Andrew Milbourne

Published author, lover of books, life-long train buff. And no, I'm not addicted to model railroading: I can stop any time I want to...I just don't want to!

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

I suppose I should give some credence to the "published author" claim in my bio. Support starving authors! Help pay for my crippling model railroading addiction! 😜

https://t.co/XrIgHWLNZ8

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

Well there's your problem! That's about two feet of pipe that was, until about 20 minutes ago, connected to my gutter's downspout and buried under my front yard. No wonder my gutters kept overflowing! It's packed solid with dirt and tree roots!

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

Missing these little boogers on National Dog Day.

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@Capt_Barker Muppet Treasure Island
McHale's Navy
The Hunt for Red October

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.

She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.

The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.

She handed out the checks herself.

In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.

When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.

You've probably heard that part.

Here's the part you haven't:

The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.

Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.

She built her county an entire hospital.

She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.

In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.

Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.

In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.

And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.

She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.

She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.

Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

Ah, dammit.

Fair winds and flowing seas, Captain Silver.

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

The Muppets have released a statement on the tragic passing of Tim Curry.

“Few humans have earned the title of honorary Muppet more than the legendary Tim Curry. As a performer, he was unparalleled – witty, charming, unnerving, and deeply funny.

We will always consider it one of our greatest treasures to have been part of Long John Silver’s crew. Thank you for everything, Tim.”

[Bob Barker @Capt_Barker]

The thing that gets me the most about Dolly Parton is that she never forgot where she came from. While a lot of her charity was broad based, she had a particular focus on Sevier county, Tennessee particularly with literacy and graduation. It is not even just about throwing money at an issue. I adore that she stood before a group of kids, told them to pair off and they would have to hold each other to graduating if they were to get the money she offered at the end. The high school drop out rate dropped from 36% to 6% which is amazing.

Don't forget where you come from. Be proud of it. And always do something to help others from there, no matter how small. You do not have to tell others, but it matters.

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@J0hnADouglas Holy shit! That's Hollywood Disaster Movie level bad.

[Dolly Parton @DollyParton]

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

Goodbye, Dolly. You were one of the good ones. Thank you for everything.

We will always love you.

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@NancyEFrye @RocketPulpHack Colonel, you gots some 'splainin' to do!

[Raconteur Press, LLC @raconteur_press]

A Texas boy and his dog fall through a hidden gate into a kingdom of talking dogs at war with alligators—and only human wits can save it. https://t.co/G7tPjQdlhf #commissionearned

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@DaddyWarpig

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@GHHILL1911 Just had it for dinner tonight, and it was delicious! 😋

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@MarieleRedclaw Nothing that I'm dumb enough to post in a public forum about.

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@DeclanFinnBooks Bautista was wasted in the role IMO.

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@AlysssaHazel NO! No, not Detroit! Please! Anything but that!

[Kekius Maximus @Kekius_Sage]

I’m a physics teacher, and quite a few stories have stayed with me throughout my career.

In my class, there’s an unwritten rule: For every final research project, students must submit a lab notebook recording all raw measurement data. Missing data or fabricated results mean an automatic F, in science there’s simply no room for dishonesty.

At the end of the term that year, a girl came to turn in her reversible pendulum project which was meant to measure the acceleration due to gravity. The data in her notebook was all over the place, and her graph was wildly off from the theoretical value of 9.8 m/s².

"My results are... completely ruined," she said. "Everyone else got nice numbers close to 9.8. I guess I'm getting an F".

I looked at her densely packed notebook, filled with meticulous notes: measurements taken at 2:00 AM, the humidity in her bedroom, even the exact times the string snapped and had to be retied. Having taught for over a decade, I can easily tell who fakes their numbers to match the textbook and who stays up all night putting in the real work.

"Why didn't you just tweak the numbers a bit to get closer to 9.8, like the others?" I asked.

She looked up, her eyes rimmed with red, but her voice was steady: "Because the data is what it is. You taught us that a scientist never lies about their data."

I silently flipped to the next page and marked a big red A.

She was stunned. "Wait... but my experiment completely failed?"

"Your experiment didn't fail. It just proved that your pendulum had air drag and a wobbly pivot" I said. "Science isn't about manufactured perfection, it's about the pursuit of truth. You stood up for the truth, and that's the true mark of a researcher."

Starting that semester, I created a small award in the corner of the lab: "The Best Failed Lab Report", given to the experiment with the most skewed results, but the most honest logs and thorough error analysis.

I want these kids to understand that having the courage to acknowledge mistakes and confront reality matters far more than faking a perfect score just to please someone else.

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man [NOTE: Or woman] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

[Andrew Milbourne @writermilbourne]

@RocketPulpHack Well, from what I understand of the situation, Colt seems to have bought CZ with CZ's own money (a-la McDonald Douglas in the Boeing "merger") so I can't say this surprises me all that much.