Sunday Morning Book Thread - 10-09-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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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 (Ultraviolet clearance required, citizen! -- Friend Computer). 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 Legend of Sleepy Hollow." As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...(ht: Tonestaple...razor blades not included...)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, try some fresh gagh (while it's still wriggling), and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Last week I mentioned a list of haunted libraries. This week, we'll take a closer look at the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana. Ghost hunters have set up a number of live webcams that viewers can use to see if there are any ghosts hunting the hallways and stacks at night. The library even offers Ghost Tours in October so that people can try and spot the Grey Lady...

REMEMBERING TO LAUGH

Last week I asked creeper for a good topic for the Sunday Morning Book Thread. Here is the response:

Humor. I'm desperate for anything that brings a smile these days. Biographies, both auto and other. Tech stuff, even...the lawdog post reminded me learning can be fun. Good mysteries with believable plots. Histories.
I'm never going to be a sci-fi/fantasy fan but I can read almost anything else if it's well-written.
Um...I think I just found the problem.
Posted by: creeper at October 02, 2022 10:20 AM (fOyQ3)

We all need to remember to laugh sometimes, so let's get SILLY! JTB sent me the following list of recommendations for humorous authors/stories:

Patrick McManus: his outdoor columns were hilarious. *

Edmund Ware Smith (a neighbor of EB White in Maine): He wrote two One-eyed Poacher books.

the Liturical Mystery series by Mark Schweizer. If you are embarrased at laughing aloud in front of people, don't read these in public. *

PG Wodehouse: the Jeeves stories are great but my favorites are his golf stories. *

Mark Twain [He gave an awesome speech on onanism once...--PS]

Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker's Guide: I have to be in the mood for this one.

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome *

Dave Barry

Calvin and Hobbes: not a book, per se, but some of the best humor ever put on paper.

the MASH books: silly and zany like Marx Brothers films. Complete guilty pleasure reading.

Bored of the Rings: still funny although younger readers and people not from the north east may not get some of the references.

* = laugh out loud

Other notable humor authors include:

O. Henry, famous for his "twist" endings, but also for the warmth and humor in his stories.

Erma Bombeck, who wrote a number of hilarious books, mainly about suburban family life.

James Thurber, who is best known for his cartoons, but he also wrote a number of humorous short stories

Jonathan Swift, who once wrote a satiric essay about the desirability of eating children as a way to solve societal problems.

Jane Austen, who filled her books with irony and jests at the expense of the gentry: "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?" (Pride and Prejudice)

We are living in absurd times right now, so I do think it's important for us to take a look around us and find the humor in the bizarre, crazy world, where men are now women and vice versa, where people believe energy is provided via unicorn farts and pixie dust, and where a dementia patient can be installed as the most powerful man in America.

What are some YOUR go-to books/stories/comics for just plain silliness? Here are some of mine:

Asterix series of comics by Goscinny and Uderzo

Bloom County by Berke Breathed

The Far Side by Gary Larson

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Foxtrot by Bill Amend

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(ht: Blake - semi lurker in marginal standing)

I love Venn diagrams, so... I just do! Whenever you're dealing with conflict, pull out a Venn diagram, right? You know, the three circles
VP Kamala "The Headhunter" Harris. (ht: Misanthropic Humanitarian)

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I read The Man Behind The Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros by Matt Palumbo. This thin volume details Soros' involvement in foreign regime changes, currency collapses, education, Secretary of State and DA elections here in the United States, and his interference in the 2020 Presidential election. A man who never builds but only destroys.
Posted by: Zoltan at October 02, 2022 09:08 AM (xpLRw)

Comment: Is there anyone on the world stage more destructive than George Soros? How soon until he shuffles off his mortal coil to meet his ultimate judgment?

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Reading (re-readig after many years) James Buchanan's 98 page Cost and Choice. "Cost" is the simplest concept in the world...which is why everyone in the world—including economists—gets it totally confused and wrong. Brilliant, important, and enlightening book. Also surprisingly enjoyable.
Posted by: Durak Kazyol at October 02, 2022 09:35 AM (4zxRq)

Comment: More people should read books like this, that can break down seemingly difficult concepts into simpler terms.

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The Power of Habit was good—lots of scientific research. Big takeaway for me was learning that we have a finite amount of willpower each day—and as it gets diminished at work or through your day, you are less likely to go to the gym at the end of the day or complete something else. But willpower can be increased through training. I recommend this one.
Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 02, 2022 11:11 AM (V0xPF)

Comment: Developing good habits takes a lot of willpower, but it can be done...I admit I'm pretty bad about working out or exercising. Just doesn't interest me much. But I'm working on other habits, such as this here Sunday Morning Book Thread. I'm also trying to get my students to develop two good habits for success in college: 1) Show up to class and 2) Do the work.

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I've been reading Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne. It's about the Commanche and Quanah Parker. I've also been taking some side reading trips into works the author references, like Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty One Months' Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Commanchee Indians, which despite being published in 1838, didn't pull many punches when it comes to what she went through.
Gwynne also didn't pull any punches about the cruelty of the Comanche. He definitely tries to cleave to a somewhat the politically correct narrative to a degree, but he also definitely portrays the facts of what happened. He didn't hold back on how the Comanche fought: torture, rape, more torture, more rape... He also doesn't hold back on how the Comanche almost wiped out the Apache. (He calls it genocide. It was.) It gets extremely difficult to read at times.
Learning more about what actually happened in the plains of the country in the 1800's helped me understand the Indian Wars much, much, much better. I'd always learned that the rapaciousness of white settlers was the cause of all the troubles, and that the Indian Wars were just about subjugating peaceful native Americans. Nope. Not hardly.
Lee Also

Comment: The brutality of the Native American tribes before Europeans arrived cannot be understated. They were just some of the most brutal and horrific people on the planet at the time. Sorry, Leftists, but it's true.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (442 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

So I took my car to a local mechanic for an oil change and somehow drove home with a bunch of books. I'm sure the comic/game shop down the street had nothing to do with that. Nor did the fact that the owner was trying to get rid of a bunch of old books at low, low prices. Here is my haul:

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb - Book 2 of the Farseer Trilogy. I own an anniversary edition of Book 1, Assassin's Apprentice

Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb - Book 3 of the Farseer Trilogy. Might as well complete the series while I have the chance

Inquisition by Anselm Audley - Book 2 of The Aquasilva Trilogy. I have Book 1, so I might as well finish this trilogy as well. (Didn't see Book 3, so I'll have to see if Amazon has it or something.)

The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman - Cover art by Michael Whelan, so it's already a good buy...

In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman - I had a copy of this long, long ago, but I got rid of it before I had a chance to read it. Might as well give it a try this time

The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock - I already have the paperback versions of this series, but this is a hardcover omnibus edition...that seems to contain different books. The whole Eternal Champion universe is extremely convoluted....

Von Bek by Michael Moorcock - Also part of the Eternal Champion universe. Also in a nice hardcover omnibus edition.

Deathless Gods by P.C. Hodgell - Book 10 in the open-ended Chronicles of the Kencyrath, underappreciated fantasy series, but one that seems to have enough of a loyal following for Hodgell to keep writing a new entry in the series every few years. Just fantastic world-building.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Qualinesti Paul B. Thompson & Tonya C. Carter -- Book III of Dragonlance: Elven Nations Trilogy, strong anti-slavery vibes...

The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson -- Book 12 of The Wheel of Time. Sanderson takes over from here after Jordan's untimely death. The last three books are a nonstop ride to the Last Battle...

NOTE: The central conflict in The Gathering Storm is that the main character has to learn to laugh again. Otherwise the world is doomed. It makes total sense in context, as the main character is losing his grip on his humanity and the only way he can restore it is to find within himself the ability to laugh. He earns it the hard way.

He regarded the world beneath him. The clouds above had finally broken, if only just above him. The gloom dispersed, allowing him to see the sun hanging just above.
Rand looked up at it. Then he smiled. Finally, he let out a deep-throated laugh, true and pure.
It had been far too long.
-- The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan

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 - 10-02-22 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

("Huggy" Squirrel desperately needs a good laugh...this is NOT it!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 "I found myself faced by names and terms that I had heard elsewhere in the most hideous of connexions -- Yuggoth, Great Cthulhu, Tsathoggua, Yog-Sothoth, R'lyeh, Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, Hastur, Yian, Leng, the Lake of Hali, Bethmoora, the Yellow Sign, L'mur-Kathulos, Bran, and the Magnum Innominandum -- and was drawn back through nameless aeons and inconceivable dimensions to worlds of elder, outer entity at which the crazed author of the Necronomicon had only guessed in teh vaguest way." --- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in Darkness"

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:00 AM (Dc2NZ)

2 yo wut sup

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 09, 2022 09:01 AM (BRHaw)

3 Online story reading counts, right? Read a few stories on something called The Quiet Reader. Some I liked, others, meh.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:01 AM (7bRMQ)

4 That must be the new Beyond Gagh.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:01 AM (Dc2NZ)

5 Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:00 AM (Dc2NZ)
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Well, THAT'S an interesting way to start the Book Thread...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 09:01 AM (K5n5d)

6 The brutality of the Native American tribes before Europeans arrived cannot be understated.

Overstated. Sorry, it's one of my pet peeves.

Posted by: Archimedes at October 09, 2022 09:02 AM (ayzS/)

7 Tolle Lege
Still reading Tactics of the Russian Army in the Napoleonic Wars by Alexander and Yurii Zhmodikov
No point in a war game simulation if the troops don't do what is historically correct

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2022 09:02 AM (xhxe8)

8 Magnum Innominandum - "The Great One Who Is Not To Be Named".

Ace.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:02 AM (Dc2NZ)

9 And while painting watched this on Napoleonic warships, nice primer for any sailing books
https://youtu.be/TrC3yMMDsc8

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2022 09:03 AM (xhxe8)

10 Last week I mentioned a list of haunted libraries. This week, we'll take a closer look at the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana. Ghost hunters have set up a number of live webcams that viewers can use to see if there are any ghosts hunting the hallways and stacks at night. The library even offers Ghost Tours in October so that people can try and spot the Grey Lady...

The Willard Library? I'd be more concerned about getting stabbed in the back than scared by ghosts.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:03 AM (7bRMQ)

11 Hiya Perf!

I used to quote selections from Clarke Ashton Smith and this reminded me of those halcyon days.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:03 AM (Dc2NZ)

12 I'm not sure I would call "A Modest Proposal" humor. Juvenalian satire, yes. Fonny? No.

I enjoyed Rob Kroese's Rex Nihilo books. Not as good as H2G2, but still enjoyable.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 09, 2022 09:06 AM (PiwSw)

13 I would expect the Willard Library to have a rat problem.

Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at October 09, 2022 09:06 AM (L08P2)

14 We all need to remember to laugh sometimes, so let's get SILLY!

Well, there is that "Fun Fare" book from Reader's Digest.

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

15 They were just some of the most brutal and horrific people on the planet at the time.

That was their culture. It makes no sense to us now. Kinda like Jews voting Democrat.

Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 09:06 AM (cTCuP)

16 This week, I decided to reread one of my favorite books: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, by William Manchester. I first read it upon its publication 1n 1992, and loved it.

In the meantime, I've read many books on the Dark and Middle Ages. I'm sad to say that after rereading it, I've concluded that it's a piece of garbage. It's obvious that Manchester had a serious hate for Christianity, but also that he gets many basic facts wrong, starting with the idea that the MA were one long, dark nightmare. He then asserts that the only reason man emerged from it was that a few brave humanists defied the Pope. Okay.

The material covered doesn't even match the title, since most of it deals with the Renaissance, and very little with the medieval world. I recommend skipping this one.

Posted by: Archimedes at October 09, 2022 09:07 AM (ayzS/)

17 Morning, all! I read Empire of the Summer Moon in 2014, while on a road trip to the Comanches' winter quarters, Palo Duro Canyon. I tell people, "You know the Apaches, right? Fierce fighters, horsemen, raiders, some of the most dangerous guys in the Southwest? Well, they were afraid of the Comanches."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:08 AM (c6xtn)

18 Comment: Is there anyone on the world stage more destructive than George Soros? How soon until he shuffles off his mortal coil to meet his ultimate judgment?

And why isn't any government who hates him doing anything about it?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:08 AM (7bRMQ)

19 re: the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana

Gee, i lived there for 3 and a half years and never heard about it. It was on the west side of town, though which i never got to.

Posted by: yara at October 09, 2022 09:08 AM (dm0H7)

20 Funniest novel in my experience? NO, not A Confederacy of Dunces. It's Red Sky at Morning by Richad Bradford.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:09 AM (c6xtn)

21 BOOKZZZZ!

Reading Heroic Hearts, an anthology with a new Harry Dresden story from Jim Butcher and a new werewolf story from Patricia Briggs

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 09:09 AM (6yMPP)

22 Added to the Leaning Book Tower of Pablo this week: "Revelation - A Mentor Expository Commentary" by Douglas Kelly. It breaks down the Revelation of John into 65 sections and provides a 5-10 page exposition for each section. I never spent a lot of time studying eschatology, and my church wasn't focused on it like some are (sometimes to the exclusion of everything else). Anyway, I'll save Revelations for the end of my current Bible reading plan (seems fitting),and then dust off this commentary as I work my way through it.

Posted by: PabloD at October 09, 2022 09:10 AM (xhp1z)

23 So I took my car to a local mechanic for an oil change and somehow drove home with a bunch of books.

Speaking of that, my neighbor just sold her house. I've got to get over there and go through some boxes she said has books in them. Sold out lock, stock, and barrel, so I better ask and get on it this week.

Moving sales are a good source of books, I'd wager.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:11 AM (7bRMQ)

24 I'm in that phase where I want to be distracted, to take my mind of my own reality, and nothing seems to be able to do that. Even the humor books referenced above. I don't think they're up to the job.

Sorry to be so gloomy, but gloom is here.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 09:11 AM (i3yPZ)

25 For laughter, I recommend the Myth-Adventures fantasy series by the (sadly) late Robert Asprin. A wizard conjures an demon to impress his apprentice. Then somebody kills the wizard, leaving the apprentice alone with a green, toothy, tall demon. ...

But things are not what they seem.

The apprentice, Skeeve, and the demon, Aahz ("no relation"), go on wild adventures; and Skeeve eventually learns magic. Highly recommended, especially the M.Y.T.H. tales.

Asprin later took on a co-writer, who continued the series for a few more books, but I've not read those.

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

26 Part of the fun is messing with you guys where the cameras *aren't*.

Posted by: Willard Library ghosts at October 09, 2022 09:11 AM (llON8)

27 A very humorous book I read long ago, forgot about, and then found recently at a garage sale for $1.00 (so I got it and reread it) The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, by Will Cuppy.

his chapters about historical characters will have you LOLing all the way through!

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 09, 2022 09:12 AM (q3gwH)

28 I'm currently reading First Blood and Other Stories, a collection of a novelette, the title piece, and some short stories by Jack Schaefer. I consider Schaefer to be pretty darn close to literature, for a Western or for anything else. Plus he knew how to tell a solid story.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:12 AM (c6xtn)

29 Reading "What is a Woman" by Matt Walsh. Recommended, if you'd like to understand the trans-craze.

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at October 09, 2022 09:12 AM (+leAG)

30 What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Re reading Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward . Part of my mother's library I rescued from my former siblings.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at October 09, 2022 09:12 AM (c4lOI)

31 And for more humor ...

Charlie the deceased drug courier is still missing and Al the hapless gangster has no idea where to find him in "The Busy Body." What's worse for Al, somebody has put the arm on local shopkeepers, who have falsely tattled to the Big Boss that Al is running an independent protection racket. BB orders two torpedoes to take Al for a ride.

That was the idea, anyway.

Who else but Donald Westlake would put the victim behind the wheel because neither of the hit men can handle a standard transmission?

