Sunday Morning Book Thread 07-22-2018

Some Shelves From James Varney's Library (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 ('escaped oafs' is an anagram of 'Ace of Spades'). 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 pants, which, even though they're ugly, at least they match.

Pic Note

You never know who's lurking on AoSHQ. James Varney sent me some library pics and permission to "out" him as a national correspondent for The Washington Times. Before he worked for the Times, he was a member of the New Orleans-based reporting team that won two Pulitzer Prizes for Hurricane Katrina coverage in 2006. You can see the Pulitzers on the right side of the third shelf, in front of the Tom Wolfe novels. He also sent me a close-up photo that you can see below the fold.

He says:

Love the feature; love the site. I'm grateful for the links J.J. has given my stories on the Morning Report

Just thought I'd pass that along.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

A ROORBACK is a false or slanderous rumour propagated for political purposes.

Usage: Room Full of Roorbacks: The White House Press Corps was an instant best-seller.

Pulitzer Prizes

Love Is Diverse

The NY Times is all concerned and stuff about the current lack of diversity in romance novels:

Romance novels released by big publishing houses tend to center on white characters, and rarely feature gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people in leading roles, or heroines with disabilities. Even as the genre has evolved to reflect readers’ varied tastes and fetishes — popular subcategories include vampire and werewolf romance, military romance, cowboy romance, time travel romance, pirate and Viking romance — the lead characters are often confined to a fairly narrow set of ethnic, cultural and aesthetic types.

But the article provides some counterexamples:

Forever Yours, an imprint at Grand Central, publishes Karelia Stetz-Waters, who writes romances about lesbian couples. Uzma Jalaluddin’s debut novel, “Ayesha at Last,” takes place in a close-knit immigrant Muslim community in Canada, and features an outspoken Muslim heroine who falls for a more conservative Muslim man...Alisha Rai and Sonali Dev have expanded the genre with love stories that feature Indian and Indian-American protagonists. Priscilla Oliveras, who is published by Kensington, writes romances with Latinx heroes and heroines. Jeannie Lin has published historical romances with Harlequin that are set in China during the Tang dynasty era.

OK, fine, but I'm going to have to holler about cultural appropriation here. Didn't the whole "falling in love" thing originate in Europe during medieval times, with chivalry and "courtly love" and all that? Before that, in pretty much every culture, young women were told who they were going to marry by their fathers and family and no backtalk. And if the girl was lucky, she might get was paired off with a decent man who didn't beat her. That's what I've always understood, anyway. So all the diversity authors should all be paying some sort of royalty to medieval European culture without which their books would not be possible.

“Readers want books that reflect the world they live in, and they won’t settle for a book about a small town where every single person is white,” said Leah Koch, co-owner of the romance bookstore the Ripped Bodice in Culver City, Calif. Last year, six of her store’s top 10 best-selling novels were written by authors of color, Ms. Koch said.

Well, if that's the case, them I'm not sure what the fuss is about. If people are actually buying the new "diverse" romance novels, then it sounds like the market is indeed taking care of a hitherto unmet demand. And if there's more demand, more authors will step up to meet it. Case in point:

The best-selling romance writer Courtney Milan, who writes novels with interracial and gay couples and transgender and bisexual characters, left a Harlequin imprint around seven years ago and began self-publishing because she wanted to have more creative control over her plots and characters. She has since sold more than one million copies on her own, she said. Delaney Diamond, who started self-publishing romance novels with African-American characters in 2011, has sold around 370,000 copies of her books, and created her own imprint, Garden Avenue Press. She recently began publishing multicultural romance novels by other authors.

Good for her. Another problem solved by a person taking a bit of initiative to do some work herself rather than just sitting around crying about it.

Moron Recommendation

29 I read a book recommended here a week or two ago, Our Man In Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South, by Christopher Dickey. This is the story of Robert Bunch, who was in Charleston from 1853 to 1863 as British consul for most of the time. A fierce anti-slaver, Bunch walked a tightrope, hiding his abolitionist feelings from his Southern contacts while sending back to the Foreign Office information to keep Britain pro-Union. An interesting story, and I learned much about the events leading up to the attack on Fort Sumter.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 08, 2018 09:14 AM(HLy+M)

I was struck by this bit from the Amazon blurb:

As secession and war approached, the Southern states found themselves in an impossible position. They knew that recognition from Great Britain would be essential to the survival of the Confederacy, and also that such recognition was likely to be withheld if the South reopened the Atlantic slave trade. But as Bunch meticulously noted from his perch in Charleston, secession’s red-hot epicenter, that trade was growing. And as Southern leaders continued to dissemble publicly about their intentions, Bunch sent dispatch after secret dispatch back to the Foreign Office warning of the truth—that economic survival would force the South to import slaves from Africa in massive numbers.

In the past, I had believed that slavery in the south would have eventually died out. Of course, I was assuming that no more slaves would be imported. I had no idea that the south was actively trying to expand the Atlantic slave trade. Southern sympathizers have always claimed that the Civil War was not about slavery, but rather states' rights. But I guess what they really mean is states' rights to import slaves. The CW exacted a huge toll on this country that we're still paying even today but I think the right side won. Put another way, I would rather have to deal with the seemingly never-ceasing expansion of federal power, which is the legacy of that war, than to have slavery embedded in our country as a permanent feature.

And, going back to a previous war, I have just started reading Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose. This is the book the AMC TV series Turn was based on. Which you should watch, by the way. Especially the concluding 4th season. Much of the book is based on recent research. I did not know, for example, that much was unclear about how the spy Nathan Hale was caught until about twenty years ago when some documents written by an eyewitness came to light. Fascinating reading.

___________

From the mailbag, Dan writes:

One of my favorite books is City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer. The star of the book is the city of Ambergris. This mythical city was cursed since its founding. City of Saints and Madmen contains four novellas with a handful of short stories, all of which are wrapped around the mystery underneath this city. The stories are remarkable. Some are creepy. Some are hilarious. I have never encountered a book like this. It somehow all fits together. The final novella is remarkable and self referencing, in a way that is jaw dropping. If you like your books a bit off-center, this is for you.

Also:

PS- I liked the first novella. But it is very dark. Even if you don't like that one, stick with it. The stories stand on their own.

Checking out VanderMeer's Amazon author's page, he's got a lot of books that look interesting, both fiction and non-fiction. For example, Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, guide for fiction writers which

...takes a completely novel approach and fully exploits the visual nature of fantasy through original drawings, maps, renderings, and exercises to create a spectacularly beautiful and inspiring object. Employing an accessible, example-rich approach, Wonderbook energizes and motivates while also providing practical, nuts-and-bolts information needed to improve as a writer. Aimed at aspiring and intermediate-level writers, Wonderbook includes helpful sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names in fantasy today, such as George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Catherynne M. Valente, and Karen Joy Fowler, to name a few.

___________

Books By Morons

Moron author Hans Schantz is having a $0.99 promotion that will run on his book, The Hidden Truth from midnight Friday July 20 through the end of the day Thursday July 26 (regularly $4.99).

Book Trailer Link: https://youtu.be/GIBmNfFbFjs

Blurb:

A young man uncovers subtle clues to the Cabal that changed history and seeks to control the world in this exciting alternate history hard science conspiracy techno-thriller.

I recommend watching the trailer, which is actually pretty cool.

___________

Moron author scrood's book, Let’s Hack Oxidative Stress, will be available for free on Kindle this weekend (July 21-22). It "provides a simple strategy to use three lifestyle choices to reduce and manage your Oxidative Stress for improved health."

___________

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 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 08:59 AM (pHfeF)

2
Just finished the Californios by Louis
L'Amour. Started a re-read of the Ghost series by John Ringo.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at July 22, 2018 09:00 AM (mpXpK)

3 HOOray !

Posted by: JT at July 22, 2018 09:01 AM (2s3aR)

4 Corgis dutifully called
All but finished Patrick O'Brien' s 13 Gun Salute, don't have the next book. Have been reading much more, around a chapter a day for a few weeks it's just getting into the habit that is the hard part.

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 09:02 AM (pHfeF)

5 so James Varney is a lurker on AOS eh.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at July 22, 2018 09:02 AM (mpXpK)

6 Still reading "White Tigers".

Fascinating book. On one raid into North Korea, the raiders were loading onto their junk fleet after a successful op when they realized there were more people on the beach then had arrived in the raider force, causing possible overcrowding on the boats as the NKPA was in hot pursuit.

Refugees from nearby villages, trying to escape the paradise of the North in 1952.

All worked out, but I wonder if that would happen today if things went hot in Whoa Fat's little hell hole.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at July 22, 2018 09:04 AM (EoRCO)

7 I read The Play of Death by Oliver Potzsch. This is the sixth volume in the Hangman's Daughter series. In this, the Kuisl clan goes to Oberammergau. Murders take place while the town prepares to put on its Passion play. The town has a lot to hide, and the Hangman, his daughter, and his son-in-law must unravel the mystery and solve the murders. As with all of these works, one learns about the area and its history.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 22, 2018 09:04 AM (HLy+M)

8 The NY Times is all concerned and stuff about the current lack of diversity in romance novels:

Those snotty piles of shit formerly considered themselves too highbrow to care about that genre. Is this proof positive that Beaner Slim has sent that rag completely in the toilet by their standards?

Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 09:07 AM (y7DUB)

9 I just started a novel, The Crossing, by Winston Churchill.

Published in 1904 it seemed plausible that it was our Winston Churchill and I was wondering how after reading several biographies of Winnie I could have failed to note that he was a novelist. It didn't seem out of the question, though, polymath that he was.

Anyway, it isn't. It's an American author of the same name and vintange.

It's fun so far. We're in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the gathering storm before the Revolution. So far we've met Daniel Boone and young Andrew Jackson, who is the same schoolboy age as our narrator.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 09:07 AM (fuK7c)

10 Just a hundred pages into a one volume A Short History of Byzantium (Norwich).

If you like your history packed full of action this is a fine read, though with the rapid travel through a thousand years of history it can be a little hard to get a fix on the characters driving the story.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, coffee consumist at July 22, 2018 09:08 AM (Ogr1j)

11 In the past, I had believed that slavery in the south would have
eventually died out. Of course, I was assuming that no more slaves would
be imported. I had no idea that the south was actively trying to expand
the Atlantic slave trade. Southern sympathizers have always claimed
that the Civil War was not about slavery, but rather states' rights. But
I guess what they really mean is states' rights to import slaves.

The confederate consitution actually forbid the importation of slaves from Africa, or anywhere else outside of the US.

Article I Section 9(1)

The importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign
country, other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United
States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is required to
pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same

And I hate to get into this subject because it always leads to a flame war.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at July 22, 2018 09:08 AM (mpXpK)

12
Just got a great idea for a song but need help. What rhymes with 'duck boat'?

Posted by: Gorden Lightfoot at July 22, 2018 09:08 AM (LOgQ4)

13 Didn't the whole "falling in love" thing originate in Europe during medieval times, with chivalry and "courtly love" and all that? Before that, in pretty much every culture, young women were told who they were going to marry by their fathers and family and no backtalk. And if the girl was lucky, she might get was paired off with a decent man who didn't beat her. That's what I've always understood, anyway.

Uh, no. That's not what courtly love did.

The sentiment has always been around. (Ovid, Dido, The Song of Songs). What was new was the belief that it was an unmixed good, in fact, the highest natural good for human beans. (By the 19th C, at least, it became identified as a spiritual good, and by now, the highest or only one.) Previously it was regarded more rationally as a kind of dementia.

And it the arrangement of marriages was in itself part of the core of the courtly idea. Your beloved was assumed to be married to someone else, until maybe the 15th C. Note that arranged marriages did not die out among those who bought into the idea. Hell, it's only in my lifetime that the practice, of asking a girl's father for her hand in marriage died out.

Don't believe the crap they sell you in school or in the culture. Especially when it' sold, not overtly, but by implication.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 09:09 AM (59GGI)

14 All of my roorbacks are kept in Uncle George's secret vault.

Posted by: Baracky O'Cracky at July 22, 2018 09:09 AM (Tyii7)

15 Oh, and in 13 Gun Salute Inaccessible Island is easily found on Google map, False Natuna is in a group of islands between Indonesia and Malaysia

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 09:10 AM (pHfeF)

16 9
Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 09:07 AM (fuK7c)

IIRC, it was because of the American author that the famous Churchill always published under Winston S Churchill.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 09:11 AM (59GGI)

17 Often wonder if the famous lurk here,

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 09:11 AM (pHfeF)

18 Hey Vern.

Posted by: ro-man at July 22, 2018 09:12 AM (RuIsu)

19 Dear New York Times, stuff your racist check box checklist. May your next order of calamari take-out be a gift from Cthulhu.

Is the story good? Are the characters interesting? If yes then the story will do well.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:12 AM (deXW1)

20 "the Ripped Bodice"

sounds... problematic

Posted by: Retard Strength Trumps Smart Power at July 22, 2018 09:15 AM (RKQ/v)

21 Thanks for the book thread, OM.

Interesting bit about Southern secession. I have read that there were thoughts of expanding the CSA down to Cuba and beyond. Some former CSA soldiers did end up fighting in South American kerfluffles, didn't they? Wonder if they would have taken over more territory if they had won.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 09:16 AM (gUCYC)

22 Hell, it's only in my lifetime that the practice, of asking a girl's father for her hand in marriage died out.

My son in law from India asked for my permission to marry my daughter. Unfortunately he did in front of the other goofballs in the family which fucked up the whole dynamic of the situation and I let him know it. But I always liked him so it was a sure thing.

Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 09:18 AM (y7DUB)

23 Romance novels about gays, lesbians and trans?
No thanks. I like to read stories that are relatable.

Posted by: JAS at July 22, 2018 09:19 AM (3HNOQ)

24 Oh yeah before I forget two short stories are free to download on Amazon.

Pinch of Larceny and Yuriko: A Real Girl.

Right now debating going back to bed since got to work later today.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:20 AM (deXW1)

25 No thanks. I like to read stories that are relatable.

Posted by: JAS

When cousins marry ?

Posted by: JT at July 22, 2018 09:20 AM (2s3aR)

26 Is there any institution that has done more damage to civilization than the NYT?

Posted by: ro-man at July 22, 2018 09:21 AM (RuIsu)

27 Just got a great idea for a song but need help. What rhymes with 'duck boat'?

Hmmmmm......that's a poser.

Posted by: JT at July 22, 2018 09:21 AM (2s3aR)

28 Finished re-reading Brian Lumley's Necroscope 2: Vamphri!. Now moving re-reading book 3, The Source.

Posted by: Darth Randall at July 22, 2018 09:21 AM (p0nVR)

29 You know, this week I didn't read anything new unless you count online. And no books there. Rotten headaches. So I just picked up old favorites. The most serious being Lewis and Orwell, as usual.

Well, I did start Eliot's After Strange Gods last night. But I actually read that back in the early 70s, in college. Did find a bridge book I'd been missing for months.

Do others have that problem? I often am unable to find a book for months or even years, though I know I have it. It can be frustrating. I have a friend who is so insane he will end up buying 5 copies, just because he can't find one when he wants one. He'll even buy an extra when he's not in the mood for it, because he figures it'll be easier to find when he is. But, as squirrel said to moose, "That trick never works."

Bad as I am, I'm not quite at that level. The toughest is when my wife wants me to find one of hers. She has limited mobility, so I have to search the boxes.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 09:21 AM (59GGI)

30 I am reading "Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation". It's full of letters from random Americans to the former first lady about their sorrow about the JFK assassination. One letter was extraordinary: after he expressed his sorrow to Jackie, one man said he had now lived to see 4(!) presidential assassinations as he had been born on November 22, 1864. *Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and now Kennedy. Wow.

Posted by: jmel at July 22, 2018 09:21 AM (OeWgo)

31 Is there any institution that has done more damage to civilization than the NYT?
Posted by: ro-man at July 22, 2018 09:21 AM (RuIsu)

Umm Islam?

I denounce myself

Posted by: weirdflunky at July 22, 2018 09:22 AM (R+1Bq)

32 When cousins marry ?
Sure, depending upon the State.

Posted by: JAS at July 22, 2018 09:22 AM (3HNOQ)

33 After watching “Mountains of the Moon” I thought it right to peruse my 1864 edition of Speke’s Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. It comes with a map which, apart from the coast and the Nile, is almost all a blank. Living in the era of airplanes and satellites, it is hard to conceive of not knowing the lay of the land.

The book begins with some genteel 19th century Concern Racism. Speke thought the depressed circumstance of many Africans proved Scripture regarding Ham being cursed by his father and condemned to be a slave of Shem and Japheth (different from Burton who went native at the drop of a veil and found much to admire). He hastens to assure the reader that they are just as clever as their Asian and European brethren if given the chance.

“One thing that tends to disorganize the country, and that is war, caused, in the first instance, by polygamy, producing a family of half-brothers who, all aspiring to succeed their father, fight continually with each other, and make their chief aim slaves and cattle; while in the second instance, slavery keeps them ever fighting and reducing their numbers.” Interestingly, the female explorer Mary Kingsley thought polygamy was an unfortunate necessity in Africa because there was too much work for one woman in a household to take care of.

I remember reading that Viking polygamy also produced warring brothers fighting over the family spoils, and a lot of the feuding caused them to off a-viking in search of booty.

The chiefs also levied all manner of “taxes” on land, cattle, beer, and anything brought into the country by traders. “This right is called Hondo. Another source of revenue is in the effects of all people condemned for sorcery, who are either burnt, or speared and cast into the jungle, and their property seized by the graybeards for their chiefs.” Just like the witch trials!

I also have a couple “Stanley in Africa” tomes, but I’ll leave that for another day. Now, “Stan Lee in Africa” I would dust off immediately.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 09:22 AM (gUCYC)

34 James Varney? The Hey Vern guy?

Posted by: Doomed at July 22, 2018 09:23 AM (MW01U)

35 Thanks, OregonMuse for the shout out to my $0.99 sale on The Hidden Truth.

Just finished Peter Grant's excellent military scifi "The Pride of the Damned," book 3 of his Cochrane's Company Trilogy. I've loaded up John C. Wright's "Superluminal: The World Armada" in case the next few days with my Webelos at scout camp leave me any time or energy for reading.

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at July 22, 2018 09:23 AM (1pQvR)

36 Right now debating going back to bed since got to work later today.

Posted by: Anna Puma

Did you get a promotion ?

If so, congrats !

