Sunday Morning Book Thread 10-30-2016: Stranger Things [OregonMuse]

Library of Guillermo del Toro

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 gorgeous, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like tornadoes, hurricanes, IRS audits, Donald Trump grabbing some mish, and special snowflakes evaporate in hot sunlight. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these hideous things.

Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.
--Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

Pic Notes

Both photos on today's thread came from this NY Times piece on horror-film director Guillermo del Toro. You should read it because it will give you some idea of what a good newspaper the NY Times can be when its content is not warped by progressive political hackery.

About Mr. del Toro's library

From the NY Times piece:

The cream-colored paperbacks in the center shelf are the first scary books that Mr. del Toro bought as a child, including a “Best Horror Stories” anthology from 1971, when he was 7. “It’s by my hero, Forrest Ackerman. I wrote him to adopt me, and my dad found the letter and beat” the heck “out of me,” Mr. del Toro said, using stronger language but laughing at the memory.

And the man in the shot? "It's H. P. Lovecraft. He’s reading one of his own books; he’s checking that they did it right.”

To be clear: that is a Madame Tussaud-type wax statue specifically commissioned by Mr. del Toro and he's got it permanently standing there in his library/living room. Also, as you can see in the photo below the fold, he's got another one of Edgar Allan Poe sitting in a chair.

Because H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe are the two guys you want hanging out in your living room.

I had never heard of Forrest J. Ackerman and I thought maybe he was some early horror writer I had never heard of, but I was wrong. Actually, according to his wiki page, he was

...an American magazine editor, science fiction writer and literary agent, a founder of science fiction fandom, a leading expert on science fiction and fantasy films, and acknowledged as the world's most avid collector of genre books and movie memorabilia.

So it looks like Mr. del Toro is doing his best imitate him. Read his wiki page. Ackerman And he wasn't so much of a writer (although he did write some stuff, about 50 stories in all) as he was an editor, compiler, anthologizer, promoter, and sci-fi/horror fanboi. Probably the best way to describe him is that he was a pimp. That is, he made his living by taking what he liked (stories, movies, writers, etc.) and showing/selling to those he thought might like it.

Which is kind of like I do here, only I do it on a much smaller scale.

Here's an example, Ackermanthology: 65 Astonishing, Rediscovered Sci-Fi Shorts:

He's the guy who coined the term "sci-fi" and is recognized the world over as the father of science fiction. Now, Forrest J. Ackerman, "Mr. Sci-Fi, " presents the greatest little-known sci-fi short stories of all time, featuring works by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and many others.

Another one is Gosh! Wow! (Sense of Wonder), a 1982 anthology of nineteen science fiction pieces from the 1920s and 30s that make Ackerman say "Gosh! Wow!"

As a literary agent, he represented over 200 writers, including Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, A.E. Van Vogt, Curt Siodmak and L. Ron Hubbard.

He also did bit parts and cameos in a number of movies.

Ackerman was also one of the creators of the pulchritudinous comic book character, Vampirella

Ackerman died in 2008. I wonder what happened to all of his sci-fi/horror memorabilia?

Guillermo del Toro's Living Room. Seated: Mr. E.A. Poe

A Tale From The Crypt

CRYPT-KEEPER: Welcome to the Halloween edition of the Sunday Morning Book Thread, boils and ghouls! I hope you're in the mood for a little bit of scary fun this morning.

(reaches up into dusty bookshelf, pulls out book. It is Glimpse Vol. 1 by Lisa Mathisen)

Today we have a short story of mind-boggling narcissism and shameful self-indulgence. And no, I'm not talking about this year's Democratic Party Convention. EEEHEEHEHEEHEEEHEEEHEEEHEEE!!! This is something almost as bad, a tale of a clueless young woman who is about to find out the beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone.

(camera zooms in on open book, open to an image of an attractive woman holding out a camera at arm's length, pointing at herself)

#SELFIE!
Oh yeah. That one is so hot. I can’t believe that new mascara and photo app made me look even better than yesterday. #workit! #onfleek!
MarieKah was pleased yet again with her daily devotion: the selfie. It took two hours every morning to plump and color her entire being for this moment. The one she lived for. When she looked at her phone and loved what she saw. It had become a kind of worship service. Prepping, fluffing, taking and viewing. Ritualistic.
It was not unnoticed by the world, either. She was incredibly popular on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Her blog was nothing but her. I mean, what did she need to write about? The pics got 1000 likes and hundreds of flattering comments. Oh, she did post the occasional inspirational quote about believing in yourself, or fashion tips. Some people really needed help. She was happy not to be one of them.
Scrolling on Facebook one day she saw a post from her annoying cousin back home in Missouri. Something about Jesus, as always. It is better to give than receive...or something. The meek shall inherit the earth...#lame. Her cousin obviously didn’t live out here in L.A., or anywhere in the real world where people were more intelligent and #onpoint. She was happy to have left her hometown for a city more appreciative of her attributes.
Later, driving down to Santa Monica to take a #beachselfie, she was looking in the mirror fixing her lipgloss and didn’t see the traffic had come to a complete stop 100 feet ahead of her. She slammed into a BMW and flew out the windshield. Her gorgeous body came to a skidding stop against a truck tire after scraping across 20 feet of hot asphalt.
#Dead.
As MarieKah came to, she was strapped in a chair in a small room, with candles burning everywhere, hundreds of them. Or maybe the wall was on fire? It was dark and really, really hot. On the wall were glossy photos of every single #selfie she had ever taken. Above that was written in huge black text:
#VANITY #DEADLYSIN #DAMNED #GOTCHA
MarieKah choked out a sob. Confused but intrigued, she instinctively grabbed for her phone. It wasn’t there of course.
In her peripheral vision she could see a glowing figure to her left. Ok, now this is creepy. It began to move toward her. It was giving off a ton of heat; and was changing colors like an LED lamp: red, orange, yellow, red again.
It took her by the shoulder, put its face down to hers and stared into her eyes. She would have peed herself had she been alive. Then the figure turned its head to the left and put its gnarly hand in the air...
#SELFIE!

(camera loses focus, then refocuses as it pans out to CRYPT-KEEPER combing what's left of his hair in front of a cracked mirror)

CRYPT-KEEPER: Well, kiddies, I hope that was a lesson you'll not soon forget. Remember what the good book says: Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. And shed a tear for poor MarieKah, who found out too late that everything she thought important in her life was as fleeting as the wind, and the problem with the religion of self is that in the long run, your church will never have very many worshipers. EEEHEEHEHEEHEEEHEEEHEEEHEEE!!!

(fade out)

Thanks to moronette author Lisa Mathisen for her kind permission to reprint one of her stories. She has published four collections of such stories (Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4), that all are very short, and many of which have a delightful Twilight Zone-ish twist to them.

Readers Wanted

I received an email this week from a lurking moron who is almost finished with his very first novel and needs some fresh eyes on it. This is how he describes his book:

It's called The Luckiest Man. It's a comic novel with a strong love story and it's fairly short, about 42,000 words. I'd estimate it to be about 90% done. I welcome anyone willing to read, but I would definitely appreciate a few female readers.

If any of you 'rons and (especially) 'ettes are interested in reading this novel and offering opinions and suggestions, you can send an e-mail to the author at wallyinbrooklyn (his AoSHQ nic) 'at' gmail 'dot' com.

The FAB Who Would Be President

My mind is numb. That's how I feel after I hit the three-quarters mark in Dinesh D'Souza's latest, Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. I don't agree with everything in it, and in many ways he's preaching to the choir, but I just finished his section on Hillary's corrupt financial deals, and I can't believe (again) that she's got a chance of occupying the White House. And that's the trouble you get into when explaining Hillary's financial skullduggery to LIVs. The sheer volume of shady and out-and-out criminal activity she is responsible for is, well, mind-numbing. It is very tempting to think "oh, come on, it is just not possible for one person to do all of that in a single lifetime. She can't *possibly* be this bad." But D'Souza just lays out fact after fact after fact until you're smothered by the sheer weight of the evidence, and it goes back all the way to her days as an Arkansas governor's wife. Hillary! has not changed in 30+ years. Everything she's doing now, she did back then.

A lot of D'Souza's material comes from two books from Barbara Olson. The first one is Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton:

She begins with this intro quote: "Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life." - Saul Alinksy, "Rules For Radicals."...I especially enjoyed her analysis of how Hillary, far from being a passive "Tammy Wynette", actually commanded the team of "secret police" (Dick Morris's term) who's job it is to humiliate, intimidate and destroy the countless women who have over the years come in contact with his Crooked Willy.

And I think the title comes from a memo that surfaced during the 1993 "Travelgate" firings:

Written by Clinton aide David Watkins to chief of staff Mack McClarty, the memo noted that five days before the firings, Hillary had told Watkins, “We need those people out—we need our people in—we need the slots.” Watkins wrote that everyone knew “there would be hell to pay” if they failed to take “swift and decisive action in conformity with the First Lady’s wishes.”

And this is apart from the cussing out of the Secret Service detail, or the throwing of weighty objects at Bill's head.

Olson wrote a follow-up book, The Final Days, where she documents all of the outrageous "pay-for-play" style pardons Bill passed out like (expensive) candy and the Clintons' systematic looting of White House artifacts that they were later forced to return when they got caught.

Barbara Olson was one of the murder victims aboard Flight 77 that was flown into the Pentagon on Sept. 11th, 2001.

Here's another, more recent, book that caught my eye: Guilty as Sin: Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation by Ed Klein:

When FBI Director James Comey announced in July that Hillary Clinton would not be indicted for mishandling classified information, America was stunned...There is far more behind Comey's shocking press conference than meets the eye -- and a minefield of email evidence between Hillary and the White House.

And Klein supposedly has an explanation as to why Comey did what he did. Meh. I don't think I care anymore. Because these "investigations" always turn out to be useless: a bunch of underlings get immunity deals, the investigation goes on for months, and then they recommend against prosecution. So nobody is held accountable, everybody gets to keep their jobs, and the status remains quo.

Moron Recommendations

"To robbe Petyr & geve it Poule, it were non almesse but gret synne."

That is the first recorded use of the phrase "rob[bing] Peter to pay Paul" and it appeared in the 1450 treatise "Jacob's Well: An English Treatise On The Cleansing of Man's Conscience". Which is a perfect description of what we know as the Ponzi scheme, i.e. paying early investors with the money provided by later contributors. Carlo Ponzi wasn't the first to devise such a scheme, but he has become the most famous.

My #2 son recommends You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work and Why They're More Common Than Ever by James Walsh, which advertises itself as

A keen insider's guide to investment rip-offs, scams and con artists. This book takes an investigative look at the reasons why Ponzi schemes and pyramid frauds are thriving everywhere. It closely examines why over 100,000 Americans are suckered into the schemes every year. Tips are offered to detect schemes and respond when they occur. The purpose of the book is to educate consumers and make them aware of how scams work.

Son says he learned a lot from this book.

I haven't been hit up with an invitation into a pyramid scheme for many years. I was thinking maybe they had fallen out of fashion, but according to this book, not so. I made the mistake years ago, on one of the Christian mailing lists I used to subscribe to, of criticizing multi-level marketing (coughAmwaycough) as a de facto pyramid scheme, and was greatly surprised at the number of MLM supporters who suddenly de-cloaked and roasted my butt. Not that it changed my mind at all, but the sheer volume of the frothing-at-the-mouth vehemence in attacking me was quite a shock.

What I'm Reading

I'm about three quarters through The Lion and the Cross: A Novel of Saint Patrick and Ancient Ireland, by Joan Lesley Hamilton, first published in 1979. It was a Bookbub $1.99 special a few weeks ago. I was debating whether to buy it when I read a 1-star review that claimed it was "too devout", so I immediately snapped it up. The novel is told as a flashback. The narrator is St. Patrick as an old man recounting his life, beginning when Irish raiders first carried him off into slavery at the age of 16. Not much is known for certain about St. Patrick and his life, but the novel does a good job filling in the blanks in a plausible manner.

I agree with the 1-star reviewer that this book is "devout", but it's not devout in the hagiographic sense. In Hamilton's retelling, Padraic is actually quite a d-bag, and often not very pleasant to be around. No, this book is "devout" in the sense that it treats Patrick's spiritual struggles against his own sinful nature and also against the surrounding pagan culture as real.

And by "pagan culture", I mean stuff like this:

"The whole nation of the Gauls is greatly devoted to ritual observances, and for that reason those who are smitten with the more grievous maladies and who are engaged in the perils of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow so to do, employing the druids as ministers for such sacrifices. They believe, in effect, that, unless for a man's life a man's life be paid, the majesty of the immortal gods may not be appeased; and in public, as in private life they observe an ordinance of sacrifices of the same kind. Others use figures of immense size whose limbs, woven out of twigs, they fill with living men and set on fire, and the men perish in a sheet of flame. They believe that the execution of those who have been caught in the act of theft or robbery or some crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods; but when the supply of such fails they resort to the execution even of the innocent."

--Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Ch. 16

I know there are idiots running around these days claiming to be "pagan", but they don't know the half of it. They have no idea what pagan cultures were actually like, i.e. slavery, war, and death. They're like college students from affluent families railing against "capitalism". "Paganism" is the religion of spoiled brats.

___________

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 09:01 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle lege

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 08:58 AM (sWbjH)

2 Finally! From the depths comes Book Thread!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 08:58 AM (EnKk6)

3 Comments have gone dark.
Want to thank everyone for nice comments last week.

Was working in the stacks at the Library and a book caughg my eye Human Bullets by Tadayoshi Sakurai a Lt. In the Japanese army in the Russo Japanese war. I was reading it at lunch break and got about 1/2 way through but its a big library and found the Russian history section.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 09:02 AM (sWbjH)

4 Weird. I can post on this thread, but not the ONT.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 09:03 AM (LzMzD)

5 Where is everybody? Did I break the blog?

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 09:04 AM (LzMzD)

6 Good morning, book horde! For once, I was up before the post!

Looking forward to the discussion of Life Unworthy starting Tuesday, as I have a new job with regular hours and I'm not exhausted all the d**n time.

Posted by: April at October 30, 2016 09:04 AM (e8PP1)

7 "Weird. I can post on this thread, but not the ONT."

What you wearing?

ONT doesn't allow pants.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at October 30, 2016 09:05 AM (J+eG2)

8 Good morning, Horde.

Nice post, Oregon Muse! Thank you.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 30, 2016 09:05 AM (DMUuz)

9 Ah the book thread. I had been working on all those David Weber books and finally finished them. Going back and redoing some John Ringo now. The Legacy of Aldenada series. And BTW there is a new Honor Harrington book due out Nov 1 for all you Weber fans.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 09:06 AM (mpXpK)

10 I bought a signed inscribed copy of Do Androids Dream.of Electric Sheep, from Forrey's estate.

Posted by: Dumpsterjuice at October 30, 2016 09:07 AM (lKDd/)

11 I think I see some books in that library that I have,

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 09:08 AM (mpXpK)

12 Good morning my fellow Book Threadists. Gunshow this morning so I will catch up on the thread later. One must have one's priorities.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2016 09:09 AM (5ZhDL)

13 Ackerman died in 2008. I wonder what happened to all of his sci-fi/horror memorabilia?

AFAIK, it was auctioned off.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 30, 2016 09:10 AM (DMUuz)

14 Started out as the grey comment blocks.
Other than at work am still reading Desolation Island by Patrick O'Bria.
At work, and tomorrow should be my last day at the Library found Arakcheev, he was a senior officer in the Russian army in the Napoleoic wars. From what I know he was a real merciless bastard and was in charge of the Russian artillery.
Also found out every day the University is tossing out books as they are digitizing them. Have not gone to see the dumpster as I think I would cry, spend hours looking through and coming home with a library I couldn't support.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 09:11 AM (sWbjH)

15 I want to thank Weasel for recommending Nothing to Envy about life in North Korea. It's awesome so far, vaguely reminds me of my time in the USSR.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 30, 2016 09:17 AM (EZebt)

16 I think I have a couple of Ackerman anthologies from when I was a kid.

Probably, in storage rather than on the shelf.

