tim merritt [dot] net

Shorpy posts vintage photos, with good quality and detail. Make sure to click through and look closely at the full-sized image. This is wonderful. My maternal grandmother, whom I am so happy to say I came to know pretty well, was about 2 years old in 1902—though living in Paris at the time. Having known her gives me a less remote feeling of connection to historical scenes like this; a person I spoke with regularly, as an adult, was alive in this world of horses, hats, Victorian dresses, and nascent automobiles.

Via

Interview with DAVID SIMON in Vice Magazine. Thanks to JD for the link.

Commonplaces from Making Light. Please read them all.

“We are prophets of a future not our own.” (Oscar Romero)

“Peace means something different from ‘not fighting’. Those aren’t peace advocates, they’re ‘stop fighting’ advocates. Peace is an active and complex thing and sometimes fighting is part of what it takes to get it.” (Jo Walton)

“You really think that safety can be plucked from the arms of an evil deed?” (Darla, “Inside Out”)

“The whole point of society is to be less unforgiving than nature.” (Arthur D. Hlavaty)

“Armageddon is not around the corner. This is only what the people of violence want us to believe. The complexity and diversity of the world is the hope for the future.” (Michael Palin)

“Just because you’re on their side doesn’t mean they’re on your side.” (Teresa Nielsen Hayden)

“Young men and women, educated very carefully to be apolitical, to be technicians who thought they disliked politics, making them putty in the hands of their rulers, like always.” (Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars)

(more…)

Strange Horizons Fiction: Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs, by Leonard Richardson.

Google’s logo today:

What’s not to like?

An interesting commute on the train this morning. Well down the platform from where I came up, a guy was yelling and cursing at someone I couldn’t see. He stopped after I think less than a minute. I felt a little anxious and hoped it wouldn’t be a fight, but nothing came of it. I hoped he was just having a bad morning, but I also thought that he must have some real issues elsewhere in his life to make such a scene in a place like this. I’ve ridden the train almost every working day for ten years, and can count incidents like this on one hand. The guy, apparently calm now, eased toward my end of the platform and ended up on the same car I did, standing near a door though there were empty seats, reading a newspaper. I lost track of him as I read some news on my laptop. As the ride progressed, In the seats ahead of me two people realized they’d been neighbors for years, knew people in common, and had a small old-home week. It was great hearing them make friends, sharing stories and laughing. It was nice to be near.

I thought about how lost tempers are probably more likely on driving commutes, and chances to get to know a neighbor and have a good time are pretty rare. I really like riding the train.

A different Tim than me, of course. Ellen’s colleague from work, Tim Stewart, met us in Jonesborough Tennessee for a thumping good breakfast at the Blair-Moore House bed and breakfast, where Ellen and I stayed last night. Then we went to hear Sheila Kay Adams at the international Storytelling Center. (I’m on my phone now; I’ll add links later.) Good fun and lovely mountain views, the leaves beautiful with fall colors.

((((( Hearing Voices )))))
MUST ADD “STORIES” CATEGORY, FOR THIS AND FOR POSTS ABOUT… STORIES.