WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!
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SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.
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Doesn’t the spoiler warning need a period?
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
I really, really liked this issue. I definitely feel like the editors took all of our suggestions into consideration.
Front Cover: I thought it was kind of hard to read, especially the glowy text. But it was still crazy awesome and I could immediately tell what the issue was going to be about.
Dear Muse Reader: I thought it was cute. I liked all of the memory aids that would take even more effort to remember, and the ngy ngy ngy ngy part at the end.
Contents: I’m not a fan of the super complex contents pages, but I think this one was pretty good.
Bo’s Page: No annoying transitions! Plus, I thought the facts were really interesting. I kind of forgot to check the fake fact until just now (
) and I actually had thought that one was true! 
Muse Mail: AWESOME. First of all, congratulations POSOC on getting a letter in! I thought all of the letters were great, though, especially because they didn’t follow the format that Erin S. mentioned in her letter. The pages were back to their normal positions, too, and Mimi’s Cliche Generator was cool.
Kokopelli & Company: Haha, I thought it was funny. A little weird, but still funny.
SHAZAM! Mysteries of Lightning: What I really loved about the articles in this issue was that even though they were excerpts that didn’t seem like excerpts. I specifically checked, and was surprised to see that they hadn’t been written for Muse. I also liked how they didn’t talk down to us, and had plenty of new concepts and scientific-y vocab. Kudos for that.
Anyways, for the actual article, it was really neat. I’ve always thought that lightning goes top to bottom, so it was cool to find out it was almost the opposite. I also noted the adorable little graphic at the top of the second page that made the article make even more sense. It was the return of the little side-topics, and I thought it was great. The pages also weren’t distracting, but they were filled. (And the margin Muses were small)
Virtual Friendship: It pwnt. ‘Nuf said. (I really liked the title graphic at the top, though. And Mimi and Koko are totally right. I would have put that in, but my real life friends were going to get mad at me.)
A Lucky Strike: Yay! Themed issues = ♥
Fascinating title/picture. And the actual article was interesting to ponder, too. The ending was a little abrupt, but it was still very good.
Q&A: I actually wanted to know the answers to these questions. The Jell-O one more then the other, but still. I never knew about colloids before. I’m glad to see that Muse can still teach me things I don’t know.
Hungry Planet: I think this might have been my favorite article. It took a very real concept and put it into words, numbers and pictures. The visual picture of what we eat was cool. I kept expecting it to show a picture of what the average American family eats, though, and was just a wee bit disappointed when it wasn’t there. (Oh, and my brother is going to be sad when he reads the bit about the polar bear. He’s a polar bear fan these days.)
The City Without Us: This was cool too. I wish it hadn’t been quite so specific to New York City, but it was still really neat and interesting. It kind of seemed to have dropped off the themed issue part by now, but oh well. Also, the full page graphic was both cool and not-so-cool. I like that Muse was including more pictures, but it seemed more like filler pages then anything.
Contest Winners: Those are awesome drawings. I love them all, but especially Julie and Daire’s.
Mapping the Brain: That’s really what a mouse’s brain looks like!? FREAKY!
Overall: Awesome job, Muse. The editors have really taken our suggestions to heart. I’m proud to add this issue to my collection, for the first time in a while. (And give the extra copies to my grandparents, and English teacher, and everybody else I can think of! :D)
Aww, darn. Now you’ve gone and distracted me from my history podcast.
But good job anyways. ^^
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
O.k., Not really. But I want to know:
Is “The City Without Us” From “The World With Out Us”?
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER. (sorta)
Wow. Sounds like they’ve already changed things, even though we haven’t sent the letter. EP must’ve squealed. Oh, well, we’ve put enough work into the letter that I think it should be sent anyway, if only for the hope that it will be published so readers can know what goes on at MuseBlog and the good this site does for their magazine.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
Not.
2 – That’s the one.
November Muse Spoiler.
