Ansible 283, February 2011 [long]
David Langford
ANSIBLE 283
FEBRUARY 2011
From DAVID LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU, UK. Web
news.ansible.co.uk. ISSN 0265-9816 (print); 1740-942X (e). FOSTER.
Available for SAE or remainders of _The Boke of Palimpsest_.
[NET NOTE. See http://news.ansible.co.uk/a283.html for the nice HTML
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please don't send such requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]
### THEORIES OF EVERYTHING ###
ORSON SCOTT CARD had a minor stroke on 1 January. From his website: 'He is
now back home, retraining his brain so that the fingers of his left hand
strike the keys he's aiming for. [... H]e is grateful for your good wishes
and he promises not to die with any series unfinished.' [L]
NEIL GAIMAN and Amanda Palmer were married on 3 January.
JOHN GRISHAM explained his 2010 move into children's fiction: 'I'm trying
to catch Harry Potter [...] Back in the Nineties I was routinely introduced
as the bestselling author in the world and I was trying to act like it was
no big deal, then along came Harry Potter and, suddenly, I became No 2. I
really miss being No 1.' (_Independent_, 30 January) [MPJ]
ALAN GARNER was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the
University of Warwick on 20 January, following 2010's celebrations of the
fiftieth anniversary of _The Weirdstone of Brisingamen_. [NJ]
JACK KETCHUM (pseudonym of Dallas Mayr) is to be this year's World Horror
Convention Grand Master for life achievement. [L]
URSULA K. LE GUIN mocked HarperCollins's new contract clause threatening
cancellation if 'Author's conduct evidences a lack of due regard for public
conventions and morals, or if Author commits a crime or any other act that
will tend to bring Author into serious contempt ...' Le Guin reveals:
'There is nothing for it now but to confess everything. Before I wrote my
book _Emily Bronte and the Vampires of Lustbaden_, which you published this
fall and which has been on the Times Best Seller List for five straight
months, I committed bad behavior and said bad words in public that brought
me into serious contempt in my home town of Blitzen, Oregon. In fact the
people there found me so seriously contemptible that I am now living in
Maine under the name of Trespassers W.' (Copyright (c) Ursulaleguin.com,
January) There is much more.
MICHAEL MOORCOCK reported new toe woes: 'All efforts to save my wounded
foot without resort to surgery have been made and now, somewhat
inconveniently, I'm seeing a surgeon tomorrow (Monday) re. amputation.
Shouldn't be too serious, though, as I said somewhere, I feel a bit fed up
with constantly supplying Mrs Lovett for tidbits for her bloody pies....'
(www.multiverse.org, 9 January) [RH] _Ansible_ gathers that only one (more)
toe was involved; the operation was a success; and Mike seems cheerful:
'Main problem now is finding a shoe store that will sell me a size 11 and a
size 8 as a pair....' (_Ibid_, 13 January)
SHAUN TAN's film _The Lost Thing_, which he based on his illustrated book
of the same name and co-directed with Andrew Ruhemann, is a 2011 Oscar
finalist in the Short Film (Animated) category. [L]
### CONDORCET ###
3-6 Feb [] _SFX_ WEEKENDER 2, Pontin's Holiday Park, Camber Sands, E
Sussex. Charged by accommodation; shared chalets only; no single rooms. See
www.sfxweekender.com. Contact 08700 110034.
4-6 Feb [] CRE2C3NDO (filk), Ramada Hotel, Grantham. Pounds38/$60/Euro45
reg; Pounds25/$47/Euro30 unwaged; 5-18s Pounds1/$1.50 per year; under-5s
Pounds1. Cheques to UK Filk Con, 16 Ann's Rd, Cambridge, CB5 8TN.
5-6 Feb [] QED (science/skeptics), Piccadilly Hotel, Portland St,
Manchester, M1 4PH. Pounds99 (students Pounds75) via www.qedcon.org only.
11-13 Feb [] SF BALL 17 (media), Carrington House Hotel, Bournemouth.
Tickets from Pounds84, Pounds20/day Sat/Sun. See www.sfball.com.
17 Feb [] SF & INTERNATIONAL ORDERS, Sheikh Zayed Theatre, LSE, London.
J.C. Grimwood, K. MacLeod, P. McAuley. 1:15pm. Free.
19 Feb [] PICOCON 28, Imperial College Union, London. 10am-7/8pm. Pounds10
reg at door; Pounds8 concessions; Pounds5 ICSF members; past GoHs free.