I need to re-read them if so.

I guess he was one of those behind the scenes guys who actually helps keep the pot boiling-

for decades!

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 09:18 AM (9q7Dl)

17 Hey Vic did you get your Running The River book yet? I already had to give mine away but I got another copy.

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 09:20 AM (BO/km)

18 Only 10 crossed over? So one of those staged failures then.

Posted by: Tim (the poll troll) in Illinois at October 30, 2016 09:20 AM (d76uN)

19 Sorry, wrong thread. I'll go back downstairs.

Posted by: Tim (the poll troll) in Illinois at October 30, 2016 09:21 AM (d76uN)

20 Here's a list of real horror stories

http://humanevents.com/2005/05/31/ten-most-harmful-books-of-the-19th-and-20th-centuries/

Its a list of the books that have been the most destructive to truth, civilization, truth, and culture. The honorable mentions go to books like Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich.

Oddly, they also list On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, which I never finished, but thought was pretty good.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 09:22 AM (39g3+)

21 If any of you Lovecraft fans ever make it to Providence, RI, there is a pretty interesting Lovecraftian inspired store with a nice collection of genre related books and paraphernalia.

http://necronomicon-providence.com/store/

They also help sponsor tours and related events. Today is a big Lovedraftian flavored bicycle tour around the city.

http://www.weirdprovidence.org/events.html

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2016 09:22 AM (/tuJf)

22 Still working on 'The Forgotten Man'. A terrific read, but I generally read at bedtime, and it's not the best for flushing the day's frustrations from my head.

At any rate, highly recommended for all Morons. All the meat is there for ~~confronting~~ attempting discussion with FDR Democrats.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, headed for church at October 30, 2016 09:24 AM (eMnol)

23 Re the book about scams, if I was "editor in chief" of the MSM, like Soros, I'd put "Ponzi" as the middle name of every dem pol written about.

Posted by: SMOD 2016! at October 30, 2016 09:25 AM (aj/zI)

24 Interesting book I foubd free fron the don't be evil jackasses - 'King's Complete History of the World War.' Looking past the sort of apocalyptic and anti-Semitic tone in places, it's a fascinating glimpse at a goodish chunk of history. Quite a bit on the russki civil war and the allied expeditions against the reds. Weird, reading of american and canadian and french (well, colonials, mostly Vietnamese) troops in Vladivostok w/ a japanese commander.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at October 30, 2016 09:25 AM (teQ7a)

25 I'm a big short stories fan. I highly recommend "The John McPhee Reader".

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at October 30, 2016 09:27 AM (SeD0w)

26 17
Hey Vic did you get your Running The River book yet? I already had to give mine away but I got another copy.

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 09:20 AM (BO/km)

Yes I did and I have added to my bathroom shelf for quite reading and contemplation of the dead tree variety. One very interesting thing I have found so far is the duel between the newspapers in Macon and Milledgeville as to who had the best navigable river.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 09:29 AM (mpXpK)

27 22 At any rate, highly recommended for all Morons. All the meat is there for confronting attempting discussion with FDR Democrats.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, headed for church at October 30, 2016 09:24 AM (eMnol)

I got that and read it from the library about a year ago. Great book and it debunks all the liberals "FDR saved us from the Depression" crap. If anything, FDR created the depression.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 09:31 AM (mpXpK)

28 Here's a few horror novels which are pretty good that you probably haven't read:

"Last Days" by Brian Evenson

"Under the Skin" by Michel Faber (horrorish sf - ignore the movie)

"The Traveling Vampire Show" by Richard Laymon

"One Rainy Night" by Richard Laymon

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 09:32 AM (9q7Dl)

29 Vic, one of the stories is "The blowing up of the Mary Prescott". That happened not too far from here, near Bullard. I've been by that spot many times but never knew about that ill-fated race. There are lots of interesting little stories like that.

The guy I gave my copy to took a history class from the author Carlton Morrison.

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 09:38 AM (BO/km)

30 Got about 800 pages left in Shelby Foote's "Civil War" trilogy....Started "The Juan Pardo Expeditions" by Charles Hudson. I shouldn't try to read more than one book at a time....which is why I have 800 pages of "Civil War" to finish.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 09:39 AM (9RGU3)

31 I don't do horror. That's what current events and politics are for.

My reading sucks lately. But my research continues, so that's something at least. Finding all sorts of little nuggets, like the official telephone code name for my grandfather's unit, and sub-units. I'll find some way to work it into the narrative.

You all enjoy and play nice. Except with politics - war.

Posted by: goatexchange at October 30, 2016 09:40 AM (gOzTJ)

32 No, no, no, it's not a pyramid scheme. It's an "investment triangle."

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 09:40 AM (7qAYi)

33 Just finished reading Level Zero Heroes by Mike Golembesky, and John Bruning. 'The story of US Marine special operations in Bala Mughab, Afghanistan'. Book really pissed me off. Why? For example, how the "New n Improved Sensitive Peace and Thumb-Sucking ROE interfered in the mission, and the JTAC (Mike) was ordered to waste precious and expensive B-1 delivered ordinance with deliberate misses during hot combat operations. How the fuck was that command allowed to endanger the men and mission in such a manner?

I think I'll read that new Monster Hunters Memoirs book next to take my mind off bullshit like the above.

Posted by: Punchmeat McGainz at October 30, 2016 09:41 AM (zrhBv)

34 Found two interesting books at the library yesterday (yes, there were only two!): Aliens: The Set Photograpy and Ada's Algorithm.

Aliens is a coffee table book for nerds (a Mountain Dew crate table book?) with lots of cool behind-the-scenes photos of cast and crew. Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn (Newt) really bonded during the filming. There was good camaraderie on set but the actors associated mostly with their on-screen amigos: Sig and Carrie, the Marines with each other, Lance H. on his own, etc. One of my favorite bits is that the actors portraying the Marines would work out together on set between takes and let Carrie join in, with her Cabbage Patch doll tucked under her arm, while they jogged and went through their arms drills. Janette Goldstein said her smartgun rig was so bulky and heavy that it had to be duct-taped to her and she would sit down between takes strapped to the thing. Also, the set for the rainy, gloomy moon colony was sufficiently realistic that they all felt on edge filming the scene where they are approaching the abandoned power station.

Cameron has been a bit of a social justice wanker of late but he earns back points with me when Carrie Henn said he was always very sweet and patient with her. After busting a few takes, "Now, honey, if you do this scene right you can go over to the other set and watch the power loader sequence being filmed" "Yaaayyyy!" (Nails it)

I'm only a few chapters into Ada's Algorithm but it is a very smooth and easy read and a fascinating look at the world of upper class douchebaggery. From reading Thackeray, Austen, et al, it seems it was all about getting and spending other people's money. Ada Lovelace (who wrote the "code" for Babbages Difference Engine) was the daughter of rock star asshole Lord Byron and a wealthy young nerdess he conned into marrying him. Lady Byron soon tired of his dissolute ways (shagging his half-sister, trying to get a threesome going!) so she left with Ada and gave the girl the kind of education based on logic and reason that would stamp out Byronic excess. Alas, Ada had a joyful, playful attitude about math (Babbage called her The Enchantress of Numbers) that no dull teacher could grind down.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 09:43 AM (EnKk6)

35 Didn't Juan Pardo announce The Price is Right? "And behind Door Number 3, we have..... a matched set of.. Sherman's neckties!"

Posted by: goatexchange at October 30, 2016 09:44 AM (gOzTJ)

36 Posted by: Punchmeat McGainz at October 30, 2016 09:41 AM (zrhBv)
---
I love your nom de Horde.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 09:45 AM (EnKk6)

37 In his declining years Ackerman was forced to start selling off parts of his vast collection that included the ring Lugosi wore in Dracula to stay financially afloat. At one time his collection even included a recreation of Machine Man/Hel from Metropolis. After his death the collection was auctioned off.

A pretty good overview of Forrest J. Ackerman's life and his lifelong passion can be found in this article. Things like he won a special Hugo Award in 1953 for being a fan.

Or:
In 1938 he published a young Ray Bradbury's first story and introduced
him to science fiction greats Robert Heinlein, Leigh Brackett and
others. They were members of his chapter of the Science Fiction Society,
which met in L.A.'s Clifton Cafeteria.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/hefbjvg

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 09:47 AM (aSWjs)

38 Posted by: goatexchange at October 30, 2016 09:44 AM (gOzTJ)

His bro...Don....who passed recently, I think.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 09:47 AM (9RGU3)

39 I didn't know E.A. Poe was an orphan....found out watching a football game yesterday.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 09:49 AM (9RGU3)

40 Has anyone read Shattered Sword about the battle of Midway? I'm torn over getting it. It's supposed to have some interesting new insights. However the three star reviews tend to state it is good as a reference, the writing is uneven, and the authors are very "Look at our new information that discredits everyone else." The last part worries me the most. I've noticed that attitude seeping into a lot of newer histories and it is a major turn-off on wanting to read the book. I don't mind finding new info and having new ideas. I do want some humility from the author.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at October 30, 2016 09:49 AM (J70i0)

41 I guess he was one of those behind the scenes guys who actually helps keep the pot boiling-

for decades!
Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 09:18 AM (9q7Dl)
---
Wasn't he one of the thinly veiled characters in Fallen Angels? Like they had to raid his collection for something?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 09:49 AM (EnKk6)

42 Finished listening to Robinson Crusoe. It is an early example of a planned (at least) duology since the last chapter sets up for the next book and says outright that there will be further adventures in another volume.

Listening now to The Three Musketeers. I may actually look up more information on Buckingham and Anne of Austria (who was actually Spanish? Empires are confusing).

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 09:49 AM (GDulk)

43 Mornin' everyone. If you're looking for some quality, well-written horror, I've always liked Dan Simmons (creator of the outstanding "Hyperion" series). "The Hollow Man" is probably my favorite, followed by "Carrion Comfort". The latter has some very well-written WWII history included in the story, as well as a thinly-veiled FU to, of all people, Roman Polanski.

Check him out if you get the chance (also, as some of you know, Mr. Simmons also hates the JEF just as much as we do, so that speaks well of him, above and beyond his excellent writing).

Posted by: Pave Low John at October 30, 2016 09:50 AM (OejZ/)

44 Oregon Muse, Votermom, I ran across an appropriate bit of history. The Old English word for "library" is "Bochord", or book-hoard.

Although it is not 'book horde', it is not cognate, and ultimately comes from Turkic roots, it does rhyme.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 09:50 AM (wxBiU)

45 Don Pardo finally picked the Final Door? sadz. Also, will someone gently whisper to finestkind moron Punchmeat on the distinction between local laws and 'splodey things?

Posted by: goatexchange at October 30, 2016 09:51 AM (gOzTJ)

46 Borrowed a copy of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus from a neighbor and read that instead of working yesterday. It was worth it; I think I'll get a copy of my own. Very interesting stuff about 'translating' the words of one sex into something that the other sex can understand. That'll be helpful in real life, but also in writing, in making my male characters talk like men and my female characters talk like women. And it was really weird to read certain buzzwords like 'validation' and 'caring' and realize what a feminized society we live in, where those kinds of words are used so often that they lose all meaning.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 09:52 AM (uwdBe)

47 29
Vic, one of the stories is "The blowing up of the Mary Prescott". That
happened not too far from here, near Bullard. I've been by that spot
many times but never knew about that ill-fated race. There are lots of
interesting little stories like that.

The guy I gave my copy to took a history class from the author Carlton Morrison.

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 09:38 AM (BO/km)

I have spent many a night camping on the banks of the Oconee and hunting beaver. Also spent quite a few nights fishing on the Ohoopee. Just had to keep an eye out for moccasins.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 09:53 AM (mpXpK)

48 those kinds of words are used so often that they lose all meaning.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 09:52 AM (uwdBe)

kinda like "racist"?

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 09:54 AM (9RGU3)

49 I'm listening to those because I wanted something "jolly" in between listening to Lafcadio Hearne's Glimpses of Unknown Japan. The book partially suffers from the fact that Japan is a lot less unknown than it was 150 years ago, but also from the author seeming to be an early example of progressive oikophobia. He likes the Japanese because they *aren't* British or American, but doesn't really see them as full (imperfect) humans either.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 09:54 AM (GDulk)

50 14
Also found out every day the University is tossing out books as they are digitizing them.
Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 09:11 AM (sWbjH)

That is horrible. Can't they at least try to give them away?

As computers evolve, old data formats and hardware become obsolete. How many of us have boxes of floppy disks and no floppy drive to read them? Supposedly NASA has tons of data tapes from the 60s that can no longer be read because the file formats are no longer supported.

And what happens if a nuclear war or Carrington event leads to a new Dark Age?

Throwing away physical books is a big mistake. This is like the Library of Alexandria self-immolating. Our descendants are going to wonder, "What were you thinking?"

Posted by: rickl the deplorable at October 30, 2016 09:55 AM (sdi6R)

51 WOPR, don't feel too bad about shying away from purchasing Shattered Sword. I have the same misgivings. From my reading of what the authors have written of the work I have the impression is they further clarify how the Japanese screwed the pooch during those morning hours when attacking Midway Island.

As for shocking revelations that discredit? I am simply putting that down as hyperbole to sell their book. Because most of the source documents on the Japanese side either went down with the ships or was destroyed on orders at the end of the war. Of course the authors might have gained a sudden windfall of one person's cache. Still most of what we know from the Japanese side is from recollections of the survivors.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 09:57 AM (aSWjs)

52 Sorry, Horde comes from Turkic roots.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 09:58 AM (wxBiU)

53 Throwing away physical books is a big mistake. This is like the Library of Alexandria self-immolating. Our descendants are going to wonder, "What were you thinking?"

Seriously. I know it's just pop culuture, but it makes me think of the apocalyptic bookless world in the movie "Book of Eli." It could happen.

Posted by: April at October 30, 2016 09:59 AM (e8PP1)

54 'I have spent many a night camping on the banks of the Oconee and hunting beaver. Also spent quite a few nights fishing on the Ohoopee. Just had to keep an eye out for moccasins. '

And gators. I've seen them as far North as Bullard.

Not touching that beaver comment though. Just move along...

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 10:01 AM (BO/km)

55 I'm listening to those because I wanted something "jolly" in between listening to Lafcadio Hearne's Glimpses of Unknown Japan. The book partially suffers from the fact that Japan is a lot less unknown than it was 150 years ago, but also from the author seeming to be an early example of progressive oikophobia. He likes the Japanese because they *aren't* British or American, but doesn't really see them as full (imperfect) humans either.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 09:54 AM (GDulk)

More in keeping with Halloween is-

"Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things" by Lafcadio Hearn

which you can get for $0.00 for the kindle.

The stories are all interesting in a folk tales way, though Hearn's rather laborious writing style robs them of the chills you might get from stories like "Yuki-Ona".

Well worth a read.

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 10:01 AM (9q7Dl)

56 RIP Barbara Olsen, she is missed.

Her widower, on the other hand, has been one of the most disappointing figures in recent history. I actually support the legalization of gay marriage through statutory law, but promoting it as a Constitutional right is a betrayal of everything The Federalist Society stands for.

Posted by: lowtech redneck at October 30, 2016 10:04 AM (egK2C)

57 WOPR, i know what you mean. For a good read that supplements and delves more deeply into what was already known about Midway, I recommend "A Dawn Like Thunder, the true Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight."

