Robert Anton Wilson, 1932–2007

Alas, I just got the news that guerilla ontologist Robert Anton Wilson has shuffled off the mortal coil. I can’t overstate how huge an influence Wilson has been on my own work — hell, the very name of this website, “Prometheus Unleashed,” was directly influenced by concepts he espoused.

I do think it a fitting tribute that the soon-to-be-shipping Protégé poker chip line sports a decidedly Bob Wilson-influenced design. Not that I knew it would be a memorial tribute when I designed it, but it is a decidedly curious coincidence. Or synchronicity, perhaps: It’s as if the production delays existed to allow this tribute to be more than it was originally.

I think Bob would be pleased.

Fantasy and Reality

Okay, so this is old news, but I happened across it in Parade magazine this weekend (yes, I occasionally read the “magazine for old people” packaged in with my Sunday Post). Some lunatic mom in Georgia (why is it always Georgia?) is trying to have the Harry Potter books banned from her local school system.

It’s not the fact that there are mouth-breathers like this out there that I found amusing, though. It’s the way the Parade article phrased it: Ban proponents are afraid that children won’t be able to distinguish fantasy from reality, and — get this — “will try casting spells on classmates.”

Um, what? Lady, it ain’t the children that can’t distinguish fantasy from reality, it’s you. The only way children “casting spells” would be of the slightest concern would be if spells actually worked. And apparently, this room-temperature-IQ wacko thinks they do.

I actually laughed out loud (well, more of a slight chuckle, but you get the idea), and had to share that one.

MotherReader

Just thought I’d take a moment to do a little website promotion. There’s a new site, MotherReader, which is a sort of an unpretentious book reviewing blog. The focus is primarily on women’s books and children’s books, but there’s certainly some crossover appeal. In fact, it was the site’s author (the titular “MotherReader”) who originally turned me on to one of my favorite books of recent years, the oft-mentioned Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About.

Still, for those of you who are looking for a more concrete connection, I think you might be able to use some basic deduction to figure it out...

It’s just getting started, so if you head over now, you’ll be able to read it right from the beginning.