"Where's My Cut?": On Unpaid Emotional Labor

sciatrix — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 21:38:44 GMT

Housework is not work. Sex work is not work. Emotional work is not work. Why? Because they don't take effort? No, because women are supposed to provide them uncompensated, out of the goodness of our hearts.

This isn't your grandfather's science fiction

Rhaomi — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:11:54 GMT

Ted Chiang is perhaps the finest author in contemporary science fiction -- and the most rarefied. A technical writer by trade and a graduate of the distinguished Clarion Writers Workshop, Chiang has published only twelve short stories in the last twenty years, one dozen masterpieces of the genre whose insightful, precise, often poetic language confronts fundamental ideas -- intelligence, consciousness, the nature of God -- and thrusts them into a dazzling new light. Click inside for a complete listing of Chiang's work, with links to online reprints or audio recordings where available, as well as a collection of one-on-one interviews, links to his nonfiction essays, and a few other related sites and articles.

Short Stories

"Tower of Babylon" (1990) - A Bronze Age laborer joins the construction of an impossibly high structure on a mission to breach the vaults of Heaven. Nebula Award (Best Novelette).

"Division by Zero" (1991) - A brilliant mathematician wrestles with the consequences of her earthshattering proof.

"Understand" (1991) [.mp3 1 2 3 4] - An experimental treatment bestows a regular person with superintelligence, propelling him into a dangerous series of mindgames.

"Story of Your Life" (1998) - A talented linguist reflects on her life as she struggles to grasp the meaning of an alien language. Nebula Award (Best Novella).

"The Evolution of Human Science" (2000) - Scientists despond as their mentally-augmented descendants leave them in the dust.

"Seventy-Two Letters" (2000) - In a world where mystical scrolls impart animating power, a shocking discovery threatens to upend society.

"Hell is the Absence of God" (2001) [full .mp3] - An unbeliever struggles with the question of faith when God is scientific fact and angels routinely visit the earth. Hugo, Locus, Nebula Awards (Best Novelette).

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" (2002) - A documentary examines people's reactions to a technology that allows one to see others without bias or judgment. Chiang declined a Hugo nomination.

"What's Expected of Us" (2006) [full .mp3] - A simple time machine undermines the concept of free will, with disastrous consequences.

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (2007) [full .mp3] - An ancient alchemist introduces a traveling merchant to a mysterious time-traveling gateway. Hugo, Nebula Awards (Best Novelette).

"Exhalation" (2009) [full .mp3] - A non-human scholar relates the dissection of his own brain, and the implications his discoveries hold for his curious clockwork universe. Locus, Hugo Awards (Best Short Story).

"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" (2010) - The relationship between people and their creations are explored in a near-future world of sentient AI.

Essays

Story Notes - discussing the background and inspiration for selected stories from the original print run of his book collection (contains some spoilers).

"The Problem of the Traveling Salesman" (2008) and "The Big Idea" (2010), via Mefi's Own jscalzi

Interviews:

SF Site (2002) - Locus (2002) - Infinityplus (2002) - Fantastic Metropolis (2003) - Nebula Awards (2008) - IndieBound (2008) - StarShipSofa podcast (2009) - BoingBoing (2010), discussed previously

Other

"Future Imperfect" - A feature piece on Chiang's latest work by City Arts magazine.

"Ted Chiang vs. Tor Publishing" - A companion piece on Chiang's creative struggle with Tor and his move to boutique publishing.

Ted Chiang (ology) - A fan blog dedicated to documenting characters, defining terms, and cataloging statistical information from Chiang's stories.

finding the right bra size and best fit

flex — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:44:00 GMT

Bratabase is a crowdsourced "bra database" made to help women find the right bra (interview with the creator). According to many studies, over 80% of women aren't wearing the correct bra size: "there's a lot of misinformation about bras out there". For instance, D cups just aren't that big ("Clearly there are a whole lot more D+ cups out there than people assume") and not all D cups are the same size ("from left to right 30D, 32D, 34D, 36D, 38D. Five different band lengths, five different cup volumes. All D Cups"). Most of these links contain photos and therefore may be NSFWish for some.

Boosaurus - Me and my mythical bra size: "This is why I do what I do. If I show everyone that a girl with a 28-band isn't just some mythical, twig-like creature, maybe some girls will realize that bands below 32 do exist, and they're not freakish for feeling like bands are always too big for them. If I tell everyone over and over that I wear a GG (or sometimes G, or H, or HH) cup, then maybe a few people will realize that the alphabet doesn't stop at D, that there are lots of options out there, that well-fitting bras do exist, that wearing a D cup or above isn't some strange, shameful thing."

Bra Fitting Cicade - G and GG cups - do they always stand for "get a reduction"? "Generally these stereotypes force women to wear bras with D or DD cups (which are considered "normal") and much too wide bands. Even if any of these women who wear bad sizes happens to enter a store with a real bra-fitting, she's often shocked to hear that she should wear a 34FF or 34G instead of 38D that she always used to wear, what's more she may get hysterical saying – I can't/don't have such big breasts. And refuse to wear a correct size because of that. This is what we call a "letterphobia" – this fear of wearing DD+ cups." (Why are women afraid to break the D-cup barrier?)

*Breakout Bras Fitting Guide
*Invest In Your Chest - DIY: Measure Yourself At Home
*Butterfly Collection - Don't hate on the tape measure; the 5 fit checks plus a size calculator that suggests brands
*Five signs of a poor fit
*How to put your bra on correctly: The 'Scoop and Grab' or the 'Scoop and Jiggle'
*The dark side of sister sizes: "So what's the down side of this cute little phrase? Simply put, if your band size is wrong then the bra DOES NOT FIT. The band is by far the most important part of any bra because it provides 90% of the support."
*It's your band size, and your choice: "Only you can decide what feels most comfortable for you. Just be informed about the right and wrong reasons to wear a band size slightly bigger than your measurements... Upsizing just so you can find something in shops, when you wouldn't do so otherwise, means you are being bullied by the companies and inadvertently voting for the wrong sizes with your wallet."
*StackDD+ - When and why to get fitted
*Linda's extensive bra problems/solutions guide
*Bratabase's troubleshooting section (submitted photos receive members' advice)

The Itty Bitty Bra Guide by Amanda of 32aaBra.com

Underbust Survey by Braless in Brasil -
Part 1: Data Range & Underbusts
Part 2: Sample Bias & Methodology
Part 3: Bust Sizes
Part 4: Bust Variation
Part 5: Clothing Sizes

*Breast Shapes (with a visual chart)
*What Exactly is a "Good" Shape? & How to Figure Out The Shape Of Your Boobs
*Soft vs. Firm Breasts

Clothing and Bra Sizes for the D Cup and Up: The Fit Factor vs. the Risk Factor: "When manufacturers and stores say there isn't enough demand for clothing or bras in our size, it's easy to feel incredulous because we're connected via the internet to full-busted women all over the world who share our frustrations with fit. Are these businesses blind? Not necessarily. They just want to stay in business. For many companies this means doing what has always worked and avoiding risk. Women have been forcing themselves into their size ranges for years. What's the big deal now?"

Attack of the Killer DDDDDDDs!!
"Here are the FOUR big bra problems I encountered:
1. The use of multiple Ds is keeping North American women away from embracing larger cup letters
2. Not enough brands understand the difference between Full Bust and Plus Size bras
3. Sizing for Full Bust women is still wildly inaccurate
4. Online boutiques are massively overlooked by brands and women alike"

Why We Need 28 and 30 Bands and GG+ Cups: "As more women in the US market in particular become aware of sub-32 band sizes in their quest for good-fitting bras, those who need to move down in band size will likely have to move up in cup size, and for some of them, that means crossing the GG+ cup line."

The Bra Band Project on Flickr: "We first started this project after a few big-name, full-busted (DD+ cups) lingerie companies asserted that there was "no market" for 30 and under bands, and that "30 and under bands are for juniors." We wholeheartedly disagreed! We knew that there were plenty of us out there struggling to find bras in these sizes. To illustrate our point, we've collected photos of women who wear sizes 24-30 band bras in sizes DD-KK (using UK sizing), ranging from ages 18-50+. As the photos show, we are women of a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and ages, and we need and deserve bras that fit." (photo sets)

USA Money - HerRoom's universal sizing chart demystifies larger bras; Bratabase responds: "Me and many bra enthusiasts on Twitter worry if adding one more standard will create more confusion... PS: I hate that they're using the letter D, just perpetuates the "D is huge" myth."

Jezebel - A new online bra shop helps you figure out your "real" bra size via an algorithm: "The former Microsoft employees who founded True & Co, Aarthi Ramamurthy and Michelle Lam, say they want to make the bra-shopping process entertaining and stress-free: "The whole idea is to wrap some really complicated technology into a very simple online quiz to make it fun for women," Lam told the NY Daily News."

(previously on MeFi: Busty Girl Problems)

Alice's Restaurant

Miko — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 06:32:17 GMT

This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant; that's just the name of the song, and that's why I call the song Alice's Restaurant.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in, it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Now, it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant. But Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell tower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog. And living in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Having all that room, seeing as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time.

We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the city dump.

Well, we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile was better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw ours down.

That's what we did, and drove back to the church, had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the next morning, when we got a phone call from Officer Obie.

He said, "Kid,we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage."

After speaking to Obie for about forty-five minutes on the telephone we finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the police officer's station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the
shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the police officer's station.

Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at the police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out and told us never to be see driving garbage around the vicinity again, which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer's station there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said "Obie, I don't think I can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on." He said, "Shut up, kid. Get in the back of the patrol car." And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the quote Scene of the Crime unquote.

I want tell you about the town of Stockbridge, Massachusets, where this happened here,they got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars, being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer's station. They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography.

After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put us in the cell. Said, "Kid, I'm going to put you in the cell, I want your wallet and your belt." And I said, "Obie, I can understand you wanting my wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you want my belt for?" And he said, "Kid, we don't want any hangings." I said, "Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?" Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the - roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape.

Obie was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice (remember Alice? It's a song about Alice) Alice came by and with a few nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back to the church, had a another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat,and didn't get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.

We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, sat down. Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down. We sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog. And then at the twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, 'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the judge wasn't going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us.

And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but thats not what I came to tell you about.

I came to talk about the draft.

They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. `Cause I wanted to look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York, and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the seargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

Didn't feel too good about it.

Proceeded on down the hall, getting more injections, inspections, detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they was doin' to me at the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no part untouched. Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there, and I walked up and said, "What do you want?" He said, "Kid, we only got one question. Have you ever been arrested?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice's Restaurant Massacre, with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that and all the phenomena, and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, did you ever go to court?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on the back of each one, and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, I want you to go and sit down on that bench that says Group W .... NOW, kid!!"

And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean and ugly and nasty and horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?" And I said, "Littering." And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand,and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, until the Sergeant came over, had some paper in his hand, held it up and said.

"Kids, this-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-know-details-of-the crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing- you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-officer's-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say", and talked for forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there, and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read thefollowing words:

("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")

I went over to the sergeant, said, "Sergeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself. I mean, I mean, I mean I'm just, I'm sitting here on the bench, I mean I'm sittinhere on the Group W bench, 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after being a litterbug?"

He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."

And friends, somewhere in Washington, enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you're in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do. Walk into the shrink wherever you are, just walk in and say "Shrink, you can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant." And walk out.

You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them . And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singing a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends, they may think it's a movement.

And that's just what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar. With feeling.

So we'll wait for it to come around on the guitar here, and sing it when it does. Here it comes.

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

That was horrible. If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud.

I've been singing this song now for twenty-five minutes. I could sing it for another twenty-five minutes. I'm not proud... or tired.

So we'll wait till it comes around again, and this time with four part harmony and feeling.

We're just waitin' for it to come around is what we're doing.

All right now.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant (excepting Alice)
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in, it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

Da da da da da da da dum...
At Alice's Restaurant!

The Post That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong

Rhaomi — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 03:28:53 GMT

Halfway through the third book of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, there is a throwaway reference to a doomed starship, one whose incredible splendor was matched only by the cosmic absurdity of its maiden-day annihilation. But the story didn't end there. Unbeknownst to many fans, this small piece of Adamsian lore was the inspiration for an ambitious and richly-detailed side-story: a 1998 computer adventure game called Starship Titanic. Designed by Douglas Adams himself, the game set players loose in the infamous vessel, challenging them with a maddening mystery laced with the devilish wit of the novels. The game was laden with extra content, including an in-depth strategy guide, a (mediocre) tie-in novel by Terry Jones, a whimsical First Class In-Flight Magazine, and even a pair of 3D glasses for one of the more inventive puzzles. Key to solving these puzzles was the game's groundbreaking communications system -- players interacted with the ship's robotic crew through a natural language parsing engine called SpookiTalk, whose 10,000+ lines of conversational dialogue spawned 16 hours of audio recorded by professional voice actors, including John Cleese, Terry Jones, and even Douglas Adams himself in several cameos (spoiler cameo). Want to experience the voyage for yourself? Then watch this narrated video playthrough (intro (ads) - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9? 10 11 12 13) ...or click inside for a information on how to run the game for free on Windows, Mac, and Linux (along with a bunch of other goodies!).

Extra Content
Excerpts of extra material included with the original copy of the game, including a fictional newspaper, profiles for all the bots and helpful guides to their "cellpoint" settings, the rantings of the infamous parrot, background articles from the strategy guide, and a map of the ship (source for scans).

A highly amusing story about an unusual contest tied into the novel and one fan's quest to crack it.
Original concept art by Oscar Chichoni, the Academy Award-winning designer of the game's environments.
A promotional article by game writer Michael Bywater
An explanation by Douglas Adams in response to incendiary emails complaining about the delay in the Mac version of the game
The obligatory TVTropes article
Blerontin.com - an archived promotional site
Vogon.com - A curious fansite for the series composed of several in-universe corporate sites

Emulating Starship Titanic
Though an abandonware title, Starship Titanic can still be played using emulation software for its original Mac OS platform. To get this working, you'll need four basic elements: the emulator program, some files necessary to make the emulator compatible, some tools to extract these files, and a copy of the game itself. It sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty straightforward if you follow the directions. The emulator software we'll be using, SheepShaver, is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so it should work no matter your set-up (though I've only done it myself on a Windows box).