Cat’s Meow: Congratulations on your Muserology! I haven’t read any of the comments on this thread (I’m waiting for the actual magazine to come before I read any spoilers, but I recognized your name on the MuseMagKids website). I like how you started with MuseBlog, then expanded the discussion to all sorts of internet friendships.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
5 – Thanks.
That’s also the reason I got my magazine so early, which I don’t want to mention on the Roll Call thread because I guess it’s a bit of a spoiler. =P
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
I took a copy to my Language Arts teacher this morning, so I could show her the article. She responded by promptly assigning my morning LA class the prompt “What do you think the world would look like if humans just suddenly disappeared?”, accompanied by a wink to me.
Post #8 is Spam, GAPAs.
(8) Thanks, Purple Panda. It’s cybervapor now.
What’s with all the spam lately? It appears we’re on the radar, for spammers, at least.
I just got mine…. Meow, that was your article? Awesome! Congratulations.
I’m not going to bother writing what I thought about every single article, but I have to say that this issue is the BEST Muse that there’s been for over a year. It seemed much more original than any of the issues that’ve been published lately.
SPOILER SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 SPOILER.
Unfortunately, my anger and disgust at Muse has atrophied into apathy. I simply don’t care any more. This issue was fake. See-through. Flimsy. I can see there’s no real hope in sight. Well, I’ll let my subscription lapse, most likely. The end of Muse is at hand. I just wish it could’ve gone out with a bang. Requiescat in pace.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
Really? I thought it was pretty good. What parts did you think were see-through and flimsy?
SPOILER SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 SPOILER.
13- Well, let’s see. The Koko and Company ended too abruptly, for one. I was sure that it would be a longer one, but it wasn’t. The main lightning article didn’t teach me anything I didn’t already know. I had already read the MUSEROLOGY online, so that doesn’t really count. The other lightning article was a bit odd. It seemed like they were trying for a themed issue and were grasping at straws a bit. I guess it just didn’t really interest me, and I’m not a huge fan of first-person narrative-type articles. As for the Q&A, I knew that one time or another the Jello one would be asked, and I had already known the answer as well. I didn’t like how the Hungry Planet one was lain out. It was too disorganized, too cluttered. Plus we had just done something just like that in my Geography class. And the History Channel recently did a special covering the exact same topic as the City Without Us article, so, again, there was nothing new. The Last Page was the only one I enjoyed, save the MUSEROLOGY. So overall, it was bland, uninteresting, and uninformative. For me, anyway. Not a good sign.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
I have a new system of rating issues using smilies. Here is the chart:
I would rate this issue
. None of the articles interested me (sorry if the Muserology was written by anyone here). Like global warming, we can no longer deny the fact that Muse is going downhill. We need to send the letter soon. Here is my signature:
Miranda C. (Rainbowstar), age 11, reader for 2 years, subscriber for 1.5 years
(15) I fixed the smiley by adding a space before the period.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
Am I the only one that liked it…?
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
17- I liked it!!!
Yay! A physocology article! My favorite kind!
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
Dear Muse Reader–Funny! And hooray for themed issues. I like how the ridiculous mnemonics are supposed to be from a 900+ page book of ramblings, although almost all of the “Dear Muse Reader”s have been pretend excerpts from books, newspapers, etc. Is Muse seriously trying to clue its readers in to the fact that everthing in the magazine is excerpts now?
Muse Contents–A little hard to see the images and to read the words around the margin, but not bad.
Bo’s Page–The invisibility factoid was awesome. All the facts were interesting, actually.
Muse Mail–So now Muse is only publishing letters that are non-cliche? Aren’t those going to become cliche pretty fast, themselves?
“Dear Muse,
Well, now that you’re only publishing irritated, brief, non-cliche letters (the point of which were to outdo everyone else’s cliches), I’m going to write you this letter. I’m writing it because I love Muse. I’m interested in sharks and soccer, so if you could do articles about those two things, I’d appreciate that. I learned a lot from the article about lightning. It was cool.
