I’m late, I’m late, to claim this is a post on August the Eight(h).
(1) Remember: Jo Walton receives her Tiptree Award for My Real Children in a ceremony at Borderlands Books, San Francisco at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Borderlands Books is located at 866 Valencia St., San Francisco CA 94110.
Somebody please send me pictures!
(2) Adam Rowe on the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi-Fantasy Blog recalls “How One Misunderstanding in the 1870s Created an Entire Sci-Fi Subgenre”.
After observing what he thought to be channels on the surface of Mars, Schiaparelli referred to them as “canali.” That’s the Italian word for “channel,” but it looks incredibly similar to the English word “canal.” English versions of Schiaparelli’s notes didn’t make the distinction, making it seem as if the respected astronomer had documented structures built by intelligent life on Mars.
The recently constructed Suez Canal was still viewed as the pinnacle of modern engineering across the world, so the concept of canals was well-known. And now, Martians were apparently creating them!
American astronomer Percival Lowell became obsessed with the concept in the 1890s, building an observatory in Arizona and publishing three books featuring his extensive maps of hundreds of canals that he believed Martians had built in order to transport water from the polar ice caps to the Martian equator.
(3) Here’s a book I need!
https://twitter.com/vargastonova/status/629914182633279488
(4) I am the muse of an anonymous poet.
The votes are voted,
The threads are bloated,
But I can live through the jumble.
What do I care if commenters fumble?
I have my copyediting skills to keep me humble.— Anna Nimmhaus
(5) Some disagree with Jim Hines’ Hugo predictions, but Steve Tinel demurred about his kind words for one of the co-hosts in “Jim Hines’ Cracked Crystal Ball”.
FLAT CATS: David Gerrold, known for giving vent to foul-mouthed anti-Christian bigotry, is slated to host this year’s Hugo award ceremony. Jim Hines, a government employee who writes scifi on the side, has boldly predicted that Gerrold will do a wonderful job as host.
(That was before Tinel read the Antonelli material, which inspired a second post, “SciFi writer David Gerrold reported to police”.)
(6) This day in history. On August 8, 1978 Garfield’s sidekick, Odie, made his comic strip debut.
(7) Should You Name Your Baby Anakin? It’s a trending name!
This year, a surprising baby name appeared for the first time on the Social Security Administration’s annual list of the top 1,000 baby names in the United States. “Anakin” made its chart debut at #957, the name having been bestowed on exactly 218 baby boys in 2014.
(8) Here’s the place to buy Nathan Fillion’s “I Shoot First” Charity Tee.
Hi Browncoats — I designed this new limited edition tee just for you! — Nathan 100% of the proceeds will go to KUSEWERA whose mission is to empower and educate children in impoverished countries through active and creative play.
(9) And while you’re shopping online, don’t hesitate to order this tacky “Star Wars” lightsaber lamp.
The eye-smacking “Star Wars Original Trilogy Lamp with Illuminated Lightsabers” from the Bradford Exchange is one of those objects.
The lamp hits all the right gaudy notes. It has a cylindrical shade with Luke Skywalker wielding a lightsaber, Han Solo brandishing a gun, Chewbacca looking grumpy, Princess Leia decked out in white and those two droids you’ve been looking for. Darth Vader looms ominously in the background.
(10) Len Wein would be so proud. The Huffington Post has the latest on a real-life swamp thing sighting.
A woman left a church in Bishopville, South Carolina, on Sunday, and was understandably startled at the sight of someone — or some-THING — running in front of some trees. The shock lasted long enough for her to get a grip on her senses — as well as her phone — to snap a picture of what looks like a fast-moving lizard man….
“My hand to God, I am not making this up. So excited,” she wrote to the station, explaining how she and a friend saw the lizard man near the Scape Ore Swamp (see red marker in the following map).
(11) The Duarte (CA) Historical Museum has a modest exhibit about Ray Bradbury.
