Sunday Morning Book Thread 09-14-2014: Lies of Our Time [OregonMuse]

Truth

(Displayed above is Guernica by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque village in northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War.)

To Tell the Truth

The 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War is one of the progressive left's big Noble Causes that they remember fondly and always write about in warm, glowing terms. It's right up there in the left's pantheon next to the civil rights movement. With what turned into a brutal military dictatorship on one side, and a motley collection of rat bastard commies on the other, it's one of those wars where you wish both sides would lose. Naturally, the international left lent their full support to the rat bastard commies and large numbers of them went to Spain to fight. A bunch of American lefties went, too, including some famous ones like Ernest Hemingway. Some in the liberal contingent, such as the authors John Dos Passos and George Orwell, grew very disillusioned when they saw the rat bastard commies behaving like rat bastard commies. And Orwell's famous novels '1984' and 'Animal Farm' grew out of what he saw happening in Spain.

All of these things are discussed in Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill. An interview with the author is here. She's no conservative, but the book might be interesting, as she is more interested in who;s "telling the truth".

Also, she says Hemingway was a KGB agent:

But in 1937, when [Hemingway] was...writing the script for Joris Ivens's documentary film, The Spanish Earth, Ivens had tried to enlist him as a propagandist, and possibly more, for the Communist Party, which had been supporting the Spanish government against Franco's rebels. And according to internal KGB files studied by a former Soviet agent, Alexander Vassiliev, Hemingway was recruited by the KGB in 1941 and given the code-name "Argo." It was hoped he could report on Nazi activity in Cuba and the Caribbean during World War II, but he never generated any useful intelligence and his cover was terminated in 1950.

So apparently, Ernest Hemingway was a KGB agent, but a lousy one.

'A' Is For Apocalypse

Here is a semi-amusing list of children's books for the modern age. Some of these are rather ham-handed, but riffing on children's books should be relatively easy, I would think.

Well, I Guess This Is Good

According to this, there are more public libraries than McDonald's restaurants. The raw numbers are 16,766 (libraries)to 14,157 (McDoos).

People, people, don't we have room for both?

I Have Seen The Future And It Sucks

I guess I should have known this day was coming:

Florida Polytechnic University is so new that it has only been open for a few days...The main building is the Innovation, Science and Technology Building, which is where most of the 500 new students will spend their time in class. Its second floor includes the Commons, an area that includes its library services.

The Commons does have librarians and Internet connections to all the standard electronic resources of a university library. It provides access to a digital catalog that launched with 135,000 e-books. But take a look around the room, and it's completely bookless.

135,000 books doesn't sound like a lot, not for a university where serious research needs to be done. Don't most universities have libraries comprising millions of volumes, or is that just the big boys?

But the idea of the new Florida Polytechnic library is to move away from paper. Printers for articles accessed online are available but not encouraged. Instead, the staff hopes students will organize their research online with tools that are part of the library service.

I'm still a bit skeptical. I know much material has been digitized, and maybe it's enough for a freshman term paper, but for senior and graduate-level research, I can't imagine that every source you would conceivably need has been made available online.

Cool, Man

Air-conditioning is something most of us take for granted. But the world would be a quite different place without it, says author Salvatore Basile in his new book Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything.

For example:

2. In 1736, the English House of Commons was cooled by a seven-foot, hand-cranked "blowing wheel." The man at the crank was known as the Ventilator.

Heh. That just sounds funny.

10. If you tried to buy an in-window air-conditioning unit in the 1940s, you'd spend about about $350 in 1940s money, which in today's dollars is almost $3,500.

I'm thinking that the invention of the refrigerated freight car so that cattle could be slaughtered before being driven to market meant that a lot of cowboys had to find other lines of work.

And I can't imagine what is would have been like living in states like Texas or Georgia or Louisiana before the days of air conditioning. I guess you just sweated a lot. When Mrs. Muse and I were first married, we lived in an upstairs apartment without air conditioning, so on really hot days, we set up a bowl of ice cubes in front of a table fan, and that helped some. But I'm definitely spoiled on modern conveniences.

Maybe There's Some Hope

Millennials read more books than their elders, Pew study finds:

According to the report, 88% of Americans 16 to 29 years old have read at least one book in the past year, compared with 79% of people 30 and older.

And millennials who read aren't just picking up one book. "Among younger Americans who did read at least one book, the median or typical number read in the past year was 10," the report adds.

Anecdotally, I find this hard to believe. Every time I see a gaggle of milennials standing around, they're usually all fiddling with their smart phones, or texting each other. I wonder how that kind of flipping around is affecting their attention spans.

You. Get off my lawn.

Actually, I shouldn't talk. I had to make a concerted effort to start reading books again a few years ago when I suddenly realized I was spending all my free time surfing the internet, and not really reading anything of sustained length or depth.

The Japanese Have A Word For It

On one of those lists of 'untranslatable' words, I found the word tsundoku which is described 'the act of leaving a book unread, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.'

Not that, ahem, any of us on this thread would, ahem, know anything about this sort of pathological behavior.

So how many unread books do you think you have? I'm not going to tell you the number I've come up with for myself, it's too embarrassing.

This LA Times piece tells of a man in Sacramento who donated 500 boxes of books - many of them unread - to a local library. It was approximately 13,000 volumes. Now that's some serious hoarding.

On shelfari.com, there's a Compulsive Book Hoarders Group, but I think it's probably just the tongue-in-cheek name of a chat group for bibliophiles.

On the bright side, I tell myself, I'm not so bad, at least I'm not hoarding cats.

What I'm Reading

I am very much enjoying Kali's Children by Craig Allen, which I first heard about from a moron commenter, I forget who it was, but thank you, who posted a big list of science fiction authors who were discounting some of their books. It's a good space yarn: the book opens aboard a starship that has taken heavy damage from some unknown source and is trying to make a soft landing on an alien planet, with mixed success. It crash lands in an ocean, 50 feet down and the survivors have to figure out how to get to the surface and to survive, which is difficult because they're being continually attacked by whatever strange creatures live on that planet. And then they discover evidence of a starship from a decade-old war that was presumed lost in battle, and so they have to go find it. As of when I'm typing this, the Kindle version is $2.99

___________

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

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:49 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Fustest with the mostest

Posted by: Buddha at September 14, 2014 09:44 AM (3CczE)

2 So apparently, Ernest Hemingway was a KGB agent, but a lousy one.

I new there was a reason I never liked Hemingway.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 09:50 AM (T2V/1)

3 The Spanish "civil war", like WWII to follow, was only supported by the American Left once war had been declared against the USSR.

Feh. That history was written long ago.

Posted by: anon a mouse at September 14, 2014 09:51 AM (gXRIG)

4 So apparently, Ernest Hemingway was a KGB agent, but a lousy one.

Drunks make bad spies.

Posted by: toby928(C) Free Mike Hammer! at September 14, 2014 09:53 AM (rwI+c)

5 i've never liked hemingway.....

Posted by: phoenixgirl @phxazgrl at September 14, 2014 09:53 AM (u8GsB)

6 The Raft, by Robert Trumbull.

About three American fliers surviving 34 days in an open raft, after crash-landing in the Pacific early in WWII.

Fun fact: Early in the war we were letting E-7s fly scout bombers. That's "old Navy" right there.

Posted by: Sharkman at September 14, 2014 09:53 AM (T2b2i)

7 Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything.

I remember back in the 50s before we had A/C. People sat out on the front porch in the evenings and greeted neighbors. Nobody does that anymore.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 09:53 AM (T2V/1)

8 Beevor's "The Battle for Spain" and Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" are both excellent reads on the Spanish Civil War.

Posted by: Mark_E at September 14, 2014 09:55 AM (2eXCf)

9 never like jack london either.....

Posted by: phoenixgirl @phxazgrl at September 14, 2014 09:55 AM (u8GsB)

10 I've got four books that I've been "in the middle of reading" for months now. One of them, John C. Wright's _The Hermetic Millennia_, I simply misplaced, and now I'm likely to get done with it soon.

The other three just sit there, staring at me passive-aggressively.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 14, 2014 09:55 AM (rrNqT)

11 B4 the stores downtown had A/C they had what is called swamp coolers. A unit sat on top of the building and sprayed water onto a screen that circulated water through tubes in it. A fan blew air through those and into the store. All it did was increase the humidity which in the South was already high.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 09:55 AM (T2V/1)

12 I've always disliked that painting.

Speaking of unread books..., about 10 years ago I picked up a copy of Samuel Pepys diary. Finally started reading it last week.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 14, 2014 09:56 AM (F2IAQ)

13 Congress never stated in session in the summer, until they put A/C in. DC is built on a swamp and the humidity in the summer never goes below 113%.

It's been down hill ever since.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 09:56 AM (0FSuD)

14 Jack London was a Commie, or proto-Commie anyway, but as far as I know he never lied about it. He thought it was right and good and the wave of the future and never kept his views a secret. He was wrong, but not a liar.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 14, 2014 09:57 AM (rrNqT)

15 Somebody needs to summon the Corgis.

Also, will we have a gun thread today?

Posted by: Sharkman at September 14, 2014 09:57 AM (T2b2i)

16 A few years ago they put up a plaque to the Abraham Lincoln Brigades in SF. The commies kept whining about the anarchists defacing it. lol!

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 09:58 AM (iQIUe)

17 And what am I currently reading? I have started a re-read of Anne McCaffrey's Rowan series. Hadn't read it in a while and figured I would pick it up for the Kindle.

Just one problem. The first book in the series is not available for the Kindle but all the rest are. I found that strange. So I am reading my old paperback of the first one and will then pick up the rest for the Kindle. They are also reasonably priced,

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 09:59 AM (T2V/1)

18 When I think of the Spanish Civil War these days, I think of Clive Owen banging Nicole Kidman.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 09:59 AM (iQIUe)

19 There's a nifty Web site if you're interested in Samuel Pepys: his diary entries put up daily in blog format. You can find it here: http://www.pepysdiary.com

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 14, 2014 10:00 AM (rrNqT)

20 Oh, shit. Wrong thread.

Playing through.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at September 14, 2014 10:00 AM (wf76V)

21 I think the horde must be still asleep or tailgating.

Remember, any thread over 250 posts is automatically a gun thread. AoSHQ rule 13.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:01 AM (0FSuD)

22 Nice Elmore Leonard article at http://thebea.st/1uC4Vpn H/T - lucianne.com

Note: Despite the fact that Mike Lupica wrote it in 1987, it is well worth reading. Maybe his meds worked better back then.

Posted by: doug at September 14, 2014 10:01 AM (GlxNC)

23 I downloaded the Kindle version of The Last Bridge, but haven't read a word of it. I don't have a tablet and my desktop would be awkward on the can.

Posted by: toby928(C) Free Mike Hammer! at September 14, 2014 10:01 AM (rwI+c)

24 The Progs:

I still enjoy pissing on the stupid statue of Lenin the denizens of Fremont suffer in their midst.

Sigh, only in Seattle.

Posted by: Sharkman at September 14, 2014 10:02 AM (T2b2i)

25 I had to make a concerted effort to start reading books again a few years ago when I suddenly realized I was spending all my free time surfing the internet, and not really reading anything of sustained length or depth.

I'm still doing that, alas.

Like right now.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 10:02 AM (sdi6R)

26 @25

Alas, surfing has ruined my patience with books. Sad.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:04 AM (0FSuD)

27 Well, you have to say about Hemingway, in the end he Did The Right Thing.

I'll be damned if I'll follow that link but hey, did you know, on market day Guernica was the largest open arms market in Europe? Area famous for gunsmithing. Nazis weren't just after the women and children, after all. Well, some of those women and children may have been gunsmiths, so there is that.

