Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-20-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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 (100% EVIL FREE!). 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 latest issue of TV Guide. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...(served with a side of cranberry sauce and Stove Top stuffing...)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, continue fasting to prepare yourself for that Thanksgiving feast in four days, and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Today's pic (see larger version HERE) is from a display at the Beineke Rare Book & Manuscript Library from back in 2019. It features a pop-up display that includes a copy of the full text of George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation. The other major piece in the display is a book from Joseph Bruhac, a Native American storyteller, written in 1996 that explores a view of thanksgiving that goes back even further in time.

ARCHITECTS v. GARDENERS

There seem to be a couple of different types of authors out there. Two of the more prominent types are "Architects" and "Gardeners." Architects are known for the meticulous way in which they plot out their stories and characters. They may have elaborate outlines that they follow when sketching out their stories, so they know *exactly* how they will reach the ending.

By contrast, Gardeners--also known as "pantsers"--write much more organically. They write by the seat of their pants, never knowing exactly how their stories will end, but keen on exploring interesting situations through the eyes of their characters.

Of course these terms are extreme generalizations and most authors probably fall somewhere between on the spectrum between Architect and Gardener. An Architect may have a cool idea for a charaacter or storyline and just throw it in to see where it might go. And a Gardener might have a general idea of a storyline and how to resolve it, but take a meandering path to get there while the main character has exciting adventures.

Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson both fall into the Architect camp for the most part. Stephen King and George R.R. Martin are famously Gardeners. King in particular likes to throw characters into weird situations just to see how they will handle themselves.

The series I'm currently reading--The Chronicles of the Kencyrath by P.C. Hodgell--seems to fall into the Gardener camp. Hodgell's main character, Jame, is thrust into increasingly bizarre scenarios as the series progresses. This allows Hodgell to expand her worldbuilding through Jame's eyes. Although there are hints that there is a final resolution, after almost 40 years of writing and ten books in the series, it's hard to predict when or if the series will ever be finished. But that's OK because the series does fine as an open-ended collection of adventures of Jame of the Kencyrath.

Some genres probably work better when written by one style versus the other. For instance, romance and drama fiction can thrive in the hands of a skilled Gardener because those genres are dependent on relationships between characters more than the plots or events in the story. Epic fantasy, on the other hand, almost *requires* some level of Architect to keep track of all the different plot threads that span multiple books.

Moron Authors, in which camp would you classify yourself? How many of you lean towards Architect and how many towards Gardener?

What are some of your favorite stories from each camp?

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(ht: Hadrian the Seventh)

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BLACK FRIDAY BASED BOOK SALE!

The Black Friday Based Book Sale starts Wednesday, November 23. If you are a based author who'd like to participate by offering your books for free or for $0.99, DM @aetherczar on Twitter or email aetherczar at gmail dot com.
Hans G. Schantz

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Poker and Pop Culture has a chapter about the game's presence in the Civil War. Grant played often -- even during his years at West Point, where card games were forbidden. Lee, however, tried to suppress the game among his men. For him, that was another lost cause.
As for the troops, they were known to throw away their decks as they marched to battle, out of the fear that if they were killed, they would have to explain to St. Peter why they had been carrying the devil's pasteboards. After the battle, those who could would retrieve their cards.
There were even a few instances of soldiers playing with enemy troops. Imagine losing an army at the poker table. Hmmm -- That would cut down on casualties!
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 13, 2022 09:06 AM (Om/di)

Comment: Playing cards and card games--as a representation of gambling--have long been portrayed as a sinful vice...Poker does show up quite a lot in popular culture (e.g., James Bond in Casino Royale). Skill at poker seems to be a narrative device to show a character's intelligence, nerve, and craftiness, especially if the character is able to outwit an opponent at the card table.

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I'm reading Ian Keable's The Century of Deception: The Birth of the Hoax in Eighteenth-Century England. I'm familiar with most of his examples - the man who claimed he would jump into a bottle on stage, George Pszalmanazar, the pretended "Formosan," the Cock Lane Ghost, William-Henry Ireland, the Shakespeare forger - but Keable has a light touch that belies the deep research he has done. If this sounds like the sort of thing you'd like, I recommend it.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at November 13, 2022 09:14 AM (AW0uW)

Comment: Hoaxes have been around a long time--about as long as people have been willing to be taken in by conmen and mountebanks. The magician Harry Houdini, known around the world for his amazing escape attempts, was also quite keen on debunking spiritualism and mysticism, rejecting the idea of supernatural powers.

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About to finish How Not to Diet. Basically a book about going vegan. What I think you all will appreciate is that the author (who is an actual MD) fills this book with evidence based research. He makes a point of telling the reader that all his proceeds go to charities (not sure which) and that the majority of studies out there are funded or co-opted by big pharma or big food industry. His approach is this--you want less cancer, less heart disease and to feel better, you gotta eat more plants and whole grain fibers. For him, meat, dairy and sugars are no-nos. And I get it--this lifestyle does not fit the Moron Way of Life. But I digress. I read the prayer list yesterday and we have a lot of morons suffering with health issues. I recommend reading the book simply for the information presented and maybe incorporating some of the aspects into your diet. He also wrote "How Not to Die" which is about all the stuff in our food industry that is killing us.
Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of a few books on amazon at November 13, 2022 09:36 AM (O4GUi)

Comment: This book seemed to spark a rather epic debate in the comments last week about the merits of what we *should* be eating. Of course, as was pointed out, everyone's diet is different and what may work for one person may not work for everyone. I, myself, can't digest or process green leafy vegetables anymore, so I stay away from devil weeds like lettuce and cabbage. Most vegetables also taste horribly bitter to me, which is another reason I stay away from them. Though they can add a lot of flavor when cooked with other things (e.g., meat in a savory stew).

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I dug out my old Nicktoons! book (the one with the clear plastic cover filled with green goo). So many great cartoons came out in the early 90's. SpongeBob, Ren and Stimpy, Invader Zim... Nickelodeon's Vanessa Coffey started up an animation department and let cartoonists pitch their wildest stuff. She was tired of cartoons being based on existing properties or toys. The creators wanted the kind of anarchic goofiness of the old Warner Bros cartoons they grew up with, not the sitcom drivel so prevalent. Luckily, the cable channels needed content to fill the void and so there was an "anything goes" atmosphere.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at November 13, 2022 09:36 AM (Dc2NZ)

Comment: There were some awesome cartoons released in the 1990s. Just recently, it was announced that Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman in Batman: The Animated Series and the Arkham Asylum video games, lost a bout to cancer. Other notable cartoons include The Simpsons (yes, I know it technically came out in the late 1980s, but that show reached its peak in the 1990s), The Tick, and Animaniacs. Only The Simpsons is still around today, though it's just a shadow of its former self. Animaniacs could never be made today as it's not woke enough (though that doesn't seem to have stopped them from trying to reboot it).

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (493 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

So the local public library had *another* book sale this week. Naturally, I stopped by to see if they had anything new/interesting. Mostly the same stuff as the last book sale a few months ago, but there were some new things that caught my eye.

Higher Education by Charles Sheffield and Jerry Pournelle -- Both authors have well-estalibished credentials in science fiction so I expect a decent story out of this. It's about asteroid mining, which if it ever becomes a thing will no doubt be very dangerous, if lucrative.

Operation Otherworld by Poul Anderson -- I don't think I've read much of his work. From the descriptions of the two novels inside (Operation Chaos and Operation Luna) I doubt these could be written today...

A Science Fiction Argosy edited by Damon Knight -- An "argosy" is a large merchant ship, originally from Venice. Not sure what this has to do with the collection of science fiction stories inside the covers, but this word intrigued me and prompted me to purchase the book. According to the introduction, Damon Knight just wanted to compile a collection of excellent science fiction that had not yet been anthologized or was difficult to find at the time. Lots of great stuff.

Chronicles of the Lensmen (Volumes 1 and 2) by E.E. "Doc" Smith -- These are the Science Fiction Book Club editions collected in two compact volumes. This will replace my current versions of all six Lensmen books. Definitely worth the $14 for both volumes.

And lest I forget, this week marks the release of Brandon Sanderson's The Lost Metal, the most recent book in his Mistborn universe, which also arrived this week. *sigh* Now if I could just find the time to READ all these great books!

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Honor's Paradox by P.C. Hodgell -- Jame's adventures at the Kencyr military academy continue.

The Sea of Time by P.C. Hodgell -- Jame goes south to find even more adventure and weirness in the Southern Wastes of Rathilien

The Gates of Tagmeth by P.C. Hodgell -- Jame is tasked with restoring an ancient fortress for House Knorth and discovers yet more ancient mysteries about her people.

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel -- I started reading this at work and it's a good overview of learning strategies that actually work v. what the modern education establishment currently tends to push. (NOTE: The concept of "learning styles" has been thoroughly debunked, but it's still pushed in higher education and K-12 schools today.)

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan -- The penultimate book in The Wheel of Time series, leading up to the grand finale.... Basically the equivalent of Avengers: Infinity War, but ten times more awesome.

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 - 11-13-22 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:00 AM (xhxe8)

2 hiya

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 09:00 AM (T4tVD)

3 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog at November 20, 2022 09:00 AM (odVni)

4 Old Yeller was heart rending.

Posted by: SFGoth at November 20, 2022 09:00 AM (KAi1n)

5 The other major piece in the display is a book from Joseph Bruhac, a Native American storyteller, written in 1996 that explores a view of thanksgiving that goes back even further in time.

It's always someone else did it first, America.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:01 AM (7bRMQ)

6 Evil-free is not cruelty-free

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 20, 2022 09:01 AM (EZebt)

7 Not a lot of reading this week so haven't advanced much on Dennis Prager's Rational Bible Deuteronomy, should read some today

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:02 AM (xhxe8)

8 "Gardeners--also known as "pantsers"--write much more organically."
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"No-pantsers" do it on the fly!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:02 AM (Dc2NZ)

9 I don't think the pants guy owns a weedwhacker (if you catch my drift.....)

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 09:02 AM (T4tVD)

10

Jesus Christ! It's 6:00 a.m. during George Foreman's pride week funeral! Too early!

Posted by: My Pimp Shot My Dealer at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (ozb0P)

11 5 The other major piece in the display is a book from Joseph Bruhac, a Native American storyteller, written in 1996 that explores a view of thanksgiving that goes back even further in time.

It's always someone else did it first, America.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:01 AM (7bRMQ)

Because Europeans never had harvest festivals giving thanks.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (Dc2NZ)

12 Actually read something last week! Couple of short stories in a magazine called, The Dark City. Still playing at writing, but getting close to maybe trying to submit something somewhere.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (7bRMQ)

13 We have lost one of the SF Greats -- Greg Bear has been uploaded to the Cosmic Consciousness.

He was a cheerful, intellectually curious person who always made time to help new writers (including me). The SF world is diminished by his passing.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (HMWox)

14 Still looking for a young girls book set for a gift idea, had a couple last week and book marked those.

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (xhxe8)

15 Still with "Poker and Pop Culture." I wonder whether the tests in that class let you toss some questions and choose different ones.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 09:04 AM (Om/di)

16 >>By contrast, Gardeners--also known as "pantsers"--write much more organically. They write by the seat of their pants, never knowing exactly how their stories will end, but keen on exploring interesting situations through the eyes of their characters.

John Irving writes the last chapter of his book first, then tries to figure out how the characters got there. IIRC, he also likes his characters have a moment where they have no idea what to do next (and where her does not know, either) -- and then figure it out.

Posted by: Lizzy at November 20, 2022 09:04 AM (I/doM)

17 I think I'm an architectural gardener.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:04 AM (7bRMQ)

18 Read the 2nd book in Matthew Reilly's Jack West serries - total popcorn, loved it. It's like if Indiana Jones were also a retired Special Forces dude. . .

Posted by: Lizzy at November 20, 2022 09:06 AM (I/doM)

19 Mornin', folk! I'm into Barbara Vine's (Ruth Rendell's) The Birthday Present, a 2008 novel that reflects back to 1990 during Thatcher's time as PM. A young Member of Parliament (MP) is carrying on an affair with a beautiful married woman. He sets up a sexy surprise, having 2 men "kidnap" her to bring her to their hideaway . . . and she and one of the men is killed in a motor crash on the way. He of course doesn't want to get involved in telling the police about it. But the police conclude that a multimillionaire's young wife, who resembled the dead woman, was the real target.

No idea how this will play out, but Ruth has rarely let me down in storytelling.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 09:07 AM (KAKDL)

20 By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Posted by: rhennigantx at November 20, 2022 09:07 AM (BRHaw)

21 Regarding Architects and Gardeners --

I would consider most classic mystery and thriller writers to be Architects. Erle Stanley Gardner tops my list. Rex Stout, however, throws in some gardening.

Girl Genius is mostly garden, but it sure is fun.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 09:08 AM (Om/di)

22 Morning All! Thanks Squirrel! (read in Boris and Natasha accent).

Skip - I've mentioned these several times over the years, so forgive me if I am being boringly repetitive.

Peter Benchley's The Girl of the Sea of Cortez is a delightful book, totally appropriate for any young girl. And Beryl Markham's West With the night is also excellent, for anyone, especially young women. Not series, but nice additions to bookshelves.

Posted by: goatexchange at November 20, 2022 09:09 AM (APPN8)

23 Yay, book thread!

Finished Almayer's Folly and am reading Conrad's Eastern World, which is an incredibly detailed look at the real-live events which inspired his work. The author actually went to Singapore in the 1950s to interview people about events there in the 1880s, generally the children or grandchildren of people who inspired Conrad's work. Fascinating stuff.

I'm all-in on a Conrad binge, and tracking down more of his work. Sadly, not a lot is in print. Much of what's out there are crappy print-on-demand editions with no page numbers, riddled with typos.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:09 AM (llXky)

24 Old Yeller was heart rending.
Posted by: SFGoth at November 20, 2022

***
Then Sheila Burnford's The Incredible Journey is "enchanting" and "heart-warming."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 09:09 AM (KAKDL)

25 Love the glossary of blurb terms!

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

26 He was a cheerful, intellectually curious person who always made time to help new writers (including me). The SF world is diminished by his passing.
Posted by: Sabrina Chase at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (HMWox)

His Thistledown trilogy, also called The Way series (Eon, Eternity, Legacy) is one of my favorite sci-fi epics.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 20, 2022 09:10 AM (PiwSw)

27 That funny blurb list reminds me of Walter Monheit's Blurb-O-Mat from the late, great Spy Magazine.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:10 AM (Dc2NZ)

28 Darned if I can figure out where on that "translation" scale Watership Down figures. It's about rabbits, there are very few humans and only one dog in it, and the deaths do not concern any humans or the dog.

It's an "imaginative" "thriller"!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 09:11 AM (KAKDL)

29 "No-pantsers" do it on the fly!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:02 AM (Dc2NZ)

Zipped right in there with that, didn't you.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:11 AM (7bRMQ)

30 I'm currently reading A Winter Haunting, Dan Simmons' sequel to Summer of Night. Dale Stewart, now a professor of English literature and successful novelist, returns to Elm Haven on sabbatical, his personal life in ruins. It's been forty years since the events that rocked the small town and Dale is slowly remembering all the horrors. He is staying in his friend Duane's old home and is watched over by Duane's spirit as he writes what will become Summer of Night.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:11 AM (Dc2NZ)

31 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was pleasant and varied.

With the arrival of actual cold weather it's time to get out the good tea pot and sip some brew while delving into different parts of the Tolkien legendarium. Seems appropriate.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 09:12 AM (7EjX1)

32 Still doing a re-read1632 Series. On book 5 now.

Posted by: vic /s at November 20, 2022 09:12 AM (mZwKe)

33 I think the architect/gardener thing is a distinction without a difference. By the fact of making a situation to throw people into, you're creating architecture.

Similarly, characters take on their own existence even within a plotted work, so unless your an ideologue making a point, "gardening" will happen. Tolkien himself commented that "this tale grew in the telling," which is common.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:12 AM (llXky)

34

My stories are entirely organic, free range, GMO free, and entirely appropriate for transgender kindergarten not-Christmas expression through movement and feculent gaseous expulsion recitals. Please ensure that you're 24-year-old 6-year grinnell college underwater basket weaving major daughter is aware. She'll wet her panties for us! Well, us, and certain extremely large downtown melanotic pharmaceutical distribution individuals...

Posted by: Xtreme Denise at November 20, 2022 09:13 AM (ozb0P)

35 No reading this week at all. But, the hardworking movers deposited about 30-40 boxes of books into the great room. The empty bookshelves feel naked - soon to be rectified.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:13 AM (qoGsy)

36 "Animal Farm" was enchanting!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:14 AM (Dc2NZ)

37 My publisher sends me ARC's to review and provide blurbs for, and I am totally going to be using that glossary.

The next time an author describes the comparative valuations between Hampton Inn and Embassy Suites for soldiers on per diem, Imma giving him a "provocative" and "disturbing".....

Posted by: goatexchange at November 20, 2022 09:14 AM (APPN8)

38 No reading this week at all. But, the hardworking movers deposited about 30-40 boxes of books into the great room. The empty bookshelves feel naked - soon to be rectified.
Posted by: Tonypete

You should've herded the turkeys into the moving truck before ya left !

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 09:15 AM (T4tVD)

39 35 No reading this week at all. But, the hardworking movers deposited about 30-40 boxes of books into the great room. The empty bookshelves feel naked - soon to be rectified.
Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:13 AM (qoGsy)
---

I'll be moving in about five months and I'm not looking forward to boxing up books AGAIN.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:15 AM (Dc2NZ)

40 Based on 'these pants', I wonder what bizarre creature thinks women want to look like a Macy's Thanksgiving parade balloon from the waist down. (If she already looks like that, she has other problems.)

