Sunday Morning Book Thread - 05-19-2024 ["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. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...(not sure if he's even wearing pants--it's from the recent Met Gala.)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

This is another AI-generated photo from Adobe's collection of images. Although it's not perfect, I do like the composition of the image, as it shows a neat library that has an amazing view of the surrounding countryside. Now, if only there were some comfy chairs and cozy kitties in this image...

RAY BRADBURY'S RULES FOR WRITERS

A few weeks ago I posted Ernest Hemingway's advice to new writers. Here are some tips and tricks from another author (who may be cancelled soon...for *reasons*)

Don't think. - Most, if not all, of your thinking on the story should be done *prior* to sitting down at the typewriter (or computer in modern terms). Let yourself *feel* the story flow out of you as you type, rather than waste time analyzing and reflecting on every word as it is laid down on paper. There will be time for editing and revision later.

Libraries are people. - Bradbury views books as an extension of the people who wrote them. He interacts with their stories as if he was interacting with the authors themselves. In that sense, he sees stories as establishing a very deep emotional connection with the reader and this is the experience you want to create with the stories that YOU write. A part of you will be contained in every copy of every book that is published. So when someone buys your book, or checks it out of the library, they will be connecting with YOU, even though you may not feel it.

Write it right now. - In some sense, this goes with the first point above, as Bradbury sees the activity of writing as an emotional experience for him. He writes from his heart, not from his head. And when an idea pops into his head, he doesn't store it away for later, but immediately attempts to capture that idea *in the moment* to see what hidden truths may emerge.

If you want a thing, go get it. - You have to be proactive about what you want. Writing is hard. Getting published is even harder. But if it means the world to you, then you will do what is necessary (within moral and ethical limits, I hope) to achieve your goals. If someone says you CAN'T do it, then they better have a darned good reason why YOU can't be the one to do it when others around you succeed.

Writing must be like candy. - You must take joy in writing. You should not look at as a chore or a burden. As Bradbury says (paraphrased), the pen/typewriter/computer must be calling out to you at all hours of the day and you must be eager and ready to answer that call.

Become alive. - Bradbury had a powerful encounter when he was 12 years old that clearly influenced the stories he's written. You should watch the video to hear him tell this story. My own words will not do it justice.

Own your work. - YOU are the owner of your labor when it comes to writing. You should know every word, every punctuation mark in your stories as the farmer knows every stalk of wheat in the fields he tills. Hold on to that thought when you start trying to sell your works...

Fantasy is valuable. - "The ability to fantasize is the ability to survive and the ability to fantasize is the ability to grow." Capture the dreams of one's youth as a way to grow into one's passion as a writer.

Do what you love. - If you don't love writing, then you may want to reconsider your prospective career as an author. For me, it's a necessary and sometimes pleasurable aspect of my life, but I don't love it to the point where I can spend hours and hours and hours writing down stories. I do love to read, though, and that I CAN spend hours and hours and hours doing. That's why I offered my services a couple of years ago to do the Sunday Morning Book Thread, because reading is my one true passion in life, without which I could not live. My passion for reading is why I continue to do the Sunday Morning Book Thread, though like all good things, I'm sure there will be a time when I start to find it more of a burden than a blessing...but not today.

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SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

NOTE: Through a strange moment of serendipity, Alice Cooper's "School's Out" was playing on my iTunes as I posted today's Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Welp. School is officially over at the campus where I work. All of the commencement ceremonies are over, all the grades are turned in, and the students and faculty have both disappeared for the summer. That means it's time to celebrate by reading light, fluffy, trashy material for the next couple of months. Oh, who am I kidding? That's pretty much all I read these days. Nevertheless, I've read most of what I want to read on my "bucket" list and can now switch over to mindless entertainment.

What I'm reading today- Starwars 100 objects.
Don't judge. lol
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at May 12, 2024 09:56 AM (VwHCD)

I would never presume to judge anyone for their reading habits. Here's what I have on tap for this summer:

Star Wars novels -- got quite a few in my TBR pile that I need to finish. I do want to read the entire nineteen-novel New Jedi Order story arc from start to finish someday. It's the one where the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong invade the Star Wars galaxy with their bizarre organic technology and just wreck the New Republic (300+ *trillion* Republic civilians killed during the war). They are mostly immune to Force abilities so the Jedi are at a major disadvantage when trying to fight them. Pretty crazy storyline.

Star Trek: The Original Series novels -- Many of these are actually pretty good science fiction stories wearing a Star Trek skinsuit as Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock, Dr. McCoy, and the rest of the Enterprise crew tackle unusual and creative problems that could never be shown on television. Even today's modern special effects would be hard-pressed to show some of these stories--or would just look terrible. It helps that established science fiction authors have written some of these (e.g., Greg Bear). Not great literature, but often entertaining in their own way.

Forgotten Realms novels -- These are set in one of the most iconic campaign worlds for Dungeons and Dragons and use that ruleset for most of the action. So you have adventuring parties of one sort or another going out on a quest. As a way to kill time, they are entertaining, light, and fluffy. You know that good will triumph in the end. Seriously. That was written into the authors' contracts.

Dragonlance novels -- This is the other major Dungeons and Dragons literary franchise. Compared to Forgotten Realms, the power level is much, much lower. The overall history of the setting is slightly more cohesive than FR but there are still major discrepancies from series to series. It focuses on the "Balance" between Good and Evil, implying that both are equivalent and necessary.

As you can see, NONE OF THAT would be considered "highbrow" literature in any sense of the word. But for me, it's just good, clean fun. Seriously. Barely any sex or cursing or vulgarity whatsoever. Lots of violence, though...

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I got a book this week which I think I first heard about on this thread some months ago: Well, Doc, You're In! -- a collection of biographical essays about Freeman Dyson, edited by Daniel Kaiser and published by MIT. It's basically a biography of Dyson, but the different stages of his life are covered by different writers, many of whom knew him at the time. Fascinating guy, so the book's quite interesting.
I was amused that the editor felt it necessary to devote roughly a quarter of his introduction to an attempt to handwave away or excuse Dyson's well-known skepticism about climate alarmism. As if this was a biography of Newton published in the 19th century and the editor had to make excuses for his religious heresy.
When Dyson supported nuclear disarmament he was a brave visionary. When he doubted St. Al Gore he was . . . problematic.
But other than that it's a good book.
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 12, 2024 09:10 AM (78a2H)

Comment: Freeman Dyson came up with a lot of interesting ideas, but perhaps his most famous is the "Dyson Sphere." Although Dyson didn't invent the concept, he did explore the ramifications of what such an object might do for a civilization. A Dyson sphere, in its simplest form, is a sphere that completely encloses a star, thus capturing 100% of the energy output of that star. It's been used in numerous science fiction stories, most famously in Larry Niven's Ringworld series, which uses a ring-variant of the Dyson sphere. Star Trek: The Next Generation used the complete Dyson sphere variant in one episode--where the crew of Enterprise-D also encounters the original Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott locked in stasis in a transporter buffer. Illegal Aliens by Nick Pollota and Phil Foglio has a story of a galactic civilization that finds a series of nested Dyson spheres, one within the other. The alien archeologists exploring the spheres give up trying to find the architects of the sphere, who are thought to be buried deep inside. Their reasoning is that they galaxy is full of enough amateur loonies. No one desired to meet professionals.

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Currently reading All of Our Sins by Yuval Kordov, the creator of the world of Dark Legacies, a post-post-apocalyptic sci-fi/dark fantasy world. It's the second book in the series, following The Hand of God.
Both excellent books. Nuclear war has killed almost everyone on Earth, and God has punished humanity for its suicide by casting our planet into darkness, and opened a HellMouth in the SE of the US that spews forth demons to plague the survivors, and caused much of the rest of the country to be a place where you'll go insane merely from traveling across it.
Several groups of survivors vie for technological supremacy as they battle demons and the world. There are sentient mechs, mutant children, witches, and lots of political backstabbing and intrigue. I'm really enjoying these books very much.
Posted by: Sharkman at May 12, 2024 09:29 AM (/RHNq)

Comment: Sounds intriguing. I may have to check this out. Would God punish the remnants of humanity if we outright rejected the gift of life and tried to destroy ourselves? It's not so farfetched as one might think, as we have people right now on planet Earth that believe the Earth should be wiped clean of humanity, believing us to be a "disease" or "contamination." They seem hellbent on complete and total eradication of the human race. Yet, they never seem to be the ones to "lead the way" by offing themselves first. Instead, they want to be the last generation alive to die out naturally and turn out the lights.

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I've started reading-
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
This seems to be the Ur-novel for a lot of SF inspired disaster stories. Esp. zombie movies/shows seem to have straight out stolen...uh...."been inspired by" the opening of TDotT.
You're probably familiar with the story but if you aren't a guy who's had eye surgery wakes up to find practically everyone in the world but him is blind thanks to an unusual celestial event. Perhaps involving comet debris.
Blind hijinks ensue. Then not zombies but killer and mobile plants show up. Carnivorous horticultural hijinks ensue.
Very well written so far. If a bit wordy. Opens with the story already ongoing which is a method i prefer in my fiction.
No complaints. We'll see how it goes.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 12, 2024 09:21 AM (eDfFs)

Comment: I've heard of this book (ok, movie), but have never read it myself. It has been adapted for the large and small screen more than once. According to the synopsis of the story I read, it's never made clear what caused the blindness or the carnivorous plants. At one point, the Triffids are being farmed because they produce useful resources, but then the blindness event happens and the plants get loose. Also, surviving a planetwide apocalypse is HARD. Most people will die in a matter of months as all preserved food resources run out. Setting up a farm from scratch take A LOT of work and know-how, even for the simplest tasks.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

The Crimson Shadow Book 1 - The Sword of Bedwyr by R. A. Salvatore

This is one of Salvatore's earlier works, coming out in 1995, approximately the same time he was working on his Legend of Drizzt stories. It's about a young warrior who teams up with a colorful halfling rogue to become an outlaw duo, stealing what they like and leaving a mysterious calling card behind them--the Crimson Shadow. Luthien quickly gets bored with all the thievery and decides to find a purpose in life. So now he is attempting to rally the people to rise up against the oppressive regime of King Greensparrow. This story features Salvatore's trademark action sequences that are entertaining to read, but really strain one's credibility to believe that they are plausible. Kind of like a modern day action movie. The characters are a bit flat. Luthien is a warrior but has little personality. Oliver had personality, but it's almost too over-the-top. He reminds me of the dwarven highwayman Casanunda from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, but isn't quite as outrageously funny.

What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz

I've been reading a lot of fantasy and science fiction lately, so I decided to a take a break and try some horror/suspense. I picked up this Dean Koontz book at a book sale recently and thought I'd give it a go. Turns out it's pretty good. I can see why Dean Koontz has sold a billion books (or however many). At its core, it's a ghost story--a tale about a vengeful evil spirit seeking to destroy all that is good in the world. He stalks the man who killed his first mortal incarnation, who is now all grown up with a family of his own. It's a genuinely creepy story, though, as we get to see how the killer's spirit perceives the world--people are just playthings to him, to be used and disposed of as he sees fit. The protagonist, by contrast, is a genuinely good police detective who loves his family and will do anything to protect them. John knows something supernatural is haunting his family and he even knows the true identity of the killer, but he struggles to accept the idea of ghosts and spirits intruding on his materialistic worldview of evil. The only other one of Koontz' novels I've read so far was Odd Thomas which was OK, but I think What the Night Knows is a better story overall. I will probably be reading more Dean Koontz in the future. Fortunately, the library in which I work (but do not work for) has numerous Dean Koontz novels available for checkout.

Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

This is the last book Michael Crichton was working on before he passed away in 2008. He didn't finish it, so Richard Preston (author of a great nonfiction book, The Hot Zone) was brought into complete the story. I think most of it is Crichton's work, though. The first 100 pages or so reads like it might have come from Jurassic Park in the setup of the main story. A group of graduate students in diverse fields are brought together by a mysterious wealthy benefactor who needs their services to solve certain problems on a top-secret project that will revolutionize science. Then the mid-plot twist occurs, which is pretty obvious when it happens, but also catches you a bit off-guard as it's happening. I won't spoil the details. What I find particularly entertaining is Crichton's attitude towards the environmental do-gooder movement. In his unfinished introduction, he says that today's modern environmental activists have no real clue how complex systems work or how nature functions out in the wild. They are force-fed a very specific viewpoint while in school. He also doesn't have any respect for useless degrees in college. The one graduate student who is "writing a thesis on scientific linguistic codes and paradigm transformation" is scorned by the other characters as a useless waste of oxygen and he does little to help out the team as they get bogged down in the main conflict. Overall, pretty good story, if predictable at times. Like Koontz, I will probably read more Michael Crichton in the future (have at least two others lined up in my TBR pile.)

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 05-12-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. The squirrel on this page may be larger than he appears.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 I read my car's owners manual, does that count?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 19, 2024 08:59 AM (wX5h4)

2 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 09:00 AM (wX5h4)

3 I did not read this week.

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 19, 2024 09:00 AM (wX5h4)

4 1st.

Posted by: Reforger at May 19, 2024 09:00 AM (wX5h4)

5 No solution to the problem, I see.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 19, 2024 09:00 AM (wX5h4)

6 testudo

Posted by: Ciampino - English had not been invented yet! at May 19, 2024 09:00 AM (wX5h4)

7 hiya

Posted by: JT at May 19, 2024 09:00 AM (wX5h4)

8 Books!

Posted by: Jamaica at May 19, 2024 09:01 AM (wX5h4)

9 Is the (wX5h4) Of The Month Club??

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 09:02 AM (wX5h4)

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

Many thanks to Pixy for getting AOSHQ back up and running. People were going through withdrawal yesterday.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 09:02 AM (wX5h4)

11 G'morn.

Hahaha. The hash problem. How can that be happening?

Let's hope no one comments on an old thread and gets everyone banned!

Posted by: mindful webworker - wX5h4tified at May 19, 2024 09:02 AM (wX5h4)

12 Yay book thread! No reading this week, too much going on with spring cleaning/gardening. Hopefully get some going this afternoon.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:03 AM (wX5h4)

13 Reading a interesting book
The Prosecutor and the Prey Vyshilinsky and the 1930s Moscow Show Trials by Arkady Vaksberg
Almost 1/2 way, just past Stalin wiping out most of the army's high command.
Still amazed how they got people to admit to totally made up charges and knowing they would be executed from them. The Kangaroo Courts we are seeing are not much different in outlook, at least they are not executed yet

Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 09:03 AM (wX5h4)

14 I finished "Dick Tracy: Colorful Cases of the 1930s," followed by "The Man From U.N.C.L.E: The Doomsday Affair," the second book in the series. Tracy's adventures were by far superior.

However, I do wonder whether actual jail prisoners in the 1930s were allowed to keep notes that were found on them. In one Tracy sequence, jailers find a note with a street address on a prisoner, but she is later able to drop it to confederates through a window.

Flash forward 30 years, and I can ask the same question. In "Doomsday Affair," a jailed Illya pulls out a cigarette lighter. C'mon now!

"Doomsday Affair" is what I think the film industry derides as a "programmer." Scene follows scene. Some are sadistic. Uneven writing. No surprises. And the ending is so abrupt that I think the writer -- it wasn't David McDaniel -- ran out of paper. (The last page had an ad on the other side; otherwise I would have thought the final pages were missing.)

I like to get all of a series, but this one goes out.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 09:04 AM (wX5h4)

15 Good morning morons

I'm just here for the hash

Posted by: Michael Cohen at May 19, 2024 09:05 AM (wX5h4)

16 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

For awhile, we couldn't comment on NEW threads !

Posted by: JT at May 19, 2024 09:05 AM (wX5h4)

17 /Mr. Fixer sock off

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 09:05 AM (wX5h4)

18 I read Andromeda Strain and was unimpressed. I gather Crichton improves with each book.

Posted by: Jamaica at May 19, 2024 09:06 AM (wX5h4)

19 Anyone have any good books about Iranian helicopters falling out of the sky?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 09:07 AM (wX5h4)

20 I don't understand the Marcia cartoon

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 19, 2024 09:07 AM (wX5h4)

21 OMG, I want the library!

Posted by: Lizzy at May 19, 2024 09:07 AM (wX5h4)

22 I like the picture, but that much sunlight can't be good for the books in the long term. My ideal library has north facing windows.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 19, 2024 09:07 AM (wX5h4)

23 But it needs a big ol' Persian rug.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 19, 2024 09:08 AM (wX5h4)

24 Well because he wrote it as a series of reports much like mccarys miernek dossier

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 19, 2024 09:08 AM (wX5h4)

25 OMG, I want the library!
Posted by: Lizzy at May 19, 2024 09:07 AM (wX5h4)

So do I, too bad it's not real.

Posted by: dantesed at May 19, 2024 09:08 AM (wX5h4)

26 I've found the solution to the hash problem. It's so simple!

All I have to do is delete the proxy devices and network device from the proxy container, add the network device back in manually, assign it a static IP address (which you can't do with the default network device), then re-enable the proxy devices in NAT mode (which you can't do without a static IP).

I am going to do that in the morning.

There's another easier way to do it, but it doesn't work.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 19, 2024 09:09 AM (wX5h4)

27 good morning Perfessor, Horde. Three cheers for Bradbury!

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 19, 2024 09:09 AM (wX5h4)

28 The film makes the consequences more real from the nee mexico incident

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 19, 2024 09:09 AM (wX5h4)

29 Being a dunderhead, I am not a frequent commenter on these educated threads but, you work is always a pleasure to us, Professor.