Here's what you'll need:

- The latest version of the SheepShaver emulator (in a .zip file): Windows - Mac - Linux
- Courtesy of the software archive at MacintoshGarden, compressed copies of the game's three discs: one two three
- A compressed image of the game's original OS, on which to run the emulator: here
- A free copy of 7-zip, to decompress the OS file: here

Depending on your OS, you may also need some supplementary files to get everything working right; for instance, Windows XP users need a copy of SDL.dll in the extracted Sheepshaver folder and need to install the GTK +2 runtime. See Sheepshaver's installation notes for Windows, Mac, and Linux to see if your system needs any additional files; the site usually provides direct links to them.

Once you have that squared away, use 7-zip to decompress the Mac 9.0.4 OS folder. Then, open the Sheepshaver folder and click the "SheepShaverGUI" icon. In the first tab, click "Add," browse to the decompressed OS folder, and select the file "macos9800.image." Next, click the checkbox at the bottom for enabling the external file system (this will let you transfer files between your computer and the emulated Mac). In the next tab over, select the window size and resolution you want for the emulator -- you might need to experiment with different sizes, since the image can look a little glitchy on some settings. Finally, in the "Settings" tab, set the RAM size to 1024 and set the ROM file to be the "Mac_OS_Rom" file that's located in the Sheepshaver folder.

Now, click the Start button. If all goes well, the emulator should boot up a virtual version of Mac OS 9. Once at the desktop, click the icon for your computer's HD ("My Computer" for Windows, for instance) to access your computer's file system. Browse to where you kept the three Starship Titanic files and drag them to the virtual desktop. Now, click the "Stuffit Expander Alias" icon. This will open a tool that will decompress the files. Drag the game files onto the Stuffit window, then browse to a folder on your computer's drive and click "Choose." The game files will be extracted there.

After the files are extracted, exit the virtual desktop by clicking to close the emulator window and then select "Shut Down." If you've got it in fullscreen mode, close any open programs inside the emulator (File -> Quit) and then shut down the desktop by selecting Special -> Shut Down in the menu bar. Now, open up the SheepShaverGUI icon again. In the first tab, click "Add" and browse to the first decompressed game file (STCD1.toast). Once it's added, click Start. The emulator should boot again, but now the icon for Starship Titanic should be on the virtual desktop. Click it to start installation, select a folder (in the virtual system) to install the game to, and you should be good to go. When the time comes to swap discs, just exit out of Sheepshaver and select the appropriate disc to add in the first tab of SheepShaverGUI.

If you encounter any problems, the forums at E-Maculation (the developer of Sheepshaver) and MacintoshGarden (the home for emulated Mac games) are very helpful. See also the installation guides at E-Maculation, Macintosh Garden, and RedundantRobot for more detailed documentation.

Fabulous Bonus for making it this far:
"Parrots, the Universe, and Everything" - A full-length video and transcript of one of Douglas Adams's final speeches, in which he discusses his environmental book Last Chance to See at UC Santa Barbara.

Namaste! Welcome to my kitchen!

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:18:50 GMT

Never had an Indian mom? You poor, deprived wretch! Meet Manjula.
She'll be happy to teach you to make Naan, Rotis, Pani Puri, Vegetable Pakoras, Paneer, Raita, Navattran Korma, Palak Paneer, Pulav, Malai Kofta, Aloo Gobi, Chana Masala, Hari Chutney, Ras Malai, Gajar ka Halwa and much more! I can... almost... smell her kitchen. *sigh*

Dust off your frying pan and hide your wallet!

sararah — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:35:50 GMT

Eating healthy on a budget isn't just for hipsters on food stamps. While some have called Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman's ideas about cooking and eating "elitist," there are many cooks who are smart enough to know that cooking at home is the only way to eat healthy on a budget. While Jamie Oliver pledges to give all school children "10 recipes that will save their lives," almost anyone on any budget can change the way they shop for, prepare, and think about food.

Blogs that focus on budget & healthy eating:
Budget Bytes - easy recipes, cost breakdown, some veg-friendly dishes.
Thirty Bucks a Week - vegetarian, weekly receipt breakdown.
Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget
Cheap, Healthy, Good - nutrition and cost breakdown, weekly vegetarian focus.
Not Eating Out in NY - cost and health breakdown.
And many, many more in this list of 100 frugal cooking blogs. (Although not all of them with a healthy focus)

Budget challenges:
Savory Sweet Life - United Way Hunger Challenge
Cheap, Healthy, Good - One Week, $25 Challenge - super interesting, provides calorie/fat/cost/time breakdown, also recipes & tips.
Eating healthy on a fast-food budget

General tips and advice for cooking on a budget:
Get Rich Slowly - Healthy cooking on a student budget
Ask Metafilter - Budget ethical gourmet - Best cuisines for a tight budget - Spaghetti twice a day gets old fast - Quick food that isn't fast food

(And of course, you could always grow and preserve your own food, but that is a whole 'nother can of beans.)

Hi. Whatcha reading?

kimdog — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:06:11 GMT

Schrödinger's Rapist: or a guy's guide to approaching strange women without being maced.

High Weirdness By Mail

JHarris — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:05:02 GMT

"I guess it started for me when, as a young sci-fi movie fan, I did a fanzine at age 12 to 15... that's when I learned how relatively cheap and easy it was to self-publish, at least for a small circle of weirdos. Later, after comics went up to 50¢, I started collecting stuff equally weird but much cheaper than comic books: kook literature." - Rev. Ivan Stang

You may know of the Church of the SubGenius, that parody religion that worships the almighty "Bob" and was a fixture of MTV and Night Flights back in the day. But do you know of its SECRET ORIGINS? Co-founder Ivan Stang corresponded with hundreds of "mad prophets, crackpots, kooks & true visionaries," from sincere cults to winking charlatans to utter nutjobs to hate groups to independent artists and musicians, with some respected names thrown in, and synthesized them into a half-joking, half-serious celebration of the kook spirit. These days of course the forward-thinking crackpot looking for sheep goes directly to the internet. But while it lasted Stang and co-authors Mike Gunderloy, Waver Forest and Mark Johnston collaborated to document this vanished scene in the legendary book HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL. (All links within may quickly lead someplace NSFW by the nature of the beast.)

The interview with Stang that the above quote was taken from. Also from that interview:

[Gray Areas magazine]: How did the Church [of the SubGenius] start? How does it get the word out to people?
[Ivan Stang]: [...]Real heretics say it started when my partner, Dr. Philo Drummond, discovered that I, too, collected kook literature, and we pooled our resources to create, for mercenary purposes only, the final synthesis of all end-times prophecy, from all crazed religious nuts, true visionaries, science fiction writers and bad monster movies.

High Weirdness By Mail (HWBM) is a kind of directory of kooks circa 1988, built up during Stang and friends' hobby of collecting kook literature, a listing of hundreds of addresses that a collector could write to and, either for free for for only a little money, receive some authentic weirdness for their trouble. Some of the addresses are of lone kooks, like Brainbeau (p 160), looking for spread their ideas. Some of the them lead to UFO cults like Unarius (p 50), looking for recruits. Some believe Jesus talks to them personally; whether they're viewed as lone nutters or respected televangelists seems to depend only on resources. Doesn't matter, Ivan Stang includes them both. Some are actual hate groups. Many are independent artists, several of which would subsequently hit it big before a wider audience. There are over 320 pages of addresses in the book, and each of them has a short blurb written about them to warn the reader about what he's in for. Most of the addresses, of course, probably don't work now. Here, in a kind of metapost, I visit some of the entries and find out where they are now, or if they still exist.

There are hundreds of groups and addresses in the book. My purpose here is only to cover the highlights – the notable, the known, the neglected, the humorous, and the infamous. What the book says about them, what we generally know about them now, and what they are doing today. I leave out addresses, which were a main selling point of the book and many of which are probably wrong by now anyway. If you want more entries or addresses, you can get the book pretty cheap used through Amazon. It is well worth the twelve-or-so bucks you'll pay.

There have been several attempts at updating the catalog over the years to take into account the internet, but kook links tend to die quickly, and so these pages haven't been of much use, a pitiful shoring attempt against a tsunami of bitrot. The official SubGenius update page for the book is High Weirdness By Web, which also provides some additional material.

Disclaimer #1:
Rev. Ivan Stang is something of a kook himself, though by design. One can tell flipping through High Weirdness By Mail that much of the form of the SubGeniuses was inspired by all those weird folk who sent him stuff. While it's likely that your idea of what is silly folk belief matches up with Stang's nine times out of ten, sometimes you'll be surprised by who he emphasizes with, and who he derides. I make no claims as to the validity of any views expressed here, by him or anyone else; my job is to document. Sometimes sarcastically, but well....

Disclaimer #2: Author Stang would post sarcastic comments about some of the more evil folk covered, but he still published their addresses, so that folks could laugh at them and cause them to waste money sending out books and catalogs. But wasting money is less of a compelling excuse on the internet, and I don't think my will to make the post objective overcomes my desire to not give these guys exposure. So I've left off links to some of the more hateful surviving groups. "Oops." If you're really interested for some reason you can do what I did and Google them.

There are two major types of sections in the book that a reader can detect: the "true" kooks, and independent and outsider artists of various types. Stang doesn't overtly discriminate between the two, but artists do tend to be treated much more sympathetically. In the age before the internet it was even harder to find an appreciative audience for work outside the mainstream than it is now, and it is possible to interpret Ivan Stang's inclusion of these guys in a book of weirdos as getting the word out. But not all of them are "only" non-traditional artists, and sometimes an artist might appear in the kook sections if he's sufficiently weird, as is the case with Stanislav Szukalski.

Here, then, is a long, long list of notable entries by section:

Weird Science
Death rays. Perpetual motion machines. Nikola Tesla. The Department of Energy, NASA, the CIA and the FDA all lie to us. But these guys know the real truth.

International Flat Earth Research Society (p 27) – A good one to start off with. Perennial, archetypal kooks who believe the world is flat, beating moon landing deniers by a country mile. They're still around. If flat-earthers didn't exist, it'd be necessary for news-of-the-weird columnists to invent them.

Inner Portraits by Stanislav Szukalski (p 29) - Artist and sculptor. Believed there were two races: True Humans and Yetisyn, half-breeds with Yetis, producing the degenerate urges that plague mankind. Seemed to have died as High Weirdness By Mail was preparing for print; he passed in 1987, while the book's publication year is 1988. Stang talks of him reverently, and his yetisyn were added into the SubGenius backstory. Official website.

Breatharians (p 32) - A long-lived and destructive dogma, the believers of which claiming they can subsist without and food other than air and sunlight. While the idea has been around for quite a while, the group calling themselves explicitly by that name was founded by Wiley Brooks, who claims to subsist entirely on light and air. An entertaining flyer depicting him as "BREATHMAN" and claiming he can lift 1,000 pounds and sleeps but seven hours a week is reproduced in HWBM. He was featured on that early 80s predecessor of the Discovery Channel, the program That's Incredible. Brooks is still alive and currently claims: if you aren't purged of negative energy by December 21 of this year, you will be destroyed. So, you know, get on that. He also But seriously, several people have died from starvation attempting to live without food according to belief systems like these. Here then is the Breatharian website, please use responsibly.

Edmund Scientific (p 36) - Not a kook organization at all but a respected supplier, although one that sells to the general public and which can certainly be put to kook use. Great beyond imagining for science-minded kids. Their website. They're included in HWBM for their catalog, which is also great.

Joesph Newman Publishing Co. (p 42) – Stang devotes over a page to this, one of a long, long line of free energy inventors, and takes the tone that this one might be on to something, but also might not. Please allow me to chime in: he's not. "But what of–" He's not. The laws of thermodynamics are a bitch, but they're foundational, and there's too much working science built off of them for there to be much chance of them being wrong. Joesph Newman has a website, done up in a style I'd call "Early-period Gene Ray." His machine has a Wikipedia page. He fell afoul of the patent office's standing policy against perpetual motion machines, but he's still trying to sell it.

UFO Contactees
Before you laugh at these people, note: often, the only real difference between a group you think is strange and one that produces potential Presidents of the United States is critical mass.

Rational Culture (p 48) – A UFO cult from Rio de Janerio. Their newsletter "Universe in Disenchantment" was singled out by Stang for its laughable translation. They still exist and have a website which itself is pretty badly translated.

Unarius (p 50) – This UFO cult will be familiar to anyone who keeps up with Everything Is Terrible. Ruth "Uriel" Norman believed that 33 different kinds of aliens were waiting to welcome us into their federation. She claimed that she and her deceased husband Ernest were reincarnations of many great figures from history. Now she's moved on to her next life too, but the Unarians continue. EIT rundown: Preparation for Landing and Arrival - All My Unarians - Interplanetary Confederation Day. A current website for the group. Another one. Richard Metzger of Dangerous Minds writes of his experience with the Unarians. This page is headed by an incredibly depressing picture of their "Academy of Science," operating out of a retail storefront, like a convenience store. While kooky and spooky and altogether culty, most seem to agree this particular manifestation of the weirdness of man is pretty harmless. Donna Kossy's Kooks Museum had a page on Unarius (Wayback link).

Canadian Raelian Movement (p 53) - Famous UFO cult, with small branches around the world. Their website offers translations in 38 languages. Their Wikipedia page offers more objective information. They are the focus of several videos on YouTube, this one has Bill Maher meeting the leader. As cults go, well, they're sex-positive, but they use it as a recruitment tool. How does it feel, young initiate, to know that pretty girl jumped your bones for the sake of aliens? How would you feel if you were pressured to do the same? They don't actually claim anything supernatural, so they're kind of boring. In 2005 Wired Magazine wrote a couple of pages on them, mostly neutral. They own the company Clonaid and claim to have cloned humans successfully, but they never produced the clones for examination, and it's thought they made the announcement as a publicity stunt. Mostly harmless.

Saucerian Publications (p 57) – Stang's summary is one sentence: "Ask about The Story of the Mitchell Sisters." But you don't have to, because here it is! In the 19th century little girls fool the creator of Sherlock Holmes regarding the existence of fairies; in the 20th century, they fool publishers as to the existence of flying saucers. It's the 21st now, so parents, please keep tabs on your mischievous daughters.

