Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-21-2024 ["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, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Today's pic is courtesy of my sister. She assembled the kit above (called a "book nook"). I'm pretty sure at least one member of the Moron Horde has also assembled one of these. They can be added to your bookshelves to make them look cool. Of course, the downside is that they take up space which could be used by actual books. I do think they are pretty neat.

ASSASSINS IN LITERATURE

I didn't want to bring up the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in last week's Sunday Morning Book Thread because it was still too fresh in my own memory. We all needed time to process what happened and also to allow more facts to emerge about the situation. As we've seen all week, the facts are horrific in the extreme but it could have been so much worse.

Assassination, of course, has a very, very long and bloody role throughout history. Popes, kings, emperors, etc. have all been struck down by an assassin. It often seems glamorous and cool, but the reality isn't that great, especially when an assassin takes out "my guy." Lots of people are affected, if not the entire course of history.

Assassins are still a very common trope in literature. They are often portrayed as stealthy, dangerous professional killers. They can take out good people or evil people, whichever pays more. One of the challenges of discussing assassins in literature is that there are often plot twists around the assassination attempt that would be considered "spoilers" if one talks about them too much. Let's take a look at a few examples from my own library:

In Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, the events of the first book are triggered by an assassin clothed all in white that takes out King Gavilar Kholin of Alethkar during a peace conference. This causes the peace talks to break down as the Parshendi are blamed for the assassination and all of Alethkar goes to war against the Parshendi. It turns out to be a lot more complicated...

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has a few books that revolve around assassination attempts. The benevolent ruler of Ankh Morpork, Patrician Havelock Vetinari, is the frequent target. However, he is a graduate of the Assassin's Guild and is quite aware of their tools and techniques, so is usually capable of protecting himself. Commander of the Watch Sam Vimes, is also a frequent target because of his own role in thwarting the goals of the Assassin's Guild. However, Vimes is just too stubborn and clever to die, so eventually he is deemed "off limits" by the Guild and no more contracts are allowed to be taken out on Vimes.

The Nighthawks of Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga play a major role in the early books. They conspire with a ancient evil powers to assassinate Prince Arutha of Krondor. They fail three times, but almost succeed on their last attempt. These attempts drive most of the plot in Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon as Arutha and his allies go on quests to uncover the dark powers behind these attempts and stop them before the entire Kingdom is destroyed.

Hugh the Hand in Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is hired by King Stephen to assassinate Stephen's 10-year-old son, Bane, as Bane possesses dark magic that gives him control over King Stephen and Queen Anne. They seek to free themselves from Bane's influence. It gets pretty dark later in the Death Gate series when we see Bane again...

Pe Ell is a highly skilled assassin who possesses a weapon that can kill anyone and anything and can cut through any magical defenses. He's hired by the Shadowen in Terry Brooks' The Druid of Shannara to kill Quickening, the daughter of the King of the Silver River. Her magic protects her against almost anything, but Pe Ell believes he can take her out. He just has to bide his time and find the right moment. This is one of those situations where plot twists abound and it's easy to say too much and ruin the story.

One of the most famous assassins in the Forgotten Realms series of novels is Artemis Entreri, created by R. A. Salvatore in the Legend of Drizzt novels. Curiously, we hardly ever see Entreri actually assassinate anyone. Kill them, yes, but they are not his direct target and are often just in his way as he focuses on his true mission, which often doesn't involve murder. In fact, when we first see him, he's more of a bounty hunter than an assassin, as he's been tasked with recovering a magical gem from the thief who stole it. Oh, and he has to bring in that troublesome halfling alive so that Pasha Pook can witness his excruciating death personally.

In addition to the above examples from fantasy literature, we have more contemporary examples where the assassin is the hero of the story:

Ian Fleming's James Bond is known as a spy, but he has a "license to kill" from the British government. He's allowed to carry out extra-judicial murder on their behalf and will not be held accountable by the Crown. (Other national governments may have a strong difference of opinion about this policy.) Bond encounters a number of assassins in his stories, such as Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun

Remo Williams and his mentor Chiun are assassins for the United States Government in The Destroyer novels. Remo and Chiun are both Masters of Sinanju, a mysterious martial art that gives the practitioner superhuman abilities. They use their skills to take out enemies of the United States in covert operations. In one memorable mission, Remo kills Santa Claus.

Jason Bourne in Robert Ludlum's stories is an amnesiac assassin (though this is subverted later when he discovers who he really is). He uses his myth as a prolific assassin to lure Carlos the Jackal into the open for a confrontation.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. What are some other great stories involving assassins, real or fictional? If you read through the comments from last week, you'll see a few recommendations for books on presidential assassinations--both successful and unsuccessful.

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~~BOOKS~~ SHORT STORIES BY MORONS

Regular Moron Wolfus Aurelius has a new short story published in the Raconteur Press anthology Or All Will Burn: At All Costs:

The anthology theme is "Family: What would you do to save one of your own?" My story was written in 2018 or '19. It's the kind of tale you might have found in Campbell's Unknown Worlds, his fantasy counterpart to Astounding, in the Forties (oddly, the story begins August of 1941). While it's fantasy, it also contains a puzzle which is solved, not through magic, but natural law. It was fun to write, and I'm proud of it -- and not a little astonished that others like it too!.
Here is the Amazon link: Or All Will Burn: At All Costs
Wolfus Aurelius

Now, which story belongs to Wolfus? You will have to guess! Here are the short stories, in order:

Cheatin'

Lifeboat

IN FROM THE RAIN

Beneath Red Sky: The End...

The Wrath of Mom

Princess Sparkle-Hooves

NIGHTWOLF

ANT FARM by P. L. "Wolfus Aurelius" Sunderson

TAPA'S ADVENTURE

Wolfus can confirm/deny your guesses (or not...). I'll be along later to update this with the correct answer (around 1 p.m. Central time).

NOTE: I found his author page on Amazon and he bears a strange resemblance to an old college buddy of mine...kinda eerie.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

In light of the assassination attempt on pres. Trump, I recommend Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan Del Quentin Wilber. Fascinating account of what happened that day, and as you read you will see that there inflection points throughout the timeline, that can only be described as miraculous.
Posted by: runner at July 14, 2024 09:15 AM (V13WU)

Comment: Because of the high profile nature of presidential assassinations and attempted assassinations, it's not surprising that they have been dissected to death over the decades. "Inflection points" is a good way to describe these events because history changes depending on whether or not the target survives. What if Kennedy had survived? What if Teddy Roosevelt had died? These often make interesting fodder for alternate reality science fictions stories, as the author "games out" a possible history based on alternate series of events.

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I'm currently reading Escape from Shadow Physics, Adam Kay. Kay has a PhD in Literature from Cambridge and a PhD in Mathematics from Oxford (just like The Perfessor). A fascinating attempt to understand the reality underlying quantum mechanics, starting with a historical discourse on natural philosophy.
The French could really do math at one point in time, maybe they should bring back the aristocracy after the Revolution.
The entire 'shut up and compute' school of physics is an abomination. A mathematical model that predicts correctly but that you not only don't understand but refuse to try to understand is not natural philosophy.
Posted by: Candidus at July 14, 2024 09:23 AM (dfcuM)

Comment: Physics--like a lot of the natural sciences--has been corrupted by politics for a long time. Lee Smolin wrote The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next documenting all of the problems that physics had run into while attempting to come up with "string theory." It sounds cool, but there's absolutely no experimental means of investigating whether or not there is evidence for its validity (that we know of). However, during a period of time, you could not advance as a scientist unless you were researching string theory in any of its many permutations. Now it's "climate change" that's causing all the fuss. In a decade it will be something else. We might need to go back to basic science...

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Good morning! Well ya'll know I rarely show up for the book thread and not because I don't like Perfessor lol! I read in spurts. Anyhoo... a friend recommended a few books for me to read as I begin trying a holistic approach to my illness. I just finished a very good one. It's called Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani. She had a near death experience and when she came out of her coma her body began healing. Just within a few months she was cancer free. Doctors were stunned. You don't have to be suffering from an illness to enjoy this book.
Posted by: jewells45fuckcancer at July 14, 2024 09:50 AM (iF0sF)

Comment: Near-death experiences can be life-changing events for many people. Some people experience pure bliss as they feel themselves taken close to Heaven. Others...well, they are taken to a much, much darker place. I've heard far too many accounts of miraculous healing after such experiences to discount them. *Someone* is looking out for us.

I can't say I've ever had a near-death experience, but I did have a very, very peculiar dream recently where I felt myself being taken up in the Rapture or something close to it. A feeling of pure, unadulterated joy. And a voice spoke to me directly. One of the most surreal experiences I've ever had while dreaming. I've also had dreams where a clearly demonic force was intruding upon me in my dreams.

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

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

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

Sandman Slim Book 4 - Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey

I've been slacking off a bit, so I didn't finish this book until Wednesday of this past week. It's the only Sandman Slim book that is a repeat for me, as I bought it a year or so ago at a separate library book sale. This one has James Stark returning to Earth to pick up his life again, more or less. However, his girlfriend started shacking up with another Jade chick, which promptly goes south as Candy and Stark reconnect again. Stark has to figure out just what is going on in L.A. as a rogue ghost is slaughtering "dreamers" that keep the fabric of reality together. Lose too many of them and...*poof*...there goes the neighborhood. And Earth. And the cosmos itself.

Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning by José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson

I talked about this book a few weeks ago as the office in which I work is doing a book study on this book. Well, the book study is now over and I don't think we ever reached a consensus about the merits (or lack thereof) of AI. We did have some interesting conversations. Our Provost sent out an email recently about an AI policy that faculty are encouraged to include in their syllabi. Personally, I have found AI useful for generating prompts for my course, but I do look at them skeptically to make sure that the prompt that is generated makes sense and will achieve the desired learning outcomes. There were also concerns about FERPA issues of faculty are uploading student content into an AI in order to "train it." I don't think the AI tools that are out there are entirely garbage--just mostly so for certain applications. They can generate "C" level work pretty easily. As an instructional designer and as an adjunct professor, I do want to help my students achieve "A" level work. It's possible that AI tools can help students overcome certain barriers, such as helping them develop self-confidence in their writing, and looking at AI-generated content (and internet content in general) with a highly skeptical eye.

Starhammer by Christopher B. Rowley

The human race has been enslaved by the Laowon Imperium for a thousand years. Now their freedom may finally be in their grasp as a human agent is tasked with tracking down a terrorist who may be the key to unlocking the shackles around the human race. The laowon remind me of the Kree from the Marvel universe in how they genetically tinker with humans to create new breeds. And they are various shades of blue. It's OK but not great.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 07-14-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Watch your six.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 08:59 AM (fwDg9)

2 John Van Stry's 4th book in the Wolfhounds series came out yesterday: "War Child". Excellent book. The effort to take back the Empire worlds from the DPRS continues. The evil nature of Chairman Neill of the DPRS is now becoming evident to its own people, in both small and large ways. I'm getting a real "Steiner will come" vibe for the upcoming book(s). It's going to be epic.

Also this week: Raconteur Press just keeps pumping out the anthologies at an impressive rate. Just released is "Or All Will Burn: At All Costs", the third (and probably the last) in that particular series. This is the 32nd anthology released by Raconteur Press in the space of 2 years and 3 months.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 21, 2024 08:59 AM (O7YUW)

3 Yay Book Thread!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 21, 2024 09:00 AM (PiwSw)

4 Pants!

Posted by: Ciampino - Tech humor #09 at July 21, 2024 09:00 AM (qfLjt)

5 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was a bit different from the usual.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 09:01 AM (zudum)

6 Besides dutifully called em
Well started a big ebook biography of Lenin to continue my Russian history reading maybe 6th book on Bolsheviks

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:01 AM (fwDg9)

7 Pimp has got to pimp.

Posted by: Rupert Pupkin at July 21, 2024 09:02 AM (2UBPP)

8 Read "I Am Not Spock." I had heard of the book many years ago, of course, but could never find it until now. It's available on the Internet Archive. My impression of the book from long ago was that people had negative feelings about it. Almost as if it was insulting to either the reader, or Spock himself. Sure, playing a role like that for three years, twelve hours a day, five days a week, can grate on someone, but the money and fame that came from the role shouldn't have caused Nimsy - er, I mean, Nimoy, to hate the character.

I can see where actors are afraid of being typecast, and Nimoy writes how he kept getting offers for work that wanted Spock, not Leonard Nimoy. He discusses his life after Trek, but always seems to notice how that's what led him to new things. Mr. Spock gave him the opportunity to do other things with his life. Nimoy states late in the book that if he never had the role, who knows what kind of acting life he may have had.

cont.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 09:02 AM (0eaVi)

9 And would love to make a book nook, OM had them up once

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:02 AM (fwDg9)

10 cont

The book covers time during the series and gives an inside look at the goings on. Although, some things he writes about I've seen elsewhere. One thing he didn't speak to was his alcoholism. Perhaps that may have had something to do with his feeling that he had to distance himself from Spock. Wish I had found it earlier. Might have written to him about a few things. Recommended, if you're interested in Trek or how an actor deals with fame.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 09:03 AM (0eaVi)

11 Good morning horde. Thank you Perfessor!

Posted by: TRex at July 21, 2024 09:03 AM (IQ6Gq)

12 Happy to hear about Wolfus.

Back later.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 09:03 AM (0eaVi)

13 Congratulations Wolfus! :-)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 21, 2024 09:05 AM (O7YUW)

14
That book nook looks a bit like the puzzle box from "Hellraiser".

Beware of Cenobites offering reading material!

Posted by: naturalfake at July 21, 2024 09:05 AM (eDfFs)

15 Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 09:02 AM (0eaVi

He should have thanked God for Spock, otherwise he'd have been cast as homely stock villains and the occasional nerdy science guy.

Posted by: enough BS at July 21, 2024 09:05 AM (2NXcZ)

16 The assassination of the Duke of Buckingham is a big part of The Three Musketeers.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 09:05 AM (1bNHn)

17 In my opinion, the best assassin books are the Matt Helm series. James Bond runs a poor second.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 09:06 AM (zudum)

18 Good Sunday morning, horde!

Laughing at the tough love librarian.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 21, 2024 09:06 AM (OX9vb)

19 Morning, book threadists! Thanks to the Perfessor for pimping (if that's the right word) the new anthology. He writes, "NOTE: I found his author page on Amazon and he bears a strange resemblance to an old college buddy of mine...kinda eerie."

Oops. I knew putting a pic up was a mistake. Ruins the mystique.

Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy. It'll be interesting to see which story you think is mine.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:06 AM (omVj0)

20 Well, good Lord, Prof, there are "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Manchurian Candidate," to name two of the most famous assassin novels.

Disclaimer: I have started both but not finished either. Someday.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)

21 Where are my manners? Congrats Wolfus!

Posted by: TRex at July 21, 2024 09:07 AM (IQ6Gq)

22 Oops. I knew putting a pic up was a mistake. Ruins the mystique.

Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy. It'll be interesting to see which story you think is mine.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:06 AM (omVj0)

Just change it to a picture of Stirling.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 21, 2024 09:07 AM (OX9vb)

23 Flash back to 1966. You are now in the proper era for "The Spy in the Ointment" by Donald Westlake. I bought the book for two reasons: the title and Westlake.

It does not disappoint.

Gene Raxford, a pacifist who runs a ragtag group deemed subversive by Uncle Sam, receives a strange visitor who invites him to a meeting. Feds, who keep tabs on Gene because of a misunderstanding, swoop in -- How long have you known that man? What did he want? Gene, fearing what the guy might do to him if he is a no-show, attends the meeting, which aims to meld a variety of nutball (and how) terrorist groups into one organization.

But Gene's a pacifist. Why was he invited? Another misunderstanding -- the guy mistook Gene's group for a deadly one with a similar name. (Can't you tell this is Westlake?)

(continurd)

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:07 AM (p/isN)

24 For reasons I gave in the last thread, I'm damned if I'm putting on pants. They'd just get in the way.

Also why I'm here, contrary to usual practice. I don't usually do Sunday AM here.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 09:09 AM (1bNHn)

25 (From post #23)

Gene flees the meeting, and for reasons that you do not have a need to know, agrees to infiltrate the budding group for a secret organization that is not an alphabet agency. He gets a crash course in espionage with gear from Sixties spy shows and goes off to save the world -- or at least his neck.

What more can I say? It's Westlake. The man was either tickling funny bones or crushing larynxes. Either way, he's entertaining.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:09 AM (p/isN)

26 "Nimoy states late in the book that if he never had the role, who knows what kind of acting life he may have had."

He could have portrayed more Native Americans, like he did on "Wagon Train".

Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 09:09 AM (vFG9F)

27 Congrats to Wolfus on having his story published. I got a copy of the book last night and read his story. (No hints about which one is his.) This is a fun read with a feel of Lovecraft about it. Thoroughly enjoyable and I believe the Horde will agree.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 09:10 AM (zudum)

28 Interesting photo up top.

Posted by: dantesed at July 21, 2024 09:11 AM (Oy/m2)

29 Richard pipes lenin is the definitive profile solzhenizns lenin in zurich is good for a character study though. Consider if the german general staff had not sent lenin to the finland station well the revolution might not have gotten as bloody

One of david morrells other series about the two brother assassins has at the crux of it a hit on khomeini when he is paris so too michael petersons sequel to his vietnam tale in real life he killed his wife some 20 years aftr that book was published

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:11 AM (PXvVL)

30 In my opinion, the best assassin books are the Matt Helm series. James Bond runs a poor second.
Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024

***
Hamilton's Helm stories are excellent. Very American, very much the hardboiled operative (in this case, for a secret govt. agency) from the Chandler/Hammett tradition.

HElm is remarkably free of cliches. IN the second book, the villain is holding a young woman, one whom Helm has slept with, as a shield, and calls out, "Throw out your gun or I'll kill her!" Standard stuff, right?

Helm goes, "Fine. When she drops, you'll still be standing there." And the enemy spy doesn't know how to handle that.

In another, once Helm finds that an enemy spy cannot fly the small plane he and a civilian woman are in, and the pilot is dead, Helm shoots the enemy woman. This horrifies his civilian lady friend. Helm says, "What should I do, leave her free? The moment she regained her wits, she's be trying to kill us."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

31 OK, I'm finishing William Alan Webb's seventh book in his "Last Brigade" series "Standing When Others Fall", and well... Bill, if you're lurking, or if anyone knows him, I just have this to say:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have someone copyedit your book before you publish!!! The last book had more than a few typos, which was really annoying. This book has even more, sometimes a typo per page for several pages running. It's a great story, but the incomplete sentences, the duplicate paragraphs, and the typos really hurt...I'm sure a fan *raises hand* will gladly volunteer to copyedit just to get an advance copy....

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 21, 2024 09:12 AM (PiwSw)

32 Yay, Book Thread!

Assassinations feature prominently in history and the killing of Jose Calvo Sotelo was the spark that ignited the Spanish Civil War. I've long sensed something similar might happen here, and therefore was not at all surprised at the attempt, though amazed at the providential result.

I'm continuing my China reading with Barbara Tuchman's Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945. I read this book years ago in middle school but it went almost completely over my head. I'm finding a second reading more worthwhile.

