Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Neil--ROFL

hnowell--<waves>  good to see you!  Your coworkers sound like my old
office.  People read (or don't) the darnedest things.  What's freaky to
me is how many of my fellow English teachers don't read the way we
do--voraciously.  I thought that was a prerequisite of the job.  And
most of my department aren't Britlit folks.  They actually like Amlit! 
Stephen Crane gives me hives.  But there you are.  Takes all kinds to
make the world go 'round.

Mouse--in case I haven't said it before, hope you're having a blast. 
I'm so jealous!

The co-presidents of the Chicago branch of the Janah fan club have
itchy feet, and a potential road-trip to hear them in April in Atlanta
is being bruited about.  We must be out of our minds.  It may, however,
be worth it for the looks on the faces of the band when they see us in
our accustomed place in the front row.  I haven't done a road trip
south in about 5 years, and I would give a great deal for a plate of
butter beans, back-eyed peas and corn bread.  The whole idea makes me
feel like I'm back in college.  To hell with acting like a grown-up. 
It's no fun!

I went through a drive-thru tonight to grab some dinner on the way to
the Neil meet-up (which Debbie & I were the only 2 people attending),
and I realized that I hadn't been through a drive-thru in at least 2
years.  It was weird.  Having a car makes me feel like myself again,
insane road trip ideas & all.

DanGuy--congratulations to you and your wife on the arrival of Miss
Molly. Post us some pix of the young'uns sometime--I'll bet Xander is
growing like a weed. It's good to hear from you.  And I can't imagine
why you waited to post--as you can see from this ramble, it is not
necessary to have something to say to actually post.  ;-)  Oh, and
belated birthday greetings--hope it was a good one!

OK, OK, shutting up now.

Neil--glad you're getting better.  Rest up & take care of yourself (or
we'll have to postpone the wedding).  Sorry.  Couldn't resist.      

And I think it must be said that the Well has a truly crap spellcheck.
 Just for the record.  
  

    
Went to the Ellis Marsalis & Sons concert at Symphony Hall last night.
mmmmm. Inner harmonies still bebopping in jazz mode this morning; I'll
be happily bopping along all day, I think (hope). Going to buy a few
more CDs in the next day or so, too.

Dodge: Thanks, I'll take a look at those.
  

    
I have nothing to say





.....


ok, not entirely true. I actually have loads to say, but you'll just
have to wait for the 12 volume leather bound set. I'll sum up and say
that life is random, strange, and I am beginning to believe that the
Endless exist and that some of them have a cruel sense of humor.
  

    
Neil: *snort!*  (Most unladylike, but it's your fault)  Well, you
write fabulous women characters.  I bet you'd be surprised at the
number of people sitting on the "feminine" side.

Mary: I hope you get to road-trip.  It'll make up a little for missing
Italy.

SFDan: I'm sorry.  You have my empathy.  Not to seem trite, but the
little things like a lovely hot tea and some sunshine really can make a
difference.  Or... I don't know.  For some reason, I'm thinking of
Julia Butterfly Hill, clinging for her life to Luna, in the midst of
100-mile winds.  And then the wind stopped, and the sun came out.

I love this photo (on right):

http://www.ottermedia.com/LunaJulia2.html

Besides (chanelling Inigo Montoya)... I hate waiting.  Especially for
books.  If you need to speak out, we'll listen.
 
  

    
Indeed.
  

    
What they said.
  

    
Yay!  Neil can play with us again!  And he's making me LAUGH!  :D  I
have never been so happy to have trouble keeping up with all the
Journal posts.

I'm glad you're being judicious about your schedule (and I'm glad
Lorraine is looking out for you.  Yay Lorraine!).  You matter more to
the people who know you than a thousand books ever could.

What Dan (<313>) and Pamela (<322>) said, especially with that big
European-except-Germany tour coming up; I hope your strength will be at
an all-time high for that.  And besides -- after what you went through
last week, I owe you about a thousand hugs.  So you have to stay
alive, because that could take a while.  ;)  So pet lots of cats and
get plenty of hugs and all that other stuff that's good for the immune
system (and fun, too!).  :)

So Maddy gets colored hair extensions and got her ears pierced.  What
a cool kid!  I think any eight-year-old willing to take on **NEIL
GAIMAN** at Scrabble is pretty darn gutsy, win or lose.  Or too young
to know any better.  :)

It's midnight.  Gotta go.  'Night, all.
  

    
I have a friend who likes to sit and read the Oxford English
Dictionary for fun... the unabridged-takes-up-the-whole-shelf version.
Masters's from Harvard, getting her Doctorate at Yale (just finished
her orals, yay!)...

I do NOT play scrabble with her.
  

    
My one claim to game fame was getting a M*A*S*H trivia game for
Christmas, then finding out no one would take me on.