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 09:15 AM (7EjX1)

41 Had not read Grapes of Wrath, since early High School (Forced ), always loved the Film. But decided to re-read it this week. And it is a Masterpiece. A pleasure to read. Steinbeck was in a zone

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:15 AM (Cw0fX)

42 Good Sunday morning, horde.

I read a "provocative" book this week, because my daughter wanted to read it for family book club.

I do not recommend: Razorblade Tears, by S. A. Cosby.
I would give it five stars for a tense, action-packed revenge story, but I have to take away three of them for the over-the-top woke preachiness. Gay couple gets murdered, black dad and hillbilly dad team up to find the killer, because police don't care about dead gay people. And so on.

Everyone (except angelic dead gay guys) is a ridiculous stereotype. Figuring out how to explain this to the millennial offspring without offending them, or making them see me as one of the stereotypes.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at November 20, 2022 09:16 AM (OX9vb)

43 I read Peter Frankopan's "The Silk Roads", which is a big fat doorstop of a history book (the kind I like) by an Oxford Professor of History (I like that less). It reviews the history of the Silk Road, or more precisely, the countries between the West and China, including the Stans, and the middle east. The chapters deal with different topics and periods, although the connection to the topic for some chapters is pretty tenuous.

The initial roughly half the book is very interesting. However, it starts to lose its way about the time of the Middle Ages, and falls into every anti-western trope you can imagine: Islam was peaceful and great, the Mongols were excellent administrators, and China and MesoAmerica were thriving, advanced civilizations while Europe was a barbaric mess. There are some elements of truth in each of those, but when that's the only prism through which you interpret events, it rapidly becomes tedious. At the end, it's all about how evil imperial Britain was, and how America is just its replacement. Whatever.

If you want a real history of the silk road, read the first half, and find another book for the rest.

Posted by: Archimedes at November 20, 2022 09:16 AM (eOEVl)

44 Thanks for the signal boost on the Based Black Friday Book Sale, Perfessor.

I started off as a Gardener, but I've found myself becoming more of an Architect the more I write.

My next novel, The Wise of Hear: A Modern Day Re-imagining of the Scopes Monkey Trial, started out as a thorough outline before I began writing it.

I'll begin releasing chapters, soon.

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at November 20, 2022 09:16 AM (+leAG)

45 I'll be moving in about five months and I'm not looking forward to boxing up books AGAIN.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord

Whar ya goin' ?

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 09:16 AM (T4tVD)

46 @27 --

I miss Spy magazine.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 09:17 AM (Om/di)

47 Old Yeller made me cry as a kid, and so did "Sounder"

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:17 AM (Cw0fX)

48 Last week I saw a comment after I left about how the events in Brideshead Revisited didn't turn out very well for the Flyte family, and that this is a strange way to show God's mercy and love (this in response to me pointing out it is a conversion story).

That is true, and the reason the Marchmain estate ends up the way it does is because while the Flyte family remains nominally Catholic, few of them actually live the faith. Bridey, for example, is the heir and knows that his younger brother is an incurable alcoholic. He keeps the outward forms of Catholicism, but he marries a widow presumed to be beyond child-bearing years. Even worse, he does so because her late husband has England's greatest matchbox collection! Now that's a typical Waugh flourish, but that is Bridey's choice.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:18 AM (llXky)

49 Swiss Family Robinson, brings me back to the safety of being kid, no politics, no bills etc... Cold January afternoon as a 10 year old, reading by the fire

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:18 AM (Cw0fX)

50 "I read Peter Frankopan's "The Silk Roads", which is a big fat doorstop of a history book (the kind I like)..."

My favorite descriptor of such tomes is "herniatic".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:18 AM (Dc2NZ)

51 John Irving writes the last chapter of his book first, then tries to figure out how the characters got there. IIRC, he also likes his characters have a moment where they have no idea what to do next (and where her does not know, either) -- and then figure it out.
Posted by: Lizzy at November 20, 2022 09:04 AM (I/doM)
===
This pretty much sums up why I hate this author. He takes his readers for granted.

NBC producer: "Why would someone watch it?"
Costanza: "Because its on TV!"

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 20, 2022 09:19 AM (EZebt)

52 By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Posted by: rhennigantx at November 20, 2022 09:07 AM (BRHaw)

Boo!

Posted by: The Democrat Party at November 20, 2022 09:19 AM (7bRMQ)

53 48. Nice Ace. My crutch on English society was Galesworthy, and the Forsyte Saga

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:19 AM (Cw0fX)

54
As an author, I'd call myself a "Puddle-Jumper" or perhaps, "Hopscotcher".

I need a clear beginning and end point, but I also need to have some dynamite set pieces along the way for the reader's pure enjoyment, of course.

But, structurally to provide specific challenges to the main character, which he/she will succeed or fail at. And that will set the stage in often surprising ways for what is to follow.

However, I hate inorganic stories, that shuffle the protagonist around in violation of what's been set up just because "it needs to happen". So I allow the main character or the characters around him to develop the plotting between the set pieces in an organic manner.

"Wearing the Cat" is constructed exactly in this manner.

Posted by: naturalfake at November 20, 2022 09:19 AM (KLPy8)

55 Tome to take up The Book and head off to worship. Prayers for our country, and all of us.

Posted by: Eromero at November 20, 2022 09:20 AM (0OP+5)

56 Oh geez I saw those pants at the craft show yesterday. They are frightening in person.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:20 AM (sn5EN)

57 Read this week:well, re-read: Dorothy Grant's Combined Operations and Scaling the Rim.

Started Fehrenbach's Fire & Blood: A History of Mexico.

I think L M Bujold described herself as a Gardener. I have vague recollections that she wrote somewhere that she liked to put her characters in odd situations and let them work it out. (my paraphrase)

It's interesting that as often as I read the early WoT books, I have alomost no desire to re-read the ending, It's clever how he ties the threads together at the end, but somehow not in a way that makes me want to read it again.

Posted by: yara at November 20, 2022 09:21 AM (dm0H7)

58 I think I fall halfway between Architect and Gardener. In writing a short story I need to know exactly how it will end, so I can put in the elements needed to make the denouement work. Like telling a joke; if you don't set it up right, there's no point to the punch line.

In longer things, I have my characters and a situation, and I have a vague idea of how things will play out. It can change over the course of a longer work. In one fantasy novel, I originally wanted the climax to involve a face-off between two major characters. But as I went along, I came to realize that a "wizard's duel" would not only be cliche, but dull, and would not match the characters as they were coming to reveal themselves. Things evolved.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 09:21 AM (KAKDL)

59 . . . or making them see me as one of the stereotypes.
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs!

Hey April! I resemble that remark.

Honestly, when the kids and I discuss books, films or art, I do introduce my thoughts on the ham handed unnecessary insertion of the diversity of the characters. Our kids will eventually start to see it themselves if we thoughtfully give them the tools.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:21 AM (qoGsy)

60 Setting aside that salvation isn't about material things in the here an now, most of the Flyte family reject the Church and their responsibilities. Lord Marchmain has only himself to blame for the end of the line and the example he sets.

Waugh's point, though, is that the faith is bigger than any of that, and despite all the drama, at the end of the book, Mass is once more being heard at Brideshead, and Charles has found the one thing his life was missing: faith.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:21 AM (llXky)

61 Skip -

https://tinyurl.com/4v3nban2

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 09:22 AM (T4tVD)

62 My favorite descriptor of such tomes is "herniatic".

That's why God created trusses.

Posted by: Archimedes at November 20, 2022 09:22 AM (eOEVl)

63 Speaking of Animaniacs, and animations of that time, one of the Horde's own (whose nic I've unfortunately forgotten) wrote for several of them. I'm positive he said Freakazoid and Pinky and the Brain were projects he'd worked on. He was also the author of a satirical novel that was featured on the Book Thread several years ago, whose title I've also forgotten (this is becoming a disturbing trend). Sadly, he may not be with us anymore as he was fighting cancer (which he also wrote a book about) and I'm not sure he made it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 09:23 AM (nC+QA)

64 Nice glass of wine, and Moveable Feast by Hemmingway. Nirvana.

Visited Boston for the first time years back, and went to a Harvard Bookstore that had multiple levels. Amazed at all the early 20th century fition they had. Very nice

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:23 AM (Cw0fX)

65 Love the book blurb glossary. Some serious and accurate thought went into it.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 09:23 AM (7EjX1)

66 My favorite descriptor of such tomes is "herniatic".
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:18 AM (Dc2NZ)

As in "The herniatic Junior Senator from Pennsylvania."

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 20, 2022 09:23 AM (PiwSw)

67 . . . I need a clear beginning and end point, but I also need to have some dynamite set pieces along the way for the reader's pure enjoyment, of course. . . .

Posted by: naturalfake at November 20, 2022

***
Action scenes for me. I seem to love scenes where the characters are riding or driving something, be it a car or motorcycle in modern stories or a wagon or horses in fantasy.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 09:23 AM (KAKDL)

68 Just finished off "Raylan goes to Detroit". I was about 4 or 5 chapters in, and wondering how I missed this Elmore Leonard novel, and checked the publication date only to find out it is Peter Leonard, his son. He did capture his father's Raylan character al right. He's been publishing since 2008. Very enjoyable read. I will look into his other works. I always like character like Raylan Givens, Reacher, John Rain, badass flawed individuals.

Posted by: Paladin at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (Z/UwX)

69 Pretty bookies!

I got close enough to figuring out my Kindl that I was able to buy and begin reading Quentin Tarantino's new book, Cinema Speculation.

He begins with a description of the very lax family atmosphere that led him to see every grown-up movie in theaters when it came out. He's three years younger than I, so the names of the totemic movies are the same for him as for me, but I only remember hearing the titles. I never saw shit until VHS.

He's moved on to dissecting some movies I've never heard of, and speculating as to how various changes in cast (again, I don't know these actors) or director might have come out. When he's on something I've seen (Deliverance) he's perceptive and insightful.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (e+csY)

70 As in "The herniatic Junior Senator from Pennsylvania."
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper

His friend calls him Lumpy....

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (T4tVD)

71 "Mongols were excellent administrators"

Mister we could use a man like Genghis Khan again.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (sn5EN)

72 J.P. Mac! The satirical novel was Hallow Mass. Looks like he wrote a number of books in various genres.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 09:25 AM (nC+QA)

73 Mister we could use a man like Genghis Khan again.
Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (sn5EN)

OK, how many heard that in the "All in the Family" theme song voice?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 20, 2022 09:26 AM (PiwSw)

74 Lately, I've been hopping around between the six (so far) volumes of "The Complete Short Fiction of R A Lafferty".

As always Lafferty is a pure joy to read. Don't bother looking for the Complete etc. The volume are published by a small press and are now stupidly expensive. However, Volume 7 will show up next year at some point at a semi-reasonable price.

Right now Amazon has a best of collection with some SF writers and celebs showcasing their favorite Lafferty stories. I'd disagree with some of the choices bu-u-u-t, they give a pretty good overview. And from there you can pursue his stuff on your own should you wish.

Posted by: naturalfake at November 20, 2022 09:26 AM (KLPy8)

75 Girls like reading the Holmes stories too. Can't forget them.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:27 AM (7bRMQ)

76 Mister we could use a man like Genghis Khan again.
Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022

***
"Mister, we could use a man like Roger B. Taney again!"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 09:27 AM (KAKDL)

77

If God exists, then he/she/it has no fucking awareness of you whatsoever, and couldn't give a shit if you exist or not.

To even consider that some cosmic overlord being is aware of you in particular is the ultimate arrogance.

How dare you think that your existence is he even a blip on the radar screen for a universe creating God?

Yo pathetic worm.

Posted by: Just Askin at November 20, 2022 09:27 AM (5xA8Q)

78 For a variety of reasons I've spent a lot of time in rare book rooms and archives, so the picture makes me rather nostalgic for days of being lost in nerdy research heaven.

I spent one week at the National Archives on the University of Maryland campus. The various collections are stored in color-coded boxes which the archivists bring out to your table. Over the week, my partner and I noticed a handful of rather pasty, disheveled people. Each was looking through a red box. I asked one of the archivist which collection that was.

He kind of rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, that's the Kennedy Assassination collection." That explained A LOT and the memory still makes me laugh.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at November 20, 2022 09:28 AM (fTtFy)

79 "Mongols were excellent administrators"

Mister we could use a man like Genghis Khan again.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (sn5EN)
---
Excellent at killing people. That was it, that was their skill set.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:28 AM (llXky)

80 @73 --

Who didn't?

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 09:28 AM (Om/di)

81 How about the Atilla the Hun show on Monty Python?

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:28 AM (Cw0fX)

82 14 Still looking for a young girls book set for a gift idea, had a couple last week and book marked those.
Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (xhxe

As a former girl, I remember reading the Betsy-Tacy books, Little House (before Laura Ingalls was villified), and Swallows and Amazons.

I recall the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden Series, but didn't really get into it. I didn't buy the Sweet Valley series for kid2, but any number of girls were fond of it, seemed too soapy.

Kid2 read a lot of the Ramona Series by Beverly Cleary, and my grandsons read her Henry Huggins books. Some kids like Judy Blume, some don't as one of the books took a neutral stance on bullying in school and there was no comeuppance or even a mild epiphany for the mean girls. It made me dislike Blume, generally, as even physical harassment was laughed at by the author.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 09:28 AM (Zzbjj)

83 77 - Status of Wheaties:

Pissed in.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:29 AM (qoGsy)

84 I think Operation Chaos and Operation Luna could be written and sold today, through Baen, and an author as thick skinned and creative as Larry Correia or Sarah Hoyt.
The first one is a war book, with innovative thaumaturgical warfare and witches, and the second one is a post-war book where peace is not safe.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 09:29 AM (xhaym)

85 30 I'm currently reading A Winter Haunting, Dan Simmons' sequel to Summer of Night.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord

Thanks for recommending that one last week. Summer of Night is on my TBR soon list. Looks very good.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at November 20, 2022 09:30 AM (OX9vb)

86 Not much to report. I learned this from Pliny:

“If, at the fourth day of the moon, her horns are erect, there will be great storms at sea, unless, indeed, she has a circlet around her, and that circlet unblemished; for by that sign we are informed that there will be no stormy weather before full moon."

Got it?

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:30 AM (sn5EN)

87 Status of Wheaties:

Pissed in.

He seems nice.

Posted by: Archimedes at November 20, 2022 09:30 AM (eOEVl)

88 Status of Wheaties:

Pissed in.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:29 AM (qoGsy)
---
I do feel bad for the "I'm miserable and you should be, too" crowd.

Maybe they would feel better if they read good books!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:31 AM (llXky)

89 Still looking for a young girls book set for a gift idea, had a couple last week and book marked those.

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:03 AM (xhxe

I read Island of the Blue Dolphin several times when I qualified for the category "young girl". Apparently I've liked historical fiction my entire reading life.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 09:31 AM (nC+QA)

90 The only collectible book, I ever found that was not from a rare book store, was a first printing of Cold Mountain by Frazier, that included the page error. Chicago is a dump, but it has a very competitve rare book community

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:31 AM (Cw0fX)

91 JT or I could take my 30 gal air compressor in the truck bed

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:31 AM (xhxe8)

92 Maybe they would feel better if they read good books!
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:31 AM (llXky)
---
There's at least ONE Good Book they should read...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 20, 2022 09:31 AM (BpYfr)

93 Hashem knows your name my friend I assure you.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 20, 2022 09:32 AM (EZebt)

94 Bander, baby!

I just put Tarantino's book on hold at my library. Thanks for the recommendation.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:32 AM (Dc2NZ)

95 Perfessor, I have both volumes of The Lensman Chronicles in hardcover as well as a similar edition for the Skylark series. There are times when reading E. E. 'Doc' Smith is just right. My paperbacks from the 60s are in a serious state of 'having been read too much'.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 09:33 AM (7EjX1)

96 89. Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Narnia. Alice in Wonderland. Swiss Family etc.. But are you looking for modern only?

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:33 AM (Cw0fX)

97 Then Sheila Burnford's The Incredible Journey is "enchanting" and "heart-warming."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 09:09 AM (KAKDL)

Lol, funnily enough, it actually *was* those things. And another possibility for Skip's book search.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 09:33 AM (nC+QA)

98 Book update: Still working through Walls of Men's editing process. I'm reading it aloud, which is a great help, but time-consuming. It's helpful not just in finding mistakes, but coming up with better turns of phrase.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:33 AM (llXky)

99 Tonypete, you are in for a treat. I had my collection boxed up for a year before I could retrieve it, and pulling out the books and getting reacquainted with them was great fun.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 20, 2022 09:33 AM (PiwSw)

100 Mongols very rarely raped children under five years old.

Mostly they put them to the sword. They only very rarely spared going under five who was especially sexy so that could be sold as a barbarian fuck-toy.

Posted by: Just Askin at November 20, 2022 09:33 AM (5xA8Q)

101 @77

I'm sorry this is the Book Thread.

The Theology and Philosophy for lame-ass, ignorant 13 year olds who hate their Fathers has already come and gone.

The next one will happen in May 2024. We look forward to your participation at that time.

Posted by: naturalfake at November 20, 2022 09:35 AM (KLPy8)

102 94. Is that for his novelization of Once upon a Time in Hollywood?

Skip the new Matthew Perry bio. What a narcassist, and I am sorry, a privledged Junkie

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:35 AM (Cw0fX)

103 Tonypete, you are in for a treat. I had my collection boxed up for a year before I could retrieve it, and pulling out the books and getting reacquainted with them was great fun.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 20, 2022 09:33 AM (PiwSw)
---
When I went to college, I had to leave my beloved library behind...Eventually, when I got my own apartment, my parents sent me my library one box at a time...It really was nice to revisit my old books!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 20, 2022 09:35 AM (BpYfr)

104 Speaking of A vs G, has anyone ever had a complete story idea just pop into his/her head?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:35 AM (7bRMQ)

105 My 11 year old niece got me hooked on the Hunger Games trilogy, years back

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:36 AM (Cw0fX)

106 81 How about the Atilla the Hun show on Monty Python?
Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:28 AM (Cw0fX)
---

The laugh track killed it for me.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:38 AM (Dc2NZ)

107 As part of an ongoing household reorganization, I'm culling the book collection. Our Tolkien library has become a bit bloated, partly a function of the years when my father just got me a Tolkien-related book for Christmas and called it good.

