Questions you want answered.

The shirt neck seam thing.. isn't there another layer of fabric? Isn't it about sweat absorption?

Stengah wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Robear wrote:

"How many hours is your service operating?"
"All of them"
"Oh, okay"

Simplified that for you. ;)

A bit oversimplified, to the point where I can't imagine anyone hearing that and not asking "That just today or everyday? Even holidays?"

The justification for saying things a certain way always boils down to the lowest common denominator. If what you're saying might elicit additional inquiry from the other party, then you need to rethink how you are saying it. Right? Right??

Dakuna wrote:

The shirt neck seam thing.. isn't there another layer of fabric? Isn't it about sweat absorption?

I have no idea. That's why I'm asking.

I think I need to find a sewing forum.

BadKen wrote:
Dakuna wrote:

The shirt neck seam thing.. isn't there another layer of fabric? Isn't it about sweat absorption?

I have no idea. That's why I'm asking.

I think I need to find a sewing forum.

Sorry I'm not meaning to throw it back at you, I'm just guessing

If I'm writing a speculative fiction story, is it permissible to reference real characters doing things in the future? For example, could I write a story about a current sitting politician doing something reprehensible in the future, or does that put me on some dicey legal footing?

trichy wrote:

If I'm writing a speculative fiction story, is it permissible to reference real characters doing things in the future? For example, could I write a story about a current sitting politician doing something reprehensible in the future, or does that put me on some dicey legal footing?

I have seen this done but safely by not referencing them directly by name.

I feel like that is an established sub-genre of speculative fiction, but not one I read, so I can't think of any examples.

This article might be of interest.

Trichy, you are in the US, right?

LastSurprise wrote:

Trichy, you are in the US, right?

I am.

Maybe a bit more clarity would help. Political, so I'll spoiler tag it if you don't want to see.

Spoiler:

I want to write a scripted documentary podcast that (according to the fiction) takes place twenty years from now, and is an examination of the events leading to the collapse of the United States. Essentially, the idea is that a series of events leads to a disastrous election in 2020, with the results hotly debated and invalidated by half the population. In the following months, the country falls apart as the federal government's legitimacy collapses.

Part of the goal is to reference the current political climate, so I'd like to use Trump, McConnell, Biden, etc. in the documentary, referring to their actions in the future. But I know that's dicey territory.

trichy wrote:
LastSurprise wrote:

Trichy, you are in the US, right?

I am.

Maybe a bit more clarity would help. Political, so I'll spoiler tag it if you don't want to see.

Spoiler:

I want to write a scripted documentary podcast that (according to the fiction) takes place twenty years from now, and is an examination of the events leading to the collapse of the United States. Essentially, the idea is that a series of events leads to a disastrous election in 2020, with the results hotly debated and invalidated by half the population. In the following months, the country falls apart as the federal government's legitimacy collapses.

Part of the goal is to reference the current political climate, so I'd like to use Trump, McConnell, Biden, etc. in the documentary, referring to their actions in the future. But I know that's dicey territory.

I will hold you personally responsible if it comes true.

trichy wrote:
LastSurprise wrote:

Trichy, you are in the US, right?

I am.

Maybe a bit more clarity would help. Political, so I'll spoiler tag it if you don't want to see.

Spoiler:

I want to write a scripted documentary podcast that (according to the fiction) takes place twenty years from now, and is an examination of the events leading to the collapse of the United States. Essentially, the idea is that a series of events leads to a disastrous election in 2020, with the results hotly debated and invalidated by half the population. In the following months, the country falls apart as the federal government's legitimacy collapses.

Part of the goal is to reference the current political climate, so I'd like to use Trump, McConnell, Biden, etc. in the documentary, referring to their actions in the future. But I know that's dicey territory.

I will hold you personally responsible if it comes true.

Double the posts, double the threat.

It depends. If you're not planning to sell your manuscript, go hog wild. No one cares.

If you are planning to sell it, then look at different publications to see what their expectations are, and maybe inquire with the editor. I know that most of the speculative fiction publications that I've pitched stories to won't touch political stories at all but that's not true of every outlet.

Most likely, it'll be left to your editor, but the bare minimum would be to include a broad disclaimer at the beginning that yours is a work of speculative fiction and that the events you're describing are fictional in nature.

But! The one thing to know is that disguising the figures you're talking about won't cover your ass. If a reasonable person can identify the person you're describing even if you don't identify that person by name, then you've legally written about them. So writing a story about Tonald Drump or Kared Jushner won't magically save you from getting sued by those people.

If you feel that it makes your work stronger to identify people by name, then do it. Worst case, you have to find/replace a real politician's name with a fake one, but you're not preemptively doing that work and making your story worse as a result.

I know nothing about this, but can you still get in trouble for speculative fiction set in the future? You're clearly not saying that those people HAVE actually done the things you're writing, but I suppose defamation still applies?

Defamation could apply (you're saying that McConnell would or could eat the hearts of immigrant orphans), and so could personality rights (basically, you're capitalizing on their status as a public figure to sell your work without their permission). However, because you're writing a work that's clearly depicted as fiction, there's not a high likelihood that they'd win.