Thank Heaven _Encore_ is a team game, or I probably wouldn't find
anyone to play that with me, either.
  

    
I took the "Who wants to marry an SF writer" quiz, too, and came up
with the same guy as most other people did.  I thought it was a
no-brainer.  ;)  (Not to be confused with a no-hairer, which would be
China Miéville.)   Especially since I haven't read any of the others.

Of course, I'm not as weird as Pamela or Maure, apparently.

I have a feeling the quizmaker probably was also the most familiar
with Neil, since even by her own admission, he turns up the most in
people's answers.  An e-quaintance of mine just made up a quiz about
which member of his band the test-taker is, and it was very hard not to
get him as an answer.  Since, naturally, he knew himself best, there
was an unconscious leaning there that he hadn't been able to shake.

That One Ring Zero project sounds VERY intriguing!

Pamela -- Ugh.  I remember you saying your car was broken into, but I
don't remember the radiator replacement.  Ouch!  :^o

And I think it would be VERY cool to see you, Davey, and The
Green-Bearded One when you're in DC.  (Hey, 'Walker, have you
considered colored hair extensions?)

Wow!  It's Dodge!  Hi!  And some of us don't read because we're too
busy listening to music.  ;)  (Incidentally, my mom was recently
wondering out loud why my brother and I prefer reading about the future
(SF) rather than the past (biographies, historical fiction).  "After
all," she said, "The future is still pretend.  The past really
happened," and of course invoked the famous "destined to repeat it"
quote.  So I guess the smartest kids can still "disappoint" their
parents by having different tastes and temperaments.  I hope that, like
our mother, you're actually very accepting and find your kids'
individuality a neverending source of interest.)

And speaking of said mother -- she just called me!  I asked her to
call me back in 5, so I can post this.  I'll get back to you guys.

Cya,
Christy
  

    
Christy - Actually, yes, I have considered it... but then again, I
know/have known *so* many people with them (Mousey, Mousey's Boi,
Maddy, Ms. Bullwinkle and the SF Ducati Girls, etc.)... and it's just
losing it's novelty for me.

In addition to that, I'm changing the color of my beard depending on
my whim (I use colored hair pomades from Pro-Vitamin... they wash
out!), so getting hair extensions to match would... well... be chaotic.

I am occasionally matching my nail polish, though.

I think the only way you'd get me to get colored hair extentions would
be to convince Neil to make a wager with me: If he poses for pictures
in a full-color (no black) Harlequin suit designed by Lisa Snellings,
I'll put in colored hair extensions for 6 months.

*Remembers the last bet he made with a professor of his... Prof.
shaves the beard, I shave my head. Man, that spring was cold...* 
  

    
I meant for your beard.  <eg>
  

    
Er... oh.

Never thought of that, actually.
  

    
Dodge -- Did you paint the room?  (Probably easier to do it BEFORE
unpacking things.)

Still catching up and commenting on various things; apologies in
advance for any disjointedness.

I'll be looking forward to reading that French _Coraline_ article. 
Need to exercise those muscles once in a while.

Dayum, Neil, you are all OVER that "Most Talked-About Books" list at
http://allconsuming.net!

Adriana -- Have a good time back in NYC!  And I'd imagine that anyone
who wants to lure you to their city should probably bribe you with
on-site equipment to borrow.  Less lugging!

Mary -- Who's Casimir Pulaski?

And re:  [i]Two Years Before the Mast[/i] -- You know, you could
always put the book [i]down[/i]....

I go home now.  Maybe I'll post more tonight.  ([i]Enterprise[/i] is a
repeat.  ;)    )
  

    
Whoops.  Using the encoding my <i>other</i> favorite messageboard
uses.

Sorry.
  

    
Walker - I was not ripping on... hold on, finished the paragraph...
hee hee hee. :) Love you!!! (And since when do platypi grow on trees?)

Danguy - YAY! Congratulations!

Mary - I *am* having a blast... and spending far too much money... and
it's not even all Tree's fault. Yesterday she did her best job to
disuade me from spending money, but the card just kept popping out of
my wallet, and the 'cool things' (tm) just kept leaping into bags that
inserted themselves into my grip. (And we haven't even hit the shop
with the pretty corsets yet!)

DanW - bah, I read the OED (compact version, only takes up a few -18-
pounds of shelf space) for fun and I'm CRAP at Scrabble.

Walker - for the record, neither the mouse or her boy have extensions
in. We don't even have really odd hair colours for the moment. It's
really a rare thing...

