Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-07-2024 ["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...

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

PIC NOTE

As bookshelf arrangements go, this one is pretty neat. I like the *idea* of shelving my books like this, but I suspect the reality is not as much fun. Where is the ladder to get to the books on the top shelf? How are the books sorted, organized, cataloged? And there are "gaps" along the sides of the shelves where books won't fit, so you'd have to find some filler knickknacks to complete the space. Still, it's visually interesting...

LITERARY VS. GENRE FICTION

++++++++++

(This has happened to me more than once and as recently as this past week. Fortunately, the Kindle app solves this problem.)

++++++++++

OLD NORSE IN ENGLISH - The Words the Vikings Left Behind

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

A History of Advertising by Stephane Pincas and Marc Loiseau. The book declared "this book explores legendary campaigns and brands of advertising's modern history... You will find the picture of the camel that originated the Camel cigarette pack, some of the very first Coca-Cola ads, and even see how artworks by masters such as Picasso and Magritte have been used in advertising."
It was definitely an interesting read. Kub, the world's first mass marketed meat concentrate appeared in Picasso's Landscape with Posters in 1912. The book insists that's the source of calling Picasso's work, Cubism. A poster for a hair tonic, Dada, led to art in the style of the poster being called Dadaism.
The most intriguing part of the book was a little illustration showing that all ad agencies are owned by the same conglomerate, Publicis Group. Talk about an octopus.
If you're interested in the history of advertising, I'd say it's a good starter book.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

Comment: Does advertising really work anymore? We are so inundated with ads that it's possible our brain just filters them out. Or the ads insinuate themselves into our brain subconsciously, so we don't even notice that we are picking out brands at the supermarket determined by the ads we've viewed.

+++++

the book I am currently reading is Trump's The Art of the Deal, which is about making million dollar bets on being able to build, manage and profit off of building projects in some of the most expensive places in the world, and why Trump thought it was a good idea.
Posted by: Kindltot at June 30, 2024 10:18 AM (D7oie)

Comment: "I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: If you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big." -- Donald J. Trump

There's no question that President Trump is a man with big ideas. Unfortunately, the government he led is still filled with small-minded idiots. We'll see if he's able to implement any of his big ideas during his second term, assuming he's allowed to have one.

+++++

I finally finished C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength. It's funny that others have mentioned mass market paperbacks and tiny print because that was the case with the Space Trilogy set I purchased. I was too stubborn to go out and buy a better copy, thus spending $ on something I already owned, so I grumbled and kept reading. Then the story became so engaging that I didn't notice the small print and I could not put it down.
I could go on and on about what a great story THS is and how well C.S. Lewis understands and portrays human nature. I'm glad I made the effort to read all three books in the series as I'm not sure I would really have appreciated THS as much as I did.
Posted by: KatieFloyd at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM (EO0H2)

Comment: This is still one of the most terrifying books I've ever read, if only because of how prescient it is. I read it at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2021. The eerie similarities to the totalitarian control in that novel vs. the totalitarian control exhibited by our government at that time was just weird.

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

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

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.

Star Wars - X-Wing 1 - Rogue Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole

Although the Emperor and Darth Vader were both killed at the end of Return of the Jedi, the Empire itself was far from defeated entirely. It took several years of tough battles before the fledgling New Republic was able to capture the Imperial capital of Coruscant and re-establish a republican form of government under the leadership of a Chief of State. Wedge Antilles, the only pilot to survive two runs with a Death Star is given the opportunity to forge an elite squadron of X-Wing pilots. They take on the missions that are too difficult or too insane for other squadrons. Rogue Squadron is instrumental in defeating the Empire once and for all, though the Imperial Remnant will remain a thorn in the side of the New Republic for many decades afterwards.

The Testament by Eric Van Lustbader

This is a conspiracy action thriller that's written in the spirit of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. Two ancient religious orders go to war. One faction seeks to protect secret knowledge about the truth of Jesus Christ that would unravel 2000 years of history if it was revealed to the world, along with an even more precious item. The other faction wants to retrieve that secret to exploit it for its own purposes. Caught in the middle is a young man who is clueless about most of this, but possesses information that leads him to various clues left behind by his father that will show him the way to the secret cache. Lots of action, lots of treachery and betrayal, and lots of exposition about the hidden truth about the world.

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Book 1 - Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz & Kevin J. Anderson

This is Koontz's reimagining of the Frankenstein story. Here, good old Victor is alive and well in New Orleans and is continuing to put the "mad" back into "mad scientist." He's improved his techniques of creating life over the past few centuries, so now he has an army of loyal people forming his New Race of beings, ready to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! However, his first creation is also still alive and is stalking him. Meanwhile a couple of local cops are struggling to unravel the mysteries behind a series of gruesome murders plaguing their city. I'm not normally a huge fan of Frankenstein stories, but this one has some interesting twists and turns, in typical Koontzian style, to keep me engaged. I've also noticed that in addition to dogs, Koontz has a soft spot for mentally challenged individuals. He often features innocents that have some form of mental disorder, such as autism or Down's Syndrome in his stories. Sometimes they provide a crucial element to the resolution of the plot.

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Book 2 - City of Night by Dean Koontz & Ed Gorman

This is the second book in Koontz's series about the Frankenstein legend. Victor's creations are developing traits he finds undesirable, but also intriguing. Victor's twisted mind sees opportunity here. The New Race is slowly taking over key positions within the city, consolidating Victor's control over it. Meanwhile, the two cops now know what they are up against and proceed to arm themselves to go after Victor once and for all. Can they stop him before he unleashes a whole new plague of terror on New Orleans?

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Book 3 - Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz

Despite his mad genius, Victor's plans to establish a new world order with his New Race are collapsing. The programming he's instilled in his creations is breaking down, and they are now experiencing freedom for the very first time. Of course, that often manifests itself in the freedom to kill members of the Old Race (i.e., normal humans), so maybe freedom isn't everything. To complicate matters, there are a couple of X-factors from previous experiments running loose in New Orleans with agendas of their own.

World of Warcraft - Arthas by Christie Golden

Arthas is the doomed prince of Lordaeron who became the Lich King. This was the second major expansion of the classic World of Warcraft MMORPG. It's also the expansion where I began playing the game. This novel summarizes key events in this history of the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth, such as the plague that consumed much of the northern realms. Arthas attempted to fight the plague, but was overwhelmed by its malevolence. Driven by revenge, he tracks the architect of the plague into Northrend, where he discovers a mysterious, sentient sword that promises Arthas the power he seeks, but the sword has an agenda of its own.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 06-30-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

(100% less fabulous than the current season on television.)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Members of the New Race are banned from the Sunday Morning Book Thread (Victor's orders).

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 FIRST! My first first!

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024 09:00 AM (wwf+q)

2 Good morning

Posted by: Auspex at July 07, 2024 09:01 AM (j4U/Z)

3 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. My reading was enjoyable and eye opening.

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 09:02 AM (zudum)

4 Good morning, Horde. Congrats on the first, werewife. I'm re-reading "Invasion" by Michelle Malkin, which was published in 2002, and is obviously still relevant.

Posted by: Grog at July 07, 2024 09:02 AM (esAC9)

5 Another issue with that library is that there is no insulation in the ceiling. The seasonal temperature change would be hard on the books.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 09:05 AM (zctuX)

6 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perfessor!

I've read 52 books so far this year. To be honest, most were brain candy...

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 07, 2024 09:06 AM (U3L4U)

7 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I can't really decide what to read next. Nothing is holding my interest past a few pages right now.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 07, 2024 09:06 AM (OX9vb)

8 Okay, on to the book talk. Last week, Perfesser, you asked for series recommendations, but I arrived too late. Well, I fixed that but good this week, and can wholeheartedly point you in the direction of Donald E. Westlake's delightful Dortmunder novels. John Dortmunder is a dour sort, with good reason: He's a professional thief with a sharp mind, but burdened with a crew of colorful idiots and the world's second-worst luck (the gang never makes its big scores, but they don't exactly get caught, either). This just might be the funniest run of crime novels ever.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024 09:06 AM (wwf+q)

9 Doing the Wolfus today. Supposed to be around 120° today. Wash car before sunup.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 09:06 AM (FEZee)

10 Morning, book folken!

I'm reading the first in Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden magic/PI series, Storm Front. A lot of fun so far. The cover illustration of Harry in his duster (and with a tall straight black fedora) makes me think of Hugh Jackman in the role. Since the first of the X-Men movies with Jackman as Wolverine didn't appear until 2000, the year this book came out, I don't know if Butcher could have had HJ in mind when he wrote the novel in the late '90s. But I might not be surprised.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:06 AM (omVj0)

11 OH--I have been listening to Crichton's State of Fear while cooking and the like. It's good. Just makes me angry (-er) at the climate change hysteria industry.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 07, 2024 09:07 AM (OX9vb)

12 Still reading the Oppenheimer book

I'm up to the part where the US is testing H-bombs, and the deepstate* knives are out for Oppenheimer and anybody else who questions the wisdom of stockpiling thermonuclear weapons

*I believe the deepstate was born at the end of WWII

Posted by: Don Black at July 07, 2024 09:07 AM (/7KEl)

13 I read People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. This has been recommended here several times. It is probably in the best top ten I have ever read. If you like historical fiction, or just a good story, read this book.

Posted by: Glenn Mackett at July 07, 2024 09:08 AM (rGaN8)

14 I finished "Rumpole and the Age of Miracles." How can a book that came out while I was in college be 40 years old and have such dated elements??!! T'ain't right.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 09:08 AM (p/isN)

15 random thoughts:

what distinguishes literature from "just a story"?
- good writing should be obvious, but defining good writing is like defining good wine
-- the subject matter: relationships and/or the eternal things of the world

Posted by: yara at July 07, 2024 09:08 AM (jwDtS)

16 Not much reading this week. Skipping around in various novels but haven't actually finished any of 'em, even though they're good.

I'd say it's a case of the Mondays, but, well...

Unread Simenons beckon.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 09:08 AM (q3u5l)

17 Reminded by comments last week, I recommend A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell. This is a foundational work to understand the dichotomy in our political and social discourse. Many of you have read this seminal work; for those who have not, it truly is required reading in order to understand how so many issues have two sides that can rarely even properly debate. The constrained vision, the one that conservatives relate to, so brilliantly argued by Adam Smith, believes that humans are imperfect and selfish, and their self interest drives them to improve themselves and indirectly benefits their fellow man. The unconstrained vision, exemplified by Rousseau, believes man is perfectible, and can not only be molded to perfection, but that it is a moral imperative to do so and this end justifies any means. To an unconstrained mind, when a mob surrounds a courthouse to threaten a judge or jury to return a ruling they want, this is not damaging to the legal system, it is forcing the system to do the "right" thing. To a constrained mind, the ends never justify the means. For one to truly understand the driving force behind these divisions, this book is a vital resource.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 09:09 AM (zctuX)

18 Well, I fixed that but good this week, and can wholeheartedly point you in the direction of Donald E. Westlake's delightful Dortmunder novels. John Dortmunder is a dour sort, with good reason: He's a professional thief with a sharp mind, but burdened with a crew of colorful idiots and the world's second-worst luck (the gang never makes its big scores, but they don't exactly get caught, either). This just might be the funniest run of crime novels ever.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024

***
I describe it to people as "Imagine the Seinfeld characters as professional thieves and con artists." The series is a delight. From what I've read, Westlake was starting The Hot Rock, the first in the series, as one of his grim Parker the pro thief crime novels. But, he said, "It kept coming out funny."

And I know Dortmunder is described as a rather small dour man. But Robert Redford's comic style -- nobody does comic exasperation better -- was perfect as Dortmunder in that film. Plus you had George Segal and Ron Leibman, and a script by William Goldman. Hard to go wrong.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:10 AM (omVj0)

19 Just finished a re-read of Michael Connolly's "Void Moon." I'd read it long ago so it was all new to me.

Set in Vegas and L.A., it's one the author's stand-alones, not featuring his Harry Bosch or Mickey Haller characters. This one's all-criminals.

I really like crime novels set in Vegas. Anybody know of some good ones?

Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 07, 2024 09:11 AM (ZtgZZ)

20 random thoughts (cont)

I should've added that "just stories" worth reading need to be well written too. I read a story last week which wasn't well written.

Posted by: yara at July 07, 2024 09:11 AM (jwDtS)

21 Dr Who after Peter Davison is all pants. And not in a good way.

Posted by: setnaffa at July 07, 2024 09:11 AM (nOVGb)

22 "A small man is made of small thoughts."

~ Victor Hugo

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 07, 2024 09:11 AM (dg+HA)

23 For Pendergast fans, the next (and supposedly last) of the series, "Angel of Vengeance" comes out August 13. Preston and Child swear this will tie up any loose ends they've played with in the series.

You have been warned.

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 09:11 AM (zudum)

24 FIRST! My first first!
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024 09:00 AM

Congratulations! They say you always remember your first.

Now go for a first on the ONT, known as the Primus Noctus.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at July 07, 2024 09:12 AM (TTO0Z)

25 I have been listening to Crichton's State of Fear while cooking and the like. It's good. Just makes me angry (-er) at the climate change hysteria industry.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs

Crichton really captures the spirit of the left in the book.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 09:13 AM (zctuX)

26 what distinguishes literature from "just a story"?
- good writing should be obvious, but defining good writing is like defining good wine
-- the subject matter: relationships and/or the eternal things of the world
Posted by: yara at July 07, 2024

***
And what distinguishes a soap opera from drama? In my view, in a drama the characters are just doing the best they can in the situations they find themselves in. Soap operas, I think, usually feature someone who is doing evil or horribly mischievous things just for power, or the fun of it, of watching people squirm. I dunno; I've watched few soap operas in my time.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:13 AM (omVj0)

27 Good morning all!
We’re studying the seven churches in Revelations in church. No surprise we’re Laodicea.

Posted by: Jmel at July 07, 2024 09:13 AM (bVhJi)

28 Finished Oathbringer, the third in the Brandon Sanderson Stormlight Archive series. Parts of it make *much* more sense now that I've listened to Warbreaker recently.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 07, 2024 09:14 AM (XjtdB)

29 Morning all.
Thank you Perfessor for the book thread.
I had to put down A Distant Mirror. Just lost interest. Felt like I was reading just to read.
Haven't commited to what comes off the stack next.
Being as my brain is now a blob of mush over that stupid D&D game I started playing on the grands Xbox I might do the Icewind Dale trilogy (stupid game won't let me go there yet) again. Been probably 30 years since I read those.

Posted by: Reforger at July 07, 2024 09:14 AM (xcIvR)

30 I dont consider dr who after davison canon not the paul mccann stand up film

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 09:14 AM (PXvVL)

31 On the Kindle I read Windrush: Warriors of God by Malcolm Archibald. In the sixth of the series, Captain Windrush has left the 113th foot and has been assigned to the Northwest Frontier of India to lead the Guides behind enemy lines during the Ambela Campaign of 1863. They fight the Pushtans an the fanatical Mujahidin in Afghanistan.

Posted by: Glenn Mackett at July 07, 2024 09:14 AM (rGaN8)

32 That bookish problem doesn't apply to me. I always take two or three.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 09:15 AM (zctuX)

33 "Kub, the world's first mass marketed meat concentrate appeared in Picasso's Landscape with Posters in 1912. The book insists that's the source of calling Picasso's work, Cubism. A poster for a hair tonic, Dada, led to art in the style of the poster being called Dadaism."
****
Hmm. In the course of earning an MA in art history, the versions I learned were:
1. Cubism was named (derisively) after the cubic shapes in early work by Georges Braque and Picasso.
2. Dada was named by stabbing a dictionary with a knife, the point being found through the word "dada," a colloquialism for a rocking-horse.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024 09:15 AM (wwf+q)

34 I really like crime novels set in Vegas. Anybody know of some good ones?
Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 07, 2024

***
William Goldman had one called Edged Weapons, also called Heat. It became a film with Burt Reynolds, I think.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:15 AM (omVj0)

35 I continue to be impressed by the many, many insights in Judi Dench's "Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent." In discussing the characters she has played over the decades she reveals how and why the plays are so effective and profound. Seeing how acting makes the story come alive, more so than simply reading the plays like literature. After all, they were never meant to be read but watched and heard.

I realized I kept reaching for a highlighter to note many passages and this was a library book. I broke down and bought my own copy.

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 09:17 AM (zudum)

36 I just finished reading "The Far Side of the World," the 10th in O'Brian's Master and Commander series (and one on which the movie was partly based). It took me a bit to start on this, because I once saw a dustjacket saying they would meet a tribe of women warriors in their travels and thought to myself, "oh dear, we're not going that route, are we?" But as often happens, the modern summary didn't fit what was actually in the book, and I enjoyed it like all the others.

One thing I learned after looking it up was that the Surprise was not only a real ship, it suppressed the bloodiest mutiny in British naval history (the Hermione, in 1797).

Posted by: Dr. T at July 07, 2024 09:17 AM (jGGMD)

37 Finished books 2 and 3 of the four-part Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simons.

Rollicking Space Opera, with starship chase scenes.
Lots of menace for our heroes to overcome.

Underlying this adventure is consistent world building, some good character development and arcs (in the villains). Behind the putative villains are the true bad guys, manipulating the Universe for no good.

The writing is so rich, I can only reread it every decade or more. Like all sugar and fat in the middle of a keto diet.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 07, 2024 09:17 AM (u82oZ)

38 FIRST! My first first!
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024 09:00 AM (wwf+q)
===

Yowza!

