Mt. Molelog

Squeamish News

Many many TV stations’ websites are running essentially the same story about Snyder OK police chief Tod Ozmun and his wife Doris

An Oklahoma police chief’s job is in jeopardy and his town is in an uproar because of his wife’s profession.

Snyder Police Chief Tod Ozmun and his wife, Doris, live in Snyder, just west of Lawton. However, the chief’s wife is known worldwide for her work as a plus-sized model on a pornographic Web site.
…
Moore said he’s trying to decide what’s best for Snyder — to keep a chief who many believe doesn’t share their morals or to fire a man who’s keeping residents safe.

Some newspapers are running similar stories as well.

As far as I can tell, not a single one has told us what the website is, so we can, um, judge for ourselves. How are we supposed to have informed opinions if we aren’t given the facts required to make them?

The other interesting thing to note here is that this isn’t the first time Doris has caused problems for Tod(d); back in 2003, she lost him his job :

A former Jefferson County deputy remains enmeshed in an ongoing Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics investigation.

But this time he is on the opposite side of the law.

Todd Ozmun resigned his post with the sheriff’s department last month after his alleged girlfriend Doris Stretch was arrested by OBN agents and charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. Ozmun was not arrested nor charged at the time Stretch was taken into custody.

“At this time there has been no case (against Ozmun) presented to me,” Assistant District Attorney Dennis Gay said.

But according to OBN spokesman Mark Woodward, Ozmun remains spotlighted in narcotics agents’ probe into illicit drug labs in Jefferson County.

“He is involved in an open investigation,” Woodward said. “The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is cooperating with that investigation.”

Stretch’s case is set for preliminary hearing Wednesday.

(okay, it’s possible those are different people. I know which way I’m betting, though.)

Presumably he wasn’t convicted of anything there, but I can’t find any followup stories. The Daily Oklahoman’s story about the smut does contain, in the 13th paragraph, the sentence “Doris Ozmun was paroled in March 2005 after spending two years in the state prison system on drug-related charges.”

So, some followup questions for the press and outraged public:
1. what’s the URL of Doris Ozmun’s website?
2. Were Tod and Doris married before or after he was hired as police chief?
3. Does it make sense to be more upset at a police chief with a wife who legally takes her clothes off for a camera, or a police chief with a wife who’s been convicted on charges related to running a meth lab?

2006-09-06 12:32:54 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::TV::TVNews

Reviews of Some Recent Media Purchases' Packaging

Joan Baez’s The First Ten Years

Standard CD jewel box: perfectly acceptable, not terribly exciting. This is the basic form factor against which other optical disc packaging should be compared. If you aren’t using a standard jewel box, you ought to be able to explain how what you are using is better, preferably better to the consumer.

Disney’s The Incredibles 2-Disc Collector’s Edition

2-Disc version of the semi-standard DVD tall box packaging. There are lots of variations on this standard; this instance is one of the better ones (the “push here to release disc” button actually works, for one). Clunky to open and it feels cheap; the hinged unit which contains the front disc feels flimsy and the plastic clips holding the “DVD Guide” into the front are flimsy: one’s already broken off.

Sports Night: The Complete Series

3 2-disc cases in a small cardboard box. The individual cases appear identical to the Incredibles case. Not surprisingly, this is a Buena Vista Home Entertainment release.

Acceptable, but not as nice as either the US “Buffy”-style foldout case or the UK “Angel”-style booklet-with-envelope style.

Penn & Teller: Bullshit Volume 1

3 single-disc slim cases in a small coardboard box. Much like the Sports Night box set: acceptable, but what would be wrong with a 3-disc jewel box?

Depeche Mode’s Remixes 81-04 Box Set

3 single-disc cardboard envelopes in a cardboard box. Completely unacceptable: just carrying it around, envelopes slide out of the box and discs slide out of the envelopes. The kind of packaging you’d expect for a freebie, not a “limited edition”.

Woody Guthrie’s The Asch Recordings Box Set

Four standard 1-disc jewelboxes inside a thick cardboard box. So close to good, and yet so far. The choice of standard jewelboxes was just fine, and of course you have to put them in a box or it’s not a box set. But why choose such thick cardboard that it’s just barely too tall to fit into my CD case?

