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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	cmdr_zoom 2011-05-06 07:06 pm UTC (link)
	It reminds me of JKR's offhand comment that of course the US would have "their own school." Right. One school should suffice for a country with six times the population and thousands of times the land area. Also, we can visit both the Grand Canyon and Disneyworld in the same day. Fair comparison? I dunno. But it's what I think of. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandglass 2011-05-06 10:14 pm UTC (link)
	Resisting the urge to discuss the percentage of people who are wizards vs. muggles and how that would influence how many wizarding schools the US would need is so hard. Six, I'm guessing, or maybe one six times the size of Hogwarts, but hm, how much did wizards immigrate to America compared to muggles? That could throw off the balance considerably either way! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cmdr_zoom 2011-05-06 10:26 pm UTC (link)
	My old campaign had four definitely accounted for, as I recall: one up in New England (along with a major port and polyglot marketplace ala Diagon Alley hidden in the heart of Old New York), one down Louisiana way, one in the vast open spaces of the Plains and one on the West Coast - I want to say San Francisco. Each had a very strong "local flavor." (Reply to this)(Parent)

darlas_mom
2011-05-07 04:04 am UTC (link)

Also, we can visit both the Grand Canyon and Disneyworld in the same day.

I'm sorry, you just reminded me of when I had to hug the hell out of one of my British friends because she had been told the Grand Canyon goes from California to Canada.

I realize the Grand Canyon is not relevant to her interests, but dude. Surely the person who told her this had seen a globe or atlas at some point that didn't show a ginormous 1,300-mile-long continental divide up the western United States?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cmdr_zoom 2011-05-07 09:46 am UTC (link)
	I can only imagine that's what they thought the Rockies were. It's not like England has mountains per se... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	midnight_hawk 2011-05-07 04:36 pm UTC (link)
	Maybe she mixed up America with Xanth? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	darksumomo 2011-05-07 10:39 pm UTC (link)
	Or Mars. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jujubee 2011-05-09 03:35 am UTC (link)
	For a second I read that as someone factually telling your friend that the Grand Canyon goes from California to Canada and I became concerned that I must have a horrible understanding of geography. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kumquat_of_doom 2011-05-07 05:31 pm UTC (link)
	Gosh, the nerve of JKR, deciding that she wasn't going to waste her time delineating and describing the US magical population whilst writing a series of books set exclusively in Britain. Not particularly caring about the US is allowed, it really is. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	eilan 2011-05-08 01:13 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, seriously. Besides, six times as large as Hogwarts? Totally possible for one school. There's only about 40 people in Harry's year! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

kumquat_of_doom
2011-05-08 03:04 pm UTC (link)

My high school year had about 240 people in it, and I'm from the tiny country of friggin' Wales.

Also I dislike intensely the school of thought where everyone is obligated to include the US in every-fucking-thing. Dickish comments like Gaiman's are one thing, but trying to compare that with JKR simply not including many details about the US and never saying why is ridiculous.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	visp 2011-05-07 10:34 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, that's sorta where I went with it. Except in this his case he was actually being entirely correct, but what he didn't understand was that some people would feel it brought up unpleasant references. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	phosfate 2011-05-09 04:05 pm UTC (link)
	I would imagine that American wizards can, in fact, visit the Grand Canyon and Disneyworld in the same day. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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