Jesus Contactees
There's a lot of hate coming from the groups in this section, since as we know Jesus was all about hating people. You might be wondering why groups like the Church of Scientology or the Hare Krishnas aren't here. Well, they probably weren't as apt to send out things free in the mail. But there are still a good number of surviving Christian and quasi-Christian groups here. Because, once a money-grubbing preacher's organization hits a certain minimum size, it tends to metastasize.

Jack Van Impe Ministries (p 63) – A highly successful televangelist, at least one nice old woman I knew used to listen to this Jesus Quack. It does my heart good to see them listed in close proximity to the likes of Unarius. Of course they're still around. At this time, their website is sometimes seen to host a banner claiming our pets will be raptured along with the faithful.

Battle Cry of Aggressive Christianity, Free Love Ministries (p 64) – Among the most strident Christian voices in the book. Nowadays they seem to be better known as the Aggressive Christian Ministry Training Corps. Don't let the organization's name in the heading fool you, this is no friendly bunch of folk but full-on hatemongers. They're organized among military lines, and they were the subject of a recent National Geographic special, "I Escaped A Cult." Their Wikipedia page is rather frightening. Stang gives them one of the most negative reviews in the book. Later interviews indicate that one of the groups ridiculed in the book sent him death threats; he called the FBI about it and nothing more became of it, but it's possible it could have been these guys. They have a website, but I'm not going to give them the link. I'm far more afraid of these guys than Muslim terrorists, and they're entirely home-grown. Here's a link you can follow: Donna Kossy's archived Kooks Museum page on them (Wayback link).

Peter Popoff Association (p 64) – A staple of BET, these exploitative producers of Christian radio and television feed off the misery and insecurity of mankind. (Well they all do really, but some are more efficient converters of despair into money than others.) Some cults and jokers may not have made it through the 25 years since HWBM was published, but of course all the commercial Jesus-peddlers did, even Jimmy Swaggart who was publicly humbled more than once. Their website. The Wikipedia page on Popoff's outfit is informative; he went bankrupt right around time time HWBM was being written after his faith healing claims were exposed as fraudulent by James Randi.

Bible Believers' Evangelistic Association (p 66) – Carrying on the tradition of Clarence Larkin, that dispensationalist draftsman of Christ, into the 21st century. The BBEA made, and still make for that matter, flyers and pamphlets with "bible maps," illustrated diagrams of (their idiosyncratic interpretation of) Biblical doctrine. As with Larkin charts, there is something inscrutably cool about them, making them worth seeking out for art value. Here's a PDF of one from right off their website. Nowadays to spread their message they utilize the Lord's most holy of illustration tools, Microsoft PowerPoint. Their CD/pamphlet collections still go for just five bucks each.

Aryan Nations, Church of Jesus Christ Christian (p 67) - Redundantly-named organization that once sold 13 cassette tapes on that noted piece of Biblical prophecy: the song "Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie." Really. It is possible that there is some confusion in this entry; Stang identifies the organization with the tapes as Aryan Nations, but on the internet I see two churches going by the name "Church of Jesus Christ Christian," one offers tapes, and the other calls themselves Aryan Nations. That one is not composed of pleasant people. You can make a good guess from their name their sympathies lay regarding white supremacy, and their website (link omitted) makes it clear this is no accident. The other is here, which seems to be a much more low-key site that mostly sells tapes. Either one or the other (or both?) were founded in 1946 by one of the organizers of the Ku Klux Klan. Their Wikipedia page provides the entertaining fact that a lawsuit brought against them by people they had attacked (literally, attacked) caused them to lose rights to their name and compound to the people they wronged. I don't know which of the two groups is for realsies, or if they might be connected with each other.

The Watchtower and Awake!, Jehovah's Witnesses (p 70) - They're still around of course. They rate only four sentences in the book, which notes they had a problem, familiar to millennial groups, of losing members when their given date for the end of the world comes and goes and nothing happens.

The Jumping For Jesus Club International (p 71) – Group sponsors kids to travel the world, jumping rope for Christ. They're still around, natch, spreading their double dutch dogma. Well it's another missionary group looking to tell people about Jesus (surely they've all heard it by now), but it's also a way for kids to see the world, which is a legitimate mind expander.

Free Tract Society (p 72) – If you sent these guys a letter, they'd send you a big box of tracts. They're still around, they still send out free tracts, and it still doesn't you cost anything. The site notes "This ministry is maintained by the gifts of God's people," so someone else is footing the bill. Note that these guys don't distribute Jack Chick's work. Chick shows up later, don't worry.

Generic Christians
More ordinary than the preceding groups, without even the benefit of weirdness to recommend them. Stang calls them pinks, a derogatory SubGenius term for depressingly normal people.

Jimmy Swaggart Gift Catalog (p 74) - Stang expresses considerable admiration for Swaggart's delivery style, which seems likely as an inspiration for SubGenius ranters, while dismissing his hateful message. I kind of admire the delivery method of these preacher types myself; say what you want about their beliefs, but when a good fire-and-brimstone type gets going it's difficult to imagine a more authoritative voice. That fact is what makes it so great for spewing satirical weirdness. Bob Odenkirk of Mr. Show illustrates this fact (NSFW).

Pat Robertson for President (p 75) - The entirely of the entry in the book is: "You know what to do." Keep in mind many of the purchasers of this book were SubGeniuses, and often pranksters. I assume whatever it was it was successful.

More Weird Religion
This section is a catch-all for serious religious groups not fitting into previous categories. (For non-serious groups, see further below under Funny Clubs.) It's worth noting that Stang, around 2007, said that he thinks he didn't give some of the Wiccan groups a fair shake; not coincidentally I think, there are now a good number of neo-pagan SubGeniuses.

AMORC (The Rosicrucians) (p 78) – This long-lived group has been known to advertise in the backs of magazines. Their website is here. Stang talks about them in episode 16 of the podcast Out There Radio. They seem harmless enough; there is a Straight Dope column on them. In brief: no matter what they say, they aren't the group from the 17th century.

The Church of the SubGenius (p 80) - It shouldn't come as a surprise that Stang would include the SubGeniuses in High Weirdness By Mail. It's listed again near the end, and mentioned frequently in footnotes, and shouts out to some SubGenius people in the listings, and uses "Bob" iconography once in a while. A lot of SubGenius collaborators appear to have come from Stang's correspondence from his kook literature hobby.

Warlords of Satan (p 82) - The address isn't of the group but of someone alerting the world of their activities. Googling now turns up very little, leading me to suspect the group may actually have been a hoax dreamt up during the 80s Satanic panic. I cut Stang some Slack in this area; it was a lot easier to be gullible about these things before the Internet.

Dr. Bronner's Pure-Castille-Soap Labels, All-One-God-Faith (p 87) –
Dr. Emmanuel Bronner died fifteen years ago but the company remains in the hands of his family, and the soap and its labels are still there, sold in health food stores and other places. Covering every available inch of the space on the label is an overflow of tiny print that remains the closest exposure most people will ever have to quality ranting that doesn't come from a preacher. A sample: "Love is like a willful bird, do you want it? It flies away! Yet, when you least expect its bliss, it turns around and it's here to stay! For centuries man struggles, half-asleep, half-living! Small, jealous, bickering with mountains of red tape! To be awakened the night God chose giving His great reward for hard work, the Moral ABC-unity-ecstasy-love evolving man above the ape!" The sentiment isn't bad, but the meter could use a little work. High Weirdness By Web had links to their famous ranty labels, but that link broke. You can find them here, now It's easy to laugh at the earnestness and the ranty labels, but this page claims remarkably enlightened employment practices. If these are kooks then maybe I don't want to be normal.

Health and Self-Improvement
Not a lot to write about here.

A Small Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness, The Remain Intact "ORGAN"ization (p 99) – one man ranting against circumcision. A late-breaking notice informs us that shortly before the book went to print the guy was busted for child pornography, apparently on the basis of a photograph sent out in the newsletter.

Safe Water Foundation (p 100) – Believes fluoride is poisoning our children. Stang seems credulous on this, but I suppose it's hard to make it through writing a book of hundreds of kooks without falling victim to some of it yourself. Tracking them down is made difficult by the existence of multiple groups going by similar names, some of which being ordinary civic water safety organizations. There certainly are still anti-fluroride groups out there, though.

Money Schemes/Scams
The SECRET to luck! Your PERSONAL lottery numbers! Get RICH through pyramid and ponzi schemes! An endless topic, Stang includes only a sample.

J. A. Keel (p 104) – This guy purports to know The Answer to making get-rich-quick-in-mail-order schemes work. "You've tried multi-level and your 'programs' have died at the second level. What happened to the $50,000 you were supposed to collect?" What indeed. This guy also wrote UFO tracts, including The Mothman Prophecies, yes the source for the movie, so I guess he found a way to cash in eventually. He died in 2009.

Universal Life Church (p 107) – Here Stang states these guys got started as a tax dodge, ordaining anyone who sent them three bucks, but the IRS put a stop to that. They'll still around, and their site looks a lot more respectable now. Get ordained by these folk and perform marriages for your friends! Endless fun at parties!

Professor Matiha (p 108) – Claimed to know how to abolish bad luck. His ad lists the "natural names of bad luck": Tormo, Kousa, Booka No. 1 and Booka No. 2. A Google search for "Tormo Kousa Booka" turns up four hits, all of them random lists of words, so I think it's safe to say that the Professor's legacy doesn't extend online.

Cosmic Hippie Drug-Brother Stuff
Bufo alvarius: The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert, Venom Press (p 126) – Sent out details by mail on how to get hopped up on frog. His tract is available on the web. I claim no responsibility for its use. Here's an aside for you. SubGenius priest Dr. Hal did a bit on SubGenius radio program Hour Of Slack about tracking this toad down in the desert.

Discordian Churches (p 130) – Is this a weird place to hide the entry on Discordians? Maybe not. Yes, it's the other random parody religion that existed before Pastafarians! Here's a website. It has a Donate button, be sure to send money in the only denomination they accept: live crickets. The text of holy book Principa Discordia is on the site.

Respectable Weird Publications
Fortean Times (p 134) – Not only are they still around but they're a full-on magazine now, with a website any everything. Scribd has scans of a number of back issues of this periodic dissemination of weird news.

Skeptics!

The Skeptical Inquirer (p 145) – The "official journal for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry." My heroes. They're still around, and in fact they can be bought off the magazine racks of chain bookstores, which is more than I can say for most of these guys. Their site has the text of some of their magazine articles. Stang calls them a wise investment, and I'd tend to agree.

Wild News

Weekly World News (p 149) – Yes. THEM. Back in 1988 they tried to play it straighter, but they were still the irrepressible purveyor of imposible oddities they are today. Now they're a section of the much-less-whimsical, much-more-slimy Sun , unfortunately.

China Daily (p 149) – The very same organization that recently reported an Onion story as fact. Stang describes them as Party-approved, and they're still pretty much a governmental organ. They do have an English language edition, with a website, just like its Western competitors. Well, maybe not just like them: a recent article is headlined "Modern Dance Pushes Frontier of Nakedness.

Religion vs. Religion
People arguing about which religion is the right one, if any of them are. One of the best things about this section is the entry headings named after monster movies, some of which would be, shall we say, familiar to fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Fundamentalists Anonymous (p 152) – A group to help people break away from dependence on organized religion, although their emphasis seemed to be on televangelists. Co-founder Jim Luce discusses his experiences founding the group on the Huffington Post. From that article: "One woman who soon called us told us an unbelievable story, which turned out to be typical. She was financially unable to give, but was led to believe it was "God's Will" that she keep giving to a TV evangelist." HWBM informs us that when it was printed, FA held seminars that cost $185 a seat, which seems a bit contrary in message, but they also sponsored local support groups. The end of the article uses the past tense when referring to the group so I assume it no longer exists. I wonder what happened. Also-founder Richard Yao ran an old Wordpress blog has a post on it claiming fairly breathlessly that it "was cut short and crushed by the Pharaohs of the Religious Right." I don't seem to remember Falwell and company having that kind of power. Apparently they had their own twelve steps. If you actually are trying to leave the flock now, the site Leaving Christianity might have some information of use to you.

Saints Alive In Jesus (p 154) – Christians complaining that Mormons aren't Christians. They're still around. They're also not on speaking terms with Freemasons, and have since picked up an additional bugaboo: Muslims. Mitt Romney's nomination has driven these guys crazy, publishing articles on their site with titles like "Does Mitt Romney Really Believe he will become an actual god?" and "Mitt Romney: Christian or Cultist?"

Creation/Evolution (p 155) – Newsletter about the creationists' efforts to get their dogma taught in schools. Ha! Ha! Like that could ever happen. (GLARE) It's difficult to Google for these guys because of their generic name. The group in the book is against teaching Creationism in school, so any site going by that name that's for that isn't the same guys.

Weird Politics
The weird politics sections are a high point of the book. I could have covered every one of these fist-shaking ranters, but I don't want to steal quite that much of Stang's thunder.

Brainbeau (p 160) – Imagine the kind of mind that would invent that pun. Does it suggest mental trauma to you? If it does you win a prize (see mgmnt), because you're correct! Apparently he suffered a traumatic head injury in World War II, causing him to discard some preconceived notions – such as all the things the important people in the media have told us are essential. With the financial meltdown still looming in everyone's memory, I can't help but think maybe Brainbeau might have had something. Stang identifies him as the source of a variety of small ads in the back of various publications, all addressed to the same P.O. Box. He didn't sell anything; he just wrote to people. He sent them collections of his ads! A fascinating figure. Donny Kossy, former maintainer of the website The Kooks Museum (Wayback link) and author of Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief kept a page on him.

Paradin Press, (p 166) – Bookstore, now an online bookstore, which appears to mostly sell survivalist, weapons and military manuals. (Although they do carry a book called "Emergency Dentistry Handbook.")

The Territorial Herald (p 170) – Some folks declared their house as seceded from the Union and put out a newsletter. It seems like they morphed into The Thought. They're still around! There's a bunch of other weird stuff on their site too. (Honestly, at this point I've been working on this post for weeks, and my brain is about dried out. Mr. Show had an episode on this kind of thing. Here was the intro to it. Go watch that and pretend I said something funny.)

