/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** ** NN NN SSSSSS XX XX ** NNN NN SS SS XX XX ** NN N NN SSS XX ** NN N NN SSS XX ** NN NNN SS SS XX XX ** NN NN SSSSSS XX XX ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** « an eclectic e-newsletter, e-published irregularly » ** Produced by Phillip Thorne ** nsx.underbase.org ** ** Volume 8, Issue 4: Thursday, 23 March 2006 ** Previous issue: Sunday, 5 March 2006 ** ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ OBS & COGS: BBC fails grammar, nonsense. SPECIAL EVENTS: Artificial sweetener bus, cartoon party, "Jeopardy" trials. UPCOMING TV: "Avatar: the Last Airbender" season 2, etc. SHOPPING ADVISORY: Sam Goody discounts, "Schlock Mercenary" hardcopy. http://www.underbase.org/nsx/ - back issues http://www.underbase.org/blog - NSX::Blogmode http://www.underbase.org/nsx/index_plus.htm - extra content /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** ** Why the BBC needs a refresher course in grammar. ** Why expensive timepieces laugh at their owners. ** Why clowns are scary. ** Why Phil should not be a fortune cookie writer. ** ************************************************************************ */ Last week, I heard the following on the BBC World Service, aired via my local NPR station: "Hear why students in Europe are falling behind, unless you're in a classroom in Finland." So, if I myself go to Finland (land of Nokia cell phones and sauna jokes) and stand in a classroom, students in Europe suddenly won't be falling behind? Uh-huh. The problem with that sentence is that the subjects in the two clauses don't match -- it switches from third person to second. I expected better grammar from the BBC. *** The other day at the office, an email broadcast announced a $200 reward any teammate who could locate a lost wristwatch -- a particularly expensive one. A few hours later, a follow-up email from the owner proclaimed that the watch had been found -- inside the top of the tissue box on her desk. So she saved herself the reward, but lost a lot of dignity in admitting it. (Also, she misspelled "D'oh!" as "Yeahhhhhhh.") The moral of this story is, so far as I can determine, to avoid wearing any wristwatch that costs more than twenty bucks. *** Some people are phobic about snakes, or clowns, or balloons -- especially balloons that pop spontaneously at unexpected moments. Therefore, would there be a synergistic effect on these subjects were they confronted with a clown who made balloon-animal snakes? Of pictures of Ronald McDonald on balloons? Of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade were it hosted by the Gorgon Medusa wearing greasepaint? *** From the Addlepated Adage Department: A man without a leopard-patterned mousepad is like a ceiling fan dipped in tasty, tasty lard. How many squirrels does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop if it's wrapped in bacon? Does the result change if the bacon is wrapped around the squirrels instead? What if Canadian bacon is used? No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow, particularly if you're a maker of balloon animals. A chocolate-dipped fruit in the hand is worth exactly as much as the market is willing to pay, but rather less than one in the original packaging. If the free market is manipulated by invisible hands, can Hamburger Helper get a job? /* *************************************************************************** ** SPECIAL EVENTS ** ** The Equal(R) Campaign for Flavor ** "Adult Swim" at Philadelphia Film Festival ** "Jeopardy" screens contestants online ** ************************************************************************ */ If you've never boarded a double-decker bus, the Merisant Company is promoting its Equal(R) brand artificial sweetener with a custom mobile café: sundeck, seating for 30 passengers/diners, and bottomless coffee, tea, and Equal(R) products. The company's Campaign for Flavor is a six-city US tour, and this month it's in Philadelphia. http://equal.com/recipes/campaign/bus.html http://equal.com/recipes/campaign/tour_schedule.html The website includes technical details about the four major artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, saccharin and acesulfame): http://equal.com/health/facts.html *** "Adult Swim 4 Your Lives" sat-8-apr-22:00 The Cabaret, 859 N American St Admission $10 15th annual Philadelphia Film Festival (30-mar to 11-apr-006) "The Cartoon Networks' edgiest creators return to Philadelphia with Head Space director Marc Erlbaum for the Adult Swim 4 Your Lives Party. This outrageous night, filled with sneak peaks, world premiers [sic] and dangerous stagecraft will be hosted by Dana Snyder (aka Master Shake) with 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' director Jay Edwards and friends as guests." "Adult Swim" is the late-night programming block of Cartoon Network, with shows (anime and original) too edgy for the younger audience attracted at early hours. (Except of course for the kids who know how to operate a VCR.) If you're wondering -- and you should be -- "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" has nothing to do with water or teenagers, and is only peripherally related to hunger, inasmuch as the main characters are a sapient milkshake, box of French fries, and wad of ground beef. Yes, you read that right. They might not be listing it here, but the "friends" may include (so I speculate) Seth Green, co-creator of the stop-motion comedy sketch show "Robot Chicken" that also airs on Adult Swim. He's a Philadelphia native. (So is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" co-star David Boreanaz, son of a local TV meteorologist.) He appeared as a guest last year at the Wizard World Philadelphia comics/etc. show. http://phillyfests.com/pff/ http://www.phillyfests.com/pff/templates/events.cfm -- Parties and special events http://www.phillyfests.com/pff/templates/festindies.cfm *** The "Jeopardy" TV game show will, for the first time this March, conduct qualifying trials for new contestants over the Web. East Coast viewers will take it at tue-28-mar-20:00 ET, Central and Mountain