(1) HE’S BAAACK. ScienceFiction.com explains how Dr. Okun’s been down for the count almost as long as Captain America – “Okun’s Razor: New ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ Featurette Explains The Return Of Dr. Okum”.
Of course, the alien attacked the doctor and took over his mind, using him to communicate with the other people outside the laboratory, and the encounter ended with men having to shoot the alien before it hurt the president, all of which left Dr. Okun comatose on the floor.
According to the new featurette released, Dr. Okun did not actually die that day. Apparently he was just left in a vegetative state, a coma, for the past twenty years, leaving him prime to be woken up by contact with new alien minds as the aliens return in the new film.
(2) FUTURE PUPPIES. Paul Weimer’s “Of Dogs and Men: Clifford Simak’s City” is the latest installment of Tor.com’s “Lost Classics” series.
…A suite of stories that merges Simak’s love of dogs, his interest in rural settings and landscapes, use of religion and faith, and his interest in robots all in one package: City.
City is a fixup novel originally consisting of seven stories written between 1944 and 1951, and collected together in 1952. City charts the fall of Humanity’s (or the creature called “Man” in the stories) civilization, starting with his urban environment, and finally, of the fall of Humanity itself. As Humanity falls, so rises the successor to Man, the Dogs. As David Brin would later do to chimps and dolphins in his Uplift stories and novels, the story of the engineered rise of Dogs, and their supplanting of Man, is due to the agency of one family, the Websters. The growth and development of the Dogs is thanks to their agency, and the Dog’s continued growth is due to the help of Jenkins, the robot created as a butler for the Webster family who becomes a mentor to the Dogs and a through line character in the narrative…..
(3) SIMAK AT 1971 WORLDCON. And with lovely timing, the FANAC YouTube channel has just posted Part 2 of a photo-illustrated audio recording of the Noreascon Banquet. It includes the Guest of Honor speeches from Clifford Simak and Harry Warner, Jr. Other speakers: Bob Shaw, Toastmaster Robert Silverberg, Forrest J Ackerman, Gordon Dickson, and TAFF winner Mario Bosnyak.
(4) PATIENCE REWARDED. Ricky L. Brown says go for it, in a review of Joe Zieja’s Mechanical Failure at Amazing Stories.
At first, the book comes off as a plead, as if asking the reader to accept the fact that it supposed to be funny. The dialog feels a little forced and the humor dangerously becomes the focal point over character development and plot. If a literary version of a laugh track was a real thing, letting the reader know that this part is funny and you are supposed to be laughing along with the fabricated audience, it would be running non-stop during the first chapter.
As a reviewer, this is usually the point when one must decide if the work has potential or if it is time to abandon hope before investing the time. The original premise was sound and I truly wanted the book to be good, so I pressed on.
And then it got better….
Mechanical Failure by Joe Zieja is a funny story about a funny man in a funny universe. What makes this book work so well is the author’s innate ability to paint a sarcastic hero in a ridiculously irrational setting, and allow the reader to laugh along at the absurdity that could become our future.
(5) AUTOGRAPH SEEKERS. A weekend of signings at the Denver Comic Con inspired Sarah A. Hoyt to write “The Running Of The Fans”. Before you get cranked up – I thought it was pretty funny.
….This is interrupted by a voice from the ceiling, “The fans are coming, the fans are coming.”
The double doors open on a throng at the end of the hall. Some of the fans are in costume. There is a minotaur in an Acme costume, for instance, several ladies in corsets and men wearing uniforms of all epochs, some of them imaginary.
The announcers shriek and run behind the barriers which are formed by booths filled with books. For a while the melee is too confused to focus on, and the announcers are both talking at the same time.
After a while the younger announcer says. “John Ringo is down. I repeat he’s down, and they’ve taken his kilt. But he’s still fighting valiantly.”
“Larry Correia,” says the older announcer, “Is still running, though he is QUITE literally covered in fans demanding his autograph. Look at him move! That’s why they call him The Mountain Who Writes.”
“If mountains moved, of course.”
“We have the first author to escape the melee, ladies and gentlemen. David Drake seems to have evaded the fans by the expedient of pretending to be lost and asking for directions, then fading away.”….
