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Author: Bryant

Spider-Man, Ur-Woman

December 24, 2003
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The New Rosetta Stone — parody or a serious challenge to Dave Sim for the misogyny crown? I honestly can’t tell.

My theory is simple and is, essentially, an analogy. By projecting the characteristics of “woman” onto a character which is more straightforward and more readily understood by the general population, I wish to make the behavior of “woman” comprehensible. I offer to you Spider Man as the best model for “woman.” My argument is sixfold:

  1. Spider Man wears tights.

  2. Spider Man wears a mask.

  3. Spider Man weaves webs.

  4. Spider Man has a sixth sense.

  5. Spider Man shoots strings.

  6. Spider Man can climb walls.

WISH #77: Contributory

December 23, 2003
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In this week’s WISH, Ginger asks:

What do you think the value of contributions to a game is? Do you think it’s fair for the GM to give out experience or character points for contributions? If so, what qualifies? What about the informal value of contributions? Do they balance or unbalance a game?

I think contributions can add a lot to a game (he said modestly). They’re not essential, but they can really help set tone and feel and they definitely make players feel more of a stake in the world. That’s not always a desired effect, but it’s an effect I happen to like, so I’m all for it. It takes a certain willingness for the GM to let go control, but that’s OK.

On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of giving out extra points for them. This is more a sign of my uncertainty about experience points as a whole, I suspect — but what exactly are you rewarding? Contributions don’t much reflect additional training/learning/experience gained by the PC in an in-game sense. If you give experience points “just for showing up,” then sure, contributions are another sort of “showing up.” But then you get into the problems of lack of balance. I just think it’s a bit of a risky wicket.

Pancaked

December 21, 2003
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This David Eyre’s Pancakes recipe is ripped whole from the pages of Kids Are Natural Cooks, a cookbook I remember fondly from my childhood. Despite the fact that my name is clearly written in ink on the inside front cover, the cookbook itself is lodged firmly in the hands of my mother. Well, it’s Christmas time, so I shaln’t steal it back. But I will transcribe the recipe.

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Melt 4 tablespoons butter into a 10-12” skillet, and put the pan in the oven until the butter melts.
  3. In a bowl, combine:
    1. 1/2 cup flour
    2. 1 pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg, but Mom doesn’t use either
    3. 1/2 cup milk
    4. 2 eggs
  4. Stir until flour is mixed in, but leave some lumps in the batter.
  5. If you want, you can stir in some fruit, such as blueberries or chopped apples.
  6. When the butter has melted, pour the batter into the pan.
  7. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
  8. Take the pan out, and sprinkle on 3 teaspoons sugar.
  9. Bake for another 5 minutes.
  10. Squeeze the juice out of one lemon, take the pancake out of the oven, and pour the lemon juice over the top.

This serves in theory four people, but Mom uses three times the above amounts to cook for four, so you be the judge. I think you’re going to want more than 1 wedge per person, myself.

Mom adds, reading over my shoulder, “Did you say it was best made in a cast iron frying pan? Because I think that’s important.”

Graven images

December 21, 2003
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Above the main door of the Cambridge City Hall is a stone bearing these words:

God has given Commandments unto Men. From these Commandments Men have framed Laws by which to be governed. It is honorable and praiseworthy to faithfully serve the people by helping to administer these Laws. If the Laws are not enforced, the People are not well governed.

The asserted motivation behind Roy Moore’s monument to the 10 Commandments was acknowledgement of the law’s moral foundation: namely, the Commandments inscribed on his monument, which are certainly the Commandments referenced in the inscription above.

To the best of my knowledge, there’s been no national outrage about the Cambridge City Hall. One senses a slight dichotomy here.

I think, however, the dichotomy involves the real reasons why Moore’s actions are repugnant. It’s not that Moore’s trying to set religion above the law, because that’s not his real motivation. It’s that Moore is a selfish, greedy, power-motivated man who doesn’t particularly care about God. He cares about using the belief of others to advance his own career. He’s no kind of Christian.

It’s a bad move to allow people of Moore’s ilk to cast this as a fight between atheists and God. You can’t give someone a free ride just because they claim to be religious. The dichotomy only exists if we ignore Moore’s motivations and let him get away with framing the terms of the argument.

Sons of Shut Doors

December 19, 2003
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The Sons of Sam Horn board is still struggling with the price of celebrity.

The Hartford Courant ombudsman, Karen Hunter, more or less apologized for that Jeff Jacobs column. She also said — I think accurately — that journalistic ethics don’t go away just because you’re in an anonymous chat room. It’s a good, balanced column that shows a decent understanding of the issues involved. That one goes in the positives column for the SoSH crowd.

On the negative side, the Sons have drawn the curtains over their boards. If you’re not a member, you can’t read the forums anymore. It’s undoubtedly partially due to the cost of serving all that traffic, but it’s pretty clearly also because SoSH posts are liable to be quoted nationally, even on the AP wire. You can say what you want about the necessity of such a move, but it certainly means that the SoSH can’t be an unfiltered medium for Red Sox players to communicate with fans anymore.

Which is intriguing, since that’s what Curt Schilling said he liked about the place when he called into WEEI yesterday.

Edit: SoSH is open again; looks like it’ll be open days but not nights in an effort to conserve bandwidth. That strikes me as very reasonable.