Jan Murphy
Enthusiastic family historian since 2006; moderator pro tempore at Genealogy & Family History Stack Exchange. http://genealogy.stackexchange.com Fan of F&SF, figure skating, baseball, equestrian sports, cycling. Former bookseller; book junkie.
- we’ve known Chomsky was a piece of shit since he tried to downplay and deny the Khmer Rouge genocide back in the 70s, but I’m glad more people are *finally* figuring this out
- The difference between a linguist and a normal person is that a normal person thinks that Chomsky should’ve stuck to linguistics and a linguist thinks he shouldn’t have done that either
- I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I've been thinking of figuring out where I put my copy of The Sound Pattern of English because I used to fall asleep whenever I tried to read it while doing homework.
- [Not loaded yet]
- That relative who insists, insists, that the family name was changed at Ellis Island. (Spoiler: It didn't happen)
- [Not loaded yet]
- [Not loaded yet]
- Okay then! As long as it makes you happy.
- Rant du jour: I am so tired of the posters who chastise people who order from DoorDash and UberEats. "It's so easy to learn to cook!" My dudes, many of us *already know* how to cook. Some days we're effing tired. Go yell at DoorDash and UberEats, or fund services that actually feed people.
- We used to have a service called SpoonRocket. The founder wanted to provide an inexpensive but good hot meal to students & the community. They offered one dish every night. The plan was using economy of scale to make it affordable. A brilliant idea, while it lasted. I miss them.
- R.I.P. SpoonRocket web.archive.org/web/20160330...
- Would that really make you happy, though? I can hear any number of TV show hosts saying "Great answer but did Nick really follow the brief?"
- Pop Quiz: You've got Elon's money. What's the first thing you buy that makes you happy? For me it's, "pay every single campaign on GoFundMe." There's only been $30bil raised by GFM its entire existence, I could drop $30bil like it was *nothing*, do immeasurable good, and be instantly beloved.
- Using @czedwards.bsky.social's estimate of 800 million per day to spend? 🤔How much would it cost to make sure every person going to school, got at least breakfast and lunch every day? No more school lunchroom debt. Feed faculty and staff too. Pre-K through college. bsky.app/profile/czed...
- For people working in office settings would you check through all emails received since logging off as a priority when starting each day?
- People don't? The whole point of email is that the person in some other timezone can email me when it's convenient for them, and their mail is waiting for me when I get in. If I can't reply until after their workday, my reply is ready for them when they get in. Rinse and repeat.
- [This post could not be retrieved]
-
View full threadWe were gobsmacked. Us: So nice to meet you, thanks for coming by, but you, *you* have to do this? You're Walter Mosely! The handwriting was on the wall then about how bad publsher marketing was. (Blue Light was 1998.)
- Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to have him stop by (and if we had known he was coming, we would have stocked up on both his mysteries and the new sf book for him to sign). But publishers so often treat indie bookstores like adversaries and not partners in getting books to customers.
- Cooking for one or two, when you have a small kitchen and hardly any storage space, is *expensive*. I still remember reading an article from the guy in charge of the food stamp program (1980s) with money-saving tips like "buy a whole side of beef & store it in your chest freezer" and other tips +
- ... from the Department of "tell me you've never lived in a small urban apartment without telling me you've never lived in a small urban apartment". Yes, if you have already have $$$, you have the resources to have a house and a chest freezer and a car and the money to buy a side of beef at once.
