Sunday Morning Book Thread 06-05-2016: Pimp Daddy [OregonMuse]

Wellington Square Bookshop, Exton, PA

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are lovely, space isn't safe, and if you've seen one snowflake, you've seen them all. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if you're Haven Monahan, or have a terminal disease.

Earlier this week, Mike Hammer, etc., etc. referred to me as a "crack dealer" but that he had foiled me by buying only one book after reading the Book Thread last week. I am deeply offended. I'm not a crack dealer. I'm a pimp. I pimp books. In fact, I wanted to start calling myself "The Book Pimp", but then I discovered that there's already somebody using that name, so I had to forget it.

But, I probably should issue the usual warning about this thread:

WARNING: Reading the Sunday Morning Book Thread may be hazardous to your financial health. Major side effects include buyers' frenzy, buyers' remorse, compulsive shopping, wallet shrinkage, credit card cancelitis, lackus fundus, bank account hypertrophy, and cashus interruptus, none of which are covered on the Obamacare exchanges.

Now, on with the pimpage:

There Had To Be A First One

So what was the first science fiction novel ever written? Something by Edgae Allen Poe? Or Jules Verne? Perhps it's this one, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, first published in German in 1616.

The wiki entry says this:

It is an allegoric romance (story) divided into Seven Days, or Seven Journeys, like Genesis, and recounts how Christian Rosenkreuz was invited to go to a wonderful castle full of miracles, in order to assist the Chymical Wedding of the king and the queen, that is, the husband and the bride.

In order to understand what's going on in this book, you really have to know your Bible:

The story follows the Passover and the seven days of unleavened bread exactly. The instructions for the Passover ritual in the book of Exodus (Exod 12:15) can also be found in detail in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The slaughtering and roasting of the Paschal lamb begins in the evening (near Easter), as does The Chymical Wedding.

But the symbolism doesn't stop there:

The nine Lords are nine books of the New Testament, I Peter, II Peter, James, Jude, I John, II John, III John, the Gospel of John, and the Revelation.

It probably wouldn't hurt to be familiar with alchemy and how it was practiced in the 15th and 16th centuries, either.

There's a handsome new edition that's being funded by a KickStarter project, or if you can't wait, there is a public domain pdf available, too.

I read a page or two of The Chymical Wedding, and the style reminded me strongly of Pilgrim's Progress, which, coincidentally, is another heavily tale of an "everyman" named Christian who has a number of extraordinary, life-changing adventures of great symbolic and allegorical importance.

'Fargo' Guy Writes Book

Sometimes you can't catch a break:

Between 1998 and 2012, Mr. Hawley published four novels, none of which could be called a hit. At a low point, in 2008, there was “The Punch,” a family story that sold a mere 281 print copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen BookScan.

Other times, you can:

After [having moved to Los Angeles and] writing and selling three television pilots, [Noah Hawley] took a writer-producer job on the series “Bones” in 2005 and his first feature screenplay, “Lies & Alibis,” was released in 2006. “Fargo” premiered in April 2014 and won the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries that summer.

I really liked the first season of Fargo. The second, not so much. For me, what made the first season was the character Molly, who reminded me a lot of Frances McDermott's pregnant police chief character in the 'Fargo' movie.

Anyway, banking on his TV successess, Mr. Hawley is giving book-writing another go, and so his new novel Before the Fall will be available on May 31st. The novel is about the aftermath of the crash of a private jet.

With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members--including a Wall Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot--the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers' intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work?

Amazon also offers a free preview of this book, containing the Prolog and Chapter 1, alhough the 'Look Inside' preview of the book itself appears to have Chapters 1 and 2.

And Mr. Hawley's good fortune continues:

[Hawley's agent] sold the North American rights for a sum in the high six figures. Sony bought the film rights with Mr. Hawley attached to produce and write the screenplay.

It's like he was knocked down and landed on his butt - in a giant pile of money.

More Like This, Please

This came through a week or so ago as a freebie, but I didn't catch it in time, so now the Kindle edition is $3.99. I'm referring to to the YA novel Self Defense: A contemporary Fiction Novel by Uriel Lynn:

After witnessing a terrible act of violence that deeply shakes their world, the five [Israeli] teenagers are forced to come out of their upper-class comfort zone and give reality a straight look in the eye. For the first time, they decide to take responsibility for their personal security and safety.

"Personal responsibility." How quaint.

Lynn is a newspaper writer and also served in various Israeli government positions, including a stint as an MP in the Knesset. He "decided 4 years ago to write books, believing that books, in most cases, have more influence on people than opinions in newspapers."

Can't disagree there.

Exit question: When George Bush's first response to 9/11 was to create the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA, how many said "Great, here comes another bloated, incompetent federal agency to boss us around"? And now, it's a permanent fixture on the American landscape. We're never going to be able to get rid of it. Thanks, George!

Here are words that should be instantly repellent to all Americans: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to take care of you."

Moron Recommendations

On one of the morning threads on Thursday, I solicited moron book recommendations as I was a bit short on material this week, and I got a good response.

First, the comedians:

Anonosaurus Wrecks recommends Keeping It Real: Tips For Maintaining Your Mental Health by Glenn Beck, which, obviously, is a work of fiction. Or written by someone else. Kind of like weft cut-loop's choice, Overcoming Derp: A-a-a-a-a-a-a-an Okie Doke Odyssey by Brack O'Barmer.

Fritz's contribution is There's Always the Trailer Park by Bill and Hillary Clinton, which is wishful thinking because even if the FAB gets sent home in disgrace, she and her consort can live like kings on their ill-gotten millions.

The next comment down consists of one sentence, Parfait is for Fags, but I'm not certain whether that's a book suggestion or merely a response to an earlier comment. I kind of prefer it to be a book title, truth be told. Sounds like it would be a totally awesome cookbook.

And now on to the real books:

Moron commenter garrett recommends Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. From the Amazon blurb, it sounds pretty wild:

[It] draws readers into a narrative particle accelerator in which a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is simultaneously cooler than zero and unaffectedly affecting, a hilariously funny and deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind.

According to a reviewer, Murakami combines anumber of genres, science fiction, mystery, film noir, fantasy, magical realism, and cyberpunk, and it all works.

___________

Bruce With a Wang! wants to read The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives by Ted Gup, and after reading the blurb, I kind of want to, too:

In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall into which seventy-one stars are carved-each representing an agent who has died in the line of duty. Official CIA records only name thirty-five of them, however. Undeterred by claims that revealing the identities of these "nameless stars" might compromise national security, Ted Gup sorted through thousands of documents and interviewed over 400 CIA officers in his attempt to bring their long-hidden stories to light. The result of this extraordinary work of investigation is a surprising glimpse at the real lives of secret agents, and an unprecedented history of the most compelling-and controversial-department of the US government.

I recall a number of years ago that the CIA station chief of, I think, Athens, Greece, was killed because some lefty rag published his full identity and location. Does anybody else remember that? I wonder if this book talks about that case. And there were no consequences to the perps who did this. We must be the only country in the world where something like this could happen.

Also recommended by josephstan.

___________

Here's an anti-recommendation from GnuBreed: the novel The Unwanted, by John Saul, who, according to GB, "writes like an emo 6th grade gyrl...He must wear a 3 sizes too small pair of pantyhose while writing; it's the only possible explanation."

So, not a fan, then?

___________

And donna says she is on a Jane Austen kick, having just finished Emma

When her former governess finds happiness as the bride of a local widower, the brilliant and beautiful Emma Woodhouse — one of Jane Austen's immortal creations — flatters herself that she alone has secured the marriage and that she possesses a special talent for bringing lovers together. The young heiress next busies herself with finding a suitable husband for her friend and protégé, Harriet Smith, setting off an entertaining sequence of comic mishaps and misunderstanding in this sparkling comedy of English-village romance.

Available on Kindle and elsewhere on the internetz for free.

___________

Alexthechick likes the urban fantasy novel The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher, which she describes as

a take on the Templars going back to the original role of protecting the road. It's very very very obviously a set up for the start of a series but does work as a self contained book. It's a quick, fun read. I like the direct writing style.

She also issues a trigger warning because "there's a long-married couple expecting a kid that shows *gasp* an actual happily married couple who love each other" so progressives might want to cover their eyes and run screaming from the room at this brazen display of heterosexual normalcy.

Also:

I re-read The Rook because supposedly the sequel is finally coming out. Again, urban fantasy which is the lines of Hot Fuzz of being both a send up of the genre and a great example of the genre. Our Heroine is a hoot. I love the idea of an organization to fight supernatural stuff getting caught up in being a bureaucracy.

She's right about the sequel. Stiletto, the second book of the Rook files, is available for pre-order now, and will be release on June 14th.

What I'm Reading

...[T]hey reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand at his right hand
...let his prayer be counted as sin! May his days be few; may another take his office!
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow! May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
...May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!

--(Psa 109:4-26)

This is an example of what are known as "imprecatory" psalms, and they present a problem for Christians since we are exorted to "love [our] enemies" (Luke 6:27) and "bless and not curse" (Romans 12:14). Even an esteemed commentator such as C.S.Lewis got so freaked out by them that he just wrote them off as "wicked" and "devilish" and so the problem for him became: why are such "ungodly" sentiments included in the canon of inspired scripture in the first place (see his book Reflections on the Psalms)?

As much as I am an admirer of Lewis, I've always thought that he whiffed on this one, and the Reflections...chapter where he dealt with the imprecatories veered off in a completely wrong direction.

A couple of ministers I know recommended Crying for Justice: What the Psalms Teach Us About Mercy and Vengeance in an Age of Terrorism by John Day, so I started it this week, and it's quite instructive. Day's view is that the imprecatory texts are as every bit inspired as the rest of the Bible, so they need to be taken seriously, and therefore are to be incorporated into the life of the Church.

It starts out with a fascinating discussion of the concept of "cursing" (not "cussing") as an ancient mideastern cultural institution, with examples from ancient suzerainty treaties and how the biblical maledictions make more sense when viewed in that light. That's as far as I've read so far, and I am eager to read more.

___________

Moronette 'votermom' is putting together a list of moron authors over on the Goodreads site which is intended to be acessible to non-members. Here is the list she has compiled so far. Let her know if there's an author she's missing.

http://www.bookhorde.org/p/aoshq-authors.html

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:03 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Morning.

Posted by: HH at June 05, 2016 08:58 AM (DrCtv)

2 Crisis of Character looks to make a splash.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at June 05, 2016 09:02 AM (iLoHX)

3 Good morning bookworms
Reading Living Hell, A TRUE Account of Woman POW'S Under Japanese Control by Celia Lucas.

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2016 09:02 AM (3wHFl)

4 I get to Exton sometimes,have to check that out.

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2016 09:04 AM (3wHFl)

5 Reading "Cold Days" per recommendation here and so far it's pretty good. I hadn't read any Dresden Files stuff for quite a while , so I'm still figuring out some of the context!

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 05, 2016 09:05 AM (wYnyS)

6 Crisis of Character looks to make a splash.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at June 05, 2016 09:02 AM (iLoHX)

Can't wait to see the media's recommendation of this book!

/s

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 05, 2016 09:06 AM (wYnyS)

7 Also need some help on what I'm reading, it is a account of civilians taken prisoner in the Philippines for no reason other than being foreigners. There is a movie simular but searching can't find a title. Ring any bells?

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2016 09:07 AM (3wHFl)

8 Earlier this week, Mike Hammer, etc., etc. referred to me as a "crack dealer"...
-------------

I would never level such a malediction in regards to OM. The cat, a known occasional odious presence here, did it.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2016 09:07 AM (9mTYi)

9 Never heard of Jim Harrison until he died. Really enjoying his books. Reading up on him too - interesting dude.

Posted by: Yuper Duper at June 05, 2016 09:07 AM (gwG9s)

10 Prior to the release of the documentary next month, I wanted to read Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer. After reading about all their wheeling and dealing, I know Hilliary isn't the only Clinton who deserves to be wearing prison orange. We're a long way down the road to becoming a Banana Republic where the rule of law doesn't apply if you are a member of the ruling party, be it Democratic or Republican. The Clinton case may be the tipping point where we loose our Republic for a very long time.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 05, 2016 09:08 AM (JYer2)

11 Can't wait to see the media's recommendation of this book!
---------------

All discredited lies.
We haven't read it yet, but, it's all lies.
There.

Posted by: MSM at June 05, 2016 09:09 AM (9mTYi)

12 Mmmmm, fresh book thread smell!

*motorboats an 1881 edition of The Lives and Travels of Livingstone and Stanley*

"The women excited the admiration of the Arabs. They have fine, small, well-formed features; their great defect is on of fashion -- they file their teeth to points, the hussies, and that makes their smile like that of the crocodile." (p.466)

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 09:09 AM (jR7Wy)

13 I'm reading Larry McMurtry's Sin Killer, which is highly entertaining.

Some people hate the "Berrybender Narratives", and some people like the books. I'm in the latter category but I especially like this first one in the series. Maybe McMurtry should have stopped here, but the next book (The Wandering Hill) is also very good.

Posted by: MTF, Amity and Enmity at June 05, 2016 09:09 AM (/m8T6)

14 Happy christening day to Adam Smith!
Wrote THE book on economics, and on his deathbed lamented that he had not accomplished more.

Short bio in link. Be sure to read the postscript.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 09:10 AM (7lVbc)

15 Hi,

Moron-bleg.

How do you link another page or website in your name?

Please explain slowly and thoroughly.

Pixyware has me flummoxed.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 05, 2016 09:11 AM (HGtd0)

16 Put Crisis of Character in my shopping cart, that should get the DNC to stop sending me letters.

Posted by: Jean at June 05, 2016 09:11 AM (Doh4+)

17 Posted by: naturalfake at June 05, 2016 09:11 AM (HGtd0)

Paste the address in the URL block below your email address.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at June 05, 2016 09:12 AM (95vkd)

18 Lotta good ideas OM. Thanks.

And of course I remember now that you have reminded me.

