Sunday Morning Book Thread 10-20-2019

University Library Leuven-Louvain Belgium 01.jpg

University Library of Leuven-Louvain, Belgium

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules), jokers, smokers, midnight tokers, and the pompatus of love, whom I just know gets up early on Sundays just for this thread. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which look like a lot of wishful thinking went into making them. In fact, one might call them the triumph of hope over experience.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

But also don’t forget these people. pic.twitter.com/kyTVqs8aS9
— Dawn (@aurora_g96) July 27, 2019

'Girl Reading', Franz Ebyl, 1850

A Book By A Bunch of Guys Named Dave

This is cute:

The history of science fiction and fantasy is littered with stories by Davids of distinction. Now, for the first time, an anthology by people named David, for everyone.

Read along as editor David Afsharirad guides you through the strange, wondrous imaginations of the great Davids of the field, past and present. Fifteen tales by David Weber, David Drake, Gregory Benford & David Brin, David B. Coe, D.J. Butler, Avram Davidson, David H. Keller, and many more.

And what do these Davids like to write about?

Herein you will find: a Depression-era magic man who comes face-to-face with an ancient evil. A once-promising filmmaker whose fate depends on a movie-producing AI. A shape-shifting detective on the trail of a pack of werewolves. A sentient tank who must confront one of its own. And a diner regular who gets more than he bargained for when he orders the soup du jour.

Yes, The Chronicles of Davids has all that and more!

Some SJW types are whining at Baen because, well, because all of the authors are named Dave and so therefore it's not very inclusive. Particularly toward women. So Baen said, hold on, we've got this, Women of Futures Past, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

You'll find Northwest Smith, C.L. Moore’s famous smuggler who predates (and maybe inspired) Han Solo by four decades. Read Leigh Brackett’s fiction and see why George Lucas chose her to write The Empire Strikes Back. Adventure tales, post‑apocalyptic visions, space opera, aliens‑among‑us, time travel—these women have delivered all this and more, some of the best science fiction ever written!

Also stories by Lois McMaster Bujold, Pat Cadigan, CJ Cherryh, Zenna Henderson, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, James Tiptree, Jr., and Connie Willis.

And then the SJWs went, "oh, women, pfft!" and rolled their eyes. I guess they wanted more gay Muslim midgets of color. And complained that there weren't any *contemporary* women authors.

Hell with them. Let them watch the new, super-woke Batwoman series on CW. Nobody else is.

Who Dis:

Last Sunday's 'Who Dis' was Ethan Hawke.

Moron Recommendations

Vic digs up an old classic:

8 I started to read Islands of Rage and Hope by John Ringo but I noted reference to a 1950s dystopian book named 'Alas, Babylon' by Pat Frank. It was about a nuclear war between the US and Russia and how a small town in FL coped with it. It sounded interesting so I downloaded it and read it. It was a short novel and pretty cheap. It was interesting.

Posted by: Vic at October 13, 2019 09:04 AM (mpXpK)

That brings back memories. I first read Alas, Babylon when I was in high school back in the 70s. What I remember best about it is the episode where the family had to find a source of salt. In post-apocolyptic America, there is no electricity and hence no refrigeration, so the preservative qualities of salt have suddenly become very important.

Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by American writer Pat Frank (the pen name of Harry Hart Frank). It was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and has remained popular more than half century after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com's Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list (which groups together short story collections and novels) and has an entry in David Pringle's book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the fictional small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based upon the actual city of Mount Dora, Florida. The novel's title is derived from the Book of Revelation: "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come."

So it's the godfather of the post-apocalyptic science fiction sub-genre.

Sometimes Amazon will gouge you for these sorts of classic books, but surprisingly, the Kindle edition is only $2.99. As Vic says, it's a short, cheap read.

___________

Stuff they don't teach in schools any more:

31 Last week, my wife, the lovely and gracious Annalucia, and I visited Montpelier, the home of James and Dolley Madison. The estate has been restored relatively recently and is well worth visiting. Madison's study on the second floor, a small room looking east that in his day was literally stacked high with books, is impressive in its simplicity; and to stand in the place where that genius devised his "Virginia Plan", the first draft of what was to become the US Constitution, was for me quite moving. If you have the opportunity, you should go.

I mention this because the docent who guided us through the mansion, and who was excellent, recommended "The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President" by Noah Feldman. Annalucia and I are reading it aloud, as is our habit, and we're about halfway through the Philadelphia convention. So far, the book is excellent. Feldman organizes and presents this complex material in a way that is lucid and compelling.

Previously, I'd read Lynne Cheney's biography of Madison, and found it to be superficial. Feldman is much more substantive. I think it is a good introduction to Madison's life and thought; and understanding Madison is a key to understanding our Republic. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Brown Line at October 13, 2019 09:17 AM (S6ArX)

The Amazon blurb for this book is quite lengthy. Madison hoped to

...eradicate partisanship yet found himself giving voice to, and institutionalizing, the political divide. Madison’s lifelong loyalty to Thomas Jefferson led to an irrevocable break with George Washington, hero of the American Revolution. Madison closely collaborated with Alexander Hamilton on the Federalist papers—yet their different visions for the United States left them enemies.

This is great stuff. What *do* they teach in schools these days?

We may be more familiar with other Founding Fathers, but the United States today is in many ways Madisonian in nature. Madison predicted that foreign threats would justify the curtailment of civil liberties. He feared economic inequality and the power of financial markets over politics, believing that government by the people demanded resistance to wealth. Madison was the first Founding Father to recognize the importance of public opinion, and the first to understand that the media could function as a safeguard to liberty.

"Could".

One wonders what Madison would have to say about what our media has become, namely, fluffers for the basest sorts of perfidy, assholery, and totalitarianism. Of course, it was Geo. Washington (I think) who referred to the journalists of his day as "infernal scribblers", so maybe he wouldn't be all that surprised.

It's $12.99 for the Kindle edition of The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President

___________

A lurker writes:

I just finished a copy of Thomas Sowell's In Search of Cosmic Justice. Written about 20 years ago, still worth the read and very prescient.

Any book whose Amazon blurb begins with:

This is not a comforting book

...is probably worth a look:

[I]t is a book about disturbing issues that are urgently important today and enduringly critical for the future. It rejects both "merit" and historical redress as principles for guiding public policy. It shows how "peace" movements have led to war and to needless casualties in those wars. It argues that "equality" is neither right nor wrong, but meaningless.

The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of the fundamental principles of freedom -- and the quiet repeal of the American revolution.

The Quest for Cosmic Justice is available on Kindle for $12.99, but there are cheap, used paperbacks available, too.

Of course, pretty much any book by Thomas Sowell is worth reading. The man is a national treasure.

___________

Old and Busted:

The New Hotness:

Books By Morons

Last we heard from conservative author Adam Lane Smith, his action hero, Maxwell Cain, couldn't eat his burrito lunch without bad guys trying to kill him. But now it seems he's pioneering a new subgenre of science fiction, called "heavy metal Christian pulp" with his latest novel, Gideon Ira: Knight of the Blood Cross, which is the first installment of his new Deus Vult Wasteland series:

Demons and Necromancers haunt a burnt and blasted future in the ruins of what was once America.

A holy crusader sworn to slaughter the dark cults of Ba’al the Ever-Hungry must rescue a band of innocent children with his blade and blood-soaked gauntlets, or die trying.

All of Hell thirsts for his blood, but a man of God will never be broken. This holy crusader’s vengeance will be brutal.

The Kindle edition is $3.99. It is also available in paperback.

This is the first in Smith'a Deus Vult Wastland series.

___________

I think pimping an academic author really classes up the joint. A lurking moron author e-mails:

I'm a history/archaeology professor at a small Texas College (TJC-The College of East Texas) and publish quite a bit, usually in other people's books.

But, my own collaborator, Jennifer Loughmiller-Cardinal recently published our own book on Native American tobacco.

It's an academic book, so it is not cheap. They're expensive because the print run is so small.

At any rate, for those who are interested in not reading anything political, it's about pre-Colombian tobacco among the Maya peoples of Central American, the largest group of Native Americans in the Americas, its ritual, medicinal, and recreational uses, the oldest snuff bottle tradition in the world, and the chemistry, biology, history, and archaeology of all of the above.

And not just the Maya, apparently, because the Amazon blurb says

...this volume assembles scholars from a variety of disciplines and specialties to discuss tobacco in modern and ancient contexts. The chapters utilize research from archaeology, ethnography, mythic narrative, and chemical science from the eighth through the twenty-first centuries.

And he ain't kidding about it not being cheap. Breath and Smoke: Tobacco Use among the Maya sells for $75.00, hardcover.

___________

And speaking of another expensive academic book, another really smart moron wrote a philosophical treatise, The Epistemological Skyhook: Determinism, Naturalism, and Self-Defeat

Throughout philosophical history, there has been a recurring argument to the effect that determinism, naturalism, or both are self-referentially incoherent. By accepting determinism or naturalism, one allegedly acquires a reason to reject determinism or naturalism. The Epistemological Skyhook brings together, for the first time, the principal expressions of this argument, focusing primarily on the last 150 years. This book addresses the versions of this argument as presented by Arthur Lovejoy, A.E. Taylor, Kurt Gödel, C.S. Lewis, Norman Malcolm, Karl Popper, J.R. Lucas, William Hasker, Thomas Nagel, Alvin Plantinga, and others, along with the objections presented by their many detractors. It concludes by presenting a new version of the argument that synthesizes the best aspects of the others while also rendering the argument immune to some of the most significant objections made to it.

This isn't a light read. The Kindle version is north of $50, but you get a lot of meat for your money. But Jim gave a couple of interviews (here and here) where he talks about the issues he raises in his books, as well as many other books and authors.

___________

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

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

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Rosemary Clooney

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:02 AM (U7k5w)

2 The history of science fiction and fantasy is littered with stories by Davids of distinction.

best one is David Weber.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 09:02 AM (mpXpK)

3 I did NOT expect a first. Hence the answer to who's dis?

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:04 AM (U7k5w)

4 Wow. Way to go, OM. BBL when I've absorbed the content.

Posted by: RI Red at October 20, 2019 09:04 AM (+a9vj)

5 Nice Lieberry!

Russian Bots, what can't they do......

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 20, 2019 09:05 AM (Z+IKu)

6 Rosemary Clooney
Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:02 AM

I didn't know she was green with tentacles. The things you learn on the book thread!

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at October 20, 2019 09:06 AM (COzlW)

7 Good morning fellow Book threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 09:06 AM (bmdz3)

8 I also love the "askhole" word. You'd think with all these damn phones, people could look up the answers and not bother others.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:06 AM (U7k5w)

9 Booken morgen has

Posted by: VMom's phone at October 20, 2019 09:06 AM (G546f)

10
Congress is chockablock with askholes.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 20, 2019 09:06 AM (pNxlR)

11 I didn't know she was green with tentacles. The things you learn on the book thread!
Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at October 20, 2019 09:06 AM (COzlW)

She didn't used to be, but she was reincarnated

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:07 AM (U7k5w)

12 The library of leavin lovin London is full of Brexiters

Posted by: VMom's phone at October 20, 2019 09:07 AM (G546f)

13 Nice video. Has to do with words-if not reading.

https://tinyurl.com/y4vgc8ux

And on a reading note, I am reading "How happiness happens" by former pastor and devotional book author Max Lucado. It's a light, but nice reading with lots of references to Scripture and the Christian life.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 20, 2019 09:07 AM (j0JAA)

14
I see Biden porn has earned a place at our table.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 20, 2019 09:07 AM (pNxlR)

15 Picked up a couple of used non-fiction books.

Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe
and
One Hell of a Gamble by Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali

Two of my favorite Cold War subjects. Berlin post WWII and the Cuban Missle Crisis.

Can't decide which to read first!

Posted by: AlaBAMA at October 20, 2019 09:08 AM (1GAHG)

16
Have been reading a new author and series by Michael Manning, the Mage Born series. It has been a good one and someone to definitely follow. I am now on the 4th book in the series.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 09:08 AM (mpXpK)

17 Those pants are fine. I would wear them to CC a crossbow to a barbeque in my back yard.

Posted by: Daktari at October 20, 2019 09:08 AM (Tnijr)

18 What's that 19th Century chick reading?!

Ann Radcliffe?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:09 AM (cfSRQ)

19 i wonder if Rosemary and her sister were commie-loving mouth breathers like George is.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at October 20, 2019 09:11 AM (1GAHG)

20 I just downloaded the free sample of Skyhook.

Maybe this week I'll stick to reading kiddie lit to the grandsons.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:11 AM (U7k5w)

21 I know I probably shouldn't, but I laughed at the picture of Hitler on a sled.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 20, 2019 09:12 AM (j0JAA)

22 19
i wonder if Rosemary and her sister were commie-loving mouth breathers like George is.

Posted by: AlaBAMA at October 20, 2019 09:11 AM (1GAHG)

Rosemary Cloony was find until her son died and then she wound up going off the deep end. She gained so much weight it took 10 pallbearers to carry her coffin at the funeral.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 09:13 AM (mpXpK)

23 find = fine

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 09:13 AM (mpXpK)

24 I read Alas, Babylon in Jr. High!

I'm slogging through Cloudsplitter, which is about America's radical abolitionist John Brown through the eyes of his son, Owen. The writing captures the painstaking style from the 19th Century (2-3x too verbose). It helps me go to sleep...

Posted by: scrood at October 20, 2019 09:14 AM (V2Lun)

25 Plan is to read Les Miserables again when winter kicks in. I really love that book.

Posted by: jsg at October 20, 2019 09:15 AM (wIfek)

26 Reading news: The Spanish Civil War obsession is fading. I'm on my last book: Polikarpov I-15, I-16, and I-153 Aces.

This is one of the Osprey Aces books, and it's a little different from the others since it focuses on an airframe that was in multiple conflicts. A couple of things I've already learned:

Soviet pilots that came back from Spain with lots of kills were treated like heroes (and even named Hero of the Soviet Union) but when the Germans attacked, a lot were used as scapegoats to cover up the crappy state of Soviet airpower. You had guys who were jumped up to general and then shot for treason. Nice place to work.

Other tidbit: Soviet manufacturing was really shoddy. Like so shoddy that wings would fold up without warning. Some of the batches of aircraft (I-16 in particular) were so badly made that the pilots refused to fly them.

Another win for Communist manufacturing!

Still mean to get a copy of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, but I'd like to case the local used book stores before I go online.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:15 AM (cfSRQ)

27 Still reading Signature in the Cell by Dr. Stephen Meyer, which is about how insanely complicated our biological makeup is, which leads to the Design Hypothesis.

Just started Consciousness and the Universe: Quantum Physics, Evolution, Brain & Mind, edited by physicist Roger Penrose. Promises to be a difficult and enlightening read.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 20, 2019 09:16 AM (88cFV)

28 I found a copy of Cinnabar the One O'clock Fox, and some other Marguerite Henry books in the recesses of my home library. Should make nice reading to the boys, who love animal stories.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:17 AM (U7k5w)

29
Montpelier, James Madison's home, was last owned privately by Marion duPont Scott, who had been married to Randolph Scott (yes, THAT Randolph Scott). She was instrumental in establishing the steeplechase racing circuit here in the U.S..

Let's just say that the decor in some rooms, being horsey set focused, did not do the place justice when I visited it in the late 1980s.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 20, 2019 09:17 AM (pNxlR)

30 I'm reading "Limestones and Marls - Coastal Plain of Georgia." - printed 1916.

Content is kind of dry, unless maybe you want to learn how to make your own lime.

Content aside, I found this at a library old book sale. This book is over 100 years old and I was wondering about the binding. I looks like it could be vinyl but of course it's not. Some kind of fabric I suppose. It's well bound and printed, one of those books that's more fun to look at than read.

Posted by: freaked at October 20, 2019 09:17 AM (Tnijr)

31 For those with an interest in U.S. history, Jas. Townsend and Son is having a sale on their 18th century cookbooks and travel journals about the frontier of the time. I have a number of them in paperback and they are well done. I am fascinated with the period. Check the website.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 09:18 AM (bmdz3)

32 "Like so shoddy that wings would fold up without warning."

Dive mode. Feature not a bug.

Posted by: freaked at October 20, 2019 09:19 AM (Tnijr)

33 Writing news: Took the first halting steps of writing again after the cardiac event last month. Tough going after a break like that because you lose the mood and the sense of where things are.

On the other hand, I'm not really pushing the plot forward so much as adding detail and additional scenes to fill the story out. So it's kind of like a review. Based on word count, I'm little over halfway there. I've a busy week ahead of me, but after that things are reasonably open.

Plus, the weather is changing, which means I won't get pulled outside as much. Writing is a great way to pass the cold, dark winter in Michigan.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:19 AM (cfSRQ)

34 "So it's the godfather of the post-apocalyptic
science fiction sub-genre."

Yeah. sure.

I'd be happy to discuss it, but I have to go pick up
a pound of pastrami, a can of kraut, and six bagels
to bring home for Emma

Posted by: Al Leibowitz at October 20, 2019 09:19 AM (cprte)

35 26: My husband's cousin (now 95) married a Spanish Civil War vet who joined the US Army after Franco forced out his kind. He was an anarchist asshole who wanted to be a Basque Hemingway, but failed. His great novel was not translated, so I never read it.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:21 AM (U7k5w)

36 I read Alas, Babylon in high school. I remember it as a whole book, not a short story. Hmmm. Now I wish I hadn't culled my copy.

Posted by: Laura Montgomery at October 20, 2019 09:21 AM (axQWp)

37 I don't always recognize the reading celebrity in the photos but today's was easy. That's what Rosemary Clooney looked like when she made "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, a movie I've seen about 5 gazillion times.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 09:21 AM (bmdz3)

38 Dive mode. Feature not a bug.

Posted by: freaked at October 20, 2019 09:19 AM (Tnijr)

---
Surprise dive.

The book says that five pilots were killed by 'wing failure.'

The rest of the pilots held out for inspections and rebuilds before getting into the things.

The next batch had engine defects and what the author calls "defective armament." Presumably the machine guns didn't work, which can make dogfighting extra challenging.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:22 AM (cfSRQ)

39 36
I read Alas, Babylon in high school. I remember it as a whole book, not a short story. Hmmm. Now I wish I hadn't culled my copy.

Posted by: Laura Montgomery at October 20, 2019 09:21 AM (axQWp)

Its only 189 pages.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 09:23 AM (mpXpK)

40 Those sci-fi anthology books that I used to read years ago always seemed to have a story by Ursula K LeGuin, one of the only woman authors usually in them

Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at October 20, 2019 09:23 AM (UwZJZ)

41 The next batch had engine defects and what the author calls "defective armament." Presumably the machine guns didn't work, which can make dogfighting extra challenging.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:22 AM (cfSRQ)
-----
No wonder the Sovs thought that mid-air ramming was a viable tactic.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:24 AM (iB1oa)

42 I read a very good book about a little known act of heroism. Lucky 666 is the story of a group of misfits in the south pacific in WWII. On a constantly bombed front line base on Papua New Guinea, the men take a bad luck B17 airframe, tail number 666, rebuild it, and convert it to a photo reconnaissance plane. They add in a couple of dozen extra guns since they don't plan on carrying bombs. One day, they are asked to photograph Bouganville Island, over 600 miles away, to glean information prior to the American invasion. Without spoiling too much of the story, this flight will earn more than one medal of honor and entail the longest running dogfight in US military history.

