It’s October, which means you’ve all been reading the copy of The Collected Works of SugarFree we sent C/O your direct supervisor, right? I hope it didn’t get lost in the mail. Binding books in the skin of genuine Subaru drivers is both time consuming and expensive.
jesse.in.mb
Suzanne Crowder Han: Korean Folk & Fairy Tales. I brought this home with me from Daegu and read it at the time, but had forgotten just how odd some of the folk tales could be (especially when filtered through cultural and linguistic translation. The main thing is if you ever get a chance to trick a dokkaebi (도깨비) out of xer bangmangi (방망이), you should definitely do it and then explain to your shithead older brother who had disinherited you after your father died how you went about it so that he can get his comeuppance when he acts out of greed rather than innocence.
S. Blyth Stirling: Naked Scotland: An American Insider Bares All. I’d be lying if I said that cover had nothing to do with me picking the book. I was mostly looking for a primer on cultural mishaps beyond calling slacks “pants” or discussing the inexplicably-popular-again “fanny packs.” The book is breezy and fun and sits comfortably in the American Abroad and Travelogue genres.
SP
I’ve been reading thrilling textbooks on subjects as fun as medical law and ethics. Or trying to get time to read them, anyway.
However, I’ve been taking small bites of some cookbooks and ways-of-eating books. You’ll notice a theme.
The MIND Diet Plan and Cookbook
If there is any interest, I’ll write a post about the MIND diet.
Tulip
I am re-reading all of Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series. China Bayles is a former Houston criminal defense attorney who leaves the rat race behind to run an herb shop in the fictional Texas hill country town of Pecan Springs. Like many fictional towns, Pecan Springs has a crazy high murder rate and China helps to solve them. If you like cozy mystery series, this one is great. There are over 20 books in the series, the characters actually evolve over time, and Albert includes recipes and further reading in every book. So far, every recipe I have tried from the series has been great.
OMWC
I’ve barely had time to wind my wristwatch. Wait, do people still wind wristwatches? Let me tell you about the onion on my belt…
But at least I can get a few minutes in while relaxing in the smallest room of the house. And what’s in there includes Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson’s Farthest Star, a rather pedestrian SF novel with some crafty writing but nothing particularly novel (cough, cough) to say. Painful for me to write this since I am a huge fan of Pohl. The genre is often termed “Big Dumb Object” and I think that’s fitting. This book is perfect for the application.
The other book gracing the bathroom is the oft-thumbed Valve Amplifiers, 4th Edition. Geeks only, please, but if you are consumed with electronic anacrophilia as I am, this will delight.
SugarFree
Lovecraft, all Lovecraft. I reread it all every couple of years. Going back to him after spending the summer reading the antecedents to his fictional universe and the descendants that followed it, going back to the man himself is very comforting.
Fun Fact: On a word count basis, all the fiction Lovecraft ever produced is still less to read than Stephen King’s It.
Mad Scientist
How To Restore British Sports Cars by Jay Lamm. This isn’t really a “how to” book so much as it is generalized advice applicable to many vehicles. Not necessarily British. Not even necessarily cars.
mexican sharpshooter
This month I picked up a classic with a twist. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds. I was given the option of reading it in high school but I instead picked a different book to report on. I want to say it was War of the Worlds but I don’t recall. What I do recall is my English teacher simply citing the phrase “undead” to describe the book. As much as I enjoyed his class I am happy to say he was wrong. I am rather enjoying it, though it is taking longer than I anticipated. The entire book is annotated by a number of experts in the field of chemistry, physics, sociology, and ethics. The book itself is nothing like how it was portrayed in Hollywood, especially given how intelligent the monster is throughout the book and draws many questions all too often posed in science fiction, such as, “What is the whole human thing anyways?”
Wait, do people still wind wristwatches?
absolutely: a twist or two when you reset the date right after you true up the time, especially September first
nonsense. a wristwatch is jewelry. You buy a 25k USD Swiss automatic and you never set the time on it to show you don’t care about the damn time
I wear one sometimes. It’s easier to flick my wrist than dig my phone out.
Not much from me this month. Still sipping on BTEOTM from UCS. I’ve been working too much the past few weeks, so I get a page or two in before I nod off and the kindle smacks me in the teeth.
I listened to an audiobook that was actually a series of lectures on medieval Christianity. It was quite interesting, but not really a book.
I might finish the sequel by the time you get there.
I’m supposed to spend a week on nothing else at the start of november.
I’ve been listening to Stratregy by Lawrence Freedman. It’s hella long, but has been enjoyable so far.
A couple of month ago I said I reread something from my youth to see if it holds up. Asimov’s foundation series. I did not. I found it mediocre.
This month I retried that with Lord of the Rings. It held up much better.
The Lord of the Rings is one of the rare books for which I prefer the movies. Too much extraneous details and way too many songs in the text.
You’re probably a fan of shield surfing ninja elves as well.
I just don’t read long form any more. I’m open to it; I just don’t feel the need anymore. I’m caught up on the news, I read the odd assembly instruction or putting tip article, but I’m not looking for any more great truths. If some new thing appears under the sun, I’m open to returning to the page, but I feel like I’m done.
And perish the professional drivel. It’s a new economy: no it’s not. It never was a new economy: yeah, I already knew that. The Secrets of Total Quality RS232PF25-2018: old stuff, new cover.
Football For A Buck.
It’s a history of the USFL, the bad guy is Donald Trump.
I read “Hotel USSR” from some Ukranian whose name I can’t hope to remember. It took me all of two hours while waiting at the mechanic’s, but deftly summed up through anecdote the realities of living under the Soviet system.
I’m almost done listening to Treasure Island. I can say I don’t like any of the characters, and am confused as to how it became embedded in the culture. Maybe it was just the right time for it. Or maybe they abridged the audio version or something. I wouldn’t be surprised.
I recently read it and agree.
Which one?
Muppet Treasure Island is the best Treasure Island.
I admit, I like the opening credits song.
How can you not like Jack Hawkins?
Because he’s an idiot who repeatly does stupid things just because the plot requires it.
I’m thinking you may be too old for the book.
Atlas Shrugged
It could do without the 70-page monologue, true.
The Fountainhead was better.
/eternal refrain
He was quite good in The League of Gentlemen.
How To Restore British Sports Cars by Jay Lamm.
Is it subtitled, “Tin Mites: Care and Feeding”?
“Or, How I put My Mechanic’s Son through Dental School.”
Fake news: there are no dental schools in England.
The most effective way would involve a compactor and recycling by Mazda.
Heh.
I’m currently reading Cthulhu’s daughters. A collection of short stories written by chicks. I’m liking it so far.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27036760-cthulhu-s-daughters
I just finished Brian Lumley’s – Titus Crow/The burrowers beneath. I wasn’t really impressed. Maybe the journal format was off putting to me.
