Various

  • Is “Crippled scion of great family in militaristic society recently reintegrated into galactic communications makes name for himself” really such an over-used science fiction trope? I can’t think of any books off-hand that use it.

  • On the plus side, Kevin McKidd is actually Scottish, which would be a welcome change for the title role in Highlander. (He’s also a pretty decent actor.) On the downside, though, another Highlander movie? Seriously?

  • There’s a recent trend of using Twitter to post as fictional characters, mostly from television and movies, which seems a whole lot more interesting than using it to post as yourself. (Seriously, I remain unconvinced that Twitter is significantly better or easier to use than a regular blog.) Some of these have been sanctioned by the powers that be…and some not so much. I am amused by the idea of someone Twittering as a character from Mad Men, considering that the show takes place decades before the technology existed. I’m reminded of Bloggus Caesari, which purported to be the weblog of Julius Caesar.

  • The Sci Fi Wire reports that Shia LaBeouf’s recent hand injury has been written into the script for Transformers 2. Now if only they could write “not sucking” into it as well…

  • Arresting someone for a pair of overdue library books seems excessive until you realize she ignored “two phone calls, two letters and a citation that included a court date” and that her $170 fine works out (at 10 cents a day) to 1,700 days or four and a half years. Seriously, nobody should need that long to read White Oleander and Angels and Demons. And her “I’m not returning them now” just bugs me to no end. I sort of hope they arrest her again.

  • Man, naughty British slang is just weird. “Hitching lifts in the nuddy”? I’m not sure how I feel about a morality clause for children’s authors. It seems a little silly more than anything. (Oh, and the link is SFW, but not the ones in the nuddy.)

  • I read “Buffy blamed for an increase in paganism” as “Buffy blamed for an increase in plagarism.” I think that would be a much more interesting story, actually. Although I do like the IMDB’s phrasing — Gellar Blamed For Pagan Rise — which conjures images of the actress vacationing in Innsmouth, accidentally raising dread Cthulhu from the deep.

  • “‘I feel like H.P. Lovecraft is associated with creepiness,’ says Kurtzman, a children’s book marketer.” Gee, ya think?

3 thoughts on “Various”

  2. Wow, if your ‘this is overused’ description directly points someone who has NEVER READ the referenced material to it, you’re speaking about something that is, at the very least, unique and grabby.

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