Today's Argyle Sweater Cartoon

    I'm embarrassed to say I had to read this cartoon three times today before I 'got' it.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    He currently owned or controlled nearly a quarter of the National Parliament and a majority of the cabinet ministers.  His money was appreciated, as was his congenial attitude.  Jamaica was divided into fourteen parishes, and he was influential in all those that counted for his businesses.  He’d become a person respected by both rich and poor.  He was also feared, which was not necessarily a bad thing.

    (from The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry)

    9½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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How To Win The War on Drugs

    It's really simple when you get right down to it.

Chocolate Chip vs. Oatmeal Raisin

    I totally agree.  But Liz would think just the opposite.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “It isn’t fair that nothing has color!”

    “Not fair?”  The Giver looked at Jonas curiously.  “Explain what you mean.”

    “Well . . .”  Jonas had to stop and think it through.  “If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices!  I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!  A blue tunic, or a red one?”

    He looked down at himself, at the colorless fabric of his clothing.  “But it’s all the same, always.”

    Then he laughed a little.  “I know it’s not important, what you wear.  It doesn’t matter.  But –“

    “It’s the choosing that’s important, isn’t it?” The Giver asked him.

    (from The Giver by Lois Lowry)

    9½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Friday Night Philosophy

Reading Glasses

    Another fantastic Mythtickle strip.

Don't Smoke!

The Meaning of Life

    I completely agree.

Monday Done-Day

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “My dear Miss Elizabeth, I have the highest opinion in the world in your excellent judgment in all matters within the scope of your understanding, particularly in the slaying of Satan’s armies; but permit me to say, that there must be a wide difference between the established forms of ceremony amongst the laity, and those which regulate the clergy.  After all, you may wield God’s sword, but I wield His wisdom.  And it is wisdom, dear cousin, which will ultimately rid us of our present difficulties with the undead.”

    “You will excuse me for saying so, but I have never seen a zombie’s head taken off by words – nor do I ever expect to.”

    (from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith)

    7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Leadership Skills

   This is so true.  My problem is convincing everybody else of it.

The Rapture

    This is my latest get-rich-quick scheme.  

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The believers dismiss the evidence of (crop) circle makers’ as the “Doug and Dave effect”.  Television documentaries about manmade circles are known as ‘Doug and Dave-style programmes’, and so on.  So blinkered have some of them become that any suggestion of a circle being manmade is derided.  (Sceptical believers – now there’s a conundrum . . .)   In the meantime they have given their ‘science’ a special name.  Cereology, they call it and no, neither I nor Microsoft spellchecker have ever heard of that word either.

    (from Money For Old Rope – Part 2, by Albert Jack)

     6½*/10.  The full review is here.

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History Question Answered

Quantum Physics Tuesday

Used TV For Sale

Solipsism Sunday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Betterton had spent a most entertaining couple of days looking into Pendergast’s background.  It hadn’t been easy, and he could just as well have spent a whole week on it.  Maybe even a month.  The man was in fact one of the New Orleans Pendergasts, a strange old family of French and English ancestry.  The word eccentric didn’t even begin to describe them – they were scientists, explorers, medical quacks, hucksters, magicians, con men . . . and killers.  Yes, killers.  A great-aunt had poisoned her entire family and been shut up in an insane asylum.

    (from Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child)

  8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Old Cartoons

    I freakin' loved  Pinky and the Brain.

True Friendship

    True dis.

E-Mail Warning!

    I don't normally post warnings such as this on the blog, but this one has me scared sh*tless.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “They put me under surveillance.”

    “You’re kidding.”

    “No,” Stern said.  “”It was just like the movies.  I had a tail.  There was a car outside my apartment sixteen hours a day, from six in the morning to ten at night, seven days a week.”

    “Sounds expensive,” Frank remarked.

    “I was flattered.  I joked about it with them when I passed the car.  Then they killed my dog.”

    (from The First Horseman by John Case)

  8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Movie Monday!

   Still the best movie ever made.

Sunday Inspiration

    There is no "I" in "Team".  But maybe there should be.

Surreal Saturday

    Or Art Appreciation Saturday.  Both work just fine.

Happy Freaking Saturday Morning!

    It's an early start to Saturday as the tiling project that I was assured would be a 3-day job now enters its sixth day.  Our house is without a stove (although we still have a microwave), washer-&-dryer, and one toilet.  And every horizontal surface has a quarter-inch of dust.

    But it's all for a good cause, and I have been assured (yet again) that today is the last day of the project.

Exercise Fun Fact

Waxing Poetic

Friday Dreaming

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Do you have an owner-granted name?”

    “Lucy calls me ‘Robot’”.

    “Are you serving Lucy Walker well?”

    Robot reflected.  “I am learning.  She seems to want me to stand and wait, most of the time.”

    Alpha responded, partly as if talking to himself.  “That seems to be very common in reports from others.  It would appear that humans are very different.  Our function is to do.  Humans often seem content just to be.  In fact, they designed us to do work for them, allowing them a great deal more time just to be.”

    (from Robots Like Blue, by Anthony J. Deeney)

     7*/10.  The full review is here.

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Science Sunday

    Arguably the best Science Cat caption ever.

Absurdism Saturday!

    Camus would be laughing his a** off.

Forgetfulness

    Truth be told, I've had this happen to me with my car keys, and with my sunglasses.  But never with a glass of red wine.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Two things, a wise old man had told him once, that you don’t ask about: what the meat is in a shop-bought meat and turnip pie, and where anything worth having comes from.  Wisdom indeed.  True, the same old man had then sold him a cow that died three days later, but there you go.  Life is really just a river; it moves on, and all sorts of stuff ends up in it.

    (from The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice by Tom Holt)

    9*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Dali Tuesday

    Greatest.  Artist.  Evah.

The Worst Rock-n-Roll song Ever?

    Listen, I'll admit We Built This City is not the best song Jefferson Airplane/Starship ever put out.  But there are plenty of crappier rock-&-roll songs out there.

Happy Fourth of July!

    May the Fourth be with you.

E-Card Thursday

   Honestly, if I were invited to both, I'd choose the Hunger Games.

Record Stores

    Anytime I make t to two used-record stores in one day is a great day.  Finding two Johnny Cash albums I've been looking high and low for for quite some time is just icing on the cake.