Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-16-2018

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, and everybody who's holding your beer. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, and publishing by escaped oafs who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants which are advertised as Thanksgiving Pleated Drumsticks Pleated Pants, and you can see why. Ugh.

(h/t KT for today's library pic)

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

The new HH book AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 WORDS is OUT NOW!https://t.co/Tmu5OANROk

The book tells the stories behind 80 different words and phrases whose origins lie on the world map—so here’s a quick round-the-world thread of some of the etymological tales you’ll find inside... pic.twitter.com/pb2HsRoDe9
— Haggard Hawks (@HaggardHawks) November 12, 2018

A Christmas Present For Mrs. Muse

I found a used copy of The Works of Anne Bradstreet for my dear wife this year. Mrs. Bradstreet was a woman who was born in England in 1612, emigrated to America in 1630, raised 8 children, and wrote poetry when she could. She was America's first published poet. Bradstreet was a serious Puritan and her Christianity comes out in many of her poems. Modern scholars try to make her out to be some sort of paleo-feminist because she wrote lines such as "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/Who says my hand a needle better fits" which they interpret to mean she'd be all in on intersectional lesbian folk dancing and smashing the patriarchy if she were alive today. But

By using the lines, "These O protect from stepdame's injury", Bradstreet is calling for her children to be protected from the abuse of a future step mother. The fact that Bradstreet believes that God will grant her husband with a new wife if she dies shows how much Puritan women believed in marriage and how God provided them with this gift.

Bradstreet was a remarkable woman, whether feminist or not, highly educated and, in fact, her husband and her father helped found Harvard University in 1636. Her personal library reputedly contained over 9000 books, although she lost most of them when her house burned down. She even wrote one of her poems about it, "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666".

I hope Mrs. Muse enjoys her verse.

Moron Recommendation

218 I finished "Cult City" by Daniel Flynn.
It was a compelling read, but a tough read.
So much local San Francisco history.
It all leads inevitably to the 900+ deaths at Jonestown.
Jim Jones was a sick bastard, and it was a shame how all the local pols sucked up to him.
Followed by Dan White, a Democrat, and Diane Feinstein protoge running on a gun control platform, goes all shooty at City Hall.
$9.99 on kindle.
Posted by: navybrat, obtuse by nature at December 09, 2018 11:02 AM (w7KSn)

See, you morons back east, you with your Philly and Baltimore and Cleveland, you think you've won the "Most Corrupt Sh*thole City in America" prize, but I tell you, you've got some competition from the West Coast, specifically from San Francisco, where AIDS got a major signal boost because the hapless municipal health officials didn't want to close down the bathhouses from where it was spreading, because the gays would get mad, and also, as this book details, we have psychopathic cult leaders who are tight with local politicians so they can carry on their madness unchecked.

Cult City: Jim Jones, Harvey Milk, and 10 Days That Shook San Francisco claims to set the record straight:

In life, Jim Jones enjoyed the support of prominent politicians and Hollywood stars even as he preached atheism and communism from the pulpit; in death, he transformed into a fringe figure, a “fundamentalist Christian” and a “fascist.”

In life, Harvey Milk faked hate crimes, outed friends, and falsely claimed that the US Navy dishonorably discharged him over his homosexuality; in death, he is honored in an Oscar-winning movie, with a California state holiday, and a US Navy ship named after him. His assassin, a blue-collar Democrat who often voted with Milk in support of gay issues, is remembered as a right-winger and a homophobe.

But the story extends far beyond Jones and Milk. Author Daniel J. Flynn vividly portrays the strange intersection of mainstream politics and murderous extremism in 1970s San Francisco—the hangover after the high of the Summer of Love.

I still remember seeing the footage from Jonestown live on TV, hundreds of bodies lying all around on the grounds outside, it was one of the most horrific things I had ever seen.

Flynn is a conservative author who has written books that might be worth a read, such as Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness and also Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas

___________

283 Latest book I've read is Prize Money by Adam Hardy, part of the Fox series of sea novels. These are almost forgotten despite being quite good, and I've been slowly collecting them for more than a decade.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2018 11:39 AM (39g3+)

Never heard of this author, so I poked around a bit. According to Amazon,

Adam Hardy was a pen name used by Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005). A prolific writer, Bulmer wrote over 160 novels and innumerable short stories, both under his real name and various pen names. He is best known for science fiction, including his long-running Dray Prescot series of planetary romances, but he wrote in many genres.

The novel referenced by Chris, Prize Money, appears to be the 3rd in a 14-book series featuring the 'Age of Sail' naval adventures of one George Abercrombie Fox. The first Fox novel appeared in 1973. I have no idea how good they are, but the Kindle editions are $2.99 each, so I'd say it's worth the risk. Here are the first three in the series:

1. Powder Monkey
2. The Press Gang
3. Prize Money

___________

Books By Morons

I am Richard, a long time Lurker...

[Everybody]: Hello, Richard!

I visit Ace multiple times each day, and revel in the content and comments. My wife and I are both artists, and I've been writing a blog for years attacking the corruption of Postmodern art and its corrosive effects on our culture. I've written a book on the subject I'd love to share with the Horde.

The book is Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization:

Postmodernism is dead.

Discover Remodernism, a new art movement of the people, by the people, for the people...

Art is a more enduring and vital human experience than the power games of a greedy and fraudulent ruling class. The story of the 21st Century will be the dismantling of centralized power. As always, this course of history was prophesied by artists--those who are intuitively aware of the path unfolding ahead. Their works become maps so that others may find the way. Enduring changes start in the arts.

Remodern America provides an historical overview of how art shapes society and politics. This book exposes how the contemporary art world is used as a tool of oppression. Most importantly, Remodern America provides the solution, and reveals how the power of art can be reclaimed as a force for liberty.

Richard's wife has created a book trailer for it as well. It lasts a little less than a minute.

Richard also blogs at The Remodern Review.

___________

I also heard from moron author Mark K this week:

I now have a Kindle version of my history of Medicine book that has been in print since 1998. It is “A Brief History of Disease, Science and Medicine.

From the Amazon blurb:

This introduction to the history of medicine begins with the evolution of infectious diseases at the end of the last ice age. It describes the origin of science and medicine in ancient civilizations, including China and India. The first third of the book covers the early period that is considered the "classical" history of medicine. The remainder describes the evolution of modern medicine and surgery up to the present. The final chapter is a history of medical economics and explains the origin of health insurance, HMOs and medical malpractice lawsuits, subjects explained nowhere else in the medical school curriculum. There is a 40 page index and over 550 footnotes, most of them references to the original articles described in the text. A bibliography of essential sources is also included.

It's a history of medicine intended for medical students, nurses and physicians. I think this mostly means it discusses its topics using medical terms and concepts that should be familiar to those in the field and probably doesn't provide much in the way of definitions for the general reader. Still, I glanced through the Kindle sample, and I think it looks like it would be an interesting read, even for non-specialists.

I think the same is true about Mike's other book, War Stories: 50 Years in Medicine, which is

A memoir of a medical career of 50 years. The memoir is chiefly about patients and their stories. What we did then and what we know now.

I first mentioned these books in 2015, but they were only available in dead tree editions> But now,
both books are available on Kindle and they're inexpensively priced at < $6.00.

___________

Dave Dubrow writes:

The short story anthology I've edited, Appalling Stories 2, is out and available at Amazon. It's the spiritual sequel to the top-selling short story anthology Appalling Stories, and carries on the tradition of ripped-from-the-headlines short fiction written to entertain, amuse, and even horrify.

The Amazon blurb says:

In these pages you'll read stories of humanity's terrifying First Contact with extraterrestrial life, the horrifying secret behind today's radical feminist movement, what happens when the wokest man you know discards the last of his White Privilege, and more. From a far-future history of America's decline to disturbing tales of gun control gone wild, you're sure to find something that will stick with you long after you've closed the book.

And the best part is that you'll be making an SJW so mad when you tell him/her/zir what you're reading.

Also:

And my standard offer applies: anyone who is willing to post a review on Amazon can get a free electronic copy if they email me at davedauthor at gmail.com.

Or, you can purchase Appalling Stories 2: More Appalling Tales of Social Injustice on Kindle for the appallingly reasonable price of $2.99. As is the first book in this series, Appalling Stories: 13 Tales of Social Injustice

___________

If you like, you can follow me on Twitter, where I make the occasional snarky comment.

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

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

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

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at December 16, 2018 08:58 AM (/rm4P)

2 hiya

Posted by: ALH at December 16, 2018 08:59 AM (cS3Yq)

3 Got wishes for next book but nothing yet

Corgis dutifully called btw

Posted by: Skip at December 16, 2018 08:59 AM (/rm4P)

4 We've been to the Biltmore House. That library looks even better in person.

Posted by: ALH at December 16, 2018 09:00 AM (cS3Yq)

5 I read Challenges of Command in the Civil War by Richard J. Sommers. It purports to be an analysis of Grant's and Lee's generalship, but falls short and I found it very disappointing. The book is actually 10 disparate lectures that the author has given over the years. The most worthwhile were the four chapters about Grant's and Lee's conduct during the siege of Petersburg in 1864-65 but the rest of the book is close to being rubbish. The other chapter on Lee is superficial and the remaining 5 chapters were mostly biographical notes and accounts of bickering. The publisher let Sommers pretty much "phone it in" and should have made him write a cohesive book. I found the footnotes annoying since they sometimes took up half a page (and I say this as a guy that like footnotes) and sometimes should have been incorporated into the main text. Some useful information but not worth the money. Rating = 2.0/5.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 16, 2018 09:00 AM (5Yee7)

6 Don't know if it just apply to me but Amazon wouldn't let me post a review to a book I bought from them because I did not spend a certain amount in a time period.

Posted by: Skip at December 16, 2018 09:02 AM (/rm4P)

7 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. Hope everyone had a wonderful week of reading. Mine was a combination of the familiar, the new, and unexpected connections between them.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:02 AM (bmdz3)

8 Baby got back!

Posted by: The turkey at December 16, 2018 09:02 AM (UdKB7)

9 Good morning, bookseurs and bookseuses.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:03 AM (t+qrx)

10 I've been reading VDH's "Wars of the Ancient Greeks and it's a good read. After that I'm going to move on to Aristotle's Rhetoric and reread a biography of John Hawkwood.

Posted by: Colorado Alex In Exile at December 16, 2018 09:05 AM (SgjGX)

11 Oh wow, those pants are... stratified. There are fossils of extinct creatures in there. You could take a core sample of them and find out what the pants were like back through the eons. Or Æons.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:05 AM (t+qrx)

12 Trying to work on the re-read of the Sword of Truth series but computer crashing got in the way.

Posted by: Vic at December 16, 2018 09:06 AM (mpXpK)

13 Well, dang. I took a bunch of pictures of the Biltmore library when we were there this fall for the Chihuly exhibit. I planned to send them to you, but never quite got around to it, so I guess I missed my shot at fame and glory. Oh, well, this one is better anyway.

Posted by: pep at December 16, 2018 09:06 AM (T6t7i)

14 We've been to the Biltmore House. That library looks even better in person.

Posted by: ALH at December 16, 2018 09:00 AM (cS3Yq)

Too bad it's roped off....like everything else....but I understand why.

Posted by: BignJames at December 16, 2018 09:07 AM (cxHbL)

15 Okay - puts pants on. (grumble)
I finished Bad Blood by John Carreyrou this week. It chronicles the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her house of cards regarding the Silicon Valley darling Theranos. Wow! What a read.

I knew the basics of this story but I had no idea of all of the (supposed) best and brightest who were involved; Mattis, Henry Kissinger, Larry Ellison, George Shultz, and Walgreens along with a host of others. Equally involved are the scum of the universe; Perkins Coe, the CIA, David Boies (name some familiar?) and on and on.

Fraud, suicide, legal harassment writ large, greed, and billions of dollars invested in something that never was. All under the direction of a mentally ill, pretty woman who spun a good tale. Astounding the number of folks that should have known better but could not be reasoned with.

This book has it all.

Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:08 AM (9rIkM)

16 I've been in the Biltmore library and it's just as fantastic IRL as it appears from this photo.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Starlet Picture Inspector at December 16, 2018 09:09 AM (Z216Q)

17 Postmodernism is dead.

Discover Remodernism, a new art movement of the people, by the people, for the people...

Art is a more enduring and vital human experience than the power games of a greedy and fraudulent ruling class. The story of the 21st Century will be the dismantling of centralized power.

From Richard's keyboard to God's ears. Modern "art" is nothing of the sort and is intentionally ugly, brutal and dehumanizing. It exists to allow poseurs claim to perceive meaning in things that we proles are too stupid to see.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 16, 2018 09:09 AM (5Yee7)

18 It would be interesting to see what books there were in that library.

Posted by: Vic at December 16, 2018 09:09 AM (mpXpK)

19 Around the world in 80 words, what fun.
I particularly like "Toasting the siege of Gibraltar"...need to remember that one...

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:10 AM (bUjCl)

20 I think we determined that this sneaky hidden door was at the Biltmore library too:

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=376691

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:10 AM (t+qrx)

21 Western Oregon this morning is turning out to be the perfect reading day, cold, dark and cosy.
Yesterday and the day before I was well enough to get my German hausfrau genes flowing and tidy up for Christmas and the New Year.
Currently listening to Gotham[/] on Audible, who knew the Netherlands could be such global capitalist badasses?

Posted by: Deacon Bleau at December 16, 2018 09:11 AM (yScAF)

22 See, you morons back east, you with your Philly and Baltimore and Cleveland, you think you've won the "Most Corrupt Sh*thole City in America" prize, but I tell you, you've got some competition from the West Coast, specifically from San Francisco

Cleveland's corruption isn't that bad compared to those other two, or New York or Chicago or Detroit. It's mostly ineptitude and small time graft.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 09:12 AM (y7DUB)

Posted by: Deacon Bleau at December 16, 2018 09:12 AM (yScAF)

24 Truly terrifying pants.

Bought a Kindle Fire 7 at a garage sale last week, and after a brief internal debate about rooting it, I just went ahead and registered it with Amazon.

Trying, so far successfully, to avoid spending All Of The Money on books.
Nice to be able to finally get some of those free offers when they come around.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at December 16, 2018 09:13 AM (mfOi4)

25 Still plowing thru AJ Stewarts Miami Jones books. On book 6 now!

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 16, 2018 09:13 AM (JFO2v)

26 Even if it's these pants which are advertised as Thanksgiving Pleated Drumsticks Pleated Pants, and you can see why.

Yeah, those are flattering.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 09:13 AM (sdi6R)

27 Portland Oregon is racing Seattle to see which one is more morally bankrupt.

Posted by: Deacon Bleau at December 16, 2018 09:14 AM (yScAF)

28 Leftover meatloaf makes a fine breakfast.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Starlet Picture Inspector at December 16, 2018 09:14 AM (Z216Q)

29 Yeah, those are flattering.
Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 09:13 AM (sdi6R)

Three Michelin Man stars.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:15 AM (t+qrx)

30 ...the Chihuly exhibit...

Posted by: pep at December 16, 2018 09:06 AM (T6t7i)

How was it?

There is a huge one in the rotunda of The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and it's fantastic!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 16, 2018 09:15 AM (wYseH)

31 Currently reading Buffalo Bill Cody, The Man Behind the Legend by Robert Carter. He scoured through hundreds of accounts, some partially or fully fabricated to try and filter out the truth behind the scout and originator of the wild west show.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at December 16, 2018 09:15 AM (fPQPf)

32 >>Cleveland's corruption isn't that bad compared to those other two, or New York or Chicago or Detroit. It's mostly ineptitude and small time graft.

And like Chicago and Detroit, Cleveland is in the midwest.

We got enough problems, we aren't taking the blame for other regions of the country.

Posted by: JackStraw at December 16, 2018 09:16 AM (/tuJf)

33 I can see this book thread is going to end up costing some money. Too many good recommendations. Damn, sorta.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:16 AM (bmdz3)

34 This week I read Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark. Tegmark looks at what is intelligence and the explosion of AI in our future. He gives a wide-range of viewpoints as to how this super intelligence will affect humans and society. Tegmark and others have established the Future of Life Institute to provide grants to those who wish to study AI safety, so that the goals of AI remain the goals of humans. An interesting book in a subject that is becoming more and more interesting to me

Posted by: Zoltan at December 16, 2018 09:16 AM (fQijm)

35 Trying, so far successfully, to avoid spending All Of The Money on books.
Nice to be able to finally get some of those free offers when they come around.
Posted by: sock_rat_eez at December 16, 2018 09:13 AM (mfOi4)

get the unlimited for 9 bucks a month

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 16, 2018 09:17 AM (JFO2v)

36 In these pages you'll read stories of humanity's terrifying First Contact with extraterrestrial life, the horrifying secret behind today's radical feminist movement, what happens when the wokest man you know discards the last of his White Privilege, and more. From a far-future history of America's decline to disturbing tales of gun control gone wild, you're sure to find something that will stick with you long after you've closed the book.

Just for information, the kindle sample contains the "radical feminist movement" story in its entirety.

Sick and utterly horrifying, and I mean that in both a good and bad way. Good in that it is excellent, taut storytelling with the perfect twist at the end. Bad because now it is going to stick in my head and I don't want it to.

I need to go back to 1917 Hollywood and flush that story out of my mind. It genuinely made me sick. Which, again, is a compliment.

So, as Abe Lincoln once said, "If you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you'll like."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at December 16, 2018 09:18 AM (kqsXK)

37 That library photo is beyond remarkable. If God needed a library, I think it would look like that. Wow!!

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:18 AM (bmdz3)

38 Do you think any of the Vanderbilts ever read anything in there or was the room just for show?

Posted by: lowandslow at December 16, 2018 09:19 AM (4thlk)

39 30
...the Chihuly exhibit...

Posted by: pep at December 16, 2018 09:06 AM (T6t7i)

How was it?

There is a huge one in the rotunda of The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and it's fantastic

It was great, but TBH, not quite up to some of the others I've seen. Or perhaps I've just seen his stuff so many times that it's no longer as new and exciting as it once was. For my money, the best exhibit of his that I've seen was a few years ago at the VA Museum of Fine Arts.

I haven't seen the one in London. Is it a permanent exhibit?

Posted by: pep at December 16, 2018 09:20 AM (T6t7i)

40 38
Do you think any of the Vanderbilts ever read anything in there or was the room just for show?

Posted by: lowandslow

I asked that same question when I was there. I suspect a lot of people do.

Posted by: pep at December 16, 2018 09:21 AM (T6t7i)

41 Who the hell designed those pants? And how many skinny women, like the model, want pants that make their thighs look huge? I thought that's what they were trying to avoid.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:22 AM (bmdz3)

42 Do you think any of the Vanderbilts ever read anything in there or was the room just for show?
Posted by: lowandslow at December 16, 2018 09:19 AM (4thlk)

They didn't have the Book Thread or one of Ace's abridged movie reviews for entertainment so they probably read a lot. Otherwise, they would have had to talk to each other and we all know nothing good can come from that.

