Sunday Morning Book Thread 05-27-2018

Library of Dr Weevil
(click to embiggen)

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Oh, and we've got a new category of readers, escaped oafs and oafettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, and publishing by people who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these art deco knock-offs, which should be taken out and shot.

Pic Note

Dr Weevil writes:

There are thousands more books elsewhere in the room and the rest of the apartment, which looks rather like an ant farm: I have to walk sideways to get between the shelves in many places. Note that revolving bookcases (can you spot all five in this picture?) really help if you want to be able to consult hundreds of volumes without getting out of your seat.

I like the revolving book stands. Also, in the upper left, sitting on the rocking chair on top of the revolving bookcase, you can see a stuffed he-pig and she-pig dressed in red, white, and blue: they were advertised as 'Mr and Mrs America' at the Shenandoah Valley antique store where Dr Weevil bought them.

A Muslim Sex Manual?

The Muslimah Sex Manual: A Halal Guide to Mind Blowing Sex by Umm Muladhat, and no, this is not a parody. I found out about it by being directed by I-forget-what to this article, Based Grandma Writes Sex Manual for Muslim Wives (30 Years of Marriage have Taught her a Thing or Two). Which links to The Definitive Guide to Halal & Haram Sex Acts (Muslims Like to F*** Too), which is quite a bit more detailed about sexual things that Muslims may or may not do.

I almost bought the book just out of curiosity, but balked at the $9.99 price tag for 87 pages. Steven Den Beste had longer blog posts. I'm guessing there's probably not much that's controversial or humorous about it, other than perhaps holding to the quaint notion that couples really ought to wait until marriage to start having sex. Which, come to think of it, is the norm for pretty much every culture in human history except the one we're living in now.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

A POACHER-TURNED-GAMEKEEPER is someone who changes their mind and begins to protect or campaign for something they once attacked.

Usage: A more perfect word to describe the GOPe's attitude toward ObamaCare can scarcely be imagined.

Giant Nerd Books

Nathan Huston, Owner, Giant Nerd Books

If you live in or near Spokane, WA, you might want to check out the Giant Nerd Books, which owner Nathan Huston says specializes in used books:

Ten years ago, [Huston] left his day job and launched into the book business full time.

“I got my start selling hot rod books at car shows,” he said. “Hot rods and pinup girls – everybody likes those.”

Indeed, his shop features an abundant selection of both genres. Tongue firmly in cheek, he said, “I’m promoting literacy in the Lilac City one dirty picture book at a time.”

Sounds like a moron-friendly shop. Read the whole thing for info about this bookstore. Unfortunately Giant Nerd Books doesn't have a real web site, only a FaceBook page.

Books By Morons

Andrew VanOrden says he's been a lurker here for years, but with ace calling for plugs/links to works by readers as an alternative to mainstream garbage last week, he thought this would be a good time to plug his apolitical, pulp-fantasy adventure, To Walk a Road of Ruin:

Saga, a vagabond gunfighter from Samarkand, and the rogue scholar Richter have spent their lives in search of fortune and dodging the consequences of their actions. When they accidentally unleash an ancient evil while robbing the wrong tomb, the pair find themselves in more trouble than they can handle. Alongside the aged thief Grail and the reticent knight Ialae, whose ties to the Church may yet set the Saga and Richter at each others throats, they must stay one step ahead of an Inquisition that would see them all in chains and try save their world from the undead horror their rival Kage now serves. Now they must find it in themselves to leave the path of least resistance to walk a road of ruin.

Available on Kindle or paperback.

___________

Moron author William Alan Webb's new novel, Jurassic Jail (Time Wars Book 1), is available for pre-order on Amazon. The release date is set for June 21, 2018. This novel is edited by 'ette author J. Gunnar Grey. William says:

I wrote this for anybody who loves a good spy thriller, murder mystery, Mad Max movie or Jurassic Park. Gunnar tells me it's over-the-top fun, so I'll take her word for it.

The Kindle price is $2.99.

Moron Recommendation

'Ette SandyCheeks recommends Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff. It's basically his autobiography, and he's led an interesting life:

As a college student he spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren't good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean’s office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.

He wanted to do things, not talk about them:

The friend's attitude of "being there for people" instead of just talking about it, resonated with Goff, who became a Christian, a lawyer (even though his business cards say "helper") and a man with an "office" at Disneyland's Tom Sawyer Island. It's free! He meets all his appointments there. It's a slim little book and well worth your time.

What stuck with me was Goff's way of looking at Christianity, esp. Bible study. He said as soon as he left one, he had forgotten everything, which made him question the usefulness of group study as opposed to reading on his own.

This struck me, too. Might I suggest an alternative explanation? People learn in different ways, and not all ways work with some people. Some learn best by seeing, some by hearing, some by doing. In a Bible study group, most of the learning is done by hearing, and if that's not Goff's learning style, it doesn't surprise me that he found he wasn't getting much from the group studies he attended.

Not that that detracts from what he's saying. But that biy may be more of a personal thing with him rather than a universal truth.

Also available in paperback.

___________

Moron fastfreefall writes:

A book I highly recommend to all is Robert D. Kaplan’s “Earning the Rockies”. The cover continues, “how geography shapes America’s role in the world”. In a nutshell, Kaplan offers a look at ourselves (Americans), past-present-future, through the prism of our geography. It’s an easy read, lots of great historical and geographical information as Mr Kaplan treks from New England to California, much of it along pioneer routes. He also offers some interesting perspectives and opinions as to the building of our country’s character.

This book resonated with me because my whole career, I’ve worked with multi-national partners and allies in the Defense world. Especially in the last 8 years, often as the only Amercian mil representative, whether working with Iraqis, or leading mobile training teams to multiple allied countries, or working with my Spanish and NATO associates daily, I’ve been constantly asked “Why are Americans like this or that?” Mr Kaplan helps put some words to thoughts that have percolated in my mind as I think of a good way to answer without saying that my one is answer is the only answer. The book also resonated with me because Kaplan, like me, thinks our country has been and continues to be a force for good in the world, warts and all.

Finishing this book lead me to a book Kaplan mentions, “The Year of Decision,1846” by Bernard DeVoto. Fascinating read so far.

Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World available on Kindle, paperback, and hardcover.

The Kindle price for The Year of Decision, 1946 is, at the time (Tues.) I'm typing this, 99 cents, but I don't know how longer it will last. 1846 is the year that the Mexican War started, the Mormons went to Utah, and immmigration to the western territories really took off.

___________

Moron fritzworth recommends Witchy Winter by D.J. Butler (the sequel to Witchy Eye), which he describes as "an original and satisfying tour-de-force of fantasy and alternate history." Also:

I thought that "Witchy Eye", its predecessor, was excellent and inventive -- and it is -- but 'Winter' pulls together a staggering amount of sources, background knowledge, and concepts to build an alternate-history world that echoes our own and yet is totally its own thing.

You can read the entire review here. The Amazon blurb calls it a 'brilliant Americana flintlock fantasy novel':

Sarah Calhoun paid a hard price for her entry onto the stage of the Empire’s politics, but she survived. Now she rides north into the Ohio and her father’s kingdom, Cahokia. To win the Serpent Throne, she’ll have to defeat seven other candidates, win over the kingdom’s regent, and learn the will of a hidden goddess—while mastering her people’s inscrutable ways and watching her own back.

In New Orleans, a new and unorthodox priest arises to plague the chevalier and embody the curse of the murdered Bishop Ukwu. He battles the chevalier’s ordinary forces as well as a troop of Old World mamelukes for control of the city and the mouth of the great Mississippi River. Dodging between these rival titans, a crew of Catalan pirates—whose captain was once a close associate of Mad Hannah Penn—grapples with the chevalier over the fate of one of their mates.

It is also available as a hardcover edition.

___________

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: OregonMuse at 08:55 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 I hold the threads!

--- Eris II, God Empress of Dune

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 08:47 AM (qJtVm)

2 My next collection of short stories goes on sale on the 1st. Pre-order now!

https://tinyurl.com/yaenahj6

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at May 27, 2018 08:48 AM (u8L+n)

3 I'se here!

Posted by: Thanatopsis at May 27, 2018 08:48 AM (4favE)

4 God Emperor of Dune is SO bad! Why didn’t any of you bastards warn me?!

She pulled away her mask and moved her face to within a handsbreadth of his. A finger came up and touched one of the curled flaps of his cowl.

“Stroke it gently,” he said.

Pale blue drops began to form at the flap’s edge. Rich cinnamon smells enveloped them. She leaned toward the drops…

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 08:49 AM (qJtVm)

5 Yeah. What a nice library.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 08:50 AM (hyuyC)

6 !

Posted by: JT at May 27, 2018 08:50 AM (RCSTP)

7
Doc Weevil has too many books.

Clearly he needs a bigger place.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 27, 2018 08:50 AM (eM8BP)

8 I love those book towers, Dr. Weevil. I've never seen suchlike before.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 08:51 AM (qJtVm)

9 Tolle Legs
I'm still reading Treasons Harbor by Patrick O'Brien, I vowed to be done it by now and am 1/2 way but failed in my goal.

Posted by: Skip at May 27, 2018 08:51 AM (aC6Sd)

10 If my ceilings were higher, I'd put a rocker on my bookcase too.

Posted by: BignJames at May 27, 2018 08:51 AM (0+nbW)

11 Giant Nerd Books looks like a place I would frequent.

I prefer used books stores. You never know what your gonna find, which is half the fun.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at May 27, 2018 08:52 AM (EoRCO)

12 My wife and I are reading Love Worth Making

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 08:53 AM (JFO2v)

13 Giant Nerd Books in Spokane is definitely a moron-friendly shop. I was there a couple of months ago. Bought some stuff too.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 08:54 AM (9UFns)

14 4 God Emperor of Dune is SO bad! Why didn't any of you bastards warn me?!

She pulled away her mask and moved her face to within a handsbreadth of his. A finger came up and touched one of the curled flaps of his cowl.

"Stroke it gently," he said.

Pale blue drops began to form at the flap's edge. Rich cinnamon smells enveloped them. She leaned toward the drops...
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 08:49 AM (qJtVm)

======

I've been very slowly rereading it. It's a slog.

I like the thoughts on the nature of power, but in the middle of a science fiction book seems a weird place to put a couple dozen conversations about it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at May 27, 2018 08:54 AM (u8L+n)

15 From the muzzie sex book:

"How to be a freak in bed"

Oh that's easy! You do it like this:

zzzzzzzzz, snort, snawf, zzzzzzzz

Posted by: freaked at May 27, 2018 08:55 AM (UdKB7)

16 All Hail Eris, we did warn you!!!

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 08:55 AM (JaA49)

17 Wanted to read about The Definitive Guide to Halal Haram Sex Acts. Consulted Amazon and all I got was:

Safed Musli Libido Booster Enhanced with Black Pepper...
Oh well, at least I tried.

Posted by: Colin at May 27, 2018 08:56 AM (vgow2)

18 All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

She is stroking an engine cowl and blue drops of cinnamon form? Stand away from that engine.

And most cinnamon is reddish brown, from double bond conjugation of cinnamaldehyde (a pale yellow) condensation.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 08:57 AM (hyuyC)

19 Reading "Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War 2" by Liza Munday. About 20k code breakers/makers worked for the Navy/Army during WW2 and 11k were gals. Pre-WW2 we had just a few hundred total. The gals would help to form the backbone of our current intelligence services.

Munday includes the history of our crypto services pre-WW2, types of codes, personal stories: some funny, some truely sad. From the end of WW1 through the 20s/30s Agnes Driscoll basically ran the Navy's crypto unit. Joe Rochefort, who would help determine the Japanese Navy's intent at Midway, was trained by her. He and others would credit their successes to her. At the Army's unit was Genevieve Grotjan. Sept 1940 her breakthrough enabled Japan's diplomatic messages to be read, which would be called 'Magic'.

Today's vag hat wearing sea hags aren't worth a cup of hot spit compared to those gals.

Some head music.

Jesus on Heroine-So High I Can't Look Down
(One of the best music vids I've ever watched)
https://youtu.be/PIvRqWYAYOc

The B-52's - Planet Claire
https://youtu.be/eOjAzI5zALo

Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
(There really was a Lee Ho Fook's)
https://youtu.be/OnZTHinuQP0

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 08:57 AM (9UFns)

20 16 All Hail Eris, we did warn you!!!
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 08:55 AM (JaA49)
---
No, you people dared me to read it. How? By not physically preventing me from doing so.

You know I need supervision.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 08:58 AM (qJtVm)

21 18
And most cinnamon is reddish brown, from double bond conjugation of cinnamaldehyde (a pale yellow) condensation.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 08:57 AM (hyuyC)

======

The spice melange has a distinctly cinnamon smell in the Dune universe.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at May 27, 2018 08:58 AM (u8L+n)

22 I prefer used books stores. You never know what your gonna find, which is half the fun.

The local used bookstore tends to keep a lot of the same titles in stock, at least in the subjects I am interested in- same books are there every time I walk in. I think that a lot of that is because they buy books from the college students at the local universities, and the universities assign the same books year after year.

Posted by: Grey Fox at May 27, 2018 08:58 AM (bZ7mE)

23 A quick google search shows that "Muslim porn" is a thing, even a category, on Leading Porn Sites (which I've never been on, swearsies).

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (pV/54)

24 I'm a BIG fan of DeVoto's work. Big fan. The period of westward expansion is particularly interesting to me. The people who paved the way across the continent were utterly remarkable.

Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (MVjcR)

25 Someone yesterday recommended a novel about Wehrmacht soldiers who joined the French foreign legion and went to Indo-China, i.e. Viet Nam. I'll have to give that a try.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (+Tibp)

26 Oh, I should say it is entitled Five Fingers.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (+Tibp)

27 *hangs head in shame*

Posted by: Moroccan donkey with rabies at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (89T5c)

28 All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

"You know I need supervision."

How many would volunteer as tribute? Tempting. Or tempting fate.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 09:00 AM (hyuyC)

29 Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 08:57 AM (hyuyC)

Uh...Leto has transformed into a giant sand worm with only his face, hands, and vestigial leg flippers remaining. She's stroking the cowl around his, uh, head.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:00 AM (qJtVm)

30 19 Today's vag hat wearing sea hags aren't worth a cup of hot spit compared to those gals.

Do the mohammedan gals have to were mutilated pussy hats?

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 09:00 AM (JFO2v)

31 I love Doc Weevil's place! I have no room for revolving bookstands, though - my house is tiny enough as it is.
Started a new book this week from Amazon Vine - Minette Walters' new release; "The Last Hours." A manor-estate in England at the time of the Black Death. It's slow-going, 540 pages long, and when I looked at the last chapter, it looks like the story will be continued! Seriously, are the big-name NY Times establishment authors being paid by the pound for their later books? I compared Sue Grafton's first couple of alphabet mysteries - tight, spare, concise - to the later ones - rambling and oh-my-gawd- long! It's as if they no longer have to pay attention to their editors.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 27, 2018 09:01 AM (xnmPy)

32 Also, I've started reading to my 91 year old mother when I visit. I'm starting with True Grit since I know she knows the story and the language is fascinating. It's also a great read.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 09:01 AM (+Tibp)

33 23 A quick google search shows that "Muslim porn" is a thing, even a category, on Leading Porn Sites (which I've never been on, swearsies).
Posted by: Ignoramus at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (pV/54)
---
Do they explode when they climax?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:01 AM (qJtVm)

34 Dr Weevil's pic is other end of spectrum vs Jake's from last week. Really appreciate both types. (setting vs titles)

Dune - My remembrance is each book got worse than the last. I've been meaning to sample some of the later books by his son, but haven't read or listened to any yet.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at May 27, 2018 09:02 AM (CuFV9)

35 "A Halal Guide to Mind Blowing Sex" seems to assume the presence of a clitoris and has no reference to goats. I call BS.

Posted by: freaked at May 27, 2018 09:02 AM (UdKB7)

36 Try looking up Muslim gay porn....never expected page after page. Now back to our regular scheduled book page.

Posted by: Colin at May 27, 2018 09:04 AM (vgow2)

37 "Leto has transformed into a giant sand worm with only his face, hands, and vestigial leg flippers remaining"

That's the path Weinstein was taking until he was checked.

Posted by: freaked at May 27, 2018 09:04 AM (UdKB7)

38 Someone yesterday recommended a novel about
Wehrmacht soldiers who joined the French foreign legion and went to
Indo-China, i.e. Viet Nam. I'll have to give that a try.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (+Tibp)

26
Oh, I should say it is entitled Five Fingers.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (+Tibp)

I remember reading "The Five Fingers" a long, long time ago. I don't remember that detail. This was a special ops type SOG type unit. I remember it being pretty gory but I don't recall the details you mention.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (n13/j)

39 I saw this at the library and rainbows shot out of every orifice when I held it. Every one. He’s the magical Silky Pony!

My Canadian Boyfriend, Justin Trudeau!

https://tinyurl.com/ycfc3zhm

And a petite stocking stuffer perfect for those long cold nights snuggling in front of the fire with your hot chocolate and your blood boy:

https://tinyurl.com/y7d2ml2w

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (qJtVm)

40 Poacher-turned-Gamekeeper is a good phrase, but I don't think the example you gave fits it correctly - what the GOP-e has done in response to O-care is described much better by the simple word, "Traitor".

Poacher-turned-Gamekeeper describes someone who has been a criminal, but who has now chosen to work on the side of the law. The idea is basically "set a thief to catch a thief". Outside of that use, one of the best examples is Beckett, the crony of Henry II who was appointed Archbishop to make sure Henry could be in complete control of the Church. And then Beckett, much to Henry's dismay, decided that he had a much greater duty to God than he did to any King.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (V2Yro)

41 Someone recommended the Amy Lynn books. I liked them!

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (JFO2v)

42 If my ceilings were higher, I'd put a rocker on my bookcase too.

Posted by: BignJames at May 27, 2018 08:51 AM (0+nbW)

...or I could get shorter bookcases.