I wish I could tell Clint Eastwood about this book - what a movie this would make.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 20, 2019 09:24 AM (G4pfN)

43 I'm reading _The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard_, an anthology of, well, what it says on the cover.

When he sticks to Texas folklore and rural horror, Howard's pretty good. But when he tries to stray into Lovecraft territory, the results are almost comical. I say that because Howard couldn't -- I almost think he physically couldn't -- write the kind of neurasthenic, fragile, helpless protagonists Lovecraft used in his stories of humans shattered by encounters with cosmic weirdness.

So Howard trying to write Lovecraft winds up being, basically, ". . . and then the powerfully-built man of pure ancient Celtic stock murdered the fuck out of the tentacled horror. The end."

Entertaining, yes, but not especially spooky.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 09:24 AM (DYSh2)

44 What?

Posted by: Balrog of Morgoth at October 20, 2019 09:24 AM (eWeSU)

45 I really enjoyed Alas, Babylon as a high school kid. Not sure if I read it on my own or was assigned to read it in class.

I surmise the latter, based on my memory of my friends and I referring to it sarcastically as "Alice, Bologna".

Great story that was a realistic portrayal of what it would be like to survive after a nuclear war.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 20, 2019 09:25 AM (88cFV)

46 Yeah, I too read "Alas, Babylon" back in high school ... same stand of hard-re-covered paperbacks by a window where I found "A Canticle For Leibowitz".

LOL, "heavy metal Christian pulp" !

Might read that just because the very idea of it makes me smile.
The Amazon reviews are good, fwiw ...

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 20, 2019 09:25 AM (bwo3w)

47 Read In Order to Die by Henry Ainley. Published in 1955, it is the memoir of a Britisher that joined the French Foreign Legion to fight Communists in Indochina. The author served in a battalion that provided security services near the Cambodian border from 1951 - 1953. Not as much combat accounts as I was expecting because he was literate, he was used as an acting Company and Battalion Sergeant Major rather than a platoon leader. His experiences thoroughly disillusioned him due to the rampant corruption, alcoholism, cattle-rustling, looting, rape and murder committed by the troops (and condoned by the officers) he served with; it's no wonder France couldn't hold Indochina because they treated all the Vietnamese like trash, even those pre-disposed to remain under French rule. Ultimately, a somewhat interesting worm's-eye view of that war. Rating = 3.9/5.0

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at October 20, 2019 09:26 AM (5Yee7)

48 So Howard trying to write Lovecraft winds up being,
basically, ". . . and then the powerfully-built man of pure ancient
Celtic stock murdered the fuck out of the tentacled horror. The end."

Entertaining, yes, but not especially spooky.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 09:24 AM (DYSh2)

---
You can see Lovecraft's influence on Howard in some of the later Conan stories.

And yeah, it's like that. The ancient evil rises up, everyone else runs away, wails in fear and Conan walks up and uses his mighty thews of steel to rip the bugger into four pieces, all the while cursing it as a dog.

Then he carries off the babe in the translucent dress.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:27 AM (cfSRQ)

49 Who Dis : Anal surprise Annie.......it was a ghostly nite with Hemmingway @ the tiller..........

Girl reading Franz Ebyl is aboot to go totes rub a dub dub and lose her place in the book.........Fapulous read...

Sorry my pants are at the cleaners don't ask don't smell...................the Belgium Library is roomy preparing for the non brexiters and waffle houseians

Posted by: saf at October 20, 2019 09:28 AM (5IHGB)

50 When America Online started calling themselves AOL,
I couldn't unsee "Albertian Order of Leibowitz".

Posted by: retropox, AOL Booklegger at October 20, 2019 09:29 AM (cprte)

51 No wonder the Sovs thought that mid-air ramming was a viable tactic.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:24 AM (iB1oa)

---
Yep. They learned it in Spain. It's mentioned in the book.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:29 AM (cfSRQ)

52 Everyone I Don't Agree With Is A Russian Bot
A child's guide to media and government excuse-making for political failings.

With a Forward Trajectory by Seth Rich

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 20, 2019 09:29 AM (Ndje9)

53 By the way, didn't the beastly Hun torch that library in 1914?

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 09:30 AM (DYSh2)

54 Girl reading Franz Ebyl is aboot to go totes rub a dub dub and lose her place in the book.........Fapulous read...

Posted by: saf at October 20, 2019 09:28 AM (5IHGB)

---
Ace just texted me to say that picture made his pants feel funny.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:30 AM (cfSRQ)

55 Best example of Lovecraft vs. Howard is the Weird Tales round-robin story "The Challenge of the Unknown" which they wrote along with Kuttner and Moore. It's a hoot and a half to watch those four grabbing the steering wheel away from each other.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 09:32 AM (DYSh2)

56 Reading aloud with your spouse.....priceless!

Posted by: LoneRanger at October 20, 2019 09:32 AM (5aCkc)

57 "I find television to be very educational. Whenever somebody turns one on, I go into another room and read a book."

- Grouch Marx, the only Marxist worth paying attention to because he got the most screen time and Harpo never spoke in their movies.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy does whatever his television tells him at October 20, 2019 09:33 AM (HaL55)

58 I read Alas, Babylon in Jr. High!
...
Posted by: scrood at October 20, 2019 09:14 AM (V2Lun)

I also highly recommend Alas, Babylon!. Pat Frank is pretty much forgotten now, but he was good author just not a lot of output (he started out as a crime reporter). The decisions the characters make, both good and bad, generally "ring true."

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at October 20, 2019 09:34 AM (5Yee7)

59 With a Forward Trajectory by Seth Rich

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 20, 2019 09:29 AM (Ndje9)

---
It would have flowed better if he hadn't organized his remarks with bullet points.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:34 AM (cfSRQ)

60 The Girl Reading brought back a great memory . I'd be in bed reading one of my favorite genre of Vampire, Werewolf, romance novels and my late husband would walk in the room and say"you've got that look on your face". I knew I would be in for a great night. She has that look.

Posted by: Sharon at October 20, 2019 09:34 AM (QzF6i)

61 Plus, the weather is changing, which means I won't get pulled outside as much. Writing is a great way to pass the cold, dark winter in Michigan.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:19 AM (cfSRQ)

I always found the Michigan winter to be a productive time and always took an extra course during the winter trimester at MSU, I went when they had that system.

Glad you're recovering.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:34 AM (U7k5w)

62 And yeah, it's like that. The ancient evil rises up, everyone else runs away, wails in fear and Conan walks up and uses his mighty thews of steel to rip the bugger into four pieces, all the while cursing it as a dog.

Then he carries off the babe in the translucent dress.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:27 AM (cfSRQ)

I saw Translucent Negligee open for Mighty Thews back in 88

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 09:34 AM (G546f)

63 "You smell that? Do you smell that?... Books, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of books in the morning."

-Joseph Conrad

Posted by: DC at October 20, 2019 09:35 AM (/TvO8)

64 The week's reading was mostly Linux manuals, stuff that makes dryasdust look positively scintillating ... the light reading was "The Captain From Connecticut" by C. S. Forester.
Strange but true, never read a word of any of his books; dunno why, just never caught me, never picked one up cheap and used, or found one as the only reading matter available when caught bookless, but I hear much talk of him in this thread, so when it came up for 99 cents in some suggestion category on the Kindle, I bought it. Good read. Bought a couple more 99-centers afterwards.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 20, 2019 09:35 AM (bwo3w)

65 1 Rosemary Clooney

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:02 AM (U7k5w)

Very nice! A first AND a correct guess.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 09:37 AM (jjpZH)

66 Just started reading Molly's book, "Justice on Trial"

Posted by: Eisenhorn at October 20, 2019 09:37 AM (F6tBH)

67 When Hillary says "Russian assests", she means America's uranium $upply.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 20, 2019 09:38 AM (Ndje9)

68 57 "I find television to be very educational. Whenever somebody turns one on, I go into another room and read a book."

- Grouch Marx, the only Marxist worth paying attention to because he got the most screen time and Harpo never spoke in their movies.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy does whatever his television tells him at October 20, 2019 09:33 AM (HaL55)

This is so true.

When my kids were kids, my husband and I hated TV and insisted they do better things. They thanked us for that as adults. Now, however, he wants to watch some tiresome show nearly every evening. I bought better headphones to cancel it out so I can do other things, but it still irks me that he is becoming Chauncey Gardner.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:38 AM (U7k5w)

69 Read second book of P.F. Kuang trilogy, The Dragon Republic. Don't like it. Book is reading as some fun fiction by inexperienced author. Main character just annoying, pro-abortion scene does not add anything to story line, anti-western turn of plot. Disappointment. Good thing, I borrow this book in the library and did not pay for it

Posted by: remonkey at October 20, 2019 09:38 AM (KL1FG)

70 Any Hillary surrogates show up on the morning shows to defend her incoherent babbling? I refuse to watch them.

Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at October 20, 2019 09:38 AM (UwZJZ)

71 Finished The Hobbit audio book and started The Fellowship of the Ring both read by Rob Inglis who's very good. Also started The Saxon and Norman Kings by Christopher Brooke. It's a bit dry.

Making note of the Madison bio since I'm trying to read bios of all the presidents.

Alas Babylon was required reading in some classes in my high school, but since I wasn't in any of those classes I've never read it. I should probably try to find a copy.

Posted by: sinalco at October 20, 2019 09:39 AM (yODqO)

72 Yesterday was National Period Day. How did you guys celebrate?

Posted by: BignJames at October 20, 2019 09:39 AM (X/Pw5)

73
Very nice! A first AND a correct guess.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 09:37 AM (jjpZH)

Thanks. I did not expect a first, and it looks like an odd way to announce that feat!

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:39 AM (U7k5w)

74 LOL, retropox, AOL !

Same here.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 20, 2019 09:39 AM (bwo3w)

75 I finished a book by Nabokov, Despair, originally written in Russian in the 30s, as part and parcel of reading his two part biography and reading what he wrote chronologically. Strangely enough, although he's still a young man when he wrote this, Ive now read more than 50% of the number of titles he wrote, although some of the later works like Pale Fire and Ada were much longer works.

The book was kind of a slog to get through because it was written by a nutty guy who was writing an after the fact account of committing a perfect crime of insurance fraud by killing this deadbeat guy who he thought looked exactly like him and then running off and assuming his identity after which his wife would join him, after collecting the death benefit, and they'd be rich and happy together. Except nobody thought the other guy looked that much like him, including the other guy; as soon as the cops found the stiff with all the murderers IDs on him they knew it wasn't him. The murderers car was run off with by whoever came across it and when the cops finally found it, it had the dead guy's walking stick in it with his name embossed on it so his "perfect crime" turned to shit. The title is what he was feeling when he finally realized that.

It's too bad Nabokov isn't still around and with a website where you could ask him questions about this book. For starters this had plenty of Dostoyevskian elements throughout it (the main character even refers to "Old Dusty" at one point) and Nabokov badmouthed Fyodor's writing brutally in his Lectures on Russian Literature. Part of that might have been class based because he considered Dostoyevsky a lowlife who often wrote hurriedly to pay off gambling debts. But he also criticized what he thought were half assed Freudian elements so who knows. Also I've mentioned before that Nabokov uses very imaginative descriptions of the settings of his characters. Welp those are present here as described by the main character except they're clunky and awkward. So I'd like to ask him that too.

Even though I don't consider this in his top tier of books it's stayed in my mind a lot longer than an inferior book would. Writing from the perspective of a loon (his wife was obviously banging an artist friend who he thought she couldn't stand) is as old as Don Quixote, about which Vlad wrote a book of lecture notes, and this was subsequently done in Pale Fire. I just don't feel he pulled it off that successfully.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 09:40 AM (y7DUB)

76 hiya

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 09:40 AM (arJlL)

77 I'd be happy to discuss it, but I have to go pick up a pound of pastrami, a can of kraut, and six bagels to bring home for Emma

Posted by: Al Leibowitz

Heh.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 20, 2019 09:40 AM (88cFV)

78 *delurk*
It may amuse the denizens here to know that Kris Rusch originally wanted to title "Women of Futures Past" as "The Women that Women Forget".
*relurk*

Posted by: CMB at October 20, 2019 09:41 AM (7yxtP)

79 Crap. Here, take this letter "O" and put it in my previous comment. Anywhere will be fine.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy does whatever his television tells him at October 20, 2019 09:41 AM (HaL55)

80 University Library of Leuven-Louvain, Belgium

Are all the books in Belgish ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 09:41 AM (arJlL)

81 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes.

I love Rosemary Clooney. I don't care for what her voice became after she had her nervous breakdown, though. And let me recommend three albums of hers for your listening pleasure - Rosie Solves the Swinging Ridddle, Clap Hands! Here Comes Rosie! and her duet album with Der Bingle, Fancy Meeting You Here.

Speaking of "infamous scribblers," that's the title of a book about the Founders and their antagonistic relations with the worthless Fourth Estate:

https://tinyurl.com/yyuru5og

And I know I've recommended The Annotated HP Lovecraft here before. There's now a new companion volume, Beyond Arkham:

https://tinyurl.com/y3mjb4gq

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 09:41 AM (Ki5SV)

82 I really splurged this week and ordered an unabridged audio CD of the LOTR. It is read by Robert Inglis. I played some of the first disc and I'm impressed. This isn't the dramatized version by the BBC, which I find somewhat distracting with the background music and sound effects.

So far, Inglis' narration is clear, varied by character, and pleasant. Also, his pace of reading makes me think this is how Tolkien would do it, based on a few examples of him in interviews I've found.

I don't use audio books often. But I so enjoyed Gary Sinise reading "Travels With Charley" and the audio of "Master and Commander" by Simon Vance. I've re-read LOTR annually for over fifty years and almost don't need my eyes to see the words on the page. But the audio of the books above gave added insight with the reader's delivery. I thought it would be worth a try with LOTR.

Anyone else try this approach with books they are thoroughly familiar with? Did it add to your enjoyment?

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (bmdz3)

83 Good morning all ... that library had the misfortune to have been destroyed twice over - in both world wars.
http://libraryhistorybuff.com/louvain.htm
The first time around, it was seen as a deliberate attempt by the invading Germans to destroy all memory of Belgian history and culture. It was rebuilt with extensive donations of money and books from England and America ... just in time to be bombed in the second war.

For myself, work proceeding on the next book, and some discussion with my co-author on the next Luna City installment. We're getting ready for the Christmas marketing season, so November and December will be very busy months for us...

We had a market yesterday, on the grounds of a local community college, and I read nearly all of Kurt Schlicter's "Indian Country". It's a book that is almost too ultra-violent for my taste, but since it concerns all-out guerrilla warfare, that's baked-in. It's redeemed by a lot of bitter humor, regarding social-justice strictures being taken to their logical ultimate extent. (Like the differentially-abled airline pilot. Who is blind...)

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (xnmPy)

84 Bigunjames..........period..........

Posted by: LoneRanger at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (5aCkc)

85 Glad you're recovering.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:34 AM (U7k5w)

---
Thanks. I've been feeling pretty good of late. Lost some weight and I'm sleeping longer.

My freshman year was the last year MSU did the old system. After that it was semesters. I enjoyed the solid month off in December-January.

One of the challenges I'm dealing with is that my vampire story was started more than a decade ago and a lot has changed in Michigan. Smart phones, social media, cameras everywhere - all that imposed changes on the narrative.

Also the disappearance of CDs. Little things like that. Makes me feel old.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (cfSRQ)

86 Yesterday was National Period Day. How did you guys celebrate?
-----
"Period" as in the punctuation mark, or "period" as in...period?

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (iB1oa)

87
34 "So it's the godfather of the post-apocalyptic
science fiction sub-genre."

Yeah. sure.

I'd be happy to discuss it, but I have to go pick up
a pound of pastrami, a can of kraut, and six bagels
to bring home for Emma

Posted by: Al Leibowitz at October 20, 2019 09:19 AM (cprte)

******

It's been over 40 years since I read "Canticle". I may still have a copy in a box up in the attic. I have a few boxes I haven't gone through since we moved here 17 years ago.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (NqQAS)

88 I finished the history of the Missouri synod last week. I really loved it, I will have to write some lectures on a it.

Read a novel called Throne of Glass recommend by my cousin easy read but to girl power for me.

Starting the last 3 Fritz Lieberman books now.

Posted by: Dread0 at October 20, 2019 09:43 AM (thwGF)

89 Every day is period day on the book thread.

Posted by: . at October 20, 2019 09:43 AM (Tnijr)

90 I've hurt my right shoulder, so typing is painful. But I have to say the Skyhook book looks interesting, though far beyond the capacity my wallet. I note "Look Inside" doesn't include the index in the Kindle version, but does under Hardcover. That's useful. Also the bibliography has SIX works cited by British PM, Balfour.

Reading through section one, it does seem promising, especially the following Epicurus section.

A key question is one of an ambiguity in words like "cause" or "determine". There is a clear distinction between the physical efficient cause of something, and (for a belief) its rational grounds. If I err in reasoning, it doesn't mean that the laws of physics or chemistry were violated in my brain. They are running on as usual. It is my reasoning which is at fault.

I do object to one thing: the use of the PC Feminine. It's just a distraction, this current use of "she" where English has always used "he". The problem isn't really a question of why one does so, rather it's simply that it breaks the flow of reading, which in a work of this sort is a problem. I suppose it's just a matter of today's academic nonsense. It may seem natural in that context; to the rest of the world, comes across like confusing which of the "two/too/to" family one uses.

I'm surprised to see no entry for "intentionality". I'd have thought that would be relevant.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 09:43 AM (ZbwAu)

91 "Fathers and Sons: the Autobiography of a Family," by Alexander Waugh.

Evelyn's grandson. Fourth generation man of letters, & guess what? He can WRITE.

Posted by: mnw at October 20, 2019 09:43 AM (Cssks)

92
My calendar just reminded me that I have to set out for Sussex County in order to begin closing up for the winter months. BBL ...

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 20, 2019 09:44 AM (pNxlR)

93 'Girl Reading', Franz Ebyl, 1850

They had those rubber band wrist thingies in 1850 ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 09:45 AM (arJlL)

94 Alas Babylon was required reading in some classes in my high school, but since I wasn't in any of those classes I've never read it. I should probably try to find a copy.
Posted by: sinalco at October 20, 2019 09:39 AM (yODqO)

Mucho paperbacks out there for cheap. If you want a hardback 1st ed; that's going to set you back at bit. I paid about $45 for mine without the jacket but Facsimile Dust Jackets (great site, by the way) has high-quality reproduction jackets for $22 plus shipping.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at October 20, 2019 09:45 AM (5Yee7)

95 Rosemary Clooney !

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 09:47 AM (arJlL)

96 Reading aloud with your spouse:

are PANTS optional in this situation

"and he ripped off her bodice while her heaving breasts turned on the pages and him too as the turgid
text demanded a deeper meaning than mere lust,it was a hard read she screamed as they read to the twins at bedtime..................... to be continued fer sure......"

Posted by: saf at October 20, 2019 09:47 AM (5IHGB)

97 "Still mean to get a copy of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia..."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:15 AM (cfSRQ)

A great book! Orwell loved the taste of "true socialism" that he got in Spain, which is sort of confusing in light of his other more famous books.