Posted by: weirdflunky at December 16, 2018 09:22 AM (HkmBI)

43 Visit Gibraltar if you are ever in Spain. You can see two continents from one vantage point. Fascinating.

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:23 AM (bUjCl)

44 Good morning all - I got side-tracked this week reading Kurt Schlicter's "Indian Country" and "People's Republic" -- a pair of mil-spec-fiction adventures, premised on the USA splitting into 'red' and 'blue' factions. The 'red' faction remains the USA and is basically flyover country, with a new capitol in Texas. 'Blue' becomes the People's Republic, and after about fifteen years is as grim, dysfunctional and paranoid as every other so-called 'people's republic' which ever existed.
So - light on characterizations, medium-heavy on tactics and armaments, heavy on violence... not really my usual cup of tea. But alleviated by some wit in dialog, and in demonstrating the always-to-be expected dismal outcome of prog-thought put into action. Yes, this is what can be expected to happen every damn time, demonstrated in Venezuela most recently. But the progs and grifters go for it every damn time, and finish up in a hellhole of their own making. Only they usually blame it on outsiders wrecking their perfect vision.
Anyway - that's what I got diverted into reading this week.
The first three Luna City books are all .99 cents in December only, so if you want some gentle escapism into the doings of a perfect little South Texas town - you are welcome. And if you have read and enjoyed the series, can I plead for some reviews? Amazon grants greater visibility to authors with more reviews, and at this point I need all that I can get.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at December 16, 2018 09:23 AM (xnmPy)

45 28
Leftover meatloaf makes a fine breakfast.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Starlet Picture Inspector at December 16, 2018 09:14 AM (Z216Q)

My daughter used to like leftover cold pizza. Wouldn't even reheat it in the stove or microwave.

Posted by: Vic at December 16, 2018 09:24 AM (mpXpK)

46 don't know if this has been discussed:

2018 is the 200th anniversary of "frankenstein". mary shelley was in her teens when she wrote it but it's been hugely influential.

something of that influence is discussed in a review of an exhibition on "frankenstein" at the morgan library by paul cantor called "frankenstein at 200" (pub. by the weekly standard (!) via power line blog.

the review is informed and informative and touches on everything from shelley, her times, publishing history, to theatrical performances starting almost immediately on publication to today. it's a really worthwhile read.

highly recommended.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 09:24 AM (Pg+x7)

47 "All under the direction of a mentally ill, pretty woman who spun a good tale."

One of my pet peeves is labeling people that do horrific things as mentally ill. Can't speak for what's in the book about Elizabeth Homes but some people do evil things, doesn't mean they're mentally ill, just evil.

Posted by: lowandslow at December 16, 2018 09:24 AM (4thlk)

48 And like Chicago and Detroit, Cleveland is in the midwest.

We got enough problems, we aren't taking the blame for other regions of the country.
Posted by: JackStraw at December 16, 2018 09:16 AM (/tuJf)

There's been some obfuscation on that point by some snotty blue blood pinheads who should know better who insist on Cleveland being part of the western reserve of Connecticut. It gives them something to natter away on while the rest of us roll our eyes and concentrate on somewhat more productive things.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 09:25 AM (y7DUB)

49 Well, I was going to start The Brothers Karamazov next, but was in the middle of JRR Tolkien, Author of the Century, which was very interesting, so that got me deciding to read The Lord of the Rings again.

And for some reason I also am starting Quicksilver, the first book of The Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson.

I'm out of control!

Posted by: Sharkman at December 16, 2018 09:26 AM (RIKJa)

50 "Wouldn't even reheat it in the stove or microwave. "

Why would one even do that to pizza for breakfast?

With Breakfast Pizza:

[ ] Coffee

[ ] Beer

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at December 16, 2018 09:26 AM (cqNba)

51 My daughter used to like leftover cold pizza. Wouldn't even reheat it in the stove or microwave.

Posted by: Vic
----
Vic, not to be pedantic but pizza desired cold is never microwaved. Just say'n.

Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:27 AM (9rIkM)

52 I'm still reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales. I had been really liking the BBC version, The Last Kingdom, but now that I'm reading the books I'm wishing they'd cast a guy who actually looked like Uhtred. These things matter.

Posted by: Laura Montgomery at December 16, 2018 09:28 AM (+h9PP)

53 ... also notable is a link to an article on the importance of butter at instapundit. he raves about new zealand and irish butter from grass-fed cows. i concur but prefer beure d'issigny from normandy. but i'll mention this on the food thread. ok.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 09:28 AM (Pg+x7)

54 Finally finished War and Peace. Spoiler alert: the French lose the war.

I do get the impression that Tolstoy got tired of some of his characters and just killed them off to get rid of them. Certainly Helene qualifies -- she drops dead off-stage of a heart attack (she's about 25 years old), which might possibly be due to a drug overdose. Either way, I think this was Leo's way of sending her into the back yard to fall down the well.

Overall impression: this is two books fighting with each other. One is a story of fictional Russian aristocrats and how their lives are changed by the French invasion. The other is a nonfiction history of the French invasion and Tolstoy's ideas about the role of leadership vs. mass feeling in history. They would both be pretty good books if you could pry them apart.

If I reread it -- and I expect I may, someday -- I'll read either the novel part or the history part, but not both at once.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 16, 2018 09:29 AM (+gvbf)

55 >>I asked that same question when I was there. I suspect a lot of people do.

I think they were readers. They built a beautiful library in their mansion in Newport, The Breakers, and when Cornelius' son died while attending Yale they built a library on the campus in his name.

Posted by: JackStraw at December 16, 2018 09:30 AM (/tuJf)

56 Unfortunately my Appalling Stories submission didn't make the cut. It was a story about a salvage crew that boards an alien ship that defends itself by psychologically and physically emasculating them. It was a comment on the transgender movement in a comedic vein. It is included in the Free Worlds anthology though.

Https://tinyurl.com/y8yyau4b

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at December 16, 2018 09:30 AM (UKVPl)

57 43 Visit Gibraltar if you are ever in Spain. You can see two continents from one vantage point. Fascinating.
Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:23 AM (bUjCl)

Gibraltar was the site of the longest military engagement of the American Revolution, the Great Siege which lasted from 1779-1783. I recently finished a good book on the subject, "Gibraltar" by Roy & Lesley Adkins.

Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 09:31 AM (Izzlo)

58 ... that's "frankenstein at 200" by paul cantor at powerline.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 09:32 AM (Pg+x7)

59 I found the footnotes annoying since they sometimes took up half a page (and I say this as a guy that like footnotes) and sometimes should have been incorporated into the main text. Some useful information but not worth the money. Rating = 2.0/5.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 16, 2018 09:00 AM (5Yee7)

Better footnotes than endnotes. Especially those where there is no page guide at the top. A favorite game is using only chapter number in listing the notes. Since the page your reading doesn't have that, but the chapter title, you then have to

- Go back to the beginning of the chapter, or to the table of contents, to figure out which goes with which
- Go to the start of the chapter section in the notes,
to see which numbered chapter you're using.

A complete and total pain in the ass.

Actually, I wish they would split them in 2 parts. Those which cite references are fine as endnotes, but those which expand on the text really belong on the page.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 09:32 AM (VaN/j)

60 One of my pet peeves is labeling people that do
horrific things as mentally ill. Can't speak for what's in the book
about Elizabeth Homes but some people do evil things, doesn't mean
they're mentally ill, just evil.

Posted by: lowandslow
----

L and S - while there are certain aspects of Ms. Holmes that are evil, I chose my descriptors carefully. My late wife and FIL both killed themselves after decades of mental issues.

I know it when I see it. My informed opinion stands. Be well.

Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:32 AM (9rIkM)

61 51 Vic, not to be pedantic but pizza desired cold is never microwaved. Just say'n.

Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:27 AM (9rIkM)

I aleays zap left over pizza in the microwave. Don't like it cold.

Posted by: Vic at December 16, 2018 09:32 AM (mpXpK)

62 I heartily recommend Mike K's book
on the history of medicine and disease.

An old favorite of mine.

Posted by: retropox at December 16, 2018 09:34 AM (991go)

63 reheating cold pizza - that's what toaster ovens are for.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 09:34 AM (Pg+x7)

64 In a lot of ways, Barry O'Cracky is modeled after the "Reverend" Jim Jones.

Marxists, race baiters, sexual deviants and both never worked a real job in their whole lives.
Although Jim did sell monkeys door to door in the 1950's.
Poor monkeys.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at December 16, 2018 09:35 AM (Z+IKu)

65 if i remember right, the fireplace in the dining room could garage a Ford E350 stretch van. I think the table sat 60

Posted by: REDACTED at December 16, 2018 09:35 AM (L/iaS)

66

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
- Groucho Marx

Greetings fappers and fappees.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 09:35 AM (HaL55)

67 Anns Bradstreet uses the word "pelf" in her poem about her house burning down. "Riches gained in a dishonorable way." She seems ashamed of caring about her stuff when the fire was God's will.

I wonder when the last time the word pelf was used in contemporary writing. Probably Mark Steyn.

Posted by: Gem at December 16, 2018 09:36 AM (XoAz8)

68 Around the world in 80 Ho-Hos? That's not enough to make it to the mailbox at the end of the driveway. On my Hoveround.

Posted by: Chris Christie is Sitting Around The House at December 16, 2018 09:37 AM (ysAcm)

69

if i remember right, the fireplace in the dining room could garage a Ford E350 stretch van. I think the table sat 60

The Biltmore Estate is the single most beautiful work of architecture I've ever seen. I never thought I could fall in love with a building. Been there several times and would love to be able to take B'Gal to see it. I highly recommend a visit. Opulence is where the description starts.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 09:38 AM (HaL55)

70 Gibraltar was the site of the longest military engagement of the American Revolution, the Great Siege which lasted from 1779-1783. I recently finished a good book on the subject, "Gibraltar" by Roy & Lesley Adkins.
Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 09:31 AM (Izzlo)

I did not know that...had to give something back to France for supporting the Revolution ?

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:39 AM (bUjCl)

71 My mate loves cold pizza. I find it unpalatable.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at December 16, 2018 09:39 AM (UKVPl)

72 The Biltmore Estate is the single most beautiful work of architecture I've ever seen. I never thought I could fall in love with a building. Been there several times and would love to be able to take B'Gal to see it. I highly recommend a visit. Opulence is where the description starts.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 09:38 AM (HaL55)

Went there for Christmas several years ago! It snowed and was very beautiful!

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 16, 2018 09:39 AM (JFO2v)

73 It's been a Tolkien week for me. I'm continuing with re-read number 53, IIRC, of LOTR. Two new books arrived a few days ago.

"The Middle-Earth Traveler: Sketches From Bag End to Mordor" by John Howe. He was, along with Alan Lee, an illustrator that provided designs used in the LOTR and Hobbit movies. (I have a similar book by Alan Lee.) It shows many pencil sketches he submitted, the ways movie production needs influenced him, and some finished watercolor paintings. Also, why he chose one design over another approach. I'm not crazy about The Hobbit movies for many reasons, but the settings and gear designs are fantastic.

My magnifying glass is getting a serious workout these days.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:40 AM (bmdz3)

74 I'm always curious. What books do you own for show and what books do you own because you read them.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:41 AM (pUDQf)

75 52 I'm still reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales. I had been really liking the BBC version, The Last Kingdom, but now that I'm reading the books I'm wishing they'd cast a guy who actually looked like Uhtred. These things matter.
Posted by: Laura Montgomery at December 16, 2018 09:28 AM (+h9PP)

Yes. Of course, sometimes it matters more, sometimes less. I've always been interested in how they handle historical figures. There are some (Ben Franklin, Napoleon) you just have to get right. Others not so much.

That Hamilton Woman is absurd here. Olivier is way too tall, and Leigh way too dainty. Maybe the worst (I saw only a bit) was The Tudors, with their slender version of the old Henry VIII.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 09:41 AM (VaN/j)

76 Tegmark and others have established the Future of Life Institute to provide grants to those who wish to study AI safety, so that the goals of AI remain the goals of humans. An interesting book in a subject that is becoming more and more interesting to me
Posted by: Zoltan at December 16, 2018 09:16 AM (fQijm)

The tv series Person of Interest was, among other things, an insightful look into some of the issues around AI presented in graspable bits. On a DVD of one of the later seasons they had an interview with someone working on AIs for a living talking with the writers. He said they captured the essence of them fairly accurately but pointed out that in testing them once they reached a certain level that they would increasingly resist any effort on the part of the creator to shut them down. That was incorporated in the following season in developmental flashbacks.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 09:41 AM (y7DUB)

77 Ordered Zone 23. Was very impressed by an article on Paris Riots by this author.

Posted by: Puddin Head at December 16, 2018 09:41 AM (+fNrM)

78 52 I'm still reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales. I had been really liking the BBC version, The Last Kingdom, but now that I'm reading the books I'm wishing they'd cast a guy who actually looked like Uhtred. These things matter.
Posted by: Laura Montgomery at December 16, 2018 09:28 AM (+h9PP)

I didn't know Cornwell's Uhtred stories had been turned into a television series. I'll have to check it out!

Posted by: Gem at December 16, 2018 09:42 AM (XoAz8)

79 70 Gibraltar was the site of the longest military engagement of the American Revolution, the Great Siege which lasted from 1779-1783. I recently finished a good book on the subject, "Gibraltar" by Roy & Lesley Adkins.
Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 09:31 AM (Izzlo)

I did not know that...had to give something back to France for supporting the Revolution ?
Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:39 AM (bUjCl)

Britain was given Gibraltar after the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, and Spain always wanted it back. When Spain and France joined the Revolutionary War on the side of America, Gibraltar was their first target.

Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 09:42 AM (Izzlo)

80 I'm always curious. What books do you own for show and what books do you own because you read them.
Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:41 AM (pUDQf)

I have read, tried to read or intend on attempting everything I own. If I'm not interested I don't buy it. If I stop being interested I put it down and come back later. If I never get interested again it goes bye bye.

Posted by: Vanya at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (7PLM4)

81

I wonder when the last time the word pelf was used in contemporary writing. Probably Mark Steyn.

Had to look up that word. I bet it's the root of "pilfer."

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (HaL55)

82 Cold pizza is an acquired taste. Usually acquired after waking up from too many libations.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (pUDQf)

83 Biltmore is TOO ROOMY for me,give me a nice 34,000 Sq Ft cabin in the mt's with underground parking for 20 cars and escalators and elevators everywhere and I'm in HEAVEN WEST VIRGINNY oh and a MOUNTING MAMA!!!

Posted by: saf at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (5IHGB)

84 Has anyone started to skinny down there book collections? I need to start but am finding it painful.

Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (9rIkM)

85 And for some reason I also am starting Quicksilver, the first book of The Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson.
Posted by: Sharkman at December 16, 2018 09:26 AM (RIKJa)

I should try to get through that again. I set it down for a few days midway through one of the chapters in The Confusion and when I picked it up I had completely forgotten why characters were where they were and what had happened for the last few hundred pages.

You might already know this, but the whole trilogy was handwritten:

"The manuscript of The Baroque Cycle was written by hand on 100% cotton paper using three different fountain pens: a Waterman Gentleman, a Rotring, and a Jorg Hysek. It was then transcribed, edited, formatted and printed using emacs and TeX. When it was totally finished, the TeX version of of the ms. was converted to Quark XPress format using an emacs LISP program written by the author."

All 17,000 pages of the final draft are on display at the Museum of Science Fiction in Seattle.
http://tinyurl.com/ybrbeuqa

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (t+qrx)

86 Re: War and Peace, Helene's death. I wondered about the cause - Tolstoy was very oblique about it. I believe the phrase he used was "fashionable disease" or something. I always assumed it was consumption or some other ailment that could not be cured at the time. The most recent movie version(which I hated) made it into a miscarriage from her multiple affairs.

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:45 AM (bUjCl)

87 Years ago, I had a chance to go inside the Rock of Gibraltar, and tour some of the gun galleries from the Great Siege.

Interesting place...inside the rock.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at December 16, 2018 09:46 AM (cqNba)

88 MOUNTING MAMA!!!

Posted by: saf at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (5IHGB)

phrasing

Posted by: BignJames at December 16, 2018 09:46 AM (cxHbL)

89 sted by: Vanya at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (7PLM4)

81

I wonder when the last time the word pelf was used in contemporary writing. Probably Mark Steyn.

Had to look up that word. I bet it's the root of "pilfer."

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (HaL55)

Seems likely!

Posted by: Gem at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (XoAz8)

90 Last week someone mentioned that the big Tolkien exhibit is coming to New York next year. Since I don't go to NYC for many reasons (or any other big city), I won't see it. But a book came out recently about the original Bodleian exhibit, showing much of the materials used. "Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth" by Catherine McIlwaine who is the curator of the exhibit. Just started thumbing through it but it looks interesting for a Tolkien fanatic.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (bmdz3)

91 84 Has anyone started to skinny down there book collections? I need to start but am finding it painful.
Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (9rIkM)

We've decided to, but haven't actually gotten much of a start. Actually, my wife has; I haven't. One difference is that she reads contemporary fiction, while since the deaths of Michael Gilbert and Patrick O'Brian, I don't.

But that means hers have little resale value, while many of mine do. I have a pretty good set of naval history. But I hate to part with the good ones.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (VaN/j)

92 Britain was given Gibraltar after the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, and Spain always wanted it back. When Spain and France joined the Revolutionary War on the side of America, Gibraltar was their first target.
Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 09:42 AM (Izzlo)

Gibraltar...very choice, very prime piece or real estate. Whoever controlled Gibraltar controlled the Mediterranean, access to Atlantic, trade with Africa, didn't they. That rock is littered, even to this day with embrasures, tunnels, cannons and cannon balls.

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (bUjCl)

93 Although Jim did sell monkeys door to door in the 1950's.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at December 16, 2018 09:35 AM (Z+IKu)

People are always gonna need monkeys.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (t+qrx)

94 >>The Biltmore Estate is the single most beautiful work of architecture I've ever seen.

The same architect who designed the Biltmore also did a number of other designs for the Vanerbilt family, Richard Morris Hunt. They are all immense in scale and gorgeous.

He also designed part of the Met, the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty and various mansions here in Newport.

Posted by: JackStraw at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (/tuJf)

95 Morning Readers!
Another dreary, cold, rainy, miserable day weather-wise here at Fort Weasel. A perfect day for a hot drink, a warm dog on the lap, and a good book. Or a nap on the couch.

Posted by: Weasel at December 16, 2018 09:49 AM (MVjcR)

96 You might already know this, but the whole trilogy was handwritten:
-----
Shelby Foote wrote his history of the Civil War using a dip pen. He commented that this method makes you use the right words the first time around.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 09:49 AM (tfbws)

97 So, I read Daniel Humphries' A Place.... zombie trilogy last week (in about four days actually). I would like to point out that I don't *like* zombie stories as a rule, so the speed I went through them (and that I *read*, not just listened to, them) should tell the Horde my impression.