Posted by: G'rump928(c) at May 19, 2024 09:09 AM (wX5h4)

30 Guess the Pants Guy ain't weedwhacking today.....

Posted by: JT at May 19, 2024 09:10 AM (wX5h4)

31 >>> 13 Reading a interesting book
The Prosecutor and the Prey Vyshilinsky and the 1930s Moscow Show Trials by Arkady Vaksberg
Almost 1/2 way, just past Stalin wiping out most of the army's high command.
Still amazed how they got people to admit to totally made up charges and knowing they would be executed from them. The Kangaroo Courts we are seeing are not much different in outlook, at least they are not executed yet
Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 09:03 AM (wX5h4)

I'm sure torture had nothing to do with that in the most perfect workers' paradise, Comrade.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:10 AM (wX5h4)

32 Started reading on my new kindle paperwhite this week. Reread Sweep of the heart and read the firet Alicia Yoder book by M.A.Rothman

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 19, 2024 09:11 AM (wX5h4)

33 Let's hope no one comments on an old thread and gets everyone banned!

Posted by: mindful webworker - wX5h4tified at May 19, 2024 09:02 AM (wX5h4)

I hope no troll read that.

Posted by: davidt at May 19, 2024 09:11 AM (wX5h4)

34 New mexico which leads us to wildfire

Crichton was trained as a doctor so the initisl presentation is clinic

You might say the characters are kind on npc

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 19, 2024 09:11 AM (wX5h4)

35 I have all the TOS novels and all the original 70s animated series, all on one bookshelf.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 09:11 AM (wX5h4)

36
Yeah, sleep on it Pixy. You'll probably wake up at 1 am with an easier solution.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at May 19, 2024 09:12 AM (wX5h4)

37 I've found the solution to the hash problem. It's so simple!

All I have to do is delete the proxy devices and network device from the proxy container, add the network device back in manually, assign it a static IP address (which you can't do with the default network device), then re-enable the proxy devices in NAT mode (which you can't do without a static IP).

Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 19, 2024 09:09 AM (wX5h4)
---
Wasn't this the plot of an episode of "Scooby Doo"?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 19, 2024 09:12 AM (wX5h4)

38 Still reading "Hard Magic" by Larry Correia.

Posted by: lin-duh at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

39 >>> 19 Anyone have any good books about Iranian helicopters falling out of the sky?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 09:07 AM (wX5h4)

Wow, and I thought rains of frogs were messy.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

40 I read my car's owners manual, does that count?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 19, 2024 08:59 AM

I read that as cat's owners manual.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

41 I've seen a bunch of the usual nonsense about whether dropping The Bomb on Japan was the right thing to do, and the definitive answer is contained in Richard B. Frank's Downfall. This was an invaluable source for me in writing Walls of Men because it provides the Japanese perspective on the end of the war and just trashes the various mythological "happy endings" that The Bomb ruined.

It is a mark of how ignorant our culture has become that people think citing Douglas MacArthur's opposition to using The Bomb is somehow authoritative or persuasive. Dugout Doug hated the surrender because it deprived him of his final victory over Japan. His estimates on casualties were so ludicrous that no one within the high command took them seriously.

Frank demonstrates that the bombings were the tipping point. The Soviet conquest of Manchuria was a shock, but Japan had been cut off from the mainland for months by American submarines, mines and patrol craft. The Japanese people were starving but determined. An American landing was inevitable and it would have created carnage on a level unseen in modern history. (con't)

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

42 Many thanks to Pixy for getting AOSHQ back up and running. People were going through withdrawal yesterday.
Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 09:02 AM (wX5h4)

For awhile there it was like Buddy Hacket was flying the plae.

Posted by: JT at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

43 I read The Polish Officer by Alan Furst. Captain Alexander de Milja is an officer and cartographer in the Polish army. When the Nazis attack, he is recruited by the Polish intelligence service to work with the Polish resistance. His first mission is to transport the national gold reserves to Romania. He then goes back to Poland to lead sabotage hits.

He must escape to Paris as the Nazis are close to hunting him down. He begins working with partisan guerrillas in France. He is at Calais harbor during a British bomber attack, and is sent to the forests of Ukraine to fight there. Furst spins a good spy yarn and evokes the atmosphere of the times.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

44 All I have to do is delete the proxy devices and network device from the proxy container, add the network device back in manually, assign it a static IP address (which you can't do with the default network device), then re-enable the proxy devices in NAT mode (which you can't do without a static IP).

Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 19, 2024 09:09 AM (wX5h4)

Running a reverse polarity neutrino burst through the deflector array will clear that right up.

Posted by: G'rump928(c) at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

45 Many foreign diplomats attended some of these high command trials, only it says a few, ( Germany ambassador for one and not a Nazi) knew these were made up, but some Americans and thought the defendant admit the crimes so they must be true. Guessing lots of the foreign people were Leftists so easily bought into these charges.
As it says who could guess all these old Bolsheviks who joined the revolution early were foreign spys?

Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 09:14 AM (wX5h4)

46 20 I don't understand the Marcia cartoon
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youtube.com:

https://tinyurl.com/mrxa6k56

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 09:15 AM (wX5h4)

47 >>> 38 Still reading "Hard Magic" by Larry Correia.
Posted by: lin-duh at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

He has a couple short stories outside the novels, and has plans for a second trilogy.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:15 AM (wX5h4)

48 That library would be perfect with comfy chairs. I am a sucker for mountains, great big windows, and a sunny room.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 19, 2024 09:15 AM (wX5h4)

49 I read my car's owners manual, does that count?
Posted by: OrangeEnt
+++
I've noticed that if I spend much time reading the owner's manual for any of my stuff it's usually a bad thing..

Posted by: Florida Peasant at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

50 >>> 40 I read my car's owners manual, does that count?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 19, 2024 08:59 AM

I read that as cat's owners manual.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

Wouldn't that be several pages of "do what cat wants"?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

51 Well many were leninist some had been members of the trust stalin didnt want to end up like robespierre

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

52 For anyone wanting to check out Bradbury's comments cited by the Perfessor, grab a copy of ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING. 2.99 at the moment in the Kindle store.

Am browsing some Saul Bellow at the moment -- never got around to THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH (though I was supposed to in college) and maybe I'll look at it soon. And maybe not, due to my current aversion to doorstops.

And Lord knows, I really should be writing...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

53 Frank goes through the competing war plans, the actual weapons that would have been employed and the discussion is unnerving.

The Japanese had build up a reserve of suicide biplanes designed to evade search radar that would obliterate the picket ships and crash into the landing craft. Our medical corps understand this - we created a stockpile of Purple Heart medals that lasted into early Aughts.

This book is essential - and often uncomfortable - reading.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

54 Morning, book folken!

OT: Rhennigan, that no-dialog episode of 77 Sunset Strip you mentioned was crafted by Roger Smith the actor himself. There was a writer's strike going on, so he (not a member of the Writer's Guild at that point) wrote the episode. It's a whole hour -- no dialog at all, and yet the story is clear and effective. It was called, logically, "The Silent Caper."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 09:17 AM (wX5h4)

55 My passion for reading is why I continue to do the Sunday Morning Book Thread, though like all good things, I'm sure there will be a time when I start to find it more of a burden than a blessing...but not today.

I had an amusing mental picture of Perf. Squirrel running in front of the Horde gathered in front of a book store, shouting "There will come a day when I start to find it more of a burden than a blessing...but it is not this day!"

Posted by: Archimedes at May 19, 2024 09:17 AM (wX5h4)

56 High school loved "The Andromeda Strain," in large part because of the file pages and teletype messages. And the binary code that produced a telephone number.

The "M*A*S*H Goes ..." books also used a lot of cablegram messages.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 09:18 AM (wX5h4)

57 My recent reading has been mostly livestock owner's manuals.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:18 AM (wX5h4)

58 As it says who could guess all these old Bolsheviks who joined the revolution early were foreign spys?
Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 09:14 AM (wX5h4)
====
Those trials were must one of several of Stalin's strategic errors that lead to Operation Barbarossa.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 09:19 AM (wX5h4)

59 Back to books . . . I just finished Patrick Taylor's first in his series, An Irish Country Doctor. Fun stuff, with humor, even some physical comedy. The sort of story PBS once upon a time would have done as a mini-series (or maybe they have?), or which would have shown up in the Reader's Digest Condensed Books in the '60s or '70s. It's set in about 1965 in Ireland, too, so there are references to the "recent" death of JFK, the Beatles, and "this new group the Rolling Stones." I'll see if the library has books two and three.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 09:20 AM (wX5h4)

60 Many thanks to Pixy for getting AOSHQ back up and running. People were going through withdrawal yesterday.

Ditto. I still have a comment I couldn't post. I hear its screams at night.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 19, 2024 09:20 AM (wX5h4)

61 Downfall is indeed an excellent book. Couple that with Embracing Defeat, and you've got something.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 19, 2024 09:21 AM (wX5h4)

62 The best thing about complex systems is how easy they are to service.

Posted by: Jamaica at May 19, 2024 09:21 AM (wX5h4)

63 Husband just finished the latest Gray Man book, "The Chaos Agent," and really enjoyed it. He said it's about AI, assassins, robots, and worldwide conspiracy--just everyday stuff.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 19, 2024 09:22 AM (wX5h4)

64 Robert wise did make it more understandable

Lawrence wright tried his hand at such an doomsday tale the end of october but his severe tds impaired it

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 19, 2024 09:22 AM (wX5h4)

65 Frank goes through the competing war plans, the actual weapons that would have been employed and the discussion is unnerving.

The Japanese had build up a reserve of suicide biplanes designed to evade search radar that would obliterate the picket ships and crash into the landing craft. Our medical corps understand this - we created a stockpile of Purple Heart medals that lasted into early Aughts.

This book is essential - and often uncomfortable - reading.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

The deaths among the Japanese population would have approached Jengis Khan levels as the population starved.

I read a probably apocryphal account of a reporter asking Curtis LeMay when the war would end. LeMay said give me a few minutes to consult and then came back with a specific date in the Summer of 47. The reporter asked how he came up with that date and he said that based on his schedules, on that day the Air Force would have destroyed every dam, bridge, railroad yard, and would be busy burning down the last town with a population over three thousand.

Posted by: G'rump928(c) at May 19, 2024 09:22 AM (wX5h4)

66 I had an amusing mental picture of Perf. Squirrel running in front of the Horde gathered in front of a book store, shouting "There will come a day when I start to find it more of a burden than a blessing...but it is not this day!"
Posted by: Archimedes at May 19, 2024 09:17 AM (wX5h4)
---
I had a similar image running through my mind when I wrote that. For reasons unknown, Lord of the Rings has been on my mind lately...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 19, 2024 09:22 AM (wX5h4)

67 Pixy at 26

This is what I didn't like about my last years in IT. I could program the computers, but a lot of network setup went right by me and if it weren't for other staff the place would have been screwed.

I barely understood your post.

Blessings on thee, and be careful not to cross the streams.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 09:23 AM (wX5h4)

68 The last book I read was Slapstick. Vonnegut had a strange sense of humor.

Posted by: Florida Peasant at May 19, 2024 09:23 AM (wX5h4)

69 Thanks for the dandy Book Thread, Perfessor!

No matter what happens online, a good printed book is a steady friend and companion. Always has been, always will be.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at May 19, 2024 09:24 AM (wX5h4)

70 "Doomsday Affair" is what I think the film industry derides as a "programmer." Scene follows scene. Some are sadistic. Uneven writing. No surprises. And the ending is so abrupt that I think the writer -- it wasn't David McDaniel -- ran out of paper. (The last page had an ad on the other side; otherwise I would have thought the final pages were missing.)

I like to get all of a series, but this one goes out.
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024

***
Doomsday is by an old-time pulp writer named Harry Whittington. He also wrote some of the magazine novelettes under the house name of "Robert Hart Davis." That abrupt ending is a trademark of his -- as soon as the main action is over, cut! Sort of like a Mission: Impossible episode.

It and the third book, The Copenhagen Affair, are what made Ace Books editor Terry Carr realize that the first few novels had been dull. It was then he recruited David McDaniel to write for them, and things improved.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 09:25 AM (wX5h4)

71 Tolkien had an interesting writing method. His first draft would be in pencil, then the second draft would be in ink right on top of the first.

Posted by: davidt at May 19, 2024 09:25 AM (wX5h4)

72 On the Kindle, I read Windrush: Crimea: A Historical War Novel by Malcolm Archibald. After his service in Burma, Windrush is able to buy a commission as a lieutenant in the despised 113th foot regiment. Two years later he is fighting the Russians at the battle of Sevastopol, a Russian naval base. He is able, from afar, to watch the charge of The Light Brigade. He was with the 118th foot, and rescued by the 113th foot, at the battle of Inkerman which repelled Russian attacks and ended in a stalemate and began the winter-long siege of Sevastopol. Archibald can write some very descriptive battle scenes and writes interesting stories while imparting some military history.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 19, 2024 09:25 AM (wX5h4)

73 It was a week for hobby related reading. The latest issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Fly Tyer arrived. The carving articles got me thinking about the different kinds of whittling so I got out my books on general whittling, kolrosing, hobo and tramp art, stuff written by Harley Refsal and Chris Lubkemann. Thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing reading.

Add to that a couple of books on use of colored pencils to achieve certain effects and pen and ink drawing.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 09:25 AM (wX5h4)

74 M'aiq is sure identical hashes could not be used for hijinx.

Posted by: M'aiq The Liar at May 19, 2024 09:25 AM (wX5h4)

75 ... and I might need to find a manual for my #)*&%#*&% washing machine, which this morning decided to start beeping randomly.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:25 AM (wX5h4)

76 >>No matter what happens online, a good printed book is a steady friend and companion. Always has been, always will be.

Well said!

Posted by: Lizzy at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)

77 Regarding the use of atomic weapons against Japan: I always like to ask people condemning it, "How many American and Japanese casualties would you need to satisfy your desire for sportsmanship?"

Because that's one thing everyone seems to forget. If the American casualties in a land invasion were going to be horrifying, the _Japanese_ casualties -- military AND civilian -- would be apocalyptic. We're talking tens of millions, a Stalingrad on a national scale.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)

78 I'm reading "Kala" by Colin Walsh. Set in today's Ireland in a tiny village way west near the seacoast, a reunion has brought friends back 13 years after (more about "after" later) a girl in their group went missing when they were all teenagers.

Very good piece of writing. I think it won some awards.

Irish say the word "after" as a weird way of doing past tense verbs.

"I'm after visiting this thread," would be said instead of "I visited this thread."

You'll find some saying that it is their usage of the "imposed" language, English being the language of the oppressors that forced its usage. Maybe Gaelic has a form for it. I don't know.

Who is your favorite Irish? The one you like listening to their speech?

For me it's Domhnall Gleeson, and if I can pick a woman, too, it's Maria Doyle Kennedy. Remember her in "The Commitments?"

Posted by: Mr Gaga at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)

79 I'm still reading "All Flesh Is Grass" by Clifford Simak. I should have finished it long ago but got sidetracked with other things.

Posted by: Ciampino - English had not been invented yet!! at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)

80 I read that as cat's owners manual.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

Wouldn't that be several pages of "do what cat wants"?
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)
---
Does it have any useful advice about what to do when you drop a book into the cat's water dish? Asking for a friend...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 19, 2024 09:27 AM (wX5h4)

81 >>> 77 Regarding the use of atomic weapons against Japan: I always like to ask people condemning it, "How many American and Japanese casualties would you need to satisfy your desire for sportsmanship?"

Because that's one thing everyone seems to forget. If the American casualties in a land invasion were going to be horrifying, the _Japanese_ casualties -- military AND civilian -- would be apocalyptic. We're talking tens of millions, a Stalingrad on a national scale.
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)

A recent twist I've seen is the claim that the Japanese were *trying* to surrender, but the big meanies in the US just wouldn't let them, gosh!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:27 AM (wX5h4)

82 For those that enjoy a bit of arcane history, I recommend Night Witches by Bruce Myles. The Night Witches were the women who made up three all woman regiments in the Russian air force in world war II. These women flew antique PO2 training biplanes pressed into combat service, at night, without lights. They flew over 24 thousand sorties, dropping bombs on the German sixth army with devastating accuracy. Their nightly missions continuously bombed Paulus' troops, contributing to the massive German defeat at Stalingrad. These women were based on temporary airfields near the front, and were exposed to danger both on the ground and in the air. They were named the night witches by their German victims, who had no adequate defense for the killers who appeared from nowhere and disappeared after bombing them.
Bruce Myles is a BBC correspondent who traveled through Russia to interview over a dozen of these pilots who had survived the war, and was given access to their diaries and logbooks to document their exploits. This is a fascinating look at a little known aspect of the eastern front.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 19, 2024 09:28 AM (wX5h4)

83 Because that's one thing everyone seems to forget. If the American casualties in a land invasion were going to be horrifying, the _Japanese_ casualties -- military AND civilian -- would be apocalyptic. We're talking tens of millions, a Stalingrad on a national scale.

Pshaw. What is that in comparison to an opportunity to publicly preen one's moral feathers?

Posted by: Archimedes at May 19, 2024 09:28 AM (wX5h4)

84 Posted by: davidt at May 19, 2024 09:25 AM (wX5h4)

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.

Posted by: dantesed at May 19, 2024 09:29 AM (wX5h4)

85 Night Witches also is a quite watchable Russian series on YouTube

Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 09:31 AM (wX5h4)

86 Yes but lets ponder this what would the soviets have done they would have annexed the northern islands certainly with their forces was the japanese communist party strong enough to let them take over utterly

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 19, 2024 09:31 AM (wX5h4)

87 A recent twist I've seen is the claim that the Japanese were *trying* to surrender, but the big meanies in the US just wouldn't let them, gosh!

