And Still I Persist

UPDATED: Here’s a comic to check out.

OK, this is the funniest idea I’ve run across since “Talk like a Pirate” day (which comes up just next week, by the way):

You must spend the entire day in costume and character. The only rule is that you cannot actually tell anyone that you are a time traveler. Other than that, anything’s game.

There are three possible options:…

2) Dystopian Future - This one offers a little more flexibility. It can be any kind of future from Terminator to Freejack. The important thing to remember is dress like a crazy person with armor. Black spray painted football pads, high tech visors, torn up trenchcoats and maybe even some dirt here or there. Remember, dystopian future travelers are very startled that they’ve gone back in time. Some starters:

- If you go the “prisoner who’s escaped the future” try shaving your head and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you’ve never seen it before.

- Walk up to random people and say “WHAT YEAR IS THIS?” and when they tell you, get quiet and then say “Then there’s still time!” and run off.

- Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell “NOOOOOOOOO”

- Stare at newspaper headlines and look astonished.

- Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say “In thirty years dial this number. You’ll know what to do after that.” Then slip away….

Heh. I just may do this. Unless, of course, I’m at trial or being deposed. ..bruce..

P.S. Be sure to read the comments — there are some great suggestions there.

Gerard Vanderleun — who was just across the river from Manhattan, in Brooklyn Heights, when the WTC was hit — has posted his own memories of that day:

• The Wind in the Heights
• Notes made on September 11, 2001 — Brooklyn Heights

I’ll simply link to my posts from last year, as well as Bruce Henderson’s:

• In Memoriam: Robert David Peraza
• Remembering the WTC
• We Will Never Forget (Bruce Henderson)

This was an act of war — a simultaneous attack on our financial, military and political centers that cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Pity we have lost sight of that:

..bruce..

I just finished reading House to House: An Epic Memoir of War by SSG David Bellavia (with John R. Bruning). Bellavia took part in the US battle for Fallujah (Iraq) in November 2004; his squad was one of the first to enter the city, in which insurgents had spent months entrenching themselves and booby-trapping much of the city. Bellavia has penned here a brutal, honest chronicle of the block-to-block, building-to-building, and room-to-room battle that ensued at great cost for all involved.

I wept from time to time at what these men endured and at what they risked for one another:

Fallujah

November 10, 2004

Long before sunrise, we begin our third day in the city. As it got cold last night, the men tore down drapes and used them as blankets. Others wrapped themselves up like burritos in filthy area rugs. We passed the night on guard, shivering, anxious, and irritated.

I grab my gear and head out onto the roof to check on things. Two days into the battle, and already our boys are banged up. Gashes adorn every face. Our hands are skinned raw from climbing through the debris of all these ruined buildings. Between the putrefying corpses, the flies, and feral dogs, Fallujah teams with gut-liquefying bacteria. We can’t avoid the germs and the majority of the platoon has diarrhea. There were times yesterday that men were shitting while they shot. We’re filthy, bone-weary, brusied, and bleeding. Our joints ache, our muscles protest every move….

Just before dawn, the entire company gets on line and begins the drive north into yesterday’s stomping grounds. The cold night has left the streets slick with moisture. We slip and slide in our boots as we make our way up the street towards Objective Wolf again. As we countermarch with our Brads and tanks in support, I notice that the dogs follow behind us. When we stop to search a house, they stop as well. I emerge from one building and see a line of them in the street, their tails thumping expectantly on the asphalt. They’re waiting for us to provide them with their next meal….

Throughout the morning, we kick in so many doors that we lose count. Unlike the previous day, we take a deliberate approach to each dwelling. We assume they are all booby-trapped. We move with caution and do not touch anything unnecessarily. It doesn’t take us long to find all sorts of devilish traps: bras and panties covering booby-trapped hand grenades, cabinets wired with explosives, mortar rounds underneath sinks, land mines buried in front and backyards. We negotiate all these hazards and find hundreds of weapons in the process. Everything from World War II American M1 Garand rifles to the latest production SVD sniper rifles straight from Russian factories are left for us to find. We even discover an American Army filed manual from 1941 with Arabic notes written in the margin.

As I stated in my review on Amazon.com, this book should be required reading for every high school student, for every Member of Congress, for every would-be Presidential candidate, and for every military person above the rank of Lieutenant.

You should read it, too. ..bruce..

As I’ve noted elsewhere, I’m a bit of a political junkie, and one of the great political spectacles is the national redistricting that occurs every 10 years — after the Federal Census — and sometimes more often than that.

So it has been fascinating to run across The ReDistricting Game, a browser-based Flash game that gives you the role of a political consultant involved in redistricting. You have to redraw political boundaries to meet certain goals and criteria, while stilling getting your plan (a) through the legislature, (b) signed by the governor, and (c) approved by the courts (or, at least, not thrown out).

Eyes glazing over? Actually, it’s fun and fascinating. And while the caricatures seem to be a bit more kind to the Left than to the Right, it does drive home the real challenges in redistricting. Plus it shows that gerrymandering can be fun.

Hat tip to Play This Thing! via Greg Costigan’s blog. ..bruce..

First, some background via Wikipedia:

A Gary Smith-Dwight Hemion Production in association with 20th Century Fox Television, The Star Wars Holiday Special was produced with a budget of a little over a million dollars. At the time, it was considered one of the most expensive TV endeavors of its kind. Taping began in October and ended sometime in November. David Acomba, the original director hired for the show, was an old roommate of Lucas’s from his years at the University of Southern California and knew his film-making style quite well. Acomba only managed to shoot the Cantina sequence of the special before he was fired by the producers due to “creative differences.” A new director was hired, Steve Binder, who was apparently much less familiar with Lucas’s work, or with Star Wars.

Lucas, who had had very little to do with production since his initial plot outline, was given a private screening of the completed film before it aired. According to reports, he was disgusted with what the producers had done to his story and greatly disliked the special. Rumor has it that he had signed an agreement for it to air at least once, and after seeing it, decided that it would never again be shown on any network after its first airing. The show was greatly hyped on broadcast TV, however, prior to its debut on November 17 [1978]. Although ratings were excellent, since the airing many have considered it a general disappointment, and even an insult to the Star Wars saga….

For the most part, The Star Wars Holiday Special has received a large amount of criticism, both from Star Wars fans and the general public. David Hofstede, author of What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History, ranked the holiday special at number one, calling it “the worst two hours of television ever.” Shepard Smith, a news anchor for the FOX News Channel, referred to it as a “’70s train wreck, combining the worst of Star Wars with the utter worst of variety television.” Actor Phillip Bloch explained on a TV Land special entitled The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments, that the special “just wasn’t working. It was just so surreal.” On the same program, Ralph Garman, a voice actor for the show Family Guy, explained that “The Star Wars Holiday Special is one of the most infamous television programs in history. And it’s so bad that it actually comes around to good again.” Most critics have expressed similar views of the special. Generally, it has never been well-received by fans, who often see it as silly, with some even viewing it as an insult to the Star Wars series.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the TV equivalent of Vogon poetry. I could barely make it through this five-minute condensed version, and I spent most of that cringing on behalf of everyone in and associated with the show. Watch it if you dare!

Hat tip to Cracked.com, via Conservative Grapevine. ..bruce..