The technology that led to air conditioning was 100% subsidized by the brewing industry, which was fresh out of cool caves to lager the new light-beer yeasts. So without beer, there would be no A/C. And the biologist who developed the yeast was named Sedlmaier, so maybe you could blame the Joos, too?

Posted by: Stringer Davis at September 14, 2014 10:05 AM (xq1UY)

28 I new there was a reason I never liked Hemingway.
Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 09:50 AM (T2V/1)

Considering how he died, he shared the same opinion

Posted by: Soona at September 14, 2014 10:05 AM (uzyD0)

29 I've only ever lived in two places where AC is absolutely essential - Seoul, ROK, and in Texas. I honestly don't know how people endured summers in Texas ... well, the houses were built with high ceilings, deep porches and tall windows oriented to catch a breeze. Sort of like in Athens; the off-shore breeze and a bit of shade were the A/C. Ogden, UT was hot in the summer - but a swamp cooler made everything bearable.
Some authorities have it that widespread AC was what turned the South from old-line Dem to Republican, what with people moving in from the North.

Speaking of books - still taking orders for Line Star Sons, at my website www.celiahayes.com - there's a page with a paypal button. Lone Star Sons will be released in mid-October, so all advance orders through my website will be mailed by October 8th.

YA adventure series, suitable for teenage boys of all ages - sort of like the Lone Ranger, but with the real history in 1840s Texas involved.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at September 14, 2014 10:05 AM (Asjr7)

30
People, people, don't we have room for both?

The library here has a KFC on one side, a sports bar on the other and a Culvers across the street. The McDonalds is a least a mile away.

Posted by: DaveA at September 14, 2014 10:05 AM (DL2i+)

31 swamp coolers

Swamp coolers work fine in places like Albuquerque, where the humidity never gets above 5%, even in the rain. Otherwise, not so much.

Posted by: Fox2! at September 14, 2014 10:06 AM (cHwSy)

32 Trimegistus - Hmm. Thanks

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 14, 2014 10:06 AM (F2IAQ)

33 Speaking of words, I've invented a new word. You know how when you have an iced drink and you're trying to drink the last bit so you tip the the glass up and all the ice crashes down into your mouth splashing whatever you're drinking all over your clothes? That's an "ice-alanche".

Posted by: Al Sharpton at September 14, 2014 10:08 AM (8MlTP)

34 The children's books updated for current times is sill. I think (Un-) Fortunately by Remy Charlip (one f my favorites) could easily be adapted to tell the story of Obama's presidency.

And count me as one of those who also should read more books, less internet. Sigh.

Posted by: Lizzy at September 14, 2014 10:08 AM (D/504)

35 I still enjoy pissing on the stupid statue of Lenin the denizens of Fremont suffer in their midst.

Sigh, only in Seattle.
Posted by: Sharkman at September 14, 2014 10:02 AM (T2b2i)

I guess one could buy them cheap in the early 90s. Not sure why anyone would glorify a guy who believed in genocide and that 10-20% of the population must be murdered just for starts.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:09 AM (iQIUe)

36 "I've only ever lived in two places where AC is absolutely essential -
Seoul, ROK, and in Texas. I honestly don't know how people endured
summers in Texas ..."

They just sucked it up. It was hot and that was that. Sit on the porch. Make some ice cream. Stay out of the house. Swim in a tank. Suck? Yeah.

Just the way it was and they liked it.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at September 14, 2014 10:09 AM (wf76V)

37 I grew up in New Orleans, and thinking about how people lived there before air conditioning is instructive. You understand why Yankees thought of Southerners as "slow-moving" and lazy -- because six months out of the year any vigorous exercise would leave you looking like you'd fallen in a pond.

And the fact that the region's economy was based on vigorous exercise (harvesting cotton and sugar) is ultimately the reason we had slavery.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 14, 2014 10:10 AM (rrNqT)

38 And the biologist who developed the yeast was named Sedlmaier, so maybe you could blame the Joos, too?

Posted by: Stringer Davis at September 14, 2014 10:05 AM (xq1UY)

I believe it was Bud that invented a cooling train car that they filled with ice blocks to ship beer around the country before pasteurization.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:10 AM (0FSuD)

39 Some authorities have it that widespread AC was what turned the South
from old-line Dem to Republican, what with people moving in from the
North.

No, what caused the South to turn Republican was the Democrat Party being completely taken over by anti-US commies claiming to be against "the war".

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 10:11 AM (T2V/1)

40 >>Not sure why anyone would glorify a guy who believed in genocide and
that 10-20% of the population must be murdered just for starts.

*Ahem*
Check out the link in the previous thread to Zombie's recent post on me!

Posted by: Magaret Sanger at September 14, 2014 10:11 AM (D/504)

41 Well if you're going to be a KGB agent, getting them to bankroll your mojitos in late 1940s Havana seems like the way to do it. By contrast with the State Department moles who DID give Stalin his money's worth.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at September 14, 2014 10:14 AM (3kZUM)

42 off to tucson to see my girl.....

Posted by: phoenixgirl @phxazgrl at September 14, 2014 10:14 AM (u8GsB)

43 A movie I liked about the Spanish Civil War is There Be Dragons.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 10:15 AM (8MlTP)

44 That pic up top is the worst photo of a library this thread has had yet. That's one of the modern no-books ones, I presume. What a mess.

-O-

Beating the heat without A/C isn't hard if you can stay wet and in front of a fan.

Folks who lived 'round here in the Olde Dayes tell me, "We didn't have some guy on the radio telling us every five minutes how hot it was. We just sat with a lemonade under a shade tree."

Oklahoma, Summer of 1980, never went below 85 and most days above 100 for six weeks. No A/C in the house. We slept on the roof, got up with the sun, went to (air-conditioned) work early, came home at sunset. Survival mode.

Then we moved to Chicago for that Winter… in time for their coldest night ever on record. Heh.

Posted by: mindful webworker at September 14, 2014 10:15 AM (PwYka)

45 I've never lived in the South, but my understanding is that before air conditioning, it was mostly rural and agriculture-oriented, and "backwards" compared to the more developed North. A/C changed all that.

I think many northern liberals still cling to those outdated notions, which explains their condescending attitude.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 10:16 AM (sdi6R)

46
Cecil Eby's Comrades and Commissars: the Lincoln Brigades, is also a very well written book. Lefties hate him b/c he didn't kiss commie ass and documented the abuses.

Fools would sign up for a 6 month stay. They took their passports for "safe keeping" but they were used by the Ruskies for espionage. When there time was up, they couldn't leave. And if they tried to leave, the were treated like deserters and shot.

The people who led these brigades were idiots who kept getting everyone killed. The head had some ROTC experience and another guy served in WWI and those were their military geniuses.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:16 AM (iQIUe)

47 Although air conditioning is nice, I suspect it's a large part of why we are all fat. We can sit inside snacking in front of our TV or computer. When houses were less climate controlled, you had to use calories to stay warm in winter, and you spent more time outdoors in summer. Super hot weather also tends to make people eat lighter (salads, watermelon).

Posted by: adolfo_velasquez at September 14, 2014 10:17 AM (whxbn)

48 On FOX, Kasparov is wearing seersucker after Labor Day. Where's Joan?

Jack London was a bigtime white supremacist and eugenicist, but did write one hell of a dog story. Or as lit crits used to say, "A man of his time."

Now your Pepys, there was a man of his time. When he wasn't diarizing, he rebuilt the Fleet, the upkeep of which had bankrupted the Government not once but twice in his lifetime, and wrote a poem or two when the situation called for it. And so, to bed.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at September 14, 2014 10:18 AM (xq1UY)

49 Texas still has "misters" that spray a mist on outdoor restaurant tables.

In the 60's most poor people had those fans that had water dripping over them to get some evaporation cooling.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:18 AM (0FSuD)

50 I have been reading God's Fury, England's Fire about the English Civil War. It's interesting but you have to be into the minutia of seventeenth century theological disputes.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 10:20 AM (8MlTP)

51 I remember back in the 50s before we had A/C. People sat out on the front porch in the evenings and greeted neighbors. Nobody does that anymore.

Good point. I hadn't thought about this. That's a change wrought by the introduction of A/C that is not necessarily good.

And welcome back, Vic, I've missed you these past few weeks.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 10:20 AM (yRdR4)

52 Texas still has "misters" that spray a mist on outdoor restaurant tables.

-
My wife bought a portable system for our garden parties. The dogs and the kids love it.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 10:22 AM (8MlTP)

53 Oklahoma, Summer of 1980, never went below 85 and most days above 100 for six weeks. No A/C in the house. We slept on the roof, got up with the sun, went to (air-conditioned) work early, came home at sunset. Survival mode.

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

Spent many a summer in OK without AC. The family spent many nights sleeping outside on cots. That was just the way it was. No one thought it was any extra hardship.

Posted by: Soona at September 14, 2014 10:23 AM (uzyD0)

54 Texas still has "misters" that spray a mist on outdoor restaurant tables.

I had never seen misters until I moved to Tucson. A mister on the Gulf Coast just adds to the humidity.

Posted by: no good deed at September 14, 2014 10:23 AM (w3a0Z)

55 @52

Yeah and they work. I was in AZ at a restaurant and had no idea what the hell they were. It was so dry the mist evaporates before it reaches the ground.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:23 AM (0FSuD)

56
Americans are usually pleasantly stunned to see the huge crowds out in the evenings walking in european cities. It's a real social thing.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:23 AM (iQIUe)

57 My millennial, 18 year old boy, loves reading. Just visited him at college yesterday and when we were buying groceries, he included two paperbacks.

Posted by: NCKate at September 14, 2014 10:24 AM (gNLkk)

58 Now your Pepys, there was a man of his time. When he wasn't diarizing, he rebuilt the Fleet, the upkeep of which had bankrupted the Government not once but twice in his lifetime, and wrote a poem or two when the situation called for it. And so, to bed.

And don't forget taking bribes, which he thanked God for, and banging a maidservant or two.

And so to bed, indeed.

(Dude was a Moron, I'm sure of it.)

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 10:24 AM (yRdR4)

59 And welcome back, Vic, I've missed you these past few weeks.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 10:20 AM (yRdR4)

Thanks. Those Fridays seem to carry over to Sunday a lot.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 10:25 AM (T2V/1)

60 no A/C...summer 1973 in Auburn AL..studying architecture
in Biggin (sp?) Hall...no A/C, just open windows. Had to position yourself "just right" to keep from dripping on your drawings...never became an architect...

Posted by: geezer der Mensch at September 14, 2014 10:25 AM (6aFlV)

61 57
My millennial, 18 year old boy, loves reading. Just visited him at
college yesterday and when we were buying groceries, he included two
paperbacks.

Posted by: NCKate at September 14, 2014 10:24 AM (gNLkk)

My oldest son also reads a lot of books. Real books, not ebooks.
He's a Dukie, so I am not surprised.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:25 AM (0FSuD)

62
Be careful...there is a green movement out there to ban AC. Some shit head in DC wrote op eds on it. What he doesn't tell you is that he escapes to his mtn cabin every summer. Everyone else is expected to sweat to death...

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:26 AM (iQIUe)

63 This is important. Hemingway did the Dutchman with a shotgun in his mouth. Now, was it a Parker or
L.C. Smith? We used to have gun threads around here.

Posted by: Billl at September 14, 2014 10:26 AM (N2A89)

64 This is important. Hemingway did the Dutchman with a shotgun in his mouth. Now, was it a Parker or
L.C. Smith? We used to have gun threads around here.

