From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V13 #197 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, July 7 2004 Volume 13 : Number 197 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? [Sebastian Hagedorn ] Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? [Christopher Gross ] Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? [Aaron Mandel ] M-Bands ["Rex.Broome" ] Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? ["Eb" ] Re: M-Bands ["Fortissimo" ] Boohoo [Christopher Hintz ] Googling Oneself... ["Rex.Broome" ] my favorite "Googling" ["Eb" ] re: Small Strange World ["Marc Holden" ] Hey, at least her maiden name wasn't "Eton"... ["Rex Broome" ] Re: REAP ["Eb" ] Re: REAP [Tom Clark ] Re: REAP ["Rex Broome" ] Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? [Christopher Gross ] Re: REAP [Capuchin ] Re: REAP [Capuchin ] REAP ["Maximilian Lang" ] re: Small Strange World [James Dignan ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:57:17 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? Hi, I'm really fresh myself, as far as Buffy is concerned, but: - --On Montag, 5. Juli 2004 20:08 Uhr -0700 The Mammal Brain wrote: > terms of scenario, character, and plot) completely fails to convey what's > actually good about the work. That is, Buffy (for example) is utterly > ridiculous (intentionally so) in description - but I don't suppose it > surprises anyone here to hear me say that it's quite possibly the best TV > show ever in terms of overall effectiveness.> > > can you explain its appeal, for someone who *has* seen it? just a matter > of taste, i guess. sure, everything is, at least to some extent. > but, after reading and hearing so much about how great > it was (including, of course, here), i was so terribly excited when the > library added the season one dvd to its collection. then, i > couldn't...believe...how...fucking...lame...it...was. so, i thought, they > must not have had their legs under them during the first season (despite > whedon's insufferable pretentiousness on the commentary tracks), Actually I thought the opposite. I like his self-deprecating manner, but I guess you could argue that's false modesty that's actually proof of pretentiousness ;-) Season 1 didn't really overwhelm me, either. It was more like: if everyone says it's great there *has* to be something to it. Watching "Firefly" convinced me to give Buffy a serious chance, BTW. I'd watched a random episode in German previously, but that was all. > and tried > out season two. i was only mildly surprised to find > how...fucking...lame...it...was. That I don't understand. I thought season 2 was an unbelievable improvement over the first one. I began to actually care about the characters, just the way I was supposed to. > was there ever a more formulaic show in teevee history? let's see: some > monsters come up out of the hell-mouth and kill some kids at the high > school. (yeah, i'm sure my high school would've stayed in session even > after *weekly* killings, and the friggin' principal getting eaten...and > i'm sure my parents would've been all too happy to continue sending me > there.) Nobody ever said this was to be taken seriously ... if you apply standards like this you are missing the point. > the gang congregates in the library so the librarian can look up > the behaviour in his reference sources. willow gets a bunch of crap off > of "the computer". and then buffy goes and kicks their asses. add water > and repeat...and repeat...and repeat...and repeat. The actual plot of each episode is only the means to an end. It's the McGuffin. Some are rather entertaining in and of themselves (Halloween, Bad Eggs), but often they just serve to push the character development. Buffy is fundamentally character-based, not plot-based! > and was there ever a *pair* of more annoying characters (on the same show) > in teevee history than xander and willow? christ. those two should've > been rounded up along with whoever wrote the moronic dialogue for the > shows, and fed to the vampires. *that* would've been worth watching. Huh? Xander may be obnoxious at times (and I'm not a fan of the Xander-Cordelia thing), but Willow is my favorite character on the show ... I'm not saying that Buffy is the best show I've ever seen, but there's certainly enough in it to keep me watching - not least of all it keeps me up to speed on slang: do people actually say things like "(adjective) much!", e.g. "morbid much!" (from the pilot episode)?? - -- Sebastian Hagedorn PGP key ID: 0x4D105B45 http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 06:08:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > do people actually say things like "(adjective) much!", e.g. "morbid > much!" (from the pilot episode)?? I'm only familiar with that construction as a sarcastic question. Like, the above would be a short form of "are you morbid very much of the time?" Anyway, that's the best I can describe it. If it's something else, I don't know what. J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:53:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Fortissimo wrote: > Hey, Chris, Miles, are you guys here? Help me out, eh? I would help you out, but a.) I woke up feeling like crap this morning, possibly due to an oncoming summer cold, and b.) you seem to be doing better on your own than you could with my help! For example, your point that Buffy plays with genre conventions, and that non-fans may take this as simply repeating old formulas, is very well taken, and was better expressed than I could have managed. The very concept of the show came about as a reaction to the horror