The English language needs a non-gender-specific pronoun. When speaking of “someone”, my natural inclination is to also say “them” of “their”, which is grammatically incorrect. But “he/she” or “his/her” is cumbersome. “It” just isn’t a workable alternative.

A very interesting article in today’s Salon raises an extremely important question:

Why is it that polls show President Bush losing the ’04 election to an “Unnamed Democrat,” but beating all the Democrats who are currently in the race?

I wish the Democrats would grow a spine. I wish they would remember the reason there’s an opposition party. I wish they were willing to make what might be unpopular decisions because they’re the right decisions. I really don’t think I can handle another four years of George W. Bush.

Rob writes:

In the meantime, we need to start doing some food renaming of our own. From now on, American Cheese is to be called “War Cheese”!

Of course, some so-called French foods are actually American as well, including apparently French toast (thanks to Joe Conason for the link). And why has no one demanded that we start pouring Creamy Victory Dressing on our salads? Is it because they realize it’s stupid and that our nation’s leaders ought to have better things to do with their time?

Look, even if I disagreed with the French on this — and I don’t — their representatives to the United Nations are simply executing the will of their people by attempting to avoid a needless and dangerous war. They’re acting like a democracy. Demanding that they follow the company line and bow to pressure from the United States demeans the principles of that democracy. Responding with bad French jokes and renaming foods is nothing but petty and childish.

And, as Neil Gaiman points out, it “will just make them laugh at you.”

Jon Kilgannon writes:

Post a detailed (or an undetailed, even an amorphous) precis of what you want the magazine [Lethe Dreams] to be and I will happily point people at it.

What I’m hoping for is the unexpected, science fiction or fantasy visions both unusual and unearthly, strange dreams of distant shores. Stories, poems, and art that make you think, make you laugh, make you angry, leave you puzzled — that explore the limits of the genre, or delight in exploding the myth that there are any limits. Feel free to toy with expectations, to throw genres together, to act silly. You decide where you want to go. You decide what you want to dream. Imagination and a desire to share that dream with others should be your guide.

  • Fiction and poetry of varied length (from the short-short to the “to be continued next issue”)
  • Artwork (drawings, photographs, or digital creations)
  • Nonfiction (explorations of the genre, interviews, reviews)

Is that undetailed and amorphous enough? And is anyone interested?