Contragate Whistleblowers (p 175) – Has it really been so long since Iran-Contra? The world found out about it November 1986. Like Watergate, it threw the kook world into a tizzy, because it made a lot of weird ideas seem a lot more plausible. I think that, ultimately, may be the worst thing about these kinds of scandals; they make us all feel like suckers for thinking our leaders have even an ounce of shame, that they're just using the idea of decorum as a shield to deflect blame. "Of course he'd never do that, he's the President." Sure he wouldn't; how could you even think that could happen? That's why we have 9-11 Truthers and people who think the moon landing was faked, you know. (There are no moon landing disbelievers anywhere in the book, by the way, that's a fairly recent brand of lunacy.) There are two groups listed under this heading. Citizen Alert is difficult to Google for, maybe they're related to Public Citizen. Christic Institute is defunct; it has a Wikipedia page. The Romero Institute claims to be its successor.

2600 (p 176) – Not only are they still around, but they're on the magazine shelf of chain bookstores. They have a website, yeah. They're not particularly forgotten though.

Clandestine Confidential (p 177) – It was a newsletter on shortwave propaganda broadcasts. Four issues survive in PDF form here, found on this page. The site has some more information on these broadcasts here.

The National Reporter (p 179) – Formerly called CounterSpy, was basically a watch letter on the activities of the CIA. Has a Wikipedia page under its old name.

Resistance News (p 188) – The word "resistance" here means draft resistance, as in, if you got picked for military service and didn't want to go. Vietnam pretty much destroyed the will of the average able-bodied citizen to participate in our nation's periodic overseas adventures, but it was close enough in people's memories in the late 80s that some folk prepared for the event they'd get drawn out of the fishbowl. Stand notes that he was saved from the draft by flat feet. If it happened to me it'd probably be something along the lines of gross physical unsuitability. If another legitimate war came along, I wonder if our nation's youth would rouse themselves for the occasion, or has decades of whimsical invasions destroyed their ability to give a damn.

The Realist (p 189) – Paul Krassner puts humorous left-wing spin on current events. Sort of like The Daily Show, except oops, actually left wing instead of just derided as such by the people targeted. He's still alive and kicking (NSFW). As the site reminds us, The Realist published the "Disneyland Memorial Orgy" drawing. The whole run of the newsletter, all 146 issues from 1958 to 2001, is up at www.ep.tc, readable one huge scan image at a time. As we've seen, the web isn't forever, so get 'em while they last.

Freedom Fighter's Manual by the CIA, Grove Press, Inc. (p 189) – Claimed to be a copy of a handbook given by the CIA to freedom fighters in Nicaragua. Contained cartoons (not reproduced in HWBM) illustrating helpful things revolutionaries could do, like putting dirt in gas tanks and leaving the water running overnight in public buildings. It has a Wikipedia page, and Scribd has the whole thing, including the instructions at the end on how to make a Molotov Cocktail. Needless to say: NSFW, and don't try this at home, or indeed ever. The Wikipedia page links to a page on CNN's site as a source, but the link is dead. Another link leads to Time.com, but they're talking about an 89-page booklet, and refuse to reveal more than a couple of paragraphs except to subscribers.

Adventures in Subversion, Anti-Authoritarians Anonymous (p 192) – A collection of posters edited by the group Anti-Authoritarians Anonymous. Many are made up of repurposed advertising. Predates Adbusters by a few years. The two used copies obtainable through Amazon go for a hundred bucks! I wasn't able to uncover any examples on the internet.

Groups You Love To Hate - But They Hate You Even More
Some sections are hard to write about, being composed mostly of Yet Another UFO Cult. Sections like this, I have to stop myself from including every entry. Reading them back-to-back like this, even with Ivan Stang's sarcastic comments, weighs heavy upon the soul.

Center for Democratic Renewal (p 196) – That is, except for this one. I'm not sure why they're here because they fight hate groups and racists. Stang has only good things to say about them. He finishes with "I sure hope these folks have a few good guard dogs around their homes and offices." Unfortunately they closed up shop in 2008.

Spire Christian Comics, Fleming H. Revell Company (p 196) – Publishers of comics reveling in the kinds of apocalyptic visions now familiar to most people as the basis for the Left Behind books. Indeed reproduced in the pages of HWBM is the cover of a "comic" version of Hal Lindsey's There's A New World Coming. (Hal Lindsey wrote what could be considered the predecessor of Left Behind, The Late, Great Planet Earth.) Check it out, there's a site with PDFs of some of their output, including There's A New World Coming! These were the people behind the infamous "Hansi, The Girl Who Loves The Swastika. Stang doesn't even mention the Archie (yes, that Archie) titles Spire put out. Spire is too deep of a hole for me to spelunk in any timely fashion. People collect them to this day. Here's a backgrounder on the line. Here's a single-post blog about the Archie titles in particular. Here's some more.

Chick Publications (p 197) – I warned you it was coming. Stang says nothing here that isn't all too familiar to most of us now, but in case you don't know, let me puncture your enviable state. Jack Chick makes small comic booklets that churches tend to leave around town randomly for people to pick up, as their way of spreading the word about The Lord. But in Chickland, the Pope is the Anti-Christ, Dungeons & Dragons is a gateway to Hell, and rock music is sung by demon worshippers. If this sounds unlikely to you, let me assure you, people who believe these things do exist, and there are actually millions of them. Stang says "These have probably turned more people off to Jesus than any other publication." Unfortunately, this does not seem to have been the case. But he is right on this point: "These rank right down there with the craziest Nazi UFO rantings, yet to many ignorant racists these are Truth." Here's the site of Chick Publications, which immediately confirms a pet theory of mine, that the number of smiling faces on a publication or website is directly proportional to the evil of the publisher. Richard Metzger of Dangerous Minds on Jack Chick. Catholic Answers: The Nightmare World of Jack Chick. The RationalWiki page on Chick.

Racial Loyalty, Church of the Creator (p 198) – Archive.org retains a copy of Racial Loyalty issue #47. Site The Nizkor Project has a history of the organization from the Anti-Defamation League. According to that site: "Since 1973, the Church of the Creator (COTC) has been a virulently anti-Semitic and racist organization that uses the rhetoric of religion as a flimsy camouflage for the promotion of hate. Its founder and longtime leader. the late Ben Klassen, a far- right political activist in the 1960s, gloried in the concept he fervently and frequently proclaimed as his goal: racial holy war." According to this timeline from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the history of the group is rife with tension and eventually ended in bloodshed.

Moral Majority (p 199) – Remember these guys? It's surprisingly hard! The entirety of my exposure to them in my life was a throw-away joke in an Airplane! movie, but Stang talks about them as if everyone knows them. According to Wikipedia they were waning right around the time the book was being published. They're gone now. It was all a bad dream. The Tea Party isn't their unholy zombie revival trying to consume the brain of the United States. Go back to sleep....

Heirs of the Blessing Cassette Tape List (p 200) – It's a short entry, so I'm going to reproduce it all for the LULZ: "Cheap cassettes with titles like the following: Hitler's UFO Forces. Soviet Weather War. The Bible and Arms. The Rotten 'Roots' of Jesse Jackson. Christmas is Baal-worship. The Dangers of Eating Pork – plus White Power rock and roll! Typical frothing, drooling 'Identity Christianity' hate rants against the Jews."

Delta Press Ltd. (p 201) – A catalog of things you can buy to show the world how backwards is your brain. Sold T-shirts, bumper stickers and other standardized forms of right-wing cultural ephemera, all with the kinds of symbols and slogans on them you'd expect from that one guy who's always in the coffee shop using the free Wi-Fi, the back of his computer plastered with them. Don't start up a conversation with him; you'll be here for days. They sold books too. Are they still around? I don't know; the Delta Press I found Googling only sells books, mostly with a military theme. Unenlightened perhaps but not hateful.

National Socialist Movement (p 201) – As in, neo-Nazis. Sent out pinup photos of Adolf Hitler. A Google search reveals a group by that name still exists and is active, but I have no way of knowing if it's really them. Because of that, I'm not linking to them. (Actually I was debating not linking to them anyway, and am glad for the excuse. Because they're neo-Nazis.)

Fusion Magazine and other LaRouche booklets (p 201) – I actually don't know that much about Lyndon LaRouche. Let me go check real quick. (~ time between writing that and the next sentence: two days ~) Huh, that's weird. Lyndon LaRouche is a name I've heard before, but never enough to really know who he is, or care. Once again Wikipedia has the basics, but it doesn't seem to quite capture the essence of the man when it contains a quote like: "Commentators for The Washington Post and The New York Times have described him as a conspiracy theorist and a political extremist. Some have called him fascist or antisemitic, and a 1979 editorial in the New York Times characterized his movement as a 'cult'. Norman Bailey, formerly with the National Security Council, described LaRouche's staff in 1984 as one of the best private intelligence services in the world, while the Heritage Foundation, a think tank, wrote that he leads 'what may well be one of the strangest political groups in American history.'" Harumph: like the Heritage Foundation has standing to speak on the topic. But it seems to be an accurate call, LaRouche seems to be quite strange, easily strange enough for inclusion in HWBM. Stang mentions them with something like awe. There is one thing keeping your typical Xavier Q. Crackpot from going full-on LaRouche, and that is money. Kookdom writ large upon the world. He's still alive at the age of 89, and he may be the only person in this entire colon blockage of a post to have his own PAC, on which site are news headings like "The Experts Agree: Obama is Taking us Straight to Nuclear War" and "LaRouche Denounces "British Propaganda for Babies and Stupid Drunks." His Executive Intelligence Review publication still sees print, and his organization has a radio show. RationalWiki has a good page on him. Some folk have commented that his following has some aspects of a cult; they allegedly beat up some number of members of other leftist organizations. Why does anyone listen to this guy?

Front Line News A.L.F. Canada (p 203) – A.L.F. stands for Animal Liberation Front. More radical than PETA. Images on their site show ninjas cuddling rabbits and puppies. A PDF mission statement flyer they distribute on their website states: "The Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.), carries out illegal actions against industries who profit from animal exploitation. These actions most often take the form of liberating live animals (from fur farms, slaughterhouses, etc.) or economic sabotage in the form of property destruction." The same flyer, however, notes that human safety is a priority for them. Well, there they are; as I should hope would be obvious by now, inclusion on this list should by no means imply approval by the author or myself. But Stang notes that at least the cause is just, and so do I.

Christian Technocracy (p 203) – There are some entries I'd prefer not to echo here, but when Ivan Stang writes "Even my thick skin was ruptured appreciably when I laid eyes on the endless hate diatribes and plans for world conquest by authentic megalomaniac Hillman Holcomb," well, I figure we should listen. Stang goes on for over a page, including several paragraphics of direct quotation. I did web searches on every entry I cover here; the second hit on the one for "christian technocracy" lead to stormfront.org, never a good sign. At least the hits I found mentioned the book was now very hard to find. If you want to know more you're on your own for this one, when I eat something I like to keep it down.

Hate Satire So Close You May Decide There's No Difference

Action Amenities (p 207) – Sells various bits of hate-drenched merchandise, including the tape "Plan For Chaos," which Stang declares with easy hyperbole "perhaps the most disturbing piece of electronic media on the entire planet." With a lead-up like that I couldn't leave this out, even though I have absolutely no desire to experience anything like the audio goatse I imagine this to be. This might have been made with satirical intent. Searching for it on Google is confounded by mixed signals, of a postumous John Wyndam novel with the same title. I don't know if the two are related. The closest match I found was from a e-fanzine on Jason Scott's always terrific textfiles.com – but no, it turns out to be a direct quote of the entry from HWBM. (By the way, if one is looking into the transition from the mail zine scene of the age to the modern internet by way of BBSes, I think textfiles is a fine place to start.)

"Funny" Clubs
We've made it through the most soul-defiling parts of the book now. Many of the groups listed here are whimsical parody religions like the SubGeniuses, although with far less attention paid to setting, or books written detailing doctrine, or radio shows advertising the faith. The Pastafarians of 25 years past. Stang is sympathetic with all of these guys. I list what I consider to be the most interesting.

Journal of the Institute of Scientific Santa Clausism (p 209) – This is included as representative of an entire class of one-joke groups, like the "Church of Beaver Cleaver," the "Association to Save Madonna from Nuclear War," and "The Up Uranus Society." When these groups only spread through the mail they seemed like a big secret, lending them prestige. One of the greatest things the internet did for all of us as a society is juxtapose jokes just like these on a flotilla of sites with web design circa 1993, getting them all the hell out of our systems.

Ladies Against Women (p 210) – One of the best entries in the book, this organization is a sly, pitch-perfect satire along the lines of Landover Baptist's Betty Bowers. They've been to Phyllis Schlafly rallies and upstaged the star. They sold (sell?) bumper stickers reading things like "ABOLISH THE ENVIRONMENT—IT TAKES UP TOO MUCH SPACE" and "PROTECT THE UNCONCIEVED: SPERMS ARE PEOPLE TOO!" This sadly abbreviated site might be from them. It seems like they're still around, but mostly off-line. Here's a YouTube video recording a protest that may be one of their chapters.

International Brotherhood of Old Bastards (IBOB) – I love the name. High Weirdness By Web identifies this monospaced site as carrying on for IBOB.

New First Arachnid Church (p 214) – One of my favorite entries, and one of the few I reprint here in full (words of Stang): "Last remnant of the religion of Great Spiderism. The Great Spider created Himself on a whim, and the universe out of boredom. 'He used to roar with laughter at the wars and break into tears during the famines and plagues.' When you get to heaven, friend, you'll be met by a Huge Black Thing! Believe in Him, or He'll eat you. Send SASE." Unfortunately the First Arachnid Church appears to have disappeared; hopefully they've gone on to a more infested place. Traces of their passing, like molted skin, remain in the comment sections of a dozen disparate websites. This page on catholiceducation.org seems to take their existence as an indication that "Unfettered spirituality easily leads to unfettered nonsense." Wow. What kind of person would be make insecure due to a religion that worships a giant spider?

Shelter Management Textbook (p 215) – Although in the Funny Clubs section this is a real book, distributed by the Civil Defense folks about how to maintain order in a fallout shelter in the event of nuclear war. You don't have to search your local Office of Civil Defense for it though, it's right here!

The Superscriptures, David Reissig, Hitheryon House (p 215) – Stang describes this and other books by Reissig as "Quirky manifestos in a style that's like a combination of H.P. Lovecraft, Poor Richard's Almanac, and the Bible." WANT. Of The Eater Out Of Chaos Amazon has a single used copy.