Thus, we have three copies of the same David Day companion, two of which seem to be abridgements of the longer original. So those are being donated. When my wife took a class on Tolkien, I believe she bought a "sourcebook" that is now completely out of date, so that's also in the box.

Additional donations will be made when I get Walls of Men published. Some books I bought for research will hang around, others won't.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:38 AM (llXky)

108 Morning kids! Book club finished Rendezvous with Rama. A good fun read but ultimately leaves the readers hanging.

Started Vonneguts Sirens of Titan and it is...weird.

Posted by: blaster at November 20, 2022 09:39 AM (pwExq)

109 72 J.P. Mac! The satirical novel was Hallow Mass. Looks like he wrote a number of books in various genres.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette

Oh, yeah! I read that, and enjoyed it. Didn't know all of the rest of that about him.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at November 20, 2022 09:40 AM (OX9vb)

110 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 09:40 AM (Zz0t1)

111 Chicago is a dump, but it has a very competitve rare book community

When I was at a Chicago Comicon in the '80s, I ventured into the city proper to check out a comics shop. Dumpiest place I'd ever seen, but when I told the proprietor what I was seeking ("Modesty Blaise" reprints), he went directly to one stack and dug them out.

That incident floored me. What a memory he must have had.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 09:40 AM (Om/di)

112 yes those with an arrogance to try to comprehend the mind of God, thats not a new thing, its one of the oldest things in our history,

Posted by: no 6 at November 20, 2022 09:40 AM (PXvVL)

113 Does anybody ever sit down with no story at all in mind and just start writing? What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

114 What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?

It was a bright and calm day.

Posted by: Archimedes at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (eOEVl)

115 I wouldn't wear those pants but I would read the guilty pleasure. And I'd read it guilt-free!

Posted by: who knew at November 20, 2022 09:42 AM (4I7VG)

116 I see Satan has arrived with words of encouragement this morning @ 09:27 AM (5xA8Q)

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at November 20, 2022 09:42 AM (OX9vb)

117 Does anybody ever sit down with no story at all in mind and just start writing? What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

It was a....

Wait.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:42 AM (7bRMQ)

118 >> Still looking for a young girls book set for a gift idea, had a couple last week and book marked those.

Probably already mentioned: Jane Austen books.
Not a series, but always excellent.
Also the Anne of Green Gables series? I did not read it, but it is beloved by many.

Posted by: Lizzy at November 20, 2022 09:42 AM (I/doM)

119 A friend told me a story once where he prefaced it with "I bet you care more for animals than you do humans."

The story was of a man and his dog. They were incredibly close. One day, the man was sitting in his chair with the dog in his lap, had a massive heart attack and died. They had the funeral and the dog wouldn't leave the chair. He stayed in it day and night, wouldn't leave it to eat or drink and eventually died.

My reaction of "Oh that's terrible" was returned with "See? The man died and you didn't bat an eye, but the DOG dies......."

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 09:43 AM (Zz0t1)

120 When I went to college, I had to leave my beloved library behind...Eventually, when I got my own apartment, my parents sent me my library one box at a time...It really was nice to revisit my old books!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 20, 2022 09:35 AM (BpYfr)
---
Despite living in town, my mother preferred that I stay in the dorms when I went to college.

She then packed up all my stuff without warning, and moved it to the cottage up north. She sold the townhouse and got an apartment. I didn't even rate a room, just a couch, which made breaks very awkward.

After I graduated, I got my own place and then could retrieve my things - such as my book and gaming collection. Our relationship was strained for a while after that.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:43 AM (llXky)

121 What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?

It was a dark and stormy night...

Posted by: Bandersnatch at November 20, 2022 09:43 AM (e+csY)

122 The last time John went to Walmart, he swore he would never go again.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:43 AM (sn5EN)

123 What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?

Perhaps a novel opening would include #77's diatribe. A skilled author could go in all sorts of directions.

Interesting.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:44 AM (qoGsy)

124 I started on the latest Tolkien-related book, "The Fall of Numenor". It's not new material but a compilation of all the info about the Second Age available through LOTR and the various 'histories'. Brian Sibley assembled the info and arranged it, as best he could, in chronological order. So far it's been well done and means I don't have to dig through 15 or so volumes when I want the information. It's also included details about Numenor I had forgot. Worth the cost to Tolkien geeks. (Raises hand.)

BTW, the book is illustrated by Alan Lee with a dozen or so full color plates and many, many pencil sketches. That is always a pleasure.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 09:44 AM (7EjX1)

125 CN - Betsy-Tacy does sound interesting, my sister has already gotten Little House books

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:45 AM (xhxe8)

126 "Marie just sat there, purse in here lap, fumbling for a tissue."

Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:45 AM (qoGsy)

127 That was the day he saw THOSE PANTS.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:45 AM (sn5EN)

128 It was a dark and stormy night...
Posted by: Bandersnatch at November 20, 2022 09:43 AM (e+csY)
----
...and then the murders began...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 20, 2022 09:45 AM (BpYfr)

129 I don't remember disposing of my copy of "First Lensman," chunks of which I read several times, but I can't find it in the house.

Makes me sad. I'd love to have all of the series.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 09:46 AM (Om/di)

130 After I graduated, I got my own place and then could retrieve my things - such as my book and gaming collection. Our relationship was strained for a while after that.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:43 AM (llXky)

Eh, she could have just thrown all of it out.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:47 AM (7bRMQ)

131 124. . Read it is excellent. Aragon's ancestors

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:47 AM (Cw0fX)

132 Posted by: Just Askin at November 20, 2022 09:27 AM (5xA8Q)

You DICK!!!!

Posted by: Jeff Spicoli at November 20, 2022 09:47 AM (Zz0t1)

133 My reaction of "Oh that's terrible" was returned with "See? The man died and you didn't bat an eye, but the DOG dies......."

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 09:43 AM (Zz0t1)
---
Rhetorical trick. The man's death was a preface, the story was about the dog. Reverse the roles (dog dies and man starves himself) and you'd get the same response.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:47 AM (llXky)

134 How young of a young girl? My granddaughter is 6 and into graphic novels. This seems to be the new thing. She requested Osborne's Magic Treehouse set. The first ones I found which are pretty simple are the Narwhal books. Several characters with speech bubbles. We would pick a character and read it like a play. She especially enjoyed making the sounds and I was amazed at the vocabulary she already had.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 09:47 AM (Y+l9t)

135 What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

This one time? At band camp?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 09:48 AM (Zz0t1)

136 I'm more of an architect when it comes to writing - my first historical was very planned-out, as it was an account of a wagon train on the California-Oregon trail in 1844. The next series was very planned also; certain events and characters had to be included, so I constructed the plot to take advantage. Still - there is always room for surprises - and having a last-minute development which I have to go back into what I have already written to account for it.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at November 20, 2022 09:48 AM (xnmPy)

137 Reading "The Catch: A Vanessa Michael Munroe Novel" and it's so typical of today's thriller fare.

It's Somali pirates and all that horn of Africa stuff, Munroe some kind of merc with the combined skills of Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne.

Except she's a woman. But no one knows she's a woman. She looks like a young man.

I'm too chep to buy books, and Libby / Overdrive is my source for reads. I scroll page after page of listings 9 out of 10 are female authors and every hero is a girl.

In The Catch, no one has the tiniest concern or hint this person might be a girl. It's unreal.

But the action sequences are as good as any in the best Bourne or Reacher stories, so I keep reading.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at November 20, 2022 09:48 AM (8zHDF)

138 And so begins my novel of an enraged turkey farmer who rises to control a galactic empire.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:48 AM (sn5EN)

139 36 "Animal Farm" was enchanting!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:14 AM (Dc2NZ)

The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.

Posted by: rhennigantx at November 20, 2022 09:48 AM (BRHaw)

140 Yall can fill in the blanks.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:48 AM (sn5EN)

141 ---
Rhetorical trick. The man's death was a preface, the story was about the dog. Reverse the roles (dog dies and man starves himself) and you'd get the same response.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:47 AM (llXky)

Well, yes....The psychiatric games we play.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 09:49 AM (Zz0t1)

142 Perhaps a novel opening would include #77's diatribe. A skilled author could go in all sorts of directions.

Interesting.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 20, 2022 09:44 AM (qoGsy)

Are you challenging us to a short story contest??

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:49 AM (7bRMQ)

143 Eh, she could have just thrown all of it out.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 09:47 AM (7bRMQ)
---
I think she was tempted, but there was an incident where she threw away things in middle school that did not go well. Also, many of the books were gifts from her parents, so that would have unleashed some serious collateral damage.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:49 AM (llXky)

144 111. Powell's on Chicago's northside, was a excellent used book place. they use to have many comic book shops near Wrigley Field and on Broadway. All gone, replaced by Gender progressive book stores, where the books sell about 5 copies

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:49 AM (Cw0fX)

145 >>She requested Osborne's Magic Treehouse set.

My son enjoyed those, then moved on to Captain Underpants (the latter series my hubby insists set him down a road of misspellings).

Posted by: Lizzy at November 20, 2022 09:50 AM (I/doM)

146 Pippi Longstocking

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:50 AM (Cw0fX)

147 I started rereading the whole Silmarillion for the first time in many years. It was such a change from LOTR and The Hobbit, which I had memorized by then, that I hurried through it. I expect to get a lot more from it this time with decades more reading and literary background. And an older attitude.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (7EjX1)

148 "Reverse the roles (dog dies and man starves himself) and you'd get the same response.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd "

What if the man is Hitler?

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (sn5EN)

149 "At least 18 people were injured after shots were fired at Club Q in Colorado Springs just before midnight, a police spokesperson has confirmed."

Daily Mail more honest than North American media, "They say it is too early to determine if the shooting was a targeted hate crime."

And, yes, it was a Drag Night earlier. "It is unclear how the suspect was injured, though early reports suggest the gunmen was subdued by patrons inside the club, which had been sponsoring a drag show earlier in the night."

https://tinyurl.com/yc6jd2rd

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (yikp0)

150
What if the man is Hitler?
Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (sn5EN)

Who had one ball.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 09:52 AM (Zz0t1)

151 Pippi Longstocking

How DARE you!

Posted by: Greta Thunberg at November 20, 2022 09:52 AM (e+csY)

152 Pulls out the God-Emperor Trump video Chosen By Heaven

https://youtu.be/_g8A96RPJDc

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 20, 2022 09:52 AM (ybIRR)

153 You can never have enough Tolkien

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:52 AM (Cw0fX)

154 I started rereading the whole Silmarillion for the first time in many years. It was such a change from LOTR and The Hobbit, which I had memorized by then, that I hurried through it. I expect to get a lot more from it this time with decades more reading and literary background. And an older attitude.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (7EjX1)
---
I did my re-read last month. The theological questions were much more apparent this time.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:52 AM (llXky)

155 Currently reading Into the Rockies: St. Louis to Leadville by Samuel Plunkett. This is the story of the Plunkett family's journey via covered wagon into the West in the 1870's. Written in the form of Plunkett's diary, it details the daily adventures juxtaposed against the tedium and monotonous sameness of each day after day after day crossing the plains.

Excerpt-
May 15, 1872. This Great Migration West continues to disappoint us. Yesterday we were separated from the rest of the wagon train. The wagon might have lost a wheel, so we stopped for a few days. I seem to lack ambition, and am tempted to just put some roots down in the ground. The land is so level that you can see for miles in all directions. Granddad still stands on his own two feet, but we worry that his mind is incomplete. I wonder if this land has a water table that will support dryland wheat? Still, the lure of the silver fields of Colorado is strong. Beans and biskets again for supper. And so to bed.

Highly recommend.

Posted by: N. Clement Withers at November 20, 2022 09:53 AM (ykeLU)

156 I'm not a writer, but like every other Moron (and moron) out there I have opinions...

It would probably be hard for me to read either an extreme Architect or extreme Gardener. I've read enough books with unsatisfying resolutions that seem to fit the Gardener mold. Wonderful and engaging throughout, then just ends... like... that?

With Architects it sometimes seems the story is a little too rigid and I'm more likely to guess at a twist or association that was meant to be a surprise later.

So I guess I like a nicely structured home with a little garden outside. *raises coffee to balance in the writing*

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 09:53 AM (ftFVW)

157 Daily Mail more honest than North American media, "They say it is too early to determine if the shooting was a targeted hate crime."

https://tinyurl.com/yc6jd2rd
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (yikp0)

Most crimes entail a modicum of hate. The fact that we've used law to apply an amount making one crime 'more hateful' than another saddens me.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 09:53 AM (Zz0t1)

158 What if the man is Hitler?

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (sn5EN)
---
Well, he did a lot of awful things, but he also killed Hitler, so there's that.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:54 AM (llXky)

159 This one time? At band camp?
Posted by: Sponge

I'd read that one.😏

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 09:54 AM (Y+l9t)

160 Don't call me Ishmael; that's my deadname.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 20, 2022 09:54 AM (PiwSw)

161 125 CN - Betsy-Tacy does sound interesting, my sister has already gotten Little House books
Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:45 AM (xhxe

The main complaint these days is that the characters are "old fashioned" and not aspiring to be lawyers and accountants and such. Well, it's an old series, and that was the case. The characters grow up, but they do not grow up in 2022.

It's not a series, but I liked Understood Betsy (not the same Betsy or author), as it dealt with self-reliance and becoming a competent person.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 09:55 AM (Zzbjj)

162 You can never have enough Tolkien

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:52 AM (Cw0fX)

Maaan, I started Tolkien in the 60s.

Posted by: Pony Tailed Burnout at November 20, 2022 09:55 AM (7bRMQ)

163 I love Sanderson and hate G RR Martin so guess I am firmly in one camp.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 09:56 AM (Y+l9t)

164 "Don't call me Ishmael; that's my deadname.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper"

You see? Imagine where that could take you!

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:56 AM (sn5EN)

165 You can never have enough Tolkien

Posted by: Jonah at November 20, 2022 09:52 AM (Cw0fX)
---
Certainly his wife thought so. Look how many kids they had!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:56 AM (llXky)

166 My kids enjoyed The Magic Treehouse books.

Daughter liked the innumerable "fairy" stories -- they were named after colors, then flowers, then who knows what else -- and a series about a grade school girl, told in first person -- oh, what was her name?! Fifteen years wasn't that long ago!

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 09:56 AM (Om/di)

167 Good morning everyone,

Finished "The End of Procrastination." There are some good takeaways in the book such as how to set goals, manage day to day stuff more efficiently. Interesting bits like the Dunning-Krueger Effect- which the US Government seems to be suffering through.
Also good takeaways about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation in organizations. If you are in leadership, suffering through toxic leaders, or need to get your ass in gear, I'd say pick this up. It's a quick read with some doodle illustrations to visually cement concepts into your noodle.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO- the sequel to Outward Frontier, a military sci-fi series on Amazon at November 20, 2022 09:57 AM (lce+N)

168 I caught the 'flu so I holed up on the couch with Patrick O'Brien's Post Captain, and finally almost finished The Lightning Conductor by Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson, which is the Edwardian motor car story (published in 1903) of a young American heiress, Molly Randolph, taking a tour of Southern France with her Aunt Mary, who decided to buy one of the brand new motor cars for the tour and not be stuck taking trains from point to point.

Her first vehicle, a Benz, is a lemon and her fist chauffeur steals the repair money and runs away, and she is adopted by a man who calls himself John Brown and claims to be the chauffeur to a minor English nobleman named Jack Winston and who has at his disposal "his master's Napier motor car" with two seats and a capacious tonneau in the back, and of course a letter of recommendation.
It is pointed out immediately to the reader that John Brown is Jack Winston, son of Lady Brighthelmson, and he wrote his own letter of recommendation because he took a shine to Molly and couldn't bear to leave her to be preyed on by the unscrupulous and the French, since this is a comedic farce, and not a dark fiction.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 10:00 AM (xhaym)

169 The Lightning Conductor is a leisurely sight seeing trip through the South of France and Italy, by the exciting innovation of the motor car, with the Edwardian mores in full bloom, written as a series of letters by the principal characters to their family and friends. In the end the friends and family of Jack and Molly ambush the party to discover who this "John Brown" actually is

As an Edwardian bit of fluff, It is actually pretty good, it is up there with most of the pre-Great War fiction I have read through. I think it is the language use and approach to the exciting new future. As a time-capsule to what was considered important, I think it is pretty good too, too early for propaganda bleed over that most American fiction seems to have picked prior to WWI

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 10:00 AM (xhaym)

170 The main complaint these days is that the characters are "old fashioned" and not aspiring to be lawyers and accountants and such. Well, it's an old series, and that was the case. The characters grow up, but they do not grow up in 2022.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 09:55 AM (Zzbjj)
---
Given the current state of the world with rampant increases in addiction and suicide, arguing that everyone who came before us was stupid and miserable is completely indefensible.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:00 AM (llXky)

171 Finished "The End of Procrastination."
--------------
I've been too busy playing Call Of Duty to get around to that but it's on my list.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:01 AM (yikp0)

172 As a fellow Moron writer, I'm definitely a gardener. I've tried to plot things out on spreadsheets, following tried and true formulas about plot, hero's journey and all that, and I end up putting more time into that then actually writing. I guess my brain isn't wired that way.
And this whole business of gardening is on a whim. I write when the "writing bug" bites. Stephen Pressfield calls it The Muse and treats it like an entity that is actively inspiring him, telling jim to get motivated and write- because the Muse might not come back. It's an interesting thought for sure, and I've felt this Muse or bite of the bug at times. And when you're in the groove, it flows. Forcing it- I can't.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO- the sequel to Outward Frontier, a military sci-fi series on Amazon at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (lce+N)

173 I finished reading AH Lloyd"s Long Live Death. This is a can't miss if you are anyway interested in military history.

