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Sunday Morning Book Thread - 08-14-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

081422-Library.jpg
(ht: David Carter)

Welcome to 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. 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 secret documents hidden in Melania Trump's underpants drawer. 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, tap a keg of maple syrup for your pancakes, and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Moron David Carter sent me the pic of his upstairs library. It's a very nice little reading corner. When I was looking at the picture, I zoomed in on the map that's hanging on the wall, but couldn't quite make it out. I asked David about it and he replied:


That is a mid-19th century map of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, with a sidebar map of Chili [sic]. I have several maps of Latin American Countries from that period, plus a map of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires from the late 1890s. I've always loved old maps, and, to my delight, stumbled across a 1908 copy of the Everyman's Atlas of the Ancient and Classical World, which is completely made up of fold-out maps (I've attached a photo) [see below - PS].

The upstairs library is heavy on history books, but I also have most of my collection of 18th century English literature there, too - including my pride and joy, the 1904 Parfraets Edition of The Works of Samuel Johnson, each volume of which includes full color plates depicting various notables from the period - plus my collection of Chesterton and Mencken. It's the one room in the house that looks respectable. We are currently stuck holding on to furniture that belongs to our adult sons, so the rest of the house looks rather like a Goodwill showroom.

book-of-maps.JPG

IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR WORD POWER

Moron fd posted the following comment last week. I admit I was unfamiliar with a couple of words. I'm pretty sure "escapement in horology" doesn't mean running away from ladies of the evening when their pimps come knocking...


Weasel here's book for you. Free on Gutenberg:

WATCH AND CLOCK ESCAPEMENTS
A Complete Study In Theory and Practice of the Lever, Cylinder and Chronometer Escapements, Together with a Brief Account of the Origin and Evolution of the Escapement in Horology

There appears to be a ton of math, so I know you'll like it.

https://bit.ly/3JCJUaT

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:17 AM (sn5EN)

escapement - n. - A mechanism in a clock or watch that alternately checks and releases the train by a fixed amount and transmits a periodic impulse from the spring or weight to the balance wheel or pendulum. This is what causes the clock's hands to advance in a mechanical clock.

horology - n. - The study and measurement of time. The art of making clocks and watches.

++++++++++

081422-Joke.jpg

++++++++++

BOOKS BY MORONS (Updates!)

A couple of months ago (06-05-2022), Daniel Humphreys announced a Kickstarter project for his Paxton Locke series of books. That project was successful and his books are now available on Amazon! Congrats!



Paxton-Locke-Series.jpg

The series follows a young man cursed with magical powers who ends up working for a secret government agency tasked with protecting the world from the forces of darkness. We know it's fiction because said agency is actually competent. Should be enjoyable for fans of Monster Hunter International and the Dresden Files.

Bob Zimmerman now has hardback and paperback copies of his book, Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space.



The book puts the lie to the 1619 project. See the blurbs and description here:

Conscious Choice

And in case you've forgotten, JJ Sefton links to my webpage practically every day, linking to my daily "Today's blacklisted American" column, my regular beat covering space and science, and my periodic essays on culture and politics.


++++++++++

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS


I've just downloaded a Vera Stanhope mystery, The Glass Room by Anne Cleeves. She's always a good reliable read. I loved the Vera series on Britbox. I wish they'd do another season, but from what I've read, the actress who plays Vera says her stamina is pretty much kaput.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:09 AM (45fpk)

Comment: I am not familiar with this series, but from researching Anne Cleeves on Amazon, it sounds like her mystery stories are very much character driven. TVTropes compares Vera Stanhope (the main character of this series) to a female Columbo. Irascible, opinionated, yet relentless in the pursuit of justice. Of course, whenever I hear the name "Vera" I tend to think of Jayne Cobb's very favorite gun.

+++++


I also read The Curious Disappearance of Seamus Muldoon, by Muldoon, of course.

When his brother-in-law disappeared on a seemingly normal day, everyone--neighbors, family, friends--had a theory about what have might have happened. Muldoon lays out a number of those theories in short vignettes.

Some are preposterous, but the more likely ones are tragic. My condolences to his family, because the pain of loss never really goes away, and is compounded by the not knowing.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 09:15 AM (OX9vb)

Comment: I don't have much to say here except to express my own condolences on Muldoon's loss. Writing can be a very cathartic way of dealing with tragedy or personal issues.

+++++


The book The Scourge of God was good. It was about Attila the Hun. It showed how the corruption of Roman politics made the Western Empire easy pickings. It also showed how pathetic rulers like Valentinian would rather kill competent generals like Flavius Aetius than rule wisely and well. Some thing never change.

Posted by: Jmel at August 07, 2022 10:50 AM (qL7HS)

Comment: Bad people will do bad things, regardless of time or place. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The FBI (and by extension the Biden junta) is now the poster child for this adage.

+++++


My all-time favourite book title is A Scent of New-Mown Hay, by John Blackburn because I find it incredibly evocative.
It's a fairly obscure sci-fi novel, which possibly no one else on here has read. I certainly could be wrong about.
It's a cold war sci-fi/horror novel in which a Soviet experiment wrong and deadly spores are released, which turn human beings into walking fungi.
When one of the fungi monsters is close they smell like new mown hay.
Back to lurking.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, there are chickens in my trench at August 07, 2022 11:59 AM (eGTCV)

Comment: I had never heard of John Blackburn until now. After looking him up on Wikipedia, I might have to try some of his novels someday. They sound right up my alley. A mix of horror, supernatural, and suspense, along with a touch of science fiction. A Scent of New-Mown Hay was adapted into a BBC radio production in 1969. I love the idea of walking, fungi. There is a trope around this idea: The Worm That Walks.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (347 Moron-recommended books so far!)

+-----+-----+-----+-----+

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:


  • On the Steel Breeze by Alistair Reynolds -- Pretty decent "hard" science fiction (no FTL drives) about some horrible conspiracy involving AIs gone rogue...Haven't had much time to read anything else. It's been a weird week...

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 - 08-07-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

081422-ClosingSquirrel.jpg


Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 All my books I've read have been Work related.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at August 14, 2022 09:00 AM (3hSHB)

2
More coffee

Posted by: Ciampino - Democrats or KKK but I repeat myself at August 14, 2022 09:00 AM (qfLjt)

3 Classy library!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:00 AM (Dc2NZ)

4 Tolle Lege
Late to the party but still no new book to read anyway

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 09:00 AM (k8B25)

5 No reading this week.

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:02 AM (BRHaw)

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

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 09:02 AM (7EjX1)

7
g'mornin', book-ish 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 14, 2022 09:03 AM (ENBF0)

8 We are still cleaning the library up and out. R. finally talked herself into getting rid of her college texts and all the supporting volumes she used when teaching.

Feels like a sin to get rid of books.

Posted by: Tonypete at August 14, 2022 09:03 AM (LsEU/)

9 "All my books I've read have been Work related."

"Late to the party but still no new book to read anyway"

"No reading this week."

----
Hmmm. This already shaping up to be a rather lame book thread this week...I guess we were all busy doing other things...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 09:04 AM (K5n5d)

10 Strange things are afoot in central PA. I imagine it will make an interesting true crime novel someday.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at August 14, 2022 09:05 AM (R8uWY)

11 Morning all!

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 14, 2022 09:05 AM (QZxDR)

12 Weasel here's book for you. Free on Gutenberg:
WATCH AND CLOCK ESCAPEMENTS
A Complete Study In Theory and Practice of the Lever, Cylinder and Chronometer Escapements, Together with a Brief Account of the Origin and Evolution of the Escapement in Horology

There appears to be a ton of math, so I know you'll like it.

https://bit.ly/3JCJUaT
Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:17 AM (sn5EN)

There is a great semi documentary on clocks needed by the British Navy.
Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude
Changes in longitude
Changes in womens mood

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:06 AM (BRHaw)

13 I liked the speed reading joke. I imagined he traced every letter with a finger since it took the whole of 20 secs.

Posted by: Ciampino - Democrats are ignoramuses not origami at August 14, 2022 09:06 AM (qfLjt)

14 Not only do we know it's fiction because the government agency is competent, we also know it's fiction because the governments today seem to be the forces of darkness.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:06 AM (7bRMQ)

15 In the midst of reading Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Like Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series, we get introduced to the situation via a Gary Stu character who's a science fiction enthusiast (NTTAWWT). Jamie Gray left college before finishing his dissertation on dystopian sci fi to go work at a food app start-up in NYC. He is right-sized and demoded to food delivery, and one evening he meets an old college acquaintance who has a job opening for an animal preservation NGO -- but no questions asked. Turns out there's a secret base in Greenland where a rip in the ol' space/time fabric has opened a window to an alternate Earth where Chixhulub never hit, and enormous dinosaur-like creatures roam a hot, oxygen-rich world.

It's often very funny, but there are also numerous hot smug takes where I can imagine Will Wheaton nodding and clapping in solidarity.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

16 Has anyone else noticed the multitude of novels coming out, based in Scandinavian countries or with Scandinavian protagonists? It seems to be a trend.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 14, 2022 09:07 AM (45fpk)

17 This bit made me think of the Horde:

The team is in a helicopter inspecting the kaiju couple Edward and Bella ("Millennials ruined kaiju naming!") and the pilot notes evidence of a tumescent cloaca. Jamie snickers.

"I was just thinking that Edward's Tumescent Cloaca would have been an excellent band name."
"Emo, obviously."
"Their first album glistened with promise, but their follow-up was a little flaccid."
"Their third album was really shitty."
"To be fair, the competition was stiff that year."
"I just thought that they should have showed more spunk."

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:07 AM (Dc2NZ)

18 Nice Lieberry!

Those pants.....sure, why not.


Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 14, 2022 09:07 AM (R/m4+)

19 The pants guy doesn't own a weedwhacker. (if you catch my drift)

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:08 AM (T4tVD)

20 Vera Stanhope. Oh, how I love her...father's money!

Posted by: Dan Backslide at August 14, 2022 09:09 AM (7bRMQ)

21 We are still cleaning the library up and out. R. finally talked herself into getting rid of her college texts and all the supporting volumes she used when teaching.

Feels like a sin to get rid of books.
Posted by: Tonypete

Donate 'em to Goodwill.

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:10 AM (T4tVD)

22 Booken Morgen Horfen!

Classy lieberry, David Carter!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:10 AM (gbzeC)

23 Have a correction to make
Reading The Curious Disappearance of Seamus Muldoon

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 09:10 AM (k8B25)

24 >>>Moron David Carter sent me the pic of his upstairs library.

Could we have a clickable zoomable photo? I wanted to read book spines.

Posted by: m at August 14, 2022 09:10 AM (RuTUS)

25 Good Sunday morning, horde.

Nice library, Mr. Carter!

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 14, 2022 09:11 AM (OX9vb)

26 There is a great semi documentary on clocks needed by the British Navy.
Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude
Changes in longitude
Changes in womens mood
Posted by: rhennigantx


Very interesting book and best past is that there is "No Math" involved.

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ This year in Corsicana! ~ at August 14, 2022 09:11 AM (hOUT3)

27 Morning again, all,

I'm deep into Ruth Rendell's 1993 novel The Crocodile Bird, which is about the love of mother and daughter in 1980s and 1990s Britain. The crime element comes in when the daughter witnesses her mother shotgunning a man who tried to rape her; but that's just part of the story. It opens with her mother being arrested for a (much more recent?) killing, but we don't know any more about it than that. Bit by bit the story is revealed as the daughter, now 17, tells her life story to her young lover. Kind of a Scheherazade story (which Rendell mentions) in some ways.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 09:11 AM (c6xtn)

28 With my TBR list in danger of toppling, I'm -- naturally -- reading a book from the library.

I blame you guys. The book, "Cold Storage" by David Koepp, has been recommended in the Book Thread twice. With good reason.

"Cold Storage" is about the effort to thwart a superfungus that infects living beings, fills them to bursting, and bursts them, all at warp speed. It was frozen and buried in an Army storage center that eventually became a civilian business. But the freezing system has worn out. ...

At first I thought that the plot was slowed by incidental episodes that Koepp was throwing in a la Westlake, but they're starting to connect. And he's pulled off one brilliant bit of misdirection.

I'm envisioning set design for this as a movie. Koepp may have done that also -- he's a noted screenwriter. The back flyleaf lists "Jurassic Park" and "Spider-Man" (which one?) among his work.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:11 AM (Om/di)

29 Yay book thread!

The big news for me is the first draft of Walls of Men: The Chinese Way of War 2500 BC - 2020 AD is finished!

I did the first pass edit last week and I'm pushing the manuscripts out to the test readers. I need to put some maps together and get cover art, by which time I should have my feedback and can start formatting for publishing.

Hoping to have it out in September.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (llXky)

30 Booken Morgen Horfen!

What's a Horfen ?

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (T4tVD)

31 So in that vein, I'm reading the Sandhamm series by Viveca Sten. I read them for the umlauts.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (45fpk)

32 The Paxton Locke books are great. Congrats o Daniee Humphreys!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (gbzeC)

33 Thanks to CBD for recommending the Hotchner bios of Hemingway. They're more memoirs of the author's interactions with Hemingway and his wife than date/place /academic comments type stuff, but that turns out to be a good thing.

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (VuQO/)

34 Feels like a sin to get rid of books.
Posted by: Tonypete

Donate 'em to Goodwill.
Posted by: JT


Donate them to a used book store if you can find one.

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ This year in Corsicana! ~ at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (hOUT3)

35 horology - n. - The study and measurement of whores.
See Pimp, Hustler.

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:13 AM (BRHaw)

36 The big news for me is the first draft of Walls of Men: The Chinese Way of War 2500 BC - 2020 AD is finished!


Wonderful! Congratulations!

Posted by: grammie winger at August 14, 2022 09:13 AM (45fpk)

37 I've been working on promoting Metrics, a previous books-by-moron-authors entry, and landed an interview and story in our local newspaper, Fallbrook Village News.

https://bit.ly/3C3ruOU

One correction to the piece, obviously: 29, not 60.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at August 14, 2022 09:13 AM (wY/cZ)

38 Hmmm. This already shaping up to be a rather lame book thread this week...I guess we were all busy doing other things...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 09:04 AM (K5n5d)

I did some re-writing, does that count?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:13 AM (7bRMQ)

39 Both used book stores I visit take used books, might be parameters not sure.

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 09:14 AM (k8B25)

40 In the midst of reading Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

My daughter recommended this one to me a couple of weeks ago, after we finished Cold Storage. She said it has a similar vibe. I'll put that on my list for this week.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 14, 2022 09:14 AM (OX9vb)

41 I started to re-read The Screwtape letters but had to put it back on the shelf. Like parts of Lewis' That Hideous Strength, the cynical evil it deals with is too close to our current situation. I read for many reasons but reinforcing the rage I feel about the cultural corruption and nihilism inundating us isn't one of them. I'll read them some other day.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 09:14 AM (7EjX1)

42 What's a Horfen ?
Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (T4tVD)

20 bux same as downtown!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:14 AM (BRHaw)

43 29. Congrats

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 09:15 AM (VuQO/)

44 A.H. Lloyd congratulations!

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 09:15 AM (k8B25)

45 I did some re-writing, does that count?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:13 AM (7bRMQ)
---
Of course! The first few comments were a little discouraging, but trust All Hail Eris to come in with a great comment about her reading this week!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 09:16 AM (K5n5d)

46 Have Screwtape Letters on my tablet, started to read them but haven't got back to them.

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 09:17 AM (k8B25)

47 41. I see that book as an explanation of the minds and the incremental work that got us here. It doesn't reinforce my anger, but it helps direct it.

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 09:17 AM (VuQO/)

48 Greetings:

Your attention to maps is all the opening I need to kvetch (Bronx boy) about the sorry state of cartography in today's books. There no longer seems to be and "ground" rules that authors and publishers are committed to which strikes me as peculiar as the current graphic design tools can do so much so easily. (not greatly unlike today's typography).

Recommendation: "Geography Is Destiny" by Ian Morris

Subtitled: "Britain and the World: A 10,000 Year History". (Don't you just love it when the subtitle has a sub-bar title ???).

It's a kind of light-hearted, kind of Twain-esque history based on the author's affection for five very unusual maps and five different principles, identity, prosperity, mobility, security, and sovereignty. The author does well avoiding much plighting of progressive troth except for "climate change" which he mentions several times without any supporting arguments. I give it a bit over 4 rating on my 5 scale.

Posted by: 11B40 at August 14, 2022 09:17 AM (uuklp)

49 A few weeks ago, Ben Had, bless her, sent me some books on drawing that she had found helpful. I've been going through them. It's pleasant, relaxing and educational reading. I wish they could instill talent as well as knowledge. At least my attempts doing the exercises is amusing.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 09:19 AM (7EjX1)

50 Read for the last week was...relaxing.

Finally taking a break from all things China. I picked up two different editions of Small Arms of the World (9th and 12th) because they are very different in focus.

The 9th is from 1969 and contains extensive discussions of WW II weapons (and even some before that). What I like is that this is no mere picturebook, it shows how to field strip many of the weapons and contains advice for collectors and warnings against certain ammunition/weapon combinations.

There was an amusing aside about a particular design having lots of variants and that with sufficient spare parts, one could bedevil collectors.

The 12th has removed most of that in favor of looking at emerging technologies. It is from 1983, so it is more focused on Cold War weapons and operating systems. They compliment one another nicely.

These are not cover-to-cover reads, but I like to hop around them and find entries that interest me.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:19 AM (llXky)

51 From CSL Screwtape:
The greatest evil,” Lewis wrote, is not now done in any Dickensian “dens of iniquity” or even in “concentration camps and labor camps.” Such brutish moral cesspools, Lewis says, are rather “the final result” of the encompassing evil evoked in his awesome (in the old sense) satire.

On the contrary, the evil he has in mind is “conceived and ordered . . . in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.”

