Venturesome

Gah, I miss everyone in the universe. That is all I have to say. More later.

Here is an article about seven kickass female daredevils (you should read it for Bessie Coleman and Ethel Dare¹, at the very least).


Ethel Dare, who looks like she would have been fantastic at rollerderby

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1. Ethel Dare's given name was Margie Hobbs. I love that, in selecting a stunning stage name, she went for Ethel.

More from Virginia Foster Durr's autobiography (previous post here).

In 1921, Virginia went off to college - Wellesley College, in Massachussetts, which was very different from Birmingham, Alabama.

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In December of last year, the City Council of the District of Columbia passed a bill extending equal marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples in Washington, D.C. by 11 - 2.

Anti-marriage organizations tried to force the city council to subject the bill to a public vote.

They failed.

They tried to use the U.S. Congress, which has jurisdiction over D.C., to block the bill.

They failed

Yesterday they filed a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the law from taking effect.

They failed.

The law takes effect today. As of midnight last night, the relationships of both gay and straight couples will be recognized in the eyes of the law of Washington D.C.

The original linkdump on this situation (with background) is here.

Long story short, Jake Freivald at Flash Fiction Online turned down an ad for the LGBTQ issue of Crossed Genres because it was "sexually themed". It turns out this was his way of saying it was an ad for an issue that would likely portray LGBTQ relationships in a positive light, which he did not approve of. At one point during the discussions he justified his stance against "normalizing" gay relationships by comparing them to pedophilia.

So you can tell it was generally an awesome conversation.

Freivald discusses his stance a little further with Rachel Swirsky here.

Although it’s painful to say, and more painful for others to hear, I don’t support the normalization of GLBT relationships in our culture. Marriage is only one aspect of that (albeit the one I tend to focus on these days). The Crossed Genres ad still felt like a gray area because you never know what’s going to show up in a spec fic magazine — and I could feel myself looking for rationalizations to avoid the coming s**tstorm — but ultimately I assumed the Crossed Genres issue would be supportive of GLBT relationships in our culture, and I rejected it.

He also notes:

All things being equal, I wouldn’t avoid a magazine just because it didn’t accept Christian advertising. Failing to support something isn’t the same thing as attacking it.

Of course, this latter comment was on advertising, and not story content.

I'll also note that the guidelines for Flash Fiction Online are still opaque on this point.

I am definitely hitting WisCon again this year.

Many of you are already familiar with the tin-foil spaceship and sock-puppet madness generated by the Think Galactic party, but this year things should be twice as awesome.

Because Beer & Marmalade is teaming up with Think Galactic for combined party madness! More details to follow, but we're all very excited about it!

As an addendum, Think Galactic 2011 is still on the chopping block - myself and a few of the other concom members are getting overwhelmed with some other life stuff, and unless we get a few more volunteers, we won't be able to pull it off again.

We've cut the jobs down to small, pocket-sized bites that are very do-able, whether you are local or not! So if you're interested in keeping another pro-queer, pro-woman, anti-racist con rolling, please take a look over here and consider volunteering!

Usually I'm good about at least neatening up before I fall off LJ (i.e., posting things like this!) - clearly not this time. Sorry, all. Here are the much belated answers!

* What is the animal known as a "river horse"? Answer: Hippopotamus
Correct: stillsostrange, pats_quinade, mkhobson, jess_ka, glorioushubris, maureenmcq, shaolingrrl, cyphomandra, secritcrush, davidlevine

* Death Valley is in what state?
Correct: stillsostrange, pats_quinade, jess_ka, merylinabarrel, glorioushubris, maureenmcq, shaolingrrl, secritcrush

* What is the name of newspaper published daily for U.S. servicemen around world? Answer: Stars and Stripes
Correct: sarah_prineas, snurri, merylinabarrel, glorioushubris, maureenmcq, shaolingrrl, secritcrush, davidlevine

* What is Tiger Woods' first name? Answer: Eldrick
Correct: Yeah, this one screwed us, too.

* Which Italian city has famed mass transit system known as "vaporetti"? Answer: Venice
Correct: sarah_prineas, stillsostrange, snurri, jess_ka, glorioushubris, maureenmcq, shaolingrrl, cyphomandra, davidlevine

* What is the name of "the beer that made Milwaukee famous"? Answer: Schlitz
Correct: glorioushubris, shaolingrrl

* "Dyspepsia" is the medical term for what? Answer: Indigestion
Correct: sarah_prineas, pats_quinade, snurri, mkhobson, jess_ka, glorioushubris, maureenmcq, shaolingrrl, cyphomandra, secritcrush, davidlevine

* "Mistake-out" is the original name of what office product? Answer: Liquid Paper
Correct: Nobody got the mistake-out question because they did the same thing we did - went for Wite-out/White-out instead of Liquid Paper (they're owned by different companies). We thought this was dumb as bricks, but still lost the point, so feel free to give yourselves a free point and we'll all just pretend we stormed the judges table or something.

