Wednesday various

Monday various

  • The first four Harry Potter books condensed. Lovely. [via]
  • Geeks, Girls, and Media Misogyny: The Saga Continues:

    I can accept that questioning a actor or actress about their geek bona fides when part of their job involves selling their project to the public, including the geeky public, and especially when it’s a geeky project may seem like a good idea, except for one thing: it’s only women whose geek cred is called into question, time and again.

    If nothing else, arguing that sexy women can’t be geeks seems to be forgetting one simple thing: smart, geeky women are sexy.

  • Writers and Kitties. Does exactly what it says on the cat food tin. [via]
  • I think what I like most about this article from the New York Times about booksellers who are also authors is this revelation from author Jonathan Lethem:

    “I have the habit of accumulation,” he said. “When I first met my wife, my kitchen cabinets were full of books.

  • And finally, seriously Marie Claire? Seriously, “nutritionists”? Easily the most ridiculous is the woman who skips lunch and then eats an entire box of macaroons for dessert at night. There’s a lot of calorie counting going on in almost all of these, but very little healthy eating. [via]

Thursday various

  • Today is Harry Houdini’s birthday. In honor of that, here’s a look at his Scene and Prop List. [via]
  • I don’t know… ordering the removal of a mural depicting your state’s labor history from the lobby of your state’s Department of Labor seems like kind of a dick move. [via]
  • As, frankly, do these new farm “protection” bills discussed by Mark Bittman — although, there, there’s some dangerous precedent being set:

    The Florida bill would require anyone wishing to photograph a farm to first secure written permission from the owner. And what if they don’t? First-degree felony. The implicit goal here is to deter and criminalize damning undercover exposés….The bill would also make it illegal for an agenda-less passerby to snap a picture of a farm from the side of the road, but my best guess is that those “crimes” might not be prosecuted quite so diligently.

  • The Phantom Menace in 3-D? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…oh, god, what is this? Like the at least the sixth or seventh time? Shame very obviously on me, George Lucas, but I will not be going to see this. [via]
  • And finally, an interview with Terry Jones. He discusses, among other things, Monty Python‘s less than certain start:

    I mean, even right up until the middle of the second series John Cleese’s mum was still sending him job adverts for supermarket managers cut out from her local newspaper.

The living daylights

I go back to work tomorrow. Wasn’t I just at work yesterday?

At least it will still be sunny when I leave the office tomorrow evening. Which I suppose almost makes up for the stupid, outdated idiocy that is Daylight Savings Time. I mean, extra daylight in the evening is great, sure. If there’s one thing I don’t like about winter, beyond the cold and the need to shovel large quantities of snow — with which, honestly, I can deal — it’s that little bit less of sunlight, which, along with the cold, makes the night, on some instinctual level, seem so much shorter. I think I would go mad living in a part of the world where it’s always dark, or always light, for some part of the year. Or on that planet from Pitch Black. Seriously, if I had to live on that planet from Pitch Black, and neither the ravenous alien creatures nor Vin Diesel murdered me where I stand, well then, I think I’d just go a little stir crazy.

That’s just how I see it.

I think I need to go to sleep now. Tomorrow, I go back to work.

Oh, and I’ve posted a few more photos from my stay in Cambridge, if you’re at all interested. Unfortunately, I saw very little of Boston proper, and it was too dark and rainy for any decent photos — but the river view was very pretty Friday evening.

Monday various