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 07, 2024 09:18 AM (RIvkX)

39 Good Morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 07, 2024 09:18 AM (u82oZ)

40 "The Testament by Eric Van Lustbader"

Interesting that we have chicken authors - It's always Christianity or Christ himself as a topic. Why not try Mohammedanism? Lots of juicy stuff there: war, cruelty, barbarism, pedophilia, sodomy, bestiality. Enough? There is more .....!

Posted by: Ciampino - Oui Inspecteur, apparement c'est barbare at July 07, 2024 09:18 AM (qfLjt)

41 Here's another vote for the Dortmunder books. I read "The Hot Rock" in high school but sort of buzzed through the ending. Finally rectified that last weekend.

I haven't (yet) read the next few books in the series, but I own four of the last five. Was going to use inter-library loan to get the earlier ones, but it's being revamped and won't resume operations until September. Considering that it was supposed to restart in May ... we'll see.

Westlake's "regulars" at the bar make me laugh out loud.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 09:19 AM (p/isN)

42 Blind Tiger by Sandra Brown is an historical thriller set in the early 1920s and based on the moonshine wars in Glen Rose, Texas. A young woman who is estranged from her family is suddenly widowed and dependent on her father-in-law for support. She discovers the FIL has a moonshine business on the side, with distribution covered by his business as a handyman. She decides to go into the pie baking business as another cover for moonshine distribution, thus expanding the new family business. Established moonshiners, a local speakeasy and brothel, corrupt politicians, a woman who goes missing the same day a stranger shows up in town, a mix of interesting personalities, and deadly moonshine wars make for an thrilling page turner.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 07, 2024 09:19 AM (U3L4U)

43 Mornin' Horde. I'm finishing up That Hideous Strength this morning. The whole trilogy was difficult reading for me, but worth it. Will re-read.

Not sure what to pick up next. I may switch back to my other C.S., that is C.S. Harris, with #11 of the St Cyr series.

Posted by: screaming in digital at July 07, 2024 09:20 AM (iZbyp)

44 And what distinguishes a soap opera from drama? In my view, in a drama the characters are just doing the best they can in the situations they find themselves in. Soap operas, I think, usually feature someone who is doing evil or horribly mischievous things just for power, or the fun of it, of watching people squirm. I dunno; I've watched few soap operas in my time.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:13 AM (omVj0)

Also, soap operas rely on an evil twin surfacing at least once a year.

Posted by: Dr. T at July 07, 2024 09:20 AM (jGGMD)

45 Because they dont want to die.

I think brad thor did examine some aspects in the first commandment

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 09:20 AM (PXvVL)

46 July 5th the latest copy of Muzzleloader magazine arrived which was timely and appropriate to the Independence Day holiday. Hours of reading about history, black powder firearms and accoutrements, and crafts needed for the new nation. Ahhh! Life is good.

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 09:21 AM (zudum)

47 Starting my second read of The Eye of the World. Have to say that the book is way better than the show.

Posted by: sinalco at July 07, 2024 09:22 AM (yODqO)

48 Reforger

A Distant Mirror was quite good, but what I took away is a highly successful man and his fate.

Sir de Coucy had everything a person could want in life. It appeared he rarely ever failed. Then, on a campaign, his sound advice was over-ridden by less skilled superior officers. The new plan was a disaster, and he was captured.

Sir de Coucy had limited coping skills with adversity, and he died quickly thereafter. Maybe he lacked true resilience, which is forged by overcoming failure.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 07, 2024 09:22 AM (u82oZ)

49 Still working my way through Fenton Wood's _Yankee Republic_. Not sure what I think of it. The magic realist fantasy elements are good, the radio nerdery is good . . . but the alternate history makes me uneasy. We're in a world where (apparently) the Normans never conquered Britain and the US stops at the Mississippi, but the steamboat General Slocum fire is still one of New York's most terrible tragedies?

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 07, 2024 09:23 AM (78a2H)

50 Here's another vote for the Dortmunder books. I read "The Hot Rock" in high school but sort of buzzed through the ending. Finally rectified that last weekend.

I haven't (yet) read the next few books in the series, but I own four of the last five. Was going to use inter-library loan to get the earlier ones, but it's being revamped and won't resume operations until September. Considering that it was supposed to restart in May ... we'll see.

Westlake's "regulars" at the bar make me laugh out loud.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024

***
The second novel is called Bank Shot and involves a plan by Dortmunder & Co. to steal . . . an entire bank. There is also another, later entry with the greatest title: What's the Worst That Could Happen?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:24 AM (omVj0)

51 Also, soap operas rely on an evil twin surfacing at least once a year.
Posted by: Dr. T at July 07, 2024

***
I'd forgotten that. You won't find that in a real drama.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:25 AM (omVj0)

52 Also, soap operas rely on an evil twin surfacing at least once a year.
Posted by: Dr. T at July 07, 2024 09:20 AM (jGGMD)
---
Conventional drama has a story arc. Soap operas have story arcs that never actually end - they go on as long as the show, which often requires characters being radically transformed, assumed dead, actually dead, and so on.

There's also the episodic format and season cliff-hanger, which breaks it up. These are what set them apart from other types of storytelling.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:25 AM (llXky)

53 Are there any soap operas still on?

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 07, 2024 09:26 AM (78a2H)

54 52 Also, soap operas rely on an evil twin surfacing at least once a year.
Posted by: Dr. T at July 07, 2024 09:20 AM (jGGMD)
---
Conventional drama has a story arc. Soap operas have story arcs that never actually end - they go on as long as the show, which often requires characters being radically transformed, assumed dead, actually dead, and so on.

There's also the episodic format and season cliff-hanger, which breaks it up. These are what set them apart from other types of storytelling.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:25 AM (llXky)
That’s it! The Biden we see is the good! The evil one stays out of sight.

Posted by: Eromero at July 07, 2024 09:28 AM (LHPAg)

55 Passions jumped the shark so did port charles with vsmpires

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 09:30 AM (PXvVL)

56 @50 --

IIRC, "What's the Worst .." includes a caper in Las Vegas.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 09:30 AM (p/isN)

57 47 Starting my second read of The Eye of the World. Have to say that the book is way better than the show.
Posted by: sinalco

The show is bad. I watched the first two seasons and decided there's no way I'm watching anymore. Great costumes though. LOL

Posted by: Tuna at July 07, 2024 09:30 AM (oaGWv)

58 I came across a reference to Chesterton's "The Ballad of the White Horse" and it reinforced my distant memory of why it is so applicable to our culture today. Yes, it was published in 1911 but Chesterton was concerned, and alarmed, by the same anti-Western, anti-Christian, and nihilism so prevalent now. I dug out my copy and have started to give it the attention it deserves. I suspect this will be a long and enjoyable voyage. And I love balladic poetry. The rhythms and rhymes add to the power of the words.

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 09:30 AM (zudum)

59 It was more than dark shadows which was a vampire soap opera

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 09:30 AM (PXvVL)

60 Conventional drama has a story arc. Soap operas have story arcs that never actually end - they go on as long as the show, which often requires characters being radically transformed, assumed dead, actually dead, and so on.

There's also the episodic format and season cliff-hanger, which breaks it up. These are what set them apart from other types of storytelling.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:25 AM (llXky)
---
This is a pretty accurate description of the Legend of Drizzt novels by R.A. Salvatore. They started out as conventional fantasy novels, but have very much evolved into a long-running literary soap opera.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 07, 2024 09:31 AM (BpYfr)

61 I'm little over halfway through Philip Jowett's Rays of the Rising Sun, the first volume in a projected series of books covering Japan's 'puppet' armies before and during WW II.

It is a well-researched book, and I will give it 5 stars because this is a very obscure topic and the book contributes significant information. However, the editing is sub-par, particularly in the fact that Jowett keeps putting "puppet" in scare quotes. This is appropriate at the introduction, but after that, the modifier is tedious. We get it, we know Manchukuo was a puppet state. Don't keep reminding us!

There are also some strange turns of phrase and sentence constructions that I had to read twice to figure out what the author meant.

I incorporated Jowett's earlier work on China into Walls of Men, and there is a short Osprey book on the same topic for those interested in a less detailed treatment.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:31 AM (llXky)

62 Comic books have a similarly unending story, and the cleverer comics writers have found a way to square the circle of resolution vs. ongoing narrative by having stories in which some other person goes through a story arc in the course of their interactions with the unchanging superhero protagonist. Do soaps do something similar?

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 07, 2024 09:31 AM (78a2H)

63 Conventional drama has a story arc. Soap operas have story arcs that never actually end - they go on as long as the show, which often requires characters being radically transformed, assumed dead, actually dead, and so on.

There's also the episodic format and season cliff-hanger, which breaks it up. These are what set them apart from other types of storytelling.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024

***
Well, I was thinking more about novels that are described as soap operas -- the kind of things Sidney Sheldon and Nora Roberts produced -- as opposed to a real drama. But what you say is true of TV, for sure.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:32 AM (omVj0)

64 I think all of Westlake's Dortmunder series is available on Kindle, most of 'em from Open Road Media, which occasionally drops prices to 2.99.

If you like Westlake in non-humorous mode, there's the Parker series (also all on Kindle). But there are plenty of stand-alones as well, and of these The Ax is a must for any Westlake fan. And for Book threaders, his later title The Hook should be in your to-be-read pile; think Strangers on a Train meets the book business.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 09:33 AM (q3u5l)

65 46 July 5th the latest copy of Muzzleloader magazine arrived which was timely and appropriate to the Independence Day holiday. Hours of reading about history, black powder firearms and accoutrements, and crafts needed for the new nation. Ahhh! Life is good.
Posted by: JTB
--------
You outta write something up for Weasel and the gub thread sorta black powder for beginners.

I have a few blackpowder muzzle loaders and a couple of military black powder era rifles but due to living in suburbia, few places near me to shoot them outdoors (no range would allow me to shoot them indoors, I am sure). So my practical experience with them is much less than my book experience on those firearms.

Sharing some of that would be very useful even the minor tips like static electricity avoidance and whether Goex is still a going concern.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 09:35 AM (/0X3E)

66 My first first! --Posted by: werewife

Huzzah. I am happy for you. You go, girl.

Soap operas were called that, of course, because of their first sponsors. If Kub and Oxo had been in there swinging, we'd have meat operas. Some of us may have seen one or two of those.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 07, 2024 09:35 AM (zdLoL)

67 Comment: Does advertising really work anymore? We are so inundated with ads that it's possible our brain just filters them out.

The art of sales prefers that the customer walks into your shop with the intent to buy, not that a salesman has to persuade a warm call. Edward Bernays showed us the way through propaganda.

For the three frogs, "Bud"... "Weiss" ... "Er" to work, it must become part of the popular Now culture. With "Diversity" and a valueless culture, that is all but impossible to hit that critical mass. Marketing must be fragmented. You can't say that you want your product to appeal to a new fringe group without understanding that you will alienate the Converted (ref: Bud Light)

(cont...)

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at July 07, 2024 09:35 AM (rHxhM)

68 49 Still working my way through Fenton Wood's _Yankee Republic_. . . . but the alternate history makes me uneasy.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 07, 2024 09:23 AM (78a2H)

Alternate history makes me queasy, too. I am not sure which I find more repellent--alternate history or time travel.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 07, 2024 09:36 AM (OX9vb)

69 I should mention that the book I am reading centers on China and Manchuria. China had a number of proxy forces in play, and one of the features of China's military was that troops tended to serve their generals rather than a specific cause, so whole armies could defect (and defect back!) without the troops much caring about it.

While everyone thinks of China as having two sides (KMT vs CCP), the KMT had several splinter groups who broke away to side with Japan (but still fought the Communists). Jowett does a good job of explaining this and also how soldiers in Chinese culture are considered nothing more than uniformed bandits - because that is often what they were.

There is also an exploration of how Nationalist troops may have been ordered to defect in order to preserve their combat capability against the Communists, who always were the greater threat.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:37 AM (llXky)

70 Also, soap operas rely on an evil twin surfacing at least once a year.
Posted by: Dr. T at July 07, 2024 09:20 AM (jGGMD)

Space operas let you find new problems to solve. I point to the "Bob and Nikki" books by Jerry Boyd. Now up to #48, there is always a new system to explore, with lots of new friends to meet and old enemies lurking in the background.

It may not be great literature, but I like it.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 09:38 AM (Lvojk)

71 A Distant Mirror was quite good, but what I took away is a highly successful man and his fate.

Sir de Coucy had everything a person could want in life. It appeared he rarely ever failed. Then, on a campaign, his sound advice was over-ridden by less skilled superior officers. The new plan was a disaster, and he was captured.

Sir de Coucy had limited coping skills with adversity, and he died quickly thereafter. Maybe he lacked true resilience, which is forged by overcoming failure.
Posted by: NaCly Dog
========
Nothing is certain in life which is a hard lesson to learn.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 09:38 AM (/0X3E)

72 Now reading Erik Larsen's "Isaac's Storm," about the one that ruined Galveston in 1900.

He logs the stories all from historical records of hurricanes over the previous couple millennia, which would serve up a huge refutation to the climate screamers of today.

It wasn't even known they were circular until maybe the late 1800s.

Before the storm, Galveston was a Texas port of great importance, more so than Houston. The storm ruined the city and killed over 8,000. Erased and gone, it never recovered. Proportionally, it dwarfed what Katrina did to New Orleans.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 07, 2024 09:39 AM (ZtgZZ)

73 & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 07, 2024 09:18 AM

I'm doing my goodest.

Posted by: Joey B. at July 07, 2024 09:40 AM (NlwkK)

74 If you like Westlake in non-humorous mode, there's the Parker series (also all on Kindle). But there are plenty of stand-alones as well, and of these The Ax is a must for any Westlake fan. And for Book threaders, his later title The Hook should be in your to-be-read pile; think Strangers on a Train meets the book business.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024

***
Westlake, Lawrence Block, and several other up-and-coming writers knew each other well in NYC during the early Sixties when they were getting their start. Block has done some lighthearted crime/detective stories, such as his Bernie Rhodenbarr series. Bernie is a pro thief -- think Alexander Mundy without the glamour or spying -- who often gets himself in hot water in the middle of a heist y finding a murder, and has to solve it to clear himself.

Block also did some comic parodies of the Nero Wolfe series, the Chip Harrison books.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:40 AM (omVj0)

75 I want a wall with floor-to-ceiling shelves...

I managed to go the entire month of June without buying a single book! It was my small act of defiance against a month that was getting obnoxious. Plus, it allowed me to make a serious dent in my to-be-read pile. If I did that for another 11 months, I might actually reach the point where I've read most of the books on my shelf.

Alas, that is not to be. I just put in an order for three new sword-and-sorcery comics. Because I love sword and sorcery, and I need to encourage the comic book publishers produce more works in the genre. Anyways, one book is by a writer I know and trust, so I'm excited about that on. Another book is by a writer I don't know, but I've heard good things about the series. The last book is from a writer I actively distrust, but who clearly has a passion for the genre, so I'm giving it a shot, just because I'm desperate for reading material. I'm hoping for the best, even if I'm not expecting it...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 09:41 AM (Lhaco)

76 (...cont)
The new cool is subconscious "presuation". A concept where a subtle meme is embedded into your target culture such where you think about it but don't know why.

Have you ever been talking about X, a topic that you never really talk about, then because you know that you rarely if ever talk about it are spooked when an advertisement for X or something in the family of X appears in your browser or a push advertising on a mobile app?

You are so spooked by it that you swear that covert entities are listening in to your conversations and are tailoring ads just for you. Its very likely that you are responding to Presuation where an idea was placed into your head at the subconscious level and it surfaced in a conversation, because you have been manipulated into thinking about it, which then nudges you into buying that product or service and you go to the sales floor ready to buy, not ready to be manipulated by a salesman.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at July 07, 2024 09:41 AM (rHxhM)

77 Follow-on to my comment in 58.

Last night I learned that Malcolm Guite some years ago narrated Chesterton's "Ballad of the White Horse" and it is available as a free download. I am thrilled. Guite, in addition to being a wonderful poet, has the ability to bring narratives and poems alive with his readings and insights. I haven't had a chance to listen yet but will this week.

The downloads can be found on Guite's Wordpress dot com site. Look for his October 10, 2011 post.

I should find out if there is a way to create a CD from the downloads. The laptop doesn't have a CD drive, dammit!

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 09:41 AM (zudum)

78 Hmm. In the course of earning an MA in art history, the versions I learned were:
1. Cubism was named (derisively) after the cubic shapes in early work by Georges Braque and Picasso.
2. Dada was named by stabbing a dictionary with a knife, the point being found through the word "dada," a colloquialism for a rocking-horse.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024 09:15 AM (wwf+q)

Ok, Wolfus stuff done. Werewife, that's what the author said. I have no idea if it's true, but you can see the paintings mentioned, and Kub and Dada were, or are, products advertised around the time cubism and dada were getting started. Plausible, but not necessarily true.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 09:41 AM (0eaVi)

79 Individual stories in comics have an end, but the betrer writers seed elements of the next adventure in the current story to whet the reader's appetite for what's coming.

