Month: August 2003

I remember thinking, when I was in first and second grade back in 1977 and 1978, that by the year 2000 we’d have flying cars. Whoops. And then, in my freshman year in college, I predicted that by 2000 the Bills would have won at least one Super Bowl. Whoops. So I’m not the best predictor you’ll find out there.

And neither, apparently, were folks way back in 1950. Kevin Drum found an old article of predictions made back then, and he tallies the results in a handy table. Cool! (As much as I love Kevin’s political commentary, I’d love to see him write more about books and stuff.)

Here’s one example:

Prediction: “No more storms! Before one has a chance to build up steam, oil is spread on the sea and ignited, causing the storm to dissipate.”

Reality: “This novel idea does not seem to have caught on, although several supertanker captains appear to have been enthusiasts for the first part of this operation.”

As Insty might say, Read the whole thing.

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I’m pretty sure I’ve plugged this before, but Realms of Fantasy has one of the best services for writers I’ve ever seen: the online slush list, so you can actually check to see if the slush reader for the magazine has read your story. Wow. (My current submission has not yet been read, obviously, because it is of such staggering quality it will sail right through to the Editor’s desk. Hear me roar!)

Also, from the FAQ in this page, Carina — the ROF slush reader — writes that she doesn’t mind multiple submissions:

I’ve been getting this question a lot recently and so decided to add it to the F.A.Q. You can send as many stories to me as you like, even in the same envelope, provided THERE IS A SASE FOR EVERY STORY! The reason for this is because stories are often separated. I might reject one, sending it home to you, but want the other one to go to Shawna for possible publication. She’s going to need her own method of contacting and/or rejecting you. So send away!

That is helpful information.

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An interesting little ritual on Monday mornings is when I do my morning web-surfing and such, and as the morning progresses, more and more of the little (^)’s pop up next to the links in “Other Journeys”, as people post updates to their blogs after the weekend.

(Well, it’s interesting to me, anyway. This post was obviously written in a pre-caffeinated state.)

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PBS had a show on this week about….sandwiches.

Lord, did this show make me hungry.

Dedicated to various sandwiches available across the United States, some of which I’d never heard of before, there was even a bit of local pride: Buffalo’s Beef-on-Weck was featured, from a restaurant just ten minutes from where I live right now (and in walking distance of where we lived before)! It’s always incredibly cool to see something local featured nationally.

(And yes, for my Iowan readers, these got a prominent mention as well.)

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I don’t drink nearly as much beer as I used to — a six-pack of Sam Adams can linger in my fridge for months at a time these days — so I’d probably not be of much interest to this organization. Ah, well….

(Apropos of nothing, my favorite beer-related quote of all time comes from The Simpsons, when Ned Flanders says: “As a good host I’m obligated to offer you a beer. But I’m so darn mad, it’s gonna be mostly head!”)

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Two former Buffalo Bills enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame today:

:: Joe DeLamielleure, one of the members of the great “Electric Company” offensive line that plowed the road for OJ Simpson during the 70s.

:: James Lofton, who was the Bills’ number two receiver and deep threat during their first three Super Bowl seasons.

That’s two Bills from the Super Bowl teams — Lofton and QB Jim Kelly, inducted last year — to go into the Hall. Future years will see Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, and Bruce Smith certainly inducted. I also would not be surprised to see Kent Hull, Darryl Talley, and Cornelius Bennett in the Hall. And of course, as a biased Bills fan, I think the Hall would be incomplete for all time if they don’t induct Steve Tasker, the game’s greatest special teams player ever — but I’m not sure if that’s enough to get him in, as an “objective” football observer. We’ll see.

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Wow. This has been a pretty cool summer, here in Buffalo at least. It’s now August, and I’m not sure if we’ve even hit 90 degrees a single time. Usually we’re good for seven or eight days of 90s around here. Of course, we may still get them, but I’m hoping not. I loathe hot weather. Our current apartment has central air conditioning, which is a magnificent luxury, and we’ve use it probably a total of ten times this summer — and even then, we only turn it on around 7:00 at night, when there’s that lag-time between the cooling outside and that inside. We’ve never yet run the thing all day. (Speaking of which, not only are there people here who run their A/C when it’s only 75 and not very humid, but there are people who run the thing full-bore when they’re out to work. What a tremendous waste of energy, if their units work as well as ours, as I assume they must, given that we’re in a development with identical buildings. Our apartment cools noticeably within the first ten minutes of turning the thing on, and by the time we’ve run it for three hours, parts of our home are downright frigid.)

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The Last Light of the Sun.

I rather like that title. It sounds like it could be the name of a Guy Gavriel Kay novel….which is a good thing, because it is. Next spring will see the release of this novel. No plot details have been leaked as of yet, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the book is at least set in the same pseudo-Europe as GGK’s last three novels (The Lions of Al-Rassan, Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emperors), so a good conjecture might be that the book deals somehow with the sun-based Jaddite religion. Perhaps we are to get GGK’s version of the Crusades and the Knights Templar. (Or maybe something else entirely, of course!)

Forum discussion of the new title can be read here.

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We watched a fairly entertaining romantic comedy flick last night, How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days. The story is pure sit-com, and the ending is just like every other romantic comedy you’ve ever seen (an unraveling of earlier deceptions leads to one partner quitting their job and packing up to leave town, with the other partner chasing them down for a final reconciliation in a very public place, the more disruptive to local traffic, the better). Still, the movie had quite a few funny moments, and I got to spend two hours looking at Kate Hudson, who absolutely glows. (And on the basis of her performance here, Almost Famous just jumped way up in my “To rent” list.)

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Time for some random gibberish (as opposed to my usual gibberish-by-design):

:: By a hair, July turned out to be my second-highest month yet for total hits. I was expecting it to come in third, after the dismal start to the month via the Fourth of July weekend. Not bad. I am also currently ensconced as an “Adorable Rodent” on the Ecosystem. It’s neat how this has sort-of grown over the nearly eighteen months I’ve been doing this.

:: Unrepentant Lucasians, rejoice! An SFSite reviewer likes Attack of the Clones too. Gradually the world will be turned to our way of thinking.

:: Wonderful innovations that you don’t see lauded enough include grocery stores with enclosed play areas wherein the kid can be deposited and, in the lack of such an area, shopping carts in the shape of toy trucks so the kid can pretend to “drive” around the store. A not-so-wonderful innovation is those little yellow plastic toy shopping carts that kids push around themselves. Those are the work of the Devil and must be destroyed.

:: Ah, August….that wonderful time of year when I take a fresh look at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ roster and say, “Who are these guys?”

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