robot in action, at the link.
Flippy, a burger-flipping robot, has begun work at a restaurant in Pasadena, Los Angeles.
It is the first of dozens of locations for the system, which is destined to replace human fast-food workers.
The BBC’s North America technology reporter Dave Lee saw it in action.
(18) BUSTED. To go with the recent Pixel on Iceland running out of energy due to Bitcoin generation: “Iceland police arrest suspected Bitcoin server thieves”.
Police in Iceland have arrested 11 people suspected of stealing more than 600 computers that were being used to mine crypto-currencies, reports AP.
The computers were stolen during four raids on data centres around Iceland.
The country is a popular location for data centres because almost 100% of the power generated there comes from renewable sources.
(19) THE OTHER JJ. ScreenRant says this JJ Abrams sketch was cut from Saturday Night Live for time.
[Thanks to JJ, Cat Eldridge, Mike Allen, John King Tarpinian, Mark Hepworth, Martin Morse Wooster, Chip Hitchcock, Rich Lynch, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor Niall McAuley.]
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(12) INCLUSIVE OR NOT?
I would argue that Ms. Bourg’s assertions that women aren’t interested in science-fictional things are more harmful than science-fictional things in the tech workplace. 😠
I do believe in scrolls, I do believe in scrolls, I do, I do believe in scrolls…
Also: The late Richard Thompson hit a homer today in his almanac, which details other government secret areas you didn’t even know about:
http://www.gocomics.com/richards-poor-almanac/2018/03/12
Warning: You’ll have to tilt your head or your screen to see it more easily. For some reason, it’s sideways.
Kip W on March 12, 2018 at 7:18 pm said:
*snerk*
/last-minute-nomination-stalk.
Is Bourg under 50? Because if she is, she doesn’t remember how it was before ST, when women were only expected to be nurses, secretaries, and teachers. Trek opened a lot of minds to Bigger and Better Things.
(I always wanted that library computer. I can’t say I got it, but I came close at work as the One Who Knows Where Everything Is (good google-fu, mostly). And I took engineering and computer science classes in college, which weren’t even Things for females when I was a kid. It didn’t hurt that my parents had no problem with girls doing technical stuff.)
You scared me–for a second I thought the musician Richard Thompson (formerly of Fairport Convention, singer of 1952 Vincent Black Lightning and other songs) had died. But no, he’s still around, thank goodness.
[click]
Sorry for the scare, Acoustic Rob. It’s bad enough that ‘my’ Richard Thompson perished, but it was a while back, and I’m about used to the idea now. It is somewhat curious, though, that someone who’s been gone as long as he has is still responsible for two of the freshest, most dependable founts of humor on the funny page. (Besides the Almanac, he did “Cul-de-sac.” They’re going through the corpus of the strip for at least the third time now, and it still amazes me how gently incisive it is, and how accurately it portrays kids and everyone and everything else.)
I had no idea Latchkey was coming out. This is excellent news.
12) — Seriously??
When I was a wee thing, I stayed up for three days straight (yes, I had tolerant parents) changing Betamax tapes (Betamax!) every few hours in order to record every episode of Star Trek, when a local TV station ran a 72-hour-marathon of the complete series back-to-back.
For years, I could tell you the name of any episode after watching just the first minute or two.
Yes, I have a fully functioning set of X chromosomes.
And this idjit librarian thinks Star Trek posters will somehow scare away girls??????
Thanks for running the story by Rhianna Pratchett, which reminds us what a decent and humane guy Terry Pratchett was.
As for the SNL skit: this is actually from last week’s show and I understand why they cut it because it’s not very good. But I’m glad I saw it.
@17 is about a week old. Somehow nobody noticed what its real speed was (or perhaps failed to test it under realistic conditions) as it was taken out of service after one day. And here I was hoping @OGH could give us a first-hand report….
@2: Camestros presents the review purging as vaguely plausible; it doesn’t seem to be targeted against the CLFA, but I lean toward commenters’ views that the purging is reaching too widely (sounds like “if you friended this person you can’t review their book”, ignoring that people friend authors to keep up with them, not because of a personal connection). OTOH, I don’t care as I don’t read Amazon reviews; does anyone who does have a comment here?
