Activity from BWA | MetaFilter

Anyway, as a western tourist, I'm more conscious these days of our impact on the places we visit. The crowd in my anecdote was overwhelmingly Chinese. I don't see that it much matters, a crowd is a crowd. (Alec Guinness once wrote of… [more]
favorited 5 times, recently by Harvey Kilobit, pracowity, chavenet, smelendez, clew
MeFi comment - 2 weeks ago

standing in a long line of similar people just to get a selfie with the Mona Lisa, Mrs A. took our daughter to the Louvre a few years back and so to the crush in front of the Mona Lisa, where a battery of cellphones was snapping proof of… [more]
favorited 3 times, recently by chavenet, wenestvedt, pracowity
MeFi comment - 2 weeks ago

The US Department of Defense was renamed from Department of War in 1947. Someone had a dark sense of humor. [more]
favorited 5 times, recently by pracowity, snsranch, mule98J, adrienneleigh, clavdivs
MeFi comment - 2 weeks ago

opening scene of Ridicule. Simple revenge. [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by runincircles
Ask MeFi comment - 2 weeks ago

Previous owners of my suburban childhood garage left a few cases of lead type. Fascinating to single digiter such as myself. I wonder what happened to them. Or how they got there in the first place, for that matter. [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by humbug, adrienneleigh
MeFi comment - 3 weeks ago

The Feds have a dynamic map down to street level, as of 2023 . [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by oneirodynia
MeFi comment - 4 weeks ago

Reality TV for Writers
favorited 17 times, recently by xenization, Green-eyed grenade, esoteric things, Rock Steady, lasagnaboy, virago, blue shadows, ravelite, googlebombed, AzraelBrown, tomsk, In Your Shell Like, Lexica, demi-octopus, queensissy, fimbulvetr, mpark
MeFi post - Last month

Bold of you to assume I would give money to a busker or use Goodreads at all. I assumed no such thing. (Well, okay, I did pay you the compliment of assuming that you paid buskers.) I merely suggested that you might consider it, since you… [more]
favorited 4 times, recently by skoosh, lesbiassparrow, The Manwich Horror, joannemerriam
MeFi comment - Last month

Um, no. Set up a way where I pay a much smaller amount, and nearly all of that goes directly to you, and we'll talk. The author has no control over this. If you're going to pirate, you might consider sending the author a dollar or euro… [more]
favorited 12 times, recently by skoosh, dr_dank, joannemerriam, telophase, Gadarene, clew, caviar2d2, rifflesby, TrishaU, GenjiandProust, The Ardship of Cambry, tkinvt
MeFi comment - Last month

"The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF), a French state-owned railroad operator, came to California in hopes of helping the state build a high-speed rail system from Los Angeles to San Francisco but left for North Africa in… [more]
favorited 13 times, recently by skoosh, eckeric, Brainstorming Time!, sudasana, Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks, photo guy, caviar2d2, doctornemo, adrienneleigh, Arctostaphylos, srboisvert, lalochezia, Kato
MeFi comment - Last month

Back in the day, America sprouted - the Fat Men's Clubs. Membership in the American clubs required a hundred pounds avoidupois. The French raised the stakes to a hundred kilos. You can see the latter setting off from Paris by bus here… [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by dusty potato, chavenet
MeFi comment - Last month

What portion of each French lycée graduate class enroll full time in a 4 year program every year? The figures here date from 2013, but make for interesting reading. [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by syzygy, chavenet
MeFi comment - Last month

At least one too many [more]
favorited 4 times, recently by DingoMutt, retronic, mmoncur, Larry David Syndrome
MeFi comment - Last month

I'm going with genetics. My father had the knack, my sister has the knack, I have some of the knack. I don't judge. I've always assumed it was a knack, some people got that instead of, say, an ear for language. [more]
favorited 6 times, recently by ZaphodB, baegucb, mygothlaundry, Sphinx, AsYouKnow Bob, Fuchsoid
MeFi comment - Last month

