For what it's worth, I used to work at a software company where my boss sent me a forward of some right-wing drivel by Charlton Heston. I replied to the effect that I didn't understand why he had sent that to me and that I didn't think it was appropriate to discuss politics in the workplace. The next day he fired me.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 5:58 PM on September 15, 2008

I'm shocked and brokenhearted, and angry at him for taking himself away from us, the world, so selfishly. Sometimes I adored his work, some of it made me pissed off. I always felt he was a defining writer of my generation. I can't believe he won't be making any more footnotes.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 11:54 PM on September 13, 2008

Actually the pronunciation jokes were a reference a song from to Team America: World Police, which was Trey Parker and Matt Stone's racist stereotype.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 8:43 PM on September 9, 2008

I've managed to download the first episode and the soundtrack is very disconcerting; there is an English language track and a Chinese language track playing at the same time. Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this?
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 1:10 PM on August 12, 2007

My dad used to say "Notary Sojac" a lot when I was little.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 12:56 PM on May 18, 2007

The YouTube video has been removed, and the www.alexyssktylorvaginapower.com site has exceeded its bandwidth. Did anyone set up a mirror?
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 7:45 AM on April 18, 2007

Even though they got it wrong, and called it a mailing list instead of a blog, it's cool that the NYT namechecked Jessamyn's blog (librarian.net).
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 12:07 PM on February 19, 2007

I just discovered her last year. Amazing music.

.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 10:09 AM on January 15, 2007

I wonder if the short's executive producer, Alan Ball, is he of Six Feet Under fame?
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 3:03 PM on December 7, 2006

David Quammen has a new Darwin bio that is short and has gotten good reviews. I've read quite a lot of his other work and I find him an excellent writer.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 2:13 PM on October 19, 2006

When I was a kid, I got really freaked out during the spoken word part in the middle of Knights in White Satin. It came on in the middle of the night when I had the radio on because I couldn't sleep, probably due to some deep family stress.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 6:01 PM on October 3, 2006

He loved wildlife and really made a difference for conservation. I always loved his no-holds-barred attitude and his affection for the "non-cute" animals. My heart goes out to his family, but seeing how his wife is as passionate about wildlife as he was, I'm sure his family will honor his memory in the best way possible.

I'm so sad to see him go.

.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 10:39 AM on September 4, 2006

A dress with no bust support and a halter back so you can't wear a bra under it is not really a plus-size dress in my opinion, unless you're OK with droopage.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 10:06 AM on August 12, 2006

I discovered her older Handel Arias disc a number of years ago and have been a great admirer ever since.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 1:13 PM on July 5, 2006

40, female, can hear the first few seconds, more so I can feel it, like how you can tell when a TV is on when you walk by someone's house.

This is just a ploy to find out how old we all are, isn't it?
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 2:14 PM on June 12, 2006

.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 9:30 AM on March 8, 2006

I've wandered away from the science fiction that I read so much of in my youth, but Butler was one of the fewer than 10 writers that I still read. I am saddened by the fact that she is not with us anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 3:15 PM on February 27, 2006

Mistress Matisse, a well-known BDSM blogger, has blogged on this topic this morning, including a reference to the current thread. Some excerpts:

We don't know if she ever did consent to these rules, but it doesn’t matter one little bit. Even if she thought this contract was the sexiest thing in the world on a Tuesday and signed it in her blood, she could change her mind Wednesday morning, and she has the absolute right to do so. You cannot sign away your right to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 6:57 AM on February 22, 2006

<obligatory grammar callout>200 words or fewer</obligatory grammar callout>
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 8:59 AM on February 17, 2006

Thanks, languagehat - I learned something! (That was actually my first [second?] ever grammar callout. I usually bite my tongue.)
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 1:59 PM on February 17, 2006

I would get one of those buttons, but they are so hideous. The Librarian Avengers one is much nicer.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 3:57 PM on January 25, 2006

Gah, I hate RealPlayer. I just spent 10 minutes doing their setup and trying to avoid giving them my real email address.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 11:52 AM on December 24, 2005

whir, I also picked Chad Vangaalen (top 5 at least).
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 12:05 PM on December 20, 2005

safetyfork beat me to it
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 9:47 AM on December 2, 2005

Rockabilly Bobbie made my day. Sigh. If only she would come to life....
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 6:36 AM on December 1, 2005