It takes a very special type of idiot to believe this.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 19, 2024 09:32 AM (wX5h4)

88 Because that's one thing everyone seems to forget. If the American casualties in a land invasion were going to be horrifying, the _Japanese_ casualties -- military AND civilian -- would be apocalyptic. We're talking tens of millions, a Stalingrad on a national scale.
Posted by: Trimegistus

The other thing that is too often overlooked is that to an American, an American life is far more valuable than a Japanese one, to put it bluntly.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 19, 2024 09:32 AM (wX5h4)

89 Reading "Gai-Jin," the third book in James Clavell's "Asian Saga," (following, chronologically, "Shogun" and "Tai Pan"). This book is set in Japan in 1862, toward the end of the Tokagawa Shogunate that began at the end of "Shogun," and involves the trading companies and descendents introduced in "Tai Pan."

As with all of Clavell's novels, it is very good and I'm enjoying it immensely. I am, however, rushing through it a bit, as I really want to get to the very first novel he wrote, "King Rat," which is about his experiences as a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Changi prison camp from 1942 to 1945, and then on to his classic doorstop about Hong Kong in 1963, "Noble House."

Easily my second or third-favorite author.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 19, 2024 09:32 AM (wX5h4)

90 Ooh, ooh (aaROOO!), Perfessor! Pick me! I have some tips for you!:

1. If you're reading the ST:TOS tie-in novels for light entertainment, look for How Much for Just the Planet?, which incorporates themes from both The Trouble with Tribbles and Errand of Mercy, and has lots of laughs. One can always use a reminder not to take pop-culture IPs too seriously.

2. My favorite Dean Koontz novel to date is The Face. The title refers to the world's favorite movie star, who never makes an appearance even though his presence is at the heart of it. Instead, the story has two foci: the star's lonely little boy; and his security chief, responsible for the child's protection. You know you're in the hands of a master when the stakes of the story don't have to be the Fate of All Mankind to get you to sweat.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at May 19, 2024 09:32 AM (wX5h4)

91 All I have to do is delete the proxy devices and network device from the proxy container, add the network device back in manually, assign it a static IP address (which you can't do with the default network device), then re-enable the proxy devices in NAT mode (which you can't do without a static IP).

Immediately flashes on an image of Timmy's V-Cube expiring with a mushroom cloud in The Fairly Oddparents...

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 19, 2024 09:33 AM (wX5h4)

92 On my TBR pile is a collection of short stories called No Comebacks by Frederick Forsyth, the Day of the Jackal guy; and a historical/fantasy/time travel mystery by John Dickson Carr, The Devil in Velvet. It's all of those things, since the hero makes a deal with the Devil to travel back in time to 1675 . . . and as part of his adventure, he must solve a murder mystery. Something only Carr could have pulled off. I think I've read it before, but am not sure.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 09:33 AM (wX5h4)

93 Oh, thank G*d, the book thread! I missed the pet and the hobby thread last night, and was going through withdrawal!
As for reading - finished a Georgette Heyer romp, and decided on a change of pace: re-reading "The Long Way Around" - the account of a Pan Am clipper on a flight from the West Coast to Auckland, NZ when Pearl Harbor was attacked ... and the sealed orders (to only be opened in case of WAR) directed the crew to keep the AC safe and return to the US by whatever means and route they thought best. They took the clipper around through Australia, Ceylon, India, across Africa to the East Coast ... based on maps and atlases they got from the public library iun Auckland, and their own initiative. A good read, and illustrated with contemporary photographs of the AC, crew, and some of the places they stopped over at.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 19, 2024 09:33 AM (wX5h4)

94 So this week's book is an odd one. _Starship Century_, edited by Gregory and James Benford. I don't know if I got it at an SF convention or a used bookstore. Probably the former, as the imprint sounds like they basically published it themselves.

The book is a collection of scientific essays and short stories about interstellar exploration in the near future, no magic warp drives or anything like that. The consensus seems to be that if we're sending anything to the stars, some kind of laser or maser powered sail is how it can be accomplished. Also that it's going to take more than Earth's planetary GDP to do it, so we'd better get started colonizing the Solar System.

Or, if you're Freeman Dyson (maybe I should say "drink!" here) you envision doing it very slowly by settling comets out in the Oort Cloud incrementally until you just sort of blur into another star system.

The science part is great, the fiction part is a very mixed bag. A couple of good stories, one or two excessive rah-rah pieces, and a couple that feel like filler.

Still, if you want to know the state of the art in real-world star voyaging, this is a good place to start.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 09:33 AM (wX5h4)

95
Regarding the Triffids-

Ackshewallee, Wyndham goes through a several page explanation of the origin of the Triffids, because he wants you to believe in their possibility.

They originated in Russia as a cross-breeding experiment to produce a new and better source of plant oils to replace most other oils. This oil is so valuable and dangerous to existing cooking oil/etc business/interests that there is a plot to steal the plant(think Wagyu cattle) seeds. The seeds(think dandelion seeds) get loose in the upper atmosphere resulting a worldwide distribution of the plants.

along the way, their danger is discovered, buuuuuut, the Triffids are moneymakers so they are cultivated.

Weirdly, this rhymes with the whole COVID and Gain-of-Function shenanigans going on still in China.

They're making money creating dangerous breeds, not of plants, but viruses. Of course, these dangerous viruses could never ever escape into the outside world and cause havoc right?

And speaking of Michael Crichton...he's got to have read "Day of the Triffids", esp the beginning and thought to himself, "Well now, Mike old boy, I believe that I can make a whole career out of this here idea."

Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 09:34 AM (wX5h4)

96 Because that's one thing everyone seems to forget. If the American casualties in a land invasion were going to be horrifying, the _Japanese_ casualties -- military AND civilian -- would be apocalyptic. We're talking tens of millions, a Stalingrad on a national scale.
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)
---
They have created a fantasy world for themselves that Japan was desperately trying to end the war through mythical diplomatic measures and that if the US had said it would leave the Emperor alone, Japan would have capitulated.

It's pure fantasy, but that's what the cling to, and not a one of them seems to understand that Japan was *already dying.* Each day that passed saw more deaths. The war did not stand still, and the notion that the US would just pause and chat is completely insane.

But that's what a lot of these people thought that we could just declare a unilateral cease fire and Japan would totally not take advantage of that. They're delusional.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:35 AM (wX5h4)

97 @73 --

JTB, you've mentioned those magazines ma y times. What are the articles like?

I don't see how those subjects can yield enough variety to keep a magazine going.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 09:36 AM (wX5h4)

98 Still amazed how they got people to admit to totally made up charges and knowing they would be executed from them. The Kangaroo Courts we are seeing are not much different in outlook, at least they are not executed yet
Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 09:03 AM (wX5h4)
---
In addition to torture and the threats against family members, many of those who confessed were convinced to do so for the cause. They fervently believed in Communism and accepted that their deaths were somehow necessary because the Party decreed it, and if the Party was wrong here, then the Revolution itself might be a mistake.

Psychologically it was easier to accept a bullet.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:36 AM (wX5h4)

99 1. If you're reading the ST:TOS tie-in novels for light entertainment, look for How Much for Just the Planet?, which incorporates themes from both The Trouble with Tribbles and Errand of Mercy, and has lots of laughs. One can always use a reminder not to take pop-culture IPs too seriously.

2. My favorite Dean Koontz novel to date is The Face. The title refers to the world's favorite movie star, who never makes an appearance even though his presence is at the heart of it. Instead, the story has two foci: the star's lonely little boy; and his security chief, responsible for the child's protection. You know you're in the hands of a master when the stakes of the story don't have to be the Fate of All Mankind to get you to sweat.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at May 19, 2024 09:32 AM (wX5h4)
---
1. I own and have read this book, though it's been a long time. I do remember it being quite entertaining.
2. I think the library in which I work (but do not work for) has this book and I will add it to my list. Thanks!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 19, 2024 09:37 AM (wX5h4)

100 What are the odds of everyone having the same hash? Spooky!

Posted by: Weasel at May 19, 2024 09:37 AM (wX5h4)

101 The Irish R.M. -- book trilogy; and Irish national TV [TFE] and Ulster Television series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irish_R.M.

[Resident Magistrate]

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 09:38 AM (wX5h4)

102 Iran:

https://tinyurl.com/mr2prv8b

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 09:38 AM (wX5h4)

103 Let me second Sgt. Mom's recommendation for _The Long Way Around_. That's a fantastic book and in a sane universe would be a wonderful film. Some real nail-biter scenes: taking off overloaded from Leopoldville, taxiing at full speed _downriver_ on the Congo, hoping to reach airspeed before the impassable rapids.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 09:38 AM (wX5h4)

104 Does it have any useful advice about what to do when you drop a book into the cat's water dish? Asking for a friend...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 19, 2024 09:27 AM

1. *Immediately* clean the area of splashed water.
2. Use a hair dryer or heat gun to ensure the area is completely dry.
3. Refill the water dish with purified water.
4. Apologize profusely.
5. Make repairative offerings in the form of several treats.
6. Review policies and procedures, making needed changes to ensure it doesn't happen again.
7. Make additional repairative offerings, praising the cat for its exceptional patience.
8. Clean the litter box.

Posted by: The Cat at May 19, 2024 09:39 AM (wX5h4)

105 @80 --

Pour fresh water for the cat.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 09:39 AM (wX5h4)

106 What are the odds of everyone having the same hash?
Posted by: Weasel at May 19, 2024 09:37 AM (wX5h4)
-

It's my turn for a toke!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 09:39 AM (wX5h4)

107 59 I just finished Patrick Taylor's first in his series, An Irish Country Doctor. Fun stuff, with humor, even some physical comedy.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 09:20 AM (wX5h4)

I'll bet that would be good on audio. I'm out of audio books to listen to while cooking and working out, this would be fun.

*trots off to check Libby

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 19, 2024 09:40 AM (wX5h4)

108 A recent twist I've seen is the claim that the Japanese were *trying* to surrender, but the big meanies in the US just wouldn't let them, gosh!
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:27 AM (wX5h4)
---
Americans in particular have lost the ability to understand anything but their own feelings. Thus: "I'm a smart person, and see the logic of surrender, so surely the Japanese did and only American right-wing haters could stop them."

And then they drop a MacArthur quote without understanding its deep irony.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:40 AM (wX5h4)

109 I really enjoyed "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. (I actually bought it at the Los Alamos Museum Gift Shop.) For later editions Rhodes wrote an afterward saying that in retrospect he thought dropping the bomb was a mistake.

Interestingly, his book convinced me of just the opposite. Yes, bombing Japan ultimately saved millions of lives but more important in the long run was the impact on the postwar world. There is no question that if any of the Axis or Russia had developed the bomb first, everyone would have known that they would have used it without compunction. They would have been in the driver's seat.

But when the US developed and ACTUALLY USED the bomb first, that completely changed the dynamic. I'll bet until then they all figured that we were too weak and conscience-stricken to do anything like that.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 19, 2024 09:40 AM (wX5h4)

110 Now in retrospect what we ended up was not unconditional surrender the emperor got to keep his throne nor some of the worst princes like chirobuchi (sic) were not prosecuted many class a war criminals kodama and co as were rehabilitated

many of the top nazis like wolf were not touched for years yes some top nazis got the shot

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 19, 2024 09:40 AM (wX5h4)

111 >>> 96
---
They have created a fantasy world for themselves that Japan was desperately trying to end the war through mythical diplomatic measures and that if the US had said it would leave the Emperor alone, Japan would have capitulated.

It's pure fantasy, but that's what the cling to, and not a one of them seems to understand that Japan was *already dying.* Each day that passed saw more deaths. The war did not stand still, and the notion that the US would just pause and chat is completely insane.

But that's what a lot of these people thought that we could just declare a unilateral cease fire and Japan would totally not take advantage of that. They're delusional.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:35 AM (wX5h4)

Even if they *had* been "trying to surrender".... so fcking what? They were committing massive atrocities across the board, and when they start to lose, want the other side to stop picking on them?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:41 AM (wX5h4)

112 Have he anything to add to the conversation but want the new inclusive hash mark.

Posted by: From about That Time at May 19, 2024 09:41 AM (wX5h4)

113 As always, my reading (no matter the topics) led to rabbit holes to follow. The books about drawing led to getting down my volumes on the Book of Kells and "JRR Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator". The Book of Kells is always worth study both for its history and the incredible art.

Tolkien was a wonderful artist: creative, imaginative (no surprise there), and varied in style and materials. The book provides information about his drawings and maps. Aside from the Hobbit and LOTR connections, it includes drawings he did as a boy, mostly pen and ink, that are excellent. Add to that the drawings he did for his young children that almost a century later are still charming and amusing. Very much worth the time.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 09:41 AM (wX5h4)

114 Am browsing some Saul Bellow at the moment -- never got around to THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH (though I was supposed to in college) and maybe I'll look at it soon. And maybe not, due to my current aversion to doorstops.

And Lord knows, I really should be writing...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

Just skip onto "Humboldt's Gift".

I think it's his best book.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 09:42 AM (wX5h4)

115 To get a sense of the show trials in faction, A Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler is essential reading.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that actual Czarist officers were treated better than true believing Communists.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:42 AM (wX5h4)

116 "I'm sure there will be a time when I start to find it more of a burden than a blessing...but not today."
----

I'm hearing this in Gowron's voice, like a threat.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 09:43 AM (wX5h4)

117 John Wyndham was the Apocalyptic Storyteller of SF -- in Britain, anyway. He also wrote The Midwich Cuckoos, which movie people know as Village of the Damned; and a very creepy tale called Out of the Deeps in which an alien invasion takes hold in the oceans, and uses them as a base to invade the land. Very alien, very effective.

His contemporary John Christopher kept up with him, with The Long Winter (a new ice age disrupts civilization) and No Blade of Grass, in which a plant virus destroys the grasses on Earth . . . which includes all the grains we eat. Food shortages and The Burning Times ensue.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 09:44 AM (wX5h4)

118 Furst spins a good spy yarn and evokes the atmosphere of the times.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

Seconded!

His writing is excellent too.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 19, 2024 09:44 AM (wX5h4)

119 Even if they *had* been "trying to surrender".... so fcking what? They were committing massive atrocities across the board, and when they start to lose, want the other side to stop picking on them?
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 19, 2024 09:41 AM (wX5h4)
---
The Allies had agreed that only unconditional surrender was acceptable. Japan trying to cut a deal, playing factions against each other is in these lunatics' minds rational and desireable.

But those were the terms. They started the war, they knew how to end it. Oh, and their treatment of surrendered enemies was horrific, which is something not enough people point out. It wasn't just Bataan - it was everywhere.

This was NOT a cultural thing, btw. The Japanese knew how to take honorable surrenders and treat prisoners well - this was part of their weird cult, and the brutality (as with the Germans) was to make their soldiers cruel, hard, and also understand that they in turn could not surrender because of these atrocities.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:45 AM (wX5h4)

120 99 ****
1. I own and have read this book, though it's been a long time. I do remember it being quite entertaining.
2. I think the library in which I work (but do not work for) has this book and I will add it to my list. Thanks!
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 19, 2024 09:37 AM

****
Always a pleasure to help! I owe the Book Thread for all the terrific recommendations; just yesterday I finished Ben Bova's Cyberbooks, which I learned about here. It's astonishing how precisely Bova predicted the timing and function of the e-reader, especially in a novel in which almost every other element is crazy, over-the-top satire!

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at May 19, 2024 09:45 AM (wX5h4)

121 I particularly enjoyed the fact that actual Czarist officers were treated better than true believing Communists.
---------
Splitters!!!

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 09:45 AM (wX5h4)

122 reading "The Long Way Around" - the account of a Pan Am clipper on a flight from the West Coast to Auckland, NZ when Pearl Harbor was attacked ... and the sealed orders (to only be opened in case of WAR) directed the crew to keep the AC safe and return to the US by whatever means and route they thought best. They took the clipper around through Australia, Ceylon, India, across Africa to the East Coast

Posted by: Sgt. Mom

That is going on the list. Thanks.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 19, 2024 09:46 AM (wX5h4)

123 Hello, my fellow Librosexuals!

Many thanks to whoever recommended Neal Stephenson's "Seveneves". I really enjoyed it.

The moon has fractured into (initially) seven pieces and those planetside have two years to escape the confines of Earth or be reduced to burnt pulp as the moon continues to break up and asteroids slam into the surface. There's a mad rush to build a colony at the ISS and send up representatives of all Earth cultures. It doesn't go smoothly.

A severe genetic bottleneck brought on by many hardships in space is dealt with in a very novel manner. The story jumps 5000 years into the future when humans return to Earth quite changed from the sample population that escaped.

A Stephenson doorstop is at once compulsively readable and a bit of a slog. I admit I skimmed a bit by the time I reached the far-future chapters.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 09:46 AM (wX5h4)

124 People forget that Japan had a very large army in China that might well have fought on even if we had conquered the Japanese home islands, continuing the misery and deaths among our Chinese allies. We needed the Emperor to order the surrender.