Contact ICSF, Beit Quad, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BB.
19-20 Feb [] EPIC CON, NUIM Campus, Maynooth, Ireland. Euro12 reg at the
door only; Euro8 per day; Euro5 for local Omega Soc members; under-8s
Euro2. Contact nuim dot omega at gmail dot com.
23 Feb [] BSFA OPEN MEETING, Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W 8EZ.
5pm for 6pm. Free. With Matt Brooker.
25-27 Feb [] ALT.FICTION writing weekend, Diamond House, South Leverton,
DN22 0BX. Added speaker: Sarah Pinborough. Pounds180 including food and two
nights' accommodation. Contact 07896 228367.
25-27 Feb [] REDEMPTION '11 (multimedia sf), Britannia Hotel, Fairfax St,
Coventry, CV1 5RP. Pounds60 reg. _Advance booking closes 11 February_;
Pounds65 at door, Pounds40/day. Under-18s Pounds15, Pounds10/day; under 3
free. Contact 61 Chaucer Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 8SP.
26 Feb [] CARDIFF INTERNATIONAL COMIC EXPO, Mercure Cardiff Holland House
Hotel, 24-26 Newport Road, CF24 0DD. Day ticket Pounds5 via PayPal only at
www.fantasyevents.org/cice/.
5-6 Mar [] MICROCON 31, Junior Common Room, University of Exeter. Various
speakers. Pounds14 reg at the door only; EUSFS members Pounds8. Contact
mp236 at exeter dot ac dot uk.
10-24 Mar [] OXFAM BOOKSHOP, Market Place, Reading: sf events/displays
linked with sale of Brian Stableford's huge donation of books.
9-10 Apr [] KAPOW! (comics), Business Design Centre, Islington, London.
Tickets Pounds25.50 or Pounds15.30/day from www.kapowcomiccon.com in
advance only. Maura McHugh and others have noted without great surprise
that the 40 confirmed guests include no women at all.
27 Apr [] CLARKE AWARD presentation, London. By invitation.
17-21 Aug [] RENOVATION (69th Worldcon), Reno, NV, USA. $180 reg _until 28
February_; $50 supp; $100 under-21s; $75 under-17s; under-7s free. Contact
PO Box 13278, Portland, OR 97213-0278, USA. Hugo nominations are now open,
closing 26 March; hotel booking from 17 January; see PR3 at
renovationsf.org/progress-reports.php.
### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###
AS OTHERS SEE US. It's well known that Kazuo Ishiguro's clone-themed novel
_Never Let Me Go_ (shortlisted for the 2006 Clarke Award) can't be sf,
simply because the author is too respectable ever to write such stuff. Now
comes the rigorous explanation which makes it all clear: 'It isn't science
fiction -- indeed its procedures are the very reverse of generic, for there
is no analogy at work in the text, which instead labours to produce its
iterative naturalism as a kind of sub-set or derivation of our own.'
(Rachel Cusk, _Guardian_, 29 January) Q.E.D. [CM]
AWARD SHORTLISTS. _BSFA:_ NOVEL Paolo Bacigalupi, _The Windup Girl_; Lauren
Beukes, _Zoo City_; Ken Macleod, _The Restoration Game_; Ian McDonald, _The
Dervish House_; Tricia Sullivan, _Lightborn_. SHORT Nina Allan, 'Flying in
the Face of God' (_Interzone_ 227); Aliette de Bodard, 'The Shipmaker'
(_Interzone_ 231); Peter Watts, 'The Things' (_Clarkesworld_ 40); Neil
Williamson, 'Arrhythmia' (_Music for Another World_). NON-FICTION Paul
Kincaid, Blogging the Hugos: Decline (Big Other); Abigail Nussbaum, review:
_With Both Feet in the Clouds_ (Asking the Wrong Questions); Adam Roberts,
review: _Wheel of Time_ (Punkadiddle); Francis Spufford, _Red Plenty_;
Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, the Notes from Coode Street podcast.
ART (all covers) Andy Bigwood, _Conflicts_; Charlie Harbour, _Fun With
Rainbows_ by Gareth Owens; Dominic Harman, _Cat's Cradle_ by Kurt Vonnegut;
Joey Hi-Fi, _Zoo City_ by Lauren Beukes; Ben Greene, _Crossed Genres 21_;
Adam Tredowski, _Finch_ by Jeff Vandermeer.