John Smith, Generic State Here.”
Koko&Company–Weird. Funny, but really, really weird.
Shazam–Written-for-Muse inserts are back! Sweet! Great article, I couldn’t really tell it was from a book.
Muserology–Great!
Lucky Strike–Who knew lightning could do that? I might go climb a tree in the next thunderstorm. This was a really interesting article that I thought was appropriate for both the themed issue and Muse itself.
Hungry Planet–Good concept, but the layout was really hard for me to get much out of. Still, interesting information, and I liked the article overall.
The City Without Us–For some reason, I think the idea of the way the world would respond if we vanished is facinating. I wanted to watch the Life After People documentary in January, but I missed it and thanks to no DVR am still trying to get my hands on a tape of it. I really liked this article a lot.
Contest Winners–Honestly, no offense to anyone who submitted these pictures, but what the heck? How is Madison S.’s “What a Pencil can Do” picture original? How is Daire G.’s picture of something you’d do with a pencil at all? Julie E.’s and Nadia S’s pictures were creative and well-drawn–actually, all of the pictures are really well drawn, especially when you consider that Madison S. is seven years old–but this seems like a really pointless contest to me. Then again, I hated most of the issue it was from.
Last Page–Cool.
All in all, this issue was a mixed bag. Lots of really good articles, but a few things I didn’t like. Well, that’s how any magazine is, right? So good to see that Muse is heading back in the right direction.
Am I the only one that DIDN’T like it?
15- Okay, I got your sig. Disregard my message on the October Discussion Page about still needing it.
20 – Piggy didn’t.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
I thought this was a great issue!! All of the articles were really interesting, and using Rainbowstar’s smiley system I would give it a :).
Cover-Awesome picture, but I think the text should have been a different colour.
Dear Muse Reader-I was confused at first and thought I was missing a page of my Muse because of the left page of the book being cut off. Once I understood, I thought it was great!
Bo’s Page: Very cool facts! The invisibility one was verrry cool. But I didn’t guess the false fact.
Muse Mail: Nice letter POSOC! I think the two mail pages should be together. The letter from Erin S. was pretty funneh.
Kokopelli & Co.-Not the funniest of cartoons, but still good.
Shazam! Mysteries of Lightning-This was an awesome, interesting article. I had no idea about the whole coming up from the ground thing.
Muserology-Great job Meow! Thought it was cool.
A Lucky Strike-Creepy…I loved it!
Hungry Planet-I’ve read something like this before. I though this was really interesting. Maybe my favorite article!
The City Without Us-Again, loved it!! My grandfather would like it, he lives in NYC.
I think maybe since there were 2 articles about lighning all of the articles should have been about lightning. Or one of the articles were saved for another issue.
Nice article Cat’s Meow- I really liked it! Congrats to POSOC for getting a letter in.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER.
Mmkay… it was an okay issue. Not wonderful, not terrible. Just okay.
Should I give my play-by-play? Eh, why not? (note; this is all from memory, my issue is downstairs and not available for reference)
Dear Muse Reader: NaK = Completely insane, yet utter genius, as always.
Bo’s Page: Didn’t guess the false fact, fairly interesting. Although I’m still not liking the wierd column-layout of the past few months.
Muse Mail: Congrats POSOC! Is it just me, or do a lot of musebloggers seem to be getting into Muse Mail these days?
Koko&Co: Wierd. But nice.
Shazam!: Hmm… decent. A bit bland in parts. But overall, mildly interesting and informative.
Muserology: Nice, Meow!
Lucky Strike: Ooh, quite interesting, yet mysteriously freaky.
Hungry Planet: A bit National Geographic Kids reminiscent, from when I used to subscribe, (wayyy back in the day…) especially in the format, but about 500 times more in-depth and informative. My mom didn’t believe that those people from Mexico actually ate that much in one week 0_o
The City Without Us: WALL-E, anyone?