Posted by: G'rump928(c) at May 19, 2024 09:47 AM (wX5h4)

125 I also enjoyed "The Long Way Around," which I bought on Sgt. Mom's recommendation. Husband loved it as well and we gave it to his sister's husband who is retired Air Force and has traveled all over the world.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 19, 2024 09:47 AM (wX5h4)

126 Who is your favorite Irish? The one you like listening to their speech?

Posted by: Mr Gaga at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)

I can't get enough of Gerard Doyle. He narrates all of Adrian McKinty's books, so I just keep listening to those.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 19, 2024 09:47 AM (wX5h4)

127 But when the US developed and ACTUALLY USED the bomb first, that completely changed the dynamic. I'll bet until then they all figured that we were too weak and conscience-stricken to do anything like that.
Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 19, 2024 09:40 AM (wX5h4)
---
The argument that the Bomb was a signal to the Soviets is an interesting one, because it presumes that Stalin was interested in friendship or something, or that keeping the Soviets out of central Europe was bad.

Same people prattle on about RUZZIA today, btw. Absolute idiots.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:47 AM (wX5h4)

128
Anyone here read "The Farseer Trilogy" by Robin Hobb?

I received a notice from the Folio Society saying they were publishing TFT in one of their snazzy editions.

Never heard of this one before, but it seems to have a lot of fans.

Sooooo, good, bad, or indifferent?

Not interested in getting the Folio Society but might spring for a Kindle version if the opinion here is high enough.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 09:48 AM (wX5h4)

129 Well, I finished my first issue of "Savage Realms" (a sword and sorcery themed e-zine) for the season. I only read that zine when I'm in the local botanic garden, and I'm only there when I bike there. There's something appropriate about reading sword and sorcery while sitting outside, on a bench in a secluded grove of trees....Or, at least, there would be, if most of the memorable stories didn't take place a fantasy version of the central-Asian/middle-eastern desert...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 09:50 AM (wX5h4)

130 Testing , testing 1,2,3. Morning Horde. Thx "Perfesser". Decided to reread 1984 this week. After doing that try not to watch the news and not say "I've heard this recently"

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 19, 2024 09:51 AM (wX5h4)

131 People forget that Japan had a very large army in China that might well have fought on even if we had conquered the Japanese home islands, continuing the misery and deaths among our Chinese allies. We needed the Emperor to order the surrender.
Posted by: G'rump928(c) at May 19, 2024 09:47 AM (wX5h4)
---
Yes, and the end of the war in China was very messy. This is one of those areas where I must urge folks interested to buy Walls of Men because so much was going on with it. One cannot understand Korea or Vietnam without knowing that the US landed Marines right after the surrender and actually occupied Peiping (Beijing today).

We've forgotten, but the Chicoms remember.

Also, the Second Sino-Japanese War was in part a three-way Chinese Civil War - there was a renegade KMT faction that hated both Mao and Chiang Kai-Shek.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:51 AM (wX5h4)

132 "The Long Way Around" would make a fantastic movie or short mini-series; not just the nail-biting bits of taking a clipper flying-boat around the world, but exploring the characters of the crew would make an interesting element, too. The head pilot/AC commander was a stern former Navy aviator, and one of the radio operators wasn't even supposed to be on that mission - he was seconded at the last minute, thought that he would be back in a day or so - and there he was, around the world with a single spare shirt and his wife thinking that he would have been home for supper that night.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 19, 2024 09:52 AM (wX5h4)

133 I think the fantasy/SF writer Avram Davidson was one of the Marines sent into China at the end of the war. Apparently he managed to have dinner with one of the surviving Imperial court eunuchs.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 09:53 AM (wX5h4)

134 Hi Horde! Can't stay. . . have papers to write based on _Planning in the USA_ and _Urban Planning: An Introduction_; I'm finished with chapter 1 of each.

@A.H. Lloyd, I finally read _Three Weeks with the Coasties_. Nice job (at both the actual work and writing the book)!

Things weren't so bad over at Tyndall AFB, but then the ANG had a very large role running things there.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at May 19, 2024 09:53 AM (wX5h4)

135 Good morning all.
Happy to see Ace up and running.
I read the Farseer Trilogy after a recommendation from my son who is usually spot on. (He later recommended Brandon Sanderson and Xixin Liu.)
I'm not good at remembering specifics except that I liked them very much and read them all.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 09:53 AM (wX5h4)

136 Cryptic comment explained -- I admit I didn't check out the #102 link:

Sky News @SkyNews 42m
BREAKING: A helicopter carrying Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi has had a "hard landing", Iranian state television reported

trib.al/Rx0iR33

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 09:53 AM (wX5h4)

137 I'm hearing this in Gowron, son of M'Rel's voice, like a threat.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 09:43 AM

FIFY.

Posted by: Wesley Crusher at May 19, 2024 09:54 AM (wX5h4)

138 Also, the Second Sino-Japanese War was in part a three-way Chinese Civil War - there was a renegade KMT faction that hated both Mao and Chiang Kai-Shek.
---------
Sprittehs!!!

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 09:55 AM (wX5h4)

139 The Japanese had build up a reserve of suicide biplanes designed to evade search radar that would obliterate the picket ships and crash into the landing craft. Our medical corps understand this - we created a stockpile of Purple Heart medals that lasted into early Aughts.

This book is essential - and often uncomfortable - reading.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:16 AM (wX5h4)

An amateur historian in my hometown, who was a POW in Japan for most of the war, wrote a book later about his experiences. He says repeatedly that everyone in the camp *knew* that in the event the Home Islands were invaded, the first thing the Japanese would do would be to shoot all the prisoners, and they were making what plans they could to resist--or rather to at least go down fighting.

The conclusion of WWII without the Bomb would have been nasty, brutish, and anything but short.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 19, 2024 09:55 AM (wX5h4)

140 Great literature Star Trek novel.

"Alack!" said Kirk. "Here lies Spock. Partner of my voyages, companion of my adventures, green blooded guide, confessor, and boon friend. And now he doesn't lie in pieces on a planet where no man has gone before! Zounds! Curse he who conceived the phaser! Bones?"

"Forsooth," spake Dr. McCoy. "I'm a doctor! I be no conjuror of amazements or potents mixing alchemist to reunite that which has been rent asunder! Zounds! Doeth my heart break! Curse my ignorant incompetence!"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 19, 2024 09:56 AM (wX5h4)

141 @A.H. Lloyd, I finally read _Three Weeks with the Coasties_. Nice job (at both the actual work and writing the book)!

Things weren't so bad over at Tyndall AFB, but then the ANG had a very large role running things there.
Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at May 19, 2024 09:53 AM (wX5h4)
---
Glad you liked it. Yeah, the Coasties were in over their heads. I didn't fully grasp how badly until later when I got to work an in Air Operations Center and see all the things they were doing wrong.

Funny that Joe Biden showed up and I managed to avoid him.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:56 AM (wX5h4)

142
Interesting thing going on here.

The Japan/USA nuclear bomb dealio and the arguments going on here-

almost exactly rhyme with the "debate" over the Israelis responding to Oct 7 attack by Hamas and the Gazans.

Basically, the same sides line up the same way.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 09:57 AM (wX5h4)

143 Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

This is the last book Michael Crichton was working on before he passed away in 2008

So, he's dead Jim ?

Posted by: JT at May 19, 2024 09:57 AM (wX5h4)

144 Oh, and last week I finished No Highway, by Nevil Shute -- the basis for the excellent film with James Stewart. The book is different in many ways, painting researcher Theodore Honey as even less socially adept than the film's version, and going into byways the film skipped, such as the narrator (Honey's boss) traveling to the wilds of Canada to look for parts of one of their planes which crashed. An examination of the "tailplane" of the crashed aircraft is essential to prove or disprove Mr. Honey's theory that this particular aircraft model is very likely to break up after 1440 flying hours.

This is all woven in with Honey's home life -- he's a widower with a small child -- and how not only an aging movie queen but a young, pretty stewardess become enamored of him. Good stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 09:58 AM (wX5h4)

145 Good morning horde! Thanks Perfessor!

Posted by: TRex at May 19, 2024 09:58 AM (wX5h4)

146 almost exactly rhyme with the "debate" over the Israelis responding to Oct 7 attack by Hamas and the Gazans.

Basically, the same sides line up the same way.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 09:57 AM (wX5h4)
---
I have a post up at my blog pointing out that the West hasn't had an existential fight since 1945. All are wars since there we could just walk away from with minimal consequences, so we can have the luxury of handcuffing our troops and seeing conflicts as things to be "managed" rather than won.

Israel doesn't have that option and so things like hunger are resuming their normal place as weapons of war. Want to eat? Stop fighting. It's very old rule.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:00 AM (wX5h4)

147 Most of my reading is me going back in time. Started Jane Austin's "Persuasion" after other ettes recommended it.

Also reading Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again" from a beautiful heavy old copy I picked up at a thrift store. Love things like that, and Lewis's "Main Street."

Modern thrillers, however good, tend to make me very nervous overall, sigh. So I probably miss out on a lot, like Adrian McKinty that Dash mentioned.

Posted by: skywch at May 19, 2024 10:00 AM (wX5h4)

148 Yesterday, I bought David Fromkin's "A Peace to End All Peace," about WWI and its aftermath in the Middle East and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Haven't gotten far enough into it to make any observations, but it should be interesting.

One thing that seems clear already is the author considers Churchill far more instrumental in creating the modern Middle East than most people realize.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 19, 2024 10:00 AM (wX5h4)

149 >Funny that Joe Biden showed up and I managed to avoid him.

Heh! I was thinking "Dang! You managed to avoid him!"

Superb work.

I wondered where you'd learned operational art, now that you mention having worked in an AOC it makes sense.

SPinRH out.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at May 19, 2024 10:00 AM (wX5h4)

150 T - 14 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/live/wcD8a9f8Ni0

Posted by: Ciampino - manned launched at May 19, 2024 10:01 AM (wX5h4)

151 I read Crimson Joy by Robert B Parker this week. I know I've been kind of wishy washy about the Spenser series but I liked this one quite a lot. Spenser is asked by his Police force buddy, lieutenant Quirk, to consult on a murder investigation. There is a chance that someone on the force is involved so he wants an outside consultant. An actual murder mystery! Both Susan and my favorite, Hawk, involved.
Think this is number 13 or 14. Guess I'll keep going.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 10:01 AM (wX5h4)

152 There are many hashes but this one is mine.

Oh, wait...

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at May 19, 2024 10:02 AM (wX5h4)

153 This hash business is making me dizzy.

Posted by: javems at May 19, 2024 10:03 AM (wX5h4)

154 wX5h4

Equality at last! Thank you President Biden!!!!

Posted by: Mary Cloggenstein of Brattleboro, VT at May 19, 2024 10:04 AM (wX5h4)

155 The Pan Am book is The Long Way Home and the author is Ed Dover.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 19, 2024 10:04 AM (wX5h4)

156 Test

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 19, 2024 10:05 AM (wX5h4)

157 I'm taking a break from heavy tomes. Just gonna read some paperback trash. Found an SF double at a library sale: The Thief of Thoth (Lin Carter)/...And Others Shall Be Born (Frank Belknap Long). The Carter story is SF in Fantasy trappings, which is fine by me. He's a hack but he can channel the exotic stylings of ERB at times.

"Quicksilver's castle clung to a sheer crag of dark green coral which rose from a sea of heavy opal smoke. This vaporous ocean entirely mantled the surface of the planetoid and the pinkly alabastrine hue of his castle formed a delicate aesthetic contrast against the melting and changing hues of the heavy vapor, the rough emeraldine coral, and the tea-rose sky, with the sullen disk of Astarte a smoldering ruby on the dim horizon."

All that and the story is only 85 pages long. Nice.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 10:05 AM (wX5h4)

158 97 ... "you've mentioned those magazines ma y times. What are the articles like?

I don't see how those subjects can yield enough variety to keep a magazine going."

Hi Weak Geek,

Woodcarving Illustrated is mostly how-to articles although there are usually pieces about certain individuals. Articles cover the tools and materials needed for the project, plenty of photos showing each step and designs that can be used. Woodcarving is so varied as to styles and tools, and the creativity of the carvers, that there is never a dearth of material.

Fly Tyer is similar in that there are so many facets to the hobby. Fresh water, salt water, dry and wet flies, tools and materials, presentation on the water, etc. The materials by themselves are a huge topic. Fly tying and fishing have a strong tradition so there are also articles on tyers of the past and how they developed the classic flies.

These are both niche markets, of course, like the other magazines I subscribe to: Muzzleloader and Backwoodsman.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 10:05 AM (wX5h4)

159 I'll be back later today to fix the hashes. I've figured it out, but it's past midnight here and I don't want to take a chance of breaking something right now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 19, 2024 10:05 AM (wX5h4)

160 On a thread earlier this week about creative writing classes, I commented that my teachers in school were fine (and pleasantly surprised) with my grammar and sentence structure, and possibly my storytelling. But none of them knew about, or cared about, SF, mystery, or thrillers. There were not a lot of Alastair Maclean fans among my high school or college teachers.

To be fair, I'm not much of an AM fan myself now. He did have good storytelling skills. But he never met a long sentence he didn't like, and his work got weaker as his career went along. Still, his first novel, HMS Ulysses, about a British light cruiser and its crew on a Murmansk convoy, is superb stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:06 AM (wX5h4)

161 I didn't fully grasp how badly until later when I got to work an in Air Operations Center and see all the things they were doing wrong.

Funny that Joe Biden showed up and I managed to avoid him.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:56 AM

Such as not granting permission to buzz the tower?

Posted by: Maverick at May 19, 2024 10:06 AM (wX5h4)

162 Thanks spicy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 10:06 AM (wX5h4)

163 The Pan Am book is The Long Way Home and the author is Ed Dover.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 19, 2024 10:04 AM (wX5h4)

Do his close friends call him Ben ?

Posted by: JT at May 19, 2024 10:07 AM (wX5h4)

164 Pixy! Although I bet you're a spicy thing!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 10:07 AM (wX5h4)

165 I read Crimson Joy by Robert B Parker this week. I know I've been kind of wishy washy about the Spenser series but I liked this one quite a lot. Spenser is asked by his Police force buddy, lieutenant Quirk, to consult on a murder investigation. There is a chance that someone on the force is involved so he wants an outside consultant. An actual murder mystery! Both Susan and my favorite, Hawk, involved.
Think this is number 13 or 14. Guess I'll keep going.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024

***
Sharon, was that the one involving a serial killer? I seem to recall Parker had Spenser deal with one of those in one novel.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:08 AM (wX5h4)

166 https://tinyurl.com/aeb6ttnw

Amir Tsarfati regarding Iranian President's helicopter crash.

Apparently the mood among Iranian media is pretty dour, and the proof of life photo they initially showed of the president next to his helicopter is two years old. Current reports are that rescuers haven't yet reached the site as it's fairly remote.

Posted by: Methos at May 19, 2024 10:08 AM (wX5h4)

167 147 Modern thrillers, however good, tend to make me very nervous overall, sigh. So I probably miss out on a lot, like Adrian McKinty that Dash mentioned.
Posted by: skywch at May 19, 2024 10:00 AM (wX5h4)

Yeah, I get that. His Sean Duffy series takes place in Belfast in the early 80's, so it's sort of modern, but now it's history.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 19, 2024 10:08 AM (wX5h4)

168 Also enjoying the companion volume to the NatGeo t.v. special "Secrets of the Octopus", with tons of photos of these sentient squishapoids. They are astoundingly smart for having such short lives.

My favorite variant name is Wunderpus (Wunderpus Photogenicus). Band name?

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 10:09 AM (wX5h4)

169 Iranian rabid prezzy went boom. Good deal.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at May 19, 2024 10:09 AM (wX5h4)

170 For those that enjoy a bit of arcane history, I recommend Night Witches by Bruce Myles.

-
I read that book many years ago and quite liked it. One of the things that impressed me was that they would infiltrate Nazi lines by flying low and slow while the infiltrator would jump out without benefit of parachute. Then the dangerous part started.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 19, 2024 10:09 AM (wX5h4)

171 Regarding some of the topics brought up by the Perfessor: I too laugh at the idea of 'highbrow' reading. Always did. Although, my preferred Star Trek books were always the The Next Generation books. (But strangely, not the Deep Space Nine book, despite me ultimately liking that show better.) Even in the late 90's there were close to 100 TNG novels, which made it easy to find one I hadn't read.

I don't remember any of the names, but two story elements stuck with me: On story dealt with a planet that teleported their pollution straight from their smokestacks to another planet. Clever, but over time this thinned their atmosphere to dangerous levels (ah, the joys of unintended consequences...) The second story was a Ferangi story, where they set up a very high risk auction: the highest bidder got the item, but the second-highest bidder also had to pay, despite getting nothing. That story also included a Ferangi trying to bargain with the Borg. The Ferangi was horrified to be told that "Profit is irrelevant," And then even morso "You are irrelevant."

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 10:10 AM (wX5h4)

172 Better fixing the issue when rested

Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 10:12 AM (wX5h4)

173 Such as not granting permission to buzz the tower?
Posted by: Maverick at May 19, 2024 10:06 AM (wX5h4)
---
We did fly over the oil spill site, which was amazing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:12 AM (wX5h4)

174 almost exactly rhyme with the "debate" over the Israelis responding to Oct 7 attack by Hamas and the Gazans.

Basically, the same sides line up the same way.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 09:57 AM (wX5h4)
---
I have a post up at my blog pointing out that the West hasn't had an existential fight since 1945. All are wars since there we could just walk away from with minimal consequences, so we can have the luxury of handcuffing our troops and seeing conflicts as things to be "managed" rather than won.

Israel doesn't have that option and so things like hunger are resuming their normal place as weapons of war. Want to eat? Stop fighting. It's very old rule.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:00 AM (wX5h4)

Nice observation.

Yeah, we've had a lot of Holiday Wars (holidays from peace) cuz Our Betters in DC got tired of the same ole same ole.

