Thinking about lots of things: language (reading Eco’s Search for the Perfect Language), privatization of state functions (cops and soldiers), laser (make Dr. Evil air quotes while reading, please) weapons, and the approach of spring. I’m also getting ready to do some vivarium work – rearrangement, new lights, etc. – thus, not a lot of blogging energy. Until I have something worth saying, another bookshelf shot:
Right in the middle – is there a story in Illuminatus about training mynah birds to say “here, kitty-kitty” and releasing them into Central Park, or did I imagine it?
I think you remember correctly – I’ll see if I can find the passage. Fantastic bookshelf shot on your blog…
Couldn’t find the kitty-kitty story, but I think I know why:
The individual editions sold steadily until 1984, when the trilogy was republished in a single omnibus volume for the first time. This collected edition lost the “what has gone before” introduction to The Golden Apple and the “Prologue” to Leviathan. Some of the material in that foreword, such as the self-destruct mynah birds (taught to say “Here, kitty-kitty-kitty!”), appears nowhere else in the trilogy, likely a result of the 500 pages of cuts demanded by Dell. via Wikipedia