LC Saturday

The Liberal Coalition is currently up to 16 members - not yet enough to sponsor the New Blog Showcase but growing pretty steadily. (If you're interested in being a part of a friendly and honest group "founded to raise the visibility of left-leaning blogs in the Ecosystem and help enhance the liberal/progressive message in the blogosphere," why not drop N. Todd Pritsky a line?) Here's what members are up to as of this afternoon:

Leah at Corrente examines attempts at spousal smearing by people who always make me wonder what skeletons they're hiding in their own marital boudoirs.

N. Todd wishes everyone a happy St. Nick's Day. Due to it also being Robin's birthday, it's pretty much the start of our holiday season too...

T. Rex's Guide to Life rounds up the list of other countries who've seen "their citizens slaughtered in Iraq" these last few days because of us. Oh, by the way, T. Rex? That story about sisters Patricia VanLester and Linda Ellzey and the $29 DVD player at Wal-Mart? You might want to read this (via Anne Zook). I'm not sure I'd call the sisters "injury-prone" as much as "litigation-prone."

Jeff at Speedkill is looking for feedback on the inherent contradiction he senses re: feminism both supporting and decrying the right of women to be exploited or exploit themselves. Don't ask me, my biases are showing. I generally have no use for anyone who makes a conscious choice to cheapen themselves and then blames or credits outside influences...

Please wish Lilith Devlin luck, everyone, on her meeting this coming week with someone who might fund her venue when she moves to Albuquerque.

Scout has a jpg of the Student Behavior Contract that 7-year-old Marcus McLaurin had to fill out after he offended his idiot teacher with what she thought was a bad word. Especially heartbreaking is his answer to "What I Should Have Done." That's America nowadays, kid. (Actually, I'm given a lot of hope by looking at that picture of Marcus and one of his moms; the kid looks very happy and well-adjusted, and I think the celebrity caused by this incident might turn out more fun than traumatic for him when all is said and done.)

Mustang Bobby has his Site Meter up (you're quite welcome!) and is off and running with some great link posts, including a lighthearted one to the Bush Administration Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. Once again, folks: like 1984, aspects of Star Trek are allegory or satire, not a bloody instruction manual.

Over at It's Craptastic, clonecone passes along the interesting news that, hello! Grover Norquist, Nancy Reagan doesn't want her husband's picture on the dime, thank you very much. For me this sickening spiral began long ago with the renaming of National Airport for the man who fired striking air traffic controllers. The Clonester also mentions that Iowa NBC affiliates won't be showing SNL this week when Al Sharpton hosts, which makes sense until you remember (as he or she points out) that Leno shilled mightily for his buddy Ahnuld (and of course presidential candidates have been showing up on all the talk shows lately anyway), so this line seems to be drawn pretty arbitrarily.

At the Fulcrum, Charles2 passes along a bit I'd missed from Atrios (yeah, like y'all catch all of them) about a 7th grade Maine social studies teacher who's sued his district for violating his First Amendment rights by barring him from teaching about non-Christian civilizations. Well, duh, you call them furrin' non-Christian civilizations social? [/sarcasm]

Amy has a pretty picture up of her Boston-area neighborhood in the snow. Here's the view from my window:

Yeah, in some ways I'll miss living on a hill across the street from a park when we finally get out of this noisy tinderbox. Upyernoz likes the snow too. Sure, it's pretty as long as you don't have to travel in it...

Mercury23 concludes that Bush is scared of Dean based on their latest scare-tactics ad aimed at NH and IA voters. He also wishes everyone a Happy Merry NODWISH. Both posts are also reproed on the LC blog.

Stradiotto nicely dissects the "moral obligation" argument vis a vis our invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Keith Kisser's latest Dispatch from an Alternate America is about President Gore's Mission to the Moon. (Although that should read "credit where it's due..." unless they spell it "do" in the alternate America...)

Lastly, Edwardpig continues to be pissed about how badly this Administration is treating its active-duty personnel and veterans. Aw, c'mon, Ed, he brung the soljers turkey, what more can you ask?

Life, the Universe, and Robin

Today is my wonderful husband's 42nd birthday. It will be spent working, watching the falling snow outside, and tolerating the increasingly-horrid upstairs neighbors as they make tons of noise presumably moving (yes, once again breaking house rules which forbid such weekend activity) into the apartment below us, as they revealed the last time he paid them a "please stop moving bedroom furniture at 9 PM" visit. With any luck, his wife will be well enough and the streets clear enough by this evening for delivery of a sushi dinner. Happy birthday, darling.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Been sick, almost forgot. Here's one by which to snuggle during this (if you're in NY) snowy winter's night:

Leaping Liberals

I wasn't going to blog about this, as it's all rather inside and meta-bloggish and I know blogosphere self-proctology can get pretty boring, but what the hell. My fever's still raging and they're still making noise upstairs and I don't seem to have the head for anything more substantial anyway.

So, once upon a time there was this website called The Truth Laid Bear, whose purpose is to chart the popularity of various blogs by reading their Site Meter statistics of incoming links and site visits and all that, as well as to showcase new blog entries of note. And then there started to be alliances among like-minded bloggers for, I guess, the purpose of mutual support and coalition building and friendship and upping site stats and all that.

Now, I'll digress by saying that this is where things start to get fuzzy for me. I have three site counters on my sidebar - the aforementioned Site Meter, plus OneStat plus eXTReMe Tracking, and I'm afraid I can't make heads or tails out of most of their info. I check them now and again to see who's visiting the site, whether there are any frequent guests whose blogs I should add, things like that. But mostly they're pretty and decorative blog-related buttons, the same as all the ones above them. I just don't have it in me to obsess over statistics. When I started Pen-Elayne on the Web, I guess my goal was to eventually have about as many daily readers as the number of INSIDE JOKE subscribers I had in the '80s. And I've done that; I used to print 200 copies of IJ every six weeks, which meant right around 175 readers or so, and that's about the daily average for this blog - although TTLB has me at 249 at present, probably a result of recent skewing due to my Mid-Ohio Con report and news about Alan Davis. I'll never have the concentrated, explosive readership that an all-one-subject blog will get, and that's okay, because my life isn't all one subject and I'm not much for being pigeonholed anyway. So I'm pretty amazed that I've even gotten to the range of Large Mammal in TTLB's Ecosystem, and yeah, there's a part of me that looks at some of the Playful Primates and Mortal Humans and says "Wouldn't that be cool to be in the Top 100 of something?" but I don't really lose sleep over it.

So anyway, during the time I was away in Ohio, there was a TLB flap involving the League of Liberals, a left-leaning blogger alliance of which I've been a member. TTLB's front page has the unfolding story, here then here and finally here. Now, I don't pretend to understand half this techie stuff, but what it seems to amount to is that LoL leader Barry Bozeman was running four different weblogs under four different pseudonyms and putting up multiple Site Meters on each of them, or something like that. The idea of multiple weblogs astounds me in the first place, I can hardly keep up with one, so already this practice lost me. I think it might have something to do with what I said above, the more specifically-focused your weblog is the likelier it is to get visits from people zeroed in only on that subject. But I must admit I felt kinda duped finding out that Barry is actually also Savage Cruel Bigot and Annthrax Coultergeist and especially Hal Burton Cheney, because Hell for Halliburton was one of those blogs up for a New Blog Showcase vote back when the LoL was just picking up steam, and it doesn't seem fair for an apparently veteran blogger to start a new blog and then nominate himself for the Showcase. A lot of what was going on suddenly seemed like cheating.

And the LoL mailing list erupted as well. I came back on Monday to almost 200 posts, which took me until Wednesday to even get through. The way things shook out was that a few folks left and N. Todd Pritsky has now set up the Liberal Coalition as another bloc. Me, I've been fence-sitting, mostly because I didn't even know about the Coalition until just this morning. (Told you I was behind in my blogroll reading!) NZ Bear says he'd prefer a minimum membership (looks like it'll be 20) in order for the new group to be eligible to sponsor the Showcase competition, and as of this morning their membership was still in the single-digits. They have a suggestion for their first vote, which was actually my recommendation to the LoL list on Wednesday but to which nobody there has yet responded. I wrote, "My suggestion for this week's LoL vote is Mustang Bobby's 'Bark Bark Woof Woof' site, specifically his comparison of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore with Sir Thomas More in a post entitled, More On Moore, Who Is No More. It's a couple weeks outdated but I found it a fanciful and original idea." So I've now registered my vote, although on behalf of which coalition will depend, I suspect, on a lot of that techie stuff I don't quite grasp.

