Admin Mod to Trolls: “Drop Dead”

New York Times ^

[Buck Ninety-Nine]

WASHINGTON, May 31 — After vowing to steer a greater share of antiterrorism money to the highest-risk communities, Department of Homeland Security officials on Wednesday announced 2006 grants that slashed money for New York and Washington 40 percent, while other cities including Omaha and Louisville, Ky., got a surge of new dollars.

Homeland security officials said the grants were a result of a more sophisticated evaluation process

[NicknamedBob]

Sounds like the inspiration for Harlan Ellison's story "I See A Man Sitting In A Chair And The Chair Is Biting His Leg."

I think the inspiration was more likely Murray Leinster's "Sideways in Time."

[Knitting A Conundrum]

might be a thread killer, but I got my 00.....

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I always liked Murray Leinster...

[NicknamedBob]

"lalalalq"

You are ululating with an accent.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Now of all the songs that I only sort of remember the lyrics to, that has always been one of my favorite songs...

You sure Ellison's "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream" couldn't have influenced it?

(read that as a 10 year old...even thinking about it gives me the willies, even after watching all the Terminator movies...)

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Dyslexic fingers....

It's actually the Smurf's theme, with a twist...

[NicknamedBob]

Actually, I don't think that Ellison allowed anything external to his body to influence him in his writing.

I can understand this. Although I cannot deny the influence that such seminal writers as Asimov and Heinlein have had on me, I strive to avoid being overtly derivative.

[sionnsar]

"I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream"

I was rather a bit older when I read it -- the one that really gave me the willies was "The Colour Out Of Space", when I was about 12. (Just looked in my collection and couldn't fine "Mouth" -- can't believe I might have let that go in the Great Purge of 1987.)

[Knitting A Conundrum]

My world view has been shaped by Heinlein, Asimov, John Campbell at Analog, Tolkien, T.S. Elliot, St. Therese of Lisseux, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. John of the Cross, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson, Robert Graves and John Bunyan in particular. And Hesse's Siddhartha and a little book called Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. And the lyrics of Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan.

It's no wonder I turned out as.....eclectic... as I did...

[NicknamedBob]

"My world view has been shaped by Heinlein, Asimov, John Campbell at Analog ..."

I like the way you see the world! I am astonished by the regularity with which ideas and thought constructions of the Science Fiction Universe intrude into my everyday life.

Yes, I have been shaped by them.

[Txsleuth]

nump

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Golden age sf is rational, and believes there are rational solutions to problems...it also knows there are unexplained things out there, and that technology has impact on real people...or at least that's what I got out of it...that and a compulsion to try to understand process...

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I like to kill the thread,
I like to murder the thread,
I like to kick'em in the head,
I like to kill the thread.

I like to stop it in its tracks,
I like to get no answer back
I like to hear it go smack
I like to stop it in its tracks.

I like to kill the thread,
I like to murder the thread,
I like to kick'em in the head,
I like to kill the thread.

[NicknamedBob]

"... a compulsion to try to understand process..."

Yes, I have been infected with that sensible notion myself. It goes on even today. I still want to understand how things work, and I will not settle for lame excuses.

I want my excuses to be sprightly and nimble.

[NicknamedBob]

Bad dreams of animated pieces of string?

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I just want to know why every thing works, and what all the sequences of events are...

[Knitting A Conundrum]

quick mental image of Beowulf hiding behind his shield as the dragon attacks, spitting out threads hijacked from Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels......

[NicknamedBob]

"... spitting out threads hijacked from Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels......"

They're Magically Pernicious!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Did you read Opus today? Beware the penalties of punsterhood...

[NicknamedBob]

"I just want to know why every thing works, and what all the sequences of events are... "

Life is a monstrously huge jigsaw puzzle, and just when you think you're beginning to see a pattern developing, you realize that you've run out of coffee table.

(Reader's Digest Condensed version, abbreviated to tagline length -- "Life is a huge jigsaw puzzle. Just when you begin to see the pattern, you run out of coffee table.")