Pixel Scroll 6/7/17 Pixel Me Your Best Shot, File Away!

(1) A LITTLE LIST. James Davis Nicoll returns with “Twenty Core Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Speculative Fiction Works Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves”.

As with the previous core lists, here are twenty Post-Apocalyptic Speculative Fiction Works chosen entirely on the basis of merit and significance to the field.

There are two filtering rules:

Only one work per author per list

Any given work can appear on only one list

(2) YOU’RE FROM THE SIXTIES! Sign up for video conference call from 1962 hosted by The Traveler from Galactic Journey.

Hello, friends and fellow travelers!

As some of you are aware, Galactic Journey is a frequent presenter at conventions around the country. In a mix of seminar and road show, the Journey brings the past to life with a personal appearance.

Well, this month, we’re going to take that to the next level — using Visi-phone technology developed for the 1962 Seattle World Fair, the Journey will be appearing live Coast to Coast (and beyond) at 11 a.m. [PDT] on June 17.

Tune in, and you’ll get a peek behind the scenes at the Journey, meeting the Traveler, himself, and potentially the Young Traveler and the Editor! We’ll show off some of our favorite vintage toys, answer your questions — and there will be prizes for the best ones!

RSVP for this no-charge event — The Traveler personally guarantees it’ll be worth every penny you spend!

(3) WORLDBUILDERS AND WORLDRUNNERS. Political lessons with John Scalzi, Charlie Jane Anders, Cory Doctorow, and Annalee Newitz at Inverse“Here’s Why Sci-Fi Authors Will Always Tell You To Fuck Off”.

“People will visit my website or Twitter feed where apparently I have political opinions,” said Scalzi. “Then I get the sorrowful email that says, ‘I thought I was coming to you for entertainment, but you’re telling me how to think and regretfully I must not read your books anymore.’ They’re expecting me to say something like, ‘No, don’t leave.’ They’re not expecting the email I actually send, which is ‘Dear whomever: kiss my ass.”

(4) IF IGNORANCE IS BLISS. Discussions about cultural appropriation are not typically about the Irish, but they could be. Fantasy-Faction Brian O’Sullivan discusses “Wading in the Cultural Shallows: How Irish Mythology Became A Commodity for Fantasy”.

One night at a party I was introduced to a woman who proudly informed told me she’d named her baby daughter ‘Banshee’ in celebration of her Irish heritage. Even at the time I was pretty stunned by the announcement. For an Irish person (and I would have thought most people would have known this), this was the equivalent to naming her daughter — Death.

About two weeks later, at another party (I had a life back then!), I was cornered by a different woman demanding a translation for the chorus from Clannad’s haunting Theme Song from Harry’s Game. The Irish lyrics for the chorus had been written on her CD sleeve as ‘Fol dol de doh fol-de de day’!) which she thought was absolutely beautiful and must mean something mythically profound.’ Needless to say, she wasn’t particularly impressed when I translated it as ‘La, la la la, la la laaah!’

These are just two examples of the cultural disconnect between Irish people and those who dabble in Irish mythology. They are however only two of the hundreds I’ve personally experienced over the last twenty years or so and I know many other Irish people who’ve had similar experiences. It’s actually a source of continual bemusement to to see how bizarrely and inaccurately our culture’s been represented over that time.

…I don’t believe for a moment that it’s any author’s intention to be offensive when they use mythologies that aren’t their own. In fact, I’d suspect the vast majority of them would be dismayed if they knew their work was somehow considered offensive. Unfortunately, authors write stories based on their own experiences or what they’ve managed to learn and, frankly, sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. Different cultures aren’t easily transferable (although if you spend enough time living in them or studying them intensely you can certainly pick up a lot) and this makes wading in the mythological shallows that much more dangerous. This is particularly the case with Irish mythology as there’s so much misinformation already out there (many people, for example, through no fault of their own, still believe W. B. Yeats is a credible authority on Irish mythology!).

(5) WEIMER IN THE WILD. If this is what DUFF delegates get to do, everyone will be running next time. (Having lunch with Ian Mond and Likhain.)

Of course, some things you can do without traveling 12,000 miles:

(6) HERITAGE SPACE AUCTION RESULTS. Heritage Auctions released some sales figures from Space Exploration Auction #6173,which had total sales of $822,203 .

