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Sunday Morning Book Thread 08-11-2019

austrian national library 02.jpg
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria


Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules), malajusteds, maladroits, malefactors, malcontents, malodorous, and just plain stinky. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, writing, and publishing by escaped oafs and oafettes who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which seem pecularly adapted for the alien tranny market.



Pic Note

Now this is what I call leaving a legacy:

In the 18th century, Emperor Charles VI ordered the construction of the former Court Library in a dedicated wing of the imperial residence. His statue stands in the centre of the State Hall – surrounded by four magnificent Venetian globes. With elegant gestures, he invites you to marvel at

-the some 200,000 books originating from 1501-1850
-the Collection of Prince Eugene of Savoy comprising around 15,000 volumes
-the marble statues of the Strudel brothers
-and the allegorical frescos in the war and peace wings

Dark walnut, stone floors and gold adornments provide the opulent framework for these treasures.

In other news, Prince Harry says he and his wife, Meghan Markle, only want two kids 'maximum' -- because of his concern for the 'terrifying' effects of climate change. Meanwhile, Muslim immigrants in Britain are having 5 or children per family, something that Prince Harry doesn't seem to be concerned about at all. So his legacy is that he's decided that he's not going to have one. He wants his footprint to be so small that after he's gone, they're barely know he even existed. Which is good, because he's a pinhead.


It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®



Books Like This, They Don't Publish Any More:

book pic 20190811b.jpg



Fighting Back Considered Harmful:

I'm reading Mollie Hemingway's Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court (which, incidentally, puts me one up on Jonah Goldberg) and I thought this passage worth a comment:

Conservatives had been blindsided by the well-financed and well-organized political campaign against Robert Bork’s nomination in 1987...People for the American Way (PFAW) had dropped a hundred thousand dollars for cable TV spots, far more than the entire budget of the pro-Bork Coalitions for America. While PFAW was buying thirty-thousand-dollar full-page ads in the New York Times, Concerned Women for America could afford only two ads in small newspapers at about four hundred dollars apiece. The heavily outgunned pro-Bork forces were limited to grassroots work, on the cheap, their leaders licking their own envelopes for mass mailings. The liberals, by contrast, were able to carpet-bomb the political battlefield through the major media.

The one-sidedness of the fight was the result, in part, of a deliberate decision of the Reagan administration not to engage on the same terms. After Gregory Peck took to the airwaves to defame Judge Bork, both Clint Eastwood and Charlton Heston offered to appear in a counter-ad. The White House turned them down. Bork’s many former clerks working in the Department of Justice, lawyers who knew his record better than anybody, were explicitly forbidden to defend him publicly. Such advocacy was considered unseemly.

"Considered unseemly." I'm old enough to remember to remember the Bork fight. I remember Teddy Kennedy's "In Robert Bork's America..." speech wherein he lied his ass off so much that it achieved escape velocity. I remember the attack ad with Gregory Peck. But I didn't know that last part, where the GOP refused to run celebrity ads of their own. But given the context of the times, I can actually understand this. It *was* unseemly. But they didn't realize that the Democrats were willing to do anything, say anything, and break any rule, in order to stop the nomination. Republicans were naive, and were caught off guard. But Hemingway goes on to say that by the time the elder Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, the naivete was gone, and they were ready for the fight.

I've heard media talking heads bemoan the "politicization" of the SCOTUS nomination process, and how it's all a "circus" or a "zoo", etc. Well, let the record show that the Bork nomination was where the confirmation process was corrupted, and it was the Democrats who corrupted it. And it infuriates me that the "Well I Never" Republicans believe that we should still be, somehow, playing under the pre-Bork rules.



Who Dis:

who dis 20190811.jpg



Moron Recommendations

297 I repeat last week's recommendation of "My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me," by Jennifer Teege. When she was 38, Teege discovered, quite by accident, that her maternal grandfather was infamous concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth. Her book is fascinating on several levels. First there is the whole question of how one deals with the knowledge that there is a mass murderer in the family tree and how the generations of Germans born after the war have handled (or not handled) that question.

But her observations about adoption, dealing with severe depression (she suffered from it even before she found out about Goeth and nosedived after the discovery), and building an identity for oneself are also interesting.

I also recommend looking up one of her talks on You Tube. She is a strikingly beautiful and articulate woman.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at August 04, 2019 10:59 AM (d6Ksn)

The Kindle edition of My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past is a reasonable $8.48.

Jennifer Teege's hour-long YouTube talk is here.

___________

31 Read "The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai" by John Tayman. In 1865 due to an apparent epidemic of Leprosy in the Hawaiian Islands the Kingdom of Hawaii's government passed a law requiring all who had or was suspected of having Leprosy to be exiled on the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai. From 1866 to 1947 about 8000 were exiled.

No one knows when Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, was introduced to the islands. It may have been from the many Chinese brought over as laborers or from the whaling crews (Hawaiians called them "blubber heads"). It was thought to be highly contagious (it's not) and in January 1866 the first group of 12 were dumped on Molokai. For many years the conditions for the exiles resembled a Lord of the Flies scenario. Tayman reveals the callousness of the Hawaii Board of Health (the exiles called them the Board of Death) and the good, the bad, and the ugly for those exiled. There were also many acts of selflessness by those who treated them as human instead of Lepers. In 1947 after a cure was discovered for Leprosy the forced exiling ended, then in 1969 the 1865 law was finally repealed.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at August 04, 2019 09:14 AM (TDyHc)

The Amazon blurb for The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai says that many of the people forced into the leper colony on Molokai actually didn't have leprosy, and that many who did were not contagious.

The blurb also mentioned that the colony on Molokai was the only one in America, but I thought there was one in Louisiana for a time.

I also know there was an heroic Catholic priest, Father Damien, who devoted his life to serving the poor suffering souls in the Hawaiian leper colony. Searching for 'Father Damien' on Amazon got me a whole bunch of hits, including, for $2.99, the Kindle edition of The Life and Letters of Father Damien, Apostle of the Lepers:

Father Damien, born Joseph de Veuster, was a Catholic priest and missionary who took up the cause of the leper colony of Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands. This collection of his letters and anecdotes of his life was published shortly after his death with the help and guidance of his brother, Father Auguste Pamphile de Veuster.

This digital edition includes an updated format and introduction by Paul Nowak, making this collection available for the first time since his canonization in 2009. Also included is the defense of Father Damien written by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Robert Louis Stevenson? What does he have to do with this? And why did Father Damien need defending?

The story is that a Congregationalist missionary in Hawaii, one Charles McEwen Hyde, wrote a private letter to another minister, Rev. H.B. Gage, that was critical of Damien, suggesting that his death from leprosy the previous year (1899) was due his lack of hygiene, and was rather dismissive of him in general. But the private letter was published in an Australian newspaper and somehow came to the attention of RLS, whose 'Open Letter' was a scornful, over-the-top, insult-laced rant against Hyde.

Hyde's letter was perhaps ill-considered, but RLS's accusations that he lived in luxury while others suffered is quite unfair. According to his wikipedia page, Hyde went to Hawaii to serve in the mission field where he

...immediately organized the North Pacific Missionary Institute. He quickly picked up the Hawaiian language in order to converse with the indigenous population, and began delivering his sermons in Hawaiian. Hyde and his wife tried to instill work ethics into the Hawaiian males, and teach housekeeping skills to the women. They also opened their home to the local population and often provided monetary assistance to those in need. He helped provide smallpox vaccinations for the local population. For the Hawaiian men who wanted to serve as Christian ministers, Hyde became a mentor.

I think Hyde was a lot like Father Damien: both were good men who put their money where their mouths were, but had rough spots and human frailties. And RLS was kind of a d*ck.

Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Doctor Hyde of Honolulu from Robert Louis Stevenson, 1890 can be downloaded for free from Gutenberg.

___________

69 I read a short, interesting book, Man's Search For Meaning by Victor E. Frankl. In the first section, Frankl writes about surviving four concentration camps, and in the second he explains his psychotherapy, logotherapy, which has been called The Third School of Viennese School of Psychotherapy. Logotherapy focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as on man's search for such meaning. This striving to find meaning in ones life is the primary motivational force in man.

Posted by: Zoltan at August 04, 2019 09:32 AM (wuQ4y)

I can't imagine enduring what Frankl had to go through and still remain sane:

Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

Man's Search for Meaning is $9.99 for the Kindle edition.


___________




book pic 20190811c.jpg



Books by Morons

I forgot to mention this one when it was mentioned in the comments a few weeks ago:

354 I'm a longtime lurker and one of 14 Vietnam Veterans interviewed in a new book, Vietnam Veterans Unbroken: Conversations on Trauma and Recovery, Jacqueline Murray Loring. McFarland Pub. The focus of this book is to try to help the generation of combat veterans behind us by telling what worked, and didn't work for us, in the years since the war. Please consider buying, reading and passing this book on to the Veterans in your life. God Bless.

Posted by: VN Redleg at July 14, 2019 12:24 PM (ltUB4)

From the Amazon blurb:

For 50 years, civilians have avoided hearing about the controversial experiences of Vietnam veterans, many of whom suffer through post-traumatic stress alone. Through interviews conducted with 17 soldiers, this book shares the stories of those who have been silenced. These men and women tell us about life before and after the war. They candidly share stories of 40-plus years lived on the "edge of the knife" and many wonder what their lives would be like if they had come home to praise and parades. They offer their tragedies and successes to newer veterans as choices to be made or rejected.

I remember hearing about returning Vietnam vets being spat on and called "baby killers" by smelly hippies. That still burns me up to think about it.

Vietnam Veterans Unbroken: Conversations on Trauma and Resiliency is available only in paperback for $29.95, but there are used copies available for cheaper.

___________


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.




book pic 20190811a.jpg

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at August 11, 2019 09:02 AM (BbGew)

2 Books!

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:02 AM (cfSRQ)

3 Happy Sunday!

Posted by: Marooned at August 11, 2019 09:03 AM (8hRlF)

4 Currently doing a re-read of The Baltic War in the 1632 series. For my re-reading practice I have started jumping between series after each book so as not to get too bored reading a multiple series of books in the same series.

Posted by: Vic at August 11, 2019 09:03 AM (mpXpK)

5 Corgis dutifully called
My job is done here because I have been a bad boy and not reading

Posted by: Skip at August 11, 2019 09:03 AM (BbGew)

6 Bet you're all wearing pink shirts and have pink slip covers on your books. Buncha bibilophags.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 09:03 AM (NWiLs)

7
g'mornin', peeps-o-books

Posted by: AltonJackson
Save the Date!!!
The MiMoMe is 21SEP19
Chelsea, Michigan
Details Soon<b at August 11, 2019 09:05 AM (KCxzN)

8 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. I certainly did.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:06 AM (bmdz3)

9
In other news, Prince Harry says he and his wife, Meghan Markle, only want two kids 'maximum' -- because of his concern for the 'terrifying' effects of climate change.

"One-Child Policy", here we come!

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 11, 2019 09:06 AM (Wx/+I)

10 That's easy one (I think) for the picture-Joan Collins?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 11, 2019 09:06 AM (+0VWg)

11 Who dis? Liz Taylor?

Posted by: Vic at August 11, 2019 09:06 AM (mpXpK)

12 That library is full of Wieners, as far as the eye can see.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 09:06 AM (t+qrx)

13 Got to got to the store. BBL

Posted by: Vic at August 11, 2019 09:07 AM (mpXpK)

14 This morning I discovered a terrible thing.

I don't own Volume 6 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Apparently the set I bought has two copies of Volume 5.

What a pain in the ass.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:07 AM (cfSRQ)

15 That is a great book-"Mans's Search for Meaning."

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 11, 2019 09:07 AM (+0VWg)

16
Reading Mr. Lincoln's Army by Bruce Catton, now as an e-book.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 11, 2019 09:07 AM (Wx/+I)

17 P.S. Looks like Joan Collins: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/439875088583921207/?lp=true

Posted by: Marooned at August 11, 2019 09:08 AM (8hRlF)

18 Posted by: Zoltan at August 04, 2019 09:32 AM (wuQ4y)

Dude, where's my car?

Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 09:08 AM (NWiLs)

19 The "Book Special" sign made me laugh.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 11, 2019 09:08 AM (+0VWg)

20 Ha! For once that really IS Joan Collins.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at August 11, 2019 09:08 AM (S+f+m)

21 I want to read Molly's book.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:08 AM (bUjCl)

22 As one without a lot of imagination, I'm in awe of authors who can conger up a great story, populate it with characters the reader comes to care about, and sets it all in an interesting time and place after doing much research. Such is the case with Diana Gabaldon with her Outlander series.
I finished the second in the series, Dragonfly In Amber. Thanks to the Morons who recommended the series here several weeks ago. I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

Posted by: Zoltan at August 11, 2019 09:09 AM (wuQ4y)

23 Beautiful library - baroque ? Rococo ??

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:09 AM (bUjCl)

24 JOAN COLLINS !!!

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:10 AM (bUjCl)

25 Finally, a pair of pants that will fit me!

Posted by: Zombie John Holmes at August 11, 2019 09:10 AM (UGKMd)

26 I got started on volpi epic follow up season of ash that follows three families one of an American businessman and politician the Moores, one of a Russian scientists and dissident and a Hungarian family

Posted by: Admiral marcus at August 11, 2019 09:10 AM (C2x38)

27 "I remember hearing about returning Vietnam vets being spat on and called
"baby killers" by smelly hippies. That still burns me up to think about
it."

Same hate the left has for MAGA hat patriotic Americans today.


They don't seem to realize American superpower status has a lot to do with being able to maintain reserve currency status, floating $220T in debt and unfunded liability to allow markets to soar. (and to fund their investments, and fund the welfare state that elects Dems).

Posted by: illiniwek at August 11, 2019 09:10 AM (Cus5s)

28 Those pants are just a sweatshirt worn as pants, yeah?

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 09:11 AM (t+qrx)

29 Good morning all. I think the amazing thing about the Hemingway book on Kavanaugh is the incredible amount of network coverage the book has drawn. The confirmation battle was front page news for months, and to have this great insider account, #1 on Amazon political books, has been a great ratings boost for GMA, Today, CBS This Morning.

Wait, what's that? A complete MSM blackout? Hours of coverage of books by TDS sufferers, and not a single minute of Mollie, an experienced TV speaker, on the MSM? How passingly strange.

Posted by: motionview at August 11, 2019 09:11 AM (pYQR/)

30 Elizabeth Taylor

Posted by: The Oort Cloud, Source of all SMODs at August 11, 2019 09:12 AM (p0pYQ)

31 It opposes with a very gripping scene in Chernobyl, which sebestyens 1989 points out was one of the catalysts for the fall of the Berlin wall three years later.

Posted by: Admiral marcus at August 11, 2019 09:12 AM (C2x38)

32 WOW, that books is popular. Checked the library, and in my small town I am shocked to see that if I put a hold on it, I will be...75th in line...that's a first...only one copy so that's maybe why

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:13 AM (bUjCl)

33 The Complete Letter Writer looks like a handy reference book. I have a lawyer friend who keeps an old Navy correspondence manual in his desk. He says it's handy for greetings, salutations and the like.

Posted by: bill in arkansas at August 11, 2019 09:13 AM (C1Lsn)

34 Wow, I didn't know that about the Bork nomination.

Posted by: Jewells45 at August 11, 2019 09:14 AM (dUJdY)

35 Joan Collins, fer sure

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:14 AM (bUjCl)

36 Nice Lieberry!

The book store sale sign reminds me of a local watering hole which had a sign that read,

"Free A/C
Head In For
Cold Beer".......

Made me stop.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 11, 2019 09:14 AM (Z+IKu)

37 I have heard about Alfred Thayer Mahan's Influence of Sea Power Upon History for years and years, but somehow never got around to reading it, probably because I assumed it was obsolete. Boy, was I wrong. Sure, there are parts specific to sailing ships, but they blend nicely with the overall themes of the book, and as a whole, it's a master class in thinking about national strategy.
The book contains multiple thrusts. The first is that sea power in the form of a strong navy is required to be a great power. It seems obvious, but lots of countries, especially France, missed the boat (heh!) on this at times,because they focused on being a land power, but when their navy was strong, they were a strong competitor with England. Had they been consistently strong, we all might be speaking French, and India might have been a French colony rather than a British one, and France might have been the world's preeminent nation rather than GB.

Another theme is that a merchant marine is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for a strong navy. Again, this might seem obvious, but the Dutch tried it that way, and ultimately lost their power to England.
A third theme is that commerce raiding of the type pursued by America during the Revolutionary War is damaging, but ultimately a side show.

Steam was the new technology when Mayer wrote his book, but he writes perceptively about what is needed (coaling stations, for example) to maintain supremacy, but in the context of the lessons drawn from the days of sail.

Much of the book is taken up with blow by blow descriptions of famous naal battles, showing the dispositions of the ships at various times and why the battle went one way or another. This may sound dry, but was actually quite interesting, and in many cases, offers lessons applicable to modern navies.
In summary, this book deserves it's status as one of the greatest books on naval and national strategy ever written.


Posted by: pep at August 11, 2019 09:14 AM (T6t7i)

38 Love the Diana Gabaldon series. In between writing her opus magnum Outlander books she also writes short stories. She has a series of short stories centering on Lord John Grey and has contributed to several short story anthologies.

The TV series seems to hold exceptionally close to the books, which is amazing in itself since her books not only are really detailed, they have many characters that sometimes drift in and out over decades of the on-going story.

Posted by: squeakywheel at August 11, 2019 09:15 AM (TpZ98)

39 A few weeks ago I mentioned finding some videos of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen on YouTube. I remembered them from the 1950s and 60s. It started out as a bit of nostalgia. Then I discovered how effective and impressive they were. Well, I started reading some of his writings and they are even more impressive. Just finished "Way to Inner Peace" which covers a variety of topics. The writing is powerful, beautiful and persuasive. It reminds me strongly of CS Lewis. Yes, it's that good.

I just started Sheen's "Life of Christ". The Preface alone is worth the cost of the book. It is the most succinct description of the importance of Christ to the world. Again, I've only seen CS Lewis write as effectively. Sheen mentions that he used the Knox translation of the Bible for this work. It is available as a 99 cent Kindle book.

I wish the man was still with us. We need his words and it would make liberal heads explode.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:15 AM (bmdz3)

40 Morning, all!

I'm working my way (well, not working, it's all fun) through two blood-and-thunder SF novels.

Downstairs I'm reading the classic "Space Viking" by H. Beam Piper, which I somehow managed to not read for forty years. Great stuff, and if you're a fan of the old Traveller roleplaying game there's a lot of this book in that game.

Upstairs I'm reading "Shadow Captain" by Alistair Reynolds, a sequel to his book "Revenger" which I loved. It's a kickass far-future hard-SF space pirate novel.

Next in the pipe is "Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel, a mashup of Frankenstein and Jane Austen. It looks like fun.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 09:15 AM (v2qmi)

41 About the only reading I did this week was at work which I don't think counts since it was mostly numbers.

Posted by: Weasel at August 11, 2019 09:15 AM (29Nrd)

42 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I've been reading The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang. Someone here recommended it, and I'm enjoying it.

I've been listening to Blood Red Road by Moira Young, which someone here must have recommended also. It's YA, so there is some teenage angsty stuff to be expected, but ffs, the main character is such a bitchy little thing that I just want to jump in there and shake her.

I go back and forth between liking the premise and adventure, and being annoyed with the angst. Still on the fence, and I'm almost finished.

Posted by: April at August 11, 2019 09:16 AM (OX9vb)

43 I don't own Volume 6 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Apparently the set I bought has two copies of Volume 5.

What a pain in the ass.


Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd


Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well for the Romans.

Posted by: pep at August 11, 2019 09:17 AM (T6t7i)

44 Here I go grasping for glory by trying to get in the thread early.

Finally, finally, after decades of owning it, I started "Nine Princes of Amber" by the fantasy author Roger Zelazny. I've heard of this series since high school, when it wasn't yet completed. I found all five novels in a two-volume set in a secondhand store soon after I graduated from college. Cost five bucks. However, comics were my main interest then, so the books held shelf space all this time.

