Author: HFM

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Magnetic Fork

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  • Post category:Anecdotes

A while back, I blogged about a strange phenomenon that I and my co-workers discovered while out at lunch in a restaurant – some of the knives at our table were magnetic. We noticed it a few more times in different restaurants – one or two knives will be magnetic and you can pick up, or at least drag around, other utensils with them.

We had a number of theories about what caused this, but of course we don’t know beans about science, restaurant management, or the production of silverware, so they didn’t go anywhere. I tested all the knives at home, but found nothing.

My friends briefly considered naming their band magnetic knife, but the rejected that (along with “Escalator Accident” – a band name I created a logo for) in favor of something else.
Since then, I’ve always checked for magnetic knives when I go out to eat. Last night, Stephanie and I were discussing the subject at Max and Erma’s and playing with the silverware, when she discovered her fork was magnetic.

Which is really cool – except that all this time, I haven’t been checking the forks!

Damn.

Knife and Fork

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The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

A strange Victorian Steampunk novel that I enjoyed, despite its length and rather confusing cast of villains. Celeste Temple is a young English woman raised in the West Indies and residing in London awaiting a future wedding to her fiancé, Roger Bascombe. When he sends her a curt note breaking their engagement, she decides to find out why – following him to a mysterious party in an English country manor. After infiltrating the gathering, Miss Temple witnesses a bizarre set of “scientific” experiments and narrowly escapes capture after killing one of her homicidal pursuers.

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
by Gordon Dahlquist

Her escape to London is short-lived, as the alchemical experimenters begin searching the city for her. She is soon joined by some unlikely allies – military doctor Abelard Svenson looks after his addle-pated foreign prince who is caught up with the sinister cabal pursing Miss Temple, and Cardinal Chang, a paid assassin who’s true love has been indoctrinated into the strange cult.

The trio soon find themselves in grave danger as they investigate the strange blue glass books produced by the villains, and try to unravel their sinister plot of world domination.

The book runs 700+ pages, and the cast of villains is huge, and difficult to follow. Some of them seem little more than cardboard cutouts, especially many of the minions and hangers-on to the cabal. Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of exposition near the end, also, as the villains are forced to explain their dastardly plot – but it’s handled rather well and doesn’t seem overly heavy handed.

But there is a mysterious house with bizarre secret passageways and hidden rooms, and the final battle takes place on a zeppelin, so there’s plenty of fun involved.

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The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime

The Big Over Easy
The Big Over Easy
A new series by the author of the bestselling “Tuesday Next” novels. A thoroughly enjoyable read; I polished it off in a weekend. Fforde’s novels are funny and full of literary cleverness. Jack Spratt is a like-able and entertaining protagonist and I look forward to reading the entire series.

The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
by Jasper Fforde

From the Publisher’s Weekly review: “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, and, well, you know the rest. But was Humpty’s fall an accident, or was it murder? It’s up to giant killer Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division to get to the bottom of it. Humpty was quite a ladies’ man, but a few people thought him a bad egg. Jack has a number of suspects, a new partner to break in and gloryhound/antagonist Detective Inspector Chimes to deal with.”

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Mohler Says Gay Gene Should Be Manipulated, If Possible

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  • Post category:GLBT Issues

From Beliefnet, among many other sources:

The president of a prominent Southern Baptist seminary says he would support medical treatment, if it were available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother’s womb from homosexual to heterosexual.
The idea of a hormonal patch for pregnant women was discussed by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., on his blog, www.almohler.com, on March 2.
“If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin,” Mohler wrote in advice for Christians.

I’ve waited a few days before writing about this, because I was so pissed off when I read it that I couldn’t quite deal with it. Mohler officially wins the Joseph Mengele award for horrific dystopian ideas. You really don’t need me to explain why this is wrong, do you?
But you do see how extreme homophobes are in their bent psychosis, right?
I suppose it would be inappropriate for me to counter by suggesting that we start treating all people who believe in religion for psycho-paranoid delusions, wouldn’t it?

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