Well, unless Trump loosens up those libel laws like he's always saying that he wants to do. Totally and completely unrelated to his obsession with suing people for libel.

There's no harm in writing with real people and then change the names and physical traits later. Bo Jiden, Mike McDonaugh, and Ronald Drumpf are all on the table.

My favorite thinly veiled character was Clear and Present Danger's Pablo Escobar Ernesto Escobedo.

Vector wrote:

There's no harm in writing with real people and then change the names and physical traits later. Bo Jiden, Mike McDonaugh, and Ronald Drumpf are all on the table. :P

Per the article Clock linked upthread, that ain't gonna cut no legal mustard. Spoonerizing the name doesn't go anywhere near far enough - Ronald Drumpf is clearly Trump.

Ah, but what about "Ronald McDrumpf"?!

I have no idea what the answer to trichy's question is, but I wonder... how amenable are you to be on the receiving end of a Jeanine Pirro hit piece about a "known enema fetishist" with a "foreign sounding name" dragging our country's hard working leaders through the muck. "Why, I even heard that at one point he accused Senate Majority Leader McConnell of cannibalism!"* Lock him up!

* Obviously it is not cannibalism when a turtle eats an immigrant baby, but you know Pirro is just going to twist the facts to suit her narrative.

BadKen wrote:

Ah, but what about "Ronald McDrumpf"?!

I have no idea what the answer to trichy's question is, but I wonder... how amenable are you to be on the receiving end of a Jeanine Pirro hit piece about a "known enema fetishist" with a "foreign sounding name" dragging our country's hard working leaders through the muck. "Why, I even heard that at one point he accused Senate Majority Leader McConnell of cannibalism!"* Lock him up!

* Obviously it is not cannibalism when a turtle eats an immigrant baby, but you know Pirro is just going to twist the facts to suit her narrative.

I'd actually kind of be proud to be the target of that.

It's really hard for a public figure to win a libel/defamation suit. (NYT vs Sullivan). But unless you live in a state with robust SLAPP protection, they don't need to win in order to mess your day up.

On the other hand, if they're not suing Michael Wolff or Bob Woodward you don't have a lot to worry about.

Yes, I don't want to play my "I'm an Attorney" card too hard since I don't do anything anywhere near the area of first amendment/defamation law, and of course anyone can be sued for anything, but a defamation or libel suit on the basis of "someone created fiction which suggested I am capable of doing a bad thing" would not get far. In non-official Not Legal Advice, I think as a practical matter as long as you're not anticipating turning this into a best selling book or an HBO series or something, a disclaimer that this is a work of fiction (which should be obvious if it's set in the future anyway, but whatever) should be more than enough.

Jonman wrote:
Vector wrote:

There's no harm in writing with real people and then change the names and physical traits later. Bo Jiden, Mike McDonaugh, and Ronald Drumpf are all on the table. :P

Per the article Clock linked upthread, that ain't gonna cut no legal mustard. Spoonerizing the name doesn't go anywhere near far enough - Ronald Drumpf is clearly Trump.

What if he's skinny, talks with a southern drawl, and has a large beard?

One recent book I read did this kind of obfuscation by combining several people who held similar positions (The book is "Delta Vee" by Daniel Suarez). In this case, space entrepreneur billionaires. The book would present several character features and the reader was led to believe that it was Elon Musk, but then elements of Jeff Bezos would show up, but then there was another one who ran a huge online store business, but he was... And so forth. All jumbled up.

Have you heard the podcast called It Could Happen Here ? Your idea sounds similar to this, but different enough to not be considered a copycat. If you haven’t listened to it, you should. It might give you some good ideas on how to contextualize your story.

Fair warning: It Could Happen Here is nightmare inducing. I don’t spook easy and it freaked me the eff out.

Are there any Excel ninjas who can help me out?

I have a table with three columns: Name, Age, and Ethnicity. How can I count how many (for instance) Asians there are within an age range of 18 to 25?

I can count the total age range using '=COUNTIF(B:B,">17") - COUNTIF(B:B,">25")' and I can count the total ethnicities with '=COUNTIF(C:C,"Asian")' but I can't figure out how to combine the two.

Halp!

I believe you want the Countifs function.

This is formatted for Libreoffice, so you may have to tweek it a bit for Excel:
=COUNTIFS(B2:B6,">"&17,B2:B6,"<"&25,C2:C6,"=Asian")

Mantid wrote:

This is formatted for Libreoffice, so you may have to tweek it a bit for Excel:
=COUNTIFS(B2:B6,">"&B2:B6,"<"&25,C2:C6,"=Asian")

Mantid's onto it but I tweaked the formula for excel:

=COUNTIFS(C:C,"=Asian",B:B,">=18",B:B,"<=25")

Extra note, if you have a column of ethnicities and ages you want to sum by, like to make a summary table, you can use the & to concatenate and not have to rewrite the formula each time:

=COUNTIFS(C2:C6,"="&E2,B2:B6,">="&F2,B2:B6,"<="&G2)

Where E2 has the value "Asian", etc. Then you can click and drag the formula and it will update the function for each of your target cells. Let me know if that didn't make sense!

MANY THANKS!!!

I was struggling with that for a while. I was trying COUNTIFS, but I was putting the quotes in the wrong place!