on Wednesday, and Pacific on Thursday. http://jeopardy.com/onlinetest/index.html http://www.jeopardy.com/ http://www.jeopardy.com/announcement_20060322NationalOnlineTest.php /* *************************************************************************** ** UPCOMING TELEVISION ** ** fri-20:00 Nick: "Avatar: The Last Airbender" season 2 ** sat-19:00 TCN: "Transformers Cybertron" ** sat-19:30 TCN: Month of Miyazaki ** fri-21:00 SFC: "Doctor Who" ** ************************************************************************ */ The second season of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" premiered on Nickelodeon (Nick) on fri-17-mar-20:00; hopefully it will *stay* in that Friday 20:00 timeslot, instead of again being juggled around the clock by Nick's programmers. Meanwhile, the first DVD volume of the first season (with 4 of 20 eps) is now available, and received an excellent review from Sci Fi Wire. http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/avatar2/ http://www.scifi.com/sfw/anime/sfw12366.html *** New episodes of "Transformers Cybertron" are now airing Saturdays at 19:00 on the Cartoon Network (TCN). Meanwhile, the full run of "Transformers Beast Machines" has been published to DVD by Rhino. *** TCN finally bestirred itself to promote "A Month of Miyazaki" on its website. "Spirited Away" aired in a three-hour block on sat-18-mar- 19:30 and yes, it was full of commercial breaks. As a result, "Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo" has been pushed into the 22:30 slot usually occupied by "Justice League Unlimited," and JLU is on hiatus. Date-time Title ================ ==================================== sat-18-mar-19:30 Spirited Away sat-25-mar-19:30 Princess Mononoke sat-01-apr-19:30 Castle in the Sky sat-08-apr-19:30 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind ================ ==================================== http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/specials/2006.miyazaki/index.html *** The Sci Fi Channel (SFC) airings of "Doctor Who" will soon assume their standard Friday 21:00 timeslot, with the first encore at 24:00 (midnight) and the second on Sunday at 23:00. The third episode is getting a bunch of extra showings. "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" comprise a two-part story. Date-time Encore Ep# Air Title ================ ====== ==== === ======================= thu-23-mar-00:00 2701 Rose thu-23-mar-01:00 2702 The End of the World fri-24-mar-20:00 2702 The End of the World fri-24-mar-21:00 24:00 2703 1,2 The Unquiet Dead sun-26-mar-24:30 2703 3 The Unquiet Dead wed-29-mar-01:00 2703 4 The Unquiet Dead thu-30-mar-10:00 2703 5 The Unquiet Dead fri-31-mar-15:00 2703 6 The Unquiet Dead fri-31-mar-21:00 24:00 2704 1,2 Aliens of London (pt.1) fri-07-apr-21:00 24:00 2705 1,2 World War Three (pt.2) fri-14-apr-21:00 24:00 2706 1,2 Dalek fri-21-apr-21:00 24:00 2707 1,2 The Long Game ================ ====== ==== === ======================= http://www.scifi.com/schedulebot/today.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/scifi.shtml http://www.scifi.com/doctorwho/ "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis" will return with new episodes in July, but repeats of the previous season air in odd places on Friday. "Battlestar Galactica" season 3 won't be until October, and it similarly airs repeats. http://www.scifi.com/stargate/ http://www.scifi.com/atlantis/ http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ http://www.gateworld.net/ /* *************************************************************************** ** SHOPPING ADVISORY ** ** Sam Goody clearance sales continue ** "Schlock Mercenary" soon in hardcopy ** ************************************************************************ */ The discounts at Sam Goody continue. They're now (as of thu-16-mar) 40% off new CDs, DVDs and video games; 50% off if you buy at least four CDs or DVDs (mix-or-match); 50% off box sets; 70% off holiday items. My local store had a sizeable collection of anime soundtracks, compilations, and albums by Japanese vocalists, all published by Geneon; your inventory may vary. *** The web-comic "Schlock Mercenary" (space opera, mil-SF, comedy; daily, color) will soon be published in a "dead-tree" edition -- an honor achieved by a great many pro newspaper comics, but not so many amateur web strips. Author-artist Howard Tayler (if this were manga, he'd be called a /manga-ka/) has produced new footnotes and margin-art. The book will be 80 pages, 8.5"x11", and sell for $15 plus $3 S&H. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/index.php/category/merchandise/ http://www.schlockmercenary.com/ /* ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The original content {layout, text} of this newsletter is copyright 2006 Phillip Thorne. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted only as per applicable copyright law, if all copyright notices remain intact, and if citation trails (URLs or otherwise) are provided. That said, if you think colleagues would find an issue useful, please reproduce it -- but also suggest they subscribe. Those creative works {books, films, TV, websites, software, toys, etc.} referred-to {reviewed, synopsized, quoted, condensed, analyzed, etc.} herein are the property of their respective owners, are referred-to according to copyright law as interpreted in the U.S., and are cited whenever possible. No {endorsement, infringement, insult} is {expressed, implied, intended}, except where specifically stated. Other data sources: The Internet Science Fiction Database www.isfdb.org Usenet news.rec.arts.anime.misc news:rec.arts.sf.tv Wikipedia en.wikipedia.com Yahoo! Movies movies.yahoo.com If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special topical coverage, or maybe I've sent you a teaser issue. To subscribe and unsubscribe, use the addresses below: Publisher: nsx@underbase.org (human) Newsletter: nsx-l@underbase.org (automated system) nsx-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 8, Issue 4: Thursday, 23 March 2006 ** Copyright 1999-2006 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */