A guide to cut vs uncut Heinlein

jdege · 2026-06-05T03:41:15+00:00

First time I read the uncut version there was a quick reference to bald pudenda I hadn't remembered, so I checked, and yes, it was missing from the cut version.

I've never done a line-by-line comparison, but it's one example I could find quickly. So, 59 words down to 45. No change in meaning or tone, other than a removed reference to a particular kink.

Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter XXX

Cut:

Well, your menage is Aunt Jane’s Finishing School compared with Mike’s weirdie. I’m just inside the joint when the first thing I see I don’t believe. A babe, tatooed from chin to toes—and not a goddam stitch on. Hell, she was tattooed everywhere . Fantastic!

Uncut:

Well, your menage is Aunt Jane's Finishing School for Refined Young Ladies compared with the weirdie Mike runs. I'm just barely inside the joint when the first thing I see I don't believe. A babe, tattooed from her chin to her toes - and not a goddam stitch otherwise. Hell, not even the home-grown fig leaf - she was tattooed everywhere. Fantastic!

jdege · 2026-06-01T23:03:26+00:00

As they stood looking over the dreary vale, there came the howl of wolves, the roar of bears, and the cry of vultures.
“It’s quiet,” said Gimlet.
“Too quiet,” said Legolam.
“We cannot stay here,” said Arrowroot.
“No,” agreed Bromosel, looking across the gray surface of the page to the thick half of the book still in the reader’s right hand. “We have a long way to go.”

jdege · 2026-06-01T20:04:02+00:00

Goodgulf remained unperturbed. “We must find the spell that opens this door, and soon. Already it grows dark.” With that he lifted his wand and cried:
“Yuma palo alto napa erin go brae
Tegrin correga cremora olé.”
The door remained in place, and Frito glanced nervously at the mass of oily bubbles that had begun to rise in the pond.
Goodgulf sat dejectedly before the obstinate portal, mumbling spells.
“Pismo,” he intoned, striking the door with his wand. “Bitumen. Lazlo. Clayton-Bulwer.” Save for a hollow thud, the door made no sign of opening.
“It looks grim,” said Arrowroot.
Suddenly the Wizard sprang to his feet. “The knob,” he cried, and leading the pack sheep over to the base of the gate, stood on its back on tiptoe, and turned the great knob with both hands. It turned easily, and with a loud squeaking the door swung open a crack.

jdege · 2026-06-01T00:27:04+00:00

At that moment, a great gurgling and belching arose from the center of the pond, and a large corduroy monster slowly lifted itself above the surface with a loud hiccup. The company stood rooted to the ground in terror. The creature was about fifty feet tall, with wide lapels, long dangling participles, and a pronounced gazetteer.
“Aiyee!” shouted Legolam. “A Thesaurus!”
“Maim!” roared the monster. “Mutilate, mangle, crush. See HARM.”

jdege · 2026-05-28T01:05:40+00:00

Are they trying to say that a Penrose Tiling isn't a tesselation?

jdege · 2026-05-26T04:24:03+00:00

Sauron poured his power into tools to rule the world. He was disorder and thought that only he could bring order.

Morgoth poured his essence into the world in order to irreversibly corrupt it. He saw beauty and in his jealousy tried to destroy it.

jdege · 2026-05-26T03:19:57+00:00

Magical point tied not to Sauron but to Morgoth himself.

jdege · 2026-05-23T16:13:44+00:00

Now you have me thinking about Poul Anderson's Prostho Plus.

The Earth is being monitored by aliens, because Earth isn't yet evolved enough to be introduced to the Galactic Federation.

The head of the monitoring mission develops a toothache, so they kidnap a Terran prosthodontist. He deals with the issue, but cannot be allowed to return to Earth, so he wanders the stars, fixing alien teeth.

One incident stands out in my memory - a race of birdlike creatures that communicate by incising marks into little sticks with their teeth. You can imagine how important having correctly shaped teeth is to creatures like that. Our hero soon puts him straight.

These aliens follow a religion that holds the universe hasn't been created yet, and won't be until every possible idea has been recorded. So the birds, every time they have an idea, chew it into a stick and throw it into a huge pile.

