Rutabaga

the maths involved made my eyes water Now there's an observation I can relate to. R

The chick (now named Spirit) has gotten pretty big in a month+. Don't be fooled by this thumbnail.

I wonder what Joseph and Tony were whispering about? R

The pages on the forum are now displaying properly on my Windows 10 computer. R

And this reboot has reached its marvelous conclusion. Anyone who was waiting for the last chapter to post is now free to begin reading. You won’t be sorry. R

I can see the forum pages on an iPhone and an iPad, but it is not readable on either Chrome or Firefox on Windows 10. R

I'm called Little Camycup, dear Little Camycup, Though I could never tell why. But still I'm called Camycup, Poor Little Camycup, Sweet Little Camycup, I!

Helium is good for sounding like a munchkin, in order to sing "Follow the Yellow Brick Road." R

These were the best several hours of my entire life. Sure sounded that way. R

If you click on the little horizontal lines in the upper right corner of Firefox, you drop down a menu that includes an item called "Settings." Click it. Then under "General/Startup" there is a box you can check to "Open previous windows and tabs." R

Chapter 26 (just posted) is a breakthrough chapter for Tim, and while I don't have the previous version in front of me for comparison it seemed like this chapter has received pretty thorough tweaking and polishing. John's analysis and framing of Tim's situation seems more cogent and forceful than before. And of course readers were whooping and cheering at the end. In other words, this story well-deserved its "recycling." R

They just persist through restarts, etc. I have to go through and do housecleaning every once in a while, which is exactly how I ran across this open tab from last fall. It doesn't seem to bother anything to have a number of tabs open at once -- I think the device swaps out the memory used by the tabs to make it available to other things when those particular tabs are not in the foreground. But nothing makes the open tabs go away except clicking on the almost imperceptible tiny "X" in the corner. R

I ran across this story in an old open browser tab on my iPad, so had to go back and re-read it. Just as good the second time. R P.S. - Hopefully it will be linked on Cole's story page one of these days.

Ah, Joseph. Can you say "high maintenance"? R

And now it's come full circle as I re-watched "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" last night. This film featured the inspired casting of Jim Broadbent in the role of Horace Slughorn, potions professor to Tom Riddle. While in the book Slughorn is described as being quite obese and Broadbent is not, his portrayal fits the role quite well. The scenes with Hagrid and Slughorn lamenting the passing of the giant spider Aragog are classic. Of course the nuclear explosion in this film (and the source book) is Snape killing Dumbledore at the top of the Astronomy Tower, just as Dumbledore and Harry have returned from an expedition to retrieve a horcrux. Audiences were understandably shocked, and I think many people wondered whether there was going to be some kind of tricky magical mechanism that would cause Dumbledore to reappear. But no. And it is not until the final book and film ("Deathly Hallows") that we learn the truth as to the events leading up to Dumbledore's demise. "Half-Blood Prince" succeeds where "Order of the Phoenix" failed, in my view, because of the return of Steve Kloves as screenwriter. It may also be that David Yates had now found his feet as director in this realm. I also note in passing that the casting for the 11-year-old and 16-year-old versions of Tom Riddle (pre-Voldemort) was outstanding -- both of these lads exuded creepiness and sociopathic menace. So that's the lot. I'm not planning to go back and watch the final films again just now, but they are safely stored in my media cabinet ready for viewing when the mood strikes. R

Unlike the usual dreck at Nifty, this story actually is literate and well-written, and will resonate with those who were around during the 60s. Find it here. R

Johnny's familiarity with Cockney money slang obviously betrays his misspent youth skiving off to the streets to London. But it surprises me that he would not have become aware of the Thompson family and its influence in the area from those times. R

