Sunday Morning Book Thread - 05-26-2024 ["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...(another shining example from the Met Gala)

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

PIC NOTE

Time for summer! I believe Memorial Day Weekend is the traditional kickoff for summer activities, while Labor Day closes out the season. Why not celebrate by taking your favorite book and going to the beach? Of course, in my case, the beach is over 1000 miles away from my little town. The best I can do is take my book out to a local park, which I might just do...

AUTHORS WHO ARE ALSO ARTISTS

"Always bet the under," as Muldoon likes to say...

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)

JTB has recommended a number of art-related books since I took over the Sunday Morning Book Thread (and probably before that, too). J.R.R. Tolkien's art is highly distinctive, being minimalist, but also varied and interesting. My copy of The Hobbit uses one of his paintings for the cover. In fact, many editions of The Hobbit feature Tolkien's art on the cover.

JTB's comment reminded me that Tolkien is NOT the only author who has dabbled in art in addition to writing novels. Lots of authors explore other artistic endeavors because they are naturally creative people. Here are a few examples just from my own library:

P.C. Hodgell, author of The Chronicles of the Kencyrath, includes a number of drawings she's done in Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry, a collection of some of her shorter stories. She is very much into creating stained glass artwork, so her drawings tend to reflect a style reminiscent of stained glass windows, which is pretty neat, as seen here.

Master of horror Clive Barker wrote a series of YA novels, Abarat, where he includes hundreds of his own paintings throughout the story to add color and flavor to the story.

Sometimes, artists decide to turn their creative efforts to writing novels, as the artist Gerald Brom did. In addition to being an amazing artist, he's written several books, including The Child Thief, which is a retelling of J. M. Barrie's classic tale, Peter Pan.

And lets not forget all of the children's literature that is both written and illustrated by the same individual. Shel Silverstein, for example, provided all of the drawings within his children's poetry books. Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel also wrote and illustrated more than 60 books in his career.

What other authors out there have blended their creative talents into their novels and short stories?

++++++++++

(HT: bluebell)

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COMMENTS FROM THE HORDE

There were a couple of comments from last week that I'd like to address. I didn't get to address them last week because I was at church when they came in and I don't get home from church until around the time the Sunday Morning Book Thread is over (11 a.m. my time).

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)

There was some discussion of Star Trek novels and this came up. Wolfus is correct in that there is a novel that's a sequel to a Star Trek episode: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Vendetta by Peter David. The premise is that Captain Jean-Luc Picard is suffering from PTSD after being an instrument of the Borg ("Locutus"). In his dreams he's visited by a mysterious woman calling out to him. Meanwhile, a strange starship is discovered after it's annihilated a Borg cube while the Borg are assimilating another world. The Enterprise-D is sent to investigate the situation and discovers that this mysterious spaceship is directly connected to the Doomsday Machine from Star Trek: The Original Series. The woman in Picard's dreams is onboard, linked to the spirits of an ancient race that was also destroyed to the Borg. The woman also has connections to Guinan, whose race was another victim of the Borg's "assimilation," with the survivors scattered across the galaxy. Now Picard has to determine whether or not to join in the woman's quest for ultimate vengeance or seek a way to stop her before she destroys not only the Borg, but the Federation itself. Ultimately, it's a story analyzing just how far a person will go to gain revenge upon their enemies, and what humanity we lose in the process.

+++++

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)

I had not heard of William Hope Hodgson's famous story until a few years ago. Hodgson was a fairly prolific author in his relatively short life. He died in 1918 during WWI when he was hit by an artillery shell at the ripe old age of 41. He did have a varied career, as he was a sailor and a champion for physical fitness before devoting his efforts full time to writing. Over the years, he's been a highly influential author in the horror and science fiction genres, though I would not be surprised if you've never heard of him. Colorful character in real life, tragic death, wild story-telling.

The original version of The Night Land is often hard for modern readers to get into because Hodgson is attempting a 17th-century style of storytelling, at least for the first part of the book. A 17th-century nobleman is given a vision of the far distant future when he will be reunited with his lost love, in a world that has been consumed by darkness. The sun has been consumed (or destroyed) and the last remnants of humanity have established a bastion called the Last Redoubt, surrounded by a barrier drawn from the Earth Current for protection against the nightmarish horrors that seek to devour the last humans. Humans have developed psychic gifts that can offer them protection, but also leave them vulnerable to having their souls destroyed if the wrong entities are allowed in.

Like banana dream, I tried reading it, but didn't get very far. However, I did read a series of novellas by science fiction author John C. Wright that take place within the same universe: Awake in the Night Land. I found them exceptionally creepy and disturbing as Wright draws upon every cosmic horror/alien trope he can think of to paint a truly awful picture of humanity's fate in the far distant future. However, even in those dark times, hope abides, creating light in the darkness. Good stuff. Highly recommended.

A more modern version of The Night Land has been written by James Stoddard to make the story a bit more accessible to readers who may be driven off by the overly archaic language of the original.

Masters of horror H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith were both directly inspired by William Hope Hodgson. In Lovecraft's case, it's easy to see why. Many of Hodgson's horror stories involve the seas and oceans across which he sailed. Lovecraft *hated* the seas with a fiery passion and that hatred manifests itself in numerous stories (a lot of awful Lovecraftian horror comes from the depths of the oceans, like the Great One Cthulhu itself.)

Gene Wolfe was also inspired by Hodgson when writing his Book of the New Sun, which takes place on a fading earth in the far, far distant future.

I suspect--but cannot prove--that Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires may also be influenced by Hodgson's The Night Land as it features an earth that has been invaded by cosmic horrors from beyond, while humanity retreats to the titular Spires for protection. The neo-Victorian vibe of the setting would fit in with Hodgson's style as well.

NOTE: The Night Land is in the public domain and is available for free at Project Gutenberg.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

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)

Comment: Looks like there are around 16 books (so far) in the series. OrangeEnt recently sent me an email wondering if writing a continuing series about a main character is a cheap way of writing. Personally, I think a lot of it is driven by the market. If people enjoy reading more stories about the same character, then they will ask for more stories and the publisher will try to comply. It's happened a lot. Of course, the characters can grow stale over time, so authors do need to find ways to keep their characters fresh and interesting for the reader or they will tune out.

+++++

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)

Comment: Successfully capturing a local dialect of speech in writing is an art form. If it's overdone, it can be offputting to the reader, though. In The Wonderland Gambit by Jack L. Chalker, he tries to insert a character with an extreme Southern accent. Because of the way Chalker writes the character's speech phonetically on the page, it makes it very difficult to read that character's lines of dialog, so I tended to gloss over that character's speech. On the other hand, Alan Dean Foster's use of a Cockney accent for Mudge the Otter in his Spellsinger series made that character just that much more hilarious. The Irish, of course, have their very own distinctive native accent, which will also vary by county within Ireland. You can pick up on where a person is from just from their pattern of speech. Though it's difficult to represent this accurately in written dialog.

+++++

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)

Comment: For some reason, I tend to get James Clavell mixed up with James Michener. Both of them wrote doorstoppers. Both of them wrote historical fiction. Both of them have had their works adapted into other media. And they both died within just a few years of each other (Clavell in 1994 and Michener in 1997). I wonder if anyone has considered writing a cross-over series featuring characters from both Clavell's works and Michener's works...

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.

Dragonlance - Defenders of Magic Vol. 1 - Night of the Eye by Mary Kirchoff

A young man flees an unfortunate situation where he'll be forced to marry a rather unpleasant woman for political and economic advantage so that he can become one of the famed mages of Krynn. Unbeknownst to him, his apprenticeship is part of a scheme to get him out of the way while the villain of the story schemes to open a gateway to the Lost Citadel, the repository of all magical knowledge of the gods. As Dragonlance stories go, it's all right. Just a bit of entertaining fluff using the rules of Dragonlance and Dungeons and Dragons as part of the story itself. We do get to see a few characters from the original Dragonlance stories--particularly Justinian, who eventually becomes the Master of the Red Robes (one of the three factions of magic-users). Even though this is listed as Book 1 of a trilogy, it's really a stand-alone novel, as the next book in the series has a time skip and focuses on Guerrand's young nephew.

Star Wars - The Bounty Hunter Wars Book 1 - The Mandalorian Armor by K. W. Jeter

This is part of the Star Wars: Legends canon, which was destroyed by Disney when Disney took over the Star Wars universe. It also features a different backstory for Boba Fett than that seen in the prequel trilogy, as the book came out in 1998 (Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace was released in theaters in 1999). We also get a very different view of the fabled Mandalorians than we see in later stories after author Karen Traviss turned them into her personal fetish. This story does tie into another standalone book, Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry, as the main villain is Prince Xixor, leader of the Black Sun criminal faction and rival to Darth Vader for Emperor Palpatine's attention. Here, we also get to see what happens to Boba Fett after he escapes being digested by the mighty Sarlaac. In the old canon, Fett escaped the Sarlaac Pit and destroys the creature/plant/fungus/whatever, though different canons show slighly different stories. I have an old Star Wars comic that shows him meeting up with Han Solo after being thrown up by the Sarlaac.

Star Trek: The Original Series #36 - How Much for Just the Planet? by John M. Ford

Werewife recommended this to me last week. I have owned it for a many, many years, but have not reread it for decades, so I had no remembrance of what it was about. It's a very silly book. It's a combination of satire, parody, musical, and farce. Also, there's a pie fight between humans and Klingons. Out of all of the Star Trek novels I've read, it does not take itself seriously at all, but it doesn't disrespect the source material, either. All of the characters from the Enterprise act as you would expect them to, even though they find themselves in increasingly absurd situations. Just a fun, goofy book.

The Face by Dean Koontz

This is the second recommendation from werewife from last week. The library in which I work, but do not work for, had it available for checkout, so why not? This is about a Hollywood celebrity who is receiving increasingly disturbing "messages" from a mysterious stalker who clearly means to do the celebrity harm. The celebrity's chief of security is a former LAPD detective and uses his knowledge, skills, and former connections to track down the perp.

Forgotten Realms - The Harpers Book 11 - Curse of the Shadowmage by Mark Anthony

This is a sequel to a previous book in the series, Crypt of the Shadowking. It's part of the open-ended series of novels featuring the Harpers, the do-gooders of the Realms to like to poke their noses into other peoples' business. In this case, a couple of renegade Harpers are seeking the hero from the previous book who may have gone over to the dark side...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 05-19-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. This week's recommendations are brought to you by the letters "w," "X,", and "h," and by the numbers "5," and "4."

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Didn't read nothing last week.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 08:59 AM (0eaVi)

2 1

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 26, 2024 08:59 AM (ENQN6)

3 neither me

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 26, 2024 09:00 AM (ENQN6)

4 First read!

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:00 AM (/y8xj)

5 Those pants would be appropriate for the gardening thread.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

6 Or not. Morning, book nerds

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:01 AM (/y8xj)

7 Whew! For a moment there, I thought I'd broke the blog...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 26, 2024 09:02 AM (BpYfr)

8 John Van Stry's third book in the Wolfhounds series is out and it's a doozy. So much I can't say or I'd spoil important details, but if you've been following along with the Wolfhounds as they attempt to fight back against the usurper in control, and put a valid Emperor back in control of the Empire (as they're sworn to do,) then you're going to hit a moment where you realize you breathed in and have been holding it for about 30 seconds, along with your eyes being as wide as saucers.

This book is just so dang good, and waiting for the fourth is going to be tough, but thankfully John writes quickly and he's already said he's going to get the fourth out before the end of this year. Given his track record, I have no doubts that'll be the case.

The Title is: "Force Majeure: Wolfhounds - Book Three"
The ASIN is: B0CZVZ281F

As of today, it's reached a #1 best seller in "Space Marine Science Fiction" on Amazon USA, and is a #1 best seller in "Galactic Empire Science Fiction" on Amazon Canada. It completely deserves those rankings.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at May 26, 2024 09:02 AM (O7YUW)

9 @7/Perfessor: Yeah, it wasn't resolving for me at the top of the hour on a couple of machines. Glad it's okay now.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at May 26, 2024 09:03 AM (O7YUW)

10 Tolle Lege
Should be finishing Arkady Vaksberg The Prosecutor and the Prey Vyshilinsky and the 1930s Moscow Show Trials within the hour.
Learning quite a bit how many were destroyed in the 30s and again in the late 40s for no reason than paranoia it seems. Anyone could be caught, tortured and admitting crimes or conspiracy that never happened.

Posted by: Skip at May 26, 2024 09:04 AM (fwDg9)

11 Out of all of the Star Trek novels I've read, it does not take itself seriously at all, but it doesn't disrespect the source material, either....
===

How dare they not take Star Trek seriously?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 26, 2024 09:04 AM (RIvkX)

12 Next up a book that picked up as well at used book store D-Day by Tute,Costello, Hughes. Many pictures and maps is why I grabbed it as the D-Day invasion is one of my favorite battles.

Posted by: Skip at May 26, 2024 09:07 AM (fwDg9)

13 Morning Hordemates.
If any of you see me in pants like those you have my permission to shoot me.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 26, 2024 09:07 AM (L14eD)

14 Artist/writers who come to mind are all from kids' books:

Eric Carle
Maurice Sendak
Bill Martin Jr.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 09:08 AM (p/isN)

15 Shel Silverstein, for example, provided all of the drawings within his children's poetry books.

He also, IIRC, wrote the lyrics for all of the songs on the first two Dr Hook and the Medicine Show albums, including the classic "Cover of the Rolling Stone."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:08 AM (Q0kLU)

16 I'm going through the first "Pogo" collection, "Through the Wild Blue Yonder," and laughing out loud at times. When I tire of cartoons, I'm enjoying the third Perry Mason novel, "The Case of the Lucky Legs."

But that's at home.

