Month: October 2015

Your “Jeb!” Campaign Weekend Open Thread

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by Ugh I hope I'm not stepping on the other front pagers toes with this, but somehow the Jeb! campaign's 112 page (!) power point briefing for big donors (that took place before the latest GOP debate) was let loose on these here internets.  It is, uh, quite a thing to see (like the BT-16). … Read more

Mis-reading “Ivanhoe”

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by Doctor Science

Back in September, I wondered who is supposed to be the heroine of Ivanhoe, but I hadn’t read yet the book itself. Now, thanks to Project Gutenberg, Mister Doctor Science and I have both read it, and we’re struck by how different it is from what we expected.

Ivanhoe was one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century, with an enormous influence on the literary landscape and on culture in general. Some of that influence persists to this day: reading Ivanhoe, we could see the roots of epic fantasy literature, of the Society for Creative Anachronism, of Renfaires and Medieval Times.

But what we couldn’t see is the Ivanhoe many other people claim to have read. From 19th-century fans to 21st-century scholars, the majority of readers seem to have latched onto a few elements in Ivanhoe, but not to have absorbed the actual text as a whole. It’s as though all they know is a “Good Parts Version” — and it’s one that edits out a lot of *our* favorite parts.

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two nations separated by a common language…

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by russell A few weeks ago, a guy named Scott Waters published this account of his time in the UK. More recently, Paul Owen published this reply in the Guardian UK. I draw no earth-shattering conclusions from the comparisons, I just thought they were both interesting and candid pieces.  Chances are many or even most … Read more

A weekend open thread

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by Hartmut via lj Really pleased to pass on this as a weekend open thread topic October 24th (this Saturday) brings the 40th anniversary of Iceland's 'Women's Day Off'(1975), a general strike that an estimated 90% of women in Iceland partook in to raise awareness of inequality. Today Iceland occupies the top spot for equality of women in … Read more

Canadian Election Open Thread

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by Doctor Science Canada is going to the polls today, and from down here it looks like a real nail-biter. Éric Grenier, Canada’s version of Nate Silver, projects the Liberals to get a plurality of seats, but then have to form a coalition government: This comes after the polite, Canadian version of a roller-coaster election … Read more

War 4-Evah!

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by Ugh President Obama is expected to announce a plan Thursday to keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017, ending his ambitions to bring home most American forces from that war-torn country before he leaves office. … Obama will also slow the pace of the reduction of American forces and plans to maintain the … Read more

The forgotten white man

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by liberal japonicus I hope I'm not stepping on the open thread (and thanks for keeping stuff going, and apologies for lack of posting), but this article, about Peter Norman, the third person on the Mexico City Olympic medal stand when Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave their black power salute, was a really powerful … Read more

Open Thread of the Weekend Kind

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by Ugh Not sure if any of the other front pagers were going to put one up, so here ya' go!   I can't decide if the GOP shindigaramalamadingdongfarcescapade in the House right now is entertaining, boring, or a harbinger of the end of the Republic.  Maybe Steve King (R-"We're too embarrassed to claim him") … Read more

Comics and other unprofessional professions

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by Doctor Science I hope that one of the big topics of discussion for the comics industry, as they gather for NY Comic-Con this week, will be Janelle Asselin’s public exposé of Scott Allie’s history of assault. Scott Allie was Editor-in-Chief of Dark Horse Comics, the fifth-largest comics company in the US, until a few … Read more