There had to be a first one.
If today's news media, and the political atmosphere doesn't demonstrate the power of suggestion and it's effect on perception, then nothing will.

That is what I enjoy about Science Fiction. You can take an ordinary event, and turn it into something magical just by choosing one word over another. (Made easier with Hollywoods visual special effects.)

Posted by: Flower Garland at June 05, 2016 09:12 AM (DjoL4)

19 When to the big used book store in Manassas yesterday, spent 40 bucks on two boxes of books.

Posted by: Jean at June 05, 2016 09:12 AM (Doh4+)

20 If you're looking for a list of decent books to get for your kids or gifts; Google the Battle of the Books lists. The lists for the last few years here for the Arlington Diocese have been good and they get read by parents first.

Posted by: Jean at June 05, 2016 09:15 AM (Doh4+)

21 Worth re-posting this from the EMT, if no one objects:

From this date in 1944- The EZ Dog Journal

June 5, 1944
Rome is ours. We have it surrounded and occupied. The natives are delirious with joy. What with flag waving and flower throwing and shouting and ringing it is a great show. Our battery moved from Velletri to the fair grounds SW of Rome.

As soon as we closed in the new area 'Ace' [Taylor] took me for a flight over Rome. The main streets were thronged with people. The entrance to Vatican City was so crowded with people that we couldn't see the ground. This was the Pope's address welcoming the Allies. A lucky flight for us because flying over the Vatican is strictly forbidden. However this was a special occasion and passed uncensored.

Rome is not badly bombed. Only the railroad yards show any amount of bombing. Our troops are moving well out with little opposition. All troops are advancing straight up the axis on rather narrow division fronts. The Air Corps is still raisinng Cain in the rear areas. Gerry seems very confused and disorganized.

My dad buzzed the Vatican one day before D-Day! Unbelievable!

Newsreel footage from that day (no plane spotted, alas):

http://tinyurl.com/hofcg87

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at June 05, 2016 09:15 AM (mvenn)

22 I love buying great books by the boxfull at library sales. That's where I got my Livingstone and Stanley book! Some schmuck thought that this beautiful tome was taking up too much room, and I got it for a buck.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 09:15 AM (jR7Wy)

23 I thought everything about the Clinton's had already leaked. Is there anything new in the Book?

I have a shelf full of contemporary political books, and stopped buying them when I realized there was nothing new in them.

Posted by: Flower Garland at June 05, 2016 09:17 AM (DjoL4)

24 Crap, have to turn AC on

Posted by: Jean at June 05, 2016 09:17 AM (Doh4+)

25 an actual happily married couple who love each other"

So, fantasy then.

Posted by: Mr Macca Bean at June 05, 2016 09:18 AM (4ng05)

26 Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at June 05, 2016 09:12 AM (95vkd)

Thanks.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 05, 2016 09:19 AM (HGtd0)

27 Test

Posted by: Test at June 05, 2016 09:21 AM (HGtd0)

28 And there is a lesson to be learned from the Fargo Guy, Mr. Hawley.

The value of youthful vigor, hard work, self promotion, and persistance.

Posted by: Flower Garland at June 05, 2016 09:21 AM (DjoL4)

29 By the way, you can vote for the CLFA book of the year
(Conservative Libertarian Fiction Alliance)

I have a post on it here

http://www.bookhorde.org/2016/06/vote-for-clfa-book-of-year-plus-new.html

Moron oldsailorspoet has two books nominated (Amy Lynn)

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 09:22 AM (7lVbc)

30 A little early for the drinking lamp me thinks but it worked.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at June 05, 2016 09:24 AM (95vkd)

31 23 Flower Garland

Let's say that there was nothing surprising in there, just case after case of the Clinton Foundation mixing philanthropy, politics, and huge speaking fees for Bill with heavy emphasis on the last two and not so much on the first one.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 05, 2016 09:24 AM (JYer2)

32 My dad buzzed the Vatican one day before D-Day! Unbelievable!

Newsreel footage from that day (no plane spotted, alas):

http://tinyurl.com/hofcg87

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at June 05, 2016 09:15 AM (mvenn)

Hah!!!
That's awesome.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 09:25 AM (7lVbc)

33 All discredited lies.
We haven't read it yet, but, it's all lies.
There.
Posted by: MSM at June 05, 2016 09:09 AM (9mTYi)

You forgot "It's old news."

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 09:25 AM (AR9hC)

34 I've discovered that there are a few Agatha Christies I haven't read yet. Love Miss Marple--such a zen character.

Posted by: Emily at June 05, 2016 09:26 AM (QtkD6)

35 19 ... Jean, Be very careful with that used bookstore. It is a den of temptation and wallet deflation. But it is where I got 17 of the Patrick O'Brian books for under fifteen bucks a couple of weeks ago.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 09:27 AM (V+03K)

36 Oregon here's a book

https://crayfisher.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/ckcb4htvaaajt20.jpg

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 09:27 AM (7lVbc)

37 The CIA officer was Richard Welch - murdered by the Greek terrorist group N-17 in 1975. His name and address had been published by a local Athens newspaper - but he was living in a house which his two predecessors had also lived in.
N-17 were busy little bees in Athens for about twenty years. They killed the head of the Joint US Military Aid Group to Greece while I was assigned to Hellenikon AB, and a naval attache from the American Embassy two or three years after I had rotated out, and occasionally took shots - or car bombs - at other American diplomatic or military personnel. They turned out much later to have had a lot of friends in high places, when the cell was finally broken up.
I loved living in Greece for the time I was there - but the ongoing terrorism was very, very wearing.

(The print version of the Second Chronicle of Luna City is finally up at Amazon, BTW>)

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 05, 2016 09:28 AM (xnmPy)

38 Good morning, darlings. No choir for the whole summer and I can't even figure out to do on Sunday morning without rushing to catch the book thread before leaving for church.

I finished "Hallow Mass" by JP Mac and, although I seldom do this, I gave it five stars on amazon simply for the delight of it. I am appalled, however, to read that the author is working on a science fiction novel instead of the next one in the "Hallow Mass" series. I highly recommend this book. If you know Lovecraft, it's entirely delicious. If you don't, it's a little bit of an introduction but mostly it's a delightful satire of modern college life.

I just started "Little Sins Mean A Lot" by Elizabeth Scalia. Elizabeth played a huge role in my conversion so I buy her books simply out of gratitude but they are always worthwhile purchases.

Still reading "Renaissance Lives". I'll finish it some day and will have learned some stuff and picked up an interest in some biographies I want to read, so that's good.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 05, 2016 09:29 AM (VsZJP)

39 I read two books this week:

The Flight of Gemma Hardy, by Margot Livesey - this is a retelling of Jane Eyre, set in Scotland in the 1950's and 1960's, and I loved it. The first section of the book - Gemma's lonely childhood and miserable boarding school - is every bit as good as Jane Eyre and follows the Jane Eyre story very closely. The second half - working for Mr. Rochester, falling in love with him, leaving him, etc - is a little different - i.e., no crazy woman in the attic, but still very compelling. Gemma's struggles when she leaves her safe employment are very real. Ultimately comes to know who she really is and is able to forgive Mr. Sinclair (Rochester).

Crashing Through, by Robert Kurson, is a true account of Michael May, who was blinded in a chemical explosion when he was three. At 41 he has an operation that restores vision to one eye (the other eye was removed years before) and has to learn how to see. Very interesting book. We see with our brains as much as with our eyes, and if you've never been taught as a child how to interpret what your eyes see, it will be very hard to learn how to see as an adult. The book was written about 8 years ago, and May's surgery was in 2001, and I'm curious to know if May's ability to see has improved since.

Posted by: biancaneve at June 05, 2016 09:32 AM (xa+7G)

40 OT: (but let's see if I can creatively relate it):

Canada changing it's national anthem in order to make it gender neutral.

History books will record how this singular event wiped away all of Canada's past sins.

Huh, huh? Like how I did that?

Posted by: Mr Macca Bean at June 05, 2016 09:33 AM (4ng05)

41 Good morning Book Thread People. I'm continuing with Master and Commander although at a slow pace because I have to look up all the naval jargon. (That's fun in itself.) O'Brian really is creating a world for his stories which, I assume, will be consistent for the series. In a less fantastical, more historical way it reminds me of what Tolkien did creating Middle Earth. I can see why these books became so popular and why I see comments about fans re-reading the series in order, again.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 09:34 AM (V+03K)

42 I've been reading Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier, an autobiography of a Wehrmacht soldier on the Eastern Front from around the fall of Stalingrad to (presumably, I haven't finished) the end of the war. Horribly depressing, in most ways. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to be the least bit repentant for joining the German army (he was French, though his mother was German) or so far acknowledge that he might have been on the wrong side, morally (of course, Nazi versus Commie is like alien versus predator...) Been working on this one on the weekends when I am visiting my parents.

At home I am still working my way through William Hinzen's Border Wars of the Upper Ohio Valley, 1769-1793. Very interesting pushback against the idea of the noble savage and a defense of the white settlers, at least in part. He thinks that a lot of the outright murders of Indians attributed to Lew Wetzel, aka Deathwind, never happened, and he has thefullest account I've yet read of the Moravian Delawares prior to their, well, martyrdom, at the hands of a the white militia at Gnudenhutten which goes a long way towards explaining why things happened as they did. Only major problem is a lack of footnotes/endnotes giving his sources, though he gives a few in the text itself.

Posted by: Grey Fox at June 05, 2016 09:37 AM (bZ7mE)

43 "Crisis of Character looks to make a splash.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles

Sounds a lot like "Unlimited Access" by Gary Aldrich, which finished my political transformation and irrevocably drove drove me away forever from the Dems. Unfortunately the MSM and Clinton will deem this old news and right wing smears. The LIV's are dumber that ever and Dems don't care so I don't think it will have much impact.

Posted by: Ripley at June 05, 2016 09:37 AM (1BQGO)

44 Morning all.

Reread Echoes of Betrayal by Elizabeth Moon. Still tossing ideas out how to reach the end of the San Francisco story. Meanwhile my subconscious has started offering up ideas on the plot for the Alexandria sequel to Golden Isis, it seems more gods of Egypt want to get involved. I think the X-Men movie and yet another secret cult of protectors kick-started it in reaction.

And of course, book is still available for purchase.
http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/B014BTSEYO

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2016 09:38 AM (GFzi9)

45 6 Oregon here's a book

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 09:27 AM (7lVbc)

Boy, I'll say!

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 09:38 AM (AR9hC)

46 I just did a quick google search on Michael May and found an article from last year. Apparently in the 15 years since his surgery his vision has not improved. He can see colors and motion, but cannot interpret faces, distinguish objects, or judge depth. He says he's learned to live with it. Where visual cues help, he relies on his limited vision; where they don't, he relies on the senses he developed while he was blind.

Posted by: biancaneve at June 05, 2016 09:39 AM (xa+7G)

47 35 19 ... Jean, Be very careful with that used bookstore. It is a den of temptation and wallet deflation. But it is where I got 17 of the Patrick O'Brian books for under fifteen bucks a couple of weeks ago.
Posted by: JTB

Yes, go with three kids and feel your wallet scream.

Posted by: Jean at June 05, 2016 09:40 AM (Doh4+)

48 I started 'Valiant Ambition' by Nathaniel Philbrick about the development of Benedict Arnold and George Washington. I had intended to just thumb through it, figuring I already knew the basics of the men. Then I began the intro and first chapter. Big mistake. Philbrick is an excellent writer (this is his 4th book I've read) and comparable to Victor Davis Hanson for readability. This is a library book I can't renew due to a long waiting list, so I may just break down and buy a copy.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 09:43 AM (V+03K)

49 Speaking of political books :

"Dereliction of Duty" by H. R. McMaster about LBJ, McNamara, and Vietnam.

Posted by: Flower Garland at June 05, 2016 09:43 AM (cQ2Cj)

50 By the way, JTB, "The Oxford Companion to Chess" book you asked about in the chess thread is pretty good. A friend of mine had a copy and it's a good "dipping" book. That is, when I'd go over to his place, I'd open it and "dip" into it randomly for a few pages and I'd always learn something new.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 09:44 AM (AR9hC)

51 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes. Sitting here at the desk trying to write, but of course, had to waste some time at the HQ.

I just finished Joe Gould's Teeth by Jill Lepore. Here's the backstory - in the early 1940s, a New Yorker writer named Joseph Mitchell did a profile on Joe Gould, a "Bohemian" (nicer term than 'bum') in Greenwich Village who claimed to be writing the longest book ever written, "The Oral History of Our Time," in which, Gould claimed, he was writing down every scrap of conversation he heard, considering that to be true history - "I want to expand the horizons of history as Walt Whitman did poetry."

The profile, "Professor Sea Gull," made Gould a minor celebrity, and no visit to the Village was complete without trying to find Gould and have him recite a bit of his "History," which, though he claimed to have been working on it for over 30 years, hardly anyone had seen more than a fraction.

The reason, Mitchell wrote in an essay after Gould's death, "Joe Gould's Secret," was because there wasn't any "History," just bits and pieces and scraps that Gould had been revising over and over and over again. It was all a fake.

Or was it? Despite Mitchell's conviction, there really was more of the "History" than he imagined, though it wasn't nearly as extensive or grandiose as Gould made it out to be. Lepore (a Harvard professor) decided to find out if any of the "History" still survived, and this book is the result. It's utterly fascinating, but to get the true flavor it it, you ought to read Mitchell's first two profiles, though the book can be enjoyed on its own.

A caveat - "Joe Gould's Teeth" was originally a New Yorker essay, and this book is only a slight extension of the original and not, IMO, worth the $25 cover price. Other than that, two thumbs up.