However, I think post-911 was a necessary war that was badly mishandled. It should've been short, sharp, and horrible as hell. Involving Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Pakistan in the fun.

Also, anyone who had anything at all to do with 911 should've been hunted down like a dog (calling Kristi Noem(!).

Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 10:12 AM (wX5h4)

175 VP joke of the day:

https://tinyurl.com/5n8jh8nd

(X)

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 10:13 AM (wX5h4)

176 >>Amir Tsarfati regarding Iranian President's helicopter crash.

Crash, or "crash."

Posted by: Lizzy at May 19, 2024 10:14 AM (wX5h4)

177 . . . Although, my preferred Star Trek books were always the The Next Generation books. (But strangely, not the Deep Space Nine book, despite me ultimately liking that show better.) Even in the late 90's there were close to 100 TNG novels, which made it easy to find one I hadn't read. . . .

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024

***
I believe there was one suggesting that the Doomsday Machine Kirk and Spock defeated was only one of several, and they had been created by a long-dead race as defense against something even worse . . . the Borg!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:15 AM (wX5h4)

178 128
Anyone here read "The Farseer Trilogy" by Robin Hobb?

***

One of my favorites.

(Sharon, once again our tastes match)

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 19, 2024 10:15 AM (wX5h4)

179 However, I think post-911 was a necessary war that was badly mishandled. It should've been short, sharp, and horrible as hell. Involving Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Pakistan in the fun.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 19, 2024 10:12 AM (wX5h4)
---
We should have mounted a punitive expedition, set up a strongman who said the right things and paid for a mercenary air force to keep a lid on it for a while.

The weirdest development is how we went from spreading democracy to spreading sexual degeneracy. What a weird flag to use for an empire.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:16 AM (wX5h4)

180 highly recommend “A Land So Strange” by Andres Resendez. Fascinating historical account of four survivors of a Spanish expedition in/around Florida, the Caribbean and Gulf, and Mexico in the early 1500s.

Posted by: MHoward at May 19, 2024 10:16 AM (wX5h4)

181 Yes Wolfus. The book opens at a crime scene where the murder has some ritualistic elements seen at a previous murder scene. Quirk reveals that he has gotten a note at his home, a place not publicly known, about the crime so suspects someone on the force is involved.
Parker takes all the things I like best about the Spenser books, Spenser's tough guy image, Susan's psychological insights and Hawk's sartorial splendor and excellent taste in champagne and let's them solve the crime without a lot of sightseeing.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 10:17 AM (wX5h4)

182 Big thumbs up for Hobbs' Liveship Traders trilogy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 10:18 AM (wX5h4)

183 This last week I submitted the first of my "hardboiled fantasy" novels to that Indie Author Project contest. It closes on May 31, and I'm trying to submit another in the mystery genre before the deadline.

We won't hear about the results until November, though. Nearly six months to announce the winners is one long wait.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:19 AM (wX5h4)

184 140 Great literature Star Trek novel.

*golf clap"

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 19, 2024 10:19 AM (wX5h4)

185 I almost mentioned this on a thread yesterday, where the topic of 'rebuilding society after the collapse' was mentioned. I've recently started getting ads for a book called "The Book-The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization" by some group called Hungry Minds. It actually looks cool: the illustrations are 18th century scientific illustrations, and half 16th century 'here be dragons' whimsy. Alas, the book is huge, 12"x9" which is too big for a bookshelf. It is also ridiculously expensive, even when compared to the comic-book omnibuses that I usually buy... All for a coffee-table book that I don't know if I'd really like...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 10:19 AM (wX5h4)

186 @109, et al.
I got Dark Sun which is Richard Rhode's followup to Making of the Atomic Bomb which i read long ago. I'm not too far in, but so far he's just talked about the Russian A-bomb development project and the "industrial" espionage that facilitated it. My first thought is that he's laying out the case for the development of the H-bomb.

Posted by: yara at May 19, 2024 10:20 AM (wX5h4)

187 >>Amir Tsarfati regarding Iranian President's helicopter crash.

Crash, or "crash."
Posted by: Lizzy at May 19, 2024 10:14 AM (wX5h4)

It may actually be un-scare quotes crash.

Reports are there was heavy fog at the time, which isn't a good combination with helicopter and mountainous terrain.

Posted by: Methos at May 19, 2024 10:20 AM (wX5h4)

188 Mossad may as well start taking credit for the chopper crash, because everyone in the Middle East will blame them for it anyway.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 10:21 AM (wX5h4)

189 I believe there was one suggesting that the Doomsday Machine Kirk and Spock defeated was only one of several, and they had been created by a long-dead race as defense against something even worse . . . the Borg!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:15 AM (wX5h4)
---
I read a bunch of the TOS books when I was in middle school (TNG hadn't happened yet). I liked them, and they allowed stuff that was beyond the budget of the show in terms of world-building, tech, zero gravity, etc.

At that time, I read like my mother (and many here): I read for pleasure, had flexible standard, just wanted to be entertained. I used libraries and didn't hold on to cheap paperbacks but traded them in for other ones.

By high school I'd embraced my father's "buy and hold" mentality, and with finite space, I became much more discerning in what I bought. It was at this time that I realized I could read ancient sources in translation - actual words! My interest in fiction declined considerably, and now I focus on people who I feel I *should* read like Nabokov and Graham Greene.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:21 AM (wX5h4)

190 152 There are many hashes but this one is mine.

***

I am Tiger wX5h4ds

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 19, 2024 10:22 AM (wX5h4)

191 Guess the Pants Guy ain't weedwhacking today.....
Posted by: JT

British actor Eddie Redmayne. He and his wife showed up at the Met Gala wearing matching dresses. I'm almost embarrassed that I know this.

Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 10:23 AM (wX5h4)

192 James Wesley, Rawles. Can’t recommend him enough, reading anything by him is good, but especially the way ‘things’ look now.

Posted by: Eromero at May 19, 2024 10:23 AM (wX5h4)

193 For my light reading this week, it's Burma Road by Brandon Crocker. An average American husband and father is left his Brit grandfather's manuscript of his fighting the Japanese in Burma in his will. It reveals an 80 year old mystery so he leaves his suburban comfort to explain what his grandfather could not. So far, so good.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 19, 2024 10:25 AM (wX5h4)

194 highly recommend “A Land So Strange”

Posted by: MHoward at May 19, 2024 10:16 AM (wX5h4)

Just downloaded. Thanks.

Posted by: Cannibal Bob at May 19, 2024 10:26 AM (wX5h4)

195 Regarding Crichton, I highly recommend "The Andromeda Strain" if you haven't read it. He did attend medical school and I thought the medical aspects of this book were pretty accurate. It's the first book he published under his own name - I did not learn until today that he published three or four books under a pseudonym prior to this one.

As he became more successful and his books evolved into speculative fiction, I kind of feel that his writing became less grounded in reality. I tried "Timeline" twice but couldn't get into it. It felt more like a spec movie script than a book. Regardless, his books are worth a look.

Posted by: DrAlice at May 19, 2024 10:26 AM (wX5h4)

196 Well, I recently received several crowd-funded comics that I had ordered, so fate decreed that I needed to find new books at Kickstarter to order, to keep my waiting list consistent.

the first project is "Tex: Patagonia," an Italian cowboy comic. I've ordered from that publisher before, so I'm pretty sure it'll be good. (And well put together. They do some nice hardcovers.) It's being bundled with "Blood and Ice," a comic about the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. That's a comic I'll read just the for the setting...

Second project I pledged to is "Battle Chronicle Sol-Stryker." Another book about knights with glowing power swords in a sci-fi setting. I've got less backgorund on this book, just a feeling that it might be good...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 10:27 AM (wX5h4)

197 "DUBAI (Reuters) -One of the helicopters in a group carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made a rough landing and rescue teams are on the way to the site of the incident, Iran's interior minister said on Sunday."

That's a shame.

Posted by: In my best Seinfeld voice at May 19, 2024 10:28 AM (wX5h4)

198 The Brother Odd series by Dean Koontz are great reads.

Posted by: Just sayin at May 19, 2024 10:28 AM (wX5h4)

199
It is also ridiculously expensive, even when compared to the comic-book omnibuses that I usually buy... All for a coffee-table book that I don't know if I'd really like...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 10:19 AM

Just don't take it in the men's room to decide.

Posted by: Rebbeca DeMorney at May 19, 2024 10:28 AM (wX5h4)

200 Iranian news agency ISNA cites "unofficial reports" about the death of President Raisi in an accident

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 10:28 AM (wX5h4)

201 Wasn't The Day of the Triffids a movie too? I could swear I remember watching a B&W movie about naughty plants with the same name.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 10:29 AM (wX5h4)

202 I don't think there is a book on this, but tomorrow is Tornado Day in the nearby town of Codell KS. They were hit with a tornado on May 20th for 3 consecutive years, 1916-1918. Last one pretty much destroyed the town but as far as I know, they haven't been hit since.

https://tinyurl.com/jehac634

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 19, 2024 10:29 AM (wX5h4)

203 *I'm almost embarrassed that I know this.*

You should be.

Posted by: Get a hobby at May 19, 2024 10:29 AM (wX5h4)

204 @158 --

Thank you, JTB.

Woodworking I can understand; Slide of the Month was one of the first features I would read in each issue of Boys' Life in the late '60s through early '70s. (Grade school had a subscription.)

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 10:30 AM (wX5h4)

205 200 Iranian news agency ISNA cites "unofficial reports" about the death of President Raisi in an accident
Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 10:28 AM (wX5h4)

Right... "accident"...

Posted by: It's me donna at May 19, 2024 10:30 AM (wX5h4)

206 No, I never tried any of them.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 10:30 AM (wX5h4)

207 Iranian news agency ISNA cites "unofficial reports" about the death of President Raisi in an accident
Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 10:28 AM (wX5h4)
---
Whacking the president is a symbolic act as the Ruling Council calls all the actual shots.

But still not a good look.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:31 AM (wX5h4)

208 Yeah, I get that. His Sean Duffy series takes place in Belfast in the early 80's, so it's sort of modern, but now it's history.
-------
Like us.

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 10:31 AM (wX5h4)

209 they haven't been hit since.

https://tinyurl.com/jehac634

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 19, 2024 10:29 AM (wX5h4)

...until you posted this here.

Posted by: Just sayin at May 19, 2024 10:31 AM (wX5h4)

210 asn't The Day of the Triffids a movie too? I could swear I remember watching a B&W movie about naughty plants with the same name.
Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024

***
There was, early Sixties, I think. Howard Keel, the singing star/actor, played the lead.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:31 AM (wX5h4)

211 I also liked the Chrichton books I read in the last but cannot get into Timeline.
I especially liked the one about dinosaur bone hunters in the old West.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 10:32 AM (wX5h4)

212 There was a movie made from Day of the Triffids (may have been a British mini-series too). Movie was 1963 or so, with Howard Keel, and it was a lot of fun. Should be available on disc or streaming.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 10:32 AM (wX5h4)

213 Yep. And tonight is Tornado Eve. Get your tickets to the big concert and BBQ buffet.

Posted by: Codell, Kansas Chamber of Commerce at May 19, 2024 10:33 AM (wX5h4)

214 I particularly enjoyed the fact that actual Czarist officers were treated better than true believing Communists.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:42 AM (wX5h4)

Ha!

Well, Czarist officers were likely nobility, with pride and dignity. True believers were just jumped-up commoners, or honorless dogs who threw away their previous life & principles for a cause....

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 10:33 AM (wX5h4)

215 >>>>Wasn't The Day of the Triffids a movie too? I could swear I remember watching a B&W movie about naughty plants with the same name.
Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 10:29 AM (wX5h4)
***********
Yes it was, I still remember seeing it in the theater as a kid.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 19, 2024 10:33 AM (wX5h4)

216 Maybe the Ruling Council whacked the pres themselves to gin up even more rage (if that's even possible any more) against the evil Israelis?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 10:34 AM (wX5h4)

217 In before the book nerds start bashing Pixy for allowing the hamsters to run wild...

Damn it!

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 19, 2024 10:35 AM (wX5h4)

218 I see the author C.J. Sansom has passed away. That means no more Matthew Shardlake mysteries. I was so looking forward to Shardlakes's further adventures under the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. Has anyone seen the Shardlake series on Hulu?

Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 10:35 AM (wX5h4)

219 Woodworking I can understand; Slide of the Month was one of the first features I would read in each issue of Boys' Life in the late '60s through early '70s. (Grade school had a subscription.)
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 10:30 AM (wX5h4)
---
Stray thought I had yesterday: playgrounds have really been sanitized. I remember tire swings with actual tires. Now they're purpose-built. Same with other 'toys.' My elementary school had two huge tractor tires that they half buried. We loved climbing all over them. There was a practical side of play because it was real stuff and society wasn't yet affluent enough to spring for fancy playground equipment, even in a liberal college town.

"Just bury some used tires, the kids will love it!"

Oh, and padded playgrounds - no. Stop, already. They have to learn the ground is hard, and that's best when they're all rubbery and bounce off stuff, healing overnight.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:35 AM (wX5h4)

220 We don't know nuthin bout no helicopter crash...

Posted by: The Mossad at May 19, 2024 10:36 AM (wX5h4)

221 For fun "Light" reading you can't beat L'Amour.

Posted by: javems at May 19, 2024 10:36 AM (wX5h4)

222 Pixy is taking a break while he searches for his dog-eared copy of "Python For Dummies".

Posted by: mrp at May 19, 2024 10:36 AM (wX5h4)

223 Yep. And tonight is Tornado Eve. Get your tickets to the big concert and BBQ buffet.
Posted by: Codell, Kansas Chamber of Commerce at May 19, 2024 10:33 AM (wX5h4)
---
Don't forget the traditional block parties in the trailer parks.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:37 AM (wX5h4)

224 Videos from Iran show very thick fog in the crash area.

Why they were even flying in the first place, who knows.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 19, 2024 10:39 AM (wX5h4)

225 After mentioning "In the House of Tom Bombadil" to SiD last week, I read it again. Doesn't take long since it's only about 110 pages but it is still one of the most insightful and comprehensive Tolkien-related books I've read.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 10:39 AM (wX5h4)

226 BREAKING: The Revolutionary Guards channel raises a black flag. 👀

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 10:40 AM (wX5h4)

227 Still, if you want to know the state of the art in real-world star voyaging, this is a good place to start.
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 19, 2024 09:33 AM (wX5h4)

No, because that would ruin any tech you'd use in a story if you held to reality.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 19, 2024 10:40 AM (wX5h4)

228 >>>>>216 Maybe the Ruling Council whacked the pres themselves to gin up even more rage (if that's even possible any more) against the evil Israelis?
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 10:34 AM (wX5h4)
*******
That’s the thing about these muslim countries, you’re never sure who is killing who and for what reason.
It’s Islam, forget about it

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 19, 2024 10:40 AM (wX5h4)

229 I also liked the Chrichton books I read in the last but cannot get into Timeline.
I especially liked the one about dinosaur bone hunters in the old West.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Agree about "Timeline" although I read it at about the same time as I read Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book" another time travel novel which probably explains my reaction to "Timeline". The Willis novel was a much superior story.

Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 10:40 AM (wX5h4)

230 Some Czarist officer's were treated better, many were murdered outright

Posted by: Skip at May 19, 2024 10:41 AM (wX5h4)

231 We're also hosting a Wizard Of Oz marathon with a 10% discount on all concessions.

Posted by: The Codell, Kansas Bijou theater at May 19, 2024 10:41 AM (wX5h4)

232 On the Iranian helicopter crash...it reminds me of Kobe's crash. Someone who just couldn't wait a few hours for the weather to clear, so had his pilot fly in conditions that should never be flown in.

Posted by: Nova Local at May 19, 2024 10:42 AM (wX5h4)

233 ***
I believe there was one suggesting that the Doomsday Machine Kirk and Spock defeated was only one of several, and they had been created by a long-dead race as defense against something even worse . . . the Borg!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:15 AM (wX5h4)

That would have been cooler than anything Voyager did with the Borg...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 10:42 AM (wX5h4)

234 Oh, and padded playgrounds - no. Stop, already. They have to learn the ground is hard, and that's best when they're all rubbery and bounce off stuff, healing overnight.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024

***
In a shopping center near me that is still a going concern, when I was small there was a little playground between two of the buildings. It featured painted stone animals and creatures from Alice. Parents could park the kids there and do their quick shopping, then pick the rugrats up afterward. (How quaint. . . .) The center took the structures out in the early Eighties, I guess because of just such "safety" concerns.

We still have a "Storyland" mini-park within the larger city park in Mid-City. It's beautifully rendered, with the whale from Pinocchio, The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, the Caterpillar from Lewis Carroll, and many more. There's probably padding and so forth, but it's nice to see it at all.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:42 AM (wX5h4)

235
I see the author C.J. Sansom has passed away. That means no more Matthew Shardlake mysteries.

__________

Never stopped me.

Posted by: Zombie Tom Clancy at May 19, 2024 10:43 AM (wX5h4)

236 It's good to see the Perfessor pimping Crichton in this world where lunatics are trying to make fiction become reality.

Crichton was a man of vision.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 19, 2024 10:43 AM (wX5h4)

237 Yep. And tonight is Tornado Eve. Get your tickets to the big concert and BBQ buffet.
Posted by: Codell, Kansas Chamber of Commerce at May 19, 2024

***
You mean tornado season begins officially on 5/20, and people actually celebrate it?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:43 AM (wX5h4)

238
I believe in the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (wX5h4)

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 10:45 AM (wX5h4)

239 I've been trying to read The Night Land by W.H. Hodgson without much success. About the time I start to get through the strange prose into the meat of some story my brain is fatigued and I have to take a break. And then next time it starts all over again.