There were some rough editing areas, especially in the last book where a character has a different name for one chapter, but that is my biggest complaint.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS

I had recently watched the anime Vexhill and wondered if the author was familiar with it because a major plot point in the series is identical.

I had been going to ask if Jon del Arroz, who I only know from Twitter and his uninviting to a con for not being an NPC, knew he was immortalized in the series but the author added a note at the end thanking Arroz and others for lending their names which answered my question.

I think there is good prequel material in the Marines and Seals realizing all CONUS military has succumbed and the fights both to reach and retake the US.

Interestingly enough, to me at least, I've been across the bridge at Louisianna, MO because my husband's last job was at the Dyno-Nobel ammonium nitrate (nitrite?) plant there. I was somewhat surprised the author passed up the opportunity to have "an earth-shattering kaboom".

The author takes the opportunity to take some shots at the current out-going Speaker of the House that the Horde will probably enjoy.

My only other observation is that I think the problem of epidemic disease as people mass together with vaccines no longer available, especially with the influx of uninoculated foreigners we had actually gotten just before "Z Day", is completely ignored. I don't fault the author though since his characters had enough to deal with already.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 09:49 AM (uquGJ)

98 Made some progress in Gibbon after the fall of Constantinople. He comments on the efforts in the 12th century to make Rome a big fucking deal again but how it just wasn't the same with centers of power being located elsewhere and, of course, the Vatican being an autonomous counterbalance.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 09:51 AM (y7DUB)

99 'People are always gonna need monkeys.'

I don't know about that.

Posted by: Taylor at December 16, 2018 09:51 AM (UdKB7)

100 Shelby Foote wrote his history of the Civil War using a dip pen. He commented that this method makes you use the right words the first time around.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 09:49 AM (tfbws

A.) Wow!
2.) Are you nuts?

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:51 AM (pUDQf)

101 I'm always curious. What books do you own for show and what books do you own because you read them.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:41 AM (pUDQf)

Huh? I'd never buy any books for show.

It's like "Behold the power of my massive brain! I have "Moby Dick" on the shelf!"

Although...

My Mom was an Interior Designer and she would buy sets of matching volumes for clients to use more as decorations (color, shape, etc being more important than content).

Is that the sort of thing you mean?

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 09:52 AM (CRRq9)

102 I made a conscious decision about 40 years ago that I would only acquire books to read, not to display. I treat them with respect, but I'm not a "collector" stuffing things into mylar bags. As far as I'm concerned, there's no difference between buying books just to collect them and buying books to use as fuel in the wood stove. Either way, you're not reading them.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 16, 2018 09:52 AM (+gvbf)

103 Kindle Daily Deals offers a book that might interest some of the Horde. "God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible" by Adam Nicolson. It's only $1.99 It gets good reviews.

Just FYI.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:52 AM (bmdz3)

104 84
Has anyone started to skinny down there book collections? I need to start but am finding it painful.

Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (9rIkM)

wifey cleaned ours out several months ago. We took everything we had duplicates downloaded to the computers for and sent them to the library for their sales if they dion't want to shelf them. There were about 25 hardback books and a great number of paperbacks.

Posted by: Vic at December 16, 2018 09:53 AM (mpXpK)

105 Shelby Foote wrote his history of the Civil War using a dip pen. He commented that this method makes you use the right words the first time around.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 09:49 AM (tfbws

huh..dip pen..I may have to try that

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:54 AM (bUjCl)

106 Has anyone started to skinny down there book collections? I need to start but am finding it painful.

True story. Upon moving into the church, my mate "encouraged" me to get rid of a pair of barrister bookcases that didn't fit in with "our" remodeling plans. So I had to first either relocate or dispose of the books they held.

After giving away or throwing out about 100 books, I was moving the empty bookcases to the basement and my mate said, "You know what? Those bookcases would look good in the living room." So we ended up keeping them, although they are 3/4 empty now.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at December 16, 2018 09:54 AM (UKVPl)

107 Although Jim did sell monkeys door to door in the 1950's.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at December 16, 2018 09:35 AM (Z+IKu)

People are always gonna need monkeys.
Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (t+qrx)

I wanna be a Monkey Salesman!

Well...Ape Salesman.

I'd specialize in Orangutangs trained to serve cocktails and walk the dog.

And, of course, throwing poo on command.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (CRRq9)

108 Huh? I'd never buy any books for show.

It's like "Behold the power of my massive brain! I have "Moby Dick" on the shelf!"

Although...

My Mom was an Interior Designer and she would buy sets of matching volumes for clients to use more as decorations (color, shape, etc being more important than content).

Is that the sort of thing you mean?
Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 09:52 AM (CRRq9

Kind of. Some people do it to look smart. Some to have a conversation starter. Some for decoration.

Like Finnagens Wake. You'd buy that and stick it on a shelf but never read it.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (pUDQf)

109 [I'm always curious. What books do you own for show and what books do you own because you read them.]

Nothing for show. Even what I haven't read, I will read one day when I am old and infirm.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at December 16, 2018 09:56 AM (UKVPl)

110 Small confession: there are two shelves in the house which are filled with books on display. Dr. Mrs. T. and I both have "vanity shelves" in our respective offices, where we keep copies of books we wrote.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 16, 2018 09:57 AM (+gvbf)

111 Unfortunately we're pretty much broke, so Christmas will be minimal this year. An affordable roast beast of some kind, I guess, but no way we get a rib roast. Alas.

And no presents. Maybe next year. That's tougher on my wife than on me, as there's actually no book out there I desperately want, excluding some out of print costly stuff.

I continue to go very s-l-o-w-l-y through After Virtue. But I've started Corbett's Principles of Maritime Strategy which is interesting as can be. Being naval-oriented I never knew that most discussions of Clauswitz look only at his first book, and ignore the changes in his thinking. (Checked with someone who's into that side, and he confirmed that.)

He also gives a rather different list of essential warship types than Colomb. Colomb emphasizes only trade protection/policing (sloops) vs Corbett's looking at "the flotilla" which is a broader term for small ships with very varied roles.

On a linguistic note - though I already knew this - since he wrote in 1911, "The Great War" means French Revolution/Napoleon. That would soon change.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 09:57 AM (VaN/j)

112

The same architect who designed the Biltmore also did a number of other
designs for the Vanerbilt family, Richard Morris Hunt. They are all
immense in scale and gorgeous.

He also designed part of the Met, the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty and various mansions here in Newport.

Cool. The landscape architect who designed the drive to the building also designed New York's Central Park: Frederick Law Olmsted.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 09:58 AM (HaL55)

113 I wanna be a Monkey Salesman!

Well...Ape Salesman.
Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (CRRq9)

I'm always careful around monkeys with dealer plates. It means the monkey operator isn't paying for the monkey or the insurance and is just taking the monkey out to see what it can do.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 09:58 AM (t+qrx)

114 Good morning.

Finished "The Smear" by Mrs. Atttkisson. Good read and is actually a bit eye-opening even for this jaded follower of politics.

Posted by: Blake - tis the season for grinching at December 16, 2018 09:58 AM (WEBkv)

115 I wanna be a Monkey Salesman!

Well...Ape Salesman.

I'd specialize in Orangutangs trained to serve cocktails and walk the dog.

And, of course, throwing poo on command.
Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (CRRq9

Apropos. Any which way but loose is on Amazon Prime. People told Eastwood it was a huge mistake yet remains one of his top grossing movies.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:58 AM (pUDQf)

116 Shelby Foote wrote his history of the Civil War using a dip pen. He commented that this method makes you use the right words the first time around.

Oh, I love writing with an ink pen. Much of my unfinished masterpiece was written in bars with a pen and a jar of Pelikan ink.

It's harder for me because I'm left handed and most pen nibs are meant to be drawn across the page by a right hand and not pushed by a left, but a years ago girlfriend gave me a glass pen with a spiral tip that doesn't care which way it goes. It's a treat.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 10:00 AM (fuK7c)

117 90 Last week someone mentioned that the big Tolkien exhibit is coming to New York next year. Since I don't go to NYC for many reasons (or any other big city), I won't see it. But a book came out recently about the original Bodleian exhibit, showing much of the materials used. "Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth" by Catherine McIlwaine who is the curator of the exhibit. Just started thumbing through it but it looks interesting for a Tolkien fanatic.
Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (bmdz3)

I'm definitely going to see it. Maybe even plan a mini MoMe with the NY area Morons & Ettes around it.

Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 10:00 AM (Izzlo)

118 Connected to the John Howe book described above. Friday's art thread featured a painting by John Bauer, a Swesish painter and illustrator of the Art Nouveau school. (Thanks to musical jolly chimp for pointing that out.) He was contemporaneous with Tolkien and had the same art influeneces. His works reminded me of Tolkien's more finished sketches, which I always enjoyed. Seeing the sketches from Howe and Alan Lee for the LOTR and Hobbit movies, they showed that same graceful, sometimes dramatic, style Bauer and Tolkien favored and that were used in the films.

Looking at other Bauer works, from modern portraits to Swedish folk tale illustrations, I ordered a book of his art. It feels right to enjoy while reading LOTR.

BTW, Bauer's wife was hawt.

Sort of a circular path, with stops along the way, to getting a book but that's not unusual for me.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 10:00 AM (bmdz3)

119 Gibraltar...very choice, very prime piece or real estate. Whoever controlled Gibraltar controlled the Mediterranean, access to Atlantic, trade with Africa, didn't they. That rock is littered, even to this day with embrasures, tunnels, cannons and cannon balls.
Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (bUjCl)

So it has proved. But there was time - late Victorian - when the Brits were thinking they would have been better off with Tangier. I'd have to go back and look up the full reasons, though.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:00 AM (VaN/j)

120

'People are always gonna need monkeys.'

Especially a Trunk Monkey.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 10:00 AM (HaL55)

121 96 You might already know this, but the whole trilogy was handwritten:
-----
Shelby Foote wrote his history of the Civil War using a dip pen. He commented that this method makes you use the right words the first time around.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 09:49 AM (tfbws)

I did that in college, and he's right. I actually used a goose quill (easy to get in Charlottesville back then,)

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:02 AM (VaN/j)

122 Has anyone started to skinny down there book collections? I need to start but am finding it painful.
Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (9rIkM)

My wife is always after me to downsize everything, not connecting the dots that inertia might bring me to our marital status, but other than a few things from the 70s that I found increasingly trite (Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut) I flat out refused.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 10:02 AM (y7DUB)

123 but other than a few things from the 70s that I found increasingly trite (Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut) I flat out refused.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 10:02 AM (y7DUB)

So it goes.

Posted by: Vanya at December 16, 2018 10:03 AM (7PLM4)

124 May the lord bless all of you, and keep you.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Starlet Picture Inspector at December 16, 2018 10:03 AM (Z216Q)

125 Speaking of books and shelves, when I was a kid we had a built in book case that covered one wall of a room in our house, maybe 8 feet long, filled with books.

We had people visit the house that were surprised at how many books we had.

Posted by: Blake - tis the season for grinching at December 16, 2018 10:04 AM (WEBkv)

126 94 >>The Biltmore Estate is the single most beautiful work of architecture I've ever seen.

I was in Asheville for an auction and stopped in to see it. it was decades ago. And while i admired the execution and the setting was nice , i found the overall look and the decorations to be hideous. But what do I know, only made my living selling furniture and decorations for 45 years.

Posted by: REDACTED at December 16, 2018 10:04 AM (L/iaS)

127 Posted by: Trimegistus at December 16, 2018 09:29 AM (+gvbf)

That's a good observation about War and Peace really being two books. I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're probably right.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 10:04 AM (uquGJ)

128 I'm definitely going to see it. Maybe even plan a mini MoMe with the NY area Morons & Ettes around it.
Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 10:00 AM (Izzlo)

January 25 through May 12, 2019. Hmm.

https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/tolkien

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:04 AM (t+qrx)

129 "I have read, tried to read or intend on attempting everything I own. If I'm not interested I don't buy it. If I stop being interested I put it down and come back later. If I never get interested again it goes bye bye.

Posted by: Vanya at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (7PLM4) "

Thanks. I doubt I could have put it as well.

Culls mostly go into the Little Free Library system, which is pretty extensive around here.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at December 16, 2018 10:05 AM (mfOi4)

130 Gibraltar has that cool airport where the runway crosses a city street. When a plane takes off, they have to drop gates and stop traffic, as though it were a drawbridge or a railroad crossing.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at December 16, 2018 10:05 AM (UKVPl)

131 >>Cool. The landscape architect who designed the drive to the building also designed New York's Central Park: Frederick Law Olmsted.

Olmstead was also the landscape architect who designed the Emerald Necklace in Boston which is a whole series of parks and open spaces including the Boston Common and the Public Gardens and did the landscape design for the World's Fair in Chicago. He was featured in the book Devil In The White City which is a great book.

See how I tied this back to books?

Posted by: JackStraw at December 16, 2018 10:06 AM (/tuJf)

132 Like Finnagens Wake. You'd buy that and stick it on a shelf but never read it.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (pUDQf)

I once made a serious effort to read "Finnegan's Wake".

I gave up on it about a hundred pages in.

It reminded me a lot of the writings by schizophrenics. Though more like a if a schizophrenic was playing a very long and elaborate joke on you.

Really no pleasure to be derived all for me. Well, maybe recognizing some of the references to other works, myths, etc..

For my money, Flann O'Brien was a much better oddball writer from that era.

His "At Swim Two Birds" is a masterpiece.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 10:06 AM (CRRq9)

133 97

I had been going to ask if Jon del Arroz, who I only know from Twitter and his uninviting to a con for not being an NPC, knew he was immortalized in the series but the author added a note at the end thanking Arroz and others for lending their names which answered my question.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 09:49 AM (uquGJ)

I have read that the idea came from Mrs Cecil Chesterton (GKC's sister in law). There had been a lawsuit, so a bunch of young writers decided to use one another's names. The first wrote a play with characters Gilbert Chesterton, George B Shaw, etc. As usual, I'd have to find the source. I think it may be Maisie Ward.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:06 AM (VaN/j)

134 Read Wildfire this week. The third Kelly Turnbull book by Kurt Schlichter. It was a surprising twist to me but I did quite enjoy the book.

Posted by: Big V at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (sN665)

135 Better footnotes than endnotes. Especially those where there is no page guide at the top. A favorite game is using only chapter number in listing the notes. Since the page your reading doesn't have that, but the chapter title, you then have to

- Go back to the beginning of the chapter, or to the table of contents, to figure out which goes with which
- Go to the start of the chapter section in the notes,
to see which numbered chapter you're using.

A complete and total pain in the ass.

Actually, I wish they would split them in 2 parts. Those which cite references are fine as endnotes, but those which expand on the text really belong on the page.
Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 09:32 AM (VaN/j)

I also like footnotes that supplement the text. However, in the case of Challenges of Command in the Civil War" Sommers uses them as a crutch because he pretty much just dropped in lectures, so the footnotes served as reminders upon which to expound while giving the lecture.

The reader deserved better from both the author and publisher when these lectures were turned into a book. A perfect example is that Sommers goes into a lot of detail in the footnotes on the number of cavalry regiments but when he writes about disgruntled Confederates in the Petersburg trenches, the footnote just indicates "see the Official Records page number ####."

Sommers is a well-respected historian but this book is a poor effort.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (5Yee7)

136 I've got a copy of "Fox: The Press Gang" from way back when. I enjoyed it, but not so much as to seek out other books in the series. Fox as a character is a pretty rough article, and I wonder if Hardy created him as a sort of "Take That" to Hornblower.

For those of you who are interested in naval fiction from the Age of Saill, allow me to recommend the Bolitho series by Alexander Kent (real name: Douglas Reeman). It's 20-odd books of the adventures of Cornishman Richard Bolitho (and, later, his nephew and heir Adam) as he rises from midshipman to Admiral during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Some of the books written during the early '70s are a tad formulaic, but still good fun.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (tfbws)

137 Thanks for the heads up about "God's Secretaries." I read it in hardback years ago and used my no-rush shipping credits to buy the Kindle version.

I also liked Carreyou's "Bad Blood" very much. Un-put-downable. When I hear the media bloviate about the "courage" of Comey or some other sleeze, I always think about Tyler Schultz's REAL courage in that book.

Posted by: Art Rondolet of Malmsey at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (S+f+m)

138 The entire Biltmore Estate was gorgeous but I still think the Breakers in Maryland is way more elaborate. Both are beautiful estates and you can't find workmanship like that any more. The attention to detail is amazing. That is way they need an army of staff to keep up with the cleaning and maintaining of everything. You can't find anything comparable in modern estates.

Posted by: lin-duh at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (kufk0)

139 ROCK off GIBRALTAR has lots of MINKIES...pilferers the lot of them,ya have to pelf them wif ROCKS to keep them @ BAY!!??

Posted by: saf at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (5IHGB)

140 @135 darn it, forgot a close italicans tag

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 16, 2018 10:09 AM (5Yee7)

141 119 Gibraltar...very choice, very prime piece or real estate. Whoever controlled Gibraltar controlled the Mediterranean, access to Atlantic, trade with Africa, didn't they. That rock is littered, even to this day with embrasures, tunnels, cannons and cannon balls.
Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 09:48 AM (bUjCl)

So it has proved. But there was time - late Victorian - when the Brits were thinking they would have been better off with Tangier. I'd have to go back and look up the full reasons, though.
Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:00 AM (VaN/j)

The English did own Tangier briefly in the 17th Century. King Charles II acquired it as part of Queen Catherine of Portugal's dowry. It proved more trouble than it was worth, and was written off in 1680

Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 10:09 AM (Izzlo)

142 I Hate Myself and I Want To Die by Tom Reynolds was discussed last week. It's funny. It's about depressing pop song. For example, this discussion of an overwrought metaphor.

I've always found the wet cake reference depressing because it conjures up images of some pathetic sap waiting in the park with a surprise cake for his girl who never shows up. While he waits in vain, the rain starts pouring and the whole thing becomes a frosted mess. Is this what happens? God, I hope not because it's really a stupid image.

It's just short discussions of depressing songs group thematically. You just pick it up and read as many as you want at a time. I found the discussion of the late 50s early 60s fad of teen lovers dying in car cashes particularly amusing.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:10 AM (+y/Ru)

143

I was in Asheville for an auction and stopped in to see it. it was
decades ago. And while i admired the execution and the setting was nice ,
i found the overall look and the decorations to be hideous. But what do
I know, only made my living selling furniture and decorations for 45
years.

IIRC, the home was designed after a French chateau. It was one of the first homes in America to have an elevator and a refrigerator. The great dinner hall's arched ceiling was designed to reflect sound so that the 60 or so guests didn't have to raise their voices and could easily carry on a conversation from one end of the dinner table to the other.