* PC's Limited was the original name of what office product company? Answer: Dell
Correct: glorioushubris, cyphomandra

* What name is given to a sentence or word that reads the same forward as backward? Answer: Palindrome
Correct: sarah_prineas, stillsostrange, pats_quinade, snurri, mkhobson, jess_ka, merylinabarrel, glorioushubris, maureenmcq, shaolingrrl, cyphomandra, secritcrush, davidlevine

* What Irish political group's name translates to "ourselves alone"? Answer: Sinn Fein
Correct: sarah_prineas, stillsostrange, pats_quinade, snurri, mkhobson, jess_ka, maureenmcq, shaolingrrl, cyphomandra, secritcrush, davidlevine


Other reasons people rock:

* What is Tiger Woods' first name?

Oh, gawd. It's Elrond, or something. - sarah_prineas

Eldon? (Something with an E, I am sure.) - secritcrush

if it's not Tiger I feel gyped - jess_ka

Horndog, apparently. - shaolingrrl


* What is the name of newspaper published daily for U.S. servicemen around world?

no idea. I am, however, suddenly curious as to what cartoons it has. - cyphomandra


* "Dyspepsia" is the medical term for what?

The horrible sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that this quiz is giving me. - mkhobson


* What is the name of "the beer that made Milwaukee famous"?

I think my answer to this question is something along the lines of "not famous enough". - cyphomandra

fengi pointed out that someone was doing Emma and Werewolves. This makes me very happy¹, even though it will likely be terrible. Most of the people who've I spoken to who read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies said they liked the conceit of it, but that it got boring partway through.

fengi went on to say:

Still, I'd like to see this infestation metastasize if a wider set of influences become part of the symptoms. Recently I was listening to an audiobook of The Hound of The Baskervilles and was struck by how many scenes were inadvertently structured like the setup for a porn scene. The Asshound of The Baskervilles could be great fun, but it would need a sure hand. The same for The Telltale Heart With Don Knotts As The Wacky Nextdoor Neighbor or Hard Times And Hipsters.

Hard Times and Hipsters!

I do believe remixes succeed or fail based on the skill of the person writing them. The shine wears off fast if one is simply mashing together two different things - it's the way those different fictions comment on one another that gives them real potential.

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1. I love remixes, but must acknowledge that in many cases they don't live up to their potential. I read the novelization of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, based on the comic books, themselves drawing heavily from various novels. So bad. Oh, so bad. I knew it would be bad going in, but did not believe it could get that bad. It could.

I'm reading Virginia Foster Durr's autobiography. Learning what life was like for an upper class young white woman growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, in the late 1920s, is a little like reading a science fiction novel. She describes the system used for social gatherings:

The hostess of a party or dance would make a list of the girls who had been invited and put it on the cigar counter at a drugstore. The boys would go in and check the names of the girls they wanted to take to the event. No matter what you were invited to, whether it was a buffet supper or a picnic or anything, the boys would check the names. The boys were totally in control of the social system. If you didn't get checked, you didn't go, even if it was a private party. The hostess would make frantic efforts to try to make some boy bring you! We were in a state of absolute terror all the time because we were totally dependent on popularity with the boys.

To me, this lays out the parameters of absolute hell. Durr wasn't particularly popular - she describes herself as too outspoken and stubborn - and the next couple of paragraphs are devoted to the advice people kept giving her to try to become more attractive to boys so she could go to parties.

That a girl's attendance at any social event required being selected by a boy first... how that alone must have warped interactions with them toward charm and flattery, and away from forthrightness and honesty.

And I'm sure when boys made generalizations among themselves about the "fundamental nature" of girls, the underlying power structure that forced those kinds of interactions was utterly obscured, leaving behind only the pretty scrum of girls' sweet and unthreatening conversation.

Same rules as always - if you use the internets to answer these, don't post what you find in the comments thread, i.e., don't spoil it for anybody else (though guessing or actually knowing the answer and commenting is encouraged).

You might want to click 'Reply/Speak' rather than the link that will let you see all the comments, because that way you can type in your answers without seeing anyone else's.

* What is the animal known as a "river horse"?

* Death Valley is in what state?

* What is the name of newspaper published daily for U.S. servicemen around world?

* What is Tiger Woods' first name?

* Which Italian city has famed mass transit system known as "vaporetti"?

* What is the name of "the beer that made Milwaukee famous"?

* "Dyspepsia" is the medical term for what?

* "Mistake-out" is the original name of what office product?

* PC's Limited was the original name of what office product company?

* What name is given to a sentence or word that reads the same forward as backward?

* What Irish political group's name translates to "ourselves alone"?