Sunday Morning Book Thread 03-15-2020

University of Coimbra General Library, Coimbra, Portugal

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules), hoi polloi riff-raff, nobodies, untouchables, and other deplorables. 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, obviously a failed attempt at Clockwork Orange cosplay. Some of you 'ettes may like the boots, though.

Pic Note:

This is a repeat, but I found a better photo of this baroque-inspired library:

The Biblioteca Joanina, or university library, is one of the most visited buildings in Coimbra’s university complex. Construction was started in 1717 at the instigation of King Joao V, after whom the library is named, and was completed in 1728.

Today the university library houses some 250,000 books dating from the 12th to the 19th centuries, most focused on law, philosophy and theology...The library is a sight to behold for its bold exterior and its rich Baroque embellishments that adorn the interior.

From back in the day when tiny Portugal was a world power.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

Good to Know:

The insect Oecanthus fultoni is known as the THERMOMETER CRICKET, because adding 40 to total the number of chirps it produces in 15 seconds can be used as a rough estimate of the current temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. pic.twitter.com/SHdUWKhbnZ
— Haggard Hawks 📚🦅 (@HaggardHawks) March 13, 2020

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”

--Oscar Wilde

The Plagues of Yore

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

This recommendation has been sitting in my queue for awhile, but I could never think of a good enough reason to use it. Until now.

Journal of the Plague Year is so detailed and authoritative that it's likely to be based on a true account.

I highly recommend it for people who want to know what a zombie outbreak would really look like, because that was basically what plague outbreaks were.

For example, people outside the city set up roadblocks and used mobile patrols to move cross-country, hunting down people who broke through. They didn't bother to get close and see if they were healthy, they shot first.

Someone who did get through the lines better have a good reason for why they were there, because no one was interested in unknown visitors.

Really neat stuff.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 01, 2019 09:45 AM (cfSRQ)

This is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722. The wiki blurb has more:

This novel is an account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the Great Plague or the bubonic plague struck the city of London...

Presented as an eyewitness account of the events at the time, it was written in the years just prior to the book's first publication in March 1722. Defoe was only five years old in 1665, and the book itself was published under the initials H. F. and is probably based on the journals of Defoe's uncle, Henry Foe.

In the book, Defoe goes to great pains to achieve an effect of verisimilitude, identifying specific neighborhoods, streets, and even houses in which events took place. Additionally, it provides tables of casualty figures and discusses the credibility of various accounts and anecdotes received by the narrator.

You know what this reminds me of, Orson Welles' adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds as a radio play in the form of news broadcasts.

Or, in short, fake news. But unlike our MSM's fake news, these, at least, were entertaining.

Anna Puma left the following rec in one of this week's rant threads:

So the final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one of the most difficult to execute, is that those who occupy positions of authority must lessen the panic that can alienate the members of a society. A society that takes as its motto "every man for himself" is no longer a civilized society.

pg 462. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. John M. Barry. Penguin Books. 2005.

Posted by: Anna Puma at March 13, 2020 11:23 AM (7iU8/)

I was surprised to learn, some years back, that the 1918 flu epidemic was the worst plague in history, even more so than the bubonic plague(s) that decimated Europe during the medieval era.

At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John Barry is $13.99 on Kindle, about what the paperback edition costs.

Here's perhaps a portent of things to come, namely, the time San Francisco narrowly avoided an outbeak of bubonic plague.

The plague first sailed into San Francisco on the steamer Australia, on the day after New Year’s in 1900. Though the ship passed inspection, some of her stowaways—infected rats—escaped detection and made their way into the city’s sewer system. Two months later, the first human case of bubonic plague surfaced in Chinatown.

The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco is the account of one of the great, if little known, triumphs in American public health history.

I'm dreading the day that some feces-born disease breaks out in San Francisco and it can't be contained because of a bunch of 'woke' fights breaking out. People will be dying while city officials bicker over why a transgender lesbian midget wasn't put on the public health task force. One of you moron authors could probably write a darkly comic novel about this.

___________

Who Dis:

(hint: not Angela Davis)

Last week's 'who dis' was Gloria Swanson

Books By Morons

Moron author Francis Porretto has just released a new fantasy adventure novel, The Warm Lands:

Gregor of Serebal, a journeyman sorcerer educated at the Scholium Arcanum in the East, is on a cross-continent trek through the Great Waste: the lifeless desert left by the Dieback that all but eliminated life from Aeol...

Laella of Anam is a gifted one: a potential sorcerer not yet trained to the disciplines that would make it safe to practice. Yet the mana has already touched her to ill effect...when Gregor arrives in Anam.

Mutual admiration brings them together...But though his intent was to walk all the way across the continent, charting the mana streams as he traveled, events will force them to return to Urel, the site of the Scholium Arcanum in the East where Gregor was made an initiate of the Arcana. There he and Laella will confront mysteries the sorcerers of the Scholium cannot unravel. Beneath those mysteries lies a threat to the life of Aeol that will demand all that Gregor, Laella, and their colleagues have to give.

The Warm Lands is only $2.99 on Kindle.

___________

Moron author Vince Milam has released the latest in his 'Case Lee' series, The Hawaiian Job:

When Case Lee is contracted to investigate a mysterious company and its secretive billionaire CEO in Hawaii, things quickly go sideways. The CEO, through unknown backchannels, unleashes contract killers to eliminate a problem...Lee.

Assassins flock. His family is in the crosshairs. Case calls on his former Delta teammates to lend a hand. In the course of protecting his family, one of the killers reveals the source of the bounty. A bounty that has dangled over the heads of Case and his three teammates for years...

From Hawaii to Africa and back again, it’s a wild roller-coaster ride with no quarter asked. Or given.

You can purchase The Hawaiian Job on Kindle for the introductory price of 99 cents for a limited time.

___________

Ben, a lurking moron tells me his wife has written a couple of urban fantasy novels with a third coming out soon. The first is Strangehold, which introduces you to Morgan Tenpenny, who

...has retreated from her painful, magical past, choosing to live quietly as a guardian of one of the gates between worlds. But her sister Gwen is married to a lord of the High Court of Faerie—and when Gwen asks her to protect her nieces, it's time for Morgan to emerge from her seclusion. The gates to Faerie have inexplicably closed, and no one knows why, not even Falcon, the fae Morgan finds trapped on her side of the gate.

More at the Amazon blurb. The magic-rich world built in the novels is somewhat complex.

Ben also says

If you are at all a fan of fantasy or urban fantasy give it a shot. She treats magic uniquely. I'd be lying if pretended to be unbiased, but for my money reading her story is a damned fine way to while away an afternoon.

Strangehold is only 99 cents, but the sequel, Sorrow's Son, will cost you $2.99.

You can find out more at the author's website.

And if you sign up for her newsletter, you will get a free story.

___________

They Don't Publish Books Like This Any More:

I really like those old-timey rocket ships and fish-tank spacesuit helmets.

Moron Recommendations

38 Finished All the Pretty Horses last night. First time with McCarthy. Interesting writer.
Posted by: Mel Gibson at March 08, 2020 09:27 AM (QZCjk)

There was some back-and-forth about this book in the book thread last week. The story is

...the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood. Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.

All the Pretty Horses is the first book of 'The Border' trilogy. The sequels are The Crossing followed by Cities of the Plain.

___________

Last week, MP⁴ mentioned that he had read

Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood. This is a collection of articles regarding classic movies that have been published in VF over the years. I bought it for "When Liz Met Dick," about Cleopatra, but there are also stories about The Graduate, All About Eve, The Producers, Saturday Night Fever and six others. Good behind-the-scenes gossip and interesting details of how these movies were written, cast and directed. Light reading, but intriguing.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at March 08, 2020 09:28 AM (Ki5SV)

Nothing I can add to this from the Amazon blurb except: "For pop-culture fanatics and movie buffs alike, Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood is an irresistible glimpse at how classic films-and box office bombs-are made."

The price of the Kindle edition of Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood: Rebels, Reds, and Graduates and the Wild Stories Behind the Making of 13 Iconic Films is a reasonable $8.99. Or you can get the paperback edition for $17.00.

___________

82 "The Discoverers" by Daniel Boorstin (?) is a great book about the "discovery" of time, clocks, and the impact of the technology on the history of man. It's a great book if you want to undserstand why things are the way they are in certain aspects of the world of man.

Posted by: pawn at March 08, 2020 09:54 AM (+LeF+)

This is one book I've always wanted to read. I should move it closer to the top of my TBR stack.

An original history of man's greatest adventure: his search to discover the world around him. In the compendious history, Boorstin not only traces man's insatiable need to know, but also the obstacles to discovery and the illusion that knowledge can also put in our way. Covering time, the earth and the seas, nature and society, he gathers and analyzes stories of the man's profound quest to understand his world and the cosmos.

The Kindle edition is $14.99, but you can get used hardcover copies for as little as $5.

This is actually the 2nd book in Boorstin's 'Knowledge' Trilogy. The first one is The Creators, basically a history of art, and the third volume is The Seekers, a survey of philosophy and theology.

___________

The Honor Harrington Flow Chart

(click for larger version)

Courtesy of Baen I thought this was pretty neat. Tells you what order is best to read the Honor Harrington novels.

The original at the Baen site is here, but it's just yuuge.

___________

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

___________

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 Re-reading the Recluse series by Modesitt and unlike the first time I read it I am trying to do it in chronological order rather than published order. That means starting with books 6 and 7 then on to books 2, 3, and 4. Then back to book 1. I think book 5 comes next but I will verify that after I finish book 1 which I am on now.

This gives all of the books in chronological order and I have skipped some of them because I don't have them.

https://tinyurl.com/yx66xbw6

Posted by: Vic at March 15, 2020 09:01 AM (mpXpK)

2 Tolle lege

Posted by: Skip at March 15, 2020 09:01 AM (ZCEU2)

3 Did get to the used book store but didn't find anything I really wanted.

Posted by: Skip at March 15, 2020 09:02 AM (ZCEU2)

4 Isaac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home in 1665 when Cambridge University closed because to the plague.

It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered calculus and the laws of motion.

What are YOUR plans?

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at March 15, 2020 09:03 AM (FXjhj)

5
g'mornin, book-ish 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at March 15, 2020 09:05 AM (CHi29)

6 Roberta Flack?

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 09:05 AM (gd9RK)

7 Just burned through Chris Bohjasion's "The Flight Attendant," a terrific thriller. Quite well written.

Got it via my Libby Digital library app and read it on my Kindle.

Posted by: Les Kinetic at March 15, 2020 09:06 AM (+fPHo)

8 I thought I had all of Those Honor Harrington Books, but I see a few on there that I don't have. And when I am re-reading the series I always start at the "On Basilisk Station".

Posted by: Vic at March 15, 2020 09:06 AM (mpXpK)

9 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT***

If you want a break from all the disease pr()n, try The Vampires of Michigan which is a fast, fun read with lots of guns, sex and vicious humor.

It dips a little bit into the philosophical implications of eternal life, but mostly it's just a wild ride.

Going cheap! Get it electronically so you don't break your self-quarantine!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:06 AM (cfSRQ)

10 At least Eris is wearing pants, even if they are from her Star Trek uniform.

It's a start. Baby steps.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 09:07 AM (DMUuz)

11 Well I woke up Sunday morning

Posted by: rhennigantx at March 15, 2020 09:08 AM (JFO2v)

12 This week I'm reading Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer. A friend said it was the best book she ever read, so there's that.

Posted by: SandyCheeks at March 15, 2020 09:08 AM (u1+n/)

13 I was going to say Angela Davis till I saw the hint that it wasn't Angela Davis.

Posted by: grammie winger at March 15, 2020 09:08 AM (lwiT4)

14 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT***

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:06 AM (cfSRQ)

That's all you ever do.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 09:08 AM (gd9RK)

15 Nice Lieberry!

The who dis is the chick from The Omega Man.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at March 15, 2020 09:09 AM (Z+IKu)

16 How many of you have pics of yourself

reading a book, in front of a bunch of books ?

Gaslight aint just a movie

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 09:09 AM (rpxSz)

17 10 At least Eris is wearing pants, even if they are from her Star Trek uniform.

It's a start. Baby steps.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 09:07 AM (DMUuz)

hopefully not the red shirt they only last till the first commercial break

Posted by: rhennigantx at March 15, 2020 09:10 AM (JFO2v)

18 Buongiorno orda

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 09:10 AM (G546f)

19 Wonder what the fresco on the library ceiling looks like. Gonna find out.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at March 15, 2020 09:10 AM (RCrpJ)

20 I have an irrational compulsion to put sliced tomato on those pants.

Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 09:10 AM (t+qrx)

21 One of you moron authors could probably write a darkly comic novel about this.

Last night on the ONT, someone mentioned an expedition to the Arctic to find the remains of an Eskimo village that was wiped out by the Spanish flu, but that any report about the effort didn't seem to make the news.

A few morons ran with that as a horror movie and plotted the whole thing out.

And I thought to myself, "Damn! Why am I struggling with my book when I could just put a few plot points up here and let the Horde finish it for me?"

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at March 15, 2020 09:11 AM (2JVJo)

22 Maybe I'll grab my copies of The Hot Zone and The Demon in the Freezer and reread them.

Posted by: no good deed at March 15, 2020 09:11 AM (MmFTx)

23 Who Dis is Justin Trudeau.

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Low Glycemic Souls at March 15, 2020 09:12 AM (Wm5SB)

24 Who Dis is Justin Trudeau.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Low Glycemic Souls at March 15, 2020 09:12 AM (Wm5SB)

OK, that was good.

Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 09:13 AM (t+qrx)

25 I've just started reading Oil and Marble, an historical novel by Stephanie Storey. By 'just started', I mean the first two pages. So far so good. It's about the relationship and rivalry between Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo.

Posted by: grammie winger at March 15, 2020 09:14 AM (lwiT4)

26 4 Isaac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home in 1665 when Cambridge University closed because to the plague.

It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered calculus and the laws of motion.

What are YOUR plans?
Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at March 15, 2020 09:03 AM (FXjhj)

Midget porn.

Posted by: jsg at March 15, 2020 09:14 AM (FCm65)

27 To Catch A Virus

by Booss/August

Tough read but informative.
What I'm getting from this is that we stand on the shoulders of others...many of whom cut their lives short in their quest to defeat disease.

The idea that people 300 years ago were on the trail of a bug so small lenses can't see it is impressive. In fact they're not really bugs ...which are self replicating.

Virus's seem to be some kind of otherworldly alien machine sent here to kill. They don't seem to have any other function. But once trapped in a host they can be wiped out...like smallpox. Trouble is there are zillions in the environment waiting their chance to invade humans.

Posted by: torabora at March 15, 2020 09:14 AM (FUl7k)

28 A great Sunday morning to you all.

Posted by: A lotta nerve at March 15, 2020 09:15 AM (JdcHc)

29 I'd have said Aretha, but too thin.

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 09:15 AM (ONvIw)

30 I finished Lord of the Rings last week. I think I've finally reached the point where I need to take a multi-year break on the book. I've basically picked the bones clean.

Currently reading The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. It's...weird.

It's told from the first-person POV and it keeps going in cycles where you think you know what happened but then the narrator goes back and says "Well, actually, there was more to that episode than I told you before."

It's very conversational, reminding me of Joseph Conrad's yarns. I can see why they thought of working together.

I hope to knock it out this week and then I may go back and re-read the Parade's End series. Ford's writing is dense and he delights in what the cool kids call "subverting expectations" but he does so with actual plot twists, not just crude retconning or arbitrarily whacking characters like George RRRR Martin.

I have to say that it took me a while to get into this book after the clear but archaic prose of Tolkien. Ford is of an earlier generation and his writing is more florid and Victorian, even though his subject matter is quite mature for the time. (He's blunt about infidelity, sex before marriage - stuff not often spoken of at the time.)

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:15 AM (cfSRQ)

31 The pants guy is wearing his "Just shoot me now" look.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 09:16 AM (WEBkv)

32 Did get to the used book store but didn't find anything I really wanted.
Posted by: Skip at March 15, 2020 09:02 AM (ZCEU2)

This sentence makes no sense to me.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at March 15, 2020 09:17 AM (2JVJo)

33 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was informative and just plain fun.

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 09:17 AM (7EjX1)

34 I really like those old-timey rocket ships and fish-tank spacesuit helmets.

And she's wearing a cape on the airless Moon.

Posted by: t-bird at March 15, 2020 09:17 AM (jyVW0)

35 As one blogger puts it this AM: "Read the actual Apocalypse and calm down."

Posted by: Slow Learner at March 15, 2020 09:17 AM (hafXH)

36 Just finished "The Lincoln Lawyer."

Pretty good legal yarn/thriller.

The movie isn't bad, either.

Currently working my way through some Kathy Reichs, and various history books. (One on Alexander, another on the Bible and one that covers the Eastern Front during WWI)

Fortunately, we've got a darn good used book store in our area.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 09:19 AM (WEBkv)

37 34 I really like those old-timey rocket ships and fish-tank spacesuit helmets.

And she's wearing a cape on the airless Moon.
Posted by: t-bird at March 15, 2020 09:17 AM (jyVW0)

thats a towel

Posted by: rhennigantx at March 15, 2020 09:19 AM (JFO2v)

38 Another good book about the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic is Gina Kolata - "Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It".
Part of the search involved exhuming a mass burial at an Indian village in the arctic, looking for a lung sample from a victim. Was that what was mentioned on the ONT thread? (at #21, MPPP?)
I've been diverted from some other books by Diana Galbadon's "Outlander" series. Bought the lot at a used book store last week. They're good enough ... but every one is the size of a brick - 800+ in paperback. Cannot people write tight any more?

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at March 15, 2020 09:19 AM (xnmPy)

39 Oh..one other thing. Developing story. Someone has used plasma from recovered coronavirus victims to cure others dying of the disease. If this can get out quick enough we should put this disease away in a month.

Posted by: torabora at March 15, 2020 09:20 AM (FUl7k)

40 But how does the cricket know whether it's Fahrenheit or Celsius, is what I want to know.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:21 AM (4c+5M)

41 I read two old timey books:

"The List of Adrian Messenger" by Philip MacDonald. Published in 1958 it's a very good murder mystery set in 1950s Britain. It's full of British slang and some interesting language, such as;
Jocelyn stopped abruptly, "What am I doing! This is ridiculous. Confession of a Sixth Form Girl, or I Was a Teen-age Iseult!", and "All I want are some facts. As pants the hart, I pant for detail. Any crumb!" MacDonald also refers to several women as "well constructed."

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. Published in 1968 it's the source for the movie Blade Runner. A pretty good book. I especially like the name given to those with a low IQ as "chickenheads."

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at March 15, 2020 09:22 AM (P1GvV)

42 I finally received my copy of Fulton Sheen's Communism and the Conscience of the West. So far, it's interesting and prescient, but the man is no CS Lewis in his writing style.

The book store that sent it turned out to be a Catholic company with many of Sheen's works and a lot of other theological works in addition to rosaries, necklaces, and miscellaneous Church items. They sent a catalog which was interesting in itself

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 09:22 AM (ONvIw)

43 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I am continuing this week with Imperium, by Ryszard Kapuscinski. My heart aches for the tragedy that Russia seems always to have been.

I'm still in his travels of 1989, and he describes a performance that takes place in a church. The main narrator in this performance cries out that the October Revolution was a an international conspiracy that was meant to wipe Russia off the face of the earth.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:22 AM (OX9vb)

44 But once trapped in a host they can be wiped out...like smallpox.

Oh, shit, that reminds me- I forgot to lock up last night...

Posted by: Wuhan Lab Director at March 15, 2020 09:22 AM (Ry8mf)

45 I really like those old-timey rocket ships and fish-tank spacesuit helmets.

=====

And she's wearing a cape on the airless Moon.
Posted by: t-bird at March 15, 2020 09:17 AM

Apparently, they have open carry on the Moon.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 09:22 AM (DMUuz)

46 Ahoy, bookfagz!

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 09:23 AM (NWiLs)

47 One of the funny things about The Good Soldier that I think will amuse the Horde is that the narrator is a total cuck.

This comes out gradually. At first, everything is right and proper and the narrator and his wife are the ne plus ultra of respectability. They come from old WASP families that bought their estates on the east coast with wampum and brandy. Seriously old money.

Gradually you learn that dear, dear Florence with her delicate and fragile heart - so easily spooked! - is actually quite the hussy.

It reminds me of nothing so much as the Never Trump/David French crowd. The narrator starts of talking about how wonderful and pure everyone is and how he has tirelessly nursed his sick wife and then it starts getting into how to 'calm her nerves' she has her own room key and he has to sleep in his own room and must never enter hers.

You know, for her health.

Aaaand then the story unfolds and you find out who *is* allowed in her room when hubby is resting from his tireless care of his 'sickly' bride.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:24 AM (cfSRQ)

48 Good morning book people!

Great thread as usual, OM, and thanks.

I want that Space Happy coloring book.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 09:24 AM (Dc2NZ)

49 "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

- Oscar Wilde

well I guess we know what he was reading at nights.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 09:25 AM (V2Yro)

50 You call 'em books. I call 'em hardbound packets of toilet paper.

Posted by: Man is not a Logical Animal at March 15, 2020 09:25 AM (shN6a)

51 43 I had more to say about that, but the dog needed out, and now I forget. Ah, well.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:25 AM (OX9vb)

52 I watched the late Christopher Hitchens answering questions on Reddit -- in the background were two very tall stacks of books, like a jenga game.

Except he probably read them all. His death was a great loss.

Posted by: FloridaMan at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (LMzQe)

53 34 I really like those old-timey rocket ships and fish-tank spacesuit helmets.

And she's wearing a cape on the airless Moon.
Posted by: t-bird at March 15, 2020 09:17 AM (jyVW0)

And their outfits provide no apparent protection from cold or vacuum.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (NWiLs)

54 "The List of Adrian Messenger" by Philip MacDonald. Published in 1958 it's a very good murder mystery set in 1950s Britain.
-----
There was a "Get Smart" episode entitled "The Mess of Adrian Listenger".

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (g8Yc+)

55 Ahoy, bookfagz!
Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 09:23 AM

I'm guessing neither of those words are in Black's.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (DMUuz)

56 I'm currently reading "Two Years Before The Mast" by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Published in 1840 it chronicles his two years as a common sailor onboard the merchantmen Pilgrim and Alert from 1834-1836 during voyages from Boston to California and back, both via Cape Horn.

Dana describes early Yerba Buena (future San Francisco), Monterey, San Diego, other California locations, the joys of collecting and preparing hides for transport to Boston, and of course the daily life of a sailor. He writes that many inhabitants are succumbing to "California Fever" (laziness). He also provides an appendix of sailor speak, such as a Hermaphrodite Brig (it's a ship, not where hermaphrodites are locked up). So far a very good book.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (P1GvV)

57 38
Another good book about the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic is Gina Kolata -
"Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search
for the Virus That Caused It".

---
If you like Gina Kolata

Or getting caught in the rain...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (cfSRQ)

58 Aaaand then the story unfolds and you find out who *is* allowed in her room when hubby is resting from his tireless care of his 'sickly' bride.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:24 AM (cfSRQ)
-----------

Ah, is, how you say? The story of my life.

---The Paolo

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (WEBkv)

59 Slept in my office last night

Sigh

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:27 AM (85Gof)

60 49
"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

- Oscar Wilde

well I guess we know what he was reading at nights.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 09:25 AM (V2Yro)

---
Books about gladiators?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:27 AM (cfSRQ)

61 So I'm sure a lot of you Morons have read T.H. White's The Once and Future King and perhaps even it's "sequel," The Book of Merlyn. As wonderful as those were, White also did several other books worth reading.

