123 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 4/16/18 Space-Time Leak In WordPress Engine Room 770. This Is NOT A Drill!!”

1. First!

2. 1) Is this QUILTBAG term common in US? How about rest of Europe? We do not use it in Sweden as – for us – Queer encompasses a lot of those other acronyms.

   I can only remember seeing Quiltbag used as an insult, so I feel kind of wary around it.

3. @Hampus – I’ve seen it used positively in Australia but I wouldn’t know how common it is or what attitudes are towards the acronym in communities the term includes.

   (5) Congratulations to Declan Finn. I hope it is too a non-sparkly, non-evil vampire.

4. “You know what else shuts down on Sunday? London and Paris.”

   Larry has never been to London or Paris. Even my backwater hometown doesn’t “turn into a ghost town” on a Sunday anymore.

5. @Oneiros

   Weirdly, Larry has been to London, because I recall an anecdote about his adventures on the tube. That just makes his comment odder.

   For non-UK folks, there used to be some fairly strict Sunday trading laws in England until about 25 years ago, when they were mostly relaxed – but there’s still a limit of 6 hours opening time for larger stores. Restaurants, pubs etc aren’t affected at all and can and do open at will. So when Larry goes on to say “Seriously, they turn into ghost towns and most of the shops and restaurants are closed” it’s particularly arglegarble of him.

   ETA: Unexpected fifth!

6. @Mark: I suppose it’s possible he was “lucky” and was there over Easter or Christmas? Those are the only two days I can think of where things really do just grind to a halt. (At least up north)

   ETA: Expected second fifth!

7. (4) I got about three sentences in, and then I realized, no, I don’t have to read his blathering. It’s not even sff.

   (1) I shall have to give some thought to my position on vampires, though! (It has been, since Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, “No, unless you are Octavia Butler come back to us.”

8. @Oneiris

   I should have mentioned that Christmas and Easter Sunday are exceptions (although a fair number of pubs/restaurants open those days anyway). To be fair to Larry I went and found his original post, and nope, he was in London two weeks after Easter, including a Sunday. In fact, his post goes to some lengths to praise how well he ate in London, and totally fails to mention this Sunday in London when he couldn’t go anywhere or get anything to eat. You’d have thought that would merit at least a little mention at the time, right?

9. (4) Not a fan of pickle soaked chicken myself but hey dude, you do you.

   (8) Mazel tov.

10. @Mark:

    For non-UK folks, there used to be some fairly strict Sunday trading laws in England until about 25 years ago, when they were mostly relaxed – but there’s still a limit of 6 hours opening time for larger stores.

    I’ve seen this fact turn up as a plot flaw in Around the World in 80 Days, since Fogg is able to mistake London on Saturday as being London on Sunday.

11. As it’s a short scroll and I’ve distracted myself with too much of the arglegarble of the last couple of days, here are a couple of recent reading reviews.

    The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Boddard (2018 Novella, c20,000 words)

    This is set in her Xuya series of Space Opera stories, but I suspect it will stand alone reasonably well as the characters are all new.

    The official blurb is

    Once, the mindship known as The Shadow’s Child was a military transport. Once, she leapt effortlessly between stars and planets, carrying troops and crew for a war that tore the Empire apart. Until an ambush killed her crew and left her wounded and broken.Now the war is over, and The Shadow’s Child, surviving against all odds, has run away. Discharged and struggling to make a living, she has no plans to go back into space. Until the abrasive and arrogant scholar Long Chau comes to see her. Long Chau wants to retrieve a corpse for her scientific studies: a simple enough, well-paid assignment.But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past–and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow’s Child almost lost both sanity and life… 

    The less respectful blurb might be “She’s a Mindship, traumatised by previous military service. She’s a consulting detective with a shadowy past. Together, they fight crime….”

    Although it’s quick and easy to call it Space Opera Sherlock Holmes I do think it quickly rises above just being a pastiche or homage – the characters aren’t just tributes to the classic stories, they have their own origins that fit into the Xuya universe and work within it. I think it’s most successful as a character piece – the mystery is decent but there’s only 20,000 words or so to work with – and that’s what makes me really like it, as the two characters very slowly open up just enough to let the other want to stick around with them.