Posted by: BignJames at May 27, 2018 09:06 AM (0+nbW)

43 All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ette

Thanks. Now I can avoid that book.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 09:06 AM (hyuyC)

44 Dune God Emperor is SO bad! Why didn't any of you bastards warn me?!

Every book after the original sucks maximum cock; I've been very consistent on that. Some of the, how shall I put this, less judgemental, might argue otherwise but you should use that as a guide for the future.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 27, 2018 09:07 AM (y7DUB)

45 It's pouring rain today. Taking doggeh out to pee is an adventure.

I have a to read pile, untouched as of yet.

Elisabeth Wolfe let me proof a short story of hers, but she is so mean - not one grammar ir spelling in it to correct!

Cool YA story though.

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at May 27, 2018 09:07 AM (hMwEB)

46 Dear Penthouse Forum:

I am a student at a small Middle Eastern college and I never thought this would happen to me, but....

Posted by: Osama Bin Wankin' at May 27, 2018 09:08 AM (+Tibp)

47 Supervision? Only if we managed to keep you away from bookstores. But that might require leg irons and cutting off the Internet.

----
For those with an interest or a morbid fascination with that architectural assault upon the Human Soul called Brutalism; this article should prove fascinating, enlightening, and probably add a few words to your personal dictionary.

It even manages to portray Prince Charles as someone with a clue.
Birmingham's Central Library, an upside-down
concrete ziggurat that, in Prince Charles's words, looked like "a place
where books are incinerated, not kept"

https://www.city-journal.org/html/plague-cities-and-poor-15838.html

And no story about Brutalism is complete without attaching the prerequisite Monty Python skit - language warning and disturbing concepts.
https://youtu.be/DyL5mAqFJds

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:08 AM (JaA49)

48 Dune God Emperor is SO bad! Why didn't any of you bastards warn me?!

==

*pointd and laughs*

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at May 27, 2018 09:08 AM (hMwEB)

49 Rudy Giuliani can't quit the media. I remember Mad Magazine's Super Thin Books, and if it was republished today would include The Modesty of Rudy Giuliani

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at May 27, 2018 09:09 AM (rdl6o)

50 45 It's pouring rain today. Taking doggeh out to pee is an adventure.

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at May 27, 2018 09:07 AM (hMwEB)
--------
Is your pup related to WeaselDog by chance?

Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:09 AM (MVjcR)

51 9 Tolle Legs
Posted by: Skip at May 27, 2018 08:51 AM (aC6Sd)

heh

Posted by: m at May 27, 2018 09:09 AM (0bRDi)

52 I just started Children of Dune. All y'all are making me rethink my plan to read all of the original books this summer.

Posted by: Jim S. at May 27, 2018 09:11 AM (ynUnH)

53 Today's vag hat wearing sea hags aren't worth a cup of hot spit compared to those gals.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead

-----

See also: Cecil Phillips, who was basically a school drop-out, looking for a job:
https://preview.tinyurl.com/yceeox3w

I mention Phillips for two reasons, A. He lived up the street, and B. He worked for Genevieve Grotjan at Arlington Hall, where my aunt went to school.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 27, 2018 09:12 AM (Zdm89)

54 What did someone post in last week's thread? "Timewasters of Dune". Something like that.

Posted by: Jim S. at May 27, 2018 09:12 AM (ynUnH)

55 Rudy Giuliani can't quit the media. I remember Mad Magazine's Super Thin Books, and if it was republished today would include The Modesty of Rudy Giuliani
Posted by: Concerned People's Front at May 27, 2018 09:09 AM (rdl6o)

Rudy has reached Rove status in which the only reason I tolerate him is that he makes the libs batshit insane. Unlike the pudgy pile of shit, THE ARCHITECT, he actually did something positive in making NYC a liveable non shithole.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 27, 2018 09:13 AM (y7DUB)

56 Re-reading the first Flashman novel. I bought it to give to the Igno-Son, but needed something light for a plane trip.

Liberal use of the N word, applied to Indians. So this book may get banned in some places.

But this would ignore that Frazer is using Flashman as a tool to expose how colonizing Brits -- especially the upper crust -- actually thought in the 1800s. Flashman is actually quite critical of their mores.

Frazer -- a Scot -- actually liked Americans more than the Brits. This shows in his Mr American novel.

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 27, 2018 09:13 AM (pV/54)

57 I remember liking the first two Dune books, and maybe even the third.

But please don't take my word for it, or anything really.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:13 AM (qJtVm)

58 Maybe All Hail Eris should write a Dune parody sex book - Dunkin' Idaho: Keeping a Bene Gesserit Witch Satisified.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:14 AM (JaA49)

59
Someone yesterday recommended a novel about

Wehrmacht soldiers who joined the French foreign legion and went to

Indo-China, i.e. Viet Nam. I'll have to give that a try.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (+Tibp)

26

Oh, I should say it is entitled Five Fingers.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 08:59 AM (+Tibp)

I
remember reading "The Five Fingers" a long, long time ago. I don't
remember that detail. This was a special ops type SOG type unit. I
remember it being pretty gory but I don't recall the details you
mention.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (n13/j)

I looked it up on the intertoobz. I think the book you are looking for is Devil's Guard. I have not read that one so can't say anything about it.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 09:14 AM (n13/j)

60 Do tractor service manuals count as books?

Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (MVjcR)

61 I liked the first two Dune novels very much. I just reread them and am starting out in new territory with the third volume.

Posted by: Jim S. at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (ynUnH)

62 re The Five Fingers, a Vietnam novel: Another Vietnam novel I enjoyed is "A Reckoning for Kings," by Cole and Bunch, a fictional account of Tet '68 told from both sides.

Posted by: Gref at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (AMIL/)

63 Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 27, 2018 09:12 AM

Neat story.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 09:16 AM (9UFns)

64 60 Do tractor service manuals count as books?
Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (MVjcR)
---
Are they written in the Zen mindspace of Dharma bums, with profuse Zap Comix-style illustrations?

Then yes.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:16 AM (qJtVm)

65 I looked it up on the intertoobz. I think the book you are looking for is Devil's Guard. I have not read that one so can't say anything about it.
Posted by: Quint

Thank you sir. I'll check out both titles. I appreciate your help.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 09:17 AM (+Tibp)

66 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 09:17 AM (V+03K)

67 So, went through the first two Amy Lynn books. Good pacing, good writing and what appears to be a good ear for dialogue.

Which reminds me, I need to get over to Amazon and give the books a good review.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 09:17 AM (WEBkv)

68 64 60 Do tractor service manuals count as books?
Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (MVjcR)
---
Are they written in the Zen mindspace of Dharma bums, with profuse Zap Comix-style illustrations?

Then yes.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:16 AM (qJtVm)
-------
Well, no, but they have lots of pictures!

Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:17 AM (MVjcR)

69 All Hail Eris, what if the service manual is in the vein of John Muir's How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive for the Complete Idiot?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:18 AM (JaA49)

70 Frank Herbert was a very creative guy but a TERRIBLE WRITER.
That should have been obvious with "Dune." Neat ideas, badly executed.
By the way, on this VERY thread last week I said that while the writing gets better (nowhere to go but up), the books get worse.
And worse.
If you want some relief, try to dig out a copy of "Doon" by National Lampoon. Not as funny as "Bored of the Rings," but pretty good.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:18 AM (cfSRQ)

71 Do tractor service manuals count as books?

You don't need one.

Check the oil
Check the gas
jump aboard
And haul yer ass !

Posted by: JT at May 27, 2018 09:19 AM (RCSTP)

72 The Five Fingers, a Vietnam novel: Another Vietnam novel I enjoyed is "A Reckoning for Kings," by Cole and Bunch, a fictional account of Tet '68 told from both sides.
Posted by: Gref

I recently read an account of Tet. Thanks, I'll check it out

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 09:19 AM (+Tibp)

73 Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
(There really was a Lee Ho Fook's)
https://youtu.be/OnZTHinuQP0

But they didn't serve beef chow mein.

Posted by: josephistan at May 27, 2018 09:19 AM (ANIFC)

74 Is your pup related to WeaselDog by chance?
Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:09 AM (MVjcR)

Does WeasekDog love the rain too?
Doggeh right now is trying to convince me that we need more frolic in the rain time.

I am reading two books I intend to review -
De-Policing America by a retired Moron cop
and Oryan's Pact by a clfa member

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at May 27, 2018 09:19 AM (hMwEB)

75 All Hail Eris, what if the service manual is in the vein of John Muir's How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive for the Complete Idiot?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:18 AM (JaA49)

I loved that book! Used it everyday at work.

Posted by: Tech Sergeant Chen at May 27, 2018 09:19 AM (QLvwG)

76 60 Do tractor service manuals count as books?
Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (MVjcR)

-------------------

Well, if they're anything like the manual for my Chev Silverado, yes. The manual for my Silverado could give "War and Peace" a run for its money when it comes to length.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 09:20 AM (WEBkv)

77
Check the oil
Check the gas
jump aboard
And haul yer ass !
Posted by: JT at May 27, 2018 09:19 AM (RCSTP)
--------
This is my new motto!!

Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:20 AM (MVjcR)

78 She pulled away her mask and moved her face to within a handsbreadth of his. A finger came up and touched one of the curled flaps of his cowl.
"Stroke it gently," he said.

*****

Hmmm. Florid text like that tends to run on too long, you might even say...er...

...uncircumscribed.

Posted by: Muldoon at May 27, 2018 09:20 AM (mvenn)

79 Type, read, post.

Posted by: Skip at May 27, 2018 09:20 AM (aC6Sd)

80 61 I liked the first two Dune novels very much. I just reread them and am starting out in new territory with the third volume.
Posted by: Jim S. at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (ynUnH)

=====

I really like the first three. The second and third are less than the first, but still worthwhile reads.

God Emperor is... Tough. In no good ways either.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at May 27, 2018 09:21 AM (u8L+n)

81 60 Do tractor service manuals count as books?
Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (MVjcR)

I had the 1965 Plymouth Valiant Barracuda shop manual I read cover to cover several times.

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 09:21 AM (JFO2v)

82 60 Do tractor service manuals count as books?
Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:15 AM (MVjcR)

"The Zen of John Deere Maintenance" certainly does.

Posted by: Comrade Hrothgar at May 27, 2018 09:21 AM (n9EOP)

83 I looked it up on the intertoobz. I think the book
you are looking for is Devil's Guard. I have not read that one so can't
say anything about it.

Posted by: Quint

Thank you sir. I'll check out both titles. I appreciate your help.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 09:17 AM (+Tibp)

No worries.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 09:21 AM (n13/j)

84 PBS had a program last week, "Great Reads" listing 100 best books....according to someone. I might have read about 10 books on the list....which is posted @ their web site.

Posted by: BignJames at May 27, 2018 09:23 AM (0+nbW)

85 I had the 1965 Plymouth Valiant Barracuda shop manual I read cover to cover several times.

Posted by: rhennigantx

Did the bad guy get it in the end ?

Posted by: JT at May 27, 2018 09:23 AM (RCSTP)

86 Salty Dawg and All Hail Eris, this just might be in your wheelhouse to peruse and percolate on: a science fiction story built around U-boats.

http://www.baen.com/ghostflotilla

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:24 AM (JaA49)

87 John Muir's How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive for the Complete Idiot?
--

Yes! I had this, of course. First car was a used tin can '71 Beetle.

RIP, Quasimotor.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:25 AM (qJtVm)

88 "Do tractor service manuals count as books?"

I read the MTX-75 tranny manual three times before I could absorb the entirety of the message. End play is critical, more so than even lubrication types.

Posted by: freaked at May 27, 2018 09:25 AM (UdKB7)

89 Got my short story "Mud" accepted for Oren Litwin's anthology "Ye Olde Magick Shoppe".
And everybody said I'd never amount to nuthin.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at May 27, 2018 09:26 AM (BdB9z)

90 Does WeasekDog love the rain too?
Doggeh right now is trying to convince me that we need more frolic in the rain time.

I am reading two books I intend to review -
De-Policing America by a retired Moron cop
and Oryan's Pact by a clfa member
Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at May 27, 2018 09:19 AM (hMwEB)
--------
Just the opposite. WD hates the rain with the heat of a thousand suns.
Which reminds me, I loaned my dog training book written by the dog handler/trainer for Navy SEAL dogs, to my next door neighbor who never returned it.
Soooo - whats your personal policy on un-returned books? Do you even loan them in the first place?

Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:26 AM (MVjcR)

91 >>End play is critical, more so than even lubrication types.

hot

Posted by: JackStraw at May 27, 2018 09:27 AM (/tuJf)

92 I have DeVoto's Year of Decisions 1846 in my to be read pile. I also have Revolutions of 1848 on the same pile, that was the flurry of liberal and constitutional revolts throughout Europe, where all the peoples of Europe rose in revolution for liberalism, democracy, freedom and constitutions, and when they were done, they were all under even more strict monarchs, kings and emperors.

I got the book because I am listening to www.Revolutionspodcast.com about just that period in history.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 27, 2018 09:27 AM (2K6fY)

93 50 years ago on May 27, 1968 the Navy declared the nuclear fast attack submarine USS Scorpion overdue at Norfolk after a deployment in the Med. It was later determined she sank May 22 with 99 crewmen. In October 68 she was found about 400 miles southwest of the Azores at a depth of 9900 ft. The Navy, nor anyone else, knows what the initiating event was that led to her sinking. The best book about her is Stephen Johnson's 'Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion.'

This 31 minute video shows her wreck. Narration begins at 16.30.

https://youtu.be/FSNlBqHTJcg

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 09:27 AM (9UFns)

94 "We Were Soldiers" was a really good non-fiction Vietnam book.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 09:29 AM (n13/j)

95
Uh...Leto has transformed into a giant sand worm with only his face, hands, and vestigial leg flippers remaining. She's stroking the cowl around his, uh, head.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:00 AM (qJtVm)

Don't bother, Eris - it's penises all the way down.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 27, 2018 09:29 AM (NoLse)

96 I was inspired by a comment on the movie thread to recommend author Martin Middlebrook. An English farmer, he was inspired by a visit to the Somme battlefield to write his first book, The First Day On the Somme. He has gone on to write many more history books, many about the air war, particularly Bomber Command. His style is to select a limited period, often one day, and to examine it in detail using the personal recollections of the participants. Perhaps the most obvious weakness is that he so focuses on the trees, the forest can become blurry. He tells both sides, not only the Brit bombers versus the German fighters but also the bomb-droppers versus the civilians beneath those bombs. If I were to recommend a single book of his, it would be The Nuremburg Raid, particularly if you know little of the deadly duels in the dark fought by the Brit bombers and the German defenders. The Brits lost 94 heavy bombers that night. In contrast, when the yanks lost 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt/Regensburg Double Strike mission, it called into question the continuation of strategic bombing. (The 8th Air Force later lost 69 bombers on a Berlin raid.)

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 09:30 AM (+y/Ru)

97 Did the bad guy get it in the end ?
Posted by: JT at May 27, 2018 09:23 AM (RCSTP)

The slant 6 did it!

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 09:31 AM (JFO2v)

98 "We Were Soldiers" was a really good non-fiction Vietnam book.
Posted by: Quint

After reading the book then seeing movie, I was struck how at times Mel resembled the real life Hal. I like the movie but hate when it switches back to the home-front. It brings the movie to a grinding hault.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 09:31 AM (+Tibp)

99 39

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (qJtVm)

----------------------------
Not sure which is worse, that what you list exists or that you know they exist or, that you decided to share.

Gaaahhh!

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 09:31 AM (WEBkv)

100 In order to fully understand the vision that Paul Atreidies was cursed with, you have to read ALL the books in the Dune Universe. All of them, including the Chapter House books, even the bad ones.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 09:32 AM (roQNm)

101 Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 09:27 AM (9UFns)

I remember that very well, having just moved to Tidewater area as a mil.brat. There was a rumor she was playing "chicken" w/a Soviet sub...and didn't flinch.

Posted by: BignJames at May 27, 2018 09:32 AM (0+nbW)

102 My reading this week has centered on an old German text book: "Unsere Freunde." Copyright 1978.
I used it in school and when district finally bought new texts in the eary 90s (I guess they figured the end of the Berlin Wall made the books a bit dated), I kept copies of it and it's companion.
It's got lots of goofy 70s Euro-fashion and illustrations, but the language stuff seems reliable. I tried to go go all-in on refreshing my German and failed. So I'm going back to the basics and my daughter (who is taking German in school) is working with. Maybe by the end of summer I'll be back to somewhat of my former proficiency.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:33 AM (cfSRQ)

103 Not sure which is worse, that what you list exists or that you know they exist or, that you decided to share.
---
Sharing my pain lessens my burden.

You shall suffer as I suffered!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:33 AM (qJtVm)

104 Do tractor service manuals count as books?

-
Are they more explicit than Muslim sex manuals?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 09:33 AM (+y/Ru)

105 69 ... "what if the service manual is in the vein of John Muir's How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive for the Complete Idiot?"

I loved that book and it was useful. It really helped me keep my Beetle going. Wish I still had that car.

Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 09:34 AM (V+03K)

106 Someone, I think rhomboid, asked the other day for books about the free Polish Army in WWII. I found several that have been recently published: "No Greater Ally: The Untold Story of Poland's Forces in World War II" by Kenneth Koskodan; "Forgotten Few: The Polish Air Force in World War II" by Adam Zamoyski; and "Trail of Hope: The Anders Army - An Odyssey Across Three Continents" by noted Polish history scribe Norman Davies.

