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Zod kneels before the Phantom Zone one final time. RIP Terence Stamp, 87.

Terence Stamp was a notable actor who made his mark in many, many films. The first two Superman movies with Christopher Reeves, Star Wars Episode 1, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, His Dark Materials. Other work included a Federico Fellini film of an Edgar Allen Poe story, various voice work, Modesty Blaise, Young Guns, Bowfinger, Wanted, the Tom Cruise film Valkyrie, The Adjustment Bureau, Miss Peregrin's Home For Peculiar Children, and more. His final film was Last Night In Soho (2021).

THREE volumes of memoirs, a novel, and a cookbook were also amongst his accomplishments. His voiceover work included Elder Scrolls IV, Halo 3, documentary voiceover work, and music video appearances. He shared a house with Michael Caine before they both made it big! His brother, Chris, was a rock music producer and manager and was largely responsible for bring The Who to prominence! That's more of an interesting footnote since Terence probably didn't directly have an effect on that event. OR DID HE?

Among his awards and nominations were a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and a Silver Bear (German) as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards.

He was a busy man.

https://gizmodo.com/superman-and-star-wars-actor-terence-stamp-dies-at-age-87-2000644162

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medical news

Toothpaste made from keratin will help rebuild enamel!

Some very interesting news from King's College, London. They've developed a new toothpaste based on keratin, rather than fluoride, extracted from sheep's wool, and found that it restores teeth and builds better protection. The restoration process builds a scaffold-like structure on the teeth that attracts calcium and phosphate ions, building a calcium-like compound on the teeth, restoring protection.

Fluoride only slows the wear and tear on the teeth, it doesn't do anything to rebuild it.

The best thing is that this toothpaste could be on the market in 2-3 years!

https://gizmodo.com/toothpaste-made-from-hair-works-better-than-fluoride-scientists-say-2000643763

Sunday roadkill report

One flat and dried skunk in front of the fire station, no stink but the black and white fur is diagnostic.

Usual summer flowers by the roadside, including some bull thistles starting to fluff. This is pretty much the Scottish thistle, largest and latest to bloom around here.

No interesting metal birds at the base. I'd heard a multi-engine turboprop when I was headed out, but that's the all of it.

Bike ride, just on the edge of heat but did not die. Takes me over 400 miles for the year. Again, about half of what I'd like.

15.71 miles, 1:30:45

Honeysuckle birds

Air temperature 63 F, wind southwest about 6 mph, mostly cloudy. Thunderstorms "likely" this afternoon, but the only rain on the weather radar is skimming the top of Maine. Should try for a bike ride this morning to check on any interesting birds at the airport/base.

Peace is our profession

Air temperature 57 F, wind near calm, sunny. Forecast says we may get showers and thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon. Not betting on it. Meanwhile, we hope that no idiots toss a cigarette butt on our brown grass.

Current Mood: amused

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2025 52 Card Project: Week 32: Fringe

This past week's Year of Adventure event was to attend two Minnesota Fringe Festival shows as a guest of

naomikritzer and her husband Ed. If you're not familiar with the Fringe Festival, it's a week in which local theater venues and actors (amateur and professional) put on forty or fifty of shows over the course of about a week, some written entirely for the occasion. The festival has been running for years.

We saw "The Book of Mordor," (Lord of the Rings crossed with The Book of Mormon) and a parody of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," entitled "Our Zombie Town." We went out to dinner together between the two shows.

I've attended a couple of Fringe shows previously with Fiona, but it has been years. I enjoyed both performances.

I have never seen The Book of Mormon, but from what I know about the story, the crossover worked surprisingly well. There were funny bits of stage business, and the performance was satisfying.

As for the other show, I've been in Our Town myself, and I enjoyed this parody. Some parts were ragged, but the final image (the people of the town sitting in separate chairs, each glued to their phones, their faces illuminated only by the phone light) has stuck with me since I've seen the show. It's a perfect parody of the last act (in which people in the chairs represented the dead in the graveyard) and a sly response to what has always seemed to me to be the most important line in the last act of the original: "Let's look at one another!"

Good theater makes you think as well as laugh, and that final image will stick with me.

Image description: Top: Promotional picture for Fringe show 'Our Zombie Town,' a parody of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Four people stare as if hypnotized at their phones, ignoring the viewer, their faces lit by the phone screen. Semi-transparent stage lights are overlaid over this picture, giving the picture a greenish cast. Bottom: Promotional picture for Fringe Show 'The Book of Mordor' (Frodo holds up the ring on a chain). Center: a Fringe 2025 button. Right a Fringe line flag.

Fringe

32 Fringe

Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Friday miscellaneous report

Smartweed blooming, also called lady-fingers, white water lilies in the cemetery pond, usual supply of goldenrod and chicory and tansy. A few asters, but it's early for them still. Purple loosestrife setting seed.

No geese at the pond, either on my way out or coming back. Don't now what's up with that. One roadkill red squirrel in the next town up, crow in attendance for the rites. Also, largish splash of blood, could be deer or raccoon, but no corpse for ID.

Got out on the bike, air temperature upper 60s F and gusty wind, up to the golf course and over to the road through the bog. Did not die.

15.36 miles, 1:28:45

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A Long Rest to Restore Hit Points

I lost two days.

Not exactly, but I was starting to feel sick on Wednesday and went down for the count. I just slept. I woke up now and again to eat, drink some water, take meds, and go back to sleep. It was insane. I told

naomikritzer that I felt a little like Murderbot just doing a complete hard reboot. I woke up some time last night to get the status update that I had returned to 40% operational, and then woke up at 80%.

Crazy.