I've been lucky enough to have had a lax week at work, which has allowed me to go through chunks of my favorite comic panel, "Our Boarding House With Major Hoople." Blessed be the guy who put it and other old comic strips online. (Sorry, I don't remember the name of the website.)

I'm going through panels from 1936, the year my father was born. I wish he were still alive so I could repeat the funny bits to him.

Some of OBH's appeal to me comes from what to us are anachronisms: The kitchen has an icebox, and Hoople claims to have fought in the Boer War. (In the 1960s, he had been a member of Eisenhower's staff.)

More amusement come from certain terms used by the boarders -- a "jury bender" is a lawyer, and "African golf" is craps.

(continued)

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 09:09 AM (p/isN)

17 MPPP how did your hearing go?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 26, 2024 09:10 AM (RIvkX)

18 (from 16)

On top of that, some of the Major's concepts for inventions have become reality. Another example, although from the accompanying Sunday topper strip "The Nutt Brothers": a bus made of rubber so it can go around corners. And look at what we have now.

Gene Ahern, the artist and writer, should have obtained patents on some of these ideas. He might not have been forgotten today.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 09:10 AM (p/isN)

19 Conan and the Spider God

https://youtu.be/NGI91NkiPyA?si=SN1FAN2_3rf9dW6a

Conan of Cimmeria has infiltrated the monstrous temple cult. My audible Conan backlog is going to take a while to get through. Ron E Howard isn't the only author of the franchise.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at May 26, 2024 09:12 AM (lhenN)

20 Shel Silverstein also wrote "A Boy Named Sue."

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 26, 2024 09:13 AM (FEVMW)

21 Book-ish question/request - been doing genealogy reading and research lately. Found a resource online - it is a dissertation that someone wrote in 1995. I can see an excerpt but can't access the whole thing. It is available through proquest, but you need to be a subscriber to access and apparently subscribers are typically academic university libraries. I am not a university library at the moment. Does anyone have access and is willing to help? Feel free to email me to avoid cluttering the Professor's Book Thread. Thx.

Posted by: TRex at May 26, 2024 09:13 AM (IQ6Gq)

22 Morning, all.

So, my legal problem has been resolved, and my lawyer was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. I'm glad to have that monkey finally off my back.

I went to a used book store yesterday and picked up a few things: three original Tom Swift, Jr adventures (I loved those as a boy), The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, a disappointing pastiche of stories, since they all take place during the 'lost years' after Holmes' death at Reichebach Falls, so of course, they can only be told "to" Watson, and he isn't in any of them.

I also got Don't Ask Me What I Shot a book about how Ike's love of golf helped shape 1950s America (that one looks like fun). And finally, a lovely yet depressing book, Hollywood Behind the Lens. It's a collection of archival photos showing sets, backlots and ephemera of Old Hollywood, but everything is now gone, which makes it - for me - a horribly depressing book.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:14 AM (Q0kLU)

23 Ron E Howard isn't the only author of the franchise.

If Ronny Howard ever gets t'holt of Conan, the fabric of space and time will be rent.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at May 26, 2024 09:14 AM (zdLoL)

24 There are several science fiction works that are known as classics. Most of these were written six or more decades ago, and have stood the test of time. However, there is a more recent novel that in my opinion belongs among the ranks: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Ender Wiggins is a boy who was not destined to go to battle school, where children are taught via games to prepare for battle in the war against the Formics, an insect race that threatens earth. However, the word gets out that Ender fought a bully and killed him. Colonel Graff from battle school visits Ender, and offers him a spot. Throughout his schooling and war simulation, Ender displays a unique skill set of breaking rules to win each module, and becomes the star student. The story is engaging, and is well written. It is appropriate for young adults, yet is readable for all adults. The novel won the Hugo and Nebula awards, and is on the recommended reading list for the US Marine Corps. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:16 AM (D21fT)

25 "Nuclear War: A Scenario" by Annie Jacobsen (2024) brings us up to date on the status and capabilities of the strategic forces and C3 infrastructure of the US, USSR, and DPRK. Most of the book is a minute-to-minute timeline of a hypothetical all-out nuclear war scenario. I didn't find any errors of fact, but I have two quibbles. First, there's far too much hand-wringing about how awful it all is. Well, duh! Second, she uses sentence fragments as modifying clauses to their preceding sentences. She does it at least a hundred times, and it grates on this grammar pedant. Example: "US Stratcom HQ gets hit first. By an onslaught of SLBMs launched off the East Coast." Why her editor let her do that, I can't guess. Anyway, I read it all, with sustained interest. (Then my cat Tom barfed on it. No joke.)

Posted by: gp Abides at May 26, 2024 09:16 AM (MvF+J)

26 Beatrix Potter.
Love Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.

Thank you for the book thread Perfessor. It is always an enjoyable read.

Posted by: Appycay at May 26, 2024 09:17 AM (EdYR/)

27 So, my legal problem has been resolved, and my lawyer was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. I'm glad to have that monkey finally off my back.
===

Glad you can close that chapter and turn the page.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 26, 2024 09:17 AM (RIvkX)

28 Our Boarding House! I loved that strip. One of my hobbies is collecting compilations of old strips, and a few of my books have long excerpts from that. It gets confused by people with the similar Moon Mullins who also had a fat blowhard, Lord Plushbottom.

I have never cared for Krazy Kat, but George Herriman had two other strips I love - Baron Bean, which has come out in a complete collection, and Stumble Inn, which has never been collected.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:17 AM (Q0kLU)

29 Picked up the new Stephen King collection, YOU LIKE IT DARKER. Uneven, imho, like most of his collections but there's some pretty good stuff in it and since he's working at short length here there's no room for him to go off into multi-page political rants. I think by now he's incapable of leaving them out completely, but they're kept to a minimum here. If you like King's shorter work, it's worth a look.

Ebook edition recommended -- the one-star Amazon reviews are almost all due to pages falling out, so somebody seems to have screwed up in the print edition binding.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 09:18 AM (q3u5l)

30 Morning Horde.
Started Vacation Friday. 9 days of no work. Perfect timing to avoid the OSHA people crawling up my companies ass with a microscope for the next week.
Going to California where I intend to finish Walls of Men, The End of America, Long live Death, The Black Prince, A Distant Morror and Disease and History. And watch a few sunsets.
I so need this. I could live without the mother in law screaming at MSNBC all day though.
Coming back Wednesday night so I can explore an option on a new job. I'm pretty unhappy where I am and I think manufacturing AR15's instead of truck parts might be in my future. Pay is the only obstacle. Gotta bring home those Benjamins.

Off to content.

Posted by: Reforger at May 26, 2024 09:18 AM (B705c)

31 (Then my cat Tom barfed on it. No joke.)
Posted by: gp Abides at May 26, 2024 09:16 AM (MvF+J)
---
Cats...

One mine tore out a page from one of my favorite books. Also shredded a few covers...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 26, 2024 09:18 AM (BpYfr)

32 Ebook edition recommended -- the one-star Amazon reviews are almost all due to pages falling out, so somebody seems to have screwed up in the print edition binding.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 09:18 AM (q3u5l)
---
"print on demand" is pretty neat, but yes, I've noticed that the binding quality tends to suffer....

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 26, 2024 09:19 AM (BpYfr)

33 G'morn, y'all.

Got distracted reading about Isaac Asimov, on a page to which Pixy linked this morning.

http://www.asimovonline.com/
asimov_FAQ.html

(Sorry, can't shortlink from this unit.)

Read a lot of Asimov in my yout'. Not for many decades since. I remember reading that his writing work habits were pretty much put on a tie and hit the typewriter from 9 to 5. Prolific, to put it mildly.

Posted by: mindful webworker - i reboot at May 26, 2024 09:19 AM (0QQo8)

34 This week's recommendations are brought to you by the letters "w," "X,", and "h," and by the numbers "5," and "4."

I can't believe I got that joke. I spend too much time around here.

Posted by: pookysgirl has made the Wall O' Shame more than once at May 26, 2024 09:20 AM (dtlDP)

35 >>What other authors out there have blended their creative talents into their novels and short stories?

Just got "The Backyard Bird Chronicles" by Amy Tan from the library, and she does beautiful bird drawings.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 26, 2024 09:20 AM (cCVOS)

36 Not a big reading week for me, either. On the road three days, and I don't listen to audiobooks while driving.

After reading the Dyson bio I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I did take another look at _The Starship and the Canoe_ to see if the author was as insufferable as I remembered. He was.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 26, 2024 09:21 AM (mPusp)

37 @25 Second, she uses sentence fragments as modifying clauses to their preceding sentences.

I'm in sympathy. Written grammar that apes spoken-word patterns is part and parcel of "New Journalism" rap, and despite Tom Wolfe being a sharp thinker and a fascinating writer, he's at least partly to blame. Reducing background narrative to the stuff of "you know, man" and "so there was this guy, see" seemed so bright and breezy, in the mid-60's. I'm not sure we'll ever outgrow it.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at May 26, 2024 09:22 AM (zdLoL)

38 Good morning fellow book threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 09:24 AM (zudum)

39 I read The Indoctrinated Brain: How to Successfully Fend Off the Global Attack on Your Mental Freedom by Michael Nehls. Nehls is a German M. D. and a molecular geneticist specializing in immunology. This wasn't an easy book to read for this non-scientist, 78-year old who isn't as sharp as he once was; but I found this book to be fascinating.

Nehls describes in detail how adult human beings can be robbed of their individuality and conditioned by reprogramming their autobiographical memory center located in the hippocampus in each hemisphere of the brain. During deep sleep our brains transfer significant thought and personal experiences collected from these to the neocortex. The hippocampi also generate thousands of new neurons each day. A healthy hippocampus needs proper nutrition, sleep, social life and exercise.

Nehls is careful throughout the book to label his opinions from scientific facts. In his opinion, most of the governmental actions during the Covid-19 pandemic were put in place to do harm to the hippocampi and to reduce its volume. He lays out a chain of circumstantial evidence that these negative influences were a deliberate attack on our individuality.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 26, 2024 09:24 AM (gyCYJ)

40 Guten morgen horden
Glad to be here
Will mostly lurk

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 09:24 AM (3OazS)

41 Currently reading "Battleborn," by Richard Fox (author of the excellent 9 book "Ember War Saga").

In Battleborn, the US is fighting the NorKs again in S. Korea and that war is about to escalate into World War 3. Desperate to create a weapon that cn be used behind enemy lines to vex the Chicoms and Russkies, who are supporting the NorKs, the US decides to weaponize dead soldiers into mindless cyborgs.

It works, but one of the "Dead Men" regains consciousness and slowly begins to remember who he is, with scary but successful results. And, he's haunted while becoming aware by the "Red Man," a bloodthirsty demon?/alternate personality?/memory? that pushes him to be am inhuman monster in combat.

It's very good and I'm really enjoying it.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 26, 2024 09:24 AM (/RHNq)

42 >>However, there is a more recent novel that in my opinion belongs among the ranks: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

Could not agree more!!

Posted by: Lizzy at May 26, 2024 09:25 AM (cCVOS)

43 I recommend the David Suchet audiobook NIV Holy Bible on Audible. He reads the whole thing in about 85 hours. I listen to it at home and in the car, and I'll never stop using it. Excellent value for $20. I think you all know Suchet as a fine talent, both on screen and as a voice actor.

Posted by: gp Abides at May 26, 2024 09:25 AM (MvF+J)

44 @28 --

I collected one OBH sequence as a kid in the '60s. Cut them out and pasted them in one of Dad's old farm magazines. Still have it.

Then when I was in college, the folks cut them out for me. During one of my visits home, I asked for the latest batch, only to be told that the comic had ended!

Spoiler: An Arab ruler who had become enamored of Hoople's solar energy work paid him $5 million and took him and Martha to his country.

I have that panel, too.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 09:26 AM (p/isN)

45 Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:16 AM (D21fT)
===

Also, avoid the movie version.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 26, 2024 09:27 AM (RIvkX)

46 David Suchet is best Poirot.

Posted by: dantesed at May 26, 2024 09:28 AM (Oy/m2)

47 I have read Hodgson's Night Land, and that is just some of the weirdest stuff ever put to paper.

My only real problem with it was one that I don't think Hodgson really could avoid: in the pre-Weird Tales era pretty much any fantastical tale had to have some in-story mechanism for how this narrative of events in other times or worlds came to be retold in Edwardian England or wherever. Hodgson chose the rather overly-elaborate method of an ancient manuscript describing psychic visions of the far future. I think the result creates one unnecessary extra level of distance from the reader, as you're stuck grappling with Hodgson's version of early modern English prose, all while describing concepts alien to both narrator and reader alike.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (mPusp)

48 Speaking of books and Amazon, I just noticed something the other day - they're now using AI to create an 'impression' of all the comments any reader makes and turns it into a sort of informative blurb for the book.

They've done it with two of mine, and, happily, both are pleasant ones, but I did find it slightly unsettling.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (Q0kLU)

49 I'm almost finished with A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare. It is a worthwhile purchase for those interested in the subject. I'm finding it a bit repetitive, but then again I've already read Lorenzo Scupoli's The Spiritual Combat and Diary of an American Exorcist by Stephen Rossetti.

It speaks more to contemporary, practical problems and has some case studies that illustrate how the spiritual and material worlds interact. One element that I think is important to understand is that what a lot of people call "Cultural Marxism" is demonic. Marxism is demonic, so of course its offshoots are evil as well.

This is permeating our entertainment, particularly popular franchises like Star Wars. The latest offering describes itself as not being about light or dark side, but about power. We see increasing celebrations of "freedom" that are really just rejections of any sort of restraint or moral judgement.

Add this in with Belloc's The Great Heresies and you've pretty much mapped the current situation. No need to follow the news, it's all happened before, just with different fashions.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (llXky)

50 34 This week's recommendations are brought to you by the letters "w," "X,", and "h," and by the numbers "5," and "4."