But the dude could write.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 20, 2019 09:47 AM (wYseH)

98 Yesterday was National Period Day. How did you guys celebrate?
-----
"Period" as in the punctuation mark, or "period" as in...period?
Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (iB1oa)

The pains of Eve; the Curse; 28 day nosebleed; riding the rag; that time of the month...

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 09:47 AM (y7DUB)

99 One other point. After reading a bunch of unsatisfactory mysteries I decided to play it safe and read a Perry Mason. This was the Drowning Duck.

An interesting point I noted. It was published in 1942. In it, both Perry and the judge have to ask "What's a detergent?"

It also make explicit what is implied in both the books and the show: Paul Drake's office is in the same building and on the same floor as Perry's. Since Mason is a high-priced lawyer, and his office is fairly posh (again, true both on the screen and on the page), that sounds pricey for a PI.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 09:48 AM (ZbwAu)

100 "Period" as in the punctuation mark, or "period" as in...period?

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (iB1oa)

Yes.

https://tinyurl.com/y3qe7ccr

Posted by: BignJames at October 20, 2019 09:48 AM (X/Pw5)

101 Sussex County...

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 20, 2019 09:44 AM (pNxlR)

New Jersey or England?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 20, 2019 09:48 AM (wYseH)

102 91
"Fathers and Sons: the Autobiography of a Family," by Alexander Waugh.

Evelyn's grandson. Fourth generation man of letters, guess what? He can WRITE.

Posted by: mnw at October 20, 2019 09:43 AM (Cssks)

---
Great book. There was a companion show for it on Youtube that was quite good.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:49 AM (cfSRQ)

103 So this week I have been reading Roger Stone's Tricky Dick: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Richard Nixon, which basically pins Watergate on John Dean (desperate to prevent his girlfriend / wife Mo from being found out as a DC call girl) and the CIA (furious at Nixon's attempts at détente). Al Haig also stars as the conniver who more or less escorts Nixon out of the White House in order to gain more power for himself.

The problem with the book is that it is plagued on nearly every page with misspellings, grammatical errors and bad proofing, which make the book read like someone's self-published opus rather than a dispassionate look at Nixon, and for that reason, I can see why the book got such bad reviews when it came out.

I'm also slowly making my way through Steven Ambrose's one-volume bio of Eisenhower, which is a very good read that I recommend.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 09:50 AM (Ki5SV)

104 Time to take down the tampon tree.

Posted by: BignJames at October 20, 2019 09:50 AM (X/Pw5)

105 The rain finally let up enough for me to go out to get some bread for lunch sandwiches. But too late now so I'll heve to get something else.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 09:50 AM (mpXpK)

106 66 Eisenhorn

I read "Justice On Trial" too. Admired the journalism; hated what I read.

I don't EVER want anybody telling me that political discord right now is really no worse than it has been in the past, blah blah blah.

We're in uncharted waters. Don't tell me about 1968! I was there, & this is far worse.

Posted by: mnw at October 20, 2019 09:50 AM (Cssks)

107 Posted by: BignJames at October 20, 2019 09:48 AM (X/Pw5)
----
Gah.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:50 AM (iB1oa)

108 A great book! Orwell loved the taste of "true
socialism" that he got in Spain, which is sort of confusing in light of
his other more famous books.

But the dude could write.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 20, 2019 09:47 AM (wYseH)

---
I've read it before, but didn't fully understand what was going on.

Now that I've been fully immersed and know the difference between POUM, FAI, CNT, etc., it will make more sense.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:51 AM (cfSRQ)

109 " 'Women of Futures Past' edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch." But... But... But everyone knows women weren't allowed to write science fiction until Margaret Atwood!

Posted by: RNB at October 20, 2019 09:51 AM (DjjZJ)

110 Prolly don't wanna read Alas Babylon if you live in the Tampa-St. Pete area...too close to home, in a literal sorta way.

Good book, though. HS assignment was probably why we had it in the house for me to find. I read it in Jr. High, but all my sibs are older.

Posted by: Hierominous Botch at October 20, 2019 09:52 AM (XuBZu)

111 The pains of Eve; the Curse; 28 day nosebleed; riding the rag; that time of the month...

Posted by: Captain Hate

Ridin' the Cotton Pony

Posted by: Sharkman at October 20, 2019 09:52 AM (88cFV)

112 Rosemary Cloony was find until her son died and then she wound up going off the deep end. She gained so much weight it took 10 pallbearers to carry her coffin at the funeral.

After they put her in the coffin, did they have to jump up and down on her to maker her fit ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 09:52 AM (arJlL)

113 which basically pins Watergate on John Dean (desperate to prevent his girlfriend / wife Mo from being found out as a DC call girl)

Ol' Yeller despises Dean as a disbarred felonious piece of lying human garbage. Is there any wonder CNN worships him?

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 09:53 AM (y7DUB)

114 I am also at this moment staring at a pile of notebooks on my desk, reminding me that I should be working on my own damned book.

Were any of you around for the movie thread last night? That was the longest and only piece of writing I have done in over a month.

As Teh Donald would say, "Sad!"

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 09:53 AM (Ki5SV)

115

The library seems cold........they lost that Leuven feeling.

Posted by: saf at October 20, 2019 09:54 AM (5IHGB)

116 I know I probably shouldn't, but I laughed at the picture of Hitler on a sled.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke

Wait til ya see Mussolini on a Vespa.

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 09:54 AM (arJlL)

117 71 I should probably try to find a copy.

Posted by: sinalco at October 20, 2019 09:39 AM (yODqO)

It is available for the Kindle from Amazon for 3.99.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 09:54 AM (mpXpK)

118 The library seems cold........they lost that Leuven feeling.
-----
*throws tomato*

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:55 AM (iB1oa)

119 One of the challenges I'm dealing with is that my vampire story was started more than a decade ago and a lot has changed in Michigan. Smart phones, social media, cameras everywhere - all that imposed changes on the narrative.

Also the disappearance of CDs. Little things like that. Makes me feel old.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (cfSRQ)

Make it a "period piece" and set it pre-cell phone. If there's a danger element, the lack of ability to capture the event on camera or call 911 will work better anyway. Can you imagine how most literature would suffer if the damsel in distress could grab her phone?

I was long away from MSU, but we had a professor friend from the English department who spent many holidays with us in NJ. He loved going into NYC for the theater, and we were cheaper than any hotel. Plus, we loved having him stay a week here and there. He hated the semester system and believed that the trimester was one of MSU's attractions. One could explore more subjects in 12 sessions than in 8. The work load could be a little stressful, but I agreed generally. The trimester allowed me to vary my subject matter as I was able to take more electives with 48 courses (based on a 4 course trimester) than with 32. It was nice to break up the required courses with forays into literature and history.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:55 AM (U7k5w)

120 I have just finished reading Bess of Hardwick: Empire Builder. What a fascinating lady. One of the few high ranking Tudor ladies who survived the wrath of Good Queen Bess multiple times

Posted by: Jmel at October 20, 2019 09:55 AM (OeWgo)

121 Pat Frank also wrote "Hold Back the Night", a novel about a Marine Company Commander during the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir. Very good.

This week I also re-read "On Valor's Side" by T. Grady Gallant, a memoir of his recruit training at Parris Island just before Pearl Harbor and his service with the Old Breed on Guadalcanal.
Even though his boot camp experiences were some 30 years before mine, it brought back a lot of memories. I never knew until much later that the DIs would get together after the training day was over and laugh about the seemingly insane sh*t their platoons would pull.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at October 20, 2019 09:56 AM (wZ9cV)

122 Wait til ya see Mussolini on a Vespa.
Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 09:54 AM (arJlL)
-----
Tojo on a tricycle?

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:56 AM (iB1oa)

123 These are the Daves I know.

https://preview.tinyurl.com/luuzqc9

Posted by: Dave at October 20, 2019 09:57 AM (/bvAs)

124 MP4 I missed the movie thread - gonna go read it now

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 09:57 AM (G546f)

125 Stalin on a Pogo stick

Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at October 20, 2019 09:58 AM (UwZJZ)

126 How did I celebrate period day Bloody Caesars for 5 days straight......................we need this holiday weekly..........

Posted by: saf at October 20, 2019 09:58 AM (5IHGB)

127 Been reading the 3rd volume about the war in the Pacific, Flood Tide. Really enjoying them.

A question for any navel personnel out there: do modern carriers have to "turn into the wind" to launch and recover? Just curious.

Posted by: Blutarski at October 20, 2019 09:59 AM (VNfwt)

128 Beto O'Rourke Announces Support for Menstrual Equity Act on National Period Day

Of course he does......................

Via insty.

Posted by: LoneRanger at October 20, 2019 09:59 AM (5aCkc)

129 Alas Babylon. My wife caught me hoarding salt shortly after we were married. Funny now but book made a lasting impression on a 16 yr boy. Haven't thought about it in a while. Hahaha

Posted by: NativeNH at October 20, 2019 09:59 AM (dtRY5)

130 Make it a "period piece" and set it pre-cell phone.
If there's a danger element, the lack of ability to capture the event on
camera or call 911 will work better anyway. Can you imagine how most
literature would suffer if the damsel in distress could grab her phone?

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 09:55 AM (U7k5w)

----
Too late now...

Maybe in a prequel.

RE: Higher ed, it's garbage. I don't want any of my kids to get a college education because it's worthless. I'm pushing them to applied degrees/certifications.

The switch to semesters culled a lot of classes and then PC culture started creating cookie-cut mandatory indoctrination classes in place of the varied electives that counted for other stuff.

For example, instead of picking from a list of humanities or arts classes, they made Integrated Arts and Humanities 201, which everyone had to take.

And of course now even the profs are afraid to teach lest they get reported for wrongthink.

Very sad.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:00 AM (cfSRQ)

131 97 "Still mean to get a copy of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia..."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 09:15 AM (cfSRQ)

A great book! Orwell loved the taste of "true socialism" that he got in Spain, which is sort of confusing in light of his other more famous books.

But the dude could write.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 20, 2019 09:47 AM (wYseH)
________

We have to accept that Orwell was, through the end of his life, an avowed socialist, and an avowed leftist. It really comes out if you read the 4 vol set of essays his wife edited. For instance, he never gave up his belief that free markets will lead to monopoly, in fact. And he did read and review Road to Serfdom; giving that as a reason he didn't buy Hayek's argument.

Here's the review:

https://maudestavern.com/2008/10/09/ george-orwell-review/

(Remove space.)

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (ZbwAu)

132 I bought three books from the bargain bin not long ago.

Art of War, The Federalist and The Prince with other writings of Machiavelli.

I've just finished the Art of War. Trying to decide which to read next .

What we want , The Federalist or what you eventually get, The Prince.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (2DOZq)

133 Good morning Book Horde! I'm going through my stuff, doing a little fall cleaning & have some books to de-access:
"Russian Warships in the Age of Sail" by John Tredrea & Eduard Sozaen
"Destroyer Weapons of World War 2" by Peter Hodges
"The Army's Navy Series Volume II: Assault and Logistics Union Army Coastal and River Operations 1861-1865" and "Over Seas: U.S. Army Maritime Operations 1898 Through the Fall of The Philippines", bith by Charles Dana Gibson & E. Kay Gibson
"General Monck" by Maurice Ashley
"Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers" by Michael Barone
"A History of Britain Volume II: The Wars of The British 1603-1776" by Simon Schama
Several volumes of "The Journal of Military History" ca. 2006-2009.

Any Morons interested in these books let me know

Posted by: josephistan at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (Izzlo)

134 Here's some Rosie and Bing - the title track from Fancy Meeting You Here.

https://tinyurl.com/y3bj9xm5

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 10:02 AM (Ki5SV)

135 Aunt Flo pays a visit.

Posted by: JAS at October 20, 2019 10:02 AM (DBGf/)

136 According to Granny, the whole world is full of Russian assets--except the Downtown Moscow branch of Putin Savings & Loan where Bill gives half-million dollar speeches.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 20, 2019 10:03 AM (Ndje9)

137 In the early days of WWI, the Germans burned the midieval library of Louvain as a reprisal for a quite possibly imaginary attack on them by civilians.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 10:04 AM (+y/Ru)

138 "Homage to Catalonia" is a fascinating book, but requires historical context, or else... what the hell?

Orwell wasn't there very long-- a few months. First he got shot-- in comparison to his Spanish comrades, he was so tall that he must've been a sniper's wet dream.

Then, he came VERY close to getting arrested, & perhaps executed, by the NKVD. Maybe his British passport would have saved his life, but who knows?

Posted by: mnw at October 20, 2019 10:04 AM (Cssks)

139 "Earth abides " by Steward ( I think) was another good read

Posted by: NativeNH at October 20, 2019 10:05 AM (dtRY5)

140 I've reached the point in A People's Tragedy where Figes describes how Lenin has unleashed The Terror with the Cheka sadistically torturing and killing everyone who stimulated their ire. Killing the Romanovs was a no brainer but carried out as ineptly as possible. But this was probably the first time the general population realized how fucked up these assholes were in charge. Lenin said it was better if 100 innocent people suffered than one guilty person go free. Anyone who says things only turned to shit under Stalin are lying tools.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:06 AM (y7DUB)

141 I wonder if -- after Animal Farm and 1984 -- anything bad happened to the NKVD officers who let Orwell get out of Spain alive?

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 10:07 AM (DYSh2)

142 Were any of you around for the movie thread last night? That was the longest and only piece of writing I have done in over a month.

As Teh Donald would say, "Sad!"
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 09:53 AM (Ki5SV)
-------------

I would say: writing is writing and it was great to read something so erudite.

Posted by: blake - are you DMV experienced?
at October 20, 2019 10:07 AM (WEBkv)

143 Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:06 AM (y7DUB)

Britain's King George royally screwed his cousin. Pun intended.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:08 AM (2DOZq)

144 There was a whole genre of YA postapocalyptic novels in the 1970s and 1980s. Were publishers pushing the idea that "Nuclear stuff is bad, m'kay?" to the kiddies, or was it just that it was in the air at the time?

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 10:09 AM (DYSh2)

145 Posted by: josephistan at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (Izzlo)
-----
I'm interested in several of those books.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 10:09 AM (iB1oa)

146 Now that I've been fully immersed and know the difference between POUM, FAI, CNT, etc., it will make more sense.

-
Splitters!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 10:09 AM (+y/Ru)

147 49 brexiters and waffle houseians
Posted by: saf at October 20, 2019 09:28 AM (5IHGB)

heh

Posted by: m at October 20, 2019 10:11 AM (GJ5tO)

148 Nazi Pelousi on a unicycle.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy does whatever his television tells him at October 20, 2019 10:11 AM (HaL55)

149 I am rereading The Mauritius Command right now, as I somehow began reading the O'Brian series in order again, but I stopped to read a pdf short story my brother sent me, called "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson (linked below, if you're interested).

It is a reprint of a story she published in the New Yorker in 1948, concerning a New England sounding village that holds a lottery every year, whose "winner" is put to death so to make the harvest bountiful. It is a well done story and incredibly disturbing; the difference between civilization and barbarism may not be as large as people hope.

https://tinyurl.com/ybtuhlbo

Posted by: Huck Follywood, a low grade social fever at October 20, 2019 10:13 AM (NVYyb)

150 We have to accept that Orwell was, through the end of his life, an avowed socialist, and an avowed leftist..For instance, he never gave up his belief that free markets will lead to monopoly, in fact.
Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (ZbwAu)

Of course, we all know that's nonsense.

Posted by: Google at October 20, 2019 10:13 AM (jjpZH)

151 I would say: writing is writing and it was great to read something so erudite.
Posted by: blake - are you DMV experienced?
at October 20, 2019 10:07 AM (WEBkv)

Thank you. You're very kind.

Someone on that thread mentioned Nosferatu, which I shall have to do one day. Not just because it is - using a word I hate - an iconic film, but because we are incredibly lucky to have it at all.

As almost everyone knows, Nosferatu is Dracula set entirely in Eastern Europe. Instead of Count Dracula, we have Count Orlok. Instead of Jonathan Harker, Thomas Hutter, and so on. It's so obviously stolen that Bram Stoker's widow sued for copyright infringement and won, the verdict being that all copies of Nosferatu were to be destroyed. Fortunately, one copy (not the master negative, however), survived and it is from that copy that all other copies were made, which explains why many public domain versions are of such poor quality.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 10:14 AM (Ki5SV)

152 So this week I have been reading Roger Stone's Tricky Dick: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Richard Nixon, which basically pins Watergate on John Dean (desperate to prevent his girlfriend / wife Mo from being found out as a DC call girl) and the CIA (furious at Nixon's attempts at detente). Al Haig also stars as the conniver who more or less escorts Nixon out of the White House in order to gain more power for himself.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

If you find Stone's premise interesting, you may wish to read
Silent Coup, by Len Kolodny

When G. Gordon Liddy had a radio show, he would periodically have Kolodny on to talk about Watergate and all that, and push the book. This was Liddy's theory about what happened, as he actually didn't know what was going on around him when he was involved. Well, he came to know later, of course.

And yes, John Dean is a real shit-weasel.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at October 20, 2019 10:14 AM (hVpH7)

153 In Herodotus I've reached the point where Xerxes is bearing down on Greece and a lot of people are saying we preemptively surrender rather than being wiped out. Xerxes, at least how he's portrayed, would often seem weirdly benevolent toward people you'd think he'd be prone to crushing; but that's not exactly a good way to live.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:14 AM (y7DUB)

154 144 There was a whole genre of YA postapocalyptic novels in the 1970s and 1980s. Were publishers pushing the idea that "Nuclear stuff is bad, m'kay?" to the kiddies, or was it just that it was in the air at the time?
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 10:09 AM (DYSh2)

Yes.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 10:15 AM (jjpZH)

155 I wanna know what book that girl was reading.

rawr

Posted by: JackStraw at October 20, 2019 10:15 AM (ZLI7S)

156 Orwell ended up serving in the POUM by mistake if I remember right.

He went to Spain as part of the ILP volunteers which were assigned to the POUM militias. Orwell mentioned in his book that he wanted to transfer to the main Commie command in Madrid but he never was able to get it done.

So he came to being a POUM outlaw after the Commie crackdown by mistake or things may have turned out quite differently.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 20, 2019 10:15 AM (Z+IKu)

157 Roger Stone's Tricky Dick: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Richard Nixon, which basically pins Watergate on John Dean (desperate to prevent his girlfriend / wife Mo from being found out as a DC call girl)

-
That is the basic theme of Len Colodny's Silent Coup which G. Gordon Liddy thinks is the true story.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 10:15 AM (+y/Ru)

158 The post-apocalyptic book that made a big impression on early me was Nevil Shute's book "On The Beach", which was originally called "The Last Days On Earth". It still is a chilling thought.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, a low grade social fever at October 20, 2019 10:16 AM (NVYyb)

159 The partisanship or "factionalism" of the Founders was inevitable after the unity of purpose of the Revolution had been accomplished.

Jefferson was more vehement on media bias than any of them. Also on judicial tyranny.

Americans today are more propagandized than Soviet citizens in the Cold War.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 20, 2019 10:16 AM (Ndje9)

160 We have a lot of stuff, music, educational materials, and books on CD, so this move away from them and their players is a concern. We've been getting backups for the players. There's no way we could replace it all with streaming versions, even assuming we wanted to spend the money for the service and storage.

