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Remember that day in school when all the girls were marched into one room, and the boys into another to watch special "so I guess you're growing up now" films? Happened a couple times to me. While the girls were off watching a film on menstruation (which most of them had conquered by then), we boys were subjected to a hopelessly outdated film with way too many naked men having a way too frank discussion in a gym shower room (no, it wasn't THAT kind of movie). Later I remember all of us seeing a filmstrip in health class that discussed venereal disease. As the accompanying cassette bleeped off the first few frames, my eyes locked on the large "Walt Disney" logo. I couldn't help but point to the screen and say, "I'll bet that Mickey gave a dose to Minnie... that dirty rat..."
Retro Thing
Boing Boing
By Cory Doctorow at 5:47 pm Tuesday, Apr 3 • 12 Comments • Share On IO9, Ron Miller has published a selection from his collection of photos of 1970s cosplayers, dating from a costuming epoch where nudity was a lot more common than it is today. Among the clothed pictures (not reproduced here) is one shot of Elfquest co-creator Wendy Pini as one of her own elves. One thing I noticed in going through the slides — mostly taken at Worldcon masquerades and a few other cons — is the great sense of whimsy that permeated SF costuming decades ago.
When I was growing up, canning was for old folks and cranks and separatists --oh, and for my parents, who spent every summer of my Virginia childhood scrambling to convert overflowing bushel baskets of fruits and vegetables from their garden into a pantry lined with shelf upon shelf of colorful canning jars, not to mention a stuffed-to-the-rim chest freezer or two. Not for me. I had better, far more important things to do.
Cool Tools
Dinosaurs and Robots
As an aficionado of hand lettering, I am extremely interested in Faythe's new sign painter documentary. Having known a number of sign painters, they are categorically an interesting bunch and should make for an interesting documentary. John Downer with his sandwich board Halloween costume, which, is pretty cool and all, but look at that $15 a hour sign behind him. My goodness. Whew. That is serious work.Scripting News: Home Page
I read an article on Slate this morning about psychologist Jonathan Haidt who looks at how politics and psychology connect. He has observed that the Repubs are good at selling their ideas in an emotional way, and the Dems tend to explain how things work. The Republican way is more effective. People respond much more strongly to emotional pitches than factual ones. One of the reasons I voted Democratic in 2008 is that I wanted to see health care reform get implemented.