Posted by: goatexchange at October 30, 2016 10:04 AM (gOzTJ)

58 ...L Ron Hubbard!!!

Posted by: Tom Cruise! at October 30, 2016 10:04 AM (wcSGs)

59 54 And gators. I've seen them as far North as Bullard.

Not touching that beaver comment though. Just move along...

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 10:01 AM (BO/km)

They used to pay a $5 bounty on beavers because they were flooding out so much farmland down near the river. I have only seen one gator and that was at a place I used to fish called "Coleman's Dead River". It was more of a stream that fed the river but it was real sluggish at that spot. I got leaches on me wading out into the water one time.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:05 AM (mpXpK)

60 Since this is the Book Thread before Halloween, this seems to be the time to mention a writer involved with two very weird stories - Richard Sharpe Shaver. In 1943 Shaver wrote a long, bizarre letter to Ray Palmer, editor of a sci-fi periodical called "Amazing Stories" in which he claimed that he had discovered evidence of an ancient race of people who lived underground & had devolved into what he called "Deros" or "Detrimental Robots" who would kidnap people & enslave & torture them. These Deros would also come up to the surface to secretly wreak havoc on humanity. Palmer thought that there was a good story in there, so he reworked it into a novella & published it in "Amazing Stories." The story struck a nerve, as it sold out & Palmer letters from people all over the country claiming that they too had been kidnapped by the Deros & taken to their underground lairs. Shaver & Palmer continued to publish the "Shaver Mysteries" until 1948, never backing down from the claim that they were in essence true stories.

The second series of weird books Shaver created were his "Rock Books." In the 60s & 70s, Shaver began publish books of photos & paintings of rocks that he said held the key to deciphering the ancient language of the Deros. No one paid them any mind in his lifetime, but now he's recognized as an "outsider artist" & his rock books have been exhibited in museums & galleries & sell for good money.

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (7qAYi)

61 I would like to find some good post-apocalyptic fiction but most of what's out there is just survivalist crap.

Going up to the Trump rally in Greeley this afternoon.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (U6f54)

62 kinda like "racist"?

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 09:54 AM (9RGU3)

Yes, but to an even greater extent. Even 'racist' still carries some connotations to me. But if you asked me what the point of 'validation' is, I wouldn't have a clue. And that's after reading the book. I'd probably give you some very-hesitant-sounding explanation about telling someone that it's okay to feel a certain way, as if anyone ever needed another person's permission for their own private feelings. Sometimes I think I have a male brain in a female body. And yet, somehow, I'm not at all confused about which bathroom I should use. Amazing, no?/sarc, as if you didn't know that already

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (uwdBe)

63 61
I would like to find some good post-apocalyptic fiction but most of what's out there is just survivalist crap.

Going up to the Trump rally in Greeley this afternoon.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (U6f54)

There is a three book series out there by S. M. Stirling that starts with "Dies The Fire". Even though Stirling is a raging liberal he doesn't let it interfere with the books and it is a good series. After the third book he continues it on into infinity though with new characters and then it starts bogging down.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:10 AM (mpXpK)

64 I bought a signed inscribed copy of Do Androids Dream.of Electric Sheep, from Forrey's estate.

Posted by: Dumpsterjuice at October 30, 2016 09:07 AM (lKDd/)

Sweet!

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:11 AM (LzMzD)

65 Speaking of Olde-Fashioned Japanese horror-

Check out -

"Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination" by

Edogawa Rampo.

Can you guess which English author's name "Edogawa Rampo" is a Japanization of?

He was a great fan of this writer.

Rampo's most famous story is "The Human Chair"-

a psychological horror story that is still effective for modern audiences.

Check him out.

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 10:12 AM (9q7Dl)

66 "I would like to find some good post-apocalyptic fiction but most of what's out there is just survivalist crap."

Try Cormac McCarthy]s The Road. I read it a Christian allegory, including because of the last page.

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2016 10:12 AM (bQxkN)

67 @40:
My take on "Shattered Sword" tracks precisely like that. Good reference, but the authors keep pushing the "Everyone else got it wrong and aren't we smart we got it right " meme.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at October 30, 2016 10:12 AM (AY9O7)

68 Sometimes I think I have a male brain in a female
body. And yet, somehow, I'm not at all confused about which bathroom I
should use. Amazing, no?/sarc, as if you didn't know that already

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (uwdBe)

That's ok.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 10:12 AM (9RGU3)

69 I'm going to do a nanowrimo post for today (will let you guys know when it's up.

I've been going back & forth on whether to try to do Nano this year - I tried it once, sometime in the last decade, and failed.

My two choices this year, if I do it, is either pull out a non-fiction thing I started last winter and put aside, or start a totally new fiction idea based on a dream I had a few months ago.

Which would have a better chance of surviving nano?

Posted by: @Deplorable votermom @vm on Gab at October 30, 2016 10:12 AM (Om16U)

70 PS I woke up late, which is delicious.

Posted by: @Deplorable votermom @vm on Gab at October 30, 2016 10:13 AM (Om16U)

71 My G-D Kaine is an idiot

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 10:13 AM (dELE3)

72 I should get the canoes out and hit the river but it's really low. I crossed the Oconee at 16 the other day and you could practically walk across there.

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 10:14 AM (BO/km)

73 65 - I never heard of him, but he sounds very interesting. TY!

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:16 AM (7qAYi)

74 Posted by: Dr Smith at October 30, 2016 10:15 AM (7ZgPh)

You're citing the NY Times as a credible source?

lol

Posted by: Methos at October 30, 2016 10:16 AM (3Liv/)

75 I love the pics of Mr. del Toro's book-lined living room. (Not the life-size statues, though ... meh.) It's plush and random, and the bookshelves are wonderfully crammed. Did anyone else note that the colors of the room are on the classic 90-9-1 principle? 90% in that rich dark plum shade in the walls, sofas and chairs and the rug, the 9% in the gold-colored parts of the rug and the lampshades, and the accent 1% in the dark sage green clock, and in the throw pillows. His interior designer must be very good -- as it doesn't look "designed."

As for myself, working on book projects this week, light on the pleasure reading. Coming down the final stretch of The Golden Road - and thanks to those who volunteered to beta-read! Our winter schedule of weekend markets is firmed up - every weekend from now until mid-December, we will be at a market, somewhere in South Texas and the Hill Country.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 30, 2016 10:16 AM (xnmPy)

76 Which would have a better chance of surviving nano?

Posted by: @Deplorable votermom @vm on Gab at October 30, 2016 10:12 AM (Om16U)

votermom!

Probably whichever you're "hottest" about.

My guess would be the dream-idea because it's fresher and you haven't put it aside yet.

Putting something aside usually means you were tiring of it.

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 10:17 AM (9q7Dl)

77 Yay! Book thread!

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at October 30, 2016 10:17 AM (f+KpL)

78 Well, maybe now after the super ultra hurricaine Matthew and all of the earthquakes in Italy, we will finally realize that a multi trillion dollar government takeover of the economy is the only way to stop these disasters before they get worse. #ActOnClimateChange

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at October 30, 2016 10:18 AM (dnWSK)

79 Speaking of horror, here's a good, short creepypasta (internet horror story): http://www.creepypasta.com/candle-cove/

They've actually made a horror series (on Sci-Fi Channel, I think) based on it. Haven't seen it.

And another favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgG9v2HEy5A

Posted by: lowtech redneck at October 30, 2016 10:18 AM (egK2C)

80 Talk of Rampo reminded me of this book - Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen: The Detective Story World in Japan.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/zvgoabd

As one reviewer said, it is a bit difficult to wrap one's Occidental mind around some Oriental motivations for murder. But still is interesting.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:18 AM (aSWjs)

81 That's ok.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 10:12 AM (9RGU3)
I love it. I need all the logic I can get. Feeling just confuse me. I didn't pick up this copy of Men are from Mars only to learn about the male brain; I also wanted to learn what makes women tick.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:18 AM (uwdBe)

82 What am I reading? AoS, outside at a cafe on the sand in Santa Barbara. Raint morning, so I can't quite see Catalina.

Tell you what, the homeless in SF are idiots. This is where you want to be! (and many are)

Posted by: CNN at October 30, 2016 10:18 AM (wWwKk)

83 Sadly, the past couple weeks I have been doing computer reading rather than regular stuff. My attention span gets shorter when I only read from the computer and I am sitting on a bio of one of the Florentine prince's bastards -- a 'moor'. Always interesting to see if the author falls into the trap of modern US sensibility in historical figures. Not even very long, but my attention span is really impaired right now.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 30, 2016 10:19 AM (MIKMs)

84 My recommendation for the the library is Preppers Long Term Survival Guide by Jim Cobb.

Recommendation needs no explanation.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:19 AM (TAkZ9)

85 I love the jumble of old volumes, cheap paperbacks, memorabilia, artifacts, and toys in Guillermo's library. Rich maroon and a Persian carpet will class the tackiest collection.

*scribbles notes*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 10:19 AM (EnKk6)

86 I may or may not have had a sock failure.

Posted by: t-bird at October 30, 2016 10:21 AM (wWwKk)

87 Borrowed a copy of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus from a neighbor and read that instead of working yesterday.
Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 09:52 AM (uwdBe)

That book helped me immensely not only with my marriage, but with my tech support job. Half of my customers were women and I to learned how to talk to them without pissing them off. Most of the time.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:22 AM (LzMzD)

88 Just finished the latest Prey novel, featuring Lucas Davenport, Minnesota cop/detective extraordinaire.

The only series novels I've liked were the Prey novels and the Spenser novels (tough Boston PI and his buddy, Hawk).

One comes out per year, in early summer, and I usually devour it in June. This year I was tardy and just caught up.

Great dialogue; evocative descriptions; and, to my mind anyway, very human, fallible characters - even the good guys. Worth a read if the idea of Minnesota noir and a journey into the evil just below the surface interests you.

Posted by: RM at October 30, 2016 10:22 AM (U3LtS)

89 All Hail Eris win the lottery, buy a nice secluded large plot of land, get a house built in a comfortable design, and then hire del Toro's interior decorator.

Simple.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:23 AM (aSWjs)

90 "The October Game" by Ray Bradbury is my favorite Halloween-themed short story.

http://tinyurl.com/5tdqw3

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:23 AM (7qAYi)

91 Greetings, ye of the Book Horde. I have cat on lap, sitting in the comfy leather chair in the library, so all is well. (Besides the fact that cat is HEAVY and legs are going numb, that is. But can't disturb the kitteh!)

Writing progresses. Have read some damp dishrags of short stories (for homework) I won't trouble you with. Not worth the electrons they were printed on. Re-reading Correia's Grimnoir series which IS totally worthwhile. Very much enjoyed Monkey Business by Landon Crutcher. It is like the Moron Bible, and only .99 so affordable too! Silly and plenty of fish-flavored explosions.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 30, 2016 10:24 AM (SuJIo)

92 I bought Ringworld by Larry Niven. I'm struggling to get into it. I like pretty much everything he's written so confused as to why this is so boring yet got great reviews. Anyone read it?

Posted by: Dana at October 30, 2016 10:25 AM (Dt8YH)

93 Anna, I will eventually do it with what I have at hand. I have enough books and oddities to make a smaller version of same (minus the waxworks dummies, of course).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 10:25 AM (EnKk6)

94 92 I bought Ringworld by Larry Niven. I'm struggling to get into it. I like pretty much everything he's written so confused as to why this is so boring yet got great reviews. Anyone read it?
Posted by: Dana at October 30, 2016 10:25 AM (Dt8YH)

Well I hated it.

Wait, that was ringworm.

Posted by: The Dog at October 30, 2016 10:26 AM (7qAYi)

95 74 Posted by: Dr Smith at October 30, 2016 10:15 AM (7ZgPh)
You're citing the NY Times as a credible source?
lol
Posted by: Methos at October 30, 2016 10:16 AM (3Liv/)

Weird. That comment from "Dr Smith" no longer exists. Did someone nuke the poll troll?

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:26 AM (LzMzD)

96 Re: fraudulent "opportunities"

Do not "invest" in the Itaqi dinar, no matter what the dinar gurus tell you on their conference calls.

Just sayin'.

(No, I am not speaking from personal regret. I have a friend who is trapped in that cult.)

Posted by: Emmie at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (xVuS6)

97 Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (7qAYi)

So before "Alien Abductions" people believed in Deros kidnappings? Do certain humans *need* to believe they've been abducted by something?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (GDulk)

98 Weird. That comment from "Dr Smith" no longer exists. Did someone nuke the poll troll?
Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:26 AM (LzMzD)

maybe the Robot did it

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (dELE3)

99 There is a three book series out there by S. M. Stirling that starts with "Dies The Fire". Even though Stirling is a raging liberal he doesn't let it interfere with the books and it is a good series. After the third book he continues it on into infinity though with new characters and then it starts bogging down.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:10 AM (mpXpK)

Yeah, the first three were good, but I didn't like the major plot reveal in the sequel series, and never finished it. I also thought he went a little crazy (as in, extremely unrealistic) with the pagan stuff. Also, I think his prejudices lead him to underestimate the survival prospects of the South: KUDZU IS EDIBLE.

I preferred his Island in the Sea of Time series, where Nantuckett is transported to about 1300 B.C.

Posted by: lowtech redneck at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (egK2C)

100 I can see a couple of books I own in that library. Second case from the left, top shelf. I recognize the Edward Gorey illustrated dust jackets.

Posted by: The Dog at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (7qAYi)

101 I thought people would be happy that the Horde's favorite author, Dan Brown's latest book to movie effort is a flop.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:28 AM (TAkZ9)

102 #Fracking in OK is clearly the cause of the Italy earthquakes. It is warping the earths crust. Who knows where it will strike next!

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at October 30, 2016 10:28 AM (dnWSK)

103 Off, dog sock

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:28 AM (7qAYi)

104 KUDZU IS EDIBLE.

Posted by: lowtech redneck at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (egK2C)
Really? I know they feed cattle and goats on it, but humans can eat that stuff, too? Hmm.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:29 AM (uwdBe)

105 Sabrina Chase, sounds like a new story there - The Cat Who Slowly Kills.

All Hail Eris, if you need dummies cluttering up your house just invite cowrkers over?

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:30 AM (aSWjs)

106 72
I should get the canoes out and hit the river but it's really low. I
crossed the Oconee at 16 the other day and you could practically walk
across there.

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 10:14 AM (BO/km)

How are they coming with that new bridge up North of the HWY 80 bridge?

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:30 AM (mpXpK)

107 Weird. That comment from "Dr Smith" no longer exists. Did someone nuke the poll troll?
---
Weekend topical threads get to nuke comments for going off topic.

I'm guessing my comment stayed because it's *technically* literary criticism.

And also given that ace has authorized at will bannings by the coblogs, there's probably a generally lower standard for individual comments, too.

Posted by: Methos at October 30, 2016 10:31 AM (3Liv/)

108 Since this is the Book Thread before Halloween, this seems to be the time to mention a writer involved with two very weird stories - Richard Sharpe Shaver.

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (7qAYi)

These are indeed weird stories, and very appropriate for this Halloween book thread.

And speaking of long, weird stories, whatever happened to "mindful webworker"? Did he get banned, or just disappear?