Joan Baez’s The Complete A&M Recordings

Single unit: cardboard exterior, four plastic CD holders, hinged together like a book. Each CD holder has the look & feel of a standard CD jewelbox. The front cover doubles as an envelope to hold the liner notes booklet. The whole thing is wrapped in a thin plastic sleeve to hold it closed.

Very nice! Attractive, good use of space, fits the shelving, and pleasant to use.

Steve Diet Gooede’s Living through Steve Diet Gooede DVD Anthology

Imagine a jewel box stretched to the standard DVD size, given slightly rounded corners, and a clasp that holds it closed but is unlatched by your thumb when you hold it in the natural opening position. That’s what’s used here; I suspect it’s the jewelboxing Super Jewel Box DVD edition case. Altoghether pleasant, and it feels much more professional than the DVD cases used by, well, the professional DVD makers. Why don’t Disney and the likes use these? I’m guessing price, but it’s a shame.

2005-06-23 16:20:33 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel

Press Can't or Don't Do Math

CNN is carrying this AP story about Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller, apparently a horrendous and prolific child molester.

The numbers provided, and apparently believed by both the police and the AP, just aren’t plausible though. The fellow is 63 years old; if we assume he started molesting when he was 13 (ignoring for the moment the question of whether 13 year olds even can meaningfully be said to ‘molest’ rather than just ‘experiment’), that gives him 50 years. His notebooks supposedly contain “more than 36,000 children’s names — mostly boys — and codes that appear to indicate how he abused them”. A later note indicates that the names aren’t unique, but if the 36,000 number means anything at all it’s presumably at least 36,000 separate acts.

36000/50 = 720. That’s 720 separate acts of molestation every year since the age of 13; if he started later, it’s even more. That’s nearly 2 acts a day every day, for 50 straight years. He was “arrested on child molestation charges in New York, Arkansas and Washington. He also served prison time in Idaho for child molestation in the late 1970s”; presumably while in jail and prison, he wasn’t molesting children, so those are days he’d have had to double up on. Did he ever get sick and have to take a break? More days to double up on. Surely there were some days he just couldn’t find a kid.

Think of every meal you’ve had for the past 50 years (30 years, if you’re an every-day breakfast eater). Now imagine, instead of eating, you were having sex. Is that believable? Now, instead of just having sex, imagine having sex with a new & different partner. That’s what the lead of this story wants us to believe this fellow did.

2005-06-17 20:22:01 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Newspapers

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You

Kottke points to an interesting Grauniad article on movie trailers. The whole article’s worth reading, but a few of the more interesting tidbits are:

• Y’know that generic trailer voiceover voice? It’s not generic at all; it’s Don Lafontaine’s: he’s done about 4000 trailers over the past 40ish years.
• Under “US industry regulations”, trailers must be 2 1/2 minutes or less. Who sets these regulations, I wonder? The MPAA? If so, do they apply to movies released by non-MPAA members, or to trailers shown before such movies?
• The people creating the trailer for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events wanted to remind people of Edward Scissorhands — so they licensed the music.
• The score from a 1991 movie called Come See the Paradise has been used in trailers for at least 24 other films.

2005-06-10 21:25:33 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Movies

This      is bananas

First rule: blanking out the 38 separate instances of the word “shit” in a song does not in fact make the video ‘clean’. If the song wasn’t children with the “shit”s, the video isn’t suitable for a children’s TV network without them. (Note: I’m not saying it’s not suitable; I’m just saying that leaving out “shit”s that everyone knows are there doesn’t change its status.)

Second rule: requiring particular versions of particular browsers to view content is just wrong. It’s bad enough on Windows where Yahoo!’s video service won’t work with Firefox but will work with Netscape 7.1. On the Mac, it’s worse, much worse. There are a variety of good browsers for current Macs, and even Microsoft’s entry is acceptable, including some UI features still missing from other browsers and providing better standards compliance than IE for Windows.

So, what browsers does Yahoo! support on the Mac? Netscape 4.7 only, which isn’t native to Mac OS X, first released four years ago. And even when it was new, Netscape 4.7 wasn’t an acceptable browser.

I haven’t even bothered trying on Linux.

