Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-19-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the Father's Day edition of the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (with complimentary hair in your dirt). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than the economic predictions of Paul Ehrlich. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on your buttered toast, and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning? More importantly, for all you fathers out there, what are you reading to your children?

PIC NOTE

Today's pic is of the Old Town Library in Fort Collins, Colorado. I used to live there when I was a kid. I have many fond memories of my parents taking me to the library. There were no drag queen story hours in those days. It was a far more innocent time. The library has been renovated and updated over the years, so I'm sure it looks completely different on the inside than I remember. It's located in the "old town" section of Fort Collins, so there are numerous historical buildings located nearby, including a few old cabins from frontier times.

BOOKS FOR FUN

Comment: I confess that I read quite a few books in the Choose Your Own Adventure series, many of them checked out from the Old Town Library in Fort Collins, CO. I also enjoyed the TSR Endless Quest series based on Dungeons and Dragons.

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Comment: I remember seeing the Lone Wolf books, but I never read any of them. It's a shame, too, because I probably would have enjoyed them when I was younger. They are basically a solo role-playing game module in paperback form. Ah, what we had to do to keep ourselves entertained before computer role-playing games really took off!

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J.R.R. Tolkien seems to have been a pretty cool dad. Many kids write to Santa Claus (or "Father Christmas") every year asking for presents. How many kids receive handwritten letters from Father Christmas? With illustrations? Tolkien built a whole world up there at the North Pole with interesting characters like Polar Bear, who is well-meaning but constantly getting into trouble. He also describes an ongoing war between the Elves who just want to make toys and Goblins that want to steal them. Because this is Tolkien, he invented not one but TWO languages (an "Arctic" language similar to Elvish and a Goblin alphabet).

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BOOKS BY MORONS

Hey Perfessor,
My short story "The Kingman Deal" has been recently published in the horror anthology, The Devil You Know Better, currently available on Amazon "The Kingman Deal" takes place in the early 60's at a resort in the Catskills (commonly known as the Borscht Belt). The story's about a private eye--a fixer--hired by a famous television comedian to seek out a mysterious stranger with whom the zany, madcap TV star has made a shady deal. I spent weeks prior to writing the piece reading the likes of Chandler, Hammett, and Spillane to pick up the rhythms of the hard-boiled style, and think it's paid off.
I also have a Halloween-themed horror story, "Pick Trick," coming out later this summer in Cirsova magazine. Cirsova has also just bought yet another story, "Starring Hedy Lemarr", which relates how Stanley Kubrick, Andy Warhol, and Hedy Lemarr save the world from a murderous, mind-controlling alien invader. What can I say? My head goes to some strange places.
I'm on a roll and couldn't be happier.
Thanks,
Troy. (horde nic: troyriser)

Comment: This sounds like an anthology I would very much enjoy reading. Stories about meetings with the Devil have a very long history. Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1592) is one of the more famous examples. "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) by Stephen Vincent Benét is another classic American tale. We, as a species, have a fascination with evil. Lucifer is often portrayed as "cool" or "sexy," as that is how he seduces mortals from the path of righteousness.

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I wanted to let you and the Moron Horde know that we're running a big summer book sale.
Check out the Super Summer Book Sale running now through Tuesday June 21. Indie and small-press authors have banded together to offer over 160 ebooks priced at $0.99 with many titles free. The sale includes over sixty works new to the sale, and Terror House Press has joined in offering their entire catalog of ebooks for $0.99. Science fiction, fantasy, and adventure from established and emerging talents--there's something for everyone.
Author Larry Correia recently explained, "There's a lot of really good stuff out there that isn't woke garbage. There's a lot of amazing art from brilliant people that's more focused on entertaining that shoving message down your throat... [T]here are lots of great authors out there who get zilch attention, in an industry that actively black balls them for wrongthink." [https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1533838153747865601.html].
So support non-woke creators and get yourself some great summer reading books for authors who don't hate you, today!
Oregon Muse left some big shoes to fill, and I'm glad to see you carrying on the Sunday Morning Book Thread.
--Hans G. Schantz aetherczar.com

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Although Frank Herbert is best known for his Dune books, there are 2 others that I'd recommend: Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment are two novels about his Bureau of Sabotage.
Herbert was a huge critic of government and government over reach. Wonder what he would say today if he were still alive.
-SLV
Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at June 12, 2022 09:16 AM (SEa82)

Comment: Probably a better question for Frank Herbert would be what he thinks of the additional stories set in the Dune universe that his son Brian Herbert has co-written with Kevin J. Anderson. By all accounts, they are of somewhat mixed quality. Though from what I hear, the last three Dune books written by Frank Herbert are also not quite as good as his original trilogy. Herbert was a fairly prolific author, writing both numerous novels and plenty of short stories.

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I finally finished From Emperor to Citizen, the memoirs of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, China's last emperor.
The first part of the book is the best, and I really enjoyed the pace at which it moves and the conversational writing style. It's like you're sitting there having a chat with the guy. He's telling the story as it unfolds, but digresses to explain this thing or that thing and then moves on.
After he is captured by the Communists, the style of writing shifts as the heavy hand of censorship and propaganda takes over. The last third in particular was a dull slog as Pu Yi explains how he learned everything he did was terrible and Communism made him a New Man who was better in every way.
There's also a bunch of stories about how he's seeing nothing but healthy, happy children, everyone has plenty to eat, industry is thriving, etc. Note that the years he's describing were those of the Great Leap Forward and incredible suffering in China.
Particularly amusing were the accounts of the freed Japanese prisoners who finally got to go home in the 1950s only to write back about how the evil Americans are driving their tanks all over Japan, ruining it.
Their sons are gangsters and their daughters are whores to the US G.I.s and all of the traditional ways are gone!
By the way, there is no small amount of tension between Pu Yi talking about tradition and then whipsawing about how bad it was. Obviously this is still a problem in China today.
All in all, I highly recommend it. The shortcomings of the conclusion don't take away from the fascinating portrait of life in the Forbidden City. Pu Yi himself is a tragic figure, even pathetic. He's proud, arrogant, cruel and cowardly - in large part because that was how he was raised. The window into Imperial government is fascinating. I picked up my copy used, but if you can track one down and are interested in the topic, get it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 12, 2022 09:28 AM (llXky)

Comment: I don't know that I have much to add to A.H. Lloyd's analysis. First hand accounts of what life is like in Communist countries are fascinating, in a horrifying way. The Chinese way of thinking really is foreign to most Westerners. We just don't understand them. Nor do they fully understand us.

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I just started reading Weird West author Joe R. Lansdale's short novel Zeppelins West, about Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show on its world tour via their airship named "Old Paint". The historical figures are familiar, if steampuncked: f'rinstance Cody's still-living head is preserved in a jar of whiskey and placed atop a Steam Man body for mobility (see: https://tinyurl.com/4kz2zuwd ).
The book is illustrated. Why aren't more books illustrated these days?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 12, 2022 09:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

Comment: The "weird west" genre is an interesting mash-up of steampunk, cosmic horror, western, and anything else you want to throw in the mix. I enjoy a good weird west story and I have an anthology by Joe R. Lansdale around someplace. All Hail Eris makes a good point about illustrations. More books should be illustrated these days. Yes, it makes books more expensive, but you can really enhance the story with good illustrations. The Stormlight Archive, for instance, has some phenomenal artwork included as part of the story (supposedly drawn by one of the characters).

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One of the best non-fiction books I've read is The Prize. A history of the oil industry, it doubles as an insightful history of the 20th Century. Oil affects everything.
Posted by: Ignoramus at June 14, 2022 07:43 AM (i0slg)

Comment: Ignoramus posted this on an evening thread the other day, but I snatched it up for the Sunday Morning Book Thread. As we are seeing on a daily basis right now, OIL IS LIFE! Without oil, our current way of life simply isn't possible. Yet, the ignoramuses in government think they know better. Idiots.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (224 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton -- Book 3 in The Void Trilogy.

Complete Calvin and Hobbes (Boxed Set) -- A classic comic and very enjoyable.

The Devil You Know Better edited by R. J. Carter

Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) edited by Susan D. Blum -- This is for my day job. We're hosting a summer book reading program with several of our faculty. We will be discussing this book, which looks at alternative forms of assessing students instead of assigning them a grade.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 06-12-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog at June 19, 2022 09:00 AM (6XoNy)

2 Good morning Perfessor!
Thanks for the Book Thread.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 09:01 AM (79xUb)

3 Tolle Lege
Slowly getting to end of Richard Pipes Russian Revolution, not to the point where the Leninists enslave millions and murder millions more

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2022 09:01 AM (2JoB8)

4 Tolle Lege.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 19, 2022 09:02 AM (PiwSw)

5 Yay! Sunday and 6:00 am: best time of the weekend. And now I have to go get ready for early mass.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 09:02 AM (3qAOE)

6 Slowly getting to end of Richard Pipes Russian Revolution, not to the point where the Leninists enslave millions and murder millions more
Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2022 09:01 AM (2JoB

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When you get to the end, would you mind sending me a mini-review? I think it would be a good book to feature on the Moron Recommendations...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 09:03 AM (K5n5d)

7 Slowing trudging through SPQR. You can't read this thing in a day, ya know!

Posted by: Biden's Dog at June 19, 2022 09:05 AM (6XoNy)

8 Rookie mistake, I read the content, girthy content I might add!

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ This year in Corsicana! ~ at June 19, 2022 09:05 AM (hOUT3)

9 On the Kindle, I read The Devil You Know by R. A. Hakok. This is the second book in the YA dystopian series, Children of the Mountain. This was not as good as the first in the series, Among The Wolves; but I'm sufficiently interested in the story and its characters to order the third in the series, Lightning Child.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 19, 2022 09:05 AM (4Enjk)

10
Happy Father's Day to those Morons who qualify as such!

I'm continuing with late '60s Marvel, specifically two collections from Roy Thomas' run on the Avengers. Back then both the Black Widow and the Scarlet Witch were brunettes. I prefer the Widow as a redhead, but I think Wanda should have stayed with black hair. I wonder why Marvel decided on the change.

For that matter, I like the Widow's original costume, despite the '60s touches -- earrings(!) engraved with "B" and a half-length cape with a clasp that bore a "W." Blue mask and fishnet stockings. Bouffant hairdo. Definitely harder to draw than her current jumpsuit.

Hercules, too, looked different. For an outing, he shaved off his beard and wore a suit.

Captain America? That costume never changes.

Watterson really should have written a "Hamster Huey" book.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 09:05 AM (Om/di)

11 Perfessor will do

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2022 09:06 AM (2JoB8)

12 No reading this week!

Posted by: rhennigantx at June 19, 2022 09:06 AM (yrol0)

13 I'm reading an utterly inconsequential but fun book: Kevin Anderson's _The Last Days of Krypton_. It's about Jor-El, General Zod, and others in the period leading up to the big kaboom.

Anderson does something very interesting: since anybody who buys a book about the planet Krypton knows that it's doomed, he manages to generate interest and suspense by teasing _multiple different_ possible causes of the catastrophe. Is it the Strange Green Lava and unusual seismic activity? Is it the hidden planet-busing superweapons of the deposed tyrant Jax-Ul? Is the red star Rao about to go supernova? Or . . . ?

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 19, 2022 09:07 AM (VpAXT)

14 Hey there book freaks!

Still pecking away at Lansdale's "Zeppelins West". It has dry humor and dialog you love to linger over. Sitting Bull makes some hilariously pithy observations.

The team has rescued Frankenstein's Monster from the grip of a Japanese shogun who was using bits of the monster to make an aphrodisiac. As one will.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:07 AM (Dc2NZ)

15 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Happy father's day to all the dads.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2022 09:07 AM (7EjX1)

16 Happy Book Thread!

Happy Father's Day!

Um, shrug toward Summer Kwanzaa.....

Book signing yesterday, went reasonably well. I think the economy is a crushing burden, and people simply don't have as much disposable income... they don't trust where we are heading and are saving, not spending.

The bookstore owner was exceptionally generous and kind - invited me back for another signing in the fall, and gave me a free book I'd been eyeing during the day.

Cheers all.

Posted by: goatexchange at June 19, 2022 09:08 AM (APPN8)

17 Currently reading "Flashman on the March!" but at a sloth's pace!

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ This year in Corsicana! ~ at June 19, 2022 09:09 AM (hOUT3)

18 I tend to forget about Fathers' Day simply because my father was the kind you would mostly want to forget and the chief reason I lived in fear for way too much of my life.

But I owe him two things: music/math, and reading. He was a mathemetician and, as you know, music and math are linked somehow so we all ended up being musical to one degree or another and we all did very well in math in school. Music, since it makes everything better, is much more important.

But as our mother always put it, we were "book poor." We were in no way poor as Daddy had a well-paying job with Honeywell, but there were books everywhere, and now I have books everywhere. It's to the point of ridiculousness but when I would walk my dog and look in people's windows, from the street, for pity's sake, while waiting for her to finish sniffing and peeing, I would more often than not wonder where on earth they kept their books. How do you have a house with no visible books?

So, music, and a love of reading. It doesn't balance out the rest of life with a raging alcoholic, but that's two very good things to have.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 09:09 AM (3qAOE)

19 Thanks for boosting the signal, Perfessor. A direct link to the Super Summer sale is here: https://aetherczar.com/?p=5412

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at June 19, 2022 09:11 AM (+leAG)

20 Mornin', all! I have my new kitten here -- in the room, that is; he's too busy playing with everything he can get a paw on to sit with me. Stirling is his name and trouble is his game.

This week I read the traditional first Narnia novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and then the prequel The Magician's Nephew. Both were great, but to tell you the truth I prefer TMN. It's richer and more detailed, and Lewis's writing style had evolved in the 5 years between the 2 novels. He shows us more about the worlds the children (Digory and Polly, in this one) visit, including Narnia. Or maybe it's that I'm too familiar with Lion. I've read *about* it for many years and enjoyed the movie.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:11 AM (c6xtn)

21 My father dismissed Fathers' Day as just a marketing gimmick, so I've never observed it anyway.

But, I do find it a little . . . telling . . . that the Left has decided to essentially pre-empt it with Yet Another Racist Holiday.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 19, 2022 09:11 AM (VpAXT)

22 Hey, I made the Squirrel List!
Thanks Perfesser!
Happy Father's Day to all the Dads!

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at June 19, 2022 09:12 AM (SEa82)

23 I've also started reading a book about the Masonic symbolism and imagery in _The Magic Flute_. When I got it I wasn't sure if the book was real scholarship or woo, but now that I'm about halfway through it I'm willing to certify it woo-free.

The author actually backs up his claims with excerpts from letters, or dates. None of the classic woo tactic of moving from "could have" to "might have" to "must have" and then using that to prove additional dodgy assertions.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 19, 2022 09:16 AM (VpAXT)

24 Good Sunday morning, horde, and a happy Father's Day to those of you what procreated. I hope your children love and appreciate you!

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 09:18 AM (OX9vb)

25 But, I do find it a little . . . telling . . . that the Left has decided to essentially pre-empt it with Yet Another Racist Holiday.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 19, 2022 09:11 AM (VpAXT)

It has its own flag, too.

https://tinyurl.com/2p8p8h8m

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 09:19 AM (7bRMQ)

26 Nice bookstore! The lady in the picture is hiding all the books about POC.

Those pants...why not?