I view it as a sort of time capsule. Don't know how much of the original furnishings are still there or what was replaced through the years. The entire history of the BH is fascinating. Asheville became a city because of it. The artisans and builders needed somewhere to live.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 10:12 AM (HaL55)

144 Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:40 AM (bmdz3)

Completely agree with you about the set design and art in the movies. In the first LOTR movie one of the shots of Bilbo's house shows a small wall-hanging/painting I would love to recreate. The depth and immersiveness (I know that's not a real word, but it's an issues in both mocviedvies and computer games) added by touches like that is impressive.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 10:12 AM (uquGJ)

145 So it has proved. But there was time - late Victorian - when the Brits were thinking they would have been better off with Tangier. I'd have to go back and look up the full reasons, though.
-----
The English actually possesed Tangier during the reigh of Charles II. They gave it up because it was too expensive to maintain.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 10:12 AM (tfbws)

146 After giving away or throwing out about 100 books, I was moving the empty bookcases to the basement and my mate said, "You know what? Those bookcases would look good in the living room." So we ended up keeping them, although they are 3/4 empty now.
Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at December 16, 2018 09:54 AM (UKVPl)

Now you have the perfect excuse to buy more books!

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 16, 2018 10:16 AM (5Yee7)

147 Lately, I've been interested in reading more about the Chilean coup and Pinochet in general. There's Micheal Moore-esque, "Chile was a kite-flying paradise prior to the coup" junk out there and I'm interested in something more even-handed. If anyone has recommendations for such books then I'd like to hear them. Many thanks!

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at December 16, 2018 10:16 AM (DTX3h)

148 Thanks for that, hogmartin !
17000 pages by hand.

Baroque Cycle is one of the Stephenson books I had trouble plowing through, some of the reasons being similar to yours ... but I still delight in the scene somewhere in the middle of The Confusion where Waterhouse and Samuel Pepys are pissing against a garden wall.

I'll try it again someday.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at December 16, 2018 10:16 AM (mfOi4)

149 OM, Thanks, as always, for the book thread. Also for the links to Anne Bradstreet and "Around the World in 80 Words".

I never heard of Bradstreet but her story is intriguing and I'm interested in that period for several reasons. I need to check out Paul Anthony Jones books. I like following the history of words.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 10:17 AM (bmdz3)

150 Probably a long shot but does any moron have a book recommendation around the Bosnian War and the follow up hunt for the war criminals?

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 10:20 AM (XNdCd)

151 I haven't had time to read much - and what I have been reading I have either commented on, or is not worth discussing

I did listen to this podcast episode called "Marxism and Other Weirdness in English Departments" on the Tom Woods Show.

Tom interviews Allen Mendenhall, who holds a Ph.D in English literature as well as law degrees, is an author, and is associate dean at Faulkner University school of law.

He gives a very interesting discussion on how the study of English Literature went from philology and oratory, through style analysis, to concepts of cultural relevancy, to deconstruction and on to critical theory and post modernism in a little over a century.

It is a half hour, and though Tom is a bit of a pill, he is a very good interviewer

https://preview.tinyurl.com/yb5b4t9s

Posted by: Kindltot at December 16, 2018 10:20 AM (mUa7G)

152 147:

can't recommend a particular book on chile, but a worthwhile approach is economics - milton friedman and the "chile miracle".

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 10:20 AM (Pg+x7)

153 ROCK off GIBRALTAR has lots of MINKIES...pilferers the lot of them,ya have to pelf them wif ROCKS to keep them @ BAY!!??

Posted by: saf at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (5IHGB)

One of the interesting things about Japan is that you can go to park if your in the right area and there will be wild monkeys running about. In the city limits.

They always have warnings not to stare at the monkeys esp if they stare at you and for God's sake don't smile at them cuz that's the monkey equivalent of "I'm gonna kick your monkey ass!"

And you're liable to be attacked. And apparently they attack as a troop.

So, here you are, a Homo Sapiens, the King Apex Predator of the Whole Dang Planet cringing away from some damn dirty monkey scrounging for peanuts.

That's just wrong.

They should sell machetes to equal the odds.

Then Bring. It. On. Monkeys!

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 10:21 AM (CRRq9)

154 Sick and utterly horrifying, and I mean that in both a good and bad way. Good in that it is excellent, taut storytelling with the perfect twist at the end. Bad because now it is going to stick in my head and I don't want it to.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at December 16, 2018 09:18 AM (kqsXK)

Plus, a better picture of the ghouls who run Planned Parenthood can scarcely imagined.

So I guess you could say it is full of "truthiness."

Or, perhaps: fake, but accurate.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 10:21 AM (8YQun)

155 Although Jim did sell monkeys door to door in the 1950's.

-
It was a simpler time. You never see door to door monkey salesmen anymore.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:21 AM (+y/Ru)

156 Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 10:06 AM (CRRq9)

Thanks for the Flann O'Brien rec. I've toyed with trying Finnegan more than once before conceding that far more erudite people than I consider it an imponderable mess.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 10:23 AM (y7DUB)

157 can't recommend a particular book on chile, but a worthwhile approach is economics - milton friedman and the "chile miracle".
Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 10:20 AM (Pg+x7)

"Mister, we could use a man like Augusto Pinochet again.
Didn't need no welfare state
Everybody pulled his weight
Gee, those helicopter rides were great
Those were the days."

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 10:23 AM (8YQun)

158 "Mister, we could use a man like Augusto Pinochet again.
Didn't need no welfare state
Everybody pulled his weight
Gee, those helicopter rides were great
Those were the days."
Posted by: OregonMuse.

LOL !

Posted by: JT at December 16, 2018 10:24 AM (nlUp2)

159 I find that library at the Biltmore too much gimcrack and geegaw. As in "Look at me I'm rich!"

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:24 AM (kzoEk)

160 Although Jim did sell monkeys door to door in the 1950's.

-
It was a simpler time. You never see door to door monkey salesmen anymore.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:21 AM (+y/Ru)

We did get a door to door Lemur Salesman the other day.

But, it's really not the same.

*sigh*

The old ways really are dying out.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 10:25 AM (CRRq9)

161 147 Lately, I've been interested in reading more about the Chilean coup and Pinochet in general. There's Micheal Moore-esque, "Chile was a kite-flying paradise prior to the coup" junk out there and I'm interested in something more even-handed. If anyone has recommendations for such books then I'd like to hear them. Many thanks!
Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at December 16, 2018 10:16 AM (DTX3h)

There is a new book out on the Chilean coup, "Chile 1973: The Other 9/11" Not sure what the editorial slant is. The best I've read on the coup that wasn't "PinochetMan Bad" was the article in on the coup in "Latin America's Wars" by Fred Schiena.

https://tinyurl.com/ydd4otkq

Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 10:25 AM (Izzlo)

162 JTB, interesting about Bauer, and I see what you mean about the style.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at December 16, 2018 10:26 AM (mfOi4)

163 I guess if you're rich, there are worse things than a library.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 10:26 AM (XNdCd)

164 'You never see door to door monkey salesmen anymore.'

Amazon killed that business. Of course they all come from China now.

Posted by: Taylor at December 16, 2018 10:26 AM (UdKB7)

165 It was a really slow day when the sloth salesman showed up...

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:26 AM (kzoEk)

166 142
It's just short discussions of depressing songs group thematically. You just pick it up and read as many as you want at a time. I found the discussion of the late 50s early 60s fad of teen lovers dying in car cashes particularly amusing.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:10 AM (+y/Ru)

I haven't read the book, and while it's true that there was a fad for melodramatic songs about teen lovers dying in car crashes, I always thought those songs reflected real concerns back then. In the days before seat belts and safety glass, going through the windshield in an accident was a real thing that actually happened, and was a pretty gruesome way to die.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 10:27 AM (sdi6R)

167 It was ~~a really slow day~~the happiest day of my life when the sloth salesman showed up...
Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:26 AM (kzoEk)

Sloths are my spirit animal.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:29 AM (t+qrx)

168 True story. When I was little I had a sock monkey. I don't know if my grandma got it from a door to door salesman or not. I always thought she made it. Now that I think about it she probably didn't. Crap. Thanks horde for ruining my childhood.

Posted by: freaked at December 16, 2018 10:29 AM (UdKB7)

169 147 Lately, I've been interested in reading more about the Chilean coup and Pinochet in general. There's Micheal Moore-esque, "Chile was a kite-flying paradise prior to the coup" junk out there and I'm interested in something more even-handed. If anyone has recommendations for such books then I'd like to hear them. Many thanks!
Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at December 16, 2018 10:16 AM (DTX3h)

There's a short section in Friedman's Fifty Years' War, and he has good notes to references. Including the fact that claims of Pinochet's "death toll" are grossly overstated, by at least an order of magnitude. And Amnesty International actually agrees.

Allende was using the well established lefty tactic of just not following up violence against his "deplorables", so, you know, it's not as if the government was killing people. And you can't expect them to track down every criminal, can you?

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:29 AM (VaN/j)

170 It was a really slow day when the sloth salesman showed up...

=

your next book ? murder-mystery???

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 10:30 AM (bUjCl)

171 Amazon killed that business. Of course they all come from China now.
Posted by: Taylor at December 16, 2018 10:26 AM (UdKB7)

Consider: monkeys delivered by aerial drone.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:30 AM (t+qrx)

172 155 Although Jim did sell monkeys door to door in the 1950's.

-
It was a simpler time. You never see door to door monkey salesmen anymore.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:21 AM (+y/Ru)

Yeah, we have to order them from the Amazon.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:32 AM (VaN/j)

173 Just wanted to pop in and say hi. I'm reading a collection of "best of" SF short stories (1962) edited by Isaac Asimov, including one by Avram Davidson, who's been a favorite since I read "Hark! Was That the Squeal of an Angry Thoat?" many moons ago.

Last week I finished Jack Williamson's "Dragon Island", too beautifully written to be called pulp, so I'm sticking with classic science fiction for a while.

And thanks Hogmartin for organizing a wonderful MichiMoMee!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Living the Good Life in the Off-World COlonies at December 16, 2018 10:32 AM (CcxIR)

174 Consider: monkeys delivered by aerial drone.

The Wicked Witch has that market cornered. "Fly my pretties!"

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:32 AM (kzoEk)

175 67 Anns Bradstreet uses the word "pelf" in her poem about her house burning down. "Riches gained in a dishonorable way." She seems ashamed of caring about her stuff when the fire was God's will.

Posted by: Gem at December 16, 2018 09:36 AM (XoAz

One edition of that poem I read had a note that 'pelf' meant 'material possessions.' Didn't imply any kind of immorality about it.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 10:32 AM (8YQun)

176 Probably a long shot but does any moron have a book recommendation around the Bosnian War and the follow up hunt for the war criminals?
Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 10:20 AM (XNdCd)

I started Unholy Terror by John Schindler as a corrective to all the MFM bullshit around Slick's stupid war but the narration was just too irritating to last more than a third of the way through it. By then he'd convinced me that all official accounts were lies which confirmed my prior opinion.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 10:33 AM (y7DUB)

177 I haven't seen the one in London. Is it a permanent exhibit?

Posted by: pep at December 16, 2018 09:20 AM (T6t7i)

Yes...it's a single piece...about 15 feet tall...hanging in the center of the great entrance hall.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 16, 2018 10:33 AM (wYseH)

178 Consider: monkeys delivered by aerial drone.
-----
I think you've come up with a modern version of "The Birds" - monkeys seize control and a monkey/drone army terrorizes Seattle.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 10:34 AM (tfbws)

179 178 Consider: monkeys delivered by aerial drone.
-----
I think you've come up with a modern version of "The Birds" - monkeys seize control and a monkey/drone army terrorizes Seattle.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 10:34 AM (tfbws) 178 Consider: monkeys delivered by aerial drone.
-----
I think you've come up with a modern version of "The Birds" - monkeys seize control and a monkey/drone army terrorizes Seattle.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 10:34 AM (tfbws) 178 Consider: monkeys delivered by aerial drone.
-----
I think you've come up with a modern version of "The Birds" - monkeys seize control and a monkey/drone army terrorizes Seattle.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 10:34 AM (tfbws)

I'm rooting for the monkeys

Posted by: josephistan at December 16, 2018 10:35 AM (Izzlo)

180 I almost want to tell everyone to slow down with the book recommendations and whatnot.

I realize however, I spend way too much time on real life stuff, and not enough of it on reading. I would love to reverse the quota of each in my life. Alas... not now.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:36 AM (cY3LT)

181 Las Vegas Chihuly sculpture at the Bellagio - it is still there, right ?

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 10:36 AM (bUjCl)

182 Hiya Eris !

Posted by: JT at December 16, 2018 10:36 AM (nlUp2)

183 It was a simpler time. You never see door to door monkey salesmen anymore.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:21 AM (+y/Ru)

I'd like to see a movie with Peter Sellers as a monkey salesman:

"Would you like to buy a minkey?"

"A monkey?"

"No, a miiiinkey."

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 10:37 AM (8YQun)

184 And thanks Hogmartin for organizing a wonderful MichiMoMee!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Living the Good Life in the Off-World COlonies at December 16, 2018 10:32 AM (CcxIR)

*waves*

Thank you for coming out to visit! Hope you have a safe trip home.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:37 AM (t+qrx)

185 It describes the origin of science and medicine in ancient civilizations, including China and India.

Whatever you do, please do not bing "china yellow soup".

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 16, 2018 10:38 AM (/qEW2)

186 Two other books to look into checking out from the library about how Jugoslavia dissolved into killing, raping, burning, looting, and other bad things are as follows:

Seasons in Hell: Understanding Bosnia's War by Ed Vulliamy.

They Would Never Hurt a Fly: War Criminals on Trial in the Hague by Slavenka Drakulic.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:38 AM (kzoEk)

187 Probably a long shot but does any moron have a book recommendation around the Bosnian War and the follow up hunt for the war criminals?
Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 10:20 AM (XNdCd)

I started Unholy Terror by John Schindler as a corrective to all the MFM bullshit around Slick's stupid war but the narration was just too irritating to last more than a third of the way through it. By then he'd convinced me that all official accounts were lies which confirmed my prior opinion.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 10:33 AM (y7DUB)

I've got that one sitting on my shelf, collecting dust. Sorry to hear the narration is bad, the main reason I haven't started reading it is because I think I lost interest in the topic.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:39 AM (cY3LT)

188 Opulence is where the description starts.

The lackey in charge of keeping an eye on sparks from the fireplace is worth his weight in gold.

Posted by: t-bird at December 16, 2018 10:40 AM (QrTqV)

189 Death of a sloth salesman,
twas a slow death,
one of disinterest
and ennui.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:42 AM (kzoEk)

190 The problem with have a sloth is that, if it gets loose, I can't catch it.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:43 AM (VaN/j)

191 ... wikipedia has an article on miracle in chile" that briefly describes the disaster allende wrought, well on it's way to becoming what venezuela is now, when the generals stepped in. it doesn't go into detail on the coup but does give some background.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 10:44 AM (Pg+x7)

192 The problem with have a sloth is that, if it gets loose, I can't catch it.
Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 10:43 AM (VaN/j)

The good thing about a sloth getting loose is the thought of a sloth rampage.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:46 AM (t+qrx)

193 Postmodernism is dead.

Discover Remodernism, a new art movement of the people, by the people, for the people...

Too bad Richard is a lurker. We could use his help on the art thread battling the forces of Pollock, Kandinsky and Rothko.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 16, 2018 10:46 AM (/qEW2)

194 A monkey, when pledging his troth
To a chimp got an answer of wroth
"It's bound to fail
For you have a tail
And I am engaged to the sloth"

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 10:46 AM (fuK7c)

195 , I always thought those songs reflected real concerns back then. In the days before seat belts and safety glass, going through the windshield in an accident was a real thing that actually happened, and was a pretty gruesome way to die.

-
In Teen Angel, their car is stuck on the railroad crossing, they get out in the nick of time, but then she goes back to get the ring he gave her and gets smushed.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:46 AM (+y/Ru)

196 Say, can anyone tell me about this new way of using the word "ratio" as a verb? I've just noticed today that it's become pretty popular but I can't really get the usage in context, mostly because I'm slow.

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (5AVMW)

197 I still remember seeing the footage from Jonestown live on TV, hundreds of bodies lying all around on the grounds outside, it was one of the most horrific things I had ever seen.

And the bodies were bloated in the tropical heat. I remember that part.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (sdi6R)

198 Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:36 AM (cY3LT)

That's why TTS is great. I can listen to the book while weaving, driving, etc. I admit that I don't remember quite as much, and miss some details, but that's still better than having none of the information/story.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 10:48 AM (uquGJ)

199 Hello, great to be listed with my book Remodern America! Unfortunately Amazon is tampering with my book availability! It says 1-2 months for delivery but it is print on demand and my publisher says it takes 5-7 days at most. I've been fighting this all week. If anyone is interested the book can also be ordered directly from the publisher. https://outskirtspress.com/bookstore/details/9781977200006

Love the Ace book thread! Great recommendations here.

Posted by: Remodern America at December 16, 2018 10:49 AM (BAR+W)

200 195
In Teen Angel, their car is stuck on the railroad crossing, they get out in the nick of time, but then she goes back to get the ring he gave her and gets smushed.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:46 AM (+y/Ru)

OK, now that was just stupid.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 10:50 AM (sdi6R)

201 I always thought those songs reflected real concerns back then. In the days before seat belts and safety glass, going through the windshield in an accident was a real thing that actually happened, and was a pretty gruesome way to die.

----
In Teen Angel, their car is stuck on the railroad crossing, they get out in the nick of time, but then she goes back to get the ring he gave her and gets smushed.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:46 AM (+y/Ru)

You could make a modern version of this song: Kids going to buy heroin, finding out too late there's fentanyl in the mix... so sad. The girl at first wasn't going to shoot up, but then she does. So. Sad.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:51 AM (cY3LT)

202 1. Allende won his election because the opposition was split. He received something like 38% of the vote.

2.It became obvious early on that he was going to turn Chile into Cuba 2.0.

3. Pinochet's military junta did, in fact, kill a bunch of commies. The casualty figures I've read are in the low thousands.

4. Pinochet voluntarily stepped down in 1990

5. Despite his regime's brutalities, Pinochet put policies in place that left Chile a better country than it was in 1973. This is indisputable fact.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 10:51 AM (8YQun)

203 I'm reading "Miranda's Warning: Over-rated and Unnecessary" by unemployed wiretapper Jim Comey.

The New York Times Book Review calls it "[Redacted] by [Redacted] is [Redacted] feel-good Hit-of-the Year!"

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at December 16, 2018 10:51 AM (Ndje9)

204 Say, can anyone tell me about this new way of using the word "ratio" as a verb? I've just noticed today that it's become pretty popular but I can't really get the usage in context, mostly because I'm slow.
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (5AVMW)

In Twitter terms, it means more retweets to likes or else more likes than retweets, unless it doesn't, which is awful or shameful, otherwise it's the other way around (good). I THINK it's the first way, i.e., few people like the tweet, and many people retweet it with a comment like "look at this awful chump and his dumb opinion which I do not care for". So "getting ratio'd" is a negative response.

You can probably figure out the intent from the context.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:51 AM (t+qrx)

205 Say, can anyone tell me about this new way of using the word "ratio" as a verb? I've just noticed today that it's become pretty popular but I can't really get the usage in context, mostly because I'm slow.
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (5AVMW)

Haven't heard that one. Yet. But in general, to quote Bill Watterson, "Verbing weirds language."

