From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V11 #250 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Friday, August 2 2002 Volume 11 : Number 250 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Roubyn Hitchcauck [Stewart Russell ] Re: Roubyn Hitchcauck [Sebastian Hagedorn ] Soft Boys in San Francisco [gridlife ] Re: more word-play [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] Re: more word-play [Christopher Gross ] Wombats, accents, and the rude bits. [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan] Re: more word-play [Stewart Russell ] Re: Wombats, accents, and the rude bits. [Stewart Russell ] sae thuh werd luv ["ross taylor" ] Soft Boys in SF ["Bradley Wood" ] Buffy musical [Christopher Gross ] Re: sae thuh werd luv [Michael R Godwin ] the rushes were psychedelic ["Natalie Jane" ] Wordy Rappinghood ["Rex.Broome" ] RE: return of the sacred crabbiness ["Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" ] I went to college in Connecticu*t ["Silver Leaf" ] Re: Soft Boys in SF [glen uber ] San Antonio, TX [Ken Weingold ] Re: Soft Boys in SF [glen uber ] ghost ship ["Jason R. Thornton" ] Re: Kiddie Lit, Funny Accents ["Jonathan Fetter" ] Re: the rushes were psychedelic ["Jonathan Fetter" ] Re: the rushes were psychedelic [glen uber ] Re: San Antonio, TX [gSs ] Re: San Antonio, TX [Ken Weingold ] Re: the rushes were psychedelic [Tom Clark ] All Robyn, All The Time [Tom Clark ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 08:42:34 -0400 From: Stewart Russell Subject: Re: Roubyn Hitchcauck Silver Leaf wrote: > > Well--thats a midwestern accent. I can't explain it, but I know it when > I hear it. Or rather, I -don't- know it when I hear it. don't worry, I'm used to it. Catherine has the most midwestern of midwestern accents. But all those dropped consonants; I'm horrified by the destruction of lib/r/ary, We/d/nesday, Feb/r/uary, and gover/n/ment. > Once I thought it might be "a Vermeer", I too thought it was a painterly reference. > And, since we're in full word mode --, what the hell does that mean? My > eyes aren't scaley;-) Aw, some dude had some contact lens cleaning issues on the road to Damascus a while back. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 14:52:39 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: Roubyn Hitchcauck - --On Friday, August 02, 2002 08:42:34 -0400 Stewart Russell wrote: > But all those dropped consonants; I'm horrified by the destruction of > lib/r/ary, We/d/nesday Is there really a variant of English where that 'd' is pronounced?? I've never heard it that way, neither in school (we were taught RP) nor in the US. My exposure to other UK dialects is rather limited ... - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156 50823 Kvln http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ Being just contaminates the void - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 06:47:04 -0700 From: gridlife Subject: Soft Boys in San Francisco Greetings Fegs! This morning's newspaper announces that tickets will go on sale this Sunday for the Soft Boys at Slim's on November 2. This is certainly not my first chice for an SF venue (quite dissapointing actually), but it is nice to see dates start to appear! Cheers, Dan (right then...back to lurking) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 02:18:53 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: more word-play >--On Friday, August 02, 2002 10:53:24 +1200 James Dignan > wrote: > >> In Welsh when you use adjectives, articles or pronouns, >> it's the first letter of the words that change (including the first letter >> of the noun). Gwlad means country, and bach means small, but 'the small >> country' is "Yr wlad fach". 'My country' is "'y ngwlad". Translating >> dictionaries are useless in Welsh. > >There are many languages that are just plain weird :-) To my family's >disappointment I didn't study comparative linguistics, but generative >linguistics. That entails that the only language you really need to know is >English - at least it seems like that. Now that it's too late I regret that >I haven't studied more languages at the university. Languages are fun! > >Do you really speak Welsh? I'm a big fan of languages too, and have tried to learn at least a tiny bit of quite a number - although probably not enough to be useful in any except French. I know enough to be able to understand Russian and German that is written down or spoken very slowly, but I'd need a dictionary to try to hold a conversation in either of them. I did learn a little Welsh for one term at High School in England (before I moved to NZ), but I can't hardly remember any of it these days. If pressed I could probably remember a dozen or so nouns, verbs and adjectives, count up to ten, and sing the first verse of the national