Neil - Tree was groaning a little while ago... you just had to put the
Dagon thing back into print, didn't you? ;P

As for the rest of the us collectors, Tree hopes you all appreciate
the lengths she goes to, finding all the out of print and hard to find
bits, so that Neil can put them back into print shortly after she
purchases them. :)

-squeaks, on a Turkish-Delight-filled-Cadbury-chocolate-egg high
(the breakfast of champions)
  

    
> platypi

Wouldn't it be platypodes?  Or have we had this discussion before? 
(Sorry, <languages.> has been a bit slow for my taste.)

Walker -- *I* want to see the Blue Man Group!  My stepsister enjoyed
them before they were known outside of New York.  Now you tell me
they're Vegas-based?  Traitors.

Davey -- So you like gerbils, and you like blimps... how about <a
href=http://www.rathergood.com/mark/>dirigerbils</a>?

I'm going to have to take that purity test, if it's a Neil one.  As I
recall, around last June I was at 17% corrupt, and I hadn't even met
the guy yet.  I keep meaning to see how far I've degenerated since.

And last but definitely not least:

CONGRATULATIONS, DANGUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You'll have to update your bio now.  And, please, pictures!!  Molly's
a lovely name; I have friends who named their first child Molly.

And Happy Belated Birthday!

And we love to hear from you, even when you have no more to say than
the rest of us.  (Geez, Molly's birth was "something to say" a month
ago!)  ;p

And I've started beginning paragraphs with "And," which probably means
I've become even more Gaiman corrupt than I thought.  Which is a good
thing.  Honest.
  

    
Mousey - No hair extensions? No oddly-colored hair? On *either* of
you? I think my paradigm just shifted...

Christy - Traitors? Oh, no... no no no. Blue Man Group is far from
selling out for having a Vegas show. They actually have four shows out
there now... New York, Boston, Chicago, and Las Vegas... but they are
still very much New-York based. The Vegas show simply gave them the
budget and area to do much larger and more expressive show... and it
rocks.

New purity test, huh? The last one I took had me at 2% pure, due to
the fact that I have never dressed as a character, nor dressed as a
character at a signing (nor do I plan to, unless that character happens
to be me).
  

    
BMG/NY -- Oh, OK!  I feel better now.
  

    
Davey,  I do like roller coasters! I think Pam and Walker are coming
to Vegas to hang out with me, so I think my lack of things to do there
problem has been solved, more or less. Thank you for your input!
Also, very jealous of your Marsalis experience. I always loved Ellis
and Branford, but know too much about Wynton's personality to be able
to enjoy his music as much as I ought to do.

Squeaks,  I'm asking for a bat for my birthday. I think the adoption
link you posted is the closest I'll get. Thank you! ;)

Yay for Dan Guy and his Molly! I hope she gives you lots of trouble --
all the best kids do!

Christy, I'm normal, really. Of course you're at least as weird as I
am.
I haven't seen the Blue Man Group here in Chicago. But I am very
excited to see Penn and Teller's show in Vegas.
  

    
#342 

Merriam-Webster says platypuses, also platypi 

The rest of the dictionaries at http://OneLook.Com seem to go with
platypuses
  

    
Yeah, "platypuses" is standard.  I just think it's funny when people
put a Latin pluralization on a Greek word fragment.

(Strange how William Safire columns I read almost 20 years ago still
stick with me....)
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>
  

    
Christy, that's wonderfully silly. I wonder if I can get a happy party
furry gerbilloon screensaver?

Didn't plan to be up this late but decided to peel the garlic tonight
to save time tomorrow morning, and enough garlic for a double-size
batch of 40-Clove Chicken (that's what it's called, but, really, who
counts?) takes a while. (Double batches are easy with a six-quart
crockpot and it freezes quite well.)

I definitely want to see the (currently, maybe) Green-Bearded One with
tutti-frutti extensions.

The old purity test is at
http://www.angelfire.com/la2/rlea42/Gaiman.html and GMZoe's new one is
at http://hometown.aol.com/ngaimanvb/neil/purity.html (On the old test
I score ~65% corrupt, on the new one ~85%.) I still want to know how
Walker scores on the new one, as a calibration.

Maure: I don't know anything about any of the Marsalis boys 'cept that
their daddy raised them right, musically... So four of them making
music together with him (and Reginald Veal, a fine man on bass even if
he's not kin) was a treat of an evening. The CDs I think I need now are
Delfeayo's -- I'm sure now that I have not been paying enough
attention to the trombone.

DanGuy: If you're not choosy about what edition you get, I have
several cheap pb copies of _Lud-in-the-Mist_ (picked up at cons for
giveaways to friends because there was a long time when it just wasn't
easy to find) and would be pleased to send you one. Let me know?
  

    
And according to said 8-ball, I will not crash on my plane ride from
here to Sydney, so I'll be seeing you next from there tomorrow...
(unless my thingie representative out there chooses to drown me in the
surf at the beach) ;)

-squeaks, who LOATHES planes