Todd tells me via e-mail, "TTLB only allows membership in one alliance, so you would have to choose allegiance in that regard." I hate choices like this. As I say I feel a bit duped by Barry, but he seems like a nice guy anyway. And I like Todd a lot too, and like he says, "We recognize that the TTLB ranking system is just a game, but all games have rules, and circumventing, bending or abusing those rules makes the game no fun for anybody." So as I do need to make a choice, and as I tend to lean towards propriety in cases like this, I've decided to drop my official membership in LoL and go over to LC. However, both blogs will remain on my blogroll under "Da Groups."

Update: As they say, the thick plottens. Here's Barry's latest post on LoL, announcing his hiatus from blogging (I've removed him from the blogroll) for personal reasons, as well as containing more accusations (this time against N. Todd) having to do with the number games around which I can't wrap my brain, but which reads to me like little more than sour grapes. I'm beginning to think sngrfxz's observation in the comment section below is spot-on... Meanwhile, Tom Burka has his own unique take on the situation.

Febrile

Temperature was 101.3° at last check. Hope the Davises don't catch it, there were goodbye hugs going on. Crappy way for our anniversary to wind down, Robin having to take care of me like this. With the nor'easter expected and my boss out of town, I doubt I'll be up and about tomorrow.

"I've Got A Golden Haggis..."

Via Barbara O'Brien at the Mahablog - it's the Haggis Hunt! And on a completely unrelated note, Brooke Biggs directs us to the finer points of pig-sticking in India.

A Share of Sadness

Sayed Razavi has closed down Blogshares. I had a lot of fun on this, at least when the server was working right, and I can't blame him for moving on since I imagine it must have been pretty high maintenance. Thanks for a bit of fun, Sayed.

Soulmates

Happy anniversary, Robin.

(Five years and counting!)

Heebie Jeebies

Belated congrats to Jonathan Edelstein, the Head Heeb, who celebrated his first blogiversary yesterday. Jonathan's blog is so weighty and substantial that I honestly thought it had been around much longer. Sorry I didn't get to this yesterday, but I'm still way behind on blogroll reading and probably won't really catch up until the weekend...

Marcus Has Two Mommies

Via Neil Gaiman's blog - the ACLU tells of a 7-year-old boy in Louisiana punished because he explained what "gay" meant to a classmate who asked him about his parents (who are lesbians).

Upon hearing this, Marcus’s teacher scolded him in front of his classmates, telling him that “gay” is a bad word and he should never say it at school, then sent him to the principal’s office instead of letting him go to recess. The following week the school required Marcus to attend a special behavioral clinic at 6:45 in the morning, where he was forced to repeatedly write “I will never use the word ‘gay’ in school again.”

I echo Neil's disgust with this when he says, "I keep finding this disturbing in a variety of different ways." Update: Ms. D has the story too, as well as a link to the Yahoo news item about it. And Atrios picked up on the same story in Salon.

Hail Eris, Take Two

I just realized, I've now reached the point in my life where inside (the "me" in my head) I'm exactly half the age of what I am outside (actual number of years lived). And that age is 23 vs. twice 23 (Discordia's number), and that's kinda cool. See you tomorrow.

Birfday Din

Thanks to everyone for their lovely comment-section wishes and e-cards. Turns out I got out of work at the regular time (it pays to actually ask my boss "Do you need me after 5:30 or can I go home?", should have tried that years ago), met Rob uptown where we bought each other birthday and anniversary cards, and passed by a sushi place displaying little bobble-head porcelain-like chibi dolls in their window, which they were selling for $5 each. And I just had to have the adorable maneki neko for my collection, so that became my birthday present from Rob. We then met up again with Alan and Heather Davis for my birthday dinner here. Then after stopping at a newsstand where Alan excitedly picked up a few packs of these for Heather (he insisted on giving me a pack but I'm afraid I find them just as unappealing as I remember them being from my childhood) it was back to their hotel for another couple hours of conversation, none of which even remotely touched on the news I reported yesterday about Alan pencilling Uncanny X-Men. 'Cause, you know, we tend not to talk specifics when we socialize. But he did give me Laura's thank-you gift, which is about as gorgeous as you'd imagine, Laura (and then some - definitely in the Garth mode). And I got cards and phone messages from Mom & Dad and brother Jay, so it was a bit of all right! Sorry to sound so self-absorbed, but I'm still way behind in blogrolling, news reading, etc. and besides, if I can't be this way on my birthday there's just nothing for it.

Forty-Six

And feeling every year of it. I woke up on my birthday at about 5 AM, then again at 5:45 AM thanks to the upstairs neighbors, then an hour later thanks to them once more. Who needs an alarm when you have thoughtless apartment dwellers? Here's hoping that I don't have to wear earplugs each morning by the time I reach my 47th birthday.

Home Again, Home Again - Mid-Ohio Con '03 Wrap-Up

White Rabbits! Before I get to my overview of the weekend in Ohio, I wanted to again thank the wonderful Laura Gjovaag for her guest-blogging stint during my computer-less absence - I've just gone through her entries and can hardly wait to start clicking on all those cool links from Saturday! Laura, I don't have your thank-you gift yet, as it was a fairly busy working weekend, we'll be seeing the Davises again in NY this week, and Alan wants to make sure his work is worthy of posting in your Saturday Night Sketch series. :) Please feel free to drop in any time with whatever entries you'd care to make to the blog!

Now then, on to my convention report, such as it is, including the official confirmation of Alan Davis' next project for Marvel Comics, which he broke at the panel I moderated yesterday. But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, so let's start at the beginning...

Friday, November 28 - Not really a con day, although the annual Laughing Ogre welcome party (which we didn't attend) was held in the evening. The plane we took from Newark to Columbus was, I believe, an ERJ-135, which seats 37, and if you've ever flown in a smaller plane you know you're more likely to feel full-force turbulence than in a larger one. The weather being cloudy and crappy for the entire journey, this naturally meant fairly frequent turbulence, so I was a bit shaken by the time we arrived in a city easily 15° colder than the one we'd left, not including the wind chill factor which made for a fairly chilly 45-minute heel-cooling (okay, heel freezing) at the outdoor Non-Airport Hotel shuttle area. The protracted wait for a shuttle which was supposed to arrive every half hour should have clued us in to the kind of weekend we were likely to have insofar as hotel amenities, but at the time we thought it a fluke.

We arrived at the hotel around 3 and proceeded to thaw, ringing up Alan's room to see if he and his wife Heather were around, which they weren't. My only definite plan for the evening was to go food-shopping with Heather and Stacie Ponder for my planned Saturday night room party, as Stacie's a local and has a car. She called to tell me she was picking up a friend at the airport at 4, so I suggested she call when they were on their way to the hotel and we'd take off from there, and if I found Heather in the meantime so be it. As luck would have it, we ran into Alan and Heather as we were in the lobby waiting for Stacie, who arrived with two friends unexpectedly in tow. So, leaving "the boys" behind, Heather and I squeezed into the back seat for catch-up chatting during what seemed like a half-hour journey to the supermarket, where I naturally proceeded to over-buy like crazy. (Not to worry, Stacie took home all the extra food and drink yesterday.) Fortunately, one of Stacie's friends was also a local and had a store card so I guess I saved a lot of money...

Aside from the shuttle situation and our hotel room not having a mini-bar or fridge (apparently none of them did, not even on the "prestigious" 7th floor where Alan and Heather were), my other big disappointment that day was finding out that the lovely Easton Town Center, which began across the street from the hotel, was a mostly outdoor area. I guess I should have checked out the maps more carefully. Maybe a third of it consisted of an indoor 2-level mall, but the rest consisted of about a half dozen charming and decorated shop-lined streets. Which would have been great had it not been raining and snowing all day so, after having a few drinks in the hotel bar area (where Alan introduced us to Mike Barr and got to talking with Adam Hughes and his girlfriend Allison Sohn), we opted to stay inside for the evening and partake of the hotel restaurant's Friday Night Seafood Buffet, featuring all-you-can-eat sushi, a nice lox-whitefish platter, clam chowder, hot seafood dishes, and a lovely dessert bar. It was weird how they set up the buffet itself in the hallway outside the restaurant, anyone could have walked by and swiped food if they'd wanted to, but I will say in the hotel's favor that the buffet was absolutely wonderful. That's kind of the only thing I'll say in the hotel's favor.