You could also say it might be a blueprint for a future reader.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (1DgE4)

174 Something I find interesting about some of the girls' books, is the number of adult women reading them for the first time. I understand that parents might do this, but I come away with the impression that these women are reading them for themselves. Not sure if it was a "nice things I missed or critique of US culture" or because they're overgrown kids, themselves.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (Zzbjj)

175 The other graphic novels series my son said she was reading is Baby-sitters Little Sister series. Think there might be multiple authors.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (Y+l9t)

176 OT: John Ford's Two Rode Together w/ James Stewart, Richard Widmark, and Shirley Jones is on Grit. Linda Cristal, later of TV's The High Chaparral, is in it too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (KAKDL)

177 Does anybody ever sit down with no story at all in mind and just start writing? What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

That's what my character/world creation system is for. A deck of regular cards and a short list can get you a decent starter.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 10:03 AM (nC+QA)

178 Wont be reading much until after Thursday. Tonypete, I do wish lots of happy reading to you and the lovely Mrs. in your new abode. Enjoy!

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at November 20, 2022 10:03 AM (a4EWo)

179 I finished reading AH Lloyd"s Long Live Death. This is a can't miss if you are anyway interested in military history.

You could also say it might be a blueprint for a future reader.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (1DgE4)
---
Glad you liked it!

And yes, I'm increasingly pessimistic about avoiding Spain's fate.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:04 AM (llXky)

180 171 Finished "The End of Procrastination."
--------------
I've been too busy playing Call Of Duty to get around to that but it's on my list.
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:01 AM (yikp0)

LOL. I've been procrastinating about copying excerpts from the book. Hey, the spirit is willing....the flesh is weak

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO- the sequel to Outward Frontier, a military sci-fi series on Amazon at November 20, 2022 10:04 AM (lce+N)

181 That funny blurb list reminds me of Walter Monheit's Blurb-O-Mat from the late, great Spy Magazine.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at November 20, 2022 09:10 AM (Dc2NZ)

What I don't understand is how Graydon Carter went from being a guy who was the editor of a mag that thumbed its nose at New York culture, especially the rotten magazine industry... to being an editor (or whatever) in the largest rotten magazine company.

Sellout is the main word that fits. Phony is another.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:04 AM (NWBBy)

182 As a fellow Moron writer, I'm definitely a gardener. I've tried to plot things out on spreadsheets, following tried and true formulas about plot, hero's journey and all that, and I end up putting more time into that then actually writing. I guess my brain isn't wired that way.
And this whole business of gardening is on a whim. I write when the "writing bug" bites. Stephen Pressfield calls it The Muse and treats it like an entity that is actively inspiring him, telling jim to get motivated and write- because the Muse might not come back. It's an interesting thought for sure, and I've felt this Muse or bite of the bug at times. And when you're in the groove, it flows. Forcing it- I can't.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO- the sequel to Outward Frontier, a military sci-fi series on Amazon at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (lce+N)

Are you the one I see in the mirror every day?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 10:04 AM (7bRMQ)

183 OT: John Ford's Two Rode Together w/ James Stewart, Richard Widmark, and Shirley Jones is on Grit. Linda Cristal, later of TV's The High Chaparral, is in it too.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (KAKDL)

Shirley Jones is smokin' in that one.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:04 AM (Zz0t1)

184 Leader, not reader.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at November 20, 2022 10:05 AM (1DgE4)

185 Something I find interesting about some of the girls' books, is the number of adult women reading them for the first time. I understand that parents might do this, but I come away with the impression that these women are reading them for themselves. Not sure if it was a "nice things I missed or critique of US culture" or because they're overgrown kids, themselves.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM (Zzbjj)
---
All of the above.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:05 AM (llXky)

186 The kiddos got a lot of mileage out of Magic Treehouse when they were younger. They generally progressed to Heroes in Training after that (which is kind of like Percy Jackson for a slightly younger set).

Was a little weirded out when my mid-elementary kid brought home a John Grisham book from the school library. Had no idea Grisham had written children's books.

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:06 AM (ftFVW)

187 Has anyone read Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace? I keep reading in various places that it's amazing.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 20, 2022 10:07 AM (PiwSw)

188 The sorting and boxing of books continues. I came to the question of large picture books this week. Keep or not?

Most of them I thought I would keep, but then leafed through a few and thought "why lug this heavy thing to another house?" Often the pictures aren't that great, they were published before modern digital reproduction.

It was a lot easier to get rid of book I'd already read, but this was something of a surprise to me, how easy it is to decide I don't need them.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:07 AM (NWBBy)

189 Listened to a podcast-short story on Spotify "Case 63". Sic-Fi time travel story. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Only ten episodes, about ten minutes each. So, about an hour and half.

Posted by: Paladin at November 20, 2022 10:07 AM (Z/UwX)

190 'Twas a dark and stormy lake.

Deep too.

Posted by: Miklos may have just written that at November 20, 2022 10:07 AM (NOVDU)

191 Old Yeller was heart rending.
Posted by: SFGoth at November 20, 2022 09:00 AM (KAi1n)

So was Apocalypto

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 10:07 AM (xhaym)

192
Was a little weirded out when my mid-elementary kid brought home a John Grisham book from the school library. Had no idea Grisham had written children's books.
Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:06 AM (ftFVW)

I'm glad we spent the time we did reading to our daughter from an early age. She'd taken to books quite well after that and will smoke through them regularly. She was reading at a 3rd grade level in Kindergarten and never looked back.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:08 AM (Zz0t1)

193 @155 --

I love "diary" books.

The Britcom "Yes, Minister" put out two books that told the stories as James Hacker's diary entries, interspersed with Civil Service memos and interviews with a retired head of the Civil Service, who at the time had been Hacker's assistant. Bertram made good!

Oh, and lots of footnotes.

I have only the first one. Someday I'll buy the sequel, "Yes, Prime Minister."

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 10:08 AM (Om/di)

194 Twas a dark and stormy lake.

Deep too.
Posted by: Miklos may have just written that at November 20, 2022 10:07 AM (NOVDU

The lake was wet and full of water......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:09 AM (Zz0t1)

195 Finished "the Feather Thief", a great book abiout a crime mostlhy solved and a weird underground of obsessive collectors that you probably never knew existed. When my brother took up fly-tying for a spell I thought it was kind of a cool hobby. Now I'm not so sure.
Started "Andes" by Michael Jacobs, who decides to travel the entire length of the Andes. Should be fascinating. The first 50 pages were good. Only 500 more to go (the Andes are really long).

Posted by: who knew at November 20, 2022 10:09 AM (4I7VG)

196 Okay, so I've been avoiding talking about my own reading this week. Sigh.
It was kind of unrewarding. I decided I had to get away from the blog until the politics subsided. I read two more Marines in Space book by Christopher Nuttall and they filled my time and were enjoyable but then wandered through my unread books and did not find anything of interest.
Yesterday the library sent me the new Sanderson, The Lost Metal and started it last night but did not immediately get into it. I am a bit worried.
The word that comes to mind is ennui.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 10:10 AM (Y+l9t)

197 I'm presently reading Ellery Queen's Hollywood mysteries and enjoying both the discovery of a new detective series and the evocation of Tinseltown in the 1930's. I grew very tired of Miss Marple. Queen reminds me of Archie in the Nero Wolfe books but with a softer edge to him. I marvel anew at just how much boozing and smoking people did in the 30's - I feel my liver protesting every time Queen pours himself another brandy, which happens on every second page.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at November 20, 2022 10:11 AM (HabA/)

198 Given the current state of the world with rampant increases in addiction and suicide, arguing that everyone who came before us was stupid and miserable is completely indefensible.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:00 AM (llXky)

Yes. One comment I read about Betsy Tacy series suggested that the author was sort of a prescient woke heroine for having the "courage" to introduce the idea that the girls could have a friend from an immigrant family. Seems the stupid people are those who have no clue that there were immigrants before the illegal aliens started swarming in, or that legal immigrants could be accepted into a school or a society.

I have had the "your view of history is ahistorical conversation with my kids" both of whom had a hard time accepting that what they were taught was heavily biased. In college, kid2 was made to take a modern society course, that completely ignored reality about growing up in the 60s and 70s, as that period was the focus. One would have thought that girls were inundated with supermodels and the idea that they were to skip college and take a secretarial course.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:11 AM (Zzbjj)

199 Looking for books for 2nd - 3rd grade girl.

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 10:12 AM (xhxe8)

200 Looking for books for 2nd - 3rd grade girl.
Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 10:12 AM (xhxe8 )

Your hash seems all pronoun-y.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:13 AM (Zz0t1)

201
Tonypete,
Where's the new abode?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 10:13 AM (lTfHm)

202 Daily Mail more honest than North American media, "They say it is too early to determine if the shooting was a targeted hate crime."

https://tinyurl.com/yc6jd2rd
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 09:51 AM (yikp0)

"The medical facilities are currently working to notify families of their loved ones' conditions."

Yeah, I bet some of those conversations are going to include phrases from the "loved ones" like, "How is that possible, why in the world would he have been in a gay night club?"

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:14 AM (NWBBy)

203 Bought and read AH Lloyd's 'LONG LIVE DEATH', his military history/overview of the Spanish Civil War.
It's excellent and I highly recommend it.
It's laid out a little like a blog (no indented paragraphs, for instance) and there are a LOT of proofreading errors but the substance of the book is top-notch.
I'm glad I bought it and read it. Really good stuff.

Posted by: LenNeal at November 20, 2022 10:14 AM (U11/V)

204 Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at November 20, 2022 10:03 AM (a4EWo)

How are you holding up?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 10:14 AM (nC+QA)

205 I'm glad we spent the time we did reading to our daughter from an early age. She'd taken to books quite well after that and will smoke through them regularly. She was reading at a 3rd grade level in Kindergarten and never looked back.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden

Oh, for sure. Was able to homeschool the little people until a couple years ago and we read with them SO MUCH. When I had to make the shift to outside schooling, their teachers were just flabbergasted at how well they could all read. It's amazing what a difference reading together at home makes.

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:14 AM (ftFVW)

206 199 Looking for books for 2nd - 3rd grade girl.
Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 10:12 AM (xhxe

Maybe some select titles from the Choose Your Own Adventure series? There are some that feature young girls as the protagonist. Might be a good time reading together with mom/dad/grandpa

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO- the sequel to Outward Frontier, a military sci-fi series on Amazon at November 20, 2022 10:14 AM (lce+N)

207
Yeah, I bet some of those conversations are going to include phrases from the "loved ones" like, "How is that possible, why in the world would he have been in a gay night club?"
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:14 AM (NWBBy)

"Scientific investigation."

- - Dr. Anthony Fauci

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:15 AM (Zz0t1)

208 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:00 AM (llXky)

I chose to buy magazines from the 60s and 70s to undermine the professor's stance, and ultimately the prof admitted that she was totally unaware of what real girls saw and read. The 60s and 70s teen models were quite often teens and not Christina Ferrare or Pattie Boyd who were in Vogue not Seventeen Magazine. The mags were not all WASP either. I let the prof borrow these magazines until the end of the semester. Contemporary sources are better than wokey slurs

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:16 AM (Zzbjj)

209 I'm presently reading Ellery Queen's Hollywood mysteries and enjoying both the discovery of a new detective series and the evocation of Tinseltown in the 1930's. I grew very tired of Miss Marple. Queen reminds me of Archie in the Nero Wolfe books but with a softer edge to him. I marvel anew at just how much boozing and smoking people did in the 30's - I feel my liver protesting every time Queen pours himself another brandy, which happens on every second page.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at November 20, 2022

***
The first of the two, The Devil to Pay, is not really up to the standard Queen himself set in his first decade. The follow-up, The Four of Hearts, is a wonder, with Hollywood screwball comedy mixed with a solid mystery. The later The Origin of Evil is darker but still a dynamite story.

Brandy and Scotch, exactly, and Ellery was a big "cigaret" smoker and pipe smoker.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:16 AM (KAKDL)

210
Maybe some select titles from the Choose Your Own Adventure series? There are some that feature young girls as the protagonist. Might be a good time reading together with mom/dad/grandpa
Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO- the sequel to Outward Frontier, a military sci-fi series on Amazon at November 20, 2022 10:14 AM (lce+N)

Get em into the classics. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were big players when I was that age.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:17 AM (Zz0t1)

211 Well, I'm off to go explore lava fields near the Columbia River gorge. Hope you all have a great day.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of ALAMO- the sequel to Outward Frontier, a military sci-fi series on Amazon at November 20, 2022 10:17 AM (lce+N)

212 Colorado Springs Club Q shooting presser now.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:18 AM (yikp0)

213 Playing cards and card games--as a representation of gambling--have long been portrayed as a sinful vice.

-
I am somewhat disturbed by the proliferation of these ads for online gambling including first bets free. I don't know what, if any, safeguards exist but many people can fall down those rabbit holes.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (FVME7)

214 Colorado Springs Club Q shooting presser now.
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:18 AM (yikp0)

"The suspect is a white male and was wearing a red MAGA hat yelling 'this is MAGA COUNTRY bitches.'"

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (Zz0t1)

215 Glad you liked it!

And yes, I'm increasingly pessimistic about avoiding Spain's fate.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:04 AM (llXky)

What do you have coming up? I could recommend that you do a book on why Poland and France fell so easy. Besides what is commonly written. That is.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (1DgE4)

216 @193 --

Bernard, not Bertram!

Apologies to both.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (Om/di)

217 Operation Chaos, written in the '50s, is lots of imaginative fun. Operation Luna, from decades later, is, sadly, comparatively dull. Just one beast's opinion.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at November 20, 2022 10:20 AM (SPNTN)

218 The word that comes to mind is ennui.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Don't be like poor Neville...

https://tinyurl.com/4cmu6tnr

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:21 AM (ftFVW)

219
Don't be like poor Neville...

https://tinyurl.com/4cmu6tnr
Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:21 AM (ftFVW)

It's better than dying of dysentery.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:22 AM (Zz0t1)

220 Operation Chaos, written in the '50s, is lots of imaginative fun. Operation Luna, from decades later, is, sadly, comparatively dull. Just one beast's opinion.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at November 20, 2022 10:20 AM (SPNTN)
---
I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 20, 2022 10:22 AM (BpYfr)

221 Does anybody ever sit down with no story at all in mind and just start writing? What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?
Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

As a reader, I've seen stories that seemed to start in the middle of something, and then work their way backward and forward, interspersing each in a way that captures my attention.

So if you're writing, maybe do that. Come up with an interesting scene, an interesting character doing/being involved in something interesting, then explore what caused it, and what will come of it.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:23 AM (NWBBy)

222 I'm glad we spent the time we did reading to our daughter from an early age. She'd taken to books quite well after that and will smoke through them regularly. She was reading at a 3rd grade level in Kindergarten and never looked back.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden

Thats what my mom did for me. I ended up skipping most of kindergarten because I was reading, so they put me in first grade. She did the same thing with numbers. I still remember our phone number of the house we moved out of when i was 4.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 10:24 AM (VwHCD)

223 Sponge had that for some time, said that right away

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 10:24 AM (xhxe8)

224 Queen reminds me of Archie in the Nero Wolfe books but with a softer edge to him. . . .
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at November 20, 2022

***
Ellery changed over the years with the changes in readers' preferences. The early Ellery was a tweed-clad, pince-nez wearing classicist who was fond of spouting Greek, Latin, or French tags; a little hard to like (with the exception of his good relationship with his inspector father). But the plots are utterly dazzling.

Around 1936 Ellery became more human and the stories began to deal more with human emotions, including his. In 1940 and lasting through 1958 Ellery was quite human, occasionally wrong (and sometimes that led to someone dying who should not have, which affected him), and the stories are less puzzles than they are forerunners of today's mystery. There's even a )non-gory) serial killer story. In the last years, 1963 to 1972, the stories are more formalized again, but still very readable with a few exceptions.

I envy you your journey through the EQ stories.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:24 AM (KAKDL)

225 Looking for books for 2nd - 3rd grade girl.
Posted by: Skip

Have they read the Little House books. I loved those as a young hobbit.

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:24 AM (ftFVW)

226 I've got to change the oil in the wife's Bitty Bus, get some hooks to screw into the garage ceiling to hang the bikes on and clear out some space to move the boxes of my mom's stuff to free up the formal dining area for the Christmas tree.

I really should get started on that soon.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:25 AM (Zz0t1)

227 ...yelling 'this is MAGA COUNTRY bitches.'"
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (Zz0t1)

Well yeah. I mean, maybe not that particular establishment, but Colorado Springs is. Most of Colorado is.

In fact, if God was going to select the modern Sodom and Gomorrah, Denver would be on the short list.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:25 AM (NWBBy)

228 >>> 214
==
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (Zz0t1)

Sounds like the Eff.Bee.EYE is on the case.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at November 20, 2022 10:26 AM (llON8)

229 On kids' books, grandson2's class had to do a reading related project. My grandson chose the Jean George Mountain trilogy which was age appropriate and which he did himself. Most kids did age appropriate things and the projects looked like a 4th grader did them. One kid did Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, which seemed entirely out of place.

As an aside, when did all of you Tolkien fans first read the series? One of the boys claimed to have read it five times, so I ask. They are nine years old

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:26 AM (Zzbjj)

230 Thats what my mom did for me. I ended up skipping most of kindergarten because I was reading, so they put me in first grade. She did the same thing with numbers. I still remember our phone number of the house we moved out of when i was 4.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 10:24 AM (VwHCD)

I remember our original address from the first house I remember and the phone number my grandparents had before we moved to Texas.

Other than that, I've killed too many brain cells for much more than that.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:26 AM (Zz0t1)

231 As a reader, I've seen stories that seemed to start in the middle of something, and then work their way backward and forward, interspersing each in a way that captures my attention.

