Kewl Pic

    Well, this is going on my Christmas list.  Available as a 2'x3' poster at Amazon for $7.19.

Acronym for the Day

    Excellent, Mr. Bond.  Excellent.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Look, Mr. Cummings, there is no cosmic creature from outer space living in the basement.”

    “I don’t know where it came from, but I do know it’s intelligent.”  He aimed the same fingers at the dryers.  “Why do you think those signs are up?”

    “That’s obvious,” she looked at the messy handwriting scrawled out on rumpled paper warning the tenants not to put anti-static sheets in the dryers.  “More than likely it was Grogan on one of his power trips.”  She cracked a smile.  “Besides, why would a monster post signs on the dryers?”

    (from Road Games and Other Weird Tales by Marlin Williams)

     8½*/10.  The full review is here.

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Music Comic Monday

    I'm happy to say I've seen these guys in concert.  They opened for Meat Loaf a long, long, time ago.

Literary Paranoia

    I'm just glad I didn't ask for books about "psychopaths who read" books.

Ant Gender

    Groan.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “They are so punctiliously truthful themselves that the smallest of white lies on our part would rob us of their confidence and friendship.  (…)  There is nothing halfway about them.  They give you either their full confidence or none; and when they withdraw their confidence all friendship is at an end … They are frankly, openly, courageously you enemy until you can convince them that you did not mean to deceive them … If an Igorrote makes a promise to you, no matter how trivial it seems to you, he will fulfill it if it costs him his life.”

    (from The Lost Tribe of Coney Island by Claire Prentice)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

    Despite all its commercialization, it's good to remember the true meaning of today's holiday.

Tupperware Parties

    One of the more surreal experiences in life is having to sit through a Tupperware party while under the influence of a hallucinogen.  And please do not ask me how I know that.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Sham saw the old halls his crewmates said were the guildbuildings of spies & ne’er-do-wells, where rumourmarkets were held.

    “A few coppers’ll get you a questionable assertion from someone drunk & past it.”  So Fremlo said.  “A handful of dollars, something said with a straight face by one whose information has panned out more than once in the past.  More than that, you’re into the realm of the tempting secret.

    “You won’t get it from the source, I mean.  The rumour-mongers sell them on.”  They’d vouch for none of them, of course – that was the point.

    (from Railsea by China Miéville)

    10*/10.  The complete review is here.

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The demographics of Heaven

   The hilarity aside, this comic doe raise an interesting theological question.

Thanksgiving Forecast

    The weather forecast for Phoenix on Thanksgiving is 88°F for a high, and sunny, cloudless skies.  This just ain't right.

Dirty Minds

    It took my brain at least 30 seconds to visualize this picture correctly.

If I Had a Million Dollars...

    (Cue the Barenaked Ladies song) ... I'd buy me an emu!

Money Problems Solved

    And I follow God on Facebook, so I KNOW this is gonna work.

Best Mythtickle Ever

    I agree with Justin, the cartoonist who draws Mythtickle, and would go one step further.  This may be the best Mythtickle joke ever.

    And yes, it's a repeat here.  But, oh, so worth it.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Don’t worry, Sergeant,” Swidhelm said.  “The only thing you really have to be concerned about is the wrong kind of leaves on the tracks.”

    “We’re heading into the forest.  Exactly what happens if there are leaves on the tracks?” Osric asked.

    Swidhelm shook his head.  “Don’t ask.  Come on, you’d both better climb up.  Those guards are instructed to kill you, if you’re still here by dawn.”

    “Who told them that?!” Osric asked.

    “I did, of course,” Swidhelm said.  “The duke ordered me to.”

    (from The Bite on the Line by Simon Cantan)

    5½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Book Alert!

    Attention fellow readers!  Railsea, by China Miéville is available at the moment for only $1.99 at Amazon.  I just finished reading it and it is fantastic!  I have no idea how long it'll stay at $1.99 (it's been there for several days now), so pick it up today!

    And expect a review of it in about 2 weeks at my book blog.

Fermi's Paradox Explained

   I mean, heck.  If you spell 'Fermi' with an "F", and "phonetically" with a "PH", doesn't that prove that the planet's inhabitants aren't sentient?

Floating

Speling Erors

Pumpkin Spice

   This has gotten out of hand now.

Treadmills

    Really, now.  What a doofus!

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Truly I wonder how it would suit Adelais de Clary to know that her son’s grooms speak of her as “the old dame”.  Doubtless to that raw boy she seemed ancient as the hills, but resolutely she cherished and conserved what has once been great beauty, and from that excellence nothing and no one must be allowed to detract.  Not for nothing did she choose for her intimate maid someone plain and pockmarked, surrounding herself with dull and ordinary faces that caused her own luster to glow more brightly.  (I worked with someone who hired people for her department based on these same criteria)

    (from The Confession of Brother Haluin by Ellis Peters)

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Chalk Art Monday

    Well done, graffiti artist!  Well done, indeed!

Baseball Gloves

    Liz cleaned out the storage shed today.  I don't see why I have to get rid of moldy old baseball gloves, just because I haven't used them in 20 years and won't ever use them again.

Nanowrimo

    For all you Nanowrimo participants out there.

New Strawbs Album!

    For the first time in eight long years, the Strawbs are releasing a new studio album with new material on it.  Fan-freaking-tastic!!

    I've been a Strawbs fan since Grave New World.  This is fabulous news.  I will acquire The Ferryman's Curse this weekend and play the sh*t out of it.

A Writer's Blessing

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Arab traders first brought coffee from its native Africa to Europe sometime before 1500.  It took over a century for it to catch on, but by the mid-1600s, coffee houses were well established in England and throughout Europe.  A charming story circulated about an Ethiopian goatherd whose goats are the fruit of a coffee shrub and were so energized that they jumped and frolicked for the rest of the day and didn’t sleep that night.  Although this was probably nothing but a tall tale recited by merchants, it persisted well into the nineteenth century.  The fact that a plant could allow people to go without sleep was considered a major scientific breakthrough.

    (from The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart)

  8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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