And it is one more example, of too damn many, of not having physical control over property. I can't be the only one who resents this constant and ever faster obsolescence.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 10:16 AM (bmdz3)

161 Faded Page has Alas Babylon and Pat Frank's other novels for free, but cautions they are "books in the Canadian public domain, which may be under copyright in other countries. If you live outside Canada, check your country's copyright laws before downloading or accessing the files."
https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Frank,%20Harry%20Hart

An yes, he was a good, commonsense writer.

Posted by: hooodathunkit at October 20, 2019 10:16 AM (1vSH9)

162 Britain's King George royally screwed his cousin. Pun intended.
Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:08 AM (2DOZq)

Figes in a footnote is pretty scathing about that bit of betrayal.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:17 AM (y7DUB)

163 Been reading the 3rd volume about the war in the Pacific, Flood Tide. Really enjoying them.

A question for any navel personnel out there: do modern carriers have to "turn into the wind" to launch and recover? Just curious.

Posted by: Blutarski

Yes, I also read "The Navy at Flood Tide" last year. Very good book.

And not a Navy guy at all, but yes, they still turn into the wind to get lift on the planes at launching from catapults.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at October 20, 2019 10:18 AM (hVpH7)

164 145 Posted by: josephistan at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (Izzlo)
-----
I'm interested in several of those books.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 10:09 AM (iB1oa)

My email should be in my nic

Posted by: josephistan at October 20, 2019 10:21 AM (Izzlo)

165 136
According to Granny, the whole world is full of Russian assets--except
the Downtown Moscow branch of Putin Savings Loan where Bill gives
half-million dollar speeches.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 20, 2019 10:03 AM (Ndje9)

I saw Secret Russian Assets open for Pussy Riot in Red Square in 98.

Posted by: Spetnaz Pee Whores at October 20, 2019 10:22 AM (9dzlp)

166 reading MP4's interesting Haxan review reminded me - I kinda wanna make one of those online quizzes - it would be "What kind of serial killer are you?"

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 10:22 AM (G546f)

167 That is the basic theme of Len Colodny's Silent Coup which G. Gordon Liddy thinks is the true story.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 10:15 AM (+y/Ru)

IIRC. Liddy talked about a break in at a Republican office a year or so before Watergate. Either I dreamt that or it has been scrubbed from the interwebs.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:22 AM (2DOZq)

168 Roger Stone's Tricky Dick: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Richard Nixon, which basically pins Watergate on John Dean (desperate to prevent his girlfriend / wife Mo from being found out as a DC call girl)

-
That is the basic theme of Len Colodny's Silent Coup which G. Gordon Liddy thinks is the true story.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 10:15 AM (+y/Ru)

Stone references Silent Coup quite a bit, and I will have to get around to reading that some day. And somewhere in the bowels of Stately Poppins Manor I have Liddy's autograph.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 10:22 AM (Ki5SV)

169 144 ... " There was a whole genre of YA postapocalyptic novels in the 1970s and 1980s. Were publishers pushing the idea that "Nuclear stuff is bad, m'kay?" to the kiddies, or was it just that it was in the air at the time?"

I wasn't reading YA stuff in the 70s and 80s but it sounds like "you can't trust adults and their values". (Western values). Sort of an intensification of "don't trust anyone over thirty" from the Hippies.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 10:22 AM (bmdz3)

170 161
Faded Page has Alas Babylon and Pat Frank's other novels for free, but
cautions they are "books in the Canadian public domain, which may be
under copyright in other countries. If you live outside Canada, check
your country's copyright laws before downloading or accessing the
files."

https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Frank,%20Harry%20Hart

An yes, he was a good, commonsense writer.

Posted by: hooodathunkit at October 20, 2019 10:16 AM (1vSH9)

Gutenberg has it for free too and in fact I downloaded it from them originally. But I never could figure out how to get in on my Fire HD10 so I could read it. So I did what Amazon wanted with their new HD10, I bought it from them and let their service load it for me.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 10:23 AM (mpXpK)

171 I remember Alas Babylon, and the tag line at the end from some General who's asked what it means now we've lost a nuclear war. The General famously says "But we Won!!!"

The first post-apocalyptic book that really grabbed me was Daybreak - 2250 AD (also called Star Man's Son) Loved the cover art - originally published in 1952.

https://tinyurl.com/y4z9qhut

A lot of people have noticed that this one feels like the godfather of Thundar the Barbarian and that genre. I loved the passages of the young savage exploring the ancient ruins of the mysterious sckyscrapers, and wondering how humans could ever have lived in such things.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 20, 2019 10:24 AM (V2Yro)

172 Tom Servo, remember reading a lot of Andre Norton as a kid, not that one though

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 10:25 AM (G546f)

173 "Death In Yellowstone"
Non-fiction, Lee H. Whittlesey

A collection of incidents at Yellowstone National Park that led to unfortunate deaths. Mostly involving being scalded after falling in to boiling pools. Heartbreaking reading, truly, especially those stories about parents with young children who got away from them quickly, and fell in. Just a few seconds in the hot spring can render 2nd and 3rd degree burns, and once you have those on 70% or so of your body, not much to be done, death can be agonizing, slow and certain.
Cheery stuff.

Posted by: navybrat, mostly lurking at October 20, 2019 10:26 AM (w7KSn)

174 IIRC. Liddy talked about a break in at a Republican office a year or so before Watergate. Either I dreamt that or it has been scrubbed from the interwebs.
Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:22 AM (2DOZq)

I'm sure it happened. When I first heard about Watergate it struck me as something LBJ, and his shithead operatives like Bill Moyers, routinely did.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:26 AM (y7DUB)

175 Everyone brags about Lucifer's Hammer but I can't get started. Read the first couple of chapters at least 3x .

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:26 AM (2DOZq)

176 Maybe I should change it to a "What kind of violent offender are you" online quiz... hmmm

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 10:27 AM (G546f)

177 149 I am rereading The Mauritius Command right now, as I somehow began reading the O'Brian series in order again, but I stopped to read a pdf short story my brother sent me, called "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson (linked below, if you're interested).

It is a reprint of a story she published in the New Yorker in 1948, concerning a New England sounding village that holds a lottery every year, whose "winner" is put to death so to make the harvest bountiful. It is a well done story and incredibly disturbing; the difference between civilization and barbarism may not be as large as people hope.

https://tinyurl.com/ybtuhlbo
Posted by: Huck Follywood, a low grade social fever at October 20, 2019 10:13 AM (NVYyb)
_______

1. IMO, Mauritius Command is the best of the lot, and I love the whole Aubrey series. It is also very accurate as a portrayal of the battle. Just change a few names. Lord Clonfert is entirely made up, and of course, Maturin. The rest is spot on. (Jack Aubrey = Josias Rawley, the actual commander.)

2. We read The Lottery in HS, back in the 60s, in NY. My teacher completely missed on the pagan sacrifice aspect. My wife, OTOH, went to school in rural VA. Her teacher missed it too, but she says one of the guys asked "Were they having a drought that year?" Blew her teacher's mind.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:28 AM (ZbwAu)

178 Leigh Brackett started her file career writing on the screenplay for The Maltese Falcon, and ended with The Empire Strikes Back.
I knew her by reading her The Ginger Star trilogy which is about her principal protagonist, John Eric Stark, and his travels across the dying planet Skaith and its adapted and bred natives.

The Ginger Sun books are pretty much Barsoom books in world building, Skaith is a dying planet who's sun grows colder every century, and its seas have been drying up. It is a world of narrow tropical equatorial lands and seas, broad dry plains and frigid poles and mountains. The inhabitants are mostly like humans, and are slipping into barbarism from a high technological culture that had great abilities to shape themselves and other species to fit ecological niches: all of whom in their separate ecological roles become other than what they were. They mostly standard Skaith cultures go from the florid and corrupt states around the equatorial seas to the steppe nomads who have become fully raiding barbarians. All of whom kill strangers.

The modified Skaithians go from the ocean adapted ones who have devolved to become cannibals preying on the land-walkers who they butcher and eat in rites in ruined temples dedicated to the goddess of the sea, to the ones that live sealed away in caverns below the mountains who devote themselves to study of the ancient technology. The modified animals include the psychic hounds that kill by projecting their thoughts of terror and loss on their victims.

Stark was raised by the ape-like natives on Mercury, where he was orphaned and lost as an infant, where he learned to become tough and resilient as a child, and inured to deprivation, thirst and pain. He was taught to be human by an explorer, Clark Ashton, a great souled man who he considers his father. Stark went to Skaith to be part of the work to try to move some of the Skaith population to a world that was not doomed. He became separated from the embassy and had to travel across Skaith to be rescued. The Trilogy is about his travels across Skaith to rescue himself.

Link in my nick

Posted by: Kindltot at October 20, 2019 10:29 AM (xG/b0)

179 btw:

a few minutes ago it was 10/20/10:20

Posted by: mjc at October 20, 2019 10:29 AM (Pg+x7)

180 I just finished "Throne of Bones" by Vox, the first in the Arts of Dark and Light series.

It was hard getting into at first. It reads as a alt-history of the roman legion in the beginning but then picks up speed. A sword and sorcery genre with the requisite dwarves, elves, wizards, etc... but in a more realistic setting revolving around a proxy for Rome and the Catholic Church. Intrigue in the Senate and the church magisterium, vassal states rebelling all while an evil menace rises.

I liked it enough to get the next in the series.

Posted by: banana Dream at October 20, 2019 10:29 AM (l6b3d)

181 "file career" should be film career

Posted by: Kindltot at October 20, 2019 10:30 AM (xG/b0)

182 ... one more chance tonight for the last 10/20/10:20.

Posted by: mjc at October 20, 2019 10:30 AM (Pg+x7)

183 OK, it's time for some tea and perhaps writing. Or a nap. Or a day drinking into insensibility. Who knows?

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 10:30 AM (Ki5SV)

184 And of course now even the profs are afraid to teach lest they get reported for wrongthink.

Very sad.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:00 AM (cfSRQ

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:31 AM (U7k5w)

185 I'm reading _The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard_, an anthology of, well, what it says on the cover.

-
I've been watching Thriller with Boris Karloff on MeTV, a horror anthology series, and quite enjoying it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 10:32 AM (+y/Ru)

186 Everyone brags about Lucifer's Hammer but I can't get started. Read the first couple of chapters at least 3x .

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:26 AM (2DOZq)

I got through it, but it was a bit of a slog, mostly because the writing was sophomoric. It's a nice idea, executed not too well.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 20, 2019 10:32 AM (wYseH)

187 ... 10-22.

Posted by: mjc at October 20, 2019 10:33 AM (Pg+x7)

188 My email should be in my nic

When ya click da link, ya get a 404 not found

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 10:33 AM (arJlL)

189 I've been watching Thriller with Boris Karloff on MeTV, a horror anthology series, and quite enjoying it.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler

It was available on Prime, not sure if it still is. Also available is One Step Beyond, a true supernatural series on about the same time as the original Twilight Zone.

Posted by: Blutarski at October 20, 2019 10:33 AM (VNfwt)

190 150 We have to accept that Orwell was, through the end of his life, an avowed socialist, and an avowed leftist..For instance, he never gave up his belief that free markets will lead to monopoly, in fact.
Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (ZbwAu)

Of course, we all know that's nonsense.
Posted by: Google at October 20, 2019 10:13 AM (jjpZH)
_________

IMO, the free markets of classic economics are like the frictionless universe of classical physics. Instructive, and a model which tells a lot of truth, but ultimately unreal.

Even if we had Rothbard, Friedman, and Hayek write up a constitution and laws for the republic, there'd still be crooked enforcers, and crooked companies subverting it.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:34 AM (ZbwAu)

191 I got through it, but it was a bit of a slog, mostly because the writing was sophomoric. It's a nice idea, executed not too well.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 20, 2019 10:32 AM (wYseH)

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

Read it way back in my youth and really liked it.

But, again, yout's aren't necessarily the most discerning when it comes to writing.

Though, even at a yout, the book definitely came under the heading of, "Read it once, that's good enough" category.

Posted by: blake - are you DMV experienced?
at October 20, 2019 10:35 AM (WEBkv)

192 I wasn't reading YA stuff in the 70s and 80s but it
sounds like "you can't trust adults and their values". (Western values).
Sort of an intensification of "don't trust anyone over thirty" from the
Hippies.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 10:22 AM (bmdz3)

---
It's funny how currents in the popular culture can pass you right by. I didn't read sci-fi or fantasy growing up, moving directly into military history from Dr. Seuss. At first I liked the big picture books and would read the photo captions, then I'd get into the text.

The Flying Tigers was one of my first paperbacks (bought through the school book sale - imagine that today!) and that got me hooked on pilots - Fly for Your Life, Reach for the Sky, To War in a Stringbag, The Dam Busters, etc.

Kinda missed the YA genre entirely.

I remember in high school a bunch of the girls toting around V.C. Andrews' Flowers in the Attic and giggling about it, but they wouldn't tell us guys what was in it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:37 AM (cfSRQ)

193 189 I've been watching Thriller with Boris Karloff on MeTV, a horror anthology series, and quite enjoying it.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler

It was available on Prime, not sure if it still is. Also available is One Step Beyond, a true supernatural series on about the same time as the original Twilight Zone.
Posted by: Blutarski at October 20, 2019 10:33 AM (VNfwt)

Both are available on youtube

Posted by: josephistan at October 20, 2019 10:37 AM (Izzlo)

194 (... 10-22 = take no further action; disregard.)

Posted by: mjc at October 20, 2019 10:38 AM (Pg+x7)

195 "The Lottery" has been spooking students for decades. I read it in junior high in the mid-60s and the sacrificial, pagan feeling leaped off the pages. That was part of the horror: it had gone on for so long what started as murderous superstition had become acceptable ritual carried out for no actual reason and therefore with no appeal.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 10:40 AM (bmdz3)

196 "true supernatural"

Posted by: Blutarski at October 20, 2019 10:33 AM (VNfwt)

the best kind

Posted by: BignJames at October 20, 2019 10:40 AM (X/Pw5)

197 And not a Navy guy at all, but yes, they still turn into the wind to get lift on the planes at launching from catapults.
Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at October 20, 2019 10:18 AM

And also speed up the ship to maximize the wind coming over the bow. Every little bit helps.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 20, 2019 10:41 AM (DMUuz)

198 Orwell was a big factor in turning me off of/to pop fiction.

Posted by: klaftern at October 20, 2019 10:41 AM (RuIsu)

199 153
In Herodotus I've reached the point where Xerxes is bearing down on
Greece and a lot of people are saying we preemptively surrender rather
than being wiped out. Xerxes, at least how he's portrayed, would often
seem weirdly benevolent toward people you'd think he'd be prone to
crushing; but that's not exactly a good way to live.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:14 AM (y7DUB)

---
Classical tyrants valued their reputations for cleverness and honesty. They would also offer mercy when it was in their interest to appear benevolent.

Thus, having lost a round to a fierce warrior people, it was completely in character to praise their courage, offer them a prize position in your own command structure but remind them that further resistance would result in total destruction.

You only need a few examples of both extremes to make the point, and honestly having hardasses fighting for you is a better deal.

For one thing, it makes the whole "divide and rule" thing easier. The more diverse and disparate tribes personally loyal only to you, the better.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:41 AM (cfSRQ)

200 And of course now even the profs are afraid to teach lest they get reported for wrongthink.

Very sad.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:00 AM (cfSRQ

My husband taught in the business school, and accounting and finance are at least partially immune from this. I shudder to imagine SJW microbiology or physiology, but I see that "sustainable energy" is already a sort of major at Princeton, so who knows.

Engineering and science should still be safe, but there is probably no way around general ed indoctrination.

Even in the 70s, most MSU students were herded into ATL and Hums which could be breeding grounds for group think. The honors college gave you permission to pick and choose, I took real literature classes rather than ATL and real European history rather than "humanities". If I ruled academia, those herd classes would be abolished

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:42 AM (U7k5w)

201 A comment on The Godfather got me thinking. I never read the book but it is one of the few movies I've heard people say was as good or better than the book.

Almost every movie made based on a book I've read has been a huge disappointment. I was thinking about my top two disappointments and came up with The Lords of Discipline and The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:42 AM (2DOZq)

202 The other mystery I've just reread is Michael Gilbert's Killing of Katie Steelstock (aka Death of a Favorite Girl). I'm a big Gilbert fan - I've recommended him here - but this might be his worst. (There are 2 set in the Alps which are also below par.)

He breaks faith with the reader, violating basic principles of fair play mysteries. The ending is extremely forced, with an out of the hat solution, not something you could reasonably figure out. Since I'd read it before, I payed close attention to clues about the real murderer. They aren't there. The most I can say is that there are things consistent with the ending, but no indicators.

Also, both the community it happens in, and the courtroom scenes are below his usual standard. The one good thing in it is a portrait of an emotionally disturbed leftist.

So I'm now rereading his Death Has Deep Roots, which if not his best, is certainly his most typical book.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:42 AM (ZbwAu)

203 Ok, in the last 2 weeks, I read "Juiced" by Jose Canseco.

I never liked him, and I like him even less after reading da book.

He comes across as more than a little whiny, and quite proud of himself for having introduced steroids to MLB.

One good thing: at the beginning of each chapter, there is a quote about Canseco by someone else.

Near the end is a quote by Letterman : " If you're a baseball purist like me, you know the season doesn't really begin until Jose Canseco gets arrested".

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 10:43 AM (arJlL)

204 I saw Translucent Negligee open for Mighty Thews back in 88

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 09:34 AM (G546f)

Ahem, phrasing.

Oh wait, maybe you wrote it that way intentionally, just to be naughty.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 10:44 AM (jjpZH)

205 I read 1984 in high school. The idea that Winston's TV watched him, that there was nowhere he could escape the surveillance of the state, really bothered me.

Fast forward to 2019 and Iphones and Google....

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. at October 20, 2019 10:45 AM (d6Ksn)

206 Then I read Bo Knows Bo by Bo Jackson and Dick Schapp.

And it was a welcome change from whiny Canseco.

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 10:45 AM (arJlL)

207 [Canseco] comes across as more than a little whiny, and quite proud of himself for having introduced steroids to MLB.

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 10:43 AM (arJ

Say what?

Posted by: Barry Bonds at October 20, 2019 10:45 AM (jjpZH)

208
For one thing, it makes the whole "divide and rule" thing easier. The more diverse and disparate tribes personally loyal only to you, the better.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:41 AM (cfSRQ)

And we're seeing divide and conquer with "diversity" here, IMO. The melting pot is being exchanged for a tribal mosaic for exactly that reason.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:46 AM (U7k5w)

209 We have to accept that Orwell was, through the end
of his life, an avowed socialist, and an avowed leftist.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (ZbwAu)

---
A lot of otherwise sensible leftists can't fully cross over because they can't get past the problems they see with capitalism.

I think it really boils down to a lack of religion, or fully understanding human nature, particularly original sin. If you reject that, and think that sure, we're smart and *should* be able to build a just society, you never stop hoping that someone will figure it out.

So you focus on monopolies, or greed, or profit and completely ignore that socialism incorporates all of these, just in a more hidden way.

Plus, since you don't believe in redemption, you can claim virtue by believing in something superior to everyone else, regardless of whether it works.

Thus, Orwell could write well and often about Stalin's crimes, police states and so on, but he could never quite bring himself to understand that the left ultimately had no solution for the problems he pinned on the right.