Of course you know it's coming: I have now re-watched the fifth story, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." It's probably my least favorite film in the series, both on its own merits and as an adaptation of the book it is supposedly based on. Admittedly, given that the fifth Potter volume was even longer than the fourth ("Goblet of Fire"), it was always going to be a challenge to compress everything into a 2+ hour long film. But I was disappointed by the choices that were made. Part of the explanation, no doubt, arises from the fact that this film had a new director (David Yates) and a new screenwriter (the relatively unknown Michael Goldenberg). Steve Kloves, who had written the first four film adaptations, apparently was feeling too burned-out to do this one. Fortunately Kloves returned to handle the next three films to complete the series. Imelda Staunton brought a significant measure of creepiness and despicability to her role as Delores Umbridge, while Helena Bonham Carter (seen only briefly) brought her own brand of the same attributes to her portrayal of Bellatrix Lestrange. It's just a shame that the film short-circuited so many of the significant moments in the book. R

Meanwhile, moving right along, I watched the fourth film, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" yesterday. For some reason, this is the film I have seen the most often, because this is the one that almost always happens to be showing when some outlet is running a Harry Potter movie marathon. When this book originally appeared, it was about twice as thick as each of the first three books had been. Considering how skeptical the publishers had been about the earlier books being suitable for the children's/young adult market because of their length, this one was twice as bad. Yet I remember one day eating lunch at a local restaurant and reading from the hardbound book when a lad who must have been 9 or 10, having spotted the open book next to me, came over and proudly announced that he had just finished reading it. This story introduces Mad-Eye Moody, whose portrayal by Brendan Gleeson is particularly memorable in this and subsequent films. We also see the physical reappearance of Voldemort, in a much more hideous, snake-like form as portrayed by Ralph Fiennes compared to the initial version by Ian Hart in the first film. I can't remember if the first book described Voldemort's face as being snake-like (I know the later ones did), but if so the makers of the first film did not abide by that description . . . they just made Voldemort looks like a nasty old man. This film ushers in the age of Voldemort's return -- a circumstance noted by Hermione at the end of the film -- and the change of the overall tenor of the stories (and films) to a noticeably darker one. People start dying. We're not in the world of 11-years-olds any more. R

Very funny and pretty well demolishes a number of places where suspension of disbelief is, well, unbelievable. I was going to point out originally that Voldemort seemed strangely absent from this book/film, but he certainly makes up for that in the fourth book/film. In the first two films, all the events lead up to a final showdown with Voldemort, but here there really is not any showdown per se. And good point (in the video) wondering why Fred and George would not have noticed a "Peter Pettigrew" bunking with Ron for the last 3 years, as revealed by the Marauder's Map. R

Watched "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" last night, the third story in the sequence. This was the only Potter film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, and his style is in marked contrast to the first two films directed by Chris Columbus (of "Home Alone" and "Mrs. Doubtfire" fame). Cuarón went on to create and direct the striking film "Gravity" that appeared in 2013, featuring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Josh Herdman, who played Draco Malfoy's sidekick Gregory Goyle, is seen briefly in the film and then disappears, to be replaced by an invented character (not in any book) called Pike. It turns out that Herdman had injured himself early in the filming process and could not handle the scenes written for him when shooting was scheduled. It was particularly strange for him not to be present during the iconic scene where Hermione punches Malfoy in the nose. Anyway, it's an important film from a story standpoint, introducing us to a number of significant new characters and themes in the Potter saga. It's one of my favorites of all of the films. The only really sad part is that Richard Harris was no longer around to play Dumbledore, so the role went to Michael Gambon, who did not bring nearly the same wit, charm, or authority to that role. Harris was perfect for it, and it's not clear anyone could have replaced him satisfactorily. R

I still prefer Jim Dale, perhaps because his rendition is what I'm used to from multiple listenings on long trips. We would routinely buy both the hardback book and the audiobook set on the official release date of each new title, and I'm pretty sure the Jim Dale version was the only audio edition on offer at Barnes & Noble. Dale started to show his age toward the end of the series, but I still found (and still find) his performances quite listenable. Of course, I have no idea where the Jim Dale audio CD sets ended up after my most recent house move in 2019, so to some extent it's a moot point. But based on the above sample, I prefer Dale's lighter touch to Fry's somewhat bombastic approach. R

Just want to say that I am enjoying reading the spruced-up version of this story for reasons that are probably similar to why I enjoy re-watching the Harry Potter movies. And I note that we still have no idea where Tim and his dad moved to from Ohio, other that it is in "the South." R