So if you're writing, maybe do that. Come up with an interesting scene, an interesting character doing/being involved in something interesting, then explore what caused it, and what will come of it.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022

***
I often have a challenge "hooking" a reader. So I often take a crucial, tense, or danger-filled scene from later in the story, move it up front to catch the reader's attention, then jump back in time to show how our hero/heroine got into that fix. The old TV show The Fugitive would do that -- run a dramatic scene from late in the episode to the front, as a teaser before the opening credits, then pick up with the real beginning.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:27 AM (KAKDL)

232 Watching " An Officer and a Gentleman"

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 20, 2022 10:27 AM (Irn0L)

233 Sponge had that for some time, said that right away
Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 10:24 AM (xhxe

LOL. Tis a sad state we're in these days.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:27 AM (Zz0t1)

234 Watching " An Officer and a Gentleman"

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 20, 2022 10:27 AM (Irn0L)

BOOBIES!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 10:28 AM (Zz0t1)

235 Soon I need to run out to the grocery, pharmacy, and gas station. As always, a few things I forgot (despite keeping a shopping list) crop up on Sunday.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:29 AM (KAKDL)

236 Heavy has 5 Facts already.
https://heavy.com/news/
anderson-lee-aldrich/

Heavy piece already covered in DM info although club claims it was 'hate motivated'.

Presser coverage already over on U.S. and Hoser news stations. Cop heavily implied it was a 'hate crime' but didn't literally say it. Also used "him" so it's unlikely 'he' is trans.

Apparently, sucking off Joe Biden is more important to CNN than dead gays as they're covering Joe.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:30 AM (yikp0)

237 It was a good week for hobby reading. The new issue of Fly Tyer magazine arrived with an article about the history of the Royal Wulff fly and its variations. Pleasant reading.

Also, I have a several books about sketching with pencil and pen and ink aimed squarely at beginners. Part of the enjoyment is being able to try the materials and techniques as they come up in the books. Hold the pencil a certain way? Check. Learn to use a very light touch or heavier one fr shading and contours? Check. Have some patience while developing on these skills? Still working on that one.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 10:31 AM (7EjX1)

238 As an aside, when did all of you Tolkien fans first read the series? One of the boys claimed to have read it five times, so I ask. They are nine years old
Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:26 AM (Zzbjj)

I read LOTR after having seen the movies, as an adult. I'm glad I did, I don't think I would have enjoyed the films as much if I'd done it the other way.

However, I read The Hobbit after reading LOTR, and before I saw any of Pete Jax's silly movies. What a pile of garbage those are, and I'm not sure had I not read the simple story first it would have changed my opinion. Objectively, they're just a mess.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:32 AM (NWBBy)

239 Maybe some classic Nancy Drew, Skip.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory,deuterostome at November 20, 2022 10:32 AM (Gibjk)

240 Brandy and Scotch, exactly, and Ellery was a big "cigaret" smoker and pipe smoker.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:16 AM (KAKDL)

Wolfus, your opinion of "The Dragon's Teeth," please. Got that one from the neighbor who moved away.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 10:33 AM (7bRMQ)

241 It is important to keep up on junk pseudo science given we are in the thralls of another bout now...

here is a blast from the past-phrenology.

https://tinyurl.com/Vaught-PCR

Vaught's Primary Character Reader-a charming exercise in rapid observational data judgement...

Brought to you by "We understand 1/1,000,000th the record let's undo the energy sector"

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:34 AM (Lzpvj)

242 I first read LotR in Junior High. Liked the cover of the ratty old paperback the library had of The Hobbit.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at November 20, 2022 10:34 AM (1DgE4)

243 Gardeners--also known as "pantsers"--write much more organically. They write by the seat of their pants, never knowing exactly how their stories will end, but keen on exploring interesting situations through the eyes of their characters.

-
I remember reading that Larry McMurtry didn't like it in Lonesome Dove that Call refused to acknowledge Newt as his son but the characters forced him into it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 10:34 AM (FVME7)

244 I often have a challenge "hooking" a reader. So I often take a crucial, tense, or danger-filled scene from later in the story, move it up front to catch the reader's attention, then jump back in time to show how our hero/heroine got into that fix. The old TV show The Fugitive would do that -- run a dramatic scene from late in the episode to the front, as a teaser before the opening credits, then pick up with the real beginning.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:27 AM (KAKDL)

Which I appreciate. There are a few books recently that I've started, and I have no idea where the thing was going, but before finishing more than a couple chapters, I was done. Nobody's doing anything! And I'm not interested in the people who aren't.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:35 AM (NWBBy)

245 I'm supposed to be going to home depot. I don't want to go. The black friday tool sales to me is like crack to a crack whore.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 10:35 AM (VwHCD)

246 I am somewhat disturbed by the proliferation of these ads for online gambling including first bets free. I don't know what, if any, safeguards exist but many people can fall down those rabbit holes.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (FVME7)

Oh, we're completely safeguarded!

Posted by: Online Gambling, Inc. - Thanks Harry Reid at November 20, 2022 10:36 AM (7bRMQ)

247 My favourite Photoshopped Hardy Boys book-cover... The Case of the Mysteriously-Light Dime-Bag.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:36 AM (yikp0)

248 A few weeks ago, I read "Look Who's Back" a German novel about Hitler waking up after decades to find himself lying in a Berlin parking lot in 2011. Without changing his beliefs on war, the Jews, or the Master Race one bit, 2011 Hitler becomes a big hit on German TV and YouTube - everyone thinks he's a method actor who is satirizing Nazism and they're blown away by just how much he's like the real Hitler.

The book is very clever, but not, to me, laugh aloud funny, because it contains a lot of references to current German cultural figures and events I didn't get. But I did laugh when Hitler describes Angela Merkel as a "old trout" with the "charisma of celery." And when Hitler goes on about how politicians should never be photographed playing sports and says who would want to watch Goering and Merkel jumping hurdles at the Olympics, I laughed at that too. But of course, you realize you're "agreeing" with Hitler and even though this Hitler is a fictional character in a novel you feel a little guilty for laughing at his jokes.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at November 20, 2022 10:37 AM (HabA/)

249 here is a blast from the past-phrenology.

-
Bumps on the head in the shape of serving platters can indicate a tendency to tip less than 15%.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 10:37 AM (FVME7)

250
However, I read The Hobbit after reading LOTR, and before I saw any of Pete Jax's silly movies. What a pile of garbage those are, and I'm not sure had I not read the simple story first it would have changed my opinion. Objectively, they're just a mess.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:32 AM (NWBBy)

I suppose I'm asking if just The Hobbit, or the entire series, was originally written for kids. My guess is "no".

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:37 AM (Zzbjj)

251 "I'm supposed to be going to home depot."

Luxury! I have to go to the grocery store.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 10:38 AM (sn5EN)

252 Wolfus, your opinion of "The Dragon's Teeth," please. Got that one from the neighbor who moved away.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022

***
It's not my favorite. It comes from the 1936-1940 period where the Queen cousins were aiming their stories at the "women's market" as well hoping for movie sales -- so there would often be a love interest (for someone other than Ellery) mixed into the mystery. This one has a good character, an aspiring private eye named "Beau Rummel," who teams with Ellery. The mystery itself is not one of the super-dazzling ones, but the book is fun.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:38 AM (KAKDL)

253 I'm supposed to be going to home depot. I don't want to go. The black friday tool sales to me is like crack to a crack whore.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division

That sounds like a perfect reason TO go. See, you couldn't afford not to buy it.

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:39 AM (ftFVW)

254 But I did laugh when Hitler describes Angela Merkel as a "old trout" with the "charisma of celery." And when Hitler goes on about how politicians should never be photographed playing sports and says who would want to watch Goering and Merkel jumping hurdles at the Olympics, I laughed at that too. . . .
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at November 20, 2022

***
Just those quotes made me laugh.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:39 AM (KAKDL)

255 The grade-school girl series is Junie B. Jones.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 20, 2022 10:39 AM (Om/di)

256 238 Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:32 AM (NWBBy)

I started with the Silmarillion, so all of the adaptations thus far are probably shite...

but there is shite and there is SHITE!

"We wuz rangz" is definitely the latter.

Take the literary Stepford Wives, the family was discussing the franchise the other day. I may disagree with Levin's main thrust, but it is a cogent commentary from a point of view on a matter. The story even has a lesson in it.

My family has a very simple hypothesis on slavery-SLAVERY BAD. We do not exert 750,000 words on explaining why a particular form of slavery is socially acceptable or in the cosmic scales of justice laudable. Keep It Simple Sven-SLAVERY BAD!

The witches behind the remakes of Stepford Wive's in the cinematic realm absolutely missed the point of the literary story. Where Levin was saying "the betrayal of the partnership between man and woman is a social error" the modern remakers decided "the issue was the powerful chicks were not murdering their husbands."

That is why I am lost.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:39 AM (Lzpvj)

257 Which I appreciate. There are a few books recently that I've started, and I have no idea where the thing was going, but before finishing more than a couple chapters, I was done. Nobody's doing anything! And I'm not interested in the people who aren't.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022

***
Many modern so-called writers could take a leaf from John D. MacDonald's opener in Darker Than Amber: "We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:41 AM (KAKDL)

258 Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:32 AM (NWBBy)

I suppose I'm asking if just The Hobbit, or the entire series, was originally written for kids. My guess is "no".
Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:37 AM (Zzbjj)

I don't believe so, but either would be great reads for the child who is capable.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:42 AM (NWBBy)

259 250 Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:37 AM (Zzbjj)

Kids on the education track back in the day were MUCH more capable, as was their instruction. A precocious 13 year old in the 30-50s would have gotten the point, but no they were written for adults. One of Tolkien's strengths like the Chinese Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the ability to craft a multi-faceted story that attracts all ages and means different things to the same reader at different ages.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:42 AM (Lzpvj)

260 here is a blast from the past-phrenology.

********

Now, from the height of your occipital ridge I can tell that you are well-suited to a long career in public service and a little lower at the base of your skull I can detect a ...OH DEAR SWEET LORD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!!

Posted by: Fetterman's phrenologist at November 20, 2022 10:42 AM (ykeLU)

261 I'm actually in the middle of a short YA series, The Antics of Evangeline by Madeleine D'Este, which is nothing special, but has one astonishing distinction that deserves mention: While seemingly all YA now has to include a positively-presented homosexual relationship, this one actually fits the cultural setting! It's set in a steampunk Australia ca. 1850, and the heroine lives with her father, his brother, and her honorary uncle, who is obviously her uncle's partner -- and not a single word is said about it, either by author or any character. Being gentlemen, they stay quietly in the closet and their social circle respects their privacy, which is pretty much how it worked at the time among the well-off. Sure beats having to read about supposedly Victorian characters being all "queer-affirming." Just saying.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at November 20, 2022 10:42 AM (SPNTN)

262 As an aside, when did all of you Tolkien fans first read the series? One of the boys claimed to have read it five times, so I ask. They are nine years old
Posted by: CN

Was about 14-15 the first time I read LOTR. Now, it took three tries cause I kept getting stuck at the damn birthday party. I had seen the 70's cartoon movie a bunch before attempting to read it, so I was impatient to get to the action. That third try I skipped past the party and was able to get lost in the story.

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:43 AM (ftFVW)

263 I suppose I'm asking if just The Hobbit, or the entire series, was originally written for kids. My guess is "no".
Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022

***
I think The Hobbit was written for his grandchildren? Or children, as this was pre-WWII.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:43 AM (KAKDL)

264 I'm supposed to be going to home depot. I don't want to go. The black friday tool sales to me is like crack to a crack whore.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division

That sounds like a perfect reason TO go. See, you couldn't afford not to buy it.
Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:39 AM (ftFVW)

Just go in with money. You don't want those guys (or gals) in orange vests asking if you want to earn it the hard way.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:44 AM (NWBBy)

265 Does anybody ever sit down with no story at all in mind and just start writing? What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?
Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

We both stared at the blood seeping through the fabric over my knee.

The summer sun shone golden through the orchard, the near horizontal beams lighting specks of pollen against the darker shadows, making the whispered argument below me shocking against the silence, "was that three feet of det-cord, or three meters?"

I closed the book and pushed it back across the scarred table, "This is not helpful," I said.

The street artist in the cobbled plaza, painting a miniature of the Rathhaus sneered to his audience, "You never complete a painting, you merely give up trying to finish it, this one I need to darken the shadows to bring out the tiles, and hopefully before it rains again"

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 10:44 AM (xhaym)

266 260 Posted by: Fetterman's phrenologist at November 20, 2022 10:42 AM (ykeLU)

Look at ME, ME I AM IN CHARGE!

//The Lump

Hilariously if you read Vaught Fetterman is obviously a highly untrustworthy sort given to theft.

No I am not kidding.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:44 AM (Lzpvj)

267 Make it stick is one of the most useful books on the science of learning I've read (and I've read a lot of them). Roediger is one of the acknowledged big dogs in the learning/memory field, and I've been using the techniques in the book for several years in my classes.

Simply stated, they work.

Posted by: RightWingProf at November 20, 2022 10:45 AM (WxcER)

268 Oh, no, so sorry to hear Greg Bear left us. I remember his work with Benford and Brin as the 'Killer Bees'. Excellent writer and worth the time to check out.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 20, 2022 10:45 AM (MIKMs)

269 Kids on the education track back in the day were MUCH more capable, as was their instruction. A precocious 13 year old in the 30-50s would have gotten the point. . . .
Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022

***
Dunno about LOTR, but at 12 I was reading Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novels and at 13 Ellery Queen. At 14, John Dickson Carr and S.S. Van Dine (though I gave up on SSVD after 4 novels, even though I was much more tolerant of talkative characters and denser prose than I am now).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:46 AM (KAKDL)

270 What do you have coming up? I could recommend that you do a book on why Poland and France fell so easy. Besides what is commonly written. That is.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at November 20, 2022 10:19 AM (1DgE4)
---
After Walls of Men is published, I'm taking a break from nonfiction.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:46 AM (llXky)

271 Breaking news: Russians bomb Moscow

https://tinyurl.com/4vhdwktx

Posted by: Methos at November 20, 2022 10:46 AM (kOpft)

272 My DIL was reading some Tolkien stories that were definitely written for his children. I tried to read them and they were definitely written for children and could not get through them.. The Hobbit was not written for kids.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 10:46 AM (Y+l9t)

273
However, I read The Hobbit after reading LOTR, and before I saw any of Pete Jax's silly movies. What a pile of garbage those are, and I'm not sure had I not read the simple story first it would have changed my opinion. Objectively, they're just a mess.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:32 AM (NWBBy)

Another reason I ask, is that my 9yo grandson and several of his friends walked away from the presentations with the idea that the one boy actually read the entire series five times by age nine. I am tending to doubt this, and seriously question the sense of the parents who had their kid read Swift's A Modest Proposal.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:46 AM (Zzbjj)

274 Deep Thoughts

Not many movies made specifically about a book or books. I guess The Name of the Rose could be considered one .

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 10:46 AM (QKJnV)

275 Many modern so-called writers could take a leaf from John D. MacDonald's opener in Darker Than Amber: "We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:41 AM (KAKDL)

What girl? What bridge??

WHO IS WE????

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 10:47 AM (NWBBy)

276 Everything you really need to know can be learned in The Little Red Hen.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 10:47 AM (FVME7)

277 Perfessor, Thanks for the term "gardener." Anyone who has kids knows about "pants" used as a verb. When someone uses the term "pantser" I think of an ugly person. I say "adventurer."

I'm way over on the adventurer side. All my stories start in dreams. In a dream character appear complete with backstory, many times their names. Then I have to figure out what came before and after the scene in my dream. I have had to learn to trust that the problems I see as insolvable will be solved by a character, sometimes in a way so outrageous I sit back and laugh.

Sometimes I fight very hard not to write them. They always win.

Posted by: Wenda at November 20, 2022 10:48 AM (5KpDr)

278 Sgt. Mom, which wagon train were you modelling your historical on?
My family came out in 1845

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 10:49 AM (xhaym)

279 Breaking news: Russians bomb Moscow

https://tinyurl.com/4vhdwktx
Posted by: Methos

Looks like a big one.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 10:49 AM (FVME7)

280 . . . John D. MacDonald's opener in Darker Than Amber: "We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022
*
What girl? What bridge??

WHO IS WE????
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022

***
See? You want to know and you keep reading!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:50 AM (KAKDL)

281 269 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:46 AM (KAKDL)

If you go back and compare reading lists it really is shaming to modern education.

When I lived here in the early 2000s the RV park we kept the 36 footer in had a book share. Even the popcorn Romance books of the 70s were better. There was a romance novel that predicted the implosion of Detroit by 1984 and even had a union rep admitting they were destroying the business.

The title escapes me, but I was shocked...picked it up because "it was there" while the lad walked around the lake.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:50 AM (Lzpvj)

282 I'm supposed to be going to home depot. I don't want to go. The black friday tool sales to me is like crack to a crack whore.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division ---

I want to buy that single socket that fits all sizes of bolts /nuts . It has spring loaded 'pins' that form around the bolt/nut.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 10:50 AM (QKJnV)

283 Well, time for Mass. Thanks again, Perfesser! This is currently the only time I spend on the site. See everyone next week.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 10:50 AM (llXky)

284 For girls -- Anne McCaffery and the Dragonriders?

My own kidlet liked Diana Wynne Jones who had a series about a family of various mythological beasts.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 20, 2022 10:50 AM (MIKMs)

285 I'm sure leftist German readers of "Look Who's Back" didn't appreciate it when Hitler praises the Green Party (the only party in contemporary Germany that he can stand) and says people don't give the Nazis enough credit for originating many of the Green Party policies...

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at November 20, 2022 10:51 AM (HabA/)

286 Off to run errands. I'll check back in later!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:51 AM (KAKDL)

287 I'm supposed to be going to home depot. I don't want to go. The black friday tool sales to me is like crack to a crack whore.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division

That sounds like a perfect reason TO go. See, you couldn't afford not to buy it.