Vintage NASA photographs were strong, especially the nice Selection of “Red Number” Examples we were pleased to offer. The definite “star” of this category was the iconic Apollo 8 “Earthrise” Photo (NASA Image AS8-14-2383) of the earth above the moon’s horizon, taken by Bill Anders on Christmas Eve 1968 from lunar orbit. This is one of the most reproduced images of the twentieth century and one tenacious bidder laid claim to this early red number print for $10,625. Another exciting lot was a Collection of Sixteen Apollo 11 Photos (twelve red number and four blue number) which included an example of the famous Buzz Aldrin “visor” portrait. Six bidders competed for the group before one took it home for $7,812.

Robbins Medallions are always a popular category. In this auction, two examples made particularly strong showings. A beautiful Unflown Apollo 15 Medal partially minted with flown “treasure” silver from a 1715 Spanish treasure shipwreck ingot closed at $7,500. A rare Flown STS-6 Space Shuttle Challenger Medal (one of only sixty-seven carried on the mission) brought in $11,250. Of particular interest, a notarized presentation letter signed by the entire four-man crew accompanied this one. This was the first from this mission that Heritage has offered in ten years of Space auctions.

One-of-a-kind items are always difficult to estimate and there were a few in this sale that performed quite a bit better than our best guess. Project Mercury was represented in this category by a Capsule Flight Operations Manual that sold for $10,625. At what price would two sets of Gemini Spacecraft Crew Hatch Door Assembly Shingles and their associated blueprints be valued? The answer, supplied by six eager bidders, is $11,250.

(7) HELSINKI BOUND TRAVELER SEEKS ADVICE. Daniel Dern has asked me to put out his request for information, as in, “Seeking European SIM card suggestions for Helsinki Worldcon”.

I’m sure I’m not the only fan who’s not a frequent international (here, “not living in Finland”) traveler, trying to suss out a reasonable (as in “affordable” and “non-complex”) answer to having (moderate) cellular connectivity during and pre/post-Worldcon.

Here’s my particular constraints/deets (obviously, YMMV):

o Aside from Worldcon, looking at ~2 weeks in Denmark/Norway/Sweden.

o I’m in the US. However, since a) my carrier is AT&T, whose international rates are excessive, and/but b) not planning to bring my primary phone, so a) is moot. Yes, I know that being a T-Mobile’s customer would be a simple, goodly-priced answer, but that’s not an option here.

o I’ll be packing an unlocked Android phone. Probably my Moto G4, if I can find it. That’s what I’m looking for a pre-paid refillable SIM card for.

o Initial landing is Copenhagen.

o Main cellular uses: for brief local phone calls to restaurants, etc, and texting “where are you?” etc. Some data. Everything else can be done using Skype (and other VoiPs), etc over WiFi.

o Probably looking for a multi-country 30-day pass with 1 or 2GB data and some local phone, ideally unlimited texting.

Web search is turning up bunches of suggestions, but other than wading through comments, I have no clue. Experienced Eurotravellers, what say ye?

(8) TRIVIAL TRIVIA

There’s a lot to know about Forbidden Planet’s Robby the Robot/. Like, who was inside?

“One of the first things you do when you design a robot or monster,” [Art Director Robert] Kinoshita recalled in an interview, “is to try to confuse the audience as to where you put the guy inside. It’s difficult to completely fool an audience because they know there is someone inside. But if you make an effort to confuse them it can work in your favor and make the whole creation more believable. Robby was designed so that the man inside could see out of the voice box below the glass head.” Although many people were fooled by Robby’s disproportionate form, he was controlled by Frankie Darro from inside, and his voice was provided by talented actor and announcer Marvin Miller, who gave Robby that distinctive, sophisticated wit so loved and remembered by audiences everywhere.

(9) STALKING THE WILD GANACHE. Gourmet chocoholic Camestros Felapton gives Americans an advance look — “Review: Kinder Joy — eating refined sugar so you don’t have to”.

For those of us outside of the US, the Kinder Surprise egg is a familiar sight. A thin chocolate egg which encases a plastic capsule within which is a small toy. Often you have to assemble the toy and sometimes they are themed collectibles. The chocolate itself — well it’s is an acquired taste. Mass manufactured chocolate is one of those paradoxically regional things.

Americans have not had ready access to Kinder Surpises because of the dangers of them eating the encased toy accidentally. However, the more recent Kinder Joy egg has sidestepped the problem. It retains the egg shape but has two seperate halves — one with chocolate (sort of) in it and the other with a toy.