Based on prior books by Tuchman, I think there were be lots of interesting elements, but that her presentation will be flawed. She's a good writer, but can't help but insert "I know better than these people" asides into her histories, which got to be very annoying in A Distant Mirror.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:12 AM (llXky)

33 If Nimoy hadn't played Spock, he'd have spent most of his career playing bad guys, probably in yellowface.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:13 AM (78a2H)

34 As Paris looked forward to hosting the 1889 world's fair, her citizens were horrified at the ungainly metal structure slowly materializing near the Champs Elyeeses. Eiffel"s Tower by Jill Jonnes captures an event that marks the birth of the modern world. Gustave Eiffel, the man who designed and built the structure that supported the statue of liberty, was building a monument for the fair, but it insulted the sensibilities of Parisians. It was designed as a temporary structure, but with the advent of radio, it was the world's best antenna, and so it stayed, and eventually became a beloved landmark. The fair itself was the coming out party for modern technology and history as entertainment, with Edison introducing the phonograph, and Buffalo Bill bringing the American west to Europe. Jonnes captures the era of the fair quite well, describing the spectacle, as well as the engineering and asthetic challenge that Eiffel's tower had to overcome. If you enjoyed Devil in the White City, you will like this one as well.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 21, 2024 09:13 AM (7+jIt)

35 >>>"Nimoy states late in the book that if he never had the role, who knows what kind of acting life he may have had."

>Nimoy fit in rather well in the Mission Impossible series, and he didn't need high heels to come into focus.

Posted by: Rupert Pupkin at July 21, 2024 09:14 AM (2UBPP)

36 Oops. I knew putting a pic up was a mistake. Ruins the mystique.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024
*
Just change it to a picture of Stirling.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 21, 2024

***
Do you know, I thought of that. I've got at least one portrait of his face.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:14 AM (omVj0)

37 Yes, congrats to Wolfus!

Also a thank you to whoever it was that recommended "Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent." It's a sort of memoir edited from a series of conversations over a period of years between Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea, a friend and fellow Shakespearian actor.

The book is structured around the various Shakespearian plays and roles Dench has played over the years with a lot of biographical nuggets thrown in. Enormously entertaining and you don't have to know a lot about Shakespeare to enjoy it. I enjoyed hearing about plays that I was unfamiliar with as much as I enjoyed hearing about old favorites.

And I know that most actors are idiots and I generally don't care about what they have to say, but Shakespeare is different because there is a lot of scholarship involved in understanding and interpreting roles.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at July 21, 2024 09:14 AM (FEVMW)

38 This book on Lenin has started from his family history, he was related to a later Feld Marshall Walter Model of Nazi fame, and Lenin's school principal was Kerensky who was the last ruler before the Bolsheviks took over father.
Small world

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:14 AM (fwDg9)

39 Congrats, Wolfus!

Posted by: naturalfake at July 21, 2024 09:15 AM (eDfFs)

40 Did not know that.

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:16 AM (PXvVL)

41 I'm sure a fan *raises hand* will gladly volunteer to copyedit just to get an advance copy....
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 21, 2024 09:12 AM (PiwSw)

Same! In his preface, he noted that he'd been sick, but as you say, several of us would volunteer to proofread. I told him so on goodreads! These books are too good to be poorly edited.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 21, 2024 09:16 AM (OX9vb)

42 "Nimoy states late in the book that if he never had the role, who knows what kind of acting life he may have had."

He could have portrayed more Native Americans, like he did on "Wagon Train".
Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 09:09 AM (vFG9F)
---
Didn't he follow it up with I Am Spock, which is where he came to terms with his life?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:17 AM (llXky)

43 He should have thanked God for Spock, otherwise he'd have been cast as homely stock villains and the occasional nerdy science guy.
Posted by: enough BS at July 21, 2024

***
I've seen him play a WWII US soldier in a Twilight Zone, a reporter in an Outer Limits, and even an Indian in a Sixties TV Western (though it might have been Daniel Boone, not really a "Western" as we define it). Featured characters, most of them, not leads.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:17 AM (omVj0)

44 "And I know that most actors are idiots and I generally don't care about what they have to say, but Shakespeare is different because there is a lot of scholarship involved in understanding and interpreting roles.
Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey"

You can say that again.

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at July 21, 2024 09:18 AM (vFG9F)

45 There was a similar dynamic with castro like hitler hs was shortened his sentence exiled to mexico where he met guevara the soviet resident leonov cultivated him the mexican security service arranged for him to leave the country on the granma

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:18 AM (PXvVL)

46 I endorse Shadout 100 percent. Proofread until your eyes bleed. Better yet, hire a professional. They work cheap.

Three protips:
1. Do it chapter by chapter, and after you go through each chapter forwards, go through it reading backwards from the end. Your attention inevitably drifts so the beginning gets better checking than the later parts.

2. Read it aloud. Amazing how that helps flag both errors and awkward prose.

3. Make a style sheet to nail down what gets capitalized, how names are spelled, etc. Is the hero's call sign "Ghost 20" or "Ghost Twenty" -- the style sheet will tell you.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:19 AM (78a2H)

47 I add my congratulations to the stack given to Wolfus.

I understand that Nimoy wrote another book later in his career. Title? "I Am Spock."

I guess he accepted his fate. But it still was odd to see him in subsequent shows.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:20 AM (p/isN)

48 "I'm pretty sure at least one member of the Moron Horde has also assembled one of these."

(Holds up hand)
Umm. Yes, and about thirty of them. They do take up space on the shelves meant for books ... but they look so cool. Especially after dark, if you turn on the little lights in them.
And they are fun to do - more addictive than jigsaw puzzles. I put them into two categories - the ones that are all 2-D puzzle pieces, and the ones with 3-D elements that are more like miniature environments.
As for light reading this week - a frivolous bit of Regency-style fantasy by Margaret Ball, called Salt Magic. Quite light and enjoyable, especially if one likes Georgette Heyer's Regency romps.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 21, 2024 09:20 AM (Ew3fm)

49 This week’s Kindle read was “McMann and Wife” by Fred Key. This is the sequel to the quirky detective novel “McMann and Duck.”

https://tinyurl.com/48jc8mwn

It’s 1959, eight years after we first saw down-on-his-luck P.I. Jack McMann. Things are looking up. He now has a steady job, an apartment, a wife, and a cat named Fido. At heart, he is still a detective, so when he gets a call about finding a missing teenage girl, he reluctantly takes it. McMann doesn’t like missing persons jobs, especially ones with kids, as they seldom turn out well. As he starts investigating, he soon realizes that things are not as they seem…

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 21, 2024 09:20 AM (6H+mQ)

50 Nimoy was on "Wagon Train" four times, one of those as an Indian. He also portrayed some Hispanixes.

Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 09:21 AM (vFG9F)

51 And I know that most actors are idiots and I generally don't care about what they have to say, but Shakespeare is different because there is a lot of scholarship involved in understanding and interpreting roles.
Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at July 21, 2024 09:14 AM (FEVMW)
---
A primary reason why British actors remain excellent and American ones have degenerated into trash is that the British must play Shakespeare as part of their development. By focusing on stage work (which requires memorizing the whole play, not just a scene), they develop superior discipline and the ability to remain in character. It also generally requires higher intelligence, and that's why British actors are often quite witty and interesting.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:21 AM (llXky)

52 As Paris looked forward to hosting the 1889 world's fair...

Off-topic, but I was reading that the upcoming Paris Olympics look like an attendance flop.

Things like increasing hotel rooms by $700/night has a lot to do with it.

But, also restricting/forbidding air conditioning in the Olympic village due to "energy shortages" is making teams and people think twice.

The American team is bringing it's own air conditioning.

Not to mention Macron's constant threatening of state sponsored violence.

I suspect a pretty a pretty good comedy could be written about the 2024 Paris Floplympics.

Posted by: naturalfake at July 21, 2024 09:21 AM (eDfFs)

53 For some reason, "Memorial Day" by Vince Flynn springs to mind.

Morning, all! Congrats, Wolfus!!

Posted by: Lizzy at July 21, 2024 09:22 AM (+oRno)

54 Another point this book points out is Lenin's family history other than father and mother, and executed older brother was squashed in his and Stalin's lifetime. Leni was quite the mongrel, had a Asian grandmother giving him much of his facial makeup and his northern European relatives his red hair

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:22 AM (fwDg9)

55 2. Read it aloud. Amazing how that helps flag both errors and awkward prose.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:19 AM (78a2H)
---
If you can, read it aloud to someone else, and use a proof copy of book when you do it. Mistakes on a typewritten sheet are easier to ignore in an actual book for some reason. When I did that, my error rate plummeted.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:23 AM (llXky)

56 I read A Hero of France by Alan Furst. Furst tells the story of a French Resistance cell in Paris which helps downed RAF pilots escape to Spain to fly again against the Nazis. They also go to the shores of Normandy to meet British spies being infiltrated from a submarine. They do all this while dodging German efforts to put them out of business.

Posted by: Glenn Mackett at July 21, 2024 09:23 AM (95YoS)

57 4 Pants!
Posted by: Ciampino - Tech humor #09 at July 21, 2024 09:00 AM (qfLjt)
-----

Never!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 21, 2024 09:23 AM (kpS4V)

58 Congratulations Wolfus on the professional pen

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:23 AM (fwDg9)

59 He should have thanked God for Spock, otherwise he'd have been cast as homely stock villains and the occasional nerdy science guy.
Posted by: enough BS at July 21, 2024

***
Nimoy was not your idea of a movie or TV star. He wasn't in the same looks class as Shatner, or Robert Vaughn, or Robert Culp. But that turned out to be no hindrance to Martin Landau or Richard Boone. Part of it is the luck of the draw, of being in the right place at the right time and having your work known by the right people.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:24 AM (omVj0)

60 What's the over/under on the number of mimes in the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics?

Posted by: dantesed at July 21, 2024 09:25 AM (Oy/m2)

61 Currently reading a history of Venice, called _City of Fortune_ by Roger Crowley. It's pretty interesting, but them I'm always fascinated by Venice.

It's not really a complete history of Venice, mostly concentrating on the peak years from the Fourth Crusade through Lepanto.

Nice account of why the Venetians decided to use the Fourth Crusade to take over the remains of the Byzantine Empire instead of, y'know, actually Crusading. Turns out the Crusade organizers got them to commit to a huge effort -- ships enough to carry and supply 35,000 men. They spent a year getting ready and then a _much_ smaller number of Crusaders (with a much smaller amount of money) showed up. So basically the Crusaders agreed to work off their debt by conquering some things the Venetians needed conquered.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:25 AM (78a2H)

62 "You shot him in the back, Matt. In the back!"

"Sure. He happened to be facing that way."

Quintessential Helm.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:26 AM (p/isN)

63 The 4th "Wagon Train" with Nimoy I couldn't remember so looked it up and it was the one where he and Borgnine portrayed a family of Basques.

Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 09:26 AM (vFG9F)

64 What's the over/under on the number of mimes in the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics?
Posted by: dantesed

I'm a little out of it. I originally read mimes as mines.

Posted by: Hour of the Wolf at July 21, 2024 09:27 AM (VNX3d)

65 Picked up some Dick Francis paperbacks at the used bookstores - can't wait to (re)read them! Loved discovering his books back in middle school because I always learned new words.

Posted by: Lizzy at July 21, 2024 09:27 AM (+oRno)

66 Congrats to Wolfus on having his story published. I got a copy of the book last night and read his story. (No hints about which one is his.) This is a fun read with a feel of Lovecraft about it. Thoroughly enjoyable and I believe the Horde will agree.
Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024

***
Reflecting, I think it's kind of a Sixties Twilight Zone kind of story. Any Lovecraft influence on me is only from reading *about* his work and its themes and concepts, very little of the work itself. Though I do need to try some more of it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:27 AM (omVj0)

67 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 21, 2024 09:27 AM (Q0kLU)

68 Nimoy was not your idea of a movie or TV star. He wasn't in the same looks class as Shatner, or Robert Vaughn, or Robert Culp. But that turned out to be no hindrance to Martin Landau or Richard Boone. Part of it is the luck of the draw, of being in the right place at the right time and having your work known by the right people.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:24 AM (omVj0)
---
He simply didn't have stage presence. Shatner did and I can see why he was jealous.

No one was compelled to watch Nimoy; they watched how he reacted to Shatner or McCoy, which put him in an inherently weaker position. His big strength was that he had a good narrator voice and he could very easily have been a Jeff Goldblum type where he does tons of work as the brainy type of guy.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (llXky)

69 Picked up some Dick Francis paperbacks at the used bookstores - can't wait to (re)read them! Loved discovering his books back in middle school because I always learned new words.
Posted by: Lizzy at July 21, 2024

***
If one of them is his mid-Sixties thriller Flying Finish, it is grand stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (omVj0)

70 >>Pants!

A must - in the backyard watching the birds, heh.

Posted by: Lizzy at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (+oRno)

71 This week I read "The Ocean and the Stars," by the magnificent Mark Helprin, who is easily my favorite fiction writer. You may know him from "A Soldier of the Great War," "Winter's Tale," and "Memoir from Antproof Case," amongst other excellent novels.

It is the story of a small Patrol Coastal ship, the USS Athena, and it's Captain, who is an old school Naval officer with integrity and bravery who does the right thing, always, and ends up suffering greatly for it.

To say that Helprin writes beautifully is a colossal understatement. I felt true joy reading this novel, just enjoying the prose, though it is a tough, sometime bloody story.

First paragraph:

"Snow falling upon water makes a sound so close to silence that no heart exists it cannot calm. It fell across the Chesapeake and in the harbors and inlets and far out to sea, surrendering to the waters with the slightest exhalation and a muffled hiss. Though few are there to see it, in winter this happens often."

Just wonderful. Highly recommend.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (/RHNq)

72 For folks asking about books for toddlers and other small critters. Last week we went to a local art gallery. It displays works of local artists and teach classes. One of the artists was there and we had a wonderful conversation about her paintings. (They really are excellent.) She casually mentioned that she had illustrated a couple of children's books and how difficult book illustration is. Couldn't resist so I ordered the two books and glad I did.

They are "How the Fox Got His Socks" and "Into the Woods For a Basket of Soup", both by Kimberly Smith Andreadis. The writing is poetry and rhythmic, aimed at enticing little ones with the lilt of the words and pacing. It would be suitable to read to kids and for them to start picking out words as they learn to read. Vastly superior to 'see Spot run'.

But the illustrations are the key for me. Rebekah Keener's illustrations are a delight: colorful, detailed from the story, and imaginative. I was pleased that the animals' fur was accurate for color and texture.

I am no expert on books for little kids but I know what I like. I put these books on a par with Beatrix Potter books and maybe a bit better.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (zudum)

73 I expect the Paris Olympics to be a flop, but fear it will be a terrorist target too big to ignore.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (7+jIt)

74 Yes he was chuvash i learned that from rutherford who were a turkic people

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (PXvVL)

75 57 4 Pants!
Posted by: Ciampino - Tech humor #09 at July 21, 2024 09:00 AM (qfLjt)
-----

Never!
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 21, 2024 09:23 AM (kpS4V)

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 21, 2024 09:29 AM (OX9vb)

76 What's the over/under on the number of mimes in the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics?
Posted by: dantesed at July 21, 2024 09:25 AM (Oy/m2)
----
*waves hands inside collapsing box*

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:29 AM (llXky)

77 " 4 Pants!
Posted by: Ciampino - Tech humor #09 at July 21, 2024 09:00 AM (qfLjt)
-----

Never!
Posted by: All Hail Eris "

Jodhupers then?

Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 09:30 AM (vFG9F)

78 As far as assassination goes in real life, I've been fascinated by the hit on a Contra leader after the Nicaraguan war was lost. Cut down by a sniper in Managua. It got little play in the States.

Can't remember the guy's name. I really should research that.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:31 AM (p/isN)

79 I'm now in Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" (I have a suitably moldy copy from 1823) and I plan on rereading Lewis's delightfully sleazy "The Monk" and old Horey's "Otranto".

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 21, 2024 09:32 AM (kpS4V)

80 Jodhpurs. Pardon my temparoy dyslaxie.

Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 09:32 AM (vFG9F)

81 This week I read Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty, the basis for that movie with John Travolta, which I've never seen. The movie is classed as a comedy. While there are funny moments in the novel, I'd never call it a comedy. Several people (most of them criminals or basic scumbags) get shot or killed in other ways. Maybe the casting in the film helped make it funnier.

On the Tech Thread, someone mentioned that the screenplay that forms the McGuffin for several of the characters is broken down in detail in the novel, but not in the movie, and that possibly the screenplay should have remained a mystery in the book too. I think what Leonard was doing was showing us how even the best screenplay gets tinkered with and twisted and changed by the H'wood people until it's hardly recognizable.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:33 AM (omVj0)

82 Something just occurred to me, given that we've been talking about Lenin and Macron and stuff. It's about the huge difference in outcome between the American Revolution and most Old World revolutions.

The Americans had no state apparatus. They had to build one in a vacuum. Everything above the individual states and local governments was a blank slate.

Whereas in both Russia and France, revolutionaries took over an existing state -- and in both cases they were states with immense power and entrenched bureaucracy. So the level of oppression remained constant, just the leaders of the oppressive state and the details of oppression changed.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:34 AM (78a2H)

83
Boone's Strawberry Hill > Strawberry Hill House

Posted by: naturalfake at July 21, 2024 09:34 AM (eDfFs)

84 Congratulations, Wollfus!

Author pics: Mine is very much out of date, but I have no plans to update it. Don't like the way I look and see no reason to promote it.

Reading: Really nothing. Flipping through books here and there, buying books willy-nilly, but as far as reading for the pleasure of it. . .no.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 21, 2024 09:34 AM (Q0kLU)

85 Eden pastora but the hitman vital roberto gaguine was an argentine guerilla who perished four years later in an attack on an army base the people behind the christics the ones who inspired lethal weapon and that segal film actually thought he was a libya amac galil and went down the rabbit hole of cia

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:34 AM (PXvVL)

86 And another congrats to Wolfus.

Assassins? First thing I think of is The Manchurian Candidate, book and film. Never got around to the Matt Helm series, but from some of the comments here today it seems like my cup of tea.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 09:35 AM (q3u5l)

87 Does reading Generac owner and install manuals to start a new business count?

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 21, 2024 09:35 AM (gbOdA)

88 As far as assassination goes in real life, I've been fascinated by the hit on a Contra leader after the Nicaraguan war was lost. Cut down by a sniper in Managua. It got little play in the States.

Can't remember the guy's name. I really should research that.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:31 AM (p/isN)
---
The level of historical ignorance by our ruling class is really alarming. Many of them are old enough to remember The Troubles in Ireland or the various Red Brigade movements in Europe.

Conflict does not always switch from peace to civil war often times there is a gray zone of bombings, targeted assassinations, crackdowns and jailbreaks.

Anyone who resorts to "How will your gun stop jet bombers" has just betrayed their colossal (and very dangerous) ignorance.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:36 AM (llXky)

89 66 ... "Any Lovecraft influence on me is only from reading *about* his work and its themes and concepts, very little of the work itself."

Hi Wolfus,
No doubt about that. Your story is original (and fun). I just meant it had that same 'feel' that makes Lovecraft's writing so effective. Again, Congrats. I'm looking forward to reading the other stories in the book. Glad you mentioned this on last night's hobby thread.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 09:36 AM (zudum)

90 [Nimoy's] big strength was that he had a good narrator voice and he could very easily have been a Jeff Goldblum type where he does tons of work as the brainy type of guy.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024

***
Yes! I could see him playing Malcolm the mathematics shark in Jurassic Park, had that been written and filmed in Nimoy's prime.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:36 AM (omVj0)

91 Gaguine was hired because his boss was the security chief for the new regime

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:36 AM (PXvVL)

92 >>Does reading Generac owner and install manuals to start a new business count?

I am sure the tech writers of those manuals would say "OF COURSE it does!"

