Internet Surfer 2.0

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Internet Surfer 2.0 / Internet Surfer 2.0 (Wayzata Technology) (1996).iso / pc / text / mac / faqs.495 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1996-02-12 | 27.8 KB | 647 lines

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.495 3.5) Where is Springfield? "Springfield" is a fictional location. MG says he chose the name because it is one of the most common city names. (Many people like to point out the irony that Springfield was the setting of the antithesis to the Simpsons, ``Father Knows Best''.) Further evidence points at the fictitious nature of Springfield: The state's capital is "Capital City"; The state's flag is three horizontal stripes; The state's motto is "Not Just Another State"; As far as we've found, no state in the USA has these properties. The employee information sheet in ``Simpson and Delilah'' had been incorrectly cited by many people giving Homer's place of birth as "NC". Not until recently did someone notice the last letter was actually an epsilon-ish "E", designated to the fictitional "Any" state. Others talk about the zip code in ``Principal Charming'' (90701) as being in Artesia, California; some have suggested this is simply because MG lives in the area, and isn't a clue that the Simpsons live in CA. (Sacramento looks nothing like Capital City, to begin with.) [Even-more-eagle-eyed viewers will notice that on the box for "sex", Homer checked "F", then erased it and marked "M". And super-sharp- eagle-eyed viewers will notice that he filed the Employee Copy of the form! What a Homer!] Although many people have enjoyed arguing that Springfield may be in close proximity to their own town/city/state/country, to rekindle the `Where is Springfield?' debate is an open invitation to be email- bombed by thousands of irate readers. 3.5a) What is the Simpsons' Home address? In ``Mr. Lisa goes to Washington'' 59 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, T.A In the Simpsons UFA 73 Walnut Lane, Springfield, U.S.A In ``Kamp Krusty'' 430 Spalding Way, Springfield, U.S.A 3.6) What does the ``J'' stand for in Homer J. Simpson? Matt Groening says that Homer's middle initial is a token of admiration for Rocky and Bullwinkle (Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose), whose own J's were in honor of their creator, Jay Ward. 3.6a) How about Bartholomew J. Simpson? In the ``Simpsons Rainy Day Fun Book'', it states that Bart's middle initial stands for ``Jebediah'', and not ``JoJo'', as was previously reported by Sharon Crichton (sharonc@meaddata.com). Yet, her claim was backed up by the appearance of ``JoJo'' in a Simpsons periodical. One can only guess that some facts got lost when the Rainy Day Fun Book was made. 3.7) Didn't I see/hear ... in ... ? Nancy Cartwright Cheers, The Twilight Zone: The Movie, Yellow Pages, an endless list of Saturday morning cartoons Dan Castellaneta Adventures of Dynamo Duck, Dream On, LA Law (twice), Married with Children, Sibs, The Tracey Ullman Show, War of the Roses, Working Trash Julie Kavner Awakenings, Bad Medicine, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Hannah and Her Sisters, Katherine, New York Stories, No Other Love, Radio Days, Revenge of the Stepford Wives, Rhoda, Surrender, This Is My Life, The Tracey Ullman Show Yeardley Smith Brothers, City Slickers, Heaven Help Us (aka Catholic Boys), Herman's Head (Louise), The Legend of Billy Jean, Listen to Me, Maximum Overdrive, Mom's on Strike, Murphy Brown, The Real Thing (Broadway), 3 O'Clock High, Silence Like Glass, She-Devil, Square One TV, Sydney Hank Azaria Herman's Head (Jay) Harry Shearer Animalympics, Hometown Boy Makes Good, Murphy Brown, Oscar, Plain Clothes, Pure Luck, Real Life, The Right Stuff, Saturday Night Live, This Is Spinal Tap! (Derek Smalls), a host of `Talk Live!' Tress MacNeille Many cartoons (incl. Tiny Toon Adventures, Opus & Bill) 3.8) What phone pranks has Bart used on Moe of Moe's Tavern? 7G03: Hey, everybody, I. P. Freeley! 7G06: Hey, everybody, I need a Jock Strap. 7G01: Is there an Al Coholic here? ... and ... I wanna see Oliver Klose-off. 7F11: I wanna Seymour Butts. 7F14: C'mon, one o' you guys has gotta be Homer Sexual. 7F22: Hey, has anybody seen Mike Rotch lately? 8F08: Somebody check the men's room for a Hugh Jass! 8F09: Come on guys, do I have a Bea O'Problem here? 9F06: Where can I find Amanda Hugginkiss? ... and ... Hey, everybody, put down your glasses. Ivana Tinkle! 