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:31 AM (LzMzD)

109 Mr del Toro's library is awesome, but everyone knows the only proper color for library walls is dark green and I find it impossible to get comfortable on leather furniture however beautifully it photographs.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2016 10:32 AM (znkWW)

110 I am loath to read Mars/Venus as I don't like my beautifully complex brain cocktail being pigeon-holed.

Eris is from Eris, baby.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 10:32 AM (EnKk6)

111
There is a three book series out there by S. M.
Stirling that starts with "Dies The Fire". Even though Stirling is a
raging liberal he doesn't let it interfere with the books and it is a
good series. After the third book he continues it on into infinity
though with new characters and then it starts bogging down.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:10 AM (mpXpK

Some of Stirling's work is wonderful and a great read. However, I pulled one of his off the shelf and opened it at random, and was reading a straight word for word and action steal from the hospital evacuation scene from the movie Zulu.

I'm sure he characterized it as an hommage, but I figured if he was willing to do dictation from a film I could find more enterprising writers to read. And I continue to do so.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 10:32 AM (wxBiU)

112 *hides the key to the cupboard with the golden apples from All Hail Eris*

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:34 AM (aSWjs)

113 I'm guessing my comment stayed because it's *technically* literary criticism.
And also given that ace has authorized at will bannings by the coblogs, there's probably a generally lower standard for individual comments, too.

Posted by: Methos at October 30, 2016 10:31 AM (3Liv/)

You're right, but poll trolls don't normally get nuked, they're usually left there so we can laugh at and mock them. That was what I was planning to do, anyway.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:34 AM (LzMzD)

114 OM,

I know you have given it out before but what's the email addy for sending Library Pics. You might not use what I have but It doesn't hurt to try.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 10:34 AM (d76uN)

115 I didn't pick up this copy of Men are from Mars only
to learn about the male brain; I also wanted to learn what makes women
tick.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:18 AM (uwdBe)

What I've learned from being married: Whenever the wife and I are in disagreement about anything...if I can be proven right...IOW I "win"....I lose.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 10:35 AM (9RGU3)

116 Yeah, the first three were good, but I didn't like the major plot reveal in the sequel series, and never finished it.

Posted by: lowtech redneck at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (egK2C)
---

Was it alien space bats?? I gotta know.

I loved the first two but lost interest after the third.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 10:35 AM (EnKk6)

117 99 I preferred his Island in the Sea of Time series, where Nantuckett is transported to about 1300 B.C.

Posted by: lowtech redneck at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (egK2C)

Yeah, I liked that one too but he did get a little more liberal with that one.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:35 AM (mpXpK)

118 What the heck is creepypasta and what is with Candle Cove? I foolishly looked at the site and them looked for Candle Cove, is that a real kids show or are they making this up?

Posted by: Abby Coffey at October 30, 2016 10:36 AM (HBU7W)

119 Not to turn this to politics, but you are the one who mentioned the witch...

You're very right, she appears not to have changed a bit, the venality was always there. I have waded over the years through the debris of her life in books dating back to a quarter century.

The Barbara Olson books, a compendium of every column published by the WSJ on Whitewater, The Seduction of Hilary Rodham (David Brock before he found the true way and became a Dem operative), a book by Peggy Noonan, the book by the Secret Service agent detailing life in the WH and Hilary's reign of fear there, dozens of American Spectator columns and articles from the glorious 90's. On and on.

It's all right there. She hasn't changed. The grifter's stakes have just gotten bigger. From two bit shady land deals in Arkansas to hundreds of millions of dollars. God help us.

Posted by: RM at October 30, 2016 10:36 AM (U3LtS)

120 101
I thought people would be happy that the Horde's favorite author, Dan Brown's latest book to movie effort is a flop.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:28 AM (TAkZ9)

which one is that?

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (mpXpK)

121 I am loath to read Mars/Venus as I don't like my beautifully complex brain cocktail being pigeon-holed.

Eris is from Eris, baby.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 10:32 AM (EnKk6)
Heh. I had a few of those moments when I was reading. I just said to myself, "Well, this guy has obviously never met me," and read on.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (uwdBe)

122 Forrest J. Ackerman also edited a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland which I actually subscribed to as a kid. Great, kitschy articles and pictures about monster movies of the '60s and '70s.
Yes, I've always been an intellectual.

Posted by: Browncoat formerly known as Mike at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (o38N1)

123 114 OM,
I know you have given it out before but what's the email addy for sending Library Pics. You might not use what I have but It doesn't hurt to try.
Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 10:34 AM (d76uN)

The book thread e-mail address is in the closing paragraph of the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (LzMzD)

124 Never read Men are From Mars ... but I did hear about one difference in the book that I always knew and the one I imagine is one of the most important to understand.

Men want to fix problems / issues and women want to talk them out.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (TAkZ9)

125 Sgt Mom, that's a good eye. There was a library in Hellboy that looked gorgeous from any angle.

There is another 90-9-1 rule for internet forums. 90 percent are lurkers, 9 percent are curators, and 1 percent are content authors.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 30, 2016 10:38 AM (VdICR)

126 44 Oregon Muse, Votermom, I ran across an appropriate bit of history. The Old English word for "library" is "Bochord", or book-hoard.

Although it is not 'book horde', it is not cognate, and ultimately comes from Turkic roots, it does rhyme.
Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 09:50 AM (wxBiU)
------

THANKS! That is so cool!!!!

Posted by: @Deplorable votermom @vm on Gab at October 30, 2016 10:38 AM (Om16U)

127 Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (mpXpK)

Inferno.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:38 AM (TAkZ9)

128 I thought people would be happy that the Horde's favorite author, Dan Brown's latest book to movie effort is a flop.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:28 AM (TAkZ9)

which one is that?
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (mpXpK)

Inferno, I believe.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:38 AM (LzMzD)

129 "What I've learned from being married: Whenever the wife and I are in disagreement about anything...if I can be proven right...IOW I "win"....I lose."

I always heard this from married men, comedians, etc., but it is not the case with my marriage. When I'm right, I'm right. When she's right, she's right.

And life is harmonious.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:39 AM (2ilh7)

130 Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 10:17 AM (9q7Dl)

I am not really "hot" about it, but curious.
I might do the dream one. Low stakes.

Posted by: @Deplorable votermom @vm on Gab at October 30, 2016 10:39 AM (Om16U)

131 My nano post is up on bookhorde.

Link in nic

Posted by: @Deplorable votermom @vm on Gab at October 30, 2016 10:40 AM (Om16U)

132 If I want Inferno will go and read some Dante.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:40 AM (aSWjs)

133 Tammy, you are allowed to wear pants while sitting on leather library furniture.

Otherwise, use extra saddle soap or spray it with Pam.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 10:40 AM (wxBiU)

134 Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (LzMzD)

Thanks OM

Brain Fart there. Mail sent.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 10:41 AM (d76uN)

135 And life is harmonious.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:39 AM (2ilh7)

But I'm a happy loser.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 10:42 AM (9RGU3)

136 Political:

Where do SJWs come from?
https://youtu.be/x_fBYROA7Hk

Jordan Peterson and his student are talking to Lauren Southern. I think he's saying something very valuable here. Of course it is about the infantilization by SJWs of the groups they assume to protect.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 30, 2016 10:42 AM (VdICR)

137 What I've learned from being married: Whenever the
wife and I are in disagreement about anything...if I can be proven
right...IOW I "win"....I lose.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 10:35 AM (9RGU3)

Oof, really? See, this is why no guy is ever going to want to marry me. If someone proves me wrong in an argument, I may stew about it for a while (I hate being wrong) but I'll accept that I was demonstrably wrong and move on. I think the change from emotion to logic is what confuses people.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (uwdBe)

138 132 If I want Inferno will go and read some Dante.
Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:40 AM (aSWjs)
---
Or the Niven/Pournelle duology, which I highly recommend.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (EnKk6)

139 Re: Dante. I had the idea in high school to rewrite Dante's Inferno as a modern allegory; where the famous assholes in Hell are replaced by modern examples people would actually recognize.

Heaven faces declining revenue because of the lack of piety on earth. Angel's suffered budget cuts and were reduced to only having one wing and so could only fly in circles, so their budgets were cut further and they were forced to carpool in helicopters.

That was part of the 'comedy' portion.

I should get an annotated version of the original one day...

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (2ilh7)

140 Voter Mom, never knew he wrote a book. $1.99. Maybe.

Still fence sitting also about going to NaNoWriMo. The SF novel is at 79,600+ words. Do I suspend work on that and go kamikaze with another idea for a month?

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (aSWjs)

141 On the other hand, JK Rowling's new book to movie effort is getting good reviews.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (TAkZ9)

142 Anna Puma,

Neat!

I haven't seen that collection before.

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat - Part Four: The Black Room" at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (9q7Dl)

143 Mars / Venus. Don't try to understand women. Women understand women and they hate each other.

Posted by: Count de Monet at October 30, 2016 10:45 AM (JO9+V)

144 They don't even want to talk them out, they just want to talk about them. Damned annoying, but whatcha gonna do? Women are what they are.

It really is a pretty good book. I didn't think I'd get anything out of it, since I have 8 brothers so I didn't think there was anything left for me to learn about the male species, but the relationship perspective was invaluable to me.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2016 10:45 AM (znkWW)

145 Men want to fix problems / issues and women want to talk them out.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (TAkZ9)

And this is the part that I found interesting in my tech support job. I've spoken with a number of women customers whose problem I couldn't solve, but left happy because I listened and interacted with their problem/story and did so with a sympathetic ear.

Not all women were like this, of course, most called in because they actually wanted the problem to be fixed, but no male would ever be content with just being listened to.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:45 AM (LzMzD)

146 I can't believe anyone with even a passing interest in science fiction has never heard of Forest J Ackerman. Just goes to show, I guess.

I've never seen an issue, but "Famous Monsters of Filmland" is one of those SF/movie things that (almost) everyone knows about.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at October 30, 2016 10:45 AM (8mIih)

147 97

So before "Alien Abductions" people believed in Deros kidnappings? Do certain humans *need* to believe they've been abducted by something?
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 10:27 AM (GDulk)

Possibly. John Keel, author of "The Mothman Prophecies" (which is one of the most unnerving damn things I've ever read) studied paranormal phenomena & showed that throughout history people have been experiencing very similar phenomena, just filtered through their different cultural lenses. Jung wrote about that as well.

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:45 AM (7qAYi)

148 I always heard this from married men, comedians,
etc., but it is not the case with my marriage. When I'm right, I'm
right. When she's right, she's right.

And life is harmonious.
Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:39 AM (2ilh7)

That is because you have agreed the being right is a factual status, not a moral one. This is hard for some people to accept.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 10:45 AM (wxBiU)

149 @RWWS: "If someone proves me wrong in an argument, I may stew about it for a while (I hate being wrong) but I'll accept that I was demonstrably wrong and move on."

I married a girl like that. There's hope.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:46 AM (2ilh7)

150 127
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (mpXpK)

Inferno.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:38 AM (TAkZ9)

I have that book in hardback dead tree version. Didn't like it too much. So they made a movie of Inferno. Somebody lost some money then. How long before it makes it to the Walmart $5 bin?

He gets hit hard for some of the crap he makes up and how hard he trashes the church. But his novels would go over a lot better if he took out that little note in the forward pages that says the books are based on documented fact and evidence. If he said these are fiction with "artistic license" it would go over a lot better. Well, except for the continuous bashing of the Catholic Church.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:46 AM (mpXpK)

151 H. D. Woodward, only found that book by perusing one of my local libraries as I was doing some research on Japan. If was because of that book, I know the Rampo answer. But I'm not going to spoil it for the Horde.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 10:48 AM (aSWjs)

152 Off to Mass

Posted by: josephistan at October 30, 2016 10:48 AM (7qAYi)

153 I just finished his section on Hillary's corrupt financial deals, and I can't believe (again) that she's got a chance of occupying the White House.

-
There was just an expert on Fox News who said that late in campaigns there is always allegations of corruption and that corruption is not nearly as important as the economy and protecting us from terror. Yeah, the FBI is always investigating candidates the week before the election.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 10:49 AM (Nwg0u)

154 Just saw my stupid fucking brother's stupid tattooed daughter reinforce my beliefs of their utter idiocy by wishing me a happy Samhain. I am no longer the avuncular uncle.

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at October 30, 2016 10:49 AM (n3MnG)

155 If you don't want to read Mars/Venus, check out anything by Deborah Tannen, who writes about different gender communication styles from a linguistics perspective.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 30, 2016 10:50 AM (EZebt)

156 Anna Puma, he kills with love

Too bad I don't write horror, eh?

Re: S.M. Stirling, some books I love and some I fling at the wall. He writes well but is a leetle too fond of torture, and when he goofs up it is epic. Dies the Fire ended with book 1 for me. You cannot have, in the same book, airplanes falling like Acme bricks from the sky when their engines die, and then later have hanggliders that DO work. Aerodynamics, m**f**r, do you speak it?? On the other hand In the Courts of the Crimson Kings is pretty much a perfect planetary romance. He can't be too much of a raging lib. The first Nantucket book has some Noble Savage-believing SJW types come to a very sticky end when they try to apologize to the Olmecs in South America. It was glorious, and involved jaguars.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 30, 2016 10:50 AM (SuJIo)

157 Heaven faces declining revenue because of the lack of piety on earth. Angel's suffered budget cuts and were reduced to only having one wing and so could only fly in circles, so their budgets were cut further and they were forced to carpool in helicopters.
That was part of the 'comedy' portion.
I should get an annotated version of the original one day...
Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (2ilh7)

That actually sounds pretty funny. Do you still have it stashed away somewhere?

I would like to see a modern rendition of Inferno updated with hell populated by Uniparty members: Hillary, Rubio, Bush, McCain, Reid, Pelosi, Obama, Soros, Murdoch.

Trump would have to be there, too. Maybe on the same level with the Kardashians and Jenners.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:51 AM (LzMzD)

158 Men want to fix problems / issues and women want to talk them out.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:37 AM (TAkZ9)

Ha! I'm weird! *does happy dance*
When
I want a solution to a problem, I usually come out and ask for it. If I
want to vent/ talk it out, I make my characters do it for me. Venting
in front of another person is embarrassing. Then again, I'm one of those emotionally reserved Yankees- yes, I got called that at a conference a few weeks ago- so maybe it's a north/south divide.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:51 AM (uwdBe)

159 Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 10:46 AM (mpXpK)

Though he may not be known in the literary community as a very good writer, admittedly he found a style that has hit with the masses. I don't care for him but a lot of people have really enjoyed his books.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:51 AM (TAkZ9)

160 For anyone interested in a different take on the bible, I found "God: a Biography" to be very interesting. A great read truthfully, as I'm discovering now rereading it for the first time in a few years.

It's written by a former Jesuit named Jack West, who also was for a time an editorial board member at the LA Times (so a lefty probably) but it has a great approach to studying the bible.

As I am not a very adept Christian and certainly not being someone terribly interested in reverential faith in the literal truth of anything, I found the idea of looking at the literary development of God through the bible to be a very accessible way to understand what all the excitement is about when you finally get to JC in the New Testament

http://tinyurl.com/j65npyc

Posted by: MTF at October 30, 2016 10:51 AM (/m8T6)

161 Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at October 30, 2016 10:49 AM (n3MnG)

What is Samhain?

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:52 AM (LzMzD)

162
On the other hand, JK Rowling's new book to movie effort is getting good reviews.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 10:43 AM (TAkZ9)
Unlike the play, which had one of the stupidest plots I've ever seen. I know she's doing something right, because she's made all that money, but I wish she'd stop contradicting her own canon.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 10:54 AM (uwdBe)

163 Just spent most of the last year getting through The Divine Comedy. It's definitely a challenging read, but really beautiful and highly rewarding.

Posted by: Browncoat formerly known as Mike at October 30, 2016 10:56 AM (o38N1)

164 Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 10:52 AM (LzMzD)

Celtic pagan holiday. Probably would have involved some of that people-burning they were so fond of.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 10:57 AM (GDulk)

165 @BFM, 154: Isn't it funny how you can see some train wrecks coming, in slow motion? Some people (and some marriages) you can just pick out and say, "that's going to be a disaster" and be proven utterly, inarguably correct.