Posted by: JT at July 22, 2018 09:23 AM (2s3aR)

37 Eris, Lee and Kirby Explore Afrika would probably compete nicely against Ripley. Believe it or not.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:24 AM (deXW1)

38 And I hate to get into this subject because it always leads to a flame war."

Indeed. So many have been taught so much that is wrong...

Oh, and morning, y'all!

*searches for more coffffeve*

Posted by: Anon a mouse at July 22, 2018 09:26 AM (6qErC)

39 "it was because of the American author that the famous Churchill always published under Winston S Churchill."

Yes, because at first the American Churchill was better known than the British Churchill. They met in person at least once, in 1903 in Boston, and it was an event that got substantial press coverage.

If you like "The Crossing" you might want to look into the historical novels Churchill published prior to it: "Richard Carvel" (1899), also set during the American Revolution but with a lot more derring-do and sea action, and "The Crisis" (1901), set during the run-up to the Civil War in St. Louis (where the author was born and raised). I would recommend that if you want good paperback copies of these books you buy them here:

www.monroestpress.com

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 09:29 AM (9WuX0)

40 With apologies to Vic,

the fisa application release (which you should read by the way) has blown up all the previous we're all FBI patriots eleventy!!! nonsense.

There's no question they committed fraud on the fisa court. At least 4 times.

Take the time to read it yourself.

I particularly like the two signatures on the first application.

Priceless.

Posted by: weirdflunky at July 22, 2018 09:29 AM (R+1Bq)

41 A ROORBACK is a false or slanderous rumor propagated for political purposes.

*******

Comeuppance - a limerick

A false malicious rumor spreads real fast
And starting one will show you have no class
But when it comes to slander
Sauce for goose is sauce for gander
It will Roorback 'round and bite you on the ass

Posted by: Muldoon at July 22, 2018 09:30 AM (m45I2)

42 Good morning. Thanks to Prime Day, I got the audiobook for _Conquistadors_ by Roger Crowley. I'm still listening to it, but my main verdict is: thus far it seems less cohesive than _Empires of the Sea_.

Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain at July 22, 2018 09:30 AM (p0Qbt)

43 Eris, Lee and Kirby Explore Afrika would probably compete nicely against Ripley. Believe it or not.
----

I'd read it! Especially the part about travels in Wakanda.

In the Speke book he often referred to the Waganda tribe. I wonder if that begat Wakanda?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 09:30 AM (gUCYC)

44 Russian stacking dolls on Varney's shelves!
Is it Kissinger? and Clinton?

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 09:32 AM (hMwEB)

45 I just finished "Chthon" by Piers Anthony. I'm sorry to say I disliked nearly every character, the story, basically even the writing style. I think the intent was for the characters to be unlikable and I could of appreciated that. But their development was disjointed as the author interweaves the main character's (Anton) prison experience with flash backs/forwards to other times. So you feel, "hey, this guy is a dumb jerk", long before you're shown why he's a dumb jerk.

Basically, it's about a guy's interaction with an alien chick from a planet where the females of the species can only be cared for by hating and abusing them. Loving them will actually harm them until they turn sick and die. This weirdness is allowed because the females are psychic and respond to your emotions. The rest could of probably been laid out in a short story but the flash backs broke up the flow enough that it expanded to the size of a small novel.

This was the first Piers Anthony novel I've read I think. His writing style that I didn't like involved throwing shocking things in randomly, I guess to keep the reader interested. It didn't feel shocking, rather it left me not caring what would happen next.

Posted by: bananadream at July 22, 2018 09:32 AM (YR7aL)

46 BTW, I would not trust Christopher Dickey. He was in at least one of my college classes, and he was simply the sort of person who fits everything into a prefab framework. The only way he was likely to broaden his mind was by laying his head on a railroad track.

Of course, that was long, long ago. But I doubt he's worth the effort. Some people can read up on a subject without the slightest revision of the ideas already in their heads. ALL evidence is so processed as to fit their existing beliefs and expectations.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 09:34 AM (59GGI)

47 re lack of diversity in romance novels:

article linked at instapundit - "woman decides to become a man, now she's accused of 'mansplain' and 'male heterosexual privilege'.

things get complex.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at July 22, 2018 09:34 AM (Pg+x7)

48 Do others have that problem? I often am unable to find a book for months or even years, though I know I have it. It can be frustrating.
Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 09:21 AM (59GGI)

That, but also of the books that I can find, which one has the bit that I'm trying to cite? And if I can find the book, against all odds - or at least narrow it down - where exactly in the book is it? Is it even in one of these books, or is it in one of the ones I can't find? Why is it eight hours later and I'm still on my floor reading something completely different because another book caught my eye and I forgot what I was trying to cite in the first place, and also forgot to eat today?

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 09:35 AM (y87Qq)

49 Good Sunday morning, horde! Nice library, Mr. Varney, and thanks for hanging out with us.

See, you guys? This is why we wear pants for the book thread.

Posted by: April at July 22, 2018 09:37 AM (e8PP1)

50 I would recommend that if you want good paperback copies of these books you buy them here:

Thank you for all the knowledge.

I'm reading it on Kindle because I've become a complete free books slut. Yesterday I typed in "free books classic literature" and scrolled through the first 1100 entries, downloading about eleven of them.

It takes some of the obligations of completionism away. One of the books is W.E.B DuBois. I've never read him. Would I go to the library and check out a hard cover? Would I order a paperback online because it's cheap? No, it would take up space and I'd have to make a plan to have it with me.

But for free and taking up no space? Sure. Sometime in the next six months I'll get curious and see what he was up to.

There is so much good stuff out there for free.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 09:37 AM (fuK7c)

51 "One letter was extraordinary: after he expressed his sorrow to Jackie, one man said he had now lived to see 4(!) presidential assassinations as he had been born on November 22, 1864."

Another indication of just how "recent" the (first?) Civil War was: in 1956, one of the guests on "I've Got a Secret" was a 95-year-old man from Maryland who was the last living witness to Lincoln's assassination. He was 5 years old when his mom took him to Ford's Theatre. It still blows my mind that a dude who was born during the Civil War lived (just barely, he died a couple months later) long enough to appear on national television!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RPoymt3Jx4

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 09:39 AM (9WuX0)

52 No word if the promotion is official yet, probably should go ask again. But if I am having to explain how a department runs to someone from another department who really doesn't want to be there but needs the hours then I should get a raise.

Eris I would bet so. But how Lee would explain it - Stan yelling, :Excelsior! Waganda!" And Kirby on the side pays the letterer a beer to change it to Wakanda.

I actually had a name for something planned out in a story, told college roommate who then told me someone else already stole that name, so had to change things.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:39 AM (deXW1)

53 I remember reading that Viking polygamy also produced warring brothers fighting over the family spoils, and a lot of the feuding caused them to off a-viking in search of booty.
...
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 09:22 AM (gUCYC)

Something which never occurred to me: Given their attitudes toward avenging the death of a brother, would that mean that the full-brothers would have to kill the half-brother?

There was a Maverick episode which always reminded me of the Vikings. It constantly repeats that the Code of the West includes "If a fella kills a fella's brother, that fella has to kill the fella that killed his brother." Throughout, Brett and Bart think someone has killed the other.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 09:41 AM (59GGI)

54 Good morning.

Roorback is the name of Sepultura's ninth album and the exact moment when I gave up on them. It was just such a forgettable album. Like you would listen to a song and almost immediately forget it.

Good news is that their latest album, Machine Messiah, is pretty bad ass.

Posted by: Robert at July 22, 2018 09:41 AM (Zogyx)

55 Good Morning. I'm usually hustling a big tanker full of the Chemical De Jour on Sundays but not today. My birthday is Tomorrow and I get a few days off. Going to look at Lakefront property on lake Hartwell Wednesday and last week Amy Lynn #1 was released on audiobook. Also, just finished chapter 6 in Amy Lynn #6, tentatively titled, Rock Star. Hows everyone else doing?

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 09:42 AM (T6C20)

56 48
That, but also of the books that I can find, which one has the bit that I'm trying to cite? And if I can find the book, against all odds - or at least narrow it down - where exactly in the book is it? Is it even in one of these books, or is it in one of the ones I can't find? Why is it eight hours later and I'm still on my floor reading something completely different because another book caught my eye and I forgot what I was trying to cite in the first place, and also forgot to eat today?
Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 09:35 AM (y87Qq)

Happens a lot. Most often with Chesterton. Which is appropriate, as that behavior was absolutely typical of GKC.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 09:43 AM (59GGI)

57 has blown up all the previous we're all FBI patriots eleventy!!! nonsense. "

Yeah, it's worth pointing and laughing at the various twatwaffles.

Lots of stuttering and "uuuuhhhhmmmms" on the alphabet networks this AM.

Memory hole in 3...2...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at July 22, 2018 09:44 AM (6qErC)

58 *waves to OSP*

Amy Lynn gonna rock the Casbah and drop a bomb between the minarets?

Happy Birthday! And good luck with everything.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:44 AM (deXW1)

59 ...the Ripped Bodice sounds problematic

********

Flauntage - a limerick

The young ingenue was quite modest
But she soon went from unknown to goddess
So how'd she change her status?
She exposed her apparatus
With a strategically-placed rip in her bodice!

Posted by: Muldoon at July 22, 2018 09:45 AM (m45I2)

60 Happy Birthday! And good luck with everything.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:44 AM (deXW1)

Thanks AP, How's your career progressing?

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 09:45 AM (T6C20)

61 His writing style that I didn't like involved throwing shocking things in randomly, I guess to keep the reader interested. It didn't feel shocking, rather it left me not caring what would happen next.
Posted by: bananadream at July 22, 2018 09:32 AM (YR7aL)

===

I feel the same about the author of The World According to Garp and Hotel New Hampshire.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 22, 2018 09:46 AM (JvZF+)

62 What rhymes with 'duck boat'?

==

luck coat
(like good luck coat)

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 09:46 AM (hMwEB)

63 As far as what I'm reading I'm still enjoying The Night Circus and am glad that my prior comments produced feedback and interest by others. I'm kind of surprised, other than Whoreyweird is as dense as a neutron star (hat tip to whoever here I snagged that from), that with CGI being as prevalent as it has become that nobody's brought this to the big screen (maybe they have WTFDIK). The characters are all delightfully vivid and quirky and it could really work for an audience famished for something better than recycled shit sammiches.

Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 09:46 AM (y7DUB)

64 can't read a lot of the titles, but I love the figurines on the shelves, the little dogs and the gaggle of geese.

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 09:47 AM (hMwEB)

65 Funny Sci-Fi Hard Luck Hank series and Rex Nihilo Space Grifters both very funny books. I will say the Hard Luck Hank Audiobook is the best since it's done as Hank reading his own book.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at July 22, 2018 09:47 AM (dKiJG)

66 Love the pic of Mr. Varney's library - especially the many Wodehouse books! A man after my own heart.

There is one book, however, that is conspicuous by its absence. I'm sure it's in the kitchen *cough*.

Posted by: bluebell at July 22, 2018 09:48 AM (JJZzu)

67 famished for something better than recycled shit sammiches.
Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 09:46 AM (y7DUB)

You got one?

Posted by: Robert is feeling peckish at July 22, 2018 09:49 AM (Zogyx)

68 'Morning, readers.

Stupid question: What differentiates a fantasy from "regular" fiction?

Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (cOHsM)

69 OSP, it's Wal-Mart so it goes as it wants.

Uh oh Mr. Varney better proffer proper proof or Bluebell might get problematic and punctuate a personage.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (deXW1)

70 Just got a great idea for a song but need help. What rhymes with 'duck boat'?
Posted by: Gorden Lightfoot

Fvck hope, or is that too dark?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (+y/Ru)

71 Eris, if you want your African exploration in novel form there's T. Coraghessan Boyle's "World's End".

It goes back and forth in time between our current day protagonist and his Dutch ancestor who went mucking about in unexplored Africa with the Scottish explorer Mungo Parks.

I thought Mungo Parks had to be a made up name, but it turns out he was a real explorer.

It was the first Boyle book I read and so I fell in love with him but that also means it was a long time ago and what I've told you is about what I remember.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (fuK7c)

72 21 Thanks for the book thread, OM.

Interesting bit about Southern secession. I have read that there were thoughts of expanding the CSA down to Cuba and beyond. Some former CSA soldiers did end up fighting in South American kerfluffles, didn't they? Wonder if they would have taken over more territory if they had won.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 09:16 AM (gUCYC)

There were Confederate plans to colonize the Caribbean and Central America, but they had other, more pressing matters, to be concerned about. Like fighting a war.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 09:51 AM (Izzlo)

73 "Just got a great idea for a song but need help. What rhymes with 'duck boat'?"

I dunno that you need any word to rhyme with that, since none of the words to "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" rhyme with "Edmund Fitzgerald".

Speaking of which, years ago the producers of the Canadian TV show "Due South" wanted to use "Edmund Fitzgerald" in one of their episodes. Lightfoot said they could, provided they ALSO got permission from the families of all 29 victims of the sinking. The producers then decided it would be easier to just write their own song about a fictitious shipwreck, and the result was titled "32 Down on the Robert Mackenzie".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d-t0959C3A

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 09:51 AM (9WuX0)

74 "Just got a great idea for a song but need help. What rhymes with 'duck boat'?"

Cuck Float.

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 09:52 AM (T6C20)

75 The NY Times is all concerned and stuff about the current lack of diversity in romance novels:

And then they went on to describe just where these books can be found, and how successful their authors are, blahblahblah.

So, instead of just writing an informative article about a niche genre, they have to preface it with a good dose of victimhood.

Posted by: April at July 22, 2018 09:52 AM (e8PP1)

76 This was the first Piers Anthony novel I've read I think. His writing style that I didn't like involved throwing shocking things in randomly, I guess to keep the reader interested. It didn't feel shocking, rather it left me not caring what would happen next.
Posted by: bananadream at July 22, 2018 09:32 AM (YR7aL)

I liked his Xanth books as a kid, because of all the puns.
as I got older either his books got pervier or I outgrew them

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 09:53 AM (hMwEB)

77 Amazon has a sample of VanderMeer's illustrated fantasy-writing guide, chock-a-block with weirdities to unlock the left side of the brain (is that still a thing?).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 09:53 AM (gUCYC)

78 So the docs released this AM or yesterday about carter page show PDT was framed by Fredo , the FAB, and State.

Fire mueller now

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 09:53 AM (Ydx5u)

79 Good morning to you too, NGU!

Posted by: bluebell at July 22, 2018 09:54 AM (JJZzu)

80 That was the biggest problem with the Xanth books, the later ones were nothing but Trabants full of puns. Incarnations of Immortality were a bit off and then jumped the shark with And Eternity.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:55 AM (deXW1)

81 Just finished up "The Gone World" by Tom Sweterlitsch. It's a combination detective/sci-fi novel. There are some pretty gruesome scenes and a very interesting lead character. She's a female NCIS agent with an above-the-knee prosthesis, written by a male with both legs so probably considered verboten. To make up for it he somewhat gratuitously tosses in sovereign citizens/militias/nazi trophy sellers as the bad guys.

Overall a page-turner with one great character, 3/5 stars.

Posted by: motionview at July 22, 2018 09:55 AM (pYQR/)

82 Based on a recommendation here, I am reading the Bo Tully comedy mystery novels of Patrick McManus. I've finished The Blight Way and have nearly finished Avalanche. Altought they are legitimate mysteries, the real fun is in the humor. I'm quite enjoying them.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 09:56 AM (+y/Ru)

83 Deeply alarmed at President Trumps attacks on NATO and the transatlantic relationship, European governments are rethinking their reliance on the United States as a strategic ally against Russia, but they are unlikely to make regional security arrangements independent of Washington.

LMAO

And? And? what and who are they going to use for defense? Knives to fight the russians and chicoms? Oh wait London is confiscating all knives.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 09:56 AM (Ydx5u)

84 Still reading "Inchon: MacArthur's Last Triumph" by Michael Langley. The invasion is just about to begin (no spoilers, please!)

While in Barnes & Noble yesterday, I picked up "Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory" by Julian Thompson. It felt good to just browse around a bookstore and find something interesting for a bargain price.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 09:56 AM (Izzlo)

85 Stupid question: What differentiates a fantasy from "regular" fiction?
Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (cOHsM)

Stupid answer, but I'd say a "fantasy" novel would be set in an implausible world with different rules from ours, while a "regular" novel would be set in a world that you'd recognize and wouldn't be out of place if the story happened the next town over from you.

Is that kind of what you were looking for?

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 09:57 AM (y87Qq)

86 Russia turns off the pipelines in October to Europe. And Berlin falls within a week.

And the Leftists in the US want to the US to remain beholden to foreign suppliers of energy.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 09:58 AM (deXW1)

87 I guess I've become more open minded. Despite their diversity / inclusion SJW nonsense, I shall buy no fewer romance novels than I do now.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 09:58 AM (+y/Ru)

88 51 "One letter was extraordinary: after he expressed his sorrow to Jackie, one man said he had now lived to see 4(!) presidential assassinations as he had been born on November 22, 1864."

Another indication of just how "recent" the (first?) Civil War was: in 1956, one of the guests on "I've Got a Secret" was a 95-year-old man from Maryland who was the last living witness to Lincoln's assassination. He was 5 years old when his mom took him to Ford's Theatre. It still blows my mind that a dude who was born during the Civil War lived (just barely, he died a couple months later) long enough to appear on national television!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RPoymt3Jx4

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 09:39 AM (9WuX0)

I remember how my Grandmother talked about how she grew up in Ireland 1902 with dirt floors wood stoves and no electricity. Contrast with how my Grandpa grew up in the US He had some electricity and plumbing.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at July 22, 2018 09:58 AM (dKiJG)

89 The NYT was getting itself in a later about nothing. There has always been a market for gay and minority romance and that market has been met for years with small niche publishers. Their bewailing the lack of big publishers printing these books is mere Kabuki theater, especially now that self publishing is available - and their own piece indicates that it is successful!

Posted by: Dr Alice at July 22, 2018 09:59 AM (LaT54)

90 Something which never occurred to me: Given their attitudes toward avenging the death of a brother, would that mean that the full-brothers would have to kill the half-brother?

I actually wrote my masters thesis partly on that very subject, albeit about the early English rather than the Norse. The English were very closely related to the Norse, to the point that Norse stories are often used as evidence for how Anglo-Saxon culture worked. Short answer is that, given the limited evidence available, things weren't all that well defined, and when it came to close relatives fighting each other loyalties tended to be decided by things other then a strict accounting for blood relationship.