However, some -- 1990s X-Men, I mean you -- never get around to resolving some stories. We had to wait years to learn Gambit's great dark secret. It couldn't have matched the buildup, and it didn't.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 09:41 AM (p/isN)

80 Comic books have a similarly unending story, and the cleverer comics writers have found a way to square the circle of resolution vs. ongoing narrative by having stories in which some other person goes through a story arc in the course of their interactions with the unchanging superhero protagonist. Do soaps do something similar?
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 07, 2024 09:31 AM (78a2H)
----
I'm not an expert, but many years ago, it was customary at my job for everyone to eat lunch in the break room and watch The Young and the Restless. I don't know why, it was that way when I got there.

A classic device to stretch the series is to add a new character who goes around stirring things up, forcing the established ones to react, which in turn creates new plot lines. Kind of like a new villain in comics, but in soaps they can be more nuanced.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:42 AM (llXky)

81 Just read "Red Man," the second book in Richard Fox's "The Weapon" series that began with "Battleborne".

Dude gets killed in the Second Korean War, but he's turned into a cyborg with a thing called "The Imperative" in his skull by a rich asshole working for the US government. He regains consciousness, which is NOT supposed to happen, and he also has some kind of demon inside his head called "Red Man" that drives him to increasing acts of violence. He retains enough of his humanity that he only kills evil people, but he's swiftly going off the rails mentally and physicall. He escapes the government program and is hunted relentlessly as he tries to find a fix for his predicament.

Pretty good story, which is a prequel to Fox's "Ember War" military sci-fi series. The billionaire who creates the protagonist in Battleborne/Red Man has secret knowledge that an alien race is going to lay waste to Earth in the future, and he's desperately trying to create weapons systems to fight them. He's evil and uses up a lot of people to do so, but he's trying to save Earth. The Ember War series is a very good read.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 07, 2024 09:43 AM (/RHNq)

82 (...cont)

This is the art of AI in marketing. This is the automation of what Edward Bernays perfected by having the culture be willing to pay more for junk meat (bacon) than in a USDA Prime steak.

AI is able to do all of that presuation and pepper your link experience, your searches and soon, the AI generated content that will replace usual articles and blogs that nudge you into thinking about a product or service you really weren't interested in before.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at July 07, 2024 09:44 AM (rHxhM)

83 As an accompaniment to Loren Estleman's "Paperback Jack", I checked out "Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955" by Lee Server.

The cover illustrations "offered endless variations on recurring motifs, namely crimson-lipped females in lingerie, granite-jawed tough guys, blazing .45s, rumpled bedsheets, neon-lit hotel rooms, a blue-gray haze of cigarette smoke, alleyways and street corners at permanent midnight."

The titles alone are worth a perusal, never mind the covers:

Twelve Chinamen and a Woman (it was tastefully reworded from "Chink")
"Leg-Art" Virgin
Musk, Hashish, and Blood
Office Sinner
Lady, Don't Die on My Doorstep
Sucker Bait
Swamp Hoyden
Hitch-Hike Hussy
Women's Barracks

For me, the funniest shit is the artistic license used in illustrating classics by, say, Orwell, with the Ashcan School hotties in pencil skirts and bullet bras.

The Beats got exposure because Ginsberg's psych ward buddy had an uncle at Ace and the friend became a sort of literary agent to Burroughs, Kerouac, et Al.

LOL, Ginsberg called the Ace Doubles "69s".

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 07, 2024 09:44 AM (kpS4V)

84 69 I should mention that the book I am reading centers on China and Manchuria. China had a number of proxy forces in play, and one of the features of China's military was that troops tended to serve their generals rather than a specific cause, so whole armies could defect (and defect back!) without the troops much caring about it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
------
Warlordism was largely extinguished in the West after Westphalia and the advent of the nation state. It is perhaps possible that it will return given that globalism has severely damaged the nation state in favor of the global universal one.

Faith in something bigger is necessary for young men (and now women) to die for the cause. Otherwise, it all becomes a business arrangement.

Just for curiousity, have you ever read H. Beam Piper's fictional Lord Kalvan of Otherwhere book.

He integrates in a most amusing fashion his love for antique firearms and the lessons taught by Sir Charles Oman in his series of books. You might enjoy it.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 09:45 AM (/0X3E)

85 As a teenager, I read many of the Star Trek novels as well as The Destroyer (Remo Williams) novels. This past week I read the first book in the Destroyer series. It was a Kinde freebie I had downloaded a while back. It. Was. AWFUL. I know it's pulp fiction, and I'm willing to suspend disbelief with the idea of a super-assassin who could put his fist through a car door or dodge bullets, but at least give me a logical plot and decently written supporting characters. Teenage me must've not been much of a literary critic...

Posted by: PabloD at July 07, 2024 09:45 AM (iFWPe)

86 Does advertising really work anymore? We are so inundated with ads that it's possible our brain just filters them out. Or the ads insinuate themselves into our brain subconsciously, so we don't even notice that we are picking out brands at the supermarket determined by the ads we've viewed.

Perf, the author does speak about that. I think that's why they started targeting certain demographics with certain products and styles. Constant bombardment of ads makes people ignore them.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 09:45 AM (0eaVi)

87
Space operas let you find new problems to solve. I point to the "Bob and Nikki" books by Jerry Boyd. Now up to #48, there is always a new system to explore, with lots of new friends to meet and old enemies lurking in the background.

It may not be great literature, but I like it.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024

***
A stand-alone novel or short story depicts the most important moment in the protagonist's life -- the biggest decision he will ever make or crisis he will have to face. A book series or TV series can't do that the same way, or it would descend into melodrama. There may be critical adventures along the way -- Ellery Queen's crisis of confidence in the late Forties novels, Capt. Kirk's decision whether to save Edith Keeler -- but a series either depicts lesser adventures (though they should still be important), or has a non-series "guest" character who suffers the most important moment in his life.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:45 AM (omVj0)

88 Block and Westlake collaborated on some novels back when they were both supplementing their income by writing for a couple of the extremely-soft-core-by-today's-standards paperback publishers. Block has reissued some of those as ebooks, and the Block-Westlake collaborations are available again too. Ditto some of Robert Silverberg's.

One Westlake I'd like to see available for Kindle is Adios Scheherazade. It's about a guy under contract to deliver yet another soft-core novel and he just can't bring himself to write the stuff any more. Read it years ago; as with so many I find plot details blurred now, but as I recall it was funny as hell.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 09:47 AM (q3u5l)

89 Sir de Coucy had limited coping skills with adversity, and he died quickly thereafter. Maybe he lacked true resilience, which is forged by overcoming failure.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 07, 2024 09:22 AM (u82oZ)
---
Just living in the 14th Century required resiliency at a level few people today possess. Lots of ways to drop dead back then, regardless of your emotional stability.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:47 AM (llXky)

90 I’m just about finished reading Dracula, apparently for the first time. It’s one of those books that is so ingrained in our culture that it felt like I’d already read it until I started rereading it. Pretty much nothing like the movies, although the old Bella Lugosi version comes closest.

It’s brilliant. It’s a real team book, and told in I think the phrase is epistolary form via diaries, doctors’ notes, news clippings circling into the true horror of what is happening to these women.

The hard part is that so much of it has since become standard. I’m pretty sure we know a lot more going in than readers of its era, because it was so deservedly successful.

It is hard to believe that the same author wrote Lair of the White Worm.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 07, 2024 09:47 AM (EXyHK)

91 I just finished "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon. The buy got a Pulitzer Prize out of it.

I really enjoyed it but the ending...there wasn't one. The guy just kind of stopped writing leaving everything hanging.

The author is a very good story teller.

I highly recommend it.

Posted by: pawn at July 07, 2024 09:48 AM (QB+5g)

92 For me, the funniest shit is the artistic license used in illustrating classics by, say, Orwell, with the Ashcan School hotties in pencil skirts and bullet bras.

The Beats got exposure because Ginsberg's psych ward buddy had an uncle at Ace and the friend became a sort of literary agent to Burroughs, Kerouac, et Al.

LOL, Ginsberg called the Ace Doubles "69s".
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 07, 2024

***
I'd extend that golden age of paperback pulp into the mid- to late Sixties. Signet and other houses were still using partly-clad, sexy women on their covers to sell books (even if they had little titillation in them) as late as the early Seventies.

The Ace Doubles, that makes sense. The two halves were reversed; you read one, then turned it 180 degrees for the second one.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:48 AM (omVj0)

93 Reading Jim Geraghty's "Hunting Four Horseman". I read the first book, "Between Two Scorpions" earlier this week. Not bad but the second book was not well edited, I found several typos. I also suspect Geraghty was/is a Covidiot based on his second book where Covid is prominently featured. He had a comment to the effect that non-vaccinated people were hiding out in the wilderness and "off the reservation" IYKWIM.But I am enjoying them because he drops phases that are used here frequently throughout his writing.

Posted by: lin-duh at July 07, 2024 09:49 AM (PZo5T)

94 AI is able to do all of that presuation and pepper your link experience, your searches and soon, the AI generated content that will replace usual articles and blogs that nudge you into thinking about a product or service you really weren't interested in before.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure
======
You outta read Pixy Misa's thread a bit more. AI has a lot less going for it than believed and the serious limitations are baked into the cake of LLM models.

In other words, it is today's block chain fad and like that, it is driving a huge bubble in the market (look at NVIDIA's grossly excessive valuation for example) all based on the idea that corporations can somehow translate gobs of information via AI processors into something useful using probability theory to predict patterns using tokens.

Essentially it is big data run amuck and the problem with that is that it actually conceals as much as it reveals.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 09:50 AM (/0X3E)

95 65 ... "You outta write something up for Weasel and the gub thread sorta black powder for beginners."

Hi whig,

That's a thought. I've touched on BP topics in the comments over the years. I'm hardly an expert but know how to shoot BP guns safely and maintain them. I'll ask Weasel if he would like a fuller treatment at some point. There are a few of us on the gub thread who enjoy muzzleloading for various reasons.

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 09:50 AM (zudum)

96 Two ancient religious orders go to war. One faction seeks to protect secret knowledge about the truth of Jesus Christ that would unravel 2000 years of history if it was revealed to the world, along with an even more precious item.

I don't read those kind of books, Perf. But, let me guess. The secret knowledge is Jesus was a space alien, or was gay, or was married, or wasn't really on the cross. Or, he was a gay space alien who got Mary Mag pregnant, then abandoned her. Because of that, she became a lesbian and was the true head of the church. Is that about right?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 09:50 AM (0eaVi)

97 I went back to reading some Cossack stories this week, starting with more of Harold Lamb's "Swords of the Steppes" collection. Most of the short stories in the collection are serious in tone, but I did run across one that was clearly mean to elicit a wry grin from the reader:

A Cossack was held captive in a Tartar camp, and would sure to die at their hands, unless another Cossack was able to single-handedly rescue him. Fortunately, our rescuer had two things going for him: he had a keepsake from his time campaigning in Europe, a set of bagpipes, and he had just downed an entire bottle of corn brandy (it's bad luck to uncork a bottle and not finish it, don't you know) so he was willing to try any plan, no matter how crazy! So, he spooked the Tartars by playing the bagpipes at various places just outside the village (it was night, so they couldn't see what was making the spooky music) and then snuck in to free the captive while most of the troops were out looking for the ghostly-piper.

The kicker of the story is that our hero had been so drunk during the rescue that by morning he couldn't remember any of it, as was confused when others sung his praises!

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 09:51 AM (Lhaco)

98 Morning, all.
and Thank you, Perfessor, as always.

I think I gave Larson's "The Demon of Unrest" a fair trial before ditching it. This pained me, because I am a huge Larson fan.
This one is slow, too highly detailed, and - this is an odd adjective- prissy. Or 'preachy' might be better.
I think this is a case of writing for a cause- he tips us off in the preface comparing J6 to Fort Sumter. That rarely produces a good book.

I'm on a Caryll Houselander, a long admired author, kick at the moment. I have finished the collected letters and the new bio by Mary Frances Coady and am reading 'Guilt'. This last is very timely, as it explains a lot about why people may be driven to do what they do. It was published in 1950, and of course things have only gotten worse since.

If you're not familiar with Houselander (1901-1954), she was an English artist and author, who specialized in Catholic spirituality. She was an eccentric, whose own struggles made her a counselor for others in the same boat.

Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 09:52 AM (y7DxH)

99 Perf, the author does speak about that. I think that's why they started targeting certain demographics with certain products and styles. Constant bombardment of ads makes people ignore them.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 09:45 AM (0eaVi)
---
Of course it works, but it has to be done well and it can also backfire (Hi, Bud Light!).

The Most Interesting Man in the world campaign was genius-level, and I even tried the beer.

Today much of it is just trying to maintain customer loyalty and move market share at the margins.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:53 AM (llXky)

100 I don't read those kind of books, Perf. But, let me guess. The secret knowledge is Jesus was a space alien, or was gay, or was married, or wasn't really on the cross. Or, he was a gay space alien who got Mary Mag pregnant, then abandoned her. Because of that, she became a lesbian and was the true head of the church. Is that about right?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 09:50 AM (0eaVi)
---
None of those are remotely close. It's a combination of a couple of different ideas, but when you examine them too closely, they fall apart rather fast.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 07, 2024 09:53 AM (BpYfr)

101 Have you ever been talking about X, a topic that you never really talk about, then because you know that you rarely if ever talk about it are spooked when an advertisement for X or something in the family of X appears in your browser or a push advertising on a mobile app?

You are so spooked by it that you swear that covert entities are listening in to your conversations and are tailoring ads just for you. Its very likely that you are responding to Presuation where an idea was placed into your head at the subconscious level and it surfaced in a conversation, because you have been manipulated into thinking about it, which then nudges you into buying that product or service and you go to the sales floor ready to buy, not ready to be manipulated by a salesman.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure

We used to play a game at lunch, where my colleagues and I would decide on some topic to discuss, the more arcane the better. Then we would measure how many of us would receive and ad about a product related to the subject, and how long it would take. It was impressive.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 09:53 AM (zctuX)

102 Castle Guy, I look forward to learning what those titles are.

I no longer buy current comics other than Girl Genius, although I understand that Chuck Dixon is still active. I don't want to support known political opponents, which means I never may finish Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

My comics purchases are confined to reprint TCs, mostly Marvel's Epic volumes.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 09:54 AM (p/isN)

103 Gay space alien Jesus who knocked up Mary Magdalene?

Izzat you, Dan Brown?

Posted by: PabloD at July 07, 2024 09:56 AM (iFWPe)

104 Just started Koontz series of an FBI agent whose husband commits suicide and she's looking for answers - Silent Corner is the first. It's an interested corollary to the Odd Thomas series, and Koontz is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

Also reading Fail/Safe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. It's an account of a computer glitch that starts world war III, and was published in 1962. Through the puffery of west coast academics, there are some interesting truths that I don't think they intended to relate, much like Whedon's firefly.

Posted by: Moki at July 07, 2024 09:56 AM (wLjpr)

105 they go on as long as the show, which often requires characters being radically transformed, assumed dead, actually dead, and so on.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 09:25 AM (llXky)

Another "so-on"- children aging a decade in a season.

Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 09:57 AM (y7DxH)

106 this week I finished Manning Coles' Not Negotiable, a Tommy Hambledon detective novel written in 1949. Tommy is from British Intelligence, and is in Belgium trying to track down the source of counterfeit banknotes, when he notices a young man read the back of his beer coaster in a cafe and walk out with it, to be followed by a man who arrived at the table to read the other beer coasters, and chase the first man out. Tommy, bemused, followed them both and found a corpse under a bridge, which leads to gunplay, kidnapping, Parisian street "apaches" and apprentices, officers of the French Sureté. kept women, neglected fiancees, and desperate actions to hide prior collaboration with the Nazis during occupation.
A very good detective novel, full of twists and unexpected developments, and dry bits of prose, like

"she took hold of both ankles and heaved, and Maurice came out sliding; the loose briquesttes beneath him acting upon the roller principle known to the builders of stonehenge. Giselle, with a squeak of joy, seized one ankle and the two girls towed Maurice along the passage into the kitchen with his head bumping behind him."

Hambledon books are always fun, but often melancholy

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 09:57 AM (D7oie)

107 Over 100 comments without a Matt Helm or Tolkien reference?
What happened to the Book Thread?

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 09:57 AM (Lvojk)

108 The second novel is called Bank Shot and involves a plan by Dortmunder & Co. to steal . . . an entire bank. There is also another, later entry with the greatest title: What's the Worst That Could Happen?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:24 AM (omVj0)

Ah, the George C Scott movie. The Bank Shot.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 09:57 AM (0eaVi)

109 83 As an accompaniment to Loren Estleman's "Paperback Jack", I checked out "Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955" by Lee Server.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 07, 2024 09:44 AM (kpS4V)

That looks like it's right up my alley. Going to check the library.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 07, 2024 09:58 AM (OX9vb)

110 Besides some Cossack short stories, I also read a French comic on the topic, simply called "Cossacks." The book gives me serious qualms about the morality of the French, or of modern writers in general, and I'm not sure I want to continue the series.

Book 1 introduces our main character: a member of the Winged Husars who deserts and rides to the wild east (modern Ukraine) to join the Cossacks. We're supposed to believe he deserts because he's sick of the senseless killing (in a Poland vs Russia war) but then has no qualms about killing his former comrades and mentor when they come after him for his betrayal. So, killing strangers in the context of war; breaks our heroes spirit. Killing friends that are angry at him; he can live with himself.