EXPERTS!!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:19 AM (BRHaw)

52 Forgot to mention -- "Cold Storage" has a reference to "Fenelon Motors," a car dealership.

Where could Koepp have picked up that name?

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:20 AM (Om/di)

53 I've started reading the Autobiography of Benvenuto (which means welcome) Cellini.
I'd never heard of him but he was a 16th century Italian goldsmith who knew all the elites of his day.
It's part of a massive Harvard Classics collection.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, at August 14, 2022 09:21 AM (eGTCV)

54 BRHaw

yuck!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:21 AM (BRHaw)

55 What's a Horfen ?
Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (T4tVD)

20 bux same as downtown!
Posted by: rhennigantx

At least inflation hasn't affected the price.

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:21 AM (T4tVD)

56 Almost forgot, while this week didn't do any reading, was watching a few of too many to see in a week videos getting into more background and speculation about LotR characters on YouTube. Has to be something on everyone in the books.

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 09:21 AM (k8B25)

57 51. And the incremental nature of evil. "Small" lapses allow for greater ones and you get to a bad place quickly.

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 09:22 AM (VuQO/)

58 Feels like a sin to get rid of books.

Posted by: Tonypete at August 14, 2022 09:03 AM (LsEU/)
---
The experience of cleaning out my in-laws' home has made me willing to thin the collection periodically. Now that Wall of Men is finished, I'm going to get rid of some of those books. Many I will keep for reference, but others can find new homes.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:22 AM (llXky)

59 "1908 copy of the Everyman's Atlas of the Ancient and Classical World"

Ooo I want that book. I love old maps.

I'm continuing to read Pliny's Natural History. It's taking a while because I take so many side trips to investigate place names and such. A book like that would be very helpful.

Posted by: fd at August 14, 2022 09:23 AM (sn5EN)

60 @29 --

Way to go, A.H. Lloyd!

My middle child, the recent graduate, took a course on China's history. He might like this, provided that he never learns that the author is a member of the Horde.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:23 AM (Om/di)

61 Word Power... Oblivious + Idiot = Obliviot.


I don't know of any ways to use it in a sentence.

Posted by: davidt at August 14, 2022 09:24 AM (oTZbj)

62 This week, I read Finn Gall, by James L. Nelson. Norsemen sail to ancient Dublin to sell their plundered goods, and possibly to plunder some new stuff. They come into possession of a great treasure that some of the Irishmen are waiting for. Battles ensue, with much craftiness and treachery.

I like historical fiction. I know it's fiction, so it takes liberties, but I still get some basic knowledge of an era.

I like reading actual history, too, but I have to not be tired, or I lose focus. I'm tired a lot these days, it seems.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 14, 2022 09:24 AM (OX9vb)

63
What's a Horfen ?
Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (T4tVD)

Not sure, but it sounds like what my cat does on the carpet at about 2:00 a.m., leaving the nasty mess for me to find when I wake up to start coffee.

And hiya JT!!!

Posted by: Moki at August 14, 2022 09:24 AM (JrN/x)

64 At least inflation hasn't affected the price.
Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:21 AM (T4tVD)

I pay the same for gas today as I did in college.
5 bucks please!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:24 AM (BRHaw)

65 Spend just a few minutes looking thru that clock book and you will be amazed at the technology behind making a mechanical watch or clock.

Posted by: fd at August 14, 2022 09:25 AM (sn5EN)

66 I enjoyed The Screwtape Letters and CS Lewis got a very positive response but said he hated writing the book and that's why he only did a short story as a followup despite people begging for a sequel.

I have to say that after two consecutive non-fiction books I am burned out on research. I'm going to take a break from writing but when I get back into it, I'm thinking something stupid and fun. Earlier in the week I found myself thinking about a soundtrack for another vampire novel.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:25 AM (llXky)

67 I don't know of any ways to use it in a sentence.
Posted by: davidt at August 14, 2022 09:24 AM (oTZbj)
---
Seems pretty easy to me:

The Democrat obliviots in Congress are hell-bent on destroying America by any means necessary.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 09:25 AM (K5n5d)

68 41 I started to re-read The Screwtape letters but had to put it back on the shelf.
Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 09:14 AM (7EjX1)

Very similar experience for same reasons.

Posted by: Ordinary American at August 14, 2022 09:25 AM (H8QX8)

69 I did binge watch a 7 episodes of the Terminal List.

I had oral surgery and was eating ice cream and oxy!

Does that count?

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:26 AM (BRHaw)

70 Not sure, but it sounds like what my cat does on the carpet at about 2:00 a.m., leaving the nasty mess for me to find when I wake up to start coffee.

And hiya JT!!!
Posted by: Moki at August 14, 2022 09:24 AM (JrN/x)
---
The worst part is stepping in it barefoot before you are fully awake...Been there, done that.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 09:26 AM (K5n5d)

71 I did write a chapter this week, so there's that.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 14, 2022 09:26 AM (QZxDR)

72 20 Vera Stanhope. Oh, how I love her...father's money!
Posted by: Dan Backslide at August 14, 2022 09:09 AM (7bRMQ)

Good old PU.

They don't make cartoons like that any more.

Posted by: Fox2! at August 14, 2022 09:26 AM (CUTlH)

73 Thanks for the book thread! Lots of reading finished - or unfinished - depending on the quality of the writing.

Posted by: 13times at August 14, 2022 09:26 AM (B4p/6)

74 I started to re-read The Screwtape letters but had to put it back on the shelf. Like parts of Lewis' That Hideous Strength, the cynical evil it deals with is too close to our current situation. I read for many reasons but reinforcing the rage I feel about the cultural corruption and nihilism inundating us isn't one of them. I'll read them some other day.
Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022


***
I just bought an annotated edition of TSL, but haven't dipped into it yet.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 09:27 AM (c6xtn)

75 65 Spend just a few minutes looking thru that clock book and you will be amazed at the technology behind making a mechanical watch or clock.
Posted by: fd at August 14, 2022 09:25 AM (sn5EN)

Was it George1 or 2 that was a nut (literally) about clocks?

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:27 AM (BRHaw)

76 I like historical fiction. I know it's fiction, so it takes liberties, but I still get some basic knowledge of an era.



I'm starting to enjoy reading historical fiction too. I like stories based on Bible characters, but some of them are not really well done.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 14, 2022 09:27 AM (45fpk)

77 Perfesser, thanks for another wonderful book thread.

I need a bigger library for all the recommendations in the past few weeks, and yes, I prefer to buy books. I like having them at hand, and it may be anthropomorphizing them a bit, but I want them to feel wanted as well. A side effect of reading JJasper Forde's Thursday Next series, which I can highly recommend, although I think his best book is Shades of Gray.

Posted by: Moki at August 14, 2022 09:27 AM (JrN/x)

78 "BRHaw
yuck!
Posted by: rhennigantx

I like it. It's a Hee Haw mashup!

Posted by: fd at August 14, 2022 09:27 AM (sn5EN)

79 I've started reading the Autobiography of Benvenuto (which means welcome) Cellini.
I'd never heard of him but he was a 16th century Italian goldsmith who knew all the elites of his day.
It's part of a massive Harvard Classics collection.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, at August 14, 2022 09:21 AM (eGTCV)

Read that in HS. Fantastic read.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:27 AM (7bRMQ)

80 I did write a chapter this week, so there's that.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 14, 2022 09:26 AM (QZxDR)
---
Every little bit counts!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:28 AM (llXky)

81 This summer I read a few YA books to see if they were suitable for assignment in a home school class I'll teach this fall.
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. A tale of a Yankee mariner with no formal education who manages to rewrite the navigation logs of the era, correcting the British la-de-da's mistakes.

String, Straightedge and Shadow, a book about the origins of geometry.

The Number Devil, a mathematical puzzle book.

All totally appropriate for horde YA.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at August 14, 2022 09:29 AM (wY/cZ)

82 I'm hoping to dip into that volume of Evelyn Waugh's short stories, plus I've got a book somewhere about how Michigan State got into the Big Ten. I bought in while I was picking up China materials and shelved it for later. I figured it would be good reading during football season.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:30 AM (llXky)

83 Hiya Moki !

I hope all is well witchoo and yourn !

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:31 AM (T4tVD)

84 I've noticed that these lib authors have lots of exotic foreign Black and Brown(tm) characters with Alphabits names in their novels but they act, talk, and have the same sense of humor as the white middle class American author. They all speak with the same voice. Still, gotta have those diversity markers checked off for the expected movie deal.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:31 AM (Dc2NZ)

85 I'm at the part about geese in Pliny's Natural History where he bemoans:

"we have come to such a pitch of effeminacy, that now-a-days, not even the men can think of lying down without the aid of the goose’s feathers, by way of pillow."

Posted by: fd at August 14, 2022 09:31 AM (sn5EN)

86 Last year I discovered the YT videos by Malcolm Guite, an Anglican priest, poet and songwriter. He has reignited my appreciation of poetry. Through him I've discovered poetry by Chesterton and CS Lewis I had never heard of. Then there is new enthusiasm for Coleridge, the Romantic poets and more. Beyond that is the way he emphasizes, correctly, the importance of imagination, especially poetic imagination, as a means to understand and communicate creation.

CS Lewis used a wardrobe as a way for people to find their way to other worlds. Guite serves as a wardrobe for me. And it has been a pleasant journey.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 09:32 AM (7EjX1)

87 28 With my TBR list in danger of toppling, I'm -- naturally -- reading a book from the library.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:11 AM (Om/di)

I know, right?? I have things on my shelves that I intend to read, but most of my owned books are non-fiction that I want to read for information.

But I'm in a fiction mood, and everyone keeps recommending good stuff, so I keep ordering holds at the library.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 14, 2022 09:32 AM (OX9vb)

88 I'm afraid that it may be time to let go of some books here as well.

Anybody interested in the entire Patrick O'Brian Master and Commander series in paperback?

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at August 14, 2022 09:32 AM (1n+EO)

89 Morning Bookthreadists, thanks Squirrel!

Begun my exploration into Merrill's Marauders, starting with CMH Pubs 9-1, 2, and 3. Then on to Hunter, Hopkins, Ogburn, Tuchman, Stilwell&White. Woo!
Enjoy, everyone. You'll know where to find me.....

Posted by: goatexchange at August 14, 2022 09:32 AM (APPN8)

90 I recently downloaded both libib (in hopes of cataloging my books) and Storygraph (to track my reading). We'll see how to do it. Not sure what I think of storygraph yet.

In book report nooz, just gave up on A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong by page 90. Main character is just such a judgy woke bint, plus it's so slow, and to add insult to injury, written in first person present tense, my least favored pov.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:32 AM (gbzeC)

91 I enjoyed the extensive library onboard the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth for a month.

From the long lines, the 2 Chinese librarians were mostly to help with the spotty Wi-Fi onboard. Every once in a while a book was checked out of an excellent selection.

Read on my trip (book 1):
The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse.
Amazing English farce, written at a much higher standard that French farce. That was unexpected.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 09:32 AM (u82oZ)

92 Book 2:

The Cure for Catastrophe
by Robert Muir-Wood. What a very green name. Written in 2016, he examines non-biological cause of death. He covered volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquake and insurance losses.

The big surprise was concrete houses and buildings. Structural engineers and a robust (not corrupt) building inspectors save millions of lives. Lacking those, building collapses kill many.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 09:33 AM (u82oZ)

93 Thanks for another Book Thread, Perferrer !

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:35 AM (T4tVD)

94 Still working on Time Enough For Love, by Heinlein. I'm maybe at the halfway point. Lazarus Long is one long winded dude.

Then again, I'd probably be lot wordier if I had been livingfor nearly 3,000 years. And TPTB has fucked with my suicide. Multiple times.

And so it goes. Thanks for the bookthread, Perfesser.

Posted by: GnuBreed at August 14, 2022 09:35 AM (JOtiF)

95 I couldn't find a home for a 1920s textbook on electrical engineering at the used-book store. The clerk said the store could recycle it, and I didn't want to keep it in the car, so I agreed. That still bothers me.

For the same reason, I have an instruction book on typing still in the trunk, plus four 1950s yearbooks from a high school in Iowa (Clinton, I think). Always meant to ask the county historical society about taking them.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:35 AM (Om/di)

96 People interested in getting into Evelyn Waugh sometimes ask where is a good place to start. The answer is: it depends.

Brideshead Revisited is wonderful, but very different from his earlier work. If you're attracted by the religious themes, you will find the earlier satires a bit jarring.

Decline and Fall is a good introduction to his Smart Set world, and sets the tone for his layers of absurdities and irrepressable scoundrels.

If you are more politically-minded, Black Mischief is arguably the most politically incorrect book every written. Scoop is a withering look at the media.

I think his best work is the Sword of Honour trilogy, but I would not start on it. Indeed, it was one of the last things he wrote and if you know his earlier work, you recognize many of its themes.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:35 AM (llXky)

97 8 ... "Feels like a sin to get rid of books."

TonyPete,

The only way I can get rid of books without too much anguish is to know they are going to people who will appreciate them. Not always possible but it helps.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 09:36 AM (7EjX1)

98 I am reading Lamentations 3 because that is what I preaching on today 😊I am taking a break from ASHQ politics until Tuesday but I wanted to have a prayer request. Some people I know- and many I don't.- are going up- are in Bedminster NJ . today to peacefully protest in support of President Trump (That is where one of his golf courses and home is)
Please pray for their safety and if the Stasi American style is planning provocateur events that they be called out. Thx so much

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 14, 2022 09:37 AM (yAgb6)

99 Good old PU.

They don't make cartoons like that any more.

Posted by: Fox2! at August 14, 2022 09:26 AM (CUTlH)

Apparently the studio hated it, so they never appeared again. I like it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:38 AM (7bRMQ)

100 I read the Mammon Trilogy by Robert Kroese this week, staying up late several nights in order to keep reading.

I loved it. Excellent thriller, about science/engineering, with economics, politics, and blockchains all heavily factoring into the plot.

Highyly recommended, Kroese is a criminally under-appreciated modern author.

Posted by: .87c at August 14, 2022 09:38 AM (ltjFF)

101 Probably be called a heretic but I found The Screwtape Letters boring.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 14, 2022 09:38 AM (Y+l9t)

102 book 3:

Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton. Post scarcity SF with a interesting idea (terraforming central Australia) in the drek. Long and meh.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 09:38 AM (u82oZ)

103 I've noticed that these lib authors have lots of exotic foreign Black and Brown(tm) characters with Alphabits names in their novels but they act, talk, and have the same sense of humor as the white middle class American author. They all speak with the same voice. Still, gotta have those diversity markers checked off for the expected movie deal.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:31 AM (Dc2NZ)
---
The inability to think outside their own cultural bubble is the left's greatest weakness.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:39 AM (llXky)

104 I do not consider myself to be an author. I don't write books in order to sell them, and I don't write for a general audience. I consider myself more of a storyteller. I wrote TCDoSM for an immediate audience of two (my wife and I), and a secondary audience of one (the sick asshole who killed my father-in-law). I self-published it to let him know, "we know what you did". To a degree it was successful, as the prick had to leave the vicinity and is not able to show his face in public around here. His name is Mudd. And even though he will never go on trial for my FIL's murder, he is living in a prison of his own making. Last we heard he was shacked up with his mother in a mobile home in some E. Texas podunk town. If you want to read it, get a used copy from amazon and re-sell it when you are done. I'm not in it to make money.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 09:39 AM (kXYt5)

105 "Feels like a sin to get rid of books."

You'll get over it.

Posted by: I. Slam at August 14, 2022 09:39 AM (sn5EN)

106 We're good JT, especially with the cooler temps. How are you doing?

Posted by: Moki at August 14, 2022 09:39 AM (JrN/x)

107 Joan Of Arc To Be Portrayed As “Non-binary” And “Questioning The Gender Binary” In New Play "I, Joan"

-
I'll bet Cleopatra was too.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 09:40 AM (FVME7)

108 The big news for me is the first draft of Walls of Men: The Chinese Way of War 2500 BC - 2020 AD is finished!

Hoping to have it out in September.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (llXky)
----

Congratulations A.H.! I look forward to reading it.

After consuming mass quantities of history concentrate, do you relax with light reading, or are you already planning your next book?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:41 AM (Dc2NZ)

109 Mornin' Horde. This week I got a copy of The Grieving Brain, by Mary Frances O'Connor, through ILL. IIRC, vmom recommended this to me (thank you!). Since Jesse's memorial in July, I've noticed my "brain fog" seems to be getting worse not better. I can only read a little at a time, but the writing is accessible to a non-specialist. Maybe this will help me understand what's going on inside my thick skull, aside from the rocks rattling around, that is...

I also picked up a Ruth Rendell novel after seeing several Hordians mention her, and an Alison Weir novel but have not started either one yet.

Posted by: screaming in digital at August 14, 2022 09:41 AM (pkAcY)

110 A few number of years ago I read the historical fiction Circling the Sun by Paula McLain about Beryl Markham. An very enjoyable read.

Public domain book The Willows by Algernon Blackwood published 1905ish. It's weird fiction with very light horror elements. There's no real plot. It's a story about two men on a canoe trip beginning at the headwaters of the Danube. They end up in the floodwater island archipelago just north of Budapest. And stuff happens. The writing still feels fresh despite being over one hundred years old.

Posted by: 13times at August 14, 2022 09:41 AM (B4p/6)

111 I like stories based on Bible characters, but some of them are not really well done.
Posted by: grammie winger at August 14, 2022 09:27 AM (45fpk

Oh, if well written and not woke-ified, some of those might be good. Any recommendations/authors?

I could probably search biblical fiction...

