Looks like it’s a slow blogging day.
Open Thread
by $8 blue check mistermix| 161 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
by $8 blue check mistermix| 161 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Looks like it’s a slow blogging day.
Comments are closed.
Ivan X
Moar like snow blogging day, amirite?
hildebrand
I accept the challenge to get the BJ commentariat in gear.
I am working on a project and have hit a legend about which I cannot determine its origin. Legend has it that Muhammad tells a story that when Satan left the garden of eden, in his footprints onions and garlic grew. The legend is referenced in most folklore about onions and garlic, but nobody, and I mean nobody, gives the source for this legend. I have scoured the Koran and the Hadith – no luck. If anybody happens to know where this legend comes from (and feels like sharing the secret with me), I will be extremely grateful.
Mustang Bobby
My vanda orchid is in bloom. I’m sharing not to say “neener, neener” to those of you covered in snow and ice, but to remind you that spring is on the way…
2liberal
@hildebrand:
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/10/garlic_superstitions_folklore.html
source appears to be the writings of Mohammed.
googled “muhammed satan eden garlic onions” to find this
Keith P
I slept till 10:30 this morning (a rarity). Beautiful day out, so I’m gonna take a shower, run a couple of errands and then hit up a place in town for a lobster roll.
Punchy
Just what the frick could those Jax jurors ajudicating the jumpy jagoff (who offed a defenseless kid) possibly still be discussing? If this case aint murder, then FL SYG has codified shooting anyone for anything. I figged the deliberations would take 5 mins, not 5 days…
hildebrand
@2liberal: The problem is that no such writing exists. Muhammad, in all of the various collections, never mentions this legend. I have numerous references to the legend, and many attribute it to Muhammad, but no one points to an actual source. We get vague mentions of ‘Muhammad’s writings’ or ‘Islamic legends’ or even ‘Turkish legends’, but no actual citation for a particular source. I am trying to find the source behind all of the references and attributions. Thus far, no luck.
Omnes Omnibus
@Punchy: My guess is that there is one holdout juror and the others are beating him/her about the head and shoulders.
the Conster
How long will it take before someone coming out isn’t news? Why on earth is Ellen Page saying she’s gay on the front page of boston.com? Why the fuck does anyone not Ellen Page give a shit, especially here in Massachusetts?
Mustang Bobby
@the Conster: She’s trying to boost her chances in the NFL draft, perhaps?
WereBear
When the last evangelical Christian buys the last DVD set of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
In Shilts’ biography of Harvey Milk, he writes of how Milk kept emphasizing that people had to come out of the closet, had to show they were just people, that everyone knew.
I don’t think we are there yet. Do you?
the Conster
@Mustang Bobby:
Yeah, there aren’t any gay women in sports so that would be completely unexpected.
@WereBear:
Don’t ask me, I’m from Massachusetts.
Omnes Omnibus
@hildebrand: I would attribute it to Mohammed’s grandmother or, even better, his great grandmother.
NotMax
Something to break up the ennui.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@hildebrand: Wasn’t Muhammad illiterate? You may be searching a long time.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chyron HR
@Omnes Omnibus:
But he’ll come around and vote not guilty eventually.
SiubhanDuinne
@hildebrand:
Might the story be from the Satanic Verses (not Rushdie’s), passages originally included in the Qur’an and subsequently removed?
Amir Khalid
@the Conster:
Someday, soon let us hope, no one will care about a person being gay or straight anymore than they care now about the person being right-handed or left-handed. Then there’ll be no such thing as being in or out about one’s sexuality, any more than there is now about one’s handedness. Even more enlightened societies are still in transition towards that stage.
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s what I’m hoping. I just can’t believe that the jury is not going to be able to return a verdict. Fox news would probably spend five minutes on the verdict if he were found not guilty because there is no good news for the gun industry.
ruemara
9 am. Not sure where to explore in NoHo. So I think I’ll just start walking.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Said holdout is saying, over and over again, “but they were THUGS!”
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve read The Satanic Verses. That story is not original with Salman Rushdie. I assume that it’s just one of many folk tales, some of them maybe of pre-Islamic origin, that got attached to the Prophet’s name by the pious.
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax:
The mummy was quoted as saying “the service on this patio is appallingly slow, I’m still waiting for my fuckin’ iced tea.”