I can't believe I got that joke. I spend too much time around here.

Posted by: pookysgirl has made the Wall O' Shame more than once at May 26, 2024 09:20 AM (dtlDP)
***
Brilliant. I love call-back reference humor.

Posted by: TRex at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (IQ6Gq)

51 I loved the "Book Party" video. It reminded me of a stray thought I had once. It's widely believed that when we die and go to heaven we meet relatives, friends, and pets that have passed on. I started wondering if we could meet our favorite fictional characters as well. And then I realized that as much as I enjoy reading, there aren't that many characters that I would actually like to meet as people.

For example, I think I'd enjoy meeting Miss Marple, but I can't imagine many (if any) readers would enjoy actually meeting Hercule Poirot.

Fun mental game anyway

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (FEVMW)

52 Incontinent cat peed on a stack of my Saint books that had been removed from their shelves for a remodeling of the den. Some of the covers stuck together, and other books never lost their smell. I had to toss them out.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 09:31 AM (p/isN)

53 Many morons have suffered hash-related traumas.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 26, 2024 09:31 AM (RIvkX)

54 Brilliant. I love call-back reference humor.
Posted by: TRex at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (IQ6Gq)

Make's my sunburnt fartclam tingle.

Posted by: Josh Brolin at May 26, 2024 09:32 AM (PiwSw)

55 Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (Q0kLU)

How are your books doing in sales?

Posted by: dantesed at May 26, 2024 09:33 AM (Oy/m2)

56 I'm currently reading the webtoon "Anything For you" by Volette (it's adapted from a webnovel, so it's relevant to this thread), and one character's supposed accent drives me nuts. He's grown up with the main character, resettled in the same town as the main character, and somehow has a very different speech pattern from the main character. I swear, he can't go a single panel without dropping a letter! And the kicker is that this all takes place in the Northeast (or possibly Wisconsin) from what I've been able to deduce. I'm pretty sure American English is the native language of the author, so she can't even blame translation for this.

Posted by: pookysgirl, discovering yet another author crime at May 26, 2024 09:33 AM (dtlDP)

57 I'm in sympathy. Written grammar that apes spoken-word patterns is part and parcel of "New Journalism" rap, and despite Tom Wolfe being a sharp thinker and a fascinating writer, he's at least partly to blame. Reducing background narrative to the stuff of "you know, man" and "so there was this guy, see" seemed so bright and breezy, in the mid-60's. I'm not sure we'll ever outgrow it.
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at May 26, 2024 09:22 AM (zdLoL)
---
One of the things I enjoy about old movies is how they turn a phrase. They don't just make a suggestion, they follow it up with "That would be alright, wouldn't it?"

People used to work harder on casual conversation. Now it's all "LOL OMG" crap, which people utter aloud for some strange reason.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:33 AM (llXky)

58 Incontinent cat peed on a stack of my Saint books that had been removed from their shelves for a remodeling of the den. Some of the covers stuck together, and other books never lost their smell. I had to toss them out.
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 09:31 AM (p/isN)
===

Ha! Not aksident.

Posted by: Week Geek's Cat at May 26, 2024 09:33 AM (RIvkX)

59 How dare they not take Star Trek seriously?

Right? Some of my favorite episodes of TOS were the comedic ones. In particular, "The Trouble With Tribbles" and "A Piece of the Action."

Q: What happened to the Borg after they made Jean Luc into Locutus?
A: They were voice on their own Picard.

(Joke from an old friend lost to covid. RIP Mike.)

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:34 AM (/y8xj)

60 Top pic. No shoes, no barefoot footprints in the sand. Cognitive dissonance alert.

Posted by: From about That Time at May 26, 2024 09:35 AM (4780s)

61 Thanks for the dandy Book Thread, Perfessor!

I'm reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Somehow missed having to read this book in school. I am enjoying it, and having some knowledge of early 1800s England helps immensely with understanding the culture and the discourse of the time. Pretty sure I would not have appreciated it had I read it in school.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at May 26, 2024 09:36 AM (U3L4U)

62
Speaking of books and Amazon, I just noticed something the other day - they're now using AI to create an 'impression' of all the comments any reader makes and turns it into a sort of informative blurb for the book.

They've done it with two of mine, and, happily, both are pleasant ones, but I did find it slightly unsettling.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM

I've read a number of the AI generated 'impressions' and I find that they appear to be overly positive. Case in point I was looking at a battery powered lawnmower. A major flaw that nearly everyone mentioned is the rear wheel drive. The AI made no mention of this. A factor which is leading me to dismiss this mower as not practical.

But that's Amazon. I've written reviews before and they won't publish them.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at May 26, 2024 09:36 AM (RKVpM)

63 Ha! Not aksident.
Posted by: Week Geek's Cat at May 26, 2024 09:33 AM (RIvkX)

*pawbump*

Posted by: Tom, hooman iz gp at May 26, 2024 09:36 AM (PiwSw)

64 60 Top pic. No shoes, no barefoot footprints in the sand. Cognitive dissonance alert.
Posted by: From about That Time at May 26, 2024 09:35 AM (4780s)

Jesus carried him over the hot sand. Its a five dollar charge.

Posted by: rhennigantx at May 26, 2024 09:37 AM (ENQN6)

65 Once upon a time one of our cats took offense at something I did (never could figure out what) and liberally doused a full shelf of hardcovers. Book club stuff fortunately and easily replaced. Had to toss 'em of course. The nifty Mrs Some Guy didn't want to go along with tossing the cat along with the books, though.

Yeah. Cats.

(Of the incident of the pillow after a change in the brand of cat litter, I will not speak...)

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 09:38 AM (q3u5l)

66 How are your books doing in sales?
Posted by: dantesed at May 26, 2024 09:33 AM (Oy/m2)

I don't really know. I don't write for a living, so I don't check in as to how they're doing. I really need to be more forward in PR and marketing, but I also need to completely revamp my website for that, and I would rather finish the novel I'm working on first.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:38 AM (Q0kLU)

67 I also read Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst. This is the sixth volume in The Night Soldiers series. Nicholas Morath is a former Hungarian calvary officer who owns a small advertising agency in Paris. He is recruited by his uncle, Count Polanyi, who runs a spy network for the Hungarian legation there. The web Polanyi spins for Morath pits him against German intelligence officers, NKVD renegades, and Croat assassins. As always, a well-written thriller.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 26, 2024 09:38 AM (gyCYJ)

68

People used to work harder on casual conversation. Now it's all "LOL OMG" crap, which people utter aloud for some strange reason.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

I would hazard a guess that the modern vocabulary is about half of what it was 40 or 50 years ago.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:39 AM (D21fT)

69 Right? Some of my favorite episodes of TOS were the comedic ones.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:34 AM (/y8xj)
---
The other day I realized that Star Wars is now Star Trek. It jumps back and forth chronologically, has endless spin-offs and debates about what is "canon" and there is no longer any cohesive or even discernable narrative, it's just a bunch of increasingly detached products bearing the same brand name.

Even the tech continuity is all over the place.

Both franchises are dead to me in a contemporary sense. I'm only interested in the original work because it was simply better.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:39 AM (llXky)

70 Writers who are artists. C.R. Wiley, who wrote "In the House of Tom Bombadil" (VERY highly recommended) did the cover drawing. I can find only one other example of his drawing. I hope he does more. He is an excellent artist with a pencil.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 09:40 AM (zudum)

71 Naughty cartoon from the '50s has a woman wearing high heels on the beach. They stay on top of the sand.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 09:41 AM (p/isN)

72 I would hazard a guess that the modern vocabulary is about half of what it was 40 or 50 years ago.

And we're reverting to pictograms, particularly for communication emotions.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:41 AM (/y8xj)

73 I would hazard a guess that the modern vocabulary is about half of what it was 40 or 50 years ago.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:39 AM (D21fT)

This is one of many good reasons to read older books.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 09:41 AM (OX9vb)

74 I would hazard a guess that the modern vocabulary is about half of what it was 40 or 50 years ago.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:39 AM (D21fT)
---
Perhaps. Certainly of words with any historical origin. However a lot of new words are being created related to memes and chat-abbreviations. My kids are of course the exception, and share stories with how they use words that other people don't understand and how awkward it is for them to explain it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:41 AM (llXky)

75 Speaking of comic strips, there is a web site with glorious hi-res scans of every "Little Nemo In Slumberland" strip. I printed a couple out at original Sunday comics size and they look great. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 09:42 AM (vFG9F)

76 Out of all of the Star Trek novels I've read, it does not take itself seriously at all, but it doesn't disrespect the source material, either. All of the characters from the Enterprise act as you would expect them to, even though they find themselves in increasingly absurd situations.

That seems to be the missing element to a lot of modern adaptations: characters acting like themselves. Too many modern authors just give old characters entirely new personalities, and then get mad when fans don't accept new works. As the Perfessor implied, fans are fine with old characters getting thrown into new (and wildly different) situations, as long as the characters stay true to themselves....

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 09:42 AM (05/FI)

77 s/communication/communicating/ Normally I wouldn't bother correcting a typo but this is the literate thread after all.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:42 AM (/y8xj)

78 Top pic. No shoes, no barefoot footprints in the sand. Cognitive dissonance alert.
Posted by: From about That Time at May 26, 2024 09:35 AM (4780s)
---
Shoe footprints in the foreground are from the camera guy who is setting up the shot. The model walked around the far side, directed by camera guy so he could keep it framed properly.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:44 AM (llXky)

79 I would hazard a guess that the modern vocabulary is about half of what it was 40 or 50 years ago.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:39 AM (D21fT)

What's that crazy statistic about kids being spoken to at home having a 10,000-word vocabulary by age 5 and kids that aren't have 1,000-word vocabulary? Something like that.

We're book addicts and are raising our kid(s) to be too, so I can't even imagine not growing up without being read to or spoken to.

Posted by: pookysgirl has learned to do all sorts of voices at May 26, 2024 09:44 AM (dtlDP)

80 Much of my reading this week was about botanical drawing, everything from quick pencil sketches to realistic form and color. It's a steep learning curve for me but when I finally get the curve of a leaf or the shape of a delicate flower it is very satisfying.

That leads to my next comment which will follow shortly.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 09:44 AM (zudum)

81 hiya

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 09:45 AM (T4tVD)

82 This is one of many good reasons to read older books.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs!

I agree. My kids read as much as I do, and often older works. Teachers and other adults have often commented on their large vocabulary.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:45 AM (D21fT)

83 Brilliant. I love call-back reference humor.
Posted by: TRex at May 26, 2024 09:29 AM (IQ6Gq)

Make's my sunburnt fartclam tingle.

I am ambivalent at best.

Posted by: Honey Badger at May 26, 2024 09:45 AM (CsUN+)

84 Who's the guy in the top pic ?

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 09:46 AM (T4tVD)

85
This week's recommendations are brought to you by the letters "w," "X,", and "h," and by the numbers "5," and "4."

Oh, the infamous (wX5h4) hash. Took me a minute. I was thinking width X height.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at May 26, 2024 09:47 AM (RKVpM)

86 In fact, many editions of The Hobbit feature Tolkien's art on the cover.

The Rankin-Bass Hobbit television movie is justly criticized for its jumpy writing and/or editing and for its very odd choice of accents. But I never get tired of watching it, mainly because the art style used for both the background and the foreground (which is rarer in cartoons of the era, which often had wonderful background and very cartoony foreground, due to the work involved) mimics Tolkien’s Middle-Earth art.

It’s a real joy to watch, and I am always struck with a real sense of both wonder and uplift when Bilbo climbs the trees in Mirkwood to find that the evil, as dangerous as it is, remains only skin deep.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 26, 2024 09:47 AM (olroh)

87 Both franchises are dead to me in a contemporary sense. I'm only interested in the original work because it was simply better.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:39 AM (llXky)

My favorite line is still when Gandalf splits his fingers and says, "May the Force be with you, Harry."

Posted by: pookysgirl, ducking and running at May 26, 2024 09:47 AM (dtlDP)

88 That seems to be the missing element to a lot of modern adaptations: characters acting like themselves. Too many modern authors just give old characters entirely new personalities, and then get mad when fans don't accept new works. As the Perfessor implied, fans are fine with old characters getting thrown into new (and wildly different) situations, as long as the characters stay true to themselves....
Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 09:42 AM (05/FI)
---
Yes. Part of the enjoyment of the old stuff was that you knew the character well enough that you could anticipate how they react and derived pleasure when your guess was correct.

The actors could also get into the role, and make ad-libs that rang true. Add in the fact that they were usual actual sets (which the actors could interact with in subtle ways) and you had superior drama.

I blame George R.R. Martin for the Cult of Subverting Expectations, which destroyed the natural progression and predictability of character actions.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:48 AM (llXky)

89 I think I need to scrap this keyboard cover that came with the laptop case. It's nice for keeping the dog hair out of the cracks around the keys but it makes the keys less sensitive and leads to a lot of typing errors.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:49 AM (/y8xj)

90 Dr. Seuss goes to war:

https://tinyurl.com/5n9xcetp

Posted by: Braenyard at May 26, 2024 09:49 AM (E78bp)

91 I just finished Codex Alera by Jim Butcher, who is better known for his Harry Dresden series. It is a fun series, 6 books each not so long. He wrote it as a challenge to incorporate the Roman Empire, oh and also Pokémon.

Posted by: EyeofSauron at May 26, 2024 09:50 AM (u0bih)

92 Shoe footprints in the foreground are from the camera guy who is setting up the shot.

A truly dedicated photographer would have waited for the tide to come in and go back out so he could get the shot without footprints.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:52 AM (/y8xj)

93 I downloaded Kurt Schlichter's "The Attack" this morning before dropping into the book thread. Others have mentioned it, and I need something that isn't too "academic" to restart my reading habit. I started the year strong with several books, but moving and all the associated work derailed me. Need to crack open the Bible again outside of church. I was ahead of schedule on my reading plan; now I'm way behind.