(10) A sad day for Knotty Ash – which was the first place that I thought was make-believe to actually be a real place, which was very exciting at the time
2) My violin can’t be seen by an electron microscope. Amazon’s a juggernaut, you’re not going to get an answer out of them. Though I suspect if you do, it’ll be something along the lines of reciprocal ratings padding, at a guess.
The College Fix is giving a rather Puppy-ish spin to their story. You can find the text of the talk Chris Bourg gave here, and the methodology of the study she cites is on page 1048.
Note that she is *not* saying that women are not interested in SF, or that there aren’t women interested in Star Trek in particular, or that Star Trek is inherently masculine and not feminine. She is saying, and the study supports, that “stereotypical computer science environments” were associated with diminished average interest by women as a group, but not by men as a group. One of the elements associated with stereotypical environments was Star Trek posters. That association was made by the study subjects themselves.
The paper goes on to discuss why this association might exist, and what can be done about it. Chris has also talked about this at various points, and both she and the paper make the distinction between environments that say “people [who] like X are among those who belong here” and those that say “only people [who] like X really belong here”. She gives various other examples in her talk, such as work groups that bond around drinking, leaving out the people who don’t drink or who prefer not to get drunk with their co-workers. Again, she’s not saying there’s anything wrong with drinking itself, but a work environment that says that people don’t fit in unless they drink together is problematic.
(Note: I know Chris from my own work– we’re both in academic libraries– but don’t speak for her here. I will note, though, that she’s had to deal with a fair bit of more personal harassment touched off by this story and some others circulating around the right-wing blogosphere, to the extent that many of us in library tech, including many Star Trek fans, have felt the need to make statements of support for her, such as this one, against that harassment.)
12)
I understand why pin-up calendars and the like might make women feel excluded from certain workplaces, but Star Trek posters? Honestly? Who the hell feels threatened by Star Trek posters? Never mind that there are plenty of female geeks.
Plus, if Star Trek posters and other geeky things are taboo, you also have to remove any kind of sports memorablia (alienating to some women, some ethnicities, everybody who doesn’t like that particular sport or hates that particular team), posters of cars, trucks or motorbikes and pretty much everything else. Even travel posters are probably offensive to some people. In the end, you’d be stuck with the sort of bland art prints you find in hotel rooms and doctor’s waiting rooms, the sort of thing that’s so bland it really will offend nobody.
@John Mark Ockerbloom
Thanks for the clarification. Harassing someone about this is wrong, of course, but I still disagree with your colleague and the study she cites.
@2: So if people are members of say a book club group on FB, then none of the members can review the books of any authors that are in the group?
I’m thinking about a aviation book club mentioned on podcasts I follow. I’m sure there are plenty of avgeeks that author specialist books than then can’t review other specialist books in quite a wide subject area.
But if it is a private FB group then Amazon doesn’t know about the connection so no problem?
Regarding workplace decor in general, IMO the only things that should be taboo are political campaign posters and posters or calendars of naked/nearly naked people.
And I still see pin-up calendars in German workplaces, inevitably the sort that are 80% or more male. You no longer see them in the offices, but they’re still present in the workshops.
Clickity
Chip Hitchcock: I don’t care as I don’t read Amazon reviews; does anyone who does have a comment here?
On occasion, I will read Amazon reviews, either if I’m thinking about buying a book or getting it from the library, or if I’ve read or am reading a book, and either having a WTF??? reaction, feel as though I’ve missed something, or am wondering what other people thought. (Sometimes, as with Spaceman of Bohemia, it’s a “did other people think this thing is as awful as I do?” thing.)
I generally read the 2-star, then the 3-star, then the 4-star ratings. This is because friends-and-family ratings will be 5-star, and hate campaign ratings will be 1-star. I skip over any reviews which are only a couple of lines and contain no substantive information. Then, if I’m still curious, or there aren’t many reviews, I may check out the 5-stars and the 1-stars. I have found this to be a pretty helpful way of getting a sense of a given book. (I also use it on GoodReads.)
I will often write Amazon reviews for books that I really loved, because such reviews help the author and increase the likelihood that I will get more worthy works to read by that author in the future. I’ve found that if I post a bad opinion of a book, I will get piled on by that author’s fanatical following, with “not helpful” downvotes and sometimes even nasty comments, which is just aggro I’m really not interested in receiving when I’m trying to be helpful to other readers.
