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Post by Allen on Aug 20, 2019 11:53:32 GMT -5
The original author appears to be Bret Harte. Feed the entire quote to google for more. Robert McClellan wrote a book by the same name, "The Heathen Chinee: A Study of American Attitudes toward China, 1890-1905". Chapter 1 is introduced by a quotation from Harte's poem.
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Post by John Robert Mead on Aug 23, 2019 21:14:20 GMT -5
Reading up on the poem, it's interesting to note that the author of it intended it as a parody of existing attitudes... and apparently did that so well that those very people embraced it and used it as a rallying cry, not realizing that it was intended to poke fun at them. Talk about getting bitten in the *ss. I'd be mortified if something like that happened with any of my writings.
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Post by K Pelle on Sept 5, 2019 1:09:22 GMT -5
Hmm - DeRider being employed as ANYTHING higher than janitor at Merinthal sounds to me as if there was a MAJOR screw up on checking his past credentials. Or I suppose it could be a choice between a huge bribe or blackmail of some sort. I remember what I personally went through when I first applied for employment at a local University -- that was well over forty years ago and there is NO WAY that DeRider would have gotten through a similar assessment process - not without someone discovering the truth about his past. However, having Charles DeRider and Cody Archer on the same campus does open up some very interesting plot possibilities ... I think I might well enjoy this tale -- a lot! K Pelle I was wrong, DeRider would better suit the job of Tail-Gunner on a garbage truck. Not only is he an idiot, but he is a stupid idiot - jumping to conclusions, parking by a fire hydrant (especially when near an emergency situation), then making slanderous statements to a news snoop. Either that or he'd actually trying to be the central figure in another major lawsuit!!
K Pelle
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Post by Paul on Sept 5, 2019 3:59:21 GMT -5
Wes' newspaper background really shows in the scenes of how speculations and misleading fragments of story get widely reported in breaking news. Reminds me of the On the Media podcast's "Breaking News Consumer Handbook: Active Shooter Edition": www.wnycstudios.org/story/breakingnews-consumers-handbook . And I guess the mystery of what's really going on with deRidder has been pretty much revealed now in Chapter 30: he's just plain stupid. And arrogant.
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Post by Dave on Sept 5, 2019 17:57:27 GMT -5
We'll find out shortly how Wes handled this clusterf**ck that DeRider just caused. I suspect Cody with Susan's and the President's help he'll be okay. However, if this was a real life situation in today's environment, Cody would be destroyed and his life ruined with no chance of recovery.
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Post by Leo Kerr on Sept 5, 2019 19:20:28 GMT -5
It's amazing how far some people who lack the most basic bits of sense ever make it anywhere, much less as far as they seem to. On the other hand, I can almost see Brenda letting drRidder walk all the way out on the plank and saw his end off all on his own...
(Unless she gives him a punch of the steel wrists, but that doesn't really seem to be her style.)
Which just lead to the following connection: the sisterhood of the steel wrists meets the sisterhood of the steel panties?
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Post by Paul on Sept 12, 2019 11:07:59 GMT -5
Doesn't it seem like Summer should still be trying to keep as low a profile as she can? If not from long habit, then from family loyalty.
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Post by Ed Greenberg on Oct 7, 2019 7:05:30 GMT -5
I understand the idea that Summer's family would be squeamish, but like any minority, if everybody stays "in the closet," the prejudiced folks will never be marginalized. (Or Margarine-ied? I think what the Wiccan kids are doing with the church is a great thing. In this vein, I offer to the group a link to a song by Dar Williams, called "The Christians and the Pagans." www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_KiHRHwaAs Best, Ed Greenberg
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Post by Boyd Percy on Oct 7, 2019 12:10:44 GMT -5
A mixture of happiness and sadness as this story
Happy that the cycle began in Stray Kitten has been completed.
Sad that Wes never completed the saga of Susan.
That's life.
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Post by Ken on Oct 7, 2019 23:48:07 GMT -5
Speaking of names, is it DeRidder or deRidder? Shows up both ways in various stories...
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Post by Not Wes on Oct 8, 2019 9:27:34 GMT -5
I remember checking other books (months ago now) and decided on "deRidder" for SLH, but then if his name starts a sentence (first word), then the "D" is also capitalized. I don't remember if I had help deciding that or not. It's something we'll try to make consistent when we do other books he appears in. Don't remember if he's in Susan or not, but is in some Bird series books.
Thanks
Not Wes
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Post by Boyd Percy on Oct 9, 2019 21:56:30 GMT -5
Good to see Brenda pop up again. For any newbies, Andromeda Chained is certainly worth reading!
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Post by Ed Greenberg on Oct 10, 2019 6:16:52 GMT -5
Today' "Short" was really good reading, as well.
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Post by Sherm on Oct 10, 2019 22:13:59 GMT -5
Flashback time for me. I was a reporter in the mid-eighties, and my first night on the job featured a house fire, too. Unfortunately, I didn't have Mike's words to help me out on that cold January night. I stepped off the curb into a gutter full of ice and water running off from the fire. Wearing dress shoes. And spent the next two hours trying to warm my feet up while I worked my first fire scene.
I wore high-top waterproof hiking boots from then on, no matter how dumb they looked with my suit and tie.
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Post by John Robert Mead on Oct 11, 2019 9:37:16 GMT -5
I wore high-top waterproof hiking boots from then on, no matter how dumb they looked with my suit and tie. Way too late for you on this, but if one is concerned about appearance while being realistic concerning the work environment... 1) Have your pants cut such that the legs flare enough to fit over the boots without binding. This is easier to do if bell bottoms are acceptable in the relevant sub-culture, otherwise a variant on boot-cut jeans is what would be needed. Depending upon current fashion, this may require bespoke tailoring so that the finished product has the proper "lines" in regard to appearance. 2) Have false tops made that can be attached over the boots so they look like (bulky) dress shoes. Kind of like gaiters, but more complete coverage. I've seen things like this done in the SCA, where folks had circumstances that precluded proper period-style footwear, but still wanted to do their best to present the appearance of appropriate footwear; my father was one of those, for medical reasons regarding ankle support. But you were correct, in my view, in regarding safety as something which trumped fashion. I still remember standing on the Ravenswood "El" platform in Chicago in -40 wind chill, looking at the business-types who weren't wearing hats or overcoats appropriate to the weather... yes, they may have looked good in what they were wearing, but no way did I want to get involved with someone that stupid! That was back in 1988-1994, while I was working at The Chicago Public Library.
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