The squirrel's pimp hand is strong this a.m.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 19, 2022 09:20 AM (R/m4+)

27 Good morning.

I'm rereading Of Time and the River, and liking it better this time around. Does it compare with the dramatic dysfunction of the Gant/Wolfes of LHA? Only when the focus is on them. I think the chapter 33 description of WO Gant's death is truly a work of art.
I also stepped of my usual path (I hate Hollywood) and watched Genius, which is largely about the relationship between author and editor, Wolfe and Perkins. Had the movie been made in the 40s or 50s, it probably would have been better received. In 2016, few people have read Wolfe and fewer recognize the name of Maxwell Perkins.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 09:21 AM (ONvIw)

28 This week I read the traditional first Narnia novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and then the prequel The Magician's Nephew. Both were great, but to tell you the truth I prefer TMN. It's richer and more detailed, and Lewis's writing style had evolved in the 5 years between the 2 novels. He shows us more about the worlds the children (Digory and Polly, in this one) visit, including Narnia. Or maybe it's that I'm too familiar with Lion. I've read *about* it for many years and enjoyed the movie.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:11 AM (c6xtn)
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The underlying feel of "Wardrobe" is wonder. The tone of "Magician's Nephew" is menace. That red ember sun of Charn and the dead calm of a dead world is so unsettling.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:22 AM (Dc2NZ)

29 Those pants are fine. I would use them to store my nuts.

Posted by: Guy who stores nuts in his pants at June 19, 2022 09:22 AM (vrz2I)

30 My reading this week:

Sunday afternoon, I read A. H. Lloyd's Three Weeks with the Coasties. Could be subtitled "A Portrait of Bureacracy." It was a quick and entertaining read, and though he says it's fiction, I wonder.

Then I read The DA Breaks A Seal, a Doug Selby mystery by Erle Stanley Gardner. Published in 1946, this is one that I picked up at an antique store. DA returns from the War on furlough, and gets involved in the investigation of a murder caper. Also quick and entertaining.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 09:23 AM (OX9vb)

31 Reading State of Fear by Michael Crighton. An interesting story about eco-terrorists, and loaded with stats proving the non-existence of global warming. The protagonist is a gullible lawyer who is shown that all he has been taught about warming is a lie.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 19, 2022 09:23 AM (CP8tQ)

32 It has its own flag, too.
https://tinyurl.com/2p8p8h8m
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 09:19 AM (7bRMQ)

Looks like a Viet Cong flag.

More coffee.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 19, 2022 09:24 AM (R/m4+)

33 My Zoom book club is taking up John Scalzis Redshirts this cycle. I picked up a copy yesterday from Barnes and Noble. From the cover summary it seems like a great concept.

Bought it from B&N store because I want physical bookstores to remain. Scalzi seems to command high prices. On Amazon it was almost as pricey and even Kindle edition was high.

Posted by: blaster at June 19, 2022 09:24 AM (6TxNR)

34 The underlying feel of "Wardrobe" is wonder. The tone of "Magician's Nephew" is menace. That red ember sun of Charn and the dead calm of a dead world is so unsettling.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022

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Then that is probably why I like it better. Though there is wonder aplenty in TMN.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:24 AM (c6xtn)

35 I snorted down C.J. Box's newest Joe Pickett novel, "Shadow's Reel". Highly entertaining, but can't help but feel it was a little thin this time around. There's usually more meat to the story. There are two threads to this one: Nate Romanowski is on the hunt for the former colleague gone rogue who stole his falcons; and Joe investigates murders that seem to be related to an old album dropped off anonymously at the library where Marybeth works. It's the personal photo album of notorious Nazi Julius Streicher, taken as a souvenir by a member of Easy Company when they got to the Eagle's Nest.

It got a lot of one star reviews on Amazon because it takes a dim view of Antifa -- if you can imagine that! Nate tangles briefly with a weedy specimen of Black Bloc and tells him "Don't you know better than to bring a skateboard to a gunfight?"

I had a good laugh at Nate's everyday carry: His .454 Casull, an eight-inch buck knife, a Sig Sauer P365 pocket pistol, and a cannister of bear spray. Better to have and not need...

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:24 AM (Dc2NZ)

36 I've been in a re-reading mood this month and am currently involved in "A Confederacy of Dunces". This is a crazy book with several crazy characters! Funny is many ways.

Posted by: LRob in TX at June 19, 2022 09:24 AM (KTPXo)

37 I'm glad Perfessor mentioned Tolkien's "Father Christmas Letters". The book is a delight and shows Tolkien at his inventive best. He even drew the North Pole stamps on the letters. I sent a copy to a nephew when he and his wife had their first kid, both for their enjoyment and to read to the boy when he got a little older. Lost track of how many times I've recommended it to people.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2022 09:25 AM (7EjX1)

38 I read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" many years past when we had only one baby and our Sunday school class was big enough to have parties.

For one Halloween party, my wife decided that we should go as those three items. We had a little lion suit for the baby, and she wore white and frosted her hair as the Witch.

That left me as the Wardrobe. My costume consisted of a full-length piece of construction paper with doors and knows drawn on it, plus my brown beret.

Great fun except -- I could not sit! Had to stand for three full hours until the Witch took pity on me and "broke the spell."

Regarding the book, that was when I realized what allegory is.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 09:25 AM (Om/di)

39 Oh about the trip to B&N. They had a sign announcing the new line of Nooks. They still sell those. Who knew?

Also, was in the kids book section and of course they had a Pride section and then I looked at the regular section and it was covered with woke, all about RBG and Elizabeth Warren.

Posted by: blaster at June 19, 2022 09:26 AM (6TxNR)

40 I also read "Don't Call them Ghosts" by Kathleen McConnell. It attracted me whilst I was perusing the book shelf for something to read. I don't remember buying it, or ever even hearing about it. It's a woman's memoir of buying a home with her husband in 1971 in Louisville, KY. The house turns out to be haunted with the spirits of three children, whom she kind of adopts and takes care of until she "sends them to the light" before the family moves several years later.

Is it true? I don't know. It wraps up rather neatly for a true story, but who am I to say? She's not a professional author, and it shows. Still, an ok read.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 09:28 AM (OX9vb)

41 The underlying feel of "Wardrobe" is wonder. The tone of "Magician's Nephew" is menace. That red ember sun of Charn and the dead calm of a dead world is so unsettling.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:22 AM (Dc2NZ)
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That was an extremely creepy scene to read, especially when I was a child. Very haunting.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 09:28 AM (K5n5d)

42 I've been rereading some of my Eric Sloane books. The combination of Americana, history and his superb pen and ink illustrations never gets old. I started reading his books in high school in the 60s. I think I like them more now.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2022 09:29 AM (7EjX1)

43 Thanks for the thread. Loved the C&H cartoons — forgot how pointed those could be!

I just finished The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III. It was a fascinating look at the mid-1700s - early 1800s, the Revolutionary War, and British politics in general. George wrote a vast amount of letters, so it became clear that whatever he was, he wasn’t a tyrant.

Posted by: Eternity Matters at June 19, 2022 09:30 AM (MTm8X)

44 Knobs, not knows.

Autocorrect needs a vocabulary upgrade.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 09:30 AM (Om/di)

45 I have always preferred The Magicians Nephew, though perhaps it is because so many things in it are origin story for the more famous first written story.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 19, 2022 09:31 AM (CP8tQ)

46 Regarding the book, that was when I realized what allegory is.

Related...

Algorey (adj.) Pertaining to a conversation or person that constantly refers to global warming.

Example: John decided to join a hiking club, but became frustrated when the group discussions always turned algorey.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger at June 19, 2022 09:31 AM (eh1Wg)

47 I've been in a re-reading mood this month and am currently involved in "A Confederacy of Dunces". This is a crazy book with several crazy characters! Funny is many ways.
Posted by: LRob in TX at June 19, 2022

***
It's also a good portrait of what NO was like in the early Sixties. And Toole's ear for dialect was excellent. He was the first writer I ever ran across who depicted the "Noo Awlins" speech accurately: "chirren" for "children," instead of the usual "chillun."

An even funnier novel, though, is Richard Bradford's Red Sky at Morning, set in New Mexico during WWII and filled also with nutty characters and dialog that sparkles.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:31 AM (c6xtn)

48 I read draft reports and scientific manuscripts to my children when they were very small. The sound of my voice was the important thing.

Posted by: Otto Zilch at June 19, 2022 09:32 AM (U2esv)

49 Haopy Father's Day, Perfesser and all the horde dads!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 19, 2022 09:33 AM (kf6Ak)

50 Algorey (adj.) Pertaining to a conversation or person that constantly refers to global warming.
...
Posted by: Bitter Clinger at June 19, 2022 09:31 AM (eh1Wg)

Algorey(adj. definition 2). Pertaining to chronically blocked chakras.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 19, 2022 09:34 AM (PiwSw)

51 I'm currently reading a collection of Fritz Leiber short stories, Horrible Imaginings, with stories from the '40s to the '80s. He wrote a lot and he wrote about a lot of different things.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:34 AM (c6xtn)

52 When my kids were young, I recorded myself reading books to them on cassette tapes. They would play them at night. I would read their favorites, “talk” to them, and tell them I loved them. For nostalgia purposes I dug it out and transferred it to MP3s and sent it to them.

Posted by: Eternity Matters at June 19, 2022 09:35 AM (MTm8X)

53 The Americana in the Eric Sloane books put me in the mood for such things. I got out my copy of "Out of the Northwoods: The Many Lives of Paul Bunyan, With More Than 100 Logging Camp Tales" and "The Hair of the Bear" by Eric A. Bye. (He wrote an excellent book on fllintlocks.) These are imaginative, silly, sometimes absurd stories that might be told around a campfire. Between bouts of laughing I can feel my blood pressure lowering. Wonderful, relaxed reading.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2022 09:35 AM (7EjX1)

54 Finished a book this week, George Passant by CP Snow, the second chronologically of the Strangers and Brothers 11 part series but the first one that was written. It's mainly about young professionals from the lower middle class in England struggling to make a go of it in the grownup world. Like the earlier Time of Hope it's written in a very dry style with a lot of secondary characters it's hard to tell apart; despite that I found it both confusing and oddly appealing. The book is narrated by Lewis Eliot who is mostly invisible otherwise. The title character is probably the smartest of the bunch who gets accused of something which frankly doesn't even seem like a financial crime but nevertheless has the ability to trash his and his friends' dreams. Throughout it all Passant's good intentions to help the group is pretty obvious and his provincial lawyer is able to convince the court of that. Despite all the weak points I still enjoyed it enough to be curious about the next book in the series.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 09:36 AM (y7DUB)

55 I've been reading The Devil You Know Better edited by R.J. Carter. It has a short story by Moron Author Troy Rising. The stories are surprisingly good, and basically involve humans making deals of various sorts with the Devil.

Naturally, the humans explore all of the Seven Deadly Sins in their deals. Satan is *never* portrayed as a "good" guy, though in a few cases he's depicted as a "necessary" guy for God's plans.

Really good stories, for the most part. Some day I'll do a Book Thread dedicated to the art of the short story. There's a lot more skill involved than most people might suspect.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 09:37 AM (K5n5d)

56 I'm still reading Pliny's Natural History. I'm actually learning a lot about ancient place names.

There are a lot of questionable facts though. For example, I learned of the Himantopodes, which are "a race of people with feet resembling thongs, upon which they move along by nature with a serpentine, crawling kind of gait" and the Blemmyæ who are said to "have no heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts". I remember an old Tarzan comic strip with a tribe of characters like that, the Onoes or something like that. I wonder if that's where they got the idea.

Posted by: Guy who stores nuts in his pants at June 19, 2022 09:37 AM (vrz2I)

57 Fritz Leiber short stories,
..snip..
He wrote a lot and he wrote about a lot of different things.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

I've enjoy his writing, there are many of his books converted to electronic form and free.
Use Caliber to convert them to whatever form your reading device requires.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 09:37 AM (79xUb)

58 Oh crap off nutty sock

Posted by: fd at June 19, 2022 09:37 AM (vrz2I)

59 I've been reading The Devil You Know Better edited by R.J. Carter. It has a short story by Moron Author Troy ~~Rising~~ Riser. The stories are surprisingly good, and basically involve humans making deals of various sorts with the Devil.
---
Fixed. I really should check the book before posting...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 09:38 AM (K5n5d)

60 Slowing trudging through SPQR. You can't read this thing in a day, ya know!
Posted by: Biden's Dog

The mystery series by John Maddox Roberts? I'm reading book 2, The Cataline Conspiracy. I quite like it. It seems very realistic, far more so than Stephen Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series, primarily because Decius has far more Roman opinions of such things as slavery and gladiatorial shows than Gordianus.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air! at June 19, 2022 09:38 AM (FVME7)

61 Yep, the B&N stores here have a pride section in the kids' department.

I actually opened one board book, "The Gay B C's." I would like to know how well such shit sells.

I would like to think the publishers lose money on it, but treat the loss as bearable because those books indicate that they are on the "correct" side of society.

Talk about a niche market.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 09:38 AM (Om/di)

62 Algorey (adj.) Pertaining to a conversation or person that constantly refers to global warming.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger

*snort

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 09:39 AM (OX9vb)

63 I just finished up Braking Day, by Adam Oyebanji, and found it thoroughly enjoyable. For me, the most important part up front: no woke sucker punches. This is science fiction as it is supposed to be, full of science and fiction, and no left-handed BIPOC lesbians demanding I celebrate them and their pestering of my child anywhere in sight.

This is a generation-ship story and a good one. I know authors are coached to get their opening just right, but this one almost did the exact opposite (for me), as it started out with what I thought was a non-sciencey proposition. Worked out though and went on to be a great yarn. Highly recommended.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 09:39 AM (kyWWM)

64 Talk about a niche market.
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 09:38 AM (Om/di)

probably required reading in some school systems.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 19, 2022 09:39 AM (PiwSw)

65 I'll do a Book Thread dedicated to the art of the short story. There's a lot more skill involved than most people might suspect.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

Good short stories are a lot of fun to read. They have engage the reader and tell their stories succinctly.
Badly written short stories are thrown out.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 09:40 AM (79xUb)

66 There are a lot of questionable facts though. For example, I learned of the Himantopodes, which are "a race of people with feet resembling thongs, upon which they move along by nature with a serpentine, crawling kind of gait" and the Blemmyæ who are said to "have no heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts". I remember an old Tarzan comic strip with a tribe of characters like that, the Onoes or something like that. I wonder if that's where they got the idea.
Posted by: Guy who stores nuts in his pants at June 19, 2022 09:37 AM (vrz2I)
---
Weren't Lewis's dufflepods based on some medieval description of a race on monopods? I've seen olde mappes with the Blemmyæ.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:40 AM (Dc2NZ)

67
47 I've been in a re-reading mood this month and am currently involved in "A Confederacy of Dunces". This is a crazy book with several crazy characters! Funny is many ways.
Posted by: LRob in TX at June 19, 2022
***
It's also a good portrait of what NO was like in the early Sixties. And Toole's ear for dialect was excellent. He was the first writer I ever ran across who depicted the "Noo Awlins" speech accurately: "chirren" for "children," instead of the usual "chillun."

a New Orleans story today that would fit perfectly in Confederacy of Dunces:

https://tinyurl.com/2p88ptts

appreciate the shout out for "The Prize"; one of those books that doesn't just tell you what happened, it explains *why* a lot of things happened the way they did in the 20th century.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 19, 2022 09:40 AM (q3gwH)

68 Algorey(adj. definition 2). Pertaining to chronically blocked chakras.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes

*also snort

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 09:40 AM (OX9vb)

69 Maybe thinking of "Troy Rising", a Ringo book?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:41 AM (Dc2NZ)

70 Some day I'll do a Book Thread dedicated to the art of the short story. There's a lot more skill involved than most people might suspect.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022

***
There is indeed. It's like telling a joke well: The parts that make the punchline make sense have to be in there before you get to the payoff. I still can't tell a short story in less than about 4000 words -- it amazes me that some people can do it in 1000 or even less.