Weird Art
Nearly everything in this section is wonderful in some way or another. That makes it harder to discuss though, not least of which because I don't want to reproduce that whole part of the book. So, this is only a few arbitrarily selected things. Here we get more to people who would become (or in some cases already were) Ivan Stang's friends and co-conspirators in creating SubGenius art.

Survival Research Videotapes, Target Video (p 218) – Well you wanted weird art. They sold tapes they made of robots whacking each other and doing weird things – big ol' robots, with maces and big gouts of flame all manner of other accoutrements, set up in parking lots around things like giant Van de Graaff generators, and let them loose to some incomprehensible end. The results were things like this. And this. And this. Hamburglar no! There's a fair bit more on YouTube if you looked for it. They're still around!

Fool, Out, Get Stupid, Journey into the Worlds of Tomorrow, and (undecipherable title), Seth Deitch care of R. Chalfen (p 218) – Works of Dr. Ahmed Fishmonger. Indescribable. Has an extensive section on the SubGenius website, which I presume reproduce some of his works like Get Stupid, The Empire of Mirage, The Vanished Nightmare City of the Gods, 10.-22.-38. Astoria, Doctor Fishmonger's Armchair Journeys, and other Very Odd Things. Please take a few moments from your jaded internet journeys and review these bizarre collaged images. I don't think you will be disappointed. Fishmonger also wrote The Ballad of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. The name appears to be a pseudonym for Seth Deitch, brother of underground artist Kim Deitch (who also appears in HWBM) and son to Gene Deitch, animator. (Gene Deitch produced those strangely-animated Czechoslovakian Tom & Jerry cartoons.)

Duplex Planet, David Greenberger (p 220) – By turns hilarious and impossibly sad, this magazine, still in print, provides quotes from the inmates of the Duplex Nursing Home. It dampens the levity a bit to recognize that most of these people will probably die in that home, if they haven't already, but I suppose it is a way to remember them. They have a website, which supplies some quotes, like:

RECIPE: FRENCH TOAST BY BILL LAGASSE
You take a dozen eggs, crack 'em and put 'em in a pan. Half a glass of milk. The slices of bread. The wife is always dependable, nothing she ever does is wrong. Then put it on a hot grill. Wait till it browns, turn it over and cook it on both sides and you got French toast.
KEN EGLIN: That salad is a deadbeat!"

Headliner and Off-The-Wall computer programs, Salinon (p 228) – Two programs that strike me, at $99 and $29 respectively, as a tad overpriced for what they did: rearrange phrases randomly. I expect I could probably code up something similar in Python now for free. They were marketed to creative types as a way to jump start inspiration. The current-day over-priced version of this would have to be mind-mapping software. A Google search revealed no place where they are still sold; considering they were on sale in 1988, I expect they're DOS at best. While the software itself may be no more, I note that the telltale traces left by the trademarking of their names persists throughout the web.

Jim Magazine – Creator Jim Woodring went on to become a fairly well-known cartoonist and artist. He has a website and a blog. This is the guy who created Frank, the cartoon anthropomorph who has straaange adventures.

Rantziness
Three pages of rantzines, then four pages labeled "Most Hateful of the Rantzines." Of the seven pages, just a few stand out....

Inside Joke (p 236) – This art 'zine apparently went on for ten years. High Weirdness By Web's link for her succumbed to linkrot, but a bit of Googling revealed that the publisher's name is now Elayne Riggs, she has a blog, she used to write for ComicMix, and she and her husband have a site, Soulmate Productions. She's got Facebook and Twitter accounts too, but I already feel enough like a stalker uncovering the other stuff.

Kerry Wendell Thornley (p 239) – Stang identifies him as "one of the all-time classic ranters," co-author of the Principa Discordia, and was in the same outfit in the Marines as Lee Harvey Oswald. Life, it seems, destined him for kookdom. He's gone now, but he left behind a long, interesting, spooky memoir, called Confession to Conspiracy to Assassinate JFK. This seems to be a transcript of his testimony before the Warren Commission.

Wigglepig: Meat Market Icons (p 242) – Horrible disgusting pictures from slaughterhouses and medical journals. I once got exposed to skin disease pictures from medical journals as part of my college job scanning articles to send out over interlibrary loan; that was far more than enough for me, thanks. I made sure to turn Safe Search on "moderate" (yes I am a wimp) and Googled for "wigglepig meat market icons." I only got nine hits. I'm assuming dead and nearly forgotten, maybe for the best.

Comics
Less than 100 pages to go! Lots of interesting things on these pages but if I don't make cuts I'll never be finished with this thing. These entries, at least, jumped out at me. We're through the real kooks now and, though still quite weird, the remaining guys are mostly people and groups Ivan Stang wanted to send shout-outs to.

Weirdo, Last Gasp Eco-Funnies – Right off the bat we get Weirdo, founded by R. Crumb! Words of Stang: "Where Heavy Metal offers fashionable graphics, Weirdo offers the exact opposite and is really more interesting." Its Wikipedia page has a list of contributors, many names appearing elsewhere in HWBM. Crumb's website has a small page on Weirdo, and the comic timeline on the site has every cover, although at small size. (very NSFW)

Mystery of the Wolverine Woo-Bait, Joe Coleman (p 245) – Stang says it's "One of the most grotesque graphic novels ever perpetrated[...]." He also mentions Coleman working on a videotape compilation of "live performances," which include biting heads off of animals. Yeah, statements like that make me feel pink, so I don't think I'll be jumping off of that particular diving board today. Fantagraphics republished this in 2004 but has sold out. They said: "Like a painted glass that's splintered into a million different pieces, the mystery is a complex story with things happening simultaneously and characters appearing and reappearing in different time periods or contexts than one would expect. Throughout it all, each page is intricately crafted as a seductive and single unit, making this an incredible art object as well as a brilliant comic book."

Flaming Carrot, Aardvark-Vanaheim (p 249) – A comic created by Bob Burden, it's about a man who read 5,000 comic books in a single sitting and suffered BRAIN DAMAGE, emerging thereafter as The Flaming Carrot! Champion of Justice! Master of Adventure! Dreadnought of Chicanery! Oh god oh god, it is the funniest thing going. A superhero with no powers except his incredible madness. His costume consists of a six-food-tall carrot "mask" with flame spouting out the top, a utility belt containing things like silly putty and a yo-yo, and green flippers on his feet "in case he has to swim." Women love him, for some unknowable reason. He fights foes like a dead dog (it levitates around, hissing at people and eating mail), an army of Hitler's cloned feet, and Don Whiskerando, an insane hobo who can fly because he hasn't slept in 40 years. Flaming Carrot was a star of the indie comics scene of the late 80s-early 90s. The Tick is great, yes, but it came out long after The Carrot, and he still seems to have a few surviving brain cells. Recently reanimated by Dark Horse Comics, but new issues are sparse. There is an official website, which among other things now hosts a narrated, visual version of the introduction quoted above. (Bob Burden is often at DragonCon. He's pretty great! He hands out these little scraps of paper with weird secrets printed on them, and asks that you hide them in random places for people to find. That's authentic kook behavior, but in the best possible way!)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Warner Books (p 251) – Well, it was 1988. Stang's praise is breathless: "[...]compromising one of the most gripping sagas in comics or any kind of literature!" Emphasis his. I can't help but think this was just an excuse of his to include something he liked, as there's no need to mail DC $13 for it, you could get the compilation from bookstores for that much. You probably can still get it there, though you can expect to pay more now. (As far as Frank Miller Batman goes, I prefer Year One.)

American Splendor, Harvey Pekar (p 253) – Stang: "It took the mainstream fifteen years to notice this one. Always does...." I don't actually know enough about this to say anything you'd find interesting, so I'll leave you with the American Spendor Wikipedia page, The Toonopedia page, and The Pekar Project, Oh, and there was some movie or other about it a few years ago. By the way, Pekar died in 2010; he kept writing his comic up to 2008.

Great Badfilm and Sleaze
SubGenius sacrament holds the viewing of bad movies as a religious experience, a type of "bulldada." It's worth noting that Mystery Science Theater 3000, which did a lot to further the "apprecation" of these movies, began on Minnesota station KTMA in 1988.

Zontar, the Magazine From Venus and Zontower, Jan Johnson (p 256) – Named for Larry Buchanan's horrible remake of It Conquered The World. (Larry Buchanan directed MSTed movie Attack Of The The Eye Creatures – "You see folks, they just didn't care" – and It Conquered The World, with its evil mind-controlling carrot monster and its mad scientist assistant Lee Van Cleef.) The newsletter is gone but its memory is preserved in a website, which offers issue 9 as a download and claims other issues will be made available later.

The Couch Potatoes (p 257) – A club devoted to TV watching. It had a newsletter, "The Tuber's Voice." The website The Potato Museum has a page delineating the history of the term "couch potato," and states that it was inspired by the club. It also has an image of the title heading of an issue of the newsletter. Editing, illustrating and publishing the newsletter is listed on a resume on this website; it might prove to be a good place to look for more information. Also according to the resume, he played accordion for the band "R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders."

Wyvern Web Graphics (p 257) – Why is this mail order tape place listed? Because it was an early outlet in the United States for anime, or "Japanimation," a term that didn't catch on, thank god. "Japanese animated films comprise a formidable new genre of psychedelia that American cult audiences have only begun to bootleg!" They're still watching them, and they're still bootlegging them, using breathtaking new forms of bootlegging incomprehensible to an 80s fan. Back in 1988 anime, to most American fans, was Akira, Robotech, some dubbed discount tapes like Unico, and a smattering of other things. Sometimes incredibly disturbing things. Even Ranma 1/2 hadn't yet aired on Japanese television back then.

Incredibly Strange Films (p 258) – The foremost book on badfilm (Stang's word) is probably The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, a book I have not yet had the chance to read. But second place goes to Incredibly Strange Films, a book of essays on bad movies. You can get it on Amazon, but it's not cheap.... The people who made it have a blog where they sell books about other strange things they've found.

The Three Stooges Journal (p 260) – Still around, and apparently still in print! The address has changed since the book was published. You can order back issues!

Joe Bob Briggs (p 262) – He's still around of course, having made a name for himself as "drive-in movie critic." He was a syndicated columnist even then, so you didn't have to write him. Here's his website.

The Cassette Revolution
The compact cassette tape is probably doomed, in the long run, to be seen as 8-Track 2.0 (or maybe 8-Track as Cassettes 1.0), but at the time it was a watershed, a format that allowed users to record their own material and distribute it. It also allowed the easy creation and distribution of bootlegs, which I'm sure added impetus to the development of the CD format. While it lasted it spawned a thriving community of bands that distributed their works to interested people for little cash. HWBM came out just as Compact Discs began to hit it big, and thus came at a time to capture this scene at its height.

Negativland (p 270) – A band that has always had a strong relationship with the SubGeniuses. They're still around, and still fairly popular. They've become vocal opponents to restrictive intellectual property regimes, which instinctively makes me like them. They have a fairly nice website that deserves to have your dirty feet track all across it.

WSNS (World Satanic Network System) (p 273) – Had recordings of the last moments of Jonestown. But this page claims to have the story behind the recording, as well as other recordings of cultists and cult leaders.

The Swinging Love Corpses, DRUMMOND care of Wilcox (p 273) – Garage band of SubGenius co-founder Philo Drummond. Still around, and still SubGeniusy, with all that that implies regarding ingenuity, irreverence, and 90s web design.

Puzzling Evidence (p 274) – Would become another SubGenius regular, at the time of HWBM's publication. His taped rants let to the Puzzling Evidence radio show, still on the air on KPFA out of Berkeley. They have a podcast for non-local listeners.

G. G. Allin (p 281) – A rock star who shat on stage & ate it, regularly punched fans at concerts, and knocked his own teeth out with microphones, all while consuming legendary amounts of drugs. Allin isn't listed himself so much as two newsletters devoted to his phenomenon. Allin died in 1993 of an overdose. Stang doesn't speak for or against, limiting his judgement of the man himself to "[...] definitely one of the most disgusting figures in rock today." Even kook connoisseurs have their limits, I suppose.

Rudeness And The War Between The Sexes
Most of this is porn of some type or other. Hey kids, did you know that once pictures of naked people were actually pretty hard to come by? I skip many things here, not wanting to make the post more NSFW than it already is.

The Films of Russ Meyer on Videotape, RM Films International (p 286) – It's still around, and they still sell the movies over the internet, although for more money than you'd expect. Russ Meyer is the infamous auteur behind movies like "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!", "Mondo Topless," and "Mudhoneys."

A Lewd Spectacle of Wanton Depravity (p 292) – The entire entry: "A cassette tape for $6. I won't say any more. Just DO IT." That reminds me of happy times, those wonderful, innocent days before I stumbled upon goatse. Pardon me Rev. Stang if I don't just take your word for it. A Google search suggests that it's actually an experimental musical piece by SubGenius band "Doktors 4 'Bob'." I'd actually be more likely to spring money for it knowing that.

Great Catalogs

Loompanics (p 299) – These guys, a bookstore and publisher, released many of the other "controversial" works mentioned in the book, and the name appears in many addresses. Unfortunately the store's Wikipedia page informs us that they went out of business in 2006. Some of their published titles were picked up by Paladin Press, back on page 166. The site loompanics.com now appears to be a link farm pretending to be a bookstore. Interestingly, Stang warns the reader to patronize the store "before this company gets shut down" because of the dangerous information they peddled. Well his warning was valid, but it didn't get shut down so much as die of natural causes....

A.M.O.K. (p 300) – Another seller of "non-traditional" literature, like Loompanics. They appear to still be around today. To be honest I wouldn't put a great deal of the faith of many in the contents of many of these books; the entries in the "Orgone" section (really sex books) range from the slimy to the despicable, and the entries in the "Parallax" section include books like Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism, Henry Ford's The International Jew, the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Best Witness, the description to which bends over backwards to claim that the author does not deny the Holocaust.

Roadside America, Fireside Books, Simon & Schuster (p 303) – There aren't a lot of mainsteam books or anything in HWBM, but this, a series of sarcastic reviews of roadside highway attractions, made it. I think this site represents a web presence for it. They have an iOS app for it too, for $2.99, which I suppose is good... but to get the whole country you have to pay another $5.99.

