What happened here when President Trump tried twice to pronounce "anonymous"? pic.twitter.com/nwSNnQuKfm
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 7, 2018
Everybody Google “primary progressive aphasia.”
— Jonathan M. Katz??? (@KatzOnEarth) September 7, 2018
Another “reelection 2020” rally, this time in Montana. And the Oval Office Occupant is visibly coming apart under the lights. Question about this clip — if he thinks the Notorious Op-Ed Writer is a “she”, who could he possibly have in mind? KellyAnne Conway? Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Maggie Haberman? HRC? Melania?
Somewhere, floating in a bilious liquid of anger and bacon grease, Trump’s heart must be laboring like a Kia engine climbing Mt. Washington.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) September 7, 2018
Excerpts from Daniel Dale’s live-tweet-stream:
Trump does an especially slow walk to the microphone, soaking in the adulation.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Trump with a curious new line about Democrats: "They're going to hurt your Social Security so badly. And they're killing you on Medicare. I'm going to protect your Social Security." "…they're going to end up taking it away from you."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Trump: If I've "lost it" like they say, how can I give a rally speech for an hour without notes?
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Trump: I beat all these candidates and the Bush dynasty and Clinton, and then people say, "Is he competent?"
"I think I'm pretty competent," he says. "Don't you think so?"
The crowd cheers.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Sir Alert: Trump tells a story about an unnamed NATO leader calling him "sir." He adds that it's nice when a president or prime minister calls him "sir," since it shows respect. He says some more "sir"s.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Trump is extremely loose. It's the angry-loose, not the happy-loose.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Trump to his supporters on impeachment: "If it does happen it's your fault, because you didn't go out to vote." He has not spoken this way before.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Trump says unelected members of the "deep state" are trying to undermine him. "At some point, this whole thing is going to be exposed. And it's really bad and it's really dangerous."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
Granpa complains to the other nursing-home residents about the kids, they took his checkbook, the staff, they’re stealing from him — from them! — nobody will listen, but he’s not fooled, he’s still got it, he’ll show everyone who’s the real traitor, just wait, FOOLS!…
Major Major Major Major
Hoooo boy.
Doug R
TIA like we thought W had?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Question:
If the 1980s was the Decade of Greed and the 2000s was the Decade of Fear what does that make the 1990s? And for that matter the 2010s?
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Honestly the 90’s were kind of defined by The Simpsons for me.
NotMax
Obligatory?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Kias aren’t econoboxes anymore, y’know.
RandomMonster
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: 1990s: Surplus, 2010: Great Recession recovery
condorcet runner-up
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The Stinger would like a word …
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
The Nineties are always Naughty.
Tradition, don’tcha know.
:)
More seriously, the 90s could be dubbed the Decade of Digital.
condorcet runner-up
Sometimes I figure sure, this guy is completely gone. What I cannot for the life of me understand are his diehard stans.
lgerard
Did he do my favorite routine?
The one where he declares “I can be Presidential” and then lumbers around the stage like an extra in Plan 9 From Outer Space?
I didn’t see it in the last performance, so maybe it has been dropped from the set list.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: Cyber-decade works too. Every fucking thing was cyber.
Doug R
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
My 64 HP 1994 Ford Aspire was actually a Mazda 121 built by Kia.
Steeplejack (phone)
Sir Alert back-story here.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Nothing quite so refreshing as an ice cold glass of Apple cyber.
;)
Suzanne
…..are people so fucken stupid that they believe this shit? God, I need to try selling them something.
oldgold
Some funny and delusional stuff from Trump’s Montana rally.
“You know when Abraham Lincoln made that Gettysburg Address speech, the great speech, you know he was ridiculed?” Trump said during a rally in Billings, Mont., citing the 272-word speech that Lincoln gave on a battlefield near Gettysburg, Pa., during the Civil War.
“And he was excoriated by the fake news. They had fake news then. They said it was a terrible, terrible speech.”
