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Miscellany
Monday, 2006 September 4 - 9:03 pm
Posthumous Heinlein novel; a lonely guy drops a big tip; and, Steve Irwin dies.

There's a posthumous Robert Heinlein novel coming out on September 19th. Variable Star was a project that Heinlein started way back in 1955, but never finished. At the request of Heinlein's estate, Spider Robinson finished the novel based on Heinlein's notes.

Heinlein wrote some of the best science fiction ever, including Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. (He also had a few clunkers in there, but hey.) And he was rather subversive and radical in some of his themes, which is something I always appreciate.

For you youngsters out there, you might know Heinlein for a movie adaptation made from one of his novels: Starship Troopers. Of course, the movie was waaaaaay different from the novel... kind of like the way I, Robot massacred Asimov's novel.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the new novel. Because you know, I have all that free time to sit around reading.

A bartender in Kansas got a $10,000 tip from a regular customer last week. Cindy Kienow, a bartender at Applebee's, frequently chatted with a diner who came in several times a month and ate at the end of the bar.

Without knowing anything about this situation, I can already tell you exactly what's going on here. You've got a lonely single guy, with money to burn because he's got no family. He eats alone at Applebee's because he can't get a date for dinner. He finds a friendly bartender, Cindy, who talks to him. He starts to think she might like him. He thinks she might like him more if he tips her well. So he tips her 50% most of the time. But that fails to cause her to profess her undying love for him, he tries leaving her $100. And then he just goes whole hog and gives her $10,000. And now he's sitting and hoping that he has sufficiently demonstrated his devotion, and that she will simply fall into his arms.

I know this because I was once a lonely single guy, and I could see how powerful a friendly face and a sympathetic ear could be. Waitresses and bartenders always seemed so attractive and so friendly, and it got to be so I had to constantly remind myself: they're paid to be friendly to me.

I have nothing but sympathy for the guy, because I know: he's still a lonely single guy, just $10,000 poorer.

"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was killed today by a stingray. Irwin swam too close to the stingray while filming a documentary, and the stingray pierced Irwin's heart with its venomous barbed tail. Ouch.

You know, I found the guy irritating at time, but I had to respect the enthusiasm he had for his work. And I loved how he loved nature. I think the world would be better off with more people like him.
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