I investigated paganism years ago, back when I realized I was living in a spiritual desert and needed something more. Wicca, Asatru and others including Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Gnostic Christianity, Hindusim, and other such creeds alien to my neck of the woods. Wanted to make an informed choice, you know?

I realized neo-paganism was garbage when I figured out that, silly old names and rituals aside, it was theologically unsustainable. All pagan beliefs are supposed to be equally valid, so contradictions are ignored (lame) or subsumed into a greater spiritual whole. And if all gods are really aspects of one divinity, that's just monotheism. There was no intellectual rigor at all.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:57 AM (2ilh7)

166 Samhain is one of the four cardinal celebration of the Celts/Gauls. In Britain it was Samhain, Bel, Lugsnard and one other.

Samhain is tied up with the Wild Hunt, and bringing the cattle in between bonfires to purify them for the winter, and feasting in cemeteries to honor the dead.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 10:58 AM (wxBiU)

167 I wasn't fond of Harry Potter, which I found derivative, but the new movie actually looks interesting.

Does it slag Americans, or introduce an evil McCarthyite and/or religious group bent on persecuting otherkin? I know I'm being sensitive but I'm sick of being mish-mashed at the movies.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 10:58 AM (EnKk6)

168 Yeah, Julius Caesar was all against human sacrifice but back when he was a work-a-day politician he put on such lavish gladitorial games (to attract voters) that a law was passed forbidding any more such blood-soaked games.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 10:59 AM (Nwg0u)

169 "That actually sounds pretty funny. Do you still have it stashed away somewhere?"

Oh, I never wrote it. It was a fit of teenage arrogance, redoing Dante. I never even read the entire original.

Good idea, though. Maybe I can do it one day. If I'm really ambitious, I'll even try it in rhyme. Inferno is a poem in the original Italian, isn't it?

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:59 AM (2ilh7)

170 Celtic.

OT but reminded me of the contradiction.

Cleveland Indians name insulting but Boston Celtics name indifferent.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 11:00 AM (TAkZ9)

171 Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 10:57 AM (2ilh7)

I would describe real paganism as the worship of anthropomorphized forces of nature. As such, it is a logical advance from animism which worships (more accurately, attemprs to pacify) the force in its primal state.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 11:01 AM (GDulk)

172 Hubby and I rarely have disagreements but when we do it is easily resolved. He is an accountant and I'm an engineer so we break it down analytically and sort it out. Boring I suppose relative to the drama of screaming, crying and storming out of the house in a huff. Lol.

Posted by: IC at October 30, 2016 11:01 AM (gcme+)

173 There is nothing intrinsically stupid about Samhain, but I find the overly enthusiastic "Wiccans" who go about wishing everyone a blessed Samhain to be irritating as hell.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2016 11:01 AM (znkWW)

174 imbolc is the other, when the sheep start lactating or something.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 11:02 AM (wxBiU)

175 156 Re: S.M. Stirling, some books I love and some I fling at the wall. He writes well but is a leetle too fond of torture, and when he goofs up it is epic. Dies the Fire
ended with book 1 for me. You cannot have, in the same book, airplanes
falling like Acme bricks from the sky when their engines die, and then
later have hanggliders that DO work. Aerodynamics, m**f**r, do you speak
it?? On the other hand In the Courts of the Crimson Kings is
pretty much a perfect planetary romance. He can't be too much of a
raging lib. The first Nantucket book has some Noble Savage-believing SJW
types come to a very sticky end when they try to apologize to the
Olmecs in South America. It was glorious, and involved jaguars.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 30, 2016 10:50 AM (SuJIo)

He did have the character do a dead stick landing in a mountain stream. That wasn't too much of a stretch as far as falling out of the sky. As to the liberal parts of the book in Nantucket book, how about the black lesbian Coastguard ship captain and the blond primitive from Great Britain having a torrid romance? But yes, it appears he doesn't have much use for ignorant "greens".

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 30, 2016 11:02 AM (mpXpK)

176 Cleveland Indians name insulting but Boston Celtics name indifferent.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 11:00 AM (TAkZ9)
---
And don't get me started on the Notre Dame leprechaun mascot. Portraying the Irish as pugnacious drunk gingers is a vicious slur!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 11:03 AM (EnKk6)

177 Environmentalists were in one ring of hell in Niven-Pournelle's Inferno.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 30, 2016 11:03 AM (VdICR)

178 "Julius Caesar was all against human sacrifice but..."

Call me crazy, but being stuck inside a wicker man and set on fire seems very different from participating in a blood sport where losers usually survived.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 11:03 AM (2ilh7)

179 Celtic pagan holiday. Probably would have involved some of that people-burning they were so fond of.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 10:57 AM (GDulk)

Ever seen The Wicker Man? Freaky stuff. The Celts were big into human sacrifice, not usually burning, but they did do a lot of strangling and dropping the bodies into bogs. Actually they dropped a lot of things into bogs. Excalibur was probably just another mundane offering to the gods for them.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 11:04 AM (uwdBe)

180 *ponders a new word - fadigion*

Fadigion - the beliefs that are popular right this moment. Forgotten next week or next year. Unless you went got yourself tattooed blue. Woad unto you then.

Just avoid Celts and Picts lurking in the shrubbery during their holy days least one ends up in a bog.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 11:04 AM (aSWjs)

181 If you like looking at the sexy/funny cosplay photos from Comic-Con and Dragon-Con, raise a glass to Forrest J. Ackerman. At the very first World SF Convention, way back in 1939, young Forrie showed up in a home-made Lensman costume, thereby inaugurating the custom of costuming at SF conventions.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2016 11:05 AM (JAytS)

182 Hubby and I rarely have disagreements but when we do it is easily resolved. He is an accountant and I'm an engineer
Posted by: IC at October 30, 2016 11:01 AM (gcme+)

Heh. You two must be a real hoot at parties. "Hey everybody, watch me balance this column of figures. Woo hoo!"

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:05 AM (LzMzD)

183 Got about 800 pages left in Shelby Foote's "Civil War" trilogy

-
Normally being 800 pages from the other end would not be cause for celebration but that means you're more than 2/3 through.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:05 AM (Nwg0u)

184 "Portraying the Irish as pugnacious drunk gingers is a vicious slur!"

A little truth in every jest.

Seriously, going after sports mascots is the worst kind of white knighting.

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2016 11:06 AM (bQxkN)

185 Catch everyone on the flip-side, work beckons.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 30, 2016 11:06 AM (aSWjs)

186 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:05 AM (Nwg0u)

Training manual?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 11:06 AM (TAkZ9)

187 Wiccanism only makes sense once you realize that the believers are still hoping to figure out how to cast Fireball for real.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2016 11:07 AM (JAytS)

188 Ever seen The Wicker Man?

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper at October 30, 2016 11:04 AM (uwdBe)

Note: you want to watch the original one, not the remake with Nicholas Cage.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:07 AM (LzMzD)

189 About St. Patrick: Thomas Cahill has writing six books, "The Hinges of History", on the gift-givers of Western civilization.

The first book, in 1995, was "How the Irash Saved Civilization". I saw the title and said "Whaaat? This I've gotta see."

It starts describing the body of a young man found well-preserved in an Irish bog. He was evidently a willing human sacrifice -- raised for the purpose, without blemish, and told how important his killing would be for his people.
He has no scars or calluses, he had rope marks around his neck of three coils of a three-fold cord, and his expression was serene.

Patrick told the Irish (as Christian missionaries tell many pagan peoples) not to kill their most beautiful children, because a better sacrifice had already been made. This was joyous Good News.

How did the Irish save civilization? While the Irish were studying Western Civ. as curated by the Church, the Vandals were sacking Europe and burning libraries. Eventually, Irish missionaries went to Europe, carrying Plato and Aristotle along with their Bibles, and rebooted.

Other books cover Jews, the Greeks, the Romans (and the Jews & Greeks under them), the middle ages, and the renaissance.

Posted by: Whiggish Boffin at October 30, 2016 11:09 AM (zeLee)

190 This is all you need from the Nick Cage remake of The Wicker Man:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1GadTfGFvU

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 11:09 AM (EnKk6)

191 There was just an expert on Fox News who said that late in campaigns there is always allegations of corruption
==========================

Isn't it terrible how the Propaganda Press is taking this corruption so casually?

It's the whole motivation behind the "Trump phenomenon" they all profess to want to understand, but really don't give a shit about.

Posted by: MTF at October 30, 2016 11:09 AM (/m8T6)

192 "Got about 800 pages left in Shelby Foote's "Civil War" trilogy
"

I have that sitting right on top of my small stack of books.

Worth reading?

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:09 AM (d76uN)

193 Aargh:
"has writing " should be "has written"
"Irash" should be "Irish"

Posted by: Whiggish Boffin at October 30, 2016 11:11 AM (zeLee)

194 Has anyone read Shattered Sword about the battle of Midway?

-
I loved it. When I read, I want to smell the aviation fuel, see the flaming ships, and hear the agony of men. This book gives the down and dirty on carrier operations at this point in the war, primarily from the Japanese perspective, and gives the blow-by-blow (insert Monica joke here) and bomb-by-bomb story of what happened.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:12 AM (Nwg0u)

195 Vic, I was thinking of the bit with the airport ringed with crashed planes. Because no pilot would *ever* try to glide away from a high-population area, even if they couldn't find a place to land, right? A few on approach, maybe. Helicopters, *definitely*. But not every single plane coming to a screeching halt and dropping in midair. They glide quite well.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 30, 2016 11:12 AM (SuJIo)

196 Read Basketfull of Crap (Hard Luck Hank #2) where Hank is hired by two stabby female aliens to find a similar female alien, who's boarded the space station with a powerful weapon. There's also a man (who is always naked) hiring him for various jobs. Another fun comic adventure with explosions, gunfire, stabbings (as mentioned) and various corpses lying around.

Also read The Black Echo (Harry Bosch #1) by Michael Connelly. As a fan of the Bosch police series on Amazon streaming I was happy that it matched up with the books pretty well. Bosch is a smart L.A. detective who is in hot water with his bosses, and here a corpse found in a drainage pipe next to a dam leads to all sorts of intrigue. Very entertaining book, look forward to reading more in the series.

Read Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale written about 1609, which is an odd duck. It starts tragically much like the finale of Othello, then turns into a mostly sunny comedy reminiscent of As You Like It. Very good characters and beautifully written, as you'd expect in one of his mature works.

Posted by: waelse1 at October 30, 2016 11:12 AM (RFlOs)

197 >>>Others use figures of immense size whose limbs, woven out of twigs, they fill with living men and set on fire, and the men perish in a sheet of flame.

Sounds like the Wicker Man.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 30, 2016 11:12 AM (dtWKK)

198 A little more in re: modern "pagans" by C.S. Lewis

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cliche-came-out-of-its-cage/

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2016 11:13 AM (JAytS)

199
Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:09 AM (d76uN)

It's incredible well worth reading, if you are really, really interested in The Late Unpleasantness and really, really like to read.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2016 11:13 AM (znkWW)

200 I have spent many a night camping on the banks of the Oconee and hunting beaver.

-
With Trump?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:14 AM (Nwg0u)

201
Got about 800 pages left in Shelby Foote's "Civil War" trilogy

-

Normally being 800 pages from the other end would not be cause for celebration but that means you're more than 2/3 through.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:05 AM (Nwg0u)

Went thru the first 2 books pretty quickly, since I know how it ends, I can only do about 20 pages at a time.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 11:14 AM (9RGU3)

202 If anyone is looking for a fast airplane read, Dark Matter was enjoyable. I picked it up on a whim. High lit it is not, but brain candy is good every once in awhile.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at October 30, 2016 11:14 AM (gppsv)

203
I've never seen an issue, but "Famous Monsters of Filmland" is one of those SF/movie things that (almost) everyone knows about.
Posted by: BeckoningChasm

Used to buy those at the drugstore. Many many years ago.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at October 30, 2016 11:14 AM (IqV8l)

204 I would describe real paganism as the worship of
anthropomorphized forces of nature. As such, it is a logical advance
from animism which worships (more accurately, attemprs to pacify) the
force in its primal state.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2016 11:01 AM (GDulk)

I loved Randall Garrett's rules for magic from the Lord Darcy series. Contagion, Similarity and Divine Action.

I wish he had written about a clash between Western magic and Cargo

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 11:15 AM (wxBiU)

205 "Wasn't he one of the thinly veiled characters in Fallen Angels? Like they had to raid his collection for something?

Posted by: All Hail Eris,"

I was wondering the same thing .... guess I'll have to dig that book out and look .... and try to remember to pass the word back.

Posted by: the deplorable sock_rat_eez, stay calm and carry on at October 30, 2016 11:15 AM (Z8DIA)

206 Read "Standing The Final Watch" by William A. Webb last Sunday after the recommendation on the book thread (Dingbat Publishing) last week. Good book, plenty of conspiracy theories and very right wing. During this President's term I moved from being an anti-conspiracy to "yeah that sounds about right". Hope this author gets the next book out soon.

Posted by: drunkineastmesa at October 30, 2016 11:15 AM (RftOb)

207 Just Read the first Bob Lee Swagger book Point of Impact, the book which the film "Shooter" was very loosely based upon. It was okay but flawed by Hunter turning Swagger into a superman who does no wrong and conquers everything in every situation and every context. Overall its pretty good but too much.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:16 AM (39g3+)

208 you want to watch the original one, not the remake with Nicholas Cage.

The original one was pretty lame too, but it wasn't as awful as the remake.

There's a book by Stephen R. Lawhead called Patrick: Son of Ireland. Its a bit odd, blending Druidism and Christianity with fantasy elements but it is a very entertaining book. Lawhead's Pendragon books were better, I thought.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:18 AM (39g3+)

209 Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2016 11:13 AM (znkWW)

I guess I have something to start on after finish what I'm reading now.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:18 AM (d76uN)

210 We Are the Fallen - Samhain

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGGBSL0jJ50

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-CHMcswH9I
(live version, not as good, but you get to listen to the cute Celtic lass singer with horrible arm tattoos.)

Posted by: a T-Rex trying to rub one out at October 30, 2016 11:20 AM (x9oEV)

211 Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:18 AM (d76uN)

Oh, you have something to start on alright, and it should last you a good long time.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2016 11:21 AM (znkWW)

212 I thought people would be happy that the Horde's favorite author, Dan Brown's latest book to movie effort is a flop.

-
Mrs. Wrecks and I saw it last night. She really liked it. I didn't feel cheated. I'm a bit of a Divine Comedy fanatic, though, and there's really not much Dante in it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:21 AM (Nwg0u)

213 207 Just Read the first Bob Lee Swagger book Point of Impact, the book which the film "Shooter" was very loosely based upon. It was okay but flawed by Hunter turning Swagger into a superman who does no wrong and conquers everything in every situation and every context. Overall its pretty good but too much.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:16 AM (39g3+)

That's who Swagger is. Like Jack Reacher. My favorite Hunter book is Dirty White Boys. All of the characters are flawed if that's one of your criteria.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 11:22 AM (TAkZ9)

214 (Off-topic but funny) Dr. Mrs. T. pointed out this morning that Anthony Wiener's continued survival is pretty good proof that Hillary doesn't have people murdered.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2016 11:24 AM (JAytS)

215 The later books, Swagger is a bit less godlike. In fact, for the first third of the book, Swagger is more ordinary and human. He makes mistakes, is very humble and seems like guys I've known before. Then he turns into Super Sniper, the Man Who Does No Wrong and always is one step ahead.