Posted by: Pug Mahon at December 16, 2018 10:52 AM (fmOMA)

206 So "ratio" in Twitterese is much like Signal to Noise... where the Noise is much higher?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:53 AM (kzoEk)

207 Say, can anyone tell me about this new way of using the word "ratio" as a verb? I've just noticed today that it's become pretty popular but I can't really get the usage in context, mostly because I'm slow.
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (5AVMW)

Ok, I'll use it in an sentence, hopefully this helps.

Looks like a very serious head wound there, my friend, I'll go back to the ranger station and ratio for help.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:53 AM (cY3LT)

208 Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (5AVMW)

It's a Twitter thing referring to the ratio of "likes" to responses, both if which are visible on a tweet. A popular tweet will usually have more likes than replies while an unpopular tweet will have more replies as there's no "dislike" feature so the only way to let the person know you disagree is to directly tell them so. "Getting ratioed" means your tweet was very unpopular.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 10:54 AM (uquGJ)

209 I've got that one sitting on my shelf, collecting dust. Sorry to hear the narration is bad, the main reason I haven't started reading it is because I think I lost interest in the topic.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:39 AM (cY3LT)

He's very convincing that Bosnia was a global jihad op but makes it as uninteresting as possible. He needed some Jay Winik level narrative skills to make it come alive.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 10:54 AM (y7DUB)

210 I just re-read 2 Elmore Leonard books, City Primeval High Noon in Detroit and Mr. Paradise.

Man that guy could write.

I am now reading Tom Jones Over the Top and Back the Autobiography, and I am pleasantly surprised at how well written it is.

Posted by: JT at December 16, 2018 10:54 AM (nlUp2)

211 The New York Times Book Review calls it "[Redacted] by [Redacted] is [Redacted] feel-good Hit-of-the Year!"

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at December 16, 2018 10:51 AM (Ndje9)

"Lavrenti Beria: A Pioneering Life", by R. Mueller

Posted by: Vanya at December 16, 2018 10:55 AM (7PLM4)

212 Haven't heard that one. Yet. But in general, to quote Bill Watterson, "Verbing weirds language."
Posted by: Pug Mahon at December 16, 2018 10:52 AM (fmOMA)

First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns, and I speech nothing because I no verbs.*

* not mine

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:55 AM (t+qrx)

213 I THINK it's the first way, i.e., few people like the tweet, and many people retweet it with a comment like "look at this awful chump and his dumb opinion which I do not care for". So "getting ratio'd" is a negative response.

You can probably figure out the intent from the context.
Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:51 AM (t+qrx)

Yeah, I think you got it there, it fits with the way I've seen it used.....

Tweeters, what can't they do?

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:55 AM (5AVMW)

214

I find that library at the Biltmore too much gimcrack and geegaw. As in "Look at me I'm rich!"

They weren't hurting for money. Their servants had servants.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 10:55 AM (HaL55)

215 I still remember seeing the footage from Jonestown live on TV, hundreds of bodies lying all around on the grounds outside, it was one of the most horrific things I had ever seen.
----------------------------
And the bodies were bloated in the tropical heat. I remember that part.
Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (sdi6R)

There is lots and lots of video footage of the compound, before and during the death scene. I can still hear Jones' voice in my head, he had a slight lisp, and a sing song way that must have been mesmerizing. The phrase "lay it down" was used over and over again, as the folks were lining up for their drink mix (it wasn't Koolaid!... the Koolaid company wants you to know that).

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:56 AM (cY3LT)

216 Yeah, I think you got it there, it fits with the way I've seen it used.....

Tweeters, what can't they do?
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:55 AM (5AVMW)

Voice their displeasure by mashing an angry face button, I guess.

Also see Polliwog's #208 which I think is more technically accurate than mine.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:57 AM (t+qrx)

217 Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:36 AM (cY3LT)

That's why TTS is great. I can listen to the book while weaving, driving, etc. I admit that I don't remember quite as much, and miss some details, but that's still better than having none of the information/story.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 10:48 AM (uquGJ)

That does make sense. I may, one of these days, figure out how to incorporate Audible into my life. I have several books already purchased that way, and an unused gift subscription sitting here... from I think two Christmases ago.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:58 AM (cY3LT)

218 *looks at news*

Good grief, a Parkland 'survivor' has been accepted to Harvard. Wonder what Mrs. Bradstreet would think of this newest student who is a gun control advocate. And from the photos, she's a perfect Eloi for consumption - white blonde hair, very fair complexion, and just plump enough for a good Bar-B-Q.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 10:59 AM (kzoEk)

219 Yes, Polliwog's answer cleared it right up for me... thanks Poli!!!

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:59 AM (5AVMW)

220 But in general, to quote Bill Watterson, "Verbing weirds language."

One useful exception. I teach a foreign language to students who don't know American grammar. What's a subject? What's an object?

One of the kids came up with a formulation that I now use.

The subject is the thing that does the verbing. The object is the thing that gets verbed.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 10:59 AM (fuK7c)

221 The phrase "lay it down" was used over and over again, as the folks were lining up for their drink mix (it wasn't Koolaid!... the Koolaid company wants you to know that).
Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:56 AM (cY3LT)

Right. It was "Flavor Ade" or "Flav R Ade" or something like that.

But it's too late. The expression "drinking the Koolaid" started there and never looked back.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 11:01 AM (8YQun)

222 Stephen Shoemaker, "Apocalypse of Empire" is about how the apocalyptic imagination worked in the late-antique eastern Mediterranean. Leading to ISIS.

Here in the West, our apocalyptic is focused on Daniel and the Revelation. To some extent in Daniel and to an extreme extent in Revelation, the rulers of this age are Babylonian: irredeemably evil, and overdue for G-d's judgement. It didn't work like that in the east. First off, they rejected Revelation for centuries. Also, they longed for a righteous king to rule them, even before going Christian. For instance Egypt has apocalypses predicting a sun king (a new Pharaoh). I wonder if Aurelian tapped into some of this as Emperor...

The Byzantine ideology was particularly authoritarian, as you may read in Eusebius's life of Constantine. As far as Constantine's family was concerned, the Empire was G-d's kingdom on earth already. And where the Empire was weak - like in Italy - people composed "prophecies" about a Last Roman Emperor who would fix everything and, when done, surrender his crown to Christ.

Some of this ended up in Islam as well but not in the Quran so much. Shoemaker thinks the Quran has a lot of later interpolation (as I think); also, when it goes apocalyptic, it doesn't hope for a new caliph. However a massive load of last-emperor material entered the hadith, mostly in Syria. In 1993 one of these hadith collections was published in Arabic: Nuaym bin Hammad's Kitab al-Fitan. ISIS drew from that.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 11:01 AM (ykYG2)

223 Bandersnatch, a question of translation.

Why is 'kampf' for Adolf's book translated as struggle?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 11:02 AM (kzoEk)

224 Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 10:06 AM (CRRq9)

I liked the stories in "Dubliners." For my money, the last few paragraphs of "The Dead" ("Snow was general all over Ireland...") contain some of the most beautiful writing in the English language. I liked the early chapters of "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," particularly the one depicting the fierce fight that breaks out at the Christmas dinner table over politics (I've had a few scenes like that in my family). When Stephen and Buck Mulligan start talking about aesthetics in the later chapters, my eyes glazed over. And I've never been able to get far into Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake. Joyce wanted people to spend a lifetime on Finnegan's Wake. Well, Jimmy, there are far too many other books in the world to do that, although a few scholars have.

Posted by: Sacramento at December 16, 2018 11:02 AM (d6Ksn)

225 Oops, that was me at 224.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:03 AM (d6Ksn)

226 @194
Nice ! *Presents Bandersnatch a silver quill

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 11:04 AM (bUjCl)

227 "Allende won his election because the opposition was split. He received something like 38% of the vote."

And his next opponent was even more of a commie nutball than he was IIRC. There wasn't a constituency for limited government in 1970 Chile. That there is one now is because Pinochet delivered.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 11:04 AM (ykYG2)

228 215
The phrase "lay it down" was used over and over again, as the folks were lining up for their drink mix (it wasn't Koolaid!... the Koolaid company wants you to know that).
Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:56 AM (cY3LT)

I remember. It was Flavor Aid, which was a competing brand. But the phrase "drink the Kool-Aid" irrevocably entered the lexicon.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 11:04 AM (sdi6R)

229 I've got that one sitting on my shelf, collecting dust. Sorry to hear the narration is bad, the main reason I haven't started reading it is because I think I lost interest in the topic.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:39 AM (cY3LT)

He's very convincing that Bosnia was a global jihad op but makes it as uninteresting as possible. He needed some Jay Winik level narrative skills to make it come alive.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 10:54 AM (y7DUB)

We have a large contingent of Bosnian immigrants here in St. Louis. I know some of the families, and generally find them to be decent people.

The trouble is, some of the young girls become way too sexualized by American culture, and the young boys get into the gangster lifestyle, with all its fun activities.

For a year or so there, we were hearing about young men joining up with the jihad, after having grown up here in the States. I don't hear much about it anymore, and frankly think it was probably overblown when it was being reported (one story told of a local kid who was killed over there, complete with pictures of him before and after joining the terrorists).

Really, I just don't think it's much of a thing. So while the larger story is unreported, and probably worth knowing, how the war over there was a proving ground for the eventual emergence of Al Queda and Isis, just knowing that fact is probably enough. After that, it's just, yeah. So now, if you encounter them on the battlefield, kill them. Doesn't much matter how they got there.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:05 AM (cY3LT)

230 Right. It was "Flavor Ade" or "Flav R Ade" or something like that.

So in addition to being a mass murderer, he was a cheapskate too.

Posted by: JT at December 16, 2018 11:05 AM (nlUp2)

231 the thing i learned from jim jones was, never trust an ex door to door monkey salesman with perfect hair, weird eyeware, and a fancy, nancy boy pushing you to drink from a communal wash tub. damn, there are a lot of stupid people in this country. had they lived, the jonestown people would have allbeen obama soldiers.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at December 16, 2018 11:06 AM (KP5rU)

232 Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 10:57 AM (t+qrx)

I don't usually participate in "ratioing", although it's a whole lot nicer than trying to get someone fired. I use the opportunity to "like" replies that I well..like.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 16, 2018 11:07 AM (uquGJ)

233 ... wikipedia has an article on miracle in chile" that briefly describes the disaster allende wrought, well on it's way to becoming what venezuela is now, when the generals stepped in. it doesn't go into detail on the coup but does give some background.
Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 10:44 AM (Pg+x7)

But always bear in mind the caveat with wikipedia. When reading about the coup itself, wikipedia tilts left. You can smell the bias.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 16, 2018 11:07 AM (/qEW2)

234 I first visited SF in the early 00s. Vastly overrated -- Bridgeport with seals. Not even up to Providence, RI's low standard because of the shitty food -- mushy seafood and bread that tastes like it was pissed on.

Posted by: Regular joe at December 16, 2018 11:07 AM (7PllL)

235 In Teen Angel, their car is stuck on the railroad
crossing, they get out in the nick of time, but then she goes back to
get the ring he gave her and gets smushed.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 10:46 AM (+y/Ru)
The late singer Steve Goodman did an amusing bit on "dead girl songs" including "Teen Angel." It's on YouTube.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:07 AM (d6Ksn)

236 Was it Goebbels or Himmler who was the failed chicken farmer?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 11:07 AM (kzoEk)

237 According to Wikipedia, Kool-Aid was introduced in 1927 and Flavor Aid in 1929, so it's not like the latter was a cheap knockoff that came years later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid

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

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 11:08 AM (sdi6R)

238 The phrase "lay it down" was used over and over again, as the folks were lining up for their drink mix (it wasn't Koolaid!... the Koolaid company wants you to know that).
Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 10:56 AM (cY3LT)

I remember. It was Flavor Aid, which was a competing brand. But the phrase "drink the Kool-Aid" irrevocably entered the lexicon.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 11:04 AM (sdi6R)

Yup, and it doesn't help that, if you strain your ears juuuust a bit, the Koolaid pitcher dude's voice sounds a bit like ol' Jim Jones.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:08 AM (cY3LT)

239

Say, can anyone tell me about this new way of using the word "ratio" as a verb? I've just noticed today that it's become pretty popular but I can't really get the usage in context, mostly because I'm slow.

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:47 AM (5AVMW

====

"So-and-so got ratioed." Someone got an overwhelmingly and unexpectedly huge number of negative comments to something they posted or tweeted.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at December 16, 2018 11:08 AM (oGNNA)

240 1666 was a bad year for fire.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 11:09 AM (ykYG2)

241 Why is 'kampf' for Adolf's book translated as struggle?

Because languages don't translate 1:1.

Kampf is fight. It's also struggle, and (resorting to a dictionary) battle, contest, conflict, and several other things. Translation involves choosing the most appropriate of multiple possibilities for the context involved.

Btw, just to be super-helpful: the absolute best resource for things Krautish is

dict.leo.org

It's a German-English dictionary, but also German-French, German-Italian, and a few other language pairs. Sometimes if I am looking for the sense of a French word I'll triangulate it with what the Germans call it.

In addition to having lots of instances of how a word is used, there's also a forum where people from both mother tongues discuss usage. It's kind of awesome.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 11:09 AM (fuK7c)

242 240: i thought that year was abolished from history?

Posted by: chavez the hugo at December 16, 2018 11:10 AM (KP5rU)

243 The late singer Steve Goodman did an amusing bit on "dead girl songs" including "Teen Angel." It's on YouTube.
=====

Love by the Dashboard Light -- and now I'm praying for the end of time so I can end my time with you.

Posted by: mustbequantum at December 16, 2018 11:10 AM (MIKMs)

244 I first visited SF in the early 00s. Vastly overrated -- Bridgeport with seals. Not even up to Providence, RI's low standard because of the shitty food -- mushy seafood and bread that tastes like it was pissed on.
Posted by: Regular joe at December 16, 2018 11:07 AM (7PllL)

My experience of San Francissy is, nowhere to park, can't just pull up to the city and find a hotel, and the bums are so nicely dressed you'd think they were ambassadors for the place.

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

245 the thing i learned from jim jones was, never trust an ex door to door monkey salesman with perfect hair, weird eyeware, and a fancy, nancy boy pushing you to drink from a communal wash tub. damn, there are a lot of stupid people in this country. had they lived, the jonestown people would have allbeen obama soldiers.
Posted by: chavez the hugo

I read somewhere that he was conducting a mind control experiment on behalf of the CIA, and a relative of one of his subjects became concerned and contacted her congressperson, and he was gonna visit the compound, and the rest as they say, is history.

Posted by: JT at December 16, 2018 11:11 AM (nlUp2)

246 Posted by: Regular joe at December 16, 2018 11:07 AM (7PllL)

I thought SF's bread was awesome, although not as good as the bread in France. And the best frog bread I had was not a "French bread" baguette, but a round loaf of homemade country style bread I had in Normandy.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:12 AM (d6Ksn)

247 Kampf is fight. It's also struggle, and (resorting to a dictionary) battle, contest, conflict, and several other things. Translation involves choosing the most appropriate of multiple possibilities for the context involved.

Seems to map pretty well to a word in Arabic.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 11:12 AM (ykYG2)

248 Well did get a idea that at least is easy to get, Moby Dick. For some reason think I read it in high school but another go wouldn't hurt.
Been pondering getting a used copy of Hell in a Small Space about Dien Bien Phu which I did read in school but want a hard copy to reread.

Posted by: Skip at December 16, 2018 11:12 AM (/rm4P)

249 Has anyone started to skinny down there book collections? I need to start but am finding it painful.
Posted by: Tonypete at December 16, 2018 09:44 AM (9rIkM)

The only solution I know of is more bookshelves.

Posted by: WOPR at December 16, 2018 11:12 AM (J70i0)

250 everything i need to know about herr mueller is in the book, "black mass." we really need to know who ordered the execution of whitey. that whole thing smells.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at December 16, 2018 11:13 AM (KP5rU)

251 242 240: i thought that year was abolished from history?
Posted by: chavez the hugo at December 16, 2018 11:10 AM (KP5rU)

Most of the bad stuff actually happened in 1667, but 1666 just looks and sounds cooler.

And there's that song.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:13 AM (cY3LT)

252 "My Contest" sounds too much like a game show.

Posted by: freaked at December 16, 2018 11:13 AM (UdKB7)

253 Hmm. According to the Kool-Aid entry I linked above, both drink mixes were used at Jonestown. The more you know.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 11:13 AM (sdi6R)

254 245; i remember that. he whacked a congressman, right?

Posted by: chavez the hugo at December 16, 2018 11:14 AM (KP5rU)

255 Anna, it was Himmler.

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 11:14 AM (bUjCl)

256

"My Contest" sounds too much like a game show.

And "My Camp" sounds too much like fun in the woods.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 11:14 AM (HaL55)

257 Listening to Bob Crosby and the Bob-Cats "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow".

Bing was a poser.

Get's me in the mood......

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at December 16, 2018 11:15 AM (Z+IKu)

258 and a relative of one of his subjects became concerned and contacted her congressperson, and he was gonna visit the compound,

A congressman did visit the compound. Jones' goons murdered him at the airport on his way out of town so that he couldn't report back.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 11:15 AM (fuK7c)

259 I read somewhere that he was conducting a mind control experiment on behalf of the CIA, and a relative of one of his subjects became concerned and contacted her congressperson, and he was gonna visit the compound, and the rest as they say, is history.
Posted by: JT at December 16, 2018 11:11 AM (nlUp2)

The thing that no longer rings true about all these CIA conspiracies, is that we know how incompetent they really are.

They couldn't pull it off, the stuff they supposedly did.

And with a story like that, I would imagine the... rest of the story, would involve his body double being found, while the "real" JJ escaped.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:15 AM (cY3LT)

260 Interesting synchronicity about the artist Richard's book: New York magazine just published a piece detailing the sins of the big city Elites' art scene. When lefties and conservatives agree, you know it's a problem.

Posted by: kallisto at December 16, 2018 11:16 AM (XMhQP)

261 A congressman did visit the compound. Jones' goons murdered him at the airport on his way out of town so that he couldn't report back.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 11:15 AM (fuK7c)

Leo Ryan?

Posted by: BignJames at December 16, 2018 11:16 AM (cxHbL)

262 just to be clear, not sticking up for whitey, but, mueller by far is more evil. aided and abetted by your tax dollars. mueller really should be public enemy #1.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at December 16, 2018 11:17 AM (KP5rU)

263 I, for one, will be following Richard's blog, because I despise postmodernism in all its forms, but particularly the "art." It's morally, aesthetically and intellectually bankrupt, and it springs from a nihilistic hatred of truth and beauty.

All postmodern "artists" and "architects" will be frozen in Lake Cocytus while the barbed cock of Satan jizzes lava in their faces forever.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:17 AM (5aX2M)

264 He comments on the efforts in the 12th century to make Rome a big fucking deal again but how it just wasn't the same with centers of power being located elsewhere and, of course, the Vatican being an autonomous counterbalance.