Wednesday I saw one in the wild and bought one and ate the bits you are supposed to eat. This is my story….

(10) INVISIBLE COVER REVEAL. Jim C. Hines and Mary Anne Mohanraj have revealed the cover and contributors list for Invisible 3, the third volume of collected stories shared by authors and fans “about the importance of representation in science fiction/fantasy.” See the image at the link.

The introduction is by K. Tempest Bradford. The contributors are Alex Conall, Alliah, Alyssa Hillary, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Brandon O’Brien, Carrie Sessarego, Chelsea Alejandro, Dawn Xiana Moon, Fran Wilde, Jaime O. Mayer, Jennifer Cross, Jeremy Sim, Jo Gerrard, Mari Kurisato, MT O’Shaughnessy, Rebecca Roanhorse, Sean Robinson, and T. S. Bazelli.

There isn’t an official release date yet. Hines says that will be coming very soon.

(11) TO INFINITY. Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s space opera collection Infinite Stars is available for pre-order. I thought the table of contents looked pretty interesting — it helps that Lois McMaster Bujold’s Borders of Infinity is one of my favorite sf stories.

(12) BAD WRAP. Entertainment Weekly reports “The Mummy reboot slammed as ‘worst Tom Cruise movie ever’ by critics”. Quotes at the site.

After spending over three decades dazzling audiences across large-scale action-adventures on the big screen, Tom Cruise’s latest genre spectacle, The Mummy, is set to unravel in theaters this Friday. Movie critics, however, got a peek under wraps this week, as movie reviews for the blockbuster project debuted online Wednesday morning. The consensus? According to a vast majority of them, perhaps this romp should’ve remained buried.

(13) NAPOLEON DID SURRENDER. James Davis Nicoll sends along a link to The Watchtower restaurant website, a nerd-themed tavern in Waterloo, Ontario.

They have a fantasy-themed origin story.

Their plethora of monthly events includes Nerd Nite.

On the final Wednesday of every month, KW’s own Nerd Nite takes over the Watchtower. Join us for unique, informative, and entertaining presentations, trivia, and socializing in a fun, positive, and inclusive atmosphere. Presentations are done on a ton of nerdy topics!

They also have a series of YouTube videos of their barmaster making some of their signature drinks.

(14) ROLL THE BONES. One researcher says, “There is no Garden of Eden in Africa. Or if there is a Garden of Eden it’s the size of Africa. — “Oldest Homo sapiens fossils ever found push humanity’s birth back to 300,000 years” at USA Today.

Digging on a hilltop in the Sahara Desert, scientists have found the most ancient known members of our own species, undermining longstanding ideas about the origins of humanity.

The newfound Homo sapiens fossils — three young adults, one adolescent and a child of 7 or 8 — date back roughly 300,000 years, says a study in this week’s Nature. The next-oldest fossils of Homo sapiens, the scientific name for humans, are about 200,000 years old.

(15) NEST UNFEATHERED. The argument goes on: “Study casts doubt on the idea of ‘big fluffy T. rex'”

Primitive feathers have been identified in some members of the Tyrannosaur group, leading to speculation that the king of reptiles also sported feathers.

In the latest twist, researchers analysed skin impressions from a T.rex skeleton known as Wyrex, unearthed in Montana.

They also looked at relatives that roamed during the Late Cretaceous in Asia and other parts of North America, including Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus.

Skin patches from the neck, pelvis and tail of Wyrex show scaly, reptilian-like skin, says a team led by Dr Phil Bell of the University of New England, Australia.

(16) BOND. 20 LB. BOND. Is your printer tattling on you? “Why printers add secret tracking dots”.

On 3 June, FBI agents arrived at the house of government contractor Reality Leigh Winner in Augusta, Georgia. They had spent the last two days investigating a top secret classified document that had allegedly been leaked to the press. In order to track down Winner, agents claim they had carefully studied copies of the document provided by online news site The Intercept and noticed creases suggesting that the pages had been printed and “hand-carried out of a secured space”.

In an affidavit, the FBI alleges that Winner admitted printing the National Security Agency (NSA) report and sending it to The Intercept. Shortly after a story about the leak was published, charges against Winner were made public.