(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- June 21, 1940 — Mariette Hartley, remembered by fans for the Star Trek episode “All Our Yesterdays”, though probably best known to the public for her Polaroid commercials with James Garner.
(7) HOW TO HIT BILLIONAIRES IN THE FEELS. Renay at Lady Business outlines a plan for action in “Captain America: Steve Rogers – The Only Power Left to Us is Money”.
Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 drops on June 29. I’m not getting it because I dropped it from my pull list and didn’t buy #1 due to A) my HEIGHTENED EMOTIONS, expressed by this thread on Twitter by readingtheend and B) the behavior of Nick Spencer/Tom Brevoort in the media, which included laughing at upset fans, and generally being dismissive, cruel, and gratuitously smug on Twitter (the failure mode of clever is asshole, etc.). I placed my funds toward other comics instead (Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur is super cute, y’all). But I’m just one fan. I’ve never advocated a boycott before, but there’s a first time for everything!
Boycotts work when they target specific behavior. A wholesale Marvel/Disney boycott is ineffective; they’re diversified (curse them for being smart at business, and also, billionaires). Refusing to buy and removing from your pull or digital subscription list Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 (June 29, 2016) and all subsequent issues will be more effective than swearing off all Marvel comics. Also, it doesn’t punish other creative people at Marvel who had no control over this situation. That sends a message to Marvel, The Company: this comic/plotline is not profitable! That’s easier for them to grasp than nuanced discussions about history and cultural respect that it’s clear they have no interest in listening to at this particular time. Although it doesn’t hurt to tell them, either, by writing emails or letters to outline exactly why you aren’t supporting the comic. This post has a longer list on how to make financial decisions that impact this specific comic that are active rather than reactive.
(8) WESTWORLD TEASER TRAILER. Westworld is coming to HBO in October 2016.
(9) ORDWAY. Universe Today features “Finding ‘The Lost Science’ of 2001: A Space Odyssey”.
The film 2001: A Space Odyssey brought space science to the general masses. Today we may consider it as common place, but in 1968 when the film was released, humankind yet to walk on the Moon. We certainly didn’t have any experience with Jupiter. Yet somehow the producer, Stanley Kubrick, successfully peered into the future and created a believable story. One of his methods was to employ Frederick I. Ordway III as his science consultant. While Ordway has since passed, he left behind a veritable treasure trove of documents detailing his work for Kubrick. Science author and engineer Adam K. Johnson got access to this trove which resulted in the book “2001: The Lost Science – The Scientist, Influences & Designs from the Frederick I. Ordway III Estate Volume 2“. It’s a wonderful summary of Ordway’s contributions and the film’s successes.
Johnson’s book was released this month.
(10) TABLE TALK. Black Gate’s John O’Neill gave his neighbor a lesson in marketing psychology, as he explains in “Total Pulp Victory: A Report on Windy City Pulp & Paper 2016, Part I”.
I learned a great deal about selling at my first Windy City Pulp show. And most of what I learned was the result of one fateful purchase.
When I noticed I was running low on paperbacks, I glanced across the aisle at the seller across from me, who had hundreds in big piles on his table. He was charging 25 cents each for the books he’d stacked on the floor, but wasn’t selling many. I’d rummaged through them and found he had a lot of great stuff, including some rare Ace Doubles in great condition, but no one seemed to be taking the time to dig through the jumbled stacks on the floor.
So I offered him 10 bucks for a box of books, and he was happy to sell it to me. Back at my table, I slipped each book out of the box and into a poly bag, and slapped a $10 price tag on it. The vendor watched me wordlessly as I put them prominently on display at the front of my booth. I’d put out less than half of them when a buyer wandered by, picked one up excitedly, paid me $10, and happily continued on his way.
Over the next few hours, the seller across the way watched furiously as I did a brisk business with his books, selling a good portion of his stock and making a very tidy profit. In the process, I learned two very valuable lessons.
- A 25 cent book in a jumble on the floor is worth precisely 25 cents, and a prominently displayed $10 book in a poly bag is worth $10. Simple as that.
- One the whole, it’s much easier to sell a $10 book than a 25 cent book.