Why is this guy our hero? Am I supposed to like him just because he gets the most screentime? Book 2 doesn't start much better...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 09:59 AM (Lhaco)

111 Also reading Fail/Safe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. It's an account of a computer glitch that starts world war III, and was published in 1962. Through the puffery of west coast academics, there are some interesting truths that I don't think they intended to relate, much like Whedon's firefly.
Posted by: Moki at July 07, 2024

***
Not sure I've ever read that, though I oddly remember it being serialized in The Saturday Evening Post when I was a kid. (Pretty sure on that, anyway.) The film version w/ Henry Fonda was in B & W, stark, and intense.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:59 AM (omVj0)

112 I read Marine: The Life of Chesty Puller by Burke Davis. What an incredible career and what an impressive man. And managed to have a dozen rosebuds sent to his wife on the 13th of every month even when overseas.

It's surprising how often you read books about military men, where their advice on how to fight and win wars is ignored. I can imagine what he would say about our current military.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 09:59 AM (xjTDL)

113 The second novel is called Bank Shot and involves a plan by Dortmunder & Co. to steal . . . an entire bank. There is also another, later entry with the greatest title: What's the Worst That Could Happen?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024
*
Ah, the George C Scott movie. The Bank Shot.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024

***
Scott is not my idea of Dortmunder, but he could be funny on occasion.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:00 AM (omVj0)

114 Been some time since I read it, but if you're into 'Jesus ain't quite what we were told he was' stories, Michael Moorcock's novella "Behold the Man" is worth a look. A time-traveling researcher goes back to find and observe the historical Jesus, and finds him, but the man he finds is mentally disabled and couldn't possibly do what is required of the historical Jesus. What to do?

Moorcock later expanded the novella into a full novel, but the shorter version is a better read, and I think Moorcock won a Nebula for the short version.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 10:01 AM (q3u5l)

115 Warlordism was largely extinguished in the West after Westphalia and the advent of the nation state. It is perhaps possible that it will return given that globalism has severely damaged the nation state in favor of the global universal one.

Faith in something bigger is necessary for young men (and now women) to die for the cause. Otherwise, it all becomes a business arrangement.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 09:45 AM (/0X3E)
---
I would say that warlordism wasn't eliminated so much as institutionalized. The Peace of Westphalia established that the dream of a universal Christian empire in Western Europe was dead, dead, dead. There would be no reunification.

No, I'm not aware of the book, but thanks for the recommendation.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:02 AM (llXky)

116 Tolle Lege
Latest I been here in a long time.
Finished the excellent history Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson
Started Waterloo Casualties by Paul L Dawson, he is going over the events by orders and dispaches

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 10:02 AM (fwDg9)

117 I no longer buy current comics other than Girl Genius, although I understand that Chuck Dixon is still active. I don't want to support known political opponents, which means I never may finish Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

My comics purchases are confined to reprint TCs, mostly Marvel's Epic volumes.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024

***
Dixon, I think, is active at Vox Day's Arkhaven Press. They have "Arktoons" coming out at regular intervals, and Dixon did an adaptation of the film he loved as a boy, Gorgo.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:03 AM (omVj0)

118 97 I went back to reading some Cossack stories this week, starting with more of Harold Lamb's "Swords of the Steppes" collection.
Posted by: Castle Guy

Back in the '70s we read a Western called "The Cowboy and the Cossack". Cossacks are dispatched to the West to oversee the cowboys bringing a prize herd to Russia. It was quite good, as I recall. Would have made a great movie

Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 10:03 AM (y7DxH)

119 the other book I read was First Men on the Moon by Werner von Braun, which was halfway between a school book and a technical view of a moon shot, with two men, and an awful lot of technical details thought up and put in the margins on everything from orbits, to instrumentation and proposed layout for the lander.

Having read Willy Ley's much larger book, Rockets, Missiles, and Space (multiple times) I think Ley, who was also a VfR member, who left Germany before the war and wound up writing articles for Analog, Ley is a better writer.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 10:04 AM (D7oie)

120 I am home not feeling well so I get to participate in the book thread. I am reading-as part of work and devotional study- a one volume version of Matthew Henry's Biblical commentary. He was a 17th century. English Puritan minister and scholar and wrote voluminously but this is a good quick source. Not only was a smart man who loved the scripturez but I think he was also , I think, a kindly man and good pastor so for Protestants this is a good resource.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 07, 2024 10:04 AM (SYsni)

121 I'll listen to the video links later. But that "Bookish Problem" is completely true. I keep a couple of books in the car at all times just in case. And one reason I got a Kindle Paperwhite is it makes it easy to have that back-up capability. I greatly prefer physical books but my copies of LOTR won't fit in a breast pocket.

Posted by: JTB at July 07, 2024 10:05 AM (zudum)

122 112 I read Marine: The Life of Chesty Puller by Burke Davis. What an incredible career and what an impressive man. And managed to have a dozen rosebuds sent to his wife on the 13th of every month even when overseas.

It's surprising how often you read books about military men, where their advice on how to fight and win wars is ignored. I can imagine what he would say about our current military.
Posted by: Notsothoreau
=======
You bring an interesting point to the table that I have not considered and good reasons that neither generals nor their politicians can fully be trusted. Few generals, perhaps De Gaulle or a Cromwell or a Dwight Eisenhower are both politically astute and competent in military matters.

Trump's problem in part in office was that he thought the current crop of generals/admirals he appointed were professional when instead they were politicians in military suits doing what they thought best without civilian interference.

Lincoln had a similar issue with his generals.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:05 AM (/0X3E)

123 Now starting on the First World War by Martin Gilbert. It's well written but I'll have to see how far I get in it.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:05 AM (xjTDL)

124 There's only one true book on advertising -- Sterling's Gold Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man!!

https://tinyurl.com/mpf7y98x

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 10:05 AM (Jh5b+)

125 I'm reading one of ERB's lost world stories, "The Land That Time Forgot". Burroughs' works are formulaic, but it's a formula I like so I'm happily along for the ride. In this tale set in WWI, a captured U-Boat sails far off course and reaches an unknown island in the southern Pacific, Caprona. Behind its fortress-like cliffs is a land whose inhabitants, both critter and humanoid, undergo accelerated evolution.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 07, 2024 10:06 AM (kpS4V)

126 For someone who I think is well read on WWII I learned quite a few things from Guns at Last Light. Couldn't recommend it enough

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 10:06 AM (fwDg9)

127 @85 --

The Destroyer series doesn't start to click until the fourth book, "Mafia Fix," but by "Kill or CURE," (No. 11, I think), it shifts into high gear and keeps on rolling.

I stopped buying them in the 50s when I realized I was buying but not reading because I was devoting more time to comics.

I'm not ready to break up my collections.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 10:07 AM (p/isN)

128 It's surprising how often you read books about military men, where their advice on how to fight and win wars is ignored. I can imagine what he would say about our current military.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 09:59 AM (xjTDL)

Smedley Butler wrote "War is a Racket." I was quite surprised that a major USMC installation on Okinawa is named after him.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 10:07 AM (Lvojk)

129 I hope you feel better, Fen, but curling up with a good book helps.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 07, 2024 10:08 AM (kpS4V)

130 Been some time since I read it, but if you're into 'Jesus ain't quite what we were told he was' stories, Michael Moorcock's novella "Behold the Man" is worth a look. A time-traveling researcher goes back to find and observe the historical Jesus, and finds him, but the man he finds is mentally disabled and couldn't possibly do what is required of the historical Jesus. What to do?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 10:01 AM (q3u5l)
---
While vintage sci-fi does have some interesting elements, the consistent condescension regarding faith is deeply annoying. It gets worse when you find out how many of these respected authors were vile people.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:08 AM (llXky)

131 Having read Willy Ley's much larger book, Rockets, Missiles, and Space (multiple times) I think Ley, who was also a VfR member, who left Germany before the war and wound up writing articles for Analog, Ley is a better writer.
Posted by: Kindltot
=======
I have a special fondness for Ley's book but have not read it in years. For recent books on the subject, I found that A Man Called Flight (about Chris Kraft and the MSC) was an excellent book about the actual competent NASA that existed at one time.

Too bad that no one has really done a biography on Robert Gilruth who was an unsung hero at NASA and ameliorated some of the Von Braun crew's worst impulses.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:08 AM (/0X3E)

132 72 Now reading Erik Larsen's "Isaac's Storm," about the one that ruined Galveston in 1900.
The storm ruined the city and killed over 8,000. Erased and gone, it never recovered. Proportionally, it dwarfed what Katrina did to New Orleans.
Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 07, 2024 09:39 AM (ZtgZZ)

My maternal grandfather and his family survived the storm as a young boy. They had postcards of the destruction, which were horrific.
It's an excellent book and set the template for his other works.

Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 10:09 AM (y7DxH)

133 123 Now starting on the First World War by Martin Gilbert. It's well written but I'll have to see how far I get in it.
--------
Not very believable IMHO.

Starting with this Archduke guy having to take three or four wrong turns in the car before the assassin shoots him! Needless suspense undoubtedly just added to make the book more marketable to film and TV types.

And the "Black Hand"?! He might just as well have called them "KAOS"!

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 10:10 AM (Jh5b+)

134 Puller fought in Haiti, Nigaragua and Guadacanal. He was familiar with fighting insurrectionists. That came in handy in WWII. He had a willingness to learn from others. And the brass basically pushed him out at the end of his career.

Vietnam is military incompetence on full display. I'm going to read his son's autobiography when it gets here. I read it many years ago. He served in Vietnam and was horribly injured.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:11 AM (xjTDL)

135 Smedley Butler wrote "War is a Racket." I was quite surprised that a major USMC installation on Okinawa is named after him.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy
=======
He was an interesting character. However, his controversial term as Philadelphia Police Commissioner indicated that the fit between him and competent management of civilian affairs was beyond him.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:11 AM (/0X3E)

136 (part 2 of complaining about the moral values of the "Cossacks" comic book.)

Book 2 starts with an adventurer asking his lady-adventurer friend to marry him, because they love each! And she flips out because she sees marriage as a cage, and won't even listen when the adventurer tries to clarify that he isn't asking her to be a housewife. She just continues with her hysterical tirade, cries, and runs away...

The guy who admitted his love, he's the villain of the book. The hysterical girl, the female lead. The opening scene was flashback, and we are left to assume that between the flashback and the main story our spurned lover developed into a horrible person. I'm not saying that can't happen, buy why let that happen off-screen? Why start the story by showing the 'hero' wrong the 'villain?' Especially when the author is signaling that the villain is beyond reconciling.

Between this and the start of book 1, it makes me not want to cheer for the heroes. I'm not sure I can't continue with this series: I may be desperate for material in this genre, but I'm not reading something where I'm hoping to see the heroes get their comeuppance...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 10:12 AM (Lhaco)

137 I also signed up for 3 free months of Audible and am listening to a book for the first time. Not sure if I like listening to books... it's weird to me. I find that I try to multitask while listening then kind of tune out and get lost. Plus, the person reading the book changes his voice to the different characters and isn't helping. I like the premise of the book though, in theory. "Term Limits" by Vince Flynn. I might have to re-listen to get all the parts I missed out on. I still have around 2 hours left in the book.

Posted by: lin-duh at July 07, 2024 10:13 AM (PZo5T)

138 Trump's problem in part in office was that he thought the current crop of generals/admirals he appointed were professional when instead they were politicians in military suits doing what they thought best without civilian interference.

Lincoln had a similar issue with his generals.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:05 AM (/0X3E)
---
I disagree. Lincoln's problem was that there was no one in the US Army who had exercised command authority at the levels now required. Winfield Scott was still alive, but just barely. So he was largely starting from scratch, promoting junior officers to corps commands, and because the military is constitutionally subordinate to the civilian, lots of political colonels were created (some of whom did quite well).

Trump is dealing with a military system that devalues actual combat experience and elevates academic credentials, leaving us with a high command looking like GM's upper management. They don't win wars so much as manage them, and no one is ever, every removed for incompetence. Sex? Sure, but the entire culture is about CYA and avoiding accountability.

Actual fighting commanders never make it past O-6.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:14 AM (llXky)

139 Hah! I have another WWI book I had to put aside. It explained all the folks involved with the assasination. The Archduke would have eased conditions for the Serbs and they couldn't have that.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:14 AM (xjTDL)

140 Guns at Last Light covers WWII from D-Day to end, Rick Atkinson has 2 other books An Army at DAWN about battles in Africa desert and Day of Battle covering Sicily and Italy.
That is one theater I haven't read as much on.

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 10:14 AM (fwDg9)

141 Are there any soap operas still on?
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 07, 2024 09:26 AM (78a2H)

My wife watches the Korean ones.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 10:14 AM (D7oie)

142 finds him, but the man he finds is mentally disabled and couldn't possibly do what is required of the historical Jesus. What to do?

Take over his identity and be a kindly sort of progressive man without having to worry about all that mystical miraculous stuff such doing miracles or rising from the dead ?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 07, 2024 10:15 AM (dDdkK)

143 The storm ruined the city and killed over 8,000. Erased and gone, it never recovered. Proportionally, it dwarfed what Katrina did to New Orleans.
Posted by: Mr Gaga

That is a great book that captures the destruction. I saw a documentary a few weeks ago on how they subsequently built the seawall, and used dredges to lift the island ten feet, and jacked up the surviving buildings. Some of the larger buildings were not lifted, so they now have basements.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 10:16 AM (/zVu4)

144 None of those are remotely close. It's a combination of a couple of different ideas, but when you examine them too closely, they fall apart rather fast.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 07, 2024 09:53 AM (BpYfr)

More like Gnostic stuff?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 10:16 AM (0eaVi)

145 That's exactly what happened with Puller! And he kept calling them out on it, showing that the academic study didn't mean success in the field.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:16 AM (xjTDL)

146 Hopefully the book on the treatment of snake bites is not at the apex of those shelves.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 07, 2024 10:17 AM (SR29e)

147 For someone who I think is well read on WWII I learned quite a few things from Guns at Last Light. Couldn't recommend it enough
Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 10:06 AM (fwDg9)
---
A lot of American military histories tend to end with the Battle of the Bulge. Most people have no idea that we took more casualties in Germany than outside of it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:17 AM (llXky)

148 So-called “Isaac’s Storm” together with a couple of hurricanes in the 1870’s are why Houston, 30 miles inland, eventually became the most important port in Texas. No one trusted building major facilities close to the coast after that.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 07, 2024 10:17 AM (5zRhj)

149 Is there a definitive book on the Chosin Few? My dad was one I have been disturbed by the amount of ignorance has washed over that period.

Posted by: Goober at July 07, 2024 10:17 AM (aA6YN)

150 Vietnam is military incompetence on full display. I'm going to read his son's autobiography when it gets here. I read it many years ago. He served in Vietnam and was horribly injured.
Posted by: Notsothoreau
=========
Vietnam is an example why many of the Founders hated the idea of a standing army. Eventually political leaders will employ that army other than to defend the homeland.

Ironically, you have less problems maintaining a strong navy (and by implication air or space) force and a small expeditionary Marine force. Lacking an army in place, it makes it very difficult to engage in land wars of choice.

The original conception of NATO itself was more a treaty organization to preserve the peace than permanent US army prepositioned in Europe. That conception was in part based on the idea that nukes only could prevent the Red Army from moving West and no troops were needed. Korea and the Soviet firing off nukes resulted in the scramble to rearm W. Germany and put boots on the ground permanently in Euroland.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:18 AM (/0X3E)

151 FYI

Start of July signals the start of Camp Nanowrimo.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 07, 2024 10:18 AM (SR29e)

152 More like Gnostic stuff?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 10:16 AM (0eaVi)
---
*Very* Gnostic. One of the organizations is called the Gnostic Observatines. They are supposedly the "good" guys but it's always more complicated...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 07, 2024 10:19 AM (BpYfr)

153 Scott is not my idea of Dortmunder, but he could be funny on occasion.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:00 AM (omVj0)

I didn't notice the connection before between the book and movie, because Scott's character isn't Dortmunder. It's Walter Ballentine.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 10:19 AM (0eaVi)

154 It’s hard to believe today that a monstrous hurricane could make landfall with only 12 hours warning.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 07, 2024 10:20 AM (5zRhj)

155 Vietnam is military incompetence on full display. I'm going to read his son's autobiography when it gets here. I read it many years ago. He served in Vietnam and was horribly injured.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:11 AM (xjTDL)
---
It was also political incompetence on an epic scale. Anyone with a passing knowledge of Chinese history would have understood that both Korea and Vietnam were tributary states and would never be allowed to remain under foreign control without a fight.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:20 AM (llXky)

156 If that's the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, I count at least five books on Amazon.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:20 AM (xjTDL)

157 Huertgenwald was a meat grinder for the US Army.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 07, 2024 10:21 AM (SR29e)

158 So-called “Isaac’s Storm” together with a couple of hurricanes in the 1870’s are why Houston, 30 miles inland, eventually became the most important port in Texas. No one trusted building major facilities close to the coast after that.
Posted by: Tom Servo

Indianola was a city southwest of Galveston on the coast, and was competing with Galveston to be the primary Texas port. After two hurricanes, all that is left is a historical marker.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 10:22 AM (/zVu4)

159 Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 07, 2024 10:08 AM (kpS4V)

Thanks.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 07, 2024 10:22 AM (dDdkK)

160 Puller tried to get winter clothes and supplies for the troops in Korea, because he knew they would need them. Told a commander they were lucky they'd been driven back as they were defending a warmer area with access to the sea.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:23 AM (xjTDL)

161 Oh, yes. I love the bookshelves at the top.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 07, 2024 10:23 AM (dDdkK)

162 Actual fighting commanders never make it past O-6.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

I take your point but part of the issue with Lincoln is that he deferred to his generals. His generals were more familiar with politicking and fighting Indians (in a few cases Mexicans at a junior level). Many of the new generals in Lincoln's army did not get there by merit but by politics and Congressional patrons.