Not so Fun Fact: On a word count basis, all the fiction
Lovecraftever produced is still less to read than Stephen King’s It.But most fiction doesn’t defeat the monster with a children’s gang-bang.
I recently re-encountered Brian Lumley through reading someone else who absolutely hates Brian Lumley. I want to say it was Ramsey Campbell but I wouldn’t swear to it.
Korean Folk & Fairy Tales. – would read
The MIND Diet – sounds gimmicky
China Bayles series – what about poor Hong Kong?
Valve Amplifiers, 4th Edition. – nerd
Lovecraft, all Lovecraft -raacist
How To Restore British Sports Cars by Jay Lamm. – why is the next question
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds. – i got nothing. something beer
Supernova on the East, part 3 is now ony phone, so I know what I will be listening to in my commutes.
I don’t like listening to things while walking and I feel that podcasts are too long to just listen to at home. I am trying with the Stronger by Science podcasts but they are 2 and a half hours a piece
I’ll generally Listen to them at the Gym, when i go for walks, or when i make longer commutes (those happen much less frequently). I also try to listen when i work but it’s not as common.
I am not huge on multitasking I cannot work and listen at the same time
I can listen when the task I’m doing doesn’t require language processing.
ie, if I’m painting or driving, I can have words playing in the background and pay attention. But if I’m trying to read or write, I need something whose words can be ignored, such as music.
well at work I write code mostly so… nut I cant listen to music because I don’t like music as background sound, when i listen to music I like to focus to what i am listening. Not that I listen often.
I write code in silence too. Prose I need to keep my head in the right emotional state for it.
I’m a bit the opposite. I can’t listen to podcasts very well when coding (unless i really don’t care about processing what is being said) but i have to listen to things when i code. If i don’t my mind tends to wander.
#metoo.
language processing
Yes: something like this. It depends on which parts of the brain you’re using.
I don’t process things I’ve heard while driving completely and usually need two or three passes. Maybe because that’s the way I drive; maybe if I weren’t paying so much attention to traffic and the pretty world going by, I’d catch more nuance. Same with golf: podcasts don’t register while I’m playing because my golf is a consuming activity.
my golf is a consuming activity.
I drink a lot when I play too.
I usually choose less involved audiobooks for my commutes. Even then I have to replay sections often. Something with completely detailed fantasy worlds or excessive number of characters is right out.
I must do my DDJ (damned day job) in silence.
When I’m writing, I need to have mood music. The Prohibition book was difficult because I don’t like the music of the period (Rhapsody in Blue gets old quickly), the peppy music I do like was not appropriate for emotional/sex scenes, and the music that was most suited (noir) was still 30 years out of date, so it wasn’t much help, either. Lastly, I couldn’t find any deliberately anachronistic music (think A Knight’s Tale) that would work like it did for the pirate book.
People loved the Prohibition book, but it was a long, hard slog for me.
I’m suddenly glad that I just need to evoke a particular emotional state. Most of “Beyond the Edge of the Map” and “Prince of the North Tower” were written listening to Sabaton and Powerwolf. Mind you “Prince of the North Tower” does include mass battle scenes where the narrator ends up wading into a pike formation wieling a two-handed sword, or engaging in a cavalry duel with the opposing army. Or trying to kill a troll while only dressed in his underwear (he got rudely woken up for that one)
Dammit UCS we can’t make Groucho jokes when you phrase it that way, killjoy.
LOL
I wrote Cuntes & Cods to the Chrono Trigger soundtrack and Secret Garden, among some emotionally appropriate anachronistic stuff.
I imagine characters in sex scenes having sex to “Yakety Sax”.
History According to Bob is 10 minutes a day.
For science podcasts –
This week in Parasitology, This week in Microbiology, This Week in Virology, This week in Science, The Naked Scientist, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
SugarFree, I love you more and more. I too revisit him every year or so. Cool Air and The Horror At Red Hook are often my favorites.
I feel sorry for the guy from Cool Air. Unreliable electricity kills.
Indeed. I really dig that tale because it’s not horror and makes me really care for the characters.
Also, the one about the drunken lout of an undertaker having his uppance come rather gruesomely while trapped in a tomb.
Other than the classics, of course, I’ve always been drawn to The Rats in the Walls. It’s like a blooming rose of horrific stuff, opening wider and wider.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/rw.aspx
I was already familiar with some of his stuff via the AD&D Deities & Demigods supplement, but that was the very first Lovecraft story I read. I will always have a love for it and the one with the delightful old man who wants the young traveler to read a beloved book to him while caught in a rainstorm.
I checked out the Arkham edition of The Dunwich Horror and Others out of the library when I was 12 or 13 after reading the “The Outsider” in an anthology. It was a lot to take in.
Sigh… I was about that age when I discovered Bukowski as well. The die was truly well cast by that point.
It’s like a blooming rose of horrific stuff, opening wider and wider.
But enough about Hillary
All right Lovecraft lovers, I got a collected works e-book on my kindle, do you recommend I read them in order of publication or some other order.
IMO, the bulk of his works stand alone while containing references to previous events/entities in his milieu.
Read them backwards and out loud.
It’s the most effective way to open the old paths.
Don’t fall for it. I have a Shoggoth in my basement I have to dispose of thanks to that prank.
All I got was this big goat that hangs around in the back yard.
Seems to be pregnant now.
Might be because you have a yard.
Oh, and make sure you have at least a thousand additional pens ready.
Ia!
Seems to be pregnant now.
Cabrito, FTW!
RAW sometimes spoke of the time Abbie Hoffman tried to levitate the Pentagon and inadvertently released its imprisoned Shoggoth. I’m convinced that another release was a result of the 9/11 attack on the place and it has been demanding more and more blood ever since.
Order of publication is how I do it when I re-read.
Ebook? Vellum in the original tongue or gtfo.
Those get expensive, you don’t get too much vellum per tongue.
Civil War buffs should try to find the 1997 “Uncertain Glory: Lee’s Generalship Re-Examined” by John McKenzie. The author is unsparing in his critique of Lee’s battlefield tactics, strategic vision,staff organization and logistics. The author believes Stonewall Jackson was the Confederacy’s ablest commander and his loss in May 1863 was irreplaceable.
Many forget that it was Lee who ordered Picket up that hill.
Yep – that campaign was bold, but letting the Union fight a defensive battle on the high ground was just stupid. He could have just marched away with his army intact.
He should’ve just called in air support.
The Balloon Artillery Corps won the day and sent those Bluebellies runnin’ for home.
Hero worship is the worst blinders. Balls and strikes need to be called on everyone, Lee included.
Interesting. I long suspected that Lee was overrated as a battlefield General. Not abysmally terrible like his father, but not brilliant either.