    If you already like the Xuya stories then this is well worth your time. If you’ve not tried them then I think this is a good jumping on points, and it’s also the best novella of the year I’ve read so far.

    Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng (Campbell finalist)

    I had this on my tbr before the nominations but hadn’t got to it in time. I’ve got very very mixed thoughts about this one. Whereas I felt The Tea Master and the Detective rose above just being a pastiche of its source material, this book is positively revelling in its inspirations. It’s a very strong homage to everything Gothic, especially any writer named Bronte. I expected to like that sort of thing, but it just goes for broke on the thick oozing Gothic atmosphere from the start and doesn’t let go, to the extent that I found getting through it oppressive in parts. In fact, if others hadn’t already said the ending was worth it I may well have abandoned ship mid way.
    On the other hand, there’s some great elements in there. The concept is intriguing – the British Empire found Faerie (here called Arcadia) and so did what the British Empire did with everything they found – try to trade with it and convert it to Christianity. The main action is all around the house of Gethsemane, provided to the second missionary allowed into Arcadia (and the whereabouts of the first missionary are…not clear) whose sister Catherine has come to visit after his letters fell silent. Catherine is the main character and the platonic ideal of a Gothic Heroine, which is simultaneously fascinating and almost cloying.
    The two places this story does really well are firstly in how the specifics of the gothic romance play out – saying anything more would be spoilerific, but if you start to get an inkling early on of where it might be going, that’s exactly where it’s going! Secondly, the plot revolves around how Arcadia can even fit into the Christianity that the optimistic missionaries have been preaching and (again, avoiding spoilers) that gets really interesting. After what I thought was a bit of a flabby middle the story kicks into high gear at the end as these two elements resolve.
    Despite not always liking the heavy atmosphere Ng creates I have to say that it shows she’s clearly got the craft, and she gets high marks for ambition and doing something genuinely interesting. I’m not sure I’d recommend this novel to someone unless I was absolutely convinced it was going to work for them, but I can see why Jeannette Ng is a Campbell finalist.

    In other reading, I started Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Now, I know moaning about how long it is has already become a cliche, but it had two prologues! Two! And then chapter 1 just sets up a “8 months later” for a new character in chapter 2, which most right-thinking folk would call another blinking prologue! Frankie Howerd never even got through one prologue, so how many does Sanderson need?
    (More seriously, it’s had plenty of interesting worldbuilding hints and good action so far, but I’ve no idea where the story might be going yet)

12. @Mark

    Is having three prologues better or worst than having two chapter fives?

13. “Picture elementary, Dr. Watfile!” – Scrollock Holmes, consulting detective

14. @Mark Mostly agreed on Under the Pendulum Sun – it’s an extremely well crafted book, and I think I’d have adored it if it were around 10+ years ago while I was studying Gothic Literature, but 2018 me felt it got a bit much at times. I also found the romance one of the worst aspects and ended up regularly yelling “no WHYYYYY” out loud at my Kindle, although once I separated my kneejerk reaction to That Sort Of Thing from the role the romance plays in the story, I guess I can see why. But just… why.

    (ETA For anyone sensitive to weird romance who’d like a content warning at the expense of a fairly significant – though not book-ruining – spoiler: jr ner gnyxvat nobhg zhghny, pbafrafhny oebgure-fvfgre vaprfg.)

15. …I do like Chick Fil-A.

    There is a Chick Fil-A in the Woodbridge Mall, just across the Outerbridge Crossing. It’s been there for decades. Going to the Mall (much larger than the Staten Island Mall) and going to Chick Fil-A there was a very special treat.

    I had not realized Chick Fil-A was a big real thing in the south, I’d not even seen any other Chick Fil-A for years afterwards. In the age of the Internet, I learned that Chick Fil-A was a lonely northern bastion of the chain. But in California, and later Minnesota, I was pretty well seperated from it. A couple of years ago, a couple of them opened up here (and coincidentally at the same time, the one Popeyes around here expanded to a larger swath across the Twin Cities).

