From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V4 #195 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Friday, July 16 1999 Volume 04 : Number 195 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: OT: New Toy/Extravagance ["I T Admin @ Govt Office North West" ] Re: Alloy: PS & (believe it or not) some Dolby content! [RThurF@aol.com] Re: Alloy: PS & some Dolby content! [Elaine Linstruth ] Re: Alloy: PS & some Dolby content! [RThurF@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 13:34:31 +0100 From: "I T Admin @ Govt Office North West" Subject: Alloy: OT: New Toy/Extravagance No, 'New Toy/Extravangance' is not a single you haven't heard of before, it's what I've got/what I experienced in order to get it. I recently discovered that one of my chums on the ICL helpdesk, who deals with some of our technical calls, is also a keen amateur astronomer. He mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that he'd just bought a new telescope and wanted to sell one of his old ones, if I was interested. He told me the spec (3.5" refractor, equatorial mount, with setting circles and micro adjustment for Right Ascention AND Declination, a mere six months old) and also faxed me a review from one of the major astro mags, which was very complimentary. He wanted £200 for it. I looked it up in my recently acquired price list and it retails at £299. Sounded like a bargain. So, last night I went to Blackpool to have a look at it, was suitable impressed and bought it on the spot. Unfortunately it was a cloudy night, so I didn't think I'd be able to try it out on anything astronomical. In fact it rained like crazy when I was half way home. It was dry, though still cloudy, when I arrived home in Manchester at around 10:45. I wandered out into the back yard after a few minutes, and behold, a break in the clouds. So, I quickly assembled the beast, then took it apart again as it wouldn't fit through the door when fully erect (story of my life, but that's for another time, perhaps), reassembled it outside and peeked through the finderscope at what was apparently an empty bit of sky. I was amazed to find there were dozens of stars visible. Through the actual scope it was wonderful. I never realised so much could be seen from such a poor, light and dirt polluted site as south Manchester. I managed to pick up a couple of bright objects, but also saw many others surrounding them that I'd never seen before. Unfortunately there's not a lot to look at in the sky right now, at least, not of any great significance. The moon is hiding from me at night and the planets and most prominent conestellations are elsewhere, but I DON'T CARE as I can now see the less prominent objects as never before. Now, if I can just fill out my overtime claims quickly, the bank manager may not start writing nasty letters to me again. TTFN Slarv ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 11:15:19 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: OT: New Toy/Extravagance, constellations In a message dated 7/15/99 8:46:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time, help.gonw.st@gtnet.gov.uk writes: :: I was amazed to find there were dozens of stars visible. Through the actual scope it was wonderful. I never realised so much could be seen from such a poor, light and dirt polluted site as south Manchester. I managed to pick up a couple of bright objects, but also saw many others surrounding them that I'd never seen before. Unfortunately there's not a lot to look at in the sky right now, at least, not of any great significance. The moon is hiding from me at night and the planets and most prominent conestellations are elsewhere, but I DON'T CARE as I can now see the less prominent objects as never before. :: Congratulations on your new telescope! If I'm right in thinking that England is much more northerly than New York State (our ferret devoured my wall-sized world map* before I could hang it up when we moved, so I'm relying purely on memory), you may not have the chance to view Scorpio, which is the celestial object of my affection these days. Currently it likes to hover near our horizon. At its heart is Antares, a monstrous red star I'd love to get a closer look at with our binoculars. We have to make a mount for them though so we can affix them to the tripod. When looking at stars, it's impossible to hold the binoculars steady enough no matter how much you brace yourself. Speaking of stargazing, we've had many beautiful clear nights for viewing & this summer I've seen more planets than I even knew were visible to the unaided eye, including little Mercury. I've had a strong urge to go to the sea and view the stars there. For now though, we get a marvellous view just by driving out to local farmland where there aren't any streetlights. What are common constellations above England at this time of year? Robin T *He bent the rolled-up map in half and ate right through the Tropic of Capricorn :( I just discovered that he's also eaten a large chunk out of the corner of our nice shower curtain... I'll have to mend it somehow, since it is Dave's favorite, with a mosaic tile-like pattern of oak leaves in various shades of green. I don't suppose this kind of thing happens much when raising a child rather than a ferret (Dave and I are still thinking about starting a family, so I reflexively compare/contrast the two situations whenever something like this happens) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 13:40:49 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Alloy: PS I forgot to mention my good news! When I took off the cap of my Gatorade I found i was the instant winner of a Gatorade sport towel! All I have to do is send the cap back in a padded envelope & they'll send it to me, isn't that cool? I'm off to do some embroidery now... Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 18:53:57 -0700 From: "Michael and Denise Luckey" Subject: Re: Alloy: PS Now why can't I ever win anything from Gatorade? I drink it all the time-even with dinner! M.L. - -----Original Message----- From: RThurF@aol.com To: alloy@smoe.org Date: Thursday, July 15, 1999 10:49 AM Subject: Alloy: PS > >I forgot to mention my good news! When I took off the cap of my Gatorade I >found i was the instant winner of a Gatorade sport towel! All I have to do is >send the cap back in a padded envelope & they'll send it to me, isn't that >cool? > >I'm off to do some embroidery now... > >Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 20:20:58 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: PS & (believe it or not) some Dolby content! In a message dated 7/15/99 6:45:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time, LUCKEY7@prodigy.net writes: :: Now why can't I ever win anything from Gatorade? I drink it all the time-even with dinner! :: A fellow Gatorade drinker?! Oohh! My new personal favorite is Riptide Rush (anything that tastes even remotely like purple PEZ is sure to win favor) but classic green 32oz is the one I won the prize on last night. What about yours? Don't despair, you're bound to win something, maybe even race car driver Mark Martin delivering Gatorade to you in his NASCAR stock car (one of the grand Prizes) To amend my off-topic wanderings, I must tell all of you that in the George Clinton/Thomas Dolby interview I'm working from for my page, there is a really *fantastic* color portrait of the two of them - which is too big to fit on my A4 sized scanner!! Does anyone know if there's a way in Photoshop to scan two half-images together and join them? It's too classic to leave out or to publish only in part. But to give an idea of the interview, here is a little taste of conversation (July 20th, 1985, at Covent Garden) which helps us peer into the artists' partnership: George Clinton: "When I saw 'Hyperactive' I set out to find out who this guy is, so sooner or later I would meet him - and besides the fact that we're both on the same record label in the States, we actually met at MTV. I was doing my thing and he was coming on right behind me, so it was like 'Hey man, you baaad,' and he was offended because he thought I meant he was *really* bad! Then I said we ought to do something together and it wasn't too long after that, when I was mixing my album in Miami, when the company called and said he was in town. I said please get him down here, and we can go fishing even if nothing else happens. So we went fishing, had an electronic pole for him so it wouldn't be nothing he wasn't used to." Thomas Dolby: "Listen, we've got to set this story straight. I would have been very willing to have gone down with a speargun, because I've never fished before, probably won't ever again, and I was really into it, Bermuda Triangle and all. George was asleep most of the time. He had a blaster with last night's rough mixes on it, and a big bag of weed, and he would be asleep and the captain would say 'Fish on!' and George would wake up and say 'Where, where, where is it?'." The journalist also mentions a script Mr Dolby wrote for Stephen Spielberg, which I've heard mentioned elsewhere, but I don't think I've ever heard any details about it. I'd love to know more. Thomas, I'll publish my embarrassing, nasty old poetry (even the one about Hannibal Lechter meeting a vampire) on the World Wide Internet in bold letters if you let me read *anything* you've written, because I'd love to see it. Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 17:32:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Elaine Linstruth Subject: Re: Alloy: PS & some Dolby content! That reminds me Robin, I saw a George Clinton quote on TV the other day: "Free your mind, and your ass will follow." Words to live by :) - -- Elaine Linstruth Palmdale, CA (USA) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 21:56:07 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: PS & some Dolby content! In a message dated 7/15/99 8:34:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time, elaine@qnet.com writes: :: That reminds me Robin, I saw a George Clinton quote on TV the other day: "Free your mind, and your ass will follow." Words to live by :) :: Weird, there's a song on a dance-music tape Dave's brother made for our wedding which has this phrase in its chorus. I never found out who the artist was, but I'm sure it isn't George Clinton. Maybe it's a remake of one of his songs? Now I'll have to look into it. Here's part of that photo which was too big for my scanner. It's the top half (in which Thomas Dolby is mathematically perfect as we all know): http://members.aol.com/RThurF/ThomasDolby1985.htm Many more images will be added once my 1985 page comes further along. Photographers really went mad for them, there's such a vast photographic record of their team-up. I can see the appeal. They do look like they could be each others' evil twin! Also (here we go again..) does anyone know if George Clinton is doing film scores under the name George S. Clinton? I've seen this name on a few very good scores lately & it's been making me wonder if it's Thomas' friend. Robin T ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V4 #195 ***************************