movie convention of hot but helpless blonde girls getting killed by the monster in the first reel. (To a lesser extent it also seems to have been a reaction to the conventions of SoCal teen movies and TV shows.) This became less important over time, until by the final season BtVS was pretty much living inside its own universe with hardly a nod to genre conventions. But even in season 1, I don't think they ever just reiterated a standard genre plot without tweaking it at least a little. Of course Eddie's description of a standard Buffy plot -- monster comes out and kills someone, the group researches it, Buffy kills it -- is ludicrously oversimplified. You could use a similar technique to ridicule any series ever made ("Hill Street Blues just had some criminals, half brutal and the rest weird, and some quirky cops arresting them while having personal problems on the side, over and over again ad nauseum"). But even if that description was accurate, I doubt it would make Buffy the most formulaic show in TV history. There's a LOT of competition for that title! A lot of Eddie's other Buffy criticisms may just be a matter of taste. Willow annoying? Well, people differ. I, for example, would rate Raising Arizona one of my least favorite Coen brothers movies. Chacun a son moose, as the Canadians say. I may post more later, depending on how I feel and what other replies pop up. - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:03:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? On Mon, 5 Jul 2004, Eb wrote: > I'm not quite sure what you mean by the term "climb-down," but if you > and/or Jeme want to play too-cool contrarian and pretend there's no > difference between an action character who extracts himself from > predicaments in unlikely ways and an action character who has directly > acknowledged supernatural powers, I wouldn't describe most action heroes as "superheroes" either, but there's a big (and growing) cohort of cases where your description above doesn't capture what's going on. For one thing, Batman has no supernatural powers but is obviously a super-hero. On the other hand, Buffy has supernatural powers that consist entirely -- if I remember correctly -- of being like your average action hero (stronger, faster, tougher). The only difference between her and Bruce Willis in Die Hard is that there's an explanation for Buffy's superior physical condition. So I don't know, man. I think a friend of mine was convinced that Alias had some Buffy-style explanation for why Sidney Bristow was so good at kicking ass, and another friend of mine was positive there was no justification beyond her being a protagonist and thus blessed by the writers. I don't remember if one of them convinced the other. a ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:09:38 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: M-Bands Nat: >>Question 1: Mission of Burma's new album - I listened to a little of it >>and it's pretty good, but isn't it kind of sacrilegious (sp) to buy a >>reunion album when you haven't heard their original stuff? I... feel like I've done this with some band at some point, but I can't put my finger on when or why. I know I've picked up solo releases by people whose old band is supposed to be way better than their solo stuff before hearing said old band; that's kinda similar, right? >>Their old stuff is probably better, right? Well, yes, but the new album is so stylistically consistent with their old stuff that I wouldn't call it a bad place to start at all, nosirree. Which is also to say if you even slighly like OnOFFOn, do pick up the old records. >> What would be a good Mekons record to start with? Jeez. Almost as bad as asking the same question about the Fall. I'm gonna say "Rock 'N' Roll", but I have to confess to not having listened to some of their "classic" records enough to have settled on a "favorite". I would not start with their "first" album, although it does have one of my favorite titles ever-- "The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen". No typo, that's really what it's called... I love that. Jeme: >> And there's a better than slim chance that a >>certain cycling former feg in Portland will be on the ride (and riding to >>the ride the previous day!), so we might arrange a small mass. The phrase "former feg" keeps cropping up, and I'm starting to wonder... we are all meaning former feg-*lister*, right? Feg meaning basically "Robyn Hitchcock fan". I'd just like to hope that being annoyed enough with us bastards to quit the list isn't exactly the same thing as becoming disenchanted with Robyn's music itself... Oh, am I supposed to recommend and "M" band? This week it's The Monochrome Set, but if you'll settle for lowercase m, try some minutemen and see how that goes for ya. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:00:36 -0700 From: "Eb" Subject: Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? > For one thing, Batman has no supernatural > powers but is obviously a super-hero. I'd say that's debatable, actually. I always thought the Justice League was kinda slummin', allowing Batman's tech-geek ass on board. I mean, really, a character named after a flying creature which *can't* fly? Puhleeze. ;) Eb ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 13:18:55 -0500 From: "Fortissimo" Subject: Re: M-Bands On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:09:38 -0700, "Rex.Broome" said: > >> What would be a good Mekons record to start with? > > Jeez. Almost as bad as asking the same question about the Fall. I'm > gonna say "Rock 'N' Roll", but I have to confess to not having listened > to some of their "classic" records enough to have settled on a > "favorite". I would not start with their "first" album, although it does > have one of my favorite titles ever-- "The Quality of Mercy Is Not > Strnen". No typo, that's really what it's called... I love that. Esp. in combo w/its cover image: a monkey at a typewriter. And *I* love that. Oh - My First Mekons Album was _So Good It Hurts_. Seems kinda underheralded - but it worked for me. Slightly more pop in the equation than usual, and tad more Jamaican influence - but not to the extent of cheeziness. I think you can capitalize "Minutemen" - I'm pretty sure some of their graphics does so. Another good M-band, with a new release coming out in a couple of months: Macha. - ------------------------------- ...Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ :: crumple zones:: :: harmful or fatal if swallowed :: :: small-craft warning :: ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 14:37:45 -0400 From: Christopher Hintz Subject: Boohoo Sadly, I must report that Brenda has left me, along with her lightbulb eyes. So today I gathered up all her stuff and got rid of it. If you contacted me for one of her DVDs, you'll probably see it soon or soon-er, depending on which side of the Atlantic you find yourself. I'm glad to be rid of all those extra test copies. Honestly, how many does 1 person need? Once you're sure it works you can stop burning them! Hopefully she'll stick with you for a while. Good luck. Christopher Hintz +++ If I were God, and the world treated me as it treated Him, I would kick the wretched thing to pieces. - --Martin Luther ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:52:37 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Googling Oneself... I've never been fishing with this guy: http://www.michigansportsman.com/August01Results.htm I have not signed on as a Junior High Teacher in Livingston... http://www.livingstonisd.com/minutes/board_minutes_6_21_04.htm Apparently there are a fuckload of Tyrannnosaurus Rex fossils to be found near Broome, Australia, and a guy named John Broome made quite a name for himself writing comics about Rex the Wonder Dog... There useta be an artist somewhere online peddling a remarkable print of his original artwork "Rex of Broome", but it seems to have vanished... It *is* me on this record, though: http://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/showoneprod.asp?ProductID=3267 - -Rex, dusting off the guitar for the inaugural rehearsal of Rainland Mark II tonight... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 12:01:39 -0700 From: "Eb" Subject: my favorite "Googling" http://www.mssc.state.ms.us/decisions/Publishedopinions/96-00620.HTM ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 13:21:10 -0700 From: "Marc Holden" Subject: re: Small Strange World >well, I've recently discovered that apparently I'm Professor of >Criminology and Restorative Justice at the Centre for Criminological >and Legal Research, so anything's possible. Most bizarrely, at this >site it is shown that he >talked at a conference in Hong Kong alongside Dr Gabrielle Maxwell - >who taught me psychology here at Otago University. The world is not >only smaller than we imagine, it is stranger, too. >James The agency I get my work through has about 100 independent contractors. They recently hired another Marc Holden. Fortunately his name is spelled "Mark Holden". Still, it's a bit confusing when people leave messages for one of us at the office. I also review the paperwork he submits, so later this week I'll get the unusual task of calling him and saying "Hi, is Mark Holden there? This is Marc Holden calling..." I tried Googling my name with the middle initial, and it brought up two "Mark W. Holden"s, including one running for office in Colorado. His wife is Linda (my sister's name), so that was kind of a creepy feeling there. My sister is married now, so she is no longer Linda Holden. Her name has changed to Linda Holden Cox (I'm totally serious). My mother was thrilled when she realized how that was going to sound. Later, Marc (which is short for "Marc") I believe in making the world safe for our children, but not our children's children, because I don't think children should be having sex. Jack Handey ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 15:56:21 -0700 From: "Rex Broome" Subject: Hey, at least her maiden name wasn't "Eton"... >My >sister is married now, so she is no longer Linda Holden. Her name has >changed to Linda Holden Cox (I'm totally serious). Okay, one doesn't normally do this on mailing lists, much less feg in particular, and I would restrain myself if Marc himself didn't seem to have such a good sense of humor about it, but sometimes you just gotta go... BWWWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! Incidentally, googling my full name (James Rex Broome) doesn't bring up much that isn't really me, and most of the time the "James" just shows up because the text also refers to some guy named Dignan... weird. Oh, and another hit on my name brings up a page authored by Eb which contains the word "T-Rex"... the band this time, not the dinosaur. - -Rex Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:13:57 -0700 From: "Rex Broome" Subject: REAP Any chance that the US will be governed by anyone other than some white guy until 2009. Kind of a foregone conclusion, but somewhat irritating nonetheless. - -Rex Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 16:30:50 -0700 From: "Eb" Subject: Re: REAP > Any chance that the US will be governed by anyone other than some white guy until 2009. > > Kind of a foregone conclusion, but somewhat irritating nonetheless. What, you were hoping for a Kerry-Sharpton ticket? Eb ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 16:44:51 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: REAP On Jul 6, 2004, at 4:13 PM, Rex Broome wrote: > Any chance that the US will be governed by anyone other than some > white guy until 2009. > > Kind of a foregone conclusion, but somewhat irritating nonetheless. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." MLK - 28 Aug. 1963 - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:15:19 -0700 From: "Rex Broome" Subject: Re: REAP Me 'n' Tom: >> Any chance that the US will be governed by anyone other than some >> white guy until 2009. >> >> Kind of a foregone conclusion, but somewhat irritating nonetheless. > >"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a >nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by >the content of their character." > >MLK - 28 Aug. 1963 Fair 'nuff, but don't you think the parties fielding these candidates have skin color and/or gender in mind when they consider the "electability" of their guy? I don't think it's too cynical to note that the major parties have never put forth anyone other than a white male as a presidential candidate, and only fielded a non-male or non-Christian* for VP once apiece. Not that I would vote for a candidate based on those factors, but I do think there should have been some natural movement on that formula by now. Since we're all google-mad, who can scare up figures on what percentage of the US population is male, white, and self-identified as Christian? It would have to be less than a quarter, but among presidential nominees it remains 100%, yeah? - -Rex, afraid he mighta stepped in it again... *I know I'm prolly gonna hear that the founding fathers were deists and stuff, but, seriously... Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 20:16:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Uncle Junior's summer gig? On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > > so, i thought, they > > must not have had their legs under them during the first season (despite > > whedon's insufferable pretentiousness on the commentary tracks), > > Actually I thought the opposite. I like his self-deprecating manner, but I > guess you could argue that's false modesty that's actually proof of > pretentiousness ;-) I wonder if pretentiousness is an objective, verifiable quality, or just a matter of the observer's opinion? Whedon's commentaries never struck me as pretentious (even when it was a real risk, like in the one for the Firefly episode "Objects in Space"). But I can think of another reason, aside from Sebastian's false-modesty theory, why someone might feel that way. If a person has already decided that the show is crap, then any comment by its creators about how much effort they put into it, how proud they are of it, or in any way taking the show seriously and not laughing at it as a piece of crap, might well sound pretentious. > > and tried > > out season two. i was only mildly surprised to find > > how...fucking...lame...it...was. > > That I don't understand. I thought season 2 was an unbelievable improvement > over the first one. I began to actually care about the characters, just the > way I was supposed to. I cared about the characters from the beginning[1], but I agree that season 2 was a major improvement -- especially after a certain critical turning point midway through the season. I'm curious, Eddie (if you're reading this) how far into season 2 you watched? Not that I think watching to such-and-such a point in the series would convert you; this is pure impractical curiosity here. > The actual plot of each episode is only the means to an end. It's the > McGuffin. Some are rather entertaining in and of themselves (Halloween, Bad > Eggs), but often they just serve to push the character development. Buffy > is fundamentally character-based, not plot-based! The classic example of this is "The Prom," from season 3, when maybe a quarter of the show, at most, is devoted to the monster of the week (MOTW) and the vast majority deals with relations between the main characters, most notably Buffy and Angel breaking up. > Huh? Xander may be obnoxious at times (and I'm not a fan of the > Xander-Cordelia thing), but Willow is my favorite character on the show ... Of course Xander is *supposed* to be obnoxious sometimes, just as Cordelia is supposed to be bitchy, Giles stuffy, and so on. Though he didn't specify what annoyed him about Xander and Willow, it sounds like Eddie dislikes the characters as a whole, not their occasional annoying behavior. (Personally, I thought the Xander-Cordelia relationship was quite amusing, and good for the show at first, but probably lasted too long. But once again I'm getting off the subject of whether or not the show's any good....) > I'm not saying that Buffy is the best show I've ever seen, but there's > certainly enough in it to keep me watching - not least of all it keeps me > up to speed on slang: do people actually say things like "(adjective) > much!", e.g. "morbid much!" (from the pilot episode)?? This is real slang, although it should have a question mark. Most other hallmarks of Buffy slang, like the -age compounds (eg Slayage) and creation of adjectives by adding -y to a noun that doesn't really need it (eg, Heart-of-Darknessy) are also real, though some are used more frequently on the show than in real life. And it works both ways -- Buffy has probably also had an influence on its viewer's slang. I've noticed myself doing the suffixy thing more often since I became a fan, much as I started saying "D'oh" and "Woohoo!" sometime in the early 90s. There's a whole book on Buffy slang, Slayer Slang by Michael Adams, which I have NOT read. Well, not yet. - --Chris [1] Confession time: I didn't actually watch Buffy from the beginning. I became a fan with season 1, as stated above, but mainly through reruns and video rentals. But I did see one episode, "Prophecy Girl," the season 1 finale, when it first aired. I really can't remember how well I liked it, but I do recall thinking that the show had already been on for two or three years. The characters and situation seemed to be too complex for an ordinary American TV show to have developed in its just one season. ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 17:18:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: REAP On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Tom Clark wrote: > On Jul 6, 2004, at 4:13 PM, Rex Broome wrote: > > Any chance that the US will be governed by anyone other than some > > white guy until 2009. > > "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a > nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by > the content of their character." > > MLK - 28 Aug. 1963 Oh, right... so let's amend there. REAP... any chance that the US will be governed by anyone who's character does not contain huge amounts of greed, duplicity, murderous vengefulness, and intolerance. Better? J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 18:41:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: REAP On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Rex Broome wrote: > Since we're all google-mad, who can scare up figures on what percentage > of the US population is male, white, and self-identified as Christian? Well, the US Census does some funny things with "whiteness". For example, they consider "hispanic and latino" to be a kind of cultural distinction, rather than non-white, whereas, in this context, we'd probably want to consider those people non-white. The census says this about white people: The term "White" refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who reported "White" or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab or Polish. Hence, they have a very large number for white people: 77.1%. Those that checked "White" alone and no other races were 75.1%. Of course, this is a percentage of respondents and, therefore, slightly skewed by forces I just don't understand. It's unclear whether people who identify as, say, Bengali are "White" since they are "near Eastern" or "Asian". Another VERY interesting thing here is the "White in combination" population. It seems that if you're any white at all, you're pretty much all white. Individuals who chose more than one of the six race categories are referred to as the race "in combination" population, or as the group who reporeted "more than one race". For example, respondents who reported theyw ere "White AND Black or African American" or "White AND Asian AND American Indian and Alaska Native" would be included in the White "in combination" population. OK... further reading yields this: The White non-Hispanic population represented... 70 percent of the total population. So there's that. > It would have to be less than a quarter, but among presidential nominees > it remains 100%, yeah? I was unable to find any information on religion. So, neglecting the "Christian" requirement, you're looking at about a 35% population of white males, given the broad definition of the U.S. Census. J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:19:36 -0400 From: "Maximilian Lang" Subject: REAP Eric Douglas, son of Kirk. _________________________________________________________________ Get tips for maintaining your PC, notebook accessories and reviews in Technology 101. http://special.msn.com/tech/technology101.armx ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 17:05:33 +1200 From: James Dignan Subject: re: Small Strange World > >well, I've recently discovered that apparently I'm Professor of >>Criminology and Restorative Justice at the Centre for Criminological >>and Legal Research, so anything's possible. Most bizarrely, at this >>site it is shown that he >>talked at a conference in Hong Kong alongside Dr Gabrielle Maxwell - >>who taught me psychology here at Otago University. The world is not > >only smaller than we imagine, it is stranger, too. > >The agency I get my work through has about 100 independent contractors. They >recently hired another Marc Holden. Fortunately his name is spelled "Mark >Holden". Still, it's a bit confusing when people leave messages for one of >us at the office. I also review the paperwork he submits, so later this week >I'll get the unusual task of calling him and saying "Hi, is Mark Holden >there? This is Marc Holden calling..." heh. I went to school with Mark Miller, Marc Miller, and Mark Millar. Talk about confusion... As to myself and work confusion, myself and a guy called James Dickson used to get messages for each other all the time. Sadly he was one of those shot in NZ's most famous 'survivalist goes nuts' tragedies about ten years ago. On a brighter note, I found myself in the small town of Gore, about 100 miles south of here, today. Having not been in Gore for about ten years, I decided to see what art galleries, if any, the town had. First one I walked into, the guy at the desk said "It's James, isn't it?". An old university friend I hadn't seen since the 1980s. Weird world this one. 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") -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V13 #197 ********************************