At that point, experts began taking a closer look at the document, now publicly available on the web. They discovered something else of interest: yellow dots in a roughly rectangular pattern repeated throughout the page. They were barely visible to the naked eye, but formed a coded design. After some quick analysis, they seemed to reveal the exact date and time that the pages in question were printed: 06:20 on 9 May, 2017 — at least, this is likely to be the time on the printer’s internal clock at that moment. The dots also encode a serial number for the printer.

(17) A CLASSIC. Bruce Gillespie’s SF Commentary #94, 60,000 words of lively book talk and analysis, is available for download from eFanzines.com:

[Thanks to JJ, Chip Hitchcock, David K.M. Klaus, Daniel Dern, Gideon Marcus, John King Tarpinian, Mark-kitteh, and James Davis Nicoll for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jayn.]

104 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 6/7/17 Pixel Me Your Best Shot, File Away!

  1. Jon Del Arroz on June 7, 2017 at 11:05 pm said:

    I, unlike Scalzi, won’t tell my readers to eff off

    Wait so if I read your book I can tell you what you can and can’t post on your twitter and blog?

  2. It might be worth noting that “fuck off” appears to be the headline writer’s words, not those of any of the writers involved, based on the quotes in the story.

  3. “Kiss my ass” is directly quoted, though, and covers a lot of the same ground.

  4. (Also, I don’t seem to have the option to edit my posts anymore. Are other people seeing that too?)

  5. I usually can edit my posts. The exception is if I stupidly hit ‘send’ after the blog software has made a mental note to itself to do something some time about the first time I hit it. Coming back from the gotcha screen, I can’t edit any more, no matter how soon it happened.

    edited to add: it’s working okay for me now

  6. Joe H: Yes, definite echoes of Gene Wolfe.

    I’ve see it argued that the story is set in the world of the Bas Lag books, and may make more sense if read in connection with them. But I don’t know if that’s true.

  7. @me: don’t know why the BBC had The Mummy on its to-watch list, but they’ve admitted that the UK press doesn’t like it either.

    @lurkertype: how are Chinese characters alpha-ordered?

    I’m not sure why mustard on a cheesesteak is an abomination, although I’m more inclined to diced pickles to balance the grease. (No, I’ve never been any kind of Phildelphian.) This sounds like the fight over whether a Cubano has salami in it, which I’ve read that Miamians consider to be a Gulf Coast blasphemy. I wonder whether an SF fan has tried wow-wow sauce (for well-done beef, recipe provided in one of the Discworld ancillary books) — might not be sharp enough, as it starts with mushroom essence.

    @Steve Wright: does it matter which title the Norton is under? ISFDB claims the original title is in fact a hybrid, although the result looks clunky.

  8. @various, re: Death’s End:

    Im at the 60% mark and have been trying to decide if I want to finish or not. I woulda eaten this up about 20 years ago when I was reading a lot of hard SF and theoretical physics. Now I’m finding the prose dry and the characters flat, which means the action has no impact, which means I don’t care what happens to humanity.

    (I haven’t yet hit the point of hating everyone and wanting them to die, though. That would require too much emotional investment.)

  9. how are Chinese characters alpha-ordered?

    Why, in English, of course, as God intended.

    Pretty close – by pronunciation, actually. If you’re looking at romanized Chinese, anyway. (Why, yes, I have a Chinese dictionary.)

  10. @Chip: my old Chinese dictionary was ordered by bushou. Every character has a bushou, and you can order the bushou by number of strokes. I don’t recall if there is another order beneath that (e.g., for all the three-stroke bushou, how do you order them?), but I would hazard a guess that — at least in Taiwanese or some Traditional Chinese dictionaries — you would order by zhuyin order.

    Zhuyin is an alphabet/syllabary thing used to spell Mandarin phonetically. It is not a romanization system, but a native phonetic writing system. The consonants/onsets are ordered very sensibly by place of articulation; I never understood the vowels/codas.

    I’m sure Chinese-English dictionaries produced by the PRC or for Westerners differ.

  11. (16) Printer tracking

    In case anyone wants to use this sort of thing in fictional scenarios…

    The printer set-up we have at my workplace has been designed to address any number of infelicities of multiple people using multiple printers. Not too long ago, if you wanted your printer output from a specific printer, you had to hunt down and select the appropriate device address. If you wanted to scan something to a file, you had to manually enter your e-mail address in the interface. And so forth.

