Sunday Morning Book Thread 01-19-2020

Library of the Convent of Santo Domingo, Lima, Peru

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules), the shabby, the crabby, the flabby, the grabby, and the rest of the Democratic presidential candidates. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes 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, whose appearance is not in least enhanced by the installation of a portable camel-toe.

Pic Note:

The nuns have amassed quite a stockpile of books:

The Library of the Convent has around 25,000 books, among them several bibliographical collections of great value. Many of these texts pre-date the arrival of the Spanish in South America. One of the library’s highlights is an edition of the Holy Bible that dates back to 1571.

The library contains the oldest books that the Dominicans used.

Many fine libraries in South America.

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
--Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

When you look at an ambiguous image or an optical illusion, the phenomenon that causes you to mentally shift between rival interpretations of it is called a GESTALT SWITCH—which is what you’ll experience looking at this image of both a duck and a rabbit. pic.twitter.com/7Ud2F99JLM
— Haggard Hawks 📚🦅 (@HaggardHawks) January 7, 2020

Changing A Culture

Whenever a bunch of humans try to do something together, there's usually trouble. Friction between group members can derail the entire project. This can happen in a family, or a company, or school, or a church, or the military. Entire cultures of failure can be set up, and they're frightfully difficult to change.

So what can be done?

Well, as an example, a Navy guy managed to do it, according to this glowing review of the book, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, a book which

...tells the story of David Marquet, newly-elevated commander of the worst-performing nuclear submarine in the US Navy. It was considered a basket case, and he was given it at the last moment, meaning his previous year’s meticulous preparation (for another ship) was for nought. He was under-prepared, and the odds were against him.

Within a year he’d turned it round to be the best-performing, with the staff going on to bigger and better things, and the ship sustaining its newly-acquired status.

According to the Amazon blurb, this was the final straw:

Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn't challenged, the answer was "Because you told me to." Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things. That's when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level.

You should read the entire review, which is quite comprehensive and thorough. The reviewer especially appreciates that the advice given is down-to-earth and very practical, not just blue-sky theorizing. You're not left thinking, 'OK, but how does this apply to my situation?'

No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquet's radical guidelines to turn your own ship around. The payoff: a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader.

The Kindle edition is a whopping $16.99, slightly higher than the hardcover and paperback editions.

They Don't Publish Books Like This Any More:

Moron Recommendations

33 I've been reading "Travels with Herodotus" and "Imperium" by Kapuscinski. Thanks again for recommending this author. I am also expecting delivery of three more of his works this week.
I wish Imperium in particular would experience a big revival as it so well written and takes on the USSR that Sanders and his putrid ilk of would be totalitarians love so well and wish to replicate. I don't see many people devouring Solzhenitsyn or Conquest, but Kapuscinski would be accessible to most.

Posted by: CN at January 12, 2020 09:13 AM (U7k5w)

So let's take a look at Imperium:

[I]n Imperium, Kapuscinski gives us...a personal, brilliantly detailed exploration of the almost unfathomably complex Soviet empire in our time.

He begins with his own childhood memories of the postwar Soviet occupation of Pinsk, in what was then Poland's eastern frontier ("something dreadful and incomprehensible...in this world that I enter at seven years of age"), and takes us up to 1967, when, as a journalist just starting out, he traveled across a snow-covered and desolate Siberia, and through the Soviet Union's seven southern and Central Asian republics, territories whose individual histories, cultures, and religions he found thriving even within the "stiff, rigorous corset of Soviet power."

Between 1989 and 1991, Kapuscinski made a series of extended journeys through the disintegrating Soviet empire, and his account of these forms the heart of the book. Bypassing official institutions and itineraries, he traversed the Soviet territory alone, from the border of Poland to the site of the most infamous gulags in far-eastern Siberia (where "nature pals it up with the executioner"), from above the Arctic Circle to the edge of Afghanistan, visiting dozens of cities and towns and outposts, traveling more than 40,000 miles, venturing into the individual lives of men, women, and children in order to understand the collapsing but still various larger life of the empire.

This reminds me of British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who did the same sort of thing back in the 1930s. That is, not content with the party line he was being fed, he managed to escape whatever surveillance he was under and went to Ukraine to see the famine for himself. And his first-hand account was actual journalism, the reporting that Walter Duranty just wouldn't do.

Imperium sounds like an interesting book. The Kindle edition sells for $12.99.

___________

I recall Michener being a big thing growing up, I didn't know anyone whose parents didn't have a copy of Hawaii or Centennial on the well crafted shelves.

Posted by: CN at January 12, 2020 09:29 AM (U7k5w)

Michener knows how to spin a great yarn. Tears ago, back when I was in high school, I participated in a Christmas gift exchange among friends who knew I read voraciously, so the guy who drew my name went to the local liquor store/smoke shop and found the biggest, fattest book he could find in their revolving paperback book rack, and it turned to be James Michener's The Source. He knew absolutely nothing about it, but it was really big, so that's why he chose it. He meant it as sort of a gag gift, but I really liked it.

In his signature style of grand storytelling, James A. Michener transports us back thousands of years to the Holy Land. Through the discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor, Michener vividly re-creates life in an ancient city and traces the profound history of the Jewish people—from the persecution of the early Hebrews, the rise of Christianity, and the Crusades to the founding of Israel and the modern conflict in the Middle East.

This (fictitious) archeological dig is divided into chronological layers, and the team finds an artifact on each level, which becomes the basis for each chapter in the book, with its own characters and conflicts. It was a very entertaining page-turner.

But that wasn't the first time I had read a Michener book.

The first time was a few years before that, when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Via my school's Scholastic Book Service, I was able to get a copy of The Bridge At Andau, which is one of his non-fiction books. It is his own first-hand account of the Soviet Union's brutal repression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. This was the first time in my life I became acquainted with the horrendous evil of the USSR commie thug regime -- and the amazing resiliency of its victims, and what impossible hardships they were willing to endure to fight or flee from it. I very much recommend it.

___________

85...I'm reading “The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures” by Captain William R. Anderson, about the secret Cold War mission of the USS Nautilus to travel under the arctic ice cap.

I knew there would be a “my horrible first meeting with Rickover” story in it...

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 12, 2020 09:37 AM (Dc2NZ)

You can read the Rickover story in Eris' original comment #85 in last week's book thread. In the meantime, here is the Amazon blurb for The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures:

The Ice Diaries tells the incredible true story of Captain William R. Anderson and his crew's harrowing top-secret mission aboard the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. Bristling with newly classified, never-before-published information and photos from the captain's personal collection, The Ice Diaries takes readers on a dangerous journey beneath the vast, unexplored Arctic ice cap during the height of the Cold War.

Few maritime exploits in history have so startled the world as the silent, secret transpolar voyage of the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine Nautilus, and none since the age of Columbus and Vasco da Gama has opened, in one bold stroke, so vast and forbidding an area of the seas.

The Kindle edition sells for a reasonable $7.99.

The co-author of this book, Don Keith, has written a whole lotta books, both fiction and non-fiction, about submarine warfare that some of you morons might want to peruse.

___________

Last week, Mrs. Peel asked about the Clan of the Cave Bear books, and the responses from the Horde ranged from "ok" to "ugh". I did notice this:

For better historical fiction, I recommend Gary Jenning's Aztec series.

Posted by: GnuBreed at January 12, 2020 09:58 AM (Z4rgH)

Never heard of this author, so off to Amazon I went and the here is the blurb for the first book of the series, Aztec:

Told in the words of one of the most robust and memorable characters in modern fiction, Mixtli-Dark Cloud, Aztec reveals the very depths of Aztec civilization from the peak and feather-banner splendor of the Aztec Capital of Tenochtitlan to the arrival of Hernán Cortás and his conquistadores, and their destruction of the Aztec empire. The story of Mixtli is the story of the Aztecs themselves---a compelling, epic tale of heroic dignity and a colossal civilization's rise and fall.

The Kindle edition of Aztec is $9.99, but at nearly 800 pages, that's a lot of reading.

Other titles in the series include Aztec Autumn and Aztec Blood.

___________

Who Dis:

Last week's 'who dis' was Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Also, Princess Anne.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, insults, threats, ugly pants pics and moron library submissions 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 Francois was the mayor’s son and a huntsman of local renown. With his flint-tipped arrows he never failed to bring back game, even in a forest haunted by loup-garous and floating heads.

--- from “The Pink Flower of Saint Zenobie” by Aaron Hollingsworth, in the collection “The Averoigne Legacy”

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 09:01 AM (Dc2NZ)

2 Read faster, there's so little time left!

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar at January 19, 2020 09:01 AM (BiNEL)

3 Tolle Lege
Finished Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Tiger, couldn't put it down last week,

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 09:02 AM (ZCEU2)

4 Kilroynius hic erat

Posted by: Gaius Kilroynius at January 19, 2020 09:02 AM (DMUuz)

5 Not duck.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 19, 2020 09:03 AM (sHVgQ)

6 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I love that library--all that beautiful carved wood. Sigh.

Posted by: April at January 19, 2020 09:03 AM (OX9vb)

7 Those pants are fine. I would.....

no, I just can't do it.

Posted by: freaked out by those pants at January 19, 2020 09:03 AM (Tnijr)

8 "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

- Groucho Marx, the only Marxist worth paying attention to

Posted by: BackwardsBoy. #DemocratsSuck at January 19, 2020 09:03 AM (HaL55)

9 A nice lieberry, pants with a cod piece and weed.

What else does a man need......

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 19, 2020 09:06 AM (Z+IKu)

10 Mornin' Horde

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:06 AM (FDGTP)

11 theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr tolkiens son christopher dies-aged 95
https://tinyurl.com/tcb39ug
He did a lot to continue his fathers works and what we have today is due to that.

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 09:06 AM (ZCEU2)

12 Those "pants" are at a crossroads. Go left, and you are condemned to diaperhood. But go right, and you are in codpiece territory, which is fraught with its own perils.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 09:07 AM (Dc2NZ)

13 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was intended for fun and distraction.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 09:07 AM (7EjX1)

14 Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 09:04 AM (T+nBE)

Very commendable willowed comment.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 19, 2020 09:07 AM (EZebt)

15 I read The Enemy Within by Larry Bond. This is a non-stop action thriller as Iranian-backed terrorists conduct multiple attacks in the U. S. as a cover for an Iranian build up to invade Saudi Arabia. The FBI HRT and Delta Force to the rescue.

Posted by: Zoltan at January 19, 2020 09:07 AM (PevXk)

16 Three of my Christmas gift books are sitting on the nightstand. I haven't opened a one. Need to get cracking.

Posted by: Tonypete at January 19, 2020 09:08 AM (Y4EXg)

17 Ahem....those are not pants.

Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 09:08 AM (X/Pw5)

18 Can't imagine the work put into that coffered ceiling

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 09:08 AM (ZCEU2)

19 Blankety-blank internet sux in NNH. Missed a great fishing thread and just caught up on EMT.
Good morning, Mouth Droolers!

Posted by: RI Red at January 19, 2020 09:09 AM (I3IFR)

20 I'm guessing who dis is Helen Keller.

Ok, I'm not good at this guessing.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 19, 2020 09:10 AM (cXfsF)

21 14
Yes indeed
Read 331 in the EMT!

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar at January 19, 2020 09:11 AM (BiNEL)

22 natfakes' comment is worth a revisit. That crotch shot is not.

Posted by: freaked out by those pants at January 19, 2020 09:11 AM (Tnijr)

23 Hi, y'all. This week I read the latest from Thomas Perry, A Small Town. It's about 12 hardcore federal prisoners who engineer a prison break that floods a small Colorado town with a thousand escapees who aren't content to just leave town, but rob, rape, murder and burn down everything in their path, essentially killing the town.

After the initial surge of apprehensions, the 12 ringleaders are never heard of again and the FBI stops the search. But the woman promoted to police chief when hers is gunned down in the prison break vows to track and kill the 12.

Another winner from Perry.

Posted by: SandyCheeks at January 19, 2020 09:12 AM (u1+n/)

24 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:12 AM (eg609)

25 Morning!

No idea on Who Dis..

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at January 19, 2020 09:12 AM (CjFDo)

26 The rabbit is more prevalent in the image than the duck.

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:12 AM (eg609)

27 For better historical fiction, I recommend Gary Jenning's Aztec series.

Posted by: GnuBreed at January 12, 2020 09:58 AM (Z4rgH)
----------

Having just finished, 'Russka', and having read 'Sarum' and 'London', I've found Edward Rutherfurd's historical novels to be well-researched. Since I have never actually studied Russian history, 'Russka' gave me some insights.

Visiting Salisbury Cathedral after reading 'Sarum' made it a more interesting place.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 19, 2020 09:13 AM (sHVgQ)

28 I had to google the image. I got the right decade but couldn't place the face.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at January 19, 2020 09:13 AM (fTtFy)

29 24 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:12 AM (eg609)

TOOTH!

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar at January 19, 2020 09:13 AM (BiNEL)

30 Who dis.... best I can come up with is Bette Davis. Gotta see the eyes, though....

Posted by: runner at January 19, 2020 09:14 AM (EKYdb)

31 Grabbed this small book from the NEW shelf just to have something to read on a visit, and it’s turned out to be one of the best books I’ve read this year (okay, we’re not even a month in, but still). “The Hotel Neversink” relates, in brief chapters narrated by its characters, the history of a grand hotel in the Catskills, through economic ups and downs, and the mysterious disappearances of several children through the years.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 09:14 AM (Dc2NZ)

32 The rabbit is more prevalent in the image than the duck.

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:12 AM (eg609)

The duck jumped out at me immediately, seeing the rabbit was more difficult!
YMMV

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar at January 19, 2020 09:14 AM (BiNEL)

33 The picture of the young people reading is wonderful.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 19, 2020 09:15 AM (WI7YS)

34 I read "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne. The subtitle is "Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History."

Their empire was Comancheria and it encompassed most of the southern plains. In the late 1600s they encountered the horse which they called "god dog." They quickly mastered its use and after displacing the Apaches, Utes, and other tribes they then went after the Spanish, French, Mexicans, Texans, and Anglo-Americans. They were the lords of the southern plains and did not tolerate trespassers.

In 1875 the days of the free range indian was ending when the last of the Comanche bands, the Quahadi (the most feared of the Comanches) surrendered near Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Their Chief was Quanah Parker. The son of a Comanche Chief and Cynthia Ann Parker who was a white captive taken in 1836 when she was 9. "Rescued" in 1860 she lived a miserable life until she died in 1871.

Gwynne also tells of the early days of the Texas Rangers, numerous battles, the fate of many captives (indian or white it wasn't pretty), Col. Ranald Mackenzie (the anti-Custer) who was instrumental in defeating the Comanches. Although Gwynne gets a few things wrong it's a fascinating history.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at January 19, 2020 09:15 AM (P1GvV)

35 And no one has captioned that picture yet?

Girl: ("What is taking him so long to scoot up next to me?")
Boy: ("Thank god I have this book in my lap! I'm so embarrassed.)

Posted by: RI Red at January 19, 2020 09:15 AM (I3IFR)

36 My re-reading of Lord of the Rings has brought me to Rohan at last.

One aspect I'm savoring is the way Tolkien paints the landscape, dwelling on the lush greenery as spring begins to take root. He's not really interested in describing the people so much as the scene.

The orcs are another element I'm paying closer attention to this time. They are clearly the flip side of Sam's humble courage and dilligence. The way the different kinds hate each other, bully and brag is clearly modeled on British regiments with their (to Tolkien) absurd rivalries.

He also bewails (through Legolas) their casual destruction and callous attitude towards pain. Orders are followed out of fear or personal advantage. Honor is entirely absent.

All of which is to say: for the first time I'm taking in how very *human* orcs actually are.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 09:17 AM (cfSRQ)

37 FYI, For Rush fans, Amazon/Audible has all 7 of Neal Peart's nonfiction books on sale for free.(aubible format only).
I assume this is limited time & while I've not listened yet, I had read some of Neil's excellent blog posts, which I presume are part of the books. Ghost Rider was apparently part therapy after his loss of daughter & wife, motorcycle/travelogue big in all of them.

I'm blaming WeirdDave for limited reading time this week, I think I spent 2 hours on the Friday ONT & comment skimming yesterday morning. Usually I try to limit time-sink to the book thread, Thanks OM!