Posted by: Grey Fox at July 22, 2018 09:59 AM (bZ7mE)

91 Stupid question: What differentiates a fantasy from "regular" fiction?
Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (cOHsM)
-----

Worldbuilding?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 09:59 AM (gUCYC)

92 Nice eclectic collection of books there, Mr. Varney, but I see a set of Russian nesting dolls on the shelf. Mr. Mueller will be notified of your collusion at once.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 09:59 AM (Izzlo)

93 Deeply alarmed at President Trumps attacks on NATO and the transatlantic relationship, European governments are rethinking their reliance on the United States as a strategic ally against Russia, but they are unlikely to make regional security arrangements independent of Washington.

-
Ahh, the Butthurt Option.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 10:00 AM (+y/Ru)

94 What rhymes with duck boat?

*****

Why? What have you heard? No really, I was just helping him get over the fence when my zipper came undone, totally by accident. We're just friends, it's nothing serious. A million-to-one shot, doc!

Posted by: Achmed the goat lovemaker at July 22, 2018 10:01 AM (m45I2)

95 There is a whole gaming and literature world of Weird WWII, werewolves, zombies, small rodents controlling artillery shells.

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 10:02 AM (pHfeF)

96 Eris, good one-word answer. Thank you.

Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 10:02 AM (cOHsM)

97
I actually wrote my masters thesis partly on that very subject,

==

omg, what are the odds of that?
the Horde is really amazing

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 10:02 AM (hMwEB)

98 In sadder news, L.A. Times food critic Jonathan Gold has passed away. I can highly recommend his collection of columns, "Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles" if you ever come across it. It was published nearly 20 years ago and some of the restaurants are no longer around, but these are no ordinary food reviews. The man wrote incredibly well. It is just fun to read.

Posted by: Dr Alice at July 22, 2018 10:03 AM (LaT54)

99 Not weird enough, the US in WWII tried to develop a smart bomb guided by a pigeon. Then there were the incendiary bats to burn Japan to the ground.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:03 AM (deXW1)

100
Stupid question: What differentiates a fantasy from "regular" fiction?
Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (cOHsM)

In regular fiction, the average female cup size is a C.

In fantasy they're all DDs or larger.

Posted by: Robert at July 22, 2018 10:04 AM (Zogyx)

101 Robert, and the chain-mail bikinis are feasible.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:04 AM (deXW1)

102 Russia turns off the pipelines in October to Europe. And Berlin falls within a week.

=

1. ...Germany invades Norway and Holland
2. Blockades Great Britain
3. Takes over North Sea oil production and Royal Dutch Petrol
4. Profit

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 10:06 AM (bUjCl)

103 94 What rhymes with duck boat?
-------------------------
Don't float?

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 10:06 AM (vV/gB)

104 Read a few books recently:

Castles of Steel covers the British and German naval conflict during WWI. Unsurprisingly, Wilson's complaints about Americans killed by Germans sinking British vessels was so incoherent that William Jennings Bryant, his Secretary of State, resigned. Bryant really wanted to stay out of the war and took the line of if you travel to a war zone, do so at your own risk. Also, both England and Germany violated the rules of sea warfare whenever it suited them. It's a good read.

Crucible of War is about the Seven Years War in the US. Very detailed and not a quick read, but very interesting. The British didn't understand the colonists at all.

Atlanta 1864 about Sherman's campaign to capture Atlanta. Good overview of the campaign. The author's conclusions about the various personalities involved though are highly suspect.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at July 22, 2018 10:06 AM (J70i0)

105 I've been trying to read how to manuals on small businesses

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 10:07 AM (hMwEB)

106 Not weird enough, the US in WWII tried to develop a smart bomb guided by a pigeon. Then there were the incendiary bats to burn Japan to the ground.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:03 AM (deXW1)

The British developed a nuclear land mine during the Cold War that was chicken-powered, kind of.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3588465.stm

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 10:08 AM (y87Qq)

107 What rhymes with duck boat?

=

Deep Throat

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 10:08 AM (bUjCl)

108 Thanks OregonMuse for the work you do to put on such a nice book thread!

Willowed from a thread a couple of days ago - a book worth reading:

Fenelon - I wanted to tell you I read that book "Everything happens for a reason and other lies" by Kate Bowler. Excellent book - devoured it in an afternoon. The appendix -what not to say to a cancer sufferer, is great advice for anyone dealing with a personal disappointment or tragedy.

Thanks for the recommendation!

Posted by: Jade Sea at July 22, 2018 10:08 AM (0sWXw)

109 The British developed a nuclear land mine during the Cold War that was chicken-powered, kind of.

-----------

Still an improvement over much British cuisine.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:09 AM (Izzlo)

110 Anna Puma, I had to see if "Trabant" was an obscure measure word as well as a car -- alas, it's not. I wanted "trabant" to be my new "hogshead" or "jeroboam".

But I did find this gem:

https://jalopnik.com/the-trabant-is-the-best-commie-car-made-of-cotton-weve-1788844883

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 10:09 AM (gUCYC)

111 Overall a page-turner with one great character, 3/5 stars.

*******

I have been reliably informed that in our inflated "turn-it-up-to-eleventy" universe a 3/5 star rating is a veritable kiss of death for an author.

Posted by: Achmed the goat lovemaker at July 22, 2018 10:10 AM (m45I2)

112 >>99 the US in WWII tried to develop a smart bomb guided by a pigeon. Then
there were the incendiary bats to burn Japan to the ground.

The Romans would set fatted pigs on fire point them at the target, usually a war elephant, and off they'd go like an early hell fire missile.

Posted by: bananadream at July 22, 2018 10:10 AM (YR7aL)

113 /sock

Posted by: Muldoon at July 22, 2018 10:11 AM (m45I2)

114 I rate Achmed 1.5 stars out of 5.

Posted by: The goat at July 22, 2018 10:11 AM (m45I2)

115
I have been reliably informed that in our inflated "turn-it-up-to-eleventy" universe a 3/5 star rating is a veritable kiss of death for an author.
Posted by: Achmed the goat lovemaker at July 22, 2018 10:10 AM (m45I

Amazon counts 3 stars as a critical review

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 10:11 AM (hMwEB)

116 Also if you want to hear a great interview of the author, who is still living despite stage IV colon cancer, Alan Alda (*Ducks* - I know! I know!) has one on his podcast. Kate is humorous and articulate. I enjoyed hearing the voice of the author to complement the book.

Podcast is called Clear & Vivid.

Posted by: Jade Sea at July 22, 2018 10:12 AM (0sWXw)

117 Read a few books recently:

Castles of Steel covers the British and German naval conflict during WWI. Unsurprisingly, Wilson's complaints about Americans killed by Germans sinking British vessels was so incoherent that William Jennings Bryant, his Secretary of State, resigned. Bryant really wanted to stay out of the war and took the line of if you travel to a war zone, do so at your own risk. Also, both England and Germany violated the rules of sea warfare whenever it suited them. It's a good read.

.......
Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at July 22, 2018 10:06 AM (J70i0)

Same author, Robert K Massie, covered this same territory in Dreadnought. I read that one, and have had Castles of Steel on my shelf for some years now, without cracking it.

I always wondered what was different about the second work, that it needed to be retold, because Dreadnought covers the subject quite thoroughly.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:12 AM (cY3LT)

118 My personal favourite is the Soviet anti-tank dogs. The Sovs trained dogs to seek out armor while wearing a satchel charge. Alas the Great Rus trained the dogs on the noises and smells of their own tanks... so the Great Canine God of Karma had the last laugh.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:12 AM (deXW1)

119 Ahh, the Butthurt Option.
---

That was my favorite Trevanian novel.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 10:12 AM (gUCYC)

120 Dress pron:

https://bit.ly/2mxZ4oh

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 10:13 AM (+y/Ru)

121 /removal of persistent sock

Posted by: Muldoon at July 22, 2018 10:13 AM (m45I2)

122 Good morning morons.

I love the book thread OG! Thank you for all your hard work.

I highly recommend the James Asher novels by Barbara Hambly.

Espionage, vampires, WWI. Smartly written and not a sparkle in sight. There are 5 so start at the beginning.

Posted by: mpfs at July 22, 2018 10:14 AM (UpyDE)

123 Eris, I was using Trebant to be a metaphor for the shoddy stories being used as vehicles to carry a busload of puns.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:15 AM (deXW1)

124 I wonder if, in the name of diversity, the NY Times would feature a book set in the sands of Arabia, featuring the Romance between some old dude named Mohammed and a 9 year old girl.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 10:15 AM (V2Yro)

125 so the Great Canine God of Karma had the last laugh.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:12 AM (deXW1)

...and then got distracted by the Celestial Squirrel.

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 10:15 AM (y87Qq)

126 I am currently reading The Accidental City by Lawrence Powell.

I'm fascinated by the history of Louisiana.

Posted by: mpfs at July 22, 2018 10:16 AM (UpyDE)

127 I always wondered what was different about the second work, that it needed to be retold, because Dreadnought covers the subject quite thoroughly.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:12 AM (cY3LT)

Does it cover the war or just the lead-up to the war? Based on the blurb from Dreadnought, that's how I understood it. But maybe Castles of Steel is just a pared down version of Dreadnought to only cover the war itself.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at July 22, 2018 10:17 AM (J70i0)

128 Just got the notification that the ebook I reserved is available. The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murphy should be an interesting read, especially the chapter on getting hooked on immigration.

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at July 22, 2018 10:18 AM (rdl6o)

129 123 Eris, I was using Trebant to be a metaphor for the shoddy stories being used as vehicles to carry a busload of puns.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:15 AM (deXW1)
---
Ha! So it IS a measure word! I like.

I proclaim it A Thing.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 10:18 AM (gUCYC)

130 ...a smart bomb guided by a pigeon

...incendiary bats...

...Romans would set fatted pigs on fire...

*******

Ahem.

Hamster.

Artillery shell.

Hamster wheel to overcome the rotational problem.

Some assembly required.

"To Save Us All From Ruin" on Amazon

Posted by: Muldoon at July 22, 2018 10:18 AM (m45I2)

131 Liz Braswell, A Whole New World is the most horrific story I've read in awhile.

It's Disney contrafactual fanfic published by Disney in the 'A Twisted Tale' series, the first in it. The conceit is that one important detail goes different, turning what was a fairy tale into something - darker. For about 80 pages it is a parallel novelisation of the movie, and then it veers off.

Here the movie is Aladdin, with some tweaks leading up. Such as, that Iago the vizier Jafar's parrot is nonsentient. Iago's lines take place in the vizier's twisted brain. After page 80, Jafar successfully takes the magic lamp when Aladdin is at the Cave Of Wonders; in the movie Jafar had it later. This means Aladdin has to deal with the problem of Sultan Jafar without Robin Williams' help.

For Braswell, Jafar is an insecure madman who gets a lot more time to consider the limits of Genie Power in this world. He can't raise the dead or (most of all) force people to love him. So he seeks that power from... outside this world.

He's an Arab. Guess which book he needs for all that, screwheads.

The subtitle for this effort may as well be That Escalated Quickly. Jafar sets himself up like Saddam or Qaddafi. His "Aghrabah Ascendant" city is a totalitarian nightmare. And if he gets That Book Not Meant For The World Of The Living ...

Braswell needs to understand a few things, like that a baboon is not an ape (d'oh). Also, she brings in Current Year tropes like feminism which the movie had not. These anachronisms are fine for Robin Williams but not for the characters brought up under Islam. Fortunately they weren't so strong as to ruin the story.

Otherwise I liked this book a lot. The villain's extended reign allows for a character study of the villain's psyche; the suffering Jasmine goes through allows a way into Jasmine's. And there were some thoughtful comments about what happens to the Aghrabah currency if it suddenly goes fiat - literally wished into existence. Braswell might be a liberal feminist but she is NOT for the Universal Basic Income!

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 10:18 AM (N1ZXu)

132 The Romans would set fatted pigs on fire point them at the target, usually a war elephant, and off they'd go like an early hell fire missile.
Posted by: bananadream at July 22, 2018 10:10 AM (YR7aL)
---

War may be Hell, but sometimes it smells like bacon.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 10:20 AM (gUCYC)

133 Put another way, I would rather have to deal with the seemingly never-ceasing expansion of federal power, which is the legacy of that war, than to have slavery embedded in our country as a permanent feature.

==

expansion of federal power amplified by the Civil War = national currency, taxation and the draft? or is there more ?

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 10:20 AM (bUjCl)

134 I always wondered what was different about the second work, that it needed to be retold, because Dreadnought covers the subject quite thoroughly.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:12 AM (cY3LT)

Does it cover the war or just the lead-up to the war? Based on the blurb from Dreadnought, that's how I understood it. But maybe Castles of Steel is just a pared down version of Dreadnought to only cover the war itself.
Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at July 22, 2018 10:17 AM (J70i0)

Yes, the war period is covered, because the whole premise of the book, really, was the folly of the British Admiralty, in trying to compete with the Germans, regarding armor, speed, and firepower.

The Dreadnought class battleship should have never been built, and so the few times in which it was tested, are covered quite thoroughly. Now, as for the rest of the war, I don't recall much else said about it, and I don't really remember him delving too deeply into the German side of the equation.

So maybe that's the difference.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:20 AM (cY3LT)

135 As for the Jalopnik article, the author can go pound sand...

Volkswagen in July 1945 was a bombed out shell of a factory that no one was really sure what to do with and there was even talk of letting the Russians have it.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:21 AM (deXW1)

136 99 Not weird enough, the US in WWII tried to develop a smart bomb guided by a pigeon. Then there were the incendiary bats to burn Japan to the ground."

The incendiary bats are one of the most hilarious stories from WW2 I've ever read - they actually worked! But the only thing they ever burned down was a brand new army base in Southern California that was supposed to be opened and occupied by a contingent of troops for a few days. The guys testing the idea wanted a group of buildings that were unoccupied to test the feasibility of the idea; and since it was classified as a "secret weapon", the commandant of the base, who had overseen its construction, was forced to stay outside and block any fire equipment from coming in, because they might find out about the "secret weapon". So everyone just stood outside the gates and watched a shiny new army base, barracks and all, burn to the ground.

needless to say, that was the end of that idea. And it's inventors army career.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 10:22 AM (V2Yro)

137 Love the Trabant article. I did not know about the gravity drive fuel pump.

This thread is proceeding leisurely enough that I will re-tell a Trabi story what has once been told.

In the immediate post-DDR East a lot of roads were still cobblestone. Some of the Autobahns were cobblestone. One night in the rain and after an extra Scotch I slid a rented BMW just off the road and couldn't get out of the gully.

A Trabant stopped to help. The driver said "I'll get my tow cable". I allowed as to how it's convenient that he has a tow cable.

He: "Trabi-Farher haben alles!" (Trabi drivers have everything!). Apparently, self-reliance is called for among Trabi drivers.

Unfortunately the rental car weighed about 4,000 pound and the Trabi with a driver in it might have gone 600, so we didn't get me out of the ditch.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 10:22 AM (fuK7c)

138 the Trabi with a driver in it might have gone 600

=

even less in kilos

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 10:24 AM (bUjCl)

139 Neil Gaiman, Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Companion was written in 1988, too early to catch "Mostly Harmless". Otherwise a good introduction to Douglas Adams, not just "Hitchhikers".

Not a perfect companion. It doesn't get fully into how Adams and Meretzky wrote that infamous game with the babel fish. (Meretzky had to fly to England, to force Adams to meet his damn deadline.)

Also there was one jarring scene where Adams is filming some adaptation or other, and some little child wanders off the set of Jim'll Fix It. Knowing what we know now about Jim Savile, I went into cold sweats reading that. It was written in 1988 ...

Otherwise, it is full of Adams outtakes from the scripts and drafts, with some excellent jokes.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 10:24 AM (N1ZXu)

140 I wouldn't be starting any long books.

Super blood moon apocalypse: Bible prophecy predicts end of world 'days away'...

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 10:25 AM (+y/Ru)

141 Greeting and salutations to the Book Thread! So nice to see we have the usual discussion gallimaufry from The War That Must Not Be Named to (one of my personal favorites) the chicken-powered nuclear land mine. You guys never disappoint.

And speaking of odd animal-based weaponry, just got the proof for a short story of mine inspired by the explosive-stuffed rat from WWII, appearing in the upcoming Fiction River: Spies anthology. I think it is coming out in November sometime.

Currently reading The Prophecy Con, sequel to The Palace Job. Funny caper fantasy by Patrick Weekes.

Does Mr. Varney care to comment on the kitteh status of his library? (Inquiring Morons want to know)

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at July 22, 2018 10:25 AM (L59/U)

142 Shakeup at the German Grand Prix

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 10:25 AM (pHfeF)

143 Oh gawd... "May you be blessed with a Trabant of Puns."

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:25 AM (deXW1)

144 142 Shakeup at the German Grand Prix
Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 10:25 AM (pHfeF)

Trabi on the track?

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:26 AM (Izzlo)

145 104
...

Castles of Steel covers the British and German naval conflict during WWI. Unsurprisingly, Wilson's complaints about Americans killed by Germans sinking British vessels was so incoherent that William Jennings Bryant, his Secretary of State, resigned. Bryant really wanted to stay out of the war and took the line of if you travel to a war zone, do so at your own risk. Also, both England and Germany violated the rules of sea warfare whenever it suited them. It's a good read.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at July 22, 2018 10:06 AM (J70i0)

Not quite. The Germans seem to have been blind to the fact that sinking ships without warning was guaranteed to appall everyone else. (Though earlier French admirals had argued for it.) On the other hand, what the Brits were doing was old hat; everyone had seen it before.

It's not exactly a question of pure right and wrong, but of what the world sees as such. And Germany simply miscalculated, badly. IMO, this was a characteristic of much German naval thought at the time. Reading Tirpitz and Wegener, it's surprising how they don't consider other countries' reactions to their wishes.

There is a parallel here with the 7YW. At that time the Brits seemed to have a similar blind spot. For one thing, they never really got how their standard strategy (let the chips fall where they may in Europe, but dominate the rest of the world) was disliked by European allies. Even when it did work in those allies' favor - and all the more when it didn't. But they also seem not to see that the future US colonies were not part of what they thought of as the American empire, including Canada and the W Indies. The focus was either Massachusetts or the whole thing.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 10:27 AM (59GGI)

146 120 Dress pron:
https://bit.ly/2mxZ4oh

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 10:13 AM (+y/Ru)

No.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 10:28 AM (I3yXU)

147 There is ONE point in favor of the Trabi, even the Arabs can't make a VBIED out of one.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:28 AM (deXW1)

148 Shakeup at the German Grand Prix
Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 10:25 AM (pHfeF)

Trabi on the track?
Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:26 AM (Izzlo)

What on earth is the flag for that?