I'm also the only member of my writing group, then or now, who regularly attempts the short story. Everybody else is working on novels. I know there's no real market for short stories now, but the skill involved of telling the tale in a small space is very good practice for the longer form.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:41 AM (c6xtn)

71 I didn't know you grew up in Ft. Collins Perfesser. I grew up in Loveland, so rarely got to the Ft. Collins library until we lived there while John went to CSU. That library had the only book I was tempted to steal. It was a book on designing hand knitting that wasn't available for sale anymore, since this was pre-Amazon. I was good though and returned the book. Unfortunately, now that the Internet makes searches easy, I can't remember the title anymore since it's been over 25 years.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 19, 2022 09:42 AM (nC+QA)

72 Currently reading 'I, Claudius' by Robert Graves. I'm on page 122 and so far it's interesting.

Yes, I know Claudius is probably making some things up to make himself look good.

Posted by: dantesed at June 19, 2022 09:42 AM (88xKn)

73 Perfessor, the online store Scully & Scully has a pillow you might want to look at: a squirrel, surrounded by books, making what appears to be a To Be Read list. A looong list.

Thanks for this thread.

Posted by: Wenda at June 19, 2022 09:42 AM (TK9+5)

74 een reading The Devil You Know Better edited by R.J. Carter. It has a short story by Moron Author Troy Rising Riser. The stories are surprisingly good, and basically involve humans making deals of various sorts with the Devil.
---
Fixed. I really should check the book before posting...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 09:38 AM (K5n5d

The Riser story sounds fascinating. Without saying too much, does it give voice to the devil or is it portrayed entirely as thought process? To be honest, I don't think people can differentiate between evil and immediate self-interest much anymore.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 09:43 AM (ONvIw)

75 I dunno, Wolfus, I thought with the death of magazines the heyday of the short story was over, but there are a lot of short story anthologies around these days.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:43 AM (Dc2NZ)

76 "Straight Outta Tombstone" is a weird west anthology edited by David Boop.

It's been a while since I read it, but as I recall the selection of stories was quite good.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 19, 2022 09:44 AM (bW8dp)

77 So, music, and a love of reading. It doesn't balance out the rest of life with a raging alcoholic, but that's two very good things to have.
Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 09:09 AM (3qAOE)

Maybe it's me but that strikes me as a not bad tribute.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 09:45 AM (y7DUB)

78 I dunno, Wolfus, I thought with the death of magazines the heyday of the short story was over, but there are a lot of short story anthologies around these days.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022

***
Right, I was thinking about magazine markets. One of my short pieces wound up in The Wand That Rocks the Cradle, a 2019 anthology of fantasy stories about family, so I should have thought of that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:45 AM (c6xtn)

79 Incidentally, in my never ending quest to learn Latin, I read the Latin novella Claudia, Fabula Criminalis by Andrew Olimpi as I was reading SPQR I, The King's Gambit. Turned out, both books featured Claudia, sister of Clodius Pulcher.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air! at June 19, 2022 09:45 AM (FVME7)

80 Really good stories, for the most part. Some day I'll do a Book Thread dedicated to the art of the short story. There's a lot more skill involved than most people might suspect.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 09:37 AM (K5n5d)

Please do.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 09:46 AM (7bRMQ)

81 The Riser story sounds fascinating. Without saying too much, does it give voice to the devil or is it portrayed entirely as thought process? To be honest, I don't think people can differentiate between evil and immediate self-interest much anymore.
Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 09:43 AM (ONvIw)
---
Riser's story, "The Kingman Deal" is a story about the Devil where he's not directly involved in the action. The protagonist is a "fixer" who is hired to track down the Devil for a comedian who made a deal with him a long time ago. Troy does a pretty good job of capturing the spirit of the gumshoe detective who gets in way over his head.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 09:47 AM (K5n5d)

82 Turned out, both books featured Claudia, sister of Clodius Pulcher.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air! at June 19, 2022

***
His nickname meant "the Handsome," so I'd hope that his sister was equally fetching.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:48 AM (c6xtn)

83 > . It seems very realistic, far more so than Stephen Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series, primarily because Decius has far more Roman opinions of such things as slavery and gladiatorial shows than Gordianus.

Agree. I enjoyed both series, but Saylor's Gordianus has way too much of a modern outlook on things. Decius is, as far as I can tell, 100% accurate when it comes to behaving the way that a typical upperclass Roman of the period would have behaved.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 19, 2022 09:48 AM (bW8dp)

84 I dunno, Wolfus, I thought with the death of magazines the heyday of the short story was over, but there are a lot of short story anthologies around these days.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster

I thought Fall Down Go Boom: The Joe Biden Story was kind of funny but short and I saw the ending from a mile away.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air! at June 19, 2022 09:49 AM (FVME7)

85 I'm ready at any time for a short story thread.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 09:50 AM (y7DUB)

86 > His nickname meant "the Handsome," so I'd hope that his sister was equally fetching.

The whole family was hot, apparently. The Pulcher cognomen had been used for several generations by the time he came along.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 19, 2022 09:50 AM (bW8dp)

87 Oooh, I'll out myself as another former Fort Collins resident! I spent a fair bit of time in the Old Town Library, but a lot more time in the Harmony Expansion, once it was built. Getting to old town required a special trip with my parents, getting to Harmony Road just took a short bike ride... One neat thing about the Old Town Library was that it was two stories, and there were a couple balconies where you could look down from the upper floor into the main lobby. At least at the time, the second floor were where the magazines (remember those?) and the Pern books were. So that was sort of my part of the library...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 19, 2022 09:51 AM (Lhaco)

88 Leslie Charteris wrote several Saint short stories, and I like them better than the novels. When I feel like reading Saintly material, I go for the short story collections.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 09:52 AM (Om/di)

89 His nickname meant "the Handsome," so I'd hope that his sister was equally fetching.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

Apparently she was. In real life, she was the inspiration for Lesbia in Catallus' love poetry.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air! at June 19, 2022 09:53 AM (FVME7)

90 I'm also the only member of my writing group, then or now, who regularly attempts the short story. Everybody else is working on novels. I know there's no real market for short stories now, but the skill involved of telling the tale in a small space is very good practice for the longer form.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 09:41 AM (c6xtn)

Sounds like my work history. Move from one job to a dying one.

What length do you think a short story should be?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 09:54 AM (7bRMQ)

91 I miss "Calvin and Hobbes".

Posted by: Reuben Hick at June 19, 2022 09:54 AM (AHeqJ)

92 Yes, I know Claudius is probably making some things up to make himself look good.
Posted by: dantesed at June 19, 2022 09:42 AM (88xKn)

Considering he was physically hideous that came pretty naturally.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 09:54 AM (y7DUB)

93 What length do you think a short story should be?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 09:54 AM (7bRMQ)

About as long as a cup of coffee and a cigarette.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at June 19, 2022 09:56 AM (VwHCD)

94 I love short stories. They're especially perfect for reading when you don't have a lot of time, such as lunch breaks and bedtime.

I can read a short story at lunch, and ponder it all afternoon while I work. And at bedtime, I don't have to go back several pages the next night to remember where I left off.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 09:56 AM (OX9vb)

95 What length do you think a short story should be?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 09:54 AM (7bRMQ)

The shortest sci-fi horror story ever:

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door."

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 19, 2022 09:57 AM (PiwSw)

96 Sunday afternoon, I read A. H. Lloyd's Three Weeks with the Coasties. Could be subtitled "A Portrait of Bureacracy." It was a quick and entertaining read, and though he says it's fiction, I wonder.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 09:23 AM (OX9vb)
---
Glad you liked it! I may do further books on the life and times of Tech. Sgt. Eric March, we'll see. My retirement day approacheth, which will give me more creative freedom.

One of the topics that's come up is whether people appreciate being put in fictional accounts. Pat Conroy basically built his career on a novelized version of his family problems (naturally making himself the hero).

Other than Scorpion's Pass (which started as a short story I wrote for Valentine's Day), for a long time my wife refused to read my novels. She finally took a look at Three Weeks with the Coasties and loved it.

It's all about how you approach it. Military spouses don't get much attention, and Mrs. March's frequent appearances in phone calls allowed me to show that without shifting the scene. Plus, she could speak in her own voice, which she liked.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 09:57 AM (llXky)

97 Like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to make it interesting.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 09:57 AM (S1l79)

98 > Leslie Charteris

Born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin. Half-Chinese.

According to the family, his pen name was selected at random from a phone directory, but there's a persistent story that he borrowed it from Francis Charteris, the notorious "Rape-Master General" of the late 1600s/early 1700s.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 19, 2022 09:58 AM (bW8dp)

99 If you get a chance to buy the Complete Calvin and Hobbes box set, do so. It will guarantee a lifetime of smiles and laughter.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2022 10:01 AM (7EjX1)

100 Clarification: My wife also read Battle Officer Wolf, which of course I wrote before anything else.

After reading Three Weeks with the Coasties, she got into the other books and - big surprise - recognized that all of the really cool female characters share her general physical description. Duh.

Like Evelyn Waugh, I also use people who've annoyed me as source material for my villains (look up "Crutwellism" and you'll see how vicious he could be).

Again, it's the way you approach the novelization. Obviously, fragile, fraught characters based on real people might annoy those real people, particularly if the portrait is unflattering.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:01 AM (llXky)

101 What length do you think a short story should be?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022

***
The old literal answer was up to 7500 words. After that you're into novelette territory on up to about 15,000, and then comes the novella up to about 30-35K, with the novel after that. The numbers are arbitrary and vary according to whom you talk to.

The non-literal answer is, "As long as the story you're telling and no longer." That's the hard part for me. I try to zero in on the most important part of the story, what would be the climactic chapter in a novel. But you have to work in the setup points, like a joke, or the payoff won't make sense to your audience.

I know you like the Western. If you haven't, try Jack Schaefer (of Shane fame) and his short story "Sergeant Houck." It's a textbook example of showing, not telling, and of characterization.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:02 AM (c6xtn)

102 77, Captain Hate, I am nothing if not terminally mixed up. Thank you.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 10:02 AM (3qAOE)

103 Finally finished reading The Keeper Chronicles trilogy. Three nice little stand-alone fantasy books. Now I have to figure out what to read next. I could go back to The Buried Goddess saga, another fantasy series that might conclude the story at book 6, or might continue even further....Or I can finish a non-fiction book about the Silk Road, or start some non-fiction about sea-faring and pirates.

One really nice thing about e-readers is that its really easy to be indecisive about these things, and to jump back and forth between choices.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 19, 2022 10:03 AM (Lhaco)

104 Like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to make it interesting.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022

***
I've read that as applying to public speeches, but it fits the short story too. (And the novel, come to think of it.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:03 AM (c6xtn)

105 Behind on the reading this week (damn flu) but would be interested in a short story thread. Looking over the shelves, physical and Kindle, I find them heavily weighted on the short story side. I like novels, but I like short stories a lot more. Probably because of all that time spent on sf from 7th grade through college -- the magazines and anthologies were gold mines, and the preference just stuck.

Leiber -- Horrible Imaginings is a delightful collection, and if memory serves it includes 'Girl with the Hungry Eyes' which is one of his best. Good stuff.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:05 AM (JzDjf)

106 But, I do find it a little . . . telling . . . that the Left has decided to essentially pre-empt it with Yet Another Racist Holiday.

Posted by: Trimegistus

Well, blacks were excluded from Father's Day because they didn't know who their fathers are so they had to.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air! at June 19, 2022 10:05 AM (FVME7)

107 Apocryphal quote in regard to newspaper reporting:

"I had to write it long. I didn't have time to write it short."

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 10:05 AM (Om/di)

108 Apparently she was. In real life, she was the inspiration for Lesbia in Catallus' love poetry.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air! at June 19, 2022 09:53 AM (FVME7)
---
Oh, the fun one can have with classical names.

I believe the accepted term for natives of the Isle of Lesbos is "Lesbosian."

When the internet was invented, I learned doing a web search for the Isle of Lesbos got some really interesting results.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:06 AM (llXky)

109 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

My take: Good author, smart husband.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:07 AM (u82oZ)

110 Short story:
Once upon a time there were three pigs. Now, there's millions of 'em. The end.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 10:09 AM (S1l79)

111 About as long as a cup of coffee and a cigarette.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at June 19, 2022 09:56 AM (VwHCD)

So, a poem basically.

Posted by: Jordan61 at June 19, 2022 10:09 AM (DgWEj)

112 Anonosaurus Wrecks, Spring Is In the Air!

My policy ideas start with only rewarding intact families. Be interesting on how to prevent cheating. And HS classes on real relationship analysis, detecting lies, and picking a good spouse.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:09 AM (u82oZ)

113 I've also started reading a book about the Masonic symbolism and imagery in _The Magic Flute_. When I got it I wasn't sure if the book was real scholarship or woo, but now that I'm about halfway through it I'm willing to certify it woo-free.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 19, 2022 09:16 AM (VpAXT)

If you are interested in the subject there is an interesting book called Born in Blood by John J Robinson, trying to show continuity of the Masonic movement from the destruction of the Templars, through the Wat Tyler rebellion, on through the expansion through Europe and its "decriminalization" in the 18th century

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 10:10 AM (xhaym)

114 Oh, and for short stories, you can't beat the Retief adventures.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 10:11 AM (Om/di)

115 After reading Three Weeks with the Coasties, she got into the other books and - big surprise - recognized that all of the really cool female characters share her general physical description. Duh.

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

Heh.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 10:12 AM (OX9vb)

116 I know you like the Western. If you haven't, try Jack Schaefer (of Shane fame) and his short story "Sergeant Houck." It's a textbook example of showing, not telling, and of characterization.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:02 AM (c6xtn)

Thanks, Wolfus. I'll look it up.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 10:12 AM (7bRMQ)

117 Interminable China book update: Yes! Finally getting to the Nationalist-Communist fighting with Japan about to jump in and screw everything up.

The biggest challenge is trying to maintain distance and not get drawn into too much detail. I spent the last week spinning my wheels with the Warlord Era's ugly and untidy end, but now we're getting to stuff where there's lots of sources and no need for me to go into depth.

I'll crib a line from one of my authors: "You want more info on WW II in China, read one of the many books on it. Here's all we need t know."

Interesting thing about Pu Yi: As much as "the world" regarded Manchukuo as illegitimate, Manchuria had no history of being tied to China until the Ch'ing Dynasty. Under the Wilsonian doctrine of national determination, the Manchurians (who spoke a different language) had every right to split.

Of course, the problem was that the Japanese were so overtly pulling the strings AND ruthlessly exploiting the locals that everyone knew it was crap. If Pu Yi had been anything more than a useless tool, he might have broken away.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:12 AM (llXky)

118 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

In your new book on China, do you get into analysis of Xi as the new Mao? Xi's list of calamities seems to be increasing.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:12 AM (u82oZ)

119 110 Short story:
Once upon a time there were three pigs. Now, there's millions of 'em. The end.

