#  #WEIRD#

##  Weird Entities In Rightful Domination

    It so happened, in the days of my youth, that I was browsing through the
children's room of the Ann Arbor Public Library. (Pause while all my friends
and acquaintances evince no surprise whatsoever.) And in that room, I found a
book, entitled _Weirdos of the Universe, Unite!_ by Pamela Service.

    So, as one might expect, I checked the book out and read it. I loved it,
by the way. This is a great book for anyone between the ages of eight and
eight hundred.

    At any rate, in the book was something called #WEIRD#. And I thought,
"Hey, this is a neat idea. Somebody should do this."

    So I did.

    And here it is.


    It is perfectly obvious that the world is the great place it is because of
all the contributions of weird people. If everyone were exactly the same,
there would be a dreadful shortage of haggis. Not to mention that if they were
all like me, nobody would ever get anything done because we'd spend seventeen
hours a day Talking About Stories. Or maybe more.

    Too often people seem to think that it is necessary for people to conform,
conform, conform. In some cases, of course, such as a sinking airplane, this
is plain good sense. In other cases, however, it is stifling myriad
possibilities.

    Two books that I have long loved, _The Swing in the Summerhouse_ and _The
Diamond in the Window_, both by Jane Langton, show wonderful examples of
these. (Let me warn those of you who do NOT know me now, that I can and will
draw parallels between anything and Something I Read In A Book at the
slightest provocation.)

    In _The Swing in the Summerhouse_, the main characters were given an
opportunity to travel to a place where they could experience being grown up.
However, this gateway was not quite finished, and instead of growing up
properly, they stiffened into one thing and were unable to change until they
became statues. Although I read it first, this was actually a sequel to _The
Diamond in the Window_, in which Eleanor and Eddy (the protagonist siblings)
among their many adventures enter a mirror where they explore possibilities
for their futures. First they take a way which narrows and narrows until they
have no choice but to go on to a truly terrible reflection of themselves if
they wish to proceed. They end up running away, lost in the darkness, until
they come almost to the beginning again. This time they take a different
route, which instead of narrowing (from two choices to one) widens (from two
choices to lots).

    Nearly all the great advances in society, science, or literature were
generated by people who, according to the social mores of their time, were
genuine certified weirdos. A weirdo is no bad thing to be; sometimes looking
at a situation from a different angle can give you an idea for a solution to
something that may have been bothering you. And then again, of course, it's
just fun.


###

###  **The First Tenet of #WEIRD#**

**Know all the Questions, not all the Answers,** **Look for the Different,
instead of the Same,** **Never Walk when there's room for Running,** **Don't
do anything that can't be a Game.** ** *Zilpha Keatley Snyder, _The
Changeling_, Atheneum 1970, p.156.*** ****

**** ****

    #WEIRD# stands for Weird Entities In Rightful Domination. This
"domination" is not, as some of you may be thinking about now, a desire to
Take Over The World. Who wants to do all that _work_? Not taking it over --
that might actually be fun -- but I don't think we could just give it back
when we were done taking it over and say, "It's been real. Ja ne!" And ruling
it would take up time that might be better spent doing fun and weird things,
such as walking through the streets of downtown in an evening gown eating
butterscotch and reading _Leave it to Psmith_ while singing "Uchuu wa Taihen
Da!"

    (I have not actually done the above, due to lack of an evening gown and
not having quite memorized the song yet.)

    No, dear Reader, "domination" refers to two much older meanings. The first
refers to letting your inner weirdo free of the inhibitions you may have
locked it in, to take its triumphant place at the head of your personality.
And if your inner weirdo is completely normal, do it anyway -- because a
"completely normal" inner weirdo is REALLY weird.

    And the second meaning, as can be seen from the beginning paragraphs of
this page, is that life is essentially weird. Weird entities, therefore, are
automatically in "domination" because of this essential weirdness of being. It
is only certain human customs which have attempted to take some particular
form of weirdness and hold it up as The Normal Standard Behavior Paradigm, and
claim that all other forms of behavior are somehow less, or not good, or
otherwise diametrically opposed to TNSBP. This, of course, is one of the
weirdest phenomena known to humanity. (Seconded only by the belief that one's
own sexual pattern is The Right Way To Be and the belief in utter dualism.)


The weird stuff I myself have personally done includes:


* Writing a Samurai Pizza Cats fanfic without ever ONCE seeing an episode of
The Actual Show

* Translating parts of _Miss Piggy's Guide to Life_ into Latin

* Translating the "Sailor Star Song" into SINGABLE Latin... lost when a drive
crashed, backup temporarily unavailable

* And translating Catullus into Japanese, in return (it's for a story of mine)

* Filking Plato (it always seems to be Catullus that gets filked for some
reason)

* Writing a couple of truly weeeeeiiiiirrrd pastiches

* And hosting some of the weirdest people I've ever not met in my head, until
and during such time as I write them into stories.

**<4 sisters>** Are you talking about US?

**<me>** No, you're normal. You should meet Katzele and Lisishka.

**<K & L>** HEY!

**<me>** Oh boy....


    If you wish to join #WEIRD#, be welcome! Just add it to your signature
file in e.mail, or add it in spirit if you have no e.mail account. We always
welcome new members... and we always strive to share in good fellowship and
companionship the little knowledge that we have.



###  **The Other Tenet of #WEIRD#**

Please consider yourself, now and henceforth, and no matter what anyone else
ever asks of you, free to do any damned thing you want that doesn't hurt
someone else unnecessarily. *Lady Sally McGee, in _Callahan's Lady_ by Spider
Robinson; reprinted in _Off the Wall at Callahan's_, TOR, New York, (C)1994.*