Varia and miscella

[yakalskovich]

From the Life Long Learning department:
Just now, à propos of an opera poster, I realised that the "Nabucco" from the Verdi opera of the same name (the one with the famous chorus) is meant to be Nebuchadnezzar!!! Argh!!

From the department for the Observation of Human Oddities:
There was a fellow in the train this morning who actually looked a bit like madame_mercredi 's husband, Paul, and he was reading "Order of the Phoenix" (German edition). Only he was obsessively wrapping it up in the plastic bag he had taken it out from so the nobody should see the title. He was behaving as if he were reading pron. I felt a bit like asking him what he was doing that for, and did he realise if anyone said "Poor Remus!" out loud among a random group of perfectly normal people, almost everybody would know who and what was meant, and most people would actually agree with the sentiment? But I was mulling over developments and non-developments between Teppic and Chidder on discworld_rpg, so the Paul-oid remained unmolested.

From the department for Political Opinions and Conspiracy Theories:
Telepolis has a great article about why war doesn't work against terrorism, and one rather unsetling one about right-wing politicians calling for tightening security already. (The links are in German, and posted here especially for woelfle, with whom I was discussing this last night.)

From the Personal Department:
I'm much relieved as I had a mail from my former colleague Angela that our former colleague Graciela (who lives in Madrid) is all right.  She says Graciela said there's total chaos in the city and she was far too sad to write much.-

Comments

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

I like the format of this post, with the "Departments" -- clever way to do it. Some day instead of posting 12 separate times, I should do one single post, like I'm a news bureau ;)

[yakalskovich]

Yes, that's why I did. I thought several times during the day "This would make a nice LJ entry", but couldn't post it, sitting in the S-Bahn and all, and so I just grouped it all into one entry. Might do that more often.-

[madame-mercredi.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to know that Paul has a doppleganger out there in Germany. :)

[yakalskovich]

Yes, I found that funny. You find doppelgangers of all sorts of people, actually. I once knew a woman who looked precisely like my favourite medieval saint in my favourite medieval church in Cologne.-

The surreptitious Harry Potter reading was very funny as well. I mean, the fellow could so see I realised fully what book that was and that he was hiding it.-

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

In the early 90s found a German magazine that was doing profiles of all these Eastern European teenagers and there was this Polish woman who looked just like my mom. My mom disagreed with me on this, but it DID look like her!

I read on transit all the time and also enjoy observing what other people are doing. Here in Atlanta, a lot of people read the Bible, often while taking notes or marking pages. Why do I find it unlikely people are doing that in Munich? The U.S. is pretty religious but here in the South, it's amazing. Even the city's Pride parade is dominated by (gay-OK) church groups! Bah!

I think the most fun I ever had reading stuff "in public" was when I was reading a lot of Ancient Roman poetry and philosophy. Nothing like reading Lucretius while pressed up against a lot of commuter, going through and underground tunnel... :)

[yakalskovich]

People read the oddest stuff on the S-Bahn. I even wrote an essay-oid about it for Areion. Meister Urban seems to have taken it offline, though; it was calles "Trend zum Altbuch" and went on about how people read old dog-eared books in the S-Bahn these day. Was a link recommendation for Bookcrossings.

[vikytickytembo.livejournal.com]

>>he was obsessively wrapping it up in the plastic bag he had taken it out from so the nobody should see the title<<

Now that's odd. I always read Pratchett on the subway, in the large print hardcover version, occasionally waving it above my head and turning three hundred and sixty degrees while exclaiming: "I am reading Terry Pratchett! Pterry, over here!" on the off chance that I will meet a fellow fan, as I've only met one other person in real life who's ever read him*. I was Susan for Halloween. I live in NYC. Pterry had spoken there a week before to an audience of about five hundred. Not one person knew who I was.**


*Discounting signings and such.
**And my costume was obsessively good too.

[yakalskovich]

Yes, I found that very odd indeed. The fellow was prolly working for Siemens or Ixos, though, and he was afraid his colleagues would see him read anything immature. People try to be very mature and serious when they work for such important companies, and the Paul-oid might have been scared he'd get ostracised for reading Harry Potter.

Should I ever take myself that seriously, I hope someone gently takes me aside and shoots me.

Being recognised for a fellow fan by total strangers is fun. I remember wearing my Slytherin scarf to the amused giggles of passing school girls when the first Harry Potter movie came out. By now, everybody wears scarves that look vaguely as if they belong to British public school uniforms, so the effect has worn off.

I plan to make myself a "Vetinari for President" t-shirt (as in minkhollow 's icon) and shall then see what the reaction is. With all the IT people in my morning train, I hope there will be some funny incidents to report.

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

>>Being recognised for a fellow fan by total strangers is fun.<<

Or confusing. Yes, I am looking at you, Megatokyo readers. And no, I don't understand what you're saying, but chances are it's something about sad girls in snow. Or just "Where'd you get that T-Shirt?" (In Atlantis. No, at the Megatokyo store, y'know, the only one that sells Megatokyo stuff, you pseudo-fan. Pseudo-fan!)

I am also thinking of the time I saw someone reading Good Omens and promptly made a big ass of myself. ("OMG! Good Omens! Pratchett! Gaiman! Squee! Best! Book! Ever! Willyoumarrymebemynewbestfriend?") Apparently I too was incomprehensible.

It is a sad sad world if fellow fans cannot even communicate with each other.

[yakalskovich]

Totally. Next time I see the Paul-oid on the morning train doing his silly stunt, I will say something. And make a nice sequel for this entry...