Pixel Scroll 10/6 Beyond the pixelated event horizon

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(1) Put together “William Shatner” and “flying” and I’m going to think of the “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” episode of The Twilight Zone. Not Scotland’s former first minister Alex Salmond — he thinks of a different Shatner role when he flies, and it got him into trouble.

Alex Salmond found himself in a bizarre situation with airline staff after booking on to a flight under the name James Kirk – the captain of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise.

The former Scottish first minister caused confusion when British Airways initially refused to let him board a flight at Heathrow under the sci-fi alias.

The Mail on Sunday reported that it took a series of telephone calls for the senior politician to persuade the airline that he should be allowed on board.

Salmond said he often travelled under a false name for security reasons and as a Trekkie – as fans of the show are known – he liked to use Kirk’s name, partly as a joke but also because it was easy to remember….

He told the Mail on Sunday: “It was all sorted out. I just wanted BA to ‘beam me up, Scotty’.”

(2) “Lines from The Princess Bride that Double as Comments on Freshman Composition Papers” by Jennifer Simonson on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

[Last 3 of 9.]

“Skip to the end!”

“That is the sound of ultimate suffering.”

“Inconceivable!”

(3) Ursula K. Le Guin will appear at UCLA on Sunday, November 15 at 4 p.m. Tickets from $19-$49.

Incomparable storyteller and worldweaver Ursula K. Le Guin joins us for a conversation celebrating her incredible oeuvre, hosted by Meryl Friedman, CAP UCLA Director of Education and Special Initiatives.

(4) A report on Diana Pavlac Glyer’s talk about the Inklings’ “dangerous friendships”, by Scott Keith.

I recently finished the C. S. Lewis biography authored by Alister McGrath entitled, C. S. Lewis – A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet. I highly recommend it. Over the weekend, I also attended The Great Conversation (TCG) C. S. Lewis symposium. At the symposium, Diana Pavlac Glyer, professor of English at Azusa Pacific University gave a talk on the influence of the Inklings on the thought of C. S. Lewis. I am struck by the extent to which great writers like Lewis and Tolkien seemed to use what McGrath calls, “midwives” when writing their great works. Or as Glyer put it, “We all need dangerous friends.”….

Gradually, the schedule of Inklings’ meetings became regularized, so they generally met on Tuesday mornings at the Eagle and Child pub (which they called the “Bird and Baby” or just the “Bird”) and at Lewis’s study rooms in the college where he was an Oxford Don, Magdalen College, on Thursday evenings. At the pub they smoked their pipes, drank, and had good food almost like hobbits. While they sat in the bar, they talked about language and literature. Others in the group included Owen Barfield, Warren Lewis, Nevill Coghill, Hugo Dyson, and Charles Williams.

As it is described by those in the know, the Inklings were not afraid to mix it up a bit. These men were not all alike. Lewis was brash and boisterous. Tolkien seems to have been more reserved and introspective. They did not agree on many things. Tolkien is said to have believed that Lewis’s use of allegory in his Ransom Trilogy and Chronicles of Narnia, was perhaps too obvious. In fact, they often disagreed on issues of morality. McGrath explains that Tolkien believed that Lewis’s view concerning civil marriage was against the teaching of the church. Thus, the evidence points to the fact that Tolkien disapproved of Lewis’s marriage to Joy Davidman.

(5) Gregory N. Hullender of Rocket Stack Rank has responded to Neil Clarke’s recent editorial “The Sad Truth About Short Fiction Reviews”, where Clarke opined that short-fiction reviews are of little value.

In Hullender’s RSR post “Getting More From Short Fiction Reviews” he draws a distinction between a review system and a recommendation system. While conceding that Clarke is probably right that reviews alone aren’t worth a lot to most people, he argues that as part of a recommendation system, reviews can be very valuable indeed.