Jefferson Davis had a similar problem with some of his generals as well which was made worse because of the purported confederal provisioning by Southern States of military forces.

Political generals by and large are a contradiction of terms regarding military competence and political savvy. Few have both in history.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:24 AM (/0X3E)

163 It’s hard to believe today that a monstrous hurricane could make landfall with only 12 hours warning.
Posted by: Tom Servo

We have been watching and looking forward to it for a few days. We need the rain. It is just moving faster than predicted.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 10:24 AM (/zVu4)

164 154 It’s hard to believe today that a monstrous hurricane could make landfall with only 12 hours warning.
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 07, 2024 10:20 AM (5zRhj)

Yes. They used what they had, which was telephones and telegraphs. The operators who stayed at their posts, some of whom died, were heroes.

Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 10:25 AM (y7DxH)

165 I can only second the recommendations above for Donald Westlake's excellent Dortmunder comic crime novels. I would also recommend Westlake's sole non-fiction book: "Under An English Heaven, The Remarkable True Story of the 1969 British Invasion of Anguilla". This is dedicated "To anybody anywhere who has ever believed anything that any Government ever said about anything." It is an accurate and very funny account of how the people of Anguilla, a small, remote and very poor Caribbean island stubbornly refused to accept being cut loose from the British Empire. It ends in total victory for the Anguillans when the British government, believing that it must act to foil a Castroite/Mafia/CIA plot lands a company of paratroopers on the island. Thus giving the Anguillans exactly what they wanted.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at July 07, 2024 10:25 AM (jjfDF)

166 McNamara in Vietnam proved once again the concept of 'proportionality' does not win a war.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 07, 2024 10:25 AM (SR29e)

167 Guns at Last Light points out, April 1945 the US had as many casualties as June 1944. He does go through many that were needless because of Nazi fanatics in a forgone hopelessly war.

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 10:25 AM (fwDg9)

168 1 of 2

I'm reading the owner's manual for a Toyota 4Runner.
Indulge me, professer, and fellow hordemates.
Retirement draweth nigh. Since my spouse and I no longer play house together, and there's really no reason for me to stay, I've decided to take five years and slowly see this country. I'm going to sell the house and am already on my way to becoming a minimalist.
I plan to camp my way through the United States. Eventually I'll buy a small camper.
I want to explore (at my own pace) and listen to people's stories. I want to wake up every morning listening to crickets, whether they be in Arkansas, Oregon, Montana or Maine and sup on Spam, Ramen, and bottled water.
But mainly I want to think, read, and write. However, you can't think until you've observed. And having observed, you can then write.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 07, 2024 10:26 AM (dg+HA)

169 2 of 2

I'm no Steinbeck. And there won't be a Charley. But this SUV from the good people of Toyota will be my version of Rocinante. And I need to know it intimately because it will be for the most part my home.
I am thankful for the HQ. I anticipate becoming even more engaged as this transition unfolds. It serves as a creative outlet.
It is part of my "little platoon." I hope to be able to make all MoMes.

So, yeah. It's the tip of a much larger iceberg, but my reading right now is a vehicle owner's manual.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 07, 2024 10:26 AM (dg+HA)

170 Hah! I have another WWI book I had to put aside. It explained all the folks involved with the assassination. The Archduke would have eased conditions for the Serbs and they couldn't have that.
------
Yes, he was a 'reformer' although I don't know how far that would have been by our modern standards.

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 10:26 AM (Jh5b+)

171 “ Actual fighting commanders never make it past O-6.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd”

The hell you say.

Posted by: George Armstrong Custer at July 07, 2024 10:27 AM (o33NW)

172 Ironically, you have less problems maintaining a strong navy (and by implication air or space) force and a small expeditionary Marine force. Lacking an army in place, it makes it very difficult to engage in land wars of choice.“

That was the English model, troops were deployed to the colonies but never many kept at home. They learned that the hard way after allowing Oliver Cromwell to build a huge standing army. It was recent enough inhistory that our founders remembered that lesson as well.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 07, 2024 10:27 AM (5zRhj)

173 Bull Halsey has entered Chat.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 07, 2024 10:28 AM (SR29e)

174

Thank you, Perfessor, for another great Book Thread. I’m flattered that my recommendation of That Hideous Strength was featured. The story is chilling. The control of the media didn’t surprise me - I was a child in Boston in the 1970’s and saw first hand the difference between reality and what was shown on the news and printed in the Boston Globe. The way in which Mark, the sociology professor, was drawn in through career ambition and a desire to align himself with the powerful was the most frightening . He was somewhat naive in the beginning and the manipulation he was subjected to was masterful. His inner dialog in which he bargains with his conscience was also enlightening. I can see the potential for myself, and probably most people I know, to be drawn in through various vulnerabilities in our character to do and support things we hate. It has given me much food for thought.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at July 07, 2024 10:28 AM (PScXa)

175 I didn't notice the connection before between the book and movie, because Scott's character isn't Dortmunder. It's Walter Ballentine.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024

***
Looks like they renamed all the characters for some odd reason.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:28 AM (omVj0)

176 Now reading Erik Larsen's "Isaac's Storm," about the one that ruined Galveston in 1900.

-
A very sad book plus government cover up of its failures.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 10:29 AM (L/fGl)

177 Started reading "The Mighty Moo" this week...author refers to the Naval Academy as "trade school".

Posted by: BignJames at July 07, 2024 10:29 AM (AwYPR)

178 Anna Mark Moyar's Triumph Forsaken and Regained doesn't do McNamara any favors

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 10:31 AM (fwDg9)

179 167 Guns at Last Light points out, April 1945 the US had as many casualties as June 1944. He does go through many that were needless because of Nazi fanatics in a forgone hopelessly war.
Posted by: Skip
=======
About twenty years after WWII, you began to see some criticism of the Unconditional Surrender demands by Roosevelt. That contributed to the death toll later in Germany but at the same time might have prevented a future WWIII involving Germany again.

The Armistice in WWI arguably allowed the Germans to claim later they did not lose that war but were betrayed by its politicians. This set the stage for Not Sees to gain power.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:31 AM (/0X3E)

180 Seemed like a throwaway line, but one of the projects of the N.I.C.E. in That Hideous Strength was ... public vaccination programs.

Posted by: Emmie at July 07, 2024 10:32 AM (Sf2cq)

181 "Indianola was a city southwest of Galveston on the coast, and was competing with Galveston to be the primary Texas port. After two hurricanes, all that is left is a historical marker."

Ah, yes - the Queen City of the Gulf - lasted a bare fifty years. Besides the historical marker, there are a number of holiday homes, all raised on tall pilings.
There was also a double-walled ice house, to store ice boated in from New England. After the second hurricane, the owners raised the ice house - which was still standing - off the foundations and brought it by barge inland, and re-sited it. It was used as a family home, and IIRC, is still standing.

As for the great 1900 hurricane, there may have been 12,000 casualties overall, as the storm tide went far, far inland, and there was no one left alive to report the missing.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 07, 2024 10:32 AM (Ew3fm)

182 Whig, Sam Fadela wrote a book on black powder called The Complete Black Powder Handbook, and it is truly a complete work on shooting, cleaning and using black powder arms, as well as things like accessories, shooting sticks, target shooting and kit. It is mostly muzzle loading but there is a section in the end about cartridge guns. It is not really a trade book, it is more like the size of a Montgomery Ward catalog

The other easily found book on BP cartridges is Frank Barnes' Cartridges of the World, which doesn't really have load data, but it does have correct dimensions for the obsolete brass and bullets.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 10:33 AM (D7oie)

183 He logs the stories all from historical records of hurricanes over the previous couple millennia, which would serve up a huge refutation to the climate screamers of today.
Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 07, 2024 09:39 AM (ZtgZZ)

A few years ago I was going through the early exploration of America/The Carribean, and I seem to recall about 4 instances of the entire expeditiary fleet getting wiped out by a hurricane. Yeah, I'm sure they didn't know the warning signs back then, but, still, that's a of extreme weather to run into...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 10:33 AM (Lhaco)

184 Mcnamara was a knave he didnt understand anythinf about counterinsurgency westmoreland didnt either

Stephenson had comstock in cryptonicon as a manque the war was a feint to conduct the great yamamoto treasure hunt

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 10:34 AM (PXvVL)

185 I read a lot of WWII airwar stuff so when I saw Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer's Life by Paul Hendrickson I took a look. But then I saw this reader comment, "the writer dropped the ball on basics, like referring to his dad and other pilots carrying a '.45 Luger.'" I put this one back on the virtual shelf.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 10:34 AM (L/fGl)

186 As for the great 1900 hurricane, there may have been 12,000 casualties overall, as the storm tide went far, far inland, and there was no one left alive to report the missing.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 07, 2024

***
And people wonder why I want to move far, far inland. Farther than a storm tide can reach.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:34 AM (omVj0)

187 Stephenson had a cryptonomicon?

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 07, 2024 10:37 AM (5zRhj)

188 That was the English model, troops were deployed to the colonies but never many kept at home. They learned that the hard way after allowing Oliver Cromwell to build a huge standing army. It was recent enough inhistory that our founders remembered that lesson as well.
Posted by: Tom Servo
======
We followed that pattern, more or less, until WWI and WWII put the permanent kibosh on it.

We will probably have to return to it in some form simply because we have run out of money to do everything unless you want to reinstitute a draft.

Personnel costs including retirees have eaten the military budget at the same time that consolidation in the weapons industry has led to much higher cost and more delayed weapon systems.

The coming birth dearth throughout the world is also going to have to be figured out because big wars might result in national extinction by sacrificing the young.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:37 AM (/0X3E)

189 Good morning, good people. A very rare post, normally I lurk and simply enjoy the posts. Picked up a book from my tiny library that I previously read, 'Andersonville' by Mackinley Cantor that was touted as the definitive novel on the Civil War and the infamous prison.

Is this accurate this deserving a second reading? Note--I'm not by any means knowledgeable on the subject but it truly caught my curiosity.

Comments?

Posted by: IRONGRAMPA at July 07, 2024 10:37 AM (hKoQL)

190 A bunch of Westlake's Parker novels were filmed but until one just a few years ago with Jason Statham, the movies never named the character Parker.

If memory serves, film rights to some of the books were sold but not rights to the character. So Parker would be named Porter or something else. Point Blank, The Outfit, The Split, Payback, Slayground... from Westlake's books, but the lead character was never called Parker. Ah, showbiz.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 10:37 AM (q3u5l)

191 And people wonder why I want to move far, far inland. Farther than a storm tide can reach.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:34 AM (omVj0)

Not me...I'm @ 787'.

Posted by: BignJames at July 07, 2024 10:38 AM (AwYPR)

192 Quarter Twenty,

Look into teardrop trailers. Easy to tow. I bought a 2017 T@g but there are other brands that might suit you. I like them because they have simple systems, no black or greywater holding tanks. Vistabules are the high end ones. Lots of deals on these right now too.

Be aware that living full time in a trailer causes a lot of wear and tends to damage the floors.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024 10:38 AM (xjTDL)

193 I saw you mentioned this in another thread.
keep us posted, QuarterTwenty, as this sounds like a great adventure.

Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 10:39 AM (y7DxH)

194 About twenty years after WWII, you began to see some criticism of the Unconditional Surrender demands by Roosevelt. That contributed to the death toll later in Germany but at the same time might have prevented a future WWIII involving Germany again.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:31 AM (/0X3E)
---
The problem with that argument was that the total mobilization society went through could not accept anything less than total victory. The Allies had to agree to that condition because the suffering of the British and Soviet peoples required it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:40 AM (llXky)

195 However, some -- 1990s X-Men, I mean you -- never get around to resolving some stories. We had to wait years to learn Gambit's great dark secret. It couldn't have matched the buildup, and it didn't.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 09:41 AM (p/isN)

I first picked up an actual comic book in the middle of the Onslaught storyline. Yes, it was big and messy and hard to follow...But it was the payoff to the 'someone betrayed the X-Men' storyline that The Animated Series has introduced, but never resolved. At the time I sort assumed that some storylines were never meant to be resolved (that being one of them) and was thrilled to be in the middle of said resolution! And that's why I have nostalgia for an event that most comic fans disdain...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 10:41 AM (Lhaco)

196 Whig, Sam Fadela wrote a book on black powder called The Complete Black Powder Handbook, and it is truly a complete work on shooting, cleaning and using black powder arms, as well as things like accessories, shooting sticks, target shooting and kit. It is mostly muzzle loading but there is a section in the end about cartridge guns. It is not really a trade book, it is more like the size of a Montgomery Ward catalog
------
It's at archive.org for a preview...

https://tinyurl.com/32zdc326

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 10:42 AM (Jh5b+)

197 Not me...I'm @ 787'.
Posted by: BignJames at July 07, 2024

***
I'd like to live at 8-10 times that elevation.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:42 AM (omVj0)

198 The comments above about the hurricane that destroyed Galveston prompt me to point out that there is an excellent fictional account of that disaster in "Sunset and Steel Rails" by Celia Hayes (better known here as "Sgt. Mom"). A book I recommend as an excellent read.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (jjfDF)

199 I wish this were a Dean Koontz horror novel.

New York Post
@nypost
America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (L/fGl)

200 182 Thanks Kindltot for those cites. Ironically, I know a lot more about loading blackpowder cartridges than actually firing the smokepoles which is why I have put off buying a blackpowder cap and ball.

My old Mausers and a Springfield Trapdoor in the past were shot with smokeless Trailboss loads. I have only shot blackpowder in my percussive rifles and frankly did not particularly enjoy the fumes nor smoke due to problematic lungs. Used 777 as a substitute for the most part.

I am interested in flintlocks, matchlocks, and wheel locks mainly due to their mechanical function and the future evolution aspect. But haven't had the time nor inclination to buy any of the replicas due to lack of range time for serious purposes.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (/0X3E)

201 Take over his identity and be a kindly sort of progressive man without having to worry about all that mystical miraculous stuff such doing miracles or rising from the dead ?
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 07, 2024 10:15 AM (dDdkK)

Moorcock was not notably religious, nor was he a believer, and he developed the anti-hero genre, which is quite cynical in its worldview.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (D7oie)

202 Booken morgen horden!

Because of Perfesser PimpSquirrel lastvwerk, I listened to Dean Koontz's The Darkest Evening of the Year - the one about a golden retriever. So good. Almost needed a hankie.
Thanks!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 07, 2024 10:45 AM (Ka3bZ)

203 It's at archive.org for a preview...

https://tinyurl.com/32zdc326
Posted by: andycanuck
=======
Thanks for the link Andycanuck. I will take a gander at it this week and probably shop for a copy on Ebay.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:46 AM (/0X3E)

204 New York Post
@nypost
America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (L/fGl)

If we need more punishment, that's exactly what we'll get.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 10:47 AM (0eaVi)

205 Quarter Twenty I might be first to warn this adventure, London ago had uncle who tried this. Yes they got around country but it wouldn't last forever

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 10:48 AM (fwDg9)

206
Look into teardrop trailers. Easy to tow. I bought a 2017 T@g but there are other brands that might suit you. I like them because they have simple systems, no black or greywater holding tanks. Vistabules are the high end ones. Lots of deals on these right now too.

Be aware that living full time in a trailer causes a lot of wear and tends to damage the floors.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 07, 2024

***
I'm glad to see they still make the old-style truck camper that fits into the bed of a pickup and overhangs the roof of the truck cab.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:49 AM (omVj0)

207 I'm listening to Guide for the Perplexed by Mainomodes on Audible. If I wasn't perplexed initially I am now.
The challenge with listening to a difficult book like this while driving is that it's easy to tune out.

Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at July 07, 2024 10:50 AM (JLq/1)

208 Plot details of stories I've read long ago blur for me now, so I'm afraid I can't recall a lot of the details of Moorcock's novella. As I remember, his time traveler in "Behold the Man" was not particularly religious, but did what he could to keep the timeline intact, which included his own crucifixion. Haven't read it since college, so can't give any more detail -- sorry about that.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 10:50 AM (q3u5l)

209 @153 --

Westlake would not allow filmmakers to use the names of his characters. Late in his life, he permitted Parker on screen.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 10:51 AM (p/isN)

210 Thanks for the link Andycanuck. I will take a gander at it this week and probably shop for a copy on Ebay.
-------
There are [used] Amazon copies I saw as well and two at a site called thriftbooks.com -- maybe we'll get the last two there?

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 10:51 AM (Jh5b+)

211 A few years ago I was going through the early exploration of America/The Carribean, and I seem to recall about 4 instances of the entire expeditiary fleet getting wiped out by a hurricane. Yeah, I'm sure they didn't know the warning signs back then, but, still, that's a of extreme weather to run into...
Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 10:33 AM (Lhaco)

speaking of such things, I had a chance to buy the entire run of the Hayklut Society's Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation at Bob's Books in Lincoln City last week. I did not have the $400 on hand to buy it though.
I will regret this as much as I regret missing both chances to pick up the Hoover translation of Agricola's De Re Metalica.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 10:52 AM (D7oie)

212 The problem with that argument was that the total mobilization society went through could not accept anything less than total victory. The Allies had to agree to that condition because the suffering of the British and Soviet peoples required it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
-----
Roosevelt did it personally and arguably it was a strategic blunder. I don't think public opinion in the US had much to do with it but rather Roosevelt trying to plump up Stalin due to Stalin's suspicion of a separate peace. At the Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt issued the unconditional demand publicly which more or less forced Churchill to grudgingly accept it. The intel people (Brits and Dulles at least) were horrified as it made it much for difficult for them recruit new spies among disaffected Germans and made internal coup leadership in Germany half hearted.

