14 Comments

You've outdone yourself. This is one of my favorite installments ever. I loved the Dune stuff. I understand it better/at all now. You have a gift for making complicated things fun. But, that is not news. Those toads rule

Expand full comment
founding
Jan 18, 2022Liked by Monica McLaughlin

Kyle MacLachlan and sand!! The 80's were awesome.

Expand full comment

As always, a delight. My brain thanks you.

The Spice DOA thing:

When I first learned about it, I think I spent maybne an hour reading round in an attempt to understand it better than I thought I did. But no. I'd understood it perfectly. They really, really thought they'd bought an entire intellectual property, rather than a single book. They reaaaaaaally thought that.

At the end of that hour I laughed, and then I just kind of sat there, looking at my laptop screen. Because - how. Three million dollars. All those people. How did it not occur to any of them that....

Sorry, I just blanked again. It's now two hours after I started writing this comment.

How...?

.......

Five hours.

Anyway. Science writer Ferris Jabr has a fascinating Twitter thread on the real-life inspiration for Dune, which is the Oregon coast, and how a threat to its ecology attracted a young writer called Frank Herbert: https://twitter.com/ferrisjabr/status/1447988135657295874 It's a lovely read and I had no idea, despite priding myself on being a Dune nerd for at least two decades now.

Expand full comment
Jan 18, 2022Liked by Monica McLaughlin

Someone's going to turn that Dune crypto bro story into an amazing podcast. Thanks for sharing the story.

(Btw we all need dog jewelry and dueling toads!)

Expand full comment
Jan 18, 2022Liked by Monica McLaughlin

Not sure why, but I want the frogs. And...Jules Holland was a definite upgrade.

Expand full comment

Oh wow, that peacock necklace...!

Expand full comment