A frequent contributor to Fortean Times, the Mary Evans Picture Library is pretty darn cool.
A really nice free wordsearch maker tool. Useful for making your own activity placemats.
People who have figured out that the Japanese have advanced cute technology that can be harnessed in cute crafts.
A Cook's Thesaurus, and like a regular thesaurus, some substitutions are better than others...
To clarify, those Edisonblog! posts are drawn word-for-word from his diary (available as scanned pages here). He's an odd guy, that Edison.
Page upon page of archived photos of circus folk.
Toward the end of an article about how computers are getting too good at text recognition is an odd bit: "H-P no longer owns the patent, said Brigida Bergkamp, a spokeswoman for the technology giant. She declined to disclose what had happened to the patent." The patent was acquired by an undisclosed buyer? Isn't the point of a patent to get people to license it? Isn't that made harder if they can't find out who you are? Isn't who holds a patent public information?
Menlo Park N.J.
Sunday july 12 1885
(it's the rest of the day, and a long one, so continue in the extended entry...)
Nature is bound to smile somehow, Holzer has a little dog which just came on the veranda. The face of this dog was a dismal as a bust of Dante but the dog
wagged its tail continuously- This is evidently the way a dog laughs-- I wonder if dogs ever go up to flowers and smell them- I think not- flowers were never intended for dogs, and perhaps only incidentally for man, evidently Darwin has it right They make themselves pretty to attract the insect world who are
the transportation agents of their pollen. pollen freight via Bee line
There is a bumblebee nest somewhere near this veranda, several times one came near me-- some little information (aquired experimenally) I obtained when a small boy causes me to lose all delight in watching the navigation of this armed flower burglar.
Had dinner at 3 P.M. ruins of a chicken, rice pudding - I eat too quick -
at 4 oclock Dot came around with her horse "Colonel" and took me out riding-- beautiful roads-- saw 10 acre lot full cultivated red raspberries. "A burying ground" so to speak.--got this exscrable pun off Dot
Dot says she is going to write a novel already started on -- she has the judgement of a girl of 16 though only 12
We passed through the town of Metuchen, this Town was named after an Indian chief, they called him Metuchen the chief of the rolling lands, the country being undulating. Dot laughed heartily when I told her about a church being a heavenly fire-escape.
Returned from drive at 5 PM commenced read short sketches of life: Macauley, Sidney Smith, Dickens + Charlotte Bronte. Macauley cohen only 4 years ago omnivorous reader, used book language in his childish conversation, when 5 years old, lady spilled some hot coffee on his leg. after a while she asked him if he was better-- he replied-- "Madam the agony has abated" Macauleys mother must have built his mind several years before his body. Sidney Smiths flashes of wit are perfect to call them chestnuts would be literary blasphemy. They are wandering jewlets to wander forever in the printers' world- Dont like Dickens- dont know why- I'l stock my literary cellar with his works later. Charlotte Bronte was like DeQuincy. what a nice married couple they would have been. I must read Jane Eyre.
---played a little on the piano- its badly out of tune- two keys have lost their voice. Dot just read to me outlines of her proposed novel, the basis seems to be a marriage under duress- I told her that in case of a marriage to put in bucketfulls of misery. This would make it realistic, speaking of realism in painting etc Steele Mackaye at a dinner given to H H Porter, Wm Winter and myself told us of a difinition of modern realism given by some frenchman
whose name I have forgotten, "Realism, a dirty long haired painter sitting on the head of a bust of Shakespeare painting a pair of old boots covered with dung" The bell rings for supper.
Sardines the principal attraction- on seeing them was attacked by a stroke of vivid memory of some sardines I eat last winter that caused a rebellion in the labyrinth of my stomach-- could scarcely swallow them today They nearly did the "return ball" act.