“Fifty years after his death they said it may have been the greatest speech ever made in America,” Trump said. “I have a feeling that’s going to happen with us. In different ways, that’s going to happen with us.”
cynthia ackerman
@Major Major Major Major:
I don’t remember the term “cyber” so much from that time.
More “hi-tech” and, a bit later, “dot com”
patrick II
@Suzanne:
It might work better if you can work in some racist remarks into your sales pitch. Know your audience.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
But couldn’t that apply to the 2000s as well? And even the 80s to an extent? I’ve always found the late 20th century to be interesting, technologically especially. A lot of what we take for granted was just beginning to come about. It was an in-between period where analogue and digital coexisted, such as electric typewriters and camcorders.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Like it or not, Windows arrived on the scene during the 90s and abruptly changed the landscape.
The 90s was a decade when the confluence of different tech not only came together but became affordable enough to be mass marketed.
Major Major Major Major
@cynthia ackerman: I vividly remember the 1995 Time cover story “Cyberporn” for some reason.
MTmofo
Watch three background audience members get subbed out while he’s talking.
https://twitter.com/TheViewFromLL2/status/1037915598418784257
Emma
Holy Mother. He is going insane right before our eyes.
Major Major Major Major
Any sign of the Blacks For Trump cultists?
NotMax
Not alliterative, but Geriatric Bigly Hits would have been wunnerful, wunnerful.
NotMax
@NotMax
For allliteration, Bombastic Bigly Hits.
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack (phone):
I guess my big question is why anyone would respond to that. It’s not as if “sir” is some sign of amazing respect and admiration. It’s more like a minimal sign that you’re trying to be polite, the kind of title you give to somebody you don’t know but want to show you’re not completely blowing them off. A police officer calls you “sir” when he pulls you over and asks if you know how fast you were going. And it’s certainly not a sign of great respect when you’re supposed to be a world leader who everyone should recognize and call by your proper name and title. If I were to call Donald Trump just “sir” rather than “Mr. President”, “President Trump”, or some other term indicating I recognize him as POTUS, it would be a sign of disrespect.
Fair Economist
The 90’s were the Dot Com decade. The 10’s might be called the Millennial decade from the amount of stories about them.
Roger Moore
@cynthia ackerman:
I remember lots of people talking about “cyberspace” as if they had just finished reading a William Gibson short story.
NotMax
They’re not over yet, but would suggest the 10s being The Schizoid Decade, with The Lost Decade running neck and neck.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
I think even more so than Windows, the 1990s were the decade when the World Wide Web came along and made the internet into something people would use for everyday activities. In 1990, people were using the Internet to send email, read USENET, and occasionally try to hack into somebody’s computer. In 2000, we were searching for stuff on Google, buying books on Amazon, and the Clinton DOJ was going after Microsoft for trying to take over the web by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. It was an enormous change.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
I think the 2010s are going to be the social networking decade.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: something like that, yeah.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
What about “Decade of Darkness”? On second thought that could apply to the 2000s as well…
NotMax
@Roger Moore
So The Lost Decade it is, then.
;)
Redshift
@Suzanne:
You mean how do they keep believing the Democrats are the ones who are going to take away your Social Security when Paul Ryan is gleefully crowing about cutting “entitlements”?
The key word is “your.”
The current Republican scam on Social Security is telling current oldsters they’ll keep theirs safe while telling younger people it already won’t be there for them, so they shouldn’t care if it gets cut.
Then they tell the older people that since everyone knows it’s doomed, if Democrats stop them from cutting it for younger people, it’ll be doomed for them.
(Okay, not that Trump understands any of this, but the people he’s parroting do, and they’ve already gotten the whole argument from Fox.)
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: things were… manageable here until 2016, over half the decade. Globally, I wouldn’t say anything especially strange (compared to the 2000’s) started until 2016 or so either.