2005-06-08 21:28:58 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music

Book Tag

I’m told I was “tagged”, so I’ll give this a shot. Too bad it wasn’t the music one; that one, I have better data for.

What is the total number of books I’ve owned?

Unknown and unknowable.

When I moved cross-country in 1996 and paid for shipping by the pound, I apparently literally had “a ton of books”, or so I was told by the moving company.

When my complete-ish book database was last updated on September 10 2000, I had 1561 books. That appears to include Amazon shipments up through June 22 2000. Since then, I’ve made several purchases from Amazon:

So, there’s a lower bound of 2088 on the number of books I have right now. That doesn’t count books I’ve bought places other than Amazon, the ones that were given to me as gifts, or the ones I inherited from my grandmother; there are at least a couple hundred of the latter, I think.

I can’t even begin to estimate the number I had as a child that were given away, or the ones I sold as a teenager and college student.

¹ June 23rd and on, only.

² including Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament: guess the title wasn’t updated yet when it shipped.

What is the last book I bought?

The most recently shipped was The Year’s Best SF 10 edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. I prefer the Dozois annual, but I read both, and the Dozois 2004 volume hasn’t shipped yet.

The most recently ordered was The Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

What is the last book I’ve read?

I read Gregory McDonald’s Skylar this weekend; that was a quick comfortable re-read. Skylar is an interesting attempt to merge the commercially successful funny mystery McDonald can sell but seems to be tired of (_Fletch_ et al) with a sympathetic view of modern southern country life; the southern country life is more fleshed out in the excellent, but apparently commercially unsuccessful, Time Squared Quartet (of which only 3 have been published, alas).

What are the 5 books that have meant a lot to me?

This will have to wait for another day.

2005-05-31 03:01:43 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Mr. Gordo Fanfic

The Adventures of Mr. Gordo is the “Official Writer’s Guild Zone for writing Mr. Gordo”.

One of the best parts is the guide to Mr. Gordo’s friends:

Mr. Gordo and Tara - Tara lived at Revello Drive with Willow following season five. If any of the characters on the show seems like someone who would be a stuffed animal type person, Tara is it. Both Mr. Gordo and Tara are very quiet and good listeners, too. Most likely, though Mr. Gordo would have been missing his Girl a lot after season five, he probably liked this Quiet One. Also, Tara could read auras. Could she have noticed some pretty colors clinging to a certain pink plush piggy?

This site specifically disclaims it, but you’ve gotta know there’s Mr. Gordo slashfic on the way.

(via Theresa Nielsen Hayden’s linkblog)

2005-05-26 21:45:58 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::TV::Buffy

Lindbergh

"Lindbergh" by Woody Guthrie as recorded on Volume 1 of the Asch Recordings:

Mr. Charlie Lindbergh he flew to old Berlin
got him a big Iron Cross and he flew right back again
to Washington, Washington

Mrs. Charlie Lindbergh, she come dressed in red
said "I'd like to sleep in that pretty White House Bed
in Washington, Washington."

Lindy said to Annie, "We'll get there bye and bye
but we'll have to split the bed up with Wheeler, Clark and Nye
in Washington, Washington."

Hitler wrote to Lindy, said "do your very worst"
Lindy started an outfit that he called America First
in Washington, Washington

All around the country, Lindbergh he did fly
gasoline was paid for by Hoover, Clark and Nye
in Washington, Washington.

Lindy said to Hoover, "we'll do the same as France,
make a deal with Hitler and then we'll get our chance
in Washington, Washington."

Then they had a meetin' and all the firsters come
come on a walk and they come on a run
in Washington, Washington

Yonder comes Father Coughlin wearing a silver chain
cash on his stomach and Hitler on the brain
in Washington, Washington

Mr. John L. Lewis was sittin astraddle a fence
but his daughter sided with Lindbergh and we ain't seen her since
in Washington, Washington

Hitler said to Lindy, "Stall 'em all you can
gonna bomb Pearl Harbor with the help of ol' Japan"
in Washington, Washington

Then on a December morning the bombs come from Japan
Wake Island and Pearl Harbor, killed fifteen hundred men
in Washington, Washington

Now Lindy tried to join the army, but they wouldn't let him in
afraid he'd sell to Hitler a few more million men
in Washington, Washington

Now I'm gonna tell you people if Hitler's gonna be beat
common working people have got to take a seat
in Washington, Washington

And I'm gonna tell you workers fore you cash in your cheques
they say "America First" but they mean "America Next"
in Washington, Washington

Open questions:

• Is the "Hoover" mentioned Herbert, J. Edgar, or someone else?
• Who was John Lewis's daughter?