Now, with an eye on impending old age, I'm digging into the pile. I have actually been able to return DVDs to the library without wandering into the stacks. There's hope, although this thread doesn't make it easy.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 11, 2019 09:18 AM (lyUnl)

45 Failed again. Someday, top 20.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 11, 2019 09:19 AM (lyUnl)

46 Considering how much I value books, the library in the top photo demonstrates the proper respect books deserve. The only thing missing is a comfortable niche to sit and read. And they might not appreciate the aroma of my pipe tobacco.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:20 AM (bmdz3)

47 Geek: Read the first Amber series, then stop. Zelazny wrote a second series about Corwin's son Merlin and it simply SUCKS.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 09:20 AM (v2qmi)

48 Frederick Pohl's "Chernobyl" is a fictionalised account of the Not Good Not Terrible incident in April 1986.

I found it in a science fiction section. It got blurbed by Isaac Asimov: it is fiction based on science fact.

Some complain about the overabundance of technical information at the start, but for my part I loved reading that stuff.

Suffers from Whaddabout Syndrome. Pohl was a commie as of "Merchants of Venus"; by the time he wrote "Gateway", he'd got more into standard 1970s-era nihilism. Here, he cannot excuse the Communists... so he imputes the same sins upon the capitalist West.

The good news was that Gorby thought Pohl was a man he could work with, so Pohl got access to many of the affected people and, also, some of the management. So the story itself isn't so different from the HBO series. The assistant head of the reactor, Dyatlov in real life and "Smin" here, is painted (much) more favourably. Though he dies just as horribly.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at August 11, 2019 09:20 AM (/Ioag)

49 New post?

Ghost?

Toast?


Now THIS is the type of raw material I can work with!!

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 09:20 AM (mvenn)

50 Interested in our potential financial future(s)? Try James Rickards' new "Aftermath" --- it's extremely thought-provoking -- and the author has access to people most authors can't reach.

Posted by: Doc Strange at August 11, 2019 09:20 AM (YfEYA)

51 Even if it's these pants, which seem pecularly adapted for the alien tranny market."

They're nuts.

Morning, y'all, and yes, the GOP has had a long history of playing "we're better than that" - otherwise known as the NOKD ethos. Been that way since FDR, so...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 09:20 AM (6qErC)

52 "I remember hearing about returning Vietnam vets being spat on and called "baby killers" by smelly hippies. That still burns me up to think about it."

That happened to me, it's not a rumor.

Posted by: Richard at August 11, 2019 09:21 AM (huaUe)

53 Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well for the Romans.


Posted by: pep at August 11, 2019 09:17 AM (T6t7i)

---
It hasn't been easy on the reader, either.

The back end of Book 5 was pretty good, though Gibbon gets so excited sometimes he falls into jumbled description and it's not clear who is doing what. I was planning on taking a break from him anyway, but it's just annoying to have to track down a single volume in a boxed set.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:21 AM (cfSRQ)

54 I been busy the last few Sundays and haven't had a chance to contribute to the book thread. So I have several books to discuss this week:


The Somme by Anthony Farrar-Hockley. Published in 1964, it is an analysis of the 1916 battle by the British to assist the French by drawing German troops away from Verdun. The author was a British officer with substantial combat experience and has cogent conclusions on why the months-long battle went so badly for the British. Basically the British Army kept taking such heavy casualties that they were under-trained and poor at exploiting success. Lots of maps (but hampered by 1960s graphics). Rating = 4.5/5.

Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars by Kevin Kiley. Published in 2006, it is an analysis of artillery between about 1750 to 1815. Lots of detail and extensive quotations of contemporary soldiers, the book examines how the cannon were designed and used. Unfortunately, the author needed a better editor because he gets a bit repetitious and breaks his narrative to give brief biographies of prominent artillery officers. If you are interested in the Napoleonic War, this is still a good book to have in your library. Rating = 4.25/5.

The Five Fingers by Gayle Rivers and James Hudson. This is a novel published in 1978 that is about a mission to assassinate General Giap during the Vietnam War that goes bad. One of the authors, Rivers, purports to be a special operator. I think that the first half of the novel is rather far-fetched and doesn't always "ring true." However, the second half (the combat during the team's attempts to evade capture) seems realistic. My opinion is that Rivers did see combat and the second half of the novel is based on a real event. Rating = 4.0/5.

Death of a Citizen by Donald Hamilton. Published in 1960, it is the first of the Matt Helm novels. Helm was some sort of OSS-type assassin during WWII and gets sucked back into the intrigue 15 years later. Pretty hard-boiled (not light-hearted like I expected from the Dean Martin movies) and a good, quick read. Rating = 4.5/5.


Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (5Yee7)

55 I toured a couple of lovely old Baroque libraries on a recent trip to Europe, and I'm afraid nobody's going to be sitting in them to read, pipe or no pipe. For preservation reasons -- both for the books and the decorations -- visitors could only look in from the door, not actually enter the room. Too much moist breath and evaporated sweat would cause mold.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (v2qmi)

56 those pants are indecent

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (bUjCl)

57 "I remember Teddy Kennedy's "In Robert Bork's America..." speech wherein
he lied his ass off so much that it achieved escape velocity."

They LIE for their "higher purpose", but with incompetent Sotomayor, it was still deemed unseemly for us to tell the TRUTH about her lack of qualification and her political activism.


Their smear campaigns are deemed legit, out truth is deemed hateful, racist, misogynist ... more lies to attack truth. Dems by now should be recognized as smear merchants, and we can now add "murderers of those that might reveal truth" with the "negligent homicide" of Epstein.


And the MSM has gone full conspiracy theory all the time, except they are scripting their agitprop theories with intent to cover up truth, not seeking obscure sources to find truth.

Posted by: illiniwek at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (Cus5s)

58 My wife has had some good success re-selling on eBay, and has recently turned to becoming an Amazon reseller. Her first foray has been used hardcovers, which she buys for next to nothing at estate sales etc. and then sends to Amazon for fulfillment. Anyone have any experience buying or selling hardcover via Amazon?

Posted by: motionview at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (pYQR/)

59
The back end of Book 5 was pretty good, though Gibbon gets so excited sometimes he falls into jumbled description and it's not clear who is doing what. I was planning on taking a break from him anyway, but it's just annoying to have to track down a single volume in a boxed set.
Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:21 AM (cfSRQ)
--------
You need to find the guy with two copies of volume 6.

Posted by: Weasel at August 11, 2019 09:23 AM (MVjcR)

60 Reading Mr. Lincoln's Army by Bruce Catton, now as an e-book.



Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 11, 2019 09:07 AM (Wx/+I)

---
Catton is great. Never got a fancy degree, just did solid research and had a gift for crafting a narrative.

I've got his Army of the Potomac trilogy and his Centennial History. Oh, and the American Heritage book, which he wrote the text for.

That's a nice way for younger readers to discover him - lots of pictures and then a few pages of text.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:24 AM (cfSRQ)

61 I'll have to check out that RLS book when I get back from Mass.

Posted by: kallisto at August 11, 2019 09:26 AM (axaxF)

62 My wife has had some good success re-selling on eBay, and has recently turned to becoming an Amazon reseller. Her first foray has been used hardcovers, which she buys for next to nothing at estate sales etc. and then sends to Amazon for fulfillment. Anyone have any experience buying or selling hardcover via Amazon?
Posted by: motionview at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (pYQR/)

She buys old books and ships them to Amazon to store and ship when they sell? Or she keeps them and ships to the customer?

Posted by: weirdflunky at August 11, 2019 09:26 AM (cknjq)

63 Finished the latest Monster Hunter book Friday night. Sara Hoyt coauthored this one.

It is told first person from Julie Shackleford's point of view. I really enjoyed it and read it all in one sitting.

Posted by: Big V at August 11, 2019 09:27 AM (xV6Pj)

64 Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM
Have Kevin Kiley's Napoleonic Artillery book, he posts alot on TMP and have conversed there often with him. He does get into some flame war threads often.

Posted by: Skip at August 11, 2019 09:27 AM (BbGew)

65 56 those pants are indecent
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (bUjCl)

Fixed for HQ compliance.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 09:28 AM (NWiLs)

66 Speaking of books for younger readers, I have to say that a huge influence on me was a copy of The Second World war by Winston Churchill and the editors of Life.

My grandmother owned this and when I'd visit, I'd look through it. Like the American Heritage history books, I'd be drawn in by the pictures and then start reading the text.
It's an abridgement of Churchill's six-volume magnum opus, and has some of his best passages. That in turn left me wanting to find out what else he wrote and led to me reading the whole series.

I don't think they do this anymore, and it's a shame. Those "young reader" editions are the perfect gateway to the classics.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:28 AM (cfSRQ)

67 Somewhere someone has two volume 6 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Posted by: Lone Ranger at August 11, 2019 09:30 AM (0FosY)

68 She buys old books and ships them to Amazon to store and ship when they sell?

Amazon stores and ships.

Posted by: motionview at August 11, 2019 09:30 AM (pYQR/)

69 Anyone have any experience buying or selling hardcover via Amazon?
Posted by: motionview at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (pYQR/)

Never sold, but I've purchased several hardcover books via amazon. They are often very inexpensive, even with shipping, so I appreciate being able to get a nice hardcover for less than a paperback, in many cases.

Posted by: April at August 11, 2019 09:30 AM (OX9vb)

70 I love that painting of the child cuddling with grandpa as he reads to her. It is truly charming.

I've read a number of social 'how-to' books written between the late 1700s through the Victorian era. They did have their uses and, frankly, they should still be used in some cases. There was a distant echo of the approach when I was in grade school, including how to properly fold a letter to fit in an envelope and remain neat. Of course, many of our school desks still had the openings to hold ink bottles.

Now take your texting and get off my lawn.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:30 AM (bmdz3)

71 Good morning, Book Horde! I'm reading the first of the Jacqueline Winspear Maisie Dobbs series; I just don't know if I like it enough to go any farther in the series. The first quarter of the book sets up a mystery, the middle half is a prolonged and kind of predictable flashback, and the last quarter resolves the mystery.
I watched the first two seasons of Outlander, and I might be tempted to spring for the book series in Kindle - I read the first two some years ago, and thought they were rather good, even if the 'time travel' bit was ... improbable, and the length -- omg, talk about length!
Thanks again to the members of the 'ron horde who sprung for the Luna City series, what with the 8th installation now being available in print and Kindle. It looks like a lot of readers got the first book and are reading all the volumes in between! (Just like all writers of series like to see - readers who want to read ALL the series!)

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at August 11, 2019 09:31 AM (xnmPy)

72 Just wrapped up Days of Rage, Bryan Burrough's account of The weather Underground, The Black Panther's, the SLA and other Left-Wing groups that terrorized American cities during the 60's and '70's. While most of these groups were inept when it came to large-scale acts, they were all vicious and impervious to the death and destruction they caused.
My contempt for Left Wing radicals has only increased since I began reading this, Ayres and Dohrn especially.

Posted by: JoeF. at August 11, 2019 09:31 AM (NFEMn)

73 46 Considering how much I value books, the library in the top photo demonstrates the proper respect books deserve.
Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:20 AM (bmdz3)


I love the old buildings we used to build that showed how much we valued the things that elevate our lives -- beautiful old churches, schools, libraries, public buildings.

Modern buildings are more utilitarian and economical but I'm not sure that is an improvement. They are also more temporary.

Posted by: Emmie at August 11, 2019 09:32 AM (i/wJA)

74 I got started on volpi epic follow up season of ash that follows three families one of an American businessman and politician the Moores, one of a Russian scientists and dissident and a Hungarian family
Posted by: Admiral marcus at August 11, 2019 09:10 AM (C2x3


Let me know how that goes.

I've been plowing through The Overstory by Richard Powers, a book group read that I'm determined to finish by next Saturday, when it's due at the library, no matter what the slothful and lethargic pace by the group's codger. Powers is a good writer, albeit incredibly manipulative at times, and has a few characters in this crazy quilt narrative that I'm not sure how they're going fit into what seems to be the main thrust of the book; the overstory if you will. He's good enough to portray a group of ecoterrorists in ways that make them look like nutty driven dickweeds; at least that's how they look to me and even some of the less insane members of the band when they're horrified at what they've done. That he has me thinking about so many things is a point in his favor, I guess.

Anyway I should have it done by the next book thread. The next book group choice looks like something that will irritate me a lot. Maybe it's time for me to tell the group to fuck off. Again.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 09:32 AM (y7DUB)

75 It's an abridgement of Churchill's six-volume magnum opus, and has some of his best passages.


====

with all due respect to your nana, I do not approve of abridged books, for anyone

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:32 AM (bUjCl)

76 You need to find the guy with two copies of volume 6.

Posted by: Weasel at August 11, 2019 09:23 AM (MVjcR)

---
Or he needs to find me.

I'm planning on taking a break from Gibbon anyway. The Spanish Civil War is interesting me again (because obvious parallels) and I want to do more reading on it.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:34 AM (cfSRQ)

77 "Unseemly" is a Mitt Romney word if I ever heard one....

Posted by: JoeF. at August 11, 2019 09:34 AM (NFEMn)

78 Captain Hate, perhaps it is time! Your comments about this book club always amuse me. How did you come to be a part of this particular club? Is there another group that might be more to your liking?

Posted by: April at August 11, 2019 09:35 AM (OX9vb)

79 with all due respect to your nana, I do not approve of abridged books, for anyone
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:32 AM (bUjCl)

Yes, but sometimes the abridged books act as a gateway drug.
People often have to be coaxed or eased into reading long, comprehensive books.

Posted by: JoeF. at August 11, 2019 09:36 AM (NFEMn)

80 I stumbled across a book that seems appropriate for the Horde:

Your Day in the Barrel by Alan Furst (1976)

This was Furst's debut novel. He went on to a successful career as an historic spy novelist with his Night Soldiers series.

Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 09:36 AM (UGKMd)

81 Any morons hear of Helen Darville Demidenko Dale?

Helen D/D/D is deemed Problematic. As Demidenko, she wrote "The Hand That Signed The Paper" about the Holodomor. She made up a fictional biography for the author as well, posing that author as a Ukrainian. Darville, her real name at the time, was no such thing.

THtStP also tracks some of the same events as Pohl's "Chernobyl" on the Ukrainian experience over the Bloodlands era; but where Pohl pretty much says the Jews in the Communist movement dindu nuffin and that the Ukrainians' participation of the Nazi genocide came out of nowhere, "Demidenko" relays the Ukrainian side of it.

D/D/D felt obliged to exit Australia and now resides in England. Sounds like she'd got doxxed.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at August 11, 2019 09:36 AM (/Ioag)

82 ...these pants...

**********

There's room for a trunk in there. They ought to be called Ele-pants.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 09:36 AM (mvenn)

83 My contempt for Left Wing radicals has only increased since I began reading this, Ayres and Dohrn especially.
Posted by: JoeF. at August 11, 2019 09:31 AM (NFEMn)


Those two served as useful barometers in college: anyone who was positive toward them had shit for brains.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 09:37 AM (y7DUB)

84 Damn those Austrian librarians need to loosen up,though the one in back could be stoned!

Posted by: saf at August 11, 2019 09:39 AM (5IHGB)

85 Weasel faster than Ranger...

Finger pecking a stupid phone is slower than dialup

Posted by: L Ranger at August 11, 2019 09:39 AM (0FosY)

86 Mrs. JTB likes watching Downton Abbey partly for the story but mostly for the fashions and sets. I surprised her with a complete set of the DVDs. I also found "Downton Abbey: A Celebration" by Jessica Fellowes. She's the niece of Julian Fellowes who wrote the series. It includes back stories about the characters and a lot of photos of the settings and clothing. Mrs. JTB says the book makes a great companion to the shows.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:39 AM (bmdz3)

87 A.H. Lloyd - Perhaps if you read vol. V and vol. I back-to-back it would equate to vol. VI.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 09:39 AM (mvenn)

88 Those pants are fine. I would wear them to barbeque in my backyard.

Posted by: The Elephant Dick Man at August 11, 2019 09:40 AM (Tnijr)

89 Strudel brothers,they do look a little pasty.

Posted by: saf at August 11, 2019 09:41 AM (5IHGB)

90 There's room for a trunk in there. They ought to be called Ele-pants.

==


There's room for a trunk
or something more precious
If space is a an issue, try something spacious
Like Ele-pants

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:41 AM (bUjCl)

91 "Anyone have any experience buying or selling hardcover via Amazon?"Posted by: motionview


I get them through Amazon but sent directly from the seller, come by mail, never a problem. I often buy one or two from this book thread to add to my library of things I may never get around to reading, but usually try to pick out at least a chapter. I try to get hardcovers, often $4 or $5 including the shipping.


Yesterday I mentioned E.W. Bullinger, a bible scholar, on Number in Scripture. He gets pretty detailed, but has a lot that is interesting on basic number significance, like 40, for years in wilderness, or 40 days ... 8 for new beginning, etc. ... found it for 99 cents for the kindle version at Amazon.

Posted by: illiniwek at August 11, 2019 09:41 AM (Cus5s)

92 Which did theh pick for the next one?

Posted by: Admiral marcus at August 11, 2019 09:41 AM (C2x38)

93 abridged books"

Does one have to worry about ice on abridged in the winter?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 09:41 AM (6qErC)

94 with all due respect to your nana, I do not approve of abridged books, for anyone

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:32 AM (bUjCl)

---
I can think of two reasons why they are a good idea.

The first is the example I gave, where you take a very long book and offer short excerpts to draw in younger readers. That's exactly what happened to me. I got so into Churchill I used The Gathering Storm as my book report in sixth grade. I've been reading his stuff ever since.

The second reason is that the book needed to be cut down. Gibbon would be much better in an abridgement. Churchill actually produced an abridged version of The World Crisis because he acknowledged it ran long. I think those are the best - where the author decides what is essential.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:42 AM (cfSRQ)

95 Perhaps if you read vol. V and vol. I back-to-back it would equate to vol. VI."

Who's reading a Volvo?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 09:43 AM (6qErC)

96 I don't own Volume 6 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Apparently the set I bought has two copies of Volume 5.

What a pain in the ass.


Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd

Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well for the Romans.
Posted by: pep at August 11, 2019 09:17 AM (T6t7i)



But, after many years and trials and tribulations, they finally-


invent gelato!


So, it's all good.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 09:44 AM (mIQCW)

97 Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:15 AM (bmdz3)

In the vein of comparison to CS Lewis, I'm still working my way through Chesterton's What I Saw in America. It's taking me a while to get through since I can only listen to a bit every couple days because his opinions overtake his insight and annoy me (unlike Lewis who takes me a while because I don't have the classical education background he assumes and so must go slowly in order to understand what he's saying).

I had previously had the impression that, having gone from a strident atheist, Chesterton became a rather strident Christian of the Catholic persuasion who had no time (or grace) to give the rest of humanity who hadn't reached his same level of enlightenment whereas Lewis seems much gentler and kinder to those who are learning. What I Saw in America strengthens that impression, although in general I will be glad I read it when it is over and even recommend it with the caveat that Chesterton is a complex person who's assumptions about how the future would work out were wrong.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 11, 2019 09:45 AM (uquGJ)

98 Sorry, hadn't realized the previous comment would be so long when I started it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 11, 2019 09:46 AM (uquGJ)

99 The latest Chet and Bernie mystery by Spenser Quinn, "Heart of Barkness" came out recently. (I love the title.) I haven't started it yet but Mrs. JTB assures me it is very good and continues the C and B saga effectively.

Now if only James Rollins would get off his ass and write another Tucker Wayne novel.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 09:46 AM (bmdz3)

100 Does one have to worry about ice on abridged in the winter?
Posted by: Anon a mouse



**********

I have seen books in the horror genre that are pretty severely curtailed to remove some of the gratuitous gore and repetitious scenes of death. Some people like the uncut versions.

As for me, I like abridged over double slaughter.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 09:46 AM (mvenn)

101 Finger pecking a stupid phone is slower than dialup
Posted by: L Ranger at August 11, 2019 09:39 AM (0FosY)
----------
*fistbump* kemosabe.