(6) Scientists think they may soon be able to answer “What color was the T-Rex?”. From NPR –

INSKEEP: That’s Jakob Vinther of the University of Bristol in Britain. Vinther and scientists from Virginia Tech confirmed traces of melanin in fossils dating back millions of years, and that melanin may provide a vital clue.

VINTHER: The kinds of hair colors that we see in humans, ranging from black to ginger, are made by melanin.

MONTAGNE: Bits of melanin are found inside cells, and the shape of those bits says something about the color of the creature.

VINTHER: If you have a black melanosome, they’re shaped like a sausage whereas if you have a red melanosome, then they’re shaped like a little meatball.

INSKEEP: Turns out, this meatball and sausage theme is pretty consistent across nature.

VINTHER: I myself is quite sort of ginger in my appearance. My beard is very, very sort of reddish. And if you took a look at the melanosomes in my beard, they will be shaped like little meatballs. And then if you have, for example, an American robin, they have this reddish-brown chest and they would also have these kinds of meatballs.

MONTAGNE: So the researchers are presuming the shapes may also have matched the color of creatures from the distant past. The team checked the melanin from two species of bat that lived almost 50 million years ago. They were a reddish-brown color.

(7) The Western Science Fiction Association maintains a convention listing page, and Stephanie Bannon invites conrunners to send their events for inclusion. Contact info at the site.

(8) It never occurred to me the Archie characters were based on anybody in particular. A documentary filmmaker tracked down the real life Betty.

In 1939, 18-year-old Betty Tokar Jankovich briefly dated, and quickly dumped, a comic book artist named Bob Montana. Though she quickly forgot about the young illustrator, he never forgot about her. More than seven decades later, Jankovich was shocked to discover that an ex-boyfriend she only vaguely remembered had named a character after her: She was the inspiration for Betty Cooper from the Archie comics.

Jankovich would likely never have known about her Archie connection if not for filmmaker Gerald Peary. A documentarian, journalist, and Archie super-fan, Peary decided to research the real-life inspiration for the comic book characters. He didn’t expect to actually meet any living real-life members of the gang—he just wanted to find out if they’d really existed.

(9) Sales prices of some items in Profiles in History’s recent Hollywood Auction have been made public.

The “slave Leia” costume worn by Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi sold for $96,000.

The costume — once colorfully described by Fisher in a Newsweek article as “what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell” — came with a certificate of authenticity from Star Wars designer Richard Miller.

CBS News has results for 22 other pop culture items. Among them:

  • The 16-inch miniature Rebel Blockade Runner, seen in the opening moments of Star Wards (1977), sold for $450,000.
  • Leonard Nimoy’s velour tunic from the second season of the original Star Trek series went for $84,000.
  • George Reeves’ gray knit wool costume from The Adventures of Superman, when it was filmed in black-and-white, fetched $216,000.
  • The signature stylized “S” insignia is in dark brown on a field of crème. An “undersuit” made of durable synthetic satin-like fabric featured a sculpted rubber muscles. Also includes a molded fiberglass “flying pan” to hold Reeves when he flew, after he refused to hang from wires.
  • The duck that dropped down when someone said the secret word on Groucho Marx’ You Bet Your Life brought $16,800.
  • Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones fedora from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sold for $90,000 and his bullwhip, used in the first three movies, sold for $204,000.

(10) John Ringo, who has said before there will be a continuation of the March Upcountry series, co-authored with David Weber, had a status report on Facebook. I’ve enjoyed the series so I’m glad to hear it, although fans should expect to wait another couple years before seeing more of Empire of Man.