The Book of Beasts is his translation of a mediaeval bestiary. It's really for someone very conversant with the Middle Ages, but his footnotes make it a book stuffed with fascinating trivia.

https://tinyurl.com/ralw4yv

He also did a "double-barreled" series, The Age of Scandal and The Scandal-Monger. Both books are described as "an amusing foray into the scandalous literature of the eighteenth century" and White has a grand time quoting from diaries, journals, magazines and newspapers regarding the various royal scandals, mob outrages, political contremps and other outrages and titillations that rocked and amused the Georgian age.

Acquired tastes, perhaps, but I think you might like them.

https://tinyurl.com/scbws96

https://tinyurl.com/urhl4bg

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at March 15, 2020 09:27 AM (2JVJo)

62 14
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT***

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:06 AM (cfSRQ)

That's all you ever do.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 09:08 AM (gd9RK)

---
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:28 AM (cfSRQ)

63 I had more to say about that, but the dog needed out, and now I forget. Ah, well.
Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:25 AM (OX9vb)
------------

Does the book make apparent the poverty of even the well to do in 1989 Russia?

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 09:28 AM (WEBkv)

64 Journal of the Plague Year, huh? I may end up writing my own Journal of the Corona Month. My employer has finally admitted that working from home is feasible for many of us staff peons, and in fact has offered 80 hours of special COVID leave as well as the option of working from home.

On the other hand, things here are hardly at that stage. Bread was almost out at the local grocery, this am not the Walmart (I plan not to revisit that place until the panic is over), and hand cleaners were gone, but I found everything else I needed.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:28 AM (4c+5M)

65 Posted by: Sgt. Mom at March 15, 2020 09:19 AM (xnmPy)

Sgt. Mom, did you get Ridin' the Rainbow?

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at March 15, 2020 09:28 AM (2JVJo)

66 Dana describes early Yerba Buena (future San Francisco), Monterey, San Diego, other California locations, the joys of collecting and preparing hides for transport to Boston, and of course the daily life of a sailor. He writes that many inhabitants are succumbing to "California Fever" (laziness). He also provides an appendix of sailor speak, such as a Hermaphrodite Brig (it's a ship, not where hermaphrodites are locked up). So far a very good book.
Posted by: Jake Holenhead at March 15, 2020 09:26 AM (P1GvV)

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

Excellent book and well worth the read.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 09:29 AM (WEBkv)

67 Aaaand then the story unfolds and you find out who *is* allowed in her room when hubby is resting from his tireless care of his 'sickly' bride.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:24 AM (cfSRQ)

Does he ever find his balls and throw her ass to the curb?

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 09:29 AM (NWiLs)

68 Maybe it's Toni Morrison, I've never seen her looking that young

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 09:29 AM (ONvIw)

69 59
Slept in my office last night

Sigh

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:27 AM (85Gof)

---
Argument with the wife?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:30 AM (cfSRQ)

70 16 How many of you have pics of yourself
reading a book, in front of a bunch of books ?

Heh. Don't have that, but I have a picture of me and the band of ragamuffins I call siblings, circa 1968, standing in front of our library branch holding our stacks of books for the week.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:30 AM (OX9vb)

71 A few pages of the Space Happy coloring book. Whoever owned it was pretty good about staying inside the lines.

https://tinyurl.com/rvnywko

Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 09:30 AM (t+qrx)

72 “Peoples of the West! The battle before the Black Gates of Sorhed will be one of few against many; but the few are pure of heart and the many are of the filthy. Nevertheless, those of you who wish to cringe and run from the fight may do so to quicken our pace. Those who will ride with the King of Twodor will live forever in song and legend! The rest may go."

It is said that the dustcloud did not settle for many days after.

--- Stomper the Ranger, a.k.a. Arrowroot of Arrowshirt, from “Bored of the Rings”

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 09:31 AM (Dc2NZ)

73 Well, have to run to the store.

hopefully, I can still find some wild rice.

Later.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 09:31 AM (WEBkv)

74 "The List of Adrian Messenger" by Philip MacDonald. Published in 1958 it's a very good murder mystery set in 1950s Britain.
-----
There was a "Get Smart" episode entitled "The Mess of Adrian Listenger".
Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020

*
*

As well as the episode "The Treasure of C. Errol Madre"! Adams' series loved doing parodies of what even then were considered to be classic movies.

The Smart[/] parody was probably based off the 1964 movie of Messenger, with an all-star cast including George C. Scott as Anthony Gethryn.

Philip Macdonald, the author of Messenger, wrote one of the earliest serial-killer novels in the genre, Murder Gone Mad.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:32 AM (4c+5M)

75 Does he ever find his balls and throw her ass to the curb?

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 09:29 AM (NWiLs)

---
I'm not finished with it and it seems to move in cycles where he tells the story, then goes back and re-tells it adding a crucial detail that changes *everything* so I can't really answer that.

I think the book also relies on misdirection to keep you interested so I wouldn't want to offer spoilers.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:32 AM (cfSRQ)

76 You know what this reminds me of, Orson Welles' adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds as a radio play in the form of news broadcasts.

Or, in short, fake news. But unlike our MSM's fake news, these, at least, were entertaining."

I don't think that's a fair description, since I don't doubt that Henry Foe's journals, on which it appears to have been based, were quite accurate, not fiction at all. Perhaps more like "A tale of Two Cities" where the characters were fictional, but the terror of the French Revolution was all too real.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 09:33 AM (V2Yro)

77 Slept in my office last night
Sigh
Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:27 AM

At least it wasn't a drill.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 09:33 AM (DMUuz)

78 Mr Lloyd - I did read your 'Vampires' book and really enjoyed it! But I really
liked 'Battle Officer Wolfe' - gotta continue that one on

Posted by: geezer der mensch at March 15, 2020 09:33 AM (D80T6)

79 Hi, MPPP - yes I did! Havn't started it yet. Do you wish it returned when I do?

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at March 15, 2020 09:34 AM (xnmPy)

80 I think the book also relies on misdirection to keep you interested so I wouldn't want to offer spoilers.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:32 AM (cfSRQ)

Thus keeping Morons in suspense...

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 09:34 AM (NWiLs)

81 I enjoyed Kevin Wilson’s “Nothing To See Here” so much, I checked out an earlier novel of his, “The Family Fang”, about a brother and sister who are used as props by their performance artist parents. The father and mother love staging happenings in public to create chaos, or living art. Subvert normality! Buster and Annie eventually grow up and leave home, but they are unable to deal with life outside the fishbowl of their weird family. Annie is a successful actress who has made a sudden string of bad decisions, and Buster is a well-regarded writer who keeps tunneling down dead ends story-wise. They come back together to solve the bloody disappearance of their mom and dad. Are they really the victims of a horrible crime, or is it just another stunt?

Kevin has real affection for his characters and there is a lot of black humor about the fuckedupidness of their upbringing and their lives. They eventually stabilize the spin and get to cracking the mystery.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 09:34 AM (Dc2NZ)

82 Who dis:

Teresa Graves?

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at March 15, 2020 09:34 AM (P1GvV)

83 Argument with the wife?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:30 AM (cfSRQ)

No not really. She take immuno suppressent meds and is paranoid, for good reason, about getting covid 19.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:35 AM (85Gof)

84 78
Mr Lloyd - I did read your 'Vampires' book and really enjoyed it! But I really
liked 'Battle Officer Wolfe' - gotta continue that one on

Posted by: geezer der mensch at March 15, 2020 09:33 AM (D80T6)

---
Thanks! My next project is in fact the long-awaited sequel to Battle Officer Wolf.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:35 AM (cfSRQ)

85 ALERT!

Today only on Kindle Daily Deals: "JRR Tolkien: A Biography" by Humphrey Carpenter. $2.99. Yeah, I've got the hardcopy version but there some I like to duplicate as e-books.

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 09:35 AM (7EjX1)

86 Me: "Is that Angela Davis???" Then I read the hint. (But don't believe everything you read on the internet.)

Posted by: SFGoth at March 15, 2020 09:35 AM (KAi1n)

87 77
Slept in my office last night

Sigh

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:27 AM

At least it wasn't a drill.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 09:33 AM (DMUuz)

---
Just some heavy flossing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:36 AM (cfSRQ)

88 What are YOUR plans?
Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at March 15, 2020 09:03 AM (FXjhj)

*puts down Roku remote*
*feels guiltily unworthy*

hey, can I copy your comment?

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 09:36 AM (G546f)

89 Some big red monster is grabbing that space dude from behind - you can just see his big red mitts on his shoulder...shudder.

Also I do like his space shirt - it basically says in one picture - "if found unconscious - return here."

Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 09:36 AM (32YRo)

90 Hi, MPPP - yes I did! Havn't started it yet. Do you wish it returned when I do?
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at March 15, 2020 09:34 AM (xnmPy)

No, go ahead and keep it, dear lady. I can always find another copy. Enjoy with my compliments.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at March 15, 2020 09:36 AM (2JVJo)

91 I've been reading Elmore Leonard's Westerns. The man showed even early on what a hard-boiled author he was -- and after all, the Western and the hard-boiled crime novel have an *enormous* amount in common.

The interesting thing too is that of the four novels in this volume, at least three were made into movies, including Hombre, Last Stand at Saber River, and Valdez Is Coming with Burt Lancaster. I don't know if Forty Lashes Less One, from 1972, was ever a film, but it would make a good one. It's one of the oddest prison stories ever written.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:37 AM (4c+5M)

92 Nike to shut all their stores? What kapeshit does not make you immune? Hope you never reopen

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:37 AM (85Gof)

93 Nike to shut all their stores? What kapeshit does not make you immune? Hope you never reopen

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:37 AM (85Gof)

Oh please God, let every woke company Epstein themselves, oh please oh please...

Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 09:39 AM (32YRo)

94 I just finished "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" by Mark Manson. Both profane and profound, it's message is basically that life sucks and then you die, so focus on fewer things that are important rather than a lot of things that aren't. While that's not necessarily a new message, I really enjoyed his writing style and humor. I also appreciated the lack of political (i.e., leftist) commentary or jabs at conservatism. At any rate, he clearly has no patience for the snowflake culture.

Next on my reading list is the sequel, "Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope."

Posted by: Hoplite Housewife at March 15, 2020 09:39 AM (XXNQ+)

95 We can only hope that Nike burns out

Posted by: geezer der mensch at March 15, 2020 09:39 AM (D80T6)

96 I cheated and did the reverso thing on who dis. First surprise is who dis. Second is that she's morte.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 09:40 AM (gd9RK)

97 Update: Forty Lashes Less One is in development right now, says IMDb. I wonder how modern H'wood will screw it up.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:40 AM (4c+5M)

98 Slept in my office last night

OT on a Saturday? That's double time. Nice.

Posted by: t-bird at March 15, 2020 09:40 AM (IMdOQ)

99 Does the book make apparent the poverty of even the well to do in 1989 Russia?
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 09:28 AM (WEBkv)

It does, and points out the ruthlessness of who we now call the oligarchs, but really only touches lightly there. The real focus is on how, even during perestroika and after the fall of the USSR, people are largely silent and don't engage in conversation, because giving up information of any kind about yourself and your thoughts during the Soviet years was pretty much a death sentence.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:41 AM (OX9vb)

100 Jack of Spies by David Downing

Set right before start of WW1, auto salesman and part time spy for the British Jack meets interesting people who like him or want to kill him and travels around the world doing it. Rate it a 6 out of 10. Not sorry I read it, but not going out of my way to read next one in series.

Posted by: Charlotte at March 15, 2020 09:41 AM (Aj6Tl)

101 hiya

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 09:41 AM (arJlL)

102 the Pentagon building located in Arlington, Virginia, raised its health protection condition from low to moderate, or Bravo, and began implementing additional protective measures that would dramatically cut the number of visitors to the building as well as its supporting facilities. The measures apply to those who do not have swipe-access cards to the building already.

Lol. They men where I work

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 09:41 AM (85Gof)

103 96 I cheated and did the reverso thing on who dis. First surprise is who dis. Second is that she's morte.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 09:40 AM (gd9RK)
---
I cheated too. Would not have guessed it's Obama!

Oops!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 09:41 AM (Dc2NZ)

104 89 Some big red monster is grabbing that space dude from behind - you can just see his big red mitts on his shoulder...shudder.

Also I do like his space shirt - it basically says in one picture - "if found unconscious - return here."
Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 09:36 AM (32YRo)

LOL - it reminds me of Bleedin' Brian Blessed's armor in Black Adder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm5GCQm5cvE

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 09:42 AM (V2Yro)

105 Ha! The first lines of A Journal of the Plague Years include this gem:

We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumours and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men, as I have lived to see practised since.

Some things never change.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at March 15, 2020 09:42 AM (saIjW)

106 Also I do like his space shirt - it basically says in one picture - "if found unconscious - return here."
Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 09:36 AM (32YRo)

He's even pointing at a rocket, wondering where he's seen that thing before. She just wants him to quit gawping with the drill in his hand and help her finish the IKEA shelves.

Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 09:42 AM (t+qrx)

107 Heh. Don't have that, but I have a picture of me and the band of ragamuffins I call siblings, circa 1968, standing in front of our library branch holding our stacks of books for the week.
Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:30 AM (OX9vb)

I'm sure it was charming and not nearly as staged as these pics

and btw, you're not from Dallas , are you ?

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 09:43 AM (rpxSz)

108 Also, Toni Morrison, or Alice Walker?

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:43 AM (OX9vb)

109 People will be dying while city officials bicker over why a
transgender lesbian midget wasn't put on the public health task force.
One of you moron authors could probably write a darkly comic novel about
this.

Kurt Schlicter's People's Republic series: https://tinyurl.com/hqb39ba

Posted by: Bert G at March 15, 2020 09:44 AM (OMsf+)

110 Billie Jean Preston?

Posted by: klaftern at March 15, 2020 09:44 AM (RuIsu)

111 It's been a good week, by my standards, for Kindle books. One of them was "Long Range Shooting Handbook" by Ryan Cleckner. He was a member and trainer for the snipers of the 1st Ranger Battalion and has a lot of other impressive credentials

This is a serious book about introducing beginners to long range target shooting. It assumes the reader knows pretty much nothing about the subject. So far it is informative and conversational.

It was $1.99 a couple of days ago but is now back to ten bucks. More to come on the Gun Thread tonight.

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 09:45 AM (7EjX1)

112 Someone above mentioned that the Who Dis lady was connected with Charlton Heston. Was she the female "love interest" in The Omega Man? I've never seen the film all the way through, so I don't know.

Or maybe she was in Soylent Green with him?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:45 AM (4c+5M)

113 LOL - it reminds me of Bleedin' Brian Blessed's armor in Black Adder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm5GCQm5cvE

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 09:42 AM (V2Yro)

I watched - heh.

Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 09:47 AM (32YRo)

114 "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

--Oscar Wilde

********

This is frank and utter BS, but then again what I generally expect from Wilde.

"A truism usually isn't."

--Seamus Muldoon

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 09:48 AM (m45I2)

115 Good morning!

Let's smile and be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 15, 2020 09:48 AM (u82oZ)

116 Or maybe she was Soylent Green
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:45 AM (4c+5M)

fify

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 09:48 AM (rpxSz)

117 (hint: not Angela Davis)

Sammy Davis ?

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 09:49 AM (arJlL)

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

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

- Groucho Marx, whose show would've been cancelled this weekend when the comedy club closed.

Posted by: BacwardsBoy's new band is called The Sniveling Progressives at March 15, 2020 09:49 AM (HaL55)

119 Love the Honor Harrington series.

You can see the "Hornblower" influence along the way.

Posted by: Mr. Trashbag, Shoggoth and Eater Of Toes at March 15, 2020 09:49 AM (T09ml)

120 Virus definitely under control?

Posted by: Kurt at March 15, 2020 09:50 AM (nmeGl)

121 "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

--Oscar Wilde

********

This is frank and utter BS, but then again what I generally expect from Wilde.

"A truism usually isn't."

--Seamus Muldoon
Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 09:48 AM (m45I2)

Oh, it's true alright.

I read "Winnie the Pooh when I didn't have to, and now-

my head's stuck in a Hunny jar!

Posted by: naturalfake at March 15, 2020 09:50 AM (z0XD8)

122 (hint: not Angela Davis)

Sammy Davis ?

Sylvester Stone?

Posted by: BacwardsBoy's new band is called The Sniveling Progressives at March 15, 2020 09:51 AM (HaL55)

123 and btw, you're not from Dallas , are you ?
Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 09:43 AM (rpxSz)

Nope, Ohio girl.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:52 AM (OX9vb)

124 Now that is officially The End Of The World As We Know It (TM), I suspect a lot more reading may happen. Or maybe sex. For the unmarried, that is.
For my back-to-books experience I finished The Deserter by Nelson DeMille. A commenter here had mentioned it right before Christmas, so it ended up wrapped and under the tree.
My wife loves DeMille but for some reason did not enjoy this one. DeMille really hates the CIA and she was upset at how it thoroughly poisoned people who came in contact with it in the book. So, more disturbed at the contents than not liking the book.
On the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed it: New characters, new locations and slightly different style - his son Alexander is listed as coauthor.
Setting is Venezuela where a former army officer/POW of the Taliban has deserted and is doing guerilla training for the Chavez/Madura side. Why? Army CID Warrant Officers sent to investigate.
Thanks to whomever recommended it. Worth the wait.

Posted by: RI Red at March 15, 2020 09:52 AM (RQoAh)

125 Spllng correction.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy's new band is called The Sniveling Progressives at March 15, 2020 09:53 AM (HaL55)

126 Is that Betty Davis, one of the wives of Miles?

It reminds me of nothing so much as the Never Trump/David French crowd.

Yeah he's kind of a pompous windbag. The Good Soldier was the first book group selection that really surprised me positively. We started with War and Peace that I knew would be superb once I got off my dead ass, or stay planted on it, and read it. Next came something wretched by Malraux, Man's Fate or something like that, that I thoroughly hated and spared no invective on having it imposed on me. But Ford Maddox Ford provided the magic elixir.

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 09:53 AM (y7DUB)

127 Yes, Kurt, they've quarantined your mom so that the Herpes Complex-22 that she was spreading around at truck stops is no longer in being transmitted.

Posted by: Bert G at March 15, 2020 09:53 AM (OMsf+)

128 Another score off the Kindle Daily Deals this week was "Pray The Rosary Like Never Before" by Edward Sri. The purpose of the book, which gets enthusiastic reviews, is to explain the origins, meanings and depths available from praying the rosary. I haven't gone very far into it but look forward to learning.

The rosary, when I was a kid a million years ago, was simply a rote exercise with no explanations offered or questions answered. It remained meaningless to me for almost 60 years. There must be more to it.

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 09:53 AM (7EjX1)

129 Elizabeth Warren.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 09:53 AM (Ndje9)

130 Hoplite Housewife , I liked The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 09:54 AM (G546f)

131 I'm watching the live feed from the security cameras in our restaurant...

Normally, there would be about a 10 minute wait for a table. Right now the place is only half full. Yesterday wasn't terrible, but what we would consider an "off" day for a Saturday.

This is going to be a big test for Trump. If he concentrates on giving money to the banks, airlines and other big corporations, the economy will be ruined. Restaurants employ the single mothers and most vulnerable people in our society. In this emergency, there needs to be direct, low interest loans to small business in order to keep them running.

Once a business shuts down, it's extremely hard to get it back up and running again. I hope the government doesn't make the mistake of screwing the little people again.

Our restaurant will survive because we have other assets, businesses and cash reserves. That isn't true for the vast majority of the others out there. Whatever happens, any assistance package must be put in place quickly. 3 or 4 weeks is a lifetime in this industry.

Posted by: jwest at March 15, 2020 09:54 AM (mrrpT)

132 Off to do an errand or two, then this pm Linda is dragging me to the gardens at Longue Vue on the edge of the suburbs. Look it up; it has an interesting thought not very old history.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:54 AM (4c+5M)

133 124 Or maybe sex. For the unmarried, that is.

*snort

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:54 AM (OX9vb)

134 Dr. Who

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 09:55 AM (Ndje9)

135 4 Isaac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home in 1665 when Cambridge University closed because to the plague.

It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered calculus and the laws of motion.

What are YOUR plans?
Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at March 15, 2020 09:03 AM (FXjhj)

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

Clean up dog.... uh, leavings... in the backyard.

Posted by: No One of Consequence at March 15, 2020 09:55 AM (CAJOC)

136 Have a large pile of books gleaned from the Public Library's annual Book Harvest. Chores has replaced reading for a bit.

They had a handout of SF recommended authors. I looked it over. The big names were hardly there. No Heinlein, Clarke, or Asimov. No Cordwainer Smith. No Eric Russel. No A.H. Lloyd. A lot of woke SF.

My curated SF collection at home is bigger and much better than theirs. Methinks a letter is in order. Maybe it does not matter, as the Public Library in Manhattan, Ks is closed.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 15, 2020 09:56 AM (u82oZ)

137 I thought I've read all the main Honor Harrington books
but now I'm not sure!

dang libraries closed for #2weeks

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 09:56 AM (G546f)

138 Teresa Graves?
Posted by: Jake Holenhead at March 15, 2020 09:34 AM (P1GvV)

Sorry, no.

29 I'd have said Aretha, but too thin.
Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 09:15 AM (ONvIw)

Your instincts are correct. Aretha always was pleasingly plump.

23 Who Dis is Justin Trudeau.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Low Glycemic Souls at March 15, 2020 09:12 AM (Wm5SB)

Best wrong answer.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 09:56 AM (R8APV)

139 The Human Torch

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 09:57 AM (Ndje9)

140 (hint: not Angela Davis)

Bummer. There went my only guess.

Posted by: GnuBreed at March 15, 2020 09:57 AM (Jdw1U)

141 James Bond

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 09:58 AM (Ndje9)

142 Salty, it's sad. I've got my personal SF redoubt built a good deal upon book sales from the library!

Like good Commies, they are severing our geek cultural continuity.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 09:59 AM (Dc2NZ)

143 132 Off to do an errand or two, then this pm Linda is dragging me to the gardens at Longue Vue on the edge of the suburbs. Look it up; it has an interesting thought not very old history.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

make sure it's open
Longwood Gardens closed the day after we visited last week

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 09:59 AM (G546f)

144 Best wrong answer.

Whomever she is, looks like she smokes Winstons.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy's new band is called The Sniveling Progressives at March 15, 2020 09:59 AM (HaL55)

145 >>> 23 Who Dis is Justin Trudeau.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Low Glycemic Souls at March 15, 2020 09:12 AM (Wm5SB)

*curses Bilwis*

... ah well, I guess the early bird gets the Who Dis.

And the TP.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at March 15, 2020 09:59 AM (0ReGO)

146 "A truism usually isn't."

--Seamus Muldoon
Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 09:48 AM (m45I2)

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

So, then, is this a truism that is or isn't?

Posted by: No One of Consequence at March 15, 2020 09:59 AM (CAJOC)

147 4 Isaac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home in 1665 when Cambridge University closed because to the plague.

It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered calculus and the laws of motion.

What are YOUR plans?
Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at March 15, 2020 09:03 AM (FXjhj)

To not be eaten by a grue.

Posted by: GnuBreed at March 15, 2020 09:59 AM (Jdw1U)

148 Good morning, book horde. This week I read Run by Blake Crouch. It was okay. In a nutshell it's about a family forced to leave their house in the middle of the night and go on the run, due to an "event" (never really explained) that makes a bunch of people want to kill other people.