Posted by: Billl at September 14, 2014 10:26 AM (N2A89)

65 @63

He could afford a Prudy.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:27 AM (0FSuD)

66 "According to the report, 88% of Americans 16 to 29 years old have read
at least one book in the past year, compared with 79% of people 30 and
older."

One suspects that this survey is skewed by the fact that those in the 16 to 29 bracket are disproportionately more likely to be forced to read certain books by their high school and college courses.

A startling number of Americans stop reading with essentially permanent effect when they leave the education system and are no longer required to do so.

Posted by: torquewrench at September 14, 2014 10:29 AM (noWW6)

67 56
Americans are usually pleasantly stunned to see the huge crowds out in the evenings walking in european cities. It's a real social thing.
Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:23 AM (iQIUe)

On Sunday everyone dresses up and takes a walk in the forest. There's some really cool little gasthauses out in the middle of nowhere that caters to the Sunday walkers.

Posted by: Soona at September 14, 2014 10:29 AM (uzyD0)

68 Holy shit.

My "Fcuk You" doesn't work here.

Apologies, folks.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at September 14, 2014 10:29 AM (wf76V)

69 I thought Pat Down the Bunny was amusing.

Posted by: Insomniac at September 14, 2014 10:29 AM (mx5oN)

70 On Sunday everyone dresses up and takes a walk in
the forest. There's some really cool little gasthauses out in the
middle of nowhere that caters to the Sunday walkers.

Posted by: Soona at September 14, 2014 10:29 AM (uzyD0)

The Germans are bad to take hikes between towns/bars and get totally hammered on Sundays. Swiss do the same thing.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:31 AM (0FSuD)

71 I felt sorry for Margeux Hemingway. I thought she had been doing much better before her suicide but recently I read that she had been losing it again and her landlord was kicking her out. Heminway's son is a real nutter. He was the trannie that kept getting arrested. I think he died of a heart attack while in jail.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:32 AM (iQIUe)

72 g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at September 14, 2014 10:32 AM (KCxzN)

73 63
This is important. Hemingway did the Dutchman with a shotgun in his mouth. Now, was it a Parker or

L.C. Smith? We used to have gun threads around here.

Posted by: Billl at September 14, 2014 10:26 AM (N2A89)

It was a British Boss shotgun.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 10:33 AM (T2V/1)

74 Has anyone read any of the Matt Helms series books?

Posted by: perdogg at September 14, 2014 10:33 AM (o6/Pl)

75 Whoever it was above just starting to read Samuel Pepys, hope you enjoy it, a perennial favorite here at House of Sock.

Buncha books from the New shelves at the library, but here's my funny for today:
took the 60th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451, because I like the story (which, like Atlas Shrugged, was scary prophetic) and Bradbury generally.
More-than-a third-but-less-than-half of the book was essays (Bradbury's was fun, Truffaut's was amusing, a couple were inoffensive) by leftwing English majors yattering about McCarthyism.
okayy, McCarthyism made a libertarian write a story about a socialist paradise gone oppressive. riiigghht.
If that kind of person wasn't increasingly running our society I'd find it funnier, but to observe the ideological blinders in action did get a Heh or two.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at September 14, 2014 10:34 AM (OCcU9)

76
The Future is...

a crappy watch.

Posted by: soothie at September 14, 2014 10:34 AM (pjrb9)

77 One downside to air conditioning is that before it, Washington, DC was hot, swampy, and an unpleasant place to live, which probably helped keep a lid on the excesses of the federal government. Nowadays Our Betters can live there year-round, continually coming up with new ways to run our lives.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 10:34 AM (sdi6R)

78 74
Has anyone read any of the Matt Helms series books?

Posted by: perdogg at September 14, 2014 10:33 AM (o6/Pl)

I used to read them years ago. I liked them OK. And they are nothing like the Dean Martin movies.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 10:35 AM (T2V/1)

79
Martha Gelhorn hated sex with Hemingway. She complained of pain and even had some sort of operation. But she was always banging men including a number of US Generals. I had to laugh when she was denied a visa to Viet Nam. She threw a hissy fit and trashed the guy's office.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:35 AM (iQIUe)

80
I used to read them years ago. I liked them OK. And they are nothing like the Dean Martin movies.
Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 10:35 AM (T2V/1)

Who was the cute blond in the movies?

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:38 AM (iQIUe)

81 "there are more public libraries than McDonald's restaurants."

The difference being that the patrons of the former aren't casually tossing bags of books out the windows of their cars once they've finished reading.

Once again the other day, I found myself resignedly trudging out to pick up a bunch of fast food trash scattered across the street in front. Okay, I'm placing my bet before I even get a good look. Yep. Nailed it. That goddamn golden arches logo again.

We have the typical spectrum of American fast food restaurants around here. McDonalds franchises are not overrepresented. But statistically, relative to the number of Mickey D's patrons in this catchment area, those patrons are _far_ more likely to litter.

I get occasional In-N-Out, Burger King, Taco Bell and Jack in the Box trash lying in the street. Odds are absolutely overwhelming, though, that when I walk up to collect the greasy bags and crushed cups that someone chucked out of their passing car, they'll turn out to be from McDonalds.

Posted by: torquewrench at September 14, 2014 10:39 AM (noWW6)

82 OK, think we could talk ace into sending CAC to the UK to cover the Scotland vote?

I make joke.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:40 AM (0FSuD)

83 Hmmm, never thought of it as hoarding, since I'm not keeping them away from use by others ... but my hardcover library now numbers well over 2K. VERY thankful for Kindle which allows me to not keep trying to figure out how much room my house would have if all walls were floor to ceiling bookcases.
Since Kindle seems to have significant reserves of SF and Fantasy, it's great for me ... and got me to buying and reading again ... just canceled my 2 Dish Sat TV contracts a the TV has been on a grand total of maybe 5 hours in 4 months. I think I've got my sunset years scoped out ...
One thing abut the Kindle methodology ... I don't think I've ever had this many unread books "stacked" ... what with daily Amazon offerings and Bookbub notifications.

Posted by: WingNut at September 14, 2014 10:42 AM (IuJZF)

84 80 Who was the cute blond in the movies?

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:38 AM (iQIUe)

It has been so long since I saw any of them I don't remember.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 10:45 AM (T2V/1)

85 "88% of Americans 16 to 29 years old have read at least one book in the past year... "

because it was required for the class they were taking. What BS.

Posted by: Dang at September 14, 2014 10:45 AM (MNq6o)

86 Last week I was reading / somewhat liveblogging Maurice Joly, "Dialogue in Hell between Montesquieu and Machavelli". A recent free translation to English is here:
http://www.notbored.org/dialogue-in-hell.html

First what needs to get off the chest: yes, this is what the Protocols forgers plagiarised when cooking up their bullshit. Don't let that stop you. There's exactly one mention of Jews here (it was a law in France that you had to fart in their general direction at least once per book, I think) and that has nothing to do with the argument. The book is mostly about Napoleon III who was not a Jew at all. To sum up, Joly cannot be held responsible for later @$$h0lez who ripped off his stuff.

Anyway, *that* out of the way, this book is the most darkly hilarious stunt I've seen in some time. Essentially Montesquieu is surprised to find himself in Hell.

Montesquieu was that Enlightenment thinker who argued for the "Separation of Powers" already implicit in England. We're accustomed to thinking him as one of the Good Guys in history.

In this book, Montesquieu was in Limbo up to 1847, which I guess he thought was Purgatory, and he'd been quite enjoying the spread of liberal constitutionalism across the West. Well, now it's the 1860s. Now Machiavelli, who knows exactly where he is (and when he is), shows up to disabuse his naive visitor of his Whiggery. What follows is in the form of a Socratic dialogue (Spenser also used this form in "A View of the Present State of Ireland", but that book was evil-evil where Joly's is just acting as evil's advocate).

Joly's main point is that Montesquieu's system cannot work against a determined and ambitious politician, not if the people have been manipulated by a press which they trust.

Machiavelli in the eighth dialogue explains how he would take over the republic; in the ninth he explains how to dress up his new tyranny under the masque of a constitutional republic. In this he appears to be taking note of the regime of Napoleon III. (This is likely what got Joly tossed into the pokey.)

The devil has the best tunes, as they say, so I'll just leave you with this: " No doubt you would not fail to speak to me of the separation of the powers, freedom of speech and the press, religious liberty, individual liberty, the right of [free] association, equality before the law, the inviolability of property and the home, the right of petition, the free consent to taxes, the proportionality of penalties, and the non-retroactivity of the laws. Is this sufficient? ... I do not find it inconvenient to proclaim such principles; indeed, I would even make them the preamble of my constitution, if you like. ... Ah! Be advised: I said to you that I would proclaim these privileges, but I did not say that I would inscribe them or designate them explicitly."

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at September 14, 2014 10:45 AM (3kZUM)

87 We have so many public libraries it's ridiculous. They started building them right and left about 20 years ago. And they are a waste of space. Huge soaring ceilings, few books, lots of computers.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:45 AM (iQIUe)

88 It has been so long since I saw any of them I don't remember.

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 10:45 AM (T2V/1)

I think this was a "talkie" movie, not silent. ha ha.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:48 AM (0FSuD)

89 OK, think we could talk ace into sending CAC to the UK to cover the Scotland vote?

I make joke.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:40 AM

The HQ could save on travel expenses &* recruit Stoat Weasel to cover it for us. She's a lot closer.

*I almost typed out the word "and" but then thought "Hey! Platinum Membership! I have ampersands!"

Posted by: AltonJackson at September 14, 2014 10:48 AM (KCxzN)

90 We have so many public libraries it's ridiculous.
They started building them right and left about 20 years ago. And they
are a waste of space. Huge soaring ceilings, few books, lots of
computers.

Posted by: The Progs

I need to go check out some DVD movies from the library. A friend is doing that and I'd forgotten they had them. Hopefully there's some new stuff since I was there last.

Posted by: Dang at September 14, 2014 10:48 AM (MNq6o)

91 Reinhold Niebuhr was popular way back, and I've heard his writing gained a resurgence more recently in certain theological schools.

I'm one of those "buy the book, try to read at least a chapter" guys, and get more from the Amazon comments than the book itself.

But his book "Moral Man and Immoral Society" proposes that educators and sociologists have it wrong. The path to enlightened culture is on the individual level, and it is the institutions that are more likely to become corrupted.

Glen Beck brought his name up back in FOX days, and iirc painted him as more of a "social justice" kind of guy. But that is not what I see so far, but like I say, that is just one chapter.

"It is rather discouraging to find such naive confidence in the moral capacities of collective man, among men who make it their business to study collective human behavior"

This was written in 1932, and I'm not sure if Niebuhr offers up any tea party, small government solutions.

then he says "Anarchism, with an uncoerced and voluntary justice, seems to be either an explicit or implicit social goal of every second social scientist."

that seems like the left's goal ... civil unrest, orchestrated chaos.

"Our contemporary culture fails to realise the power, extent and persistence of group egoism in human relations"

But I propose that the leftist popes of the PC religion have indeed recognized that power, and used it to institute their hate weeks and group think animosity toward the tea party. And this was written two decades before Orwell.

My Dad was big into Niebuhr, even wrote him on occasion, and named a son after him. So it would be nice to find this Niebuhr guy is more tea party than social justice guy, but it's not yet clear. He makes some good points though, so far.