3.8a) Where did the idea for them come from? An album called ``The Tube Bar'' was recorded some time ago, comprised of nothing but real prank phone calls. (Like Al Coholic, etc.) 3.9) Why isn't/aren't ... in this FAQ? lists of scripts Since Twentieth-Century Fox explicitly forbids any retransmission or duplication of the scripts for the Simpsons show, it'd be totally illegal. The line ``Deep Deep Trouble'' comes to mind. 3.10) Where do you get the episode titles from? Some newspapers print the episode titles. For titles of episodes not yet aired, we are indebted to Brian Howard, who was able to get ``inside'' information. (He's since married his source, and made her move out of L.A. Such priorities!) For information about the fourth season episodes, our thanks goes to David Mirsky. Two of the episodes (as noted in section 1.1, ``The Tell Tale Head'' and ``Bart Gets Hit By A Car'') actually included their titles; it is, however, rare to see them actually named when broadcast. 3.11) Which one's Itchy and which is Scratchy? As Lisa and Bart explained to Herb Powell: Lisa: "The mouse's name is Itchy, and the cat's name is Scratchy." Bart: "They *hate* each other." Lisa: "And they're not shy about expressing it." 3.12) What are the three most important things to know in life? In ``One Fish, Two Fish ...'', Homer tells Bart that the three most important things he'll have to know in life are: - "Cover for me"; - "Oooh, good idea, boss!"; and - "It was like that when I got here." 3.13) What's Simpsons Illustrated, and where can I get it? Simpsons Illustrated is a quarterly "fan" magazine for people who enjoy The Simpsons, and is currently available in North America and the Antipodes; it holds all sorts of tasty bits, including shots of the studio, trivia, and other information. In addition to the four quarterly issues, a Simpsons Annual is also published. North Americans can subscribe to it by sending $10.50 to: Simpsons Illustrated P.O. Box 10195 Des Moines, IA 50340 For subscription enquires in Australia and New Zealand, write to: Simpsons Illustrated P.O. Box A276 Sydney South, NSW 2000 3.14) Where can I get the music from ``The Simpsons'' ? The CDs for ``The Simpsons Sing the Blues'' and ``The Yellow Album'' are available in most music stores. They do not, however, have the title music, which appears on Danny Elfman's CD, ``Music for a Darkened Theatre''. A longer, guitar version is on Danny Gatton's disc ``88 Elmira Street''. The Simpsons also have a maxi-single version of ``Deep, Deep Trouble'' and ``Sibling Rivalry''. It includes the original version of both songs plus two remixes of ``Deep, Deep Trouble''. (Info courtesy of Phil Salomon <pjs29326@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>.) 3.15) Are Burns/Smithers/Jacques/Karl gay or bisexual ? Everyone enjoys debating over whether or not certain characters are exhibiting sexual characteristics that fit into one group or another. For example, Karl, Homer's secretary in ``Simpson and Delilah'', was classified as homosexual because he was slightly effeminate and gave Homer a kiss. Also, the relationship between Monty Burns and Smithers constantly swings between "old friends" and "lovers". It's up to each individual viewer to decide for himself or herself how to interpret these kinds of situations. 3.16) When did everything happen? 1955 1956 1974-1975 1979 _1980 1989 | | | | | | ... --+---+-------+--------+--+-----------+------- ... | | | | +-Bart born +--Tenth Anniversary | | | +--Married | | +--They graduate High School | +--Marge born +--- Homer born 3.17) Is my local station cutting the episodes? Probably not, unless you're from Australia. The abridgement of the title sequence is done by FOX. Canadian viewers, who don't get the episodes through FOX, are usually granted the pleasure of a full title sequence each week. 3.18) What does "OFF" stand for? (Frequently Used Acronyms) A few of the TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) in popular use in ATS (alt.tv.simpsons). OFF "Our Favorite Family" -- The Simpsons, of course. DYN "Didja (Did You) Notice" FF "Freeze-Frame Fun" 7G01, 8F21, ... The unique FOX production codes seen during the closing credits of each half-hour episode. A "FF" is typically a list that requires the pause of a VCR to discern, like `Things in the attic', or `degrees on Lionel Hutz's wall'. The text of signs also counts (like `For the Obese or Gangly Gentleman' or `Diz-nee-land'). Otherwise, it's a DYN. So green rats, mouse holes in the wall, and purple food glop count as `Didja notice's. (Courtesy of Raymond Chen.) 3.19) Is Matt Groening aware of