Posted by: Jordan61 at March 15, 2020 10:00 AM (6ofTb)

149 Who dis - Shelia Jackson? - just a guess

Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 10:00 AM (32YRo)

150 Under the 'just plain fun' heading. I read both "Second Stage Lensman" and Children of the Lens" by Doc Smith. So much over the top enjoyment. It never gets old. When I'm tired I might also get out the "Skylark" series and for the same reasons.

I also read parts of "New England Legends and Folklore". It's a compilation of items about old New England written back in the day. Some of it involves my home town, which was fun.

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 10:01 AM (7EjX1)

151 "The Jewish War" by Josephus arrived. Yikes. These royals were a bloodthirsty lot.

Posted by: JAS at March 15, 2020 10:01 AM (2BZBZ)

152 Once a business shuts down, it's extremely hard to get it back up and running again. I hope the government doesn't make the mistake of screwing the little people again.

Our restaurant will survive because we have other assets, businesses and cash reserves. That isn't true for the vast majority of the others out there. Whatever happens, any assistance package must be put in place quickly. 3 or 4 weeks is a lifetime in this industry.
Posted by: jwest at March 15, 2020 09:54 AM (mrrpT)

I'm in the convention business. Boss fired 10% of the company this week because all our conventions for the next month were cancelled. I work in the accounting office, so I know I'm getting paid next week. After that, I don't know. A month is a long time for small/medium sized businesses, especially in service industries.

Posted by: G. Gnome at March 15, 2020 10:01 AM (OQcPl)

153 The way public libraries cull books is based on age + circulation - they run reports yearly on what books are getting checked out
those that don't get borrowed enough get ditched
Of course the decider has leeway - personal favorites frex

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:01 AM (G546f)

154 JTB, coincidently, I just started watching Kleckner on you tube a couple nights ago. I have to get that long range shooting book of his.

Posted by: RI Red at March 15, 2020 10:02 AM (RQoAh)

155 Yesterday found out our county Library system is shutting down. This morning the liquor stores.
Currently only have one book checked out (about Synesthesia). So I know I won't have any trouble finishing it.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at March 15, 2020 10:02 AM (x8Q/V)

156 149 Who dis - Shelia Jackson? - just a guess

Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 10:00 AM (32YRo)

Sorry, no.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 10:03 AM (R8APV)

157 OK, folks, lovely to hang for a while, but I am going to brave the apocalypse and see if I can buy some bread - or, failing that, flour.

Then it's off to Newburyport to see if I can get my fat bastard self fitted for a spring suit.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at March 15, 2020 10:03 AM (2JVJo)

158 What are YOUR plans?
Cold Fusion

Posted by: JAS at March 15, 2020 10:03 AM (2BZBZ)

159 Love that cartoon at the end of the post. I don't know how they got into my bedroom, though.

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 10:03 AM (7EjX1)

160 143 132 Off to do an errand or two, then this pm Linda is dragging me to the gardens at Longue Vue on the edge of the suburbs."

Much better than the Garden of Longview, which is really just a patch of daffodils on the side of the road.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 10:03 AM (V2Yro)

161 I sent Mr. Black to Publix with our weekly grocery list this morning. He said it's worse than Thanksgiving there. No hamburger left anywhere, complete pandemonium. Lines a mile long at the registers. Can I just say, even though it's not very sympathetic, that I hate people? Silly, irrational imbeciles. You'd think there are bodies stacked 10 high lining every residential neighborhood as the Bubonic Plague sweeps through, claiming every man, woman and child it encounters. What utter MADNESS. Stinking human race...

Posted by: Lady in Black at March 15, 2020 10:04 AM (JoUsr)

162 a young Margaret Thatcher

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 10:04 AM (Ndje9)

163 112 Someone above mentioned that the Who Dis lady was connected with Charlton Heston. Was she the female "love interest" in The Omega Man? I've never seen the film all the way through, so I don't know.

Or maybe she was in Soylent Green with him?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:45 AM (4c+5M)

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

If she's the one from Omega Man, that would be Rosalind Cash.

Posted by: No One of Consequence at March 15, 2020 10:05 AM (CAJOC)

164 This week I read Pinch of Larceny by our beloved Anna Puma, and Thirteen Moons and The Director's Cut (not quite finished, will do so today) by our beloved MP4 and I enjoyed all of them greatly. More, please!

I went to MacKay's Used Books (twice, actually) while i was in Nashville this week and bought about a dozen books. A few were Catholic books, a few were autobiographies (Ben Franklin, Clarence Thomas, and Norman Rockwell), plus a biography of St. Thomas More (a particular favorite of my husband) and some volumes by William Manchester. Very satisfactory haul.

Posted by: bluebell at March 15, 2020 10:05 AM (/669Q)

165 A friend's conference is SF is cancelled. She is stuck with a VRBO for three nights. Guess who's going to SF?

LOL. Might be eating takeout and cooking in the kitchen.

Posted by: JAS at March 15, 2020 10:06 AM (2BZBZ)

166 I'm in the convention business. Boss fired 10% of the company this week because all our conventions for the next month were cancelled. I work in the accounting office, so I know I'm getting paid next week. After that, I don't know. A month is a long time for small/medium sized businesses, especially in service industries.
Posted by: G. Gnome at March 15, 2020 10:01 AM (OQcPl)

My friend down the street has a dry cleaning business. He said his volume was off over 30% this past week, due to people working from home and schools shutting down. At a meeting with his 6 employees, he told them that if next week is the same he'll have to lay off at least 2 people.

Posted by: jwest at March 15, 2020 10:06 AM (mrrpT)

167 The List of Adrian Messenger" by Philip MacDonald. Published in 1958 it's a very good murder mystery set in 1950s Britain.
-----
There was a "Get Smart" episode entitled "The Mess of Adrian Listenger".
Posted by: Captain Obvious,

Okay, that's funny !

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 10:06 AM (arJlL)

168 1st-you know that these beautiful libraries will, one day, become obsolete.

2nd-how much do you think he was actually paid to put those pants/outfit on??? Good grief. If my son showed me that pic of him, I would cry.

Wishing everyone "wellness" as we going thru this communist china's pandemic. My hatred of communist china started 20 yrs ago and it has NOT LET UP

Posted by: Ms. Apple at March 15, 2020 10:06 AM (NLEnr)

169 I don't understand liquor stores shutting down
disinfectant plus some pplare physically addicted to it and may need medical care if they go cold turkey

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:06 AM (G546f)

170 Pondering that quote from Oscar Wilde should be enough to keep me entertained for a while.

G'mornin', all.

Posted by: creeper at March 15, 2020 10:07 AM (XxJt1)

171 That's Colin Kaepernick in blackface!

Posted by: SFGoth at March 15, 2020 10:07 AM (KAi1n)

172 The 'these pants' example combines amusement and nausea. I wonder if the model is on suicide watch after that session. He doesn't look well. I don't like what it says about humanity that someone, not on powerful drugs, thought of that outfit and actually had it made.

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 10:07 AM (7EjX1)

173 Another good book about the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic is Gina Kolata - "Flu:

Pina's sister ?

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (arJlL)

174 Last guess - Minnie Riperton?

Posted by: Boswell at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (32YRo)

175 2nd-how much do you think he was actually paid to put those pants/outfit on??? Good grief. If my son showed me that pic of him, I would cry

==

I'm thinking they paid him
a model, for sure

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (G546f)

176 My library announced yesterday that they will be closed for 2 weeks. ...and pending

Who dis: Is it Nat King Cole's daughter? Natalie?

Posted by: My life is insanity at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (Z/jzm)

177 "At first you love your parents. Then you judge your parents. If you are lucky, you forgive your parents." - Oscar Wilde

Posted by: JAS at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (2BZBZ)

178 "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

--Oscar Wilde

********

This is frank and utter BS, but then again what I generally expect from Wilde.

"A truism usually isn't."

--Seamus Muldoon
Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 09:48 AM (m45I2)

Yep, we know it ain't true, because there just weren't that many books about buggery back then.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (hku12)

179 I finally clicked on the pants picture.

I've never seen a suit made out of lettuce before.

I hope I never see one again.

Posted by: bluebell at March 15, 2020 10:09 AM (/669Q)

180 I am going to a party this afternoon. It is a ITALIAN one, so the Vino should keep me safe

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 10:09 AM (85Gof)

181 Who Dis is hard because she's looking down.

Posted by: Lady in Black at March 15, 2020 10:09 AM (JoUsr)

182 I'm reading the Witcher series because of the series on Netflix. It's another series where you don't read it in published order. I also started Kurt Schlichter's People's Republic.
Still not sure whether I'll be able to telecommute even though Governor Abbott said that state employees that can should. My job isn't paper driven and everyone in my section already telecommutes at least 1 day a week. I'm still on probation but they made me fill out the forms Friday so it's probably coming.

Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:09 AM (UUBmN)

183 Back.

Wow, even the wild rice is gone.

People have gone insane.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 10:09 AM (WEBkv)

184 well, I think the "these pants" outfit could look cute on a girl

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:10 AM (G546f)

185 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT***

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 09:06 AM (cfSRQ)

That's all you ever do.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 09:08 AM (gd9RK)

---
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

"Gentlemen : no fighting in The War Room !"

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 10:10 AM (arJlL)

186 Packing List for Mars Trip

[X] - Ray gun
[X] - Epaulettes
[X] - Red outer underwear
[X] - 7.5 gallon glass carboy helmet w/ear-breathing apparatus
[X] - Gauntlets
[X] - Rodeo champion belt buckle
[X] - Rocket-emblazoned form-fitting body suit
[X] - Calf high kickass boots
[X] - AAA Trip-Tik map of the solar system
[ ] - Cape

"Honey? Have you seen my cape?"

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 10:10 AM (m45I2)

187 The person who said Roberta Flack- good guess.
When I found out who it was it def surprised me.

Posted by: Ms. Apple at March 15, 2020 10:10 AM (NLEnr)

188 HI horde.

I think I'll have to go back to Dana's Two Years Before the Mast. The reference here made me realize I don't remember anything at all, except liking it. Granted, it's about 50 years since I read it, so...

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 10:11 AM (ZbwAu)

189 C'mon, Horde! It's Joan Collins.

Posted by: RI Red at March 15, 2020 10:12 AM (RQoAh)

190 4 Isaac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home in 1665 when Cambridge University closed because to the plague.

It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered calculus and the laws of motion.

What are YOUR plans?
Posted by: Hans G. Schantz

To rot my brain and watch 'muh stories' that are filling up my DVR. I still think I have the last couple of seasons of 'Gotham' to watch among others. Mostly my reading as of late has been studying CCNA 200-301.

Posted by: Puddleglum at March 15, 2020 10:12 AM (hA5i1)

191 blake, that is shocking. Wild rice seems like it would be one of the lowest thing on most people's lists.

Not knocking wild rice, mind you--it just seems like something most people don't eat. But maybe I'm wrong.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 10:12 AM (OX9vb)

192 All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

There is no core to a public libraries holding that I can see. It is all circulation-driven.

At my local recycling place, I see boxes and boxes filled with discarded books being turned into cardboard. And I can not rescue them. Good knowledge, vanishing. Although I did rescue General Eisenhower's SHAFE report to the CJCOS on combat in 1944 and 1945. It was very detailed and a prime source for that history.

There should be a residuum of good books that can be gateway drugs to good stories and essential truths.

I check out classics and return them to boost circulation. And use InterLibrary Loans for interesting books that are not held, but I am one person.

I do recommend Moron authors to my library to buy. It's actually cheaper to buy than use ILL. So Manhattan has a MPPPP book, and the Man of Destiny books from A.H. LLoyd.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (u82oZ)

193 I read Dana's Two Years Before the Mast a couple of years ago. It was great.
That captain was an idiot. Going straight south from San Diego put him way west of the Cape Horn.

Posted by: JAS at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (2BZBZ)

194 libraries are hangouts for the homeless and for kids so it makes sense to close them
it's one of those places where different strata of society touch the same surfaces and breathe the same air

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (G546f)

195 "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

--Oscar Wilde

-
I guess Oscar was referring to his reading of School Boys In Bondage.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (+y/Ru)

196 My parents were horrified when I picked up Forever Amber at the age of ten and started reading it. That book was cutting-edge salacious for the time. But they didn't take it away from me and I earned a lot about the Great Fire and the Plague. The images of knackermen pulling their carts through the streets crying "Bring out your dead!" have never faded.

Posted by: creeper at March 15, 2020 10:14 AM (XxJt1)

197 Reading "The Ship," by C. S. Forrester. It's a novel covering about six hours in the life of a Royal Navy light cruiser battling Italian battleships and lighter ships in 1942, as an escort ship for a critical convoy sailing for Malta. Between episodes of the action, he describes the design and operations of the ship, along with snippets of the prior lives of selected crew. It's very good. I thought he only wrote Horatio Hornblower novels.

Posted by: Gref at March 15, 2020 10:14 AM (AMIL/)

198 Who dis is Okra Winfree before she got rich and ate alot.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at March 15, 2020 10:14 AM (Z+IKu)

199 And with that, off to do stuff. Not sex, April.

Posted by: RI Red at March 15, 2020 10:15 AM (RQoAh)

200 My heart aches for the tragedy that Russia seems always to have been.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:22 AM (OX9vb)

So true. I am currently reading The Brothers Karamazov, which is set decades after the serfs were freed, but before communism. The country is still a disaster. It doesn't matter what period or writer - Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bulgakov - the country is always a hopeless train wreck.

Posted by: cool breeze at March 15, 2020 10:15 AM (UGKMd)

201 One of Wilde's most famous comments was on the overbearing sentimentality of Dickens;

"One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing."

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

202 What are YOUR plans?

---
Well, Transformers: The Last Knight has been sitting on my DVR for a few weeks, so maybe I'll go ahead and get that over with.

Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:15 AM (kOpft)

203 "I'm dreading the day that some feces-born disease breaks out in San Francisco and it can't be contained because of a bunch of 'woke' fights breaking out. People will be dying while city officials bicker over why a transgender lesbian midget wasn't put on the public health task force. One of you moron authors could probably write a darkly comic novel about this."

Not the same San Franny plague, but I'd recommend Randy Shilts' "And the Band Played On."

It's a harrowing, and almost darkly comic account of the gay plague... a disease that ultimately claimed his life. He was living in the middle of the whole thing, and took as close a snapshot of the experience as anyone. He wasn't always right, and I think he could not quite bring himself to place the "blame" where it rightly belonged, but it's an invaluable resource for anyone interested in what it was like at that time, in the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:15 AM (hku12)

204 @71 Thanks for those links. Good colorin', indeed.

I love the cover, but those inside pages speak a whole mythology. I grew up, or failed to, in a world of Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell.
Until you get to the very last page, and it turns out not to be mythology at all.

I don't want to spoil it; everyone should go and look.
But? "Put the spurs to 'er, buddy."

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at March 15, 2020 10:15 AM (8IOEj)

205 Jake Holenhead: Two Years Before the Mast is great. I can't believe how tough those sailors had to be. Climbing masts barefoot to furl sails on a ship pitching in 30/40 foot seas during a blizzard while sailing around the horn strikes me as a death sentence, but they did it.

Posted by: Who knew at March 15, 2020 10:15 AM (SfO/T)

206 20 I have an irrational compulsion to put sliced tomato on those pants.
Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 09:10 AM (t+qrx)
---

Talk about a soy burger...

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 10:16 AM (Dc2NZ)

207 Speaking of Russia, they haven't been in the new much lately.... how are they faring in these end times? Anyone?

Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:17 AM (UUBmN)

208 I've heard of The Whores of Yore. It's a twitter account that comments on, what else, the whores of yore.

Posted by: MHK at March 15, 2020 10:17 AM (iQIUe)

209 102 the Pentagon building located in Arlington, Virginia, raised its health protection condition from low to moderate, or Bravo, and began implementing additional protective measures that would dramatically cut the number of visitors to the building as well as its supporting facilities. The measures apply to those who do not have swipe-access cards to the building already.

Lol. They men where I work
Posted by: Nevergiveup

I work there now and since I'm considered 'essential' I have to be there, plague or no plague. My understanding is next week the Pentagon will be mostly empty. I work on Saturdays and it's just lovely. So quiet in the hallways. It's almost nice. Almost. I'm hoping it will be that way next week too (I go back on Thursday).

Posted by: Puddleglum at March 15, 2020 10:17 AM (hA5i1)

210 I was surprised to learn, some years back, that the 1918 flu epidemic was the worst plague in history, even more so than the bubonic plague(s) that decimated Europe during the medieval era.

-
Perhaps in terms of body county but in terms of.percentage of the population it is nowhere close to the ~~Black~~ People of Color Death.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 10:18 AM (+y/Ru)

211 Anyone want to... race me... on my... bicycle? [rings bell]

Posted by: Lascivious Lena Dunham at March 15, 2020 10:19 AM (AmaGs)

212 There is no core to a public libraries holding that I can see. It is all circulation-driven.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (u82oZ)

---
Sad but true.

For a while my kids had evening activities and I'd drop them off and then go to the local library and scout for books.

On the plus side, this enabled me to discover Evelyn Waugh because much of his work was on the shelves (yay college town!).

But the non-fiction stacks are pathetic. It's not that they don't have Churchill's Second World War, it's that they only have *part* of it. Lots of historical series' with big chunks missing. Just a grab bag of stuff and none of it tightly-packed either.

The fiction shelves (far larger in terms of space) on the other hand had whole rows of V.C. Andrews and Stephen King, etc.

It's basically a taxpayer-funded book club for retirees.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:19 AM (cfSRQ)

213 207 according to the very unofficial https://ncov2019.live
Russia has 59 confirmed no dead

check again in #2weeks

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (G546f)

214 libraries are hangouts for the homeless and for kids so it makes sense to close them
it's one of those places where different strata of society touch the same surfaces and breathe the same air
Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (G546f)

By that standard they'll need to close the whorehouses.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (hku12)

215 . I thought he only wrote Horatio Hornblower novels.
Posted by: Gref at March 15, 2020 10:14 AM (AMIL/)
-----
He wrote quite a lot. "The Captain From Connecticut" about an American frigate in the War of 1812, "The Gun" and "Rifleman Dodd" about the Peninsular War, "Gold From Crete", a collection of his WWII era short stories, "The Good Shepherd", soon to be the movie "Grayhound" - the list goes on.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (g8Yc+)

216 It does, and points out the ruthlessness of who we now call the oligarchs, but really only touches lightly there. The real focus is on how, even during perestroika and after the fall of the USSR, people are largely silent and don't engage in conversation, because giving up information of any kind about yourself and your thoughts during the Soviet years was pretty much a death sentence.
Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 09:41 AM (OX9vb)
---------------------

That's really sad.

And exactly what Bernie and his cohorts want to do to the US.

Hard to believe that even though my ex wife and I didn't have much money, raising three kids, we were still far better off than the average Russian in 1989.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (WEBkv)

217 Who dis is Okra Winfree before she got rich and ate alot.

I read that as "before she got rich and ate snot"

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (arJlL)

218 191 blake, that is shocking. Wild rice seems like it would be one of the lowest thing on most people's lists.

Not knocking wild rice, mind you--it just seems like something most people don't eat. But maybe I'm wrong.
Posted by: April

People are hording up toilet paper for a virus that affects the respiratory system. Panic affects the mind. Don't Panic.

Posted by: Puddleglum at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (hA5i1)

219 Andrew Gillum

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (Ndje9)

220 off the topic of books, and onto small businesses in these times, which many of us are concerned about: those with decent financial reserves and the ability to withstand an individual disaster should survive and make back any losses. Those which have been living on the ragged edge of solvency, and especially those which are highly leveraged, are in big trouble and may not reopen. Well, this has been the usual effect of financial crises for a couple hundred years now. We've gone a while without a big one and a lot of people have forgotten that.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (V2Yro)

221 I think I shall venture out into the world. I expect the streets will be barren, with corpses stacked like cordwood.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (Dc2NZ)

222 Speaking of Russia, they haven't been in the new much lately.... how are they faring in these end times? Anyone?
---
From what I've heard, they shut their border with China pretty early and had all of 10 or 20 cases who all recovered.

Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (kOpft)

223 A soft, easily manipulated population will be defeated by a shitty little cold virus manufactured in the bowels of communist China.
Get ready for the really big crash when the results from increased testing are revealed.
The resulting destruction and rebuild should decouple our nation from the Chinese, but it won't.

Posted by: Balrog of Morgoth at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (CLteG)

224 Plans for today: getting little sister and her family to the airport to head back to Arizona, then going to the commissary, then home to do some cleaning and get things ready for the week. My job is largely paper-driven so there's no way I can work from home.

Posted by: Jordan61 at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (6ofTb)

225 Anybody guess Natalie Cole? Yeah, I cheated.

Posted by: BignJames at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (X/Pw5)

226 Here's point about a perverse literary choice on my part:

This Lent, Mrs Eeyore has decided we will be on a HEALTHY diiet. OK, she's a good cook, but I still am craving a lot more fat and chocolate*. So, deciding what kind of mystery I wanted to read next, I picked on....Nero Wolfe?

I suppose it could be worse. I might have picked one of Wodehouse's Brinkley Manor books. Anatole vs Fritz would be a cook-off I'd love to attend.

Mentioned that to my wife, and we talked of what other writers went into food so much. Saki does in several stories (e.g., The Chaplet), though his best on food is at the opposite end of the spectrum of quality. Everyone, right now, go search for Filboid Studge, if you haven't read it. Or even if you have. It's online, and as usual for Saki, very short. "In small kitchens solemn pig-tailed daughters helped depressed mothers to perform the primitive ritual of its preparation" is one of my favorite sentences in all literature.

Patrick O'Brian goes into the food Jack and Stephen eat a lot. Dickens is always patting his characters on the back for eating and drinking. There is only one really memorable in Waugh - the dinner with Rex - but it is excellent.

But what drove me to it? There's a Mullliner story in which the hero, having gone without dinner, ends up reading Mark Twain on American food. I guess it's a kind of subconscious masochism.

*One thing she said to me as I was going to the store was "Stay away from the Girl Scouts." I pointed out that I am NOT Joe Biden.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (ZbwAu)

227 Oh, it's true alright.
I read "Winnie the Pooh when I didn't have to, and now- my head's stuck in a Hunny jar!

Posted by: naturalfake

*********

Ha!

Oh bother!!

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (m45I2)

228 44 But once trapped in a host they can be wiped out...like smallpox

Influenza is not smallpox. And the Spanish flu did not have its' creation in Kansas. I have read about the interaction between Duck, Pig and Hooman before. Interesting that there is not one jot or tittle on this subject currently.

Here is a short read 'How to Brew Flu' from 2001.

https://tinyurl.com/y7b7bj8k

Posted by: Cicero Kaboom! Kid, Ragin' Contagion at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (Vy7tf)

229 The Doublemint Triplet

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (Ndje9)

230 Ppl buying sacks of regular rice who probably have no idea how to cook it

*roll*

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (G546f)

231 libraries are hangouts for the homeless and for kids so it makes sense to close them

it's one of those places where different strata of society touch the same surfaces and breathe the same air

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (G546f)

By that standard they'll need to close the whorehouses.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (hku12)

It's gettin' hard out there for a pimp.

Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:23 AM (kOpft)

232 I guess Oscar was referring to his reading of School Boys In Bondage.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 10:13 AM (+y/Ru)

---
A Tale of Two Rent Boys

Oliver Twisted

Venereal Fair

The Wealth of Patrons

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:23 AM (cfSRQ)

233 I was surprised to learn, some years back, that the 1918 flu epidemic was the worst plague in history, even more so than the bubonic plague(s) that decimated Europe during the medieval era.

