For no good reason

Lifehacker yesterday posted an item about yourfonts.com, where you can make a TrueType font out of your handwriting. Here‘s what mine looks like
The yourfonts site was overwhelmed yesterday, but is probably settling down somewhat now. One font aspect that they don’t let you build is ligatures, which is a bummer for me because I’m terribly fond of my “th” ligature.

Man with the Strange Head Review

The Man with the Strange Head and Other Early Science Fiction Stories, Breuer ed. Page. Yes. When I first put a hold on this, I missed that all the works were by the same writer. I don’t know whether that would have changed my decision to read it, but I’m glad it turned out as it did. The stories were written between 1927 and 1940, with well over half prior to 1932, making this pretty early indeed as modern sf goes. One of the “stories”, Paradise and Iron, is a novel in its own right, and one of my favorite works in the volume. Several of its themes are revisited elsewhere in Breuer’s work, but it was a creditable piece for a time before Colossus, much less ENIAC.
I was forced by its sheer tedium to skip Page’s introduction, though I did refer to it to see what he had to say about the history of each story. I was interested that he described a Breuer story as “less bigoted” in its treatment of immigration/integration panic than some other works of the time (Page doesn’t seem certain whether the story is using alien invasion as a metaphor, but it sure seemed like it to me). I’m a little tempted to see if I can find any David H Keller, to see what would be more bigoted than this:

The Earth women liked the Martians, who though weak, were good-looking and certainly had an effective way with the ladies.…

or

“I have the highest respect for the individual Martian gentlemen whom I know personally.… But such Martians are exceptions.”

or

“The children of these bi-racial unions are the worst outcasts of all, accepted by neither race.… They are physically unfit for labor and are not accepted among the intellectual classes; they sink into the utmost depths of degradation. I shudder to think of them. What shall we do with them?”

The dialog, of course, expresses a character’s view, but nothing in the narration challenges that view.

Me versus Mythbusters

I’ve been watching Mythbusters episodes on DVD and agree with my friend Craig that some of the questions they address would be better answered by some rigorous book research rather than blowing things up (as entertaining as that is). But that would be a different and altogether more boring show.

Episode one of that boring show, hosted by me: Pirate eye patches as way to retain your night vision by swapping which (functional) eye it covers when traveling from light to dark and dark to light. While they showed that it was quite effective in retaining night vision, there was no evidence presented that pirates actually did that.

My research: from Daily Life in the Age of Sail’s section on Pirates, it was pointed out that pirates themselves didn’t really keep records, since they were criminals. Most accurate records were kept by the people in charge of ending their criminal activities, and this did not include handy eye patch tips. More damning, the Oxford English Dictionary entry on Patch defined it only as a covering for a damaged or missing eye, with no information or usage as anything else.

My verdict: no evidence for this usage.

Newsflash!

A curious case of love and persecution has come to light in New York. A man named Romero fell in love with his son’s intended wife, and in order to marry her, sent Romero, Jr., to Cuba. The latter was soon reported to be dead and the wedding took place. Subsequently the young man returned home, when his father caused him to be arrested and put in the lunatic assylum. The wife has discovered the facts in the case, and secured the release of her first, and perhaps only love, and an interesting and spicy lawsuit is now said to be very probable, growing out of this exceedingly romantic affair.

Florida Union, (Jacksonville, FL) Saturday, August 18, 1866; Issue 52; col F