It was a tradeoff but fans of unconditional surrender need to admit that it probably lengthened the war and cost casualties then in order to avoid casualties in the future.

Governments in particular have a hard time admitting tradeoffs post hoc due to fear of regime instability. I disagree with that policy.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:52 AM (/0X3E)

213 Qtr Twenty, best of luck. I'd recommend as small a pop up camper as you can find, and a senior pass for the national parks. And national forest service campgrounds are even better, less utilized.

Posted by: From about That Time at July 07, 2024 10:53 AM (4780s)

214 We can take comfort in knowing that nothing like Isaac's Storm could ever happen again.

Biden Announces 5 Actions to Address Extreme Weather in U.S.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 10:54 AM (L/fGl)

215 We will probably have to return to it in some form simply because we have run out of money to do everything unless you want to reinstitute a draft.

Personnel costs including retirees have eaten the military budget at the same time that consolidation in the weapons industry has led to much higher cost and more delayed weapon systems.

The coming birth dearth throughout the world is also going to have to be figured out because big wars might result in national extinction by sacrificing the young.
Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:37 AM (/0X3E)
---
The US should reduce the Army to 100,000 regulars and back it up with a million reservists kept in varying degrees of readiness. This would be enough to intervene in a natural disaster, but too small to fight a war of choice absent mobilization, which would create needed public debate.

The Navy should be boosted, and the Air Force reserve component built up with a corresponding reduction in active duty (reserve pilots often get more flight hours due to their day jobs).

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:54 AM (llXky)

216 There are [used] Amazon copies I saw as well and two at a site called thriftbooks.com -- maybe we'll get the last two there?

Posted by: andycanuck
=======
Heh. I have a couple of Canadian firearms--a Long Branch No. 4 , No. 1* that I adore and a 1905 Ross that I have to finish restoring. Had an issue in removal of a barrel from the receiver and put it on the backshelf years ago. Now that I am retired, I may take another crack at it.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:54 AM (/0X3E)

217 102 Castle Guy, I look forward to learning what those titles are.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 09:54 AM (p/isN)

From a writer I trust: "Unbreakable Red Sonja" written by Jim Zub. Zub has written some Conan the Barbarian books, and he even did an hour-long interview with Midnight's Edge (the YouTube channel) to promote his Conan work. Apparently he had to push back against his publisher (Marvel, at the time) to be able to talk publicly with M.E..

From a new author: "Red Sonja: His Master's Voice" by Torunn Gronbekk. At the very least, it can't be worse than the previous Red Sonja main-series writer, the abominable Mark Russel.

From the author I actively distrust: "The Hunger and the Dusk" by G Willow Wilson. Wilson was one of Marvel's favorites when they were going full SJW in 2016 or so. But, this book is all-new, not part of an existing franchise, so Wilson clearly cares enough about the genre to create a story from scratch. So I've decided to take a gamble..

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 10:55 AM (Lhaco)

218 The US should reduce the Army to 100,000 regulars and back it up with a million reservists kept in varying degrees of readiness. This would be enough to intervene in a natural disaster, but too small to fight a war of choice absent mobilization, which would create needed public debate.

The Navy should be boosted, and the Air Force reserve component built up with a corresponding reduction in active duty (reserve pilots often get more flight hours due to their day jobs).
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
-------
You should be Sec of Defense (I really prefer to go back to Sec. of War because of its truthyness quotient is higher).

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:56 AM (/0X3E)

219 I know a lot more about loading blackpowder cartridges than actually firing the smokepoles which is why I have put off buying a blackpowder cap and ball.

A comment more suited to the gun thread but what the heck, the topic has been broached.

I am currently semi-obsessed (as in "keep thinking about t but not quite ready to whip out the credit card") with the idea of a Colt Walker replica with a .45 ACP conversion cylinder and loading 200 gr RNs or SWCs with Pyrodex.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 07, 2024 10:56 AM (/y8xj)

220 It was a tradeoff but fans of unconditional surrender need to admit that it probably lengthened the war and cost casualties then in order to avoid casualties in the future.

Governments in particular have a hard time admitting tradeoffs post hoc due to fear of regime instability. I disagree with that policy.
Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:52 AM (/0X3E)
---
The problem with this argument is that no one ever offers an alternative to compare it with. How would the settlement work? A fracture in the Grand Alliance might have extended the war further, or left Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan intact, ready for a rematch.

So yes, the costs of the policy must be accepted, but fans of a negotiated settlement also need to explain what they thought would work and why.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:57 AM (llXky)

221 whig, you have a .43 Mauser, the 1871 or 71/84? Those are almost as fun as the Trapdoors

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 10:57 AM (D7oie)

222 Watched a lecture on confederate small arms last night and the difficulty in manufacturing them due to a dearth of skilled tradesmen...ex: there was one guy in Guilford Co. NC who could make quality springs...he had a buddy who was a moonshiner, and they would disappear for weeks at a time.

Posted by: BignJames at July 07, 2024 10:58 AM (AwYPR)

223 Finished the last two Frank Herbert written books of the Dune chronicles, Heretics and Chapterhouse. Received and started on those done by his son(supposedly from notes and outlines, suddenly found in an unknown safe deposit box 20 years after his death), Hunters of Dune, and Sandworms. Not as committed as I was to the first 7...but..."Sunk Costs" and all of that, muddling through.

Posted by: birdog at July 07, 2024 10:59 AM (+Fkyb)

224 You should be Sec of Defense (I really prefer to go back to Sec. of War because of its truthyness quotient is higher).
Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:56 AM (/0X3E)
---
I'm tanned, rested and ready!

This proposal has been floating around for a while. The Army won't have it because there would be less general officer billets and of course the weapons contractors love a huge land army.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:59 AM (llXky)

225 New York Post
@nypost
America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (L/fGl)

Would she though? Would she?

That phony intellectual lightweight was elected, mostly because enough people want to prove they weren't rayciss... only to have accusations of rayciss ramping up to levels never seen before.

DEI means never being about to say you're sorry enough.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:00 AM (ie/z9)

226 And stalin knew that , so his agents pushed this strategem because he saw the endgame

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 11:00 AM (PXvVL)

227 Dixon, I think, is active at Vox Day's Arkhaven Press. They have "Arktoons" coming out at regular intervals, and Dixon did an adaptation of the film he loved as a boy, Gorgo.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 10:03 AM (omVj0)

Dixon is also working for Erik July (youtuber/musician turned publisher) in his Ripperverse comics. Super-heroes in a new universe, published only as graphic novels (not monthly books).

The only Dixon book out so far is Aphacore: A trio of heroes officially sanctioned by the police, who thus have to follow police-esque procedures. It's pretty decent. There are more confirmed Dixon titles on the horizon.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 11:01 AM (Lhaco)

228 That phony intellectual lightweight was elected, mostly because enough people want to prove they weren't rayciss... only to have accusations of rayciss ramping up to levels never seen before.
DEI means never being about to say you're sorry enough.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:00 AM (ie/z9)

I suspect Kamala was the price the Pelosi faction demanded for supporting Biden. He needed California's electoral votes.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 11:02 AM (D7oie)

229 Good morning all.
Overslept so a bit late.
Still reading Brooks People of the Book. As my reading is limited to when I am at the pool, I have progressed but still have a put a third to go.
Also reading Patricia Briggs new werewolf book Winter Lost. Vmom warned about some DEI stuff but except for a brief scene in the beginning, I don't see it. Still really like the main characters but story line is just meandering along.
I think some of these prolific paranormal writers are running out of steam. It's kind of sad because they have created living breathing actors that you want to read but they have run out of ideas on how to challenge them.
I think that's why I was taken with Galbraith's Strike and Robin. Fresh actors that I wanted more of.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 07, 2024 11:02 AM (t/2Uw)

230 Back in the '70s we read a Western called "The Cowboy and the Cossack". Cossacks are dispatched to the West to oversee the cowboys bringing a prize herd to Russia. It was quite good, as I recall. Would have made a great movie
Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 10:03 AM (y7DxH)

Was that a novel? A series? I may have to keep an eye out for it...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 11:02 AM (Lhaco)

231 Some Moron mentioned Bob's Saucer Repair last week so I read it. Much as the Moron said, it'll never qualify as great literature but was an enjoyable read.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 11:03 AM (L/fGl)

232 I have the 71/84 and lack a stock for an 1871. Also a Falling Block. Would like to acquire a Chaffee but too rich for my blood.

I classify the GEW 88 Commission rifle as technically blackpowder but far easier to shoot with conventional smokeless cartridges downloaded due to age of the piece.

My Lebel 1886/93 is basically a blackpowder design of the Gras upbuilt for multiple cartridges and smokeless smaller caliber ammo.

I quit acquiring much after about 2016 or so simply as I ran out of space, out of health, and as prices escalated, out of money. At the end of the day, you can only shoot so many of them and I was interested more in the specific firing mechanisms of the older ones that I restored than shooting them much.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:04 AM (/0X3E)

233 >>>>I want to explore (at my own pace) and listen to people's stories. I want to wake up every morning listening to crickets, whether they be in Arkansas, Oregon, Montana or Maine and sup on Spam, Ramen, and bottled water.
But mainly I want to think, read, and write. However, you can't think until you've observed. And having observed, you can then write.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 07, 2024 10:26 AM (dg+HA)
********
Best of luck to you and your proposed journey. See Blue Highways….a favorite book of mine. Good health and happiness in your travels.
Thanks for the book thread Perfessor.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at July 07, 2024 11:04 AM (LSnl3)

234 This proposal has been floating around for a while. The Army won't have it because there would be less general officer billets and of course the weapons contractors love a huge land army.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:59 AM (llXky)

IIRC, the US armed forces now have 43 four-star generals and admirals for a 1 million man force. We fought WWII, with 7 million men, with four.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 11:06 AM (Lvojk)

235 I adore and a 1905 Ross that I have to finish restoring. Had an issue in removal of a barrel from the receiver and put it on the backshelf years ago. Now that I am retired, I may take another crack at it.
-----
Oh, it was the civilian model you have. I thought you had one of the military versions.

The YT videos I've seen of the target version are pretty cool.

Good luck on the restoration.

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 11:06 AM (Jh5b+)

236 I am interested in flintlocks, matchlocks, and wheel locks mainly due to their mechanical function and the future evolution aspect. But haven't had the time nor inclination to buy any of the replicas due to lack of range time for serious purposes.
Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (/0X3E)
---
I bought a kit gun from a pawn shop years ago for $25. Percussion cap muzzle loader. It's fun to shoot and easy to deal with.

When I retired from the military, a friend got my a Remington six-shooter replica, and I haven't gotten around to taking out to play. The biggest reason is the time investment vs smokeless and the existence of multiple projects that simply have higher priorities (sighting in deer gun, fixing the eternal mag well problem of the FR-7 and now trying to figure out why my Zhong Zheng Mauser keyholes only some of the time).

But it's there, and waiting, and I'm looking forward to getting into it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 11:06 AM (llXky)

237 I suspect Kamala was the price the Pelosi faction demanded for supporting Biden. He needed California's electoral votes.
Posted by: Kindltot at July 07, 2024 11:02 AM (D7oie)

Once he promised a black woman, he really only had two choices.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:07 AM (ie/z9)

238 This proposal has been floating around for a while. The Army won't have it because there would be less general officer billets and of course the weapons contractors love a huge land army.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

At some point, it doesn't matter what the bureaucracies want--finances will be reset because either interest payments on debt eat all spending up; the US repudiates its debt which requires a massive reset to where taxes equal spending (because loans are prohibitive), or you end up in monetizing the debt to the extent that the dollar (including pay and bennies to the perfumed pampered Princes of the Pentagon) becomes worthless.

Austerity is a cruel mistress but the muse of policy invention.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:08 AM (/0X3E)

239 IRC, the US armed forces now have 43 four-star generals and admirals for a 1 million man force. We fought WWII, with 7 million men, with four.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 11:06 AM (Lvojk)
---
It is no accident that the worst SecDef in American history is a retired Lt. Gen. He makes McNamara look like Clausewitz.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 11:08 AM (llXky)

240 225 New York Post
@nypost
America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 10:43 AM (L/fGl)

This is certainly what the media wing of the Party seems to want. I read that item in the sidebar. It's hilarious watching them, both left and "right" begging and berating Jill Brandon to clear the path for Veep Throat.

This country is such a joke. It's amazing it still exists, even if just on paper.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 07, 2024 11:09 AM (0FoWg)

241 Posted by: Castle Guy at July 07, 2024 11:02 AM (Lhaco)

It was a novel.

And speaking of '60s cover art- the Travis McGee series had many attractive ladies on the covers, iircc.

Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024 11:09 AM (y7DxH)

242 Austerity is a cruel mistress but the muse of policy invention.
Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:08 AM (/0X3E)
---
Yes, we will do the right thing only after all other options have been tried.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 11:09 AM (llXky)

243 Speaking of black women, this short vid SHOULD end Biden's campaign... except there have been many things that should have ended his campaign, long before 20202...

https://tinyurl.com/4asmfw7u

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:10 AM (ie/z9)

244 I'm only through the first 50 comments but had to jump in with to agree with everyone who praised the Dortmunder books. One of my faves. I finished Red Badge of Courage this week and it reaffirmed my love of Stephen Crane's work.

Posted by: who knew at July 07, 2024 11:11 AM (4I7VG)

245 Fun trivia - Tyler Texas was a very important manufacturer of rifles for the confederacy.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 07, 2024 11:11 AM (5zRhj)

246 I have, in a safe deposit box, an authenticated black powder revolver of .36 caliber (ostensibly an officer's sidearm) in good condition, purchased at a yard sale from a nice lady who had no idea of the value of the piece. All she knew was that her husband had it. She wanted nothing to do with guns so put a ridiculous price on it. When purchased it was covered in some type paper impregnated with (I think) tar. It took considerable effort to clean the piece and I didn't realize what I had until I sent the description to Colt Firearms. After an evaluation I revisited her and gave her a tidy sum to make up for what I paid and what she should have charged. Call me stupid for this, but conscience prevailed so deal with it.

Posted by: IRONGRAMPA at July 07, 2024 11:12 AM (hKoQL)

247 When I retired from the military, a friend got my a Remington six-shooter replica, and I haven't gotten around to taking out to play. The biggest reason is the time investment vs smokeless and the existence of multiple projects that simply have higher priorities (sighting in deer gun, fixing the eternal mag well problem of the FR-7 and now trying to figure out why my Zhong Zheng Mauser keyholes only some of the time).

But it's there, and waiting, and I'm looking forward to getting into it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
=====
Your Mauser may have bore damage close to the muzzle or perhaps a damaged crown. Sometimes a fix is counterboring if you want to shoot it.

I seem to remember a discussion of problems with the FR-7 mag issue and part of it was that the contractor did not account for subtle differences between the 7.62 and the original 7x57 Mauser one. I think it had to do with the angle of the loading ramp on the receiver that was not quite optimum. Vague memories of someone fixing the problem perhaps with a alteration/change of the trigger guard. A discussion post on Gunboards or milsurps dot com might be where I saw it.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:13 AM (/0X3E)

248 This country is such a joke. It's amazing it still exists, even if just on paper.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 07, 2024 11:09 AM (0FoWg)

If nooks didn't exist, we'd have already been conquered.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:13 AM (ie/z9)

249 246 I have, in a safe deposit box, an authenticated black powder revolver of .36 caliber (ostensibly an officer's sidearm) in good condition, purchased at a yard sale from a nice lady who had no idea of the value of the piece. All she knew was that her husband had it. She wanted nothing to do with guns so put a ridiculous price on it. When purchased it was covered in some type paper impregnated with (I think) tar. It took considerable effort to clean the piece and I didn't realize what I had until I sent the description to Colt Firearms. After an evaluation I revisited her and gave her a tidy sum to make up for what I paid and what she should have charged. Call me stupid for this, but conscience prevailed so deal with it.
Posted by: IRONGRAMPA
=========
Peace of conscience is always more important always than money. We forget that sometimes.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:14 AM (/0X3E)

250 Call me stupid for this, but conscience prevailed so deal with it.
Posted by: IRONGRAMPA at July 07, 2024 11:12 AM (hKoQL)

Never. That was the right thing to do.

Posted by: Reforger at July 07, 2024 11:14 AM (xcIvR)

251 Good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at July 07, 2024 11:14 AM (k3Kxu)

252 Getting back to books, the talk about Moorcock reminded me that I own two books by his illustrator, Rodney Matthews.

Last Ship Home and In Search of Forever are compilations of his work, from book covers to movie posters and record albums. For a while I was really into this sort of thing, and naturally had Pictures by Tolkien as well as John Berkey's Painted Space.

I bought Matthews' books because when I was in college I bought one of his posters, "Terrestrial Voyager" which showed a cool ship on wheels in a desert. This vision haunted me for years and was finally able to incorporate it into Scorpion's Pass, which is basically Jane Austen's Dune. Huge ships on rollers! Regency romances!

That book started as a Valentine's gift for my wife and it went beyond the shorty story I was planning for. A most happy coincidence.