Life’s messy. Command isn’t absolute. It rains. My kingdom for a horse.
D-Day aside, in most things the achievement (Microsoft?) doesn’t remotely look like the plan and the plan (invade Iraq again) doesn’t look like the achievement. Life is folly and happenstance in even proportion. Napoleon was a genius by any standard, but he had his Russia and his Waterloo. Major Genera Charles F. Smith, one of the highest-ranking casualties of the Union, severely scraped his leg on a gangplank near Shiloh and died some days later of tetanus.
I think it’s uniquely American to think that things are managed. Only Americans are surprised that software can crash a plane, that Notre Dame isn’t always a top five team, that everyone shouldn’t live to be 92 and die in perfect health surrounded by friends and family. Most things are much much more random than.
I’m the other way around: shocked that more things/places blow up, crash into each other, accidentally poison someone.
I remember hating this horribly mangled depiction of the Battle of Philippi – until Marc Antony admits that he has no idea what’s going on.
As an old cavalry guy:
Waterloo and Gettysburg were both failures that could be laid at the feet of the cavalry commanders. Stuart was off gallivanting and Murat froze his brain in Russia and threw away his forces in ineffectual charges.
In both cases, the Commanders were left with less complete intelligence and committed their forces to decisive combat when they shouldn’t have.
And who was Stuart’s commander?
Sure, but that doesn’t mean that Stuart wasn’t derelict in his duties.
Both cases involved failures by the man-in-charge, but from purely a Cavalry mission aspect, both cavalry commanders abjectly failed at their primary mission, to provide security and reconnaissance for the main body of their forces.
In both cases, the Commander lacked crucial knowledge and committed forces to battles they previously would not have fought.
In both cases, they made huge mistakes.
I vaguely recall Lee being furious: I am blind! or some such
Murat froze his brain in Russia and threw away his forces in ineffectual charges.
After listening to Keegan’s account of the battle, I don’t think cavalry was ever going to win the day at Waterloo, whether it was correctly deployed or not. The British squares were simply not going to break under a cavalry charge, and the Brits were able to break the French infantry advances, including Napoleon’s never-before-defeated Old Guard. If Murat had withheld the French cavalry, I think Napoleon still would have lost. Cavalry as a decisive stroke in a pitched battle was simply a thing of the past, against a well-trained professional army.
The cavalry were piece-mealed, rather than coordinated with the infantry advances.
But the real problem was that the cavalry should have given Napoleon warning of the reverse slope defense he was advancing into. Halting up and making the opposition attack into him would have been the better tactic.
Breaking away and fighting somewhere else have been even better, but Napoleon didn’t really have that option.
I think it’s uniquely American to think that things are managed
This is not a uniquely American thing. Humans see patterns, patterns are assumed to have a ‘creator/instigator’, things without a clear creator/instigator/director are seen as chaotic. This is why you see people thinking Planned economies must be more efficient than the emergent order of the Free Market.
Of course; mine was just shorthand. I don’t think Americans are a perfect monolith or the only anything.
Humans see patterns, patterns are assumed to have a ‘creator/instigator’, things without a clear creator/instigator/director are seen as chaotic. I argue this very point all the time.
I’ll rephrase: most cultures are full of people with less autonomy, flecked with fatalism; random happenings don’t surprise them because control isn’t one of their primary delusions. One day your governor speaks German and travel west to pay your taxes, the next he speaks Russian and you travel east, and you had no say and did nothing to cause or choose. This perspective is at least someone less prevalent amongst Americans.
I see, your saying American Culture tends to have people who see themselves as in control over their life/world? Interesting. It would explain why “You can Change the world” type talk is very prevalent (I’ve been told that since i was in grade school) even though it is a patently false belief.
I’m the other way around: shocked that more things/places blow up, crash into each other, accidentally poison someone.
I often feel the same way after driving in traffic.
Rebel Yell had the same takeaway
Sorry, but the author is incorrect. It was Longstreet. If Lee had listened to Longstreet we might be eating okra at baseball games. (Okay, probably not, but still).
Longstreet was the best on both sides, in my opinion, and I don’t think it’s all that close. Jackson was a great leader, too, though, no doubt.
As an aside, I’ve walked Pickett’s Charge – and that was insanity, even on horseback. It’s got to be a mile to the Union Lines of completely open terrain, nothing to hide them from the cannon on the hill. I can’t fathom what that must have been like.
War is hell.
And advancing in that manner is retarded. I won’t even put my digital units in TW through that.
I can recall having done exactly that – in Empire, I was Russian fighting Germany. I had a lot more digital troops than he did, but a shooting duel would not be in my best interests, so it was “Fix Bayonets and rush that wall”.
I won. But not without losses.
okra at baseball games
Some of us have not let a certain loss keep us from the finer things.
Poll was the worst thing the South is associated with:
1. Slavery
2. Jim Crow
3. Okra
Who’s talking shit about okra!? How else are you supposed to make gumbo without that file stuff!?
SEC lightweights glomming onto the success of Alabama?
Every time is the right time to eat okra. Well, perhaps not breakfast… yeah, I would eat it for breakfast as well.
I put it in a gumbo style soup I make, wife and I both love it. Also, fried okra, yummy!
Fried is my favorite way to do it. It’s great stuff for vegetarians as well, as it thickens soups in a very similar manner to bone collagen. Thanks Africa.
Okra is just as popular in Brazil, they call it Quiabo, sounds like ‘Key-aw-bo’.
Washington wasn’t a military genius either.
Managed to finish Pariah: Donovan book three ended stronger than the slogging middle portended, I’ll probably pick up the next one when it comes out.
Girl Most Likely by Max Allen Collins pretty tame who-dunnit, young female sheriff with the help of her ex-cop father solve the case of the killing of her classmates leading up to and during their reunion. Max wrote The Road to Perdition and was tapped by Mickey Spillane to finish Spillane’s unfinished works so I imagine this is a less than average sample of his work, not recommended.
Also got a collection of Elmore Leonard’s western short stories, only a few in, but good western fare so far.
Lastly about half way through The Philosopher’s Flight by Tom Miller, I never read any Harry Potter books, but this seems like what I think they are probably like. Philosophy is magic with sigils and chemicals and the hero is an aspiring philosopher going through early adulthood. I’ll finish but unless it gets much better I doubt I’ll continue the series.
If you’re ever in the UK watching sports, the team you want to win is the team you’re ‘backing’. You don’t ‘root’ for a team there unless you have a very supportive (or horny) partner.
HATE HATE HATE the word “slacks.”
Prefer tauts?
Pantaloons? Trousers?
Mojeaux likes chaps.
No.
“Pants” okay, “trousers” preferred but I get weird looks when I say it.
Obligatory.
Glad I clicked on my phone and not my work PC.
