So the trailer for the new King Kong is out, and I’m not entirely convinced I’ll be able to hear Jack Black as anything other than the hipster doofus he has so beautifully portrayed in virtually everything I’ve seen him in to date.
But Peter Jackson sure can put together a beautiful cgi-fest.

This must have hit blogdex some time ago. I was reminded of it by reading The Year’s Best SF from 1997 or so. The referenced piece seems to typify a particular kind of hard SF that the editor apparently admires. Bleagh.

Moral: if you want me to link to you, don’t use spammer tactics.
Story: I saw some mail today from someone purporting to represent an outfit called Victor House Publications. That mail looked something like this:

Continue reading →

On of the postcards in the Lileks feature mentioned previously is Fjord’s Smorg-ette. Which of course reminds me of Roy’s Western Smorgy still operating in Richland, WA.

With the help of modern research techniques, here are some other extant Smorgs:
Sampan Chinese Smorgy (Stockton CA)
Perry’s Smorgy Restaurant (2 locations in Honolulu HI)
King’s Smorgi Restaurant (Roseville CA)
Peking Smorgi (Merced CA)
Wang’s Smorge (Modesto CA)

And the Smorgasbords (with a few Smorgasboards thrown in)
Diner’s Smorgasbord (2 locations in CA)
Smorgasboard (Reseda CA)
Two Tony’s Smorgasbord (Carmi IL)
Charlie’s Smorgasbord (Vincennes IN)
Knotty Pine Smorgasbord (Lebanon IN)
Paul Revere Smorgasbord (Ocean City MD)
Sveden House Smorgasbord (St Clair Shores MI)
Homer’s Original Smorgasbord (Cincinnati OH)
Kay’s Smorgasbord (Oil City PA)
Miller’s Smorgasbord (Ronks PA)
Shady Maple Smorgasbord (East Earl PA)
Duff’s Famous Smorgasbord (Pigeon Forge TN and Richmond VA)
Hermitage House Smorgasbord (Nashville TN)
George Washington Smorgasbord (Williamsburg VA)
Smorgasboard Restaurant (Barboursville WV)

Lileks hits the nail on the head (again): “But the pedestrian artifacts of yesterday take on extra meaning when the pedestrian artifacts of the present tend to suck.” This is from his new series on postcards from restaurants.

I can’t decide whether it’s funnier to imagine these folks are segregating drinking fountains or peeing in them. Take your best shot.

The Senate hasn’t voted yet, but let’s hear it for the House for voting to allow library and bookstore patrons to read what they wish to read without risk of a warrantless search recording their habits.

I think I’ll need to study Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship more thoroughly before trying to become a UK citizen: I scored only 9 of 15 on the BBC’s sample test. The 150-page book does not appear to be available on the web.

This morning on the way out to the garage, I saw two brown rabbits on the lawn. Cute!

YaGoohoo!gle is now Twingine. Both Yahoo and Google got on the guy’s ass, so he changed the name. jaguhugel is also available. Check out this blog post and marvel at the heavy East Asian traffic his site is getting.
Our traffic is mostly search engine spiders. Which is just as well, as I don’t much fancy the effect being slashdotted would have on my finances.