Posted by: Weasel at August 11, 2019 09:46 AM (MVjcR)

102 "About the only reading I did this week was at work which I don't think counts since it was mostly numbers."

We probably read the equivalent of a fat novel in words here every week but that doesn't count does it?

Posted by: The Elephant Dick Man at August 11, 2019 09:47 AM (Tnijr)

103 the Ukrainian experience over the Bloodlands era;

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at August 11, 2019 09:36 AM (/Ioag)

---
That's one of the few books I couldn't finish. It was just too depressing.

I had to put it down. I told my wife that if I'm every just so full of joy she can't stand it, tell me to finish The Bloodlands.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:47 AM (cfSRQ)

104 As for me, I like abridged over double slaughter."

Paul Simon weeps...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 09:47 AM (6qErC)

105 "Anyone have any experience buying or selling hardcover via Amazon?
Posted by: motionview at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (pYQR/)

Never sold, but I've purchased several hardcover books via amazon. They are often very inexpensive, even with shipping, so I appreciate being able to get a nice hardcover for less than a paperback, in many cases."

Every book which I have purchased in the last year has been from an Amazon listed reseller of used books.

Both hardbound, and paperback.

I have been satisfied with every book received.

And yes, at tremendous savings.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at August 11, 2019 09:48 AM (cqNba)

106 My contempt for Left Wing radicals has only increased since I began reading this, Ayres and Dohrn especially.
Posted by: JoeF. at August 11, 2019 09:31 AM (NFEMn)
--------------

No idea if this affected me, but, way back when, I remember reading, in Reader's Digest, an article in which a young girl was seriously injured by a pipe bomb set by one of these radical groups. (I believe the girl was no more than 3 or 4 at the time) She was so badly wounded, she had to be restrained so she wouldn't pick at the bandages and stitches required to put her back together after being too close to the bomb when it went off.

The article went on to recount the grievances of the bombers but the author's question, was, "why our little girl" and, if memory serves, the little girl asked "why" and the parents had no good answer.

Harrowing article.

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 09:49 AM (WEBkv)

107 The Complete Letter Writer looks like a handy reference book. I have a lawyer friend who keeps an old Navy correspondence manual in his desk. He says it's handy for greetings, salutations and the like.
Posted by: bill in arkansas at August 11, 2019 09:13 AM (C1Lsn)



The lovely and literate Mrs natural fake has a letter writing book which she likes to use.

I stole this farewell from her for all my emails, which sounds most polite but which really doesn't convey much of anything.

And here, Good Morons and Ettes I give you the Rosetta Stone, nay, they Philosopher's Stone of All Written Discourse-


Best Regards,

naturalfake

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 09:49 AM (mIQCW)

108 Every book which I have purchased in the last year has been from an Amazon listed reseller of used books.

Both hardbound, and paperback.

I have been satisfied with every book received.

And yes, at tremendous savings.
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at August 11, 2019 09:48 AM (cqNba)

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

Ditto.

I have to give Amazon credit, they've made it possible for vendors to have a much greater reach than they would have had 20 years ago.

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 09:51 AM (WEBkv)

109 How did you come to be a part of this particular club? Is there another group that might be more to your liking?
Posted by: April at August 11, 2019 09:35 AM (OX9vb)


Three of us used to hang out at a record store on Saturdays, despite having wildly different tastes in music (they're classical mavens and I like noisy improv; the store owner accommodated all our likes), and when the store closed decided to meet in an adjoining coffee place to discuss War and Peace. That went well, it was the first time I read it, and it took off from there 19 years ago. Sometimes I openly dismiss choices as unworthy of my time (including my choice of Gravity's Rainbow, dear God I hated that and wore a hair shirt in penance for a while after) but one thing that's in its favor is sometimes I'll be completely captivated by something I wouldn't have read otherwise like The Night Circus and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. So we'll see. Thank you for the feedback.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 09:51 AM (y7DUB)

110 But, after many years and trials and tribulations, they finally-


invent..

==


papal bull

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:51 AM (bUjCl)

111 "I have a lawyer friend who keeps an old Navy correspondence manual in his desk. He says it's handy for greetings, salutations and the like. "

That's retarded, Sir.

Posted by: Jeantell, the Hutt at August 11, 2019 09:52 AM (cqNba)

112 *should I denounce myself ? Not sure how this works here anymore on Sunday mornings...

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:52 AM (bUjCl)

113 As for me, I like abridged over double slaughter.

-
Some years ago, somebody developed a device or technique to render R rated movies as PG14 movies. (I've forgotten the details.). Anyway, Hollywood successfully sued to put them out of business. If you want to see their movies, you've got to see every beheading, disembowelment, rape and pervert sex act. That's art.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 09:54 AM (+y/Ru)

114 *fistbump* kemosabe.
Posted by: Weasel at August 11, 2019 09:46 AM (MVjcR)
-----------

You only do that because you now have an excuse.....

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 09:54 AM (WEBkv)

115 papal bull
Posted by: runner


***********

Papal bull gives you wings!

Posted by: An aspiring angel at August 11, 2019 09:55 AM (mvenn)

116 Ah, Captain Hate, I had no idea this was 19 years and running. That's different--I guess a relationship with that kind of longevity requires a little sacrifice.

Posted by: April at August 11, 2019 09:56 AM (OX9vb)

117 If you want to see their movies, you've got to see every beheading, disembowelment, rape and pervert sex act. That's art.


==

or not see it at all; I can understand why they would not want to have their work altered. unless they are done by them for purpose of showing on TV for general audience, for example.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:56 AM (bUjCl)

118 "Papal bull gives you wings!"

I love their aerobatic race team.

And the wing suit fliers.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at August 11, 2019 09:56 AM (cqNba)

119 Gravity's Rainbow, dear God I hated that and wore a hair shirt in penance for a while after

-
Probably the most disappointing ending after the most promising beginning that I've ever read.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 09:57 AM (+y/Ru)

120 That is a great book-"Mans's Search for Meaning."
Posted by: FenelonSpoke

Agreed. Please, everyone should think about reading it.

Shibumi turned me on to reading it. I would like to say something like "It changed my life!", but really, it verbalized some things that I felt intuitively.
Frankl was a fascinating man. Logotherapy is so much more positive and beneficial than other forms of psychotherapy, and this book, in part, will let you understand why.
The purpose is to understand your underlying motivations and guide you to a path where you can start to realize them. No, everything is NOT psychosexual, as Freud espoused. That makes people uncomfortable and unhappy in many ways.

How Frankl kept his sanity and his outlook while being in a concentration camp is pretty amazing. He recounts his "luck" in not be killed there several times.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at August 11, 2019 09:58 AM (S6Pax)

121 I had to put it down. I told my wife that if I'm every just so full of joy she can't stand it, tell me to finish The Bloodlands.
Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:47 AM (cfSRQ)

"Gulag" by Anne Applebaum had the same effect on me. But "The Bloodlands" was even worse. "The Bloodlands" made me despair of the human race.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at August 11, 2019 09:58 AM (d6Ksn)

122 or not see it at all; I can understand why they would not want to have their work altered. unless they are done by them for purpose of showing on TV for general audience, for example.
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:56 AM (bUjCl)
-----
This is what happens when you FIND A STRANGER IN THE ALPS!!!!!

Posted by: Bowdlerized Walter Sobchak at August 11, 2019 09:58 AM (iB1oa)

123 with all due respect to your nana, I do not approve of abridged books, for anyone

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:32 AM (bUjCl)


Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn appreciated the need for an abridged version of The Gulag Archipelago and authorized one.

When writing the original, he was unwilling to leave anything out, because it was the last will and testament of many of the victims. Also, he never had all seven parts of the work in front of him at the same time, and was never sure whether any of them would escape the Soviet Union and see publication.
I read the unabridged version but, in retrospect, I would recommend the authorized abridged version.

Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 09:59 AM (UGKMd)

124 the Ukrainian experience over the Bloodlands era;

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at August 11, 2019 09:36 AM (/Ioag)

---
That's one of the few books I couldn't finish. It was just too depressing.

I had to put it down. I told my wife that if I'm every just so full of joy she can't stand it, tell me to finish The Bloodlands.
Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 09:47 AM (cfSRQ)


Maybe this says something not good about me but I could hardly put it down despite what an unrelenting depiction of targeted inhumanity it was. Snyder's oddly terse writing style might have had something to do with it; unfortunately his contemporary blog writing uniformly pisses me off.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 09:59 AM (y7DUB)

125 Who Dis A lung cancer victim reading her own last rites?

Posted by: saf at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (5IHGB)

126 I've been reading "Mythical Monsters" by Charles Gould, 1886. Most interesting are the chapters on Dragons and Sea Serpents. Also has some nice illustrations of mythical critters I had never seen.

It's free here:
https://tinyurl.com/y2o7tdyd

Posted by: The Elephant Dick Man at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (Tnijr)

127 "Gulag" by Anne Applebaum had the same effect on me. But "The Bloodlands" was even worse. "The Bloodlands" made me despair of the human race.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V

I know. I have a copy and I can't finish it. Maybe someday. The writing is not bad, but after about 30 pages at a time, I have to put it down.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (S6Pax)

128 Don't know why you needed to wear a hairshirt in penance for Gravity's Rainbow. Reading the damned book is penance enough. I can't understand how anyone over the age of sixteen can be impressed by that book.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (v2qmi)

129 booken morgen horden

was very hard to get into the book thread comments today - front page kept freezing

aldo not feeling great right now /whine

Posted by: votermom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (+72t1)

130 Probably the most disappointing ending after the most promising beginning that I've ever read.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 09:57 AM (+y/Ru)
-----
Never read Pynchon, but you make me think of '70s era John Brunner. Don't read him if you're feeling depressed, you'll be suicidal by the end.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (iB1oa)

131 Dangit off hung sock

Posted by: freaked at August 11, 2019 10:02 AM (Tnijr)

132 Finished "Brigantia", third in the Vindolanda series by Adrian Goldsworthy about a Centurion in Roman Britain. Enjoyable, and he really knows his stuff. I admit I lost track of just who some of the characters were, and had to flip back to remind myself who was doing what to whom.

Just started the new "Monster Hunters International: Guardian" that Correia supposedly "co-authored" with Sara Hoyt. I really think she wrote the whole thing, but it is quite good so far. Fits into the Monsterverse quite well.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at August 11, 2019 10:02 AM (wZ9cV)

133 I'm sure Ben Shapiro will tell us how angry he is that Joe Biden grabbed that woman's arm.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at August 11, 2019 10:02 AM (LxTcq)

134 In other news, Prince Harry says he and his wife, Meghan Markle, only want two kids 'maximum' -- because of his concern for the 'terrifying' effects of climate change

--

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the exact people who ordered all dogs and cats killed because they knew they were spreading the black plague.

Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:03 AM (A8W5E)

135 Many years ago (in high school, I think) I read a satire in which works were abridged to the point that an entire month's publications were reduced to a single nonsense word so you could say you'd read every book ever written.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:04 AM (+y/Ru)

136
I'm sure Ben Shapiro will tell us how angry he is that Joe Biden grabbed that woman's arm.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at August 11, 2019 10:02 AM


why haven't we heard from Michelle Fields and / or Cory Lewendowski about Slo Joe ripping that poor girls arm off? They're both experts on this kind of thing

Posted by: AltonJackson
Save the Date!!!
The MiMoMe & Emporium is 21SEP19
Chelsea, Michigan
Det at August 11, 2019 10:05 AM (KCxzN)

137 Probably the most disappointing ending after the most promising beginning that I've ever read.

--

Hold my beer.

- Pohl's Hechee chronicles books 4 through 6

Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:05 AM (A8W5E)

138 In other news, Prince Harry says

-
Is there nothing white people won't do?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:05 AM (+y/Ru)

139
Never read Pynchon, but you make me think of '70s era John Brunner. Don't read him if you're feeling depressed, you'll be suicidal by the end.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (iB1oa)
-----------------

Yeah, "Stand on Zanzibar" has scenes in it that would have fit well into "Blade Runner."

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 10:06 AM (WEBkv)

140 I'm continuing with the journals written by explorers in the colonial and early American times. Since the various books come to several thousand pages this will be a long and pleasant effort.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:06 AM (bmdz3)

141 Or was it 5? Ha. It helps that I can't remember because I was so disappointed in where he took the books that I stopped reading them.

Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:07 AM (A8W5E)

142 Ah, Captain Hate, I had no idea this was 19 years and running. That's different--I guess a relationship with that kind of longevity requires a little sacrifice.
Posted by: April at August 11, 2019 09:56 AM (OX9vb)


Again, thank you for your feedback. We've added and dropped people along the way including people I like a lot, one of whom I go on sporadic beer safaris with, and then there's one who's as dense as a neutron star. Little sacrifice is the key; any more and I'm long gone. This place is a book group of sorts; one I don't find irritating.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 10:07 AM (y7DUB)

143 Prince Harry is an idiot

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:07 AM (bUjCl)

144 Chesterton is the antidote to Nietzsche.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at August 11, 2019 10:07 AM (LxTcq)

145 Gravity's Rainbow, dear God I hated that and wore a hair shirt in penance for a while after

-
Probably the most disappointing ending after the most promising beginning that I've ever read.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 09:57 AM (+y/Ru)



I loved "Gravity's Rainbow", but, yeah, the ending is a YUGE disappointment.

I think this is the problem when a writer allows his internal theme and organizing principles(entropy in this case) to take over his novel, rather than, you know, the story.

And two, that kind of non-ending ending was very prevalent in the big Paranoid Novel Craze of the 60s-70s.

Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" and "V" have a similar ending.

And Don DeLillo's Pynchon-imitations "Running Dog", "The Names", and "Ratner's Star" all have similar non-ending endings.

"Ratner's Star" is kind of interesting in that it's a "Gravity's Rainbow" type book written by a guy who doesn't have a real strong grasp of science.

I liked it, though at the time I read it. Maybe I'm due for a reread to see if I still like it.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (mIQCW)

146 /sock

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (mvenn)

147 Since no one has taken a serious stab at it yet, I'm gonna say that Who Dis? is Liz Taylor.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (iB1oa)

148 Crying of Lot 49 does everything Gravity's Rainbow does, in about a tenth of the page length.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 10:09 AM (v2qmi)

149 37 ... Pep mentioned Alfred Thayer Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power Upon History", which sounds interesting. Just FYI, many of Mahan's books are available of free or 99 cent Kindle editions. That would be an affordable way to get started with them. I plan to download a couple.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:09 AM (bmdz3)

150 Since no one has taken a serious stab at it yet, I'm gonna say that Who Dis? is Liz Taylor.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (iB1oa)

I am going to type it as seriously as I possibly can, that pic above, of the lady reading East of Eden IS Joan Collins.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:11 AM (bUjCl)

151 Michelle Fields posts here. Slowly of course.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at August 11, 2019 10:11 AM (LxTcq)

152 Obviously Joan Collins. Why any doubt?

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 10:11 AM (v2qmi)

153 1/3 of the way through War and Peace and it's so fantastic.

Also, if you've read Crystal Embers, please drop a review on Amazon!!

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at August 11, 2019 10:12 AM (dBnwt)

154 Never read Pynchon, but you make me think of '70s era John Brunner. Don't read him if you're feeling depressed, you'll be suicidal by the end.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (iB1oa)
-----------------

Yeah, "Stand on Zanzibar" has scenes in it that would have fit well into "Blade Runner."

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 10:06 AM (WEBkv)



Try "The Sheep Look Up", his "Stand on Zanzibar" follow-up, on for size.

It's Brunner's Eco-apocalypse equivalent of-

"You want depressing? Here hold my beer."

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 10:12 AM (mIQCW)

155 Morning, all!

I'm still reading my survival and homesteading books in anticipation of the apocalypse, but this week I added A.H. de Oliveira Marques's 'Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages'. It can be a little dry at times, but there is one horrifying/amusing anecdote that's worth sharing: supposedly, one of the kings in the late 1300s was fond of making his courtiers marry. Okay, so what, you say; arranged marriages were common at the time. Except that this king's schtick was to tell the bride the night before, "You're getting married tomorrow. Show up at the church looking decent," without even bothering to tell her the name of the bridegroom. She was expected to show up anyway, and learn who she was marrying when he came down the aisle. And the groom might be told that morning the name of his bride. Needless to say, the book says this went horribly wrong on a few occasions, and the king eventually decided to use his talents elsewhere.

Posted by: right wing yankee at August 11, 2019 10:12 AM (zlzYb)

156 147
Since no one has taken a serious stab at it yet, I'm gonna say that Who Dis? is Liz Taylor.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (iB1oa)



Well I said that way back at #11. So there is your serious stab.

Posted by: Vic at August 11, 2019 10:12 AM (mpXpK)

157 Don't know why you needed to wear a hairshirt in penance for Gravity's Rainbow. Reading the damned book is penance enough. I can't understand how anyone over the age of sixteen can be impressed by that book.
Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 10:01 AM (v2qmi)


The penance was because it was my book choice, one I'd been eagerly looking forward to. What irritated me the most was the overwhelming triteness of it; like a distillation of everything I hated about the 70s.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (y7DUB)

158 I remember back in the 70s, the Cornell bookstore had a lot of shelf space devoted to Pynchon and Carlos Castaneda. Never bought any, they seemed faddish to me. I was more interested in H. P. Lovecraft.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (iB1oa)

159 Prince Harry is an idiot"

Look at the father...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (6qErC)

160 Sometimes, especially these days, you just need some comic relief. A while back I splurged on the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection. It was worth the cost. What a great combination of humor and creativity.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (bmdz3)

161 Posted by: Vic at August 11, 2019 10:12 AM (mpXpK)
----
Missed it. Damned early morning eyes!

Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:14 AM (iB1oa)

162 I'm reading "Can You Hear Me Now?" by Seth Rich.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at August 11, 2019 10:14 AM (Ndje9)

163 It's Brunner's Eco-apocalypse equivalent of-

"You want depressing? Here hold my beer."

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 10:12 AM (mIQCW)
------------

Read it.

The depressing part that stood out? Someone does the math and realizes there's no way the company that does the "pure" food, don't remember the name, can produce the amount of food they sell, and, the company sends a hit squad to wipe the group out.

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 10:15 AM (WEBkv)

164 Maybe this says something not good about me but I
could hardly put it down despite what an unrelenting depiction of
targeted inhumanity it was. Snyder's oddly terse writing style might
have had something to do with it; unfortunately his contemporary blog
writing uniformly pisses me off.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 09:59 AM (y7DUB)

---
It was the repetition that got to me. You read about one terrible episode and then - but wait! There's more!

Some people need to hear stories to fully accept evil or understand it, but I'm fine with the summary version. I don't like being angry or sad, so I generally avoid things that would cause those emotions.

I don't get the whole "outrage theater" thing, which is why almost always skip threads here where people are pissed off about something.

The post Friday about the downed Airman returning home was an example of that. It was a moving story, and then people had to start pasting what idiots were saying on Twitter.

Why? Why the need to be permanently pissed off?

Anyhow, I recognized about halfway through that The Bloodlands was making me cranky and depressed and I don't need to do that to myself during my fleeting leisure time.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 10:15 AM (cfSRQ)

165 Now we know for sure that prince harry is, in fact, stupid.

Posted by: klaftern at August 11, 2019 10:17 AM (RuIsu)

166 Sometimes, especially these days, you just need some comic relief. A while back I splurged on the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection. It was worth the cost. What a great combination of humor and creativity.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (bmdz3)

--

We bought the paperback complete set (in a fancy box and everything) when Amazon had it on sale. I can hardly wait to give it to my daughter when she's a bit older, partly so I can re-read them.

Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:17 AM (A8W5E)

167 160 Sometimes, especially these days, you just need some comic relief. A while back I splurged on the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection. It was worth the cost. What a great combination of humor and creativity.
Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (bmdz3)
---------------

Watterson is a genius. If I ever get the itch, I may join you.

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 10:18 AM (WEBkv)

168 I think I have a natural inclination not to read current events books, and part of it is not trusting authors to not have their own axes to grind.