Saturday, November 29 - It had stopped snowing but was still pretty windy and frigid, and I hadn't really brought any winter clothes with me, thinking the Town Center would be mostly indoors. So, after leaving Alan and Robin to sort out convention stuff, Heather's and my first stop was a place to buy me a warm sweater ("jumper" to you Brits) so I could deal with the rest of the walk. The bad news is, we went out at 9 and almost all the stores didn't open till 10. The good news is, the Gap seemed to be the exception to the rule and I was able to find a nice hooded black sweater with a big snowflake icon on the front (which looks more like a target), so I was all set. (It's very toasty, I'm wearing it as I type.) We retreated to the indoor portion to have some hot chocolate and talk romantically about our husbands, and who should come along but Robin and Alan, looking for us (as the con hadn't opened yet)? Men just know these things, don't they?

Oh, the con. Well, I missed the morning's activities, as our shopping excursion didn't end until after noon; I finally found a department store which had large-sized clothing and bought a nice silk blouse for work and a shiny shirt for the party (with lots of money off because I opened a store charge account, what the heck), then we met the guys as they'd just finished lunch, walked back to the hotel, grabbed a couple $5 box lunches from the hotel bar area for ourselves, then joined them again back at their table. The con organizers had put Alan and Robin all the way back in a very secluded area, where you had to turn right twice from the con entrance and walk the length of two long corridors to even get to them. And there were no con staffers assigned to Alan; I think at one point someone came by and asked if he needed anything, and when I suggested water the guy responded to the effect that he wasn't sure he'd be able to secure any (he did, but still, to sound that dubious about being able to get your touted "special guest" water?). But other than that, there was nobody assigned to Alan at all to help with the queue or cut people off or do anything involving crowd control or giving Alan breaks, and I had to repeatedly run the corridors to find con staffers and explain to them what needed to be done, falling back on my con staffing duties from Comicfest '93 when I should have been sitting there enjoying myself and watching Alan and Robin work and greet fans. I just found that kind of strange, not to assign at least one staffer to stick with your special guest and take care of the queue (the longest at the con, bar none) and so forth. Another guest shouldn't have to do it.

Alan and Robin had decided beforehand to do head-shot sketches to raise money for the con's designated charity, the American Diabetes Association (hi Natalie!) - Alan would pencil the sketches for a $10 donation and Robin would ink them for an additional $10. So while it was exhausting (made more so by the aforementioned con staffer situation) it was also a lot of fun and very exciting for this Davis-and-Riggs fangirl to watch. And of course I always love talking to fans; on Saturday a lot of the folks from the Comicart Yahoo group were hanging out, and the not-at-all pathetic and lonely Mike Fogg bought us drinks afterwards. I'd managed a quick sweep of the artist alley area, handing out party invites to folks I knew, and actually introducing myself to Allison - as mentioned, she and Adam had stopped by our klatsch the day before but I think Alan and/or Mike probably assumed we already knew them so we just sort of sat there outside of the conversation sphere for that period of time. By Saturday afternoon that was remedied, at least from the female angle - I'm not sure Robin and Adam ever got to talking, but Allison and I hit it off immediately, neither of us believing we hadn't yet met!

Because of the con staff situation being so disorganized, by the time Heather and I went to see if we could get a dinner reservation at the Cheesecake Factory we were told the wait was up to 2 hours. Instead of reserving us at a place of equivalent price range, I guess the hotel concierge had been advised to suggest the most expensive restaurant in the area, so we wound up at Smith & Wollensky, where the menus are placed in heavy wooden frames from which Robin immediately got a splinter (I find it hard to believe, as the waiter insisted, that it was "the first time this has ever happened"), topped off a bit later by the waiter spilling water on his back. At least we were glad that Alan and Heather enjoyed dinner and a show!

I left the others at S&W and hurried back to the room to start laying out food for the party. Leonard Kirk, Roger Stern and Carmela Merlo were the first guests, and among the others who showed up later (besides Robin and Alan) were Dan Mishkin, Mike Barr, Scott Roberts, Bob Ingersoll, Tony Isabella, Andrew Pepoy, Mike Fogg, Mike Rice, Stacie and friends, and a special party-crashing by some CBLDF folks wanting the pros present to sign a couple SpongeBob SquarePants pillows to auction off. As Scott had done some SpongeBob comics this was pretty fortuitous. I shall refrain from passing on what Leonard wrote on the pillows; suffice to say it was probably the rowdiest point of a pretty sedate affair. Which made it all the weirder when a hotel security person came up about 10 or so to ask us to close the door (we complied immediately), and downright surreal when his apparent boss came up at 11:45 to kick everyone out of the room, claiming we had been visited thrice (untrue) and asked to keep the noise down (um, what noise? conversation? nobody was even drinking!) by another unnamed guest. The security guy said something about how they had no choice but to believe their guests, whereupon Robin reminded him that we were guests as well so our word should be just as good as that of the anonymous ones. Now folks, I'm sitting here wearing earplugs because of the noise from the upstairs neighbors, can you really picture me creating that kind of ruckus if I'm this sensitive to it? Just one more reason (collect the series!) never to go back to this hotel and certainly never to knock myself out again to give a con room party. But hey, it's kind of amusing - almost, dare I say it, cool - to have the rep of hosting rowdy affairs even if it's not true...

Sunday, November 30 - We received a "wake-up call" at 10:30 from Alan care of Mike Rice, informing us that Alan was already hard at work at his table, as the con day had started at 10 AM rather than 11 as we'd all assumed. Again, if we'd had an assigned staffer this wouldn't have happened, he or she would have kept Alan apprised of the schedule! Naturally, because of this amazing oversight, Alan had to have Roger Price announce that he would no longer be able to do sketches due to high demand (which translated into too many people on a queue that, for at least the fourth time that weekend, nobody from the con had bothered to organize). More of the same - lots of nice people, including Phoenix from Alan's ThyTe message board (aka Jaye; here's her site), a promising artist who hung out by the table for much of the day. Only one real creep, a guy who whined to me (gah, why not complain to a con staffer!?) with his claims of having been booted from the queue three times, and I felt kinda bad when I lost patience with him until I saw what he actually was - some sleazoid dealer with a box of about 200 of Alan's comics, including about a dozen copies of Marvel's HEROES that he paid some mark to get Alan to sign - and the mark was a mentally challenged guy! I mean, this whole scenario was wrong on so many levels that I was immediately sorry I hadn't been gruffer with the asshole and told him to get stuffed. Fortunately, there were no others like him and his utter chutzpah was certainly grist for enough group derision and amusement later. I just wish he hadn't been the last on the queue before Alan packed up for the day. He and Robin raised about $575 for the ADA, by the way. I don't know how much Alan's sketch for the ACTOR raffle raised, and the sketch on which he and Robin collaborated won't be auctioned of by ACTOR until Mega-Con next year. Nobody from the convention itself, either before or during the con period, ever mentioned to Alan or Robin that apparently they (the Mid-Ohio Con people) had an auction too, or they would have contributed (see my con staff-related rants above).

Oh, I also moderated my panel, which I'd outlined here, and it went pretty well, about as planned. David Mack had laryngitis and couldn't make it, and I knew Alan would be fairly quiet, but not only did Mark Waid rise to the occasion as expected (he's practically a professional panelist by now, and has done his share of quality moderation, so I knew I needn't worry) but so did Pam Bliss and Scott Roberts, all contributing to a great discussion about characterization and constraints. Before the panel started Alan leaned over and whispered, "Ask me what I'll be doing for Marvel." It took me a few beats to realize that this meant he wanted to make an Official Announcement of news that he hadn't previously shared with anyone either publicly or privately. So I was privileged to be the conduit of the Official Announcement that Alan will be pencilling Uncanny X-Men, to be written by Chris Claremont. Guess I've added another X-book to my pull list! Alan and Chris had a great run together on the X-book they co-created, Excalibur, as well as having done a few issues of UXM a number of years back, and I know how much Alan enjoys working with Chris so it should be a lot of fun.

