Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Sigrid, back in the days before you decided on a career behind the stick...“

    “Hold it right there, huh?  Being a bartender’s not a career, and I didn’t decide on it.”

    “You didn’t?”

    “Of course not.  Nobody does, not in New York.  You decide on a career in the arts, and you wait tables to make ends meet, and it begins to dawn on you that bartenders make more money and don’t have to work as hard, plus they never get yelled at for dropping a whole tray of pasta dishes full of people from Ridgeway, New Jersey-“

    “Did that happen to you?”

    “No, but it could have.”

    (from The Burglar On The Prowl,  by Lawrence Block)

    8*/10.  The full review is here.

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Happy New Year's Eve Eve

Sunday Sermon

RIP Gahan Wilson

    The real reason Playboy magazine used to be so popular.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Would you care for a spot of port, my good fellow?”

    “No,” growled Toreg.  “You try our shmiriz.  Not to insult us.”

    “Oh, very well,” agreed the Hoka.  He emptied the pot into his flagon.

    “Shmiriz got power,” Toreg bragged.  “Turns your ears purple.”

    A gasp of awe rose from the crowd when Bertram drained his huge cup in a single swallow.

    “Nonsense,” he said.  “Do my ears look purple?”

    Toreg squinted blearily.  “Too much fur on them to tell,” he complained.

    (from Hokas Pokas! by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson)

    5*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Textless Monday

Sunday Sermon - Buddhist Edition

Is It or Isn't It?

    Yeah, I do this a lot with the garage door opener/closer.

Republican Hypocrisy

    Makes sense to me.

Art Appreciation Thursday

Music Wednesday

   You sang along while reading this cartoon, didn't you? 

Book Excerpt for the Day

    As murder weapons go, the lowly tire iron has the virtue of being genderless and easily obtainable.  Lots of people have tire irons.  They’re probably not as common as a set of kitchen knives, but they’re cheap, readily available, have no moving parts, and no one would think to question your possessing one.  You don’t need a license to buy one and you don’t have to worry about a three-day waiting period while your local hardware salesman runs a background check.

    (from Q Is For Quarry, by Sue Grafton)

     8½*/10.  The full review is here.

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Christmas Lists

    It's that time of year again.  When Santa wants you to have your Christmas list finished.

Sunday Sermon

Word for the Day

    Widow’s Walk (n.; phrase) : a railed or balustraded platform built on a roof, originally in early New England houses, typically for providing an unimpeded view of the sea.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Three strands for the French hens, under the sky,

    Seven for the swimming swans, my true love gave to me.

    Nine for the gracious ladies dancing by,

    A partridge for the Red Lord, in a pear tree.

    Tinsel ensnares them all, tinsel entwines them,

    Tinsel confounds them all and in the ice-floes binds them,

    In the land of Kringol, where the reindeer fly.

    (from The Management Style of the Supreme Beings by Tom Holt)

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Severance Package

Christmas Lights

    Done.  Used little plastic clips this year instead of staples.  We'll see if they hold up until the 1st of the year.

Vintage Music Photos

Book Excerpt for the Day

    David Rosenhan, a professor emeritus at Stanford, (…) in 1973 got himself and seven other completely healthy friends admitted to the mental wards of hospitals across the United States.  The point of his experiment was to question the validity of psychiatric diagnosis – but they hadn’t expected it to be so easy.  Rosenhan and his colleagues each phoned a hospital complaining of hearing voices.  The rest of their medical history and any other life stories were all true.  All eight were admitted – seven were diagnosed with schizophrenia, one with manic-depressive psychosis.  As soon as they entered the hospital they said their hallucinations had disappeared.  It was then up to each individual to convince the staff to discharge – a task that took between seven and fifty-two days.

    (from Unthinkable by Helen Thomson)

  9½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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