We've had enough time go by that it's time to look at Bork, and what happened there. Followed by Thomas, of course, and while my mind is capable of a general sense of disgust at how the left has twisted things, I can't quite wrap my head around what happened, and when.

I recall hearing an NPR thing some time ago, where they basically traced the "coarsening" of political discourse to Noot Gingrich and his Special Orders speeches.

I'm not sure it matters who we blame, rather than trace what happened, because if there's any chance this country can be brought back from civil war, I think it's going to have to change. On both sides.

And those who object to the "both sides" comment, sorry. I'm not blaming anybody. Just saying, wars can't start if nobody participates. If one side continues to participate, then war it will be.

That's what we face. I'm not saying it's avoidable, just saying, we're going to war if this stuff doesn't change.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:18 AM (cY3LT)

169 Who Dis: Susan Hayward?

Posted by: IrishEi at August 11, 2019 10:18 AM (sGotD)

170 Arranged marriages - back then marriage was too important to be left to the feelings of a couple of teens

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:19 AM (+72t1)

171 143 Prince Harry is an idiot
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:07 AM (bUjCl)

Inbreeding, you know.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 10:19 AM (NWiLs)

172 Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (mIQCW)

To be clear, I'm not impugning your taste by badmouthing Gravity's Rainbow; plenty of my real life friends whose opinions I respect enjoyed it. It just wasn't for me.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 10:19 AM (y7DUB)

173 why haven't we heard from Michelle Fields and / or
Cory Lewendowski about Slo Joe ripping that poor girls arm off? They're
both experts on this kind of thing

Posted by: AltonJackson
---
It's funny now to look back on that crap and realize how fake it all was.

They really wanted to get Trump and thought that this nonsense was the sure-fire winner.

I didn't really care, but it was fun watching the masks come off.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 10:19 AM (cfSRQ)

174 I'm making my way through the Audible version of The Hobbit as I drive around town doing errands and such.

A couple of days ago, I get an email from Amazon that the Kindle version of The Hobbit is available for free through Prime Reading. I guess this is different from the Kindle Lending Library thing they had where you paid a monthly subscription to read all the Kindle books you wanted for "free" for a month.

Anyway... I discovered something kinda neat the Kindle version and the Audible version of my book sync with each other. So I can read the Kindle version while I'm waiting on my oil change and then pick up where I left off on the Audible version when I get back in my car.

That may have not been news to y'all, but it was certainly news to me.

Happy reading, everybody!

Posted by: sinalco at August 11, 2019 10:19 AM (yODqO)

175 Have Kevin Kiley's Napoleonic Artillery book, he posts alot on TMP and have conversed there often with him. He does get into some flame war threads often.
Posted by: Skip at August 11, 2019 09:27 AM (BbGew)


Hi Skip, I figured you'd have Kiley's book. I didn't know he was a gamer; I do on occasion but don't hang-out on TMP ("The Miniatures Page" for those not-in-the know) because I find it too difficult to navigate.

Lots of cool details to put in a game. Such as Russian artillery battery commanders being concerned that they might be executed if they lost a gun to the enemy.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at August 11, 2019 10:20 AM (5Yee7)

176 I splurged on the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection. It was worth the cost. What a great combination of humor and creativity.
Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (bmdz3)

We did the same recently with The Far Side.

Posted by: April at August 11, 2019 10:21 AM (OX9vb)

177 Prince Harry is an idiot"

Look at the father...
Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 10:13 AM (6qErC)


Don't leave the whore mother out of the grey matter discussion.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 10:22 AM (y7DUB)

178 150 Since no one has taken a serious stab at it yet, I'm gonna say that Who Dis? is Liz Taylor.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (iB1oa)

I am going to type it as seriously as I possibly can, that pic above, of the lady reading East of Eden IS Joan Collins.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:11 AM (bUjCl)


Runner is correct. I thought I'd have a bit of fun with you morons who shout out 'Joan Collins!' for every Who Dis pic.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 10:22 AM (3Ame7)

179 Prince Harry is an idiot

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:07 AM (bUjCl)
With terrible timing. His comments about having only two kids were made a couple days before he hopped on a private jet to fly to some eco-summit in Italy (I think it was Italy).

I can accept people wanting to 'save the environment'. Earth is a nice place, nice to look at, and I wouldn't mind if it stayed that way. But I can't stand it when people aren't willing to put their money where their mouth is because they're too busy talking about how other people need to change.

Posted by: right wing yankee at August 11, 2019 10:22 AM (zlzYb)

180 170 Arranged marriages - back then marriage was too important to be left to the feelings of a couple of teens
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:19 AM (+72t1)


Yeah, not sure that's such a great idea either. My marriage was not quite arranged but damned close considering the pressure that was brought to bear on me. Maybe if you're talking about generations of families growing up near each other and knowing each other well, being very familiar with their own kids' personalities (which not all parents are) and having kids who have a very strong sense of self by the time they're wed. That wasn't true in my case and it turned out to be a very VERY bad thing. Of course, by the time I figured it out, I was fucked.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 10:22 AM (NWiLs)

181 love love love Calvin and Hobbes

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:22 AM (+72t1)

182 Prince Harry is an idiot
Posted by: runner

Inbreeding, you know.
Posted by: Insomniac


*********


Dumb Prince - a limerick

I say this without any malice
But they got a genetic analysis
Seems the chromosome count
Was some oddball amount
So we must be at Buckingham Palace

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (mvenn)

183 Tin foil hate time.

I just read that Epstein was a Mossad agent whose mission was to gather blackmail material on as many of the rich and powerful as possible to assure that they vote Israel's way and that there are "honey holes" of this material stashed all over the country. He was killed by Mossad to protect the location of those honey holes.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (+y/Ru)

184 I'm making my way through the Audible version of The Hobbit as I drive around town doing errands and such.

--

I've tried and tried, but my brain apparently isn't wired for audio books while driving. I can listen, and I enjoy hearing the words, but I never seem to really know what's happening in the story.

Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:24 AM (A8W5E)

185 Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890) influenced the outbreak of World War I. Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered all his naval officers to read it. It led the Kaiser and von Tirpitz to pursue the big German naval buildup that led to hair-trigger hostility between England and Germany, requiring only a spark to set it off.

Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 10:24 AM (UGKMd)

186 182 Prince Harry is an idiot
Posted by: runner

Inbreeding, you know.
Posted by: Insomniac

*********


Dumb Prince - a limerick

I say this without any malice
But they got a genetic analysis
Seems the chromosome count
Was some oddball amount
So we must be at Buckingham Palace
Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (mvenn)

The family tree is just a trunk.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 10:25 AM (NWiLs)

187 Watterson is a genius. If I ever get the itch, I may join you.

Posted by: blake - used pronoun salesman at August 11, 2019 10:18 AM (WEBkv)

---
And like many geniuses, he's more than a little bit mad.

There was a write-up on him a while ago, maybe linked here - about his descent into anti-marketing nuttery.

He wanted to make a comic that would put "Peanuts" to shame, he wanted to be big and show what he could do, but then hated his own success. He refused to market merch, and was horrified when people then just stole his images because they liked them.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 10:25 AM (cfSRQ)

188 Runner is correct. I thought I'd have a bit of fun with you morons who shout out 'Joan Collins!' for every Who Dis pic.


=

There, THERE !! JOAN COLLINS ! See ??!!

*collapses

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:25 AM (bUjCl)

189 Dumb Prince - a limerick

I say this without any malice
But they got a genetic analysis
Seems the chromosome count
Was some oddball amount
So we must be at Buckingham Palace
Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (mvenn)
------
Ha! I say again, ha!

Posted by: Carlos II at August 11, 2019 10:26 AM (iB1oa)

190 54 ... Retired Buckeye Cop,
Keep going with the Matt Helm series of books. I have all of them and they get better as the series continues. Hamilton did drop the WW II aspect quickly since it would have made Helm too old. I think they are much better than the James Bond novels.

PS: The Dean Martin movies, while fun and campy, have almost nothing to do with the books.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:26 AM (bmdz3)

191 Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 10:08 AM (mIQCW)

To be clear, I'm not impugning your taste by badmouthing Gravity's Rainbow; plenty of my real life friends whose opinions I respect enjoyed it. It just wasn't for me.
Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 10:19 AM (y7DUB)



Impugn away! Should you wish.

No offense taken.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 10:26 AM (mIQCW)

192 24 and prince harry.

Posted by: klaftern at August 11, 2019 10:27 AM (RuIsu)

193 Tin foil hate time.



Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (+y/Ru)

---
What did tin foil ever do to you?

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 10:27 AM (cfSRQ)

194 Somewhat off topic: has anyone doing the multiple line signature thing managed to accidentally cut and paste the entire thread into their signature?

Posted by: Iowa Bob at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM (6+Zbs)

195 Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (mvenn)


HAHAHAHAHA !!

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM (bUjCl)

196 Tin foil hate time.

--

Shorter version:

The Joos

Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM (A8W5E)

197 As far as other books, I'm almost through The Gypsy's Curse by Harry Crews. Again, Harry was an American treasure whose books cannot be allowed to go OOP or the culture is doomed.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM (y7DUB)

198 Those pants are, how do you say, the only ones to fit my sausage.

Posted by: The Paolo at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM (6XLoz)

199 I've tried and tried, but my brain apparently isn't wired for audio books while driving. I can listen, and I enjoy hearing the words, but I never seem to really know what's happening in the story.
Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:24 AM (A8W5E)


I used to be unable to do audiobooks, anywhere, for the same reason. If I wasn't paying the same attention as reading, I would have to rewind every few minutes because I had lost track of what was going on; it felt like reading while sleepy, where after a while you end up reading on autopilot.

Something changed in the last few years, and now I can drive or mow the lawn or whatever while listening to a book. No idea what's different now.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 10:29 AM (t+qrx)

200
Somewhat off topic: has anyone doing the multiple line signature thing managed to accidentally cut and paste the entire thread into their signature?

Posted by: Iowa Bob at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM


not yet
(challenge accepted)

Posted by: AltonJackson
Save the Date!!!
The MiMoMe & Emporium is 21SEP19
Chelsea, Michigan
at August 11, 2019 10:29 AM (KCxzN)

201 Are we using the Teflon (tm) infested foil? Might be interpreted as rooty-poot.

Posted by: klaftern at August 11, 2019 10:30 AM (RuIsu)

202 If reading Frankl and Teege then I also recommend adding Bernhard Schlink's essays on guilt (he is the author of "The Reader"). Unlike Teege and Frankl he is giving the perspective of "the unforgiven". Quite eye opening. I believe the essays explain a lot about modern Europe and perhaps shed light on some of the global implications of WWII via the 2nd & 3rd generation.

Posted by: piratepatch at August 11, 2019 10:30 AM (ySjqN)

203 Something changed in the last few years, and now I can drive or mow the lawn or whatever while listening to a book. No idea what's different now.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 10:29 AM (t+qrx)

--

Hmm... That's interesting. Thanks. I might give it another shot.

Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:31 AM (A8W5E)

204 Those pants are, how do you say, the only ones to fit my sausage.
Posted by: The Paolo at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM (6XLoz)

6XL oz, is still 6 oz

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:31 AM (bUjCl)

205 Mmmm Joanie!

Posted by: REEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! at August 11, 2019 10:31 AM (FTPVM)

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:31 AM (bUjCl)

207 LOL. "Fate has chosen me to be this age's Cuckhunter."

Truer words haven't been spoken.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at August 11, 2019 10:32 AM (5aX2M)

208 I've found that when driving while listening to an audio book that I can follow the story line better if I keep my eyes closed...

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 10:32 AM (mvenn)

209 Keep going with the Matt Helm series of books....

PS: The Dean Martin movies, while fun and campy, have almost nothing to do with the books.
Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:26 AM (bmdz3)


I got a great deal on the first 12 books in the series (all early Fawcett printings), so I plan to eventually read all of those. I don't know if I will keep going after that: so many books to read, so little time.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at August 11, 2019 10:33 AM (5Yee7)

210 Hmm... That's interesting. Thanks. I might give it another shot.
Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 10:31 AM (A8W5E)


Well it's pretty likely that what changed is that I've become better at convincing myself that I'm focusing on the task at hand while in reality I'm more utterly distracted than ever. YMMV.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 10:33 AM (t+qrx)

211 Not a big audiobook person, either. My work involves words, so I can't listen while working. My exercise mostly involves chainsaws or axes, so not a good listening environment, and (like MR above) I lose the thread if I listen while driving. And if I'm sitting quietly relaxing . . . I read a book.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 10:35 AM (v2qmi)

212 Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 10:22 AM (NWiLs)

yeah,arranged marriages of the sort they had centuries ago could ve hell on earth for the oarties involved
however, the goals of the marriage were family wealth preservation and political alliances, and that's all that mattered

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:35 AM (+72t1)

213
I just read that Epstein was a Mossad agent whose mission was to gather blackmail material on as many of the rich and powerful as possible to assure that they vote Israel's way and that there are "honey holes" of this material stashed all over the country. He was killed by Mossad to protect the location of those honey holes.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (+y/Ru)

Considering that one of Epstein's "guests" was Peter Soros, the plot doesn't seem to have worked very well.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at August 11, 2019 10:35 AM (d6Ksn)

214 212 Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 10:22 AM (NWiLs)

yeah,arranged marriages of the sort they had centuries ago could ve hell on earth for the oarties involved
however, the goals of the marriage were family wealth preservation and political alliances, and that's all that mattered
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:35 AM (+72t1)

This is true.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 11, 2019 10:36 AM (NWiLs)

215 yeah,arranged marriages of the sort they had centuries ago could ve hell on earth for the oarties involved
however, the goals of the marriage were family wealth preservation and political alliances, and that's all that mattered
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:35 AM (+72t1)
-----
Hence, mistresses.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at August 11, 2019 10:37 AM (iB1oa)

216 Hence, mistresses.


==

concubines

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:37 AM (bUjCl)

217 also the concept of "the pursuit of happiness" being any kind of worthy goal is pretty modern

seeking happiness in marriage was not a thing back then - that would have been seen as incomprehensibly selfish

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:38 AM (+72t1)

218 Hence, mistresses.


==

concubines
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:37 AM (bUjCl)


And in lots of places, and not just Greece, lots of time spent with "the boys."

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:39 AM (cY3LT)

219 Thing is, nobody was under any illusions about arranged political marriages. For the women, it was either an arranged marriage or a convent. So, lie still and think of the dynasty, then hand the kid off to wetnurses and servants and take up a hobby. At least you get three meals a day and aren't sharing your hovel with a cow.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 11, 2019 10:39 AM (v2qmi)

220 Some had official status; actually in France, King's concubine/mistress was an official court position, endowed with a stipend, living quarters, servants.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:39 AM (bUjCl)

221 also the concept of "the pursuit of happiness" being any kind of worthy goal is pretty modern

seeking happiness in marriage was not a thing back then - that would have been seen as incomprehensibly selfish
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:38 AM (+72t1)


how far back are we talking about ?

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:40 AM (bUjCl)

222 how far back are we talking about ?
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:40 AM (bUjCl)

Medieval era, I think the original comment was about?

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:41 AM (+72t1)

223 Joan Collins was hot.

But then she would open her mouth and all of that bitch would come out.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 11, 2019 10:42 AM (Z+IKu)

224 Robert Louis Stevenson is the author "Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde". After reading here about the Father Damien affair I thought at first that maybe Stephenson chose to use Hyde's name as a literary sort of "F.U.", but it turns out Stephenson wrote the story back in the 1880s - long before Hyde's letter was published. Ain't that a heckova coincidence though?

Posted by: Just some random guy at August 11, 2019 10:42 AM (/Vr5Z)

225 "also the concept of "the pursuit of happiness" being any kind of worthy goal is pretty modern



seeking happiness in marriage was not a thing back then - that would have been seen as incomprehensibly selfish"

All of this. Historically, marriage was basically the formation of a business. The most successful ones happened when the partners respected each other's abilities, just like you hopefully respect your business partner, but love and passion mostly just got in the way, as it does when modern co-workers date or marry. Respect and general affection were what people hoped for.

Posted by: right wing yankee at August 11, 2019 10:42 AM (zlzYb)

226 I just read that Epstein was a Mossad agent whose mission was to gather blackmail material on as many of the rich and powerful as possible to assure that they vote Israel's way and that there are "honey holes" of this material stashed all over the country. He was killed by Mossad to protect the location of those honey holes.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler


Without looking first, did you read that on "Zero Hedge"?

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at August 11, 2019 10:42 AM (S6Pax)

227 Somewhat off topic: has anyone doing the multiple line signature thing managed to accidentally cut and paste the entire thread into their signature?
Posted by: Iowa Bob at August 11, 2019 10:28 AM (6+Zbs)

Still have nightmares about my barrel visit.

Posted by: weirdflunky at August 11, 2019 10:43 AM (cknjq)

228 Medieval era, I think the original comment was about?
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 10:41 AM (+72t1)


*scrolls up

1300's. ok.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:43 AM (bUjCl)

229 I just read that Epstein was a Mossad agent whose mission was to gather blackmail material on as many of the rich and powerful as possible to assure that they vote Israel's way and that there are "honey holes" of this material stashed all over the country. He was killed by Mossad to protect the location of those honey holes.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:23 AM (+y/Ru)

Considering that one of Epstein's "guests" was Peter Soros, the plot doesn't seem to have worked very well.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at August 11, 2019 10:35 AM (d6Ksn)


I think this story will have a short shelf life.

Yes, there will remain the usual suspects (in some cases, that be us), continuing to ask questions, but once the official story is released, the masses will move on to the next shiny thing.

What will be left are the voices in the wilderness, and they'll increasingly with time, be dismissed as "conspiracy theorists."

And that will be that.

For now though, yes, the wild and crazy conspiracy stories will hit the nooz cycles, and those will be used as "proof" that only cranks and crazies will challenge the official story.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:43 AM (cY3LT)

230 De Blasio violated the rules by making cops help his daughter move

-
I refuse to believe this about a fine man like Bull De Blasio!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:45 AM (+y/Ru)

231
hogmartin: you've got mail

Posted by: AltonJackson
Save the Date!!!
The MiMoMe & Emporium is 21SEP19
Chelsea, Michigan
at August 11, 2019 10:45 AM (KCxzN)

232 Some had official status; actually in France, King's
concubine/mistress was an official court position, endowed with a
stipend, living quarters, servants.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:39 AM (bUjCl)
Ever read 'Sex with Kings' by Eleanor Herman? It's non-fiction, written in a rather 'tabloid-y' style, and hilarious and horrifying by turns. Talks a lot of the role of the maitresse en titre, particularly in France and England. The funniest ones were when a king thought he needed a mistress to improve his political standing, so he appointed a random court lady to the position and then never had sex with her.

Posted by: right wing yankee at August 11, 2019 10:45 AM (zlzYb)

233 I have a "technical issue" with the photo ID of either Liz Taylor or Joan Collins. Neither of them were in the movie "East of Eden," and the more experience you have with photos of Hollywood starlets, the more you realize that PR departments never went to the trouble of faking an actress reading a novel unless they were publicizing her upcoming role.

There must have been another angle. Was Joan Collins considered for a role, or was she briefly in the lettuce business, for instance?

Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 10:46 AM (8ZmvG)

234 Without looking first, did you read that on "Zero Hedge"?

-
A friend emailed it to me as an example of crazy/funny. He didn't say where he found it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 10:47 AM (+y/Ru)

235 Heard several times from acquaintances from Far East Asia (India), how well their arranged marriages worked out. They had a say in it, of course, but the process was very simple - family researched and agreed, exchange of photos betwen potential spouses, supervised meeting, wedding festivities.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:48 AM (bUjCl)

236 Audiobooks aren't ideal for everything, but they're great for mindless, rote tasks that aren't something emotionally or intellectually taxing. Mowing the lawn. Cooking something you've made hundreds of times before. Housecleaning. Physical intimacy. Sorting clutter. Mopping and vacuuming. I won't bother in town, but on the highway, it's fine as long as you're watching the road and can tune it out when you need to concentrate.

