Category: The Universe

Hot Topics, version 2007.1

Before posting, please read the below-the-fold reminder of what Hot Topics threads are all about.

The first Hot Topics thread was started in November 2005 because discussions on some of the other threads were getting too intense. The Administrators decided to carve out a special space on the blog for (as the original description read) “politics, religion, and anything requiring an extra dose of civility.” The idea was that if MBers wanted to discuss something controversial, they could bring it here and swap opinions and information in ways that didn’t make one another mad. In between controversies, Hot Topics would lie dormant.

People seem to have lost sight of that original purpose. Instead, a lot of MBers evidently think that (1) at any given moment, there always has to be a hot topic in progress, and (2) “Hot Topics” is a place where you’re supposed to try to make other people angry.

Not so. This isn’t talk radio or Fox News. We’re all Musers here. (Every now and then, someone has to finish that sentence.) Please remember what this thread is for, and use it for its intended purpose. And if no potentially inflammatory topics happen to be roiling the blog at the moment, don’t try to manufacture them. Give ’em a rest. Everybody needs a rest sometimes. Oh, and remember: Crusto volanti noli obstare.

Thanks for your attention.

–The Management

Living History

Shadowkat’s idea. Her description:

Everyone posts as if they were from a year of their choice (i.e. 1774, 1203, 500 B.C., 5178). They would have to identify the year they were from, and act and talk like people really did/will back then/when that year comes. And no one would be able to have the same year as anyone else. They could have a consecutive year (i.e. 1567, 1568), but not the same.

January 2007 DiscussionIncredible Morphing Chameleon Thread

Less random than the random thread. More continuity, focus, and attention to spelling, punctuation, and other niceties.

Current topic: Alcohol Caffeine “The Gilmore Girls” Foreign languages

Less random than the random thread. More continuity, focus, and attention to spelling, punctuation, and other niceties.

The rules? Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. And, as always, have fun.

Muse, Pennsylvania

Robert passed through it while driving home to Virginia after spending Christmas with his sister in Ohio. More photos inside.

Muse turned out to be a tiny place, one of those towns that people describe as “a wide spot in the road.” It’s not far off the beaten track, but you probably wouldn’t stumble across it if you weren’t looking for it.

It has a smattering of wooden houses,

two lodge halls (Kokonventioneers take note!), a church or two, a beauty salon, a day school that appears to double as a general store, a post office (see above), an elementary school,

and not much else.

Cell-phone photos taken on a gray, drizzly day in late December probably don’t do it justice. All the same, it’s probably never exactly picturesque.

In other words, it’s absolutely bursting with potential.

Happy Winter Solstice!

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, winter officially begins today (Thursday, December 21) at 6:22 p.m. MuseBlog time (U.S. Central time, the time at Muse headquarters in Chicago). That’s 4:22 p.m. Pacific time, 5:22 p.m. Mountain time, and 7:22 p.m. Eastern time. In Switzerland, it’s 1:22 a.m. on Friday, December 22. In New Zealand, it’s 1:22 on Friday afternoon.

Poems and Songs, v. 2006.5

Elassë~Adael (currently calling herself “e~a the sock monkey”) humbly requests a new installment of the Poems and Songs thread. There’s plenty of room left on Poems and Songs, v. 2006.4. We’re all in favor of humility, however, so here’s one more P&S thread to round off the year.

The Skipper Nancy on TV

She’s She was in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on November 23, and in the audience of the Today Show on the 24th.

Details inside

TSN writes:

This year, my marching band gets to be one of only 7 high school bands to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. I’m really uber-excited, even though it means having to get up at midnight and go in to the freezing streets of NY to practice. If you guys want to see my band, watch the parade on TV. We’re the gimungus high school AZ band (270 students strong!). We’re the third band in the parade, I think (and I’m in the second row, eek). We’ll have a minute of air-time on NBC to do our show, which is Hoe Down from the ballet Rodeo. (unfortunately, we’re not doing our normal show, which is The Who)

Also, we get to be in the audience for the Today Show on Nov. 24. Brilliant Mostly Harmless Idea I’m going to make a PWT PWNS sign to hold up in the audience. Then our awesomeness will be broadcasted over national TV !!!! (if my sign gets caught on camera, which isn’t that likely, but hey, we’ll try)

* * *

o I’m really pysched. I tried to sleep last night but didn’t so well. I will have to sleep on the flight to NY (it’s a red eye), because as soon as we get off, we go straight into a bus tour. Then we get 4 hrs of sleep (8-midnight) get up, go out to start rehearsal at 1 in the morining, start the parade at 9:30, march for 2 miles, and THEN get to Harold Square and do out show. It’s gonna be fun.

So everyone watch for the 3rd band in the Macy’s day parade. That’s us. And watch the Today Show on the 24th for the PWT PWNS sign that I’ll be holding up in the audience.

Words & Names, v. 2006.2

Words you ♥, words you made up, names you’re curious about–step right up and verbalize. Just don’t reveal too much about your own names.

Continued from the original thread by special request of Elassë~Adael, who says:

“we should have another words thread. And what do people think of the name Autumn?”