Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Bloomsday Blogaround

Because sometimes you just have to go all stream-of-consciousness in order to get rid of open bookmarks:

• Via Mark Evanier, the story behind the very fun Tony finale song.

• Heidi MacDonald has a nice pictorial review of MoCCA.

• Kath David has a lovely remembrance of Candy, a woman who worked at her local bowling alley; and Archcrone eulogizes her friend, musician Huey Long.

• Mark Waid does what he does best, this time dissecting the perfect comic book cover. The process-wonk-Waidgirl in me lives for this stuff.

• Vinnie Bartilucci explains the Streisand Effect, where "people attempting to get people to 'stop looking at that thing over there' only serves to make people's head swivel and say 'what thing?' Or as The Kid likes to quote from The Simpsons Movie, 'Don't look where I'm pointing!'"

• Ed Levine and friends debunk the idea that male and female chefs cook differently.

• In honor of Paul McCartney's birthday tomorrow, here's a Hullabaloo tribute to Rubber Soul (via BoingBoing). And Crooks & Liars' MaxMarginal reports on a possible collaboration between Macca and Bob Dylan, who of course is no stranger to performing songs with an ex-Beatle.

• Forgot to mention in my last blogaround that Stuart Acuff posted about the Stella D'Oro strike situation that's been going on in my neck of the woods for a long time, and which really shed light on things for me. Also at HuffPo, Nia Vardalos has it up to here with Hollywood execs who still don't think women go to the movies.

• I agree with Gategrrl at the Hathor Legacy, it's a shame that girls and women can't share in the fun of UP except second-hand. I suspect we'll get some lead female characters in future Pixar movies once Pixar starts hiring lead female animators. (Robin and I just saw WALL-E, and I quite liked the female-voice-assigned secondary lead EVE.) I'm also floored that some aspects of the San Diego con, as reported by Charlie Jane Anders on io9, are still sexist; there's yet another answer to anyone who still wonders if Friends of Lulu is needed or relevant.

• Frontiers of science time: Daniel at Cosmic Variance muses about time and timepieces; Grame McMillan at io9 relates that there's a contest to name a new element on the periodic table; and, also at io9, Megan discusses an interesting evolutionary trait of a species of water strider.

• Liza Sabater reports that Jay-Z is taking a stand against auto-tune. Hey, if it's not auto-tuning the news, I don't want to hear it either.

• Food for thought: Athenae on the randomness of tragedy; Avedon Carol notes that we're already paying a high price for inadequate health care, so we may as well get real health care; What Digby Said about the Palin-Letterman kerfuffle (and What Melissa Wonders after Letterman's most recent apology); and Amanda talks about the weird idea of marriage as hard work here and here. My marriage to Robin has rarely been hard work, it's just pure fun improv just about every day.

• For anyone with a short memory, or the younger set out there, Digby reminds us of the kind of nastiness that led to the late Dr. Tiller being put in more harm's way at least a dozen years ago.

• You know, the Republicans don't seem to have any sense of propriety about undermining the President's efforts to do some good in the world, whether by his measured responses to the situation in Iran or when it has to do with China, as Steve Benen notes. More and more, they don't appear to be a party with any agenda other than "try to destroy what people we don't like are attempting to build."

• Books of Wonder is one of the best children's bookstores around. Won't you please add your vote? Via Eric Gjovaag, who explains further.

• Lastly, Melissa McEwan took a bit of a breather recently, supported by all her co-bloggers, then returned with not only a great post about safe spaces but one of the most beautiful essays I've ever read on her and Iain's anniversary, one with which Robin and I very much identify even though we're going on Year 11 and we're ever so much older than those two crazy kids. Welcome back, Liss!

That's about it for this time. Now go check out Bloomsday on Twitter, why don'tcha?

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