Posted by: Illini Bill at September 14, 2014 10:49 AM (zTROX)

92 Libraries are like gyms, the people who need them the most use them the least.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 10:50 AM (8MlTP)

93 Olanta, SC. Population 868. Public Library.

http://tinyurl.com/ls6kr9b

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:50 AM (0FSuD)

94 I think the Hemingway/KGB connection has been known for some time. I seem to remember reading about it first in college and then years later reading about "Islands in the Stream". At that time he was described as a spy who was set in place to report on military matters but he never reported anything. I don't know if it was a whitewash of his image or not. You would think whomever spent so much time looking into the old KGB files in the 1980s and '90s would expose some of the current politicians like de Blasio of NY or Malloy of CT who practically boasted of their communist connections before taking office. To say nothing of the entire Federal government at this point.

I tried reading a Lee Child Jack Reacher book last night. He seems to be a poor imitation of Travis McGee. I loved the latter and literally read every book and don't think I care for the former. Interesting that they are described as having exactly the same physical appearance and being "bums" from Florida. Homage perhaps.
Read PG Wodehouse's Cocktail Time. Loved it. There were more words in sentences back then.

Posted by: Daybrother at September 14, 2014 10:51 AM (pgIsr)

95 de Blasio, NYC Mayor.

To this day he can not get a security clearance, because Castro connection.

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 10:53 AM (0FSuD)

96 The path to enlightened culture is on the individual level, and it is the institutions that are more likely to become corrupted.

Joly would agree.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at September 14, 2014 10:54 AM (3kZUM)

97 80
Who was the cute blond in the movies?

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 10:38 AM (iQIUe)

Let's see. Checking out IMDB, it seems that Elke Sommer was in "The Wrecking Crew", Ann-Margret was in "Murderer's Row", and Stella Stevens was in "The Silencers".

While she's not a blonde, I remember this scene with Cyd Charisse when I was young and impressionable:

https://tinyurl.com/mmd5dfx

She made quite an impression.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 10:54 AM (sdi6R)

98 I ate up all of Hemingway's books. Even his partial scripts.

As usual, the odd man out, here. I really liked his style, which at first, I thought was "too simply written." But, yet, he made his points so eloquently.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 10:55 AM (IXrOn)

99 So busy this week, after returning from holiday, and planning a dinner party, that I never finished the latest Goodkind book. Will finish it up this week.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 10:55 AM (IXrOn)

100
Hello from Way Down Here and it's Monday ...which means back to work in a few hours

Hoarding unread books? Never have done this with paper books but the Kindle is an absolute hoarders dream (or nightmare)
Before I head off to bed I read the Bookbub and Amazon emails and thenit's so easy to just click on the BUY button when I'm reading my beloved Kindle in bed...

I don't have to go to a bookshop, and it's even easier than logging onto the Book Depository site to buy a book or ten...

Posted by: aussie at September 14, 2014 10:56 AM (EGwwB)

101 Well, I'm about to start the book "The Terror". Novel about the Franklin Expedition which was highly recommended here on the Book Thread and I ordered it through Amazon.

Interesting thing though. When Vic did his news postings on Wed., one of his links was to an announcement by the Canadian Government that one of Franklin ships was just found last Sun. They aren't sure whether it's the 'Terror' or 'Erebus', but they seem to be sure it's one of them.

Kind of cool.

Posted by: HH at September 14, 2014 10:56 AM (Ce4DF)

102 Off topic, except for being a book, but I mentioned it at the tail end of the ONT the other night and made a not to mention it on the book thread. If you are an aviation buff, there are far worse ways to spend a few hours than reading Skunk Works by Ben Rich. It is the story of Lockheed's Skunk Works and covers the U2, SR-71, and F-117A among other things. I think non-aviation buffs might also be interested for some of the insights into government procurement and the Cold War.

If interested, search Skunk Works Ben Rich in the AoSHQ Amazon search on the title page so the Ewok gets a cut

Posted by: Fritz (not Fritz) at September 14, 2014 10:56 AM (U0t2o)

103

OT: MU v QPR about to start.
Yesterday: yay Chelsea

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 10:57 AM (IXrOn)

104 I'd like to believe that in 100 years people will realize what an overhyped incompetent Picasso was and reject his infantile crap for real art.

I enjoyed the Jack Reacher book I read, but he didn't come across remotely similar to Travis McGee to me at all; possibly because I read a later book in the series.

The latest book I have read is "The Silent Man" by Alex Berenson. It wasn't a very good book, but it wasn't terrible. Just one more of those "super secret agent guy saves the world" this time from a nuclear weapon. The character wasn't very distinct or interesting, there wasn't any real character development, and the plot had some basic flaws. It was clearly a Clancy-style story but not nearly as good. And ultimately I couldn't work out what on earth the title had to do with the book at any level.

"The Silent Man" wasn't a bad book, it was just there, without anything particular to recommend it. It was long and would press flowers well, I suppose. It was interesting enough to keep reading but not memorable at all.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 14, 2014 10:57 AM (zfY+H)

105

No need for libraries soon; now that we have wifi connection to the digital ones.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 10:59 AM (IXrOn)

106 Martha Gelhorn hated sex with Hemingway. She complained of pain and even had some sort of operation. But she was always banging men including a number of US Generals.

The interview with the Hemingway book author mentioned an incident wherein Gelhorn reported and wrote about a lynching that, as it turned out, never occurred. But I couldn't find any more information about this.

If their cause is so righteous, why do lefties have to continually make stuff up?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 10:59 AM (yRdR4)

107 Sharkman, one of those flying enlisted named Corl survived flying a TBD Devastator at Midway only to die a few months later in the South Pacific flying the TBF Avenger.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at September 14, 2014 11:00 AM (uYs/v)

108 Speaking of the future...

I've traveled back in time to make you all rich!

Have you ever wished you could have invested in Microsoft, Apple, panty hose when they first came out?

Well, now's your sold gold guaranteed chance.

I just have two words for you-

Bamboo Buttplugs.

That's it.

Invest everything you have in Bamboo Buttplugs.

You're welcome.

Posted by: Time Traveling Guy at September 14, 2014 11:00 AM (0cMkb)

109 101
When Vic did his news postings on Wed., one of his links was to an announcement by the Canadian Government that one of Franklin ships was just found last Sun. They aren't sure whether it's the 'Terror' or 'Erebus', but they seem to be sure it's one of them.

Kind of cool.

Posted by: HH at September 14, 2014 10:56 AM (Ce4DF)

Very cool. I'll bet that it is very well preserved in that cold water. That is a hell of a find.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 11:01 AM (sdi6R)

110 OT: MU v QPR about to start.

Yesterday: yay Chelsea

OK, I'll bite. This some sort of computer code or "girlie" football?

Posted by: Nip Sip at September 14, 2014 11:01 AM (0FSuD)

111 I have a paperback copy of James Michener's "Iberia" somewhere. I might dig it up and give it another read.

Posted by: mrp at September 14, 2014 11:01 AM (JBggj)

112 "To this day he can not get a security clearance, because Castro connection."

Yet the current POTUS -- privy to America's most closely held secrets -- has equally questionable connections in his past. What a system.

Next administration, if they have any sense (hardly guaranteed) will have to assume that pretty much every classified weapons system and prominent overseas agent has been blown, and that America's adversaries are now fully in the know.

Posted by: torquewrench at September 14, 2014 11:01 AM (noWW6)

113 Before I head off to bed I read the Bookbub and Amazon emails and thenit's so easy to just click on the BUY button when I'm reading my beloved Kindle in bed...

I know, right? Bookbub is killing me. I'm trying to limit myself to the free items, so at least I'll save money.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 11:02 AM (yRdR4)

114 Wasn't it Hemingway who wrote the "entire story in six words"?

"For Sale

Baby Shoes.

Never worn."

Posted by: AltonJackson at September 14, 2014 11:02 AM (KCxzN)

115 Nood travel thread.

Posted by: Y-not at September 14, 2014 11:03 AM (zDsvJ)

116 Posted by: Time Traveling Guy at September 14, 2014 11:00 AM (0cMkb)

Oh, don't listen to that guy.

Everyone knows that buttplugs carved from Panda thigh-bones are the safest and most comfortable in the world, as per-

"52,000 Shades of Taupe" (2034)

Invest in stock ticker PLYA

That's PLYA for "Pandas Love Your Ass"

You're welcome!

Posted by: Another Time Traveling Guy at September 14, 2014 11:04 AM (0cMkb)

117 I'd like to believe that in 100 years people will realize what an overhyped incompetent Picasso was and reject his infantile crap for real art.

it was only because he was the "first" one to break into the social acceptance crowd with minimalizing images

his early work was very realist and portrait like

he was exploring -- which is fine

If he had started with the cubism, without a track record of what was "accepted" by the majority at the time, he wouldn't have gotten the recognition, I suspect.

If you look at his work in chronological order, it's quite the feat.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 11:04 AM (IXrOn)

118 Read all the Travis McGee novels (the Busted Flush - brings back memories); they were great. The Lee Child Jack Reacher novels are also fantastic. Give them a chance. Recommend starting with the first Reacher novel so you can progress as Child continues character development. Not a 'must,' simply a recommendation. On a related note, The Reacher character is 6'5" and 250 pounds, which is why all Reacher fans were thoroughly disgusted when that noted midget, Cruise, played him in the movie. Disgusting.

Posted by: windrider95 at September 14, 2014 11:04 AM (QMxJS)

119 Funny, I'm actually working on a Hemingway now. I've put off reading For Whom the Bell Tolls for years and finally dug in to finish it.

I've had ADM Stockdales book Foundation of Moral Obligations sitting on my desk for years too. Well, I guess its not his book, rather his notes, someone else wrote. I think I'm going to work on that one next.

Evaporative coolers, swamp coolers, air wash, whatever, are pretty effective on the cheap. We've got several huge units at work. Not bad when they work. Work is hot, muggy and borderline unbearable in its natural state. When background humidity is already 80+ %, whatever coolers contribute is a wash.

Posted by: 2549 at September 14, 2014 11:04 AM (dcgwL)

120 nood

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 11:04 AM (IXrOn)

121 Can you imagine the stench of perspiration from those Southern belles who were swaddled in layers of clothing? (They somewhat resembled upholstered Victorian furniture.) Before air-conditioning, before indoor plumbing, before deodorants. (And not to gross anyone out but before sanitary pads and tampons.) And with those hoop skirts, I can't imagine how they answered the calls of nature.

Posted by: Semi-sober scroller at September 14, 2014 11:04 AM (BKaug)

122 would press flowers well

now THATS damning with faint praise !

but srsly, that is why I love the New Books section at my public library so much; the chance to read books as they come out without the big cash outlay, in case they are just meh.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at September 14, 2014 11:05 AM (OCcU9)

123 Prior to receiving a Kindle in February 2011 for Valentine's day I guesstimate that I read 4-5 books a year on average. I'm 59 years old so GOML!

In the 3.5 years of Kindle ownership I've read, READ and REREAD, 350 plus books. Some mind candy scifi, some technical nonfiction, and some societal/political/historical tomes. I am not sure that large a number of books read is a good thing for me. I suspect that number reflects an escape mechanism in action. Which though escape is the reason most people read, (escape reality, escape ignorance, others sue me), that many books is snuggling up to the lands of OCD and avoidance.

Hi my name is Fewenuff and I read too much.

C-;

Posted by: Fewenuff at September 14, 2014 11:06 AM (zPNX5)

124 Arizona was thinly populated before air conditioning. The growth of Arizona cities began after the invention.

Posted by: Semi-sober scroller at September 14, 2014 11:06 AM (BKaug)

125 I haven't made a study of it but I've read that the Guernica civilians were killed by the Republican ammo dump there exploding that also made the site a legitimate bombing target. Gerry Pournelle, for example, mentions it in the foreword to one of the short stories in his There Will Be War anthology series.