“Girls like that kinda shit.”
O rly?
“Pants” is fine. “Pant” is retarded.
You probably also refer to soda as ‘pop’…
I do not know this word, “soda.” What is this, please?
Lrn2bake?
You know, club soda – seltzer water to which mineral salts have been added.
Ohhhhhh that. Blurgh.
Pop is pop in places like the midwest because the Hutchinson style soda bottles that they put soda in made a popping sound when you hit the top part with the palm of your had to dislodge the rubber stopper forced into place by the carbonation of the soda.
Seriously, after my family moved back east when I was like 10, I don’t think I ever heard the term soda again until I in my 20s and I started working with a guy from Cali. We were at lunch and he asked me if I would like a ‘soda’. I was like ‘what’s a soda’?
I have so rarely heard a live person use the term ‘pop’ to refer to soda that I’m straining to recall if I ever have.
My husband’s from SoCal and says “soda.” Sadly, he has trained the kids to do this as well.
There is an alternate here: “sodypop.”
“I have so rarely heard a live person use the term ‘pop’ to refer to soda that I’m straining to recall if I ever have.”
You’ve obviously never lived in the Midwest.
My residency has always been New York State.
“There is an alternate here: “sodypop.”
Wrong. Sodypop is what you call the effiminate looking dude drinking a White Claw when you’re out drinking some manly beers with your buddies. ‘Hey Sodypop, you gonna put a little pink umbrella in that girly hipster juice you got there? You sure got a purty mouth’.
“My residency has always been New York State.”
The only reason it’s not pop for you guys is that you didn’t have Hutchinson bottles for soda back in the late 1800s, otherwise all of you would be calling it pop.
I’m so sorry you’ve been hamstrung by old technology.
Cue banjos.
The equivalent soda bottle in the east was called a ‘Cobb’ bottle. It’s a weird design, it used a glass marble in the neck of the bottle to serve as the stopper. I have some of them I got in Baltimore. They didn’t make a noise I popping noise I suspect, but the pop thing is definitely not because of inferior technology. The term just stuck.
“leg shirts”
Trews.
Confirmed: Mojeaux is not part of the Church of the Sub-Genius.
Connie will fix her wagon. Fix it but good. https://subgeniusfoundation.bandcamp.com/track/sister-connie
*hangs head*
That went WHOOSH over my head, even after googling.
It was pretty obscure. “Church leaders instruct their followers to avoid mainstream commercialism and the belief in absolute truths. The group holds that the quality of “Slack” is of utmost importance—it is never clearly defined.
I see “slack” without an S as a completely different thing. “Slacks” (noun, not verb) in relation to pants sounds oogey. Like okra slime oogey.
The Slacks
So spoil my crappy joke, already.
*hangs head*
I’m sorry
Dungarees?
That is a specific term for jeans.
The book So, You’re Going To Wear The Kilt. refers to the them derisively as “bloody Saxon trews”.
I read this story about a guy who got shot and had drugs fall out of his ass. Anyone else read that one?
Did he have any black jack-o-lanterns?
It’s Halloween so I’m rereading horror classics. Just finished Dracula and Hill House, planning on Thre Turn of the Screw next. I had forgotten about Dracula’s speech where he dissed Romanians, sorry Pie.
Fun Fact: On a word count basis, all the fiction Lovecraft ever produced is still less to read than Stephen King’s It.
Better and scarier as well.
I recently finished The Proviso and think Mojeaux is a talented writer and recommend her to fans of Romance. (as someone that is emphatically not such a fan, the fact that I finished it and enjoyed much of it (some of the staple aspects of the genre badly annoy me, nothing specific to Moheaux that I did not enjoy) is a strong recommendation).
I am now rereading some disk world, and watching Jordan Peterson’s Biblical lectures, which I heartily recommend. The man is quite bright and also intellectually humble and honest, and the concepts he tackles are interesting and widely applicable.
Thanks! I’m glad you saw through some of the genre conventions. This:
I totally expect from non-fans of the genre, so I am deeply honored that you were able to finish it. 🙂
I’m still reading it. I bounce back to it when whatever book I have checked out from my library is returned. Reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep at the same time.
Oh, yay!
Aside: So I like Janelle Monae’s early stuff. Her single off her second full-length album references “Electric Sheep.”
My kid pretended to like Janelle Monae because I like her and she wanted to earn my approval (please don’t do that, XX). But she read “Electric Sheep” and really liked it.
The annoyance is mostly at the that all conversations between the lovers must be fraught with drama. It would be exhausting to live in a Romance novel.
Of course! Romance thrives with drama and everything is in Superlatives! BEST! MOST BRILLIANT! WEALTHIEST! MOST ALPHA! MOST BEAUTIFUL!
That’s the point.
I would never marry one of my heroes. Ugh. Drama Kings, every one of them.
No, I take that back. I have had one chill, totally normal hero. And he’s with the overly dramatic Aspie heroine.
You’re a sucker for redheads. ; )
Hey, I try to evenly distribute hair color, eye color, and ethnicity!
Etienne…OMG no. Just…no. Never. Nuh uh.
Emilio…so chill.
My bad. I was thinking of Bryce & Giselle. Maybe “Aspie” isn’t the word for her nor “chill” the word for him. I guess I’M the sucker for redheads.
Victoria/Etienne = Aspie (oh, yes they are!)
I do think Emilio’s chill, although his profession might say otherwise.
Can confirm re: Proviso & Moje’s other published works. I’ve read all but the very latest (the length is daunting me at the moment, but it’s in the queue. Like Trashy, I’m “sipping” UCS’s BTEOTM but mostly spending my time here) and I’ve enjoyed them all. I have no patience for most conventional romance, but hers suck me right in.
BTW, Moje – love the new avatar. Have you used it before? For Halloween I’m considering a one-day-only of my real face, especially if the avatar issue is fixed.
How far along have you gotten?
No progress since last report. ::hangs head in shame:: Nothing against the novel at all – I just can’t tear myself away from Glibs.
Yes, but got shouted out of Glibs for it, as it was not Halloweenie. I always wear this at Halloween time.
You go as the invisible woman?
You’re still not seeing avatars?
I’m not either.
Not sure why.
Nope, but like I said earlier it doesn’t bug me. I read Tulparum handles.
My new Halloween dress. *pose* Like it?
Yes, I remember that from prior appearances.
Me, neither, on Chrome at work.
Ipad at home is fine.
Chrome on my phone I see the avatars.
Chrome on my tablet? Nope.
On my PC, it’s Firefox on Linux, and I don’t see the avatars.
G. K. Chesterton – Othodoxy. Kind of a slog as he seemed to overstate his case rather weakly, yet it did seem a good rebuke of modernism/post-modernism and its inherent pessimism in comparison to Western religion . HIs rebuke of Buddhism seemed particularly inept although he did make a couple good points. Certainly the opposite of light reading and I’m hoping to find Mencken’s criticism of it but haven’t stumbled across it yet.
