Category: Miscellaneous
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Administrative Note
I've had to switch over to moderated comments because of the astonishing volume of gibberish spam lately. If you post a brilliant comment or clever riposte and don't see it right away, that just means I have to approve it.
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Leveraging Our Desires
My kids have recently become enamored of the TV show Leverage, watching it via Hulu and Netflix. If you're not familiar with the series, it's basically an updated Mission: Impossible. Each episode centers on an elaborate caper performed by our slightly shady heroes, typically aimed at righting some wrong. To make the episodes interesting, the…
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Season of the Witch
It's Halloween today, and I notice that Google has chosen to celebrate the day with a "Google Doodle" of a witch busy at her cauldron. I've written about Halloween witches elsewhere, but one of the links off the Google page (this one) reminded me of something I've come to detest in modern supernatural fiction. In…
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Comic Con
This past Friday my talented wife and I spent the day on the placid isle of Manhattan, at the New York Comic Con. I've gone to a lot of science fiction and game conventions in my time. I've manned a booth at Gen-Con during the peak of the card game boom. I've been to World…
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Belloq’s Obsession
Recently I was listening to the soundtrack for Raiders of the Lost Ark and talking about the movie with my kids when I had a thought. Just after Indy's epic fistfight with the Giant Bald Guy at the airplane, the movie cuts away to a reaction by Indiana Jones's villainous rival Belloq. Belloq sees something…
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The Perpetual Tourist
I recently got back from a trip, and of course there were lots of mundane errands to run as soon as I got home. The usual stuff — buying things, dropping kids off, mailing things, banking, all the business of middle-class life. But I found myself experiencing a sort of psychic jet-lag, as though my…
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On Camping Out Indoors
We got sick of the grubby linoleum, the decaying cabinets and counters, and the lack of a proper stove vent, so we're redoing the kitchen. Actually, that's not true: we're not doing much beyond writing checks. A professional contractor and various skilled subcontractors are redoing the kitchen. When they're finished (in another couple of weeks,…
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A Message To Rock Musicians Everywhere
I have a particular handicap: I listen to song lyrics. Now, don't get me wrong — I'm not one of those people who thinks long and hard about the profound and secret meaning of song lyrics. (No, Charles, I don't think that's what "Helter Skelter" is supposed to be about.) But I do pay attention…
The Cambias Digression 