I agree, Reacher is the same way, and the only thing that makes it tolerable is how brilliant he is, so its interesting to see how he works things out. But I'm kinda tired of him too.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:25 AM (39g3+)

216 Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2016 11:13 AM (JAytS)

Thank you, that's a very interesting poem. I had never seen it before.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:25 AM (I6nJw)

217 I am loath to read Mars/Venus as I don't like my beautifully complex brain cocktail being pigeon-holed.

-
I once took a Rorschach ink blot test. My answers were beer, pussy, beer, beer, pussy . . .

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:25 AM (Nwg0u)

218 For all you Krazy Katz eager to get back on the 'Twin Peaks' craze I just finished the new Mark Frost offering: 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks', and I have to say, although I admired all FBI craftiness within the pages, the book is a mish-mash of salads. There are so many outside forces pushing and pulling that I was surprised the 'the Grinch' - yup the green fellow on top of the hill - was not included as part of the lore. Aliens, Aleister Crowley, JFK, hells gates, L. Ron Hubbard and you guessed it, Richard Nixon are all tied in to what can only unravel as a restaurant of everything with very little that is actually tasty. As Da Vinci said it, 'the means of expression can become so exquisite, the effect is lost.' A lot has been lost.

Posted by: Bonedaddi at October 30, 2016 11:26 AM (dE9Jm)

219 This past week I've been reading Paul Johnson's book _The Birth of the Modern_. It's a detailed cultural/political history of the period just after Waterloo, which he identifies as the point where all the elements of modernity got locked into place. Fun book, with lots of gossipy who-slept-with-who asides.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2016 11:27 AM (JAytS)

220 Mars/Venus actually was very insightful. He doesn't really jam people into boxes so much as very brilliantly show tendencies and general trends with men and women.

Such as: women work face to face, focused on relationship
Men work side by side, focused on goals.

That's not exclusive to either, its not always the case, and its not true in every single instance, but it is generally very accurate. In fact, its nearly always true of men and women.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:27 AM (39g3+)

221 217 I am loath to read Mars/Venus as I don't like my beautifully complex brain cocktail being pigeon-holed.

-
I once took a Rorschach ink blot test. My answers were beer, pussy, beer, beer, pussy . . .
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:25 AM (Nwg0u)

my answer is always cervix, cervix , cervix...

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at October 30, 2016 11:28 AM (TAkZ9)

222 Maybe I'll read Red river to Appomattox first. I kind of have an idea how the story ends but I'll check, just to make sure.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:28 AM (d76uN)

223 I ran across the Lewis poem first at John C. Wright's blog. Wright is a science fiction/fantasy writer and an adult convert to Catholicism from atheism.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 30, 2016 11:29 AM (JAytS)

224 Posted by: Bonedaddi at October 30, 2016 11:26 AM (dE9Jm)

Bonedaddi! Nice to see you on the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:30 AM (I6nJw)

225 >>>They believe, in effect, that, unless for a man's life a man's life be paid, the majesty of the immortal gods may not be appeased; and in public, as in private life they observe an ordinance of sacrifices of the same kind.

I've sometimes wondered if the human sacrifice that existed in many cultures came from the fallacy of affirming the consequent. That's where you have a true statement like "if it is a dog, it has four legs" and you incorrectly think "if it has four legs, it is a dog". That is obviously false, but given the true statement "if I want something of great value, I must pay a great price", superstitious people may have thought "if I pay a great price (a human life), then I will get something of great value (a good harvest)".

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 30, 2016 11:31 AM (dtWKK)

226 Even though Stirling is a raging liberal he doesn't let it interfere with the books

"Dies the Fire" should've been called "Wicca is So Amazing, Guys".

What an unremitting piece of shit that was.

One of the few books I never read to the end.

Posted by: alternate viewpoint at October 30, 2016 11:32 AM (8OYMp)

227 I need to take my dog, Edgar Allen Poe, to Mr. del Toro's library and post him on Poe's lap for a photo. That would be perfect.

Posted by: biancaneve at October 30, 2016 11:32 AM (IKOfL)

228 226.
Liked it a lot. Didn't care for the appearance of the 2 women from the Nantucket series who had been taken back 3 thousand years in that series and then returned as gods, spirits, whatever in DTF to help ???. Too tired to remember the head wiccans name.
Lost me when they killed off Mike in the 3rd or 4th book.

Posted by: never enough caffeine at October 30, 2016 11:36 AM (wV8s/)

229 I once took a Rorschach ink blot test. My answers were beer, pussy, beer, beer, pussy . . .

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:25 AM (Nwg0u)

This is disturbing.

The fourth one is clearly breasts.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 30, 2016 11:38 AM (Zu3d9)

230 I've sometimes wondered if the human sacrifice that existed in many cultures came from the fallacy of affirming the consequent.

I think it was a result of a chain of logic: Powerful people take and get what they want. Gods are more powerful than people. Therefore gods have everything they want, so we have to give them something they don't presently have.

Also, this is dear to me, and special, so giving it up demonstrates my loyalty and adoration to the gods, which they will respond positively to.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:38 AM (39g3+)

231 "Got about 800 pages left in Shelby Foote's "Civil War" trilogy
"

I have that sitting right on top of my small stack of books.

Worth reading?

-
I loved it. He calls it a narrative rather than a history and that is what it is. He tells you what happened with little analysis. He is a very good writer who has a talent for including much information in few words.

P.S. Foote was an officer in WWII but was court martialed and dismissed for being AWOL and falsifying documents to borrow a truck to visit a girlfriend. He later enlisted in the Marines but never saw combat.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:43 AM (Nwg0u)

232 "if I pay a great price (a human life), then I will get something of great value (a good harvest). "

People still make that mistake in thought.

It also touches on why Christianity, which admitted the value of human sacrifice but applied its supposed benefits to everyone ahead of time based on the identity of the victim, was appealing to such cultures. It's like finding out your future debts have already been paid, so long as you show up to church.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 11:43 AM (2ilh7)

233 "The Life and Death of Anthony Weiner" should be a good read. As soon as the final chapter is written.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:44 AM (d76uN)

234 "The Life and Death of Anthony Weiner" should be a good read. As soon as the final chapter is written.
Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:44 AM (d76uN)

he can some of the last chapters when he is in Federal Lock up...if he get's there alive?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 11:46 AM (dELE3)

235 "The Life and Death of Anthony Weiner" should be a good read. As soon as the final chapter is written.

SOON.

Posted by: Hillary! at October 30, 2016 11:46 AM (IcT7t)

236 >>>"The Life and Death of Anthony Weiner" should be a good read. As soon as the final chapter is written.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:44 AM (d76uN)<<<

Buy my new "Killing Weiner"!!! Don't buy that other crap. I'm just looking out for you folks.

Posted by: Bill O'Really at October 30, 2016 11:46 AM (x9oEV)

237
What am I reading? AoS, outside at a cafe on the sand in Santa Barbara. Raint morning, so I can't quite see Catalina.

Tell you what, the homeless in SF are idiots. This is where you want to be! (and many are)

Posted by: CNN at October 30, 2016 10:18 AM (wWwKk)

That would be Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands.

Catalina is much further to the southeast and isn't visible.

And most of those SB bums aren't homeless. They live in those ratty RVs that are parked in the beach parking lots and along Cabrillo Blvd on the beach. They're constantly moving them to avoid being ticketed.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 11:47 AM (LuZz8)

238 "Also, this is dear to me, and special, so giving it up demonstrates my loyalty and adoration to the gods, which they will respond positively to."

This is how it was in the ancient Middle East, at least, and part of the background behind the story of the Binding of Isaac. Child sacrifice was a thing in ancient Canaan. Willingness to sacrifice one's only male child to the gods (God) was a strong statement of loyalty and belief (I may have read once that 'only sons' were exempt from such rituals), but to have the gods (God) turn you away because only dedication, not blood, is required would have been a powerful message.

The Bible has great stories in it, with deep meaning. It's too bad so few people look very hard anymore.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (2ilh7)

239 233 "The Life and Death of Anthony Weiner" should be a good read. As soon as the final chapter is written.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:44 AM (d76uN)

Working on it!

( *cackles* )
( *hic!* )
( *sharts* )
( *falls down* )

Posted by: Hillary! at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (I6nJw)

240 232 . It's like finding out your future debts have already been paid, so long as you show up to church.
Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 11:43 AM (2ilh7)

If showing up to church is what gets your debts paid, it's not Christianity.

Posted by: Emmie at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (xVuS6)

241 Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 11:46 AM (dELE3)

Until I have better info, my opinion of Mr. Danger is this.

His political career, including the HoR, has been one of being a pure stooge for smarter people. He has been used and abused just so he could sit at the cool kid table.

I don't think he will serve a day in the fed pen. I don't think he has the intelligence to understand just how bad he has been used.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (d76uN)

242
229
I once took a Rorschach ink blot test. My answers were beer, pussy, beer, beer, pussy . . .

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:25 AM (Nwg0u)

This is disturbing.

The fourth one is clearly breasts.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 30, 2016 11:38 AM (Zu3d9)

I always had a vision of doing one of those Rorschach tests and just saying "ink blot" over and over.....

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (LuZz8)

243 Buy my new "Killing Weiner"!!! Don't buy that other crap. I'm just looking out for you folks.

Posted by: Bill O'Really at October 30, 2016 11:46 AM (x9oEV)

Hey, I looked up "self-promoting blowhard" in a dictionary and saw your picture.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (9RGU3)

244 How appropriate.

Hillary to the barrel. Stay away from the good stuff!

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:50 AM (d76uN)

245 Hmmm. I closed those italics the way I usually do. Wonder what went wrong?

Posted by: Emmie at October 30, 2016 11:50 AM (xVuS6)

246 Some Moron last week recommended the SPQR series of Ancient Roman mysteries. I read the first and liked it so well I have begun the second.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:50 AM (Nwg0u)

247 Posted by: Hillary! at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (I6nJw)

I've been waiting for you....

Posted by: The Barrel at October 30, 2016 11:51 AM (3Liv/)

248 Until I have better info, my opinion of Mr. Danger is this.

His political career, including the HoR, has been one of being a pure stooge for smarter people. He has been used and abused just so he could sit at the cool kid table.

I don't think he will serve a day in the fed pen. I don't think he has the intelligence to understand just how bad he has been used.
Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (d76uN)

Honestly I don't give a rat's ass what happened to weiner, except the worse the better. Call me a bigot ( I've been called worse) but any Jew who marries into a ISIS family is dead to me

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 11:51 AM (dELE3)

249
OregonMuse, you can't sneak your way out of The Barrel by using your cob-logger privilege.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 11:51 AM (LuZz8)

250 lovely to be here! My favorite read Sunday mornings!

Posted by: Bonedaddi at October 30, 2016 11:52 AM (dE9Jm)

251 >>>Hey, I looked up "self-promoting blowhard" in a dictionary and saw your picture.
Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (9RGU3)<<<

Really. I'd have bet that would have been MeAgain Kelly.

Hiiiiiiiiyoooooooooo!

Posted by: D. Trump at October 30, 2016 11:52 AM (x9oEV)

252 In that first chess thread painting, the devil creature looked to me like a Rorschach blot.

Posted by: Emmie at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (xVuS6)

253 Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 11:51 AM (dELE3)

That's not a prob NGU.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (d76uN)

254 I don't think he will serve a day in the fed pen. I don't think he has the intelligence to understand just how bad he has been used.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (d76uN)

You don't think Hillary is going to turn him into a fall guy? It seems to me that Weiner (whom I agree is not real smart) is precisely the kind of underling that's going to get thrown under the bus to protect the higher-level miscreants from the consequences of their criminal behavior.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (I6nJw)

255 I think a biography of Hillary Clinton -- the real story -- would be a fascinating and horrifying read.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (39g3+)

256 "The Life and Death of Anthony Weiner" should be a good read. As soon as the final chapter is written.

-
The low rent version is Humdinger and the Wienie Wagger.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (Nwg0u)

257
Anyone else waiting with bated breath for the Gun Thread and the Postal Match results?

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (LuZz8)

258 In that first chess thread painting, the devil creature looked to me like a Rorschach blot.
Posted by: Emmie at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (xVuS6)

And in color!

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:54 AM (I6nJw)

259 I always had a vision of doing one of those Rorschach tests and just saying "ink blot" over and over.....
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 11:49 AM (LuZz

You can see the clip of the Inkblot test from The Ninth Configuration on YouTube

"You wouldn't know Kafka from Bette Davis"

Posted by: Kindltot at October 30, 2016 11:54 AM (wxBiU)

260 What has been seen cannot be unseen

*shifty eyes*

Posted by: The Barrel at October 30, 2016 11:54 AM (3Liv/)

261 I'm back from cooking lunch!

Wenda left a comment on my blog that She's doing nano and wants to know who else on the horde is?

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 11:54 AM (Om16U)

262 When will this fine blog start linking to www.Infogalactic.com rather than wikipedia articles? Support your friends, not your SJW enemies.

Posted by: Rolf at October 30, 2016 11:54 AM (Svg0k)

263 It wasn't you Emmie, it was the Boss Man.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:54 AM (d76uN)

264 going to a "surprise" Birthday party today for a left wing Jew....sigh

ONE word of praise for the FAB or some crap about Trump and I will get up and walk around the block to my Office.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 11:54 AM (dELE3)

265 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (39g3+)

Rosemary's Baby before Rosemary's Baby.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 11:55 AM (9RGU3)

266 OregonMuse, you can't sneak your way out of The Barrel by using your cob-logger privilege.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 11:51 AM (LuZz

Ha! Watch me!

( *moons Barrel* )

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:55 AM (I6nJw)

267 For a avowed military history buff, especially of Napoleoic, American Civil War, and WWII i have never gotten a Shelby Foote book. Something soured my interest in him. I did like him in the Burns series but no books from it.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 11:56 AM (sWbjH)

268 Its depressing, Hillary was such a cute little kid and look at what she turned into. She's responsible for her own life, but the radicals of the 60s have a lot to answer for. I hope God has built a new wing on hell just for them.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:57 AM (39g3+)

269 I looked into reviews of Cahill's 'Hinges of History' series.

For the Middle Ages and Renaissance books, people think he's preachy and insists on editorializing and complaining about modern issues, which many find irritating.

Some of the more damning reviews were by people who led by saying, "I study this period of history, and this is wrong." One guy is a specialist in the Reformation and said that Cahill was apparently aghast that Martin Luther wasn't a 21st century cosmopolitan New Yorker, and dismisses or condescends to his ideas and beliefs.

How can you be an effective historian if you cannot understand the people you're writing about? It's not like Martin friggin Luther is a mysterious cipher about which little is known.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 11:58 AM (2ilh7)

270 Even though Stirling is a raging liberal he doesn't let it interfere with the books

--

Was he always a liberal?

Because his Nantucket/Island in the Sea of Time and Draka books seemed right wing to me. And I enjoyed them.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 11:58 AM (Om16U)

271 Ha! Watch me!

( *moons Barrel* )
Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004

*posts pic of OregonMuse's ass to every social media outlet*

Not so much one for doing squats, eh?

Posted by: The Barrel at October 30, 2016 11:58 AM (mgbwf)

272 I'm currently re-reading Hondo by Louis L'Amour. Its part of my warm and fuzzy place to retreat to when the world gets to be too much. But you know, L'Amour's books are much better than people give them credit for, and his best books are truly great. Hondo is one of them.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:58 AM (39g3+)

273 Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM (I6nJw)

I agree with you OM. He will be set up as the fall guy.

However, I don't think it will stick when push comes to shove. He just doesn't have the ability to be anything more than a stooge and that any competent prosecutor will be able to bypass the bull and hype to get to the real criminals.

Carlos will probably go to the state pen for kiddie porn stuff.