    Now you send a print job to the cloud and log on to a specific printer with your ID badge, whereupon it will present you with a list of all your personal queued jobs, with file names, so you can print out the specific one(s) you want. To scan something to your e-mail, you just log on, hit “scan to me” and proceed. Very efficient. And completely eliminates the problem of unclaimed print jobs piling up on the output tray!

    But, of course, it also means that somewhere in the cloud is a complete record of the specific file names and printing logistics of every job you’ve sent, with the time sent and the time and location printed. It may very well also save the print file itself for later reference. All solidly tied to your unique security ID. (It’s possible to scan and e-mail things as a “guest” with manual entry, but not possible to print files anonymously.)

    As long as you’re a dutiful law-abiding rules-following employee, this system is merely delightfully efficient…

  12. Hey all,

    I’ve got a galley of the Urban Enemies anthology which is out on the first of August. Among many stories, it’s got a cuckoo story by Seanan McGuire which is quite chilling. It’s also got stories from , to quote Amazon, ‘The full anthology features stories by Jim Butcher (the Dresden Files), Kelley Armstrong (Cainsville), Seanan McGuire (October Daye), Kevin Hearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles), Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger), Lilith Saintcrow (Jill Kismet), Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville), Joseph Nassise (Templar Chronicles), Domino Finn (Black Magic Outlaw), Steven Savile (Glasstown), Caitlin Kittredge (Hellhound Chronicles), Jeffrey Somersn(Ustari Cycle), Sam Witt (Pitchfork County), Craig Schaefer (Daniel Faust), Jon F. Merz (Lawson Vampire), Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock), and Diana Pharaoh Francis (Horngate Witches).

    If interested in reviewing it for Green Man Review, email me here. After we’ve run for a fortnight, you’re free to run it on your own site.

  13. I’m sure Chinese-English dictionaries produced by the PRC or for Westerners differ.

    Mine uses both – there’s a bushou index, and the characters are ordered by zhuyin (and tone within that).

  14. @Andrew M:

    I’ve see it argued that the story is set in the world of the Bas Lag books, and may make more sense if read in connection with them. But I don’t know if that’s true.

    I’ve read the Bas-Lag books (admittedly long ago) and didn’t notice any connection.

    I also feel like there are enough clues dropped in the story to suss out the meaning. I just don’t think I’m clever enough to catch them all and sort it out. So, yes, very much like my experience of reading Wolfe.

  15. In China, Mandarin Chinese is alphabetized using pinyin, a romanization developed to replace the cumbersome Wade-Giles system. Street signs (at least in Shanghai) show the pinyin pronunciation along with the characters. With pinyin, You can order Chinese words from A to Zh.

  16. (To clarify, Wades-Giles is also a romanization system. It has nothing to do with zhuyin and was also imposed by foreigners.)

  17. I loved Three body problem (probably my favorite Hugo in years), Dark Forrest had a lot of stuff happening, to simulate the passing of time, but was decent and had a great ending imho.
    Death end was a mess. Somewhat interesting World building was countered by unlikeable characters and a story that didnt had much focus (not to mention, I found a lot of it quite unrealistic). But the killshot for me was that it didnt end when it should have. Just like the movie A.I. It could have had a dark but logical and somewhat redeeming ending, but chose tackiness instead.
    But Ive read raving reviews so clearly YMMW

  18. Daybreak/Star Man’s Son was one of the first pieces of “grown-up” SF I read (as opposed to things like Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars and The Mushroom Planet). Fifteen or twenty years later, I re-read it as part of a set of “revisiting some of the classics of my youth”, and came to the opinion that Norton generally held up much better than Asimov or Heinlein. I think I have to rank her #1 for the era (although Sturgeon is tough competition).
    —-
    An interesting note on the tracking-dots thing. The original plan was that only the Secret Service would have the information on how to decode them. But of course, once their existence was noted, others quickly figured out the trick, and today you can just go on-line and get all the information you need to track down which printer produced a particular document.

    Remember this the next time the government tries to sell you on a “we need a backdoor into your encryption, but we promise, we’ll be the only ones with access to it” plan! It will not work that way–it cannot work that way. A backdoor for one will inevitably become a backdoor for all.