Richard Feynman – the Pleasure of Finding Tings Out. In some ways the unintentional opposite of the book above, but I’ve only started it.
To me, the idea that science and religion are at odds with each other and cannot coexist seems counterproductive and personally useless. But I may forever be fascinated by the Arabs evolving from scientific to dogmatic and basically remaining that way. At least Chesterton tries to make the case that Christianity’s (original) appeal was an appeal to freedom which Islam does not do and modernism seems to only superficially do (which, in a Misean sense is a “third way” which ultimately is counterproductive to freedom). As has been pointed out on threads here numerous times, 21st century modernism seems to be little more than anti-Westernism, which seems to have affected the Arab world for over 1000 years.
I haven’t read much others haven’t recommended.
I read the third Harry Dresden Grave Peril.
Before they Are Hanged the second of the First Law series. Keeps getting better and quite the ending/cliffhanger
I read Scalzi’s Head On, a sequel to Lock In. Do not recommend. Not as thrilling as the first. The true villain was so obvious. It was like the Red October when the camera lingers on the cook.
Pope, what did you think of Servants of the Underworld? Most of the reviews focused on it not being eurocentric with little else reviewed.
My tophat goes off to whoever wrote a amazon review of Beyond the Edge of the Map titled “Tighten your gloves”
That’s got to be someone here. It’s only going to confuse normies.
Heh.
Does this count as reading?
Chuck Schumer Proposes Cash for Clunkers Round Two
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, late on Thursday proposed a $454 billion plan over 10 years to help shift the United States away from gasoline-powered vehicles by offering cash vouchers to help Americans buy cleaner vehicles.
The plan would award $392 billion in subsidies for owners of gasoline-powered vehicles at least eight years old and in driving condition to trade them in for EVs, plug-in hybrid or fuel-cell cars, the statement said. The old vehicles would be scrapped.
UAW President Gary Jones said in a statement that the Schumer proposal “honors the sweat and sacrifice of American autoworkers by investing in domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles and incentivizing high quality jobs across the auto supply chain.”
The electricity for those cars to be produced by unicorn farts.
Seeing stars from the white hot rage coming from my brain right now.
let’s fuck over the lower middle to middle class again by jacking up the market.
No, no. Poor people will buy a $35k electric sedan if only it were $3k cheaper.
That won’t be able to make it to work and back when it’s -10° F.
Fuck off, Chuck.
I’ve already seen this movie and it blows.
Pretty much every month i have to make a 200+ mile road trip. Trying to force me into a electric vehicle by raising the price of used gasoline vehicles would make my life much worse off.
why Don’t you offer everyone 3k to burn down their houses and live in tents. That would be super green.
Yeah, my 2003 Forrester may be a little rougher on the emissions that some new fangled car (maybe). But it sure is more efficient than blowing a bunch of energy and resources building a whole new car, electric or gasoline.
Cash for Clunkers 2: Electric Boogaloo
I finished the 2-part Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton (Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained). Interesting universe building and future society.
I’m reading The Dreaming Void now. Slow start, but picking up steam.
I’ve read a smattering of his stuff. Far and away my favorite is The Great North Road. The economics are typically absurd/appalling, but it’s a good yarn.
UnCiv’s Beyond the Edge of the Map.
Enjoying it so far (not very far in, yet). It is amusing to “know” the author and see him peeking through. Looking forward to the bits discussed in advance here.
I am listening to Stuart Turtons’ The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It’s an English manor murder mystery in which the protagonist wakes up as a different person each day (but it’s the same day 8 times) to try to solve a murder case or be trapped in the manor forever.
Pros: Great premise, solid writing, good atmosphere
Cons: Too long, repetitive, and some very clunky metaphors.
The cons seem to imply that is isn’t solid writing. YMMV.
The story, unfortunately, demands repetition. The hero seeing the same things through different eyes. The solid writing pro means I like the voice and style and the vision. Instead of 7 1/2 deaths, maybe 4 1/2 would be better. Occasionally there’s a grating metaphor.
On a scale, I’d probably go 3.25 out of 5 right now (I’m not done)
To add: Combining Clue, Quantum Leap and Groundhog Day is a pretty cool concept.
The game, “The Sexy Brutale” is similar. It takes place in a hotel/casino where everyone is required to wear masks, and you as the player relive the same day over and over again until you solve the mystery. You have a limited ability to control time, and as you progress you open up additional parts of the hotel necessary to witness everything that’s going on.
I started that game and liked it but never finished.
You just described about 75 games currently installed on my computer. I’m trying to force myself to avoid sales until I finish what I’ve got.
I’m still working my way through Deep Nutrition. I like Dr. Cate a lot and I’m largely buying in.
Someone mentioned Clavell’s Shogun recently, so I downloaded it.
I didn’t remember reading it before, but I’m 19% in and enjoying it a lot. 1,000 pages is substantial, though. I’ll finish my review next month.
Still lots of podcasts and nutrition articles.
SP, here is a really interesting podcast:
Dr. Mary Newport – Using Ketones to Combat Brain Inflammation
We lost my grandmother to a long, agonizing dementia, so stuff like this is of great interest. Dr. Newport is an actual MD, so her story is even more surprising.
I have a friend who had a grandmother with Alzheimer dementia or similar, not diagnosed officially, and did a 23 and me and found 2 gene variations for it so decided to go keto. AM not 100% sure if it is right or wrong. She was following a doctor named Dale Bredesden who basically had a blood test checklist for best to avoid while not guaranteed.
Interesting. Nothing is guaranteed, but most diseases are inflammatory responses, so I really don’t see the downside of attacking them with diet in addition to other therapies.
After reading shogun, I’ll say the tv miniseries was a great adaptation.
I am editing a wanna-be noir/adventure with points of view all over the place. I don’t have the wherewithal to teach the guy the finer points of writing when it is serviceable as is. Also, in some genres, third person omniscient is a thing whether I like it or not.
Does the narrator see into everyone’s head? For clarity I’ll usualy have a third person narrator sit on a character’s shoulder (metaphorically) and not have too many thought bubbles from other people. I think it gets messy and hard to understand.
There are two different components to it, as I see it, so this is the gospel of Mojeaux:
1) “Meanwhile, back at the ranch…” The narrator knows all. He doesn’t necessarily get into point of view (what I mean by that is, there’s little internal dialogue), but tells the reader what’s going on inside a character’s head. It’s one step removed from thought. Like watching a facial expression on an actor’s face as he’s relaying the character’s feelings.