Mart
From: https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/primary-progressive-aphasia/
PPA commonly begins as a subtle disorder of language, progressing to a nearly total inability to speak, in its most severe stage. The type or pattern of the language deficit may differ from patient to patient. The initial language disturbance may be fluent aphasia (i.e., the person may have normal or even increased rate of word production) or non-fluent aphasia (speech becomes effortful and the person produces fewer words). A less common variety begins with impaired word-finding and progressive deterioration of naming and comprehension, with relatively preserved articulation.
HalfAssedHomesteader
@cynthia ackerman: i’d say “hi-tech” is more of an 80s term. And i would call the 90s the e-decade.
Mart
@Redshift: Lately the R’s seem to be saying they are coming for all of us; not the Bush if you are 55 you are safe line. I remember Bush’s tactic as I was 53 and really pissed.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
*cough* ISIS/ISIL *cough* Arab Spring *cough*
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: ISIS pretty clearly has its roots in 2000’s dysfunction, but I’ll give you the Arab spring. Did I say nothing unusual happened? No.
Anne Laurie
@Roger Moore:
There was a standing joke among the Boomer generation — you knew you were getting old when younger people started calling you “sir” (or “ma’am”). I AM NOT A ‘SIR’ YOU LITTLE PUNK!
Trump’s so old, he thinks it’s a sign of respect!
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
I liked it when the sprouts began calling me sir. Beat the hell out of what they were thinking.
;)
Major Major Major Major
@Major Major Major Major: I would have also accepted the Myanmar situation as a pre-2016 outlier, but again, it was a comparative statement.
Redshift
@Mart: I feel like they’re just being nonspecific, because they aren’t making an actual proposal yet. And I think the idea that “cutting entitlements” only means for future retirees is already baked in for their base, so they don’t have to say it.
Won’t they be surprised when leopards eat their faces…
Millard Filmore
@Roger Moore: “Computer Lib” “Stamp Out Cybercrud”
http://mirror.thelifeofkenneth.com/sites/www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Byte/70s/Byte-1976-04.pdf
(bottom of page 94)
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Speaking of kings, for my book, I’ve been doing some light reading into Arthurian legend. By light reading, I mean Wikipedia and TV Tropes.
Can anyone recommend some good books on the legend of King Arthur? More modern retellings, particularly, but still set in the original setting (Camelot). Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any references to non-human races and creatures in Arthurian legend, such as those found in LOTR. I was thinking of making their existence the basis for the split in dimensions, the Realm of Science(our universe) and the Realm of Magic. In the waning days of King Arthur’s reign, some kind of conflict erupted between non-magical humanity and magic users/races, resulting in genocidal campaigns. This resulted in Merlin and other power mages creating a pocket dimension and taking the magic with them, altering reality and memories so that what came before would only be myths. I still don’t know to incorporate the real history that came before the 5th/6th centuries.
Some other conceptual issues I have: as you all know I’m an agnostic atheist (somewhat anti-theist) and hence don’t particularly like the concept of gods. I’ve decided to explain magic as the suspending of the laws of physics but omnipotent power is something I have a hard time explaining, since I feel like an explanation for it has to come from somewhere. A magical artifact that grants god-like power plays a big role in the story. I don’t want to portray gods as being real, basically since I find the concept abhorrent.
A big point of the book is that power should not be unlimited because nobody can be trusted to use it benevolently forever. It’s an allegory for the dangers of autocracy. Also to show how shitty the God of the Bible was; in my opinion the most evil fictional character ever.
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I recall seeing a (crackpot? But fun) theory that Merlin’s “knowledge of dragons” was actually that he was a welsh miner who understood natural gas explosions somewhat. This impressed a local chieftain. The rest is commentary.
Anne Laurie
@NotMax:
The Backlash Decade, and not just in the United States. Here, the revanchist response to the election of a Black president is doing its best to break our 200-year-old working compact. Elsewhere, there are many similar responses to the incursions of modern technology / sociology / science on “the way our people have always done things”, from Islamic fundamentalism to climate-based territory wars to Russia under Putin and the resurgence of Fascism across Europe.
