One hears that one of the nicest people I’ve never met is due to be married tomorrow. Hip hip!

A quibble or two with James Lileks (skip down to “Warning: the following is Screedy”):

Well, don’t START A WAR WITH AMERICA, then.

Well, y’know, most of the bombees at Hiroshima didn’t. Is it overly pedantic to distinguish between the rulers and the ruled?

And I like the idea that because we had intelligence failings, we shouldn’t have prosecuted the war. Why, next thing you know, rape victims who didn’t check the closet before going to bed will expect the police to arrest someone.

Heh.

My father was part of the force that would have invaded the Japanese mainland. . . . And if he’d been torn to bloody ribbons like half his friends, I wouldn’t be here, and my amazing Gnat slumbering in the other room wouldn’t be here either. Most important: if Japanese militarism hadn’t conflated tyranny, racism, and territorial expansion with a mystical notion of national honor and ethnic destiny, Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have looked the same in ’46 as they did in ’41.

Or if the President had not prolonged the war by insisting on unconditional surrender, when Japanese ministers were trying to make a deal (for the Emperor’s personal safety). But who’s counting?

Another reason to switch to LCD. (But I’m spoiled by 1600×1200 resolution.)

From: [someone]
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 17:16:13 EST
Subject: closing on Sunday
To: webmaster@icannwatch.org

I have been reading on a listserv that the Internet is going to be closed on Sundays.
Is there any truth to this?
Would appreciate a reply.
Thank you,
[someone]

Tom the Dancing Bug: Why Johnny Joins the Taliban. Link relayed by an Awaiter who commented, “it’s pathetic that anyone even has to point this out.” Funny, tho.

Many years later: Newer link.

Then Charlie drove in with a great big grin
Past the signs of “do not enter”;
While the warning beeps made a raucous din
In the operations center;
Fred said “Charlie, come back if you please,
You’re making me kind of nervous,”
While by degrees all the ISPs
Were reporting lack of service.

(thanks to Avram Grumer for the link)

George MacDonald Fraser’s Lord of the Rings

2010: That link is unsurprisingly dead; try this one, though it’s probably not the same story.