After supper Dot pitched a ball to me several dozen times. first I even tried to catch. It was a hard as Nero's heart - nearly broke my baby-finger -- gave it up -- learned Dot and Maggie how to play "Duck on the rock" They both thought it great fun, and thus is sunday-- My concience seems to be oblivious of sunday - it must be incrusted with a sort of irreligious tartar. If I was not so deaf I might go to church and get it taken off or at least loosened- eccavi I
will read the new version of the bible
Holzer is going to use the old laboratory for the purpose of hatching chickens artificially by an electric incubator. He is very enthusiastic - gave me full details - he is a very patient and careful experimenter-- think he will succeed - everything succeeded in that old laboratory- Just think electricity employed to cheat a poor hen out of the pleasures of maternity - Machine born chickens - What is home without a mother I suggested to H that he vaccinate his hens with chicken pox virus, then the eggs would have their embryo heriditarily innoculated + none of the chickens would have the disease. for economys
sake he could start with one hen and rooster. He being a scientific man with no farm experience I explained the necessity of having a rooster, he saw the force of this suggestion at once,
The sun has left us on time, am going to read from the encyclopedia Britannica to steady my nerves and go to bed early. I will shut my eyes and imagine a terraced abyss, each terrace occupied by a beautiful maiden to the first I will deliver my mind and they will pass it down to the utmost depths of silence and oblivion. Went to bed worked my imagination for a supply of maidens, only saw Mina Daisy + Mamma
scheme busted - sleep.
Woodside Villa
Boston Harbor.
Ardneh's Sword, Saberhagen. If you've read Empire of the East and the Books of Swords. This was just about exactly what you'd expect it to be. Saberhagen, bless him, does not misuse "whomever". I was left wanting something more substantial; I'm re-reading at least the first three Books of Swords now, to see whether there was more to Ardneh's Sword than I saw.
Update: here's what I found.
Menlo Park N.J.
Sunday july 12 1885
After breakfast start reading Hawthorne's English note Book don't think much of it.-- perhaps Im a literary barbarian and am not yet educated up to the point of appreciating fine writing-- 90 per cent of his book is descriptive of old churches and graveyards and coronors -- He and Geo Selwyn ought to have been appointed perpetual coroners of London. Two fine things in the book were these.
Hawthorne shewing to little Rose Hawthorne a big live lobster told her it was a very ugly thing and would bite everybody, wherupon she asked "if the first one God made, bit him"-- again "Ghostland is beyond the jurisdiction of veracity" --
I think freckles on the skin are due to some salt of Iron, sunlight brings them out by reducing them from high to low state of oxidation- perhaps with a powerful magnet applied for some time, and then with proper chemicals, these
mud holes of beauty might be removed.
Dot is very is very busy cleaning the abode of our deaf and dumb parrot- she has fed it tons of edibles, and never got a sound out of it. This bird has the taciturnity of a statue, and the dirt producing capacity of a drove of buffalo.
This is by far the nicest day of this season, neither too hot or too cold.-- it blooms on the apex of perfection -- an Edenday Good day for an angels pic nic, They could lunch on the smell of flowers and new mown hay, drink the moisture of the air, and dance to the hum of bees, Fancy the soul of Plato astride of a butterfly, riding around Menlo Park with a lunch basket
In the second story I've heard in the last several months of bears appearing in Vancouver's residential areas, Goldilocks has the tables turned.
Play coroner in your own home with The Virtual Autopsy. Thanks a regular reader and mystery fan for the tip.
Menlo Park N.J.
Sunday july 12 1885
Awakened at 8 15 AM. Powerful itching of my head, lots of white dry dandruff- what is this d--mnable material, Pertaps its the dust from the dry literary matter I've crowded into my noddle lately Its nomadic. gets all over my coat, must read about it in the Encyclopedia. Smoking too much makes me nervous-- must lasso my natural tendency to aquire such habits-- holding heavy cigar contantly in my mouth has deformed my upper lip, it has a sort of Havana curl. Arose at 9 oclock came down stairs expecting twas too late for breakfast-- twas'nt. couldn't eat much, nerves of stomach too nicotinny. The roots of tobacco plants must go clear through to hell. Satan's principal agent Dyspepsia must have charge of this branch of the vegitable kingdom. -- It has just occured to me that the brain may digest certain portions of food, say the etherial part, as well as the stomach -- perhaps dandruff is the excreta of the mind-- the quantity of this material being directly proportional to the amount of reading one indulges in. A book on German metaphysics would thus easily ruin a dress suit.