I wish it could have given me a stronger idea of how much time was actually passing, which was either absent, or I must have missed, but overall a good article.
Contest: … *pause* Again, decent entries. All I can say is that I liked the one where the girl’s drawings came off the paper. The rest were so-so though. And this month’s contest seems a little to general to me. More room for imagination, I know, but this could go anywhere…
Last Page: Colorful! Oh, and interesting too. *stares at pretty colors*
Overall, an extremely decent issue. No better word for it. Somewhat, but not too informative or interesting… basically no quirks… (which are a VERY big point for me…)
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.
I thimk muse is getting better since the issues after Oxygen, a love story. This is probably my favorite recent issue. I loved the Koko and Company.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE KINDA-SEMI SPOILER. (But not really, depending on your point of view.)
25-Why, what other MBers have been getting into the letters? By the way, I didn’t say this the first time, but congrats, POSOC!
NOT REALLY A SPOILER.
27 – I think somebody (don’t remember who) got in the last one.
27- Vixen, I think.
Wait, that was Vixen, the letter from Denmark, amirite?
29 – I believe so. That sounds about right.
And yes, I know, this is not the right thread, but the october discussion thread is dead, and I wanna critique the mag somewhere it might actually be read! so there.
DEAR MUSE READER: By far the best one well, since the “Dear Muse Reader” theme started many months (years?) ago. Pretty close to on par with the spoof first pages of old.
BO’S PAGE: Well, I’m afraid I fell for the false fact–i was positive the false one was Sweet Nothings, Part I. However, as far as one of the other true facts, the one abot analyzing the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in your hair to determine the location of the tap water you have been drinking: I see numerous flaws here. Ever since starting college, I have not drank any tap water whatsoever (I mean, c’mon, the only place to get tap water is the freaking bathroom, there is no way I’m getting drinking water out of those sinks, and water fountains are equally disgusting), so I’ve been relying on bottled water. And somehow, I have to imagine that mass produced bottled water probably al comes from the same source, and thus if I were drinking, say, Dasani (which I’m not, that is nasty water) in Alaska, it would be the same chemical makeup as Dasani in Florida, thus doing nothing to determine my location based on the water I drank. So, yeah, lots of flaws in that, although an interesting fact all the same, that could be used, it just has a lot of kinks ot work out.
MUSE MAIL–so,the letter, is it from Vixen? I know she lives in Denmark. If it is, congrats on getting a letter published! It was a very enjoyable letter, too!
KOKOPELLI and CO. lol, this was funny, I could so see people coming up with some sort of whacko way of voting, just like this. Personally, I’m partial to the ballots back home, where we just bubble in a circle, like on standardized tests…..Very simple, and everybody knows (or hsould know), exactly how to fill them in…..
VOTE.COM: Well, Michael Alvarez would seem to be wrong aobut one thing–“We may not know until well after Election Day who the next president is.” Obama won with such a landslide, nobody could reasonably debate his win.
The article was fairly interestng however, although I was rather disappointed with I read the about the author bit “….writer for Caltech’s Engineering and Science magazine, where this piece first appeared….” Really, it’s nice to have some original material, written solely for us Musers, as opposed to somethign copied from another book or magazine, that any given one of us could, theoretically, have already read.
Gah, the little sidebar on that article, the “Democrat, Republican–why bother?” just makes my head spin. although it does suggest my sister may ahve been right by saying people who voted for the third party candidate in the election were, essentially, giving a vote to Obama….”
Q&A–ok, seriously, for the six year old’s question, I think the better question would have been “How can a sneeze travel at about 100 miles per hour without exploding my head when I pinch my nose and don’t open my mouth when I sneeze?” Or something along those lines. Regardless, I greatly miss having Robert and Rosanne as the Q&A people–you guys were the greatest, and greatly superior to the newbies.
