Friday Links - Nov 27, 2020

• I was not aware of this, but Tom Stoppard was responsible for a signicant part of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade script. This breakdown of his contribution is fascinating.
• I was always a fan of Alan Rickman and this book intrigues me. However, I must say, I always feel weird when people publish things of a person after they've passed away.
• "Prisencolinensinainciusol" was a song composed by Italian singer Adriano Celentano, intended to sound to its Italian audience as if it is sung in English spoken with an American accent. Here are the lyrics and it gets better with the video.
• Will Maclean signed 1000 books, adding one word in each. Gathering up all the words will write out a short story.
• reading.co is an alternative to the Amazon owned GoodReads.
• Visit Penpalooza to find a snail mail pen pal.
• This one is a favourite of mine, so I'm always happy to see it when it resurfaces: Course syllabi by famous authors. I love how David Foster Wallace did literary analysis of popular fiction. So great.
• "...taxi companies have had recurring problems of picking up ghosts..."
• For Trey: The Unexpected Elegance of Apocalyptic Seed Vaults, In Photos
• Is any of this true about a deck of cards?
• Damn this quote from Kevin Kelly from My Life Countdown stuck with me :

"I am now 55 years old. Like a lot of people in middle age my late-night thoughts bend to contemplations about how short my remaining time is. Even with increasing longevity there is not enough time to do all that I want. Nowhere close. My friend Stewart Brand, who is now 69, has been arranging his life in blocks of 5 years. Five years is what he says any project worth doing will take. From moment of inception to the last good-riddance, a book, a campaign, a new job, a start-up will take 5 years to play through. So, he asks himself, how many 5 years do I have left? He can count them on one hand even if he is lucky. So this clarifies his choices. If he has less than 5 big things he can do, what will they be?"

• If you like the theatrical use of great sets and costumes in the discussion of such topics as politics, gender, and philosophy, then ContraPoints videos might be for you.
• Two Seth things: Pay the Author and his interview with Brian Koppelman.
• I have to be honest, since I know some people that visit here are interested in these things. One of my recent pleasures (no gulity pleasures allowed) has been watching Twitch gamers. My daughter had on one video from an Among Us game, and I got hooked. I went down the rabbit hole and have learned all about Corpse Husband, Sykunno, Valkyrae, Disguised Toast, and their many, many friends. Besides enjoying watching their big brain plays in Among Us, my two favourite moments have been Valkyrae discovering Sykunno's back room in Animal Crossing and Toast's double fireworks in Minecraft.
• From Seth: Ignoring the ideas less likely to work.
• Jessica Hische's The Dark Art of Pricing PDF looks good.