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 14, 2022 09:42 AM (OX9vb)

112 Hey Fen
V 22 23 24
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:42 AM (BRHaw)

113 After consuming mass quantities of history concentrate, do you relax with light reading, or are you already planning your next book?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:41 AM (Dc2NZ)
---
I have no plans to write anything for a while. I am interested in writing something silly and fun, but not yet. I'm burned out on non-fiction.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:42 AM (llXky)

114 I figured it would be good reading during football season.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:30 AM (llXky)

Football season? They have one of those? Do you suggest 12 guage, or rifle?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:42 AM (7bRMQ)

115 I donate them to my local Friends of the Library bookstore.

Posted by: Brett at August 14, 2022 09:43 AM (OEKpk)

116 Muldoon, first, condolences to your target audience, and second, very well done. I've been working on upping my sheer bloody-mindedness but you set a high bar.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at August 14, 2022 09:43 AM (wY/cZ)

117 correction: ...my wife and me

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 09:44 AM (kXYt5)

118 Joan Of Arc To Be Portrayed As “Non-binary” And “Questioning The Gender Binary” In New Play "I, Joan"

-
I'll bet Cleopatra was too.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 09:40 AM (FVME7)
---
Haven't you heard? Cleopatra was black. Same as Beethoven.

It's kind of pathetic that at this late date that's all these people can come up with. Most don't know enough about her to know who she actually was, which defeats the purpose of a revisionist history.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:44 AM (llXky)

119 grammie, have you read any of the Thoene's books? They were prolific historical Christian fiction writers, although some books are stronger than others. They have a series on the people who interacted with Christ during his ministry on earth, which is not bad.

Posted by: Moki at August 14, 2022 09:45 AM (JrN/x)

120 Football season? They have one of those? Do you suggest 12 guage, or rifle?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:42 AM (7bRMQ)

*hands football to big old boy*]
Son Pass this ball
Coach If I can eat I can pass it!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:45 AM (BRHaw)

121 I've noticed that these lib authors have lots of exotic foreign Black and Brown(tm) characters with Alphabits names in their novels but they act, talk, and have the same sense of humor as the white middle class American author. They all speak with the same voice. Still, gotta have those diversity markers checked off for the expected movie deal.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:31 AM (Dc2NZ)

They have to be perfecter than perfect characters or else it's insulting to the PoCs. If wine-soused Karen wrote them speaking Ebonics or Spanglish, she'd be roasted as a colonizer.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:45 AM (7bRMQ)

122 I've noticed that these lib authors have lots of exotic foreign Black and Brown(tm) characters with Alphabits names in their novels but they act, talk, and have the same sense of humor as the white middle class American author. They all speak with the same voice. Still, gotta have those diversity markers checked off for the expected movie deal.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace

"Friends" Actress Lisa Kudrow: The Show Had "No Business" Adding Storylines About "Being A Person Of Color"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 09:45 AM (FVME7)

123 Hiya Screamie !

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 09:45 AM (T4tVD)

124 Football season? They have one of those? Do you suggest 12 guage, or rifle?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:42 AM (7bRMQ)
---
I like watching the college games. I'll probably go to the alumni band reunion this year. Last one I attended was in 2019.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:46 AM (llXky)

125 @99 --

From what I've read, "The Dover Boys" nearly got Chuck Jones fired from Warner Brothers.

I was taken aback when I first saw it -- who are these guys? -- but now it's among my favorites.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:47 AM (Om/di)

126 Also, Robert Kroese seems to be an unruly conservo-libertarian, who would fit in well with the Horde.

Don't read Scalzi, read Kroese!

He's funny too.
Anyway, final plug. Mammon was really good, each book was excellent. I liked The Dream of the Iron Dragon series he wrote about temporally displaced astronauts building a secret space program among the ancient vikings, but the Mammon trilogy is now the best thing he's written.

The first two books are free in kindle unlimited, too

Posted by: .87c at August 14, 2022 09:47 AM (ltjFF)

127 My reader has gotten broken again. Not a device, me. I had finally gotten back into the swing of reading books again. And now I can't. I cannot focus my attention, and then when I do, it puts me to sleep.

I need to fix that. Change the times when I read or something.

Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 09:47 AM (6TxNR)

128 Reading Terminal List series by Jack Carr, pretty good.

Posted by: Eromero at August 14, 2022 09:47 AM (zOQ5x)

129 "Friends" Actress Lisa Kudrow: The Show Had "No Business" Adding Storylines About "Being A Person Of Color"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 09:45 AM (FVME7)
---
Good. The show should be retroactively canceled, all copies destroyed, all wealth obtained from it confiscated and the surviving cast sentenced to canal work.

Your rules, lefties. Your rules.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:48 AM (llXky)

130 "I liked The Dream of the Iron Dragon series he wrote about temporally displaced astronauts building a secret space program among the ancient vikings, ..."
----

WUT.

Must read.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:49 AM (Dc2NZ)

131 They have to be perfecter than perfect characters or else it's insulting to the PoCs. If wine-soused Karen wrote them speaking Ebonics or Spanglish, she'd be roasted as a colonizer.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:45 AM (7bRMQ)
---
You need a copy of Black Mischief.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:49 AM (llXky)

132 Well, I've made it to Letter 14 in The Screwtape Letters and it's time to tough it out and keep reading. <8^O

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at August 14, 2022 09:49 AM (ZSK0i)

133 The big surprise was concrete houses and buildings. Structural engineers and a robust (not corrupt) building inspectors save millions of lives. Lacking those, building collapses kill many.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 09:33 AM (u82oZ)

Read Babalu Blog for pix of what happens when you don't maintain.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:49 AM (7bRMQ)

134 book 4:

The Silent Deep: The Royal Navy Submarine Service Since 1945 by James Jinks and Peter Hennessy.

Long. Very comprehensive. The operational parts, training, and the planning side were interesting. For the SS and SSN fanboy looking for insight.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 09:49 AM (u82oZ)

135 If you thought to but haven't read Patrick O'Brian series take VIA's offer.
Thinking about it, started reading as a young lad on Westerns, they are really Historical Fiction.

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 09:50 AM (k8B25)

136 Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:42 AM (BRHaw)

Thanks. That is the passage I am preaching on.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 14, 2022 09:50 AM (yAgb6)

137 Posted by: screaming in digital at August 14, 2022 09:41 AM (pkAcY

I hope the book helps, SiD. Hugs

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:51 AM (gbzeC)

138 74 ... "I just bought an annotated edition of TSL, but haven't dipped into it yet."

Wolfus,
The annotated edition is definitely worth it. Glad you have that version.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 09:51 AM (7EjX1)

139 I read Virgil Wander, the most recent novel by Leif Enger. I've liked all of his books, and this is the best one yet. A beautifully written story of life in a small town, told by the title character. Virgil survives a car accident but is missing parts of his memory and has trouble thinking of the adjective he wants to say. But he also gains fresh perspective that allows him to change things in his life that he was complacent about before. I hope Enger doesn't take ten years to write his next book.

Posted by: DIY Daddio at August 14, 2022 09:52 AM (64aAI)

140 Read Babalu Blog for pix of what happens when you don't maintain.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 09:49 AM (7bRMQ)
---
Uncontrolled fire > building collapses.

See also, Tokyo earthquake of 1923.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:52 AM (llXky)

141 Writing can be a very cathartic way of dealing with tragedy or personal issues.

***

Has anyone felt the urge to write a memoir? What did you do - lie down until it went away or given in and written it?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:53 AM (gbzeC)

142 Thank you, vmom. Hugs right back!

And howdy JT!

Posted by: screaming in digital at August 14, 2022 09:53 AM (pkAcY)

143 Hmmm. This already shaping up to be a rather lame book thread this week...I guess we were all busy doing other things...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 09:04 AM (K5n5d)


My gout limp is real, and painful. But if everyone could pitch in for my leather gimp suit...

Ideally, made from genuine Corinthian leather.

Posted by: GnuBreed at August 14, 2022 09:53 AM (JOtiF)

144 On the kindle last week, I struggled though several books that had been in the TBR pile for a while, and didn't finish any of them before returning or deleting them.

In paper for winding down without screen time at the end of the evening, I finished James "Patches" Watson's Point Man, and start Edward Beach's Cold is the Sea. My love has suggested I start instead on the next book by Patches, Walking Point, and dropped it on the pile by the bed.

...He likes Beach's books just fine, he says, but we have more interesting conversations when I interrupt his dozing to ask questions about things in Patches's book.

This is true. He nearly fell off the bed with startlingly loud, rueful laughter when I asked him if he'd ever heard of using the Center of Sector method of finding your location when lost.

The explanation was rendered somewhat cryptic by rapid-fire acronyms, laden with heaping gobs of dry understatement and tarred with black humour, while spiced with a few expletives.

Posted by: Not From Around Here at August 14, 2022 09:54 AM (wrzAm)

145 127 My reader has gotten broken again. Not a device, me.
Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 09:47 AM (6TxNR)

Nice!

Posted by: m at August 14, 2022 09:54 AM (RuTUS)

146 Has anyone felt the urge to write a memoir? What did you do - lie down until it went away or given in and written it?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:53 AM (gbzeC)
---
I novelized it as Three Weeks with the Coasties: a Tale of Disaster and Also an Oil Spill.

I may do one on my entire career now that it's winding down, but I'll need space to decompress first. Still, with all those open weekends, I'll time for much more reading and writing!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:54 AM (llXky)

147 I liked The Dream of the Iron Dragon series he wrote about temporally displaced astronauts building a secret space program among the ancient vikings, but the Mammon trilogy is now the best thing he's written.


**

I just read the first two in Iron Dragon. Fun.
Will give Mammon a try.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:54 AM (gbzeC)

148 Thanks for mentioning Conscious Choice. I'm about 40% through it, and as a Virginian, it's a very interesting look at the state's early history, and particularly the things that made it go down the dark path of slavery. A few simple changes long ago might have made all the difference; specifically not focusing on a single crop (tobacco) and not giving the headright tax directly to large landowners (who paid to transport new workers, and were compensated with land), both of which jumpstarted the plantation system. The resulting comfort with indentured servitude inured the descendants of the first generation of Virginians to the notion that others should work while they reaped the benefits. I was surprised to find that the English Civil War (Cromwell) was also a major factor, because many of the refugee Royalists came to VA, and ended up staying and creating a quasi monarchy.

If the rest of the book is as interesting as the first part, I will be very pleased.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 09:55 AM (/NCI4)

149 I think Enger's Virgil Wander was my favorite fiction book this year. A beautiful read.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 09:55 AM (Dc2NZ)

150 Joan Of Arc To Be Portrayed As “Non-binary” And “Questioning The Gender Binary” In New Play "I, Joan"

-
I'll bet Cleopatra was too.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 09:40 AM (FVME7)

Samson had long hair you know.

Posted by: weirdflunky at August 14, 2022 09:56 AM (cknjq)

151 Hey Mul and others
The Curious Disappearance of Seamus Muldoon

is included in Amazon Kindle Unlimited

https://tinyurl.com/mvhpmfet

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:57 AM (BRHaw)

152 Turned on Joel Osteen this morning, its good to get an extra sermon on Sundays, and as it happens, it was a thing I needed to hear.

And interesting take on the water to wine. Not so much the miracle of that, but the fact that it was the best wine. Normally you put the best wine out first, and later, you bring out the less good wine. Let he who has not served Coors late in the party throw the first stone!

Now to pray to stay on that message.

Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 09:57 AM (6TxNR)

153 I was surprised to find that the English Civil War (Cromwell) was also a major factor, because many of the refugee Royalists came to VA, and ended up staying and creating a quasi monarchy.

If the rest of the book is as interesting as the first part, I will be very pleased.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 09:55 AM (/NCI4)
---
It was huge, and cast a long shadow over the colonies. One can't understand the American Revolution without that reference.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:57 AM (llXky)

154 I novelized it as Three Weeks with the Coasties: a Tale of Disaster and Also an Oil Spill.

I may do one on my entire career now that it's winding down, but I'll need space to decompress first. Still, with all those open weekends, I'll time for much more reading and writing!
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:54 AM (llXky)

good book on Big Govt and how bad it can be!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:58 AM (BRHaw)

155 I am reading "Don't Go to College: A Case for Revolution" by Michael J. Robillard and Timothy J. Gordon.

We are so fooked. Neo-Marxists as far as the eye can see.

They make a great argument for High School grads to go immediately into trades and technical training. Marry young. Start a family (while the young lady's eggs are fresh). Grow up, be a mature and happy person.

Don't waste $200k getting a worthless degree and submit to the brainwashing.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at August 14, 2022 09:58 AM (JVCkA)

156 I like watching the college games. I'll probably go to the alumni band reunion this year. Last one I attended was in 2019.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:46 AM (llXky)

I'm less opposed to college games, but my school is on the other side of the country, and if they show up on tv they usually lose.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:00 AM (7bRMQ)

157 book 5:

The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Ra by Anne de Courcy.

Totally out of my pea-patch, but a fascinating book.

Women were presumed to marry in Victorian England using overwhelming social pressure. But the men of England were in India. The single men in India married late, by 30 years old, when they were established. But they outnumbered single women by 3-4 times to even 20 to one.

What to do? What to do?

This book tells that story and more about coping with India and marriage. Seems a lot of dancing and entertaining went on. What was amazing is the women had no knowledge of what sex was really like on their wedding night.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:00 AM (u82oZ)

158 And interesting take on the water to wine.

Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 09:57 AM (6TxNR)
---
My favorite part about that is how Mary just tells him to do it and when he protests, she ignores him and instead addresses the servant.

I mean, she is the Mother of God, so...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:00 AM (llXky)

159 The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:01 AM (u82oZ)

160 Now to pray to stay on that message.
Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 09:57 AM (6TxNR)

So Jesus had control of time
He had control of matter
He had control of nature

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 10:01 AM (BRHaw)

161 At the turn of the century, I considered writing a time capsule essay for future descendants. If we ever have any.

Innate laziness and a concern for things I might inadvertently leave out meant I never started.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 10:01 AM (Om/di)

162 I'm less opposed to college games, but my school is on the other side of the country, and if they show up on tv they usually lose.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:00 AM (7bRMQ)
---
When the wind is right, I can hear the announcements and crowd noise from the stadium.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:02 AM (llXky)

163 One of the fun things about Mike Duncan's "Revolutions" podcast series is that you see how the conflicts feed into each other. English Civil War leads to American Revolution leads to French Revolution, which in turn leads to Haitian Revolution and Bolivarian Revolution and Mexican Revolution. And then July Revolution leads to the Year of Revolutions . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 14, 2022 10:02 AM (QZxDR)

164 book 6:

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski.

OK. Nothing really new to me, but might help a humanities major or a high schooler.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:02 AM (u82oZ)

165 The solution to the Rushdie Stabbing Mystery...

https://twitter.com/HodgesKennon/status/
1558521246186446848

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at August 14, 2022 10:03 AM (yikp0)

166 141. Yes. It's a good tool for developing self discipline. Not just establishing a writing routine, but looking back at your own thoughts, actions, and reactions.

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 10:03 AM (VuQO/)

167 What was amazing is the women had no knowledge of what sex was really like on their wedding night.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:00 AM (u82oZ)
---
That could only be true of sheltered, upper-class women. Anyone who was around animals had a pretty good idea of the mechanics of the thing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:03 AM (llXky)

168 From what I've read, "The Dover Boys" nearly got Chuck Jones fired from Warner Brothers.

I was taken aback when I first saw it -- who are these guys? -- but now it's among my favorites.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:47 AM (Om/di)

I don't understand why either. What was wrong? Obviously the Dover Boys was a play on the early century Rover Boys books. Maybe someone didn't like them. From what little I know about the RBs, they didn't seem like very nice guys.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:04 AM (7bRMQ)

169 I also picked up a Ruth Rendell novel after seeing several Hordians mention her, and an Alison Weir novel but have not started either one yet.
Posted by: screaming in digital at August 14, 2022


***
The best testimonial I've seen to Rendell's work (aside from her longevity as an author, frequent awards, and my own appreciation) is a blurb from Sue Grafton on the cover of The Crocodile Bird: "If there were a craft guild for writers, I'd apprentice myself to Ruth Rendell."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:04 AM (c6xtn)

170 What to do? What to do?
-------------------
I think Sir Harry Flashman figured that one out!

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at August 14, 2022 10:05 AM (yikp0)

171 Not a book, but I've been enjoying the Writer Dojo podcasts. Fun to listen to as a reader.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:06 AM (gbzeC)

172 10 people killed in a house fire. All family, plus guests. "They would take in anybody in need of a place to stay". A benefit was being held for the survivors. At the benefit, a man drove into the crowd, killing 2, injuring over a dozen. He then drove to another town, ran over a woman, then beat her to death with a hammer.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at August 14, 2022 10:07 AM (R8uWY)

173 Greetings:

RE: 157 book 5:

The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Ra by Anne de Courcy.

In "Geography Is Destiny", Ian Morris mentioned that one Brit in the Ra had 13 wives. Local women for sure.

Adapt and overcome, it's the human way.

Posted by: 11B40 at August 14, 2022 10:07 AM (uuklp)

174 In paper for winding down without screen time at the end of the evening, I finished James "Patches" Watson's Point Man, and start Edward Beach's Cold is the Sea. . . .

Posted by: Not From Around Here at August 14, 2022


***
The fellow who wrote Run Silent, Run Deep?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:07 AM (c6xtn)

175 From what I've read, "The Dover Boys" nearly got Chuck Jones fired from Warner Brothers.

I was taken aback when I first saw it -- who are these guys? -- but now it's among my favorites.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:47 AM (Om/di)
---
It's a very strange cartoon. Among the stranger things is that Tom, Dick, and Larry are all engaged to Dora. So, polyandry? In a kids' cartoon?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 10:08 AM (K5n5d)

176 If I were to write a memoir I would first need to up my dosage of Aricept.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:08 AM (kXYt5)

177 102 book 3:

Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton. Post scarcity SF with a interesting idea (terraforming central Australia) in the drek. Long and meh.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 09:38 AM (u82oZ)

I misinterpreted "SF" to be San Francisco and that made this terraforming of central Australia idea even weirder.

