Found in my electronic chapbook.

In the name of research, I promptly read every other lesbian novel I could lay my hands on. Then one morning the plot came to me, and I outlined it, and a few weeks later I sat down and wrote the thing in two weeks flat, finishing four days before my twentieth birthday. (This seemed highly significant at the time. I”ve no idea why.) It sold to Fawcett, the first publisher to see it, and I was a published novelist just like that. p. 29

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

I wrote 1,317 words yesterday morning and my total word count is now 19,011.

The reporting from Myanmar by the New York Times that the State Peace and Development Council, aka, the country’s military dictators, are upset that Nobel Laureate and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi hasn’t decided to roll over and endorse their phony election next year should surprise no one.

Myanmar’s detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been insincere and dishonest in her offer to meet the country’s military ruler and push for the lifting of Western sanctions, state media said on Wednesday.

Suu Kyi, who is held under house arrest, had tried to harm the government’s image and her behaviour had been “highly questionable,” said a commentary carried in three state-run newspapers, which serve as mouthpieces for the reclusive regime.

The 64-year-old Nobel peace laureate asked to meet junta leader Senior General Than Shwe in a letter dated November 11, saying she wanted to work with his government in the interests of the country.

In a similar letter on September 25 she stated her desire to work with Western countries and the junta to bring about the lifting of sanctions, which critics say have been largely ineffective because of the regime’s trade with China and India.

“Her letters suggest her dishonesty, and are designed to tarnish the image of the ruling government, putting all the blame on the government,” said a commentary in the New Light of Myanmar.

I’ll bite, how does one tarnish a pot?

[Update @ 1843] 0903: Republican Seven Hills mayor Dave Bentkowski”s 9 page discussion of his penis size

1302: Tea Party Outperforming GOP on Generic Ballot

Roldo Bartimole writes:

The highly-subsidized Hyatt Regency Cleveland and the historic 1890 The Arcade “may go up for auction at a Cuyahoga County sheriff sale,”, according to an article today in Crain”s Cleveland Business by Stan Bullard. Failure of the Cleveland”s architectural gem points to continued economic problems in downtown Cleveland.

This is a severe blow to the notoriety being given to the comeback of Euclid Avenue and that section of downtown Cleveland at E. 4th Street.

A near $200 million beautification/transit project has recently been completed along Euclid Avenue, site of The Arcade.

“The 1890-vintage landmark is in the final throes of a foreclosure proceeding in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court,” Bullard wrote.

Not only is this a damaging blow to downtown Cleveland but a heavy financial cost to Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, both lenders to the rehabilitation of The Arcade. Bullard notes that the County loaned $2 million. It is unclear how much of that is still owed. The City of Cleveland is still owed $948,000 of its $1 million loan.

Local foundations could also be hit with losses. The Gund and Cleveland foundations each loaned $750,000 to The Arcade”s restoration, Bullard wrote. Continue Reading »

Science is central to humanity’s response to our role in altering Earth’s climate via global warming. Those who argue that either a. global warming does not exist (this group has pretty much gone the way of the anti-evolution folks) or b. global warming is taking place, but it is a natural process and humans play a minor to no role in that change (this group is akin to the creationists who attempted to paint their willful ignorance with a patina of science), are not skeptics.

A skeptic is a person who examines the scientific data and discovers flaws in the collection or analysis of that data. The people spewing lies about climate change and global warming are no more skeptics than those people a generation ago who argued that no evidence of a connection existed between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. They are simply people with an economic or political agenda that benefits from slowing a global response to global warming.

So, when I read the non-story this morning in the New York Times under the headline: In Face of Skeptics, Experts Affirm Climate Peril on page A1, I wanted to take writers Andrew C. Revkin and John M. Broder to task and remind them skeptic is an honorable term, and that there is nothing honorable about conspiracy theorists clinging to any birther-like myth that there is anything even remotely hinky about the scientific data or the conclusions reached by the analysis of that data.

Andrew and John, the people you mis-label are opponents, not skeptics.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

Attributed to Disorder In The Court.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

[O]ne of the things that makes a story writable, if you will, is when you read it and identify not only with the characters but with the writer. Here was someone writing and publishing well-written stories that I could respect and enjoy-and I could see myself doing what he had done. I felt it was something I could do and I saw it as eminently worth doing. p. 27

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

I took yesterday morning off, so my total word count remains at 17,695.

My years of shopping in the Far East found me to be far more discerning than similar trips to Mexico — I’ll never live down that leather purse from Tijuana — but it was still a wild ride. I was in Thailand but not Myanmar but I can so relate to Richard S. Ehrlich’s story and specially to how this gritty bit conjured up many memories.