NotMax
Also too:
Comrade Jake
@Punchy: Only takes one white juror who thinks black kids playing rap music are life-threatening.
hildebrand
@Amir Khalid: That was my thought, as well. My goal now is to try to pin down where the legend comes from, and how (or why) it got attributed to the Prophet.
Cassidy
Michael Dunn jury
CaseyL
@NotMax:
A patio? Did it have a barbecue pit?
Yes; yes it did have a barbecue pit! Gotta smoke the Queen’s meats somewhere, even in the afterlife. (That sounds a lot dirtier than I meant it to.)
@Villago Delenda Est:
Maybe he was waiting for the charcoal to light. Yehuti, in the sarcophagus, with a tong and fork crossed over his chest.
Gin & Tonic
@the Conster: Cute young white girls are always news.
ranchandsyrup
Haircut then lunch with family (daughter picked red robin). Afterwards we’re heading to the beach. Mid 70s today. If we are not going to have a winter/rainy season, may as well enjoy it.
Villago Delenda Est
@hildebrand:
Probably for the same reason that things are attributed to Jesus or the Bible: because prejudices often seek reinforcement from some sort of divine imprimatur.
See fundagelicalism and slavery, for example.
Roger Moore
@ruemara:
Instead, you should hop on the Red Line and go down into Hollywood proper, where there’s lots of interesting stuff.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
Upon re-reading your comment, I guess I really should have read it more carefully. As for those Satanic Verses, they were destroyed 14 centuries ago; who knows what’s really in them?
WaterGirl
@Punchy: I had no clue what your comment was about, but when omnes seemed to know what you were talking about, I figured maybe you hadn’t just put random words together.
I’ve got to give it up for google. I searched for “Jax jury” and it brought up the dunn story. That’s when I figured out what you were referring to.
I’m already depressed about the union vote in TN, please please please universe, do not let these people set this murdering racist free.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid: It’s at least 20 years since I read Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and I don’t remember details, certainly nothing about the garlic. I was referring to those writings of the same collective title (Rushdie’s inspiration) which, as I understand it, were originally part of the Qur’an but later removed and became part of the uncanonical traditions. But I’m as far from being an expert as a person can be.
WaterGirl
@the Conster:
Why did she come out publicly?
They explain in the story that she is making this announcement because she hopes it will make it easier for other people to be able to be who they are.
Why does anyone give a shit?
I’m guessing that a lot of people who are LGBT give a shit, because it makes it easier to be who you are when it becomes more acceptable in the mainstream. And the more people who come out, the more people see that gay people are just people.
srv
Jury is really looking for an out for white guy firing into an SUV of unarmed thugs who had the bass too loud
Villago Delenda Est
@srv:
Exactly. They’re obviously struggling to find a way to let this murdering racist shitstain go free.
No doubt some of them want to give him a high five for “living the dream” of gun fetishists everywhere…finally dealing with those thugs in the proper way, by emptying a magazine in their general direction.
ruemara
@Roger Moore: spoilsport. Headed to universal, then down to the museum.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv: Why don’t we wait until the verdict is in before we start casting aspersions at the jury.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Because as far as I’m concerned, this is an absolute no brainer if the kids in question were white. They wouldn’t hesitate to put the guy away.
(It’s a no brainer regardless, but this is the north of Florida, which is culturally the most southern part of the state).
The Dangerman
@the Conster:
Does she have a movie coming out? Nothing like a little free publicity.
I can see Sam getting a front page (first NFLer, potentially); really, someone in Hollywood is gay? Well, damn, there’s a shocker.
WaterGirl
I was on a jury in may of last year. Did I think the guy was guilty as sin? Absolutely.
What mattered to me, though, was that I could be confident that the evidence proved he was guilty BEFORE I voted in a way that would imprison someone for the rest of his life. And before I could do that, I needed to review the evidence.
Some people want to do their due diligence in matters like this.
Or, it could be one holdout who thinks it’s okay for the scary black guy to be murdered because, well, he’s a scary black guy. But I’m with omnes, let’s wait and see what comes out.
Roger Moore
@ruemara:
I’m just trying to keep you from wasting your time. Looking for interesting stuff in NoHo is like looking for straights in WeHo; the chances just aren’t in your favor.