(11) STEVE FOX. Somebody on eBay will happily take $12 for “1986 sci-fi fanzine FILE 770 #60, Challenger disaster”. However, I included this link for the opportunity afforded of showing you a cover by Steve Fox, a Philadelphia fanartist who, quite unreasonably, was voted behind No Award in 1985.
(12) CHARGE REVERSED. Vox Day, at the end of a post otherwise spent extolling the views of John C. Wright, took issue with the popular acclaim given to a massive battle in the latest episode of Game of Thrones.
The battle scenes in the most recent episode of A Game of Thrones were so shockingly inept and historically ignorant that I found myself wondering if Kameron Hurley had been hired as the historical consultant.
As one wag put it on Twitter: A cavalry charge? I’d better put my pikes in reserve!
And while I’m at it, I’ll refrain from ordering my archers to fire at them as they approach. Then I’ll send my infantry in to surround the survivors, so they can’t break and run, thereby preventing my cavalry from riding them down and slaughtering them from behind. And when the totally predictable enemy reinforcements arrive just in the nick of time, because I’ve been busy posturing rather than simply destroying the surrounded enemy, instead of withdrawing my army and retreating to my fortress, I’ll just stand around and watch them get entirely wiped out before fleeing by myself.
It was the second-most retarded battle scene I’ve ever seen, topped only by Faramir leading Gondor’s cavalry against a fortified position manned by archers in The Return of the King. I was always curious about what the cavalry was intended to do if they somehow managed to survive the hail of arrows and reach the walls that no horse could possibly climb.
(13) STOP MOTION DINOSAURS. The Alex Film Society will show The Lost World (1925) on Sunday, July 10th at 2:00 p.m. at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA.
When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not writing Sherlock Holmes stories, he often wrote history, fantasy, adventure and science-fiction tales. One of his most successful novels was The Lost World, the story of adventurers who find a South American plateau – where time stopped 65 million years ago – inhabited by dinosaurs. In 1912, when the book was published, movies were still in their infancy and technology wasn’t available to do the fantastic story justice, but by 1925, Willis O’Brien had begun to perfect stop motion, a form of animation that would allow him and his small team to bring these long dead creatures to life, blending them convincingly with real actors. It created a sensation when people saw, for the first time, believable prehistoric creatures on the screen, and remains a cinematic milestone today.
Featuring some of the biggest stars of the silent era, including Wallace Beery, Bessie Love and Lewis Stone, as well as no less than a dozen different species of dinosaur, our print of The Lost World is a fully restored version from the George Eastman House collection. Famed composer and pianist Alexander Rannie will accompany the film with the musical score that was written for the original release.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Hugh Hefner.
(14) NEWS FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER? Yahoo! Movies has a Frozen franchise update: “Olaf Forever! Disney Introduces ‘Frozen Northern Lights’ – Including Brand New Character”.
Think of it as the Frozen sequel before the Frozen sequel. Disney has just unveiled Frozen Northern Lights, a multimedia expansion of its hugely popular princess franchise that will include new books and Lego animated shorts. The adventure revolves around Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven — joined by their new friend, Little Rock — on an mission to fix the Northern Lights in time for a special troll ceremony.
(15) JESSICA F. JONES. Whatever you thought you heard, you apparently didn’t. ScienceFiction.com has the story — “She Don’t Give A @#$%: ‘Jessica Jones’ Executive Producer Reveals Marvel’s Restrictions In Season 1”.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporte, ‘Jessica Jones’ executive producer Melissa Rosenberg spoke candidly about producing the show, and what restrictions were placed on her by either Netflix or Marvel. As suspected, Netflix did not put a lot of restrictions on the show, but it seems Marvel had some very specific Dos and Don’ts that she had to abide by during Season 1 of ‘Jessica Jones.’ In her words:
“The beauty of working at Netflix is that you don’t have those limits. I also work with Marvel, and Marvel has a brand and their brand is generally PG-13. They’ve kind of let us go to PG-16. No F-bombs! And if anyone was going to say ‘fuck,’ it would be Jessica Jones. Sometimes I would be like, ‘Please just let me put one!’ Never. But what’s funny is that people said, ‘Wait — she didn’t say fuck? I could have sworn she did!’ Ritter can deliver ‘fuck’ with her face. Her look says it! She can be saying ‘potato.’”
