The 30th anniversary of spam

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A major annoyance of the Internet world turns 30.

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Random harlot generation table in AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide

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GenCon Indy approaches, and so I'm not posting much. I hear D&D co-creator Gary Gygax will be at the convention this year. If I run into him, I want him to autograph one of the most ridiculous pieces of gaming weirdness ever to make it into a mainstream AD&D publication. I'm speaking, of course, about the infamous random prostitute generation table in the 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide . That book included a random encounter table for cities; "Harlot" is one of the entries. Here is the Harlot entry, reproduced in facsimile for your delectation: Sadly, subsequent editions of the Dungeon Master's Guide lack such useful prompts to the imagination. Dungeon Masters are now forced to improvise descriptions of harlots, should such be encountered by an adventuring party. Unless, of course, the Dungeon Master owns a copy of the 1st Edition DMG or is lucky enough to see this blog post. In the interest of fairness and gender equality, this table should be...
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Where is 56th and Wabasha? "Meet Me in the Morning" Dylan Mystery Solved

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Short version The lyric is not "Fifty-sixth and Wabasha", it is actually "Fifty-six and Wabasha", referring to the intersection of old Minnesota Highway 56 and Wabasha Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota. If you listen, you can hear Dylan sing "fifty-six", rather than "fifty-sixth", particularly on the take that was released as the B-side to "Duquesne Whistle". Minnesota Highway 56 no longer intersects Wabasha Street, but from 1963 to 1974 it did intersect Wabasha Street, at what is now (in Feb. 2021) the intersection of George Street and Cesar Chavez Street in St. Paul, or possibly South Wabasha & Cesar Chavez.  Long Version "Meet Me in the Morning" is the first song on side two of Bob Dylan's celebrated 1975 album  Blood on the Tracks. In the opening lines of the song, according to the lyrics on Bob Dylan's official site (https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/meet-me-morning/), the narrator invites the listener to a rendez...
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Atheist of the Day: Nina Hartley

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Image from here (probably stolen) Enough of politics! It's time for another Atheist of the Day! Once again, it's a porn star Atheist of the Day, this time Nina Hartley! You'd be amazed how difficult it is to find a photo of a multi-award winning pornstar that is a) of decent quality, and b) not pornographic. She must have had her lawyers scour the Web and purge it of all unapproved images or something. But thanks to the dilligence of your author, I managed to scrounge up this one, which should serve. (Side note: Yahoo image search turns up a lot of stuff that Google image search doesn't.) The documentation of her atheism, however, is quite straightforward. I'll just quote from the defunct Celebrity Atheist List, still with us thanks to the Google Cache version : "...I would like to know about Jewish religion as history, but as an atheist, I see no reason to practice any religion... because it is organized superstition...the opiate of the masses." "Op...
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