Steeplejack
Finally emerged from my snow-encrusted lair to take a spin around the neighborhood a while ago. Rocked the car past its snow-plow embankment without too much trouble. I had intended to go to the grocery, but apparently everyone else did too, so I got lunch at a sandwich place and came home. Nestled into a less-snowy parking place closer to my apartment. Now watching Manchester City up 1â0 over Chelsea in the F.A. Cup. End of story.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Because it makes for less
lively blog reading/respondingoutrage? Though I’d be preparing to drink heavily were I that prosecutor. It should be a slam dunk, as VDE notes. But it’s Florida so it isn’t.And like anyone who’s ever tried a case, I’ve won cases I should have lost and lost cases I should have won. Juries are full of people, and people make puzzling decisions.
Cassidy
For a piece of local flavor, most of the news coverage down here has made sure to play the video of the thug hippity hop music the thugs were offensively listening to in their car.
jacy
Help — what is the name of that game where you string a bunch of similar/related names together? Used to be an old Johnny Carson bit too. i.e. Carrol Merrill, Meryl Streep, Merlin Olson, Al Jolsen, Al Molinaro…. etcetera, etcetera. I know that it has a funky name and I can’t for the life of me think of it or find it on the net.
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: “Someday, soon let us hope, no one will care about a person being gay or straight anymore than they care now about the person being right-handed or left-handed.”
Speak for yourself. There’s a reason the left hand was the sinister. And I don’t know for certain, but I’ll bet a lot of left handed people dress up as clowns.
Clowns scare me.
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: So the jury had questions this morning..
Just after 9:30 a.m. the jury presented Judge Healey additional questions:
Is the defense of self-defense separate for each person and each count?
Are we determining if deadly force is justified against each person in each count?
If we determine deadly force is justified against one person, is it justified for the others?
Judge Healey answered questions one and two with a simple “yes.” However question three prompted a discussion between Healey, State Attorney Angela Corey and Dunn’s Attorney Cory Strolla. Healey’s response to the jury was, No self-defense and justifiable use of deadly force applies separately to each count. After receiving answers from Healey, jurors returned to the jury room to continue deliberations.
How many counts was he charged with? Geez he killed someone.
Amir Khalid
@Soonergrunt:
Gasp. I’m left-handed.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
If you’re anywhere near the intersection of Cahuenga and Chandler, go to the Iliad Bookshop. They have a cat!
5400 Cahuenga Blvd.
http://iliadbooks.com/zencart/
Villago Delenda Est
@Soonergrunt:
George H.W. Bush is left handed.
So is Bill Clinton.
I was trying to make a point, and somehow I got lost…
JPL
Here are the charges against Michael Dunn
If they are looking at each of the issues, I can’t believe they’d find guilty of one and not all of them. Dunn didn’t really care who he killed.
JPL
whoops
? Martin
@JPL:
They’re headed pretty much where I figured. The black kid that yelled at him (and who was killed) will be deemed self defense, because Dunn was a racist and assumed the black kid would kill him with his blackness and we can’t discriminate against racists because that would mean discriminating against most Floridians, so he’s cool. But Dunn ‘accidentally’ shot some of the other kids in the car who weren’t yelling at him, and so he’ll get some kind of reckless endangerment charge because up-armed citizens aren’t supposed to shoot like stormtroopers. Florida has standards, you know.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Hey now, NoHo has really improved over the past few years. They have an arts district and some really good diners.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
He shot at a car full of people, so I would expect him to be charged with murder (and lesser included charges) for the one he killed and attempted murder (and lesser included charges) for the other people in the car. I’m a layman, but the questions make it sound as if the jury is thinking about splitting the difference, considering shooting justified for the one kid he claims he saw grabbing a gun but not justified for the other kids in the car, or maybe considering it reasonable that he shot when the car was just sitting there but not when it was driving away. They certainly wouldn’t be asking those questions if they didn’t buy his story at all.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Sometimes having too many options can be overwhelming.
It’s why I can’t shop for clothes at TJ Maxx. There are just too many hangers crowded together and my eyes kind of glaze over.
Hoping this racist murderer doesn’t go free because there are too many mix and match options for the jurors to get their heads around. Or to agree on.
