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Thursday, 2002 March 14, 14:47 — prose

author, author!

Yesterday a stranger asked me out of the blue – perhaps because she saw a book in my hand – whether I happened to know the name of the author of the book Nigger which was recently mentioned on Oprah. I happened to see it later; in case that stranger is reading this, the author is Randall Kennedy.

Monday, 2002 March 11, 21:59 — cartoons, humanities

for a chuckle on your way to hell

Seen today at Dr Comics & Mr Games: 79 titles by Jack Chick in one convenient package for $19.99 !

Monday, 2002 March 11, 16:53 — blogdom, technology

learn something new every day

I check this site periodically: Howstuffworks “Articles of the Day”. Current articles: revolvers, amplifiers, fire extinguishers, slot machines, lithography, light bulbs, instant film, elevators, gasoline, organ translpants, LEDs, grenades, sewing machines.

Sunday, 2002 March 10, 18:50 — medicine

backward compatibility

BBC News | SCI/TECH | ‘Happy’ mice skew results

Sunday, 2002 March 10, 17:54 — futures, neep-neep

the future is here

Dad, about to move from Pittsburgh to Raleigh, reports on a house-hunting trip:

We had done a lot of looking at houses through the Internet before going, and we were already quite attracted to the house we actually bought. Score yet another one for the Web.

Sunday, 2002 March 10, 15:55 — race

Libertarian Spank Inferno

(You know I’ve been itching for an occasion to use that phrase.)

I got mail today (on one of my many lists) that began:

SUPER EMERGENCY – MUST READ – PLEASE ACT NOW

I AM THE MODERATOR OF A YAHOO ANTI-IMMIGRATION EMAIL LIST

(Is there any other kind?)
I thanked the sender for saving me the time to continue reading, and got this reply:

I am a member of two Libertarian groups.

#1 – Libertarians for Life – Pro-Life group
#2 – Libertarians for Closed Borders – Anti-Immigration group.

Not all libertarians are libertines, just most of them,

– followed by a quotation in full of my campaign speech.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my study, scratching my head.

Sunday, 2002 March 10, 13:49 — language

there can be only one

What is the Latin plural of Elvis?
I’ve just seen Elvii, which is clearly wrong (the singular would then be Elvius).
The most obvious candidate is Elves, but of course one cannot count on one’s readers to pronounce it with two syllables.
On another hand, maybe it’s a consonantal stem, with a plural such as Elvires, Elvites or Elvides. The existence of the feminine form Elvira (no pun intended) suggests the first of these.
(In each of these the last /e/ is long.)

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