anthem. Hardly the sort of thing that would keep a conversation going with someone from Llanelli! Here's a linguistic oddity: Maori has six different words for 'our'. One set of three if the object owned is singular, and one set of three if its plural. The three different types are 'our' mean 'belonging to me and the person I'm speaking to, but not anyone else', 'belonging to me and some other people, but not the person I'm speaking to', and 'belonging to me, some other people, AND the person I'm speaking to'! Also, instead of (or maybe as well as?) having a word for 'brother' and a word for 'sister', it has a word meaning 'sibling of the same sex' and a word meaning 'sibling of the opposite sex'. James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= .-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= You talk to me as if from a distance =-.-=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:11:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: more word-play On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, James Dignan wrote: > the problem with discussing these sort of things on a digest is that you > can only compare the sound with another word. I too pronounce not and tot > with the same vowel sound, but I'm sure it's not the same one you use. > > So here's an attempt to get round that. Dig out your Soft Boys albums: I > pronounce 'not' with the vowel sound Robyn uses for the second and fourth > words of the title of "I got the hots for you"; "taught" I rhyme with the > fourth word of the title of "Where are the prawns?" James, you are brilliant! This is the perfect tool for discussing pronunciation on the Feg list. Now, relying strictly on memory, I think I pronounce the vowel sounds of "got," "hots" and "prawns" almost exactly like Robyn does, except I pronounce them very slightly farther forward in my mouth than Robyn does. (Er, in his mouth.) I'll have to double-check when I get home to my CDs tonight. Sebastien, I've never heard any pronounce the d in Wednesday either, except perhaps when exagerrating for humorous effect. - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 02:35:16 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Wombats, accents, and the rude bits. >Wombats: > >Something about that word is just inherently fascinating. the local University Drama department used to put on a revue every year with Wombat in the title. Some of the titles over the years included "The French Lieutenant's wombat", "A wombat at my table", and "Wom-Bat to the future". Funny that no-one ever mentions the distantly-related and similarly-stupidly-named numbat. Even after 20 years in this country I can't get used to Newzild pronunciation. The capital is apparently called Wulinktun, warrior and worrier are homonyms, and so are beer and bear. And people here say *my* accent is odd! >> She prefers "yoni" - but is that O like "yawn" or like "go"? > >I think it's pronounced like 'go' to avoid collision with 'Yanni'. well, he's a bit of a twat, isn't he? James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= .-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= You talk to me as if from a distance =-.-=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:44:55 -0400 From: Stewart Russell Subject: Re: more word-play Christopher Gross wrote: > > Sebastien, I've never heard any pronounce the d in Wednesday either guess you don't know any Scottish people then. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:48:51 -0400 From: Stewart Russell Subject: Re: Wombats, accents, and the rude bits. James Dignan wrote: > > Funny that no-one ever mentions the distantly-related and > similarly-stupidly-named numbat. because the game of num has fallen into desuetude. Wom, however, is to be a demonstration sport at the next Olympics. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 09:50:27 -0500 (CDT) From: gSs Subject: Re: Roubyn Hitchcauck On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, Stewart Russell wrote: > don't worry, I'm used to it. Catherine has the most midwestern of > midwestern accents. But all those dropped consonants; I'm horrified by > the destruction of lib/r/ary, We/d/nesday, Feb/r/uary, and gover/n/ment. thaz kinedu werde. i drop the first d in wednesday and the first r in february but not the first r in library or the first n in government. library, wensday, febuary, government. what the hell are you people from? gSs ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 11:09:17 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: sae thuh werd luv I am truly impressed by the linguistic firepower on this list. For now I identify Sebastian, James & Stewart but have a feeling I'm leaving out several. Sebastian-- >I didn't study comparative linguistics, but generative >linguistics. That