[Thanks to JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Rob Thornton.]
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Yes, very interesting. Very interesting indeed.
(15) JESSICA F. JONES. Okay, that is hilarious.
#8, you’d think there’s enough newer content out there that they wouldn’t have to keep remaking old classic. (Hey, you kids, get offa my lawn!)
(14) NEWS FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER?
More appropriate for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere where it is currently winter. BTW, do you mark the season changes by solstices & equinoxes? We seem to be unusual (checks with Google) in using the first day of the month, so for us, winter began on the 1st of June.
ETA: Sacrificial Fourth.
Some value of fifth!
The GoT battle lost a lot of impact for me due to the gross incompetence all round.
Tired. Stopping by to say hi. No opinions on any of the links tonight.
(12) is there such a thing as “Monday Morning Warlording” ?
Was Faramir leading cavalry against a fortified position manned with archers something they added for the movie? Because I can’t find it in the novel, where Faramir takes some guerilla actions in Ithilien, gets knocked out in a retreat to Minas Tirith, and doesn’t recover until after the captains set off on their diversionary feint to the gates of Mordor.
I wonder if Beale actually watched the show, or if he just had it badly recounted to him. Bolton sent his cavalry first after goading Snow into the open, clearly hoping to kill Snow before help could arrive. It was only because the Stark cavalry counter charged that there was a cavalry battle. There was never an option for Bolton to receive the Stark cavalry with pikemen, because the Stark cavalry weren’t going to charge them but for Snow being exposed. For their part, the Starks had no pikemen to deploy against the Bolton cavalry.
All of Beale’s complaints about the battle that follow assume that Bolton could have simply waited for the Stark forces to launch their cavalry at the Bolton line and stop them with pikes, which would have required abject stupidity on the part of Snow. The complaint about not being prepared for the Knights of the Vale to arrive assume that Bolton could see the future and predict the arrival of reinforcements that even Snow didn’t know were coming. To be fair, Bolton should have had scouts out to look for additional forces, but he thought he knew the entire disposition of the Stark forces already.
In short, it seems that Beale didn’t pay attention to what was shown on screen, and didn’t understand what was happening.
Was Faramir leading cavalry against a fortified position manned with archers something they added for the movie?
No. When returning from Ithilien, Faramir sends his company to reinforce the defenses of Osgiliath while proceeding to Minas Tirith to report to his father. On this journey, Faramir is attacked by a Nazgul and saved by Gandalf. Denethor is angry with Faramir when he learns Faramir let Frodo and Sam go, and sends Faramir to Osgiliath with his men. When Osgiliath is overrun, Faramir keeps his soldiers behind as a rear guard, and makes a fighting withdrawal, but is felled by a poisoned dart that puts him out of action for pretty much the rest of the story. During this withdrawal, a mounted force sallies from Gondor to come to the aid of the retreating soldiers from Osgiliath.
Jackson seems to have taken this sequence of events and mixed them together to create what we see in the movie. I think Beale’s interpretation of the charge against Osgiliath is a misinterpretation of the scene. Faramir knew that any attack on Osgiliath was doomed to fail, but was honor bound to obey his father’s commands. He seems to have taken with him the minimum number of men that he could credibly claim he was taking to fulfill the charge laid on him, because he knew the attack was almost certainly suicidal. The fact that they charged on horses is beside the point – they knew they had no plausible chance of success to begin with. The point was not “smart tactics”, it was “honor in the face of certain death”.
Well, the yolo rescue attempt is tremendously stupid. And it’s not like he hasn’t been warned that Rick is doomed, or that his demise will bait a trap. But Jon, like his father and brother, prioritizes his own feelings above everything and decides that making a pointless attempt at a rescue is more important than being thrifty about spending the lives in his hands, so.
Fortunately his sister isn’t an idiot.
Mind, I’ve not read whatever it was beale wrote and have no interest in defending his position
Well, the yolo rescue attempt is tremendously stupid.
Well, yes. But that worked because Bolton figured that he could emotionally unbalance Snow. Then the equation is different. It was also only Snow, who has established a track record of being willing to sacrifice himself, but displaying somewhat less willingness to send others to their death.
