Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
No, no, Kelly; if you take that one, what do I get to be the Patron
Saint of?
Elise has already taken the other options that come to mind...
  

    
Mike-- I now have a lovely image of our Polish friend on the second
floor of the Vatican gutterballing that will amuse me for days.  I
thank you.

Jinx--Yay!  Welcome home to your mom! And congrats on the promotion! 
You should play the lottery, you have so many good vibes.

Mary (who wants to be the patron saint of readers, and is studying
very hard for it!)
  

    
D'oh! Another good one taken.
  

    
    Jinx -- the airline meal thing may not be a problem much longer. 
American/TWA (same parent company) just announced they're dumping meal
service in coach on a lot of their domestic flights.  It's over costs,
though there was a ridiculous line in their statement about security
among foodservicers (of which there are only a handful in the US).
    During WW2, any time an American corporation wanted to take an
unpopular action, they blamed the war and dared you to be unpatriotic
by disagreeing.  For the immediate future, expect the same behavior,
except that American Tobacco didn't actually claim that bringing Lucky
Strike Green back would cause the Japanese to blow your house up.
    If they ditch foodservice, people will bring their own.  If they
do this, they will inevitably bring utensils.  -That'll- speed up
boarding control.

    Kelly -- replying to someone else is just that.  I think everybody
understands that it's a wide-open N-way (as Doc Smith called it).

    Mary -- wearing, naturally, the Bowling Shoes of the Fisherman.
  

    
>During WW2, any time an American corporation wanted to take an
unpopular action, they blamed the war and dared you to be unpatriotic
by disagreeing.  

As in "We have to lay off all you Boeing employees because of the war"

I can see modern unscrupulous business using this a lot.
  

    <hidden>
  

    

The above is off-WELL e-mail from Ghost Girl, which I have hidden because
it contains forwarded e-mail from people who have not given permission for
their e-mail to be posted publicly here.
  

    
E-mail from Dianna:

Neil - Glad to hear you are safe and well oriented in Venice. i'm 
missing your blogger too.

Tree - Cripes. i couldn't agree more.

There are many distinguishable dialects within the Australian 
language, or Strine as is affectionately known, but i've encountered 
none as obtuse as the Crocodile Hunter's. He's just plain daft. 
("Strine" because when some people down here with very broad accents 
say Australian is comes out as that.)
  

    
But he's daft in such an affectionate sort of way...

-Kelly, who misses her Crocodile Hunter fix...
  

    
The only decent airline food I've ever eaten were vegan meals. And
they were always last minute queries, as in them asking "would you like
chicken or fish?" and my responding with "um, you wouldn't by any
chance have any extra veggie meals about, would you?" Guess I got
lucky.

Neil - I'd go insane if I didn't know which direction North was. I do
everything by vector maps, even in my head. It makes getting directions
from 'landmark' people very entertaining. 
"Turn right at the Blockbuster." 
"What street is that?" 
"Um..." 
"Okay, how far down is it?" 
"A ways" 
"Is there a light or a stop sign at the street?" 
"Um, there's a pizza place, but I can't remember the name of it." 
Any way, hope the rest of your trip goes well. 

abbe - But... Target does the best generic grilled excuse-for-cheese
sandwiches for so little! Not that I miss them at all in comparison to
my current lunch options (gotta love Union Square!), but given the
choice between Starbucks pastries, Taco Hell, and Target, Target food
court always won.

lioness - Well, I was going to ask if I could be patron saint of
non-sequential thought processes, but then Kelly's sounds kind of like
that... so how about if I'm just saint of stripey cats named Spot?
(ugh, my Star Trek geekery really is showing through)

Kelly - The trick to getting the comic geeks anyplace by 9am is to
force them not to sleep at all. Usually we get bored by 7am and start
getting ready and are there on time... 'course, that *def*initely
explains why James and I are so loopy at Cons and when going to see
Neil...

squeaks, who has 250 photos to write html for and two dresses to sew
  

    
I'm kinda diggin' on the concept of being the patron saint of patron
saints. 
  

    
I think I'd be the patron saint of unrestricted entry, of doors that
are strangely unlocked when you reach for them.

For those of you who would like your own bamf, and are handy with the
sewing or know someone who is, I happened to stumble across this bamf
pattern/guide online last night: <http://www.x-page.net/texts/bamf/>
  

    
JaNell- Why, you get to be the patron saint of teasing.  I would have
thought that was obvious.

Could I be patron saint of dreams?
  

    
ah, but miss-mousey, the Target I went to had as its food
offerings Taco Hell and Pizza Hut.   Perhaps it had some
grilled cheese-food item I didn't see, also, but I ordered
something from the Taco Hell menu, so no, it did *not* beat
Taco Hell.  Not at all.  

I've had decent luck with airline food, just the regular food
offerings on coach flights, but I think that's because most of
the long flights I take are transatlantic flights, and European
airlines are much cooler than American ones.  Heck, even the
free wine is probably better than the stuff you pay for on coach
flights within the US. 
  