Posted by: m at August 14, 2022 10:09 AM (RuTUS)

178 Currently reading Book of Night by Holly Black. She's a good writer, I generally enjoy her books despite her being , I am guessing, a lib, but this one is a bit too grimdark for my mood right now. So I put it down for now.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:09 AM (gbzeC)

179 andycanuck

The point of that book was the strong social pressure to "not let down the side" with low standards. Not today's social behavior, which would horrify all involved or mentioned in that book.

The author is quite old now, and I have some pointed questions. She used memoirs and interviews extensively of the women involved. I would be interested in what the men involved thought, and more.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:10 AM (u82oZ)

180 176 If I were to write a memoir I would first need to up my dosage of Aricept.
Posted by: Muldoon

Just invent what you can't remember. The Biden way!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:10 AM (gbzeC)

181 m

My bad. OK. I'm over it.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:11 AM (u82oZ)

182 74 ... "I just bought an annotated edition of TSL, but haven't dipped into it yet."
*
Wolfus,
The annotated edition is definitely worth it. Glad you have that version.
Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022


***
My intent was to keep it in my briefcase for those times when I'm out running errands, need to kill some time over a coffee, and thus will have something to dip into. Unfortunately it's such a beautiful text that I hate to lug it around and beat it up. And it is a little big for the briefcase. If I take off the dust jacket, which is the most fragile part, I guess it'll be fine.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:11 AM (c6xtn)

183 Gee, Cat Ass Trophy. I knew about the two separate instances but didn't know the overlap.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at August 14, 2022 10:11 AM (yikp0)

184 I'm usually much too late to the Sunday Threads to post comments, but I finally have an opportunity, so . . .

I have a question for anyone who has: 1) read "The Far Arena" and 2) has some knowledge of swordplay and 3) has knowledge of gladiatorial stuff.
The novel has a scene in which the re-awakened Roman gladiator displays incredible, almost surgical precision in virtually dissecting a much taller and younger Olympic fencer.
Did/does that sort of skill really exist?

Posted by: LeastinID at August 14, 2022 10:11 AM (Uv4GL)

185 I'm about to get back into the history groove with a stack of interesting tomes:

"Toussaint Louverture", about the leader of a slave revolt in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) who becomes a planter with slaves of his own, and eventually governor of the colony, negotiating with Europe and the United States. He was called the Black Napoleon.

"Unshackling America: How the War of 1812 Truly Ended the American Revolution"

And a couple books on the French Revolution, about which I know...not much.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 14, 2022 10:12 AM (Dc2NZ)

186 @175 --

My filthy mind considered that.

Love how the Boys shunned the saloon.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 10:12 AM (Om/di)

187 Starting a GoFundMe to sew a penis onto Elizabeth Warren.

Posted by: gp's Dark Energy Acceleration at August 14, 2022 10:12 AM (qpX6U)

188 > If wine-soused Karen wrote them speaking Ebonics or Spanglish, she'd be roasted as a colonizer.

But somehow a black actor with a British accent seems to be just fine.

Probably because they didn't have any colonies (sarcasm, sarcasm).



Posted by: Eddard Stark at August 14, 2022 10:12 AM (bW8dp)

189 You need a copy of Black Mischief.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:49 AM (llXky)

The county library district has no such book.

Would it be in the Complete Stories of EW?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:12 AM (7bRMQ)

190 176 Muldoon.

Quite unlikely that you would ever need that drug. IMHO.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:13 AM (u82oZ)

191 82. I bought the Evelyn Waugh collection of stories on Kindle a few weeks back, thanks to a Book Thread discussion of Waugh. All so far are thoroughly enjoyable--some serious, others offbeat. I read them slowly, none of my usual speed reading.

Posted by: Quo vadimus? at August 14, 2022 10:13 AM (/OQ5P)

192 Starting a GoFundMe to sew a penis onto Elizabeth Warren.

For some reason, that reminds me of the Monty Python quote, "Graft a pederast onto an Anglican Bishop".

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at August 14, 2022 10:13 AM (ZSK0i)

193 187 Starting a GoFundMe to sew a penis onto Elizabeth Warren.
Posted by: gp's Dark Energy Acceleration

*snort"

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:13 AM (gbzeC)

194 Just invent what you can't remember. The Biden way!
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:10 AM (gbzeC)
-----------

Or, do like Chaka Khan did: ask for people to come forward who knew her back in the seventies, because she couldn't remember anything from that period of her life, due to the drug induced haze in which she lived.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 10:13 AM (5pTK/)

195 188. UK television is full of black actors with English accents.

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 10:14 AM (VuQO/)

196 I have a question for anyone who has: 1) read "The Far Arena" and 2) has some knowledge of swordplay and 3) has knowledge of gladiatorial stuff.
The novel has a scene in which the re-awakened Roman gladiator displays incredible, almost surgical precision in virtually dissecting a much taller and younger Olympic fencer.
Did/does that sort of skill really exist?
Posted by: LeastinID at August 14, 2022


***
I'll take a swing at this, though I don't have either qualification. It seems to me, from what I've read about Roman military and gladiatorial combat, that the main thing the gladius, the short sword, was used for was thrusting -- the point of the sword was the most useful part, not the edge, though it cut as well. So if the character is slicing and dicing his opponent, that might not be strictly historical. Anybody know more?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:15 AM (c6xtn)

197 Getting rid of books? To the library if, and only if, they can be used in the collection (otherwise they wind up on the 25 cent table and Lord knows where they go from there -- I'm guessing dumpster). Second hand shop in Joplin, local charity shop, local senior center bookcase. Offspring get first dibs, though.

I cringe at the thought of writing a memoir, but I do know what the title would be if I did: I Was a Teenage Dimbulb. And there are days when I'm not sure I've gotten much beyond that point.

Now 3/4 of the way through War and Peace. Might finish that sucker yet...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:15 AM (a/4+U)

198 The novel has a scene in which the re-awakened Roman gladiator displays incredible, almost surgical precision in virtually dissecting a much taller and younger Olympic fencer.
Did/does that sort of skill really exist?

Posted by: LeastinID at August 14, 2022 10:11 AM (Uv4GL)
---
What weapons are they using? Olympic fencing is highly stylized so anyone trying to do it in real life would have some disadvantages against an actual melee combat specialist.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:15 AM (llXky)

199 > What was amazing is the women had no knowledge of what sex was really like on their wedding night.

I recall one historical novel (though not the title, dammit) where the bride fled in horror on discovering that her new husband had chest hair.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:16 AM (bW8dp)

200 Hoping to have it out in September.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 09:12 AM (llXky)


Did you use Frank Dikotter as a resource for Mao era China? His work is based on his crawling through PCC regional archives

Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 10:16 AM (xhaym)

201 Now 3/4 of the way through War and Peace. Might finish that sucker yet...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:15 AM (a/4+U)
---
HAH! Tried to watch the movie last night and couldn't stay away long enough to do it. Damn that thing is long.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:16 AM (llXky)

202 Has anyone felt the urge to write a memoir? What did you do - lie down until it went away or given in and written it?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:53 AM (gbzeC)

I have neither done anything, nor will I do anything, that would make any person want to read about my life.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:17 AM (7bRMQ)

203 > Starting a GoFundMe to sew a penis onto Elizabeth Warren.

I'll contribute, as along as it's in the middle of her forehead.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:17 AM (bW8dp)

204 Good morning, perfessor, Excellent job, as usual.

Currently working my way through Anna Karenina. I've been pleasantly surprised at the breadth of the story. I also think Tolstoy had a better translator than Pasternak, or, "Dr, Zhivago" was lacking in literary quality.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 10:17 AM (5pTK/)

205
(1/3)

“The Railroad That Never Ran” by Robert D. Dobson is a self-published(?) book about a little known part of the history of iron mining in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I was looking up the history of the Peshekee Grade, a mostly dirt road that follows the railway bed northwestward from the vicinity of Champion, Michigan, when I came across the book. My father and his friends hunted deer from a cabin that one of them owned along that route.

The railroad was built within three years starting around 1890 for $2,200,000. It was intended to service the Champion Mine, as well as slate quarries located closer to Lake Superior in Arvon Township. An ore dock having 112 pockets for loading the ore into lake steamers was built in Huron Bay.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 14, 2022 10:17 AM (ZvxPV)

206 . . . Or, do like Chaka Khan did: ask for people to come forward who knew her back in the seventies, because she couldn't remember anything from that period of her life, due to the drug induced haze in which she lived.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022


***
"If you remember the Seventies, you weren't really there."

When Alan Harper in Two and a Half Men meets Steven Tyler (playing himself) and gushes, "I lost my virginity to you," Tyler shrugs and replies: "Well, I did a lot of drugs in the Seventies."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:18 AM (c6xtn)

207
(2/3)

The entire enterprise was on shaky legs from its inception. The one time they ran an abbreviated train, the tracks shifted and its engine derailed in a marshy area. It did not help that its utility was hampered by the failures of the Champion Mine and the quarries. Its grade’s steepness, too, likely would have been an issue, particularly to the north from the rock cut at just shy of 1900 feet to the Lake Superior shore at 610 feet over a distance of ten miles.

Why there were monied interests who backed this activity is a mystery. The railroad was bankrupt by 1893 and torn down for salvage pretty completely by 1900. All that remains today are the dirt road on its grade, its rock cut in the Huron Mountains near Mount Arvon, and the tops of pilings from the dock near Skanee, MI. The book provides GPS waypoints for those interested in following its former route where it still may be accessible to the public.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 14, 2022 10:18 AM (ZvxPV)

208 Hmmm. This already shaping up to be a rather lame book thread this week...I guess we were all busy doing other things...

News and blogs are just way too much demagoguery, poor conclusions and demonstrably bad opinions, so I'm reading things that contribute to an informed opinion.

One book, Alex Epstein's "Fossil Future" is more of a philosophical approach to the claims of Climate Crisis. Rather than reporting stats, physics and chemistry to argue against wind/solar, he lays out the "Knowledge Base" as seeing things only as catastrophic and completely unable to acknowledge or value the human flourishing side of thermal energy generation.

Also picked up "Trees of Texas" since I'm in a new region, and it never hurts to reread "Rape of the Mind" as a refresher of what the WEF/junta is doing to the world.

Then our men's weekly Bible Study is going through "1&2 Samuel". Not all reading is work (just spending a lot of time with Machine Learning, Big Data and Python)

Posted by: Reuben Hick at August 14, 2022 10:18 AM (3hSHB)

209
(3/3)

The story itself was largely put together from newspaper references and some in-person interviews from the 1950s and 1960s. It reads very unevenly, with maps that often do little to clarify the narrative. Were I not from the area and did not possess an interest in lesser known stories from bygone days, I’d have passed this by. But I am and I did not.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 14, 2022 10:18 AM (ZvxPV)

210 173 11B40

Yes, the adaptation was amazingly told.

The British men behaved very differently in India (more like today) until the British women arrived in force in India. The men adapted yet again.

This had military implications on Army readiness, which was sensibly handled.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:18 AM (u82oZ)

211 Did you use Frank Dikotter as a resource for Mao era China? His work is based on his crawling through PCC regional archives

Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 10:16 AM (xhaym)
---
No, it was beyond the scope of the work. I tried to give enough background to make the military events make sense and cover societal impacts on the military.

Basically, each episode got a chapter. I didn't want to write 1,000 pages.

I do quote some of Mao's military teachings and note that the PLA went from a militia-style force to using Soviet ranks and then - just before the Cultural Revolution ranks were again abolished with disastrous combat results. They came back in the 80s.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:19 AM (llXky)

212 203 > Starting a GoFundMe to sew a penis onto Elizabeth Warren.

I'll contribute, as along as it's in the middle of her forehead.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:17 AM (bW8dp)

Ha!

Posted by: m at August 14, 2022 10:21 AM (RuTUS)

213 They make a great argument for High School grads to go immediately into trades and technical training. Marry young. Start a family (while the young lady's eggs are fresh). Grow up, be a mature and happy person.

Don't waste $200k getting a worthless degree and submit to the brainwashing.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at August 14, 2022 09:58 AM (JVCkA)

RS McCain says the same thing.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:22 AM (7bRMQ)

214 correction: ...my wife and me
Posted by: Muldoon
------------------------
Et cetera. Et cetera.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at August 14, 2022 10:22 AM (yikp0)

215 I watched season 3 of A Discovery of Witches this week which is based on the third and final book of the series by Deborah Harkness. The entire series was expertly cast and did a terrific job of telling the story.
A bit of trivia. A comment about A Discovery of Witches was my first foray into book thread comments. The following week, OM put it up on the front page. I was thrilled.
I've been here ever since.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 14, 2022 10:22 AM (Y+l9t)

216 I have neither done anything, nor will I do anything, that would make any person want to read about my life.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:17 AM (7bRMQ)

Neither have I! But sometimes I feel I owe it to my kids so they can know, one day.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:22 AM (gbzeC)

217 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes. Nursing a hangover, which is why I'm late.

I'm re-reading Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. It's not a book for the devout - Aslan blatantly says he believes in Jesus of Nazareth, but does not believe in Jesus Christ. IOW, no resurrection, no Son of God, no virgin birth and so on.

I really don't know why I'm reading this except I'm stuck trying to figure out where to go with my own book.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 14, 2022 10:22 AM (AW0uW)

218 The joke is that if you want to learn about your early life, run for office.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 10:23 AM (Om/di)

219
Now 3/4 of the way through War and Peace. Might finish that sucker yet...


Spoiler alert: while Peace has its innings, War wins in the end.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 14, 2022 10:24 AM (ZvxPV)

220 I'm thinking of rereading Kafka's Metamorphosis but replacing the name Gregor Samsa with Merrick Garland.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, at August 14, 2022 10:24 AM (eGTCV)

221 What is thee difference between a memoir and an autobiography?

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:24 AM (kXYt5)

222 @199 --

I read an account of some historical figure who was so shocked upon seeing his wife's pubic hair that he never consummated their marriage.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 10:25 AM (Om/di)

223 When the wind is right, I can hear the announcements and crowd noise from the stadium.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:02 AM (llXky)

The local school isn't very good anymore, but by golly we bought 'em a new stadium!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:25 AM (7bRMQ)

224 A memoir you write yourself while you hire a ghost writer for an autobiography?

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:26 AM (kXYt5)

225 I read an account of some historical figure who was so shocked upon seeing his wife's pubic hair that he never consummated their marriage.

Tom Cruise?

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 10:27 AM (/NCI4)

226 Anyway,one of the things I learned from writer dojo is that authors HATEit when fans send them.comments along the lines of "shouldn't you be writing ( instead of posting etc)"
And I'm guilty of this in the past, which to me I'm joking, but apparently some writers can feel really hurt and guilty.
So, apologies to anyone I might have said that too, and I promise never to do it again.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:27 AM (gbzeC)

227 209 The story itself was largely put together from newspaper references and some in-person interviews from the 1950s and 1960s. It reads very unevenly
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 14, 2022 10:18 AM (ZvxPV)

That's too bad; your writeup has made the topic sound potentially very engaging.

Posted by: m at August 14, 2022 10:27 AM (RuTUS)

228 They make a great argument for High School grads to go immediately into trades and technical training. Marry young. Start a family (while the young lady's eggs are fresh). Grow up, be a mature and happy person.

Don't waste $200k getting a worthless degree and submit to the brainwashing.
Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at August 14, 2022 09:58 AM (JVCkA)
-----------------

Karl Denninger made a great point about trades versus college grad. He said, in essence, while college graduates may make more money, those numbers generally do not include time out the work force for going to college nor student debt. And that once college debt and time out of work force is included, someone leaving high school and going into a trade will earn as much, if not more, than a college grad.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 10:28 AM (5pTK/)

229 204 - Blake, which translation of Anna Karenina are you reading? I'd dipped into Pevear/Volokhonsky translations of a couple of Russian titles, but didn't find them quite as readable as Garnett or Aylmer Maude. Planning on hitting Anna K some time this year.

And A.H. -- you bet that thing is long. Not regretting the time spent reading it, but I can't help think of Johnson's comment re: Paradise Lost -- "None ever wished it longer than it is."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM (a/4+U)

230 What is thee difference between a memoir and an autobiography?

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:24 AM (kXYt5)
----
I'd say the scope of the work and its organization. A memoir can be disjointed, perhaps subjective and focus on a particular episode while the assumption in an autobiography is that it is a linear accounting of one's entire life.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM (llXky)

231 167 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

The Fishing Fleet book is about mid to upper class women, with the means to travel to India.

Their targets were the India Civil Service officials (at the top of the heap), upwardly mobile officers, planters, and businessmen. Not the rank and file, usually. Sometimes they married the daughters of Anglo-Indians.

One mention in the book was of how many prostitutes were in Britain, partially due to the lack of gainful female employment opportunities. It was a big percentage.

These prostitutes had a very small chance of a socially approved and advantageous marriage. It seems prostitutes were lower class and country-living women. The exceptions were mistresses of nobles, the wealthy, and the Prince of Wales.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM (u82oZ)

232 Perfessor, I pulled out that children's primer I was mentioning the other day. It's called The Way of Democracy and came out in 1950.

It's a series of essays, stories and such on the various aspects of a democracy - freedom of speech, free press, secret ballot and so on. in the preface for teachers, it reads:

"It is essential. . .that we teach our children to love and respect the democratic rights which our forebears have won and that we develop in the children an active determination to protect and continue to perfect our ways of expressing these democratic ideals. The price we pay for freedom is perpetual responsibility to practice the laws of democracy diligently and to work assiduously for their improvement."

Talk about 'hate speech!'

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM (AW0uW)

233 > I read an account of some historical figure who was so shocked upon seeing his wife's pubic hair that he never consummated their marriage.

John Ruskin, allegedly, though some say it was menstrual blood that put him off.