entails that the only language you really need to know is English As spoken by Noam Chomsky? - --- Midwest -- Bizarre the similar accents of Dylan, hippie manly poet Robert Bly and ... Ernest Hemingway. Listening to tapes of Pappa speak still blow my mind. Actually most of Glen's dad's pronunciations tar, far, crick etc., sound a lot like backwoods Tennessee or even backwoods Virginia. - --- the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face-- It wasn't til I was in my 20s and participating in a 6-7 person sing along of Visions of J that I learned it was "mirror" not veneer. I still like veneer & sing it that way often. It seems to have some of Bob's humor & brings her down to earth a bit more. When I sing Memphis Blues Again I still tend to replicate the stumble "when I, ah, he built a fire on Mainstreet and shot it full of holes" That was the 1st time I recognized a simple mistake helping intensify part of a song. - --- 'Between Kirk and the Gorn' sounds like the title of a Thomas Hardy poem-- It's taken me til now to realize it was that episode which was being parodied in Galaxy Quest in the fight w/ the Piglizard. "...but hey, I'm doing alright with the Piglizard!" - --- Gary Four Eyes-- Who was that masked man? Thanks for the review. "Queen Elvis, Hitchcock's sardonic take on fame" ?? lyrics about prehistoric sea creatures? - --- and also, when Robyn did "Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" before Nick Lowe at the workshop, was that Bo Diddley's song ("can't tell the honey by lookin at the bee/ can't tell the apple by lookin at the tree" etc.)? Is that some major first for him to do a 50s number? Ross Taylor "The Last Wombat in Mecca" Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 15:22:47 +0000 From: "Bradley Wood" Subject: Soft Boys in SF They announced in the SF Chronicle today that tickets will go on sale Sunday for the Soft Boys playing at Slim's on November 2. Bradley _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 11:35:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Buffy musical According to a fan site, the soundtrack CD to the Buffy musical, "Once More with Feeling," will be released on Sept. 17. Finally! I was starting to think they were waiting for the one-year anniversary of the episode.... - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 16:36:02 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: sae thuh werd luv On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, ross taylor wrote: > lyrics about prehistoric sea creatures? Trilobite, Dwight. > and also, when Robyn did "Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" before Nick > Lowe at the workshop, was that Bo Diddley's song ("can't tell the > honey by lookin at the bee/ can't tell the apple by lookin at the > tree" etc.)? Is that some major first for him to do a 50s number? He went through a phase of playing Junior Parker's 'Mystery Train', notably during a US tour with Billy Bragg. I have a feeling he has occasionally performed another McDaniel song too - Bo Diddley, or Who Do You Love, or Pretty Thing or something. Someone who has a database of RH performances might be able to confirm. - - Mike Godwin PS Went to see Hans Theesink last night: he has just been involved in putting together a Derroll Adams tribute CD, featuring Arlo Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dolly Parton, Donovan, Billy Connolly, Happy Traum etc etc. Sounds moderately interesting for ageing folkies... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 08:56:27 -0700 From: "Natalie Jane" Subject: the rushes were psychedelic >won't fly in connecticut. http://www.quassy.com/about_history.htm Now that I permanently associate "quassy" with genitalia, that amusement park sounds... very amusing indeed. *ahem* >re Frye: probably not literally true, but the metaphor is ugly >enough. Re >"yoni": it's got all these pretentious, ridiculous new-age >associations, >so...nope. Yeah, too bad about that, since it certainly didn't start out that way. But Frye's use of "yoni" is preferable to uber-hippie midwife Ina May Gaskin, whose book "Spiritual Midwifery" is a hilarious amalgam of useful information and breathless stories from ecstatic hippie chicks talking about their "psychedelic" birth experiences. Gaskin refers to the vulva as "puss" (shudder) and makes frequent references to the "taint," a slang word I was not familiar with (it refers to the perineum, apparently). This all sounds amazingly unprofessional to me, but thems hippies for you. Gaskin also doesn't want to give the impression that contractions hurt, so she calls them "rushes." Don't get me started on this. >Penis, Penes. Just like: Crisis, Crises. Oasis, Oases. Testis, Testes. Well, there's a band called Rudimentary Peni (one or two i's, I don't remember), so