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at January 19, 2020 09:17 AM (x8Q/V)

38 I really enjoy Edward Rutherfurd's books on England. Haven't read the one on Russia yet.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 19, 2020 09:18 AM (WI7YS)

39 Jake - Empire of the Summer Moon is a good one. long ago i worked with a guy who was a distant relative of Quanah Parker. He kept a box of copies of the book at his desk and would hand out signed copies. a proud one, he was.

Posted by: goatexchange at January 19, 2020 09:18 AM (9Uk4e)

40 I read "Rough Riders" by Mark Lee Gardner. A fun read about Theodore Roosevelt's efforts to raise, train, equip, and fight his unit the Rough Riders in Cuba.

Officially they were the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry under the command of Col. Leonard Wood with TR as it's XO. He would later command them when Wood was promoted. If it wasn't for TR and Wood's influence in DC they probably wouldn't have left the States. As it was about a third would not make the trip because the Gov. didn't have enough transport. They also couldn't bring their horses. In Cuba the men called themselves "Wood's Weary Walkers."

TR had such poor eyesight that he brought about a dozen pairs of glasses with him. One pair was sewed into his hat, and another into a shirt. Heh, smart man.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at January 19, 2020 09:18 AM (P1GvV)

41 I'm going with Norma Shearer. I know her from Alfred Cheney Johnson pics from the 20s when she was a Ziegfield girl. This who dis is 1930s or later from the quality of the photography. She could still have looked like that.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 19, 2020 09:20 AM (gd9RK)

42 20: I was thinking Helen Hayes or one of the Gish sisters. But it looks lie a silent movie actress and I have no idea.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:21 AM (FDGTP)

43 With the news this week that Christopher Tolkien had passed away at 95, I started going through some of the huge amount of material he had prepared. So much of what his father accomplished, or at least explored, is ours because of his efforts.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 09:22 AM (7EjX1)

44 Naturalfake, great comment. Perhaps some enterprising cob will run with it later.
Or even Ace.
Oh, Sunday. Who am I kidding.

Posted by: RI Red at January 19, 2020 09:22 AM (I3IFR)

45 Who dis - Ethel Barrymore?

Posted by: kallisto at January 19, 2020 09:22 AM (PFcQG)

46 I was thinking Helen Hayes or one of the Gish sisters. But it looks lie a silent movie actress and I have no idea.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:21 AM (FDGTP)

Mary Pickford.....married Douglas Fairbanks?

Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 09:22 AM (X/Pw5)

47 Michener knows how to spin a great yarn.
---
My understanding is that he hired a staff of researchers to build his books for him, and added plots and characters to their outline. This is how he was able to crank out massive historical fiction books in the pre-computer era.

I read "Space" and "Poland," both of which were interesting, but the formula was kind of clear.

Obviously some people like reading the same concept again and again (see Harry Potter, for example), but after those two, I lost interest.

Sarum reminded me of Michener, and I liked it a lot. Never got to his other books, though.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 09:23 AM (cfSRQ)

48 Thanks for the Michener "quote". He really was a big deal growing up, the books were extremely popular. I recall a little distaste for "The Drifters", but this turned out to be a one off.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:23 AM (FDGTP)

49 This week, I read My Grandfather's Son, by Clarence Thomas.

He endured great poverty and hardship in his early childhood, and he and his brother went to live with his grandparents in elementary school. There, he learned his values of self-sufficiency and personal honor.

Reading his account of the SC confirmation hearings made me angry all over again, and reinforced my understanding that every sneaky, crappy, underhanded, evil things the Democrats do is just business as usual for them.

I hadn't remembered that Biden was so prominent in that hearing. What a total POS he was, and still is today.

Posted by: April at January 19, 2020 09:24 AM (OX9vb)

50 I haven't posted on the Book Thread for quite a while: the move to the new house and getting everything in order has proven to be quite the challenge. I have been lurking and have read two novels recommended the last few weeks:

Vertical Run by Joseph Garber. Published in 1995, the novel reminds me a bit of the movie "Die Hard." The protagonist, is a 50-year-old former Special Forces guy. One morning, his boss tries to shoot him and his attorney tries to bash his head in. Then, his day gets even worse when gun-men show up at the office. Pretty good read, and generally taught thriller. The memo hidden at the end of the book puts a fun spin on the novel and leaves it open for a sequel but apparently that never happened. Rating = 4.5/5.

Saint Nick by Bradley Wright. It is a short novel that was published last year. Here, our hero is the replacement for Santa Claus and he just happens to be a U.S. Army Ranger. He goes in pursuit of a terrorist. Fun but a few plot holes. Rating = 3.9/5.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at January 19, 2020 09:25 AM (00fXp)

51 I finished "The Face of Battle" just as I rented, "They Shall Not Grow Old."

From what I read, the casualties the British experienced on "The Somme" played a large role in Britain's attitude toward war on the continent at the beginning of WWII.

I recently watched, "Citizen X" about the brutal serial killer operating in the USSR. Due to that movie, I picked up a book about the hunt for the killer, "The Killer Department."

Another addition to the collection, "The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible" was recommended by "Canon Fodder" a site run by a professor, Michael J. Kruger.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at January 19, 2020 09:25 AM (WEBkv)

52 7 Those pants are fine. I would.....

no, I just can't do it.
Posted by: freaked out by those pants at January 19, 2020 09:03 AM (Tnijr)

Come to think of it, that codpiece trap door in the front does kind of resemble a pot holder, so, yeah, you could.

Posted by: April at January 19, 2020 09:25 AM (OX9vb)

53 Thanks for the mention of Imperium, OM. Ironically the affordability of air travel has coincided with the disappearance of the genre of travel writing. Or maybe the internet did it. Anyway I first found out about Imperium from the New York Review of Books, which was instrumental in me becoming somewhat less illiterate before it turned into a repository for codger cranks like Laurence Tribe uttering gibberish for the monkeys. Whoever wrote the review made it sound really interesting and, by golly, I went to some place like Borders (remember them?), bought one and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact reading it followed a lot of self immersion in samizdat type literature from Eastern Europe (specifically the "writers from the other Europe" on Penguin coordinated by Philip Roth) and made me think, in addition to how fucking stupid polack jokes were, these guys really know how to write. Nothing subsequent made me think otherwise.

Posted by: Captain Hate at January 19, 2020 09:25 AM (y7DUB)

54

"The Siberian Dilemma", new book by Martin Cruz Smith. Renko is attacked by a bear like in "the Revenant".

Posted by: Frankly at January 19, 2020 09:27 AM (MX78+)

55 In 1875 the days of the free range indian was ending
when the last of the Comanche bands, the Quahadi (the most feared of
the Comanches) surrendered near Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at January 19, 2020 09:15 AM (P1GvV)

---
I read a monograph years ago about the great "war of annihilation" that took place after the War of 1812 among the Indian tribes. The theater of operations ran from Lake Superior to the Dakotas and all the way to Arkansas.

The US was a passive observer for much of it, and in an unexpected twist of irony, one of the tribes was saved from complete destruction by taking refuge at a US fort. Happy hippies they were not.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 09:27 AM (cfSRQ)

56 Just completed a re-read of the W.E.B. Griffin Marine series. Currently re-reading John Ringo Kildare series.

Posted by: Vic at January 19, 2020 09:27 AM (mpXpK)

57 Empire of the Summer Moon is a fantastic book, it pulls no punches on the depredations of the Commanches or the responses of the settlers. I had to buy another copy, as my original is constantly on loan to others.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 19, 2020 09:27 AM (cXfsF)

58 Michener was from Doylestown. Bander is from Doylestown.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 19, 2020 09:28 AM (gd9RK)

59 The rabbit is more prevalent in the image than the duck.

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:12 AM (eg609)

The duck jumped out at me immediately, seeing the rabbit was more difficult!
YMMV
Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar at January 19, 2020 09:14 AM (BiNEL)

Yeah, I agree.

Except, the duck is a gull.

Yep. That's right.

I just Gestalt Switched the Gestalt Switch.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 09:29 AM (T+nBE)

60 Jake - Empire of the Summer Moon is a good one. long ago i worked with a guy who was a distant relative of Quanah Parker. He kept a box of copies of the book at his desk and would hand out signed copies. a proud one, he was.
Posted by: goatexchange at January 19, 2020 09:18 AM (9Uk4e)

Neat, and he has every reason to be proud.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at January 19, 2020 09:29 AM (P1GvV)

61 Gloria Swanson The squeeze of Willie Hurst

Posted by: Dread0 at January 19, 2020 09:31 AM (thwGF)

62 @naturalfake, great willowed comments.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at January 19, 2020 09:32 AM (WEBkv)

63 Rereading CJ Carella's excellent Warp Marines series, and Makers of Electricity - an excellent historical and biographical sketch of the pioneers of electromagnetics.

New out this week: Jon del Arroz's graphic novel, Clockwork Girl, and Neovictorian's Reality, sequel to Sanity.

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at January 19, 2020 09:33 AM (FXjhj)

64 I think I did see the duck first, but once I saw the rabbit shortly thereafter, I can't unsee the rabbit and have to find the duck again.

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:33 AM (5RARy)

65 Gloria Swanson The squeeze of Willie Hurst

Might you be thinking of Joseph Kennedy?

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at January 19, 2020 09:33 AM (oRpiG)

66 sorta like when i look at a photo of trump and i see trump but someone else sees hitler, except i'm scratching my head because turn it or squint or hold it close or far i can't see hitler at all and don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Posted by: mjc at January 19, 2020 09:34 AM (Pg+x7)

67 I read "The Last Castle" about the building and history of Biltmore House. I stuck with it, but wouldn't recommend it unless you are particularly interested in Biltmore. Too much about other Vanderbilts and visitors to the house; too little about the principals. You come away knowing almost nothing about George Vanderbilt, the owner of the house, and only a little bit more about Edith, his widow.

I would contrast this book with "Fallingwater Rising" a wonderful book about the Frank Lloyd Wright house and its owners, the Kaufmanns. Detailed back story of the architectural context, the building of the house, and lively portraits of Wright and the Kaufmanns (Edgar, Liliane, and Edgar Jr.) Fascinating despite the fact that none of the connected individuals is very admirable.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at January 19, 2020 09:35 AM (fTtFy)

68 ... so it's not really a gestalt switch, it's called a mass delusion.

Posted by: mjc at January 19, 2020 09:37 AM (Pg+x7)

69 Actually, I got 3 more Kapuscinski books via ebay, so I'll be busy with those for a while. I was briefly tempted to buy his poems, but poetry rarely holds my attention.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:37 AM (FDGTP)

70 Myrna Loy?

Posted by: Wethal (shy lurker) at January 19, 2020 09:37 AM (3RspO)

71 Ah, Scholastic Book Service. I still remember Quentin Reynolds they fought for the sky and the short stories of H. H. Munro (Saki). I kept the reynolds book for about 50 years.

Posted by: yara at January 19, 2020 09:39 AM (rde8g)

72 Myrna Loy?
Posted by: Wethal (shy lurker) at January 19, 2020 09:37 AM (3RspO)

I think you may be right.

Very pretty lady.

Myrna Loy in a kimono. *sigh*

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 09:39 AM (T+nBE)

73 Posted by: Captain Hate at January 19, 2020 09:25 AM (y7DUB)

Thanks again for recommending this. His work really throws a new light on the USSR for me. I might be picking up some histories of the smaller SSRs.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:40 AM (FDGTP)

74 I read the internet, but don't read books often.

I have Mike Leach's book about Geronimo, borrowed, but haven't read it yet. Been sitting on the table since Thanksgiving.

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:40 AM (5RARy)

75 Gloria Swanson The squeeze of Willie Hurst

Might you be thinking of Joseph Kennedy?
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver

Yes I stand corrected

Posted by: Dread0 at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (thwGF)

76 I love the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, especially because it snowed through the night here. My younger son loved the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon books and woke his love of reading. Saving them for his(soon to be, I hope) kids.

Posted by: Sharon at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (QzF6i)

77 btw, i really don't know about these conference championships. i guess, and it's only a guess, give the points and go with the favorites. sorry, but you're on your own.

Posted by: mjc at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (Pg+x7)

78 Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn't challenged, the answer was "Because you told me to." Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things. That's when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level.
________

That calls to mind the collision, in 1893, between HMS Victoria and HMS Camperdown, resulting in the loss of the former, and death of Adm George Tryon, who ordered the maneuver. It figures largely in Gordon's Rules of the Game, on Jutland, and also is the subject of Hough's Admirals in Collision.

The former is a good book, but misses the extent to which Tryon was to blame; the latter is outright hagiography of Tryon, and exonerates him completely.

Posted by: Eeyore at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (ZbwAu)

79 Was traveling and visited specialty bookstore full of murder mysteries. Was surprised to find a copy of Wyatt by Gary Disher, one of his books about a theif and a heist that went sideways. Set in Melbourne, Australia, it is rare to find one of Disher's books here in US. Give it a solid 7 5.

Posted by: Charlotte at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (Aj6Tl)

80 Quanah Parker is an interesting character. We learned about him in Texas History back in the day.

Speaking of history, if any of y'all have kids you'd like to see reading history, or if you just want to read the books yourselves, I HIGHLY recommend Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. It's a series of comic books, I mean graphic novels, about various events and people in American history, written by a guy named Nathan Hale who is a descendant of the Nathan Hale you've heard of. He's got books about the Alamo, WWI, the Donner Party (yes really, and yes it's really good. Not prurient. Very tasteful), the fight between the Merrimac and the Monitor, and so on.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (rWZ8Y)

81 From what I read, the casualties the British
experienced on "The Somme" played a large role in Britain's attitude
toward war on the continent at the beginning of WWII.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
----
The Somme looms large in the British imagination, arguably too large.

A number of units were cut to pieces, but in other sectors the attack when well. The problem was there was no way to coordinate these disparate results and so the grind continued.

When I was in college I designed a (still unpublished) wargame on the battle and tried to capture the sense of uncertainty over whether an attack could succeed. It's not easy to do.

The Somme became a kind of shorthand for the entire war, which it wasn't. Most of the war was a couple of weeks at the line, then back in reserve. Even in an offensive, troops were rotated out regularly and sent to entirely different sectors. The Wipers Times changed its names a few times and eventually called itself the "B.E.F. Times" to preserve operational security because the parent division (24th) was moved here and there over the course of the war.

So the traditional view of a M*A*S*H style permanent entrenchment is very false.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (cfSRQ)

82 I think you may be right.

Very pretty lady.

Myrna Loy in a kimono. *sigh*
Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 09:39 AM (T+nBE)

The beautiful women of yesteryear is a slap in the face to the ego driven actresses of today.

They were beautiful and remained that way as they aged because they aged naturally.

Posted by: Sponge at January 19, 2020 09:42 AM (5RARy)

83 It's delicious RabDucken!

Posted by: John Madden, licking gravy off of his tie at January 19, 2020 09:43 AM (Ndje9)

84 I just bought a book called "How English Became English" by Oxford professor Simon Horobin, intending to give it as a present to my father (he is interested in languages). The author gave a short talk at Google London that might be interesting to you if you too are interested in developments in our language.

https://tinyurl.com/vpy4ggh

Posted by: Huck Follywood at January 19, 2020 09:43 AM (NVYyb)

85

Would people see both a duck and a rabbit if they weren't told there were both a duck and a rabbit?

Just baked my own noodle.
I know, I know,,, is that what the kids...

Sometimes people will here me reply "One foot in front of the other" in reply to how ya doin'?

I know it's widely used but for me it comes from a book titled "The Long Walk" that I read in high school.
What? You want me to remember the author? That was like 29, or so,,, years ago.

About a small group escaping a Siberian work camp. Gulag?

Posted by: teej who will never buy another Yamaha instrument at January 19, 2020 09:43 AM (V9sPV)

86 With all of those books, you would think Francis could have found one that showed how to not suck at poping.

Posted by: jsg at January 19, 2020 09:44 AM (NPr4O)

87 Just started ~~reading~~listening to "Ghost Station", by Dan Wells. It was one of those "recommended based on things you like", a crypto/espionage story set in a joint CIA/BKA listening post in 1961 West Berlin. I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 19, 2020 09:44 AM (t+qrx)

88 More of my reading on history is based on contemporary accounts: journals, letters and diaries. There was a mention last week so I picked up a kindle version of "Three Months in the Southern States" by Freemantle. He was the British observer at Gettysburg and had to come in through Texas. I haven't had a chance to start it yet and it's a later period than my usual but it should be interesting. I got the free copy but there are others for 99 cents and a little more.