She eventually left him for one of his buddies.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM (bW8dp)

234 The local friends of the library seem to do brisk business. The typical price being $2 for a book. The leftovers (3 week rotations) sell for fifty cents. I try to hit both sales on Saturdays.

Some do go to the book recycling dumpster. Old diet books, thirty year old self-help books, faded 60-70's picture books - donating that junk wastes volunteer time and energy.

Posted by: 13times at August 14, 2022 10:30 AM (B4p/6)

235 "What was amazing is the women had no knowledge of what sex was really like on their wedding night."

A similar scene occurs in a novel set in the 1920's: "It's Always Three O'Clock," by Babs. H. Deal

Posted by: Brett at August 14, 2022 10:30 AM (OEKpk)

236 221 What is thee difference between a memoir and an autobiography?
Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:24 AM (kXYt5)

I think a memoir doesn't have to cover your whole life - it's usually more themed. So books about "I survived xyz/ escaped a cult etc" are memoirs.
An autobiography is more I was born,then this stuff happened, and here I am now"

But my question refers to either.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:31 AM (gbzeC)

237 Anyway,one of the things I learned from writer dojo is that authors HATEit when fans send them.comments along the lines of "shouldn't you be writing ( instead of posting etc)"
And I'm guilty of this in the past, which to me I'm joking, but apparently some writers can feel really hurt and guilty.
So, apologies to anyone I might have said that too, and I promise never to do it again.
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:27 AM (gbzeC)
---
Some writers bring it on themselves. When an author takes more than a decade to write the next book in the series (Rothfuss and Martin, to name a couple of examples), fans get a bit testy when they catch you doing other things. True, authors really don't have an obligation to finish their stories if they feel they cannot. But the fans also have no obligation to continue buying their next books...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 10:31 AM (K5n5d)

238 A lot of typing for me. Time for more chores.

May all of your reading enlighten or entertain. Or even both.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 10:31 AM (u82oZ)

239 Reading "Eddie Barker's Stories", a memoir by the news head of the CBS affiliate in Dallas in the 1950-60s. He transitioned, like most of them, from radio and his account of that is fascinating.

Like any new technology providers, they had to be jacks-of-all-trades, doing whatever job came to hand. Comparing their live TV makeshifts (and except for kinescopes CBS sent them for the evening program), it was all live, with today is mind-boggling.

He has a historical "Closed door, open window" story about being fired from his sports broadcasting job on the Humble Southwest Conference shows. It seems the Aggie alums were not happy with his takes on their team.
But because he was not at work on his pre-game stats reviews, he was at the Dallas Trade Mart on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963 and was able to pass the word on to Cronkite that Kennedy was, indeed, dead.
Got the word from a doctor friend at the Mart, who got it from a friend at Parkland.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 10:31 AM (y40tE)

240 222 "pubic hair". That's a new one in the pantheon of "excuses for closeted gays".

Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 10:31 AM (e+yf1)

241 It's a very strange cartoon. Among the stranger things is that Tom, Dick, and Larry are all engaged to Dora. So, polyandry? In a kids' cartoon?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 10:08 AM (K5n5d)

Maybe that's why, but it's only a throwaway comic line so I don't see why. Considering all the adult material in cartoons, that little line should have caused no trouble. It would be nice to find out why Jones almost got fired. I wonder if there's an explanation out there somewhere?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:31 AM (7bRMQ)

242 I read an account of some historical figure who was so shocked upon seeing his wife's pubic hair that he never consummated their marriage.

John Ruskin, supposedly, though neither he nor his wife specified exactly what it was that made him flee the marriage bed. The common theory is pubic hair, but some have speculated she might have been menstruating.

The point being that no-one really knows.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 14, 2022 10:32 AM (AW0uW)

243 Autobiography: "I was born a poor black child..."

Memoir: "I remember Mammy..."

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:32 AM (kXYt5)

244 "or, "Dr, Zhivago" was lacking in literary quality."

Bingo!

Posted by: Brett at August 14, 2022 10:32 AM (OEKpk)

245 Talk about 'hate speech!'
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM (AW0uW)
--
Thanks for sharing this with me! I can use it an upcoming Book Thread.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 10:32 AM (K5n5d)

246 For my love of all things War and Peace what cracks me up to no end is at very end of movie Bondarchuk throws in a Communist line by having Gen Kutuzov saying something like
Aren't we all just Brothers?

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 10:32 AM (k8B25)

247 I'll add to the Robert Kroese recommendations. I haven't read the Mammon series yet, but I have read quite a few of his books and I've never been disappointed. He's prolific and does a variety of things -- sci-fi, fantasy, noir, comedy. He even started his own annual convention, BasedCon.

Posted by: DIY Daddio at August 14, 2022 10:33 AM (64aAI)

248 The Fishing Fleet book is about mid to upper class women, with the means to travel to India.

Their targets were the India Civil Service officials (at the top of the heap), upwardly mobile officers, planters, and businessmen.


It's astonishing how much Britain's primogeniture laws affected it's history as a world power. The goal of keeping together large estates under a single noble ensured that there was always a large supply of other sons who had no choice but to make their way in the world. Often, this included India, America, and other far-flung locations.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 10:33 AM (/NCI4)

249 My favorite part about that is how Mary just tells him to do it and when he protests, she ignores him and instead addresses the servant.

My favorite part is that Mary fully expected Jesus to provide wine for the party - as if this is a normal and usual practice.

Minor correction, Mary tells the servants: "Do whatever He tells you".

It also is indicative of the origins of aesthetics, beauty and taste. What makes one wine better than another? To a large degree it is subjective, yet the wine Jesus made was considered superior. Clearly the Creator gave us the senses to determine quality.

Makes one also wonder what the quality of His carpentry was - since He spoke the universe into existence and has a strong aesthetic for beauty and craft - what would a Jesus made cabinet, chair or table be worth in today's market? No wood glue or putty!

Posted by: Reuben Hick at August 14, 2022 10:34 AM (3hSHB)

250 If I were to write a memoir I would first need to up my dosage of Aricept.
Posted by: Muldoon

Whut in da Hale is dat ?

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 10:34 AM (T4tVD)

251 Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM

Odd thing she went to hardwood as well

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 10:34 AM (k8B25)

252 Anyway, Perfessor, the book is something I can't do justice to in a blog post, so I'll be sending you an e-mail about it.

https://tinyurl.com/mr46dr3f

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 14, 2022 10:34 AM (AW0uW)

253 I pay the same for gas today as I did in college.
5 bucks please!
Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 09:24 AM (BRHaw)

I LOL'ed- fond memories of being young, kinda poor and looking forward to the future...

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 10:34 AM (y40tE)

254 "Now 3/4 of the way through War and Peace. Might finish that sucker yet... "

I've started that book I don't know how many times. Each time I got a little further than the last time. Is been years since the last attempt though. Will probably never make it to the end.

Posted by: Tuna at August 14, 2022 10:35 AM (gLRfa)

255 If I take off the dust jacket, which is the most fragile part, I guess it'll be fine.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:11 AM (c6xtn)

Put a book cover on it to keep it safe.

Sent you an email a few days ago.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:35 AM (7bRMQ)

256 I've started that book I don't know how many times. Each time I got a little further than the last time. Is been years since the last attempt though. Will probably never make it to the end.

It's the Zeno's Paradox of books.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 10:36 AM (/NCI4)

257 Blake, which translation of Anna Karenina are you reading? I'd dipped into Pevear/Volokhonsky translations of a couple of Russian titles, but didn't find them quite as readable as Garnett or Aylmer Maude. Planning on hitting Anna K some time this year.

And A.H. -- you bet that thing is long. Not regretting the time spent reading it, but I can't help think of Johnson's comment re: Paradise Lost -- "None ever wished it longer than it is."
Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:29 AM (a/4+U)
-------------

Louise and Aylmer Maude translation, Dover Giant Thrift Edition.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 10:36 AM (5pTK/)

258 > "pubic hair". That's a new one in the pantheon of "excuses for closeted gays".

Or possibly he was a pedo.

After the wife got an annulment (on the grounds of "incurable impotency") he picked up a 10 year old girl as a "protege".

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:36 AM (bW8dp)

259 What is thee difference between a memoir and an autobiography?
Posted by: Muldoon

My non authoritative answer. An autobiography is the story of one's entire life while a memoir concerns an episode in one's life such as one's adventures in law school or in Vietnam.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 10:36 AM (FVME7)

260 When an author takes more than a decade to write the next book in the series (Rothfuss and Martin, to name a couple of examples), fans get a bit testy when they catch you doing other things.

**

I saw a meme on fb - pictures of GRRM (heavy beard), Rothfuss (Old Testament beard), Sanderson (cheeks like a baby's butt) and the caption:
These writers vowed not to shave until they published their next book.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:36 AM (gbzeC)

261 It's astonishing how much Britain's primogeniture laws affected it's its history as a world power.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 10:37 AM (/NCI4)

262 219 -- "Spoiler alert: while Peace has its innings, War wins in the end."

Oh, man... Krebs, how could you do that to me?

Re: to college or not to college. In general, maybe learning a trade would be better for a lot of students. But if somebody packs the gear to handle an excellent STEM school, or some place like Hillsdale or St. John's I sure wouldn't want to steer them away from those places. Wasting academic potential is worse than wasting athletic potential, seems to me.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:37 AM (a/4+U)

263 After the wife got an annulment (on the grounds of "incurable impotency") he picked up a 10 year old girl as a "protege".

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:36 AM (bW8dp)

Ewwwwwee

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:38 AM (gbzeC)

264 Krebs, during the 1880's and 90's there were a series of financial panics, what we call depressions or ends of business cycles, that were driven by Congress issuing rail road bonds, and by Treasury acts to change the spot of gold against silver, both causing inflation and messing up the market signals as to what there was an actual market.
Any railroad between mines and foundries would be triply hit, since the demand for iron ore for track and equipment would be high, the 'free' money available for investment in railroads would be high, and the currency inflation would make money available for capital investment through loans.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 10:39 AM (xhaym)

265 Orwell touched on the Brit wimmens search for husbands with some type of royal "rank" even in the far flung ends of the Empire such as Burma in "Burmese Days".

A good read.



Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 14, 2022 10:40 AM (R/m4+)

266 The Jeff Toobin rule: Pubic hair should not be public.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 10:40 AM (FVME7)

267 I'll take a swing at this, though I don't have either qualification. It seems to me, from what I've read about Roman military and gladiatorial combat, that the main thing the gladius, the short sword, was used for was thrusting -- the point of the sword was the most useful part, not the edge, though it cut as well. So if the character is slicing and dicing his opponent, that might not be strictly historical. Anybody know more?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:15 AM (c6xtn)

That's true about the Gladius, but if you look at Trajan's Column you see soldiers hacking with it too.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:40 AM (7bRMQ)

268 during the 1880's and 90's there were a series of financial panics, what we call depressions or ends of business cycles, that were driven by Congress issuing rail road bonds, and by Treasury acts to change the spot of gold against silver, both causing inflation and messing up the market signals as to what there was an actual market.

Government messing up things they don't understand? Some things never change.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 10:40 AM (/NCI4)

269 I wasn't aware of the Muldoon book. Just ordered.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 10:41 AM (NWBBy)

270 It looked like a big brown beaver!

Posted by: zombie John Ruskin at August 14, 2022 10:41 AM (sn5EN)

271 It's astonishing how much Britain's primogeniture laws affected it's history as a world power. The goal of keeping together large estates under a single noble ensured that there was always a large supply of other sons who had no choice but to make their way in the world. Often, this included India, America, and other far-flung locations.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 14, 2022 10:33 AM (/NCI4)
---
All systems have that effect. China had plural marriage and concubines which created an almighty tangle of claims for various things. Imperial succession came down to which momma had the Emperor's attention at a given moment.

As much as Europe had problems with disputed claims, China was much much worse.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:41 AM (llXky)

272 On that note, time for Mass. Until next week!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 14, 2022 10:42 AM (llXky)

273 Time for the Sunday cooking marathon. I have Ruth Rendell's "Dark Corners" cued up on audio. Looking forward to it, since so many have recommended her.

Have a lovely day, all!

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 14, 2022 10:42 AM (OX9vb)

274 I'll take a swing at this, though I don't have either qualification. It seems to me, from what I've read about Roman military and gladiatorial combat, that the main thing the gladius, the short sword, was used for was thrusting -- the point of the sword was the most useful part, not the edge, though it cut as well. So if the character is slicing and dicing his opponent, that might not be strictly historical. Anybody know more?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:15 AM (c6xtn)
----------------

Any chance sword use was dictated by the metallurgy of the day? That the reason for short swords being more of a thrusting weapon was due to the chance of the blade breaking if used to strike an opponent?

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 10:43 AM (5pTK/)

275 I read an account of some historical figure who was so shocked upon seeing his wife's pubic hair that he never consummated their marriage.
-------------------
That sounds like the Pre-Raphaelite artist who refused to consummate his marriage so some other artist from their circle became her lover. There was a movie a few years ago.

DDG to the rescue, although I don't know if it's the pubes story: ||Effie Gray -- Euphemia Chalmers Millais, Lady Millais was a Scottish artists' model and the wife of Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. She had previously been married to the art critic John Ruskin, but she left him with the marriage never having been consummated; it was subsequently annulled. This famous Victorian "love triangle" has been dramatised in plays, films, and an opera.||

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at August 14, 2022 10:43 AM (yikp0)

276 > China had plural marriage and concubines which created an almighty tangle of claims for various things.

Same thing in the Ottoman Empire.

The death of a sultan was usually followed by a wholesale fratricidal slaughter.

When you have about three hundred brothers, and There Can Be Only One, it gets pretty ugly.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:43 AM (bW8dp)

277 Reading a 1996 doctoral thesis, a biographical study of Hanna Rietsch, German/Nazi aviatrix, by Maureen Goss. Very interesting.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 14, 2022 10:44 AM (U11/V)

278 zealot is translation of sicari, which were the violent jewish revolutionaries, so aslan misses the point,

Jesus told them as well as the pharisees the cost of challenging a leviathan like Rome, in Matthew 24, 'none of this, will stand, not one stone, re the temple

Posted by: no 6 at August 14, 2022 10:44 AM (i0Lci)

279 AH - looking forward to reading your book!

The primogeniture differences between Catholic France and Anglican England have been suggested as one of the primary reasons behind the Allies failing to take into account the size and girth (heh) of the hedgerows in Normandy, as compared to the English ones the invasion soldiers practiced on.

Posted by: goatexchange at August 14, 2022 10:44 AM (APPN8)

280 And now for some comedy relief . . .

Lol: Disgraced Ex-Congressman Al Franken Endorses Liz Cheney

-
That'll put her over the top!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 10:45 AM (FVME7)

281 The death of a sultan was usually followed by a wholesale fratricidal slaughter.

When you have about three hundred brothers, and There Can Be Only One, it gets pretty ugly.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 10:43 AM (bW8dp)
--------------

Yeah, the silken cord tended to be employed rather indiscriminately and mercilessly after the death of a sultan.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 10:45 AM (5pTK/)

282 Wasting academic potential is worse than wasting athletic potential, seems to me.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:37 AM (a/4+U)

Sorta related, I go out in public and see these young guys, they're massive. They're well over six feet tall, they have broad shoulders, large tree trunk legs... and their arms are flabby and soft.

Had they tried, they could be wildly successful as athletes, but apparently the thought never occurred to them.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 10:45 AM (NWBBy)

283 (PS I don't do grammar before noon on Sundays...)

Posted by: goatexchange at August 14, 2022 10:46 AM (APPN8)

284 I've started and stopped reading Red Star Over China a bunch of times. At the time of its publication the book was pretty influential. People at Goodreads still rave and rate it five stars. I really doubt people truly read it - its just a leftist virtue vote by bourgeois Maoist urban fools.

Posted by: 13times at August 14, 2022 10:47 AM (B4p/6)

285 Off to church. On time, for once.

Provided the car starts. Last week, it didn't.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 10:47 AM (Om/di)

286 Re: to college or not to college. In general, maybe learning a trade would be better for a lot of students. But if somebody packs the gear to handle an excellent STEM school, or some place like Hillsdale or St. John's I sure wouldn't want to steer them away from those places.

********

Some kids just need an aptitude adjustment.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:47 AM (kXYt5)

287 For the same reason, I have an instruction book on typing still in the trunk, plus four 1950s yearbooks from a high school in Iowa (Clinton, I think). Always meant to ask the county historical society about taking them.
Posted by: Weak Geek at August 14, 2022 09:35 AM (Om/di)

Please do check with them- that stuff is gold.
When I told a state historian, who was in town giving a talk on oral history, that we had a few hundred letters written by my dad, from college and med school, he looked like Christmas in July.
It's the details from ordinary people that make history come alive.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 10:47 AM (y40tE)

288 #275 Oops. See #233 beat me to it.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at August 14, 2022 10:48 AM (yikp0)

289 Neither have I! But sometimes I feel I owe it to my kids so they can know, one day.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 10:22 AM (gbzeC)

My grandma kept a short diary in the 30s, but I can't remember where it is. Of course, I might not have it around here, another family member might have it. I should look some day....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 10:48 AM (7bRMQ)

290 This famous Victorian "love triangle" has been dramatised in plays, films, and an opera.||
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at August 14, 2022 10:43 AM (yikp0)

I think these fellas who are terrified to discover their new brides have pubes, that it's much more likely their terrified and disappointed to discover the wives actually don't have penises.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 10:48 AM (NWBBy)

291 (PS I don't do grammar before noon on Sundays...)

*******

That's what my grampa always said...

Posted by: Muldoon at August 14, 2022 10:49 AM (kXYt5)

292 262 Re: to college or not to college. In general, maybe learning a trade would be better for a lot of students. But if somebody packs the gear to handle an excellent STEM school, or some place like Hillsdale or St. John's I sure wouldn't want to steer them away from those places. Wasting academic potential is worse than wasting athletic potential, seems to me.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:37 AM (a/4+U)

Some of those people going to college will be writing the books we talk about on the book thread.