IdahoFlaneuse
@jacy:
Are you talking about seven degrees of Bacon where you connect a person to Kevin Bacon?
Steeplejack
@Villago Delenda Est:
Obama is left-handed too.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
And there are straight people in WeHo, but that’s not the place you go looking for them. There may be interesting places in NoHo, but the density is higher further down the Red Line.
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
And Ronald Reagan as well.
Bill E Pilgrim
@ruemara:
@Roger Moore:
I was already typing to suggest Bond street between Lafayette and Bowery to see a building with sculptures on it, another ugly but interesting building, and the Montreal-style Mile End Smoked Meat shop for lunch.
Might be a bit of a walk though, now that I realize where you are, oops.
I lived in both cities but I don’t think anyone called that one NoHo when I was there (pre cambrian explosion).
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
My secret shame is I share a birthday with Sarah Palin.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid, et al.
Yes, there’s a Wikipedia page for that.
Yatsuno
@hildebrand: Dunno if it helps, but certain sects of Hinduism don’t allow for the eating of onions or garlic. We know there has been a shit ton of cross-pollination of ideas all over that region of the world, but it would make more sense if onions and garlic were haram. I dunno, it’s just the first thing I could think of, and it’s a pretty big reach I admit.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
I share mine with David Hasselhoff.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Villago Delenda Est: We’re here for you, guy.
Omnes Omnibus
@IdahoFlaneuse: My Bacon number is 3.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
That explains your German linguistic skills!
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: I get Grace Slick. Fear me.
@ruemara: I still say you’ll get a kick out of Little Tokyo. Lots of neat little trinkets plus mochi.
Bill E Pilgrim
@jacy: I remember Carson doing that, in his “Carnac” schtick, I thought of it as just a sort of internal rhyme gimmick, never knew there was a name for it.
Edit: Now that I think about it I think it was his Mr Movie Reviewer gag (Art Fern?), he’d list the actors in a movie that way.
The Dangerman
@Yatsuno:
Um …. YUMMM! Good stuff.
If you are talking LA stuff for visitors, stay away from the Westside!! NB 405 through Sepulveda Pass is closed same weekend as the PGA plays at Riviera. That should be a complete clusterfuck.
Citizen_X
@Villago Delenda Est: @Amir Khalid: @Yatsuno: I share my birthday with Howlin’ Wolf. Sucks to be all y’all.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yep. I am prepared to be completely outraged if the guy walks. I am going to wait to see if it happens first.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
My Bacon number is 2.
My Grace Hopper number is 0, which delights all my computer geek friends.
Steeplejack
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Art Fern, Tea Time Movie host.
Origuy
Isn’t the Magic Castle in North Hollywood? Not that you can get past the front desk without membership or a pass from a member, but it’s a neat old building and there are a few interesting things to see at the entrance. It’s a private club for stage magicians and supporters. I went there once with someone whose wife was a magician member. She took magic lessons and had to pass an audition to join. You can just pay a fee and join as a regular member, but you don’t get access to the library.
When you go there for a meal, it includes the shows. There are several performance spaces of different sizes. You have to dress up for dinner. If you ever get the opportunity to go, grab it.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Yatsuno: @Amir Khalid: Eric Holder and Stonewall Jackson for me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: You are Grace Hopper?
dmsilev
@Villago Delenda Est: Impressive. Do you have one of her nanoseconds?
Origuy
@Villago Delenda Est: My Grace Hopper number is 1, in several paths. I used to be on the ANSI COBOL Standard committee.
Bill E Pilgrim
Kind of amazing how much the whole world, and by world I mean the Internet, is accelerating. Googling the onions and garlic question just out of curiosity, fourth reference returned is this:
“Legend has it that Muhammad tells a story that when Satan left the garden of eden, in his footprints onions and garlic grew. The legend is …”
At a glance looked like it might be promising, then saw that it was headed with:
Open Thread » Balloon Juice
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/02/15/open-thread-1777/â
NotMax
A different Valentine’s Day story.
trollhattan
@2liberal:
Great 1. band name 2. triple-IPA name.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Bill E Pilgrim: It’s all connected!!!11
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
dmsilev
This is shaping up to be an annoying afternoon. Chore dumped on me by colleague: “Hey, that paper we have coming out next week is really cool. Why don’t you draft a press release about it? Oh, and we’ll need a snazzy graphic to go with the release.”
