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   TOPIC: THE ACID HOUSE (letter of comment by Arthur Kaletsky)   
      
   In response to Evelyn's comments on THE ACID HOUSE in the 11/01/24   
   issue of the MT VOID, Arthur Kaletsky writes:   
      
   Pedant-in-Chief respectfully begs to differ about the ACID HOUSE   
   film.  Welsh's demonstration that he can do a conventional   
   literary short story as well as, say, Alice Munro or Raymond   
   Carver is not in the film AFAIK.  The story is "The Last Resort On   
   The Adriatic", strongly recommended.  [-ak]   
      
   Evelyn responds:   
      
   I'm not sure what you're differing on, since I merely said, "THE   
   ACID HOUSE was made into a film incorporating all four stories in   
   [the book THE ACID HOUSE].  It is available on Tubi."  I didn't   
   comment on the style or quality of any of the book, the story, or   
   the film.  I did make a mistake, however, in that the book THE   
   ACID HOUSE (at least my edition) has twenty-two stories in it, not   
   four as some reviewer of the film claimed (or implied).  [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: Italian Architecture under Mussolini (letter of comment by   
   Paul Dormer)   
      
   In response to Evelyn's comments on Italian architecture under   
   Mussolini in the 11/01/24 issue of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:   
      
   I spent a couple of weeks about ten years ago doing train travel   
   around Italy.  The main railway station in Milan dates from the   
   Thirties and looks exactly like what you'd expect an ancient Roman   
   railway station to look like.  [-pd]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: Languages in STAR TREK (letter of comment by Gary McGath)   
      
   In response to Evelyn's comments on the confusion of "sun" and   
   "son" in the episode "Bread and Circuses" in the 11/01/24 issue of   
   the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:   
      
   I figured the natives of the planet spoke Latin or a Latin-derived   
   language (it makes as much sense as any of the other Roman   
   analogues), and the universal translator rendered the words for   
   "sun" and "son" as homophones, creating an ambiguity which the   
   locals weren't aware of.  [-gmg]   
      
   Evelyn responds:   
      
   There was never any suggestion that the inhabitants were descended   
   from people from Earth.  I suppose it's possible, but you would   
   think that Kirk or Spock would have mentioned this.  [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   Okay, this is another one of those articles of picky comments on a   
   book, or in this case just Chapter 1, of SNOW CRASH by Neal   
   Stephenson (Del Rey, ISBN 978-0-553-38095-8).   
      
   "snow  n...  2.a.  Anything  resembling snow.  b. The  white   
   specks on a television screen resulting from weak reception."   
      
   This reminds me of the first line of William Gibson's NEUROMANCER   
   ("The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a   
   dead channel.")  In both cases, the concept is meaningless to the   
   current generation (or in Gibson's case, they think the sky was a   
   bright blue!).   
      
   "[W]hen you get done using it, you have to plug it into the   
   cigarette lighter, because it runs on electricity."   
      
   And while there is still a power outlet that is structured to take   
   the cigarette lighter that cars used to have, cars no longer come   
   with cigarette lighters, and they call it a power outlet now.   
      
   "Your car's tires have tiny contact patches, talk to the asphalt   
   in four places the size of your tongue. The Deliverator's car has   
   big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's   
   thighs."   
      
   My tires have more contact with the asphalt that Stephenson seems   
   to assume.   
      
   "Tadzhikistan"   
      
   Now (and probably even then) spelled "Tajikistan".   
      
   "high-speed pizza delivery"   
      
   Again, this used to be a thing with Domino's Pizza (from 1979 to   
   1989): "Your pizza in 30 minutes or less."  This ended after a $78   
   million verdict against Domino's in a lawsuit claiming dozens of   
   accidents and over 20 fatalities were caused by Domino's drivers   
   trying to meet this goal.  Will younger readers understand this?   
      
   "The Deliverator stands tall, your pie in thirty minutes or you   
   can have it free, shoot the driver, take his car, file a   
   class-action suit."   
      
   See above.   
      
   "brandishing their Seikos"   
      
   These days, Seiko watches (or any watches) are much less common.   
      
   "Abkhazia, Rwanda, Guanajuato, South Jersey"   
      
   Snarky on Stephenson's part.   
      
   "The pizza box is a plastic carapace now, corrugated for   
   stiffness, a little LED readout glowing on the side, telling the   
   Deliverator how many trade imbalance-producing minutes have ticked   
   away since the fateful phone call. There are chips and stuff in   
   there."   
      
   These days, using that much disposable plastics and electronics   
   would be very bad, public relations-wise, and possibly against   
   some states' laws..   
      
   "The address of the caller has already been inferred from his   
   phone number..."   
      
   Again, this is meaningless now, with phone number portability, and   
   with cell phones which could be anywhere (you could be ordering   
   from a friend's house).  Yes, some phones have GPS, but not all,   
   and I believe it can be turned off.   
      
   "You don't work harder because you're competing against some   
   identical operation down the street. You work harder because   
   everything is on the line. Your name, your honor, your family,   
   your life. Those burger flippers might have a better life   
   expectancy--but what kind of life is it anyway, you have to ask   
   yourself."   
      
   These days, of course, jobs require less commitment, because   
   people change jobs far more often.  The notion of lifetime   
   employment has pretty much gone out the window.   
      
   "those seventies and eighties developments exist to be bulldozed,   
   right? No sidewalks, no schools, no nothing. Don't have their own   
   police force--no immigration control--undesirables can walk right   
   in without being frisked or even harassed."   
      
   Now, of course, we have more and more gated communities, so this   
   is becoming perhaps mopre accurate.   
      
   The Deliverator was a corporal in the Farms of Men Merryvale State   
   Security Force for a while once. Got himself fired for pulling a   
   sword on an acknowledged perp. Slid it right through the fabric of   
   the perp's shirt, gliding the flat of the blade along the base of   
   his neck, and pinned him to a warped and bubbled expanse of vinyl   
   siding on the wall of the house that the perp was trying to break   
   into. Thought it was a pretty righteous bust.  But they fired him   
   anyway because the perp turned out to be the son of the   
   vice-chancellor of the Farms of Merryvale. Oh, the weasels had an   
   excuse: said that a thirty-six-inch samurai sword was not on their   
   Weapons Protocol.  Said that he had violated the SPAC, the   
   Suspected Perpetrator Apprehension Code. Said that the perp had   
   suffered psychological trauma. He was afraid of butter knives now;   
   he had to spread his jelly with the back of a teaspoon.  They said   
   that he had exposed them to liability."   
      
   Well, this sounds like a terribly familiar outcome for the rich   
   (and white) perp.   
      
   "Fairlanes roads emphasize getting you there, for Type A drivers,   
   and Cruiseways emphasize the enjoyment of the ride, for Type B   
   drivers."   
      
   This made me think of I-95 versus the Merritt Parkway for   
   traveling through Connecticut.   
      
   "cranking up the left lane of CSV-5 at a hundred and twenty   
   kilometers"   
      
   "especially at a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour"   
      
   Okay, we've gone metric.  But going 120 kilometers per hour is   
   about 75 miles per hour, not unknown in the left lanes of freeways   
   these days.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)