Do I now have a modern mil/zil-lennial brain with low attention span? Maybe, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying other books.

I'm going to wait for a vacation and get through all of it in a few sittings and maybe that will work.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 10:45 AM (wX5h4)

240 The Iranian president is still dead.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 10:45 AM (wX5h4)

241 We got the nasty weather today but no tornados so I think they are safe. Might be 100 people in the town now, maybe. The school was rebuilt in the 30s and no longer in use. I don't think they mark the day any more, but may take a drive over. They have a tornado statue to commemorate the day.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 19, 2024 10:46 AM (wX5h4)

242 I believe in the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (wX5h4)
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024

***
I pledge allegiance to the (wX5h4) and the blog-republic for which it stands. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:46 AM (wX5h4)

243 One Hash to rule them, One Hash to find them, One Hash to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 10:46 AM (wX5h4)

244 Well, I'm off to Mass. Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 10:46 AM (wX5h4)

245 One thing I don't like about living in SE KS is tornado season. Have seen a couple. Didn't much care for it.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 10:48 AM (wX5h4)

246 The Borg. Glad one of the hottest chicks ever escaped them.

Posted by: Just sayin at May 19, 2024 10:48 AM (wX5h4)

247 Iranian rabid prezzy went boom. Good deal.
Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine

+1

Posted by: Mossad plumbing crew at May 19, 2024 10:48 AM (wX5h4)

248 I've been trying to read The Night Land by W.H. Hodgson without much success. About the time I start to get through the strange prose into the meat of some story my brain is fatigued and I have to take a break. And then next time it starts all over again. . . .

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024

***
The only William Hope Hodgson story I know is the creepy "The Voice in the Night" from one of the Hitchcock anthologies. I understand he wrote much more and created some astonishing worlds. His style is kind of dense by our Hemingway-esque standards today, though.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 10:48 AM (wX5h4)

249 >>> One thing I don't like about living in SE KS is tornado season. Have seen a couple. Didn't much care for it.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 10:48 AM (wX5h4)

And the related green sky torrents of hail.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 10:49 AM (wX5h4)

250 There have been a number of assassination attempts including an unsuccessful one on Zelensky and an almost successful one on the Slovakian Prime minister recently. This crash after a visit to Azerbaijan. It is possible that this is the beginning of black swan events the outcomes of which nearly impossible to predict. European elections seem to be leaning conservative. Maybe leftists prefer Chaos to seeing their cherished unicorn ideas disappear.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 10:49 AM (wX5h4)

251 I read "Day of the Triffids". I don't think I saw the '63(?) movie but the BBC did a pretty good miniseries in the '80s. Cheesy, as all '80s BBC things are, but entertaining.

Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at May 19, 2024 10:49 AM (wX5h4)

252 What's this about helicopters crashing in Iran?

Posted by: Zombie Jimmy Carter at May 19, 2024 10:50 AM (wX5h4)

253 There's a vintage playground, likely from the 70s, in Waldo KS. Population is 30, but the town is still alive. The one out by the lake here has a modern plastic slide but still has a dome you could climb on and swings. Kids are expected to be a bit tougher out here.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 19, 2024 10:50 AM (wX5h4)

254 The Revolutionary Guards channel raises a black flag. 👀
Posted by: Nevergiveup
---------------

I don't get that channel on Dish-TV.

Posted by: olddog in mo at May 19, 2024 10:51 AM (wX5h4)

255 Re #s 131 and 133, Avram Davidson was with the US Marines when they occupied Peking just after the end of WW II. He was a Navy Hospital Corpsman and served with the Marines as a "corpsman" (combat medic). He saw combat on Okinawa and was wounded there. His experience of having dinner with an Imperial eunuch is the basis of his story "The Dragonskin Drum". Another good story inspired by his time in China is "Dagon".

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at May 19, 2024 10:52 AM (wX5h4)

256 The Iranian president is still dead.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 10:45 AM (wX5h4)

One thing we know, he ain't gettin' any younger.

I think I'd like the two sentence summary, what was this guy's bent, if he is dead, is the next guy gonna be better or worse.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 10:52 AM (wX5h4)

257 I got sent from the playground to the ER twice.

Monkey bars to pavement. Concussion.
Seesaw to chin. Stiches.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 10:52 AM (wX5h4)

258 The 70's era playgrounds. Tetanus shot required and watch out for the broken beer bottles. And no rubber mulch.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 19, 2024 10:52 AM (wX5h4)

259 The town I live in seems to be on the outside edge of tornado alley. Salty's area has more. There was a storm here with high winds that too down the screen for the drive in theater. That's the closest we've come.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 19, 2024 10:52 AM (wX5h4)

260 Best part of our elementary school playground was the area roped off as a snowball fight free-for-all.

It was acknowledged that if you stepped within its bounds, there was no crying.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at May 19, 2024 10:52 AM (wX5h4)

261 Decided to reread 1984 this week. After doing that try not to watch the news and not say "I've heard this recently"

Yes, I just finished rereading 1984 last week also. Now everything sounds like duckspeak.

Weirdly, or really not, even the afterword by Erich Fromm read like duckspeak in print. Rather than highlighting Orwell, Huxley, and Rand as a trilogy of unique perspectives on tyranny, he chose to highlight Orwell, Huxley, and Zamyatin. Zamyatin may well have been a great writer, but as described by Fromm his brain surgery was no different than Huxley’s drugs. Both were forms of physical alteration of the brain.

His afterword was mostly duckspeak-like phrases meant to bypass thinking, literally using “corporation” just like the FAG reps in Team America.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 10:52 AM (wX5h4)

262 Went to the Daily Mail for info on the iranian helicopter crash, scrolled down to an article saying that Hing Charles and William are letting their most valuable asset back into the fold. Good grief if harry and meghan are their most valuable asset England is screwed.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at May 19, 2024 10:53 AM (wX5h4)

263 Reportedly an emergency government has been formed in Tehran, and Iranian state media is running Quran verses on TV (which in fairness it probably does all the time).

Doesn't sound like they believe this guy's still alive.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 19, 2024 10:54 AM (wX5h4)

264 I read The Hot Zone in high school, and really liked it. We actually read it and The Andromeda Strain back to back for comparison.
I found The Andromeda Strain to be dull and strain my suspension of disbelief, with the science being too real to just accept like Star Trek, while not being well defined enough to feel like proper hard sci-fi.
The Hot Zone on the other hand I found to be extremely gripping. The ongoing danger needed no magic to be scary, the graphic descriptions of dead monkeys covered in their own blood was plenty, especially with the writing drawing you in.

Posted by: Charlie the Capitalist at May 19, 2024 10:54 AM (wX5h4)

265 Al Jazeera says "missing" so he is definitely still dead.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 10:54 AM (wX5h4)

266 I watched a kid get his leg caught under one of those spinning platforms. That one was pretty nasty.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 19, 2024 10:54 AM (wX5h4)

267 BREAKING: The Revolutionary Guards channel raises a black flag. 👀
Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 10:40 AM (wX5h4)
-

With Bye-Gone?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 10:54 AM (wX5h4)

268 I wonder if Iran has the burning log channel?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 10:56 AM (wX5h4)

269 I have a long-established pile of 'trashy' reading for when the mood strikes. Top of the list are the MASH Goes to ... books. Pat McManus pieces and the Man From Uncle books. There are others, of course. I could include the original Conan stories and Matt Helm books (or anything written by Robert Howard or Donald Hamilton) but they are actually so well written I can't consider them trashy, just casual.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 10:56 AM (wX5h4)

270 There have been a number of assassination attempts including an unsuccessful one on Zelensky and an almost successful one on the Slovakian Prime minister recently. This crash after a visit to Azerbaijan. It is possible that this is the beginning of black swan events the outcomes of which nearly impossible to predict. European elections seem to be leaning conservative. Maybe leftists prefer Chaos to seeing their cherished unicorn ideas disappear.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 10:49 AM (wX5h4)

Book related, I listened to VDH talking about his latest book, "The End of Everything," and I'm sure it goes into exquisite detail for each example, but his two hour chat was enough for me.

Bottom line, some civilizations can and have disappeared completely, and those that do, they tend to believe things will go on as always. They don't prepare for what is possible, and then the supposedly impossible, happens.

Sometimes we call that hubris. Or stupidity, and we have plenty of both in OUR capitol at the moment.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 10:57 AM (wX5h4)

271 As a parent of rug rats in the 90s I always appreciated those play areas in the shopping mall (Look it up, kids. It use to be a thing.) with all the thick carpet and big cushions. Of course the McDonald's PlayPlace with the germified ball pit was a great way to boost any child's immune system.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 19, 2024 10:57 AM (wX5h4)

272 My wife's conspiracy theory. The Iranian chopper was piloted by a Mossad agent. They knocked out everyone on board and feigned a mechanical failure.

Flew into the fog and retreated back to a rendezvous point where the unconscious Iranians were moved to another vehicle on its way out of Iran.

You can fill in the rest. I get book authoring rights, you Morons!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 10:57 AM (wX5h4)

273 It was acknowledged that if you stepped within its bounds, there was no crying.
Posted by: All Hail Eris

I was born in Chicago and lived in the area until I was in third grade. We got lots of snow and I fondly remember building snow forts and the ensuing snowball battles.

Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 10:57 AM (wX5h4)

274
I haven't been able to go to Mass at my TLM parish for the last three weeks because of bad weather, or Her Majesty's problems, or a power outage there. So I've had to go to a local NO parish (sorry, Catholic community).

Communion is awfully awkward because I won't take it in the hand. The Extraordinary Ministers probably don't run into many people like me. They scarcely know how to put it on the tongue.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 10:58 AM (wX5h4)

275 >>> There's a vintage playground, likely from the 70s, in Waldo KS. Population is 30, but the town is still alive. The one out by the lake here has a modern plastic slide but still has a dome you could climb on and swings. Kids are expected to be a bit tougher out here.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 19, 2024 10:50 AM (wX5h4)

I grew up in Kansas. We had the typical swiss cheese concrete climbing wall, caterpillar seesaw, and tortoise.

But one innovation was a 30' x 30' slab of concrete with various smooth concrete columns coming up out of it 3' to 6' high. The game was climb the column and since there was no way to get down you jump to your death.

I really think they were trying to cull us. I can't remember how many kids broke limbs and noggins on that but it was a substantial number.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 10:58 AM (wX5h4)

276 Morning Hordemates!

Posted by: Diogenes at May 19, 2024 10:58 AM (wX5h4)

277 re: Dean Koontz

I enjoyed his first two Moonlight Bay books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_Bay_Trilogy

Though it is an unfinished trilogy, the first two are pretty good. Centers on a young man with a severe sensitivity to UV light, so he is restricted to going outdoors only at night.

Koontz is 78 years old and has been working on the final book for 20+ years, so hopefully he gets it done!

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at May 19, 2024 10:58 AM (wX5h4)

278 You have to be proactive about what you want. Writing is hard. Getting published is even harder. But if it means the world to you, then you will do what is necessary (within moral and ethical limits, I hope) to achieve your goals.

------

Heh. Much of the book industry is a money laundry.

But now I'm picturing transgressive behavior by authors who genuinely want to be published, not just as a passthrough for cash.

It could explain Catcher In The Rye. Maybe every publisher rightfully passed on it, until JD Salinger called Little & Brown and said "listen guys. There's a bomb in the building. Introduce the world to Holden Caulfield, OR ELSE."

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 10:58 AM (wX5h4)

279 I wonder if Iran has the burning log channel?
Posted by: Nevergiveup

It's now the burning wog channel.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 19, 2024 10:59 AM (wX5h4)

280 You can fill in the rest. I get book authoring rights, you Morons!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 19, 2024 10:57 AM (wX5h4)
===

Very "Mission: Impossible"

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 19, 2024 10:59 AM (wX5h4)

281 I've been trying to read The Night Land by W.H. Hodgson without much success.

I love this story, but it’s definitely not modern. Under some modern definitions it probably wouldn’t even count as a story. It’s a travelogue sort of tale, about the world the character is traveling through rather than, or at least as much as, about the traveler himself.

It probably helps that I’m an RPGer, and can read into it what else might happen in such a world.

I last read it before I started keeping detailed notes about what I read. Going back, my only note is:

In the age of the world’s night, the abyss of the world must be experienced and endured. But for this it is necessary that there be those who reach into the abyss.—Martin Heidegger (Poetry, Language, Thought)

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 10:59 AM (wX5h4)

282 Went to the Daily Mail for info on the iranian helicopter crash, scrolled down to an article saying that Hing Charles and William are letting their most valuable asset back into the fold. Good grief if harry and meghan are their most valuable asset England is screwed.
Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at May 19, 2024 10:53 AM (wX5h4)

Did they specifically say Harry?

Maybe they were talking about whatever version of Epstein they're using these days.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 10:59 AM (wX5h4)

283
The old Iranian lunatic will be replaced by a new Iranian lunatic.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 11:00 AM (wX5h4)

284
252 What's this about helicopters crashing in Iran?
Posted by: Zombie Jimmy Carter at May 19, 2024 10:50 AM (wX5h4)

Heh! Looks like President Raisi just did a Kobe Bryant. Helicopters, fog, and terrain - never a good combination.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 19, 2024 11:01 AM (wX5h4)

285 Irish say the word "after" as a weird way of doing past tense verbs.

"I'm after visiting this thread," would be said instead of "I visited this thread."

You'll find some saying that it is their usage of the "imposed" language, English being the language of the oppressors that forced its usage. Maybe Gaelic has a form for it. I don't know.

Who is your favorite Irish? The one you like listening to their speech?

For me it's Domhnall Gleeson, and if I can pick a woman, too, it's Maria Doyle Kennedy. Remember her in "The Commitments?"

Posted by: Mr Gaga at May 19, 2024 09:26 AM (wX5h4)

Funny. In Newfie dialect, "after" is used in the opposite sense. More an expression of intent. "I'm after getting a few beers at the pub. You with me?"

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 19, 2024 11:01 AM (wX5h4)

286 Heh! Looks like President Raisi just did a Kobe Bryant. Helicopters, fog, and terrain - never a good combination.
Posted by: Tom Servo

Sure.

Posted by: Mo at May 19, 2024 11:02 AM (wX5h4)

287 After doing that try not to watch the news and not say "I've heard this recently"

It was interesting rereading 1984 during the reaction to Apple’s Crush! iPad Pro ad. It’s everything their original 1984 ad was not.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 11:03 AM (wX5h4)

288 >>>RAY BRADBURY'S RULES FOR WRITERS

How wonderful!

Posted by: m at May 19, 2024 11:03 AM (wX5h4)

289 BurtTC. Couldn't read the article since I don't allow their ads on my laptop. Guessing by the pictures it's harry or meghan. Could just be sparkle farkle and not the idiot.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at May 19, 2024 11:03 AM (wX5h4)

290 You say you want a story about transgressive behavior by authors?

Run, do not walk, to the library (or grab it on the Kindle store -- it's only 3.99 at the moment) and pick up Donald Westlake's THE HOOK. Think Strangers on a Train meets the bookbiz.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:03 AM (wX5h4)

291 Reportedly an emergency government has been formed in Tehran, and Iranian state media is running Quran verses on TV (which in fairness it probably does all the time).

Doesn't sound like they believe this guy's still alive.
Posted by: Dr. T at May 19, 2024 10:54 AM (wX5h4)

Something tells me the "reports" at this time are about as thorough as the Scottie Scheffler arrest reports.

Did the cop's pants get torn or not??? WE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!!!

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:04 AM (wX5h4)

292 Iranian State TV should broadcast a vocal tribute to dear departed President Raisi: "and he's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead!"

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 19, 2024 11:05 AM (wX5h4)

293 Reportedly an emergency government has been formed in Tehran, and Iranian state media is running Quran verses on TV (which in fairness it probably does all the time).

Doesn't sound like they believe this guy's still alive.
Posted by: Dr. T

Wonder if they follow the old Persian traditions and have a funeral procession through the city and dump his carcus on the pavement.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at May 19, 2024 11:05 AM (wX5h4)

294 The old Iranian lunatic will be replaced by a new Iranian lunatic.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 11:00 AM (wX5h4)

Well yeah, but I have been reading that Iran will hard placed to find anyone worses than Raisi. HOWEVER Raisi was also the leading , but not a lock, to succeed Kackamaini when he goes, so this is good for the world.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 11:05 AM (wX5h4)

295 My favorite Michael Crichton book is "The Great Train Robbery". As usual, he manages to impart all sorts of information about the place and time along with the exciting story. ( I also like the movie made from it starring Sean Connery.)

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 11:05 AM (wX5h4)

296 Re vanishing civilizations:

I remember Will Durant saying in "The Story of Civilization" that there had been an empire in the Middle East that was prosperous and powerful as any known to historians, which lasted over 200 years, and which was only known to exist now from a few scattered writings from other empires.

Take THAT, Ozymandias!

Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at May 19, 2024 11:05 AM (wX5h4)

297 BurtTC. Couldn't read the article since I don't allow their ads on my laptop. Guessing by the pictures it's harry or meghan. Could just be sparkle farkle and not the idiot.
Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at May 19, 2024 11:03 AM (wX5h4)

Does seem weird though, anyone describing either of them as their most valuable asset.

And yeah, otherwise you might think it's the wife who supposedly has cancer.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:06 AM (wX5h4)

298 >>>Best part of our elementary school playground was the area roped off as a snowball fight free-for-all.

It was acknowledged that if you stepped within its bounds, there was no crying.