Update: John L. Lewis's dauther was named Kathryn, and she was on the national committee of America First. Thanks to Doxy for coming up with the name .

2004-09-24 23:16:00 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music

Trying to make sense of liner notes

Concrete Blonde's song "Caroline" is by Johnette Napolitano; the liner notes for Recollection, Bloodletting and Classic Masters agree on that. Except when it's by Johnette Napolitano and James Mankey, that is, like on Live in Brazil.

"Cold Part of Town" and "Dance Along the Edge" are by Johnnette ( Recollection ) or Johnette and/or James (Concrete Blonde). "Days and Days" is also by Johnnete ( Bloodletting ) or Johnette and James ( Live in Brazil ).

"God is a Bullet" is by Concrete Blonde (that is, Johnette, James, Harry Rushakoff and Alan Bloch) (Free), a slightly different Concrete Blonde (just Johnette, James and Harry) (Still in Hollywood) or Johnette and James ( Recollection, Live in Brazil), or maybe James and Johnette ( Classic Masters ).

Similarly for "Happy Birthday", "It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out", "Joey", "Little Conversations", "Mexican Moon", "Scene of a Perfect Crime", "Someday", "Still in Hollywood", "Take Me Home", and "Valentine".

And then it gets really weird. "True" is either by Johnette and James ( Recollection, Concrete Blonde) or someone named "Kemp" ( Classic Masters ). I don't even know who that's supposed to be.

2004-07-31 18:27:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music

John Varley Reader

As much as I care for some of John Varley's novels (Titan , Wizard and Demon for example, and hopefully-soon-to-be-completed metal trilogy (Steel Beach , The Golden Globe and Irontown Blues)), his short stories are even better.

Sadly, they've been out of print longer and more consistently even than the novels. I have copies of all the collections, but several times I've wanted to give them as gifts and not been able.

There's some relief in sight; evidently a new collection, The John Varley Reader is being published in a few months. I'm not finding a table of contents yet, but it sounds like a best-of collection, not a complete gathering. Alas.

2004-06-19 16:00:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Blind Racism

CNN reports:

Officials said Sheldon, who is white, used a derogatory word for blacks during a November 5 meeting with students. The incident became public when three parents complained at a School Reform Commission meeting last month.

"She contended all along that she used it after children were using it, to say, simply, that this is not an appropriate word, this is a horrible word," district spokeswoman Cecilia Cummings said Tuesday.

Nothing terribly interesting, unless you happen to be personally involved. Until you get to the end:

The school serves visually impaired children in kindergarten through eighth grade.

2004-01-14 18:03:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::TV::TVNews

Anita Blake design issues

Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books were reprinted in October 2002 (and/or June 2002?), presumably to coincide with the first paperback publication of Narcisuss in Chains.

As you might expect, these more-or-less-simultaneously published books from a single series share a common design. Well, kind-of.

Most of them share a single spine look: black, with the title and author's name in a colored box; except that the boxes aren't all quite the same size (they're close, except for Blue Moon's). And some of them (_The Laughing Corpse_, The Lunatic Cafe and Circus of the Damned) put minor words like 'the' and 'of' in small caps, while another (_The Killing Dance_) does not. And Obsidian Butterfly and Narcissus in Chains each have a totally different binding look (and no, they don't match each other, either).

They share a common internal design, too. Well, two of them. Three, if you count Narcisuss in Chains. Four, if you care whether there are page breaks between chapters or not.

It's also rather odd that Circus of the Damned claims to have been published in June 2002, even though it has an ISBN in sequence with the other reprinted books, which all claim to have been published in October 2002.

Obsidian Butterfly also spells "Dolph" as "Dolf" in a couple places (but not every place).

Summaries, in book # order and ISBN (presumed actual publication) order:

Why do things like this happen? Were there three, four, or more separate people working on these without really talking to each other?

