I can't believe nobody's mentioned THE GENOCIDES, by the great sf writer Thomas Disch.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 1:51 PM on June 28, 2008

I bet it is SUPER CRUNCHERS by Ian Ayres.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 9:00 AM on June 16, 2008 marked best answer

One qualification -- I should have posted something more like "in my opinion societies at the level of social advancement depicted in the story do not generally involuntarily confine their smartest citizens." This qualification should perhaps make it clear what I find most puzzling about the story.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 6:04 PM on April 29, 2008

This is really embarrassing. It is also the answer to the question.

I called the phone company to report the problem. The response: "Yes, we've been working on a cable in your area. The problem should end by day after tomorrow." And it did.

I apologize for wasting everyone's time.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 8:20 AM on April 27, 2008

On its face you have a very strong claim. The two questions that come to my mind are:

1. Do you think you can demonstrate in court that your parents actually made you this offer?

2. If you sue your parents, it will be very unpleasant and painful for all concerned. Is your projected gain worth this?

The less you value your relationship with your parents, the stronger an argument there is for seeing a lawyer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 12:40 PM on April 11, 2008

411.com has good info -- if you want to pay. All you do is download a spreadsheet and give them a credit card.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 3:58 PM on April 9, 2008

I must admit that my response is "My God, I will buy the kid a goddam new iPod!" Surely any discussion of this matter is toxic to the kid, who probably blames himself for the divorce. This is absolutely heartbreaking to me. I am sure that I am overpersonalizing this matter, but Parents A and B primarily need to figure out a way to resolve their disputes without further friction.

If you want me to buy him his goddam iPod, email me.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 8:03 AM on April 5, 2008

Paralipsis.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 5:27 PM on March 7, 2008

I don't really think there is any kind of a problem with students knowing that you're using an online dating site. Students are aware generally that many people they know who are unattached would like to become attached. The kids nowadays are also more comfortable with e-dating than are fortysomething oldsters like me. When I taught in a university setting, I am sure that the kids made fun of me privately if I did something that seemed ridiculous. just as I as a student used to make fun of my... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 1:33 PM on February 24, 2008

Possibly Flaubert, who wrote: "That man has missed something who has never left a brothel at sunrise feeling like throwing himself into the river out of pure disgust."
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 2:27 PM on February 14, 2008 marked best answer

"I am a lone oasis in a desert of fools!" Zoltar, Battle of the Planets. Is that it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 10:54 AM on January 29, 2008

To beat a dead horse, it sounds like you were arguably a co-conspirator. There is some possibility that you will, as such, be confessing to crimes should you take this to a law enforcement agency.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 4:18 PM on January 5, 2008

You sound like a perfect candidate for Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. As cliched as this sounds, take a look at this book. It really works, and there are plenty of transferable lessons if what you really want is to Win a (boy) Friend.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 12:56 PM on December 30, 2007

You might also look at E. Nesbit's books.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 2:47 PM on December 14, 2007

This is actually very simple. Write a memo to yourself now. Review it before you testify. Whatever you are asked, tell the truth.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 1:47 PM on December 3, 2007

This definitely isn't it. The lyrics to the song I remember are MUCH less optimistic! And the tempo of the song I remember is more traditional/R&B/Chess Blues style -- not at all funky.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 2:46 PM on December 2, 2007

Could you say just a little bit about the type of writing? Fiction? Academic writing? Journalism?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 10:44 PM on October 23, 2007

You could get what is called a sympathectomy, a relatively minor surgical procedure. For related information, check out sweatypalms.com -- it discusses a sympathectomy in connection with the biologically related problem of (of course) sweaty palms.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 8:04 PM on October 6, 2007

flabdablet: it's more like "list A has data fields X, Y and Z concerning voter N, and list B has data fields P, Q and R concerning voter N, and you need a list that has N, P, Q, R, X, Y and Z in each row." The two lists of voters are not identical, but I only need the data for when the voters appear on both lists.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 7:11 PM on September 9, 2007

You can get a precise answer for previous Congresses if you go to the book Vital Statistics on Congress (ed. Malbin?).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 8:13 PM on September 8, 2007

You may find this Cato Institute report helpful:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6330
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 6:39 PM on August 19, 2007

A sympathectomy for facial hyperhidrosis radically improved my career, social life, and mood generally. You should at least find out to what extent the sweating is just a physical and not a psychological issue. Some people just sweat a lot.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 4:50 AM on August 13, 2007

Some form of the highlighted quote (Kissinger) above is often attributed to Woodrow Wilson.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 4:39 PM on June 20, 2007

I can't believe nobody's posted Robert Palmer's "Housework" from his "Don't Explain" album -- it's exactly what you want.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 5:58 AM on June 5, 2007

