Is it that hard to see? I just don't want to be cool

[sovay]

Here's how my day is going: I left the house to walk to the library and came back with blisters on both heels, because my socks had spontaneously committed suicide in transit. That is even shabbier than my usual aesthetic. I am going to need new socks. Also my heels hurt.

On the other hand, Craig Laurance Gidney is enjoying my "dense opiated prose." Any favorable comparison to Tanith Lee improves my afternoon.

These links are a mix of things.

1. I have just learned from Anu Garg that tosspot words are a particular class of compound noun rather than words that are frequently hungover. I had no idea there was a name for them in English. "What does a scarecrow have in common with a pickpocket?" feels like an outtake from Lewis Carroll.

2. I suppose it is appropriate that I read this article for Tisha B'Av. I certainly consider Netanyahu and his administration a disaster for the Jewish people.

3. I don't know that there's ever a good time to read that the roots of autism as a diagnostic category are intertwined with Nazi eugenics. I keep reminding myself that thinking of myself as a profitless and unconscionable waste of other people's resources and time (on repeat these days) is the same kind of idea and I should stop it.

4. For those unaware of the recent trash fire regarding Worldcon 76, the Daily Dot has a good overview. The con chair has just responded on Facebook and Twitter.

5. I have to say that I'm not sure if Alan Turing chained his mug to the radiator because he loved tea that much; I think he might just have hated people stealing his mug.

Comments

[selkie]

(And our starvation research is from the Warsaw ghetto, and our hypothermia and altitude research is from Dachau, and our research on aspirin poisoning is from... Buna or Gleiwitz or somewhere. Life is a cabaret, old chum.)

IS GOOD REVIEW SO FAR. YES. A BONE. /Tanith Lee


BANANAPANTS, when am I allowed to post a review your book? I can do that! It's not a conflict of interest!

[sovay]

(And our starvation research is from the Warsaw ghetto, and our hypothermia and altitude research is from Dachau, and our research on aspirin poisoning is from... Buna or Gleiwitz or somewhere. Life is a cabaret, old chum.)

I'm not saying I was totally surprised: it's still part of the rhetoric. Just last year there was an NT mother publicly declaring, in her parenting memoir, her intent to sterilize her non-NT kid. Just would have been nicer if, you know, not.

BANANAPANTS, when am I allowed to post a review your book? I can do that! It's not a conflict of interest!

Whenever you feel like! You have an ARC!

(You have an ARC, right?)

P.S. YOU EDITED THE THING.

[gwynnega]

I hate when socks do that.

But yay review!

[muccamukk]

Good to hear about that review. I'm looking forward to your book!

Disappointed in Worldcon San Jose. Hopefully the reissue will be less of a hash. Are you going?

[dewline]

2. Agreed. Israel deserves far better than Netanyahu and his Likud-allied crew.

4. Now that I know that this has been going on...well, maybe it's a reminder to further work on improving our local convention(s) here in Ottawa. Pre-emptively.

[sovay]

I hate when socks do that.

I was not expecting it! They were fine when I left the house and they just unraveled!

But yay review!

Thank you!

[sovay]

Good to hear about that review. I'm looking forward to your book!

Thank you! Two weeks and a day!

Disappointed in Worldcon San Jose. Hopefully the reissue will be less of a hash. Are you going?

Alas, no; I have no money. I know several people who are or were planning on going, though, and for their sake I hope the con gets its act together and fast.

[sovay]

2. Agreed. Israel deserves far better than Netanyahu and his Likud-allied crew.

I don't know how to break coalitions in a country I don't live in. I don't even know how to get our current government out of power. I wish I did. I don't want these people in charge of the world.

4. Now that I know that this has been going on...well, maybe it's a reminder to further work on improving our local convention(s) here in Ottawa. Pre-emptively.

If you have any leverage in your local con scene, yes, do not repeat the mistakes of Worldcon 76. I appreciate that they are redoing the program, but as far as I can tell the trash is still smoldering.

[asakiyume]

I suspect your no. 5 assessment is correct.

I am enjoying your densely opiated prose as well: It is fun reading stories that you published before I knew you.

I like the term "tosspot words," and I like the example "repairman" as a way to clarify what's *not* a tosspot word.

[muccamukk]

Yeah, Nenya and I are going, and it's going to be hard to ruin the thing, because we never go so it'll be entertaining regardless, but this does strike me as REALLY late in the day to be working on programming. Glad I didn't volunteer for anything.

[sovay]

I suspect your no. 5 assessment is correct.

I imagine it as a sort of arms race.

I am enjoying your densely opiated prose as well: It is fun reading stories that you published before I knew you.

Thank you! I am really glad.