Posted by: josephistan at May 27, 2018 09:34 AM (ANIFC)

107 That grinding the movie to a halt with the home front is main reason We Were Soldiers didn't make my top 10 war movies.

Posted by: Skip at May 27, 2018 09:35 AM (aC6Sd)

108 "We Were Soldiers" was a really good non-fiction Vietnam book.

Posted by: Quint

After reading the book then seeing movie, I was struck how at times
Mel resembled the real life Hal. I like the movie but hate when it
switches back to the home-front. It brings the movie to a grinding
hault.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 09:31 AM (+Tibp)

Yeah, particularly in a "battle story". You lose the plot for sure. Gibson was really good in that one. And they don't seem to make news inbeds like that anymore. Of course they didn't make them back then either lol.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 09:36 AM (n13/j)

109 Regarding my reading:

My book group forced a well regarded pile of sappy trash, Pachinko by some useless Korean skirt, on me. It starts out as a well intentioned story of how Koreans took it up the wazz when occupied by the Japs, which I'm sure was brutally true, but then irritates the fuck out of me by making everything like an obvious soap opera. The saving grace is that it isn't mentally taxing to read but that this pile of tripe got nominated for anything other than being remaindered shows what a bunch of lamebrains set the standards in the lit crit clits.

A much better read is something I'm reading on my own, Middle C by William H. Gass. Now there is someone who can turn a phrase, not to mention write perceptibly about someone learning the piano whose brain can't process reading music but learns how to imitate recordings. Or a guy who escapes pre WW2 Austria with his family because he can visualize everything turning to shit, and does so by pretending to be a joooo even though his wife refuses to play along. I'm positive that in real life Gass could be a miserable fuck to be around but I really like his writing.

In the last volume of Gibbon, Tamburlaine just slattered the fuck out of Turkey as part and parcel of the western part of domination but then died when turning his attention to China by drinking some tainted ice water (Ed often leaves us hanging on just how this happened as he poured through all these furrin documents with no guidance). Anyway that gave Constantinople a bit of a breather as Bayezit's blood thirsty kids took a while to pick up the pieces.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 27, 2018 09:36 AM (y7DUB)

110 Are they more explicit than Muslim sex manuals?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018

Wasn't there a fatwa in the 90s about whether you could have sex with a sheep and the answer was "yes, but you can't eat the sheep afterwards"?
I think Mark Steyn goofed on it.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:37 AM (cfSRQ)

111 What color is the gravel, Eris?

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 09:37 AM (fZuhk)

112 Sharing my pain lessens my burden.

You shall suffer as I suffered!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:33 AM (qJtVm)

-----------------

Made me laugh.

What I find even more cringe-worthy is the idea there is actually a market for such crap.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 09:38 AM (WEBkv)

113 wordsmith turned phrase monger

Posted by: REDACTED at May 27, 2018 09:38 AM (Ymy4N)

114 100 In order to fully understand the vision that Paul Atreidies was cursed with, you have to read ALL the books in the Dune Universe. All of them, including the Chapter House books, even the bad ones.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 09:32 AM (roQNm)

======

Ahhh, the Golden Path

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at May 27, 2018 09:39 AM (u8L+n)

115 111 What color is the gravel, Eris?
Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 09:37 AM (fZuhk)
---
You go to hell.

You knew I would be compelled to read that thing and yet you never sent a SWAT team to my place?

And the gravel comes in so many colors only mantis shrimp can see them.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:40 AM (qJtVm)

116 There was a rumor she was playing "chicken" w/a Soviet sub...and didn't flinch.
Posted by: BignJames at May 27, 2018 09:32 AM (0+nbW)

If true it wouldn't have been the first, or last time US fast attacks and Soviet subs played chicken. Sometimes they bumped into each other, like big ol' bumper cars.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 09:41 AM (9UFns)

117
Ahhh, the Golden Path

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at May 27, 2018 09:39 AM

The alternative was the extinction of the human species, hunted down by robots.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 09:41 AM (roQNm)

118 Brant Pitre, 'Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist'. He argues for the Gospel Last Supper narratives what John Crossan argued for the Passion: they're structured around first-century Jewish messianic expectations. Where the Passion is around Psalm 22, the Last Supper is more around Moses and the Passover.

In the Age To Come, the Messiah was supposed to bring back manna, which was also the Shewbread alias the Bread Of The Face Of God. This is based on Exodus 24:11 "they beheld G-d, and ate and drank".

It's a good book, and doesn't cheerlead as hard as other books in this (mostly Catholic) genre... looking at you, Scott Hahn.

It also looks much like understanding Christian origins without knowing Second Temple Judaism is like understanding Islamic origins without knowing late-antique Syrian Christianity. You'll just get nowhere.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 09:42 AM (6FqZa)

119 Reading Lenny Dykstra's twitter feed (long story involving him and a sportswriter friend of mine from college) and see that Herman Wouk, author of the World War II epics "Winds of War" & "War and Remembrance" is still alive & recently celebrated his 103rd birthday.

Posted by: josephistan at May 27, 2018 09:42 AM (ANIFC)

120 has reached Rove status

-
Not all is happy in the Bush empire.

Bush cousin admits to violently beating wife...

George W. Bush's cousin admits to violently attacking his first wife by 'repeatedly slamming his closed fist into her sternum just inches from their baby'

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 09:42 AM (+y/Ru)

121 yet you never sent a SWAT team to my place?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:40 AM (qJtVm)

Wait, what? Was that not your house?

Oh. Oh dear. I have some phone calls to make.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 09:43 AM (fZuhk)

122 116
There was a rumor she was playing "chicken" w/a Soviet sub...and didn't flinch.

Posted by: BignJames at May 27, 2018 09:32 AM (0+nbW)

If true it wouldn't have been the first, or last time US fast
attacks and Soviet subs played chicken. Sometimes they bumped into each
other, like big ol' bumper cars.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 09:41 AM (9UFns)

Saw a show back in the 90s - Secrets of the Cold War or something like it - where they talked about an attack sub that did this. To avoid a head-on collision, they did a dive and their conning tower split the Russian boat right down the centerline. They heard the sounds of her breaking up, but of course no one said anything at the time.
So, stuff like that did happen.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:43 AM (cfSRQ)

123 In order to fully understand the vision that Paul Atreidies was cursed with, you have to read ALL the books in the Dune Universe.

"I have seen the future... and it is really insipid, boring, and nonsensical"

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (6FqZa)

124 This could go both here and the gun thread but I just started Death in the Long Grass by Peter Capstick. He went from a stockbroker to a professional big game hunter in Africa in the late '50's and '60's. He lays his chapters out by animal type. Lots of ways to get really badly killed by virtually everything.
Not for the faint of heart but he is a very smart guy and thoughtful about his job and clients. He notes that there are lot more man eating critters out there than just the odd lion.

Posted by: Winston at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (wgCUV)

125 Soooo - whats your personal policy on un-returned books? Do you even loan them in the first place?
Posted by: Weasel at May 27, 2018 09:26 AM (MVjcR)

I've stopped lending.
There was one time, I still remember, when a mutual friend told me so and so had moved to a different country and left some boxes of books in their basement. Did I want to check them out before they donated them.
So I did and hey guess what, one box was all my books that I had lent the person.

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (hMwEB)

126 In Herbert's universe the robots were Nannies to the Humans, about coddled them to extinction. Unlike Felonia von Pantsuit which is a T616 model Terminator.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (JaA49)

127 enjoying the Able Jones series by Owen Parry. which led to
Our Bones Are Scattered, the Cawnpore massacres of 857.
93 pages into 554, detailed background and build up.

Posted by: Adobe Juan Calhoon Kenobe at May 27, 2018 09:45 AM (V4nrQ)

128 Just got the De Voto book on Kindle. I've been reading various journals about life on a frontier. There's even an unfinished novel by Poe about an expedition across the continent in the 1790s. He published it in 1840 as a magazine serial but was fired before it was completed. I don't know where he got his information but much of his story rings true in details about terrain and gear.

Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 09:46 AM (V+03K)

129 He notes that there are lot more man eating critters out there than just the odd lion.
Posted by: Winston at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (wgCUV)

We tried to warn you.

Posted by: Hall & Oates at May 27, 2018 09:46 AM (ANIFC)

130 I don't regret reading the entire original Dune series.
It's just that I liked each one less than previous.

Skandia: What are the "good" Chapterhouse books?
One or 2 at most that might get me to continue.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at May 27, 2018 09:46 AM (CuFV9)

131 Anna, last week I was wondering if Terry Pratchett's Dark Side of the Sun was based on Dune.

I picked up Norstrillia by Cordwainer Smith and I am working through it again.

Dark Side of the Sun is based off of Norstrillia.

Now the question is if Dune is also based on Norstrillia, or at least the novella that Smith wrote, "The Planet Buyer".

(Cordwainer Smith manages to make a poetic moment out of describing the grey grass, arid lands, and the giant diseased sheep that are the source of the drug Stroon which Norstrillia's massive wealth is based on. If I knew how he managed that I would be a true author)

Posted by: Kindltot at May 27, 2018 09:48 AM (2K6fY)

132 In Islamic[ate] culture The Perfumed Garden was the classic work on the topic. Kama Sutra for Arabic-speakers.

It was written by an Amazigh (Berber) from Tunis. Unlike Arabs, the Berbers used to pay attention to their women and not beat them.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 09:49 AM (6FqZa)

133 Ah! I see the Necronomicon brazenly on display in that photo, opened up to the Akashic records.

Tread lightly around this Doctor Weevil person.

Posted by: Fritz at May 27, 2018 09:49 AM (J7XgW)

134 Shut up all you f_ckers.

Posted by: Muad'dib at May 27, 2018 09:50 AM (iXmy8)

135 Isn't spice just a metaphor for oil?
You know, flowing?
I thought Herbert was writing about desertification and decided to jump down the rabbit hole.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:50 AM (cfSRQ)

136 Not all is happy in the Bush empire.

Bush cousin admits to violently beating wife...

George W. Bush's cousin admits to violently attacking his first wife by 'repeatedly slamming his closed fist into her sternum just inches from their baby'

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 09:42 AM (+y/Ru)

The sooner that entire family is permanently off my lawn the better.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 27, 2018 09:51 AM (y7DUB)

137 106 Someone, I think rhomboid, asked the other day for books about the free Polish Army in WWII.

anyone see the fiction film " Deep Blue World "? Polish flyers and their getting sold out to USSR after WW2.

Posted by: Adobe Juan Calhoon Kenobe at May 27, 2018 09:52 AM (30C+H)

138 They heard the sounds of her breaking up, but of course no one said anything at the time. So, stuff like that did happen.
Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:43 AM (cfSRQ)

The US sub involved did think they sank the Soviet sub and reported it, but it recovered and got back home. Both sides keep it quiet.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 09:52 AM (9UFns)

139 "Poacher-turned-Gamekeeper"?

I knew a guy decades ago. He was the friend of a friend. They were both sailors in the Navy. Alan was from Bemidji. Avid hunter and sportsman. Several years ago, I asked my friend want he is up to. He replied. "He's a ranger for Fish and Game." I replied "So, the poacher is now the ranger."

Posted by: JAS at May 27, 2018 09:54 AM (ii30j)

140 Don't recall seeing this before here. All I can say is wow. Just wow

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/ 2018/05/reparations_happy_hour_portland.html

Posted by: random ~~lurker~~ commenter at May 27, 2018 09:54 AM (oLa9K)

141 126 In Herbert's universe the robots were Nannies to the Humans, about coddled them to extinction. Unlike Felonia von Pantsuit which is a T616 model Terminator.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (JaA49)

-------------------

There's a brilliant short story, "With Folded Hands" about the creation of robots that do nothing but protect the human race.

Sort of like the nanny state and parents of today.

Just looked it up. The author is Jack Williamson

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 09:54 AM (WEBkv)

142 >>> 126 In Herbert's universe the robots were Nannies to the Humans, about coddled them to extinction. Unlike Felonia von Pantsuit which is a T616 model Terminator.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (JaA49)

Shouldn't the middle digit also be a 6?

Posted by: Helena Handbotsket at May 27, 2018 09:54 AM (0ReGO)

143 129 He notes that there are lot more man eating critters out there than just the odd lion.
Posted by: Winston at May 27, 2018 09:44 AM (wgCUV)

We tried to warn you.
Posted by: Hall & Oates at May 27, 2018 09:46 AM (ANIFC)

What are we, chopped liver?

Posted by: Sigfried & Roy at May 27, 2018 09:55 AM (30C+H)

144 Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 09:42 AM (6FqZa)

It's hard for me to process people not knowing this since I've known it my whole life. In Evangelical circles the historic Jewish roots of Christianity are a given and study to understand those foundations is expected.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 27, 2018 09:56 AM (rp9xB)

145 Battle of the Bulge (on AMC, on a loop, as mentioned previously) may be the worst war film ever. Cringingly so.

It is my belief that BoB is the most written about engagement in history. books, films, magazines, articles, analysis, studies... put them all together and total them up, internationally, and it is at the top of the heap.

So with all that material to draw from..... how in the hell did they end up with a film so utterly crap? They even had historical figures - still alive when film was released - to build the story around! Ugh. its like watching a slow-motion train carrying kerosene plow into a bus full of nuns taking kittens to a charity auction.

Posted by: goatexchange at May 27, 2018 09:56 AM (YFnq5)

146 What are the "good" Chapterhouse books?
--

Chapterhouse Dune is about the Bene Gesserit after Leto the worm is dispatched. It ends with The Ghola Duncan Idaho finally making his escape, and opens up a whole 'nother universe.

Heretics of Dune is set just before and ends with the Destruction of Arakis.

God Emperor of Dune was tough to get through; I didn't see the point.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 09:57 AM (roQNm)

147 140 Don't recall seeing this before here. All I can say is wow. Just wow

So what about Bhuseein? Does he get 0 dollars for not being a slave descendant or does he owe five for being haaflblaaacckk?

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 09:58 AM (JFO2v)

148 134 Shut up all you f_ckers.
Posted by: Muad'dib at May 27, 2018 09:50 AM (iXmy

daed si luaP

Posted by: cranberry sauce at May 27, 2018 09:58 AM (Ymy4N)

149 anyone see the fiction film " Deep Blue World "? Polish flyers and their getting sold out to USSR after WW2.

-
I liked it but typical Yurp movie, everyone is always miserable. Hero loses his wife, his freedom, and his dog. The end.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 09:58 AM (+y/Ru)

150 Don't recall seeing this before here. All I can say is wow. Just wow

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/ 2018/05/reparations_happy_hour_portland.html

-
Self-imposed idiot tax.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 10:00 AM (+y/Ru)

151 Cranberry Sauce is playing his Beatles records backwards. Again.

Posted by: Muad'dib at May 27, 2018 10:00 AM (iXmy8)

152 124 ... The Peter Capstick books are excellent and very entertaining. I do find I read them a chapter at a time and come back later to continue. Also, as a HUGE fan of the John Wayne movie "Hatari" since it first came out, the books even explain a few things in the show.

Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 10:01 AM (V+03K)

153 Jack Williamson is one of my all time favorite Golden Age SF writers, and not just because one of his stories begat this magnificent cover:

https://www.blackgate.com/2015/07/12/vintage-treasures-the-green-girl-by-jack-williamson/

I have a collection of his short stories that I need to get back into.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 10:01 AM (qJtVm)

154 Burton didn't finish his translation of The Perfumed Garden btw. The last chapter was too risque even for him (it was about buggery and pederasty). As he got older and dirtier he was going to translate it anyway but he died, and then his widow burned it.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 10:01 AM (6FqZa)

155 Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 09:49 AM (6FqZa)

Knowing that meaning of the phrase makes Song of Solomon a *lot* more "earthy" in the reading.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 27, 2018 10:03 AM (rp9xB)

156 The one point in God Emperor was where Leto orders all the history books burned in a pyre and orders all the history writers burned with their books, which I thought was amusing. Leto was pissed because the history writers were rewriting history that he, Leto, had lived through.

I know a lot of people don't like science fantasy because of stuff like this, and I get that. So ask yourself the question, if an omnipotent God can foresee his own death, would he let it happen? And Why?

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 10:04 AM (roQNm)

157 Battle of the Bulge (on AMC, on a loop, as mentioned previously) may be the worst war film ever. Cringingly so.

-
I understand that a rival studio was going to make a quality Battle of the Bulge movie in a Longest Day sort of way but these guys beat them to the punch so the progect was dropped. That and the Sergio Leone Leningrad movie he was planning to make when he died are two great what might have beens.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 10:05 AM (+y/Ru)

158 Good morning!

My normally rain averse doggehs decided that they needed to run through the puddles today during a thunderstorm. Ah, the smell of wet dog! (I took a dryer to them, but they still have that wet dander thing going on).

Reading a book recommended by the grandsons' preschool, Mind in the Making: The Seven essential Life Skills Every Child Needs. So far so good as self-control, taking on challenges, and critical thinking are all good things

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 10:05 AM (5gaNQ)

159 Knowing that meaning of the phrase makes Song of Solomon a *lot* more "earthy" in the reading.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 27, 2018 10:03 AM (rp9xB)

---------------

There are significant portions of the Bible that are X-Rated.

For instance, after Lot survives Sodom and Gomorrah and is living in a cave.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 10:06 AM (WEBkv)

160 134 ... Muad'Dib, Any word about your son's dog? I hope it is fine.

Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 10:06 AM (V+03K)

161 How about: Dune was originally a stand-alone book that did surprisingly well.
So it became a trilogy.
Then Herbert needed more money, so he wrung three more increasingly awful books out of his creation.
Then he died.
And his family is strip-mining his creation.
Or, I guess the Golden Path is really deep, man.
I think of Herbert as Tolkien with a tenth of the talent.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 10:07 AM (cfSRQ)

162 Back in 2004 there was a website titled Ask The Imam featuring all sorts of everyday questions. As time went on questions regarding halal masturbation and porn became increasingly more prevalent. After a few months amusement morphed into boredom

Posted by: Bcorig at May 27, 2018 10:08 AM (n6g8Q)

163 I am wondering if the horde can help me make up a word or phrase to describe this situation:

Your cousin or a friend comes to town on a business trip and texts you that he wants to get together while here. You get all excited to see him again, but then he sends you another text later in the day that says sorry, he and his coworkers, the ones he spends all year with, are going out to dinner and he won't be able to meet up.

Posted by: Denver at May 27, 2018 10:08 AM (qO1bD)

164 So Orion slave girls can be blamed or praised on Jack Williamson

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:09 AM (JaA49)

165 Jake Holenhead

I had a number of deep conversations with the head of the investigating team back when I was at Com Naval Base Norfolk. His final, back me to the wall, theory was a hot run in a forward torpedo tube.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 10:09 AM (hyuyC)

166
"Cipher" by Sean Jenan. It is well written, and I didn't like it. I don't like Science Fantasy where the technology is 'sufficiently advanced to appear to be magical' unless it is a well-written hero's story like "Perilous Waif" by E. William Brown which is equally fantastical, but it is a hero's story where our hero does good things for good reasons. Which forces me to confront a quandary. We here on Ace of Spades HQ are well acquainted with the progressive democrat's defense of Socialism when they say if only the right people are in charge, socialism could work.

John Adams says essentially the same thing when he says that the US Constitution is written for a moral people and is unsuited for any other. Recent history seems to confirm this dilemma. If your Monarchy is a moral and wise King, then Monarchy is a good form of government. If your King is not wise and righteous, Monarchy isn't such a good deal.

Back to "Cipher". It is a martyr's tale, not a hero's story, and I didn't like the way religion was used to set the stage for the characters. The story is about the scientific pursuit of God Like Powers where the Science is quite magical, and the characters are quite amoral. I read it all the way to the end, hoping the hero gets the girl and the gold. Instead, the main character gets something else, all for the love of a good woman.

The contrast between "Perilous Waif" and "Cipher" is quite interesting and if you don't mind your science being magical, you might find it useful to read these two books.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 10:09 AM (roQNm)

167 I want to thank Pixy Misa for fixing whatever code was making my tablet return to the top after every refresh on posts with pictures at the top. The reading experience the last couple of days is *much* improved.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 27, 2018 10:10 AM (rp9xB)

168 I should be publishing my first Kindle ebook in the next few days. Still revising and trying to read up on all of the ways to help promote it. "Let's Hack Oxidative Stress" is guide to help folks hack oxidative stress by changing one to three lifestyle choices and checking their progress by a piss (urine for the girly men) test. Any tips from the Morons? Anyone from the Gainzzz group want to review it for me?

Posted by: scrood at May 27, 2018 10:12 AM (JHywS)

169 163: Sounds like cousin had to protect his job. Sorry it caused a let down. When I used to go to conferences with colleagues, I knew I had to be there to make sure the plotting had nothing to do with me.

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 10:13 AM (5gaNQ)

170 OT: paddle steamer en route to Ireland sinks off the coast of Anglesey.

It had been christened the MV Oliver Cromwell.
tinyurl.com/y88f3xlc

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 10:14 AM (6FqZa)

171
Electricity finally restored.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 27, 2018 10:14 AM (eM8BP)

172 I love the library btw, it looks like a working library, with all needed references accessible.

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 10:14 AM (5gaNQ)

173 Your cousin or a friend comes to town on a business trip and texts you that he wants to get together while here. You get all excited to see him again, but then he sends you another text later in the day that says sorry, he and his coworkers, the ones he spends all year with, are going out to dinner and he won't be able to meet up.
Posted by: Denver at May 27, 2018 10:08 AM (qO1bD)

---------------------------

Loser.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 10:15 AM (WEBkv)

174 >160 134 ... Muad'Dib, Any word about your son's dog? I hope it is fine.
Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 10:06 AM (V+03K)

JTB, thanks for asking. He is alive. We are in wait and see mode for the next several days. There are likely long term neurological problems no matter what.

Posted by: Muad'dib at May 27, 2018 10:15 AM (iXmy8)

175 Nice! Books in cages - where they belong!

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at May 27, 2018 10:15 AM (5tSKk)

176 re: Larry Correia and Origins.

The con people informed Larry that he had to buy his own plane tickets and would reimburse him. Since Larry is kinda large, he upgraded from coach to business for an extra $300. Then Origins reneged because of Soviet Justice Wanking hysteria. It wasn't until the 21st that the check finally arrived minus the cost of the upgrade.

Origins* has really proved themselves to be a class act don't you think?

And David Weber has weighed in on the matter with a Facebook post where he compares the SJW mentality to a pack of hyenas pulling an animal down. Plus he plans to skip any cons that do what Origins did.

*Larry also mentions on his blog that the person who lead the crusade to get his invite yanked will not be attending the con.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:17 AM (JaA49)

177 Kindltot I am not sure I have not read that Pratchett or Smith books. But it is always possible. Writers with egos is not unheard of, as in "I could do so much more with that idea than this swill!"

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:20 AM (JaA49)

178 174: Poor pup! It's had when they are ill. We just went through a mucocele gallbladder surgery with granddoggeh early last month. No major sequelae, but at 15 it was worrisome, but he seems so much better.

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 10:20 AM (5gaNQ)

179 Good Sunday Morning, all.

I'd like to invite you to church with me. it's online.

http://www.gdconline.org/

Pastor Griffin usually does a Memorial Day Special I think you smart military types would like. (I do!) Starts at 9:30 CST.

Best thing, you don't have to go now, while it airs live. you can go there anytime and listen.

Hope your weekend contains the meaning you desire.

Posted by: booknlass at May 27, 2018 10:20 AM (uJ09Y)

180 And David Weber has weighed in on the matter with a Facebook post where he compares the SJW mentality to a pack of hyenas pulling an animal down. Plus he plans to skip any cons that do what Origins did.

No writer should attend a con that censors any author because of politics. Its anathema to a writer to silence expression and thoughts. Why would you help book burners as an author? Why be associated with them?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at May 27, 2018 10:21 AM (39g3+)

181 I prefer used books stores. You never know what your gonna find, which is half the fun.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at May 27, 2018 08:52 AM (EoRCO)

Life is like a used book store. You never know what your gonna find. - Timber Gump, Forrest's cousin.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at May 27, 2018 10:22 AM (9BLnV)

182 I'm continuing the Blue Nie and White Nile books by Moorehead. One of the benefits is they put me in the mood for the H. Rider Haggard novels and I'm slowly going through King Solomon's Mines. It's easy to forget how much fun his stories are.

Have the 'lost world' themes been appropriated a million times? Yes. Has so-called scholarship provided information about the area? Yes. Does that matter? No!! It takes little effort to to get in the mindset of when this was new and exciting story telling written with humor and a sense of wonder. It's like reading a good translation of Jules Verne. Worth every second spent among the pages.

Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 10:22 AM (V+03K)

183 John Adams says essentially the same thing when he says that the US Constitution is written for a moral people and is unsuited for any other. Recent history seems to confirm this dilemma.

The difference being that communism requires perfect and sinless people whereas a democracy merely requires virtuous people who may sin and be imperfect but have a consistent strong moral code they strive toward.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at May 27, 2018 10:25 AM (39g3+)

184 Nice! Books in cages - where they belong!
Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at May 27, 2018 10:15 AM

Thats where one should keep their Monster Book of Monsters

Posted by: Skip at May 27, 2018 10:26 AM (aC6Sd)

185 Timur Kuran writes about what went wrong: t.co/NwhjPK9yyd

This essay critically evaluates the analytic literature concerned with causal connections between Islam and economic performance. It focuses on works since 1997, when this literature was last surveyed. Among the findings are the following: Ramadan fasting by pregnant women harms prenatal development; Islamic charities mainly benefit the middle class; Islam affects educational outcomes less through Islamic schooling than through structural factors that handicap learning as a whole; Islamic finance hardly affects Muslim financial behavior; and low generalized trust depresses Muslim trade.

The last feature reflects the Muslim world's delay in transitioning from personal to impersonal exchange. The delay resulted from the persistent simplicity of the private enterprises formed under Islamic law. Weak property rights reinforced the private sector's stagnation by driving capital out of commerce and into rigid waqfs. Waqfs limited economic development through their inflexibility and democratization by restraining the development of civil society. Parts of the Muslim world conquered by Arab armies are especially undemocratic, which suggests that early Islamic institutions, including slave-based armies, were particularly critical to the persistence of authoritarian patterns of governance.

States have contributed themselves to the persistence of authoritarianism by treating Islam as an instrument of governance. As the world started to industrialize, non-Muslim subjects of Muslim-governed states pulled ahead of their Muslim neighbors by exercising the choice of law they enjoyed under Islamic law in favor of a Western legal system.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 10:27 AM (6FqZa)

186 The difference being that communism requires perfect and sinless people whereas a democracy merely requires virtuous people who may sin and be imperfect but have a consistent strong moral code they strive toward.

--

And a Democratic Republic requires wise and moral representatives who make decisions on what is best for the country and not individual groups. It also requires educated voters who can differentiate between men and women of good character and those opportunists who merely want to enrich themselves at public expense.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 10:29 AM (roQNm)

187 At a 'con they had spice French toast - cinnamon French toast

Posted by: Jean at May 27, 2018 10:29 AM (MS0+a)

188 19: reading "code girls"...

the japanese diplomatic code "purple" was broken by willian friedman and his team at the army's signals intelligence service. he established the american cryptanalysis services beginning before ww I (he served under pershing) and he wrote the standard texts for the science used by the u.s. military (he coined the word cryptanalysis). a really pivotal figure in american military history and the history of codes and code breaking.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at May 27, 2018 10:30 AM (Pg+x7)

189 An author worth checking out:

Erik Larson.

I've read "Devil in the White City" and "In the Garden of Beasts" and I highly recommend them as very readable history.

"Devil in the White City" is chilling because it details a serial killer, H. H. Holmes, that operated pretty much with impunity in Chicago around the time of the World Fair.

"In the Garden of Beasts" recounts the experiences of the American diplomatic effort in pre-WWII Germany as the pogroms against the Jews were really starting to take off.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 10:31 AM (WEBkv)

190 Following the recommendation of The Horde, I've been reading "The White Nile." What a great book. Interesting, informative, and definitely not PC

Posted by: Biggs Darklighter at May 27, 2018 10:33 AM (jg0qR)

191 Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 10:27 AM (6FqZa)

Wow. Is he muslim? That's the sort of criticism that seems like it could get him in trouble.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 27, 2018 10:33 AM (rp9xB)

192 My Canadian Boyfriend, Justin Trudeau!

https://tinyurl.com/ycfc3zhm

And a petite stocking stuffer perfect for those long cold nights snuggling in front of the fire with your hot chocolate and your blood boy:

https://tinyurl.com/y7d2ml2w

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (qJtVm)

(pukes quietly in corner)

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 27, 2018 10:35 AM (WFV7d)

193 Speaking of adapting things, perhaps I should give this a rewrite? It was something inspired by this blog and have not quite sanded off the fingerprints of the original story - "The Girl Who Was Plugged In."

---
You see that misshapened girl there? The one hanging back lost in the crowd but still gawking at getting this close to her DNC gods? Believe it or not sleepers, she'll soon be one of those gods. But not in any usual way, no sirree bob.

Her name is Philadelphia Burke and Hillary is her hero and goddess all rolled into one. Can you grok that you zombie? She will soon enough because here come the two dark clothed men sporting the black sunglasses. The sound of her body hitting pavement is lost amid the cheers as one man holsters his TASER and nods.

Her lumpy limp form is hustled by those imposing men down the alley she'd been in and then tossed into a van like so much dead meat. But no she still lives as she bleats like a stuck cow in shock. The side door slams closed and she rolls on the floor as the vehicle accelerates.

Now here is where it gets weird you dead heads. She finally croaks out a word between twisted teeth and cleft lip but she can't move as Philadelphia discovers her hands are tied. "What?"

A woman enters her view with a not so charming smile plastered on a gorgeous plastic face. "How would you like to meet your goddess?"

Hog-tied and croggled, Philadelphia blinks in confusion as another "What" escapes her constricted throat. The false smile never falters but something in the eyes changes of the artificial woman even as a hand lifts up Philadelphia's chin.

"Oh we know all about your social feeds. And you Philadelphia Burke. Everything. We're going to do you a big favor, give your life a major upgrade where you can meet those you adore.. Does that sound good?"

"I guess."

The hand is stronger than it would seem and Philadelphia feels her hefty body being pulled toward the scary strange woman. "I'll ask again. Do you want a better life?"

Her chin is starting to hurt along with a back protesting at being held at such an odd angle, it hurts so much it makes Philadelphia's eyes water. Just to stop the pain she nods and whispers. "Yes."

Now ghouls listen close as we get to the really weird part of this story. Hang on with those talons as we veer far off course and miss the Twilight Zone.

The hand releases Philadelphia and the young girl falls to the van's floor with a thump which makes her body jiggle even more than the van's movements had caused. But it is a blessed relief not to be held like that. She finally regains her wits and breath to look up. "What now?"

Philadelphia blanches as the smile is no longer pretending to be nice, it is she decides a cold triumphant smile. That she has lost some kind of game and has no idea what it is.

The woman in what is obviously an expensive business suit merely waves a hand in dismissal. "Nothing to worry about. Just some minor hardware upgrades for you since you have a new job."

Philadelphia blinks in confusion, what new job. No one wants to hire her with all of her problems. "New job?"

The woman takes a sip from a glass and now gives Philadelphia a calculating look. "We are going to see what kind of actress you are besides all those MMORPGs that you are fond of."

"Actress?"

"Oh yes my little pet project. When I get through with you, you will be the perfect waldo controller for Hillary."

Told all you vampires it was weird.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:35 AM (JaA49)

194 Told all you vampires it was weird.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:35 AM (JaA49)

--------------------

"The Handler" with vampires?

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 10:38 AM (WEBkv)

195 One thing I learned reading a history of the Battle of the Bulge was the US Army didn't collapse in full, pockets of the Germans broke through in many places but terrain forced them to travel in sometimes out of the way directions. Many American units on their flanks did their job to harass the advancing Germans.

Posted by: Skip at May 27, 2018 10:38 AM (aC6Sd)

196 Her lumpy limp form is hustled by those imposing men down the alley she'd been in and then tossed into a van like so much dead meat.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:35 AM (JaA49)

It's like alliteration, only used for evil instead of for good.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 10:39 AM (fZuhk)

197 There's a brilliant short story, "With Folded Hands" about the creation of robots that do nothing but protect the human race.
Sort of like the nanny state and parents of today.

Just looked it up. The author is Jack Williamson
Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 09:54 AM (WEBkv)

Rhodomagnetism for the win!

That story was republished in one of the "Science Fiction Hall of Fame" collections edited by Ben Bova.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at May 27, 2018 10:39 AM (htCxB)

198 Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 27, 2018 10:09 AM (hyuyC)

I lean towards the hydrogen gas explosion in the battery well theory.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 10:39 AM (9UFns)

199 Felonia von Pantsuit with the exoskeleton under her coat is getting just a little too close to Baron Harkonnen for comfort.

Posted by: random ~~lurker~~ commenter at May 27, 2018 10:40 AM (oLa9K)

200 (pukes quietly in corner)
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 27, 2018 10:35 AM (WFV7d)

I wasn't sure if it was parody, or the people who would buy it were beyond parody.

I have to think that a lot of the purchases are as gag gifts.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 10:41 AM (qJtVm)

201 199: Some libs on FB insist this is a form of body armor as the old bitch is so dangerous to Drumppf, or something

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 10:42 AM (5gaNQ)

202 Maybe All Hail Eris should write a Dune parody sex book - Dunkin' Idaho: Keeping a Bene Gesserit Witch Satisified.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:14 AM (JaA49)

A factoid that Frank Herbert curiously neglected to mention: when the Tleilaxu reanimated the dead Duncan Idaho, they used vast quantities of cocaine. That's right, he was a Coca Ghola.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 27, 2018 10:42 AM (WFV7d)

203 195: & the damn engineers who really screwed up piper's advance, on the fly and sometimes at the last minute.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at May 27, 2018 10:43 AM (Pg+x7)

204 https://www.blackgate.com/2015

/07/12/vintage-treasures-

the-green-girl-by-jack-williamson/

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 10:01 AM (qJtVm)

I'll be in my bunk.

Posted by: Capt. James Tiberius Kirk at May 27, 2018 10:43 AM (htCxB)

205 And a Democratic Republic requires wise and moral representatives who make decisions on what is best for the country and not individual groups. It also requires educated voters who can differentiate between men and women of good character and those opportunists who merely want to enrich themselves at public expense.

All of which comes down to virtue, because that's the only thing that keeps people from the flaws you list. Knowing better doesn't stop you, only wanting to BE better.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at May 27, 2018 10:44 AM (39g3+)

206 Maybe All Hail Eris should write a Dune parody sex book - Dunkin' Idaho: Keeping a Bene Gesserit Witch Satisified.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 09:14 AM

That's in Chapterhouse Dune, the part I left out. Lotta sex in that book; sex as a weapon, sex addiction as a means of control. It isn't explicit, thankfully.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 10:45 AM (roQNm)

207 I've seen Deep Blue World. It's an interesting movie but I always forget the name.

Glad to hear the lab is hanging in there. Really hope he comes through okay.