Now, I'm trying to catch up a little on WorldCON. I'm listening to the Virtual presentaion "Food in Fantasy" which has an all Nigerian author panel (Presenter(s): Amadin Ogbewe, Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe, Uchechukwu Nwaka), which is really fascinating. I just learned that there is a supersition that if you pick money off the ground you could turn into a yam. Apparently, this was something that really freaked out one of the panelists when he was younger. I would love to learn more about this, but I will say that Google is becoming pretty useless thanks to AI. I also just learned that, in Nigeria, if you accept food in a dream it can transport you to another place. They are now talking about how you translate certain foods specific to Nigera for non-African readers, which is a good question because there's something to be said for both trying to explain it or just letting it be there. Ogbewe just suggested something I really like, which is to not over explain, but to let the food exist as is, normalize it.

I am of two minds. When I write about foods that are unusual in the West, particularly when I'm writing fanfic, I do like to take a moment to sort of give a sense impression of it. Like, what it smells like, taste, and texture. But, it is true that if you explain something too much, it can knock a reader out of the story and focus on something that isn't what the story is actually about.

Anyway, I'm back.

I hope at all of you at Seattle WorldCON are having a great time!

Weather gods fickle

Air temperature 62 F, wind north gusting to 20 mph, fair sky. We got a sprinkle out of yesterday's storm offering, and one distant rumble of thunder. Everything still dry. Trash out and collected already. Bike ride maybe?

(no subject)

So, can we expect him to swap Alaska for a Moscow hotel franchise?

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medical news

An antidote on the horizon for carbon monoxide poisoning!

This is really cool. Researchers found a bacterium that binds to CO very effectively and synthesized a protein that seeks it out in your blood, removing it from hemoglobin, which then lets the hemoglobin return to its normal job of carrying oxygen through your body! In mice tests, 50% of the CO was removed in ONE MINUTE. The bound CO is then removed through urine!

I'm guessing a double bag IV of the protein and saline to get the bag in and to increase the need to pee. Hopefully it could be part of a paramedic's kit.

According to the article, CO binds to hemoglobin 200-400x more effectively than oxygen, which is what makes CO poisoning so deadly. And the only treatment currently is flooding the victim with oxygen, often in a pressure chamber, which is still a slow process. In the US, there are 50,000 ER visits for CO poisoning and 1,500 deaths.

The question is, of course, how long until this makes it to market and how expensive will the treatment be.

https://newatlas.com/disease/first-antidote-carbon-monoxide-poisoning/

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/0010227/first-antidote-for-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-cleans-blood-in-minutes

Bait and switch tactics

Just back from my walk and glad that I decided against a bike ride. Air temperature 78 F and dew point 69. Have now cooled off enough to change into a dry shirt . . .

Precipitation nil

Air temperature 68 F, wind near calm, fog at the airport for visibility about a mile. Not seen here, but the radio towers seem to have vanished. They have offered us a chance of showers or thundershowers, but the only green globs on the weather radar are well north of here. Should be able to get out for a walk.

Things we don't talk about

Humanitarian groups say that Sudan is a worse civilian crisis than Ukraine or Gaza.

Eyeball stabbing confirmed

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

(no subject)

Well, the air quality is now up into "unhealthy" at the airport. And air temperature 88 F. Glad I got my walking done already . . .

Hand-basket city

Air temperature 68 F, wind south about 3 mph, sunny. Heat advisory continues. Air quality "moderate" with AQI 90. Watered the new salvia plants out front, in an attempt to shake rain out of the chance of thunderstorms tonight and into tomorrow. Walk early or not at all.

Inflated bandshell

We're leading up to a concert by the city band in the park this evening. Wonder if they'll have a supply of iced water for the band members and audience. Digital thermometer on that side of the house reads 94 F at the moment.

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Just on a Roll, so Bear with Me (or Bee with Me, as it Happens)

Bee at the Minnesota Historical Society's pollenator garden, yesterday

My whole household was up this morning at 3:30 am to see Jas off to the airport. Even my notorious late-sleeper, Mason, got up to come along on the ride to the airport.

We are all going to miss Jas. Jas won my heart over not only because Mason is so clearly in love with them, but also because they cooked at least two evening meals for us! And, convinced Mason to do the dishes afterwards! Independent of each other both Shawn and I very much implied to Jas that not only were they welcome back any time, they were welcome to STAY!!

We did manage to pack them back with some gifts so hopefully we aren't failing this whole gift-giving ritual thing.

They will be missed! But, Mason is already making plans to go to them next (Oklahoma City in Oklahoma--a place he's been once already, but about which I know almost nothing.) We joked that we'd have to try to host Jas in the winter, so they could see Minnesota at its worst.

The news continues to be horrific. I guess I knew that the National Guard being called out on citizens for being Black was probably not that far behind the concentration camps for Brown folks, but JFC. I'm supposed to be traveling to the DC area in mid-September for Capclave and I have no idea what will be waiting for me there. Like, WTF. To be crystal clear--not that I fear for myself, because the last time I was in DC I walked through the area that the tour guide book suggested was unsafe with my then twelve year old son and we had a great time, the only thing I exposed him to was some poverty not unlike the neighborhood we live in back here in the Twin Cities. People were super friendly and helpful when we were lost. DC is very Black? This is, last time I checked, not a crime or indicative of criminal behavior. Maybe a person might feel safer in DC if, I dunno, they weren't racist.

So, yeah, here's a cool picture of a grasshopper (under the cut for the bugphobic)...

( WARNING: Bugs! )

Dying of the light

Air temperature 66 F, wind near calm, sunny. We languish under a heat advisory again, with forecast of mid 90s F. Air quality "moderate" and AQI 57. Foraging morning, from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned store and back. May not get a walk in.