* This one’s a bit dated now, but Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s “Slushkiller”:http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html#004641 is a fantastic piece on rejection letters from an editor’s perspective.
* Dadgummit — I had something written about James’ Fallows excellent article “Blind Into Baghdad”:http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2004/01/fallows.htm, but either it’s been accidentally overwritten or I only dreamt that I wrote something about it. Anyway, the article is an analysis of the way the Office of the Secretary of Defense willfully ignored careful planning and recommendations concerning post-invasion Iraq, with (now obviously) tragic consequences. Hat tip to “Amygdala”:http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com/.
* Jonathan Edelstein’s essay “Journeyman Conspirators”:http://headheeb.blogmosis.com/archives/021187.html looks at the origins of organized labor in England. Hmmm. Now that I’ve written that I realize that it may sound very boring, but trust me, it’s not.
* The ex-TV show Firefly now has “its own wiki”:http://www.fireflywiki.org/. It’s only just begun, but hopefully it will flesh out — I found other online resources for this sort of nerdy Firefly lore disappointing. There’s some interesting notes toward using “Unknown Armies”:http://www.atlas-games.com/ua_index.html for Firefly-themed roleplaying. I haven’t played UA, and while it has a stellar reputation, my kneejerk reaction is to be suspicous about porting a game about “modern occult intrigue” to a setting that paradoxically melds the Western with gritty sci-fi . But given the overwhelming unlikelihood that a “real” Firefly RPG will ever 1) be developed and 2) be up to snuff, I guess there’s little cause to be picky. (Hat tip to “Ed Hand”:http://homepage.mac.com/edahand/iblog/B1323778479/index.html)
* Reader “Bill Katz”:http://www.billkatz.com/ sent me a link to a “Best Photos 2003”:http://www.fifth-essence.com/archive/bestpix2003/index.htm web page. I have no idea who decided they were best, but some of them are pretty cool.
* UPDATE: From later last night, here’s Jim Henley “defending the importance of superhero stories”:http://www.highclearing.com/archivesuo/week_2004_02_22.html#005089, and bringing in some useful distinctions between fantasy and sci-fi to boot.