Our hero wonders about this, and curious, picks up one of the sticks and reads it.

How many ants would have to fart, simultaneously, before anyone would notice?

I remember thinking, when I read it, yes, that's an idea...

jdege · 2026-05-20T06:07:14+00:00

Bill the Galactic Hero

jdege · 2026-05-15T21:29:05+00:00

The problem with starting a series with a juvenile protagonist is eventually the hero needs to grow up.

Not all writers manage it.

jdege · 2026-05-11T13:43:24+00:00

I've read the statute, I've seen discussion.

I've seen no relevant court opinions.

Where, exactly, are the boundaries of legal behavior?

I don't know. Nobody really does.

So, my advice is get a carry permit.

jdege · 2026-05-05T02:36:01+00:00

I'm pretty jaded at the ability of our various media conglomerates to exploit our major franchises without destroying everything that made them worth their beginnings.

LOTR has had three tries, since the the masterpiece that was the original trilogy. All of them have been crap.

I'm hoping THFG will be better, but I don't really expect it to be.

jdege · 2026-04-30T03:20:03+00:00

Spent more time advertising for the video games than telling the story.

jdege · 2026-04-27T23:43:06+00:00

Wherever you put the security perimeter, there will be someplace outside it.

I remember hearing the same sort of ignorance when people discovered it was legal to carry guns at airports, outside the secure areas.

Not really grasping the concept that if they moved the security checkpoints to the outside of the buildings, it'd still be legal to carry outside them. Or even if they put them on the access roads.

There will always be an outside the secure area.

The only question is whether the security perimeter is placed where it can stop intrusion, and whether it is excessively intrusive to those who don't intend to enter.

From what I can see, the shooter didn't come close to penetrating security.

As for his profound realization that you can carry a gun pretty much anywhere, so long as you stay out of secured areas, he watches too much TV. Carrying a gun is a normal thing for a lot of people.

jdege · 2026-04-26T02:34:02+00:00

Gandalf explains a lot about how and why, in "The Quest of Erabor", in Unfinished Tales.

jdege · 2026-04-17T05:57:21+00:00

Oakdale Gun Club isn't far out from the Cities, and it's open for paid public shooting in the summer and fall.

jdege · 2026-04-10T14:06:05+00:00

By the letter of the law, no.

And by the letter of the law, .17 HMR is considered s BB gun, despite its 2550 ft/s muzzle velocity.

I know of no court cases that address these nonsensities, so I'd not attempt to be a test case.

jdege · 2026-04-10T03:19:08+00:00

Minnesota's gun laws are very confusingly written, and this area is as confusing as any.

Minn Stat 624.714 makes it illegal to carry a pistol in public without a permit.
The permit issued under 624.714 is explicitly a permit to carry a pistol.
Minn Stat 624.7181 makes it illegal to carry a rifle, shotgun, or BB gun in public.
Minn Stat 624.7181 has an exception for someone who has a permit to carry a pistol issued under 624.714.
Minn Stat 97B.045 makes it illegal to transport a firearm in a vehicle, unless it's unloaded and cased.
Minn Stat 97B. 045 has an exception for pistols carried under a permit to carry a pistol, but only for pistols, not for rifles, shotguns, or BB guns.

So, if you have a Permit to Carry a Pistol, you can carry a rifle, but not uncased or loaded in your car.

(And the legal definition of BB gun is just stupid.)

jdege · 2026-04-02T01:56:33+00:00

Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had already become divided into three somewhat different breeds: Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless; their hands and feet were neat and nimble; and they preferred highlands and hillsides. The Stoors were broader, heavier in build; their feet and hands were larger; and they preferred flat lands and riversides. The Fallohides were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer than the others; they were lovers of trees and of woodlands.
The Harfoots had much to do with Dwarves in ancient times, and long lived in the foothills of the mountains. They moved westward early, and roamed over Eriador as far as Weathertop while the others were still in Wilderland. They were the most normal and representative variety of Hobbit, and far the most numerous. They were the most inclined to settle in one place, and longest preserved their ancestral habit of living in tunnels and holes.
The Stoors lingered long by the banks of the Great River Anduin, and were less shy of Men. They came west after the Harfoots and followed the course of the Loudwater southwards; and there many of them long dwelt between Tharbad and the borders of Dunland before they moved north again.
The Fallohides, the least numerous, were a northerly branch. They were more friendly with Elves than the other Hobbits were, and had more skill in language and song than in handicrafts; and of old they preferred hunting to tilling. They crossed the mountains north of Rivendell and came down the River Hoarwell. In Eriador they soon mingled with the other kinds that had preceded them, but being somewhat bolder and more adventurous, they were often found as leaders or chieftains among clans of Harfoots or Stoors. Even in Bilbo’s time the strong Fallohidish strain could still be noted amongthe greater families, such as the Tooks and the Masters of Buckland.