After the panel Robin and Andrew had a knife fight.

I suppose I should explain. Leonard's going to be pencilling a new book for DC shortly, for which the inker has yet to be decided. The editor said that Robin and Andrew should "fight it out." So Andrew decided to make it a staged event. He got a bunch of fake blood, smeared it over himself and Robin and a couple of rubber knives, and had Sean McKeever and Paul Storrie holding up signs in the background laying odds on one or the other, with Leonard standing next to them greedily fingering money. The camera shots we took consisted of (1) Andrew having the upper hand, (2) Robin then gaining the upper hand, (3) and (4) Robin and Andrew then realizing that Leonard's placing bets, and (5) them both ganging up on Leonard. Nobody knows who will get the assignment (and whoever does, the book will be well-inked!), but it was a fun event anyway.

A few regrets as the con wound down - Mark Waid had to leave that night so we never did get to sit and chat about CrossGen, but I got a hug and a kiss and for people who know me by one of my previous nicknames of "Waidgirl" you know how special that was to me. Mark has been my favorite comics writer for over a decade (still is), and being friends with him, with anyone who makes this magic, is something I'll never take for granted. But I've talked about this all before, so onward... I didn't spend as much time as hoped with people who didn't show up to the party, like Paul Jenkins and Sean McK and Paul S and Dave Roman and Steve Lieber and Matt Feazall (who apparently also missed a dinner date with Dave and Scott at yon yummy cheesecakey place), but at least I said hi. I never touched base at all with Chris Sprouse, Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Oeming, Steve Conley and probably at least a dozen others. I didn't have the courage to approach any of the media celebs like June Lockhart or Yvonne Craig or Walter Koenig, but they all looked gorgeous.

Robin and I went upstairs to wait for Stacie to get the party leftovers and receive an expert portfolio review, which Robin hadn't time to do at the table, after which we tried the Cheesecake Factory again. This time we arrived early enough to be seated fairly quickly, and I highly recommend the place to anyone who comes upon it, very yummy! We ran into Leonard after that and took a last walk around the Town Center. Rob and Leonard went into all the usual Guy places, and I went back to Godiva (where Heather had bought me some truffles on Saturday) to pick up some hot chocolate to soothe the scratchy throat the pumped-in hotel air had given me. By the time we returned the stores had all closed and my feet were too blistery to go join everyone at Fadó for après-con drinks.

Today - Which was just as well, as Alan and Heather informed us over breakfast that there had been a lot of cigar-smoking at the bar, which would probably have made me sicker than I already felt. The four of us rode to the airport together, and sat around with plenty of time before our flights discussing everything from Alan Moore to family matters to holiday plans to the sleazoid dealer. Our plane was a 737, but despite my being engrossed in the British paperback of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that Heather had found for me (I'd read the American HC when it came out before giving it to my brother, but much prefer it in the original language, even though I have to keep asking Robin to translate phrases) there was still enough turbulence on the descent to give me major stomach pains, which haven't completely subsided as of this writing. We took NJ Transit and the subway back and made it to our apartment in under two hours. I thought it was hysterical that there was a guy playing I Can't Help Falling in Love With You on kettle drums in the subway station, as that's the tune the Lulu folks always sang when closing up our booth at cons. (Robin thought it was funny that we went down to the con yesterday in the middle of Holiday Inn on the TV, and came back to the room in the middle of White Christmas.) Robin spent much of the afternoon trying to get his Cintiq to work properly (it's operational at last), and me? After four hours and probably lots of stuff still left out, I've finally finished my con report.

All in all, apart from aspects of the con organization and hotel people, it was a fun weekend. We got to interact with fans and pros from all levels of the industry, we made new friends and renewed old friendships, we spent hours with probably Robin's closest friend, we walked around a lot in beautiful surroundings and, despite various physical ailments (note to self: bring Eno's next time as well!), we had a great time.

So, anything happen while I was gone?

Girls in Comic Books (pt 2)

I avoided superhero books like the plague in the first part, but now I'd like to bring up a couple.

First up would be Oracle from Birds of Prey. She once was Batgirl, but was paralyzed by a gunshot from the Joker. Leaving aside the obvious silliness of someone staying paralyzed in a universe where people can fly, the whole idea of Oracle is just neat. She's not some crippled girl, she's a strong active woman who happens to have her hand on the pulse of every superhero activity in the world. As Oracle, she was even a member of the Justice League. In Birds of Prey, she sends agents to hotspots to fix problems before they become too massive. She's efficient, intelligent, and the fact that she happens to be stuck in a wheelchair is secondary to the strength of the character.

Next up would be Aunt May. Not any old version, no, I'm thinking of the Aunt May from the current run on Amazing Spider-Man. The one who somehow manages to deal with the child she raised being the costumed vigilante she hates. She's a fiesty one, as is made clear in the latest issue (just see her actions while waiting in line behind a foul-mouthed jerk). She's the kind of person you wish everyone had in their lives, a strong anchor to keep you steady through all of life's misfortunes.

No, I'm not much into Manga, but I read a little. One book I got addicted to the wrong way 'round was Cardcaptor Sakura, and it is Sakura herself that gets the next entry on this list. Sakura's family is a mystery in so many ways... she knows nothing about her father's family. Her mother is dead. A magical power is released by Sakura accidently, and she has to pick up after herself. This is a great romance comic, a great magical fantasy comic, and a fun trip through a very different culture. Sakura herself is kind and open-minded. She's a teenage girl, but she isn't on a popularity power-trip. I would love to see Sakura, Akiko, Chance, Amelia, and Amy together at the mall. They'd be unstoppable.

For my next favorite fictional females, I'd have to talk about Age of Bronze by the amazing Eric Shanower. The thing I love about this book is that he draws such beautiful people. They aren't dolls or models or strangely distorted things, they are people. And the women in Shanower's book are the best. The history of the Trojan war seems to be so much about women. Helen running away with Paris, Agamemnon trying to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. They may not be ones I'd be comfortable hanging out with, but they are well worth reading about.

Continuing in the vein of folks I wouldn't really want to hang out with, but love to read, would be Deena Pilgrim from Powers. A tough, no-nonsense cop who's in way over her head but keeps up anyway. Foul-mouthed and angry, she's the right person to handle the giant Christian Walker. Petite and powerful, Deena proves that big things do come in small packages... even confronting a being with the power of a god in her last (as of this writing) appearance in the book.

I'll finish up this eternal post with a couple of characters who might be just a passing fad. Cinnamon and Mace from Cinnamon: El Ciclo are two women dealing with horrible things in their pasts, but trying to make the world a better place in their own way. I'm betting neither one would give a person like me the time of day, they live in a different world, but they are fascinating people anyway. They aren't playing the game set up for them by the rest of the world, they are making their own way. And that makes me admire them both, despite what they are.

And so that's it. All I can think of today. Who'd I miss?

Girls in Comic Books

The Friends of Lulu is an organization committed to promoting and encouraging female readership and participation in the comic book industry. And, let me tell you, girls have been around in comic books for a long time. While Elayne and I are both active in getting more women to read/write/draw/enjoy comic books, that's not what this blog entry is about. No, this is quite literally about girls in comic books. Particularly, my favorite fictional female friends.

Now, I could go on for months and months about all the various female characters I like, but I've decided to limit myself quite a bit. I'm going to try to stick with characters who are currently appearing in books, or whose appearances are readily available. And I'm going to go "token" on the superhero books, although there are plenty of characters I like in them. I'm enough of a superhero fangirl that I could too easily go overboard into boring super minutia. So, here are some of my favorite fictional female friends, and why I like them.

First off I have to mention Akiko. She's the star of Akiko on the Planet Smoo by Mark Crilley, and the self-titled Akiko comic book (as well as a series of children's books now out). She's just a normal girl, caught up in cosmic events in a universe that is a little more fun than our own. The appealing aspect of Akiko is that she has plenty of common sense, and yet is willing to suspend her disbelief long enough to have a rip-roaring adventure. She's steadfast, intelligent, and yet she's still just a normal girl. Her adventures range from strange quests on other planets to more quiet moments with friends.