Posted by: andycanuck at September 14, 2014 11:07 AM (ANo6g)

126 It was hot. The stream was cool. Bill was tight. "Hello, you chaps," Brett said.

Posted by: E. Hemingway's greatest hits at September 14, 2014 11:07 AM (nFdGS)

127 I need to go check out some DVD movies from the library. A friend is doing that and I'd forgotten they had them. Hopefully there's some new stuff since I was there last.
Posted by: Dang at September 14, 2014 10:48 AM (MNq6o)

My library branch(es) have huge collections of dvds. And now, you can have them ordered from another branch if the local one doesn't have them.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 11:07 AM (iQIUe)

128 Let's see. Checking out IMDB, it seems that Elke Sommer was in "The Wrecking Crew", Ann-Margret was in "Murderer's Row", and Stella Stevens was in "The Silencers".

While she's not a blonde, I remember this scene with Cyd Charisse when I was young and impressionable:

https://tinyurl.com/mmd5dfx

She made quite an impression.
Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 10:54 AM (sdi6R)

I was thinking of Stella Stevens. I like Cyd Charisse, too.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 11:08 AM (iQIUe)

129
I wondering about the life expectancy of an all-digital library. One decent solar flare, EMP burst, or simple human stupidity (one of nature's endless bounties for humorists) and it goes bye-bye.
As it is, it will fade in and out with the ebb and flow of our 100 percent coal-free energy grid. The new version of the dog ate my homework will be "there was a power outage."

Posted by: Long Running Fool at September 14, 2014 11:09 AM (77WNv)

130
13 OregonMuse

Hi, and I've done the same - trying to get those freebies only because all those $$$$ for other books are taking a chunk out of my weekly budget

However I've done something I've never done before - pre -order a book and actually pay for the thing because hey, just click that button!

Posted by: aussie at September 14, 2014 11:11 AM (EGwwB)

131 Here is a painting of Harry Corl's TBD T-3 of VT-3 returning to USS Yorktown CV-5 at the Battle of Midway.

http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/DETAILSITE/US/USN/TBD/tbd.vt3.t-3ptg.jpg

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at September 14, 2014 11:11 AM (uYs/v)

132 I read one Reacher novel, I believe it was "nothing left to lose' It had almost every lefty trope there is and the action scenes -- big guy with training takes out 4 big amateurs. Big whoop. I sure hope the earlier novels were better, I'd hate to think so many of the horde would enjoy them if not.

Posted by: PaleRider at September 14, 2014 11:12 AM (Zo60C)

133 117
If you look at his work in chronological order, it's quite the feat.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 11:04 AM (IXrOn)

I was fortunate to see a Picasso exhibition at one of the big New York museums when I was in college around 1980 or so. I was very impressed. No question about it, the man was talented.

"Guernica" was there. It's huge. It was done in black and white to evoke newspaper photos and newsreels of the time. That was pretty clever.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 11:12 AM (sdi6R)

134 Oh, and the unread books - not counting my kindle or Audible, it's about 30 right now, but I'm making good progress at whittling down the stack. Finished three books this week and only ordered two from Amazon. Progress!

Posted by: Long Running Fool at September 14, 2014 11:12 AM (77WNv)

135 Ken Burns has his series on the Roosevelts premiering. I wonder if they will discuss Eleanor being used by every commie front?

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 11:12 AM (iQIUe)

136 YES...I have seen the Monarch migration, at least part of it. It is unbelievable. We have a beach house along the Texas coast (Matagorda), a friend and I had gone fishing and when we returned there were Monarchs everywhere, when we got up on the deck, they looked like a river flowing by, hundreds of yards wide, stretching from our deck at least a 150-200 yards out over the Gulf, and as far up and down the beach as we could see.

Posted by: jpintx at September 14, 2014 11:13 AM (eY2fu)

137 After more than a year I am de-lurking. This weekly book thread is too enjoyable (and a fabulous resource) not to join in.

My reading habits have changed a bit over the last few years. I used to enjoy political and suspense thrillers "torn from today's headlines". The current administration and its slimy, anti-American supporters have killed that appetite for now. Even if the bad guys get their comeuppance, it's not enough. I don't want to live every moment in a rage, so screw 'em.

For fiction I want entertainment and good writing, not moral ambiguity. I've been dipping into H. Rider Haggard, Mark Twain, and GOOD translations of Jules Verne.

For laugh out loud humor, I cannot recommend the Mark Schweizer Liturgical Mystery series strongly enough. If you don't dissolve in helpless laughter several times each book, there is something wrong with you.

I've been interspersing fiction with non-fiction writing of CS Lewis. It doesn't matter if you are persuaded by his arguments, the man's use of language sparkles with humor and subtlety. It is a pleasure to read just for that. The same can be said for the recently released Tolkien translation and lectures on Beowulf.

Thanks to OM for putting on this thread. It os one of the highlights of each week.

Posted by: JTB at September 14, 2014 11:13 AM (FvdPb)

138 oops, wrong post....can you move it?

Posted by: jpintx at September 14, 2014 11:14 AM (eY2fu)

139
123 Fewenuff

Hi, and I'm with you although I've always read lots of books

Kindle has made me an reading addict...is there a detox programme for that?

Posted by: aussie at September 14, 2014 11:14 AM (EGwwB)

140 Meh. If you see me in a waiting room fiddling with my smartphone, I'm probably reading a book. Unless I'm reading/commenting here. I actually read a lot more now than before I had a smartphone, when obtaining new reading material (aside from grocery store paperbacks) meant actually driving out to the bookstore or library and looking at a bunch of different books with my kids in tow. Now if I finish a book at 9pm, already in bed (I'm hardcore like that) I can buy a new book and keep on reading without getting up. And if a book I started just sucks, and I realize this while sitting in a waiting room or something, I can just buy a new one. Plus, I've read a lot of older books since they're free on the kindle ap.

Posted by: Jenny Hates Her Phone at September 14, 2014 11:15 AM (L4T7Y)

141 I like libraries, fond of the ambience and childhood memories. Volunteer once a week; place is staffed by mainly female progressives who can be mildly irritating.

Posted by: Disgruntled Libertarian at September 14, 2014 11:15 AM (cmBvC)

142 I'd like to believe that in 100 years people will realize what an overhyped incompetent Picasso was and reject his infantile crap for real art.

I enjoyed the Jack Reacher book I read, but he didn't come across remotely similar to Travis McGee to me at all; possibly because I read a later book in the series.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor

Yes. I should have mentioned that the one I'm reading is about the 3rd or 4th in the series. Quite old and definitely pre 2001. Reacher comes off as a dumb lug. I would think his later character has evolved into a smarter guy. His description as a 6'5" suntanned muscle guy hiding out in Florida without even a driver's license is a description of 6'5" suntanned muscular McGee hiding out on his houseboat in Florida. It wasn't the best choice to pick up after Wodehouse in any case.

I have to disagree about Picasso. Read The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art (Leonardo Book Series) by Linda Dalrymple Henderson. She is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and it may change your mind. She may be a genius.

Posted by: Daybrother at September 14, 2014 11:16 AM (txAno)

143 With regard to Hemingway and the KGB, we should all be far less alarmed by that then we should be about the KGB's extensive infiltration of Franklin Roosevelt's administration in the same time frame.

Harry Hopkins in particular had FDR's ear. And Hopkins told FDR right up until Pearl Harbor that the Japanese were paper tigers, military nonentities, nothing to worry about, no need to take defensive precautions.

What we now know is that Hopkins was a Soviet sympathizer in regular contact with Moscow's emissaries. And Moscow, before Pearl Harbor, had a problem.

Stalin was at the time confronting the huge challenge of Hitler to the USSR's west. Stalin wanted no distractions whatsoever to the vulnerable Soviet eastern rear. Yet there was just such a distraction: Imperial Japan. Which had memories of fighting and winning against Russia at the turn of the century, and which coveted swathes of Soviet Siberia.

Stalin hoped for a successful surprise attack on the USA by Japan, so that the Japanese would then find themselves kept busy fighting the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, rather than Japan possibly forcing the USSR into a two-front war.

Hopkins helped deliver that surprise.

Posted by: torquewrench at September 14, 2014 11:17 AM (noWW6)

144 However I've done something I've never done before - pre -order a book and actually pay for the thing because hey, just click that button!

You, too? I just did my first 'pre-order'. I got a 10-volume sci-fi series for 99 cents, but it won't arrive on my device until the 16th.

Via Bookbub.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 11:18 AM (yRdR4)

145
I like Hemingway especially the Nick Adams stories and I like Picasso, so shoot me.

Andy, I read a long discussion on AHF that Guernica casualties were inflated by 10 and that the town was next to a bridge where the Republican artillery was being taken over, making it legitimate target.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 11:19 AM (iQIUe)

146 I was reading The American Indian by RJRushdoony, mostly an anecdotal recounting of his 8 years on the Paiute/Shoshone reservation in northern Nevada (late 1940's to early 1950's). I found this passage interesting. The author is citing a tribe member who had served in the military, traveled quite a bit and then returned to the reservation.

"Look at those people of mine. They're no good. They're like me, just no account. All they're fit for is a reservation where someone puts a fense around them and takes care of them. That's it. They're not fit for anything else. But I've been across the country two or three times now in the last few hyears, and I've learned something: the white man isn't much better. He has reservation fever now. He wants someone to put a fence around the whole North American continent and take care of him. He wants the government to give him a handout and to look after him just like Uncle Sam looks after us. And he's going to get it. If some outfit doesn't come in and do it for him...he'll do it himself. You wait and see. 'Cause he's got reservation fever."

Posted by: S. Muldoon at September 14, 2014 11:19 AM (NeFrd)

147 Read Heart of Darkness. I wasn't mightily impressed but enjoyed it well enough. Working on Dracula now and it seems pretty good so far.

Posted by: Adam at September 14, 2014 11:19 AM (HstNY)

148 Ken Burns has his series on the Roosevelts premiering. I wonder if they will discuss Eleanor being used by every commie front?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Good one, Progs!

No, I won't pull your finger, either.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 11:19 AM (yRdR4)

149 For laugh out loud humor, I cannot recommend the Mark Schweizer Liturgical Mystery series strongly enough.
Posted by: JTB

Welcome and thanks for the tip.

Posted by: Daybrother at September 14, 2014 11:23 AM (TWyLr)

150 I recently read Diana West's "American Betrayal". The Communist infiltration of the FDR administration was worse than McCarthy ever dreamed in his most feverish nightmares.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 11:23 AM (sdi6R)

151 And Pepys kept track in his diary of his fapping by the use of asterisks. Now I know why Ace wants us to write it "f***"!

Posted by: andycanuck at September 14, 2014 11:24 AM (ANo6g)

152 I was reading The American Indian by RJRushdoony

Wow. I thought I was the only moron who was familiar with Rushdoony.

I've read a bunch of his other stuff, but not that.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 11:24 AM (yRdR4)

153
Anyway time for bed

Goodnight everyone and have a wonderful yesterday!

Right now I'm reading a book picked up for a few dollars at a used book sale...and it's rather interesting

"The Past Times Book of Military Blunders" by Geoffrey Regan

I'm just up to Chapter One which is headed Unfit to Lead
(the Aged, the Ill and Incapacitated, the Insane and Irrational, the Prima Donna, the Stupid)

Here's a line from the book...

"Generals, unlike fine wines, do not necessarily get better with age" and this leads into the first story...