-----------
Perhaps in terms of body county but in terms of.percentage of the population it is nowhere close to the Black People of Color Death.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 10:18 AM (+y/Ru)

Yup. I have a textbook around here somewhere, it's sort of a public health through history type thing. Discussing how different societies handled this sort of thing.

It was written in the early 80s, so it doesn't even cover the AIDS thing. One most common aspect of human interaction with disease... panic and irrational behavior.

It's one of the reasons I don't believe in progress. Modern society puts a sheen over it, but humans are the same, silly rutting animals we've always been.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:24 AM (hku12)

234 I had an interesting reading experience this week.

I've been studying Latin for some time now (and recently finished my first Latin novel; OK, it was just like a child's first chapter book, maybe fourth grade level but still . . .). My primary text is a Latin grammar that uses a continuing story to teach grammar, vocabulary, syntax, style etc. by example. So this weeks story concerned a runaway slave and his girlfriend who hopped a ship for Greece. They didn't get far when a mighty storm arose threatening to sink them. The terrified ship's captain does all he can, including jettisoning cargo, to keep the ship afloat but the situation worsens by the minute. The slave calls upon Neptune, Roman God of the sea, storms, and earthquakes, to save them but it must have been Neptune's coffee break because he doesn't do shit. Then his girlfriend calls upon Jesus. The slave never heard of Jesus so she tell him that Jesus rules not only over men but also over the wind and waves. The slave doesn't like that because he escaped from a master who ruled over him so he tries to call upon Neptune again but a wave breaks over the ship filling his mouth with water such that he couldn't call on Neptune. Then, unexpectedly, the storm subsides and they are saved.

I totally didn't expected that Christianity would be mentioned favorably in this book (although this is a Danish book (entirely in Latin) from several decades ago before the world went mad). The protagonist of the book is a wealth estate owner who, although basically a good guy, is a pagan who is not above chastising an unruly slave with a rod, scarcely a Christian act even if historically accurate.

I'm pretty sure mentioning Jesus in a textbook is hate speech.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 10:24 AM (+y/Ru)

235 I read that as "before she got rich and ate snot"
Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (arJlL)

That's okay, I read lin-duh's "how is Russia faring" as "how is Russia farting." In my defense, I'm on my phone and don't have my reading glasses.

Posted by: Jordan61 at March 15, 2020 10:24 AM (6ofTb)

236 222
Speaking of Russia, they haven't been in the new much lately.... how are they faring in these end times? Anyone?
---
From what I've heard, they shut their border with China pretty early and had all of 10 or 20 cases who all recovered.

Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (kOpft)

---
The folks who invented internal exile are good at isolating people.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:25 AM (cfSRQ)

237 Anonosaurus Wrecks, have you been self-teaching yourself Latin?
how hard is it to get started?

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (G546f)

238 The library here shut down last Friday through at least 3/30. If yours is still open, I would recommend promptly getting at least a month's supply of reading material.

Posted by: cool breeze at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (UGKMd)

239 By that standard they'll need to close the whorehouses.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (hku12)

It's gettin' hard out there for a pimp.
Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:23 AM (kOpft)

Indeed. I would imagine the pimpin' business has taken something of a hit, with tinder (and grinder) out there. Who needs pros, when the amateurs are giving it away for free.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (hku12)

240 Not knocking wild rice, mind you--it just seems like something most people don't eat. But maybe I'm wrong.
Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 10:12 AM (OX9vb)
-----------

Most stores around here don't carry large stocks of wild rice, so, wouldn't take much to strip the shelves.

Just for giggles, I checked the paper product aisle..stripped bare.

It's surreal.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (WEBkv)

241 Patrick O'Brian goes into the food Jack and Stephen eat a lot.
-----
Someone actually wrote a cookbook based on the meals in The Aubreyad.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (g8Yc+)

242 215 . I thought he only wrote Horatio Hornblower novels.
Posted by: Gref at March 15, 2020 10:14 AM (AMIL/)
-----
He wrote quite a lot. "The Captain From Connecticut" about an American frigate in the War of 1812, "The Gun" and "Rifleman Dodd" about the Peninsular War, "Gold From Crete", a collection of his WWII era short stories, "The Good Shepherd", soon to be the movie "Grayhound" - the list goes on.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:20 AM (g8Yc+)

thanks for the references. I bought the kindle edition of The Good Shepherd shortly after I began The Ship, and will read it next.

Posted by: Gref at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (AMIL/)

243 Who dis: Is it Nat King Cole's daughter? Natalie?

Posted by: My life is insanity at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (Z/jzm)

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (R8APV)

244 236 222
Speaking of Russia, they haven't been in the new much lately.... how are they faring in these end times? Anyone?
---
From what I've heard, they shut their border with China pretty early and had all of 10 or 20 cases who all recovered.

Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (kOpft)

---
The folks who invented internal exile are good at isolating people.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:25 AM (cfSRQ)

they probably aren't testing for it and don't realize a bad cold is going to KILL THEM AAHHHHHHH!! BUY TOILET PAPER!!! AAAAHHHHHHH

Posted by: Balrog of Morgoth at March 15, 2020 10:27 AM (CLteG)

245 230
Ppl buying sacks of regular rice who probably have no idea how to cook it

*roll*

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (G546f)

---
People had cleared out all the Dial foaming soap, but ignored the *much larger* refill bottles on the shelf below.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:27 AM (cfSRQ)

246 ---
From what I've heard, they shut their border with China pretty early and had all of 10 or 20 cases who all recovered.
Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (kOpft)

I do not believe anything that comes from Russia or China. Shit Fox News had an article that North Korea has had not cases? Bullshit

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 10:27 AM (85Gof)

247 112 Someone above mentioned that the Who Dis lady was connected with Charlton Heston. Was she the female "love interest" in The Omega Man? I've never seen the film all the way through, so I don't know.
Or maybe she was in Soylent Green with him?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at March 15, 2020 09:45 AM (4c+5M)

I had not heard of any connection with Heston, but my knowledge of these things is not exhaustive.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 10:28 AM (R8APV)

248 Just for giggles, I checked the paper product aisle..stripped bare.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (WEBkv)

Well that's a vivid mental image.

Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 10:28 AM (t+qrx)

249 It's one of the reasons I don't believe in progress. Modern society puts a sheen over it, but humans are the same, silly rutting animals we've always been.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:24 AM (hku12)
-------------

Yes.

Yet, people on the left always try to claim that "things have changed."

Yeah, no.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 10:28 AM (WEBkv)

250 What time is it? Half past Buddy Holly............crickets.... that'l be the Day time savings?

Posted by: saf at March 15, 2020 10:28 AM (5IHGB)

251 Well that's a vivid mental image.
Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 10:28 AM (t+qrx)
--------------

Don't knock it til you've tried it.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 10:29 AM (WEBkv)

252 Who dis: Is it Nat King Cole's daughter? Natalie?

Posted by: My life is insanity at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (Z/jzm)

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
Posted by: OregonMuse,

How many cases of TP does she win ?

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 10:29 AM (arJlL)

253 Modern society puts a sheen over it, but humans are the same, silly rutting animals we've always been.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:24 AM (hku12)

Thank G-D

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 10:29 AM (85Gof)

254 Love Nat

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 10:30 AM (Ndje9)

255 >>Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (R8APV)

! I wasn't positive but I thought she looked like her dad there. And the clothes looked era appropriate.

Do I win a year's supply of clorox wipes and TP?

Posted by: My life is insanity at March 15, 2020 10:30 AM (Z/jzm)

256 Finished The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Nabokov, which was enjoyable and dealt with some of his later themes like morphing of identities through art, exile (this was his first full length novel written in English and he has the narrator talking about the problem it presented to his native Russian speaking half brother) and the impossibility of really knowing someone else. Reading is a very subjective experience and, even though this was much more enjoyable an experience than The Gift which was a well written slog, I think this was a click below his best work. Even though I could enjoy what he was doing it's a fine line between this and Pale Fire, for example. So it wasn't time ill spent on it at all, just not as rewarding as his best. Like drinking a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale instead of a Barrel Aged Narwhal Stout.

Also read a short story of his, "Mademoiselle O", that I think was somewhat biographical about one of his tutors growing up in Russia. It was a typically well done portrait showing insight into how an outsider regards another country that they don't really seem to warm up to but then much later in life look upon it fondly. I'm almost finished the Russian years volume of his biography by Brian Boyd, which is really more Cambridge, Berlin and Paris than the shit show that his home country became. I think I'll go straight to the American volume rather than make a detour, but the lion's share of his fiction, volume wise, has already happened; although quality wise the best is yet to come.

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 10:30 AM (y7DUB)

257 Who dis: Is it Nat King Cole's daughter? Natalie?

Posted by: My life is insanity at March 15, 2020 10:08 AM (Z/jzm)

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
Posted by: OregonMuse,

Really? I would have never guessed that. She looks really young in that picture.

Posted by: Puddleglum at March 15, 2020 10:31 AM (hA5i1)

258 131
Posted by: jwest at March 15, 2020 09:54 AM (mrrpT)
_______

The trouble is that that between the 2 parties of fools on the Hill, it's unlikely anything very useful is possible. Single mothers working in restaurants aren't a prime source of graft, er, donations.

Perhaps the best we can hope for is "do no harm". But even that's a stretch.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 10:31 AM (ZbwAu)

259 Influenza is not smallpox. And the Spanish flu did not have its' creation in Kansas. I have read about the interaction between Duck, Pig and Hooman before. Interesting that there is not one jot or tittle on this subject currently.

Here is a short read 'How to Brew Flu' from 2001.

https://tinyurl.com/y7b7bj8k
Posted by: Cicero Kaboom! Kid, Ragin' Contagion at March 15, 2020 10:22 AM (Vy7tf)

In his book, Barry put together a very good case that the 1918 flu did indeed begin on the Kansas frontier, based on the meticulous journal entries of a remarkable Doctor in the area, who began writing up detailed descriptions of a sickness he had never before seen in his long career - almost a full year before they were documented anywhere else in the world. The intersection of farm animals and hoo-mans happened out on the frontier farms of Kansas, too.

Barry's proposed path of transmission was that it began on a remote farm on the Kansas frontier, spread slowly in that rural area for a few months, then was carried by a young volunteer to Ft. Riley, Kansas, where it spread among fresh US recruits headed to the trenches of Europe. Once there, it spread to all of the armies on both sides, and when armistice was declared, those homeward bound soldiers carried it to every country in the world.

He backs this up with dated records from each point in the chain.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 10:31 AM (V2Yro)

260 Read a comment a couple of weeks ago about a moron author publishing the 9th book in a detective series Acton and Doyle. Like that genre so sought out the first book in the series Murder in Thrall. Very British which was a surprise but only half way through and thoroughly hooked. Characters are so interesting. Only thing is sometimes I don't get the meaning of some of the words. Like what does "whist" mean? Thought it was a card game.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:32 AM (QzF6i)

261 From what I've heard, they shut their border with China pretty early and had all of 10 or 20 cases who all recovered.

Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (kOpft)

---
The folks who invented internal exile are good at isolating people.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
---
So, Russia is rigging the election again? They have the cure and gave it to Trump so he won't get it??? Am I on the right track?

North Korea probably has the highest infection and dead toll but not a peep out of there. They'll probably just bury the bodies and go on like not a single case happened. Don't they have thousands that starve yearly on a regular basis anyways?

Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:32 AM (UUBmN)

262 Yes.

Yet, people on the left always try to claim that "things have changed."

Yeah, no.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
---
That's why I'm not too upset about things.

It's looking like this isn't as deadly as was feared. I see that as a good thing.

But someday we won't be so lucky and this is basically a full-on test of our public health system.

It's failing, but we can learn from it. I'm hoping the Tidepods realize the folly of their 'just in time' digital world.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:33 AM (cfSRQ)

263 Oregon Muse, how do you find all these pictures of famous people reading books?

I wonder in 50 years if there will be pictures of this generation's famous reading a book.

Posted by: My life is insanity at March 15, 2020 10:33 AM (Z/jzm)

264 Tommy Thompson's Blood and Money came up for free on Prime yesterday so I'm rereading it. It's the quintessential Texas tale of both items in the title and a family whose lives revolved around them. So far it's as good the second time as it was the first.

I will be interested to see if the ending has been modified. At the time she died, Joan Robinson Hill's death was a mystery. Years later it was determined that she probably died as a result of toxic shock syndrome. I wonder if they'll address that.

Posted by: creeper at March 15, 2020 10:33 AM (XxJt1)

265 OT, but can someone help me out here? I was pretty sure I read it here that there are plenty of COVID-19 tests available at the federal level, it's the states that are the bottleneck. Does anyone recalk that or did I read it somewhere else? Or am I imagining it? Ould swear I saw that from a reliable source.

Posted by: WTP at March 15, 2020 10:34 AM (WQfDg)

266 Amazingly, I am getting along just fine without sports. Think about that nfl nba

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 10:35 AM (85Gof)

267 I don't believe in progress. Modern society puts a sheen over it

Corey jokes. Still too soon.
Every plague analysis I've ever read has this attitude of "Wow, what a shame we used to be so stupid that things like that could happen. How fortunate we are to live in the enlightened, post-plague era!"
And I have no doubt they said that in, say, 1349. Or 1667.
Or, this one: https://tinyurl.com/sv3s2ao

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at March 15, 2020 10:35 AM (8IOEj)

268 North Korea probably has the highest infection and dead toll but not a
peep out of there. They'll probably just bury the bodies and go on like
not a single case happened. Don't they have thousands that starve yearly
on a regular basis anyways?
---
NK Soldier: Did you just sneeze?
Serf 1: Well, yes...
NK Soldier shoots Serf 1.
NK Soldier: How about you, any symptoms?
Serf 2: I feel...happy.

Posted by: Methos at March 15, 2020 10:36 AM (kOpft)

269 Like what does "whist" mean? Thought it was a card game.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:32 AM (QzF6i)
-----
Whist is a trick-taking card game, the ancestor of bridge. Basically, it's bridge without the bidding.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:37 AM (g8Yc+)

270 OT, but can someone help me out here? I was pretty sure I read it here that there are plenty of COVID-19 tests available at the federal level, it's the states that are the bottleneck. Does anyone recalk that or did I read it somewhere else? Or am I imagining it? Ould swear I saw that from a reliable source.
Posted by: WTP at March 15, 2020 10:34 AM (WQfDg)

Honestly I do not have the answer for you. On the federal level, military navy side, we do not have enough for everyone , but we have enough for all those we authorize for the test

Posted by: Nevergiveup at March 15, 2020 10:37 AM (85Gof)

271 I pulled out Three to Conquer by Erick Frank Russell, I had it tucked away thinking I had read it, but I hadn't. I have to go through my stacks to see what others I have of his that I haven't actually read.

It is about the sole telepath on Earth trying to track down three spacemen who returned from Venus taken over by some invasive Venusian intelligence.

it is not his best, but Russell is a good writer, even in this book.

Posted by: Kindltot at March 15, 2020 10:37 AM (6rS3m)

272 NK Soldier: Did you just sneeze?
Serf 1: Well, yes...
NK Soldier shoots Serf 1.
NK Soldier: How about you, any symptoms?
Serf 2: I feel...happy.
Posted by: Methos
----
Isn't China doing this too, to a lesser degree? Bit harder because they aren't as restrictive with travel, etc.

Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:38 AM (UUBmN)

273 Two Years Before the Mast is great. I can't believe how tough those sailors had to be. Climbing masts barefoot to furl sails on a ship pitching in 30/40 foot seas during a blizzard while sailing around the horn strikes me as a death sentence, but they did it.
Posted by: Who knew at March 15, 2020 10:15 AM (SfO/T)

Dana doesn't whine about having to do it. His attitude seems be he signed on to do it, so lets do it right so we can get home alive as soon as possible so I can get off this danged ship.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at March 15, 2020 10:39 AM (P1GvV)

274 This was literally in a different century, but as an undergrad in college I took a seminar on the history of American intellectual conservatism.

It was pretty cool, and part of the coursework was discussing what qualified as "conservative" and how it was different from European conservatism.

A core item was the Fall of Man. Even if one wasn't Christian, one had to believe that people were inherently flawed at that this could *not* be corrected.

It's interesting to see how many Never Trumpers have revealed themselves to be essentially progressive in outlook. They talked the good game when their grift was a going thing, but really they always have been of the left.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:40 AM (cfSRQ)

275 I think the book also relies on misdirection to keep you interested

-
I've been reading Robert Harris' The Second Sleep because I've liked other of his books and this seemed a medieval mystery.

SPOILER ALERT!

Some of the details seemed anachronistic which surprised me because Harris is usually a careful writer but then while investigating the heretical activities of a dead priest, our hero priest stumbles across an ancient communication device, a thin rectangular object with a logo of an apple with a bite out of it on the back. Perhaps my estimate of the setting of this book was a few millennia off.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 10:40 AM (+y/Ru)

276 Texas publicly said they can do about 265 test a day as of Friday. Basically you have to be symptomatic to get tested.

Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:40 AM (UUBmN)

277 In the book, the word Whist is used something like, no matter, or forget it. At least I think that is what it means.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:41 AM (QzF6i)

278 I concur in the endorsement of The Great Influenza. It's a terrific account of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. In addition to detailing the scope of the flu's surprising lethality, the author tells of the revolutionary effect the outbreak had on modern medicine. The Spanish Flu was the catalyst for a sea-change in the way medicine was done.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 10:41 AM (XVuno)

279 Since we're talking books, I should mention that the reading list included Thomas Sowell as well as Camille Paglia.

In those days David Horowitz was publishing "Heterodoxy," a free campus newspaper. I read it avidly and was delighted to find him on the web once that became a thing.

Ironically I only got around to reading Radical Son when the SJW financiers tried to cut him off from credit card donations.

Excellent book, by the way, and it really digs into how modern American Judaism has replaced God with progressive politics. In Horowitz's case the Party Committee room replaced the synagogue, and works of Marx superseded Scripture.

It was writen 25 years ago but is as relevant as if he published it this week.

It must be maddening for him to be so right so early and yet powerless to halt the collapse.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:43 AM (cfSRQ)

280 Also, it is used by the character Doyle, who is very Irish.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:44 AM (QzF6i)

281 In the book, the word Whist is used something like, no matter, or forget it. At least I think that is what it means.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:41 AM (QzF6i)
----
In Scottish/Irish dialect "whisht" means "be quiet".

That's all I got.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:44 AM (g8Yc+)

282 @277 I know what you have found. That is the Scottish word for "Quiet!" or "Shush!" It's really just a highly-inflected (you know, Scottish) pronunciation of "quiet."

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at March 15, 2020 10:44 AM (8IOEj)

283 197 Reading "The Ship," by C. S. Forrester. It's a novel covering about six hours in the life of a Royal Navy light cruiser battling Italian battleships and lighter ships in 1942, as an escort ship for a critical convoy sailing for Malta. Between episodes of the action, he describes the design and operations of the ship, along with snippets of the prior lives of selected crew. It's very good. I thought he only wrote Horatio Hornblower novels.
Posted by: Gref at March 15, 2020 10:14 AM (AMIL/)
_______

He's describing the 2nd Battle of Sirte, a convoy action on route to Malta. At the tactical level, it was a great success for the RN, with heavy use of smokescreens against a much more powerful Italian force. (Kind of like Samar at Leyte.) But strategically, it was actually a success for the Italians. The convoy was diverted from course enough to give the Axis an extra day of bombing, and they were very successful.

Forrester wrote a lot more. His Last Nine Days of the Bismarck is the basis for the movie Sink the Bismarck. IMO, his best is The Sky and the Forest, about a Congolese chief. He makes some points about how language limits your ability to form and express concepts, but not completely. As it happens, I read it just before 1984. The two together impressed me forever.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 10:45 AM (ZbwAu)

284 Patrick O'Brian goes into the food Jack and Stephen eat a lot.
-----
Someone actually wrote a cookbook based on the meals in The Aubreyad.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (g8Yc+)

The onboard meals were a good device for Stephen to figure out for the benefit of the reader just what was going on, either one on one with Jack or as part of a group. And they ate *really* well for the most part.

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 10:45 AM (y7DUB)

285 I can't believe how tough those sailors had to be.

-
In the Roman ship in a storm I mentioned above, they mention that Roman sailors as they boarded a ship often cursed the first two men to take to the sea because of the hardships sailors have since endured.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 10:46 AM (+y/Ru)

286 242 215 Gref. I thought he only wrote Horatio Hornblower novels.

Try C.S. Forester's The General.

The book is an indictment of unintelligent promotion systems in WWI. A astute character study or character assassination, depending on your point of view. It was influential in it's time.

I've read and hold a lot of C.S. Forester's works, and it is up there with the mid-list Hornblower tales. Not his very top, but good.

I see echos of this in USN flag officer promotions from the Obama years.

Another story well told, with pathos, is Brown on Resolution. Again, a WWI story interwoven with a class-concious UK society.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 15, 2020 10:46 AM (u82oZ)

287 OT, but can someone help me out here? I was pretty sure I read it here that there are plenty of COVID-19 tests available at the federal level, it's the states that are the bottleneck. Does anyone recalk that or did I read it somewhere else? Or am I imagining it? Ould swear I saw that from a reliable source.
Posted by: WTP at March 15, 2020 10:34 AM (WQfDg)

Honestly, what difference does it make? If you're sick, stay home. Unless you have a spiking fever or can't breathe. Otherwise, treat like you would any illness. Rest, get fluids, stay away from people.

And if you're one of the unlucky, the already infirm, and your illness kills you, again I say, what difference does it make at that point.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:46 AM (hku12)

288
The
bottleneck on testing was caused by, as usual, the CDC

Posted by: Vic at March 15, 2020 10:47 AM (mpXpK)

289
Honestly, what difference does it make? If
you're sick, stay home. Unless you have a spiking fever or can't
breathe. Otherwise, treat like you would any illness. Rest, get
fluids, stay away from people.

And if you're one of the unlucky, the already infirm, and your
illness kills you, again I say, what difference does it make at that
point.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:46 AM (hku12)

---
"Shana, they bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash!"

Posted by: That guy on Airplane! at March 15, 2020 10:48 AM (cfSRQ)

290

Natalie Cole seems like a jolly young soul and how did she get in a Biblioteca with no shoes. Damn Portuguese is a rough sounding language and they live next to Spain and Italy,guess they didn't exchchange E Mails?

Posted by: saf at March 15, 2020 10:48 AM (5IHGB)

291
221 I think I shall venture out into the world. I expect the streets will be barren, with corpses stacked like cordwood.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 15, 2020 10:21 AM (Dc2NZ)

---------

You assume there are still live people around to do the stacking.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 10:49 AM (XVuno)

292 I have a Heritage Classics edition of A Journal of the Plague Year. I may have to dig it out for a re-read.
I also want to see if Joe Biden is listed as a cowriter with Defoe.

Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at March 15, 2020 10:49 AM (Uu+Jp)

293 Texas publicly said they can do about 265 test a day as of Friday. Basically you have to be symptomatic to get tested.
Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:40 AM (UUBmN)

Because basically the only people who benefit from knowing whether you are infected with this particular virus or not are public health officials and the media.

And neither of them are going to use that information to help you.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:50 AM (hku12)

294 You assume there are still live people around to do the stacking.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 10:49 AM (XVuno)
------
Self-stacking cordwood.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:50 AM (g8Yc+)

295 282
Oh that makes sense! Thank you. Also captain Obvious.
I wasn't too far off. One of the things that makes the book so interesting is the language differences. I'm only half way through and can't believe the bbc hasn't made this into a television series.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:50 AM (QzF6i)

296 There's nothing funny about that cartoon.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 10:50 AM (xSo9G)

297 >>Isaac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home in 1665 when Cambridge University closed because to the plague.

>>It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered calculus and the laws of motion.

