Silliness -- another meme

I was born under a waxing crescent moon -- and the fir tree is my tree.

Sweet.

http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

San Francisco -- first report --

Well, W had one of those packing days and forgot the power cord to the laptop. So we had four hours of computer time. I wrote down a few notes while things were fresh in my mind.

***
-- Day One -- ( Shop 'til you drop, and I almost did )

R. I. P. John M. "Mike" Ford

We're lost a talent and a genuinely funny man, in the truest sense. No matter what was going on, from conversation at the table during a meal to discussing world affairs over at Making Light, Mike could be counted on to hone in on the precise point that needed illumination. He could make a point with humor better than most people alive today.

I remember sitting at a table with many friends, all of us listening eagerly as Jane Yolen told us she was doing several anthologies for the YA market, the first to be werewolves. We asked questions, and then Mike started to recite a humorous beginning to a proposed short piece -- something like "Billy was a were-gazelle, and Tommy a were-lion, but they still managed to be friends -- " He went on like this for about three sentences, as we all laughed, and then he paused, and said: "Actually, that sounds promising" which cracked us up even more, because we knew he originally meant it as a joke.

Mike never wrote a story for that anthology, and now it's too late to ask him why.

Mike was honored with a World Fantasy Award for THE DRAGON WAITING and also, For Pete's Sake (does anyone deserve that much talent?) for something that was originally a holiday gift in a Christmas card! He did several other fine novels, and more than one memorable Star Trek (Classic) novel. My favorite ST, forever more, must be HOW MUCH FOR JUST THE PLANET? Yes -- I'm on that side of the divide. I think the plot underneath all the silliness was solid, and I think more people need to occasionally read humor.

Mike Ford did it well. I haven't seen him in person in at least a decade, but I was always interested in whatever he had to say about anything.

This post, from his partner's journal, explains a lot about Mike and his life.

http://elisem.livejournal.com/903525.html

And more about Mike, across the tiny lights of the internet:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008033.html#008033

I wish you a good journey, Mike. May you be in the light --

They are legalizing tyranny....

"How do I put this in words as clearly as possible. If the U.S. government decides, for reasons of its own, that you are an "illegal enemy combatant," i.e. that you are someone who --
'has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States,'

"they can detain you without charges indefinitely, granting you no legal recourse except to a military tribunal, and, under the proposed bill, "disappear" and torture you. This is not just restricted to aliens or foreigners, but applies to U.S. citizens as well. It can happen anywhere in the U.S. at any time. We are all at potential risk." (Sullivan's italics.)

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/09/legalizing_tyra.html

Changed my mind -- maybe the bumper sticker I need is:

"The sign of a free society is the ability to safely disagree with the majority."

Legalizing Tyranny Redux:

Let's all send our senators this quote. Maybe they'll finally get it?
Probably not. No gonads at all...

"They came for the unpatriotic, and I didn't object -
For I was not unpatriotic;
They came for the dissenters and activists, and I didn't
object -
For I wasn't a dissenter or an activist;
"They came for the Communists, and I didn't object -
For I wasn't a Communist;
They came for the Socialists, and I didn't object -
For I wasn't a Socialist;
They came for the labor leaders, and I didn't object -
For I wasn't a labor leader;
They came for the Jews, and I didn't object -
For I wasn't a Jew;
Then they came for me -
And there was no one left to object."

--- Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984, a Protestant pastor in Nazi Germany