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 10:28 AM (y87Qq)

149 >>>"Readers want books that reflect the world they live in, and they won't settle for a book about a small town where every single person is white,"

I call bullshit. They try to psych out people into thinking that the changes they wish to bring about is a fait accompli so that people will passively accept their neighborhoods being overrun and silently resign themselves to it.

And what's wrong with a small town where every single person is white. Personally I'd rather live there rather than a small village in China, Africa or India where every single person is a PoC, and I suspect Leah Koch would too.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at July 22, 2018 10:29 AM (/qEW2)

150 Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, guide for fiction writers which...

...takes a completely novel approach

*****

Heh. ISWTDT

Posted by: Muldoon at July 22, 2018 10:29 AM (m45I2)

151 Otherwise I liked this book a lot. The villain's extended reign allows for a character study of the villain's psyche; the suffering Jasmine goes through allows a way into Jasmine's. And there were some thoughtful comments about what happens to the Aghrabah currency if it suddenly goes fiat - literally wished into existence. Braswell might be a liberal feminist but she is NOT for the Universal Basic Income!
Posted by: boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 10:18 AM (N1ZXu)

Seems to somewhat parallel the ABC (thus Dinsey) series, "Once Upon a Time," which was recommended to me recently. I'm trying to slog through the first season...

I realize some things are not meant for me, but I do like the idea of rewiring the fairy tales. Make them more realistic, without changing the magic.

The execution however, is slow and quite boring at times. I've decided the structure of an American television series effectively ruins stories, because they have to drag things out for 22 episodes, then try to have year and year renewals. So the "payoff" is sometimes years down the road.

Who has that kind of time.

So yes, the evil queen is evil. Can we not just have a group of dwarves rape and kill her already? And not necessarily in that order?

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:30 AM (cY3LT)

152 wait... an explosives stuffed rat?

Did the Rats of NIHM eat the Q-38?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:30 AM (deXW1)

153 hogmartin, that does cover it. I've been using those words (fantasy and fiction) interchangeably. Wrong.

Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 10:31 AM (cOHsM)

154 149 >>>"Readers want books that reflect the world they live in, and they won't settle for a book about a small town where every single person is white,"

I call bullshit. They try to psych out people into thinking that the changes they wish to bring about is a fait accompli so that people will passively accept their neighborhoods being overrun and silently resign themselves to it.

---------

I don't want fiction to "reflect the world I live in." There's nothing interesting about what I see or how I live every day. I guess that's why I don't like straight drama and prefer thrillers, sci-fi & fantasy and military history.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:32 AM (Izzlo)

155 I see that Rubio is a twit regarding the FISA warrant and with that and everything else going on with this sham investigation, ect...I think I will revisit Mr. Camus and read The Stranger....

Posted by: KWDreaming at July 22, 2018 10:33 AM (Ula5x)

156 I mentioned this last night, but you seem like a thoughtful lot.

If you haven't read the side bar article about the Soviet defector and the long term plan to take down the West, you really owe it to yourself.

It explains why we are living in such stupid times.

Posted by: Blutarski at July 22, 2018 10:35 AM (+Tibp)

157 I've had some time off so for once I've read some books, instead of lurking and copying down ones to read.

I read "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended On It" by Chris Voss. I'm not good at getting a business to make something right. Used some of the techniques a few days later -got $100 taken off a bill at a place that did not give us very good service, which has never happened for me before. YMMV.

I read "What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear" by Danielle Ofri. If you are a physician, you may feel there is nothing new here. However, despite a long career behind me, I did pick up some tips for better active listening and getting to the patient's desired outcome. If you are on the patient side of the transaction, you may pick up some tips for being heard and taken seriously.

Also listened to Scott Adams' "How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big" that someone here recommended.

Started Dennis Prager's book about Exodus. Will update when done.

Thanks for the recommendations - love the history books recommended here in particular!

Posted by: Jade Sea at July 22, 2018 10:36 AM (0sWXw)

158 Bit o' troble on the bock straeyt!

Posted by: ro-man at July 22, 2018 10:36 AM (RuIsu)

159 I see that Rubio is a twit regarding the FISA warrant and with that and everything else going on with this sham investigation, ect.
Posted by: KWDreaming

I remember when Rubio was Tea Party darling. Good times. He's grown in office.

Posted by: Blutarski at July 22, 2018 10:37 AM (+Tibp)

160 Anna Puma

The explosive-stuffed rat in all its glory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_rat Executive summary: it is speculated the mere idea of this caused more damage by inciting panic in the Nazi ranks than any actual deployed rats.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at July 22, 2018 10:38 AM (L59/U)

161 Man... I hate The New York Times.

Posted by: Al Crapton, hating The New York Times at July 22, 2018 10:38 AM (uN8it)

162 I had the opportunity to have a meal and after dinner drinks with a half dozen romance/mommy porn authors at an awards banquet. I am newly divorced so I checked out there pics before I got there. I have no problem tying up a drunk romance author for an evening of filth. Apparently the glamour shots were taken 10 years and 60 pounds ago. I kept my politics to myself and listened. The level of vulgar anger and hate spewed like an erupting volcano from their drunk pusses. My favorite rant; "Fuck Nicolas Sparks, that piece of shit. If he was a woman you would have never heard his fucking name." Me being the problem solver piped up with, "You could always try a male pen name." In stereo two shot back, "Fuck you!" These are generally not nice people.

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 10:39 AM (T6C20)

163 I watched Jaws a couple of weeks ago and was struck how pleasant it was to watch white people doing white people things. White people are so much more interesting to watch. This may be because most PoCs are only on film to meet a quota, not be the star. There are a few exceptions, but they are very few.

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 10:39 AM (vV/gB)

164 Good to see Varney made something of himself after hanging around the Times-Pic all those years. ha. I "knew" Varney (as I recall his own team called him) when the paper had a volleyball team at a little bar in Metairie ... 25 years ago. sheesh ... time flies.

"Knew" is in quotes because it was pretty superficial, and I wish I'd known enough about politics back then, to tap his brain and experience. Such is life I guess. I would ref a lot of games ... don't need to say more than that.

Rusty seemed to be doing well last I looked, no idea about Rose and the rest. I left NOLA last century, so missed Katrina except for the friends sharing their misery. Pulitzers ... WOW, congrats.

Posted by: illiniwek at July 22, 2018 10:40 AM (bT8Z4)

165 What am I reading?

A FISA warrant. Rich and compelling.

Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 10:40 AM (/tuJf)

166 I guess that's why I don't like straight drama
Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:32 AM (Izzlo)

Hey there.

Posted by: Lezbo Literary Fanfic at July 22, 2018 10:40 AM (Zogyx)

167
f you haven't read the side bar article about the Soviet defector and the long term plan to take down the West,

=

It bore fruit. However, the originator is gone. Now it is like that doomsday machine in one of the Star Treks, programmed to fight the war that no longer exists, kills anything in its path.

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 10:41 AM (bUjCl)

168 The Dreadnought class battleship should have never been built, and so the few times in which it was tested, are covered quite thoroughly. Now, as for the rest of the war, I don't recall much else said about it, and I don't really remember him delving too deeply into the German side of the equation.

So maybe that's the difference.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:20 AM (cY3LT)

Massey is not the best source for serious naval analysis. Norman Friedman, Jon Sumida, and John Brooks are better. Also Gordon's Rules, flawed though it is.

The trouble with that (a common assertion) is that it ignores just how infrequent big naval battles have always been. Big main fleet actions are rare. WWII change things some, because aircraft allowed you to hit without closing. Also, far fewer were decisive (in material terms) than people realize. In De Grasse's victory off Yorktown, no British ships were taken, and none sunk while in action (one foundered on the way back.)

But without a battle fleet, your seapower becomes extremely vulnerable. E.g., Heligoland Bight, or the German attacks on Norwegian convoys. The trouble in WWI is that things seemed to have changed very rapidly, and no one knew exactly what they were dealing with. Many thought (wrongly) that history had no lessons that were still valid.

The increasing ranges of the time made dreadnoughts inevitable. Mixed batteries were no longer feasible, and big guns gained large advantages.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 10:41 AM (59GGI)

169 On a stormy winter night with the wind howling and yowling outside read a book of scary stories

Posted by: Spurwing Plover at July 22, 2018 10:41 AM (FLiOE)

170 Popping in amidst chores.

Finished 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B Peterson.

It would have made a difference if I had been a receptive teenager and read it then. I would have not had to discover so many eternal truths by trial and error.

Now it is well told common sense.

Recommended for the 20-somethings that needs some boundaries and the reasons for those boundaries. Or a grandchild to read and discuss with.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 22, 2018 10:41 AM (hyuyC)

171 Greetings:

Re: "Washington's Spies..."

I started reading it but found it rather "Department of Redundancy Department"-y and gave up on it. which I very rarely do. I great deal of similarity in the individual stories if you get my drift.

I would appreciate recommendations on any biographies of General Philip Sheridan or General William Tecumseh Sherman. I'm reading "Grant" by Ron CHernow and they come across as kind of sketchy.

Posted by: 11B40 at July 22, 2018 10:42 AM (evgyj)

172 A FISA warrant. Rich and compelling.
Posted by: JackStraw

I'd hope you'd chime in on this. What's your take?

Posted by: Blutarski at July 22, 2018 10:43 AM (+Tibp)

173 I've been using those words (fantasy and fiction) interchangeably. Wrong.
Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 10:31 AM (cOHsM)

Only inasmuch as people might get confused about what you're referring to. And "fantasy" does tend to be one of the more rigidly-defined genres, and if not rigidly-defined, then at least most people would agree on whether something is or isn't fantasy. But still, if that's the definition - a world with different but internally consistent rules - wouldn't really outré science fiction be "fantasy" too? I've said before that I consider the Duneiverse stories to have much more in common with traditional fantasy than with SF. Generally, if the bits that make the world "special" are magic or spirituality, I'll call it fantasy, and if the rules come from technology that's more advanced than ours, I call it science fiction. There's still a lot of overlap, plus I'm not the King of Books or nothin'.

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 10:43 AM (y87Qq)

174 "Put another way, I would rather have to deal with the seemingly never-ceasing expansion of federal power, which is the legacy of that war, than to have slavery embedded in our country as a permanent feature."

And what makes you think the expansion of Federal power did anything other than perpetuate slavery while expanding the pool of potential slaves?

Posted by: SDN at July 22, 2018 10:44 AM (z3gg+)

175 ... so we didn't get me out of the ditch.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 10:22 AM (fuK7c)

===

Somehow, I knew that's how that Trabant story would end.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 22, 2018 10:45 AM (JvZF+)

176 that story about the Trabi trying to tow a much bigger vehicle reminded me of one of the funniest scenes I remember back in my oilfield days. We were out in the country, mud roads, and a large truck and gotten it's rear axle bogged down in a particularly bad spot. So the guy in charge of the operation had hitched his pickup to the front, but since he was trying to pull something with a GVW of 50,000 lbs, he wasn't making much headway.

So me and 2 guys under me pull up, in our pickup, and the boss in charge immediately commandeers my two guys, cuz it's an "emergency" and all that, and he tells them to get behind the big truck and help push. The older of my guys just looks at him and nods, he was kind of a quiet country boy. And then he unzips the front of his coveralls, from the top down, and then looks down and stares at himself with kind of a puzzled look. So the boss asks him "Just what the hell are you doin'????""

and he replies "Oh, I just needed to check. Nope, ain't no big blue "S" on MY chest!" we couldn't help it, that put everyone on the ground laughing!

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 10:47 AM (V2Yro)

177 Vettel crashed out of 1st place, Hamilton wins taking over led in the championship

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 10:47 AM (pHfeF)

178 "Readers want books that reflect the world they live in..."

Of course that's the line they push. They want to keep our horizons as small as possible. And avoid any awareness that there is a world beyond their immediate on.

We see the effects all around. A lot of the intolerant rage of millennials comes from the shock of encountering another perspective. And that prospect seems unendurable to them. (Another point on which Lewis wrote well.) The smaller the world, the easier it is to control.

I think I need sleep.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 10:47 AM (59GGI)

179 Somehow, I knew that's how that Trabant story would end.
Posted by: San Franpsycho

There's a great series on Prime about "cars of the people" with James May of The Grand Tour fame. Highly entertaining. He savages the Trabant.

Posted by: Blutarski at July 22, 2018 10:47 AM (+Tibp)

180 The Dreadnought class battleship should have never been built, and so the few times in which it was tested, are covered quite thoroughly. Now, as for the rest of the war, I don't recall much else said about it, and I don't really remember him delving too deeply into the German side of the equation.

So maybe that's the difference.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:20 AM (cY3LT)

Massey is not the best source for serious naval analysis. Norman Friedman, Jon Sumida, and John Brooks are better. Also Gordon's Rules, flawed though it is.

.......
Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 10:41 AM (59GGI)

Military history is of course, mostly divided into two categories: big picture stuff, and the stuff that gets down into the mud (or water) and looks at the nitty gritty.

I prefer the big picture stuff.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:48 AM (cY3LT)

181 Did the Rats of NIHM eat the Q-38?"

Nah.

Quadrotriticale.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at July 22, 2018 10:48 AM (6qErC)

182 Just read Guest Shot by David Locke. Interesting blurb but glad I paid only 50 cents for it. One of the few books I did not finish. I could handle guessing the plot of it was well written and had solid characters, which it did not.

A few chapters into Anthony Horowitz's new book, The Word is Murder. The author writes himself into the story and so far I am thinking that Horowitz might have actually succeeded in doing a good job of it.

Posted by: Charlotte at July 22, 2018 10:48 AM (trNu7)

183 Tiger actually making a legit charge at the British Open

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 10:49 AM (Ydx5u)

184 ...with that and everything else going on with this sham investigation, ect...I think I will revisit Mr. Camus and read The Stranger....

Posted by: KWDreaming at July 22, 2018 10:33 AM (Ula5x)

Franz Kafka's The Trial would also be appropriate

Posted by: cool breeze at July 22, 2018 10:50 AM (UGKMd)

185 Sabrina Chase, I hope you clicked on the links provided on the Wiki page.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontaylor

I do wonder if the Pied Piper of Hamelin got updated by the Nazis as a result.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 10:50 AM (deXW1)

186 Tiger actually making a legit charge at the British Open
Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 10:49 AM (Ydx5u)

This is fun to watch. I'm seeing the swagger.

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 10:50 AM (T6C20)

187 And what makes you think the expansion of Federal power did anything other than perpetuate slavery while expanding the pool of potential slaves?

Relevant: archaeology.org/news/6799-180718-texas-convict-lease

the remains of some 95 people have been found at a Texas plantation cemetery dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. About half of the graves have been exhumed, and more than 20 of the bodies have been analyzed. All but one of them were men who lived to between the ages of about 14 to 70. The bones show evidence of poor childhood health and heavy labor. Some of them may have been former slaves. Ken Brown of the University of Houston thinks the men may have been African-American laborers who worked at the sugar plantation under a convict lease system.

Under slavery, masters worked slaves because, well, life sucks, and there (theoretically) wasn't malice behind it. After slavery, the state of Texas worked slaves and told them they deserved it.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 10:50 AM (N1ZXu)

188 That jalopnik article on the Trabant is pretty funny:

It's also worth noting that the colors that Trabants were available in are very strange. I've heard a lot about 'goose shit green' as a color, and two-tone ones were known, with a contrasting color roof. Like this one here: it appears to be the color of pus, with a roof the color of I-should-see-a-doctor mucus.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 10:51 AM (I3yXU)

189 >>I'd hope you'd chime in on this. What's your take?

Haven't had a chance to read it thoroughly yet but pretty much the same as yours and everyone else's. A completely bogus warrant based on lies and conflicting information done strictly to spy on the Tump campaign that implicates numerous people in the Obama administration.

We all knew this is where it was headed but it's still breathtaking to see

Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 10:51 AM (/tuJf)

190 Currently working through the original "The Mark of Zorro" as part of a collection of old adventure stories. (The collection concludes with "King Solomon's Mines.") So far, this has been the best of the bunch, and has been genuinely pretty fun. It is amusing how overboard the author went with the unassuming alter ego.

Its also amusing how Hispanic it is. I have no idea if it is accurate or not, but the characters all feel as if they genuinely come from another culture. You'd think the modern multi-culti crowd would have been trumpeting that fact like it was groundbreaking or something. But, no....

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 22, 2018 10:51 AM (Lhaco)

191 Popping in amidst chores.

Finished 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B Peterson.

It would have made a difference if I had been a receptive teenager and read it then. I would have not had to discover so many eternal truths by trial and error.

Now it is well told common sense.

Recommended for the 20-somethings that needs some boundaries and the reasons for those boundaries. Or a grandchild to read and discuss with.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 22, 2018 10:41 AM (hyuyC)

That was my take. I got about 25% into it, and kept thinking "tell me something I don't already know."

Realizing this book was not meant for me, I stopped reading. I can appreciate his effort here, I do think he's way too wordy for the subject matter, but if it's resonating with the yoots, then that's a good thing.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:52 AM (cY3LT)

192 What's a good book on the Texas War of Independence? The one I have in my library, by Nofi, I read a long time ago and recall not enjoying very much.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:53 AM (Izzlo)

193 Just below this post in my browser was an ad that says I was reading, then I looked up and my child had drowned in the pool.

Google ad algorithm fail.

Posted by: blaster at July 22, 2018 10:54 AM (DH5wZ)

194 Military history is of course, mostly divided into two categories: big picture stuff, and the stuff that gets down into the mud (or water) and looks at the nitty gritty.

I prefer the big picture stuff.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:48 AM (cY3LT)

Preference is fine. But remember that big pictures are ALWAYS gross oversimplifications.

My absolute favorite argument for this is actually from Literary History. C S Lewis's volume of the Oxford History. The introduction should be required reading in all schools. It's actually online

https://tinyurl.com/yd5slm7j

I cannot recommend it too highly.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 10:54 AM (59GGI)

195 Decided to read a couple more "Classics" so picked up The Deerslayer and The Last of The Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, about 3 weeks ago.

Read The Deerslayer and am halfway through TLotM.

Holy Shit, what a pair of windy, pompous, mind-bogglingly boring books. I have almost lost my mind reading this endless drivel.

The "action" in The Deerslayer could have been written in 50 pages, rather than 522, and Mohicans, while a little better written, is also just unreadable.