Part of the value of these accounts is they avoid imposing modern niceties where they aren't the least appropropriate. I don't mind a preface with some context but keep it simple. I don't need the compiler's opinions and delicate feelings.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 09:45 AM (7EjX1)

89 With all of those books, you would think Francis could have found one that showed how to not suck at poping.
Posted by: jsg

---

If he'd crack open the Catholic Catechism now and then he would be amazed.

Posted by: Tonypete at January 19, 2020 09:46 AM (Y4EXg)

90 I think Michener's "The Source" was the book of his that I liked the best - many of the others that I read later seemed to be written to a formula, as if he had a computer program to generate them. I also read The Bridge at Andau in middle school - yeah, that account put the spike through any good thoughts I might have had towards communism. Not that I had any, since I already knew a good half dozen people who had risked their lives to escape from Communist-ruled countries. (Russia and Cuba at that point, later on Vietnam.)

Started reading "Pastora" by Joanne Barnes, on the recommendation of another Book Threadist. Very interesting, so far - nicely written, although I've only gone as far as the journey over the California/Oregon trail. Since I did my own book (To Truckee's Trail) which covered that epic trip - I can see where she worked with the same sources and references that I did.

I swear, all the books that I have read for pleasure and diversion these past few years have been on Book Thread recommendations!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at January 19, 2020 09:46 AM (xnmPy)

91 I've been reading some of the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. Just like a Louis Lamour Western, they are easy reads and the story kind of pulls you in to the point where you find yourself looking at the clock and saying, sh!t, I can't believe it's 3:30 am.

I read in bed. It sometimes helps me go to sleep, but some books, I find myself saying just a couple more pages, turns into just a couple more chapters turns into...damn, can't believe I read the whole book in one night.

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 09:46 AM (4f7bl)

92 The P&P line was said by Miss Bingley, who is no reader, and said largely to try to impress Mr. Darcy, who knows exactly what she's doing. I reread P&P recently and was struck once again by the quality of the satire. Austen was *hilarious*. I think Northanger Abbey is the funniest (it helps if you have read some of the novels she is satirizing), but P&P is also very funny.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at January 19, 2020 09:47 AM (rWZ8Y)

93
If he'd crack open the Catholic Catechism now and then he would be amazed.
Posted by: Tonypete at January 19, 2020 09:46 AM (Y4EXg)

The what who ?

Posted by: Pope and Change at January 19, 2020 09:47 AM (NPr4O)

94 I didn't know anyone whose parents didn't have a copy of Hawaii or Centennial on the well crafted shelves. Posted by: CN

No personal attacks on Ace.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at January 19, 2020 09:48 AM (Ndje9)

95 I remember reading the Source, I enjoyed it a great deal. Michener liked to put 10,000 years of history into a book, but his chapter long vignettes were quite engrossing.

I went to a local estate sale this week, and didn't find anything big, but I did find a nice copy of Preston's "History of the Conquest of Mexico" for $4. Looks like a printing from the 60's, it isn't dated. But a classic that I never had.

Posted by: Tom Servo at January 19, 2020 09:49 AM (V2Yro)

96 There is a novel, Ashes of Loda, by Andrew Garve (pseudonym for Paul Winterton), which paints a picture of the USSR (1950s, IIRC) in which it was easier to get around under the radar than one would expect. And note, Garve though a Labourite, was definitely anti-communist. Another of his books, Murder Through the Looking Glass, features a bunch of Brit lefties in Moscow, under Stalin, of whom the only one painted as having a clue is an actual union guy who keeps asking awkward questions, embarrassing the pols and intellectuals who make up the rest of the group.

Posted by: Eeyore at January 19, 2020 09:50 AM (ZbwAu)

97 And my guess is Lillian Gish, but it's only a guess.

Posted by: Eeyore at January 19, 2020 09:50 AM (ZbwAu)

98 94 I didn't know anyone whose parents didn't have a copy of Hawaii or Centennial on the well crafted shelves. Posted by: CN

No personal attacks on Ace.
Posted by: The Gipper Lives at January 19, 2020 09:48 AM (Ndje9)

Ha. Well almost all the houses in my neighborhood had built in book cases. When we bought our house, one of the first things we did is put some in.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:51 AM (FDGTP)

99 I'm almost finished "At Swim Two Boys" by Jamie O'Neill and right now one of the main characters is finding himself in the middle of the Easter Rising in Dublin about which I previously knew next to nothing, so little that I didn't realize that some of the people the fiction people interacted with were real life people. So now if someone mentions the Easter Rising of 1916 I'll know what's being talked about. Anyway the book has been very enjoyable, homo themes not withstanding, and well written.

Posted by: Captain Hate at January 19, 2020 09:52 AM (y7DUB)

100 If you want a companion version to Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, I'd go with Ford Maddox Ford's "Parade's End" series.

It's not as crisp as Waugh because Ford still has a lot of Victorian ticks in his writing style, but still interesting.

The Last Post is the weakest of the books and supposedly is an add-on. I'm thinking re-reading the series and dropping that one and seeing how it feels.

It is darkly amusing, particularly how the main character is painfully awkward and a number of people are hoping he gets killed in the war, yet he manages to avoid that fate.

My father and I like to have conversational contests where we try to outdo each other in boring literary references and Ford Maddox Ford is my equivalent to the Tsar Bomba.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 09:52 AM (cfSRQ)

101 I just finished a book called "River of No Return" by Jeffrey Buckner Ford. I gravitate to certain genres and biographies/autobiographies fall into one of those genres for me. This book is written by the oldest son of the famed Tennessee Ernie Ford, and it chronicles the life and times of a man that was a huge celebrity in America in his day. I think most of us are familiar with him and his music (his voice was simply incredible), but not everyone is familiar with his struggle with alcoholism. And even more notably, the deep alcoholism, depression and prescription drug addiction of his wife, Betty. I wasn't entirely enthralled with Jeffrey "Buck" Ford's writing style, as he was a bit too cutesy at times, and I didn't particularly like him knocking his father's conservatism (of course, Buck Ford grew up in the hippie era, so it's unsurprising). Overall, the book was sad. Tennessee Ernie was an average man with a phenomenal voice, who only really wanted to live a much quieter life than the one he fell into. And despite their love for one another, or his love for her, their marriage was a difficult one. Betty Ford was a sharp-tongued, haranguing, and yes, cruel alcoholic and I can only imagine what being married to her was like. Tennessee Ernie's life ended miserably, vomiting up a gallon of blood on the floor of the airport en route to the hospital, following a round of golf with President Bush.

You might ask what drew me to seek out his biography. Truth be told, I happened to catch a rerun a short time back of an old Hee Haw episode. He was on it that evening. But I was struck by the deep sadness in his face. And this was before I really knew about his life behind the scenes. It made me wonder why he seemed so sad. And now I know.

Posted by: Lady in Black at January 19, 2020 09:55 AM (JoUsr)

102 I'll have a coupla Devils Harvest fags and the Ginger for a day,concierge.
Wot ya mean she sez Lima alone? OK so I guess 5 bodice rippers and an unexpurgated bible will help pass the time for PERUsal!

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 09:55 AM (5IHGB)

103 I finally did it. Pulled out the Treadclimber and started my New Years Resolution. 15 last night, 20 this morning just to ease up to 45 minutes in the next couple of weeks. Have to dust off the weights today and do some light stuff.

Finally getting back to it makes your mental attitude much improved.

Like being away from reading at times and getting back to it. It's exercise for the mind.

Posted by: jsg at January 19, 2020 09:55 AM (NPr4O)

104 Links should be fixed....

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 19, 2020 09:55 AM (cRloS)

105 I finished reading The Grapes of Wrath and A Tale of Two Cities. I am now miserable.

Posted by: jmel at January 19, 2020 09:55 AM (OeWgo)

106 92
The PP line was said by Miss Bingley, who is no reader, and said
largely to try to impress Mr. Darcy, who knows exactly what she's doing.
I reread PP recently and was struck once again by the quality of
the satire. Austen was *hilarious*. I think Northanger Abbey is the
funniest (it helps if you have read some of the novels she is
satirizing), but PP is also very funny.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at January 19, 2020 09:47 AM (rWZ8Y)

---
Ann Radcliffe was a household name in her literary circles.

In fact, I was reading one of the Three Musketeers books (I think it was Twenty Years Later) and Dumas referenced her, writing that the castle was right out of the works of Ann Radcliffe!

That's got to be one of the earliest literary name drops I've come across.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 09:56 AM (cfSRQ)

107

Is 15 or 20 comments later too late to change "here" to "hear?"

Okay, I'll go sit in the corner.
Hey, toss me that pointy hat, would ya.

Posted by: teej who will never buy another Yamaha instrument at January 19, 2020 09:56 AM (V9sPV)

108

Who Dis ? :

A geisha with bed head thumbing King Kong or Grammie?

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 09:57 AM (5IHGB)

109 Who Dis:

Mary Pickford?

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at January 19, 2020 09:57 AM (P1GvV)

110 I have read much this week but did read this:

"Eight terriers kill record 700 rodents in just seven hours"

https://tinyurl.com/v2mtcc2

Warning. Extreme terrier havoc.

Posted by: freaked out by those pants at January 19, 2020 09:58 AM (Tnijr)

111 Why do the Nuns have so many books?

"cos they burn them to fuel their VESPERS...toot toot.

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 09:58 AM (5IHGB)

112 Reading and enjoying the "Venus Equilateral" pulp stories whetted my appetite for space opera. So I've been dipping into parts of the Lensman and Skylark series. Just a lot of fun. And I find them as diverting as I did over 50 years ago. Whether that's good or bad I don't know.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 09:58 AM (7EjX1)

113 "have not" I mean.

Posted by: freaked out by those pants at January 19, 2020 09:59 AM (Tnijr)

114
I just got notification that the audiobook, "The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History", by Lee Smith. I'll be listening right after the games today, or sooner if it's a blowout.

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at January 19, 2020 09:59 AM (vGJY7)

115 97
And my guess is Lillian Gish, but it's only a guess.

Posted by: Eeyore at January 19, 2020 09:50 AM (ZbwAu)

---
It's crazy to think about it, but the central conceit of "Sunset Boulevard" is the 'ghosts' of the Silent Era, who only 20 years removed from when the movie was made.

That's 1/3 of the time since the 60s, and yet we still treat those dinosaurs as if they're hip and current.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:00 AM (cfSRQ)

116 And since we're past 100 comments, fuck Chris Wallace!

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at January 19, 2020 10:01 AM (vGJY7)

117 105
I finished reading The Grapes of Wrath and A Tale of Two Cities. I am now miserable.

Posted by: jmel at January 19, 2020 09:55 AM (OeWgo)

---
Grab a copy of The Bloodlands and you'll perk right up!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:01 AM (cfSRQ)

118 105 I finished reading The Grapes of Wrath and A Tale of Two Cities. I am now miserable.
Posted by: jmel at January 19, 2020 09:55 AM (OeWgo)

Oh, my...do you have some Calvin & Hobbes or Far Side lying around? That might help.

Posted by: April at January 19, 2020 10:03 AM (OX9vb)

119 Ha. Well almost all the houses in my neighborhood had built in book cases. When we bought our house, one of the first things we did is put some in.
Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 09:51 AM (FDGTP)
--------------

Yeah, growing up, we had built in book shelves too. People used to comment on the fact we actually used the shelves for books.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at January 19, 2020 10:03 AM (WEBkv)

120 went to Ukraine to see the famine for himself.

-
None of this is true because Walter Duranty and the NYT won a Pulitzer won a Pulitzer saying none of this is true.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:04 AM (+y/Ru)

121 Its Duck season

Posted by: Bugs Bunny at January 19, 2020 10:04 AM (ZCEU2)

122 ^^
Hic erat
Dick erat
Dickety
Doc ....................

Ped piper
Flut erat FOADY FI,

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 10:04 AM (5IHGB)

123 Kapuscinski is a wonderful narrator, and "Travels with Herodotus" is my favorite (so far) by him, mainly because "The Histories" is one of my favorite books.

However you have to be careful with his "reporting." He has been known to embellish and outright manufacture some of his facts in order to fit the allegory he wanted to tell. Enjoy, but don't take everything at face value.

Posted by: Dwight at January 19, 2020 10:04 AM (U5BBk)

124
I don't recognise her with her book on.................

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 10:05 AM (5IHGB)

125 Mention of Col. Fremantle's ACW account put me in mind of "My Diary North and South" by famed British correspondent William Russell. His travels took place in the early part of the war and show a lot of the disarray in the two sections trying to get up to speed for industrialized conflict.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 10:05 AM (jW9oF)

126 It's crazy to think about it, but the central conceit of "Sunset Boulevard" is the 'ghosts' of the Silent Era, who only 20 years removed from when the movie was made.

That's 1/3 of the time since the 60s, and yet we still treat those dinosaurs as if they're hip and current.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:00 AM (cfSRQ)

The transition to "talkies" was so complete, that people forgot about the silent very quickly. And like dinosaurs, the genre is extinct except for occasional views on TCM

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:05 AM (FDGTP)

127 So I've been dipping into parts of the Lensman and Skylark series. Just a lot of fun. And I find them as diverting as I did over 50 years ago. Whether that's good or bad I don't know.
Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 09:58 AM (7EjX1)"

I used to know a man online who posted as "Gharlane of Eddore", he was one of the truly great early message board commenters on the Net. Always fun to read, and he could bedevil anyone who tried making shit up. I think it's nearly 20 years since he's passed, now. I learned about Lensman because of him.

Posted by: Tom Servo at January 19, 2020 10:05 AM (V2Yro)

128 And since we're past 100 comments, fuck Chris Wallace!
Posted by: Concerned People's Front at January 19, 2020 10:01 AM (vGJY7)

Another cat who thinks and behaves as he does largely because he has never personally faced danger, and is convinced he never will.

Posted by: Shit Happens at January 19, 2020 10:06 AM (5qdFy)

129 I find it interesting that Capt. Anderson considers the Nautilus to be the first true submarine. All the others were surface vessels capable of submerging.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 10:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

130 Not first !

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 10:07 AM (arJlL)

131 The 'these pants' selection is disturbing that someone thought of them. But they do serve a purpose. Anybody wearing that stylistic POS is giving a strong warning to avoid him.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 10:07 AM (7EjX1)

132 OM,
Thanks, of course, for the book thread and for that painting of the two kids reading. I can always use pleasant. Calvin and Hobbes never need a reason for inclusion. They just should be incuded whenever possible.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 10:09 AM (7EjX1)

133 Dang those are some hinky pants.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 10:09 AM (axyOa)

134 Thinking back, I don't believe I've ever read a James Michener novel.

Weird, cuz for the longest time they were everywhere.

Maybe I'll throw one of his better regarded ones on the kindle for vacation reading.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:10 AM (T+nBE)

135 129
I find it interesting that Capt. Anderson considers the Nautilus to be the first true submarine. All the others were surface vessels capable of submerging.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 10:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

---
The concept behind Q ships and armed merchantmen was that they'd force teh submarine to engage them while submerged, which was more difficult. Also, torpedoes are very bulky, far more limited than deck gun ammo. Subs that use torpedoes have to return to port more often.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:11 AM (cfSRQ)

136

Damn Birdies are indeed bird brained............my feeder is full but the few inches of snow have covered the feeding base with light snow.

They ( sparrows and similar sized noonies!, Blue Jays, Cardinals .Doves and mid sizers just land and make minimal efforts too remove the snow,, those little black ones with the white belly do a kick back motion and remove a little..now day two no effort...seems they would rather starve than do manual labor WTF.

No sign even (will work for food) must be Hobo birds or Boobies.

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 10:11 AM (5IHGB)

137 When I was a kid, black and white movies were automatically "old" (extra points if the lead was wearing a pork pie or fedora hat), even if they weren't technically all that old. B&W/Color was like a membrane separating different worlds.

Of course, my millennial coworkers thought of John Hughes movies as "classic Hollywood" and "old"

And really, they're right -- that's 30-40 years ago!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 10:11 AM (Dc2NZ)

138 DOMINGOES Pizzas taste like paste and bookworms WHY???

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 10:12 AM (5IHGB)

139 134
Thinking back, I don't believe I've ever read a James Michener novel.

Weird, cuz for the longest time they were everywhere.

Maybe I'll throw one of his better regarded ones on the kindle for vacation reading.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:10 AM (T+nBE)

---
That's like me and Stephen King. Growing up he was on every paperback rack. Never cared for him. I finally read On Writing when I got serious about being an author and found the autobiography very interesting, but his tips on writing useless.

On another thread not long ago, someone remarked that King's real talent is horror because he essentially has an ugly soul. He sees and ugly world and writes about it, which gives people the creeps they covet.