The right didn't, either, because there is no solution on this side of immortality. A lot of people can't understand that.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:47 AM (cfSRQ)

210 What exactly is "Young Adults'" fiction supposed to mean? Why is it a thing?

When I was a teen, my favorite fiction writers were probably Conan Doyle and Saki. And Lewis Carroll. And they're still up there.

It's true I no longer read Hornblower novels, but that's only because O'Brian is so much better.

Anyone else read Kirk's Creature of the Twilight? Not great, but a lot of fun.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:47 AM (ZbwAu)

211 Then I read Bo Knows Bo by Bo Jackson and Dick Schapp.

And it was a welcome change from whiny Canseco.
Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 10:45 AM (arJlL)

I think Bo could have been the Decathlon record holder for a century if that is what he pursued. But I really like him because he is an archery enthusiast.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:47 AM (2DOZq)

212 Ahem, phrasing.

Oh wait, maybe you wrote it that way intentionally, just to be naughty.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 10:44 AM (jjpZH)

---
Sez the guy who put the pre-fapping chick at the top of the thread...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:48 AM (cfSRQ)

213 210 What exactly is "Young Adults'" fiction supposed to mean? Why is it a thing?

==

it's a marketing thing
a lot of the books are actually aimed at 30-40 year old women

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 10:49 AM (G546f)

214 Engineering and science should still be safe, but there is probably no way around general ed indoctrination.
Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:42 AM

It's creeping into engineering, too.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 20, 2019 10:49 AM (DMUuz)

215 Next on my to-read list - Anne Tyler's VINEGAR GIRL, a retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew. This is one of the Hogarth Shakespeare series. I enjoyed the Jo Nesbo's MACBETH and waiting for Gillian Flynn's retelling of HAMLET.

Posted by: Oggi at October 20, 2019 10:50 AM (Bk5Q+)

216 91 "Fathers and Sons: the Autobiography of a Family," by Alexander Waugh.

Evelyn's grandson. Fourth generation man of letters, & guess what? He can WRITE.
Posted by: mnw at October 20, 2019 09:43 AM (Cssks)

So glad you posted this. I was trying to remember the title "Brideshead Revisited" a little earlier and, poof, you mention Waugh. Whew.

Posted by: m at October 20, 2019 10:50 AM (GJ5tO)

217 Nobody knows Bo like I do.

Posted by: Peep at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (DMUuz)

218 Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 10:40 AM (bmdz3)

Now, my HS teacher delved into the idea of human sacrifice during the reading of this work, sometimes without an obvious connection. I agree that the horror of Jackson's story is that people were doing it without a real reason, long after a connection to pagan gods.

I think western culture is partially moving back towards a pagan culture, and I find that even more horrifying.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (U7k5w)

219 And we're seeing divide and conquer with "diversity"
here, IMO. The melting pot is being exchanged for a tribal mosaic for
exactly that reason.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:46 AM (U7k5w)

---
To an extent, but a lot of policy is currently driven by people too stupid to even know what will happen next.

You can go mad trying to figure out an inner logic or cunning conspiracy when sheer idiocy is the most likely cause.

Unprecedented prosperity causes people to do dumb things because they don't understand how quickly things can go south.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (cfSRQ)

220 My husband taught in the business school, and accounting and finance are at least partially immune from this.

Accounting has its methodological order to it that makes it attractive to logical types. Then you have to start assigning values to intangible things like Goodwill...

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (y7DUB)

221 Posted by: Oggi at October 20, 2019 10:50 AM (Bk5Q+)

The movie , Ten Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. Decent teen movie.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:52 AM (2DOZq)

222 Unprecedented prosperity causes people to do dumb things because they don't understand how quickly things can go south.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (cfSRQ)

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:53 AM (U7k5w)

223 The movie , Ten Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. Decent teen movie.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:52 AM (2DOZq)

---
I went to high school with one of the actresses in that movie. Oddly, I've never gotten around to actually watching it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:54 AM (cfSRQ)

224 Sez the guy who put the pre-fapping chick at the top of the thread...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:48 AM (cfSRQ)

You may not believe this, but the reason that painting caught my eye was the girl's hair. It made me wonder what the artist had to do, what brushstrokes or whatever, to get it to look like that.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 10:54 AM (jjpZH)

225 "Young Adult" fiction is what we call "Children's books" when teenagers read them.

Seriously: look at older "children's books" like Dr. Dolittle or The Wind in the Willows -- or The Hobbit! They're VASTLY more sophisticated both in writing and themes than these bloated soap-opera YA series published today.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 10:55 AM (DYSh2)

226 The ever proliferating cornucopia of genders and pronouns is building an even more fragile Tower of Babel.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 20, 2019 10:55 AM (E2dMO)

227 Unprecedented prosperity causes people to do dumb things because they don't understand how quickly things can go south.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (cfSRQ)

Yet a bit more history could help here. We should be reading about how collectivism was forced on people, instead we're seeing little coverage of what Venezuela has become in the name of justice.

When the news is suppressed for political ends, it can be difficult NOT to see a guiding hand.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:55 AM (U7k5w)

228 "My husband taught in the business school, and accounting and finance are at least partially immune from this. I shudder to imagine SJW microbiology or physiology..."

So... I teach microbiology.

Imagine the horror on the little boogers faces when
I describe how the person I know, who "became"
a girl (testosterone shots and "top surgery"),

...and left the "bottom" intact.

But no one notified the E. coli

As it Turns out, testosterone and a female reproductive tract
are a prescription for unrelenting urinary tract infections.

heh.

"It's science, bitches!" ~Jesse Pinkman.

heh. Pinkman. get it?
I'll be here all week. try the veal.

Posted by: retropox, AOL Booklegger at October 20, 2019 10:55 AM (cprte)

229 Needed a break from reading so I'm listening to some podcasts.

OM, maybe have a thread on interesting podcasts sometime?

Thanks for all you do!

Hugs.

Posted by: mpfs at October 20, 2019 10:56 AM (79p/O)

230 209

Plus, since you don't believe in redemption, you can claim virtue by believing in something superior to everyone else, regardless of whether it works.

Thus, Orwell could write well and often about Stalin's crimes, police states and so on, but he could never quite bring himself to understand that the left ultimately had no solution for the problems he pinned on the right.

The right didn't, either, because there is no solution on this side of immortality. A lot of people can't understand that.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:47 AM (cfSRQ)
_______

I don't think "claim virtue" is fair in Orwell's case. Others yes, but he was pretty free of that.

And he sort of admitted that the left had, as yet, no solutions. But he couldn't shake his faith that there MUST be a solution in democratic socialism. (He says that in several essays.)

Another weak spot in his arguments is that he often put a lot of emphasis on the way the world was headed. That's another reason he rejects Hayek. But in fact, he saw, in other contexts, that things could change rapidly. E.g., when writing about James Burnham.

Of course he was strongly anti-Christian, especially anti-Catholic. But he never seems to have even tried to understand the philosophical arguments. It's always on a level of popular piety and on it's (perceived) social effects. A lot of this comes out in his review of Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man. And his very frequent - and sometimes sympathetic - comments on Chesterton and Waugh. (He was grossly unfair to Ronald Knox, though. Misread him completely.)

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:56 AM (ZbwAu)

231 it's a beautiful painting, OM

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 10:56 AM (G546f)

232 I hate Nike and their Leni Riefenstahl, Shelton Lee, but the Bo Knows commercials were hilarious. I still watch them online for a laugh.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 10:56 AM (y7DUB)

233 226 The ever proliferating cornucopia of genders and pronouns is building an even more fragile Tower of Babel.
Posted by: Anna Puma at October 20, 2019 10:55 AM (E2dMO)

I hate this with enough rage to poison a metropolis. On the High Holidays we were presented with name tags on which to write our pronouns. I wrote "If you can't figure that out...."

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:56 AM (U7k5w)

234 Before that, I read One Good Deed by David Baldacci.

GREAT story, GREAT characters, GREAT plot.

Which brings me to the ending.

..........WHADYACALLIT ALERT !..........

I'm gonna tell ya the ending......

The story was set in the Late'40's-early '50's

And a dead guy on a dictaphone confessed to the 3 murders !

WHAT a LUCKING FETDOWN !

So all you authors and would-be authors take note here....

If you're writing a story and you're stuck for an ending.....

Just pull a dead guy and a dictphone outta yer ass and you'll be all set !

(I've been watching Rickles on YouTube of late. Does it show ?)

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 10:57 AM (arJlL)

235 You may not believe this, but the reason that
painting caught my eye was the girl's hair. It made me wonder what the
artist had to do, what brushstrokes or whatever, to get it to look like
that.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 10:54 AM (jjpZH)

---
I believe you, and I also know that my statement is not incompatible with your explanation.

An old friend of mine was severely turned on by long, flowing hair. As men are wont to do, we'd reminisce about exes and such and he'd tell about some girl or other, comment on all the things that drove him nuts about her and how it was never going to work out, but then he'd pause.

"Her hair, however, was exquisite."

You like hair and shoes. Fair enough.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:57 AM (cfSRQ)

236
Accounting has its methodological order to it that makes it attractive to logical types. Then you have to start assigning values to intangible things like Goodwill...

Ugh.

I was writing banking consulting software prior to the RTC closing down most of the Savings & Loans.

These S&Ls were vanity tax dodges. Many had art as assets and the "Goodwill" column always had huge numbers relative to anything else.

Big play for TX oil and cattle men.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 10:58 AM (lD3vL)

237 225 "Young Adult" fiction is what we call "Children's books" when teenagers read them.

==

some is, but mixed in are a lot of books you REALLY don't want your teen reading

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 10:58 AM (G546f)

238 Unprecedented prosperity causes people to do dumb things because they don't understand how quickly things can go south.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (cfSRQ)

Right, and there's actually a counseling service you can get to online, I think it's called The Sudden Money Institute, that helps people who have won the lottery, or come into an inheritance, or an insurance settlement, etc., to help them manage their new wealth.

There are lots of sad case histories you can read about, people who were suddenly millions of dollars richer, and then p*ssed it all away.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 10:58 AM (jjpZH)

239 So, I just swung by and wrote an email to Tulsi, explaining how super awesome she is, and how she's the only hope to upset the corrupt apple cart that is the Dem party, in much the same way as Trump has done in the GOP.

And how, if they're going to freeze her out and call her a Russian bot, then she SHOULD make a third-party run to teach them a lesson.

Hopefully I've done my small part to feed her towering ego, and to rub salt in her wounded pride.

Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 10:59 AM (5aX2M)

240 218 Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 10:40 AM (bmdz3)

Now, my HS teacher delved into the idea of human sacrifice during the reading of this work, sometimes without an obvious connection. I agree that the horror of Jackson's story is that people were doing it without a real reason, long after a connection to pagan gods.

I think western culture is partially moving back towards a pagan culture, and I find that even more horrifying.
Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:51 AM (U7k5w)
_______

C S Lewis thought that pagansm would be better than where we are headed. He said he'd be more optimistic if a garlanded white bull were sacrificed at the opening of Parliament. We know we can convert people like that. He saw something worse coming.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:59 AM (ZbwAu)

241 134 Here's some Rosie and Bing - the title track from Fancy Meeting You Here.

https://tinyurl.com/y3bj9xm5
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 10:02 AM (Ki5SV)

That's just wonderful!

Posted by: m at October 20, 2019 10:59 AM (GJ5tO)

242 Imagine the horror on the little boogers faces when
I describe how the person I know, who "became"
a girl (testosterone shots and "top surgery"),

...and left the "bottom" intact.

But no one notified the E. coli

As it Turns out, testosterone and a female reproductive tract
are a prescription for unrelenting urinary tract infections.

heh. Pinkman. get it?
I'll be here all week. try the veal.
Posted by: retropox, AOL Booklegger at October 20, 2019 10:55 AM (cprte)

I'd like to see this stopped too. Doctors and APNs who write for this bullshit should lose their licenses. Telling a male he can become a female is a straight out lie and malpractice.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (U7k5w)

243 there's also some great fantasy and sf marketed as YA

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (G546f)

244 I love good podcasts.
My faves are
Dennis Miller
John Batchelor

Posted by: navybrat, mostly lurking at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (w7KSn)

245 There are lots of sad case histories you can read about, people who were suddenly millions of dollars richer, and then p*ssed it all away.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 10:58 AM (jjpZH)

Navin Johnson comes to mind.

Posted by: BignJames at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (X/Pw5)

246 I hate this with enough rage to poison a metropolis. On the High Holidays we were presented with name tags on which to write our pronouns. I wrote "If you can't figure that out...."

Just put down XX or XY based on how God originally configured you.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (lD3vL)

247 210 ... "What exactly is "Young Adults'" fiction supposed to mean? Why is it a thing?

When I was a teen, my favorite fiction writers were probably Conan Doyle and Saki. And Lewis Carroll."

I assume the age group for young adult is teenage and it wasn't enough to read literature like Sherlock Holmes. The stories had to be about them and all their teen angst, which they think (I use the word 'think' loosely) is the most important matter in the world. It allows these youngsters (NOT adults) to indulge every self-centered, egotistical sense of self-importance. Add in the sexy aspects and they consider themselves adults, which they aren't. It's like the 13 year old girl who thinks because she needs a bra and shaves that she is now a woman.

Mini-rant off.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (bmdz3)

248 Hopefully I've done my small part to feed her towering ego, and to rub salt in her wounded pride.

They won't read it unless its written on the back of a depositable cheque.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 11:02 AM (lD3vL)

249 You like hair and shoes. Fair enough.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:57 AM (cfSRQ)

Heh. Hair and eyes, actually, I'm completely indifferent about shoes.

In fact, I've gotten so many negative comments about the Friday shoe pr0n that I'm thinking of dropping it. I just don't have an eye for what the 'ettes like.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:02 AM (jjpZH)

250 You like hair and shoes. Fair enough.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 10:57 AM (cfSRQ)
-----
Who doesn't like hair?

Posted by: Joey B. at October 20, 2019 11:02 AM (iB1oa)

251 I enjoyed the Jo Nesbo's MACBETH and waiting for Gillian Flynn's retelling of HAMLET.

The one with Phil Silvers where they did HAMLET is my favorite episode of GILLIAN FLYNN'S ISLAND.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at October 20, 2019 11:04 AM (oVJmc)

252 That painting of the little girl caught up in her book is lovely. Thanks, OM.

On the other hand, 'these pants' make me think of a long pants diaper. Thisis not a good look.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 11:04 AM (bmdz3)

253 Of course he was strongly anti-Christian, especially
anti-Catholic. But he never seems to have even tried to understand the
philosophical arguments. It's always on a level of popular piety and on
it's (perceived) social effects. A lot of this comes out in his review
of Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man. And his very frequent - and
sometimes sympathetic - comments on Chesterton and Waugh. (He was
grossly unfair to Ronald Knox, though. Misread him completely.)

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:56 AM (ZbwAu)

---
Even otherwise thoughtful Brits still seem to have a hangup about Catholicism.

I watch a fair bit of British cinema, particularly period pieces. It's almost a requirement that whenever a Catholic character is identified, self-flagellation must then follow.

My wife and I laugh out loud now whenever we see it, because it's transparent bigotry but if confronted, I'm certain none of the producers or crew would find anything wrong with it. Orwell is of that world. Can't help it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 11:04 AM (cfSRQ)

254 A comment on The Godfather got me thinking. I never read the book but it is one of the few movies I've heard people say was as good or better than the book.
Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:42 AM

Coppola justifiably cut out two sub-plots: the sex life of the bridesmaid Sonny was screwing, and Johnny Fontane's relationships.

The only scenes I wish he had included are 1) the two college boys who ruined Bonasera's daughter getting turned into hamburger by an ex-boxer; the backstory for Neri.

Posted by: Chuck C at October 20, 2019 11:04 AM (r6GXX)

255 In fact, I've gotten so many negative comments about the Friday shoe pr0n that I'm thinking of dropping it. I just don't have an eye for what the 'ettes like.

Whoa 1

Why not ask the 'Ettes ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:06 AM (arJlL)

256 On the High Holidays we were presented with name tags on which to write our pronouns. I wrote "If you can't figure that out...."

==

I'd write something in different alphabet (maybe look up something in Korean) and act all offended if I get questions

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:06 AM (G546f)

257 C S Lewis thought that pagansm would be better than where we are headed. He said he'd be more optimistic if a garlanded white bull were sacrificed at the opening of Parliament. We know we can convert people like that. He saw something worse coming.
Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:59 AM (ZbwAu)

Exactly right. Lewis is another great prophetic voice. He knew where we were headed back in the 1950s. Nobody listened to him. I always wonder if he ever felt like Cassandra, cursed by the gods to have absolute perfect knowledge of the future, and to be believed by nobody.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:07 AM (jjpZH)

258 The girl reading actually resembles Mrs Eeyore. Well, much younger.

She reads like lightning, so she can read modern popular books. I've given that up entirely.

(God my arm hurts. I bragged months ago about finding out I was not inclined to opiate addiction. Good thing I left many pills in the vial. I'm using them now. The only "good' feeling is still the lessening of pain.)

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:07 AM (ZbwAu)

259 Whoa 1

Why not ask the 'Ettes ?
Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:06 AM (arJlL)

I have! But I've received scant response.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:08 AM (jjpZH)

260 I'd like to see this stopped too. Doctors and APNs
who write for this bullshit should lose their licenses. Telling a male
he can become a female is a straight out lie and malpractice.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (U7k5w)

---
My daughter didn't respond well to conventional narcolepsy medication. We tried it all, nothing worked.

Nicotine did, though. So we tried to get this prescribed. Oh no, no way in hell! That's off-label use! Forbidden!

Yet the "puberty blockers" are also off-label and no one bats an eye.

I get the sense that all those mesothelioma lawyer ads will be replaced with puberty blocker ones. Too much money just sitting there.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 11:09 AM (cfSRQ)

261 Some Moron recommended the Bernie Gunther novels of Philip Kerr so I'm reading the first, March Violets. Gunther is a former "bull" of the Berlin Kripo, Kriminalpolezei, who resigned and became a private investigator when he became unpopular with his superiors for being insufficiently pro-Hitler. The term March Violets refers to those who became fanatically party members after Hitler's rise to power, particularly those who acquire phony early party membership numbers marking them as Alter Kaempfer which is very good for appointment to powerful government positions. Set in Berlin in 1936, Gunther becomes involved in a double murder, arson, theft which implicates the power struggle between the old wealth and the new order. One of the intriguing style points is his use of criminal slang which makes the prose colorful but can cause some confusion. For example, a U-Boat is a fugitive who has gone underground. I'm quite enjoying it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 11:09 AM (+y/Ru)

262 IMO, Edgar Rice Burroughs is a young adult author as well as Rudyard Kipling.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 11:09 AM (2DOZq)

263 The movie , Ten Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. Decent teen movie.
Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:52 AM (2DOZq)

--------------
I liked that movie with Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger and the soundtrack too.

Posted by: Oggi at October 20, 2019 11:10 AM (Bk5Q+)

264 Tolle Lege
Late to this party but my gutters are all cleaned out.

Slowly moving along on both books I'm reading, 100 Days from Patrick O'Brien and With Eagles to Glory by John Gill, both Napoleonic era books.

Posted by: Skip at October 20, 2019 11:10 AM (ZCEU2)

265 I'd write something in different alphabet (maybe look up something in Korean) and act all offended if I get questions
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:06 AM (G546f)

That's good! Needless to say, I skipped their YK services and went to a service where we individually raced through the prayers and heard a sermon about fear and bravery, and how they were not separate. The rabbi called servicemen brave, the one at the other place would have maligned them

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:10 AM (U7k5w)

266 And he sort of admitted that the left had, as yet, no solutions. But he couldn't shake his faith that there MUST be a solution in democratic socialism. (He says that in several essays.)