Posted by: PabloD at May 26, 2024 09:52 AM (DmTBw)

94 The opening photo has the beginnings of my perfect vacation. Add in a suitably sized cooler filled with appropriate adult beverages for my wife and I, an umbrella and, of course enough reading material for the time allotted and ,I'm good. Replenishment of the adult beverages as required. Paradise ! Hey, sue me, I have simple pleasures.

Posted by: Edward at May 26, 2024 09:53 AM (93DJn)

95 I think this week I'll likely be buying a new Nook from Barnes and Noble. My old Nook (emphasis on 'old') is about to be unsupported, so I figure I may as well get the current version. I do most of my ebook buying on my Kindle, but still use the Nook for ebooks that I get third-party (usually from Humble Bundle). And, who know, if Amazon ever ticks me off too much, I may get back to e-buying from B&N...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 09:53 AM (05/FI)

96 My favorite line is still when Gandalf splits his fingers and says, "May the Force be with you, Harry."
Posted by: pookysgirl, ducking and running at May 26, 2024 09:47 AM (dtlDP)
---
The fact that all the IPs are being consolidated by monolithic corporations whose business model is "we're all you got, so what cares of it sucks?"

And to this end, they actually suppress the earlier, better films. The experience of dealing with estates made my wife and I very unwilling to buy stuff, but were are now piling up books and DVDs before they get retconned into oblivion.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:53 AM (llXky)

97 Dr. Seuss goes to war:

I have that book. There's discussion about how 'racist' Seuss was when it came to his depicting Japanese (the infamous 'Waiting for the signal from home" panel), but at least the author doesn't harp too much on it or demand Seuss be wiped out of history because of it.

https://tinyurl.com/mvxkp2wp

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:55 AM (Q0kLU)

98 Looking at the picture at the top of the post, I can't help but chuckle. I live in the mountains, so won't be reading on the beach anytime soon. Indeed, in my neck of the mountains, it tried to snow on me this past week. (It snowed on the mountains outside of town, in the valley we just got rain.) So until it warms up again, I probably won't even be reading outside.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 09:55 AM (05/FI)

99 A truly dedicated photographer would have waited for the tide to come in and go back out so he could get the shot without footprints.
Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 09:52 AM (/y8xj)
---
A less dedicated one would have at least used a rake or something to break up the obvious pattern.

Photo guy for Shutterstock phoning it in while maxing out his expenses at the hotel bar.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:55 AM (llXky)

100 I wanted a break from heavy reading, so I got some brain candy called "Murder Machine," a true-crime book about the DeMeo outfit in Brooklyn.

Don't read it. The authors' key source told blatant, easily disprovable lies about his military service. So blatant that I personally checked because they were too incredible to *not* be checked.

It's possible that they were the most credulous people on earth and did absolutely no research whatsoever to verify anything they were being told by a career criminal and stoolpigeon.

But I suspect they knew it was bullshit, and liked the copy it made.

Either way, the book is useless. Even as brain candy. Do not buy.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 26, 2024 09:55 AM (0FoWg)

101 I read "Borrowed Time" this week, by John Nolte. Must have been recommended here. Nolte is a writer at Breitbart.

I started it a few weeks ago, and lost interest quickly. Bedtime reading, so I was probably tired. I picked it up again this week to either read it or return it, and it captured me this time.

It's a pretty good story of an immortal man. Through the ages, he has made it a point not to have long-term relationships, for the obvious reasons. One woman changes his mind, and after she grows old and dies, leaving a disabled grandson, all hell breaks loose.

Several instances of things that got past the editor--at least three instances of the wrong homophone. For example, disbursed was used instead of dispersed.

There's no real explanation of why he was immortal, and no one else was. Was he a freak of nature? Are there others? Does this unanswered question prepare the way for another book?

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 09:56 AM (OX9vb)

102 I don't think the Pants Guy owns a Weedwhacker.

(if you catch my drift....)

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 09:56 AM (T4tVD)

103 I tend to get James Clavell mixed up with James Michener.

-
Michener was a graduate of my alma mater and once gave a commencement speech. He said that if you reach the age of 50 and you're not crazy or in prison, you're a success. I'm not in prison so I figure I'm a half success.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 09:56 AM (L/fGl)

104 And it's a lovely sunny day, and for once I am in a happy mood (which, of course, will not last). I think I will get in the car, crank up some music and go for a ride.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:56 AM (Q0kLU)

105 Dr. Seuss goes to war:

https://tinyurl.com/5n9xcetp
Posted by: Braenyard at May 26, 2024 09:49 AM (E78bp)

Tojo complete with pig snout.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 26, 2024 09:57 AM (SqeHx)

106 And to this end, they actually suppress the earlier, better films. The experience of dealing with estates made my wife and I very unwilling to buy stuff, but were are now piling up books and DVDs before they get retconned into oblivion.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

Yes, I have a house full of books and DVDs. They will get passed down along with the china.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 09:58 AM (D21fT)

107 I have that book. There's discussion about how 'racist' Seuss was when it came to his depicting Japanese (the infamous 'Waiting for the signal from home" panel), but at least the author doesn't harp too much on it or demand Seuss be wiped out of history because of it.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:55 AM (Q0kLU)
---
The exact same people who wring their hands about that will buy into the most ham-handed caricature of their current political enemies.

Same old same old.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 09:58 AM (llXky)

108 Michener was a graduate of my alma mater and once gave a commencement speech. He said that if you reach the age of 50 and you're not crazy or in prison, you're a success. I'm not in prison so I figure I'm a half success.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 09:56 AM (L/fGl)
---
I only have a few months left...Hmmm...How meet both criteria before then...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 26, 2024 09:58 AM (BpYfr)

109 Sort of continued from comment 80.

The botanical drawing how-to books led me to "Botanical Shakespeare: An Illustrated Compendium". It references most of the botanical mentions in his writing which is interesting enough. The illustrations, which are excellent watercolors, are by Sumie Hasegawa-Collins. Some of the references used are a bit questionable but most are not. It was interesting how much of plants and nature Shakespeare knew well and how much the average theater goer was assumed to know. Certainly more than modern audiences do. But then Shakespeare wasn't writing for the ages, even though that is what happened, but for his contemporaries.

The downside is it reminded me of the many Shakespeare plays I haven't read in decades. When was the last time I read "Two Noble Kinsmen" or "Coriolanus"? Now I've dug out my ancient, battle-scarred hardcover "Riverside Shakespeare" in case I want to read some of less familiar plays. Well, I needed the workout anyway and considering the size of the book I'll get it.

It was startling to realize how long I've neglected Shakespeare's writing. Except for the Sonnets, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and a few others it's been a while.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 09:59 AM (zudum)

110 I just completed reading Prof. Gad Saad's "The Parasitic Mind." While Morons will be familiar with much of what the wokeapaths preach, the book's details and Saad's suggestions for counter methods and actions need to be repeated over and over.

At the same time, I continued reading Thomas Sowell's recent bio, "A Personal Odyssey." It's a very simple read, showing how there once was a country where, despite the assumed odds, a person in a shunned minority could excel and succeed.

Now, a few days ago, we saw mention here at AOSHQ of LA County having to move "Jane Fonda Day" (I kid you not!) to another date because the original day chosen was the anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

I'm telling you this to relate to what I read this morning in Sowell's book. Keep in mind that Sowell is referring to the very early 1960's, more that 60 years ago:

Shortly before I was to go off to teach at Douglas College, another economist at the Labor Department came by my place for the last of our weekly chess matches. This evening he decided to stay to watch the television program "Open End," which was one of my favorites.

(cont)

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 26, 2024 10:00 AM (5eP0x)

111 YD @ 100 - your post made me think about a quote I heard recently: "There were 450 active duty Navy SEALs who served in Vietnam, and I've spoken with all 20,000 of them online." It drives me crazy when I'm reading a book - especially something about the military - and the author says something that even a dumbass civilian like myself knows is complete horse crap.

Posted by: PabloD at May 26, 2024 10:00 AM (DmTBw)

112 (cont)

It was a round-table discussion, hosted by David Susskind and featuring a different group and a different each week. This week's discussion featured a group of young college women.

As we listened, I was appaled by their ignorance, shallowness, and dogmatic self-righteousness. My friend enjoyed a good laugh at my obvious consternation.

"This is what you are going of to teach," he said.

One of these young women, whose name meant nothing to me at the time, was Jane Fonda.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 26, 2024 10:00 AM (5eP0x)

113 I've been lucky enough to have had a lax week at work, which has allowed me to go through chunks of my favorite comic panel, "Our Boarding House With Major Hoople." Blessed be the guy who put it and other old comic strips online. (Sorry, I don't remember the name of the website.)

Don't think I've ever heard of that one. Just like I had never heard of the 'Maze Agency' comic book that was mentioned a few months back...

Just goes to show how much old stuff there is out there. And just how eclectic this site's collective tastes are..

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 10:01 AM (05/FI)

114 Tojo complete with pig snout.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 26, 2024 09:57 AM (SqeHx)
---
How dare he draw caricatures of our national enemies??!

Now look at this hilarious photoshop of Drumpf!

Posted by: All liberal college faculty at May 26, 2024 10:01 AM (llXky)

115 In another example of how “The past is another country, but the Seventies is another planet”, I read John Gribbin’s Time-Warps last week. I had been very impressed by his Birth of Time (and may have posted about it here) so when I saw a couple of his books at some San Diego library sales over February, I barely glanced through them before buying them.

Well, Time-Warps is pure 70s. It takes precognitive dreams as a given—explicitly—and argues they are literal time warps. It begins with relativity and a touch of quantum mechanics, and ends on humans somehow being able to shift in space, in time, and across timelines, because space and time are one and Eastern philosophies show that we have the capacity to perceive in this realm.

The Gribbin who could write “I’m not concerned here with whether ESP, and especially precognitive dreams or visions, occurs—that case I take as proven” is a far cry from the later Gribbin who would write “But it is the job of theorists to come up with models that match the observations, not the job of observers to bend their data to match the models”.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 26, 2024 10:01 AM (olroh)

116 So WHO'S the guy in the top pic ?

Just Random J. Black Guy ?

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 10:03 AM (T4tVD)

117 @100 --

I've had "The Murder Machine" for years but never have read it clear through.

I used to subscribe to Jerry Capeci's website until money got tight.

Now I may put it in the trade-in box.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 10:04 AM (p/isN)

118 >>>David Suchet is best Poirot.
Posted by: dantesed at May 26, 2024 09:28 AM (Oy/m2)
*********
Absolutely. Suchet defined the character of Poirot just as Jeremy Brett did with Holmes.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 26, 2024 10:05 AM (gjCKZ)

119 That video of when books throw a party is freaking hilarious. It was clever and really funny. I should look for other videos by those guys. Thanks for including it and to blue bell for sending it in.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 10:05 AM (zudum)

120 So WHO'S the guy in the top pic ?

Just Random J. Black Guy ?

The book is open to the middle so it ain't LeBron.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 10:06 AM (/y8xj)

121 What's that crazy statistic about kids being spoken to at home having a 10,000-word vocabulary by age 5 and kids that aren't have 1,000-word vocabulary? Something like that.

-
Way back in high school, when I studied German, I was told that the average German used only 1500 words on a daily basis. He'll, I use that many curse words.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 10:06 AM (L/fGl)

122 It was a round-table discussion, hosted by David Susskind and featuring a different group and a different each week. This week's discussion featured a group of young college women.

As we listened, I was appalled by their ignorance, shallowness, and dogmatic self-righteousness. My friend enjoyed a good laugh at my obvious consternation.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 26

That sound surprisingly like a modern youtube/podcast I always see clips of. Who knew PBS (I assume) was so ahead-of-its-time...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 10:08 AM (05/FI)

123 YD @ 100 - your post made me think about a quote I heard recently: "There were 450 active duty Navy SEALs who served in Vietnam, and I've spoken with all 20,000 of them online." It drives me crazy when I'm reading a book - especially something about the military - and the author says something that even a dumbass civilian like myself knows is complete horse crap.
Posted by: PabloD at May 26, 2024 10:00 AM (DmTBw)
---
Yeah, and a lot of it comes down to basic stuff and turns of phrase. Anyone remember the Super-Conservative Army Vets who did nothing but whine that Trump has mortally offended them and therefore they would go with BIDEN?

Another area like this is firearms. So much is just hot garbage, based on ignorance or hand-me-down facts that were never true, but keep getting repeated because they made it into print. Years ago, I conducted a major purge of my library, removing reference books that were simply wrong - wrong about tanks, aircraft and especially firearms. I kept a few because they had pretty pictures and I liked to show people how you can be wrong and still get published.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 10:08 AM (llXky)

124 Way back in high school, when I studied German, I was told that the average German used only 1500 words on a daily basis.

But he can recombine them into another 10,000.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 10:08 AM (/y8xj)

125 Writing a long series based on the same character can work. Think of Sherlock Holmes, Matt Helm or Nero Wolfe books and several long running mystery or adventure series. But those work because the stories are so different and present challenges to various aspects of the main character(s). And a long series gives an opportunity to develop the characters in interesting ways.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 10:09 AM (zudum)

126 Way back in high school, when I studied German, I was told that the average German used only 1500 words on a daily basis. He'll, I use that many curse words.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 10:06 AM (L/fGl)
---
German is a remarkably efficient language.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 10:09 AM (llXky)

127 Georges Simenon was pretty restrictive with vocabulary in his novels (think I read that he kept it around 2 or 3 thousand words), avoiding adverbs and adjectives whenever possible.

You will seldom find verbal fat in a Simenon novel, and in what I've read of his work so far I can't recall a single page of look-at-me-ma-I'm-writin'-here. Very lean stuff but very good.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 10:12 AM (q3u5l)

128 German is a remarkably efficient language.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

Gesundheidt !