Lor'D Industries, Ltd. – They sold machines like "psychic generators" and things like that. Sort of like the alternative Edmund Scientific. They don't seem to have a web presence, but they might still be around. This page doesn't make it seem promising though. "Certificate Of Authority Revoked." Yikes.

Archie McPhee (p 310) – The "Outfitters of Popular Culture," their catalog is a treat just to flip through. Yes, they do still print a catalog! You can get it by signing up here. Or just can just shop through their website. And, because it's my post and I can include what I want to: here's a link to the nefarious devil duckie.

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (p 311) – The artist from the hot rod scene of the 60s was still around in 1988. He didn't make it past 2001, though. When he died, a freaky, bug-eyed, tongue-lolling, monster-shaped light went out of the world. You can be sure he went to Hell, but it was the one with hordes of sexy devil girls, and he calls it heaven. Here's the merch site run by his wife.

The Great Kook-Finders

The Amazing Colossal Mindblaster, Remote Control (p 314) – Very little of this publication seems to remain on the web. YouTube has a three-part recorded (off a tape recorder) interview from them with Robert Anton Wilson, which nearly all searches for "Amazing Colossal Mindblaster" turns up: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Factsheet Five, Mike Gunderloy (p 316) – Inspired by kook listings in the SubGenius publication The Stark Fist of Removal, at its height this magazine published thousands of addresses allowing zines to communicate with each other. More information can be found on the Factsheet Five Wikipedia page. Some more information can be found on ZineWiki. Its history is complex, but the last issue was published in 1998. The page at www.factsheet5.org is linked from the SubGenius High Weirdness By Web page, but only ever had four posts. Gunderloy's booklet "Why Publish?" can be found in PDF form here.

Off The Deep End, Tim Cridland (p 317) – Publisher Tim Cridland appears to have written for website The Hollow Earth Insider for a while. His name appears in this page about trepanning. Do you know what trepanning is? You really don't want to. SCHLORP. This may be the same guy, calling himself Zamora.

The Stark Fist of Removal, SubGenius Foundation (p 320) – Many of the entries in HWBM were originally printed in this, their yearly newsletter. According to Ivan Stang, Mike Gunderloy was inspired to create Factsheet Five by early Stark Fists. It's no longer printed sadly. There are some web versions, this one dated 2004-2010. Here's an earlier one (NSFW) that has tons of content, but hasn't been updated since 2002. The web design is circa 1995, right down to the animated GIFs.

Further Connections, Waves Forest (p 323) – Didn't find anything from this magazine, but Stang calls Forest a "Robin Hood of suppressed data," and devotes several pages at the back of his book to his theories, which are about what you'd expect. Textfiles hosts an incomplete issue of Forest's "Now What." Here's an article by Forest (apparently reproduced without permisssion) on stopcancer.com. Forest was (is?) a proponent of "hyper-oxygenation" as a panacea that supposedly cures AIDS and cancer. I hate to think of sufferers who read that and saw it as providing hope, only to be cruelly let down later. It is a sour note on which to end a book of kooks, reminding us that even supposedly-harmless kooky beliefs might seem funny to us, but they can cause real hurt in the world if we let them.

Previously on Metafilter: Stang's Life Cycle of the Martian Peenworm.

And we're done! It took me weeks to compile this thing. Tune in next time when I'll cover The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, probably followed in short order by me swallowing broken glass! Buh-bye!

You're so smart you probably think this post is about you

revgeorge — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:15:39 GMT

"You're really smart!" Psychologist Carol Dweck says that praising a child for being smart only teaches the kid to avoid any effort that might fail. "When we praise children for their intelligence, we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don't risk making mistakes." Malcolm Gladwell chimes in with his thoughts on the importance of being a smart kid, "What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement."

This ain't chemistry. This is Art.

Rhaomi — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 20:14:15 GMT

With the momentous series finale of Breaking Bad just hours away, fans of the show are hungry for something, anything to wile away the time before the epic conclusion tonight. So why not kick back and chew the fat with your fellow MeFites with the help of a little tool I like to call "The Periodic Table of Breaking Bad."

H           Periodic Table of Breaking Bad                          He
Li  Be            [here be spoilers]            B   C   N   O   F   Ne
Na  Mg                                          Al  Si  P   S   Cl  Ar
K   Ca  Sc  Ti  V   Cr  Mn  Fe  Co  Ni  Cu  Zn  Ga  Ge  As  Se  Br  Kr
Rb  Sr  Y   Zr  Nb  Mo  Tc  Ru  Rh  Pd  Ag  Cd  In  Sn  Sb  Te  I   Xe
Cs  Ba      Hf  Ta  W   Re  Os  Ir  Pt  Au  Hg  Tl  Pb  Bi  Po  At  Rn
Fr  Ra      Rf  Ha  Sg  Bh  Hs  Mt  Ds  Uuu Uub Uut Uuq Uup Uuh Uus Uuo

        La  Ce  Pr  Nd  Pm  Sm  Eu  Gd  Tb  Dy  Ho  Er  Tm  Yb  Lu
        Ac  Th  Pa  U   Np  Pu  Am  Cm  Bk  Cf  Es  Fm  Md  No  Lr

Allez Cuisine!

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:39:52 GMT

Classic Animation Remixed

Rhaomi — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:50:06 GMT

While Adult Swim is generally regarded as the pioneer of irreverent short-form animation -- especially for 'toons that reimagine past hits -- it wasn't always the king. In fact, the late-night programming block arguably found its birth in a series of short toons and interstitials that ran in the heyday of its daytime alter ego, the venerable Cartoon Network. The brainchild of C.N. Creative Director Michael Ouweleen and Hanna-Barbera chief Fred Seibert, these cartoons reinterpreted the network's properties through stock footage, indie music, and original animation in a wide variety of styles, as well as introducing prototypes of characters that would become some of the most famous in the history of American animation. (warning: monster post inside)

PART 1: The Early Days
The groundwork for the following projects was arguably laid by two cartoons: The Moxy and Flea Show (the network's first original series) and Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Though little is remembered of the short-lived Moxy, which starred mo-capped entertainers Penn Jillette and Bobcat Goldthwait as a 3D animal duo, Space Ghost hit a chord and ran for years in the night block as a cult series -- its bizarre, incoherent "interviews" and repurposed 1960s characters set the stage for Adult Swim in later years.

PART 2: Cartoons That Never Made It
Crafted by the aforementioned-Ouweleen in the mid-90s, "Cartoons That Never Made It" was a brief series of four "bumps" -- short cartoons that play before commercial breaks or split up longer programs. The four shorts acted as promos for various fictional cartoons, all rejected for obvious reasons. Surprisingly twisted for the network's early, more staid days, the popularity of the bumps inspired Ouweleen to expand his ambitions in projects to come.

Salt n' Slug - Rupert the Grouper - Frothy Dawg - Heidi and the Yodelers

PART 3: The Groovies
"Groovies" was the term for a new series of shorts which took the form of music videos. Each one was based on a property in the Cartoon Network stable, from Betty Boop to Dexter's Lab. Old clips and in some cases fresh animation work was mixed with original music from well-known artists like Devo, The Apples in Stereo, and will.i.am, resulting in amusing and surprising tributes that respected the classic animation while showing it in a whole new light.

The Flintstones - "Meet the Flintstones" by Joe Boyd Vigil, "Walk Around in Circles" by Soul Coughing

The Jetsons - "24th Century Mecha Mix" by Michael Kohler

Quick Draw McGraw - "El Kabong Rides Again" by Calexico

Atom Ant - "We Must All Get Ready Now" by Michael Kohler

Betty Boop - "Rolling" by Soul Coughing

Superfriends - "That Time is Now" by Michael Kohler

Porky Pig - "Pork Jam" by Michael Kohler

Elmer Fudd - "Wascally Wemix" by Todd Eaton

Bugs Bunny/Marvin the Martian - "Mars Forever" by Fantastic Plastic Machine

Magilla Gorilla - "Gorilla 4 Sale" by Michael Ungar

Yogi Bear - "Yogi Bear" by High School Jim

Jabberjaw - "Jabberjaw" by Pain

Josie and the Pussycats - "Music Evolution" by Michael Kohler

Powerpuff Girls - "Signal in the Sky" by The Apples in Stereo, "Go Monkey Go" by Devo, "Chemical X" by Cherish

Courage the Cowardly Dog - "Courage the Cowardly Dog" by They Might Be Giants

Ed, Edd n Eddy - "The Incredible Shrinking Day" by Stuart Hill, "My Best Friend Plank" by Steve Patrick

Dexter's Laboratory - "Secrets" by will.i.am, "Back to the Lab" by Prince Paul, "Dexter (What's His Name)" by Coolio, "Dee Dee and Dexter" by They Might Be Giants

Johnny Bravo - "Hey, Johnny Bravo" by The Reverend Horton Heat

PART 4: The Shorties
Following the success of the Groovies, Ouweleen acted a little more adventurously by introducing the Shorties. Shorties were similar to Groovies in that they repurposed older properties broadcast by the network, but they did so in longer-form shorts sans music, and more often with a new visual style. The shorts were often more sarcastic in tone than their inspirations, and acted along with Space Ghost as the sources for later programs like Sealab 2021 and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks: "Harasscat"
Pixie and Dixie sue Mr. Jinx for stalking them.

Huckleberry Hound: "Sound Hound"
An exasperated Huckleberry tries to silence a noisy soundscape collage.

Birdman: "Birdman Coffee Break"
Birdman shows Falcon-7 just how trained his companion Avenger is.

Superfriends: "Whiners Can Be Losers"
The Legion of Doom runs into a few issues at its biweekly meeting.

Johnny Quest: "Time is Running Out"
Using sound bites and music from the original series, gamepiece versions of Johnny, Hadji, Race, and Bandit fly over a gameboard outrunning their various opponents.

Hillbilly Bears: "Miss Understanding"
The Hillbilly Bears appear on a Jerry Springer-like show to air out their problems.

Quick Draw McGraw: "City E-Scape"
Quick Draw and Baba Louie, drawn as real horses, travel to New York City to wipe out crime.

Droopy: "Thanks a Latte"
Droopy, a coffeehouse barista, haunts a caffeinated businesswolf who refuses to tip.

Yogi Bear: "When Animals Nap"
Yogi and Boo-Boo try to hibernate despite the efforts of a TV crew working to get footage of a ferocious bear attack.

Wally Gator: "Alligator Liberation"
A cool 3D plastic doll-like version of Wally Gator is "liberated" from the confines of the city zoo by a group of concerned citizens.

PART 5: World Premiere Toons
Known variously over the years as World Premiere Toons, The What a Cartoon! Show, and The Cartoon-Cartoon Show, this program was the magnum opus of Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi and cartooning workhorse Fred Seibert, the original creative director of MTV and Nickelodeon and the one-time president of Hanna-Barbera. Seibert, who would later go on to found Frederator Studios, intended to recreate the atmosphere of the 1950s animation industry by returning creative control to the animators. The cartoons introduced by the show ranged from the quaint to the grotesque, from the traditional to the bizarre. Many were popular enough to become full-fledged series -- these characters, referred to as the "Cartoon-Cartoons", would serve as the network's programming backbone for years to come.

First, the one-off shorts that never got picked up by the network.
(NOTE: Only some of these videos have made their way online. To save space, I've excluded all the episodes I couldn't track down. If you want to look for yourself, there's a full episode list here. If you manage to find any more, feel free to post 'em here!)

"Help?" - Bruno Bozzetto
A cat that pricks his finger while sewing asks for help at the hospital, but the ruthless personnel there offer nothing but pain.

"Boid 'n' Woim" - C. Miles Thompson
A gangly worm hitchhikes through the California desert with a Bird that secretly wants to eat him.

"Kitchen Casanova" - John McIntyre
A first-time cook is preparing dinner for his date, but trouble arises when the wind flips the pages from his cookbook.

"Rat in a Hot Tin Can" - Jerry Reynolds, Russ Harris
A rat and his fly companion try to find a place to stay for the night during winter in the city.

"Tales of Worm Paranoia" - Eddie Fitzgerald
Johnny is a peaceful and forgiving worm until a human steps on him repeatedly. As a result, he becomes paranoid and angered at the human race, seeking revenge.

"Hillbilly Blue" - Butch Hartman
Crawdad Eustace is tired of being treated like food and goes with possum pal Mordechai on a cross-country trip to New Orleans to be "served" in royal fashion.

"Gramps" - Butch Hartman
Gramps tells his grandchildren about his battle against alien invaders, getting corrected by the children repeatedly.

"Larry and Steve" - Seth MacFarlane
Steve, a homeless dog, is adopted by dimwitted Larry (the only man that can understand what he's saying), and experiences disaster when Larry takes him shopping. A prototype of MacFarlane's later hit show, Family Guy.

"Drip Dry Drips" - Jon McClenahan
Brothers Louie and Elmo start a laundry business, expecting to earn some cash. They get a request from the president, but accidentally destroy his suit.

"No Tip" - Robert Alvarez
A delivery boy must deliver a pizza to Antarctica safe and sound and before time runs out, or he won't get a tip.

"Awfully Lucky - Robert Alvarez
A valuable yet cursed pearl brings both great luck and disaster to its hapless owner.

"Buy One, Get One Free" - Charlie Bean
A neurotic cat is afraid when a newcomer trashes his abusive owner's apartment.

"School Daze" - Robert Alvarez
A Wild West outlaw needs to finish the fourth grade, and deal with his obnoxious class rival Little Timmy.

"Lost Control" - Zac Moncrief
Two zoo animals lose their prized remote control and must travel to the waterworks to retrieve it.

"A Clean Getaway" - Meinert Hansen
Captain Buzz Cheeply and his robot sidekick Sly must escape a planet whose inhabitants have abnormally sized foreheads but tiny brains, while also finding a place to do their laundry.

"Raw Deal in Rome" - Eugene Mattos
A superpowered flea named Flick has a strange vendetta against a local performer, a dog named Shake, in an anachronistic Roman setting.

"Mr. Monkeyman" - Van Partible
Jealous King Raymond stains Jungle Boy's heroic reputation by impersonating him and causing mayhem.

"Hard Luck Duck" - William Hanna
Hard Luck Duck, after venturing away from Crocodile Harley's watch, is a hungry fox chef's next target.