TALK LIKE A LEADER–eep: “That may explain why doctors have infamous handwriting. The scribble is literally a code. The doc will probably tell you what the prescription is for, but writing does the same thing that speaking in Latin once did for the medical community, distinguishing the elite doctors from everybody else. The prescription scribble is a kind of social grooming….Call it code grooming.”
So, are you telling me that if I wanna fit in as a veterinarian (who have just as horrible of handwriting as any human doctor–trust me, I’ve worked for vets) I’ve gotta lose my nice, beautiful, legible handwriting and start scrawling everything? But I like my writing!!!!!!
Guess I just won’t fit in…..actually, I think the handwriting can be attributed just as much to the fact that, at least with vets I worked for, they are writing the chart up between appointments, and they are often running late, so they are writing them as quick as possible, and thus not paying much mind to their handwriting. Or else they are writing them at the end of the day, when all they want is to go home (or join the tech in having a beer–don’t ask, they were all very beer/alcohol oriented–yet another trait that will keep me from fitting in…..)
I thought lol was laughing out loud, not laugh out loud…..And question, is “wds 2 tuff 2 rede” “words too tough to read?” Sorry, I do not understand chatspeak whatsoever, and thus it annoys me when I get text message from AT&T that are written with as many abbreviations and numbers as kids IMing/texting each other…….
somebody, please, tell Bush to shut up–I hate redundancy, and what is more redundant then “I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe–I believe what I believe is right.” Not only does the word “believe” not sound or look right anymore, I have become entirely confused as to what the heck he was trying to say…..
And just an artistic note–it’s awfully hard to read the text printed on Bush’s face.
Do I even want to know what Sims is? It sounds like a really stupid game…..Never heard of it, by the way.
“”We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job.” This is a classic Bushism, a sentence an editor would have rewritten immediately. You knw what he means, though, don’t you?” Actually, no, i don’t. I don’t speak ungrammatical gobbledegook (and no, I don’t be goblin langage, HP fans!), and hate listening/reading things spoken/written by people who can’t be bothered to learn grammar and use it at least moderately correctly. it’s irritating, frustrating, and impossible to get any thing out of.
“I’m a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful values.” wtf? Seriously, Bush, speak English, go back to school, learn grammar. You are making my head hurt.
ok, seriously, if I were the type to ask if something made me look fat (which would just be a ridiculous thing for me to ask in the firs place), the response: “It doesn’t make you look thin” would lead me to the desperate desire to slug the jerk who thought that was a good response.
Overall a good article, although i don’t buy it. I would much rather hear an intelligent argument the a bunch of words strung together in what supposedly passes for a sentence. If I were to have actually listened to any of these speeches that Bush used these idiot quotes in, well, I for one certainly would ahve been disgusted in his stupidity and lack of education. I really don’t buy that people are more likely to go in for jumbled words than an intellgient argument. Then again, Obama’s speech are just a bunch of well-spoken meaningless stuff, because he changes his views constantly, and says things that don’t mean anything, even if they sound good, and look wher eit got him…..
However, I was disappointed to see yet another copied article. Originality, please.
THE LOCKED DOOR: wow, a book excerpt. imagine that. and i think I’ve heard of the book, too, although i could be creating a false memory on that–but I could almost swear my psych teacher mentioned it…..