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:39 AM (ftFVW)

Yeah, I used that justification over the last few weeks. " oh gotta have it, its practically give away".

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 10:51 AM (VwHCD)

288 279 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 10:49 AM (FVME7)

Oh good, so is it a maskirovka, a hail mary by the Ukies, the Cheech and Chongians, or did Joey Plugz decide to start WW3?

Also, I love the tweetline decrying the loss of the greenhouses....

Hey kids, literally WW3 may be starting can you put the hopium down please?

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:52 AM (Lzpvj)

289 I want to buy that single socket that fits all sizes of bolts /nuts . It has spring loaded 'pins' that form around the bolt/nut.
Posted by: polynikes

Oooooo, are you suggesting this black magic is currently on special at the Home Depots? May have to leave the house today after all...

Posted by: She Hobbit at November 20, 2022 10:52 AM (ftFVW)

290 I didn't read the Tolkien series until a young adult, oddly I think why in school I didn't pick them up, guess my interests were history more than fantasy. Do remember Frodo Lives written on a bridge down by the river when I was a kid.

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 10:54 AM (xhxe8)

291 I want to buy that single socket that fits all sizes of bolts /nuts . It has spring loaded 'pins' that form around the bolt/nut.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 10:50 AM (QKJnV)

I never tried one of those. I think the problem is the diameter is too large to actually fit in a lot of areas. The bolt has to be in a larger open area. I guess it would have some uses.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 10:55 AM (VwHCD)

292 Sotiri Dimpinoudis @sotiridi
#Breaking: Just in - Reports of an explosion in #Moscow, #Russia, cause of the explosion not known yet.
7:45 AM · Nov 20, 2022

Sotiri Dimpinoudis @sotiridi · 3h
#Update: Just in - Reports that explosion in #Moscow, happened near the central train station, reports that nearby greenhouses have caught on fire after the explosion. #Russia

Video at Methos' link.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:55 AM (yikp0)

293 Mats Bengtsson @MatsLBengtsson · 2h
Replying to @reaIIytrash and @sotiridi

Well, there's a fire at least. An explosion is merely a very fast fire.

TASS says it burns in the area where there are three railway stations. Perhaps one or more of them are subterranean.

Sounds like a perfect place to destroy if you want to create transport chaos in Moscow.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:55 AM (yikp0)

294 I never did get into fantasy / magical worlds fiction as a kid. I loved Tarzan but never interested in John Carter.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 10:56 AM (QKJnV)

295 I didn't read the Tolkien series until a young adult, oddly I think why in school I didn't pick them up, guess my interests were history more than fantasy. Do remember Frodo Lives written on a bridge down by the river when I was a kid.
=====

I know I have admitted this more than once here, but I have never managed to finish any of the LOTR or related books. Have no idea why, but they put me right to sleep.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 20, 2022 10:56 AM (MIKMs)

296 292 Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:55 AM (yikp0)

Oh lord no, Oh the Solar Panels...>Dear God no someone save the solar panels!

//Herbie Morrison 2022

https://youtu.be/0Ad9tholMEM

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:57 AM (Lzpvj)

297 NAFO BOI @nafo_boi · 1h
One day after gas pipes spectacularly explode one after the other on near opposite sides of the country, and right after a naval drone attack on Novorossiysk's oil-related harbor?

Moscow is THE rail hub, and this is at its center. What's burning up is likely valuable.

And it needn't be Ukraine or any other country responsible for those fires. Fires are an excellent way to cover up evidence of corruption that they think might surface soon for factors out of their control. That's likely what caused so many devastating fires in March/April/May.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:57 AM (yikp0)

298 Affirmative Action in the Shire - a limerick

I have this news on real good authority
Hobbits aren't promoted for seniority
Frodo turned the job down
At the moment he found
That he was merely a tolkien minority

Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 10:57 AM (ykeLU)

299 I know I have admitted this more than once here, but I have never managed to finish any of the LOTR or related books. Have no idea why, but they put me right to sleep.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 20, 2022 10:56 AM (MIKMs)

Got an hour? I can explain it.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 10:57 AM (VwHCD)

300 polynikes-

I have one of those and rarely use it. It's kinda clumsy in tighter spaces.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at November 20, 2022 10:58 AM (3Lw3j)

301 Something of a gardener myself.

Lately though, all that seems to come up is weeds, so not getting a whole heckuva lot done...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 20, 2022 10:58 AM (a/4+U)

302 (e.g., James Bond in Casino Royale)

Weren't they playing baccarat?

On research, the remake of Casino Royal used Texas Hold'em with no limits. Baccarat was played in the original.

Posted by: Fox2! at November 20, 2022 10:58 AM (qyH+l)

303 293 Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:55 AM (yikp0)

It will definitely be disruptive, the other thing to recall is that the infrastructure for a lot of public works in Moscow is as old as NYC's. Add in the bonus of "prime Soviet workmanship" on it.

Who knows, but what I do know is we will never really know with any level of credibility.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 10:58 AM (Lzpvj)

304 Still reading Middlemarch. Starting to get more engrossing.

Posted by: LASue at November 20, 2022 10:59 AM (Ed8Zd)

305 It's not my favorite. It comes from the 1936-1940 period where the Queen cousins were aiming their stories at the "women's market" as well hoping for movie sales -- so there would often be a love interest (for someone other than Ellery) mixed into the mystery. This one has a good character, an aspiring private eye named "Beau Rummel," who teams with Ellery. The mystery itself is not one of the super-dazzling ones, but the book is fun.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 20, 2022 10:38 AM (KAKDL)

Thanks.

Posted by: Online Gambling, Inc. - Thanks Harry Reid at November 20, 2022 11:00 AM (7bRMQ)

306 End Procrastination Tomorrow!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:00 AM (FVME7)

307 polynikes-

I have one of those and rarely use it. It's kinda clumsy in tighter spaces.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at November 20, 2022 10:58 AM (3Lw3j)

I assume It would be good for putting together prefab buildings /sheds , jungle gyms , etc.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:00 AM (QKJnV)

308 More snow than Buffalo...

Belgian Authorities Seize So Much Cocaine It's Overloading Incinerators

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:00 AM (yikp0)

309 I have one of those and rarely use it. It's kinda clumsy in tighter spaces.
=====

Thank you for that. Like polynikes, I see that commercial and really want it.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 20, 2022 11:02 AM (MIKMs)

310 Every young boy should read Captains Courageous. Still my all time favorite book.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:02 AM (QKJnV)

311 Got an hour? I can explain it.
=====

Let me get my blankie to snuggle.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 20, 2022 11:04 AM (MIKMs)

312 Belgian Authorities Seize So Much Cocaine It's Overloading Incinerators
Posted by: andycanuck

*******

Mon dieu! Now zee leetle grey cells, zey REALLY begin to sing to Poirot!

Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:04 AM (ykeLU)

313 Only new info from presser on Club Q shooter is he used a "long rifle". [Percussion cap or flintlock??]

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:05 AM (yikp0)

314 Late to the book thread! Thanks Perf.

Reading a couple books about the Russian civil war(s) in south Russia and the Caucasus1916-1926. And the 1918 red insurrection in Finland. Mannerheim an Co. kicked the Bolsheviks' teeth in.

Posted by: 13times at November 20, 2022 11:05 AM (jCiv6)

315 Mon dieu! Now zee leetle grey cells, zey REALLY begin to sing to Poirot!
----------------
Elementary, my dear Belgie.

Posted by: Sherlock Holmes at November 20, 2022 11:06 AM (yikp0)

316 polynikes-

I have one of those and rarely use it. It's kinda clumsy in tighter spaces.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at November 20, 2022 10:58 AM (3Lw3j)

Bingo. I'm geared up for harley stuff, and when I looked at one of those sockets I couldn't think of a single area I would be able to fit it in, and the few nuts that are in an open area are either larger than the socket, or have more torque on them than the socket could probably handle. I guess it probably has some uses.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 11:07 AM (VwHCD)

317 174 Something I find interesting about some of the girls' books, is the number of adult women reading them for the first time. I understand that parents might do this, but I come away with the impression that these women are reading them for themselves. Not sure if it was a "nice things I missed or critique of US culture" or because they're overgrown kids, themselves.
Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 10:02 AM

Speaking only for myself, I read children's books because they're short, focused, and have unambiguous endings. I just finished the second John Bellairs novel set in Michigan.

Bellairs was around when I was a kid, but my grade school library ran on donations and didn't replace lost books. I read Padraic Colum, most of Louisa May Alcott, the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, most of the Prydain Chronicles, and TWO of the Narnia books. The public and high school libraries skewed to angsty teen books (e.g. Paul Zindel and Judy Blume). Zindel at least was funny, but I skipped the teen and romance sections for SF.

When my nieces and nephews were young, I read to them. It acquainted me with Roald Dahl and other well-known authors. I've been playing catch-up ever since.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 20, 2022 11:07 AM (/+bwe)

318 I never did get into fantasy / magical worlds fiction as a kid. I loved Tarzan but never interested in John Carter.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 10:56 AM (QKJnV)

Same. Still no interest in reading Tolkien.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:07 AM (7bRMQ)

319 And it needn't be Ukraine or any other country responsible for those fires. Fires are an excellent way to cover up evidence of corruption that they think might surface soon for factors out of their control. That's likely what caused so many devastating fires in March/April/May.
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 10:57 AM (yikp0)

Ooh, those Russians are so tricksy! Always doing things that LOOK like Ukraine and/or American nefarious nonsense, like making it seem like Joe Biden and his crackhead son are laundering billions of dollars through corrupt Ukraine oil companies.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:08 AM (XfBY/)

320 Heavy has 5 Facts already.
https://heavy.com/news/
anderson-lee-aldrich/

-
We still know next to nothing about the guy who ran over the police recruits nor is he in custody. Difference between PC and non-PC crimes, I guess.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:09 AM (FVME7)

321 I never did get into fantasy / magical worlds fiction as a kid. I loved Tarzan but never interested in John Carter.

Looking back on John Carter, Burroughs certainly had some Woodrow Wilson type thoughts. But at least there were hot semi-nude Indian (feather) princesses on the cover art.

Posted by: 18-1 at November 20, 2022 11:09 AM (ESjRY)

322 Only new info from presser on Club Q shooter is he used a "long rifle".
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:05 AM (yikp0)

Hmmm, but what kind of gun did he use?

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:10 AM (XfBY/)

323 Video captured a massive law enforcement response to the scene.

Trannies shooting up a school = police outside

Someone shooting up a gay club = cops go in

Posted by: 18-1 at November 20, 2022 11:11 AM (ESjRY)

324 I want to buy that single socket that fits all sizes of bolts /nuts . It has spring loaded 'pins' that form around the bolt/nut.

They seem like a really great idea, but in practice just do not work well:

https://youtu.be/kZdhnDmr0w4

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:11 AM (Ivdso)

325 320 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:09 AM (FVME7)

One hurts the narrative, and I suspect this fella must to or we'd have pics to go with the name.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:12 AM (Lzpvj)

326 3 Only new info from presser on Club Q shooter is he used a "long rifle". [Percussion cap or flintlock??]
Posted by: andycanuck

********

CBS News early report helpfully pointed out that there has been an atmosphere of increased anti-gay rhetoric. Oh, and that Colorado Spriings is the home of Focus on the Family. And that Colorado has been the site of several mass shootings over the last 3 decades.

Also, several members of Patriot Front were arrested a couple years ago for thinking about rioting at a Gay Pride event in Coeur d'Alene. Also, that a fundamentalist preacher in Idaho told his small congregation that gays should be executed by the government.

I think CBS is going to need more pushpins and red yarn for this one.

Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:12 AM (ykeLU)

327 Trannies shooting up a school = police outside

Someone shooting up a gay club = cops go in
Posted by: 18-1 at November 20, 2022 11:11 AM (ESjRY)

Or maybe a bunch of cops already WERE in.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:12 AM (XfBY/)

328 Want to get rid of mass shooting? Go back to 50s culture.

If you don't want to go back to 50s culture (stay at home moms, no gay, etc) then you don't ACTUALLY care all that much.

Posted by: 18-1 at November 20, 2022 11:12 AM (ESjRY)

329 323 Posted by: 18-1 at November 20, 2022 11:11 AM (ESjRY)

The case going back to Dunblane.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:12 AM (Lzpvj)

330 290 ... "Do remember Frodo Lives written on a bridge down by the river when I was a kid."

In the 60s there were a bunch of LOTR wall posters popular in college dorms and among the younger readers. "Frodo Lives" posters and buttons. Maps of Middle-Earth. Even posters of the paperback book covers (which stunk). A bunch of us, junior high level, used to write notes in Dwarf runes. It was fun.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 11:13 AM (7EjX1)

331 326 Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:12 AM (ykeLU)

Steve Schmidt and Weaver getting kids arrested for picketing a gay fest is meta.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:13 AM (Lzpvj)

332 The Heavy says the guy called in a bomb threat at some point in the past.

So I suspect we will find out the following eventually

1) Shooter was a known threat

2) Shooter had a personal grudge against the club

3) Shooter is gay/trans/muslim

Posted by: 18-1 at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (ESjRY)

333 I saw a cool little book called something like Nancy Drew's Handbook at the library book sale - sort of how to make your way through childhood. Very cute. The book was small and perfect for little hands.

Posted by: 13times at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (jCiv6)

334 Want to get rid of mass shooting? Go back to 50s culture.

Kids raised to respect authority and the law, insanity treated and kept out of the main culture, a general understanding that we owe proper respect to a higher authority outside us, and the morality that entails, and a world where kids are protected, but disciplined, and boys are not treated like worthless, evil trash.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (Ivdso)

335 I thought with the Trannie radicals trying to push their agenda down our throats that this would have happened sooner. Still possible that this was an 'inside' job.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (QKJnV)

336 Anyone else read Klaus Schwab books?

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (Zzbjj)

337 More on shooter...
https://wikibioworld.com/
anderson-lee-aldrich/

||In 2021, a man named Anderson Lee Aldrich was accused of involvement in a bomb threat situation with guns in the Lorson Ranch neighborhood of Colorado Springs, KOAA-TV reported. Then 21, Aldrich “refuses to follow his deputies’ orders to surrender” and authorities are told there is “homemade bombs, lots of guns and ammunition”. No explosive devices were found. Authorities will not comment on Anderson Aldrich’s previous criminal record.||

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:15 AM (yikp0)

338 332 Posted by: 18-1 at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (ESjRY)

The name does not match the latter and if you do an image search on the name the lad may be Asian mixed.

I do so love having to engage in cold war era Kremlinology to read the news here domestically.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:15 AM (Lzpvj)

339 If you don't want to go back to 50s culture (stay at home moms, no gay, etc) then you don't ACTUALLY care all that much.

I had this exact discussion on twitter years back with a woman and it came down to this: you're right but I refuse to change my lifestyle. She knew the problems were cultural rot, but wanted to retain her "fun" and sleeping around at any cost.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:16 AM (Ivdso)

340 Them pants in the link are not flattering. At. All.

Posted by: Count de Monet at November 20, 2022 11:16 AM (4I/2K)

341 Anyone else read Klaus Schwab books?

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (Zzbjj)

No, but I take my film to his drugstore.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:16 AM (7bRMQ)

342 337 Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:15 AM (yikp0)

This mass shooting brought to you by DAs and yes the DA stands for Dumb Ass as well as District Atty.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:16 AM (Lzpvj)

343 Want to get rid of mass shooting? Go back to 50s culture.

-
Yet #77 seems to think that everything has been swell since we abandoned God.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:17 AM (FVME7)

344 339 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:16 AM (Ivdso)

The crisis is hedonism as a national sacrament.

Poverty may help fix it.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:17 AM (Lzpvj)

345 How dare you think that your existence is he even a blip on the radar screen for a universe creating God?

Yo pathetic worm.
Posted by: Just Askin at November 20, 2022 09:27 AM (5xA8Q)

His Eye is on the Sparrow is a better philosophy.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:18 AM (Zzbjj)

346 Them pants in the link are not flattering. At. All.
Posted by: Count de Monet

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you own a weedwhacker.

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 11:18 AM (T4tVD)

347 125 CN - Betsy-Tacy does sound interesting, my sister has already gotten Little House books
Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 09:45 AM (xhxe

Also consider Sydney Taylor's "All-of-a-Kind Family" series about a Jewish family (five girls whose father is a peddler) in the NY Lower East Side at the turn of the last century.

Posted by: Wethal at November 20, 2022 11:18 AM (NufIr)

348 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:16 AM (Ivdso)

When we say 50's culture that just says to me a nuclear family with a strong male presence. Something very lacking these days and IMHO the cause of most of our problems. That and the abandonment of God relatively speaking.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:19 AM (QKJnV)

349 Anyone else read Klaus Schwab books?
Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:14 AM (Zzbjj)

I read Mein Kampf, so I'm gonna call that a yes.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:19 AM (XfBY/)

350 Same. Still no interest in reading Tolkien.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:07 AM (7bRMQ)

Tolkien just goes way overboard and turns a 400 page story into a 1000 page story. The character takes a step, and then we get 2 pages on how the sunlight comes through the trees, and look how it shines on a leaf that happens to be falling from a tree, but you need another 2 pages on the history of THAT tree the leaf came from, and then back to the falling leaf, and 2 pages on the aerial acrobatics the leaf does as its falling. Meanwhile, we have a small rock rolling down the path that just happens to roll over the leaf as it hits the ground. Now, gotta have 2 pages on the small rock and read about the history of the proud family of granite it came from. Then we need another 2 pages of how the leaf feels about getting rolled over by the proud little rock, and how the rock feels about rolling over the leaf. Oh then there's the dirt, its spectator to all this. We need to know about how the dirt feels about the gladiatorial battle between the rock and leaf going on on top of it. Oh back to the sun and how its rays shine on the whole mess.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 11:20 AM (VwHCD)

351 Books reflect the culture they are written in, like the movements of fish reflect that they are suspended in water. You can read a book set in a medieval period today written as if religion simply did not exist. No one talks about God, even to swear. No one goes to church, no one has any part of their life reflect a Christian-influenced worldview.