Honorary Duartean Author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) is the subject of an exhibit at the Duarte Historical Museum in Encanto Park. Compiled by Jack Collins and former Duarte Librarian Peter Rosenwald, the display features articles, books, photographs, and other memorabilia and will remain through August.
The Museum, 777 Encanto Parkway, Duarte, is open Saturdays 1-4 p.m. and the first and third Wednesday each month from 1-3 p.m. Admission is free.
Bradbury made several appearances in Duarte over the years, donating all proceeds from his book sales at those visits to the Friends of the Duarte Library.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day cubist .]
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First?
Iphinome: Yep!
Be still my heart, this honor will fortify me while I try to figure out accusing a Cardinal of having his head up his ass counts as bigotry against all Christians.
sez Iphinome on August 9, 2015 at 12:52 am:
Obviously not, because Catholics aren’t really Christians. [nods sagely]
@Mike Glyer
I will try to get some pictures over at Borderlands for you Mike for the Tiptree awards. I am a sponsor so hopeful I can get some good seating which I will need for my phone camera.
Who says Catholics aren’t Christians? Sorry if I misunderstood your comment as serious.
@Msb More than a few protestants do actually but you should probably assume Cubist is making fun of those people.
sez Msb on August 9, 2015 at 1:09 am:
Among (many, many, many) others, Ian Paisley and Jack Chick. There seems to be a segment of Christendom (mostly Protestants, I think?) who are convinced that the object of Catholic worship is assuredly not Jesus Christ, hence…
Depending on how high a degree of morbid curiosity you have, you may want to google the phrase “catholics aren’t christians”.
No worries; I’m too atheist to have a dog in this particular fight, myself. I just think it’s funny.
I do wish people would do basic fact checking. Tinel is wrong about Hines. He resigned his job and is now writng full time.
It is not being first that counts, but having something to write and reflect on that should be first and foremost in your thoughts.
SF WEIGHT LOSS: get into orbit.
And no comments about ketchup.
I grew up in a Protestant church that was very … ambivalent about the Christianness of Catholics. After all, “Papist” was an insult for a long time.
FANTASY WEIGHT LOSS: Become a Mighty Tome.
Re: David Gerrold … I think that quote is pretty clearly anti-Dolan, not anti-Catholic. Anyone conflating the two is quite deliberately being misleading. Typical Catholic League (aka Bill Donohue, aka US cultural wars) bullshit.
I hadn’t read Tinel/SF Pundit before. I expect this state of affairs to continue.
I grew up in Berlin in Germany – where, as you may recall, a certain Martin Luther started what is now known as the Protestant Reformation – within the local Protestant church (the Evangelische Kirche); and I never got (or was taught) any sense that Catholics were considered any less Christian than Protestants.
On the contrary – in Germany and Austria there is fairly frequent cooperation between Catholic and Protestant churches; not least because many people aren’t heavily religious, so trying to insist on being harsh and exclusive would only serve to push members away.
I attended a wedding once (a bit over a decade ago) in Austria. The legally binding wedding was a lovely secular ceremony, performed by the mayor; and was followed by a separate religious ceremony, in a local, absolutely beautiful Catholic church, which was officiated jointly by a Catholic priest and a Protestant priest, who alternated different parts of the ceremony. This did not seem particularly unusual or rare.
At least Tinel is concise, I usually need to read a few posts before coming to the conclusion that someone is a thoroughly unlikable tool, but not with this guy.
My flatmate of many years was an evangelical Christian.
She had no doubt whatsoever that my large Catholic family were not Christian, and were, as a result, en route to hell.
Me too.
She was genuinely troubled by this, and prayed for us. Which was nice.
Round these parts it was until very recently common to speak of Christians and Catholics as separate entities, with Christians being the various protestant and reformatory denominations.
Tinel apparently thinks 1) you’re not allowed to criticize any Christian for being bigoted against you–at least, not if you’re gay and 2) there’s something wrong with being a government employee. Well, there’s a guy whose nutty nuggets of wisdom I’m going to pass up in the future.