"Bow-wow Buccaneers" - Mike Milo
Bloo and his fellow dogs sneak out of their owner's houses at midnight to set on a pirate adventure in the city.

"Ignoramooses" - Mike Milo
Two moose believe they're going to be adopted by a rich hunter, and wreak havoc in his mansion.

Next up, the more popular shorts -- ones that made it to two or three episodes, but didn't quite make the cut.

Pfish and Chip - Butch Hartman
"Short Pfuse" (clip) - Pfish and Chip (a carefree shark and a short-tempered lynx) attempt to stop their foe, the Mad Bomber. The only problem is that the chief needs to take his nap and demands quiet.

"Blammo the Clown" (clip 1, 2) - The bomb squad face an evil clown, with several gag traps. They also find themselves taking care of the chief's teddy bear while he's at the circus with his mother.

Malcolm and Melvin - Ralph Bakshi
"Malcolm and Melvin" - Melvin is an alienated looser, until he meets Malcolm, a trumpetist cockroach.

"Babe, He Calls Me" - Melvin's saga continues, as his partnership with Malcolm is compromised by an urban superhero's intrusion. Meanwhile, Melvin's mother aids a criminal after being unable to meet with her son.

Mina and the Count (5 episodes) - Rob Renzetti

Yuckie Duck - Patrick A. Ventura
"Short Orders" (works, slow) - Yuckie Duck works as a cook and waiter in a dirty restaurant, and delivers unappealing orders to the demanding customers.

"I'm On My Way" (unavailable) - Yuckie Duck works as a paramedic, but does more harm than good to his patients.

George and Junior - Patrick A. Ventura
(based on the 1940s short "Henpecked Hoboes", in turn based on Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men characters)
"Look Out Below" - A bird crashes a light bulb so it doesn't disturb his sleep and sits in the empty socket. Geroge and Junior, the building's janitors/engineers, are sent to fix it.

"George and Junior's Christmas Spectacular" - George and Junior are forced to deliver Santa's presents to the kids, as they fail to deliver one of Santa's letters.

Finally, the shorts that became pilots for successful series.

Dexter's Laboratory - Genndy Tartakovsky
"Changes" - Dee-Dee and Dexter battle turning each other into animals, using Dexter's latest invention.

"The Big Sister" (unavailable) - Dexter prevents giant Dee-Dee from attacking the city.

"Old Man Dexter" - Dexter uses a machine to age himself and be able to watch a late-night movie, but ends up aging far too much.

"Dimwit Dexter" - Dexter's brain shuts down after exhaustive activity, and he becomes the neighborhood's laughing stock.

Cow and Chicken - David Feiss
"No Smoking" - Chicken is saved from damnation of smoking by Super Cow, who is his sister, Cow.

Johnny Bravo - Van Partible
"Johnny Bravo" - Johnny Bravo tries to score with a zookeeper girl by capturing a runaway gorilla.

"Johnny Bravo and the Amazon Women" - Johnny Bravo is left stranded in an island filled with beautiful tall women, and their bodyguard elephant.

The Powerpuff Girls - Craig McCracken
"Meat Fuzzy Lumkins" - The Powerpuff Girls fight to stop Fuzzy Lumkins' plot to turn everything into meat.

"Crime 101" (unavailable) - The girls aid bumbling Amoeba Boys in becoming able criminals.

Courage the Cowardly Dog - John R. Dilworth
"The Chicken From Outer Space" - A fearful dog tries to stop an alien chicken's plans to invade Earth while in his owners' farm. Oscar-nominated.

PART 6: SPECIAL MUSICAL BONUS!!
Most, if not all, of the music used in Cartoon Networks various bumps and interstitials -- including much of the music in the Groovies shorts -- can be found on Bluetube.com, the homepage of Michael Kohler, the chief composer of most of these projects. So if you heard some music you liked while browsing these videos, chances are its on his site, free to listen to and without any distracting sound effects. Just click on "WORK" from the main page and scroll through the list of pieces.

PART 7: Random Miscellany

Two Yogi Bear shorts, "Boo Boo Runs Wild" and "A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith" (unavailable), directed by , creator of Ren & Stimpy. Not connected to any of the above projects, but just as strange.

"All-Star Cast" promo

Rap promo

Cartoon-Cartoon Fridays intro

A smorgasbord of classic promos and bumps

(Surreal) intro to "Mr. Spim's Cartoon Theater", a weekly special that broadcast obscure animated films

Updated versions of same

"Acme Hour" bumps: takeoffs on classic Warner Bros. themes that don't really fit anywhere else.
Invisible Paint - Earthquake Pills - Glass Cutter - The Weight - others

You shall Hear things, Wonderful to tell

Rhaomi — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:35:18 GMT

A decade on, the Coen brothers' woefully underrated O Brother, Where Art Thou? [alt] is remembered for a lot of things: its sun-drenched, sepia-rich cinematography (a pioneer of digital color grading), its whimsical humor, fluid vernacular, and many subtle references to Homer's Odyssey. But one part of its legacy truly stands out: the music. Assembled by T-Bone Burnett, the soundtrack is a cornucopia of American folk music, exhibiting everything from cheery ballads and angelic hymns to wistful blues and chain-gang anthems. Woven into the plot of the film through radio and live performances, the songs lent the story a heartfelt, homespun feel that echoed its cultural heritage, a paean and uchronia of the Old South. Though the multiplatinum album was recently reissued, the movie's medley is best heard via famed documentarian D. A. Pennebaker's Down from the Mountain, an extraordinary yet intimate concert film focused on a night of live music by the soundtrack's stars (among them Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Chris Thomas King, bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley) and wryly hosted by John Hartford, an accomplished fiddler, riverboat captain, and raconteur whose struggle with terminal cancer made this his last major performance. The film is free in its entirety on Hulu and YouTube -- click inside for individual clips, song links, and breakdowns of the set list's fascinating history.

1 | "Po' Lazarus" (lyrics) by James Carter and the Prisoners

Context: This plodding chain-gang chorus opens the film -- and suggests the whole story is an elaborate jailyard song in itself.

Background: Despite the name, James Carter and the Prisoners isn't your traditional band -- it's the informal title of an actual 1950s Mississippi chain gang featuring Carter and a number of other anonymous convicts. Encountered by traveling ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, their worker chant was recorded and entered into his vast field collection (much of which is now available online). Four decades later, Carter was tracked down and paid $20,000 by the Coens for the use of his music in the movie.

The song itself is a traditional fable about a larger-than-life prisoner. Mudcat.org explains:

Lazarus was a worker on a levy camp, in the days when "you worked from can to can't and maybe they paid you and maybe they didn't." One evening at the mess hall he got tired of finding "meat in his greens" (worms in his salad). Then he did something for which [he] must be feeling really pissed off and had to really have some balls. He "walked the table". He stood up on the mess table and stomped everyone's plates with his muddy boots. Knowing he'd face a minimum of a whippiong for his deed, and with revolvers in either hand, he went straight for the pay window, took the money and ran. Our story (the song) begins with the high sherrif telling the deputy to go get "Po' Laz'us".

In concert: The five singers of the Fairfield Four used a slightly more lighthearted take on the song to open the concert.

Other versions: The Bright Light Quartet's harmonious rendition, also from Lomax's collection

2 | "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (lyrics) by Harry McClintock

Context: Everett, Pete, and Delmar make a break for it during the opening credits.

Background: While the cleaned-up version by Burl Ives is more famous, Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock originally penned the song as an off-color riff on a hobo's idea of paradise, a Cockaigne-esque land of plenty where alcohol ran like water.

In concert: Emcee John Hartford led a fiddle-based version.

3 | "You Are My Sunshine" (lyrics) by Norman Blake

Context: The official radio campaign song of Governor Menelaus "Pass the Biscuits" Pappy O'Daniel.

Background: Adapting it from the Ukrainian folk song "Up There On the Mountain," original singer Jimmie Davis later used the tune as his own campaign song when he ran for governor of Louisiana (on a horse named Sunshine). It's now one of the state's official songs.

Other versions: Too many to count, but Wikipedia lists many of them.

4 | "Down to the River to Pray" (lyrics) by Alison Krauss

Context: An argument is interrupted by a white-robed baptismal procession.

Background: This traditional hymn was possibly written by slaves back in the 1800s before it wound its way to Appalachia. Choralnet.org goes into more detail.

In concert: Alison Krauss performed the song with the backing of a full gospel chorus.

Other versions: A peppy version by Laila Biala on piano.

5 | "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (lyrics) by Dan Tyminski

Context: The popular off-the-cuff single that wins the Soggy Bottom Boys their freedom.

Background: The most conventional hit of the album has its roots in a "Farewell Song" recorded by blind Kentucky folk singer Dick Burnett in 1913, though it almost certainly predates him. Dr. Ralph Stanley discussed the song and his attempts to revive it in this 2009 Diane Rehm interview, where he speculates it may be two or three hundred years old.

(Fun fact: the accompaniment in the film, Tommy Johnson, was a direct reference to the real-life blues virtuoso of the same name, who likewise claimed to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for musical talent.)

There were several variations on this piece throughout the movie, including two different instrumental interpretations. Video of the original singers.

In concert: The lyrical version was notably absent, but the late John Hartford performed a haunting wordless solo of his fiddle interpretation, one of his last before cancer rendered him incapable of handling his beloved instrument.

Other versions: Again, many, but some of the most notable: Bob Dylan (his first national TV appearance) - Roscoe Holcomb - Jerry Garcia (via the Pizza Tapes) - Ralph Stanley

6 | "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (lyrics) by Chris Thomas King

Context: Bluesman Tommy plays a melancholy dirge at a pensive campfire.

Background: Adapted from the keening original by Skip James, it reflects on the hard times faced by the nation's poor in the depths of the Great Depression.

Other versions: Another, more ethereal take on the song by James (bio and lyrics in description).

7 | "Keep On the Sunny Side" (lyrics) by The Whites

Context: The official campaign song of reform candidate Homer Stokes.

Background + lyrics

8 | "I'll Fly Away" (lyrics) by

Context: A montage of light-hearted scenes from the middle of the film.

Background: Ironically this gospel hymn was adapted from a line in a secular tune musing about jailbreaking from prison life.

Other versions: Lots, including Johnny Cash (with a great singalong version from his TV show) and Gillian Welch/David Rawlings. One version by the Kossoy Sisters was used in the movie in place of the soundtrack version; it's included on the reissue.

9 | "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" (lyrics) by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch

Context: A trio of sirens seduces the group by a cold creek.

Background: This eerie tune was said to be based on a combination of an old lullaby with the steady cadence of a prison work song (compare with the rhythm of "Po' Lazarus."

In concert: The three original singers reprised the song together on stage.

10 | "In the Highways" (lyrics) by the Peasall Sisters

Context: The song performed by the Little Warvey Gals at the Stokes rally.

In concert: Reprised by the three sisters.

11 | "I Am Weary, Let Me Rest" (lyrics) by the Cox Family

Context: A brief act at the Stokes rally.

Background: Dating back to 1864, the tune was modified somewhat by the Coxes for their in-film cameo.

In concert: Introduced with good humor by Hartford.

Other versions: Jade Turner live

12 | "O Death" (lyrics) by Dr. Ralph Stanley

Context: The chilling KKK rally scene (similar to the infiltration of the witch's castle in The Wizard of Oz).

Background + lyrics

In concert: Bluegrass legend Stanley gives a striking solo performance shrouded in shadow.

Other versions: Jen Titus

13 | "In the Jailhouse Now" (lyrics) by Tim Blake Nelson

Context: A holdover song done to buy time during the ending concert.

Background: A somewhat silly yodeling vaudeville piece with a busy history.

14 | "Indian War Whoop" by John Hartford

Context: The celebratory ditty aired while hauling George Nelson to his execution.

Background: An instrumental piece by Hoyt Ming with myriad variations; Old Weird America (a blog about Harry Smith's seminal Anthology of American Folk Music) goes into all the details complete with videos and links.

In concert: John Hartford and his fiddle have some fun at Gillian Welch's expense.

Other versions: An older recording from Smith's anthology, an exuberant take from Dr. Scantlin's Red Hot Peppers, plus some YouTube demonstration.

15 | "Lonesome Valley" (lyrics) by the Fairfield Four

Context: Echoing the movie's intro, a group of workmen sing an execution song in unison as the boys pray for their lives.

Background: The earliest known date for this is David Miller's 1927 record, though it's probably much older.

Other versions: A jazzy cover by the "Million Dollar Quartet" -- Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. Another uptempo version by Mississippi John Hurt, plus Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie/Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen.

16 | "Angel Band" (lyrics) by the Stanley Brothers

Context: Bridges the epilogue and end credits.

In concert: This uplifting song closed out the concert in a mass singalong featuring all the stage's stars.

Other versions: Several, but the most unexpected is likely the Monkees.

Other original music featured in the documentary:

"Wild Bill Jones" - Alison Krauss and Union Station
"Blue and Lonesome" - Alison Krauss and Union Station
"Green Pastures" - Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch
"John Law Burned Down the Liquor Store" - Chris Thomas King and Colin Linden
"Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown?" - The Cox Family
"Dear Someone" by Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and John Hartford (my favorite)
"I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" - Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
"Shove That Hog's Foot Further In the Bed" - John Hartford

Want more? The reissued deluxe edition soundtrack contains a second disc with 14 songs from the film never released on the original album.

RESOLUTE!

felix — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:56:28 GMT

It is the central, most eyecatching feature of the modern Oval Office. But for over a year, abandoned by a captain said to be harsh and venereal, it drifted slowly, its huge frame creaking, locked in ice, in the land of endless night.

In 1845, famed explorer Sir John Franklin set out in the Terror and Erebus to discover the Northwest Passage, thought to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by a water route above Canada. Last seen by a whaling ship in Baffin Bay, the Franklin expedition disappeared into the Arctic wilderness.

Years passed and, despite the ample stores the expedition had laid in, concern grew. The British Admiralty launched a rescue mission in 1852, led by Captain Belcher, aboard the Resolute, Pioneer, Assistance, North Star and Intrepid. Captain Belcher, a scientist, circumnavigator, war hero, venereal wife-suer, and controversially well-loved or hated explorer, bottled some beer for this cruise which resulted in the biggest and most expensive ebay mistake ever made.

