Views from Medina Road

So, what is the significance of the spelling 'compleat' rather than 'complete'? I've wondered this occasionally over the past few decades (The Compleat Enchanter, etc.) and never figured it out. This link is no help. A review copy of a book of Tolkien essays sent me last week is belligerently nonhelpful: it asterisks the word to a footnote "look it up".

Behind on everything as usual; evenings have been rather nonproductive of late, domestic circumstances being more than typically unsupportive.

Several readers have advised Locus about the expired security certificate on the website, when accessing the subscription order page and other order pages. It was supposed to have renewed automatically, but somehow did not, and expired. I placed an order with the current hosting service, CI Host, for a new certificate a full week ago; they responded last Friday that a new certificate had been installed and that the appropriate access via https://secure.locusmag.com would be in effect within 24 hours. That was 5 days ago. I keep querying them.

Frankly, though, while our customers may always be right, my own paranoia does not extend to worrying about sending credit card numbers over a website, or via email. Is this really a common mode of identity theft? In point of fact, my own credit card number was stolen a couple months ago, and used fraudulently. I spotted it quickly because I'm in the habit of checking my bank and credit balances via websites every couple days. When a package of recovered mail arrived from the post office, I realized that someone had simply stolen a day's paper mail out of my mailbox. I installed a lock on the mailbox. I hand my credit card to restaurant waiters once a week or so. I worry more about that, than the remote chance that someone might intercept my email or web form submission with my card number on it. Other opinions invited.