So theres that.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:59 AM (d76uN)

274 Also I am evilly thinking to leave little notes in a couple of the Russian history books that if ever to be thrown away call ... ... .... to save this precious book.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 12:00 PM (sWbjH)

275 Carlos will probably go to the state pen for kiddie porn stuff.

So theres that.
Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:59 AM (d76uN)

Oh their gonna love his little ass there.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 12:00 PM (dELE3)

276 How can you be an effective historian if you cannot understand the people you're writing about?

I shall restrain myself lest I post a 50 page rant but... the inability of modern authors to write characters set in and part of their times enrages me to the point of wanting to destroy books. Even just one "modern girl in Victorian England defying the cultural conventions and dominating with grrl power" book is one too many.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:00 PM (39g3+)

277 "competent prosecutor"

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:59 AM (d76uN)

Yeah...about that..

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 12:01 PM (9RGU3)

278
266
OregonMuse, you can't sneak your way out of The Barrel by using your cob-logger privilege.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 11:51 AM (LuZz

Ha! Watch me!

( *moons Barrel* )

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 11:55 AM (I6nJw)

Never laugh at live dragons.

Posted by: Zombie J.R.R Tolkien at October 30, 2016 12:01 PM (LuZz8)

279 "If showing up to church is what gets your debts paid, it's not Christianity."

I'm not a Christian theologian, but isn't a personal relationship with God and taking responsibility for your salvation a post-Reformation thing? Ritual observance and obedience to the Church in matters spiritual was the standard in the Dark Ages when barbarians were being converted. Your salvation was up to the priesthood, not you.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 12:02 PM (2ilh7)

280 I'm not a Christian theologian, but isn't a personal relationship with God and taking responsibility for your salvation a post-Reformation thing?

Its straight outta Job. The Bible is steeped with it, but over the years many have been confused.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:03 PM (39g3+)

281 Yeah...about that..

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 12:01 PM (9RGU3)

What ever your opinion about the fat mans politics, he was a competent prosecutor. So would Guliani or Cruz.

I doubt very much anything but a death notice would happen is the skank is elected.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 12:04 PM (d76uN)

282 "Even just one "modern girl in Victorian England defying the cultural conventions and dominating with grrl power" book is one too many."

Time to write a book about a Victorian girl being transplanted to the modern world and succeeding and finding happiness using her traditional virtues and resilience to defy cultural conventions.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 12:05 PM (2ilh7)

283 I had the idea in high school to rewrite Dante's Inferno

-
That is similar to All the King's Men. Jack Burden finds redemption for his sins through suffering. Compare the first paragraph of All the King's Men with the opening Stanza of Inferno.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 12:05 PM (Nwg0u)

284 No one is going to think Weiner put those files there.
My first thought in the first chess picture was it was a alien. Devils or demons I usually think in the human form but with goat features more or less.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 12:06 PM (sWbjH)

285 I think a biography of Hillary Clinton -- the real story -- would be a fascinating and horrifying read.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 11:53 AM

in a just world, here's how it would end:

It's early November. Hillary's "inner circle" (except Huma, who was last seen boarding and Air Emirates flight heading east several days ago) has gathered to tell her that IT'S OVER: Trump has won / the FBI is here to arrest her (or both).

Hillary burst into a profanely racist tirade. Lamps, ashtrays, even a half empty bottle of vodka are thrown about the room.

Her ranting becomes less & less coherent; her eyes start to cross and she starts doing the "Shakey McRiverdance" spasms.

Everyone in the room turns and looks at Dr.Feelgood with his Magic Valium Stick.

Dr.Feelgood looks around the room, the he looks at Hillary. He weighs the Magic Valium Stick, shifting it from hand to hand.

Seconds pass.

Dr.Feelgood then turns back to the inner circle, smiles, and says

"How 'bout those Cubs?"

Posted by: AltonJackson at October 30, 2016 12:07 PM (KCxzN)

286
275
Carlos will probably go to the state pen for kiddie porn stuff.

So theres that.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois at October 30, 2016 11:59 AM (d76uN)

Oh their gonna love his little ass there.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 12:00 PM (dELE3)

Weiner strikes me as the flight-risk type, if it comes down to jail time. Which would be hilarious. I keep thinking of his chicken-neck and flapping his arms like wings as he runs down the middle of the street with court bailiffs in pursuit.

And as a side note, am I the only one who Weiner strikes as resembling Screech from Saved By The Bell's creepy older brother?

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2016 12:08 PM (LuZz8)

287 "Its straight outta Job."

Job is Old Testament. Jews *do* have to take responsibility for their own salvation. That's the entire point of Yom Kippur.

But the entire point of Christianity is that is no longer necessary, due to the sacrifice of Jesus.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 12:08 PM (2ilh7)

288 Hillary's response is to attack Comey including because Comey hasn't actually read the e-mails. CNN and WaPo are already saying Comey should go.

No one seems to be asking the obvious questions. Someone had to have read at least some of the e-mails. Who? And how did they describe them? Wouldn't this be part of the warrant request? The warrant request the DOJ may want to sit on?

Why doesn't Huma just speak publicly, if there's nothing to hide?

If a warrant issues quickly, can't the FBI issue by week-end a public characterization after reading x% of the e-mails?

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 30, 2016 12:09 PM (bQxkN)

289 Ethne, daughter of the High King, asks of Patrick:

Who is God?
And where is God?
Where is His dwelling?
Has He sons and daughters?
Is He rich in silver and gold?
Is He everlasting? Is He beautiful?
Are His daughters dear and lovely to the men of this world?
Is He on the heavens or on earth?
In the sea, in rivers, in mountains, in valleys?
Make Him known to us. How is He to be seen?
How is He to be loved? How is He to be found?
Is it in youth or is it in old age that He may be found?

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 12:09 PM (xIunr)

290 Well if weiner goes to the hoosegow, at least his healthcare will be covered

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 12:10 PM (dELE3)

291 Even just one "modern girl in Victorian England defying the cultural conventions and dominating with grrl power" book is one too many.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:00 PM (39g3+)

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO tired of this. It is so cliched and boring and predictable. There's always one of these anachronistic "grrl power" characters in period dramas, I just can't stand watching them.

And I'm tired of the whole "grrl power" trope, anway, regardless of the time period. No, a woman can't outperform and/or beat up a physically fit male. The number of occurrences of this happening in real life is smaller than a gnat's nut.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 12:10 PM (I6nJw)

292 This really isn't the place to discuss theology, but Christianity didn't start with Jesus. God has only had one plan, one system, and one way. Jews were saved by looking forward to Christ (through the sacrifices), just as we are by looking back to Christ (in his sacrifice) and forward to His return. Read Hebrews for details.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:11 PM (39g3+)

293 MarieKah

This too is the story of Bruce Jenner. Although I sometimes wonder if he was simply weak willed like Zelig, and got that way from his surroundings.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 30, 2016 12:11 PM (dtWKK)

294 And Patrick's reply:

God, whom we announce to you, is the Ruler of all things.
The God of heaven and earth, of the sea and the rivers.
The God of the sun, and the moon, and all the stars.
The God of the high mountains and of the low-lying valleys.
The God who is above heaven, and in heaven, and under heaven.
His dwelling is in heaven and earth, and the sea, and all therein.
He gives breath to all.
He gives life to all.
He is over all.
He upholds all.
He gives light to the sun.
He imparts splendour to the moon.
He has made wells in the dry land, and islands in the ocean.
He has appointed the stars to serve the greater lights.
His Son is co-eternal and co-equal with Himself.
The Son is not younger than the Father.
And the Father is not older than the Son.
And the Holy Ghost proceeds from them.
The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are undivided.
But I desire by Faith to unite you to the Heavenly King, as you are daughters of an earthly king.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 12:12 PM (xIunr)

295 Hillary's "inner circle"

-
Lowest circle of Hell? Satan will have to grow a fourth head to gnaw on Hilldog.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 12:12 PM (Nwg0u)

296 Well if weiner goes to the hoosegow, at least his healthcare will be covered
---
That's not going to make him feel any better about getting aids-raped

Posted by: Methos at October 30, 2016 12:13 PM (3Liv/)

297 OregonMuse #108: ...And speaking of long, weird stories, whatever happened to "mindful webworker"? Did he get banned, or just disappear?

There I was, lounging in bed, thinking I really ought to get up and feed the pets, when suddenly my ears were burning - as if someone, somewhere, was talking about me. Spooky, eh?

Not banned. Just been busy. Among other sorta-real-life activities, doing a weekly video turned out to be much more time-consuming that I anticipated.

Not-quite-bookish Hallowe'en note:

I did an old shaggy Gothic horror comic called The Beast with Four Heads which I "motion-ized" (not quite animated) in the latest video episode, "Party Time."

If you don't want to sit through the rest of it, you can skip to about 10:45 in the video.

At my site:
http://bit.ly/webworkshop-012

On YouTube if you must:
https://youtu.be/B729YbTUHBo

The original comic if you prefer (digital) print form:
http://bit.ly/tbw4hd

Is that long and weird enough for you, OM?

Posted by: mindful webworker - the beast goes on at October 30, 2016 12:13 PM (huES0)

298
I'm currently re-reading Hondo by Louis L'Amour. Its part of my warm and fuzzy place to retreat to when the world gets to be too much. But you know, L'Amour's books are much better than people give them credit for, and his best books are truly great. Hondo is one of them.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

That's my favorite John Wayne movie. Is the movie anything like the book?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at October 30, 2016 12:13 PM (IqV8l)

299 Gotta love the NY Post, they are our modern-day Police Gazette. Check out Drudge for the Happy HalloWeiner cover.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 12:13 PM (EnKk6)

300 BREAKING: DOJ, FBI In Discussions With Lawyers For Huma Abedin To Conduct Full Search Of New Emails

Weasel Zippers

I hope they are also telling huma, "feel like cutting a deal for your arab ass? Ya do know as we speak The FAB is laying it all on you!"

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 12:14 PM (dELE3)

301 BREAKING: DOJ, FBI In Discussions With Lawyers For Huma Abedin To Conduct Full Search Of New Emails

Weasel Zippers

I hope they are also telling huma, "feel like cutting a deal for your arab ass? Ya do know as we speak The FAB is laying it all on you!"
Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 12:14 PM (dELE3)

Would be a shame Huma if your kid grew up without either parent?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2016 12:16 PM (dELE3)

302 That's my favorite John Wayne movie. Is the movie anything like the book?

It is actually very close, yes. The book has more internal dialog and thought by Hondo, and explains better why people do what they do, but its a good film.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:17 PM (39g3+)

303 Flashback: Clinton cheered 11th hour indictment that doomed Bush re-election
=====
Keep this history in mind during the coming days when you hear
Democratic hacks talking about how awful it is for law enforcement
officials and/or prosecutors to "interfere" in the presidential election
process.

Posted by: Mortimer, deplorable at October 30, 2016 12:19 PM (zu88C)

304 299 AHE

>> Drudge Report

Pointed out to a friend of mine recently how much Drudge reminds me of Heinlein's "The Crazy Years" (Methuselah's Children).

Spooky.

(SWIDT?)

Posted by: ibguy at October 30, 2016 12:19 PM (vUcdz)

305 Speaking of horror novelists, for fun reads, Dean Kuntz is very good. He writes very pro-life novels; I don't mean anti-abortion (although I suslect he is); I mean the basic idea that human life has value. Check out One Door Away From Heaven, his comment on utilitarian bioethics. Compare to Robert J. Sawyer's Quantum Night

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 12:20 PM (Nwg0u)

306 >>>he who fears corruption fears life." - Saul Alinsky

If Hillary is elected, she'll remove "The Buck Stops Here" from the Resolute Desk and replace it with that. That's a keeper. Remember it whenever the left try to justify their positions using moral arguments. They don't really believe in morality.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 30, 2016 12:20 PM (dtWKK)

307 Only problem it won't be this but the next DA to charge Huma or Hillary, and the next could be the same as this.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 12:20 PM (sWbjH)

308 Time to write a book about a Victorian girl being transplanted to the modern world and succeeding and finding happiness using her traditional virtues and resilience to defy cultural conventions.

Or, a modern girl who goes back and learns maybe that isn't such a bad way to live.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:21 PM (39g3+)

309 Read piles of Louis L'Amour books as a teenager, love western movies to this day.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2016 12:23 PM (sWbjH)

310 308 Time to write a book about a Victorian girl being transplanted to the modern world and succeeding and finding happiness using her traditional virtues and resilience to defy cultural conventions.

Or, a modern girl who goes back and learns maybe that isn't such a bad way to live.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:21 PM (39g3+)

A reverse grrrrl power movie. The Victorian ladies she meets are appalled rather than inspired by her entitled, bitchy behavior and feminist bullshit, and eventually she comes around to their ways to her great surprise and happiness.

Posted by: Insomniac - Broken, No Refunds at October 30, 2016 12:26 PM (0mRoj)

311 "A reverse grrrrl power movie. The Victorian ladies she meets are appalled rather than inspired by her entitled, bitchy behavior and feminist bullshit, and eventually she comes around to their ways to her great surprise and happiness."

*scribbles notes to self on this for a YA aimed at tween girls*

I could work with this ... it would be fun, and I would have a far-out blast upending the modern feminist tropes, in favor of Victorian female power... and yes, there were a lot of powerful, hardworking and sometimes moderately wealthy women doing their own thing, way back then.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 30, 2016 12:29 PM (xnmPy)

312 311 "A reverse grrrrl power movie. The Victorian ladies she meets are appalled rather than inspired by her entitled, bitchy behavior and feminist bullshit, and eventually she comes around to their ways to her great surprise and happiness."

*scribbles notes to self on this for a YA aimed at tween girls*

I could work with this ... it would be fun, and I would have a far-out blast upending the modern feminist tropes, in favor of Victorian female power... and yes, there were a lot of powerful, hardworking and sometimes moderately wealthy women doing their own thing, way back then.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 30, 2016 12:29 PM (xnmPy)

Needs a scene where a proper Victorian lady slaps her in the face.

Posted by: Insomniac - Broken, No Refunds at October 30, 2016 12:31 PM (0mRoj)

313
Finished reading "The Westies". An ironic point based on tecent news was made near the end. The Upper West Side stomping grounds of the Westies has been gentrified since their heyday (70s - 80s) and now is referred to as "Clinton". Organized crime's roots run deep (I am aware that the Clinton family of NY was a force in politics of NY in the late 1700s - early 1800s and more than likely is the origin of the name).

Started reading Clavell's "Shogun". It'll be a slog.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Deplorable Cycling Stars (TM) at October 30, 2016 12:33 PM (fOgSR)

314 Both could learn from each other, but mostly the modern grrl would learn from the ladies of the time. And readers could learn it wasn't a repressive hellhole filled with sexual deviants.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

315 "Jews were saved by looking forward to Christ"

It was my understanding (based on a chat with a Christian theology student some years ago) that Jews are 'grandfathered in' by obedience to the original covenant with God, which is eternal.

The retroactive transformation of millennia of Jews into proto-Christians seems deeply condescending, not to mention ahistorical, and leaves modern Jews out entirely (Moses was saved by looking forward to a Christ he didn't imagine, but I'm not).

Oh well.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 12:36 PM (2ilh7)

316 "Needs a scene where a proper Victorian lady slaps her in the face."

A younger one.

Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 12:38 PM (2ilh7)

317
I went through our stock of paperbacks at our summer place to gather up books to donate to the "Stockings for Soldiers" effort here in Delaware. Out with Asimov items that I'll never re-read, adventure / action items and the like.

