Must close those bookmarks before the new year!
• It's been a horrible year for many of us in terms of passings. The world is still reeling from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who is remembered online by a number of her friends and acquaintancs; among the most interesting eulogies I read, which actually changed my mind a bit about her, were posts by Arianna Huffington and Harry Shearer. Shearer in particular raised an interesting point: "Were the corruption charges against Ms. Bhutto true? They were never proved, and, as conveniently as they appeared, they were dropped when she began her minuet of negotiations with General-President Musharraf for her return home." And closer to my particular social circle, on Thursday my ComicMix colleague and friend John Ostrander broke the sad news that Paul "Zeus" Grant passed away last month. Zeus was one of the first folks that I and so many others befriended back in the days of the CompuServe Comics and Animation Forum, when that venue was practically the only one for online comics fandom. So many of today's pros came out of there! And many of them showed up in John's comment section to express condolences, in what became a sort of virtual wake. Two days later and I'm still activating comments for that section. Zeus would have loved to see so many of us get together again to remember him.
• Bhutto's assassination is, of course, not the only major story in the world this past week. Ms. K was ecstatic about the Kenyan voter revolution, but her happiness has turned to bitter disappointment in the election's violent aftermath.
• Happy birthday, Bint! Lots of us are glad you're still around as well. May you continue to survive and thrive in style.
• A few more seasonal posts to note: Jonathan Schwarz remembers when decrying the commercialization of Christmas was much less commercial than it is today. Kevin Church has a special holiday message from Dr. Doom. And Wolfrum at Shakespeare's Sister echoes a sentiment I'm pleased to say I'm starting to read more and more (and, I hope, practice more and more) lately -- tolerance, even affection, toward the religious by those who are not. The difference between atheism and anti-theism is something I've been exploring a lot of late, and I've come to many of the same conclusions Wolfram has. Believers are the majority in this country, possibly in the world, even if we may think their beliefs are erroneous (as long as there's no tyranny of the majority involved). As Wolfrum says, "The average religious person doesn't want laws made specifically for them and their beliefs, or want war, or want anything bad. They just want to live freely while believing in a personal God. And this is a pretty substantial group, in every religion. Who am I to be insulting and dismissive of them?"
• Amanda once again tackles one of my favorite subjects, women and humor -- specifically how so much larger a percentage of funny women go the self-effacement route as opposed to the percentage of funny men who opt for aggression. Kate Harding has some great writing advice. And Daniel Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, sits down to breakfast with an Apple lawyer.
• Lastly, Justin asked me to plug this very long post from Lambert on Barack Obama, Paul Krugman, and the history of conservative think tanks; and Cliff Meth asked me and a whole bunch of other people to publicize the fact that he's helping sell off Dave Cockrum's old comics collection. A bit too rich for my blood, but then I'm used to perusing the $1 bins at conventions.
Back later with my Silly Site!
• It's been a horrible year for many of us in terms of passings. The world is still reeling from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who is remembered online by a number of her friends and acquaintancs; among the most interesting eulogies I read, which actually changed my mind a bit about her, were posts by Arianna Huffington and Harry Shearer. Shearer in particular raised an interesting point: "Were the corruption charges against Ms. Bhutto true? They were never proved, and, as conveniently as they appeared, they were dropped when she began her minuet of negotiations with General-President Musharraf for her return home." And closer to my particular social circle, on Thursday my ComicMix colleague and friend John Ostrander broke the sad news that Paul "Zeus" Grant passed away last month. Zeus was one of the first folks that I and so many others befriended back in the days of the CompuServe Comics and Animation Forum, when that venue was practically the only one for online comics fandom. So many of today's pros came out of there! And many of them showed up in John's comment section to express condolences, in what became a sort of virtual wake. Two days later and I'm still activating comments for that section. Zeus would have loved to see so many of us get together again to remember him.
• Bhutto's assassination is, of course, not the only major story in the world this past week. Ms. K was ecstatic about the Kenyan voter revolution, but her happiness has turned to bitter disappointment in the election's violent aftermath.
• Happy birthday, Bint! Lots of us are glad you're still around as well. May you continue to survive and thrive in style.
• A few more seasonal posts to note: Jonathan Schwarz remembers when decrying the commercialization of Christmas was much less commercial than it is today. Kevin Church has a special holiday message from Dr. Doom. And Wolfrum at Shakespeare's Sister echoes a sentiment I'm pleased to say I'm starting to read more and more (and, I hope, practice more and more) lately -- tolerance, even affection, toward the religious by those who are not. The difference between atheism and anti-theism is something I've been exploring a lot of late, and I've come to many of the same conclusions Wolfram has. Believers are the majority in this country, possibly in the world, even if we may think their beliefs are erroneous (as long as there's no tyranny of the majority involved). As Wolfrum says, "The average religious person doesn't want laws made specifically for them and their beliefs, or want war, or want anything bad. They just want to live freely while believing in a personal God. And this is a pretty substantial group, in every religion. Who am I to be insulting and dismissive of them?"
• Amanda once again tackles one of my favorite subjects, women and humor -- specifically how so much larger a percentage of funny women go the self-effacement route as opposed to the percentage of funny men who opt for aggression. Kate Harding has some great writing advice. And Daniel Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, sits down to breakfast with an Apple lawyer.
• Lastly, Justin asked me to plug this very long post from Lambert on Barack Obama, Paul Krugman, and the history of conservative think tanks; and Cliff Meth asked me and a whole bunch of other people to publicize the fact that he's helping sell off Dave Cockrum's old comics collection. A bit too rich for my blood, but then I'm used to perusing the $1 bins at conventions.
Back later with my Silly Site!
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