General

Holidays, New England style: MLK Day — nothing special President’s Day — nothing special Patriot’s Day — the Boston Marathon & Red Sox Easter — nothing special Memorial Day — spend five hours driving to the Cape July 4th — Boston Pops on the Esplanade Labor Day — spend five hours driving to the Cape Halloween — Salem Thanksgiving — Plimouth Plantation Christmas — Christmas Revels New Year’s Eve — First Night That’s all the cheese I can think of off the top of my head. What’s missing?

[When I was just a little lad, I worked at Netcom, then among the largest ISPs in the country. Some of our customers wanted me fired for posting this.] Newsgroups: netcom.announce,netcom.general,netcom.netcruiser.announce,netcom.net cruiser.general Path: kremvax.scots.net!bobr From: bobr@scots.net (Robert McReiger) Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT: ScotsNet Followup-To: netcom.general,netcom.netcruiser.general Message-ID: Organization: ScotsNet On-line Communication Sairvices, Inc. Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 00:00:00 GMT Approved: bobr@kremvax.scots.net I'd like to thank ye all for reading this little message I've composed, because this little message is representin' a large change in this company, and it's no small decision I've made. So it's a good thing ye took the time to read it. Because I've got a lot to be tellin' ye. But before I'm about that, I suppose a number o' ye will be won'drin' why I've gone an' changed me name. Well, I'm goin' to be tellin' ye that too. I've been resarchin' me heritage, and I've discovered that I've a wee bit of Scots ancestry in me -- and I've decided that it'd be fittin' to honor it. Which leads me to the subject of this wee little announcement. You see, I dinna think just changin' me name is enough to prove me love for my new-found heritage. No, I don't. Fairthermore, I've been thinkin' lately it's about time my company was provin' its intent to turn over a new leaf by turning into a new company. Wi' a new name, you know. As such, I've decided that NETCOM Online Communication Sairvices, Incorporated, will no longer be NETCOM Online Communication Sairvices. Incorporated. From now on, we're goin' to be *ScotsNet*. And our domain name, it'll be scots.net. We'll also be changin' a few of our policies. To start with, we think anyone who gets an' account wi' us is deservin' of a little recognition. Any sort of account, from our beloved NetCruiser accounts all the way to our T1 customers. So whenever ye gets an account wi' us, we'll be givin' you your choice of a *wee* little terrier, or a *great whackin' huge* terrier. Whichever ye like. And furthermore, if ye've gotten' an account wi' us, and it hasn't worked out -- perhaps the bairns have been peerin' at the filthy pictures on Usenet, or perhaps ye can't get the bluidy modem to produce the bluidy initialization strings, or maybe it's just that your spouse dinna think you're spendin' enough time wi' your new terrier -- we've got a way to make it up t'you. We're not goin' to help you get it workin', but if you can't get it workin', we'll send you a lovely potted plant. Altogether free. *And* your money back, as an apology. It's the least we can do. And in general, there's one thing ye can count on from here on in. ScotsNet will niver do anythin' less than our very best to be the most *Scottish* Internet Sairvice Provider we can be, and we can be vurry Scottish indeed. And we will be. Because there's one thing we know for sure. If it's not Scottish... it's *crap*. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert McReiger bobr@scots.net Chairman, ScotsNet Online Communication Sairvices, Inc.

Lexical FreeNet is neat. I’m not sure if it’s good for anything, but it’s neat. The next time I want to generate connections between two random words, it’s the first place I’ll go.

These Depression era photos in color are amazing; the subjects are interesting, but the perceptual aspect is more so. I think perhaps we’re used to thinking of the denizens of the 30s in black and white. These color versions — surely they’re publicity stills from Seabiscuit or Road to Perdition? It seems artificial, even though it’s definitionally authentic. We don’t live in the world we live in. It’s an imaginary construct, and it’s surprising to see it as it really is. ...

While driving home along Mass Ave last night, right after the Virgin Megastore and right before Longfellow Bridge, I notice one of those big LED official traffic billboards with some unexpected messages on it. The first one, I’m thinking, “Well, that’s a bit odd but maybe it’s some nice gesture for some cop who’s retiring or something.” Then I see the second message. ...

There’s a void in the blogging world. Or at least, there was up until now. The Panda Assassin. Truth in advertising. Just what it sounds like. All credit to michele blue, who found it.

Coyote says don’t be a dick. Are you gonna listen to him, or what? (Via felisdemens.)

One of the annoying things about being a wrestling fan is the difficulty of watching the classics. Wrestling is meant to be entertainment, right? What kind of entertainment makes it so difficult to see the old stuff? (Well, comics, but that’s another rant.) There are just insane amounts of really good footage locked up in Vince McMahon’s vaults, and most of it never emerges. Here and there a Ric Flair match, here and there some old Hogan stuff, but never any classic wrestling for the sake of classic wrestling. ...

Community Book Solutions (original) is a company which takes book donations and gets them to libraries. They also seem to have a book sales arm, which they don’t talk about much on their web site. That’s a little skeevy, if they’re selling the books people donate to them. On the other hand, I’ve found a few recommendations from librarians. And when you get right down to it, the fact that they’ll come to your house and box and pick up your books? That’s a total win for me. They take just about everything, too.

Etymology buffs! Learn where the phrase “ no strings attached (original)” came from. Or so British tailors say, at any rate. Visit for the etymology, stay for the insight into tailoring.