I was refering to that. >I don't know if anyone has responded to this.....I just finished the >CA >Bar Exam, and Quasi-contract was on it. Quasi, pronounced >"qua-sai". If I ever run into Janet Weiss or Sam Coomes, I will let them know. I wonder how they pronounce it? I will also ask Janet Weiss if she is Jewish. Except that she kind of scares me, so I doubt I'd be able to talk to her at all. > > LOTR is a kid's book? Yipes. > >I was around 11 when I read TFOTR. Can't remember how old I was. But LOTR wasn't intended for kids necessarily, which was my point. I didn't really understand it till I was older. Incidentally, I don't want to sound like an old poop who doesn't like kid's stuff. I love "Wallace & Gromit," I even liked "Toy Story" (though the sequel wasn't so great). And I'm sure "Lilo & Stitch" is worth seeing. But I am a poor poop, and if I'm gonna spend $8, I just want to see something more substantial. >Natalie is cranky. She needs desserts! I need potato chips and beer. Desserts might be nice also. n. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 09:21:22 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Wordy Rappinghood Stewart: >>And I've never been able to see how Bob Dylan could match 'near' with >>'mirror' in Visions of Johanna. Y'know, until I printed out the words to that song, I thought the line was "She's delicate and seems like veneer", which I quite liked. I still sing it that way half the time. Not as bad as a friend of mine who heard Dylan sing "keep on keepin' on like a virgin flu", but... Oh wait, Kay said the same thing. Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 09:19:30 -0700 From: "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" Subject: RE: return of the sacred crabbiness Steve explained: >>> The Hobbit and LOTR are kid's books, right? >> LOTR is a kid's book? Yipes. > >I was around 11 when I read TFOTR. Yeah and I was 10 when I started reading Asimov's Foundation books. That doesn't make either kid's books. Jason ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 11:33:22 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Pronounced YOO-ber On Thu, 1 Aug 2002, glen uber wrote: > homogenized California ears) pronunciation. Some of my favorite "Darrel > Uber-isms" include "hole" instead of "hold"; "ho" instead of "hole"; and > "aholt" instead of ahold; "crick" is a stream of water; "kint" meaning > "unable to"; "tar" and "far" are rubber implements for cars and one of > the basic elements, respectively; and the aforementioned "meer". Some > other of his pronunciations that sound weird to me are GIT-tar > (pronounced with two distinct 'T's'), MUS-tache, garage (pronounced guh- > raj) and that of his birth state: Missour-uh. Hmmm...I recognize all of these as being common, more or less, in rural parts around here...except that (guh-RAJ) is the typical American pronunciation, as opposed to the British (GAIR-idge - rhymes w/marriage - consult your Clash discography), and I think most Americans pronounce moustache w/the accent on the first syllable rather than the second. Elsewhere, Christopher asked about pronouncing the "d" in "Wednesday" - which reminded me: when Martin Newell sings "Christmas in Suburbia," he always pronounces the "t" in "Christmas." Is this some regional Britishism, or just a Newell affectation? (I'd never heard it pronounced that way before I bought that record.) - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::As long as I don't sleep, he decided, I won't shave. ::That must mean...as soon as I fall asleep, I'll start shaving! __Thomas Pynchon, VINELAND__ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 16:45:52 +0000 From: "Silver Leaf" Subject: I went to college in Connecticu*t James: >you did that deliberately, didn't you? :) Yes:-) - ---------------- Rex: >Hmmmm... a sigh of pleasure escaped from her as his wombat slid gently into >her waiting kumquat... >Okay, it's definitely weird. Yeah, but in a good way. However, --I hope you mean the common wombat and not the northen one. Now --that-- really would be weird;-) - ------------------------ Steve: >Natalie is cranky. She needs desserts! Desserts, mnnnnnn. How about some favorite words, not just for the good bits, but in general. Words we love. I dont think we've done that for awhile and Nat would find it sweet. - -------------- Nat: >Gaskin also doesn't want to give the impression that contractions hurt, so >she calls them "rushes." Don't get me started on this. This is why you'd make such a good midwife. I sincerely doubt anyone would ever volunteer to take a drug just to experience rushes like that. - ------------------ To be totally inscinderary. Im listening to Travis' "Invisible Band" and thinking how "Sing" sounds like a George Harrison song. Well, it does. Moping tween the bitter and the