Posted by: Lizzy at July 21, 2024 09:36 AM (+oRno)

93 I just finished a John Masefield poetry collection. He was poet laureate in England and if Mark Steyn’s bit on him is any indication, took the job very seriously.

It is somewhat hit or miss for me, because phrases and line endings (and thus rhymes) don’t often match up. But there are a series of poems touching on Arthurian legend at the end that are remarkable.

Some of the horse racing pieces are also impressive.

And round the tired horses came the Powers
That stir men’s spirits, waking or asleep,
To thoughts like planets and to acts like flowers,
Out of the inner wisdom’s beauty deep.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 21, 2024 09:36 AM (EXyHK)

94 Good morning all!
I am reading a book titled “The Drowning Woman.”
It got good reviews. All of the men are evil, and the women are suffering saints.
The reviewers must have all been women. 🤨

Posted by: Jmel at July 21, 2024 09:37 AM (bVhJi)

95 Another fantasy assassin is Vlad Taltos in Steven Brust's Draegera Cycle series. In that world there are three levels if assassination. Essentially; Warning, Permanent, and Soul Destroying

It's pretty well written, but Taltos is a self-insert as you can track the happenings in Brust's personal life through what happens to the character.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 21, 2024 09:38 AM (XjtdB)

96 One of nemos last role was as the mysterios string puller in fringe who had developed the altverse crossing technology

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:39 AM (PXvVL)

97 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:24 AM (omVj0)

Didn't he write a sequel "I am Spock" after he cooled down and realized it was the best thing that ever happened to him?

Posted by: enough BS at July 21, 2024 09:39 AM (2NXcZ)

98 Skimmed the endings of three very familiar Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga books: Komarr, A Civil Campaign and Diplomatic Immunity. This was during the acceptance speech of DJT. I rarely watch TV, and my reading / TV char is right next to one bookcase with the Bujold books.

Also read Agent of Chaos by Norman Spinrad. This is a parable of a highly controlling totalitarian government in the far future , the plucky and overmatched resistance, and a third group, which has no known pattern of action.

Spinrad is a leftist author, but this is tolerable for the 5% of the works that are reportedly from the fictitious Theory of Social Entropy. He uses the 3 main laws of Thermodynamics as a basis for societal actions and progress.

The story resonates with today, in our struggles against the WEF and Deep State.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 09:40 AM (u82oZ)

99 Whereas in both Russia and France, revolutionaries took over an existing state -- and in both cases they were states with immense power and entrenched bureaucracy. So the level of oppression remained constant, just the leaders of the oppressive state and the details of oppression changed.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:34 AM (78a2H)
---
A big part of that was the strategic isolation of the American colonies. Without counter-revolutionary armies massing on the frontiers, we could dick around with the Articles of Confederation, find out they didn't work, and try something new.

Hard to do with Royalist armies closing on you.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:40 AM (llXky)

100 Good Morning!

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

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 09:40 AM (u82oZ)

101 Trying the Audible Plus membership on a 3 month free trial.
1) they have made it extremely difficult to find the included "free" audiobooks.
2) not sure if I like the whole audio format for books. I find myself getting distracted and trying to do other stuff then lose the story line.
3) audiobooks are expensive!

Posted by: lin-duh at July 21, 2024 09:41 AM (0A2kd)

102 Cervantes --

Are you replying to my post #78?

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:41 AM (p/isN)

103 I am sure the tech writers of those manuals would say "OF COURSE it does!"
Posted by: Lizzy at July 21, 2024 09:36 AM (+oRno)

I have read about 100 pages of P2025 trying to see what it really says.
I do word searches. Many of the things you think it says according to (D) are not there.
eg on H1B and H2B visa it wants them locked down and ended over 10 to 20 years. Shitload can happen in that time frame.

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 21, 2024 09:42 AM (gbOdA)

104 Nimoy also had a cameo as a cab driver in the Bangles video "Going Down to Liverpool." Apparently he was friends with the family of Susanna Hoffs.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 21, 2024 09:42 AM (PiwSw)

105 Monday I start writing the next book. No, I'm not going to tell any more about it.

For a while I was trying to decide among three possible projects (I do have the luxury of being able to choose now). One was eliminated for external reasons — next year I will have the opportunity to learn a lot more about the topic so it makes sense to wait on that one. Of the other two, I kept tinkering a bit with outlines, and I noticed that I spent a lot more time on one book than the other. Presumably if it grabs me it will grab readers.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:42 AM (78a2H)

106 Something just occurred to me, given that we've been talking about Lenin and Macron and stuff. It's about the huge difference in outcome between the American Revolution and most Old World revolutions.

The Americans had no state apparatus. They had to build one in a vacuum. Everything above the individual states and local governments was a blank slate.

Posted by: Trimegistus

Good point, and I would add that the European revolutions did not even suggest the idea of freedom, merely getting rid of the existing system of government and putting a different group in power.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 21, 2024 09:43 AM (7+jIt)

107 88 Does reading Generac owner and install manuals to start a new business count?
Posted by: rhennigantx at July 21, 2024 09:35 AM (gbOdA)

With were you are at you will soon, if not already have met Rooster.

Morning bookist's.
I need coffee.

Posted by: Reforger at July 21, 2024 09:43 AM (xcIvR)

108 Mmmmmmmmm, Susanna Hoffs

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (fwDg9)

109 @82 --

What made "Get Shorty" the movie was the cast, the attitude -- and the music. It put you in a receptive mood.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (p/isN)

110 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

I skimmed your book Long Live Death again, looking for overall casualty figures.

Given what we know was the start of the Spanish Civil War, and what we as a nation dodged last Saturday, I wanted to scale up Spain's travail to America. The WAG I got was 50-60 million dead in a new US Civil War. Don't know if that is even close, and I do not want to find out.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (u82oZ)

111 Finished Peter Townsend's Battle of Britain books. Very good works that bring that time and people into the events in such a way as to keep it from being just a dry history. His compassion for his enemies is a lovely thing, which we tend to forget sometimes.

Posted by: Brewingfrog at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (ArN5M)

112 Only 2 (R) messages from now to NOV

Short
“They saddled you with a dementia patient.”
Longer
“They saddled you with a massively corrupt, career incompetent dementia patient, with a cackling buffoon for a backstop. This only became a crisis for them when you noticed. Why trust them now?”
Bonus Statement
(R) FREE speech is violence, (D) violence is FREE speech.

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (gbOdA)

113 37 ... " a thank you to whoever it was that recommended "Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent"

Art Rondelet,

Glad you liked it. After returning the library copy I bought my own. I foresee a lot of highlighting in the future.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (zudum)

114 Congrats Wolfus!
But I have to say I'm confused.

Is the word "Or" the first word of the title or not?

Because I don't see it in the cover art.
Perhaps I'm missing something.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (dg+HA)

115 Good morning all.
Congrats to Wolfus. Look forward to reading the story.
Trimegistus, I'm pretty regular here but have no idea which books are yours. Hint?
I did read a bit this week.
Con't

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 21, 2024 09:45 AM (t/2Uw)

116 If not for Trek, Nimoy would probably have remained a character actor in television -- one of those people who seems to show up everywhere even if you can't place the name. I can't remember without looking him up on IMDB -- did Nimoy ever headline a series even after Star Trek (think he may have hosted one of those "strange events" things somewhere, but that doesn't count)?

I think in one of William Goldman's books on the movie biz, he noted that character actors seem to work forever, while a lot of movie stars (with some exceptions) seem to flare up and fade away over 10 or 20 years.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 09:45 AM (q3u5l)

117 Re: Nimoy becoming more the draw in some ways than Shatner, the supposed star of the show: The same thing happened with David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin, upstaging his co-star, Robert Vaughn as Solo, on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Vaughn always had his fans, but McCallum became a worldwide sensation.

The difference: McCallum did have screen presence. When you see him in A NIght to Remember and The Greatest Story Ever Told, you can't take your eyes off of him. Plus, Vaughn did not mind sharing the screen. RV was working on his Ph.D. at the time, at night, and was glad not to have to be in every scene of the show. As far as I know, they remained friends until Vaughn passed a few years ago.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (omVj0)

118 Good morning all!
I am reading a book titled “The Drowning Woman.”
It got good reviews. All of the men are evil, and the women are suffering saints.
The reviewers must have all been women. 🤨
Posted by: Jmel at July 21, 2024 09:37 AM (bVhJi)
----
Probably. Or gay.

There's a weird need to be blatantly anti-male right now. Amazon paid big bucks for rights to Tolkien's work and their animated story build around Helm's Deep will focus on a girlboss leading an amazon tribe they made up out of whole cloth.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (llXky)

119 A great story involving an assassination:

Vortex by Larry Bond. I so loved that book.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (8sMut)

120 Trying the Audible Plus membership on a 3 month free trial.
1) they have made it extremely difficult to find the included "free" audiobooks.
2) not sure if I like the whole audio format for books. I find myself getting distracted and trying to do other stuff then lose the story line.
3) audiobooks are expensive!
Posted by: lin-duh at July 21, 2024 09:41 AM (0A2kd)

If I did a lot of long distance driving by myself, I might go for audio books.

Or, I could see using one as a read along adjunct to a lengthy and complicated novel...might be fun in something like LOTR (first LOTR mention this thread!!!! Where's my prize?)

Otherwise, they seem too slow and bore me.

Posted by: naturalfake at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (eDfFs)

121 Excuse please OT, but we are talking about it: this is not the "Paris" Olympics, but the Most of France Olympics. "Our" (MP) venue was going to be Versailles, a 45-minute ride from the nearest Paris station on the fast train, and shooting events will be held a three-hour drive away. For many sports, unless you march in the opening ceremony, you won't go to Paris at all -- which could end up being a good thing.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (zdLoL)

122 {{{ Sharon(willow's apprentice)}}

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (u82oZ)

123 Congrats Wolfus!
But I have to say I'm confused.

Is the word "Or" the first word of the title or not?

Because I don't see it in the cover art.
Perhaps I'm missing something.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 21, 2024

***
I noticed that, and wrote to the editor. Her emails to me never had the "Or" in them; and as you say, neither does the cover. Somebody needs to have Amazon change it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:47 AM (omVj0)

124 109 Mmmmmmmmm, Susanna Hoffs
Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (fwDg9)

I am convinced that she is a vampire.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 09:47 AM (8sMut)

125 I read "The Hunger and the Dusk" this week, a recently released sword and sorcery graphic novel. Orcs and Humans have called a truce in their never-ending-war so that they can focus on a new race that's trying to wipe them both out. It started off okay, but ran off the rails for the last third. But then the stinger on the very last page hinted that the next volume will get back on track....Assuming there is a next volume. The book is published by IDW, which has been a dead-company-walking for the past five years. They haven't died yet, but years of mis-management is bound to catch up with them eventually.

Despite being sort-of-okay, the book has a lot of red flags. Some that mark it as a modern-fantasy: extreme racial diversity in medeval farming villages, lots of women in the mercenary bands, Orcs just being people with bad skin and funny faces... It also has a lot of a-woman-wrote-this markers: an over-emphasis on romance, an obsession with an Orc couple acting all lovey-dovey, a poor grasp of power-scaling, simplistic tactics, giving the female lead an exhaustive list of magic powers that make her far more useful than her actual role....

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 09:47 AM (Lhaco)

126 Yes it illustrated how lefties get everything wrong in baroque way with olivia wildes moonbat mom leslie cockburn and her partner tony avirgan

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:48 AM (PXvVL)

127 No hiking this morning, for this is a "bad day" for my respiratory system. F***. So I am here instead.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 09:48 AM (8sMut)

128 This week I've been reading Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded... by Simon Winchester. I know I heard of it here.

It's good bedtime reading, because it makes me sleepy. That is not to say that it's dry and uninteresting--I do enjoy it. It's essentially a book about geology, and I like that kind of thing. I mean, it would be hard to write a whole book about a single explosion, right? So, he writes about the formation of the planet, and the discoveries that helped us understand it, and the dramatic stories about the individuals who made these discoveries.

I love it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 21, 2024 09:48 AM (OX9vb)

129 Can't remember the guy's name. I really should research that.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:31 AM (p/

Enrique Bermudez was assassinated in Managua, but not with a sniper rifle, so maybe not the same guy. Weapon is relevant on this one, too.

Because they never caught who did it, there's always been speculation that it might have been the Chamorro regime, or even the US who took him out.

But it was done with an Easy German pistol, one of a crate full delivered to the revolting Ortega brothers by the Stasi in the 80s. So it was almost definitely the Sandanistas who whacked him.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 21, 2024 09:48 AM (0FoWg)

130 As I said, I haven't really been reading (or writing, for that matter). Not overtly depressed or suffering true anhedonia, just. . .a general feeling of mental and emotional shrug.

I have been flipping through the first volume of a 10-volume series called All-American Ads, covering the period 1900-1919. It's divided into general sections - entertainment, food, clothing, &c. - and simply reprints the ads, with no woke content. I want to get the 1920 - 1929 volume to use with my new writing, but the only copy available is $75 and I don't feel like spending that much right now.

The only problem I have with the book is the section on women's fashion, especially the hosiery and shoe ads. When I think about how beautiful the clothes were and how much I wish I had a lady who dressed like that (since time travel doesn't exist), it depresses the hell out of me, which is why I don't read it much when I am in these moods.

https://tinyurl.com/ypaajcd7

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 21, 2024 09:49 AM (Q0kLU)

131 eg on H1B and H2B visa it wants them locked down and ended over 10 to 20 years. Shitload can happen in that time frame.
Posted by: rhennigantx at July 21, 2024

***
How about ten to twenty *days*?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:49 AM (omVj0)

132 This week’s Kindle read was “McMann and Wife” by Fred Key. This is the sequel to the quirky detective novel “McMann and Duck.”

He's on the Moron Authors list, right?

**** Spoiler. Copy/paste into rot13.com. ***

V ernq "ZpZnaa naq Qhpx" bire gur ubyvqnlf naq V yvxrq vg ohg zl svefg ernpgvba jnf "jryy, ur jba'g unir n frdhry gb gung." V'yy unir gb guvax nobhg jurgure V jnag gb ernq nabgure bar jvgubhg Qhpx.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 09:49 AM (/y8xj)

133 I read Catherine Cou,tee's newest FBI Flashpoint. No worries, it in no way resembles the real FBI as this is pure fiction. It was kind of meh as it kept referring to something that happened in a previous book which I know I read but had no memory of.
Anyway....if you like Coulter you'll enjoy it.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 21, 2024 09:50 AM (t/2Uw)

134 I put Susanna down to that 1 in 100,000 women who just beat that aging look

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 09:50 AM (fwDg9)

135 All I know is that teachers were supposed to be made obsolete by computers by 2000. The whole AI thing to me is a fad.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 09:51 AM (8sMut)

136 Given what we know was the start of the Spanish Civil War, and what we as a nation dodged last Saturday, I wanted to scale up Spain's travail to America. The WAG I got was 50-60 million dead in a new US Civil War. Don't know if that is even close, and I do not want to find out.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 09:44 AM (u82oZ)
---
Estimates vary wildly. I think a complicating factor is that Franco was willing to enlist captured troops, which can lead to double-counting in terms of losses ("who was killed? Who was wounded vs captured?).

And then there's the whole problem with events like Guernica, where both sides are fine with exaggerating the deaths by a factor of ten - the Reds wanted to make Franco seem a monster and Hitler wanted to scare people with his new air force. Even guys like Churchill got into the act, using it as a reason to build up British air defenses.

If the whole episode was spun as "During a CAS run, a civilian air raid shelter accidentally took a direct hit," no one would have gotten anything out of it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:51 AM (llXky)

137 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perfessor! It's a great addition to my Sunday mornings.

Thanks also for the "library list" of recommended and reviewed books. It is a most useful resource.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 21, 2024 09:51 AM (U3L4U)

138 Will my assassin ever be caught?

Posted by: Olaf Palme at July 21, 2024 09:52 AM (8sMut)

139 Perfesser, thank you for another post shsring the joys of reading; I can leave all the horrible newsfora while

Posted by: JM in Ill -- Behold the Manchurian Candidate at July 21, 2024 09:52 AM (YJU1i)

140 "Any Lovecraft influence on me is only from reading *about* his work and its themes and concepts, very little of the work itself."

Hi Wolfus,
No doubt about that. Your story is original (and fun). I just meant it had that same 'feel' that makes Lovecraft's writing so effective. Again, Congrats. I'm looking forward to reading the other stories in the book. Glad you mentioned this on last night's hobby thread.
Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024

***
Thank you, sir. I need to buy my copy of it. There is something special about seeing your words on a page that you did not type yourself. When I pick up my copy of the other anthology you see on my author page -- The Wand That Rocks the Cradle: Magical Stories of Family and re-read my story in that, I'm amazed all over again.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:52 AM (omVj0)

141 did Nimoy ever headline a series even after Star Trek (think he may have hosted one of those "strange events" things somewhere, but that doesn't count)?

He never headlined a major TV series, though he was a regular on Mission Impossible and did a guest turn on Columbo as a murderous surgeon. He hosted and narrated the entire run of In Search Of. . ., which is out on DVD.

Now that I think of it, I wonder how Space: 1999 would have fared if Nimoy had played Commander Koenig rather than Martin Landau?

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 21, 2024 09:53 AM (Q0kLU)

142 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

Thanks.
Truth is the first victim of war.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 09:53 AM (u82oZ)

143 Jack Higgins The Eagle has Landed about a Geman attempt to assassinate Churchill during WW2 became a pretty good movie.

Posted by: Cosda at July 21, 2024 09:54 AM (ZFffH)

144 101 Trying the Audible Plus membership on a 3 month free trial...
3) audiobooks are expensive!
Posted by: lin-duh at July 21, 2024 09:41 AM (0A2kd)

Lin-duh, good morning! Safe travels today!

***We had a micro-mini-MoMe at lin-duh's daughter's shooting competition yesterday in Central Ohio. It was great to meet up!***

I like audiobooks when I'm in the kitchen for hours, or driving. I don't buy them, I use a couple of library apps: Libby and Hoopla. I'm super picky about readers. If I don't care for the narration in the first five minutes, back it goes.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 21, 2024 09:54 AM (OX9vb)

145 No hiking this morning, for this is a "bad day" for my respiratory system. F***. So I am here instead.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024

***
It was raining this morning when I got up, when it was cooler. Now the sun is out full force. I'm stayin' here.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:54 AM (omVj0)

146 All I know is that teachers were supposed to be made obsolete by computers by 2000. The whole AI thing to me is a fad.

Just wait until they get a union.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 09:54 AM (/y8xj)

147 Congratulations Wolfus! How exciting!

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 21, 2024 09:55 AM (U3L4U)

148 121 Excuse please OT, but we are talking about it: this is not the "Paris" Olympics, but the Most of France Olympics. "Our" (MP) venue was going to be Versailles, a 45-minute ride from the nearest Paris station on the fast train, and shooting events will be held a three-hour drive away. For many sports, unless you march in the opening ceremony, you won't go to Paris at all -- which could end up being a good thing.
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (zdLoL)

Par for the course. The 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville were scarcely there and were actually all over the Savoie region.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 09:55 AM (8sMut)

149 I will say that Vaughn was a huge Lefty, an apologist for Communists, and a shill for ambulance-chasers in later life.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:56 AM (78a2H)

150 Funny you mention that the fellow behind the silander tales did a big investigation on the palme hit published after he died

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 09:56 AM (PXvVL)

151 Being on a sword-and-sorcery comic kick, I also re-read the Red Sonja: Worlds Away series. It's a five graphic novel series that starts with a swordswoman getting magic-ed into the modern day...I had sort-of fond memories of the books, but upon review, my good opinion was only because this run was better than the awful books that came before it and after it. At least this series fulfilled the bare minimum of a Red Sonja comic: It didn't hate Red Sonja herself. The book let her wear her iconic chainmail bikini (if occasionally paired with jean shorts or a leather jacket) and was drawn by an artist who could draw beautiful ladies. Even if he seemed rushed and sometimes drew them a little weird...