  19. 1) Y’know, these lists are great for pushback against idiots who say, “But women just don’t write X!”…

    3) The only book that’s “non-political” is one in which the politics and worldview are so closely aligned with your own that you don’t notice them. Scalzi and the other panelists are dead right; in fact, this whole discussion is a much milder version of Scott Lynch’s famous takedown of an entitled idiot who criticized his fantasy books for being “unrealistic”. (If by some chance you haven’t encountered this yet, do go read it — it’s a thing of beauty.)

    My Amazon Prime free-downloads Kindle perk for this month included this gem, which I am viewing with a very jaundiced eye (and have no intention of downloading even for free). The official description reads strongly to me like a case of “literary author decides to dip a toe into the genre field and does so in a clunky, beginner-like way”. My elevator pitch for this book would probably have been “If This Goes On- meets Donald Trump”. The editor’s comments — including the fact that he feels it necessary to reassure the audience that this is a LITERARY NOVEL within the first 2 sentences — suggest that he also is unfamiliar enough with the field of post-apocalyptic SF to be impressed by such an effort by a “literary” author. If anyone else downloads and reads this book, I’d be interested in finding out whether or not I’m completely off base.

    @ Chip: Yes, a vaccine or preventive for the potato blight would have had a profound effect on America’s future. I was thinking about the Kennedys in particular, but a quick perusal of Wikipedia suggests that the Kennedy ancestor who immigrated here did not do so as a result of the famine, so that’s out. But there are doubtless still any number of people descended from that flood of immigrants who were/are important figures in American culture and politics.

    @ Bonnie: I DNF’d The Three Body Problem, largely due to the Eight Deadly Words, and have felt no need to read the sequels. So it’s not just you.

  20. Finished This Census Taker and while I enjoyed reading it on a words-and-sentences level (although many of the events depicted were pretty horrible), I heard a distinct whooshing sound as the point went right over my head.

    Edited to say: Greg Hullender, yes, I kind of agree with much of what you said in your review. And I’m very glad I read it myself because there was a word in the story that I’d misread until I saw it in your review, and that piece, at least, does make a whole lot more sense to me now.

  21. Dawn Incognito: I also feel like there are enough clues dropped in the story to suss out the meaning. I just don’t think I’m clever enough to catch them all and sort it out.

    Joe H.: Finished This Census Taker and while I enjoyed reading it on a words-and-sentences level (although many of the events depicted were pretty horrible), I heard a distinct whooshing sound as the point went right over my head.

    I found the book interesting and worth reading — but I think that enough information was deliberately withheld to make what actually happens, and why, very vague and ambiguous. I’ve read several theories, but none of them on its own really accounts for everything that happens.

    Which is a damned shame, because I love SFF mysteries — and I can even handle not all of the questions being resolved — but there just isn’t enough “there” there for the story to be truly satisfying for me.

    But it’s still going to be above A Taste of Honey for me, because I just wanted to smack the main character in that story for mooning on endlessly about romance instead of actually doing something interesting. 🙄

  22. Actually, TRVIAL is one way Shakespeare would have spelled the word “trujal,” which, alas, seems to have faded from the English language just when we need it the most.

  23. I sort of feel guilty about DNFing the Hugo finalists but I DNF’d The Fifth Season last year, so if The Obelisk Gate needs to be read after Fifth Season, oh well. Likewise, I finished The Three Body Problem, but didn’t like it enough to read the sequel, so if The End of Death needs to be read after Dark Forest, oh well.

    Our printers at work have the same sort of queuing system with the badges and print on demand at any printer that Heather Rose Jones has, but even before that, we had a system that spooled output to a print server somewhere. At my previous employer, over 15 years ago, someone got fired for printing porn on a (BW!) laser printer over the weekend and leaving it at the printer. It was found by a manager, and the culprit was identified by printer logs. Oops.

  24. @Steve Wright: That’s the same book, different title. Or were you making a joke and it went whoosh over my head? Too much smoking jacket and absinthe for me.

    @Matt Y: Tempting, but would it be worth it?

    @Chip Hitchcock: That was the joke. Bad one. I’ve no idea how they classify things, but presumably the characters could be killed off (looks at other Filer’s posts) in bushou order.

    @Lee: thanks for the Lynch link. Well-said.

    Have read a few more Mummy reviews and they are savaging everything about it. Apparently it fails in so many ways, and a lot of the reviews say the 1999 Frasier/Weisz version is superior by all measures (incl. special effects, racism, sexism, etc.) Rolling Stone review actually said “Epic fail.”

