With a film adaptation of JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit now being made, Stephen Granades has re-imagined Thorin’s letter [^] to Bilbo Baggins as a Nigerian scam (419) email.
"Dear MR BAGGINS, Fellow Conspirator,…I and my twelve companions have agreed to give you 10% of the total gold and jewels that the dragon Smaug now rests upon if you can join us on our long journey. When you have agreed please tell us the place where you dwell and send one hundred pence so that we might travel to you." Live Granades – Hobbit 419 [^]
Stephen has tried to keep as much of the original as possible, but that hasn’t stopped commenters mangling the prose in order to get a more "authentic" 419 scam [^] style message.
I think that this small taste of The Hobbit has been enough to make me want to go back and re-read it.
Organ Donation
I’ve posted before about the work of the Shirt.Woot people (UpgraDead and Rampaging Rabbit T-Shirt).
“Give Till It Hurts” [^] is the first serious t-shirt there that I have seen, and one of the best. As the blog post says “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Organ Donation is something important that everyone needs to talk about. It has the potential to be literally life altering or even life saving, as a friend is just discovering. Most people wouldn’t say no if they or a loved one needed a replacement organ, but would they be willing to donate? I hope that the answer is an emphatic “YES!”
It probably isn’t the sort of thing that you would want to wear after you have seen The Meaning of Life though.