Along the same lines we have Amelia from Amelia Rules. Amelia's universe is ours, just as hard to live in, just as painful. Amelia's adventures tend to happen from normal events created by her not-so-normal friends, and other normal events created by the silly adults in her life. She's also got a solid dose of practicality to help her along, and a sense of fun. For all that, she's as vulnerable to the next shock as anyone, and that is where the power in her stories comes from.

Amy of Eddybrook Farm is a wee bit different than our first two. She lives on a farm, for one. And her mother is a barbarian clockmaker. Because of that, Amy is unbounded, and that's the title of the comic starring her: Amy Unbounded. She isn't simply the product of her home nation, Goredd. Her father's rebellion against conventions combined with her mother's very different background and upbringing allow her to be open-minded and free in a society with rather strict medieval expectations. Her imagination and joy with life make her a fun fictional friend to hang out with.

Moving on to a steampunk world of mad scientists and constant danger, we have Agatha Clay. An innocent nobody, without the skills to make it in a world where being a mechanic is necessary to improve your life, Agatha is caught up in an unexpected adventure guided by the incessant humming in her mind. That's because she's not really a nobody, she's a Girl Genius, and her natural talents are much more powerful than anyone suspects. Agatha makes the list because once she hits her stride, she takes over. She's her own person, despite the way everyone around her would like to use her.

I'm going to say right now that, despite what it looks like, every comic book female doesn't have a name that starts with the letter "A".

My next favorite fictional female friend would be Chance Falconer from the comic book Leave It To Chance. Chance is heir to a mighty legacy, and she really wants to pursue that legacy. Her father, however, has different plans. Having already lost his wife, he can't bear to let his daughter put herself in danger. But Chance is intelligent, and daring, and attracts trouble. There's just too much of the Falconer clan in her for her to be anything than what she is. And that's why it's a joy to read about her.

On a completely different note is Ms. Kyle from PS238. Her strength doesn't come from being the superheroine "Micro-Might", it comes from the fact that she's an experienced school teacher. Yeah, her classes aren't made up of normal students anymore, but she didn't think her powers would be much use to her so she went ahead and became a school-teacher before she became a hero. And that's how she defines herself. She's remarkably sensible, and looks like a real person instead of a toy doll. I love the way she interacts with the kids in PS238, and would love to read a lot more about her.

Ok, there are a few more I'd like to comment on, but I'm tired of writing and you are no doubt tired of reading my lightweight commentary. So I'll post the rest later. In the meantime, do you have any favorite fictional female friends, and not just from comics, you'd like to mention? There's a nice comments feature for you to use if you can think of any.

Random Thoughts

From an article at Slashdot comes news of a Thai minister who got stuck in his car, a car that just incidentally uses a Windows-based computer system.

If burglers break into your home, and you are an 80-year old woman, what should you do? Well, if you are Jean Freke, you wrestle with one of them, then grab a ceremonial sword and scare them off. Via Daily Snopes.

Doc Shazam tells us about a patient suffering from aortic disection. My only problem with Doc Shazam's blog is that she often forgets to tell us how her patients are doing once the crisis has passed.

Via Boing Boing, you can now turn that stupid singing fish into a stupid talking fish that says whatever you program it to say. You can even use it to represent somebody at the other end of a teleconference line. It makes me think of something out of Harry Potter: Daddy's going to be late coming home from work, so the fish on the wall says, "Hey honey, I'm going to be late!" *shudder*

In Sequence reviews the DC Elseworlds comic book Superman: Red Son, but includes a few wise words about nostalgia for the Cold War in there. Take a look.

Frank Carrera attends WizardWorld Texas 2003, and it sounds every bit as chaotic as most of my convention experiences are. He's also posted the sketches he got, so check them out, too.

Over on my blog today I'm posting my big fat overview of the monthly comic book catalog from Diamond Distributors: "Things in Previews That Look Interesting But I Can't Afford To Get (with a list of things I am getting just for contrast)". I'll also be posting my Saturday Night Sketch sometime later in the day. Yes, it'll be a sketch of Aquaman.

Hello Everybody

Laura Gjovaag, here. Aka Tegan. Aka "that really scary Aquaman fan". While Elayne is off in Ohio having fun, I get the task of entertaining her daily blog audience. Like myself, Elayne has a goal of at least one blog entry per day for her blog. I'll be posting at least once tomorrow and Sunday, and I'll probably leave you with some final thoughts on Monday. For this first post, I thought I might introduce myself, so you know where I'm coming from.

I was born and raised in the Seattle area, and I have lived here all my life. I'm a happily married comic book nerd with a job in retail and a school-teacher husband. My current goal in life is to save up enough pennies to replace my aging computer with a laptop. I'm not lucky enough to be owned by a cat.

I think that about covers it. Hope you don't mind my intrusion into this blog...

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

As this may be my last entry before leaving for Mid-Ohio Con, I thought I'd go out in style, as it were, by first "showing off" my Thanksgiving plate from yesterday:

Pictured, clockwise from upper left: Turkey, combo mix of squash and mashed potato (looked like squash, tasted like potato), chestnut puree, candied yam, the green stuff is brussel sprouts, the dark stuff is whole cranberry sauce, and finally the stuffing. Not pictured: gravy, dessert (pumpkin pie and homemade cinnamon apples) and drinks (apple cider for me, egg nog for Robin). For the record, I ate maybe a third of what you see on this plate, but I look forward to the leftovers upon my return.

Speaking of which, kitties say "see ya later":

I leave Pen-Elayne on the Web in the more-than-capable hands of Laura Gjovaag. If I come across online access in Columbus, I may blog a bit from there; if not, I'll be back Monday afternoon. Take it away, Laura!

Face to Face

Breaking News: Apparently Bush has made a secret visit to the troops in Baghdad for Thanksgiving. I wonder how managed and "exclusion zone"d that's gonna be...

A Shadow Moves Upon the Land

"It behooves me, upon this historic occasion..." sorry, hard not to slip into that W.C. Fields voice today; in fact, revisiting the Firesign Theatre piece Temporarily Humboldt County is a must for me each Thanksgiving, as much of a modern tradition as Google's annual picture:

In addition, you might want to give another listen to Pass the Indian, Please.

Around the blogosphere, Max Sawicky and Kevin Moore and Julia H and Natalie Davis give us lots to think about (I'll add others here as I read them). Tish Parmeley listened to coverage of the Annual Sun Rise Gathering (note: PDF) organized by the International Indian Treaty Council and American Indian Contemporary Arts. Meanwhile, closer to home, the NY Times reports that Macy's still has a bee up their bonnet over this:

Ah, the holiday season...

They've Got Mercury Poisoning

Excellent article in the December 8-dated issue of In These Times entitled Autism in a Needle?, about which of course anyone who reads Mary Beth or Dwight has known for months.

Look, Someone's Having Fun at the Parade - Quick, Stamp it Out!

Mark Evanier talks about wanting to see the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in person. Trust me, Mark, you're missing nothing. All the applause and cheering and other crowd noises you hear? As faked as the lip-synched music. Even the tap shoe sounds are faked. If it's a blustery day, which it usually is, everyone's wearing mittens or gloves so there's no way you'd hear the applause to begin with. You'd think I'd have been wise to it, but it came as a real shock to me when Steve and I decided to attend one year. It certainly didn't have the same sense of spontaneity and wonder that I'd remembered as a child when my dad took me a couple times (but hey, what does?), but we were unprepared for how utterly manufactured it had all become by that point (early '90s). Still, here and there one can find things of interest, like the balloons Mark mentions and, of course, Harvey Fierstein's naughty little column in today's NY Times. Naturally, the Macy's folks were not amused. And yeah, I'll probably wind up watching part of it on TV, with the set muted to, you know, simulate what it really sounds like.

Maintenance Note

Finally finished the blogroll titles (that's the text that pops up when you put your cursor on a link but don't click it; Robin's browser shows it in the form of a word balloon instead of a caption, which is pretty cool when he positions the cursor on my picture atop the sidebar) through the Journalists section; I may or may not ever do the Fame section on down. While briefly checking through Kultcha blogs for the titles, I noticed that Marv Wolfman has posted the story behind Games, a long-awaited Teen Titans graphic novel project that has just been removed from the proverbial back-burner. Fun reading.