The “interesting” question is whether this is the last gasp of a dying philosophy… or the global devolution to an older, cruder state of warlordism on both global and local scales.
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
Since I dye my hair, wear cartoon t-shirts, and am short, it’s only in the past year or so that I’ve stopped being called “miss” by store clerks. Sigh. ?
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
Such nuances are lost on Donald Trump. In fact, the very concept of “nuance” is lost on Donald Trump.
Major Major Major Major
@Anne Laurie: oh, I like ‘backlash’.
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: also, if I were you I’d separate most of your theology from the story. Allegory… usually sucks.
ETA Well, I’m off to bed.
Msb
@ Goku
Jo Walton did a really interesting take on both Arthur and God’s in 2 books called The King’s Peace and The King’s Name. There are 2 main themes: the work of peace building and the social and political consequences of deep religious change. There are both magic and gods involved, in a really interesting way. I think you’d enjoy them.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Major Major Major Major:
I remember reading an article that said that fascism was already starting to rebound as long ago as 20+ years ago, in the 1990s.
The Future of Fascism
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
An agnostic holds no opinion on whether god exists. An atheist holds the opinion that god does not exist. You cannot be both.
Yutsano
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You should absolutely read one of the originals, Le Mort D’Artur. It will give you a foundation for all the reimaginings and twists you want to make.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Windows came out in December of 1985.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Amir Khalid:
You can be both. Common misconception
Mike in NC
So tired of Fat Bastard and his idiot MAGAts and we still have the Friday news dump coming!
sm*t cl*de
@Suzanne:
Democrats are planning to take away your Obamacare!
Honus
@Yutsano: I agree. I also liked Chrétien de Troyes when I read it in college, and Steinbecks take is fun too.
Groucho48
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The Once and Future King, by TH White. One of my all time favorite books and an excellent retelling of the King Arthur legend.
opiejeanne
@Mart:
I’m afraid I may have this form. I’ve been having a lot of trouble remembering words, the names of things, more and more. I had a doctor who suggested she start keeping track, doing a study, to see if I really was getting worse, but she retired and the next one didn’t think it was anything to worry about, and then she retired. I may have a run at the current doc.
opiejeanne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Mary Stewart wrote an Arthurian Legend series, based on the writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth that was very good. The first book is The Crystal Cave and is mostly about Merlin’s origin. The second book The Hollow Hills and the third, The Last Enchantment are about Arthur, but you should read the first book to understand the second and third better, IIRC.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yutsano:
I’ll try to check it out. Thanks!
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ll think about it. It’s still fundamentally about the nature of power and the dangers of autocracy/fascism though.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne: When they call me Miss I want to snarl at them to call me ma’am. I feel I’ve earned that level of respect, and I’ve been married for nearly 49 years. Miss assumes marital status, Ma’am does not. They could call me Ms and I’d be fine with that too.
sukabi
@Roger Moore: my guess, and it’s as good as any other, is that when you’ve heard “oh, it’s that fucking asshole” your entire adult life every time you approach people, a “sir” would be construed as a great sign of respect. What he doesn’t get is that respect in his case is ONLY for the office, not the fucking asshole occupying it.
opiejeanne
@Anne Laurie: Sir is what Marcie calls Peppermint Patty.
CaseyL
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Here’s my absolute favorite Arthurian novel: Parke Godwin’s “Firelord.”
Godwin gave a nod to putting Arthur into his historical context in “Firelord.” He shows 4th Century England as a Roman-ruled territory, clinging to Romanesque social structures even as Rome itself was falling. The indigenous tribes are portrayed as individual sovereign nations, often allying with Rome to fight one another. For the mystical, there are the Prydn (i.e., the Picts) who capture Arthur early in his military career and hold him long enough for him to go native; and Merlin, who we only see through Arthur’s perceptions, who might not bodily exist at all.
