Round-Up of Run-Downs
Posted on | 2 years ago, mid-afternoon | 1 Comment
So the internet is formally restored unto my home, and that’s a beautiful thing — but I’d be lying if I said there’d been much of anything else afoot. I’ve been pretty sick off and on for the last week, but I’m much better today; though my under-the-weatherness has come to mean that the apartment is trashed and we’re out of food, so I need to get off my duff today and take care of that.
Anyway, today you get a links post, because (a). I have some cool links that I want to archive here for my own personal convenience and (b). it’s easier and faster than generating new content. Let it not be said that I ever mislead you on my motives.
* The last Victorian Leviathan steam ship. (Built in 1858) An Iron Monster, framed in a cloud of billowing white sails, or looming through the hellish black smoke – this was the ultimate Victorian luxury Trans-Atlantic liner, affectionately called the “great babe” by its eccentric designer.
* John Stewart: Most Trusted Man in America. I may be preaching at the choir here, but I really love this guy. “It’s been more than eight years since “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart†made its first foray into presidential politics with the presciently named Indecision 2000, and the difference in the show’s approach to its coverage then and now provides a tongue-in-cheek measure of the show’s striking evolution.”
* Contemporary retro-futurism. Or something. I love Currier and Ives prints. That one over on io9 reminds me of a (unrelated) little 6×18-inch fold-out print I own that depicts a 19th century Japanese painting envisioning what life in America must be like. (I picked it up at S.A.M., and intend to frame it one day. It’s gorgeous, and dirigibles feature prominently.) [Edit: It's a print of this piece, Amerikakoku, by Utagawa Yoshitora.]
* Dottie Collins, 84, Star Pitcher of Women’s Baseball League, Dies. I’ve been interested in the WBL ever since I learned of it years ago while living near Evansville, Indiana (where A League of Their Own was filmed). “Pitching for six seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, created in 1943 to provide home front entertainment while many major leaguers were off to war, Collins dazzled opposing batters.”
* Texas Mormon fringe sect may lose 8 of its 400 kids. I’ve already said my piece on this matter, but the follow-up remains interesting. I think that the lawyers are right to debate if this is further religious persecution; but I think it also shows some back-pedaling on the parts of these mothers who previously vowed to vigorously and openly obey all laws in order to retrieve their children.
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August 27th, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
Hey.
I once fangirled you like a 14-year-old on Justine Larbalestier’s blog (I had just discovered “Four and Twenty Blackbirds”). After following your link-back on the FCoLDS Texas ranch, I find myself compelled to fangirl you about four times louder. I hope you’re okay with that. You’ve articulated my own mixed feelings just about perfectly.
Dangit, now I have questions I want to ask and feel a bit freakish for popping out of the blue with them…:-D
–Camille, a fellow “former”
(I never really had to give up meat, though. Or vinegar. Vinegar?)