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 10:12 AM (T4tVD)

129 Blessed be the guy who put it and other old comic strips online.

-
A comic strip I miss is Alley Oop, the time traveling caveman.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 10:12 AM (L/fGl)

130 We can lament how the internet has poisoned society, but one area where it was an unalloyed good was gun videos (the serious ones) where they show historic arms and smash bunches of myths about performance, why changes were made, etc. Even the pronunciation of Garand.

And in the true spirit of free inquiry, people naturally get into arguments about whether this test was done properly, or that video was edited. This was the internet I was promised.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 10:12 AM (llXky)

131 Gesundheidt !
Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 10:12 AM (T4tVD)
---
Schadenfreude. Such a beautiful concept expressed so concisely.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 26, 2024 10:14 AM (llXky)

132 >>>David Suchet is best Poirot.
Posted by: dantesed at May 26, 2024 09:28 AM (Oy/m2)
*********
Absolutely. Suchet defined the character of Poirot just as Jeremy Brett did with Holmes.
Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 26, 2024 10:05 AM (

Who else has played Poirot?

Posted by: Northernlurker at May 26, 2024 10:14 AM (JLq/1)

133 No blah blah blah

Posted by: Dr. Varno at May 26, 2024 10:14 AM (tKSP7)

134 Just saw there is an all black "Trip to Bountiful" film. WTF. Absolutely stupid. Why is there no all-black Star Trek, Star Wars, SNL, ....yet. Strange no other minority group in America has demanded to be "represented" to feel "included" - the all Japanese "Frasier"? The all Chinese ,"Everyone Loves Raymond.". The all Native American "Seinfeld".

Posted by: Son of Dad at May 26, 2024 10:15 AM (8JB5s)

135 Morning, Book Folken! I deem it an honor to be quoted by the esteemed Perfessor.

This week I started John Dickson Carr's 1951 The Devil in Velvet. It's a strange hybrid, esp. for that time: a fantasy/time travel/mystery. The lead character, a British academic in 1925 or so, makes a deal with the Devil to send him back to the period of English history he knows so well, 1675 London. He's to go back with his memories intact, his youth restored, and his health unimpaired. He winds up, as he'd hoped, in the body of a Sir Nicholas Fenton, a noted rake and ladies' man. The mystery: Will his beloved 1675 wife die of poison, and if she does (as I suspect she will, or someone will) -- who is the murderer?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:16 AM (omVj0)

136 "There's no real explanation of why he was immortal, and no one else was. Was he a freak of nature? Are there others? Does this unanswered question prepare the way for another book?
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! "

STOS did that guy. They never went back to see him though, as far as I know.

Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 10:16 AM (vFG9F)

137 the author says something that even a dumbass civilian like myself knows is complete horse crap.
Posted by: PabloD at May 26, 2024 10:00 AM (DmTBw)

Yeah. When someone claims to be a Green Beret who won the Distinguished Service Cross, that ain't hard to follow up... That's a real short list of guys.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 26, 2024 10:17 AM (0FoWg)

138 97 Dr. Seuss goes to war:

I have that book. There's discussion about how 'racist' Seuss was when it came to his depicting Japanese (the infamous 'Waiting for the signal from home" panel), but at least the author doesn't harp too much on it or demand Seuss be wiped out of history because of it.

https://tinyurl.com/mvxkp2wp
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing
--------------------------

Part of real, all out war, is dehumanizing the enemy. For one to aggressively kill the enemy with no remorse requires the turning off of a lifetime's morality.

Posted by: Braenyard at May 26, 2024 10:18 AM (E78bp)

139 Who else has played Poirot?
Posted by: Northernlurker at May 26, 2024

***
We've had Albert Finney, Kenneth Branagh, Peter Ustinov . . . and even Tony Randall!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:18 AM (omVj0)

140 "Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 10:09 AM (zudum)"

Your hash would be a good German word.

Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 10:18 AM (vFG9F)

141 And in the true spirit of free inquiry, people naturally get into arguments about whether this test was done properly, or that video was edited. This was the internet I was promised.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

It is interesting to note that about 20% of the internet is astute knowledge transfer, and 80% is cat videos or tick tock garbage.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 10:18 AM (D21fT)

142 Who else has played Poirot?

Peter Ustinov
Kenneth Branaugh
Albert Finney

Probably others; that's just off the top of my head.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 10:19 AM (/y8xj)

143 Who else has played Poirot?

Peter Ustinov in several 1980s made-for-TV movies, Albert Finney in the first "Murder on the Orient Express," Tony Randall in the truly horrible "Alphabet Murders" from 1965. Probably others.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 26, 2024 10:19 AM (FEVMW)

144 @129 --

I would love to read more "Alley Oop," especially after I read that in the '50s it was a parody of suburban life.

King Guzzle's cussing was extensive, albeit in picture form.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 10:20 AM (p/isN)

145 Ustinov on film as well as branaugh very silly

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 26, 2024 10:20 AM (PXvVL)

146 I really need to be more forward in PR and marketing, but I also need to completely revamp my website for that, and

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at May 26, 2024 09:38 AM (Q0kLU)

I sent you a marketing idea a couple of months ago, MP4. Did you receive it?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 10:21 AM (0eaVi)

147 Gun vids are a lifesaver. I have a few foreign guns whose manuals are only barely in English, and they're beyond helpful.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 26, 2024 10:21 AM (0FoWg)

148 My Y has a gorgeous outdoor pool and lounge chairs and beach umbrellas so I spend a lot of time there. I have a paperback book that I only read there after my swim. This year it is a copy of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Two different people gave me copies of this book think___ I would enjoy it and after putting it off for quite a while decided to try it.
It is the story of The Haggadah "One of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images".
It starts out in current time but as the books history is revealed, flashes back to the beginning of WWII in Bosnia. It is said to be based on a true story.
Only a third of the way in and I am fascinated although some of it seems unbelievable. It posits a warm relationship between Jews, Arabs and Christina's in Sarajevo living side by side without strife. Curious enough to research to see if this is truth or fiction. It is important to the story though.
Will report more as I get more,into it.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 10:21 AM (t/2Uw)

149 Alphabet murders is never well made

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 26, 2024 10:22 AM (PXvVL)

150 Christians.
Sigh
I should reread before I post.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 10:23 AM (t/2Uw)

151 This was the internet I was promised.

In the same vein as that Ayn Rand was more prescient than Orwell or Huxley because she got that envy would be the driving force of modern tyranny, one important thing we didn’t get during the early Internet is that the people who don’t understand free inquiry would actively join in the suppression of sites that encourage it. Rather than just ignoring such sites in favor of their own preferred sites.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 26, 2024 10:23 AM (olroh)

152 Who else has played Poirot?

Peter Ustinov
Kenneth Branaugh
Albert Finney

Not John Wayne ?

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 10:23 AM (T4tVD)

153 Ow, wow. Just checked my email and saw that Humble Bundle has as offer for the entire current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. Plus the The Last Ronin special. According to Razorfist this run is pretty good....Up until about issue 100, when it turns to absolute garbage. I can personally attest that TLR is pretty neat...

They also have a pretty substantial Hellboy comic bundle.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 10:24 AM (05/FI)

154 good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 26, 2024 10:25 AM (JcnCJ)

155 22 ... "I went to a used book store yesterday and picked up a few things: three original Tom Swift, Jr adventures (I loved those as a boy)"

MP4,
I loved those back in early grade school. I can still remember some of the covers. And even though they were hardcovers you could buy one with mowing a few lawns and returning some pop bottles. It was sometimes tough to decide whether to get Tom Swift or Hardy Boys.

I was in high school when I learned there was an earlier Tom Swift series, circa WW I era. I've read a few and they were damn good for young boys stories, he said surprisingly. (Okay, that's my last Tom Swifty for the thread.)

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 10:25 AM (zudum)

156 STOS did that guy. They never went back to see him though, as far as I know.
Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 10:16 AM (vFG9F)

What is STOS? I probably know what you mean, once you explain it, but it's not clear to me at this moment.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 10:25 AM (OX9vb)

157 Never got hooked on TV soaps, but followed comic strip soaps from young age onward. When I went off to collect mother would mail me weekly cuts of Apartment 3G, Winnie Winkle, Red Morgan MD, etc.

Posted by: From about That Time at May 26, 2024 10:26 AM (4780s)

158 "Who else has played Poirot?"

Me! Ha ha ha!

Posted by: Mr. X at May 26, 2024 10:27 AM (vFG9F)

159 STOS. Star Trek Original Series.

Posted by: Mr. X at May 26, 2024 10:27 AM (vFG9F)

160 The opening photo has the beginnings of my perfect vacation. Add in a suitably sized cooler filled with appropriate adult beverages for my wife and I, an umbrella and, of course enough reading material for the time allotted and ,I'm good. Replenishment of the adult beverages as required. Paradise ! Hey, sue me, I have simple pleasures.
Posted by: Edward at May 26, 2024 09:53 AM (93DJn)

The best thing about that picture is: There's nobody else around.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 10:28 AM (0eaVi)

161 We've had Albert Finney, Kenneth Branagh, Peter Ustinov . . . and even Tony Randall!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:18 AM (omVj0)

Peter Ustinov was the second best - of course he was great at everything.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 26, 2024 10:28 AM (S6gqv)

162 I have no idea how many words I knew by age 5. Certainly I was reading at a much higher grade level than first when I entered school. Nor do I know how many words I know now. Somewhere I read an estimate (made decades ago) of how many words the average person knows, how many an educated author/essayist like Jacques Barzun knew, and how many (at a guess) Shakespeare knew.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:28 AM (omVj0)

163 159 STOS. Star Trek Original Series.
Posted by: Mr. X at May 26, 2024 10:27 AM (vFG9F)

Oh! Thank you. As I was never a fan, I might not ever have gotten the reference.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 10:29 AM (OX9vb)

164 I should reread before I post.

Would Christinas in Sarajevo be the opposite of, or another form of, Karens in the United States?

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 26, 2024 10:30 AM (olroh)

165 I reported while in Europe I was reading Clifford Simak, They Walked Like Men, where I expressed disorientation while riding a Balkan bus, reading an encounter about a bagful of alien bowling balls and a talking dog.
I failed to report Simak blows the ending, with a bizarre invasion of panicky skunks. I am not making this up.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 10:30 AM (vF0BS)

166 Shakespeare cheated, though: he invented a lot of words.

(Pedant alert: I know, I know, he's just the first documented occurrence of a lot of words, not proof he invented them. Happy?)

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 26, 2024 10:31 AM (mPusp)

167 Hrothgar sent me a book he knew would get my attention. He was right. The Queen of the North Disaster: The Captain's Story by Colin Henthorne
is that book. It is an important book for what it shines a light on.

in 2006 a British Columbia RO/RO ferry tore the bottom out and lost the propeller blades on a charted rock. It sank shortly afterwards in deep water. All but 2 people got off safely.

Captain Henthorne tells the tale very well. This is accessible for non-mariners, but really speaks to those who have operated vessels.
(Part 1).

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 10:31 AM (u82oZ)

168 Oh! Thank you. As I was never a fan, I might not ever have gotten the reference.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024

***
I've seen it written often as ST: TOS. The same format was carried forward: ST: TNG (The Next Generation, the original Picard series), ST: VOY (for Voyager), and so on.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:31 AM (omVj0)

169 Along with the drug store and tobacco shop paperback racks that I scrounged in Chicago Lawn, there was Iama Stationery which in addition to pens, paper, etc, also had a shelf of Grosset & Dunlap hardcovers -- Tom Swift Jr, Hardy Boys, Tarzan -- and yes, they were cheap as hardcovers went. Had a lot of those suckers. Good times.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 10:32 AM (q3u5l)

170 152 Who else has played Poirot?

Peter Ustinov
Kenneth Branaugh
Albert Finney

Not John Wayne ?
Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 10:23 AM (T4tVD)

------------

Great art was denied when Gilbert Gottfried died without ever having been cast in the role.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at May 26, 2024 10:33 AM (bo7UB)

171 Great art was denied when Gilbert Gottfried died without ever having been cast in the role.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at May 26, 2024 10:33 AM (bo7UB)

*snort
*wipes eyes

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 10:33 AM (OX9vb)

172 My mom used to watch those BBC ones with David Suchet when I was little.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 26, 2024 10:34 AM (0FoWg)

173 160 The opening photo has the beginnings of my perfect vacation. Add in a suitably sized cooler filled with appropriate adult beverages for my wife and I, an umbrella and, of course enough reading material for the time allotted and ,I'm good. Replenishment of the adult beverages as required. Paradise ! Hey, sue me, I have simple pleasures.
Posted by: Edward at May 26, 2024 09:53 AM (93DJn)

--------------

Looking good, Eddie Ray!

Posted by: Winthorpe at May 26, 2024 10:34 AM (bo7UB)

174 "Oh! Thank you. As I was never a fan, I might not ever have gotten the reference.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs!"

They had an episode with an immortal guy who lived on a planet by himself. He had apparently been many people down thru the ages, including Bach and Leonardo(I think), and he just wanted to get away from it all. He created a beautiful android to be his forever companion, but Kirk came along and they fell in love and she short circuited and died.

Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 10:35 AM (vFG9F)

175 In writing news, I have had an editor at Raconteur Press express interest in a short story of mine for an anthology; he asked for small revisions, which I happily made, and resubmitted it. No guarantees yet. The Indie Author Project contest that I mentioned a couple of weeks back has its deadline this Friday, so I am finishing up a second ms., a mystery. Last week I rewrote the last chapter to tackle a small issue that I'd brought up at an earlier point but had forgotten to wind up, and found it easy to get back into the characters and their voices.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:35 AM (omVj0)

176 I know a lot of words. English is cool that way.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 26, 2024 10:35 AM (0FoWg)

177 I've seen it written often as ST: TOS. The same format was carried forward: ST: TNG (The Next Generation, the original Picard series), ST: VOY (for Voyager), and so on.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:31 AM (omVj0)

Which, of course, gave us the brilliant (and pretty apt) ST

designation for the current show to bear the Star Trek monicker.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 26, 2024 10:36 AM (05/FI)

178 Speaking of words, in my study of Latin, I have several times come across some weird ass thing they did only to discover we also do it but we are so familiar with it we never notice how weird it is, for example plural only nouns. Ours include scissors, pants, barracks and I’m sure there are others. One thing they did that I don't think we do is deponents. Deponents are verbs that take a passive form but have an active meaning. Can anyone think of an example in English?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 10:36 AM (L/fGl)

179 They had an episode with an immortal guy who lived on a planet by himself. He had apparently been many people down thru the ages, including Bach and Leonardo(I think), and he just wanted to get away from it all. He created a beautiful android to be his forever companion, but Kirk came along and they fell in love and she short circuited and died.
Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024

***
To this day I find it the dullest, talkiest ST:TOS episode of them all.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:36 AM (omVj0)

180 39 Covid 19 was a brilliant, brutal, and cruel psychological warfare campaign. It's aim was to stampede terrified people into getting injected with bioweapons.

They absolutely targeted the hippocampus and the amygdala.

Only the good Lord knows how many people are still bludgeoned by the trauma-based mind control and mass formation psychosis.

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 26, 2024 10:36 AM (JcnCJ)

181 148

That book is false and the author is politely put full of shit.
I own a facsimile of The Sarajevo Haggadah. It's a Kabbalist tome, steeped in alchemy. It's quite beautiful, don't get me wrong. I've owned multiple copies and given most away, my current is a sleeved edition from Jugo 1966?
Other Jews have been after that thing for generations and I know/knew one of the guys in on the museum heist that left the original on the floor.
It's not at all the first illustrated Haggadah, but any others extant are held in secure archives in the Kremlin.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 10:37 AM (vF0BS)

182 I failed to report Simak blows the ending, with a bizarre invasion of panicky skunks.

Often Simake succeeds in having goodendings by not having one. I’ve remarked that reading Simak is often a lot like reading an author from another planet, whose perspective on humanity is very skewed. He tends not to have villains, for example, just people with different and sometimes unknowable goals.

Usually, his alien-ness results in very interesting if occasionally perplexing stories. Other times, it results in a surprise skunk invasion, metaphorically or literally.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 26, 2024 10:37 AM (olroh)

183 One thing they did that I don't think we do is deponents. Deponents are verbs that take a passive form but have an active meaning. Can anyone think of an example in English?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024

***
All I can think of is the ancient sentence "Further deponent sayeth not." Which has nothing to do with your issue, but it's the only use of "deponent" outside the legal field I can think of.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:38 AM (omVj0)

184 Gottfried never played Poirot? How could Hollywood have missed doing that?

If you want to see Gottfried perfectly cast, find an episode of Wings in which he plays the nephew of William Hickey's Carlton Blanchard character. And check out Hickey's episodes, which are delightfully warped.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 10:38 AM (q3u5l)

185 Soap operas are the TV equivalent of trashy romance novels.

Which never seem to be condemned from the pulpit for some reason.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 26, 2024 10:38 AM (dg+HA)

186 Just got "The Backyard Bird Chronicles" by Amy Tan from the library, and she does beautiful bird drawings.
Posted by: Lizzy

Saw that at the library. Lovely book concept

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 10:39 AM (3OazS)

187 "To this day I find it the dullest, talkiest ST:TOS episode of them all.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius"

I think it's interesting because of the conflicted AI android. That's kind of a theme throughout the series.

Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 10:39 AM (vFG9F)

188 Clavells books...
Don't neglect "Whirlwind", it takes place in Iran 1979, as the Shah has fled and Khomeini just returned. It may be "fiction" but it tells the real story of what it was like there at that time, what the people were like, and that the "final solution" to Khomeini cementing himself and his successors into power, came with a LOT of dead bodies, from half a dozen different individually powerful and competing groups, several of them variously striated forms of Marxism, some Soviet, but also Arab centric Marxists, Baathist's, suuni vs shiaa,and the PLO. The leaders of MOST of which were indoctrinated and trained on US and European College campuses.
Most people today think that the shah was pulled down by the Islamist hardliners, in fact it was the Communist/Socialists, students and trade unionists..and Carters "folks"...The islamists were just much much better at killing off their competition in the struggle for dominance. The Green armbands they wore were the source of today's HAMAS green headbands, the battle leaders were from the PLO...in Fact Israel had an embassy in Tehran under the Shah, they fled soon after the Shah did and the PLO/Arafat were given the embassy.

Posted by: birdog at May 26, 2024 10:40 AM (+Fkyb)

189 If you want to see Gottfried perfectly cast, find an episode of Wings in which he plays the nephew of William Hickey's Carlton Blanchard character. And check out Hickey's episodes, which are delightfully warped.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 10:38 AM (q3u5l)

Quintessential Gottfried is him narrating "Fifty Shades of Grey."

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at May 26, 2024 10:40 AM (PiwSw)

190 Captain Henthorne comes across as a very knowledgeable, experienced, and focused individual, who does a root cause analysis of why the ship was off course very well.

The waters of British Columbia this ship sailed are full of hazards. The crew had made this trip hundreds of times. That night the watch officer was distracted by a small light, went to change the radar to look for it, and missed a course change.

When he realized his mistake, he called to the helmsman to change course drastically. She could not do so because the ship was on automatic pilot, and the button to disengage that was not apart to her. Once the ship passed over the rocks, it was doomed.
(Part 2)

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 10:40 AM (u82oZ)

191 Only the good Lord knows how many people are still bludgeoned by the trauma-based mind control and mass formation psychosis.

Posted by: callsign claymore

You see it everyday at these college campus demonstrations. In a way, the mask wearing has become a symbol of the psychosis.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 10:40 AM (t/2Uw)

192 If I'd been in on that museum robbery in Sarajevo I'd have absolutely taken that book. Then, IF I could have gotten it out, and back to USA, I'd have made overtures through channels to Abramovitch Klan in Russia, and offered it up. IF I survived that kind of transaction I'd have been set for life, with multiple citizenship and a free ride anywhere in the world.
But I wasn't in on that robbery.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 10:42 AM (vF0BS)

193 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.

Posted by: ZOD at May 26, 2024 10:43 AM (5HQE5)

194 137 "That DSC started out as a Medal of Honor citation, but got downgraded by some envious REMF along the way. " -- bad paraphrase from a memorable line read long ago

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 26, 2024 10:44 AM (JcnCJ)

195 91 I just finished Codex Alera by Jim Butcher

**

I really enjoyed that!

His new series is good too - the steampunk mannered one. Starts with Aeronautics Windlass. The audio version is nice coz Brit accents.

Harry Dresden is still my fave though

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 10:44 AM (3OazS)

196 Shakespeare cheated, though: he invented a lot of words.

(Pedant alert: I know, I know, he's just the first documented occurrence of a lot of words, not proof he invented them. Happy?)
Posted by: Trimegistus

I believe Edgar Allan Poe did as well.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 10:44 AM (fr2r8)

197 193 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.
Posted by: ZOD at May 26, 2024 10:43 AM (5HQE5)

-----------

You're newlyweds!

Congrats to both of you on your dogged persistence.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at May 26, 2024 10:44 AM (bo7UB)

198 At the library this week, I picked up Ordeal, Nevil Shute's third novel; another in Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Doctor series, An Irish Country Girl; a collection of Gothic and horror tales by Russell Kirk, Ancestral Shadows, which I may have read. And a nonfiction book: Everything Was Better in America, about print culture during the Great Depression.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:44 AM (omVj0)

199 I believe Edgar Allan Poe did as well.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 10:44 AM (fr2r

Bastard never did give me any residuals.

Posted by: The Raven at May 26, 2024 10:45 AM (PiwSw)

200 John Wayne as Poirot would have been interesting. Also, W.C. Fields.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 26, 2024 10:46 AM (fr2r8)

201 Given that Poirot was supposedly a working detective in Belgium in the 1890s, I'm amazed nobody has written a Holmes/Poirot crossover mystery!

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 26, 2024 10:46 AM (mPusp)

202 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:35 AM (omVj0)

And you'll hear by Christmas time about the books!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 10:47 AM (0eaVi)

203 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.

“Sentimental idiot!” she replied.

(Congrats!)

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 26, 2024 10:47 AM (olroh)

204 49
'what a lot of people call "Cultural Marxism" is demonic'

I've decided the main appeal of Cultural Marxism to those on the left is that it begins by wiping out existing institutions (religion, free market economy, rule of law, etc.). I don't think the Marxists much care what replace them as long as they are in charge of it. Their paradigm, Lenin, made it his chief task.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 26, 2024 10:47 AM (roH4R)

205 28 ... "Our Boarding House! I loved that strip. One of my hobbies is collecting compilations of old strips, and a few of my books have long excerpts from that. It gets confused by people with the similar Moon Mullins who also had a fat blowhard, Lord Plushbottom."

I've seen several of those Our Boarding House strips. They were funny, sometimes perceptive, and offer a view into life in the early 20th century. I think (not sure) I have a collection of them. I remember my folks getting the Sunday Providence Journal when I was a kid and the comics IN COLOR. Peanuts, Prince Valiant, The Phantom, Steve Canyon, Moon Mullins, Gasoline Alley, even Mary Worth for the grandmothers in the audience. After church, and weather permitting, my routine was to take the comics section out to the front porch. Nobody saw me for a while once that started.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 10:48 AM (zudum)

206 "To this day I find it the dullest, talkiest ST:TOS episode of them all.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius"
*
I think it's interesting because of the conflicted AI android. That's kind of a theme throughout the series.
Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024

***
Oh, I like it better than I did as a teen. And Flint, the immortal man, is intriguing. But there is no intrinsic reason why Kirk should fall in love with the woman/android. If it had been a young officer, recently widowed, say, that would have made sense -- the kind of story TNG often did so well.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:48 AM (omVj0)

207 Probably not... but don't quote me on that.

Posted by: Also The Raven at May 26, 2024 10:50 AM (dg+HA)

208 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:35 AM (omVj0)
*
And you'll hear by Christmas time about the books!
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024

***
Yeah, I think they said November. It's gonna take six months to decide on the winners???

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:50 AM (omVj0)

209 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.
Posted by: ZOD at May 26, 2024 10:43 AM (5HQE5)
-

MyZOD Tov!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 26, 2024 10:50 AM (5eP0x)

210 I have tried to dislike Nevil Shute but the guy writes fantastic adventures.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 10:51 AM (vF0BS)

211 Wow LenNeal, way to give away the ending. I was already suspicious of the Arabs hiding Jews from the Nazis but was interested in how the War comes to affect daily life, first slowly and then all at once. As a Jew, trying to understand how they allowed themselves to be herded like sheep onto those trains was difficult. Until I started reading books that opened my eyes to how cruel and evil humans can be.
And seeing what is going on today...
From that perspective the book is interesting so far.
But I will read it as fiction, not fact.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 10:52 AM (t/2Uw)

212 You can count James Coco as having played Poirot if you include "Murder by Death"'s parodic version, Milo Perrier.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at May 26, 2024 10:53 AM (FEVMW)

213 Given that Poirot was supposedly a working detective in Belgium in the 1890s, I'm amazed nobody has written a Holmes/Poirot crossover mystery!
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 26, 2024

***
Good idea! Holmes often traveled to the Continent -- I think I recall that his mother or grandmother was French? -- and Poirot may have found himself going to England on the track of some criminal. Certainly Poirot must have had some acquaintance with England, to decide to settle there after his retirement.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:53 AM (omVj0)

214 That ST:TOS episode was written, if memory serves, by Jerome Bixby (Twilight Zone's "It's a Good Life"); Bixby played with the immortal man notion at greater length with his screenplay for The Man from Earth, which ain't bad at all.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 10:53 AM (q3u5l)

215 I have tried to dislike Nevil Shute but the guy writes fantastic adventures.
Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024

***
Ordeal, I think, is about a British family enduring the early days of the Blitz. Not too sure. But low-key as he is, I find his stuff to be compelling reads; so I'm willing to take a chance.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 10:55 AM (omVj0)

216 191 Yup.

During the Nuremberg 2 trials, we're gonna need kind, candid public presentations about overcoming trauma and cult programming. "Folks, this is Dr. So and So, a VA shrink with expertise in treating PTSD. He has no ties to Big Pharma. He's gonna walk you through what those lying bastards did to each of you ... and how to heal from it."

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 26, 2024 10:56 AM (JcnCJ)

217 (Part 3)
A well drilled crew got all but two of the passengers off into life raft.

The rest of the book is the aftermath, and here the book shines. The legal, engineering and safety issues are explored.

Takeaways: The Captain was responsible, but had limited authority over the crew. That was held by the Government owners and the union halls.
He was treated as a hired hand, not a CO.

The Government tried to cover up many known safety issues that had been ignored, blamed the operators for design flaws, and generally acted as jerks.

The bridge design folks did not communicate with operators. New bridge layouts and equipment were
installed without training the crew in specific changes. Least you think this is a one-time problem, a similar issue caused the collision of the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) eleven years later in 2017.