I had thought I would try to read all 5 novels in The Leatherstocking Tales but once Mohicans is done, that's it.

Ugh. How did this author ever get published?!

Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 10:55 AM (+BKF+)

196 Is it possible romance novels are not particularly diverse because their audience isn't interested in books about lesbians, gays, transsexuals and gender fluid people?
I'm not a a literary genius like the reviewer who pondered that but I do wonder.

Posted by: Northernlurker lurkier than ever at July 22, 2018 10:55 AM (nBr1j)

197 Does it cover the war or just the lead-up to the war? Based on the blurb from Dreadnought, that's how I understood it. But maybe Castles of Steel is just a pared down version of Dreadnought to only cover the war itself.
Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at July 22, 2018 10:17 AM (J70i0)
----------------

I've read both "Dreadnought" and "Castles of Steel." Both are highly readable and well worth it.

Both books give some fascinating insights as to British and German thought.

Posted by: blake - used comment salesman at July 22, 2018 10:56 AM (WEBkv)

198 I think JJ is going to have a field day tomorrow.

Posted by: Blutarski at July 22, 2018 10:56 AM (+Tibp)

199 I started watching Bones tv series on amazon (currently in season 3)
I like that it has banter, and a sense of team ( "family") loyalty
I might try the Kathy Reichs books that it's loosely based on

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 10:56 AM (hMwEB)

200 If you have not eaten yet, ya might want to take a look at Weasel Zippers....Apparently someone told The FAB that she would look good wearing a tent the other day. My G-D it's a site to see. LOL

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 10:56 AM (Ydx5u)

201 No offense to my fellow morons, but I'm about to fall asleep. Coffee just isn't cutting it. (Was up before 3.)

Crush Dissent.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 10:56 AM (59GGI)

202 Late to the thread, dammit! Oh well.

Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a fine week of reading. Or a week of fine reading. Or both.

Posted by: JTB at July 22, 2018 10:57 AM (V+03K)

203 I'm not a a literary genius like the reviewer who pondered that but I do wonder.
Posted by: Northernlurker lurkier than ever at July 22, 2018 10:55 AM (nBr1j)

How about the obvious. The audience they pander to doesn't read that much.

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 10:57 AM (T6C20)

204 194 Military history is of course, mostly divided into two categories: big picture stuff, and the stuff that gets down into the mud (or water) and looks at the nitty gritty.

I prefer the big picture stuff.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 10:48 AM (cY3LT)

Preference is fine. But remember that big pictures are ALWAYS gross oversimplifications.

My absolute favorite argument for this is actually from Literary History. C S Lewis's volume of the Oxford History. The introduction should be required reading in all schools. It's actually online

https://tinyurl.com/yd5slm7j

I cannot recommend it too highly.
Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 10:54 AM (59GGI)

When possible, I read a big picture book, then try to find books focused on campaigns and battles of the war - from "big picture" to "little details." But I like to read about small wars and secondary theaters of larger wars, so there's sometimes there's only big-picture books available on the topic.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:57 AM (Izzlo)

205 Not exactly a book but linked over at Insty Andrew McCarthy is embarrassed because he said the FBI couldn't do what it did with the Steele dossier. Like what we all said they did.

Is it just me or does he end up being surprised a lot?

People who he swore were righteous are proven venal.

We have a whole system based on trust and it turns out that all of it was misplaced.

Posted by: blaster at July 22, 2018 10:58 AM (DH5wZ)

206 I consider FDR, not Lincoln, to be the prez most responsible for the growth of big nanny state federal gubmint. Everything Lincoln did was a wartime measure intended to be temporary, whereas FDR was attempting in his own way to "fundamentally transform" the US economy and society. Also, it would appear, based on things Lincoln said shortly before his death, that his Reconstruction policy for the South would have been significantly less harsh and pervasive than what his successors implemented. Though I suppose that Lincoln's Reconstruction policy is a lot like JFK's Vietnam policy in that historians can read what they want into it because it never came to fruition....

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 10:58 AM (9WuX0)

207 155 I see that Rubio is a twit
Posted by: KWDreaming at July 22, 2018 10:33 AM (Ula5x)

You can end the sentence right there.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 10:58 AM (I3yXU)

208 Well, not only late to the thread, but no team to peruse and get some ideas.

Off to church then over to see if Mom's A/C has died.

Have a good one, people of the book thread!

Posted by: blake - used comment salesman at July 22, 2018 10:59 AM (WEBkv)

209 American Thinker has pics of Grandma Wobbles in her tent. Definately see an outline of a catheter or colostomy bag.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 22, 2018 11:00 AM (89T5c)

210 The trouble with that (a common assertion) is that it ignores just how infrequent big naval battles have always been. Big main fleet actions are rare.

-
Martin Middlebrook made that point in one of his books. (The Berlin Raids?) While the Brit admirals risked their assets infrequently, "Bomber" Harris put almost his entire fleet on the line almost every night.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 11:00 AM (+y/Ru)

211 Pretty neat that Ernest of the Ernest goes to... posts at aos.

Wait...what?

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:01 AM (2DOZq)

212 206,

Don't discount Wilson.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at July 22, 2018 11:01 AM (6qErC)

213 But still, if that's the definition - a world with different but internally consistent rules - wouldn't really outré science fiction be "fantasy" too?
Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 10:43 AM (y87Qq)

I've always considered science fiction to be a subset of fantasy
Specially as much of the "science" in science fiction is pure handwavium

A fiction novel with just hard science in it is often a futuristic thriller rather than SF.

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 11:01 AM (hMwEB)

214 *pauses*

Blake that could be a series. A minister/mechanic who battles demonically possessed appliances.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (deXW1)

215 *people voluntarilly go and look at picture of HRC ?? how odd...*

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (bUjCl)

216 Decided to read a couple more "Classics" so picked up The Deerslayer and The Last of The Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, about 3 weeks ago.

Ugh. How did this author ever get published?!
Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 10:55 AM (+BKF+)

No idea, man.

http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html

Posted by: Mark Twain at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (y87Qq)

217 *people voluntarilly go and look at picture of HRC ?? how odd...*

Rule 34?

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (N1ZXu)

218 Just started reading The Tale of Hilltop Farm (Beatrix Potter mystery) on the advice of several of you on the book thread. I absolutely love it. I haven't read a real book in quite a while and I am dertmined to get back into my reading habit. This book is perfect. It's a charming story with wonderful characters and it makes me happy every time I get back to it. Thanks all!

Posted by: Mrs. Leggy at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (WY9Hg)

219 Well, not quite the last rose of summer, but here I is anyway.

This week I read Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda. Talk about your readable books! I guess you'd call it a "beach read," but it was addictive. The young (rich) wife of a narcissist/sociopath/gold-digger finally wises up to creep she married and decides to do something about it. Highly recommended.

Posted by: SandyCheeks at July 22, 2018 11:03 AM (ihzOe)

220 Rule 34?

=

I missed class on the day we covered rule 34..what is it ??

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 11:04 AM (bUjCl)

221 Pretty neat that Ernest of the Ernest goes to... posts at aos.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:01 AM (2DOZq)

...the Barrel?

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 11:04 AM (y87Qq)

222 The Trabant article really was one of triumph in adversity.

I mean, these were Germans, forced to drive around in crappy cars. That's worthy of a tearful Sarah McLachlan song right there.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:04 AM (gUCYC)

223 Those silly pants don't look bad for a silly activity like golf.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 22, 2018 11:05 AM (bNb8V)

224 Holy Shit, what a pair of windy, pompous, mind-bogglingly boring books. I have almost lost my mind reading this endless drivel.

Heh. Last of the Mohicans was one of my free downloads yesterday. I guess I won't prioritize it.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 11:05 AM (fuK7c)

225 The Courtney Milan from the OP is one of the women who #MeToo'd Alex Kozinski off the 9th Circus. That might be good or bad, depending on his replacement.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at July 22, 2018 11:05 AM (/qEW2)

226 205Andrew McCarthy is embarrassed because he said the FBI couldn't do what it did with the Steele dossier. Like what we all said they did.

Is it just me or does he end up being surprised a lot?

Posted by: blaster at July 22, 2018 10:58 AM (DH5wZ)

McCarthy has been living in a state of continual befuddlement ever since Comey announced he wasn't going to prosecute Hillary because he couldn't prove she "intended" to break the law. One by one, all of these gov't officials and FBI bureaucrats turned out to have done dodgy things, and every time, McCarthy writes an NRO piece acknowledging their wrongdoing but proclaiming what great patriots they are and what men of integrity they are and how he just can't understand what they did. He just can't bring himself to admit that they're criminals trying to bring down a sitting president.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:06 AM (I3yXU)

227 O M - twitchy.com 7-year-old-chess-prodigy cant compete at world championship-in-tunisia-because shes israeli

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 11:06 AM (pHfeF)

228 Holy Shit, what a pair of windy, pompous, mind-bogglingly boring books. I have almost lost my mind reading this endless drivel.

==

Cooper writes like a proto-prog

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 11:06 AM (hMwEB)

229 "I proclaim it A Thing"

Five Trabants = One Yugo

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:07 AM (UdKB7)

230 Do you ever get the feeling that you will soon be reading a particular kind of story? I don't know why but I expect to read some HP Lovecraft this week. Perhaps I'm in the mood for some overly lush, over the top, tales. And where evil doesn't have to come from politics.

Of course, I might also re-read Wind in the Willows or essays by Montaigne.

Posted by: JTB at July 22, 2018 11:08 AM (V+03K)

231 Rule 34, porn or sexual material exist for every conceivable topic

Posted by: A dude in MI at July 22, 2018 11:08 AM (CDETr)

232 If Varney is lurking now, did you know a Hector San Miguel? Lake Charles American Press.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:08 AM (2DOZq)

233 227 https://tinyurl.com/y9lkyxo8

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 11:08 AM (pHfeF)

234 Thanks for the assist! I've given away 13 ebooks, so far...

Posted by: scrood at July 22, 2018 11:09 AM (NlCk7)

235 I've always considered science fiction to be a subset of fantasy
Specially as much of the "science" in science fiction is pure handwavium
Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 11:01 AM (hMwEB)

I think you're right. If you set two books next to each other, it's easy to say "well THAT one's science fiction and THAT one is fantasy", but when you start looking at how you're going to apply guidelines to classify them, science fiction is pretty much entirely within the set of fantasy fiction.

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 11:09 AM (y87Qq)

236 For Hillary!? That would be Rule 34XXXXXL

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:10 AM (deXW1)

237 206 I consider FDR, not Lincoln, to be the prez most responsible for the growth of big nanny state federal gubmint. "

It's the nature of a powerful, centralized system to become even more powerful and more centralized under the pressure of any great emergency. (War, economic depression, etc) And the system that does this most successfully will always outcompete those systems that don't adapt. Not just in our times, this is how Rome took over it's world, and how the State of Chin subdued all of the warring states. It can't be avoided.

It's easy to forget that one of the prime reasons the Confederacy collapsed was that they based their government on the old Articles of Confederation, which made States Right's Supreme. In practice, this meant that at the end, when Lee's army was out of ammunition and equipment, there were Governor's sitting on warehouses full of both, refusing to send them to Lee because they thought they needed them more.

One of the great historical ironies is that the current EU doesn't even acknowledge that their charter is set much like the Articles of Confederation. We tried that, twice, and both times, it failed. Miserably!

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 11:10 AM (V2Yro)

238 230 Do you ever get the feeling that you will soon be reading a particular kind of story? I don't know why but I expect to read some HP Lovecraft this week. Perhaps I'm in the mood for some overly lush, over the top, tales. And where evil doesn't have to come from politics.

Of course, I might also re-read Wind in the Willows or essays by Montaigne.
Posted by: JTB at July 22, 2018 11:08 AM (V+03K)

If you want to read a Lovecraft-esque tale, I'd recommend reading a short story by T.E.D. Klein. He wrote stories in the spirit of Lovecraft, without being hack-job copies.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 11:10 AM (Izzlo)

239 >>>>Yes, the war period is covered, because the whole premise of the book, really, was the folly of the British Admiralty, in trying to compete with the Germans, regarding armor, speed, and firepower.

The Dreadnought class battleship should have never been built,

I guess I have to read this book, because none of that makes any sense.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:11 AM (3DZIZ)

240 Five Trabants = One Yugo
Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:07 AM (UdKB7)

That covers metric.

Two Gremlins = One Aztek
One Aztek is equivalent to .75 of a Country Squire.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:11 AM (gUCYC)

241 Decided to read a couple more "Classics" so picked up The Deerslayer and The Last of The Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, about 3 weeks ago.

Ugh. How did this author ever get published?!
Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 10:55 AM (+BKF+)

No idea, man.

http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html
Posted by: Mark Twain at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (y87Qq)

I have never read Cooper's books, and so I wondered if Twain was just having a lark, being a bit of a dick about Cooper's work.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:11 AM (cY3LT)

242 Last classic I re- read was Silas Marner. I've heard most give it a negative review but I liked it.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:12 AM (2DOZq)

243

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:12 AM (3DZIZ)

244 So what will a Pacer get you?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:12 AM (deXW1)

245 I don't know why but I expect to read some HP Lovecraft this week. Perhaps I'm in the mood for some overly lush, over the top, tales. And where evil doesn't have to come from politics.
Posted by: JTB at July 22, 2018 11:08 AM (V+03K)

╭(;,;)╯

https://stoatnet.org/nolivesmatter.jpg

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 11:13 AM (y87Qq)

246 11 members of one family boarded that DUKW. 9 of them drowned, including 4 children.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 11:13 AM (+BKF+)

247 -----

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:13 AM (3DZIZ)

248 >>Not exactly a book but linked over at Insty Andrew McCarthy is embarrassed because he said the FBI couldn't do what it did with the Steele dossier. Like what we all said they did.

Is it just me or does he end up being surprised a lot?

It's not just you. For an expert, he sure is wrong a lot.

Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 11:13 AM (/tuJf)

249 Put another way, I would rather have to deal with the seemingly never-ceasing expansion of federal power, which is the legacy of that war, than to have slavery embedded in our country as a permanent feature.
*****
As long as we dont let the former re-engender a more pervasive form of the latter, and we end up with both!

Posted by: Ray Van Dune at July 22, 2018 11:13 AM (Vs607)

250 So why don't backward v brackets show up?

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:14 AM (3DZIZ)

251 54 < 55

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:15 AM (3DZIZ)

252 No idea, man.

http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html

Posted by: Mark Twain at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (y87Qq)

omg, that's hilarious. I haven't finished it yet, but the 18 points are quite the smackdown.

I like how he starts by calling out pompous professors who are credentialed.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 11:15 AM (fuK7c)

253 There is a lot of mention of the true Peoples Car, the Trabant, this morning. Bear in mind, at the close of WW2, the Heer was mostly horse drawn, making the Trabant a step down.

Posted by: bill in arkansas at July 22, 2018 11:15 AM (xzqr4)

254 Fun fact. It takes 917 Trabees to make one Porsche 917.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:15 AM (UdKB7)

255 242 Last classic I re- read was Silas Marner. I've heard most give it a negative review but I liked it.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:12 AM (2DOZq)
---
I know! It was always held up to be a slog but I found it beautifully written. The scene where he sees little Effie's golden hair shining in the sun, and it melts the gold-craving miser's heart, is just lovely.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:15 AM (gUCYC)

256 There has to be numbers?

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:15 AM (3DZIZ)

257 I think you're right. If you set two books next to each other, it's easy to say "well THAT one's science fiction and THAT one is fantasy", but when you start looking at how you're going to apply guidelines to classify them, science fiction is pretty much entirely within the set of fantasy fiction."

And that's where you get into the distinctions such as "hard SF" and the others. You have things like Star Wars, which is just Space Opera since they don't even try to make any scientific sense, and on the other hand you have stories like "Interstellar", which still has fantasy elements (the extra dimensional stuff) but other than that makes an attempt to deal with Relativity as well as it can be explained.

Of course, that made it a bit hard to follow, because Relativity is a really, really weird thing to try to explain.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 11:16 AM (V2Yro)

258 Oops, "Eppie" (Hepsibah).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:16 AM (gUCYC)

259 Yes, the war period is covered, because the whole premise of the book, really, was the folly of the British Admiralty, in trying to compete with the Germans, regarding armor, speed, and firepower.

The Dreadnought class battleship should have never been built,
---------------------------

I guess I have to read this book, because none of that makes any sense.
Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:11 AM (3DZIZ)

None of it?

Arms race. Germans v. Brits. The Brits had long enjoyed supremacy of the sea. Then the Germans started building bigger, faster, ships, with bigger guns. So the Brits had to counter them. And hence the problem: If you build faster, you have to be lighter, if you are lighter, the bigger shells can more easily penetrate your armor, so if you build thicker armor you are slower, and thus more easily outmaneuvered, but if you have bigger guns you don't have to get as close to hit your target, and so on and so on and so on.

The Brits, with the Dreadnought class, chose lighter armor. They chose... poorly.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:16 AM (cY3LT)

260 I have never read Cooper's books, and so I wondered if Twain was just having a lark, being a bit of a dick about Cooper's work.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:11 AM (cY3LT)

We had to read LotM in high school, but I don't remember a single thing about it.

Still, I'm pretty confident that I'd get more out of a crude cartoon Twain scrawled on the wall in a truck stop restroom stall dissing Cooper's mom than anything Cooper himself ever wrote.

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 11:18 AM (y87Qq)

261 255 242 Last classic I re- read was Silas Marner. I've heard most give it a negative review but I liked it.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:12 AM (2DOZq)
---
I know! It was always held up to be a slog but I found it beautifully written. The scene where he sees little Effie's golden hair shining in the sun, and it melts the gold-craving miser's heart, is just lovely. "

There's a film adaption of this story starring Ben Kingsley and I thought it was very well done. Quite enjoyable to watch.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 11:18 AM (V2Yro)

262 Is it just me or does he end up being surprised a lot?

==

Everything is unexpected

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 11:18 AM (hMwEB)

263 Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:15 AM (gUCYC)

I think it's the same reason why I love Despicable Me.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:18 AM (2DOZq)

264 There's a film adaption of this story starring Ben Kingsley and I thought it was very well done. Quite enjoyable to watch.
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 11:18 AM (V2Yro)

Also a modern version starring Steve Martin.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:19 AM (2DOZq)

265 ----The Brits, with the Dreadnought class, chose lighter armor. They chose... poorly.-----

How many British battleships, not battlecruisers, were sunk by gunfire in WWI?