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 09:13 AM (Om/di)

32 very humorous book I read long ago, forgot about, and then found recently at a garage sale for $1.00 (so I got it and reread it) The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, by Will Cuppy.

his chapters about historical characters will have you LOLing all the way through!
Posted by: Tom Servo at October 09, 2022

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I read it when I was about 15. I thought he was making up the stuff about Nero trying to kill his mother with the collapsing ceiling and a boat designed to fall apart while at sea. Nope; those are in Suetonius' Twelve Caesars, so there's at least some ancient documentation of the story.

Will Cuppy was kind of the Dave Barry of his day. When How to Read a Book came out, he commented, "It was too late. I'd already read one."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:14 AM (c6xtn)

33 Recommended, if you'd like to understand the trans-craze.
Posted by: Hans G. Schantz

I learned everything I needed to know in Kindergarten, including how to share and the difference between a boy and a girl

Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at October 09, 2022 09:15 AM (c4lOI)

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

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 09:15 AM (7EjX1)

35 In rereading "The Whisperer in Darkness" I was struck by how it didn't employ the florid style we associate with the Cosmic Horror gang. It's very straightforward. Which makes sense, since the narrator is an academic who feels there is a logical explanation for the "queer doings" in the wilds of New England. No need to jump to Fortean conclusions when simple rustic ignorance will suffice!

It makes the narrator's descent into quietly gibbering terror all the more effective.

I got a chuckle at the many references to Brattleboro, VT.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:15 AM (Dc2NZ)

36 >>> 18 Comment: Is there anyone on the world stage more destructive than George Soros? How soon until he shuffles off his mortal coil to meet his ultimate judgment?

And why isn't any government who hates him doing anything about it?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:08 AM (7bRMQ)

Which governments are those? ...and Soros is hardly alone, unfortunately.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 09, 2022 09:16 AM (llON8)

37 Thank you so much for the humor suggestions, Perfessor. I've read a lot of them but for some reason I've avoided the Hitchhiker's Guide. It's time to correct that and I appreciate the nudge.

Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 09:16 AM (cTCuP)

38 For a good story with a nice mix of suspense and goofiness, Laurence Shames delivers the goods. His Key West series begins with Florida Straits, the story of the ill-fitting illegitimate son of a Queens mob boss looking for his rightful place in the underworld. He persuades his girlfriend to accompany him to Key West, where he tries to build his own criminal empire ... of course, things do not go as expected. Lots of fun, a sweetly positive vibe, and good solid validation for one such as myself, who recently fled New York for the free state of Florida.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 09, 2022 09:16 AM (SPNTN)

39 Light reading: I made a trip to the local library and decided to revisit Agatha Christie. As luck would have it, one of the books I grabbed was, "Partners in Crime."

It's a collection of mysteries, mostly humorous, well, Tommy and Tuppence are amusing, from which a decent Brit TV series was created.

Robert MacManus has two collections of which I'm aware: "They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?" and "A Fine and Pleasant Misery." Both well worth reading.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at October 09, 2022 09:16 AM (5pTK/)

40 Didn't get to comment last week so wanted to let Perfesser Squirrel know that I'd read the entire series starting with Bridge of Birds the week before after he, and several other Hordelings, mentioned it.

Reading on the Kindle was helpful since it meant I could check references and find out if they were part of Chinese culture/history or author invention. The combination reminded me of Silverlock by John Meyers Meyers.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 09:17 AM (nC+QA)

41 Who else but Donald Westlake would put the victim behind the wheel because neither of the hit men can handle a standard transmission?
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022

***
Westlake's series about Dortmunder and his crew of hapless but professional thieves is great. Sort of like if Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine on Seinfeld were crooks: smart enough to stay out of jail, but always running into pesky problems in the course of a heist.

The casting in the film of the first novel, The Hot Rock, with Robert Redford, George Segal, and Ron Leibman, is perfect.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:18 AM (c6xtn)

42 Will Cuppy on the Pharaoh Khufu: "Khufu’s six wives were probably not much fun. In accordance with custom, he had to marry some of his sisters and half sisters, not to mention one of his stepmothers and perhaps other close female connections with exactly the same line of family jokes and reminiscences. When he had stood enough, he could always go out to Gizeh and rush construction work on their tombs."

and on Pericles: "The women of Athens were not very happy. They stayed at home and were not allowed to talk back. This has been called the Golden Age."

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 09, 2022 09:18 AM (q3gwH)

43 The dog is starting intensely into the kitchen so I'm sure she'll seen a mouse. My Grade 1 teacher r3ad Danny Meadow Mouse to the class.

Posted by: That NLurker guy at October 09, 2022 09:18 AM (eGTCV)

44 hiya

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:18 AM (T4tVD)

45 Thank you so much for the humor suggestions, Perfessor. I've read a lot of them but for some reason I've avoided the Hitchhiker's Guide. It's time to correct that and I appreciate the nudge.
Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 09:16 AM (cTCuP)
---
It's usually listed in the "science fiction" sections, but it's really not. Mostly is a collection of loosely connected events about absurd characters doing absurd things, proving that the universe as we know it is an absurd place.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 09:18 AM (K5n5d)

46 My current book is the "The Apache Wars" by Paul Andrew Hutton. The writing is engaging with a strong narrative aka it is a fun read. Content wise it is well researched from the Apache perspective, the American perspective, and to a lesser extent the Mexican POV. I have thoroughly appreciated how he has deconstructed the monolithic term "Apache" into the various clans, how the related to each other, and how fought together and later certain clans turned on each other. He handles the various American actors, military commanders, Indian commissioners, and civilians with balance. The various landmarks, forts, camps are integrated into the stories and give you real sense of the epic amount of territory this long war played out over. I live in this area and have come to know the land and Mr. Hutton gets why is important. TLDR; version: it is solid one volume telling of this essential part of American history.

Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 09:18 AM (/qNGG)

47 I'm currently reading First Blood and Other Stories, a collection of a novelette, the title piece, and some short stories by Jack Schaefer. I consider Schaefer to be pretty darn close to literature, for a Western or for anything else. Plus he knew how to tell a solid story.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:12 AM (c6xtn)

(looks around)

I didn't like "Sergeant Houck." No, not the story, but the character. Seemed a bully, even though he was right about how the woman was treated by the husband.

(looks around)

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

48 Speaking of Jerome K., has anyone read the sequel Three Men on the Bummel? I've been looking for that one.

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

49 O. Henry, famous for his "twist" endings, but also for the warmth and humor in his stories.

His candy bars sucked....

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:19 AM (T4tVD)

50 36 >>> 18 Comment: Is there anyone on the world stage more destructive than George Soros? How soon until he shuffles off his mortal coil to meet his ultimate judgment?

And why isn't any government who hates him doing anything about it?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:08 AM (7bRMQ)

Which governments are those? ...and Soros is hardly alone, unfortunately.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 09, 2022 09:16 AM

Last I heard, there was a warrant out for his arrest in his native Hungary. Personally, I wish the Israelis would take him out as they've done so many other terror masters, but I guess the rules are different in the case of financial terror.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 09, 2022 09:19 AM (SPNTN)

51 The brutality of the Native American tribes before Europeans arrived cannot be understated.
--------------
Can't "you can't understate it" also mean "because they were so unbelievably cruel"??

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at October 09, 2022 09:20 AM (yikp0)

52 Watched the movie Apocalypto last night. That one pulls no punches at all. Apparently the best that the scholarly critics could manage was "you shouldn't have emphasized that part so much."

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:20 AM (QZxDR)

53 For a quick laugh, I recommend The Portable Curmudgeon by Jon Winokur. From the front of the dust jacket, "More than 1000 outrageously irreverent quotations, anecdotes and interviews on a vast array of subjects from an illustrious list of world-class grouches." Groucho, W. C. Fields, H. L Mencken are among those cited; but Oscar Lavant is the one who really cracks me up.

Posted by: Zoltan at October 09, 2022 09:20 AM (xpLRw)

54 I don't think the pants guy owns a weedwhacker....OR a schlong.

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

55 That was their culture. It makes no sense to us now. Kinda like Jews voting Democrat.
Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 09:06 AM (cTCuP)

*cough* Christianity *cough*

Man in general has a tendency to be very very brutal in a vacuum.

-Asiatic Vespers. IIRC, this one was during the time of Sulla. The King of Pontus decided he wanted to try to stop the continuing march of Roman influence and power east. He instituted a campaign to murder every Roman that could be found in Asia Minor. Every Roman, Everyone who aided the romans, anyone who traded with them. Approximately 80,000 were murdered iirc.

-fast forward 40 years. Same set up (but this is after Pompey marched around from Asia Minor down to Egypt.) Same general area (asia minor.) Every Roman male who could be found was castrated.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:21 AM (dNqv+)

56 For humor I love Lewis Grizzard. He died in the 90s and his books may be out of print, but if you find one second hand, it's worth a buy. The 2 I like best are "Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You" and " Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself". Funny southern humor.

Posted by: G. Gnome will not comply at October 09, 2022 09:21 AM (OQcPl)

57 Which governments are those? ...and Soros is hardly alone, unfortunately.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 09, 2022 09:16 AM (llON

Hungary and Russia for one, er, two.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:21 AM (7bRMQ)

58 I read perhaps manchesters last, and I looked at the sourcing for it, how he came to such a bass ackwards conclusion, it came from his time at Wesleyan,

victor orban, alone among his former proteges, has challenged soros, in all his works,

Posted by: no 6 at October 09, 2022 09:21 AM (PXvVL)

59 52 Watched the movie Apocalypto last night. That one pulls no punches at all. Apparently the best that the scholarly critics could manage was "you shouldn't have emphasized that part so much."
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:20 AM (QZxDR)

Hell, even the 'good guy' Incans sacrificed children.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:22 AM (dNqv+)

60 OrangeEnt, I have your story and need to go over it one more time, but I liked it a lot.

VMom, I have yours but have to download it onto my hard drive before I can open it. Protonmail won't let me preview it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:23 AM (c6xtn)

61 With all due respect and cringing sycophancy --

Where is Terry Pratchett in your laugh-out-loud authors?

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 09, 2022 09:23 AM (MIKMs)

62 Lewis Grizzard (who was divorced 5 times) on marriage - "Next time I feel like I wanna get married, I think instead I'll just go buy a house and give it to some woman I don't like."

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 09, 2022 09:23 AM (q3gwH)

63 Perfessor,
Thanks for adding to the list of humor books. It helps the book budget that I already have most of them.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 09:24 AM (7EjX1)

64 well this was in the shadow of the social wars, an internecine conflict between the aristocrats like sulla and the common men like marius, of course we have largely sallust who was a caesar partisan relating the account, plutarch came later,

Posted by: no 6 at October 09, 2022 09:25 AM (PXvVL)

65 Looking at my shelves for more humor, I see:

* "Supernatural Law" comics
* "Nodwick" comics
* A collection of the Mad Scientists' Club stories
* Westlake's Dortmunder novels
* A couple of Bob Hope memoirs

All recommended.

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

66 > And why isn't any government who hates him doing anything about it?

I believe Malaysia wants to speak with Mr. Soros very, very badly. Someone just needs to arrange to get him there.

They still have jurisprudence of the old-timey British school there... the kind where the judge puts on a black cap and sentences you to hang by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead.

Or, if you prefer, you can choose to be sentenced under Islamic justice (chop!).

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:25 AM (bW8dp)

67 Many of Dorothy Parker's short stories or sketches are very funny. "The Waltz," "Mrs. Hofstadter on Josephine Street," "The Little Hours." She also produced some very fine and grimmer stories, but the funny ones, and her famous wisecracks, are what she's most remembered for.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:26 AM (c6xtn)

68 To stay within the topic, a couple suggestions by Robert Aspirin: The Myth Books and the first couple Phule's Company books. All fun, light books.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:26 AM (dNqv+)

69 I really love CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy but for some reason I've never read either of the boojs ypu listed, Perfesser.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 09:26 AM (2xlV3)

70 That was their culture. It makes no sense to us now. Kinda like Jews voting Democrat.
Posted by: creeper

Are you feeling okay today, or are you still off your meds ?

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:26 AM (T4tVD)

71 Speaking of Jerome K., has anyone read the sequel Three Men on the Bummel? I've been looking for that one.

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

Ooooh! Sounds fantastic!!! Oh, you said bummel.

Posted by: Shep! at October 09, 2022 09:26 AM (7bRMQ)

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

I can't believe I missed the pun about Aahz's name! Been quite a while since I read them through. Some of the later books tried to tackle serious topics and really lost the charm.

I enjoyed Asprin's Phule's Company series, but I don't think he got very far on it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (nC+QA)

73 Book nerds!

Posted by: Ogre at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (yHsuS)

74 The casting in the film of the first novel, The Hot Rock, with Robert Redford, George Segal, and Ron Leibman, is perfect.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:18 AM (c6xtn)
---

I had no idea this was a series! I'll have to check it out.

The scene in The Hot Rock where one of the thieves accidentally traps himself inside the plexiglass case is hilarious.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (Dc2NZ)

75 Apparently Lovecraft took a long trip up to Vermont and met some amateur press enthusiasts up there. Some of them got "Tuckerized" in Whisperer in Darkness. If you're interested in HPL's non-writing activities, there's a fun podcast: "Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft" by the two guys who run the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. You can hear Howard nattering on about his vacation trips, nocturnal ramblings around New York City during his brief marriage, and his opinions on just about everything.

The hosts, in my opinion, make too much of HPL's casual racism. It's as if every discussion of Dickens had to include references to his shady financial dealings.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (QZxDR)

76 I like Neal Stephenson's observation... something like "You can tell what utter shitheads the Aztecs were by the fact that when the Spanish Inquisition showed up, things got a lot more humane."

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (bW8dp)

77 I really love CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy but for some reason I've never read either of the boojs ypu listed, Perfesser.
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion

Don't feel bad; I've never read a booj either !

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (T4tVD)

78 Sunday morning greetings, literati.

Breaking: The Old Farmer's Almanac for 2023 is out. Perfect reading material for the "throne room" library shelf.

Posted by: mindful webworker - YouTube cancelled my YT channel at October 09, 2022 09:28 AM (0DreI)

79 We are building our retirement home within sight of the Plummer cemetary, and just a few miles from Fort Parker. Quanah Parker has long been a family fascination, but understanding the Fort Parker raid in detail and Rachel Plummer's experience is a good antidote to the noble savage stuff.

Posted by: Erik In Texas at October 09, 2022 09:29 AM (lEejK)

80 > Don't feel bad; I've never read a booj either !

Is that short for "boojum"?

Sorry, feeling snarky this morning.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:29 AM (bW8dp)

81 @41 --

You didn't include Zero Mostel!

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 09:29 AM (Om/di)

82 Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:20 AM (QZxDR)

Hell, even the 'good guy' Incans sacrificed children.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:22 AM (dNqv+)

It is kinda hard to see a culture that sacrifices and otherwise mutilates children as "good guys."

Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 09:29 AM (i3yPZ)

83 I enjoyed Asprin's Phule's Company series, but I don't think he got very far on it.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (nC+QA)

He and coauthor did a couple more in the series, but they lost the spark and magic of the first two (one?)

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:29 AM (dNqv+)

84 Just finished Facing the Mountain by Daniel Brown (who also wrote Boys in the Boat). Read it on my two 5 plus hour flights. It was about the 442nd and not only their amazing performance during WWII but the humiliating and shameful way they and their families were treated during WWII. As a child, niece, and grandchild of. Minidoka internees, I was crying on the plane. Truly a great book with such a compelling true story!

Posted by: Runningrn at October 09, 2022 09:30 AM (99feE)

85 @48, re Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men on the Bummel", I have read that and recommend it. It is not quite as funny as "Three Men in a Boat" but still very good. It describes a bicycle tour of Germany. The passage where Jerome explains how the hordes of monoglot English tourists are driving the study of English on the Continent is both funny and perfectly true.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 09, 2022 09:30 AM (L1mkL)

86 Matt Walsh is on a clip on the last Bad Blue

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 09, 2022 09:30 AM (avebB)

87 > It is kinda hard to see a culture that sacrifices and otherwise mutilates children as "good guys."