Alas, the story itself was still pretty trite. Full of modernisms and signs that the author didn't take things seriously. They beat the dragon because the dragon was homesick and wanted to leave the modern world. They wrecked a car because the driver didn't want to run over a baby armadillo, and this had no consequences. If they would just talk to the troll, they'd learn he's not inherently evil....

There are better books out there, I can't really recommend this one...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 09:56 AM (Lhaco)

152 Truth is the first victim of war.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 09:53 AM (u82oZ)

SOMEONE figured it out.

Posted by: The Truth at July 21, 2024 09:57 AM (8sMut)

153 He should have thanked God for Spock, otherwise he'd have been cast as homely stock villains and the occasional nerdy science guy.
Posted by: enough BS at July 21, 2024 09:05 AM (2NXcZ)

He pretty much came to that conclusion, even in the book. The role made him, and everything after flowed from Spock. I don't see how people think he hated the character. As he said in the "Mind Meld" dvd with Shatner, once he got the Spock role, he never had to look for work again.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 09:57 AM (0eaVi)

154 Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan

-
I see that Hinkley has condemned the attempt on Trump.

New York Post
137.6K Followers
John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, speaks out after Trump shooting

John Hinckley, the man who shot and nearly killed President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has asked the world to choose peace over violence after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

“Violence is not the way to go,” Hinckley wrote on X on Wednesday. “Give peace a chance.”

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 09:57 AM (L/fGl)

155 I think I'll deal with AI the way I deal with cryptocurrency: by ignoring it.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 21, 2024 09:57 AM (kpS4V)

156 Now that I think of it, I wonder how Space: 1999 would have fared if Nimoy had played Commander Koenig rather than Martin Landau?
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 21, 2024 09:53 AM (Q0kLU)
---
The first season was soporific, the second was zany - no doubt because Star Trek alum Fred Freiberg was doing his thing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:57 AM (llXky)

157 Are skorts considered pants?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 21, 2024 09:58 AM (PiwSw)

158 Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 21, 2024 09:20 AM (Ew3fm)

Is that part of a series or stand-alone? I've read her 'theoretical math as magic' series and enjoyed it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 21, 2024 09:58 AM (XjtdB)

159 is published by IDW, which has been a dead-company-walking for the past five years. They haven't died yet, but years of mis-management is bound to catch up with them eventually.

IDW discontinued its "Steve Canyon" reprints with strips from 1970, so I won't get to reread the bits I remember.

I have yet to read the last six volumes. Caniff threw a rod with a hypnotism story, and I haven't pushed myself to break on through to the next one.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:59 AM (p/isN)

160 I will say that Vaughn was a huge Lefty, an apologist for Communists, and a shill for ambulance-chasers in later life.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 09:56 AM (78a2H)
---
He was great in S.O.B. as the fetish-minded cucked-out producer.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:59 AM (llXky)

161 I will say that Vaughn was a huge Lefty, an apologist for Communists, and a shill for ambulance-chasers in later life.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024

***
He was, but aside from a discussion group I saw him doing on TV the morning after RFK was killed, he rarely talked about his politics. I've read he had a televised debate with William F. Buckley, and (according to reports) demolished WFB. Don't know. He's still my favorite actor.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (omVj0)

162 Kirk told Mirror Universe Spock about the assassination device in MU Kirk's cabin at the end of "Mirror Mirror". I always wondered if and how MU Spock used it.

Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (vFG9F)

163 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

All I can remember from that movie is Julie Andrew's breasts.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (u82oZ)

164 I find non-fiction assassination and attempted assassination stories to be fascinating including of course JFK, Lincoln, Teddy, Hitler, Reagan, and that little one that touched off The War to End All Wars.

I can already feel myself getting pulled into the vortex of the events of last weekend. So many moving parts and forces at play. So many crowd sourced sleuths and available technology.

And what a real life character metamorphosis. When Trump put his hand to his ear and dropped to the stage he was simply a presidential candidate. When he stood up he became a larger than life leader of the free world.

I don't need fiction.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (dg+HA)

165 Will my assassin ever be caught?
Posted by: Olaf Palme at July 21, 2024 09:52 AM (8sMut)

There was an old Forensic Files episode, "To The Viktor," regarding the 1994 murder of Viktor Gunnarsson, a Swedish national who was suspected of being somehow involved in the Palme assassination. He had been forced to leave Sweden, emigrated to the US and was eventually killed by an ex-cop in retaliation for Viktor daring to date the cop's ex-wife.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (Q0kLU)

166 Oops. I knew putting a pic up was a mistake. Ruins the mystique.

Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy. It'll be interesting to see which story you think is mine.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 09:06 AM (omVj0)

That's why I'd never post a pic of myself. Who am I kidding. No one wants to read what I write anyway.

Oh, I know the story....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (0eaVi)

167 Hi, Polliwog - I think it's one of two magical-Regencies.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (Ew3fm)

168 Some of the Lee Child "Reacher" stories involve assassination.

Posted by: Ciampino - Book with Pants humor #01 at July 21, 2024 10:01 AM (qfLjt)

169 This is about us, isn't it?

Posted by: Julie Andrew's breasts at July 21, 2024 10:02 AM (dg+HA)

170 I will have difficulty typing for a bit. Stirling the black cat has occupied my lap.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:02 AM (omVj0)

171 Now calvert the shooter in jackal is comsidered the villain but considering where degaulle took france because of the sapphire ring the betrayal of israel is that actually true

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:03 AM (PXvVL)

172 "Nimoy states late in the book that if he never had the role, who knows what kind of acting life he may have had."

-
When Schwartzenegger announced that he was going into acting, I thought, "Yeah, right. What kind of role could he ever do?" But then The Terminator came out and I was, "OK, killer Robot but what else?"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:04 AM (L/fGl)

173 He pretty much came to that conclusion, even in the book. The role made him, and everything after flowed from Spock. I don't see how people think he hated the character. As he said in the "Mind Meld" dvd with Shatner, once he got the Spock role, he never had to look for work again.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 09:57 AM (0eaVi)
---
Again, compare the British attitude towards celebrity with the American one.

The British are quite openly doing it for better things. They buy nice houses or castles and then retire to breed horses or something.

Americans want LOVE. They want FAME. Michael Caine and Jeremy Irons have both explained that they take films based on what their bills are at the time. Some are terrible, but that's the job. Americans need to find meaning and worth in their work.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:04 AM (llXky)

174 When I first started reading Robert Parker's Spenser series I was pretty unimpressed. I found Spenser boring and his constant descriptions of traveling from place to place in minute detail, pure filler.
Then he added Susan Silverman, his psychologist girlfriend and Hawk(❤️

a character who jumps out of the page. You know who he is from the minute he enters the room.
Just read Pastime which brings back the kid Spenser took under his wing at age 15 saving him from his neglectful parents. He has grown into a pretty together adult and has managed to have a tentative relationship with his flighty and irresponsible mother. But she is missing and he wants Spenser to help find her.
This is one of the best ones(and I am on no. 18 or so)as the mystery is interesting, Parker adds to Spenser's life story and the dialog among the characters is fun.
It was good to escape the dark news of th week.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 21, 2024 10:04 AM (t/2Uw)

175 John Hinckley, the man who shot and nearly killed President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has asked the world to choose peace over violence after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

“Violence is not the way to go,” Hinckley wrote on X on Wednesday. “Give peace a chance.”
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

I'm sure Sirhan Sirhan said something similar.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 21, 2024 10:05 AM (7+jIt)

176 Always liked Vaughn -- pretty good in The Magnificent Seven, and he had a nice turn in David Janssen's last picture, a tv movie called City in Fear which is well worth a look if you find it on YouTube.

Not a lot of reading this week. Finished the bio of John Williams, THE MAN WHO WROTE THE PERFECT NOVEL. Not much else.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 10:05 AM (q3u5l)

177 That explains assasins creed and dungeons and dragons the previous one

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:05 AM (PXvVL)

178 @129 --

That's the guy!

I got the sniper rifle aspect from the only newspaper article I read about it. Apparently the initial reports were wrong. (No!)

It's stuck in my mind because it was so Ludlum. (Hey, "The Holcroft Covenant" involves a professional assassin.)

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 10:05 AM (p/isN)

179 Seeing an assassin character in a book is huge red flag for me. I'm kind of sick of it, and the profession is just too inherently evil for me to sympathize with the character...

Which make it funny (in a sad sort of way) that the assassin trope has even found its way into children's fare. The female lead in the Netflix cartoon "The Dragon Prince" was introduced on a mission to assassinate the male leads. She failed, but her teammates did kill the male's father. And the show never really called out on that...Indeed, it kinda took her side, as it allowed her to cry and be bitter when other characters said mean things about her people. There's a lesson for the kids: politically-motivated murders have feelings too, so don't be mean to them. There's a reason I barely cared for the show, and bailed on it before it finished...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:05 AM (Lhaco)

180 I was just thinking about the Olympics. In 1904 it made sense to hold them in one place. You sit in a stadium in your straw hat, watch some track&field events, and go home full of warm fuzzies about international brotherhood while you get ready for World War I.

But now? There are hundreds of events. Nobody can watch them all -- so why go through the quadrennial cycle of over-promising, corruption, and incompetence that seems to characterize every city's Olympic bid? Why not just pick a good venue for each sport and hold the Olympic matches there every four years? Or -- if you _have_ to move them around -- maybe rotate among continents or something?

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:06 AM (78a2H)

181 All I can remember from that movie is Julie Andrew's breasts.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 10:00 AM (u82oZ)
---
It's really quite the sendup of Hollywood, pushing the term "meta" to its limit. It's a movie about a wholesome actress doing a topless scene starring a wholesome actress who does a topless scene. The absolute demolition of Hollywood as drugged-out perverts was just wicked.

Blake Edwards was a very angry man.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:07 AM (llXky)

182 "Nimoy states late in the book that if he never had the role, who knows what kind of acting life he may have had."

He could have portrayed more Native Americans, like he did on "Wagon Train".
Posted by: fd at July 21, 2024 09:09 AM (vFG9F)

I think he had more substantial parts by then. He says he was a working actor and providing for his family with his work. In the "Mind Meld" dvd he tells of the various jobs he held while only finding minor roles. Pretty funny list of things he did between roles.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 10:07 AM (0eaVi)

183 Under Seige by Stephen Coonts has the assassination of a couple of Supreme Court justices and an attempted assassination of GHWB (never actually named, IIRC). His VicePresident portrayed by the media in the book as a bumbling idiot is written as an underestimated character. it's also interesting in the current context because there are a large number of young men brought into the country to explicitly attack soft targets. Chaos ensues and (Sara Hoyt would approve) the guilty parties are hung from lamposts.

also, gotta mention Robin Hobbes Assassin's Apprentice serice.

Posted by: yara at July 21, 2024 10:08 AM (TPDHd)

184 When Schwartzenegger announced that he was going into acting, I thought, "Yeah, right. What kind of role could he ever do?" But then The Terminator came out and I was, "OK, killer Robot but what else?"

And you were right. Everything he did was pretty much Terminator with different window dressing including his stint as governor.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 10:08 AM (/y8xj)

185 I think he had more substantial parts by then. He says he was a working actor and providing for his family with his work. In the "Mind Meld" dvd he tells of the various jobs he held while only finding minor roles. Pretty funny list of things he did between roles.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024

***
Nimoy drove cabs and taught acting, among other things.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:08 AM (omVj0)

186 Because its become a grift like the world cup

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:09 AM (PXvVL)

187 I don't recall a single occasion in Fleming's novels in which Bond kills as a pure assassin. The death he deals is invariably under duress or defensively. He is sent to cold-bloodedly kill the ex-Nazi in Vermont in "For Your Eyes Only" but as it turns out is spared from doing this, and only kills his henchmen once hell breaks loose. The most brutal killings I recalled were in "Live and Let Die" from the early sequence at Mr. Big's Harlem hideaway. But Bond has already been manhandled. Bond means business but he has a conscience, and it costs him sometimes.

Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024 10:10 AM (MoKe9)

188 >Nimoy fit in rather well in the Mission Impossible series, and he didn't need high heels to come into focus.
Posted by: Rupert Pupkin at July 21, 2024 09:14 AM (2UBPP)

He said he liked the role as Paris, but after two seasons he was bored of the role. He signed for four years, but asked to be released after two, then had no work for a few months.

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

189 And you were right. Everything he did was pretty much Terminator with different window dressing including his stint as governor.
Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 10:08 AM (/y8xj)
---
Conan the Barbarian was good. And Predator. Credit where it's due.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:10 AM (llXky)

190 I'm now in Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" (I have a suitably moldy copy from 1823) and I plan on rereading Lewis's delightfully sleazy "The Monk" and old Horey's "Otranto".
=====

All Hail Eris - Enjoy!

Posted by: mustbequantum at July 21, 2024 10:10 AM (AYNL4)

191 When Schwartzenegger announced that he was going into acting, I thought, "Yeah, right. What kind of role could he ever do?" But then The Terminator came out and I was, "OK, killer Robot but what else?"

And you were right. Everything he did was pretty much Terminator with different window dressing including his stint as governor.
Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024

***
He was smart. He was never going to play Hamlet, for example. Originally the Terminator group wanted him to play Kyle Reese, the hero. He had read the script, and said, "No. I want to be the Terminator." Not only was he physically imposing enough for it, the role called for very few lines. And perhaps he knew that even when the killer robot is off screen, you're still wondering what it's doing and is about to do.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (omVj0)

192 Hmm, I seem to have depressed myself with that advertisement link. Guess I'll go make some tea and sit on the porch.

See you all some other time.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (Q0kLU)

193 Wolfus Aurelius

You rock that fedora. Good picture.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (u82oZ)

194 Conan the Barbarian was good. And Predator. Credit where it's due.

Conan maybe but only because the source material was good. Predator was "Terminator in the Jungle."

Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (/y8xj)

195 Robert Vaughn was on Firing Line. It's on You Tube.

Personally, I've given up reading fiction by living authors. The last were Michael Gilbert and Patrick O'Brian. But then, my reading speed has slowed to a crawl. I'm also out of sync with many here that I rarely like scifi/fantasy. Lewis, Tolkien, and Jack Vance pretty much does it for me. And only some Vance.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (1bNHn)

196 Didn't he follow it up with I Am Spock, which is where he came to terms with his life?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:17 AM (llXky)

Years later. Going to read it next. It's on Internet Archive too.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (0eaVi)

197 I find non-fiction assassination and attempted assassination stories to be fascinating including of course JFK, Lincoln, Teddy, Hitler, Reagan, and that little one that touched off The War to End All Wars.

-
The Reinhard Heydrich assassination in June 1942 is also very interesting. At least two movies and several books have been made about it. The most interesting issue raised about it is whether the Brits thought that the Czechs were getting too chummy with the Nazis and ordered the assassination specifically to incur the atrocities against civilians which the Nazis obligingly provided.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:13 AM (L/fGl)

198 Aaaannd... it's a movie thread. Sorry 'bout that, Perfessor.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 10:13 AM (/y8xj)

199 What I remember from "S.O.B." is Robert Preston.

I want to see that again.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 10:14 AM (p/isN)

200 43 He should have thanked God for Spock, otherwise he'd have been cast as homely stock villains and the occasional nerdy science guy.
Posted by: enough BS at July 21, 2024

As a RiffTrax fan, it's kind of funny that Nimoy is the only of the big three Star Trek leads to not have appeared in a Rifftrax feature. DeForest Kelley gets a supporting roll (and a mustache) is 'Night of the Lepus' while William Shatner plays the lead (and is gloriously mocked) in 'Kingdom of the Spiders.' I'm eagerly awaiting anything featuring Nimoy so I can complete the 'trilogy'...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:14 AM (Lhaco)

201 The short story "The Living Daylights" has Bond assigned as a sniper to bag a Commie sniper in Berlin.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:14 AM (78a2H)

202 Conan maybe but only because the source material was good. Predator was "Terminator in the Jungle."
Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (/y8xj)
---
No, it's much better than that. Two stories in one and how it goes from "drug war" to "we're all going to die" is a great plot twist. Ahnuld does great work with his face conveying the fear and desperation when the predator finds him helpless in the mud.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:15 AM (llXky)

203 I don't recall a single occasion in Fleming's novels in which Bond kills as a pure assassin. The death he deals is invariably under duress or defensively. He is sent to cold-bloodedly kill the ex-Nazi in Vermont in "For Your Eyes Only" but as it turns out is spared from doing this, and only kills his henchmen once hell breaks loose. The most brutal killings I recalled were in "Live and Let Die" from the early sequence at Mr. Big's Harlem hideaway. But Bond has already been manhandled. Bond means business but he has a conscience, and it costs him sometimes.
Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024

***
There is the late short story "The Living Daylights," prob. the best short work Fleming ever did. Bond is sent to kill a sniper who is slated to kill one of British Intelligence's own agents (or a defector?) when he tries to come over from East Berlin. That is sniper vs. sniper, assassin vs. assassin, though -- not being sent to kill an enemy civilian or non-sniper enemy agent.

The movie with Timothy Dalton used that story as the opening springboard to the rest of the film.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:16 AM (omVj0)

204 Have a great day, everyone.

May your books read illuminate and entertain.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024 10:18 AM (u82oZ)

205 The Reinhard Heydrich assassination in June 1942 is also very interesting. At least two movies and several books have been made about it. The most interesting issue raised about it is whether the Brits thought that the Czechs were getting too chummy with the Nazis and ordered the assassination specifically to incur the atrocities against civilians which the Nazis obligingly provided.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:13 AM (L/fGl)
---
The fact that Heydrich could just motor around without fear was deeply upsetting to the gov't in exile.

I mean Bohemia had been under German government for centuries, so there was an established relationship.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:18 AM (llXky)

206 Blake Edwards was a very angry man.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
---------------------

Wasn't it supposed to be semi-autobiographical.

_I'm a quack not shyster

Posted by: Braenyard at July 21, 2024 10:18 AM (lCWOD)

207 Gore Vidal had a novel about the Lincoln assassination that I enjoyed, though the name of it slips my mind.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at July 21, 2024 10:18 AM (hsWtj)

208 @169 Took a hunnert and sixty-three posts, but the thread has come home.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 21, 2024 10:18 AM (zdLoL)

209 I don't recall a single occasion in Fleming's novels in which Bond kills as a pure assassin.

-
In the short story A View To a Kill, he is going to snipe an enemy agent but then doesn't when the target turns out to be a girl.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:18 AM (L/fGl)

210 Morning, all y'all back home!

Assassination: Tom Clancy's _Debt of Honor_ has a sort of assassination that lands Jack Ryan into the presidency. There is an assassination attempt on Ryan in the subsequent book, _Executive Orders_, by an Iranian-descended secret service agent, if I remember correctly.

