Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I was promised a recession.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Come on, man.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

He really is that stupid.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Consistently wrong since 2002

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Neil Gaiman Sells Out?

Open Thread: Neil Gaiman Sells Out?

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Or just sells Blackberrys. Stolen from Paul Constant, who is… dubious. I haven’t read enough of Gaiman’s work (Coraline, Good Omens) that I’d feel qualified to judge. Gaiman is a clever writer who attracts smart readers, so I doubt we’re talking Fifty Shades of Steampunk…
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What else is on the agenda this evening?

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    If you’re ever at the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland, the Hearthside Lounge mixes a strong chocolate martini.

    It took me multiple tries to get this typed accurately. In this case, auto-correct is my friend.

  8. 8.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Oh, no, some person who got famous without knowing us has decided to make money off of being famous. Whatever shall we do?

    (I type this while wearing an “I am a Neil Gaiman character” shirt.)

    The most insufferable group of people to me are the “now that he’s famous I don’t like him any more” people.

  9. 9.

    hildebrand

    American Gods is outstanding, The Sandman is stunningly good, and his episode of Doctor Who, ‘The Doctor’s Wife’, was one of the highlights of the season last year. I will cut him a great deal of slack.

  11. 11.

    Heliopause

    What else is on the agenda this evening?

    Various news outlets have been talking about the assassination “white paper” all day. ABC and NBC nightly news just led with it, CBS hasn’t been on in my TV market yet. Seems like the top story of the day or close to it. Do any of the BJFPers have an opinion on this?

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Doesn’t appeal to me, but I wouldn’t call it selling out.

    I loved the central idea of American Gods–the old gods come to America, and some of the images have stayed with me, but the plot got somewhat garbled.

  16. 16.

    Emma

    @Heliopause: First glance? White Papers are a dime a dozen in government. If nothing else, working in a law library has taught me that. Tell me when they find the signed Presidential order.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @Heliopause:

    I read it. It says the U.S. can kill senior al-Qaeda leaders outside the zone of combat pursuant to the AUMF, even if they are citizens. Lots of explanation for why it is legal which can be shortened to “we’re at war.”

  18. 18.

    David Brooks

    I admire the steadfast will power in ignoring the drones killing Americans malarkey. Not even the old Stalinist parties had this kind of discipline.

  19. 19.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Baud: I pretty much agree with the document, and I think it’s time that Congress declared an end to the War…On…Terror.

  20. 20.

    Cassidy

    @Baud: Huh. I could have sworn that it said the scary mandingo was gonna kill all real, white Murikans with his droooooooonnnnnez in a mass slaughter and then go after all real pure liberals who have the spine to place all the blame where it really belongs.

  21. 21.

    Loneoak

    I demand that all producers of culture whom I admire continue working without remuneration lest the purity of their culture is marred.

  24. 24.

    David Brooks

    @Emma: This reminds of the Richard Perle excuse when he was getting destroyed by Noam Chomsky.

    Perle: “The United States has never X”

    Chomsky: “*cites government documents proving X”

    Perle: “…lol…we say a lot of things…”

  25. 25.

    Emma

    @David Brooks: Brooks, go away. You have never had any experience of communism, real or imagined. In fact, I bet you cash you haven’t really experienced much of anything except outrage.

  27. 27.

    burnspbesq

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland

    It’s nice enough, but I prefer the real Ahwanee, even with bears breaking into cars in the parking lot. Walking out the front door into Yosemite Valley beats the crap out of walking out the front door into the middle of Anaheim.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    I agree. Given that the GOP reflexively opposes everything Obama proposes, we may finally have that discussion in Congress. I wonder how McCain is handling this — maybe he’ll say the memo doesn’t justify enough killing?

    @Cassidy:

    That might have been in a footnote. I glossed over them.

  33. 33.

    freelancer

    His writing is just outside the boundary of my interests.

    Since this is an OT, I would like to ask a question and have juicers sound off:

    What is the wingnut obsession with maintaining/dominating an online presence? They constantly refer to doing battle/winning arguments on Twitter, or how to dominate facebook or Youtube. We see this every day, and it’s telling.

    The wingnut going off on a rant on election night, also complaining about how fellow wingnuts aren’t using Youtube and Facebook right (as if likes or shares equate to Electoral Votes?!)

