Photo of the Recent Past: Having Successfully Reproduced (Against All Odds), the Great White Fish Rushes Downstream With His Offspring

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The first sentence I wrote today was…

Emily watched Chris Keating walk off the pier without so much as a backward glance, and felt her face burn with shame. Current word count: 7,340New words this session: 1,766Percentage of novel completed: 7.3

Photo of the Recent Past: Down in the Gully

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Yellowjackets

Late summer in Saskatchewan is a beautiful time to enjoy barbecues and outdoor concerts. Or it would be, if not for wasps: specifically, yellowjackets. Like bees (with which they share a similar coloration, but from which they can be easily distinguished: bees have thick waists, wasps have skinny ones, bees are hairy, wasps are smooth) …

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The first sentence I wrote today was…

You can say that again, Richard Hanson thought, shifting his weight from one sore hip bone to one slightly less sore hip bone on the unforgiving polished oak of the pew. Current word count: 5,574New words this session: 1,718Percentage of novel completed: 5.5

Call Fox Mulder!

Giant wasp nets, some as large as small cars, are turning up in Alabama. The photo accompanying the story linked above shows a nest engulfing the interior of a 1955 Chevy. May I just say, “Ick!”?

A dictionary in limericks?

Yep. It’s the OEDILF – The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form – and it already contains more than 30,000 entries defining words and phrases via limerick. To whit: You like bacon, but don’t care for fat?We Canucks have an answer for that:Try some back bacon, eh?(Other names are passé,So Canadian bacon falls flat.) It’s …

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These days, you never know who’s watching…

…or from where, as a group of would-be burglars in Liverpool found out last week.

The first sentence I wrote Saturday was…

“The Wisdom of the Avatar of God,” the voice intoned, “presented for the edification and enlightenment of the Body Purified, that all who are within the Body might know the Truth, and be well-armed against the lies of those who are without.” Current word count: 3,856New words this session: 1,132Percentage of novel completed: 3.8

And the Hugo Award winners are…

The Hugo Awards, the top fan-nominated-and-voted-on-awards in the science fiction field, were announced tonight at the World Science Fiction Convention currently underway in Anaheim, California. And the winners are: Best Novel: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor) Best Novella: “Inside Job” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s January 2005) Best Novelette: “Two Hearts” by Peter S. Beagle …

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Photo of the (last) Weekend IV: Flower in a Dry Land

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Bad news for Saskatchewan?

States with squiggly borders are more stable than states with straight, man-drawn borders, according to a recent paper. Key quote: Less squiggly countries, the scholars found, generally have lower income, worse public services and higher infant mortality rates. They also found that social unrest, the sort that leads to wars, was also more frequent in …

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