Yeah, that's why we're not going to be seen as "good guys" by the future, sorry to say.

Abortion and "gender-affirming" surgery.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:31 AM (bW8dp)

88 It is kinda hard to see a culture that sacrifices and otherwise mutilates children as "good guys."
Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 09:29 AM (i3yPZ)

I am talking about the popular conception of them when even I was a kid where they were contrasted vs the Aztecs and the Mayans.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:31 AM (dNqv+)

89 My favorite rebuttal to modern secular atheists rehashing old Protestant anti-Spanish propaganda about their conquest of the new world:

When Cortez destroyed Tenochtitlan his army was 90 percent Mexican. Apparently all the tribes who weren't Aztecs looked at the weird, gold-obsessed aliens and said, "Well, at least they're not THOSE guys."

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:31 AM (QZxDR)

90 OrangeEnt, I have your story and need to go over it one more time, but I liked it a lot.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:23 AM (c6xtn)

Thanks!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:31 AM (7bRMQ)

91 One of my favorite knee slapper books is "The C Programming Language by Kernighan & Ritchie". It is loopy at times. At other times it is pointers.

Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM (/qNGG)

92 VMom, I have yours but have to download it onto my hard drive before I can open it. Protonmail won't let me preview it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

Umm, so I actually edited it again. Can I send the final to you?
Would it be better from a non- proton mail account or as a different kind of file (not docx)?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM (2xlV3)

93 The collection of short stories about the Hoka people by Poul Anderson and Gordon Lightfoot are delightful. The Hoka are an alien race that look to humans like 3-foot-tall teddy bears, and they are very imitative. Very. So human cultures they encounter get copied, like the Trek "Piece of the Action" story. The first story shows them having copied an American Wild West movie. Picture 3-foot teddy bears with twin guns sagging almost to the ground, hats with brims bigger than their shoulders, and all talking with a cowboy drawl. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM (c6xtn)

94 One of my favorite knee slapper books is "The C Programming Language by Kernighan & Ritchie". It is loopy at times. At other times it is pointers.
Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM (/qNGG)
---------------

Seems like the humor might be a bit uneven. One might even call it variable.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at October 09, 2022 09:33 AM (5pTK/)

95 The Mayans eventually decided to propitiate this new "Jesus" god who was kicking their ass by starting to crucify the child sacrifices before they threw them into the sacred well.

Just covering all the bases.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:33 AM (bW8dp)

96 Funniest novel in my experience? NO, not A Confederacy of Dunces. It's Red Sky at Morning by Richad Bradford.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:09 AM (c6xtn)

Hundred per cent!

Posted by: Fox 2! at October 09, 2022 09:33 AM (5Oamx)

97 Umm, so I actually edited it again. Can I send the final to you?
Would it be better from a non- proton mail account or as a different kind of file (not docx)?
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022

***
Sure, send it along. I think the issue might be my protonmail, not yours. I had the same trouble with OrangeEnt's manuscripts. .Docx should be fine.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:33 AM (c6xtn)

98 89 That's a bit harsh, but Planned Parenthood isn't worried about being called "good guys."

Posted by: Erik In Texas at October 09, 2022 09:34 AM (lEejK)

99 Funniest novel in my experience? NO, not A Confederacy of Dunces. It's Red Sky at Morning by Richad Bradford.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:09 AM (c6xtn)
*
Hundred per cent!
Posted by: Fox 2! at October 09, 2022

***
Probably the funniest laugh-out-loud scene in literature.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:34 AM (c6xtn)

100 Reading about German aviation in WW I. Some of the most colorful flying machines ever. Not tactical, but audacious.

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 09:35 AM (gktX6)

101 I love the Serge Storm books by Tim Dorsey.

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 09, 2022 09:35 AM (BRHaw)

102 The Willard Library reminds me of a less Gothic version of the local public library when I was a kid. It was a great place to be introduced to the wonder of books. Wood floors, bannisters and other decorations that had seen a century of polish. Dark stone exterior and some stained glass windows. Every nook and cranny filed with book shelves. In the 60s it was replaced by some soulless glass and concrete 'modern' library that had the appeal and aesthetic value of a dead armadillo.

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

103 Are you feeling okay today, or are you still off your meds ?
Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:26 AM (T4tVD)

Got back on the meds after the pic you posted yesterday. Feelin' finer'n frog hair in the springtime today.

Thanks for asking.

Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 09:35 AM (cTCuP)

104 There's so much pumpkiin-spice stuff around right now I keep expecting a band of Portugese adventurers to capture Starbucks.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:35 AM (QZxDR)

105 When Cortez destroyed Tenochtitlan his army was 90 percent Mexican. Apparently all the tribes who weren't Aztecs looked at the weird, gold-obsessed aliens and said, "Well, at least they're not THOSE guys."
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:31 AM (QZxDR)

The Black Legend is pervasive, and I never think that greed was NOT a motivator. But maybe, just maybe they looked around at Aztec society and said 'The guys have created Hell on Earth. We have to destroy them. Plus, we might get rich on the way.'

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:35 AM (dNqv+)

106 The scene in The Hot Rock where one of the thieves accidentally traps himself inside the plexiglass case is hilarious.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (Dc2NZ)

Used to work at a place that wanted your favorite movie on your name tag. I was thinking of The Hot Rock, but someone else already had it. So, I went with The Blue Max.

You can see them building the twin towers in the movie....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:36 AM (7bRMQ)

107 I look at 'these pants' and have to wonder: "Why bother?" It's not like modesty was a concern in their design. I hope the model was well paid for looking so stupid in public.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 09:37 AM (7EjX1)

108 One of my favorite knee slapper books is "The C Programming Language by Kernighan & Ritchie". It is loopy at times. At other times it is pointers.
Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022

***
If you laugh every time you read it, no doubt it's recursive, too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:37 AM (c6xtn)

109 I'm also trying to get my students to develop two good habits for success in college: 1) Show up to class and 2) Do the work.

Perfessor" Squirrel

This is a white, patriarchal construct that has no place in a post-modern society.

You lack of inclusivity and respect for others is a clear indication that your outmoded indoctrination techniques have been superseded by a much more caring and progressive pedagogy.

You should be ashamed.

Posted by: Alex Sikorsky-Mitchell PhD at October 09, 2022 09:37 AM (XIJ/X)

110 I like the pimp hat. Why no pimp hat?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 09, 2022 09:37 AM (7NKxb)

111 Picture 3-foot teddy bears with twin guns sagging almost to the ground, hats with brims bigger than their shoulders, and all talking with a cowboy drawl. . . .
=====

Ewoks have a long and celebrated history.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 09, 2022 09:38 AM (MIKMs)

112 The Aztec religion looks almost like it was designed to send devout Christians into a murderous rage. It's got some striking similarities . . . but all twisted into nightmare. The friars and soldiers looked at it, looked at each other, nodded silently, and began wrecking the joint.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:38 AM (QZxDR)

113 It has been more years than I care to admit since I read Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr. At the time, I thought it was about the funniest book I had ever read.

Posted by: Oglebay at October 09, 2022 09:38 AM (wscPk)

114 > There's so much pumpkiin-spice stuff around right now I keep expecting a band of Portugese adventurers to capture Starbucks.

In "The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.", a time-travel book by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, there's a scene where Vikings raid one of the treasure hordes we call "Walmarts".

A reasonably amusing book, though not ranking among Stephenson's best. The sequel, by Galland alone, sucks ass. Pure wokism.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:38 AM (bW8dp)

115
* peeks in *
* observes commentators without pants *
* shakes head in amazement over the lack of respect for long-held traditions and rituals around here *

Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 09, 2022 09:38 AM (a3Q+t)

116 I like the pimp hat. Why no pimp hat?
Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 09, 2022 09:37 AM (7NKxb)
---
"Huggy" only wears the pimp hat when he's pimping Books By Morons (or a Featured Moron Review, which will be next week!)...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 09:39 AM (K5n5d)

117 @72 --

From what I have read, Asprin did the first two Phule's Company books on his own, and the remaining four were done with a co-author and aren't much good.

I wish I had read that before I shelled out for all six in one lot. I haven't touched the last four.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 09:40 AM (Om/di)

118 Has anyone read the Robin Hobb series? I've come upon two favorable mentions this week, besides the Perfessor, but haven't read any of his stuff.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 09:40 AM (7EjX1)

119 Would it be better from a non- proton mail account or as a different kind of file (not docx)?
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM (2xlV3)

I think rtf is considered safer than docx and is readable by other apps (i.e. LibreOffice).

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 09, 2022 09:40 AM (PiwSw)

120 Overstated. Sorry, it's one of my pet peeves.
Posted by: Archimedes at October 09, 2022 09:02 AM (ayzS/)
===
We approve this message

Posted by: Grammar nazis Kollectiv at October 09, 2022 09:40 AM (7NKxb)

121 It has been more years than I care to admit since I read Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr. At the time, I thought it was about the funniest book I had ever read.
Posted by: Oglebay at October 09, 2022

***
The Mickey Spillane parody is a classic.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:41 AM (c6xtn)

122 I've read Three Men on a Bummel.

Not as good as the previous book. But, good enough.

Of more...what? Sociological?Historical? Interest cuz it about a bike trip in Germany.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 09, 2022 09:41 AM (KLPy8)

123 Great thread, Perfessor, thanks again.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at October 09, 2022 09:41 AM (5pTK/)

124 Got back on the meds after the pic you posted yesterday. Feelin' finer'n frog hair in the springtime today.

Thanks for asking.
Posted by: creeper

You're blaming ME ?

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:41 AM (T4tVD)

125 Currently reading “ The Fate of the Apostles” by Sean McDowell. A bit of a slog but still immensely interesting. If you like a multitude of footnotes, this book is for you. Unfortunately for my wallet, the footnotes are leading me to many other interesting books. After twenty years as a cop it doesn’t faze me how utterly cruel people can be, but during the time of the Apostles it was routine. The fear of the newly forming Christian faith scared those in power who believed it had to crushed in its infancy.

Posted by: RetsgtRN at October 09, 2022 09:41 AM (ApZWy)

126 It is kinda hard to see a culture that sacrifices and otherwise mutilates children as "good guys."
Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 09:29 AM (i3yPZ)

I am talking about the popular conception of them when even I was a kid where they were contrasted vs the Aztecs and the Mayans.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:31 AM (dNqv+)

Yes, I understand. Propaganda is generally an effective tool, and what lingers after the fact is usually the version created by the "winners."

Decades from now, for example, it's possible the world will still be viewing the Russians as the bad guys of '22, and the Ukes and the U.S. as the good guys.

They shouldn't, but they might.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 09:42 AM (i3yPZ)

127 Hungary and Russia for one, er, two.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:21 AM (7bRMQ)

Doesn't Malaysia have a warrant out for him as well? Britain *should* after he thanked them for taking him in after the war by crashing their economy.

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

128 > of the treasure hordes

Gah! "Hoard". I do know the difference, though my fingers apparently do not in the current pre-caffeinated state.

Probably they're used to typing "horde" on this site in specific.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:42 AM (bW8dp)

129 I think rtf is considered safer than docx and is readable by other apps (i.e. LibreOffice).
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes,

Thanks!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 09:42 AM (2xlV3)

130 Umm, so I actually edited it again. Can I send the final to you?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM (2xlV3)

Oh, so you've done that too?

"Here's the latest." Send. "Wait a minute."

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:43 AM (7bRMQ)

131 Oh! Oh! Oh! More humor!

The Retief stories!

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 09:44 AM (Om/di)

132 It has been more years than I care to admit since I read Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr. At the time, I thought it was about the funniest book I had ever read.
=====

Bombeck and Kerr are very good, but for the literary 'chops' nobody is better than Shirley Jackson.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 09, 2022 09:44 AM (MIKMs)

133 "Huggy" only wears the pimp hat when he's pimping Books By Morons (or a Featured Moron Review, which will be next week!)...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 09:39 AM (K5n5d)
===
May your pimp hand be strong

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 09, 2022 09:44 AM (7NKxb)

134 Last week, Castle Guy remembered I vaugely remember a book that sound similar: most aliens had an intense aversion to killing, to the point where they would freeze up and die rather than fight back. The aliens were surprised that even ordinary Humans had the capacity for violence in self-defense, and had a relatively easy time training up for actual soldiery. The writer pinned this on Earth's fragmented geography, contrasted with a pangea-esque homeland for most aliens.

Sounds like John Ringo's Posleen series. The first book being A Hymn Before Battle.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 09:44 AM (iZEhM)

135 61 With all due respect and cringing sycophancy --

Where is Terry Pratchett in your laugh-out-loud authors?
________________

That's what I was wondering. One of the best and funniest fantasy writers on the planet, taken from us far too soon. I've been reading and re-reading his stuff for years.

Posted by: TB at October 09, 2022 09:44 AM (Ur3df)

136 94 The collection of short stories about the Hoka people by Poul Anderson and Gordon Lightfoot are delightful. The Hoka are an alien race that look to humans like 3-foot-tall teddy bears, and they are very imitative. Very. So human cultures they encounter get copied, like the Trek "Piece of the Action" story. The first story shows them having copied an American Wild West movie. Picture 3-foot teddy bears with twin guns sagging almost to the ground, hats with brims bigger than their shoulders, and all talking with a cowboy drawl. . . .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM

Oh, for the Love of Life Orchestra. Gordon DICKSON, my beast-brother. The closest Gordon Lightfoot got to a Hoka story was his lovely little ballad-lullaby, "Pony Man." And yes, I love the Hoka stories and wish there were more of them.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 09, 2022 09:44 AM (SPNTN)

137 I've been reading Cedar Sanderson's books, and really enjoying them. The four books starting with Pixie Noir is what I'm reading now. The premise is that the high court of the fae "Underhill" needs a queen, and the ideal candidate is a young woman living in Alaska who is more than she seems. The pixie sent to fetch her to court winds up falling in love with her and they engage in various adventures.

Highly recommended, for people who like fantasy.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 09:45 AM (iZEhM)

138 The intriguing-looking Western from 1957 The Tall T is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. This makes it even more intriguing.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:46 AM (c6xtn)

139 > Doesn't Malaysia have a warrant out for him as well?

As I noted above, I believe Malaysia has him charged with a capital crime.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:46 AM (bW8dp)

140
Oh, for the Love of Life Orchestra. Gordon DICKSON, my beast-brother. The closest Gordon Lightfoot got to a Hoka story was his lovely little ballad-lullaby, "Pony Man." And yes, I love the Hoka stories and wish there were more of them.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 09, 2022

***
Dickson, of course. Dunno what I was thinking!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:47 AM (c6xtn)

141 Last I heard, there was a warrant out for his arrest in his native Hungary. Personally, I wish the Israelis would take him out as they've done so many other terror masters, but I guess the rules are different in the case of financial terror.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 09, 2022 09:19 AM (SPNTN)

Malaysia doesn't have an arrest warrant for Soros; they have a death warrant filled out, just lacking time and place of execution of sentence.

Posted by: Fox 2! at October 09, 2022 09:47 AM (5Oamx)

142 @119: Has anyone read the Robin Hobb series?

She's got several. The Assassin series is good, though occasionally dark. the first time I read the 3rd book, I apparently missed a lot. it seemed to be full of non-sequiturs and just didn't make sense. The second time around it was a lot better.

