…to discover that “Chocolate gives people more of a buzz than passionate kisses“? “There is no doubt that chocolate beats kissing hands down when it comes to providing a long-lasting body and brain buzz — a buzz that, in many cases, lasted four times as long as the most passionate kiss.” Mmmm…chocolate…
Category: Blog
Self-contradictory headline:
“Study: Abstinence doesn’t delay sex.” Hint to headline writers: even though you’ve got limited space, there are certain words you cannot leave out. Like the subject of the sentence, for example. In this case, “abstinence” is actually an adjective modifying the word “programs.” Leave out “programs” and abstinence becomes the subject of the sentence itself, …
International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day
In response to this rant by the outgoing Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America vice-president Howard V. Hendrix, in which he takes issue with the growing practice of writers posting work online for anyone to read for free, World Fantasy Winner and current Nebula Award nominee Jo Walton has had an idea: I am …
Mrs. Beeton’s Ad of the Day
All the advantages of a gas cooker with none of the disadvantages, this oil cooker promises it “Cooks the Food without Cooking the Cook,” and who could argue with that? I find it interesting how many of these old ads try to connect something that would seem to be merely a matter of simple preference–cooking …
Me on LiveJournal
Just for fun…and on the off chance it might be a useful novel-promotion tool…I’ve activated my LiveJournal account (which I’ve had for some time but haven’t really used) and will be cross-posting over there most of the stuff I post here. Although there may be some stuff that only appears there, and vice-versa. Should you …
Mrs. Beeton’s Ad of the Day
Gordon & Dilworth’s doesn’t appear to be in operation any longer, but I found the old ad at left, also from Gordon & Dilworth’s, at the British Library’s site: it rhapsodizes even more effusively about the glories of tomato catsup. “This is the popular national sauce of America,” it proclaims, and ads, “It is made …
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
I’ve been asked a couple of times over the last day or so, presumably because people know I write science fiction, about my thoughts on the death of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Fact is, I don’t have any. I think I hit Vonnegut at the wrong point in my reading life–maybe tried to read him too …
"The purple, purple grass of home…"
I blogged briefly a couple of posts ago about the fact the early Earth might have been purple, not green. This means, of course, that other planets could even now be predominantly orange or purple rather than green, and still have organisms drawing their energy from the sun just as green plants do here. John …
Fifty-two million words’ worth of crime, punishment…and raw humanity
On this day in 1718… Peter Atyon , of St. James’s Westminster, was indicted on two indictments; one for stealing a Pocket and a Head-dress, val.2 s. of Margaret Davis , the 12th of April last. The Prosecutor deposed, as she was going along the Street she was thrown down, and her pocket pulled off, …
Mrs. Beeton’s Ad of the Day
I can’t find out much about this–it mostly shows up on Google in the form of vintage bottles of ink being sold to collectors (I didn’t know there were vintage-ink-bottle collectors until now!), but I did find an interesting mention in an old scientific paper online, called Herring Investigations at Plymouth, written by E. Ford, …
"Like ten honky-tonk pianos being hit by mallets"
A 9 1/2-foot long Bosendorfer concert grand piano comes to a tragicomic end.
The see-food diet
There’s an old joke that goes, “I’m on a see-food diet. When I see food, I eat it.” Brian Wansink, John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of Applied Economics at Cornell, says there’s a lot of truth to that old joke—and he’s done a lot of studies to prove it. (He’s also the author …
My latest live walk and vlog
Buy Autographed Books