He contrasts the lack of focus with the aviation industry, which had made a concerted effort to be safer. I note that there were supposed to two watch officers on deck, but the senior one was in another room watching a movie.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 10:57 AM (u82oZ)

218 I'd been in on that museum robbery in Sarajevo I'd have absolutely taken that book. Then, IF I could have gotten it out, and back to USA, I'd have made overtures through channels to Abramovitch Klan in Russia, and offered it up. IF I survived that kind of transaction I'd have been set for life, with multiple citizenship and a free ride anywhere in the world.
But I wasn't in on that robbery.
Posted by: LenNeal
Sounds like a good script for a movie.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 10:58 AM (t/2Uw)

219 Cultural Marxism is the newest take on Marxism, swapping old class warfare for race/ sex/ class warfare.

Posted by: Skip at May 26, 2024 10:58 AM (fwDg9)

220 Oh speaking of Marxism read Beverly Male, Revolutionary Afghanistan, A Reappraisal. She's a Marxist and seems to think that the man who plunged a proto-State into a cauldron of murder and mayhem is a fucking hero.
Not incidentally the Afghan Communist who set this off was educated at NYU, Columbia, and of course UW-Madison, to take his Gramsci principles back to Afghanistan to destroy his own people.
Perhaps we, the fat, content USA, might be getting back what we've dished out. This book INFURIATED me.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 10:58 AM (vF0BS)

221 So WHO'S the guy in the top pic ?
Just Random J. Black Guy ?
Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 10:03 AM (T4tVD)

The picture is AI generated. Original prompt was "show me a busty redheaded Irishwoman in a bikini on the beach."

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at May 26, 2024 10:59 AM (rHld2)

222 I have been avoiding the library and focusing on reading a number of books that fill my home, a downsizing will be happening perhaps sooner rather than later. I am currently reading two books, one in the house and one which is kept in the car. House book is The Match by Mark Frost, it is a terrific golf story set in the '50's and I am enjoying it immensely. My car book is one that I picked out of the box at the Texas MoMe, it is Confederates In The Attic by Tony Horwitz. This is a very funny book and I am enjoying it also. Whoever put it in the MoMe book box, thank you.

Since it is Memorial Day weekend, whoever mentioned Alley Oop upthread, that was the name of my uncle's WWII bomber. It was shot down over Holland and he is buried at a military cemetery over there.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at May 26, 2024 11:00 AM (Sgq8y)

223 219 Hense the drive to create a deviant sex class

Posted by: Skip at May 26, 2024 11:01 AM (fwDg9)

224 (Part 4)

Captain Henthorne identifies problems (there are many more I could go into, but these may be of limited interest to non-mariners) and proposes sound solutions. Alas, these were ignored by the power to be.

Industrial accident prove that few organizations learn from other's mistakes, and only partially from their own mistakes.

Again, thank you Hrothgar.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 11:01 AM (u82oZ)

225 Awake in the NightLand is terrific. As is most anything by John C. Wright. Just finishing a reread of his Chaos trilogy now.

Posted by: .87c at May 26, 2024 11:04 AM (bFFzk)

226 {{{Debby Doberman Schultz}}}

I have a picture of my great-uncle's B-25 in the 13th Squadron in New Guinea during WWII. It was painted with (Family name's) Demon under the cockpit.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 11:04 AM (u82oZ)

227 211

Sharon, there are many accounts of Jews being harbored by Muslim and Serbian Orthodox neighbors. I have a really cool book at home that you may like, it's CRAZY. Woman flees cozy life in Belgrade, goes on odyssey through all of The Balkans, from 1941-1943. She wrote it in Brazil. It's not common.
I guess not unsurprisingly she finds the gun shooting, grenade throwing mountain people uncouth, but they do save her life over and over. The one group that refused her help were other Jews.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:05 AM (vF0BS)

228 35 ... "Just got "The Backyard Bird Chronicles" by Amy Tan from the library, and she does beautiful bird drawings."

Lizzy,
I've now got that on hold at the local library but there are 14 people ahead of me. I haven't read anything by Tan but the bird illustrations on the cover are very good and the topic interests me. The Foreword by Sibley shows that the book is intended to be accurate.

I did note that most of the bad reviews on Amazon were about the poor quality of the book, not the contents. I'm seeing more and more comments like that. (Except for one idiot who thought it would be a novel and gave it one star.)

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 11:06 AM (zudum)

229 "My car book is one that I picked out of the box at the Texas MoMe, it is Confederates In The Attic by Tony Horwitz. This is a very funny book and I am enjoying it also. Whoever put it in the MoMe book box, thank you."

That was me! I left some other too but I don't remember what they were. Some Bill O'Reilly "Killing So and So" books, I think.

Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 11:06 AM (vFG9F)

230 In before the Tolkien geeks and Star Trek nerds stink up the joint?

Damn it, Jim!

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 26, 2024 11:06 AM (3hI7Q)

231 Most people today think that the shah was pulled down by the Islamist hardliners, in fact it was the Communist/Socialists, students and trade unionists..and Carters "folks"...
Posted by: birdog at May 26, 2024 10:40 AM (+Fkyb)

I discovered that fact in another book: Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. She came from the student perspective, which was closely tied with (if not the same as) the socialists.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 11:07 AM (OX9vb)

232 I'd been in on that museum robbery in Sarajevo I'd have absolutely taken that book. Then, IF I could have gotten it out, and back to USA, I'd have made overtures through channels to Abramovitch Klan in Russia, and offered it up. IF I survived that kind of transaction I'd have been set for life, with multiple citizenship and a free ride anywhere in the world.
But I wasn't in on that robbery.
Posted by: LenNeal
Sounds like a good script for a movie.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 10:58 AM (t/2Uw)
-

The Hebrew word "Hagadah" means to tell or relate a story, in this case the Exodus from Egypt.

So a movie would be a Hagadah story of a Hagadah story.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 26, 2024 11:07 AM (5eP0x)

233 Gotta run some errands. Be back soon.

Posted by: JTB at May 26, 2024 11:07 AM (zudum)

234 MP4 so glad you have that legal monkey off your back and you sound cheerful today!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:10 AM (3OazS)

235 See ya, Morons!

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 26, 2024 11:10 AM (mPusp)

236 have a really cool book at home that you may like, it's CRAZY. Woman flees cozy life in Belgrade, goes on odyssey through all of The Balkans, from 1941-1943. She wrote it in Brazil. It's not common.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:05 AM (vF0BS)

So, what's the title/author, please?

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 11:11 AM (OX9vb)

237 Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere & LenNeal

Nevil Shute is one of my top writers, I have all of his books.
Round the Bend, Ruined City, and Trustee from the Toolroom are mountains overtopping a high plateau of good stories.

Note: A Town Like Alice was his commercially safe story he wrote to be able to write Round the Bend.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 11:12 AM (u82oZ)

238 232

Do you have a copy? It's quite amazing. It's like a comic book or graphic novel, we've had... animated debates... about that feature in Serbia. If you don't have a copy you should get one immediately. They've become a bit pricey on Ebay and Biblio, I used to pick them up for USD$20 or so. Not anymore!

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:13 AM (vF0BS)

239 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.
Posted by: ZOD

All the universe congratulates the ZODs!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:14 AM (3OazS)

240 Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

I had all the Tom Swift Jr books as a yute. Lost them all to a thrift shop before a transcontinental move. Alas.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 11:15 AM (u82oZ)

241 "Since it is Memorial Day weekend, whoever mentioned Alley Oop upthread, that was the name of my uncle's WWII bomber. It was shot down over Holland and he is buried at a military cemetery over there.
Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz"

What a truly great American.

Posted by: fd at May 26, 2024 11:15 AM (vFG9F)

242 Deponents are verbs that take a passive form but have an active meaning. Can anyone think of an example in English?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 10:36 AM (L/fGl)

I suspect this is a role filled by gerunds: -ING endings.

I think it requires it to be a progressive (helper) verb. The examples I see are "being helped" or "having been helped"

Posted by: Kindltot at May 26, 2024 11:15 AM (D7oie)

243 I would love to read a Holmes/Poirot crossover, specially if they don't like each other.
It would be hilarious.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:15 AM (3OazS)

244 236

I'm not at home or the office, I'm at a total dive bar up the street from my office filled with old drunks. I'm on my phone and have no order records. I'll make a note for next week.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:16 AM (vF0BS)

245 ZOD

And yet, even with her submission, I know you married up. She is a keeper, and not to be underestimated.

Have a memorable and romantic anniversary.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 11:16 AM (u82oZ)

246 Aren't Poirot and Holmes out of copyright?

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:17 AM (vF0BS)

247 I'll make a note for next week.
Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:16 AM (vF0BS)

Thanks!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 26, 2024 11:17 AM (OX9vb)

248 To those that served, and made a final sacrifice.

**Crisp**

Hand Salute.
Ready.
Two.

**/Crisp**

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 11:18 AM (u82oZ)

249 His new series is good too - the steampunk mannered one. Starts with Aeronautics Windlass. The audio version is nice coz Brit accents.

-
I thought I was going to be able to avoid the curse of the Book Thread this week and avoid buying another book but noooooooo!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 11:18 AM (L/fGl)

250 229

This the first I've ever heard of a Car Book.

Car Gun, yes!

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:19 AM (vF0BS)

251 I would love to read a Holmes/Poirot crossover, specially if they don't like each other.
It would be hilarious.
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024

***
It might be fun to do it in such a way that the actual names are never given, they are both using pseudonyms, but the reader knows who they are anyway. Is there a name for that sort of technique? Roman a clef, "novel [or story] with a key," comes close, I think.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 11:19 AM (omVj0)

252 Chores. Always with the chores.

Thank you, "Perfessor" Squirrel, for another in a series of excellent book threads.

Have a great day, everyone. May you all be blessed with invigorating entertainment.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 26, 2024 11:20 AM (u82oZ)

253 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.

* lifts coffee cup to Zod and Mrs. Zod *

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 11:21 AM (/y8xj)

254 Len Neal, where are you that you are in a Dive Bar at 11 am ET. I'm guessing somewhere +6 hrs?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 11:21 AM (t/2Uw)

255 I thought I was going to be able to avoid the curse of the Book Thread this week and avoid buying another book but noooooooo!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks,

Ha ha ha

Do what I do and borrow it on Libby at your library

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:21 AM (3OazS)

256 Given that Poirot was supposedly a working detective in Belgium in the 1890s, I'm amazed nobody has written a Holmes/Poirot crossover mystery!
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 26, 2024 10:46 AM (mPusp)

Kenneth Branagh and Robert Downey Jr sounds like they would chew the scenery to tatters and then burn down the studio for afters/

Posted by: Kindltot at May 26, 2024 11:21 AM (D7oie)

257 >>>>>I would love to read a Holmes/Poirot crossover, specially if they don't like each other.
It would be hilarious.
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:15 AM (3OazS)
********
I would like to read that too. Given their personalities, a dislike of one another is almost baked in the cake. Throw in Moriority and it will be grand.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 26, 2024 11:23 AM (gjCKZ)

258 MPPP, I loved Tom Swift novels when I was a girl! I’d forgotten all about them.
I should look up some copies—OLD ones. I imagine they turned into Thomasina Swift books after a while. (Why do they DO that? I certainly had no trouble “seeing myself” in the books! But then I have a functioning imagination.)

Posted by: Best Thief in Lankhmar at May 26, 2024 11:24 AM (64rer)

259 Roman a clef, "novel [or story] with a key," comes close, I think.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

--
did you ever read Neal Gaiman's Study in Emerald? That was one where reader draws conclusions about the characters then ...I won't spoil it but very good. It's a graphic novel.
(Cthulhu crossover)

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:24 AM (3OazS)

260 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.
Posted by: ZOD at May 26, 2024 10:43 AM (5HQE5)

Happy Anniversary !

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:24 AM (T4tVD)

261 Here's an odd comment:
I cannot watch a Poirot movie because I cannot stand that handlebar mustache. It is the most unsexy thing.
I do actually like beards and mustaches on men, very manly, but the kind that Poirot sports is just yuck.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 11:24 AM (t/2Uw)

262 254

I work nights, at my regular job-job, so am usually up all night. I have a co-working space where I was from about 01:00 to 07:00, then cracked a beer then walked up the street to this Sophisticated Establishment.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:25 AM (vF0BS)

263 Sharon! Guess what - Ilona Andrews has a graphic novel version of the first Innkeeper book.
I don't read graphic novels much but I may buy that one just to have.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:26 AM (3OazS)

264 I have a picture of my great-uncle's B-25 in the 13th Squadron in New Guinea during WWII. It was painted with (Family name's) Demon under the cockpit.
Posted by: NaCly Dog

America's top scoring ace was Richard Bong. His crashed airplane was found in New Guinea a short while ago.

https://shorturl.at/UzIWq

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 11:26 AM (L/fGl)

265 I forget which reviewer said that Branagh's mustache was probably visible from space.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 11:26 AM (q3u5l)

266 219 Hense the drive to create a deviant sex class
Posted by: Skip at May 26, 2024 11:01 AM (fwDg9)

"In the butt , Bob"

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:27 AM (T4tVD)

267 Roman a clef, "novel [or story] with a key," comes close, I think.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 11:19 AM (omVj0)

I thought that was a musical notation!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 11:27 AM (0eaVi)

268 Throw in Moriority and it will be grand.

Have them cross paths investigating different mysteries where they keep getting in each other's way. I think we've just about crowd-sourced a book here. Just need someone to write it. I nominate MP4.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 11:27 AM (/y8xj)

269 I forget which reviewer said that Branagh's mustache was probably visible from space.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 11:26 AM (q3u5l)

LOL !

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:28 AM (T4tVD)

270 >>>>>Here's an odd comment:
I cannot watch a Poirot movie because I cannot stand that handlebar mustache. It is the most unsexy thing.
I do actually like beards and mustaches on men, very manly, but the kind that Poirot sports is just yuck.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 11:24 AM (t/2Uw)
**********
Poirot has OCD off the hook. The mustashe, the spats and walking stick are all part of his wacked out but genius personality. What’s not to like about that?