I'm reading Gene Logsdon books right now. Lots of folks recommend Wendell Berry when it comes to books on farming. I suspect Berry leans left politically and he tends to bring in politics more than Logsdon. "All Flesh is Grass" by Logsdon is about pasture farming. There are interesting stories about contrarian farmers. I don't know how much farming there is in my future but we've talked about being able to run a few cows for beef.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 27, 2018 10:45 AM (Lqy/e)

208 I'm finishing up "Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens" by David Stuttard and highly recommend it for a look at one of history's most fascinating characters. Alcibiades came of age just as the Peloponnesian War began and proved to be an able strategist for the Athenians. He had been educated by Socrates (he and the philosopher save each others lives at different battles) and adopted by Pericles. He ends up helping Athens, then Sparta, then Persia, before escaping to Thrace and then Anatolia where he is murdered. His combination of flamboyance and cunning would make him a natural in today's political environment.

Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" is one of my favorite books, but I have to admit I usually suffer from fatigue trying to make sense of the second half of it. Stuttard's book helps provide a framework for what happened during the entire war and explain where Thucydides got things wrong (probably from believing Alcibiades in their conversations). Again, highly recommended.

Posted by: Dwight at May 27, 2018 10:46 AM (iAl7a)

209 Anna, if you get a chance pick up anything by Cordwainer Smith. He used a lot of classical Chinese literature as a basis for his plots, but it is mostly about people interacting with a technological world they only superficially understand.

But very poetic, and very odd. And there are cat people! Well underpeople really, but some of them are based on cats. The Ballad of Lost C'Mell comes to mind.

It is very different sort of universe from Heinlein or Niven where the hero is deeply conversant with the nuts and bolts aspects.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 27, 2018 10:46 AM (2K6fY)

210 So Fifty Shades of Dune is in the realm of possibility?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:46 AM (JaA49)

211 I wasn't sure if it was parody, or the people who would buy it were beyond parody.

I have to think that a lot of the purchases are as gag gifts.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 10:41 AM (qJtVm)

---------------------

Imagine this: You buy the product as a gag gift and it backfires because the recipient cannot believe how thoughtful you were...

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 10:47 AM (WEBkv)

212 Poacher-turned-Gamekeeper is a good phrase, but I don't think the example you gave fits it correctly - what the GOP-e has done in response to O-care is described much better by the simple word, "Traitor".

Poacher-turned-Gamekeeper describes someone who has been a criminal, but who has now chosen to work on the side of the law. The idea is basically "set a thief to catch a thief".
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 09:05 AM (V2Yro)

Except that yeah, that's basically what happened with that law.

You are placing values on "law" that actually, if you think about it, are more accurately reflecting one of our problems here.

Look at it this way: Suppose Obamacare was a good thing (yes, just try to imagine). Your Republican office seekers were rebels, trying to break that law. Now that they've been elected, they're not protecting that law.

And if you view the word "game" by its other connotation, they are, your Republican officerholders, acting as perfect little game keepers.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 10:48 AM (cY3LT)

213 So Fifty Shades of Dune is in the realm of possibility?

--

You have to write what the market is going to buy, and you have to market the product to the buyers.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 10:49 AM (roQNm)

214 sock b gon!

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at May 27, 2018 10:49 AM (htCxB)

215 I don't know how much Steven Den Beste is available online. He wrote a post about how renewable energy sources can never be scaled up to replace conventional sources. It really changed how I looked at renewables.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 27, 2018 10:50 AM (Lqy/e)

216 "The Handler" with vampires?
Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 10:38 AM (WEBkv)

Avatar, without the furry aspect.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 27, 2018 10:50 AM (2K6fY)

217 *groan* "Mind-blowing sex." *groan*

There is no such thing. Get over it. You bump, you hump, you spasm, you smoke a cigarette. Fuhgeddaboudit.

If you absolutely must have a religious experience, you're simply going to have to get religion. Your down-there-thingy is just a tingly-dingly. It's not The Meaning Of Life.

Posted by: JBSPRY at May 27, 2018 10:51 AM (fgikz)

218 You are placing values on "law" that actually, if you think about it, are more accurately reflecting one of our problems here.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 10:48 AM (cY3LT)

And just to finish that thought, it's a basic human trait, to follow rules/laws. So once you pass a law, most people will eventually settle into obeying it. It comes with our herd mentality.

The left knows this. That's why they fight so hard to get this stuff on the books, because they know uprooting it once it's done, is harder than preventing it in the first place.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 10:51 AM (cY3LT)

219 I really like the revolving bookcases. I coveted one that was also an ottoman back when I was moving from apartment to apartment.

I was on a short story kick the last couple of weeks because a colleague brought in boxes of books and there was a Roald Dahl collection. Dahl liked his maniacs, didn't he? I also ordered a Lawrence Block collection but it hasn't arrived yet.

I'm currently reading Zito and Todd's The Great Revolt.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at May 27, 2018 10:51 AM (/+bwe)

220 Philistines, science fiction philistines... James Tiptree Jr.* "The Girl Who Was Plugged In." Won a Hugo in I think 1969.

*Nom de plume for an actual woman writer. Go figure.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:52 AM (JaA49)

221 Pastor Griffin's first biography of a Medal of Honor winner today is of Richmond Pearson Hobson, from the Spanish American War.

Posted by: booknlass at May 27, 2018 10:53 AM (uJ09Y)

222 *groan* "Mind-blowing sex." *groan*

There is no such thing. Get over it. You bump, you hump, you spasm, you smoke a cigarette. Fuhgeddaboudit.

If you absolutely must have a religious experience, you're simply going to have to get religion. Your down-there-thingy is just a tingly-dingly. It's not The Meaning Of Life.
Posted by: JBSPRY at May 27, 2018 10:51 AM (fgikz)

Ok, I'm going to give a serious response, rather than the jokey one I was considering.

I would suggest, such a thing as "mind blowing sex" does exist. However... it's probably only going to happen inside a committed relationship, and even then, it might not happen too often within MOST committed relationships.

But when it does...

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 10:55 AM (cY3LT)

223 Still going through all of Andrew Loomis's book, should finish them up in, oh, five years or so.

Posted by: Kreplach at May 27, 2018 10:55 AM (UfMVm)

224 Not to mention the possible mind-blowing of Superman getting jiggy with Lois Lane and losing control of his super well soaker

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:56 AM (JaA49)

225 are lot more man eating critters out there

They just bagged a chupacabra in Montana.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/
2018/05/25/strange-wolf-like-
animal-killed-in-montana-puzzles
-wildlife-officials.html

Somebody warn AlexTheChick.

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 10:57 AM (FhXTo)

226 James Tiptree wrote some great short stories. "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (made into and execrable t.v. episode), and I remember liking the novel "Brightness Falls From the Air".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:00 AM (qJtVm)

227 I don't know how much Steven Den Beste is available online.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 27, 2018 10:50 AM (Lqy/e)

I've forgotten the details, but years ago on his blog he made a comment I think in one of his own posts, that Ace's blog comments are a train wreck. It was a hoot to read.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at May 27, 2018 11:00 AM (9UFns)

228 OT: paddle steamer en route to Ireland sinks off the coast of Anglesey.

It had been christened the MV Oliver Cromwell.
tinyurl.com/y88f3xlc

-
Shouldda been the Stormy Daniels 'cause it went down.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 11:00 AM (+y/Ru)

229 Not to mention the possible mind-blowing of Superman getting jiggy with Lois Lane and losing control of his super well soaker
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 10:56 AM (JaA49)

Or soul blowing sex... for example, Angel getting jiggy with an underaged Buffy, and whoosh... there it goes.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:00 AM (cY3LT)

230 " He (Goff) said as soon as he left one, he had forgotten everything, which made
him question the usefulness of group study as opposed to reading on his
own."
yeah, "group study" is perhaps the wrong term for his complaint. Personal study is essential and foundational, but group discussions can then expand the personal thinking, or at least "sharpen with the stone" of other people's views.

If the person is so self centered they can't at times engage in the interests (and maybe deeper understanding) of members of a group, it may be a personal problem.

This blog has posts -- comments engage that subject and wrestle with it, or play with it, try to comprehend it and dismantle it to see what makes it tick. The panoply of multiple thinkers in this type forum makes the "group study" awesome.

Posted by: illiniwek at May 27, 2018 11:02 AM (bT8Z4)

231 Oh yeah. Was discussing Jim Webb’s excellent Born Fighting with coworker, who thereupon lent me Albion’s Seed. So I will be bench pressing this tome for a while.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:02 AM (qJtVm)

232 215 I don't know how much Steven Den Beste is available online. He wrote a post about how renewable energy sources can never be scaled up to replace conventional sources. It really changed how I looked at renewables.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 27, 2018 10:50 AM (Lqy/e)

A lot of the good stuff is unavailable, even in the archives. I shoulda got me one of those applications that crawl though entire websites and save every page and used it on SDB's old "USS Clueless" site.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at May 27, 2018 11:05 AM (htCxB)

233 James Tiptree was excluded from an anthology of women's Science Fiction because the organizers (I seem to remember LeGuin was one of them) didn't realize she was a woman writing with a man's pseudonym.

Alice B Sheldon, USAAF photo-interpretation specialist and later an analyst for the CIA, PhD, and a research psychologist.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 27, 2018 11:06 AM (2K6fY)

234
They just bagged a chupacabra in Montana.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/
2018/05/25/strange-wolf-like-
animal-killed-in-montana-puzzles
-wildlife-officials.html

Somebody warn AlexTheChick.
Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 10:57 AM (FhXTo)

The story isn't there. Hmm.........

Posted by: josephistan at May 27, 2018 11:07 AM (ANIFC)

235 They just bagged a chupacabra in Montana.
----

It's actually a coywolf/humanzee hybrid.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:08 AM (qJtVm)

236 Just finished Navigators of Dune. Convinced me of two things. Not to read another and that writing is not like a hardware store your son can't take up the family writing business.

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (FhXTo)

237 If the person is so self centered they can't at times engage in the interests (and maybe deeper understanding) of members of a group, it may be a personal problem.

This blog has posts -- comments engage that subject and wrestle with it, or play with it, try to comprehend it and dismantle it to see what makes it tick. The panoply of multiple thinkers in this type forum makes the "group study" awesome.
Posted by: illiniwek at May 27, 2018 11:02 AM (bT8Z4)

That's beside the point.

It doesn't really matter if the subject is worthwhile or not. And it doesn't really matter if YOU find the method of learning to be effective.

For some people, it's not.

We have a very primitive understanding of these things, including even how we design and run schools. Some people do NOT learn that way. They just don't.

It's not a character flaw, it's a difference in how people's brains are wired.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (cY3LT)

238 Harvey Weinstein should write a memoir of his time in the joint.

"Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time,

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (EoRCO)

239 The book thread is altogether the wrong thread for this, but today is National Sunscreen Day. So, y'know, be aware of that if you should, God forbid, find yourself forced out of your dank cave and happen to encounter the burning yellow face.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:10 AM (fZuhk)

240 https://preview.tinyurl.com/ybnnszn5

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:10 AM (FhXTo)

241 Instead of Albion's Seed, perhaps this might interest you more. From 1795 a book on being a stage magician called Hocus Pocus

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/57217/57217-h/57217-h.htm

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:11 AM (JaA49)

242 Harvey Weinstein should write a memoir of his time in the joint.

"Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time,
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (EoRCO)

"Sometimes You Do Time In the Joint; Sometimes the Joint Does Time In You."

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:11 AM (cY3LT)

243 Just finished Navigators of Dune. Convinced me of two things. Not to read another and that writing is not like a hardware store your son can't take up the family writing business.
Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (FhXTo)

This guy right here. I like where his head's at.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:12 AM (fZuhk)

244 It's not a character flaw, it's a difference in how people's brains are wired.

---
It also depends on the subject matter. One can be a highly trained and degreed theorist but some subjects require that you get your hands dirty and actually work with the theory. Welding is a good example. You can talk about welding all day, but you need to strike an arc and draw a bead to really get it.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:13 AM (roQNm)

245 https://web.archive.org/web/
20160205201840/http://denbeste.nu/
cd_log_entries/2002/09/Whoisourenemy.shtml

https://preview.tinyurl.com/ycqc2wgv

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:14 AM (FhXTo)

246 So, y'know, be aware of that if you should, God forbid, find yourself forced out of your dank cave and happen to encounter the burning yellow face.
Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:10 AM (fZuhk)
----
Fie, 'tis the the angry sky god!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:16 AM (qJtVm)

247 Star Songs of an Old Primate by James Tiptree Jr with an introduction by Ursula K LeGuin.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:17 AM (JaA49)

248 I'm waiting for the sun to dry the grass before I spread towels in the backyard to soak up the UV I need to clear my psoriasis.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:18 AM (roQNm)

249
So I killed the book thread.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:20 AM (roQNm)

250 >>>*groan* "Mind-blowing sex." *groan*There is no such thing. Get over it.<<<
Sometimes sex is more than just a chore or release. When you make it a weekend event, when you make it special, the ladies will tend to pay for everything.

Does this make me a dirty, filthy whore? So be it!

Posted by: Fritz at May 27, 2018 11:21 AM (J7XgW)

251 Coy wolf?

What does it have to be ashamed of? Tail not fluffy enough? Instead of a howl, it gargles? Or it lacks the halitosis of fresh killed deer?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:21 AM (JaA49)

252 I'm waiting for the sun to dry the grass before I spread towels in the backyard to soak up the UV I need to clear my psoriasis.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:18 AM (roQNm)

I am waiting for the sun to dry and kill the green stuff on my lawn, so I don't have to cut it.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:21 AM (cY3LT)

253 Just finished Navigators of Dune. Convinced me of two things. Not to read another and that writing is not like a hardware store your son can't take up the family writing business.
Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (FhXTo)

What's next in the franchise? Mechanics of Dune? Re-upholsterors of Dune? Consignment Shop Workers of Dune? People of Wal-Mart of Dune?

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at May 27, 2018 11:21 AM (9BLnV)

254 "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time,

Keep your eye on the sparrow.

Posted by: Fox2! at May 27, 2018 11:22 AM (brIR5)

255 Fremen of Wal-Mart: A Tale in Three Parts - Grocery, Pharmacy, and Pets

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:23 AM (JaA49)

256 People of Wal-Mart of Dune?
-----

Tell me you wouldn't read the hell out of that.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:23 AM (qJtVm)

257 239 ... "The book thread is altogether the wrong thread for this, but today is National Sunscreen Day. So, y'know, be aware of that if you should, God forbid, find yourself forced out of your dank cave and happen to encounter the burning yellow face."

Hog, I'm old enough to take a few precautions these days. I tend to wear hats with three inch brims and have them in various weights from a decent grade of Panama hat, vent mesh hats to winter weight stuff. If I'll be out in the sun for a while I go for long sleeved shirts of light cotton.

When I delivered grain to small farms many years ago, the farmers always wore long sleeves in the summer and hats. Never heard a thing about skin cancer for any of them. And these were folks who worked outdoors all the time.

Posted by: JTB at May 27, 2018 11:24 AM (V+03K)

258 Just changing who reads what can affect how you learn different things in group study even when repeating the material.

One person reads whole chapter.
Each person reads a few paragraphs around the room thru the whole chapter.
Each person reads until anyone has a discussion comment.

Probably not noticeable while reading lawnmower repair manuals, (which I'm going to have to remember because it sounded like it spit out a bolt Thursday).

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:24 AM (FhXTo)

259
The Kurtherian Gambit (by Michael Anderle) is on book 21 in the series with no end in sight.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:24 AM (roQNm)

260 West Hollywood Mayor John Duran, who honored porn star Stormy Daniels last week for her role in leading the resistance to President Donald Trump, faced sexual harassment claims that led to the city paying out $500,000 on his behalf in 2016.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 27, 2018 11:25 AM (SjImc)

261 Just finished Navigators of Dune. Convinced me of two things. Not to read another and that writing is not like a hardware store your son can't take up the family writing business.
Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (FhXTo)

What's next in the franchise? Mechanics of Dune? Re-upholsterors of Dune? Consignment Shop Workers of Dune? People of Wal-Mart of Dune?
Posted by: Anonymous White Male at May 27, 2018 11:21 AM (9BLnV)

I haven't yet jumped into, but plan to, the works that Christopher Tolkien finished for his dad.

I was of the assumption that it couldn't possibly be worth my time or effort... sort of the "Navigators of Middle Earth" was how I had been imagining it. They say though, Christopher did a bangup job of finishing stuff for his dad, in ways his dad wasn't terribly good at.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:25 AM (cY3LT)

262 Kindltot, I really enjoy Cordwainer Smith. I didn't know his stories involve Chinese culture. Interesting!

Posted by: NaughtyPine at May 27, 2018 11:25 AM (/+bwe)

263 Oh that's write (!), we have our cat-girl on the inside.

I'm sure you've already seen immense worm-people on mobility carts.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:26 AM (qJtVm)

264 Muad'dib's Guide To Making A Fortune In Real Estate?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at May 27, 2018 11:27 AM (CPfoe)

265 Oh kami, that's a Benny Hill skit

Worm emperor Leto and Hillary on Hover-Rounds chasing each other.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:27 AM (JaA49)

266 Bene Gesserit and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Posted by: Tanner Boyle at May 27, 2018 11:28 AM (aTveC)

267 What's next in the franchise?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_franchise

No info on whether Walmart will be before or after "kids sandbox down the street" or Suk Doctor.