Posted by: All Hail Eris

>When I was attending parochial school, we had an area of the playground sanctioned for "smear the queer." If you stepped into the area, you were getting the football and expected to prove your measure.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 19, 2024 11:06 AM (wX5h4)

299 What's this about helicopters crashing in Iran?
Posted by: Zombie Jimmy Carter at May 19, 2024 10:50 AM (wX5h4)

Heh! Looks like President Raisi just did a Kobe Bryant. Helicopters, fog, and terrain - never a good combination.
Posted by: Tom Servo

You know who invented the fog control machines.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at May 19, 2024 11:07 AM (wX5h4)

300 I've just started "Altered Carbon". I've never read anything by Richard Morgan before.

A hard-boiled investigator in a murder investigation on a future Earth.

I read a sample at Amazon and got hooked.

Posted by: pawn at May 19, 2024 11:07 AM (wX5h4)

301
My favorite Michael Crichton book is "The Great Train Robbery".

__________

Based on an actual train robbery.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gold_Robbery

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 11:08 AM (wX5h4)

302
I remember Will Durant saying in "The Story of Civilization" that there had been an empire in the Middle East that was prosperous and powerful as any known to historians, which lasted over 200 years, and which was only known to exist now from a few scattered writings from other empires.

Take THAT, Ozymandias!
Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at May 19, 2024

***
The Hittites or the Assyrians, maybe? I forget who called the latter "the sad sacks of history." Still, they did pretty well for their time and lasted a decent while. And we know their name and even some of their kings -- so I guess Durant wasn't talking about them.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:08 AM (wX5h4)

303 Prognosis : Negative.

(Name that quote!)

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 19, 2024 11:08 AM (wX5h4)

304 Checking to make sure I still an unbanned moron

Posted by: RM at May 19, 2024 11:09 AM (wX5h4)

305 The old Iranian lunatic will be replaced by a new Iranian lunatic.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 11:00 AM (wX5h4)

Seems par for the course, don't it?

Has anyone been trying to get to know this guy, before now? In the West, I mean. Is it just assumed the person who ascends to that job is a warmonger lunatic? Hellbent on getting his hands on nooks, and destroying Israel?

If so, I don't think any of us really need to know any more than that.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:09 AM (wX5h4)

306 >>> I love this story, but it’s definitely not modern. Under some modern definitions it probably wouldn’t even count as a story. It’s a travelogue sort of tale, about the world the character is traveling through rather than, or at least as much as, about the traveler himself.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 10:59 AM (wX5h4)

I can definitely see the potential underneath. I'm seeing the religious, horror elements, societal elements, romantic/gothic themes and my mind is wanting some sort of gathering theme. But, I think your travelogue view is a better way for me. I'll probably start from the beginning over Memorial weekend and read it through. I have serious memory issues and my silly mind will start erasing as I read if I take too long to plunge into a story.

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 11:09 AM (wX5h4)

307 Yea! Great job Pixy!

Posted by: RM at May 19, 2024 11:09 AM (wX5h4)

308 Prognosis : Negative.

(Name that quote!)
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 19, 2024

***
That's either Crichton's first novel (under a pen name), or the line from Seinfeld -- a movie they were going to see at one of the theatres around Manhattan.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:10 AM (wX5h4)

309 Prognosis : Negative.

(Name that quote!)
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 19, 2024 11:08 AM (wX5h4)

Oh damn, that was a fake title for some fake movie/show that was part of some movie/show.

And that's all I remember. Honest, officer. When I got back, the car and Mary Jo were both gone.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:11 AM (wX5h4)

310 Hopefully Allah has taken some of his ardent supporters home.

Party in Tel Aviv!

Posted by: Jak Sucio at May 19, 2024 11:11 AM (wX5h4)

311 Don't anybody say anything that will make a COB mad or we will all get banned in one fell swoop.

Posted by: bluebell - NoVaMoMe24 registration now open! at May 19, 2024 11:12 AM (wX5h4)

312 ...or the line from Seinfeld -- a movie they were going to see at one of the theatres around Manhattan.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:10 AM (wX5h4)

I'm 64% sure you nailed it.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:12 AM (wX5h4)

313 Saw the Prognosis:Negative quote and all that popped into my head was Diagnosis: Unknown. Which if memory serves was the name of a short-lived tv series based on Lawrence Blochman's series of mysteries with a pathologist main character.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:13 AM (wX5h4)

314 Playgrounds: When I was a kid, my hometown city park had an 'Eiffel tower' made of red ropes, for kids to climb up. I never made it very high. But I was never an athletic kid....

That same park also had a piece of artillery mounted on a concrete block in the middle of the sand pit. That got a lot of use! Climbing on it, pretending to man it....I hope it's still there.

A newer park nearer my parent's house has a big concrete woolly mammoth statue that comes out of the hillside. The nieces and nephews really enjoy climbing over that one...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 11:13 AM (wX5h4)

315 151 I read Crimson Joy by Robert B Parker this week. I know I've been kind of wishy washy about the Spenser series but I liked this one quite a lot. Spenser is asked by his Police force buddy, lieutenant Quirk, to consult on a murder investigation. There is a chance that someone on the force is involved so he wants an outside consultant. An actual murder mystery! Both Susan and my favorite, Hawk, involved.
Think this is number 13 or 14. Guess I'll keep going.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 10:01 AM (wX5h4)
----
#15

Posted by: Ciampino - Enjoyed all his books at May 19, 2024 11:13 AM (wX5h4)

316 I've been reading a sample of Jeff Shaara's "A Shadow of War, about the Cuban missile crisis. Not sure yet I'll buy it. So far it makes Bobby Kennedy likeable and I think he was the worst of the lot. But I have liked Shaara's past work so...maybe.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 19, 2024 11:14 AM (wX5h4)

317 >>> The Hittites or the Assyrians, maybe? I forget who called the latter "the sad sacks of history." Still, they did pretty well for their time and lasted a decent while. And we know their name and even some of their kings -- so I guess Durant wasn't talking about them.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:08 AM (wX5h4)

We were doing a thing on a thread yesterday where you look at what was happening in history 2 * your age ago. For me there was a lot of ending the Ottoman Empire related news. In hindsight, knowing that everyone used and empowered the various unconnected Arab tribes to help end it, do we still think that was a great idea?

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 11:14 AM (wX5h4)

318 Which if memory serves was the name of a short-lived tv series based on Lawrence Blochman's series of mysteries with a pathologist main character.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024

***
And I can almost remember the name of that character. But not quite.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:15 AM (wX5h4)

319 I think Bill Cosby had a pretty funny skit about playgrounds. Monkey bars being an adult plot to kill off the kids, etc.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:15 AM (wX5h4)

320 Wolfus,
Daniel Coffee was Blochman's character, I think. Believe that series is due for ebook release if it's not out there already.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:17 AM (wX5h4)

321 Communion is awfully awkward because I won't take it in the hand. The Extraordinary Ministers probably don't run into many people like me. They scarcely know how to put it on the tongue.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 10:58 AM (wX5h4)

Maybe Tracer gun would work for that? Pew pew!

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

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 19, 2024 11:17 AM (wX5h4)

322 302
I remember Will Durant saying in "The Story of Civilization" that there had been an empire in the Middle East that was prosperous and powerful as any known to historians, which lasted over 200 years, and which was only known to exist now from a few scattered writings from other empires.

Take THAT, Ozymandias!
Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at May 19, 2024

***
The Hittites or the Assyrians, maybe? I forget who called the latter "the sad sacks of history." Still, they did pretty well for their time and lasted a decent while. And we know their name and even some of their kings -- so I guess Durant wasn't talking about them.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:08 AM (wX5h4)

The Hittites were my first thought, too. I read somewhere that outside of a few Bible references, they had been forgotten by history for about a millenia...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 11:18 AM (wX5h4)

323 Is it just assumed the person who ascends to that job is a warmonger lunatic?

-----

Pretty much. Same as in DC. If he rose to the top of one of these institutions, you're getting a dangerous psychopath.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 11:19 AM (wX5h4)

324 My favorite Michael Crichton book is "The Great Train Robbery". As usual, he manages to impart all sorts of information about the place and time along with the exciting story. ( I also like the movie made from it starring Sean Connery.)
Posted by: JTB

That was a good one. Book and movie. The movie for "Timeline" kind of sucked. Well except for Gerard Butler.

Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 11:20 AM (wX5h4)

325 Currently reading the Shadow of the Lion in the Heirs of Alexandria series.

Posted by: vic at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

326 Seems like the same hash problem continues. Hopefully it's a good one, like home-made corned beef hash...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

327 2x my age was 1944. That part of history is pretty familiar to everyone.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

328 Hittites were fascinating because unlike most in the region, they were early Indo-Europeans, related to modern Europeans.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

329 Pawn, Prime has 2 seasons of Altered Carbon. It is very good. One of hte better ones they have done.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

330 Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at May 19, 2024

***
The Hittites or the Assyrians, maybe? I forget who called the latter "the sad sacks of history." Still, they did pretty well for their time and lasted a decent while. And we know their name and even some of their kings -- so I guess Durant wasn't talking about them.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:08 AM (wX5h4)

The Hittites were my first thought, too. I read somewhere that outside of a few Bible references, they had been forgotten by history for about a millenia...
Posted by: Castle Guy at May 19, 2024 11:18 AM (wX5h4)

Find VDH and either read his book, or listen to him talking about it, I'm sure he has the answer.

Apparently some civs end, with their conquerors basically destroying everything, and whatever is left is word of mouth stories, with whatever is built on top of that particular location being something almost entirely unrelated to what was there before.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

331 Wolfus,
Daniel Coffee was Blochman's character, I think. Believe that series is due for ebook release if it's not out there already.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024

***
That was it! I remember the stories appearing in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

332 Weak Geek mentioned Boy's Life magazine. I started reading it in the late 1950s. Looked forward to each issue. I have a VERY vague memory of a Robert Heinlein story that was serialized for several issues.

No idea what it's like these days but apparently the name was changed to Scouting Life. Boy's Life as a title wasn't inclusive enough for modern sensibilities, I guess.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

333 >>> I think Bill Cosby had a pretty funny skit about playgrounds. Monkey bars being an adult plot to kill off the kids, etc.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:15 AM (wX5h4)

I have a million funny Cosby skits still running around in my head all the time, buck buck, Fernet-Branca, fat albert, chicken heart, manhole cover, mashed potatoes, parents on the lake,... so many...

But recent events makes it all bothersome to people, especially younger people, sigh... All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

334 Reading books very slowly these days. Read in bed, get a few more pages, fall asleep. Guess I'm too busy with other stuff these days.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

335 >>>I think Bill Cosby had a pretty funny skit about playgrounds. Monkey bars being an adult plot to kill off the kids, etc.

Posted by: Just Some Guy

>If Barack Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden were to be considered waypoints, Bill Cosby could become president of the United States. Let that sink in with your Sunday coffee.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

336 "The Curse of wX5h4" A new mystery by Pixy Misa.

Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 11:24 AM (wX5h4)

337 All those moments will be lost in time, like ~~tears in rain~~ pudding in pound cake.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 11:25 AM (wX5h4)

338 RIP Bud Anderson, America’s last WWII Triple Ace @ 102 years

Posted by: Rex B at May 19, 2024 11:25 AM (wX5h4)

339 wX5h4 has a long mustache.

Posted by: wX5h3 at May 19, 2024 11:26 AM (wX5h4)

340 wX5h4. I crap bigger than you.

Posted by: C-3PO at May 19, 2024 11:26 AM (wX5h4)

341 Pretty much. Same as in DC. If he rose to the top of one of these institutions, you're getting a dangerous psychopath.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 11:19 AM (wX5h4)

Sure, but with DC you need to know which kind of warmonger lunatic you're getting. Is the new guy a warmonger lunatic who thinks he needs to bomb everyone RIGHT NOW, or is he a warmonger lunatic who is preparing for war with Chi Nah?

And of course some warmonger lunatics, in addition to all that, is at war with "normal" people in his own country.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:26 AM (wX5h4)

342 327 2x my age was 1944. That part of history is pretty familiar to everyone.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

Are you really that much of a younger 29 than I am? I end up before WW1, at the beginning of the Wilson presidency...and some folks in here end up in the 19th Century.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:27 AM (wX5h4)

343 Prognosis Negative is a fictional movie referenced in the popular Seinfeld television series. In several episodes it was mentioned in the dialogue and in at least one episode a movie poster for it was visible. Such fictional works were a recurring gag in the series, but Prognosis Negative had its roots in an actual screenplay written by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David in the 1980s. It was never produced.

https://youtu.be/TKz5HMAmneU

Posted by: Obligatory Seinfeld reference at May 19, 2024 11:28 AM (wX5h4)

344 336 "The Curse of wX5h4" A new mystery by Pixy Misa.
Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 11:24 AM (wX5h4)

Damn. I just noticed. The singularity has occurred.

I don't feel any different. Except now for some reason I think I should eat the bugs and catch up on my clot shot boosters.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:28 AM (wX5h4)

345 "The Curse of wX5h4" A new mystery by Pixy Misa.
Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024

***
The Persian wX5h4 Mystery by Ellery P. Misa

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:28 AM (wX5h4)

346 >>>"The Curse of wX5h4" A new mystery by Pixy Misa.

Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2024 11:24 AM (wX5h4)

>>I bred those hamsters in a lab in Hamilton next to Fauci's Wuhan flu.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 19, 2024 11:29 AM (wX5h4)

347 … Cosby skits…

Posted by: banana Dream at May 19, 2024 11:22 AM (wX5h4)

Go Karts is one of the funniest bits I’ve ever heard. I hate what we found out, but I just think of how popular Michael Jackson still is and get over it.

Posted by: Hmm at May 19, 2024 11:30 AM (wX5h4)

348 339 wX5h4 has a long mustache.

Posted by: wX5h3 at May 19, 2024 11:26 AM (wX5h4)

Was watching "Alien Resident". Has some crap stuff in it (like the 74% wage gap", but some funny stuff too. One that made me laugh was where the alien tries to disguise himself with a moustache, but thinks, "I'll have to become a firefighter or a paedo-file"...later, wearing the moustache, the kid that can see him says, "Take off that moustache; it makes you look like a Paedo..."

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:30 AM (wX5h4)

349 If you read Crichton's "State of Fear" you would already know that he thought Climate Change was bunk.

Posted by: No one of any consequence. at May 19, 2024 11:31 AM (wX5h4)

350
Are you really that much of a younger 29 than I am? I end up before WW1, at the beginning of the Wilson presidency...and some folks in here end up in the 19th Century.
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024

***
Yeah, 2 x my age = the height of the Victorian Era.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:31 AM (wX5h4)

351
At 2x age, Vic knew the Hittites.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 11:32 AM (wX5h4)

352 Yeah, 2 x my age = the height of the Victorian Era.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius,

*moves horse and buggy off lawn*

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 19, 2024 11:33 AM (wX5h4)

353 Go Karts is one of the funniest bits I’ve ever heard. I hate what we found out, but I just think of how popular Michael Jackson still is and get over it.
Posted by: Hmm at May 19, 2024 11:30 AM (wX5h4)

And Bill Clinton, and the British "royal" family, and many many others.

Now we're getting video of P. Diddy beating up his girlfriend. It would be terribly, terribly naive to think they don't also have video of so many others engaging in egregious behavior, on video.

It who and what that gets released that tells us something about our celeb culture.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:33 AM (wX5h4)

354 I once worked at the late lamented Kroch's & Brentano's in Chicago, and during that time the TV series Tenspeed & Brown shoe (a Stephen Cannell project with Jeff Goldblum & Ben Vereen) came and went. Goldblum's character was constantly reading and quoting from the Mark Savage, Private Eye novels. The books didn't exist -- they were made up for the show, and the author photo sometimes seen on the back covers was a picture of Cannell.

Quite a few people asked if we had those books in stock.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:33 AM (wX5h4)

355 2x my age was 1944. That part of history is pretty familiar to everyone.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

I got 1908. Gotta go look at what happened back then. 'twas the decade before my grandparents were born.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Nothing to Contribute to the Debate at May 19, 2024 11:33 AM (wX5h4)

356 350
Are you really that much of a younger 29 than I am? I end up before WW1, at the beginning of the Wilson presidency...and some folks in here end up in the 19th Century.
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024

***
Yeah, 2 x my age = the height of the Victorian Era.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:31 AM (wX5h4)

Someone last night mentioned Rourke's Drift.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:34 AM (wX5h4)

357 >>>>>but not a lock, to succeed Kackamaini when he goes, so this is good for the world.
Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 19, 2024 11:05 AM (wX5h4)
*********
“Kackamaini” made me laugh. Channeling Mo, Larry and Curley.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 19, 2024 11:34 AM (wX5h4)

358 355 2x my age was 1944. That part of history is pretty familiar to everyone.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

I got 1908. Gotta go look at what happened back then. 'twas the decade before my grandparents were born.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Nothing to Contribute to the Debate at May 19, 2024 11:33 AM (wX5h4)

The decade before one of mine was born...not the other 3, and two of those were born in the 19th century (yeah, Dad was much older than Mom)...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:35 AM (wX5h4)

359 Gotta run some errands. But thanks to Perfessor for another wonderful book thread.

Posted by: JTB at May 19, 2024 11:36 AM (wX5h4)

360 342 327 2x my age was 1944. That part of history is pretty familiar to everyone.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 19, 2024 11:21 AM (wX5h4)

Are you really that much of a younger 29 than I am? I end up before WW1, at the beginning of the Wilson presidency...and some folks in here end up in the 19th Century.
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:27 AM (wX5h4)

I'm in the great depression under FDR...what is there to say about that era except yuck!