I picked up and finished Stackpole's _Rogue Squadron_ based on Perfessor's reading list a couple weeks ago. It'd been a few years since I'd read any of the _Star Wars_ books, so I figured I'd give it a try. Reading it was like reading the book version of the old "X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter" video game.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:19 AM (5CEo8)

211 Wolfus Aurelius

You rock that fedora. Good picture.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 21, 2024

***
Thank you, sir. It's a "Federation IV" from Akubra, purchased online from a shop near Sydney. Very much the Forties style with the rather straight crown instead of tapered like most of today's hats.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:19 AM (omVj0)

212 A while back I re-read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and it struck me that the play could just as easily be Shakespeare's Brutus. Will Shakespeare was obviously _not_ a huge fan of Julius C., even though he knew which one was the big audience fan favorite.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:20 AM (78a2H)

213 No one was compelled to watch Nimoy; they watched how he reacted to Shatner or McCoy, which put him in an inherently weaker position. His big strength was that he had a good narrator voice and he could very easily have been a Jeff Goldblum type where he does tons of work as the brainy type of guy.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (llXky)

Well, I don't know about that. A lot of the post initial ST buzz was about Spock, not Kirk. Read somewhere that the producers were asked by the studio to try to get more Spock in the stories. That had to be because of Nimoy, not just the character. Nimoy was constantly in demand once the show started airing, it wasn't that way before.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 10:20 AM (0eaVi)

214 @188 --

No, Nimoy got work after he quit "Mission: Impossible." He recalls in a book about the show that he did stage work, made a Spanish movie, and had a couple of other jobs. "Now there was a year!"

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 10:20 AM (p/isN)

215 Schwarzenegger as Hamlet? Check out the kid's dream sequence in THE LAST ACTION HERO in which he imagines Arnie's character as Hamlet. It's a delight.

I could be remembering wrong, but I'm sure I read about someone who interviewed John Wayne and saw a book of Noel Coward's plays in Wayne's room -- Wayne said he'd love to do something like that but there was no way he could ever be cast for it.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 10:21 AM (q3u5l)

216 I don't recall a single occasion in Fleming's novels in which Bond kills as a pure assassin.

-
In the short story A View To a Kill, he is going to snipe an enemy agent but then doesn't when the target turns out to be a girl.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024

***
That's "Living Daylights." In "From a View to a Kill," he sets himself as bait to catch and kill an enemy agent who has been picking off European motorcycle couriers.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:22 AM (omVj0)

217 I picked up and finished Stackpole's _Rogue Squadron_ based on Perfessor's reading list a couple weeks ago. It'd been a few years since I'd read any of the _Star Wars_ books, so I figured I'd give it a try. Reading it was like reading the book version of the old "X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter" video game.
Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:19 AM (5CEo

---
This touches on a topic near and dear to me which is that it is possible to swap in multiple actors to play a literary character, but a film or television character is always associated with its original actor. That's because the actor has to flesh out the performance, and while you can have other people play the part in "reboots," it's essentially a parody rather than an independent take on the role.

That is why the reboots always fail - people want the real thing, not a parody of it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:22 AM (llXky)

218 Vastly superior to 'see Spot run'.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (zudum)

What's wrong with that?

Posted by: Cal Worthington at July 21, 2024 10:22 AM (0eaVi)

219 I mean Bohemia had been under German government for centuries, so there was an established relationship.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
--------------------

Years ago buddy's parents were Czech and German. Each spoke the other's language and they were a loving couple but apart each would bad mouth the other's origins. - Those Czech/Germans have always ... .

Posted by: Braenyard at July 21, 2024 10:23 AM (lCWOD)

220 {{{salty}}}
You're gone before I had a chance to say hello.
Have a great day.
❤️💃

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 21, 2024 10:24 AM (t/2Uw)

221 Leonard Nimoy was an actor once. He played Richard III. Five curtain calls.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 10:24 AM (1bNHn)

222 Well, I don't know about that. A lot of the post initial ST buzz was about Spock, not Kirk. Read somewhere that the producers were asked by the studio to try to get more Spock in the stories. That had to be because of Nimoy, not just the character. Nimoy was constantly in demand once the show started airing, it wasn't that way before.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 10:20 AM (0eaVi)
---
I'm aware of that, but there's a bit of bias insofar as the Spock fandom was vocal because he was so different.

In truth, the Spock-centric episodes are often industrial-strength cringe, proving that there was a limit to what the character could do.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:25 AM (llXky)

223 Heydrich assassination did get a lot of innocent people killed sadly. It's a hard decision to do.

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 10:25 AM (fwDg9)

224 I didn't take a book with me when we went up to n. Israel last week. However, I found waiting for me here a new shrink-wrapped copy of "Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life: A Former CIA Officer Reveals Safety and Survival Techniques to Keep You and Your Family Protected." The book's been sitting here for over a year.

Easy read. Must buy more duct tape and water. I know I already have a tactical pen somewhere in my desk pile back in Jerusalem.

In the meantime, I spoke too soon on Pixy's. Lots of smoke in the air from forest fires from shot down Hizballah drones from an hour ago. One of the places hit was where we visited about 4-5 hours ago.

Missed me by that much!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at July 21, 2024 10:25 AM (2lzfn)

225 I don't recall a single occasion in Fleming's novels in which Bond kills as a pure assassin.

Good call. There are some early experiments out there where Fleming was trying the character on for size. One drops a more-or-less teenage Boy Scout Bond into a framing of The Riddle of The Sands. In another, Bond is the assistant in the Rockefeller Center shooting, breaking a thick plate glass window with a pistol shot a fraction before a high-powered rifle takes out a Japanese consular official de-coding. That's a sort of assassination.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 21, 2024 10:26 AM (zdLoL)

226 I mean Bohemia had been under German government for centuries, so there was an established relationship.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
_______
I thought they were Austrian ruled. Habsburg, not Hohenzollern.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 10:26 AM (1bNHn)

227 Assassination: Tom Clancy's _Debt of Honor_ has a sort of assassination that lands Jack Ryan into the presidency. There is an assassination attempt on Ryan in the subsequent book, _Executive Orders_, by an Iranian-descended secret service agent, if I remember correctly.

Debt of Honor has a rather large not-sort-of assassination. And fiery.

It was one of the first things I thought of on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:26 AM (8sMut)

228 217 AHL "That is why the reboots always fail - people want the real thing, not a parody of it."

That is probably the most succinct and accurate description of the "Reboot" phenomenon I've ever seen.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:26 AM (5CEo8)

229 106 Something just occurred to me, given that we've been talking about Lenin and Macron and stuff. It's about the huge difference in outcome between the American Revolution and most Old World revolutions.

The Americans had no state apparatus. They had to build one in a vacuum. Everything above the individual states and local governments was a blank slate.

Posted by: Trimegistus

One factor that I've heard mentioned is that other revolutions had to actively overthrow the old system, and everyone who benefitted from said system. Meanwhile, in America, we kinda liked our 'old system' and were fighting to keep it from being changed. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but it does acknowledge that Americans weren't starting from scratch when we were re-structuring our post-revolution society.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:26 AM (Lhaco)

230 Years ago buddy's parents were Czech and German. Each spoke the other's language and they were a loving couple but apart each would bad mouth the other's origins. - Those Czech/Germans have always ... .
Posted by: Braenyard at July 21, 2024 10:23 AM (lCWOD)
---
Woodrow Wilson is history's greatest villain. Breaking up the Habsburg Empire - which was not at all oppressive, featured local autonomy and mutual protection - totally destabilized the region to this day. Abolishing the German monarchy opened the pathway for Hitler.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:27 AM (llXky)

231 Sometimes you have to kill the enemy no way around that in war and in preludes to war

The men who sent the jackal felt betrayed by degaulle yes it was a nato country but that mattered little to them you used their own man bastien thery and he failed

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:28 AM (PXvVL)

232 Thinking about what books to crack open next -- looked at one of the few Don Robertson novels I hadn't read yet (a BIG Civil War novel called THE RIVER AND THE WILDERNESS), but don't know if I want to dive into a 700+ pager of any kind right now. May hit some of Ramsey Campbell's short stories this week instead.

And let's hear it for Campbell, who began publishing 60 years ago this year and is still at it with short fiction and another novel due out next year.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 10:28 AM (q3u5l)

233 Shows how much France has urbanized over the past 50 years: the motorcycle courier is riding through open countryside in the Bond story, but today it's pretty much all city, and the biggest problem would be getting stuck in heavy traffic.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:28 AM (78a2H)

234 I thought they were Austrian ruled. Habsburg, not Hohenzollern.
Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 10:26 AM (1bNHn)
---
Austrians are Germans. Just ask them (in German).

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:28 AM (llXky)

235 227 Catch Thirty-Thr33

Same.

I remember Tom Clancy being interviewed almost immediately in the aftermath of September Eleventh; by that afternoon at the latest.

I don't recall whether he appeared on CNN or Fox. I think it was CNN.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:28 AM (5CEo8)

236 Innocent people murdered would be better words

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 10:29 AM (fwDg9)

237 223 Heydrich assassination did get a lot of innocent people killed sadly. It's a hard decision to do.
Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 10:25 AM (fwDg9)

Czech resistance from afar
Planning the death of one
When the plot is executed
There will be nowhere to run
Ramifications will be high
A price paid in torment
The end justifies the means
To hell you will be sent

Posted by: Slayer at July 21, 2024 10:30 AM (8sMut)

238 Kevin Wignall has written a handful of novels about assassins. All very good. Chillingly good. The most recent, "Ice In The Blood" is very interesting. The protagonist is burdened with his previously unknown and precocious adolescent son on the eve of carrying out his mission to quadruple cross and ultimately murder a Belarussian dissident politician on the French Riviera. As fine a commentary on the Ukraine/Russia war as I've seen, fiction or otherwise.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at July 21, 2024 10:30 AM (pXeye)

239 Leonard Nimoy was an actor once. He played Richard III. Five curtain calls.
Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024

***
And Bill Shatner, I've read, played Richard II when he was still in his twenties, and received a standing ovation as well.

He's often lampooned for his "over-the-top" acting after a certain point in his life, when directors would let him get away with stuff. Stage acting is necessarily "bigger" than movie acting, which is necessarily "bigger" than what TV requires. And sometimes he lets himself off the leash, going "stage" when it was not needed. But see his turns on Twilight Zone and his restrained yet powerful performance in the "Balance of Terror" episode.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:30 AM (omVj0)

240 My favorite assassin authors are Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. The central characters are the "good guys" who are tasked with locating and removing "bad guys." The morality is important, and the stories are well developed. The characters are imperfect men, but their strong moral underpinning moves them in the right direction.

I started with Tom Clancy books many moons ago but over time I became dissatisfied with his stories. It felt as if Clancy had gone from character development and an interesting story line to just phoning it in.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 21, 2024 10:30 AM (U3L4U)

241 Being on a sword-and-sorcery comic kick

-
Didja see that Marvel Comics has announced there will be no Jew superheroes in their comics. (Homos, bis, trannies and other perverts, sure, but you've got to draw the line somewhere.) This raises two questions: 1) why and 2) why announce it?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (L/fGl)

242 Spock was an essential NPC.

Posted by: Braenyard at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (lCWOD)

243 Meanwhile, in America, we kinda liked our 'old system' and were fighting to keep it from being changed. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but it does acknowledge that Americans weren't starting from scratch when we were re-structuring our post-revolution society.
Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:26 AM (Lhaco)
---
Yes, the Founding Fathers saw the Revolution as a restoration of their ancient rights, not a completely new entity.

And the colonies of necessity had existing working relationships which were simply formalized.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (llXky)

244 There's a weird need to be blatantly anti-male right now. Amazon paid big bucks for rights to Tolkien's work and their animated story build around Helm's Deep will focus on a girlboss leading an amazon tribe they made up out of whole cloth.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 09:46 AM (llXky)

Correction: Amazon is in charge of "The Rings of Power" tv show. Which is, by all accounts, awful. Warner Brothers is the company doing the War of the Rohirrim movie. There are multiple versions of movie/tv rights of Lord of the Rings, for some reason...

Its infuriating, because there was a lot of hope for the Rohirrim movie, and WB should have had plenty of warning that girlboss-movies would fail. But, they went ahead anyway...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:32 AM (Lhaco)

245 That is why the reboots always fail - people want the real thing, not a parody of it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:22 AM (llXky)

But being creative is REALLY HARD WORK. And I don't want to do hard work.

Posted by: Jar Jar Abrams at July 21, 2024 10:32 AM (8sMut)

246 good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at July 21, 2024 10:32 AM (JcnCJ)

247 Austrians are Germans.

Ask a Prussian. Watch what happens.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 21, 2024 10:32 AM (zdLoL)

248 But the kaiser wasnt habsburgs different lines

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:33 AM (PXvVL)

249 Amazon had one of their lightning sales a few days ago and I picked up the latest 10" HD Fire tablet at a huge discount. This will be a dedicated e-reader. The Paperwhite is a fine reader, fits in my breast pocket and works in sunlight. But the screen is small and only in black and white. A have a metric shit ton of Kindle books that would benefit from a larger screen and color. And the greater storage and latest processor are a plus. Things like huge 'complete works' compendiums of various writers, especially Delphi publishing, art books for various painters no longer affordable in hardcopy, hobby books with illustrations, history books with maps and charts, etc.

The color on the tablet is good and the resolution is fine for text. It also offers a search capability that is sometimes useful. I still prefer physical books and don't trust Amazon or ebooks in general but shelf space is becoming rarer in the house and has to be dedicated to the books that are of permanent importance to me and might be subject to manipulation by outside forces. The new tablet is just for the house, not travel, so I won't be using it in sunlight.

Posted by: JTB at July 21, 2024 10:33 AM (zudum)

250 Ask a Rhinelander if Prussians are even "real" Germans.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:33 AM (78a2H)

251 247 Living in Bavaria, one learns that anyone to the north of here is "Prussian."

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:34 AM (5CEo8)

252 Bond is the assistant in the Rockefeller Center shooting, breaking a thick plate glass window with a pistol shot a fraction before a high-powered rifle takes out a Japanese consular official de-coding. That's a sort of assassination.
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 21, 2024

***
Yes; Fleming has Bond tell that story, and John Pearson, in his wonderful Authorized Biography of 007 in the early '70s, has Bond recount it to Pearson.

There is even a reference to a number of kills required before one can receive a Double-O in that chilly, noir-ish intro to the Daniel Craig Casino Royale

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:34 AM (omVj0)

253 The German Kaiser wasn't a Habsburg, but the Kaiser-und-Koenig of Austria-Hungary sure was!

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:34 AM (78a2H)

254 I started with Tom Clancy books many moons ago but over time I became dissatisfied with his stories. It felt as if Clancy had gone from character development and an interesting story line to just phoning it in.
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 21, 2024 10:30 AM (U3L4U)

The price of no longer being hungry and having editors run your writing.

I consider my jumping off point to be Red Rabbit. I read it from cover to cover and found it to be quite the disappointment.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:35 AM (8sMut)

255 Shatner pre-Trek had a pretty good part as the lead in Roger Corman's The Intruder (from Charles Beaumont's novel). And I seem to recall him as nominated for supporting actor in the film of The Brothers Karamazov. (Nimoy did Sherlock Holmes on stage, didn't he?)

If memory serves Gerald Kersh did a pretty decent novel based on the Heydrich assassination called The Dead Look On.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 10:35 AM (q3u5l)

256 Yes, the Founding Fathers saw the Revolution as a restoration of their ancient rights, not a completely new entity.

And the colonies of necessity had existing working relationships which were simply formalized.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
_____

A conservative revolution, fighting to restore the rights of Englishmen. Our English heritage of property rights and the rule of law is our single greatest asset. Or was.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 21, 2024 10:35 AM (Dm8we)

257 I am finishing up The Lever of Riches by Joel Mokyr. Dr Mokyr is an historical economist of the Schumpeterian school and is focused on how and why economies change. In Lever of Riches, he discusses technological innovation as experienced by the Greco-roman, medieval and Chinese enflourishments as opposed to the English/European industrial revolution(s), and speculates on why the prior developmental innovation stopped short of a true industrial revolution. Schumpetarian view of development is creative destruction in that new stuff replaces old stuff and if you can't stand to lose the old stuff then you can't get new stuff; the flip side of Chesterton's Fence. Mokyr contrasts this view against other views of development, as well as biological models, discussing how they fit the facts.
Technological development periods are transitory, and eventually stall out as vested interests take an interest in maintaining their position in the new way of doing things for economic or cultural reasons. Mokyr does not have any answers to how to maintain the innovation phase, but does review the few periods where the phase was extended, and why that appears to have happened.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 10:36 AM (D7oie)

258 In James Pearson's entertaining "The Authorized Biography of James Bond," in which he cleverly builds the life story of an actual James Bond around Fleming's allusions and hints throughout the novels, Bond fulfills the assassin role a few times.

Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024 10:37 AM (MoKe9)

259 250 Interestingly, Prussia picked up a large section of North-Rhine/Westphalia after the Treaty of Vienna.

It was shortly after Prussia picked up rule of the area when my ancestors wisely decided "This country is ridiculous! We're moving to the USA!"

Somehow I evaded their wisdom and ended up over here again. . . .

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:37 AM (5CEo8)

260 I got a grin when in They Will Not Grow Old movie it mentions even the Bavarians thought the Prussians were real bastards.

( I do collect a massive Prussian Napoleonic army in miniatures)

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 10:37 AM (fwDg9)

261 Mi chael walshs casablanca sequel culminates in the heydricj assassinatiom

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:39 AM (PXvVL)

262 Personally, I've given up reading fiction by living authors. The last were Michael Gilbert and Patrick O'Brian. But then, my reading speed has slowed to a crawl. I'm also out of sync with many here that I rarely like scifi/fantasy. Lewis, Tolkien, and Jack Vance pretty much does it for me. And only some Vance.
Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 10:12 AM (1bNHn)

You are not alone. I like sci-fi but I very rarely read it - so much sifting to be done in the massive sci-fi sections at B&N. I avoid fantasy entirely.

I haven't read a good novel in a long time if I am honest. Mostly histories and bios the past long while.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:39 AM (8sMut)

263 hatner pre-Trek had a pretty good part as the lead in Roger Corman's The Intruder (from Charles Beaumont's novel). And I seem to recall him as nominated for supporting actor in the film of The Brothers Karamazov. (Nimoy did Sherlock Holmes on stage, didn't he?)

If memory serves Gerald Kersh did a pretty decent novel based on the Heydrich assassination called The Dead Look On.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024

***
Yes; Shatner as a better-looking George Lincoln Rockwell. I wish I could find that novel, and anything at all by Gerald Kersh. In one of my Alfred Hitchcock anthologies there is a long short story by Kersh narrated by Ambrose Bierce, explaining the events in Mexico that caused him to "disappear" so abruptly in 1913-14.

Harlan Ellison thought very highly of Kersh too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:39 AM (omVj0)

264 Truth is the first victim of war.
Posted by: NaCly Dog

Also of the evening news.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:40 AM (L/fGl)

265 In James Pearson's entertaining "The Authorized Biography of James Bond," in which he cleverly builds the life story of an actual James Bond around Fleming's allusions and hints throughout the novels, Bond fulfills the assassin role a few times.
Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024

***
The work is brilliant and even concludes in a Fleming-esque way.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:40 AM (omVj0)

266 Laurent Binet's HHhH, about the Heydrich assassination and its aftermath, is very good.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at July 21, 2024 10:40 AM (pXeye)

267 Also of the evening news.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:40 AM (L/fGl)

I was never there. So how could I be a victim there?

Posted by: The Truth at July 21, 2024 10:41 AM (8sMut)

268 260 Skip "I got a grin when in They Will Not Grow Old movie it mentions even the Bavarians thought the Prussians were real bastards."

