[continued from previous message]   
      
   So I moved it (another walk to the other end of the house). Now it   
   told me it was too far away. At no point were any specific   
   distances mentioned. I moved it back to where it had been and   
   where the old one had been (yet another walk to the other end of   
   the house), and finished the set-up.   
      
   But, wait, there's more! No, not a Ginsu knife, but yesterday   
   (Thursday) my printer finally decided to go four paws to the moon   
   after printing two of the ten pages I needed to have to ship my   
   eBay orders. It had been acting up in multiple ways--the paper   
   sensor kept saying there was no paper when there was, and I'd have   
   to re-seat the paper every few pages, and a couple of times it had   
   said the print head was bad and needed repair. Before, I was able to   
   try a couple of things suggested on the Internet, but this time   
   none of those, nor even removing the cartridges and print head,   
   cleaning the print head, and replacing everything, worked. So I   
   just ordered another printer, which is supposed to arrive Saturday.   
   I also went to the library, two doors down from the Post Office and   
   printed my pages, although I had problems logging in, because it   
   didn't accept my library card number from the numeric keyboard, and   
   the print station didn't like my PIN at all. Then I took them and   
   my orders over to the Post Office, packaged them up, and shipped   
   them out.  One must always have a backup plan ... or two ... or   
   five. [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: Jury Duty (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   Mark just got a call to jury duty.   
      
   I think I answered it in the manner he would.  I said he wasn't a   
   resident of Middlesex County and gave his address as Mount Sinai   
   Cemetery in Marlboro (Monmouth County). I said he wasn't a   
   citizen, could not read or understand English, and could not   
   mentally and physically perform the functions of a juror. Oh, and   
   he was also more than 75 years old (which I guess is right), and   
   that would have been excuse enough.   
      
   I think he'd be proud of me.   
      
   P.S. He got excused.   
      
   P.P.S. Oh, and apparently to fill in the questionnaire on-line   
   (though there was a phone number), the person had to have a   
   cellphone and an email address.   
      
   [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: A Television in Your Head (letter of comment by Tom Russell)   
      
   In response to the quotes at the end of the MT VOID, Tom Russell   
   writes:   
      
   Does anyone know the source of this exchange?:   
      
        "Does anyone have an idea of how human vision works?"   
      
        Woman (?) raises her hand; "Maybe it's like you have a little   
        television in your head"   
      
        "Good!  But who is watching the little television?"   
      
   [-tlr]   
      
   [More can be found at  -ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: Hugo Awards   
      
   BEST NOVEL: THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett   
   BEST NOVELLA: THE TUSKS OF EXTINCTION by Ray Nayler   
   BEST NOVELETTE: "The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea"   
        by Naomi Kritzer   
   BEST SHORT STORY: "Stitched to Skin Like Family Is" by Nghi Vo   
   BEST SERIES: "Between Earth and Sky" by Rebecca Roanhorse   
   BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC: "Star Trek: Lower Decks:   
        Warp Your Own Way"   
   BEST RELATED WORK: "Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction   
        and the Alt-Right" by Jordan S. Carroll   
   BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM: DUNE: PART TWO   
   BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM: STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS:   
        "The New Next Generation"   
   BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK: "Caves of Qud"   
   BEST EDITOR SHORT FORM: Neil Clarke   
   BEST EDITOR LONG FORM: Diana M. Pho   
   BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST: Alyssa Winans   
   BEST SEMIPROZINE: UNCANNY MAGAZINE   
   BEST FANZINE: BLACK NERD PROBLEMS   
   BEST FANCAST: "Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones"   
   BEST FAN WRITER: Abigail Nussbaum   
   BEST FAN ARTIST: Sara Felix   
   BEST POEM: "A War of Words" by Marie Brennan   
   LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK: SHEINE LENDE   
        by Darcie Little Badger   
   ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (sponsored by Dell Magazines)   
        Moniquill Blackgoose   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   WOMEN IN PURPLE: RULERS OF MEDIEVAL BYZANTIUM by Judith Herrin   
   (Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-09500-4) is about   
   three Byzantine empresses during the period of iconoclasm: Irene,   
   Euphrosyne, and Theodora. Herrin makes a lot of assumptions and   
   guesses, in large part because there is not much (reliable)   
   written about these women, or indeed about most women in the Roman   
   and Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empires. Perhaps this is why one   
   sees the first person singular pronoun at times; traditionally   
   historians have eschewed it for a more distant stance. (I might as   
   well add that the proofreading isn't perfect either, but that is   
   becoming far too common these days.)   
      
   The "purple" referred to was a color so expensive to produce that   
   it was reserved for emperors and empresses.  And there is even a   
   word, "porphyrogennetos" ("born in/to the purple") indicating   
   those children born to an emperor or empress after the parent had   
   achieved that title.   
      
   Which brings up my biggest complaint about the book: Herrin's   
   constant use of Greek (or less frequently, Latin) terms to   
   describe things. Even if, for example, she has defined "strategos"   
   the first time she uses it, the reader may not recall the   
   definition a hundred pages later. I realiza that not everything   
   has a precise English word that defines it and can be used, but a   
   page peppered with Greek is not easy for a non-academic reader to   
   follow.   
      
   Listening to the history of Rome and the history of Byzantium, I   
   found myself wanting to know more about the various women who   
   managed to wield power in a society that didn't normally give   
   women any sort of power, even over their own lives. Overall, I   
   found this too light on facts and heavy on theories and guesses.   
      
   WHAT I ATE IN ONE YEAR: (AND RELATED THOUGHTS) by Stanley Tucci   
   (Gallery, ISBN 978-1-668-05568-7) doesn't actually list everything   
   Tucci ate in one year. Early on, for example, he describes the   
   food he ate in Italy while on location there, but doesn't cover   
   what he ate when he flew back to England for a weekend there.   
      
   It also seems to be aimed at experts in Italian cuisine, because   
   he very often gives the Italian name of what he ate, and gives no   
   translation of it, or even an indication what its main ingredients   
   are.   
      
   Not a terrible book, but not one I can recommend to a wide   
   audience.  [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
                                        Evelyn C. Leeper   
                                        evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com   
      
      
              "I am so small I can barely be seen.  How can this great   
              love be inside me?"  "Look at your eyes.  They are small   
              but they see enormous things."   
                                              --Rumi   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)