Posted by: yara at October 09, 2022 09:47 AM (dm0H7)

143 I look at 'these pants' and have to wonder: "Why bother?" It's not like modesty was a concern in their design. I hope the model was well paid for looking so stupid in public.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 09:37 AM (7EjX1)

Who's stupider, the model, or a woman who actually buys and wears it?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 09:48 AM (7bRMQ)

144 I'm still traipsing my way through Willard Sterne Randall's excellent "Unshackling America: How the War of 1812 Truly Ended the American Revolution". He does a thorough job of cataloging the grievances leading up to the War of Independence.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:48 AM (Dc2NZ)

145 Bombeck and Kerr are very good, but for the literary 'chops' nobody is better than Shirley Jackson.
Posted by: mustbequantum at October 09, 2022

***
Jackson's two books about her real-life family, Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages, are both very funny.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:48 AM (c6xtn)

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

I don't like Nodwick because Piffany isn't "good" she's *stupid* and thus clueless as to the evil done by her companions as long as they don't do it in front of her. Gave me a bad taste.

I, and (late, first husaband) John liked Dork Tower by John Kovalik who also worked on a couple of the Cheap Ass games. Unfortunately, Kovalik started putting in political jabs in later compilations so we quit getting them.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 09:49 AM (nC+QA)

147 Clearing out some bookshelves here at the compound. My youngest is getting rid of some childhood favorites. I picked a Doc Savage volume out of the pile, thinking to rescue it, and re-read it. It's a compilation of the first two Doc stories.

I'm not keeping it.

You can't go home again, and I'm not ten years old any more. The flaws I could ignore back then now outweigh the virtues.

Ah, well. At least that frees up some shelf space.

One amusing note: this volume reprints the original cover illustrations, and it's interesting to see how originally Doc was just a well-built guy with red hair and a tan. Over time the artwork made him more and more iconic and distinctive. I think I like the original better.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:49 AM (QZxDR)

148 Gordie Howe > Gordon Cooper > Gordon Dickson > Gordon Lightfoot > Commissioner Gordon.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:49 AM (bW8dp)

149 Like Eris' Lovecraft opening comment. I love those 'dim echoes of the murky and horrific past' passages from Lovecraft, Clarke Ashton Smith, and Howard.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 09:50 AM (7EjX1)

150 135 Last week, Castle Guy remembered I vaugely remember a book that sound similar: most aliens had an intense aversion to killing, to the point where they would freeze up and die rather than fight back. The aliens were surprised that even ordinary Humans had the capacity for violence in self-defense, and had a relatively easy time training up for actual soldiery. The writer pinned this on Earth's fragmented geography, contrasted with a pangea-esque homeland for most aliens.

Sounds like John Ringo's Posleen series. The first book being A Hymn Before Battle.
Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 09:44 AM (iZEhM)

That was a terrific book.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:50 AM (Dc2NZ)

151 Wolfus > I chose that story for some sort of oral requirement in high school and couldn't get through it Every time I looked up I'd catch a classmate's eye and we would start giggling.

Posted by: Oglebay at October 09, 2022 09:51 AM (wscPk)

152 Greetings:

Comanches, you say...

I got started with Fehrenbach's "Comanches: The History of a People" way back when. [Recently retitled: "Comanches: The Destruction of a People" for you know why].

Recently, "The Comanche Empire" by Pekka Halinanaen whose "Lakota America" is also very worthwhile.

For some East Coast learning, "A Brave and Cunning Prince" by Jim Ford about the transfer of ownership of the Chesapeake Bay Area.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 09, 2022 09:52 AM (uuklp)

153 Breaking: The Old Farmer's Almanac for 2023 is out. Perfect reading material for the "throne room" library shelf.
Posted by: mindful webworker - YouTube cancelled my YT channel at October 09, 2022 09:28 AM (0DreI)
----

Are we in for a hard winter? I kinda feel we are.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:52 AM (Dc2NZ)

154 Which POWER OF HABIT are you referring to, Perfessor? Because Amazon has several.

Posted by: Wenda at October 09, 2022 09:53 AM (E5ut8)

155 @147 --

Polliwog, me too. (In regard to Kovalic.)

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 09:53 AM (Om/di)

156 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:32 AM (c6xtn)

*Loved* that book/world when I read it. Need to find a copy.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 09:53 AM (nC+QA)

157 Don’t Mess With Travis by Bob Smiley
A humorous and kinda possible take on Texas rebelling against the feds. A Roman a clef written during the Obama presidency and the major personalities during that time. Still holds up well.

Posted by: 42 at October 09, 2022 09:53 AM (jH2ol)

158 I read a book several years ago called The Captured by Scott Zesch, who grew up in Mason, Texas. He was helping his grandmother weed the cemetery one day and saw a grave with her family name on it set apart from the others and asked about it. She said it was her great-uncle Adolph Korn and they didn't talk about him because he had been captured by Comanches. After his rescue, he kept running back to them because he didn't want to be white anymore. Apparently, this was the case with many captives who were adopted into the Comanche tribes. The life they led was preferable to the endless work that children of the German immigrants of Central Texas were expected to do.

Posted by: huerfano, stochastic commenter at October 09, 2022 09:54 AM (dTFZY)

159 Tony Horowitz is one of my favorite humor writers.
He writes non-fiction from an investigative perspective, by spending a lot of time with his subject. A good book to start with is "Confederates in the Attic", in which he spends a year hanging out with Civil War re-enactors, going to the various "battles". Hilarity ensues.

Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022 09:54 AM (jTmQV)

160 What are some YOUR go-to books/stories/comics for just plain silliness? Here are some of mine:

Asterix series of comics by Goscinny and Uderzo

Bloom County by Berke Breathed

Unfortunately Berke Breathed decided to start Bloom County a few years ago.
Ruined my childhood. I can't stand him anymore. I had the bajillion dollar all encompasing collection of his comics. Shirts, Tableware, everything. Donated them to the local battered womens shelter to sell.

I had no idea he was such a whiney ass liberal.

Posted by: Reforger at October 09, 2022 09:54 AM (ie4Do)

161 Simon R Green. He has a few series. Deathstalker. Blue Moon Rising. I am not sure I would call them 'light' but they have quite a bit of humor. If you like old school manly virtues and simple stories of good men with noble ideals holding out (and sometimes losing) in the face of overwhelming odds, they are good stuff. I need to reread them.

Side note: in the Deathstalker books at least, he has a fascination with the Event Horizon/Ghost Ship set up for story ideas. Good stuff.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:55 AM (dNqv+)

162 Are we in for a hard winter? I kinda feel we are.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 09:52 AM (Dc2NZ)

Word is, we have a couple dueling El Ninos (or El Ninas) coming, so it looks like hard winter is on the menu.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 09:55 AM (i3yPZ)

163 Breaking: The Old Farmer's Almanac for 2023 is out. Perfect reading material for the "throne room" library shelf.
Posted by: mindful webworker - YouTube cancelled my YT channel

Makes ya wonder how many old Almanacs have poop on them.....

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:55 AM (T4tVD)

164 Which POWER OF HABIT are you referring to, Perfessor? Because Amazon has several.
Posted by: Wenda at October 09, 2022 09:53 AM (E5ut

---
I'm not entirely sure...Secret Squirrel didn't include the author's name in his recommendation...But the point still stands that we all need to work on developing positive habits, even though it can be a lot of work...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 09:55 AM (K5n5d)

165 It was always interesting when a TV series usually dramatic in nature took a side step into comedy or satire. Trek had several. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had almost an entire and silly season of TV-Batman-style camp stories. X-Files did it several times, I think, and Route 66 at least once.

Even Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which normally mixed some humor into even its darkest stories, took time for a comedy tale now and then. "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered," from their Season Two, features regular character Xander bedeviled by a love spell gone wrong. *All* the women he encounters, except the one he wants to love him, adore him to the point they are willing to kill for him -- including him! The script takes the idea to the logical and funny-horrifying extreme: Even a female vampire is besotted with him.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:55 AM (c6xtn)

166 Checked into the Commanche book. Sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the reviews are dominated by complaints of PC/Leftwing bias. Please be more discerning in your reader-suggested books.

Posted by: Trolling Jingo Uke-Biden-Bots for fun and profit at October 09, 2022 09:56 AM (sqqpJ)

167 Posted by: Oglebay at October 09, 2022 09:38 AM (wscPk)

Is it at all like the movie?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 09:56 AM (nC+QA)

168 Are we in for a hard winter? I kinda feel we are.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

Concur.

We got away easy last winter.

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:57 AM (T4tVD)

169 I find Patrick F. McManus to be laugh out loud funny. My mother told me about his books, which are just collections of his articles.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 09:58 AM (iZEhM)

170 Florence King was always a good fun read on politics back in the heady days of the early internet.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 09:58 AM (dNqv+)

171 I've also been grinding my way through a big fat book called _The Age of Decadence_ by Simon Heffer. It's a history of Britain in the late Victorian and Edwardian era. The title is kind of misleading -- it wasn't so much an age of decadence as an age that worried a lot about decadence. (Also the author never really defines "decadence" very clearly.)

Lots of inside-baseball stuff about Irish Home Rule and the Boer War. (That has to be the most pointless conflict in history: the Brits fought the Boers in two wars, spend thousands of lives and millions of pounds, in order to force them to join in a unified South Africa -- which promptly became a Boer-dominated state for the next century. Only our war against the Taliban can compare.)

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:58 AM (QZxDR)

172 Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:58 AM (QZxDR)

You see Chesterton referring to 'The Decadence' a couple times in his stuff. They were obsessed with History and looking for signs of the fall of Rome in themselves.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 10:00 AM (dNqv+)

173 I hate to spill the beans, but Berke Breathed was a whiny-ass liberal back in the 1980s, too.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 10:00 AM (QZxDR)

174 Pat McManus was one of the few writers who could make me laugh so hard that I shook.

Poor Mr. Muldoon.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 10:00 AM (Om/di)

175 Malaysia doesn't have an arrest warrant for Soros; they have a death warrant filled out, just lacking time and place of execution of sentence.

Posted by: Fox 2! at October 09, 2022 09:47 AM (5Oamx)

Sounds like a money making opportunity for someone. Wonder why no one's tried?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 10:00 AM (7bRMQ)

176 "After his rescue, he kept running back to them because he didn't want to be white anymore."

This was a known thing all over North America.
There are some very sad stories, like the girl, captured as a child by the Commanches, who killed her parents. Her uncle recaptured her from the tribe years later, when she was an adult. He placed her in a cabin in Texas where she spent the rest of her life sobbing uncontrollably.

Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022 10:01 AM (jTmQV)

177 Even Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which normally mixed some humor into even its darkest stories, took time for a comedy tale now and then. "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered," from their Season Two, features regular character Xander bedeviled by a love spell gone wrong. *All* the women he encounters, except the one he wants to love him, adore him to the point they are willing to kill for him -- including him! The script takes the idea to the logical and funny-horrifying extreme: Even a female vampire is besotted with him.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:55 AM (c6xtn)

There's a scene in perhaps their most famous episode, "The Gentlemen," where the team is gathering to determine how to combat the weird smiling guys. Giles has a slide projector, with crude drawings on them, and at the point where he's looking for suggestions as to how to deal with them, Buffy makes a gesture, as if to say use her staking skills to kill them. Except it doesn't look like she's gripping a stake.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 10:02 AM (i3yPZ)

178 I've been expecting a hard winter, too. Built up an extra-big pile of firewood this summer in anticipation.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 10:02 AM (QZxDR)

179 I acquired a copy of Paths Without Glory, the story of Sir Richard Francis Burton in Africa. What a fascinating man he was.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 09, 2022 10:03 AM (mlGCW)

180 It was always interesting when a TV series usually dramatic in nature took a side step into comedy or satire. Trek had several. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had almost an entire and silly season of TV-Batman-style camp stories. X-Files did it several times, I think, and Route 66 at least once.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:55 AM (c6xtn)
----
I've noticed a lot of TV shows did that right before they'd take their main story arc into a new, darker direction...They'd give you a lighter, fluffier episode just before things took a turn for the much, much worse...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 10:03 AM (K5n5d)

181 Seems like the humor might be a bit uneven. One might even call it variable.

(void) c_puns;

Posted by: Oddbob at October 09, 2022 10:03 AM (nfrXX)

182 I was always taught (Okla History in HS) that the "Five Civilized Tribes" were that, and we mistreated them. The Cherokees have made a whole industry of the "Trail of Tears". In doing genealogy, I learned that Benge, a celebrated Cherokee (in fact a street is named for him in Muskogee Okla) murdered my relatives in an attack on their settlement in Moccasin Gap Virginia in 1794.

Posted by: Susan D Harms at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (FDFdw)

183 how the Comanche fought: torture, rape, more torture, more rape...

-
He said torture rape twice. He likes torture rape.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (FVME7)

184 Late to comment, but I also read the Gwynne book about Quanah Parker and the Comanches ... nope, didn't pull any punches about them. Neither did TH Fehrenbach's book about the Comanches, either. One of the things that Fehrenbach hinted at, rather delicately, is that the Comanche war party's penchant for gang-raping female prisoners might have lead to the diminishment of their own population over time. Syphilis and gonorrhea were endemic in those areas of northern Mexico where they liked to raid. One woman captive with an active case, gang-raped by her captors, who then brought it home to their own camp... that probably happened dozens of times, if not more. Do the math. Life was hard enough for hunter-warrior tribes anyway. Low fertility rates among their women, and child mortality kept their numbers low, and so adopting child captives into the tribe was a necessity.

For this week's reading, I am about halfway through Kenneth Robert's Lydia Bailey, which was recommended a couple of weeks ago by a contributor at Chicagoboyz.

For escapist humor - maybe my own Luna City series?

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (xnmPy)

185 Gordie Howe > Gordon Cooper > Gordon Dickson > Gordon Lightfoot > Commissioner Gordon.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 09, 2022 09:49 AM (bW8dp)

Gordon Solie > Gordie Howe > Gordon Cooper > Gordon Dickson > Gordon Lightfoot > Commissioner Gordon.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (7bRMQ)

186 Highly recommended, for people who like fantasy.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 09:45 AM (iZEhM)

I've enjoyed the two I've read. Hadn't realized there were four in the series now.

In that vein, Margaret Ball's Department of Applied Topology series is another fairly humorous series by a commentor at Sarah Hoyt's blog.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (nC+QA)

187 He placed her in a cabin in Texas where she spent the rest of her life sobbing uncontrollably.
Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon

No TV ?

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (T4tVD)

188 So much great content. Thanks.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at October 09, 2022 10:05 AM (d9Cw3)

189 Berke Breathed was always a lib, but he took potshots at everyone back in the day.

I'm curious if he's doing so now, after the last two years.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 10:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

190 He placed her in a cabin in Texas where she spent the rest of her life sobbing uncontrollably.
Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon

No TV ?
Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (T4tVD)

Took away her phone, apparently.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 09, 2022 10:06 AM (i3yPZ)

191 After his rescue, he kept running back to them because he didn't want to be white anymore."

This was a known thing all over North America.
There are some very sad stories, like the girl, captured as a child by the Commanches, who killed her parents. Her uncle recaptured her from the tribe years later, when she was an adult. He placed her in a cabin in Texas where she spent the rest of her life sobbing uncontrollably.
Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022

***
That sounds familiar. Quanah Parker's white mother, who'd been raised from a child by the Comanches, kept wanting to run back to them, and fell into a terrible depression. Was that her? Though I don't recall his mother having killed her white parents.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:06 AM (c6xtn)

192 A funny book that doesn't poach a famous one or rewrite it, but instead visits the same world and floats alongside, is To Say Nothing of the Dog. It is very much a companion to the book it references, Three Men in a Boat and some of the jokes in TSNotD are made much funnier if you know TMiaB.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of the VERY few time-travel SF stories I enjoy. It features wittty banter, the true nature of cats, foggy Oxford professors, and boats

And True Love!

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 09, 2022 10:06 AM (BbSpR)

193 (void) c_puns;
Posted by: Oddbob

For the win!

Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 10:06 AM (/qNGG)

194 Thomas Packenham wrote the definitive book on the Boer War, in fact that is the title. He also wrote The Scramble for Africa, which is an outstanding book as well.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 09, 2022 10:06 AM (Yjt25)

195 Gordon Solie > Gordie Howe > Gordon Cooper > Gordon Dickson > Gordon Lightfoot > Commissioner Gordon.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022

***
Barbara Gordon as played by Yvonne Craig tops them all

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:07 AM (c6xtn)

196 One of my favorite book reviews of all time, in its entirety:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: "This wasn't nearly as funny as everybody says it is."