_Edgar_ (mystery) nominations include three fantasies: Barnabas Miller
& Jordan Orlando, _7 Souls_ and Robert Paul Weston, _Dust City_ in YA;
Duane Swiercynski, _Expiration Date_ in PB Original. [L]
_Oscars:_ Best Picture nominees include _Inception_ and _Toy Story 3_.
(And the corresponding Razzies 'Worst Picture' shortlist features _The Last
Airbender_, _Twilight: Eclipse_ and _Vampires Suck_.)
_Philip K. Dick:_ Jon Armstrong, _Yarn_; Elizabeth Bear, _Chill_;
Alden Bell, _The Reapers are the Angels_; Sara Creasy, _Song of
Scarabaeus_; Mark Hodder, _The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack_;
Project Itoh (translated by Alexander O. Smith), _Harmony_; James Knapp,
_State of Decay_. [GVG]
WEAKEST LINKS. _John Humphrys:_ 'Which legendary king owned a magic sword
called Excalibur?'? _Alleged Celebrity:_ 'Herod.' (_Celebrity Mastermind_,
BBC1) [PI]
_Anne Robinson:_ 'The surname of which _Star Trek_ character is also
the Swahili word for freedom?' _Female contestant:_ 'Sulu.' (_The Weakest
Link_, BBC1, 11 January) [MPJ]
R.I.P. _Neil Barron_ (1934-2010), US bibliographer and editor best known
for the five editions of his massive _Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide
to Science Fiction_ (1976 to 2004), died on 5 September 2010. [L] He
received a 1982 Pilgrim Award for his work.
_John Barry_ (1933-2011), UK composer and conductor whose film credits
included _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ (1972), _King Kong_ (1976),
_Starcrash_ (1979), _The Black Hole_ (1979), _Howard the Duck_ (1986),
_Peggy Sue Got Married_ (1986) and 11 James Bond films, died on 30 January
aged 77. [SG/AW]
_Charlie Callas_ (1924-2011), US comedian who voiced Elliot the dragon
in _Pete's Dragon_ (1977) and had small parts in various genre films (also
_The Munsters_), died on 27 January; he was 86. [AIP]
_Nicholas Trofimovich Chadovich_ (1948-2011), Byelorussian author who
wrote much sf since 1983 in collaboration with Yuri Mikhailovich Brayder,
died on 21 January; he was 62. [JCo]
_Bernd Eichinger_ (1949-2011), German film producer/director whose
genre work includes _The NeverEnding Story_ (1984), _Prince Valiant_
(1997), three _Fantastic Four_ films, four _Resident Evil_ films, and much
more, died on 24 January. He was 61. [AW]
_John Iggulden_ (1917-2010), Australian writer whose one sf novel was
the dystopian _Breakthrough_ (1960), died on 8 October last year; he was
93. [SL]
_Melissa Mia Hall_ (1956-2011), US author of short fiction for various
anthologies and magazines, and editor of the anthology _Wild Women_ (1997),
died unexpectedly on 29 January. [HW via LP]
_Dick King-Smith_ (1922-2011), UK author whose more than 130 books for
children include animal stories such as _The Sheep-Pig_ (1983, filmed as
_Babe_) and magical fantasies such as _The Queen's Nose_ (1983; three BBC
series 1995-1998), died on 4 January aged 88. He received the OBE in 2010.
_Ruth Kyle_ (1930-2011), popular US fan and convention-goer who was
secretary of the 1956 NYC Worldcon and married for 53 years to Dave Kyle
(who survives her), died on 5 January; she was 81. [AIP]
_Jerry Weist _(1949-2011), US author, book/comics dealer and comics
expert who wrote _Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life_ (2002) and three
editions of _The Comic Art Price Guide_, died on 7 January aged 61. [L]
_Lan Wright_ (Lionel Percy Wright, 1923-2010), UK author whose first
sf story appeared in _New Worlds_ in 1952, and who published six novels
1957-1968, died last October aged 87. [JC]
_Peter Yates_ (1929-2011), UK-born film director whose sf venture was
_Krull_ (1983), died on 9 January; he was 81. [PDF] Yates directed the 1964
film of N.F. Simpson's bizarrely surreal play _One Way Pendulum_ (1960).