I volunteered at the S4S center last Tuesday. They are aiming to create personalized stockings for nearly 10,000 persons serving around the world. Apparently units' Chaplains or COs provide the list of names. It is an impressive effort. If they are open the evening of the election I intend to go there to be doing something uplifting, no matter what the projected outcome.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Deplorable Cycling Stars (TM) at October 30, 2016 12:39 PM (fOgSR)

318 >> "Jews were saved by looking forward to Christ"

Yeah, no.

Posted by: ibguy at October 30, 2016 12:39 PM (vUcdz)

319 I could work with this ... it would be fun, and I
would have a far-out blast upending the modern feminist tropes, in favor
of Victorian female power... and yes, there were a lot of powerful,
hardworking and sometimes moderately wealthy women doing their own
thing, way back then. Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 30, 2016 12:29 PM (xnmPy)
=====

STEM fields were big back in the day. Of my older friends, they, their mothers and grandmothers (mostly in the Midwest) got their degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, etc. Don't know about the repressive hellholes on the East Coast, but past the Appalachians, female education was a given -- and admired. My own kids have been so steeped in the 'feminist' nonsense, that they have no clue that women have been doing their own thing for many years and were respected and admired for it.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 30, 2016 12:40 PM (MIKMs)

320 The reverse grrrl power thing might work in my dream story idea.
It is a crosstown/crossworlds dream ...
Thanks guys!

I signed up for nano as vmom

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 12:43 PM (Om16U)

321 This week I read "The Noticer," by Andy Andrews, a morality tale where an old man named "Jones" periodically visits a small, coastal Alabama town and gently "counsels" the residents on the problems and pitfalls of their lives. A little schmaltzy, but good.

Also succumbed to a Book Bub freebie titled, "The Coalition," about an Italian, female sniper who takes out the (not-yet inaugurated) president during a speech in Denver. Rollicking good so far.

I'm also reading a page or two per night in "The Book of Mysteries," by Jonathan Cahn, a type of devotional that explains Jewish teaching, Hebrew language, as well as Greek word etymologies for believers. Definite recommendation. I'm a cradle Catholic with a couple evangelical BFFs who has never heard half of this stuff.

Posted by: SMOD 2016! at October 30, 2016 12:43 PM (joFoi)

322 From what I gather, Victorian prudery was a reaction to Regency excess. I think we will experience a pendulum swing back to more modest behavior (at least in public). Sleaze fatigue is a real thing and it is compounded by modern technology.

I immanentize the return by donning Victorian togs on occasion.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 12:44 PM (EnKk6)

323 A Pagan's reply to Patrick [translated by Frank O'Connor]:

The Praise of Fionn
Patrick you chatter too loud
And lift your crozier too high,
Your stick would be kindling soon
If my son Osgar stood by.

If my son Osgar and God
Wrestled it out on the hill
And I saw Osgar go down
I'd say that your God fought well,

But how could the God you praise
And his mild priests singing a tune
Be better than Fionn the swordsman.
Generous, faultless Fionn?

Just by the strength of their hands
The Fenians' battles were fought,
With never a spoken lie,
Never a lie in thought.

There never sat priest in church
A tuneful psalm to raise
Better spoken than these
Scarred in a thousand frays.

Whatever your monks have called
The law of the King of Grace
That was the Fenians' law
His home is their dwelling place.

If happier house than Heaven
There be, above or below
'Tis there my master Fionn
And his fighting men will go

Ah, priest, if you saw the Fenians
Filling the strand beneath
Or gathered in steamy Naas
You would praise them with every breath

Patrick, ask of your God
Does he remember their might,
Or has he seen east or west
Better men in a fight?

Or known in his own land
Above the stars and the moon
For wisdom courage and strength
A man the like of Fionn?

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 12:46 PM (xIunr)

324 I'm in one of the books you can see in Del Toro's library: <b>Horrors: 365 Scary Stories</b>.

And my library of SF/F/H first editions is considerably larger than Del Toro's. I need to finish the current round of cataloging so I can take some pics...

Posted by: Lawrence Person at October 30, 2016 12:50 PM (zPalU)

325 You use [brackets] for the minor coding here, Lawrence Person; italics, bold, underscore, and strike-through.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 12:56 PM (xIunr)

326 Started reading Clavell's "Shogun". It'll be a slog.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Deplorable Cycling Stars (TM) at October 30, 2016 12:33 PM (fOgSR)

It's been 30+ years, but I really enjoyed it.

Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 12:59 PM (9RGU3)

327 Maybe an image for a future book thread

http://tinyurl.com/jv8rasx

The Morgan library in Manhattan

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 01:00 PM (39g3+)

328 Thanks for the tip about "The Lion and the Cross" - takes care of a birthday present I'll be needing!

Posted by: Miley, Duchess of the Deplorable Standard Rednecks at October 30, 2016 01:00 PM (BcNLK)

329 Has anyone read Shattered Sword about the battle of Midway? I'm torn over getting it. It's supposed to have some interesting new insights. However the three star reviews tend to state it is good as a reference, the writing is uneven, and the authors are very "Look at our new information that discredits everyone else." The last part worries me the most. I've noticed that attitude seeping into a lot of newer histories and it is a major turn-off on wanting to read the book. I don't mind finding new info and having new ideas. I do want some humility from the author.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at October 30, 2016 09:49 AM (J70i0)

It is an excellent book, and I never got the impression of hubris from the authors in the actual book that you are seeing in the three-star reviews. This could by an eye-of-the-beholder thing, however; perhaps I did not see it because I wasn't looking for it with a gimlet eye.

The authors do an excellent job of tying Midway into the larger doctrinal and operational issues that ultimately doomed the Japanese navy in WWII. Really better than any other treatment of the battle from this perspective. Their discussion of the timeline of events is also detailed and well-written, with some revisions to 'tradition' but nothing too earth-shattering. Although it does wind up tying in nicely with the larger points they are making.

Posted by: HTL at October 30, 2016 01:01 PM (1EJIj)

330 I tried the sample of No Plot No Problem and it made me smile so I bought the book.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:02 PM (Om16U)

331 Krebs, like BignJames, I read that a lifetime ago but I remember liking it a lot.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:04 PM (Om16U)

332 "Proper" pagans still want to burn people alive in sacrifice, they just have different crimes they condemn people for.
Like creating vaccines; or GMOs; or having too big a carbon footprint; or being deniers; or committing microaggression; or . . .

Posted by: Sam at October 30, 2016 01:06 PM (x15d2)

333 A writer could make a nice career reworking those shorts into new media, combinations, etc. Lots of good plots and characters there.

Posted by: Jean at October 30, 2016 01:06 PM (2RVmA)

334 Chris Wallace says he got an email from Bret Baier re: Weiner has given FBI permission to search computer, no warrant needed.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:07 PM (Om16U)

335 Weiner has given FBI permission to search computer, no warrant needed.
Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:07 PM (Om16U)
---
Bet he posted a shirtless selfie with the laptop saying "Come and get it!".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 01:09 PM (EnKk6)

336 Weiner is a dish best served cold. (Or should I have saved that comment for the Food Thread?)

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 01:10 PM (xIunr)

337 Supposedly NYPD dug into Weiner's phone and found... emails, then contacted the FBI.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 01:10 PM (39g3+)

338 BTW, Votermom, do you have any questions about Toronto geography or landmarks or the like from your recent young-adults book review? I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 01:11 PM (xIunr)

339 Wee Tony Weinie
Singing like a canary

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:11 PM (Om16U)

340 Apparently Tony gave the FBI full access without needing a warrant. I think he might be miffed at Huma and Hillary for throwing him to the wolves.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 01:14 PM (39g3+)

341 Supposedly NYPD dug into Weiner's phone and found... emails, then contacted the FBI.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 01:10 PM (39g3+)

People were saying it yesterday , but to me it seemed far-fetched, but maybe this was a head-fake so that FAB can get cleared again (See?? It was nothing after all!!" ) and continue on her way to the coronation...

Someone tell me I'm wrong....

Posted by: JoeF. at October 30, 2016 01:15 PM (/frVi)

342 Yeah, andycanuck, where are the commie zombie enclaves so.I van steer clear?

We went to Toronto once when my youngest was a toddler. There was this really tall building with a glass floor at the top.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:16 PM (Om16U)

343 The one thing I really like in the Swagger books is that he wastes no opportunity to kick the left right in the pills. The way they respond to shooters, the characters, its just one long finger in the face of the radical left. One of them even has a sniper that kills alternate world versions of Jane Fonda and a bunch of other 60s radicals.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 01:16 PM (39g3+)

344 Except, JoeF., it has people thinking she's guilty as hell for the next week (including over the weekend with the Sunday news talk shows) until she has her "prearranged" clearance. And that doesn't do her alot of good especially when we all know that she is guilty.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 01:18 PM (xIunr)

345 Will take someone like Muldoon to rework it:

Wee Tony Weinie
Runs through the town
Upstairs, downstairs
In his night gown

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 30, 2016 01:19 PM (MIKMs)

346 I think if it weren't for the NYPD this would never have gotten out.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:20 PM (Om16U)

347 I think if it weren't for the NYPD this would never have gotten out.
I wonder if it was the chubby guy who likes flashing his butt?

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 01:21 PM (xIunr)

348 'How are they coming with that new bridge up North of the HWY 80 bridge?'

Sorry had to leave for a while. If you are talking about the one damaged by the truck fire I think it's done.

Posted by: freaked at October 30, 2016 01:26 PM (BO/km)

349 Posted by: BignJames at October 30, 2016 12:59 PM (9RGU3)

Shogun is one of his better books IMHO! But it is a lot of book!

Posted by: Hrothgar at October 30, 2016 01:28 PM (wCEn4)

350 Hai, Anjin-San!

Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 01:29 PM (xIunr)

351 I confess that I'm not fond of really long books. If it gets too long, I start getting impatient, even with a really good book. And many don't need to have been that long to begin with.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 30, 2016 01:31 PM (39g3+)

352 I wonder if it was the chubby guy who likes flashing his butt?
Posted by: andycanuck at October 30, 2016 01:21 PM (xIunr)

You, sir, are deplorable!

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 01:36 PM (Om16U)

353 You morons are all too young. I spent many a happy hour with the magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Monsters_of_Filmland

Posted by: rob at October 30, 2016 02:00 PM (UbFuh)

354 The person in the referenced pants needs to get a diaper change. Seen that way too many times on a toddler.

Posted by: Headless Body of Agnew at October 30, 2016 02:05 PM (FtrY1)

355 61
I would like to find some good post-apocalyptic fiction but most of what's out there is just survivalist crap.

Going up to the Trump rally in Greeley this afternoon.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at October 30, 2016 10:06 AM (U6f54)

==========
Take a look at he John Ringo zombie books, Under a Darkling Sky etc. of which the series name escapes me.

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad at October 30, 2016 02:12 PM (dIc3Q)

356 Shinyng man, here's a good post apocalyptic book by a certified Moron
http://preview.tinyurl.com/jkawek8

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 02:24 PM (Om16U)

357 Oops, shyning man

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 02:25 PM (Om16U)

358 I am watching I am Dave on Amazon prime, which is based on the 1963 book by Ann Holm about a 12 yo boy escaping a Bulgarian concentration camp.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 02:42 PM (Om16U)

359 Possibly. John Keel, author of "The Mothman Prophecies" (which is one of the most unnerving damn things I've ever read) studied paranormal phenomena & showed that throughout history people have been experiencing very similar phenomena, just filtered through their different cultural lenses. Jung wrote about that as well.
Posted by: jos

My Wife grew up where the Mothman appears, and people believe It.

My Grandma believed in Leprechauns and she said when she was a little girl she saw a Banshee combing her hair with her brush.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at October 30, 2016 02:53 PM (dKiJG)

360 Just read an astounding (to me) stat in Ada's Algorithm: In 1831, just 4,500 people in Scotland out of a total of 2.6 million people were entitled to vote. In Britain in its entirety - 13.1 million people - the electorate was only about 3 percent of adult males. Even after the Reform Act was passed there was a wealth qualification attached to the right to vote and the vast majority of men were excluded from voting by it.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at October 30, 2016 03:07 PM (EnKk6)

361 178 "Julius Caesar was all against human sacrifice but..."

Call me crazy, but being stuck inside a wicker man and set on fire seems very different from participating in a blood sport where losers usually survived.
Posted by: Apostate at October 30, 2016 11:03 AM (2ilh7)

I thought I read that the Gladiators used swords that were not sharp and they wanted superficial wounds that would bleed (good for shows) because they were too expensive too train and the food they ate gave them a layer of fat instead of muscle, Muscles didn't heal as fast.

So Jimmy know a good books about Gladiators? Seriously know any good books about Gladiators.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at October 30, 2016 03:17 PM (dKiJG)

362 #139

You might want to check out Niven and Pournelle's 'Inferno' and its sequel.

Posted by: Epobirs at October 30, 2016 03:26 PM (IdCqF)

363 Shogun is good, but Taipan is great. And check out King Rat. Set in a Japanese P.O.W. camp. Interesting tale, and shorter than his usual fare.

Posted by: eastofsuez at October 30, 2016 03:27 PM (oKO0e)

364 196 Read Basketfull of Crap (Hard Luck Hank #2) where Hank is hired by two stabby female aliens to find a similar female alien, who's boarded the space station with a powerful weapon. There's also a man (who is always naked) hiring him for various jobs. Another fun comic adventure with explosions, gunfire, stabbings (as mentioned) and various corpses lying around.

Posted by: waelse

I do LOVE me some Hank, such a fun read.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at October 30, 2016 03:28 PM (dKiJG)

365 Reading The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Great read that makes you admire and respect the greatest generation again. A simple yet hard sport of rowing made interesting by the character of those boys.

Posted by: Rgallegos at October 30, 2016 03:29 PM (59GQk)

366 Re: Ackerman.

It wasn't just books and small props that he had in his collection. He salvaged the Time Machine from Pal's production. It had been rusting and decaying in storage and he bought it and restored it. Used it for a Halloween show at his home.

Also used it for "Gremlins". If you remember at the beginning, the kid's uncle (dad?) was at an inventor's seminar. In the background you can see Ackerman aboard the time machine. Two cuts later, he's gone in a cloud of vapor.

Posted by: Captain Comic at October 30, 2016 03:57 PM (y3pjH)

367 Trivia: James Clavell (author of Shogun) also wrote the screenplay for the 1958 version of "The Fly."

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at October 30, 2016 04:50 PM (8mIih)

368 Massive crowd at Bill Clinton rally in NC
There could be more than 50 people!

https://twitter.com/SarahBlakeWBTV/status/792815878832287744

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 04:59 PM (Om16U)

369 Oops, wrong thread. Apologies!

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at October 30, 2016 05:00 PM (Om16U)

370 oops

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at October 30, 2016 05:15 PM (LzMzD)

371 I thought I read that the Gladiators used swords that were not sharp and they wanted superficial wounds that would bleed (good for shows) because they were too expensive too train and the food they ate gave them a layer of fat instead of muscle, Muscles didn't heal as fast.

So Jimmy know a good books about Gladiators? Seriously know any good books about Gladiators.

-
Good book: Gladiator: The Roman Fighter's [Unofficial] Manual by Phillip Matyszak. It is a written as guide to teach the young man considering a career in the arena what he should know. The author has written a number of these book former Roman legionaries, Greek Hoplites etc.

It is believed that in a typical show, between 10% and 25% of gladiators died (not counting the lunch time entertainment of Christians, criminals, and other undesireables being thrown o the lions or bears or what have you). Occasional shows would be to the death and certain criminals would be condemned to the sword meaning they could fight as gladiators for their lives but in no case could be allowed to live longer than a specified time, say one year.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I AM SPARTACUS! at October 30, 2016 07:17 PM (Nwg0u)

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