Deadline Hollywood: Quentin Tarantino Hatches ‘Star Trek’ Movie Idea; Paramount, JJ Abrams To Assemble Writers Room

I can see the dialogue now:

"Klingon, muthafucker. Do you speak it?"

The period in which radical deregulation and radical tax cuts were adopted for the express purpose of promoting economic growth has proven the most catastrophic economically for the nation, with the modest gains in the middle of the period proving not merely unsustainable over anything approaching a long haul -- but actually catastrophic for long term economic development.

And yet, McConnell predicts unpopular tax bill will be a winning issue for GOP


Meanwhile, I’m a Depression historian. The GOP tax bill is straight out of 1929.

In some of my more maudlin and melancholy moments, I might allow
as how I don't like Christmas music.  Strictly speaking, that's
not entirely true.  

Strictly speaking, when I'm in better moods I call bullshit on
myself.

I don't like *religious* Christmas music because, well, if you've
been reading these journals of mine for any length of time you
know how I feel about most gods.

And you'd be surprised how religious some of the pop stuff can
get.  There's the "peace on earth, goodwill toward men" stuff, of
course, but beyond that, you might still be caught unawares.  For
example, there's one version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"
that I know of -- sung by Gene Autry, if I recall correctly, who
wrote it, so it might actually be the original version -- which
ends with a verse I've never heard anywhere else about embracing
the Light and thanking the Lord that "Santy Claus is comin'
tonight".  As though Santa was a direct agent of God.

Then again, he *is* based on a mangled memory of a bishop from
somewhere in Asia Minor, so maybe he is.

Anyway, even though I'm on much better terms with a certain few
select gods than I was at the start of my exile, I still stay
away from *all* music with religious elements.  I don't want to
risk getting the attention of Anyone, *especially* Someone I'm
not expecting.

But that doesn't mean I can't use (carefully vetted) secular --
*genuinely* secular -- holiday music every now and then.

Carefully vetted not just to screen out unwanted Celestial
side-effects, but also because a depressing number of secular
Christmas songs are about being separated from the one or ones
the singer loves.

I am *intensely* aware that I've been separated from my wife
Maggie for three-quarters of a century now, thank you.  I don't
need some sweet-voiced ingenue or famous tenor to remind me in no
uncertain terms just how much *more* that little fact sucks
around Christmastime.

Of course, once you work around those two tiny little
restrictions, there are a surprising number of things I can
accomplish.  And me being me -- which is to say, a guy who could
give Peter Pan a run for his money at the not-growing-up bit -- I
intended to have fun with those things.

Have fun, and maybe brighten up Christmas for a schoolful of
children.

is Snowing. If this is not a new thing, it's just the first time I noticed.

Yeah, instead of updating the board software, I installed a snowstorm instead.  I have skewed priorities.

If you don't like it, or it slows down your system, or whatever, you can turn it off by going to the User CP, opening the "Edit Options" panel, and unclicking the checkbox "Should the snowflakes be displayed?" in the "Other Options" section in the lower right of the screen.

I saw on the news that Neil Young launched a website with a ton of his music (albums, live concerts, unreleased songs) available to stream on a lossless format. The whole website is very impressive.

http://www.neilyoungarchives.com
https://www.spin.com/2017/12/neil-young-...es-listen/

Ok, this is a little annoying, but it's only affecting one thread.

The "Completed Fanfic Recommendations" WILL NOT mark itself as "read" for me, no matter how many times I go into it. It still shows as having new unread posts.

According to several different sources, Tom Baker has shot the last unfinished scenes of the lost serial "Shada", written by Douglas Adams.  There are several YouTube videos from different posters announcing it, including Fox News, but they all amount to the same thing and show little more than production/publicity stills of him in costume -- here's one with an amusing computer-generated voiceover:

After dinner, Usagi retreated to her bedroom with Luna, who had
returned to her cat form, to discuss the afternoon.

"You're going to help me with the magic exercises Doug-sensei
gave me to do, right?" Usagi asked.  She lay spread-eagle on her
bed, her hed hanging over the edge with her ponytails draping
down to either side of her to pool on the floor below.

"Oh, certainly," Luna said pensively. "I must admit that he has a 
most unusual approach to magic, though.  I have never encountered 
anyone who thought of it as a kind of science and engineering 
combined."  She was sprawled out in a typically feline boneless-
looking puddle, and had her eyes closed.

"Really?"  She rolled over onto her stomach, and began kicking 
her feet.

The cat nodded absently.  "Every mage I've known treats... 
*treated* it as an art.  Oh, there are fundamental principles and 
techniques one learns, even a lay practitioner like myself, but
every true mage then develops along their own special path, which
reflects and in turn shapes the unique qualities of their very 
being.  The Queen..."

"The Queen?" Usagi interrupted.  "You mentioned her that first
night, but that was all."

"Queen Serenity of the Moon," Luna explained.  "She was your
commander-in-chief in your earlier life, and she was the one who 
sent your soul forward to be reborn in this era.  Serenity-sama 
was one of the greatest sorceresses in history, with a style and 
form of magic unique to herself, bathed in and built of purest 
light."

"Wow."  Usagi bit her lip and tried to imagine what the Queen
might have looked like while using her magic, but all she could 
bring to mind was an image of herself all grown up in a white 
silk gown.  "Baka Usagi," she murmured to herself.

Yeah, yeah - we all know this isn't how TIME does things, and we all know why this tweet was sent.

By the way...
Bob called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named 'Forum Poster of the Year,' but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!