    Chick Fil-A is as good as my hazy memories remember. None of them are convenient for me to actually visit that often, which is good for my waistline.

    8) Congrats to Mr Finn.

16. I only just noticed that Chick Fil-A is supposed to sound like the way Americans say chicken fillet.

17. We have a Chick-Fil-A in the Rochester, NY, area now. It’s not White Castle, but I’d still be willing to consume their food now and again. There hasn’t been one where we lived since 2005, and I’ve only managed to eat at one twice since then.

    Also. Been finding lots of good BBC adaptations of novels at Archive.org, including most of Raymond Chandler and Dorothy Sayers, plus The Saint, and The Maltese Falcon. Just today I stumbled on a radio version of A.A. Milne’s play based on Pride and Prejudice, so there’s that, too.

    Also: Found a rather good tweet just now, with the expected ‘not getting it’ response and some excellent triage from those who got it just fine. Let’s see if I can guess how to put it up here:

    https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon/status/985951561925971974

    Scrollington Crescent

18. @Niall McAuley

    You’re not alone, I’d not twigged that at all!

    @Arifel

    Thank you, I think that content note is a good idea.
    I tend not to be too fond of romance, not because I dislike it but because my tastes don’t privilege it above other types of relationships and when written by/for romance-lovers I find it tends to take over the rest of the narrative. On the other hand, romance simply as one type of character relationships among many is absolutely fine for me. With that in mind, leaving aside the…interesting…specifics I didn’t have any issues with the romance as a character relationship . How it was portrayed made consistent sense with the character background, it didn’t seem forced in, etc etc.
    As for why? though – I think it was meant to be somewhere between a subversion of the Gothic tropes and taking them to a logical-but-weird conclusion, which certainly fits with the aims of the book, but possibly still doesn’t answer why that? or why them?
    (Also, and this has only just occurred to me so I’ll have to ponder it a bit: V jbaqre vs vg jnf nyfb fhccbfrq gb yvax gb gur rknzvangvba bs Ovoyvpny gurzrf – ner Pngurevar naq Ynba va Trgufrznar zveebevat Nqnz naq Rir va Rqra, jvgu abguvat ohg cevzny hetrf naq grzcgvat ivfvgngvbaf naq ab erny thvqnapr sebz nobir nobhg jung gurl fubhyq be fubhyqa’g qb?)

    ETA: @KipW, oh thank you, the replies to that tweet are golden.

19. @KipW, I thought a complicated string of directions would have suited the scene rather well, anyway.

20. A Child’s Garden of Robots

    An Optimal Morning

    A robot with a blinking head
    Stood beside my trundle bed
    Took my vital signs and said
    “Normal tolerances read.”

21. I didn’t even blink at the romance in Under the Pendulum Sun, although it seems to have bugged a lot of reviewers.

22. A Child’s Garden of Robots

    The Little Friend

    I have a metal playmate Papa made when I took ill
    He fetches things I cannot reach, and brings my morning pill
    He tells me what’s on telly, and wheels me about the green,
    And Papa says he’ll make a girl for me when I’m thirteen.

23. [checkbox selected]

24. Love the scroll title.

25. That needs to be longer. Revision!

    The Little Friend

    I have a metal playmate Papa made when I took ill
    He fetches things I cannot reach, and brings my morning pill
    He tells me what’s on telly, and he wheels me on the green,
    And he helps me keep my dining room and playroom good and clean.

    When he stands right beside me, he comes right up to my chin,
    But he can reach the ceiling just by making himself thin
    And he can lift my bed up just by spreading out quite squat
    And he can make me go to bed, if I want to or not.

    One morning, I woke up before the clock was telling five
    And saw him there beside me, very still, with eyes alive.
    He tracked each movement that I made, and hummed and clicked inside,
    I asked if all was well. “Oh yes,” my metal friend replied.

