Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Linda slipped.  I was envious of that story, too.  but I also wanted
to say:

Oh, and I always thought that old saying was, "If you don't have
anything nice to say about someone, come sit by me!"
  

    
From David Dyer-Bennet via the signal-to-noise mailing list, pictures
from the album release party, including one of Neil:
<http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/gallery.cgi/09080-Not%20Flash%20Girls>

My first date with Lori was the most unlikely way to start a
successful relationship ever; at the end of the night I turned to her
and said, "Should we ever, somehow, manage to get married and have
children, we're telling them that we met at the fair.  On a ferris
wheel."
  

    
Neil:
Mary Roane wrote "<<puts hand on hip & waggles other index finger
at you all, just like your mom>> "

See, Neil, it's a southern thang.

I think I've already told this, but...
Cam and I met playing live action Vampire: the Masquerade (I hate RPG,
way too slow, but live action is like impromptu theater, which I
like). I was sitting on a couch with a man named Marc Ustatine, who was
dating my friend Krista at the time, and who also happened to be Cam's
best friend. He caught me checking out Cam's rear view as he went by,
and Marc said, "He's a nice guy, and he's not dating anyone."
I had to pretty much beat Cam over the head and drag him back to my
cave, though, he's so shy.

As Heinlein says, if we didn't plain lead them by the hand, the human
race would have died out years ago...
  

    
Just an FYI: Two commercial passenger aircraft were apparently
hijacked and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in
New York City. And a few moments ago, a fire started at the Pentagon
and the White House is being evacuated.
  

    
Tara: Cam just came in and told me about that...
So nobody fly anywhere for a while, OK?
Or break anything...
  

    
FAA grounded all commercial flights.
  

    
Thankfully.
CNN.com is too slammed to access, so I'm listening to NPR.
  

    
Well, the Capital just got evacced...
  

    
The back side of the Pentagon has just collapsed as well.
God, I ALMOST brought a TV to work with me to keep up, but I thought
Id be able to find news off the Net. Obviously a huge overload...
  

    
Chicago's in much the same shape. Sears tower is evacced, dunno about
the Aon Centre. I assume it'll be. You can try the AP newswire and
Reuters at news.excite.com--that's what I've been doing all morning.
Just heard my friend who works in Manhattan is safe in Jersey--she was
late to work; otherwise she would have been on the train or in the
tunnel when it all started.
  

    
They sure did. Juan just called from the airport, saying he wasn't going to
Houston after all. Mike, presumably, is home asleep, as he had no airplane
plans today.

Juan and Mike are two different people: Juan is John M. Ladwig, and Mike is
John M. Ford, and those are my two partners, and the anniversary today is
mine and Juan's. (Mike's and my anniversary is in January.) Sorry for being
unclear there, but it can be confusing for people who aren't us. (We find it
pretty easy to keep track of who each other are.)

Seeing as they're both named John M. Somethingorother and they have the same
hairdo, I generally refer to them collectively as the John M. Ponytails.

Anyhow, it now looks like I will have brunch with Juan in a few minutes, so
I better go find something to wear out into the world.

CNN.com is kinda hard to access just now; I suspect a lot of people are
trying to use it. As far as all this crash/fire/evacuation thing goes, the
first thought through my head was, "Oh, shit. Bush and those <expletive
deleted> Republicans better not use this as an excuse to declare martial
law, because if they do, we'll have a lot harder time getting this illegal
government out of its usurped offices."
  

    
"They sure did" was in response to Tara's saying they ahd grounded all
commercial flights.
Major slippage in this topic this morning.
  

    
I went downstairs to the caf where the TV is and saw the footage of
the one tower collapsing. I'm still in shock. It's how well planned
this whole thing was that's scary.
  

    
Lioness:
Please clarify "Juan and Mike are two different people: Juan is John
M. Ladwig, and Mike is
John M. Ford, and those are my two partners, and the anniversary today
is
mine and Juan's. (Mike's and my anniversary is in January.) Sorry for
being
unclear there, but it can be confusing for people who aren't us. (We
find it
pretty easy to keep track of who each other are.)"

at some point after all this is over, or should  say "Wow" or
"Congrats"?

:D
  

    
They just closed Y12 in Oak Ridge (just down the road, part of the
Manhattan Project in WWII), and the State Department in downtown
Knoxville...
  

    
My Mike just called in from Washington to say that he's okay.

Mary's cancelled her trip to New York.

I'm waiting to see whether I'll be going to Europe this weekend.

