h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Agapanthus, do you read Unshelved? It's a webcomic about librarians over at www dot overduemedia dot com. I like it, but my mother, a librarian, loves it. It's similar to what you just posted here.

Marv, I think you and I are probably pretty similarly minded when it comes to Free Speech issues.

Also, they weren't asking for my take on it, but rather my memory of what the most recent law is. The trick with these exams is to know a standard, then be able to explain why, on the facts, it could go either way

I read Unshelved religiously, Irv, but thank you for thinking to mention it to me.

Unshelved is not a comic. It's a documentary series.

Dewey is a hero of mine. I love his attitude. (dusts off fond memories of the time I spent working in a library)

::sneezes from all the dust in the air::

I need a What Would Dewey Do? bumper sticker. Also, the "Frequently Asked Questions" T-Shirt from a week or so ago. I'm pretty sure that if it hadn't been for the internet, no one would have been able to find a wide audience for true tales from the library. It's not the sort of thing that would sell well to a syndicate.

"Ode to Joy is one of my favorites. Yes, please, Bagpuss, keep practicing - I promise not to attack your fingers any more!"

Thanks Lentilla. I think I've pretty much got the hang of it (or at least eight bars of it; I assume there's more, and probably versions that use more than two fingers at once). The trouble is with timing - I don't have a metronome and I can't figure out if the electric keyboard (okay, it's not a proper joanna) will give me a simple beat instead of a backing track. The CD that came with the book has one, playing it through the left-hand speaker whilst the melody plays throught the right, the idea being that you turn the melody down when you're practised. I play CDs on my computer and, although I can alter the relative volume of various different pitches of sound, I can't figure out how to adjust the left/right balance. Bah.

I'm nodding in agreement on the importance of copywriting and proofreading. I don't think it's entirely wrong to ask people to have typing skills and knowledge of computers in jobs that x many years ago would have involved dictating or passing blotchy bits of paper to your secretary, but important letters should surely be at least checked by someone who knows what they're doing.

>I have a friend who doesn't always have a crisis, but who is so dramatic that it is exhausting to be around her. And she persists in telling me other people's troubles, whether I know them or not. She always has to be on stage, the center of attention. So if there isn't anthing in her own life going on she switches to people she knows. And she tries to organize everyone. We call her Generalisimo behind her back.<

I didn't know you knew my MIL, Hyp Except you didn't say anything about her not acknowledging that adult children (her daughter's 10 years older than me, and I'm GDZ's age until 3 days after Christmas) do not need the same kind of parenting as minor children in the home

And belated congrats to Irv and GDZ

Yep, Irv, constant drama. Just as an example, when I had a bad reaction to a medication and was waiting for the paramedics to arrive to take me to the ER, she berated me for not telling her I was on medication, and how I was a bad friend, and how I had hurt her feelings. Mind you, the paramedics were coming because I was having a hard time *breathing*.

That was pretty much the proverbial straw.

Don't fall to the temptation. D seems like a pretty outgoing kid who can make plenty of friends without having to deal with that stress.

My next-door neighbor is having the same kind of problem with her aged drama queen of a mother. When Cille got sick, mother had to be sicker, so Cille made appointments for both of them. The doctor came to Cille and said, "What's going on? We've checked your mother and she's NOT SICK!"

Cille asked the doctor to prescribe a placebo for her mother, which she, the doctor, was understanding enough to do, but then the mother discovered that they were taking two different medications and would not be placated for at least an hour. We finally convinced her that it was medicine for Sicker People Than Cille.

There is an ad on tv -- I pay attention to ads, I think they're an important semiotic resource for what's going on in the culture -- for one of the alternatives to eHarmony dot com. eHarmony rejects all non-mainstream people who are looking for partners. So anyway, the ad shows a guy reading a Playboy-type magazine. He stands there, slowly turning the pages, and turns the zine to look at the centerfold in an awestruck manner. Then he tosses the magazine offstage. "Nope," he says, "Still gay." Then comes the spiff for the service, but I love it totally. We are all SO far ahead of the politicians.

Big jeers to BP for their ethanol ad, however. The farmer stands in front of the green green field and the blue blue sky, saying something like, "Wouldn't it be great if you could grow your own fuel to use the next year?" I always want to scream, "That would be for HORSES, you moron! They eat hay. HAY! Farmers have been doing it for millennia! Idiot! Moron!"

Yeah, sounds like Amzell and then some. Stay away from the drama. I'm with Marv on this one.

[GDZ]

>Now who's the Drama Queen? Heh heh heh.
Hmmm - I thought it was the Dane in the European Song Contest this year??

Busy, busy...

Danish contestant Drama Queen:
http://www.blupp.nu/musik/artiklar/2007/bilder/dq.jpg

Mornin all

Morning. My knees are going to see the doctor on Thursday... I did ask if I could stay behind and finish work, but they were insistent that I came with them. Seems they're rather attached to me.

I've just converted my boss to *real* Mozzarella cheese and *real* Feta cheese.

See, in Sweden, the major dairy company (Arla) makes what they call Mozzarella and Feta from cow's milk (pasturized cow's milk, even), and I've been arguing again and again that it's nothing like the real thing, not at all, not even close.

Well, yesterday I offered her a piece of a Greek Feta made from sheep and goat milk - and she was completely blown away! 'Wow, it tastes so MUCH - and without even any marinade!' Told you so...

And today, I had gotten some freshly made Mozzarella made from unpasteurized water buffalo milk - and her comment was 'Wow - I've - I've - I've never tasted anything like this! Mmmm... yummie! Absolutely delicious!' Well, told you so...

Do other Salonistas have this trouble with dairys using cow's milk to make 'fake' cheeses?

[p]

Wasn't there a bit of a hoohaa a while back about non-Greek cheese makers calling their product feta?

Don't talk to me, I am not here. I am working