Entry tags:

books/authors, omg mock people mock, person: neil gaiman, political wank, twitter, wanking inside the house

Tax deductables! Pencil necks! Thieves! HIGH SPEED CAR CHASES!
Well, all right, maybe not high speed car chases. So, the background: last year, Neil Gaiman, author of such lovely things as Neverwhere and the Sandman series etc., was contacted to speak at a library in Minnesota for a hefty speaking fee, which was paid for by a fund which (a) stated any leftover money would be lost if not used, and (b) was also not available for books, salaries, or other useful things. Neil Gaiman did so, and subsequently donated the speaking fee to charities.

All's well that ends well, right? Well, except that Matt Dean, the House Majority Leader, decided it was time to let his long-simmering grudge be aired to the world: 'Dean said that Gaiman, "who I hate," was a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota."'

Neil is... well, he's not well pleased. Nor is his Twitter.

"Sad & funny. Minnesota Republicans have a "hate" list. Like Nixon did. I'm on it. They also don't like capitalism. http://t.co/FObmLGo"

"It's strange watching a grownup high school bully in power. But the bully vocabulary remains the same. http://t.co/FObmLGo"

"And for those curious how and why I made it onto the hate list, what I wrote at the time on my blog. http://bit.ly/lMxsWQ"

"Any nice, sane Minnesota Republicans reading this, please vote for someone who isn't a bully with a hate list next time."

"You can listen to the Stillwater speech that all the Pencil-neck fuss is about at http://bit.ly/k3lA1B (You need to go down to point 2.)"

He also happened to link to Dean's blog, which proceeded to crash. Whoops.

So you'd think that Dean would realize his mistake and apologize, right? Well... sort of. Why?

His mommy made him do it.

The universe collectively facepalms.

(Bonus funny from the comments, courtesy from someone called Lucas: "Do weasel thieves steal just weasels? Or do they also steal ferrets, otters, and wolverines? In the case of the latter, how do they arrange for transportation?")

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	kumquat_of_doom 2011-05-06 02:50 am UTC (link)
	Well, there isn't really anywhere snowy in England, so that's probably your first clue. ;) Not even in Scotland, and they're the most northern parts of the UK. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	stele3 2011-05-06 02:58 am UTC (link)
	Dude, legit, I know nothing of English weather except what The Dark Is Rising taught me, and that included a magical blizzard brought on by forces of Evil. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	kumquat_of_doom 2011-05-06 03:14 am UTC (link)
	Doesn't The Dark Is Rising take place in Wales? I've not read them, but that's the impression I got from what I've heard. In which case, dude, not England. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	stele3 2011-05-06 03:16 am UTC (link)
	Does it? I haven't read the series since I was 12. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	kumquat_of_doom 2011-05-06 03:21 am UTC (link)
	Like I said, no idea, since I haven't read it at all. All I know is that a couple of the characters from it are/have been played at the LJ RPG I hang out on (waves to anthologia!) and they're all Welsh, so that was the impression I got. My point was that, if that be the case, calling Wales England is ... bad form, shall we say. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ruffwriter 2011-05-06 04:00 pm UTC (link)
	It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure the protagonist lives in England, but one book takes place in the Welsh countryside and several supporting characters are Welsh? Someone else who's read the books more recently should feel free to correct me. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

aiwendil
2011-05-06 04:08 pm UTC (link)

The first book written in the Dark is Rising series ("Over Sea, Under Stone") takes place in southern Cornwall, England. The second book ("The Dark is Rising") takes place in Buckinghamshire, England, and has a different set of characters (except for Merriman). The third book (Greenwitch") returns to southern Cornwall, and unites the characters of the first two books. The fourth book ("Grey King") takes place near Aberdyfi, by the West coast of Wales, and introduces the character Bran Davies - the Stantons (seen in the first and third books) do not appear. The fifth book ("Silver on the Tree") returns to Wales, and includes all the major characters of the previous books.

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	ruffwriter 2011-05-06 04:00 pm UTC (link)
	Oh man, sorry, someone beat me to it. Sorry to dogpile! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	wonapalei 2011-05-06 03:21 am UTC (link)
	One of the books takes place entirely in Wales, but otherwise, England all the way. Mainly Cornwall, if I'm remembering it right. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	kumquat_of_doom 2011-05-06 03:30 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, I enquired of friends from the abovementioned LJ RPG after I hit post, and got myself informed. Fair dues, then, forget I spoke! hushes (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snarkhunter 2011-05-06 02:57 pm UTC (link)
	No, just the fourth and fifth books. The first and third happen in Cornwall (I think), and the second, the one actually called The Dark is Rising and the one featuring the blizzard, is in...oh, hell. One of the southeastern counties near London. (Reply to this)(Parent)

yoritomo_reiko
2011-05-06 04:18 pm UTC (link)

Only part of it takes place in Wales. Remember, Bran calls Will Sais quite often, which is basically "Englishman". According to Wikipedia, The Dark is Rising is set in Buckinghamshire.

Over Sea, Under Stone and Greenwitch are set in Cornwall. The last two books in the sequence, The Grey King and Silver on the Tree take place near Aberdyfi in Wales.

>.> Why no, I'm not really interested in the books, why do you ask?

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