    The wingnut trolling about Trayvonn Martin in Elon’s thread.

    The wingnuts using hashtags like the #tgdn akaTwitter Gulag Defense Network (I’m not 100% familiar with that tag, but as I half-understand it it’s a way for wingnuts to not have shitty tweets automoderated), exposed to be used by wingnuts who are just as fucking vile as the people mentioned above.

    Why do they think any of that “dominance” or presence matters?

    To me, it’s like they saw that progressives recovering from 2004, read crashing the gates back in 2006, saw that we mobilized online (and offline) and then started winning elections, and they said to themselves, “Hmmm, we gotta get us some of that!”, and are now just an army of Breitbart wannabees whose sole goal is to troll non-conservatives online.

    What do you think?

  34. 34.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @David Brooks: You know, considering the fact that the Constitution is a restraint on government, if you’re going to be outraged at the drones being used for military purposes, it shouldn’t matter whether the targets are Americans or not. As for being Americans, if you’re going to go hide in a country, and plan or aid in the planning of attacks on the country, you’ve decided how much of an American you are. Hell, I think if they had been able to actually capture bin Laden alive, then they should have.

  39. 39.

    burnspbesq

    @David Brooks:

    Drones aren’t the issue. The AUMF is the issue. Hamdi is the issue. Ex parte Quirin is the issue.

    FWIW, I think the analysis in the whitepaperthingie accurately states the law as it currently exists. Which is not the same thing as saying I like where the analysis leads. I’d like there to be a little more process, but I’m not sure how to get there.

  41. 41.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Raven: I know, but this is an open thread. And I also realize that I could never present a fact that pseudo-Bobo would accept, but others will read them, and we can have a discussion anyway.

  42. 42.

    Comrade Mary

    If I had a choice about what evil black shit would help power the Canadian economy, I’d choose Blackberry over bitumen every time.

    Gaiman is occasionally twee, and that commercial was very twee, but he’s written lots on un-twee stuff, so he’s still in my good books.

  46. 46.

    Citizen_X

    @freelancer:

    What is the wingnut obsession with maintaining/dominating an online presence? They constantly refer to doing battle/winning arguments on Twitter, or how to dominate facebook or Youtube.

    Seriously? This is a thing? That’s pretty fucking sorry.

  47. 47.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Keith G: I often wonder what the framers thought, considering they declared every man free and restricted the rights of slaves and women, who passed the first amendment and the alien and sedition act. And then I realize that it’s all a complex world and wish that Congress would step up and do its fucking job so that a Democratic President wouldn’t have to resort to police state tactics to prevent even the smallest terrorist incident lest he becomes the worst person to ever lead the country.

  48. 48.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gin & Tonic: I love “Martini menus” that list Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, etc, served in martini glasses. Just call it a fucking cocktail menu!

    Damn, I wish I was in a fancy restaurant right now. Not too fancy.

  49. 49.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Neil Gaiman is married to Amanda Palmer. She gets a lot of hate for being a sellout in some quarters.

  56. 56.

    Keith G

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Yet in your own words there are “police state tactics”. A lot of bad ideas are borne out preventing the next bad thing from happening (such as preventing the next country from falling to the communists).

    The founders were wrong on the issues you mention, but very right on the issue of fear of an inadequately checked executive. Do we want the executive branch (which will soon enough again be held by Republicans) to further the practice of being judge, jury, executioner and definer of due process.

    This has so much potential for not ending well – if indeed it ever ends, which is a related point of some merit.

  57. 57.

    JustRuss

    @Alison: Count me in for more Neverwhere love. It’s just about perfect. American Gods had some great aspects to it, but it just doesn’t come together as well.

  58. 58.

    redshirt

    Sandman is some of the best storytelling ever – and I mean it. There’s a long, epic stretch that just feels like it is ripped out of our collective mythos and printed, in comic book form. And such a broad diversity of stories and tangents. Just incredible.

    I found American Gods a bit lacking in comparison.

  59. 59.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Fifty shades of steampunk would be rather interesting. Imagining all of those sex machines steam powered.

  62. 62.

    Comrade Mary

    @Yutsano: “Bitumen” (pronounced “bitch-you-men”) is what they harvest in the Alberta tar — err, the Alberta oil sands. Up until recently, it’s been propping up the Albertan economy and, to some degree, the Canadian economy. Let’s just say that a lot of the business community reeeeally wants to see the Keystone pipeline go through.

    Blackberry recovering from a self-inflicted cratering wouldn’t make up for the loss of the pipeline, but as an eastern bastard freezing in the dark [1] of her own free will, I can live with that.

    [1] This can be Googled, as I’m shit out of links.

  65. 65.

    handsmile

    I find myself in the unusual, though not unprecedented, position of being in agreement with burnspbesq (#39) on the matter that the salient issue with the leaked white paper has to do with the AUMF.

    And I have to wonder whether its release today (and accompanying media commotion) is not related to the Thursday confirmation hearings of John Brennan as new CIA director.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/john-brennan-drone-strike-memo-confirmation

    Also, favorite pinata Glenn Greenwald has now posted his column on the subject at the Guardian website (but I’m not going to be responsible for the ensuing donnybrook here by linking to it.)

  66. 66.

    Alison

    @JustRuss: I agree – I liked AG too, but…yeah, it just didn’t grab me like Neverwhere did. That was one of those books where I simultaneously couldn’t wait to get to the end to find out what was going to happen and also never ever ever wanted it to end because then I’d be sad to be done with it :)

  68. 68.

    Suffern ACE

    @Gravenstone: good. I hope that little fuckup will apologize for bringing the clone army into the Republic. until then, he can go die in a swamp for all I care. Forcenut welfare. I bet he’ll get a column in the alderan post.

  69. 69.

    Full Metal Wingnut

    How much money does the average graphic novelist make? Probably not a ton, but considering Sandman is one of the most popular graphic novel series evar, I don’t think he’s hurting. That said, hard to make money off art. Maybe he has expensive hobbies, family expenses, or maybe he’s worked his ass off his whole life and doesn’t see the big deal in making some easy money for a change.

  70. 70.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Keith G: You’re right on all of these accounts. Like I said, we have a problem: One branch has been abdicating it’s job for a long time. Let’s assume for a moment that Congress actually wants it back right now. What are they doing? Asking for a document that really they could define for themselves and make the president follow it. Instead, they are hoping he’ll just produce something that
    1) Will make Democrats happy
    2) Will give Republicans something to talk about that doesn’t match what they would do if a Republican becomes president.
    If they don’t like him using drones, end the freakin’ war on terror or tell him where he can use them.
    Sadly, right now our prez is the only one doing the hard governing stuff.

  71. 71.

    Keith G

    @handsmile: There are a lot of interesting opinions written about this other than GG’s. I do wish that some would let him do his thing quietly in a corner and stop using him as a proxy for whatever ax they are trying to grind.

  73. 73.

    General Stuck

    If anyone was wondering what the long look of entitlement in the pale face looks like, here is a perfect example. It is only one example, but I think has a direct line to the general sense of supremacy of white republicans in this country. In a way of thinking that equates the absurd.

    WASHINGTON — Republican aides are calling out the White House for scheduling President Barack Obama’s remarks on avoiding the sequester at the same time House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is delivering a major address Tuesday afternoon.

    Cantor’s address to the American Enterprise Institute at 1 p.m. has been on the books for weeks, and is billed by his aides as an agenda-setting speech — and one, that according to excerpts, will continue the party’s shift away from a singular focus on fiscal isses.

    So we have a sitting president giving a statement on a real live issue of some import and haste in dealing with, versus a second in command House of Reps flunky giving a “MAJOR ADDRESS”, to a partisan think tank. Not a flunky speech, mind you. An honest to gawd ADDRESS.

    And they are “upset” that the Kenyan Usurper dint defer to their stupid white asses, saying stupid shit to other stupid white asses. Well, boo fucking who!

  75. 75.

    Robert

    Neil Gaiman and his wife Amanda Palmer are all about fan interaction and opening up the curtains behind the machinations of the entertainment industry. I have no doubt in my mind that Gaiman is going to turn this Blackberry ad campaign into a legitimate art project that will be open to his fans through social networking and his blog every step of the way.

  76. 76.

    Scott S.

    Late to the party, but I got no problem with Gaiman’s project. He’s done more than enough great stuff — and the hashtags gave me a rare chance to do creative tweets, so I’m more than fine with it.