sweet, but also ducking and running Kay Carpe rutrum _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 10:20:13 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Kiddie Lit, Funny Accents Philip Pullman: My mother in law, of all people, turned me on to those books. I think she really liked the Catholic-bashing undercurrents. She's pretty cool. I liked 'em, too, although the last one was a bit of a letdown, and kind of shored up a theory I've been developing about SF/Fantasy: the buildup to the big war/conflict is always more interesting than the "big battle" itself. A lot of energy and creativity is expended getting the players in position, but when the "war" starts, all that can really be depicted is two armies rushing at each other, and then all the protagonists meet their opposite number in direct combat, and it's over. It's true of LOTR and Star Wars (hey, the entire Imperial fleet is gathered in one place!)... I think I started to notice this when my wife and I missed 2 episodes apiece of DS9 and Babylon 5 and the "big wars" that were built up for a couple of years had started and ended while we weren't looking. Conclusion: war is not only bad, it's boring as a narrative convention. (Hence my dislike of Starshit Troopers?) LOTR is definitely kid's lit, but kids aren't supposed to know it. You're supposed to read it when you're 11 and think you're reading well above your level, which you kind of are, but yet you're spared many real adult concerns in that it's so pre-sexual. That's why, when you read it as an adult, you can't figure out why everyone seems totally gay and you don't remember it that way at all. ____________ Funny talkin' parents: My dad (West Virginia again) oddly says "thue" for both "threw" and "through", although he pronounces "throw" normally. The general WV accent is a hybrid of flat Midwestern sounds and a light Southern touch (less than you would expect). For example, I just heard a friend who lives there (and still has the WV accent) "put on" a Southern accent for comedic effect. Oh, except for southern West Virginia, snake-handlin' country-- some of those accents are so thick they require subtitles. Perhaps the lack of teeth contributes? _________ Welsh is a cool language. Doing some research into my family, I've discovered that some of my ancestors were supposedly of Welsh extraction. Hope it's true. Their last name was "Veach" or "Veatch"... does that track? Rex "What's Welsh For Zen?" Broome ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 11:20:24 -0700 From: glen uber Subject: Re: Soft Boys in SF Bradley earnestly scribbled: >They announced in the SF Chronicle today that tickets will go on sale >Sunday for the Soft Boys playing at Slim's on November 2. Damn! I'm gonna have to cut my road trip short by a day. - -- Cheers! - -g- "Patriotism is the conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." - -- George Bernard Shaw glen uber =+= blint (at) mac dot com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 14:21:46 -0400 From: Ken Weingold Subject: San Antonio, TX Any Fegs from around San Antonio? I have to go there on Sunday for two weeks for work. I need to find things to do. - -Ken ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 11:25:36 -0700 From: glen uber Subject: Re: Soft Boys in SF glen earnestly scribbled: >Bradley earnestly scribbled: > >>They announced in the SF Chronicle today that tickets will go on sale >>Sunday for the Soft Boys playing at Slim's on November 2. > >Damn! I'm gonna have to cut my road trip short by a day. Ooops! I hit send instead of save. I should have concluded this by asking, does anyone know if they're going to be playing in or around Denver, Boise, Cheyenne or Vegas anytime during the two weeks prior to the SF show? I'm the boss...need the info. - -- Cheers! - -g- "To prevent terrorism by dropping bombs on Iraq is such an obvious idea that I can't think why no one has thought of it before. It's so simple. If only the UK had done something similar in Northern Ireland, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today." - --Terry Jones glen uber =+= blint (at) mac dot com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 11:31:53 -0700 From: "Jason R. Thornton" Subject: ghost ship I saw a blurb last night on Access Hollywood, or Entertainment Tonight, or some such show while channel surfing last night, on a new movie called "Ghost Ship," starring Julianna Margulies and Gabriel Byrne. From the scenes they previewed, it looks like a complete piece of crap - one of those action/special-effects pseudo-horror films: Margulies getting all tough-girl and kick-ass, fighting off the supernatural baddies with a harpoon gun or whatever. But, the title amused me for at least a few seconds. >Penis, Penes. Just like: Crisis, Crises. Oasis, Oases. Testis, Testes. Vagina, vaginae? Or