“What is striking, though, is that even after people walked slowly out of the room and down the hall, they still weren’t aware of how their behavior had been affected.” Um, hello, what happened to the required debriefing? It is required, due to ethical reasons, that after all psych experiments, even just the idiotic ones like the one I did earlier today (a survey of my alcohol use, where basically I just spend ten minutes going down the questions saying nope, don’t drink, nope, don’t drink, and then the final question was something about committing suicide, cuz drinking, or the drinking of those around you is supposed to ahve some effect on whether you’ve ever thought of suiciding….). oh, oops, sorry darling psych experimenters on my campus, was I not supposed to talk about that experiment so that any other kids on my campus wouldn’t know what the point was, and potentially give biased answers? well, not only do I not care, darling experimenters, I don’t htink any of my darling MBer friends go here, so I shall continue to babble away. (Sorry, feeling disagreeable)
So, even on stupid experiments like those, you are ehtically required to debrief participants, as well as getting signed consent at the beginning of the experiment, at which point you supposedly tell them what the experiment is about, but at which time you are really blatantly lying about the purpose. (For my psych course, I have to participate in 6 hrs of psych experiments, as apparently the psych department can’t get enough experimentees, so students taking intro psych have to either be the guinea pigs, or else write 6 papers–obviously I’m going the way of the experiments)
Oh, one question–are GRE’s hard? I have to take either the GRE’s or the MCAT’s to get into vet school (although, as I am in a prevet program that guarantees me a spot in vet school as long as I don’t get crappy grades during undergrad, it is more for show in my case, then anything else. But still, they could probably kick me out i I didn’t meet the minimum…..So, do any of you GAPAs know? Are the GRE’s hard?
“how long did it take you to make sentences out of those words? My guess is that it took you no more than a few seconds per sentence.” Yeah, right. More like a few tens of seconds or more. Took me quite awhile, oh so intelligent author. Hmm, I do believe I am sick of psych grad students trying to manipulate me with their idiotic experiments, like that one where I was supposedly competing against another experimentee in some reaction time test…..and htere was a questionnaire at the end, and one of the questions wanted to know how well you thought you did compared to the other person, and at that point it hit me, and my answer was, “I think I did a lot worse than the other person, assuming there even was another person, which it would not surprise me if there wasn’t.” I don’t know, it was something in the questions, combined with screwy way the other player responded that convinced me that there wasn’t really an opponent, not to mention I’d never seen this supposed opponent. And, guess what? I was right. it was all fake (if you lost, you had annoying noise played in your ears for the duration and time chosen by your opponent, and my “opponent” never gave the loudest volume or longest time, even after I had just blasted them with the loudest and longest. I never went below five for either volume or sound–it went to 10–and my “opponenet” rarely went above 5. I mean, who are you kidding? If you ahd just had that crap blared full blast in your ears, there was no way in hell if youw ere real you wouldn’t retaliate back. not to mention, the rounds I won, always seemed to be the ones where I reacted slowly, and the ones I lost were the ones where it was nearly impossible for someone else to ahve gotten it sooner…..) Anyway, I lost track of what I was trying to say.
Good article, overall–despite the endless attempts at manipulation by all the various psych students putting on the numerous experiments I have participated in (none of which ahve been terribly interesting), I still have been finding psych class very interesting, especially all my prof’s in depth descriptions of psych experiemnts. Actually, we watched a part of the BBC’s recreation of Milgram’s experiments in class yesterday (How the heck did they find anybody who hadn’t heard about it, and thus knew what was going on?). Just a sec, maybe I can find a delinkified link, it was on YouTube. Wait for one of the last guys they show, it’s some guy who I think was kinda bald. So, the first guy or two barely hits the switch at all, immediately releasing it, the later guy seriously holds it down for several seconds, despite supposedly being concerned about the long term affects on the “learner”. The gasps of shock at this were very apparent in the lecture hall. I mean, seriously, at least the first guy barely tapped the switch, didn’t hold it for over a second or more…….
ok, link: www . youtube . com/watch?v=y6GxIuljT3w
ok, random note, do you know how long it took me to figure out that the little critter at the ends of the articles wren’t beetles, but Kokopelli? When I first started reading Muse many years ago, I always thought he was a beetle, until one day it hit me. I never had understood why they were ended with a beetle.