From CNN:

Elsewhere in Tachilek, the small town is a depressing collection of wooden shanties, bleak tea stalls, a dismal commercial district and a garishly expensive golf course and hotel complex.

An entrepreneur has set up a large, roadside display for tourists who might want to gawk at some minority ethnic Padaung tribal females, known as “long-necked women”. The women sit inside a building set among trees.

Burma’s Padaung wrap heavy brass coils around the necks of virtually all their young daughters, starting when the girls are five years old. When the girls mature, more shiny coils are added.

As a result, their collar bones, shoulder cartilage, and muscles become weighted down, destroying the body’s normal horizontal line and causing the shoulders to droop, with the collar bones at a vertical angle of about 45-degrees, according to x-rays of Padaung women.

Tachilek’s pathos also appears in its Buddhist temples and grimy streets, where young monks beg for money — even though their religion warns them never to beg, but simply accept freely offered donations.

Tachilek rests in the heart of the infamous Golden Triangle — where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma meet — and is also haunted by illicit drug dealers. Authorities in and around Tachilek, on both sides of the border, occasionally seize huge caches of opium, heroin and methamphetamines. The drugs originate in Burma, to be smuggled into Thailand or abroad.

Nothing quite screams liberty call in your face like strange women on display, begging monks and the shadiest of drug dealers.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.

Attributed to Disorder In The Court.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

If you can”t stand to read a particular type of story, you”re wasting your time trying to write it. p. 27

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

I wrote 641 words yesterday morning and my total word count is now 17,695.

Could it really be possible to get a good corned beef sandwich in a Buddhist country run by military dictators? Maybe. I ought not to be surprised to find that British occupied Burma had a vibrant Jewish population prior to World War II, or that it is possible to find remnants of that community in Yangon, but I am.

From the Los Angeles Jewish Journal:

Jews were incorporated into the life of the country and played a prominent part in various fields. In tropical Rangoon, Jews owned ice factories and bottling plants. Some dealt in textiles and timber, while others were customs officials and traders. Jews held a designated seat on the Rangoon Municipal Committee. The Jewish community in Burma was so influential, in fact, that in the first years of the century, Rangoon and the smaller city of Bassein had Jewish mayors, and Judah Ezekiel Street in downtown Rangoon was named to honor a Jew. The Sofaer family donated the iron gates to the Rangoon Zoo, and another Jew, Mordechai Isaac Cohen, donated the beautiful cast-iron bandstand in Bandoola Square. Both are still standing tall today.

In the center of downtown Rangoon (now Yangon) stood Musmeah Yeshua, the grand synagogue with its soaring ceiling and graceful columns. Musmeah Yeshua, one of 188 sites on the list of Yangon Heritage Buildings, was constructed in the 1890s. The Jewish cemetery, with more than 600 gravestones, and the synagogue with its 126 silver sifrei Torahot and Jewish school for over 200 students, proclaimed Jewish affluence and comfort in this lush land.

As Jewish wealth grew in those early days, Jewish philanthropy grew as well. The community donated large sums for local schools, libraries, hospitals, and helped local Burmese in many different ways. The Burmese were very appreciative of this aid and the country was a welcome and tolerant home for Jews for many years.

The story also mentions connections between Israel and Myanmar, one that I intellectually knew, but have never considered: they both became independent in 1948, and one I didn’t, Myanmar was the first Asian nation to recognize Israel as a state.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?

Attributed to Disorder In The Court.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

[I]t was ever so clear to me that I would in due course produce a Great Novel of my own. I”d go to college first, naturally, where I might get a somewhat clearer idea of what constituted a Great Novel. Then I”d emerge from college into the Real World. There I would Live (I wasn”t quite sure what Capital-L Living entailed, but I figured there would be a touch of squalor in there somewhere, along with generous dollops of booze and sex.) All this Living would ultimately constitute the Meaningful Experiences which I would eventually distill into any number of books. p. 26

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

I wrote nine words (but they were plot fixes and on the wall of my shower, I keep a mug of shower crayons handy) yesterday morning, so my total word count remains at 17,054.

That anything resembling a legal system exists in Myanmar under its military dictators is, itself, a source of amazement. I don’t, however, become too excited when any citizen of that country, and Aung San Suu Kyi in particular attempt to access that source of jurisprudence in the hopes of justice

From Jurist:

Myanmar’s Supreme Court has agreed to consider an appeal by opposition pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi against the 18-month extension of her house arrest, officials said Friday. Suu Kyi’s lawyers filed the appeal last month after a lower court rejected an earlier appeal. A judge will hold a preliminary hearing on December 21 to decide whether the appeal will be considered by the full court. If the judge rejects her appeal at that point, Suu Kyi may request a special leave to appeal, which would be heard by the chief justice.