Another neat thing is that I find parts of books I've read several times that I never knew existed. Having to hear someone else read the book in their own voice, at their own pace, means I sometimes hear passages or phrases that I glossed over while reading. I'd swear they added it for the audiobook, then I'll go back to the text and it's right there, I just never caught it.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 10:48 AM (t+qrx)

237 A very late, good morning, horde!

I am currently mostly enjoying Paglia's Glittering Images and working on a variety of craft projects.

Also have returned to some gardening now that elderly granddog has returned to my kid in DC. I lived in fear that he would die under my watch.

I have been keeping some CS Lewis near the nightstand for reading at bedtime. There's something comfortingly logical about the man's work that puts my mind at ease. I always recommended A Grief Observed to patients suffering with major losses due to his very personal style.

Posted by: CN at August 11, 2019 10:48 AM (U7k5w)

238 >> Even if it's these pants, which seem peculiarly adapted
>> for the alien tranny market.

I wonder if they were inspired by Avatar. Lefties have a strange fascination with intrer-species boinking. It does suggest how isolated they must feel from the rest of us. Does anyone remember how well the dolphin-pumper book sold after it was discovered by HuffPo? I saw it on one of Maetenloch's ONTs.

Posted by: 40 miles north at August 11, 2019 10:48 AM (o2vOl)

239 Some had official status; actually in France, King's concubine/mistress was an official court position, endowed with a stipend, living quarters, servants.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:39 AM (bUjCl)


A week ago, the King of Thailand named one of his mistresses as the official concubine in an elaborate ceremony with the Queen sitting beside him.

Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 10:50 AM (UGKMd)

240 Father Damien was canonized in 2009; 40 years before that, he wound up in the National Statuary Hall Collection as one of the two statues representing Hawaii.


https://tinyurl.com/y362q8sg

Posted by: Vendette at August 11, 2019 10:51 AM (OgGoW)

241 Ever read 'Sex with Kings' by Eleanor Herman? It's non-fiction, written in a rather 'tabloid-y' style, and hilarious and horrifying by turns. Talks a lot of the role of the maitresse en titre, particularly in France and England. The funniest ones were when a king thought he needed a mistress to improve his political standing, so he appointed a random court lady to the position and then never had sex with her.
Posted by: right wing yankee at August 11, 2019 10:45 AM (zlzYb)


I have a book here, I'm sure it's boxed up now, that takes a rather scholarly look at sex throughout history.

One of the elements that the book considered, which I found refreshing, was looking at more than just the rich and powerful, when it came to marriage and sex practices.

So while concubines and mistresses (and as mentioned above, time spent with boys) were considered a-ok for the royal court and other assorted wealthy, the idea of Christian marriage was solidifying with the people.

And you know what? It freakin' worked!

Whether arranged or not, people found that they could and did find love and happiness inside their marriages. The corrupted and corrupting effects of the wealthy were mostly insulated from the people, because there was so little means of communicating between the two worlds.

In a sense, our modern world suffers more from too much access to how others live. If people spent more time focusing on their own little gardens, they'd be able to find happiness much more easily.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:51 AM (cY3LT)

242 233: She'd have been a good choice for the evil Cathy/Kate. Oddly or not, this book is a popular choice for girls seeking a femme fatale persona.

Posted by: CN at August 11, 2019 10:51 AM (U7k5w)

243 Yes, there was a leprosy colony in Louisiana, at Carville. From wikipedia, intro to article Leprosy in Louisiana

Although leprosy, or Hansen's Disease, was never an epidemic in The United States, cases of leprosy have been reported in Louisiana as early as the 18th century. The first leprosarium in the continental United States existed in Carville, Louisiana from 1894-1999 and Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the home of the only institution in the United States that is exclusively devoted to leprosy consulting, research, and training.

Posted by: Reine at August 11, 2019 10:51 AM (MfStn)

244 hogmartin: you've got mail
Posted by: AltonJackson
Save the Date!!!
The MiMoMe & Emporium is 21SEP19
Chelsea, Michigan
at August 11, 2019 10:45 AM (KCxzN)


Got it.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 10:51 AM (t+qrx)

245 >>Although leprosy, or Hansen's Disease, was never an epidemic in The United States, cases of leprosy have been reported in Louisiana as early as the 18th century. The first leprosarium in the continental United States existed in Carville, Louisiana from 1894-1999 and Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the home of the only institution in the United States that is exclusively devoted to leprosy consulting, research, and training.

Thanks for the tip!

Posted by: JackStraw at August 11, 2019 10:53 AM (ZLI7S)

246 hogmartin @236: "physical intimacy"

Excuse me? You're listening to audiobooks while making whoopee?

Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 10:54 AM (RK98Q)

247 Heard several times from acquaintances from Far East Asia (India), how well their arranged marriages worked out. They had a say in it, of course, but the process was very simple - family researched and agreed, exchange of photos betwen potential spouses, supervised meeting, wedding festivities.
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 10:48 AM (bUjCl)


Yes, Indian arranged marriages in particular, have a long history of being quite successful, compared to western marriages.

Even in modern times.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:54 AM (cY3LT)

248 " If one side continues to participate, then war it will be.
That's what we face. I'm not saying it's avoidable, just saying, we're going to war if this stuff doesn't change."Posted by: BurtTC


imo there are many sides, not two. The "leadership" of the left also has multiple sides ... but they are based/united in trashing their opponents with lies and hate, BAMN. (Pelosi was forced to join TheSquad to hold their ranks together against Trump) The "leadership" on the GOPe side lies to us on border control and globalism, and serves BigMoney, not liberty. They also are not on our side, but demand we be on theirs.


The more violent agitprop groups on the left are funded by Soros types. Coulter joked how the 'Kock' brothers will now be forced to hire Americans since their 600+ illegals were raided. The violent and illegals are not WeThePeople in the middle.


The vast majority (is that the 68%?) could get along fine imo, even if they naturally "settle out" in racial and/or income neighborhoods. Mardi Gras New Orleans (and other festivals) is a mass mixing of people in crowded spaces, I rarely saw any conflicts, just people enjoying the party.


imo the TwoSides is part of the control mechanism of the Uniparty centralized "elite", that demand allegiance to their central authority of one party or the other. Every community should take their own side against centralized control ... we could call it "federalism" or something. The divorce we need is from the abusive DC step Daddy that is raping the kids (middle America), and running up credit cards he put in our names.


Trump has kinda broken the TwoSides meme, and so the RACISM screams try to unify their one side ... "we have to have all black faces be black voices" ... whoopsie, what's the matter, afraid your TwoSides might break apart? TwoSides obviously didn't apply to NeverTrumpers ... they flipped to Hillary on a dime ... cuz they are Uniparty totalitarians, enemy of we the people.

Posted by: illiniwek at August 11, 2019 10:54 AM (Cus5s)

249 In a sense, our modern world suffers more from too much access to how others live. If people spent more time focusing on their own little gardens, they'd be able to find happiness much more easily.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:51 AM (cY3LT)

I agree completely. Our lives seem sad when compared with the super rich, super gorgeous people, especially when we only get a superficial reading of their existence. Then we are shocked and more dissatisfied when we find out about their addiction issues, marital woes, and suicide attempts. If they cannot be happy, how dare we be content? Utter BS.

Posted by: CN at August 11, 2019 10:55 AM (U7k5w)

250 All of this. Historically, marriage was basically
the formation of a business. The most successful ones happened when the
partners respected each other's abilities, just like you hopefully
respect your business partner, but love and passion mostly just got in
the way, as it does when modern co-workers date or marry. Respect and
general affection were what people hoped for.


Posted by: right wing yankee at August 11, 2019 10:42 AM (zlzYb)

---
I disagree.

Traditional marriages had love and devotion every bit as great as they are today - arguably greater - but people understood that this was for the long haul, not until you get bored and want to start over.

Arranged marriages for most people were about finding someone of the right station. Parents wanted their kids to be happy and so they'd look within their social network to find someone who had good "prospects" and would make a good match.

People were expected to grow together and that with time and understanding, love would build up. Also, lots of sex, which is a key component in building a bond (though feminists want to ignore it).

The stereotype of the cute babe having to marry the ugly old dude to cement the family fortune is mostly a plot device that gets beaten to death.

Even political marriages could be happy and productive because all sides wanted plenty of offspring to sustain the dynasty.

Every generation likes to imagine that they're the first ones to discover sex and love etc. and the people before them got it TOTALLY WRONG.

It's just not true.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 10:55 AM (cfSRQ)

251 Although leprosy, or Hansen's Disease, was never an epidemic in The United States, cases of leprosy have been reported in Louisiana as early as the 18th century. The first leprosarium in the continental United States existed in Carville, Louisiana from 1894-1999 and Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the home of the only institution in the United States that is exclusively devoted to leprosy consulting, research, and training.
---------------------------
Thanks for the tip!
Posted by: JackStraw at August 11, 2019 10:53 AM (ZLI7S)


I thought Hansen's disease was the collective insanity of people who like boy bands.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:55 AM (cY3LT)

252 Rule #1 for leftists is that everything is politics. Rule#2 The ends always justify the means of achieving the goals of the leftist, so no means are forbidden. The left drove Nixon out of office and they Borked Robert Bork, but since then the GOP has stood fast not suffered any losses as president or justice of the Supreme Court.

You would think, given Nixon Bork that the GOP would recognize Rules #1 #2, but they don't. This is the difference between GOP Trump. After some setbacks, he has learned on the job about Rules #1 #2.

Trump's problem is the people around him still have not so Trump will misstep from time to time.

The left cannot be defeated until its opposition understands Rules #1 #2.

Posted by: Locke Common at August 11, 2019 10:56 AM (NanIO)

253 Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM

Hopefully as soon as I find where to go for a online photo storage will put up pictures of my completed Russian army project. I do play the Russian artillery as die or win but in other reading Arakcheev wasn't so hard during the war, it was after he turned into a real bastard.

Posted by: Skip at August 11, 2019 10:56 AM (BbGew)

254 >>I thought Hansen's disease was the collective insanity of people who like boy bands.

MMMBop.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 11, 2019 10:56 AM (ZLI7S)

255 There must have been another angle. Was Joan Collins considered for a role, or was she briefly in the lettuce business, for instance?
Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 10:46 AM (8ZmvG)

English actress.....they rolled a little differently than Hollywood whores back in the day.

Like reading and smoking at the same time...and other stuff.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 11, 2019 10:58 AM (Z+IKu)

256 OM writes "The blurb also mentioned that the colony on Molokai was the only one in America, but I thought there was one in Louisiana for a time."

I'll quote wiki:

The Louisiana Leper Home, an institution to quarantine lepers living in Louisiana, was opened in 1894 in Carville, Louisiana. The first seven patients of the leprosarium were from New Orleans and arrived at the leprosarium on December 1, 1894. This was the humble beginnings of the first in-patient hospital in the U.S.

It is now a museum.

https://www.hrsa.gov/hansens-disease/museum

Posted by: GnuBreed at August 11, 2019 10:58 AM (Z4rgH)

257 37
Posted by: pep at August 11, 2019 09:14 AM (T6t7i)
________

Should be followed by his sequel, The Influence of Seapower on the French Revolution and Empire. Julian Corbett, a contemporary Brit, is also worth looking at for a somewhat different take. Corbett was ahead of Mahan in seeing that sometimes there is a more important objective than destruction of the enemy fleet (which Mahan later agreed with.)

Posted by: Eeyore at August 11, 2019 10:59 AM (VaN/j)

258 Trump has kinda broken the TwoSides meme, and so the RACISM screams try to unify their one side ... "we have to have all black faces be black voices" ... whoopsie, what's the matter, afraid your TwoSides might break apart? TwoSides obviously didn't apply to NeverTrumpers ... they flipped to Hillary on a dime ... cuz they are Uniparty totalitarians, enemy of we the people.
Posted by: illiniwek at August 11, 2019 10:54 AM (Cus5s)


I don't disagree.

I think you are describing one of the more powerful mechanisms by which the powers that be create their power... by causing the momentum of the many sides to coalesce around the "Two Sides" model.

Perhaps you are describing one of the mechanisms by which they can be defeated, i.e. we abandon Washington as a central force in our lives.

If we can do that, maybe this can work.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:00 AM (cY3LT)

259 224. Yes that is a coincidence, like that book about an unsinkable ocean liner that was written way before the Titanic sunk. I think the ship was even named 'Titan'

Posted by: kallisto at August 11, 2019 11:00 AM (b0Mq7)

260 I've tried and tried, but my brain apparently isn't wired for audio books while driving. I can listen, and I enjoy hearing the words, but I never seem to really know what's happening in the story.
Posted by: Moron Robbie -Eight Has No Home Here

I haven't always been a fan of audiobooks because my mind tends to wander. But I seem to be able to manage small bits of the book while out running errands. Plus, I like this reader, Rob Inglis.

Actually, I started with the audiobook, because my paper copies are about 40 years old and a little fragile.

Posted by: sinalco at August 11, 2019 11:00 AM (yODqO)

261 I agree completely. Our lives seem sad when compared
with the super rich, super gorgeous people, especially when we only get
a superficial reading of their existence. Then we are shocked and more
dissatisfied when we find out about their addiction issues, marital
woes, and suicide attempts. If they cannot be happy, how dare we be
content? Utter BS.

Posted by: CN at August 11, 2019 10:55 AM (U7k5w)

---
I think people figure that if they're famous, they'll be happy.

Which is odd, because most famous people are utterly miserable.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:01 AM (cfSRQ)

262 Excuse me? You're listening to audiobooks while making whoopee?
Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 10:54 AM (RK98Q)


Not as far as anyone knows.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:01 AM (t+qrx)

263 Does anyone remember how well the dolphin-pumper book sold after it was discovered by HuffPo?"

Wasn't that the Oscar "Best Picture" a couple of years ago? Wommenz w/Fish. Or something...

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 11:01 AM (6qErC)

264 Most of us have discussed how we want certain books in physical form so they can't be modified or eliminated. That's how I feel about the Bishop Sheen books. They are a persuasive danger to everything the leftist, nihilistic, anti-West gang of thugs stand for. I'm surprised there haven't been more attacks on CS Lewis, except many of the Left-tards probably can't understand them.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 11:02 AM (bmdz3)

265 Yes that is a coincidence, like that book about an
unsinkable ocean liner that was written way before the Titanic sunk. I
think the ship was even named 'Titan'

Posted by: kallisto at August 11, 2019 11:00 AM (b0Mq7)

---
Building a really big ship and than naming it for a really big thing (titan) is completely unexpected, amirite?

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:02 AM (cfSRQ)

266 The OED is wrong on assigning credit for toast to Ghostbusters. The meaning had been around long before the screenplay.

Posted by: SgtBob at August 11, 2019 11:03 AM (by4sp)

267 I sometimes hear passages or phrases that I glossed over while reading. I'd swear they added it for the audiobook, then I'll go back to the text and it's right there, I just never caught it.

-
I've forgotten the name of the phenomenon in which you believe a misremembered event with your whole heart and soul only to discover you that you're wrong but I had such an event. Anatomy of a Murder is one of my favorite movies and it always struck me as absurd that Count Basie would allow a nobody like attorney Paul Biegler jam with him. Then I saw it the other night and it wasn't Count Basie, it was Duke Ellington (I never could keep royalty straight) and it wasn't really Duke Ellington since he was playing a part as another jazz man, Pie Eye, who might let a talented nobody jam with him.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 11:03 AM (+y/Ru)

268 But I seem to be able to manage small bits of the book while out running errands. Plus, I like this reader, Rob Inglis.
Posted by: sinalco at August 11, 2019 11:00 AM (yODqO)


I really like what he does with the songs that pop up in Tolkien. When reading, I'd read through them in a flat tone, because I have no idea what they should sound like; I've never heard them. But his versions are excellent.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:03 AM (t+qrx)

269 Stephenson wrote the story back in the 1880s - long before Hyde's letter was published.

A rare documented case of the Tale not going with the Hyde.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 11:05 AM (8ZmvG)

270 Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 10:06 AM

Are you reading a collection, or a series? Where did you find them?

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at August 11, 2019 11:05 AM (BrRAn)

271 I am reading "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos" by Jordan Peterson. I wish I read it 40 years ago. My kids turned out great. Thanks to a little book named "How to get you children to do what you want" or some such thing.
Such nuggets as "Don't try to reason with a 3 year old" and "Don't sweat the little stuff" worked out quite well.
I biggest peave with Liberals is the old "Preach what you practice." I know some liberals that are self-sufficient, responsible and still married to the person they married in the 70s and 80s.


Posted by: JAS at August 11, 2019 11:05 AM (I5SAg)

272 The corrupted and corrupting effects of the wealthy were mostly insulated from the people, because there was so little means of communicating between the two worlds.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 10:51 AM (cY3LT)


Gee, I'm glad nothing like that could ever happen in the USA today.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:06 AM (3Ame7)

273 251. Carville, La is also the home town of James Carville. His dad was the postmaster of the town

Posted by: Dempsy at August 11, 2019 11:07 AM (17n7L)

274 Obviously Joan Collins as was stated before.

I have been reading a long time on the shelf The New Evidence Thar Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. The one contain both volumes of the work

It is Christian apologetics with 800 pages of evidence arguments and footnotes. Great reading for the Christian who wants to be able to defend their faith. It has been a long read for me over many years but Im pushing to finish it over the next few weeks. I recommend the content but the outline process the author used should be ignored when possible.

Posted by: Dread0 at August 11, 2019 11:08 AM (Bptbo)

275 Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 10:55 AM (cfSRQ)

Maybe I wasn't exact enough in my phrasing- I didn't mean to imply that love was never a component of marriages in the past. But most brides and grooms weren't passionately in love with each other a la Romeo and Juliet, on their wedding day. Commoners probably knew their prospective spouses beforehand, and may have liked each other, but they were encouraged to restrain and harness stronger feelings. There are more than a few historical tracts of advice that tell married couples that their sex lives should be controlled and purposeful, in keeping with the theory that a child's personality was influenced by the circumstances of its conception (wild, swinging from the rafters sex produced passionate and willful children; boring sex produced dull, simple minded children, etc.)

This doesn't mean that married couples were all staid and boring (and they may not have followed the advice books) but the ideal marriage was, as you said, for the long haul, and people were encouraged to cultivate a calmer sort of affection for their partners that could last a lifetime. And marriages for economic security- what we would call gold-digging- were much more normal and accepted, because life was so much harder in general.

Posted by: right wing yankee at August 11, 2019 11:08 AM (zlzYb)

276 I've forgotten the name of the phenomenon in which you believe a misremembered event with your whole heart and soul only to discover you that you're wrong but I had such an event.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 11:03 AM (+y/Ru)


I forget now, too. I remember an article (maybe linked here) about how what everyone remembers about Se7en could make a whole separate movie and not have a single shot in common with the real one. I've heard it called the Mandela effect or the Rashomon effect, but it must be much older than either. I don't know if there's canonical name for it other than 'false memory' or something boring like that.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:08 AM (t+qrx)

277 I've forgotten the name of the phenomenon in which you believe a misremembered event with your whole heart and soul only to discover you that you're wrong

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 11:03 AM (+y/Ru)


I call it "the world I live in now."

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:08 AM (3Ame7)

278 The bacterium that causes leprosy (mycobacterium leprae) is closely related to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis), and tuberous growths are common to both diseases. Likewise, since both bacteria are slow-growing, and most antibiotics target the reproductive cycle of bacteria, treatment regimens are generally quite long-term. Effective eradication of the bacteria can take months to years.

Hence residential treatment facilities (TB sanitarium, leprosarium).

Carville was still operational, but with very low patient numbers when I was at Tulane in the 1980's.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (mvenn)

279 Who Dis:

You're trying to trick me into saying "Joan Collins !"

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (arJlL)

280 Building a really big ship and than naming it for a really big thing (titan) is completely unexpected, amirite?

Dude. Having it sink after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic in April, and not having enough lifeboats -- happens allatime, r-u-rite? Geeze.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (8ZmvG)

281 This is the book I was referencing:

https://tinyurl.com/y559vp86

Amazon link, "Sex In History" by Reay Tannahill.

A comprehensive and readable work. Not at all smutty or frivolous.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (cY3LT)

282 Oh and Not first

Again !