And Godwin’s writing style, his “voice,” is pure pleasure to read.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Shall rightfully amend it then, to say the 90s was when Windows came of age, as part and parcel the confluence of tech I mentioned.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
“[I call myself] an atheist. Agnostic for me would be trying to weasel out and sound a little nicer than I am about this.”
– Richard Feynman
sukabi
@opiejeanne: aspartame in can do a number on your brain. Cut out any diet drinks and any other things that might contain it.
I used to drink diet soda, not a lot maybe a couple every other day. Was having trouble remembering simple things. Having trouble with simple math. Cut the diet soda / diet drinks out and brain fog cleared up.
sukabi
@sukabi: grr….between autocorrect and lack of edit sounds like I’m drinking diet soda again.
NotMax
@sukabi
As well, for some of us aspartame initiates the mother of all headaches. Instantly.
JoyceH
For Arthurian from women’s POV, The Mists of Avalon.
TS (the original)
@opiejeanne:
You are not alone – my doc says it is not something I should be worried about – so I don’t worry about it – but I get so annoyed when the word I want disappears to the back of my mind. I keep explaining it to my husband and eventually one of us gets to the required word.
opiejeanne
@sukabi: I hadn’t heard that about diet soda. I’ve heard a lot of woo regarding aspartame, but not the brain farts.
I know I had some brain fog/memory loss after I was treated for Hep C. Interferon, if I understand correctly, sometimes does that. It was mid-term memories that were just gone. Things the kids would mention, trips we took maybe ten years earlier, and I had no memory of any of it. I’ve kind of reconstructed that lost stuff with help from the family and some photos.
Anne Laurie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You won’t find much about “other races” in the old-school Arthurian romances, because religion was important to the medieval societies where those romances originated. And the official Sky-father dogma — in the Catholic Church, of course, but also in Jewish traditions and even the nascent Islamic faith — was that “God” and “His Church” had established a world where all a mere human needed to know was their exact place in the settled hierarchy. Of course people still believed in ‘The Folk’ (fairies, kobolds, demons, earth spirits, etc), and their day-to-day behavior was influenced by such belief. But the stories about those races were excluded from “high romance”, because they were folk tales for peasants, but also because seeming to know too much about the “unGodly” elements was blasphemous at a time when blasphemy carried the death penalty. So the more fantastical elements of Arthurian legend (Merlin’s powers, the Lady of the Lake, the Fisher King) are elided behind veils of metaphor and poetical language, for fear that somebody would decide to call down a fatwa on a bard / author who spoke too openly.
That being said, apart from the books others have recommended, Thomas Berger’s ARTHUR REX might seem like a dense read, but the man who wrote LITTLE BIG MAN has the kind of not-exactly-period sense of humor I think you might appreciate.
opiejeanne
@TS (the original): Yeah, I do that but my husband never knows the word I want.
I was talking to someone about a big hornet nest that had been knocked out of a tree by our deck. Part of it was still in the tree, part on the ground, and the inner bits, the cells, were 20 feet away. I could not think of the word “cells” for the life of me until someone saw the photo on Facebook and called that part of the nest that, but I’m not sure that’s the word I wanted. Ugh! I can sometimes find the name of a thing if I visualize the thing. I’m 68 and have every expectation of another 30 years on planet Earth (family tradition, hard to kill) and it’s going to be very tedious if I get worse at this. I may become non-communicative in response, but I still have so many stories to tell. I’m not ready to become mute.
Cermet
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: One of the best is Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy; it is fun and gives a very different spin on Mordred
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: The scary part of the hornet nest story is considering how it got knocked down. Happened at night, it was on a very flimsy branch about 7 feet off the ground. We haven’t had a bear sighting right here in about 5 years but they are within a 3-4 mile radius so maybe that’s what tore it down.
