Nicknames?

Ummm...I just joined...are we supposed to be using Vironseque nicknames? Will my existing name do - it is that of an animal... Is there a digest available? I forgot to ask... ->Zx<- ____________________________________________________________ The proliferation of children who can reach the heights of computer creation brings to light a basic feature of the computer itself - it is infantile...[t]he microcomputer is above all a game and is infantile. But it is also very dangerous. We need to know whether it does not also 'infantalize'. -Jacques Ellul, `The Technological Bluff' ________________________________________________ The disciple Hui-K'e asked Bodhidharma, "Please help me to quiet my mind." Bodhidharma said, "Bring me your mind so that I can quiet it." After a moment Hui-K'e said, "But I can't find my mind." "There," said Bodhidharma, "I have now quieted your mind." -Charles Luk ________________________________________________ Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion. -Democritos

First, welcome. I certainly do not speak in any official capacity for the list, but there is no requirement to use a "Vironesque" nickname unless you want to; I have never used one. Your existing name is perfect, actually. Ondatra zibethicus or the Common Muskrat - you fit right in with Nutria and alga. There is a archive of the list available at <http://www.urth.net/urth/>. If you want to subscribe to a digest version of the mailing list, send an email to urth-request at urth.net with the text: digest true as the only text in the body of the message. Ranjit Bhatnagar, the very generous fellow who is responsible for the existence of this list in the first place has prepared a summary of

Thank you.

That's the one! In honour of Deacon Mushrat from `Pogo'...

Yes, thanks; I have now (hopefully) attended to this. I either didn't get or didn't notice the E-mail in question when I posted the preceeding message. I will try to poke around in the archives, time permitting.

Many would disagree! (However, I suppose that's my cue for a tedious brief introduction...) I can tell a hawk from a handsaw well enough when the wind is in some quadrants, but only on some days... I am an ageing, irritable recluse in increasingly poor health, living in poverty with my young family in the Blue Mountains of Australia (which very nearly got burned a couple of days ago in bushfires). I was introducted to `Shadow' in the mid-1980s by a friend who mistook me for an intellectual, and I immediately realised that I had encountered a uniquely significant fantasy author. I read `Shadow', I believe, in a single weekend session, and then immediately sought out the rest of the series. The rest, as they say is history. What more is there to say? Oh, yes - I have kept in touch with the development of the Long Sun and Short Sun series, of course, as well as gathered everything else I can find. I hope that they never attempt to film the Book of the New Sun, but I can see in my mind's eye a deluxe anniversary hardback edition sumptuously and strikingly illustrated by Barry Moser's beautiful woodcuts... Other authors whom I particularly enjoy include (off the top of my head) Ambrose Bierce, James Branch Cabell, J. G. Ballard, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Amit Chaudhuri, R. A. Lafferty, Alasdair Gray and Jonathan Carroll. Look forward to talking, ->Zx<-

You can use any name you like, but if you're going to be posting a lot that unwieldy sig is going to cause some annoyance. -alga

Crush offers: I second William's optimism and if you want a Vironese nickname I can also suggest that you merely shorten your last name to Zibeth or even Zibet which are other names for the civit cat. Heck you could even use "Musk" in that case which is also synonymous with "civit" (as president of the crazies, I felt obliged to offer that one ;-D). -- Crush

Ah, bravo! Another appreciator of the great American humorists --=20 mine own nom du Viron coming indirectly from Don Marquis, I salute you, sah.