pop culture

Sunday various

  • Once again, the predictive powers of science fiction prove to be faulty. Well color me unsurprised. That’s not what science fiction is for. [via]
  • Scott Westerfeld shares this interesting (if not necessarily recent) article on toxoplasma, a terrifying yet often fascinating parasite. While tens of millions of Americans carry the parasite — own a cat? Your chances of being one of them just went up — most will never know it. It’s only pregnant women or people with compromised immune systems who are at any genuine serious risk from disease. But it’s the parasite’s ability to actually alter behavior in its hosts — rats and possibly humans — that makes it interesting. The parasite needs to end up in a cat’s stomach to reproduce, so it encourages behavior that will lead to the host being eaten by cats. The real question, as Westerfeld wonders, is what happens when the cats stop playing along?
  • And as if toxoplasmosis wasn’t enough to worry about, there’s also the threat of radioactive jewlery on eBay. [via]
  • Infomerical: The Series? Well that’s one way of ensuring viewers watch the advertisements. Still, I don’t know about you, but I could do with a little less Billy Mays on television. [via]
  • And speaking of television, I’m very dubious about AMC’s remake of The Prisoner, but at least it gives me an excuse to finally watch the original series.

These go to eleven.

Apparently, the BBC are getting ready to announce who they’ve picked as the new Doctor sometime tomorrow. As Betty suggests, now is the time for any final last-minute predictions.

So here are mine. Any one of these could be true. The new lead for Doctor Who‘s fifth season will be:

  1. David Tennant. That’s right, it was all just an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke that went too a bit too far. You can’t believe everything you read in the British papers.

  2. Russel T. Davies. No longer content to live vicariously through the Doctor, the real reason Davies resigned as executive producer was so that he could now be the Doctor. Although as Nyssa suggested, Davies might actually prefer being Rose…
  3. Rowan Atkinson. What? It’s not as if he hasn’t been the Doctor before…

  4. A Dalek. Well, it would be ironic, wouldn’t it?

  5. The other ten Doctors before him. Through clever editing of past episodes — there are decades of them to choose from! — an judicious use of CGI, no one will ever be the wiser. Call it “The Ten Doctors” or something and fans will eat it up!
  6. No one. Other characters will constantly refer to the Doctor, but he will never in fact appear on screen. Think of all the money they’ll save! And obviously, anyone they cast is going to disappoint someone. This way, you equally disappoint everyone!

Will any of these be the new Doctor? Only time — and very little time at that — will tell.

Let’s have Patrick Swayze Christmas, one and all!

So, Christmas. That was nice, wasn’t it?

I’d like to say I spent the day recovering, but the holidays weren’t too stressful this year, all things considered, and I was off the entire week before then, with another week still to go. I spent today, mostly, just lying around. I read a little, on my shiny new eBook reader — about which more later — and watched some new DVDs and DVR’ed television. (I’m really enjoying TNT’s new show Leverage, whereas the MST3K riffing of Bloodlust is on pause right now.) I also played with the dog a little, indulged in a few leftover Christmas cookies, and sent out a happy holidays note on behalf of Kaleidotrope to various and sundry — enough various and sundry, apparently, to get my sending privileges temporarily disabled by GMail. (I promise, my intention was not to spam.)

We went out to eat on Christmas Eve — me, my parents, my aunt and uncle, and my sister Catherine and her now fiancé Brian — who I gather spent most of Wednesday afternoon sitting in traffic, driving in from Maryland. I’d spent most of the afternoon reading Kaleidotrope slush and sending out some acceptance e-mails. (I couldn’t bring myself to write rejections on Christmas Eve.) After dinner, we all came back to the house for coffee and cookies. Of course, I think we were too stuffed after dinner to make much of a dent in the cookies — much less the enormous apple pie my aunt and uncle brought with them — but it was a very pleasant evening all the same. I spent the last couple of hours before bed capping holiday fare and wishing everyone over there well.

Then it was Christmas. Luckily, my sister seems to have outgrown the habit of waking us all up at the crack of dawn to open presents, and I managed to sleep in a little. (She hasn’t outgrown the habit of playing our parents’ Holiday Sing-Along with Mitch Miller CD, but that’s another story.) We had an early dinner at another aunt and uncle’s house, since they’re moving to North Carolina at the end of December, and much fun and many presents were had by all.

Among mine was a brand new eBook reader.

I’m really impressed with it so far, even if I have spent more time figuring out what to load onto it than actually using it. (Many thanks to Heather for suggesting ManyBooks.net…as well, actually, as the reader itself.) I think when I get back to my regular daily commute the second week of January, I’ll get more of a chance to use it on a regular basis. It really seems very intuitive, looks easy to read, and doesn’t feel at all weird in my hands. There’s some heft to it, but considerably less than you’d find in a larger hardcover book. And I find the idea of loading Kaleidotrope slush onto it — rather than printing that slush out or reading it on a computer monitor — incredibly appealing.

I probably should finish the ink-and-paper book I’m currently reading — Dracula, which I’m almost surprised to be enjoying so much — before taking on anything else. And then there are the books I got for Christmas — Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and Kim “Howard” Johnson’s Monty Python’s Tunisian Holiday among them — that I really want to check out. But I’ve got to say: the eBook reader really looks cool.

There really could be something to this electronic publishing thing.

My sister goes back to Maryland on Sunday, although Brian had to head back early this morning for work. No immediate wedding plans yet, but I think they’re hoping for late 2009 if possible. (His sister is getting married in July, apparently.) I don’t know if this puts more or less pressure on me to be next, but I’m very happy for them

So that, more or less, was my Christmas. Hard to believe there’s only a week left until 2009.

Sincerely faking it

In a recent interview on the Sound of Young America, Ben Folds said:

I’m not so sure that I want it to be clear whether I’m being biographical or not. And that, in theory, would arrest people’s attentions a little bit to wonder whether it’s autobiographical — because people are interested in that, and they’re interested in reality shows….

Americans are. The English are aware that, as I always use as an example, that David Bowie didn’t go to Mars. But over here, Bruce Springsteen, if he says he’s done something, he better have that credibility.