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February 19th, 2008
07:57 am - Castro, Musharraf, and Historical Fiction
So, Castro is stepping down as Cuba's president. Musharraf's party suffers a massive defeat at the polls, implying that he might go soon, as well. At roughly the same time, at the demand request of my lovely wife, I've been told to decided to blog my progress through Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, which various people I trust claim to be the best historical fiction out there.
Consequently, if anyone wants to read my reactions to the series, they should reply here, and I'll add them to the filter.
...and this has nothing to do with Fidel or Pervez, really. I just wanted to note that in my blog somehow.
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August 1st, 2007
09:41 pm - Some Notes
First off, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) swan_tower has completed the first draft of her most recent novel, well ahead of schedule. Go over there and congratulate her; this'll be her third published novel.
Second, I point you to a fascinating post on the wives of presidents and vice-presidents by nhw. I find it somewhat ironic that, of the two people I've seen post interesting things about US history in the last year or so, one (nhw) is Irish and one (robotnik) is Canadian. Don't we have any domestic historians who can hold forth interestingly on this topic?
Also, I remind you that Strange Horizons's fund drive is running right now, as it has been extended through the 15th of August. You should go contribute! It's tax deductible, and there are a whole raft of nifty points about the magazine that coalescent, our Senior Reviews Editor, enumerates here. The short form is that it's free, high quality content that comes to you weekly. It's award-winning. It's shiny.
That's it for me for now. Back to wedding preparation.
Edit: Linked to correct post by nhw.
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March 9th, 2006
11:15 am - Iconography
On my way into work this morning, I found out that Venezuela is changing its coat of arms and flag. There will be another star on the flag (for Bolivar), and a machete, a bow and arrow, and tropical fruits and flowers will be added to the coat of arms to represent Venezuelan peasants and indigenous peoples.
Most interesting to me, Chavez and his allies in the Venezuelan parliament have pushed for the "imperialist" horse on the coat of arms to point to the left, rather than the right. Reuters has a piece which quotes lawmaker Cilia Flores as saying, "The horse now faces left with its head forward to the future, a white, free, untamed horse, as our nation is free as never before."
The obvious implications are the more modern associations of "right" with "conservative" and "left" with "liberal." Or rather, as Chavez would doubtless couch it, fascist and communist, respectively. Historically, of course, "left" (as a direction) has been associated with forces of darkness, including the Devil. Wikipedia tells me, perhaps incorrectly, that "left" comes from the Old English "lyft," meaning "weak," and the Latinate "sinister," brought over into heraldic parlance, bears out the evil connotations of the direction.
...which is nothing more than me thinking out loud about the fact that meanings shift with time, and iconographic associations can be and are co-opted by regimes for their own political ends. It is fascinating, however, when something as steeped in tradition as heraldry smashes into modern politics to cause this sort of cognitive dissonance.
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November 7th, 2005
01:24 pm - A Surreal Fact
Did you know that Jefferson Davis created the U.S. Camel Corps? They ended up scouting out the path that eventually became Route 66, but plans to expand the corps were scuttled by the Civil War and the sudden but inevitable betrayal of the chief sponsor of the Corps.
Thanks to robotnik for pointing out one of those "it's too weird to make up" moments from history.
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October 11th, 2005
03:11 pm - Nifty History
I was randomly browsing, and I found two interesting posts: one which describes what might be the longest war ever (true, at least according to wikipedia), and one which describes what might be the shortest war ever (this time, Guinness backs the claim).
I love random stuff like that.
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June 29th, 2005
03:37 pm - Time Travel Suggestions
So, as you all know, I'm running the Bes Din time-travel convention Changeling game in July down here in Bloomington. What I would like from folks are suggestions of books, TV shows, movies, and the like which have to do with time travel which I haven't thought of already. You can be as specific or as general as you want, but I'm looking for stuff which is either relatively mainstream, pretty damn good, or both. Note that what follows is not neccessarily either. :)
( Saving the F-list, one cut at a time.... )
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12:02 pm - Sex Toys and Nazis!
So, it appears as if there is a wonderfully crazy story going around that Hitler is the father of the sex doll. It has shown up in other places as well, but there appears to be some evidence that it is a hoax. Nonetheless, it's such a wonderfully screwy idea that I had to post it. Thanks to Matt for the initial pointer.
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