2003-12-29 13:02:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Stephin Merritt Notes, #1

Names under which Stephin Merritt records, not guaranteed to be complete:

• Stephin Merritt
• The Magnetic fields
• The 6ths
• The Gothic Archies
• Future Bible Heroes

Stephin Merritt seems to be a friend of Daniel Handler's; at least, he has a blurb on the back cover of The Basic Eight , and he has recorded theme songs for the Lemony Snicket books.

Future Bible Heroes' other member is Chris Ewan, former keyboardist for Figures on a Beach, a group about whom I may be the only person who cares.

That is all.

2003-11-21 17:38:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music::MagneticFields

Hacking TiVo: Good

There are at least three TiVo secrets books. There's O'Reilly's Tivo Hacks by Raffi Krikorian (and copy edited by yours truly), which is of course excellent for what it is: a member of ORA's semi-technical hacks series.

There's Hacking the TiVo by a William Von Hagen, about which and whom I know no more.

And finally, there's Wiley/ExtremeTech's Hacking TiVo by Jeff Keegan.

At first glance, Hacking TiVo looks pretty interesting, going somewhat further in depth than Tivo Hacks. There's one huge nit-picky annoyance, though.

Section I.1.i is titled "There's Always Something Good On". That's fine, and it's true, and it's the most important part of the PVR pitch, so it's fully appropriate to be the first section of the "The Pitch" section of the "What Is TiVo" chapter.

The thing is, those italics...It looks like Wiley's layout system doesn't really allow italics in third-level headings, or something. And they got them by replacing the 'G', 'o' and 'd' characters in the face used for third-level headings with italic versions. Yes, that's right, every other third level heading in the book that contains those letters has them italiced, from I.1.ii's "Random Access -- No Rewinding or Cramming" to XVI.2.i's "The PROM Menu (Diagnostic Mode)".

2003-10-30 20:38:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

The Sky's Gone Black

Alas

They laid their hands upon my head,
they stroked my cheek and brow;
and time could heal a hurt, they said,
and time could dim a vow.

And they were pitiful and mild
who whispered to me then,
"The heart that breaks in April, child,
will mend in May again."

Oh, many a mended heart they knew.
So old they were, and wise.
And little did they have to do
to come to me with lies!

Who flimgs me silly talk of May
shall meet a bitter soul;
for June was nearly spent away
before my heart was whole.

-- Dorothy Parker, The False Friends

2003-10-13 16:05:00 | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::TV::Buffy

No Vernor Vinge Spain history after all

David Chess (that lucky dog) had lunch with Vernor Vinge the other day and asked him about the supposed history of Spain he was writing. Mr. Vinge denied it, but did say to expect a new SF novel in earliest 2005.

Patience. It's a virtue, from what I understand.

2003-09-21 02:04:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Quicksilver Limited Edition Followup

Thanks to very nice mail from Peter Schneider at Hill House Publishers, I know quite a bit more about Quicksilver LTD than I did.

It is a limited edition of Quicksilver, limited to 1000 copies in a larger hardbound format, numbered and signed by Mr. Stephenson. The book is bound in Japanese silk and "housed in a handsome slipcase featuring a die-cut aperture
for the Quicksilver icon and covered in the same Japanese silk". Matching editions of Volumes 2 and 3 will be forthcoming at 6 month intervals, but as this one won't be available until 13 April 2004, they'll be following the mass-market editions by several months.

And, as I mentioned before, it's $200. I've spent that much on books before, but I can count the number of times on one hand (without using binary, even). That said, I may well be very tempted -- one copy for me, several others to loan out.

2003-09-16 06:52:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Quicksilver LTD

Amazon is now listing another new Stephenson book, kind-of: Quicksilver LTD: Volume One of The Baroque Cycle is presumably a limited edition of Quicksilver; the Amazon page gives no indication what's special about it except the price: $200.

