I'm the idiot who wrote the most grammatically nightmarish sentence about terrorism in Tsarist Russia ever posted to a.f.u. It ended up becoming one of Barbara Mikkelson's sig line quotes for her posts there for a while: "So, just imagine Alexander II on a hopping, two-legged horse, exploding. " —Melissa Jordan

Same here! I think I was a little addicted to those two groups. You are one of my Usenet tribe. :) Pretty sure that's the first time I've typed the word "Usenet" in a decade or so.

alt.folklore.urban was one of my very, very first Internet hangouts, and it would never have been the place it was without David and Barbara Mikkelson.

Usually my exchanges with celebrity visitors is me gawking/admiring from across the hall. :) I did get blessed by the Dalai Lama on my first day of work, so I think I already hit the high point of my employment here.

Oh snap! I saw while this looking for t-shirts on NeatoShop a couple of days ago, and I was torn between "I want this t-shirt now!" and "I want this movie - now, yesterday, soon, oh please oh please!"

Sometimes, it's amazing to work there - like when you see visitors like Neil deGrasse Tyson or Sean Connery or the Dalai Lama in the hallway (and you silently squeal like a total fangirl) - and sometimes, it's just a 9-5 (or 6 or 7 or 8) like any office job that makes you crazy.

Heh! I should add, Bill Pullman was beyond awesome and got down on the floor of our cafeteria to sign the poster during a post-show reception. The young musicians who were part of the performance had never heard of Serpent and the Rainbow, and after seeing the hideous one sheet, they begged him to do the second…

Nice Serpent and the Rainbow photo! It is my goal someday before leaving National Geographic to get Wade Davis to sign my poster for that movie. (Bill Pullman already signed it for me after a great event here at NatGeo: "Bill Pullman is... ALIIIIIIVE!")

I'm going to think of them as Project Bleu (Cheese) Book.

Aww, that makes me happy.

"The leader flees, hidden in the swampy marshes..." I hope somewhere there is an alternative translation in which "swampy marshes" is interpreted as "slimy mudhole."

I did, too. Glad I'm not the only one with "bulk dick" on my mind, apparently. Heh.

I hear "Edlund" and I obey. BTW, I loved the hell out of the random writer's room napkin scribbles* and hallucinatory white board marker sketches he used to post on Twitter. We need more of those.

*His "scribbles" = what I'd like to achieve at least once in my wanna-be artist's lifetime.

The demise of the dinosaurs was heralded by a voice from the heavens crying "FINISH HIM!"

I agree. I think we are very fortunate to have a connection to history many folks our age aren't lucky enough to have. Looks like Smithsonian Air & Space has taken down the audio link, but my print feature and the web-only extra are there:

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviat… (this is the feature)

http://www.airspa…

This is fantastic stuff - thank you for posting it! By chance (and through the wonders of Google images) I came across this gorgeous Alphonse Mucha-inspired Day of the Dead art that blew me away. The artist, Pedro Delgado, can be found at gogopedro.com. I'd kill to get a print of this.

I hear you. I was so upset after my sister died and something happened with my voicemail on my old phone. I lost the only piece of her voice I had left, and now, I can barely hear it in my head.

I must be getting old and weepy. I read your reply out loud to a friend at Starbucks last night and cried. The people at Starbucks must have thought I was mental. (That's okay — I think that might guarantee no one sitting super close to me in future.) I am the last of nine kids - definitely a mistake kid, too…

Read this just as I was about to start working on two NSF proposals. You owe me a bottle of Tylenol, Strauss.

I'm so sorry that you lost your father. Losing a parent is rough, no matter your age or where you are in life in general. Before I even got to your note of your father's death, I was thinking to myself, young people who haven't lost anyone significant yet don't know how much voicemail can matter to you when you are…