The other elements of the book are well-researched, the language, clothes, food, setting, politics, history etc. Its like the author has either a huge blind spot toward the massive cultural impact of religion... or chooses to blot it out for reasons of personal bigotry.

The books we read influence how we see the world as well, and this kind of thing simply reinforces an attempt to delete Christianity entirely from existence.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (Ivdso)

352 350 Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 11:20 AM (VwHCD)

I'm not seeing the fucking problem.....

//King, Steven King

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (Lzpvj)

353 My youngest kid took a course on the history of the Silk Road. Apparently the description of every culture along that route ends with ". . . and then the Russians showed up."

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (QZxDR)

354 The one thing I eat about the shooting was that the perp was known as he had been involved in a bomb threat standoff.
Another "known wolf". End of story.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (Y+l9t)

355 Read about the shooting

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (Y+l9t)

356 351 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (Ivdso)

Xianity must be a powerful moral force or the powerful would not hate it so.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:22 AM (Lzpvj)

357 Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 11:20 AM (VwHCD)

Yeah, that kind of writing doesn't hold much appeal for me.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:22 AM (7bRMQ)

358 And Eye on the Sparrow is also a great TV theme song

Posted by: Wally at November 20, 2022 11:23 AM (seks7)

359 Okay Berserker. Now I need a nap.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 11:23 AM (Y+l9t)

360 Tolkien's descriptive prose is old fashioned, its of a style not used much today, but valid for its purpose of trying to be England's Beowulf.

The guy that goes to far in my opinion is Steven R Donaldson who takes a chapter describe the forest. The Covenant books are way too lush and descriptive, its like trying to struggle through a long corridor hung with wet blankets every foot.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:23 AM (Ivdso)

361
Pre-ordered "The Soviet Century" by Karl Schlögel. It is a panoramic set of vignettes covering aspects of Soviet life, from factory cities to communal apartments to queues to public toilets, illustrating the sheer awfulness and waste inherent on the system.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:24 AM (MoZTd)

362 I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you own a weedwhacker.
Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 11:18 AM (T4tVD)

Safe bet.

Posted by: Count de Monet at November 20, 2022 11:24 AM (4I/2K)

363 Tolkien just goes way overboard and turns a 400 page story into a 1000 page story. The character takes a step, and then ...
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads

******

You nailed it. '

*cue dramatic music*

'Slowly he wrote...
Step by step..."

Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:24 AM (ykeLU)

364
When we say 50's culture that just says to me a nuclear family with a strong male presence. Something very lacking these days and IMHO the cause of most of our problems. That and the abandonment of God relatively speaking.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:19 AM

that, and men wearing hats. The world started going to siht when men's hats went out of fashion

Posted by: AltonJackson at November 20, 2022 11:24 AM (ENBF0)

365 OT, but a nice feel-good story:

Brazilian tranny takes his cock out in front of young girls in a public restroom. Moms beat the living shit out of him and drag him out of the building (video).

https://tinyurl.com/2p8hrv6k

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at November 20, 2022 11:24 AM (bW8dp)

366 Well, I guess they were right. Trump is back on Twitter and this happens.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:25 AM (FVME7)

367 Sharon(w.A), an unknown wolf can't be programmed. The wolf has to know his trainer.

Posted by: Eromero at November 20, 2022 11:25 AM (DXbAa)

368 Going on the theme of cultural books, up until around 1990, the Bible was the most quoted book in literature. The presumption of there being a God and that we are accountable to him was around even with bad guys in literature. This wasn't some Christian attempt to impose religion on everyone, it was just so woven into our culture that it seeped out of the writer's mind into the books.

Today, the presumption is that not only is Christian false, but its actually bad and destructive, if not the source of all evils in the past.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:25 AM (Ivdso)

369 The books we read influence how we see the world as well, and this kind of thing simply reinforces an attempt to delete Christianity entirely from existence.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (Ivdso)

While at the same time offering a more authoritarian, elites as God, approach. It's not for no reason that people deny a God that knows what you do and what you think, yet seek to establish a surveilled society and a goal to develop brain implants that achieve exactly this.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:26 AM (Zzbjj)

370 Today, the presumption is that not only is Christian false, but its actually bad and destructive, if not the source of all evils in the past.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:25 AM (Ivdso)

Some really old guy feels that way, for sure.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:26 AM (7bRMQ)

371 Tolkien's descriptive prose is old fashioned, its of a style not used much today, but valid for its purpose of trying to be England's Beowulf.

The guy that goes to far in my opinion is Steven R Donaldson who takes a chapter describe the forest. The Covenant books are way too lush and descriptive, its like trying to struggle through a long corridor hung with wet blankets every foot.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:23 AM (Ivdso)

Don't get me wrong, the entire LOTR thing is brilliant. The dude created an entire world, but his descriptions of shit take sooo frigging long you start forgetting about what you read 10 pages ago.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 11:27 AM (VwHCD)

372 Tom Clancy also liked to beat details to death. Many though liked those detailed descriptions.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:27 AM (QKJnV)

373 Eromero, that makes sense.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 11:28 AM (Y+l9t)

374 His Eminence 👑 @his_eminence_j Replying to @im4evergrateful and @zerohedge

Oh it gets worse. The guy was arrested barely a year ago on five felony counts, and released on a no-bond bail because Colorado is a liberal hell hole.

His Eminence 👑 @his_eminence_j · 19m
Exactly. No way on earth this guy should’ve been out to do what he did yesterday. No way. He’s waiting trial on five felony counts including felony menacing and kidnapping.

https://twitter.com/his_eminence_j/status/
1594361274942586881

Includes pic of the charges against the guy from 2021.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:28 AM (yikp0)

375 I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you own a weedwhacker.
Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 11:18 AM (T4tVD)

Safe bet.
Posted by: Count de Monet

Lol !

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 11:28 AM (T4tVD)

376 Tom Clancy also liked to beat details to death. Many though liked those detailed descriptions.

I think his biggest flaw was his need to have 198 intertwining super complex subplots going on at the same time

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:29 AM (Ivdso)

377
The world started going to siht when men's hats went out of fashion
Posted by: AltonJackson at November 20, 2022 11:24 AM (ENBF0)

___________

Baseball's decline started when stirrups disappeared.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:29 AM (MoZTd)

378 The shadowy darkness of Melkor beat the infinite strength of Tulkas the Hunter. He could do nothing. It was only when the fox acted like a lion, through open war that Melkor (now known as Morgoth) was chained with a thousand hard chains.

Tulkas endless frustration was the image that stuck with me from the oldest stories of The Silmarillion. In my mind I cast Orson Welles as Melkor.

Beren and Luthien is amazing too. The Silmarillion is tough but you have to stick through the first 100 pages.

Right now I am watching Outcast and must endure the British accents of Nic Cage and Hayden Christensen.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 20, 2022 11:30 AM (ybIRR)

379 A bunch of us, junior high level, used to write notes in Dwarf runes. It was fun.
=====

As I am over 29, I remember the days before Klingon became the standard.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 20, 2022 11:30 AM (MIKMs)

380 > The Soviet Century

I've read Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century and reccomend it - though the timeline is closer to a half century since Vasily died 1963.

Posted by: 13times at November 20, 2022 11:31 AM (jCiv6)

381 heh Paul Joseph Watson: the same people freaking out over Trump being reinstated on Twitter are the ones who pushed the lie that Russia bombed Poland in an attempt to get us into WW3. Which, do you figure, is the more dangerous and deadly a threat to "democracy" eh?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:31 AM (Ivdso)

382 Baseball's decline started when stirrups disappeared.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:29 AM (MoZTd)

What does gynecology have to do with baseball?

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 11:31 AM (xhaym)

383 229 ... "As an aside, when did all of you Tolkien fans first read the series?"

First read LOTR and The Hobbit in 7th grade, circa 1965. I had heard about Tolkien from some older students and this was when the Hippies started talking about it. (I was a completely unsuccessful Hippie. Wrong, non-skinny, body type and definitely the wrong attitudes.) Something about the 'older' style pace and wording clicked with my imagination.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 11:32 AM (7EjX1)

384 The world started going to siht when men's hats went out of fashion
Posted by: AltonJackson at November 20, 2022 11:24 AM (ENBF0)

Baseball's decline started when stirrups disappeared.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:29 AM (MoZTd)

Strip clubs declined when the gals stopped wearing those spinny tassles.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:33 AM (XfBY/)

385 "Frodo Lives" is a midwit quote. The entire journey was killing Frodo bit by bit and his recovery in the West was uncertain and unknown.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 20, 2022 11:33 AM (ybIRR)

386 I read the LOTR and hobbit in High School, along with a ton of other classic stuff like Elric, Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, World of Tiers, Riverworld, Ringworld, etc.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:33 AM (Ivdso)

387 Tulkas endless frustration was the image that stuck with me from the oldest stories of The Silmarillion. In my mind I cast Orson Welles as Melkor.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 20, 2022 11:30 AM (ybIRR

This is why I like some description and details in books. I prefer that people come away with some common view of what characters looked like and what the settings looked like.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:33 AM (Zzbjj)

388 Two and a half minutes of cute kittens

https://youtu.be/nhxEBP_lq4g

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:35 AM (Ivdso)

389 Our food isn't killing us, self-righteous vegans are.

Posted by: Scoundrel what found the last refuge. at November 20, 2022 11:36 AM (tF/Gf)

390 Strip clubs declined when the gals stopped wearing those spinny tassles.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:33 AM (XfBY/)

Inflation had been 0 % in strip clubs for decades. You still just put dollar bills in the g-string .

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:36 AM (QKJnV)

391 I prefer that people come away with some common view of what characters looked like and what the settings looked like.
Posted by: CN

He had a big nose and a beard, and it was hard to tell where the nasal hair ended and the beard began.

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 11:36 AM (T4tVD)

392 You don't have to squint too hard to see a similarity between mobs of yutes descending on stores to loot in San Francisco and elsewhere now that theft has essentially been legalized and our culture's descent into madness now that there is no fear of God's eternal judgment.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:36 AM (FVME7)

393 The odd thing is that I do not remember the plot of Ringworld. I remember the setting but not the story. The game story of Halo is more memorable to me.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:37 AM (Ivdso)

394 Inflation had been 0 % in strip clubs for decades. You still just put dollar bills in the g-string

This is actually something I have wondered about; is it still singles? Because as time goes on that's less and less value. Is it still $2 at the track to bet on the ponies?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:38 AM (Ivdso)

395 What does gynecology have to do with baseball?

******

Both were much more enjoyable when Vin Scully was doing the play-by-play.

Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:38 AM (ykeLU)

396 Read my fair share of Tom Clancy in high school years, he did get repetitive on plots

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 11:39 AM (xhxe8)

397 I'm watching The Offer, a ten episode series about the making of The Godfather. It's outstanding.

It's a miracle the movie got done, let alone came out so well.

One theme is how Puzo and Coppolla reworked a pulp novel into something bigger and better.

Posted by: Ignoramus at November 20, 2022 11:39 AM (SJsWC)

398 @395 HA!

Posted by: Ignoramus at November 20, 2022 11:40 AM (SJsWC)

399 Tom Clancy also liked to beat details to death. Many though liked those detailed descriptions.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:27 AM

Clive Cussler does the same with his Dirk Pitt series. There is always a chapter devoted to a car chase in a very expensive antique car in every one of those books in excruciating detail.

Posted by: John Roberts at November 20, 2022 11:40 AM (uNylN)

400 I don't think James Bond played poker in Casino Royale. The game that figured so strongly in the story was Chemin de Fer, a casino game similar to blackjack.

He might have played poker in Diamonds Are Forever, though.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 20, 2022 11:40 AM (Fe55U)

401 An interesting tweet...

Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 @ezralevant · 5h
This is Trump’s January 6th tweet. It hasn’t been visible since he was suspended. The Democratic Party and the Media Party used that censorship to push the lie that Trump encouraged a violent insurrection. In fact he called for peace and law & order. They’ve been gaslighting you.

Quote Tweet Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · Jan 6, 2021
I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:40 AM (yikp0)

402 Strip clubs declined when the gals stopped wearing those spinny tassles.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:33 AM (XfBY/)

Inflation had been 0 % in strip clubs for decades. You still just put dollar bills in the g-string .
Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:36 AM (QKJnV)

Yeah, now they take credit cards. I have a love/hate relationship with the card readers.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:41 AM (XfBY/)

403 He had a big nose and a beard, and it was hard to tell where the nasal hair ended and the beard began.
Posted by: JT

************

Hey thanks for the heads up, JT.

*replaces yellow Post-It™ over webcam*

Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:41 AM (ykeLU)

404 Okay; I gotta go seize the day. Its seizin' season.

Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 11:41 AM (T4tVD)

405 I preferred the "Who's on Fistula?" routine.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:42 AM (yikp0)

406 What does gynecology have to do with baseball?

******

Both were much more enjoyable when Vin Scully was doing the play-by-play.
Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:38 AM (ykeLU)

I'm more of a Mel Allen fan, except Mel never did any gynecology.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:42 AM (XfBY/)

407 What does gynecology have to do with baseball?

******

Both were much more enjoyable when Vin Scully was doing the play-by-play.
Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:38 AM (ykeLU)

And music too when Phil Rizzuto was in that song.

Posted by: Count de Monet at November 20, 2022 11:42 AM (4I/2K)

408 399. I suppose a lot of prolific authors were a bit repetitive. Christie for example, has at least five murders occur on trains

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:43 AM (Zzbjj)

409 250 ... "I suppose I'm asking if just The Hobbit, or the entire series, was originally written for kids. My guess is "no"."

The Hobbit wasn't written only for kids but it was suitable for them in an 'adult' book. This was back when kids could be exposed to serious matters. LOTR was definitely an adult book that could appeal to younger readers.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 11:43 AM (7EjX1)

410 374 Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:28 AM (yikp0)

Gonna go out on a limb and bet he is Antifa...

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:43 AM (Lzpvj)

411 Yeah, now they take credit cards. I have a love/hate relationship with the card readers.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:41 AM (XfBY/)

I suppose it's hard to choose which slot to insert it in....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:44 AM (7bRMQ)

412 I don't think James Bond played poker in Casino Royale. The game that figured so strongly in the story was Chemin de Fer, a casino game similar to blackjack.

He might have played poker in Diamonds Are Forever, though.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon

Ernst Stavro Blofeld leaned back in his chair and said, "Go fish, Mr. Bond."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:44 AM (FVME7)

413 Woke up late today!

Just borrowed James Butcher's (son of Jim Butcher of Harry Dresden fame) first book Dead Man's Hand

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 20, 2022 11:44 AM (5rBf5)

414 One theme is how Puzo and Coppolla reworked a pulp novel into something bigger and better.

Mario Puzo had been an author for a while writing historical novels and was very disappointed in sales. His stuff just wasn't moving and he was having little success.

So he said "well hell I'll do one more book, and this one I'll jam everything people clamor for, all the lurid details and sleaze and excitement rather than just historical details. If this doesn't sell I'll just do something else for a living"

So the Godfather was born, and this was full of nasty torrid stuff and sideplots involving Sonny's huge wang and so on. And it sold like gangbusters, so to speak.

But Puzo never really wanted all that, he just did it to get attention, so it does not surprise me that he worked to trim all that crap out to get a better story out of it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:44 AM (Ivdso)

415 Strip clubs declined when the gals stopped wearing those spinny tassles.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:33 AM (XfBY/)

Inflation had been 0 % in strip clubs for decades. You still just put dollar bills in the g-string .
Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:36 AM (QKJnV)

Yeah, now they take credit cards. I have a love/hate relationship with the card readers.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:41 AM (XfBY/)

*types joke about swiping thru slot readers* *deletes joke about swiping thru slot readers, this isn't the ribald ONT, this is the stately and erudite Sunday Book Thread*

Posted by: Count de Monet at November 20, 2022 11:45 AM (4I/2K)

416 408 399. I suppose a lot of prolific authors were a bit repetitive. Christie for example, has at least five murders occur on trains
Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:43 AM (Zzbjj)

It is said of the Colin Dexter Morse series he made it seem like Oxford was worse than Detroit, and that university dons are more dangerous than mafia dons.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:45 AM (XfBY/)

417 Toby Young @toadmeister · 9h
Three recent days – November 16th, 17th and 18th – have recorded a daily record of extreme cold at the South Pole. Inexplicably, these records have escaped reporting in the mainstream media.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM (yikp0)

418 Christie for example, has at least five murders occur on trains

*********

Well, now that Agatha Christie and Tolkien are on the same thread I'll post this:

MY SUITCASE CONTENTS GOT SCRAMBLED

I'm just going to have to confess
Reading two books at once is a mess
Christie & Tolkien co-mingled
Now two books are a single
"Mordor on the Orient Express"

Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM (ykeLU)

419 Posted by: Trimegistus at November 20, 2022 11:21 AM (QZxDR)

In the manga series Bride's Story, set in the 'stans, the Russians showing up is definitely an aspect.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM (nC+QA)

420 *types joke about swiping thru slot readers* *deletes joke about swiping thru slot readers, this isn't the ribald ONT, this is the stately and erudite Sunday Book Thread*

Posted by: Count de Monet at November 20, 2022 11:45 AM (4I/2K)

That's ok, I already did it for you. #411

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM (7bRMQ)

421 "Inflation had been 0 % in strip clubs for decades."

The Fed has Hunter collecting their data.

Posted by: Ignoramus at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM (SJsWC)

422 408 399. I suppose a lot of prolific authors were a bit repetitive. Christie for example, has at least five murders occur on trains
Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:43 AM (Zzbjj)

Jane and Deja Thoris get kidnapped almost every book.... if not them, their Sons want to be Hawty.