    My metal playmate is my friend. He’s with me every day
    He’s stood by me, although my other friends have gone away.
    My life would be so dull without the truest friend I’ve seen.
    And Papa says he’ll make a girl for me when I’m thirteen!

26. Kip, that’s simultaneously beautiful and sad. Well done, you.

27. @ Niall McAuley and Mark: To me Chick Fil-A always looks similar to “polyfilla”, so my brain pronounces it “chick filler” and submits an image of chicken flavoured sealing paste. It’s… off-putting.

28. Niall McAuley on April 17, 2018 at 5:00 am said:
    I only just noticed that Chick Fil-A is supposed to sound like the way Americans say chicken fillet.

    Ohhh…

29. Arifel:

    jr ner gnyxvat nobhg zhghny, pbafrafhny oebgure-fvfgre vaprfg.

    V’q chg na nfgrevfx ntnvafg ‘pbafrafhny’: vg’f gur erfhyg bs n serr qrpvfvba znqr ol obgu bs gurz, ohg jvgu vzcresrpg vasbezngvba juvpu chgf pbafrag va qbhog.

30. Alexdvl: Three prologues is surely no worse than three codas.

    (I was actually rather confused by the ‘three codas’ in Redshirts: my feeling is that a coda by definition comes at the end, so there can’t be three successive ones. It would better be called a coda in three parts. What I was expecting was three alternative codas – ‘the story might end this way… or this way…’ – but that is not what happened.)

    As for The Way of Kings, I have read part I, which I think is something like a sixth of the book, and have as yet no idea what the story is about. There’s a possible indication that Our Hero and Our Heroine have an acquaintance in common, but this may be a misunderstanding. Apart from that, I cannot say where we are going. (Descriptions of the book I have seen seem to focus largely on the setting.)

31. @Hampus Eckerman

    1) Is this QUILTBAG term common in US? How about rest of Europe? We do not use it in Sweden as – for us – Queer encompasses a lot of those other acronyms.

    I can only remember seeing Quiltbag used as an insult, so I feel kind of wary around it.

    I don’t hear it very much. To me, it seems like an attempt to get around the fact that “queer” is so deeply offensive to many LGBT people, gay men especially, but to retain something for the people who don’t feel included by LGBT. Since (from my own background) “queer” is a trigger word for me and I see it as an expression of self-hate, I can’t see that “Quiltbag” is any real improvement, but I’ll admit that if I don’t think too hard about what it means, it sure sounds a lot better than LGBT or “queer.”

32. @Andrew M that’s very true. V jnf guvaxvat bs gur snpg gung gurl ernssvez gurve qrpvfvba nsgre shyy vasbezngvba vf cebivqrq, ohg vg’f eryvnag ba jung gurl qrpvqrq jura gurl unq vzcresrpg qngn…

    On the Way of Kings, I recommend you get nice and comfortable with that “where is this even going” feeling because I ended up living with it for quite some time. It does pick up towards the end, but as has already been extensively covered it takes sooooo loooooongggg to get everyone to that point (particularly as abobql rira culfvpnyyl zbirf sbe gur jubyr fgbel, gurl ner nyernql va gur jne pnzc/pbby ynql’f ubhfr gung gurl arrq gb or va sbe gur pyvznk jvguva yvxr gur svefg gra puncgref, fb jul gurfr rkgen gubhfnaq cntrf, Oenaqba, ab ernyyl, cyrnfr rkcynva!!!)

33. From the Guardian: No more operas from Turnage, as Twitter row with critics turns toxic :

    A spat on Twitter that turned toxic appeared to lead to a declaration from composer Mark-Anthony Turnage that he is to write no more operas. … His newest work, a chamber opera for children, Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel, finished a run of sold-out performances at the Barbican in London on Saturday, but met a mixed critical response.

    But at the end the article then undermines its whole thesis with a statement from Turnage that “Turnage clarified his position a day later: his declaration to stop writing operas was not in response to the reaction to Coraline, but something that he decided ‘some time ago'”.

34. Chick Fil-A is pretty good, I’d rank it over Popeye’s and KFC for fast food chicken, but still doesn’t hold a candle to Raising Cane’s.

