----- Original Message ----- From: "Horn, John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:51 AM Subject: Brin-L FAQ (was: Uplift at Yellowstone)
>> Matt Grimaldi wrote >> >>> Lance A. Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> What is the fascination (mania? obsession?) with the word >>> "maru" on this list? >> >> This whole thing started because, for a time, there were a >> large number of brin-lers that also belonged to the list for >> fans of Ian Banks' Culture series. >> (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture) >> >> A feature of the books (I gather) is to name spaceships by >> their designation (GCU, ROU, and others, similar to the way >> that naval ships are organized into classes based on size, >> speed, and purpose) along with something apropos to the >> personality of the owner, mission, commander, or whatever >> (e.g.: ROU Nail in the coffin). >> >> The members of the Culture list would often put such a ship >> name in their signatures even when they were sending >> messages on Brin-L. >> This simply would not do :-), so we started using Maru >> designations instead. As to why that particular word, others >> have better explanations than I could give. > > I think we need to have a Brin-L FAQ and this would be the number > one > entry! > > Not that I'm volunteering or anything... > I occurs to me to wonder if Dr Brin got (is getting) messages in this thread.<G> As for the Maru thing, it makes me feel like Dr Frankenstein (Young Frankenstein pronunciation). "It Lives!!!!!" xponent What Great Knockers! Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