P.P. And they're all delicious.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 10:13 AM (kyWWM)

120 A. H. Lloyd @100, "Like Evelyn Waugh, I also use people who've annoyed me as source material for my villains..."

Another example of this can be found in the later works of David Drake. After a reviewer sneeringly asserted that if Drake had ever actually seen combat he would not be writing such intense battle scenes, Drake (who served with the 11th Cav. in Vietnam and Cambodia) used the reviewer's surname for a series of despicable minor characters. I thought it a rather elegant revenge to make your enemy's name into a synonym for stupid, cowardly and corrupt.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at June 19, 2022 10:14 AM (w6mSC)

121 Larry Niven's early short stories in the Known Space cycle are also superb jobs. He manages in many of them to tell an actual adventure story (see "A Relic of Empire" and "The Soft Weapon" especially) in the context of a future space-going society. Many of them are in the collection Neutron Star.

"The Soft Weapon" he adapted into his script for the Trek animated series, "The Slaver Weapon" -- one of the very best Trek stories in live action or animated. The original is a little longer than the usual short story, close to that 7500 word ceiling I mentioned, but it needs to be.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:16 AM (c6xtn)

122 I would like to think the publishers lose money on it, but treat the loss as bearable because those books indicate that they are on the "correct" side of society.

Talk about a niche market.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 09:38 AM (Om/di)
---
They likely do a very small print run knowing that all the bookstores will want little more than a display copy. Could even bundle it together with other woke works. Basically treat it as wall art.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:16 AM (llXky)

123 John F. MacMichael

Theater of Blood, but in books. I like it.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:16 AM (u82oZ)

124 To the kids, I just finished reading Brave Ollie Possom by Ethan Nicole, (previously of Babylon Bee fame). Able to buy it, and a couple of others, directly from him - ain't technology grand! Great adventure story with a great lesson too.

https://the-axe-and-bear-store.myshopify.com/

Reading another of Ethan's now, figuring out who this G.K. Chesterton dude is, in Chesteron's Gateway. First essay -- mind blown, had to share with kids too.

Posted by: FishOrMam at June 19, 2022 10:17 AM (+CJuC)

125 And HS classes on real relationship analysis, detecting lies, and picking a good spouse.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:09 AM (u82oZ)

Hear, hear; good luck finding someone in the educrat industrial complex qualified to teach it.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 10:17 AM (y7DUB)

126 I seem to recall a writer (Robert Parker maybe?) using the names Riggs and Murtaugh for a couple of obnoxious detectives -- apparently not a Lethal Weapon fan.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:18 AM (JzDjf)

127 You don't actually read Chesterton. You just quote him.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 10:19 AM (S1l79)

128 In your new book on China, do you get into analysis of Xi as the new Mao? Xi's list of calamities seems to be increasing.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:12 AM (u82oZ)
---
I haven't gotten there yet, but when I do, I will emphasize that the Communist system now mimics the Imperial one, with all of its corruption and incompetence. Conformity is mandatory, bad information suppressed, and no one really knows what is actually going on.

An interesting question is whether Taiwan can even be invaded by the PLA. To do that, one would have to established a unified joint command with air, sea, space and land elements, and the ability to pull forces as needed from other parts of China.

The last time a Chinese general was given that much authority, he overthrow the Ch'ing Dynasty. That means that PLA command would have to be divided, with lots of potential problems once the shooting starts.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:20 AM (llXky)

129 I seem to recall a writer (Robert Parker maybe?) using the names Riggs and Murtaugh for a couple of obnoxious detectives -- apparently not a Lethal Weapon fan.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022

***
Hmm. I've read nearly all of Parker's works, including the Westerns and his "young adult" Spenser, and I don't recall that. I might have missed it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:20 AM (c6xtn)

130 Hear, hear; good luck finding someone in the educrat industrial complex qualified to teach it.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 10:17 AM (y7DUB)
---
Vochers. End direct public funding and the weirdos will evaporate.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:21 AM (llXky)

131 Looks like a Viet Cong flag.
More coffee.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 19, 2022 09:24 AM (R/m4+)

It also looks like the Haitian flag which was adopted from the French Republican flag, with the white removed to reflect the political stance of the country after the expulsion of the French in the Leclerc expedition

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 10:21 AM (xhaym)

132 @127 --

Haw!

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2022 10:21 AM (Om/di)

133 Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt

Well, the teachers that want to teach it are ineligible, because they want to groom, or make it only same sex relationships. IOW - genetic losers that will not show up in the future.

I was thinking a Grandma and Grandpa team teaching. Girls and boys in separate classes. Bring back the wisdom of a lived life.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:21 AM (u82oZ)

134 One of the best Christmas gifts we ever gave our kids was the complete C&H boxed set. They've all read it over and over, so much that the bindings have broken. Unfortunately they learned a few things from Calvin, mainly how to get out of doing chores they hated by doing such a rotten job that Mom gave up.

Another great set was the complete Far Side. They were young enough that they just didn't get it at first, but as they got older they appreciated it almost as much as Calvin. But Calvin and Hobbes remains their favorite.

Happy Father's Day!

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:22 AM (aeePL)

135 After reading Three Weeks with the Coasties, she got into the other books and - big surprise - recognized that all of the really cool female characters share her general physical description. Duh

There are those who claim that all of Heinlein's female characters are Virginia.

Posted by: Fox2! at June 19, 2022 10:23 AM (0Ua/E)

136 It's been a while and I've slept since then, so it might not have been Parker. The memory ain't what it used to be, which makes rereading more fun than you'd think it would be.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:23 AM (JzDjf)

137 Reading another of Ethan's now, figuring out who this G.K. Chesterton dude is, in Chesteron's Gateway. First essay -- mind blown, had to share with kids too.

Posted by: FishOrMam at June 19, 2022 10:17 AM (+CJuC)
---
You can only get our current level of arrogant self-esteem from ignorance. Anyone who knows something of the world, who reads great books, will be humbled.

Which is why they've all been stripped from the curriculum. Not only do they induce humility, people realize that even understanding them is difficult, which destroys their sense of specialness.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:23 AM (llXky)

138 Calvin & Hobbes is indeed great. I still have all the individual treasuries and collections I got as a kid.

A question for the horde, though: is Calvin & Hobbes mostly a guy thing? Or do the ettes like it just as much? A few years ago I gave the complete collection to one of my siblings' kids (three boys and a girl) and I'm wondering if it will be as appropriate a gift for the other siblings' kids (three girls).

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 19, 2022 10:24 AM (Lhaco)

139 A few years ago I gave the complete collection to one of my siblings' kids (three boys and a girl) and I'm wondering if it will be as appropriate a gift for the other siblings' kids (three girls).
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 19, 2022 10:24 AM (Lhaco)
------------

Absolutely positively YES.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:24 AM (aeePL)

140 Greetings to the Book Thread!

Short stories are delicate little beasts. Some writers (like me) struggle with them. My natural length is the novel. Others write short stories easily and struggle with novels. It would be interesting to understand why that is so.

It used to be that everyone wrote short stories because that was how you learned, built up a fan base, and got editors to know you. That world vanished years ago with the death of the pulp mags. Anthologies aren't the same.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at June 19, 2022 10:25 AM (t0O2k)

141 Whatever it takes to keep coming up with these "Dad Wisdoms", not abover a little plagiarizing to get there.

Posted by: FishOrMam at June 19, 2022 10:25 AM (+CJuC)

142 Castle Guy, I also love Calvin & Hobbes. Have the boxed set myself. I believe both of my sisters are also fans.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 10:26 AM (OX9vb)

143 You don't actually read Chesterton. You just quote him.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 10:19 AM (S1l79)
---------

True to some extent! But he is worth reading. Not just smart, he can also be very funny.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:26 AM (aeePL)

144 Calvin & Hobbes is nifty across gender lines, if I can go by my experience with my own family. Of course, maybe we're all just weird...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:26 AM (JzDjf)

145 Just finished Judges Chapter 11, the story of Jeptha. It's a warning about telling GOD you'll do something over and above what He provided you. Don't make rash promises. Especially to GOD.

Posted by: Eromero at June 19, 2022 10:27 AM (DXbAa)

146 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

When I go into the stacks of Hale Library at Kansas State University, I get in front of a shelf where I recognize the books as old friends. Usually in the QD area, but a few others.

And then lift my head, and see shelving units to the limits of sight about which I know nothing. Humbling is a good start.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:27 AM (u82oZ)

147 I seem to recall a writer (Robert Parker maybe?) using the names Riggs and Murtaugh for a couple of obnoxious detectives -- apparently not a Lethal Weapon fan.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:18 AM (JzDjf)

Go figure.

Posted by: Special Agent in Charge Johnson and Special Agent Johnson, no relation at June 19, 2022 10:27 AM (4I/2K)

148 My oldest daughter loved Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side and read the anthologies multiple times.

Posted by: Eternity Matters at June 19, 2022 10:28 AM (MTm8X)

149 Of course, maybe we're all just weird...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:26 AM (JzDjf)
-----------

I'm looking right now at a little sign on my kitchen shelf that says REMEMBER AS FAR AS EVERYONE KNOWS WE ARE A NICE NORMAL FAMILY.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:28 AM (aeePL)

150 Weren't Lewis's dufflepods based on some medieval description of a race on monopods? I've seen olde mappes with the Blemmyæ.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster at June 19, 2022 09:40 AM (Dc2NZ)

I think Pliny, and I believe also via The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight which was based in part on Pliny's book on peoples.

"In Ethiopia be many diverse folk; and Ethiope is clept Cusis. In that country be folk that have but one foot, and they go so blyve that it is marvel. And the foot is so large, that it shadoweth all the body against the sun, when they will lie and rest them."

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 10:28 AM (xhaym)

151 Algorey (adj.) Pertaining to a conversation or person that constantly refers to global warming.
=====

Who is going to update Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary?

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 19, 2022 10:28 AM (MIKMs)

152 I was pleasantly surprised to find, at last, a library source for independent fiction: Check your public library system's website to see if the electronic resources offered include the Hoopla app. This is the single best collection for ebook, audiobook, music, and video borrowing as long as you're not looking for current bestsellers and other just-released material -- and it offers lots of indie SF, fantasy, romance, and other genre stuff! For example, not just "Zeppelins West" as mentioned above, but both of Joe R. Landsdale's notorious steampunk adventures narrated by a talking seal, under the title Flaming Zeppelins. Not to mention practically the entire collected works of Philip K. Dick, Randall Garrett, Lloyd Biggle Jr., and other classic SF giants. Only drawback is that the app doesn't work on Kindle or other dedicated e-readers, but it works on any Android or iOS device. Have fun!

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at June 19, 2022 10:29 AM (1QBMw)

153 *Don't make rash promises. Especially to GOD.*

See Peter comma Simon type, one each.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 10:29 AM (S1l79)

154 126 I seem to recall a writer (Robert Parker maybe?) using the names Riggs and Murtaugh for a couple of obnoxious detectives -- apparently not a Lethal Weapon fan.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:18 AM (JzDjf)

I read a fantasy novel (A Cast of Stones) where the author named two characters Martin and Lewis. The two characters operated in tandem, so if one was on-page, the other usually was too. It made me chuckle, but it did take me out of the story every now and then.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 19, 2022 10:29 AM (Lhaco)

155 One of the best Christmas gifts we ever gave our kids was the complete C&H boxed set. They've all read it over and over, so much that the bindings have broken. Unfortunately they learned a few things from Calvin, mainly how to get out of doing chores they hated by doing such a rotten job that Mom gave up.

Another great set was the complete Far Side. They were young enough that they just didn't get it at first, but as they got older they appreciated it almost as much as Calvin. But Calvin and Hobbes remains their favorite.

Happy Father's Day!
Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:22 AM (aeePL)
---
I have both of those. They are well worth the money...Though the Far Side collection is so large it's a bit of a challenge to read them...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 10:30 AM (K5n5d)

156 Crazy thought that just occurred to me:

Is the current drive to reinterpret the Constitution a knock-on effect of Sola Scriptura? That is, the notion that the text itself is all that matters and that one can safely disregard traditions and commentary on it?

I say this because I had a discussion on the 2A and pointed out its roots in the English Bill of Rights, the English Civil War and how many of the Founding Fathers could trace descent from dissidents forced to flee England during those troubled times. It was not remote history to them.

This guy know nothing about it, and could only mutter about slave uprisings and state militias.

Many American thought patterns are still shaped by Puritan intellectual approaches, which includes the current Yard Side Calvinism ("by this sign our home is saved"). Just a stray thought.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:31 AM (llXky)

157 bluebell

That's downright funny. To say nothing about the shivs.

Might want to find that sign and gift my sister. The one that wants to leave a bucolic Maryland home to go to California.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:32 AM (u82oZ)

158 "We will be discussing this book, which looks at alternative forms of assessing students instead of assigning them a grade."

Good Perfessor, I am curious what you think so far about the alternative grading scheme. There is a HS history teacher I know and respect who was trying out some alternate grading methods a couple years back. It seems like it might make sense in a course that is specifically geared toward analysis and rhetoric. Seems less useful to me in science and math courses (through the undergrad level anyway). Do you think there is desire to push these new methods down into primary/secondary schools? Could they have any utility there?

Posted by: She Hobbit at June 19, 2022 10:33 AM (ftFVW)

159 Hiya

Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 10:33 AM (arJlL)

160 I'm looking right now at a little sign on my kitchen shelf that says REMEMBER AS FAR AS EVERYONE KNOWS WE ARE A NICE NORMAL FAMILY.
Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:28 AM (aeePL)

*this hits home. smiles*

Posted by: Count de Monet at June 19, 2022 10:33 AM (4I/2K)

161 True to some extent! But he is worth reading. Not just smart, he can also be very funny.
Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:26 AM (aeePL)

Agree. For me he’s a slow read but so seductive with wisdom and wit.

Posted by: 7man at June 19, 2022 10:33 AM (qwO6y)

162 I'm reading "The Comanche Empire" by Pekka Hamalainen. Like other books I've read on the topic, this book tells the story of the Comanches, Apaches and Utes. The big difference is that this work covers the period of the American West while it was under the reign of King Carlos of Spain. Most books on the subject begin with English speaking whites making contact. The Spanish had the wisdom to leave the Comanches the hell alone for the most part.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at June 19, 2022 10:34 AM (jTmQV)

163 I like Calvin and Hobbes and my three female children like them just as much as their brother does.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 19, 2022 10:34 AM (nC+QA)

164 Hi, JT. What you been reading lately?

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:34 AM (u82oZ)

165 I don't think the pants guy owns a weedwhacker.

But since she's of the other gender, I'll give her a pass.

Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 10:34 AM (arJlL)

166 Happy Father's Day!

Perfessor Squirrel, thank you for wonderful book threads!

Far Side and Calvin and Hobbs are both must-reads, as far as I am concerned. I admit a bittersweet attachment to C and H because my ex-fiance proposed to me with a panel. I should have realized how very "Calvin" he was.

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:35 AM (JrN/x)

167 I've just completed a first-pass conversion of my screenplay to a novel, coming in at about 40K words. The question I'm wrestling with is whether or not to try to pump it up to 80K for a novel or stay at novella length and add in some short stories before e-publishing?

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 10:35 AM (kyWWM)

168 Good Perfessor, I am curious what you think so far about the alternative grading scheme. There is a HS history teacher I know and respect who was trying out some alternate grading methods a couple years back. It seems like it might make sense in a course that is specifically geared toward analysis and rhetoric. Seems less useful to me in science and math courses (through the undergrad level anyway). Do you think there is desire to push these new methods down into primary/secondary schools? Could they have any utility there?
Posted by: She Hobbit at June 19, 2022 10:33 AM (ftFVW)
---
As near as I can tell, grading is an artificial construct hammered into the heads of children from first grade. It basically removes their innate sense of wonder, which is really where learning starts. A related activity are "Accelerated Reader" programs. They are supposed to foster reading in kids, but in reality they destroy students' desire to read for fun. The education establishment in this country is designed to destroy the fun of learning.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM (K5n5d)

169 I'm looking right now at a little sign on my kitchen shelf that says REMEMBER AS FAR AS EVERYONE KNOWS WE ARE A NICE NORMAL FAMILY.
Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:28 AM (aeePL)

I need this sign.