  77. 77.

    Yutsano

    @Comrade Mary: Heh. I’m limited as to what I can actually Google until I get homeward, but I’ll research further. I might be lost in the Globe website for a spell however. REAL NEWZ!!

  81. 81.

    Keith G

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): In this FOIA ruling the federal judge wrote:

    I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the Executive Branch of our Government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret.

    Let me restate:

    certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret.

    Yes Congress must oversee. Nonetheless this executive is choosing on their own to keep the reasons for their conclusions (their kill list process) a secret.

    That is a bridge too far.

  83. 83.

    dance around in your bones

    I don’t begrudge Neil Gaiman making a commercial for blackberry – in fact, it was a rather restrained, informative and ‘hey, look what we can do together!’ kind of ad instead of a ‘i iz drinking at Brody’s, har de har’ kind of ad.

    Besides, he will always be a god to me because of American Gods. Loved that book.

  84. 84.

    Comrade Mary

    @Yutsano: Sorry, they’ll limit you to ten stories a month with the new paywall. However, a little loon tells me that if you delete your G&M cookies and restart your browser, you get another ten stories! Rinse and repeat.

  86. 86.

    Closeted epistemic (formerly Lojasmo)

    @Heliopause:

    Ted and Hellen, and various other trolls will weigh in.

    It’s been happening since before America was founded.

    Baggers gonna bag.

  88. 88.

    Yutsano

    @Comrade Mary: I wonder if I’ll have the same neat little hack that I do for the NYT where having NoScript installed completely tears through their paywall. Again won’t know for sure until I’m homeward!

  89. 89.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @General Stuck:

    It sounds as though the “Republican aides” believed that the networks would all interrupt their schedules to cover Cantor’s Major Address on the Republicans’ latest bullshit rebranding effort.

  90. 90.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Question: if car alarms go off when they detect someone trying to break in, why do they keep going off if no one is breaking in and thus there’s no movement or jostling for it to pick up?

    Is there one going off outside my window right now? FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK.

  91. 91.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    Question: if car alarms go off when they detect someone trying to break in, why do they keep going off if no one is breaking in and thus there’s no movement or jostling for it to pick up?

    It’s my experience that the cars that do that are generally pieces of shit that no one would steal anyway.

  92. 92.

    gbear

    What else is on the agenda this evening?

    After four months of having a second cat in the house I’m still trying to figure out ways to get them to get along. The new cat Edward is kind of an asshole to my older cat Halley and the older cat has become nervous, lost some weight, and rarely ventures out of the dining room any more. We had kind of a nice breakthrough this evening when Halley settled into the chair next to my desk, but Edward pestered her back into the dining room.
    After over four months, I’m feeling like this second cat experiment has been a failure. I think Edward needs to be in a setting where there is more than one human in the house. He wants to be the center of attention all the time and he gets distressed when he’s not. I think Halley would rather be alone all day than have Edward around. I don’t know if I can make this work out.

  93. 93.

    sb

    @Spaghetti Lee: LOL. I have twice in my life called the police to report an incessant car alarm and both times the car was towed within a half hour. It was years ago but that worked.

    Maybe I’ve been lucky but I don’t get too many car alarms in the South Bay of SoCal nor in South Central where I work. In Santa Monica, that was a different story.

  94. 94.

    MikeJ

    @Yutsano:

    I wonder if I’ll have the same neat little hack that I do for the NYT where having NoScript installed completely tears through their paywall.

    I don’t know if it was noscript or cookie monster, but the Globe and Mail’s paywall doesn’t seem to exist for me.

  97. 97.

    karen marie

    IMO, Gaiman is an annoying ass but he has written some wonderful stuff. None of it as good as Anansi Boys.

  99. 99.

    Comrade Mary

    I have NoScript, but G&M still locks me out after 10 stories per month. It’s a real pain in the ass on the phone, because AFAIK, Safari only lets me delete all cookies, not specific ones.

  100. 100.

    MikeJ

    @Yutsano: Cookie monster lets you specify which sites can and can’t set cookies. You can tell it to always accept from everywhere and then just add exceptions.

  101. 101.

    burnspbesq

    @Keith G:

    The judge is correct. That’s an easy case. The documents are exempt from disclosure. Exemption One says what it says, and it’s an essential element of the statutory scheme.

