October “Happy Birthday” Thread

Details inside.

Known MuseBlogger birthdays so far:

10-01 kiki_the_great’s birthday (1995 – bright purple)
10-07 TOPFOT’s birthday (1992)
10-12 Ebeth’s birthday (1991)
10-13 Paul Baker’s birthday
10-14 Isabella’s birthday (1994)
10-16 Bannaya’s birthday (1996)
10-20 Dark Lord of Darkness’s birthday (1993)
10-23 kokopelli #13’s birthday (1992 – camouflage)
10-24 hotstuff trinity’s birthday (1992 – lime green)
10-26 Calla Lily’s birthday (19??)
10-27 a tap dancing elephant’s birthday (1992 – pink, teal/agua blue and raspberry)
10-29 Eccentric the Afterthought’s birthday (1990 – black and/or dark red)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between January 22, 1993, and February 21, 1993.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between April 28 and May 28, 1990.

Robert’s Journey to the Heart of Musery

In mid-September, one of your Administrators spent a week hatching mischief at the Muse offices in Chicago. He took pictures.


The stately Marquette Building, home of Carus Publishing until it moves a few blocks away in January.


The entrance leads into an elevator lobby decorated with bronze images of Midwestern explorers.


Each elevator cab bears this seal and contains speakers that play Mozart. As you may have guessed by now, the Marquette Building is rather full of itself.


Muse‘s offices are on the fourteenth floor. Among many other treasures there, the archives contain copies of every issue of the magazine.


Here’s the temporary cubicle where I worked on a top-secret project you’ll see next year. To the left of the keyboard sits a copy of the very first Muse.


Samantha Sordyl (a.k.a. Samablamablous, a.k.a. Samblam, a.k.a. Sam) confers with art director John Sandford and layout guru Walter Mendoza about the November/December issue.


One night Sam and her husband, Mr. Sam, took me to a great Italian restaurant in their neighborhood.

And that’s the story, or as much of it as I’m allowed to talk about at this point.

Coy Woodnesse, v. 2006.2

A forum for practicing archaic English, foreign languages, and other off-the-beaten-track forms of communication.

A forum for practicing archaic English, foreign languages, and other off-the-beaten-track forms of communication.

(Coy woodnesse means “quiet madness” in Middle English, the version of our language spoken about 600 years ago.)

Useful resources (additions welcome!):
The original Coy Woodnesse thread
Coy Woodnesse, v. 2006.1
Accents to paste in: à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ù ú û ü ¿ ¡
“Chaucer’s Middle English” site at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Librarius has another Middle English glossary and a load of information about Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

New GAPAs on Board / Pie Wars

With Rosanne touring Europe, Robert has felt the need of some help in moderating the blog. So he’s sworn in Paul Baker and Rebecca Lasley (Lady Bunniful) as co-administrators. Please welcome them in traditional MuseBlog fashion and treat them with all the awe and reverence a GAPA usually inspires.

September 27–
ATTENTION: Hostilities have broken out. Pie war advisory. Proceed with caution!

Happy Equinox!

It’s on Friday or Saturday, depending on where you live.

Technically, autumn arrives in the Northern Hemisphere on Saturday, September 23, at 4:03 a.m. Universal Time (UT). That’s 5:03 in the morning British Summertime; three minutes after midnight U.S. Eastern Daylight Time; 11:03 p.m. on September 22 U.S. Central Daylight Time (=blog time); and 9:03 p.m. on September 22 on the American West Coast.

You’ll have to make adjustments if you’re in Arizona, which doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time. And, of course, for New Zealand and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, this is the spring equinox. Whew.

Rosanne is Away for a Month

She and her husband are visiting Europe. She sent Robert this e-note:

Subject: Drat, can’t get on the blog to say bye for a while

tell them i’ll miss them and that they shouldn’t be too unruly because you’ll have a lot to handle as a one GAPA show.

have fun!

i’ll be back in regular blog contact on Oct. 26.

Rosanne

World Religions, Part 4: Judaism

Thread reopened for business, without prerequisites. Now that everybody’s back in school, it seems unrealistic to require reading.

You may also discuss religions on MBers’ Religions, v. 2006.2.

Many Musers have first-hand knowledge of this faith. Even so, let’s at least start the discussion by reviewing what Huston Smith says about it in his book The World’s Religions (known in earlier editions as The Religions of Man) before starting in on our personal experiences.

Continued from Part 3: Buddhism and Part 2: Hinduism.