Yep.

Classic different understanding of human nature. The Calvinists see man as fallen, flawed and sinful and seeking unrighteousness constantly.

The rest of the world, despite millennia of evidence, believes that man is essentially good and can lift himself by his own bootstraps.

That is why our Founders said that a Constitutional Republic is only for a moral people and completely unsuitable for any other.

In other words, the Framers looked around, saw Presbyterians and figured it would be that demographic for ages, or they figured that they would be dead and gone before the Reprobates took over and destroyed everything.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 11:11 AM (lD3vL)

267 I fully expect that we will see several murders by some of the kids "transitioned" early. Some, at least, will get back at those who did this to them.

And if I were on the jury, they might get off.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:11 AM (ZbwAu)

268 You may not believe this, but the reason that painting caught my eye was the girl's hair.

Speaking of hair, I was at a crowded flea market and got stuck behind a white guy with dreadlocks and maaaaan, did his hair STINK !

I thought briefly of performing a public service by setting his hair on fire, but instead moved quickly away.

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:11 AM (arJlL)

269 Engineering and science should still be safe, but there is probably no way around general ed indoctrination.
Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:42 AM

It's creeping into engineering, too.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 20, 2019 10:49 AM

No way!

Posted by: Florida International University bridge designers at October 20, 2019 11:12 AM (r6GXX)

270 Greetings:

I'm currently reading "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975" by Max Hastings and can recommend it highly especially for next-gens with the interest and time to go through its 700+ pages (at about 20pp per hour pour moi).

The author keeps his British-ness under control and his bits of progressive troth plighting (and where would we be these days without such) seem both perfunctory and inconsequential. He's a bit gentle on the anti-war/draft movement in America but is clear on the failures of the media, military brass, and politicians.

He only goes into depth on a couple of battles but his sub-chapter on "Fieldcraft" (pp 392 ff) tracks so closely with my own experience that I can recommend those pages highly. The author and I seem to disagree greatly about the M-16 as an infantry weapon but as my favorite Platoon sergeant told us, "The basic combat load is 22 magazines. We hump 29." And Charlie humps a handful or less.

I was unfamiliar with the author but plan to read his "The Secret War" soon.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 20, 2019 11:13 AM (evgyj)

271 On the High Holidays we were presented with name tags on which to write our pronouns. I wrote "If you can't figure that out...."

-
"If you can read this name tag, you're invading my personal space."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 11:13 AM (+y/Ru)

272 These S&Ls were vanity tax dodges. Many had art as assets and the "Goodwill" column always had huge numbers relative to anything else.

Big play for TX oil and cattle men.
Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 10:58 AM (lD3vL)

When I was wasting my work life at a third rate electric utility, I wasn't a bean counter per se but understood accounting enough to understand the chicanery that was being pulled. I really respected Arthur Anderson for refusing to sign off on their books until they stopped larding up assets with non cash revenue while building a nuke so they could keep increasing dividends to gull the rubes. When Arthur was the fall guy for Enron I figured that was a crooked outcome, which Sidney Powell subsequently confirmed.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 11:14 AM (y7DUB)

273 263 The movie , Ten Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. Decent teen movie.
Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:52 AM (2DOZq)

And the movie 'Strange Brew' ("take off, eh?") is a retelling of Hamlet.

All of our stories are footnotes to Shakespeare.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:15 AM (jjpZH)

274
Why not ask the 'Ettes ?
Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:06 AM (arJlL)

I have! But I've received scant response.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor

Whoa !

Mebbe post pics of scantily clad male bodybuilders wearing women's shoes.

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:15 AM (arJlL)

275 Exactly right. Lewis is another great prophetic voice. He knew where we were headed back in the 1950s.

Don't forget Francis Schaeffer in that list.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 11:16 AM (lD3vL)

276 Any Morons interested in these books let me know
Posted by: josephistan

I'm interested, but da link in yer nic don't work !

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:16 AM (arJlL)

277 That's good! Needless to say, I skipped their YK
services and went to a service where we individually raced through the
prayers and heard a sermon about fear and bravery, and how they were
not separate. The rabbi called servicemen brave, the one at the other
place would have maligned them

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:10 AM (U7k5w)

---
Our parish has taken a strong turn back to orthodoxy. Part of the reason is the scandals in the Church, and our pastor decided to harass one of the other priests. (Nothing criminal, no other allegations, but he's been removed from ministry.)

Interestingly, that same pastor used to hold a talk on sex for the college kids, nominally answering questions about Catholic doctrine, but it has a more sinister aspect in retrospect.

The younger priests seem much more assertive on doctrine. It's nice.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 11:16 AM (cfSRQ)

278 Damn. Belgian kids studying in a library. What a novel concept. Also probably thinking of get some now in the stacks.

Posted by: bill in arkansas at October 20, 2019 11:17 AM (C1Lsn)

279 I'm tempted to pick up the Madison book mentioned above, but I've noticed something about my reading. There are books recommended here, and they sound both interesting and useful.

However...

Sometimes when I get into them I realize it's not the book for me. There are just some subjects that, while it would be good for me to get into them, I don't need to get THAT far into them.

I doubt that would be the case with the Madison book, but it is with, for example, some of the war books. I'm a big picture guy with war, and when I get into the details of this battle or that, I find my interest waning. So I'll put that book down, probably never to be opened again.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:17 AM (hku12)

280 >>175 Everyone brags about Lucifer's Hammer but I can't get started. Read the first couple of chapters at least 3x .

Footfall is a better Niven-Pournelle collaboration, better pacing, more interesting characters, more of a novel setting, yet similar to hammer.

Posted by: banana Dream at October 20, 2019 11:17 AM (l6b3d)

281 269 Engineering and science should still be safe, but there is probably no way around general ed indoctrination.
Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 10:42 AM

It's creeping into engineering, too.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 20, 2019 10:49 AM

No way!
Posted by: Florida International University bridge designers at October 20, 2019 11:12 AM (r6GXX)
_______

Way.

Look at climate scientists. And look at the biology of sex differences.

Orwell wrote about this, too. Scientific objectivity will be tolerate only so far as it is useful to the rulers. 2 + 2 = 4 is seen as "true" only so far as it is useful in things like building bridges. And no farther. This is Pragmatism 101.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:17 AM (ZbwAu)

282 I get the sense that all those mesothelioma lawyer ads will be replaced with puberty blocker ones. Too much money just sitting there.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 11:09 AM (cfSRQ)

And I think attorneys can logically go after the prescribers and the parents for criminal abuse. No child can foresee or truly appreciate the side effects and horror of these medications and surgeries.

A couple from my husband's bridge circle have a 15yo adopted daughter who had a top surgery. She allegedly hated her body and cried a lot. Any female on testosterone will hate her body and have mood swings. And I just don't recall too many 15yo girls who adored the way they looked, especially after the 60s and Twiggy. The couple are proud of their actions, but I think they belong in jail. I wonder how the kid is digging those suture lines? Monsters.

As I have mentioned for months, this gender crap helped me to early retirement. We were about to be forced into adopting programs to assist "transitioning" people. Retirement was my "you can't make me" solution.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:18 AM (U7k5w)

283 I just finished "Throne of Bones"

I read that as "Throne of Boners"

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:18 AM (arJlL)

284 Godfather I and II were real ground breakers. The movies were actually better than the book, particularly II. And also not following tradition, the sequel II was better than the first I.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 11:18 AM (mpXpK)

285
And the movie 'Strange Brew' ("take off, eh?") is a retelling of Hamlet.

All of our stories are footnotes to Shakespeare.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:15 AM (jj
---
The one at that took place at Elsinore Brewery? You think?

Mel Blanc swearing at the boys was a hoot.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 11:18 AM (cfSRQ)

286 GWTW movie was better than the book too.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 11:19 AM (mpXpK)

287 And the movie 'Strange Brew' ("take off, eh?") is a retelling of Hamlet.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:15 AM

South Park with Phillip doing Hamlet's final scene: (remove spaces)

https://southpark.cc.com/ clips/104213/ venom-to-thy-work-buddy

Posted by: Chuck C at October 20, 2019 11:19 AM (r6GXX)

288 273 263 The movie , Ten Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. Decent teen movie.
Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:52 AM (2DOZq)

And the movie 'Strange Brew' ("take off, eh?") is a retelling of Hamlet.

All of our stories are footnotes to Shakespeare.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:15 AM (jjpZH)
___________

Clueless came from Jane Austin.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:19 AM (ZbwAu)

289 286
GWTW movie was better than the book too.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 11:19 AM (mpXpK)

---
Other examples:

Last of the Mohicans
Jaws
M*A*S*H

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 20, 2019 11:20 AM (cfSRQ)

290 You have to skim the first two chapters of Lucifer's Hammer, then settle down and read the rest.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 11:20 AM (mpXpK)

291 Footfall is a better Niven-Pournelle collaboration, better pacing, more interesting characters, more of a novel setting, yet similar to hammer.
Posted by: banana Dream at October 20, 2019 11:17 AM (l6b3d)
----
Fun fact: "Footfall" is the book N and P wanted to write in the '70 s, but their publisher didn't like the alien invasion aspect. So they recast it as a survival novel.

Posted by: Joey B. at October 20, 2019 11:20 AM (iB1oa)

292 Vlad wrote a book of lecture notes, and this was subsequently done in Pale Fire. I just don't feel he pulled it off that successfully.
Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 09:40 AM (y7DUB)

I should introduce you to my mother CH. She was a student of Nabokov in college, and still has some of her own lecture notes from her two classes with him. As a general matter, as I recall, he was unbelievably detailed in his plotting. For example, in discussing Dickens Bleak House, Vlad designed models of all the principal rooms in which repetitive action played out, like he was blocking a play.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 20, 2019 11:20 AM (NVYyb)

293 Off hair-sniffing sock.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 11:21 AM (iB1oa)

294 I have never read the books for Mash (Catch-22) or Jaws so I could not say.

Posted by: Vic at October 20, 2019 11:21 AM (mpXpK)

295 On puberty blockers: Lupron is commonly used for prostate cancer and endometriosis, it is not for kids. I have seen it used to try to preserve fertility in some female chemo patients, but giving it to children to make them girlish is depraved.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:23 AM (U7k5w)

296 I think Jaws is a wash. I'm glad they left out the sex /affair out of the movie.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 11:23 AM (2DOZq)

297 I think Bo could have been the Decathlon record holder for a century if that is what he pursued. But I really like him because he is an archery enthusiast.
Posted by: Easy Andy

His first match as a high school wrestler, he was grappling and winning and his opponent pinched him.

And Bo body slammed him and got penalized by the ref.

They went at it again, and his opponent pinched him AGAIN and Bo pile drove his head into the canvas.

Bo was disqualified, and gave up wrestling.

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:25 AM (arJlL)

298 'Alas Babylon' was part of our 10th grade reading assignments in Literature back in the '70s in Lake Worth, Fl. Worthwhile read, even today.

Posted by: Anonymous Guy in Ca at October 20, 2019 11:26 AM (RcMUX)

299 286 GWTW movie was better than the book too.
Posted by: Vic

disagree

Princess Bride, OTOH...

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:27 AM (G546f)

300 Greetings:

I'm currently reading "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975" by Max Hastings and can recommend it highly especially for next-gens with the interest and time to go through its 700+ pages (at about 20pp per hour pour moi).

The author keeps his British-ness under control and his bits of progressive troth plighting (and where would we be these days without such) seem both perfunctory and inconsequential. He's a bit gentle on the anti-war/draft movement in America but is clear on the failures of the media, military brass, and politicians.

He only goes into depth on a couple of battles but his sub-chapter on "Fieldcraft" (pp 392 ff) tracks so closely with my own experience that I can recommend those pages highly. The author and I seem to disagree greatly about the M-16 as an infantry weapon but as my favorite Platoon sergeant told us, "The basic combat load is 22 magazines. We hump 29." And Charlie humps a handful or less.

I was unfamiliar with the author but plan to read his "The Secret War" soon.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 20, 2019 11:13 AM (evgyj)

My thing is, with the anti-American bent of some writers, it's sorta like being pregnant. Either you are or you aren't, and if you are, I'm not interested in what you have to say.

Max is one of those guys with a big fat round belly showing.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:27 AM (hku12)

301 Here's some Rosie and Bing - the title track from Fancy Meeting You Here.

https://tinyurl.com/y3bj9xm5
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 20, 2019 10:02 AM (Ki5SV)

That's just wonderful!

-
Mrs. Wrecks is into The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel partly because of the period music. Incidentally, Tony Shalhoub plays the Jewish patriarch. It's common to see Jews portray gentiles (even Nazis) but unusual for a gentile to portray a Jew.

Speaking of Prime, the Russki WWII documentary series Soviet Storm is pretty good.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 11:27 AM (+y/Ru)

302 I have never read the books for Mash (Catch-22) or Jaws so I could not say.
Posted by: Vic

They were ALL good, but I agree with Andy, the affair of Mrs. Chief Brody was a downer.

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:27 AM (arJlL)

303 as i mentioned a few weeks ago, john nash's nobel prize in economics is coming up at auction (christie's, 10/25). it's a book sale that includes first editions of hammett, ian fleming, orwell, et al.

following the sale of nash's medal is reinhard selten's nobel prize. who? selten received the prize in economics for his contributions to game theory in 1994 along with nash! (a third recipient, john harsanyi also received the award). i don't remember the movie showing all three getting the award.

Posted by: mjc at October 20, 2019 11:28 AM (Pg+x7)

304 "Clark Ashton"? Nice call-out to the Xothique stories.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at October 20, 2019 11:28 AM (ykYG2)

305 289... "Last of the Mohicans
Jaws
M*A*S*H"

Boy, did you get that right. The movies were better than the books, especially the latest version of Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day Lewis.Jaws the book wasn't terrible but it was pretty formulaic and predictable.

The best thing about the book Last of the Mohicans is the hilarious lambasting Mark Twain gave it.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 11:28 AM (bmdz3)

306 And if I were on the jury, they might get off.
Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:11 AM (ZbwAu

--------

Oh hell yeah. It's inevitable that one of these boys will eventually hack up the parents who hacked him up... I wouldn't convict. That's just a Darwin award waiting to happen.

Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 11:30 AM (5aX2M)

307 303 as i mentioned a few weeks ago, john nash's nobel prize in economics is coming up at auction (christie's, 10/25). it's a book sale that includes first editions of hammett, ian fleming, orwell, et al.

following the sale of nash's medal is reinhard selten's nobel prize. who? selten received the prize in economics for his contributions to game theory in 1994 along with nash! (a third recipient, john harsanyi also received the award). i don't remember the movie showing all three getting the award.
Posted by: mjc at October 20, 2019 11:28 AM (Pg+x7)

Nash's son must need the money. He is, unlike the character in the movie, sicker than his father ever was.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:30 AM (U7k5w)

308 Where's Eris ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:30 AM (arJlL)

309 Where's Bluebell ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:30 AM (arJlL)

310 Where's Weasel ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:31 AM (arJlL)

311 They were ALL good, but I agree with Andy, the affair of Mrs. Chief Brody was a downer.
Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:27 AM (arJlL)

back in the 70s, rutty slutty shameful sex was kind of a fad in bestseller paperbacks

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:31 AM (G546f)

312 OT but I think many will enjoy.

This is my birthday, which means that it is also my twin brother's birthday. I am a person of little importance, but he is a warrior and a hero, and I want to celebrate him on our birthday by sharing one of his stories with men and women who will value it, and him.

When he was in Viet Nam, on one occasion he and his men were fairly near an ammo dump, which was under fire from the Viet Cong. They were at a safe distance so they merely watched. A colonel called my brother and told him there were nine men trapped in the dump, so not to fire on it if he could avoid it.

My brother said, "You can talk to them and I can't. Tell them I'll drive my jeep through the dump at top speed, turn and drive back. That should give them time to gather in the middle. I'll slow down there so they can jump on."

The colonel said, I wasn't asking that, but I'll tell the general. My brother said, Don't you dare, he won't let me do it.

He howled with laughter, describing how nine men piled on top of each other, clinging to every imaginable part of the jeep. He had to hold one onto the hood at an angle so he could see to drive, so he drove all the way back one-handed.

And he saved them all.

Happy birthday, Spike. God bless.

Posted by: Wenda (sic) at October 20, 2019 11:31 AM (H3c5F)

313 Where's Insomniac ?

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:31 AM (arJlL)

314 I think Jaws is a wash. I'm glad they left out the sex /affair out of the movie.

Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 11:23 AM (2DOZq)

If Benchley had instead made a throuple out of Hooper, Mrs. Brody, and Chief Brody, the tag line would have been:
We're gonna need a bigger bed.

Posted by: Count de Monet at October 20, 2019 11:32 AM (5v5Zx)

315 Happy birthday Wenda and Spike!!!

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:33 AM (G546f)

316 Oh hell yeah. It's inevitable that one of these boys will eventually hack up the parents who hacked him up... I wouldn't convict. That's just a Darwin award waiting to happen.
Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 11:30 AM (5aX2M)

They would completely deserve it, and the self-orphaned kids should inherit. Let's not forget that some of these sicko SJW parents are also spaying their daughters and giving them double mastectomies.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:33 AM (U7k5w)

317 I just finished "Throne of Bones"
------------------------------------------
I read that as "Throne of Boners"
Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:18 AM (arJlL)

*Writes that down*

Oh, who am I kidding. There shall be no more books coming from me.

Or boners.

Posted by: George RRRRRR Martin at October 20, 2019 11:33 AM (hku12)

318 307 cn: notes on the sale state proceeds go to the john nash trust. the sale also features original notes, theses and publications that also benefit the natl. alliance for mental illness.

Posted by: mjc at October 20, 2019 11:34 AM (Pg+x7)

319 If Benchley had instead made a throuple out of Hooper, Mrs. Brody, and Chief Brody, the tag line would have been:
We're gonna need a bigger bed.
Posted by: Count de Monet at October 20, 2019 11:32 AM

Fun fact: "You're going to need a bigger boat" is not in the novel.

Posted by: Chuck C at October 20, 2019 11:34 AM (r6GXX)

320 312 ... Happy Birthday to you Wenda and to your brother. And thanks for the story. It made for some interesting images.

Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 11:36 AM (bmdz3)

321 ]i]We have to accept that Orwell was, through the end
of his life, an avowed socialist, and an avowed leftist. It really comes
out if you read the 4 vol set of essays his wife edited. For instance,
he never gave up his belief that free markets will lead to monopoly, in
fact. And he did read and review Road to Serfdom; giving that as a
reason he didn't buy Hayek's argument.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (ZbwAu)

Mr Orwell still didn't understand the business cycle or the role of central banking in creating the boom-bust cycle.
Which is sad, because he had all the facts demonstrated to him in Spain

Posted by: Kindltot at October 20, 2019 11:36 AM (xG/b0)

322 Transvengeance: All in the Family

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:36 AM (G546f)

323 318: If you saw the son, you'd want him to get some cash. I'm hoping the trust helps him in some way. The family got nothing from that movie. Ron Howard and the studio were the beneficiaries.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:36 AM (U7k5w)

324 I should introduce you to my mother CH. She was a student of Nabokov in college, and still has some of her own lecture notes from her two classes with him. As a general matter, as I recall, he was unbelievably detailed in his plotting. For example, in discussing Dickens Bleak House, Vlad designed models of all the principal rooms in which repetitive action played out, like he was blocking a play.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 20, 2019 11:20 AM (NVYyb)

Damn straight. Your mother was surely much more mature than I was at that age to appreciate what she was being exposed to, although I had a paltry few really good profs who piqued my interest to stimulate me to do more than sit in the back of the lecture hall rolling my eyes. I'm very envious.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 11:36 AM (y7DUB)

325 Posted by: Wenda (sic) at October 20, 2019 11:31 AM (H3c5F)

Happy birthday to both you and your brother!