MY GROWING FASCINATION: cream cheese? In a container with a lid? Like sour cream? Really? Not that I eat cream cheese, but…..I have never, ever, seen it in a container with a lid…..it comes in a brick, a bit like butter, except not the same shape, wrapped in foil…… cream cheese in a plastic container does not compute.
erm, home made bread with fancy white spots? Would this be similar to almost two month old storebought bread that finally got a couple mold spots, almost the same color as the bread, but slightly tan, maybe with a bad smell? (I’m not sure if it was the bread, or the pumpkin that had grown a huge patch of black fuzz that smelled). Just wondering if you might ahve any idea what kind of mold it was…..If it was the same as yours, penicillium, it would certainly suggested that the element in penicillin that I am allergic to is not the mold! That is, assuming I am truly allergic…..when i was a little kid, I was given penicillin (for an ear infection, I believe), and I got a rash, so it was decided I was allergic. but I’ve never had it since, and my mom isnt’ entirely convinced that I am truly allergic…..I mean, obviously it’s on my medical records, and I always say I’m allergic, but….
Anyway, awesome, awesome article, Pan! It is by far one of the best articles in the mag for a long time, and by far the type of article that I consider truly fitting for the October mag. Not that the other articles in the mag were bad, but they were October Muse quality, not the type of subject matter that makes grown adults shuddder and squirm and toss their lunch (not that this did that to me, but you get the idea). Actually, come to think of it, I’m quite hungry.
THE FACAIL DETECTIVE: hehehe, I like the caricature of Obama, hehehe…… I have had two caricatures done of me since starting college (it seems to be a popular even at their friday night free things, and, well, there free, and one the occasions that the events look interesting, I go, and get the free pizza, and then hit up as many activites as possible), and neither is recongnizble as me, especially the second one. All I recognize in it is the hat I was wearing as part of my Halloween costume. Other than that, it doesn’t even look like me AT ALL. Thus, i would say it is not a good caricature.
I think I found a typo: “A caricaturist may sit down to draw a person who would appear an idea subject for caricature but isn’t.” Shouldn’t it be “ideal subject”?
Additionally, although I can see Obama in his caricature, I don’t see John McCain. If I were to look at that caricature, without it being identified as him, I would never have guessed. Which to me, is a mark of a poor caricature.
Overall, good article.
CONTEST WINNERS: I like the one with the kitty, although I know form personal experience that some cats aren’t at all particular about what they eat. As in, kitty kibble is more than satisfying, as are dorito crumbs, and basically anything that is not a fruit/veggie. *coughmycatcough*
lol, the one with the poodle was cute, too! Poor dog.
STRANGERS AMONG US: interesting…..although, I hate to say it, they look a bit like oompaloompas.
Anyway, pretty good article overall! I shall forgive the fact that it was mainhly about politics, as opposed to Halloweeny stuff (with the exception of Pan’s excellent article), because, look at it this way–Halloween happens every year, a presidential election, every four. One politically themed election every four years, if we have a delightfully “gory” Halloween one the other three years, seems a fair trade.
Um, think that’s all, sorry for the length!!!!!
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.
I Absolutely LOVED the Nov/Dec edition, especially the “A World Without Us” What would the world be like without muse? Probably a dark dreary place!
(by the way, all who read this, I applaud your courage for getting past post 31.)
31- That’s quite the post there. The Sims is actually an extremely entertaining and addictive game, stupid as it may sound. And how have you never seen cream cheese in a tub? I know what you’re talking about with the blocked cheese, but tubbed cheese seems pretty common, around here anyway. As for cats’ eating habits, does yours eat plants/Christmas trees/dead leaves? Mine eats everything.
Hm, this is interesting. From Science Editor:
“The session Science Writing for Young Audiences included remarks by Diana Lutz, editor of the nonfiction magazine Muse…Lutz distributed lists of what Muse wants and does not want. Among items that it favors are first-person writing, conversational style, wit, enthusiasm, and brevity. An example of what Muse rejects is “old newsâ€, such as “Leonardo da Vinci—did you know that he was also an architect, engineer, and scientist?â€
The current editors could take a look at this…
Awww. Thanks, Luna
(31).