(Another funny. David had just broken his wrist and was just starting to use voice-to-text to write. So at one point in an email I got the line ‘I’m looking forward to senior manuscript.’ Took me forever to figure out ‘senior’ was Dragon’s attempt to translate a Southern accent saying ‘Seeing your.’) 🙂

Anyway, most of the ‘middle stuff’ is politics. So I’m going to write what I know (blowing shit up) and send it to David then say ‘David, this is your specialty. You figure it out. Looking forward to senior manuscript.’ 🙂

I’ll probably end up writing it, Junior Author’s job, but it will give David a skeleton to hang the ‘politics’ on and come up with some ideas. 🙂

So the answer to ‘what next’ is Empire of Man. But don’t get your hopes up. It will only be about half done when I’m done and currently the schedule is blocked with other stuff out to 2017.

(11) Previously unreleased Apollo photos, rather spectacular in places — “8,400 High-Res Images From The Apollo Moon Missions Were Just Put Online – Here Are The Best”.

Apollo 9

Apollo 9

(12) In a news flash apropos of our latest round of brackets, Deadline.com ran an article “HBO Confirms ‘Preliminary Discussions’ For ‘Watchmen’ TV Series”. HBO has spoken with Zack Snyder, director of the 2009 movie Watchmen, about a potential series.

(13) Pepsi will release Back to the Future Part II-inspired Pepsi Perfect, but like Doc Brown’s DeLorean, the price will be sky high.

Pepsi announced it is paying tribute to Back to the Future Part II with the release of Pepsi Perfect, the formerly fictional beverage featured in the film.

The company announced Pepsi Perfect, which contains Pepsi Made with Real Sugar and features packaging consistent with the beverage served to Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II‘s fictional version of 2015, will be available starting Oct. 21.

The company said fans thirsty from a hard day riding on their hoverboards will be able to buy the limited-edition Pepsis at a price of $20.15 for a 16.9-ounce bottle and visitors to New York ComicCon will have an opportunity to get their hands on the collectable beverages early starting Oct. 9.

Must be the law of supply and demand at work — they’re making only 6,500 bottles.

(14) Today is election day at North Pole, Alaska and a familiar name is on the ballot. Seriously. So they say.

Santa Claus is running for the North Pole City Council.

The North Pole Clerk’s office announced on Thursday that the former North Pole Chamber of Commerce president, whose driver’s license really does bear his legal name of Santa Claus, is one of two candidates who have launched write-in campaigns for City Council. The other is La Nae Bellamy.

The North Pole City Council has two seats up for election this year, but no one filed for office during the regular filing period. Candidates run as a group for the at-large seats, with the top vote-getters declared the winners. Claus and Bellamy will need voters to write in their names next Tuesday, Oct. 6.

The lack of candidates appears to be a problem throughout the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The two candidates for the Fairbanks City Council are uncontested, as are two school board seats. North Pole Mayor Bryce Ward is also uncontested in his re-election bid.

[Thanks to Mark sans surname, Locus Online, Ansible Links, Gregory N. Hullender, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day IanP.]

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133 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 10/6 Beyond the pixelated event horizon”

  1. Nothing about it being Ancillary Mercy release day?

    Well I’m getting a kick out of the book anyway.

    *clears her throat*

    Radchaai Together: An Ancillary Filk

    Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
    Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba

    Me and Breq as Radchaai
    Together in our spotless gloves, we drink our tea
    The only one for me is Breq, and Breq for me
    Radchaai together

    I can’t see me huggin’ nobody but Breq
    For all my life
    No matter how they throw the cast, on Athoek
    I’d be her wife!

    If I should call her up, and sing a song
    And she could sing one back of fish so strong
    Imagine how much fun it’d be, we can’t go wrong
    Radchaai together

    Radchaai together
    We wait for the Presger
    Radchaai together
    So happy together!

  4. Alex Salmond was dead lucky to be allowed onto the plane – airlines have been known to refuse boarding for accidentally misspelt real names, let alone fake ones (or at least charge massive amendment fees to fix the issue.)

    If he’d been Salamon Al-Farouq, I think he would have been arrested for suspected terrorism offences.

    What a maroon.

  6. Iphinome:

    Did I try too hard? I do that sometimes.

    I quite liked it.

