Featured Article
While watching the classic comedy
Young Frankenstein,
CalMeacham was struck by a bit of dialogue referring to Darwin. Just another Mel Brooks non sequitur? Not at all.
True Life Adventures
blinkie is one of the newer members of the SDMB. He found his way to the Boards when someone asked about Locked In Syndrome following her brother’s stroke. It’s a topic he knows something about, since he’s been living with the syndrome since a
2001 stroke.
blinkie (whose sense of humor is obvious in his choice of user name) patiently answered the dozens of pertinent and impertinent questions we had for him about living with Locked In Syndrome.
One of those questions, obviously, was “what happened to you?” — and it turns out that the answer to that is rather a long story, especially the way
blinkie tells it. We’re pleased to be able to run his story in
teemings, and have the first installment
here.
Marley23’s younger brother was in high school when he was diagnosed as having a chordoma, a rare type of brain tumor. The experience has had a profound effect on the whole family — even his iron-willed mother.
Humor
Harry gazed complacently out the train window. It was a relief to spend the school year at Hogwarts. Relief from the games Aunt Petunia played under the stairs with her hairbrush, relief from Dudley’s hazing, and relief from the other muggles. [
more ...]
Well, not an awful lot went on in Potter’s Point last month, except for the holiday discussions about who might be running for political office in the spring. Such talk usually arises when there are social gatherings that include both freely flowing intoxicating beverages and large turkeys. [
more ...]
Fiction
Throughout the first half of the 21st century, the phrase
“astral projection” was the nearly exclusive province of
hippies, mystics, and various New-Age types. The theory went
that you could leave your body, most commonly while
sleeping, and travel (on Earth or on the astral plane) in
spirit form. Some spoke of being able to do this
consciously; at will, with practice. Tibetan monks were said
to be adept at such travels, and there are many related
accounts that may very well be true. However, if astral
projection had always been available to some, it can also be
said that it was not available to many. At some point, this
situation was destined to change: as the art and science of
computing evolved, increasingly sophisticated feats were
achieved and wonderments produced. [
more ...]
Best of the Boards
One of the things Dopers do very well is tell stories. If you ask about, say, bad first dates, you'll get some doozies, like this contribution from
Tibbytoes.
Regular Columns
The SDMB’s favorite word maven,
samclem, will be writing a column for each issue.
He's starting with that pesky strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. Some call it the Devil’s Strip; others, well, others don’t.
Habitués of Café Society know that
WordMan is both opinionated and knowledgeable when it comes to the guitar. He’ll use his
teemings column to highlight some lesser-known musicians, albums, and genres. First up: his take on blues great T-Bone Walker.
Longtime Doper
Arnold Winkleried is also a longtime member
of Amnesty International. He'll be writing a regular column on human rights issues around the world, starting with the appalling levels of maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. Learn about the problem, and learn what you can do to help.
Inspired by an
xkcd strip,
Just Ed proposed an ongoing column for
teemings that would be consist of product reviews “conjoined with a certain reflection of the impact, value, or significance of such products.” The first installment looks at something we all struggle with: productivity.