The best source, period, (for your purposes and in my opinion) for the '30s and '40s would be the Steranko History of Comics, vols 1 and 2, available on eBay and at some libraries and used bookstores. Then read a couple of Stan Lee anthologies from the '70s -- Origins of Marvel Comics, Son of Origins, Bring On the Bad Guys, etc. Then I would skim the Krypton Companion and the Justice League Companion for DC. I think if you wanted to cheat, skimming 5 or 10 of the above mentioned books would... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 7:10 PM on May 18, 2007 marked best answer

Not quite, perhaps, but I have always been enamored by Tacitus's description of the Romans' victory over Britain: "They made a desolation, and called it peace."
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 7:23 AM on May 15, 2007

Devo, "Shrivel Up," on their first album.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 4:46 AM on January 21, 2007

The story you are looking for is in the anthology collection MICROCOSMIC TALES, edited by Asimov and Greenberg (and a third editor I do not immediately recall). You can buy a used copy cheap at half.com or amazon. I'm sorry that I don't have the book at hand (it is in my mother-in-law's apartment several hundred miles away) but I know exactly the story you are thinking of. I believe it is one of the first stories in the book (which contains 100 sf short stories). But if you liked that one,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 6:42 PM on January 4, 2007 marked best answer

I thought it was a figure of speech until I dislocated my shoulder. For just a moment -- until the shoulder slipped back in -- I was in intense pain and saw brilliant flashes of light.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 8:53 AM on November 21, 2006

To clarify, my website used to be registered under both my name and my address. I am not sure when this changed.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 5:10 AM on August 14, 2006

Thanks, that is an excellent question.

I *think* I must have signed the bogus renewal form some years ago. I don't recall doing this and am embarrassed to have fallen for (in retrospect) this obvious scam. The reason I think I did it is that I found a scan of the bogus renewal form online and it looks vaguely familiar.

No, I was not originally registered with DROA. How do I get registered somewhere else.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 8:58 AM on August 14, 2006

Make sure to keep the safe out of your "grabbable area." That is, keep it away from where you could quickly retrieve something from it while driving. A safe within the realm of your "grabbable area" is relatively searchable. The best place to keep such a safe would be in the trunk of your car, so that you would have no access to it unless you got out of your car and walked around to its rear.

If you do something to tick off a law enforcement officer,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 3:04 PM on August 13, 2006

If you are interested in the origins of the comic book, Steranko's History of Comics (vols. 1 and 2) are out of print but are extremely detailed and readable accounts of comics in the thirties and forties. It is arguably the standard reference for the comic book historian.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 2:14 PM on July 23, 2006

Windows.

Jeb, I appreciate the help, but this does not really solve the meat of the problem. It is easy to identify the missing rows with your column fill suggestion. However, I still have to insert about 400 blank cells from cx to zx. I was wondering if there is a way to automate this.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 7:03 PM on April 28, 2006

Milkrate: you are an Excel god.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 7:59 PM on April 28, 2006

It is a remarkable coincidence that you write this. I had dinner with two friends a few days ago. Both of them got surgery (sympathectomy) for hyperhidrosis, and both of them agreed that it had changed their life in a thoroughgoing and very positive way (although there are some minor risks of minor side effects -- one regularly has to use eyedrops to keep eyes moist now). You are welcome to email me at editor@dan-greenberg.com and I will forward them your emails -- I am sure they would be happy... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 4:29 AM on January 21, 2006

The philosopher Thomas Nagel once compared the practicer of certain types of anomalous sexual behavior (which he called "perversion") to someone who, instead of eating food, cuts illustrations of food out of magazines, places that paper on plates, and eats the paper.

I wouldn't find the conversation creepy at all, but I would find it terribly sad and suspect that it's sad-making.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 7:22 PM on December 9, 2005

Wow! Thanks, jimw: I called them today and they emailed right to me!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 3:49 PM on December 7, 2005

It depends. Do you want to run for Congress in order to make some kind of point, or do you want to win? If you want to win, you should talk to the head of the state party, who will have precise, detailed knowledge of what is required. Call the FEC and ask them if they have some kind of a pamphlet that instructs one how to file the appropriate forms. You should figure out how to get some kind of significant public-sector or private-sector experience (e.g., serving as a state legislator, a head of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 5:58 AM on November 30, 2005

OK, I am going to give you some advice that I think will be viewed as unusual or even mildly deranged by others on this board. My advice is premised on my opinion that argument as such is kind of a waste of time in the situations you are describing. The next time you find yourself getting into an argument, don't analyze but try to sidetrack the argument by saying:

"I hear what you're saying, but I need to ask you a question. Here is the question. Tell me what you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 12:51 PM on November 24, 2005

sveskemus, thanks for the try, but this is not actually the game I am looking for. I guess that there was more than one game by this name.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mr. Justice at 6:02 AM on October 3, 2005