...
but from the milk we're getting now
there certainly must be one.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 11:06 AM on November 27, 2005

I just listened to that on the radio a few minutes ago. Bravo, Jillette! (non-snarky first comment.)
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 7:01 AM on November 21, 2005

I too read the original story, loved it, and am kind of curious about the movie, but will only go see it if it does the story right.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 11:34 AM on November 20, 2005

Clicked flag a couple hours ago; no response yet; Matt must be sleeping in.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 8:17 AM on November 16, 2005

jonmc: Thank you for reminding me of the existence of this song.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 7:52 AM on November 15, 2005

Not only is this bogus, it's like 4 months old. Jeez.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 1:53 PM on October 27, 2005

I was on Market and Van Ness; had just left work 4 minutes before. A tourist was standing near me when it started and I devoted all of my energy to comforting her, so I didn't really worry about the quake too much. Since I wasn't in a building, it only felt a little bit stronger than the earthquakes we'd already had at that point.

The MUNI was down so I decided to walk home to the Castro district, and as I walked past clumps of people on the sidewalk with transistor... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 3:47 PM on October 17, 2005

Metachat, September 12.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 1:00 PM on September 19, 2005

I'm reading an interesting book right now, The End of Faith by Sam Harris, which basically pretty much hews to #1 as far as Islam, but also criticizes Christianity as well. I think his argument is a bit simplistic, since he just goes on epistemological grounds rather than bringing in a more nuanced inclusion of social and political history, but the general thrust that "believing in things that don't exist and that are incompatible with what other people believe fucks up the world" is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 2:27 PM on September 15, 2005

At least this thread has gotten more comments than my earlier thread on BooksWeLike, which appears to be quite similar.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 12:45 PM on September 14, 2005

I can't imagine how awful it must have been to have to make that kind of decision. This is just about humans trying to live in an awful world and do the right thing. This is not about politics.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 4:17 PM on September 13, 2005

Josh at elsewhere.org has put together a map of areas in Seattle that would be liquefied in an earthquake. It's not really what moonbiter was looking for, but interesting nonetheless. I definitely would like to see a tsunami/flood map of Seattle that took account of elevation.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 8:21 AM on September 9, 2005

He also is the compiler of a very nice book of Lieder lyrics, which would be a great resource not only for fans/performers of classical music but also for any student of German language or literature.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 10:24 AM on September 8, 2005

I like jonmc's early albums the best.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 10:02 AM on September 6, 2005

They just printed this to make me even angrier than I already am.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 12:05 PM on September 2, 2005

I bought a t-shirt at Cupcake Royale in Seattle a few weeks ago and it's one of my favorites. I just got the one with the name of the shop on it, because I wear it to work. They offer another one that said "Legalize Frostitution" but I'm too chicken to wear that one.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 3:57 PM on August 29, 2005

I was highly disappointed to realize these are computer-generated, not hen-generated.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 9:30 AM on August 26, 2005

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk is a really interesting book about the cultural history of risk assessment in many different arenas (e.g., gambling, travel, money, health). It's the only book I've read containing probability content that didn't totally send me into a math-avoidance freakout.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 11:26 AM on August 24, 2005

I came across this exhibit on a random visit to the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego while I was visiting down there a couple years ago. Fee's pictures were blown up to the size of a wall in most cases. The snapshots were posted next to them. I found it extremely compelling, and looked at them for quite a long time. If anyone reading this is in Philadelphia or nearby, I'd urge you to go to the gallery in the link above and look at these pictures in real life - it's one of those... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 12:31 PM on August 22, 2005

I know that you can clear out your recently viewed items page, so I went there after clicking all of the links on this post so far. They recommended me a couple other interesting items, such as the JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank and the Attack Alligator.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 12:43 AM on August 21, 2005

He has a lot in common with my kitten, who sits on top of the monitor and chases my cursor with his paws. If I play this game while the kitten is here, the universe will collapse into a singularity.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 6:43 PM on July 29, 2005

This Tristan is a woman, as anyone who has read her books or seen her videos knows.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 6:54 PM on July 13, 2005

David Foster Wallace iPod with special footnote firmware.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 8:11 AM on July 12, 2005

The Illinois album is amazing. I've seen the new cover art and it's exactly the same, just with Superman removed.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 2:17 PM on July 7, 2005

What we need is BeethTorrent.
posted to MetaFilter by matildaben at 2:27 PM on June 30, 2005