Surreal Wednesday

English is goofy

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “What’s true?  What’s false?  In case you haven’t noticed, the world has pretty much given up on the old Enlightenment idea of piecing together the truth based on observed data.  Reality is too complicated and scary for that.  Instead, it’s way easier to ignore all data that doesn’t fit your preconceptions and believe all data that does.  I believe what I believe, and you believe what you believe, and we’ll agree to disagree.  It’s liberal tolerance meets dark ages denialism.  It’s very hip right now.”

    (from The Nix by Nathan Hill)

 

    9*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Sunday Sermon - Blessings Edition

Pronunciation

All the time. Tricky words like banal, concomitant, and paean. Names like Cthulhu, Ng, and Gaiman (long "a" or long "i"?). Weird words like mambaskin, lich, or oenophile. Slang such as pwn. British places such as Lancaster and Worcestshire. Foreign words such as etagere, hors d'oeuvres, vichyssoise, or anything Welsh.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    I live in an apartment.  I could never live anywhere but in an apartment.  I love apartments because I lose everything.  Apartments are horizontal, so it’s much easier to find the things I lose – such as glasses, gloves, wallet, lipstick, book, magazine, cell phone, and credit card.  The other day I actually lost a piece of cheese in my apartment.  Also, apartment buildings have doormen, a convenience if you’re having things delivered to you, which I often am, sometimes to replace the things I can’t find.

    (from I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron)

 

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Cloak of Invisibility

    This looks fantastic, so I bought it!!  I hope it arrives soon.

Diets

My kind of diet.

Shelf Space

 
    Why God gave us Kindles.

Higher Mathematics

RIP - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 
    Honor her legacy.  Vote the bigots out on November 3rd.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “These are about one day old.”  Peck points out a cluster of maggots, maybe twenty or thirty, feeding side by side, packed in close.  They’re easy to miss, because all that can be seen of them is their tail ends.  Insects take oxygen through openings in the exoskeleton called spiracles.  In the larvae, there are, specifically, anal spiracles.  On top of its other charms, the maggot breathes through its ass.  It is a handy evolutionary adaptation if, as Peck puts it, “you spend your whole day with your head buried in slimy dead flesh.

    (from Grunt by Mary Roach)

 

    9*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Art Appreciation Wednesday

Typos

    True dis.

Motivational Monday

RIP - Diana Rigg

    Well crap.  Emma Peel died earlier this week.  At the ripe old age of 82.  RIP, Diana Rigg.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Miss Shirl,” he said, “I don’t want you to come in but I think it would be for the best if you just took a look in the bedroom.”

    She was afraid now, knowing something was terribly wrong, but she followed him obediently, through the living room and into the bedroom.

    It was strange, she thought that she was just standing there, doing nothing when she heard the scream, until she realized that it was her own voice, that she was the one who was screaming.

    (from Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison)

 

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Friday Ewww

Facebook Quizzes

    Why I don't do well on any of those Facebook quizzes such as "what kind of dog are you?"

Masks

    Well that's it then.  Ima gonna hafta get me one of these masks.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Hello.”

    “Janice.”  Her mother’s voice, even and harsh.  “I just got back from shopping in Brewer and your father’s been trying to reach me all morning.  He thinks Harry’s gone again.  Is he?”

    Janice closes her eyes and says, “He went to Allentown.”

    “What would he do there?”

    “He’s going to sell a car.”

    “Don’t be silly, Janice.  Are you all right?”

    “What do you mean?”

    “Have you been drinking?”

    “Drinking what?”

    (from Rabbit, Run by John Updike)

 

    5½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Hieronymus Bosch

    We are committed to posting any cartoon that mentions Hieronymus Bosch.

Bookshelf Envy

    I admit it.  I suffer from Bookshelf Envy.

Political Debates

    Something to ponder at 3 AM when you can't sleep, Libertarian edition.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Evil seldom takes shape immediately.  It is often little more than a whisper at first.  A glance.  A betrayal.  But then it grows and takes root, still invisible, unnoticed.  Only fairy tales give evil a proper shape.  The big bad wolves, the evil kings, the demons, and devils…

    (from Pan’s Labyrinth by Cornelia Funke & Guillermo del Toro)

 

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Synonyms

    This is why some people shouldn't be trusted with a thesaurus.

Art Appreciation Tuesday

    Personal Hygiene edition.

Diversity Monday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Hey, if we stay up here you need to give me one of your knives.  I could take care of the next stray hiker.  You got that first guy clean, though, I’ll give you that .  (…)  By the time anyone stumbles over him, there’ll be nothing left but bones and a wallet.”

    Jacobson shrugged.  “The boss didn’t want anyone dead, but hey, there he was, staring at us, and you could see he was going to talk to the first ranger he saw.  What could I do?”

    “That was good of you to leave his wallet so they’d be able to identify him.”

    “”Yeah, I’ve got the milk of human kindness running in my veins.”

    (from Enigma by Catherine Coulter)

 

    9*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Dusting Day

    It was Dusting Day today.  My back is killing me.

Learning a new language

    Ooooo.  I'm gonna take me some classes to learn this language.

Zoology Thursday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    In Part III, we explore the possibility that, under extreme circumstances, space may be stretched until it rips or tears.  In other words, hyperspace may provide a means to tunnel through space and time.  Although we stress that this is still highly speculative, physicists are seriously analyzing the properties of “wormholes”, of tunnels that link distant parts of space and time.  Physicists at the California Institute of Technology, for example, have seriously proposed the possibility of building a time machine, containing a wormhole that connects the past with the future.  Time machines have now left the realm of speculation and fantasy and have become legitimate fields of scientific research.

    (from Hyperspace by Michio Kaku)

 

    9*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Editing

    It's true!!

Worst Ending

    Robin Cook's Chromsome 6.  Worst ending to an otherwise good novel ever.

Gifted Child

 

Touching

 

    Seriously.  I fear this.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “So … are you a cop?  Because this conversation can stop now.”  She’d been read her rights.  She liked having rights.

    The man shook his head.  “If you must identify me by a career, I used to be a physicist working for the army.  Then, I blew up the world.  Then I rebuilt it.  So, I guess my job description is god.”

    “I thought they had a separate ward for psychos.”

    (from Burn Baby Burn by James Maxey)

 

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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New Hat

 Must get one of these!

Art Appreciation Tuesday

     Let's call this "The Beachles".