Posted by: Nova Local at May 19, 2024 11:36 AM (wX5h4)

361 352 Yeah, 2 x my age = the height of the Victorian Era.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius,

*moves horse and buggy off lawn*

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 19, 2024 11:33 AM (wX5h4)

Dad told me how his uncles, as a Halloween prank, put the carriage on top of a barn...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:37 AM (wX5h4)

362 or maybe it was his great-uncles...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:37 AM (wX5h4)

363 I think the Arzawans shivved the Hittites and they never recovered.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at May 19, 2024 11:37 AM (wX5h4)

364 I maybe missed something on the age bit. Birth year minus age (gives me 1875), or birth year minus age * 2 (gives me 1801, a bit different)?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:38 AM (wX5h4)

365 364 I maybe missed something on the age bit. Birth year minus age (gives me 1875), or birth year minus age * 2 (gives me 1801, a bit different)?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:38 AM (wX5h4)

NO MATH!

Posted by: I thought this was a rule at May 19, 2024 11:40 AM (wX5h4)

366 The Catcher in the wX5h4.

Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst and alienation, and as a critique of superficiality in the Internet Age. The novel also deals with themes of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and server crashes. The main character, Pixy Caulfield, has become an icon for online rebellion. Caulfield, whose toilet flushes counterclockwise, gives his opinion on a wide variety of topics as he narrates his recent hardware and software foibles..

Posted by: Obligatory Seinfeld reference at May 19, 2024 11:40 AM (wX5h4)

367 364 I maybe missed something on the age bit. Birth year minus age (gives me 1875), or birth year minus age * 2 (gives me 1801, a bit different)?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:38 AM (wX5h4)

I think supposed to be subtract your age from your birth year, so 2x your age ago...which basically says the events AFTER that year are closer to your birth than your birth to today...yeah, math. So WWI's start is closer to my birth than my birth to today.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

368 Oops. Wrong nic.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

369 wX5h4 sounds like some sort of cult, like NXIVM

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

370 I maybe missed something on the age bit. Birth year minus age (gives me 1875), or birth year minus age * 2 (gives me 1801, a bit different)?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024

***
I thought it was 2024 - (2 x your age now) = whatever.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

371 or some nerve gas.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:42 AM (wX5h4)

372 Or the latest Wuhan virus/Bird Flu creation: wX5h4

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:42 AM (wX5h4)

373 I maybe missed something on the age bit. Birth year minus age (gives me 1875), or birth year minus age * 2 (gives me 1801, a bit different)?

Posted by: Just Some Guy

"fistbump"

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 11:43 AM (wX5h4)

374 I'm in the great depression under FDR...what is there to say about that era except yuck!
Posted by: Nova Local at May 19, 2024 11:36 AM (wX5h4)

That gets me thinking, how history moves so fast, and when we take time to look back, we see the various rogues who had a hand in various events. There's never a true reckoning, except for "those guys" who are now consensus rogues.

The people who remain revered and honored and almost worshipped, the things they had a hand in are often overlooked, because we're moving too fast in the here and now.

Which then leads to the current crop of rogues being able to whistle as their own crimes are swept under, knowing future generations will never know what monsters they were/are.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:43 AM (wX5h4)

375 368 Oops. Wrong nic.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

Too easy to sock real posters right now...

Posted by: ACE (Not Really) at May 19, 2024 11:44 AM (wX5h4)

376 2* my age and the (first) civil war is ending. That's good.

Posted by: From about That Time at May 19, 2024 11:44 AM (wX5h4)

377 375 368 Oops. Wrong nic.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

Too easy to sock real posters right now...
Posted by: ACE (Not Really) at May 19, 2024 11:44 AM (wX5h4)

Repent. Do it now.

Posted by: ZOD (or is it?) at May 19, 2024 11:45 AM (wX5h4)

378 I thought it was 2024 - (2 x your age now) = whatever.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

That's how I did it.

Came up with 1908. That year Shackleton set sail for Antarctica, Peary set sail for the north pole, the Tunguska explosion happened, and W.H. Taft was elected president. Also the Model-T was introduced.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Nothing to Contribute to the Debate at May 19, 2024 11:45 AM (wX5h4)

379 Think I'll skip looking up the events -- got a hunch it'll make me feel even older than I already do, and then I'll get the idea that maybe I should finally become an adult and jeez, what fun would THAT be?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:45 AM (wX5h4)

380 Drive-by comment to rec the essay "Thank God for the Atomic Bomb"--don't have a link handy, but it's a useful summary of why we did indeed need to nuke Japan twice.

Also, if you have any interest in science fantasy of the sapient machine variety, check out the story "Double Life" in Sister Muses (can't get a link to work in the sock, but it should be available from your favorite retailer). It riffs on an urban legend regarding the Enola Gay.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at May 19, 2024 11:45 AM (wX5h4)

381 Hey! These don't match:

Posted by: andycanuck (ZdexC) at May 19, 2024 09:02 AM (wX5h4)

Posted by: m at May 19, 2024 11:46 AM (wX5h4)

382 The funniest part of this one hash world is that there is no way to figure out who actually made the clever remark that made me laugh.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 11:46 AM (wX5h4)

383 377 375 368 Oops. Wrong nic.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

Too easy to sock real posters right now...
Posted by: ACE (Not Really) at May 19, 2024 11:44 AM (wX5h4)

Repent. Do it now.

Posted by: ZOD (or is it?) at May 19, 2024 11:45 AM (wX5h4)

Click this link. Really exceptional ladies! No, I'm not Admiral Ackbar...

Posted by: Mannix (Not) at May 19, 2024 11:46 AM (wX5h4)

384 site still hinky I see

Posted by: sent at May 19, 2024 11:47 AM (wX5h4)

385 I thought it was 2024 - (2 x your age now) = whatever.

Current Year minus Twice Age ~= Birth Year - Age.

Because

Birth Year ~= Current Year - Age

Math.
Cannot be escaped.
Regarding age.
Or weight.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 11:47 AM (wX5h4)

386 I thought it was 2024 - (2 x your age now) = whatever.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

I'm waiting for some clown to show up and say "Oh my! That's the year we first landed on the moon!"

Or something similarly nasty and unkind.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:47 AM (wX5h4)

387 *That year Shackleton set sail for Antarctica, Peary set sail for the north pole, the Tunguska explosion happened, and W.H. Taft was elected president. Also the Model-T was introduced.*

And we all had an onion tied to our belts, which was the style at the time.

Posted by: Grandpa Simpson at May 19, 2024 11:47 AM (wX5h4)

388 385 I thought it was 2024 - (2 x your age now) = whatever.

Current Year minus Twice Age ~= Birth Year - Age.

Because

Birth Year ~= Current Year - Age

Math.
Cannot be escaped.
Regarding age.
Or weight.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 11:47 AM (wX5h4)

For real fun, subtract your weight from today...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:48 AM (wX5h4)

389 Well, time to go screw things up in real life or meatspace or whatever it's called these days.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 19, 2024 11:49 AM (wX5h4)

390 Wonder if we are getting our old hash back? I kind of liked mine.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 11:49 AM (wX5h4)

391 Or weight.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 19, 2024 11:47 AM (wX5h4)

You shut your mouth! You shut it now!!

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:49 AM (wX5h4)

392 For real fun, subtract your weight from today...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:48 AM (wX5h4)

Why is everyone suddenly talking about the Hittites...

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:50 AM (wX5h4)

393 I'm out.
Range day.
Have a good one.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 11:50 AM (wX5h4)

394 Speaking of math, got mine wrong. Middle of Indian wars, eight years before my maternal grandparents being born.

Posted by: From about That Time at May 19, 2024 11:51 AM (wX5h4)

395 Thanks for the Book Thread Perfessor !

Posted by: JT at May 19, 2024 11:51 AM (wX5h4)

396 386 I thought it was 2024 - (2 x your age now) = whatever.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:41 AM (wX5h4)

I'm waiting for some clown to show up and say "Oh my! That's the year we first landed on the moon!"

Or something similarly nasty and unkind.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:47 AM (wX5h4)

Hey, someone "over 29", but not much over can say that JFK was already dead...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:51 AM (wX5h4)

397 390 Wonder if we are getting our old hash back? I kind of liked mine.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 11:49 AM (wX5h4)

Oooh! New Hashes. I was tired of mine saying I was becoming engorged in Hebrew...seemed inappropriate.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:52 AM (wX5h4)

398 This is a hell of a good story. The Iranian President and Foreign Minister are in a helicopter crash and they haven't located the crashed chopper even it was traveling in a three copter convoy.

All the twists and plot you could ask for in a real life thriller.
Can't wait for chapter 2.

Posted by: Ben Had at May 19, 2024 11:52 AM (wX5h4)

399 Almost time to wind up another great Book Thread. Thanks, Perfessor!

I got some chores to do, then I'm crashing for a bit. Maybe I'll have time to watch a classic movie on YooToob this pm.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 19, 2024 11:53 AM (wX5h4)

400 392 For real fun, subtract your weight from today...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:48 AM (wX5h4)

Why is everyone suddenly talking about the Hittites...

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:50 AM (wX5h4)

I guess it depends on what measure of weight you use...stones, kilos, pounds, ounces, grains...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:54 AM (wX5h4)

401 Was watching "Alien Resident". Has some crap stuff in it (like the 74% wage gap", but some funny stuff too. One that made me laugh was where the alien tries to disguise himself with a moustache, but thinks, "I'll have to become a firefighter or a paedo-file"...later, wearing the moustache, the kid that can see him says, "Take off that moustache; it makes you look like a Paedo..."
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:30 AM (wX5h4)

Have not watched that show but it looks funny.

Posted by: wX5h3 at May 19, 2024 11:54 AM (wX5h4)

402 397 390 Wonder if we are getting our old hash back? I kind of liked mine.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 19, 2024 11:49 AM (wX5h4)

I liked mine too

Posted by: It's me donna at May 19, 2024 11:54 AM (wX5h4)

403 >>>So WWI's start is closer to my birth than my birth to today.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia)

>Now wrap your head around the fact that civilization existed long before the Kardashian women were being rear-ended by multiple generations of professional athletes.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 19, 2024 11:55 AM (wX5h4)

404 Hey, someone "over 29", but not much over can say that JFK was already dead...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:51 AM (wX5h4)

Sure, 30 basically gets you to JFK, but I don't play this "29" game. That's whippersnapper territory in my book*.

*Since this is still the book thread.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:55 AM (wX5h4)

405
The funniest part of this one hash world is that there is no way to figure out who actually made the clever remark that made me laugh.
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice)

__________

I am (wX5h4)!

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 19, 2024 11:55 AM (wX5h4)

406 My older students read a number of Ray Bradbury and were preparing to write essays on the short story of their choice. They were sharing their theses with each other.

I was tickled that they liked him. One said he was up there with Maya Angelou and more recent writer.

But a boy made the comment "Ray Bradbury was sexist". I responded "The heck he was!" and asked if my student knew that the author is NOT the same as the characters he wrote. Yeah, but...

At least they're still reading some "old" books like Catch-22, Brave New World, and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at May 19, 2024 11:55 AM (wX5h4)

407 Tthanxs Perfessor!
Doing ribs today!

Posted by: wX5h3 at May 19, 2024 11:56 AM (wX5h4)

408 401 Was watching "Alien Resident". Has some crap stuff in it (like the 74% wage gap", but some funny stuff too. One that made me laugh was where the alien tries to disguise himself with a moustache, but thinks, "I'll have to become a firefighter or a paedo-file"...later, wearing the moustache, the kid that can see him says, "Take off that moustache; it makes you look like a Paedo..."
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:30 AM (wX5h4)

Have not watched that show but it looks funny.

Posted by: wX5h3 at May 19, 2024 11:54 AM (wX5h4)

Just watch out for the woke crap; seems everywhere today.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:56 AM (wX5h4)

409 I was tickled that they liked him. One said he was up there with Maya Angelou and more recent writer.

But a boy made the comment "Ray Bradbury was sexist". I responded "The heck he was!" and asked if my student knew that the author is NOT the same as the characters he wrote. Yeah, but...

At least they're still reading some "old" books like Catch-22, Brave New World, and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
Posted by: NaughtyPine at May 19, 2024 11:55 AM (wX5h4)

"up there with Maya Angelou" LOL!

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 19, 2024 12:00 PM (wX5h4)

410 404 Hey, someone "over 29", but not much over can say that JFK was already dead...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:51 AM (wX5h4)

Sure, 30 basically gets you to JFK, but I don't play this "29" game. That's whippersnapper territory in my book*.

*Since this is still the book thread.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 11:55 AM (wX5h4)

Okay...famous books written the year 2x-age...
"Pygmalion" by GB Shaw
"Polyanna" by Eleanor Porter
"Gods of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs
"The Return of Tarzan" by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 12:00 PM (wX5h4)

411 " wX5h4 sounds like some sort of cult, like NXIVM"

"or some nerve gas."

Cult of Nervegas?

Posted by: Outside of Life at May 19, 2024 12:00 PM (wX5h4)

412 I guess it depends on what measure of weight you use...stones, kilos, pounds, ounces, grains...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 11:54 AM (wX5h4)

These days the doctor office will give your weight in kilos, and then ask "do you want to know what that is in pounds?"

Nah, I'm good.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 19, 2024 12:00 PM (wX5h4)

413 NOOD

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at May 19, 2024 12:01 PM (wX5h4)

414 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: wX5h4 at May 19, 2024 12:01 PM (wX5h4)

415 Again with the end of the Book Thread! Why?? Anyway, thanks for the Thread, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 19, 2024 12:03 PM (wX5h4)

416 @327 --

Dang, you're a young pup!

Glad to see that.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 01:51 PM (wX5h4)

417 1

Posted by: wX5h4 at May 19, 2024 02:01 PM (wX5h4)

418 Welcome, wX5h4! I've heard about you lately.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 19, 2024 02:05 PM (wX5h4)

419 I’m in AZ and always sleep in on Sundays (don’t judge, I help out at the Saturday vigil Mass), which makes actively participating in the book thread comments impossible. But I wanted to say Thank
you! The book thread is one of my favorite parts of Sundays.
Also, in the light & fluffy category, I highly recommend The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis. Sort of a romance novel, sort of an alien abduction story, and just a whole lot of fun with a sweet ending. Connie Willis is a gem, but she usually deals width more serious topics in her novels. To my knowledge, this is the first time she has let her mischievous side dominate in a longer form. Her short stories (f ex “Even the Queen”

have long shown her abilities in this realm.

Posted by: Quieti at May 19, 2024 02:16 PM (wX5h4)

420 Argh. Probably too late for the party, but if you're going to read more Michael Chichton, do NOT read "Timeline." Literally the worst book I ever read.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at May 19, 2024 02:52 PM (wX5h4)

421 "Resident Alien" is two shows in one. One show is about a fish-out-of-water alien and us very funny. The other show is about a boring Native American woman and her boring problems, and is boring.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at May 19, 2024 02:55 PM (wX5h4)

422 Speaking for myself, while the view in the fake library is l9vely, the first thing my brain notices is that they could've gotten several more bookcases in the space and still had a good view.

A minimum of one bookcase on each side and a winfow seat with room below for books, would still leave a nice view.

2 more on each side would be better.

The room is also missing stacks of books on the floor, side tables, a floor lamp, and a fine layer of dust on the shelves for the books you can never quite get into, even though they came highly recommended, and you will surely try again once you re-read insert-your-favorite-seties-here for the umpteenth time.

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at May 19, 2024 03:17 PM (wX5h4)

423 aUwRCKtlc

Posted by: NrPnmcSJUjQxw at May 19, 2024 03:51 PM (wX5h4)

424 An American landing was inevitable and it would have created carnage on a level unseen in modern history. (con't)
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 19, 2024 09:13 AM (wX5h4)

My uncle worshipped Harry Truman all his post-war life, cause he (uncle) was waiting in North Africa to be sent in as one particle of that carnage.
People forget the American casualties they so blithely propose trading for those in Hiroshima were young, just as innocent, and didn’t start it.

Posted by: Best Thief in Lankhmar at May 19, 2024 04:17 PM (wX5h4)

425 Read Torchship by Karl Gallagher, a hard sci-fi story (first in a trilogy) I'd compare to the Frontlines or Expanse books but not quite as serious a tone. It centers on the female pilot of a spaceship for hire, their adventures as they get caught up in wider events. Fun book, the first by this author.

Posted by: waelse1 at May 19, 2024 05:18 PM (wX5h4)

426 I am... very late to the Book Thread. (That's how Sunday rolled this week.)

Finished up "Or All Will Burn: Fierce Love" (Raconteur Press anthology #19.) Some great stories in here. The theme is basically, "These are the sacrifices parents are willing to make/how far they're willing to go to protect their children from the forces of darkness."

I've started #20, "Full Steam Ahead!" a steampunk based anthology. I've finished the first two stories in it, and I can say they're well written. There's a really bad-ass fight with a dragon that was pretty entertaining. I'm just not sure yet if the Steampunk genre is my cup of tea, and yes, this was my first real exposure to it. I'll have formed more of an opinion on that question by next week.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at May 19, 2024 07:44 PM (wX5h4)

427 Re Dean Koontz. I've read probably at least a couple dozen of his. I think the best by far is "From the Corner of His Eye". Great book.

Posted by: johnny at May 19, 2024 07:56 PM (wX5h4)

428 426 I am... very late to the Book Thread.

--

Indeed.
Which is why I check the SMBT all day- it never dies

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 19, 2024 08:56 PM (tdEwJ)

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