  25. Chip, pickles are right down there with mustard on a cheesesteak..

    And this isn’t a regional dispute; regional is that South Carolina BBQ sauce has mustard (and is an abomination), while the clearly superior North Carolina sauce(s) do(es) not (true regional, as both are excellent, is the debate between the vinegar and pepper Eastern NC sauce and the Western NC sauce which adds tomatoes to it). And it occurs to me that mustard on a cheesesteak is down there with calling that NYC tomato soup with clams a “clam chowder”.

  26. Touched a nerve, have we? As someone who doesn’t eat whole mollusks, I refuse to get into the debate about chowder (especially since I haven’t been able to find a working definition — the idea that it’s a milk-based soup seems recent). OTOH, you may be amused to know that our last order of ribs from Redbones was candied (or something close to it); now there is an abomination. (Picture me as Obelix, saying “The poor thing! Boiled with mint sauce!”)

  27. Eastern NC sauce was my favorite discovery when Kitty Hawk was bidding for Worldcon and I ate their BBQ nightly at Chicon 2000. Tom is also correct that chizstek doesn’t have mustard, nor does actual clam chowdah have tomatoes. If it’s tomato-based soup with clams, it’s an incomplete attempt at cioppino.

  28. “And since Scalzi’s got a 10-year, $3.4 million guaranteed contract to write books, he doesn’t have to tolerate the bullshit that unknown writers frequently have to just grin and bear. That’s an awesome place for a writer to be.”

    Scalzi doesn’t have one contract with Tor, he has many that add up to $3.4 million over ten years. And I’m sure there are no “guarantees.” No doubt Scalzi’s contract(s), like most contracts, have many “outs” for failure to meet deadlines or bad sales, or otherwise failing to perform to a standard both expected and delineated.

    And I don’t think being civil to those who disagree with you is “tolerat[ing] bullshit.” I consider it polite and respectful and good public relations for one who aspires to be a popular writer. Certainly the reader example Scalzi cited hardly deserved such a vitriolic response. Scalzi comes across as peevish and not confident in his own beliefs when he answers criticism only with pedestrian vulgarity.

    But then, this is a guy who’s favorite character in his canon is a bullying and witlessly foul-mouthed female sexual predator.

  29. If it’s tomato-based soup with clams, it’s an incomplete attempt at cioppino.
    Really incomplete – cioppino has mussels. (Clams if you must.) And needs rock cod for the fish. (Rock cod is actually related to rascasse.)

    And SF doesn’t actually have French bread – it has Italian.

  30. Science Fiction doesn’t have French bread? 😀

    San Francisco has San Francisco sourdough, which is neither French nor Italian, technically. Although the biggest regional baker, Colombo, is Italian…ish. Or were before they were bought out….

    (As for cheesesteak–the more “authentic” they are, the less I tend to like ’em.)

  31. And it occurs to me that mustard on a cheesesteak is down there with calling that NYC tomato soup with clams a “clam chowder”.

    Manhattan clam chowder isn’t from Manhattan, it’s from Rhode Island.

    New Englanders just called it Manhattan clam chowder because they didn’t like it. Plus racism, of course: It was concocted by Portuguese immigrants, and New Englanders didn’t like them either.

  32. Pickles on a cheesesteak sounds good to me. Fight the power.

    Then again, I used to get hot pastrami subs with mayo, so I am clearly not a purist.

  33. Jon Bromfield: clueless, uninformed comments due to not having bothered to read the specifics Scalzi posted about his contract with Tor

    Oh, look, Matt Y! It’s someone else who’s willing to let us tell them what they can and can’t post on their twitter and blog, as long as we read their book!

  34. @Xtifr: Although Boudin came first, which/who was French, and didn’t get closed like Colombo did.

  35. @Kurt Busiek, Actually, I’ve run across Rhode Island Clam Chowder. In a diner in Rhode Island — Middleton, I think. So I have to believe it’s authentic. Rhode Island clam chowder is a clear-broth chowder, neither tomato-based (ptui) like Manhattan nor cream-based (yum) like New England. It’s ok, but I prefer the cream-based version.

  36. lurkertype

    @Matt Y: Tempting, but would it be worth it?

    Nah.

    Kurt Busiek

    Then again, I used to get hot pastrami subs with mayo, so I am clearly not a purist.