2003-09-06 21:39:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

All My Little Words

You said you were in love with me; both of us know that's impossible

The Magnetic Fields' "All My Words" as on 69 Love Songs (Volume 1)

You are a splendid butterfly
it is your wings that make you beautiful
And I could make you fly away
But I could never make you stay

You said you were in love with me
Both of us know that's impossible
And I could make you rue the day
But i could never make you stay

Not for all the tea in China
Not if I could if i could sing like a bird
Not for all North Carolina
Not for all my little words
not if I could write for you the sweetest song you ever heard
Doesn't matter what I do
Not for all my little words

Now that you've made me want to die
You tell me you're un-boyfriend-able
And I could make you pay and pay
But i could never make you stay

Not for all the tea in China
Not if I could sing like a bird
Not for all North Carolina
Not for all my little words
not if I could write for you the sweetest song you ever heard
Doesn't matter what I do
Not for all my little words
Doesn't matter what I do
Not for all my little words

2003-09-06 16:29:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music::MagneticFields

Amazon and Tivo Hacks

Amazon Hacks and Tivo Hacks exist, as actual physical holdable presumably-buyable objects. Everyone should rush out and buy a copy of each as soon as possible. After buying, read the acknowledgements carefully, and bask in the glory that is my name.

Okay, I just did tech review / beta testing on them, but it's the first time my name's been in a book, and that's cool in general and these are cool O'Reilly books.

2003-09-04 21:57:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Tivo and TV Guide

Tivo and Gemstar/TV Guide settled their various suits a couple months ago, and now we start to see the results of that.

As a plus, Tivo's "Spring 2003 Software Update" includes a grid-style program guide for the first time, which has been noticably absent up till now, presumably in an (unsuccessful) attempt to avoid a patent lawsuit from Gemstar. It's a nice long-overdue addition.

On the minus side, it's rather slow. Hopefully it will be faster in a future update. Even worse, the ugly red "TV Guide" logo has been incorporated into both the program-info heads-up display and the program guide; so far as I know, this is the first time TMS data has been TV Guide branded; that's somewhat akin to someone selling Coca-Cola ™ brand "Pepsi". I do hope TV Guide didn't get the right to incorporate ads into future versions of the guide like they do for their cable-system program guides and GUIDE Plus+ (sic).

Worst, Tivo's System Information screen now goes along with Gemstar's claim that Interactive Program Guides are covered by a valid US Patent.

(Actually, even worse than that: it messed up changing the channel and didn't record "Monk" tonight, but hopefully that's one of it's every-few-months hiccups, not the first sign of something seriously broken.)

2003-08-16 06:51:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::TV::PVR

Girls Can Read, Too

I'd always known that there had been an obscenity case regarding Lady Chatterley's Lover , but I'd somehow thought it was much much earlier than it actually was: 1960.

And while the public face of the prosecution has apparenty long been known to be insane, viz:

"Ask yourselves the question: would you approve of your young sons, young daughters - because girls can read as well as boys - reading this book. Is it a book that you would have lying around the house? Is it a book you would wish your wife or servants to read?"

apparently the truth was much much worse: they claimed at the time they didn't need or want literary experts to testify on their side, but the truth is that they just couldn't find any willing.

The trial finally got under way on October 27 1960, and was over in just five days. The Old Bailey heard 35 witnesses for the defence, including most of the leading literary figures of the day, such as Dame Rebecca West, EM Forster, C Day Lewis and Richard Hoggart. Even Helen Gardner, of whom the prosecution had once had such hopes, gave evidence for Penguin. The prosecution called only one witness: Detective Inspector Charles Monahan, the police officer to whom Penguin had "published" the book.

Alan Travis's Bound and Gagged is a history of censorship in England, including this episode.

2003-08-12 11:35:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

It's True That We Love One Another

The White Stripes' "It's True That We Love One Another" as on Elephant (with Holly Golightly).

