Servants of the Goddess

I love Scott Alexander’s trope of the Goddess of Cancer vs. the Goddess of Everything Else. As human beings, we serve two deities: the one that tells us “KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER” and the one that inspires love, cooperation, creativity, and knowledge.

There is another life-form, the corporation, and it may be like us except for the part about the Goddess of Everything Else. For the last 50 years or so, corporations have been carrying out battles of merger and acquisition that are as red in tooth & claw as anything Ev Psych could dream of. Publishing is a current example of this process. Once, publishers had some respect for the Goddess of Everything Else: The best sellers subsidized work that didn’t serve the bottom line as obviously. Now they can’t do that anymore. Their goddess will turn Her favors to those who do not have that weakness, so they must sacrifice more and more to survive. (Or maybe they are like the Ethnic fox that gnawed off three legs and is still in the trap.)

This post is dedicated to Sharyn November and Firebird Books.

A cross word

Plagiarism in the crossword community

Thanx to Metafilter

An AMAZING editor

Remembering Cele Goldsmith

Thanx to File 770

Size

At the National Football League combine tryouts, quarterback prospect Jared Goff was found to have small enough hands to call into question his ability to throw the ball accurately. Because the NFL is a mature, civilized culture, no sexual innuendos have been hurled at Goff, and he has not replied with irrelevant brags.

Finding Its Level

Make Jerry Springer the host of the next Republican Debate.