Bilingual Tuesday

Surreal Sunday

In The Background

    Yep.  That's me.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Is there any reason why the boar attacked Crackling Rosie?”

    “Hard to say.  It could have been territorial; sometimes a pig won’t accept other porcines in its boardom.”

    “What?” I said, puzzled.

    “A king has a kingdom.  Therefore, a boar has a boardom,” Mr. Catt explained, smirking.  “I thought everyone knew that.”

    (from Inspector Hobbes and the Bones by Wilkie Martin)

 

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Potty Training Puppies

    We might have to try this on our newly-arrived, 6-month-old and not-yet-housebroken puppy.

Pac-Man vs. Now

    And the controller had just two button ("A" and "B") and a plus-sign-shaped joystick.

Philosophy Tuesday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Stef and the ColU both kept a careful watch on the temperature outside; it was dropping, of course, but not dramatically quickly.  Under thicker cloud it could even rise above freezing.  “Thus proving the theory,” said Stef, “that a thick atmosphere on a world like this is enough of a thermal blanket to transport sufficient heat around to the dark side to keep everything from freezing up.”

    “That and the fact that all the air didn’t freeze up in great bergs of solid oxygen and nitrogen on the far side a billion years ago,” Liu said dryly.  “That and the fact that we are still breathing.”

    “But it’s always good to have observational confirmation.”

    (from Proxima by Stephen Baxter)

 

    7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Sunday Sermon

Quote for the Day

Cooties

    Our weekly Calvin & Hobbes cartoon.

Bilingual Thursday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Broak tilted his head toward me.  “Can you talk some sense into your friend?  The world is at stake, you know.”

    “You tried to kill me, you piece of shit.”  I rammed my hand around his neck, wedged my finger and thumb under his jawbone.  He did not resist.  “I’d be dead if it wasn’t for Pivot.”

    “Can we put that aside for now, dear Socket?  There are greater issues before us than a street fight.”

    (from The Discovery of Socket Greeny by Tony Bertauski)

 

    7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Tuesday Awww Moment

Vocabulary-Building Sunday

Quote for the Day

Verbing

Francophone Thursday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The janitor was fatter on one side than the other.  His name was Shaibel.  Mr. Shaibel.  One day she was sent to the basement to clean the blackboard erasers by clomping them together, and she found him sitting on a metal stool near the furnace scowling over a green-and-white checkerboard in front of him.  But where the checkers should be there were little plastic things in funny shapes.  Some were larger than others.  There were more of the small ones than any of the others.  The janitor looked up at her.  She left in silence.

    (from The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis)

 

    8*/10.  The full review is here.

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Science Wednesday

Editing Tip for the Day

Sunday Pun Day

A Message from God

    Ordinarily, we'd wait until tomorrow and call it "Sunday Sermon", but God said it was important and couldn't wait.

Old photos

    The data for the photo indicates it was taken in Pratt, Kansas in 1911.  That's way before my time, but I do vaguely remember seeing telephone poles with gobs of lines like this as a kid when riding in the family car.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “They [the Chinese taxi drivers] have to earn seventy yuan a day.  After they make that amount on the meter they get a percentage of the rest.  But they only have to work eight hours.  In Hong Kong we all work twelve hours.  It’s a very hard life.  Food is expensive, rent is expensive, everything costs too much.”

    “Maybe the Chinese government will straighten things out when they take over Hong Kong.”

    “No.  They will ruin it.  No democracy.”

    “There’s no democracy there now.  It’s a British colony.  The governor-general is appointed.”

    (from Riding The Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux)

 

    5½*/10.  The full review is here.

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Quote for the Day

Sopwith Camel

   Besides having one of the kewlest band names ever, Sopwith Camel was one of the best bands you've never heard of.

Art Appreciation Monday

Sunday Sermon