elstaffe > Recent Status Updates

What was this cursed era of people coming up with recipes for hummus and baba ghanoush that intentionally omit olive oil?? Lower in fat but at WHAT COST

"One hundred calories of starch will deposit less fat in your body than one hundred calories of fat, and will, at the same time, make deposits into your energy stores in the form of glycogen (the form in which human beings store carbohydrates)." (163) I don't know that that's...true? But maybe that's what was known at the time. Hurrah for advancing science

"During the holiday season, as well as during the rest of the year, it is important to get most of your calories from foods that are high in complex carbohydrates such as breads, cooked grains, pasta, fruit, and starchy vegetables such as potatoes, yams, and squash." (163) the 70s were wild

"If you are ready to eat as healthfully in December as you do in June, Dr. Frankel has the following suggestions:
1 Eat starchy foods" (163) I did not see that coming. But I guess the 70s-90s health food era...

"In 1843 Sir Henry Cole commissioned John Calcott Horsley to design a card that would take away the stress of having to write personal letters to all his friends and relatives at Christmas." (155) HORSLEY

"Eastern hognose snakes fake their own deaths." (7) move across the country, change their names, start a new family

Or, yknow, it's a "see-orb" because that's a literal description of an eyeball durrr

Every time I read one of these, I wonder if C-ORB is an obscure reference to the Sea Org

"In the park near the apartment building in which he lived, Milo Levi-Nathan discovered a fairy circle of weeping beeches. The original tree, a son of a beech from Eastern Europe, had long since been cut down by the Parks Department." (85)

"'They have a writer's guide—it's about four pages—just gives some general rules. For example, in the case of science fiction (that's what they're having me write), no sexual intercourse between aliens and humans, if the aliens are darker than the humans.'
'They must have a lot of sales in the South'" (59)

"'I doubt it,' another game you may remember from your childhood, gains an added dimension when played by a mixture of children and conniving adults." (139) they must be conniving for it to work

"We tell our four- and two-year-olds that Santa Claus not only brings gifts, but takes gifts that have been left for him under the tree to give to needy children. Last year our four-year-old son decided to leave his favorite truck for Santa, and he seemed to feel especially good about that." (70) not a bad idea

"As it happened, we let matters stand, and Juno went into partnership with one of the cats. They staked out the mousehole and waited together, for days, for another mouse to appear." (155)

"But if you praise your puppy by saying, 'Gooood dog!' and give it a good ear rub, it will work with pleasure and spirit. Dogs love hammy acting. They are good actors themselves, and they appreciate it in others." (156) dogs and soccer players

"If your dog absolutely will not sit still for a nail filing or clipping (perhaps you began doing this late in the dog's development), feed it one-fourth to one-half can of flat beer before you begin the clipping or filing. The malt in the beer is good for the dog, and the alcohol will settle the dog down. If you use beer, do all of the nails at once." The 70s were a wild time

"The work one was only meant to be used if they couldn't get through to her personal line and it was an emergency; but true love was an emergency, was it not?" (201) yes definitely give your mother's phone numbers out to randos you haven't talked to her about for the reason that he's really trying hard to talk to her

"After all, hadn't her mother always warned her it was better to be alone, but if you ever decided to pair with someone, choose with your head and not your heart?" (190) I know I'm supposed to go "tsk tsk" here but honestly there's a lot of people who don't think in this book, and maybe just a little thinking would help. Or contraception.

"She couldn't understand why this stranger was affecting her so intensely." (188) because that's the plot and worldbuilding of this book--instalove

"No law, no limit, no penality, no punishment, no disapproval applied to any sexual practice of any kind, except the rape of a child or woman" (245) not men, though, apparently that's chill

Oh and here's that sexual assault everyone's been talking about

"'It is like this, to make a foolish little picture—you are throwing a rock at a tree, and if you are a Simultanist the rock has already hit the tree, and if you are a Sequentist it never can.'" (225) the latter does not follow based on what's been explained in this book. This is nonsense and logically lacking, put into the mouth of a character we're supposed to believe is a genius physicist

"Infinite repetition is an atemporal process. It must be compared, referred to some other cyclic or noncyclic process, to be seen as temporal." (223) this feels like the passages in Agatha Christie spy novels where she tries to talk about secret groups trying to topple governments and it becomes clear she's a writer and not an expert in the field.

"In a pen by himself the herd sire, ram or bull or stallion, heavy-necked, stood potent as a thundercloud, charged with generation." (206) simply swimming in generation. Balls swollen with generative potential. So masculine.

"'There's a great deal that's admirable, I'm sure, in your society, but it doesn't teach you to discriminate—which is after all the best thing civilization teaches.'" (142-143)

"Juracán was a Taino god of chaos, the controller of the weather.
Hurricanes are called hurricanes based on that old god. A taíno word is part of the entire world's lexicon and that always brings a little smile to my face." (17) how did I not know this??

"If you 'like' bears and want to learn more about Asheville's urban/suburban black bear population, visit the study's Facebook page to meet more radio-collared bears and the residents working with the team" (68) why is "like" in scare quotes here

"COVID-19 pandemic:
breakthrough cases of, 186
global fatalities of, 168
lack of preparedness for, 3-4, 27, 38, 312
...
political dimension of, 282
rapid global spread of, 76, 91, 114
stock market and, 144-45
Trump's bad advice on, 20, 191, 202-4
uncertainty factor in, 146-47
vaccines for, see vaccines, for COVID-19
wild speculation about origin of, 76-78" (422)

Man, the OCR in this edition is not great. Most of the time I can see what was meant, but in a sci-fi book where words are made up and concepts remade, things like "dom" instead of "dorm" and "eighty years old" instead of "eight years old" really do make quite a difference

"WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH
...
Compact, short-tailed bird that creeps up and down trees." (9) creep creep

"The report takes a generic, apple-pie view of the challenges that face mathematics education and makes very few specific recommendations." (180) apple pie!