But it also means the man is incapable of writing something warm or positive because that world doesn't exist for him. Sad.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:14 AM (cfSRQ)

140 OT - just watched Ted Cruz on Fox, he gave a very good explanation as to why this Impeachment should not be simply dismissed, it should be followed up to a vote for full acquittal. He made a good argument for it, and I imagine he's reflecting McConnell's thinking.

Posted by: Tom Servo at January 19, 2020 10:15 AM (V2Yro)

141 I'm listening to Donald Fagan's "IGY" (well, now the whole Nightfly album) for that 50's/Cold War thang.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 10:16 AM (Dc2NZ)

142 when I was in seventh or eighth grade.

-
I'm quite pleased with myself because I've been reading Pugio Bruti by Daniel Peterson and Amelie Rosengren. I.would say it's about a third grade book. It's a chapter book with quite a few drawings and I understand most of it. It's a Latin crime novel.

https://bit.ly/38dKSqm

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:16 AM (+y/Ru)

143 Howdy, Peanut Gallery.

Watched the last two parts of the five-part DC TV comic superdupers crossover for this year. And I...

Oh, wait, it's the book thread.

Well, they were based on comic books...

...except everybody knows of course comic books are not really books at all, so, um...

Never mind. I'll save my review for the TV thread.

Posted by: mindful webworker - once wrote a story at January 19, 2020 10:16 AM (ECLlc)

144 I initially thought a Gish, but the generic silent movie hair sort of minimizes the features.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:17 AM (FDGTP)

145

that's Kay Mona. the Dragon Lady.

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 10:17 AM (5IHGB)

146 OK, I'm siding with those who think the reading lady is Mary Pickford. I think she was working on an early film version of Madame Butterfly when that picture was taken.

Posted by: DynamiteDan at January 19, 2020 10:18 AM (jMtvt)

147 I have read much this week but did read this:

"Eight terriers kill record 700 rodents in just seven hours"

https://tinyurl.com/v2mtcc2

Warning. Extreme terrier havoc.
Posted by: freaked out by those pants at January 19, 2020 09:58 AM (Tnijr)

As a lad, my Dad used to work on his uncle's farm over the summer.

One of the things that impressed him most were the times when the "Rat Man" and his terrier would come by to get rid of the rats in the hen house.

Rat Man would unleash his terrier and within minutes there'd be a huge pile of dead rats and a rat-free hen house.

I think RM was paid by the rat.

That was one of the stories that always made him smile, and you could see a bit of the boy's excitement on his face when recalling those moments. It was nice.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:18 AM (T+nBE)

148 Bernadette Peters !

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 10:18 AM (arJlL)

149 The first thing I ever read by Stephen King was "Night Shift", a collection of short stories, and that was fantastic. Almost every one of those stories ended up getting turned into a movie. (Children of the Corn was one of them) The only other book of his that I really liked was The Stand.

Posted by: Tom Servo at January 19, 2020 10:19 AM (V2Yro)

150 I only saw a duck until the word rabbit. I now can only see a rabbit.

I like ducks much better than rabbits because the little shits are always eating up my garden.

Posted by: Aunt Gertrude at January 19, 2020 10:19 AM (Pgcou)

151 That's an albatross and a cat

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 10:19 AM (2DOZq)

152 The only books by Stephen King I liked were The Last Stand, The Green Mike and The Dark Tower series. Of course, after I learned he was a progressive leftist back, his books went into "File 13."

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 10:19 AM (4f7bl)

153 Gary Jenning's Aztec

-
Aztec is a great novel but caveat lector, there is a scene of adult/child sexuality.,

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:20 AM (+y/Ru)

154 17 Ahem....those are not pants.
Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 09:08 AM (X/Pw5)

Droogs gone upscale Chippendale?!
Yeesh.

Posted by: Heirloominati at January 19, 2020 10:20 AM (BwQXu)

155

My Library is in a NO READING Zone.

sleeping,drinking,chatting ,playing video games is Aces!

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 10:21 AM (5IHGB)

156 Junior Brown's Surf Medley. Warms up a cold day.

Posted by: klaftern at January 19, 2020 10:22 AM (RuIsu)

157 "The Green Mike"

Bloomberg?

Posted by: Tom Servo at January 19, 2020 10:22 AM (V2Yro)

158 Edited to read The Stand. Jeez...more cofveve.

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 10:22 AM (4f7bl)

159 Bloomberg?
Posted by: Tom Servo at January 19, 2020 10:22 AM (V2Yro)
----------------

No, you're thinking of "Little Men."

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at January 19, 2020 10:23 AM (WEBkv)

160 Thinking back, I don't believe I've ever read a James Michener novel.

Weird, cuz for the longest time they were everywhere.

Maybe I'll throw one of his better regarded ones on the kindle for vacation reading.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:10 AM (T+nBE)

I think I read one or two of them a long time ago. They're very formulaic, as others have noted, and reasonably well written; but I felt like reading two was more than enough.

Posted by: Captain Hate at January 19, 2020 10:23 AM (y7DUB)

161 And another edit...The Green Mike...fat thumbs on my phone.

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 10:24 AM (4f7bl)

162 Houston has gone from hot , humid and muggy to cold and windy . I'm holding out for cool, calm and beautiful.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 10:24 AM (2DOZq)

163 148 Bernadette Peters !
Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 10:18 AM (arJlL)

Pickford for sure

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:25 AM (FDGTP)

164 I am not little I am a goddess!

Posted by: Mini Mike Bloomberg at January 19, 2020 10:25 AM (Pgcou)

165 Rat Man would unleash his terrier and within minutes there'd be a huge pile of dead rats and a rat-free hen house.
I think RM was paid by the rat.
That was one of the stories that always made him smile, and you could see a bit of the boy's excitement on his face when recalling those moments. It was nice.
Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:18 AM (T+nBE)

Rat Man. A friend of mine had an auto service garage and was frequented by a fella who was a hoarder who hoarded stuff in his Toyota van. The van guy was a bit off and would service his van for every little thing. One time my friend put the van on the lift to do some work and as he was inspecting the underneath of the van he heard a rustling and a squealing coming from the van, which was filled to the brim with all kinds of hoarded junk.

Rats.

The hoarder fella was then given the nickname.....Rat Man.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 19, 2020 10:25 AM (Z+IKu)

166 The only books by Stephen King I liked were The Last Stand, The Green Mike and The Dark Tower series. Of course, after I learned he was a progressive leftist back, his books went into "File 13."

-
A comment yesterday caused me to look at a list of somebody's idea of movies that were better than the book. King novels were overrepresented.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/movies-that-are-better-than-the-book

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:26 AM (+y/Ru)

167 Green Mile dammit. Not my fault...autocucumber

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 10:26 AM (4f7bl)

168 The only books by Stephen King I liked were The Last Stand, The Green Mike and The Dark Tower series. Of course, after I learned he was a progressive leftist back, his books went into "File 13."

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 10:19 AM (4f7bl)

"The Green Mike" is King's best regarded book.

It tells the story of the time the Obama's got seasick offshore at Martha's Vineyard.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:26 AM (T+nBE)

169 Re-reading the Lensman and Skylark books reminded me of where I first got them. There was a small book store in my home town run by a retired cop. I suspect he did it for fun more than profit. I had bought some Hardy Boys books there and one day, probably when I was in fifth grade, he suggested the Doc Smith books to take my reading to the next level. And he was right. Such a change from the Heinlein juveniles.

This was also the book shop where I bought my first hardcover edition of LOTR. I couldn't afford to buy the set complete, so he let me buy the books individually. (This was the early 60s and my earning power was limited.) When I got the third volume I got the slipcase for the set. This was the set that included a fold out map in each volume. The set shows all those years of use and many moves but it is enshrined in my glass front book case which is reserved for special editions.

I sure miss that retired cop. I'm sure I'm not the only kid he helped guide into reading.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 10:27 AM (7EjX1)

170 The only books by Stephen King I liked were The Last Stand, The Green Mike and The Dark Tower series. Of course, after I learned he was a progressive leftist back, his books went into "File 13."

Salem's Lot is my favorite Stephen King novel and worth a read. I know I sound like a broken record, but The Shining was a piece of crap and so was the movie. IMHO.

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at January 19, 2020 10:27 AM (vGJY7)

171 I haven't cracked open the Pressfield book I bought over two weeks ago. So much reading at work that I'm not up for it when I get home. Plan on a lot of reading when I'm no longer am forced to.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 10:28 AM (2DOZq)

172 Gestalt switch? That's what somebody decided to call it? Optical illusion wasn't good enough?

You know, sometimes jargon serves the purpose of keeping the non-club members from being able to understand. The exact opposite of communication, and it seems to me a perversion of language.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:28 AM (hku12)

173 I've never cared for Stephen King books. They are depressing, I think.

Posted by: Ladyl at January 19, 2020 10:28 AM (TdMsT)

174 Great gazpacho receipe in Michener's "Iberia".

Posted by: bill in arkansas at January 19, 2020 10:30 AM (C1Lsn)

175 173
I've never cared for Stephen King books. They are depressing, I think.

Posted by: Ladyl at January 19, 2020 10:28 AM (TdMsT)

---
I hate his prose. His writing style is terrible. It's like driving over a pothole-filled road on a stiff suspension.

That's actually more important than the fact that the horror genre doesn't really interest me.

He writes ugly. I guess for what he's writing about, some people think it works. I can't stand it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:31 AM (cfSRQ)

176 Mary Pickford.....married Douglas Fairbanks?
Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 09:22 AM (X/Pw5)

I suspect she was reading that book to scout out her next film. Hair was pre-bob, so about 1920?

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:32 AM (FDGTP)

177 I mentioned in another thread that The Green Mile movie had a big flaw in it IMHO. I was wondering if the book had the same?

The falsely accused peaceful man in the same death row cell as the real insane killer who just happened to work for the murdered girl's parents. Did not anyone notice this?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 10:32 AM (2DOZq)

178 92 The PP line was said by Miss Bingley, who is no reader, and said largely to try to impress Mr. Darcy, who knows exactly what she's doing. I reread PP recently and was struck once again by the quality of the satire. Austen was *hilarious*. I think Northanger Abbey is the funniest (it helps if you have read some of the novels she is satirizing), but PP is also very funny.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at January 19, 2020 09:47 AM (rWZ8Y)

It's probably best to read PandP twice: The first time as just a love story, the second time as social satire.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 10:32 AM (MRoRq)

179 I read several Michener books way back when but they got rather formulaic. But I enjoyed the "The Source" and re-read it a year or two ago. It was still a decent book and I found the concept interesting.

Posted by: JTB at January 19, 2020 10:32 AM (7EjX1)

180 I think I read one or two of them a long time ago. They're very formulaic, as others have noted, and reasonably well written; but I felt like reading two was more than enough.
Posted by: Captain Hate at January 19, 2020 10:23 AM (y7DUB)

With enough history to make them seem more important than they were. And The Drifters really were a departure for him as he tried to capture the youth of the late 60s. My mother threw it in the garbage to prevent us kids from reading it, said it was "smutty".

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:34 AM (FDGTP)

181 The Running Man was the only book I read by Stephen King or should I say Richard Bachman.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 10:35 AM (2DOZq)

182 I hate his prose. His writing style is terrible. It's like driving over a pothole-filled road on a stiff suspension.

That's actually more important than the fact that the horror genre doesn't really interest me.

He writes ugly. I guess for what he's writing about, some people think it works. I can't stand it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:31 AM (cfSRQ)

I discovered, after being widowed and living alone for the first time in my life, that I am unable to read anything that is violent or depressing.

Posted by: Ladyl at January 19, 2020 10:35 AM (TdMsT)

183 181: I tried and failed to read King's work. He seems more of a celebrity author than an author, like Ann Rice.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:36 AM (FDGTP)

184 21 14
Yes indeed
Read 331 in the EMT!

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar at January 19, 2020 09:11 AM (BiNEL)

Indeed yes. I'm going to steal it for a morning rant.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 10:37 AM (MRoRq)

185 next book for my book club: "Good Omens." Very funny. Neil Gaiman is a great storyteller. Netflix made a series of it and it was great. Michael McKean was an absolute scream in it. He's so talented...can't wait for "Better Call Saul" to return..

Posted by: vivi at January 19, 2020 10:37 AM (11H2y)

186 I was pushed by Prof N to watch the adaptation of King's 1922. It was so revolting, I couldn't even stay in the room.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:38 AM (FDGTP)

187 Smoking reefer used to make women wear slinky dresses and nylons?

Dang. Nowadays it seems to produce matted dreadlocks and shapeless garments made from hand-chewed hemp fiber or some such.

I'm still working my way through the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts. I got started on these after finishing all the Roma Sub Rosa books by Steven Saylor.

While these are also detective stories set in late-Republican Rome, the main characters (i.e., the detectives) are very different. Decius Caecilius Metellus, from the Roberts books, is a member of the Roman upper crust. He's a young Senator from a prominent family, and is not above taking part in the occasional street brawl or political riot. Gordianus, from the Saylor books, is anything but socially prominent, and will go far out of his way to avoid physical confrontation. I guess you might describe SPQR as a hard-boiled series, and Roma Sub Rosa as cozies.

Both are excellent, nonetheless.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 10:39 AM (qUFPp)

188 Gestalt switch

-
A common real life gestalt switch you quite often see is the evidence if God. It is either in every flower, leaf and dog you see or it cannot be found with an electron microscope.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:40 AM (+y/Ru)

189 Ah, that last image....Two years ago, I gave the 3 Calvin and Hobbes Treasuries to my three nephews for Christmas. This last Christmas, they could quote whole comics, and the report was that the Treasuries were so well-read that they were falling apart. Huzzah for the classics!

Posted by: Castle Guy at January 19, 2020 10:40 AM (Lhaco)

190 > Neil Gaiman is a great storyteller.

Don't forget Terry Pratchett. It's a real shame they didn't manage to produce more collaborations before Pratchett passed on.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 10:40 AM (qUFPp)

191 I watched the movie "You Were Never Really Here" yesterday, and I have two questions:

1. It's based on a book, and I'm wondering how closely the movie follows the book? I'm considering reading it.

2. How in the world did this thing get greenlighted? Good grief, it's stark and brutal, very hard to watch, while at the same time being "edge of your seat" gripping... you'd have to see the thing to know why I ask how it got made. In a way, very topical.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:41 AM (hku12)

192 I've been on a Science-go binge here these last few weeks. Lots of stuff about Atlantis and time portals.
Ok. I'm done. It's to the point where if the authors have the storyline at an impossible point, they invent some new piece of the future to bail them out.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 10:41 AM (axyOa)

193 Indeed yes. I'm going to steal it for a morning rant.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 10:37 AM (MRoRq)

As well you should. I don't think for a second that Trump is holding up old "pretenses", he's just trying to prevent delusional and dangerous fictions from becoming the norm.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:41 AM (FDGTP)

194 163 148 Bernadette Peters !
Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 10:18 AM (arJlL)

Pickford for sure
Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:25 AM (FDGTP)

Yeah, it's Pickford.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 10:41 AM (MRoRq)

195 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:26 AM (+y/Ru)

Re: movies better than the book, they had me under "Starship Troopers" and "Lord of the Rings". I mean come on.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 10:42 AM (Dc2NZ)

196 Science fiction.

I really need to proof these better.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 10:42 AM (axyOa)

197 I used to like the Leon Uris novels. Trinity, A God In Ruins, Battlecry and QB VII. Back when authors had lived experiences and brought it into their books as well as their meticulous research to make the story factually accurate.

Ken Follett is another great author. I especially liked his trilogy set in medieval times.

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 10:42 AM (4f7bl)

198 190 thank you for that update, yes, you are right...

Posted by: vivi at January 19, 2020 10:42 AM (11H2y)

199 > All of which is to say: for the first time I'm taking in how very *human* orcs actually are.

"I was an orc in the Great War." -- J.R.R. Tolkien

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 10:43 AM (qUFPp)

200 next book for my book club: "Good Omens." Very funny. Neil Gaiman is a great storyteller. Netflix made a series of it and it was great. Michael McKean was an absolute scream in it. He's so talented...can't wait for "Better Call Saul" to return..
Posted by: vivi at January 19, 2020 10:37 AM (11H2y)

Amazon, not Netflix.

I was wondering if it was worth reading. I've started "Preacher," after having completed "The Boys."

