The drive back from Worldcon was more expensive than we expected

Worldcon was a lot of fun, but the dealer's room wasn't as big as we were hoping -- a lot of the US East Coast con dealers decided not to bother with Customs, and just stayed home.

Lis still managed to spend SOME money at the dealer's room, however.

But -- on the drive home, we stopped in Montpelier, Vermont, for lunch. On our way back to our car, I saw a bookstore, which had on display an interesting-looking book on making stone tools. So we went in.

I didn't get THAT book, but I got a different book which has sections on making stone tools, basket weaving, making hide glue, and so forth.

Then Lis saw a box that looks like three books, and contains decanters for booze and shot glasses. Then she saw an 1880 physicians' home health care book.

And it went on from there. $185 and one hour later, we left. . . .

Just saw the Occasional Players' production of Spike Heels

There's one more performance, but it starts in two hours, in Arlington, at the Arlington Center for the Arts, so you'd better hurry.

However: if there is one weakness in the play, it's that the actors PLAYING the characters are more interesting people with more interesting lives, who speak more interestingly and more wittily than the CHARACTERS. That's nothing against the characters, mind you -- it's just that the actors, themselves, are setting a pretty high bar with who THEY are.

But it makes me wonder about that whole school of drama. If the people you know have more dramatic, eventful lives than the characters on stage, what's the point of writing those characters? Or does the playwright just know people who are more boring than the people I know?

Nonetheless, the play is worth seeing, because it's acted and directed well. But I found the premise fairly weak, because most of the issues that are raised in the play are things that I've actually had to deal with in my real life.

Anyway, in celebration of the play, I'd like to post something that my aunt, who is a SAG member and does this for actual paychecks, emailed all of us yesterday -- it's from http://www.caryn.com/biz/humor/theatre-terms.html
( Hmm. You could click THAT link, or you could click through this cut tag. It's a link either way, really. )

It's difficult to take back things you've said.

On trying to right a past wrong.

In Judaism, we have a lesson that lashon ha-ra is a devastating sin, because its damage is almost impossible to undo.

Yet icarusancalion is nonetheless making the effort. I know her mainly because she writes fanfics that Lis enjoys. But she also is a Buddhist, and used to be a Buddhist nun. And left her temple, Kunzang Palyul Choling, under hostile terms.

She's has recently come to accept that that hostility was because of her actions. She has spent years saying bad things about her teacher, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. And she's now realized that the things she was saying when she was posting as The Buddha From Brooklyn, and as Longchenpa, were, at best, misleading, and really more like lies.

The Internet being what it is, those rumors and lies are almost impossible to take back. But she's trying.

She's asked people to link to her apology to Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. She's hoping that if enough people link to it, the truth will overtake the lies.

It's a difficult task. But she's trying.

In different religious traditions, we have different terms for the process she's going through. Redemption. T'shuvah.

I don't know what the Buddhist term is, off the top of my head -- I'm sure some of you who are Buddhist know. But I know that I wish her well on this attempt.