Sigh.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Martha Stewart, Tony Bennett, Tom Brady, and a couple of other B-J commenters share mine.
Mnemosyne
@Yatsuno:
Yes, Little Tokyo is teh awesome, and the Japanese-American National Museum is right at the Gold Line Little Tokyo/Arts District Metro rail stop. If no extra monies for museum admission, there’s still plenty to gawk at while wandering on foot.
dmsilev
@Bill E Pilgrim: Nah, it’s just that Google knows that you get all of your information from here anyway, so they thought they were just doing you a favor.
NotMax
@Bill E Pilgrim
Wouldn’t they be hoofprints, not footprints?
MikeJ
@JPL:
I think the reasoning will be that he shouldn’t face something as serious as murder just for killing a black guy, but they don’t want to let walk. They’ll say he felt legitimately threatened by the guy he killed and convict him for injuring the others. Had he finished them off they would let go.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Steeplejack: Yeah I had Googled it to verify and left the question mark in but when I came back BJ or FYWP had broken, listed me as “undefined”, and when it fixed itself my edit was toast.
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: Do you have a red rubber nose?!?!
ANSWER THE QUESTION!
Bill E Pilgrim
@NotMax: Hey speak to Google. Which is written by Balloon Juice, it turns out. It’s all so circular…
Bill E Pilgrim
@dmsilev: That would be a fun kind of Google, one that only returns things you yourself said. Wait, fun, no I meant nightmarish.
Roger Moore
@Yatsuno:
Mochi ice cream from Mikawaya, who invented it. Sweets from Fugetsu-do, who are LA’s claimant to having invented the fortune cookie. Real ramen. Not to mention the Geffen Contemporary, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Go For Broke monument.
Mnemosyne
@Origuy:
Nope, it’s in regular Hollywood (though on the north end of it, to make it extra confusing). There’s Hollywood, which is part of the city of Los Angeles and in the Los Angeles basin; North Hollywood, which is in the San Fernando Valley but is also part of the city of Los Angeles; and West Hollywood, which is in the Los Angeles basin but incorporated as an independent city. Confused yet? ;-)
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
She handed me one, but it got lost on one of my military moves.
I wish I still had it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: FWIW I have an aunt who is flamingly left handed and an uncle who bats right and catches right. My family has learned to be tolerant.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
My brother-in-law is gay and left-handed. We tease him that he’s 10 percent of 10 percent of the population.
ETA: Also, my (step)brother is right-handed and bats left, while I’m left-handed but bat right. Apparently it has more to do with your eyesight than your handedness per se.
Roger Moore
@Origuy:
That’s in Hollywood, not North Hollywood; it’s only a block from Hollywood Boulevard. North Hollywood is actually north of Studio City on the other side of the Hollywood Hills.
Arclite
Ellen Page is gay?
heart = broken.
:(
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
He’s a one-percenter?
? Martin
Young Conor going after my community.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: That should have been “bats right and catches left.”
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, I thought Bacon numbers, etc., are 1-based, not 0-based. That’s how Oracle of Bacon does it. The closest I can personally get to Kevin Bacon is 3. My Catherine Deneuve number is 2, however.
? Martin
@? Martin: And our kids are happy and healthy and do fun things, so Conor can suck it.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
Does he catch left or throw left? Baseball players are generally described in terms of their throwing hand (dominant), not their catching hand (non-dominant).
? Martin
@Origuy:
I have wished your death many times. Sorry about that. Glad it didn’t take.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
I eat and write left-handed but play sports right-handed. Sort of like a fiddler crab: small claw for fine work, big claw for rough work.
ETA: Although when I worked construction for a while back in the dark ages (before nail guns) I discovered through fatigue and boredom that I am ambidextrous with a hammer.
NotMax
@Arclite
Reticent to admit have no idea who Ellen Page is (and can’t recall coming across her name anywhere other than when it was mentioned here). Presumably a celebrity of some stripe.
Now Bettie Page (pic), that’s another matter entirely…
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: If it is 0-based, my Bacon number would be 2. My Deneuve number is 3 in a 1-based system.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
My numbers are 1-based.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Star of Juno, most notably, for which she received an Oscar nomination.