And now, back to my own worthless scribbling.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2016 09:44 AM (GUDMx)

52
Unfortunately the MSM and Clinton will deem this old news and right wing smears. The LIV's are dumber that ever and Dems don't care so I don't think it will have much impact.
Posted by: Ripley at June 05, 2016 09:37 AM (1BQGO)
--------------------M

Maybe there are some new revelations in it. Details embargoed. Drudge claims the Clinton campaign is uneasy about it.

Meanwhile, the Swiftboat story was old news, too. Perhaps a few more former agents will step forward and reveal a bit more about the Clintons. A lot to hope?

Posted by: iforgot at June 05, 2016 09:47 AM (5o5ek)

53 Dear OM/Book Pimp, Thanks for recommending 'Crying For Justice' and 'The Chymical Wedding'. At least the second one is only 99 cents. They both sound interesting.

Another possible title for you: Book Pusher.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 09:50 AM (V+03K)

54
Finished Robert Massie's biog of Catherine the Great. Definitely could have been better. Now I'm looking for another one, but not Henri Troyat's; I already read that one. Got any suggestions?

Lightening up with P.G. Wodehouse this week.

Posted by: iforgot at June 05, 2016 09:50 AM (5o5ek)

55 Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 09:44 AM (AR9hC)

Dipping book aka bathroom reading

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 09:50 AM (7lVbc)

56 Chymical Wedding wasn't the first SF novel. By the strict definition, that would probably be Johannes Kepler's Somnium, since it's about going to the Moon and is based on cutting-edge science (i.e. Kepler).

With a looser definition we could go back to True History, by Lucian, a Roman-era story of a ship's crew swept off by a waterspout to the Moon, which is at war with the Sun. Surprisingly influential: writers kept cribbing from Lucian as late as the 18th century.

And if you squint, the voyage of the Argo starts to look pretty science fictional: a ship of adventurous sorts travels beyond the rim of the known world to an exotic locale with a hot space babe, er, Medea. They fight monsters and come home with the Space Babe and some treasure.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2016 09:51 AM (2lr3z)

57 Maybe there are some new revelations in it. Details embargoed. Drudge claims the Clinton campaign is uneasy about it.

Posted by: iforgot at June 05, 2016 09:47 AM (5o5ek)

Yes, and we all know that Matt Drudge would never post anything provocative or sensationalistic to get page hits.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 09:51 AM (AR9hC)

58 If you are looking for value from political books like the new Clinton revelations, look at it this way.

Buy the book, put it on your shelf, and 60 years from now, your great-great grandchildren will have an original bit of history to counteract the indoctrination they will be getting from government schools of their time.

Posted by: Flower Garland at June 05, 2016 09:55 AM (cQ2Cj)

59 For those among us who reload our ammunition, check out the current issue of "Handloader" magazine. It includes a reprint of their first issue from 50 years ago and it includes those 1966 ads. The prices will make you cry, at least until you remember what you were earning back then. That makes today's prices seem not so bad. I always enjoy the magazine but that first issue was fun and interesting.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 09:55 AM (V+03K)

60 MPPP, Joe Gould sounds suspiciously like our President. A flim-flam artist who parlayed his schtick into being famous by duping the credulous. Good luck with the writing, you got a mystery or two to solve without those meddling kids and their dog.

Oregon Muse is a Book Enabler, yeah that's it.

And if anyone wants to try and write a novel with Pittsburgh connections - https://creativenonfiction.submittable.com/submit/55495

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2016 09:56 AM (GFzi9)

61 Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2016 09:51 AM (2lr3z)
---
I first read about these in, I think, an old Time-Life book "Man and Space" by Arthur C. Clarke, from their Science series.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 09:57 AM (jR7Wy)

62 What a beautiful bookstore, and not to far from me. I must visit sometime.

I stopped by Harvest Books in Ft. Washington, PA on Friday for their monthly warehouse sale & picked up a couple of horror anthologies, a book of the Battle of Plattsburgh in the War of 1812, a book on the Irish Troubles, and two naval warship reference books, all for $15. I'll stop by again today after Mass & see what else might be around - books are $1 each today.

Posted by: Josephistan at June 05, 2016 09:58 AM (7qAYi)

63 Been plowing through "The Days of the French Revolution" , the best and very gripping account of the French Revolution and all it's horrors I have read. Really covers the insane, bloodthirsty killing to the point I have to put it down at times. It's as if a considerable portion of the country just went criminally insane and delusional and manged to seize power. Combined with smug self-righteousness of the leaders it unsurprisingly turned it into a slaughter. (Sound familiar?)

I don't know how the French can ever reference this horrible time with anything but shame. The motto of the revolution Liberty, Equality, Fraternization is still their national motto and Bastille Day ids a national celebration. You would think they would be purging their culture of this horror.

Posted by: Ripley at June 05, 2016 09:58 AM (1BQGO)

64
If only all covers were this truthful:

https://goo.gl/RsXMOv

I also have the canine edition.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 10:00 AM (iQIUe)

65 Yes, and we all know that Matt Drudge would never post anything provocative or sensationalistic to get page hits.
Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 09:51 AM (AR9hC)

I'm gonna take a page from his book and put it up on my blog too.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 10:04 AM (7lVbc)

66 Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 10:00 AM (iQIUe)

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 10:07 AM (7lVbc)

67
I am watching a stream of the Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) parade. It's the celebration of the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. It's also the day that creepy American leftists cause trouble, get arrested, and then whine how they were mistreated.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 10:07 AM (iQIUe)

68 I started reading the original James Bond and WOW and was I surprised that he deals with the Soviets and not SPECTRE which makes sense, I found out later that Ian Flemming changed it for the movies because he knew they were communist sympathizers and his books would not be made into movies if he didn't.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at June 05, 2016 10:07 AM (c4yY7)

69 Posted by: Ripley at June 05, 2016 09:58 AM (1BQGO)
---
A beloved high school Russian history teacher of mine used to opine that American history was boring, and the American Revolution in particular was scarcely worth contemplation, being just a middle class uprising and not nearly as interesting as the Russian and French revolutions. Depends on your definition of "interesting", I guess.

Seeing as her family fled the pogroms and escaped to America by the skin of their teeth, you'd think she'd appreciate boring and orderly.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 10:08 AM (jR7Wy)

70 67
I am watching a stream of the Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) parade. It's the celebration of the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. It's also the day that creepy American leftists cause trouble, get arrested, and then whine how they were mistreated.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 10:07 AM (iQIUe)

That's the moment when the unholy union between the Left & islam, the twin engines of destruction, came to be.

Posted by: Josephistan at June 05, 2016 10:09 AM (7qAYi)

71 Imprecatory psalms are usually cries for justice, mostly calling for God to defend His name and His people. Whether they are meant to be instructive (how to pray) or merely indicative (this is how people facing great injustice often react) is not certain.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:11 AM (39g3+)

72 Methinks All Hail Eris that someone wished to have risen above being merely a teacher to being a Great Leader. Da Comrade Walter Mitty?

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2016 10:11 AM (GFzi9)

73 I recently found and purchased Arthur Conan Doyle's The White Company with the Wyeth illustrations inside, for under three bucks on Amazon. Its amazing what you can find in print used on there for dirt cheap. And then sometimes the books are insanely, illogically expensive.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:13 AM (39g3+)

74 69 Posted by: Ripley at June 05, 2016 09:58 AM (1BQGO)
---
A beloved high school Russian history teacher of mine used to opine that American history was boring, and the American Revolution in particular was scarcely worth contemplation, being just a middle class uprising and not nearly as interesting as the Russian and French revolutions. Depends on your definition of "interesting", I guess.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 10:08 AM (jR7Wy)

The Revolutionary War in the South & West was plenty "interesting" if interesting means civil war, massacres & reprisals between the Loyalist & Revolutionary Americans.

Posted by: Josephistan at June 05, 2016 10:13 AM (7qAYi)

75 50 ... OM, thanks for the comment about the chess book. Just what I was hoping for: something to dip into. As I learn more about chess (I think I mentioned a glacial pace yesterday) I am interested in the history and oddities as well as how to play it.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 10:14 AM (V+03K)

76
I don't know how the French can ever reference this horrible time with anything but shame. The motto of the revolution Liberty, Equality, Fraternization is still their national motto and Bastille Day ids a national celebration. You would think they would be purging their culture of this horror.
Posted by: Ripley at June 05, 2016 09:58 AM (1BQGO)

===========
Ugh. Dont count on it.

This is a very good doc on Robespierre. It also has commentary from a number of historians who scare the shit out of me. They are lefty academics, of course, and have no problem justifying the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suZdYkZ_feM

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 10:15 AM (iQIUe)

77 Homage to William Shakespeare

Now that Yale is trying to ban Shakespeare, I thought I'd do my part to keep his spirit alive by providing short summaries of several of his greatest and most famous works.

JULIUS CAESAR: Everybody dies.

ROMEO AND JULIET: Everybody dies.

MACBETH: Everybody dies.

OTHELLO: Everybody dies.

HAMLET: Everybody dies.

TITUS ANDRONICUS: Everybody dies, some get eaten, some dismembered.

THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA: Lucretia gets raped.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 10:15 AM (Nwg0u)

78 I'll add my praise for Hallow Mass. Absolutely entertaining. SJW academics as snack food for Lovecraftian monsters--- what's not to love?

Posted by: That SOB Van Owen at June 05, 2016 10:17 AM (g0Zg7)

79 A Midsummer's Night Dream - everyone gets high and has a good time. James Cagney gets turned into a donkey.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2016 10:17 AM (GFzi9)

80 They are lefty academics, of course, and have no problem justifying the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people.

As long as they survive and end up in charge; perfectly acceptable 'sacrifice' for a 'good cause'

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:18 AM (39g3+)

81
If you are looking for value from political books like the new Clinton revelations
--------------------

Well, it's finally someone with a name, speaking on the record, rather than Ed Klein fantasy porn.

What I'm curious about is whether there are new revelations. I read the excerpt and it only contains the well-known ones about the broken vase and Bill's shiner.

Trump's hay-making should be fun, too. "Crooked Hillary has a mean right hook. Maybe that's why Bill looks like he's about to fall over all the time. Sad!"

Posted by: iforgot at June 05, 2016 10:18 AM (5o5ek)

82 72 Methinks All Hail Eris that someone wished to have risen above being merely a teacher to being a Great Leader. Da Comrade Walter Mitty?
Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2016 10:11 AM (GFzi9)
---
Nah, she really was a great teacher and a big-hearted lady (tiny though she was). Just very much a product of academe. Cried when I said I was joining the Navy. "But you have such promise, dear!"

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 10:18 AM (jR7Wy)

83 Read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. He was Roman emperor from 160 to 180 AD who while on military campaigns wrote a book of philosophical musings never intended for publication. It's mostly about having self-control and thoughts about death (most of his children didn't live to adulthood). At times a bit mundane but has a cumulative power making it enjoyable.

Read the play Edward III, which has several scenes attributed to Shakespeare. Edward was King of England for about 50 years, succeeded by Richard II. Here we see him take an interest in the Countess of Salisbury and launch a war in France. It's passable, and the scenes by Will are good, overall kind of meh.

If MP4 is spending his Sunday working on a sequel that's great!

Posted by: waelse1 at June 05, 2016 10:20 AM (Y7h5o)

84
Yes, and we all know that Matt Drudge would never post anything provocative or sensationalistic to get page hits.
Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 09:51 AM (AR9hC)
------------------

I'm trying to think of something madly witty with "The Blue Dress" as a sock.

Posted by: iforgot at June 05, 2016 10:21 AM (5o5ek)

85 I really want to read about Charles George Gordon and I always liked the movie Khartoum he seems to have lived a very interesting life.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at June 05, 2016 10:21 AM (c4yY7)

86 OregonMuse,

I had to stop reading politics, economics, history, etc., because of our current geo-political-economic world scape which depresses.

So a retreat to Science Fiction and Fantasy was in order.

There are three standouts so far:

"Wool" by Hugh Howey was written in serialized form. Chapters are short, replete with action or meaningful dialog and so the work is hard to put down. The story is of a post-apocalyptic, far future where people are living underground in stratified silos.

"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons, reminiscent of "The Canterbery Tales," is the story of six travelers, the tales of five. They knowingly journey to death and pain, some with hope, all with resignation.

"The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch is a work of fantasy with steam-punk elements. Lynch describes an ancient world for the thief king protagonist and his terrifying enemies. Lynch uses foreshadowing and narrative to create expectations which he then, wonderfully violates giving the story a nice pace, making it very hard to put down.

Posted by: The Phillipics at June 05, 2016 10:21 AM (dDUDR)

87 Homage to William Shakespeare

Now that Yale is trying to ban Shakespeare, I thought I'd do my part to keep his spirit alive by providing short summaries of several of his greatest and most famous works.

JULIUS CAESAR: Everybody dies.

ROMEO AND JULIET: Everybody dies.

MACBETH: Everybody dies.

OTHELLO: Everybody dies.

HAMLET: Everybody dies.

TITUS ANDRONICUS: Everybody dies, some get eaten, some dismembered.

THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA: Lucretia gets raped.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 10:15 AM (Nwg0u)

Hmmmmmm...

*takes notes*

Posted by: Edward Lionheart at June 05, 2016 10:21 AM (0cMkb)

88 I think the Secret Service book may be more important than people realize. For a lot of voters, their eyes glaze over about the timeline of Benghazi or the details of the Whitewater development back in Arkansas.

But "Hillary is mean to her bodyguards" is deadly. Most people can't really bring themselves to care about the minutiae of rich people's rich-people corrupt deals. But everyone can relate to what it's like to have a horrible boss.

In the soap opera of American politics, Hillary is casting herself as Joan Collins on Dynasty -- only an old, drunk, ugly-looking Joan Collins.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2016 10:22 AM (2lr3z)

89 ~~A Midsummer's Night Dream~~ naturalfake's College Years - everyone gets high and

has a good time. ~~James Cagney~~ naturalfake gets turned into a

donkey.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 05, 2016 10:23 AM (0cMkb)

90 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 10:15 AM (Nwg0u)

Lucrecia is raped AND dies.

