Nice to see you back, J.

We’ve recently taken to watching Deadwood, mainly to amuse ourselves by counting the number of “fucks” uttered during each episode. I would’ve been extremely interested to see if any of the links you addressed the question of whether its usage was really that common. Unfortunately, none of them did.

I also find it inexplicable that the show’s screenwriters felt compelled to change some basic facts, such as the spelling of a character’s name, or where they came from. I fail to see how this was necessary in any way.

Wonder if there’s a Deadwood drinking game; you take a shot of bad whiskey whenever someone says ‘fuck’. Or whenever someone on the show does a shot. Either way you prolly die of alcohol poisoning.  Love that show, BTW, though I don’t have cable for the new season, and am disappointed to know this is the last season. it wouldn’t have run too many anyway; I read that the place settled down & got dullnormal after about five years.

If you like Deadwood, you should watch Altman’s movie McCabe and Mrs. Miller, which in many ways is a model for it.

If I played that game, I’d be unconscious and/or dead after about 10 minutes.

Apparently, they’re going to produce two 2-hour movies in place of the 4th season.

Ah, just read part of the article on happiness research. (I’ll read the rest in a bit). I want to relate a few related coincidences:

: ) Item: Harvey Ball, originator of the happy face, invented it in Worcester, the not-all-that-happy burg I just transfered out of.

: ) Item: The new August 2006 issue of Discover Magazine (Albert Einstein on the cover) has an article about Seligman. If you get this issue in the mail, like me, you’ve already had time to read it; if not, it’s on the stands in a few more days.

: ) Item: In related happiness-inducing news, this same issue has run a letter I sent them. I’ll save ye a trip to the news stand and paste it here:

M.G. Lord’s June cover article [“Impossible
Journey?”] lists a way to shield space crews from
cosmic rays– surround them with five feet of
water– but Earth water isn’t practical. I
informally submitted a better source to the NASA
Institute for Advanced Concepts this past
February. Briefly: solar-powered robotic bases on
Ceres dig out water ice. Mass drivers launch it
slowly but cheaply to other parts of the Solar
system. Arriving near Earth, this ice can supply
water, tritium, hydrogen, oxygen, etc. One use:
what I call ‘honeypot ant’ spaceships. The ship
is basically a very big balloon made of carbon
nanofiber, spun for gravity, with water inside,
and air inside that. Crew live in the central air
bubble. Water is simultaneously shielding, fuel,
and hydroponics/life support; most of the ship’s
mass is Cerean water; Earth supplies the crew,
the ship’s skin, engines, etc. Ceres’ surface
gravity is about 1/36th Earth gravity, and it’s
just close enough for the Sun to power the
machinery. Cerean water may unlock the Solar
System.

P.S. They changed ‘Cerean’ to ‘Cererian’ which apparently is the correct word. Who knew? Which brings up the issue of using the proper adjective when the number of named heavenly bodies grows daily. You gotta be a geek to know them all!

Another deadwood article, this one from the August issue of Wild West Magazine.