Rome 1.0 owed its prominence to a massive population imbalance between Italy and the rest of the western Med; also to its mastery of the seas - which Rome controlled through Ostia. By the 12th century Genoa and Venice were running those seas, and the Latium / Lazio plain wasn't.

Also, Rome was a disgusting malarial swamp in the summers, which is when people got their fighting done. The emperors knew it too which is why they gave up on Rome from the 300s on.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 11:17 AM (ykYG2)

265 Can anybody recommend any good books on the history of the theater?

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:17 AM (d6Ksn)

266 After fifty years I reread Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley in Search of America". It was nowhere near as good the second time around. There really wasn't much about America at all. It was mostly Steinbeck's musings on what he thought America was.

Steinbeck admitted to avoiding people on that trip. How can you publish a book about a country without speaking to its people?

I loved that book the first time I read it. But evidently Thomas Wolfe was right.

Posted by: creeper at December 16, 2018 11:18 AM (X+36i)

267 Well did get a idea that at least is easy to get, Moby Dick.

-
I don't know why that book isn't more popular today. Ahab spends the whole book looking for Dick. Seems like a perfect fit.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 16, 2018 11:19 AM (+y/Ru)

268 It would be interesting to see what books there were in that library.
===========================
They were probably purchased by the linear foot. This was common practice by the uber-wealthy.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:19 AM (ty7RM)

269
Jim Jones: "Baby, It's Hot Down Here"
JJ Disciple: "Say, what's in this drink?"

Posted by: Newest Nic at December 16, 2018 11:19 AM (jYje5)

270 Can anybody recommend any good books on the history of the theater?

=
There is comedy and there is tragedy. And there is tragicomedy. I think Aristophanes started it all.

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 11:19 AM (bUjCl)

271 Spray paint graffiti is the new cave painting. Only worthless.

Posted by: Burger Chef at December 16, 2018 11:20 AM (RuIsu)

272 JJ Disciple: "Say, what's in this drink?"

That there is funny.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 11:21 AM (fuK7c)

273 creeper spotted! Hello there.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 11:21 AM (t+qrx)

274

I, for one, will be following Richard's blog, because I despise
postmodernism in all its forms, but particularly the "art." It's
morally, aesthetically and intellectually bankrupt, and it springs from a
nihilistic hatred of truth and beauty.

All postmodern "artists" and "architects" will be frozen in Lake
Cocytus while the barbed cock of Satan jizzes lava in their faces
forever.

Ooh, ooh, let me drag out Bessie The Dead Horse for another whompin' on, then I'll stop. Say "Hi" to all the Morons and Ettes, Bessie...
Bessie: "Ack.."
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of
artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate
all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless,
awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
OK, gotta get B'Gal operational, y'all try to behave.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 16, 2018 11:22 AM (HaL55)

275 Say what you like about Jim Jones, at least he and his communist followers chose to secede and leave the friggin' country in order to try their Utopian experiment.

Nowadays, the leftists want to force us all to drink the Kool-Aid.

Similarly, with the SF bathhouses - I've no problem with promiscuous homos killing themselves off with diseases, as long as they keep in their own community. But again, today Big Homo is trying to force acceptance of their ways to society in general.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 16, 2018 11:22 AM (/qEW2)

276 We've been to Asheville many times; usually headed to coastal NC. We were kind of curious about seeing The Biltmore. IIRC, it was going to cost my family of 4 $140 (maybe more, it was outrageous). That dampened my curiosity considerably.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:22 AM (ty7RM)

277 Also, Rome was a disgusting malarial swamp in the summers, which is when people got their fighting done. The emperors knew it too which is why they gave up on Rome from the 300s on.
-----
And the Ostrogoths moved their capital to the disgusting malarial swamp of Ravenna. And then, there's DC. What is it with these people?

Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 11:23 AM (tfbws)

278 Thanks for that Bandersnatch, I figured it was something like that.

As for art, some of my musings on art
https://annapuna.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-is-art.html

Poor cosplay imitators of moi
https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1145/660/1600/pumagirls.jpg

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at December 16, 2018 11:23 AM (kzoEk)

279 Cave paintings, while crude, were representative art, and celebrated real things like successful hunts and pregnancies.

Cave painting = art.

Graffiti = degenerate trash.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:24 AM (5aX2M)

280 Posted by: creeper at December 16, 2018 11:18 AM (X+36i)

I know how you feel. I loved "Travels with Charley" when I read it in my teen years. But apparently Steinbeck made up a lot of it - according to his son, he spent much more time staying in grand hotels (with his wife flying out to visit him) in cities like Chicago and San Fran than he did talking with just plain folks in North Dakota. And some of the conversations he had, were, his son suspected, occurred only in Steinbeck's head.
I really liked Steinbeck when I was young, but the few things I've reread since then have convinced me to leave him alone. I loved "East of Eden" and I don't want to go back and diminish my memories by rereading it now.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:26 AM (d6Ksn)

281 246 The best frog bread I've had was in Bien Hoa Vietnam, at a hooch bar run by the 8th SOS. I was medevaced to Third Field in Saigon, and waiting to go back north. Weather called for RON. Went down to the hooch bar, and the barkeep said try the BLT's. The old Viet lady cooking was a former cook for some Frogs, made her own bread, and cranked out a BLT I can still remember. Took two back to the transit barracks, with two cans of Millers.

Posted by: bill in arkansas at December 16, 2018 11:26 AM (xzqr4)

282 funny thing - in the 50's the u.s. govt. sent out traveling exhibitions of abstract expressionists to be met by denunciation by marxists of pollock, rothko et al as an imperialist c.i.a. plot.

true thing.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 11:26 AM (Pg+x7)

283 84 ... "Has anyone started to skinny down there book collections? I need to start but am finding it painful."

TonyPete, We're going through the same problem. My criteria are 1. Will I read that book again? 2. Do I have multuple versions of the same book? 3. Can the books, usually old paperbacks, be read without crumbling?

Yes, the process is VERY painful. One way to make it easier is we donate books to nursing homes, the local senior center, and assisted living facilities where space is at a premium and/or the people have little money.

It's not a happy thought but realizing that I'm not a kid and don't have 50 or 60 years to get to a book makes things easier.

Good luck. You're gonna need it.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 11:27 AM (bmdz3)

284 But again, today Big Homo is trying to force acceptance of their ways to society in general.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 16, 2018 11:22 AM (/qEW2)

I've been noticing what I take to be gay couples in several Christmas themed commercials for different products....subliminal...like the mixed race couples were at first.

Posted by: BignJames at December 16, 2018 11:28 AM (cxHbL)

285 Why is Big Leftard losing their collective minds over "Baby It's Cold Outside," and "Santa Baby" is totes cool? "Santa baby, you'll be coming down my chimney tonight?" Seriously? Glorifying unprotected, inter-species sex? Every time I hear "Santa Baby" now, I think of Ballsy-Ford singing it.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:29 AM (ty7RM)

286 Posted by: bill in arkansas at December 16, 2018 11:26 AM (xzqr4)

I've heard the only place in the Far East you can get good bread is Vietnam, so I guess the frogs did one good thing over there.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:29 AM (d6Ksn)

287 Hi, hogmartin.

Merry Christmas to you.

Posted by: creeper at December 16, 2018 11:30 AM (X+36i)

288
Can anybody recommend any good books on the history of the theater?

Posted by: DonnaV at December 16, 2018 11:17 AM (d6Ksn)

=====

I bet Terry Teachout can. Do you tweet? If you tweeted at him, he'd probably answer with some great suggestions.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at December 16, 2018 11:30 AM (oGNNA)

289 224 Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 10:06 AM (CRRq9)

I liked the stories in "Dubliners." For my money, the last few paragraphs of "The Dead" ("Snow was general all over Ireland...") contain some of the most beautiful writing in the English language. I liked the early chapters of "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," particularly the one depicting the fierce fight that breaks out at the Christmas dinner table over politics (I've had a few scenes like that in my family). When Stephen and Buck Mulligan start talking about aesthetics in the later chapters, my eyes glazed over. And I've never been able to get far into Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake. Joyce wanted people to spend a lifetime on Finnegan's Wake. Well, Jimmy, there are far too many other books in the world to do that, although a few scholars have.
Posted by: Sacramento at December 16, 2018 11:02 AM (d6Ksn)

225 Oops, that was me at 224.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:03 AM (d6Ksn)

Well, now that he's long dead, I think it's pretty apparent that Joyce was a very good short story/novella writer and a much less successful novel writer.

I read "Ulysses" and it's pretty good, but after reading it, I felt like Joyce wrote the whole thing so he could unleash the bravura last part of the novel and the rest was build up. I have mixed feelings/thoughts about it.

But, I understand the desire to write a big picaresque novel of the old school in the modern idiom, after all I wrote one of those myself, and thereby plug into the grand tradition of Western Literature that stretches all the way back to "The Canterbury Tales".

"Finnegan's Wake" was something different entirely though. I think it was his entry into the smartest guy on the planet contest.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 11:30 AM (9X624)

290 I liked your blog post, Anna.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:31 AM (5aX2M)

291 The library today looks comfortable. A vast space but comfortable chairs, desks and benches. I really liked the ladder because of the wide steps, looks like someone could actually use it. From what I can recall, ultra-wealthy people also had any book they bought bound to spec so it would be aesthetically compatible. Look at our current mishmash of covers, styles, sizes, etc and look at the custom bindings. Also a good theft deterrent.

Posted by: mustbequantum at December 16, 2018 11:31 AM (MIKMs)

292 In my little town, the city fathers (or whoever is in charge of artistic expression) gathered graffiti enthusiasts to adorn city bridges underpasses (ugly dreary things) with art representing flavor of that neighborhood, city themes. Very transformative - for the underpass and for the artists I think. You can find very interesting unsanctioned pieces around town too. Sometimes you just have to paint.

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 11:31 AM (bUjCl)

293 You can find very interesting unsanctioned pieces around town too.

That is such a great way of putting it.

Posted by: t-bird at December 16, 2018 11:32 AM (NAs56)

294 Posted by: DonnaV at December 16, 2018 11:26 AM (d6Ksn)

I could've written that Donna. East of Eden is probably my favorite book of all time. After the experience with "Travels" I wouldn't re-read it for anything.

Posted by: creeper at December 16, 2018 11:32 AM (X+36i)

295 Don't winnow your books. Put them in storage, and discreetly. Someone in the future may desperately need them after our betters start to purge all the old knowledge.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:33 AM (5aX2M)

296 "Lavrenti Beria: A Pioneering Life", by R. Mueller Posted by: Vanya

Comey and Mueller are trying to cash in the runaway success of John Brennan's "Urine Trouble Now, Son; The Spy Who Pee-Peed".

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at December 16, 2018 11:33 AM (Ndje9)

297 Why is Big Leftard losing their collective minds over "Baby It's Cold Outside," and "Santa Baby" is totes cool? "Santa baby, you'll be coming down my chimney tonight?" Seriously? Glorifying unprotected, inter-species sex? Every time I hear "Santa Baby" now, I think of Ballsy-Ford singing it.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:29 AM (ty7RM)

Inter-species sex??

I asked the same question the other day, because the song is essentially glorifying prostitution (or worse, to the feminazis, a kept woman).

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:33 AM (cY3LT)

298 I loved "Travels with Charley" when I read it in my
teen years. But apparently Steinbeck made up a lot of it...

Posted by: DonnaV at December 16, 2018 11:26 AM (d6Ksn)

I treated it as fiction and enjoyed it quite a bit.

He was a fine writer, but also flawed. I do love his short stories though.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 16, 2018 11:35 AM (wYseH)

299 Declan Finn's highly charged supernatural thriller/horror series, Saint Tommy, NYPD, is excellent. Book #2, Death Cult, came out last week. Highly recommended. I'm also rereading Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at December 16, 2018 11:35 AM (1pQvR)

300 The Adam Hardy Fox novels are not up to the quality of Patrick O'Brian, but they are easily as fun and interesting as Horatio Hornblower and its a very fresh take on sea novels. His books are very difficult to find but the e-books are all on Amazon and I recommend all of them.

I'm spending more money than I ought to on the books, since I have only been able to find three in print around here.

Regarding Jim Jones, when I did my Common Knowledge post on him years ago I was shocked at finding out how high ranking and influential he was in Democratic Party affairs in California. Jimmy Carter's wife was a huge fan. It was truly disturbing to me how easily they turned him from a DNC scion into a right wing lunatic in the press.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:36 AM (39g3+)

301 Graffiti = degenerate trash.
=================
Mostly.
Banksy is the exception IMO. His stunt w/the self shredding painting was brilliant. He told the original buyer that under NO circumstances were they to resell the piece. I guess the irony here cuts 2 ways, they said the piece may well be more valuable half shredded. Most of his stuff is thoughtful and amusing.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:36 AM (ty7RM)

302
I bet Terry Teachout can. Do you tweet? If you tweeted at him, he'd probably answer with some great suggestions.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at December 16, 2018 11:30 AM (oGNNA)
That's a great idea, although I don't tweet. I like Teachout a lot, partly because he's one of the few critics with a conservative sensibility and also because, unlike all the other NY critics, he gets his ass out of Manhattan sometimes and reviews plays in Kansas City and Minneapolis and Florida. He doesn't dismiss flyover country - perhaps because he is originally from St. Louis.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:36 AM (d6Ksn)

303 I've been noticing what I take to be gay couples in several Christmas themed commercials for different products....subliminal...like the mixed race couples were at first.
Posted by: BignJames at December 16, 2018 11:28 AM (cxHbL)

I've been noticing this for two three years now. And the gay couple is invariably a pair of lipstick lesbian hotties. It's never flannel shirt-wearing overweight, beyond middle-aged women who look like lumberjacks, like it is in real life.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 11:37 AM (8YQun)

304 I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the coup in Chile, but this was only a few years after it had happened.

The history has become thoroughly revised and polticized since then.

So the earlier, more contemporary works will be less contaminated and more accurate.

The socialists perverted and destroyed a vibrant and long term democracy, the only other stable one in this hemisphere, using the [i

Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 16, 2018 11:37 AM (EZebt)

305
2.It became obvious early on that he was going to turn Chile into Cuba 2.0.

-----

The AK he popped himself with was inscribed "To my good friend Salvador from Fidel, who by different means tries to achieve the same goals."

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:37 AM (5aX2M)

306 ...using the exact same methods they are using here today.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 16, 2018 11:38 AM (EZebt)

307 I believe you'd make it 'Struggle' so as not to glorify him, too. After all, he wrote the thing in jail (well, caused it to be written), had accomplished nothing by that point, and had yet to graduate from Harvard Law.

Fight, battle, struggle would all have been acceptable.

Posted by: t-bird at December 16, 2018 11:38 AM (NAs56)

308 For reasons unexplained I happened upon "The Epic Poem of Gilgamesh" which is arguably the oldest thing extant ever written by any human.
It was discovered on cuneiform tablets in present day Iraq in 1853, taken thence to the British museum for translation.
Here is a youtube link where you may listen to an audio of it, in its entirety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYf8AwNvKg

Posted by: navybrat, on a mission from Odin at December 16, 2018 11:38 AM (w7KSn)

309 In my little town, the city fathers (or whoever is in charge of artistic expression) gathered graffiti enthusiasts to adorn city bridges underpasses (ugly dreary things) with art representing flavor of that neighborhood, city themes. Very transformative - for the underpass and for the artists I think. You can find very interesting unsanctioned pieces around town too. Sometimes you just have to paint.
Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 11:31 AM (bUjCl)

There are a couple of... installations, I guess, near work. I don't know if they were sanctioned or not, but they certainly aren't making the neighborhood look any worse IMO.

https://stoatnet.org/reogarage0.jpg
https://stoatnet.org/reogarage1.jpg

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 11:38 AM (t+qrx)

310 Inter-species sex??
==================
Yeah, Santa is an elf. But so is Arwyn and yeah, hit it I would.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:39 AM (ty7RM)

311 I like Teachout a lot...

Posted by: DonnaV at December 16, 2018 11:36 AM (d6Ksn)

I used to read his reviews in Commentary and found them to be really interesting. When he wrote about jazz (about which I no nothing) he taught me a lot.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 16, 2018 11:40 AM (wYseH)

312 Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:05 AM (cY3LT)

You're not the first person from St. Louis to report something similar. The only Bosnian Muslim I've knowingly encountered was a very westernized girl at a dog park who liked how Teddy played with her Italian greyhound. She's not a big fan of the UN.

Schindler's two takeaways for me were how Izetbegovic was an Iranian influenced jihad supporting piece of shit and what complicit liars the MFM were. Evaluating that girl on the basis of Izetbegovic is as valid as doing so for me and Cock Curious.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 11:42 AM (y7DUB)

313 285 Why is Big Leftard losing their collective minds over "Baby It's Cold Outside," and "Santa Baby" is totes cool?
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:29 AM (ty7RM)

Not to mention any of the numerous, disgusting rap songs about "bitches" and "hos". They, apparently, are perfectly OK.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 11:42 AM (8YQun)

314 There are a lot of artists who use a graffiti/urban style, and walls are their medium. Usually, they are asked to work, and it isn't vandalism. I draw a bright line between that and the usual "Dooshbag Wuz Here," and "Rollin' 30 Crip 4 Life" crap.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:42 AM (5aX2M)

315 That library looks fantastic, but can you get a nice scotch or brandy while doing some heavy reading?

Posted by: Skip at December 16, 2018 11:43 AM (/rm4P)

316 ... hey, i just stopped by here to recommend "frankenstein at 200" by paul cantor at powerline, a review of an exhibition at the morgan library on mary shelley's book and its legacy.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 11:43 AM (Pg+x7)

317 295 Don't winnow your books. Put them in storage, and discreetly. Someone in the future may desperately need them after our betters start to purge all the old knowledge.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:33 AM (5aX2M)

This is weighing heavily on me. I don't have anyone to leave them to. How do I see that they get to someone who will cherish and preserve them?

I've said before that I can't shake the feeling that I should be sealing them in plastic and burying them in lead-lined boxes. I haven't been doing that myself, but if someone else reads this and does it for real, then maybe my life has not been in vain.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 11:43 AM (sdi6R)

318 I am actually reading Mein Kampf. Well, by "reading" I mean I haven't officially given up yet. The guy is insufferable.

He just spent eight pages on the proper way to read (you assimilate all of the useful information into your being and discard the bad and don't get hung up on remembering details) with the basic proposition that only he knew how to truly read.

It's an historically important thing and I want to have read it but I need a break.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 11:44 AM (fuK7c)

319 I just had homemade French toast, made from King's Hawaiian Bread, slathered in butter and then doused in real maple syrup. Yum yum.
Just sayin'

Posted by: Akua Makana at December 16, 2018 11:44 AM (YkUJb)

320 In the latter part of the Poem, there is a reference to a Great Flood and construction of an ark, wherein the "seed of every living thing" is placed prior to the rains.
It corresponds precisely with the story of Noah in Genesis, right down to releasing a dove, a sparrow and a raven after the ark comes to rest on a mountain.
So, I don't who plagiarized whom, but there it is.