And thanks to your brother for his service.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. at October 20, 2019 11:37 AM (d6Ksn)

326 The ever proliferating cornucopia of genders and pronouns is building an even more fragile Tower of Babel.

Bad Analogy.

The Tower of Babel would have been successful sans Divine Intervention.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 11:37 AM (lD3vL)

327 322 Transvengeance: All in the Family
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:36 AM (G546f)

It's hard for me to feel anything but sorrow and anger on behalf of the kids. If a stupid adult chooses this, ok, but parents are supposed to protect the kids not encourage mutilation for SJW aims.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 11:38 AM (U7k5w)

328 Happy birthday Wenda and Spike!!!
Posted by: vmom happy

Seconded !

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:38 AM (arJlL)

329 "throuple" makes me think of a thermocouple

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:38 AM (G546f)

330 The Tower of Babel would have been successful sans Divine Intervention.
Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 11:37 AM (lD3vL)
-----
That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.

Posted by: Dr. Egon Spengler at October 20, 2019 11:40 AM (iB1oa)

331 A library pic that actually has people in the library, looking at books. Unusual!

Posted by: mindful webworker - Red Reed read a good read at October 20, 2019 11:40 AM (ECLlc)

332 316
Oh hell yeah. It's inevitable that one of these boys will eventually
hack up the parents who hacked him up... I wouldn't convict. That's just
a Darwin award waiting to happen.

Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 11:30 AM (5aX2M)

Sex change operations or permanent chemical treatments of any kind should be outlawed for anyone under the age of 25. I don't think these sicko SJW parents understand the gravity of what they are doing to their children or the potential horror they will unleash on the rest of society with these disfigured and damaged individuals. Sounds like something you'd see in Dr. Mengele's (sp?) labs....

I wouldn't convict either.

Posted by: Anonymous Guy in Ca at October 20, 2019 11:40 AM (RcMUX)

333 "throuple" makes me think of a thermocouple

-
Hot! Hot! Hot!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 11:40 AM (+y/Ru)

334 And thanks to your brother for his service.
Posted by: Donna&&&&V.

Yep !

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:41 AM (arJlL)

335 I have! But I've received scant response.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 11:08 AM (jjpZH)

The shoes I like and the shoes I can actually wear for more than 5 minutes these days are two different things.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. at October 20, 2019 11:41 AM (d6Ksn)

336 I'm sure Bluebell and Weasel, and many others, are traveling today.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 20, 2019 11:41 AM (V2Yro)

337 I'm gonna try to get stuff done before the rain.

I'll check back later

Posted by: JT at October 20, 2019 11:42 AM (arJlL)

338 Those who have read "The Epic Poem of Gilgamesh" will have surely noted many similarities with the Book of Genesis, as in:
A Great Flood
An Ark
The Tower of Babel
The Nephelim

Posted by: navybrat, mostly lurking at October 20, 2019 11:42 AM (w7KSn)

339 Fifteen tales by David Weber, David Drake, Gregory Benford & David Brin, David B. Coe, D.J. Butler, Avram Davidson, David H. Keller...

"Davidson"? That's cheating!

Posted by: mindful webworker - what da vid? at October 20, 2019 11:42 AM (ECLlc)

340 Note that all postapocalypse stories are essentially ripping off "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet, published in 1937!

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2019 11:43 AM (DYSh2)

341 Transsexualism isn't all bad. Now couples needn't continue to have babies if they don't get the sex they want.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 11:43 AM (+y/Ru)

342 And he saved them all.

Happy birthday, Spike. God bless.
Posted by: Wenda (sic) at October 20, 2019 11:31 AM (H3c5F)

You are NOT a person of little importance!

I believe everyone has a purpose in this world, and your brother's, you have well documented here.

The challenge for all of us is to find our purpose, and one of yours, in a way that is VERY important, is to honor his actions, which you are doing quite well.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:44 AM (hku12)

343 Fifteen tales by David Weber, David Drake, Gregory Benford & David Brin, David B. Coe, D.J. Butler, Avram Davidson, David H. Keller...

"Davidson"? That's cheating!
Posted by: mindful webworker - what da vid? at October 20, 2019 11:42 AM (ECLlc)

Yeah! Get back to us when you get his dad's stuff.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:46 AM (hku12)

344 341 Transsexualism isn't all bad. Now couples needn't continue to have babies if they don't get the sex they want.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks,

are you saying trannies can't have babies? that's hate speech dude!

Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:46 AM (G546f)

345 Orwell was a human with both blind spots and sharp insights. He deserves great credit for his courage in confronting the horrors of Stalinism at a time when most intellectuals turned a blind eye to its' evil. Paul Johnson thinks that if Orwell and Camus had both lived longer, they might have ended up conservative since they had an integrity that others lacked, but of course, we'll never know.

Nobody gets it right all the time - which is why reading widely is a good thing. You get a bit of wisdom from one writer, a bit of wisdom from someone else and so on - but no one person has a lock on The Truth.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. at October 20, 2019 11:47 AM (d6Ksn)

346 OT but while I'm on my soapbox - I think we should repeal the 17th Amendment.

And add another amendment limiting House of Representatives' salary to 2X median income in their district and no post-government pension, health insurance, security, etc.

Posted by: Anonymous Guy in Ca at October 20, 2019 11:47 AM (RcMUX)

347 Transsexualism isn't all bad. Now couples needn't continue to have babies if they don't get the sex they want.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks,

are you saying trannies can't have babies? that's hate speech dude!
Posted by: vmom happy to have read a good book! at October 20, 2019 11:46 AM (G546f)

Egad, I had to do a double take there. I thought Wrecks was suggesting the couples are having sex... WITH their kid!!

As in, you want to have sex with your daughter, but then you have a son? No problem! Just start buying him finger nail polish and Barbies!!

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:49 AM (hku12)

348 Sex change operations or permanent chemical treatments of any kind should be outlawed for anyone under the age of 25. I don't think these sicko SJW parents understand the gravity of what they are doing to their children or the potential horror they will unleash on the rest of society with these disfigured and damaged individuals. Sounds like something you'd see in Dr. Mengele's (sp?) labs....

I wouldn't convict either.
Posted by: Anonymous Guy in Ca at October 20, 2019 11:40 AM (RcMUX)

I suspect that these sex change doctors are motivated by more than just money, although greed is certainly a factor. Like Mengele, they welcome the chance to hack up human beings and conduct their little experiments. The difference of course, is that Mengele's victims didn't give consent, whereas their victims pay for the "privilege" of being mutilated.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. at October 20, 2019 11:50 AM (d6Ksn)

349 It's trannies all the way down.

Posted by: That irredeemable Russian asset who always says... at October 20, 2019 11:51 AM (EgshT)

350 AOC: We Must Nationalize American Society So We Can Have More Freedom

-
We must learn to love the lash!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 11:51 AM (+y/Ru)

351 OT but while I'm on my soapbox - I think we should repeal the 17th Amendment.

And add another amendment limiting House of Representatives' salary to 2X median income in their district and no post-government pension, health insurance, security, etc.
Posted by: Anonymous Guy in Ca at October 20, 2019 11:47 AM (RcMUX)

Nah, they can have a pension, but the amount is 1 435th of 10 percent of every dollar they cut from the federal budget.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:52 AM (hku12)

352 Yesterday was National Period Day. How did you guys celebrate?

All my sentences were declarative.

Book related: Mrs. the B came home from the TxMoMe with a copy of The Deplorable Gourmet. Thank you whoever was responsible for that.

Posted by: Bob the Bilderberg at October 20, 2019 11:52 AM (qc+VF)

353 I'm currently re-reading the Jester/Fool's Guild series by Alan Gordon. The premise is that the jesters who served kings and princes in Medieval Europe were more than just entertainers, but were part of an organization that worked to promote peace and stability.

The first book is a sort of sequel to 12th night by Shakespeare, then it goes off from there in all sorts of directions. The books are consistently hilarious, entertaining, and packed with fascinating historical detail and likable characters. Despite the odd premise, it works very well and even makes sense the way its presented (and it even has faux historical notes in the back, as if Gordon has uncovered documentation of the Fool's Guild).

There are eight books in the series so far.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 20, 2019 11:52 AM (KZzsI)

354 Paul Johnson thinks that if Orwell and Camus had both lived longer, they might have ended up conservative since they had an integrity that others lacked, but of course, we'll never know.

--------

PJ makes remarkable assessments of people. I recommend "Intellectuals" to all Morons. It does a great job of illustrating how our modern "giants" had feet, legs, torsos, arms and heads of clay. And by clay, I mean "poo."

Also, as an aside, he once said Robert Maxwell was so radiant with evil that he refused to be near him, and didn't even like being in the same room with him.

Given Ghislaine's proclivities, I can believe this is no exaggeration.

Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 11:53 AM (5aX2M)

355 I think we should repeal the 17th Amendment.

Hear hear! It wrecked the role of the Senate and the Founders intentions, creating a six year term second House of Representatives. Mob rule FTL.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 11:54 AM (y7DUB)

356 The difference of course, is that Mengele's victims didn't give consent, whereas their victims pay for the "privilege" of being mutilated.
Posted by: Donna&&&&V. at October 20, 2019 11:50 AM (d6Ksn)

Funny thing about "informed consent" though, if the person is nuts on a shingle, it's not possible for them to give it.

So.....

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:54 AM (hku12)

357 Dr. Sowell:

"In a sense, proponents of "social justice" are unduly modest. What they are seeking to correct are not merely the deficiencies of society, but of the cosmos. What they call social justice encompasses far more than any given society is causally responsible for. Crusaders for social justice seek to correct not merely the sins of man but the oversights of God or the accidents of history. What they are really seeking is a universe tailor-made to their vision of equality. They are seeking cosmic justice.

Socially counterproductive policies are just one of the many costs of the quest for cosmic justice. The rule of law, on which a free society depends, is inherently incompatible with cosmic justice. Laws exist in all kinds of societies, from the freest to the most totalitarian. But the rule of law-- a government of laws and not of men, as it used to be called-- is rare and vulnerable. You cannot redress the myriad inequalities which pervade human life by applying the same rules to all or by applying any rules other than the arbitrary dispensations of those in power. The final chapter of The Quest for Cosmic Justice is titled "The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution"-- because that is what is happening piecemeal by zealots devoted to their own particular applications of cosmic justice."

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 20, 2019 11:55 AM (Ndje9)

358 Nah, they can have a pension, but the amount is 1 435th of 10 percent of every dollar they cut from the federal budget.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:52 AM (hku12)

--------

Assuming they made meaningful cuts, they'd all be billionaires.

Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 11:55 AM (5aX2M)

359 347
Egad, I had to do a double take there. I thought Wrecks was suggesting the couples are having sex... WITH their kid!!

As in, you want to have sex with your daughter, but then you have a son? No problem! Just start buying him finger nail polish and Barbies!!
Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:49 AM (hku12)
_________

That's on the menu. Count on it.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:56 AM (ZbwAu)

360 Great posts with great information. Long, long time lurker and this is only my second comment. Back in the 70's during the height of the Cold War, I read Nevil Shute's On The Beach, published around 1959 I think.This is an excellent post apocalyptic novel with submarine involvement. Makes one think very deeply about nuclear war.
One other thing, would you ever do a post on cold war espionage? This genre has evolved since the golden age of spy novels in the 50's, 60' 70's and early 80's and today there are a lot of violent, one-man-on-a-mission types of novels that are not really "spy-espionage" novels. There are some new authors that do try to continue the golden age sagas but are not very well known. Thanks again for the book thread and pet thread. My wife and I look forward to the moron (of which I am one) pet thread each week. Smiles are sometimes hard to come by these days. Thanks again for the great work.

Posted by: Dennis Collins at October 20, 2019 11:56 AM (nNjWO)

361 Paul Johnson thinks that if Orwell and Camus had both lived longer, they might have ended up conservative since they had an integrity that others lacked, but of course, we'll never know.

--------

PJ makes remarkable assessments of people. I recommend "Intellectuals" to all Morons. It does a great job of illustrating how our modern "giants" had feet, legs, torsos, arms and heads of clay. And by clay, I mean "poo."

Also, as an aside, he once said Robert Maxwell was so radiant with evil that he refused to be near him, and didn't even like being in the same room with him.

Given Ghislaine's proclivities, I can believe this is no exaggeration.
Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 11:53 AM (5aX2M)

Seconded. Assuming he's still alive, Johnson is a living treasure.

There was an article, waaaay back in the Spy Magazine days, when one of their writers went to Johnson's home to "interview" him, and I don't recall the details, but the guy was basically having a lark, asking all sorts of stupid questions.

After a few minutes of this, Johnson got up, left the room, and never returned.

The writer wrote his little piece for Spy, completely oblivious to the fact that only one person emerged from this little encounter with his dignity intact.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:58 AM (hku12)

362 355
I think we should repeal the 17th Amendment.

Hear hear! It wrecked the role of the Senate and the Founders
intentions, creating a six year term second House of Representatives.
Mob rule FTL

With retirement rapidly approaching I'm looking for a worthwhile cause to fill my days....

Posted by: Anonymous Guy in Ca at October 20, 2019 12:00 PM (RcMUX)

363 No idea but will take a guess even getting a engineering degree bet you are not getting away without a trans genders contributions to modern architecture class.

Posted by: Skip at October 20, 2019 12:00 PM (ZCEU2)

364 341 Transsexualism isn't all bad. Now couples needn't continue to have babies if they don't get the sex they want.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks,

People who "change" their child's gender are perverse. It cannot be done, all you do is disfigure mentally and physically.

I know you're making a joke, but the cruelty of these parents in the name of politics is real and horrific. They should be made to take these drugs, too. You can bet they'd drop out after a dose or two.

Posted by: CN at October 20, 2019 12:00 PM (U7k5w)

365 Nah, they can have a pension, but the amount is 1 435th of 10 percent of every dollar they cut from the federal budget.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:52 AM (hku12)

--------

Assuming they made meaningful cuts, they'd all be billionaires.
Posted by: The Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom at October 20, 2019 11:55 AM (5aX2M)

And the taxpayers pay 90% less than they are now.

I'm going to suggest we try it.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 12:00 PM (hku12)

366 In the middle of "The Strange Alliance", the memoir of the head of the US Military Mission in Moscow, 1943-45, Gen. John Deane. Published in 1947.

Very, very good. Plain, straightforward, good sense of humor.

He wasn't a Soviet hand, and his gradual, relentless education in the problems with the Soviet attitude is clearly documented.

He also documents that, outside the bubble of Moscow, or the direct glare of the Boss and whatever the reigning attitude of the day was, Russian soldiers and officers were very friendly and cooperative to Americans - to the extent of front commanders coordinating air operations with American forces without telling the Stavka.

Highly recommended for anyone with interested in that part of WWII.

Posted by: rhomboid at October 20, 2019 12:00 PM (QDnY+)

367 Even after his injuries Bo Jackson is a first round draft pick for a zombie apocalypse survival team.

Posted by: Nearsighted Cyclops at October 20, 2019 12:00 PM (B06Zw)

368 I got a book from the library called The Golden West, which is a compilation of three stories, one by Max Brand, one by Zane Gray, and one by Louis L'Amour.

The person who did the compilation is Jon Tuska, and he has an introduction to each story. For both Brand and Gray he has poetic praise and worship, going into great detail about how wonderful they were and how their stories dig deeply into the human condition and psychology, how many books they wrote, and how amazing they were.

Then he does the L'Amour intro, and after a brief "OK he led an amazing life and wrote a zillion books" bit, he launches into a diatribe about how L'Amour's books are riddled with errors, and how he only had seven plots he recycled, and how he was a crass self-promoter and on and on.

It was so annoying and blatantly filled with bitter envy that it kind of ruined the whole book. Brand is no better an author than L'Amour, nor is Gray. Gray's books are riddled with historical errors which L'Amour avoided, for example. Max Brand was a creative plotter, but he fell into patterns as well. And it is exactly Gray's fixation on human emotion and relationships that make his books kind of boring to me.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 20, 2019 12:01 PM (KZzsI)

369 I'm an intellectual.

Posted by: Little Lupe at October 20, 2019 12:01 PM (EgshT)

370 And not that I think I will be going to this fairly far away job but have spied a used book store near there so I need to finish these books.

Posted by: Skip at October 20, 2019 12:02 PM (ZCEU2)

371 No idea but will take a guess even getting a engineering degree bet you are not getting away without a trans genders contributions to modern architecture class.
Posted by: Skip at October 20, 2019 12:00 PM (ZCEU2)

I'm assuming every "hard" science now includes a large dollop of tranny truth and glow bell warmening.

Can't gradgeate without it.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 12:02 PM (hku12)

372
I bought three books from the bargain bin not long ago.

Art of War, The Federalist and The Prince with other writings of Machiavelli.

I've just finished the Art of War. Trying to decide which to read next .

What we want , The Federalist or what you eventually get, The Prince.
Posted by: Easy Andy at October 20, 2019 10:01 AM (2DOZq)

As iconic as The Prince is, one should take it with a grain of salt. It's rather out of character with Machiavelli's other writings, which are much more friendly to a representative republican form of government.

He wrote it with the intent of gaining a government post with the new Medici regime in Florence (Nicky had been a rather high-ranking official in the Florentine Republic, before the Medici came back in and re-took the city). It's even more of a head-scratcher because about a month after the Medici came to power, they arrested Machiavelli and mercilessly tortured him using the strappado (the same torture the North Vietnamese used hundreds of years later to ruin John McCain's arms).

Why he would go to the Medici begging for an important public post after that is something that's puzzled me for years.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 20, 2019 12:05 PM (eXA4G)

373 355 I think we should repeal the 17th Amendment.

16th has to go. It's what fuels Leviathan.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 20, 2019 12:08 PM (NWiLs)

374 Egad, I had to do a double take there. I thought Wrecks was suggesting the couples are having sex... WITH their kid!!

As in, you want to have sex with your daughter, but then you have a son? No problem! Just start buying him finger nail polish and Barbies!!
Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 11:49 AM (hku12)
_________

That's on the menu. Count on it.
Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:56 AM (ZbwAu)

Sort of off-topic, but then not, it still sticks in my craw. Dave posted in his overnight thread the other day, a link to an article by a psychologist who was basically saying the concept of repressed memory is a myth.

What a dangerous and absurd idea!

This guy was claiming, since in the 90s there were zealots who were "helping" kids recover memories that were not real, that then ALL repressed memory is fake!

The guy should have his license shredded. I feel sorry for any patient he sees, because he's as dangerous to them as they false memory folks were.

Ask any adult who was sexually abused as a child, just how easy it is to recall the memories. It's sometimes damned near impossible, because the human brain is like that. It layers protections over the harder things for the conscious brain to recall, and there are COUNTLESS people who have been REALLY REALLY abused.

