WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!
To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” columns, please paste the following message in at the beginning of your posts:
SPOILER MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.
*The hyphens are continuing the experiment to try to fool spambots into ignoring this thread.
Excellent. However, I don’t think the given spoiler buffer will work, so I’m just going to type these few sentences here. I think this should be enough, no?
Cover: Hm. I like the non-conversational tone, in comparison to the last few issues.
Letters seem a tad immature, but that could just be me.
First Page: Dear Muse Reader…: Nice! But, wait… didn’t we already have an invasive species issue? Oh, no…
Muse Contents: Interesting, interesting, but the quotes in the Editorial Staff section have been relatively well-known recently. I’d like more obscure quotes, personally.
Bo’s Page: Well, I guessed the false fact right away, but all the facts were interesting. But have I heard the colour/school success thing before, possibly in Muse? Maybe that was Odyssey. I don’t know.
Muse Mail: What? Back in two separate pages? Can’t the editors make up their minds?
Kokopelli & Company: I can’t tell if this is classic or predictable. Hm…
“Alien Invasion” by Alan Burdick: Nothing spectacular, especially because invasive species already had their own dang issue. At least they didn’t reuse the old articles.
“The Arrival” by Shaun Tan: Could be interesting, but, with just an excerpt, didn’t really grab me. I can see how it fits into the already used theme, but… it seems like a bit of a stretch to me.
Q&A: Robert and Rebecca? But wait… which one is which? Both answers say they were from Robert. Editing error or conspiracy?…
Muserology: “Une Nouvelle Node de Vie” by Elaine Gillis: I really liked this one, for some reason. Sweet picture, too.
“Super-drought in the Southwest” by Glen M. MacDonald: Again with the first-person point of view? Have there been any articles in the last year without that? Glurg. Apart from that, it was a good article, especially because it didn’t scream at the reader for burning fossil fuels and creating global warming; it mentioned human overuse of resources and historical natural global warming. Me gusta. Was this article original for Muse? I think so. Awesome!
“Flight of the Flora” by Barbara Hall: I couldn’t even finish this one, mainly because I was too distracted by the large errors in layout. On the end of the first page, going onto the second, it goes, “Peering at the glass goldenrod, you can see that, like a live goldenrod, it is actually” ((next page)) “(Incidentally, this wildflower has a bad reputation for causing allergies…” What? It is actually what? What happened? What’s supposed to go in between?? And at the end of the article, on page 36 on the top of the right hand column, there’s a bizarre line break or something. Was someone in a rush to get this issue out, hm?
Contest Winners: A few interesting ones, although with horrific spelling mistakes. “Identifieng” and “rendoring” jump out at me. I’m sure a twelve-year-old knows how to use a dictionary? I suppose I may be being a bit harsh, but I’m also being honest.
Last Page: “Message in an Interstellar Bottle”: That is amazing. But yeah, I guess NASA expects intelligent life to be really intelligent.
Overall, I can tell Muse is improving, slowly but surely. I don’t know what happened with this issue, i.e., seemingly short deadlines or what, but there were, to my knowledge, three big formatting/layout/editing mistakes, but I know that that can happen to anyone. My issue did come much earlier than normal. Anyway, I hope this improvement continues.
SPOILER SPOILER MAY/JUNE MUSE SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER.
About the byline on the Q&As: Rebecca and I write the column together, though in any given month only one of us might appear. I answered both questions this month.
Ah. That makes some sense now.
As you will recall, in April’s issue I wrote a double column for one question. This just allows us a bit more flexibility, in part depending on what questions are asked. In fact, Robert and Rosanne did the same on occasion.
Spoiler spoiler spoiler.
“…Like a live goldenrod, it is actually formed from a thousand tiny blossoms called florets.” You mean you couldn’t figure that out on your own?? We thought a choose-your-own-adventure article would be so much fun for our readers.
Kidding.
SPOILER MAY MUSE SPOILER.
I read The Arrival and loved it! It’s definitely a book worth reading. The drawings are amazing.
SPOILER MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.
My Muse finally came…yesterday. I think. Yes, it was yesterday, good, I’m not completely losing it. (Denial, see?)
I like this one, it’s quite good except for the huge and very annoying editorial mishap in the glass flowers exhibit article. The whole thing ain’t there and a bit of it is there twice. Real bummer, since that was (IMHO) one of the most interesting articles this time. What was there was fabulous, what wasn’t there made me upset because I’m sure it was just as good, just…not available. Is the article posted online somewhere so I could look it up and maybe print it out? That would be grand. Ah, Elizabeth Preston has already supplied the missing bit of text. Perhaps I’ll copy that into the margin or something, as much as writing on already printed materials bothers me. There was also some repeated text. Anyway, good article despite that.
The other articles, they were good too, I enjoyed reading them. Certainly there’s improvement, like Piggy says.
The last page I found fascinating.
The letters and contest winners, well, I don’t know. It seems like those aren’t as great anymore, but oh well. At least they wrote or entered the contest, unlike me sitting here on my lazy bum picking apart their efforts. Okay, okay, I’ll stop now.
Ms. Preston, while you’re here could you please go take a peek at the post I just put on the Random thread? Number 227 (in response to 226, which you should read too). Me being too lazy, tired and under orders to finish this post and hie me to the shower prevents me from bothering to restate my ideas here.
Profuse thanks to all, and I must now bid you goodnight.
Thanks for the article ideas! Hm, that actually fits in well with an issue I’m thinking about for the future… *scurries off*
3.1~ Marvelous!