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM (JrN/x)

170 138. Castle Guy, My guess is that girls tend to think of it as a guy thing as the only female character other than Mom is rather obnoxious. However, if a girl will actually take the time to get into it, she will undoubtedly wise up.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM (3qAOE)

171 For example, in debate with 'liberal' Christians, you'll see them claim that because "homosexuality" isn't explicitly referenced in the Bible, it's therefore okay (Sodom and Gomorrah couldn't be reached for comment).

Basically you get all sorts of arguments that can only stand if you ignore the vast trove of extent writings and traditions and focus only on torturing the language of the Bible.

Roe v Wade is the classic example of this. Abortion had been banned for more than a century. It was settled law. Only the most twisted reading of the Constitution could allow it, and it would require a rejection of all supporting texts.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM (llXky)

172 Which is why they've all been stripped from the curriculum. Not only do they induce humility, people realize that even understanding them is difficult, which destroys their sense of specialness.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:23 AM (llXky)

I think it's sadder than that. The teachers, and many of the teachers' professors, have never read them. They never read much history either, and never learned grammar. It might erode their self image as "educated', but I don't think kids feel "special". As soon as another kid kicks their ass in the sport of their fantasy, they know this. But to deprive them, and to have deprived their educators, of great literature is tragic.

I mentioned above that the movie about editor Perkins and writer Wolfe was a box office failure. I know few people younger than me who read Wolfe and almost no one who knew Perkins' name much less his connection to Wolfe, Fitzgerald and Hemingway.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM (ONvIw)

173 Finished "The Age Disenchantments" earlier this week. It traces an eccentric family of Spanish poets, with the Spanish Civil War, and its aftermath, in the background.

It was my first real exposure to that nasty time.

Book could have used some editing, but I found it worth the time.

Posted by: 2009Refugee at June 19, 2022 10:37 AM (8AONa)

174 Oh, the fun one can have with classical names.

I believe the accepted term for natives of the Isle of Lesbos is "Lesbosian."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:06 AM (llXky)

I knew a South American girl once with that name. She didn't use it. She went by her middle name. She told me once she didn't like her name. I asked her why, because I use my middle name too. Her answer was it's an old name and she was embarrassed by it. People snickered at it. She asked me if I could guess it. Being the classicist, I immediately said her name was Lesbia. She almost shouted No! But she said, yeah, that's it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 10:37 AM (7bRMQ)

175 read a fantasy novel (A Cast of Stones) where the author named two characters Martin and Lewis. The two characters operated in tandem, so if one was on-page, the other usually was too. It made me chuckle, but it did take me out of the story every now and then.
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 19, 2022

***
In one of my fantasy works years ago, I had an assassin team, Olos and Ayill -- Solo and Illya from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with the spelling scrambled. Anybody who knew the latter two would get the gag.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:38 AM (c6xtn)

176 Bluebell,

I probably need to find 3 copies of that sign, for me and the Actual Management and for our two offspring.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:38 AM (JzDjf)

177 I'm reading "The Comanche Empire" by Pekka Hamalainen. Like other books I've read on the topic, this book tells the story of the Comanches, Apaches and Utes. The big difference is that this work covers the period of the American West while it was under the reign of King Carlos of Spain. Most books on the subject begin with English speaking whites making contact. The Spanish had the wisdom to leave the Comanches the hell alone for the most part.
Posted by: gourmand du jour at June 19, 2022 10:34 AM (jTmQV)
---
Does it have the "true" story of the Comanche warrior woman who defeated an alien predator? And also defeated an army of white male supremacists determined to steal her land? (At least, that's what the trailer for the movie "Prey" has led me to believe.)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 10:38 AM (K5n5d)

178 I've just completed a first-pass conversion of my screenplay to a novel, coming in at about 40K words. The question I'm wrestling with is whether or not to try to pump it up to 80K for a novel or stay at novella length and add in some short stories before e-publishing?

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 10:35 AM (kyWWM)
---
When you've said what you meant to say, stop.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:38 AM (llXky)

179 I am troubled by the lack of coffee content here before noon.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at June 19, 2022 10:38 AM (4NlP1)

180 {{{Moki}}}

Hope you and yours are doing well.

C & H is a true window into childhood, plus it hints at a patent attorney trying to have a good family life.

Smacking patent attorneys was part of the fun of working as a Patent Examiner in the USPTO.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:39 AM (u82oZ)

181 I once challenged myself to write a novel in which each chapter was a short story. I forget why. It worked pretty well--one chapter one a short story contest at a book store someplace in Texas and two others were placed in anthologies. I learned that--for me at least--some characters do better in short stories. There are characters that I personally can't live with for longer than short takes. They're great places to try things you're not sure you want to devote a book to. And writing that particular series introduced me to a character totally unlike anything I had ever written. He hangs around, pestering me if I don't write another story soon enough.

Posted by: Wenda at June 19, 2022 10:39 AM (TK9+5)

182 Might want to find that sign and gift my sister. The one that wants to leave a bucolic Maryland home to go to California.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:32 AM (u82oZ)
------

We got it years ago at a Cracker Barrel on a family trip. One of my girls picked it up and said hey you guys, this is so us. She was right so of course I had to buy it. It sit a on a little shelf right next to a picture of our family from about 18 years ago, standing in front of the church where she will be married next year.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:39 AM (aeePL)

183 However, if a girl will actually take the time to get into it, she will undoubtedly wise up.
Posted by: Tonestaple

Nah. I think anyone of any of the 58 genders who has ever been a child and played, loves Calvin and Hobbes.

Because Calvin is a kid with an imagination who likes to have fun, and you don't have to be a boy to relate to that.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 10:40 AM (OX9vb)

184 Here, have another cup.

Posted by: King Harv at June 19, 2022 10:40 AM (S1l79)

185 Perfesser, LOL! This book is non-fiction.
It is a scholarly work by a Scandi author.
However, as an aside, some of you may recall that I am a retired person from this business we call "show".
Among my career credits was employment in all the Predator movies up to this one, which I haven't heard of.
Hey, we got 2 governors out of the series.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at June 19, 2022 10:42 AM (jTmQV)

186 I've just completed a first-pass conversion of my screenplay to a novel, coming in at about 40K words. The question I'm wrestling with is whether or not to try to pump it up to 80K for a novel or stay at novella length and add in some short stories before e-publishing?
Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022

***
As we say about F. Joe's undergarments, it depends. Do you think there is more *actual* story, not padding, to be told? Do you see places in the existing 40K ms. where you could hook in something exciting or important?

If not, I'd say leave it at 40K, or maybe shoot for 50 or 60K if you have something else that *really* needs to go in, and let it go at that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:42 AM (c6xtn)

187 Walter Freeman

Today is Sunday. Coffee thread is Saturday.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:43 AM (u82oZ)

188
Is the current drive to reinterpret the Constitution a knock-on effect of Sola Scriptura? That is, the notion that the text itself is all that matters and that one can safely disregard traditions and commentary on it?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 10:31 AM (llXky)

Do you mind expanding on this part? Or if you have a book suggestion that discusses, I would appreciate that as well.

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:43 AM (JrN/x)

189 You guys are in luck! I just did a search with the wording of my sign and then the word "sign" after it and there are lots of ones out there! Mine is a small rather unobtrusive one on a wood block, 5" high by 4" wide. But there are all sorts out there.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 10:44 AM (aeePL)

190 I'm reading "The Comanche Empire" by Pekka Hamalainen.

Who names their kid Pekka ?

Paolo ?

Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 10:44 AM (arJlL)

191 The education establishment in this country is designed to destroy the fun of learning.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM

This reminds me of a gripe I used to share at the office. It was baffling to me in the early years of engineering degrees why there is so much emphasis on weeding students out. I mean, everyone knew which were the "weed out" courses. But you finish your degree and hear how we don't graduate enough engineers in this country. I always thought it would be better to keep helping folks to enable them to be successful and get those engineers we supposedly desperately need. Don't lower the bar on mastery, just adjust how we teach and assess students to make sure more of them learn what is needed. Of course, my experience was that as soon as I left university the engineering field required complete retraining as I never used any of that school stuff again. Personally, I think engineering could use a shift to apprenticeships rather than straight degree programs.

Posted by: She Hobbit at June 19, 2022 10:44 AM (ftFVW)

192 And here I thought coffee content was kind of a given here at AoS.

Do we really need to mention it? For this crowd it would be like saying 'I've been breathing today.'

But then... coffee.

Time for another cup...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:44 AM (JzDjf)

193 It is more difficult to write a good short story than a good novel.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 10:45 AM (ybIRR)

194 bluebell

Thank you for the rest of the story. Charming context.

Now to talk to my wife about getting that sign.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:45 AM (u82oZ)

195 190 I'm reading "The Comanche Empire" by Pekka Hamalainen.

Who names their kid Pekka ?

Paolo ?
Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 10:44 AM (arJlL)

Peter Piper?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 19, 2022 10:45 AM (PiwSw)

196 designed to destroy the fun of learning.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

If you really want to destroy the fun of reading make reading all about the speed at which you read.
I (was) a pretty fast reader with about 99% comprehension and retention according to standardized testing.
So, what did I do one summer? Signed up for a speed reading class.
The instructor pointed out that I could easily increase my speed; but, there would be a detrimental effect on enjoyment. I dropped the class and continue to thank the instructor to this day.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 10:45 AM (79xUb)

197 Good morning, Book Horders.

I was on a nearly two week long cruise the first half of this month. Since there's no way in hell I'm paying $15/day for internet access, I was HQ-less. I preloaded a few things on the Kindle app on my phone and read MP4's The Director's Cut, the first one-third or so of Bryan Litz's Applied Ballistics for Long-Range Shooting, and reread books 3 and 4 of Jim Butcher's Dresden series.

After rereading Dresden books 1 and 2, I kind of felt like they didn't hold up to a second read. Books 3 and 4 have reinforced that opinion.

Litz is "you'll like it if you like that sort of thing." You know who you are.

Director's Cut is sort of new thing for me. I've never been much for historical fiction, modulo a very short side trip into Harry Turtledove. I especially liked the way MP4 makes you feel his love of 1920s Hollywood while at the same time not overly romanticizing it. It does not have the paranormal aspect that Thirteen Moons does. Looking forward to picking up his latest.

Posted by: Billy Joel at June 19, 2022 10:45 AM (nfrXX)

198 /off Piano Man sock (I knew I was gonna do that)

Posted by: Oddbob at June 19, 2022 10:46 AM (nfrXX)

199 Hiya Moki !

Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 10:46 AM (arJlL)

200 Have a great day, everyone.

May there be sunshine and zephyrs in your day.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 19, 2022 10:46 AM (u82oZ)

201 As near as I can tell, grading is an artificial construct hammered into the heads of children from first grade. It basically removes their innate sense of wonder, which is really where learning starts. A related activity are "Accelerated Reader" programs. They are supposed to foster reading in kids, but in reality they destroy students' desire to read for fun. The education establishment in this country is designed to destroy the fun of learning.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM (K5n5d)

I got to head to Mass but would very much like to hear more on this….perhaps worthy of a dedicated post. Thx.

Posted by: 7man at June 19, 2022 10:47 AM (qwO6y)

202 Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 10:45 AM (79xUb)

I can see where speed reading would be useful for non-fiction text that one reads for information and education.

Could you not "turn it off" for pleasure reading?

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at June 19, 2022 10:48 AM (OX9vb)

203 I'm reading "The Comanche Empire" by Pekka Hamalainen.

Who names their kid Pekka ?

Paolo ?
Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022

***
Finnish people, I'll warrant.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:48 AM (c6xtn)

204 Thanks for the thoughtful responses A.H. and Wolfus. I think that the main story that I want to tell has been told (so stop), but there are some entertaining back-stories and digressions that I could add in without it just being padding (so go up to 50K or 60K). However it turns out, I'm looking forward to getting it to the Perfesser this summer.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 10:49 AM (kyWWM)

205 Welp if it wasn't bad enough to insinuate a fake holiday like Juneteenth over Fathers Day, the local library is closed today AND tomorrow.

So let's see:

Diminish traditional family relationships - Check
Lessen the availabilty of books - Check

What a country.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 10:50 AM (y7DUB)

206 {{{NaCly}}}

We are hanging in there, how are you and Mrs. NaCly?!

I love Calvin and Hobbs, but I admit feeling awkward having it about, with the history and all. Did not know about the patent attorney part, that actually sheds some interesting light on the whole series!

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:50 AM (JrN/x)

207 @187: "Today is Sunday. Coffee thread is Saturday."

I am aware, but it still feels like Saturday without my morning cuppa.

*grumbles; glares at his coffee machine*

Posted by: Walter Freeman at June 19, 2022 10:50 AM (4NlP1)

208 It is more difficult to write a good short story than a good novel.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022

***
The old remark (Mark Twain?) still holds true: "I sent you a long letter as I did not have time to write a short one."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:51 AM (c6xtn)

209 *grumbles; glares at his coffee machine*
Posted by: Walter Freeman at June 19, 2022 10:50 AM (4NlP1)

Ni Hao!

Posted by: Walter's Coffee Machine at June 19, 2022 10:51 AM (PiwSw)

210 199 Hiya Moki !
Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 10:46 AM (arJlL)

Hiya JT!!!!

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:51 AM (JrN/x)

211 I don't think reading for fun and developing the stamina to read for "work" is mutually exclusive. I read plenty of things for fun/enjoyment, but I can't approach these books the same way as I would profession related material. Neither could my husband, a retired finance professor. Getting through necessary material is also a skill that needs teaching. No, not in first grade, but more quickly than many would like to admit.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 10:51 AM (ONvIw)

212 To correct myself, The Director's Cut takes place in New York City but is set around the silent film industry. The use of "Hollywood" was sloppy shorthand on my part. Sorry, MP4.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 19, 2022 10:52 AM (nfrXX)

213
Could you not "turn it off" for pleasure reading?
Posted by: April--dash

I don't think I could have... I found myself reading sci-fi at speed. I could probably remember the gist of them now; but, I have reread some of those books and enjoyed them more.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 10:53 AM (79xUb)

214 171 A H Lloyd, it occurs to me that the 10th Amendment, which ought to play a much bigger role in our lives than it does, is the perfect example of - to use a Catholic analogy - the early church fathers. If anything not mentioned in the Constitution is reserved to the states or to the people, it is up to the received wisdom of the people to figure out what ought to be done with a situation.

This is a very interesting idea.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 10:53 AM (3qAOE)

215 "Sunshine And Zephyrs" was gonna be the group's name, but ultimately the members of KC & The Sunshine Band decided it was too hard to spell.
Posted by: King Harv at June 19, 2022

***
they might also have taken a lesson from the auto industry. At least twice Ford (Lincoln/Mercury) tried to market a car named "Zephyr." Neither time did it do well.

The Zephyr roller coaster at the long-defunct Pontchartrain Beach here was a success, but nobody was paying thousands for it or having to live with it for several years, or having to explain to people what the name meant.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:55 AM (c6xtn)

216 166 I admit a bittersweet attachment to C and H because my ex-fiance proposed to me with a panel. I should have realized how very "Calvin" he was.
Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:35 AM (JrN/x)

-----

I shared some C and H with a woman I was dating. Her reaction? "He's a brat!" We didn't last two months.

When Watterson quit writing, I quit reading comics.