On the other hand, expecting your foe to charge your pikemen with his cavalry spontaneously seems to be a bit optimistic. Not that it never happened, but it seems unlikely. Plus, if you just wait behind a pike wall, you surrender the initiative to your opponent.
Teddy’s wrong again? In other news: water wet, sky blue.
I now have a vision of Vox Day sitting with Colonel Blimp in some wood-panelled gentleman’s club, harrumphing over their pipes about how they would have done so much better in the battle if only their services had been required (or desired).
Please go away vision.
A different question on the GoT battle for Aaron and other knowledgeable people: my friends and I have a range of opinions about whether Ramsay’s archery tactics would actually have produced the massive wall of bodies at the limits of their range as happens in the show? I mean, I assume there’s not much in the way of historical precedent for a commander “tactically” slaughtering their own cavalary alongside the enemy’s, as is heavily implied to be Ramsay’s plan, but even from a physical standpoint I’m not sure if it’s possible or not, and I’ve had people stop on either side of the “suspension of disbelief” line for whether it’s an OK liberty for the show to take.
I don’t want to click through to TB’s blog but I’m disappointed that the extract does not include a reference to Ramsay’s “typical gamma behaviour”. Or would that be Snow? I don’t pretend to understand.
For the most part, sound military tactics aren’t filmable. I saw Enemy at the Gate with a friend who is a vet and he had to actively stop nitpicking how people moved, where they set up, which shots they took – all stuff core to what snipers do, but stuff that, if done well, you literally can’t see happening. Different era of warfare but the general principle transfers. You might as well complain that the PI isn’t keeping a half block between himself and the subject in the scene where he follows the car.
Plus, in this specific case, what Aaron said. Presumably The Person just wanted to get in a dig at Hurley. He was probably also sad that the hero died.
Should have had scouts out, should have had a rider from Winterfell when they saw the Vale army approaching up the King’s Road which goes past the castle and has the only nearby bridge across the river.
@Arifel: In general, bodies don’t spontaneously stack. Despite the massive carnage of, for example, the U.S. Civil War, the battlefield photos show the bodies mostly scattered rather than piled, even in places where large numbers of soldiers fell in groups. Even intentionally piling bodies together into a big wall would probably be fairly of difficult, since bodies (until rigor mortis sets in) are fairly floppy.
Ummmm, SPOILERS?
Please ROT13 as some of us are behind in our viewing..
Should have had scouts out
Sure. On the other hand, Bolton was an arrogant ass. Thinking he knew everything that the Starks had in their arsenal is exactly what one would expect from him. Plus, had he known that the Knights of the Vale were coming, he wouldn’t have even offered battle, but would have instead stayed inside Winterfell.
Clicky.
Eyewitnesses at Agincourt (one of the inspirations for the GoT battle) claimed that the bodies piled up six feet deep, but that’s probably an exaggeration. But even National Review historians explain how killing 6,000 men in a small area in less than 30 minutes does lead to the claustrophobia the director is obviously trying to portray:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425729/henry-v-Agincourt
It’s also worth noting that most of the experienced military commanders in the North have already died in the War of the Five Kings and subsequent events. None of these guys would be anywhere near command three years earlier.
I’m surprised no one is lambasting the ahistorical usage of Wun Wun. In other TV news, just watched the finale of Person of Interest.
Oh this show. This f*cking show.
I’m gonna miss you so much.
(11) STEVE FOX.
Gaaah, I want to yes award him NOW!
I did spend some time today considering both the manoveurs shown in the show, Vox’s critique and the contextual information implied by both the books and the show to recreate the scenario. Apologies if this gets technical but I obviously had to make some assumptions regarding the terrain and ground conditions, which will impact on the disparity between the rate of travel of the troop types (especially the calvary deployed versus the light infrantry).
Taking all that into account the major tactical error on both sides (but particulary Jon Snow) was not deploying his zepplins or his biplanes (and especially not his biplane carrying zepplins). Deploying these forces earlier would have had decisive influence on the battle. Why Bolton didn’t use his oliphants is another mystery.
I concur 🙂
@snowcrash
NO SPOILERS!!