_Susannah York_ (1939-2011), noted UK actress whose best-known genre
part was as Superman's mother Lara in three _Superman_ films (1978, II
1980, IV 1987), died on 14 January aged 72. [GD/AW]
AS OTHERS AVOID US. The BBC's forthcoming _Outcasts_ takes place on a far
world colonized after Earth's nuclear holocaust: 'But don't call it sci-fi,
which is pretty much a banned word on set,' warns the _Daily Mail_. Set
designer James North of _Doctor Who_ explains: 'Sci-fi has its own
dedicated TV channel, and the BBC doesn't want to give the impression it's
putting out a sci-fi show on prime-time BBC1.' Unthinkable! 'This is
futuristic drama with the focus on pioneering humans who, out of necessity,
just happen to be living on a planet that isn't Earth. There are sci-fi
elements to the drama. But in terms of the sets and the dressing, we've
tried to make it as Earthbound as possible. So no sonic screwdrivers.'
Admittedly the South African setting has 'such spectacular and unusual
scenery you could almost believe you were on an alien planet.' But series
creator Ben Richards nervously adds '... an alien planet without scary
monsters. Little green men and fearsome creatures isn't what _Outcasts_ is
about at all.' (all _Daily Mail_, 29 January) [JB]
AWARDS. _American Library Association (ALA)_, YA division: Margaret Edwards
award for life achievement, Terry Pratchett; Prinz for novel, _Shipbreaker_
by Paolo Bacigalupi. [FM]
_Crawford_ (fantasy by a new author): Karen Lord, _Redemption in
Indigo_.
_Fan Activity Achievement (FAAn):_ note that voting closes on 4
February, 8am PST. Email votes are allowed. See
corflu.org/FaanBallot2011.pdf.
_The Widely Derided Golden Globes:_ Best Animation was won by _Toy
Story 3_. [MPJ]
WE ARE EVERYWHERE, UNFORTUNATELY. Let's all hope that future US profiling
intended to spot potential lunatic gunmen doesn't focus too much on the
genre content of Jared Loughner's reading list: 'Among the books that he
would later cite as his favorites: "Animal Farm," "Fahrenheit 451," "Mein
Kampf" and "The Communist Manifesto." Also: "Peter Pan."' (_New York
Times_, 15 January) [TW]
AS OTHERS SEE OUR LITERATI. 'You Brits lack a daffy, antic, nincompoop side
to your character. This is not to say that you're all in your right minds.
But you do not do things by halves. You are never _slightly_ weird. In my
personal experience everyone in the British Isles is either frightfully
normal or Jeanette Winterson.' (P.J. O'Rourke, 1995)
MAGAZINE SCENE. The Czech sf magazine _Ikarie_ ceased with its 247th issue
(November 2010): the publisher wanted to focus on lifestyle magazines.
_XB-1_, launched in December, has the same editors and uses much material
that had been prepared for _Ikarie_ 248. [JS via SW]
BLURBISMO. Cemetery Dance, announcing the publication of a new collection
by Brian Hodge, quotes Stanley Wiater's alluring judgement that Hodge
offers 'dark fiction so numbing cold and cutting edge you had better hold
on to your ass with your free hand.' [MMW]
COURT CIRCULAR. In January, US judge Shira Sheindlin threw out the claim by
the Adrian Jacobs estate that J.K. Rowling's huge great fat _Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire_ plagiarized Jacobs's 36-page _The Adventures of
Willy the Wizard_: 'The contrast between the total concept and feel of the
works is so stark that any serious comparison of the two strains
credulity.' The identically meritless UK lawsuit continues.
RANDOM FANDOM. _The Australian SF Bullsheet_, the monthly newsletter which
suspended publication last August, restarted with Wendy Palmer as editor.
News to sfbullsheet at gmail dot com.
_Mike Glicksohn_ is again being treated for cancer, and for the first
time in 38 years had to miss Confusion in Michigan (January). [AIP] Wish
him luck.
