- Who among us hasn’t wondered what hospitals do with circumcised foreskins? Perfectly SFW, by the way, though it does acknowledge the existence of both penises and circumcision. [via]
- The Simpsons will never ever go off the air, will it?
- Speaking of which: Doctor Who characters drawn in Simpsons style.
- Speaking of re-imagined characters: Star Wars characters as typography
- And finally, the Fantasy Novelist’s Exam. [via]
star wars
Tuesday various
- The United States of Star Wars. I apprently live in/on Coruscant, or at least in its suburbs.
- The strange and sad life of science fiction author F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre. [via]
- Corn syrup manufacturers want to change the name to corn sugar. This is actually a pretty canny (if cynical) move, trying to capitalize on the mistaken belief that lots of sugar is okay for you, in whatever quantity, as long as it’s not that nasty, unhealthy high fructose corn syrup. If nothing else, this would confuse the issue for consumers even more. [via]
- And yet where, might I ask, are the actual Dalek blueprints in question?
- And finally, it’s Zombie Week at Tor.com! Though it is possible to take this whole zombie thing too far…
Tuesday various
- I see the dead Tauntaun wedding cake. And I see the zombie wedding cake. But what I don’t see is the obvious next step: the zombie Tauntaun wedding cake. Get on it, cake-makers!
- The movie(s) may still disappoint, but I’m genuinely excited by the new Harry Potter trailer.
- Martin Scorcese, meanwhile, has never seen the Harry Potter movies. I think they passed up a great opportunity to have him direct one of them. Seriously, can’t you see De Niro or Keitel as Voldemort?
- I’ve been saying this about emoticons for years and years. [via]
- And finally, today through Thursday marks the third Harlan Ellison Rare Book Purge. I’m tempted, though mostly by the stuff that’s a little outside of my price range. Say what you will about the man — and heaven knows there’s a lot to be said, both for and against — there’s no denying that he’s written some phenomenal work.
Tuesday various
- I don’t imagine this is going to end well — FlashForward fans plan to fall over and act unconscious:
According to Variety, fans of the show will assemble in front of ABC network and affilate offices in New York, L.A., Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta on June 10 and for 2 minutes and 17 seconds are going to pretend to be passed out—just like the 2-minute-17-second blackouts on FlashForward.
- Am I the only one who thinks “celebrate originality” is maybe a weird tagline to an ad that basically just repurposes the Star Wars cantina scene?
- I’m not sure I agree with everything Christopher Miller suggests on how to write a rejection slip, but I am amused by his contention that “rejection slips are the most widely and attentively read short literary genre.” [via]
- Warren Ellis suggests asking these important questions when writing:
1) What does that character WANT?
2) What does that character need to do to GET what they want?
3) What are they prepared to DO to get what they want?
- And finally, a fascinating profile of Haim Saban, still perhaps best known as the man who (curse him) brought us Mighty Morphin Power Rangers [via]:
At twenty, while he was serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, Saban made his entry into show business. He told the owner of a swimming pool where a band played that he was a member of a far better band. Saban didn’t really play an instrument, and he didn’t know a band. But he found one, and took the businessman to a club to hear it, claiming that he wasn’t playing because he had hurt his arm. He named a price that was double what he had learned the band was making, and then approached the band members with his offer and his condition: let him join. “They said, ‘For double the money, we’ll figure the whole thing out.’ †He eventually learned to play the bass guitar a little, but occasionally during the first few months he performed with both his speaker and his microphone turned off.