Posted by: cool breeze at October 09, 2022 10:07 AM (UGKMd)

197 Who names their kid Quana ?

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 10:08 AM (T4tVD)

198 Why all the dislike for Jim Gordon?

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 10:08 AM (Om/di)

199 174 I hate to spill the beans, but Berke Breathed was a whiny-ass liberal back in the 1980s, too.
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 10:00 AM (QZxDR)

I mistook it for Satire. Live and learn.

Posted by: Reforger at October 09, 2022 10:08 AM (Af01Z)

200 > Polli

I did not know there was a movie - I am going to check it out

Posted by: Oglebay at October 09, 2022 10:09 AM (wscPk)

201 197 One of my favorite book reviews of all time, in its entirety:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: "This wasn't nearly as funny as everybody says it is."
Posted by: cool breeze at October 09, 2022 10:07 AM (UGKMd)

Heh. Post apocalyptic worlds are not near as fun as you get from later Fallout. Hell, the earlier version of Fallout always had a harsh edge to them before they were turned into theme park games.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 10:09 AM (dNqv+)

202 I've noticed a lot of TV shows did that right before they'd take their main story arc into a new, darker direction...They'd give you a lighter, fluffier episode just before things took a turn for the much, much worse...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022

***
You're right. The BtVS story I mention about the love spell gone wrong preceded the most powerful (IMO) episode of them all, "Passion," in which we find out what a monster Angelus the vampire really was, and is.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:09 AM (c6xtn)

203 Dave Barry wrote 2 novels: Big Trouble and Tricky Business.

They were BOTH absolute screams. I've read each of them several times.

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

204 Greetings:

Awash as we seem to be among Amerindians today, perhaps a mention of the U...S... Cav...al...ry is in order.

A favorite of mine, Ranald Slidell MacKenzie, biographied in "Bad Hand", had an interesting life on the Plains doing to those who needed to be done.

His career is somewhat followed in the John Ford/John Wayne movie "Rio Grande" although without any mention or credit.

Also in regard to humor, watched "Shanghai Noon" last night. Apparently only nice Indians applied.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 09, 2022 10:10 AM (uuklp)

205 Who names their kid Quana ?
Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022

***
Qiana would be worse. Imagine being named after an artificial fabric that everybody hated.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:11 AM (c6xtn)

206 Don't feel bad; I've never read a booj either !
Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (T4tVD)

*squints balefully at JT*

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 10:11 AM (2xlV3)

207 Sorry, my run on sentence would defy a diagram...
The book with the tale is "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne
And yes, the story is of Qanah Parker.

Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022 10:11 AM (jTmQV)

208 I'm all in on the aforementioned love of Terry Pratchett for a great read and lots of laughs. I'm making my way through my third trip to Discworld.

Posted by: pawn at October 09, 2022 10:11 AM (wsHtO)

209 You're right. The BtVS story I mention about the love spell gone wrong preceded the most powerful (IMO) episode of them all, "Passion," in which we find out what a monster Angelus the vampire really was, and is.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:09 AM (c6xtn)

Buffy was odd and very much like that. The fifth season was pretty damn dark (one reason I do not like it that much), but I always liked the flashback episode for Spike where Buffy asks/demands him to tell her how he defeated two different Slayers. It is an interesting character study.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at October 09, 2022 10:12 AM (dNqv+)

210 Hell, even the 'good guy' Incans sacrificed children.
Posted by: Aetius451AD

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Posted by: Hillary Clinton, Patty Murray and the Baby Killer Krew at October 09, 2022 10:12 AM (FVME7)

211 Posted by: Oglebay at October 09, 2022 10:09 AM (wscPk)

Well, there's a movie with the same name at least. I didn't know there was a book.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 10:12 AM (nC+QA)

212 Oh, and I've read Scott Zesch's book about his great-great uncle, captured by the Comanches. The book was also about another ten or so child captives, who never really adjusted when they were returned to their families. I think he selected the examples to support his theory about the kids preferring the wild and free life of an Indian to the drudgery on the farms. There were other child captives in that part of Texas who were retrieved by families, and who were very grateful to have been returned to them - including one young girl who was grabbed by Comanche raiders (who killed and scalped her older sister) just outside of Fredericksburg at the end of the Civil War - she spent a year with them, and eventually managed to run away, find help and return to her family.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 09, 2022 10:12 AM (xnmPy)

213 What about Al Franken books? Nobody has mentioned him. They are funny, right?

Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 10:13 AM (/qNGG)

214 Don't feel bad; I've never read a booj either !
Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:27 AM (T4tVD)

*squints balefully at JT*
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 10:13 AM (T4tVD)

215 Sabrina, while reading "The Whisperer in Darkness", in which the recently discovered Pluto (or Yuggoth, as it is known to the Old Ones) is an alien outpost, I thought about how it's often a staging ground used by evil aliens ("The Secret of the Ninth Planet"). Or an FTL spaceship, as in "The Scent of Metal"!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 10:14 AM (Dc2NZ)

216 Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 09, 2022 10:06 AM (BbSpR)

Did you say recently that you had a new book out? Or maybe it was just that you were working on one? Seems like my memory isn't what it once was.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 10:14 AM (nC+QA)

217 Don't feel bad; I've never read a booj either !
Posted by: JT

But have you ever dated a booj?

Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 10:14 AM (/qNGG)

218 I've noticed a lot of TV shows did that right before they'd take their main story arc into a new, darker direction...They'd give you a lighter, fluffier episode just before things took a turn for the much, much worse...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 10:03 AM (K5n5d)

Yeah, wonder where they got that idea from?

Posted by: Greek Playwrights at October 09, 2022 10:15 AM (7bRMQ)

219 196 Gordon Solie > Gordie Howe > Gordon Cooper > Gordon Dickson > Gordon Lightfoot > Commissioner Gordon.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022

***
Barbara Gordon as played by Yvonne Craig tops them all
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:07 AM (c6xtn)

This list is missing a rather famous Gordon.

Posted by: Gordon Sumner at October 09, 2022 10:16 AM (PiwSw)

220 Sabrina, while reading "The Whisperer in Darkness", in which the recently discovered Pluto (or Yuggoth, as it is known to the Old Ones) is an alien outpost, I thought about how it's often a staging ground used by evil aliens ("The Secret of the Ninth Planet"). Or an FTL spaceship, as in "The Scent of Metal"!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 10:14 AM (Dc2NZ)
----
When you mentioned Pluto, it occurred to me that because we have now "seen" it (via space probes), it has lost a lot of its mystery...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 10:16 AM (K5n5d)

221 But have you ever dated a booj?
Posted by: Lost In Space

NOPE !

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 10:17 AM (T4tVD)

222 214 What about Al Franken books? Nobody has mentioned him. They are funny, right?
Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 10:13 AM (/qNGG)

They'll grab ya.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 09, 2022 10:17 AM (PiwSw)

223 Perf, I think the fly-by reignited interest in Pluto, once thought of as a dead rock. It's still geologically active and has a wafffer-thin atmosphere.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 10:18 AM (Dc2NZ)

224 No TV ?

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM (T4tVD)

Worse, continuous loop of Barry O and Hillary speeches.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 10:18 AM (7bRMQ)

225 133 ... "Bombeck and Kerr are very good, but for the literary 'chops' nobody is better than Shirley Jackson."

Jackson's "Life Among the Savages" and "Raising Demons" are both funny and have their poignant moments. I don't think they were meant to be humor books, per se, but raising kids in the 1950s certainly had their funny moments.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 10:19 AM (7EjX1)

226 the show's tone, alternated between whedon who was somewhat lighthearted and minnear who had a darker mien,

Posted by: no 6 at October 09, 2022 10:19 AM (PXvVL)

227 Polliwog the 'Ette I have *indeed* finished another book and am in the throes of writing another. I hope to start releasing the installments by the end of the year. It will be shorter sections but more frequent releases!

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 09, 2022 10:19 AM (BbSpR)

228 But have you ever dated a booj?
Posted by: Lost In Space

NOPE !
Posted by: JT

That is probably for the best. They are a race of people that mostly live in Malibu and Brentwood. So, I have heard.

Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 10:20 AM (/qNGG)

229 Barbara Gordon as played by Yvonne Craig tops them all

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:07 AM (c6xtn)

At once?!?

Isn't she a good sport!

Posted by: Bernaise at October 09, 2022 10:20 AM (7bRMQ)

230 Jackson's "Life Among the Savages" and "Raising Demons" are both funny and have their poignant moments. I don't think they were meant to be humor books, per se, but raising kids in the 1950s certainly had their funny moments.
Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022

***
Compared to the 2 pieces she's usually known for, "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House, they're pretty lighthearted.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:20 AM (c6xtn)

231 Ambrose Bierce wrote some truly outrageous tall tales. These are of course 19th century, so a rather different style and theme than found these days. Bierce is most noted for "The Devil's Dictionary" for those who like savage political satire. He also wrote some "horror", which is mostly on the lines of campfire stories and contain the first reference to "Hastur" who later features in Lovecraft and Robert Chambers, and Civil War short stories, which are the most horrifying tales I have ever read.

For fantasy and sci-fi humor, Robert Aspirin, the MythAdventures series and the Phule's Company series respectively. Absolutely hilarious, with double entendres and pop culture spoofs galore.

Posted by: Sam at October 09, 2022 10:21 AM (ohyxL)

232 I've read each of them several times.

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

Oh I see how it is...you read THEM!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 09, 2022 10:24 AM (XIJ/X)

233 Gordon Solie > Gordie Howe > Gordon Cooper > Gordon Dickson > Gordon Lightfoot > Commissioner Gordon.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022

***
Barbara Gordon as played by Yvonne Craig tops them all
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:07 AM (c6xtn)

Oh, how we wished she would!

Posted by: All the male Gordons at October 09, 2022 10:24 AM (4I/2K)

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

Peak funny from the US Government is the long range climate forecasts. The mid-part of the Prairie states are supposed to have a milder winter with less precipitation than normal. We shall see.

Terry Pratchett's Going Postal is quite funny and a heart-warming story in one.

I got Three Men in a Boat via ILL, and it was very funny.

Unmentioned so far is The Fallible Fiend by L. Sprague de Camp. Extremely funny. THebasic fish out of water story.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 09, 2022 10:24 AM (u82oZ)

235 Good morning!

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

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 09, 2022 10:25 AM (u82oZ)

236 Dickson, of course. Dunno what I was thinking!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 09:47 AM
_______________________

It's cool. Let those who have never passed a brainfart like this cast the first stone.

Posted by: TB at October 09, 2022 10:26 AM (Ur3df)

237 Ambrose Bierce wrote some truly outrageous tall tales. These are of course 19th century, so a rather different style and theme than found these days. Bierce is most noted for "The Devil's Dictionary" for those who like savage political satire. He also wrote some "horror", which is mostly on the lines of campfire stories and contain the first reference to "Hastur" who later features in Lovecraft and Robert Chambers, and Civil War short stories, which are the most horrifying tales I have ever read. . . .

Posted by: Sam at October 09, 2022

***
Bierce's stories often had a sting in the tail, a la what we remember best about Twilight Zone scripts and O. Henry short stories. His "The Damned Thing" is a kind of horror science fiction. There is a short story or novelette by Gerald Kersh called "The Oxoxoco Bottle" which stars Bierce as an older man and purports to explain how and where he vanished. Quite creepy, though not supernatural.

Speaking of Kersh: Harlan Ellison often lauded his short stories. I have only read a few, and my college library has very little by him. Would AbeBooks have some of his stuff?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 10:26 AM (c6xtn)

238 Awash as we seem to be among Amerindians today, perhaps a mention of the U...S... Cav...al...ry is in order.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 09, 2022 10:10 AM (uuklp)

The cavalry, the cavalry. Pony boys gettin' all the glory, but we're the one's who pacified them Injuns finally.

Posted by: The Walk-A-Heaps at October 09, 2022 10:28 AM (7bRMQ)

239 But have you ever dated a booj?
Posted by: Lost In Space

The dating life is not for me.

Posted by: Booji Boy at October 09, 2022 10:28 AM (4I/2K)

240 You're blaming ME ?
Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 09:41 AM (T4tVD)

Is there someone handier? You're always available.

Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 10:28 AM (cTCuP)

241 "Terry Pratchett's Going Postal is quite funny and a heart-warming story in one."

TP is a master of lampooning institutions and institutional belief.

I would recommend "Small Gods" as one of the best in this category. Plus it is downright funny as hell.

Posted by: pawn at October 09, 2022 10:30 AM (wsHtO)

242 Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 09, 2022 10:24 AM (u82oZ)

L Sprague de Camp's Unbeheaded King series is a magical look through the various types of government (de Camp was apparently no fan of communism). Was interesting when I first found it in high school and as an adult.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 10:30 AM (nC+QA)

243 Do I get an Honorable Mention in the list of Gordons?

Posted by: Geordi La Forge at October 09, 2022 10:33 AM (4I/2K)

244 A book I thought was funny is Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman. It is several of the Sherlock Holmes stories told from Moriarty's perspective by his right hand man, Col. Sebastian "Basher" Moran. Dark humor but humor none the less. Having liked that book so much, I read Newman's Anno Dracula expecting more of the same but it is more a full fledged horror novel about the world had Van Helsing et al. failed to kill Dracula. I quite liked it, too.

Posted by: Hillary Clinton, Patty Murray and the Baby Killer Krew at October 09, 2022 10:34 AM (FVME7)

245 Good morning 'ettes and 'rons.

Mrs. Secret Squirrel is going to walk the puppeh this morning, so I can finally contribute more than a fleeting paragraph.

Currently reading Robert Greene's "The Laws of Human Nature." I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. This guy has his finger on the psyche of most of humanity- and he damn sure has nailed America's collective mind. This is an important book on studying the people around you- what makes them tick, how they manipulate you, and how you can better yourself. There are numerous insightful passages in it- one I found very intriguing was the malaise many Americans find themselves in. His thesis is that all of our traditions have broken down- and this coupled with endless information pushes us into a death spiral. There are big takeaways on self improvement. You need to read this.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 09, 2022 10:35 AM (UMRCq)

246 This list is missing a rather famous Gordon.

Posted by: Gordon Sumner at October 09, 2022 10:16 AM (PiwSw)

You're right!

Posted by: Gordon of Khartoum at October 09, 2022 10:35 AM (7bRMQ)

247 Do I get an Honorable Mention in the list of Gordons?
Posted by: Geordi La Forge at October 09, 2022 10:33 AM (4I/2K)

Ummmmmmmm...No.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 09, 2022 10:36 AM (R/m4+)

248 Bierce is most noted for "The Devil's Dictionary"

-
As relevant today as when written.

Posted by: Hillary Clinton, Patty Murray and the Baby Killer Krew at October 09, 2022 10:36 AM (FVME7)

249 Do I get an Honorable Mention in the list of Gordons?
Posted by: Geordi La Forge at October 09, 2022 10:33 AM (4I/2K)
---
Judges?

BZZZZZ

Oooh, sorry...Thanks for playing!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 10:37 AM (K5n5d)

250 Finished reading Boyd- biography on COL John Boyd, father of the well known OODA Loop. This biography was also very insightful on several fronts- the military industrial complex, the Air Force bureaucracy, and Boyd's theories on warfare. I've now gone onto the intertubes to find his lectures on "Patterns of Conflict" and his long briefings on fighting and winning war. Boyd transitioned from fighter pilot to tactician- focusing on the human nature of war as an endeavor, and studies the examples of Sun Tzu, Alexander the Great and other successful warriors. He was scoffed at by the USAF- and embraced by the USMC. This is also worth a read.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 09, 2022 10:38 AM (UMRCq)

251 Morning all...

After finally putting up bookshelves and unloading umpteen boxes on to them. As a reward, I picked out an old chestnut: Noble House to read. Just as good as I remembered.

