FAC33

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• Commented on Lovecraft sculptures
  Looks kind of sad and pensive. Even Cthulhu has a bummer day from time to time, I guess....
• Commented on Hallowe'en is safe, your kids are safe, the only scary thing is the warnings
  More on the Canadian razor blade story--apparently the razor blade was not in any of the candy, but just in the bag used to collect the candy. (Where do you buy razor blades these days anyway? Most of the stores...
• Commented on The Masonic Myth, by Jay Kinney -- a no B.S. history of Freemasonry
  There are Masonic-based women's organizations, although from what I understand they're a little lower on the cool ritual scale and in some ways a little like the ladies' auxillaries of old. I was a Job's Daughter for a couple of...
• Commented on Guerilla gardens in newspaper boxes
  Don't know if it was the same guy, but during the garbage strike someone was actually planting flowers into the layers of flyers stuck to utility poles at Queen and Spadina. Saw a number of people watering them. I forgot...
• Commented on Laser Portraits
  We never had the laser option for school portraits. However, for senior pictures (circa 1984-85) most of us went to one of about three local studios, and some came out with the lasers. My friend Joan had them in the...
• Commented on Knife Throwers Just Want a Little Respect
  I've tried knife throwing (similar to #20, with my local SCA group). It's not the easiest thing to pick up (of course, I throw like a girl...). Axes, on the other hand--did a lot better with those the first time...
• Commented on The Mind-Blowing World of Human Chimeras
  #9 and #30 - I believe Corky is also probably a mosaic, not a chimera. Trisomy mosaics are not uncommon, and in fact mosaics are able to survive with trisomies (e.g. trisomy of chromosome 16) that are otherwise completely lethal....
• Commented on Panoramic photo of a ghosts street in Detroit
  #2--I've seen plenty of ghettos. These aren't the types of houses you often get in ghettos. Many are Craftsman-style houses that in other cities are architectural treasures. I doubt this area went through a protracted "ghetto" period. It looks to...
• Commented on The Frank Lloyd Wright Ax Murders
  #37 - I think you may mean Taliesin West in Arizona. FLW had not yet met Olgivanna (his third wife, and the one he actually stayed with for the rest of his life) when he originally built Taliesin. FLW's design...
• Commented on Our "Missing" Chromosomes
  Thanks for feeding my chromosome geekery. It makes me very curious about where this discovery might lead. As someone mentioned above, animals and plants have all kinds of different numbers of chromosomes--from a single pair all the way up to...
• Commented on It's Scutigera Coleoptrata Season!
  #12 - Oh, they have 'em Ohio. I grew up in Columbus and would see one of these things scuttling in a corner occasionally. I think it's all the legs that creep me out....
• Commented on Dancin' Stalin vs. Martians video game
  Uncle Joe moves a lot like John Cleese....
• Commented on Trailer Park Boys: Big Plans, Little Brains
  Steve French! (The really big, dope-lovin' kitty....)...
• Commented on Haunting photo-essay on rotting buildings in Detroit
  #12- Detroit has for a long time been one of the best locations for urban ruins out there. Its decline way predates the decline of the US auto industry. Most of my favourite Detroit ruin websites have already been posted....
• Commented on Trompe l'oeil ski-toilet mural
  I used to tell guys who wondered what was so special about women's loos that we spent so much time in there that there was a ski lodge in there (populated by large blond masseurs named Sven and Lars.) Seems...
• Commented on Own a Frank Lloyd Wright home
  Wright's low ceilings and doorways didn't really have to do much with his own height. Instead he consciously made a lot of his designs long and flattened, often in contrast with higher parts of the house. It was a design...
• Commented on Paul Harvey (RIP)
  Back in 1988, I disagreed with just about everything Ronald Reagan was about, but I still went to a Republican rally (for Bush during his campaigh) just to hear him speak. That's what I felt about Paul Harvey. That voice,...
• Commented on Hard data on ebook piracy versus sales -- slides from O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing panel
  Following up on #13 - what you're looking for is whether the points cluster around a straight line--either positive (as X goes up so does Y) or negative (as X goes up Y goes down). With the outlier you've got...
• Commented on Seek Ye the Hilaritas!
  #7 - I love Augustine. Even after he converted to Christianity, you get the idea he didn't completely regret the fun he had as a yoot....
• Commented on Presidential aging photos
  #11 - actually, McCain looked *younger* in some of his appearances immediately after the election. Less like the Michelin man. Must be something to it....
• Commented on Happy Authorized Boxing Day
  The company my dad owned was a very early Apple dealer, first in our city. His company very quickly staked out the school market, while his main competitor was more known for the retail side. And yes, the company was...
• Commented on Embroidery is fun
  What I really like about the current crafting trend is that beginners are being encouraged to think outside the pre-packaged kit. When I learned (at age 8) years ago, kits were about the only way embroidery was being passed on....
• Commented on Wargames: finest geek movie ever
  God, this movie used to make my little nerd heart beat faster. I wanted a cute boyfriend who could hack into NORAD, too....
• Commented on Police pretend students killed to teach dangers of drunk driving
  My senior year of high school, a guy from my circle of friends was killed by a drunk driver in early May. Throughout most of the year, another friend of mine had been posting all kinds of illicit posters around...
• Commented on Canadian border guards to check iPods for infringment
  To be honest, I don't think it will get very far. It's incredibly important to the Canadian economy that traffic flow smoothly across the border. It does not help that economy to be pulling over cars, trucks, and tour buses...
• Commented on Ghost resort in Disney World
  #7 - I ran across the Ryugyong following links on the Sinai Hotels post earlier this week. Now that's a big, creepy, empty building. I can't decide whether it's creeper than Prora (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prora) but they have somewhat parallel backstories--both of...
• Commented on Funny/Creepy old comic book ad
  #6 - Monkey Doodle looks psychotic. Maybe it's the fact he has no arms. But it's particularly that look in his eyes. Sooooo.....what's on his talking tape to instruct the kiddies? At least Mickey looks sort of like Mickey--Bugs looks...
• Commented on Alien Abduction Festival, Toronto, Mar 20
  Call me a space cadet--hadn't realized Bakka had moved back to Queen. I had stopped going there not long after the move up to Yonge, and then I was out of the country for four years. Are they anything like...
• Commented on Guinness cupcakes
  Allen's, one of my favourite Toronto pubs, has Guinness cake on the menu. I've had it and had assumed it got its name due to its rich colour and cream cheese icing "head." I'm not really a beer drinker (although...
• Commented on Obsolete skills
  #49 - Depends what you mean by "calligraphy". A lot of the scripts we now call "calligraphy" were once merely "handwriting"--and as such were plenty useful, especially in the pre-printing press era. If it weren't for them, we'd have diddly...