    That said I’m not sure why it’s a surprise NY would like it, and the original article certainly reads worthy of the ridicule for how over the top it goes about a chain chicken joint though LC goes so far in the other direction with hyperbole that it’s seems more like satire of the kind of person for whom just the words New Yorker send their blood pressure rising. I liked this line:
    NY the Cows are its ultimate evangelists.
    LC Holsteins are known for their devout nature.

    There was some seriously weird fixation of the cows in that article. And how did they have an article turning those cows into weird false idols and but no Mooby the Golden Calf mention?

    I also don’t find it weird that some places close on a Sunday, if anything I find the opposite a problem where the capitalistic need to compete and stay open all the time has crept into holidays so that even what used to be days you knew you could relax with everyone it’s not the case. Especially for their employees who likely work varied shifts to know that there’s one day you have off has to be sort of a mental relief. If they’re comfortable with losing potential Sunday sales and it hasn’t slowed their growth, I don’t see what the problem is.

35. @Matt There is a Raising Cane’s not far from me. I have never tried it. It’s that good?

36. Paul – I like it, it’s pretty much the freshest fried chicken you’ll get for quick out there. Their sauce is excellent as well.

37. @matt As it so happens, the Cane’s is much closer than the nearest Chick Fil-A and somewhat closer than the nearest Popeye’s. Going to have to give a try. Will let you know what I think. 🙂

38. Hmmm … Now I’m starting to be tempted to get the chicken strip basket this evening (to be eaten while I finish The Obelisk Gate, before going down the street to see Tuvan throat-singers in concert).

39. @ Joe H.

    Hmmm … Now I’m starting to be tempted to get the chicken strip basket this evening (to be eaten while I finish The Obelisk Gate, before going down the street to see Tuvan throat-singers in concert).

    Tuvan throat-singers? How awesome!

    In SF-related music news, Michael Moorcock and a band called Spirits Burning are doing an album based on An Alien Heat (the first novel in the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy). There’s no news about it but the list of musical participants include people from the Hawkwind Family, Blue Oyster Cult, the Damned, and Camper Van Beethoven (!).

    The information available (which is scant) is here.

40. I’m about 80% of the way through New York 2140, and it’s feeling like a very weird, disconnected future. Though KSR mentions social media, he has no idea how it works. For instance, Amelia’s fans don’t feed her news or feedback (much), there’s no sense that she’s the core of a *community*. Fur yrneaf nobhg gur bapbzvat uheevpnar ol n cubar pnyy sebz ure ohvyqvat’f fhcre, ssf, abg sebz gur pybhq (jurer vg jbhyq pregnvayl or geraqvat).

    Looking around the internet now, I see that KSR has no personal internet presence: no personal website, no twitter, no FB or LJ. He’s writing about a revolution, but he doesn’t know how revolutions work *right now*. This gives his picture of the near-future a retro feel, for me.

    btw, when I update my status on a book on Goodreads, my previous notes disappear. Can I recover them anywhere? I’d like to use GR for reading notes, without going through Kindle.

41. To merge discussions, the first time my family went to London in the early 70s, we pretty much lived on KFC. As American children, we longed for hamburgers and hot dogs which didn’t really exist in London at the time.

    I keep calling it Raising Cain. It’s mainly chicken strips/fingers. The sauce seems pretty popular.

    There’s a later episode of Friends, where Phoebe suddenly realizes that Central Perk is a play on Central Park. I have to admit that I never made the connection.

42. @Matt Y:

    That said I’m not sure why it’s a surprise NY would like [Chik Fil-A]

    You somehow missed the “All True Christians need to eat at Chik Fil-A as much as possible because they’re being persecuted by the Gay Liberal Agenda” campaign a few years ago when it came to light that the founders were donating substantial sums to anti-gay groups. Like Hobby Lobby, spending money there has become a tribal marker.