2) Headhopping. There is no narrator. Just internal dialogue shifting quickly back and forth from one character to the other without a break. Paragraphs and paragraphs of alternating internal dialogue, and especially where minor characters get a voice so as to portray what the scene looks like from the outside.
These can be combined, but in romance, this was stamped out pretty successfully in the 90s.
Ugh, I can’t stand 2. That’s a perfect recipe for generating confusion. I can deal with 1.
My third person narrator is a matter of fact kinda guy, closer to a camera than a personality, leaving the emotion and subjectivity to the dialog.
I don’t mind camera POV in other genres so much, but I do bring my training to the work (don’t we all?).
In the anthology my partner and I published with another editor, there was a story I HATED with the passion of a thousand burning suns and I went, “But this is really badly written.”
“No, it’s very well written for its genre.”
Fine. Whatever. It’s there. People loved it.
What was the Genre?
Something akin to a spaghetti western. Pulp western? I forgot what the editor and my partner called it.
I’ve only read one western ever. Though it does make me more qualified to comment on westerns than on romance.
Not a Faulkner fan?
I just finished “We” and “ring world”. Starting “twelve” a vampire story placed in Russia 1812 during the war with Napoleon.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3678443-twelve
I started watching the new season of “Goliath”. I’m not sure how much farther I can go. Losing interest rapidly. “OMG Evul Kkkorporashunz dun stold ar waterz!”
Plus weird hokey “surrealist” bullshit. Maybe it will turn out to be a prehistoric AmerIndian devil worship cult what dunnit.
Plus the Indian casino security guy from Longmire is playing an Indian casino security guy, it confuses my usually beer soaked brain.
I really enjoyed the first half of the first season, but it was like they gave up on all the story lines and hand waved shit away.
i figured they gave up on the series, and so I did too.
How long until the book burnings commence.
https://hotair.com/archives/allahpundit/2019/10/24/poll-51-think-first-amendment-goes-far-allowing-hate-speech-updated-reflect-cultural-norms/
You havn’t gotten the invite yet?
45% of Americans believe in ghosts. Your neighbors are morons, and they get to vote.
If we assembled the top 10 idiotic beliefs held by large masses of people, I doubt we’d have 20 people around the world who didn’t believe at least one.
Look, we don’t need to burn all of them, just the hateful racist ones like the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights part. Also, Federalist Papers, ending federalism will let NY and CA decide the rules for everyone, just like God planned it.
No one needs more than one book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501178415/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_j7YSDbGVX4QVF
Oh God, I can’t imagine what searching for this is going to do to my recommendations now:(
Private window, incognito mode, etc, etc…
“No one needs more than one book.”
This one?
My Little Red Book
No time for reading. Have to finish Greedfall before Red Dead Redemption 2 gets released for PC on Nov 5.
I’m learning to read books the same way my BDH wife does, 1 to 2 pages at a time. If I get a solid half hour of time though, it’s PC time.
When I do read, I do it in bed, helps me fall asleep.
I’m just happy that the Outer Worlds isn’t coming out until next year. It’ll give me time to work through my backlog.
While hate crime laws are bullshit, I’m sure if roles were reversed, this would have been ruled a hate crime.
https://abc6onyourside.com/on-your-side/scoring-our-schools/no-hate-crime-charges-against-student-who-allegedly-made-racial-slurs-before-attack
Hate crimes are the prelude to thought crimes, which they’re already working on. The reason hate crimes are bullshit outside of the fact that a crime is a crime, regardless. That murdered guy really doesn’t care if the killer hated him or not, he’s still the same amount of dead. The 2nd reason is that as shown in this case, hate crimes will not be applied equally under the law, so it’s Unconstitutional from the get go.
hate crimes will not be applied equally under the law, so it’s Unconstitutional from the get go
Equal Application has nothing to do with it. Hate Crimes are literally thought crimes. you are adding more punishment because you allege that someone had a bad-thought, or Said something bad when committing the act.
Punishing the motive also amounts to thought-crime.
You get a stiffer penalty for drawing a swastika than you get for breaking someone’s jaw.
It’s all about intention and who actually does it, and to whom it was done to. Perverted justice is what it comes down to, the destruction of our Constitution, what’s still left of it.
That’s how you get a good feud / race riot going. Older kid beats up a younger – older brother(s) and relatives ambush him with clubs and tune him up good.
Speaking of Lovecraft, there’s a video game that just came out called Moons of Madness that looks really interesting. Mars exploration meets Lovecraftian horror.
I finished the complete The Magicians series. Really enjoyed them overall. There are major differences from the TV series, I’d say the show is just “loosely based” on the written series, especially after the first season. Somebody warned me last month that the books are dark, but I really find the show to be darker overall.
I watched the launch trailer this morning. Looks interesting, but with Greedfall and Rebel Galaxy Outlaw to finish and Red Dead Redemption 2 coming out in a couple of weeks, I’ll have top put that on the back burner and look more into it later.
Just picked up Rebel Galaxy Outlaw earlier this week. It’s a blast, but I can see it getting old quick. I’m trying to finish Assassin’s Creed Odyssey before RDR2 comes out, because I know that’s going to dominate my free time.
Yeah, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is fun, I put in on hold while I finish Greedfall. I never did finish AC Odyssey, but I put a lot of hours into it. I’ll have to go back to that one also.
“RDR2 comes out, because I know that’s going to dominate my free time.”
Same here.
I did finish Odyssey. From a technical standpoint, it was better, but suffered from failing to hold interest in the story or gameplay. It wasn’t completely unfun, but never better than mediocre. I never had the same feel of accomplishment, and none of the challenges approached the degree of interesting that earlier installments managed.
The thing I like least about it is the enemy scaling. I expect at some point to become overpowered as a reward for all my grinding. How can I become God like when you keep scaling my enemies to match me? But really great visuals.
I got annoyed at that too. Even going back to the starting island I was never able to just push the enemies around.
I’m still head over heels for it. I think it’s the best of the series so far, AC: Brotherhood excepted. Honestly, though, a lot of the enjoyment I get out of it is just wandering around in the environment. It’s visually stunning, in my opinion, and I love the setting.
My son’s due in early January, and I keep looking at the release dates for Vampire: Bloodlines 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. So basically I’ll just stop sleeping altogether until around next August.
Didn’t Bloodlines 2 just get pushed? I’m wondering if it’s going to be as buggy as the original
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, late on Thursday proposed a $454 billion plan over 10 years to help shift the United States away from gasoline-powered vehicles by offering cash vouchers to help Americans buy cleaner vehicles.
Shit won’t run uphill unless you give it a push.
NO, Chucky, go to the hell.
Fuck off with that, both for the spending and the social engineering.
If I wanted an electric car, there’s plenty on the lots, I would already have one.
Dumbest idea since the square wheel.
Under certain road conditions, you can get better traction with offset square wheels than round ones.