Okay! That gives me another reason to watch it again.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:41 AM (5CEo8)

269 My German ancestors were clever enough to live on the French side of the river, and left for America after Napoleon III won the election on a platform of "I'm gonna make myself Emperor!"

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:41 AM (78a2H)

270 I saw that “Hillbilly Elegy” is at the top of the list on Amazon (again?)

I’m surprised at how many people have never read it. When I read it (well technically JD Vance read it) I saw so many things that I could personally relate to.

I live quite close to where he grew up in Middletown. For anyone to ‘make it’ out of that neighborhood is just shy of a miracle.

Only audio book I’ve ever made it through. All too often the reader ,even when they are the author , just sounds like a robot - monotone.

Posted by: PMRich at July 21, 2024 10:42 AM (ah1af)

271 IDW discontinued its "Steve Canyon" reprints with strips from 1970, so I won't get to reread the bits I remember.

I have yet to read the last six volumes. Caniff threw a rod with a hypnotism story, and I haven't pushed myself to break on through to the next one.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 09:59 AM (p/isN)

That got me thinking, it's kind of sad that adventure serials like that have died out. Even in the 90s my paper still carried a couple of 'em. But now.....I guess there may be webcomics, but I'm not part of that scene...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:42 AM (Lhaco)

272 Living in Bavaria, one learns that anyone to the north of here is "Prussian."
Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:34 AM (5CEo

---
"Someday, we're going to get a German pope."
"What about Benedict?"
"He's not German, he's Bavarian!"

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:42 AM (llXky)

273 269 Trimestigus

Your ancestors were also very wise. Perhaps more so than my own.

I meant to tell you from entry 61 that I'd just been to Vienna a few months ago. I have to say that I did not realize St. Mark was [apparently] buried there. Visiting was a very fun experience.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:43 AM (5CEo8)

274 But being creative is REALLY HARD WORK. And I don't want to do hard work.
Posted by: Jar Jar Abrams

That's why Hollywood doesn't do it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:43 AM (L/fGl)

275 I started with Tom Clancy books many moons ago but over time I became dissatisfied with his stories. It felt as if Clancy had gone from character development and an interesting story line to just phoning it in.
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 21, 2024

***
After seeing the film, I was horribly disappointed with Hunt for Red October. The book had plenty of tech-speak and "inside" information about Russian and American subs, but no gripping action or suspense. I haven't tried any others. Ironically, Clancy was a big fan of "hard"-SF writer Larry Niven, who writes vividly and has often collaborated successfully with other authors. A Niven-Clancy novel would have been very interesting. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:44 AM (omVj0)

276 272 AHL: "Someday, we're going to get a German pope."
"What about Benedict?"
"He's not German, he's Bavarian!"

LOL!!!

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:44 AM (5CEo8)

277 Well the key element is the hunt like run silent run deep also the inspiration for the trek episode with the rimulans

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:45 AM (PXvVL)

278 Didja see that Marvel Comics has announced there will be no Jew superheroes in their comics. (Homos, bis, trannies and other perverts, sure, but you've got to draw the line somewhere.) This raises two questions: 1) why and 2) why announce it?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (L/fGl)

Are they going to retcon Kitty Pryde's origins then?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 21, 2024 10:46 AM (XjtdB)

279 275 Wolfus "I was horribly disappointed with Hunt for Red October."

Personally I thought _Red Storm Rising_ was Clancy's best work. It was co-written by Larry Bond (who also wrote _Vortex_ as someone above mentioned).

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:46 AM (5CEo8)

280 Wolfus,

Valancourt Books reissued Beaumont's The Intruder (both in paperback and hardcover) a few years ago -- should still be available. They also did a few Gerald Kersh collections (including the Ellison-edited Nightshades and Damnations which I think includes that Bierce story). Faber did several Kersh paperbacks and ebooks though their editions are a tad pricey. If you have a kindle the Kersh books and several Beaumonts should be easy to find.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 10:46 AM (q3u5l)

281 "Someday, we're going to get a German pope."
"What about Benedict?"
"He's not German, he's Bavarian!"
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:42 AM (llXky)

In Frederick Taylor's "Berlin Wall", he writes of Erich Honecker's visit to München, and they played THREE anthems in his honor when he arrived: the GDR anthem, the FRG anthem, and the Bayerishe anthem.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:46 AM (8sMut)

282 * Book Thread Check-in, 21 July 2024 *

Commenters / Lurkers without pants: 3

Commenters / Lurkers wearing Leopard-print Onesies: 5

Posted by: Bob from NSA at July 21, 2024 10:46 AM (2ZFHC)

283 The work is brilliant and even concludes in a Fleming-esque way.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:40 AM (omVj0)

I agree. He also wrote Fleming's biography, "The Life of Ian Fleming."

Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024 10:47 AM (MoKe9)

284 282 * Book Thread Check-in, 21 July 2024 *

Commenters / Lurkers without pants: 3

Commenters / Lurkers wearing Leopard-print Onesies: 5
Posted by: Bob from NSA at July 21

Just got here! I know you have to update numbers. Sorry. But I was making grits.

Posted by: Piper at July 21, 2024 10:47 AM (pZEOD)

285 RE: Hunt For Red October.
When I first read it, I gave my copy to my dad (20 years in subs from before WW2), and I was an Army Intelligence officer at the time. I told him if the sub stuff was half as good as the Intel stuff, he'd love the book.
I didn't see him for four days. He read it twice.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 21, 2024 10:47 AM (W/lyH)

286 IIRC, the Prussians were considered by other Germans to be humorless scolds and not well liked. The big selling point was that the Prussians whipped the French, who had been using westerns and central Germany as a doormat for centuries. Rhinelanders still spit at the mention of Louis XIV.

Conversely, the Prussians decided that THEIR version of German was the best, and that was taught in schools, though the locals obstinately cling to regional words and pronunciations. The "federal" nature of the German government was something of a reset, so the states can give Berlin the finger from time to time.

Much of American culture is German-derived, from our primary food dishes to "GET OFF MY LAWN NOW."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:48 AM (llXky)

287 281 Catch Thirty-Thr33 "In Frederick Taylor's "Berlin Wall", he writes of Erich Honecker's visit to München, and they played THREE anthems in his honor when he arrived: the GDR anthem, the FRG anthem, and the Bayerishe anthem."

I just attended the Independence Day celebration at the consulate here. They played all three of "The Star Spangled Banner" plus the German national anthem and the Bavarian anthem.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:48 AM (5CEo8)

288 The suspense lies in how close the soviet fleet will come to the americans to stop the red october could it be a moderm jutland

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:49 AM (PXvVL)

289 That got me thinking, it's kind of sad that adventure serials like that have died out. Even in the 90s my paper still carried a couple of 'em. But now.....I guess there may be webcomics, but I'm not part of that scene...
Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024

***
I've seen samples of the James Bond newspaper strips done in one of the London papers in the late Fifties to early Sixties. These were adaptations of the Fleming novels, not originals. The artist's name escapes me right now, but his rendering of Bond prefigures Sean Connery. The producers of Doctor No in '62 might well have read those strips and had been looking for an actor who resembled that Bond -- and Connery was it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:49 AM (omVj0)

290 282 "Commenters / Lurkers without pants: 3"

That'll teach me to leave my webcam on. Ouch!

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:49 AM (5CEo8)

291 I'm going to take an unpopular position here and say that most of the James Bond novels are kind of disappointing.

Goldfinger, for example: in the film Bond mocks the idea of trying to actually steal the gold reserve because of the sheer physical impossibility of moving it all -- but in the novel that's Goldfinger's actual scheme!

Diamonds Are Forever: it's about diamond smuggling, but instead of Blofeld's SDI laser plan from the movie, the climax of the book involves a gangster who forces Bond to re-enact an Old West shootout in his private ghost town. WTF?

Moonraker: Good God. The bad guy is a Nazi named Hugo Von Der Drache who _just happens_ to come across a dead British soldier in the closing days of WWII named Hugo Drax, and impersonates him, becoming a kind of 1950s British version of Elon Musk so that in the first test of a missile system he can drop a nuke on London. Because of course you test a new rocket with a LIVE ATOMIC WARHEAD on it. Seriously, Ian?

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:49 AM (78a2H)

292 Most of the South American revolutions were sparked by the post Napoleonic war reforms of the colonial system by the Bourbon royalty cracking down on the local control of the Americas that developed during the benign neglect of the Spanish crown over the colonization authority, followed by their isolation during the Iberian war. The ruling hierarchies in the Americas had a pretty loose hand backed by the concept of Spanish power and authority, but the new King needed money to rebuild Spain, and demanded greater control over the colonies. The revolutionaries, like Bolivar, and San Martin, had been Spanish officers, and had fought against the French, but they demanded greater autonomy and affirmation of their rights and the independence their colonies had developed over the years.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 10:50 AM (D7oie)

293 In Frederick Taylor's "Berlin Wall", he writes of Erich Honecker's visit to München, and they played THREE anthems in his honor when he arrived: the GDR anthem, the FRG anthem, and the Bayerishe anthem.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:46 AM (8sMut)
---
The Wittlesbachs are the true heirs to the English throne, and soon will add Lichtenstein to their family holdings.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:50 AM (llXky)

294 Valancourt Books reissued Beaumont's The Intruder (both in paperback and hardcover) a few years ago -- should still be available. They also did a few Gerald Kersh collections (including the Ellison-edited Nightshades and Damnations which I think includes that Bierce story). Faber did several Kersh paperbacks and ebooks though their editions are a tad pricey. . . .
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024

***
I shall look!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:50 AM (omVj0)

295 285 Diogenes "I told him if the sub stuff was half as good as the Intel stuff, he'd love the book."

You probably already knew this, but folks I knew that worked in the Pentagon mentioned that they had to be careful what they said around certain people. The explanation was "That guy knows Tom Clancy."

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:51 AM (5CEo8)

296 Personally I thought _Red Storm Rising_ was Clancy's best work. It was co-written by Larry Bond (who also wrote _Vortex_ as someone above mentioned).
Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 10:46 AM (5CEo

When I was 15, I read Red Storm Rising, and to this day I consider that the best novel I have ever read, bar none. No, it is not objectively better than the world's great literature, but that one book to me showed me what a great novel could be. So it blew open the doors of fiction for me and I began reading novels left right and center to the detriment of grades. My HS grades were atrocious but I read, all the time. Just nothing that was required for school. Yes, to open the book, Tom Clancy tips his hat to Larry Bond. Not exact, but he states that his name does not appear on the cover but it is his book as much as it is mine.

Oh, and Larry Bond's Red Phoenix and Vortex are awesome reads as well.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:51 AM (8sMut)

297 Nimoy drove cabs and taught acting, among other things.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:08 AM (omVj0)

Plus delivery driver and pet shop manager too.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 10:52 AM (0eaVi)

298 The entire 'shut up and compute' school of physics is an abomination. A mathematical model that predicts correctly but that you not only don't understand but refuse to try to understand is not natural philosophy. Posted by: Candidus at July 14, 2024 09:23 AM (dfcuM)
=====
Greatwinter Trilogy by Sean McMullen. (Aussie math guy and that series still haunts me.) Calculor gains power by drafting and enslaving any children who have arithmetic. Souls in the Great Machine . . . Kinda like Dr Who Logopolis.

Posted by: mustbequantum at July 21, 2024 10:52 AM (AYNL4)

299 Just got here! I know you have to update numbers. Sorry. But I was making grits.
Posted by: Piper at July 21, 2024 10:47 AM

Commenters / Lurkers without pants: 3
Commenters / Lurkers wearing Leopard-print Onesies: 5
Commenters wearing Leopard-print top, no pants: 1

Posted by: Bob from NSA at July 21, 2024 10:52 AM (2ZFHC)

300 Sadly the Latin American revolutions were all poisoned by the memory of Napoleon. Every leader apparently thought ". . . and then I can be Emperor!"

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:52 AM (78a2H)

301 Seeing as ian was part of the peenemunde and other raids as part of t force this notion weighed on him

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 10:53 AM (PXvVL)

302 Still reading the Oppenheimer book. The star chamber is raking him over the coals. A process as old as time.

Posted by: Don Black at July 21, 2024 10:54 AM (/7KEl)

303 Well of course Prussians aren't Germans.
Any Prussian will tell you this.
It was still a fine place to leave. Both sides of my family did.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 21, 2024 10:55 AM (zdLoL)

304 Didja see that Marvel Comics has announced there will be no Jew superheroes in their comics. (Homos, bis, trannies and other perverts, sure, but you've got to draw the line somewhere.) This raises two questions: 1) why and 2) why announce it?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (L/fGl)

I have not heard that. I did see that Sabra (basically Captain Israel) was appearing in the Captain Black-Falcon movie, but without her costume. But beyond that.. That would be an ironic decision to make, given the company's history, and its founders. And that the fact that they had just acknowledged Ben Grim as Jewish like 10 years ago. Alas, not at all surprising, considering who actually runs Marvel these days.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:55 AM (Lhaco)

305 When I was 15, I read Red Storm Rising, and to this day I consider that the best novel I have ever read, bar none. No, it is not objectively better than the world's great literature, but that one book to me showed me what a great novel could be.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:51 AM (8sMut)
----
I liked the book, bought the wargame of that and Red October (standup counters for double-blind play!).

The book is flawed though, and feels like it was rushed. A lot of the characters are just placeholders to make the war happen (fine), but IIRC, "SACEUR" doesn't even get a name until near the end of the books. He's literally just a plot device throwing levers.

I punched out after Clear and Present Danger to focus on Conrad, more Churchill and the like. I don't even think I own any of Clancy's stuff anymore.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:57 AM (llXky)

306 Didja see that Marvel Comics has announced there will be no Jew superheroes in their comics.
_______
Are they striking all memories of Stan Lee?

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 10:57 AM (1bNHn)

307 Fleming sprinkles his books with references to Bond resembling Hoagy Carmichael. Few today probably remember Hoagy or what he looked like.
https://tinyurl.com/3h9kp59u
One can see what Fleming was driving at -- a lean face, resting cold (with some effort of imagination one can even impute cruelty to it, as Fleming intended). None of the film Bonds really come close to this idea.
Fleming drew his own portrait at one point, and it's in that vein, with of course the famous comma of hair.
https://tinyurl.com/ynwjp2n9

Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024 10:57 AM (MoKe9)

308 The incredible thing is Jewish?
That's awesome.

Posted by: Don Black at July 21, 2024 10:58 AM (/7KEl)

309 285 RE: Hunt For Red October.
When I first read it, I gave my copy to my dad (20 years in subs from before WW2), and I was an Army Intelligence officer at the time. I told him if the sub stuff was half as good as the Intel stuff, he'd love the book.
I didn't see him for four days. He read it twice.
Posted by: Diogenes at July 21, 2024 10:47 AM (W/lyH)

I kicked around the idea of reading THFRO when I was 15, but then, I had to read a book for a report in summer school. So I read it and was very impressed. Then, I heard praise for a book called "Red Storm Rising" and knew that a well worn copy made the rounds in ROTC via the ROTC military library...

The rest, as they say, is history.

Oh yeah, then THFRO hit the $1.50 theater that October, and I went there to see it and was completely blown away...

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:58 AM (8sMut)

310 Rankin gout Fleming's work is a little unfair, as the novels are separated from us by 60-70 years, and our appreciation of storytelling is different. (We're more jaded.) YOu're right about the problem with Goldfinger's plan. But the villain in Diamonds does not force Bond to engage in a Wild West shootout, though the Old West town trappings are there, and a steam locomotive is involved in the first climax (there's another aboard the Queen Elizabeth).

And Drax fell into the identity of a British soldier. He had been injured and had no ID on him, and he spoke English perfectly (his mother had been English). He pretended to have lost his memory. So the doctors at the hospital excitedly pressed this new identity on him ("Of course it is you!"). The idea of the rocket was to give England nuclear missile capability; it was Drax's hatred of England that led him to plan to drop the nuke on London. (Remember, this novel was only ten years after the war.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:59 AM (omVj0)

311 Are they striking all memories of Stan Lee?
Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 10:57 AM (1bNHn)

Give them time.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:59 AM (8sMut)

312 Time for me to get going.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor! BTW, I will probably be traveling through the University in about one month to show it off to my progeny. If you care to, please drop me a line and let me know where/how to find you. Lunch is on me.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at July 21, 2024 11:00 AM (5CEo8)

313 No, Nimoy got work after he quit "Mission: Impossible." He recalls in a book about the show that he did stage work, made a Spanish movie, and had a couple of other jobs. "Now there was a year!"
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 21, 2024 10:20 AM (p/isN)

Yes, but he had a few months off. That's when he started getting back into photography. He said he'd done it in Boston as a teen for fun. But once he had the free time after MI, he began to take it seriously. That's how his first book came about. It had his photographs plus poetry he wrote.

Unfortunately, his photography took a turn towards the naked fat women....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:00 AM (0eaVi)

314 I started Hillbilly Elegy this week. I was a J.D.Vance fan girl before and now even more convinced and so far have only read his lengthy introduction. He talks about how he came to write an autobiographical novel at age 31. He is so genuine, humble...you can feel the love he has for family and country. I saw a clip from the movie and it looks really well cast especially after seeing his mother at the convention.
I really hope the ticket wins and we get to see 12 years of J.D.Vance.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 21, 2024 11:01 AM (t/2Uw)

315 Fleming sprinkles his books with references to Bond resembling Hoagy Carmichael. Few today probably remember Hoagy or what he looked like.
https://tinyurl.com/3h9kp59u
One can see what Fleming was driving at -- a lean face, resting cold (with some effort of imagination one can even impute cruelty to it, as Fleming intended). None of the film Bonds really come close to this idea.
Fleming drew his own portrait at one point, and it's in that vein, with of course the famous comma of hair.
https://tinyurl.com/ynwjp2n9
Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024

***
That second one looks rather like John Cleese to me! The HC one is closer, "taciturn, ironical, and cold," as Fleming described Bond's face in sleep in the first novel.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:02 AM (omVj0)

316 It's davenin' time!

Posted by: Don Black at July 21, 2024 11:02 AM (/7KEl)

317 Years ago buddy's parents were Czech and German. Each spoke the other's language and they were a loving couple but apart each would bad mouth the other's origins. - Those Czech/Germans have always ...

My paternal grandmother was Czech. She wouldn't say "Germans," she'd say "Huns."

Posted by: Oddbob at July 21, 2024 11:02 AM (/y8xj)

318 257 I am finishing up The Lever of Riches by Joel Mokyr. ... In Lever of Riches, he discusses technological innovation as experienced by the Greco-roman, medieval and Chinese enflourishments as opposed to the English/European industrial revolution(s), and speculates on why the prior developmental innovation stopped short of a true industrial revolution. ...
Technological development periods are transitory, and eventually stall out as vested interests take an interest in maintaining their position in the new way of doing things for economic or cultural reasons. ....
Posted by: Kindltot a
______
It might well have happened earlier in Europe. Do not underestimate the effect of the Black Death, which would have been as devastating in 1647 as it was in 1347.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 11:03 AM (1bNHn)

319 I saw that “Hillbilly Elegy” is at the top of the list on Amazon (again?)
=====

Shout out to Rocket Boys (October Sky) about youngsters learning and growing in public schools back in the day.

Posted by: mustbequantum at July 21, 2024 11:03 AM (AYNL4)

320 The HC one is closer, "taciturn, ironical, and cold," as Fleming described Bond's face in sleep in the first novel.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:02 AM (omVj0)

Great introduction, after climbing between the harsh French sheets.

Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024 11:04 AM (MoKe9)

321 James Clavell made assassinations and attempts an important part of his Taipan and Shogun novels.

Posted by: mrp at July 21, 2024 11:04 AM (rj6Yv)

322 The book is flawed though, and feels like it was rushed. A lot of the characters are just placeholders to make the war happen (fine), but IIRC, "SACEUR" doesn't even get a name until near the end of the books. He's literally just a plot device throwing levers.

Purposeful. Did you notice you run into almost no Red Army personnel below senior officer ranks and that you run into very few American characters above the rank of Captain?

People can talk about the flaws of RSR all day, every day, and that's fine. But no RSR, no 1984, no Brave New World, no (insert novel name here that I have since read). It may sound strange to you and others, but for myriad reasons that one novel opened me up to a whole other world out there.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:04 AM (8sMut)

323 Unfortunately, his photography took a turn towards the naked fat women....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:00 AM (0eaVi)
---
I remember that, and he tried to make it some sort of quasi-religious thing. Weird.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:05 AM (llXky)

324 Here is the great American novel:

A rich guy from Long Island meets a girl wearing a red A. They take a raft down the Mississippi, hunting whales and talking about DiMaggio.

Finis.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 11:06 AM (1bNHn)

325 I'm aware of that, but there's a bit of bias insofar as the Spock fandom was vocal because he was so different.

In truth, the Spock-centric episodes are often industrial-strength cringe, proving that there was a limit to what the character could do.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:25 AM (llXky)

In a way, that's right. How many Spock imposters were there compared to Kirk? Spock attracted male incels, I guess you would call it today. He also attracted females who were sure they would be the ones to break through his stoicism and make him a real man.

Funny, Nimoy thought those Spock-centric stories were the best ones about the character. Amok Time and This Side of Paradise were certainly not cringe.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:06 AM (0eaVi)

326 People can talk about the flaws of RSR all day, every day, and that's fine. But no RSR, no 1984, no Brave New World, no (insert novel name here that I have since read). It may sound strange to you and others, but for myriad reasons that one novel opened me up to a whole other world out there.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:04 AM (8sMut)
---
There can be no disputing its positive impact on you, I'm merely discussing it as a book.

Clancy had some good ideas but desperately needed a strong editor.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:07 AM (llXky)

327 I remember that, and he tried to make it some sort of quasi-religious thing. Weird.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:05 AM (llXky)
-

Nimoy was vile. I was like the piss paintings.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at July 21, 2024 11:07 AM (2lzfn)

328 Funny, Nimoy thought those Spock-centric stories were the best ones about the character. Amok Time and This Side of Paradise were certainly not cringe.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:06 AM (0eaVi)
---
*Spock's Brain has entered the chat*

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:08 AM (llXky)

329 Christopher B. Rowley

Hail Batrachia!

When you need giant frogs to blow up entire star systems to stop your monsters you've gone far enough.

Posted by: DaveA at July 21, 2024 11:09 AM (FhXTo)

330 Unfortunately, his photography took a turn towards the naked fat women....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:00 AM

Were there any ottomans upholstered in Corinthian leather?

Asking for a friend.

Posted by: zombie Lucien Freud at July 21, 2024 11:09 AM (2ZFHC)

331 Speaking of literature, didn't Star Trek usher in the horrific genre of "slash" fiction as well as the Mary Sue?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:10 AM (llXky)

332 Larry Bond's "Red Phoenix" was a better book than RSR, but I enjoyed them both.

Posted by: mrp at July 21, 2024 11:10 AM (rj6Yv)

333 The Wittlesbachs are the true heirs to the English throne, and soon will add Lichtenstein to their family holdings.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:50 AM (llXky)

Nonsense. Parliament has decided that it trumps heredity since William and Mary.

The English throne will be occupied by whatever Sultan or Emir the followers of the prophet sitting in that institution decide within decades, probably just years.

Posted by: Auspex at July 21, 2024 11:11 AM (j4U/Z)

334 324 Here is the great American novel:

Posted by: Eeyore at July 21, 2024 11:06 AM (1bNHn)

Funny. In seriousness, I think it's been written, or at least one exemplar of it has:

"The Last Gentleman," by Walker Percy

Posted by: Ordinary American at July 21, 2024 11:11 AM (MoKe9)

335 There can be no disputing its positive impact on you, I'm merely discussing it as a book.

Clancy had some good ideas but desperately needed a strong editor.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:07 AM (llXky)

I am as well. I'd argue, especially in his later novels, the editing became part of the problem. At least with RSR, and THFRO, he was still hungry and wanting to establish himself as a writer. Past, say, Rainbow Six, you could tell he got fat and lazy.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:11 AM (8sMut)

336 Marvel removes Jewish superhero Sabra's Israeli identity for new Captain America movie

https://is.gd/zw3myn

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:12 AM (L/fGl)

337 Past, say, Rainbow Six, you could tell he got fat and lazy.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:11 AM (8sMut)

I agree. A long slog, but a good story.

Posted by: mrp at July 21, 2024 11:13 AM (rj6Yv)

338 He's often lampooned for his "over-the-top" acting after a certain point in his life, when directors would let him get away with stuff. Stage acting is necessarily "bigger" than movie acting, which is necessarily "bigger" than what TV requires.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 10:30 AM (omVj0)

To show what Wolfus means, try to find the original pilot episode of what would become the Dick Van Dyke Show. It stars Carl Reiner as Rob Petrie. The Ritchie character was obviously stage trained. All his lines were spoken loudly. Very loudly, as if he was on a stage. You can definitely tell the difference between stage and tv/film acting.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:13 AM (0eaVi)

339 Speaking of literature, didn't Star Trek usher in the horrific genre of "slash" fiction as well as the Mary Sue?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024

***
So I've read; "Kirk/Spock" primarily, though I'll bet the fan authors have tried other pairings. There's a streak of slash fiction ("Solo/Illya") within Man From U.N.C.L.E. fandom, and I just can't read that stuff. (Not that a lot of the straight fan fiction I've read is very good either.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:14 AM (omVj0)

340 332 Larry Bond's "Red Phoenix" was a better book than RSR, but I enjoyed them both.
Posted by: mrp at July 21, 2024 11:10 AM (rj6Yv)

I was 16. Looking for yet another novel to read. I saw Red Phoenix in paperback on a shelf. "By Larry Bond? The unofficial co-creator of RSR? What's it about?" Flipped it over. Read the top:

THE SECOND KOREAN WAR HAS BEGUN. AND THE THIRD WORLD WAR MAY NOT BE FAR BEHIND.

Ten seconds later I was at the counter paying for my copy. One minute later I was reading the first page.

No, it can't be as good as RSR - but then, for me, no RSR, no Red Phoenix - but I loved Red Phoenix. I enjoyed Vortex even more because Vortex was even nastier and more brutal than Red Phoenix.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:15 AM (8sMut)

341 I started with Tom Clancy books many moons ago but over time I became dissatisfied with his stories. It felt as if Clancy had gone from character development and an interesting story line to just phoning it in.
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at July 21, 2024 10:30 AM (U3L4U)

The ring ring of an author phoning it in sounds a lot like the cha ching of the cash register.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:16 AM (0eaVi)

342 331 Speaking of literature, didn't Star Trek usher in the horrific genre of "slash" fiction as well as the Mary Sue?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:10 AM (llXky)

That does seem to be the general consensus. The term Mary Sue definitely came from Trek fandom. The slash-fic...Trek may just be where the trend coalesced into something identifiable.

Speaking as a nerd, letting nerd indulge themselves too much can be...risky.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 11:16 AM (Lhaco)

343 The Reinhard Heydrich assassination in June 1942 is also very interesting. At least two movies and several books have been made about it. The most interesting issue raised about it is whether the Brits thought that the Czechs were getting too chummy with the Nazis and ordered the assassination specifically to incur the atrocities against civilians which the Nazis obligingly provided.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:13 AM (L/fGl)

I thought that was obvious, Heydrich was making the occupation work and he had to be killed for that reason. Maybe not for the atrocities afterwards but to cut off the functioning part of the German expansion.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 11:17 AM (D7oie)

344 Didja see that Marvel Comics has announced there will be no Jew superheroes in their comics. (Homos, bis, trannies and other perverts, sure, but you've got to draw the line somewhere.) This raises two questions: 1) why and 2) why announce it?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (L/fGl)

That's stupid. The world's biggest superhero was a Jew.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:17 AM (0eaVi)

345 To show what Wolfus means, try to find the original pilot episode of what would become the Dick Van Dyke Show. It stars Carl Reiner as Rob Petrie. The Ritchie character was obviously stage trained. All his lines were spoken loudly. Very loudly, as if he was on a stage. You can definitely tell the difference between stage and tv/film acting.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024

***
It's partly that, but also the "size" of the gestures and mannerisms. Last night I happened to catch a scene with Dwight Frye as Renfield in the original 1931 Dracula. His "mad" eye rolls, grimaces, and postures seemed oddly theatrical (though he was not speaking any louder than the other actors). That performance would have done well in a big proscenium theatre. In a more intimate venue like a small lab theatre, or on television, it would seem overdone.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:17 AM (omVj0)

346 The ring ring of an author phoning it in sounds a lot like the cha ching of the cash register.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:16 AM

Pffft.

Posted by: George R.R. Martin at July 21, 2024 11:18 AM (2ZFHC)

347 Spock was an essential NPC.
Posted by: Braenyard at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (lCWOD)

I thought that was Nurse Chapel?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:18 AM (0eaVi)

348 I thought that was Nurse Chapel?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024

***
I wonder if anybody in ST fandom has ever written a Christine Chapel/Janice Rand lesbian story . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:19 AM (omVj0)

349 I thought that was obvious, Heydrich was making the occupation work and he had to be killed for that reason. Maybe not for the atrocities afterwards but to cut off the functioning part of the German expansion.
Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 11:17 AM (D7oie)
---
It was a textbook episode of "What not to do" for the Germans, and it's funny that the same cycle is still playing out.

Crackdowns rarely work, and shooting hostages only creates more vendettas.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:20 AM (llXky)

350 82
'in both cases they were states with immense power and entrenched bureaucracy. '

Lenin in particular stood on the shoulders of the czars in that regard but would never had admitted it.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 21, 2024 11:21 AM (3wi/L)

351 I wonder if anybody in ST fandom has ever written a Christine Chapel/Janice Rand lesbian story . . .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:19 AM (omVj0)
---
The difference is that two men having sex is disgusting while two women having sex is merely absurd.

And Chapel was essential for Roddenberry.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:21 AM (llXky)

352 That got me thinking, it's kind of sad that adventure serials like that have died out. Even in the 90s my paper still carried a couple of 'em. But now.....I guess there may be webcomics, but I'm not part of that scene...
Posted by: Castle Guy at July 21, 2024 10:42 AM (Lhaco)

I remember trying Steve Canyon when I was a kid and almost immediately disliking the strip for seeming to drag out a story as long as possible much like a soap opera.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:22 AM (8sMut)

353 It's partly that, but also the "size" of the gestures and mannerisms. Last night I happened to catch a scene with Dwight Frye as Renfield in the original 1931 Dracula. His "mad" eye rolls, grimaces, and postures seemed oddly theatrical (though he was not speaking any louder than the other actors). That performance would have done well in a big proscenium theatre. In a more intimate venue like a small lab theatre, or on television, it would seem overdone.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:17 AM (omVj0)
---
You see this throughout the transition from stage-trained to pure film, which - combined with improved sound recording, allows actual whispers to be picked up.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:23 AM (llXky)

354 88
'Anyone who resorts to "How will your gun stop jet bombers" has just betrayed their colossal (and very dangerous) ignorance.'

How will your jet bombers stop your airbase from being surrounded and starved of supplies?

Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 21, 2024 11:23 AM (3wi/L)

355 I wonder if anybody in ST fandom has ever written a Christine Chapel/Janice Rand lesbian story . . .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:19 AM

A quick search using "christine chapel janice rand fan fiction", without actually checking any of the returned links, indicates a probability much closer to one than zero.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at July 21, 2024 11:23 AM (2ZFHC)

356 Yes! Yes! Do this!

Steve McGuire
@sfmcguire79
Aaron Sorkin says the Democrats should choose Mitt Romney as their Biden replacement:

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:23 AM (L/fGl)

357 It was a textbook episode of "What not to do" for the Germans, and it's funny that the same cycle is still playing out.

Crackdowns rarely work, and shooting hostages only creates more vendettas.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:20 AM (llXky)

The Germans, especially then, never really understood the whole "hearts and minds" thing. But then, given their eliminationist tendencies, you could see why they dispensed with such ideas.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:24 AM (8sMut)

358 How will your jet bombers stop your airbase from being surrounded and starved of supplies?
Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 21, 2024 11:23 AM (3wi/L)
---
Yeah, or the maintainers and aircrew call in sick just to avoid picking a side.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:24 AM (llXky)

359 336 Marvel removes Jewish superhero Sabra's Israeli identity for new Captain America movie

https://is.gd/zw3myn

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today

With the biggest irony being Sabra literally means “born in Israel”

Posted by: Piper at July 21, 2024 11:24 AM (pZEOD)

360 How will your jet bombers stop your airbase from being surrounded and starved of supplies?
Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 21, 2024 11:23 AM (3wi/L)

Are you suggesting that politicians not only are ignorant of history, but also of logistics?

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:25 AM (8sMut)

361 Are you suggesting that politicians not only are ignorant of history, but also of logistics?
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:25 AM (8sMut)
---
Nah, fighting a 20-year war in central Asia was perfectly reasonable, as is fighting a war of attrition inside Russia's historical boundaries.

I-phones give us the decisive edge. I-phones and Power Point.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:27 AM (llXky)

362 344 Didja see that Marvel Comics has announced there will be no Jew superheroes in their comics. (Homos, bis, trannies and other perverts, sure, but you've got to draw the line somewhere.) This raises two questions: 1) why and 2) why announce it?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 10:31 AM (L/fGl)

That's stupid. The world's biggest superhero was a Jew.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:17 AM (0eaVi)
Not a fan of what used to be called 'funny books' or movies made from them. But OrangeEnt done tolt it all there.

Posted by: Eromero at July 21, 2024 11:27 AM (LHPAg)

363 That's stupid. The world's biggest superhero was a Jew.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:17 AM (0eaVi)

He is JUST all right.

Posted by: Doobie Brothers at July 21, 2024 11:27 AM (8sMut)

364
You see this throughout the transition from stage-trained to pure film, which - combined with improved sound recording, allows actual whispers to be picked up.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024

***
Right. Talking film was so new in 1931 that nearly everybody there, especially older actors like Edward Van Sloan, would have come up through stage work. In Dracula you can even hear the cameras whirring during no-dialog moments. Once that problem was solved, and they had better sound technology, acting could become more naturalistic.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:28 AM (omVj0)

365 I-phones give us the decisive edge. I-phones and Power Point.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:27 AM (llXky)

Don't forget CBTs.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:28 AM (8sMut)

366 In Lever of Riches, he discusses technological innovation as experienced by the Greco-roman, medieval and Chinese enflourishments as opposed to the English/European industrial revolution(s), and speculates on why the prior developmental innovation stopped short of a true industrial revolution.
Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 10:36 AM (D7oie)

Dr. Garrett Ryan of "Told In Stone" on YT had two vids on "could the Romans have had an industrial revolution?"

He decided, no, and gave his reasons.

https://tinyurl.com/yc57ffc7

https://tinyurl.com/k8xhm2z9

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:29 AM (0eaVi)

367 Congratulations Wolfus. I'm reading the Library of America Washington Irving (with Salmagundi, History of New York, and Sleepy Hollow in it) . The Salmagundis are old fashioned (of course) but funny. Also reading The Scarlet Letter. I never had to read this for school. I hope they didn't make students read the introduction, after that it's gotten to be pretty interesting. Thanks Perfesser for reposting Candidus about Shadow Physics. That sounds fascinating and went right on to my wish list.

Posted by: who knew at July 21, 2024 11:29 AM (+ViXu)

368 Don't forget CBTs.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:28 AM (8sMut)
---
When paired with reflective belts, you've got an unbeatable combination.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:29 AM (llXky)

369 I wonder if anybody in ST fandom has ever written a Christine Chapel/Janice Rand lesbian story . . .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024
*
A quick search using "christine chapel janice rand fan fiction", without actually checking any of the returned links, indicates a probability much closer to one than zero.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at July 21, 2024

***
Yeah, if I can imagine it, somebody with stronger intestines than mine has probably written it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:29 AM (omVj0)

370 Best comedy show in years!

Pelosi Privately Favors Open Nomination Over Selecting Harris as Nominee

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:30 AM (L/fGl)

371 I sniped an F16 out of the air at NTC with an M-16.
Got an ARCOM for it.

Only training but it is recognized that small arms fire can take out fighter jets.
Concentration of fire in front of the aircraft on the off chance that it will run into the thousands of bullets being fired.

Anytown USA could easily take out a fighter.

Posted by: Reforger at July 21, 2024 11:30 AM (xcIvR)

372 Right. Talking film was so new in 1931 that nearly everybody there, especially older actors like Edward Van Sloan, would have come up through stage work. In Dracula you can even hear the cameras whirring during no-dialog moments. Once that problem was solved, and they had better sound technology, acting could become more naturalistic.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:28 AM (omVj0)
---
It should also be noted that Hollywood's "Golden Age" was largely fueled by talented emigres fleeing Europe.

We basically had a monopoly on creativity, whereas today we have a monopoly on mediocrity.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:31 AM (llXky)

373 Kamy is making her move!

Kamala Harris Huddles with Reid Hoffman and Top Donors

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:32 AM (L/fGl)

374 Dr. Garrett Ryan of "Told In Stone" on YT had two vids on "could the Romans have had an industrial revolution?"

He decided, no, and gave his reasons.

https://tinyurl.com/yc57ffc7

https://tinyurl.com/k8xhm2z9
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024

***
Without looking at the links yet, OE, my answer would be "No; they had slaves to do the dirty work." There was no incentive to devise machinery that slaves could do for the cost of food and shelter. Your researcher may have mentioned this, but I think there was a reference to an inventor in Imperial times who had come up with a prototype of a steam engine. Vespasian paid him off and declined to invest in the idea, saying it would take work away from regular citizens.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:32 AM (omVj0)

375 It was a textbook episode of "What not to do" for the Germans, and it's funny that the same cycle is still playing out.
Crackdowns rarely work, and shooting hostages only creates more vendettas.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:20 AM (llXky)

the assassination went about as efficiently as the assassination of Arch-duke Ferdinand, too.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 11:32 AM (D7oie)

376 Only training but it is recognized that small arms fire can take out fighter jets.
Concentration of fire in front of the aircraft on the off chance that it will run into the thousands of bullets being fired.

Anytown USA could easily take out a fighter.
Posted by: Reforger at July 21, 2024 11:30 AM (xcIvR)
---
During WW II, AAA was set to fire in boxes for exactly this reason. You don't need to aim at the aircraft, just create a zone of fire in front of it.

This is also why movies showing F35s doing strafing runs are so stupid.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (llXky)

377 It should also be noted that Hollywood's "Golden Age" was largely fueled by talented emigres fleeing Europe.

We basically had a monopoly on creativity, whereas today we have a monopoly on mediocrity.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024

***
If Billy Wilder had not come to America, we would have had no Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, The Spirit of St. Louis, and more.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (omVj0)

378 371 I sniped an F16 out of the air at NTC with an M-16.
Got an ARCOM for it.

Only training but it is recognized that small arms fire can take out fighter jets.
Concentration of fire in front of the aircraft on the off chance that it will run into the thousands of bullets being fired.