I don’t bother with the concepts of “going to hell” just because I am not of a certain faith. All that nosey concern is why people don’t get along.
This is what people who aren’t first say to console ourselves.
Oh it’s not just Catholics.
In Sunday school, long ago, they taught us to thrash and hash the errors of our co-religionists. It was sort of a doctrinal flowchart of religious failings to categorize why anyone who did not follow the ONE TRUE VARIATION ™ of the ONE TRUE RELIGION ™ was going to hell. Anyone else, other than the righteous we, were either apostate, heretics, or a cult. To my recollection Catholics are specifically categorized as apostate.
All of which must say something about about certain mindsets.
I’m intrigued by one of the posts on the SF Pundit site, where he says that Ancillary Sword is a rip-off of Time Enough For Love. It’s like he never even looked at the book…
Shambles: That would be great — good luck getting pictures.
In the 70s and 80s, when I was growing up, there was a strong anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon sentiment among more conservative evangelical Protestants. They might be acknowledged as good people (Mormons especially — they had mastered exactly the kind of clean-cut, always-smiling demeanor that evangelicals aspired to) but it was obvious that they worshiped the wrong God in an incorrect fashion and needed to be saved from this error or forfeit their eternal souls.
However — I get the impression that somewhere in between the time I left the church, and the 2012 presidential election, there was a significant realignment, and that conservative evangelical Protestants now see anti-gay Catholics and Mormons as belonging to the correct tribe, while everyone else, no matter their actual religion, is a heathen bound for Hell.
The general argument I heard growing up was that Catholics worshipped Mary, making them idolaters. (On the rare occasions anyone ever mentioned specific reasons–usually it was just that Catholics were Wrong.)
My status as badly lapsed Catholic has actually been useful for me here in the South though. A particular variety of well-meaning Southern neighbor will drop by shortly after you move in and ask if you’ve found a home church yet, and I smile and say “Catholic!” and they nod and all is well. I am still probably going to hell, but it is a better class of hell and anyway, I have established my place in the order of things and they do not need to try and minister to my misguided but likely well-meaning soul. Everybody knows where they stand.
This doesn’t work on real zealots, but it works on basically decent people trying to pleasant, which is fortunately a majority.
Is the remark about Hines being a gov’t employee supposed to be a bit of a slam. Pretty rich given that a. Hines just turned in his notice after paying off his mortgage and b. the number of Puppies who work for the government despite also claiming to be libertarians.
@Simon Bisson: Come on, everyone knows that the two Ancillary novels are the worst in the history of science fiction. Imitating late period Heinlein is the least of their problems. You don’t even have to read them to know that! It’s only natural that many of her critics apparently haven’t.
I personally am really looking forward to seeing just how bad Ancillary Mercy is. I’m planning to buy it right after it’s released.
@Michael: Yes! I hate those Ancillary books! And if someone slipped me an ARC – ebook preferred but I’ll take paper – I would definitely hate it too. Totally hate it.
sez RedWombat on August 9, 2015 at 8:46 am:
Hmm. “Better class of hell”. Like, some Hadean neighborhoods are not quite as Hellish as others? Maybe there’s some kind of sub rosa competition/jockeying amongst the damned, to see who gets to occupy the ‘better’ regions?
Groucho Mark voiceover: Hello, sports fans, and welcome to You Bet Your Afterlife! Say the secret word, and win an eon’s supply of Caffeine-Free Diet Jolt. It’s a common word, something that makes you suffer every day. Those of you whose hands are still attached to your arms, won’t you give a great. big hand to our first contestant, Mrs. Marie Sklodowska-Curie, late of Haute-Savoie, France?
Well known fact. Just ask a Catholic. Like Dante.
Years ago, someone I chatted with on AIM informed me in all seriousness that the Protestant churches had gotten together and decided Catholics weren’t Christian.
@michael @jim Yes, sign me up for telling the world just how bad Mercy will be too!