Posted by: m at August 14, 2022 10:49 AM (RuTUS)

293 259 What is thee difference between a memoir and an autobiography?
Posted by: Muldoon


one is pronounced the way it's spelt

the other's a dang frenchy fag word

Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 10:50 AM (us2H3)

294 Many thanks to the Perfessor for including the pictures I sent him; sorry I forgot to include my nic.

The big, wide bookcase is mostly American Civil War and old west history, Spanish and Latin American history, and 18th century English literature. There are several more bookcases in the room, but it wasn't possible to get an angle which would have showed the whole thing - which is too bad, because in another corner there's an old Philco radio cabinet that I converted into a bookcase.

Posted by: Paco at August 14, 2022 10:50 AM (njExo)

295 The wheels are closing in!

FBI Concludes Gun Control Advocate Alec Baldwin Pulled Trigger in Halyna Hutchins Movie Set Shooting

-
FBI Forensic Report Says “Rust” Gun Could Not Have Fired Without Someone Pulling Trigger

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 10:50 AM (FVME7)

296 Had they tried, they could be wildly successful as athletes, but apparently the thought never occurred to them.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 10:45 AM (NWBBy)


I think the first three words there capture it. Had they tried.

We have a 21 yo son, he's a natural athlete, big, and big boned. He could have been a lineman. But the idea of practice 5 or 6 days a week was not in him. He's not a trier.

He is now getting to the gym and its working for him, the ladies like his look well enough. But this generation is not into working for stuff. I am not saying none are - certainly those that do are making great headway. But a LOT of them just want it given to them.

Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 10:51 AM (6TxNR)

297 Sleepless in Europe. Went to the local book and coffee shop - obvious why people here view us a certain way. CNN behind the barista blaring about Trump and his top secret docs. English books on display - 1619 Project. Native Son. Dreams of My Father. A pile of bs about the ills of the oil industry and how 1917-1921 was a golden age in Russia.

Posted by: Indignatio Vindacatorem at August 14, 2022 10:52 AM (kuOF5)

298 There are several more bookcases in the room, but it wasn't possible to get an angle which would have showed the whole thing - which is too bad, because in another corner there's an old Philco radio cabinet that I converted into a bookcase.
Posted by: Paco at August 14, 2022 10:50 AM (njExo)
---
If you have an iPhone, there's a "panoramic" mode for the camera. I'd bet the Android version has something similar. Then you can get at least three walls, if not all four into a single wide shot. There's some distortion, of course, but it does look pretty cool.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 10:52 AM (K5n5d)

299 It looked like a big brown beaver!
Posted by: zombie John Ruskin at August 14, 2022 10:41 AM (sn5EN)

If you've never seen the coat of the red beaver, you don't know what you're missing*.


*I mean the kind that is red in color ALL the time, not just for several days a month.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 10:52 AM (NWBBy)

300 Hmmm. This already shaping up to be a rather lame book thread this week...I guess we were all busy doing other things...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 09:04 AM (K5n5d)


Not entirely. I'm almost finished volume 4 of the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott. It's been quite a struggle to reach this point but things should be better subsequently. At least I attained this and things are still making sense so Yay. I'm hoping subsequent progress is quicker.

Posted by: Captain Hate at August 14, 2022 10:53 AM (y7DUB)

301 and while were at it , we just luv Alec's work and are happy to help in furthering his career

Posted by: FBI at August 14, 2022 10:54 AM (us2H3)

302 But this generation is not into working for stuff. I am not saying none are - certainly those that do are making great headway. But a LOT of them just want it given to them.
Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 10:51 AM (6TxNR)

Agreed, and not to leave the ladies out of this, I noticed at my daughter's graduation, all these girls whose asses came up to my chest (not literally, but...). Some were in obviously great shape, and others.... yeesh.

They too might have made fine defensive tackles... at least in high school. Don't know about college ball.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 10:56 AM (NWBBy)

303 He is now getting to the gym and its working for him, the ladies like his look well enough. But this generation is not into working for stuff. I am not saying none are - certainly those that do are making great headway. But a LOT of them just want it given to them.

Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 10:51 AM


My nephew is exactly like that. Before he went to college he was a hard worker and they started raising a family and he had to postpone going to school. Now that he is actually in college he wants everything to be handed to him and he is very vocal about it. No starting at the bottom for him, he fully expects he is going to hired into upper management after he gets his business degree. I just ignore it because real life will catch up to him soon.

Posted by: Mister Scott (formerly GWS) at August 14, 2022 10:56 AM (bVYXr)

304 I have been touring and researching colleges over the past year, Daughter #1 is starting her senior year in high school, and, well, that's what you do. My mother was a school teacher and education is a core fundamental in our lives. sra blaster grew up in the ghetto and credits her education to getting her out of it. We both have Master's Degrees.

But I don't know about college for the current generation. In part the credential opens doors. But having surveyed them, there are way too many that seem less interested in educating and rather into pulling young minds into the Collective. About half of the schools we visited I felt like they were telling me, send me your daughter, we will send you back a lesbian. That's not what college is for.

Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 10:57 AM (6TxNR)

305 See you

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 10:57 AM (VuQO/)

306 Blake - thanks for the info. Will dig out a Maude translation for Anna K. (thought I posted a thank-you, but don't see it, so I'll repeat myself).

Perfesser, thanks for the thread.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 10:58 AM (a/4+U)

307 FBI Concludes Gun Control Advocate Alec Baldwin Pulled Trigger in Halyna Hutchins Movie Set Shooting

He was trying to shoot The Invisible Swordsman !

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 10:58 AM (T4tVD)

308 About half of the schools we visited I felt like they were telling me, send me your daughter, we will send you back a lesbian. That's not what college is for.
----
Could be worse. Public K-12 schools are saying, "Send us your daughter and we will send you back a son!"

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 14, 2022 10:59 AM (K5n5d)

309
Sent you an email a few days ago.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022


***
I saw it, sir, but have been enmeshed in actual day-to-day "work" work and have had little time for "real" work, i.e., writing or thinking about it. This past Thursday I was so worn out from "work" work that I skipped my 2x-a-month writing group meeting. I'll check your note out tomorrow.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:00 AM (c6xtn)

310 It becomes a lot funnier if you change 20 seconds to 20 minutes.

Posted by: normal at August 14, 2022 11:00 AM (obo9H)

311 See you
Posted by: CN

Peek-a-boo

Posted by: JT at August 14, 2022 11:00 AM (T4tVD)

312 Sleepless in Europe. Went to the local book and coffee shop - obvious why people here view us a certain way. CNN behind the barista blaring about Trump and his top secret docs. English books on display - 1619 Project. Native Son. Dreams of My Father. A pile of bs about the ills of the oil industry and how 1917-1921 was a golden age in Russia.
Posted by: Indignatio Vindacatorem at August 14, 2022 10:52 AM (kuOF5)

Europe is, and has my blessing to, going to hell faster than we are.

I'm currently reading Douglas Murray's "War On the West," and should muster up enough interest to tackle his earlier work, "The Strange Death Of Europe." I've already read "The Madness Of Crowds," and would highly recommend that one to everybody.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:01 AM (NWBBy)

313 202 Has anyone felt the urge to write a memoir? What did you do - lie down until it went away or given in and written it?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 09:53 AM (gbzeC)

I have a notebook with short phrases that recall, for me, significant memories of my early life. Not of any real use to anyone else, though.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:01 AM (y40tE)

314 But I don't know about college for the current generation. In part the credential opens doors. But having surveyed them, there are way too many that seem less interested in educating and rather into pulling young minds into the Collective. About half of the schools we visited I felt like they were telling me, send me your daughter, we will send you back a lesbian. That's not what college is for.
Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022


***
Hannity is always running spots for Hillsdale College, saying it's not "woke." I'm not sure where it is -- Michigan, I think? But it might be worth looking at.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:01 AM (c6xtn)

315 298. Perfessor

Thanks for that valuable tip! And thanks for honoring me by including the photos on the book thread.

Posted by: Paco at August 14, 2022 11:02 AM (njExo)

316 Love that copy of Everyman's Atlas of the Ancient and Classical World. I've been in love with atlases ever since I saw my first chart of the bay and island as a very wee child. That cost my grandfather at least an hour of his time pointing out the features and answering my questions.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 11:02 AM (7EjX1)

317 Utes today can just skip kollege, bone up on things on the interboob, then download a fake diploma from somewhere and alter it to look legit and sign it Dean Vernon Wormer, Esq. KBE & P.E. and and viola!

Kollege Edumucated.

Nobody checking anyways...too much work.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 14, 2022 11:03 AM (R/m4+)

318 Perfessor,
Thanks for the thread. It is a highlight of my week.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 11:03 AM (7EjX1)

319 OK, folks, going to grab a book and sit on the porch. Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 14, 2022 11:04 AM (AW0uW)

320 About half of the schools we visited I felt like they were telling me, send me your daughter, we will send you back a lesbian. That's not what college is for.
Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 10:57 AM (6TxNR)

Just my opinion, but I don't know why anyone "sends" their children to colleges. Even if one lives in the middle of nowhere, an education can be had, online. Let them pay for it themselves, and find socialization closer to home.

In the long run, it may disqualify them for certain "high" office, if they don't have Ivy League cred, but they'll be better human beings.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:04 AM (NWBBy)

321 I think Evelyn Waugh is one of the very few writers where you can begin with his first novel, "Decline and Fall" and just keep going.

He starts out wonderfully and just keeps getting better. At the beginning, Waugh writes mostly in a "black humor" mode, which can range from wildly explosive humor to very sharp and clever to very dark.

In his later novels, "Brideshead Revisited" and "Sword of Honor", he doesn't just want to point and laugh so to speak, he wants to set you down and told you what he's learned about life. But, Waugh too smart to just intrude or have some speaker step up and set you straight. He shows you through the characters and their actions. Masterful writing and storytelling all the way.

That doesn't mean that he loses his sense of humor. For, instance, in SoH there's the wonderful character Apthorpe and his dolphin skin boots. Hilarious stuff.

Interestingly, in his late novel, "The Loved One". He sees much the same sorts of things that fascinated and amused him about the Bright Young Things in post-war California America, and writes an older but wiser version of young Waugh's point and laugh phase.

Always worth a read and always interesting.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 14, 2022 11:05 AM (5NkmN)

322 Last week there was talk of book titles and Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! was mentioned. I looked it up and found Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright!: An Animal Poem for Each Day of the Year by Nosy Crow. Recommend reading level was "Reading age ‏ : ‎ 3 - 7 years Grade level ‏ : ‎ Preschool - 2." I thought it might be a good book for the grandkids to read to me. Turns out, the language is above most seven year old second graders. They either meant the book is appropriate to be read to seven year old second graders or seven year old second graders could read better before they were taught that boys are girls, white people are evil, and the Earth cries itself to sleep every night.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 11:06 AM (FVME7)

323 Any chance sword use was dictated by the metallurgy of the day? That the reason for short swords being more of a thrusting weapon was due to the chance of the blade breaking if used to strike an opponent?
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022


***
No idea. The Romans were well out of the Bronze Age and had good steel, and they deftly handled larger (Germanic et al.) adversaries with longer swords. But that might have been due to the discipline of the legions and how they worked together, drill, etc.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:06 AM (c6xtn)

324 If agents removed docs Trump has a legal right to, like atty client privilege etc...the FL AG should give them 24 hrs to return them or be charged with theft.

Posted by: I Mean at August 14, 2022 11:06 AM (9FBGz)

325 FBI Forensic Report Says “Rust” Gun Could Not Have Fired Without Someone Pulling Trigger
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 10:50 AM (FVME7)

----------

The conclusion seems obvious but the presence of "FBI" lends no weight at all to it.

BTW exactly what is the federal interest in a shooting in New Mexico anyway?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 14, 2022 11:06 AM (XG2Fi)

326 275 I read an account of some historical figure who was so shocked upon seeing his wife's pubic hair that he never consummated their marriage.

In a novel about the Pre-Raphaelites- sorry, can't remember the title or author- this phrase I remember:
"He was shocked to learn that women are not unfurred as statues."

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:08 AM (y40tE)

327 41. I started to re-read The Screwtape letters but had to put it back on the shelf. Like parts of Lewis' That Hideous Strength, the cynical evil it deals with is too close to our current situation. I read for many reasons but reinforcing the rage I feel about the cultural corruption and nihilism inundating us isn't one of them. I'll read them some other day. - JTB

I once wrote a Screwtape letter to David Brooks as a blog post. With apologies to C.S. Lewis, here it is: https://tinyurl.com/4ees5t2r

Posted by: Paco at August 14, 2022 11:08 AM (njExo)

328 I've got in the habit of keeping a good magnifying glass, actually two of them, by my reading chair. One is regular and the other provides light on the image. Anything with maps or illustrations calls for them. They really add to my enjoyment.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 11:08 AM (7EjX1)

329 Finished reading Zelazny's first novel in Amber series, Nine Princes of Amber.
Thank you Perfessor and whoever recommended the series. I have started second book. Quite enjoyable.

Posted by: Glenn John at August 14, 2022 11:09 AM (U4y26)

330
BTW exactly what is the federal interest in a shooting in New Mexico anyway?
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 14, 2022


***
The Deep State is terrified that a member of the Collective, Baldwin, would spill certain secrets if he were facing jail, and so they are working hard to keep him out of danger?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:10 AM (c6xtn)

331 BTW exactly what is the federal interest in a shooting in New Mexico anyway?
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 14, 2022 11:06 AM (XG2Fi)

My assumption is most states have their own bureaus of investigation, consisting of a bunch of Eff Bee Eye wannabes. Sort of like Junior G-men.

Anyhoo, obviously it's not uncommon for jurisdictions to farm out their forensics to the Feebs. Which they shouldn't, but they do.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:10 AM (NWBBy)

332 Could be worse. Public K-12 schools are saying, "Send us your daughter and we will send you back a son!"
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

Ugh, after the passing of Kate Winslet's Boobs my only viable option was the local public school for my sons. It's a small town, but I still worry and analyze every thing they post about curriculum, etc.. The boys must think I'm wacko for grilling them about what the teachers say on a regular basis.

Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 11:10 AM (ftFVW)

333 BTW exactly what is the federal interest in a shooting in New Mexico anyway?
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 14, 2022 11:06 AM (XG2Fi)
--------------

Because the FBI's reputation is in tatters, making it easier for Baldwin to get away with murder?

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 11:10 AM (5pTK/)

334 Congrats, A.H. Lloyd on the completion of your book, that must be a great feeling.
SiD, I am so very sorry for what you are going through, just know that you are always in my prayers.
I just started The Bastard Brigade by Sam Kean about a group of scientists and spies who sabotaged the Nazi atomic bomb program. It is very interesting so far, but I haven't been able to really sink my teeth into it yet.
I will put Virgil Wander on my library list, I really enjoy Leif Enger's writing, such beautiful prose.
Thanks for another great book thread, Perfessor.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at August 14, 2022 11:10 AM (a4EWo)

335 There's a book published back in '60 or '61 if memory serves -- The Priceless Gift, by Cornelius Hirschberg. The guy wanted a good college education, but circumstances kept him from being able to do that. So he decided to get that education through independent reading. He wanted to cover it all, literature, math, history, the sciences... He didn't know that only Isaac Asimov could cover that much ground, and not knowing it couldn't be done, he went and did it. The Priceless Gift told how he did it, how he approached the subjects, & what books he used (a lot of 'em still available). If I ran the world, it would be required reading in high school, but it's long out of print.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 14, 2022 11:11 AM (a/4+U)

336 Evelyn Waugh divorced his first because of the confusion at dinner parties

her name was Evelyn

Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 11:12 AM (us2H3)

337 As a "Conscious Choice," read the 13th Amendment and then consciously choose to call prison inmates, prison slaves instead.

Posted by: Marooned at August 14, 2022 11:13 AM (w6hJ9)

338 wife, sorry

sorry, guess I need to start drinkin

Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 11:13 AM (us2H3)

339 336 Evelyn Waugh divorced his first because of the confusion at dinner parties

her name was Evelyn
Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 11:12 AM (us2H3)

---------

When did he first realize they both had the same name? Must have been quite a shock.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 14, 2022 11:14 AM (XG2Fi)

340 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:00 AM (c6xtn)

It's just a request to send you something. No hurry!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:14 AM (7bRMQ)

341 Waugh's Black Mischief is priceless.

Posted by: Indignatio Vindacatorem at August 14, 2022 11:14 AM (Ja3YN)

342 When did he first realize they both had the same name? Must have been quite a shock.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 14, 2022 11:14 AM (XG2Fi)

Same time he discovered her pyoobs?

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:16 AM (NWBBy)

343 Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 11:10 AM (ftFVW)

I can't get off the text list for one of our elementary school teachers here in our tiny town, so I'm keeping up with the fourth grade
.
It's TX, so it's test, test, test. But no overt funny stuff as far as I can tell.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:16 AM (y40tE)

344 And for reading... I'm a series rereader when a new installment comes out (although for longer series I may just read the last couple of books). So I just made it through rereading all of Monster Hunter and am deep into Bloodlines. Not sure what's next... will peruse the Moron recommendations to see what tickles my fancy.

Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 11:17 AM (ftFVW)

345 Waugh's Black Mischief is priceless.
Posted by: Indignatio Vindacatorem

The Al Sharpton Years.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 11:17 AM (FVME7)

346 336 Evelyn Waugh divorced his first because of the confusion at dinner parties
her name was Evelyn
Posted by: REDACTED


Mind if we call you 'Bruce'?

Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:18 AM (e+yf1)

347 When did he first realize they both had the same name? Must have been quite a shock.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at August 14, 2022 11:14 AM (XG2Fi)

It was actually her middle name

but they fely her first mane wasn't appropriate

Ben

Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 11:18 AM (us2H3)

348 327 ... Paco,

That was a great, and accurate, take off on the Screwtape Letters. Thanks for the link.

Posted by: JTB at August 14, 2022 11:19 AM (7EjX1)

349 Hannity is always running spots for Hillsdale College, saying it's not "woke." I'm not sure where it is -- Michigan, I think? But it might be worth looking at.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:01 AM (c6xtn)

Hillsdale is in MI. They administer the Barney Charter School Initiative which helps set up Classical Education K-12 schools. Oldest just graduated from one, the youngest is currently attending it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (7bRMQ)

350 OT: TIL Garland has form. He was in charge of the Atlanta Bombing investigation at the DOJ that had the FBI framing Jewell.

Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (e+yf1)

351

Scotland has cut down 14 million trees so wind turbines can be installed.

The stupidity boggles my mind.

Posted by: four seasons at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (PisyI)

352 last question:
did someone mention "Fun Fare" on a recent thread?
I have a copy of the 1949 Reader's Digest humor anthology of the same title.
Is that the one we're talking about?

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (y40tE)

353 felt dammit, felt

Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (us2H3)

354 Jonathan Capehart@CapehartJ
Liz Cheney’s looming primary defeat will make her more powerful than Trump can imagine.

-
Use the Farce, Jonafhan, use the Farce!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 11:21 AM (FVME7)

355 Wife and I have seperate rooms. She hates my snoring and I hate her CPap machine.

Currently pursuing a conspiracy theory from around 1340ish in England. Have probably 40 big books on the headboard. Wife walks in one night as I'm reading and asks.
"So what are your last wishes when I come in here and find you dead under a pile of un-read books?"

"I've read most of them, don't worry about things like that."

Posted by: Reforger at August 14, 2022 11:22 AM (HaJYn)

356 As a "Conscious Choice," read the 13th Amendment and then consciously choose to call prison inmates, prison slaves instead.

Posted by: Marooned at August 14, 2022 11:13 AM (w6hJ9)


Slavery is and always has been a cultural and legal distinction, as an institution it requires governmental and cultural support to exist, and it depends on governmental action to separate the legal classes\

However, what you claim is not supported by the text, without torturing definitions and inventing "emanations and penuches" or whatever.

If you are interested in the subject, I would suggest you go get a free online copy of Lysander Spooner's Unconstitutionality of Slavery, that way you can get a grip on the actual arguments, and then work to bridge to current realities
Ciao.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 11:22 AM (xhaym)

357 Great thread, as always, Perfesser.
What a lovely photo.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:22 AM (y40tE)

358 I want to try new writers,so here's my to-read pile from the library (mainly based / nonwoke writers)

Black Elk speaks as told through John G. Neihardt (horde rec)
Murder in time by Julie McElwain.
We shall rise / edited by John Ringo & Gary Poole.
Saving Proxima by Travis S. Taylor, Les Johnson
The cityborn by Edward Willett
Flow : the psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 11:23 AM (gbzeC)

359 Hannity is always running spots for Hillsdale College, saying it's not "woke." I'm not sure where it is -- Michigan, I think? But it might be worth looking at.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022
*
Hillsdale is in MI. They administer the Barney Charter School Initiative which helps set up Classical Education K-12 schools. Oldest just graduated from one, the youngest is currently attending it.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022


***
They hiring? Staff, I mean?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:23 AM (c6xtn)

360 will peruse the Moron recommendations to see what tickles my fancy.
Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 11:17 AM (ftFVW)


Bujold, Pratchett, Zelany, Hugh Cook . . .

Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 11:25 AM (xhaym)

361 And now for some Monty Python. At !east, I think it's Monty Python.

https://bit.ly/3SOgZVw

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 11:26 AM (FVME7)

362 297 Sleepless in Europe. Went to the local book and coffee shop - obvious why people here view us a certain way. CNN behind the barista blaring about Trump and his top secret docs. English books on display - 1619 Project. Native Son. Dreams of My Father. A pile of bs about the ills of the oil industry and how 1917-1921 was a golden age in Russia.

Posted by: Indignatio Vindacatorem at August 14, 2022 10:52 AM (kuOF5)
----
So why does Europe have that biased slant about the USA? Who is responsible? Any opinions?

Posted by: Ciampino - Democrats snd Communists at August 14, 2022 11:28 AM (qfLjt)

363 last question:
did someone mention "Fun Fare" on a recent thread?
I have a copy of the 1949 Reader's Digest humor anthology of the same title.
Is that the one we're talking about?

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (y40tE)

That was me. The cover is vertical two tone with the theatre masks on it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:28 AM (7bRMQ)

364 OT: TIL Garland has form. He was in charge of the Atlanta Bombing investigation at the DOJ that had the FBI framing Jewell.
Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (e+yf1)

It's amazing how one can always dig into the bios of these "law enforcement" guys, and find their histories are littered with the worst abuses of recent memory.

They're promoted, it seems, when they help to railroad an innocent, or let the guilty go with a slap on the wrist, or they cover up for the protected class.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:28 AM (NWBBy)

365 Any chance sword use was dictated by the metallurgy of the day? That the reason for short swords being more of a thrusting weapon was due to the chance of the blade breaking if used to strike an opponent?
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing

My understanding is that the Romans liked the gladius so much because it worked great while fighting in formation: Soldiers standing side-by-side, each holding a big shield, stabbing straight forward. Long swords would be unweildy in that situation, and there's no room for swinging wildly (until or unless the formation broke down)

Basically, the gladius was the right tool for that particular job.

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 14, 2022 11:30 AM (Lhaco)

366 I picked up a book at a garage sale called Kaboom

Unfortunately it is about the Iraq war, and is by Matt Gallagher. It is on the pile to be read

Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 11:30 AM (xhaym)

367 Morning hordemates!
That's a great library! I'm guessing the liquor cabinet is just outside the picture?

Posted by: Diogenes at August 14, 2022 11:30 AM (anj39)

368 If you are interested in the subject, I would suggest you go get a free online copy of Lysander Spooner's Unconstitutionality of Slavery, that way you can get a grip on the actual arguments, and then work to bridge to current realities
Ciao.
Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 11:22 AM (xhaym)

Slave is obviously a loaded word. I would suggest however, that our criminal justice system is often close enough to it, that I'm not at all uncomfortable using the word to describe many MANY people caught up in it.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:31 AM (NWBBy)

369 By the way: nice shelves on the cover picture! I need more shelves, myself...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 14, 2022 11:31 AM (Lhaco)

370 350 OT: TIL Garland has form. He was in charge of the Atlanta Bombing investigation at the DOJ that had the FBI framing Jewell.
Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (e+yf1)

he was involved

in charge, I dunno

but he was shocked to find out the FBI ad tricked Jewel into thinking he was doing a training film

you would think that would clue him into how scummy the FBI was and is

Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 11:31 AM (us2H3)

371 > I have started second book.

There's an omnibus edition with all of the Zelazny-written entries in the series.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at August 14, 2022 11:31 AM (bW8dp)

372 They're promoted, it seems, when they help to railroad an innocent, or let the guilty go with a slap on the wrist, or they cover up for the protected class.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:28 AM (NWBBy)
---------------

I can see an agent staying in the agency because they made a mistake and a guilty person walked free. But getting promoted after persecuting an innocent person? No.

But, it appears to me, the top brass at the FBI are all guilty of persecuting the innocent while ignoring the guilty.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 11:32 AM (5pTK/)

373 FBI Concludes Gun Control Advocate Alec Baldwin Pulled Trigger in Halyna Hutchins Movie Set Shooting
----
Was he thinking he was shooting that beaver?

Posted by: Ciampino - poor beavers, why not gophers say? at August 14, 2022 11:32 AM (qfLjt)

374 Blaster,
Know a little bit about Hillsdale as I know a guy that taught there two years as visiting professor. Good alternative school for conservatives and yes it is in snowy Michigan.

Grove City College in PA is another good school along with College of the Ozarks in MO, Harding University in AR, Arkansas College in AR, and Flagler College in FL (San Augustine).

Public Universities, it depends on the program and particular college rather than the whole university. Try looking up the number of faculty belonging to the National Association of Scholars at a particular program in a public university as a hint toward its leanings. BTW, those going in with Conservative belief systems that are grounded in something more than my parents are conservatives, can get an education at Woke U's if they choose the professors and programs carefully. If they are the go with the flow type, they can easily convert to the dark side.

Posted by: whig at August 14, 2022 11:32 AM (CXr4y)

375 These bad performers in government do keep popping up from one bad episode to the next bad episode.

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 11:33 AM (k8B25)

376 Posted by: Indignatio Vindacatorem at August 14, 2022 10:52 AM (kuOF5)
----
So why does Europe have that biased slant about the USA? Who is responsible? Any opinions?
Posted by: Ciampino - Democrats snd Communists at August 14, 2022 11:28 AM (qfLjt)

Prolly the same people who have convinced everyone that Glowball Warmening is real, that third world shitholes are NOT third world shitholes, and when they send their young men into your country, you should just thank them for it. Also see Plandemic, Glowball.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:33 AM (NWBBy)

377 My understanding is that the Romans liked the gladius so much because it worked great while fighting in formation: Soldiers standing side-by-side, each holding a big shield, stabbing straight forward. Long swords would be unweildy in that situation, and there's no room for swinging wildly (until or unless the formation broke down)

Basically, the gladius was the right tool for that particular job.
Posted by: Castle Guy at August 14, 2022 11:30 AM (Lhaco)
-------------

Tactics and the weapons used went hand in hand. Makes sense.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 11:33 AM (5pTK/)

378 Just to get this straight, we’re now supposed to believe that the material Trump had stored in his house was nuclear content so sensitive the FBI waited a year and a half to go get it and used the National Archives as a prop to do so?” Ben Shapiro tweeted.

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 11:34 AM (BRHaw)

379 348. Thanks, JTB!

Posted by: Paco at August 14, 2022 11:34 AM (njExo)

380 That was me. The cover is vertical two tone with the theatre masks on it.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:28 AM (7bRMQ)

Yes, that's it. Inherited mine from my grandfather.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:34 AM (y40tE)

381 But getting back to books some day Kamala's Word Salad will be a book title

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 11:34 AM (k8B25)

382 317 Utes today can just skip kollege, bone up on things on the interboob, then download a fake diploma from somewhere and alter it to look legit and sign it Dean Vernon Wormer, Esq. KBE & P.E. and and viola!

now do navajos

Posted by: anachronda at August 14, 2022 11:35 AM (Ga0s6)

383 Slave is obviously a loaded word. I would suggest however, that our criminal justice system is often close enough to it, that I'm not at all uncomfortable using the word to describe many MANY people caught up in it.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:31 AM (NWBBy)


Also prisoners are wildly overcharged for things like medical treatment and food, both directly, by contract with the state, and by quality.

however, turning convicted or indicted criminals onto the street with no consequence is not working either.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 14, 2022 11:35 AM (xhaym)

384 They hiring? Staff, I mean?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 11:23 AM (c6xtn)

They seem to every year. Currently, I don't know, but sometimes staff leaves during the term too.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:35 AM (7bRMQ)

385 Garland has form. He was in charge of the Atlanta Bombing investigation at the DOJ that had the FBI framing Jewell.
Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:20 AM (e+yf1)

he was involved

in charge, I dunno


Posted by: REDACTED at August 14, 2022 11:31 AM (us2H3)

Just browsing...seems he was involved w/unibomber, ok city as well....a lifer for sure.

Posted by: BignJames at August 14, 2022 11:35 AM (AwYPR)

386 My favorite country song Almost Home. It has the same evocative lyrics.

I just climbed out of a cottonwood tree"
I was runin' from some honey bees
Drip dryin' in the summer breeze
After jumpin' into Calico creek
I was walkin' down an old dirt road
Past a field of hay that had just been mowed
Man I wish you'd just left me alone
Cause I was almost home

Posted by: Kilroy wasn't here at August 14, 2022 11:35 AM (27hQX)

387 It's amazing how one can always dig into the bios of these "law enforcement" guys, and find their histories are littered with the worst abuses of recent memory.

They're promoted, it seems, when they help to railroad an innocent, or let the guilty go with a slap on the wrist, or they cover up for the protected class.

Posted by: BurtTC
--------------------------
Patronage is what you are looking for and these types always have a couple of pols as backers and people in higher ranks in the bureaucracies themselves. Eventually, it gets locked into place by marriage alliances, interest group participation, and the notorious revolving door in DC where they are in and out of office but spend the rest of the time in the swamp with sinecures at ngos and law firms.

Posted by: whig at August 14, 2022 11:36 AM (CXr4y)

388 381 But getting back to books some day Kamala's Word Salad will be a book title
Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 11:34 AM (k8B25)

Her Wit and Wisdom publication is on the front of a 3 x 5 index card!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 11:36 AM (BRHaw)

389 will peruse the Moron recommendations to see what tickles my fancy.
Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 11:17 AM (ftFVW)

Have you read Servants of War?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 11:36 AM (gbzeC)

390 First impressions matter I guess - all Europe sees is what our media wants them to. When I first went to Eastern Europe in the 80s I expected them all to be humming On Broadway from the Drifters (obscure Radio Free Europe reference). Its work to understand a culture and people are short of time and frankly lazy. We are the same in most respects.

Posted by: Indignatio Vindacatorem at August 14, 2022 11:36 AM (Ja3YN)

391 Stacey Abrams
@staceyabrams
In college, a friend who shared my faith challenged me to think and changed my perspective on abortion.

Abortion care is health care. As a person of faith and as the next governor, it’s my responsibility to protect a woman’s right to choose.

-
Over and over again.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 11:37 AM (FVME7)

392 310 It becomes a lot funnier if you change 20 seconds to 20 minutes.

Posted by: normal at August 14, 2022 11:00 AM (obo9H)
----
True but that would then include actually picking up the book after sitting down on the porcelain throne, having dropped trousers and knickers.
LOL

Posted by: Ciampino - do you smoke on the crapper? at August 14, 2022 11:37 AM (qfLjt)

393 Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:28 AM (NWBBy)
---------------

I can see an agent staying in the agency because they made a mistake and a guilty person walked free. But getting promoted after persecuting an innocent person? No.

But, it appears to me, the top brass at the FBI are all guilty of persecuting the innocent while ignoring the guilty.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 14, 2022 11:32 AM (5pTK/)

True story: Isaac Asimov's son, David, was found with what local cops called "the largest child pron operation and collection they had ever seen." They were ready to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law.

Then the feds came in and said "we got this." They diddled around for a bit, then eventually dropped all charges... AFTER the locals had ceded all control of the investigation to them.

The fed prosecutor on that case, the one who decided "nah, it's fine, he dindoo nothin'," was none other than Robert Mueller.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:37 AM (NWBBy)

394 Abortion care is health care ----


Exactly what health problem is being taken care of?

Posted by: Kilroy wasn't here at August 14, 2022 11:38 AM (27hQX)

395 Well, it's a day ending in "Y" and Kamala speaks.

https://bit.ly/3duwIJn

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I Survived the Mar-A-Lago Raid at August 14, 2022 11:41 AM (FVME7)

396 Yes, that's it. Inherited mine from my grandfather.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 11:34 AM (y40tE)

Mine was my grandparent's as well. Lost it somewhere, can't find it. But a moving neighbor had one and let me take it. She wasn't going to take books anyway. She still has a few boxes of books I can look through. Gonna see what's good in them.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:42 AM (7bRMQ)

397 371 Rodrigo Borgia
Yeah, I bought a copy after it was recommended here. A little bulky for bed time reading but the story is so compelling that I do not mind.

Thanks again.

Posted by: Glenn John at August 14, 2022 11:42 AM (U4y26)

398 So why does Europe have that biased slant about the USA? Who is responsible? Any opinions?
Posted by: Ciampino - Democrats snd Communists


As a naturalized American, I have some insight here. It's mostly repressed envy. 1) USA dominates the world economically and culturally. 2) Despite tremendous efforts by the left to destroy us, USA is the only remaining western country that robustly stands for individual liberty.

Europeans know their countries have devolved into socialized sh!t-holes with serious constraints on freedom of speech in particular, and offering limited economic prospects for their sons and daughters. To resolve the cognitive dissonance they try to drag the US down.

Gun deaths is their favorite point of comparison. They assume we're gunning each other down in the suburbs. They hate it when you point out that outside of certain urban areas, the US looks no different to Europe on that score.

Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:43 AM (e+yf1)

399 Patronage is what you are looking for and these types always have a couple of pols as backers and people in higher ranks in the bureaucracies themselves. Eventually, it gets locked into place by marriage alliances, interest group participation, and the notorious revolving door in DC where they are in and out of office but spend the rest of the time in the swamp with sinecures at ngos and law firms.
Posted by: whig at August 14, 2022 11:36 AM (CXr4y)

Speaking of, sometime before we elect Trump again, I'd like an explanation for why the fed prosecutor who let Epstein off with a slap on the wrist, who completely undermined the local investigation, and left the victims high and dry, became Trump's Labor Secretary. Who decided that was a proper reward for the guy.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:43 AM (NWBBy)

400 Who decided that was a proper reward for the guy.
Posted by: BurtTC


My guess: Trump's greatest weakness: flattery will get you far.

Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:45 AM (e+yf1)

401 If you comment on a book now is it considered OT? 😀

Posted by: Kilroy wasn't here at August 14, 2022 11:46 AM (27hQX)

402 {{{DDS}}} I hope I get to meet you at the TX MoMe!

Perfessor, thanks for another great thread - skritches to all the kittehs.

Posted by: screaming in digital at August 14, 2022 11:46 AM (pkAcY)

403 Then the feds came in and said "we got this." They diddled around for a bit, then eventually dropped all charges... AFTER the locals had ceded all control of the investigation to them.