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:29 AM (FhXTo)

268 But yeah, seriously a measurement of 5ft should not be a waist size.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:29 AM (JaA49)

269 @193 Told all you vampires it was weird.
-------------------------

Several months ago, Sarah Hoyt wrote a short story on her blog about Hillary Clinton making a deal with a couple of Russian vampires. Hillary gets eternal undeath, and Lenin and Stalin get another crack at attempting to corrupt the US.

Posted by: juniorj at May 27, 2018 11:29 AM (IojR2)

270 Tolkien exception true.

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:30 AM (FhXTo)

271 I haven't yet jumped into, but plan to, the works that Christopher Tolkien finished for his dad.
...
They say though, Christopher did a bangup job of finishing stuff for his dad, in ways his dad wasn't terribly good at.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:25 AM (cY3LT)

I've heard the same. It makes perfect sense though; if people willingly dive into the Dune stuff even when people with savage Maker scars because they've been there themselves warn them it's not worth it and down that path lies pain and madness you sillly silly goon, why not extend the same trust to Christopher?

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:31 AM (fZuhk)

272 Remembering Your Tooth : A Self Improvement Novel by Dr.Yueh

Posted by: garrett at May 27, 2018 11:31 AM (kFila)

273 235 They just bagged a chupacabra in Montana.
----
It's actually a coywolf/humanzee hybrid.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:08 AM (qJtVm)

Manbearpig!

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at May 27, 2018 11:31 AM (htCxB)

274 Harvey Weinstein should write a memoir of his time in the joint.

"Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time,

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at May 27, 2018 11:09 AM (EoRCO)

I'm thinking of calling it "Where the White Ficus Grows".

Posted by: Harvey W. at May 27, 2018 11:32 AM (sXefu)

275 I'm thinking of calling it "Where the White Ficus Grows".
Posted by: Harvey W. at May 27, 2018 11:32 AM (sXefu)

-----------------

"A Ficus Grows in Rikers"

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 11:33 AM (WEBkv)

276 >>They just bagged a chupacabra in Montana.

Right up the road from our place!

Looks like a baby eating dingo to me.

Posted by: garrett at May 27, 2018 11:33 AM (kFila)

277 On books, slogging through "To the Gates of Stalingrad" by Glantz. Covers the eastern front, April-August 1942, the big German offensive in the south. Glantz is probably the most well-versed westerner on the eastern front, but he tends to write reference books. Not much narrative. So it's often slow going, like the Wehrmacht struggling through the mud of a bad Soviet road after rain.

I always break up Glantz books with reading other, more readable books along the way, alternating between the two. This time it's "The Good War in the Bad City", about San Francisco, LA, and San Diego during WWII. Not bad, but frustrating. The author spends a lot of time arguing with other historians - almost always about quasi-SJW topics like how did mobilization help/not help women in the longer run, etc - taking away from the interesting parts, which are just descriptions of how things transpired during that epic period.

May explore some of the other WWII-in-CA books I've come across, but I fear several of them share this boring, "how did WWII affect left-handed people of color" focus. This book at least seems dogged by the stupid obsessions, as opposed to built around them.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 27, 2018 11:33 AM (QDnY+)

278 I don't retain information well if I hear it. That's why I don't use audible books any more. I listened to Shelby Foote's Civil War book and found I didn't retain much of it. I'm a reader. I have to see stuff on a page.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 27, 2018 11:34 AM (Lqy/e)

279 278 I don't retain information well if I hear it. That's why I don't use audible books any more. I listened to Shelby Foote's Civil War book and found I didn't retain much of it. I'm a reader. I have to see stuff on a page.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 27, 2018 11:34 AM (Lqy/e)
------------------

*fistbump*

I hear, I mean, I read you.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 11:35 AM (WEBkv)

280 I've actually fought with a guy nicknamed "The Tooth".

Posted by: DaveA at May 27, 2018 11:35 AM (FhXTo)

281 Holed up in a Manhattan high rise ain't exactly Rikers.

Posted by: Infidel at May 27, 2018 11:36 AM (LBSeG)

282 Dusting Made Easy and Other Fremen Household Tricks by Shaddup Mates.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:36 AM (JaA49)

283 I'm a reader. I have to see stuff on a page.
---
That was why I had to take written notes during lectures. The act of writing something down on paper was what made me remember it. A quick review of my notes was all I needed to do to prepare for the final exam.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:37 AM (roQNm)

284 Re. sons taking over the family book writing business.

Jeff Shaara does a commendable job I think. I liked his Mexican
War book, "Gone for Soldiers " the best The American Revolution books
were pretty good too. I have not read his more recent stuff, but there is a lot of it!

You can definitely
tell a natural writing talent difference though compared to his
father. Yet, Shaara has been very successful and if it brings
people into learning some history who otherwise wouldn't, it's all
good.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 11:37 AM (n13/j)

285 What's next in the franchise? Mechanics of Dune? Re-upholsterors of Dune? Consignment Shop Workers of Dune? People of Wal-Mart of Dune?
Posted by: Anonymous White Male at May 27, 2018 11:21 AM"

LOL! The Shrubbery Makes of Dune.

The Sardukar who say "Ni!".

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 11:38 AM (V2Yro)

286 On books, slogging through "To the Gates of Stalingrad" by Glantz. Covers the eastern front, April-August 1942, the big German offensive in the south. Glantz is probably the most well-versed westerner on the eastern front, but he tends to write reference books. Not much narrative. So it's often slow going, like the Wehrmacht struggling through the mud of a bad Soviet road after rain.

I always break up Glantz books with reading other, more readable books along the way, alternating between the two. This time it's "The Good War in the Bad City", about San Francisco, LA, and San Diego during WWII. Not bad, but frustrating. The author spends a lot of time arguing with other historians - almost always about quasi-SJW topics like how did mobilization help/not help women in the longer run, etc - taking away from the interesting parts, which are just descriptions of how things transpired during that epic period.

May explore some of the other WWII-in-CA books I've come across, but I fear several of them share this boring, "how did WWII affect left-handed people of color" focus. This book at least seems dogged by the stupid obsessions, as opposed to built around them.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 27, 2018 11:33 AM (QDnY+)

Antony Beevor's Stalingrad is well worth your time and effort. It's brilliantly told. Not a cold (pun intended) list of who did what to whom.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:38 AM (cY3LT)

287 256 People of Wal-Mart of Dune?
-----

Tell me you wouldn't read the hell out of that.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:23 AM (qJtVm)

WWIB is my fav

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 11:38 AM (JFO2v)

288 Holed up in a Manhattan high rise ain't exactly Rikers.

Posted by: Infidel at May 27, 2018 11:36 AM (LBSeG)

Hmm, "Naked Fat Man in the High Castle". Has a ring to it.

Posted by: Harvey W. at May 27, 2018 11:38 AM (sXefu)

289 But does the man in the high castle have a white ottoman?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:39 AM (JaA49)

290 Grilled Cheese and Other Stillsuit Recipes - Liet-Kynes

Posted by: garrett at May 27, 2018 11:39 AM (kFila)

291 Wasn't there a fatwa in the 90s about whether you could have sex with a sheep and the answer was "yes, but you can't eat the sheep afterwards"?
I think Mark Steyn goofed on it.
Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:37 AM (cfSRQ)

There's a passing in O'Brian mentioning that the RN's policy was the opposite. IIRC, it's confirmed by N A M Rodger. The penalty for bestiality was death, but the sheep or goat was served up to the culprit's messmates.

Speaking about the navy, today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Bismarck (1941) and the Battle of Tsushima (1905). Though the former is more famous, the latter is a bigger deal.

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:39 AM (59GGI)

292 >>>They just bagged a chupacabra in Montana.<<<
That thing looked like a retarded wolf-dog from a U of M gene-splicing laboratory, -- like a 4-legged Missoula hipster.

Posted by: Fritz at May 27, 2018 11:40 AM (J7XgW)

293 "Antony Beevor's Stalingrad is well worth your time and effort."

He followed it with a great book on the fall of Berlin. Steiner will come, indeed.

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 27, 2018 11:40 AM (pV/54)

294 "We have a very primitive understanding of these
things, including even how we design and run schools. Some people do
NOT learn that way. They just don't.

It's not a character flaw, it's a difference in how people's brains are wired.

Posted by: BurtTC"

Well from the pure "education" point of view, sure, group study may not always be the most effective. BUT for Bible "study", imo there is a greater (than public schooling) need to be able to make the academic learning accommodate the family/group.

As I said, personal study is essential ... but the concept of the body of Christ and fellowship rather requires an ability to apply the doctrine in the group dynamic. The "action" of helping others is just applying the learning ... else "much learning will make us mad".

But most group studies are not really the group studying, it is mostly a group listening to a teacher. A group study would have to mean everyone has equal input ... and I am putting "study" in a different place from "schooling". The lab class for the doctrinal study involves discussing those personal studies with live lab rats (brothers and sisters of the body).

Posted by: illiniwek at May 27, 2018 11:40 AM (bT8Z4)

295 Battle of Tsushima, if Isoruku Yamamoto had lost one more finger to that shell he would have been cashiered from the Imperial Japanese Navy. What would have history looked like then? Probably Plan Orange for realz.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:41 AM (JaA49)

296 I don't retain information well if I hear it. That's why I don't use audible books any more. I listened to Shelby Foote's Civil War book and found I didn't retain much of it. I'm a reader. I have to see stuff on a page.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 27, 2018 11:34 AM (Lqy/e)

Once you know yourself, how you learn, it's essential sometimes, to tell the people "well you should do this, or you should do that" to go pound sand.

Everyone telling everyone else how to do it. For various values of "it."

One of the fundamental problems with this world.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:42 AM (cY3LT)

297 That was why I had to take written notes during lectures.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:37 AM (roQNm)

I'm definitely one of those who makes some kind of neural connection by writing longhand notes. That said, I've found myself liking audiobooks more and more because the narration often surprises me; I can't skim over any passages and the tone and inflection often reveals things in dialogue that I hadn't noticed when I read it to myself.

Listening to A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, narrated by - get this - Bronson Pinchot - at the moment.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:42 AM (fZuhk)

298 I challenged every grade of every group project I was forced into while in college.

Mostly because I did 100% of the work myself and then tendered my portion to 'the group' and a commplete project to the Prof.

I won every case, too.

Posted by: garrett at May 27, 2018 11:43 AM (kFila)

299 Insapundit has a link to a NYPost article that notes that the guy who got the Obamas their Netflix gig was a huge Obama donor and bundler.

Posted by: juniorj at May 27, 2018 11:43 AM (IojR2)

300 There's a passing in O'Brian mentioning that the RN's policy was the opposite. IIRC, it's confirmed by N A M Rodger. The penalty for bestiality was death, but the sheep or goat was served up to the culprit's messmates.
---

Q: What are yer doin' over there, sailor?

A: Mutton. *shifty eyes*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:43 AM (qJtVm)

301 hogmartin, did you see that Alan Bean has passed away?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:43 AM (JaA49)

302 ...to tell the people "well you should do this, or you should do that" to go pound sand.

One of the fundamental problems with this world.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:42 AM (cY3LT)

To tell people who say...

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:43 AM (cY3LT)

303 Listening to A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, narrated by - get this - Bronson Pinchot - at the moment.
Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:42 AM (fZuhk)
---

Does he do it in his Serge voice?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:44 AM (qJtVm)

304 yes, but you can't eat the sheep afterwards?
I think Mark Steyn goofed on it.
Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at May 27, 2018 09:37 AM (cfSRQ)

I would think oral would come first

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 11:44 AM (JFO2v)

305 >>Does he do it in his Serge voice?

He makes it with a lemon twist.

Posted by: garrett at May 27, 2018 11:45 AM (kFila)

306 Another thing about lectures in the public education system. The things the lecturer talked about were things that were important (to the presenter) and would be on the test.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:45 AM (roQNm)

307 The classy and erudite Book Thread, people!

*claps*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 11:46 AM (qJtVm)

308 hogmartin, did you see that Alan Bean has passed away?
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at May 27, 2018 11:43 AM (JaA49)

I did, yes. The man who switched SCE to AUX on John Aaron's advice.

Mourn ya 'til I join ya, spaceman bro.

https://stoatnet.org/car.jpg

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:46 AM (fZuhk)

309 May explore some of the other WWII-in-CA books I've come across, but I
fear several of them share this boring, "how did WWII affect left-handed
people of color" focus. This book at least seems dogged by the stupid
obsessions, as opposed to built around them.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 27, 2018 11:33 AM (QDnY+)

yeah, that has been a "thing" for a long time they say. Military history "with out a whiff of gunpowder" i've heard it called. Lot's of academics teach that way now I hear.

I often make an effort to read older biographies and history books. For example I loved Flexner's single volume book on George Washington published in 1974. I could not even start the one by Ellis.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 11:47 AM (n13/j)

310 Not to read another and that writing is not like a hardware store your son can't take up the family writing business.

*snerk*

Posted by: christopher tolkien at May 27, 2018 11:48 AM (PqlHO)

311 Once you know yourself, how you learn, it's essential sometimes, to tell the people "well you should do this, or you should do that" to go pound sand.

Everyone telling everyone else how to do it. For various values of "it."

One of the fundamental problems with this world.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:42 AM (cY3LT)

That is the problem with public education. It is designed to help the very middle of the bell curve. Slow kids get left behind and smart kids are bored to tears. Once I start working on a idea or subject I need about 4 or 4 hours to work on it. When I took 3 or 4 hours graduate level courses in college were we met once a week for 4 hours I always made As.

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 11:49 AM (JFO2v)

312 I read Dune in college. Disliked it. Granted, I'm on/off about sci-fi, but the whole thing seemed artificial. Maybe LOTR spoiled me by making up a world which seemed as if it could've been - should've been - real. Dune was fake throughout, just made up and pieced together. Though the best, JRRT isn't entirely unique, too. Jack Vance, at his best, could pull that off.

And to me (like C S Lewis) here, that's one of the reasons to read fiction; entering a world, real or imagined. Whether it's Middle Earth, or Victorian London, or Aubrey's navy, or Kipling's India, or Judge Dee's China, or even the English river world of Rat and Mole, that's one thing I want to read about. And to me, that wasn't there in Dune. Even Hogwarts was more plausible.

Question: Has anyone else figured out who is REALLY behind the spate of Vampire books? Obviously, it's the American Bar Association, which figures that if they can get us to accept one group of soulless bloodsuckers, then we'll even accept the lawyers.

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:49 AM (59GGI)

313 Mechanics of Dune? Re-upholsterors of Dune? Consignment Shop Workers of Dune? People of Wal-Mart of Dune?

That was the 'Below Decks' episode of ST:TNG, season 7. Embarrassingly better than all the main-actor episodes that season.

Posted by: christopher tolkien at May 27, 2018 11:50 AM (PqlHO)

314 /sock of a man whose socks I am unworthy to launder

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 11:50 AM (PqlHO)

315 An author worth checking out:

Erik Larson.

I've read "Devil in the White City"

I second that. It is amazing that such a monster existed and I had never heard of him. Plus the White City which I'd known nothing about.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 11:50 AM (+Tibp)

316 306 Another thing about lectures in the public education system. The things the lecturer talked about were things that were important (to the presenter) and would be on the test.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:45 AM (roQNm)

I always liked lectures about a very detailed subject and then read a book(s) for the general ideas.

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 27, 2018 11:51 AM (JFO2v)

317 "We have a very primitive understanding of these
things, including even how we design and run schools. Some people do
NOT learn that way. They just don't.

It's not a character flaw, it's a difference in how people's brains are wired.

Posted by: BurtTC"

Well from the pure "education" point of view, sure, group study may not always be the most effective. BUT for Bible "study", imo there is a greater (than public schooling) need to be able to make the academic learning accommodate the family/group.

As I said, personal study is essential ... but the concept of the body of Christ and fellowship rather requires an ability to apply the doctrine in the group dynamic. The "action" of helping others is just applying the learning ... else "much learning will make us mad".

But most group studies are not really the group studying, it is mostly a group listening to a teacher. A group study would have to mean everyone has equal input ... and I am putting "study" in a different place from "schooling". The lab class for the doctrinal study involves discussing those personal studies with live lab rats (brothers and sisters of the body).
Posted by: illiniwek at May 27, 2018 11:40 AM (bT8Z4)

If I'm understanding you correctly, then yes, absolutely. The admonishment, about not just studying alone, and somehow thinking one's learning is enough, that would absolutely apply to Bible study.

However... if we're talking strictly about the manner in which a study group forms and performs, it's going to have similar effects on people, regardless of the subject matter, so that people who do NOT learn well in groups, are going to have to find a different way to learn. And if it's important enough, like Bible study, one would hope that second part, the sharing of what one learns, can and will happen in some other way.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:51 AM (cY3LT)

318 309 May explore some of the other WWII-in-CA books I've come across, but I
fear several of them share this boring, "how did WWII affect left-handed
people of color" focus. This book at least seems dogged by the stupid
obsessions, as opposed to built around them.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 27, 2018 11:33 AM (QDnY+)

yeah, that has been a "thing" for a long time they say. Military history "with out a whiff of gunpowder" i've heard it called. Lot's of academics teach that way now I hear.

I often make an effort to read older biographies and history books. For example I loved Flexner's single volume book on George Washington published in 1974. I could not even start the one by Ellis.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 11:47 AM (n13/j)

At least since 1914. Read Saki's wonderful "The Toys of Peace." I'm sure it's online.

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:51 AM (59GGI)

319 Oh that's write (!), we have our cat-girl on the inside.

Lost C'Mel?