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at July 22, 2018 11:20 AM (3DZIZ)

266 244 So what will a Pacer get you?
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:12 AM (deXW1)
---

Ah, the AMC Pacer really is the, uh, gold standard.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:20 AM (gUCYC)

267 238 ... "If you want to read a Lovecraft-esque tale, I'd recommend reading a short story by T.E.D. Klein. He wrote stories in the spirit of Lovecraft, without being hack-job copies."

josephstan, thanks for the tip. Never heard of the author and will check out his books.

Posted by: JTB at July 22, 2018 11:20 AM (V+03K)

268 Israel blasts CNN's coverage: 'Stop your manipulation'
CNN reversed order of deaths in Hamas attack, 'manipulating' news item to make it appear that Israel struck first, says Foreign Ministry.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:20 AM (Ydx5u)

269 11 members of one family boarded that DUKW. 9 of them drowned, including 4 children.
Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 11:13 AM (+BKF+)

I haven't read into the story, but apparently there was a ticket mixup. They weren't supposed to be on that boat.

The woman who survived is apparently saying she wishes she was dead, that she had died with the rest of her family.

Horrible.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:21 AM (cY3LT)

270 266 244 So what will a Pacer get you?
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:12 AM (deXW1)

Enough steel to build four K cars.

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 11:21 AM (T6C20)

271 Dreadnought is a cool word, design specs notwithstanding.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 11:21 AM (fuK7c)

272 Phony WaPo 'Conservative' Max Boot, a Useful Idiot for the Left: I Miss Obama And Would Take Him Back In A Nanosecond

-
Max Boot is a true conservative.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 11:22 AM (+y/Ru)

273 Israel blasts CNN's coverage: 'Stop your manipulation'
CNN reversed order of deaths in Hamas attack, 'manipulating' news item to make it appear that Israel struck first, says Foreign Ministry.
Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:20 AM (Ydx5u)

Not surprising from Saddam News Network. They should have had their license pulled for sedition.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:22 AM (2DOZq)

274 I enjoyed Hans Schantzs two books. The second is *A Rambling Wreck* and follows the protagonist to Georgia Tech, where he gets closer to the truth, and hopefully closer to getting laid!

So where is book 3? I follow Hans on Amazon but have not heard anything. I worry that he has written himself into a corner. *Yes, and the hidden secret missing piece of modern physics is... er... revealed in book 4!!*

Posted by: Ray Van Dune at July 22, 2018 11:22 AM (Vs607)

275 Phony WaPo 'Conservative' Max Boot, a Useful Idiot for the Left: I Miss Obama And Would Take Him Back In A Nanosecond

-
Max Boot is a true conservative.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 11:22 AM (+y/Ru)

Das Boot?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:22 AM (Ydx5u)

276 Max Boot, Das Boot... well who's getting the electric torpedo today?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:24 AM (deXW1)

277 I'd hope you'd chime in on this. What's your take?

Haven't had a chance to read it thoroughly yet but pretty much the
same as yours and everyone else's. A completely bogus warrant based on
lies and conflicting information done strictly to spy on the Tump
campaign that implicates numerous people in the Obama administration.

We all knew this is where it was headed but it's still breathtaking to see

Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 10:51 AM

---

Page was a patsy and the FBI needed him and his travel to Russia to get close to Trump through the FISA warrant.

I still maintain that Page is/was an FBI informant and that is why he has never been charged with anything.

Posted by: The Great White Scotsman at July 22, 2018 11:24 AM (+Dllb)

278 Sharkman,
Twain had something to say about Fenimore Cooper:

http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad. at July 22, 2018 11:24 AM (S7ZzA)

279 I have never read Cooper's books, and so I wondered if Twain was just having a lark, being a bit of a dick about Cooper's work.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:11 AM (cY3LT)

We had to read LotM in high school, but I don't remember a single thing about it.

Still, I'm pretty confident that I'd get more out of a crude cartoon Twain scrawled on the wall in a truck stop restroom stall dissing Cooper's mom than anything Cooper himself ever wrote.
Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 11:18 AM (y87Qq)

I don't know how I managed to miss Cooper in school, but somehow I did.

I guess I was lucky.

Most interesting thing of Twain's I have read... not most entertaining, most interesting, is his autobio. The early part of the book is all light and funny and typical Twain. Then later in his life, people he loved started dying.

Egad...

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:24 AM (cY3LT)

280 well, since I read a whole book yesterday, I have to go to a bookstore to buy another one

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 11:24 AM (N1ZXu)

281 I did read that Twain piece on Cooper.

Most of his criticisms were spot on, but he was also just being a colossal dick.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 11:25 AM (+BKF+)

282 Twain is just flaying Cooper!

7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the "Deerslayer" tale.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:25 AM (gUCYC)

283 Finishing-up reading La Grande Armée by Georges Blond (english translation edition). A study of the French Army during the Napoleonic War from 1804, I found it to be extremely informative and a great peak into the army from the French perspective. Very little tactical details and it is more about the interplay of personalities and various little anecdotes.

I had not realized that the Bourbons had put most of the officers on half-pay and had also forbidden them by law to seek other employment during the First Restoration after Napoleon abdicated in 1814. No wonder those guys were pissed and jumped at a chance to strike back at the Bourbons in 1815. The Bourbons were described as "Forgetting nothing and learning nothing."

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at July 22, 2018 11:25 AM (5Yee7)

284 Tiger is playing well, very well, and the other guys are self destructing. Oh he is in the lead

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:25 AM (Ydx5u)

285 Time to write, I hope everyone has a wonderful day. God bless all of you.

Posted by: Oldsailors poet at July 22, 2018 11:25 AM (T6C20)

286 245 ... Hogmartin, Thanks for the link. Now THAT is art!!

Posted by: JTB at July 22, 2018 11:25 AM (V+03K)

287 "So what will a Pacer get you?"

Ridicule and scorn. But still rates at least two Yugos.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:26 AM (UdKB7)

288 Under slavery, masters worked slaves because, well, life sucks, and there (theoretically) wasn't malice behind it. After slavery, the state of Texas worked slaves and told them they deserved it."

I think you're talking about the infamous Texas Prison Farm system. It had a pretty notorious history, and since it was all convicts everybody pretty much turned a blind eye to what was going on there.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 11:26 AM (V2Yro)

289 All Hail Eris, did like Rule 7. But the jibe about the corpses is also a hoot.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:26 AM (deXW1)

290 Dreadnought is a cool word, design specs notwithstanding.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 11:21 AM (fuK7c)

It's also the name for what's become the standard form factor of acoustic guitars, developed by the C. F. Martin company *points at nick*

It was named for the class of ship.

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 11:26 AM (y87Qq)

291 'Morning, readers.

Stupid question: What differentiates a fantasy from "regular" fiction?
Posted by: creeper at July 22, 2018 09:50 AM (cOHsM)

I will take a shot at it. "Regular" fiction is set in the world as we know it, either in the present, or in some era of the past.

Fantasy is set either in an entirely made-up world, or in our world except that magic and supernatural forces play a big role in the story.

In science fiction, there is usually some attempt to make the fantastical elements appear to be the logical outcome of physical elements acted upon by rational beings. In pure fantasy, those elements are simply given as a fait accompli, "well, there are dragons, and they fly, so there!"

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 22, 2018 11:27 AM (bNb8V)

292 Phony WaPo 'Conservative' Max Boot, a Useful Idiot for the Left: I Miss Obama And Would Take Him Back In A Nanosecond

-
Max Boot is a true conservative.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at July 22, 2018 11:22 AM (+y/Ru)

Das Boot?
Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:22 AM (Ydx5u)

In Maxi's case, I think the correct pronoun would be Die Boot.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:27 AM (cY3LT)

293 Or Maxie Dis Boot?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:27 AM (deXW1)

294 192:

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 10:53 AM (Izzlo)

Really good Texas history by T.R. Fehrenbach but I forget the title. It was written back in the '70s before the Long March momentum took hold.

He also wrote histories of Mexico ("Fire and Blood") and the Comanches. Interesting to me, the latter, also written in the '70s has be re-titled from "Comanches: The History of a People" to "Comanches: The Destruction of a People".

Everything of his that I have read has been more than worthwhile.

Posted by: 11B40 at July 22, 2018 11:27 AM (evgyj)

295 "Twain is just flaying Cooper! "

He's like Captian Hate without all the cusswords.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:28 AM (UdKB7)

296 I just made the mistake of looking at Daily KOS. They had a Twatter screen cap. of a giant yard sign that said: "Vote Like Black Women." Below the sign, it has the following stat: 94% of black women voted for Hillary.(!). It's (slightly) amazing to me, considering her (and Bill's) comments re: black "animals" needing to be locked up. I guess free s**t trumps even racism.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:29 AM (ty7RM)

297 Rule 34, porn or sexual material exist for every conceivable topic

=

Oh, i see...i mean, I understand now.

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 11:29 AM (bUjCl)

298 224 Holy Shit, what a pair of windy, pompous, mind-bogglingly boring books. I have almost lost my mind reading this endless drivel.

Heh. Last of the Mohicans was one of my free downloads yesterday. I guess I won't prioritize it.
-----------------------
Bandersnatch, I would recommend you read it. I quite enjoyed the series, but only read three of the five. 19th Century literature can be a bit too wordy for our tastes. The worse in these categories would be Dickens and Hugo. Not only are they long winded, they are covered in insufferable treacle.

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 11:30 AM (vV/gB)

299 >>I still maintain that Page is/was an FBI informant and that is why he has never been charged with anything.

Well you are correct. Less than a year before this warrant was taken accusing Page of being a Russian spy, he was working for the FBI as an under cover asset getting information that resulted in the conviction of a Russian spy.

That's been one of the big problems all along. The FBI knew he wasn't a Russian spy but they lied to the FISC just to get the warrant to surveil the Trump campaign.

Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 11:31 AM (/tuJf)

300 Of course Tiger will win since I wanted anybody but him to win.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:31 AM (2DOZq)

301 The thing about that Cooper essay by Twain is it affects everything you read after it. Yes he is being a dick but is there any part that is not true?

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:33 AM (UdKB7)

302 Of course Tiger will win since I wanted anybody but him to win.
===========================
What's the leader board look like. Also, is this tournament considered a "major"? I think he's one win away from tying Arnold's major wins. Might watch some golf this afternoon instead of painting.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:33 AM (ty7RM)

303 BurtTC

We had a farm accident in Kansas this week. An 84 year old farmer was moving a tractor and implement attachment. His 79 year old wife was helping him. The story is vague here, but he ran her over. Killed her right there.

He could not see her, and only heard brief screams. Maybe she slipped. He is not feeling very well.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 22, 2018 11:33 AM (hyuyC)

304 The woman who survived is apparently saying she wishes she was dead, that she had died with the rest of her family.

Horrible.
Posted by: BurtTC

She lost her husband and her three kids, aged 9, 7 and 1.

I am finding this particular story to be a test of my rather strong faith in God.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 11:34 AM (+BKF+)

305 227 O M - twitchy.com 7-year-old-chess-prodigy cant compete at world championship-in-tunisia-because shes israeli

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 11:06 AM (pHfeF)

Do you have a link for this?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:35 AM (I3yXU)

306 josephistan @ 192, one of the more interesting and readable books about the Texas War for Independence is Texian Illiad: A Military History, by Stephen Hardin.
I rather like it because of the illustrations of various participants, and some very good maps.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 22, 2018 11:35 AM (xnmPy)

307 What's the leader board look like. Also, is this tournament considered a "major"? I think he's one win away from tying Arnold's major wins. Might watch some golf this afternoon instead of painting.

Tiger is currently in the lead. The Open is not only a major, it's pretty much the major.

Arnold won 7, Jack won 18. Tiger is at 14, but stalled for a while.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 11:36 AM (fuK7c)

308 Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:33 AM (ty7RM)

British Open is a major and he has 14 major titles second only to Jack Nicklaus's 18.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at July 22, 2018 11:36 AM (2DOZq)

309 Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:35 AM (I3yXU)

Twitchy

Posted by: weirdflunky at July 22, 2018 11:36 AM (R+1Bq)

310 What's the leader board look like. Also, is this tournament considered a "major"? I think he's one win away from tying Arnold's major wins. Might watch some golf this afternoon instead of painting.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:33 AM (ty7RM)

It's the British Open so yes a major and at the moment he is alone atop the leader board

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:36 AM (Ydx5u)

311 306 josephistan @ 192, one of the more interesting and readable books about the Texas War for Independence is Texian Illiad: A Military History, by Stephen Hardin.
I rather like it because of the illustrations of various participants, and some very good maps.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 22, 2018 11:35 AM (xnmPy)

Good maps go a long way.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 11:37 AM (Izzlo)

312 She lost her husband and her three kids, aged 9, 7 and 1.
==================================
Our local weather guy was on our FM Talk station. They asked him about the "suddenness" of the storm. He said he tracked this cell for 150 miles, from KC, SE all the way to the lake. They should have known about it. He said it was a really mean looking storm.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:37 AM (ty7RM)

313 I started Crucible of Souls by Mitchell Hogan

I am enjoying it so far, I like how you really don't know who is the Bad King or Emperor, I mean if you're on the low end of the pole how would you know who is goodor bad, maybe everyone is bad and you choose the less evil.

The only reason I got the book is because someone here mentioned Audible had a buy on get one free offer.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at July 22, 2018 11:37 AM (dKiJG)

314 Our local weather guy was on our FM Talk station. They asked him about the "suddenness" of the storm. He said he tracked this cell for 150 miles, from KC, SE all the way to the lake. They should have known about it. He said it was a really mean looking storm.

I'd been wondering about that. There's no way those boats were fit for those conditions, I'd wondered about the "suddenness".

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 11:39 AM (fuK7c)

315 It's the British Open so yes a major and at the moment he is alone atop the leader board
=========================
Ok, so they'll probably be done shortly. If it's St. Andrews, Tiger has had good luck there IIRC.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:39 AM (ty7RM)

316 freaked

The length of the Leatherstocking Tales bring out the taming of the frontier. There were 5 books total. It is cultural history as story. Although a twig snapping during a stealth approach was an annoying trope.

Natty Bumppo was a man with love in his heart, but no requited passion. Quite pre-Victorian. He seems a Rousseau-approved hero. Almost.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 22, 2018 11:41 AM (hyuyC)

317 @315

Not St. Andrews, but a very similar style of course.

Posted by: TickledPink at July 22, 2018 11:41 AM (TL2pK)

318 I'd been wondering about that. There's no way those boats were fit for those conditions,
===========================
Yeah, re-purposed landing craft. They have a lot of exposure above the water, so vulnerable to high winds.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:41 AM (ty7RM)

319 Our local weather guy was on our FM Talk station. They asked him about the "suddenness" of the storm. He said he tracked this cell for 150 miles, from KC, SE all the way to the lake. They should have known about it. He said it was a really mean looking storm.

I'd been wondering about that. There's no way those boats were fit for those conditions, I'd wondered about the "suddenness".
Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 11:39 AM (fuK7c)

The storm was supposed to keep its strength, all the way from southern Missouri, up to and through here, the St. Louis area. But we never got it! It just went poof before it hit us.

But it was all over the forecast, this was going to get ugly.

It did. Down there, where it was expected to. Just not here.

And I'm not really a big weather watcher.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:42 AM (cY3LT)

320 3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:43 AM (gUCYC)

321 Somehow the topic of Portugal came up here last week.
(I think it was between discussions of Robert Mueller's nose and tips on A/C repair.)

Needing a short, purse-packable read to take to the car repair place, I grabbed C R Boxer's Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion, 1415-1625: A Succinct History.

When he says succinct, he means it. Less than 100 pages. But it's an excellent introduction to one of the most forgotten but most important countries in European exploration and colonization.

Highly recommended --- if you can find it at a decent price. (Alibris has it starting at 11 bucks.) Most college libraries have it too, as it is something of a classic.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at July 22, 2018 11:44 AM (0jtPF)

322 Speith is hanging in there

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:44 AM (Ydx5u)

323 >>>The CW exacted a huge toll on this country that we're still paying even today but I think the right side won. Put another way, I would rather have to deal with the seemingly never-ceasing expansion of federal power, which is the legacy of that war, than to have slavery embedded in our country as a permanent feature.

If the South had planned to up the amount of slaves they were importing, there would have been a Civil War sooner or later, much worse than is going on in our inner cities today.

The South, like the CoC today is willing to destroy the country for the short term benefits of cheap labor. Maybe we should have let them secede and contain the damage. Of course that's Monday morning quarterbacking on my part.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at July 22, 2018 11:44 AM (/qEW2)

324 I'd been wondering about that. There's no way those boats were fit for those conditions,
===========================
Yeah, re-purposed landing craft. They have a lot of exposure above the water, so vulnerable to high winds.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:41 AM (ty7RM)

There's video out there, someone recorded on their phone, people inside a building on shore, showing two of the boats floundering. I don't even know which one is the capsized craft, but one of them was literally turned all the way around in the water, as it was trying to head for shore.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:45 AM (cY3LT)

325 gunga galunga!

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at July 22, 2018 11:45 AM (Pg+x7)

326 "It is cultural history as story."

I should read the rest of it since I've only read LOTM but it would no doubt be tainted by Twain. I'm gonna check it out on Gutenberg though.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:46 AM (UdKB7)

327 295 "Twain is just flaying Cooper! "

He's like Captian Hate without all the cusswords.
Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:28 AM (UdKB7)
---

He's Cannibal Bob without the grass skirt and barbecue tongs.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:46 AM (gUCYC)

328 From what I've seen of the footage, it looks like the pilot of the Duck was keeping the bow headed into the wind. I can understand not wanting breach but it might have been best to head down wind towards shore as fast as possible. The camera suggests land was fairly close at hand. Don't know. Any coxswains here have an opinion?

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 11:47 AM (vV/gB)

329 "Twain is just flaying Cooper! "

He's like Captian Hate without all the cusswords.
Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:28 AM (UdKB7)
---

He's Cannibal Bob without the grass skirt and barbecue tongs.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:46 AM (gUCYC)

He's CBD, undressing Cooper, without the ottoman.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:48 AM (cY3LT)

330 But I did find this gem:

https://jalopnik.com/the-trabant-is-the-best-commie-car-made-of-cotton-weve-1788844883

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 10:09 AM (gUCYC)

That was a great article! Thanks for finding it.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 22, 2018 11:48 AM (bNb8V)

331 Speith is hanging in there
=======================
I can only imagine the cheer-leading by NBC. It's going to be all Tiger, all the time, from now on.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:48 AM (ty7RM)

332 From what I've seen of the footage, it looks like the pilot of the Duck was keeping the bow headed into the wind. I can understand not wanting breach but it might have been best to head down wind towards shore as fast as possible. The camera suggests land was fairly close at hand. Don't know. Any coxswains here have an opinion?
Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 11:47 AM (vV/gB)

One surviver said the pilot told the passengers there was no need for lifejackets... until it was too late.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:49 AM (cY3LT)

333 After Mass this a.m., the Priest said he was sick and tired about "Russia, Russia, Russia" and he wished the government would spend all that wasted money on feeding America's veterans who need it.