    In my head, “Good lord” was uttered in a sort of musical comedy way. 😉

  8. #2 – It’s of absolutely no surprise which line was first on that list. Bet it gets used a lot when reviewing.

  9. Last one I promise, I’m sleepy.

    We could break our fast, with Seivarden
    And she’d always ask, remeber when?
    Brought our fish and eggs by Kalr ten.
    Radchaai together.

  11. Ann Somerville on October 6, 2015 at 10:13 pm said:
    Alex Salmond was dead lucky to be allowed onto the plane – airlines have been known to refuse boarding for accidentally misspelt real names, let alone fake ones (or at least charge massive amendment fees to fix the issue.)

    If he’d been Salamon Al-Farouq, I think he would have been arrested for suspected terrorism offences.

    What a maroon.

    At least Jim Kirk sounds vaguely Scottish.

    (but yes, what was he thinking? He says he’s done this before, but was that while flying?)

  13. (5) Very good points from Greg. Trying to skim reviews to get an idea of what to read without getting spoiled involves some bizarre mental contortions. My favourite aspect of Rocket Stack Rank is this “meta-review” quality that lets me try out recommended stories without getting spoiled.

  15. (12) In a news flash apropos of our latest round of brackets, Deadline.com ran an article “HBO Confirms ‘Preliminary Discussions’ For ‘Watchmen’ TV Series”. HBO has spoken with Zack Snyder, director of the 2009 movie Watchmen, about a potential series.

    Has anybody ever run a successful Kickstarter campaign to STOP a project? – because I’d contribute in this case…

  16. @Camestros

    I believe the traditional social media response to that sort of thing is a petition to the White House.

  17. Has anybody ever run a successful Kickstarter campaign to STOP a project? – because I’d contribute in this case…

    Dork Tower (blocked by the office internet policy, or I’d try and find a link) had a series of strips in which Igor founded KickStopper.

  18. Mark on October 7, 2015 at 1:27 am said:

    @Camestros

    I believe the traditional social media response to that sort of thing is a petition to the White House.

    I don’t trust Richard Nixon or Robert Redford…

  21. Am I reading number 6 aright? Are we suggesting that Tyrannosaurus Rex might have been ginger? … Interesting. (It’s already making me look at Nicholas Witchell in a whole new light, I’ll tell you that much.)

  22. It tells you much about Alex Salmond’s ego that he believes his own name causes greater consternation than “James T Kirk”.

  23. 12) I remember reading about Terry Gilliams ideas about Watchmen and it made me almost thankful that it was Snyder who got the work instead. His movie was bad, but Terry Gilliams seemed to be at the same catastrophic level as Jack Blacks Greeen Lantern or Nicholas Cages Superman.

  24. Oh, we missed one for the comic bracket. Oglaf. I mean, XKCD is good, but Oglaf beats it everytime. I’m gonna nominate Oglaf for a Hugo.

  27. I posted this late last night on the previous thread and it may have been lost amid the brackets, so I’ll say it again: stop what you’re doing and read Naru Dames Sundar’s story at Strange Horizons. It’s a very short read – 10 or 15 minutes – and you’ll be glad you took the time.

  28. @Paul Weimer

    There’s some great stuff in that list. I’m not sure I could winnow it down to a few books myself, it was more of a process, although the contents of my parent’s bookshelves will have been a major contributing factor.

  30. @Mark: Without looking at the article, I’m going to guess that it’s “You keep saying that word…”

  31. Alex Salmond was dead lucky to be allowed onto the plane – airlines have been known to refuse boarding for accidentally misspelt real names, let alone fake ones (or at least charge massive amendment fees to fix the issue.)

    If he’d been Salamon Al-Farouq, I think he would have been arrested for suspected terrorism offences.

    What a maroon.

