Here’s an interesting fact: Marvel and DC—the two biggest publishers of comic books—jointly own a trademark on the term “Super Hero” (and its variations). Huh? I picked this up from Newsarama, via Boing Boing.
That seems to me to be just a little bit ludicrous, but it suddenly seems clear why Alan Moore’s comic books refer to their protagonists as “science heroes” and not superheroes.
Man that’s weird.
Here’s something I’ve been looking for for a while now: Blogarama, a directory of weblogs. I’m not sure how good it is yet, but it’s a start. And it appears to be developed in PHP, which is always a good thing.
Their categorizations could use some work, but I imagine it’s rather hard to nail down a particular blog into a particular category—especially since most blogs already have their own microcosmic taxonomy. We’ll see what comes of it.
Watching the old “Scooby Doo, Where are You?” show, I’d always kind of wondered just where all these adventures are supposed to be taking place. For a long time my best guess was somewhere in the Midwest, but recently we caught an episode in which the gang was on their way to a rock festival, and when they stopped to ask for directions, said they were looking for Interstate 5. Well, I-5 puts them on the west coast, possibly the Pacific Northwest but more likely California.
What? You were expecting something more serious?
One of those nights where I want to write something here, but I can’t think of anything meaningful to say. Plus, it’s getting late and I don’t want to get wrapped up in writing a long post, so what to do? What to do?
How about this? It’s a bit esoteric, but any literary-types out there, guess what this comes from:
He’d a French cocked-hat on this forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jeweled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jeweled sky.
Over on Peter David‘s weblog is this post about Shakespeare. Since I like Shakespeare, I thought I’d link to it, it’s a good post.
It’s one of those topics where there seems to be little or no middle ground: either you dig Shakespeare, or you don’t. Those who don’t can be converted, but I ain’t gonna bother with that here—I just thought I’d riff a bit and let everyone make up their own mind.
Back in college I took several Shakespeare courses: the typical English-course requirement-type class and another titled “Shakespeare in Ashland” which was a hands-on course in which we studied several plays and then went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland to see them performed. It was a totally great class. All the courses were taught by the same professor, who—get this—had been a cop in Los Angeles before getting his degree and becoming a teacher. He was a cool guy, had a totally pragmatic approach to Shakespeare, not the usual “masterpiece of English literature” approach that turns so many off.
Speaking of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you ever get the opportunity to see a play performed there, jump all over it. It will likely be the best production of Shakespeare you will ever see, bar none. There’s simply nothing like the experience of seeing it performed live, and performed well—especially if it’s in the outdoor Elizabethan theater. I’ve been there a bunch of times and seen about half-a-dozen plays (Richard III and Henry IV Part I really stand out in my mind), and I’d go back anytime for more.
And I just checked the 2004 schedule: King Lear (I guarantee this will be awesome), Henry VI (all three parts, a ho-hum set of plays but I bet they do good with them anyway), The Comedy of Errors, and Much Ado About Nothing (another one that will be really good, I’ll bet).
And finally, some gratuitous plugs for my ebooks: Hamlet Palm Reader .pdb file, and Macbeth Palm Reader .pdb file.
The Bend WinterFest is coming up in a little over a week, from February 5th through the 8th. Just thought I’d give it a mention for anyone looking for something to do in Bend next weekend.
Me? No, I probably won’t attend. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know. I think Bend now has festivals for every season plus a few extra thrown in for good measure; the SummerFest used to be pretty decent, when they had a good beer garden and didn’t limit where you could take your beer (or wine), but when they beer garden selection got much more limited and they wouldn’t let you out of the fenced area (which caused much problems for those of us who had young kids who weren’t allowed inside the fence but had already purchased a beer before finding out you couldn’t leave), the SummerFest itself became a lot less attractive.
At any rate, for me it’s just too damn cold to be out wandering around Downtown Bend or the Old Mill District watching ice carving or fireworks. But if you’re interested in going, more power to you.
I tackled the plumbing project today, after all. Yeech.
It took awhile to loosen the bolts (and working in a cramped space under the bathroom sink didn’t help much), but when I finally got the faucet apart, I was able to determine pretty quickly that something in the central valve assembly was messed up. So, we ended up with a new faucet for the bathroom. Same brand (Moen), but with a slightly different look than the rest of the bathroom faucets.
Putting it all back together was relatively easy compared to getting the old faucet out. What a royal pain in the ass it was, though, overall. Not a process I’d look forward to repeating anytime soon.
Just got back from seeing The Return of the King. One word.
Amazing.