Posted by: waelse1 at June 05, 2016 10:23 AM (Y7h5o)

91 You didn't tell me Hallow Mass was written by the man who wrote for Pinky and the Brain. Now I'm intrigued.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 10:24 AM (jR7Wy)

92 It's also the day that creepy American leftists cause trouble, get arrested, and then whine how they were mistreated.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 10:07 AM (iQIUe)

Elsewhere that is known as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc....

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 05, 2016 10:26 AM (VsZJP)

93 21 Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at June 05, 2016 09:1
-5 AM (mvenn)
----------------------------------------------------

A beautiful thing Muldoon. Thanks for the post.

Posted by: MTF, Amity and Enmity at June 05, 2016 10:28 AM (/m8T6)

94 By the way, if anyone has joined or is thinking of joint mewe.com as an alternative to FB, my group shows up now in browse groups.
It's under Books and Books Clubs and it's called Book Horde & Friends

It's just a place to hang out and stay in touch with other rons, ettes and people from my home blog crayfisher

Basically a watering hole

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 10:29 AM (7lVbc)

95 Is OM now going as "Pimp Daddy?"

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 10:29 AM (f6oDH)

96 Reading the Iliad, Achilles comes across a lot less petulant and whiny in the actual text than he is described in summary.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:30 AM (39g3+)

97 32
My dad buzzed the Vatican one day before D-Day! Unbelievable!

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at June 05, 2016 09:15 AM (mvenn)

LOL! The first mr. creeper lined his C-46 up and shot an approach to an aircraft carrier in Naples.

Posted by: creeper at June 05, 2016 10:30 AM (HxZWl)

98 Amazon hawked a book titled "Amy Lynn" on my page. Mixed bag. Interesting for the first half. Dragged badly the second.

Posted by: creeper at June 05, 2016 10:31 AM (HxZWl)

99 I somewhat envy those of you loading up on books at second-hand bookstores. I've been feeling overwhelmed by my possessions, including books, and am really trying to limit my book purchases this year. I went to the book warehouse this past week with my sister to celebrate her birthday and only bought one book for myself. Not counting kindle books, so far this year I've only bought seven books, two of which were for my book club. On the other hand, I've only read 17 of my TBR books, so I'm not making a lot of progress in clearing out the books. Another purge may be in order.

Posted by: biancaneve at June 05, 2016 10:31 AM (xa+7G)

100 Regarding Ian Fleming, the version I heard of why he made SPECTRE the main villains rather than the Russians is simply that he expected the whole Cold War to blow over in a few years and didn't want his books to be dated.

And if you think about it, it's not that weird. The Cold War is the weird outcome. Suppose after Stalin died, Kruschev could have dialed it back much more than he did.

Especially if Fidel Castro slips in the shower before winning the Cuban revolution, so the US doesn't see the Russians exporting communism fifty miles from Florida. No Bay of Pigs, no Cuban Missile Crisis, no Kennedy sending troops to Vietnam . . . maybe not even a Berlin Wall. In that timeline, spy vs. spy against the Soviets might indeed have seemed old-fashioned.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2016 10:31 AM (2lr3z)

101 I recall a number of years ago that the CIA station chief of, I think, Athens, Greece, was killed because some lefty rag published his full identity and location. Does anybody else remember that? I wonder if this book talks about that case. And there were no consequences to the perps who did this. We must be the only country in the world where something like this could happen.

That would be Richard Welch, killed in 1975, after arriving home from and event with his family. November 17 gunned him down in front of his wife and children.

Just before I arrived in Athens, Captain William Nordeen, defense attache to the Embassy, was killed when a bomb in his car was remotely activated.

Diplomats and military associated with Hellinkon air Base were constantly under threat in Athens, and the State Department would not draw down dependents, because they didn't want to upset the Greek Government. ( At that time, this was the Pasok government-socialist. Neo Democratia was the conservative party, led by Konstantine Mitsotakis (who pinched me on the ass at a function a couple of times. Yeah, I've had my 15 minutes of fame) who came into power after people had had enough of the terror.)

State did little at the time to aid and protect those serving in Embassies, and they have done less and less over the years, until the horror in Benghazi. It's only going to get worse.

Posted by: Moki at June 05, 2016 10:32 AM (ezHMO)

102 Daughter Paige and I are visiting Mom in Vancouver WA a couple days after Dad's passing. Mom is exhausted and has Dad's memorial servoce set for 6/20. By then she may be back to her old self. Working on his Eulogy, which I'll put my heart and soul into.

Discovered that not only did Dad write a pretty decent novel that I have promised to have published, but he also wrote 6 short stories.

Got my work cut out for me.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 10:32 AM (EWW4y)

103 Not much time for reading lately between-

lots o'work (Yay! Money!....and...uh...errr....professional satisfaction)

and final editing and kindlization of upcoming novel.

Should be getting the cover today.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 05, 2016 10:33 AM (0cMkb)

104 Should be getting the cover today.

Yay!

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:35 AM (39g3+)

105 Man, walls of text.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 10:35 AM (f6oDH)

106 98 Amazon hawked a book titled "Amy Lynn" on my page. Mixed bag. Interesting for the first half. Dragged badly the second.
Posted by: creeper at June 05, 2016 10:31 AM (HxZWl)

The author was a regular here who got Pixy banned (his ip got on the banned list but not his fault)
I think he still a lurks.

I like Amy Lynn - you didn't like the Army parts?

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 10:35 AM (7lVbc)

107 Like several other Morons, I've been doing more writing than reading this week. With any luck that'll be done by next Book Thread.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2016 10:36 AM (2lr3z)

108 Discovered that not only did Dad write a pretty decent novel that I have promised to have published, but he also wrote 6 short stories.

Got my work cut out for me.
Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 10:32 AM (EWW4y)

Well how about that! That'l be a great tribute to your Dad/

Posted by: Josephistan at June 05, 2016 10:36 AM (7qAYi)

109 Posted by: naturalfake at June 05, 2016 10:33 AM (0cMkb)

Congrats!

Reminds me, cool breeze has a great idea for the goodreads group - a new releases section. I better go set that up.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 10:36 AM (7lVbc)

110 The Revolutionary War in the South & West was plenty "interesting" if interesting means civil war, massacres & reprisals between the Loyalist & Revolutionary Americans.

Posted by: Josephistan at June 05, 2016 10:13 AM (7qAYi)

My favorite historical novel is "Celia Garth" by Gwen Bristow. It's set in Revolutionary War Charleston and includes these "features."

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 05, 2016 10:37 AM (VsZJP)

111 95 Is OM now going as "Pimp Daddy?"

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 10:29 AM (f6oDH)

I thought about changing my nic to "PimpDaddyOM", but then I'd have to get one of those big floppy hats and a bunch of 70s "Saturday night disco" type clothing, so forget it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 10:37 AM (AR9hC)

112 >>Can't wait to see the media's recommendation of this book!

Hey, we're still waiting for this thingy called "Clinton Cash" or something to make it to the east coast - think it was mentioned on Faux News, so it may just be some pj-clad blogger's screed?!?

Maybe we'll have time to skim this phony-baloney book by a disgruntled SS agent it after the election....

Posted by: The Media at June 05, 2016 10:38 AM (NOIQH)

113 I'd have to get one of those big floppy hats and a bunch of 70s "Saturday night disco" type clothing, so forget it.

Its not easy to find those platform shoes with the goldfish in the soles.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:39 AM (39g3+)

114 Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 10:32 AM (EWW4y)

Sharkman, what a wonderful way to remember your dad.

Are you on the goodreads group? There's a lot of writers there who may be able to answer questions about the process.

((Hugs)) to you and Sharkmom

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 10:39 AM (7lVbc)

115 This is how I envision PimpDaddyOM:

http://tinyurl.com/h5cap7n

"You'd better pay my 'ettes! *slap*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 10:41 AM (jR7Wy)

116 Sharkman and naturalfake: please keep me in the loop on the publishing status of your upcoming novels, and I'll be sure to ~~pimp~~ announce them when they become available.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 10:41 AM (AR9hC)

117 Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier,

-
I thought that was a great book but it is controversial. Some say it's phony because of errors regarding details and I question his depiction of a daylight raid on Berlin before there were any daylight raids on Berlin. Still, it seems very real and I suppose he had better things to do than taking copious notes. A bigger problem for me was the imperfect translation. It took me a long time to figure out that a grenade thrower is a mortar, for example.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 10:41 AM (Nwg0u)

118 Its not easy to find those platform shoes with the goldfish in the soles.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:39 AM (39g3+)

I know, right? It's hard out here for a pimp.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 10:42 AM (AR9hC)

119 Before I leave for work, one last little bit.

Camp NaNoWriMo is scheduled for July
https://campnanowrimo.org/

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2016 10:43 AM (GFzi9)

120
Raymond Chandler's 10 Rules of Writing

https://goo.gl/BLxArD

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 10:44 AM (iQIUe)

121 >>"Wool" by Hugh Howey was written in serialized form. Chapters are
short, replete with action or meaningful dialog and so the work is hard
to put down. The story is of a post-apocalyptic, far future where
people are living underground in stratified silos.

I really enjoyed the 1st two in the trilogy, but got bogged down in the 3rd - kept having to look up references to people and events in the 1st two. I need to pick it up again to see how it ends!

Posted by: Lizzy at June 05, 2016 10:44 AM (NOIQH)

122 It's also the day that creepy American leftists cause trouble, get arrested, and then whine how they were mistreated

It left me flat.

Posted by: Rachel Corrie at June 05, 2016 10:45 AM (ckvus)

123 @votermom

I like the mewe.com idea a lot. Have been thinking about something line that for this bunch for a while, particularly useful when civilization finally collapses in a few years and we all have to get our families out and to a safe place.

I used to think I was being paranoid about such things but not any more.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 10:46 AM (EWW4y)

124 I can no longer read books about politics unless they are historical by a century of more. I don't waste time with Dem/Progtard stuff and even when I agree with the author (Mark Levin, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, etc.) I get so pissed off by their accuracy I can't finish them. If I want to be depressed by politics, the desire for power, and evil motives, I'll read Hamlet. "Everybody dies except Horatio and Fortinbras and they are sad."

I seldom read the political threads on Ace and comment even more rarely. I get the information I need and go do something else. That's why the weekend threads: garden, food, book, chess, sometimes guns, pets, etc., are such pleasures.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 10:46 AM (V+03K)

125 "I thought about changing my nic to "PimpDaddyOM",

Keep "Oregon Muse," It is classic and known.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 10:46 AM (f6oDH)

126 * ponders picture before reading the post *

Gotta wonder what those glasses of (looks like) milk are for!

._!_.

G'mornin', booklets!

Teacher, I forgot to write my book report this week. Actually, I didn't even finish the book. Can I clean the erasers or something to make up for it?

Posted by: mindful webworker - easily distracted at June 05, 2016 10:47 AM (Gv8zm)

127 115 This is how I envision PimpDaddyOM:

http://tinyurl.com/h5cap7n

"You'd better pay my 'ettes! *slap*
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 10:41 AM (jR7Wy)

And doing Bender's pimp walk.

youtube.com/watch?v=jtMv6V7ZvmE

Posted by: Insomniac at June 05, 2016 10:47 AM (0mRoj)

128 That's why the weekend threads: garden, food, book, chess, sometimes guns, pets, etc., are such pleasures.

And no baseball threads. One per season is ridiculous.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:47 AM (39g3+)

129 That should have been a damn "."

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 10:48 AM (f6oDH)

130 I'm enjoying the Book Thread this morning with a big mug of coffee and the remains of last night's blueberry cobbler (which I saved precisely for this purpose!)

I got a new pair of prescription reading glasses this week. My vision has been deteriorating over the past 10 years due to the increasing inflexibility of my lenses, making it more and more difficult to focus on variable distances.

The best thing I did was get a dedicated pair of bifocal computer glasses. Worth every penny. These, paired with bifocal distance glasses, have mostly been doing the trick, but I was still having too much eyestrain reading books and my Kindle. My focus would get "stuck" after only a short time reading and would sometimes take over an hour to return to normal.

My eye doctor was trying to fiddle around with my other prescriptions to figure out a way to allow me focus on a book page (all solutions were very expensive!) when I suggested why not a third pair of plain old reading glasses? My right and left eyes are very different so I can't pick up a pair off the shelf at the drug store.

I am so happy with them! Before, it had gotten to the point that I could only comfortably read on my computer's Kindle app. Now, I can finally curl up with a real book again. Well worth having to juggle three pairs of glasses.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at June 05, 2016 10:49 AM (NqQAS)

131 102 ... Sharkman, You can use your post here about your dad as the basis for any eulogy. It was touching and wonderful.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 10:52 AM (V+03K)

132 "The Days of the French Revolution"

-
I loved that book. It is amazing how if things had gone just a little bit different, a lot of horror could have been avoided, almost as if this were destined to happen. And, of course, the radicals get eaten by the more radicals.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 10:53 AM (Nwg0u)

133 Elinor, I have similar issues but I may try drug-store cheaters first before I pay for another pair of specs. I'm a bit cross-eyed, but that could be due to a cataract which refuses to get bad enough for surgery. But I figure if I'm holding a book close enough, the crossed eye won't matter.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 05, 2016 10:56 AM (VsZJP)

134 Finished reading "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. This is required summer reading for my daughter, and I was pleasantly surprised by its readability. (Last time around was "A Separate Peace". Yawn.) "The Glass Castle" is an account of the author's childhood with an alcoholic father, bohemian mother, and three siblings. It made me grateful for a stable childhood. We might have been eating beans and rice, but at least I never had to root through the school's garbage cans for something to eat. And yet the author makes it seem like it was an adventure instead of hardship.

Now reading Dyan Cannon's memoir "Dear Cary". It was $1 for the Kindle version, and I've always liked Cary Grant. I think I see why he was divorced four times.