    I have a coworker whose name contains the ß character which exists only in German and which many airline booking systems cannot handle. Hence he is often forced to transcribe the ß as “ss” instead (ß is not a B, but a sharp s-sound), when booking flights, hotel rooms, etc… And he regularly has problems at the airport, because the name on the ticket is slightly different than the name on his passport, even though the issue is caused by booking systems being unable to handle certain characters.

  32. Ticking the box.

    Fell asleep last night, which on the whole I suppose is a good thing.

    Seeking suggestions for which audio book I should tell Amazon I want to review next. No zombies, no vampires, no dystopias. Seriously, ideas wanted.

  33. Lis Carey:

    I’m going to continue to recommend James Enge’s Blood of Ambrose until someone notices. ^^ But haven’t tried the audiobook version.

  34. Having heard about only the most sensational aspects of the Tim Burton / Nic Cage Superman movie it really did sound horrible.

    Having seen the actual plan, with main people interviewed, and original concept art and storyboards, now released in association with that making of documentary, it probably would have been the best possible adaption of the Death of Superman storyline into live action movie that could be made.

    Silly But True

  35. There’s a new Phillip Reeve out today, but I don’t know if there’s an audiobook yet. And there’s poor me with 360 pages of Seveneves still to work through.
    Perhaps if I allow myself a chapter of another book every time there’s a page long infodump?

  37. @Hampus Eckeman:

    Oh, we missed one for the comic bracket. Oglaf. I mean, XKCD is good, but Oglaf beats it everytime. I’m gonna nominate Oglaf for a Hugo.

    You are a bad person and you should feel bad. (But I’m not sure I wouldn’t vote for it, too.)

    (NB.: if you are not familiar with Oglaf and you want to look it up, do yourself a favour and don’t do it at work.)

  38. @NickPheas

    If you follow that strategy, you won’t finish Seveneves in time to vote on the Hugos. 🙂

    And there’s poor me with 360 pages of Seveneves still to work through. Perhaps if I allow myself a chapter of another book every time there’s a page long infodump?

  40. Re audiobooks: I don’t remember if you said you read them or not, but last year(?) I binge-listened to Martha Wells’ Raksura books (start with The Cloud Roads). No dystopias (though a lot of deep history and relics of dead civilizations), no zombies, no vampires.

  41. rob_matic on October 7, 2015 at 6:54 am said:
    I’m on Chapter 2 of Ancillary Mercy and feeling a really strong thirst for tea.

    Well, I finished it and have slept on it and won’t spoil it for others. Except that it didn’t quite end how I thought it would, I’m satisfied with the ending after sleeping on it, and there are a whole lot of other stories waiting to be told in that universe, both pre and post Breq. Not ready to comment in rot13 until others have finished, though.

    Also GREAT TRILOGY!!!

  42. said:
    Re audiobooks: … last year(?) I binge-listened to Martha Wells’ Raksura books (start with The Cloud Roads). No dystopias (though a lot of deep history and relics of dead civilizations), no zombies, no vampires.

    Are the audio books good? I’m a total Raksura fan.

  43. @ Jonathan Edelstein

    I see why you were impressed with the story. I’m not sure it’s one of my top five, but it will stick with me.

  45. @cally
    RE: Raksura
    I seem to recall Zombie like things in one of the novellas…

  46. I don’t listen to a whole lot of audiobooks, so I can’t claim expertise in judging relative quality, but I liked them.

  47. Paul: that doesn’t come to mind, honestly. Perhaps I haven’t read that one? Or I just don’t remember it.

  48. I’m a little over halfway hrough Ancillary Mercy, which is further than I intended to be at 11:30 last night. I loved the fact that tea came up in the very second sentence of the book. I LOLled. There was, though, perhaps a little more tea than I needed thereafter.

  49. @junego

    I have finished Mercy, but have not yet slept on it. Maybe some ROT13ing tomorrow once a few more people have finished it?

  50. You know, after “League of Incredible Gentlemen”, I don’t think Moore really has any grounds for complaining about adaptations that mangle the source material.

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