Jack and Holly	Well it's true that we love one another.
Holly	I love Jack White like a little brother.
Jack	Well Holly I love you too but there's just so much that I don't know about you.
Holly	Jack, give me some money to pay my bills.
Jack	All the dough I give you Holly you been using on pain pills.
Holly	Jack will you call me if you're able?
Jack	I got your phone number written in the back of my bible.
Holly	Jack, I think you're pulling my leg and I think maybe I'd better ask Meg. Meg do you think Jack really loves me?
Meg	You know, I don't care cuz Jack really bugs me. Why don't you ask him now?
Holly	Well I would but Meg, I really just don't know how.
Meg	Just say "Jack, do you adore me?"
Jack	Well I would Holly but love really bores me.
Jack and Holly	Then I guess we should just be friends.
Jack	I'm just kidding Holly. You know that I'll love you til the end.
Jack and Holly	Well it's true that we love one another.
Holly	I love Jack White like a little brother.
Jack	Well Holly I love you too but there's just so much that I don't know about you. Holly give me some of your English lovin'.
Holly	If I did that Jack I'd have one in the oven. Why don't you go off and love yourself?
Jack	If I did that Holly there won't be anything left for anybody else.
Holly	Jack it's too bad about the way that you look.
Jack	You know I gave that horse a carrot so he'd break your foot.
Meg	Will the two of you cut it out and tell 'em what it's really all about?
Jack and Holly	Well it's true that we love one anothe.
Holly	I love Jack White like a little brother.
Jack	Well Holly I love you too but there's just so much that I don't know about you.

2003-08-09 03:44:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music::TheWhiteStripes

The Confusion

Amazon is now listing The Confusion as "Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle", due in January 2004. The long-awaited Quicksilver (still due September 23rd) is of course "Volume One", and I had been assuming that Cryptonomicon would retroactively be "Volume Two", but apparently not.

We have two packages of Stephenson goodness to look forward to over the next few months!

Of course, Amazon says I ordered Quicksilver on October 15th of last year, and I was waiting for it long before that, so it's hardly like he's being speedy in general...

2003-07-31 17:53:00 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

I Must Increase My Bust

Lords of Acid's "I Must Increase My Bust" as on Lust

Do that thing!

I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust

I've got to admit, I'm obsessed by tits
I've had this problems since I was a kid
I used to look up to my Auntie Marie
Cuz she had [big|three] tits hanging down to her knees
Her nipples were poking right out of her gown
If boobs could be wings she'd be flying around
As I grew older. I made up my mind
I'd get me the biggest ones I could find

I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust

Do that thing!

I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust

My ass just got big and my boobs stayed the same
I had to do something cuz I was ashamed
I filled up my bra with melons and seeds
I looked like a faggot a vamp in 3-d
The trick with the melons, a shot in the eye
Not long did I wait to catch the first guy
Of course I forgot that melons do rot
I smelled like garbage, shit warmed up

Do that thing!

I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust

I got a new plan, the idea it's real cool
i decided to go to a gymnastics school,
there I found out that I'm not alone
suffering from this flat-chested syndrome
so when I wake up or go back into bed
I rmeember the wise words that my teacher said:
"if you want a man to drown in your lust,
you must, you must increase your bust"

I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust

Do that thing!

I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust
I must, I must, I must increase my bust

2003-07-22 06:49:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music::LordsOfAcid

A Pretty Girl Is Like...

A pretty girl is like a pretty girl

The Magnetic Fields' "Book of Love" as on 69 Love Songs (Volume 1)

A pretty girl is like a minstrel show:
It makes you laugh
It makes you cry
You go, it just isn't the same on radio
It's all about the makeup and the dancing and the "ohhh"

A pretty girl is like a violent crime:
If you do it wrong you could do time
But if you do it right it is sublime

I'm so love in love you girl it's like I'm on the moon
I can't really breathe
But I feel lighter

A melody is like a pretty girl
Who cares if it's the dumbest in the world
It's all about the way it unfurls

A pretty girl is like a pretty girl

2003-07-20 08:06:00 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music::MagneticFields

The Things We Did and Didn't Do

The Magnetic Fields' "The Things We Did and Didn't Do" as on 69 Love Songs (Volume 1)

All the things I knew I didn't know and didn't want to know
that you told me just to tell me later that you told me so
come flooding back to me now come on come on
come flooding back to me now

All the things we said you'd never say and you said anyway
the things we did and didn't do the things we did and didn't do
come flooding back to me now

2003-07-18 23:07:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music::MagneticFields

Book of Love

It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes and things we're all too young too know

The Magnetic Fields' "Book of Love" as on 69 Love Songs (Volume 1)

The book of love is long and boring
No-one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
But I, I love it when you read it to me
And you, you can read me anything

The book of love has music in it,
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I, I love it when you sing to me
And you, you can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young too know
But I, I love it when you give me things
And you, you ought to give me wedding rings

I, I love it when you give me things
And you, you ought to give me wedding rings

2003-07-15 05:30:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Music::MagneticFields

Ken Park

For some odd reason, I'm a high hit for various Ken Park-related google searches.