On deck, "Iron Shards" by Jessi Kallison. Mr. RFH has read this and pronounced it good. We've been looking for young adult fiction besides Rick Riordan. Daughter is currently reading "The Trials of Apollo".

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at June 05, 2016 10:56 AM (G8DQR)

135 Sharkman, if you need any help/advice with publishing your Dad's work, let me know. I have many secret ninja publishing tricks, and I am sure the other author Morons would be happy to kibitz as well :-)

Working on One Blood, book 3 of the Argonauts of Space. Reading "Everyday Life in Traditional Japan", which is amazingly free of contemporary or SJW judgement. The author merely states what happened or what people of that time and culture would have thought about it, and leaves it at that. Refreshing! Published in the '70s.

Also finished a *partly* dreadful SF book, The Last Exodus by Paul Tassi. The writing was good enough, but dear sweet suffering Ghu, the plot. Aliens after our sweet, sweet Earth water yet AGAIN! I don't know how these aliens are smart enough to invent wormhole-creating space drives and yet the synthesis of H20 completely mystifies them. Or how they never notice they are ploughing through Vast Tracts of ice asteroids to *get* to planet Earth. The author clearly has watched too much anime and has internalized the, ah, sketchy plot requirements on display there.

Fortunately, as a palate cleanser I had Through Fire, the latest Sarah Hoyt book which is MUCH better written and has lots of chases and escapes and the dangers of violent revolutions breaking out during what is supposed to be a nice relaxing vacation. :-D Also the true test of love being when the party of the second part keeps doing infuriating things and you *don't* kill them.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at June 05, 2016 10:57 AM (GG9V6)

136 Ah my favorite book thread. Still doing unremarkable rereads. And wow abour Amy Lynn author. I wondered why hew was missing from here, I have both of his books.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 05, 2016 10:58 AM (mpXpK)

137 Reading various Robt Crais novels. Liking Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at June 05, 2016 11:00 AM (vMxGj)

138 I thought I needed reading glasses because I have to hold books at a greater distance than I used to and sometimes have a hard time seeing the words well.

I tried out their glasses and it turned out even the weakest ones were no good, apparently my eyes are fine, just kind of weak. Need more light.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:00 AM (39g3+)

139 132 And, of course, the radicals get eaten by the more radicals.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 10:53 AM (Nwg0u)
---------------------------------------------------------

I hate that part.

Posted by: Hillary Caligula at June 05, 2016 11:02 AM (/m8T6)

140 Will do, [PimpDaddy] OregonMuse. I know nothing about publishing and realize I have a lot to do with Dad's novel. 447 page Wall o' Words with no chapter breaks or headings and as his brain deteriorated over the last 5 years with Alz/Dementia, the typos and grammar mistakes accumulated.

The novel is a very good, very technical story about a Polish orphan kid in Western Massachusetts who makes good as a bomber pilot in WW2 and later in the CIA after the war. But my Dad's writing style is very dry and matter of fact so there isn't as much drama or suspense as you would hope for. So I need to find a way to punch it up a little, I think, and make it more readable as well.

It is sort of semi-autobiographical as well (I recognize the farm my Dad grew up on and the adoptive parents of the protagonist are actually my Great Grandparents). Which also makes the sex scenes in the book a little hard to read since I know Dad is really writing about my Mom!!!! Heh.

Thank you, @votermom. You are a good egg. Not in goodreads group yet but would love to join.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 11:02 AM (EWW4y)

141 Ha -

'Parfait is for Fags' was me, too!

Posted by: garrett at June 05, 2016 11:04 AM (6kxiP)

142 Anyone ever use an app called "Bookscouter"?
I just got it, you scan the barcode and it tells you if there are any buyers for your book, and what it is worth.
A lot of times the price is $0, which may be fair.
Just curious.

Posted by: navybrat at June 05, 2016 11:05 AM (w7KSn)

143 Interesting Wiki entry for the author of The Forgotten Soldier, Guy Sajer, the pseudonym of Guy Mouminoux.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Sajer

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:05 AM (Nwg0u)

144 >>'Parfait is for Fags' was me, too!

Everybody likes parfait.

Posted by: JackStraw at June 05, 2016 11:06 AM (/tuJf)

145 Tonestaple, for couple of years, I used a pair of cilp-on magnifiers over my prescription glasses. They're only about twelve bucks or less at Amazon and work really well for the small investment.

But they can start to get a bit heavy on the bridge of your nose, and definitely look a little odd in public when you are trying to read a book or magazine in a waiting room. Also, the plastic lenses are not of the best quality.

My brother is getting cataract surgery later this summer, and has elected to have his lenses replaced with artificial lenses (one at a time, to make sure it works).

His vision is not as bad as mine, but I'll be interested in finding out how it works. They tell him that after the surgery, he may only have to wear glasses for reading.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at June 05, 2016 11:07 AM (NqQAS)

146 This week I Read : 'The Crimson Campaign', 'Promise of Blood', and (reading) 'The Autumn Republic'.

All three books of The Powder Mage Trilogy, by Brian McClellan.

Good stuff.

Posted by: garrett at June 05, 2016 11:07 AM (6kxiP)

147 Try a book called CTRL ALT REVOLT, by Nick Cole.

Posted by: eman at June 05, 2016 11:07 AM (MQEz6)

148 "When George Bush's first response to 9/11 was to create the Department
of Homeland Security and the TSA, how many said "Great, here comes
another bloated, incompetent federal agency to boss us around"? And now,
it's a permanent fixture on the American landscape. We're never going
to be able to get rid of it. Thanks, George!"

*********

A quibble: Let me refresh your memory. The Democrats who controlled Congress wanted to create a unionized, bloated government bureaucracy DHS, all the time knowing that Jamie Gorelick's wall of separation between the CIA and FBI was responsible for the FBI not knowing about the terrorists taking flying lessons and not bothering with the landing part. And they had huge popular support. It was going to get created anyway. The Bush Administration managed to at least have the DHS and TSA be nonunion (but the D's nixed that when Obama took office).

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at June 05, 2016 11:09 AM (5f5bM)

149 Bookscouter looks interesting, I'll have to look more closely into it. I have some textbooks and computer I wouldn't mind unloading, but some are really quite old so probably no buyers out there

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:09 AM (39g3+)

150 >>Everybody likes parfait.

I saw the Dark Knight got a win this past week.

Is he back?

Posted by: garrett at June 05, 2016 11:10 AM (6kxiP)

151 James Patterson on CBS Morning show...interesting.
He writes w/a pencil (!) but they mentioned "team of writers" and showed his many fill cabinets full of book outlines that I assume he then hands off to others? More like any book idea guy than a writer?

Posted by: Lizzy at June 05, 2016 11:10 AM (NOIQH)

152 When George Bush's first response to 9/11 was to create the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA, how many said...

Oh yeah that. Around here? Pretty much everyone thought it was a bad idea, and I did. I liked and still do like President Bush the younger, and think he gets a raw deal, but the TSA and Homeland Security were the absolute wrong answers to the problems they were meant to address.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:11 AM (39g3+)

153 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 10:30 AM (39g3+)

I disagree, although it may just have been the translation used. I hadn't realized from the summaries in school that Achilles had essentially betrayed the Greeks over his feeling of being offended.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 05, 2016 11:12 AM (GDulk)

154 >>I saw the Dark Knight got a win this past week.

>>Is he back?

Both he and Warthen, the pitching coach, claim it was mechanical and they think he has it worked out now. We should know more in a couple hours.

He's pitching agains the fish and Jose Fernandez.

Posted by: JackStraw at June 05, 2016 11:12 AM (/tuJf)

155 Thanks for another inciteful [sic] book post, pimp daddy O'Muse.

...let his prayer be counted as sin! May his days be few; may another take his office!
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow! May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!

That's about my favorite imprecation.

Like more modern Jewish curses of the nature of, may he have a mansion of a hundred rooms and be found dead in every one. That one cracks me up.

Like how some AoSHQ'er will rip into some politician or lefty celebrity with verbal vigor, and others will admiringly reply, "that's pure poetry."

A good imprecation is warming to the heart, as well as inspiring linguistic achievement. Even if it's just the "f that guy in particular" cat gif. Spirit-lifting.

And as to what Christians are taught about loving enemies and all that, records indicate that Mr Jesus himself had a few choice zingers. Hard to top his "whited sepulchers." C'mon, Lord, don't hold back; tell us how you really feel!

Posted by: mindful webworker - easily distracted at June 05, 2016 11:12 AM (Gv8zm)

156 even when I agree with the author (Mark Levin, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, etc.) I get so pissed off by their accuracy I can't finish them.

-
They, and we, are modern day Cassandras doomed to tell the truth and to not be believed.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:13 AM (Nwg0u)

157 What's a "parfait"

I know Dairy Queen has them but I've never had one.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 11:14 AM (f6oDH)

158 157 What's a "parfait"

I know Dairy Queen has them but I've never had one.
Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 11:14 AM (f6oDH)

It's got layers!

Posted by: Donkey at June 05, 2016 11:15 AM (0mRoj)

159 I hadn't realized from the summaries in school that Achilles had essentially betrayed the Greeks over his feeling of being offended.

He got jobbed over pretty badly by Agamemnon, and I don't blame him for being upset. I personally thought his reaction and motivation was pretty reasonable.

But then, translations vary and that might contribute to it.

Both he and Warthen, the pitching coach, claim it was mechanical and they think he has it worked out now. We should know more in a couple hours.

John Smolz said the same thing and I'm coming to recognize him as the smartest voice in baseball right now, at least about pitching.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:15 AM (39g3+)

160 He writes w/a pencil (!) but they mentioned "team of writers" and showed his many fill cabinets full of book outlines that I assume he then hands off to others? More like any book idea guy than a writer?

I suspect that's SOP for a lot of these big names who crank out a ridiculous amount of material.

More like word combines than lonely authors.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at June 05, 2016 11:16 AM (+wjl1)

161 That's exactly what I am doing, JTB.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 11:16 AM (EWW4y)

162 I suspect that's SOP for a lot of these big names who crank out a ridiculous amount of material.

Yeah there are more than a few people doing that. I think Piers Anthony does that with his Xanth books. Then there are the ones that lend their name to book franchises and other people write them, like the Rainbow Six books.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:18 AM (39g3+)

163 Crisis of Character looks to make a splash.

-
It's been discredited. Hillary has no character.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:18 AM (Nwg0u)

164 79 A Midsummer's Night Dream - everyone gets high and has a good time. James Cagney gets turned into a donkey.
Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2016 10:17 AM (GFzi9)

Rigg, Mirren and Densch nude.

Posted by: Fox2! at June 05, 2016 11:20 AM (brIR5)

165 "It's got layers!"

Clear cup. Chocolate, vanilla, chocolate. Nuts.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 11:21 AM (f6oDH)

166 There is a movie simular but searching can't find a title. Ring any bells?

-
A couple of movies come to mind. There was a movie back in the 50s, Three Came Home and Spielberg's The Empire of the Sun.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:21 AM (Nwg0u)

167 In the soap opera of American politics, Hillary is
casting herself as Joan Collins on Dynasty -- only an old, drunk,
ugly-looking Joan Collins.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2016 10:22 AM (2lr3z)

Er . . . Joan Crawford is how I see it.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 05, 2016 11:22 AM (ry34m)

168 I do hate the ever changing nics, both here and other places.
So many good suggestions, love to see what everyone else is reading. It's often yeah I'd read that, or not my usual but looks interesting.
Almost finished this book (comment 3), as with other detainees the longer the worse it gets, extreme food deficiency is criminal as its generally avoidable if it's in the Philippines during WWII or George during the Civil War. Also interesting is how the prisoners prey on eachother in what may start as a survival mode but can be taken to extreme perversion.

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2016 11:22 AM (3wHFl)

169 Posted by: navybrat at June 05, 2016 11:05 AM (w7KSn)

I'll have to try it. Been wanting to sell some stuff on the shelves

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:23 AM (7lVbc)

170 Seamus Muldoon #21: Newsreel footage from that day (no plane spotted, alas):
http://tinyurl.com/hofcg87

Pardon a techinickle objection.

For some reason, on my Opera browser, a TinyURL link can take nearly a minute to load, meanwhile freezing up the browser. (Hates TinyURLs we does, yes.)

So, I sent the browser after Seamus's URL, and to kill the wait time went back to get a coffee refill. Suddenly there's newsreel voice yelling from the computer (fortunately did not awaken Milady, nearby). Ran to hit pause on the video. (Yeah, I should keep the mute on all morning, just in case, but forget to.)

Folks, YouTube has its own short URLs - click the "Share" button below the video - and they show up as "youtu.be" so ~~you~~ I know ~~you're~~ I'm going to the auto-play site.

That's my nannying of the day, worth twice what you paid for it. 2*0¢=unasked-for advice.

(Seamus knows all this - he uses TinyURL to mask YouTubes just to spite me.)

Posted by: mindful webworker - technically squeaking at June 05, 2016 11:25 AM (Gv8zm)

171 Barzini is a pimp.

Posted by: JoeF. at June 05, 2016 11:26 AM (42Y7z)

172 They are busting terrorists in this country all the time. However, the wonderful unbiased MSM doesnt give it the coverage it deserves. And if FB suspending the guy for complaining about terrorism is any indication, it's going to get a lot worse.

I follow this guy and his website for all my up to date home terrorism news:

https://twitter.com/SeamusHughes

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 11:27 AM (iQIUe)

173 You are indeed a pimp, Mr. Muse. If it weren't for your pimpy threads I wouldn't have known of "The American Boy's Handy Book."

A neighbor has a grandson (10) who is preparing for the zombie apocalypse and is into survival techniques. Alas, he has no strong male role models and no one capable of getting him to scout meetings. I tracked down the book to give him something to occupy his summer and gain useful information at the same time.