Just because this psychologist clown points to the false memory cases doesn't change that fact.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 20, 2019 12:08 PM (hku12)

375 The Art of War is just common sense, when you get down to it.
If you go to war, don't be stupid.
Like don't attack a well armed enemy of an unknown number as he sits behind cover and concealment.
Gen. Lee should have heeded that one.

Posted by: navybrat, mostly lurking at October 20, 2019 12:08 PM (w7KSn)

376 RE: The Godfather

I read Mario Puzo's autobiography once-- as I recall, it's a collection of autobiographical essays, fwiw. But it seemed pretty much like an autobiography to me.

It was fascinating, at least to me.

Pre-Godfather, he was an author who had never been able to support his family by writing. He held a long series of forgettable jobs-- one of the longest as a railroad freight clerk.

Some of his pre-Godfather writing received critical success. He was prolific.

The Godfather was his Hail Mary, mid-life attempt to achieve at least SOME commercial success before he died. He had led a life that barely supported a lower middle class existence for his family.

So... he plotted Godfather with commercial success as his one & only aim. He describes how he put a lot of stuff in there, i.e., how Sonny liked one girl because she was the only one who could accommodate his enormous penis, that Puzo wasn't exactly proud of.

The reader already knows how Puzo's one last attempt to write something that would finally SELL turned out.

Having achieved fame (& enormous fortune) late in life gave him a quizzical perspective about success, & people in general. He was a born-again skeptic.

I read a few of his pre-Godfather novels, & they were interesting. He clearly had talent & knew his craft. But... novels based on his experiences as a poor, second generation Italian immigrant never found an audience.

Posted by: mnw at October 20, 2019 12:10 PM (Cssks)

377 16th has to go. It's what fuels Leviathan.

The 16th Amendment eradicated legal recognition of private property and completely turned the relationship of We The People with a servant government into a hostile occupying enemy force with chattel to rule over.

Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 12:12 PM (lD3vL)

378 275 Exactly right. Lewis is another great prophetic voice. He knew where we were headed back in the 1950s.
Don't forget Francis Schaeffer in that list.
Posted by: Blue Bird of F'ing Joy at October 20, 2019 11:16 AM (lD3vL)

I was reading a lot of Francis Schaeffer back in the 80s at the same time I was reading Ayn Rand. It amazed me how they were each saying nearly identical things despite being about as far apart philosophically as you can get.

Too bad about Schaeffer's kid, though.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 12:12 PM (jjpZH)

379 He also documents that, outside the bubble of Moscow, or the direct glare of the Boss and whatever the reigning attitude of the day was, Russian soldiers and officers were very friendly and cooperative to Americans - to the extent of front commanders coordinating air operations with American forces without telling the Stavka.

They must have known who the embedded backstabbers were and how to freeze them out, because that was a dangerous course of action.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 12:13 PM (y7DUB)

380 Liar nood.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 20, 2019 12:16 PM (Y4EXg)

381 OM, maybe have a thread on interesting podcasts sometime?
Thanks for all you do!

Hugs.
Posted by: mpfs at October 20, 2019 10:56 AM (79p/O)

A good podcast is like a good Netflix show. Really up to individual tastes and hard to explain.

However: Tom Wood's Show (Economics), Your Welcome with Michael Malice (cultural and God knows what), Walk-ins Welcome with Bridgette Phetasy (spotty and woo at times but focused around addiction recovery and politics), Contra Krugman (economics), Quillette (Libertarian NPR), Talking Biotech Podcast (Geeks talk about doing biotech), Free Thoughts (from the Cato institute on Libertarianism.org website - spotty), Accad and Koka Report (MDs talk about medicine) and on top of that Jordan Peterson and The Bablyon Bee both have podcasts.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 20, 2019 12:17 PM (xG/b0)

382 Nood, for quite some time.

Posted by: mnw at October 20, 2019 12:18 PM (Cssks)

383 We must learn to love the lash!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 20, 2019 11:51 AM (+y/Ru)

People must be induced to accept (and even like!) their inevitable social destinies.

The lash is for later, when they balk and try to object out of disrespect and resentment at what we have done for them.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 20, 2019 12:22 PM (xG/b0)

384 Thanks for your good wishes, everybody.

Posted by: Wenda (sic) at October 20, 2019 12:35 PM (H3c5F)

385 I'd like to catch up on all arguments about epistemological analysis of past cultures and their influence on formation of current cultures/states ... but in general I find the Bible has such history in a nutshell. Man desires liberty, while societies demand obedience and conformity. God (Christian and Jewish view, imo) demands we love God first ... just how we love our neighbor becomes subject to a lot of self determined decisions, but culture influences that "determination". (teach, your children well)

Our founders broke new ground in establishing government that recognized God's provenance and man's liberty, forming a more perfect union ... unions (governments) being an essential element of protecting societal achievements in liberty from the violent Genghis Khan thieves.

The free society allows liberties, if they don't impose damage on others. (state rights, individual rights, protecting children from drag queens) ... but the despot demands conformity in thought (purging the deplorable/irredeemable via deceit and violence, special laws for certain political identities).

As Orwell noted, the totalitarian must infiltrate and destroy, rewrite history even. e.g. The first man was from China, Russians invented everything, Islamists invented all math, US was built on the backs of slaves, the noble savage arguments ... etc. Most aimed against the exceptional/successful "manifest destiny" dreams of "The West".

Russians had to infiltrate our culture, not create their own nirvana (real communism can't be done right). Jihadists infiltrate by stealth (taqiya)... China also uses stealth. "Free Trade" was mostly WallStreet using stealth against US, so they ("globalists") could use slaves (not very neighborly) and freely pollute.

The environmental movement had good elements, but then became a purely commie movement, perverting science itself, now becoming tyrannical.

And the march through the institutions, all to pervert what was built, because they can't build on their own. "They" are a cancer. "The thief comes not but for to steal, kill, destroy". (and then mafia element infiltrates as well, where the law is ignored, connected crooks become above the law, if you speak up, YOU are prosecuted)

The godless ones have to infiltrate the churches ... imo the attack on "Catholics" is mostly because Catholics are more monolithic, while Protestants are "diverse". That freedom to be diverse is good (free will) ... but many stray further away from scripture, rather than toward it.

Summary, man chooses liberty for himself and others (love God and neighbor), or he chooses to reign (become god) in this world by steal, kill, destroy methods -- to gain power over his fellow man. (this can all apply to religious institutions being perverted, as a variant type of "government", and/or to crime syndicates that act as another form of shadow government ... DeepState, narco states, corporatism, banking syndicates)

At times individuals must rise up against their captor government (to form a more perfect union), but we still hope argument and elections can save our Republic. imo there are still majority "good people" that have been deceived to various degrees. The evil ones are being exposed.

Posted by: illiniwek at October 20, 2019 12:35 PM (Cus5s)

386 I've been on a Perry Mason tear that shows no sign of stopping. However, the last one I read stopped on me!

I got the book (TCOT Moth-Eaten Mink) free from archive.org -- and thanks to the Moron who advised me about this! I read it in one day; I was home recovering from eye surgery. The damned book ended in the middle of the last chapter!

I knew who done it because I'd seen the TV episode based on the book, but I wanted to read the exact wording. Fortunately, the book was available through the MOEBIUS lending system, so I'll be able to finish it officially in a few weeks.

In the meantime, "Justice on Trial" arrived for me at the library. I need to start this now because it has a waiting list. No renewals possible. Perry and the gang -- and Ace comment threads -- will just have to wait.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 20, 2019 12:53 PM (PWPy3)

387 "I think we should repeal the 17th Amendment."

It's not going to work the way it did before, unless we manage to get reversed Baker vs. Carr and other SCOTUS decisions that mandated "one person, one vote" legislative districts in all states. Otherwise you end up with exactly the same problem we have now: the legislature is dominated by densely populated urban areas who will pick exactly the same (if not more) corrupt candidates as happens now by popular vote. Absolutely nothing would change in states like IL or CA.

Posted by: Secret Square at October 20, 2019 01:06 PM (9WuX0)

388 Drat! Ordered the Sowell 'Quest', and 'Lucky 666' books.

This place is going to bankrupt my retirement.

"Homeless Man Found Living in Hut Constructed of Books" it will say on page B4 of the paper.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 20, 2019 01:21 PM (Pu/Kw)

389 Yesterday was National Period Day. How did you guys celebrate?
-----
"Period" as in the punctuation mark, or "period" as in...period?
Posted by: Captain Obvious at October 20, 2019 09:42 AM (iB1oa)

The pains of Eve; the Curse; 28 day nosebleed; riding the rag; that time of the month...
Posted by: Captain Hate at October 20, 2019 09:47 AM (y7DUB)

It is typical that Feminists can only think of women in the context of body parts and secretions rather than mind and spirit.

Being a sex object would be an improvement, at least the idea is for something enjoyable to happen.

Posted by: Oldcat at October 20, 2019 01:42 PM (FTPn0)

390 I assume the age group for young adult is teenage and it wasn't enough to read literature like Sherlock Holmes. The stories had to be about them and all their teen angst, which they think (I use the word 'think' loosely) is the most important matter in the world. It allows these youngsters (NOT adults) to indulge every self-centered, egotistical sense of self-importance. Add in the sexy aspects and they consider themselves adults, which they aren't. It's like the 13 year old girl who thinks because she needs a bra and shaves that she is now a woman.

Mini-rant off.
Posted by: JTB at October 20, 2019 11:00 AM (bmdz3)

I can't imagine why people think kids want to read that. I never did. I never liked the 'teen' superheroes on the cartoons for me to relate to. Kids want to relate to adults.

Posted by: Oldcat at October 20, 2019 01:55 PM (FTPn0)

391 I will throw this in perhaps a little late, the recent audiobook clearance list. Our local library system has adopted an app (Libby, Overdrive) that makes finding and borrowing ebooks and audiobooks remarkably friendly.

Below are the ones I didn't give up on and throw back early.

Bad Blood - John Carreyrou: I'd read this one in print, but it was worth going back to listen. This pretty much puts a bolt through the reputation of aging George Shultz.

Blowing The Bloody Doors Off - Michael Caine: An interesting listen from a guy who doesn't take himself too seriously.

The Road To Jonestown - Jeff Guinn, and Helter Skelter - Vincent Bugliosi: Worthwhile as background to events that, for most people, were only known in the denouement.

The Romanovs - Simon Sebag Montefiore: This one bogged down in spots, and seemed obsessed with the sexual predilections of the Russian court. I'll have to check how long this one is in print form, I'm guessing it's a thousand pages.

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States - Sarah Vowell: I have this one in print, but haven't finished it, when the audiobook popped up as available I figured I'd do it. I still like the content, but Vowell isn't the greatest narrator...

A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson: I thought I'd read this one, as Bill Bryson and John McPhee are on my 'read everything they've done' list, but I realized I hadn't. Bryson occasionally coughs up a clanger, but in general he's as fun and educational a writer as there is.

Valiant Ambition - Nathan Philbrick: A worthwhile listen/read if you're into American Revolutionary history, maybe a bit of a slog if you're not.

Dead Wake - Erik Larson: An entertaining and worthwhile work on the Lusitania that isn't "Churchill sunk it to get America into the war".

The Aviators - Winston Groom: Basically a history of the '20s-40s as reflected in the lives of Lindbergh, Doolittle, and Rickenbacker. Enjoyed this one a lot.

Churchill and Orwell - Thomas Ricks: A worthwhile listen, maybe a worthwhile read. Generally I like reading Ricks' stuff, with a few quibbles along the way.

The Devil In The White City - Erik Larson: A fascinating piece on the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, I knew nothing about any of it. Highly recommended.

The Billion Dollar Spy - David Hoffman: Another one that I'd go back and re-listen to pieces of it if I'd been listening in bed and missed something.

Posted by: JEM at October 20, 2019 01:58 PM (8erNz)

392 Clueless came from Jane Austin.
Posted by: Eeyore at October 20, 2019 11:19 AM (ZbwAu)

------------------------------
Yes, Clueless movie is modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. And Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) is the basis for almost all leading male characters in romance novels from Mills & Boon to 50 Shades of Grey - rich, handsome, arrogant bachelor who is later tamed by the smart female.

Posted by: Oggi at October 20, 2019 02:02 PM (Bk5Q+)

393 Eeyore @210 "Anyone else read Kirk's Creature of the Twilight?"

Yes! If you have not already read it, I highly recommend the sequel "Lord of the Hollow Dark". And I will also mention that protagonist, the suave and sinister Manfred Arcane, also appears in a couple of Kirk's short stories. Kirk's "ghostly tales" were most recently collected in a volume titled "Ancestral Shadows".

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 20, 2019 02:45 PM (iuRR5)

394
The pains of Eve; the Curse; 28 day nosebleed; riding the rag; that time of the month...

Aunt Flo is visiting.

Posted by: JEM at October 20, 2019 02:54 PM (8erNz)

395 Re #178 by Kindltot:

First, I strongly second your recommendation for Leigh Brackett's Skaith trilogy. The titles for anyone interested are "The Ginger Star", "The Hounds of Skaith" and "The Reavers of Skaith". There was also an omnibus edition "The Book of Skaith".

Leigh Brackett first wrote about Eric John Stark for the pulps back in the '40s. She set his adventures on excellent versions of the then standard romantic ideas of other planets (Mars is a dying world with canals, ancient, decadent cities, strange survivals from lost ages, Venus is a fog shrouded world of swamps, Mercury has a Twilight Belt). When she revived the character in the 70s these were no longer believable (even for pulp fiction) settings so she sent him interstellar. A couple of titles for her original stories, set on Mars, are "The Secret of Sinharat" and "The People of the Talisman". I will note that you can find both the versions of this stories rewritten by Brackett for book publication and the versions as they first saw print in the magazines (under somewhat different titles e.g. "The People of the Talisman" (book)/"The Black Amazon of Mars"(magazine)".

When Brackett revived Stark for the Skaith series she pulled off something that very few authors have managed: she took a memorable character and brought him back without diminishing or distorting him.

Two bits of nitpicking: the name of Stark's foster father is Simon Ashton, not Clark Ashton (I think you are confusing him with the author Clark Ashton Smith). And, secondly, Stark does not go to Skaith as part of a mission to allow some of it's people to emigrate from a dying world. Simon Ashton went there as part of an official mission to do this and then disappeared. Stark goes to Skaith to rescue his foster father or to avenge him.

Finally, I will quote my favorite line from "The Ginger Star":

"I am N'Chaka.
I do not die.
I kill."

For context read the book. You will not regret it.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 20, 2019 03:24 PM (iuRR5)

396 What I'm reading:

Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling Sparta trilogy,

Prince of Mercenaries

Go Tell The Spartans

Prince of Sparta

GREAT military sci-fi, told by two masters.

Just downloaded them today.

Posted by: TANSTAAFL at October 20, 2019 03:31 PM (T09ml)

397 @376 --

I once read that Stan Lee said that Puzo worked briefly for Marvel. He quit, saying that he found writing comics too difficult.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 20, 2019 03:57 PM (+1NOx)

398 #340 Trimegistus " Note that all postapocalypse stories are essentially ripping off "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet, published in 1937!". I do not know this but I would bet good money that Andre Norton had this story in mind when she wrote "Star Man's Son". (re #171 Tom Servo).

Anyone wanting to read this excellent forerunner of the genre is recommended to "By the Waters of Babylon and other fantasies and prophecies" a collection for Kindle that is only $2.99. Other outstanding stories included are "Into Egypt", "The Blood of the Martyrs" and "The Curfew Tolls".

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 20, 2019 03:57 PM (iuRR5)

399 In late to the book thread since I have been traveling, but do like to read through all of the comments to see what all everyone is reading and what I might like to read. Did read both Alas Babylon and The Lottery short story in high school. The Lottery story is one of the most gut-punching short stories I have read and I have no desire to read it again.
A few weeks ago someone rec'd Hanging Creek Woman by Louis L'Amour and I read that and liked it. Great characters and tight plot in 150 pages of a book. Probably if it was printed today with larger font it would be around 200 pages. Still, not much extra and very little of what was not needed in terms of words and plot. Thanks to whoever rec'd it.

Posted by: Charlotte at October 20, 2019 04:10 PM (UrERF)

400 I always chuckled at the term "YA Lit" and the like. I was reading books that are ostensibly designed for that demographic when I was as young as seven! By the time I had hit the age that was the target audience, I had moved on to The Odyssey and eventually books such as The Hunt For Red October. That whole genre passed me by.

I grew up in the 1980s, and got the old Scholastic Book Order forms in school, and yes, in each one you could find post-apocalyptic fare, and 10 times out of 10 the cause of the apocalypse was a nuclear holocaust. I can't speak for the 1970s but in the 1980s, if those book order forms can be believed, this absolutely was a theme to lit aimed at the young at the time. (I'd be willing to bet this evaporated as the 1990s arrived.) Indeed, the surprising thing about reading "Red Storm Rising" was that not a single nuke was used, and the mere suggestion of such triggered the chain of events that ended the book. (No chemical weapons, either.)

I never read "Alas, Babylon".

Finally, some posters here have reminded me just how lazy Americans are, and how they are out to make the country even more lazy. We can repeal the 17th Amendment, and that would be fine and good, but nothing would change. Instead of popularly elected Senators charged with bringing home the bacon and padding state budgets, you'll just have a Senate staffed with Senators charged with bringing home the bacon and having been given marching orders from profligate state legislatures to pad the state coffers with federal dollars. People who advocate for the repeal of the 17th Amendment refuse to take into account that unless mindsets change (hah!), it will not remotely matter how we choose Senators. (Cue the indignant, uncontrollable rage from people who believe such a repeal will magically transport this country to a better age, solve all our problems, and absolve them of their civic duty to participate in and engage with the government...)
Ditto the 16th. One, what is the alternative? Two, it does NOTHING to address the size of government. If you are dumb enough to think that once it's gone the federal government is going to magically become financially responsible, I will point you to the national debt. (Another thing that's a lazy solution that is guaranteed to generate endless laziness around the land? Term limits.)

Das ist alles.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at October 20, 2019 05:49 PM (ZXzOT)

401 The Black Ravine by Ukrainian author Oles Honchar. A seemingly simple tale about a Soviet bureaucrat. He's a nice fellow. His mother and wife love him very much - and he loves them. The villagers mock him. Short story. 18 pages. Easy peasy.

Find it at archive.org.

Posted by: 13times at October 20, 2019 06:57 PM (K3B2k)

402 Tom Servo; I also read a lot of Andre Norton. I liked his kitty cat.

Posted by: James Causey at October 20, 2019 06:59 PM (Mwtel)

403 402 Tom Servo; I also read a lot of Andre Norton. I liked his kitty cat.

Posted by: James Causey at October 20, 2019 06:59 PM (Mwtel)

fyi, Andre Norton is a she

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at October 20, 2019 07:09 PM (jjpZH)

404 We're in the same age range I reckon.

The day the box appeared in the classroom with those little books was awesome.

Posted by: weirdflunky at October 20, 2019 07:36 PM (cknjq)

405 Posted by: 13times at October 20, 2019 06:57 PM (K3B2k)

Never thought I'd feel sorry for a Soviet bureaucrat....

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. at October 20, 2019 09:11 PM (d6Ksn)

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Posted by: Deon at November 05, 2019 07:52 AM (0SuNP)

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