I wouldn't normally give explicit pointers to something like this, but seeing as how an ostensibly free country is currently censoring this movie, here goes.

First, download an eDonkey 2000 client if you don't have one; if you're using Mac OS X, there's a command line client available.

Start it up and connect to the eDonkey network (with the OS X command line client, that's the 'c' command); next, tell it to download this URL:

ed2k://|file|Ken.Park.DVDRip.XViD.EPiC.SvcdPlaza.avi|714821632|533E5EA09A8A5EC2B5F8EDE6D0F32FE9|/

(with the command line client, that's 'dllink ed2k://....').

Wait. Watch. Give the censor board the finger.

2003-07-15 05:16:00 | Comments (20) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Movies

A Very Short Song

"A Very Short Song"

Once, when I was young and true,
   Someone left me sad --
Broke my brittle heart in two;
   And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
   Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
   And that, I think, is worse.

Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope (Available in The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker )

2003-07-02 20:59:00 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books::DorothyParker

The False Friends

"The False Friends"

They laid their hands upon my head,
They stroked my cheek and brow;
And time could heal a hurt, they said,
And time could dim a vow.

And they were pitiful and mild
Who whispered to me then,
"The heart that breaks in April, child,
Will mend in May again."

Oh, many a mended heart they knew,
So old they were, and wise,
And little did they have to do
To come to me with lies!

Who flings me silly talk of May
shall meet a bitter soul;
For June was nearly spent away
Before my heart was whole.

Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope (Available in The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker )

2003-07-02 20:56:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books::DorothyParker

Flynn's World

Flynn's World was as good as I was hoping, or even better -- I'd forgotten how charming Flynn's family, in particular the daughter Jenny, were. There's even a welcome surprise from Grover.

Two tentacles up.

2003-07-02 09:04:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Unix Network Programming, 3/ed

W. Richard Stevens' Unix Network Programming (1st Edition) is a classic; along with his Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment , it deserves a huge amount of the credit for Unix being the de-facto standard Internet OS.

Unix Network Programming 2nd edition was greatly expanded with the addition of Webby protocols and information on the various open-source Unixes, so it was split into multiple volumes: "Volume 1: Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI ", and "Volume 2: Interprocess Communications ".

Alas, Stevens died before finishing "Volume 3: Network Applications", and it was never published.

Now it looks like Addison-Wesley has tapped Bill Fenner and Andrew M. Rudoff to update the material and produce a Unix Network Programming "Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API", 3/ed . It's not clear why this is being published by A-W (like Stevens' other books) rather than Prentice-Hall PTR (like UNP 1/ed and 2/ed).

2003-07-02 00:52:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Historical Illuminatus being Reprinted?

Amazon has Robert Anton Wilson's The Earth Will Shake , The Widow's Son and Nature's God listed as upcoming from New Falcon Publications over the next year. These are the first three books of his "Historical Illuminatus" series; they've been previously published at least twice (Amazon says by New American Library and St. Martin's Press; the copies I have are from Roc which may be a division of one of those).

My memory is that these books were pretty interesting, for people immersed in the Illuminatus! meme, at least; they were marred by two problems, though. First, horrible publishing: typos, mispellings, pages swapped, footnotes that appeared in the middle of pages, etc.

Second, the promised fourth volume, The World Turned Upside Down and the hypothetical 5th volume (everything comes in 5s, after all) haven't ever been published. New Falcon's page on the reprints doesn't mention them, alas.

2003-07-02 00:20:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books

Lies

Violent Femmes' "Lies" as on Add It Up

Well I'm reading this poem and it
it's so profound and
and I like its rhythm and I
I like its sound
by a very famous poet
no critic can criticise
and then I
I pause a moment and I start to realize it's telling
lies lies lies lies
lies lies lies lies
lies lies lies lies lies lies lies

On the motel TV I dig the evangelist
he'll tell you all about that
well he'll tell you all about this
he's preaching up a storm about the Sea of Galilee
he's mixing up the truth with something funny I start to see
he's telling