The whole Church erupted in loud applause.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at July 22, 2018 11:49 AM (EoRCO)

334 Morning Horde,
So. James Varney lurks here...or to us slack-jawed droolers, it's Mr. Varney.
How cool is that!!!???
I guess we do need to wear pants now.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 22, 2018 11:49 AM (0tfLf)

335 Any coxswains here have an opinion?
===========================
Did someone page me?

Posted by: Shep! at July 22, 2018 11:50 AM (ty7RM)

336 The Steven Tyler interview looks interesting.

Posted by: Chopped Liver at July 22, 2018 11:51 AM (PUmDY)

337 309 Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:35 AM (I3yXU)

Twitchy

Posted by: weirdflunky at July 22, 2018 11:36 AM (R+1Bq)

Got it, thank you.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:51 AM (I3yXU)

338 299 >>I still maintain that Page is/was an FBI informant and that is why he has never been charged with anything.

There's also the bit about nothing Page did ever actually violated any US law. Hard to charge someone when that's the case. Also, and I've watched a couple of his interviews, he has always been absolutely honest and open about every trip he ever took, everyone he ever talked to in Moscow, and everything he did. They can't charge him with lying because he's always been honest.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 11:51 AM (V2Yro)

339 I read the Twain essay on Cooper before I read any of Cooper's books. I had assumed Twain was being over the top and a bit playful. Then I read some Cooper and discovered Twain was being gentle.

Posted by: JTB at July 22, 2018 11:51 AM (V+03K)

340 "From what I've seen of the footage, it looks like the pilot of the Duck was keeping the bow headed into the wind. "

I think that he figured that if he stopped or turned it would sink immediately.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 11:52 AM (UdKB7)

341 *people voluntarilly go and look at picture of HRC ?? how odd...*

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM

It was a rick-roll with caption of 'dress porn'. You new here?

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at July 22, 2018 11:53 AM (LOgQ4)

342 Sci-fi may handwave it's explanations, but it least it gives a story with the background context of there being an explanation, unlike fantasy which presents its elements as brute facts. Kind of like the difference between Lovecraft's cosmic horror and older forms of horror (like Dracula or other monsters). I've been re-reading some Clark Ashton Smith stories lately. He has a few sci-fi tales thrown in there, and you can always tell them apart from the rest of his work.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at July 22, 2018 11:53 AM (/qEW2)

343 333 After Mass this a.m., the Priest said he was sick and tired about "Russia, Russia, Russia" and he wished the government would spend all that wasted money on feeding America's veterans who need it.

The whole Church erupted in loud applause.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at July 22, 2018 11:49 AM (EoRCO)

See, it's IRL episodes like this that make me think that the Democrats have no idea what's coming to hit them in November.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:53 AM (I3yXU)

344 well Tigers about to fall out of the lead, but how much is yet to determined

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:53 AM (Ydx5u)

345 206
I consider FDR, not Lincoln, to be the prez most responsible for the
growth of big nanny state federal gubmint. Everything Lincoln did was a
wartime measure intended to be temporary, whereas FDR was attempting in
his own way to "fundamentally transform" the US economy and society.
Also, it would appear, based on things Lincoln said shortly before his
death, that his Reconstruction policy for the South would have been
significantly less harsh and pervasive than what his successors
implemented. Though I suppose that Lincoln's Reconstruction policy is a
lot like JFK's Vietnam policy in that historians can read what they want
into it because it never came to fruition....

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 10:58 AM (9WuX0)

I would not count too much on that. Lincoln was an advocate of the American System. That was a type of corporatism in which the federal government taxed the shit out of areas and businesses that they did not like and then used the money for improvements favoring businesses and areas that held favor with the government.

The South was totally against that system and for the most part it did not get done the way he wanted. After the South succeeded he implemented it with the big government allotments to the railroads.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at July 22, 2018 11:54 AM (mpXpK)

346 341 *people voluntarilly go and look at picture of HRC ?? how odd...*

Posted by: runner at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM

It was a rick-roll with caption of 'dress porn'. You new here?
---------------------------
Its a game much like Where's Waldo, except we are trying to spot Where's the Colostomy Bag or Exoskeleton.

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 11:54 AM (vV/gB)

347 Not exactly a book but linked over at Insty Andrew McCarthy is embarrassed because he said the FBI couldn't do what it did with the Steele dossier. Like what we all said they did.

Is it just me or does he end up being surprised a lot?

It's not just you. For an expert, he sure is wrong a lot.
Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 11:13 AM (/tuJf)

His inability to connect more than two dots at a time is getting impossible to overlook. This isn't the Manhattan project for fuck's sake.

Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 11:55 AM (y7DUB)

348 The NY Times is all concerned and stuff about the current lack of diversity in romance novels.

So essentially the NYT is pissed that the free market is working. People are writing books that sell, and not writing books that don't.
I wonder who they will assign to write the books needed to fill the void...all the while keeping said writers on salary?

Posted by: Diogenes at July 22, 2018 11:55 AM (0tfLf)

349 Cannibal Bob also has an apron that reads "Beware the Chef"

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:56 AM (deXW1)

350 We're told that President Trump doesn't accept Brennan, Comey and Clapper's thoughtful and balanced assessment of Russian Meddling. But it's really Robert Mueller who doesn't.

The Intelligence Community clearly state in their FISA warrant application that one Carter Page is a Russian Agent, committing espionage against America. The man is a meanace to society. A threat to all that is good, decent, true and pure. Public Enemy #1, bent on destroying the American Way of Life.

He is so dangerous, they say, that they must put a roving wiretap on him and on anybody associated with him, even if that means the unprecendented and perilous step of wiretapping a presidential candidate and campaign. Justice Demands It! National Security Demands It! And Hillary Demands It! And You Know How She Is!

Yet Bob Mueller barely spoke to the guy. Page flits around without a care, giving national tv interviews, which is kind of odd for a dastardly Russian Super-Agent.

There are no charges against him and none pending. Yet he is the very cause of this massive counter-intelligence investigation, this plot against Democracy Itself!

So why won't Bob Mueller accept the assessment of our Beloved Intelligence Community?

Why, it's almost as if Carter Page was not a Russian Agent at all.

In fact, it seems like he's an American Agent, sent by the FBI. Or even some naif, blundering through an Inspector Clouseau-like investigation.

In either case, it seems like his presence was used as an excuse to wiretap the opposing party's candidate. And probably on an ex post facto basis.

That is, they were probably wiretapping the Trumps for months, if not years, before Page showed up at the campaign's doorstep.

But that would be criminal, seditious and un-American.

Must just be a coincidence.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at July 22, 2018 11:56 AM (Ndje9)

351 I guess we do need to wear pants now.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 22, 2018 11:49 AM (0tfLf)
---

Still pantsless as of two minutes shy of noon.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 11:57 AM (gUCYC)

352 well Tigers about to fall out of the lead, but how much is yet to determined

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:53 AM (Ydx5u)

Yahoo has a "Tiger Tracker" on its home page. The obsession over that guy is ridiculous.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 22, 2018 11:57 AM (SiINZ)

353 The whole Church erupted in loud applause.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at July 22, 2018 11:49 AM (EoRCO)

See, it's IRL episodes like this that make me think that the Democrats have no idea what's coming to hit them in November.
-----------------------
That's what I'm sensing.

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 11:57 AM (vV/gB)

354 His inability to connect more than two dots at a time is getting impossible to overlook. This isn't the Manhattan project for fuck's sake.
Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 11:55 AM (y7DUB)

If he's not faking, them I'm glad he's a FORMER prosecutor. Otherwise, I wouldn't put this dipshit in charge of taking a nap.

Posted by: weirdflunky at July 22, 2018 11:58 AM (R+1Bq)

355 From what I've seen of the footage, it looks like the pilot of the Duck was keeping the bow headed into the wind.

That's what you would normally do. Head into the wind and by altering speed try to keep the bow up as high as possible. In a vehicle with that mass, I suspect that simply does not happen. So waves will break over the bow, and you're sunk.

It might have conceivably worked better to run away from the wind and take water over the stern. I'm not volunteering to test that theory.

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at July 22, 2018 11:58 AM (LOgQ4)

356 Needing a short, purse-packable read to take to the car repair place, I grabbed C R Boxer's Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion, 1415-1625: A Succinct History.
When he says succinct, he means it. Less than 100 pages. But it's an excellent introduction to one of the most forgotten but most important countries in European exploration and colonization.
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at July 22, 2018 11:44 AM (0jtPF)

It's weird to think that back then, Portugal bestrode the world like a colossus.

And now they're just a socialist backwater. I think they mainly make their money from tourism now.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:58 AM (I3yXU)

357 >>There's also the bit about nothing Page did ever actually violated any US law. Hard to charge someone when that's the case.

They had no intention of charging him with anything. The FBI knew from Day 1 that he wasn't a Russian spy because he was spying for the FBI.

They needed an excuse to surveil the Trump campaign. That was the entire reason for the warrant.

Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 11:58 AM (/tuJf)

358 well Tigers about to fall out of the lead, but how much is yet to determined

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 11:53 AM (Ydx5u)

Yahoo has a "Tiger Tracker" on its home page. The obsession over that guy is ridiculous.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 22, 2018 11:57 AM (SiINZ)

Eldrick's meltdowns are hilarious because of how many of his spank monkeys are horrible people.

Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 11:59 AM (y7DUB)

359 Yahoo has a "Tiger Tracker" on its home page. The obsession over that guy is ridiculous.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 22, 2018 11:57 AM (SiINZ)

It's sports drama on a lazy Sunday. Enjoy it. I'd rather watch this shit now than that commie nfl or nba crap

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (Ydx5u)

360 Speaking of mass....are there a lot or at least a number of Catholics up in this joint?

Posted by: TickledPink at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (TL2pK)

361 Re: the DUKW disaseter. The greatest design flaw is that the roof is fixed, meaning that if it sinks suddenly (as it did) the passengers will get trapped against the inside of the roof as it goes down, and pulled to the bottom along with the craft . Even those with life jackets on. Only those sitting right next to the edge had a chance of getting out.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (V2Yro)

362 How to sink the FBI about Carter Page...

"So Director Wray are you telling me the FBI had a Russian spy acting as a spy and did not discover he was a double agent until a year later when the media reported it?"

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 12:01 PM (deXW1)

363 Yahoo has a "Tiger Tracker" on its home page. The obsession over that guy is ridiculous.

If you think so. He came out and changed the game of golf. He shredded courses so bad that they had to "Tiger-proof" them.

Now a lot of players have his distance, his physical fitness, and his discipline, but only because he showed them how.

So you've got a guy on track to be easily the best golfer ever and he gets sidetracked when his wife checks his cellphone history. It's been years and now he's coming back, no longer young.

It's one of the best stories in sports.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at July 22, 2018 12:02 PM (fuK7c)

364 The original DUKW came with a canvas roof and stays to protect cargo/personnel. It was never used during landing operations for obvious reasons. Ashore, as a GP tactical vehicle is was used.

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 12:03 PM (vV/gB)

365 Heard today from a local politico that it seems that Casey Cagle worm is going to lose

Posted by: Chopped Liver at July 22, 2018 12:03 PM (2mXfd)

366 Hell, it's only in my lifetime that the practice, of asking a girl's father for her hand in marriage died out.

Posted by: Captain Hate
---
I asked my late wife's father for her hand, literally. He said, *Why not, you've had the rest of her.*

Future wife and MIL were not amused.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 22, 2018 12:04 PM (9rIkM)

367 348 The NY Times is all concerned and stuff about the current lack of diversity in romance novels.
So essentially the NYT is pissed that the free market is working. People are writing books that sell, and not writing books that don't.
Posted by: Diogenes at July 22, 2018 11:55 AM (0tfL

It was a strange piece. On the one hand, they had quotes from the usual suspects bemoaning the "lack of diversity" in romance fiction, but then followed it with successful minority romance authors and successful romance novels that had minority characters in them.

It was if the unstated goal was to drive out European authors and characters completely, and they were just mad it hadn't happened yet.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 12:04 PM (I3yXU)

368 TP, I am a mackerel snapper.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 22, 2018 12:05 PM (9rIkM)

369 Hope Never Dies: an Obama Biden Mystery. shoot me.

Posted by: Boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 12:05 PM (kjW1F)

370 i'm a golfer

bernard langer, still duffing in his 40's, receives polite applause. nobody asks if he's a nazi. why? he's a golfer.

rory mcelroy wins an open. he's from northern ireland, but no-one asks if he's catholic or protestant. why? he's a golfer.

when tiger woods was flying high in the 90's the clintons tried to get him on their podium for their political advancement. and tiger said no. why? he's a golfer.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at July 22, 2018 12:05 PM (Pg+x7)

371 nood

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at July 22, 2018 12:05 PM (mpXpK)

372 Speaking of mass....are there a lot or at least a number of Catholics up in this joint?

Posted by: TickledPink at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (TL2pK)

(peers out from catacomb) Who wants to know?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 22, 2018 12:06 PM (SiINZ)

373 In Maxi's case, I think the correct pronoun would be Die Boot.

I'm pretty sure 'Das Boot' is the correct form for the neuter gender.

Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain at July 22, 2018 12:06 PM (87ijN)

374 It was a strange piece. On the one hand, they had quotes from the usual suspects bemoaning the "lack of diversity" in romance fiction, but then followed it with successful minority romance authors and successful romance novels that had minority characters in them.
--------------------------
It may come as a surprise the NYTs, but folks with low IQs don't do that much reading.

Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 12:06 PM (vV/gB)

375 I went to the vigil Mass last night, so my Sunday is free

Posted by: Boulder t'hobo at July 22, 2018 12:06 PM (kjW1F)

376 294
Really good Texas history by T.R. Fehrenbach but I forget the title. It was written back in the '70s before the Long March momentum took hold.

He also wrote histories of Mexico ("Fire and Blood") and the Comanches. Interesting to me, the latter, also written in the '70s has be re-titled from "Comanches: The History of a People" to "Comanches: The Destruction of a People"......

Posted by: 11B40 at July 22, 2018 11:27 AM (evgyj)
----------------------------------
I've read his history of Mexico. I'll see if I can find the Texas and Comanche books you recommend.

Your point about the Long March is spot on. I favor older books simply because they are not loaded with the anti-Euro/white agenda.
They may have their own biases, to be sure, but the standards of scholarship and fairness, even in popular works, are much higher.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at July 22, 2018 12:07 PM (0jtPF)

377 See, it's IRL episodes like this that make me think that the Democrats have no idea what's coming to hit them in November.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:53 AM (I3yXU)
-------

They don't know because they never bother to ask. That has been a major point of two good books, Dana Loesch's "Flyover Nation" and Kayleigh McEnany's "The New American Revolution". Trump prevailed because he had a deep understanding of, and exposure to, the base, which neither the Dems nor the GOPe did.

To ask is to chance exposure to dangerous ideas, or worse, give legitimacy to them. Why risk contamination?

There is no way a real journalist with a modicum of curiosity wouldn't have found that out.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 12:07 PM (gUCYC)

378 356 Needing a short, purse-packable read to take to the car repair place, I grabbed C R Boxer's Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion, 1415-1625: A Succinct History.
When he says succinct, he means it. Less than 100 pages. But it's an excellent introduction to one of the most forgotten but most important countries in European exploration and colonization.
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at July 22, 2018 11:44 AM (0jtPF)

It's weird to think that back then, Portugal bestrode the world like a colossus.

And now they're just a socialist backwater. I think they mainly make their money from tourism now.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 11:58 AM (I3yXU)

They were the first in and last out of Africa & India, fighting wars into the 1970s to hold onto their empire.

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 12:08 PM (Izzlo)

379 Enjoying a coffee and reading comments here before I open the paper and read the lies about the FISA warrant. Predictions:
No mention of how it lets FBI spy on two hops away, in other words everybody in Trump campaign, including Trump.
No mention of Page former role as FBI spy.
No apology for all the *without any proof* horse crap they laid on Trump say he was being wiretapped,
No mention of the stonewalling of the Judicial Watch FOIA by DOJ.
No mention of how DOJ has used redactions to hide things that are embarrassing, not soucrces and methods, etc.
Blah blah blah

Posted by: Ray Van Dune at July 22, 2018 12:08 PM (Vs607)

380 227 https://tinyurl.com/y9lkyxo8
Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 11:08 AM (pHfeF)

Chess is a "sport" now? Who knew?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 22, 2018 12:09 PM (bNb8V)

381 ... (truth in advertising - i'm not a golfer.)

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at July 22, 2018 12:09 PM (Pg+x7)

382 360 Speaking of mass....are there a lot or at least a number of Catholics up in this joint?
Posted by: TickledPink at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (TL2pK)

waves to Ticked Pink

Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 12:09 PM (Izzlo)

383 They had no intention of charging him with anything. The FBI knew from Day 1 that he wasn't a Russian spy because he was spying for the FBI.

They needed an excuse to surveil the Trump campaign. That was the entire reason for the warrant.

Posted by: JackStraw

Precisely this.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 12:10 PM (+BKF+)

384 >>Re: the DUKW disaseter. The greatest design flaw is that the roof is fixed, meaning that if it sinks suddenly (as it did) the passengers will get trapped against the inside of the roof as it goes down, and pulled to the bottom along with the craft . Even those with life jackets on. Only those sitting right next to the edge had a chance of getting out.

Makes it more difficult to get out but that wasn't why the boat foundered and sank. Duck boats aren't really boats. Not really automobiles either. They are a compromise and aren't really optimized for either task.

They were designed to go from point A to point B and carry a heavy load. They weren't designed as general purpose boats with any real sea keeping characteristics.

The only way to safely operate those boats in any sort of sea is not to leave shore.

Posted by: JackStraw at July 22, 2018 12:11 PM (/tuJf)

385 They were the first in and last out of Africa & India, fighting wars into the 1970s to hold onto their empire.
Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 12:08 PM (Izzlo)
---
And per "Cod", they were fishing off of North America long before any of those flash-in-the-pan pantalooned popinjays were there.