Posted by: JM in Florida at June 19, 2022 10:56 AM (02Rcw)

217 ...but there are some entertaining back-stories and digressions that I could add in without it just being padding (so go up to 50K or 60K). However it turns out, I'm looking forward to getting it to the Perfesser this summer.
Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 10:49 AM (kyWWM)

It sounds like those could be written as separate short stories, perhaps as continuing serials for your main novella. If you have a website, you could post the short stories there. Then after a year or so, produce a compendium of the novella and short stories?

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:56 AM (JrN/x)

218 *Sunshine and zephyrs everyone*

"Sunshine And Zephyrs" was gonna be the group's name, but ultimately the members of KC & The Sunshine Band decided it was too hard to spell.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 10:56 AM (S1l79)

219 It is more difficult to write a good short story than a good novel.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 10:45 AM (ybIRR)

Now they tell me!

(throws all writing attempts in trash)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 10:56 AM (7bRMQ)

220
I shared some C and H with a woman I was dating. Her reaction? "He's a brat!" We didn't last two months.

When Watterson quit writing, I quit reading comics.
Posted by: JM in Florida at June 19, 2022 10:56 AM (02Rcw)

Well, my ex did run over me with his car because I forgot balloons for his dad's birthday...

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:57 AM (JrN/x)

221 There is a sign over the porch of a house in town. It reads "BE NICE OR YOU WILL HAVE TO LEAVE."

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 19, 2022 10:57 AM (lKAqb)

222 Was it Woody Allen who joked about speed-reading War and Peace one afternoon? 'About Russia, isn't it?'

Took a session in high school to boost the reading speed, and it came in handy for classes, but I don't try to do that any more. It isn't really a good fit for pleasure reading, at least imho.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:57 AM (JzDjf)

223 Oops. Double your post, double your fun.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 10:58 AM (S1l79)

224
Well, my ex did run over me with his car because I forgot balloons for his dad's birthday...
Posted by: Moki

That seems a bit... harsh...

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 10:58 AM (79xUb)

225 There was a short window of time where up-and-coming authors would write their short stories and pieces of novels on online story collab sites or on their own site all for free. But those days seem to be going away as more and more put them behind paywalls like at substack. Some now-established writers have even collected their old writing, requested them deleted from the public sites, and then re-released them on substack. Not complaining, they deserve to be compensated. But it was nice reading things that were out there.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 19, 2022 10:59 AM (xbYBS)

226 Took a session in high school to boost the reading speed, and it came in handy for classes, but I don't try to do that any more. It isn't really a good fit for pleasure reading, at least imho.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 10:57 AM (JzDjf)

If you can't remember what you read, it's not a good fit for any reading.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 10:59 AM (ONvIw)

227 like the joke about trying to sell chevy novas in latin america, mean 'doesn't go' or the montecarlo, 'only carlo rides it' same with the 'desoto' property of soto, little joke,

yes the utter garbage, they assign at least through middle school, under the rubric reading, as opposed to literature, and this is before they went all zombie, socalled woke,

Posted by: no 6 at June 19, 2022 11:00 AM (i0Lci)

228 It isn't really a good fit for pleasure reading, at least imho.
Posted by: Just Some Guy

Completely agree.
And for technical reading it didn't work because the devil was in the excruciating detail.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 11:00 AM (79xUb)

229 You made me pull out my Calvin and Hobbes books. Too much to say best comic strip ever ?

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 19, 2022 11:01 AM (3jSxb)

230 As near as I can tell, grading is an artificial construct hammered into the heads of children from first grade.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 10:36 AM (K5n5d)
--------
I agree. When I was homeschooling, I never assigned grades to my kids' work until they were in high school. Instead, I corrected things and went over with them what they got wrong, and had them redo written assignments after incorporating my suggested changes. In high school, I gave them "normal" tests for science and math and foreign language, but for everything else I had them write papers, pretty much. Short answers for history questions too, etc.

When it came to college application time the Common App has essay questions for the parents of homeschoolers, I found out! One of them asked "what is your grading criteria?" I said pretty much what i said above (just the high school part) and explained that I felt learning to write was a skill that would useful for any career they chose. Not a single school ever questioned me on it.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:02 AM (aeePL)

231 Too much to say best comic strip ever ?
Posted by: Anti

I'll give you a tie with the Far Side.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 11:02 AM (79xUb)

232 Then after a year or so, produce a compendium of the novella and short stories?
Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:56 AM (JrN/x)

Thanks Moki, that might be the better approach. I could e-publish the novella while pushing the movie pitch and writing the collateral, then if I don't get any traction on the movie (exceedingly likely), go back out with the novella+short stories.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 11:02 AM (kyWWM)

233 228 -- Re tech reading. Absolutely. Classroom stuff in high school, and in several areas in college (not including math or hard sciences), it worked fine. If I'd tried to speed-read material for computer classes years later, it would have been a complete disaster.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 11:04 AM (JzDjf)

234 He was gonna call it "Locke and Rousseau" but the focus groups said no.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 11:05 AM (S1l79)

235 yes, one can get very expansive, very quickly, throwing everything into a pot, whereas keep one short cohesive story,

james patterson re his memoir was a masters candidate at vanderbilt who dropped out and went into advertising at walter thompson, I read the first one of his pre Alex Cross ones black market, which was sort of an spy thriller mystery,the protagonist could have been played by bruce willis, a burnt out counter terror operative of the fbi, the antagonist well that's a harder question, but I wondered where he got his notions from

Posted by: no 6 at June 19, 2022 11:05 AM (i0Lci)

236 Bit of news-

I got a poem published in an anthology put together by our local library, a community anthology about the COVID-19 experience. The editors liked it so much they asked me to submit another. (Well actually they just needed more filler, because the overall community contributions were pretty thin. The poem is really pretty maudlin and lame (think junior high school poetry) until you catch the message hidden in the first letter of each word, which the editors didn't catch. And I don't have an aunt named Ramona.

It's more than Pixy's line break limits will allow, but it is linked in my nick.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:05 AM (kXYt5)

237 Hiya JT!!!!
Posted by: Moki

Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 11:06 AM (arJlL)

238 Took a session in high school to boost the reading speed, and it came in handy for classes, but I don't try to do that any more. It isn't really a good fit for pleasure reading, at least imho.
Posted by: Just Some Guy

I was part of a 3 kid speed reading experiment in 7th grade. I believe my comprehension is great... and no, I don't use the techniques in pleasure reading.
Atlas Shrugged a HUGE exception.

Posted by: MkY at June 19, 2022 11:06 AM (cPGH3)

239 Fort Collins is absolutely lovely. (we visited CSU which my son loved)

Thanks for the book thread, Perfesser!

Posted by: BlackOrchidOfDerp at June 19, 2022 11:08 AM (w0NJk)

240 Do you mind expanding on this part? Or if you have a book suggestion that discusses, I would appreciate that as well.
Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:43 AM (JrN/x)

The work that I know of that discusses this in a political position is Lysander Spooner's Constitution of No Authority, in which Spooner the Abolitionist is arguing in the 1840's that the US Constitution is a contract, and as such only is enforceable as is written, that t he text, not the possible private intentions of the framers, was what was germane.
This is quite valid in contract law.

In puritanism and other dissenting churches, where the Bible is considered the literal word of God, it can get lost that the whole thing is interrelated in a strict reading of the text. Jordan Peterson goes into this, I think it is in Maps of Meaning, though I have never read it, only listened to his lectures.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 11:08 AM (xhaym)

241 Happy Fathers Day to all the good dads out there. Could use a lot more of you guys in this world.

Posted by: dartist at June 19, 2022 11:08 AM (+ya+t)

242 OT - after ordering almost twenty months ago, my Starlink shipped yesterday. Five years over an unreliable 20Mb/second microwave link is almost over.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at June 19, 2022 11:10 AM (kyWWM)

243 Miss ya, Pop. I was just thinking yesterday that in October 2026 my pop would have been 100. Lived to his mid-eighties which was a pleasant blessing.

Posted by: sidney at June 19, 2022 11:10 AM (itAo5)

244 Today how each recalls events of new corona
Everyone worrying; as sick and beset as Ramona

T h e r e/ o n c e/ w a s/ a b a r ...

You get the idea.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:10 AM (kXYt5)

245 Too much to say best comic strip ever ?
Posted by: Anti

I'll give you a tie with the Far Side.
Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 11:02 AM (79xUb)
---
Top three comics of all time (in alphabetical order): Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 11:10 AM (K5n5d)

246 Happy Fathers Day! It's lovely today and looking forward to a quiet day (of reading) and then a nice family dinner to celebrate.

Thankful for all the dads!

Posted by: BlackOrchidOfDerp at June 19, 2022 11:11 AM (w0NJk)

247 oh indeed, genesis runs all the way through to revelation, with the gospels as the hinge,

the text of the constitution is clear, except for those who want to ignore it, which are the statists,

Posted by: no 6 at June 19, 2022 11:11 AM (i0Lci)

248 205 Welp if it wasn't bad enough to insinuate a fake holiday like Juneteenth over Fathers Day, the local library is closed today AND tomorrow.

So they get a 2 day holiday? Ahhh govt work

Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:11 AM (T4seV)

249 In reading the Bible in a strict reading of the text,
it can get lost that the whole thing is interrelated and any context can be lost. This can be inadvertent from lack of knowledge, or it can be intentional and malevolent

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 11:11 AM (xhaym)

250 79 ... "in my never ending quest to learn Latin"

For amusement, if nothing else, there is a Latin translation of Winnie-the-Pooh. Might be a change from more 'serious' translations.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2022 11:12 AM (7EjX1)

251 That "ungrading" book sounds like it has potential to be woke mess.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 19, 2022 11:12 AM (31Nc+)

252 246 Happy Fathers Day

—

Huh?
- Pride And Juneteenth 24/7 msm

Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:12 AM (T4seV)

253 Well, my ex did run over me with his car because I forgot balloons for his dad's birthday...
Posted by: Moki

---

Glad you were smart enough and determined enough to dump him as a fiancée-- too many people expect it to get better somehow.

Posted by: JM in Florida at June 19, 2022 11:13 AM (OdwzK)

254 Finnish people, I'll warrant.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 10:48 AM (c6xtn)

It's short for Perkele. Not a common Finnish name, but used a lot

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 11:13 AM (xhaym)

255 It's more than Pixy's line break limits will allow, but it is linked in my nick.
Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:05 AM (kXYt5)
--------

OH MY GOODNESS EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND GO TO THAT LINK.

I had to break out the legal pad to keep track but Muldoon, you are BRILLIANT!

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:14 AM (aeePL)

256 I snorted down C.J. Box's newest Joe Pickett novel, "Shadow's Reel". Highly entertaining, but can't help but feel it was a little thin this time around.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Analog Hipster

There were SEVERAL interesting characters in this story, and it also filled in some of Nate's background.

Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 11:14 AM (arJlL)

257 It's more than Pixy's line break limits will allow, but it is linked in my nick.
Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:05 AM (kXYt5)

You are tricky.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 11:14 AM (ONvIw)

258 Actor of the Day

MATT DAMON was in Rounders with John Malkovich, who was in Queen's Logic with Kevin Bacon.

MATT DAMON was in The Martian with Sean Bean, who was in The Lord of the Rings with Christopher Lee.

Tomorrow's actor of the day will be the last man on earth, just like that story above.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 11:15 AM (ybIRR)

259 Thanks for cryptic message Muldoon. Looking forward to it.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 11:15 AM (S1l79)

260 That "ungrading" book sounds like it has potential to be woke mess.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 19, 2022 11:12 AM (31Nc+)
---
Well, yes and no. It's a collection of articles by numerous authors. Some are more woke than others. They do make some valid points about how our current grading system is actually destroying learning. It was created out of laziness and a desire to simply rank students according to arbitrary performance standards.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 11:15 AM (K5n5d)

261 Do you mind expanding on this part? Or if you have a book suggestion that discusses, I would appreciate that as well.

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 10:43 AM (JrN/x)
---
No, this is just a random thought I picked up after listening to the latest episode of The Lord of Spirits podcast on scriptural authority.

There is a direct line from Sola Scriptura theology to the modern American left, whose leading lights are generally lapsed WASPs. If you believe only the Bible has authority and you ignore the Church Fathers and the traditions, then you can come up with some very strange ideas.

For example, the Puritans banned the celebration of Christmas because it wasn't in the Bible.

The same approach is used to the US Constitution, where all that matters is the text and what can be done with it. For example, the Constitution never explicitly says were life begins, and even though everyone knows it, even though abortion was illegal when it was written, banned after it was implemented and these bans were more than a century old, a Sola Scriptura approach allows one to find a right to it in a penumbra.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:15 AM (llXky)

262 Late to the party, I know but got hung up on the $.99 sale. Bought a couple of great books the last time. Problem is the page keeps scrolling back to the top of the page for no apparent reason so got tired of trying.
Started 3 books this week. Found all 3 boring. Have to find something new and exciting. Hopefully can report next week.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 19, 2022 11:16 AM (Y+l9t)

263 The shortest sci-fi horror story ever:

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door."
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 19, 2022 09:57 AM (PiwSw)

This is a picky and silly complaint, but that's not a story, short or otherwise.
It's a great opening to a story or a kind of low energy joke.
Even -
"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door."
The last man on Earth opened the door. Before him slumped a small green octopus wearing pinch new eyeglasses and holding a cardboard placard.
"Congratulations!" it said "You've won the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes!"

-isn't a story. The "story's" left open because the possibilities afterward are infinite-ish.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 19, 2022 11:16 AM (5NkmN)

264 I had to break out the legal pad to keep track but Muldoon, you are BRILLIANT!
Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:14 AM (aeePL)--

I resorted to paper too

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 11:16 AM (ONvIw)

265 Tomorrow's actor of the day will be the last man on earth, just like that story above.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 11:15 AM (ybIRR)
---
Samuel Anderson? He was in an episode of Doctor Who where he plays the last man on Earth. And there is a knock at the door, just like the story.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 11:17 AM (K5n5d)

266 Tomorrow's actor of the day will be the last man on earth, just like that story above.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022

***
I'm guessing Charlton Heston or Vincent Price . . . unless it's Will Smith.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 11:17 AM (c6xtn)

267 The saddest short story ever written has been claimed to be:

"For sale, baby shoes. Never worn."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 19, 2022 11:18 AM (c6xtn)

268 I have always preferred The Magicians Nephew, though perhaps it is because so many things in it are origin story for the more famous first written story.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 19, 2022 09:31 AM (CP8tQ)

Just finished The Silver Chair last night.
Boy and his Horse is next, I think.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 19, 2022 11:19 AM (ufFY8)

269 The same approach is used with the Second Amendment, where people parse only the text itself, ignoring the lengthy traditions, laws, history and background (not to mention the Revolutionary War itself).

One can only make these arguments by insisting that the actual text of the Constitution is the only thing that matters, and if you parse the words close enough, you get what you want.

Similarly, there are Christian heresies that work only if you ignore volumes of writing by the Church Fathers as well as supporting texts that are canon-adjacent but nevertheless important. The Book of Enoch is only canonical to the Ethiopian Church, but it is referenced in the Bible and an important aid in understanding other passages in the Bible. But if you use the "nope, not in the Bible, it's crap" approach, you lose that knowledge.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:19 AM (llXky)

270 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:15 AM (llXky)

I guess the Puritans didn't get the connection of the three wisemen bringing gifts celebrating the birth of the savior . Sounds like Lefties.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 19, 2022 11:19 AM (3jSxb)

271 Started 3 books this week. Found all 3 boring. Have to find something new and exciting. Hopefully can report next week.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 19, 2022 11:16 AM (Y+l9t)
---
You can always check out the Moron Recommendations:

https://www.libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel/l/1384512

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 11:20 AM (K5n5d)

272 I see everyone is off decrypting Muldoon's poem.

Muldoon, did you or are you going to do another?