Posted by: Fox2! at May 27, 2018 11:52 AM (brIR5)

320 If you like good world building, Sanderson's Stormlight Archive (and other Cosmere works) are extremely well done.

Posted by: garrett at May 27, 2018 11:52 AM (kFila)

321 I read Dune in college. Disliked it. Granted, I'm on/off about sci-fi, but the whole thing seemed artificial.
Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:49 AM (59GGI)

FWIW I don't consider Dune to be anything more than tangentially SF. It's got much more in common with a fantasy setting, it just happens to take place on other planets in the future.

Feel free to dislike it though, obviously.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:52 AM (fZuhk)

322 George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:49 AM

That's interesting. Odd that I found Dune to be more believable than Lord of the Rings.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:53 AM (roQNm)

323 Thank G_d for Mollie Hemingway. She seems like the only journalist who can clearly articulate the chronology of the whole investigation of PDT. Kind of sad the White House doesn't have someone with her clarity on the situation.

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at May 27, 2018 11:53 AM (rdl6o)

324 I second that. It is amazing that such a monster existed and I had never heard of him. Plus the White City which I'd known nothing about.
Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at May 27, 2018 11:50 AM (+Tibp)

-----------------

Hiding in plain sight, as it were.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 11:55 AM (WEBkv)

325 The Pipe Weed Must Flow

Posted by: Gandalf at May 27, 2018 11:55 AM (kFila)

326 Thanks for the Beevor recos - have read the Berlin one, am aware of the Stalingrad one, just wanted to read a bit heavier approach - and of course Glantz is reference-like, to a fault.

And Anna, great point about Tsushima and Yamamoto's injuries. Need to read up on Tsushima, have never done so, only know it through references in WWII books on Japanese figures and naval doctrine.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 27, 2018 11:55 AM (QDnY+)

327 299 Insapundit has a link to a NYPost article that notes that the guy who got the Obamas their Netflix gig was a huge Obama donor and bundler.

Posted by: juniorj at May 27, 2018 11:43 AM (IojR2

Of course. Progressives always look out for and take care of each other, financially. They do that a lot better than we do.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at May 27, 2018 11:56 AM (htCxB)

328
309 May explore some of the other WWII-in-CA books I've come across, but I

fear several of them share this boring, "how did WWII affect left-handed

people of color" focus. This book at least seems dogged by the stupid

obsessions, as opposed to built around them.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 27, 2018 11:33 AM (QDnY+)

yeah, that has been a "thing" for a long time they say. Military
history "with out a whiff of gunpowder" i've heard it called. Lot's of
academics teach that way now I hear.

I often make an effort to read older biographies and history books.
For example I loved Flexner's single volume book on George Washington
published in 1974. I could not even start the one by Ellis.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 11:47 AM (n13/j)

At least since 1914. Read Saki's wonderful "The Toys of Peace." I'm sure it's online.

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:51 AM (59GGI)

Will do.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 11:57 AM (n13/j)

329 >>Kind of sad the White House doesn't have someone with her clarity on the situation.

They do. They know everything.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 27, 2018 11:57 AM (/tuJf)

330 Question: Has anyone else figured out who is REALLY behind the spate of Vampire books? Obviously, it's the American Bar Association, which figures that if they can get us to accept one group of soulless bloodsuckers, then we'll even accept the lawyers.
Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:49 AM (59GGI)

Serious answer: I think Anne Rice more or less re-invented the genre.

And she sunk into some creppy homoerotic nonsense eventually, but the first three Interview/Lestat books are excellent.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 11:57 AM (cY3LT)

331 I read Dune in college. Disliked it. Granted, I'm on/off about sci-fi, but the whole thing seemed artificial.

It was hard to follow with all the names. It's like trying to figure out muslims by their eight different names.

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at May 27, 2018 11:58 AM (rdl6o)

332 >>NYPost article that notes that the guy who got the Obamas their Netflix gig was a huge Obama donor and bundler.

Publishers / Publishing has long been an avenue for outright graft.

Posted by: garrett at May 27, 2018 11:58 AM (kFila)

333
Antony Beevor's Stalingrad is well worth your time and effort. It's brilliantly told. Not a cold (pun intended) list of who did what to whom.
Posted by: BurtTC
------------

Curse you, Burt.

*places order*

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 27, 2018 12:01 PM (c/EDo)

334 Thanks for the Beevor recos - have read the Berlin one, am aware of the Stalingrad one, just wanted to read a bit heavier approach - and of course Glantz is reference-like, to a fault.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 27, 2018 11:55 AM (QDnY+)

I've said this here before though, I got about 100 pages into Beevor's D-Day book, and had to stop. It's pretty much "The British were great, the Americans stunk, and Monty could do no wrong."

Yeah, no.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 12:02 PM (cY3LT)

335 "Dune" trilogy versus LOTR.

Which one holds up better over the years?

I'm going to say LOTR.

Having read both, I would revisit LOTR before I would revisit Dune.

"Dune: Messiah" didn't really do anything for me. The whole "I have no loins" line ...whatever.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 12:03 PM (WEBkv)

336 And she sunk into some creppy homoerotic nonsense eventually, but the first three Interview/Lestat books are excellent.

I only read Interview With a Vampire, but felt it was very well written. I became bored of the vampire genre, much like the whole zombie craze nowadays.

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at May 27, 2018 12:03 PM (rdl6o)

337 It's like trying to figure out muslims by their eight different names.
Posted by: Concerned People's Front at May 27, 2018 11:58 AM (rdl6o)

Not sure what you're talking about there.

Posted by: Benjamín hogmartin Eduardo Sofia de Cabrones y Hormigas at May 27, 2018 12:04 PM (fZuhk)

338 297 That was why I had to take written notes during lectures.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 11:37 AM (roQNm)

I'm definitely one of those who makes some kind of neural connection by writing longhand notes."

I am the same - I found that if I seriously had to memorize lists of items, then my best bet was to not only have written notes, but then to go back and carefully recopy and reorganize them. The physical act of writing stimulated the pathways in my mind that enable memory.

It's also a big part of why I enjoy posting items, like this. I find that as long as ideas are just in my head, they are rather diffuse and unorganized - I'm not an extemporaneous public speaker at all. But, the act of writing forces me to organize and clarify my thinking.

It's always interesting to find yourself changing an opinion about something because you've sat down and tried to write it out, and found that it just won't work when you try to put it on paper. Good sign there's something fundamentally wrong with your position, progs should try that once in a while.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 12:04 PM (V2Yro)

339 "In the Garden of Beasts" recounts the experiences of the American diplomatic effort in pre-WWII Germany as the pogroms against the Jews were really starting to take off.

-
His daughter was banging both the head of the Gestapo and the Berlin head of the NKVD. I guess she was ecumenical.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 12:04 PM (+y/Ru)

340 Regarding Dune vs. LotR, I would add "Where would you rather be, Arakkis or Middle Earth?" For me, the answer is clearly Middle Earth.

Well, after Narnia. I bet Mr. Tumnus likes to party.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:05 PM (qJtVm)

341 That kind of bloodless history of wars was what made Dr. Mrs. T. and I decide to homeschool the oldest T. kid. Specifically because the mostly decent private elementary school where we sent Oldest Kid spent a whole semester on the Civil War in 5th Grade. But when I tried to talk to Kid about the war, I discovered that Kid didn't actually know anything about the war itself and how it was won/lost. What they learned about was Women in the Civil War, Black People in the Civil War, Immigrants in the Civil War . . . but not the, y'know, CIVIL WAR in the Civil War.

Next year we taught Oldest Kid at home.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 27, 2018 12:05 PM (U61AC)

342 "Dune" trilogy versus LOTR.
Which one holds up better over the years?

I'm going to say LOTR.
Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 12:03 PM (WEBkv)

Same. Not even close IMO.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 12:05 PM (fZuhk)

343 "people who do NOT learn well in groups, are going to
have to find a different way to learn. And if it's important enough,
like Bible study, one would hope that second part, the sharing of what
one learns, can and will happen in some other way.

Posted by: BurtTC

agreed. (except the "will happen" part. Because some become academic "letter of the law" types ... like the Pharisees trying to entrap Jesus ... "the law says we should stone her, what say you?" Though I guess that is just the lab portion of the doctrine gone awry)

"group study" .... best if the "group" is a couple other people over dinner and drinks, perhaps.

I certainly agree that (most?) individuals are not well served listening to a teacher drone on to a class of 30, repeated till even the slowest gets it.
Interaction and challenging the personal learning are important to a practical application of knowledge --- wisdom. (sort of the scientific method ... hypothesis, then test in a real situation)

Posted by: illiniwek at May 27, 2018 12:06 PM (bT8Z4)

344 Antony Beevor's Stalingrad is well worth your time and effort. It's brilliantly told. Not a cold (pun intended) list of who did what to whom.
Posted by: BurtTC
------------

Curse you, Burt.

*places order*
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 27, 2018 12:01 PM (c/EDo)

You're welcome!

Speaking of dirty Rooskies, I've finally started delving into Dostoevsky. Free Kindle short stories collection.

Oh my.

You have to reacquaint yourself with the Russian writing style, but I can't remember the last time I read a story that brought tears to my eyes.

Simple, straight, and true.

As I'm looking for the twists and turns my brain has "taught" me will occur in fiction, he tricks me by not doing any trickery. He presents his characters to us, and they behave like people.

Seems rather trite to say that, but that's the thing. It's so hard for a fiction writer to resist the urge to have his/her characters DO things they want done. It takes real skill and art to have them BE who they are.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 12:09 PM (cY3LT)

345 My own reading has been essays this week. I finally found my big volume of Waugh's. I guess it speaks ill of my character that there is no writer whom I see as more of a kindred spirit that the late Waugh. I just cannot write. But I also found H W Richmond's National Policy and Naval Strength, so I got out Rodger's Command of the Ocean and am reading that in concert with it. Richmond was often wrongheaded, but always interesting. (Can't wait for Rodger's 3rd vol.)

I'm toying with a fun project (having turned 65 on the 19th - the anniversary of Barfleur) of using Rodger, Clowes, and James, to compile all the major fleet actions of the RN in the classic sailing era (Dutch through Napoleonic Wars), to see just how the losses really worked. It's well known that far more ships were captured than sunk. But it's not much mentioned what the fate of the captured ships were. How many became commissioned, how many went to harbor duty, how many sold? (Which is why I'm sticking to ships of the line, smaller stuff often wasn't commissioned.) I do have the 3 Rif Winfield volumes which will give the answers. Of course, I'll no doubt get sidetracked when Norman Friedman's next comes out in June. Assuming it does come in June. His books' announced pub dates tend to be mere wishful thinking. My wife says that, if she orders one for Christmas, she can usually rely on it getting here by my birthday, in May.

But I had to stop with Judge Dee because I cannot find most of them. (Can't find a lot of Rex Stout, as well.) That's the problem with my library: I've allowed my hatred of centralized planning to go overboard. I don't know where anything is. I may make another run through the Aubreiad.

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 12:09 PM (59GGI)

346 I remember asking mom about making a serious decision about this or that. She would tell me to write a list of pros and cons in columns on a sheet of paper. Makes you think from all different angles.

It was a great help.

Posted by: Infidel at May 27, 2018 12:09 PM (LBSeG)

347 That kind of bloodless history of wars was what made
Dr. Mrs. T. and I decide to homeschool the oldest T. kid. Specifically
because the mostly decent private elementary school where we sent Oldest
Kid spent a whole semester on the Civil War in 5th Grade. But when I
tried to talk to Kid about the war, I discovered that Kid didn't
actually know anything about the war itself and how it was won/lost.
What they learned about was Women in the Civil War, Black People in the
Civil War, Immigrants in the Civil War . . . but not the, y'know, CIVIL
WAR in the Civil War.

Next year we taught Oldest Kid at home.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 27, 2018 12:05 PM (U61AC)
Yeah, it is a joke. Lots of high schools and even colleges just skip the whole bloody war altogether. (insert Airplane movie joke). They teach up to the Fort Sumter and then go straight to Reconstruction.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 12:09 PM (n13/j)

348
The sun is calling to me. I hear it calling my name in a sultry voice daring me to expose my skin to irradiation.

How can I resist the seductive call of the Sirens?

Posted by: Skandia Recluse - Alt-Ctrl at May 27, 2018 12:10 PM (roQNm)

349 Vampires - in late Victorian times, when Bram Stoker's novel was written, the subtext was all about repressed sexuality and the horror it induced in the English upper classes. (mixed with fascination and desire, of course)

Anne Rice made a go of it with the "I'm a poor misunderstood angsty-boy vampire!" but in an age where we no longer repress anything at all, it's not surprising that Vampires have dropped into the bargain basement category of horror monster, and live on mainly in badly written tween stories.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 12:12 PM (V2Yro)

350 I'ts fine if you want to know the impact of World War 2 on sugar prices in Canada. But you better learn first about who won the war for your country and how they did it.

Posted by: Quint at May 27, 2018 12:12 PM (n13/j)

351 348: Go for it! Great for psoriasis, if I had some sunshine, I'd be out there in a heartbeat

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 12:12 PM (5gaNQ)

352 Have to weigh in. Beevor's 'Ardennes 1944' on the BoB contains the same sloppy errors a lot of others made, regarding Peiper and engineers and bridges. Only when you get down to the accounts written by the lower-level troops are the details accurate. No real surprise.

Posted by: goatexchange at May 27, 2018 12:12 PM (JqnKP)

353 second that. It is amazing that such a monster existed and I had never
heard of him. Plus the White City which I'd known nothing about.
=====

When I saw the plans for the new Chicago lakefront project, all I could think about was the White City. Who will be the devil?

Posted by: mustbequantum at May 27, 2018 12:13 PM (MIKMs)

354 Anne Rice made a go of it with the "I'm a poor misunderstood angsty-boy vampire!" but in an age where we no longer repress anything at all, it's not surprising that Vampires have dropped into the bargain basement category of horror monster, and live on mainly in badly written tween stories.
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 12:12 PM (V2Yro)

--------------------

No idea what you're talking about.

Posted by: Stephenie Meyer at May 27, 2018 12:14 PM (WEBkv)

355 His daughter was banging both the head of the Gestapo and the Berlin head of the NKVD. I guess she was ecumenical.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 12:04 PM (+y/Ru)

"Pansexual"?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at May 27, 2018 12:14 PM (htCxB)

356 The bloodlessness (good word for it) of some modern histories is why I enjoy 19th Century histories and tales of exploration. Yes, they are sometimes hilariously problematic (savages!), but they are usually written by men who fought, trekked, and sailed to get first hand information. And as I have often said, the beauty of overrstuffed Victorian prose cannot be matched by today's grad grinds.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:14 PM (qJtVm)

357 And she sunk into some creppy homoerotic nonsense eventually, but the first three Interview/Lestat books are excellent.
-----------------------
I only read Interview With a Vampire, but felt it was very well written. I became bored of the vampire genre, much like the whole zombie craze nowadays.
Posted by: Concerned People's Front at May 27, 2018 12:03 PM (rdl6o)

The Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt movie is actually quite good, and I think it does more or less end at the point where the second book begins. If I recall, they never made the second book into a movie, and instead jumped right into the "Queen of the Damned" movie, which was awful.

That book is quite interesting too, in that it goes into substantial detail on the history of vampires (Rice's creation story).

Pound for pound though, I think the second book, The Vampire Lestat, is the best of the three.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 12:16 PM (cY3LT)

358 regarding Peiper

-
Public TV did a show with the handful of survivors of the Malmedy massacre who are still alive. It was quite good.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 12:16 PM (+y/Ru)

359 Ah well, time to go visit the angry sky god with a book in my hand.

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 12:17 PM (WEBkv)

360 And as I have often said, the beauty of overrstuffed Victorian prose cannot be matched by today's grad grinds.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:14 PM (qJtVm)

Time for your weekly reminder that F Spencer Chapman's The Jungle Is Neutral has enough stiff upper lip understatement to etch glass.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 12:17 PM (fZuhk)

361 Still indifferently watching the new Lost in Space. Why are they trekking across a frozen landscape without hats and hoods?!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:18 PM (qJtVm)

362 "In the Garden of Beasts" recounts the experiences of the American diplomatic effort in pre-WWII Germany as the pogroms against the Jews were really starting to take off.

-
His daughter was banging both the head of the Gestapo and the Berlin head of the NKVD. I guess she was ecumenical.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
-----------

She was a real piece of work, ended up spying and passing U.S. secrets tor the Russians. Ended up living in Russia, and Cuba.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 27, 2018 12:18 PM (c/EDo)

363 When I saw the plans for the new Chicago lakefront project, all I could think about was the White City. Who will be the devil?"

Louis Farrakhan notwithstanding, I'll betcha it won't be a White Devil in the Black City!

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 12:19 PM (V2Yro)

364 I don't believe the GOPe ever campaigned against Obamacare.

Like so many ideas, they complained about it because it was part of their schtick but they actually were quite pleased that it passed.

Obamacare could've been cut off at the knees but they chose to let them finagle it passed.

And notice how when the actual chance came to be that it could get repealed they immediately lost all interest in doing so.

Far as I'm concerned there are more never-Republicans than never-Trumpers.

It's like the Republican party is where you went when the Democrats wouldn't have you or the area had too many normals in it to run as a Democrat.

Once you look at the past 40 years like that, things become much much clearer on why and how they happened.

Words are cheap.

Posted by: jakee308 at May 27, 2018 12:19 PM (Tvo6J)

365 Peiper and Malmedy. Total failure of leadership (among other faults). He was back interrogating captives, instead of being near the front, directing and controlling events. When he caught up and saw the carnage, he was upset because of all the lovely shot up trucks and their fuel - things he really needed.

Posted by: goatexchange at May 27, 2018 12:19 PM (JqnKP)

366 "people who do NOT learn well in groups, are going to
have to find a different way to learn. And if it's important enough,
like Bible study, one would hope that second part, the sharing of what
one learns, can and will happen in some other way.