Finished that book, and now I'm on to Tom Clancy's "Without Remorse".

I'm attempting to re-kindle a habit of reading every day, and am using the re-reading of books I have enjoyed in the past to prime the pump.

Posted by: browndog Official Mascot of Team Gizzard at October 09, 2022 10:38 AM (BgMrQ)

252 Do I get an Honorable Mention in the list of Gordons?
Posted by: Geordi La Forge

What is it worth to you?

Posted by: Lost In Space at October 09, 2022 10:38 AM (/qNGG)

253 Jonathan Letham's "Motherless Brooklyn" was hysterical, laugh out loud funny.

Posted by: nurse ratched at October 09, 2022 10:39 AM (U2p+3)

254 Finally, I found a small, 90 page book titled "Guiding Principles for Leadership and Professional Success" by Danny Arnold and Ahmad Tootoonchi.

Usually, my first take on any leadership principles written by academics is to toss the book right away. But these guys have some incredibly insightful passages. I'm halfway through this, but I find it dead on for sound leadership principles. I happened upon this in my local library. If you are a leader, will be one, or want to understand the basic principles of leadership, read this book.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 09, 2022 10:41 AM (UMRCq)

255 Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

Is this the one?

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 09, 2022 10:42 AM (jwTnm)

256 Polliwog the 'Ette

Yes. I have that series by L. Sprague de Camp.

I think of it as wry humor and observations on political realities. I do like the basis for government.
Catch the head of the last government leader at a formal retirement beheading, and become the next leader of government, until you are beheaded in 5 years. The circle of government leadership.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 09, 2022 10:42 AM (u82oZ)

257 300+ pound woman dressed in camo just walked by. TIGHT camo. Like skin. Most people would not even notice her. Not me, I'm a hunter.

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 10:42 AM (/RDPd)

258 Most people would not even notice her. Not me, I'm a hunter.

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 10:42 AM (/RDPd)

When they're that big the meat is nasty.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 09, 2022 10:43 AM (XIJ/X)

259 Most people would not even notice her. Not me, I'm a hunter.

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 10:42 AM (/RDPd)

When they're that big the meat is nasty.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 09, 2022 10:43 AM (XIJ/X)
---
"Give me the meat and give it to me raw!"

Posted by: Durin IV at October 09, 2022 10:44 AM (K5n5d)

260 No? Well okay. I gotta run a Level 4 Diagnostic on the ship and then service and reconfigure the tachyon emitters. Reversing polarity all the time increases maintenance requirements.

Posted by: Geordi La Forge at October 09, 2022 10:45 AM (4I/2K)

261 Secret Squirrel,

Which The Power of Habit book do you recommend? Amazon lists several.

Posted by: Wenda at October 09, 2022 10:45 AM (E5ut8)

262 Some more funny books that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Superego by Frank J. Fleming. Fleming writes the blog IMAO and also writes for The Babylon Bee

Hallow Mass by the horde's own J.P. Mac

The Narrative by Deplora Boule

The entire Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser

Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome

Moscow to the End of the Line by Venedikt Erofeev

Posted by: cool breeze at October 09, 2022 10:46 AM (UGKMd)

263 CBD @ 259- won't fit in the cooker we used at the MudMoMe either.

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 10:46 AM (/RDPd)

264 Ka-ching!

Brit Hume@brithume
Quote: "The US Department of Homeland Security reports that the Mexican cartels’ income from smuggling illegal migrants into America has soared from $500 million in 2018 to $13 billion this year — up 2,500%."

Posted by: Hillary Clinton, Patty Murray and the Baby Killer Krew at October 09, 2022 10:47 AM (FVME7)

265 I've recently started reading biographies of various painters . Just completed a two volume book on Van Gogh that included his works. Starting on Caravaggio the Artist next.

Posted by: polynikes at October 09, 2022 10:47 AM (/+BsJ)

266 256 Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

Is this the one?
Posted by: Ignoramus at October 09, 2022 10:42 AM (jwTnm)

Yessir.

Wenda: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Paperback – January 7, 2014
by Charles Duhigg (Author)

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 09, 2022 10:47 AM (UMRCq)

267 300+ pound woman dressed in camo just walked by. TIGHT camo. Like skin. Most people would not even notice her. Not me, I'm a hunter.

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 10:42 AM (/RDPd)

Hence, the camo.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 10:47 AM (7bRMQ)

268 Nice sunny day here. Think I'll read on the porch.

Later, my literary taters.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 09, 2022 10:47 AM (Dc2NZ)

269 Agree on Superego, cool breeze!

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 10:48 AM (/RDPd)

270 The source of Dr. Jill's fashion sense.

https://bit.ly/3yrMkom

Posted by: Hillary Clinton, Patty Murray and the Baby Killer Krew at October 09, 2022 10:49 AM (FVME7)

271 Another author who is funny is Betty MacDonald. She wrote autobiographically

The Egg and I - Getting married to a young banker who decided to to into chicken ranching
Anyone Can Do Anything - After her divorce, doing her best to scrape along in Depression Era Seattle with her advertising executive sister Mary,
The Plague and I - Surviving TB in a pre-antibiotic TB hospital
Onions in the Stew - Living with her daughters and new husband on Vashon Island

Betty got into writing because her sister, Mary, told a literary agent that she was writing a book. Betty was not writing a book, but because she had nothing better going, she decided to write The Egg and I which made her millions.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2022 10:50 AM (xhaym)

272 232
Posted by: Sam at October 09, 2022 10:21 AM (ohyxL)

Ambrose Bierce has a missing travel trunk that would be awesome to find. He left it to his niece but she never got it and he disappeared in Mexico.

That dude even ripped into his boss. Hearst. He let nobody off the hook.

Posted by: Reforger at October 09, 2022 10:52 AM (Af01Z)

273 Ambrose Bierce has a missing travel trunk that would be awesome to find. He left it to his niece but she never got it and he disappeared in Mexico.

That dude even ripped into his boss. Hearst. He let nobody off the hook.
Posted by: Reforger at October 09, 2022 10:52 AM (Af01Z)
----
Hmmm. "Disappeared in Mexico?" Maybe he's in his own trunk!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 10:53 AM (K5n5d)

274 Also worth listening two, at least twice: Robert Greene's "48 Laws of Power."

When I wrote about this a month or so ago, I said the author might be a demon. That is still possible, but he is one hell of an insightful demon. After listening to the book and re-reading it, I find it laughable that it was banned from any prisons. The concepts of manipulation and outwitting your enemies take time and practice and thorough introspection. Timing is everything, and if you aren't well versed in reading people or knowing your own capabilities, you'll look like a fool.
My big takeaway on this book is yet another lens we can use on humanity. The historical vignettes are fascinating, and seeing examples of people- everyone from unknown Chinese generals fighting in 200AD to Coco Chanel- outwitting their opponents is captivating. This book is absolutely worth your time. It isn't a playbook on how to be evil- it is arming yourself with knowledge on how said evil can be wielded against you.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 09, 2022 10:53 AM (UMRCq)

275 Church beckons, friends. I'll be back later.

And ... Gordon Liddy.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 10:53 AM (Om/di)

276 Comment: Is there anyone on the world stage more destructive than George Soros?

Hey, how's it goin'?

*fap fap fap*

Posted by: Klaus Schwab, furiously masturbating to the end of civilization at October 09, 2022 10:53 AM (DTX3h)

277 I don't think I've ever read a novel for the humor....But I do have the entire Calvin and Hobbes and most the Foxtrot collections on my shelf. Those are great for randomly thumbing through...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 09, 2022 10:53 AM (Lhaco)

278 Have a great day, everyone.

May you be blessed with mind-expanding and entertaining reading. Maybe not in the same book.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 09, 2022 10:57 AM (u82oZ)

279 gagh?

oh FFS

Klingon : language :: Levine : womanhood

Posted by: Muldoon at October 09, 2022 10:58 AM (cPDW+)

280 Mary Bard is another humorous writer, she was a Seattle advertising executive for the radio stations, and seeing the success she had pushed her sister, Betty MacDonald, into, she wrote books around her own life
She married a young internist, and discovered the life of being a Doctor's wife, and a suburban mom

The Doctor Wears Three Faces - an impressive Seattle ad executive marries a doctor and fails to impress her husband's colleagues
Forty Odd - Mary hits forty and tries to subdue it with varying success
Just Be Yourself - never read it but I think it is about being a leader for her daughters' Brownie and Girl Scout troop

She also wrote two children's book based on stories she and and Betty told each other and the other kids in their neighborhood when they were very young. Betty claimed that she used to trade the stories for help from the other kids doing her chores

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2022 10:58 AM (xhaym)

281 A Lonesome Night in October. Roger Zelazny. Dry wit. Best Halloween book ever written. Is it fiction or non-fiction?

Posted by: 13times at October 09, 2022 10:58 AM (JhbNx)

282 Thanks for the book thread, Perf!

Posted by: 13times at October 09, 2022 11:00 AM (JhbNx)

283 If you are lucky enough to find an affordable copy, get "Over the Fence Is Out" by Jonathan Rhoades. It's about the author growing up on the the 1930s along with his 'interesting' family. I think it's been out of print since the early 60s. Too bad. It is hilarious. And mostly true.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 11:00 AM (7EjX1)

284 I guess even the cops are doing comedy.

Los Angeles Moves to Explore Creation of "Office of Unarmed Response" to Replace Some Cops

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:00 AM (FVME7)

285 Last I heard, there was a warrant out for his arrest in his native Hungary. Personally, I wish the Israelis would take him out as they've done so many other terror masters, but I guess the rules are different in the case of financial terror.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 09, 2022 09:19 AM (SPNTN)

I believe Malaysia or Singapore has an outstanding death sentence on him.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 09, 2022 11:01 AM (S3Wb3)

286 Secret Squirrel, Thank you.

Posted by: Wenda at October 09, 2022 11:01 AM (E5ut8)

287 If you like first-person military books, I recommend "Quartered Safe Out Here," by George MacDonald Fraser. Fraser was a newly-trained infantryman sent out from England as a replacement in 1945, not to Northern Europe, but to Burma. The story is his experience in a rifle section, in 9th Battalion, The Border Regiment, 17th Indian Division.

His account gives a line soldier's look at the British campaign to push the Japanese out of Burma, the last campaign in the least publicized Theater of WW2, SE Asia. I enjoyed it.

Posted by: Gref at October 09, 2022 11:02 AM (AMIL/)

288 Christopher Anvil is a humorous science fiction writer, he put out massive amounts of short stories for Analog and Worlds of If.
Murray Leinster is another. Both of them were workhorses. Murray Leinster's first published story was from 1918

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2022 11:02 AM (xhaym)

289 And now for tragedy.

McConnell Intensifies Attack on Alaska GOP Candidate Kelly Tshibaka

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:03 AM (FVME7)

290 It occurs to me that part of what makes Elmore Leonard's crime novels so good is the humor.

Posted by: Oglebay at October 09, 2022 11:04 AM (wscPk)

291 @271. Thanks for a good laugh!

Posted by: Lola at October 09, 2022 11:05 AM (NIYa7)

292 The Egg and I - Getting married to a young banker who decided to to into chicken ranching
Anyone Can Do Anything - After her divorce, doing her best to scrape along in Depression Era Seattle with her advertising executive sister Mary,
. . . Betty was not writing a book, but because she had nothing better going, she decided to write The Egg and I which made her millions.
Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2022

***
How far back does that one go? Because if she was divorced from that same banker during the Depression, and Egg was her first book, Egg must be from the early Thirties. I thought it was a post-WWII tome.

Or was she divorced from husband No. 1 during the Depression and No. 2 was the chicken rancher?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:05 AM (c6xtn)

293 #TwoWeeks

DOJ Has Reportedly Delayed "Final Decision" on Charging Hunter Biden

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:06 AM (FVME7)

294 His account gives a line soldier's look at the British campaign to push the Japanese out of Burma, the last campaign in the least publicized Theater of WW2, SE Asia. I enjoyed it.

Posted by: Gref at October 09, 2022 11:02 AM (AMIL/)

And once the Pacific War was over, Japanese troops kept their rifles and provided security to the areas they were just beaten. Per Mark Felton.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 11:07 AM (7bRMQ)

295 Someone here recommended Under the Volcano. I started reading it without focusing on what was really happening, then realized it was a most unexpected story. I stopped and restarted it. Not close to finished yet, but very good so far. Thanks

Posted by: 13times at October 09, 2022 11:08 AM (JhbNx)

296 294 #TwoWeeks

DOJ Has Reportedly Delayed "Final Decision" on Charging Hunter Biden
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:06 AM (FVME7)

Leverage. The puppeteers want something big from Joey. I wonder what.

Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 11:08 AM (cTCuP)

297 Oh, I see about Betty MacDonald. Her chicken ranch, TB sanitarium, and Depression-era Seattle experiences which formed her books all happened long before the first book was written. She'd divorced the chicken rancher in 1931, and married husband No. 2 and took his name in 1942.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:08 AM (c6xtn)

298 How far back does that one go? Because if she was divorced from that same banker during the Depression, and Egg was her first book, Egg must be from the early Thirties. I thought it was a post-WWII tome.

Or was she divorced from husband No. 1 during the Depression and No. 2 was the chicken rancher?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:05 AM (c6xtn)

It was published in '45. I have driven past her farm a few times out near Chimacum, WA. Beautiful area on the Olympic Penninsula

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 09, 2022 11:09 AM (UMRCq)

299 Kindltot,
I read "The Plague and I" based in your recommendation a couple years ago. It was a lovely read. I think I shall pick up a couple more of her books. She was quite the celebrity on Vashon Island back when my grandfather lived there.

Posted by: nurse ratched at October 09, 2022 11:09 AM (U2p+3)

300 I guess even the cops are doing comedy.

Los Angeles Moves to Explore Creation of "Office of Unarmed Response" to Replace Some Cops

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:00 AM (FVME7)

It's been done before.

Posted by: Keystone Studios at October 09, 2022 11:09 AM (7bRMQ)

301 Now, that's precocious!

Not a Lump of Cells After All: Top Hospital Says Children Can Know If They're Transgender "From the Womb"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:12 AM (FVME7)

302 DOJ Has Reportedly Delayed "Final Decision" on Charging Hunter Biden
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:06 AM (FVME7)

---------

It turned out there wasn't nearly enough whitewash in the FBI warehouse to do the job properly.

Seems someone forgot to restock after the Hillary Clinton investigation.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at October 09, 2022 11:13 AM (Qzn2/)

303 When Cortez destroyed Tenochtitlan his army was 90 percent Mexican. Apparently all the tribes who weren't Aztecs looked at the weird, gold-obsessed aliens and said, "Well, at least they're not THOSE guys."
Posted by: Trimegistus

Oh, I wish I remembered my source for this...But I heard/read one account where Cortez approached some non-Aztecs to form an alliance, but got attacked instead. The Spanish army shrugged off the attack, and instead of wiping out the offending natives, just repeated the offer of teaming up to destroy the Aztecs. That time their offer was accepted.

Yeah, the Spanish figured out pretty quickly who they wanted to conquer...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 09, 2022 11:13 AM (Lhaco)

304 K DuT posted about silent film actress Martha Mansfield.

Died while filming a movie. Suspicious circumstances.