But the Portuguese didn't talk.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 12:11 PM (gUCYC)

386 Posted by: 11B40 at July 22, 2018 10:42 AM (evgyj)

You can get both of their autobiographies for free on Kindle since they're public domain.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 22, 2018 12:14 PM (phT8I)

387 378---They were the first in and last out of Africa & India, fighting wars into the 1970s to hold onto their empire.
Posted by: josephistan at July 22, 2018 12:08 PM (Izzlo)
----------------------
Yep.
At the time Boxer's little book was written (1970) they still owned Angola, Mozambique, Macao, etc.

BTW, the dates for the "four centuries" are 1415 to 1825, not 1625, as I miswrote it. Because math!!!!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at July 22, 2018 12:14 PM (0jtPF)

388 JS, the Days Between from Boulder is very good

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at July 22, 2018 12:14 PM (PUmDY)

389 They had no intention of charging him with anything. The FBI knew from Day 1 that he wasn't a Russian spy because he was spying for the FBI.

They needed an excuse to surveil the Trump campaign. That was the entire reason for the warrant.

Posted by: JackStraw

Precisely this.
Posted by: Sharkman at July 22, 2018 12:10 PM (+BKF+)

And yet the NYT is already out accusing PDT of claiming vindication "WITHOUT EVIDENCE." They love that phrase, but they never use it when discussing the Collusion accusation against Trump.
The NYT article also uses the usual..."Republicans SEIZED on the release of documents...."

Posted by: JoeF. at July 22, 2018 12:16 PM (y8Foj)

390 "There's video out there, someone recorded on their phone, people inside a building on shore, showing two of the boats floundering."

The "building" was a full size paddlewheeler called the Branson Belle which has dinner/entertainment cruises. I THINK it stayed at the dock because of the bad weather but one of its passengers reported seeing someone from the sunken Duck clinging to the paddlewheel of their boat... also there were some folks on that boat who jumped into the water to rescue people from the sunken Duck.

"But it was all over the forecast, this was going to get ugly."

And the driver/captain of the Duck, according to one of the survivors, knew the storm was coming because he reversed the usual order of the tour (land tour first, water ride at the end) hoping to get the water portion in before the storm hit. He choose poorly....

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 12:16 PM (9WuX0)

391 "are there a lot or at least a number of Catholics up in this joint?"

(raises hand) Going to the local Last Chance Mass at 5 p.m. tonight... which I suppose makes me practically an apostate to some :-)

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 12:19 PM (9WuX0)

392 Re: Fenimore Cooper, take his story as a cautionary warning on snarky replies to spousal complaints. It seems he was reading a contemporary work and commented to his wife "I could do better than this!" (experience leading me to believe he had made the same comment multiple times) His loving but exasperated wife rashly said, "well, why don't you?" So it really is Mrs. Cooper's fault.

Considering he really didn't have much literary training or skill, he still managed to write stories that stay in the cultural mindset. Countless number of movies made. Sure the prose is purple and everything Mark Twain says is true. So ask yourself--why weren't these stories forgotten the year they were published? Something in there is a true, resonant tale despite the verbiage.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at July 22, 2018 12:20 PM (L59/U)

393 you've got a guy on track to be easily the best golfer ever

When did you first pay attention to golf? 1990?

He was a superb golfer who is in the argument as the best ever but "easily the best" betrays an ignorance of just how difficult the game gets when you age.

Posted by: Captain Hate at July 22, 2018 12:21 PM (y7DUB)

394 Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 10:56 AM (hMwEB)

The books are *very* different. Not bad, but the characters and their lives bear almost no resemblance.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 22, 2018 12:23 PM (phT8I)

395 Yeah, re-purposed landing craft. They have a lot of exposure above the water, so vulnerable to high winds.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 22, 2018 11:41 AM (ty7RM)

Unless they have been adding ringers to the fleet, these vessels are Ducks. That's the nickname for the GM-built DUKW amphibious 6X6 truck, which is a counterpart to the CCKW standard 6X6 truck. They don't have a lot of freeboard, nor do they make much speed in the water. So, in a bad chop, they can take on water faster than the bilge pumps can pump it overboard, and down they go.

The term "duck boat" is an ignorant neologism.

Sounds like, given the weather conditions, the Duck should never have put into the lake. Seeing as it did, the operator should have insisted upon all the passengers donning life jackets as soon as the chop arose.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 22, 2018 12:25 PM (bNb8V)

396 Oh yeah, I was poking around Wikipedia, as one will, and found out that there was a Canadian-American explorer and aviatrix named Aloha Wanderwell, which is the perfect name for a loose-footed gal.

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

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 12:25 PM (gUCYC)

397 "Something in there is a true, resonant tale despite the verbiage."

In general, art is good if you like it and it sucks if you don't. If enough people don't think it sucks it sticks around.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 12:26 PM (UdKB7)

398 But the Portuguese didn't talk.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 22, 2018 12:11 PM (gUCYC)

The impression I got from Cod was that they might have told, if anyone had bothered to ask, but nobody took them seriously enough. Or was that the Basques?

Posted by: hogmartin at July 22, 2018 12:29 PM (y87Qq)

399 This whole conceit that the way you look is so important that you are only comfortable seeing others who look like you, is so frustrating. And racist.
If you are reading a book, it is to escape the world you live in. If you want to see the world you live in, you put down the book, stand up, and look out your window.
Besides, there is no way in Hades that I want to actually live in the worlds of the type of books I read. No desire to meet Elric's Sword of Low Atmospheric Pressure.

Posted by: Aeric at July 22, 2018 12:30 PM (ZbgGv)

400 "the operator should have insisted upon all the passengers donning life jackets as soon as the chop arose."

Did the jackets contribute to the victims being stuck inside? I'm a diver and pretty good swimmer and maybe I could get out of that and maybe not. I would probably take my chances without the vest though. Maybe hold on to it but not wear it so I could let go if needed.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 12:30 PM (UdKB7)

401 Tiger's ball just landed in my backyard. I'm off to pick up Notah at the airport.

Posted by: ro-man at July 22, 2018 12:30 PM (RuIsu)

402 Still pantsless as of two minutes shy of noon.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,

Go on.........

Posted by: JT at July 22, 2018 12:33 PM (2s3aR)

403 372 Speaking of mass....are there a lot or at least a number of Catholics up in this joint?

Posted by: TickledPink at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (TL2pK)

I confess. I are a Catholic. Catholic moron, to be precise.

Posted by: Aeric at July 22, 2018 12:33 PM (ZbgGv)

404 Re: the DUKW disaseter. The greatest design flaw is that the roof is fixed, meaning that if it sinks suddenly (as it did) the passengers will get trapped against the inside of the roof as it goes down, and pulled to the bottom along with the craft . Even those with life jackets on. Only those sitting right next to the edge had a chance of getting out.
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (V2Yro)

The video I saw appeared to show an open-top DUKW. If one had a DUKW with a solidly-built, fully-enclosed canopy, waves could break right over it, and it would remain afloat. If just a shade canopy with open sides, no help there.

DUKW's were never intended to cope with surf.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 22, 2018 12:34 PM (bNb8V)

405 Elric's Sword of Low Atmospheric Pressure. SLAP!

Posted by: Aeric at July 22, 2018 12:35 PM (ZbgGv)

406 "Did the jackets contribute to the victims being stuck inside?"

In this case, no, because (according to the MO Highway Patrol accident/incident report) none of the dead were found wearing them and none of the survivors. But the life jackets have had that effect in other DUKW incidents.

Posted by: Secret Square at July 22, 2018 12:39 PM (9WuX0)

407 Eris, thanks for the link to Aloha.

The Mann Act, so the FBI was trying to "mann-splain" to her?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 12:43 PM (deXW1)

408 Posted by: Puddin Head at July 22, 2018 11:30 AM (vV/gB)

Whittaker Chambers credited Les Miserable and Hugo's default belief of an existent, active, and loving God with giving him the concept of eternal truth that eventually led him to look beyond the worship of Self and Party of communism. From what he wrote I got the impression that Hugo and Dickens were the only fiction he was allowed. He commented that Dickens wasn't bad, but didn't have the same belief in God and redemption and thus wasn't as helpful later in life.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 22, 2018 12:49 PM (phT8I)

409 I've loaded up John C. Wright's "Superluminal: The World Armada" in case the next few days with my Webelos at scout camp leave me any time or energy for reading.
===
You are going to love it.

Btw. I am enjoying your books. Read both of them in series so far. Very nice work. Keep it up!

Posted by: Simplemind at July 22, 2018 01:03 PM (ZuGkg)

410 Whittaker Chambers credited Les Miserable and Hugo's default belief of an existent, active, and loving God with giving him the concept of eternal truth that eventually led him to look beyond the worship of Self and Party of communism.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 22, 2018 12:49 PM (phT8I)

In his book Witness, there's a vignette of him describing how he was sitting at the breakfast table looking at his baby daughter in her high chair, and marveling at the complex folds and curves of her ear, and then, on the spot, concluding that something like that, so beautiful and intricate, could NOT have come about by chance and that's how he came to believe in God.

A very moving story.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 01:04 PM (I3yXU)

411 So ask yourself--why weren't these stories forgotten the year they were published? Something in there is a true, resonant tale despite the verbiage.
Posted by: Sabrina Chase
=======
Ever read Carwin the Biloquist. Very early American fiction. Truly awful.

Posted by: Simplemind at July 22, 2018 01:06 PM (ZuGkg)

412 Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Magazine at July 22, 2018 01:04 PM (I3yXU)

My reading of Witness was eight years ago, but my memory of it is Hugo didn't lead him directly to belief in God but more made it possible for him (years later) to experience the cognitive dissonance that led him to break with communism.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 22, 2018 01:14 PM (phT8I)

413 I came across a biography of and some books by journalist Martha Gellhorn. They sound interesting. Has anyone read /have an opinion?

She was the third wife of Ernest Hemingway and reportedly the only woman at Omaha Beach the day after D-day, present as a reported but she ended up helping to carry stretchers of the wounded.

Like many journalists she seems somewhat lefty, but her courage and varied life experiences seem like they might make for good reads. Any morons here read her travel books or collections?

I'm considering a kindle purchase of some of her books. More on her life story here:
https://tinyurl.com/ycyzprdj

Posted by: Jade Sea at July 22, 2018 01:17 PM (0sWXw)

414 "I'm not sure what the fuss is about. If people are actually buying the new 'diverse' romance novels, then it sounds like the market is indeed taking care of a hitherto unmet demand."

This tracks with a deep-seated fear most of my liberal / progressive acquaintances seem to have: If there isn't a government program to provide something to the populace, then millions will be deprived of it and end up starving in a gutter.

Posted by: RNB at July 22, 2018 01:18 PM (DjjZJ)

415 'none of the dead were found wearing them and none of the survivors.'

Wow. So sad.

Posted by: freaked at July 22, 2018 01:20 PM (UdKB7)

416 360 Speaking of mass....are there a lot or at least a number of Catholics up in this joint?
Posted by: TickledPink at July 22, 2018 12:00 PM (TL2pK)

cradle, not very good, Catholic here

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at July 22, 2018 01:25 PM (hMwEB)

417 I would appreciate recommendations on any
biographies of General Philip Sheridan or General William Tecumseh
Sherman. I'm reading "Grant" by Ron CHernow and they come across as
kind of sketchy.
Posted by: 11B40 at July 22, 2018 10:42 AM (evgyj)

They both wrote autobiographies, and you can find them for free on Gutenberg.org

Also John S D Eisenhower wrote American General, about Gen. Sherman; I have never read it, it is on my list to get, but his history of the Mexican American war, So Far From God was decent.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 22, 2018 01:49 PM (2K6fY)

418 417 I would appreciate recommendations on any
biographies of General Philip Sheridan or General William Tecumseh
Sherman. I'm reading "Grant" by Ron CHernow and they come across as
kind of sketchy.
Posted by: 11B40 at July 22, 2018 10:42 AM (evgyj)
---------------------

"Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American" by B. Liddell Hart is extremely good. Originally published 1929.

Posted by: blake - used comment salesman at July 22, 2018 02:16 PM (WEBkv)

419 Glad folks got a kick out of the library - and Wodehouse is of course a master!
The matrushka doll of Clinton has, inside, Monica, Kathleen, Paula, Juanita and then Hillary.
The other one isn't Kissinger, it's Yeltsin with Gorby, Brezhnev, Krushyev, Stalin, Lenin inside.

Along other lines in the thread, Twain towers over Cooper (of course) and Tiger would have beaten Jack's record if he hadn't spent so much of his time wildcatting.

Hi, "Illiniweek!"

Hope everyone had had a great weekend.

Posted by: James Varney at July 22, 2018 02:19 PM (Ptg1/)

420 Also, on military history. I've got signed copies of Keegan's "Face of Battle," which is a superb book but also has an introduction that in many ways cracked open military history. Highly, highly recommended (along with his "Mask of Command" and many other books). The Eastern Front in WWII and Vietnam are my favorite areas there. Erickson's 2-volume Eastern Front history (Road to Stalingrad; Road to Berlin) is vast, Beevor's book on Stalingrad is very good. Richard Overy has a good survey, too, called "Russia's War." I'm reading a book by Chris Bellamy called "Absolute War," which is pretty good so far.

Posted by: James Varney at July 22, 2018 02:25 PM (Ptg1/)

421 Blake that could be a series. A minister/mechanic who battles demonically possessed appliances.
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at July 22, 2018 11:02 AM (deXW1)

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

Gary Larson covered it years ago with his cartoon, which I cannot find, "Appliance Faith Healers" or some such.

Anyway, Mom's A/C is working and all are rejoicing. Especially me.

Posted by: blake - used comment salesman at July 22, 2018 02:28 PM (WEBkv)

422 What are those black lacquered things with brass fittings that are mounted like wakazashi swords on display but are probably pipes?

Posted by: Kindltot at July 22, 2018 02:35 PM (2K6fY)

423 Opium pipes from Vietnam, Kindltot.

Posted by: James Varney at July 22, 2018 02:43 PM (Ptg1/)

424 as Tchatkis go, that's got my "evolution of the US mess-kit" beat all hollow.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 22, 2018 02:48 PM (2K6fY)

425 Arms race. Germans v. Brits. The Brits had long enjoyed supremacy of the sea. Then the Germans started building bigger, faster, ships, with bigger guns. So the Brits had to counter them. And hence the problem: If you build faster, you have to be lighter, if you are lighter, the bigger shells can more easily penetrate your armor, so if you build thicker armor you are slower, and thus more easily outmaneuvered, but if you have bigger guns you don't have to get as close to hit your target, and so on and so on and so on.

The Brits, with the Dreadnought class, chose lighter armor. They chose... poorly.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 22, 2018 11:16 AM (cY3LT)

Back from a nap.

That's not true, except the part about thicker German armor.

The Brits built Dreadnought first. Their guns were almost always bigger (and longer ranged), and the speeds were mostly equal. And the reasons for the losses at Jutland were poor magazine practice. There is no evidence that the Germans penetrated the main British armor, except possibly Invincible (which was at close range.)

That's the problem with "big pictures".The details are wrong. If you do it enough, before you know it, you're Karl Marx.

Posted by: George LeS at July 22, 2018 03:19 PM (59GGI)

426 ..Amazon counts 3 stars as a critical review..

Coming back into the thread late. I thought 3/5 stars would be considered average. No wonder my average students were so pissed to get a "C".

Posted by: motionview at July 22, 2018 03:29 PM (pYQR/)

427 195: re: Deerslayer
Mark Twain absolutely did not like Cooper. He wrote a few essays roasting, lampooning and harpooning Cooper. Then he told us how he really felt. You should check them out. See if you missed anything to dislike.

Posted by: Le Garde Vieux at July 22, 2018 03:44 PM (swldI)

428 Finished 13 Gun Salute, now I have to find something else to read.

Posted by: Skip at July 22, 2018 04:22 PM (pHfeF)

429 The left will start screaming about how Varney is a Nazi sympathizer (due to the book on his bookshelf with a swastika on it) and demand that he be fired from The Washington Times in 3...2...1...

Note that the actual purpose of the swastika on the book is completely irrelevant for their purposes.

Posted by: SoCal Stoli at July 22, 2018 04:41 PM (HX2Gn)

430 BTW, the swastika-adorned book appears to be "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", the benchmark for the history of Hitler's days of power. Of course, since it's factual, researched history, no one on the left will have ever heard of, much less read, the book.

Posted by: SoCal Stoli at July 22, 2018 04:44 PM (HX2Gn)

431 Reading Mayflower (2006) by Nathaniel Philbrick. Most excellent read. I'll be checking the local library for more works by this top notch writer.

Posted by: 13times at July 22, 2018 06:09 PM (K3B2k)

432 "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."

Shirer was a committed leftist. Not a commie, but much more than just the run of the mill JFK democrat.

Posted by: 13times at July 22, 2018 06:16 PM (K3B2k)

433 "I had no idea that the south was actively trying to expand the Atlantic slave trade. Southern sympathizers have always claimed that the Civil War was not about slavery, but rather states' rights. But I guess what they really mean is states' rights to import slaves."

Sure. Which is why the Confederate constitution specifically said that "[t]he importation of negroes of the African race, from any foreign country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden, and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same."

Posted by: Seamus at July 22, 2018 10:13 PM (3DhLS)

434 Commenters are correct: the swastika is on Shirer's 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.' He actually reported from Germany in those dark days. The book had considerable value at one time, given he was reporting from Berlin. But it seems to have been eclipsed over the years; including the Library of America's "Reporting World War II" volumes, which include some dispatches from Germany. Richard Evans' multi-volume history is excellent, too, I'm sure, though I've only read part of the "Third Reich at War" book.

Posted by: James Varney at July 22, 2018 10:55 PM (Ptg1/)

435 "The left will start screaming about how Varney is a Nazi sympathizer (due to the book on his bookshelf with a swastika on it) and demand that he be fired from The Washington Times in 3...2...1... "

I'm pretty sure The Washington Times is literally the English-language edition of Der Sturmer, so it's not clear how that's going to work.

Posted by: Seamus at July 22, 2018 11:05 PM (3DhLS)

436 431
Greetings: 13times: ( at July 22, 2018 06:09 PM (K3B2k)
)

Philbrick wrote a good book on Custer's demise called "The Last Stand".

Posted by: 11B40 at July 22, 2018 11:22 PM (evgyj)

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