Anytown USA could easily take out a fighter.
Posted by: Reforger at July 21, 2024 11:30 AM (xcIvR)

Yep. There was a reason why C-17s and C-130s had such limited ground time at Balad AB and why their takeoffs and landings were done the way they were. It wasn't just for the volume of cargo.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (8sMut)

379 I guess he planned ahead.

TDS Or Stupid?: Whoopi Goldberg Smears Trump’s Teenage Granddaughter As A Prop Used To "Humanize" Him

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)

380 Just for fun --

In the Kindle store you can find a short ebook titled "The World of Bond and Maigret." It's the transcript of a conversation between Simenon and Ian Fleming. Only about 25 or 30 pages in which they discuss writing and publishing and reviews.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 11:36 AM (q3u5l)

381 This is also why movies showing F35s doing strafing runs are so stupid.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (llXky)

That's why we have the F-15 EX for the ground attack capability.

Posted by: mrp at July 21, 2024 11:36 AM (rj6Yv)

382 Yep. There was a reason why C-17s and C-130s had such limited ground time at Balad AB and why their takeoffs and landings were done the way they were. It wasn't just for the volume of cargo.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (8sMut)
---
Didn't one of the airfields in Afghanistan lose multiple aircraft due to a ground-based attack under Obama? If it had been Bush, it would have been front-page news, but, well, you know...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:37 AM (llXky)

383 We're in the home stretch of the Book Thread. I just want to thank everybody for their good wishes about the story (now please go buy the book!!!) . . . and to say that my story is NOT "Princess Sparkle-hooves"!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:37 AM (omVj0)

384 Conversely, the Prussians decided that THEIR version of German was the best, and that was taught in schools, though the locals obstinately cling to regional words and pronunciations.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 10:48 AM (llXky)

A YTer, Feli, From Germany, lives in Ohio, and watched a few vids of Americans speaking German dialects: Pennsy Dutch, and Texas German, plus maybe one other. She said she could make out words, but the dialects were different. Some of the stuff she could understand, but not all of it. I guess the Prussians couldn't get the job done.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:37 AM (0eaVi)

385 I guess he planned ahead.

TDS Or Stupid?: Whoopi Goldberg Smears Trump’s Teenage Granddaughter As A Prop Used To "Humanize" Him
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)

Well, he is human, so there's that...

Posted by: LASue at July 21, 2024 11:38 AM (bLe0J)

386 379 I guess he planned ahead.

TDS Or Stupid?: Whoopi Goldberg Smears Trump’s Teenage Granddaughter As A Prop Used To "Humanize" Him
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)

Don't even think about it, Creepy Poppop.

Posted by: Navy Joan Biden at July 21, 2024 11:38 AM (PiwSw)

387 Anon, both on Whoopi.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at July 21, 2024 11:38 AM (2NHgQ)

388 Well, he is human, so there's that...
Posted by: LASue at July 21, 2024 11:38 AM (bLe0J)
---
I love how they keep giving the game away.

"But if we see him as human, mentally ill people won't try to kill him!"

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:39 AM (llXky)

389 Kamy is making her move!

Kamala Harris Huddles with Reid Hoffman and Top Donors
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:32 AM (L/fGl)

Have you seen a picture of that guy? A dem poster boy.

Posted by: LASue at July 21, 2024 11:40 AM (bLe0J)

390 A YTer, Feli, From Germany, lives in Ohio, and watched a few vids of Americans speaking German dialects: Pennsy Dutch, and Texas German, plus maybe one other. She said she could make out words, but the dialects were different. Some of the stuff she could understand, but not all of it. I guess the Prussians couldn't get the job done.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:37 AM (0eaVi)
---
Many of those migrated before the unification of Germany, and of course dialects continually evolve.

Arguably the biggest factor in American German was the Great War, which extinguished all German-language newspapers.

My grandfather's parents both spoke German, but refused to teach it to their kids because it was unpatriotic. He remarked to me that it would have been really useful in WW II.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:41 AM (llXky)

391 On the other hand, stage acting can sometimes work on film. Lugosi's Dracula is very inhuman, rather stiff, not the charming villain we've seen in recent years. But in his confrontation with Van Helsing, when he tells the old man, "Come . . . here!", probably the same way he did it in the stage productions, you want to get up and walk toward the screen!

At the climax, too, when he crouches to stalk Renfield on the Carfax stairs, he embodies the predator of the night Dracula is supposed to be.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:41 AM (omVj0)

392 Well, off to act like I'm doing something constructive.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 21, 2024 11:42 AM (q3u5l)

393 Goldfinger, for example: in the film Bond mocks the idea of trying to actually steal the gold reserve because of the sheer physical impossibility of moving it all -- but in the novel that's Goldfinger's actual scheme!

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 21, 2024 10:49 AM (78a2H)

Reminds me of a funny bit concerning "The Avengers." The real ones, not the comic book ones.

Steed was looking through his mail and Mrs. Peel was there. He looked at a postcard, it was from Cathy Gale. (Honor Blackman) It said something like, "just thinking about you." Steed said, "From Fort Knox. What's she doing there?"

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:42 AM (0eaVi)

394 I'll believe it when I see it.

Ryan Fournier
@RyanAFournier
BREAKING: Kimberly Cheatle to resign as soon as Monday.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:43 AM (L/fGl)

395 Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:44 AM (llXky)

396 Missed the thread this week. Dealing with the CloudStrike borking of our travel plans for today. Finally have new flights from a different airport to a different airport. At least we arrive in CA and fairly close to our actual destination and less then 24 hours later then we should have. Yay, us!

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at July 21, 2024 11:45 AM (2NHgQ)

397 NOT "Princess Sparkle-hooves"!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:37 AM (omVj0)

What?!? I was certain that was it.

Guess I'll have to wait for the update.

Posted by: Reforger at July 21, 2024 11:45 AM (xcIvR)

398 WaPo outs J.D. Vance!

https://is.gd/X8UjMY

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:48 AM (L/fGl)

399 The best part about the next few weeks is going to be the constant shade thrown by anonymous sources at the various Dem candidates.

Time to go long on popcorn.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:49 AM (llXky)

400 Noe they pulled off the same plot in die hard 3 with a different ex machina jeremy iroms again

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 11:49 AM (PXvVL)

401 Bad news.

BBC News (UK)
@BBCNews
Drag queens feel the pinch of rising costs

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:51 AM (L/fGl)

402 *Spock's Brain has entered the chat*
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:08 AM (llXky)

Heh. Though, I don't think I'd classify it as a true Spock-centric story. But it certainly wasn't cerebral....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:51 AM (0eaVi)

403 But goldfinger had moriarty type ambitions

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 11:51 AM (PXvVL)

404 Feli from Germany (Ytube) is kind of hot.

Posted by: For a Hun at July 21, 2024 11:52 AM (dg+HA)

405 269
'My German ancestors were clever enough to live on the French side of the river, and left for America after Napoleon III won the election on a platform of "I'm gonna make myself Emperor!"'

Mine moved from the Schwarzwald to Virginia in the late 1600s. Must have been a very delayed reaction to the 30 Years War.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 21, 2024 11:52 AM (3wi/L)

406 Drag queens feel the pinch of rising costs
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:51 AM (L/fGl)
---
Decadence is a function of surplus wealth.

Take that away, and survival becomes the sole focus.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (llXky)

407 Speaking of literature, didn't Star Trek usher in the horrific genre of "slash" fiction as well as the Mary Sue?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:10 AM (llXky)

Didn't read any of the fanfic. Too silly.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (0eaVi)

408 Funny thing about the F16 downing I did was I was the only ine shooting at it.
We were at the end of a 96 hour ARTEP and all I wanted to do was die. I saw the fighter as an excuse to lay down and started shooting.
It's MILES smoker popped and there were 4 evaluators watching me.
I jumped shouting I had hit it and everbody was all yeah whatever. So I asked the evaluators if anyone else was shooting at it.
They checked later and I was the only one.
I went from ending my sentence on a Field Grade AR15 to getting the highest non-combat medal offered in the same field problem.
My CO was beside himself.

Posted by: Reforger at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (xcIvR)

409 Since Obama and the Democrats fixed Healthcare . . .

CBS News
@CBSNews
Americans spend more on health care than any other nation. Yet almost half can't afford care.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (L/fGl)

410 Americans spend more on health care than any other nation. Yet almost half can't afford care.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (L/fGl)
---
Obamacare was always about making Big Pharma and the HMOs richer. Patient care was never a factor.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:55 AM (llXky)

411 Classic mystery novel by Josephine Tey, "The Daughter of Time" is about assassination.
Who killed the Princes in the Tower?

Re: Wolfus. I vote "Lifeboat", for no particular reason.

Posted by: sal at July 21, 2024 11:55 AM (4lnL8)

412 I went from ending my sentence on a Field Grade AR15 to getting the highest non-combat medal offered in the same field problem.
My CO was beside himself.
Posted by: Reforger at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (xcIvR)
---
I got an ARCOM for being flown to Germany to watch a basketball game. I mean, there was more to it than that, but that's the gist of it.

My finest hour.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:57 AM (llXky)

413 Thanks to a recent Book Thread recommendation I've just finished listening to Steinbeck's Travels With Charley as read by Gary Sinise.
Thoroughly enjoyed it and found it to be inspirational as I'm planning to do a 2025 version of same upon the commencement of retirement.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 21, 2024 11:58 AM (dg+HA)

414 BBC News (UK)
@BBCNews
Drag queens feel the pinch of rising costs
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:51 AM (L/fGl)

All that makeup and trashy clothes must be expensive

Posted by: It's me donna at July 21, 2024 11:58 AM (IyPmt)

415 Didn't read any of the fanfic. Too silly.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (0eaVi)
---
Why bother? That's what the new shows are all about.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:58 AM (llXky)

416 I hope they didn't make students read the introduction, after that it's gotten to be pretty interesting. Thanks Perfesser for reposting Candidus about Shadow Physics. That sounds fascinating and went right on to my wish list.
Posted by: who knew at July 21, 2024 11:29 AM (+ViXu)

yes, we did.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 11:58 AM (0eaVi)

417 Shooting down a jet is way cooler.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 21, 2024 11:59 AM (llXky)

418 I really liked Red Storm Rising and THFRO. I gave up on Clancy after reading Debt of Honor. It kept building and building and I kept getting more sucked in to the story and then I hit page 550. At that point Clancy seems to have said "oops, my novels are only supposed to be 600 pages long" and rushed through to a very disappointing end.

Posted by: who knew at July 21, 2024 11:59 AM (+ViXu)

419 Vespasian paid him off and declined to invest in the idea, saying it would take work away from regular citizens.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:32 AM (omVj0)

If I remember, they didn't have the type of economy that would support it, either.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 12:00 PM (0eaVi)

420 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2024 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

421 Yet another fine Book Thread!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 12:02 PM (omVj0)

422 313

'Unfortunately, his photography took a turn towards the naked fat women....'

How fat?

Posted by: Pierce Brosnan at July 21, 2024 12:02 PM (3wi/L)

423 Just started the last volume of the C.J. Sansom Tudor mystery series, featuring lawyer Matthew Shardlake.
I will be sorry to see the story end.

There were enough period details to be interesting and
scene-setting, but he avoids dwelling on the worst aspects
as some do.

The BBC adaptation is meh.

Posted by: sal at July 21, 2024 12:02 PM (4lnL8)

424 We're in the home stretch of the Book Thread. I just want to thank everybody for their good wishes about the story (now please go buy the book!!!) . . . and to say that my story is NOT "Princess Sparkle-hooves"!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 11:37 AM (omVj0)

Bought it just after you announced it on ALH. But, but... the thread can't be over! I haven't caught up on all the comments yet!!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 12:03 PM (0eaVi)

425 I've been reading The Blind Watchmaker by committed atheist biologists Richard Dawkins.It is actual very interesting and he gives a lot of good, fascinating examples that demonstrate evolution. The problem is is obsession with creationists and his constant attacks on them. He seem to think they are a huge, influential force in education and a danger to society. This is so upside down it is laughable. And not a word about other religions that have non-evolution stories about the origin of the world. What is it with these people? It is overall a good book but he ruins it with the constant attacks on this mostly imaginary, all-powerful demon.

Posted by: Ripley at July 21, 2024 12:03 PM (GUOwU)

426 Apropos of nothing in particular, I've been reading (on Kindle) "Always with Honor" by Gen Wrangel, who headed up the White forces during the Russian Civil War. I'm just at the point where the Provisional Government collapses and the Bolsheviks take over. Fascinating read.

Posted by: rfitz3 at July 21, 2024 12:06 PM (lGEQW)

427 Thunder rolling in again and the sky is dark. Looks like rainy Sunday for me.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 21, 2024 12:06 PM (omVj0)

428 Ace-endorsed: "Much of American culture is German-derived, from our primary food dishes to "GET OFF MY LAWN NOW." Especially here in Wisconsin which was once (and maybe still is) the most German state in the nation. I remember reading that around the turn of the last century, Milwaukee was the second or third largest German speaking city in the world. All 4 of my mother's grand parents were German immigrants (Dad's side is mongrel, from French-Canadian to Scotch-Irish)

Posted by: who knew at July 21, 2024 12:06 PM (+ViXu)

429 But goldfinger had moriarty type ambitions
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 21, 2024 11:51 AM (PXvVL)

don't make me go into my rant about my reimaging of how Auric Goldfinger was a thwarted hero trying to single handedly bring down the vile global fiat money regime . . .

Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 12:06 PM (D7oie)

430 Looks around.

It was close to Princess Sparkle-Hooves.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 12:09 PM (0eaVi)

431 don't make me go into my rant about my reimaging of how Auric Goldfinger was a thwarted hero trying to single handedly bring down the vile global fiat money regime . . .
Posted by: Kindltot at July 21, 2024 12:06 PM (D7oie)

Silly gold bugs.

No worse way to waste gold than to have it backing currencies where there is so much else it can be used for.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 12:09 PM (8sMut)

432 No worse way to waste gold than to have it backing currencies where there is so much else it can be used for.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 12:09 PM (8sMut)

If gold's so great to have, and paper money is worthless, why do these guys keep trying to get me to give them money for their gold?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 21, 2024 12:11 PM (0eaVi)

433 If you can host the Olympics without building a lot of soon-to-be-unused infrastructure, you have a good chance of not going broke.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at July 21, 2024 12:13 PM (+H2BX)

434 CBS News
@CBSNews
Americans spend more on health care than any other nation. Yet almost half can't afford care.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 21, 2024 11:53 AM (L/fGl)

Here's an idea: get government OUT of medical care. (I can't get health care. I have no health for which to care.) Government drives up the cost of everything.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 12:13 PM (8sMut)

435 I got sick of Brad Thor.

And the CIA.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at July 21, 2024 12:19 PM (+H2BX)

436 The English throne will be occupied by whatever Sultan or Emir the followers of the prophet sitting in that institution decide within decades, probably just years.
Posted by: Auspex
-----------------------

Is this when the true English rise up and take back the throne and instill power back to the monarchy?

Posted by: Braenyard at July 21, 2024 12:35 PM (lCWOD)

437 Is this when the true English rise up and take back the throne and instill power back to the monarchy?
Posted by: Braenyard

The English rarely get conquered, but when they do they stay conquered.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at July 21, 2024 12:41 PM (cOq4q)

438 Re: The title of "All Will Burn: At All Costs"

{114/Quarter Twenty}: But I have to say I'm confused. Is the word "Or" the first word of the title or not? Because I don't see it in the cover art.

{123/Wolfus Aurelius}: I noticed that, and wrote to the editor. Her emails to me never had the "Or" in them; and as you say, neither does the cover. Somebody needs to have Amazon change it.

The explanation comes from Kacey Ezell's Introduction to the first "All Will Burn" novel (Raconteur Press Anthology # 13):

= = =
But when it comes to protecting my daughters, I am "practical" to the point of sociopathy. Every life matters. But as a parent, in my mind, my daughters' lives matter more than anyone or anything. Perhaps this makes me a savage. Perhaps this just makes me a mother. I'll let you be the judge, but as I told Justin in that conversation, "Come the end of civilization, my daughters will live, or all will burn." Because those are the only two end states possible: my children live, or it all goes down with them.
= = =

"Or All Will Burn" became the distilled version of that threat of retribution, and the series' unofficial title often used when speaking of it.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 21, 2024 12:46 PM (O7YUW)

439 Trump has only once survived an assassination attempt. This spy survived many more and almost 60 near death experiences. https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2023_06.07.php The website is worth a browse - it's like a virtual espionage museum and even advert free!

Posted by: Jim Brown at July 21, 2024 12:50 PM (YPGXf)

440 Leonard Nimoy was in “The Lieutenant”, an early Roddenberry show that I believe also had DeForest Kelley.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at July 21, 2024 12:55 PM (9CyuP)

441 Got some books for my niece's 10th birthday, and read one of them, The Bark of the Bog Owl, as it was free with Kindle Unlimited, so i could check it out before buying a physical copy. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the writing. Based on the story of King David set in a world inspired by the Georgia swamps. Recommended for the kiddos.

Also have been listening to Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, and will be starting another book today, though haven't decided what. Possibly a collection of short fiction by KJ Parker, possibly The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

Posted by: tintex at July 21, 2024 01:07 PM (QX+ft)

442
"All Will Burn: At All Costs"

Awaiting the follow-up:

"All Will Smolder: At Wholesale"

Posted by: naturalfake at July 21, 2024 01:12 PM (eDfFs)

443 All 4 of my mother's grand parents were German immigrants (Dad's side is mongrel, from French-Canadian to Scotch-Irish)
Posted by: who knew at July 21, 2024 12:06 PM (+ViXu)

Same in my family. Grandpa was born in Wisconsin in 1917 and only spoke German until he went to school.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 21, 2024 01:46 PM (XjtdB)

444 I'm sorry I missed the book thread

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 21, 2024 02:45 PM (Ka3bZ)

445 Books on Assassins should also include the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb.

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at July 21, 2024 04:51 PM (TOe+Q)

446 445 I was about to mention the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, Assassin's Apprentice (book 1) was especially good at world-building with a royal bastard being raised as an assassin.

Posted by: waelse1 at July 21, 2024 07:14 PM (7YTAg)

447 Quit airventure in 2011 after China bought out America GA and Oshkosh rolled out the red banners. Cirrus, Continental Aerospace, Diamond Aircraft , Mooney to name a few are all ownedby avic or its subsidiary caiga. Of course no American investors were interested when these companies needed cash. So there's that....

Posted by: Iggies bro at July 21, 2024 07:17 PM (jGYzK)

448 Fabet user of 3 months shares positive experience.

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especially for football and basketball. Live betting feature is smooth
and responsive. Casino section includes slots and blackjack with nice graphics and lag-free performance.
Deposits and withdrawals are easy, with multiple payment options and quick processing times.
Customer support is helpful and responsive via live chat.
The only minor complaint is a desire for more promotions.
Overall, the user recommends Fabet as a reliable betting platform and invites others to share their experiences with the site.

Posted by: my.link.gallery at July 22, 2024 02:15 AM (NbTB+)

449 I've just finished Ask Not and Too Many Bullets by Max Allen Collins and enjoyed them. Ask not dealt with the JFK assassination and Too Many Bullets dealt with the RFK assassination. Both are pretty well researched historical fiction using a fictional private eye named Nathan Heller.

A few months ago I read The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter where he has Bob Lee Swaggart investigating the JFK assassination.

Posted by: JP at July 22, 2024 07:51 PM (AXnFp)

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