Consumables

Cyndy Roy reminds us, cool graphic and all, that this coming Friday is Buy Nothing Day. Yes Cat, Kalle's still doing it after all these years. :) While in theory I applaud Adbusters' attempts to subvert so-called Black Friday, I'm afraid I've made previous arrangements and won't be joining the campaign this year. After all, I've been promised drinks of both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety, even by fellow bloggers, so who am I to tell them not to buy me a grande mint hot chocolate?

Relearning Curve, Part 2

Following up on last Friday's post, I'm starting to remember more reasons I hate searching for a new job. Today's lesson, children, is "Caveat, um, Agency." Seems that some unscrupulous employment agencies, particularly small ones with no real clout or standing, have a tendency to misrepresent themselves on the phone with potential marks, leading those marks to believe they're being interviewed by actual employers. Yes, I was that mark today. I suppose I should have realized I was going to an agency when (1) I couldn't find a thing about the company online, and (2) they gave me an address right around "Employment Agency Row." So during my second "interview" at an agency that only consists of two people, I had the temerity to ask the woman for a business card. Her look could have melted stone. In a quiet, furious voice, she informed me that the interview was not over. I should have shot back, "You're not an employer, so this isn't an interview, it's only a screening to see if you can fit this big round peg in your little square holes and make yourself a chunk of change as commission." Instead I apologized. That's me, go along to get along. Damn, that's an hour of my life I'll never have back (and, thank goodness, ten minutes of my life spent exorcising it on my blog!). So the moral is, kids, when you're called about an interview, the first question you should ask the caller is whether she or he represents a placement agency or an actual employer. If it's the former, and it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and your boss isn't in and you're going home early, agree to the "interview" if you want to but for God's sake don't knock yourself out, wear jeans.

Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth

Parent-child relationships have been complex as long as families have existed. While I've seen many examples of what I'd characterize as normal, loving families, I've also experienced dysfunction both first- and second-hand. And as I've grown older and come to the realization that I won't have any children to which I will pass along any of my emotional burdens, I've tried to reconcile whatever issues I have with my parents by various methods – mutual agreement to avoid certain subjects, concentration on things we all prioritize, rising above the situation when I sense I'm being baited – so that I can get on with living my own life.

Perhaps someday I'll write in greater depth about my parents than I have so far in this blog, but I don't see that my conflicts with them are anybody's business but mine. I'd rather write about the personal-as-universal than, you know, whine. Of late I seem to be in the minority on that count, though, as a lot of talented artists work out their familial frustrations via (and conveniently seek to profit from) their creative outlets. I recently read a review of the new documentary My Architect, in which Nathaniel Kahn examines the life of his late father Louis, one of the world's premier modern architects. Says Lisa Schwarzbaum, "The filmmaker interviews his mother, his half siblings, his father's contemporaries, and, it sometimes seems, the stones themselves. The son is obsessive and petulant, punishing and self-pitying, and by the time he gets to a talk with his hurt old mother, we understand why. The architect of his own revealing work of art, Nathaniel Kahn has built something affecting he can call his own."

I felt much the same way after reading Gay Block's new book, Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed. Except that the "affecting" was of the negative variety. The more Block whines in this pictorial biography about how her late mother never gave her what she needed, the less sorry I felt for her. Particularly when her mother's words and visage belie the very points she's trying to hammer in. In photo after photo, the two are smiling at the camera and each other with what appears to be genuine affection. For me, the most telling passage is the following conversation:

Gay: In terms of personal relationships, I'm with women instead of men. Do your friends ever ask you about that?

Bertha Alyce: No.

Gay: You have very polite friends. How do you feel about it?

Bertha Alyce: How do I feel about it? I'm not overjoyed, but if this is your lifestyle – you're at an age that this is your life. It's not MY life anymore. I brought you this far and I can't take you any farther, and neither can I force or impose anything on you in your lifestyle anymore.

Gay: But is it an embarrassment for you?

Bertha Alyce: Oh, the world is different now. That's why I guess it isn't.

Gay: I think that's something you could definitely be complimented for. That's an obnoxious way to give a compliment. I appreciate your feeling that way.

Bertha Alyce: I only accept it because it makes you happy, and that's all I want. I couldn't ask for more than that. That's all I wanted for you. That's the only reason I can accept it.

We're supposed to take as a given, on the book's back cover blurb, that Houston-based philanthropist and bon vivant Bertha Alyce Schlenker was an "unusual and difficult mother," but the more I read through the book the more I thought that Gay was the difficult one. She seems to keep prompting relatives and other interview/photography subjects, in the same way that she appears to prompt her mother above, to say mean things to prove what a horrid person Bertha Alyce was. And I just kept wishing I'd known the mother and wanting to steer far, far away from the daughter with her issues. Block's probably older than me, if she hasn't worked out whatever her friggin' problems are by now she has no business, to my mind, whining about them, particularly in public to make a buck— I mean, further her "art," of course. (Full disclosure time: I've always thought of professional photography as more pretense than art, and fully admit this prejudice, but this book does nothing to dissuade me from that view.)

One thing for which I'm grateful after reading this book was that it showed me how much more together I seem to have my life, regarding my relationships with my parents, than does Block. I'm fully convinced that she'll now start searching for something or someone else about which to be vindictive and unhappy, and will doubtless publish another book about that. I've decided to give Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed to my own mom when next I see her, and have invited her to review the book on this blog, so we'll see if she takes me up on it. Natalie Davis is scheduled to interview Block soon, maybe she's gotten some value out of this book that I couldn't. It just makes me want to read a Shakespeare soliloquy.

Truly Gone

Eric Idle is absolutely right. "So there's a wonderful moment for you in the upcoming Movie of a truly spectacular concert performed impeccably by Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo, Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, Joe Brown et al. [Don't ask who al is.] The whole thing is sublime [Pythonesque spoiler omitted]... And do bring plenty of Kleenex, because if you ever loved George you won't get through this one without a lot of tears... Olivia and Dhani Harrison have managed to turn this whole event into a truly wonderful memorial and united all his friends in their grief to make a joyous and utterly unforgettable evening and now they are sharing it with the world." More here. We just finished watching the DVD of it (well, all except for Ravi Shankar's orchestra, we'll be saving that for another time) and we were blown away. It's such a wonderful reminiscence of and tribute to George Harrison. Here's another interesting review. This coming Saturday will mark one year since the concert and two years since his passing. P.S. I should also add this entry from Idle's diary, talking about one of the concert's producers, Michael Kamen, who suddenly passed away last week.

The Quiet Transfer

Via Eli Stephens (and if you're not reading his blog you should be, he's on top of all sorts of things), did you know there have been 20 more prisoners just released from Guantanamo, bringing the total to 88 within the past year? The US isn't saying what countries most of them are from, so we may never hear their stories of treatment - the only ones we know about are returning to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, our "friends" who still seem to sponsor an awful lot of terrorism...

Weasel Words

While reading Paul Krugman's latest column dissecting the Republican National Committee's ad accusing "some" people of "attacking the president for attacking the terrorists." Never mind that he hasn't been "attacking the terrorists," he's been bombing the shit out of countries instead (one of which, unlike Saudi Arabia or, um, the US, wasn't even a haven for terrorists until his army started their occupation) - Krugman terms the use of the word "some" in these contexsts as a sort of fail-safe: "Because he used the word 'some,' he didn't literally lie." And I really resent that. I like using "some" and other qualifiers to indicate to folks that I'm not necessarily tarring everyone with the same sweeping-generalization brush. And I'll be damned if I can't use qualifiers any more because some people misuse them.

He's Just a Regular Joe

As I won't be around this weekend I'm going to vote early this week in TTLB's New Blog Showcase, which has made it easy for me by only having one entry up so far in the Political category: Joe's Thoughts. Joe Fiala seems to be fairly centrist (and centristically fair!) so I'm throwing what little League of Liberals weight I have behind his nominated entry, Politics Trumps Morals.

Yet Another IQ Test

Via Susie Madrak - this one tests your Digital IQ. I only got an 81, but I don't own a PDA or laptop or wi-fi cell phone or whatever. Also from Susie, might as well face it...

The Eids of November

It's Eid al-Fatr (or Eid Il Futtir), the 3-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Both Riverbend and Laura Poyneer (aka al-Muhajabah) wish everyone "Happy Eid, or Eid Mubarek." And Aziz Poonwalla tells us a story.

