Don Edwards

Robot Love (Relevant story starts here and, after a slight diversion or six, resumes here

In addition, in a fighting vehicle of any sort one of the most vulnerable components - and also one of the most easily replaced (if you have a spare on hand) components - and therefore one of the things you most want to carry spares for - is the crew.

I've contemplated (particularly a few years ago when a certain series of books and shows were popular) getting a shirt with Tinkerbell on it. Either scolding, or laughing her arse off. Alongside the words "Real Sparkles Don't Vampire".

There's no need to fear... B.O.B. is here!

Wearing a sports bra over a camisole? Superheroes in general seem to have problems with the idea of underwear. (And, seriously, a cape? Capes get superheroes killed.)

If people start suspecting that Nanase is the cheerleader-themed superhero, proving otherwise would be easy... ... unless people start suspecting that there are two of said superhero.

That's any "first person shooter" where some or all of the enemies can shoot back. To be strictly true to the idea, though, you'd have to be unable to shoot at them.

Well, there was, but it sorta just died after an almost-13-year run.

Actually, I've known people like that...

Sounds rather similar in principle to Uncanny Valley.

My guess is that spellbooks look like spellbooks to people who know they are spellbooks. The misleading and incredibly boring titles are only shown to other people, and selected ad-hoc to be boring to *those specific* other people.

The usual term is "vicious cycle", in my experience, but functionally either one works.

I just had one of those times when you know exactly what a link leads to without clicking it...

Why would a dishwasher lament a battery-operated boyfriend?

In fact, once you decide to leave your current planet, space is pretty much the only thing that is NOT far away. Other planets - far away. Other stars - seriously far away. Other spiral arms - way far away. Other galaxies - yeep.

I hope you don't mind if I ignore your advice and just skip the whole thing.

Unfortunately, at this point it's extremely possible that you're coughing because your throat is irritated from coughing. And of course the coughing irritates your throat... If that's what is happening, any temporary reduction in your coughing is a good thing: it gives your throat at least a little time to heal. But a longer break would be better, of course.

Here's one for you.

WHAT! You have a birthday and don't tell anyone until afterward? What kind of person are you! You're supposed to tell us these things in a timely manner! But since you didn't... .... Happy berated birthday. ok I'll go hide now

In one of Blasingame's Furmankind books, there's a comment on a spacecraft whose crew is 90% chipmunks. The commenter is surprised that such a ship can stop.

Seems altitude would be relevant there. According to a story I heard, there was an incident in the Mediterranean where a Soviet pilot, in a fit of pique over being outflown by an American pilot (also in severe violation of orders) fired a missile into the American plane. Naturally all sorts of high-level diplomacy followed, but there were also some low-level considerations: the American fleet commander COULD NOT let that go without response, and the Soviet fleet commander knew it. But also, neither wanted to escalate it. So a couple days later there were a bunch of American aircraft conducting mock combat exercises just-barely-not-too-close to the Soviet fleet, and naturally the Soviets were keeping a very careful eye on them... and two American fighters came in at wave-top altitude and flew over the Soviet carrier in opposite directions about 20 feet off the deck and 10 feet from the tower. At about mach 2. (I have no idea whether this story is true or not.)

Between being born in a Boy Scout uniform (if there's trouble, he'll go after it and try to fix it) and Primary Protagonist Syndrome (the story comes looking for him), Elliot has precisely zero chance of not having another incident.

About the subject line: March 13 is a Monday this year...

The right tea can be hard to find. I currently have a shipment on order that cost me a total of just over $60 - about $20 of that is shipping because it's being shipped *to me* from China. The order is that big because the shipping charge was not affected by the size of the order in the range I would buy, so I bought more than I otherwise would have. However, for a jasmine oolong, there are other sellers, such as this one (not an endorsement, I've never tried them): http://www.tenren.com/jasmineoolong.html

Same thing works with "Joe and I" versus "Joe and me" or "Joe and myself".