LIBRARY OF BABEL. Philip Pullman's tirade against Oxford library closures
(http://tinyurl.com/pullman-wrath) has been much admired. Imagine his
reaction to the associate director of a US library that's going digital,
who identifies the two main sources of Bad Attitude: 'I blame Ray Bradbury
and Hitler. People think of getting rid of books as being almost an immoral
thing.' (_Johns Hopkins Magazine_, 6 December) [PL]
THE DEAD PAST. _50 Years Ago_, Kingsley Amis was announced as the Eastercon
GoH: 'I believe that this is the first time in the history of sf fandom
that a main stream writer who has but dabbled in sf has been invited to a
convention in this honoured capacity and the move certainly reflects the
committee's enterprise.' (_Skyrack_ 29, February 1961)
O PIONEERS. 'The internet has altered our lives in ways television never
did or could, but mainstream literary novelists -- by which I mean writers
who specialise in realistic, character-based narratives -- have mostly
shied away from writing about this, perhaps hoping that, like TV, it could
be safely ignored. They've ceded the field to authors of speculative
fiction, such as William Gibson and Cory Doctorow, whose hacker and
brand-ninja characters exist primarily to explain or propound ideas about
bleeding-edge technology, or thriller writers who concoct ingenious but
outlandish tales about the potential nightmares lurking in same' (Laura
Miller, _Guardian_, 15 January) [MMW]
FANFUNDERY. _Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund_ candidates for the 2011 race (from
Europe to North America and Renovation) emerged in a rush as the deadline
neared, until there were four: Graham Charnock, John Coxon, Liam Proven and
Paul Treadaway. Ballots -- revised since first release, to include PayPal
payment details -- are available in HTML, PDF and Word formats at
taff.org.uk. The voting deadline, first announced as 12 March, has been
extended to just after Eastercon: 26 April 2011.
YO-HO-HO! 2010's most net-pirated films were _Avatar_ (16.58 million
downloads), _Kick-Ass_ (11.4) and _Inception_ (9.72), with further genre
titles in the top ten. (BBC/TorrentFreak, 22 December) [MPJ] Tut-tut.
C.O.A. _Melbourne SF Club_, PO Box 23047, Docklands, Vic 8012, Australia.
_Alan Stewart_, PO Box 7111, Richmond, Vic 3121, Australia. (Australia Post
shut down their former World Trade Centre PO boxes.)
PROPHET AND LOSS. Michael Flynn looked at _Analog_ predictions in the
magazine's 60th anniversary issue (January 1990), noting Hayden Howard's
'The Biggest Oil Disaster' (February 1970) as a title that 'may conjure
thoughts of the Exxon Valdez, except that it involved a blowout of an
off-shore oil platform. As usual, the _Analog_ story involved the conflict
between those who try to fix the problem and those who try to fix the
blame.' Cut to 2010 and _Deepwater Horizon_.... [AL]
THOG'S MASTERCLASS. _Monster Metaphor Dept._ '... when beholding the
tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger
heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this
velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang.' (Herman Melville, _Moby-Dick_,
1851) [ECL]
_Dept of Female Emotion._ [She falls into his arms crying:] 'The
teacup-sized tears splashed down the front of his shirt ...' (Silas Water,
_The Man with Absolute Motion_, 1955)
_Alternative Energy Sources Debunked._ '... you dare not use the power
of the tides, for that would slow the Earth and destroy its entire ecology
...' (_Ibid_)
_Neat Tricks Dept._ 'Her eyebrows did a confused dance across her
forehead.' 'Her smile slid to the floor, melting with the frozen snow.'
(both Sonny Whitelaw, _Stargate SG-1: City of the Gods_, 2005) [SM]
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### ENDNOTES ###
APPARITIONS.
[] 11 February 2011: Brum Group, Briar Rose Hotel, Bennett's Hill,
Birmingham city centre: 7:30pm for 8pm. Quiz night. Pounds4; members
Pounds3. Contact 07845 897760 or bhamsfgroup at yahoo co uk. Future
meetings: 11 March, Frances Hardinge; 8 April, Robert Rankin; 13 May, John
Meaney; 10 June, BSFG 40th anniversary party; 8 July, Ian Stewart; 12
August, Summer Social at different venue (Black Eagle); 9 September, Liz
Williams TBC.
[] 18 February 2011: Bryan Talbot talks to Steve Bell at LSE Literary
Festival. 12.30-2pm. Free entry, open to the public. Wolfson Theatre, New
Academic Building, Houghton St, Charing Cross, London, WC2A 2AE.
[] 2 March 2011: Bryan Talbot presentation/signing. 5pm. Free. Room A46,
Trent Building, University Park Campus, University of Nottingham.
