Burtonia Christmas Cookie Exchange Application Form

Because of many past disappointments, awkward moments, and brushes with food poisoning, we at Burtonia have decided to institute an application process for participation in our annual cookie exchange. If you are interested in taking part, please fill out the following form.

Name:
Phone Number:
Title of proposed submission:
Briefly describe food item:
	Contains Chocolate
Date of last oven cleaning:
Have you ever included meat products in a desert:	NoYes
How well do you handle rejection:	Pretty goodNot well at all

submit

Thank you. If your application is accepted, you will be informed within forty-eight hours of the cookies exchange.

Virtual escape from the surly bonds

This has been a dream of mine from childhood, and now it's available for only $479. Someone must, however, take this to it's logical endpoint: combat!

A Legacy of Debt

The other day I was explaining the national debt to my children. I used the round figure of thirty thousand dollars for each U.S. citizen and explained that each of them had that figure hanging over their heads. I had to stop when my eight year old nearly came to tears.*


What was sadder and more poignant that that, however, was my oldest son's response (who is just starting to work and earn money). With bravery and confidence he announced that he thought he could pay his portion off. That tore at my heart even more than the younger one's fear.

* My wife and I often cackle over how many wonderful stories our kids will have of our soul-damaging parenting.

Little Dorrit

We are now three quarters through the recent Andrew Davies adaptation of Little Dorrit. How does it stack up against other Dickens adaptations? I think one must compare it to the more obscure Dickens, the 800 page table thumpers like Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, Martin Chuzzlewit, and the like. The most popular books (and thus adaptations) consist of the lone, young male hero, making his way in the Victorian jungle (e.g. Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, etc.). Dorrit is not Dickens at his best, and suffers from the usual sprawling and tangled plot and a florid sentimentality. Dickens was best at creating memorable characters, endowing them with humor and sympathy. When he tried his hand at sketching human institutions in the same way he drew human characters, he was not as successful, and Little Dorrit features the lamentable "Circumlocution Office." Its intrusions are unwelcome and off-key, both in the book and this drama.

Davies, the master adaptationist, has succeeded with the material. Near as I can tell from having slogged through about a thousand pages, the center of the story is the contrast between the eponymous Amy Dorrit and her father, an inmate of the Marshalsea debtors' prison. In classic ironical fashion, Mr. Dorrit's life exhibits meaning and even grace within the confines of the prison. Once he achieves his dearest dream of release from the prison, however, he falls apart. Amy, on the other hand, maintains an admirable and beautiful equanimity in poverty and riches.


Claire Foy, as Amy Dorrit, has rescued the literary character from other-worldly sainthood. It's a perfect example of wonderful physical casting, as she has to be a slight person, while at the same time portraying great moral force. In these enterprises, there is always some minor character who steals scenes, and in this case it is the gruff but tender-hearted debt collector Pancks. A casting failure: Tattycoram is portrayed by black woman, which is anachronistic and a silly multi-culti conceit. The entire Miss Wade/Tatty subplot was further tainted by the barest whiff of injected lesbianism. The creative class must have its say.

Bottom line: you can't go wrong with Andrew Davies, though for my money the best in this class is still Our Mutual Friend.

Google's Worst Idea Yet

Sidewiki. It's like handing a bunch of junior high boys a can of spray paint as they enter the museum. And the helpful/unhelpful community rating system won't help. I actually hope every sidewiki ends up a spam and p0rn link ghetto. Then it might die.

Digg vs. Reddit

As a voracious consumer of news, I rely on web aggregators to save my time. I have been using digg for several years to alert me to important stories in technology and science. The signal to noise ratio has been falling for some time. Apple cult devotees are overweighted in the user base and it gives rise to mounds of garbage posts with titles like "Six Reasons Why You Aren't Good Enough to Own a Mac" or "My iPod cured my girlfriend's cancer. Here's how." Not to mention the worshipful posts on Steve Jobs that would make Dear Leader blush.


On a recommendation from a colleague*, I have switched to reddit. Much better. More of a nerdy focus. Some really smart commenters. Reminds me of slashdot in the early days. Its users share with digg a militant atheism and a frothing-at-the-mouth hostility to intelligent design, but less political slant (e.g. on global climate change for instance).


And redditers are wittier. A few days ago, some enraged geek** posted (I've cleaned up the language):

Blast You Sun! Bundling trialware with the latest Java update is some major B.S.

A day later a wag posted:

Blast You Sun! Bundling harmful ultraviolet radiation with visible light is some major B.S.

Funniest thing I've read all week.

* Actually he's the guy who polishes my monitors, but I call him a "colleague" to make him feel important.

** Is there any phrase in the English language that conjure up a vision of impotence better than "geek rage"?

E-Bay Sale

I'm selling my kids' toys on ebay. Yeah, I'm that kind of dad.

The fan mail for the auction description is already trickling in...

UPDATE: The ridiculous price was my son's idea. I myself have a low opinion of inflated prices for used junk. If I had any say in the matter it would already be in landfill.