Surveying Elayne
I can always count on Elayne Riggs to point the way to curious, informative, and entertaining reading on the Web. I don't know how she manages to keep an eye on all her sources, but I'm grateful. Somehow, I managed to fall behind by a few weeks on my survey of her surveys, so I'm catching up and enjoying a cornucopia of curious stuff:
- Dwight Meredith, at Wampum, explains the Catch 22 in which the poor need to take more vacation time [like Bush] to become better people, but don't dare do it.
- The OEDILF = "The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form", a dictionary of words accompanied by limericks ("definitions") written to employ them. They're still on words beginning with "aa–bn", so it's a chance to get in on the ground floor. I plan to sign up soon. An entry that caught my eye:
bassinet, bassinette by Bemopolis (Brian Moore)
A babe in a new bassinet
Is safe from most danger — and yet,
Being left unattended
Near bears, undefended,
Ends up as a tasty croquette. - "The Parable of Jesus and the Rubber Chicken: What if Christ spoke at a Republican Party fund-raiser?" by Tom Peyer at Slate — almost what you'd expect. It actually made me laugh aloud. Well, my own personal kind of nasal snort thingie, actually.
- Thanks to Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing, a short compilation called "web zen: generator zen"; Dionne Warwick's Cosmic Peephole looks useful, and "Engrish" is a perennial favorite. (Good Engrish phrases always make Isaac snort.)
- "The Universal Packing List": Tell it where you're going, what you'll be doing, and how you'll get there and it tells you everything you need to know to be prepared. Be sure to include "comments" and "anecdotes" for the full effect. Remarkably useful and comprehensive, to be honest.
- A fascinating article, "The Madonna Code: Searching for the perfect music recommendation system", by Martin Edlund at Slate. Apparently, the idea is to find ways to classify music so that new favorites can be found algorithmically. Naturally, since I have a systemetizing personality, that appeals greatly to me.
- Games for the Brain — just try and guess what this one's about. I've already wasted too much time there.
- Ring of Fire ("In Your Face, and On Your Car!"), selling a page full of little Darwin Fish and related emblems for one's car. Personally, I'm looking forward to the promised Flying Spaghetti Monster Emblem.
- A cache of newsletters, "The Underground Grammarian", written by the late Richard Mitchell, which will require a more lingering visit. I'm a sucker for almost anything to do with words.
- A really nifty and sophisticated "color scheme generator", which could provide endless hours of mesmerizing entertainment just looking at all the pretty color combinations.
And not to overlook Elayne's actually writing about stuff, like "Big Woids", always a favorite topic of mine.
Phew. All caught up for now.
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*In "Ghoti Just to prove I'm a northern liberal elitis… she offers bonus points to anyone who knows what "Ghoti" refers to. I know, but I don't want to give away the whole thing. However, the password to prove that I know what I'm about is: "tough".