Posted by: aussie at September 14, 2014 11:25 AM (EGwwB)

154 The Communist infiltration of the FDR administration ~~was~~ IS worse than McCarthy ever dreamed in his most feverish nightmares.
yo

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at September 14, 2014 11:25 AM (3kZUM)

155 I recently read Diana West's "American Betrayal". The Communist infiltration of the FDR administration was worse than McCarthy ever dreamed in his most feverish nightmares.

I remember the David Horowitz neo-con camp throwing a huge hissy fit when West's book first came out. The FrontPageMag reviewer trashed it. I guess they were all big FDR fans and hated seeing their idol tarnished.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 11:27 AM (yRdR4)

156 Orwell was a bit more than disillusioned.

An NKVD agent shot him in the head and left him for dead.

Posted by: Kristophr at September 14, 2014 11:28 AM (0zVEV)

157 141

Apparently public libraries now require librarians to have masters degrees AND a willingness to be customer service agents and at some places, children's entertainers. For the princely salary around $30K. I'd probably be a lot worse than mildly irritating under those circumstances. Not that I'm sweetness and light as it is.

Posted by: Jenny Hates Her Phone at September 14, 2014 11:28 AM (L4T7Y)

158 @135 Burns/Roosevelts -- I googled for reviews and every lefty newspaper (BIRM) was ecstatic over he series. Yuck.

Teddy had some admirable qualities, but he was a progressive. I'll give Franklin some points as a war president, but he was a raging lefty. Nothing nice to say about E.

Posted by: doug at September 14, 2014 11:29 AM (GlxNC)

159 torquewrench: I hadn't seen your #143 comment when I made mine at #150.

My main takeaway from that book was that Harry Hopkins was the Valerie Jarrett of the Roosevelt administration. Hell, Valerie wishes she had that much power.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 11:30 AM (sdi6R)

160 155
I remember the David Horowitz neo-con camp throwing a huge hissy fit when West's book first came out. The FrontPageMag reviewer trashed it. I guess they were all big FDR fans and hated seeing their idol tarnished.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 11:27 AM (yRdR4)

Gates of Vienna has done an excellent job defending her. She's even commented there a few times.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 11:34 AM (sdi6R)

161 Another point that Diana West made is that today, the same thing is happening again as Islam is gaining more and more influence in the halls of power.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 11:40 AM (sdi6R)

162 155 I recently read Diana West's "American Betrayal". The Communist infiltration of the FDR administration was worse than McCarthy ever dreamed in his most feverish nightmares.

I remember the David Horowitz neo-con camp throwing a huge hissy fit when West's book first came out. The FrontPageMag reviewer trashed it. I guess they were all big FDR fans and hated seeing their idol tarnished.
Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 11:27 AM (yRdR4)

Same with Coulter's book. I chalk it up to professional jealousy. West and Coulter wrote far more popular and readable books than they did.

I'm a big fan of Steve Usdin's book, Engineering Communism. The Rosenbergs ran a huge network of industrial spies. Usdin was expecting a review in the NYT Book Review but got dumped for another book written by Walter and Miriam Schneer those two dishonest hacks and shills for the Rosenbergs. He was pissed and rightfully so. Unfortunately, most of Rosenber's network escaped b/c Philby tipped them off.

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 11:42 AM (iQIUe)

163 It was hot. The stream was cool. Bill was tight. "Hello, you chaps," Brett said.
Posted by: E. Hemingway's greatest hits

It was a thing that men do but do not talk about until they are old and it doesn't matter anymore.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 11:44 AM (8MlTP)

164 74 I love the Matt Helm series and used to wait eagerly for each new one to come out. Always thought they were better than James Bond books. And Hamilton actually has his characters using weapons properly!! Hamilton's other fiction and nonfiction books are also excellent. They are worth tracking down.

The Matt Helm movies with Dean Martin have no connection with the books beyond some character names. Enjoy them for their campy silliness and that's about it.

Posted by: JTB at September 14, 2014 11:45 AM (FvdPb)

165

I remember back in the 50s before we had A/C. People sat out on the front porch in the evenings and greeted neighbors. Nobody does that anymore.�

Posted by: Vic at September 14, 2014 09:53 AM

-----------
But it was typically cooler in in the 1750s, wasn't it Vic.Sir?

Ok,i wont give up my day job.

Excellent post Oregonmuse. I just started "Makers of Ancient Strategy: from Persian-Greco wars to fall of Rome". Its a collection of essays by various authors. So far so good.

Posted by: fastfreefall at September 14, 2014 11:45 AM (3BKqz)

166 I happened to see Guernica last summer while in Spain. Hitler apparently was siding with Franco and tried out his army and air force by obliterating this little village, and so the painting was propaganda for the Republican side, as much of the war effort on both (all?) sides involved propaganda.

They seems to lurch from strong man to socialism there. They are in a depression but don't see, or are just too polite to say, the connection between socialism and economic failure. The countryside is ruined by the wind turbines running along every ridge line. The one politician who is almost universally appreciated is King Juan Carlos. He played dumb while training under Franco and then emerged as a strong democratic leader. He put down a military rebellion in 1981 by pure political smarts and, as the story goes, woke up his little son that night and said, come on, you have to watch this, you will have to take over one day, and so Phillipe, now the king, learned how to be king and democratic leader, and commander in chief, too.

Posted by: PJ at September 14, 2014 11:46 AM (cHuNI)

167
Books I've been reading. Wife picked up Follet's "A Place Called Freedom." Boring. Same character types in the Century Trilogy. Started reading another one of his- Whiteout- but given the current Ebola crisis, I put that one down.
Went to Powell's Bookstore in Portlandia and picked up six or seven Remo Williams Novels. Pure fun, mindless fun. Authors are conservative and put in jabs at liberals and social progs throughout the plots.
Other than that, I continue to plug away on the next Great American Novel.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel at September 14, 2014 11:53 AM (0SmH0)

168 Michelle as you've never seen her before.

http://tinyurl.com/nzt95y5

Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 11:53 AM (8MlTP)

169 Another "bathroom reader." Books, but not really "reads," usually acquired from the thrift store for two bits or less.

Momentum Builders - 228 Sure-Fire Ways To Get On a Roll… And Stay There! At least this one has an author, John Mason, "author of the bestsellers An Enemy Called Average and You Were Born an Original, Don't Die a Copy…," Honor Books, Tulsa.

So, opening at random, these sure-fire momentum-builders:

#171 Never be without an important goal.

(Uh-huh.)

#172 Regrets look back.
Worry looks around.
Faith looks up.

(Oooo. That's deep.)

#173 If you refuse to accept anything
but the best, you very often get it.
W. Somerset Maugham

(And very often get nothing?)

Had enough? One more random page turn:

#120 Be a good finder.

#121 Have a low tolerance for idleness.

#122 Anonymous: Friends in your life are like pillars on your porch…

(whut? [Closes book])

______________
Previous bathroom reader review in last week's Book Thread
http://minx.cc:1080/?blog=86&post=351632

Posted by: mindful webworker at September 14, 2014 11:54 AM (PwYka)

170
Larry Duggan - fell or jumped?

Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 11:55 AM (iQIUe)

171 Finished The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen this week. I enjoyed it and my conclusion is that, despite being less well-known, Bowen is every bit as good a writer as Hemingway or Fitzgerald.

I've started two books: The Lost World of James Smithson, about the Englishman who donated the funds for the Smithsonian Institution. Having spent many hours at the Smithsonian, I'm looking forward to this and it looks to be well-written. The other book is The Essense of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. I picked this up a few years ago expecting it to be fluffy pseudo-history, but the author makes a good case in the introductory chapter that it was the French, and especially Louis XIV, that created the idea of luxury, luxury markets, and luxury goods for export.

My unread book count: 437
(It's embarrassing when people come to my house, see the wall of bookcases and ask, "Have you read all these?" and I have to answer, "No, I don't have room to keep the books I've read. This is my TBR pile."

Posted by: biancaneve at September 14, 2014 11:57 AM (6Turu)

172 170
Larry Duggan - fell or jumped?
Posted by: The Progs at September 14, 2014 11:55 AM (iQIUe)

Or pushed.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 11:58 AM (sdi6R)

173 171
It's embarrassing when people come to my house, see the wall of bookcases and ask, "Have you read all these?" and I have to answer, "No, I don't have room to keep the books I've read. This is my TBR pile."

Posted by: biancaneve at September 14, 2014 11:57 AM (6Turu)

You have bookcases? Luxury. Mine are piled up all over the place.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 12:01 PM (sdi6R)

174 Michelle as you've never seen her before.�

http://tinyurl.com/nzt95y5

Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 11:53 AM�

--------
why did i look? WHYYYYYYY!?

Posted by: fastfreefall at September 14, 2014 12:02 PM (bsRbS)

175 168 Michelle as you've never seen her before.
http://tinyurl.com/nzt95y5
Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 11:53 AM (8MlTP)

Aaargh! My eyes!

Curse you, GWS.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 12:03 PM (yRdR4)

176 That digital library sounds horrible. There is just something about being able to peruse a plethora of books and maybe find something you weren't looking for that turns out to be great.

Of course, libraries have gone all digital for academic journals for years now. Doing that does make sense, as you can simply search online and grab all the articles you want in PDF format, which I've been doing for years. But then, I print them out... and many a tree died for that.

For those articles that don't have digital versions, one can usually get a photocopy via an interlibrary loan.

It does, however, remove the excuse that you "are at the library" when you just want to find a nice spot to nap...

Posted by: The Digital Hat at September 14, 2014 12:08 PM (lN8KC)

177
One of you reprobates recommended Paul Johnson's Intellectuals to me a few years ago and it's a hoot. Johnson has a real smoldering hatred for leftist intellectuals, and with good reason. Aside from their politics, they are universally miserable, mean, selfish assholes who use people like kleenex. There's a flaming chapter on Hemingway which is fun to read, if only to take joy in having the icon torn down.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at September 14, 2014 12:10 PM (8v9fw)

178 #173

Well, when I say bookcases I mean stacks of boxes along the walls. But they were bookcases to us.

We used to dream of boxes. We had stacks of books up to the ceiling and if you didn't do it right it could bury you alive.

Oh, you had gravity in your place? We had to keep the books in nets.

Posted by: Epobirs at September 14, 2014 12:10 PM (IdCqF)

179 No need for libraries soon; now that we have wifi connection to the digital ones.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at September 14, 2014 10:59 AM

some of live so far in the boonies that, even with 12gb wifi per month, we need to into town to the library to do heavy downloads ... my 12gb expired 2 days before the end of my "month"

McDonalds Travis McGee ... all in my hardcover collection. Same as the original Louis L'Amours (most in those superb leatherbound editions0. Did have all of Flemings Bond books. Deighton's spy books were awesome, as were Halls. Collected all of Asimovs books ... think I've only reread the Foundation books 1/2 dozen times so far. Come to think of it ... about theonly thing I've never made time are the Harlequins and their cousins, the "historical romance" stuff.

Posted by: WingNut at September 14, 2014 12:15 PM (IuJZF)

180 Oh, you had gravity in your place? We had to keep the books in nets.

Nets, you say? Back in my day, we wished we had nets. Our books just floated around and we had to pick the closest one, and whatever it was, that was what we read.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 14, 2014 12:18 PM (yRdR4)

181 I just retread A Flowershop In Baghdad. It remains one of the best books I've ever read. A book that makes you laugh, cry and ( in light of our recent "foreign policy" ) rage all at the same time is something special. I think I might do an OT thread on it next week.