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Wikipedia’s definition of agnosticism divides it into strong (doesn’t know whether god exists, thinks it is not knowable), weak (doesn’t know, thinks it is/may become knowable), and apathetic (doesn’t know, thinks the question is moot). Rational Wiki argues that both agnostics and atheists are nonbelievers, ignoring the significant distinction that atheists affirmatively believe there is no god, whereas agnostics merely do not believe that there is.
I maintain that the terms agnostic and atheist are mutually exclusive in meaning, thus not meaningful when used together. What you call agnostic atheism, I call weak agnosticism.
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
The “nascent” Islamic faith? The medieval period in European history coincides with the Golden Age of Islam.
Dave Empey
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
</lurk>
It’s not exactly Arthurian (technically it’s pre-Arthurian) but Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy has an enjoyable take on the topic.
For serious research, maybe look into the collection of Welsh legends, the Mabinogion, some of which may be sources for, or share sources with, the Arthurian mythos. Although I’ve tried reading a translation and couldn’t get past the first few pages.
<lurk>
(Debbieaussie)
@Cermet:
As opiejean has Forster and Cermet seconded, I shall thirdly recommend Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy. Still have the book(omnibus) and it is falling apart ?
(Debbieaussie)
Forster should be firsted ?
(Debbieaussie)
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: my message about Mary Stewart is for you.
Calouste
@Suzanne: Are you surprised that people who believe that Earth was created in 6 days might just be a wee little bit gullible?
Calouste
@Amir Khalid: I call myself a rationalist. I don’t see why I would define myself as something I am not.
And to combine two themes on this thread, I think there is as much proof for the existence of a god as there is for the existence of Merlin: someone wrote a book.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Grail of Hearts, Susan Shwartz. It’s specifically the Parsifal story, not the larger Matter of Britain, but it’s still one of my favorite takes on any of the collection of tales.
And to carefully set the cat among the pigeons before running away very, very fast:
For a thoroughly modern take, Harry Potter.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: Oops, sorry about that! Speaking of brain farts, what I meant was that Europeans during the Arthurian-romance-writing period were just being introduced to this exotic world-conquering religion of Islam, so any ‘Muslim’ details handed down that way were going to be sketchy in the extreme. (Also, too, I know very little about pre-Muslim ‘other / fairy folk’ tales.)
dopey-o
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Too bad you’re letting your prejudice get in the way of your plot. why not write in a god who is alternatively malign, sadistic, self-involved, forgetful, absent-minded and criminally negligent?
Unfortunately i can’t think of any examples from real life at the moment….
Anne Laurie
@Dave Empey:
Have you tried Evangeline Walton’s Mabinogian Tetrology? Still not exactly light reading, but since it’s available on Kindle, internet links might make it easier to wade through the Welsh names…
Origuy
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Take a look at Patricia Kennealy-Morrison’s Keltiad series. It has a lot of the elements you’ve described. A group of Celts leave Earth as the Celtic lands are taken over by Christianity and spread among the stars. Three of the books retell the Arthurian story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keltiad
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Also, while I hated Mists of Avalon from the beginning despite being sympathetic to the allegory it was trying for, it was one of my first encounters with the blending of Faerie and Avalon. I don’t have anything to recommend on traditional stories of the Fae, but that’s a direction to look.
NeenerNeener
@Dave Empey: I second Anne Laurie’s vote for Evangeline Walton.
JAFD
@Redshift: I remember Goldwater saying that about SocSec, when I was a freshperson in high school. Now I’m retired, collecting Social Security, chuckling.
Jr
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m sure the reference is Windows 95, the first obligate Windows OS.
JAFD
Alfred Duggan’s _Conscience of the King_ is a historical novel about one of Arthur’s enemies, methinks now available thru Gutenberg or the Internet Archives. Notes at end about the written historical sources, and how he fitted his story into the ‘historical records’.