    It’s probably pointless to say that the Obama administration is, as a general rule, much better on FOIA issues than the Bush administration. But it’s true.

    I’ve been a proud member of the ACLU since high school, but they were always barking up the wrong tree with this FOIA action, and I wish they hadn’t wasted my money pursuing it.

  103. 103.

    Another Halocene Human

    @freelancer: They’re bullies. They think peeing all over the schoolhouse courtyard is #winning.

    ETA: It also occurs to me that they’re prone to logical fallacies and think others are just as dumb, hence the need for socks and keyboard commandos to carpetbomb newspaper comment sections in order to give the appearance of vast numbers and ubiquity. Also, shouting louder makes your statements more true, doncha know.

  104. 104.

    burnspbesq

    @Suffern ACE:

    When did Michigan change its team colors to blue and highlighter?

    ROFL. I assume that’s adidas’ response to Ohio State wearing its butt-ugly one-time Nike Vapor Elite kit.

  105. 105.

    Punchy

    Hawks just finished Period Juan w/ the score 3-3. 6 twine-busters in the first P. Game will prolly end 7-4 Hawks. ..

  107. 107.

    Kristine

    Kind of surprised that no one mentioned Gaiman’s recent post about the loss of his dog.

    He has written/said some very good things about both the art and business of writing.

    He’s an NYT bestseller and movies have been made of his works, so I don’t think he’s hurting. Some folks still seem torqued that he moved beyond Sandman, but that’s their problem.

  108. 108.

    SatanicPanic

    I know a guy, in a band, who years ago was doing indy garage punk. A huge fan of Led Zeppelin. I was giving him a ride somewhere and I put on some White Stripes. He says “I used to like this band, until people played them all the time.”

  109. 109.

    Suzanne

    I have a question for y’all. I am a vegetarian, and really one of the very few things I miss about meat-eating are Buffalo wings. I would like to learn how to make really good wing sauces—I like some of the fussier flavors, like tequila lime and the Asian-inspired ones—but a good classic Buffalo sauce is the best. Do any of y’all have any good recipes for wing sauces that you like?

    (I also miss Atlantic lobster, but that is difficult to come by out here anyway.)

  112. 112.

    katie5

    Speaking of sellouts, has Jon Stewart completely sold out to centrism? Last night Michelle Rhee and tonight Commissioner Ray Kelly? I can’t even watch this crap.

  113. 113.

    Starlit

    @freelancer: It’s a mighty attempt to bring all intelligent conversation to a halt.

    I see one of these people every time I drop into a scripture class in my very progressive (and liberal) church. He derails every thoughtful conversation about how the day’s readings apply to our lives with climate change denials, the Rapture, the homosexual agenda, how Obama is destroying This Great Country, how people today have no discipline, etc. Some weeks it’s all we can do to get to all three readings.

    Reducing conversation to the lowest possible denominator in social media everywhere is a kind of filibuster to prevent thoughtful discussion.

  114. 114.

    BrianM

    If you’re a fan of Neverwhere and you’re ever in London, I recommend trying to see all the sites mentioned in the book. The setting for the first appearance of the Marquis de Carabas is almost as written – it just needs one more tiny alleyway off what’s already a ridiculously narrow alley.

  115. 115.

    freelancer

    @Starlit:

    Why is a guy who denies climate change, believes in the Rapture, is homophobic, and lamenting over Obama attending your “very progressive (and liberal) church”?!

  116. 116.

    James E. Powell

    This may have come up in a post or an open thread discussion that I missed, but have any of you seen “The Americans” – the new FX show? I watched it twice to make sure I didn’t like it. And I’m wondering what mix of beliefs and facts combined to produce this show.

  120. 120.

    Steeplejack

    @Comrade Mary:

    It’s a real pain in the ass on the phone [. . .].

    One thing you might try is opening each story in a new tab or window. On my Droid, at the New York Times site, if I try to open stories the “regular” way I quickly run into the paywall, but if I choose “open in new window” I never hit the paywall. I read the story, close that window and then continue navigating the site from the “original” window.

    I get the option to “open in new window” if I press and hold my finger on a hyperlink. I think it works the same way on an iPad.

