Berry's page is up!
And I just want it on the record, Craig, that I did not encourage him in any way. Other than that, though, it's a...uhm...well, it's pure Berry, anyhow, and that means a fun read at least.

(BTW, Blue, to answer your question from the previous page, the word limit is 250 minimum. No maximum, but the Moderator's bosses tend to frown on her reading War and Peace when she's supposed to be doing stock transfers, so...)

So, Tom, you up for Monday after next?

"[H]im is dead."

Nice English there, Berry.

;)

anti-nit.

It should probably be read as, "... his brain -- him -- is dead". As in his brain, the part that is him, is dead.

At least that was my interpretation.

How would you say it? His brain, The heart and soul of all that he is, his essence, the man who bounced me on his knee and sang 1,000 bottles of beer on the wall, etc., him is dead. Should that be "Him" is dead. (Or HIM is dead if you want to go to RM.)

Oh, the best anti-nit if you pick on the grammar is that is the character as narrator. If it is a mistake it is a mistake made by a character. (Was Picard not making "Q" a crew member a nit?)

If you want, MJ, I'll swear on a stack of Bibles, or Unpanishads, or One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish that some people think that way and Stephen thinking that way is not a crazy proposition.

Kerrie-

For the third story (assuming we want to start a third story when this one is completed or abandoned), can I be placed in a different spot in the line-up? I start to prepare for my chapter when Craig's chapter comes out, only to have to scap it and scramble to figure out how to dig the story out of the tiger pit that Blue has led it into. It's a rush, but I'm getting a little old, and I'm afraid my heart can't take it.

KerrieM,

I agree. (That means sarcasm is coming everybody.) Place TomM after MJ. She never twists a plot.

(Yeah, MJ, I know, but you really are black, kettle.)

ScottN,

If she doesn't get that, can you explain it is not a racist comment or a comment on witches kettles or something.

ROTFLOL!!!

ScottN, could you explain to Blue that witches don't use kettles, we use cauldrons? And that they're not always the traditional black? I mean, mine is a tarnished silver!

;)

What exactly is the difference between (or should it be among) a kettle, a cauldron, and a Dutch oven/skillet?

From Dictionary.com:

kettle: 1. A metal pot, usually with a lid, for boiling or stewing.

cauldron: 1. A large vessel, such as a kettle or vat, used for boiling.

Dutch oven: 1. A large, heavy pot or kettle, usually of cast iron and with a tight lid, used for slow cooking.

MJ,

So the "bubble, bubble, boil and trouble" schitck is done with a cauldron.

What if you are in a pinch, could you use a kettle? How about a crock pot?

I better rephrase that. Gee, cauldron thou surely art blacke.

Sure, Tom, you can move. MJ, glad to hear from you, it's been awhile. Berry, stop stirring the, uh, Dutch oven.

I'm not MJ. I'm a specter from the aether posing as MJ.

Really.

Blue, Wiccanologists don't use kettles, they use cauldrons.

Happy, MJ?

ScottN,

Are the cauldrons black as pots?

aside to MJ,

Did you know the theory of aether was never dispoven. (Tryimg to disprove something you can not interact with is tougher than catching nuetrinos.)

I don't know deep physics but at least one person in Analog SF and Fact magazine feels the structure of a vacuum - aether; same difference.

The Michelson-Morley experiment disproved the existence of the aether.

Not exactly. The experiment to measure the aether failed. At the time, there was no alternative to Newtonian physics that did not rely on the existence of the aether.

When Special Relativity came along, it was able to explain the failure of the Michelson-Morley experiment and make certain predictions which have been borne out. The aether is irrelevent to Special Relativity. It is not required, but neither is it forbidden. It has been dropped from scientific discussion by the use of Occam's Razor, but if a future theory requires its reactivation, there is no bar to it in any current theory.

The aether is relevant to Special Relativity since it is the preferred reference frame (ie, the frame where the speed of light is always c) and Special Relativity says you can not make that distinction. I suppose one does need to define what one means when one says aether though...

At this point I think it is time (or maybe past time) to move this part of the conversation to the Science Nightstand board. I'll comment there.

Well, I expected the next installment to go off in directions I hadn't intended (nature of the format and all), but I never expected what actually came about.
Good luck, Tom!
As for the "chick flick" comment made about my first installment (IIRC, on the other TDEMG nits board), I deliberately wanted to start things off in a different vein than the previous story, but never intended some sappy emotion-ridden thing, either. I just wanted to set up about a zillion different things that could be picked up on (or not) and delve a little more into character, at least at first. I also used the literary trick of an approaching storm to hint at a portent of things to come...Chaos? Action? A zany car chase through an amusement park full of escaped zoo animals? (Well, maybe not that last one...)
Anyhoo, the second installment seems to hint at something a tad disturbing (Dad ate kittens?! Ha, ha.) and seems to take family tension the route of outright hatred.
Hmm.
Good luck, Tom!