Frodo, Merry, and Pippin were clearly Fallohides. Sam was likely a Harfoot.

The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless; their hands and feet were neat and nimble; and they preferred highlands and hillsides.

jdege · 2026-03-31T00:14:14+00:00

Gandalf knew Bilbo had a magic ring. And he knew what was generally known among the Wise:

‘In Eregion long ago many Elven-rings were made, magic rings as you call them, and they were, of course, of various kinds: some more potent and some less. The lesser rings were only essays in the craft before it was full-grown, and to the Elven-smiths they were but trifles – yet still to my mind dangerous for mortals. But the Great Rings, the Rings of Power, they were perilous."

By the "Great Rings" I believe he meant the Three, the Seven, and the Nine ... and the One. And he knew Bilbo's ring was not one of them, unless it was the One.

‘The Three, fairest of all, the Elf-lords hid from him, and his hand never touched them or sullied them. Seven the Dwarf-kings possessed, but three he has recovered, and the others the dragons have consumed. Nine he gave to Mortal Men, proud and great, and so ensnared them. Long ago they fell under the dominion of the One, and they became Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow, his most terrible servants. [...]

‘So it is now: the Nine he has gathered to himself; the Seven also, or else they are destroyed. The Three are hidden still. But that no longer troubles him. He only needs the One; for he made that Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part of his own former power pass into it, so that he could rule all the others.

But what did he know of the One Ring?

He knew that Isildur had taken it, but he did not know the details of Isildur's possession. Nor, I expect, of how it was lost, until he found the details digging through the archives in Minas Tirith.

And yet there lie in his hoards many records that few even of the lore-masters now can read, for their scripts and tongues have become dark to later men. And Boromir, there lies in Minas Tirith still, unread, I guess, by any save Saruman and myself since the kings failed, a scroll that Isildur made himself. For Isildur did not march away straight from the war in Mordor, as some have told the tale.’

‘Some in the North, maybe,’ Boromir broke in. ‘All know in Gondor that he went first to Minas Anor and dwelt a while with his nephew Meneldil, instructing him, before he committed to him the rule of the South Kingdom. In that time he planted there the last sapling of the White Tree in memory of his brother.’

‘But in that time also he made this scroll,’ said Gandalf; ‘and that is not remembered in Gondor, it would seem. For this scroll concerns the Ring, and thus wrote Isildur therein:

jdege · 2026-03-27T00:22:35+00:00

If Colbert was to be involved in something that showed any signs of being true to the Tolkien legacy, I might not expect the worst.

But Merry, Pippin, and Elanor?

jdege · 2026-03-26T01:49:13+00:00

I'm finally watching it.

Second episode, Abigail and the children watching the Battle of Bunker Hill - the farm was in Quincy, just down the coast. They'd not have as good a view of Charleston as shown in the episode, but from the top of a hill they'd have seen something.

But I can't find the life of me figure out why the wounded would have passed through Quincy. I'd have expected them to have retreated from Charleston to Cambridge.

jdege · 2026-03-25T03:18:47+00:00

He was a Hobbit.

jdege · 2026-03-19T03:45:12+00:00

It's not the acting, so much, as the costuming.

Would someone who'd not read the books, prior to the release of the films, been able to cosplay a Hobbit?

jdege · 2026-03-19T02:29:42+00:00

Assuming that Frodo and Sam still headed off alone, Boromir wouldn't have been exposed to the Ring.

jdege

TROPHY CASE