is vagina plural for vaginum? - --Jason "Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples." - Sherwood Anderson ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 14:45:43 -0400 (EDT) From: "Jonathan Fetter" Subject: Re: Kiddie Lit, Funny Accents > I liked 'em, too, although the last one was a bit of a letdown, and kind of > shored up a theory I've been developing about SF/Fantasy: the buildup to > the big war/conflict is always more interesting than the "big battle" > itself. A lot of energy and creativity is expended getting the players in > position, but when the "war" starts, all that can really be depicted is two > armies rushing at each other, and then all the protagonists meet their > opposite number in direct combat, and it's over. > > It's true of LOTR and Star Wars (hey, the entire Imperial fleet is gathered > in one place!)... I think I started to notice this when my wife and I missed > 2 episodes apiece of DS9 and Babylon 5 and the "big wars" that were built up > for a couple of years had started and ended while we weren't looking. > Conclusion: war is not only bad, it's boring as a narrative convention. > (Hence my dislike of Starshit Troopers?) Myself, I rather enjoyed the battle descriptions of Helm's Deep, Minas Tirith, and some of the more detailed battles in The Silmarillion, just as much as the build-up. It only gets boring for me when one side gets the upper hand and starts bashing the heads of the fleeing army in left and right. > LOTR is definitely kid's lit... Yeah, Tolkien held up publication for years to get those appendixes in for the kiddies. Jonny the Geek ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 14:48:00 -0400 (EDT) From: "Jonathan Fetter" Subject: Re: the rushes were psychedelic > >Penis, Penes. Just like: Crisis, Crises. Oasis, Oases. Testis, Testes. > The proper Latin pronunciation of the Pine tree genus, "Pinus," is penis, right? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 11:50:39 -0700 From: glen uber Subject: Re: the rushes were psychedelic Jonathan earnestly scribbled: >> >Penis, Penes. Just like: Crisis, Crises. Oasis, Oases. Testis, Testes. >> > The proper Latin pronunciation of the Pine tree genus, "Pinus," is >penis, right? In Classical Latin it would be closer to "PEE-noose". - -- Cheers! - -g- "To prevent terrorism by dropping bombs on Iraq is such an obvious idea that I can't think why no one has thought of it before. It's so simple. If only the UK had done something similar in Northern Ireland, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today." - --Terry Jones glen uber =+= blint (at) mac dot com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 13:52:22 -0500 (CDT) From: gSs Subject: Re: San Antonio, TX On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, Ken Weingold wrote: > I need to find things to do. gene will probably let you do him. you can do the rivers too, the frio and neuces especially. stay out of town. go to uvalde and work your way back. just drive, stop, swim, take some pictures, eat and repeat. canoe, amd kayak float trips are real fun, inexpensive and they pick you and your float up down river. or just go to garner state park. gSs ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 14:55:43 -0400 From: Ken Weingold Subject: Re: San Antonio, TX On Fri, Aug 2, 2002, gSs wrote: > On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, Ken Weingold wrote: > > > I need to find things to do. > > gene will probably let you do him. Does he have a cunt? Or twat? Or hooch? Or...... - -Ken ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 11:04:41 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: the rushes were psychedelic on 8/2/02 8:56 AM, Natalie Jane at emma_blowgun@hotmail.com wrote: >> won't fly in connecticut. http://www.quassy.com/about_history.htm > > Now that I permanently associate "quassy" with genitalia, that amusement > park sounds... very amusing indeed. *ahem* I hear they have a great Tunnel of Love! - -t "Stay away from the log flume" c ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:51:08 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: All Robyn, All The Time Well, I finally found a manageable solution that allows me to webcast from my home. Right now I'm streaming a 48Kbps shuffled collection of all my RH MP3's. In a week or two I'll be moving over to a more traditional mix of assorted artists. From what I know, the following players can receive streaming MP3: Windows: Winamp, RealPlayer, or MusicMatch. Mac: iTunes or Audion. Linux/X Windows: XMMS. Tune in here: http://www.shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.pls?rn=2243546&file=filenam e.pls Enjoy! - -tc ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V11 #250 ********************************