I do love art books, though - nice to flip through. I should get them out again.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 11:15 AM (llXky)

253 I think in Mark Moyar's books it's safe to say the Democrats are why the Vietnam War was lost to the Communists

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 11:16 AM (fwDg9)

254 I have several Army age young men in my family, can only seriously consider 2 as capable of serving. One because his father served and he was raised right and the other because he has an ingrained sense of what needs to be done. His grandfather and father, father never served brought him up with morals and a great work ethic. Makes me sad to think that I can only honestly suggest that 2 could serve or without a draft, would volunteer if needed.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at July 07, 2024 11:16 AM (2NHgQ)

255 While vintage sci-fi does have some interesting elements, the consistent condescension regarding faith is deeply annoying. It gets worse when you find out how many of these respected authors were vile people.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:08 AM
****
Which is why a particular story by JG Ballard is so astonishing, running so hard against the grain of his own oeuvre and the field itself as it does. Not sure of the title, but I checked the ToC of his mammoth Collected Stories, and it's probably "The Greatest Television Show on Earth," in which an attempt is made, via time travel, to create that very thing. The event chosen by the producers is the Splitting of the Sea in Exodus....

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 07, 2024 11:17 AM (wwf+q)

256 Dortmunder fans: Westlake was a big Dortmunder fan, too. He said his wife and his editor conspired that for every Dortmunder book, he had to write a non-Dortmunder book. He thought his wife was afraid if he could live in Dortmunder's world full-time, he'd move in and stay there.

Posted by: Wenda at July 07, 2024 11:17 AM (4GhzG)

257 After an evaluation I revisited her and gave her a tidy sum to make up for what I paid and what she should have charged. Call me stupid for this, but conscience prevailed so deal with it.

Good on ya, sir. I couldn't enjoy having something if I knew that I had taken advantage of someone to have it.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 07, 2024 11:19 AM (/y8xj)

258 Yes, we will do the right thing only after all other options have been tried.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
-----
It is almost universal that politicians cannot admit mistakes--partly because of ego but also because mistakes become a useful club by their political rivals.

In reality though, I think the public would be better served by admissions of mistakes and action to rectify them. Instead, the pols and bureaucrats try to hide the mistakes and stonewall. Media used to try to bring sunlight to the public of problems if only to sell advertising but has essentially become a propaganda press.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:19 AM (/0X3E)

259 Makes me sad to think that I can only honestly suggest that 2 could serve or without a draft, would volunteer if needed.
Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at July 07, 2024 11:16 AM (2NHgQ)

Of my nephews, we've had 3 altogether who served. Don't think any of the rest of them ever considered it. Two are past their service time, one just went in. Doing all the combat training stuff, and everyone is so proud of him.

If he's not dead in the next couple years, or court martialed out for not being DEI enough, it'll be a minor miracle.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:19 AM (EF7Aq)

260 Sounds kinda insurrectiony.

TDS Or Stupid?: Bette Midler Suggests Biden Arrest Republicans, Allow FBI To Use Deadly Force To Regain Democrat House Majority

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 11:20 AM (L/fGl)

261 My stepson has no interest in the armed services.

Thank G-d for small blessings.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 07, 2024 11:21 AM (0FoWg)

262 Iron Grandpa, Great to see you on the book thread. Regrettably, I cannot answer your question. Sounds like an interesting book.

Posted by: Mrs JTB at July 07, 2024 11:22 AM (zudum)

263 Good on ya, sir. I couldn't enjoy having something if I knew that I had taken advantage of someone to have it.
Posted by: Oddbob at July 07, 2024 11:19 AM (/y8xj)

I think yard sales are mostly about getting rid of stuff. An estate sale would be different, I guess, but either way the person is happy to be rid of it.

Whenever I'm scaling down on anything, I give it away. Money means jack squat when it comes to such decisions, I'm just not going to put that much effort into finding out what something is worth, only to make sure I don't get "cheated" by someone who wants something I don't.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:22 AM (EF7Aq)

264 TDS Or Stupid?: Bette Midler Suggests Biden Arrest Republicans, Allow FBI To Use Deadly Force To Regain Democrat House Majority

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 11:20 AM (L/fGl)

I keep getting her confused with Joy Behar....separated at birth?

Posted by: BignJames at July 07, 2024 11:24 AM (AwYPR)

265 I don’t know that I’ve given much thought to the difference between Literature vs. “just stories.” It’s a really interesting subject. I suppose I’ve always thought of Literature as material one needed to read to be a well-educated person, like the Classics. Lately, I’ve come to see Literature as something that touches on larger and more fundamental themes, those that make us tick as human beings. A theme that keeps rolling around in my mind days or weeks after I’ve read it is probably Literature.

Is there anything that is really “Just a story?” Every piece I read touches me and changes me in some way, even if I decide it is dreck. I suppose maybe this is less so with “brain candy” and might be why I love it and need it so much. It’s like a vacation for my brain.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at July 07, 2024 11:24 AM (rNYOk)

266 Sounds kinda insurrectiony.

TDS Or Stupid?: Bette Midler Suggests Biden Arrest Republicans, Allow FBI To Use Deadly Force To Regain Democrat House Majority
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 11:20 AM (L/fGl)

To save our democracy. Some other bint has been actress was calling for Biden to kill Trump... due to presidential immunity.

TDS is ramping up. We ain't seen nothin' yet.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:24 AM (EF7Aq)

267 TDS Or Stupid?: Bette Midler...

Both. But the Stupid came first.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 07, 2024 11:26 AM (/y8xj)

268 I keep getting her confused with Joy Behar....separated at birth?
Posted by: BignJames at July 07, 2024 11:24 AM (AwYPR)

Bette Middling had singing talent. Behar sucked dick to get slots at comedy clubs.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:26 AM (EF7Aq)

269 233 >>>>I want to explore (at my own pace) and listen to people's stories. I want to wake up every morning listening to crickets, whether they be in Arkansas, Oregon, Montana or Maine and sup on Spam, Ramen, and bottled water.
But mainly I want to think, read, and write. However, you can't think until you've observed. And having observed, you can then write.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty

There are some of us up here in the PNW who would take joy in showing you our part of the country. Our history. Our beaches and mountains and forests.

Contact a cob for my email if you wish.

Posted by: nurse ratched at July 07, 2024 11:27 AM (ReKWQ)

270 TDS Or Stupid?: Bette Midler...
---------
Both. But the Stupid came first.
Posted by: Oddbob at July 07, 2024 11:26 AM (/y8xj)

Sharon Stone also poked her head out of whatever hole it's been in. Used to be, she'd f**k a President on the LA airport tarmac to show her support, now she's making TicToc vids in her car, with her turkey neck waddling at the camera.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:28 AM (EF7Aq)

271 AH, here is a discussion of the FR-8 feeding problems at Cast Boolits forum. https://tinyurl.com/jfjxhbuh

Some of the other material on conversions may be in some old gunsmith books that I have. I will take a look next week for that.

One suggestion is that you make sure the mag follower has been altered for the 308. There are some slight differences that I remember that the Spanish had to do on the follower for the conversion. Might be worth checking ebay for it from the mass of Samco Global conversions of Guardia 1893 conversions floating around out there.

Some folks on cartridge alterations have had success adopting straight line followers (which can actually be 3d printed now) instead of the staggered Mauser mag to maximize capacity.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:29 AM (/0X3E)

272 And I've never read "out of the silent planet" trilogy.

Just ordered. Will start next weekend.

Posted by: nurse ratched at July 07, 2024 11:30 AM (uAy3h)

273 Quarter Twenty, if you ever roll through upstate SC, I'd be honored if you'd come set a spell on my screen porch. If you enjoy hiking, we can find a nearby trail to explore.

Posted by: screaming in digital at July 07, 2024 11:30 AM (iZbyp)

274 Bette, the washed up useful idiot, says what? Textbook insane.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at July 07, 2024 11:31 AM (2NHgQ)

275 Never. That was the right thing to do.
Posted by: Reforger
=========
Hope you are well Reforger, saw teh prayer list and may you have rapid success in your search.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:31 AM (/0X3E)

276 Good morning, one and all. I am still making my way through "Sword Bearer" by Jennifer Roberson and I am happy to report that my fears about the latest book being woke poisoned are not justified.

Posted by: NR Pax at July 07, 2024 11:32 AM (X5r0P)

277 And speaking of '60s cover art- the Travis McGee series had many attractive ladies on the covers, iircc.
Posted by: sal at July 07, 2024

***
Many if not all done by Robert McGinnis, who also illustrated many other Gold Medal paperbacks and not a few movie posters like Thunderball and How to Steal a Million. His work is astonishing.

The Signet editions of the James Bond paperbacks from the early to the mid-'60s usually had an image of a good-looking woman from the story on the cover -- Jill Masterton painted in gold on the cover of Goldfinger, Tiffany Case in black bra and panties on Diamonds Are Forever, etc. Not all of them; Live and Let Die had Mr. Big, and From Russia With Love had a clothed Tatiana with Bond holding his gun. But they did have a lot.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 11:32 AM (omVj0)

278 Book thread, yay!

Mrs.DIG picked up a three inch D-ring binder containing a college textbook about Organic Chemistry, along with a law book about constitutional law, costing a grand total of fifty cents.

(The local used bookstore has a "fifty cent bag" deal - stuff the bag with books from a specific section for a half a buck.)

Although I am an engineer (electrical), I never took organic chemistry. Started thumbing through it, and valence bonds are slowly coming back to me.

Plus, D-ring binders are like $14.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at July 07, 2024 11:33 AM (ufFY8)

279 TDS Or Stupid?: Bette Midler Suggests Biden Arrest Republicans, Allow FBI To Use Deadly Force To Regain Democrat House Majority
====
It's from the "the Supreme Court will allow Trump to kill anyone he wants now!" stupidity.

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 11:34 AM (Jh5b+)

280 Is there anything that is really “Just a story?” Every piece I read touches me and changes me in some way, even if I decide it is dreck. I suppose maybe this is less so with “brain candy” and might be why I love it and need it so much. It’s like a vacation for my brain.
Posted by: KatieFloyd at July 07, 2024

***
Literature, to me, has some kind of amazing characterization among the leads -- people who *live* on the page, whether protagonist or antagonist. There are other requirements, but that's got to be there first. A portrait of a life, or of the most significant portion of that life.

Eh. I know it when I see it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 11:35 AM (omVj0)

281 Although I am an engineer (electrical), I never took organic chemistry. Started thumbing through it, and valence bonds are slowly coming back to me.

Plus, D-ring binders are like $14.
Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt
----------
I met my match in organic chemistry. Had issues with visualizing the bonds plus we used the Microchem lab process which due to native clumsiness, I managed to generate new compounds unknown to the lab TAs on a continuing basis.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:37 AM (/0X3E)

282 Just finished Bouncers Battle. A story centered on the Poles who made their way to England and flew with the RAF. Generally good story but DAMN. Why can't authors keep their stupid politics out of a story. Will not read the subsequent books.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 07, 2024 11:37 AM (W/lyH)

283 "There are some of us up here in the PNW who would take joy in showing you our part of the country. Our history. Our beaches and mountains and forests.

Contact a cob for my email if you wish.
Posted by: nurse ratched"

Much obliged.
Looking forward to it.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 07, 2024 11:37 AM (dg+HA)

284 TDS Or Stupid?: Bette Midler Suggests Biden Arrest Republicans, Allow FBI To Use Deadly Force To Regain Democrat House Majority
====
It's from the "the Supreme Court will allow Trump to kill anyone he wants now!" stupidity.
Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 11:34 AM (Jh5b+)

That, and if unelected bureaucrats can't decide for themselves how to interpret law, our democracy is over.

Not that the midwits understand that, but the bureaucrats who tell corporate media what to say do.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:38 AM (EF7Aq)

285 Thanks for the mention, John F. McM - yes, the last chapters of Sunset and Steel Rails are an account of the Galveston Hurricane. I had read Isaac's Storm and a number of other books which had eyewitness accounts - So I depended on that, and memories of riding out a typhoon in Japan, when I was stationed there in the late 197s.
I had gathered that even if the weather forecasters then had accurately predicted the path of that hurricane, there wasn't much they could have done, other than a mass evacuation - which wasn't really possible, given that there were (IIRC) only two railway bridges into the city, and a single road bridge connecting to the mainland. In Galveston itself there was a sort of public conviction that their city was charmed when it came to hurricanes. They were in a sweet spot, and would never be hit, straight on, like the 1900 hurricane did.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 07, 2024 11:39 AM (Ew3fm)

286 Literature vs Just Story? Beats me. A bunch of today's Classics were yesterday's Just Stories.

Spent most of my teen years and well into my twenties buried in science fiction paperbacks. These days not so much. But not all the genre stuff was trivial.

These days the split for me seems to be "That was okay, but I probably won't revisit it" vs "If I was a writer, I'd love to have written that."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 11:39 AM (q3u5l)

287 "... if you ever roll through upstate SC, I'd be honored if you'd come set a spell on my screen porch. If you enjoy hiking, we can find a nearby trail to explore.
Posted by: screaming in digital at July 07, 2024 11:30 AM"

Yes to both.
Thanks for the offer.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 07, 2024 11:39 AM (dg+HA)

288 Done with most of my chores, the stuff I usually wait until Sunday afternoon to do. Now I will have no excuse to get out of taking Miss Linda to World Market this p.m. If I do, we stop at the DIY car wash and she'll help me rinse off and dry the Buick, so there's that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 11:40 AM (omVj0)

289 Literature, to me, has some kind of amazing characterization among the leads -- people who *live* on the page, whether protagonist or antagonist. There are other requirements, but that's got to be there first. A portrait of a life, or of the most significant portion of that life.

Eh. I know it when I see it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 11:35 AM (omVj0)

So, is your stuff literature, or stories? Are you shooting for one or the other? What caused you to get into writing your own works? Wait... that sounds like an idea for a post at ALH.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 11:40 AM (0eaVi)

290 Bette Midler Suggests Biden Arrest Republicans, Allow FBI To Use Deadly Force To Regain Democrat House Majority

I have figured out why actors were regarded as lower life forms many years ago.

And I'm still bummed that we don't have death camps yet.

Posted by: NR Pax at July 07, 2024 11:41 AM (X5r0P)

291 @137, lin-duh

I find that I can listen to audiobooks when I'm doing something that's fairly automatic, like working out on a treadmill or elliptical or driving long distances on the freeway (especially if there is little traffic). I also choose audiobooks that are lighter fare that require less concentration.

YMMV, of course. And, besides Audible, check out LibriVox, which is like Gutenberg.com, but audiobooks, or see if your local library has the Libby app, which also has audiobooks. Best part: these are free!

Posted by: March Hare at July 07, 2024 11:42 AM (jfX+U)

292
*I have figured out why actors were regarded as lower life forms many years ago.*

This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: John Wilkes Booth at July 07, 2024 11:43 AM (dg+HA)

293 I have figured out why actors were regarded as lower life forms many years ago.

Groundlings >>> actors

Posted by: Billy Shakespeare at July 07, 2024 11:43 AM (ufFY8)

294 And I'm still bummed that we don't have death camps yet.
Posted by: NR Pax at July 07, 2024 11:41 AM (X5r0P)

We will, it's just a toss-up as to who will be the guards, and who the prisoners.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:44 AM (EF7Aq)

295 I have figured out why actors were regarded as lower life forms many years ago.

Yep. Here's a question that MP4 or someone else may have an actual answer to. Who was the first popular actor or entertainer to spout off on a public issue and anyone cared about it? That person has a lot to answer for.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 07, 2024 11:44 AM (/y8xj)

296 I am reading (for probably about the hundredth time) The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. I have a bad habit of reading anything at hand, and my book supply was severely diminished when my house blew up and fell on my dog and me in 2020 (both of us lived; she was much more fortunate than me--all the dog had was singed eyelashes, a bruised right hip, and a newfound fear of close lightning strikes, with the accompanying thunder. I was not as fortunate, with a right pelvis fractured into 13 pieces, a numb left leg, five broken right ribs, a broken right collar bone, a broken lower jaw, a TBI with three brain bleeds, a severe concussion, and a greatly reduced sense of balance/equilibrium. Yet here I remain: try to kill me, will you? How did that work out?)

Posted by: jackcoke at July 07, 2024 11:44 AM (EFQuV)

297 Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt

Oh, and Ian, one of the best sources of constitutional law is a free online resource.

Fedgov publishes (older versions were dead tree) an U.S. Constitution Annotated which follows the familar Article I, II, III, etc. and amendments but describes court cases that explain the various provisions of the Constitution. So for Art. II, Section 1, you will find the original text and then subsequent court decisions discussed in relatively plain language that explain it.

For historical understandings of the US Constitution, there is the online University of Chicago's Founders Constitution (https://tinyurl.com/5ayw7m9n)

Heritage Foundation also has something similar in a modern take on the Annotated Constitution but in a dead tree version.

Annotated Constitutions allow a much more rapid consultation of specific constitutional clauses and their history in case law than do law school textbooks or horn books to pass the bar.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:45 AM (/0X3E)

298 Well, reality is rearing its annoying head...

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 07, 2024 11:45 AM (q3u5l)

299 282 Just finished Bouncers Battle. A story centered on the Poles who made their way to England and flew with the RAF. Generally good story but DAMN. Why can't authors keep their stupid politics out of a story. Will not read the subsequent books.
Posted by: Diogenes
-----
It is a major reason I have quit reading new fiction nowadays and even rarely read my old stash of such things. Read mainly non fiction and classics as far as books today. Slowly going through Saint Augustine's works on Kindle right now.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:48 AM (/0X3E)

300 Hope you are well Reforger, saw teh prayer list and may you have rapid success in your search.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:31 AM (/0X3E)

Thank you.
I'll be fine. No worries here.

