MuseBlog

The issues are back from the printer, all fresh and inky. Let us know when yours arrives and, later, what you think of it.

[Righto, no spoilers here. Let’s just track how long it takes the postal service to deliver them. We can discuss the issue on a different thread. –Admin.]

Samantha Sordyl’s friend Pat Dahl has agreed to come on board the blog and talk about your ideas for a Muse movie. He works in Hollywood (in TV, but knows a lot about movies) and has read Attack of the Smart Pies.

(For those who came in late, planning and lobbying for a Muse movie is Cedar’s big project. You can read more about it at Muse Movie? and Muse Movie? Part 2.)

Two pies in every face! A trebuchet in every garage! He’s a candidate whose time at last (alas) has come.

Cedar requests that this spinoff from his original Muse movie thread be used to post script ideas.

Originally published in Muse, volume 1, number 2, March 1997.

An experiment: the opposite of a random thread. Once a topic is chosen, posts must stay on the topic until people someone agree decides to change it. GAPAs will zap as necessary to keep things on track.

(Thanks to Pink Stalking Penguin of Penzance and Purple Panda for the idea for this thread.)

Architecture
Plants
Origami and Paper Folding
Musicals
Camp
The May/June 2006 issue
Sheer Joy
It starts at Comment 208.

She announced the idea on the Tenth Anniversary thread:

I’m working on an extra muse issue for the off – months that would consist entierly of matirial written by readers (that sounded really weird). I’ve asked people to contribute some articles and poems on the latest writing thread. Type “for By the Musers” at the top and end with the name you want the article/poem to be attributed to if it’s published. The magazine will be published three times a year, giving Muse a 12 issue schedule without much work for the editors, and giving musers a chance to have their articles published. Like???

That’s right: in January 2007, the Magazine of Life, the Universe, and Pie Throwing will be 10 years old. How should Muse mark the occasion? If we get our ideas in soon, there’s a chance the editors and publisher might have time to do something with them. (Unfortunately, there isn’t time to make a movie between now and then. If only…)

You can post ideas here for discussion, but make sure they also reach the magazine at muse@caruspub.com or via this handy online form at the official site.

Their letter in the May issue declared that Muse is for nerds and could seriously damage one’s social status. Some of you think they’re clueless. Others think they’re kidding. Shriya Jeffica thinks they deserve a thread all their own. We’re not sure about that but are willing to give it a try.

The May/June Muse seems to have been printed unusually early. Let us know when it arrives and what you think of it (careful: may contain spoilers). And don’t forget to craunch the marmoset! (See page 21.)

Just under the title on the cover of every Muse you’ll see the words “From the Publishers of Cricket and Smithsonian Magazine.” That’s accurate as far as it goes, but it lacks a certain, shall we say, resonance. It also gives no clue about what a newcomer to the magazine can expect to find inside. We’re sure that MuseBloggers will have no trouble dreaming up something more creative. Suggestions, please!

Samantha Sordyl is the new assistant editor at Muse. She’s busy at work in the Chicago office most of the time, despite Kokopelli doing his very best to distract her every chance he gets. When she’s not working on Muse, she enjoys biking, reading and painting the rooms in her new place, and repainting them when the colors don’t turn out just right.

[That’s what Samantha says about herself. Other relevant information: she reads MuseBlog and is the magazine’s official Keeper of the Stickers (“Kokopelli for President” and HPB). –Admin.]

Got a bright idea for the blog, the Fan Page, or (though we aren’t in charge of it) the magazine? Unveil it here.

Earlier blindingly brilliant inspirations are recorded at Suggestion Box, v. 2006.1 and Requests/Ideas.

Here’s the place to talk about it, to copy the links (they’re allowed if they’re in the magazine), and to post a Muse Mail boildown. (The Administrators don’t have time to boil it down themselves, but volunteers are more than welcome.) SPOILER WARNING.

Let us know when you get your issue. It’s amazing how much the arrival times vary.

Everybody’s talking about it, so you might as well do it here.

Everybody wishes there were ten times as many Musers–and with the magazine turning 10 years old next January, now is a good time to think about ways to make it happen. What can readers, editors, GAPAs, and the publishers do? Ideas, please!

The next issue of Muse after one is about language and we’re running an article about a guy who invented a language called Tho Fan for a game called Jade Empire. We’d like to translate a short bit of something into Tho Fan as an example. Does anyone have any suggestions?

It has to be really short, like 200 words. Maybe something about language but maybe not puns which might blow a translator fuse. Something funny? Something pop? And as always we need it yesterday (actually by Friday the 10th). No Elizabethan.

–She Who Must Not Be Named (Sorry, don’t know how to flourish on computer.)

The challenge: take an Implicit Association Test at www.implicit.harvard.edu and blog about the results. Parts of the thread will be published in the September 2006 issue.

O.K., Musers, it’s all yours…

When did you get it? What do you think of it? Tell all!

We thought they’d never show up, but Larry Gonick has used his Kokonino County connections to coax them onto the blog. The Web may never be the same. Brace yourselves…

Donna M. Jackson wrote the story in this month’s Muse about Paco the Taco — the baby horse (a foal, that is) born with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, aka “dummy foal syndrome.” She said she’d pop onto the blog now and then for a visit. Any questions for Donna? This is the place.
Donna’s an accomplished nonfiction writer, publishing books including “ER Vets: Life in an Animal Emergency Room,” “Hero Dogs,” “The Bug Scientists,” and “In Your Face: The Facts about Your Features.” Maybe she can answer Sphinx’s Queenie J.’s question about philtrums?

It’s about time the blog devoted a thread to Muse‘s resident genius. Maybe if we talk about him enough, he’ll drop by and say hi. CORRECTION: He’s here!

For some reason, we just like keeping track of these things.