    
So, it's the end of the second week, and I have to say thank you to
you guys.  This here was one of the things that most kept me sane in
the past couple of weeks.  It's been exactly what I needed to read all
of your words and stay grounded in the world and other people's lives.
My own?  Well, I was getting restless, and recent events served as a
real kick-in-the-ass, and a minor Zen awakening.  I realized that,
after I broke up with a fiancee last year, and actually got to be on my
own for the first time, I tried to be a completely different person
living pretty much the same life.  I'm redirecting now, and, to that
end, I'm going back to school, to study either writing or English. 
I've applied to USC, UPenn, Rutgers, Edinburgh, and UWales Aberystwyth,
which each have either/or (USC is the writing school.  I'd get a
Masters in Professional Writing at USC, but study in English in all the
others.  I still don't know exactly what I'm aiming for, beyond
writing, but, well, I know *this* wasn't it.  It'll mean I have to move
back in with my parents for a while, but, well, I'm just 23, and I
figure that's excusable at this age, and especially since I'm doing so
much.  Before school starts, next fall, I'm getting certified as a
personal trainer and substitute teaching.
Beyond that, I'm just going to try to sell my books, which is going,
well, it seems slowly, but probably because I'm young and impatient.  I
mean, Stephen King was 26, and Michael Chabon 24, and Grisham
practicing law, so, yeah, I figure just a while longer.  And beyond
*that* I don't have much a plan.
Seems a good start, though.
Oh, and Miss Mousey, I'm hoping to visit Walker soon, whether I go to
USC or not, so, when I'm over there on the left coast, we must needs
get together.
So that's what I'm doing, now.  And thanks again for caring, and being
there.
  

    
    Divine Miss-Mousey -- Stitch together the photos and write HTML
for your dresses.  That'll show . . . well, somebody. Something.

    Abbe -- I can remember a Pan Am flight (when Pan Am was trying
desperately to pretend that Everything Was Just Fine) on which a nice
gentleman who had requested a kosher meal was told that they had
forgotten to bring any, and would he like a banana and an apple?
    This was a flight from Helsinki to NYC, so he was very close to
having to invoke "a starving Jew," etcetera.  And other things
happened, like the emergency refueling in Gander (goosey goosey), and
the near attempt to seize the cockpit and demand we be let off the
long-since-landed aircraft (there having been a time when that was
funny) but the banana and apple were perhaps the more memorable moment.

    >>I'm just 23, and I figure that's excusable at this age
    Will, being 23 is excusable at any age.  In fact, if you can find
someplace safe to store some of your 23 for future use, you are very
unlikely to regret it.
  

    
Last New Year's I was told by a friend (before passing out) that I was
the most obsessive flirt he'd ever met. So I think I need to be the
patron saint of flirts.

I'm really rummy today. We re-rewrote all the light cues for Arbitrary
Placement of Walls last night and didn't get out until 11:30... then
the stage manager and I went to see a band and I didn't get home until
2.
I've gone beyond sleep.. I'm in this dopey zen place now... But
hopefully we're through the worst of tech and everything from now on is
fine tuning. ... one more week... one more week and It'll be up and I
can take two months off to recover my sanity.
... bliss.........
  

    

Kelly - did you know you can get a talking Crocodile Hunter doll at
Discovery Channel Stores?

http://shopping.discovery.com/genre/1149-1553-1.html

There's also a talking Mrs. Croc Hunter, a Croc Hunter stretch toy and a
bobble head Croc Hunter among other items...
  

    
What with all this going on I completely can't remember when your shows are
supposed to be, stagewalker.  I need a flyer or something--
  

    
I have decided that I must be the patron saint of odd luck, not always
bad, not always good, just odd things at the oddest times.

Jinx who has started her yearly obsession with Halloween stuff
  

    
Squeaks... that's certainly what we pulled the day we had to be in
Oakland at 9am. Up all night, blearily at BART by 8, only to
discover... ACK! BART doesn't run that early on Sundays?! Oh damn,
damn, damn... HEY! There's Alex! ALEX!... and arrived on time after
all.  ;-)

Linda - you know, I did indeed know about those dolls. I've played
with them in stores. I, I admit it... I'm on the Crocodile Hunter
mailing list. If I had more shame, I'd be embarassed...
  

    
I love The Crocadile Hunter, too.
  

    
Per Harry Shearer's Le Show last Sunday--he did nothing but sit in a studio
in Australia, where he was, and talk to the host of a political comedy show
down there--the Crocodile Hunter has only just finally come to Australia.
As a show, anyway.  He was on that Australian show recently and the
Australian host was amazed at how impressed his (famous) American guests
were by him.
  

    
Actually, thinking about it, I can't be the Patron Saint of Teasing.
Neil is almost the only person I tease. Hmmm...
  

    
My friend Todd Payuk is a god among men.

I have U2 tickets again.

Some friends you just can't be good enough for.

Mary (running off to explore Bampf patterns, because DanGuy rocks!)