Posted by: Reforger at July 07, 2024 11:48 AM (xcIvR)

301 To me, so-called literary novels are just another genre. Time plays a role. I'm sure a few of Ursula le Guin's novels will be read a couple hundred years from now. They will be considered literature by then.

Posted by: Wenda at July 07, 2024 11:48 AM (4GhzG)

302 Yet here I remain: try to kill me, will you? How did that work out?)
Posted by: jackcoke
=======
Glad you and your dog are okay. People with spirit rarely let circumstances get them down for long.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:49 AM (/0X3E)

303 In other news, I was alerted by the wife that Big Tit Donna is floating around in a hot pink bikini. So, I fired up the replay on On Demand, and yes, it IS a hot pink bikini, but well reinforced.

The other two Big Tit Sisters are also making an appearance with their cleavage, Nice Bid Brooke in a white sun dress thing, and Curvy Katie in a thin strapped gray top.

Posted by: anchorbabe fashion cop at July 07, 2024 11:49 AM (ufFY8)

304 If he's not dead in the next couple years, or court martialed out for not being DEI enough, it'll be a minor miracle.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 07, 2024 11:19 AM (EF7Aq)
---
My middle kid enlisted in my ANG unit under Trump. She says the transformation is really astonishing, from high-morale to utter demoralization. They keep trying ways to cheer people up, but the gloom is pervasive. She's counting the months until her term is up.

All the guys who served with me are getting out, even the full-timers. It says something that guys pushing 50 would rather test the civilian market than stay in the service.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 11:50 AM (llXky)

305
my book supply was severely diminished when my house blew up and fell on my dog and me in 2020

Were your last words before the house blew up, "But first we cook"?

Posted by: Walter White at July 07, 2024 11:51 AM (RKVpM)

306 So, is your stuff literature, or stories? Are you shooting for one or the other? What caused you to get into writing your own works? Wait... that sounds like an idea for a post at ALH.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024

***
It is! I'll post about that soon.

Off to the store; Miss L. knocked on the door just as I finished my previous post. Better if we go now rather than in the roasting heat of 3 pm. I'll check back later to see what everybody has posted.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 11:51 AM (omVj0)

307 Thank you.
I'll be fine. No worries here.
Posted by: Reforger
======
Good to hear.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:51 AM (/0X3E)

308 To me, so-called literary novels are just another genre. Time plays a role. I'm sure a few of Ursula le Guin's novels will be read a couple hundred years from now. They will be considered literature by then.
Posted by: Wenda at July 07, 2024

***
I think The Left Hand of Darkness should be counted as literature now.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 11:52 AM (omVj0)

309 It is! I'll post about that soon.

Off to the store; Miss L. knocked on the door just as I finished my previous post. Better if we go now rather than in the roasting heat of 3 pm. I'll check back later to see what everybody has posted.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 11:51 AM (omVj0)

Good. Should be an interesting topic for discussion.

(looks at clock)

Rats! It's almost time for the Book Thread to end. The worst part of Sunday morning. Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 07, 2024 11:53 AM (0eaVi)

310 Oh, and Ian, one of the best sources of constitutional law is a free online resource.

This is a heavy tome, Constitutional Rights and Liberties, Cases and Materials, by Lockhart, Kamisar and Chopar, from 1967. American Casebook Series, West Publishing Co.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at July 07, 2024 11:54 AM (ufFY8)

311 I was not as fortunate, with a right pelvis fractured into 13 pieces, a numb left leg, five broken right ribs, a broken right collar bone, a broken lower jaw, a TBI with three brain bleeds, a severe concussion, and a greatly reduced sense of balance/equilibrium. Yet here I remain: try to kill me, will you? How did that work out?)
Posted by: jackcoke at July 07, 2024 11:44 AM (EFQuV)

Oh sure, that's all bad but admit it. One paper cut and that damned lemon juice always finds a way into it.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 07, 2024 11:54 AM (W/lyH)

312 One suggestion is that you make sure the mag follower has been altered for the 308.
Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 11:29 AM (/0X3E)
---
I'll check out the link. Yes, the follower was cut down and there should have been a block on the front of the mag well, but it is missing. Repeated searches haven't found any for that particular item, but I did go down to Camp Perry and eyeball the .308 Garand coversions for ideas.

I've been using an iterative approach, and I think the Mark IV is the one that will work. Next weekend I'm planning on taking it out to the range to see how it performs.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 11:55 AM (llXky)

313 Burt TC for me the Gulags aren't open, California has a train track to build

Posted by: Skip at July 07, 2024 11:56 AM (fwDg9)

314 An entire book thread without a Tolkien discussion? It's like I don't even know you people anymore.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 11:56 AM (Lvojk)

315 Happy fun camps

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 11:56 AM (PXvVL)

316 An entire book thread without a Tolkien discussion? It's like I don't even know you people anymore.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 11:56 AM (Lvojk)
---
He got his mentions. It's an official thread.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 11:58 AM (llXky)

317 I've been using an iterative approach, and I think the Mark IV is the one that will work. Next weekend I'm planning on taking it out to the range to see how it performs.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
======
If needed, I forgot I have an inherited Guardia 7.62 1893 conversion in the safe that feeds okay if you need follower, ramp, and rail specs via measuring with calipers and micrometers.

Never shot it but checked feeding with 7.62 dummy cartridges for my FIL before he used it with no problems.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 12:00 PM (/0X3E)

318 I have read that the FR-7 bolt action was actually chambered for the 7.62 CETME round, dimensionally identical to the 7.62 NATO, but loaded to a lower pressure. Wear your shooting glasses when firing; but then, you should be doing that anyway.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 12:00 PM (Lvojk)

319 *settles in for the Book Thread*

*scrolls down and sees the Star Wars book*

HEY, I KNOW THAT BOOK!

*scrolls down and sees the WoW book*

HEY, I KNOW THAT BOOK TOO!

Posted by: pookysgirl, married to a geek at July 07, 2024 12:01 PM (dtlDP)

320 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perf!

Time to retreat indoors where the A/C is. Can't read a pulp novel about a jungle island while it's jungly weather outside.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 07, 2024 12:02 PM (kpS4V)

321 I have read that the FR-7 bolt action was actually chambered for the 7.62 CETME round, dimensionally identical to the 7.62 NATO, but loaded to a lower pressure. Wear your shooting glasses when firing; but then, you should be doing that anyway.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 12:00 PM (Lvojk)
---
No, that's Fudd lore. It was chambered for 7.62mm NATO and to ensure safety, a vent was drilled into the left side of the chamber.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 12:02 PM (llXky)

322 Tuition-free Reeducation Camps.

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 12:03 PM (Jh5b+)

323 AH,
If I recall right after being jogged by your information, I think the front block was part of the needed alterations for successful feeding.

The 7x57 is a bit longer cartridge than the 308 with some slight differences in cartridge shoulders. Also, the barrels of the older 93 -7.62 conversion models were hogged out from the smaller barrel and re rifled afterwards.

The Chileans used a sleeved approach on some of their 7.62 Mauser conversions which did not work out well.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 12:04 PM (/0X3E)

324 Time to retreat indoors where the A/C is. Can't read a pulp novel about a jungle island while it's jungly weather outside.
Posted by: All Hail Eris

I just came in from hanging with dogs in the back yard. The birds are bird seed eating machines!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 12:05 PM (L/fGl)

325 If needed, I forgot I have an inherited Guardia 7.62 1893 conversion in the safe that feeds okay if you need follower, ramp, and rail specs via measuring with calipers and micrometers.

Never shot it but checked feeding with 7.62 dummy cartridges for my FIL before he used it with no problems.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 12:00 PM (/0X3E)
---
A photo of the mag well would be super - with a particular focus on the block piece. My gunsmithing skills are more of the "file till it fits" level, so no measurements are necessary.

I have the email link on the web page in my nic.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 12:05 PM (llXky)

326 Tuition-free Reeducation Camps.
Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 12:03 PM (Jh5b+)
---
People are dying to go there!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 12:06 PM (llXky)

327 There was that westlake attempt at a bond set in hong kong forever and a day or some such

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 12:07 PM (PXvVL)

328 Wolfus,

Yes, that would be my first candidate. Second, The Lathe of Heaven.

Posted by: Wenda at July 07, 2024 12:07 PM (4GhzG)

329 You know who created NATO?

Biden Interview Disaster: Claims He “Put NATO Together” – but Was Only 6 Years Old When It Was Founded

-
And this before elementary school!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 12:07 PM (L/fGl)

330 321 I have read that the FR-7 bolt action was actually chambered for the 7.62 CETME round, dimensionally identical to the 7.62 NATO, but loaded to a lower pressure. Wear your shooting glasses when firing; but then, you should be doing that anyway.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 07, 2024 12:00 PM (Lvojk)
---
No, that's Fudd lore. It was chambered for 7.62mm NATO and to ensure safety, a vent was drilled into the left side of the chamber.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

Gets a bit weird on that issue. The CETME lower power cartridge did exist and I have the manual to show it but little sign that was because of the Mauser conversion safety. Had more to do with the first CETME models not being able to handle full bore 7.62 on the roller locking surfaces.

The major problem with 1893's which is also a passive safety is they are essentially case hardened exteriors with a soft core. Overpressure rounds generally do not 'blow up' the rifle but instead induce receiver locking lug setback over time that puts the rifle out of headspace. That can lead to cartridge separation and a gas event in which the 93 model is inferior to the later 98 model in handling.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 12:08 PM (/0X3E)

331 290 Bette Midler Suggests Biden Arrest Republicans, Allow FBI To Use Deadly Force To Regain Democrat House Majority

I have figured out why actors were regarded as lower life forms many years ago.

And I'm still bummed that we don't have death camps yet.
Posted by: NR Pax at July 07, 2024 11:41 AM (X5r0P)
***

In keeping with the theme of the thread, what would the title.of.the book be?
I'd call it "How to be Butt-head Stupid and Live in Hollywood."

Posted by: Diogenes at July 07, 2024 12:09 PM (W/lyH)

332 Gun Thread is early today.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at July 07, 2024 12:10 PM (CHHv1)

333 A photo of the mag well would be super - with a particular focus on the block piece. My gunsmithing skills are more of the "file till it fits" level, so no measurements are necessary.

I have the email link on the web page in my nic.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
-------------
I'll try to do that in the next day or so as I have to move the latest load of misc material from parental homes to get to the safe where it is. May have a relevant pix of the receiver somewhere on my computer as well and will try to sort those out.

Won't be the FR-7 but will be the 308 Guardia conversion though.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 12:11 PM (/0X3E)

334 We went away for a 3 day trip to Maine last week. I brought 4 books and my Kindle. I finally settled on Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory. Thank you to whomever recommended it. It’s one of those books that has been rolling around in my brain since finishing it a couple of days ago.

The Communists in 1930’s Mexico outlawed religion and practicing Catholicism was considered treason. Many priests were killed, many fled, some succumbed to the “law,” violated their vows and to took a wife. The Whiskey Priest stayed. He travelled from area to area as he evaded the authorities. He saw himself as a bad priest who did not live up to his vows - he drank too much, he fathered a child. And yet he put himself at risk saying Mass, hearing confessions while weeping from exhaustion. The story exceeded my expectations. Greene’s descriptions of the poverty, heat, and sometimes filth were vivid. The constant tension as the Whiskey Priest avoids capture, escapes, always looking over his shoulder, and always wrestling with his inner conflicts made the book difficult to put down.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at July 07, 2024 12:14 PM (BvCAm)

335 Good news, everyone!

MAZE
@mazemoore
One of the craziest clips of all time.
Jamie Raskin: Unlike Joe Biden, Trump and his family used politics to enrich themselves.
Psaki: What do you think of the false reporting that Biden is slowing down?
Raskin: Biden's age is healing the world.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at July 07, 2024 12:14 PM (L/fGl)

336 It's from the "the Supreme Court will allow Trump to kill anyone he wants now!" stupidity.
Posted by: andycanuck

I will allow it. Absolute immunity for POTUS in all matters Federal and State, criminal and civil (even before election).
As lomg as POTUS is the trigger man.

Anyone following unlawful orders shall be subject to full prosecution.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at July 07, 2024 12:14 PM (cOq4q)

337 The major problem with 1893's which is also a passive safety is they are essentially case hardened exteriors with a soft core. Overpressure rounds generally do not 'blow up' the rifle but instead induce receiver locking lug setback over time that puts the rifle out of headspace. That can lead to cartridge separation and a gas event in which the 93 model is inferior to the later 98 model in handling.
Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 12:08 PM (/0X3E)
---
Right, which is why the drilled a vent hole - keeps the chamber pressure lower. I'm not sure all conversions have it, but mine certainly does.

Thanks for the photo. I'm just looking at concepts at this point, so anything is helpful.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 12:18 PM (llXky)

338 Hes the son of a real soviet agent marcus raskin

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 07, 2024 12:21 PM (PXvVL)

339 Right, which is why the drilled a vent hole - keeps the chamber pressure lower. I'm not sure all conversions have it, but mine certainly does.

Thanks for the photo. I'm just looking at concepts at this point, so anything is helpful.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
-----------
The Hatcher hole solution for the low number 1903 receivers was done for similar reasons. To reduce risk from cartridge head separations.

BTW, I have a 1968 Guardia Manual in Spanish where they have the specifications of the 7.62 NATO cartridge as the specific ammunition for it--not the 7.62 CETME. A kindly soul posted that on Gunboards years ago when I was researching such things.

That being said, I would also check the headspace on any Mauser prior to 1920's post war metallurgy periodically if fired. The Mauser receivers are designed to degrade instead of kablooey but over time deformed locking lugs require a new receiver to be safe plus they can make operating the bolt rather nasty. Back when Samco Global liquidated, I ended up with several partially restored 1893 barrelled receivers in 7x57 as I was restoring an 1893 Spanish Long Mauser at the time. One of them showed lug setback.

Posted by: whig at July 07, 2024 12:28 PM (/0X3E)

340 Purchased this week and now in the queue of Raconteur Press anthologies to be read, "Moggie Noir" - which upon first impression is probably a blend of their "Pinup Noir" anthologies along with "Moggies in Space" anthologies. Not exactly sure what to expect here, but given the track record from this publisher, it'll be entertaining and fun.

Another book I saw mention over at Jim Curtis' blog ( oldnfo.org ) is "Minstrels in the Galaxy: Stories in the Key of Tull, Volume 1". I don't know how many fellow Morons love Ian Anderson's / Jethro Tull's music, but I've been a big fan for decades. That there's an anthology of stories inspired by that music that also seems to concentrate on "bards in space"? I'm intrigued.

Anyone else feel like their "to-be-read" list is becoming (or perhaps just "is") the proverbial Hydra?

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 07, 2024 12:43 PM (O7YUW)

341
The Communists in 1930’s Mexico outlawed religion and practicing Catholicism was considered treason. Many priests were killed, many fled, some succumbed to the “law,” violated their vows and to took a wife. The Whiskey Priest stayed. He travelled from area to area as he evaded the authorities. He saw himself as a bad priest who did not live up to his vows - he drank too much, he fathered a child. And yet he put himself at risk saying Mass, hearing confessions while weeping from exhaustion. The story exceeded my expectations. Greene’s descriptions of the poverty, heat, and sometimes filth were vivid. The constant tension as the Whiskey Priest avoids capture, escapes, always looking over his shoulder, and always wrestling with his inner conflicts made the book difficult to put down.
Posted by: KatieFloyd at July 07, 2024 12:14 PM (BvCAm)

That sounds wonderful and right up my alley. It's going on my list. Thanks!

Posted by: LASue at July 07, 2024 01:05 PM (llS7k)

342 nood CBD

Posted by: andycanuck (Jh5b+) at July 07, 2024 01:06 PM (Jh5b+)

343 "Ley, who was also a VfR member, who left Germany before the war and wound up writing articles for Analog..."

Willy Ley wrote some science articles that were published in Astounding (Analog) and in Amazing Stories, but his "For Your Information" science column was in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, where he was the Science Editor, from 1952 until his death in 1969.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at July 07, 2024 01:31 PM (cYrkj)

344 The US should reduce the Army to 100,000 regulars and back it up with a million reservists kept in varying degrees of readiness. This would be enough to intervene in a natural disaster, but too small to fight a war of choice absent mobilization, which would create needed public debate.

The Navy should be boosted, and the Air Force reserve component built up with a corresponding reduction in active duty (reserve pilots often get more flight hours due to their day jobs).
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 07, 2024 10:54 AM (llXky)

Making America 1)whiny and 2)toothless being a side benefit.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 07, 2024 01:59 PM (rQwsY)

345 Anyone else feel like their "to-be-read" list is becoming (or perhaps just "is") the proverbial Hydra?

Bull's-eye.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 07, 2024 02:22 PM (p/isN)

346 I truly love your blog.. Very nice colors & theme. Did you build this site yourself?

Please reply back as I'm trying to create my own personal website and
would like to find out where you got this from or just what the theme is named.
Kudos!

Posted by: sneakers at July 08, 2024 09:04 AM (BkOtk)

Processing 0.06, elapsed 0.0738 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0239 seconds, 355 records returned.
Page size 254 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.