I was never a comics reader, and have no interest in traditional Marvelle or DC books, but these things appeal to me as a better alternative to standard fiction.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:44 AM (hku12)

201 Smoking reefer used to make women wear slinky dresses and nylons?

I was thinking if she dressed like that before firing up the doobie, she was probably already a Communications Major.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 10:44 AM (axyOa)

202 I discovered, after being widowed and living alone for the first time in my life, that I am unable to read anything that is violent or depressing.

Posted by: Ladyl at January 19, 2020 10:35 AM (TdMsT)

I understand how that could be, My condolences to you on your loss.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 10:45 AM (MRoRq)

203 Yeah, it's Pickford.
Posted by: OregonMuse,

Tips hat to CN.

Now I'm gonna go rustle up some grub.

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 10:46 AM (arJlL)

204 Yeah, it's Pickford.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 10:41 AM (MRoRq)

I was not the first to guess, that goes to:
Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 09:22 AM (X/Pw5)

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:46 AM (FDGTP)

205 197 I used to like the Leon Uris novels. Trinity, A God In Ruins, Battlecry and QB VII. Back when authors had lived experiences and brought it into their books as well as their meticulous research to make the story factually accurate.
Posted by: Traveling Man at January 19, 2020 10:42 AM (4f7bl)

Mila 18 is the best Uris. Starving Polish Jews use improvised and captured weapons to kick Nazi ass. How could you not like a novel like that?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 10:48 AM (MRoRq)

206 Smoking reefer used to make women wear slinky dresses and nylons?

I was thinking if she dressed like that before firing up the doobie, she was probably already a Communications Major.
Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 10:44 AM (axyOa)

That's the best thing about being able to claim victim status. You never have to explain your part in it, and everything you did or will do, if anyone questions it, well... how DARE you!

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:49 AM (hku12)

207 Re: movies better than the book, they had me under "Starship Troopers" and "Lord of the Rings". I mean come on.

-
Starship Troopers is particularly ridiculous.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:50 AM (+y/Ru)

208 SpaceX crew capsule abort demonstration

https://youtu.be/-hFU00vueTw

We lost more people during launches over the years, 14, than on the ground or in space, so this seems to be an important step.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at January 19, 2020 10:50 AM (LxTcq)

209 That's like me and Stephen King. Growing up he was on every paperback rack. Never cared for him. I finally read On Writing when I got serious about being an author and found the autobiography very interesting, but his tips on writing useless.

On another thread not long ago, someone remarked that King's real talent is horror because he essentially has an ugly soul. He sees and ugly world and writes about it, which gives people the creeps they covet.

But it also means the man is incapable of writing something warm or positive because that world doesn't exist for him. Sad.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:14 AM (cfSRQ)

Maybe, horror like comedy carries its own logic. To work it has to plug into the readers brain in certain ways.

King, when he can avoid his quirks, prejudices, and Kingisms can write a very effective horror novel.

He can write warm moments between characters because because that makes the reader more sympathetic/empathetic to the horror happening to them.

For me, his best work is

"Pet Semetary" which is lean and mean and, if you have kids, pure existential horror.

It's a bit like "Frankenstein" and like "Frankestein" follows its logic to the bitter end.

For the same reason, I think "Cujo" is in second place.

And "The Shining" is very well done.

After that it's kind of a grab bag. Once you read enough of him his story quirks emerge pretty clearly: Dynamite beginning - Meandering, boo scare middle - Definite and usually lame ending.

Those three above avoid the bad King and are good reads.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:50 AM (T+nBE)

210 I believe I read Mila 18 also. Being an old guy, I have CRS and have to read a chapter or two before I remember...oh, I've read this book before.

Posted by: Traveling Man&&&& at January 19, 2020 10:52 AM (4f7bl)

211 Battle Cry by Uris was excellent. My Marine dad let me read it at about age 14 even though Mom was not keen on the idea. Been looking for a copy of it for years.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, of the Butte Mahons at January 19, 2020 10:52 AM (x8Wzq)

212 Starship Troopers is particularly ridiculous.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:50 AM (+y/Ru)
-----
I doubt the guy has actually read the book and is just repeating what other people have said.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 10:53 AM (jW9oF)

213 183 181: I tried and failed to read King's work. He seems more of a celebrity author than an author, like Ann Rice.
Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:36 AM (FDGTP)

I read "The Shining" when I was in my teens, and read Rice's vampire trilogy (which went who knows where afterwards) in my early twenties.

Very exciting experiences... at the time. I can't imagine reading their stuff now.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:53 AM (hku12)

214 > Starship Troopers is particularly ridiculous.

I just pretend that one is a completely unrelated movie that happens to have the same name by coincidence.

The only good part of that stinker was the shower scene.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 10:54 AM (qUFPp)

215

Pubic Libraries SUCK today and have for over a decade.

Ever been at a library when school lets out?
All of a sudden it's like you're at a Chuckie Cheese.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (ykiN+)

216 I was thinking if she dressed like that before firing up the doobie, she was probably already a Communications Major.
Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 10:44 AM (axyOa)

Hahaha, *snort

Posted by: April, Communications Major at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (OX9vb)

217 I discovered, after being widowed and living alone for the first time in my life, that I am unable to read anything that is violent or depressing.

-
I know that he's a leftist moonbat, but I'm reminded of Jackson Brown's Doctor My Eyes. I've seen enough ugly, stupid and cruel. I'm good with uplifting now.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VsaxPaJSf24

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (+y/Ru)

218 Starship Troopers is particularly ridiculous.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:50 AM (+y/Ru)
-----
I doubt the guy has actually read the book and is just repeating what other people have said.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 10:53 AM (jW9oF)

I'm one of those people who never read the book, and I like the movie, so it's sometimes fun to poke a stick at people who get all worked up about how terrible the movie is, and how much they RUINED the book.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (hku12)

219 I discovered, after being widowed and living alone for the first time in
my life, that I am unable to read anything that is violent or
depressing.

My problem isn't necessarily books, although I don't read as much true crime as I did at one point. I have a really hard time watching movies where one of the main characters dies. Which is why I have avoided Grand Torino.

Posted by: shibumi, living in Atlas Shrugged at January 19, 2020 10:57 AM (gauLa)

220 Starship Troopers is particularly ridiculous.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 10:50 AM (+y/Ru)
-----
I doubt the guy has actually read the book and is just repeating what other people have said.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 10:53 AM (jW9oF)

I'm one of those people who never read the book, and I like the movie, so it's sometimes fun to poke a stick at people who get all worked up about how terrible the movie is, and how much they RUINED the book.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (hku12)

Yeah, I'm in the same boat.

ST is definitely one of my guilty pleasures like "Big Trouble in Little China". I can watch it any time it's on.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:57 AM (T+nBE)

221 But it also means the man is incapable of writing something warm or positive because that world doesn't exist for him. Sad.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:14 AM (cfSR

I'd say Shawshank Redemption had a positive ending though everything leading up to that is pretty depressing. Admittedly I never read the book .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 10:58 AM (2DOZq)

222 Ever been at a library when school lets out?
All of a sudden it's like you're at a Chuckie Cheese.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (ykiN+)

The local library serves as a sort of sub rosa babysitting service for the community here. A lot of very unsupervised 'tweens

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:58 AM (FDGTP)

223 Harry Windsor, last of his name.
*Meghan Sparkles* first of hers

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 19, 2020 10:58 AM (LMXg7)

224 Spent the last two weeks reading Prof. E. H. Palmer's Desert of the Exodus (1871; available at Internet Archive). He was a linguist who was part of the British Ordnance Survey team of the Sinai in 1868. The first volume is rather more fun than the second; he had a sly sense of humor, but he does make some rather nasty remarks about monastic life when visiting Santa Katarina monastery. At least he did get to see the famous library, which is now closed to all but the elite of visitors. The book has many drawings of the landscape, and mentions lots of ruins. The Sinai was at one time much more amenable to agriculture, but Palmer is no archaeologist, and did not attempt to identify the ancient peoples who created towns and irrigation systems. Only a few of the Bedouin tribes engaged in agriculture, and were uninterested in restoring the old irrigation systems, even if beneficial to themselves. Palmer was fluent in Arabic and well-versed in Bedouin culture, which was not merely useful, but could be life-saving when dealing with their guides and tribesmen they encountered. I suppose his work would now be dissed by PC anti-"Orientalists" but that would be really unfair. Alas for Palmer, when he was back in Sinai about a decade later, he was murdered by Bedouin tribesmen.

Other stuff on my reading list this week: The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street -- young people's fiction; a really sweet story about a family whose lease was not being renewed, and whose children tried to love-bomb the reclusive landlord into letting them stay. The grandkids are enjoying it.

And an audio-book, The Wrong Stuff by Truman Smith, about flying B-17s over Europe in World War II. I didn't care much for the narrator at first, but he seemed to improve as the book went on. This Truman Smith was a young pilot, not the Truman Smith who was the U.S. military attache in Germany in the 1930s. I learned a lot, and thought his adventures on leave were as interesting as the flights he describes. I cannot truly imagine the horror of watching two planes in formation colliding or being shot down. It is certainly true that learning responsibility comes from being given responsibility...

I had a book about the B-17 (and also Combat Aircraft of World War II) in my home library which burned last May. I miss my books...all that was left was a pile of ashes about 18 inches high all over the living room floor, now being washed away by the winter rains while I wait for the demolition of the house in a couple of weeks.

Posted by: Alifa at January 19, 2020 10:59 AM (WtBp7)

225 I never read ST but I can honestly say that I thought the movie was ridiculously bad . Could have been partly because of the acting.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 11:00 AM (2DOZq)

226 The Science Friction subgenre.

Posted by: klaftern at January 19, 2020 11:01 AM (RuIsu)

227 I'm one of those people who never read the book, and I like the movie, so it's sometimes fun to poke a stick at people who get all worked up about how terrible the movie is, and how much they RUINED the book.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (hku12)
---
Burt, I actually enjoy the movie for the fun trash it is. I object to categorizing Heinlein's novel as "fascistic".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:02 AM (Dc2NZ)

228 I have a copy of Nautilus 90 North written by the skipper on that mission.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 19, 2020 11:03 AM (v4mdC)

229

Yeah, the tweens.

These little shits. These kids are the ones who tell their stupid drug-addled parents they're going to the library after school to "study," when they're really using the Library as a goddam clubhouse.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:03 AM (ykiN+)

230 Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 10:55 AM (hku12)

Yeah, I'm in the same boat.

ST is definitely one of my guilty pleasures like "Big Trouble in Little China". I can watch it any time it's on.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 10:57 AM (T+nBE)

I mean, it's obvious what Verhoeven was going for, something quite similar in its own way to Robocop, and I'm sure that there were all sorts of "bigger" messages in the book that he just chucked out.

It's silly and gory and so over the top... I mean, come on! Denise Richards is the smart one?? That's freakin' hilarious.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:03 AM (hku12)

231 Burt, I actually enjoy the movie for the fun trash it is. I object to categorizing Heinlein's novel as "fascistic".
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:02 AM (Dc2NZ)

And the boobs.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at January 19, 2020 11:03 AM (NWiLs)

232 Denise Richards is the smart one?? That's freakin' hilarious.
---
She's a nuclear physicist!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:04 AM (Dc2NZ)

233 > I object to categorizing Heinlein's novel as "fascistic".

Yeah, I can't think of too many historical fascist states with an all-volunteer military. And by "not too many" I mean "not any".

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:04 AM (qUFPp)

234 Cruz gave a very good explanation as to why this Impeachment should not be simply dismissed, it should be followed up to a vote for full acquittal. He made a good argument for it, and I imagine he's reflecting McConnell's thinking. Posted by: Tom Servo

Yes, the garbage charges deserve dismissal. However, the president deserves acquittal. So, both.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at January 19, 2020 11:05 AM (Ndje9)

235 Speaking of which, I think I'm going to have to give Showgirls another look. I'm sure there's something I missed, and whatever Verhoeven was trying to do, even if he failed miserably, I doubt I was open to it, after having listened to critics trashing the thing.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:05 AM (hku12)

236 > Denise Richards is the smart one?? That's freakin' hilarious.

One review I read said that she was in the movie for "special effects". Her left "special effect" and her right "special effect".

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:05 AM (qUFPp)

237 "Big Trouble in Little China"

I love that movie.......

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 11:06 AM (arJlL)

238 Want a thrilling WWII movie on a subject almost no one knows about?

Look up Operation Squabble.

One Beaufighter versus the Nazis.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 19, 2020 11:06 AM (v4mdC)

239 . I mean, come on! Denise Richards is the smart one?? That's freakin' hilarious.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:03 AM (hku1
------
But she looks good in a tight tank-top and shorts, cf. "The World Is Not Enough".

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:06 AM (jW9oF)

240 But it also means the man is incapable of writing something warm or positive because that world doesn't exist for him. Sad.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 19, 2020 10:14 AM (cfSRQ)

King wrote a short story early on about a man reminiscing about the time in his youth when he and his sister were jumping onto a haystack stored in a barn, and then-- well, you'll have to read it, but it had the best depiction of what faith should look like that I've ever read. I thought it was beautiful, the love the sister had for her brother, even though I didn't care for the ending.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 11:07 AM (MRoRq)

241

It's simple: The number cause of the ruination of today's public library is the internet in the Libraries.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:07 AM (ykiN+)

242 Tried reading On The Road (Kerouac). It rates with Thomas Pynchon on the unreadable scale for me.

Posted by: EdmundBurkesShade at January 19, 2020 11:09 AM (gSgAd)

243 Oh, Alifa...so very sad. I hope all of the humans survived the fire?

Posted by: April, Communications Major at January 19, 2020 11:09 AM (OX9vb)

244 I never read ST but I can honestly say that I thought the movie was ridiculously bad . Could have been partly because of the acting.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 11:00 AM (2DOZq)

I think sometimes movies have scenery chewing as part of the overall tone the director is going for.

Think of Wes Anderson's films. Nobody talks that way. Same with some Coen brothers movies or Lynch movies...

Shoot, I think I'm about to name every director whose movies I love.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:09 AM (hku12)

245 Met an interesting fellow last week. He was a B-17 navigator during the War. He has a ton of old photos of various missions plus his Co-pilot kept a meticulous diary from flight school to the end of the war.
I'd die to turn that into a book.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 11:09 AM (axyOa)

246 But it also means the man is incapable of writing something warm or positive because that world doesn't exist for him. Sad.

Part of that could be that his publisher/ agent has put him in that category. As is "yeah steve, you write dark negative stuff and it sells, then they become movies. give us more of that stat."

/or that could just be who he is.

Posted by: shibumi, living in Atlas Shrugged at January 19, 2020 11:09 AM (gauLa)

247 With the duck and rabbit it depends which side of the pic my eye is facing.

So for humans it might be a dominate eye thing.

Posted by: Nearsighted Cyclops at January 19, 2020 11:10 AM (B06Zw)

248 It's simple: The number cause of the ruination of today's public library is the internet in the Libraries.
Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:07 AM (ykiN+)

Our local branch of the county library is infested with the internet, making it Starbucks for kids after school. The actual book sections have been sharply reduced and replaced with tables and outlets. Anything I'd want would have to go through ILL, even the kiddie stuff is annoying and glib. The Dogman series, for example.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 11:11 AM (FDGTP)

249 234 Cruz gave a very good explanation as to why this Impeachment should not be simply dismissed, it should be followed up to a vote for full acquittal. He made a good argument for it, and I imagine he's reflecting McConnell's thinking. Posted by: Tom Servo
Yes, the garbage charges deserve dismissal. However, the president deserves acquittal. So, both.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at January 19, 2020 11:05 AM (Ndje9)

We're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. We all know the charges are totally without merit, but if there's just a quick dismissal, the Democrats will campaign on "we never got a fair trial" for the next 11 months.

On the other hand, they will try to turn the full trial into yet another Kavanaugh klown show with multiple surprise witnesses, each one more ridiculously outlandish than the last. I don't trust the GOP to be about to put a lid on this and go tell the Dems to pound sand, if need be.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 11:11 AM (MRoRq)

250 Teenagers have always hung out in libraries, and the internet is just an aether card catalog.

The new factor is urine-soaked hobos.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:11 AM (Dc2NZ)

251 The PP line was said by Miss Bingley, who is no
reader, and said largely to try to impress Mr. Darcy, who knows exactly
what she's doing. I reread PP recently and was struck once again
by the quality of the satire. Austen was *hilarious*. I think Northanger
Abbey is the funniest (it helps if you have read some of the novels she
is satirizing), but PP is also very funny.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at January 19, 2020 09:47 AM (rWZ8Y)

Ironically, Austen herself never had a house of her own.
I agree re: satire, especially since the novels are over 200 years old now. So much of her satire and social commentary that contemporary readers would have understood flies over the heads of modern readers.

Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 11:11 AM (pXNaM)

252 I haven't read Anne Rice's vampire novels, but I did read "The Mummy". I found her writing style so vague and impressionistic that I had to reread the climax two or three times to figure out what happened.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:11 AM (jW9oF)

253 Denise Richards is the smart one?? That's freakin' hilarious.
---
She's a nuclear physicist!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:04 AM (Dc2NZ)

And then there's "Wild Things," where Denise is ALMOST the smart one, if it wasn't for that other Rhodes scholar, Neve Campbell.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:12 AM (hku12)

254 Sargon of Akkad said that fascism resembles "citizenship guarantees service" much more than "service guarantees citizenship". He has spoke at too-great length about this, and settled in my mind any idea that the movie government is not noble or enlightened.

Psychic Neal Patrick Harris in a Hugo Boss leather coat ... I can forgive the mistaken impression.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at January 19, 2020 11:13 AM (LxTcq)

255 > The new factor is urine-soaked hobos.

Masturbating drunks watching porn on the computers.

Skeevy junkies shooting up in the bathrooms.

And the staff isn't allowed to kick them out.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:13 AM (qUFPp)

256 Off, poor college choices sock

Posted by: April at January 19, 2020 11:14 AM (OX9vb)

257

The movie The Mummy is now of legal age to buy booze.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:14 AM (ykiN+)

258
There's a new movie genre, sadly:

Movies That Came Out When I Was Old And Are Now Themselves Old

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:15 AM (ykiN+)

259 We'll be singing the classic "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the closing number in today's broadcast:
https://tinyurl.com/sf8c84b

I know we have some fans around here. The broadcast starts in 15 minutes.

(The "spoken word" today is based on an article by David Brooks. Sorry about that...)

Posted by: A Tabby Cat at January 19, 2020 11:16 AM (dfV3k)

260 > Part of that could be that his publisher/ agent has put him in that category.

I dunno. I think King is far past the point where agents, editors, and publishers get to dictate to him.

That may actually be part of the problem.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:16 AM (qUFPp)

261 We'll be singing the classic "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the closing number in today's broadcast:
-----
All five verses?

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:17 AM (jW9oF)

262 I haven't seen the street people infest the citadel-like library of my twee town, but in Hawaii there was a bum in full (dirty) boiled shirt, gloves, and tux (with tails!) who used to frequent my library.

Gotta appreciate his nod to Old School hobo chic.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:17 AM (Dc2NZ)

263 255 > The new factor is urine-soaked hobos.

Masturbating drunks watching porn on the computers.

Skeevy junkies shooting up in the bathrooms.

And the staff isn't allowed to kick them out.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:13 AM (qUFPp)

This is a perfect illustration of why we need Trump and successors just like him to turn the clock back on the acceptability of this crap. Criminals in libraries, "transgender" bullshit, and the corrupt trying the President for the behaviors they themselves perpetrate ad nauseum

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 11:18 AM (FDGTP)

264 On the other hand, they will try to turn the full trial into yet another Kavanaugh klown show with multiple surprise witnesses, each one more ridiculously outlandish than the last. I don't trust the GOP to be about to put a lid on this and go tell the Dems to pound sand, if need be.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 11:11 AM (MRoRq)

I believe the way to handle this, which I guess won't happen, is-

to let the Dims bring their exact case from the House for adjudication by the Senate.

The Dims made that case now let them live with it.

No new charges, no new witnesses, no new nuthin'.

The Turtle should make the lines very clear and inform the Housetards that if they wish to submit a new case then they need to start new impeachment hearings in the House and vote on those again,

In the meantime, they (the Senate) will be doing the people's business while the House wastes time on a fake political circle-jerk.

Then dare them to do it.

That pretty clearly and totally screws the Dims and puts the onus right back on them.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 11:18 AM (T+nBE)

265 I haven't read Anne Rice's vampire novels, but I did read "The Mummy". I found her writing style so vague and impressionistic that I had to reread the climax two or three times to figure out what happened.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:11 AM (jW9oF)

I think I might have read that one, but I don't remember. That's how good it was.

The vampire books would stick with the reader, much more than the other tripe she's written, I believe. The Lestat character is memorable enough, and it's an interesting take on the origin of vampires. And the first book in the series, "Interview" is of course a nice twist, in that a vamp is giving a modern writer an opportunity to get the inside scoop, so to speak.

I guess it's all just meh. After all these years. And speaking of movie adaptations, I thought they did a decent job of adapting that first book, with Cruise and Pitt. Tommy was awfully uncomfortable with some of the gayer aspects of it, and that amuses me greatly.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:18 AM (hku12)

266 When I read this thread, I keep a pen and paper handy
to jot down anything that piques my interest.

Yesterday, (I think) there was a discussion of Dennis Farina movies and I wrote down Snatch and Big Trouble
at the bottom of a paper because I'd never seen them.

That paper became my grocery list, and this morning while at the supermarket, I get to the bottom of my grocery list and find Snatch.

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (arJlL)

267 Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:18 AM (hku12)

Kirsten Dunst was the best actor in that movie though all did a pretty good job I thought.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (2DOZq)

268 There's a new movie genre, sadly:

Movies That Came Out When I Was Old And Are Now Themselves Old

-
I remember the shock the first time a movie I saw just a while ago showed up on TCM.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (+y/Ru)

269 > Tommy was awfully uncomfortable with some of the gayer aspects of it, and that amuses me greatly.

I watched that one with a group of friends. Partway through I said, in a fake shocked tone of voice, "I think this movie may have homoerotic overtones!"

Cracked everyone up, it did.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (qUFPp)

270 The libraries in my county are trying to figure out how to get more visitors, looking for inspiration at places like LA where they are putting in things like coffee bars. From my observation, for every person looking through the stacks in the local branches near me there are more people using the library for the internet terminals and the free wifi, or using the meeting/group study spaces.

Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 11:22 AM (pXNaM)

271 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (+y/Ru)

Well if you're a Clint Eastwood fan you have to be feeling pretty old.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 11:22 AM (2DOZq)

272

There's a new movie genre, sadly:

Movies That Came Out When I Was Old And Are Now Themselves Old

-
I remember the shock the first time a movie I saw just a while ago showed up on TCM.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

Remember "Classic Rock" radio stations?
Yeah, they play "classics" from the early 90's now!

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:23 AM (ykiN+)

273 Moment Harry tells LION KING director wife available for work...

'That's really why we're here -- to pitch!'

Meghan Sparkle and sparkly vampire movies seems a good fit.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:23 AM (+y/Ru)

274 I dunno. I think King is far past the point where agents, editors, and publishers get to dictate to him.

That may actually be part of the problem.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:16 AM (qUFPp)

I haven't read it, but people talk about "It" as being the best illustration of that problem. A book that just went insane, and there was no one around who could tell King, "Hey, dude, give this book some medicine, put it in restraints, and let it spend a couple months in the country somewhere."

But no. They published it. Child gangbang scene and all.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:23 AM (hku12)

275 That paper became my grocery list, and this morning while at the supermarket, I get to the bottom of my grocery list and find Snatch.
Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (arJlL)
----
Cleaner, snack food, or dessert topping?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:23 AM (Dc2NZ)

276 That paper became my grocery list, and this morning while at the supermarket, I get to the bottom of my grocery list and find Snatch.

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (arJlL)

There's so much going on in that movie I had to watch it twice to figure it out.

Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 11:23 AM (X/Pw5)

277 We'll be singing the classic "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the closing number in today's broadcast:
-----
All five verses?
Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:17 AM (jW9oF)

I remember reaching the age where I got to go with the adults after Sunday school. Opening the hymnal I discovered the songs I'd been taught had more than one verse.
I thought, why write it over again? Wasn't the first one good enough?

Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 11:24 AM (axyOa)

278 ^^ CN " Masturbating drunks watching porn on the computers"

Can you reserve me a spot nearby?

do they provide "spittoons?" ")

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 11:24 AM (5IHGB)

279 Today, on average, is the coldest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere.

Posted by: Frozen Surfperch at January 19, 2020 11:24 AM (BQBIT)

280 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (+y/Ru)

Well if you're a Clint Eastwood fan you have to be feeling pretty old.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 11:22 AM (2DOZq)

Yes, Clint like Keith Richards is your very own personal Memento mori.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 19, 2020 11:24 AM (T+nBE)

281 Masturbating drunks watching porn on the computers

Wasn't that a Tracey Chapman song?

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at January 19, 2020 11:25 AM (NWiLs)

282 I read Interview With A Vampire on a flight out of New Orleans back in the 1980s. It was a cheap paper back that fell apart before the flight finished.

I gave the book away and much later saw it was a best seller. Makes me wonder was it publish by a small local house before it went big time?

Posted by: Nearsighted Cyclops at January 19, 2020 11:26 AM (B06Zw)

283 That paper became my grocery list, and this morning while at the supermarket, I get to the bottom of my grocery list and find Snatch.
Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (arJlL)

Ahhhh. So what aisle is that in?
Asking for a friend.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 19, 2020 11:26 AM (axyOa)

284 Tommy was awfully uncomfortable with some of the gayer aspects of it, and that amuses me greatly.
-------------------------------
I watched that one with a group of friends. Partway through I said, in a fake shocked tone of voice, "I think this movie may have homoerotic overtones!"

Cracked everyone up, it did.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at January 19, 2020 11:21 AM (qUFPp)

Ha! Now do it with Top Gun.

Except half the people watching with you will be furious for suggesting such a thing.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:26 AM (hku12)

285 Today, on average, is the coldest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere.
Posted by: Frozen Surfperch at January 19, 2020 11:24 AM (BQBIT)

Houston has perfect timing because until today we were bring the average up.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 11:26 AM (2DOZq)

286 It did finally get cold in the OBX this week first time I had to put the heat on all winter.

Posted by: Big V Caffeinated at January 19, 2020 11:28 AM (B06Zw)

287

KIRSTEN DUNST..........................C'mon parents ya called yer pretty and talented daughter THAT...

WAS BROOK FRED taken by Ace???

Posted by: saf at January 19, 2020 11:28 AM (5IHGB)

288 Good Omens is a lovely book, BurtTC, do read it.

The miniseries was well done if a little too ornate.

Preacher the series was I thought actually better than the comics, honestly. Mostly due to the reimagining of Cassidy, which initially I hated. on and Tulip. Was mad at the start but I ended up preferring the switcheroo on those two characters by the end.

Horror - I'm reading Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. I do like horror novels

Dan is very good at them. Kali is probably the second scariest novel I've ever read (The Descent is the scariest).

Who is the who dis? I tried scrolling thru

Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:28 AM (Rarvo)

289

Speaking of temperatures...

You know how you can tell if your local fake news weatherman or weathergirl is a Hoaxer?

If they use "normal" temperatures instead of "average" temperatures to describe today's temps compared to historical temps.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:29 AM (ykiN+)

290 I read Interview With A Vampire on a flight out of New Orleans back in the 1980s. It was a cheap paper back that fell apart before the flight finished.

I gave the book away and much later saw it was a best seller. Makes me wonder was it publish by a small local house before it went big time?
Posted by: Nearsighted Cyclops at January 19, 2020 11:26 AM (B06Zw)

Good question. I think there was some time between the first and second one coming out, and I wonder if the second one took off in ways the first one hadn't, on its initial publication.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:29 AM (hku12)

291 OBX?

Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 11:29 AM (X/Pw5)

292 I haven't read it, but people talk about "It" as being the best illustration of that problem. A book that just went insane, and there was no one around who could tell King, "Hey, dude, give this book some medicine, put it in restraints, and let it spend a couple months in the country somewhere."
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:23 AM (hku12)

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Posted by: George Lucas at January 19, 2020 11:30 AM (MRoRq)

293 Peter Schweitzer book on Biden family corruption about to come out. Will be ignored by most Media

Biden is Dead Candidate Walking. I don't see how he can last to become the D nominee

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 19, 2020 11:30 AM (LMXg7)

294 Who is the who dis? I tried scrolling thru
Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:28 AM (Rarvo)

Mary Pickford.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, of the Butte Mahons at January 19, 2020 11:31 AM (x8Wzq)

295 OBX Outer Banks North Carolina.

Posted by: Big V Caffeinated at January 19, 2020 11:31 AM (B06Zw)

296 Today, on average, is the coldest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere.
Posted by: Frozen Surfperch at January 19, 2020 11:24 AM (BQBIT)

Houston has perfect timing because until today we were bring the average up.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 19, 2020 11:26 AM (2DOZq)

The hottest year ever(tm)! -- NASA

Posted by: DR.WTF at January 19, 2020 11:31 AM (aS1PU)

297
You gotta computer
I wanna use that computer right there
Maybe we can make a deal
Maybe you can stop masturbating for 5 seconds
This is the only open computer
Start zipping up, you got nothing to lose
There's a bottle of Mad Dog in it for you
I gotta print out this stuff from Wikipedia for my homework

Posted by: Tracy Chapman " Masturbating drunks watching porn on the computers" at January 19, 2020 11:32 AM (T+nBE)

298 OBX Outer Banks North Carolina.

Posted by: Big V Caffeinated at January 19, 2020 11:31 AM (B06Zw)

got it

Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 11:32 AM (X/Pw5)

299 Good Omens is a lovely book, BurtTC, do read it.

The miniseries was well done if a little too ornate.

Preacher the series was I thought actually better than the comics, honestly. Mostly due to the reimagining of Cassidy, which initially I hated. on and Tulip. Was mad at the start but I ended up preferring the switcheroo on those two characters by the end.

Horror - I'm reading Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. I do like horror novels Dan is very good at them. Kali is probably the second scariest novel I've ever read (The Descent is the scariest).

Who is the who dis? I tried scrolling thru
Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:28 AM (Rarvo)

Thanks! I'll check it out.

I finished the first Preacher "book," since the compile them these days. Waiting for the damned mailman to deliver book 2.

I haven't seen the show at all, and that's another one of those projects where some people HATE the show, because of whatever changes they made to it.

I'm also desperately waiting for season 2 of "The Boys," because already it quite obvious the show is NOT going to follow the plot of the book all that closely. Which is fine. Two stories in one!

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:32 AM (hku12)

300 The hottest year ever(tm)! -- NASA
Posted by: DR.WTF at January 19, 2020 11:31 AM (aS1PU)

Already seeing the HOTTEST DECADE EVAR!! headlines. It's tedious.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, of the Butte Mahons at January 19, 2020 11:33 AM (x8Wzq)

301 It's been a pretty mild winter in the PNW so far. We were supposed to have Snowpocalypse last week, but it turned out to be a dud prediction.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:34 AM (jW9oF)

302 I was spending all my time focused on America's greatest problem: the Demon Weed Mary Jane. Then Trump fired me for some reason.

So now its back to screwing up Alabama elections.

Posted by: Jeffrey Beauregard Sessionzzz III at January 19, 2020 11:34 AM (UGKMd)

303 I haven't seen the show at all, and that's another one of those projects where some people HATE the show, because of whatever changes they made to it.

the Preacher show is so completely different from the books honestly. it's a different animal

I think about stuff in the SHOW more than I ever did about the books, if that makes any sense?

I can see how people would be upset but if you just look at it like a totally different thing, it works. and the changes to Tulip kind of broke my heart b/c I totally identified with Book Tulip and never could with Show Tulip. but it's ok. different "universes" - really they are - the difference is TIME. the books were of that time, of the 90s? this show is The Current Year.

Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:35 AM (Rarvo)

304 Not sure if I have read any Michener, but speaking of moms throwing books away ... when I was fairly young my mother read Wuthering Heights and I asked to read it. She said it was a book about awful people doing awful things and no I could not read it. I believe it went in the garage sale pile. Of course, at this point I have read it multiple times.

Posted by: MMcK at January 19, 2020 11:35 AM (xHxJf)

305 Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:23 AM (hku12)

I have no idea what you're talking about.
Posted by: George Lucas at January 19, 2020 11:30 AM (MRoRq)

Well... who'da thunk, just a few short years ago, today we'd be saying George was the sane and rational storyteller here.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:35 AM (hku12)

306 Biden is Dead Candidate Walking. I don't see how he can last to become the D nominee
Posted by: Ignoramus at January 19, 2020 11:30 AM (LMXg7)

His whole candidacy has been like an even more retarded reality show.