Posted by: RushBabe at June 05, 2016 11:28 AM (OJKE+)

174 Vic, oldsailorspoet is on the goodreads group as Jack July. He lurks here.

@Sharkman when you get a chance join my group on mewe just to "meet" other people from here. Polliwog is there now.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:29 AM (7lVbc)

175 I hadn't realized from the summaries in school that Achilles had essentially betrayed the Greeks over his feeling of being offended.

He got jobbed over pretty badly by Agamemnon, and I don't blame him for being upset.

-
Agamemnon has to surrender his sex slave, at Achilles' urging, to end the plague so Agamemnon takes Achilles' sex slave. They act more like Chicago street gangs than contemporary heroes.

Coincidentally, I watched the great Russian mob movie, Eastern Promises, last night. It has a somewhat similar theme.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:30 AM (Nwg0u)

176 I find myself reading slower these days compared to my youth. Probably due to what I'm reading, at least I hope so. With classic works like The Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost, and Montaigne, I hear the words, not just see them on a page, and that slows the process. Absorbing the words is a large part of the pleasure. The same for Lewis' academic essays.Even with 'casual' fiction I'm reading to enjoy the language whether it's the clever word play of the Liturgical Mystery series, the subtle humor of Wodehouse or the involved, detailed writing in the Patrick O'Brian books. Slower ace but greater enjoyment.

Mrs. JTB reads at Warp 10, especially fiction. I'm more like a heavy cart pulled by tired mules, but I get there eventually. Always liked a tag line from a forum I frequent: "I may be slow but I've got direction."

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 11:32 AM (V+03K)

177 Books found in John Wayne Gacy's home:

Tight Teenagers, The Rights of Gay People, Bike Boy, Pederasty, Sex Between Men and Boys, Twenty-One Abnormal Sex Cases, The American Bi-Centennial Gay Guide, Heads & Tails and The Great Swallow

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Posted by: CrustyB at June 05, 2016 11:33 AM (Hnglq)

178 Achilles vs Agamemnon - there was also a generational conflict there, I think, aside from tribal.
Achilles was a young upstart from a little know an island, Agammemnon and Menelaus were really old guard (House of Atreides)

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:33 AM (7lVbc)

179 I really liked the first season of Fargo. The second, not so much. For me, what made the first season was the character Molly, who reminded me a lot of Frances McDermott's pregnant police chief character in the 'Fargo' movie.
==============
Molly and her little family were a nice offset to all the evil. Grandpa and the step daughter hitting it off and the dad doing what needed to be done to protect his family were also great plots.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 11:33 AM (iQIUe)

180 Keep "Oregon Muse," It is classic and known.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 05, 2016 10:46 AM (f6oDH)

Yup.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 11:34 AM (AR9hC)

181 Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 10:35 AM (7lVbc)

I didn't mind the army parts. It just seemed like the author was trying to find the end but wasn't sure what that end was or quite how to get there. It's a fast-paced book. Not sure why it seemed to drag.

Posted by: creeper at June 05, 2016 11:34 AM (HxZWl)

182 I see a lot of " who the ef does this young punk think he is" attitude from Agamemnon towards Achilles.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:36 AM (7lVbc)

183 Agamemnon probably viewed Achilles as a serious threat to his power; the guy was essentially indefeatable and was rolling from victory to victory without rest. But Achilles didn't seem to care about power and ruling, and by the time the Trojan War is in full swing he seems really tired of being in the fight year after year.

The complaints about wearing armor for months at a time and sleeping on the ground in tents rang really true to me. I think he just wanted to go home and rest, and found someone he really loved, then had to give her up along with a bunch of his other loot.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:37 AM (39g3+)

184 Books found in John Wayne Gacy*'s home:

*Proud Democrat.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at June 05, 2016 11:38 AM (+wjl1)

185 Books found in John Wayne Gacy's home

Ugh. Can anything good come from Cook County?

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 11:40 AM (AR9hC)

186
Watching the actor who played the guy(Ser Meryn?) Aryn turned into a pin cushion. He comes across as so soft spoken and thoughtful and not a psychopath. Who knew? LOL

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 11:41 AM (iQIUe)

187 A couple of ministers I know recommended Crying for Justice: What the Psalms Teach Us About Mercy and Vengeance in an Age of Terrorism by John Day...

Along those lines, here's a great essay by Theodore Shoebat on the worthlessness of secularism in the face of the enemy: Islam. Too many gems to decide on the best pull quote!

http://bit.ly/secularVsIslam

Posted by: RushBabe at June 05, 2016 11:41 AM (OJKE+)

188 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:37 AM (39g3+)

Do I sense a new book cooking?

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:41 AM (7lVbc)

189 178 Achilles vs Agamemnon - there was also a generational conflict there, I think, aside from tribal.
Achilles was a young upstart from a little know an island, Agammemnon and Menelaus were really old guard (House of Atreides)
Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:33 AM (7lVbc)

See, this is the kind of classy, interleckshul discussion I like to see on the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 11:43 AM (AR9hC)

190 I read Broker Trader Lawyer Spy, by Eamon Javers, which explores the world of corporate espionage. Big surprise, it's nowhere as glamorous as it is when it's portrayed in media, but it's also far more common than you'd think. It's actually a regular business practice and has been for decades. And corporate clints aren't the only clients: it turns out the ruler of the UAE has a firm of ex-CIA agents on hire; no-one knows why. Although a lot of the book is recap of historical events more fully detailed elsewhere by others, it makes for a well-encapsulated overview. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that things are very closed-doors; more than a few firms have no advertised means of contact, or even advertise. If you don't have a good enough network to know that they exist, or how to reach them, you're not in their tier of clint anyways. Well worth the read in spite of the author's mild anti-corporate agenda (and in fairness, his basic tact in pushing it is not illegitmate.)

If you want a good preview, go listen to his interview on Spycast, the poscast of the International Spy Museum.

Posted by: Yuge at June 05, 2016 11:43 AM (5xhKf)

191 Do I sense a new book cooking?

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:41 AM (7lVbc)

Heh. I was thinking the same thing myself.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 11:44 AM (AR9hC)

192 This is a very good doc on Robespierre. It also has commentary from a number of historians who scare the shit out of me. They are lefty academics, of course, and have no problem justifying the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people.

-
In his book, The Outline of History, H.G. Wells excuses the excesses of the revolution by saying there really weren't that many, maybe 25,000. And he wrote that circa 1919, before the Holocaust and the Great Terror.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:44 AM (Nwg0u)

193 "I recall a number of years ago that the CIA station chief of, I think, Athens, Greece, was killed because some lefty rag published his full identity and location."

I know an acquaintance who had to leave Africa rather quickly in 77' due to Jimmy Carters administration releasing the names of operatives out of "good will." He found out that a death squad showed up about 3 hours after he split.

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at June 05, 2016 11:47 AM (DimDC)

194 In his book, The Outline of History, H.G. Wells excuses the excesses of the revolution by saying there really weren't that many, maybe 25,000.

And Wells had his own views that society should be ruled by a scientific elite, as well.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at June 05, 2016 11:47 AM (+wjl1)

195 Do I sense a new book cooking?

No, just fascination with pulling apart an ancient classic I've not read yet and seeing what made it so foundational for the western canon. Having grown up reading the Bible I understand why there are so many hosts of references, callbacks, and phrases from that great work, but its nice to open up the Greek literary sources as well.

What's interesting is that in the translation notes, they point out that the oral tradition was made easier by using stock phrases to describe people, like an emoji in language. "Hector of the Shining Helm" was useful in poetic flow, a rhyme that they could use to fit into a situation and create a phrase.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:47 AM (39g3+)

196 What edition of The Iliad are you reading? Sounds interesting. I love good footnotes.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:49 AM (7lVbc)

197 Homage to William Shakespeare

Happen to be re-reading The Winters Tale the last couple of days. Don't know why really, just picked it out at random from the bookshelf. Always been an odd duck, that one. For three acts, a tragedy concerning an insanely jealous husband. Then 16 years pass between acts and it becomes a pastoral romance with a happy ending. And a statue come to life. Late period Shakespeare got pretty out there sometimes.

(Actually, now I remember why I wanted to re-read it. I read somewhere an interesting theory that Hermione was really alive the whole 16 years, and Paulina was hiding her and taking care of her in secret. There's some pretty compelling hints of this in the text. But there's also some pretty compelling evidence against it.)

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at June 05, 2016 11:52 AM (WlGX+)

198 And Wells had his own views that society should be ruled by a scientific elite, as well.

-
And a phony made up religion.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:52 AM (Nwg0u)

199 Its a compilation of different translated sections in The Norton Book of Classical Literature. Its interesting seeing how different translators tackle Homer. They all seem to agree that he's easy to translate because the language is so direct and powerful.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:52 AM (39g3+)

200 See, this is the kind of classy, interleckshul discussion I like to see on the book thread.
Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 11:43 AM (AR9hC)

Don't blame me, he started it!

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:54 AM (7lVbc)

201 @169 I sold a lot of my books back to Amazon.

Enter ISBN on a page, they tell you what they will pay, repeat...

When done, you print off a prepaid UPS sticker, box the books, slap on the sticker, and send.

You get a credit in your Amazon account. I thought the process was simple and the prices fair.

Posted by: doug at June 05, 2016 11:54 AM (O516b)

202 Yeah there are more than a few people doing that. I
think Piers Anthony does that with his Xanth books. Then there are the
ones that lend their name to book franchises and other people write
them, like the Rainbow Six books.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 11:18 AM (39g3+)

Doc Savage IS Rainbow Six?

Posted by: Kindltot at June 05, 2016 11:55 AM (ry34m)

203 198 And Wells had his own views that society should be ruled by a scientific elite, as well.
-
And a phony made up religion.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:52 AM (Nwg0u)

===========
And he banged a lot of broads.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 11:56 AM (iQIUe)

204 And a phony made up religion.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 11:52 AM (Nwg0u)

What a ridiculous idea

Posted by: Cult of Climate Change at June 05, 2016 11:58 AM (7lVbc)

205 Twelfth Night:

A bunch of young people who love music, drinking and partying all night get revenge on the old prude who wants to spoil their fun.

Yep, it was the original Teen Movie.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at June 05, 2016 11:59 AM (WlGX+)

206 "In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall into
which seventy-one stars are carved-each representing an agent who has
died in the line of duty."

Right there is a hint to anyone in the know that the book is probably full of crap. Those names are of deceased intelligence _officers_, not of "agents".

In Agency parlance, "agents" are individuals who aren't intelligence officers, but who are nevertheless intelligence assets, persons who provide information not available by other means. Agents are identified, recruited, and run by CIA officers.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 05, 2016 11:59 AM (noWW6)

207 If you need a rage stroke, read several of the headlines on WZ this morning.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 12:01 PM (Nwg0u)

208 Off sock

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 12:02 PM (7lVbc)

209 Pulled a semi-dirty trick on Daughter Paige last week on her 9th birthday. She spent the last 6 months reading all 9 books of the Little House series and her reading level is very far over her present third grade existence.

I picked up Watership Down, which is 477 pages and of course is almost 8th grade reading material. Handed it to her and said: "This was my all-time favorite book when I was your age. Enjoy."

She flipped through it and said: "Weird. No pictures. Whatever."

She's on page 63 and loving it.

I read the book in 9th grade.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 12:03 PM (EWW4y)

210 I always preferred Jules Verne to HG Wells sci-fi. And Wells' nonfiction writing is just socialist "we know better than you" crap. He denigrates the individual in favor of the state, as long as he decides what the state does. I consider him part of the rot that infected the early 20th century and set the stage for so many of the ills that plague Western civilization now. To say I despise him, along with Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and others, is vast understatement.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 12:04 PM (V+03K)

211 Little House was my kid's favorite series in grade school too, Sharkman!
That was sneaky of you to give her Watership Down.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 12:06 PM (7lVbc)

212 Right there is a hint to anyone in the know that the book is probably full of crap. Those names are of deceased intelligence _officers_, not of "agents".

And the text I quoted is from the blurb, not the book itself. So I think your criticism is misplaced.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 12:06 PM (AR9hC)

213 It's got layers!

Posted by: Donkey at June 05, 2016 11:15 AM (0mRoj)

It's a henhouse?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2016 12:06 PM (GSdpU)

214 "I recall a number of years ago that the CIA station chief of, I think,
Athens, Greece, was killed because some lefty rag published his full
identity and location."

It's generally suspected that the original leak of the station chief's identity was via former CIA officer (not CIA "agent"!) Phil Agee, who turned rogue leftist gadfly and publicized a great deal of sensitive inside information.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 05, 2016 12:07 PM (noWW6)

215 And a phony made up religion.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

What a ridiculous idea

I know, right?

Posted by: L. Ron Hubbard at June 05, 2016 12:08 PM (39g3+)

216 And Wells had his own views that society should be ruled by a scientific elite, as well.

And this is the sort of thing CS Lewis had in mind when he wrote _That Hideous Strength_ and, of course, _The Abolition of Man_.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 12:08 PM (AR9hC)

217 I'll add my praise for Hallow Mass. Absolutely entertaining. SJW academics as snack food for Lovecraftian monsters--- what's not to love?

Posted by: That SOB Van Owen at June 05, 2016 10:17 AM (g0Zg7)

I entered the title at my library's web page and it came back with, "Did you mean "Halloween Hats"?

Posted by: RushBabe at June 05, 2016 12:09 PM (OJKE+)

218 I enjoyed HG Wells even if sometimes I disagreed with his outlook. Books like The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds were just interesting and imaginative, not political to me. In any case, his politics are so distant its easy for me to overlook. That said, Jules Verne was amazing.

Posted by: L. Ron Hubbard at June 05, 2016 12:10 PM (39g3+)

219 Posted by: L. Ron Hubbard at June 05, 2016 12:10 PM (39g3+)

Hey, thanks for dropping by the book thread, L. Ron. Bang any underage girls lately?