Admittedly, those require hills, so you may not ever encounter them.
Cash for Clunkers 2: electric boogaloo
^Nice.
Why not give a cash voucher for walking instead of driving?
A pretty concise list of Clown World. ///HonkHonk
Yeah, but where in that list do I find anything as bad as badorangeman?
Just a little walkin’ around money, to get you to the polls.
sigh… Meant as a reply to invisible finger.
I’ve only read one western ever. Though it does make me more qualified to comment on westerns than on romance.
Maybe you should read a Zane Grey book, just as an experiment. I read a bunch of them as a kid. Good entertainment, as i recall.
I did. He wrote the one Western I read.
Elmore Leonard as well.
Can recommend.
Those are spec books like Nancy Drew. I read a couple of those. Not bad.
I faked a whole bunch of 6th grade book reports because I figured out the Hardy Boys and Lois L’Amour recipes.
In dead seriousness, I will say that writing those spec books is a skill I have never mastered and both admire it and am (mildly) envious of it. Only mildly because I’ve already turned one thing I loved into a business and destroyed my love for it.
I’ve barely had time to wind my wristwatch. Wait, do people still wind wristwatches?
Embarrassing. Automatic or GTFO. I recommend Christopher Ward watches. Classy design, excellent value (basically, identical to expensiver Swiss watches, only without the price needed to support bloated branding campaigns). I see their prices have crept up, though.
My son loves his.
My Orient automatic has a wind option – good for when I don’t wear it for awhile.
This.
I am looking at those prices and thinking….why would I pay that for a paperweight when that No.1 in 25-06 is about the same price?
This morning I ran all of my errands and paid my bills. One of the errands involved the hardware store. I got my stuff and was standing in line waiting to pay. An old fella in denim coveralls came and stood next to me with his stuff. We were waiting because the cashier and two of the workers were huddled together fixated on an attempt to help a woman with a lockset.
Old coveralls turns to me and asks “How many rednecks does it take to…..”
I had to laugh out loud.
why would I pay that
Totally irrational. Pure subjectivity. I like the thingness, the mechanicality, of good watches. I don’t particularly care about impressing people with the brand.
I’ll keep my Seiko 5.
https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1186681785813475328
“Misogynists always claim that men are better than women at sports.
But if that’s the case, how come cyclist Rachel McKinnon only started winning gold medals *after* she transitioned?”
#Checkmate
How is Titania McGrath not banned yet?
Likely because Someone In Charge hasn’t figured out yet that it’s parody.
she was multiple times
Priceless.
Based on a recommendation from one of you, I recently finished Hyperion. I am now working on The Fall of Hyperion.
Before that, my most recent book was Triumphant Plutocracy, by former (and first) senator from South Dakota. It was timely with the current crop of Democrat candidates, and a bit jarring, to hear Sanders and Warren spout ideas nearly identical to that old (Republican!) progressive from the 1870s.
I recently finished Hyperion
No you didn’t, he’s upthread being wrong about that slime in a pod Rebels eat.
You can’t go wrong with Okra.
Really liked Hyperion. The Shrike and the Steel Tree still give me goosebumps. I seem to recall being vaguely disappointed in The Fall of Hyperion, but its been a long time.
No matter what system I’ve needed to work on, I’ve never needed any valves amplified.
Not even servo-valves?
How about Fetzer valve?
If I recall, the main winding in these amplifiers was of the normal lotus-o-delta type placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots of the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdle spring on the “up” end of the grammeters.
The Slow-Motion Suicide Bombers of the West
A very snarky eulogy to an SJW who finally got her wish but not exactly the way she wanted it.
She’s no Dr. Who.
I love her analogy of disgusting smells to our revulsion of things morally reprehensible. What she is saying, sorry was saying, is ‘learn to eat shit and like it’.
What happened to her is horrible but I wont be shedding any tears. Bitch.
Ponders 3-way…
Yep, probably would.
“Stupid analogy followed by slavish idiocy”
*send tweet*
The NPC code is copyright protected. You are going to get Glibertarians sued!
I will consider voting D, if they nominate Tulsi. Unless the LP gets their act together.
Tulsi is a commie that wants to grab our guns. The LP is not going to get their act together. They are hopeless.
I think “I’m going to vote for Tulsi” posted here is a joke or just a novelty vote.
In case you are wondering, NJ is run by petty tyrannical fucks.
She’s also ex-military. When ex-military gets in office, things go from “we need to send the troops home” to “I’m confident our brave men and women can get the job done” and “we need a mandatory draft so everyone can have the great character building experience I had” real quick.
Meh.
*Adjusts ‘MAGA’ hat.* ///LibertariansForTrump
Why not give a cash voucher for walking instead of driving?
Link your fitbit to your government cheeze account, for direct deposit!
Our company health insurance has an incentive like that. Download the insurance company’s app to your phone. The app monitors your activity and reports back to the company. If you meet their goals for you, you get $20 toward gym membership.
Fuck off with your spyware.
Ours tried to pull some shit where you had to pay a penalty if you didn’t do some self-reporting fitness crap. There was such an outcry that they pulled the program. Now you get a discount, so, same difference, but still.
People react better to bonuses than penalties, even if it’s numerically an identical mechanic.
I have to keep my phone off at work, so this would be right out.
Hey, Tundra, I just ordered one of these . I’m still giggling about it 30 minutes later.
Lucas is the maker of the electronics in Jaguars, isn’t it? *trying desperately to get the joke*
Among other things. the only product Lucas made that doesn’t suck is their vacuum cleaners.
LOL
Q: You know why Brits drink warm beer?
A: Lucas makes their refrigerators.
Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone.Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.
For more
the old boys say “electrics”
3 way switch FTW !
The joke is that the only time Lucas wiring doesn’t smoke is when it doesn’t work, so you have to refill the smoke in the wires to keep the system running.
LOL!
That’s awesome!
Lucas is the maker of the electronics in Jaguars, isn’t it? *trying desperately to get the joke*
aka “The Prince of Darkness”
Song of Kali and Carrion Comfort, both by Dan Simmons. He’s the guy who wrote The Terror, which was turned into an AMC movie, and was recently unpersonned for badthink, specifically being critical of Whatsherface Thunberg–really more critical of the people around her and lending credence to her more than her personally. He’s probably best known for the Hyperion series, which I’m also planning to read.
Anyway, SoK is a good story with a very depressing turn despite a generally hopeful ending. He sets up a great atmosphere and plays to the fear and, frankly, loathing of the foreign while providing some really interesting counterarguments. Come for the Bengali death-cult, stay for the observations on the relative influences of culture versus development in society. Without doing any big reveals or pulling any stunts, he makes the story feel like a twist without any overt “gotcha” moments. CC is similar, although the theme so far is very different. Think psychic vampires with an utter disregard for the lives of those around them who use people and discard them at will. If it’s anything like Song I expect him to play with several ideas, but right off the bat there’s a lot of horror to be mined from the callous way in which the initial…I hesitate to even use the term “protagonist”…leaves a trail of innocent victims behind her defending herself from another psychic.