RE: The battle in Game of Thrones. The show’s budget clearly doesn’t stretch to the point where you can show a big fight, and so it becomes a series of little setpieces (which worked quite well for The Wall, Hardhome and indeed Winterfell), but the narrative of the battles is usually simple and defailts to one side is wiped out, one side is beaten thoroughly but some escape, or one side is on the verge of destruction, but is saved by reinforcements in the nick of time.
I spent much of the episode chatting with a friend and describing what was happening in terms of game mechanics from tabletop wargames we play.
I’m gonna make my own Game of Thrones short someday. Gonna bring a Go set into a Home Depot, set it up in front of the toilet display, and hit “record” for about five minutes.
Just because. 😀
@soon lee re: Winter and marking.
Most people here use the solstices and equinoxes. However, Meteorologists up here have “Meteorological summer” and “Meteorological winter”. Meteorological summer for the Northern Hemisphere begins on the 1st of June. Meteorological winter for us here in the Northern Hemisphere begins on the 1st of December.
(12) If only people played more Warhammer 40K they’d know what real battle looks like
Steve Fox may have finished behind No Award because he annoyed a number of faneditors who had published the illos he sent.
That “no simultaneous submissions” you see in fiction market guidelines all the time? Fox did that with his illos, making multiple copies and sending them to numerous fanzines without mentioning the same illos were being sent to other fanzines.
It’s a little disconcerting to have published a Fox illo in your fanzine, only to have two or three or five other fanzines arrive in the mail with the same piece of art in it. (Am I speaking from personal experience? Yep.)
Finally watched the latest episode of GoT, so I’m back to reading the comments. Hi y’all!
V npghnyyl gubhtug gur onggyr jnf ernyyl jryy qbar. Fher jr znl dhvooyr nobhg ubj ernyvfgvp gur “jnyy bs obqvrf” vf (obqvrf pna naq qvq cvyr hc va fbzr onggyrf, ohg abg ba syng tebhaq. Gung frrzf zber n pbaprvg gb svyzvat gubhtu). Zber vzcbegnagyl gb zr jnf gur jnl gur fubj cbegenlrq gur fjveyvat punbf naq znlurz bs unaq-gb-unaq pbzong nf frra sebz gur crefcrpgvir bs gur cnegvpvcnagf. Gur ehfu bs nqeranyvar, srne, rkpvgrzrag naq qrfcrengvba.
Urpx, rira gur neeviny bs gur xavtugf bs gur inyr gbbx zr ol fhecevfr, fvzcyl orpnhfr V jnf fb vairfgrq va gur onggyr gung V jnfa’g rira pbafvqrevat gung nf n cbffvovyvgl.
Nf sbe Ibk naq bgure Zbaqnl zbeavat dhnegreonpxf, uvfgbevpnyyl n pninyel punetr jnf bsgra erprvirq ol n pbhagre-punetr. Orpnhfr ubefrf qba’g yvxr gb eha vagb cbvagl fgvpxf, naq gurl pna npghnyyl zbir nebhaq lbhe cvxrzra jvgu trarenyyl qver erfhygf..
Aaayyyy, sorry for spoilers to all GoT watchers-to-be :X
On a different note ((6) to be exact), I don’t know her for certain to check but I think Mariette Hartley identifies as a “Birthday Girl”, no?
Wow, contributing editor! Thanks, Mike. 🙂
[clicky]
[12] I can only assume that GRRM wasn’t involved in the production of that ep, because I doubt he’d have made those errors
It truly sucked
Camestros Felapton,
Taking all that into account the major tactical error on both sides (but particulary Jon Snow) was not deploying his zepplins or his biplanes (and especially not his biplane carrying zepplins). Deploying these forces earlier would have had decisive influence on the battle. Why Bolton didn’t use his oliphants is another mystery.
<snork> Here, have this internet….
21st June: First day of summer.
24th June: Midsummer’s Day.
27th June….
(So in short, summer is not well-defined. Solstices are used for some purposes, but not for others.)
Re GOT, I liked the episode overall, but sbhaq gur raqvat ernyyl qvfnccbvagvat. V gubhtug gur Fgnexf chg qbja gurve rarzvrf jvgu n avpr, cebcre orurnqvat. V’z thrffvat gung’f jung Enzfnl zrnaf jura ur fnlf ur’f n cneg bs Fnafn abj. Bu nyfb cebonoyl gung fur’f certanag, orpnhfr ubj pna gur fubj jevgref erfvfg, ohg V’z ubcvat abg. V cersre gur vagrecergngvba gung ur’f gnhtug ure gb or pehry.