I like the term "tosspot words," and I like the example "repairman" as a way to clarify what's *not* a tosspot word.

Yes! I wonder what the name for that kind is.

[sovay]

Yeah, Nenya and I are going, and it's going to be hard to ruin the thing, because we never go so it'll be entertaining regardless, but this does strike me as REALLY late in the day to be working on programming.

A month to reprogram a convention the size of Worldcon is going to be cutting it close, yes. I just agree that I'm not sure what other options they had, once they'd decided against alienating the majority of their attendees/nominees.

Glad I didn't volunteer for anything.

Seriously, good call.

Also, have fun!

[muccamukk]

Oh yes. This was their only remotely graceful choice at this point. Does make me wonder what the rest of the con will be like. Also, last time I was on programming, we all just wrote our own damn bios. Saved so much time.

[rydra_wong]

I recommend https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/books/review/aspergers-children-edith-sheffer.html as a mental palate cleanser.

As an autistic commentator (Michael John Carley) said: Her research is solid. Her intentions are not.

She appears to be opposed to the existence of "autism" as a diagnosis at all (presumably so that she can believe her son doesn't really have it), and to think that arguing that it's somehow "tainted" by Asperger's evident complicity means that, I don't know, anyone who thinks autistic people exist is a Nazi?

As if plenty of other clinicians with no such complicity hadn't described the same groups of children, often independently of each other (as has been documented by Steve Silbermann, in the process of kicking the shit out of Kanner's claims to be the sole discoverer of a sharply-delineated group as opposed to one part of a spectrum). And if we didn't, you know, continue to exist.

Asperger wasn't labelling a group of children previously considered "normal"; he was labelling a group of children previously considered deviant, strange, delinquent, insane, etc.. And that wasn't so we could be exterminated; ironically, it's always been inferred that he was passionate in the defense of the positive qualities and capacity to contribute of children with (what came to be known as) "Asperger's syndrome" because (apparently despite his allegiances) he didn't want us disposed of.

ETA: Anger directed at her, not you; I hope that's clear.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, yay for a nice review! \o/

NOt-so-yay for a lot of other things, including suicidal socks. Still, I suppose at least they are some of the more easily replaced things in life!

[lilysea]

thinking of myself as a profitless and unconscionable waste of other people's resources and time (on repeat these days)

I do not think of you this way! ^_^

I think of you as a
intelligent
compassionate
empathetic
witty
person

who has issues with
insomnia
physical fatigue
mental fatigue
pain

and whose posts I am always happy to see come up on my dashboard! ^_^

[ashlyme]

Well hurray for prose opium. *sotto voce* For God's sake, Lethe, put the book in my hands already.

I like the term "tosspot words" but I'm giggling too because it's an insult over here. I guess Anu Garg knows that.

[ashlyme]

What Lilysea says. *adds hugs*

[selkie]

Seems to be home computer/work computer, because am at work and no edit pencil.

I DO have an ARC. I think I might have been one of the first to get my plump capable greedy greedy hands on it.

BWEEEEEEE.

[moon_custafer]

and I like the example "repairman" as a way to clarify what's *not* a tosspot word.

Reminds me of an old comedy sketch about a how-to show called “Robot Repair” that is actually intended for robots, to teach them how to repair things. Renaming the show “Let’s Repair, Robots!” doesn’t help.

Belated comment

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, do not use that term around a British person unless you want them to get entirely the wrong idea.

[ladymondegreen]

This is essentially what I came here to say too.

Sending you sleep vibes.

[davidgillon]

Ouch on the socks/heels front!

Amused by the tosspot thing as tosspot is a fairly common English insult, and looking it up, it turns out it comes from a tosspot word example I'd never realised:
"tosspot
ˈtɒspɒt/
nouninformal
noun: tosspot; plural noun: tosspots; noun: toss-pot; plural noun: toss-pots

a habitual drinker (also used as a general term of abuse).
"anyone who writes to us is a complete tosspot"

I keep reminding myself that thinking of myself as a profitless and unconscionable waste of other people's resources and time (on repeat these days) is the same kind of idea and I should stop it.

Yet to have a moment of interaction with your views I consider a waste of resources or time!

ETA and OMG Worldcon programming is a complete clusterfuck, including the attempt to police what people were going to wear to the Hugo ceremony that's been overshadowed by the programme thing.

Rest of the con

[lauradi7dw]

I am acquainted with the volunteer in charge of the local restaurant guide for con-goers. It was ready to go last month, tested and eveything. Food counts as a good thing, I think.

Re: Rest of the con

[muccamukk]

Ha. Well, at least no matter what happens, we won't starve.

This is pretty discouraging to read though: https://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2018/07/24/worldcon-76-more-than-technical-difficulties/