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I have just learned that the Glorious 25th of May is also the 35th anniversary of Star Wars. In honor of that, I give you this delicious little excerpt from Darths & Droids:

LEIA: Anyhow, that total bitch Senator Estornii of Ord Zeuol had exactly the same hairstyle as me. So I had to come up with something super smeerping quick. But you know what, I think I like it? Hang on a second...
LEIA: R2, you'd better not be recording this, or so help me I will come over there and—
C-3PO: Artoo, you're playing the wrong message!

:D I freakin love this comic.

So, apparently the Hitchhikers' title music has a name: it's "Journey of the Sorcerer" by the Eagles, from their 1975 album One of these Nights.

And Now I Know.

So. Guys. I really ought to make my quirky british title music mix CD. It would be awesome. It would have:

- at least two settings of the Doctor Who title music (probably original and JNT era) by Ron Grainer
- the Prisoner music by Ron Grainer
- Journey of the Sorcerer by the Eagles (Hitchhikers')
- Piano Parchment by Johnny Parsons (All Creatures)
- possibly the driving music from All Creatures
- the Sapphire and Steel music
- the Ballad of Serenity (Firefly) - it's not british, but it is awesome.

Have I mentioned that Ron Grainer is awesome? Ron Grainer is awesome.

Happy Towel Day, everyone! Do you know where your towel is?

And for the Numerology Factoid of the Day, we bring you:

5+25+12 = 42

Celebrate responsibly :D

King: "What a Queen she would have made! Such a pity she was not on my level."
Holmes: "Indeed, she is on quite a different level from you."

...

It's possible I just discovere the 1990s Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes on instant play. Possible and awesome.

I made it to 9:30 without passing out! ...can I pass out now?

Actually, work was awesome except for a bit of a kerfuffle right at the end, and all the Doctor Pepper in my system is roaring me along at a decent clip. Now pork buns and Sherlock Holmes on Netflix! WHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

And I totally did an EG show which made me best friends with hordes of little girls. It was fantabulous.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Party like it's 1895.

So, I was going to write this post last night, when I was angrier. But I opted to attempt to sleep instead.

After a lovely lovely weekend in SF, we attempted to fly home yesterday. The airport was packed, on top of which our flight was delayed an hour and a half, because of weather. When we got to Chicago, we were told that they were holding the plane for us, and we should book it. The pilot even asked the other passengers to let people with connections deplane first. Our gate was on the very very other side of the airport; we ran.

And...our plane was gone. We were nine minutes late. There had been some trouble extending the bridge, so we had actually spent those nine minutes sitting at the gate in the other plane. If the gate had been closer, if there hadn't been that malfunction, if they had been willing to hold the last flight of the day for ten minutes...we would have made our flight.

So then we got The Talk with the most offensive woman I have ever talked to for long periods of time. She told us that they don't comp hotels for weather delays. She told us that they don't hold planes for people who are over an hour late. She told us that it was our fault for boarding the plane in San Francisco in the first place - "That was your choice - you have choices in everything you do!" She was defensive and abrasive, and kept trying to put it on us. (Like she kept using second person pronouns: "you were late" rather than "the plane you were on was late"). And when we told her that we had been trying to get information systematically all day, and that we had been repeatedly assured that we would be able to make this flight, she rolled her eyes and said "They're flight attendants. They just serve pop and peanuts."

Okay. I do not care how wrong they were, I do not care how angry the person in front of you is - you do not throw your own team under the bus. You can't just devalue an entire class of your employees, in particular the one that is the primary interface with guests. All of us were absolutely horrified, and any sympathy I might have had for her just vanished. And there was this added insult of "wow, you listened to a flight attendant? How stupid are you?" I mean, I'd understand it a bit more if she was saying something like "this particular flight crew was out of line and they should not have been telling you these things" but no - it was very much "flight attendants are worthless and you're an idiot for thinking they aren't." It was the height of elitism and arrogance.

Part of it is that since I've started working, my superiors have constantly been saying "look, if there's a conflict with a guest, we will ALWAYS support you." You stick with your team in front of guests - if they're out of line you address it privately afterwards. Throwing them under the bus in a desperate (and really really failed) attempt to shush the angry people - you just don't do that.

Anyway. She eventually comped us hotel rooms (there was another party of 30 in a similar situation who hadn't landed yet who also had hotel rooms pre-arranged - so, if there's 30 of you they comp you in advance, but if there's five you just get screwed?) and the atmosphere thawed a lot after that (and when she told us the hotel had internet). But then she was like "and it's no big deal, because your flight's in only a few hours." Seriously? You're trying to make us feel grateful that we will be getting at most three hours of sleep tonight? Anyway, I was absolutely incensed and pretty close to frothing.

But we went to the hotel, and discovered that I didn't work until 1:00 the next day. Then we got much foods at T.G.I. Fridays, tried to sleep (with limited success) and flew home this morning. The Other One is sleeping, and I should start getting ready to go down to work. Things are pretty good.

Let's see if I can make it to 9:30 without passing out. Dr. Pepper for the win!

I'm flying to California today for a wedding tomorrow. I'll totally check out the eclipse on Sunday and come home on Monday.

I still haven't finished my wedding record. I suppose I have today and much of tomorrow.

It's a fast trip so I probably won't really have time to see anybody :/ But be happy in all that you do!

...And seriously if you're in California check out the (near-) annular eclipse of the sun, peaking at around 6:30 on Sunday. DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN.

Most know him only as "the Doctor."
He carries neither money nor weapons.
He travels this world and beyond, in impossible transport, with his faithful companions.
He loves his hat.
He talks to everyone, regardless of station or species.
He inspires great loyalty in those around him.
It is difficult to take hims seriously, but always worthwhile.
He gave up luxury and power to be a penniless adventurer, and has never regretted it.
He resists all positions of authority.
He is an eternal optimist and idealist.
He hates all forms of injustice, and never fails to speak and act against it.

His name is John Dolittle.

The word is genera, Randall.

Come on, folks, neuter plurals are sexy! Corpora, genera, errata, ephemera, ... I'm having trouble thinking of any of the well known ones based on -um neuters rather than -us neuters. Help me out guys?

(I must admit, it always makes me happy when Tom Lehrer refers to stadia in the intro to his Harvard fight song :P)