>>What are YOUR plans?

Shakespeare wrote King Lear and Macbeth while in quarantine from the plague. The plague also killed a number of his competitors.

Silver linings.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 10:51 AM (ZLI7S)

298 I read "Two Years" about 40 years ago, but it sticks with you. His ship sailed all the way to Cali to pick up salt-hardened cattle hides, to bring all the way back to Massachussets, to make shoes.

One sailor knew a "sentimental song," and they begged for it day in and day out, for close to two years. Never started a band, never worked up a chantey-chart for it, and never strangled him. We are different people now.

Dana was on that crew because he was working his way through college.

And there is an afterword, in which older and successful Dana revisits San Francisco and regrets that it is not the town it used to be. Reminds me of "Scotty" 's college chum the shipbuilder, who is about to murder his wife in Vertigo. I'll bet nobody has ever gone back to SF without saying the same.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at March 15, 2020 10:51 AM (8IOEj)

299 Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:46 AM (hku12)

---
"Shana, they bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash!"
Posted by: That guy on Airplane! at March 15, 2020 10:48 AM (cfSRQ)

I don't know what that's supposed to mean.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 10:52 AM (hku12)

300 294 You assume there are still live people around to do the stacking.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 10:49 AM (XVuno)
------
Self-stacking cordwood.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:50 AM (g8Yc+)

-----

That's right. If you're going to keel over dead from the coronavirus, do be a dear and find a stack of corpses to drop onto. Saves the rest of us from having to tidy up after you.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 10:52 AM (XVuno)

301 NO Whist is the sound a scotsmans balls make as they brush against the sporran. Wheest is be quite I canna here ma balls clanckin'.

Posted by: saf at March 15, 2020 10:52 AM (5IHGB)

302 Have a great day, everyone. May your wanderings be insightful and bad virus free.

I should have a lot to report here after weeks of no school looking at me. It can't all be chores. Right? Right?

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 15, 2020 10:54 AM (u82oZ)

303 There's nothing funny about that cartoon.
Posted by: Mike Hammer,

*******

Wouldn't you at least say the art on the wall over the headboard is mildly amusing...

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 10:54 AM (m45I2)

304 You assume there are still live people around to do the stacking.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 10:49 AM (XVuno)

---
Defoe's account talks about the burial pits and how some people seemed immune to the disease and just trundled on. Many worked the pits.

That being the case, the first priority would be to remove corpses - not only to stop the plague but other diseases as well.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:55 AM (cfSRQ)

305 241 Patrick O'Brian goes into the food Jack and Stephen eat a lot.
-----
Someone actually wrote a cookbook based on the meals in The Aubreyad.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:26 AM (g8Yc+)
_______

Yes, Lobscouse and Spotted Dog. Got it. Also have the Jane Austin Cookbook. Though Jane is not an author who describes food, this is based on one by a cousin of hers whom she lived with for a while.

There's a Nero Wolfe cookbook, and also a Baker Street Cookbook. (Though again, Doyle doesn't really go into describing food.)

A Brinkley cookbook would be worth seeing.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 10:55 AM (ZbwAu)

306 Honestly, what difference does it make?
---------
Honestly, and I really want to be honest here, if you don't have an answer to a simple posed question, why can't you just ignore it rather than be a dick about it? It's really not that hard. Everyone else seems to understand this principle.

Posted by: WTP at March 15, 2020 10:55 AM (WQfDg)

307 Wouldn't you at least say the art on the wall over the headboard is mildly amusing...
Posted by: Muldoon
----
WTH is that about? Must be an inside joke.

Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:56 AM (UUBmN)

308 296
There's nothing funny about that cartoon.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 10:50 AM (xSo9G)

---
It would be funnier of the top book on the pile was by Marie Kondo.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:56 AM (cfSRQ)

309 >>It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered calculus and the laws of motion.

>>What are YOUR plans?

*********

I shall re-write the entirety of "War and Peace"...

...in limerick form...

...in Russian...

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 10:57 AM (m45I2)

310 Wouldn't you at least say the art on the wall over the headboard is mildly amusing...
Posted by: Muldoon
----
WTH is that about? Must be an inside joke.
Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:56 AM (UUBmN)
----
Well, the name of the strip is "Bizarro", after all...

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:58 AM (g8Yc+)

311 Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 10:40 AM (UUBmN)

The youngest boy (26) went to the doc yesterday with severe flu like symptoms. The doc all but told him he has the Wuhan flu, but they had only 5 test kits and asked if he wanted to be tested. Being ID would not get him any special treatment or prioritization though. Theyre treating him for "severe bronchitis and pneumonia" and he gets an xray in the morning. He was told to stay home and try to isolate himself from his pregnant wife and his two kids.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at March 15, 2020 10:59 AM (saIjW)

312 To tell the whole tale on Newton, he was "quarantined" twice. In the midst of his success he got to huffin the mercury fumes, practicing alchemy, so heavily that his behavior became extremely erratic, and his friends did an intervention to get him the hell out of town before he ended up being locked up.
He was able to get by nicely because he was a skilled cabinet-maker. Like several other shoulder-stand geniuses, his input data was better because he was able to make more accurate tools and instruments. But he was one crazy sonofa pup for quite a while.

Also, he died a virgin. I have never found out what colour.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at March 15, 2020 10:59 AM (8IOEj)

313 Bell Biv Dafoe wrote books? Who knew?

Posted by: Sgt Barnes at March 15, 2020 10:59 AM (AmaGs)

314 Defoe's account talks about the burial pits and how some people seemed immune to the disease and just trundled on. Many worked the pits.

That being the case, the first priority would be to remove corpses - not only to stop the plague but other diseases as well.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:55 AM (cfSRQ)

I recall a couple years ago the digging for a new branch of the London Underground came across what they believed was one of those pits - it was an area which would have been outside the city walls at the time, and it had been a long trench with up to 2,000 remains all buried together.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 11:00 AM (V2Yro)

315 Honestly, what difference does it make?
---------
Honestly, and I really want to be honest here, if you don't have an answer to a simple posed question, why can't you just ignore it rather than be a dick about it? It's really not that hard. Everyone else seems to understand this principle.
Posted by: WTP at March 15, 2020 10:55 AM (WQfDg)

I'm sorry you are overreacting to this thing. That's probably going to make you more susceptible.

It's probably a good idea for you to make burial plans now.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:01 AM (hku12)

316 Anonosaurus Wrecks, have you been self-teaching yourself Latin?
how hard is it to get started?

-
Latin is definitely hard as it is put together very differently than English although much of the vocabulary is similar. I've been studying for years, although much more now that I am retired, and only now am capable of reading an elementary school level book.

If you are considering trying it, I recommend this book

https://amzn.to/2x148tD

this companion book

https://amzn.to/3cYSCzD

and this companion audio.

https://amzn.to/3d0xGIq

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 11:01 AM (+y/Ru)

317 Sorta book related. I watched an episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" and Richard Boone quotes from "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám". Thati sn't unusual. The series was very literate. But I lost it when he added: "The Fitzgerald translation".

Posted by: JTB at March 15, 2020 11:01 AM (7EjX1)

318 Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at March 15, 2020 10:59 AM (saIjW)

If they gave him antibiotics and it clears, then no wuflu

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:01 AM (ONvIw)

319 A quote from the Bible for this National Day of Prayer:
"To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us."
Psalm 123:1-2

Posted by: California Girl (not Caligirl) at March 15, 2020 11:02 AM (+1Oeh)

320 Having been married to movie M/U artist

I've got a little insight to how staged most celeb pics are

every film set has at least 1 still photographer for promo shots

they are ridiculously staged

and once when I was gonna run an ad for my antique shop

the people wanted me to be in the pic

asked me if I had an ascot

with a tee shirt , jeans and rough outs ???

GTFO

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:02 AM (rpxSz)

321 I just read the lead article at Townhall, Derek Hunter how you say... borrowed Aces thoughts on tv pundits the other day

Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at March 15, 2020 11:02 AM (MU2MU)

322 Portugal wasn't quite a first rank power in the 18th C. More like the Dutch then, but a little behind. They never fully recovered from the Spanish takeover in 1580. But there was a partial one in the late 17th C, with gold found in Brazil. But of course it all went to shit in 1755 with the Lisbon earthquake.

Still, they did hold out against Napoleon, sending the government to Brazil, a sort of precedent for what many countries did in WWII. And Wellington expressed dismay that "my Portuguese" had been sent home, and so were not there for Waterloo. Apparently they'd gotten damned good during the Peninsular Campaign.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:02 AM (ZbwAu)

323 The youngest boy (26) went to the doc yesterday with severe flu like symptoms. The doc all but told him he has the Wuhan flu, but they had only 5 test kits and asked if he wanted to be tested. Being ID would not get him any special treatment or prioritization though. Theyre treating him for "severe bronchitis and pneumonia" and he gets an xray in the morning. He was told to stay home and try to isolate himself from his pregnant wife and his two kids.
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead
----
Will keep your family in my prayers!

Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 11:03 AM (UUBmN)

324 Well, the name of the strip is "Bizarro", after all...
Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 10:58 AM (g8Yc+)

I enjoy the strip, and I'd say things like the pictures on the wall are kind of the artist's signature. It's what he does.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 11:03 AM (V2Yro)

325 Highly unusual to be here while the thread is active, but no church this morning.

Just finishing up 'Operation Overflight', Powers, into the epilogue of 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb', Rhodes, and just getting under way with Sowell's 'The Search for Cosmic Justice'.

After some peripheral mention of it on other threads, I've pulled out my first edition of 'The Good Shepard', Forester. I read it *cough cough* years ago, but maybe I'll give it another read. I recollect that it is not a cheery novel, but one of considerable stress, both personal and 'professional'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:04 AM (xSo9G)

326 Portugal wasn't quite a first rank power in the 18th C.

**********

The population suffered a major decline with the urbanization of rural folk in Portugal. Over half the women of child-bearing age chose to become Lisbonians.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (m45I2)

327 When I was in London last summer, I picked up a book on 1666, the year that London experienced the Great Fire, plague, and an attack up the Thames by the Dutch (OK, that was in 1667). Think maybe I'll that a go

Posted by: josephistan at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (Izzlo)

328 Will keep your family in my prayers!
Posted by: lin-duh at March 15, 2020 11:03 AM (UUBmN)

This, too.

But I did know someone who thought they had it in February and called me in panic. I told them to see a GP and get some doxy or something. It worked. Not all bronchitis will be wuflu, even now

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (ONvIw)

329 I've been binge watching BBC's Time Team. I haven't seen any episodes involving plague burial pits.

Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (Uu+Jp)

330 325
Highly unusual to be here while the thread is active, but no church this morning.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:04 AM (xSo9G)

---
Listening to the outreach mass now. Surreal.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 11:06 AM (cfSRQ)

331 I put down The Decameron and decided to read the Sheen. Then to lighten my mood, I watched All Creatures Great and Small on amazon. I can't do all plague all the time, especially after getting pissed at the Bill Gates thingie

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:08 AM (ONvIw)

332 My sister told me a story that in 1968, a virus was affecting people worldwide (Honk Kong flu?). Well, my Dad contracted it and was totally laid up in bed. My mom was pregnant (with me!) so my 4 year old sister had to bring Dad his dinner and drugs. Mom couldn't get anywhere near him because of an unborn me. Plus, she had already miscarried twice before. There was a bit of stress in the homestead at the time.

Posted by: Puddleglum at March 15, 2020 11:09 AM (hA5i1)

333 Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead
---------

Ugh.

Prayers.

I was told in a phone call last night that my SIL's nephew has the bug, though like your son, diagnosed without test. He is currently sequestered with his aunt.

We'll see.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:09 AM (xSo9G)

334 328>> Thank guys. CN, thanks for the gouge. Ill pass it along.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at March 15, 2020 11:09 AM (saIjW)

335 A Wrecks, I have a second year Latin text book if you would like it.

Posted by: Ben Had at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM (MzJ8y)

336 I've noticed comments on AOSHQ seem to be up-are people hanging around home with time on their hands?

Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM (Uu+Jp)

337 I've been binge watching BBC's Time Team. I haven't seen any episodes involving plague burial pits.
Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (Uu+Jp)

Briton's public health system being much more sophisticated than our own, they are indeed, already doing something practical about all this virus business:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU0d8kpybVg

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM (hku12)

338 Bad news rescheduling my trip to Portugal for Christmas this year.

I did get several books to start cracking on. The Secret on the Tarmac by Christopher Sign.
A River in Darkness by a former North Korean who escaped and who's name I will never be able to write or pronounce.
Socialism Sucks by Robert Lawson.

Good times

Posted by: Picric at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM (9u8cp)

339 Hey Burt boy..,do me a favor and STFU ok? You don't have an answer, I get it. But the whole HRC "at this point what difference dies it make" routine is basically none of your f'n business and totally irrelevant to my question.

That said, thanks to those of you who provided some useful input. Much appreciated.

Posted by: WTP at March 15, 2020 11:11 AM (WQfDg)

340 277 In the book, the word Whist is used something like, no matter, or forget it. At least I think that is what it means.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:41 AM (QzF6i)
_______

I think there's a connection with the card game. The name comes from "quiet", related to "wistful". I think it's because in its progenitor you "declared" that you had honor cards; in whist you don't. But the "quiet" part has nothing to do with the fact there is no bidding; that came much later.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:12 AM (ZbwAu)

341 Whoa. It took till 243 to get "Who dis?" Way to go, MlII!

Posted by: creeper at March 15, 2020 11:12 AM (XxJt1)

342 I watched All Creatures Great and Small on amazon. I can't do all plague all the time, especially after getting pissed at the Bill Gates thingie
Posted by: CN
-------

Though I did not mention it above, I pulled out a copy of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' last night for bedtime reading. Herriot is a fine writer, and often very amusing. I needed a distraction from the current The sky Is Falling! rhetoric.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:12 AM (CDGwz)

343 The government of Britain went bankrupt twice during the wars with the Dutch. They resorted to diluting the currency and trimming the coinage. These were the wars in which New Amsterdam became New York.

It was a deucedly close-run thing. And of course the Hollanders had the Admirals Tromp.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at March 15, 2020 11:13 AM (8IOEj)

344 "I picked up a book on 1666, the year that London
experienced the Great Fire, plague, and an attack up the Thames..."

Posted by: josephistan at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (Izzlo)

Ever read "The Diary Of Samuel Pepys?"

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at March 15, 2020 11:13 AM (dLLD6)

345 336
I've noticed comments on AOSHQ seem to be up-are people hanging around home with time on their hands?

Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM (Uu+Jp)
++++++I know that applies to me. I live alone and when I can't go out and about, I spend way more time on my computer. I'm one of those people that has to be doing three things at once so posting, while playing scrabble, while reading the news fills that void.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:13 AM (QzF6i)

346 Though I did not mention it above, I pulled out a copy of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' last night for bedtime reading. Herriot is a fine writer, and often very amusing. I needed a distraction from the current The sky Is Falling! rhetoric.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:12 AM (CDGwz)

I agree. I have the books, have read some of the stories to the grandsons, but I love Robert Hardy's portrayal of Siegfried Farnon. I laughed and then slept beautifully

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:15 AM (ONvIw)

347 Whoa. It took till 243 to get "Who dis?" Way to go, MlII!
Posted by: creeper
--------

My best guess was Lincoln Hayes. Not a good guess, so I kept it to myself.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:15 AM (CDGwz)

348 325 Highly unusual to be here while the thread is active, but no church this morning.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:04 AM (xSo9G)
------------------
That's why I'm here in real time, as well. Our church is livestreaming the service.

Posted by: Hoplite Housewife at March 15, 2020 11:16 AM (XXNQ+)

349 Hey Burt boy..,do me a favor and STFU ok? You don't have an answer, I get it. But the whole HRC "at this point what difference dies it make" routine is basically none of your f'n business and totally irrelevant to my question.

That said, thanks to those of you who provided some useful input. Much appreciated.
Posted by: WTP at March 15, 2020 11:11 AM (WQfDg)

Listen to yourself, idiot. You asked a question, I answered it with a question. Then instead of following your OWN advice, you decided NOT to ignore my comment, and instead called me a dick.

Your lack of civility and lack of self-awareness is rather astonishing. Good luck with that.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:16 AM (hku12)

350 336 I've noticed comments on AOSHQ seem to be up-are people hanging around home with time on their hands?
Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM (Uu+Jp)

I'm usually running around doing stuff on weekends, but since I have house guests today I am sitting on the couch waiting for everyone to wake up.

Posted by: Jordan61 at March 15, 2020 11:16 AM (6ofTb)

351
Portugal
++++++++
Oscar Wilde
+++++++
Russia " is always a hopeless train wreck."
++++++++
"Well, have to run to the store."

********

Let's see. It looks like this thread has covered the gamut:

Lisbon, Gay, Trains, Buy!

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 11:16 AM (m45I2)

352 Huh. Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.

So much for the EU.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:18 AM (ZLI7S)

353
Let's see. It looks like this thread has covered the gamut:

Lisbon, Gay, Trains, Buy!

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 11:16 AM (m45I2)
-----
But not gay trains.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 11:18 AM (g8Yc+)

354 Ever read "The Diary Of Samuel Pepys?"
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

********

And so to bed...

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 11:18 AM (m45I2)

355 Natalie Cole seems like a jolly young soul and how did she get in a Biblioteca with no shoes. Posted by: saf

Perhaps her dad's library

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 11:20 AM (Ndje9)

356

Who dis:

LaWanda Page?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:20 AM (rHt6W)

357 A Brinkley cookbook would be worth seeing.
Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 10:55 AM (ZbwAu)

Christie or David?

Posted by: creeper at March 15, 2020 11:20 AM (XxJt1)

358 336 I've noticed comments on AOSHQ seem to be up-are people hanging around home with time on their hands?
Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM (Uu+Jp)

This has changed behavior. If it warms up enough, I plan to fertilize the roses and do some clean up in the backyard.

I did go out for produce today. Normal supermarket is swamped, but the Korean one was empty. I bought a few bags of mandarins, peppers, cabbage and a few packages of Japanese noodles. They tended to steer clear of most things Chinese even before wuflu

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:20 AM (ONvIw)

359 Huh. Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.

So much for the EU.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:18 AM (ZLI7S)

But if Trump restricts travel it's all racisty and stuff

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:21 AM (rHt6W)

360 I read "The Discoverers" many years ago. I highly recommend it.

Posted by: DR.WTF at March 15, 2020 11:21 AM (aS1PU)

361 All the Pretty Horses is a great intro to McCarthy. It is like a
Scotch with a touch of Sherry, a touch of smoke, just a bit of sea air,
and lots of clean malt. It is not his most difficult book for sure,
but it introduces you to his style.

It is a great recommendation. I can see why some find other McCarthy
books superior. As I said last week, it is situational. The thing that
got me about that book was the theme. There is something about the idea
of people that feel slightly out of their time and long for a past that
they probably idealize to some extent and never fully existed.

To
me that book was about people longing to live in what they
consider to be a better time, a less modern time, where men were more
straight forward and knew better where they stood. It is funny that they

thought Texas ranch country in 1940 had already surpassed them.

Those
kids were not criminals, ,but dreamers. Yet there are parallels to The
Wild Bunch. There are even similar themes to Lonesome Dove. The
characters in Lonesome Dove thought were they lived at the time and how
they lived was too tame. They thought they were relics at that point and
if they didn't seek out new adventure, then they were already finished.
These are not original themes, but they stand the test of time.

The
thing that got me about that book was the last few pages. It didn't end
with a nice bow to the story, the main character was still searching
for his place in the world. The same could be said for the ending of
The Crossing, that book was even more stark. But certainly the first
book could have been a stand alone. There wan no real conclusion imo and
non needed.

The final book was a nice
homage to old school cowboy types in the 20th century. It didn't live up
to the previous two books but there was probably no way for it to have
done so.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 11:21 AM (n13/j)

362 277 In the book, the word Whist is used something like, no matter, or forget it. At least I think that is what it means.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:41 AM (QzF6i)
_______

That's an interesting point. The more so as so many countries end up with the capital city effectively dominating the whole nation. We've been spared that up to a point, but whether we can continue, well....

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:21 AM (ZbwAu)

363 Huh. Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.

It is. And that's odd, as those are only 3 of its 9 border countries.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 11:23 AM (gd9RK)

364 But if Trump restricts travel it's all racisty and stuff
Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:21 AM (rHt6W)

The Gates conference that worked on pandemics recommended no travel restrictions, and curbing the internet. Glad Trump is ignoring that conference and its recs

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:23 AM (ONvIw)

365 Just bandsawed a roll of TP in half

now only 1/2 a squared used

it help the sawing process if you freeze the roll first

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:23 AM (rpxSz)

366 So much for the EU.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:18 AM (ZLI7S)

a new look at the Maginot Line

where's Tingles ??

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:25 AM (rpxSz)

367 Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.
+++++++
It is. And that's odd, as those are only 3 of its 9 border countries.
Posted by: Bandersnatch

******

Reverse Imagine-not line leaves them susceptible to invasion through the Low Countries.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 11:25 AM (m45I2)

368 Ever read "The Diary Of Samuel Pepys?"
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo
-----------

You know that leaning tower of books on the bedside table? There resides Sam, patiently waiting.

My favorite quote, the evergreen, 'I went out to Charing Cross to see Major General Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could in that condition. '

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:26 AM (xSo9G)

369

Back from another grocery run. Milk, beef and chicken were back in stock. Probably gone later. No paper products. I'm really hoping as people go back to stores and see products have been restocked the hysteria dies down. My biggest fear is some asshole politician deciding to go all Barney Fife and start quarantining cities and shutting down businesses

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:26 AM (rHt6W)

370 Good morning
Come for the pants and throw up a little bit.
Is that Angela Davis?

Posted by: Diogenes at March 15, 2020 11:28 AM (axyOa)

371 Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.

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

Uncharacteristic behavior, for the Germans. They have generally 'opened' those borders.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:28 AM (xSo9G)

372 Looking for recommendations. I'm a Demille fan (read everything up to and including The Deserter), big fan of Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island, etc) and am current on everything he's written, and also Michael Connelly, Kellerman, Greg Iles, Harlen Coben, Baldacci, Crais, John Sandford, authors of the mystery/detective novel genre. I'm reading 'em faster than they can write 'em.

Any new author suggestions based on my preferences?

Posted by: one of the quiet ones at March 15, 2020 11:28 AM (2GPSc)

373 My biggest fear is some asshole politician deciding to go all Barney Fife and start quarantining cities and shutting down businesses
Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:26 AM (rHt6W)

I'm sure they're considering it. They must love Cuomo's blockade of New Rochelle

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:28 AM (ONvIw)

374 The Color Happy coloring book cover was staged by Hollywood for NASA in the Nevada desert.

No woke woman astronaut would prostrate herself before the patriarchy like that unless she had been held at the tip of an agonizer.

Posted by: Fritz at March 15, 2020 11:28 AM (ATCV4)

375 Just bandsawed a roll of TP in half

now only 1/2 a squared used

it help the sawing process if you freeze the roll first
Posted by: REDACTED
------

*?*

Through which axis?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:29 AM (xSo9G)

376 A Wrecks, I have a second year Latin text book if you would like it.
Posted by: Ben Had at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM

NON OPUS EST TIBI UT EAM AMPLIUS?

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 11:30 AM (DMUuz)

377 >>My biggest fear is some asshole politician deciding to go all Barney Fife and start quarantining cities and shutting down businesses

The governors of both Illinois and Ohio have both said that they are considering closing all bars and restaurants.