Around here people sometimes call Memorial Day weekend the “official start of summer”, but the weather people also mention the solstice, mostly for being the longest day of the year. But for me, mental summer starts when school gets out.
I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, so I’m visualizing all of this with Michael Bolton.
Still told in hushed whispers are tales of the final battle of Ser Michael of Bolton and Kenny the G when their forces clashed on the Plains of Musique. Many were the atrocities commited on both sides, and Musique was left much the worse for their attentions.
I noticed that with Steve Fox,
I just wonder where he is now.
I’ve generally considered “Summer” in my portion of North America running from Memorial Day (weekend including the last Monday in May) through Labor Day (weekend including the first Monday in September). I know that’s not the technical definition in any book; it’s the practical one, however.
Until the latter started moving around (for good reasons), Summer started for me with BayCon and ended with Worldcon.
From my point of view summer starts with Wimbledon, and ends when the schools go back in September.
The neat 3 month divisions of seasons really never works, especially when you deal with places that have two: wet and dry. Or when you live somewhere that doesn’t really have climate, but it does get a lot of weather…
:: shivers, checks thermostat, gathers dressing gown around him, looks out of window at sad trees under lowering grey skies ::
Yep, it’s summer all right.
[ticky]
I clicked through to the Wright post Mr Beale was referring to and stared goggle-eyed as Wright’s Ranty McRantface reached hitherto unscaled heights.
As usual, his “complaints” boiled down to, “Waaah! Straight white manly men are no longer on my TV and movie screens!”
Breaking out the world’s tiniest violin….
Here in Seattle, summer used to be an optional season that usually happened in August. Few houses or apartments have air conditioning, since most years there wouldn’t be more than one or two nights when anyone would want it.
Lately, though, we’ve had summer-like days as early as May and as late as November, with a solid block of summer right in the middle of, well, “real summer.” People without A/C are really suffering.
We used to have the occasional “year without a summer,” but this year, for the first time, we had a “year without a winter.”
Oh, aye, you’ve got your zeppelins, and oliphants, and the whole corps of armored muskrats too, but those as know will tell you – It’s the pen that is mightier than the sword.
I was there at the Battle of Vellum, back in the Grand War – not nothing fancy mind you, just a junior in Her Majesty’s Own Battalion of Heavy Scribers.
(Yes, a clerk-typist, lad.)
Now there’s some as say machine-writing is inhumane, and I can’t say as I disagree, but when you’re in the thick of it there ain’t nothing more comforting than that tat-tat-ting-tat-tat banging out at eighty words a minute.
Bloody Vellum… The broadsheets banging heavy and ponderous; the sick whiff of simile and metaphor drifting across the field; other men’s ink spattered on you. After a day of it there was hardly none that didn’t look like the devil after a Lutheran convention.
And then… quiet…
And across the field you could see them fixing quills and preparing the charge. Ole Sergeant-Bard Smith (yes, THAT WW Smith!) says “Steady, men. When they close give ‘em 5”. And then it was they came at us. I could see their jaundiced eyes, and my fingers started flying across the keys – f… i… r… TYPO! The sick ecstasy of fumbling for the correction tape, while almost smelling their breath upon you, and – backspace.. r… backspace… v… e… and it was done. Now those SMOF’s they had some sand but they had a bit less of it after that. And Sarge shouts “Another 5. Quick now!” And tat-tat-tat-tat-tat it was done. And then all that sand of theirs was gone as an hour glass top at two hours past and they broke and ran.
And THAT, boyo, is how we won the war.
Zeppelins and oliphants… PSHAW.
Re: hyper-local seasons
My seasonal markers are quite idiosyncratic, being both a Californian and a gardener, but it goes something like this:
Winter = The time when you don’t have to run the irrigation, but it’s too early to plant vegetables.
Spring = The time when you can start planting vegetables, but the tomatoes aren’t ripe yet.
Summer = Tomato season.
Fall = When the leaves start falling but you aren’t sure you can turn off the irrigation yet.