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (arJlL)

283 wild, swinging from the rafters sex "

When does that start?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (6qErC)

284 The talking points have gone out to the media as to how to cover Epstein.

https://bit.ly/2MTwNqA

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 11:10 AM (+y/Ru)

285 "Anyone have any experience buying or selling hardcover via Amazon?

Posted by: motionview at August 11, 2019 09:22 AM (pYQR/)

- - - - - - - -
The biggest thing to look at when selling FBA (That's Fulfilled By Amazon) is that your books move off the shelf. The storage fees can eat you up. Shipping is cheaper than do-it-yourself, but the other fees......
I've been selling books at Amazon in FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant) for about 10 years. It's $49/month "membership" then $1.80 plus 15% of every book sold (including the shipping fee) and I pay the postage. If I sell nothing, I pay nothing for storage (since they're at MY store), but I do pay the $49/month sell or not.


Have you or your wife look at the forums at sellercentral dot amazon dot com. The link is in the bottom of the left column on the home page. There's a section for FBM and one for FBA. And it's filled with intelligent people to answer questions. Just like here.

Posted by: Three and One at August 11, 2019 11:13 AM (2tvJ1)

286 I believe Hyde also had looked into the possibility of establishing a leprosarium in India. There was a fine account of this in the book "Hyde and Sikh" by Willie Bleevit.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 11:13 AM (mvenn)

287 ...Not at all smutty or frivolous.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (cY3LT)


Then what's the point?

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:14 AM (3Ame7)

288 Ever read 'Sex with Kings' by Eleanor Herman? It's non-fiction, written in a rather 'tabloid-y' style, and hilarious and horrifying by turns. Talks a lot of the role of the maitresse en titre, particularly in France and England.

===
no, have not read it, but yes, marriage for nobility and royalty = political arrangement. even the burgeoning middle class was getting in on the act. "Her father owns a mill, his father owns a tannery, what a great union !"

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:14 AM (bUjCl)

289 I've forgotten the name of the phenomenon in which you believe a misremembered event with your whole heart and soul only to discover you that you're wrong but I had such an event.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 11:03 AM (+y/Ru)

I forget now, too. I remember an article (maybe linked here) about how what everyone remembers about Se7en could make a whole separate movie and not have a single shot in common with the real one. I've heard it called the Mandela effect or the Rashomon effect, but it must be much older than either. I don't know if there's canonical name for it other than 'false memory' or something boring like that.
Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:08 AM (t+qrx)


Not necessarily the same thing as is being discussed here, but one of the key components of PTSD is that memories are poorly stored. They're often "misremembered" precisely because the part of the brain that is doing the recalling now, is not the part that is supposed to line up a narrative memory with what actually happened.

So some things are keenly remembered accurately, and some aspects, very crucial ones, are not remembered at all, or are distorted beyond any reasonable interpretation of what actually happened.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:14 AM (cY3LT)

290 There was a fine account of this in the book "Hyde and Sikh" by Willie Bleevit."

Snort.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 11:15 AM (6qErC)

291 Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 11:13 AM (mvenn)

You're certainly feisty today. You must've gone for that second cup of coffee.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:15 AM (3Ame7)

292 ...Not at all smutty or frivolous.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (cY3LT)

Then what's the point?
Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:14 AM (3Ame7)


You said "point."

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:15 AM (cY3LT)

293 er father owns a mill, his father owns a tannery, what a great union "

Hyde and Grist?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 11:15 AM (6qErC)

294 Pic of Elizbeth Taylor reading is useful to me; I like to edit images like that to stick my own books in and use them to advertise. I have ones with Batman, Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and so on. I don't know as anyone has bought any of my books as a result but people seem to like them.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:17 AM (KZzsI)

295 I biggest peave with Liberals is the old "Preach
what you practice." I know some liberals that are self-sufficient,
responsible and still married to the person they married in the 70s and
80s.
Posted by: JAS at August 11, 2019 11:05 AM (I5SAg)

---

I know of a number of liberals who are personally extremely conservative in their finances, personal life, want their kids to work hard and then they vote for communists.

It's annoying.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:17 AM (cfSRQ)

296 C Cupp is off to a good start. She thinks that there is not emotion in the gun control debate.

https://bit.ly/2N5416H

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 11, 2019 11:17 AM (+y/Ru)

297 You must've gone for that second cup of coffee."

Probably not at home... 'cause he never has a second cup of coffee at home.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 11:17 AM (6qErC)

298 er father owns a mill, his father owns a tannery, what a great union "

Hyde and Grist?
Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 11:15 AM (6qErC)

Chaff and Hyde

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:18 AM (bUjCl)

299 If I sell nothing, I pay nothing for storage (since they're at MY store), but I do pay the $49/month sell or not.

Better sell a lotta books to make either of those worthwhile. I don't move that many books a month.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:18 AM (KZzsI)

300 Hyde and Chaff ?

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:19 AM (bUjCl)

301 270 ... "Are you reading a collection, or a series? Where did you find them?"

Good morning, COJ. The books are by a number of different people: Cresswell, Bartram, Catherine Parr Trail, and others. They are usually available on Amazon but I find most of them at Jas. Townsend and Sons. (They have a lot of videos about 18th century life on YouTube under Townsends. The videos are excellent.)

Townsend publishes some of them in good quality paperback and their prices are usually better, even with delivery, than Amazon. They also offer several cookbooks from that period. I haven't checked those yet but the videos they do based on the cookbooks have been hugely popular.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 11:20 AM (bmdz3)

302
I forget now, too. I remember an article (maybe linked here) about how
what everyone remembers about Se7en could make a whole separate movie
and not have a single shot in common with the real one. I've heard it
called the Mandela effect or the Rashomon effect, but it must be much
older than either. I don't know if there's canonical name for it other
than 'false memory' or something boring like that.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:08 AM (t+qrx)

---
I had something like that happen to me regarding Empire Strikes Back.

I saw it in the theater and when it finally came out on video, I was shocked at what wasn't in the film. I mean, I remembered stuff happening right on the screen, but nope, not in the movie. A friend of mine had the exact same scenes in his mind.

Turned out, the *novelization* had those scenes, and we simply projected them into the movie we remembered seeing.

Note to Youngsters: In the Ancient Days, buying the novelization of a movie was a way to watch it again and again after it left the theater since home video was not yet a thing.

Since they were written based on the original script, there are sometimes discrepancies between that and the final cut.

For Star Wars fans, those little tidbits were like Dead Sea Scrolls in terms of digging just a little deeper into the lore.

And then Disney blew it all up, so screw it.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:22 AM (cfSRQ)

303 Calving & Hobbes is wonderful. And timeless. Two Christmases ago I gave my three nephews the three treasuries (The Essential, the Authoritative, and The Indispensable). By the next Christmas, they were completely dog-eared.

I have some nieces approaching the read-for-fun age. I'm thinking about a Foxtrot collection. Anyone have any good comics-for-girls suggestions?

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 11, 2019 11:25 AM (Lhaco)

304 Been doing a lot of writing this week, not reading so I don't have much in book news to mention. I finished Huntingtower by John Buchan, which was a pretty uneven book. It was overall pretty well done but the main character kind of disappears and loses any significance whatsoever about 2/3rds of the way through the book.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:25 AM (KZzsI)

305 You're certainly feisty today. You must've gone for that second cup of coffee.
Posted by: OregonMuse


********

My good mood is oddly inexplicable Some days though, the stream of consciousness will run unimpeded to the sea.

Thanks for putting up with my silliness.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 11:26 AM (mvenn)

306 Yeah I gave my aunt a copy of a Calvin & Hobbes book for her birthday one year, and she was confused. She had never heard of the comic and was apparently baffled by why I was giving her a comic book.

She loves it and collected all the books by now. I Knew she would love it, but you sometimes have to lead people to things.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:26 AM (KZzsI)

307 There is a beautiful mosaic of Fr Damien, along with a brief history of his ministry and miracles, in a small Catholic Church in Lahaina. Maria Lanakila. It's a beautiful. whitewashed Church. I've been there a few times for Easter Mass.

If y'all ever get to Maui, make sure you go. I never did make it to Molokai. Wish I had.

Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 11:28 AM (PkVlr)

308 Calving & Hobbles is wonderful.


********

Wasn't that the last in the James Herriott series? I've read the others. All Creatures Great and Small, etc.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 11:31 AM (mvenn)

309 Toast colloquially at the time of Ghost Busters was in common usage. History really does begin when you are born.

Posted by: Sylvia at August 11, 2019 11:31 AM (WSVNe)

310 er father owns a mill, his father owns a tannery, what a great union "

Hyde and Grist?
Posted by: Anon a mouse at August 11, 2019 11:15 AM (6qErC)

Chaff and Hyde
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:18 AM (bUjCl)


Speaking of conspiracy theories, the late Chuck Tanner, who was a player, later a manager for the Pirates during their legendary 1979 season, so you know he's credible, said the lively ball era of baseball started when the manager of the Yankees at the time made one small change to the baseball.

He had better string! The cotton string that was used by other teams was far inferior to the stuff he was able to get, so when teams played the Yankees, the habit was for the team up to bat to supply the baseballs.

The opponents had their old inferior balls, while the Yankees used the superior balls, with string that held more tightly to the cover, creating greater bounce when the ball would impact a bat.

The manager of the Yankees at that time?

Miller Huggins.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:31 AM (cY3LT)

311 Muldoon,
I remember reading All Creatures Great and Small decades ago! What a sweet memory! Thank you.

Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 11:32 AM (PkVlr)

312 I had something like that happen to me regarding Empire Strikes Back.

I saw it in the theater and when it finally came out on video, I was shocked at what wasn't in the film. I mean, I remembered stuff happening right on the screen, but nope, not in the movie. A friend of mine had the exact same scenes in his mind.

Turned out, the *novelization* had those scenes, and we simply projected them into the movie we remembered seeing.

Note to Youngsters: In the Ancient Days, buying the novelization of a movie was a way to watch it again and again after it left the theater since home video was not yet a thing.

Since they were written based on the original script, there are sometimes discrepancies between that and the final cut.

For Star Wars fans, those little tidbits were like Dead Sea Scrolls in terms of digging just a little deeper into the lore.

And then Disney blew it all up, so screw it.
Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:22 AM (cfSRQ)


Yeah, the main one there: "Luke, I am your father."

Similarly the line "Play it again, Sam" was never uttered in Casablanca.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:34 AM (cY3LT)

313 Yeah, the main one there: "Luke, I am your father."



Similarly the line "Play it again, Sam" was never uttered in Casablanca.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:34 AM (cY3LT)

---
The definitive version is in Strange Brew.

"Luke, I'm your father. Give into the dark side, ya knob."

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:35 AM (cfSRQ)

314 Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:22 AM (cfSRQ)


Yeah, the main one there: "Luke, I am your father."

Similarly the line "Play it again, Sam" was never uttered in Casablanca.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:34 AM (cY3LT)


can be a great thread (not here and now of course), "lines never uttered in films..."

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:36 AM (bUjCl)

315 That "play it again, Sam", stuck around for a long time

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:37 AM (bUjCl)

316 (Looks around......)

Hey !

Where's Eris ?

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:39 AM (arJlL)

317 "Perhaps you are describing one of the mechanisms by
which they can be defeated, i.e. we abandon Washington as a central
force in our lives.
If we can do that, maybe this can work."Posted by: BurtTC

yes, I think TwoSides is their tactic, and the whole "we want a divorce" falls into their tactic of hearding us into two choices (both centralized control by them). Maybe we remain as a two party thang (or not), but we break the "you have to destroy the other" mentality, which imo is still mostly on the left. The right learning to deal with that (as we prepare defensively for Thomas and Kavanaugh) is still not BAMN, it is just better defense.


The left can be broken by showing the central powers that demand allegiance have failed the people, they just buy more gold necklaces (Sharpton imagery) and do not spread the wealth around beyond their circle of crooks. The rebuttle to the "we can never win 20% of the black vote" (including by the Muse yesterday, iirc) ... is good. Of course "we" can, they have been abused ... they are starting to realize it. We can't label them "the other side" based on race or other special identity, and just accept our TwoSides fate designed by the central powers.


imo, this 'TwoSides as their tactic' is just now theory in development for me ... but clearly GOPe is not our side, yet still controls most power, squelching the TeaParty dynamo, for instance, now marginalizing Trump. The coming Trump landslide could be the breaking of the Uniparty. The left's dynamo are the crazies like AOC and Omar ... fringe, but backed by Google's quest for ?

Posted by: illiniwek at August 11, 2019 11:39 AM (Cus5s)

318 I have a troubling conflict going in my writing and really nobody else to talk about with except you people.

I have written three novels and they are well-received but the don't sell much. People who know of me and are aware the books exist have bought copies to read but that's a pretty small circle, really. In all honesty I sell maybe 1 book a month these days.

On the other hand I've written 3 major gaming supplements and 3 fantasy role playing game modules, and those sell pretty well. In the last quarter I sold more than one copy a week. People like what I'm putting out and want more.

I have fans of my books, and they want to read more of my novels but... its a ton of work, I don't sell very many, and I'm not feeling it. Its hard to be motivated knowing its a lot of work for so little return. And while I am not Vic's age, I am not a young man, and have maybe 20 years of writing ability in me. It takes me about a year to write a novel, prep it, and get it published. I can put out a gaming book twice a year or so.

That math makes me think I probably would be a better steward of my time and limited energy with gaming books. So I think I'm going to at least for now put aside novel writing and focus on what actually sells.

But I feel like I'm letting down the people who want to read more books from me

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (KZzsI)

319 Motionview, is your wife using the "individual seller account" ? Just curious.

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (+72t1)

320 The opponents had their old inferior balls, while the Yankees used the superior balls,
Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:31 AM (cY3LT)


So you're saying the Yankees have really great balls?

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (3Ame7)

321 Where's Eris ?
Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:39 AM (arJlL)


Always in the last place you look.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:41 AM (t+qrx)

322
Yeah, the main one there: "Luke, I am your father."

Similarly the line "Play it again, Sam" was never uttered in Casablanca.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:34 AM

can be a great thread (not here and now of course), "lines never uttered in films..."

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:36 AM


"Beam me up, Scotty" was never said in TOS

Posted by: AltonJackson
Save the Date!!!
The MiMoMe & Emporium is 21SEP19
Chelsea, Michigan
at August 11, 2019 11:41 AM (KCxzN)

323 I'm reading "My Three Genders and a Designated Player To Be Named Later" by Joe Biden.

It's science.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at August 11, 2019 11:41 AM (Ndje9)

324 So you're saying the Yankees have really great balls?
Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (3Ame7)


AC/DC, surely?

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:42 AM (t+qrx)

325 Toast colloquially at the time of Ghost Busters was in common usage.

Yeah we used it in school before Bill Murray declared that the chick was toast

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:42 AM (KZzsI)

326 I guess the flip side of discovering a Nazi past is discovering, as I did, that my maternal grandmother's cousin (my third cousin, I think) was Martin Dies, Chairman of the Dies Committee of the 1930s, one of the first to investigate un-American subversives in our government.

Posted by: Dan Smoot's Apprentice at August 11, 2019 11:43 AM (H8QX8)

327 " to be concerned about at all. So his legacy is that he's decided that he's not going to have one. He wants his footprint to be so small that after he's gone, they're barely know he even existed. Which is good, because he's a pinhead."

Reminds me of the virtue signaling TEA Party who never get a single piece of legislation through, won a culture battle, or even changed their own party- but by God they cleaned up after they protested, and they want everyone to know it.

Posted by: Quilp at August 11, 2019 11:43 AM (Bf3hj)

328 GIN COLLINS with a fag and a book. What do I win?


A bag of dicks!!! well buggers can't be choosers.

Posted by: saf at August 11, 2019 11:43 AM (5IHGB)

329 Where's Eris ?
Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:39 AM (arJlL)

Always in the last place you look.
Posted by: hogmartin

That happened with my glasses; I couldn't find them and decided to sit down and think where they could be.

And I sat on them.

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (arJlL)

330 But I feel like I'm letting down the people who want to read more books from me
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (KZzsI)

Don't worry about us - write the fun for you stuff that sells!

At some point you might want to write novels again - and they might be completely different from your previous ones.

Follow your Muse or she'll get tired of wagging her bootie at ya.

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (+72t1)

331 The opponents had their old inferior balls, while the Yankees used the superior balls,
Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:31 AM (cY3LT)

So you're saying the Yankees have really great balls?
Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (3Ame7)


Had.

Now they just have superior money. And steroids.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:45 AM (cY3LT)

332
Back from my jog with the delightful and athletic Mrs naturalfake.

Now to see what's up thread...

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 11:45 AM (mIQCW)

333 I started Camille Paglia's "Life and


Jeez, Louise! I just looked to make sure I had the title right and realized the author is Camille Pagan. I've never read Paglia, being uninterested in the usual subject matter, and was surprised to find this book pleasantly funny. No wonder.

Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 11:45 AM (RK98Q)

334 And I sat on them.
Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (arJlL)

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 11:46 AM (+72t1)

335 That happened with my glasses; I couldn't find them and decided to sit down and think where they could be.

And I sat on them.
Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (arJlL)


I've also found my glasses by listening for them. They make a very distinct sound.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:46 AM (t+qrx)

336 A week ago, the King of Thailand named one of his mistresses as the official concubine in an elaborate ceremony with the Queen sitting beside him.

Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 10:50 AM (UGKMd)



Thailand's Top Ho'.


So, not unlike becoming America's Poet Laureate.


Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 11:46 AM (mIQCW)

337 I'm reading a new book that was written in 2020.

Posted by: Joe Biden at August 11, 2019 11:47 AM (MAstk)

338 Sometimes find stuff by yelling for them.
"Has anyone seen my..."

" It's on the printer, Mom. "

The printer has a zone of invisibility, I swear.

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 11:49 AM (+72t1)

339 I have a troubling conflict going in my writing and really nobody else to talk about with except you people.




Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (KZzsI)

---
Why do you write?

Answer that, and you've solved your conflict.

I write for fun. I write stuff I want to write. People asked for more stories set in the Man of Destiny universe, so I wrote about the Coast Guard and now I'm tacking vampires.

Because I write what I want.

I use cheat sheets for every one of my novels where I keep track of the characters, key description, plot points, background, etc. and at the top of each one it says: "Remember, this is for FUN! You already have a job."

Write what makes you happy.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:50 AM (cfSRQ)

340 Good morning Horde,

I recently finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I never thought I would read a King novel because most are too scary for me, and I'm not into horror. But, 11/22/63 is more of an alternate history/time travel book about trying to change history by preventing the JFK assassination. I really enjoyed it, and I discovered that Stephen King is a great writer.

Last night, I finished Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge. I had no idea what to expect, but I really enjoyed this one, too. Admittedly, it did start off a bit slow, but after the first couple of chapters, I could hardly put it down. It is about a plane wreck and being stranded on a desert island and survival as well as love and heartbreak.
Finally, I also read A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie. It is her first of 18 mysteries in the series (so far). This first one was written in 1993. I liked it enough that I want to continue reading more of the series.
Happy reading!Violet

Posted by: Violet at August 11, 2019 11:50 AM (9ppMC)

341 But I feel like I'm letting down the people who want to read more books from me
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (KZzsI)

Don't worry about us - write the fun for you stuff that sells!

At some point you might want to write novels again - and they might be completely different from your previous ones.

Follow your Muse or she'll get tired of wagging her bootie at ya.
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (+72t1)


Sorta related, anyone who is a Pewdiepie fan knows for the past month or so, his output has been all Minecraft, all the time.

For a while there he was putting out some well disguised social commentary, and it was a treat seeing what he had to say on any given day.

Now, I don't even bother. But when he was doing his "meme reaction" videos, he was getting generally around 5-7 million views on his good days. Now he's topping 10 million with every video, with almost no chance he'll get a copystrike by any major corps and/or douchebag youtubers.

As an added bonus, the media leaves him alone.