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 26, 2024 11:30 AM (gjCKZ)

271 I forget which reviewer said that Branagh's mustache was probably visible from space.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024

***
Yeah, but you can't have Poirot without it. Like Holmes's hawklike profile and his pipe, the Belgian's luxuriant mustache is a trademark.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 26, 2024 11:31 AM (omVj0)

272 He's reading "On the Beach" on the beach.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 26, 2024 11:31 AM (63Dwl)

273 Thanks Vmom. Just went to her site and found there are a couple of short stories there I haven't read.
I keep wishing for another Kate Daniels story though. I really like Curran. 😉

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 11:32 AM (t/2Uw)

274 The mustashe, the spats and walking stick are all part of his wacked out but genius personality. What’s not to like about that?

IIRC, in the Suchet version of Orient Express, they show him donning a mustache protector to go to sleep. It's hilarious.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 11:33 AM (/y8xj)

275 Sharon, I think she's been having health issues.
She's been posting chapters of a Roman story...I haven't been able to get into it.
I like Kate & Curran, and Curran as a dad is hilarious.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:34 AM (3OazS)

276 Recently encountered an unique portrayal of Professor Moriarity while watching the Librarian series. The writers made him interesting and likable. Very nice update of a character.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at May 26, 2024 11:34 AM (2NHgQ)

277 Fake veterans with impossible stories? I resent that, sir! When I was in the Parachute Ski Marines, sitting in a rice patty in Viet Nam, I'd spend hours flicking the safety of my Glock on and off as I thought about the slackers back home...

Posted by: That Guy with too many war stories at May 26, 2024 11:34 AM (rHld2)

278 Warm one out thar.

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:34 AM (T4tVD)

279 262
Now I understand about the other patrons at the establishment. Lol

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 11:35 AM (t/2Uw)

280 Hiya VMom !

Hope all is well In Stabbystabbyville !

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:36 AM (T4tVD)

281 All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chance.

Seán Ono Lennon
@seanonolennon
When did Dems transition to becoming the War Party?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 11:37 AM (L/fGl)

282 For Star Trek novels that don't take themselves seriously, I recommend Balance of Power by Dafydd ab Hugh. It's a pastiche, but a very subtle one, and it actually manages to make Wesley sympathetic. (Yes, really.)

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at May 26, 2024 11:37 AM (Y+AMd)

283 The mustaches worn by Suchet, Finney, and Ustinov don't begin to compare with Branagh's. The Branagh mustache looks ready to cut away the human appendage and go off solving murders on its own.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 11:39 AM (q3u5l)

284 Dafydd ab Hugh.

Who would name their kid that ?

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:39 AM (T4tVD)

285 @seanonolennon
When did Dems transition to becoming the War Party?

1861.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 11:40 AM (/y8xj)

286 Uh oh. Now I've done it, haven't I?

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 11:41 AM (/y8xj)

287 Fake veterans with impossible stories?

David Drake had a fun take on this trope in Starliner. One of the passengers was presented as a mooch with an unbelievable variety of unlikely adventures to provide in return for other passengers paying for his drinks.

And then terrorists take over the ship…

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at May 26, 2024 11:41 AM (olroh)

288 Good morning Book Thread.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago how I am put off by some books and authors because their sense of humor doesn't match mine. It's not an effect I want, but it's what I have.

Another thing I run into sometimes is that I give up on the protagonist in a series. You ever have that? "You know, this guy just too much of a wuss." Or "This guy needs a character arc to be the person he should be, but it's not happening and that makes things kind of depressing." I'm struggling with the second one right now, making my second attempt to get through Donald Westlake's Mitch Toobin series. I hope to succeed this time. The first book was very good, and I'm about 40% through the second. Fingers crossed.

Posted by: Splunge at May 26, 2024 11:41 AM (hmKaK)

289 Someone Welsh, presumably!

Dafydd ab Hugh used to have a blog called Big Lizards. He was conservative at the time. No idea if he's still around or if he ended up drinking the neverTrump flavor-ade or what.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at May 26, 2024 11:42 AM (Y+AMd)

290 Working nights and 06:00 bars is why I do not find authors like Charles Bukowski profound.

Posted by: LenNeal at May 26, 2024 11:44 AM (vF0BS)

291 On this day 23 years ago, Mrs. Zod submitted to Zod's demand for matrimony.
Posted by: ZOD

All the universe congratulates the ZODs!
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:14 AM (3OazS)

Congratulations!! Tomorrow will mark 52 years for us. Mrs. Crazy still thinks I'm crazy, but, hey, I am Hungarian/Slovak.

She's Irish, but I tolerate her.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at May 26, 2024 11:44 AM (iODuv)

292 Hope all is well In Stabbystabbyville !
Posted by: JT

Was a bit dizzy but improving, thanks!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:45 AM (3OazS)

293 Well, reality intrudes.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 26, 2024 11:45 AM (q3u5l)

294 261 Here's an odd comment:
I cannot watch a Poirot movie because I cannot stand that handlebar mustache. It is the most unsexy thing.
I do actually like beards and mustaches on men, very manly, but the kind that Poirot sports is just yuck.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 26, 2024 11:24 AM (t/2Uw)

It had never remotely occurred to me before that the Poirot character would be attractive to anyone. He's a fussy, fastidious egomaniac who is supposed to be sort of queer and greasy, reflecting the old British view of foreigners. However, he differs from Gavin Newsom by being really smart and methodical.

Posted by: Splunge at May 26, 2024 11:45 AM (hmKaK)

295 New obesity drug. NSFW!

https://shorturl.at/x3k9D

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 11:45 AM (L/fGl)

296 Hope all is well In Stabbystabbyville !
Posted by: JT

Was a bit dizzy but improving, thanks!
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:45 AM (3OazS)

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:46 AM (T4tVD)

297 Splunge,yeah. MC has to be likable; helps a lot if he/she jasra sense of humor.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:46 AM (3OazS)

298 Tomorrow will mark 52 years for us. Mrs. Crazy still thinks I'm crazy, but, hey, I am Hungarian/Slovak. She's Irish, but I tolerate her.
Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at May 26, 2024 11:44 AM (iODuv)

Congratulations !

Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:48 AM (T4tVD)

299 thatcrazyjerseyguy, congrats!!!!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:49 AM (3OazS)

300 re #259, IIRC Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" was originally a short story.

Another good Sherlock Holmes pastiche is Fred Saberhagen's "The Holmes-Dracula File". Holmes and Count Dracula cross paths in 1890s London and wind up working together against a menace that involves the Giant Rat of Sumatra ("...a tale for which the world is not yet ready...").

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at May 26, 2024 11:50 AM (jjfDF)

301 >>>>Congratulations!! Tomorrow will mark 52 years for us. Mrs. Crazy still thinks I'm crazy, but, hey, I am Hungarian/Slovak. She's Irish, but I tolerate her.
Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at May 26, 2024 11:44 AM (iODuv)
*************
Best wishes to you and Mrs. Crazy on 52 years together. As an aside and with all due respect; that’s a pretty volatile mix . Good on ya both for making it work.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 26, 2024 11:51 AM (gjCKZ)

302 300 Fred Saberhagen's "The Holmes-Dracula File".

***

I'll have to find that, preferably in audio

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:52 AM (3OazS)

303 298 Tomorrow will mark 52 years for us. Mrs. Crazy still thinks I'm crazy, but, hey, I am Hungarian/Slovak. She's Irish, but I tolerate her.
Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at May 26, 2024 11:44 AM (iODuv)

Congrats ! We have 51 years...52 On Jan 6th... Hard to forget Our Anniversary now

Posted by: It's me donna at May 26, 2024 11:53 AM (Akjoo)

304
America's top scoring ace was Richard Bong. His crashed airplane was found in New Guinea a short while ago.

https://shorturl.at/UzIWq
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame

__________

The plane, that is. Bong died in Burbank, CA test piloting a P-80A.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 26, 2024 11:53 AM (MoZTd)

305 hatcrazyjerseyguy, congrats!!!!
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 11:49 AM (3OazS)

Thank you!! Hard to believe, for sure. Our first dance was to (of course) "We've Only Just Begun". Been a long journey since that first dance.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at May 26, 2024 11:54 AM (iODuv)

306 Funny that I just got back from two weeks in Ireland, spending most of the time in the West on the various coastal towns. Delightful people, jaw-dropping scenery, and delicious food and booze. One of the interesting points of conversation was the introduction of electricity to the more rural areas of the West, which didn't happen until the 70s. Previous to this, the evenings were candle-lit affairs with storytelling and myth weaving. With electricity came radio and TV, which eradicated these old customs and homogenized the culture to a great extent. One fellow held that this was a great tragedy, save for one shining nugget: "John Wayne. We got a Western every Saturday night, and I love John Wayne."

Posted by: Brewingfrog at May 26, 2024 11:55 AM (9dcDV)

307 Tomorrow will mark 52 years for us.
-----
Congrats ! We have 51 years...52 On Jan 6th...

Serious respect for the long-timers! Barring the unforeseen, we will tick off 36 later this summer.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 26, 2024 11:55 AM (/y8xj)

308 Congratulations !
Posted by: JT at May 26, 2024 11:48 AM (T4tVD)

Thank you. JT!! I may celebrate by buying a new birdbath.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at May 26, 2024 11:56 AM (iODuv)

309 Durn it! It's almost the end of the Book Thread. Where's Mr. Pem when you need him??

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 11:56 AM (0eaVi)

310 Half of UCLA Med School Students Fail Basic Tests Thanks to DEI Gibberish

-
This is exaggerated. Nearly 2/3 can distinguish between their assholes and a hole in the ground.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 11:56 AM (L/fGl)

311 On topic I'm reading the second Dune book... Read the first about 20 years ago...

Posted by: It's me donna at May 26, 2024 11:57 AM (Akjoo)

312 Best wishes to you and Mrs. Crazy on 52 years together. As an aside and with all due respect; that’s a pretty volatile mix . Good on ya both for making it work.
Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at May 26, 2024 11:51 AM (gjCKZ)

Thank you!! Actually, she's the calm one. Very laid back. Even tempered. She's calmed me down over the years. Her parents were very calm. My parents? HAHAHA!! What they used to call "high strung". My entire entire neighborhood was like that! LOL!

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy now with twice the crazy at May 26, 2024 11:59 AM (iODuv)

313 Oh no you didn't!

Israel Carries Out Strike on Rafah After Top UN Court Orders Halt

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 12:00 PM (L/fGl)

314 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at May 26, 2024 12:00 PM (RkoO2)

315 Mainstream Media Criticizes “The Apprentice” Biopic For Making Donald Trump Look “Too Sympathetic”

-
Those bastards!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 12:05 PM (L/fGl)

316 re #302, Amazon has that in audio. Which is appropriate since the first book in that series is "The Dracula Tape". The Count tells his side of the story of "Dracula".

Other titles in that series by Saberhagen that I recommend are "An Old Friend of the Family", "Thorn" and "Dominion".

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at May 26, 2024 12:05 PM (jjfDF)

317 Happy Anniversary to the Zods.

Dash, I also read Reading Lolita in Teheran and found it quite interesting.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Horde.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at May 26, 2024 12:07 PM (Sgq8y)

318 Posted by: John F. MacMichael at May 26, 2024 12:05 PM (jjfDF)

Thanks!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 12:24 PM (3OazS)

319 The best thing about that picture is: There's nobody else around.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 26, 2024 10:28 AM (0eaVi).
Well careful planning and timing make that concern mostly self correcting. There are compromises, I don't want to have to travel too far to replenish the replenishment stock for the cooler ya know.

Posted by: Edward at May 26, 2024 12:45 PM (93DJn)

320 This is exaggerated. Nearly 2/3 can distinguish between their assholes and a hole in the ground.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at May 26, 2024 11:56 AM (L/fGl).
I eagerly await any evidence, no matter how implausible, to support your ridiculous assertion. Certainly there is a misprint in that fraction.

Posted by: Edward at May 26, 2024 12:49 PM (93DJn)

321 "What other authors out there have blended their creative talents into their novels and short stories?"

Two come to mind.

The first is James Gurney, who wrote and illustrated the Dinotopia books. Granted, Dinotopia is too new-agey for most of us, but my kids loved the stories, and the paintings with which Gurney illustrated the stories are truly gorgeous.

The other is Howard Pyle. Pyle and his sister Katherine were two of the leading illustrators from the turn of the last century - the golden age of book illustration. I think Pyle was the equal of N. C. Wyeth as an illustrator; and, unlike Wyeth, he wrote many of the books he illustrated. His "Book of Pirates" is still a classic, and a worthy gift for every boy (or girl) who's dreamed of hoisting the Jolly Roger and sailing the Spanish Main. An excellent e-book version is available for free from Project Gutenberg.

Posted by: Nemo at May 26, 2024 01:13 PM (S6ArX)

322 *pokes thread*

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at May 26, 2024 01:49 PM (3OazS)

323 We just finished the audio of the Rupert Holmes(yes the escape song guy) MurderYour Employer. It’s a period piece(1950’s)) and a poison ivy where one learns to delete their employer. His second installment will be a murder your mate.

Posted by: Paisley at May 26, 2024 02:22 PM (ny1NG)

324 Fake veterans with impossible stories?

You have just described Major Amos Barnaby Hoople.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 26, 2024 02:25 PM (p/isN)

325 Noun that is only plural: news.

Posted by: Wenda at May 26, 2024 02:49 PM (6oyA/)

326 You actually make it appear really easy with your presentation but I to find this topic to be actually one thing that I believe I would by no
means understand. It kind of feels too complex and very extensive for me.
I am having a look ahead on your subsequent post, I'll attempt to get the cling of it!

Posted by: Amazon Fashion at May 28, 2024 10:58 AM (HlVtp)

327 What's up, after reading this amazing piece of writing i am too
cheerful to share my knowledge here with friends.

Posted by: webtoon at May 29, 2024 12:24 AM (Wt+ZA)

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