Amir Khalid
@Soonergrunt:
Uh … no?
Bill E Pilgrim
It’s funny, I have a Bacon number of 3, and when I tried the calculator all the actors I tried (I got a three about four different ways) who had twos were because of the same movie. It almost seems as if the entire game is based on his having been in “Starting Over” in 1979, along with so many other people in Hollywood that everyone was either in it or in something with someone who was.
And no I don’t know if getting a three about four different ways is the same thing as throwing right and batting left or swinging both ways or whatever, but now I’m not even sure if anything exists outside Google and Balloon Juice anyway. This thread has shaken my belief in pretty much everything.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Villago Delenda Est: I just discovered I share mine with Reince Priebus, but also Queen Latifah – so that balances out.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Omnes Omnibus:
Me too (according to Linkedin).
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack:
OK, if it’s 1 based, then my Bacon number is 3. A friend of mine sat right behind Tim Matheson at a Mariners game once, they had a nice chat.
? Martin
@Bill E Pilgrim: My wife has a Bacon number of 2 – I think two different ways, and IIRC that movie is why.
I have an Erdös number of 3, but no Bacon number. I could probably arrange for a Hopper number of 2, but that would require effort on my part.
Mnemosyne
@Bill E Pilgrim:
It’s Tommy Westphall’s universe, we’re just living in it.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Thanks. Haven’t seen it.
Last time I paid more than passing attention to the Oscars I think Carson was hosting them. Last time I bothered tuning in was to see Charlie Chaplin get his honorary award.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Steeplejack:
Oddly enough, I’m only two degrees away from all the Presidents since Nixon until Bush II.
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
I have a Bacon number of 3 via my late father-in-law, who introduced us to his actor friend with a Bacon number of 2. At least, I think that’s how it works.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Villago Delenda Est: I thought you had to be in a movie with someone?
WaterGirl
@? Martin: That was uplifting, which I needed after a discouraging day.
Steeplejack
@Villago Delenda Est:
So your Hopper number is 1, then?
Origuy
@? Martin:
I was on the committee in the early 2000s. Not responsible for the base language.
smintheus
There’s that number (give or take) again:
NotMax
@Origuy
COBOL (and SNOBOL) bring back less than pleasant memories.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: Throws left.
? Martin
@WaterGirl: My son is in there. They organized that themselves. Everyone came out and participated – 2000 or so students. There’s a lot of good happening.
Mnemosyne
@Bill E Pilgrim:
The classic game is only actors to actors, but it’s expanded out to behind the camera folks, too. And I feel I get to claim my Bacon number honestly since the actor in question was an actual friend of my FIL and not just someone he had a chat with one time.
(And by “actual friend” I mean my FIL used to stay in his apartment in Santa Monica.)
NotMax
@smintheus
Periodically over at least the past fifty years some pollster asks that same question and the incorrect response rate has consistently been somewhere between 21% and 32%.
? Martin
@Origuy: Good. I was long past wishing the committee members’ death by then.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Mnemosyne: Ah I see, I must be a classicist then ;) I thought you had to be in a movie to even have a Bacon number.
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: Ok, you’re cool.
How are things?
NotMax
@? Martin
There were demons living inside that Honeywell mainframe at college, I tell you. Demons!
WaterGirl
@? Martin: Definitely something to feel good about.
That was a ton of kids! I found myself wondering at one point whether we were seeing any repeats or if, indeed, that many kids really were involved. Kind of like seeing the old westerns and realizing the same indian had fallen off his horse about a dozen times in the same battle scene.
It looked to me like the kids could self-identify and kind of choose which part they were involved with, did I get that right? Pretty darn cool that they brought everybody together. Good stuff.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: A description of L.A. that was in The Late Great State of California was “26 suburbs in search of a city.” I found that it described the situation quite well.
How close to Olivera Street is Little Tokyo? I seem to remember a friend and I walked through Olivera Street, before going to Little Tokyo for lunch, a kendo demonstration and the Japan Day parade. (This being 1976, the parade’s grand marshall was George Takei.)
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, I guess on the more commonly accepted scale, yes. I thought 0 was “you’ve actually met the person” and it went from there, but it can be so confoozleing sometimes.