Ah Pozzuoli! Home of that other amphitheater. But as we're talking submarine cities, and temples of Serapis, we must also check out neighboring Baia, the Ibiza of ancient Rome, now below water. You can book tours. [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by snsranch, supermedusa
MeFi comment - Last month

Because the original discovery of La Marmotta had only ever been published in the Italian language, widespread study of the canoes and their place in history remained limited. Seriously? More on La Marmotta, a place with much else of… [more]
favorited 4 times, recently by McBearclaw, unearthed, supermedusa, GenjiandProust
MeFi comment - Last month

No white, no black. (Yes, that is an onion on my belt, why do you ask?) [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by Dolley
Ask MeFi comment - Last month

It is also unseemly to write about the kind of people who go on cruises. Our country does not provide the education and upbringing that allow its citizens an interior life. For the creative class to point fingers at the large, breasty gentlemen… [more]
favorited 11 times, recently by Countess Elena, The Baffled King, Neronomius, youthenrage, mmoncur, Popular Ethics, BeeDo, thivaia, humbug, Thorzdad, corey flood
MeFi comment - 2 months ago

The ship had a similar mishap in Antwerp in 2016. Curious to know who built the thing. Port of Baltimore is (was) the largest RO/RO hub for vehicles in the US. Not all ports are similarly equipped. How much of this traffic can be re-routed is an… [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by emf, wenestvedt
MeFi comment - 2 months ago

I’d also argue for something from Chester Himes’ Harlem Detectives series, maybe Cotton Comes to Harlem, but you could make the case for a lot of hardboiled detective fiction. Not a lot of social messaging, but for sheer comic crime… [more]
favorited 7 times, recently by adrienneleigh, storybored, doctornemo, neuron, philip-random, smelendez, mark k
MeFi comment - 2 months ago

Heller gave writers permission to be irreverent about the most serious stuff Jaroslav Hašek did so thirty years earlier with The Good Soldier Švejk. (Since we're being lit'ry and all.) Seconding swapping out (fill in the blank) for A… [more]
favorited 7 times, recently by Ice Cream Socialist, doctornemo, Barbara Spitzer, ovvl, yellowcandy, adrienneleigh, smelendez
MeFi comment - 2 months ago

(The EU...delaying all kinds of necessary shit) I've not heard that argument. Could you expand on that, or direct me to sources? [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by nofundy
MeFi comment - 2 months ago

You want to buy art or do you want to buy an artefact? (It's a rhetorical question. For the record, I am foursquare ont he side of truth in advertising and pay the artist. Because sometimes you do want the artefact.) Also for the record,… [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by ButteryMales, JoeZydeco
MeFi comment - 2 months ago

Surprised to see no mention of the travails of Amish organic farmer Amos Miller. [more]
favorited 3 times, recently by bq, BlueHorse, chavenet
MeFi comment - 2 months ago

Google Translate renders the (presumably fictitious) motto on the article's lead graphic, "aliter veritates," as "otherwise the truths," which I presume could be more colloquially rendered as "alternate facts." Or… [more]
favorited 3 times, recently by queensissy, The corpse in the library, Gelatin
MeFi comment - 3 months ago

The company is Framery (since 2010). Maybe it's just me, but there's something a little bit 1984ish about their product. Mind you, I could see them as recording booths. [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by Not A Thing
MeFi comment - 3 months ago

Had I gone into rebuilding classic engines like I wanted to I suspect my blood pressure would be lower, Eerily similar to a lawyer I know who really only ever wanted to work on car engines. Most of the younger people I talk to… [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by AsYouKnow Bob
MeFi comment - 3 months ago

For those who may hae missed the Nina Paley (over)simplification. Tht done, now I shall attend to the post, for which thank you. [more]
favorited 4 times, recently by ovvl, cabbage raccoon, Popular Ethics, congen
MeFi comment - 4 months ago

TL/DN [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by nofundy
MeFi comment - 4 months ago