Dude, You're Not Getting a Foreign Call Center

Dell has bowed to pressure, but apparently only for its corporate customers.

"We saw them crying for help and jumping out of the windows, and we could do nothing to save them."

My heart goes out to the families of all the foreign students who lost their lives in the Russian dorm fire.

Set Your BS Detectors to "Stun"

So I read where Rend Rahim Francke is the new acting Iraqi ambassador to the US, and of course it set off all kinds of bells. On the whole the human rights organization of which she's a founding member seems okay, as does the former lobbyist herself (and yay, another woman in power!), but then you see where she's given talks to places like this that also claim to be non-partisan except look at their boards of directors and advisors. So you know, looks like same-old same-old to me. Caveat lector and all that. I retain my healthy sense of, um, optimistic skepticism? Oh well, at least she gets to stay at home in Washington, unlike whoever the council names to replace Aquila al-Hashimi. I look forward to Riverbend's take on all this.

In with the New

Hey cool, Georgia's interim leader is a woman! She's promised to repeal the state of emergency, saying there's no more need for it, as well as restore the parliament and hold elections within 45 days. This is the kind of thing that happens when a woman's on the job. ;) Seriously, I found most interesting the bit that spoke of what led to Shevardnadze's resignation: "After weeks of refusing to step down, in the end he said he was leaving office to avoid a bloodbath in a region steeped in violence. But by that time, some servicemen had joined the protesters and it was doubtful police and soldiers would have obeyed orders to use force." (emphasis mine) Considering what just went down in the heart of our own flawed presidential elections, I don't think we could assume the same level of conscientious disobedience in the "land of the free." (It also doesn't hurt that the US and Moscow were actively working to help oust Shevardnadze.)

Bill Connolly passes along the link to the Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that I mentioned here. The article is entitled Crimes Against Nature, with the subtitle "Bush is sabotaging the laws that have protected America's environment for more than thirty years."

They've Got Everybody's Picture

While perusing last Thursday's Firesign chat to read if Phil Austin gave out any details to supplement Cat's post in a comment section on Friday regarding "the lads doing something on the new liberal radio network" (I found nothing on the news site yet), I was reminded that they actually had my picture up there. I think it may be the best picture anyone's ever taken of me, in that it actually resembles how I see myself in my mind's eye (naturally, Robin was the photographer). So since I've kinda liked it when other folks put their pictures up on their blog sidebars, I've now linked from the sidebar to my Chat log photo, which I resized to fit better, even managing to embed a clickable link to my bio page from our (Soulmate Productions) website, along with the "Who am us, anyway?" title. I can't believe I actually get the hang of this coding stuff now and again. Oh, speaking of radio, check out the latest from Steve Perry about what's going on with the radio station at Antioch University in Ohio.

Stories of Past Courage

Tristero has a wonderful idea - to nominate Brady Kiesling for the John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage Award®, as the JFK Library is accepting e-mailed nominations. Tristero terms Kiesling's February resignation letter to Colin Powell "one of the great masterpieces in the American literature of dissent," and I quite agree. And speaking of e-mail campaigns, Leah at Corrente has a very good suggestion.

Georgia on My Mind

Shevardnadze resigns. Nice to see some place on this planet where there are actual opposition leaders who can call on their supporters to march on the president's residence after he's "won" an election marred by fraud. Wonder if it'll become a trend?

The Good Doctor

Dr. Who celebrates its 40th anniversary today. (Rob Hansen remembered it in my previous entry's comment section, and Budgie in his blog.) The Beeb has a "favourite Doctor" survey on its site (for the record: Peter Davison - 7%) as well as viewer responses citing favourite episodes. I've previously written about the six-part animated web series and speculation as to who the new Doctor will be when the new series debuts next year. (Here are the results of the Radio Times readers' poll.) Personally, if I voted for a male Doctor at all, I'd vote for this guy. Update: Laura celebrates too, as does Harry at Crooked Timber.

The Impersistence of Memory

Sometimes I think I'm the only one in my generation (born in '57) who doesn't remember the day that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed, 40 years ago today. For instance, Tish Parmeley has a well-written reminiscence (culled from her book; someone please publish this woman!). So does Linkmeister and his comments section. So does Steve Bates. So does Billmon, using second-person narration. So does Melanie, my newest addition to the blogroll. So does Groom Lake. Mark Evanier talks about it here and here, and Peter David weighs in here. Also, Kevin Hayden mentions it briefly (by the way, happy blogiversary, Kevin!), and I'm pretty sure Seth Farber recalls the day, reading between the lines of his blog entry today. And this illustration on South Knox Bubba's site is just breathtaking. You know, I remember the moon landing, I remember the night of Lennon's death, obviously I remember the WTC falling... but, even given that my brain only seems to have so much holding capacity and I'm used to recollections disappearing by now, it kinda bothers me that I don't recall the day of Kennedy's assassination at all. Is there anyone else out who was old enough (school age, I guess) to have remembered this national tragedy and doesn't, or is it just me?

LoL Saturday

The League of Liberals keeps growing; welcome to new member Rob Findlay, who has submitted his entry Iraq = Death to this week's New Blog Showcase, and who also has a cute Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum) but does seem to need to work a bit on his spelling ;) . Other LoL posts that caught my eye this morning, in my usual alphabetical order by surname, then the first-name-onlys, then the pseudonyms:

LoL leader Barry Bozeman informs us that William Bennett replaced Rush Limbaugh as the Claremont Institute's annual Churchill Dinner speaker last night. Mentioned as well by Maru Soze, who also reveals the Naked Photographer! Glad they got him before my trip there next weekend...

Len Cleavelin bemoans the decision by many radio stations to adopt an "all Christmas music, all the time" format as early as this month, with another 200-300 expected to do the same thing in the next several weeks. Sounds like something Robin would love, but considering it's not even Thanksgiving yet and all the Chatzmich crap is already out in force in store windows, I think I may hit my "it's not my holiday, you wacky goyim" tolerance level early this year...

Robert "Don't Call me JR 'Bob'" Dobbs reiterates what Firesign chatter Ken DeBusk just informed me via e-mail - the NewsMax report on the interview with General Tommy Franks in the December Cigar Aficionado predicting martial law after the next (some say all-but-inevitable) terror attack on US soil. Also mentioned by Veralynne Pepper. Pretty scary news, particularly when broken by a loony right-wing website.

Jo Fish - whom I hope to meet next weekend, yay! - brings us the good news that Utah, at least, has figured out that the No Child Left Behind act is an educational Ponzi Scheme. The local (Riverdale) paper's been calling it that (in not so many words) for awhile now.

Jimmy Huck recommends this column on the role of race in current Louisiana politics.

Kriselda Jarnsaxa confesses that her husband does his food shopping, um, not unlike I do mine lately, cell phone in hand...

Madeleine Begun Kane has a humor round-up of Bush's London trip.

PZ Myers summarizes Paul Krugman's talk at Syracuse University.

Barbara O'Brien knows it's wrong to hate fundies, but she just can't help herself.

BJ can't believe there's almost no advance planning in the military. Doesn't surprise me all that much, why should they be that different from the private sector?

Dawn has a timely reminder that pot doesn't kill, asphyxiation due to aspiration of plastic bags kills.

Gunther grades the Bush-Blair press conference.

Jeff has some stark pictures from the FTAA protests in Miami, and
Stageleft asks of Guanatamo, Is this humane? The Felonious Elephant surmises that Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma probably wouldn't have a problem with any of this.

Jesse mentions, and Northstar goes into more detail about, an NHL game being played outdoors this evening, which received 275,000 ticket requests. That many people want to freeze their asses off in -17C weather? Them wacky Canadians... Oh, and by the way, this "Heritage Classic" isn't being broadcast in the US.

Manis2Society's latest conspiracy theory asks, were the bombings in Turkey and Saudi Arabia really US-sponsored? That's rather immanentizing the eschaton, isn't it?

Rick wonders why his local CVS pharmacy has put their condoms and pregnancy tests in locked cabinets. (Yo Rick, Bleecker Street has a "c" in it. :) )

Scout explores the Collusion Memos, which apparently have a really strange idea of "extreme left" (I'd call most of the groups mentioned "moderate" or "centrist" myself).