I know the author posts here occasionally, if anyone knows how to get in touch with him, could they have him email me ( my nic at the Gee Mail thingy )? I'd love to buy a signed copy for a Zoomie buddy of mine.

I'll tell you something else, too. I bet that if I visit him in December, he'll have a cheap little, two foot Christmas tree up.

And that tree is grander than the one on Rockefeller Center.

Posted by: Weirddave at September 14, 2014 12:18 PM (9422s)

182 For laugh out loud humor, I cannot recommend the Mark Schweizer Liturgical Mystery series strongly enough.

Posted by: JTB at September 14, 2014 11:13 AM (FvdPb)

******************

I just picked up "The Alto Wore Tweed" for Kindle - only $.99! I used to live in Boone, so I think it will be a fun read.

Posted by: Elinor, Who usually looks lurkily at September 14, 2014 12:20 PM (95xxa)

183 168Michelle as you've never seen her before.

http://tinyurl.com/nzt95y5Posted by: The Great White Snark at September 14, 2014 11:53 AM (8MlTP)Okay I took the bait and looked. Mine eyes!!!Seriously, who the fuck gives hersartorial advice? And the whole Kaboom thing on 9-11. No class, no tact. Poor form, as per SOP.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel at September 14, 2014 12:21 PM (0SmH0)

184 Every time I see a gaggle of milennials standing around, they're usually all fiddling with their smart phones

Maybe they're reading a book on those smart phones, OM. Pooky and I both use the Kindle app on our phones when we're waiting at the doctor's office, flightline, on planes, etc. I might get only a few pages read, but it's far more enjoyable than just sitting there.

Posted by: pookysgirl at September 14, 2014 12:21 PM (bRPUY)

185 I also picked up Ken Follet's World Without End at Powell's. Anyone read it? I enjoyed the Pillars of the Earth. I will also probably read the final book in the Century trilogy.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel at September 14, 2014 12:23 PM (0SmH0)

186 @121, they had open crotch underwear. See the Folkwear Edwardian Underthings. They wore linen, which wicks off sweat better than cotton. And I've been wearing long cotton skirts with a cotton petticoat in 90 degree humid weather. I find them cooler than jeans.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 14, 2014 12:25 PM (Lqy/e)

187
184- I saw a picture of a bunch of people waiting around for the train. Everyone was looking at their smartphone except for one dude. He just sat there, staring off into space, lost in thought. The caption was, "Who is the weirdo here?"
Elevators are the same way now. People are afraid to make eye contact or sit quiety with a group of strangers for 30 seconds without glancing at their phone.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel at September 14, 2014 12:25 PM (0SmH0)

188 So how many unread books do you think you have?

Coupla weeks ago, I turned the wireless on my Kindle on and a hundred (no, I am not exaggerating) cookbooks pounced.

Seems Mrs. Chronda had gone nuts on Amazon a few days earlier, going on a "gotta get em all!" Pokemon quest for free cookbooks.

Neither of us cooks.

Posted by: Anachronda at September 14, 2014 12:25 PM (o78gS)

189 So I finally finished reading Margaret MacMillan's The War That Ended Peace, and it was a very good book--she's especially sharp in her thumbnail portraits of the main players--as well as many of the minor players in the run up to that utterly avoidable yet utterly predictable catastrophe. She displays, however, an annoying tendency to bring up current events in order to help illustrate episodes of 1913-14, and while she only does it maybe a half dozen times in the book, it's glaring because , one, the reader is immersed in that time period and doesn't want the 21st century to intrude ( at least I didn't), and two, her examples are wrong-headed. An example is when, in writing about certain elements in the military of Austria-Hungary and their eagerness to go to war with Serbia over their complicity in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, she actually compares them to elements in the Bush administration -the "neocons"-using 9-11 to do what they always wanted to do, which was to invade Iraq. Her example is not only wrong, it's so out of place, and so ham-fisted that I thought an editor added it; if the book wasn't so good and if I wasn't so close to finishing it, I would have hurled it across the room.....
So that book and The Sleepwalkers are done; I'm going to read Seth McMeekim's July 1914 next, and that will be it for WW1 for the time being...

Posted by: JoeF at September 14, 2014 12:28 PM (6PCXL)

190 Greetings:

A couple of things I feel compelled to add to the above.

First, Picasso's "Guernica" is a very large, huge to me painting, like the whole side of good side room, so, even though I didn't much like it myself, it's truly a piece of work to keep all that stuff straight.

Second, ack in the early part of the previous decade, I spent some time working for a printing company in Berkeley, California, and one of our customers was an organization devoted to the Lincoln Brigade of the Spanish Civil War not the either Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Brigade would have approved but Berkeley is pretty much always Berkeley so there it goes.

Posted by: 11B40 at September 14, 2014 12:30 PM (evgyj)

191 I only got into cooking fairly recently, and my cookbook is "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook".

It's in loose-leaf binder format, so I can remove the page for the recipe I'm making, and not have to prop open the whole book. on the kitchen counter.

The best thing about it is that it assumes no prior knowledge whatsoever, so it's right up my alley. It could be called "Cooking for Idiots". It has instructions for making scrambled and hard-boiled eggs. There's probably a section for "How to Boil Water", but I haven't seen it yet. Anyway, I think I have that pretty much down pat.

Posted by: rickl at September 14, 2014 12:39 PM (sdi6R)

192 I know much material has been digitized, and maybe it's enough for a
freshman term paper, but for senior and graduate-level research, I can't
imagine that every source you would conceivably need has been made
available online.

Don't get me started.

I've been working on genealogy lately (hey, at least it keeps me off the streets ... of Azeroth). For those who don't know, the Mormon church maintains a massive family history database as well as a large collection of microfilmed records. These are made available to the public online at familysearch.org and through their Family History Center, typically located in their churches.

But not everything is online. For the particular group of mid-19th century Polish farmers from which I spring, I have to poke through microfilm. The procedure for this is that I order the microfilm online, it is sent to my local family history center, where I can sit at a microfilm reader and try to decipher bad handwriting in Polish and Latin.

Everyone else, and I do mean everyone, who uses my local family history center sits at the computer and pokes around the digitized records. Since I need to dim the lights to see the microfilm, they've taken to teasing me about going over to the dark side whenever I show up to poke through my microfilms.

A month or so ago, they discovered a structural problem in the building that houses my local family history center. The building is unsafe for use and I've been hearing estimates of a year to get it fixed. And until they either get it fixed or make temporary arrangements, I can't go poke through my microfilm. Which is very frustrated.

I was chatting about this with a friend the other day and, bless her heart, she pops out with "You know you can go to ancestry.com..."

No. No, I can't. My records aren't available online. I can only get at them by poking through microfilm. Which I can only do at the family history center. Which is currently unavailable.

I also get a big charge out of those ancestry.com commercials: "I type in my name and my history opens before me..." Right. As if.

Posted by: Anachronda at September 14, 2014 12:39 PM (o78gS)

193 -ting. Very frustrating. And I can't even blame zombie Steve Jobs for that one.

Posted by: Anachronda at September 14, 2014 12:40 PM (o78gS)

194 81
"there are more public libraries than McDonald's restaurants."

The
difference being that the patrons of the former aren't casually tossing
bags of books out the windows of their cars once they've finished
reading.

I'm not certain you can blame the patrons.

Mrs. Chronda and I occasionally like to spend a workday lunch munching on speedy comestibles in the shade of the trees at the local park (this being the desert, we're sitting in the car in the shade of the trees, with the air conditioner going, mind you, but shade of trees nevertheless).

The park also features a sizable murder of crows that like to congregate around cars at lunch time. Running joke between me and the Mrs. is that they want to relieve us of our fat-soaked starch sticks.

A few months ago, we were driving through an alley in town and spotted a group of crows rooting around in a garbage dumpster. Suddenly one pops up with a white paper bag and drags it out onto the ground, where they all rip the thing to shreds.

"Looking for fries", says I with a chuckle.

Upon reaching the spot, we discovered that the bag was, indeed, a McDonald's bag.

Posted by: Anachronda at September 14, 2014 01:08 PM (o78gS)

195 OK, think we could talk ace into sending CAC to the UK to cover the Scotland vote?

Plaid maps, Jessss!

Posted by: toby928(C) Free Mike Hammer! at September 14, 2014 01:10 PM (rwI+c)

196 tsundoku, which is described 'the act of leaving a book unread, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.'

Mot!
(zis is ze francois for "word," vous illiterates)
Bartender! Another double, on the Post's tab.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/piketty-book-no-one-read_n_5563629.html

Posted by: Thomas Piketty at September 14, 2014 01:12 PM (jfUIE)

197 185 I also picked up Ken Follet's World Without End at Powell's. Anyone read it? I enjoyed the Pillars of the Earth. I will also probably read the final book in the Century trilogy.

World Without End is worth it. It's almost as good as Pillars ( it's the same book really, just 200 years later ). I often wonder if I like Pillars better than World simply because I read it first. No way to tell, but I've read both multiple times, and probably will again.

Posted by: Weirddave at September 14, 2014 01:24 PM (9422s)

198 Please spare me the geneology

. My boyfriend has been researching his family and his son's. I snapped last week because he started talking about it when he got up in the morning and was still talking about it at night. I'm not proud of it but I just couldn't take hearing about the Babowicz's any more.

They redid our library. There's an actual game room. I just hate that. I liked the old library better even if it did have more bums.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 14, 2014 01:32 PM (Lqy/e)

199 Well whiling away the afternoon reading John Lundstrom's The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign. Originally published by the Naval Institute Press 1994.

Kelly Turner should be shot because "I want your three carriers guarding my transports for three days!"

When Fletcher said oh hell no, Turner "oh I want you to spare 60 of your fighters and leave them at Lunga then."

Then talk of fitting belly tanks to Marine F4F-3As at Espirito but that fell through... and USS Long Island was still at Pearl.

Truly is a miracle that Operation Watchtower happened and in the Allies' favor.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at September 14, 2014 01:33 PM (uYs/v)

200 So that book and The Sleepwalkers are done; I'm going to read Seth McMeekim's July 1914 next, and that will be it for WW1 for the time being...

Posted by: JoeF at September 14, 2014 12:28 PM (6PCXL)

I have read both Sean McMeekin's July 1914 and Clark's The Sleepwalkers and greatly enjoyed them both. They provided some new information and also assembled facts that previously I had to dig out of multiple sources in almost fragmentary form. In my opinion, however, both authors pulled their punches in terms of the conclusions they drew from the data they presented, in order to avoid the opprobrium of the traditionalists' school of thought.

Your recommendation of McMillan, even with the caveat, makes me think I will have to pick that one up. I will start by checking Abebooks to see if I can save a few $$$, of course.

A book that I started but set aside was Hastings' Catastrophe 1914, mostly because very early on he presented some economic data that I know to be false, in a way that telegraphed his prejudices. I guess I should go back and finish it, however, because it's not going to read itself.

Posted by: CQD at September 14, 2014 01:36 PM (gZMDg)

201 No...that picture of Michelle cannot be for real!

Posted by: PJ at September 14, 2014 01:42 PM (cHuNI)

202 RE: Air conditioning

The movie Naked City (194

was innovative because much of it was filmed on location in New York City. (It was easier to shoot on location during the late silent period than the early talkie period because silent movie makers didn't deal with bulky sound equipment, but by the 1940s enough progress had been made to make it feasible again.) One of the ways you can tell that one scene was actually shot in an luxury apartment is that you can hear the air conditioning if you listen carefully.

Posted by: Pete in TX at September 14, 2014 01:43 PM (WCq96)

203 Posted by: Anachronda at September 14, 2014 12:39 PM (o78gS)

I remember using microfilm...