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson, part of his “Malazan Book of the Fallen” series. I struggled with the first book, which sort of drops you in media res in a web of plots and characters with little to no introduction. I actually left the book disliking it, but for some reason plowed through #2. By the middle of that book, the first started to make more sense and I was more comfortable with the author’s style, so much so that by the end I immediately started #3. This takes place during the same period as #2 in another part of the world, and actually follows roughly the same timeline, such that characters who leave in #2 show up at roughly the same point in #3. It’s also allegedly the book where the series “clicks”, which was true for me. The full scope of the story becomes apparent, and I think it justifies the abrupt way in which the reader is just sort of expected to hop in, start reading, and not worry about things making sense until they do. Now I get why this series is so highly regarded.
I enjoyed the Hyperion books by Simmons. I think those are the only Simmons books that I’ve read.
Song of Kali is a great example of the atmosphere of a book inspiring dread. It’s almost a claustrophobic experience. Just a fantastic novel.
After realizing The Terror was an anthology series, I wondered if they would try another Simmons book. SoK would be very interesting to adapt, but there’s just no way to do it in today’s political climate.
Although, I have no hope at all for the coming TV adaption of Hyperion.
“Although, I have no hope at all for the coming TV adaption of Hyperion.”
After trying to watch the TV version of Under The Dome, I’m not sure if I can ever even try to watch a novel based TV show again. I hear the Dark Tower was even worse.
I don’t understand adaptations. “We love this novel, let’s make a TV show that only vaguely resembles it!”
Preacher and–to a lesser extent, The Boys both took beloved comic properties that can literally serve as the storyboards for a filmic adpatation and changed shit around, in every case for the worse. And seemingly for no reason. Cost and special effect and even content to a large extent are no longer considerations. Make the fucking book or don’t bother.
I don’t read graphic novels/comic books, so I would never have been exposed to Preacher otherwise. I loved it, though I have not kept up.
You are probably better off. The TV show is more like a remix of the comic than an adaption. The same characters with a wildly different backstory and plot. I gave up after the 2nd season.
I thought they did a good job of bringing it back together, although I have only read some of the comics.
Yeah, I can’t imagine anyone greenlighting Song of Kali, which is a damn shame because I think he makes some very strong arguments on both sides of the whole cultural chauvinism topic through his characters.
The book itself is nothing like how it was portrayed in Hollywood
Ever since reading it, I’ve thought it would be great if someone made a true-to-the-book film of it, with a good actor and good director. It has the potential to be a really engaging, thought provoking, award-winning type of film, but everyone who has approached it so far has decided to do their own, inferior take on it.
I finished “Mao’s Great Famine”, “Tom Swift and His Subocean Geotron”, “Crown Jewels: The Mauser in Sweden: A Century of Precision & Accuracy”, and “Tom Swift and the Mystery Comet”.
I’m now reading “First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History With The Gun”.
Washington wasn’t a military genius either.
Tactically, you’re almost certainly right. And Lee was, from everything I understand, a pretty brilliant tactician. But, tactics aren’t strategy. And in a key way, it was strategy that allowed Washington to win where Lee failed. Washington understood Clausewitz’s dictum (well, okay, it wasn’t Clausewitz’s at the time since On War had not yet been published) that war is politics by other means. Trying to defeat a much larger and better supplied opponent is a losing strategy. You’re much more likely to win by defeating such an enemy’s will to continue fighting by denying him victory.
If Lee had not committed to the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederacy could well have won the war by Lincoln losing the election of 1864.
Confederacy could well have won the war by Lincoln losing the election of 1864
unless Obama won that election in which case we’d still be fighting it a century later with almost universal agreement that it should stop: “this is the fifth generation to be fighting in Kentucky!”
Grant and Sherman won the election of 1864.
I actually read things this month – two sides of the same coin, but I was on a counterinsurgency kick –
The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan
and the counterpart a few years later from the other side:
The Other Side Of The Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics In The Soviet-Afghan War
interesting to see both sides claim “many enemy casualties were inflicted” in each of their respective vignettes, but on the ones where the same encounter is detailed from both sides, usually neither cops to losing very much.
also currently reading a less tactical and more analytical (but also inherently myopic and flawed, given it was written for the most part by the losers themselves)
The Soviet-Afghan War : how a superpower fought and lost / the Russian General Staff ; translated and edited by Lester W. Grau and Michael A. Gress
what’s interesting about this is seeing how the Russians thought were the biggest reasons they lost (along with the editor’s snarky inserts and chapter summaries detailing the areas where the Russian General Staff were just way off the mark)
Working on Robert Caro’s four-volume bio of Lyndon Johnson. Taking it slowly through the second book, Means of Ascent, because it raises my blood pressure if I read too much at one sitting. Got interested in Caro when I found he said that power does not corrupt; it reveals.
I wouldn’t want to tread on Animal’s grass, but Coke Stevenson, the man Lyndon shikkered out of the 1948 Texas senatorial election, would make a wonderful shitlordian essay.
Currently reading F. Paul Wilson’s LaNague Chronicles before taking a run at On Power, by Bertrand de Jouvenel.
This month I listened to The BFG by Roald Dahl. And I am currently relistening to Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost.
Free man talking.
How crazy is it that Kanye West is perhaps the most successful evangelist and his wife, who came to fame for a leaked porn tape, is literally saving peoples’ lives with her push for criminal justice reform.
Ten years ago, I never would have thought that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian would be the best role models in the country.
Stay classy.
On Friday during Rep. Elijah Cummings’ (D-MD) funeral, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton used a Biblical analogy to take a veiled shot at President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
Clinton was comparing Cummings to his namesake, the Biblical prophet Elijah, who stood up against wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.
Clinton said, “Like the prophet, our Elijah could call down fire from heaven — but he also prayed and worked for healing.”
She added, “Like that Old Testament prophet, he stood against corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.”
The crowd roared in acknowledgment.
I wonder how Jezebel is taking this news?
“she said our name YAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! SHE LOVES USSSS”
I used to think putting HIllbot in an orange jumpsuit wasn’t worth it. Now I’m not so sure.
Just finished “The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962―1976” by Frank Dikotter because it seemed applicable to some of the things we see today in our country. Interesting book, but a bit of a slog sometimes because all those Chinese names look the same to me.
Just started “The Big Sky” by AB Guthrie. Recommended by my brother who shares similar tastes as me. So much so that we sometimes read the same book simultaneously unbeknownst to each other.