MP4, possible mystery for Theda?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 11:14 AM (7bRMQ)

305 You want to know how I know I needed that coffee? Poured the coffee, looked in the sugar canister; it was empty. Grabbed the bag of brown sugar from the cupboard, took the clip off it, unrolled the bag, and got set to dump...peanuts into the canister. Stopped in the nick of time, and got the right bag.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 09, 2022 11:15 AM (mVRA8)

306 Does anyone have an off-HQ channel to MP4? He should at least know that his absence is noticed.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 09, 2022 11:15 AM (fbLbk)

307 Peanut coffee is drinkable but it is an acquired taste.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at October 09, 2022 11:16 AM (Qzn2/)

308 I look at 'these pants' and have to wonder: "Why bother?" It's not like modesty was a concern in their design. I hope the model was well paid for looking so stupid in public.
Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 09:37 AM (7EjX1)

I regard that as a spoof on the "fashionably pre-ripped jeans" fad.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 09, 2022 11:16 AM (mVRA8)

309 294 #TwoWeeks

DOJ Has Reportedly Delayed "Final Decision" on Charging Hunter Biden
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:06 AM (FVME7)

DoJ may have difficulty getting a Delaware jury to convict Hunter for a false statement on ATF Form 4473, Firearms Transaction Record. Below is the question on the form about drug use. Hunter's lawyers can say, Prove he was addicted, using, or in possession at the instant he signed, answering NO on the form. The Delaware US Attorney better have something better on Hunter, for a conviction.

Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?

Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.

Posted by: Gref at October 09, 2022 11:17 AM (AMIL/)

310 Perfessor Squirrel, thanks for the thread.

You all have a great Sunday and Columbus Day.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at October 09, 2022 11:18 AM (UMRCq)

311 Does anyone have an off-HQ channel to MP4? He should at least know that his absence is noticed.
Posted by: Oddbob at October 09, 2022

***
I have his email. I'll write to him.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:18 AM (c6xtn)

312 307 Does anyone have an off-HQ channel to MP4? He should at least know that his absence is noticed.
Posted by: Oddbob

I'll let him know.

Posted by: nurse ratched at October 09, 2022 11:18 AM (U2p+3)

313 I have his email. I'll write to him.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:18 AM (c6xtn)

Thanks, Wolfie. There's a big empty place in here right now.

Posted by: creeper at October 09, 2022 11:19 AM (cTCuP)

314 Wrath in Burma is another WWII book. Written by Stilwell's public relations officer. Lots of inside information about SEAC, Mountbatten and the political stuff swirling about in Mountbatten's personal fiefdom in Ceylon.

The British imperial perspective in CBI is very one-sided and over represented and should be taken with a grain of salt. Another Brit book on Burma is Stilwell the Patriot. By the title you'd think its a paean to him. It's not.

Posted by: 13times at October 09, 2022 11:20 AM (JhbNx)

315 You all have a great Sunday and Columbus Day.

You do the same. Thanks for another stellar book thread.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 09, 2022 11:21 AM (Xrfse)

316 Ugh. Wrong squirrel.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 09, 2022 11:22 AM (Xrfse)

317 Ugh. Wrong squirrel.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 09, 2022 11:22 AM (Xrfse)

They all look the same to me!

Posted by: Cooking Pot at October 09, 2022 11:24 AM (7bRMQ)

318 In any event, thanks "Perfessor" Squirrel.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 09, 2022 11:24 AM (Xrfse)

319 MP4 on hiatus?

Posted by: A dude in MI at October 09, 2022 11:25 AM (/6GbT)

320 Boris, if we have wrong squirrel do we have right moose?

Posted by: Natasha at October 09, 2022 11:25 AM (AMIL/)

321 Watched the movie Apocalypto last night. That one pulls no punches at all. Apparently the best that the scholarly critics could manage was "you shouldn't have emphasized that part so much."
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 09:20 AM (QZxDR)

I heard some Central American archologists/anthropologists bitching about it, but their argument was that the locals would have had their world centered around the temple cities, and also that they, the archeologists, were a bunch of censorious scolds who didn't like Mel Gibson because problematic.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2022 11:26 AM (xhaym)

322 One of my cats brought me a squirrel this week, sans head.

Posted by: BignJames at October 09, 2022 11:26 AM (AwYPR)

323 Moose is out front.

Posted by: Boris at October 09, 2022 11:26 AM (Xrfse)

324 OT: Stirling the great black kitten is not doing well. In the last week he has become listless, uninterested in play, barely interested in food, and sleeping a great deal more than usual. It's as if he were *17 years* old instead of 7 months. I'll need to get him looked at tomorrow instead of going to the financial advisor, and will reschedule with them. He's more important.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:26 AM (c6xtn)

325 Upthread >

The Plague and I is another unexpectedly wonderful read.

Posted by: 13times at October 09, 2022 11:26 AM (JhbNx)

326 266 ... " I've recently started reading biographies of various painters ."

polynikes,

Not biographies as such but I've been getting some books featuring artist's works, their backgrounds, influences and those they influenced. These are usually good quality books, heavy paper and good copies of the art. I find them fascinating. Three I've bought (used) recently are about Martin Johnson Heade, Andrew Wyeth, and Ruisdael. The "Sketchbooks" about the LOTR and Hobbit movies by John Howe and Alan Lee are in a similar vein. Whatever you think of the movies, the designs and sketches the artists developed for the films are great.

I do keep a good, lighted, magnifying glass handy when reading these books.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 11:27 AM (7EjX1)

327 The Plague and I is another unexpectedly wonderful read.
Posted by: 13times at October 09, 2022

***
I know I read both of MacDonald's first 2 books when I was a kid -- Mom brought them home from the library. But I recall very little about them.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:28 AM (c6xtn)

328 Within the last two weeks I watched all three Peter Jackson LotR movies and then read LotR for the first time since high school in the late 70s.

I hadn't realized just how many differences there were from the book to the movies. And I had forgotten just how wonderfully written LotR really is.

I still like the movies and understand why purists find them annoying, but I also realize that Jackson couldn't possibly have done any better than he did, because LotR is not really that amenable to being put on screen. It's just too intricate and magical.

It's been a fun couple of weeks.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:30 AM (Gda1b)

329
Looking for an anecdote, I started re-reading Washington Goes to War by David Brinkley. It's a dry, amusing account of how World War II transformed a sleepy, unprepared capital to, unfortunately, what it is today. Brinkley rarely spares anyone, including himself ("a young reporter"), from his light mockery. Really an entertaining read.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 09, 2022 11:32 AM (1Nxff)

330 On Robert Asprin and his later books, he had some trouble with the IRS. As I understand it, he had to do those books with a co-author in order to receive any money from them before the IRS claimed the rest of his share for back taxes and penalties.
As for their quality, yeah, his co-authors, while decent writers themselves, simply could not match his humor and appreciation for the absurd and those books are definitely nowhere near as good as the ones he wrote himself/alone.

Posted by: Sam at October 09, 2022 11:33 AM (ohyxL)

331 It's been a fun couple of weeks.
Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:30 AM (Gda1b)
----
Now watch Rings of Power on Amazon Prime...You will weep for what they did to Tolkien's legacy...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 09, 2022 11:34 AM (K5n5d)

332 Now I am listening to a reading of E.B. Sledge's magnificent "With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa". There is no better book on the marine's frontline experience of Hell on Earth.

Thinking about reading The Count of Monte Cristo again. Unabridged version, of course. Or listening along to that same version on libraVox, read by David Clarke, which is simply uatched.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:35 AM (Gda1b)

333 Wolfus,
That's concerning. I hope Sterling gets better. Poor kittuh.

Posted by: nurse ratched at October 09, 2022 11:35 AM (U2p+3)

334 Frightening but 100% True Facts About Guns by the Babylon Bee:

https://youtu.be/YmyyEbvDgr8

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:36 AM (Gda1b)

335 Getting off topic here
No fkin way will anything come down on Hunter until after mid terms

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2022 11:36 AM (xhxe8)

336 Now watch Rings of Power on Amazon Prime...You will weep for what they did to Tolkien's legacy...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

I've been hate-watching that mess and howling with laughter at what a complete pile of dogshit it is.

I think it will be canceled well before its proposed 5th season. And will be forgotten soon afterward as being TINO. Tolkien In Name Only. And barely that.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:38 AM (Gda1b)

337 Is it possible Stirling accidentally consumed something bad for him?

Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022 11:39 AM (jTmQV)

338
Thinking about reading The Count of Monte Cristo again. Unabridged version, of course.

____________

A great story but one I'm not convinced not only could stand some abridgement but might even be improved.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 09, 2022 11:39 AM (1Nxff)

339 329 ... Sharkman,
Glad you finally re-read LOTR. As much as I enjoyed it in 1965 in junior high, I think an older, more experienced reader gets more out of the books.

I think Jackson did a 95 percent great job with the LOTR movies. The padding he added to The Hobbit movies was damn annoying. But he does a good job with Middle-Earth battle scenes.

Posted by: JTB at October 09, 2022 11:39 AM (7EjX1)

340 >>> 294 #TwoWeeks

DOJ Has Reportedly Delayed "Final Decision" on Charging Hunter Biden
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at October 09, 2022 11:06 AM (FVME7)

"no reasonable prosecutor"

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 09, 2022 11:40 AM (llON8)

341
No fkin way will anything come down on Hunter until after mid terms
Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2022 11:36 AM (xhxe

_________

If the Dems lose big in November, Hunter and Joe are out. If not, not.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 09, 2022 11:40 AM (1Nxff)

342 Back from a constitutional with the lively and rosy-cheeked Mrs naturalfake.

Here's some humor novels which probably haven't been mentioned:

"Falstaff" by Robert Nye, one of Anthony Burgess' 99 Grea novels of the 20th Century and a laughfest recounting the bawdy, drunk, raunchy life of Shakespeare's Falstaff.

The laugh out loud darkly funny novels of Brit Tom Sharpe - "Wilt" or "Vintage Stuff" are good places to start.

"Expecting Someone Taller" by Tom Holt - Wagner's Ring cycle smashes into modern Britain. Fun light novel.

"The Sufi Fiddle" by Richard Bulliet - funny romp involving a violin with mystical powers

If I think of more I'll add them.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 09, 2022 11:41 AM (KLPy8)

343 I'm really late and no time to read everything as I am in CT for a HS reunion which went remarkably well. But wanted to thank whoever recommended the Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling's detective series. Finished book 1 last night and immediately downloaded book 2. It read like a film noir. It was easy to visualize the action and I did not figure out who dunnit.
It should be made into a movie.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 09, 2022 11:41 AM (ltA5x)

344
"Expecting Someone Taller" by Tom Holt - Wagner's Ring cycle smashes into modern Britain. Fun light novel.

_________

A good book.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 09, 2022 11:42 AM (1Nxff)

345 What's up with Stirling, Wolfus?

Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022 11:42 AM (/RDPd)

346 If it is a big Red Wave quite possibly Hunter then Sundowner are tossed under the bus.

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2022 11:42 AM (xhxe8)

347 Safe travels Sharon !

Posted by: JT at October 09, 2022 11:43 AM (T4tVD)

348 I always liked columnist Mike Royko. Maybe a little left of center, being from Chicago, but merciless in a funny way. There's a couple books out there with a collection of his columns from the Chicago rags, dealing with corrupt aldermen, coroners, cops, anybody corrupt (Chicago). One had a coroner, holding up a human head discovered in a garbage can "we might have a homicide on our hands".

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at October 09, 2022 11:44 AM (lz5hY)

349 >>> 344 I'm really late and no time to read everything as I am in CT for a HS reunion which went remarkably well. But wanted to thank whoever recommended the Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling's detective series. Finished book 1 last night and immediately downloaded book 2. It read like a film noir. It was easy to visualize the action and I did not figure out who dunnit.
It should be made into a movie.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 09, 2022 11:41 AM (ltA5x)

It would have to be Bollywood or some other non-US location.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 09, 2022 11:44 AM (llON8)

350 Wolfus,
That's concerning. I hope Sterling gets better. Poor kittuh.
Posted by: nurse ratched at October 09, 2022

***
Thanks, Nurse. I thought it might be that he was upset because of the arrival of the little Dagny kitten. Nope; she's been over at Miss Linda's, and he is still not bouncing back. I wonder if there might be some residual infection from his snip. Or maybe he needs a testosterone shot!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:45 AM (c6xtn)

351 They were good men, and there was a chance that they might succeed. Yet they were pursuing a dream, because peace could not now be won by planting pamphlets about amnesty in the Confederate capital, and the thought that it might come so was essentially a romantic thought, however noble. This venture was a departure from reality, of a piece with the officers' dances at which men and women quoted Byron to themselves and borrowed, for their own beset lives, the tag ends of implausible poetry describing a bloodless bookish war. It was born of a romantic dream and it was aimed at glory, and glory was out of date, a gauzy wisp of rose-colored filament trailing from a lost world. Victory could no longer be imagined as a bright abstraction, lying like the sunrise at the end of a shining road. I was an ugly juggernaut that would crush and smash many values and many lives into the everlasting mud, and it was the only thing that counted nowadays. The longer the war lasted the more victory was going to cost, and a dazzling cavalry raid would not even be the small change of the final purchase price.

Nobody writes history books like this anymore.

Posted by: Socratease at October 09, 2022 11:46 AM (oqnjT)

352 347 If it is a big Red Wave quite possibly Hunter then Sundowner are tossed under the bus.

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2022 11:42 AM (xhxe

If Joey is forced out, he may take some people with him as revenge. He must know where a lot of bodies are buried. Interesting times ahead.

Posted by: Gref at October 09, 2022 11:47 AM (AMIL/)

353 339 The Count of Monte Cristo was based on a luncheon attended by Michael Moore.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at October 09, 2022 11:48 AM (lz5hY)

354 What's up with Stirling, Wolfus?
Posted by: Eromero at October 09, 2022

***
Sluggish, uninterested in play, eating minimally, sleeping much more than usual even for a cat. As I told Nurse R., I wonder if there might be some residual infection from his snip 3 weeks ago. Or maybe he needs a testosterone shot!

Anyway, I'm calling his shop tomorrow. If they complain there's no appointment times, I'm going to point out that they say on their own website that even if your pet is "just not himself," to bring him in. Plus he's been their patient for several months now.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:48 AM (c6xtn)

355 Wolfus, prayers for Sterling

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 11:48 AM (2xlV3)

356 "Unmatched" is the David Clarke version of TCoMC. Not "uached". Stupid fat fingers.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:48 AM (Gda1b)

357 Ah, here's some more -

"Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis - another of Burgess' 99 Great novels of the 20th Century and another laughfest. Flatout brilliant writing as well.

All of Kingsley Amis' novels are well worth a read.

"My Uncle Oswald" by Roald Dahl - crazy, raunchy romp involving a get rich scheme that involving getting the uh...male essence of famous intellectuals to impregnate women who wish to have genius babies.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 09, 2022 11:50 AM (KLPy8)

358 Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne. Excellent book. I asked an archeologist here in NM what his most memorable find was. He said it was the skeleton of a Navajo woman on top of her child at the bottom of an old well. She had an arrowhead buried in one of her ribs. A Comanche arrow head.

Posted by: Johnny Lanctot at October 09, 2022 11:50 AM (oDztM)

359 Is it possible Stirling accidentally consumed something bad for him?
Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022

***
Always possible, but I don't know what. I haven't used any pesticides lately. He hasn't thrown up, and he seems to be using the litter box as normal. Besides, whatever he might have eaten could equally have been eaten by Dagny, and she is 100%.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:51 AM (c6xtn)

360 Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 09, 2022 11:54 AM (7bRMQ)

361 If they complain there's no appointment times, I'm going to point out that they say on their own website that even if your pet is "just not himself," to bring him in. Plus he's been their patient for several months now.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:48 AM (c6xtn)

My vet's office I think adds some flex so they can see emergencies, but they add an "emergency fee" on top of tge office visit fee

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 11:54 AM (2xlV3)

362 Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne. Excellent book. I asked an archeologist here in NM what his most memorable find was. He said it was the skeleton of a Navajo woman on top of her child at the bottom of an old well. She had an arrowhead buried in one of her ribs. A Comanche arrow head.
Posted by: Johnny Lanctot at October 09, 2022

***
Oh, yes. It was not like the lefties imagine, that the peaceful Indians were all united against the white invader. They fought and killed each other savagely for millennia before Europeans got here. And a number of tribes were content to ally themselves with whites, especially for trade and when it became obvious that whites were going to take over the land anyway.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:54 AM (c6xtn)

363 A great story but one I'm not convinced not only could stand some abridgement but might even be improved.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

I've read both versions. Abridged when I was a young and impatient college kid, and the unabridged version in my 50s. I think it is like JTB says about reading LotR. You get more out of such long and intricate books when you are older.