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 12:12 PM (AR9hC)

220 You can just call him L, seeing as he keeps writing books after he's dead, he's like a ghost that haunts the thread

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:14 PM (39g3+)

221 Want some fun? Go to Smashwords, click on detectives, mysteries, go to "The Man From PISS", and fun!. Its free

Posted by: jfalcon@yahoo.com at June 05, 2016 12:14 PM (sjBWi)

222 Does anybody else have go-to books for when they're sick? I tend toward colds/bronchitis, which means (for me) a ten-day siege, and over the years, I've gotten very specific, from Chaucer, through the reign of Elizabeth I, though not always in order. Katherine, by Anya Seton, always The Queens and the Hive. Last year I realized I was heading into a bout when I couldn't find my copy of Queens and actually ordered another, prime, which barely beat my germ. I read background of the period. (I'll take floor plans of medieval taverns for $800, Alex.) You think you have editing problems? Chaucer complains about the scribes he hires, who sometimes don't copy the parts they don't like.

Then I get better and forget it all, so each time it seems fresh.

This time I marked a page and reread it, healthy. It's very early advice on plotting, which Chaucer studied before writing his Troilus. Unclear to me whether it's recommended by Geoffrey de Vinsauf or written by him, but he discusses how "the innermost line of the heart measures the work in advance . . . the hand of the mind fashions the whole before that of the body . . . When a plan has arranged the subject in the secret place of the mind, poetry will come to clothe the matter with words."
(Marchette Chute, Geoffrey Chaucer of England)

Still valid, no?

Oh, and a title for Oregon? Surely it would be Book Bookie?

Posted by: Wenda (sic) at June 05, 2016 12:15 PM (pZEKq)

223 You can just call him L, seeing as he keeps writing books after he's dead, he's like a ghost that haunts the thread

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:14 PM (39g3+)

Whoever heard of someone with a single letter for a name. That's just ridiculous.

Posted by: W. at June 05, 2016 12:15 PM (AR9hC)

224 @94 - By the way, if anyone has joined or is thinking of joint mewe.com as an alternative to FB...

Never heard of it till today. But then, I've never been on FakeBook or ever wanted to. Is this a safe alternative and not as stormtrooperish as FB?

Posted by: RushBabe at June 05, 2016 12:16 PM (OJKE+)

225 I re-read a lot of stuff I loved in the past when I'm sick, usually easy reads like L'Amour.

The Warcraft movie is coming out soon and despite playing the World of Warcraft game for like a decade, I just don't care.

The game is fun because of what I do in it, the stories they create and characters they have in it - other than mine - aren't very engaging or interesting to me, other than the slightly confused, time-traveling dragon Chromie.

They don't create anything very interesting or fresh, they just package it in an entertaining way to interact with. And that doesn't really translate to a good story to me.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:18 PM (39g3+)

226 Oh, you have to see this vine. Make sure the sound is on:

https://goo.gl/QDUYLS

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:24 PM (iQIUe)

227 222 ... I don't get colds very often but when I do they are doozies. Can't deal with new or complicated books then so I go with re-reading Nero Wolfe stories or magazine articles on fishing or wood carving.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 12:25 PM (V+03K)

228 Posted by: Flower Garland at June 05, 2016 09:17 AM

I think my wife recently found something on the Clintons w/ new material. Hillary The Other Woman is by a southern belle who has known Bill Clinton since she was 11, Dolly Kyle.

She's still reading it, I'll get it done this week and report back next week.

Posted by: Farmer at June 05, 2016 12:25 PM (o/90i)

229 I always seem to catch a cold when reading "The Stand". Captain Trips.

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at June 05, 2016 12:25 PM (G8DQR)

230 you have to see this vine.

Drama queen

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:25 PM (39g3+)

231 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:18 PM (39g3+)

I agree about the main story being something to do when I'm not doing something else (or I need levels or gold quickly). My real allegiance is to the guild in each server, which makes sense since I was a member of the HQ Horde long before Horde or Alliance.

It was interesting watching the Horde start to break up due to friction points I had pointed out to Son a couple of years before the story reached that point. And due to Hellscream's psychotic, speciest , totalitarianism, but even without that the Horde had a "What happens if the Axis wins WW2 and the Germans and Japanese are both sure they're the best and should be in charge?" thing with the Orcs and Bloodelves.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 05, 2016 12:27 PM (GDulk)

232 "And now, it's a permanent fixture on the American landscape. We're never going to be able to get rid of it. Thanks, George!"

And how many people remember that the Democrats were perfectly willing to hold responding to 9/11 hostage to creating that big bloated bureaucracy, and would never have been blamed if they had.

Until you're willing to endorse and start killing out the Fifth Column in this country, you might have the grace to keep your traps shut.

Posted by: SDN at June 05, 2016 12:28 PM (m/qEg)

233 226 Oh, you have to see this vine. Make sure the sound is on:
https://goo.gl/QDUYLS

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:24 PM (iQIUe)

Dang. That scream broke 3 wineglasses and a goldfish bowl.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 12:29 PM (AR9hC)

234 230 you have to see this vine.

Drama queen
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:25 PM (39g3+)

===========
More like a psycho!

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:31 PM (iQIUe)

235 Recently picked up copies of Fur-Fish-Game. It's been published for decades and I knew of it but never read any issues before. Quite interesting. The emphasis is on fur trapping and predator control but it includes articles on fishing, firearms, and conservation. My knowledge of fur trapping comes from reading about the Rocky Mountain fur trade in the early 1800s and watching Jeremiah Johnson umpty-ump times. I have no intention to start a trap line but it is an aspect of outdoor activity new to me and a different slant on it.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2016 12:31 PM (V+03K)

236 The vine is hilarious, but the screaming was dubbed in. Its from a French event

https://youtu.be/jIUSoj4G-1k

She's acting like he shoved his thumb in her eye, when he didn't even touch her.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

237 The Psalms are from the Old Testament and Christ is to be found only in the New Testament, so why would Christians freak out over the curse hurling in Psalms?

Posted by: Trump's Stubby Fingers at June 05, 2016 12:36 PM (SJ184)

238 Ugh. Can anything good come from Cook County?
Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 11:40 AM (AR9hC)

======

Yeah...ME!

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:37 PM (iQIUe)

239 The Psalms are from the Old Testament and Christ is to be found only in the New Testament

I can't figure out if this is just really good Trump satire or serious?

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:38 PM (39g3+)

240 >>She's acting like he shoved his thumb in her eye, when he didn't even touch her.

Did he spray her w/pepper spray or is it all an act for "police brurality"!!!

Posted by: Lizzy at June 05, 2016 12:39 PM (NOIQH)

241 Did he spray her w/pepper spray or is it all an act for "police brurality"!!!

Watch the first couple seconds of the vid or the vine, she's bopping this huge riot cop with a balloon over and over so he takes the ballon and bops her on the head, and she acts like he stabbed her.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:42 PM (39g3+)

242 I thought about changing my nic to "PimpDaddyOM", but then I'd have to get one of those big floppy hats and a bunch of 70s "Saturday night disco" type clothing, so forget it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 10:37 AM (AR9hC)

Too bad, baby. Just look at the cool car you could drive!

http://bit.ly/1TVlT2a

Posted by: RushBabe at June 05, 2016 12:42 PM (OJKE+)

243 205 Twelfth Night:

A bunch of young people who love music, drinking and partying all night get revenge on the old prude who wants to spoil their fun.

Yep, it was the original Teen Movie.
Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at June 05, 2016 11:59 AM (WlGX+)

Ha! We were talking about Al Stewart the other night. That play is mentioned in one of his songs, "Somewhere in England 1915". I think I get the reference now:

And I'm up in the air looking down at a girl on a bed
She's lying asleep on her side with a book at her head
And it's someone who left long ago
Was it something I said?
And I hope that she's reading King Lear
But it's Twelfth Night instead

Posted by: rickl at June 05, 2016 12:43 PM (sdi6R)

244
She's acting like he shoved his thumb in her eye, when he didn't even touch her.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

=======
She was hit with her own balloon sword which is the same as katana.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:44 PM (iQIUe)

245 She's acting like he shoved his thumb in her eye, when he didn't even touch her.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

=======
She was hit with her own balloon sword which is the same as katana.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:44 PM (iQIUe)
---
It's worse than that. It's tantamount to being assaulted with a phallus-katana.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 12:46 PM (jR7Wy)

246 Nothing is worse than assault by a wang-tana.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:49 PM (39g3+)

247 Its worse than falling for they Okey-Dokey

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:50 PM (39g3+)

248 Posted by: Sharkman at June 05, 2016 10:32 AM (EWW4y)

Condolences to you and yours on the passing of your father. No doubt he's tickled to see what you're up to with his manuscripts!

Posted by: RushBabe at June 05, 2016 12:50 PM (OJKE+)

249
The girl is a hard core leftist to pull that shit.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:50 PM (iQIUe)

250 Anyway, banking on his TV successess, Mr. Hawley is giving book-writing another go, and so his new novel Before the Fall will be available on May 31st.

Someone been abusing the time machine?

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at June 05, 2016 12:50 PM (R+30W)

251 "...Christ is to be found only in the New Testament"

Foretold in the Old. Many times.

Posted by: navybrat at June 05, 2016 12:53 PM (w7KSn)

252 *blushes*

That was the least I could for John Saul, after the torture he did to my eyes.

According to wiki:

John Saul (born February 25, 1942) is an American author of suspense and horror novels. Most of his books have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List.

and then this:

Prior to the start of his bestselling thriller career Saul had around 10 books published under pen names, the first of which he wrote in one weekend after unexpectedly losing his job. His first book sale earned him just $200. Today he has over 60 million books in print.

Posted by: GnuBreed at June 05, 2016 12:56 PM (gyKtp)

253
Hawley shd skip the book writing and fulfill his commitment to Fargo. Season 3 will be airing late because of him.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 12:58 PM (iQIUe)

254 I would absolutely read a graphic novel called Wang-tana.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 05, 2016 01:03 PM (jR7Wy)

255
It's amazing how prolific some writers are.

This Gun For Hire, story by Graham Greene, screenplay by Albert Maltz and W. R. Burnett. I was interested in Maltz bc he was one of the Hwd 10. I had never heard of Burnett, who was not a red. But Burnett wrote over a 100 short stories and 5 novels by the time he was 28 and none were published. He wrote Little Ceaser which got him a job screenwriting in Hwd. He wrote Scarface, High Sierra, The Asphalt Jungle, The Great Escape, and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

I wonder how he got along with the Hollywood commies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._R._Burnett

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 01:09 PM (iQIUe)

256 Is this a safe alternative and not as stormtrooperish as FB?
Posted by: RushBabe at June 05, 2016 12:16 PM (OJKE+)

It seems so - they claim to value privacy. No ads. No tracking. No censorship.
(They're freemium - free accounts, buy extra space if you want)

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 01:21 PM (7lVbc)

257 245 She's acting like he shoved his thumb in her eye, when he didn't even touch her.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 05, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

I think the balloon popped and maybe hit her in the face.
Balloons are dangerous. We should ban them. Balloon-free zone!

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 01:24 PM (7lVbc)

258 I recall a number of years ago that the CIA station chief of, I think, Athens, Greece, was killed because some lefty rag published his full identity and location. Does anybody else remember that?

It looks like you are thinking of Richard Welch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Welch

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at June 05, 2016 01:27 PM (R+30W)

259 I've been reading Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier, an autobiography of a Wehrmacht soldier on the Eastern Front from around the fall of Stalingrad to (presumably, I haven't finished) the end of the war. Horribly depressing, in most ways. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to be the least bit repentant for joining the German army (he was French, though his mother was German) or so far acknowledge that he might have been on the wrong side, morally (of course, Nazi versus Commie is like alien versus predator...)
----------

A very good book, and I too recommend it.

Am still working on 'Russia's War', by Overy. Well researched and written. Lots of insights into the mindset of the Russians (and particularly Uncle Joe) from WWI onward. The clash between the Germans and Russians was truly epic.

Uncle Joe played Roosevelt like a puppet.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2016 01:30 PM (9mTYi)

260 @votermom, I have joined mewe and applied for inclusion in the book group. Sounds like fun.

Posted by: Dr Alice at June 05, 2016 01:38 PM (Vycn3)

261 OT someone with initials AD applied to my mewe group but didn't answer the screening (anti-spam) questions.
If it's someone here let me know do I can accept.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 01:40 PM (7lVbc)

262 Currently reading "American Betrayal", by Diane West. Simply put, one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. Well done, OM.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 05, 2016 01:40 PM (ZsDHy)

263 Posted by: Dr Alice at June 05, 2016 01:38 PM (Vycn3)

Oh is that you with initials A D?

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 01:41 PM (7lVbc)

264 Reading various Robt Crais novels. Liking Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at June 05, 2016 11:00 AM (vMxGj)

I continue to enjoy Crais.

If you are a dog person (or not) he recently wrote "Suspect" with different characters but I thought it very good as well.

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 05, 2016 01:55 PM (wYnyS)

265 Since the thread is aged and superceded, my tl;dr du jour. (de la semaine?)

Sometimes I pimp (theme of the day) on my one fiction short story, Invulnerable - link in nick. I blush to self-promote at all, much less in the company of so many brilliant readers and distinguished authors, and with so much good to read in the world - but if I don't mention it, who would?

When I mention it, I'll check the stats laster that day, and I'll usually see average maybe three clicks from AoSHQ.

Don't know if anyone ever got past page one, though. Never get a syllable of feedback, there or here. Oh, well, there was one comment once: someone followed the link to the table of contents but couldn't figure out that you click on the chapter titles to proceed. !! Other than that, nothing.

As far as I know, the only person who has actually read through to the bitter end is Milady, my fan club of one.