Posted by: Captain Hate at January 19, 2020 11:36 AM (y7DUB)

307

Weather hasn't changed, on average, in my entire lifetime, according to my own personal experiences.

The only thing that's a bit "abnormal" in the last few years, to me, is it seems a bit more windy than usual. But maybe that's because I live in a different part of MA, now. Kind of a "valley" area topographically (if that's the proper descriptor).

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:36 AM (ykiN+)

308 Still think its odd I never looked into a Neil Gaiman book.

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 11:36 AM (ZCEU2)

309 I'm also desperately waiting for season 2 of "The Boys," because already it quite obvious the show is NOT going to follow the plot of the book all that closely. Which is fine. Two stories in one!

Exactly! I think this is a great thing, why worry about changes? the comics or books still exist too

of course I'm still salty about Jackson's changes to LOTR but that's different lol. his changes were BAD

Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:36 AM (Rarvo)

310 this morning while at the supermarket, I get to the bottom of my grocery list and find Snatch.

I will say, any time I get to the bottom of the list and find Snatch, I really do expect to find Big Trouble next. So you have that to look forward to.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at January 19, 2020 11:37 AM (oRpiG)

311 308 Still think its odd I never looked into a Neil Gaiman book.

well I would start with Stardust. it's short and fun. But his best novel is probably American Gods.

Good Omens is really more Pratchett's work.

Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:37 AM (Rarvo)

312 Not sure if it has been determined but another vote its Mary Pictford

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 11:37 AM (ZCEU2)

313

A simple googles search of "are valleys more windy" could satisfy my curiosity, I suppose. But google lies to me, whereas my invisible friends living in my computer here at AoS never lie to me and are a wealth of wacky and impertinent knowledge.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:38 AM (ykiN+)

314 Biden is Dead Candidate Walking. I don't see how he can last to become the D nominee

-
I envision Sundown getting the nomination and then, prior to the election, either dying or having an (even more) obvious complete mental breakdown. The Donks will howl that the election must be postponed because it just isn't fair that they nominated a quivering imbecile and they'll demand a Mulligan on the convention.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:39 AM (+y/Ru)

315 Long ago coincided myself a Toriphile and she mentions Neil in a few songs.

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 11:40 AM (ZCEU2)

316 I haven't seen the show at all, and that's another one of those projects where some people HATE the show, because of whatever changes they made to it.

-------------------
the Preacher show is so completely different from the books honestly. it's a different animal

I think about stuff in the SHOW more than I ever did about the books, if that makes any sense?

I can see how people would be upset but if you just look at it like a totally different thing, it works. and the changes to Tulip kind of broke my heart b/c I totally identified with Book Tulip and never could with Show Tulip. but it's ok. different "universes" - really they are - the difference is TIME. the books were of that time, of the 90s? this show is The Current Year.
Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:35 AM (Rarvo)

Yes, that makes perfect sense. I'm going to wait a bit before starting on the show, because I'm not sure I want to overlap them too much. Or get ahead of the book, because I'm not sure where they might diverge, and I'd risk having some of it spoiled before I got there.

What infuriated me, when I read "The Boys," the preface, written by Ennis himself, to the last book pretty much tells how it's going to end. And he sorta says "yeah, this was inevitable." Well dammit, dude, I was willing to allow myself to NOT consider what was and was not "inevitable" about it, and you just had to go ahead and spoil it for me.

Jerk.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:40 AM (hku12)

317 294 Who is the who dis? I tried scrolling thru
Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:28 AM (Rarvo)