I'm still working on my next istallment. Between all the Real-Life holiday tsuris (Sp?) and Blue's special plot twists [], it's going a little slower than I'd like.

I hope to get it out before another week has passed.

So, TomM, any progress?
ScottN... GUNS! I was even going to have guns in an upcoming installment. "Chick flick" indeed!

I know, I know... I keep promising and I don't deliver. Sorry.

I'll try to get something in this weekend, but if I don't have it by Tuesday, maybe Kerrie should give me up as a lost cause and move on to the next victim volunteer.

Help for any one wanting to unghost and unmurder mystery the story.

A car with headlights on coming down the street and tricks of lighting upon water droplets on windowpanes.

Dad's hobbies included meat sculpting. The head is made out of pork loins.

You can add weird psychological twists by making a portrait of sis or mom, but you better be clear it is made out of pork loins if you do that.

CR,

I have to work on the characters being chased through the haunted amusement park by zombie zoo animals and a talking dog (or a roking rog).

No emoticon. Hmmmm...

Hey, is there someone here to turn up the treacle? MJ you're the only chick unless kerriem get in and gets sappy. (It does not have to be a woman, but they are called chick-flicks for a reason.) I know, ScottN can find his feminine side.

Ya know, I never found out if kerriem got over her nasty cold, and maybe I've just hit the wrong boards, but she seems to have disappeared again...
Seems we have our own mystery to solve!

OK, admittedly, I've not been to many boards anywhere at NitC for a long time*, and I also had a nasty virus or two that kept me down for a long time. In fact, I still don't fully have my voice back, which is great for people who don't want to listen to me talk. At least I can still type! Mwa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Ahem...
So, anyway, I'm wondering just what TomM had in mind that he got knocked back so completely by Blue's entry. Maybe some of it can be worked in later?

*As for not being to many boards... where was one of the first places I went when I got back? Religious Musings! What a dip I was!

Blue,

I never volunteered for this round of writing. I've way too much on my plate at this time, what with trying to incorporate the coven, be out of town at least for half of March, and trying to forgive Morgan for the car accident tonight.

MJ, is Mark OK?

Yes, Scott, he is. Minor bruising from the seat belt, but that's it.

It could have been far, far worse.

I'm still alive twice now (quite probably three times) thanks to wearing my seat belt. It's amazing how a simple strap can keep a car accident from becoming a fatality.
I hope all ends up well, MJ & Mark.

MJ,

Now that we know Morgan is OK, how's the car?

You're not in this round? I'm the only weird one with strange tangents? (\sarcasm {Thanks for telling to ramp up the weirdness.}

We need a chick who is talented enough to get it back to a "chick story" as I put exploding penguins that give TomM fits.

Me three, CR. When I was about 10 years old, my mom flipped the station wagon (with a 23 foot trailer attached). We all walked away because we had our seat belts on.

ScottN, glad to have you around! (Oh, and that roll-over of yours beats every accident I was in, although two of mine resulted in totalled cars.)
MJ, the fact that you're trying to forgive Mark (or Morgan, or however he's addressed) must mean he's OK. Was it one of those "Are you sure you're OK?" "Yes, I'm fine." "What did you do to the CAR?!" situations?

Count me in to the Seat Belt club; A few years ago one of the brainless drivers I see every day around here finally got me (illegal blind left turn), and my car was totalled, but I walked away without a scratch.

Morgan's just fine. He's being much harder on himself than I'm being on him (I think). Car's not that damaged, though he did have me thinking it was totalled for a bit. Minor hood damage, minor fender damage, and a bit of paint transference.

You should see the streetlight, though. PGE (the electric company) had to haul out the chainsaw to remove it.

So, he said, "You shoulda seen the other guy", huh?

I bet the streetlight deserved it. It was probably harboring terrorists

A woman comes home to her auto mechanic husband and tells him that something is wrong with the car.

He asks, "What is it doing?"

She says, "I think there is water in the carburetor."

He smiles and says, "Honey, That wasn't what I asked, but why do you think there is water in the carburetor?"

She replies, "Because the car in the pool."

Speaking of terrorists, he made a crack the other day at the library check out counter, that I was probably on the FBI's terrorist watchlist because I was checking out a bunch of books by JD Robb (her "In Death" series).

I had to inform him I probably was already there, seeing as how I own not one, but TWO almanacs.

Hmm...I own all three of the People's Almanacs...I wonder what Ashcroft thinks about that...

"Gasp! A COMMIE terrorist!"

KerrieM,
You missed a golden opportunity. The DEMG nits: The next generation. (Lost in nits? DEMG nits part II: Return of the nits? \iDEMG nits: The wrath of nits}? DEMG II: The search for nits?

Oh keerap! I'm next? Someone should tell me these things! Are we still on?

Ah, TomM's up, I see. Uh...any progress, Tommy?