August 14-20, 2014

Thursday August 14, 2014.  Adult Children Anonymous -- got my eight-year medallion.

***On the bus home, a large group which included some with cat whiskers painted on their faces boarded.  Turned out they were returning from the International Cat Video Festival.

***The August issue of Chess Life has an article on Fritz Leiber's chess-related sf and fantasy stories.

***Friday August 15, 2014.  I usually wish the classical music announcers on KSJN talked much, much less.  However, this was Leon Theremin's birthday.  Turns out he was a Soviet spy, along with his other work.

***Saturday August 16, 2014.  Mnstf (Twin Cities sf club) meeting at Scott and Irene Rauns.  Good meeting.

***Sunday August 17, 2014.  Reread Melissa Scott's Conceiving the Heavens -- a book on writing science fiction, published in 1999.  Included was a bit of speculation about electronic currency. I suspect Ms. Scott didn't expect it to arrive just ten years later. 

***MinnSpec (Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers) meeting at the Uptown Lunds supermarket.  Topic:  Emotional Manipulation of the Reader.  I suspect the topics brought up could be used for at least six panel discussions.

I brought the (not(yet?)) official MinnSpec Library for its first outing.  The library was, so far, six books on writing which I hadn't read in a while.  One got taken out.

***Wednesday August 20, 2014.  Birthday of H. P. Lovecraft and Jacqueline Susann.

Saturday December 21, 2013  Mnstf at Scott and Irene Raun's.  (And celebration of Scott's birthday.)

Average age of attendees was lower than usual, thanks to two of Irene's grandchildren.

On hosts' bookshelves:  Virginia Frankel, What Your House Tells About You (1972.)  The details are outdated, not to mention condescending attitudes toward gays and lesbians; but worth reading.  (The author was an interior decorator -- a profession stereotypicaly attractive to gay men, at least in the US.)

Which prompted me to confirm my guess that one attendee had grown up in the country.  (Clue:  tendency to save things which Might Be Useful Someday.)

Sunday December 22, 2013  Late Saturday night thoughts:  Assume government does everything badly.  The logical way to fight crime is to turn it over to the government.  Statist incompetence won't abolish crime; but will ensure that socialized murder (for example) is almost always unsuccessful.

And a story attacked me.