I may need more toilet paper.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:30 AM (ZLI7S)

378 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 11:01 AM (+y/Ru)

thanks!
I'm curious and tempted

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 11:30 AM (G546f)

379 Wrecks, I have a second year Latin text book if you would like it.
Posted by: Ben Had at March 15, 2020 11:10 AM

NON OPUS EST TIBI UT EAM AMPLIUS?
Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 11:30 AM (DMUuz)
-----
Semper ubi sub ubi.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 11:31 AM (g8Yc+)

380 A Wrecks, I have a second year Latin text book if you would like it.

-
Thanks, but I think I have all the material I need. I just need to sit and engage my brain.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 11:31 AM (+y/Ru)

381 Though I did not mention it above, I pulled out a copy of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' last night for bedtime reading. Herriot is a fine writer, and often very amusing. I needed a distraction from the current The sky Is Falling! rhetoric.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:12 AM (CDGwz)
---------

Herriot and Wodehouse are the best to read right before bed.

Posted by: bluebell at March 15, 2020 11:31 AM (/669Q)

382 Texas publicly said they can do about 265 test a day as of Friday. Basically you have to be symptomatic to get tested.

If you float, you're a witch. Have we learned nothing from history?

Posted by: t-bird at March 15, 2020 11:31 AM (IMdOQ)

383 I went to the local grocery and the toilet paper aisle was cleaned out. There was one large container of the pre moistened whipes sitting there all by itself. The only explanation is that people came in in a panic and many had no idea what it was.

I found the real deal at Wegmanns but it was going so fast even they would be out within the hour. They did have lots of chicken though. I hear people are hording chicken breasts too.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 11:32 AM (n13/j)

384 343 The government of Britain went bankrupt twice during the wars with the Dutch. They resorted to diluting the currency and trimming the coinage. These were the wars in which New Amsterdam became New York.

It was a deucedly close-run thing. And of course the Hollanders had the Admirals Tromp.
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at March 15, 2020 11:13 AM (8IOEj)
_____

And De Ruyter. But that was the 17th C, not the 18th, when Dutch power declined. In one respect they were like Portugal, and not like Britain. They both were right next to a monster.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:32 AM (ZbwAu)

385 The governors of both Illinois and Ohio have both said that they are considering closing all bars and restaurants.

I may need more toilet paper.
Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:30 AM (ZLI7S)

I saw some official this morning admitting in public that no one will suffer any consequences from going too far. And it was implicit that they all knew they faced a huge risk in being seen to do too little.

So, every official in the country has now been told that they are expected to issue orders like crazy for the time being, whether they make any sense or not.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 11:33 AM (V2Yro)

386 Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:26 AM (rHt6W)

Already happened. In New Jersey.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at March 15, 2020 11:33 AM (saIjW)

387 The governors of both Illinois and Ohio have both said that they are considering closing all bars and restaurants.

I may need more toilet paper.
Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:30 AM (ZLI7S)

Except for the grocery stores, people here are behaving like they're on vacation. Restaurants and shopping malls were jammed yesterday. I doubt that was the intent of work at home and schools closed.

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:33 AM (ONvIw)

388 I guess after getting mentioned In dispatches I best get back to writing.

Posted by: Anna Puma at March 15, 2020 11:34 AM (axGC/)

389 Maybe this is the final stage of Panic - when everyone begins to go overboard Panicking in Public, because they know they're expected to, even if they don't really want to.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 11:34 AM (V2Yro)

390 Through which axis?
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:29 AM (xSo9G)

the love axis

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:34 AM (rpxSz)

391 >>I saw some official this morning admitting in public that no one will suffer any consequences from going too far. And it was implicit that they all knew they faced a huge risk in being seen to do too little.

I believe that was Dr. Fauci and given his status, yea, pretty much a green light to dial it to 11.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:35 AM (ZLI7S)

392 I'm not going to church this morning. The congregation is small enough that we haven't been shut down but the roads are bad and I'm sniffly

So I'll try to spend some extra time studying for my Hebrew class tonight.

Posted by: Northernlurker at March 15, 2020 11:35 AM (Uu+Jp)

393 Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.

But the direct flights from Turkey continue.

Posted by: JAS at March 15, 2020 11:36 AM (2BZBZ)

394 CrotchetyOldJarhead and Mike Hammer, prayers for your sick relatives

do you mind me asking what states they are in?

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 11:36 AM (G546f)

395 362 277 In the book, the word Whist is used something like, no matter, or forget it. At least I think that is what it means.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 10:41 AM (QzF6i)
_______

That's an interesting point. The more so as so many countries end up with the capital city effectively dominating the whole nation. We've been spared that up to a point, but whether we can continue, well....
Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:21 AM (ZbwAu)

______

Impressive ineptitude, even for me. I meant to copy this:

326 Portugal wasn't quite a first rank power in the 18th C.

**********

The population suffered a major decline with the urbanization of rural folk in Portugal. Over half the women of child-bearing age chose to become Lisbonians.
Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (m45I2)
______

Which is related to why I stopped using italics here.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:36 AM (ZbwAu)

396 Semper ubi sub ubi.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, USS Lone Fire at March 15, 2020 11:31 AM

Someday. It's hard enough to get Eris to wear pants for this Thread.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 15, 2020 11:37 AM (DMUuz)

397 >>Except for the grocery stores, people here are behaving like they're on vacation. Restaurants and shopping malls were jammed yesterday. I doubt that was the intent of work at home and schools closed.

I took Elvis for a walk in one of our town parks yesterday and it was packed. And it wasn't limited to locals. I checked out the other parks and they were equally jammed.

Seems like a large number of people have chosen to socially distance here. Super.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:37 AM (ZLI7S)

398 Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.

But the direct flights from Turkey continue.
Posted by: JAS at March 15, 2020 11:36 AM

With Canberra sauce.

Posted by: JuJuBee, just generally being shamey at March 15, 2020 11:37 AM (COzlW)

399 "My biggest fear is some asshole politician deciding to go all Barney Fife and start quarantining cities and shutting down businesses"

Sounds like IL Gov Pritzker is getting perilously close to doing that... he was on Meet The Depressed this morning and he's been really pushing the idea that everyone, including people NOT at high risk for infection, needs to stay home as much as possible. He also said he is seriously considering a general shutdown of all bars and restaurants....

Posted by: Secret Square at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (9WuX0)

400
Herriot and Wodehouse are the best to read right before bed.
Posted by: bluebell
--------

Yep. I have an extensive collection of Wodehouse, most have been read twice. I really need to look for the Wooster & Jeeves BBC productions on DVD, as they were very entertaining. I do have them on VHS...

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (xSo9G)

401 371 Germany is closing it's borders with Switzerland, Austria and France tomorrow.

sitzkrieg

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (rpxSz)

402 Already happened. In New Jersey.
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at March 15, 2020 11:33 AM (saIjW)

Teaneck, where Mayor Mohamed thought it was wise. But yeah, it's coming. I think this weekend is the last hurrah before a lot of things close

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (ONvIw)

403 Anyone else getting the feeling that Dr Fauci is exhibiting signs of short man/important man disease?

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (DY3v8)

404
It's failing, but we can learn from it. I'm hoping the Tidepods realize the folly of their 'just in time' digital world.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 10:33 AM (cfSRQ)
-----------------

Yep.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:39 AM (WEBkv)

405
My biggest fear is some asshole politician deciding to go all Barney Fife and start quarantining cities and shutting down businesses
Posted by: TheQuietMan

They want to NIP IT IN THE BUD!!!

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at March 15, 2020 11:39 AM (aKsyK)

406 Bander's comment on Germany bordering nine different countries suprised me. Looking at a map to check that out.

Posted by: pawn at March 15, 2020 11:39 AM (Rmclh)

407 370 Good morning
Come for the pants and throw up a little bit.
Is that Angela Davis?
Posted by: Diogenes at March 15, 2020 11:28 AM (axyOa)

Good morning.

You didn't see that little hint in small print directly under the photo, did you?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (R8APV)

408 Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:37 AM (ZLI7S)

my kid was like - hey all my HS buds are home too! Maybe we can hang out

I told her no. For at least one week, can you stay home. We'll see after that. If we're doing this let's do this properly

Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (G546f)

409 And in 'coloring book'?

Caption is?

There Woman, there is where you go to make me a samich!

Posted by: Romeo13 at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (NgKpN)

410 do you mind me asking what states they are in?
Posted by: vmom 2020
-----------

GA

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (xSo9G)

411 The sky is falling, but if you look real close and watch real careful, it is exactly where it has always been.

Posted by: klaftern at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (RuIsu)

412 Anyone else getting the feeling that Dr Fauci is exhibiting signs of short man/important man disease?

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (DY3v

He's been a preening narcissist for decades, but you can't say that because saying it helps spread the virus.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (hku12)

413 I found the real deal at Wegmanns but it was going so fast even they would be out within the hour. They did have lots of chicken though. I hear people are hording chicken breasts too.
Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 11:32 AM (n13/j)

--------

Wow. It took 383 comments for the thread to devolve to breasts. I think that's some kind of a record.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (XVuno)

414 326 Portugal wasn't quite a first rank power in the 18th C.

**********

The population suffered a major decline with the urbanization of
rural folk in Portugal. Over half the women of child-bearing age chose
to become Lisbonians.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 11:05 AM (m45I2)

______

Which is related to why I stopped using italics here.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:36 AM (ZbwAu)

++++++
When I was in Portugal last summer, I took a food tour with a local guide. At one point, he started talking about the major problem with the economy. It was declining birth rate because people couldn't afford to have children and pay rent in t he city.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:41 AM (QzF6i)

415 Posted by: vmom 2020 at March 15, 2020 11:36 AM (G546f)

Texas. DFW.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at March 15, 2020 11:41 AM (saIjW)

416
He's been a preening narcissist for decades, but you can't say that because saying it helps spread the virus.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (hku12)

Say what we will, at least he didn't go with the JHU recommendations about keeping travel going strong.

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (ONvIw)

417 Maybe I should see if I can find my copy of The Day of the Triffids, which is kind of a science fiction plague book.
I may have lost it in a move.

Posted by: Northernlurker at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (Uu+Jp)

418 Survived Kroger and am listening to the YouTube church service we have today.

I have Kindle Unlimited for a short while. Been reading sci fi and fantasy mostly.

Recommendations for stuff I can get on K U? I scooped up stuff by Morons mentioned this morning and who posted here this morning. Am happy to click on your stuff and send a little Amazon money your way.

Posted by: Mama AJ at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (wSGZR)

419 After too many years of putting this off, I am reading the John Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian. I am up to the Letter of Marque. My XH left it behind when he left the marriage almost ten years ago, and every once in a while I find a bookmark that he left - a speech therapy appointment card for the daughter who is now a sophomore in college, ATM receipts from Maryland. How time flies.

Posted by: Nancy at 7000 ft at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (0tmoY)

420 Bander's comment on Germany bordering nine different countries suprised me. Looking at a map to check that out.

Posted by: pawn at March 15, 2020 11:39 AM (Rmclh)

Deutschland hat neun Nachbarlaender was last week's lesson. Do not trifle with the Bander.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (gd9RK)

421 400
Herriot and Wodehouse are the best to read right before bed.
Posted by: bluebell
--------

Yep. I have an extensive collection of Wodehouse, most have been read twice. I really need to look for the Wooster & Jeeves BBC productions on DVD, as they were very entertaining. I do have them on VHS...
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (xSo9G)
______

Check out the first season of Wodehouse Playhouse, the year they had Pauline Collins, and for most of the year, Plum himself. After that it went down hill. But for one year it was by far the best PGW filmed. MUCH better that the Fry-Laurie series. Instead of throwing out the originals, they did a marvelous job adapting them.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (ZbwAu)

422 Wait! Wut? The pants rule extends to us 'ettes? But...but...but...I wear skirts.

Never mind. I'll go order a pair of palazzo pants.

Posted by: creeper at March 15, 2020 11:43 AM (XxJt1)

423 BTW, here's a very thorough roundup of Wuflu statistics. The kind of actual information that the Hair On Fire MSM doesn't have the inclination or competence to report.

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:43 AM (XVuno)

424 Yep. I have an extensive collection of Wodehouse, most have been read twice. I really need to look for the Wooster Jeeves BBC productions on DVD, as they were very entertaining. I do have them on VHS...

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM (xSo9G)

https://tinyurl.com/jeevesandwoosterdvd

(Link is to ebay)

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:43 AM (R8APV)

425 It is. And that's odd, as those are only 3 of its 9 border countries.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 11:23 AM (gd9RK)

Wouldn't do to impede the flow of vibrant new Germans from the Middle East.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (miJU3)

426 He's been a preening narcissist for decades, but you can't say that because saying it helps spread the virus.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (hku12)

Say what we will, at least he didn't go with the JHU recommendations about keeping travel going strong.
Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (ONvIw)

He's not the worst person in the world, so yeah. I'm not going to rag on him too much, it's just... honestly, I didn't realize he was still around, and wasn't expecting him for this one, but here he is.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (hku12)

427 What with Russia, Russia, Russia are cold war novels relevant again?

Posted by: Northernlurker at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (Uu+Jp)

428 Ben Elton's Time and Time Again is a syfy time travel novel that deals, in part, with Newton's quarantine. I'm not really recommending it because while it's an OK book for time travel nerds, it's really nothing special. I'm just amazed at how much you learn without intending to by reading.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (+y/Ru)

429 I believe that was Dr. Fauci and given his status, yea, pretty much a green light to dial it to 11.
Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:35 AM (ZLI7S)
-------------

The press is probably thrilled they were able to manufacture a crisis. The whole thing is so completely circular it's astounding.

1. Press hypes a non-issue virus "threat."
2. Market tanks.
3. People panic, stripping store shelves bare.
4. Press breathlessly reports all of the above, continuing the hype.

I hope the stock of every single MSM outlet tanks, they have to declare bankruptcy and fire half their staff and on air talent.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:45 AM (WEBkv)

430 It is. And that's odd, as those are only 3 of its 9 border countries.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 11:23 AM (gd9RK)

Wouldn't do to impede the flow of vibrant new Germans from the Middle East.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (miJU3)

Probably already been said a million times already, but I'm getting a kick out of Germany closing ITS borders, so as to not let threats from without, get in.

Oh, 21st century, you are nothing if not ironic.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:45 AM (hku12)

431 413 I found the real deal at Wegmanns but it was going so fast even they would be out within the hour. They did have lots of chicken though. I hear people are hording chicken breasts too.
Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 11:32 AM (n13/j)

--------

Wow. It took 383 comments for the thread to devolve to breasts. I think that's some kind of a record.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (XVuno)

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

Well, this is the book thread. It's a little more upscale than most.

Posted by: No One of Consequence at March 15, 2020 11:46 AM (CAJOC)

432 Achoo!

Orange man bad.

Signed, THE PRESS.

And don't you forget it.

Posted by: klaftern at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (RuIsu)

433 I hope the stock of every single MSM outlet tanks, they have to declare bankruptcy and fire half their staff and on air talent.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing

There is a commenter on Twittar saying that he waits for the day where the media personalities are held in the same regard as the average Tobacco company executive

Posted by: Kindltot at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (6rS3m)

434 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (Zz0t1)

435
Well, this is the book thread. It's a little more upscale than most.
Posted by: No One of Consequence at March 15, 2020 11:46 AM (CAJOC)
-----
Not any more! I'm here!

Posted by: Weasel at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (MVjcR)

436 Real Climate Science posted a chart of flu deaths from 2018 this morning, take a gander

Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (MU2MU)

437 Well, this is the book thread. It's a little more upscale than most.
Posted by: No One of Consequence at March 15, 2020 11:46 AM (CAJOC)

FISH PUNS !!

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (rpxSz)

438 Check out the first season of Wodehouse Playhouse, the year they had Pauline Collins, and for most of the year, Plum himself. After that it went down hill. But for one year it was by far the best PGW filmed. MUCH better that the Fry-Laurie series. Instead of throwing out the originals, they did a marvelous job adapting them.
Posted by: Eeyore
---------

Thanks for the tip. I'll look for it.

'Plum', indeed. The sign of a true Wodehousian.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:48 AM (xSo9G)

439 Print, is dead.

Posted by: Egon Spengler at March 15, 2020 11:48 AM (Zz0t1)

440 FISH PUNS !!
Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (rpxSz)

For the halibut.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:48 AM (Zz0t1)

441 Check out the first season of Wodehouse Playhouse, the year they had Pauline Collins, and for most of the year, Plum himself. After that it went down hill. But for one year it was by far the best PGW filmed. MUCH better that the Fry-Laurie series. Instead of throwing out the originals, they did a marvelous job adapting them.
Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (ZbwAu)
---------

I liked Wodehouse Playhouse, but I also liked the Jeeves and Wooster series, particularly the first two seasons. I thought they did a great job combining some of the stories into one episode, and sometimes the dialogue was almost word for word like the stories.

The fourth season was mostly ridiculous, though. But, I still watch it occasionally.

Posted by: bluebell at March 15, 2020 11:48 AM (/669Q)

442
I found "Charlie Wilson's War" in one of my more buried stacks of unread books and I have begun to read it.

We watched the movie of it about two months back and I enjoyed it. Imagine my astonishment to see that Aaron Sorkin was one of its screenwriters. The other writers must have tamped down or quashed his usual penchant for having his characters spew self-referential and "here is how I imagine those in the know are self-deprecatingly wise in all that they say" lines.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (pNxlR)

443
He's not the worst person in the world, so yeah. I'm not going to rag on him too much, it's just... honestly, I didn't realize he was still around, and wasn't expecting him for this one, but here he is.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (hku12)

Yes, he's pretty damn old, but some of the younger set would have gone with the donk type Event 201 conclusions and things would be much worse here.

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (ONvIw)

444 Bernie/Biden debate still on.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (QzF6i)

445 He also said he is seriously considering a general shutdown of all bars and restaurants....

Posted by: Secret Square at March 15, 2020 11:38 AM

---

Why it's almost like they want to intentionally tank the economy.............

Posted by: Mr. Scott (Formerly GWS) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (JUOKG)

446 "Deutschland hat neun Nachbarlaender"
====
So to a non-German that almost looks like "Germany has no borders"

Posted by: 2009Refugee - Thought Indifferent at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (8AONa)

447 Fish puns fish puns
Roly poly fish puns
Fish puns fish puns
Fart them up, YUM!

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (XVuno)

448 >>> 444 Bernie/Biden debate still on.
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (QzF6i)

At twenty paces, and seated?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (0ReGO)

449 There is a commenter on Twittar saying that he waits for the day where the media personalities are held in the same regard as the average Tobacco company executive
Posted by: Kindltot at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (6rS3m)
---------------
Heh.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:50 AM (WEBkv)

450 well, since the Russian, Ukrainian and Impeachment narratives have blown up in their faces

the MSM needs some cover

and they think they have found it

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:50 AM (rpxSz)

451 I fully anticipate CNN to find infected people and try to get them into Trump's next presser.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:50 AM (Zz0t1)

452 It would be good if CNN personalities had to get second jobs as baristas.

Posted by: Northernlurker at March 15, 2020 11:50 AM (Uu+Jp)

453 Is that Angela Davis? Posted by: Diogenes

Only if you see a sawed-off shotgun taped to a judge's head. You know--the usual tenure requirements.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at March 15, 2020 11:50 AM (Ndje9)

454 420 Bander's comment on Germany bordering nine different countries suprised me. Looking at a map to check that out.

Posted by: pawn at March 15, 2020 11:39 AM (Rmclh)

Deutschland hat neun Nachbarlaender was last week's lesson. Do not trifle with the Bander.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (gd9RK)

to be fair to the Germans, they tried to cut that number down to zero.

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (V2Yro)

455 Speaking of books, I went to a library book sale yesterday and a book titled "Quarantine" caught my eye... nope, it's not about a pandemic. It's a novel by Jim Crace about the 40 days Christ spent in the desert--a "reimagining" of the story (similar to Last Temptation of Christ) in which he's just one of several people going off into the wilderness to find God (or "god" as he spells it) for the "quarantine" period--it does literally mean 40 days... which of course matches the 40 days of Lent. I bought the book and red the first few chapters and so far it's OK but nothing to write home about...

Posted by: Secret Square at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (9WuX0)

456 Well, this is the book thread. It's a little more upscale than most.
Posted by: No One of Consequence
-------

The clue is the 'art work' above the collapsed pile of books in the cartoon, which was brought to my attention by Muldoon.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (xSo9G)

457 well, since the Russian, Ukrainian and Impeachment narratives have blown up in their faces

the MSM needs some cover

and they think they have found it
Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 11:50 AM (rpxSz)

---------

The coronavirus is manna from heaven for those MSM turds.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (XVuno)

458 451 I fully anticipate CNN to find infected people and try to get them into Trump's next presser.
Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:50 AM (Zz0t1)

Trump should announce he plans on visiting RBG, then they'll behave

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (ONvIw)

459 He's not the worst person in the world, so yeah. I'm not going to rag on him too much, it's just... honestly, I didn't realize he was still around, and wasn't expecting him for this one, but here he is.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (hku12)

I had not heard of Dr. Fauci before a couple of weeks ago. Where do you know him from?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (R8APV)

460 Why is it I always forget that eating spicy wings tends to suck the next day......

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (Zz0t1)

461 Huxley's 1984: Ever wonder how a society would surrender themselves to the government and media?

You're living it now.

I'm not going to participate in this exercise in madness in any way. I find it unfortunate that even people that comment on this blog are falling for this gambit to take away your freedom.

Posted by: Sooner at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (Fs5vw)

462 448
>>> 444 Bernie/Biden debate still on.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (QzF6i)

At twenty paces, and seated?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (0ReGO)

+++++What the hell are they going to talk about? Open Borders, National health care? That will go over big during a pandemic. House withdrew the bill prohibiting the President from shutting down the border....quietly.....without notice.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:52 AM (QzF6i)

463 to be fair to the Germans, they tried to cut that number down to zero.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (V2Yro)

---------

"Can't we at least keep Belgium?"

-- Kaiser Wilhelm II

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:52 AM (XVuno)

464 Real Climate Science posted a chart of flu deaths from 2018 this morning, take a gander
Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (MU2MU)

Doesn't matter, Woohan China flu kills you double dead, so it's worse.

I mean, imagine you were living in San Francissy in the early 80s, having all the ghey secks with all your pals, and they start dying of this new plague. All around you, they're dying, and you feel fine. Until you get hit by a bus.

Wouldn't you just feel silly? Like you missed out or something.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (hku12)

465 Not any more! I'm here!
Posted by: Weasel at March 15, 2020 11:47 AM (MVjcR)
---------------

May I interest you in a nice Benelli over/under?

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (WEBkv)

466 It just occurred to me that Hollywood, as far as box office numbers are concerned, is gonna take a real beating. Nobody will be going to movie theaters for a while.

Also the MSM is going to be hit, because advertising is going to tank. Oh, online sales should soar, but that doesn't help mainstream advertising. No ads for games, or events, or restaurants. What does ESPN have to show anymore except Classic Bowl Games?

Posted by: Tom Servo at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (V2Yro)

467
448 >>> 444 Bernie/Biden debate still on.
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (QzF6i)

At twenty paces, and seated?
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (0ReGO)

The tag line with which Bernie should end every one of his utterances this evening: "By the way, Joe, I'm hanging in here awaiting the moment when you snuff it."

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (pNxlR)

468
I had not heard of Dr. Fauci before a couple of weeks ago? Where do you know him from?
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (R8APV)

He was part of the Ebola hearings

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (ONvIw)

469 460 Why is it I always forget that eating spicy wings tends to suck the next day......
Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (Zz0t1)

We need to figure out a way to genetically modify chickens so they can grow 4, or even 8, wings. That's how much I loves me some spicy wings.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (R8APV)

470 Why do the space people have capes?

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (r+sAi)

471
I had not heard of Dr. Fauci before a couple of weeks ago? Where do you know him from?
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (R8APV)

That one time? At band camp?