Posted by: Romeo13 at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (oHd/0)

423 While at the same time offering a more authoritarian, elites as God, approach. It's not for no reason that people deny a God that knows what you do and what you think, yet seek to establish a surveilled society and a goal to develop brain implants that achieve exactly this.
Posted by: CN
___

We're all made in God's image.

The fact that due to this close proximity to God, we try to be God shouldn't be all that surprising.

Posted by: SMH at what's coming at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (tKb8s)

424 Christie for example, has at least five murders occur on trains

And like 37 in a posh country manor

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (Ivdso)

425 Yeah, now they take credit cards. I have a love/hate relationship with the card readers.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:41 AM (XfBY/)

I suppose it's hard to choose which slot to insert it in....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 11:44 AM (7bRMQ)

Not for some of us. Weirdo.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (XfBY/)

426 Playing cards were used frequently by both sides in the US civil war, but when time for battle came the decks were usually stashed somewhere or discarded.
No one wanted to meet their maker with the devil's deck on them.

Posted by: gourmand du jour, clear and cool at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (jTmQV)

427 I'm just going to have to confess
Reading two books at once is a mess
Christie & Tolkien co-mingled
Now two books are a single
"Mordor on the Orient Express"
Posted by: Muldoon at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM (ykeLU)

I put this one in your top ten. LOL.

Posted by: polynikes at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (QKJnV)

428 416. Indeed. I've lived in Princeton for over 40 years and I have yet to see a prof arrested for murder.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (Zzbjj)

429 Toby Young @toadmeister · 9h
Three recent days – November 16th, 17th and 18th – have recorded a daily record of extreme cold at the South Pole. Inexplicably, these records have escaped reporting in the mainstream media.
Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM (yikp0)

Begun, the end of the interglacial period has.

Posted by: Count de Monet at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (4I/2K)

430 JT - you know it's cold and windy , right?

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 11:48 AM (xhxe8)

431 Louis L'amour ran the same plot like 17 times, but each time he found a new way to make a twist in it or change things up. His repetitiveness was more the middle act where the hero is strong and independent and gets hurt and has to hide and heal up using herbs he learned from native Americans and refusing help because they'd just get in the way, etc. Nearly all of his books have a very similar second act because he really fell into a pattern, no matter how fresh and interesting they started out or ended like.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:49 AM (Ivdso)

432 As for the troops, they were known to throw away their decks as they marched to battle, out of the fear that if they were killed, they would have to explain to St. Peter why they had been carrying the devil's pasteboards

***

I find this touching

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 20, 2022 11:49 AM (5rBf5)

433 William Gibson sometimes gets mired in details. For instance - things about The Sprawl I never wanted to know.

Posted by: 13times at November 20, 2022 11:49 AM (jCiv6)

434 "all the lurid details and sleaze and excitement"

The book came out when I was a HS freshman. We all bee-lined to page 27.

Back then, we really had to work at getting tittillated. Not like these kids today.

Posted by: Ignoramus at November 20, 2022 11:49 AM (SJsWC)

435 Not for some of us. Weirdo.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (XfBY/)

Once you go back, you'll never....

Posted by: Don Lemon at November 20, 2022 11:50 AM (7bRMQ)

436
Krebs' version of TV Guide is a single 5" x 7" index card with

TURN IT OFF!

printed in the largest font possible for the space available.

Subscribe now!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at November 20, 2022 11:50 AM (pNxlR)

437 The fact that due to this close proximity to God, we try to be God shouldn't be all that surprising.
Posted by: SMH at what's coming at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (tKb8s)

But in a way, it is. The people who are quickest to stamp out religion, want to BE God. Do they understand this or is it a subconscious attempt to fill a void?

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:51 AM (Zzbjj)

438
The basic structure of military novels

1. Trouble brewing
2. The storm breaks
3. US forces pushed back
4. Brilliant counterpunch developed
5. The US prevails
6. Epilogue

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:51 AM (MoZTd)

439 Bigotry everywhere you look.

John Leguizamo Outraged That “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” Did Not Cast an “Actor of Color” as Title Hero: “They’re Going Backwards”

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:52 AM (FVME7)

440 https://tinyurl.com/4v3nban2
Posted by: JT at November 20, 2022 09:22 AM (T4tVD)

:huge eyeroll: A "digital" air compressor? Hardly. It's an air compressor with an illuminated digital pressure gauge, which may or may not be accurate. A machine with a non-illuminated analog gauge will work just fine. I usually carry one such.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 20, 2022 11:52 AM (Fe55U)

441 Prefessor Squirrel you should use Muldoon's rhyme next week, that is too good to be tossed away in end of a thread

Posted by: Skip at November 20, 2022 11:52 AM (xhxe8)

442 Three recent days – November 16th, 17th and 18th – have recorded a daily record of extreme cold at the South Pole. Inexplicably, these records have escaped reporting in the mainstream media.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:46 AM

Extreme record cold in Antarctica in the middle of summer? Why would they report on that....It's almost as if they are trying to hide stuff.

Posted by: John Roberts at November 20, 2022 11:52 AM (uNylN)

443 438 Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:51 AM (MoZTd)

It's hard to beat the classics I admit, the kids crib from me....I cribbed in my own way from John Paul Jones and Oliver Hazard Perry.

//Admiral Chester Nimitz

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:52 AM (Lzpvj)

444 I'm rereading Connie Willis's "Bellwether", about a woman who studies fads, what they mean, and more importantly how they start, so the think tank that employs her can start a few of their own.

The book is really a satire on corporate culture, especially administrative BS. At a brainstorming/futuring pep rally, they are asked by Management to come up with objectives, and somebody jots down the same crap she always does to placate the suits: 1) Optimize potential, 2) Facilitate empowerment, 3) Implement visioning, 4) Strategize priorities, and 5) Augment core structures

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 20, 2022 11:53 AM (3pr7Q)

445
As for the troops, they were known to throw away their decks as they marched to battle, out of the fear that if they were killed, they would have to explain to St. Peter why they had been carrying the devil's pasteboards

On the other hand, a deck of cards likely stopped many a low-velocity musket ball. The soldier would say later that it was his Bible.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:53 AM (MoZTd)

446 John Leguizamo Outraged That “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” Did Not Cast an “Actor of Color” as Title Hero: “They’re Going Backwards”

Yeah, Leguizamo is an ass nearly every time he opens his mouth but this time its even more hilarious than usual. Mario is ITALIAN YOU JACKASS

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:53 AM (Ivdso)

447 The basic structure of military novels

1. Trouble brewing
2. The storm breaks
3. US forces pushed back
4. Brilliant counterpunch developed
5. The US prevails
6. Epilogue
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 20, 2022 11:51 AM (MoZTd)

Also, Rocky / Rambo movies. Love a good underdog perseveres and prevails comeback story.

Posted by: Count de Monet at November 20, 2022 11:54 AM (4I/2K)

448 446 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 11:53 AM (Ivdso)

John Luigi Zamo....stealing roles that should have went to Gandolfini

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:54 AM (Lzpvj)

449 Laura Peek at Helium Indy Dec 10-11 @laurapeek_ · 17h
On my flight today I woke up from a nap & an attendant was walking down the aisle holding a pug, saying “we found this pug. Whose pug is this??” And for 3 hours we all just took turns holding the mystery pug until a verrrry stoned man in the last row woke up & was like “Roscoe?!”

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 11:55 AM (yikp0)

450 I've always found it interesting that in Genesis 1:26 God somehow makes a change from first person singular to the first person plural,
"Let US make man in OUR image"

Posted by: gourmand du jour, clear and cool at November 20, 2022 11:55 AM (jTmQV)

451 Do they understand this or is it a subconscious attempt to fill a void?

Posted by: CN
___

We all have a hole in us.

It's meant to be filled with God, but so many of us fill it with other things, including power.

Posted by: SMH at what's coming at November 20, 2022 11:55 AM (tKb8s)

452 Mister we could use a man like Genghis Khan again.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (sn5EN)
---
Excellent at killing people. That was it, that was their skill set.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 20, 2022 09:28 AM (llXky)

QED

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 20, 2022 11:56 AM (Fe55U)

453
We all have a hole in us.

It's meant to be filled with God, but so many of us fill it with other things, including power.
Posted by: SMH at what's coming at November 20, 2022 11:55 AM (tKb8s)

Now, I think those obsessed with power are demanding a void to fill.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:56 AM (Zzbjj)

454 I suppose a lot of prolific authors were a bit repetitive. Christie for example, has at least five murders occur on trains

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 11:43 AM (Zzbjj)

Yes. I noticed that when binging all Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver novels. Apparently there aren't really all that many famous crimes in pre-war England so the same historical examples have to be re-used.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 20, 2022 11:57 AM (nC+QA)

455 Muldoon, that is your best yet. I doff my hat, sir (or would, if I had a hat).

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at November 20, 2022 11:57 AM (HabA/)

456 452 Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 20, 2022 11:56 AM (Fe55U)

There is probably not a redemptive path for international socialists any more than they think there is one in their eyes for us.

Kind of like Stalin and his solution for man-made problems.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 11:57 AM (Lzpvj)

457 The devil's pasteboard?

The AOSHQ Moron pasteboard membership card. Accepted at all Hotel Underbridge establishments.

Posted by: 13times at November 20, 2022 11:57 AM (jCiv6)

458 All New York Schools Must Ditch Their Native American Mascots by the End of the Academic Year

-
Murders, rapes, and robberies may continue apace however.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:59 AM (FVME7)

459 458 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:59 AM (FVME7)

Well you wind up honoring the Mohawks and Seneca one way or another...

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 12:00 PM (Lzpvj)

460 Your cute video of the day to forget politics for a moment:

https://twitter.com/HeckinGoodDogs/status/
1594057126548492289

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) cancel your NY Post at November 20, 2022 12:00 PM (yikp0)

461 I read Schlichters latest Inferno. His near future stories of a nation that has split Red and Blue.

Imma say eh at best on this one. Like he just sorta knocked it out to make a word count. His fan service seems a bit confusing - not sure if he is knocking some of the people on the conservative side or not by placing them into his future. And he mostly just puts his hero Kelly Turnbull into gunfights and gun porn and descriptions of terminal ballistics are most of the word count. It seems like most of his clever shots about the world of the Left have been used up and what he uses now is either super-contrived or just mean.

And he's running into real world timeline, in part, so some of that seems forced a bit.

Worst of the series in my estimation.

Posted by: blaster at November 20, 2022 12:00 PM (pwExq)

462 Nood

Posted by: Duke Lowell at November 20, 2022 12:01 PM (u73oe)

463 Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 20, 2022 12:01 PM (7bRMQ)

464 Does anybody ever sit down with no story at all in mind and just start writing? What would your opening sentence be if you were trying to avoid all the tropes?
Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

You're not going to believe this.....

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at November 20, 2022 12:02 PM (Zvtjl)

465 Mister we could use a man like Genghis Khan again.

Posted by: fd at November 20, 2022 09:24 AM (sn5EN)
---
Excellent at killing people. That was it, that was their skill set.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

They perfer to use the term "management".

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 12:02 PM (FVME7)

466 In the Inspector Morse series, Morse is the sleuth in the Oxford area. Lots of murders. In reality, there is one murder, on average, about every ten years. Hardly enough to keep a sleuth occupied.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at November 20, 2022 12:03 PM (I9VC/)

467 461 Posted by: blaster at November 20, 2022 12:00 PM (pwExq)

I think the first was the best as it was an outsider's understanding of what SOF does.

There is an interesting story to be told about a SOCOM full spectrum team trying to stabilize post whoops America that has not been told.

Civil Affairs, Psyops, JAG, MPs, and SOF trying to foster a new legal framework would have space for competing diatribes on morals and networks.

Posted by: sven at November 20, 2022 12:04 PM (Lzpvj)

468 466 In the Inspector Morse series, Morse is the sleuth in the Oxford area. Lots of murders. In reality, there is one murder, on average, about every ten years. Hardly enough to keep a sleuth occupied.
Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at November 20, 2022 12:03 PM (I9VC/)

They can't have Morse, or Lewis, investigating shoplifting and vandalism, can they?

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 12:05 PM (Zzbjj)

469 Thanks everyone for helping pass the time on a very cold Sunday morning.
Have a great day.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at November 20, 2022 12:05 PM (Y+l9t)

470 They can't have Morse, or Lewis, investigating shoplifting and vandalism, can they?

One of the things I think is charming about Sherlock Holmes is that most of his cases are not about murder.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 20, 2022 12:06 PM (Ivdso)

471 466 In the Inspector Morse series, Morse is the sleuth in the Oxford area. Lots of murders. In reality, there is one murder, on average, about every ten years. Hardly enough to keep a sleuth occupied.
Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at November 20, 2022 12:03 PM (I9VC/)

And Midsomer Country must be quite the monstrous place to live. Is there ever just one murder?

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 12:06 PM (Zzbjj)

472 470. Interesting crime does not always have to be murder. Closer to home, we haven't had an FTX murder, but the plot is very complicated so far.

Posted by: CN at November 20, 2022 12:09 PM (Zzbjj)

473 The Hobbit wasn't written only for kids but it was suitable for them in an 'adult' book. This was back when kids could be exposed to serious matters. LOTR was definitely an adult book that could appeal to younger readers.

Posted by: JTB at November 20, 2022 11:43 AM (7EjX1)

Terry Pratchett claimed that his children's books were far darker than his adult books.
Maurice and His Educated Rats is a horror story, and quite a nasty one as well.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 12:10 PM (xhaym)

474 We're all made in God's image.
The fact that due to this close proximity to God, we try to be God shouldn't be all that surprising.
Posted by: SMH at what's coming at November 20, 2022 11:47 AM (tKb8s)

One day I will flesh out and finish my essay, Why were there apples in the Garden.

To quote Time Bandits, it has something to do with free will

Posted by: Kindltot at November 20, 2022 12:15 PM (xhaym)

475 I never tried one of those. I think the problem is the diameter is too large to actually fit in a lot of areas. The bolt has to be in a larger open area. I guess it would have some uses.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 20, 2022 10:55 AM (VwHCD)

I suspect if you ever tried to use it on a really, really tight fastener, you would either wreck the socket, or round off the fastener. Sounds like a gimmick tool to me.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 20, 2022 12:18 PM (5yxuf)

476
"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is the only cinematic version that I have viewed for Tolkien's works. No "The Hobbit" and no whatever the hell that Amazon just slathered across viewing screens. I was mostly satisfied with what Peter Jackson and company had delivered to the big screen, even as I was vaguely aware they had taken some serious liberties with the story line.

There was a time about forty-five years ago when I made a point to read "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the Ring" trilogy around once every year. I stopped doing that after around four or five re-readings of those works.

Lately I have re-read "The Hobbit" and "TLotR", and I have only the final book of the trilogy, "The Return of the King", left to read. These readings have been a real revelation for me.

The level of juicing up executed for the story line in the cinematic "TLotR" really surprised me. I understand why Jackson & company did so, because short attention spans are the rule. However, a great deal of the richness of Tolkien's narrative was tossed aside in that process.

I do not mind Jackson's "TLofR" trilogy, but I will re-read the books whenever I feel a need to revisit the story.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at November 20, 2022 12:22 PM (pNxlR)

477
John Leguizamo Outraged That “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” Did Not Cast an “Actor of Color” as Title Hero: “They’re Going Backwards”
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 20, 2022 11:52 AM (FVME7)

John Leguizamo can shove a barbed mace up his ass and spin.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 20, 2022 12:37 PM (Zz0t1)

478 "How dare you think that your existence is he even a blip on the radar screen for a universe creating God?"

Well, except the part where he told us.

Posted by: goodluckduck at November 20, 2022 01:53 PM (pCXlW)

479 the best book you can give a young woman is:

The Privilege of Being a Woman by Alice von Hildebrand

Teach the girls who they are and they will be ready for anything.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at November 20, 2022 02:10 PM (LOVUx)

480 Mr. Clement Withers: where might one look for a copy of the book you recommended: Into the Rockies. My first efforts have yielded nothing. Thank you (Leadville Native)

Posted by: sharon at November 20, 2022 03:04 PM (GWFS2)

481 Wolfus Aurelius @257 re effective openers in stories:

One of my favorite examples of a great narrative hook comes from Fritz Leiber's "Adept's Gambit" which opens thus:

"It happened that while Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were dallying in a wine shop near the Sidon Harbor of Tyre, where all wine shops are of doubtful repute, a long-limbed yellow-haired Galatian girl lolling in Fafhrd's lap turned suddenly into a walloping large sow. It was a singular occurrence, even in Tyre."

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 20, 2022 03:30 PM (DoysP)

482 May I just say, that though I read AOS all week long, the Pet thread and the Book thread are balms to my soul.
Which certainly needs it, being a bit chapped lately.

Posted by: Best Thief in Lankhmar at November 20, 2022 03:39 PM (64rer)

483 Bond's game was baccarat, not poker in Casino Royale..

Posted by: James Archer at November 20, 2022 03:51 PM (lsQkm)

484 Speaking of resting upon laurels and past acclaim, is there anyone else who thought that McCollough's 1776 was cribbed together from the unused notes for his John Adams?

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at November 20, 2022 05:12 PM (K58O6)

485 "483 Bond's game was baccarat, not poker in Casino Royale.."

They changed it to poker in the movie.

I love baccarat in Bond movies though, because I have no idea what is going on. I don't want to learn the rules.

Posted by: goodluckduck at November 20, 2022 05:51 PM (pCXlW)

486 I get paid more than $85 every hour for working on the web. I found out about this activity 3 months prior and subsequent to joining this I have earned effectively $15k from this without having internet working abilities.

Copy underneath the site to check it.. Pr𝐨fit97.Com

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487 Making money online is more than $15k just by doing simple work from home. I received $18376 last month. It's an easy and simple job to do and its earnings are much better than regular office jobs and even a little child can do this and earn money. Everybody must try this job by just use the info on this page..... www.richsalaries.com

Posted by: Jennifer Leon at November 21, 2022 07:51 AM (w4o73)

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