But back to the expedition. Belcher spent a year searching in vain for Franklin, but then ran across and rescued the bedraggled crew of the Investigator, another exploration ship which had become precariously locked in ice:

"[Investigator's Captain] McClure was walking on the ice with an officer, close to the ship, "[w]hen within about two hundred yards of us, this strange figure threw up his arms, and made gesticulations ressembling those used by Esquimaux, besides shouting, at the top of his voice, words which, from the wind and intense excitement of the moment, sounded like a wild screech; and this brought us both fairly to a stand-still. The stranger came quietly on, and we saw that his face was black as ebony, and really at the moment we might be pardoned for wondering whether he was a denizen of this or the other world, [...] as it was, we gallantly stood our ground, and had the skies fallen upon us, we could hardly have been more astonished than when the dark faced stranger called out, 'I'm Lieutenant Pim, late of the "Herald", and now in the "Resolute". Captain Kellett is in her at Dealy
Island!"'

The Investigator had left from the Pacific Ocean and been discovered by a ship from the Atlantic Ocean -- as tenuous and untraceable as it was, the Northwest Passage had been proven.

Abandoning the trapped Investigator, Belcher's squadron searched further for Franklin only to get locked into the ice as winter came. The squadron weathered a year in the ice -- a time of unbelievable hardship. The accounts of some Dutch explorers in the same situation during the same time period:

Here [Captain Barentz] became, in spite of his utmost efforts, gradually frozen up, and saw before him no alternative but that of passing the winter in that desolate region. Happily an abundance of driftwood supplied him with the means of building a house, and with the necessary fuel. The task of erecting a shelter was not, however, accomplished without immense labour, aggravated by the loss of the carpenter, who died at this critical moment. The party were attacked by the bears, who actually scaled the ship's side and compelled them to a close fight for their lives. They completed their hut by the middle of October; and then, provisions falling short, had to put themselves on allowance. The cold which soon after set in terrified even more than tortured them -- the ice was two inches thick on the walls and on the sides of their sleeping cots; and their clothes were white with frost as they sat by the fire, burning holes in their stockings without warming their feet. For three whole months they saw no sun; but their courage never flagged, and they made merry on Twelfth-night, as they would have done in their own country. When the spring at length came, and they looked for the means of return, they found their vessel was so jammed in by drift-ice that her escape was hopeless, and they were obliged to attempt a voyage of two thousand miles in the two open boats which offered their only chance. On the fourth day of the voyage the boats were too much injured to proceed, and had to be drawn up on a floating piece of ice for repair. Here, on this ice-raft poor Barentz breathed his last. He died calmly and bravely, with a chart of those perilous seas spread out before him, and his last words were directions as to the course which his companions had to steer. By the end of August the wreck of his party arrived at Kola, where they found their old comrade Ryp, who conveyed them to Amsterdam.

Belcher's situation was equally grave, and it must have been a shocking moment when the Breadalbane, a supply ship sent to provide more stores, arrived at his squadron only to be caught up between two ice sheets, crushed and sunk in the span of less than 15 minutes -- becoming the farthest-north known shipwreck.

After a tense argument with his captains, none of whom wanted to leave their otherwise-seaworthy vessels locked in the ice, Belcher resolved to abandon the four ice-locked ships and return to England post-haste.

Captain Kellett demanded and received clear written instructions that he was to abandon ship. Later, when Captain Belcher and his command were court-martialed for destroying British property, Kellett was acquitted and returned his sword with congratulations and acclamation -- but Belcher was returned his sword silently, with the implied censure of the Admiralty for losing valuable British property.

A year after abandoning the ships, an American whaler made a strange discovery.

The whaler, George Henry, Captain Buddington, hailing from New London, Connecticut, was beset by ice in Baffin Bay. On looking through his glass one morning, Captain Buddington saw a large ship fifteen or twenty miles away, working her way slowly toward him. For several days he watched her gradually approach, and on the seventh day, the mate, Mr. Quail, and three men were sent out to find out what she was.

After a hard day's journey over the ice, -- jumping from piece to piece, and pushing themselves along on isolated cakes, they were near enough to see that she was lying on her larboard side, firmly imbedded in the ice. They shouted lustily as soon as they got within hailing distance; but there was no answer. Not a soul was to be seen. For one moment, as they came alongside, the men faltered, with a superstitious feeling, and hesitated to go on board. A moment after, they had climbed over the broken ice, and stood on deck. Everything was stowed away in order -- spars hauled up and lashed to one side, boats piled together, hatches calked down. Over the helm, in letters of brass, was inscribed the motto, 'England expects every man to do his duty.' But there was no man to heed the warning.

The whalemen broke open the companionway, and descended into the cabin. All was silence and darkness. Groping their way to the table, they found matches and candles, and struck a light. There were decanters and glasses on the table, chairs and lounges standing around, books scattered about -- everything just as it had been last used. Looking curiously from one thing to another, wondering what this deserted ship might be, at last they came upon the log-book. It was indorsed, "Bark Resolute, 1st September 1853, to April, 1854."

Among other items they found -- tin playing cards, fashioned from cans, waiting for someone to finish the game.

The whalers repaired the still-seaworthy boat and a few arduous months later brought it back to Connecticut.

At this time America and Britain -- still licking their wounds from the wars -- had an uneasy peace. The British public was outraged that an American whaler could accomplish what their own captain couldn't, and the American public was overjoyed to take a British prize. In order to quell the popular feeling, Queen Victoria released all claim to the Resolute; and in turn, the American Congress purchased it from the whaler, had it refit it to perfection, and returned it to
the Queen as a token of goodwill.

The HMS Resolute never served again, and was broken up in 1878. But that wasn't the end of it.

Queen Victoria had the best timbers of the ship saved, and worked by master naval craftsman William Evenden into three desks -- one for the widow Franklin, one for Captain Buddington, and the largest -- and most famous -- for President Rutherford B. Hayes.

The Resolute Desk, intricately carved, was discovered by Jackie Kennedy in the Treaty Room of the White House and moved into the Oval Office. Various presidents had it slightly modified -- FDR had the desk raised to accommodate his wheelchair and a panel built in the front, and Reagan had it raised slightly. A picture, famous at the time, shows JFK Jr. peeking out through the panel while his father works.

And, at least today, President Obama uses the desk as well. In this now-famous picture you can just barely see the commemorative plaque built into the front of the desk, which reads:

H.M.S. "RESOLUTE" Forming part of the expedition sent in search of SIR JOHN FRANKLIN IN 1852, was abandoned in latitude 75 41' N. Longitude 101"22' W. on 15th May 1854. She was discovered and extricated in September 1855, in latitude 67 N. by Captain Buddington of the United States whaler "George Henry." The ship was purchased, fitted out and sent to England, as a gift to her Majesty Queen Victoria by the President and People of the United States, as a token of goodwill & friendship. This table was made from her timbers when she was broken up, and is presented by the QUEEN of GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, as a memorial of the courtesy and loving Kindness which dictated the offer of the gift of the "RESOLUTE."

As for Sir John Franklin, the explorer for whom the Belcher expedition had been searching? John Rae, an Arctic explorer with beautiful handwriting, ran across some Inuit hunters who spoke of trading with a crew of shipwrecked white men, showing artifacts of the expedition, and concluded:

From the mutilated state of many of the corpses and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been driven to the last dread alternative resource — cannibalism — as means of prolonging existence.

Lady Franklin went to her grave angrily fighting that notion; she is still famous today as the subject of 'Lady Franklin's Lament', a popular tune covered by artists including Sinead O'Connor.

Ironically, at the height of the Cold War in 1953, in order to help assert territorial claims, the Canadian government forcibly relocated many Inuit families from Northern Quebec to an airfield that had been established in 1947...named Resolute, Nunavut after HMS Resolute. The Inuit were very much out of their element, not being used to the wildlife, having no shelter, and having to deal with weeks of endless night and endless day. Nevertheless, like so many people over history warring with the elements in the most inhospitable of places, they perservered. Resolutely, one might say.

Christians in the Hand of an Angry God

quin — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:36:42 GMT

In a five part series he wrote a few years ago, blogger J. Brad Hicks breaks down how, in the mid-1960s, the Republican party made a conscious decision to rebrand themselves as the party of Christians, and in doing so, how they had to shift the ideology of the churches to what he calls a "false gospel".

Part 1: The False Gospel
Part 2: The Republicans and fear of the Communists
Part 3: Homosexuality versus the "Holiness Code"
Part 4: Abortion and Contraception
Part 5: Public prayer and Conclusion.

The overall essay is fairly long, but provides some uncommon and unconventional insights into the shift from what the Republicans and modern Christianity were, what they've become, and why.

Welp, there goes my evening ...

dancestoblue — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:40:59 GMT

What useful unknown website do you wish more people knew about? This Reddit Thread Of The Most Useful Websites That Most People Might Not Know About Will Make You Fall Down The Ultimate Internet Rabbit Hole. via digg

This *will* cause interrupt in even the strongest, most disciplined online citizens. Click at your own risk.

aggregating an aggregator: Peggy Wang (all killer no filler!)

flex — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:07:33 GMT

Peggy Wang, a senior editor at Buzzfeed, has recently displayed a pronounced knack for aggregating what feels like some of the best of Pinterest in tips/lifehacks, home decor ideas, and DIY projects shared around the web. Exhibit A: 52 Totally Feasible Ways To Organize Your Entire Home; Exhibit B: 22 Things You're Doing Wrong; Exhibit C: 33 Meticulous Cleaning Tricks

Peggy Wang's Buzzfeed posts page. More highlights from the past few months:

*24 Survival Tips For Living Alone
*31 Insanely Easy And Clever DIY Projects
*24 Incredibly Simple Ways To Make Your Food Taste Awesome
*39 Easy DIY Ways To Create Art For Your Walls
*20 DIY Home Remedies You Had No Idea Existed
*22 Clever Hiding Places To Stash Your Stuff
*41 Easy Things To Do With Mason Jars
*25 Awesome DIY Ideas For Bookshelves
*27 Ways To Rethink Your Bed
*28 Functional And Beautiful Ways To Decorate With Contact Paper
*56 Ways To Decorate With Washi Tape
*21 Easy Ideas For Adorable DIY Terrariums
*13 Healthy And Gluten-Free Ways To Make Pizza
*and bonus for Halloween, 37 Easy DIY No-Carve Pumpkin Ideas

Extra talent flavour: Peggy Wang is also in a NYC indie band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
*interview with Asylum, 2009 (includes embedded video "Everything With You")
*interview with Red Furros, 2010 (includes embedded video for "Higher Than the Stars", which features dancing furries)
*interview with Topshop, 2012

previous Peggy Wang tips: 35 lifechanging ways to use everyday objects
previous Peggy Wang lists: 22 reasons why design was more awesome in the '80s - Morrissey gets a job - alpacas with post-punk hair - smoking smarties - Wikipedia names your band
and Buzzfeed-specific previously: Buzzfeed's strategy and the Internet is eating itself

"No, no, you can just talk to the comedian anytime!"

not_on_display — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:57:53 GMT

[NSFW: swear words galore] Hecklers, the bane of many a performance. Here you can watch a documentary about Hecklers [ part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 ] and other critics. Someone at the beginning of that "Heckler" movie says something like, "A show was never made better because of a heckler." If only all of the banter was as funny as when Matt Walsh was heckled at SXSW. More often, it's like how Kyle Kinane states right off the bat during his act: "Every trainwreck needs a fuckin' caboose; let's get it over with," before he launches into a semi-drunken 9-minute conversation/shoutfest. But every once in a while, you get the perfect "point, counterpoint" moment. Let's see how different stand-up comedians react when the social contract of audience/performer is broken.

How to deal with Hecklers? Here are some tips from the pros, and some semi-pros:

KNOW THE CROWD. CONTROL THE CROWD.

• Bill Maher reminds the studio audience of Real Time that the word audience stems from the Latin, to listen. Of course, this is after he bum-rushes the first heckler.
• Steve Hofstetter deals with multiple hecklers: he calls out a texting heckler, who is a doctor, no, wait, a lawyer. Steve Hofstetter vs. the Ukelele Audience. He doesn't convert jokes into Celsius when in the USA, either.
• Rich Vos easily maneuvers his way out of what would be a tight spot for many others.
• David Cross loses his timing and is about to lose control of the audience, but is able to rein them back in.
• Louis C.K.'s timing is thrown off too, and he gets the saddest heckle ever. He also loses the crowd and then wins them back.

SHUT THE HECKLER DOWN, NO MATTER THE COST!

• Bill Hicks gives the classic "going nuclear" example.
• Dave Bishop takes his cue from Bill, then introduces Joe Rogan onto the stage.
• Joe Rogan gets a lot of hecklers, and enjoys griefing them.
• Todd Glass unleashes a pre-emptive strike, and wins.
• Arj Barker hates hecklers, and wins the audience over to his side.
• Jimmy Merritt hates hecklers, and tries to win the heckler's girlfriend to his side.
• Joe Matarese doesn't care about the audience and will take them all on.
• Elliott Chang and Travis Howze both offer free drinks to their hecklers.

PULL THE OL' SWITCHEROO

• Mitch Hedberg likes to turn the tables
• Zach Galifianakis invites a woman on her cellphone onstage, and caters his act to her.
• [Unidentified] just confiscates the phone and makes a call.
• Richard Herring tries to get the heckler to understand how stand-up comedy works, before suggesting that he and the audience murder the heckler.
• Joe Klocek invites the heckler onstage, gives him a mic, and provides commentary.

BOB AND WEAVE! LEFT!! RIGHT!!

• Jim Gaffigan having a hard night.
• Jamie Kilstein tries, for a moment, to appeal to higher states of thought.
• Gary Owen goes for the low shots.
• Amy Schumer deals a one-two knockout blow.
• Jacqueline Novak needs the heckler to say only two words before shoving those words back down the heckler's throat with a well-reasoned philosophical stance.
• Jamie Kennedy has The Defender of Servers on the ropes!
• Greg Giraldo practiced on guys like this.

REALIZE IT'S JUST NOT YOUR NIGHT

• Jesse Fernandez just deals with it.
• Doug Williams is blindsided by a really mean heckler, Jamie Foxx.
• Realize it's just not your planet.

[PREVIOUSLY]

Mahna Mahna

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:11:49 GMT

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