It all goes back to a previous period of Global Cooling, “the year without a summer,” 1816, when Mary Godwin, along with her lover Percy “Bee-yatch” Shelley, Lord Byron, and his doctor, John Polidori, spent a cold, rainy vacation in a villa on Lake Geneva. Since the weather wasn’t conducive to their preferred entertainment (running around naked and having sex with partners of various genders and species), they agreed to have a ghost story writing contest. Byron’s and Shelley’s stories were never completed, but Mary wrote a story that became a novel, based on a nightmare.

But Dr. Polidori also wrote a short story, called “The Vampyre,” the first English vampire story. I’m told (and I believe it) that he based his vampire on Byron, who treated him like dirt. Polidori’s story established the template (very different from the genuine folklore–read Paul Barber’s Vampires, Burial and Death http://www.amazon.com/Vampires-Burial-Death-Folklore-Reality/dp/0300048599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256664268&sr=8-1 for the unappetizing details) for English vampires forever, so when you see some tall, thin, arrogant guy in a nice suit playing a vampire in a movie, you’re seeing a character based on Byron.

Have I said this already in comments on an earlier post? I think maybe I have. I don’t care. It’s slow here today.

As for The One not rushed into making a decision about troops for Afghanistan – hey, it’s not like they’re battling insurance companies or anything so why worry?

This isn’t something important like stimulus! (sorry Mike, it was too good to pass up).