    Wait is this not a thing you’re supposed to do? Uh oh.

    JJ

    Oh, look, Matt Y! It’s someone else who’s willing to let us tell them what they can and can’t post on their twitter and blog, as long as we read their book!

    Truly they should market the books that way, I mean you’re buying a book bundled with the rights to the authors opinions as well! But what happens if we both buy the book and I want the author to write less of their opinions on the Quidditch World Cup overtime rules while you want them to write more about it? Do I have to buy two of their books to gain priority, or buy a work of yours in order to change your opinion so that I can influence theirs?

    I might need a graph, the variables of whose personal opinions I have a right to and the ones who have a right to my own opinions seem complicated.

  37. 12) 90s Mummy is best Mummy. I really liked the love letter the Mary Sue did to that film where they pointed out that Racel Weisz’s Evie is the actual main character.

    15) NOOOOOO! I want my fatbird T-Rex!

    16) This is why if someone needs confirmation of leaked documents you have someone physically type out a copy, or send a list of headers with the appropriate codes. Low tech solution to a high tech problem.

    In fact, the Independent was so incompetent in this area there’s speculation that it was actually an operation to blow a whistle-blower and discourage others. Certainly the Independent is going to have a hard time finding sources going forward.

  38. Scalzi doesn’t have one contract with Tor, he has many that add up to $3.4 million over ten years. And I’m sure there are no “guarantees.”

    I’m sure that you don’t know how contracts work. At all.

  39. Remember that tone-policing is the go-to argument for someone who has no other, particularly from someone with unexamined privilege.

    I just recently had to rebuke someone who was telling me how I should write on my own blog. (Form in this case rather than content.) Said rebuke was very stiff and formal, because that’s how I tend to get when I’m really angry and trying to keep a lid on it, and included a definition of the word “helpy”. If it had been J. Random Person instead of an acquaintance, I probably would have used some version of “you are not the boss of me”, degree of snark dependent on my mood.

  40. I actually like the South Carolina style sauce. I just don’t think of it as barbecue sauce.

    @Rose Embolism: I believe “the Independent” was the The Intercept, of whom one would expect better tradecraft, wouldn’t one?

  41. Actually, I’ve run across Rhode Island Clam Chowder. In a diner in Rhode Island — Middleton, I think. So I have to believe it’s authentic.

    I believe you.

    But Manhattan clam chowder is still not from Manhattan, but Rhode Island. Rhode Islanders are a versatile folk, and have given to the world multiple chowders.

  42. I might try the clear broth version if I’m ever in Rhode Island.

    TBH, any BBQ sauce ought to be served on the side or in condiment squirt bottles. I prefer a good rub with careful seasoning and slow cooking. I like the squirt bottles for precision placement of just the right amount of sauce.

    That’s how my favorite Q place serves it. Their rub or whatever is superb without anything (so it just tastes like MEAT), but then they have 4 different sauces in bottles so you can add to the yum. One of ’em is the mustard/vinegar kind, no tomatoes and a serious bite.

  43. Still so late to the party here. ::casts “thread necromancy”::

    @lurkertype: “We’re all mutts thanks to rishthara.”

    Bonus points for that reference! 😀

    BTW regarding Ninefox Gambit, I finally got around to reading Yoon Ha Lee’s “Extracurricular Activities” from February and it was very good! I’ve made a note on my list of things/people to consider for next year’s Hugo nominations. And I’m ready to jump into “Ninefox” now, methinks.

    @Dawn Incognito: “which means I don’t care what happens to humanity.” – That’s a pretty dire comment on the book! 😉 I tell ya, I’m really not looking forward to trying this book (not just your comment; many others).

    @Chip Hitchcock: “(Picture me as Obelix, saying “The poor thing! Boiled with mint sauce!”)”

    Bonus points for you, too! 😀

    @Jon Bromfield: There’s no requirement to be civil to people who are jerks to you, thus Scalzi saying “kiss my ass” seems reasonable, as anyone berating him for Expressing An Opinion (gasp!) is being a jerk.

    BTW I have no idea what you’re on about re. his favorite character in his canon, but I presume it’s some typical anti-Scalzi silliness from someone who just doesn’t like Scalzi and/or his books, so I probably won’t care.

    @jayn: “Belated thanks for the title!” – Surely we should all be thanking you for the title. 😛

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