Listening to the David Clarke unabridged version the pages just fly by but the detail is astounding. I think it's The Greatest Novel Ever Written, so I am biased though.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:55 AM (Gda1b)

364 I'm all in on the aforementioned love of Terry Pratchett for a great read and lots of laughs. I'm making my way through my third trip to Discworld.
Posted by: pawn at October 09, 2022 10:11 AM (wsHtO)

I think the success of that series was that Pratchett remade the series multiple times. The big problem with success is that you keep doing it until it is played out and then what?
Pratchett first started using secondary characters in subsequent books as prime characters, and also redid his whole approach to writing.
The Colour of Magic is very different from Feet of Clay, for example, and a book like Going Postal or Snuff could have been written by another author altogether.

The best books are the ones with very large questions hidden in them.
I think Small Gods is probably the best, followed by Feet of Clay.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2022 11:55 AM (xhaym)

365 My vet's office I think adds some flex so they can see emergencies, but they add an "emergency fee" on top of tge office visit fee
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022

***
There are a couple of 24-hour and weekend emergency clinics around, but I think it'd be best -- as long as he's not having violent seizures or something -- to have him seen by the people who did the snip to start with.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:56 AM (c6xtn)

366 Grand book thread!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:57 AM (c6xtn)

367
Our treatment of the Indians is often compared unfavorably to Canada's. Yeah, the Canadians treated them peacefully, had treaties, no massacres, etc. And their Indians ended up in exactly the same position as ours.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 09, 2022 11:57 AM (1Nxff)

368 I've enjoyed the two I've read. Hadn't realized there were four in the series now.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 10:04 AM

Pixie Noir, Trickster Noir, and Dragon Noir are really the only three books in the series. The East Witch is set in the same world and has some of the same minor characters, but isn't really in the series.

You're local to me, so I'll loan you the books if you want to read them. Just send me an email.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 11:58 AM (iZEhM)

369 Re: Stirling: Having two long-haired cats, my first go-to would be a dose of Petromalt if there are no other symptoms.

Posted by: Socratease at October 09, 2022 11:58 AM (oqnjT)

370 I still like the movies and understand why purists find them annoying, but I also realize that Jackson couldn't possibly have done any better than he did, because LotR is not really that amenable to being put on screen. It's just too intricate and magical.

It's been a fun couple of weeks.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 11:30 AM (Gda1b)

yeah, very hard to capture how a rock rolls in the dirt, or the sun hits the leaves from every observable point in the universe without adding 46 hours to the movie. lol

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 09, 2022 11:58 AM (VwHCD)

371 I also enjoy reading books written by native Americans themselves about their stories, from their perspective.
Geronimo wrote his autobiography, or rather dictated it, I assume. Quite good.

Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022 11:59 AM (jTmQV)

372 I know this is way off topic, but for those of us who have followed Grouchy Old Cripple In Atlanta (Denny Wilson) over the years, I have some sad news. Denny passed away on Thursday morning, October 9th. He was one of a kind, a fellow conservative who had conquered many barriers in his life. God speed, Denny. You will be missed.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at October 09, 2022 11:59 AM (Zvtjl)

373 Nood

Posted by: Duke Lowell at October 09, 2022 12:00 PM (u73oe)

374 368 And just think, my Indians, after being renamed after a third rate roller derby team, will wind up in the same position as any other post season.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at October 09, 2022 12:00 PM (lz5hY)

375 Professor Squirrel,

Thank you very much for your mention of "Wearing the Cat" last week.

As a testament to your influence and power, there was a significant increase in WtC books bought and in pages read through Kindle Unlimited. That wouldn't have happened without your mention so thank you again.

And especially, thank you to all those who bought "Wearing the Cat" or are now reading it through Kindle Unlimited. All y'all rock!!!

Posted by: naturalfake at October 09, 2022 12:02 PM (KLPy8)

376 I reread some Hemingway, and got into arguments with cancel culture over the man. The same people who insist he be scrapped over infidelity to Hadley, were called out on their worship of Jagger and various other "artists". It's just bizarre.

Posted by: CN at October 09, 2022 12:02 PM (Zzbjj)

377 Not a book, per se, but Prof. Edwin Barnhardt has a great lecture series on native north Americans.
Later he covers Meso America.

Posted by: gourmand du jour, partly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon at October 09, 2022 12:03 PM (jTmQV)

378 "Is there anyone on the world stage more destructive than George Soros? How soon until he shuffles off his mortal coil to meet his ultimate judgment?"

You're right about George Soros. The good news is he won't be around that much longer. The bad news is his progeny are just as bad as he is. Soros money will be around a long time in an all-out effort to destroy the U.S.

Posted by: Ralph at October 09, 2022 12:03 PM (Qf//C)

379 I've got no problem with having a day celebrating American Indians. Maybe have a festival in the casino parking lot, do some ceremonial dances, sell some funnel cakes and nachos. Why not?

But putting it on Columbus Day is an act of spite. Remember the reason for Columbus Day? It was to give Italian Americans a celebration they could be at the center of. No more. Any Columbus Day celebration now has to be the White Guilt O Rama.

I live in an area with a lot of liberal shits, and a fair number of Italians. One of the local banks had a notice up about being closed on Monday "in observance of the holiday." They didn't name the holiday. Shrewd move. Very shrewd.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2022 12:04 PM (QZxDR)

380 You're right about George Soros. The good news is he won't be around that much longer. The bad news is his progeny are just as bad as he is. Soros money will be around a long time in an all-out effort to destroy the U.S.
Posted by: Ralph at October 09, 2022 12:03 PM (Qf//C)

I hope the soros devil spawn are playing along to get the money. Known to happen. But he and others like him should just go away, or come to an end due to their age. Schwab comes to mind

Posted by: CN at October 09, 2022 12:05 PM (Zzbjj)

381 And a number of tribes were content to ally themselves with whites, especially for trade and when it became obvious that whites were going to take over the land anyway.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming

They also loved them some slavery.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 12:06 PM (Gda1b)

382 yeah, very hard to capture how a rock rolls in the dirt, or the sun hits the leaves from every observable point in the universe without adding 46 hours to the movie. lol

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division

Heh.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 12:08 PM (Gda1b)

383 How far back does that one go? Because if she was divorced from that same banker during the Depression, and Egg was her first book, Egg must be from the early Thirties. I thought it was a post-WWII tome.
Or was she divorced from husband No. 1 during the Depression and No. 2 was the chicken rancher?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 09, 2022 11:05 AM (c6xtn)

I think she married her first husband in the 20's and got divorced about 1930. She married her second, Bob, during WWII

She worked for the ERA and later when it was taken over by the Dept of Commerc (?) she got into trouble for using the fairly loose standards of the ERA, for doing things like mimeographing party invitations, and then being twice in trouble because there was no process in place for reimbursing for private use.
She caught TB from a co worker in that office.

The Egg and I is really funny, but Anyobody Can Do Anything is screamingly funny, and has some really creepy moments too. She also got investigated by the Postal Inspectors.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2022 12:33 PM (xhaym)

384 Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 11:58 AM (iZEhM)

I appreciate the offer. Are you going to be at the MoMee this year? We'll be there Friday and Saturday and I could probably get the third read in the two days.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 12:35 PM (nC+QA)

385 This weekend, I listened to a podcast about Gone With the Wind, novel and movie. I agreed with about 90% of what was said, with three ENORMOUS exceptions:

1) The gross slander that in the 20th century both Democrats and Republicans switched sides on civil rights was repeated.
2) While I admire the woman on the podcast for being an Absolutist on the issue of slavery, I suspect she's also an Absolutist when it comes to "reproductive rights" - in the wrong direction!
3) Even if it were true that the novel was a favorite of some of the so-called "Insurrectionists" I wouldn't draw a straight line from one to the other.

Posted by: Pete in Texas at October 09, 2022 12:39 PM (+4GhB)

386 They also loved them some slavery.

Posted by: Sharkman at October 09, 2022 12:06 PM (Gda1b)

Which is causing an unreported fracture in the anti-white coalition. A black activist realized recently that it was possible to claim reparations from the various Indian tribes for slavery. The Amarind activists are not amused and made it clear that' s not how the game is played.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 12:42 PM (nC+QA)

387 I appreciate the offer. Are you going to be at the MoMee this year? We'll be there Friday and Saturday and I could probably get the third read in the two days.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 12:35 PM

I am planning to be there, and I'll be staying at the Best Western. I plan to arrive Friday afternoon and leave Sunday morning. I'm sure I'll see you there.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 12:44 PM (iZEhM)

388 Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 12:44 PM (iZEhM)

We're staying at the BW as well, so meeting up to borrow the book should be achievable.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 12:47 PM (nC+QA)

389 We're staying at the BW as well, so meeting up to borrow the book should be achievable.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 09, 2022 12:47 PM

Yes. Assuming I remember to take the book.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 12:53 PM (iZEhM)

390 Sorry I slept through the live thread. Finished Officers and Gentlemen last night and will soon reserve the final book of the trilogy at the library. Very enjoyable experience.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 09, 2022 12:55 PM (y7DUB)

391 Hey Captain Hate! Our bday is coming up ...hope we get a decent gift this year.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 09, 2022 01:02 PM (2xlV3)

392 Sorry I slept through the live thread. Finished Officers and Gentlemen last night and will soon reserve the final book of the trilogy at the library. Very enjoyable experience.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 09, 2022 12:55 PM

It's not quite dead yet. I'm listening to Ian Toll's Pacific Crucible. After the heartbreaking detail about the attack on Pearl Harbor, there's a lot of biographical detail in the beginning about Yamamoto and Nimitz. I'm really getting a sense for why the USA was so outraged by the attack.

It's interesting that, upon being named as the new CinCPAC, Nimitz chose to take a train from Washington DC to the west coast rather than flying. He wanted to get some rest and get up to speed on the status of the fleet.

I'm also kind of amused at the "WTF was MacArthur thinking" about the defense of the Philippines. I've often wondered that myself. He had many hours warning and well-established defensive plans because the attack was expected to happen there rather than Hawaii and then he...didn't do anything.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 09, 2022 01:06 PM (iZEhM)

393 Books when you need a laugh

Stephen Pile's "Book of Heroic Failures" - true stories of "mistakes, failures, blunders, costly errors, weak excuses, and unsuccessful books, plays, inventions, actors, preachers, marriages, commercials, and computers." Read steadily through it and at some point you will just laugh until you cry.

James Veitch's "dot.con: The Art of Scamming a Scammer."

Veitch is a British comedian who put his stand-up routine on internet scammers down in print. He decided to respond to those obviously phony scams and phishing by princes needing a bank account to transfer millions to, Eastern European women looking for a "gentleman" for companionship, and people who spoof your friend's email account and beg for money because all theirs has been stolen and they can't leave Thailand/Philippines/whatever without paying their hotel bill.

Veitch takes everyone seriously, but never gives away information or money, and leads the scammers to think they've found their dupe. At some point the scammer gives up or catches on (one Nigerian prince claimed to have a London lawyer, and quit when Veitch offered to go to the lawyer's address (which didn't exist).

Posted by: Wethal at October 09, 2022 01:11 PM (ZzVCK)

394 "Speaking of Jerome K., has anyone read the sequel Three Men on the Bummel? I've been looking for that one."

Jerome's "Three Men on the Bummel" is very similar in tone to "Three Men in a Boat," partly because that was his common writing style, although he could be mawkish and sentimental at times-e.g., "Passing of the Third Floor Back," and likely in part in imitation of his successful earlier book.

Anyway, because he wrote so long ago, most or all of his stuff, including 'Bummel,' is readily available on the Gutenberg Project and probably most other online collections of public domain literature of the type like the Internet Archive-also, cheap reprint editions used to be commonly available. I'd recommend his short stuff-"Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" for example, and his reminiscences as I think is style works better in short pieces. The Three Men books, for example, were pretty much a series of vignettes, rather than plotted stories.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at October 09, 2022 01:15 PM (cYrkj)

395 Hey vmom. Hope so too!

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 09, 2022 01:15 PM (y7DUB)

396 I doubt if anyone will see this since I'm so late to the party (as usual) but my two favorite very funny books are "The Throwback" and "Wilt" by Tom Sharpe, a very funny British person. He also wrote two books based on his experiences in South Africa and they were either written as revenge because he was expelled, or they were the cause of his expulsion.

And good call to whoever it was that mentioned Florence King. She was absolutely brilliant, kind to her fans, and a hell of a writer. I have all of her books, going back even to "Southern Ladies & Gentlemen," which was a send-up of Jonathan Cash's "Mind of the South." King's book was published in 1976 or so to cash in on Jimmy Carter making being southern temporarily trendy. Everything of hers, even if it's out of print and pricey, is worth buying.

Posted by: Tonestaple at October 09, 2022 01:48 PM (jqVKN)

397 Tonestaple --

Somebody did.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 09, 2022 01:59 PM (Om/di)

398 Humor:

Gerald Durrell
James Herriot
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (fantasy)

Twain's "Innocents Abroad" is too often overlooked.

Posted by: aelfheld at October 09, 2022 03:54 PM (Zy9Yy)

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Posted by: www.Profit97.Com at October 09, 2022 05:04 PM (72dM1)

400 Agree with recommendation of "Red Sky at Morning"; it is like a long Southern porch account...
Just finished "The Man in the Long Red Coat" by Julian Barnes. Very interesting for content, especially the development of modern surgery and the times. Enjoyed the interpreted "conversations" with the reader as well.

Posted by: sharon at October 09, 2022 05:18 PM (GWFS2)

401 Three Men on a Brummel is available on kindle in several formats and collections. inexpensively!

Posted by: sharon at October 09, 2022 05:42 PM (GWFS2)

402 Along with "Bored of the Rings" by Harvard Lampoon students (and future founders of National Lampoon) Douglas Kenney and Henry Beard in 1968, the Harvard Lampoon also produced the hilarious parody of Ian Fleming and his James Bond character in "Alligator" by Christopher Cerf '62 (son of Random House founder and critic Bennet Cerf and future songwriter for Sesame Street with 150 songs that we all know) and Michael Frith '63 (later collaborator with Ted "Dr. Seuss" Geisel in the late 1960s and art director with puppeteer Jim Hansen of the Muppets and Fraggle Rock.

The novel can stand along by itself. It even introduces a new Bond cocktail, 'The Anagram' that is quite potent but please only use a cube of sugar, not 2 cups!!! The diction, the style, the detailed description of all the food and drink he consumes while on the trail of the mysterious Lacertes Alligator is quite silly!

Posted by: Donovan Nuera at October 09, 2022 07:15 PM (LKMDZ)

403 The Harvard Lampon's greatest humorist was the late lamented Robert C. Benchley (Class of 1912). He wrote many short stories in many books, was one founders of the Algonquin Round Table with Dorothy Parker (occasionally fellow Poonie Robert Sherwood (Class of 1916) which met ever lunch for a decade in the Oak Room. He also won an Oscar in 1935 for short film "How to Sleep". The first "everyman" in humor pantheon. His grandson, Peter, was the author of "Jaws".

Posted by: Donovan Nuera at October 09, 2022 07:19 PM (LKMDZ)

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Posted by: www.Profit97.Com at October 09, 2022 07:35 PM (72dM1)

405 I loaned out my only copy of "Paranoia" and never got it back. I loved that book. I can only find used, overpriced ones on the internet now. It makes me sad.

Posted by: Warmongerel at October 10, 2022 12:07 AM (kTERH)

406
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Posted by: Kim Smith at October 10, 2022 04:20 AM (uZNj+)

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