Posted by: BurtTC

agreed. (except the "will happen" part. Because some become academic "letter of the law" types ... like the Pharisees trying to entrap Jesus ... "the law says we should stone her, what say you?" Though I guess that is just the lab portion of the doctrine gone awry)

"group study" .... best if the "group" is a couple other people over dinner and drinks, perhaps.

I certainly agree that (most?) individuals are not well served listening to a teacher drone on to a class of 30, repeated till even the slowest gets it.
Interaction and challenging the personal learning are important to a practical application of knowledge --- wisdom. (sort of the scientific method ... hypothesis, then test in a real situation)
Posted by: illiniwek at May 27, 2018 12:06 PM (bT8Z4)

Yes, that's what I meant. One hopes there are avenues to the heart and soul of the teaching, and not just its intellectualized "letter of the law." And that's a good way to put it too: form a hypothesis, then test it in the real world.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 27, 2018 12:21 PM (cY3LT)

367 Lost C'Mel?
Posted by: Fox2! at May 27, 2018 11:52 AM (brIR5)

Nah, she's over by the space port. She'll be back after her shift.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 27, 2018 12:21 PM (2K6fY)

368 Okay Hog, I finally relented and ordered a used copy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:22 PM (qJtVm)

369 361 Still indifferently watching the new Lost in Space. Why are they trekking across a frozen landscape without hats and hoods?!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:18 PM (qJtVm)

-----------------

Bad writing?

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 12:23 PM (WEBkv)

370 >>And that's a good way to put it too: form a hypothesis, then test it in the real world.

So the scientific method then. Which is notably absent from things such as global warming.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 27, 2018 12:24 PM (/tuJf)

371 Okay Hog, I finally relented and ordered a used copy.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:22 PM (qJtVm)

:3

It's not like I get a commission off it or anything, it just seems like something you'd love. It's like Lawrence of Occupied Malaya.

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 12:24 PM (fZuhk)

372 Bad writing?
Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 12:23 PM (WEBkv)
---

They're mostly Canadians, they should know better.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:24 PM (qJtVm)

373 Chelsea Clinton makes an ~~impassioned~~ incoherent plea for censorship.

"Now I've come to feel differently, because I think that the way that our president and many people around him have not only mainstreamed hate, but mainlined it, is so deeply dangerous," she said, before citing reports of children using Trump's words to bully other children.

Clinton added that people used to focus on tolerance instead of standing up against instances of hatred, like casual misogyny.

"We have freedom of speech, which I do think is hugely important - and yet people thought you couldn't dispute hateful things, because they're like - well, it's freedom of speech. Well, freedom of speech doesn't mean there is freedom of consequences," Clinton said.

I'm going to call you the Little Beast.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 12:27 PM (+y/Ru)

374 373: Fuck the Clinton spawn with a pineapple

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 12:30 PM (5gaNQ)

375
They're mostly Canadians, they should know better."

Behold the Suckage that is Canada:

https://tinyurl.com/y8rhevdl

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 12:31 PM (V2Yro)

376 321 I read Dune in college. Disliked it. Granted, I'm on/off about sci-fi, but the whole thing seemed artificial.
Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:49 AM (59GGI)

FWIW I don't consider Dune to be anything more than tangentially SF. It's got much more in common with a fantasy setting, it just happens to take place on other planets in the future.

Feel free to dislike it though, obviously.
Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:52 AM (fZuhk)

and

321 I read Dune in college. Disliked it. Granted, I'm on/off about sci-fi, but the whole thing seemed artificial.
Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 11:49 AM (59GGI)

FWIW I don't consider Dune to be anything more than tangentially SF. It's got much more in common with a fantasy setting, it just happens to take place on other planets in the future.

Feel free to dislike it though, obviously.
Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 11:52 AM (fZuhk)

While I don't but the pomo "there's no such thing as a canon" crap, there is a related view I think true. We should take "taste" a bit more literally than we do. That is, just as in food, there are certain flavors we either like or dislike at a fundamental level (and there's an end to it), that is true of literature (and music, etc) as well. And that has nothing to do with the skill of the cook.

For instance, I cannot get raw tomatoes down. People will tell me "You haven't had a good one." BS. I have They're worse; they have more of what I dislike. If I didn't like chocolate, I would, if I had to, prefer a Tootsie Roll or a cheap Easter bunny to the high-percentage ultra-darks I now eat.

And there are some writers, and writers' themes, I don't like.

OTOH, I cannot see the world of Dune. And it's not just that it doesn't appeal, it's not real to me, at all. Flavorless. To take a parallel case, though I like mysteries, I don't much care for the "hard boiled" types. But I make an exception for James M Cain. I still don't care for the characters, and the stories are - to me - just so-so. But he does evoke a feeling of California in the 30s - 40s in a way I appreciate. He does it better than Gardner or Hammett, who in other respects I prefer.

I'm not saying that's all that matters, but it does strike me as relevant here. (This is similar to C S Lewis's reason for not caring for The Three Musketeers).

BTW, another writer whose son couldn't carry it on was L Frank Baum (and Ruth Plumley Thompson was even worse). But, honestly, even as a kid, I thought that after the 6th - The Emerald City of Oz, they were much inferior. In that one, Baum tried a Reichenbach Falls ending, to finish the series. Like Doyle, he couldn't resist the public demand to resume. But he never came up with a Silver Blaze or Hound after the fall.

I also have read a mystery by Tolkein's grandson, which really stunk. It was supposed to be a whodunnit, but the only puzzle was illusory. The answer was so obvious I kept thinking "That's too simple. What's the trick?" There was no trick. And it had about zero of the other things which make unmysterious mysteries worth reading.

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 12:31 PM (59GGI)

377 "group study" .... best if the "group" is a couple other people over dinner and drinks, perhaps.

-------

Of a meeting with Ibn Saud in Jan. or Feb. of '44, Churchill said,

"I had been told that neither smoking or alcoholic beverages were allowed in the Royal Presence. As I was the host at luncheon I raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolute sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in intervals between them. The King graciously accepted the position."

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 27, 2018 12:34 PM (5OO3x)

378 This is the only thread I almost always read straight through, and almost always comment on.

On "bloodless history", there's an essay by Jacques Barzun in which he mentions a conversation with a history teacher, who bemoaned how textbooks managed to excise absolutely anything which could possibly interest the students. The teacher (presumably a Brit) then said "Thank God for Henry VIII."

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 12:36 PM (59GGI)

379 Here's one link to Toys of Peace:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ToysPeac.shtml

Another:

http://haytom.us/the-toys-of-peace/

And like almost all Saki, the story is extremely short.

Posted by: George LeS at May 27, 2018 12:38 PM (59GGI)

380 Another conspiracy theory in the making.

Who killed Bobby Kennedy? RFK Jr. believes second gunman...

Met with Sirhan Sirhan in prison...

"I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence," said Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and the third oldest of his father's 11 children. "I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father. My father was the chief law enforcement officer in this country. I think it would have disturbed him if somebody was put in jail for a crime they didn't commit."

https://bit.ly/2xh5FeS

He also thinks Michael Skakel is innocent so nutter.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at May 27, 2018 12:39 PM (+y/Ru)

381 OT: Check out DaybyDay's cartoon for today. It's very clear (very, very clear) that Chris Muir reads Ace.

Posted by: Wenda (sic) at May 27, 2018 12:42 PM (Kr0FZ)

382 381 OT: Check out DaybyDay's cartoon for today. It's very clear (very, very clear) that Chris Muir reads Ace.
---
Alex should sue.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:45 PM (qJtVm)

383 "our president and many people around him have not only mainstreamed hate, but mainlined it"
------------------------------
WTF?
I'm not amazed at the (baseless) assertion that Trump and associates are hatey-hatey-poo-poos. This is the Party Line.
But WTF is the difference between "mainstreaming" and "mainlining?"

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 27, 2018 12:46 PM (0jtPF)

384 But WTF is the difference between "mainstreaming" and "mainlining?"
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 27, 2018 12:46 PM (0jtPF)

One means "to make appear normal and acceptable", the other means "to inject intravenously".

#themoreyouknow

Posted by: hogmartin at May 27, 2018 12:47 PM (fZuhk)

385 Robert Kaplan is one of my favorite nonfiction writers whose books (Balkan Ghosts, Eastward to Tartary, The Ends of the Earth, etc.) often combine the best of travel writing, history and analysis. When he visits a shithole country, he stays with the locals in crummy hotels and gets around on crowded, smelly buses. I recently finished his The Revenge of Geography, which, as always is very insightful.

Another book I highly recommend is Howard Blum's In the Enemy's House. Everyone knows about the Rosenbergs and other Commie atomic spies, but this is the first account I've read about how a determined FBI agent and a geeky cryptanalyst broke the Soviet code (the Venona project) and found the bad guys who sent our secrets to the Russians.

Posted by: Outside Adjitator at May 27, 2018 12:47 PM (pXthv)

386 384---hogmartin

Thank you!

This chick is one of our finest "thought leaders," y'no!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 27, 2018 12:50 PM (0jtPF)

387 The Clinton and Kennedy spawn prove that if you pour a gallon of education into a shot glass sized brain, it will still hold at most a shot glass of knowledge.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 27, 2018 12:52 PM (y7DUB)

388 RFK jr - gawd, what an idiot. Sirhan Sirhan did the shooting in front of witnesses, admitted doing the shooting, and was caught at the scene holding the gun used to do the shooting.

And nobody for 40 years questioned whether or not he really did it - because they didn't want to be accused of acting like brain dead idiots, that's why.

The only coverup in this story, and it is a BIG one, is how a Palestinian activist who hated Israel killed one of the biggest names in the Democrat party, BECAUSE he supported Israel, and no other reason. And the Dems have been trying ever so hard to hide that Inconvenient Truth ever since.

In actual fact, that is probably the first big Muslim attack against America carried out inside US Borders.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 27, 2018 12:53 PM (V2Yro)

389 Clinton: "....freedom from consequences."

Boy, howdy, if ever there was a motto that should be emblazoned in Latin on the Clinton family crest....

Posted by: goatexchange at May 27, 2018 12:54 PM (JqnKP)

390 "So the scientific method then. Which is notably absent from things such as global warming.

Posted by: JackStraw

and the "funny" thing is, Gore stole the hypothesis from his professor, who later said the hypothesis was mostly false, or at least CO2 was not a major driver. Gore responded by calling him senile ... then the prof died. (now knowing the importance of the PC religion and their BS crap like global warming, I'm open to a conspiracy theory that Gore had the prof killed,, even though that has never been suggested .. ha)

The halls of academia have become an isolated mafia, yet they have taken over DC. I'm not sure if they do group study, but if so it is about how to deceive/bilk the masses, not a quest for higher learning.

Posted by: illiniwek at May 27, 2018 12:58 PM (bT8Z4)

391 389: Have the Brits given the Clinton Crime family a coat of arms to go with the dossier?

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 12:59 PM (5gaNQ)

392 390: Have always been

Posted by: CN at May 27, 2018 01:00 PM (5gaNQ)

393 Went on a long car trip to visit my mom last week so I listened to "The End of Dieting," by Joel Fuhrman, M.D., read by the author (and really, really annoying).

The long and short of it is anything other than fruits and veggies is going to give you cancer and heart disease.

BUT, Fuhrman claims that if you become a nutritarian and give your body all that it needs to thrive, you won't be hungry between meals -- and sometimes long after.

I was skeptical but tried it for a few days with a massive "rainbow kale salad," the recipe is on Pinterest, and a couple others, and danged if he isn't right! I had a bowl of it at 1 p.m. and was comfortably satisfied till bedtime!

I've been doing the low-carb, high-fat, intermittent fasting espoused by our shelf-building host, and Fuhrman pokes some major holes in the high-fat, high-protein lifestyle -- namely there's no one who has lived to a ripe old age following it!

Posted by: SandyCheeks at May 27, 2018 01:14 PM (ihzOe)

394 Watch out for the carnetarians, SandyCheeks!

The diet wars only slightly behind Civil War/hardwood-vs.-shag in bloody-mindedness.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 01:21 PM (qJtVm)

395 George LeS (11:51am):Saki's 'The Toys of Peace' is indeed on-line, one copy at my long-abandoned-but-not-deleted website: http://www.drweevil.org/saki/toys.html
Everyone:Thanks for the compliments. No, I don't have a Necronomicon: that's all Latin texts and commentaries.
If you covet a revolving bookshelf, or just want to see some in more detail, search eBay for "revolving bookcase" in the Antique furniture category. They've always got at least a dozen. Of course, they're all either very expensive, or in bad condition, or "local pickup only", or all three, and the last category are always hundreds or thousands of miles away. The other method is to haunt all the antique stores and thrift shops and auctions in (e.g.) the Shenandoah Valley for a few years. That's how I got mine - have seen roughly twenty in person in 5-6 years, and bought ten, including the five in the picture. Would have bought two more, but didn't have the money at the time. The rest were beat up or grossly overpriced.

Posted by: Dr. Weevil at May 27, 2018 01:22 PM (rUCBQ)

396 Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at May 27, 2018 09:26 AM (BdB9z)

Congrats! That's quite something!

Posted by: SandyCheeks at May 27, 2018 01:25 PM (ihzOe)

397 Insomniac-

If you're out there, or in here, or if you fell down the well and Lassie didn't tell us......HIYA !

Posted by: JT at May 27, 2018 02:09 PM (RCSTP)

398 "The Five Fingers" (which I haven't read) was a novel about some SOG/Special Forces types on a U.S. mission to get into North Vietnam and kill (as I remember) Gen. Giap and other prominent Reds.

"Devil's Guard" (the one I did read) was the novel of the French Indochina War, and was at first billed as the true story of an ex-Waffen SS officer who leads a battalion-sized unit of fellow Nazis against the Viet Minh after they all join the Foreign Legion -- even though no such unit (as opposed to individual SS men and other Germans who joined the Legion following World War II) actually existed. (The Wikipedia entry on the book notes that the whole "Nazis in the Legion" thing began as Red propaganda. Hmmm...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Guard

Posted by: Bill the Butcher at May 27, 2018 02:27 PM (MmEPa)

399 I'm always the last to comment. Probably should drink more coffee sooner so my sluggish brain starts to function earlier.
Anyway, about the Germans joining the Foreign Legion question. There were three books written about this, Devil's Guard I, II and III. All by George Elford, a pseudonym for someone now unknown. All three recount the story of Waffen-SS men captured in Austria by the French and given a choice, the fate of most SS men or the Foreign Legion.
They supposedly ran rougshod over the Viet Minh in the late 40's and early 50's, leading up to Dien Bein Phu.

Whether these are autobiographical or fictional has never been entirely verified either way.

Posted by: William Alan Webb at May 27, 2018 02:38 PM (OhYcy)

400 Still indifferently watching the new Lost in Space. Why are they trekking across a frozen landscape without hats and hoods?!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 27, 2018 12:18 PM (qJtVm)

-----------------

Bad writing?

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at May 27, 2018 12:23 PM (WEBkv)

Seems okay.

Posted by: Tech Sergeant Chen at May 27, 2018 02:54 PM (QLvwG)

401 I read Megan WhalenTurner's fifth ovel in The Queen's Thief series. Enjoyed, but not the greatness of books 2 and 3.

Posted by: Gem at May 27, 2018 03:10 PM (XoAz8)

402 Sirhan Sirhan was Christian, not Muslim. In the 1960s the main Israel-haters were secular fascist Arab-firsters. The various Baath parties and Nasser were all in this camp. The leadership of these parties tended to religious minorities: Alawites and Christians in Syria, Sunnis and Christians in Iraq.

"The past is a different country. They do things differently there."

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 03:37 PM (6FqZa)

403 even today the remaining Christians in the Near East are depressingly pro-Hizbullah and antiSemitic. (Although the Copts in Egypt seem to have wised up.)

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 03:40 PM (6FqZa)

404 /excuse me, antiJew. The nonArmenian Christians identify as Semites in the Near East

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 27, 2018 03:40 PM (6FqZa)

405 394 Watch out for the carnetarians, SandyCheeks!

===

You rang?

Posted by: votermomus carnetarius at May 27, 2018 03:57 PM (hMwEB)

406 Since the late, great James Tiptree, Jr. was mentioned above, I will point out that there is a very good biography available: "James Tiptree, Jr. : the double life of Alice B. Sheldon" by Julie Phillips, 2006.

She lead a remarkable life ending, sadly, in a shocking death. Her pen name was picked off a marmalade jar for what she thought would be her forgettable first stories.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at May 27, 2018 05:30 PM (iuRR5)

407 Re the "Lost in Space" question --

Probably for the same reason that Stark and Parker kept unmasking in "Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet": because the producers reason that audiences want to see the actors' faces as much as possible, realism be damned.

That slightly took me out of the movie.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 27, 2018 05:41 PM (a4DII)

408 I know I'm late to the thread this week (super late game night Saturday), but I wanted to say thanks again for the plug.

Posted by: Andrew VanOrden at May 27, 2018 07:08 PM (ARdZH)

409 In Islam: no oral sex, no sex during the day during Ramadan, " "It is offensive for either husband or wife to look at the other's genitals" (Reliance of the Traveler m2.4); it is obligatory for a woman to agree to sex if her husband requests it and she is at home; he is only required to give her sex once every four days; anal intercourse is prohibited; she must shave her private parts, for a husband and wife to remarry after they divorce each other, the woman has to marry another man and consummate the marriage and then be divorced from him--and wait three months following the divorce -- before they can remarry. Etc., etc. etc. Muslims must be horrific lovers.

Posted by: Victoria at May 27, 2018 07:42 PM (QmCH9)

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