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (Zz0t1)

472 He's not the worst person in the world, so yeah. I'm not going to rag on him too much, it's just... honestly, I didn't realize he was still around, and wasn't expecting him for this one, but here he is.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:44 AM (hku12)

I had not heard of Dr. Fauci before a couple of weeks ago. Where do you know him from?
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (R8APV)

He's been around since the AIDS days, and every time there's a new one of these things, he pops his head out.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (hku12)

473 This was a light week of reading. No books, just a truncated series of comics from the late '60s.

The series, "Secret Six," was DC's version of "Mission: Impossible." (Aside: DC was then known as National Periodical Publications.) Six people with special talents -- not superpowers -- are forced to go on missions by someone known only as Mockingbird, who can ruin their lives if they refuse orders. The twist is that one of the six is really Mockingbird.

The series lasted only seven issues. I only learned about it through DC's first handbook series. I've acquired six of the issues, and just now sprung to get the remaining issue on eBay.

The concept is better than the execution. The stories are limp but violent. A scene that sticks with me is the "Syndicate" execution of their own torpedo whom the Six have knocked out and made up to look like the execution target. They deliver him to the boss' estate, where hoods chain him to a wall. He comes around just in time to realize he's doomed. He screams. The bottom halves of TWO PAGES are allocated to the gunfire in a single widespread panel. It's grim.

The scripting is sooo ... over the top, even for the era, I would think. Lots of references to the "commies," who were frequent targets for Mockingbird. The Korean War is often cited. Oh, I'll give credit: Stories by E. Nelson Bridwell, a DC workhorse, scripting by Joe Gill (who?).

The art, by Jack Sparling, is outstanding, even now. Many oblong panels.

The Six would have remained in obscurity except that DC brought them back -- and killed them -- in the '90s in "Action Comics Weekly," an anthology title. Six new people, each with some kind of technical prosthesis, are recruited to find out who killed the original Six. Along the way, they uncover the secret of Mockingbird. Lame story, I'm sad to say.

DC retooled the concept a decade later using supervillains. Again, nothing special.

I think you could file "Secret Six" in the category of What Could Have Been. I assume it was canceled because of poor sales and not violence. Shame, the concept deserved so much better.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (u/nim)

474 I had not heard of Dr. Fauci before a couple of weeks ago. Where do you know him from?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (R8APV)

Wasn't he some kind of health functionary for Reagan during the Great Aids Contagion?

Posted by: BignJames at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (X/Pw5)

475 He's not the worst person in the world

-
Maxine Waters is the worst person in the world.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (+y/Ru)

476 Why is it I always forget that eating spicy wings tends to suck the next day......
Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:51 AM (Zz0t1)
--------------

Don't you know you're supposed to eat ice cream after having spicy food?

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (WEBkv)

477 The youngest boy (26) went to the doc yesterday with severe flu like symptoms. The doc all but told him he has the Wuhan flu, but they had only 5 test kits and asked if he wanted to be tested. Being ID would not get him any special treatment or prioritization though. Theyre treating him for "severe bronchitis and pneumonia" and he gets an xray in the morning. He was told to stay home and try to isolate himself from his pregnant wife and his two kids.
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead
----
Will keep your family in my prayers!
Posted by: lin-duh.

Send him to a hotel

Posted by: Jean at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (B7KlG)

478 419 After too many years of putting this off, I am reading the John Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian. I am up to the Letter of Marque. My XH left it behind when he left the marriage almost ten years ago, and every once in a while I find a bookmark that he left - a speech therapy appointment card for the daughter who is now a sophomore in college, ATM receipts from Maryland. How time flies.
Posted by: Nancy at 7000 ft at March 15, 2020 11:42 AM (0tmoY)
______

It's fun to find stuff in like that. In my copy of Brideshead there's a piece of paper on which I was calculating the cost of a date. It would have been from the 70s, and came to over 30.00. So I'm quite sure whom I was taking out; in those days that was a lot.

My copy of Jellicoe's Grand Fleet includes a receipt from an Edinburgh shop for a fur coat. It pretty much proves that the book was originally owned by an RN captain who knew Jellicoe.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (ZbwAu)

479 Who dis is easy and much hotter than Angela Davis.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (bQe8/)

480 We need to figure out a way to genetically modify chickens so they can grow 4, or even 8, wings. That's how much I loves me some spicy wings.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (R8APV)

Pre-breaded.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (Zz0t1)

481 Bernie/Biden debate still on.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:49 AM (QzF6i)

I would love it if Biden walked off camera on that too

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:56 AM (rHt6W)

482 Maxine Waters is the worst person in the world.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (+y/Ru)
------------

hey now!

Posted by: Hillary R Clinton at March 15, 2020 11:56 AM (WEBkv)

483 He's been around since the AIDS days, and every time there's a new one of these things, he pops his head out.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (hku12)

Sounds like it's time to play a little Whack-A-Mole.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:56 AM (R8APV)

484 470 Why do the space people have capes?
Posted by: Guy Mohawk at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (r+sAi)

--------

To clean the bell jars on their heads?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (XVuno)

485 OM, I think Anthony Fauci was the head of the CDC (or whatever similar entity existed at the time) when AIDS arose. He was all over the news then.

Posted by: creeper at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (XxJt1)

486 Pre-breaded.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (Zz0t1)

---
Or we could have them come out and greet you, ala the cow in Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (cfSRQ)

487 They just shut down school in MN starting Wednesday. Fuck these people

Posted by: thathalfrican - sucker free on my phone at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (IYHxL)

488 If you type "dr" into a search engine, Dr Fauci is the number two result that pops up. Three is Dr Phil.

You might not guess what pops up #1 (and maybe you will).

Go ahead, try it.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (hku12)

489 Bernie/Biden debate still on.

What could they possibly debate? They agree about everything.

Posted by: Northernlurker at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (Uu+Jp)

490 I would love it if Biden walked off camera on that too

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:56 AM (rHt6W)

+++++++
Haha. That would be fantastic.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (QzF6i)

491 Don't you know you're supposed to eat ice cream after having spicy food?
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (WEBkv)

Being as wings are usually accompanied by copious amounts of beer, no.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (Zz0t1)

492 I would love it if Biden walked off camera on that too
Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 11:56 AM (rHt6W)

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

If that happens, more than likely it's because Joe forgot why he was there.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (WEBkv)

493 One thing this virus will help define is which media sources are in the tank for China. China has been buying influence with the US media for decades and they will try and use that influence in their campaign to deflect blame from their handling of the outbreak and blame Trump instead.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (ZLI7S)

494 Being as wings are usually accompanied by copious amounts of beer, no.
Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (Zz0t1)
-------------

Beer float?

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (WEBkv)

495 great, i take a test..then what?

Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (0O7c5)

496 You might not guess what pops up #1 (and maybe you will).

Go ahead, try it.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (hku12)
-------

Dr. Who?

Posted by: bluebell at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (/669Q)

497 You might not guess what pops up #1 (and maybe you will).

Go ahead, try it.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (hku12)

Timothy Leary?

Posted by: BignJames at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (X/Pw5)

498 497 You might not guess what pops up #1 (and maybe you will).

Go ahead, try it.

--------

DOCTOR Jill Biden?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 11:59 AM (XVuno)

499
It's fun to find stuff in like that. In my copy
of Brideshead there's a piece of paper on which I was calculating the
cost of a date. It would have been from the 70s, and came to over 30.00.
So I'm quite sure whom I was taking out; in those days that was a lot.

My copy of Jellicoe's Grand Fleet includes a receipt from an
Edinburgh shop for a fur coat. It pretty much proves that the book was
originally owned by an RN captain who knew Jellicoe.

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (ZbwAu)

---
Used/borrowed books also can contain such gems.

Or annotations.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 15, 2020 11:59 AM (cfSRQ)

500 493 One thing this virus will help define is which media sources are in the tank for China. China has been buying influence with the US media for decades and they will try and use that influence in their campaign to deflect blame from their handling of the outbreak and blame Trump instead.
Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (ZLI7S)

I assume that they are using that conference as a reason to try to blame the US. The timing was indeed eerie

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (ONvIw)

501 >>> 493 One thing this virus will help define is which media sources are in the tank for China. China has been buying influence with the US media for decades and they will try and use that influence in their campaign to deflect blame from their handling of the outbreak and blame Trump instead.
Posted by: JackStraw at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (ZLI7S)

Wait, there are some that *aren't*??

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (0ReGO)

502 Who dis is easy and much hotter than Angela Davis.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (bQe8/)

Hotter, and with fewer incidents of accessory to murder as well.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (hku12)

503 Dr. John, the Night Tripper.

Posted by: hogmartin at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (t+qrx)

504 How many dead friends does Maxine have?

Do we even know?

Posted by: klaftern at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (RuIsu)

505 Read Big Fish this week. Quite liked it. Finishing A Confederacy of Dunces and Three Men in a Boat by Jerome Jerome. Not to be confused with Duran Duran.

Posted by: Mel Gibson at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (QZCjk)

506 479 Who dis is easy and much hotter than Angela Davis.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (bQe8/)

She wasn't identified until comment #176, which is very unusual, so I thought was one of the tougher ones. On most Sundays, the 'who dis' gets correctly IDed within the first 30 comments.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (R8APV)

507 According to Drudge I am already dead or soon will be as will everyone reading this. It has been a pleasure knowing you all.

Posted by: Hotgas VIP Member at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (PRl6M)

508 Dr. Pimple Popper

Posted by: Kindltot at March 15, 2020 12:01 PM (6rS3m)

509 You might not guess what pops up #1 (and maybe you will).

Go ahead, try it.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (hku12)

You asked for it.

https://youtu.be/zWEuUo7aEjw

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:01 PM (Zz0t1)

510 I stopped reading Drudge when the Bongino Report started up. I find I have way less anxiety and am much better informed.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 12:01 PM (QzF6i)

511
470 Why do the space people have capes?
Posted by: Guy Mohawk at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (r+sAi)

They live in the pre-Edna Mode world.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 15, 2020 12:01 PM (pNxlR)

512 Fauci was very involved in the AIDS epidemic. Held the same job as now IIRC

Good guy. Went to Regis High in NYC, an all scholarship Jesuit school. Scalia blew the entry and went to Xavier, another NYC Jesuit high school

Gorsuch and Kavanaugh went to Georgetown prep, the DC Jesuit high school

Posted by: Ignoramus at March 15, 2020 12:02 PM (JNxXD)

513 Go ahead, try it.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (hku12)

Guh-ross

Posted by: Jordan61 at March 15, 2020 12:02 PM (6ofTb)

514 Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann

Concerns the murder of William Desmond Taylor and the many characters involved in early Hollywood. Very enjoyable and I can recommend Hollywood Graveyard on YouTube as an interesting complement to the book.

Posted by: Larsen E. Whipsnade a fucking ray of sunshine at March 15, 2020 12:02 PM (bML9A)

515 504 How many dead friends does Maxine have?

Do we even know?
Posted by: klaftern at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (RuIsu)

---------

All that matters is that they all vote Democrat.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 12:02 PM (XVuno)

516 great, i take a test..then what?
Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (0O7c5)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Boy or girl?

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (Zz0t1)

517 Who dis is probably 5'3" but a towering 6' counting the afro.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (WEBkv)

518 Hotter, and with fewer incidents of accessory to murder as well.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (hku12)

Angela Davis is a loathsome, nasty, unrepentant rat bastard commie. Even if I did stumble upon a pic of her reading, I wouldn't use it.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (R8APV)

519 507 I had Chinese for lunch last Thursday and am not dead yet. I should soon pass, however.

Posted by: Mel Gibson at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (QZCjk)

520 Bernie will suggest infecting everyone with ChiFlu

just to make Joe look good

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (rpxSz)

521 489 Bernie/Biden debate still on.

What could they possibly debate? They agree about everything.
Posted by: Northernlurker at March 15, 2020 11:57 AM (Uu+Jp)

Biden : Orangeman Bad

Bernie : Orangeman is worse than Bad.

Biden : Orangeman is so bad I'd give him some Chin music

Bernie: ?????

Posted by: Romeo13 at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (NgKpN)

522 506 479 Who dis is easy and much hotter than Angela Davis.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (bQe8/)

She wasn't identified until comment #176, which is very unusual, so I thought was one of the tougher ones. On most Sundays, the 'who dis' gets correctly IDed within the first 30 comments.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (R8APV)
________

Well, you set a standard for easy "Who Dis?" on Weds, I think.Liz and Marilyn must the be two actresses from my beerless youth who most recognized by today's kids.

Has Louise Brooks ever made the list?

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (ZbwAu)

523 They live in the pre-Edna Mode world.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 15, 2020 12:01 PM (pNxlR)
------------

That is one of the most hilarious setups I've ever seen in a movie.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 12:04 PM (WEBkv)

524 I stopped reading Drudge when the Bongino Report started up. I find I have way less anxiety and am much better informed.
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 12:01 PM (QzF6i)

Haven't been to Drudge since about mid last year.

The Liberty Daily and now, the Bongino report, I don't miss it.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:04 PM (Zz0t1)

525 CORMAC MCCARTHY: He is in the "Maya Angelou class" of writers - he has a legion of "fans" who bought his books and pretend to love reading him, because the critics all praise him. I actually made it all the way through All The Pretty Horses, but his grammar-free writing gimmick is just exhausting, so I will not read any other of his books. Beyond that, the stories are just so crazy violent that I do not enjoy them.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 15, 2020 12:04 PM (d9Cw3)

526 great, i take a test..then what?
Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (0O7c5)

The point I was trying to make above, which didn't go over very well, is nothing different from what one would do if they had THE EXACT SAME SYMPTOMS but from a different infectious virus.

If you have or don't have the China flu, and you feel well. Nice, but don't get cocky. You could still be infectious, so be mindful of others who are at risk, and wash your hands. A lot. If you are sick, stay home and treat yourself, unless your fever is getting too high, or you can't breathe right.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:04 PM (hku12)

527 517 Who dis is probably 5'3" but a towering 6' counting the afro.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (WEBkv)

afro always brings 9 inches,

Posted by: BBC at March 15, 2020 12:05 PM (rpxSz)

528 511
470 Why do the space people have capes?
Posted by: Guy Mohawk at March 15, 2020 11:54 AM (r+sAi)

They live in the pre-Edna Mode world.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 15, 2020 12:01 PM (pNxlR)

Nah, its part of the test for atmosphere.

If its blowing in the wind? Ya gotz wind!

Posted by: Romeo13 at March 15, 2020 12:05 PM (NgKpN)

529

I would love if at the debate the ask at the debate about the Wuhan virus and Biden makes slanty eyes and says, Me no rike this fru

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 12:06 PM (rHt6W)

530
May I interest you in a nice Benelli over/under?
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 11:53 AM (WEBkv)
----
You may enjoy a video I'll have in the gun thread tonight!

Posted by: Weasel at March 15, 2020 12:06 PM (MVjcR)

531 Has Louise Brooks ever made the list?

Posted by: Eeyore at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (ZbwAu)

No, but thanks for the tip.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:06 PM (R8APV)

532 Dr. Detroit?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at March 15, 2020 12:06 PM (aKsyK)

533 Maxine Waters is the worst person in the world.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 11:55 AM (+y/Ru)
------------

hey now!
Posted by: Hillary R Clinton
-----

Dark horses: Nadler and Schiff are fading, but Schumer seems to be moving up.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:06 PM (xSo9G)

534 great, i take a test..then what?
Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 15, 2020 11:58 AM (0O7c5)

Meaning a test for the WuFlu? Well, if you test positive, there are some treatments for it that appear promising. Cloroquine plus zinc, for one. And Remdesivir, from Israeli pharma company, Gilead. The latter is likely to be scarce, so one would have to have a severe case of the Wu's to be allotted some, I would think.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (miJU3)

535 Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 15, 2020 12:04 PM (d9Cw3)

Not for nothing but I did enjoy "The Road" which according to the press we're headed for.

Posted by: thathalfrican - sucker free on my phone at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (IYHxL)

536 Ah but the debate will be who can last the longest, or at least sound sober to another Leftist.

Posted by: Skip at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (ZCEU2)

537 You may enjoy a video I'll have in the gun thread tonight!
Posted by: Weasel at March 15, 2020 12:06 PM (MVjcR)
---------------

I always enjoy the gun thread.

However, I look forward to the video.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (WEBkv)

538 May I interest you in a nice Benelli over/under?
Posted by: blake
-----

Sorry, Italy has been quarantined.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (xSo9G)

539 I went to Costco with my wife. We each filled a cart up with frozen food, meats, canned goods, Raman, etc. Dropped $1000 and now have food for a few weeks that we would need no matter what. Garage freezer is packed as is the pantry. All set for the apocalypse. Well unless power goes out then kinda fucked lol.

It was all very orderly no crazy crowds, nothing unusual. Other than TP, no shortages of anything.

But there was definitely a tenseness in the air. Very quiet, people just shopping without talking. It was eerie in that sense.

Posted by: Hotgas VIP Member at March 15, 2020 12:08 PM (PRl6M)

540 You may enjoy a video I'll have in the gun thread tonight!
Posted by: Weasel
--------

I sense a Biden moment...

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:08 PM (xSo9G)

541 Will the debate be standing, seated or reclining?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at March 15, 2020 12:08 PM (aKsyK)

542 This week. I read True Grit by Charles Portis at the recommendation of Norm MacDonald, who I find insanely funny. MacDonald and lots of the book's blurb said was funny, like Twain.

I found it a well-told story, but not laugh-out-loud funny, as when I read Twain.

Any recommendations for Portis's books?

Posted by: Marylander at March 15, 2020 12:08 PM (olA2s)

543 Sorry, Italy has been quarantined.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (xSo9G)

--------

Moose out front should have told you.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (XVuno)

544 Hotter, and with fewer incidents of accessory to murder as well.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:00 PM (hku12)

Angela Davis is a loathsome, nasty, unrepentant rat bastard commie. Even if I did stumble upon a pic of her reading, I wouldn't use it.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:03 PM (R8APV)

Understood. I can't remember what she looks like, but ugly inside tends to make the ugly come out. I'm not going to do any image searches for her.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (hku12)

545 538 May I interest you in a nice Benelli over/under?
Posted by: blake
-----

Sorry, Italy has been quarantined.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (xSo9G)

Who said anything about a gun?

Posted by: Woman in scanty clothes in Elephant Square at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (NgKpN)

546 Tater is an expert in both journalism and medicine.

Brian Stelter@brianstelter
Surgeon General Jerome Adams used the word "need" while talking to the WH press corps. So I will too. He needs to spend his time educating the public about how to protect each other, not lecturing the press about what's newsworthy.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (+y/Ru)

547 538 May I interest you in a nice Benelli over/under?
Posted by: blake
-----

Sorry, Italy has been quarantined.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (xSo9G)

I want a Mateba auto-revolver. I'm still kicking myself for not picking one up when there were a bunch of them floating around for sale many years back.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (NWiLs)

548 Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (miJU3)

Gilead is American, based in California

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (ONvIw)

549 https://tinyurl.com/jeevesandwoosterdvd

(Link is to ebay)
Posted by: OregonMuse
-----
Ah. Thank you.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:10 PM (xSo9G)

550 Has Louise Brooks ever made the list?

She's made my list.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 12:10 PM (gd9RK)

551 548 Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at March 15, 2020 12:07 PM (miJU3)

Gilead is American, based in California
Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (ONvIw)

They make a nice non-GMO, completely organic, gluten-free balm.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 12:10 PM (NWiLs)

552 Brian Stelter@brianstelter
Surgeon General Jerome Adams used the word "need" while talking to the WH press corps. So I will too. He needs to spend his time educating the public about how to protect each other, not lecturing the press about what's newsworthy.

How about "Don't be such a dick," Brian....

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (Zz0t1)

553 CORMAC MCCARTHY: He is in the "Maya Angelou class"
of writers - he has a legion of "fans" who bought his books and pretend
to love reading him, because the critics all praise him. I actually
made it all the way through All The Pretty Horses, but his grammar-free
writing gimmick is just exhausting, so I will not read any other of his
books. Beyond that, the stories are just so crazy violent that I do not
enjoy them.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 15, 2020 12:04 PM (d9Cw3)

Interesting take there. Maybe he is one of those writers some people claim to love because they think they are supposed to. I had never heard of the guy a decade or so ago. At the time I read 90 percent non fiction. There was a quote about the meaning of war from Blood Meridien in one of the books I was reading. The quote was interesting to say the least and it is well known. That is what got me interested in picking up a McCarthy book.

I like the writing style even while realizing it can be heavy handed.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (n13/j)

554 541 Will the debate be standing, seated or reclining?
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at March 15, 2020 12:08 PM (aKsyK)

They'll be in hospital beds. With IV drips.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (R8APV)

555 546 Tater is an expert in both journalism and medicine.

Brian Stelter@brianstelter
Surgeon General Jerome Adams used the word "need" while talking to the WH press corps. So I will too. He needs to spend his time educating the public about how to protect each other, not lecturing the press about what's newsworthy.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (+y/Ru)

Yes, because reporters are smarter than the Doctors.

/facepalm

Posted by: Romeo13 at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (NgKpN)

556 I went to Costco with my wife. We each filled a cart up with frozen food, meats, canned goods, Raman, etc. Dropped $1000 and now have food for a few weeks that we would need no matter what. Garage freezer is packed as is the pantry. All set for the apocalypse. Well unless power goes out then kinda fucked lol.

It was all very orderly no crazy crowds, nothing unusual. Other than TP, no shortages of anything.

But there was definitely a tenseness in the air. Very quiet, people just shopping without talking. It was eerie in that sense.
Posted by: Hotgas VIP Member at March 15, 2020 12:08 PM (PRl6M)

Heading to the grocery store later today, I do regret not bringing our large freezer with us when we moved (I miss having a basement, but it does mean less clutter).

I haven't heard how produce is faring. My guess is the panic buyers are going right past it.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (hku12)

557 Tater is an expert in both journalism and medicine.

Brian Stelter@brianstelter
Surgeon General Jerome Adams used the word "need" while talking to the WH press corps. So I will too. He needs to spend his time educating the public about how to protect each other, not lecturing the press about what's newsworthy.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (+y/Ru)

----------

Hah. When you're already doing a stellar job, you don't need to hear advice from anyone.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 12:12 PM (XVuno)

558 I like movies from Cormac books. Reading him is too exhausting for me.

Posted by: Hotgas VIP Member at March 15, 2020 12:12 PM (PRl6M)

559 I haven't heard how produce is faring. My guess is the panic buyers are going right past it.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (hku12)

Went to the store Friday night.

There was a run on Cilantro......none to be found.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:13 PM (Zz0t1)

560
How about "Don't be such a dick," Brian....
Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (Zz0t1)
-----------------

Insty is always mentioning "worst political class ever" but, I think we've found a new contender for "worst" as in "worst press class ever."

People like Stelter are vile yet part of the public hang on every word, no matter how irresponsible, that come out of his mouth.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 12:13 PM (WEBkv)

561 Looks like the cure for ChiFlu is Ebola

Posted by: REDACTED at March 15, 2020 12:13 PM (rpxSz)

562 afro always brings 9 inches,

Posted by: BBC
====
Fletch went from 6'-5" to 6'9" with the afro, if I remember the movie correctly.

Posted by: 2009Refugee - Thought Indifferent at March 15, 2020 12:13 PM (8AONa)

563 The Discoverers was one of the most influential books I've ever read. It totally changed my view of the world. Rarely a day goes by where I haven't recalled some tidbit from it.

