Author: Robert Coontz (Administrator)

Swedes Hack Their Own Grammar

Swedes, it appears, love to tinker with their language. A few decades ago, they decided that their formal pronoun Ni (the equivalent of Spanish usted, German singular Sie, and French singular vous) sounded too stuffy, so they abolished it. Just like that, the Swedes became knights who formerly said “Ni.”

Now reformers there are trying to introduce a gender-neutral pronoun to supplement the standard han (he) and hon (she). A couple of writers have produced a children’s book that uses it exclusively to refer to all the characters.

Cover of

The pronoun is hen.

Hm… Why does that sound familiar? Have the Swedes been reading MuseBlog?

Robert’s Time Capsule: The Avengers et al.

Avengers 4 cover

Robert recalls:

Throughout primary school, I read superhero comic books with an obsession verging on addiction. I was fiercely loyal: Marvel was my brand, first, last, and (I vowed and believed) forever.

I started buying them in second grade, in the PX of the long-since-dismantled Hunter’s Point naval shipyard in San Francisco, where my family spent a year living in a quonset hut while my father’s ship was in drydock. My first comic book was the Avengers; their colorful costumes caught my eye, and the confusion of characters inside posed a puzzle I had to solve.

Continue reading “Robert’s Time Capsule: The Avengers et al.”

Muse Academy May Ball, 2012

Off with your coats!

Muse Academy’s spring formal is now in progress!

Details can be found on the planning thread. Here’s how Cerulean Pyros summarizes them:

Entry hall: furniture attached sidelong to the walls and ceiling and floor, to look like the rabbit-hole turned on its side.

Ballroom: Indoor garden; large mushroom-shaped seats; chess; lion and unicorn archway to roof; tea party; holograms.

Rooftop: Tent, to turn it into an interior; croquet; clever and complicated mirror maze, as described extensively above.

Dancing will be: Lobster quadrille, and an assortment of interesting music. Food extant according to guests’ imaginations. Attire to be formal, comfortable, stylish, and individual. Interactions not relegated to fellow MBers, due to the infinite range of Mysterious Strangers who attend the ball.

The rest is up to you.

Muse Academy May Ball 2012 — Rooftop Garden

Alice's croquet game, as sketched by Lewis Carroll

An adjunct to the May Ball, this year’s rooftop garden features a tent, to turn it into an interior; croquet; and a clever and complicated mirror maze full of optical illusions, all described extensively on the planning thread.

It is warm and well lighted inside the tent; outside, for those who need it, there are cool fresh air and moonlight.

May 2012 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known MBers’ birthdays and “K Days” this month.

05-01 Pentatonikk’s birthday (1992)
05-04 Cat’s Eye’s birthday (1995)
05-07 Nancy Kangas’s birthday
05-07 Thief of Light’s 5K Day
05-09 Axa’s birthday (1992)
05-15 Thanks For All The Fish42’s birthday (1996)
05-18 Midnight Fiddler’s birthday (1992)
05-28 MissSwann’s birthday (1996)
05-28 gradster’s 7K Day
05-29 Selcothe Sikaria’s 6K Day
05-31 Tesseract’s birthday (1994)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between August 24 and September 23, 1998.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between November 28 and December 28, 1995.
You turn 7,000 days old this month if you were born between March 3 and April 2, 1993.
You turn 8,000 days old this month if you were born between June and July 7, 1990.

*Note: Listed MBers who have been inactive for several months won’t appear on next year’s birthday calendar unless they show up again.

Muse Academy May Ball 2012 — Planning Thread

Amid all the talk of IRL proms, don’t forget that the Academy’s spring formal is coming up soon and needs planning, too. It’s the high point of the academic year, so let’s make it a good one.

For inspiration, you might want to consult the proceedings of May Balls held in 2011, 2010, 2009, and
2008.

What’s Going On

It’s like this:

Previous April Fools’ Day celebrations on the blog consisted of pretend-takeovers by various nefarious entities. MBers were getting tired of that (last year, some of you were so uncomfortable with Victorian diction that you clammed up entirely), so this year we decided we’d do something simpler: We’ve found a bunch of goofy plug-ins and unleashed them on the blog. Text will appear distorted, rainbows and unicorns will appear if you don’t move your mouse every five seconds or so, and — oh, yes — there’s an Asteroids game embedded that will allow you to destroy the home page if you can find and activate it.

Silly enough for for you? If not, try a little Pac-Man:

[Sorry! We’ve taken it offline now. Maybe some other year. –Admin.]

[8:30 p.m. MuseBlog time on April 1: we’ve decided to leave the unicorns and the Asteroids game up overnight for the late-night crowd. Everything else will be restored to what passes for normal around here. Sorry, Comic Sans fans! –Admin.]