ETA: I think Amazon has overstepped by collating associations among Amazon and GoodReads reviewers and authors (maybe with Facebook?) and using that to delete reviews, however they’re getting the data. Getting rid of the quid pro quo reviews is desirable, but difficult to achieve in a way that doesn’t have a great deal of collateral damage.
Clack
@John —
IMHO, rather than advocate for taking down the Star Trek posters, it would be much more helpful and productive to suggest something like adding posters of the female and/or minority characters featured throughout the Star Trek franchise. How about Captains Sisko and Janeway for starters?
(1) MOOMIN FAN.
It’s a lovely glimpse into the Pratchett household.
(6) BRING KLEENEX.
That was a lovely (there’s that word again) appreciation by Scalzi.
Confession: I still haven’t read “A Wrinkle in Time”. Hangs head in shame.
(11) BEYOND THE FAIL FRONTIER.
Isn’t it obvious? Nero is an American!
@ Chip Hitchcock: I don’t care as I don’t read Amazon reviews; does anyone who does have a comment here?
I tend to trust Amazon reviews more than Goodreads reviews, which can be amazingly ignorant of the material. The last.straw.was for me was one long elaborate ornate review of Cold Magic where the reviewer called it a stereotypical-
a) English (it was set in Germany and France)
b) Victorian (actually alt-Regency. It even had Napoleon)
c) Steampunk (consisting of one, sole dirgible)
-setting.
I mean, I could see why the reviewer couldn’t have time to read the book, what with searching out all those clever reaction gifs they used. But reading at least the synopsis would have helped. So, I go for Amazon, on, where the likelihood of having bought and even read the book is much higher.
(11) No, the Universal Translator speaks perfect American English.
I’ve read Amazon reviews also. Sometimes they’re helpful and sometimes not. I’m more likely to read them for mysteries and other non-SFF, as I don’t follow sources of regular recommendations for those.
Not just you.
Me. Those posters in a tech environment signals to me the irritating type of geeks, hardcore fans that never know when to stop talking about their favourite subject. They are a signal for me to keep away.
This roundup of black athletes using the Wakanda-salute is making me happy.
Kelly Robson’s time travel novella has landed! ::SQUEE::
I read Amazon reviews, too. For mysteries, etc. I read ‘em before I buy or borrow. For SF, I read ‘em after. For The Power, I was amazed by the people who missed basic plot points and didn’t get the jokes. For Lincoln in the Bardo, I was shocked by the number who said it was hard to read/follow. And here I was, thinking the main point of books in general, and SF in particular, is to exercise my brain and learn something.
(12) one study? Where are the corroborating studies? And of course Ms Bourg is being harassed, she’s a woman voicing an opinion on the Internet. Despicable but apparently reflexive for some people?
(12) INCLUSIVE OR NOT?
Ack, that’s a sticky one.
Anything, anything can wind up as an “ingroup/outgroup” marker. There’s no contradiction between “Lots of women love science-fiction” and “A workspace decked out in geek stuff can discourage women.”
There’s just so many factors in the middle — is this a clique the woman is going to need to claw her way into? Star Trek respects women, but do these particular Trekkies? And so on, and so forth. It’s a culture thing, and any culture excludes people, and women in tech will be hit harder than that by men.
Which also sucks, because geek culture and shared fandom can also be an awesome inroad for women who are into Trek and SF and awesome geek stuff. Those references and in-jokes help build rapport and a common identity, and that’s something geeks love whatever their gender.
It’s a tough one. I think it’s on each individual workspace to put a lot of thought towards what impression they make, and how they make new people welcome — but that’s a local solution, not a one-size-fits-all recommendation.
Certain types of fans use posters as if they were graffiti tags, to mark their territory. That is mostly a problem when they are fans regarding something they can be obsessive about. Blade runner? No problem. Brazil? Lost in Space? No problem. Dr Who? Getting closer. Star Wars or Star Trek? Ok, too close. Getting tribal here.
No problem with liking them. But in a tech environment, it is usually more than liking.
I’ve walked into geeky spaces that I was completely comfortable in, and I’ve walked into geeky spaces that felt hostile. Although I don’t know the whole of the window dressing they used (the paper says you can request a photo if anyone feels especially motivated) I can completely believe that Star Trek posters can be a contributory factor. Suggesting “cut out the geeky stuff” is a simpler and easier to follow instruction than coming up with a complicated ruleset about how much and what kind of geeky stuff is okay.