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:20 AM (aeePL)

273 Perhaps the Puritans didn't celebrate Christmas because there was usually drunkeness and besides, no one could agree when it was...

Posted by: gourmand du jour at June 19, 2022 11:20 AM (jTmQV)

274 The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door."

And then the murders began.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 19, 2022 11:21 AM (ufFY8)

275 I read the follow-ups to Helen MacInnes "Prelude to Terror," all with Robert Renwick as the central character.

The second, "The Hidden Target," was not as good as the first, mainly because of the lame--and slightly disturbing-- romance in the love interest. It did maintain the arc established in "Prelude," very deftly, despite the scenario being a completely different story.

The third, "Cloak of Darkness," equalled the first, and wound up the arc in a roundabout way.

What I liked most about these spy novels was the quiet emphasis on dull procedure eliciting the answers to the investigation's queries.

Posted by: Brett at June 19, 2022 11:22 AM (NwNPz)

276 272.

They might have published the limerick on its own, Muldoon

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 11:22 AM (ONvIw)

277 OH MY GOODNESS EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND GO TO THAT LINK.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:14 AM (aeePL)
---
Sadly, I no longer trust any link I see here. Even the sidebar ones make me nervous.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:22 AM (llXky)

278 I don't like characters who read and watch as much fiction as I do. If you insert me into a book, I'm going to power-game my way to ruling the town. Or at least survive the ordeal like those painfully self-aware characters from Scream and Cabin in the Woods.

Batman did not read comic books (or maybe comic books are all westerns in his universe). He invented what he was from scratch.

This last two batman movies had everyone watching the local news constantly to put together the next plot point. Garbage. TV is garbage in every universe.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 11:22 AM (ybIRR)

279 Okay, I'm supposed to be making hamburger buns. Thanks for the wonderful book thread, Perfessor!

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:22 AM (aeePL)

280 @277: "Sadly, I no longer trust any link I see here."

Says the man with a link in his post name signature!

Posted by: Walter Freeman at June 19, 2022 11:23 AM (4NlP1)

281 Liked the Vincent Price version (which was at least far closer to Matheson's story -- script by Matheson under pseudonym), and the Heston was ok, but not that faithful to the book. I think I fell asleep during the Smith.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 19, 2022 11:23 AM (JzDjf)

282 Sadly, I no longer trust any link I see here. Even the sidebar ones make me nervous.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:22 AM (llXky)
-------
Muldoon's is to his own blog. Completely safe, I assure you.

The sidebar is quite another matter!

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:23 AM (aeePL)

283 the text of the constitution is clear, except for those who want to ignore it, which are the statists,
Posted by: no 6 at June 19, 2022 11:11 AM (i0Lci)

Post-Civil War, Spooner argued that the Constitution was invalid, as a contract could not rightfully be imposed on an individual because of his inability to run away fast or far enough, the only people who were subject to it were those that signed it initially, or pledged as part of their employment in government (and were the principal people to violate it regularly)

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 11:24 AM (xhaym)

284 I trust Joe Mannix's, kinks, though they are.often booby trapped

Posted by: anchorbabe fashion cop at June 19, 2022 11:24 AM (ufFY8)

285 Yes Charlton Heston was the Omega Man. I'm pretty sure those zombies knocked on his door at some point.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 11:24 AM (ybIRR)

286 Lol, Links, dammit

Posted by: anchorbabe fashion cop at June 19, 2022 11:24 AM (ufFY8)

287 I read my first CJ Box novel after reading a popular "special-ops-guy-saves-the-world" novel and i was struck by the richness of Box's writing.

Good to have my standards reset.

Posted by: JM in Florida at June 19, 2022 11:24 AM (HD3Ny)

288 Says the man with a link in his post name signature!

Posted by: Walter Freeman at June 19, 2022 11:23 AM (4NlP1)
---
And I never use it, either.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (llXky)

289 245, Forgot about Bloom County since it was brought back nauseatingly political. But its first version was awesome. I saved one Sunday strip, Hillary and Chelsea discussing Bill The Cat. Chelsea says "But he's a barf-faced retardo-butt," to which Hillary responds, "Honey, so is Congress." It still speaks to me.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (3qAOE)

290 did you or are you going to do another?

******

No plans for another. It was just me pranking the editors, although they don't even know they were pranked. Maybe after a suitable interval I will send them an e-mail with the decrypting instructions. I don't really want to be mean, as they were so earnest. And the poems were pretty atrocious.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (kXYt5)

291 @282: "Completely safe, I assure you."

In other news, Lucy says the football is "completely kickable."

Posted by: Walter Freeman at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (4NlP1)

292 284. Works either way

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (ONvIw)

293 And I made a mistake, the anti-slavery pamphlet was The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, the one that touches on the constitution itself is No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (xhaym)

294 And the poems were pretty atrocious.
Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (kXYt5)
-------

Yours was . . . very unlike you.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:26 AM (aeePL)

295 Muldoon's is to his own blog. Completely safe, I assure you.

The sidebar is quite another matter!

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:23 AM (aeePL)
---
My point is that this place is exactly where you would suspect someone to post something awful and then a bunch of folks - who know it's awful - go along and tell everyone, "yeah, it's great, you'll love it" and it's alike that Lena Dunham photo spread that Ace puts up because he hated us and wanted us to suffer.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:26 AM (llXky)

296 The last man on earth was sorting his LP collection. There was a knock at the door. A muffled voice said "Keith Richards?"

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 11:28 AM (ybIRR)

297 Happy Fathers' Day

Requests:
Sumbuddy find the "Ace doing Trump Describing Darth Vader' Relationship with Luke" comment

and, while we are at it, the Tachyon Shuggy
"...it would have to be of a size on the order of the Sun!" comment

and, the thread of Ace deriding people who get all hot and respectful for men with guns in suits"

"an-ny-thing!"

Posted by: LADE RUNNER at June 19, 2022 11:28 AM (q3kA1)

298 AH Lloyd, you know I would never do that. Mostly because I would have no idea how, but also because I would never do that.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:28 AM (aeePL)

299 Happy Fathers Day! It's lovely today and looking forward to a quiet day (of reading) and then a nice family dinner to celebrate.

Thankful for all the dads!
Posted by: BlackOrchidOfDerp at June 19, 2022 11:11 AM (w0NJk)

I feel bad for any who feel otherwise; and there have been a number of comments in years past illustrating exactly that. Being a good father is hard work that you do out of love and responsibility. Not everyone is up to the task which is too bad for everyone. But growing old having children who love you makes it all worth while.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 11:28 AM (y7DUB)

300 @288: "And I never use it, either."

The rare wisdom of following one's own advice!

Posted by: Walter Freeman at June 19, 2022 11:28 AM (4NlP1)

301 No mention of fathers day in the local media. All about the Juneteenth day weekend and all the events going on. Poor fathers, they are being regulated to the dust bin of history. City library will have lots of books available for black history month, so they say.

Posted by: Colin at June 19, 2022 11:28 AM (YVx1O)

302 My heavy amazon package is 2 stops away. This is more maddening than reassuring.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 11:29 AM (ybIRR)

303 Forgot about Bloom County since it was brought back nauseatingly political. But its first version was awesome. I saved one Sunday strip, Hillary and Chelsea discussing Bill The Cat. Chelsea says "But he's a barf-faced retardo-butt," to which Hillary responds, "Honey, so is Congress." It still speaks to me.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 11:25 AM (3qAOE)
---
I saved most of my Bloom County books. Like many comics, it ran out of creative energy and I'm not interested in seeing what it's like now.

Loved it back in the day. It was political, but reasonably balanced.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:29 AM (llXky)

304 AH Lloyd, you know I would never do that. Mostly because I would have no idea how, but also because I would never do that.

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:28 AM (aeePL)
---
Such logic is irrefutable. I'll take a look.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:30 AM (llXky)

305
Glad you were smart enough and determined enough to dump him as a fiancée-- too many people expect it to get better somehow.
Posted by: JM in Florida at June 19, 2022 11:13 AM (OdwzK)

Only by God's grace, and His gift of my husband at just the right time.

And thanks for the explanation Perfessor! I will ponder that for a bit!

Posted by: Moki at June 19, 2022 11:30 AM (JrN/x)

306 Geez, Muldoon. I will have to go back to it. Was taking forever to decipher the code.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 19, 2022 11:31 AM (Y+l9t)

307 The Constitution was written with the ability to be changed with the approval of the citizens. The problem is that government fascists believe they have the power to change it without going through the process and citizen approval.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 19, 2022 11:31 AM (3jSxb)

308 They might have published the limerick on its own, Muldoon
Posted by: CN

*******

I kind of doubt it, but I suppose it's possible. The overall tone was hand wringing and weepy. I mostly just enjoyed the challenge of embedding a limerick within a poem that could stand on its own as a poem.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:31 AM (kXYt5)

309 Geez, Muldoon. I will have to go back to it. Was taking forever to decipher the code.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 19, 2022 11:31 AM (Y+l9t)
--------

Get a piece of paper and write down all the first letters. don't worry about spacing. When you are finished, the spacing will jump out at you and you can put slashes after each word to keep them straight.

Okay, those hamburger buns aren't going to make themselves! Bye for real!

Posted by: bluebell at June 19, 2022 11:32 AM (aeePL)

310 The Bloom County guy had a hate-boner for Trump since the 80s. As TDS was carrying away this person and that, the man didn't stand a chance.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 19, 2022 11:33 AM (ybIRR)

311 "Sadly, I no longer trust any link I see here."

Yeah, well, you're not from Sedona.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at June 19, 2022 11:34 AM (videA)

312 Stolen from the internet.

You're not just raising your son. You're raising somebody's husband and somebody's father.

Raise your sons to be good men.

Happy father's day, morons.

Posted by: Comrade flounder, wrecker, hoarder, saboteur at June 19, 2022 11:34 AM (nByzo)

313 The Constitution was written with the ability to be changed with the approval of the citizens. The problem is that government fascists believe they have the power to change it without going through the process and citizen approval.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 19, 2022 11:31 AM (3jSxb)
---
What they do is change its interpretation, twisting words out of context to get what they want rather than doing the hard work of changing the text itself.

Thus, wholesale gun confiscation is Constitutional, because the amendment prohibiting it is vague and opaque and applies to militias.

Which is also how you get "re-baptisms" for people who switch their gender.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:34 AM (llXky)

314 Short stories are the toughest writing I ever attempted. Apparently, I think in terms of hundreds of pages, not a few. (Might explain why my user and tech manuals were so thorough.) As an example, I once wrote a three page intro that turned into a 300 page story. (None of the fiction was published which was likely a blessing for those with eyes.)

Thinking about it, my favorite short story author is Robert Howard. Not just Conan but his suspense and western stories. He captures mood, setting and character so quickly and effectively.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2022 11:36 AM (7EjX1)

315 My point is that this place is exactly where you would suspect someone to post something awful

*******

I'm with you A.H. Lloyd. I seldom go to links posted in the comments, unless the commenter gives some context or preview of what they are linking.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:37 AM (kXYt5)

316 Which is also how you get "re-baptisms" for people who switch their gender.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:34 AM (llXky)

Original sin has to be eradicated twice?

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 11:38 AM (y7DUB)

317 Muldoon, instead of Sedona, you could have used Ramona, which is a real town.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 19, 2022 11:39 AM (lKAqb)

318 299, Captain Hate, I am deeply envious of families with lovable and loving dads. My life would probably be quite different with one of those. I can find a couple of things that are good that came from him, but that's not enough.

As I always say, moms are all about safety and security and dads are all about how to deal with the big bad outside world. Moms are the be-all and end-all of a little one's life until the child can start getting around on her own when Dad starts coming to the fore and gradually becomes more and more critical to the child's ability to cope. Moms will always be there for comfort but dads are how you solve problems.

Take dads away (which being an addict of any kind does, even if he's physically present) and the system cannot hold: learning on your own all those coping skills you could get from dad is just way too hard, especially the skills for coping with men.

There is nothing as valuable in this life as a good and loving father.

My unified theory of parenting, having never raised a child.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2022 11:40 AM (3qAOE)

319 Complete Calvin and Hobbes

* fist bump*
My oldest granddaughter and I were reading those earlier this week. It was prompted by her asking why her mother ( my daughter) has a tattoo of Calvin and Hobbes on her left shoulder.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at June 19, 2022 11:41 AM (g5ocN)

320 Well, I'm off to Mass, maybe back for the gub thread and some decryption.

Happy Fathers Day everyone! Thanks "perfesser"!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:42 AM (llXky)

321 Thanks for the hint Bluebell. It is not only a clever ruse, but a very funny limerick.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 19, 2022 11:43 AM (Y+l9t)

322 I saved most of my Bloom County books. Like many comics, it ran out of creative energy...

Like most of Disney's output now, "Outland" was the author's conceit of "The audience loves me. They'll love anything I do so I can do anything." Whoops. Whoopsie.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 19, 2022 11:44 AM (nfrXX)

323 Muldoon, I'd like to buy you a cerveza. In Arizona.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 11:44 AM (S1l79)

324 Raz0rfist has written another Pulp book.

Death Mask Nightvale - Book II
www.nightvalenovels.com/

I'd imagine the signed copies are gone, by now.

Posted by: Slapweasel at June 19, 2022 11:45 AM (Ckg4U)

325 Whatever scant mention of fathers day Ive seen in the mam is within the Juneteenth or Pride context. LikeFathers Day and Juneteenth, how black fathers celebrate. Or my journey as a father of a trans teen.

Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:46 AM (T4seV)

326 Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:05
----------------
there once was a bar maid named mona

who worked at a club in sedona

she went up the stair

to see what was there

and came down with a case of corona

Posted by: olddog in mo at June 19, 2022 11:46 AM (ju2Fy)

327 ... you could have used Ramona, which is a real town.
Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse

******

I ddid not know that. It would have been a nice call back to the first poem.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 19, 2022 11:48 AM (kXYt5)

328 Everyone saying the mass pushback against the insanity has begun, I dare say you are dreaming. Fathers Day has been all but eliminated. It has been replaced by a celebration of black supremacy and drag queens.

Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:48 AM (T4seV)

329 325 Whatever scant mention of fathers day Ive seen in the mam is within the Juneteenth or Pride context. LikeFathers Day and Juneteenth, how black fathers celebrate. Or my journey as a father of a trans teen.
Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:46 AM (T4seV)

CTH had a nice piece.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 11:49 AM (ONvIw)

330 Thanks for that response, Tonestaple. I was being a pretty bad father and husband because I was stuck in a job I hated. Rather than continue to take it out on the innocent, I set up a long term plan to resolve the issues while they were still manageable. It's still the most successful thing I ever did and once I started it it almost went on cruise control.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 19, 2022 11:49 AM (y7DUB)

331 Of to Fathers' Day lunch. It's at kid1's house. We rarely eat in restaurants as my husband can't hear well.

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 11:50 AM (ONvIw)

332 "The Chinese way of thinking really is foreign to most Westerners. We just don't understand them. Nor do they fully understand us."

My view is (as A.H. Lloyd mentions, in a way) people become conformists when under duress, a sort of social Stockholm syndrome. Those methods are being used against The West now, by these oligarchs and their emergency mandates and cancel culture.

