ALT.SF4M

  Amusements 10/6/2000

   • j********o@***.com
     06/10/2000 03:39:15 UTC

     Book Review: "Cross the Stars" by David Drake. A Hammer's Slammers
     story. IT

     WAS TWO DOLLARS, OK?! I've never read any of these books, so HOW COULD I
     HAVE

     KNOWN?! The first half of the book is so full of macho posturing and
     soft-core

     pornism that reading it was an ordeal, but it grows on you as it becomes

     obvious that it is in fact a version of Homer's Odyssey, and it gains a
     certain

     goofy momentum as the hero's crew stumbles into one death-trap after
     another -

     I have to confess to a certain affection for the book, but certainly
     can't

     recommend it. I sure hope the other books aren't so bad, but I don't
     care to

     find out.

     Rather fond of "Bridget Jones's Diary." A loveable fuckup's goofy stream
     of

     consciousness through a frustrating year of singletondom. Somewhat
     vulgar, but

     v. amusing in manner of "Three Weddings and a Funeral" or similar.

     Interesting bits from the Science Times: recent coprological studies
     have

     proven that the Anasazi Indians were indeed cannibals - the article made
     a

     point that this debunked the influential theory expounded by Stony
     Brook's own

     W. (Bill?) Arens in "The Man Eating Myth," which sits on a bookshelf not
     three

     feet from this computer (No, *my* computer, not yours. Stop looking,
     it's not

     in there, it's here.) He has apparently refused comment, aside from a
     few

     growls through his office door.

     Someone's apparently discovered why a very low calorie diet extends
     health and

     lifespan in yeast, worms, and mice (while lowering fertility). You'll
     remember

     chromatids (or was that chromomeres? eh, who cares) as the cellular
     mechanism

     that pulls apart the duplicated chromosomes in cell division. Apparently
     they

     play a role in suppressing genes. They form a sheath around sections of
     DNA:

     the tighter the sheath, the less the enclosed gene will be expressed.
     But

     these sheaths must be continuously tightened by a process that uses a
     protein

     known as NAD, which is also used in glucose metabolism, hence, if
     there's

     glucose around, there's no NAD left to tighten the sheaths, and all
     sorts of

     junk genes procede to clutter the nucleus and mess up the cellular
     mechanism.

     (Whether they're junk or merely "misunderstood" isn't clear: since there
     is a

     connection to vigor and fertility, they may enhance mating at the
     expense of

     housekeeping functions.) This offers the promise of a drug to convey the

     benefits of the very restricted diet to people who don't think it's
     worth it to

     "live" like that to buy a few extra decades of existence.

     Daria: Is it Fall Yet? was amusing (it concludes the Jane-Tom-Daria love

     triangle storyline started in "Fire!" and brought to a head in "Dye!
     Dye! My

     Darling!") Jane's encounter at the artist's camp was surprisingly un-PC.

     Quinn's progress out of the valley of ignorance had considerable
     satisfaction

     to it: it's always been obvious that the Morgendorfer women are all very

     smart, but apply themselves in different directions. After all, Quinn's
     lived

     in Daria's academic shadow her whole life, so it's no wonder that when
     she got

     to high school she should try to stake out her identity in a very
     divergent

     direction: she was only a Freshman. I enjoyed the fact that Quinn got to

     answer the same question about manifest destiny that Mr. Dimartino long
     ago

     asked Daria. And of course, it's nice to see the little skunk herself
     learning

     not to spray when someone gets too close.

     Gorno

     Hey, Blue! I gotta clue for ya: Steve's a MORON!

       • j********o@***.com
         11/10/2000 03:37:31 UTC

         In article <2*************.*****.********9@n**-**.***l.com>,
         j********o@***.com

         (JohnGorno) writes:

         >"Three Weddings and a Funeral" or similar.

         Silly me. I lost count.

         Gorno