Good for him. I'm not interested, but obviously the people who watch his vids, and thus pay his bills, are.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 11:51 AM (cY3LT)

342 The novel was roundly denounced from the pulpit (and the coffee-house) for a very long time before it emerged that the content of the form might have redeeming literary value. Not that there were not deep literary vehicles: poetry was alive in them thar days, and earlier narrative forms more given to allegory were widely read and favored. Novels were just considered trashy.

I don't know of any analysts of current literary forms who don't teach that the great era of the novel is long past. They feed upon an exquisite corpse, I think is the saying. It's not that you can't write a fulfilling novel (or symphony, I'd like to add); their appeal is definitely more selective, and a bunch of people have grown up in a mood that just doesn't get a deep satisfaction from what the wrap-up of a novel has to offer.

If there is a way to imbue gaming with more depth, more complexity of character, maybe even some value-judgment to the plot options, a fellow might console himself that he's participating in the development of a new literary form, not just going for the Hack Street money.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 11:51 AM (8ZmvG)

343 OM, Thanks for another great book thread. It is always fun and leads to discovering so many worthwhile books I would never have heard of. Your efforts are REALLY appreciated.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 11:52 AM (bmdz3)

344
that was close

in a moment of muddled thinking, I "volunteered" to take my son & his droogs to Guitar Center this afternoon

just found out the mission has been scrubbed

& I was gong to look for a "How to Play Harmonica for Fun & Profit" audiobook (SWYDT?)

Posted by: AltonJackson
Save the Date!!!
The MiMoMe & Emporium is 21SEP19
Chelsea, Michigan
at August 11, 2019 11:56 AM (KCxzN)

345 My conviction I was reading Paglia would seem to bear some similarity to the movie scenes that turn out to not be there in the video.

In that vein, though, the video is not always an exact duplicate of the movie.

Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 11:56 AM (RK98Q)

346 Once worked part-time in a bookstore. Worked alone one year, after the Christmas rush -- no customers. So, sat and read Calvin and Hobbes. Laughed so hard tears were running. Suddenly, through the door came three of the most beautiful young women I have ever seen. And, there I was looking as stupid as possible.

Years later, friends gave me the complete boxed set of Calvin and Hobbes. Went through them all, again.

Posted by: French Jeton at August 11, 2019 11:56 AM (Fjvqd)

347 " It's on the printer, Mom. "

The printer has a zone of invisibility, I swear.
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 11:49 AM (+72t1)


I guess that's better than "You're holding it in your right hand, Mom."

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:57 AM (3Ame7)

348 Thailand's Top Ho'.

So, not unlike becoming America's Poet Laureate.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 11:46 AM (mIQCW)


Speaker of the House.

Here's the news coverage from the Daily Mail:

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3ooynmo

Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 11:57 AM (UGKMd)

349 OM, Thanks for another great book thread. It is always fun and leads to discovering so many worthwhile books I would never have heard of. Your efforts are REALLY appreciated.
Posted by: JTB

Seconded !

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:57 AM (arJlL)

350 Don't worry about us - write the fun for you stuff that sells!


In which Banders cousels contrariwise.

A book a month is $120/year income*. A game a week is $480/year*.

Consider the time to compose, write, edit, and publish each I would estimate that you earn $0.015 per hour writing books and as much as $0.05 per hour writing gaming claptrap.

You're writing for you. Write to please yourself.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 11:58 AM (fuK7c)

351 Oh, the "*" were "these are made up numbers"

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 11:59 AM (fuK7c)

352 I guess that's better than "You're holding it in your right hand, Mom."


Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 11:57 AM (3Ame7)

---
"The glasses are on top of your head."

I've had my kids ask where something is in the cabinet and I point out that they just pushed it aside to look around.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 11:59 AM (cfSRQ)

353 Dude. Having it sink after hitting an iceberg in the
North Atlantic in April, and not having enough lifeboats -- happens
allatime, r-u-rite? Geeze.


Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (8ZmvG)

According to British maritime laws in effect at the time, Titanic had more than enough lifeboats. The number of lifeboats necessary was determined by gross tonnage. All that changed after the disaster.

Posted by: thatcrzyjerseyguy at August 11, 2019 12:00 PM (9YBqo)

354 Anybody ever found the salt shaker in the refrigerator?

Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (PkVlr)

355 343 OM, Thanks for another great book thread. It is always fun and leads to discovering so many worthwhile books I would never have heard of. Your efforts are REALLY appreciated.
Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 11:52 AM (bmdz3)


Thank you for your kind words. It's the comments, though, that give the book thread its special joie de vivre.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (3Ame7)

356 A week ago, the King of Thailand named one of his mistresses as the
official concubine in an elaborate ceremony with the Queen sitting
beside him.



Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 10:50 AM (UGKMd)
---
Inspiration for Kamala Harris?

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (cfSRQ)

357 Where's Eris ?
Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:39 AM (arJlL)

Always in the last place you look.
Posted by: hogmartin

I say...matinee showing of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 12:02 PM (bUjCl)

358 Oh, the "*" were "these are made up numbers"
Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 11:59 AM (fuK7c)


Thought so, because I'm imagining 500 years from now, when they discover your novel, lying unsold by the hundreds in the wasteland that used to be civilization, and realize what a genius you were, you'll be rolling in money.

Then who has the last laugh, I ask you.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (cY3LT)

359 I say...matinee showing of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Good thinkin' Lincoln !

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (arJlL)

360 I say...matinee showing of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood


Oh, I hope so. She said she might see it today.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (fuK7c)

361 "Beam me up, Scotty" was never said in TOS
Posted by: AltonJackson


I had no idea ! really

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (bUjCl)

362 Anybody ever found the salt shaker in the refrigerator?
Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (PkVlr)

===

So now its time to put a little post-it on your front door, "Take keys! Wallet! Sunglasses!"

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (EZebt)

363 NO SPOILERS !!

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (bUjCl)

364 That happened with my glasses; I couldn't find them and decided to sit down and think where they could be.



And I sat on them.

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (arJlL)





I've also found my glasses by listening for them. They make a very distinct sound.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 11:46 AM (t+qrx)

Early on in my glasses-wearing life (circa grade 5), I was standing at the bus stop and started to freak out because I thought I had left my glasses at home and there wasn't time to run there and back.

I was wearing them.

Posted by: Vendette at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (OgGoW)

365 hah! this is why I wear contacts

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (+72t1)

366 >>I have some nieces approaching the read-for-fun age. I'm thinking about a Foxtrot collection. Anyone have any good comics-for-girls suggestions?

Not specifically for girls but if you are looking for a comic in the vein of Calvin and Hobbes you might want to check out Wallace the Brave.

It's written by a guy in my town and deals with the adventures of a bunch of kids in a mythical seaside town.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (ZLI7S)

367 Anybody ever found the salt shaker in the refrigerator?
Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (PkVlr)


Is that like the little man in the boat? Because I've found him in the bedroom.

Once or twice.

Honest.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (cY3LT)

368 I keep losing things in plain sight. For some reason they don't register until the third or fourth search. It's disconcerting.

Has anyone seen the bait capsule to my new Japanese beetle trap?

Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (RK98Q)

369 I've also found my glasses by listening for them. They make a very distinct sound.

After I sat on them , the said "Auntie Em ! Auntie EM !"

Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (arJlL)

370 364 That happened with my glasses; I couldn't find them and decided to sit down and think where they could be.

And I sat on them.
Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (arJlL)


And that pair of glasses...

Was me.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (3Ame7)

371 Consider the time to compose, write, edit, and
publish each I would estimate that you earn $0.015 per hour writing
books and as much as $0.05 per hour writing gaming claptrap.



You're writing for you. Write to please yourself.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 11:58 AM (fuK7c)

---
If I write something I don't enjoy, I expect to be paid for it. Writing something I like? Free.

I get paid for my hobby, which is nice. When it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:06 PM (cfSRQ)

372
Has anyone seen the bait capsule to my new Japanese beetle trap?
Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (RK98Q)

it's in the fridge next to the salt shaker

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 12:06 PM (+72t1)

373 NO SPOILERS !!
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 12:03 PM (bUjCl)


She's a dude.


There. Spoiled.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:07 PM (cY3LT)

374 hah! this is why I wear contacts
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (+72t1)


Sounds like you've never tried to remove your own cornea before bed because you didn't notice the contact lens coming off onto your finger already.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:07 PM (t+qrx)

375 About halfway through Brigantia by Goldsworthy. Love it so far just as much as the other two. I also have trouble with keeping the characters straight, but I just kinda go with it. It all comes together in my head in the end. I am trying to figure out why Ferox is such a sympathetic character. He really is one of my favorite characters ever.

Posted by: MMcK at August 11, 2019 12:07 PM (xHxJf)

376 I woke up one morning to find I'd put the milk in the cupboard. It was spoiled by then, of course.

This was quite a while ago, though, I can't blame old age. I was just really, really tired.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:08 PM (KZzsI)

377 That happened with my glasses; I couldn't find them and decided to sit down and think where they could be.

And I sat on them.
Posted by: JT at August 11, 2019 11:44 AM (arJlL)

And that pair of glasses...

Was me.
Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 12:05 PM (3Ame7)


I'm starting to understand.

When there was only one set of footprints in the sand... that was... you?

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:08 PM (cY3LT)

378 Anybody ever found the salt shaker in the refrigerator?

Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (PkVlr)

Yep. Found the cold cuts in the bread box/drawer once, as well. **sigh**

Posted by: thatcrzyjerseyguy at August 11, 2019 12:08 PM (9YBqo)

379 @353 Not the Titanic, dammit! The wholly-fictional SS TITAN.

Argggh.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 12:10 PM (8ZmvG)

380 Ew hogmartin!!!

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 12:10 PM (+72t1)

381 I woke up one morning to find I'd put the milk in the cupboard. It was spoiled by then, of course.

This was quite a while ago, though, I can't blame old age. I was just really, really tired.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:08 PM (KZzsI)


Seriously. This is a time of unsettlement, and big decisions, most of which are welcomed, but are wearing me down in ways that I couldn't predict. But I know when I've had enough, when I find stuff like that happening.

Or I'm two thirds of the way through a daily task, and realize I forgot where I was in it, or was surprised to find I'd more or less completed it without a conscious thought.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:10 PM (cY3LT)

382 I woke up one morning to find I'd put the milk in the cupboard. It was spoiled by then, of course.

This was quite a while ago, though, I can't blame old age. I was just really, really tired.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:08 PM (KZzsI)


I've brewed a cup of coffee and poured a ginger ale over ice, then added milk to the ginger ale.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:11 PM (t+qrx)

383 27
"I remember hearing about returning Vietnam vets being spat on and called

"baby killers" by smelly hippies. That still burns me up to think about

it."
Long Beach Navy yard, 1970. Two punks on the outside of the chain link fence, we couldn't get to them.
Still pisses me off when I think about it.

Posted by: boyNsea at August 11, 2019 12:12 PM (Fks5r)

384 I've brewed a cup of coffee and poured a ginger ale over ice, then added milk to the ginger ale.
Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:11 PM (t+qrx)


how was it ? good ? new product ??

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 12:12 PM (bUjCl)

385 376 I woke up one morning to find I'd put the milk in the cupboard. It was spoiled by then, of course.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:08 PM (KZzsI)


That reminds me,, I was recently made aware that there is such a thing called shelf-stable milk, i.e. milk that doesn't need refrigeration.

Many places sell it, notably Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0748DYQT6/

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 12:13 PM (3Ame7)

386 Consider the time to compose, write, edit, and
publish each I would estimate that you earn $0.015 per hour writing
books and as much as $0.05 per hour writing gaming claptrap.



You're writing for you. Write to please yourself.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 11:58 AM (fuK7c)

---
If I write something I don't enjoy, I expect to be paid for it. Writing something I like? Free.

I get paid for my hobby, which is nice. When it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it.
Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:06 PM (cfSRQ)



Well, of course, the hope is that people like what you've written, and the easy measure of that is sales.

But, that is something you can't can't control.

So...write a story or novel, etc- which you would like to read. Something that you would enjoy. Make it as original and unique as you can.

And, hopefully, you will find your readers.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 12:13 PM (mIQCW)

387 how was it ? good ? new product ??
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 12:12 PM (bUjCl)


I didn't try it. It was the last of the milk, too.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:13 PM (t+qrx)

388 Long Beach Navy yard, 1970. Two punks on the outside of the chain link fence, we couldn't get to them.
Still pisses me off when I think about it.


"And I was that little girl"
--Hillary Clinton

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:14 PM (KZzsI)

389 This just in; Jeffery Epstein- still dead.

Posted by: Archer at August 11, 2019 12:14 PM (0E35O)

390 I've brewed a cup of coffee and poured a ginger ale over ice, then added milk to the ginger ale.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:11 PM (t+qrx)

---
Almost did that last weekend. Coffee cup next to orange juice glass. Raise creamer and catch myself before I add it to the orange juice.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:14 PM (cfSRQ)

391 Never salt but lots of other food stuff not needing to be refrigerated.

Posted by: Skip at August 11, 2019 12:14 PM (BbGew)

392 "...next to the salt shaker"

Sorely needed (and very loud) laugh.


My cell phone got wet yesterday and is currently lounging in a bag of rice. It'll be 24 hours as of noon. I'm almost afraid to try it.

But it's been fun being incommunicado except for this tablet. Part of me is hoping the phone is dead. Maybe a land line?

Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 12:14 PM (RK98Q)

393 362
Anybody ever found the salt shaker in the refrigerator?

Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (PkVlr)

I once spent most of the morning looking for my car keys, which were eventually found in the freezer compartment of the fridge.

Posted by: boyNsea at August 11, 2019 12:15 PM (Fks5r)

394 Well I don't write for a hobby. Its something I can do to make money with, even if its a very small amount of money. I love to do it, too but its my job.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:15 PM (KZzsI)

395 Jeffrey Epstein should have been on homicide watch.

Posted by: creeper at August 11, 2019 12:16 PM (RK98Q)

396 Raise creamer and catch myself before I add it to the orange juice.

Would be pretty tasty, though. Creamsicle

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:16 PM (KZzsI)

397 I was recently made aware that there is such a thing called shelf-stable milk, i.e. milk that doesn't need refrigeration.

Many places sell it, notably Amazon:
===

Yes ! Also,
very famous : Parmalat milk - on Amazon as well. if you like paying $30/32oz. for milk.

Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 12:16 PM (bUjCl)

398 I've needed glasses since 5th grade for anything farther away than four inches. At least I don't have "where are my eye glasses" moments. If I can see, they are on my face. If I can't see I'm either waking up and they're on the nightstand or coming out of the shower and they're on the back of the toilet. And always in the same spot so I just have to reach out to put my hand on them. After so many decades it is a reflex. The few exceptions, like when I was dating or staying over at a friend's, involved some serious groping to find them.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 12:17 PM (bmdz3)

399
"Beam me up, Scotty" was never said in TOS
Posted by: AltonJackson

I had no idea ! really
Posted by: runner


Play it again, Bones.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at August 11, 2019 12:17 PM (aKsyK)

400 Well I don't write for a hobby. Its something I can do to make money
with, even if its a very small amount of money. I love to do it, too
but its my job.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:15 PM (KZzsI)

---
So you answered your question.

Write what sells.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:17 PM (cfSRQ)

401 Would be pretty tasty, though. Creamsicle
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:16 PM (KZzsI)


Vanilla Stoli screwdrivers taste exactly like an orange creamsicle.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:17 PM (t+qrx)

402 Searching for my lost sharper of salt

Posted by: Jimmy Buffett at August 11, 2019 12:18 PM (0E35O)

403 Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, My Dear Watson."

He did say "Elementary!" once but not that phrase.

He only was described wearing a deerstalker cap once, and never in the brilliant original illustrations for the series, he's usually bare headed.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:19 PM (KZzsI)

404 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:40 AM (KZzsI)

As one of the people who has read and enjoyed your novels, and would like more, it's more important that you be able to make money with your writing or you won't be able to write anything at all. Other than that, would it speed up writing novels to set new ones in the worlds you've already created?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 11, 2019 12:20 PM (phT8I)

405 Nope, that's not the right lyric...

Shaker of salt.


Tunes guitar

Posted by: Jimmy Buffett at August 11, 2019 12:20 PM (0E35O)

406 The few exceptions, like when I was dating or staying over at a friend's, involved some serious groping to find them.

Posted by: JTB at August 11, 2019 12:17 PM (bmdz3)

---
When I was dating, serious groping was generally the exception.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:20 PM (cfSRQ)

407 Here's the news coverage from the Daily Mail:

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3ooynmo
Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 11:57 AM (UGKMd


From that account, the King of Thailand sounds like the very stereotype of decadent royal scum. Married a bunch of times. Threw a lavish birthday party for his pet dog, which was attended by his third wife who wore nothing but a g-string. So a guy like that, designating an Official Royal Ho' is no big surprise.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 12:20 PM (3Ame7)

408 FWIW, the Pinterest site where I found the photo of Joan Collins reading "East of Eden" says it was taken during a break in filming "Island in the Sun," in 1957.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at August 11, 2019 12:21 PM (S+f+m)

409 They hate us nood!

Posted by: Tonypete at August 11, 2019 12:22 PM (Y4EXg)

410 Books and breakfast and coffee is a magnificent thing!

Happy Sunday!

Posted by: Fritz at August 11, 2019 12:22 PM (kLDv+)

411 408
FWIW, the Pinterest site where I found the photo of Joan Collins reading
"East of Eden" says it was taken during a break in filming "Island in
the Sun," in 1957.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at August 11, 2019 12:21 PM (S+f+m)

---
I believe that was an Alec Waugh book. Evelyn's older brother.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:22 PM (cfSRQ)

412 That reminds me,, I was recently made aware that
there is such a thing called shelf-stable milk, i.e. milk that doesn't
need refrigeration.

Many places sell it, notably Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0748DYQT6/



Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 12:13 PM (3Ame7)

In addition to the larger sizes, I've bought the stuff in juice-box size at the grocery store. That would work particularly well for things like camping or power outages.

Posted by: Vendette at August 11, 2019 12:22 PM (OgGoW)

413 299
If I sell nothing, I pay nothing for storage (since they're at MY store), but I do pay the $49/month sell or not.



Better sell a lotta books to make either of those worthwhile. I don't move that many books a month.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 11:18 AM (KZzsI)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The important thing for fulfilling your own books on the Amazon platform is to remember to price high enough to cover that $49 fee. Plus of course, the Amazon commission. I get significantly more views of my product at Amazon than my own BM or website.

And I've had many times when I had a book priced at $5 in my own store or website that's been sitting here unsold for years. Put it on Amazon at $15 and sell within a week.

The eyeballs are important.

Posted by: Three and One at August 11, 2019 12:23 PM (2tvJ1)

414 Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:06 PM (cfSRQ)


Well, of course, the hope is that people like what you've written, and the easy measure of that is sales.

But, that is something you can't can't control.

So...write a story or novel, etc- which you would like to read. Something that you would enjoy. Make it as original and unique as you can.

And, hopefully, you will find your readers.
Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 12:13 PM (mIQCW)


If you subscribe to the theory, as I do, that the human race is basically unchanged over the past several thousand years, and the things that change are the conditions we live in, then the writing of novels is one of those things that hasn't changed much.

Except the conditions. So... suppose you are a writer today, and you publish a novel that sells 100 copies. Chances are, there are 10,000 other writers who publish novels that sell 100 copies. That's a million books.

Then there are 1000 writers who sell 1000 copies each, another 100K books sold. 100 writers who sell 10,000 copies or more, and maybe 10 who sell 100,000 or more copies.

Someone else do the math, that's what, if we don't include the books that sell millions, maybe 5 million books sold a year?

How many books were sold 50 years ago? Give or take adjustments in the population... probably about 5 million.

So, you can write, with the hopes that you'll sell more than 100 copies, but chances are, you won't. The difference between now and 50 years ago, your book will be published.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:23 PM (cY3LT)

415 Other than that, would it speed up writing novels to set new ones in the worlds you've already created?

They feed on each other, actually. The world I write (most) of my books in is the world I'm building as a game setting in the supplements. I use ideas and concepts from the sourcebooks in my novels, and come up with ideas in my novels that show up in the sourcebook.