Usenet? The more interesting contributions to the newsgroup do occasionally follow an indeterminate path to the creators of the show and magazine. However, to answer the specific question ``Is MG provided with direct access, or is even personally aware of us beyond the `yet another group of devoted fans' level?'' The answer to that is, sadly, no. (And for the good of the show, it's probably best it remains that way...) In the past many postings have claimed to have originated from Matt Groening and other identities. One should immediately be skeptical of <any> messages that claim to have been sent by a notable personality; it is a trivial exercise to fake an article that appears to have come from another person. 3.20) Why isn't this rec.arts.tv.simpsons? The rec.arts.tv hierarchy is intended for television series that have "Staying" power (aka will be around 5 years from now). As a result, a goodly number of people object to the creation of a Simpsons group in the higher-propagated rec hierarchy, because they feel it won't be around in a few years. Tsk tsk! =============================================================================== Thus endeth the FAQ. Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu rec.skate:3401 news.answers:4453 Newsgroups: rec.skate,news.answers Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.uiowa.edu!news.weeg.uiowa.edu!adchen From: adchen@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Tony Chen) Subject: rec.skate Frequently Asked Questions (Part 1 of 7) Message-ID: <rec-skate-faq-1-723676990@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu> Followup-To: rec.skate Sender: adchen@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (Tony Chen) Supersedes: <rec-skate-faq-1-723327165@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu> Reply-To: adchen@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Tony Chen) Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 21:23:33 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 06:00:00 GMT Lines: 896 Posted-By: auto-faq 1.23 Archive-name: rec-skate-faq/part1 REC.SKATE FAQ - PART 1: GENERAL Q&A Frequently Asked Questions for rec.skate Q: Who is this newsgroup for? A: The charter for rec.skate is for all kinds of skating: traditional roller skating, in-line skating (although often called "rollerblading", Rollerblade is the trademarked name of a particular brand of in-line skates) figure skating, speed skating, and participants in hockey. Skating-related discussions not held in rec.skate include pro and college hockey (held in rec.sport.hockey) and skateboarding (held in alt.skate-board). Cross-country skating skiing may be discussed either here or in rec.skiing. Within the various disciplines of skating discussed here, most anything goes: discussions about equipment, maintenance, technique, competetions, access to skating areas, etc. are all welcome. At this point, the majority of the discussion in rec.skate (and virtually all of this FAQ) is about in-line skating (due to the currently fast growth of the in-line sport). If you want to discuss something else, feel free to discuss it. Q: I'm interested in getting a pair of in-lines for outdoor skating. I want to get decent stuff, but I'd rather not spend a lot of money. What do I need to get? A: First off, your budget should include protection: knee pads, wrist guards, and a helmet. Elbow pads are optional. These "pads" should have a hard plastic shell -- they should slide on the asphalt when you fall. Good brands of protection are the Rollerblade TRS or the Dr. Bone Savers (DBS) set of accesories. For helmets, any well-fitting ANSI/Snell approved bicycle helmet should be fine. The in-line industry is a lot like the bicycle industry -- specialty shops generally sell and support more expensive functional skate brands and department stores generally sell inexpensive lines that will never work well. Also, there's usually a much greater chance of getting spare parts and service from a specialty shop than a department store. Rollerblade is the best-known brand of in-line skate; they make a whole family of different in-line skates. Any skate in Rollerblade's line at or above the Lightning skate should work well and last a long time. Other reputable manufacturers are Ultra Wheels, Riedell, and Bauer. The higher-end skates in the California Pro line are functional and relatively inexpensive. Performance Bike is introducing a line of skates at a low price; quality of these skates is unknown at this point. You may wish to rent a model of skates