[] 26 March 2011: Bryan Talbot (what, him _again_?) signings. 12 noon at
Forbidden Planet, 40-41 Southbridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LL (0131 558
8226). 4pm, followed by 6pm presentation, at Plan B Books, 5 Osborne St,
Glasgow. G1 5QN (0141 237 1137).
THE INTELLECTUAL FASHION ACCESSORY is the _Guardian_'s term for a range of
ladies' bags hand-stitched by Olympia Le-Tan (who?) to look just like
books. Genre selections include not only _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ but, rather
less predictably, William Tenn's _Of All Possible Worlds_ and Captain W.E.
Johns's _The Quest for the Perfect Planet_. Perhaps we could send Le-Tan
some stylish, intellectual Badger books as future inspiration? (_Guardian_,
22 January, via David Garnett)
EDITORIAL. Thog had to send out a distress call owing to shortage of
material -- special thanks to those who rallied round. Have we come to the
bottom of the Thog barrel at last? Is no one perpetrating this stuff any
more? (Please note that fanfiction and Bulwer-Lytton competition entries
are not eligible. Thog preys on pros' prose.) Your desperate editor had to
bite the bullet and actually _read_ a whole book from the Probable Thog
shelf. There are no prizes for deducing which.
PAYPAL DONATIONS. Support _Ansible_, cover website costs and keep the
editor happy! Or just buy his books.
http://ansible.co.uk/paypal.html
http://ansible.co.uk/books/index.html
http://ansible.co.uk/books/starcomb.html
THOG'S SECOND HELPING. _Safe Haven Dept._ [Our characters disembark into an
alien dome surrounded by blue fire:] '"We landed on a sun," he said slowly.
/ "A sun?" / "A blue star -- the double or triple companion of Regulus.
Probably a small star but a hot one. Blue indicates a surface temperature
of around 20,000 degrees Centigrade." / "But why?" / "Probably for safety.
What kind of being could come through this heat without proper
preparation?" / "The dome must be a perfect insulator." / "Either that, or
they use the heat for refrigeration."' (Silas Water, _The Man with Absolute
Motion_, 1955)
Ansible 283 Copyright (c) David Langford, 2011. Thanks to Jim Barker, John
Clute, Jonathan Cowie, Gordon Davie, Paul Di Filippo, Rob Hansen, Nicholas
Jackson, Evelyn C. Leeper, Steve Green, Steve Lewis, Locus, Andy Love,
Pamela Love, Sue Mason, Farah Mendlesohn, Caroline Mullan, Lawrence Person,
Andrew I. Porter, Private Eye, Jason Sanford, Gordon Van Gelder, Howard
Waldrop, Sean Wallace, Andrew Wells, Taras Wolansky, Martin Morse Wooster,
and Hero Distributors: Dave Corby (BSFG), SCIS/Prophecy, Alan Stewart (Oz).
1 Feb 2011
--
David Langford | http://ansible.co.uk/ | http://news.ansible.co.uk/
Tim McDaniel
David Langford <ans...@cix.co.uk> wrote:
>MICHAEL MOORCOCK ...
>'Main problem now is finding a shoe store that will sell me a size 11
>and a size 8 as a pair....' (_Ibid_, 13 January)
Do I remember right that he lives in Austin, Texas? If so, he should
have long since gone to Karavel Shoes, for the orthotics if nothing
else, though I can only suspect (not know) that they might accomodate
his size discrepancy.
--
Tim McDaniel, probably missing a point, tm...@panix.com
David Langford
wrote:
>URSULA K. LE GUIN mocked HarperCollins's new contract clause threatening
>cancellation if 'Author's conduct evidences a lack of due regard for public
>conventions and morals, or if Author commits a crime or any other act that
>will tend to bring Author into serious contempt ...' Le Guin reveals:
>'There is nothing for it now but to confess everything. Before I wrote my
>book _Emily Bronte and the Vampires of Lustbaden_, which you published this
>fall and which has been on the Times Best Seller List for five straight
>months, I committed bad behavior and said bad words in public that brought
>me into serious contempt in my home town of Blitzen, Oregon. In fact the
>people there found me so seriously contemptible that I am now living in
>Maine under the name of Trespassers W.' (Copyright (c) Ursulaleguin.com,
>January) There is much more.
Oops. Ursulaleguin.com should read Ursulakleguin.com. The full link is ...
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Blog2011.html#20110118ContractRiff
David
--
David Langford | http://ansible.co.uk/
Read Ansible at http://news.ansible.co.uk/