A reliable source informs me that, while it is not advertised on their site, the Renaissance Hotel Aruba (original) has both wireless access and plenty of power outlets on their private island beach. Said reliable source spent part of his vacation playing City of Heroes while drinking marguritas and tanning. I’m both horrified and delighted.

Here’s what I get from this graph (original): If, on September 12th, 2001, you would have told a pollster that you did not approve of George Bush? You are in about a 10% minority. I’m in the same minority. Oh, sure, it’s also the case that Bush’s support is steadily slipping; you can be satisfied to realize that the majority of the country now agrees with your prescient wisdom. But still, I like being reminded now and again exactly how far out to the fringe I am.

I have to hope, I have to believe, that this was Brown vs. Board of Education. If I were to stretch an analogy, I’d call Gavin Newsome the Rosa Parks of the movement. What happened tonight in Cambridge was the unquestionably legal version. Freedom looks a little like this.

I wonder. Is it a bad sign that I’d sort of prefer a superhero parody movie night to a straight superhero movie night? I mean, hey — The Specials, Mystery Men, and The Incredibles vs. what? Superman, Spider-Man, and X-Men 2? I think the goofy superhero movies are winning. Not by a lot, but they’re ahead. Possibly The Incredibles will suck, but I would not bet against Pixar.

A while back I posted about a slew of identical letters to the editor from Americans in Iraq. It turned out that Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo wrote the letters and passed ‘em around to the troops to sign them. At the time, a couple of the soldiers said he didn’t actually sign the letter. One of them, Shawn Grueser, just posted in the entry linked above confirming that he didn’t sign the letter but saying in no uncertain terms that he would have. I still think you don’t forge a guy’s name without getting his permission, but if Sgt. Grueser doesn’t mind, that’s a pretty strong mitigating factor. And it sounds like he may have been pushed into giving the negative quote he gave at the time.

The source of those “identical soldier letters” came forward: Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo (original). He claims that every soldier who signed the letter did so after reading it carefully. This means that he’s calling Pfc. Nick Deaconson and Sgt. Shawn Grueser liars. How insulting.

The City of Cambridge will be issuing marriage licenses (original) at the City Clerk’s Office on Monday at the stroke of midnight. The City Clerk’s Office is in the City Hall, at 795 Mass Ave. I intend to be there with champagne, if I can convince any like-minded celebrants to come with. Anyone?

Six Apart changed the pricing and the license. You can now buy addons to a personal license at the rate of $10 for one additional weblog and one additional author. They have also removed the CPU limitation. Finally, although they didn’t mention this specifically in their update, they’ve changed the credit requirement from one link per page to one link per site. They have not removed the prohibition against reverse-engineering, the restriction on automatic computer-generated publishing, and it’s still not legal to put a PayPal link on your Movable Type Personal License weblog. ...

Regarding prisons in Iraq: “When the duke occupied the Romagna he found it under the rule of weak masters, who rather plundered their subjects than ruled them, and gave them more cause for disunion than for union, so that the country was full of robbery, quarrels, and every kind of violence; and so, wishing to bring back peace and obedience to authority, he considered it necessary to give it a good governor. Thereupon he promoted Messer Ramiro d’Orco [de Lorqua], a swift and cruel man, to whom he gave the fullest power. This man in a short time restored peace and unity with the greatest success. Afterwards the duke considered that it was not advisable to confer such excessive authority, for he had no doubt but that he would become odious, so he set up a court of judgment in the country, under a most excellent president, wherein all cities had their advocates. And because he knew that the past severity had caused some hatred against himself, so, to clear himself in the minds of the people, and gain them entirely to himself, he desired to show that, if any cruelty had been practised, it had not originated with him, but in the natural sternness of the minister. Under this pretence he took Ramiro, and one morning caused him to be executed and left on the piazza at Cesena with the block and a bloody knife at his side. The barbarity of this spectacle caused the people to be at once satisfied and dismayed.” ...

I can answer these in any order I want! And I want to do WISH 93 (original) right now. Does joining a game with a lot of background thrill or intimidate you? What do you do to try to learn the background, or to compensate for not having it? If you GM, how do you help newcomers to a background-heavy game? What has worked for you as a player/GM, and what hasn’t? ...