For example, the paladin story I started, he uses various "Words" and "Rituals" which I wrote up officially for paladins to use in the game world for an upcoming sourcebook. Herbs in my Field Guide showed up in Snowberry's Veil, etc.

The conflict for me is that the more novels you have on the shelf, the more you tend to sell. Its like people are more willing to take a chance on an author who has 18 books than one who has 2. I guess the theory is they can't suck if they wrote so many but we all know that's nonsense; there are some awful but prolific writers out there.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:24 PM (KZzsI)

416 Then there are 1000 writers who sell 1000 copies each, another 100K books sold.

--------
Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:23 PM (cY3LT)


That would be a million, dummy.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:25 PM (cY3LT)

417 This just in; Jeffery Epstein- still dead.
Posted by: Archer at August 11, 2019 12:14 PM (0E35O)

I wonder if old Jeffrey had a drop box somewhere that was to be opened upon his untimely demise, like if he was struck by lightening or if he was found hanged in his cell.



Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 11, 2019 12:27 PM (Z+IKu)

418 Anybody ever found the salt shaker in the refrigerator?

Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (PkVlr)

-

Once. It was behind my wife's keys.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 12:29 PM (RMwSd)

419 Fewer people read today than they used to, its going back to the days when so many were illiterate. Few are literally illiterate today, but... effectively they are, because they can only read small short messages and not anything long-form.

But on the other hand, there are more people alive today than any time in previous history, so maybe the overall total number of readers is not diminished? The real tough part for selling books is just being known.

If nobody knows your book exists, how can they buy it?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:31 PM (KZzsI)

420 I've written quite a bit with no intention of publishing but only with my kids finding and reading it after I'm gone.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 12:32 PM (RMwSd)

421 Speaking of, I promised to play. Backson.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 12:33 PM (RMwSd)

422

And
they are aided an abetted by the MFM. They could not have got half as
far as they have without having them in their back-pocket.

Posted by: Vic at August 11, 2019 12:35 PM (mpXpK)

423 shit, wrong thread

Posted by: Vic at August 11, 2019 12:36 PM (mpXpK)

424 >>> 353 Dude. Having it sink after hitting an iceberg in the
North Atlantic in April, and not having enough lifeboats -- happens
allatime, r-u-rite? Geeze.


Posted by: Stringer Davis at August 11, 2019 11:09 AM (8ZmvG)

According to British maritime laws in effect at the time, Titanic had more than enough lifeboats. The number of lifeboats necessary was determined by gross tonnage. All that changed after the disaster.
Posted by: thatcrzyjerseyguy at August 11, 2019 12:00 PM (9YBqo)

Seriously???

I'm soooooo glad our bureaucrats are so much smarter these days. ///

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 11, 2019 12:38 PM (0ReGO)

425 Anybody ever found the salt shaker in the refrigerator?
Posted by: Nurse ratched at August 11, 2019 12:01 PM (PkVlr)

Once. It was behind my wife's keys.
Posted by: Moron Robbie - Eight Has No Home Here at August 11, 2019 12:29 PM (RMwSd)


*opens refrigerator*
*pours milk on keys, salt shaker*
*puts milk back in cabinet*

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:39 PM (t+qrx)

426 According to British maritime laws in effect at the time, Titanic had more than enough lifeboats.

They were so confident that they were unsinkable that they didn't go above the minimum. Lifeboats are fairly cheap, but they add weight and hence increase fuel consumption. That means less money each trip, so the cruise line didn't want to spend it, apparently.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:41 PM (KZzsI)

427 They were so confident that they were unsinkable that they didn't go above the minimum. Lifeboats are fairly cheap, but they add weight and hence increase fuel consumption. That means less money each trip, so the cruise line didn't want to spend it, apparently.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 11, 2019 12:41 PM (KZzsI)


The ship had enough watertight compartments that even if several were breached, it would remain afloat for a while - it did take almost three hours to sink. Combine that with well-trafficked shipping lanes and near-ubiquitous wireless, and lifeboats are for ferrying people to the rescue ship that arrives shortly after the distress signal.

It just didn't work out that way.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:45 PM (t+qrx)

428 According to British maritime laws in effect at the
time, Titanic had more than enough lifeboats. The number of lifeboats
necessary was determined by gross tonnage. All that changed after the disaster.

Posted by: thatcrzyjerseyguy at August 11, 2019 12:00 PM (9YBqo)



Seriously???



I'm soooooo glad our bureaucrats are so much smarter these days. /




Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 11, 2019 12:38 PM (0ReGO)

---
I think the concept was that the ship would go down slowly and that would allow ample time for other vessels to arrive on scene, and they would use their boats as well.

Passenger service was pretty regular and used known lanes.

Given that, it isn't as stupid as it appears in hindsight.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:45 PM (cfSRQ)

429 Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:45 PM (cfSRQ)

CQD CQD CQD COMMENTS HAVE COLLIDED REQUEST ASSISTANCE CQD CQD CQD

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 12:47 PM (t+qrx)

430 Ramming speed!

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 12:50 PM (cfSRQ)

431 From that account, the King of Thailand sounds like the very stereotype of decadent royal scum. Married a bunch of times. Threw a lavish birthday party for his pet dog, which was attended by his third wife who wore nothing but a g-string. So a guy like that, designating an Official Royal Ho' is no big surprise.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor at August 11, 2019 12:20 PM (3Ame7)


He's just living the Ace of Spades lifestyle! Curious that there's no mention of hobo hunting, though.

Posted by: cool breeze at August 11, 2019 12:52 PM (UGKMd)

432 So sorry I'm late to the thread!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 11, 2019 12:53 PM (kQs4Y)

433 Everybody missed you and there was public speculation as to what you were up to.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 12:57 PM (fuK7c)

434 What did tin foil ever do to you?


Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 10:27 AM (cfSRQ)



https://youtu.be/urglg3WimHA

Posted by: Kindltot at August 11, 2019 12:59 PM (q2o38)

435 In “The New Right” Michael Malice, a self-described anarchist, sought to understand “this loosely connected group of individuals united by their opposition to progressivism, which they perceive as a thinly veiled fundamentalist religion dedicated to egalitarian principles and intent on totalitarian world domination via globalist hegemony.”

Being a bit of a political oddball himself, he is loath to not finding a point of common ground with fringe groups. He enjoys actually talking to people and finding new views. “To be unable to associate with those you disagree with, to think there is an absolute correlation between politics and character, is something I find reprehensible. “The personal is political” is a totalitarian progressive decree that I reject entirely.”

He notes that after Buckley purged dissenters (including some kookier elements) from NR, and the Conservatives coalesced, virtually every leftist program was later championed by NR over time. As Malice is fond of saying, Conservatism is progressivism driving the speed limit.

He also talks to Gavin McInnes, Milo, Cernovitch, and other gleeful warriors.

I get the sense that Malice is an anarchist in the Rothbardian vein, i.e., a free market man. “Capitalism”, said Rothbard, “is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism.” He doesn't invest much trust in the voting system.


Here's his C-SPAN interview:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?462539-1/after-words-michael-malice

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 11, 2019 01:00 PM (kQs4Y)

436 Hello Eris!

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at August 11, 2019 01:02 PM (+72t1)

437 Everybody missed you and there was public speculation as to what you were up to.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 12:57 PM (fuK7c)


Oh, and after a while, we melted down all the gold and made a statue of Eris, and it became the new Eris, remember that?

I kind of miss Giant Golden Statue Eris. It was stern, but fair.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 01:02 PM (t+qrx)

438 So, you can write, with the hopes that you'll sell more than 100 copies, but chances are, you won't. The difference between now and 50 years ago, your book will be published.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 11, 2019 12:23 PM (cY3LT)



Well, yes. In essence, if your writing doesn't support you or, at least, contribute a significant amount to your income,

it's a hobby.

I don't think there's any denying that.

I would argue that it's a better hobby than collecting matchbook covers or whatever.

But, modern life gives us that free time. Use it as you will.

Let's look at the example of Harry Crews, a writer who both Captain Hate and I admire.

As a writer, he got all of the logrolling that a writer in the 60s-70s could want.

Every one of his early novels got a big write up tin TIME and other magazines.

But, he just did not sell very well. Black humor is a tough sell (as I'm finding out with my novel).

A-a-a-a-anyway, he didn't sell big but his reputation allowed him to latch onto some college as a writer in residence and make his living that way.

Was he a writer making his living through his writing? Yes.

Was he a writer who made his living set;ling books? No.


I think this is the main difference between the old publisher centric system and today's writing reality.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 01:03 PM (mIQCW)

439 I kind of miss Giant Golden Statue Eris. It was stern, but fair.


Yes, but did it surprise you at all that we couldn't insure it after only a handful of incidents? Thing didn't really behave.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 01:05 PM (fuK7c)

440 I have to say, I thought Prince Harry was as close to a normal as the Royal Family could get.

So wrong.

Posted by: Gem at August 11, 2019 01:05 PM (XoAz8)

441 And with that I'm off to Cabelas. You little scamps clean up after yourselves.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 01:08 PM (fuK7c)

442 I kind of miss Giant Golden Statue Eris. It was stern, but fair.
Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 01:02 PM (t+qrx)
---
Did you pluck out the glowing ruby eyes first?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 11, 2019 01:12 PM (kQs4Y)

443 Did you pluck out the glowing ruby eyes first?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 11, 2019 01:12 PM (kQs4Y)


It's not a bowl of Lucky Charms, you know.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 01:15 PM (t+qrx)

444 And with that I'm off to Cabelas. You little scamps clean up after yourselves.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 01:08 PM (fuK7c)


Aw, have fun. I've never been to one.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 01:16 PM (t+qrx)

445
I think this is the main difference between the old publisher centric system and today's writing reality.





Posted by: naturalfake at August 11, 2019 01:03 PM (mIQCW)

---
The thing is, one can actually do well if enough people are interested.

My business model (such as it is) is simply to write and keep writing. Each time I get a blip (here or elsewhere), the chances of selling books and getting my name out increases.

And having a back catalog is helpful because people tend to stick with authors they like. I figure I'll make a push at marketing when I have a few more books done.

Posted by: Ace-Endosed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 11, 2019 01:20 PM (cfSRQ)

446 So those two fellows on either side of the emperor invented the strudel, eh? No wonder they're garbed like Roman conquerors!

Posted by: Dr. Mabuse at August 11, 2019 01:20 PM (96LOY)

447 444 And with that I'm off to Cabelas. You little scamps clean up after yourselves.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 11, 2019 01:08 PM (fuK7c)

Aw, have fun. I've never been to one.
Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 01:16 PM (t+qrx)

Me neither. I feel I should. Just pick up a duck call, or something in camo.

What do you call those wicker baskets for holding the fish you caught -- kreels?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 11, 2019 01:25 PM (kQs4Y)

448 Ida Lupino?

Posted by: Buzz at August 11, 2019 01:28 PM (n35kY)

449 Love the Diana Gabaldon series. In between writing her opus magnum Outlander books...
-------

I recall the chief character (whatever her name is) having an exchange with one of her kidnappers:

Her: "I feel sorry for you."
He: "Why?"
Her: "Because my husband is going to find you and kill you."

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 11, 2019 01:30 PM (CDGwz)

450 with all due respect to your nana, I do not approve of abridged books, for anyone
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 09:32 AM (bUjCl)

You're gonna really hate Cole's Notes.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 11, 2019 01:32 PM (abNpZ)

451 A-a-a-a-anyway, he didn't sell big but his reputation allowed him to latch onto some college as a writer in residence and make his living that way.

Was he a writer making his living through his writing? Yes.

Was he a writer who made his living set;ling books? No.


I think this is the main difference between the old publisher centric system and today's writing reality.

Posted by: naturalfake
-----------

In many ways, this is the story of Ben Rhodes.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 11, 2019 01:33 PM (CDGwz)

452
What do you call those wicker baskets for holding the fish you caught -- kreels?

Posted by: All Hail Eris
------

Creel.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 11, 2019 01:34 PM (CDGwz)

453 no, have not read it, but yes, marriage for nobility and royalty = political arrangement. even the burgeoning middle class was getting in on the act. "Her father owns a mill, his father owns a tannery, what a great union !"
Posted by: runner at August 11, 2019 11:14 AM (bUjCl)

I also think the relaxed attitude many Europeans have toward adultery stems from that. If marriage is a political arrangement and has nothing to do with love (and if divorce is impossible), than people are going to seek sexual and emotional satisfaction outside of marriage. And upper middle class Euros always tried to ape the nobility, so having a mistress was a status symbol.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at August 11, 2019 01:38 PM (d6Ksn)

454 The ship had enough watertight compartments that even if several were breached, it would remain afloat for a while...
-------

It is my understanding that that was not exactly the case. The bulkheads were not 'sealed' as it were, but extended vertically only a portion of the way up to the deck above. Once the water topped the forward bulkhead ( or whichever) it flowed over into the next.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 11, 2019 01:41 PM (CDGwz)

455 Per Wiki:

When the hull of the Titanic was torn open in the collision with the iceberg, water began to flood the damaged compartments in the bow. As the ship pitched forward under the weight of the water in the bow compartments, water began to spill over the tops of the bulkheads into adjacent, undamaged compartments.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 11, 2019 01:43 PM (CDGwz)

456 "As the ship pitched forward under the weight of the water in the bow compartments, ..."

This is why uniformed people should never make assertive statements.

The 'weight of the water' had nothing to do with it.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 11, 2019 01:46 PM (xSo9G)

457 Now we know for sure that prince harry is, in fact, stupid.
Posted by: klaftern at August 11, 2019 10:17 AM (RuIsu)

We knew that when he chose a wife.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 11, 2019 01:49 PM (abNpZ)

458 Chesterton is a complex person who's assumptions about how the future would work out were wrong.

Hilaire Belloc is better here, perhaps because he was half French (hence the name) so had his finger better placed on Continental thought. I'll plug here (again) Survivals and New Arrivals (1929).

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at August 11, 2019 01:54 PM (/Ioag)

459 Sooooo.... you're telling us that Joan Collins actually knows how to read?

Posted by: Lump at August 11, 2019 01:56 PM (LVu7V)

460 I've found that when driving while listening to an audio book that I can follow the story line better if I keep my eyes closed...
Posted by: Muldoon at August 11, 2019 10:32 AM (mvenn)

When driving through the national Parks, I always tell the girl at the gate that I will keep my eyes closed to avoid wearing out the scenery.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 11, 2019 01:56 PM (abNpZ)

461 It is my understanding that that was not exactly the case. The bulkheads were not 'sealed' as it were, but extended vertically only a portion of the way up to the deck above. Once the water topped the forward bulkhead ( or whichever) it flowed over into the next.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 11, 2019 01:41 PM (CDGwz)


You're correct. They weren't watertight at the top, so if enough of them flooded - as was the case - the angle of the ship became steep enough that they spilled over to the next, and so on.

But the number of compromised compartments was unanticipated, and exceeded the design limits. A head-on collision might have ruptured fewer of them than the glancing blow did. Even still, it took almost three hours, and there were ships nearby. Between the ice warnings, the number of compartments that . could fail before the ship was doomed, the ships that could have responded, and all the other factors, it always seemed like the Swiss cheese failure model in action. Any one of those factors, or others, could have broken the chain.

Here's the sinking in realtime, which is kind of fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs9w5bgtJC8

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 01:56 PM (t+qrx)

462 Sorry to hear that Snyder is an asshole now because Bloodlands is a classic that needs to be read to understand eastern Europe.

The commies used the Jews (and Latvians) to kill Ukrainians (and to kill Jews who weren't commie); and then the Nazis used the Ukrainians to kill Jews (and Ukrainians who didn't like being barked at in German).

It depressed me to the extent I couldn't finish it either, but it did cure me of the Dindu Nuffins. Few peoples' hands exited the 1940s clean.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at August 11, 2019 01:58 PM (/Ioag)

463 Looking at that video, the first distress signal was sent about 45 minutes after the collision and the order to close the watertight doors. That's huge. 45 minutes of venting boilers, waking passengers, and preparing lifeboats, and no ships in the area had any way of knowing that anything was wrong.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 11, 2019 02:02 PM (t+qrx)

464 That's what we face. I'm not saying it's avoidable, just saying, we're going to war if this stuff doesn't change.
Posted by: BurtTC


I agree, and that is why reading about the Bloodlands and the Spanish Civil War matters.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at August 11, 2019 02:03 PM (/Ioag)

465 imo, this 'TwoSides as their tactic' is just now
theory in development for me ... but clearly GOPe is not our side, yet
still controls most power, squelching the TeaParty dynamo, for instance,
now marginalizing Trump. The coming Trump landslide could be the
breaking of the Uniparty. The left's dynamo are the crazies like AOC and
Omar ... fringe, but backed by Google's quest for ?
Posted by: illiniwek at August 11, 2019 11:39 AM (Cus5s)


I recently heard an interview with Dr. Stephen Davies who recently wrote a book called The Wealth Explosion: The Nature and Origins of Modernity.

He intrigued me so much that this is on my to-order list

His book is about modernity and how it has worked to make us affluent, and then goes on to describe the elements that made it so. He calls this Modernity. He also argues that there have been a number of periods of affluence that have most of the same elements as today, but they only lasted on the average of about 150 years before the societies slumped back to authoritarian societies without freedom and without affluence.

I suspect the goal is to end modernity and go back to the stable and predictable and engineered "post modernist" society; the elite stay the elite without having to fight over it.


Davies' view of what caused European Enlightenment affluence is quite different from Jared Diamond's Guns Steel Germs book, and his interview showed much more theory and discussion on society than Carlo Cipolla's Guns Sails and Empires (a fascinating book in itself that describes how societies either succeeded or failed to turn themselves inside out to reach modern technology and become economic and military powerhouses)

OF COURSE I have to add that I only heard a 30 minute interview and have not read the book yet, but it sounds riveting.


I have to stop doing book reviews of books I haven't read yet.


Posted by: Kindltot at August 11, 2019 02:06 PM (q2o38)

466 I get the sense that Malice is an anarchist in the
Rothbardian vein, i.e., a free market man. "Capitalism", said Rothbard, "is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest
expression of capitalism." He doesn't invest much trust in the voting
system.



Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 11, 2019 01:00 PM (kQs4Y)


You beat me to it, Eris.

Also, Malice is explicitly an anarchist in the Rothbardian vein. His discussion on Democracy is even more extreme, stating that Democracy doesn't even work in theory.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 11, 2019 02:11 PM (q2o38)

467 Kindltot, democracy is messy and it often appears to not "work", but the question is "doesn't work for whom?".

I'm only halfway in. I think he talks to some folks who want to restore the Stuarts to the throne.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 11, 2019 02:30 PM (kQs4Y)

468 Words With Friends credits the word WUSS, to mean half a wimp and half a pussy to the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Posted by: Don Simpson at August 11, 2019 03:37 PM (xObJU)

469 I second the recommendation for the comic strip "Wallace the Brave" by JackStraw @366. I discovered it just a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it very much. It does remind me of "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Cul de Sac" but it has its own voice. Also has a distinct and interest style of art.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at August 11, 2019 04:15 PM (iuRR5)

470 I'll have to disagree on "Wallace the Brave."

The art is too scrambled for my taste and the gags fall flat. To me, the strip is as innocuous as "Marvin." (Is that even published any more?)

Yet I must remind myself that I thought the first three weeks of "Calvin and Hobbes" were not funny at all. Then something flipped the switch, and the strip zoomed to the top of my list. I bought all the trade collections.

As far as comic strips for girls, the old "LuAnn" collections might work. I feel that the current strip has lost its way.

If I were still the comics maven I once was, I might be able to contribute more to this topic. I've fallen to the point where I won't even pick up the Sunday comics. And, sadly, I don't feel that I'm missing anything.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 11, 2019 05:02 PM (lyUnl)

471 20 Ha! For once that really IS Joan Collins.

She needs reading glasses.

Posted by: Otto Zilch at August 11, 2019 05:53 PM (U2esv)

472 To Weak Geek @470, to each his own, I am enjoying it. As the old saw has it "There is no accounting for taste."

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at August 11, 2019 07:51 PM (iuRR5)

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John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
News/Chat