33–Well, it depends. Gandalf didn’t eat our Christmas tree last year, but the first two weekends we had him (I was taking care of him–the vet clinic I worked for was trying to adopt him out), Christmas and New Years weekend 2007, but as I was saying, those first two weekends he acted like a very calm, sedate cat–complete opposite of now, where he acts like a sweet, wild cat. I mean, by the time we finally threw the tree out, Gandalf had finally started playing with the low hanging ornaments (he spent all his time sleeping under the tree), but now? I think the low branches will be chewed, batted, and all the low ornaments (especially if they’re glittery) will be destroyed…..
And plants? well, he tried to attack my mom’s christmas cactus, but we got himn to stop, and anytime he is outside (which is almost never), he eats grass, and he’ll chew on anything. He shreds newspaper left on the floor, cardboard, anything. He gets into the garbage in the basement (we kinda fixed it up so he can’t get in, but given how high he can jump…..)
Yup, he is a very sweet wild kitty who eats pretty much everything in sight!
Not to PoPo or anything, but HI ROSANNE! I haven’t seen you for awhile!
Hi, Midnight Fiddler!
Hi, Rosanne! Hi, Midnight Fiddler! *hifest*
39-*Joins* Hi Midnight Fiddler! Hi Rosanne! Hi IBCF!
Red-tailed HAWK
Hi, Rosanne! And your welcome (post 36)! And, wow, it has been awhile since you were last on (that is, since you last posted), hasn’t it? It always seems to be Robert and Rebecca, and I just realized three of the four GAPAs have names that start with R–perhaps that’s why I always misread the names–I see the R, and for whatever reason, my mind first jumps to Robert, and then I have to reread the name, cuz it’s like, no, wait, that’s not right…..
Hi hi hi hi hi hiiiii!
And moderate too 
And it’s true, Luna, I’ve been exceedingly quiet lately. I still lurk plenty though
43–well, it’s good to know you’re lurking (and moderating)!
We miss you around here!
Thanks, Luna. I’m sure I’ll get more talkative again. But right now I must run off and make dinner. I recall you find cauliflower abhorrent, so you’ll be glad to know that there’s no cauliflower tonight. Instead BROCCOLI. (I’m guessing that’s not a favorite either…) But I love it, especially with sesame seed oil.
This is really off topic, now, so farewell and back to Muse Discussion.
Hey, completely irrelevant to the discussion, but I’m sending this to Cricket.
Hey, Cricket people!
I never thought I would write to you. But something in the November/December issue is… thought provoking. It was a CAT issue. You see, in the history of the flamablamablous magazine Muse, there was a great cat/dog war, with readers disputing over which is better- cats or dogs. Finally, to get rid of it all, the hot pink bunnies came into existence. HPBs are EVIL, people! Don’t fuss over how cute they are; that’s part of the TRICK! They are plotting to take over the world! Anyway, HPBs replaced the words “cat†and “dog.†Cricket readers wrote in saying, quote, “…cats are more smart than dogs.†and “I love cats.†This abomination should not be allowed to continue! PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t do this to us! Please!
Concerned,
Zinc the sorceress, Muser (Baker house PWNS) and daydreamer.
P.S.- Kokopelli for president!
I wonder if they’ll publish it.
SPOILER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.
someone post here
SPOILER- SPOILER
Can the Jan. issue of Kokopelli and company be about turning devil into a HPB ? He is REALLY breaking the rules. Plus, Kokopelli is more of a cat type. He could never imagine the unconditional love dogs give their owners. Besides, the HPBs don’t show up enough it the comic. Now that they’ve settled the cats/dogs problem once and for all (except devil), they need to stick their furry little noses into other (current!) matters.
What the cake? Why is the October thread closed? Are we not sending the letter? Where is everybody? What the heck is going on??? *is utterly confuzzled*
(49) Piggy: The October discussion thread was starting to attract spam bots, so I closed it temporarily to discourage them. I’ll reopen it now.
50- Okay. Thank you! Then again, the letter idea seems to have died anyway. I think Muse got the idea anyway, what with EP lurking about.