43. From what I recall, Chick Fil-A took steps to reassure the LGBTQ community that it was not anti-gay, but evidently their words and their charity dollars go different ways as of 2017:

    https://thinkprogress.org/chick-fil-a-still-anti-gay-970f079bf85/

44. Rail – Oh I didn’t miss that, I listen to stand up comedy and that was every comedians go to for a bit. I don’t really consider it persecution to not want to give money to a place that’s using their money to influence votes against you or people you love, and don’t really understand the supporting something out of spite. Sure LC joked that spite made it taste better, but has he tried it with ranch? Because that’s pretty good too.

    Just seems odd to ever be surprised that people like high sodium, affordable, quick to get food that has some flavor from chain restaurants that at least give people a consistent idea of what to expect.

45. @Rob: I’m guessing that the writer of the article remembers the Boston Mayor saying that Chick Fil-A wasn’t welcome there (and the protestors who showed up for the first CFA opening in NYC) and thought it would be a good hook.

    Correia’s jumping in because tribal.

    The fascination with cows comes from Chick Fil-A’s advertising.

46. I honestly do not get complaints about Stormlight Archive which are essentially, “It’s long.”

    Lots of SFF is long. Mary Gentle, Tad Williams, Diana Gabaldon, Stephen King, and Peter F. Hamilton all have books longer than any of Sanderson’s off the top of my head, and as a series the current extent of Stormlight Archives is dwarfed by Wheel of Time, Shannarra, Riftwar, Malazan, Outlander, Song of Ice and Fire, and Crown of Stars, to name a few.

    *grumbles that sometimes it’s all right that a story takes its sweet time to get where it needs to go, shakes fist at uncaring skies*

47. Well, if you like Chik-fil-A and don’t want to throw money at them: http://www.cookingcomically.com/?page_id=578

    And not only did CFA throw money at groups that want nothing nice at all for QUILTBAG folk, it also turned out that they were paying (indirectly) ISIS to smuggle Biblical-era artefacts out of the Middle East.

    Re QUILTBAG: I’ve heard it and used it myself when trying to use LGBTQ[AIU] got a bit unwieldy. I like it; It suggests that human sexuality and gender is a bag full of vibrant, many-colored bits and pieces, each different, no two the same.

48. @Kyra —

    I honestly do not get complaints about Stormlight Archive which are essentially, “It’s long.”

    I’m often very tolerant of slow pacing. For instance, I loved (though was often baffled by) Anathem. But the author has to keep me interested while they’re doing all that meandering.

    Lots of SFF is long. Mary Gentle, Tad Williams, Diana Gabaldon, Stephen King, and Peter F. Hamilton

    I’ve dnfed Peter Hamilton too, and for some of the same reasons. 😉 Never read Mary Gentle, liked Tad Williams but I did complain about the length, and I’ve read only bits and pieces of Diana Gabaldon because of her justification for rape and my intolerance for most time-travel stories.

    as a series the current extent of Stormlight Archives is dwarfed by Wheel of Time

    WoT is a good example. Loooooooooooooong books, often not much really happening. But Jordan’s skill with details kept me interested the whole time. Sanderson strikes me as more mechanical and therefore less gripping.

    Song of Ice and Fire

    Same here, with the addition that there’s always something happening. SO MUCH happens in these books.

49. Contrarius on April 17, 2018 at 1:37 pm said:

    @Kyra —

    I honestly do not get complaints about Stormlight Archive which are essentially, “It’s long.”

    I’m often very tolerant of slow pacing. For instance, I loved (though was often baffled by) Anathem. But the author has to keep me interested while they’re doing all that meandering.

    While there’s a lot of Epic Long form Sci Fi…Stormlight Archive is a whole other category. The Way of Kings honestly feels like the longest prologue ever, and it feels like he’s still introducing what the main arc is even in book three. Personally I didn’t mind because I love the antics of the bridge crew and there were a lot of smaller story arcs within that I enjoyed. Every time I think it’s going a certain way or about to fall back on some cliches the author surprises me by going a different route. Considering it’s just one part of the overall Cosmere is even crazier, that’s no longer epic but galactic

50. @Jonathan M

    I’m pretty sure the antiquities smuggling was Hobby Lobby.

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