before buying. Some shops will discount part of the rental from purchase price if you buy skates later. Fit of skates should be comfortable but snug. Unlike hiking or running shoes, it's OK for your toes to be loosely in contact with the front of the boot. Unless you have a background of speed skating, beginning skaters should avoid the 5-wheel skates. The problem with isn't the inherent speed of the skates, but since manueverability and flexibility are sacrificed for the sake of racing performance, so turns and other maneuvers require more commitment. The 5-wheelers are great fun, but master the fundamentals on a shorter wheelbase first. Q: I want to get good in-lines, but I can only afford $150. A: At this price point, you'll have to be pretty resourceful. First, note that the in-line "season" begins somewhere around the end of March. You'll probably find some good bargains in stores in the Jan-Mar time frame. Like many sports, the in-line market is style-oriented: you may find last year's style at a huge discount. Even at this price level, you should avoid "department store" skates (unless you want to buy skates that you won't use). You're far better off buying a pair of used Rollerblade Lightning skates. If you don't see anyone selling your size, consider putting an ad advertising that you want to buy skates. The going rate for used Lightnings in good condition is around $80-100. If wheels and bearings are shot, cut that to about $40 -- you'll need the other $50-60 or so to get new wheels and bearings. Use the other $50 to buy protection. Don't skimp on protection! A knee is a terrible thing to waste. Used protection in good condition is fine. Q: HOW DO I STOP? (see also, the stopping file following this file, for more details) A: Good question. You've taken the most important step -- realizing that there is a need to be able to slow down. The rest is just practice. There are several general techniques for stopping while remaining on your skates: generating friction by dragging your brake pad, generating friction by sliding your wheels laterally against the ground, jumping onto grass and killing your speed by running out, and pushing against a slower-moving or stationary object with your hands. There's also falling, which is a valid last-ditch technique that's a good to learn. These techniques are described in a document, Speed Control on In-Line Skates. That document will be posted periodically as a separate FAQ. Here's the section on using the brake: I finally learned how to brake well when someone described this image: your brake foot has just slipped on a banana peel. Whoops! Your brake foot will be about a foot in front of your body. The leg will have a slight bend. The rear wheel and the brake will be in contact with the ground. At first, your non-brake foot will be bearing almost all your weight. That leg will be directly under your body, and the knee will be bent. The amount of bend in your knee will determine how much braking force you can apply. Your feet should be very close to your centerline. This should help keep you going straight forward when braking (pretty important!). There should be a slight forward bend in the waist. It may also help to keep the hands at waist height or so. This keeps your center of gravity lower. Try to keep your hands (and your whole upper body) loose; clenched fists do not make the brakes work any better! Relax. After you've tried a dozen or so stops, add one more refinement: drive your back knee into the back of the front knee while braking. This creates a triangle with your lower legs and the pavement between your skates. As all the Buckminster Fuller fans out there know, triangles provide structural stability. This triangle should enhance your braking power and ability to run smooth, straight, and true while stopping. As you master braking, begin to shift more of your weight to your front foot. The Masters of Speed Control can actually decelerate while standing only on their front foot. Good trick, that. Q: I've learned how to slow down. How do I go faster? A: First off, keep learning how to slow down! Learn new techniques; refine the ones you already know. Until you master slowing down, your mind will limit how fast it will let you go on skates. Watch good skaters. Notice that they rarely have both skates on the ground at the same time. This independent leg action is something you'll master over time; you can practice by seeing now long you can glide on a single skate. When you can glide on a single skate for more than 30 seconds (both left