A lot of us have had to work pretty hard at some point to prove we have a right to geeky spaces so my first instinct was to object, but upon reading the whole article and skimming the paper, I don’t think Chris Bourg is wrong, exactly, although I don’t she’s entirely right either. She certainly doesn’t deserve harassment over it.
@ Hampus: I almost always have a miniature Death Star in my backpack. But that’s because it feels really good to hold, as one is pondering a complex problem (like, say, exactly who Ven Fleerbo is going commit the same old faux pas this time). It was also the first 3D model I made from scratch, so there’s that.
Meredith: Suggesting “cut out the geeky stuff” is a simpler and easier to follow instruction
I don’t think it’s all simple and easy.
Essentially, they are going to have to say: no personal items or decorations whatsoever. And that makes for one miserable, sterile workplace. It’s horrible for employee morale.
@JJ:
Yup.
Framed like this, it’s kind of a “Want to get rid of misogyny? Blow the planet up” 😛
Hi again from Carmel Indiana, on the production floor. Again.
Re Sterile workplaces: I am reminded of Joe Banks’ desk in JOE VS THE VOLCANO, where even his little desk lamp was taboo to his overweening boss…
That’s what the miniature Death Star is for.
@James Moar:
The Emperor really prefers if you call it “Peace Moon”.
“Bob, I’m really sorry. I have to ask you to stop wearing your Captain Janeway T-Shirt to work. It’s discouraging to women.”
One of the most hostle environments I ever worked in became that way when headed by a guy who had all personal decorations taken down and required a ‘professional’ environment. No more geek signals but a way nastier place to work.
He also tried to require all women to wear skirts, to which we pointed out that part of my job was to lay ethernet cable in the ceiling. Great place to work in a skirt.
The guy also managed to take a project that was roughly on schedule and knock it five months behind after only working there for a month.
We heard that previously he had been a manager at Kodak, which migh explain a few things there too.
Central Station by Lavie Tidhar is a US Kindle daily deal for $1.99. Any recommendations?
Unless the book is an awful lot stranger than it sounds, the editorial reviews listed under Central Station have nothing to do with this book since they list a suggest reading range of PreSchool-Grade 2 and involve a stuffed bunny named Stanley.
There’s a large difference in how you decorate your desk and how the workplace is decorated. Having Star Trek items at your desk is no problem. Posters though, marking the whole area? Not the same.
So I can’t agree with that removing these posters would make the workplace sterile. You always have your own personalized comfort zone. It is just that you do not force it upon others.
Elisa: Central Station by Lavie Tidhar is a US Kindle daily deal for $1.99. Any recommendations?
It’s a collection of short stories which have been retconned to contain elements which link them to each other, and there is a strong religious element to it. I went into it having believed the advertising that it was a science-fiction novel, and being blindsided by the reality really pissed me off. I quit about a third of the way in, when I got to the vampire story.
However, a number of other Filers raved about it. So it’s definitely going to be a Marmite thing (either you love it or you hate it).
Hampus Eckerman: So I can’t agree with that removing these posters would make the workplace sterile. You always have your own personalized comfort zone. It is just that you do not force it upon others.
She’s not talking about just removing Star Trek posters. She says that there should be no references to anything geeky whatsoever.
Except many of the tech places I worked were open plan and no one except managers had their own desks. The rest of us shared stations and moved around depending on what we were working on at the time. Any decorating would by definition have been of the environment.
One of these workplaces used to have White Pizza days were everyone (who could stand it) would have garlic laden white pizza for lunch. The intention was not to get rid of women (though we often found someplace else to work those days) but to keep out management when a project was behind schedule.
@JJ Thanks! I had vague alarm bells going off in the back of my head and you helped me remember the discussion. Most probably not my thing at all.
The editoral review section also boggled my sleep deprived mind “One day, Emily and her rabbit are launching themselves into outer space to look for alien life-forms when they are interrupted by the Chief Footman to Queen Gloriana.” “Loads of child appeal.” Huh?!?!?
Turns out the editoral reviews actually belong to a children’s book called That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell. It is quite a hoot and probably more my speed anyhow, given how little sleep I have gotten.