Mary Pickford.
Posted by: Pug Mahon, of the Butte Mahons at January 19, 2020 11:31
~~~
Thanks PM. She has such a dainty little profile... my search of images on the google machine didn't show starlets with a matching profile.

So Thanks to OM, as well!

Posted by: socalcon at January 19, 2020 11:41 AM (Roy2Z)

318 My favorite Neil Gaiman book is The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I also like American Gods. I gave The Graveyard Book to one of the angsty teenagers for Christmas. I stealth read it before I wrapped it. Liked it, too.

Posted by: MMcK at January 19, 2020 11:41 AM (xHxJf)

319 The local library serves as a sort of sub rosa babysitting service for the community here. A lot of very unsupervised 'tweens

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 10:58 AM (FDGTP)

Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?

Posted by: cool breeze at January 19, 2020 11:41 AM (UGKMd)

320
Follow The Money

A simple way to tell who's getting the D nom is to see who the Big D Donors are contributing to.

It's gonna be either Warren or Biden. End of story. Period.

Could be both...
Biden/Warren.

Biden has already said he'd only serve one term (hahaha) which was his cute way of attracting a lesser candidate to join forces with him.

But Biden has said a lot of shit. He'll say anything.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:42 AM (ykiN+)

321 I'm also desperately waiting for season 2 of "The Boys," because already it quite obvious the show is NOT going to follow the plot of the book all that closely. Which is fine. Two stories in one!
-----------------

Exactly! I think this is a great thing, why worry about changes? the comics or books still exist too

of course I'm still salty about Jackson's changes to LOTR but that's different lol. his changes were BAD
Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:36 AM (Rarvo)

Ha! Yes, LOTR is different.

I started reading "Walking Dead" after I had started watching the show, and found myself way out in front of the series.

Yes, it differs greatly there too... and then at one point I just decided I wasn't all that interested in either one. So I have no idea where the show is now, and no interest in finishing the book.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:44 AM (hku12)

322 Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:38 AM (ykiN+)
-----
"Wacky and Impertinent" is my middle name.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:44 AM (jW9oF)

323 But Biden has said a lot of shit. He'll say anything.

Moron Joey B is clearly a placeholder

I don't trust the Dems

Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 11:45 AM (Rarvo)

324
Big Banks love Warren, right?
Which is funny, no?

Yeah, it's gonna be either biden or warren.
biden/warren
biden/buttsex
warren/buttsex
biden/harris
warren/klobuchar
biden/klobuchar
satan/biden
satan/warren

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:45 AM (ykiN+)

325
Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?
Posted by: cool breeze at January 19, 2020 11:41 AM (UGKMd)

False choice. They should be supervised by parents or the parents should pay for the district's Extended Day Program. Pushing them off on the library staff, screaming and yelling, and running in and out is not a "good thing", and they can do the same things in the library, in the library bathrooms, or behind the damn place that they can do by "the railroad tracks", especially as the library is near these same tracks.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 11:45 AM (FDGTP)

326 The Dems best hope is Biden. Sad, isn't it?

Posted by: still freaked out by those pants at January 19, 2020 11:46 AM (Tnijr)

327
Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?

Posted by: cool breeze

The tracks.
Or the woods. I don't care.

Hey, about kids hang out at home? Weird, I know.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:46 AM (ykiN+)

328 So now its back to screwing up Alabama elections.
Posted by: Jeffrey Beauregard Sessionzzz III at January 19, 2020 11:34 AM (UGKMd)

Swing by Denny's off of I-65 and sign my yearbook and watch the hair go aflame.

Posted by: TattedTeen Waitress at January 19, 2020 11:46 AM (Z+IKu)

329
We used to hang out in the neighborhood. So close to our homes we could hear our mums yell at us to get our asses home RIGHT NOW!

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:47 AM (ykiN+)

330 Fun fact: The movie theater inside the Library of Congress is named after Mary Pickford. Most, if not all, of the films they show are free and open to the general public with an advance reservation.

Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 11:48 AM (pXNaM)

331 Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?

Posted by: cool breeze

The tracks.
Or the woods. I don't care.

Hey, about kids hang out at home? Weird, I know.
Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:46 AM (ykiN+)

But how are they going to learn twerking from trannies if they don't go to the libarry?

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:48 AM (hku12)

332 Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?

Posted by: cool breeze
-----
The railroad tracks ran right by my house. The most daring thing me and my friends did was put pennies on the tracks for the train to squash.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:48 AM (jW9oF)

333 The Dems best hope is Biden. Sad, isn't it?

-
If only they hadn't banned straws they could grasp at straws.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:48 AM (+y/Ru)

334 The Dems best hope is Biden. Sad, isn't it?

If Mooch doesn't get the nom, will she take her balls and go home ?

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 11:50 AM (arJlL)

335
Let me be clear: I do not care about Other People's kids.

That, of course, excludes kids belonging to People I Know, including the people living inside my computer.

I do not care about "kids" in the general or "old people" in the general. I care about people I know (in the specific).

Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:50 AM (ykiN+)

336 Colossal Chode/ Smelly Taint 2020

Posted by: squirrelly dan at January 19, 2020 11:51 AM (V150o)

337 Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?
Posted by: cool breeze at January 19, 2020 11:41 AM (UGKMd)

Kids still hang out by the railroad tracks?

Posted by: Frozen Surfperch at January 19, 2020 11:51 AM (BQBIT)

338 The Donks should run Buttigieg/Biden. Butch Buttigieg and the Sundown Kid.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:52 AM (+y/Ru)

339 Hey, about kids hang out at home? Weird, I know.
Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:46 AM (ykiN+)

Yes. And the local district even subsidizes the Extended Day program for the few people who can't pay for it. It also has an impressive array of clubs, sports, and enrichment classes (chess, art, robotics) at very low prices for parents who can't be home, or choose not to be, to meet their offspring.

The library is NOT the mecca for studious kiddos, it's the loud, obnoxious ones, who'd be watching the internet porn with the urine soaked hoboes, if we had those, and we don't yet. The studious ones show up later in the evening or remain in school for enrichment. The parents do not want for choices.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 11:52 AM (FDGTP)

340 Next trip to used book store will see if I can find a Gaiman book, just for the curiosity.

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 11:52 AM (ZCEU2)

341 The Dems best hope is Biden. Sad, isn't it?

If Mooch doesn't get the nom, will she take her balls and go home ?

Posted by: JT at January 19, 2020 11:50 AM (arJlL)

She'll take everyone's balls and go home.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at January 19, 2020 11:52 AM (9Om/r)

342 This kids at the library talk sounds like Midnight Basketball with books to me.

Maybe we can get 'em a healthy school lunch while they're there. If it only saves one child - it's worth it.

Posted by: Shit Happens at January 19, 2020 11:52 AM (fK4Z3)

343 The Donks should run Buttigieg/Biden. Butch Buttigieg and the Sundown Kid.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 11:52 AM (+y/Ru)

Biden can't run in the VP slot, he's term limited. He could theoretically be appointed VP midway through a term, but he cannot run for the position.

Posted by: Frozen Surfperch at January 19, 2020 11:54 AM (BQBIT)

344

Veeps are term limited?

Posted by: Rabbi Soothsayer at January 19, 2020 11:56 AM (ILtSa)

345 >>>Biden can't run in the VP slot, he's term limited. He could
theoretically be appointed VP midway through a term, but he cannot run
for the position.

Are there term limits for VP? Really?

Posted by: Miley, the Duchess at January 19, 2020 11:57 AM (rCwaK)

346

A president is limited to 10 years.

Posted by: Rabbi Soothsayer at January 19, 2020 11:57 AM (ILtSa)

347 Betting odds right now say Biden or Bernie tied at around 33%, with Pocohontas and Bloomberg far back and tied at 13%. Pocahontas has been fading since October and and Buttplug has been fading since December (now only 8%).

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/ betting_odds/democratic_2020_nomination/
[remove the line break]

Posted by: cool breeze at January 19, 2020 11:57 AM (UGKMd)

348 Let me be clear: I do not care about Other People's kids.

That, of course, excludes kids belonging to People I Know, including the people living inside my computer.

I do not care about "kids" in the general or "old people" in the general. I care about people I know (in the specific).
Posted by: Soothsayer, with Arms Akimbo at January 19, 2020 11:50 AM (ykiN+)

I will occasionally have this conversation with a friend of mine, because we differ vastly, on politics...

I love humans, the people I know. Love them, and would do anything for them. What I hate is humanity... well, hate is maybe too strong a word. Sometimes. Humanity is shite, and any/all efforts to improve it are bound to fail. So many people on the political left, who are NOT raging lefty commies, beat their heads against the wall because they can't quite understand that basic concept.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:58 AM (hku12)

349 Why can't these punks hang out in the alleyway outside the pool hall and pitch pennies, like we did?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 11:59 AM (Dc2NZ)

350 A president is limited to 10 years.

For TFG I'd prefer 25 to life.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at January 19, 2020 11:59 AM (NWiLs)

351 Hopefully if the Democrats and cucks get their wish Biden is a dead man walking even for Democrats.

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 11:59 AM (ZCEU2)

352 Are there term limits for VP? Really?

Posted by: Miley, the Duchess at January 19, 2020 11:57 AM (rCwaK)

For VP, no, although no one has served than more two full terms (Cheney and Gore, as examples).

Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 12:00 PM (pXNaM)

353 Reading Mystery of the Mind by Dr. Wilder Penfield.

He was a Canadian-American surgeon who was a pioneer in epilepsy surgery ss well as mapping the functions of the brain.

He also went from being an atheist to believing in a spiritual realm as a result of his research into consciousness versus the physical brain.

He's also a Sharkman relative. Which is cool but of minor importance compared to his work.

Posted by: Sharkman at January 19, 2020 12:00 PM (whGSy)

354 So many people on the political left, who are NOT raging lefty commies, beat their heads against the wall because they can't quite understand that basic concept.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:58 AM (hku12)

Many of them have read little of actual communist states, and only see it through the utopian lens. Everyone will be at their financial level or they all will rise, people with more will gladly for it over and we will all dance and be happy.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 12:01 PM (FDGTP)

355 I did like Star Ship Troopers the book. I did watch the show scene from the movie.

Did not finish the rest even as a B horror movie fan I found the bugs to silly to be scary.

Posted by: Big V Caffeinated at January 19, 2020 12:03 PM (B06Zw)

356 If I see both, am I a psychopath

Posted by: Jean at January 19, 2020 12:04 PM (nffpz)

357
My wife recommends "The Professor and the Madman" aka "The Surgeon of Crowthorne". It is about the making of the first edition of the Oxford dictionary with over 10,000 entries coming from a mental patient.

Mel Gibson made a movie of this book, but got into a lawsuit with the production company because of production values, he lost and then recommended nobody see it. Seems unfortunate if the story is as good as my wife says.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at January 19, 2020 12:04 PM (r+sAi)

358 The face of the opposition.

https://bit.ly/38k7Mfz

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 12:04 PM (+y/Ru)

359 297
You gotta computer
I wanna use that computer right there
Maybe we can make a deal
Maybe you can stop masturbating for 5 seconds
This is the only open computer
Start zipping up, you got nothing to lose
There's a bottle of Mad Dog in it for you
I gotta print out this stuff from Wikipedia for my homework
Posted by: Tracy Chapman " Masturbating drunks watching porn on the computers" at January 19, 2020 11:32 AM (T+nBE)

Well played, sir. Captures her style well.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 12:05 PM (MRoRq)

360 made the kids watch The Faculty last night - forgot Jon Stewart was an actor in it!!!

that movie holds up fine. decent film adaptation of The Puppet Masters, and good schlocky work from Rodriguez directing

it's fun

Posted by: BlackOrchid, Wanna-Be Ukrainian Asset at January 19, 2020 12:06 PM (Rarvo)

361 Are there term limits for VP? Really?

Posted by: Miley, the Duchess at January 19, 2020 11:57 AM (rCwaK)

For VP, no, although no one has served than more two full terms (Cheney and Gore, as examples).
Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 12:00 PM (pXNaM)

Strange mental connection:

Once upon a time, baseball limited MVP honors only to players who had never won it before. There are fellas like George Herman Ruth, who WOULD have won it multiple times, but didn't because of this limit. And they changed the voting several times in the early years, before settling on the format that exists today.

I think people were under the impression that a player could NOT win it more than 3 times in his career, because nobody had won a 4th, although a few players had accumulated 3 over the years.

Then along came Steroid Barry. Bonds won... what is it, like 7 of the damned things?

So yeah, no. No term limits on Veeps.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:06 PM (hku12)

362 American Gods and Neverwhere are good books. Coroline is a good young-person book.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at January 19, 2020 12:07 PM (LxTcq)

363 A president is only two terms, but a God Emperor is for life. Look it up.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at January 19, 2020 12:08 PM (LxTcq)

364 Are there term limits for VP? Really?

Posted by: Miley, the Duchess at January 19, 2020 11:57 AM (rCwaK)

Not according to the 22nd Amendment, but the Constitution is really just advisory...

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 19, 2020 12:09 PM (XAt25)

365 Not according to the 22nd Amendment, but the Constitution is really just advisory...

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 19, 2020 12:09 PM (XAt25)

Those Fed. agency "Dear Colleague" letters carry much more weight.

Posted by: BignJames at January 19, 2020 12:11 PM (X/Pw5)

366 So many people on the political left, who are NOT raging lefty commies, beat their heads against the wall because they can't quite understand that basic concept.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:58 AM (hku12)

Many of them have read little of actual communist states, and only see it through the utopian lens. Everyone will be at their financial level or they all will rise, people with more will gladly for it over and we will all dance and be happy.
Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 12:01 PM (FDGTP)

Yeah, my friend learned everything she "knows" about economics in college, and has spent the past 15 years having her opinions insulated within the same usual sources.

She gets upset when I challenge her, and tries to "educate" me on the ways of the world. So I avoid these conversations if I can. It doesn't bother me to be condescended to, but I'm just not willing to engage in a discussion with someone as close minded as that.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:12 PM (hku12)

367 Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?

Posted by: cool breeze at January 19, 2020 11:41 AM (UGKMd)

I grew up around 100 yards from a very small town library. Very small, like deli size. You had to pretty much go outside to turn the pages. It finally closed when somebody stole the book. 2 blocks in the other direction were train tracks that had what we called "the trails" along side them that also branched off into the woods, which was perfect for dirt bikes. The librarian was a younger chick with huuuge tracks of land. In our case we hung at both the library, and the train tracks.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at January 19, 2020 12:12 PM (9Om/r)

368 Finished

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey. Pretty good but not sure I will spring for The Rainbow Trail which is the follow up.

Romance read of the week
The Devils Daughter by Lisa Kleypas. Ehh this one is a B+. Liked but did not love.

Posted by: MMcK at January 19, 2020 12:13 PM (xHxJf)

369 legalinsurrection.com/too stupid for words nbc news op-ed claims voting-for-trump not only racist but unconstitutional

Ace got a plug

Posted by: Skip at January 19, 2020 12:14 PM (ZCEU2)

370 239
. I mean, come on! Denise Richards is the smart one?? That's freakin' hilarious.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 11:03 AM (hku1

------

But she looks good in a tight tank-top and shorts, cf. "The World Is Not Enough".

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 11:06 AM (jW9oF)

She is looking less good nowadays, with the work she has done on her face.
She is on Bold and the Beautiful nearly every day as Shauna.

Unrecognizable.

Posted by: anchorbabe fashion cop at January 19, 2020 12:15 PM (ufFY8)

371 She is looking less good nowadays, with the work she has done on her face.
She is on Bold and the Beautiful nearly every day as Shauna.

Unrecognizable.

Posted by: anchorbabe fashion cop at January 19, 2020 12:15 PM (ufFY

-----
Sad. She was a pretty girl.

Same thing with Melanie Griffith. Worked over until she looks nothing like she was. I do not understand the impulse for that.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 12:17 PM (jW9oF)

372 A president is only two terms, but a God Emperor is for life. Look it up.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at January 19, 2020 12:08 PM (LxTcq)

Now that we're easing out of the Kennedy worship, and the Clinton worship ain't what it used to be, at least so far the Obama worship that we can expect for decades to come hasn't really reached down to the kids so far. I'm of the opinion the Obama daughters will be in the limelight on the occasion but otherwise don't care for it, nor do I think either of them will run for political office.

Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 12:18 PM (pXNaM)

373 She gets upset when I challenge her, and tries to "educate" me on the ways of the world. So I avoid these conversations if I can. It doesn't bother me to be condescended to, but I'm just not willing to engage in a discussion with someone as close minded as that.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:12 PM (hku12)

I am beginning to think Solzhenitsyn books are largely hard to find in order to hide the realities of utopian dreams. Burny boys can believe the gulags are falsely represented if there is minimal access to or encouragement to read the truth of the matter. I was recently told by someone who should now better that the famine in Ukraine was a sad accident of weather and was not the least bit influenced by the Bolsheviks. The person was not familiar with the word "kulak"

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 12:18 PM (FDGTP)

374 New post. Wonder what the condensed version would be.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:18 PM (hku12)

375 Finishing up "Collapse" by Schlichter.

Then it is off to "From Under the Rubble". It's a collection of essays from a half dozen Russian dissidents from the Soviet Union including Solzhenitsyn.

I'm especially interested in the essay(s) from Igor Shafarevich, as he was a Russian mathmetician and dissident with a deep understanding of socialism and its roots going way back.

Posted by: Sapwolf at January 19, 2020 12:19 PM (nuv3n)

376 There is a nood above, but I don't think the doors open until 2:30?

Posted by: OldDominionMom at January 19, 2020 12:19 PM (dH/BH)

377 376: Fine by me

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 12:19 PM (FDGTP)

378

People in a southern Puerto Rico city discovered a warehouse filled with water, cots and other unused emergency supplies, then set off a social media uproar Saturday when they broke in to retrieve goods as the area struggles to recover from a strong earthquake.

With anger spreading in the U.S. territory after video of the event in Ponce appeared on Facebook, Gov. Wanda Vazquez quickly fired the director of the island's emergency management agency.

The governor said she had ordered an investigation after learning the emergency supplies had been piled in the warehouse since Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico in September 2017.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Blame Trump. That always works.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at January 19, 2020 12:19 PM (aKsyK)

379 Warren: I'm the only one running with executive experience

-
I thought Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were the chiefs at the Little Big Horn.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at January 19, 2020 12:21 PM (+y/Ru)

380 Sitting here looking at a well worn book in the bookcase. "Lydia Bailey" by Kenneth Roberts. My Dad, who, for reasons, never made it to the 8th grade, read it multiple times. Never thought of him as a romantic. I read it once a long time ago. Might have to give it a read again.

Posted by: NOT THAT GUY at January 19, 2020 12:21 PM (MIkft)

381 She is looking less good nowadays, with the work she has done on her face.
She is on Bold and the Beautiful nearly every day as Shauna.

Unrecognizable.

Posted by: anchorbabe fashion cop at January 19, 2020 12:15 PM (ufFY
-----
Sad. She was a pretty girl.

Same thing with Melanie Griffith. Worked over until she looks nothing like she was. I do not understand the impulse for that.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at January 19, 2020 12:17 PM (jW9oF)

Body dysphoria is real, and it's not fabulous!

Because yeah, chopping off one's peener is not the only way people with this type of mental illness manifest themselves.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:21 PM (hku12)

382 Body dysphoria is real, and it's not fabulous!

Because yeah, chopping off one's peener is not the only way people with this type of mental illness manifest themselves.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:21 PM (hku12)

Ditto the anorexics' belief that they are obese at 83lbs. But it is out of vogue to treat delusion as delusion. It must be seen as a societal problem and the ill are victims.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 12:23 PM (FDGTP)

383 This comment's probably willowed, but Tom, I also miss Gharlane a lot too. He was a nice guy.

Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain, trying not to be Unemployed in Greenland at January 19, 2020 12:25 PM (dwojT)

384 I'm of the opinion the Obama daughters will be in the limelight on the occasion but otherwise don't care for it, nor do I think either of them will run for political office.
Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 12:18 PM (pXNaM)

That's why I cringe when I see conservative snark directed at them. Not often, but it does happen. Until they start inserting themselves into the national discussion, like Chelsea Clinton, they should be left alone. Just like I want the other side to leave Barron Trump alone.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 12:25 PM (MRoRq)

385 Body dysphoria, what's that

Posted by: Bot Tox Nanner at January 19, 2020 12:25 PM (B7KlG)

386 ody dysphoria is real, and it's not fabulous!

Because yeah, chopping off one's peener is not the only way people with this type of mental illness manifest themselves.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:21 PM (hku12)

Ditto the anorexics' belief that they are obese at 83lbs. But it is out of vogue to treat delusion as delusion. It must be seen as a societal problem and the ill are victims.
Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 12:23 PM (FDGTP)

I recall hearing a few years ago, they were using a DBT approach with some astounding success, treating people with anorexia.

I wonder if it's even allowed anymore. How DARE you suggest my behavior should not be rewarded....

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:30 PM (hku12)

387 I'm of the opinion the Obama daughters will be in the limelight on the occasion but otherwise don't care for it, nor do I think either of them will run for political office.
Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 12:18 PM (pXNaM)

That's why I cringe when I see conservative snark directed at them. Not often, but it does happen. Until they start inserting themselves into the national discussion, like Chelsea Clinton, they should be left alone. Just like I want the other side to leave Barron Trump alone.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 12:25 PM (MRoRq)

Apparently The Huntsman is running for some office again, and one of his daughters, who was on one of those insipid tv shows, quit her job there to go work for her dad, The Huntsman, on his campaign.

I don't know anything else about anything else, but I do know The Huntsman, for all his faults, did manage to sire five astonishingly good looking daughters.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:33 PM (hku12)

388 Apparently The Huntsman is running for some office
again, and one of his daughters, who was on one of those insipid tv
shows, quit her job there to go work for her dad, The Huntsman, on his
campaign.

I don't know anything else about anything else, but I do know The
Huntsman, for all his faults, did manage to sire five astonishingly good
looking daughters.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:33 PM (hku12)

Governor of Utah. Although there is speculation his daughter Abby quit the The View (same show that has Meghan McCain) because she didn't want to be there anymore and going to work for Dad's campaign was a decent-enough excuse.

Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 12:39 PM (pXNaM)

389 Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:33 PM (hku12)

Governor of Utah. Although there is speculation his daughter Abby quit the The View (same show that has Meghan McCain) because she didn't want to be there anymore and going to work for Dad's campaign was a decent-enough excuse.
Posted by: Vendette at January 19, 2020 12:39 PM (pXNaM)

Hasn't Utah suffered enough?

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:40 PM (hku12)

390 I think the Battle of the Somme rightly weighs heavy on the British mind.

It isn't every day that you lose 60,000 men, 20,000 of them killed, in just 24 hours.

Kinda focuses the attention.

Posted by: Sharkman at January 19, 2020 12:42 PM (whGSy)

391 I recall hearing a few years ago, they were using a DBT approach with some astounding success, treating people with anorexia.

I wonder if it's even allowed anymore. How DARE you suggest my behavior should not be rewarded....
Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:30 PM (hku12)

Anorexia is a cagey, refractory thing, and many anorexics will do a lot to get out of the hospital and resume starving. Behavioral therapy works for behaviors, and for those who have starved and not achieved the desired outcome, but when the person truly sees a fat person in the mirror, or believes that another 5lb loss will lead to bliss, it's more of a struggle/battle. And it is sort of like the plastic surgery addicts who think that next operation will lead to youth or love or some other reward.

Back in the day we kick started them with medication to help them eat. But now courts are less likely to accept that starvation brings about an imminent threat.

Posted by: CN at January 19, 2020 12:53 PM (FDGTP)

392 This is one of the threads which I always look forward to, and I learn something new every week! I enjoy reading about all of your various interests and recommendations. And I concur with Sgt. Mom, most of the ideas to check out interesting books have gotten from this thread.

As a very young mother many moons ago, I picked up a copy of "The Source", at the local library, as my boss at the time had met Michener at a Super Bowl party and remarked what an interesting person he was. I had heard of him, so thought I'd check it out. Although it took me a while to get into it, I couldn't put it down. Took it to the pool with the kids, and read it while they took their naps. I look at earthen mounds quite differently now, and wonder what history lies beneath their layers.

Am currently reading "The Pioneers" by David McCullough, and had never heard of the "Northwest Territory" - which I naively thought was further west than the Marietta, Ohio area. The courage, sacrifice and perseverence that these pioneers displayed are something to be admired and deserve to be told.

One of my favorite books that I've read about people who really lived is Laura Hilenbrand's book "Unbroken". When I realized that she had never met any of these people in real life due to illness and her inability to leave her home, it blew me away. I still cry like a baby when I read the part where he turns his life to Christ while at a Billy Graham revival. To me, she brought Louis's story to life - phenomenal.

During these cold, snowy, dreary days on the wind-swept prairie, these books sweep me up in their stories, and provide opportunities to learn and gain insight. When we lost power last spring for 5 days due to an ice storm, I read "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose - my husband got the generator fired up, and then we could plug in a few things to keep warm and have some sense of civilization. One was a lamp that I could read by. Made the time go much quicker! He just used the time to go back and forth to get gas to keep it filled and running- poor guy!

Posted by: misslurk'ette at January 19, 2020 12:58 PM (GDpRb)

393 For a good follow up on the David Marquet book, watch this video.

https://tinyurl.com/kch2pq4

It is an illustrated lecture.

Awesome and entertaining.

Posted by: sippin_bourbon at January 19, 2020 01:01 PM (nTCeM)

394 327 Would you rather the kids hang out after school with the kids at the library or the kids down by the railroad tracks?

Posted by: cool breeze

I really hate the "would you rather" scenarios because they always pair two bad choices. I swear the worst I heard was at college: "Would you rather an underage girl have a safe abortion or have her boyfriend whack her in the stomach with a baseball bat?" Um, neither?

Our library is on a dead-end canal, so in the war months the kids can check out fishing poles and tackle boxes. The bait is supplied by a nearby air shop. There are also puppets the kids can check out (at least for now).

Most of the pseudo-babysitting happens in the summer. Not the usual druggies or welfare folks; they lock their kid out so they don't come home to find a bunch of neighbor kids in the liquor cabinet or generally snooping.

392 This is one of the threads which I always look forward to, and I learn something new every week! ... Posted by: misslurk'ette at January 19, 2020

I loved your whole comment! I can practically feel the cold prairie wind.

The gardening and book threads are my favorites, although they tempt me to purchase plants and books.

My book this week was "How to Live on Almost Nothing and Have Plenty" which someone recommended recently. It's not something I would normally read, but I like the author philosophy, and the sections on beekeeping and goats are interesting.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at January 19, 2020 01:20 PM (/+bwe)

395 Hasn't Utah suffered enough?

Posted by: BurtTC at January 19, 2020 12:40 PM (hku12)

No. Those idiots knowingly inflicted Romney on the rest of the country. They deserve all the RINO Meade Hunstman, Jeff Flake, Meggie Mac, Paul Ryan, John Kasich and Evan McMuffin they can get.

And Zombie John McCain sideways with a pineapple

Posted by: cool breeze at January 19, 2020 01:27 PM (UGKMd)

396 Here's a 13-minute film on the USS Nautilus's trip beneath the North Pole:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z10Oyt4HZfU

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 01:58 PM (Dc2NZ)

397 You people put me to shame with all your fancy book-learnin. I read junk, for thrills. I just finished John Sandford's Neon Prey, something like his 23rd book in the Prey series. This one was pretty good. It had a cannibal and a detective team named Bob and Ray. Old people might get that.

Posted by: grammie winger at January 19, 2020 02:27 PM (lwiT4)

398 Check out what's on the shelf at Pulp Librarian:

https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 02:43 PM (Dc2NZ)

399 I am currently reading "Endurance" by astronaut Scott Kelly, and quite frankly, I am struggling with it. He is a bit of a grumpy bear, and it's not holding my interest the way other astronauts' biographies have. I think I would have given up by now except that I am told there was an incident with one of the Russians becoming untethered during a spacewalk, and I'm hanging in there for that. Having to listen to Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" while waiting for the Soyuz to launch must have been unnerving.

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at January 19, 2020 03:27 PM (THS4q)

400 398 Check out what's on the shelf at Pulp Librarian:
https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 19, 2020 02:43 PM (Dc2NZ)

My main source for books they don't publish anymore.

By the way, I almost named today's book "Erin's Bad Date."

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Austere Religious Scholar at January 19, 2020 04:01 PM (ZyZCb)

401 Aztec by Gary Jennings is fantastic...but his greatest book is The Journeyer about the life of Marco Polo. It is one of the best historical fictions ever!

Posted by: Naplesjan at January 19, 2020 04:28 PM (iLkwP)

402 Letters From Russia 1919Peter Ouspenski

http://baytallaah.com/bookspdf/81.pdf

Posted by: 13times at January 19, 2020 04:42 PM (K3B2k)

403 "The Ice Diaries" - I'll have to check into that one. Back so, so many aeons ago, when I was just a lad of perhaps 11 years old I purchased a book The Challenge of Ice. It recounted the stories of the Erebus Terror, the conquest of the North Pole, Byrd's tragic expedition to the South Pole, the voyage of the Nautilus to the North Pole under the ice, and other stories. It was a fascinating book for that 11-year-old kid. You bet I still have that book.

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at January 19, 2020 05:58 PM (17+9D)

404 Erebus and Terror.
It seems that I no longer have ampersand privilege. Sad.

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at January 19, 2020 06:00 PM (17+9D)

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