Posted by: navybrat, on a mission from Odin at December 16, 2018 11:44 AM (w7KSn)

321 Almost finished with Hornet Flight by Ken Follett. I'm not very impressed with the book despite his catalog. This is one of his last books, and it kind of shows that tired "I've done this once too often" feel some novelists get when they wrote too many books for the paycheck rather than the love of writing.

Another problem is that its too modern a feel for a WW2 book. By this I mean that every character acts as if they are living now, with modern mentalities rather than in the past. Even the Nazi sympathizer Danish police detective doesn't really seem to know what Nazism is about, he just likes order and is a bully. ALL the women are super competent but held back by stupid men. All the men we're supposed to admire are supportive of women and consider them to be at minimum equals.

The teenage engineer geek kid is somehow able to break into a secret Nazi facility, TWICE, without being even spotted. His dad is a Christian minister and he's -- get this -- a hypocritical jerk who constantly berates people and is mean to his son. And by "mean to his son" I mean he forces his son to get a real job and work a while so he can get some grasp on the realities of life because he's getting a bit stupid in college and doing stuff he ought not do. Which is portrayed as being a domineering monster.

The plot is okay, and some of the characters are written well -- the main female is a complex and often contradictory person, for example. But there are too many bits in it that just don't feel right for the times and seem awfully implausible.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:44 AM (39g3+)

322 ... and to mention how good butter from grass-fed cows is, but i'm saving that for the food thread.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 11:44 AM (Pg+x7)

323 https://stoatnet.org/reogarage1.jpg

I hate seeing old, disused, solid buildings like that. But not so much that I buy them and save them.

So, kids, you want to make a living as an artist. These people do it for free. Make me an offer...

Posted by: t-bird at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (C78No)

324 Gay couples in advertising. One of the jewelry companies opens their add with a black guy hugging and smooching a white guy for buying the ring. Guess they finally hit the jackpot in advertising.

Posted by: bill in arkansas at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (xzqr4)

325 There are a couple of... installations, I guess, near work. I don't know if they were sanctioned or not, but they certainly aren't making the neighborhood look any worse IMO.

https://stoatnet.org/reogarage0.jpg
https://stoatnet.org/reogarage1.jpg
Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 11:38 AM (t+qrx)

Yes, like that. People trying to beautify their environment.

Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (bUjCl)

326 But again, today Big Homo is trying to force acceptance of their ways to society in general.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 16, 2018 11:22 AM (/qEW2)

It's worse than that. I've already seen examples of bringing Michael Caine's fear ("...so long as they don't make it mandatory") to life. I expect others have; articles and videos condemning guys for now wanting to have sex with trannies. And that includes the "trannies" who aren't even mutilated; just because they still have their junk, that doesn't let you off being a bigot for not jumping in bed with them.

And that is certain to escalate.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (VaN/j)

327 Modern art?

Watch the Paul Joseph Watson 10 min video of his opinion on MA.

I always knew I hated it but couldn't express my contempt without using over the top profanity.

Watch it for yourself. See also his video about post modern architecture.

Posted by: weirdflunky at December 16, 2018 11:46 AM (HkmBI)

328 Inter-species sex??
==================
Yeah, Santa is an elf. But so is Arwyn and yeah, hit it I would.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:39 AM (ty7RM)

Oh, I suppose there's that. My assumption though, since the song is set in our universe, "Santa" is her sugar daddy.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:46 AM (cY3LT)

329 I am actually reading Mein Kampf. Well, by "reading" I mean I haven't officially given up yet. The guy is insufferable.

I have long wanted to read that but have hesitated getting a copy particularly in today's atmosphere. I mean I read the Communist Manifesto, I read the Koran, I have a fair collection of political and religious works and oddities (like a Freemasonry handbook that has a dire warning in the front not to share this with anyone outside the brotherhood). It just feels like an exploration too far right now.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:47 AM (39g3+)

330
I'm "reading" Moby Dick on audio on long drives. I'm about 2/3 of the way through. What's good is that once they set sail, you don't really have to keep track of the plot. Just jump back in and get an earful of Ishmael's progress.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at December 16, 2018 11:48 AM (oGNNA)

331 Gay couples in advertising. One of the jewelry companies opens their add with a black guy hugging and smooching a white guy for buying the ring. Guess they finally hit the jackpot in advertising.

Posted by: bill in arkansas at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (xzqr4)

This one?

https://www.tvadvertmusic.com/2018/11/video-jared-song/

Posted by: BignJames at December 16, 2018 11:49 AM (cxHbL)

332 Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 16, 2018 11:40 AM (wYseH)

I think a hallmark of a good critic is he can make you interested in subjects you otherwise might not be that interested in. Teachout's love and enthusiasm for the arts really comes though. Compare that with, say, John Simon, who could be absolutely vicious. I confess, I used to enjoy reading his reviews because he was funny and God knows some crappy movies and shows really deserve to be trashed, but sometimes he seemed just gratuitously cruel. I imagine there are many actors and writers and directors out there who went to bed dreaming of strangling Simon or beating him to death with a sledgehammer.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:49 AM (d6Ksn)

333 See also his video about post modern architecture.
Posted by: weirdflunky at December 16, 2018 11:46 AM (HkmBI)

Le Corbusier...

*tastes copper* *pain shoots through armpit*

Forget about graffiti.

Modern architects are history's most prolific vandals.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:49 AM (5aX2M)

334 Discover Remodernism, a new art movement of the people, by the people, for the people

This is intriguing, since art is almost completely corrupted by the far left and hence ruined.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:49 AM (39g3+)

335 I have long wanted to read that but have hesitated getting a copy particularly in today's atmosphere.

That is one of the unforeseen beauties of Kindle.

I was reading it at lunch at a conference of German teachers a few weeks ago and nobody could see the dust jacket to know what I was up to.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 16, 2018 11:50 AM (fuK7c)

336 Inter-species sex??
==================
Yeah, Santa is an elf. But so is Arwyn and yeah, hit it I would.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 16, 2018 11:39 AM (ty7RM)

Did you just sneak an Arwen Clause into the HQ rules?

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 11:50 AM (t+qrx)

337 You're not the first person from St. Louis to report something similar. The only Bosnian Muslim I've knowingly encountered was a very westernized girl at a dog park who liked how Teddy played with her Italian greyhound. She's not a big fan of the UN.

Schindler's two takeaways for me were how Izetbegovic was an Iranian influenced jihad supporting piece of shit and what complicit liars the MFM were. Evaluating that girl on the basis of Izetbegovic is as valid as doing so for me and Cock Curious.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 11:42 AM (y7DUB)

Yes, unless I am mistaken, the big thing for the Muslims in that fight, who was aligned with the Iranian Shiites, and who was aligned with the Saudi Sunnis.

It was almost as if the Serbs were an afterthought.

Almost.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:50 AM (cY3LT)

338 324 Gay couples in advertising. One of the jewelry companies opens their add with a black guy hugging and smooching a white guy for buying the ring. Guess they finally hit the jackpot in advertising.

Posted by: bill in arkansas at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (xzqr4)

Isn't that the Jared ad?

I just wonder who is the brainiac in marketing who decided what would look great in a commercial is two guys kissing?

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 11:50 AM (8YQun)

339
condemning guys for now wanting to have sex with trannies.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (VaN/j)

=====

For NOT wanting.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at December 16, 2018 11:50 AM (oGNNA)

340 Whoa, all you high fallutin dandies what with your uppity reading and all. Next thing ya know thar be a chess and fashun thread round ere.
*scratches butt*

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at December 16, 2018 11:51 AM (r+sAi)

341 Morticia and Eeyore, just for you two :
allpoetry.com/Printer's-Error-

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 11:52 AM (ykYG2)

342 Notice that to actually hear the word Christmas in an ad for something to buy for Christmas has become striking?

It's all "holiday" this and "holiday" that.

I wonder which "holiday" they think this is about?

Remember to buy this pos for your loved one this holiday!

Posted by: weirdflunky at December 16, 2018 11:53 AM (HkmBI)

343
Huh? I'd never buy any books for show.

It's like "Behold the power of my massive brain! I have "Moby Dick" on the shelf!"

Although...

My Mom was an Interior Designer and she would buy sets of matching volumes for clients to use more as decorations (color, shape, etc being more important than content).

Is that the sort of thing you mean?
Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 09:52 AM (CRRq9

Kind of. Some people do it to look smart. Some to have a conversation starter. Some for decoration.

Like Finnagens Wake. You'd buy that and stick it on a shelf but never read it.
Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (pUDQf)

That's exactly how Stephen Hawking sold a gazillion copies of A Brief History Of Time. Which must have been supremely annoying that he had to dictate the damned thing into his blow-tube for years when he could have just bought a bunch of closeout books from Costco, and swapped out the dust jackets.

The vast majority of people who bought the book wouldn't have known the difference.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM (e0p0c)

344 Oh, and the Epic Poem of Gilgamesh also has a portion which corresponds to the Tower of Babel story.
Fascinating.

Posted by: navybrat, on a mission from Odin at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM (w7KSn)

345 Donna, believe it or not Mark Steyn used to be a theater critic and has written several books about the theater. You might want to check and see if any of those interest you.

Posted by: bluebell ~ sign up now for the NoVaMoMe! at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM (U5tDi)

346 I just wonder who is the brainiac in marketing who decided what would look great in a commercial is two guys kissing?

One of the universal truths of life is that pretty much everyone alive has an "ewww" revulsion reaction to two guys kissing. Its not cultural, its hard-wired. People can, through sufficient cultural conditioning, get so they don't have that innate gut-level reaction, but its unnatural to do so.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM (39g3+)

347 "big homo is trying to force acceptance of its ways in society in general..."

i like norm macdonald's take on "cis-gender". several years ago he explained that it was "just another way to marginalize normal people."

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM (Pg+x7)

348 Oh, and the Epic Poem of Gilgamesh also has a portion which corresponds to the Tower of Babel story.
Fascinating.

Posted by: navybrat, on a mission from Odin at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM (w7KSn)

also mentions.....Beer!

Posted by: BignJames at December 16, 2018 11:55 AM (cxHbL)

349 Yes, beer!

Posted by: navybrat, on a mission from Odin at December 16, 2018 11:56 AM (w7KSn)

350 That's exactly how Stephen Hawking sold a gazillion copies of A Brief History Of Time.

Almost all hot political books are that way. People don't buy "What Happened" to read, they buy it to give Hillary money and to put it on a shelf or be seen carrying it (like Obama's stunt book). Its like Get Shorty when two guys who have never read the Mr Lovejoy script discuss how it needs changes and what they'd do with it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:56 AM (39g3+)

351 It's worse than that. I've already seen examples of bringing Michael Caine's fear ("...so long as they don't make it mandatory") to life. I expect others have; articles and videos condemning guys for now wanting to have sex with trannies. And that includes the "trannies" who aren't even mutilated; just because they still have their junk, that doesn't let you off being a bigot for not jumping in bed with them.

And that is certain to escalate.
Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (VaN/j)

Right. Because you're not validating who they are, to wit:

"Look at me, I'm a beautiful woman."

"No, you're not, you're a confused guy wearing a dress and make-up."

"You're a h8r."

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 11:58 AM (8YQun)

352 ... hey, i just stopped by here to recommend
"frankenstein at 200" by paul cantor at powerline, a review of an
exhibition at the morgan library on mary shelley's book and its legacy. Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 11:43 AM (Pg+x7)
=====

Excellent review in The Weekly Standard by Cantor (linked at Powerline).

The Romantic Agony in all its sloppy glory into popular culture with severe lessons in ethics and science. Hah, I was the one lobbying for our Moron Group Read to be Shelley's Frankenstein.

Posted by: mustbequantum at December 16, 2018 11:58 AM (MIKMs)

353
Inter-species sex??

It always comes down to Monkey Salesmen, doesn't it?

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 11:58 AM (9X624)

354 That's Jared!!!

Posted by: Shemp! at December 16, 2018 11:58 AM (Tyii7)

355 345: mark steyn used to be a theater critic"...

his strength is musical theater and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular song. check out his blog which has an archive of his articles on "song of the week". his essay on "i tawt i taw a putty-cat" draws together frank sinatra, the beatles, capital records and singalong books. fun.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 11:59 AM (Pg+x7)

356 I don't remember with precision but it seems like the girl/guy Jared ads are all about the girl talking to her friends and squeeing when he spent half his salary on a rock, never smooches. So they don't show girls and guys kissing but they do, two dudes? That's beyond inclusion and diversity, its deliberate.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:01 PM (39g3+)

357 Don't winnow your books. Put them in storage, and discreetly. Someone in the future may desperately need them after our betters start to purge all the old knowledge.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 11:33 AM (5aX2M)

Forget where I read it, but someone once observed that although writing on papyri is more "hi-tech" than cuneiform, cuneiform is more enduring. That's the problem with electronic media. The content can be altered, deleted, etc. not as stable as a physical book.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 16, 2018 12:01 PM (/qEW2)

358 It always comes down to Monkey Salesmen, doesn't it?
Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 11:58 AM (9X624)

a.k.a. The Traveling Monkey Salesman Problem.

Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 12:02 PM (t+qrx)

359 chimp, I love Steyn's song of the week feature.

Did you happen to catch his 100 greatest Sinatra songs count-down a few years ago to mark the centennial of Sinatra's birth? He did two per week and it was fascinating.

Posted by: bluebell ~ sign up now for the NoVaMoMe! at December 16, 2018 12:02 PM (uP/Wc)

360 A musical theater enthusiast with a British accent, who isn't gay. Will wonders never cease?

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 12:02 PM (5aX2M)

361 332
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 11:49 AM (d6Ksn)

I always loved John Simon, precisely because he was so vicious (and funny). He is the closest writer of my adult life to Evelyn Waugh.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 12:02 PM (VaN/j)

362 The old Viet lady cooking was a former cook for some Frogs, made her own bread, and cranked out a BLT I can still remember. Took two back to the transit barracks, with two cans of Millers.
Posted by: bill in arkansas at December 16, 2018 11:26 AM (xzqr4)

The French influence on Vietnamese cuisine has produced some very interesting (and tasty) dishes.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at December 16, 2018 12:03 PM (8YQun)

363 One of the universal truths of life is that pretty much everyone alive has an "ewww" revulsion reaction to two guys kissing. Its not cultural, its hard-wired. People can, through sufficient cultural conditioning, get so they don't have that innate gut-level reaction, but its unnatural to do so.
------
You haven't heard of yaoi fangirls, then.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 12:03 PM (tfbws)

364 For NOT wanting.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at December 16, 2018 11:50 AM (oGNNA)

Mea culpa.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 12:04 PM (VaN/j)

365 You haven't heard of yaoi fangirls, then.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 12:03 PM (tfbws)

-------

Well, I have now. Thanks for that.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 12:04 PM (5aX2M)

366 Kind of. Some people do it to look smart. Some to have a conversation starter. Some for decoration.

Like Finnagens Wake. You'd buy that and stick it on a shelf but never read it.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (pUDQf
Sometimes you buy it because you feel you should read it; sometimes because you read something by a critic who loves it and makes you want to read it.

I'm working my way though Shakespeare's plays right now, using the massive Riverside Shakespeare that I first bought in college, and I'm not doing it to "look smart." There is nobody in my family who gives a rip about Shakespeare and they probably think I'm being pretentious. I don't care - I'm enjoying it, especially since I'm looking up clips from Shakespeare's plays on YouTube which help bring the plays to life.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 12:04 PM (d6Ksn)

367 Yes, unless I am mistaken, the big thing for the Muslims in that fight, who was aligned with the Iranian Shiites, and who was aligned with the Saudi Sunnis.

It was almost as if the Serbs were an afterthought.

Almost.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 16, 2018 11:50 AM (cY3LT)

Though it's been mentioned before,

Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honor Trilogy eventually deals with Yugoslavia in

"Unconditional Surrender".

Waugh himself was involved in that part of the war in that part of the world and it was a horror story even back then.

Great trilogy by the way, both hilarious and heartbreaking.

Check it out.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 12:05 PM (9X624)

368 Add this to your pile of stupid-

Just saw a commercial for Smirnoff vodka. The tag line is it's now mad with non GMO grain.

Umm. Ok dumbass. Sure.

Posted by: weirdflunky at December 16, 2018 12:06 PM (HkmBI)

369 You haven't heard of yaoi fangirls, then.

Oh, there is a super small segment of the population that doesn't have this reaction, but as I said, just about everyone does. Its kind of like when little kids see mom and dad kiss, but it never really goes away.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:06 PM (39g3+)

370 Just downloaded Moby Dick from Gutenberg. Org. Don't know if images or not, all 21 books of Frederick the Great didn't come with them or maps, Last of the Mohicans had some pictures, so will see.

Call me Ishmael.....

Posted by: Skip at December 16, 2018 12:07 PM (/rm4P)

371 I don't dismiss modern art out of hand. Some of it I like and some of it I don't. When I was in college, I went to a Rothko exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum. Seeing a lot of them together was better than seeing any one by itself. They were very colorful.

I took an Art History survey class for non-majors and that was very helpful. It went from cave paintings all the way to the modern era. The teacher told when she was an art student, she hated Pollock and thought anybody could do that. She tried it herself and had to admit that the result was a mess and looked nothing like his paintings.

The Art Thread has turned me on to an Eastern European surrealist that I like very much. I don't remember his name, but I would proudly display "Brontosaurus Civitas" in my living room. I love that painting. It'a whimsical and playful, while being very technically detailed.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 12:08 PM (sdi6R)

372 I aleays zap left over pizza in the microwave. Don't like it cold.

Posted by: Vic at December 16, 2018 09:32 AM (mpXpK)

Toaster oven or regular, on the rack. Never microwave. Never!!!

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at December 16, 2018 12:09 PM (9YBqo)

373 360
A musical theater enthusiast with a British accent, who isn't gay. Will wonders never cease?

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 12:02 PM (5aX2M)

I know a retired Marine gunny sergeant who really loves musicals and appears in community theater productions all the time. He was in "H.M.S. Pinafore" and "Oklahoma." He's got a very good singing voice. Nothing gay about him. He's a baby boomer with no interest in rock music at all. He got shit in the Marines all the time for his musical tastes, and his attitude was "fuck you, I like what I like."

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 12:09 PM (d6Ksn)

374 One of the universal truths of life is that pretty much everyone alive has an "ewww" revulsion reaction to two guys kissing. Its not cultural, its hard-wired. People can, through sufficient cultural conditioning, get so they don't have that innate gut-level reaction, but its unnatural to do so.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM (39g3+)

Yup. IMO a Man's distaste for Gays isn't about who they have sex with. Its about actions and mannerisms.

For me? its like my aversion to snakes. I don't like them. I CAN overcome it and handle them if I have to. I don't discriminate against snakes. I don't hunt them all down and kill them.