Posted by: The Political Microfiche at September 14, 2014 01:47 PM (lN8KC)

204 OK, think we could talk ace into sending CAC to the UK to cover the Scotland vote?

Plaid maps, Jessss!

Posted by: toby928(C) Free Mike Hammer! at September 14, 2014 01:10 PM (rwI+c)

If the November election goes well, covering the UK General election might be a fun thing to try out.

Posted by: John Bull's Hat at September 14, 2014 01:48 PM (lN8KC)

205 Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 14, 2014 01:32 PM (Lqy/e)

I feel your pain. Years ago I worked with a woman who was doing some serious genealogy research, and she would just go on and on about it (she was distantly related to Sam Houston). Just absolutely boring.

But one night she was droning on about how one of her ancestors back in the 1800's was riding his horse, lightning hit a tree next to him, branch fell and killed him. Another woman in the room, whipped around and said: "So, I guess YOUR family doesn't celebrate Arbor Day, eh?"

I think I laughed for about 5 minutes straight, then kept giggling for the rest of the night as I thought about it.

Posted by: HH at September 14, 2014 01:50 PM (Ce4DF)

206 "88% of Americans 16 to 29 years old have read at least one book in the past year"
Ummm, not really that impressive. These are mostly people who are in **school**. These are folks in the last two years of high school and in college. OF COURSE they have read *at least one* book. Sheesh. Talk about missing the obvious.

Posted by: GWB at September 14, 2014 01:59 PM (z6/n1)

207 66
"According to the report, 88% of Americans 16 to 29 years old have read

at least one book in the past year, compared with 79% of people 30 and

older."

One suspects that this survey is skewed by the fact
that those in the 16 to 29 bracket are disproportionately more likely to
be forced to read certain books by their high school and college
courses.

A startling number of Americans stop reading with
essentially permanent effect when they leave the education system and
are no longer required to do so.

As a college prof, I think that this does skew the numbers. Although the moaning and groaning that happens when they have to read parts of the Wall Street Journal, makes me wonder if any of them actually read anything of length. I should have taken a picture of their faces when they discovered they had to read "The Black Swan" for business stats class.

Posted by: Charlotte at September 14, 2014 02:01 PM (o5F30)

208 Listened to Brent Weeks' The Way Of Shadows, pretty entertaining though violent and sordid, story of assassins in a supernatural world. Good job by the reader.

Also listened to Weber's Flag In Exile, Honor Harrington #5. Another good book where Honor has to fight enemies on two fronts.

Posted by: waelse1 at September 14, 2014 02:13 PM (mfThH)

209 Just finished a nifty little scfi adventure, " Glory Main" by Henry V. O 'Neil. Went through it in 2 sittings. Couldn't put it down. Looks like sequels are forthcoming. Basically you have 4 survivors of space transport accident set down on a barren planet tale. There's a war raging between humans and a mysterious alien race. The thing about the aliens is that they look and act just like humans. Their speech and nutritional needs are different. No one knows where they came from. Secrets, conspiracies and competing agendas abound so I' m hoping the next book comes out soon. $2.99 on Amazon. Just when you think the story arc of this book is wrapped up the author provides just a little more. Great fun.

Anyone read the " Outlander" books? I hear talk of the mini series at work. I see there are currently 8 books and counting.

Posted by: Tuna at September 14, 2014 02:29 PM (hpWy+)

210 You understand why Yankees thought of Southerners as "slow-moving" and lazy -- because six months out of the year any vigorous exercise would leave you looking like you'd fallen in a pond.

And I have always maintained it's how the drawl came about.

British accents meet 110 degree heat with 98% humidity. The drawls are even specific to who settled where. (The Low Country/Tidewater where the wealthier types settled is more refined than the moutainy twang where the Scots settled, for instance)

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at September 14, 2014 02:34 PM (IBB9V)

211 210
Native Outer Banks accents are truly interesting. Some speculate that if you want to get an idea of what Elizabethan speech sounded like spend time with the natives.

Posted by: Tuna at September 14, 2014 02:37 PM (hpWy+)

212 Posted by: JTB at September 14, 2014 11:13 AM (FvdPb)

Welcome and thanks for the recommendation!

Did I see you in the Fall thread, too?

Please stick around!

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at September 14, 2014 02:43 PM (IBB9V)

213 Tuna, it's been while since I visited the OB.

I think of the Gullah more than the white accents, but you're right!

Think I may have to get out that way this Fall.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at September 14, 2014 02:45 PM (IBB9V)

214 "Anyone read the " Outlander" books? I hear talk of the mini series at work. I see there are currently 8 books and counting

Posted by: Tuna at September 14, 2014 02:29 PM"

Yes. The first one is interesting, though some people might want to slap the protagonist silly at points. It might be considered a little "porny" by some. I have a few of them on my Amazon wishlist.
And Starz network is producing the shows - I'm not sure how far they've gotten, but the first one was on their website a few weeks ago.

Posted by: GWB at September 14, 2014 02:46 PM (z6/n1)

215 Thanks for the Bookbub mention.

I had no idea.

I'm gonna need a bigger Kindle.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at September 14, 2014 03:05 PM (IBB9V)

216 I read the second Reacher book and started the third before discarding it. In the second the villain is a constitution and bible thumping racist who enjoys butchering people and leads and cult/militia in Montana declaring independence.

In the third the villian is a money-lending Vietnam vet with a hook who enjoys butchering people and is enbarking on corporate predation to secure real estate and make millions. I stopped reading and gave up on the series about 15% into the book.

I think I'm gonna finish The Once and Future King before I go back to Boorstin's Knowledge Trilogy.

Posted by: .87c at September 14, 2014 03:07 PM (vB+Uz)

217 I'm not entirely clear that Franco was as bad as has been made out. My reading suggests he played a bad hand quite well; he solicited and obtained assistance in his fight against the Reds from the only source from which it was going to be forthcoming - the Nazis and Fascists - yet used them to defeat the Reds without giving them anything in return, and sitting out WWII. Some pretty fancy footwork for a guy leading a small country caught between two major forces (the Axis and the USSR).

And as for smoking a bunch of Reds, it was no more than the Reds themselves had done, both to the Nationalists and to other Reds (e.g., PUMA), on the orders of Stalin, and arguably was necessary to stabilize the country. In fact, Reds' atrocities (especially murdering priests and nuns) was one of the factors that triggered the Spanish Civil War in the first place: the Reds thought it was time to make their move, but did so a bit prematurely.

In many disturbing respects our situation today is much like of Spain in 1934.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at September 14, 2014 03:15 PM (SLea8)

218 214
The girls at work are all breathless about the upcoming wedding episode. LOL. I think if I'm going to invest time in that many books I want a happy ending. Maybe I'll wait til the author is done with the series and find out how it ends up.

Side thought..I know the 1st was published some years ago. Is that when the "hunky guys in kilts " romance novel thing started?

Posted by: Tuna at September 14, 2014 03:22 PM (hpWy+)

219 Already picked up "Kali's Children" at Amazon. I'm a sucker for any outer space adventure involving a crash landing on a mysterious planet.

Posted by: Tuna at September 14, 2014 03:30 PM (hpWy+)

220 THREAD TIP: AD HOC LIBRARIES
One of the things that the press went on and on about for the Occupy Movement was that most of them had a library. Maybe not the library that I or any moron would have, but the press was really impressed by this.

Well, I work international construction. Every site that I've been on over the past 40 years has had a library; the longer/bigger the project, the better the library. And, unlike the Occupy stash, our libraries tend to be pretty eclectic. These libraries are spontaneous; they are not a budget item. Some of them went to thousands of volumes, (and the Camp Management eventually kinda added a curator position). I've found international construction hands to be a widely-read bunch.

Who else generate ad hoc libraries? Prisons, I suppose. The military was more regimented, so I always assumed that those libraries were budgeted. I don't really know.

Posted by: I lurk, therefore I amn't at September 14, 2014 04:50 PM (cr0Pu)

221 Yeah, Jay, some people in Spain actually miss Franco. Trains running on time and all that.

Posted by: PJ at September 14, 2014 06:16 PM (cHuNI)

222 OregonMuse (And Others),

I just finished Antony Beevor's The Battle for Spain this spring and after reading it, it's no surprise the Republicans lost the Spanish Civil War. They spent as much time fighting each other (The Communists backed by the USSR vs. the Socialists who were Communist lite vs. the Anarchists who trusted NO ONE vs. the Basques) as they did fighting Franco and the Germans and Italians. They actually had to defeat a revolution/uprising in Catalonia in 1937 within THEIR OWN RANKS while fighting the Nationalists. Far from the unified front the romantic "lost cause" view the left presents, they'd cut their allies throats for power. Franco won because he had a plan and quashed political rivals. Stalin and the Soviets provided military equipment and advisors until Uncle Joe realized he might be seen as "provoking" Hitler and the Nazis and pulled support, leaving the Republicans in Spain to their fate. Also, nobody mentions that the Soviets sent plenty of Political (NKVD) Commissars to Spain to try out the latest torture techniques. And many conveniently forget Soviet "advisors" recalled from Spain often "disappeared" (AKA "Enemy of the State") once they returned to the USSR.

For all the (justified) examples of cruelty the left heaps on the Nationalists, plenty of Republican opportunists used the Civil War to even the score, bullet by bullet, body by boy.

A good book, and I recommend his book Stalingrad too.

Posted by: mmack at September 14, 2014 06:19 PM (/LIpd)

223 I second Skunk Works. A very interesting book and an enjoyable read.

Posted by: .87c at September 14, 2014 06:35 PM (vB+Uz)

224 Franco was a turd sandwich at first but got to be good for Spain later on. Look up the "Spanish Miracle". (There are several parallels with Pinochet.)

The most underrated Latin dictator is a tossup between Trujillo and Salazar...

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 14, 2014 06:42 PM (T2p7o)

225 Strike that; I'm going with Trujillo.

Salazar left Portugal a mess. It almost went Commie. Certainly most of Portugal's imperial colonies in Africa sucked ass.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 14, 2014 06:43 PM (T2p7o)

226 "Side thought..I know the 1st was published some
years ago. Is that when the "hunky guys in kilts " romance novel thing
started?
Posted by: Tuna at September 14, 2014 03:22 PM"

Heh, that has been around a loooong time, but it might have been the latest surge of it. There *is* a lot of relationship talk in the novel, now that you mention it. It's not a "bodice ripper", but it is a bit of a romance novel. There's plenty of action in it, too. (Of both sorts.) And lots and lots of "historical fiction" descriptions. My only concern on that end is that she insists that Inverness is "in the highlands" where I recall the Scots very definitely considering it a "lowland" place.

"Who else generate ad hoc libraries? Prisons, I
suppose. The military was more regimented, so I always assumed that
those libraries were budgeted. I don't really know.

Posted by: I lurk, therefore I amn't at September 14, 2014 04:50 PM"

We had one in the 1st Armored Division TOC at the river crossing into Croatia (while 1AD was moving out after 1ID moved into Bosnia) that consisted solely of books donated by guys in the HQ unit and personnel passing through on their way out-of-country. It's actually where I tried to read one of only about 5 novels in my entire life that I've ever decided to stop reading before finishing. And I read *lots* of books, and I had naught to do there *but* read.

Posted by: GWB at September 14, 2014 07:20 PM (z6/n1)

227 Let's see Franco who gave peace and prosperity or the commie rats who killed everyone who didn't tow the line? Hard choice for followers of Marx but not so much anyone else.

Posted by: Obama the holy one at September 14, 2014 11:19 PM (sGUwu)

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