Flags on Your Truck

Gluten-Free

I hear you, Pig. My company once ran a "drug-free workplace" campaign. Turns out they weren't giving out any drugs, free or otherwise.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “What happened?” he asked.

    “You were in a fugue state,” Josephine said.

    “What did I do?” Gary asked.

    “Nothing,” Josephine said.

    “You made it really cold in here,” Alice interjected.

    “That is exactly why it was necessary to sever the link between you and Gary,” Morgan said to Josephine.  “There’s no predicting what can happen when you have a splintered subconscious.”

    “You certainly know how to toss around buzz words and psychobabble,” Alice said.

 

    (from Grumpy Old Wizards by John O’Riley)

 

    4*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Philosophy Tuesday

Monday Science Lesson

English is a Goofy Language

Changing of the Seasons

    99°F for a high temperature two days ago.  62°F for a high two days from now.  Hello, Autumn.  Goodbye, Autumn.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Gentlemen, I am going to tell you about the OSS … the most fantastic damned organization in all our armed forces.  Its people do incredible things.  They seduce German spies, they parachute into Sicily one day and two days later they’re dancing on the St. Regis roof.  They dynamite aqueducts, urinate in Luftwaffe gas tanks, and play games with IG Farben and Krupp, but” – throwing up his hands – “90 per cent of this has not a g**d***ed thing to do with the war.”

    (from The Secret War by Max Hastings)

 

    9*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Art Appreciation Thursday

Tenses

Monday Pun Day

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “So you dance now, Gully?”

    “I dance, speak four languages miserably, study science and philosophy, write pitiful poetry, blow myself up with idiotic experiments, fence like a fool, box like a buffoon...In short, I’m the notorious Fourmyle of Ceres.”

    “No longer Gully Foyle.”

    “Only to you, dear, and whoever you’ve told.”.

    (from The Stars My Destintion by Alfred Bester)

 

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Pick-Up Lines

Art Appreciation Thursday

Billionaire Limit

    I'd vote for this.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    I stopped for a drink.  The café overlooking the pyramid (or pyramids) had opened its terrace, and I treated myself to a highly alcoholic cocktail.  The tourists at the other tables had their noses in their guidebooks.  There is a class of tourists who never seem to see the things they’re visiting, I thought.  They prefer to look at directions to the next place they’re not going to look at.  A hot-air balloon piloted by naked can-can dancers could have flown past and no one would have seen it except me.

    (from A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke)

 

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Medical Monday

Take Out

Catnip

    For the record, I have no idea what this comic strip's about.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Friday Poetry

Trilingual Thursday

Wednesday Punnery

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The Forum had that look it always gets when everyone knows there is bad news in the air.  Instead of the usual drifting, shifting mass, people gathered in tight little knots, each one feeding the other’s ignorance with rumors and omens.  I overheard talk of military disaster, civil war, invasion by foreign enemies, plague, famine, earthquake and wondrous visitations by the Olympian deities, all before we reached the steps of the Curia.

    (from The Sacrilege by John Maddox Roberts)

 

    8*/10.  The full review is here.

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Geezer Monday

Writing Sentences

    I'm proud to say I made it through Grades 1-12 without ever being paddled.  But sentences?!  Lord, did I have to write sentences.

Weekend Maths

Risk Assessment

 

   Support an Indie Author Friday!

Bilingual Thursday

   Because I just started reading a book titled "A Year in the Merde".

Wednesday's Healthy Eating Tip

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “You clumsy idiot,” said the Prince of the Nibelungs, “you’ve broken my leg.”

    It occurred to Malcolm that this served Alberich right, and he said so.  In fact, he suggested, Alberich was extremely lucky to get off so lightly, since presumably he had broken in with the intention of committing murder.

    “Don’t be stupid,” said Alberich.  “I only wanted the ring.”

    He made it sound as if he had just dropped by to borrow a bowl of sugar.  “Now, about my broken leg…”

    “Never mind your broken leg.”

    “I mind it a lot.  Get a doctor.”

    (from Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt)

 

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Social Distancing

     I completely support this.

Word o' the Day

Punnery Funnery

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Some fools will claim these creatures washed up from the depths of the arctic sea.”

    “I know,” Naomi answered.  “No one will believe it at first.  But if enough people see it, a few reputable scientists might come forward to challenge what they think is a fake.  You’ve just got to do whatever you can to get it in front of the media.  And keep yourselves alive.”

    Mikhailov snorted.  “The first should not be difficult.  I am not so certain about the second.”

    (from Season of the Harvest by Michael R. Hicks)

 

    7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Art Appreciation Tuesday

Square-Earthers

    I'm joining this group.  Take that, flat-earthers!

Psychic Economics

Kitchen Entertainment

I've done this! Years ago, back in college. Watched muffins rise in a pan. It was awesome! … Drugs may or may not have been involved.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    A McDonald’s popped up in front of me, and the car automatically turned into the drive-through lane.  I ordered a vanilla milkshake and asked the kid in the window if they were hiring.

    “Sure,” he said, “we’re always hiring.  You want an application?”

    “Do you get held up a lot here?”

    “Not a lot,” he said, passing the application through with the straw.  “We get a few crazies, but usually you can buy them off with extra pickles.”

    (from Hot Six by Janet Evanovich)

 

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Learning German

    Learning a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) language can be fun.