Archive for the ‘Rand’ Category

Random notes: August 6, 2016.

Saturday, August 6th, 2016

Two more obits: we were waiting for the NYT to do a David Huddleston obit. Now they have. And it includes a great photo of him and Cleavon Little from “Blazing Saddles”, too.

The role he said he relished most was that of Benjamin Franklin, which he played in revivals of “1776” on Broadway in 1998 and at Ford’s Theater in Washington in 2003.

Yeah, we can see that.

Also among the dead: Chris Costner Sizemore. “Who?” The actual woman who the book (and movie) The Three Faces of Eve was based on.

Her new marriage turned out to be not an ending at all; she endured a fragmented identity until the mid-1970s, seeing several psychiatrists after Thigpen and Cleckley, until, in the care of a Virginia doctor, Tony Tsitos, her personalities — not three but more than 20, it turned out — were unified.

By most accounts, for the last four decades or so, Mrs. Sizemore lived a productive and relatively serene life as a mental health advocate and painter. She died on July 24 in Ocala, Fla. She was 89. Her son, Bobby Sizemore, said she had a heart attack.

The sunny narrative of Mrs. Sizemore’s triumphant second act was called into some question in 2012, when Colin A. Ross, a psychiatrist specializing in dissociation, published a book, “The Rape of Eve,” in which he accused Dr. Thigpen of having exercised an unethical, Svengali-like influence over Mrs. Sizemore and manipulating her for nefarious purposes during and after his treatment of her ended. Dr. Thigpen died in 1999.

And by way of the Times, we learn of a new box set of “The Untouchables”.

From the Department of I Kid You Not (talking about the campaign against the show, which was considered excessively violent and anti-Italian by some):

One prominent defender was Ayn Rand, who, writing in The Los Angeles Times, characterized “The Untouchables” as “profoundly moral.” Ms. Rand was particularly taken with Mr. Stack. His “superlative portrayal of Eliot Ness” was, she declared, “the most inspiring image on today’s screen, the only image of a real hero.”

Yes, we are trying to work on the DEFCON updates.

Instead of actual content…

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

….here’s something I whipped up quickly using Pages, inspired by Reason’s Hit and Run fundraiser, and because I can’t actually find that bumper sticker elsewhere.

Bake Sale bumper sticker (PDF).

I haven’t tried printing these yet, but Office Depot apparently sells bumper sticker stock. I may give that a try in the next day or two. If anyone does try it, please leave feedback in the comments.

Edited to add: Here’s a Word version that I’m actually somewhat happy with.

It will be a great day when the Pentagon has enough money to bomb public schools having bake sales.” (Word .doc)

The Office Depot inkjet bumper sticker stock may have been a waste of money; the ink came out more grey than black, and smeared all over the place when I handled it (even after about 15 minutes of drying time). I printed another sheet and am going to let that dry overnight; we’ll see what happens.

Extreme geek humor.

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Inspired by chapter 6 of Learning Python (the 3rd edition, alas).

IDLE 1.2
>>> A ='A'
>>> A is 'A'
True

(Well, I thought it was funny.)