I bet you didn't know that Thomas Edison was a blogger! Here's his first entry:
Menlo Park N.J.
Sunday july 12 1885
Awakened at 5:15 AM. My eyes were embarassed by the sunbeams -turned my back to them and tried to take another dip into oblivion -succeeded -- awakened at 7 A.M. thought of Mina, Daisy, and Mamma G__ put all 3 in my mental kalidescope to obtain a new combination a la Galton. took Mina as a basis, tried to improve her beauty by discarding and adding certain features borrowed from Daisy and Mamma G. a sort of Raphaelized beauty, got into it too deep, mind flew away and I went to sleep again.
Now online, the Occupational Outlook Handbook is one of the Collective's favorite reference works.
Lots of comic books this month...
Scott Pilgrim. Vol. 1, Scott Pilgrim's precious little life, O'Malley
Scott Pilgrim vs. the world. Vol. 2, O'Malley
I read these after reading a glowing review of the upcoming vol. 3. They are fun and read quite quickly-- enough so that I wish there was more in each book as I tend to finish them in less than an hour. Three stars.
Fired! : tales of the canned, canceled, downsized and dismissed, Gurwitch.
Entertaining and compelling stories of being fired from an assortment of very talented writers (mostly in entertainment, as is Gurwitch). If you feel terribly misunderstood at work, this is a good pick. Three stars.
Brokeback Mountain, Proulx
I am one of the few people who hasn't yet seen the movie, but now I have read the book (story, really). I pretty much knew how it would end, though. Two stars.
Astronauts of the future, Trondheim and Larcenet
Two kids suspect that not all is as it seems: one thinks everyone else is alien, the other thinks robots. Very fun graphic novel. Four stars.
Mister O, Trondheim
The wordless slapstick adventures of a little O-shaped guy. Laugh out loud funny. Four stars.
Anansi boys, Gaiman
Again Gaiman hits it out of the park. Much more like Good Omens than like American Gods-- fun and mythic more than epic. Four stars.
Born to rock, Korman (Y)
Light and fluffy more than well written. Two stars.
A.L.I.E.E.E.N, Trondheim
Premise: alien comic book with no translation. Outcome: well formatted, interesting, but a bit disturbing-- much death and feces. One star.
Yotsuba&! 2, Azuma
Sequel to Yotsuba&!, and just as charming. Three stars.
Mismatch, Namioka (Y)
A Japanese-American boy and Chinese-American girl fall in love but are afraid of the reactions of their family members who hold some combination of grudge and racist hatred against the other heritage. Then the youths go on an orchestra field trip to Tokyo and learn stuff. It's a one note (and that one note is repeated endlessly) message book (not all Asians are alike, some even hate eachother!) and the writing (setting, character development, etc) is about one inch deep and plays like a remedial reading textbook. I expected a lot more from Namioka. No stars.
Is it cheating to list books I didn't finish? Freshman by Gerber: got partway through when it lost track of what genre it was and I lost hope that it would continue to have a plot. Freaks, Alive on the Inside by Klause: it takes pretty uninspired writing to make me not finish a book with circus freaks. Wisconsin Death Trip by Lesey: not really all that freakish if you regularly read Fortean Times and proofread old periodicals for Distributed Proofreaders. He done her wrong: the great American novel by Gross: wordless but not timeless comic novel from the 1930s. Billy Hazelnuts by Millionaire: honestly a bit too creepy for me. Apocalypse Chow by Robertson: I was hoping for how to cook a casserole on a candle, but it's food snobbery during blackouts. Feh.