-=!=-

I'm used to little-to-no feedback on my webworks, and anyway asking for feedback is major "be careful what you ask for" territory, especially since, under my gruff, manly exterior, I'm as sensitive as that SJW girl in the vine with the balloon sword. I suppose no feedback is like no news. Better silence than having my soul crushed by scathing criticism or snarky derision. (Which I've had for some of my musical efforts.)

But I do gots t'wonder, how does it come across?

I'm not a pro writer or aspiring author - this was just something that poured out of me one winter, after years of contemplating the idea. I don't expect five star reviews. It's light drama, I suppose you'd say. I'm kinda fond of the characters and think the story works, but of course I can't have any kind of objective view.

I suppose it can be confusing - starts out as rough-sketch "graphic" storytelling (comicstrip), then quickly becomes straightforward text with shifting narrators, and the epilogues are faux webpages and emails. Begins with a guy who has a pacific kind of superpower that influences others, and then part 2 ends up ... well, I don't want to spoil it, but, sci-fi.

-=!=-

So, glutenous for punishment perhaps, I've mentioned it again. It's on my website for free. Comments can be left on the ToC page. Would you pay 99¢ - or 10¢ - for it on Amazon or Kindle? There's PayPal donation buttons atop each page. (Been meaning to drop PayPal, but haven't figured out a good substitute yet.)

Feedback and funding aside, it'd be nice to think that I hit that niche market of someone who was entertained by it - that's the reason I promote it, really.

Posted by: mindful webworker - shy egotist at June 05, 2016 02:03 PM (Gv8zm)

266 Finished Living Hell, A True Account of Woman POW'S Under Japanese Control by Celia Lucas.
Read it all since this time last week, highly recommend it.
Now where to next?

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2016 02:04 PM (3wHFl)

267 262 Currently reading "American Betrayal", by Diane West. Simply put, one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. Well done, OM.
Posted by: Hanzo at June 05, 2016 01:40 PM (ZsDHy)

I've read it, and I agree. The implications are terrifying.

As she said at the beginning, she started out to write about Muslim influence in the U.S. government in the present day, but got sidetracked and ended up writing about Soviet influence in Roosevelt's time.

That other book still needs to be written.

Posted by: rickl at June 05, 2016 02:04 PM (sdi6R)

268 262 Currently reading "American Betrayal", by Diane West. Simply put, one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. Well done, OM.
Posted by: Hanzo at June 05, 2016 01:40 PM (ZsDHy)

==========
Youtube has a lot of videos on the subject including videos of conferences with historians. They are very good and occasionally heated. I also recommend the old H-Net forum archives for fun. Love when these authors and historians duke it out.

http://www.h-net.org/logsearch/

I just go with all lists since some of the discussions are in HUAC and also DIPLO.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 02:05 PM (iQIUe)

269 Posted by: rickl at June 05, 2016 02:04 PM (sdi6R)

The book she got sidetracked into writing set up the situation for needing the other one.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 05, 2016 02:08 PM (GDulk)

270 I enjoyed HG Wells even if sometimes I disagreed with his outlook. Books like The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds were just interesting and imaginative, not political to me. In any case, his politics are so distant its easy for me to overlook.

-
Not entirely true. The Time Machine is about what will happen if the upper classes don't stop screwing over the lower classes. The War of the Worlds is about what it's like to be colonized by a more advanced race like the Brits were doing in Africa and Asia. Wells was pissed that people didn't read them that way. Still, he was a good writer and I see it as a mitigating factor that he developed his ideas prior to the horror that was Stalin's USSR.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 02:12 PM (Nwg0u)

271 American Betrayal", by Diane West.

-
Discrimination is the worst thing ever and yet the ability to discriminate is what separate intelligent adults from special snowflakes.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at June 05, 2016 02:18 PM (Nwg0u)

272 I recently read "Red Queen" by Victoria Aveyard. It was ok. Readabl, though sometimes, barely. But it was clean (though somewhat bloody), which is important for me. I m not the rudiment type. The heroine is somewhat is of a neurotic in this book, which is understandable as she goes from a guttersnipe to a princess overnight.

So I thought I would read the sequel (Glass Sword). Big mistake. The heroine is now a psychotic nutcase. The author could easily have left out a two thirds of the book without. Missing anything of the finer nuances, of which there are none. She is paranoid beyond belief and extremely stupid as well. Now stupid is not necessarily a deal killer, but it is when the author actually believes her main protagonist is actually super smart. Also, the heroine becomes less clean and very unasdmirable.

The entire thing is becoming PC to boredom.

A total waste of my time and blunt

Posted by: Natrium at June 05, 2016 02:20 PM (5HRXH)

273 Achilles was a young upstart from a little know an island, Agammemnon and Menelaus were really old guard (House of Atreides).

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 11:33 AM (7lVbc)

Unless you are reading Dune, there is no "House of Atreides". Atreides is a Greek patronymic meaning "son of Atreus". So if you want to say "House of..." it would be "House of Atreus".

This was significant, especially to the audience of the time, because of the multi-generational curses and bad behavior attached to the story of that family (Tantalus begat Pelops begat Atreus begat Agamemnon and Menelaus, and it's pretty much cannibalism and murder all the way up and down the family tree).

Posted by: HTL at June 05, 2016 02:21 PM (hhBXE)

274 Unless you are reading Dune, there is no "House of Atreides". Atreides is a Greek patronymic meaning "son of Atreus". So if you want to say "House of..." it would be "House of Atreus".

--
Yes, you are right.
(Curse you Frank Herbert!)

Yes, the original.dysfunctional family.

Back to Agamemnon, I have to wonder at his state of mind during the Trojan war. He'd sacrificed his daughter just to get there, and now Achilles is stealing his glory.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 02:26 PM (7lVbc)

275 Back to Agamemnon, I have to wonder at his state of mind during the Trojan war. He'd sacrificed his daughter just to get there, and now Achilles is stealing his glory.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 02:26 PM (7lVbc)

Considering Agamemnon's family traditions, Achilleus was just lucky that he didn't wind up finding Patroclus had been cooked and served up to him for dinner.

Posted by: HTL at June 05, 2016 02:30 PM (hhBXE)

276 Considering Agamemnon's family traditions, Achilleus was just lucky that he didn't wind up finding Patroclus had been cooked and served up to him for dinner.
Posted by: HTL at June 05, 2016 02:30 PM (hhBXE)

Left my cookbook in Clytemnestra' s kitchen, next to her damned double-edged axe.

Posted by: Agamemnon at June 05, 2016 02:35 PM (7lVbc)

277 56
a hot space babe, er, Medea.
They fight monsters and come home with the Space Babe

Fat lot of good that did them.

Posted by: Anachronda at June 05, 2016 02:40 PM (Oi5b2)

278 @votermom, yes, just got back from the store. I did not see any anti spam questions.

Posted by: Dr Alice at June 05, 2016 02:43 PM (Vycn3)

279 277 56
a hot space babe, er, Medea.
They fight monsters and come home with the Space Babe

Fat lot of good that did them.

---

Never not marry crazy

Posted by: Jason at June 05, 2016 02:46 PM (7lVbc)

280 Dr Alce, you are in the group. Thanks for joining!

Posted by: Jason at June 05, 2016 02:50 PM (7lVbc)

281 Oops, off Argo-sock

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 02:51 PM (7lVbc)

282 268 Youtube has a lot of videos on the subject including videos of conferences with historians. They are very good and occasionally heated. I also recommend the old H-Net forum archives for fun. Love when these authors and historians duke it out.

http://www.h-net.org/logsearch/

I just go with all lists since some of the discussions are in HUAC and also DIPLO.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 02:05 PM (iQIUe)

Thanks. Yes, when I 1st delved into Diane's book I started research on my own and I came across the youtube vid's I believe you might be listing here. I started by googling "Harry Hopkins". I find it amazing the amount of conflicting opinion, even in the face of easily provable facts. One video I came across was a Heritage Foundation event with David Horowitz. To my horror, Horowitz accused West of "sloppy journalism". I was appalled, then I also found the reprehensible bs Ron Radosh has written about West hidden in a "review" of "American Betrayal". "You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think".

Posted by: Hanzo at June 05, 2016 02:53 PM (ZsDHy)

283 This was significant, especially to the audience of
the time, because of the multi-generational curses and bad behavior
attached to the story of that family (Tantalus begat Pelops begat Atreus
begat Agamemnon and Menelaus, and it's pretty much cannibalism and
murder all the way up and down the family tree).

Posted by: HTL at June 05, 2016 02:21 PM (hhBXE)

That would make Odysseus' return and Penelope's virtuousness and his success over her suitors when he made it back to Ithica that more notable in contrast to Agamemnon's eventual fate.

I should probably read this stuff.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 05, 2016 03:15 PM (ry34m)

284 Dr. Alice,

No sign of a request to join the goodreads group from you. You should see an anti-troll question there as well. Please try again.

Posted by: cool breeze at June 05, 2016 03:27 PM (ckvus)

285 Mindful webworker, I am not a good judge of graphic novels, but if you decide to publish we will definitely add it to the AoSHQ list of books.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 03:31 PM (7lVbc)

286 Posted by: Kindltot at June 05, 2016 03:15 PM (ry34m)

Iirc Odysseus traces his lineage to Hermes, god of thieves, by way of his son, the thief Autolycus. Generally a lucky and clever family.

Posted by: @votermom at June 05, 2016 03:36 PM (7lVbc)

287 Posted by: mindful webworker - shy egotist at June 05, 2016 02:03 PM (Gv8zm)

I just finished it. I have no idea what you call that or what you're supposed to do with it but I liked it.

If anyone here is thinking about reading MW's story don't get hung up with the cartoon beginning, it changes to something else entirely.

Like said, I liked it.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at June 05, 2016 03:45 PM (95vkd)

288 I'd be proud to join AOSHQ's group on Goodreads, please. This week I'm reading "Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codebreaker's War 1941-1945" by Leo Marks.

Posted by: CoFoMoFo at June 05, 2016 04:35 PM (4b1LC)

289 "Great, here comes another bloated, incompetent federal agency to boss us around"?

Everyone did. Can't let a crisis go to waste. They dusted off old plans. I'm thinking it is a cornerstone of the NWO which came out of the closet sometime in the 1989-1992 time frame.

Posted by: huh? at June 05, 2016 05:14 PM (CRXed)

290 I'm late again.
I finally read Sgt. Mom's, "Chronicles of Luna City."
I loved it!!! It was funny, engaging, and relatable, especially if you are at all familiar with small town Texas. I left a glowing review at Amazon for it. I've only ever left a few reviews in 10+ years of using Amazon. Now to start on the second book.....

Posted by: lindafell de spair at June 05, 2016 05:33 PM (xVgrA)

291 Thank you, Lindafell - glad you loved it! We had the most fun, working up the various stories and backgrounds for charactersQ

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 05, 2016 05:44 PM (xnmPy)

292
Posted by: Hanzo at June 05, 2016 02:53 PM (ZsDHy)

===========

I think there is some professional jealousy involved. They've acted like shits to her. What an embarrassment.

You should check this one out:

Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks and the Documentation of Soviet Intelligence Operations in the United States:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJBXPva9Sg

There are 3 of them. West refers to the conference.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 05, 2016 06:24 PM (iQIUe)

293 One video I came across was a Heritage Foundation event with David Horowitz. To my horror, Horowitz accused West of "sloppy journalism". I was appalled, then I also found the reprehensible bs Ron Radosh has written about West hidden in a "review" of "American Betrayal". "You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think".

Posted by: Hanzo at June 05, 2016 02:53 PM (ZsDHy)

I think you need to keep in mind that the Horowitz/Radosh/FrontPageMag matrix, whatever else good work it does, is not really conservative. Those guys are mainly old-school FDR liberals and the only difference between them and the left they criticize is foreign policy. Radosh and Horowitz were both red diaper babies who grew up in households that worshiped FDR and so for someone to cast aspersions on their idol is intolerable to them.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 05, 2016 08:51 PM (KvhNg)

294 $15 bucks for a Kindle eBook? Hell no.

The Brotherhood of the Wheel: A Novel Kindle Edition
by R. S. Belcher (Author)

Posted by: what me worry? at June 05, 2016 08:58 PM (dZGNV)

295 Very late to le Book Thread, because I frittered away the day reading a book (Bernard Lewis, "The Political Language of Islam", 1986-88 - very good except for a dated third chapter).

* Even in Dune it's "House Atreides", that is "the Atreid house". No "of". Frank Herbert wasn't a dummy.

* I reviewed Mac's "Hallow Mass" on Amazon for 4/5 and got a downtwinkle for my efforts. Which kind of annoys me because I took the book seriously and *tried* to deliver a fair review. Maybe it was a Lefty drone who dinged me but I dunno.

* For interesting American-Revolution history, I second that the southern Colonies were where the action was at. But also the riotous leadup to it in the North was interesting too. I ended up sympathising with the Brits because Sam Adams was *that* much of a violent jerk. Guess that's one reason it took my family so long to move here.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at June 05, 2016 10:17 PM (6FqZa)

296 Listened to SPQR, by Mary Beard.
ok
hate "BCE" and "CE" for BC and AD.
After the history of rome by mike duncan, she added little.

Posted by: freedom2014despitebarack at June 05, 2016 11:05 PM (SEFXb)

297 On the subject of H.G.Wells, I recommend watching "Things to Come". The book and screenplay were written by H.G.Wells. It is a window into the minds of early 20th century progressives and makes it obvious that Mussolini and Hitler came from the same progressive wellspring as the rest of the progressive movement that afflicts us today.

Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at June 05, 2016 11:51 PM (QHgTq)

298 296 Listened to SPQR, by Mary Beard.
ok
hate "BCE" and "CE" for BC and AD.
After the history of rome by mike duncan, she added little.
Posted by: freedom2014despitebarack at June 05, 2016 11:05 PM (SEFXb)
============
Remember, Beard wrote an article for that black cover New Yorker after 9/11 where she said we had it coming. So, fuck her.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 06, 2016 09:30 AM (iQIUe)

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