and right legs!), you're well on the way. Notice that almost all of the side-to-side motion is happening below the waist. Eliminate any twisting motion in your shoulders -- keep your shoulders square to your direction of travel. If you want to move your arms, move them forward and back -- crossing patterns may have you twist your shoulders. Relax the muscles in your lower back to allow your upper body to remain quiet. Watch your stride. Are you pushing more to the side or to the back? Shift your stride to be pushing almost exclusively to the side. Where do you set your skate down at the start of your stride? Shoulder width? Start setting your skate down on the centerline of your body. After you're comfortable with that, start setting your skate further in beyond your centerline. Do you flick your toe at the end of your stride? If so, stop. Instead, flick your heel -- drive your heel out at the end of the stroke. This will feel very strange for the first 10,000 or so times. Relax. Then relax some more. Discover levels with levels of relaxation. Travel fast while moving your skates slowly -- your body is swimming through air. Consider beginning to practice T'ai Chi Ch'aun postures daily. Relax some more. Q: What sort of maintenance do I have to do? A: Things that need maintaining are the wheels, bearings, and brakes. Rotate wheels every 50-100 miles. To rotate a set of wheels, remove the frontmost wheel, stash it away, move all the other wheels up one position, and place the front wheel in the rearmost position. Flip each wheel as you're rotating it, swapping the inside and outside edges. With each wheel off the skate, clean around the bearings. Spin the wheel to see if the bearings are in good shape. If bearings are bad, replace them. Replace the brake pad when it's worn out (there's a "wear-line" on the new brake pads if you don't intuit this). Practice preventative maintenance: avoid sand, dirt, and water as much as possible. These guys are what cause bearing failure. If you want bearings to last, vacuum in/around your runners with an upholstery accessory after every day. If you do want to skate in sand/dirt/water/mud, get a set of sealed bearings. Rotate your wheels often. It can be done in about 30 minutes tops. Buy a Rollerblade "Y" tool to remove bearings from spacers, or buy one of the aftermarket bearing spacer kits. These make bearing removal much easier. Q: What other information is out there to help me with in-line skating? A: There are two magazine that exist for in-line skating: In-line Magazine and the Speed Skating Times. In-line Subscriptions are available through In-Line Subscription Department, 1919 14th Street, Suite 421, Boulder, CO 80302. Telephone number is (303) 440-5111. Speed Skating Times is more race-oriented. "8 issues a year only $15". . ."first class delivery only $25" "make check/mo payable to speedskating times" Just put your name and address and phone on a piece of paper and send it to them. Speedskating Times, 2910 NE 11 Ave, Pompano Beach, FL 33064, (305) 782-5928 There are several videos that are marginally good at training. One of these is the Rollerblade/Ski Magazine Skate to Ski video. Your local Rollerblade dealer should have training videos available for viewing in the store and/or rental. Reading list: _Blazing Bladers_ by Bill Gutman ISBN 0-812-51939-6 A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1992. Cover price: $6.99 ($7.99 CAN) _Wheel Excitement_ by Neil Feineman with Team Rollerblade(R) ISBN 0-688-10814-8 Hearst Books, New York, 1991. Cover price: $9.00 _The Complete Blader_ by Joel Rappelfeld ISBN 0-312-06936-7 St. Martin's Press, NY, New York, 1992. Cover price: $8.95 _Laura Stamm's Power Skating_ by Laura Stamm ISBN 0-88011-331-6 Leisure Press, 1989 Cover price: $17.95 ================================================================================ The In-line Stopping Techniques File ------------------------------------ (written February 1992) (lasted changed Aug 22, 1992) [Copyright 1992 by Anthony D. Chen. All rights reserved. License is hereby granted to republish on electronic or other media for which no fees are charged (except for the media used), so long as the text of this copyright notice and license are attached intact to any and all republished portion or portions.] This document is written for rec.skate, one of the many hundreds of newsgroups under USENET, the international electronic news network which reaches millions of readers. You will see "8-)" in use throughout the text and if you look at it with your head