Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Got to close a bunch of windows 'cause I'm running out of RAM, so ...

• This sounds like the kind of thing I'd expect the Frob Mob to do: there are groups who go vadding in the unused, sometimes forgotten, and poorly documented caves and tunnels under Paris, and one group built an underground cinema with restaurant and bar attached, which seriously freaked out the authorities when it was finally discovered. "The biggest hassle was that everything - tables, chairs, bar, projector, screen, the lot - had to fit through a 30cm by 40cm hole on the surface, When the police finally worked out where we were getting in, they couldn't believe it was the right place. It was so small." (Thanks to twistedchick for pointing out the link.)
• And this is something I wish I'd seen (much linked already, but in case someone still hasn't seen it...): Broadway show tunes versus obnoxious subway preachers. Hmm. With 62 pages of comments, it looks like most people have not only read it already, but written about it.
• A dead-on parody for folks who make the annual pilgrimage to that city that only exists two weeks out of fifty two, King of Horde Hill presents SCAdian versions of the King of the Hill characters. (Probably also somewhat amusing and possibly slightly educational for folks who have not been to Pennsic.) Dale versus ground wasps ... Hank's a heavy fighter, of course, and Luanne falls for a fencer, leading to, "Luanne, a fencer's even worse than a bard! They fight with toothpicks and have helmets that look like they're made out of an old screen door." It's close enough to the original that I could actually picture an episode made from this script. (Thanks to syntonic_comma and anniemal for pointing it out.)
• Mysterious maybe-art-project #1: Hundreds of Ronald McDonald dolls suddenly appear on several roads in the middle of the night. "It was so scary, all those Ronald McDonalds staring at us in our headlights. It gave us a very, very funny feeling. If you hadn't seen them with your own eyes, you wouldn't believe it,"
• Mysterious art project #2: Mysterious bottles containing pictures of hands bearing cryptic messages keep appearing on a lake in Maryland; Washington Post reporter manages to talk to artist using anonymous email. (Okay, pseudonymous really.) "Imagining this art project and developing it felt similar to writing a detective novel -- without the last chapter." (Thanks to cchan8 for pointing it out.)
• A page I know I've read before, found interesting to read again when various people linked to it recently, and really wish I could get more detailed information on: differences between fannish and non-fannish communication, a review of a presentation at a convention by a mundane speech therapist who had had several opportunities to observe fen. " [...] she realized that they were using different social cues, different body language, different eye contact, and even different ways of forming vowels than what she jokingly called 'my people', or what for convenience sake I'll call mundanes." The eye-contact signal being inverted from mundania is interesting enough by itself, but then there are things like moving our mouths differenly to form speech: "We use our lips a lot, but at the same time, we use our cheeks and our chins not as often as would be expected. We stabilize the cheeks and the chin, and we "prolabialize". (When, while sitting at a table, I leaned my chin on my hands while talking to her, she became uncomfortable. She can't do that easily; her chin moves more when she speaks.)" The magnitude of the differences would be less surprising if we were a regional population or an insular community, but most of us interact with non-fannish culture most of the week.
• How to Stay Stressed, an set of simple instructions. "Although the De Anza Health Office long been an advocate of stress management, stress, tension, and burnout are still common complaints of students, faculty, and staff alike. On account of this, we have come to the following conclusion: you all want to stay stressed! The following provides you with a few reasons why. [...]" followed by, "Are you worried now about how to stay stressed? You'll have no trouble if you practice the following clinically proven methods: [...]" (Linked to recently by someone on my friends list, I think, but I can't remember who.)
• Giving in to temptation and including a political item[*]: Miskatonic University political science professor goes on disability leave. "I begged the Dean not to make me teach 'Modern American Politics' this semester. I knew that in order to teach it properly I would have to delve into the secrets of the Bush administration. I knew that I would learn THINGS THAT HUMANS (as we say in these post-sexist times) ARE NOT MEANT TO KNOW. I feared that this would drive me insane -- into shrill unholy madness. And so it has."
• A chain of links: axiomaxiom muses on the larger cultural meaing of television series crossovers (and historical perspective on media crossovers in oher media is examined in the comments), in response to an entry by postvixen's entry riffing on how some 168 television shows are all "just a dream" in one character's head once you examine the consequences (one of the comments to the entry suggests that part of the fallout is that crossover slash suddenly makes more sense) of extensive cataloging of television character crossover appearances by Keith Gow and Smash. Uh, but it might actually be two different characters having a shared dream. Spooky! (Did you realize that "Green Acres" and "The Addams Family" are linked, and both connect to "Joey"?)
• And another item linked to by several people: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says, "sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged." Not that other people haven't made similar statements before, and he may well be right (hey, can we get government funding for a proper scientific study? ;-) ), but Scalia's a surprising voice to hear it from.

[*] I keep meaning to get around to posting an all-politics link-sausage entry sooner or later, so folks whose blood pressure will rise too much reading the links I'd want to point out can be properly warned and skip it. Until I get around to that, y'all should just add twistedchick to your friends lists.