Totalitarian regimes require constant force, behave as we demand, or else. But they always wrap their control in the "for your own good" tortilla.

Posted by: illiniwek at June 19, 2022 11:50 AM (Cus5s)

333 Everyone saying the mass pushback against the insanity has begun, I dare say you are dreaming. Fathers Day has been all but eliminated. It has been replaced by a celebration of black supremacy and drag queens.
Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:48 AM (T4seV)

I could make a snide remark about how Junteenth just HAD to be the same day as Father's Day, but I will refrain and simply wish all dads a Happy Father's Day.

Posted by: JoeF. at June 19, 2022 11:50 AM (mR6Gs)

334 I still remember the Bloom County strip where the little black kid is just learning about apartheid in South Africa during a conversation with Opus, who's in the shower.
Upon grasping the reality of it all he asks with implied incredulity in his voice if Jesse Jackson knows about it?

The last panel shows Opus, wearing a shower cap, with the curtain pulled back, who replies: "He's been briefed."

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 11:52 AM (S1l79)

335 Which is also how you get "re-baptisms" for people who switch their gender.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 19, 2022 11:34 AM (llXky)

Renaming ceremonies at the local synagogues. Just plain sick to cosset a delusion

Posted by: CN at June 19, 2022 11:52 AM (ONvIw)

336 Eh, this Father's Day, Juneteenth mash-up is just another effort by the Left to separate Blacks from the rest of American society. (See also Kwanzaa)

Progtards/The Left have always seen Blacks as the Spear tip of Their Revolution. So, of course they want Blacks to be isolated, alienated.

Strong Black families with present Fathers is the worst possible thing that could happen to the Left.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 19, 2022 11:53 AM (5NkmN)

337 Muldoon, I'd like to buy you a cerveza. In Arizona.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty

I'll meet you both in Sedona!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 11:53 AM (79xUb)

338 I could make a snide remark about how Junteenth just HAD to be the same day as Father's Day, but I will refrain and simply wish all dads a Happy Father's Day.

Posted by: JoeF. at June 19, 2022 11:50 AM (mR6Gs)

That's just this year, for the next ten years at least it's not on June 19.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 19, 2022 11:54 AM (7bRMQ)

339 Have a good week of reading, Everyone !

Posted by: JT at June 19, 2022 11:55 AM (arJlL)

340 Post-Civil War, Spooner argued that the Constitution was invalid, as a contract could not rightfully be imposed on an individual because of his inability to run away fast or far enough, the only people who were subject to it were those that signed it initially, or pledged as part of their employment in government (and were the principal people to violate it regularly)

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 11:24 AM (xhaym)

Spooner was an idealist who never understand the "might makes right" argument. Which is really the ultimate lesson of that Civil War. Constitutionally and legally, the South was right. But the North was stronger, so here we are

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 19, 2022 11:55 AM (q3gwH)

341 Juneteenth = summer Kwanzaa.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 11:56 AM (S1l79)

342 336

That is true. The left needs a permanent black underclass to thrive. But they are not not hey black people, stop celebrating fathers. They are saying hey everyone, stop celebrating fathers. Its not like white kids don’t need fathers as well.

Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:56 AM (T4seV)

343 On topic, best $40, the factory service manual for my '05 vulcan classic 1600 bike. referred to it extensively throughout the last two weeks repairing the bike. got it all back together with ni leftover screws or bolts, test run was very good. just finished running it u til the radiator fan turned on. now i'm waiting and watching for coolant leaks. so far, nothing. no boilijg over, no pushing it out of the overflow tank either. gonna let it sit until it's reached ambient temps check it again, then go for a ride.

happy father's day, Morons!

Posted by: BifBewalski @ (UgAdJ) - at June 19, 2022 11:56 AM (UgAdJ)

344 Everyone saying the mass pushback against the insanity has begun, I dare say you are dreaming. Fathers Day has been all but eliminated. It has been replaced by a celebration of black supremacy and drag queens.
Posted by: Joe XiDen

IMO it begins and ends with in your own sphere of influence. Home family and friends. Screw their narrative.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at June 19, 2022 11:57 AM (g5ocN)

345 Happy Father's Day to all you HQ dads. Being the best dad you can be is the most important job you will ever have. Missing mine on this day. Thanks for all you did for me, Pop. Your sacrifices on my behalf will never be forgotten.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at June 19, 2022 11:58 AM (Xrfse)

346 TV was generally murder on dads. Way too many shows depicted Dad as doofus or bigot or generally inept.

Posted by: JM in Florida at June 19, 2022 11:58 AM (HibCC)

347 gonna let it sit until it's reached ambient temps check it again, then go for a ride.

happy father's day, Morons!
Posted by: BifBewalski

Congrats! That final no-leaks tests is one many skip... to their unending shame (well if anyone finds out it is unending!).

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 11:58 AM (79xUb)

348 Howdy Perfesser. Currently reading Ian Toll's third installment Twilight of the Gods In his Pacific War trilogy. Well written, with straight history, not a "revisionist" tale. Would recommend.

Posted by: Jak Sucio at June 19, 2022 11:58 AM (jvt6t)

349 4/7 years juneteenth will be a long weekend the same weekend as fathers day. So even if they dont exactly fall on the same day, Summer Kwanza will upstage Fathers Day most years.

Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:59 AM (T4seV)

350 TV was generally murder on dads. Way too many shows depicted Dad as doofus or bigot or generally inept.

Posted by: JM

Why do you use past tense 'was' when it is still true?

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 19, 2022 11:59 AM (79xUb)

351 IMO it begins and ends with in your own sphere of influence. Home family and friends. Screw their narrative.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at June 19, 2022 11:57 AM (g5ocN)

This. Happy Father's Day.

Posted by: Comrade flounder, wrecker, hoarder, saboteur at June 19, 2022 11:59 AM (nByzo)

352 That is true. The left needs a permanent black underclass to thrive. "

I think quite a few of them are starting to figure out that if not for the Abortion Industry, there would have been a whole lot more of them with a whole lot more actual power now than there are.

In most cities in the south (especially Texas) it's been quite obvious that the black population is diminishing and being replaced by the hispanic population. They get a lot of attention because of politics, but in the real world they're fading away.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 19, 2022 11:59 AM (q3gwH)

353
346 TV was generally murder on dads. Way too many shows depicted Dad as doofus or bigot or generally inept.

Posted by: JM in Florida at June 19, 2022 11:58 AM (HibCC)

But always with a smoking hot wife.

Posted by: Joe XiDen at June 19, 2022 11:59 AM (T4seV)

354 Muldoon, That was fabulous! Thank you for sharing.

Posted by: Mrs. JTB at June 19, 2022 12:01 PM (7EjX1)

355 We haz nood

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2022 12:01 PM (2JoB8)

356 Nood

Posted by: Thanatopsis at June 19, 2022 12:01 PM (XMLEb)

357 and came down with a case of corona

But nothing like My Sharona.

I'll see myself out.

Posted by: Jak Sucio at June 19, 2022 12:03 PM (jvt6t)

358 Oh, the fun one can have with classical names.
=====

Still waiting for you big-brained Horde at AoS to use Caligula for Bootsedgeedge. Little Boots, indeed.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 19, 2022 12:03 PM (MIKMs)

359 IMO it begins and ends with in your own sphere of influence. Home family and friends. Screw their narrative.
Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at June 19, 2022 11:57 AM (g5ocN)

Well said. It also begins with accepting that *everything* said officially or unofficially by the Government or it's Media allies is absolute garbage and should not even be listened to. (the great majority of people I know IRL have turned off all national media for at least 2 years now.) That's why I"m so unconcerned with any "look what they're saying!!" arguments - you have to be a glutton for punishment (or an idiot) to even spend one second listening to anything "they" are saying.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 19, 2022 12:05 PM (q3gwH)

360 Spooner was an idealist who never understand the "might makes right" argument. Which is really the ultimate lesson of that Civil War. Constitutionally and legally, the South was right. But the North was stronger, so here we are

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 19, 2022 11:55 AM (q3gwH)

*sigh*

Which is why the Gypsy Jokers own your car legally now, whenever they choose.

your argument is exactly what Spooner's is, that the rule of law is inconsistent with the use of force to create desireable outcomes. Just because I can beat you to death does not mean it is legal for me to do so, and by the way, any system based on that premise is highly unstable.

Unless you are saying that a biker gang can steal your stuff and then assure their legal possession of it in the eyes of the law.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2022 12:08 PM (xhaym)

361 Bigger boots have smaller boots
Behind their heels to kick 'em.
The smaller boots have even smaller boots
And so...(ok, I need some help here)

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 19, 2022 12:08 PM (S1l79)

362 Dear “Perfesser,”

I would love to have a book report from you once you finish “Ungrading.” Does the author make a case for changing the way students’ knowledge is evaluated or is it another education fad? There seem to be a lot of theories that look good on paper or within the confines of university “laboratory schools” that fail in the Real World..

Posted by: March Hare at June 19, 2022 12:09 PM (lwrAe)

363 *furiously deciphers Muldoon's poem, tongue sticking out*

Got it!

DONT FORGET TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Trailer Trash Adjacent at June 19, 2022 12:50 PM (x8Wzq)

364 Thank you so much for promoting my work. So grateful.

Posted by: troyriser at June 19, 2022 01:00 PM (ogIek)

365 56:
The headless men with faces on their chests: The Tarzan writers probably got them from Shakespeare. Othello charms Desdemona into marrying him by telling her all the amazing things he's seen, including

"the cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders."

Shakespeare probably got them from Pliny, or someone who had read Pliny. And Pliny may have gotten them from Herodotus, though I'm not sure about that.

Posted by: Dr. Weevil at June 19, 2022 01:34 PM (jfExb)

366 I'm sorry I missed the book thread - was busy. Am gonna read it now.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 19, 2022 02:22 PM (kf6Ak)

367 Dear “Perfesser,”

I would love to have a book report from you once you finish “Ungrading.” Does the author make a case for changing the way students’ knowledge is evaluated or is it another education fad? There seem to be a lot of theories that look good on paper or within the confines of university “laboratory schools” that fail in the Real World..
Posted by: March Hare at June 19, 2022 12:09 PM (lwrAe)
---
The secret to improving performance isn't grades. It's feedback. Providing meaningful feedback to students and incentivizing them to ACT on that feedback is the key to learning. Of course, it's really hard to provide feedback when you have a class of 1000 students, but it can be done.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 19, 2022 02:58 PM (K5n5d)

368 That is true. The left needs a permanent black underclass to thrive. "

I think quite a few of them are starting to figure out that if not for the Abortion Industry, there would have been a whole lot more of them with a whole lot more actual power now than there are.

***

I sure hope so. 3rd-4th generational welfare status also is devastating. Now: on to the books!!

Posted by: LASue, occasional thought leader at June 19, 2022 03:02 PM (Ed8Zd)

369 For all you TopGun enthusiasts

The Aircraft Designers: A Grumman Historical Perspective (Library of Flight) Har/Pstr Edition
by Michael V. Ciminera

Learn the true story of the F-14 Tomcat.

Available from Amazon

Posted by: MachiasPrivateer at June 19, 2022 03:21 PM (EMi53)

370 Our first-world problem is that our AC went out last night. Since it's been 100 degrees for a couple of weeks and likely to remain so for another couple of weeks (at least) there are two things that make this a FWP instead of a dangerous situation.

First, there is another AC unit that serves the bedrooms that still works, so we can retreat and sleep. Second, the way the house is built, it's staying livable in the rest of the house (82 to 83 degrees).

When I was a kid, we didn't have AC and it was just as hot in Texas as it is now. Not sure that as a post-29-year-old I'm up to that now though.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at June 19, 2022 03:47 PM (fTtFy)

371 Oops. Wrong thread (of course).

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at June 19, 2022 03:48 PM (fTtFy)

372 "When I was a kid, we didn't have AC and it was just as hot in Texas as it is now. Not sure that as a post-29-year-old I'm up to that now though."

Also houses were built differently I bet.

Posted by: goodluckduck at June 19, 2022 04:47 PM (pCXlW)

373 Just found out "Zeppelins West" is the first in a trilogy. Hell yes.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 19, 2022 04:54 PM (w5x73)

374 Hi, Perfessor. About your assignment to explore alternate ways to assess student performance: Many years ago, I was in a college teacher's ed program built around William Glasser's "Schools Without Failure". It calls for students to have a fairly good grasp of the subject matter in a course before moving on. There are a lot of good ideas in the book.

Later, I did student teaching in a high school designed to accomodate this program. Didn't turn out as well as hoped by proponents. One problem was that standards for "mastery" were set too high, so nobody passed the classes.

Posted by: KT at June 19, 2022 05:30 PM (rrtZS)

375 More on Schools Without Failure": I got the impression that the program would have worked a lot better if Glasser himself were there directing it. One of those programs where everybody has to fully understand and buy into the concepts.

I later read reports from fancy private schools which had adopted this program. They complained that colleges did not want to take the time to go through written assessments of students who had gone "above and beyond" course requirements in making admissions. Colleges wanted letter grades.

Students who could not make it in, say, trigonometry, were directed to other programs rather than assigned a grade point average which might have discouraged them from trying trigonometry instead of basket weaving. One positive feature of this program.

Posted by: KT at June 19, 2022 05:37 PM (rrtZS)

376 We also read Glasser's "Reality Therapy". It includes stories about psychoanalysis of psychotic people before the advent of anti-psychotic medications. It seemed to "take" in many cases, but when the patients were allowed more freedom, they flipped out. They did much better in a restricted environment (mental hospital). The possibilities for abuse are obvious, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a valid observation.

Similarly, juvenile delinquents often made progress in situations where their freedom was restricted, but, importantly, only if they had regular contact with a trustworthy adult. Today, when therapy programs are ALSO untrustworthy, what do you do?

Posted by: KT at June 19, 2022 05:45 PM (rrtZS)

377 I've always avoided autobiographies and memoirs unless there are no alternatives. That said, and with China 1900-1949ish in mind, General Slim's book about his WWII campaigns in Burma is probably the best general book on Burma. China, Burma and India during the war era are bound together - politically and militarily. Slim and Stilwell were handed absurd military missions with little chance of success.

Slim took command of road bound garrison troops in Burma -really just dominion police forces. The Japanese cut the dominion troops to pieces in exactly the same way Finnish ski squads annihilated Red Army troops on Raate road during the first half of the 105 day Winter War. The only difference between the two being one was in a semi-frozen marsh-tiaga hellscape and the other in a steaming, fetid, Mekong delta jungle.

Posted by: 13times at June 19, 2022 07:15 PM (2mToh)

378 More on China 1900-1949ish. Everything written about Sun Yat-sen is veiled in legend and myth. First the Kuomintang historians and their lies and distortions and now the Chinese communist historians and their creationist-revisionist mythologies. For self-serving reasons the CCP decided to rehabilitate Sun and weave his story into the creation-myth of the CCP.

The primary reason for the CCP revision is to remove (or dilute) the Russian-Soviet comintern involvement from the timeline. Push Sun forward into the glorious light and comintern agents Grigori Voitinsky, Nikolsky, Borodin, Sneevliet, Galen and others into shadow.

Posted by: 13times at June 19, 2022 07:55 PM (2mToh)

379 Most of the non-fiction books about western gangsters living in Shanghai are uninteresting. I really don't care about jumped-up Irish mafia or Sephardic Jews and their prostitution, dope and gambling operations. Dressing up gangsters in true crime books as "lifestyle glamorous" and placing them in a French concession doll house casino is a pathetic way to make a living. Label it fiction.

Posted by: 13times at June 19, 2022 09:09 PM (2mToh)

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