BlogsCanada discovers the wonder that is Froogle.

Nice entry from the Estimated Prophet about selective application of international law, particularly when it comes to the US looking the other way at Israel's history of illegalities.

The Mudshark emphasizes there's a difference between big news and important news as he chats about the former.

The Poison Kitchen assures us that yes, of course there are actual rules to 3-D chess as played on Star Trek. Next thing you know they'll be swearing Wizard's Chess is real...

The Politburo Diktat talks about how to induce an Instalanche, which apparently has something to do with being mentioned by a very popular right-wing blogger whom I don't read.

Savage Cruel Bigots has one of the best examples of burying the lede that I've seen in awhile.

Sick of Bush wonders why so many people don't like Noam Chomsky. I like him well enough (and extensively studied his linguistic theories back in college when I majored in the stuff, not that I've retained any of that) but, geez, his lectures do have a tendency to put me to sleep.

The 18½ Minute Gap reminds us once again that Bush is a boor who hasn't the first notion of proper etiquette despite his upper-class training.

Treason Online reports that Americans are preventing the British and other allies from seeing intelligence that could save lives.

Finally, according to Wilson's Blogmanac, today is the Eve of St. Clement's Day. Clement is the patron of blacksmiths.

Friday Cat in the Hat Blogging, Part 2

Yeah, we're cruel, but fair. The cats are "celebrating" that movie, what's it called again... On the left, Datsa in - okay, under - Robin's faux artiste chappeau (Rob's a real artist, of course, but the hat's a RenFaire goof purchase). On the right, Amy's in Rob's arms and wearing the backwards cap thang, not very happily.

The Only Company Wal-Mart Fears

"You have to take the shit with the sugar, I guess. We think when you take care of your customer and your employees, your shareholders are going to be rewarded in the long run. And I'm one of them [the shareholders]; I care about the stock price. But we're not going to do something for the sake of one quarter that's going to destroy the fabric of our company and what we stand for."

That's James D. Sinegal, the president and CEO of Costco, which has been giving the hated Wal-Mart a fair run for their money. Read the whole article in Fortune (via Hesiod). Hmm, I wonder if he's looking for an admin assistant. Meanwhile, I think I'll pay my local Costco a visit...

Opinions Needed

Laura Gjovaag has announced on her blog that she'll be guest-blogging for me while I'm at Mid-Ohio Con, and has requested folks write to her to answer the following questions, which I think are so good that I'm putting them up here as well, so feel free to comment: "What do people expect from a guest blogger? Should I be trying to appeal to Elayne's audience, or should I just be myself and hope nobody quits reading in disgust? Should I pick a topic in advance and do a couple of blogs on that? Thoughts? Suggestions? What do you expect when a guest blogger is writing at a blog you like?" She's also thrilled to see that Alan Davis has done the cover for Aquaman #15, so I guess I now know what to get her as a thank-you for guest blogging, provided my one-cajoled-sketch-from-Alan-per-con coupon is still in effect...

His God? Is God?

From Margaret Cho's latest:

Your God is not the only God out there. What you are saying denies the entire reason America exists in the first place, religious freedom. You say same sex union is against the Bible, not thinking for a moment that there are other religions that have no connection with your particular beliefs, because you are not allowing freedom of religion to those who do not follow your way of worship. Dude. You are being like so, un-American.

Fer sher!

Loyalty to the Country Always, Loyalty to the Government When It Deserves It

The above title is the motto of the brilliant BushFlash site, which I've mentioned previously. Thanks to Lisa Rein (who also does some very cool multimedia stuff) I found out about the latest addition to their wonderful animation features, entitled Mission Accomplished. Why aren't the Democratic Presidential contenders making use of the talents of this site?

Relearning Curve

Just back from my first visit to "Employment Agency Row," which is actually not a row as much as a specific area, centered approximately right between the New York Public Library's main branch and Grand Central Station, where I paid a five-minute visit to someone who had nothing to offer me. In the 6+ years I've been gainfully employed I've forgotten how dehumanizing and draining something like this can be - why I couldn't have just e-mailed him attachments of their application and my résumé I have no idea. Okay, I have a little idea, they want to make sure you're presentable and well-spoken and prompt, so you have to at least make one personal appearance, but honestly, recruiters - why put up these Hotjobs and Monster and Career Builder listings in the first place if you don't really have anything remotely resembling them when I set foot in your office? Doesn't it just waste my time and yours?

Ah well, regardless of this expected frustration it was a gorgeous day to walk around midtown, and I revelled in the sun after almost a week of gloom and rain. I found the Internet phone (see previous post) on the southwest corner of 43rd and 5th, but the screen was blank and there were no instructions anywhere so I didn't want to take a chance on losing my money. And I'm also grateful for the chance to fill out apps again because it's reminded me of the sorts of things prospective employers look for besides skills and stable work history and all that stuff that's on the résumé anyway. Two things I'd completely forgotten about were business references and salary history. So I put in calls to the appropriate people to gather info on the latter (it was very cool to call my former employer and get the voice mail of a person I remembered!), and sent out e-mails this morning to five high-level execs I've known during my tenure at this job asking if I could cite them as refs. Three of them e-mailed back almost immediately saying "sure," and one (a lawyer based in Washington DC) even offered to get me an interview at his firm's NY offices! Eris works in mysterous ways - you see, I know it was her today because when I got into the elevator to go outside only the buttons "5" and "17" were mysteriously lit up...

Web Pay Phones

Via Gianna - and yeah, I think it's kinda amusing that I read this on an Australian weblog when I work in midtown NYC - we can now have Internet access from pay phones! Ironically, the website for the company that's installed them looks like it hasn't been updated in a year; the only press release details how they unveiled the beta phone in February of last year. Anyway, I'll be on the lookout for one of these babies at lunchtime today, and if I find it I'll try to blog from it. The phones are made by these folks.

"...or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"

While the Bush administration is busy sending thank-you notes to Michael Jackson for helping relegate the London visit to the status of a backstory, they should probably throw in a bouquet of roses as well for the misdirection away from Miami, where the FTAA meetings have been going on. Here's an Indymedia/Miami summary of the police crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators, many of whom are union activists. And wouldn't you know it, the two protests are connected. By the way, the STW coalition says 300,000+ from yesterday in Trafalgar Square; police lowballed it at 70,000. My instincts tell me it was probably closer to 200,000 but I'm still checking sites for alternate crowd estimates...

Our Version of David Kelly?

Via Cyndy Roy at Mousemusings, naturally: John J. Kokal, a 58-year-old official of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research Near East and South Asian division (INR/NESA), "was found dead in the late afternoon of November 7. Police indicated he may have jumped from the roof of the State Department." It gets stranger:

...a colleague of Kokal's told this writer that the Iraq analyst was despondent over "problems" with his security clearance. Kokal reportedly climbed out of a window and threw himself out in such a manner so that he would "land on his head." At the time Kokal fell from either the roof or a window, his wife Pamela, a public affairs specialist in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, was waiting for him in the parking garage. Mrs. Kokal had previously worked in Consular Affairs where she was involved in the stricter vetting of visa applicants from mainly Muslim countries after the Sept. 11 attacks.

And stranger still:

A former INR employee revealed that some one-third to one-half of INR officials are either former intelligence agents with the CIA or are detailed from the agency. He also revealed it would have been impossible for Kokal to have gained entry to the roof on his own. INR occupies both a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) on the sixth floor that has no windows and a windowless structure on the roof that has neither windows nor access to the roof, according to the former official. The other windows at the State Department have been engineered to be shatter proof from terrorist bomb attacks and cannot be opened.

There has been almost no coverage of this incident in the media, not even an obituary notice! Update: Natalie Davis explores this further.

Friday Cat in the Hat Blogging

Okay, now that the film's finally opening today, would the powers that be please remove the giant billboard of the movie poster from the side of the 34th Street Penn Station entrance so it can stop creeping me out every time I go to the office kitchen and look out the window?

"The Virtue of Honesty"

I'm sorry, unlike the Columbia University professor quoted above, I find nothing to applaud in Richard Perle's admission that of course he and others know the US invasion and subsequent occuption of Iraq was/is illegal under international law, but, you know, they answer to a higher authority (themselves). Via Atrios, who also passed along this webcam site to watch today's protests in Trafalgar Square.