  123. 123.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Stephen Fry was saying nice things about the Z10 — he got a freebie from BB, as he does of pretty much every gadget (and then buys another one with his own money).

    So clearly there’s some kind of seeding going on to stoke interest, which isn’t a bad idea if you’re trying to revive a flagging brand. Doesn’t solve the problem of shelf awareness among people who aren’t BB fans — that depends on the kind of deal that BB have done with carriers.

  124. 124.

    Mnemosyne

    @burnspbesq:

    It’s nice enough, but I prefer the real Ahwanee, even with bears breaking into cars in the parking lot. Walking out the front door into Yosemite Valley beats the crap out of walking out the front door into the middle of Anaheim.

    5 hour drive to Yosemite with my in-laws vs. a 40-minute drive to Anaheim?

    Sorry, the 40-minute drive wins. Especially with alcohol at the end of it.

  126. 126.

    Mnemosyne

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    From the Burbank/Glendale area, it’s a hell of a lot easier to say, “Hey, let’s hop in the car and get dinner at the Grand Californian” than it is to say, “Hey, let’s hop in the car and get dinner at the Ahwanee Lodge.”

  127. 127.

    Maeve

    To be a sell-out you had to be a sell-in first

    Who decided the contracts of what was allowed and not allowed?

    (totally out of touch of what is out and int but not getting it)

  129. 129.

    FlipYrWhig

    @gbear: We got a new cat when our older one was 5. They got along OK at first, but then we moved and the newer one decided to be a bully in the new place: at that point, she was 10 and he was 5. He jumped on her back at least once a day, usually when she would pop out from under the bed. They weren’t mean to each other, just didn’t much like each other, and jealous of each other, and we never really solved it. Now they’re both gone. Hey, I didn’t say I had advice or a happy ending… :P

  131. 131.

    opie_jeanne

    @freelancer: Probably there to save them. Something like that happened at the church I attended in the 1980s, and these days there are now whole”confessing” congregations. I stumbled into one in Woodinville right after we moved here, thought the minister sounded apologetic during his very bland sermon, and the coffee hour clarified things a bit for me. We didn’t go back.

  133. 133.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @FlipYrWhig: My brother is hell-bent on bringing a Yorkie puppy into the house with our 6-7 year old Maine Coon cat. The cat has ignored the mom when she has been in the house, but I have no idea what will happen with the puppy. The mom leaves again, the puppy will stay.

  134. 134.

    Anne Laurie

    @gbear:

    I think Halley would rather be alone all day than have Edward around. I don’t know if I can make this work out.

    Four months is a fair trial. Talk to the people at the place you got him, and tell them Edward needs a home with more activity (or just to be an only cat) and Halley needs a less assertive companion. If you don’t believe me, listen to Werebear!

  135. 135.

    gbear

    @Anne Laurie: Thanks for the advice Anme Laurie. A few weeks ago when I first started thinking that maybe I’d have to bring Edward back to the shelter, I filled out a form from the shelter telling prospective new owners that Edward was a fun and affectionate cat but needed to have more than one human in the household so that he could get the attention that he craves. A woman at work has expressed an interest in taking him. If she doensn’t seem like a good match then I’m going to make an appointment to return him to the shelter that I got him from. My older cat Halley needs to get the quality of life back to the way it was when she was an only cat. I don’t want her cowering for the years she has left (she’s 12 now).

  136. 136.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)

    @redshirt: I found American Gods to be overlong, unevenly paced (there are long stretches where nearly nothing happens) and anticlimactic. It just didn’t work for me.

    I thoroughly enjoyed The Graveyard Book (which is written for children of, I’d guess, the upper elementary school age) by Gaiman. Those are the only two works of his I’ve read.

  137. 137.

    Closeted epistemic (formerly Lojasmo)

    @Heliopause:

    More of a lurker than a FPer, but I for one feel uncomfortable with my plans to fly overseas, and work for Al-Qaeda.

  138. 138.

    gigit

    Neil Gaiman stinks. He can’t write a plot to save his life. His books are lame and dull with characters that are effete and goofy and passive. Gaiman is just a giant PR campaign from Scientology because he’s a standing member of the cult. Now they want their money back so they Gaiman’s supposed to bring in the bacon. Between the talentless Amanda Palmer and the lazy writing of Gaiman, the Sceinos will be waiting a long time.

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