He is still in print, no mean feat for a popular novelist. His spy service in WW1 inspired the Ashenden stories, which are worth reading. Terry Teachout's review of Selena Hasting's biography is also worth reading. Vidal's essays are… [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by languagehat
MeFi comment - 4 months ago

Yes, I know we are technically called Boomers, too, but.... Welcome to Generation Jones. [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by maggiemaggie, Recliner of Rage
MeFi comment - 4 months ago

I believe Stoppard got a cool million for "Shakespeare in Love." I don't know how many weeks of work, though Creative work is cumulative. He was sixty when he wrote it. So you can argue (more or less) 312 weeks. [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by clew
MeFi comment - 4 months ago

His parents and my grandparents were colleagues and friends, which is one reason why, when P.D.Q.Bach was not quite the household name that it late bacame, my parents and my aunt and uncle went to see Mr Schickele introduce the world to the unknown… [more]
favorited 4 times, recently by humbug, adrienneleigh, hydropsyche, Kattullus
MeFi comment - 4 months ago

I see Hollywood! [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by chavenet
MeFi comment - 4 months ago

18 USC 2383 is the (1994) federal law defining insurrection and punishments allowed. [more]
favorited 3 times, recently by symbioid, AzraelBrown, mumimor
MeFi comment - 5 months ago

Among cross-over creatives, cf also Mervyn Peake - though you can argue whether he's more an painter/illustrator who wrote or vice versa. [more]
favorited 3 times, recently by ovvl, graywyvern, Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol
MeFi comment - 5 months ago

But not always [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by wenestvedt
MeFi comment - 5 months ago

Forwarded to my representatives [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by DingoMutt, kelborel
MeFi comment - 5 months ago

For those who like maps (I know I do), here you go. Plus Nathan Kensinger has done a bunch of photographs, as have others. [more]
favorited 7 times, recently by kgander, Bella Donna, BlahLaLa, chavenet, Text TK, gc, cupcakeninja
MeFi comment - 5 months ago

EU Mutual Defense Clause. [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by chavenet
MeFi comment - 5 months ago

I'd grow one but they don't like zone seven, much less six. If any hybridizer is able to come up with a colder hardier cultivar, I expect that there's money to be made. [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by Carcosa
MeFi comment - 5 months ago

Better to just hop on a train the fuck out of there and head to a ship bound for the Americas. Worked for my g-g-grandfather (1816-1880). His naturalization papers (1848) have him renouncing "forever all allegiance and fidelity to… [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by St. Oops, clew
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

Lito Does Leaf Art
favorited 5 times, recently by bunnysquirrel, memewit, blueskies, protorp, Faintdreams
MeFi post - 6 months ago

The report itself. Meanwhile, in the senate.... [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by mazola
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

I had a professor once with a slight central European accent. Very nice man. For some reason we were talking about HK, can't recall why. The professor had had a parallel life experience, born in Germany about the same time, leaving before the war,… [more]
favorited 8 times, recently by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks, Yowser, nofundy, pxe2000, May Kasahara, emf, BlahLaLa, wenestvedt
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

"Western medicine and science can help prove traditional medicines are safe...." Um... [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by sebastienbailard
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

Printing, even in its most simple form, must have been viewed by them as deliverance from a life of drudgery. Oh, I don't know. Scribing is definitely a skill and hard earned at that, a thing to be proud of. They may have seen the… [more]
favorited 6 times, recently by (bra), RuvaBlue, rifflesby, OnceUponATime, humbug, wenestvedt
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

that many works were lost simply because no active effort was made to preserve them -- seems much stronger a lesson, particularly for librarians, than the myth of the great big fire. Fair enough, but the modern library suffers a problem… [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by RuvaBlue, rifflesby
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

"Call me Fishmeal" is a joke (and not original to me). [more]
favorited 1 time, recently by chavenet
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

gotta use this expensive-ass animal hide instead Or recycle. [more]
favorited 2 times, recently by bombastic lowercase pronouncements, May Kasahara
MeFi comment - 6 months ago

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