In a minute I'll start phoning my friends who live and work in
downtown Manhattan.


...

I was going to say something to JaNell about libraries charging to do
interlibrary loans (a bad thing) and something to Tree about Milk
Bottle (sorry) but it's all rather gone out of my head.
  

    
Well...
Oak Ridge National Laboratories (Y12) is on active alert now, as are
many other places here...
one of my friends pointed out that yes, we're sitting in the middle of
a strategic target, but not a terrorist target.
I said I didn't have much faith in whoever's doing this to understand
the differance.
My parents just flew off somewhere on vacation, my stepbrother is in a
nuclear sub probably headed off to deal with this right now...
I feel sick.

I'm so glad your family is accounted for, Neil, everyone go grab your
family & friends and hug them all right now.
  

    
Deirdre called me in tears about an hour after it all started. Parents
are at home watching the news. I've been calling around, still two NYC
and DC friends unaccounted for. It's all so unreal. Like watching the
world through an inch of gauze.
  

    
Oh, goddess.

Has anybody heard from Patrick and Teresa?  Are they okay?  Jack
Womack?  Anybody else?  

OH MY GOD!!!  I was sobbing all the way to work this morning.

Oh, <lioness>, all I could think of after the shock, is ohGod, that
SOB is in charge of this!!!  More killing, more death.  Lady, it sucks
to be human, sometimes.

On a brighter note, happy anniversary to Juan and you!  I think it
must have been kismet: what are the chances they were _both_ named John
M.?!?  We all take some comfort in your happiness in the midst of
shadow.
  

    
Neil, I didn't know where Mike was.  I'm so happy he's fine.  One of
my brothers works for the government in D.C.; we still haven't heard
from him, yet--we can't get through--but he doesn't work near the
Pentagon, so I'm sure he's fine.  My other brother is a pilot, which
has always been scary, but never more than now.
  

    
At 40th and Madison right now, and Freaked the Hell Out.  Got into
work this morning to see a woman running toward a television, saying
something about a plane and the World Trade Center, to which my reply
was "Bwu?" (it was early).
Still my reaction.  I'm too.... to deal with it well.  I'm stranded
(live in Jersey City, and I can't get out of Manhattan), short on cash
(so this is why everyone told me to get a bank account), unable to give
blood (tattoo in the past year), and Scared.  I'll be making my way
down that way soon, to see if I can help somehow.  Pray for us all (and
you guys in here that are up here, I'm thinking of you guys).
Anyone who has friends or anything up here, let me know if I can help,
like, contact them, or anything.
  

    
     Woo.

     I woke up about an hour ago and got online, but I didn't have any
news access on.  CNN Headline is now running, and I'm watching the
Trade Center fall.
     They've brought out Tom Clancy to comment for some damn reason,
though he's actually doing a good job, including saying very clearly
that Islam is a religion like others, not composed entirely of
psychopathic mass murderers.

     It is difficult to imagine an act of more intensely bloody
imbecility on the part of the perpetrators (leaving aside the decades
of stupidity leading up to this).  I think the Japanese might echo
that.

     For what it's worth, Patrick and Teresa should not have been
anywhere near there, unless by sick coincidence their subway train was
underneath, and I haven't heard of any subway collapses.
     But I know a lot of people in NYC.

     Thought I was going back to sleep about now.  Guess not.
  

    
Will, oh Will.  I'm so sorry--I forgot you were there!  I am, we are,
all sending our best heart magic to you and everyone.  Please keep us
posted.  If there's anything we can do--wire money, whatever--let us
know!

Oh god.  

My brother called us back.  He's okay.  My pilot brother got home
before they grounded everybody (he flies at night).

Thanks for the reassurance on Patrick and Teresa, Mike.  I just
assumed they worked in Manhattan.  Where are the TOR offices?

The hospital (I work at UCLA Medical Center) is on Disaster Alert,
now.
  

    
I just...I used to temp at the World Trade Center.  Later, my office
for four years faced it.  There are no words.  I love you all and I
pray for your safety.  
  

    
This was posted over at Neil's board, The Wolrd's End, by Karyn-chan,
who has/had friends who worked in the WTC:

"...It SMELLS.


It smells like...I can't even begin guys.

You know the rubble you smell when you by like a huge pile of dirt?

Take that. Amplify it by like a billion. Add the realization that
people died.

It's choking and right now I'm not even in Manhattan..."

and some of that smell is most likely people she cared for...
oh great mother...