tilted to the left the intent should be obvious 8-) (This sideways smilie face is used to ensure that all computer terminals can display it properly.) I am not the originator of any of these stops, except perhaps the combination stops. This file is the result of much discussion and feedback from the rec.skate readership. This list is arranged in order of increasing difficulty, but skaters have all sorts of different backgrounds so your shredding may vary. Good luck, and skate smart. -Tony Chen adchen@lee.cs.uiowa.edu (7 Heather Drive, Iowa City, IA 52245, (319) 354-4456) List of stops: - runouts - backward stepping stop - wall stop - forward stepping stop - windbraking - reverse stop (forwards snow-plow) - the brake-pad - backwards heel drag - V-stop/snowplow - toe-drag spinouts - (regular) spinout/lunge stop - heel-drag spinouts - spread eagle spinout - curb ramming - crossover stop - power stop/power slide - slaloming/parallel turns - chop-stop - T-stop - New York stop - toe drag - combination stops - backwards T-stop Related topics: - falling - collisions with stationary objects While the basic repretoire of stopping techniques includes the brake-pad, the T-stop, spinouts, and the power stop, this file is meant to go one step beyond merely teaching the basics. The basics are crucial, but once skaters progress beyond them, they often need some guidance for further learning. One cannot expect each skater to discovery techniques on their own, hence this file. BEGINNER LEVEL The following set of stopping methods, most beginner skaters should be able to handle. They keep both feet on the ground throughout the stop, and don't require as much independent leg action as more advanced stops. % RUNOUTS: Assuming the path you're skating on has grass or packed dirt (or some other hard-to-roll-on surface), you can just skate off the path and reduce your speed by running onto the grass (hop-hop-hop-hop-hop). In the worst case scenario, you can tumble and hopefully you won't take any damage. % WALL STOP: This stop is simply to skate towards a wall (or any reasonably stationary object, really) and use your arms to absorb the impact. At low speeds, this should be quite safe (make sure you turn your head to the side so as not to smash your face). You may or may not bang your skates, depending on your speed and how you hit. The key is to use your arms as cushioning springs (like doing a standing push-up.) One way to practice this is to stand a few feet from a wall (with your skates on). Now fall on your hands against the wall, and you should be able to bounce a little, while still avoiding banging your head. The faster your approach, the less bounce will result. A variation on the wall stop is the billiard ball stop. Instead of stopping against an object, use a fellow skater to push off and transfer your momentum to them. To be safe, warn the receiving person about your approach. It works well on flat surfaces and at low to moderate speeds. It's not recommended at high speeds and especially on people you don't know 8-) See the collision section for more extreme cases. % WIND-BRAKING: Wind-braking is more for speed-control than to stop (although on windy days, this can stop you). Just stand up, spread your arms out and catch the air like a sail. You'll probably need to lean forwards slightly, to counter the force of the wind. % THE BRAKE-PAD: The brake-pad is subject to much debate amongst skaters. Many people with ice skating and rollerskating backgrounds find the brake in the way, in the wrong place, or simply ineffective. However, used proficiently, the brake-pad becomes a very versatile piece of equipment because: 1) you can use it to stop, even at very high speeds; 2) it allows you to keep both skates on the ground while stopping (good for keeping your balance); 3) you can maintain a narrow profile (good for high traffic areas where cars or bicycles might be passing you); 4) you can still steer yourself; 5) the sound of braking can often alert others to your presence; 6) the brake-pad is the most cost-effective technique there is so far for in-lines. To learn how to use the brake-pad, first coast with both skates shoulder-width apart. As you coast, scissor your feet back and forth a few times to get used to the weight shift. To apply the brake then, scissor your skate so your braking skate is out front. Lift the toe of your brake skate and press with the heel too. Your body weight is centered and even slightly on your back skate when you're just learning it. The key is a straight back and bent knees.