But why be around them if I don't have to?

Posted by: Don Q. at December 16, 2018 12:09 PM (NgKpN)

375 People who use books only to decorate go to the circle of hell slightly higher than the ones who never buy or read at all.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:10 PM (39g3+)

376 Someone upthread mentioned Aristophanes.

That guy was funny...if you can find the right translation. You need one that's not too literary cuz his plays were entertainment for the masses.

Not an throne sniffer either as he made fun of Cleon, one of the Betters of his day.

Great stuff.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 12:11 PM (9X624)

377 One of the universal truths of life is that pretty much everyone alive has an "ewww" revulsion reaction to two guys kissing. Its not cultural, its hard-wired.

I noted this after seeing Freda. (Commie, yes, but Salma.) I was talking to some guys in the breakroom at work, and mentioned the scene where she gets it on with Josephine Baker. I asked "Would you watch that?" 100% yes vote. I then asked "Would your wife want to watch Mel Gibson get it one with Denzel?" 100% Noes.

My wife agrees.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 12:11 PM (VaN/j)

378 "...hated Pollock and thought anybody could do that. "
She was right.
Pollock was a CIA op.
The whole thing was to humiliate the Soviets, who tightly controlled all Russian art, drama, literature and music.
"Look at our freedom we enjoy in the West"
That kind of thing...

Posted by: navybrat, on a mission from Odin at December 16, 2018 12:11 PM (w7KSn)

379 359 bluebell:

yes! caught parts of his sinatra countdown. brilliant how he weaves together disparate threads.

i just read his story of "o sole mio" - it was written about paul sorvino's aunt. steyn includes a video interview of sorvino where he tells the tale and sings a portion. fun.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 12:12 PM (Pg+x7)

380 It doesn't matter if Pollock spattered paint in a particularly clever manner or not, its still just spattered paint, and not art. Art is not simply interesting imagery or unique figures. It gives a glimpse of the transcendent beyond the image (or song or sculpture, or poem, or story); something bigger and more meaningful.

That's the difference between an illustrator like me who can draw nice pictures, and an artist like Rembrandt who can take your breath away.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:13 PM (39g3+)

381
I know a retired Marine gunny sergeant who really loves musicals and appears in community theater productions all the time. He was in "H.M.S. Pinafore" and "Oklahoma." He's got a very good singing voice. Nothing gay about him. He's a baby boomer with no interest in rock music at all. He got shit in the Marines all the time for his musical tastes, and his attitude was "fuck you, I like what I like."

-----

Lol. It's like this lineman for the Chargers years ago (don't recall the name).

This guy was the size of a lowland gorilla, and drove around in a Hello Kitty themed convertible Smart car that had been modified to fit him. It was hilarious.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 16, 2018 12:13 PM (5aX2M)

382 376 Someone upthread mentioned Aristophanes.

That guy was funny...if you can find the right translation. You need one that's not too literary cuz his plays were entertainment for the masses.

Not an throne sniffer either as he made fun of Cleon, one of the Betters of his day.

Great stuff.
Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 12:11 PM (9X624)

Absolutely. He's a hoot. But I don't think "literary" is quite the right word. I've got an early 19th C translation which is lively as hell. Unfortunately, it omits the naughty bits because of "changes in manners". But what's there is excellent.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 12:14 PM (VaN/j)

383 One of the universal truths of life is that pretty much everyone alive has an "ewww" revulsion reaction to two guys kissing. Its not cultural, its hard-wired. People can, through sufficient cultural conditioning, get so they don't have that innate gut-level reaction, but its unnatural to do so.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 11:54 AM

I have an extended family member _______ who is somewhat famous/infamous for his writing. Decades ago in regards to gays he said to me, "We know who they are." Mentioned John Travolta. The wife has steadfastly refused to accept that possibility for decades, and even though the person who made the comment is on extremely shaky grounds in the morality sense, I pretty much believed it.

I don't exactly remember the date but a picture of Travolta appeared on the internet kissing his pilot and I asked the wife to look at it. "Ewww. I believe _______ now," she said.

Posted by: Newest Nic at December 16, 2018 12:14 PM (jYje5)

384 Nood Merkel.

Posted by: Calm Mentor at December 16, 2018 12:15 PM (ffYR/)

385 I like some musicals because they have good songs and a fun plot (The Music Man, for instance, or My Fair Lady). What makes them work is that they are well done as a film and have good songs. A bad musical is just poor songs or lousy story crammed together just to make a musical -- 90% of what is put out today as a musical, for instance. Rogers & Hammerstein had a gift almost nobody has today.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:16 PM (39g3+)

386 Whatever you do, please do not bing "china yellow soup".

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear

Or "china spare rib soup"

Posted by: Sharkman at December 16, 2018 12:16 PM (RIKJa)

387 384 Nood Merkel.
Posted by: Calm Mentor at December 16, 2018 12:15 PM (ffYR/)

Probably the least enticing ending in the history of the HQ.

Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 12:17 PM (VaN/j)

388 Absolutely. He's a hoot. But I don't think "literary" is quite the right word. I've got an early 19th C translation which is lively as hell. Unfortunately, it omits the naughty bits because of "changes in manners". But what's there is excellent.
Posted by: Eeyore, fomerly George LeS at December 16, 2018 12:14 PM (VaN/j)

You're probably right.

I guess "too polite" is the proper way to phrase it.

Though usually the most literary translations are usually the most polite.

Aristophanes is a huge influence on my writing.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 12:17 PM (9X624)

389 I took an Art History survey class for non-majors and that was very helpful. It went from cave paintings all the way to the modern era. The teacher told when she was an art student, she hated Pollock and thought anybody could do that. She tried it herself and had to admit that the result was a mess and looked nothing like his paintings.

My wife has interacted with some art historians who've told her there's a lot going on with Pollock's paintings which most people aren't aware of. Why it's almost like the MFM has deliberately kept us poorly informed...

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 16, 2018 12:18 PM (y7DUB)

390 This guy was the size of a lowland gorilla, and drove around in a Hello
Kitty themed convertible Smart car that had been modified to fit him. It
was hilarious.
=====

Rosey Grier and needlepoint? My dad was a big guy, engineer by trade, and he was the only one in my family growing up who knew how to crochet, or mend, or operate a sewing machine. We had two Pacers and he bought a moped for his local beer runs. I'm really tired of the arts consigned to sex acts and stereotypes. Boring people.

Posted by: mustbequantum at December 16, 2018 12:18 PM (MIKMs)

391 My wife has interacted with some art historians who've told her there's a lot going on with Pollock's paintings which most people aren't aware of.

Nah. Art historians are so full of crap their eyes are brown. They build careers around deciding who is and who isn't accepted, blowing off genuine talent and promoting crap, then finding highfalutin' words and phrases to defend their decisions.

https://youtu.be/lflL-EFhPIA

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:20 PM (39g3+)

392 When I was at Cornell, I attended the Classic Department's performances of "The Clouds" by Aristophanes and "The Pumpkinification of Claudius" by Seneca. I believe it was their own translations. They were performed in the cafe in the Classics building, not staged, and were broadcast live on local radio. The audience got in on the act, as we got to make apprpriate crowd noises when called upon. It was a hoot.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 12:22 PM (tfbws)

393 It doesn't matter if Pollock spattered paint in a particularly clever manner or not, its still just spattered paint, and not art. Art is not simply interesting imagery or unique figures. It gives a glimpse of the transcendent beyond the image (or song or sculpture, or poem, or story); something bigger and more meaningful.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:13 PM

Imagine for a second if you would, that Pollock was actually recreating an image he actually saw in nature. Perhaps he worked for a quarry and saw images like that in the stone.

When I was shopping for kitchen countertops, there was a stone there titled 'Pollock' and (hand on Bible) it looked exactly like a Pollock painting. Priciest stone in the place. A center island of that stone would have cost me $50,000. Entire kitchen well over $125,000.

If he was recreating an image he actually saw in nature would you then consider it art?

Posted by: Newest Nic at December 16, 2018 12:23 PM (jYje5)

394 Who the hell designed those pants? And how many skinny women, like the model, want pants that make their thighs look huge? I thought that's what they were trying to avoid.
Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 09:22 AM (bmdz3)

Isn't that what the horsey set wears? And Gen. Patton?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 12:24 PM (fDU8w)

395 Nood Merkel.
Posted by: Calm Mentor at December 16, 2018 12:15 PM (ffYR/)

Why did you give me that mental image?

Posted by: Surfperch at December 16, 2018 12:24 PM (Aaxh4)

396 I did a search, and Jacek Yerka is the artist I was thinking of in #371.

http://www.yerkaland.com/language/en/

"Library Ammonite" is germane to the Book Thread.

http://www.yerkaland.com/
wp-content/uploads/2017/05/115-yerka_amonit.jpg

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 12:25 PM (sdi6R)

397 "... it gives a glimpse of the transcendent beyond the image"...

that's exactly pollock and rothko's point.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 16, 2018 12:26 PM (Pg+x7)

398 https://youtu.be/ANA8SI_KvqI

Also the Prager U video on bad modern art comes up as a selection

Posted by: Skip at December 16, 2018 12:31 PM (/rm4P)

399 Nah. Art historians are so full of crap their eyes are brown. They build careers around deciding who is and who isn't accepted, blowing off genuine talent and promoting crap, then finding highfalutin' words and phrases to defend their decisions.

https://youtu.be/lflL-EFhPIA
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 12:20 PM (39g3+)

Long ago and faraway, I read a book titled,

"The Shock of the New" by Robert Hughes

which dealt with the history and progress of modern art.

It was excellent and is a good primer on what the first non-representational painters and artists were trying to achieve.

PBS also did a series on it, which I'm sure is available online. Prob. youtube.

If you're interested.

Robert Hughes also wrote "The Fatal Shore", which was an excellent book on the founding of Australia.

Check them out.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 12:31 PM (9X624)

400 Some of this ended up in Islam as well but not in the Quran so much. Shoemaker thinks the Quran has a lot of later interpolation (as I think); also, when it goes apocalyptic, it doesn't hope for a new caliph. However a massive load of last-emperor material entered the hadith, mostly in Syria. In 1993 one of these hadith collections was published in Arabic: Nuaym bin Hammad's Kitab al-Fitan. ISIS drew from that.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 11:01 AM (ykYG2)

BTH, what's the nature of the apocalypse ISIS is looking for?

Posted by: joncelli, unhappy at December 16, 2018 12:31 PM (1FhAQ)

401 Like Finnagens Wake. You'd buy that and stick it on a shelf but never read it.
Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 09:55 AM (pUDQf)

I know, right?

Posted by: Mein Kampf at December 16, 2018 12:37 PM (fDU8w)

402
BTH, what's the nature of the apocalypse ISIS is looking for?
Posted by: joncelli, unhappy at December 16, 2018 12:31 PM (1FhAQ)

What's the nature of islam?

Death, of course.

Posted by: Sooner at December 16, 2018 12:38 PM (Fs5vw)

403 Camille Paglia also wrote a book about art, including modern art, which made me understand modern artists a bit more. They will never be favorites, but I get that Pollack is more than just throwing paint on a canvas. The thing is it's an intellectual response, not an emotional one. I can't respond to Pollack the same way I respond to say, Vermeer or Van Gogh.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at December 16, 2018 12:38 PM (d6Ksn)

404 I am gathering from the turn of topics in here that Augusto was the original "helicopter parent".

Posted by: Deacon Bleau at December 16, 2018 12:42 PM (yScAF)

405 I've got a copy of "Fox: The Press Gang" from way back when. I enjoyed it, but not so much as to seek out other books in the series. Fox as a character is a pretty rough article, and I wonder if Hardy created him as a sort of "Take That" to Hornblower.

For those of you who are interested in naval fiction from the Age of Saill, allow me to recommend the Bolitho series by Alexander Kent (real name: Douglas Reeman). It's 20-odd books of the adventures of Cornishman Richard Bolitho (and, later, his nephew and heir Adam) as he rises from midshipman to Admiral during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Some of the books written during the early '70s are a tad formulaic, but still good fun.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at December 16, 2018 10:08 AM (tfbws)

I read quite a few Hornblowers, and I think also one or two of the Fox books. There was another series, about a captain named Ramage, that was quite earthy.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 12:44 PM (fDU8w)

406 Probably a long shot but does any moron have a book recommendation around the Bosnian War and the follow up hunt for the war criminals?
Posted by: AlaBAMA at December 16, 2018 10:20 AM (XNdCd)

Have they looked in Chappaqua yet?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 12:47 PM (fDU8w)

407
Long ago and faraway, I read a book titled,
"The Shock of the New" by Robert Hughes which dealt with the history and progress of modern art. It was excellent and is a good primer on what the first non-representational painters and artists were trying to achieve. PBS also did a series on it, which I'm sure is available online. Prob. youtube. If you're interested. Robert Hughes also wrote "The Fatal Shore", which was an excellent book on the founding of Australia. Check them out. Posted by: naturalfake at December 16, 2018 12:31 PM (9X624)
=====

^^^THIS^^^

Posted by: mustbequantum at December 16, 2018 12:53 PM (MIKMs)

408 Tweeters, what can't they do?
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 16, 2018 10:55 AM (5AVMW)

Write in decent English, apparently.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 12:56 PM (fDU8w)

409 the thing i learned from jim jones was, never trust an ex door to door monkey salesman with perfect hair, weird eyeware, and a fancy, nancy boy pushing you to drink from a communal wash tub. damn, there are a lot of stupid people in this country. had they lived, the jonestown people would have allbeen obama soldiers.
Posted by: chavez the hugo at December 16, 2018 11:06 AM (KP5rU)

Indeed they would have. They were all good little Communists. One of the dead women willed her personal belongings to the Russian embassy in Guyana, IIRC.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 01:00 PM (fDU8w)

410 Highly recommend Fatal Shore.

Also the movie The Proposition, which is a metaphor for Australia's settlement

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 16, 2018 01:03 PM (1UZdv)

411 On "the nature of the apocalypse ISIS is looking for":

ISIS believes that God has called it to unite all Believers under its banner, in preparation for the last war of the Antichrist. Robert Spencer and William McCants have (independently) come to the same conclusion. I've recommended both in the Book Thread. I've also recommended David Cook's works on Islamic apocalyptic.

Rant time: Shoemaker cites McCants here. He may or may not want to cite Spencer. But Shoemaker publishes through University of Pennsylvania, which has imposed a number of politically-correct restrictions on his book to the point of SJW. "Godself" as a pronoun for instance, including where the context is Arian Christianity - the most patriarchal, authoritarian version of "Christianity" that ever existed short of Islam itself. I wonder what other restrictions UPenn forced on this text.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 16, 2018 01:16 PM (ykYG2)

412 https://stoatnet.org/reogarage0.jpg
https://stoatnet.org/reogarage1.jpg
Posted by: hogmartin at December 16, 2018 11:38 AM (t+qrx)

Yes, like that. People trying to beautify their environment.
Posted by: runner at December 16, 2018 11:45 AM (bUjCl)

Colorful, but it's got all the lame graffiti tropes. Do not like.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 01:17 PM (fDU8w)

413 Just saw a commercial for Smirnoff vodka. The tag line is it's now mad with non GMO grain.

Umm. Ok dumbass. Sure.
Posted by: weirdflunky at December 16, 2018 12:06 PM (HkmBI)

That is stupid. Vodka is neutral grain spirits. You could make the mash from the stomach contents of road-killed zebras, and as along as your still was well-run, all you would get would be neutral grain spirits.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 01:24 PM (fDU8w)

414 413
Just saw a commercial for Smirnoff vodka. The tag line is it's now mad with non GMO grain.

Umm. Ok dumbass. Sure.

Posted by: weirdflunky at December 16, 2018 12:06 PM (HkmBI)

That is stupid. Vodka is neutral grain spirits. You could
make the mash from the stomach contents of road-killed zebras, and as
along as your still was well-run, all you would get would be neutral
grain spirits.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 01:24 PM (fDU8w)

They are showing commercials for liquor on TV now???

Posted by: Vic at December 16, 2018 01:31 PM (mpXpK)

415 The 2 guys kissing? Wot R they advertising?

A CHAP's STICK or 5Guys with buns

Posted by: saf at December 16, 2018 02:06 PM (5IHGB)

416 Don't know how to quote in comments, but I've been reading here. I do write in the book how abstract art was a CIA op. The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes was great, along with Shock of the New, about Modern art. I'd also recommend his book "American Visions" about the development of art in the USA. With our legacy of freedom, we should be a world leader in culture, as well as military and industrial might. But the assault on free expression may have begun in the arts, like so many things do.

Posted by: Remodern America at December 16, 2018 02:21 PM (BAR+W)

417 413
That is stupid. Vodka is neutral grain spirits. You could make the mash from the stomach contents of road-killed zebras, and as along as your still was well-run, all you would get would be neutral grain spirits.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 16, 2018 01:24 PM (fDU8w)

That made me guffaw.

Posted by: rickl at December 16, 2018 02:24 PM (sdi6R)

418 105 ..."huh..dip pen..I may have to try that."

Writing with a dip pen is a very different experience. But as long as you aren't in a hurry it is worth the effort. I have several of the Esterbrook nibs Sheby Foote preferred and he was right. They make the writing process so enjoyable.

Posted by: JTB at December 16, 2018 02:47 PM (bmdz3)

419 The S.F. Machine will install Kamala as the next President.

Posted by: Eve at December 16, 2018 03:53 PM (L5yo0)

420 I used to ink my work with a quill and you get beautiful results. The only problems are that the quills wear down on paper (you wouldn't think so, being made of metal, but the wood fibers chew at it) so you lose the consistency of line... and every once in a while no matter how careful you are, you get drips and splotches, which are a pain to clean up.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 08:25 PM (39g3+)

421 If he was recreating an image he actually saw in nature would you then consider it art?

That's not how art works. It doesn't have to be representational to be art, I explained above what art is. I respect what these guys were trying to do, but what they were trying to do wasn't art, it was taking the steps the impressionists were trying to do with color and shape and pattern etc and break it down even more. In other words, it wasn't about art any longer, it was about how it impacted people emotionally and manipulated the senses.

Its like e e cummings work where he abandoned all the basic rules of writing to come up with something fresh and in the process lost what writing is about. Or a musician that just plays one note for 37 years as a statement. Now its not music any longer.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 16, 2018 08:29 PM (39g3+)

422 Hey, it's Anya!

Pretty much everyone is using voice search with their Siri/Google/Alexa to ask for services and products in 2018, and in 2019, it'll be EVERYONE of your clients. Imagine what you are missing out on.

Just now, I can only find mu.nu on text search after digging a few pages (that's NOT good), businesses above are getting all the traffic and business!

Answer all your clients' questions on your site and win their business! Learn how easy it is : https://goo.gl/6h8hfW

Get your voice search optimized content: https://goo.gl/tQh8J7
Starts at $20, regular SEO content starts at $10

Cheers,
Anya

Posted by: Anya Worgan at December 20, 2018 01:29 PM (vbngU)

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