Best historical summary of that era – there was a legendary leader of Roman-Celtic-early Christian Britons, fought the Anglo-Saxon invaders, slowed the ‘barbarian’ invaders down for a generation or two. Not much else is certain.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Roger Moore:
The point I get from these anecdotes is that the “sir” is moved around to be a special point of emphasis: “Sir, I don’t cry.” Rather than what would seem to be more natural or common: “I don’t cry, sir.” And Trump always stresses it verbally; a transcript doesn’t quite do it justice.
In any case, it’s odd enough that people have noticed it. “Sir” is always an emphasized part of the anecdote’s payoff line.
Ken
Maybe Trump’s confusing “Would you like fries with that, sir” with a sign of respect.
OldDave
@Millard Filmore: Ah, Ted Nelson’s book. I have/had a copy around here someplace way-back-when.
Booger
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You need to look into irish celtic mythology, IIRC there’s a foundational myth about two kings wagering to divide the island into two halves; the bad faith king wins, divides it into aboveground and underground. Hence the resentment and anger of the spirit world. Wish I could give you a source. I also enjoyed Mary Stewart’s Merlin books (Hollow Hills, Crystal Cave) and Burton Raffel’s xlation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.YMMV.
Haroldo
@Anne Laurie: This is spot-on. I think all (OK – most) political analyses should be utilizing this lens.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So when accused of being a fool with the mind of a child, Trump goes off and acts like one. Idiot
Let us note he has never delivered a serious speech on policy.
Gelfling 545
@Redshift: @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: old and possibly out of print but: The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart.
Groucho48
@NeenerNeener:
I third it!
Manyakitty
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Try the Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley or the Mary Stewart series, starting with The Crystal Cave.
J R in WV
@Mart:
The scarier part of the primary progressive aphasia info is that it is caused by atrophy of parts of the brain needed for complex thought. The loss of speech-related abilities is merely a symptom of the actual loss of the ability to think.
Not that this is a surprise about Trump — he has notoriously had difficulties thinking, but this is publicly available symptoms of the problems in his brain. What does he have left it he can’t make those ranting speeches any more? Nada!!
J R in WV
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
You do know that in LOTR no one explains most of the magic, mythological creatures, none of that stuff? Same in much SciFi, faster than light? No big deal, invented 400 years ago, no one alive really knows how it was done, you just make the devices like they always have.
Mysteries are all over the world today, no writer successfully explains how we fall in love, one of our biggest mysteries!
Connor
@CaseyL: Nice to see Parke Godwin get a shout-out here. I am his literary executor, and am working to bring all his work back into print over the next couple of years, including gorgeous new editions of FIRELORD and its follow-up, BELOVED EXILE. The company that will be doing that is also going to be releasing three books Parke finished before he died that have never been published before, all really terrific books.
FIRELORD was the first book of his I ever read. For my money, it is one of the three truly great Arthurian novels, with the other two being Malory’s LA MORTE D’ARTHUR and T. H. White’s THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@J R in WV:
Mental projections from the Gnomes of Zurich in the underground city in the Alps. Next question please.
Magic by definition is supposed to be mysterious. That’s why Harry Potter sucks the big one, to much magic.
Jacel
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Windows was announced by Microsoft early in 1984, soon after Apple released the Lisa computer. I was at that press conference, held at Windows On The World. Here is my article about that, mentioning the just-announced Microsoft product alongside other PC software companies that were further along at developing window-style software (starting on page 49 of PC Magazine’s February 7, 1984 issue).
Jacel
@Connor: Glad to see an old friend (much longer than there’s been Microsoft Windows) among the Balloon Juice Jackals.
Llelldorin
@Jacel: Windows was announced shortly after the Macintosh 128k was announced; the Lisa had been out for a full year in early ’84.
(Sorry! I used to write for MacAddict magazine; I’m more or less obligated to quibble about this sort of thing.)
Haggis
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court by Mark Twain. Along a similar theme, but Roman, is Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp.
Enjoy!