Just upgraded to WordPress 2.8.5. I love this one-click upgrade option.
I can’t hear the name Rick without thinking of Casablanca. I’m not the kind of person who does “favorite films” or lists of that sort (I come down with a mental paralysis whenever I’m asked for my favorite five or ten of anything) but if I were, Casablanca would be on that list, along with The Maltese Falcon and probably some Hitchcock films. Rick is just so cool.
We’re getting some rain today that is the result of a different Rick — Hurricane Rick from the Pacific. Nothing major at all–in fact, so far it’s just been a few showers, though they promise more rain for later on today. It’s been a beautiful week so far. Cool at night, fresco in the daytime. Too bad it couldn’t be like this all year round.
I made up a mock newspaper page and hung it on the bulletin board at our regular breakfast hangout — a news item about the Stephen King Illustrated Companion. As marketing plans go, it’s a little slight, but someone noticed it and came over to congratulate me on the book within about ten minutes of it going up.
I’m about 95% of the way through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. The wordy title is actually a bit of a stretch, because it isn’t Salander who does most of the kicking of hornet’s nests in this book. It’s a group of her friends and allies on her behalf. She is, as is her wont, mostly passive throughout. To me, the most interesting part is a trial section toward the end. The entire proceedings are different than what we expect from American, even Canadian or British, television scenes. The author was a journalist, so I have to assume he knew what Swedish trials were like. The defense attorney seems at liberty to pose questions of just about anyone in the courtroom, regardless of who is currently on the stand. She also makes speeches that would never be allowed in an American trial, stating facts not in evidence long after opening arguments are concluded. It’s almost like an open discussion forum, with the judge asking questions and conversing openly with the attorneys (no sidebars). Quite interesting.
Liquid nitrogen is a neat murder tool, but as a chemist I could only shake my head at last night’s episode of NCIS. It’s hard to believe that anyone would mistakenly drink lN2 from a thermos that supposedly contained hot chocolate. The stuff would steam out of the lip very fast upon opening, and you might freeze your lips off at worst, but to actually consume enough to freeze your body. Humph. And it certainly still wouldn’t be frozen ten or twelve hours later — not to that extent, anyway. And what traces, exactly, would liquid nitrogen leave in the open container? Hello! The atmosphere is 78% nitrogen — it’s not exactly a foreign substance, and most certainly not a hazardous substance that requires special disposal. The gag with the pumpkin was about the most accurate part of the entire show. Still, you don’t watch NCIS for scientific accuracy, even if it is the crime show with more intials than any other.
I finally got a chance to see one of the episodes of Almost the Truth, the six-part series about Monty Python airing on IFC this week. I missed the first two installments, but the one last night was quite good. It covered the era that the show aired and Cleese’s decision to leave after two series. It’s fun to see how their personalities have persisted even into “a certain age.” For all their comments that Cleese was the most famous of them, it’s Michael Palin who I like the most, especially in his 1990s-era travels around the world that seem almost like a precursor to The Amazing Race.
Another short story rejection letter today. I need to find time before the end of the week to get the story back out the door again. It’s been a very busy week.