The fed prosecutor on that case, the one who decided "nah, it's fine, he dindoo nothin'," was none other than Robert Mueller.

Posted by: BurtTC
----------------------------------
I would bet now that homosexuality and infidelity have been discounted by society, they are no longer as useful as blackmail by the alphabet agencies. That leaves molesting children and visual depiction of it as leverage for the intel and le agencies.

Same mo that has been used in the war on crime technique--find the weasels in the bad guy community and make them squeal.

Posted by: whig at August 14, 2022 11:46 AM (CXr4y)

404 Who decided that was a proper reward for the guy.
Posted by: BurtTC

My guess: Trump's greatest weakness: flattery will get you far.
Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:45 AM (e+yf1)

Right, so who was the Wormtongue in his administration, whispering in his ear, telling him this guy was a fine, upstanding citizen.

Maybe the same person who told the Feebs where to look for docs in his home.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:47 AM (NWBBy)

405 A man drove his vehicle into one of the barricades at the U.S. Capitol. He previously set it on fire. The man later exists his vehicle and fires his weapon before shooting himself. The driver is the only one injured.

https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=129242

Posted by: SMH at what's coming at August 14, 2022 11:49 AM (/bks6)

406 401 If you comment on a book now is it considered OT? 😀
Posted by: Kilroy wasn't here at August 14, 2022 11:46 AM (27hQX)

Nah, book thread lasts all day

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 11:49 AM (gbzeC)

407 I would bet now that homosexuality and infidelity have been discounted by society, they are no longer as useful as blackmail by the alphabet agencies. That leaves molesting children and visual depiction of it as leverage for the intel and le agencies.

Same mo that has been used in the war on crime technique--find the weasels in the bad guy community and make them squeal.
Posted by: whig at August 14, 2022 11:46 AM (CXr4y)

As has been noted many times, it's fascinating how often these things end up finding their way back to Epstein.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:49 AM (NWBBy)

408 Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton. Post scarcity SF with a interesting idea (terraforming central Australia) in the drek. Long and meh.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 09:38 AM (u82oZ)

Australia is part of Earth. Which is Terra. "Terraformed" is baked into the cake.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 14, 2022 11:49 AM (pE21i)

409 Have you read Servants of War?
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion

Not yet, but I've definitely been thinking I should branch out into Correia's other works. So far have stuck to MH and his informative gub essays/articles.

Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 11:50 AM (ftFVW)

410 373 FBI Concludes Gun Control Advocate Alec Baldwin Pulled Trigger in Halyna Hutchins Movie Set Shooting
----
Was he thinking he was shooting that beaver?
Posted by: Ciampino - poor beavers, why not gophers say? at August 14, 2022 11:32 AM (qfLjt)

The other dude who died gets short shrift here.

In case anyone is interested, the Rekieta and Brandon Huerrera(sp?) live stream where they watch the police interview Baldwin gives just after the shooting is interesting. It is made a bit chilling when you realize, he already knew she was dead and it is only when they are told the dude also died that he breaks down.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 11:53 AM (dNqv+)

411 Posted by: Kilroy wasn't here at August 14, 2022 11:35 AM (27hQX)

Never heard that one. Thanks.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 11:54 AM (dNqv+)

412 The Great Panty Wrayed is so stupid on so many accounts.

TDS still effects millions of people!

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 11:54 AM (BRHaw)

413 My understanding is that the Romans liked the gladius so much because it worked great while fighting in formation: Soldiers standing side-by-side, each holding a big shield, stabbing straight forward. Long swords would be unweildy in that situation, and there's no room for swinging wildly (until or unless the formation broke down)

Basically, the gladius was the right tool for that particular job.

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 14, 2022 11:30 AM


The Roman Army had a distinct style of fighting. They were extremely disciplined and drilled daily.


They were more of a shock army than a stab and hack army. They would advance and let fly a volley or two of pila's which would kill many of the enemy in the front ranks and render most of their shields useless because the pila was designed to penetrate a shield and stay stuck in it. They would follow up with a charge and then start fighting.

Posted by: Mister Scott (formerly GWS) at August 14, 2022 11:55 AM (bVYXr)

414 Exactly what health problem is being taken care of?
Posted by: Kilroy wasn't here at August 14, 2022 11:38 AM (27hQX)

Inconvenient life.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 11:55 AM (dNqv+)

415 410 ? AFAIK, only Hutchins was killed. Souza was injured by the bullet after it went through Hutchins, but not seriously.

Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:57 AM (e+yf1)

416 358
Flow : the psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 11:23 AM
----
How on earth is that name ponounced? It's got vowels I'll give it that!
It's construction is kinda 'Ton Hamil-ton' in English.

Posted by: Ciampino - you would have to spell that over the phone at August 14, 2022 11:57 AM (qfLjt)

417 She Hobbit , I started with MHI.
I suggest Son of the Black Sword first ( I hated the first chapter,but after that I was hooked).
Servants of War is almost horror (which is co-writer Steve Diamond's bit) , but very good.
Let me think of other wriers you might like.
I assume you've read Jim Butcher's Dresden Files?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 11:57 AM (gbzeC)

418 What about mass testing?

“All persons should seek testing for active infection when they are symptomatic or if they have a known or suspected exposure to someone with COVID-19.”

So we are back to real medicine again?

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (BRHaw)

419 Flow : the psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 11:23 AM

Ha! I got that book sent to me automatically when I had a book club sub. Sent it back unread.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (7bRMQ)

420 What about the magic of track and trace?

“CDC now recommends case investigation and contact tracing only in health care settings and certain high-risk congregate settings.”

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (BRHaw)

421 Re memoirs: This isn't exactly what you asked, but it's an aspect to consider. I was asked to speak at my twin brother's memorial as I would know things about his childhood no one else did. It occurred to me that I would be the oldest person of our family there. It shocked me somehow. There was no one else left to tell the stories.

So I told family stories, mostly funny ones, like the grandfather who raised bay trotting horses and named them after beer until he married (at 51) a young woman as stubborn as he was. She named them after tea. So from then on the horses had two names. Pilsner Oolong is the only one I remembered.

Here's the odd thing: I ended with the story of how my twin won the Silver Star, and how years later at my son's wedding, a young woman came up to him and hugged as much of him as she could reach and said, "You saved my father's life!"

Here's the thing. No one in his family knew that story. Not his wife. Not his kids. They know none of his war stories, just a drawerful of medals. So I've promised to write down what I remember of them and send them on.

Posted by: Wenda at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (gPRZb)

422 What about the unvaccinated who were so demonized throughout the last year?

“CDC’s COVID-19 prevention recommendations no longer differentiate based on a person’s vaccination status because breakthrough infections occur, though they are generally mild, and persons who have had COVID-19 but are not vaccinated have some degree of protection against severe illness from their previous infection.”

Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 12:00 PM (BRHaw)

423 Thinking of Antony's suicide scene in 'Rome":

"It's a good sword. Tell them I died Roman."
or words to that effect.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 12:00 PM (y40tE)

424 415 410 ? AFAIK, only Hutchins was killed. Souza was injured by the bullet after it went through Hutchins, but not seriously.
Posted by: quantum mechanic at August 14, 2022 11:57 AM (e+yf1)

I could have sworn the guy died as well. 29 year old memory. Let me look it up.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 12:00 PM (dNqv+)

425 nevermind

Posted by: CDC at August 14, 2022 12:00 PM (BRHaw)

426 Posted by: Wenda at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (gPRZb)

{{{{Wenda}}}}

I think your family will love reading those stories

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 12:01 PM (gbzeC)

427 Wiki says dude was released. Well, that is good. I stand corrected.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 12:02 PM (dNqv+)

428 MIS HUM ON GIBSON BAKERY NOOD

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 12:02 PM (k8B25)

429 Ha! I got that book sent to me automatically when I had a book club sub. Sent it back unread.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (7bRMQ)

I used to be in the Sci Fi Book Club (loved the omnibus books). What kind of book club were you in?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 12:03 PM (gbzeC)

430 Europe is, and has my blessing to, going to hell faster than we are.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 14, 2022 11:01 AM

Yep. The WEF elites have been using the same game plan to transform Europe as they have been using here in the USA. All one needs to do to understand the future of the USA is to look at what the WEF has been doing first to Europe. I would not be cheering on Europe's demise. "First they came..." and all that.

Specifically, the UK, as Paul Joseph Watson talks about here. They have replaced the UK population with foreigners, just like they have been doing here in the USA. And they are pushing people into rental living instead of home ownership, just as they are doing here. Scary times.

It Wasn't An Accident: https://bit.ly/3pjqDlv

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at August 14, 2022 12:03 PM (Do5/p)

431 I assume you've read Jim Butcher's Dresden Files?
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion

*looks sheepish* Not yet. Spent most of my younger years reading Anne Rice, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, etc.. Someone suggested MHI for my late husband, but he wasn't enamored of the level of humor (though he loved Correia's writing on 2A and gubs). I picked it up and got hooked. Making up for lost time now, building a huge backlog of horror/fantasy books I didn't even know were waiting for me out there.

Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 12:04 PM (ftFVW)

432 418 What about mass testing?

“All persons should seek testing for active infection when they are symptomatic or if they have a known or suspected exposure to someone with COVID-19.”

So we are back to real medicine again?
Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (BRHaw)

Until they need everyone to be afraid again or get some voting things passed due to the emergency. That they created.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 12:04 PM (dNqv+)

433 The fellow who wrote Run Silent, Run Deep?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 14, 2022 10:07 AM (c6xtn)

Yep, that fellow. Someone was singing his praises on an earlier book thread, so I picked it up. This place is bad for my budget and great for my reading!

Posted by: Not From Around Here at August 14, 2022 12:05 PM (wrzAm)

434 422 What about the unvaccinated who were so demonized throughout the last year?
Posted by: rhennigantx at August 14, 2022 12:00 PM (BRHaw)

As a Christian, I am prepared to forgive them, if they repent and apologize, though I doubt that will happen.

I will never forget the destructive wedge they drove into not just our family, but countless families through the country.

Posted by: sal at August 14, 2022 12:06 PM (y40tE)

435 Donate 'em to Goodwill.

I have gotten many books and movies from there over the decades but sometimes its kind of sad what lurks on the shelves probably never to be sold. Hot stock tip prognication books from 1998, W political memoirs, computer manuals from the mid 80s....

Posted by: azjaeger at August 14, 2022 12:06 PM (3/XaG)

436 Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 12:04 PM (ftFVW)

Dresden Files are quite good. Fun.

Aeronaught's Windlass is pretty good, but I have never seen a continuation of the series.

Codex Alera books are pretty damn good (only quibbles I have is the ending does not live up to the promise of the series, but that is almost invariably true of any epic series.)

I'd also suggest the Wax and Wayne series by Brandon Sanderson and his epic fantasy Stormlight Archive.

And of course, Wheel of Time.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 12:07 PM (dNqv+)

437 369 By the way: nice shelves on the cover picture! I need more shelves, myself...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 14, 2022 11:31 AM (Lhaco)
----
Maybe you can refer Ace as well as he needed shelving help sometime ago.
/s

Posted by: Ciampino - wood and I don't get on as I always overestimate at August 14, 2022 12:09 PM (qfLjt)

438 Haven't you heard? Cleopatra was black

I saw that somewhere too. Last name was Jones. Hot, but kind of violent IFRC

Posted by: azjaeger at August 14, 2022 12:10 PM (3/XaG)

439 Thanks, vmom. I will do it. Right now I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that he told me so much, large and small, and I never realized I was the only one. I wonder if twin-ness had something to do with it. That he thought he was telling another part of himself.

Posted by: Wenda at August 14, 2022 12:12 PM (gPRZb)

440 375 These bad performers in government do keep popping up from one bad episode to the next bad episode.

Posted by: Skip at August 14, 2022 11:33 AM (k8B25)
----
I have come to that conclusion myself starting with HRC/Nixon and Comey/HRC

Posted by: Ciampino - HRC could be the common denominator everywhere at August 14, 2022 12:14 PM (qfLjt)

441 This week, I've been reading The Green Ripper a Travis McGee novel by John D. MacDonald (who else?)

I'm only about halfway through and, I don't know, but I'm not liking this one so much. Sounds like MacDonald went all in on the "Club of Rome" stuff and it's got a whole bunch of super secret spy stuff and, well, I don't know.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at August 14, 2022 12:15 PM (6jmQG)

442 387 It's amazing how one can always dig into the bios of these "law enforcement" guys, and find their histories are littered with the worst abuses of recent memory.

They're promoted, it seems, when they help to railroad an innocent, or let the guilty go with a slap on the wrist, or they cover up for the protected class.

Posted by: BurtTC
--------------------------
Patronage is what you are looking for and these types always have a couple of pols as backers and people in higher ranks in the bureaucracies themselves. Eventually, it gets locked into place by marriage alliances, interest group participation, and the notorious revolving door in DC where they are in and out of office but spend the rest of the time in the swamp with sinecures at ngos and law firms.

Posted by: whig at August 14, 2022 11:36 AM (CXr4y)
----
Eventually they also will have dirt on their patron and other influencers so that their position becomes safe and secure.

Posted by: Ciampino -- HRC could be the common denominator everywhere at August 14, 2022 12:21 PM (qfLjt)

443 394 Abortion care is health care ----


Exactly what health problem is being taken care of?

Posted by: Kilroy wasn't here at August 14, 2022 11:38 AM (27hQX)
----
Please Sir, I know, morning sickness?

Posted by: Ciampino -- not trying to be funny, just ridiculous at August 14, 2022 12:27 PM (qfLjt)

444 421
Posted by: Wenda at August 14, 2022 11:59 AM (gPRZb)
----
I couldn't type this for a while as it got very dusty here. I blame the cats.

Posted by: Ciampino - moving story at August 14, 2022 12:38 PM (qfLjt)

445 ..send me your daughter, we will send you back a lesbian. That's not what college is for.
Posted by: blaster at August 14, 2022 10:57 AM (6TxNR)

Babylon Bee: Study Shows Kids Who Are Homeschooled Could Miss Out On Opportunity To Be A Gay Communist

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at August 14, 2022 12:40 PM (wY/cZ)

446 This week, I've been reading The Green Ripper a Travis McGee novel by John D. MacDonald (who else?)

I'm only about halfway through and, I don't know, but I'm not liking this one so much. Sounds like MacDonald went all in on the "Club of Rome" stuff and it's got a whole bunch of super secret spy stuff and, well, I don't know.
Posted by: Cybersmythe at August 14, 2022 12:15 PM (6jmQG)


While I'll admit it's different than the average Travis McGee novel,

"The Green Ripper" is my favorite Travis McGee novel.
It punches hard and keeps punching to the very end.

Travis' stakes are more personal and higher than usual.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 14, 2022 12:49 PM (5NkmN)

447 408 Alberta Oil Peon

I accept that rebuke. Change it to turning the desert in the center of Australia into a lush tropical sea and paradise.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at August 14, 2022 12:51 PM (u82oZ)

448 >>> 436 Posted by: She Hobbit at August 14, 2022 12:04 PM (ftFVW)

Dresden Files are quite good. Fun.
Aeronaught's Windlass is pretty good, but I have never seen a continuation of the series.
Codex Alera books are pretty damn good (only quibbles I have is the ending does not live up to the promise of the series, but that is almost invariably true of any epic series.)
I'd also suggest the Wax and Wayne series by Brandon Sanderson and his epic fantasy Stormlight Archive.
And of course, Wheel of Time.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at August 14, 2022 12:07 PM (dNqv+)

The Aeronaut's Windlass allegedly had a sequel in the works (finally!) with the title The Olympian Affair although I have seen next to nothing other than the title, and I can't even remember where I saw *that*. It could have been Butcher's site but I'm really not sure.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 14, 2022 01:17 PM (llON8)

449 How on earth is that name ponounced? It's got vowels I'll give it that!
It's construction is kinda 'Ton Hamil-ton' in English.
Posted by: Ciampino - you would have to spell that over the phone at August 14, 2022 11:57 AM (qfLjt)

I'm guessing Csikszentmihalyi is pronounced Tsik-zhen-mihalyi

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 01:23 PM (gbzeC)

450 Title only:
https://www.jim-butcher.com /faq/upcoming-works

DATES TBD (sigh)

Cinder Spires #2: The Olympian Affair
Dresden Files #18: Tentatively titled Twelve Months. (Mirror Mirror will now be book #19)

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 14, 2022 01:43 PM (llON8)

451 I worked part-time from my apartment and earned $30,030. After losing my previous business, I quickly became exhausted. Fortunately, I discovered this jobs online, and as a result, I was able to start earning money from home right away. Anyone can accomplish this elite career and increase their internet income by….

After reading this article... http://www.salarycash1.com

Posted by: Sarah at August 14, 2022 01:57 PM (olqk4)

452 Oh wow, CONGRATS to Mary Poppins Practically Perfect Piercing for a glowing review on Sarah Hoyt's book book promo post today:

This is a special case. He sent me the book for promo a month or two ago, and said something about how stupid of him it was to write silent movie mysteries. For those not aware, I love mysteries set in the early 20th century, so I told him I’d probably read it, though not maybe in a timely manner.

Well, it ain’t be timely, but yesterday I bought it and read it, and then the first book (which seems to have been published by someone else?)

And you see, it’s AMAZING. And I want him to write more. As I know personally, having a pack of derran– er…. a nice group of fans begging for more can get you to write a lot of books. So I thought I’d do my best to get Christopher a whole mob of bay– er… group of intensely interested fans, so that he’ll write more mysteries for me to read.

Look, it makes perfect sense in my head!

From Christopher DiGrazia: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: A Theda Bara Mystery

https://tinyurl.com/2tkw5bnm

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 14, 2022 02:02 PM (gbzeC)

453 452. Perfect for Masterpiece Mystery series!

Posted by: CN at August 14, 2022 02:43 PM (VuQO/)

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