A warning, however. Boorstin either revealed enormous bias or made a nearly unfathomable error when writing his chapter about the medieval opinion of the Earth being flat. This has been widely disproved, before Boorstin and since. (for goodness sake, the ancient Greeks knew the world was round; you don't have to sail very far to piece that together). So I suspect this is anti-religious bias on Boorstin's part. The good news is, you can skip that chapter and have an otherwise superior read.

I got about two chapters into the Creators and was so put off by the tone I never picked it up again.

Posted by: Bruno, a lurk story at March 15, 2020 12:14 PM (6qtm/)

564 Sorry, Italy has been quarantined.

-
Italy is closed. Gondolier out front should've told you.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 12:14 PM (+y/Ru)

565 He needs to spend his time educating the public about how to protect each other, not lecturing the press about what's newsworthy.

We already KNOW that, douchebag.

And you wouldn't know "news" if it kicked you in the baby nuts.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:14 PM (Zz0t1)

566 Just because:

https://hooktube.com/watch?v=oBGbrFlWwsE

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (miJU3)

567 repent

Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (0O7c5)

568 Sorry, Italy has been quarantined.

********

Mussolini out front shoulda told ya!

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (m45I2)

569 Tater is an expert in both journalism and medicine.

Brian Stelter@brianstelter
Surgeon General Jerome Adams used the word "need" while talking to the WH press corps. So I will too. He needs to spend his time educating the public about how to protect each other, not lecturing the press about what's newsworthy.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 12:09 PM (+y/Ru)

One of THE most underappreciated contributions to society in the 21st century, is Mark Dice, for making it possible to ONLY hear a Brian Stepder's voice as a high pitched falsetto.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (hku12)

570 Gov Cuomo tells Trump to mobilize the army.

Posted by: LOL at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (AXS9h)

571 We need to close all federal, state and local guvmint offices for the next 18 months. Waive any and all fees and taxes until the all clear is sounded.

For the chilluns.....

Make it so.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (Z+IKu)

572 I've been reading a fun SF novel by Michael Flynn, _The January Dancer_. No actual dancing involved: the title refers to an alien artifact, which is the MacGuffin of the story that a whole bunch of colorful space-frontier characters are chasing after. Classic old space opera, very reminiscent of Bertram Chandler or Mike Resnick.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (DKCFT)

573 Sunday TP Report -

- Hit three local stores and all are completely wiped out of toilet paper, tissues, napkins, and any similar paper product except the 'Happy Birthday' ones (which will be a nice touch for EOTWAWKI).

- All bread gone. Except raison bread and a couple of packs of whateverfellonfloor bagels. Nobody gonna tough that.

- Lunch meat and sliced cheese - gone. Block cheese untouched. So f you can use a knife, you are good to go.

- All water gone. People are even taking the distilled water. The high end bottled water looks like normal stock.

Who buys that ritzy water anyway? People with money. How do these people have money - they know things... they know something is up and are not panicking. What do they know?

Posted by: Burnt Toast at March 15, 2020 12:16 PM (1g7ch)

574 Heading to the grocery store later today, I do
regret not bringing our large freezer with us when we moved (I miss
having a basement, but it does mean less clutter).

I haven't heard how produce is faring. My guess is the panic buyers are going right past it.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (hku12)

From the stores I've been to produce is more or less in stock depending on what it is. Apples, bananas, oranges are there potatoes not so much. In the meat department, beef, chicken and pork are gone but fish wasn't touched.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 12:16 PM (rHt6W)

575 562 afro always brings 9 inches,

Posted by: BBC
====
Fletch went from 6'-5" to 6'9" with the afro, if I remember the movie correctly.
Posted by: 2009Refugee - Thought Indifferent at March 15, 2020 12:13 PM (8AONa)

thank you for proving my point

Posted by: BBC at March 15, 2020 12:16 PM (rpxSz)

576 542 Read The Dog of the South. His best work.

Posted by: Mel Gibson at March 15, 2020 12:16 PM (QZCjk)

577 You didn't see that little hint in small print directly under the photo, did you?
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 11:40 AM (R8APV)

***

**Hangs head in shame**

Alas. I did not.

**slinks off**

Posted by: Diogenes at March 15, 2020 12:17 PM (axyOa)

578 A warning, however. Boorstin either revealed enormous bias or made a nearly unfathomable error when writing his chapter about the medieval opinion of the Earth being flat. This has been widely disproved, before Boorstin and since.

-------

In Columbus' day, there were probably as many Flat Earthers in the West as there are today.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 12:17 PM (XVuno)

579 I have loaded my Kindle with several hundred books to keep me reading through the chicom plague. I shall start with Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu collection. Fuck you China!

Posted by: Larsen E. Whipsnade a fucking ray of sunshine at March 15, 2020 12:17 PM (bML9A)

580 Except raison bread

********

There's no raison d'eat that.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (m45I2)

581
**Hangs head in shame**

Alas. I did not.

**slinks off**
Posted by: Diogenes at March 15, 2020 12:17 PM (axyOa)

You go to the box.

You feel shame.

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (Zz0t1)

582 There was a run on Cilantro......none to be found.

Posted by: Sponge a

Bananas...go figure.

Posted by: Some rat in the swamp at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (kkxOW)

583 I haven't heard how produce is faring. My guess is the panic buyers are going right past it.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (hku12)

Went to the store Friday night.

There was a run on Cilantro......none to be found.
Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:13 PM (Zz0t1)

Which is fine. If one misses the taste of cilantro, you can always pour dish soap on your food.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (hku12)

584 so they could call this whole China Italy flu thing, Marco Polo's Revenge.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (n13/j)

585 Lard-King Pritzker about to shut down restaurants and bars in Illinois...that'll push more people to panic-buy at grocery stores, not just in Illinois. This crisis gives governors a lot of power of oneupsmanship.

So when unemployment rates skyrocket and vacancy rates skyrocket and state revenues crater, where do you think Uncle Sucker's aid package is going. All this so we can buy Grandma one more year in the nursing home.

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (DY3v8)

586 562 afro always brings 9 inches,

*zzzziiiip*

Dammit.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (NWiLs)

587 Mussolini out front shoulda told ya!
Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (m45I2)

--------

Damn. How did I miss that one?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (XVuno)

588 Well, time to brave the outside world and head to the dump.

Ahem, no, there was no "take" in that sentence.

Even I have sharing limits.

Later.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing
at March 15, 2020 12:19 PM (WEBkv)

589 Sub in Ivory Soap for the cilantro, I wouldn't notice.

Posted by: klaftern at March 15, 2020 12:19 PM (RuIsu)

590 Holy crap, it looks like we're going to hit 600 comments. I think that's a record for the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:19 PM (R8APV)

591 There was a run on Cilantro......none to be found.

Posted by: Sponge a

Bananas...go figure.

Posted by: Some rat in the swamp at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (kkxOW)

There is a run on soap. Some think Cilantro tastes like soap. So maybe some people got their wires crossed.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:19 PM (n13/j)

592 I actually like cilantro. Is it on my list of apocalypse needs?

No.....

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:20 PM (Zz0t1)

593 I'm old enough to remember when I was immensely pleased when we had 100 comments on the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:20 PM (R8APV)

594 Holy crap, it looks like we're going to hit 600 comments. I think that's a record for the book thread.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:19 PM (R8APV)

How many are about books, tho....

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:20 PM (Zz0t1)

595 Disaster Capitalism In Full Swing As Kid Caught Selling Squirts Of Hand Sanitizer And Americans Go Berserk At Stores

-
Old and busted: lemonade stands.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (+y/Ru)

596 Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:11 PM (hku12)

From the stores I've been to produce is more or less in stock depending on what it is. Apples, bananas, oranges are there potatoes not so much. In the meat department, beef, chicken and pork are gone but fish wasn't touched.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 12:16 PM (rHt6W)

Hmmm, second look at tofurkey?

Yeah, no.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (hku12)

597 Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:20 PM (R8APV)

it's all you O.M.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (n13/j)

598 Mussolini out front shoulda told ya!
Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 12:15 PM (m45I2)

----------

He's been hanging around out there for days.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (XVuno)

599 600

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (Zz0t1)

600
Nood. Nothing but CONCERN!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (pNxlR)

601 Damn

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (Zz0t1)

602 Holy crap, it looks like we're going to hit 600 comments. I think that's a record for the book thread.

*******

That's the good news.

The bad news is we stopped talking about books 537 comments ago.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (m45I2)

603 They make a nice non-GMO, completely organic, gluten-free balm.
Posted by: Insomniac
--------------

You put the balm on? Who told you to put the balm on? I didn't tell you to put the balm on. Why'd you put the balm on?

Posted by: Jackie Chiles at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (xSo9G)

604 So when unemployment rates skyrocket and vacancy rates skyrocket and state revenues crater, where do you think Uncle Sucker's aid package is going. All this so we can buy Grandma one more year in the nursing home.
Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (DY3v

My Son is a low level manager at an upscale restaurant in Denver.

His hours were just cut in HALF.

I'll be sending a check to help with his rent.

Real people are being hurt by this hysteria.

Posted by: Romeo13 at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (NgKpN)

605 How many are about books, tho....

Posted by: Sponge at March 15, 2020 12:20 PM (Zz0t1)

a lot from my reading.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (n13/j)

606 593 I'm old enough to remember when I was immensely pleased when we had 100 comments on the book thread.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:20 PM (R8APV)

It's my favorite thread of the week, I also enjoy pets, guns and gardening.

Posted by: CN at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (ONvIw)

607 Which is fine. If one misses the taste of cilantro, you can always pour dish soap on your food.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:18 PM (hku12)

Sub in Ivory Soap for the cilantro, I wouldn't notice.

Posted by: klaftern at March 15, 2020 12:19 PM (RuIsu)

I've read that cilantro tastes soapy to about 50% of people that taste it....and me too.

Posted by: BignJames at March 15, 2020 12:22 PM (X/Pw5)

608 Re All the Pretty Horses, I kept wondering if Blevins was some sort of Demon being hunted by the gods. It turns out he is what he said he was a Bowling Pin setter. I found that quite a humorous trick by Cormac.

Posted by: Mel Gibson at March 15, 2020 12:22 PM (QZCjk)

609 Some think Cilantro tastes like soap.

Mutant retards. It's a genetic thing. That should be the first test for The Culling.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at March 15, 2020 12:22 PM (gd9RK)

610
That's the good news.

The bad news is we stopped talking about books 537 comments ago.
Posted by: Muldoon
---------

Hey, I was on topic until you pointed out the upscale artwork in the cartoon.

*pouts*

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:23 PM (xSo9G)

611 590
Holy crap, it looks like we're going to hit 600 comments. I think that's a record for the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor

Perhaps to help. Years ago I went on a kick to read "The Classics." You know, some of the classics were drek!

Posted by: Some rat in the swamp at March 15, 2020 12:23 PM (kkxOW)

612 There is a run on soap. Some think Cilantro tastes like soap. So maybe some people got their wires crossed.
Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:19 PM (n13/j)

That would be hilarious: "We don't need no stinkin' soap, we can make our own!!"

Posted by: BurtTC at March 15, 2020 12:23 PM (hku12)

613 590 Holy crap, it looks like we're going to hit 600 comments. I think that's a record for the book thread.

I'm guessing this is church for a lot of us today. I usually catch up with this thread much later.

Posted by: Bruno, a lurk story at March 15, 2020 12:24 PM (6qtm/)

614
Mutant retards. It's a genetic thing. That should be the first test for The Culling.

Posted by: Bandersnatch

As one of those...Pack heat and a lunch.

Posted by: Some rat in the swamp at March 15, 2020 12:24 PM (kkxOW)

615 The bananas were completely gone when I was at Trader Joe's a couple of days ago. Surprising when they go bad so quickly. Plenty of apples, pears, avocados.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 12:24 PM (QzF6i)

616 542 Any recommendations for Portis's books?
Posted by: Marylander at March 15, 2020 12:08 PM (olA2s)

I listened to audio version of Dog of the South, and found that one amusing.

Posted by: April at March 15, 2020 12:25 PM (OX9vb)

617 Hey, I was on topic until you pointed out the upscale artwork in the cartoon.

*pouts*
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:23 PM (xSo9G)
--------

And is that a slice of pie under the nightstand?

Posted by: bluebell at March 15, 2020 12:25 PM (/669Q)

618 Hey, I tried talking about books.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 12:26 PM (QzF6i)

619 CORMAC MCCARTHY: He is in the "Maya Angelou class" of writers - he has a legion of "fans" who bought his books and pretend to love reading him, because the critics all praise him.

Welp I guess I've been pigeonholed. Maybe I should start coming down hard on some of the dogshit that gets commented on here. Is that how you want this to go?

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 12:26 PM (y7DUB)

620 The bananas were completely gone when I was at
Trader Joe's a couple of days ago. Surprising when they go bad so
quickly. Plenty of apples, pears, avocados.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice)

Milk hoarders are in for a surprise.

Posted by: Some rat in the swamp at March 15, 2020 12:27 PM (kkxOW)

621 -
Old and busted: lemonade stands.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
------

I expect to encounter some shady character on a street corner, opening his overcoat, exposing rolls of TP. "Pssst, wanna buy some good stuff?"

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:27 PM (CDGwz)

622 I don't get it. I really don't get it. Why the panic? Just this morning I observed to Dr. Mrs. T. that people staying home will probably give Amazon's business a big boost. Her reply: "Assuming they still have delivery drivers."

Huh? I mean, HUH? Even if we get this at Italian levels (21,000 cases out of 60 million people) that's a THIRTIETH OF A PERCENT of the population sick.

UPS has about half a million employees. In a full-bore Wuhan outbreak they might lose . . . two hundred people. I'm sure they have many more than that on the temporary hire list for the holidays.

The bug is not the problem. The panic is the problem.

The people promoting the panic understand this.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 15, 2020 12:27 PM (DKCFT)

623 And is that a slice of pie under the nightstand?
Posted by: bluebell
---------

Cherry, I'm thinking.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:28 PM (CDGwz)

624 The bananas were completely gone when I was at
Trader Joe's a couple of days ago. Surprising when they go bad so
quickly. Plenty of apples, pears, avocados.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 15, 2020 12:24 PM (QzF6i)

Cold medicine. Lots of cold medicine are in the stores but no toilet paper or paper towels. If this produces cold or flu like symptoms you would think people would want cold medicine on hand

Posted by: TheQuietMan at March 15, 2020 12:28 PM (rHt6W)

625 i wonder if the children conceived in the quarantine will be genetically superior or inferior......

Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 15, 2020 12:29 PM (0O7c5)

626 i wonder if the children conceived in the quarantine will be genetically superior or inferior......
Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 15, 2020 12:29 PM (0O7c5)
--------

In 9 months and 13 years they will be Quaranteens (not my own).

Posted by: bluebell at March 15, 2020 12:30 PM (/669Q)

627 Recommend Big Fish. Short read with a long after life. Lots of laughs as well.

Posted by: Mel Gibson at March 15, 2020 12:30 PM (QZCjk)

628 Welp I guess I've been pigeonholed. Maybe I should
start coming down hard on some of the dogshit that gets commented on
here. Is that how you want this to go?

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 12:26 PM (y7DUB)

I think he was just saying that about some. There are many writers people claim to read and enjoy but don't. I am not speaking for the guy but I don't think he meant to offend us. We are tough anyway. I know I have loved the McCarthy books I have read. And I will be picking up Sutree soon per your recco.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:30 PM (n13/j)

629 This TP Apocalypse is driven by hysterical woman. Buy a sponge and tie it to a stick. Jeebus.

Posted by: Mel Gibson at March 15, 2020 12:32 PM (QZCjk)

630 I think he was just saying that about some. There are many writers people claim to read and enjoy but don't.
------
*hmm*

Oh, I know. Alice Walker.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:32 PM (xSo9G)

631 Is disaster really looming, just around the corner, at the next thread? I'm afraid to look.

*dons EPA suit*

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:34 PM (xSo9G)

632 Fair enough, Quint, but as a rule I try not to come down hard on what people enjoy here that I couldn't care less about unless I happen to be reading it at the time with a specific peeve. I know McCarthy isn't for everyone; that isn't breaking news.

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 12:36 PM (y7DUB)

633 Fair enough, Quint, but as a rule I try not to come
down hard on what people enjoy here that I couldn't care less about
unless I happen to be reading it at the time with a specific peeve. I
know McCarthy isn't for everyone; that isn't breaking news.

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 12:36 PM (y7DUB)

agreed. In general it is bad form. But I thought that was just his opinion in and not aimed at particular readers.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:38 PM (n13/j)

634 Captain Hate: My apologies. There are people that love all sorts of writing that doesn't interest me. Those authors clearly do a good job satisfying their readers. I know several people who are "fans" of authors theyve never actually read. I know several folks who claim Angelou, Rushdie, and McCarthhy as favorite authors even though they haven't read 5 pages of their work. I may have meant to mock them, but I ended up insulting actual fans of McCarthy and that was inapporpriate.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 15, 2020 12:40 PM (d9Cw3)

635 Just finished Long Range, the latest Joe Pickett novel from CJ Boxx. Moving over from science fiction as a main entertainment vehicle has been an adjustment, but the ability/willingness to suspend dis-belief has been helpful.

Posted by: motionview at March 15, 2020 12:48 PM (pYQR/)

636 it's all you O.M.
Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 12:21 PM (n13/j)

No, it's ace. He has been industriously building his audience for years. I just hijack it for a couple of hours on Sundays.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:48 PM (tKkWV)

637 623 And is that a slice of pie under the nightstand?
Posted by: bluebell
---------
Cherry, I'm thinking.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 15, 2020 12:28 PM (CDGwz)

Yes, that is one of Dan Pirarro's trademarks. There's always a slice of pie somewhere in each Bizarro cartoon.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 12:50 PM (tKkWV)

638 Holy crap, people, The Discoverers is a terrible book. I wrote a blogpost on this a couple years ago:

http://agentintellect.blogspot.com/2017/08/blowing-up-flat-earth.html

Posted by: Jim S. at March 15, 2020 12:51 PM (ynUnH)

639
For perspective... cause good numbers are VERY hard to come by-
2018-2019 Flu season in Louisiana, (May-April)-
14,000 hospitalized, 1400 dead.
So far, Covid-19 only, 77 confirmed cases (not hospitalized, just confirmed)- 1 dead.
Mayor shut down public spaces in New Orleans, and a wedding we were going to next week is called off..
Folks, this isn't about risk. The numbers don't add up to undue risk, much less panic.
What the hell is this really about?

Posted by: MarkY at March 15, 2020 12:52 PM (PHNtd)

640 We're cool, Buck.

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 15, 2020 12:55 PM (y7DUB)

641 All this back and forth for two Sundays in a row has got to inspire some people to give McCarthy a try.

Posted by: Quint at March 15, 2020 01:00 PM (n13/j)

642 Our library system is also closed, but we can still request items, and an employee will bring them out when they arrive.

This will work for me, as I'm going through a lot of CDs in place of radio. And I have plenty of books that I own but haven't cracked.

Still, this shutdown had better end quickly.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 15, 2020 01:01 PM (u/nim)

643 testing my vpn

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 01:17 PM (ywPOX)

644 apparently, it works.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at March 15, 2020 01:18 PM (ywPOX)

645
apparently, it works.
Posted by: OregonMuse,

Yeah, but it gave you the POX (hash)

Posted by: MarkY at March 15, 2020 01:18 PM (PHNtd)

646 Holy crap, it looks like we're going to hit 600 comments. I think that's a record for the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor

I once caught a Northern Pike in my underwear.......

Posted by: JT at March 15, 2020 01:25 PM (arJlL)

647 That be Stokely Carmichael

Posted by: Iman at March 15, 2020 01:31 PM (Y8JQ4)

648 Can someone remind me (provide a link) to the article Ace Posted a short while back covering the debunking of the Plastic hysteria that is all the rage these days?

I had book marked it myself and have lost it. I have a forum where I might be able to turn on some lights for the uninformed.

Posted by: TSgt Ciz at March 15, 2020 01:41 PM (af5xa)

649 Well, I'm here earlier than usual because church was canceled. Pastor is sick.

No, I don't think it's Wuhu Flu.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 15, 2020 01:54 PM (u/nim)

650 Evening stuff is canceled, time to get cozy with some books.

Posted by: goodluckduck at March 15, 2020 02:00 PM (V8zw+)

651 Aretha Franklin ....

Posted by: Ruth at March 15, 2020 02:27 PM (T2aay)

652 Italy has moose?

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 15, 2020 02:37 PM (u/nim)

653 To Marylander @542, I think pretty much anything by Charles Portis is worth reading. Two titles I would particularly recommend are "Gringos" (about an American expatriate in Mexico who runs a variety of hustles to get by) and "Masters of Atlantis" (an amusing look at secret societies promising "Ancient Wisdom").

Everything by Portis is current available for Kindle for only $1.99 per title. I presume this is a promotion connected to his recent death.

My father read "True Grit" to our family when that was first published. Myself, I think it is a true American classic.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at March 15, 2020 03:40 PM (9AOND)

654 @418 mama aj: I like Laurence Dahners, Nathan Lowell and Doug Boulter, among others. and Celia Hayes (Sgt Mom) books are all good, but not KU.

Posted by: yara at March 15, 2020 03:44 PM (rde8g)

655 Has anyone noted that Space Dude appears to be casually pointing a blaster at Space Babe? Bad form.

Posted by: IronDave at March 15, 2020 03:46 PM (k3crU)

656 I shall re-write the entirety of "War and Peace"...

...in limerick form...

Posted by: Muldoon at March 15, 2020 10:57 AM (m45I2)

Napoleon went to MoscowA half million Frenchmen in towBut of those who startedTen thousand departedThe rest were left dead in the snow

Posted by: cool breeze at March 15, 2020 04:35 PM (UGKMd)

657 Those pants are fine.

Posted by: A BLT sandwich at March 15, 2020 05:30 PM (Tnijr)

658 I'm late to the party today and haven't read the comments yet, so these books may already have been recommended.

A while ago I really got into reading about pandemics and epidemics. I highly recommend The Great Influenza and A Journal of the Plague Year. Both are really good. The Influenza book is very readable, as is the Defoe book, but it may take a while to get used to the early writing style with Journal of the Plague Year.

Other books I can recommend:
"The Ghost Map" by Steven Johnson, about London's cholera epidemic in 1854.
"The Speckled Monster" by Jennifer Lee Carrell, about smallpox

Posted by: biancaneve at March 15, 2020 07:15 PM (hkMx0)

659 How do they find models willing to wear those pants?

Posted by: Nancy at March 15, 2020 07:20 PM (cHSMy)

660 "How do they find models willing to wear those pants?"

Heroin is a helluva drug.

Posted by: A sinister midget at March 15, 2020 07:48 PM (Tnijr)

661 Speaking of plagues, I'm about 150 pages in on "The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire" (by Kyle Harper) and it's quite good so far. In a nutshell,it's about how the various contagions (Antonine, Cyprian and Justinian Plagues) and the end of the Roman Climate Optimum facilitated the fall of the Empire.

Definite recommend.

Posted by: Corncat at March 15, 2020 08:09 PM (V2CIU)

662 Thank you for posting about the Coimbra Library. Our family went to Portugal in 1949 so my mother could do research there.

Posted by: Roland Hirsch at March 15, 2020 09:32 PM (oMkPq)

663 Re-reading the Mitch Rapp Series by Vince Flynn... It is almost like reading 'current events' regarding the interference of elected officials and federal employees into our lives preventing the security of the country.

Posted by: Danimal28 at March 16, 2020 11:29 AM (CaOGm)

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