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The birthday is today, January 27, 1756. It’s a bit late in the day to start a thread, but there’s still time for a little night music.

It’s been more than a year since we started the last one of these. Here’s how we described it then:

Chokoholics, video-game addicts, manga fiends — tell us how you know when you’ve crossed the line.

‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a Hatter: and in that direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’
‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, logician, fantasy novelist, stutterer, High Victorian, and nonsense versifier supreme, was born on January 27, 1832. He concocted his famous pseudonym by Latinizing his first and middle names (to Carolus Ludovicius), reversing their order, and de-Latinizing them. Though he died 100 years before Muse came along, we daresay he would have approved. Thanks to lifewithoutacellphone for reminding us that today is his day.

Somehow, MuseBlog’s great original contribution to world culture just keeps getting stupider and more senseless with every installment. Keep up the good work! If you haven’t experienced this medium before, SSSSs version 2007.4 will show you how it’s done.

As Gingersnap has just pointed out, today, January 23, is National Pie Day.

It’s true! You can read all about it on the website of the National Pie Council at www. piecouncil.org/national.htm . The Council’s list of “Random Acts of Pieness,” however, seems woefully incomplete…

As the January random thread enters its final trimester, image-manipulatrix extraordinaire Lady Bunniful once again unleashes her uncanny talents. Read more »

MBers can’t seem to get enough of them.

The indefatigable podcasters Purple Panda and Taiwan Hippo Fan weigh in with their longest MuseCast yet, entitled Life on Mars.

Previous MuseCasts are still available:
MuseCast 1
MuseCast 2
MuseCast 3
MuseCast 4
MuseCast 5
MuseCast 6
MuseCast 7

Hear the splatting of the pies,
Apple pies!
What a world of misery their crusted warmth belies.

Yes, on the whole it’s a good thing that Mr. Poe didn’t write about Muse. He was an unhappy soul, but his poems and stories have given us many hours of diversion. So we hope that he’ll be of good cheer (in a foetid, sepulchral way) wherever he is (which we shudder to think about).

“The only president of the United States who was never president of the United States,” as the Firesign Theater once called him, was born 302 years ago today (January 17). Hail to one of the most fascinating, down-to-earth, and likable Americans to have trodden the continent in recorded history.

You’re needed on the Neophytes thread.

Including winter sports; requested by treble_cone_freeeskier!

It’s hard to believe we’ve never had a thread on this topic.

Latin is a dead language,
It’s dead as it can be.
It killed the ancient Romans,
And now it’s killing me.
Those are dead who wrote it;
Those are dead who spoke it;
Those will die who learn it;
And, blessed death, they earn it.
–Poem that Robert’s father (who knew Latin) taught him

Crusto volanti noli obstare, y’all!

*Round-Robin ‘Riting.

Part 3 remains open for editing the last section, while Part 4 forges ahead into new territory.

Requested by Alice, and continued from the not-terribly-active 2007 edition.

New year, new place to submit your ideas for threads or anything else you like. Continued from version 2007.2.

Another vintage year goes on the auction block.

Item 250355888964; sale ends January 14.

The January random thread sinks ever deeper into the morass of winter — at least for those in the Northern Hemisphere. Antipodean MuseBloggers must be quite comfortable now. Continued from Part One.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

Continued from Muse Fanfiction, v. 2007.2.

These are not RRRs but solo projects which share the same thread. Start your own, or just stop by and visit.

A perennial MB favorite: Post under a false name, and try to guess the identities of others doing the same.

NOTE: Check your posts before sending them. The Administrators will not rescue you if you accidentally submit one under your “real” blogname.

Continued from 2007.3. The original idea came from Prarilius Canix, who described it as “a thread for Musers who have written/are writing/want to write books… a place to bounce ideas off of other people who share that interest.”

Astronomers say this year’s Quadrantid meteors could be unusually good. A late moonrise could make it possible to see 30 to 60 meteors per hour in the United States and twice that many in Europe.

When to look: the morning of January 4, after midnight blog time (1 a.m. U.S. Eastern time, or before dawn in Europe) — not ideal for a school night, alas. Let us know if you look and what you see.

Out there in Valinor, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien would be celebrating his eleventy-sixth birthday today. Mae losto, Professor. Belain na le!