Ursula K. Le Guin, “Forgiveness Day”

This week’s novella being covered by the Facebook Group that I post about every Sunday is “Forgiveness Day” by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was first published in the November 1994 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, and less than a year later was included in the author’s collection Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995) along with three related stories.

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Lake Anza

Our visit to Lake Anza today, plus the usual daily dose of headline links following.

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Surfing the Web, Friday Afternoon

No backlog of links from this morning or yesterday, so I’m sitting down right now (4:30pm PDT) and surfing all my favorite website to see what jumps out. …Posting at 5:20pm.

Slate, Marissa Martinelli, 15 Sept 2022: Deep Space Whine, subtitled “There’s a war over what’s ‘the real Star Trek.’ It’s highly illogical.”

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SF Reviews by Spinrad and Tuttle; Political Issues, Trends, Headlines

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Recent Features and Headlines, 14 Sept 2022

Ockham’s Razor; Randall Munroe; The best time to be alive; nephew of longtermism; political headlines.

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Themes that Go Together; Nonexistent Gods

NYT, Paul Krugman, 12 Sept 2022: Ukraine Deflates MAGA Macho Myths

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The Opposite of Education

Sunday’s New York Times had this front-page investigative article (i.e. not a piece about breaking news, but one involving investigation over a period of time — as it says, “Over more than a year, the reporters interviewed more than 275 people, translated dozens of Yiddish-language documents and analyzed millions of rows of data on failing private schools in the Hasidic Jewish community.”)

NYT, Eliza Shapiro and Brian M. Rosenthal, 11 Sept 2022: In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush With Public Money

Subtitle: “New York’s Hasidic Jewish religious schools have benefited from $1 billion in government funding in the last four years but are unaccountable to outside oversight.”
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Frederik Pohl’s “Outnumbering the Dead”

This week’s novella covered by the Facebook Group reading Gardner Dozois’s big anthology first discussed here is “Outnumbering the Dead” by Frederik Pohl. Coincidentally, it was first published as a chapbook, in December 1992, in the same UK publisher’s line as last week’s story, Michael Swanwick’s “Griffin’s Egg.” Both were later published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Pohl’s story in the November 1992 issue.

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Steveioe

Here’s an online comedian, Steven Ho, who goes by Steveioe, who was once an ER nurse (at UCLA), who began doing Tik Tok videos of himself acting out situations in the ER (in which he would play all of several roles), and has since become a stand-up comedian. He’s quit good playing various kinds of roles off each other. He can be vulgar though.

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Today’s Features and Headlines, 9 Sept 2022

Ursula K. Le Guin, Ian McEwan; that Hunter Biden movie; Republicans taking credit; proof of Trump’s threat; D.C. welcomes immigrants; Doug Mastriano’s personal prophet, who speaks with God.

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