@Iphinome
Be still my heart, this honor will fortify me while I try to figure out accusing a Cardinal of having his head up his ass counts as bigotry against all Christians.
Let alone Tinel’s curious definition of “foul-mouthed.” Gerrold certainly wrote nothing worse than “Christ-Hating Crusaders for Sodom.”
I just mailed off my review of Mercy to Romantic Times. Sady, my final review for RT for the foreseeable future.
@Nick Mamatas
Is the remark about Hines being a gov’t employee supposed to be a bit of a slam
I can’t help wondering if he’s meaning to imply that Hines is posting while he’s on the government clock, which means your tax dollars are supporting his horrific behavior. It’s almost identical to the claim which Lou Antonelli used endlessly as justification for tracking down the contact information for someone who had called him an a-hole online, and calling the guy’s business office trying to get him fired.
As TMBG might say, you are surely the nicest of the damned.
I noticed that File770 is occasionally mentioned as Vile770 in certain circles. I rather like that. I would have thought Bile770 might also come up at some point.
And we Jews — even the non-observant — roll our eyes, shake our heads, and smile at all the people who argue whether their false splinter group is the best and truest and how everyone else is just confused and benighted.
I was struck by that one as well. Amazing that nobody else has spotted it; after all, if you’re going to write a novel in which all the characters are referred to as “she” because their gender is utterly irrelevant, what better model than late-period Heinlein?
Craig: What can I say? We Gentiles gotta genti.
Actually, my favorite of the certain-Christian-sects-reacting-to-Catholics story comes from the time I was living in a relatively urban neighborhood not far from a Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This was years and years ago, I hasten to add, and is very likely no longer true, but at the time, my neighbors warned me about the local JW missionary callers thusly: “If they ring your doorbell, say you’re Roman Catholic even if you aren’t. If they come back, answer the door with a rosary in your hand or something. That will take care of it.” And it did! The nice doorbell-ringers literally fled in horror from the follower of the Whore of Babylon. It was very convenient.
Fundies are certainly not fond of the Catholic Church. What Redwombat said about idolatry. And the Pope is often referred to as The Whore of Babylon.
Got a lot of fundies in my family. Both of my sisters married into Catholic families and converted. Makes me smile thinking of the conniption fits the god botherers in the family must’ve had upon hearing that.
The SF Weight-Loss Book (I had no idea my copy was scarce) is a lot of fun – it includes the Jack Vance novella “Abercrombie Station”; someone above wrote “SF WEIGHT LOSS: get into orbit” and Vance’s story is the inverse of that.
Asimov was actually famous for losing a lot of weight (possibly several times over?). That may have been part of the joke.
I think that if you have the name of the poet below the poem, then, technically, they’re not really anonymous.
Unless “Anna Nimmhaus” is Finnish or something for “anonymous”.
When I was growing up in Texas, if you were Catholic or Protestant you’d describe yourself by denomination, but if you were a Bible-thumping evangelical – the sort we call Real True Christians(tm) over at Slacktivist, and the kind that believe that Catholics are idolatrous non-Christians and Protestants are pushing it – you’d just call yourself “Christian”. Which resulted in the usual sort of cross-language confusion when I was using the terms that way to a British Catholic friend for whom an unmodified “Christian” covered everybody.
@NelC: Say “Anna Nimmhaus” out loud.
“Anna Nimmhaus” sounds like “anonymous” if you go with an ah-nah pronunciation of Anna.
Close cousin to Noah Ward!
I grew up with a Mennonite best friend (which was weird for me since I was an atheist with Bahai’i parents going to Catholic school… I was very informed on religious issues, let’s just say that) and she informed me very confidently that Catholics weren’t Real Christians ™ – other denominations were just benighted on some details and could definitely go to heaven if they just made a few little changes, but not Catholics.
The funniest part of that is that Jim had a longstanding agreement with his place of work that he was allowed time to write on his lunches and no one would interrupt him while he did so. I was always very jealous.