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Few Mainers left to order overseas
[Quote:]
The Army National Guard could soon run out of Maine soldiers to send to Iraq and Afghanistan because of the 24-month cap on how long citizen soldiers can be ordered into active duty.Some 1,600 men and women from virtually every Maine unit have either served overseas or soon will, said Maj. Gen. Bill Libby, the top official in the Maine National Guard. Unless the rules change, that means that there are few soldiers left who can be ordered overseas.
[..]
Only a few small Maine units, such as the 195th Army Band, have yet to serve overseas, Libby said.
Don’t laugh! They’re deadly accurate with a clarinet!
Message-board sock-puppets
If you’re in marketing, kill yourself, but not before you stick some red-hot pokers up your ass.
Open Source NSA backdrop
Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, and William Marshall, another NSA official, give President Bush a tour of the super-secret agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Md
If you want the exact same super-secret backdrop for your own photo-opportunity, just visit this page.
airborne cats – a photoset on Flickr
Gadsby
A Story of Over 50,000 Words
Without Using the Letter “E?
THE ENTIRE MANUSCRIPT of this story was written with the E type-bar of the typewriter tied down; thus making it impossible for that letter to be printed. This was done so that none of that vowel might slip in, accidentally; and many did try to do so!
In writing such a story, —purposely avoiding all words containing the vowel E, there are a great many difficulties. The greatest of these is met in the past tense of verbs, almost all of which end with “—ed.? Therefore substitutes must be found; and they are very few. This will cause, at times, a somewhat monotonous use of such words as “said;? for neither “replied,? “answered? nor “asked? can be used. Another difficulty comes with the elimination of the common couplet “of course,? and its very common connective, “consequently ;? which will’ unavoidably cause “bumpy spots.? The numerals also cause plenty of trouble, for none between six and thirty are available. When introducing young ladies into the story, this is a real barrier; for what young woman wants to have it known that she is over thirty? And this restriction on numbers, of course taboos all mention of dates.
Many abbreviations also must be avoided; the most common of all, “Mr.? and “Mrs.? being particularly troublesome; for those words, if read aloud, plainly indicate the E in their orthography.
As the vowel E is used more than five times oftener than any other letter, this story was written, not through any attempt to attain literary merit, but due to a somewhat balky nature, caused by hearing it so constantly claimed that “it can’t be done; for you cannot say anything at all without using E, and make smooth continuity, with perfectly grammatical construction—? so ‘twas said.
Ernest Vincent Wright
Los Angeles, California
February, 1939
You know what’s even more interesting? The white/greyish block of marble on the right side of the picture.
It’s the base of a beautiful designer’s lamp. Quite expensive though….
Ahhh, so that’s why they couldn’t afford any furnitutre for the rest of the house!