She handed me a nanosecond, I guess that makes me a 1.
tybee
@NotMax:
particularly late last century.
PaulW
I think everybody’s gone off celebrating our nation’s shoot-out victory in hockey over the
USSRuh Putin’s Hockey Team.Steeplejack
@Villago Delenda Est:
Some languages’ arrays are 0-based (C), some are 1-based (Pascal).
Jeez, I miss Turbo Pascal. And I haven’t thought of that in years. If only it had had the ability to create (large) EXE files.
I guess the mention of COBOL above jogged my memory on that. Back in the early ’80s the guy in the office next to mine—yes, we had actual offices, not just cubes!—had an ongoing hobby project developing a COBOL program to analyze and beat the lines on NFL games. He ran it under MP/M on an Altos computer. Good times.
? Martin
@WaterGirl:
Yeah, I’d say 75% of the school was there. The marching band was all out there (about 250 kids). The 50 or so cheerleaders were there. The sports teams were there. That was the new principal on the golf cart. Kids could decide where to represent – some of the marching band kids were in other parts of the video representing clubs, yearbook, etc. There’s a strong academic drive there and it’s not too terribly cliquish (certainly less than my high school). It’s a pretty tight community for being a decent sized city (250K people).
We didn’t see any repeats until they come out of the classroom near the end where everyone congregates.
Steeplejack
@Villago Delenda Est:
And I once got an actual “Marvel No-Prize” from Stan Lee in the late ’60s. But that was through the mail.
(What I received was an empty envelope emblazoned with the message “Your official Marvel No-Prize is inside!”)
[. . .] Damn, everything is on the Interwebs.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack:
I was a PMM. I actually won two no-prizes.
Steeplejack
@Villago Delenda Est:
What’s a PMM?
Steeplejack
@Villago Delenda Est:
PMM = “Properly Maxed and Mastered” in Marvel: War of Heroes? After my time.
ruemara
Close, but no cigar. Here in Korea Town, chugging decaf and writing a synopsis in my head. Turns out my host is a craft services contractor and actress. She’s all, “why not just move to L.A.”. Duh, that’s what my car is for. Heading to the museum or something. Or I can stay seated for a bit an get some writing done. The tourist fashions are… fabulous.
Ruckus
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
My Bill Clinton # is 1
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
It’s pretty close — Olvera Street is across from Union Station and down a couple of blocks, and it’s an easy walk to Little Tokyo from there. Maybe a mile or so?
hildebrand
@Yatsuno: The whole bit of folklore surrounding onions and garlic is fascinating – and essentially is spread across every Asian, Middle Eastern, North African, and European group, religious and non.
What continues to perplex me is the striking absence of any reference to a specific source for the Satan leaving the Garden of Eden legend. So many people reference it, but I think it is all circular referencing. I am now committed to finding the source. Weird what we get obsessive about.
? Martin
BTW, Bacon number is based on sharing credit in a film/tv show. Not just meeting people. Erdös is based on published papers. I’d assume Hopper number is also based on paper publication. My wife is a 2 because she was credited in a tv show along with an actor (a 1) that was credited in a film with Kevin Bacon. Kevin Bacon is 0. I’m an Erdös 3 because I co-authored with my advisor (a 2) who previously coauthored with another colleague (a 1) who co-authored with Erdös (0).
I’m not sure how you’d do numbers for presidents. Zillions of people would be 1s in that scenario. I have a 2 rating for every president since Eisenhower by virtue of having lunch with Helen Thomas while in college. I think the standard has to be higher than ‘meeting with’.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Ahem — “K-Town.”
Also, don’t forget to roll your eyes when you say your friends want to meet in the Valley tonight. In Burbank, of all the uncool places.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: I am the utmost in uncool. No one is surprised.
WaterGirl
So I am now able to watch True Detective. Is this a watch as many episodes as I can kind of show, so I can catch up? Or is it more of a watch one and let it rattle around in your head awhile before you watch another one kind of show?
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack:
Permanent Marvelite Maxiumus.
The ranks of Marveldom
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@the Conster:
I don’t know. If you watch the speach, she was pretty clearly scared to death. She did it as part of a speech at the HRC and specifically talked about societal gender expectations and such.
It’s a damn moving speech.