Book Excerpt for the Day

    Pulling men had never been her forte.  She'd always believed that an outright demonstration of her virtues would serve to establish her firmly in someone's affections.  Womanly virtues had  a longevity to them that sexual allure could never match.  And when lust and passion died the death of familiarity, one needed something of substance to take their place.  Or so she had taught herself to believe through an adolescence and a young adulthood remarkable for their solitude.

(from In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, by Elizabeth George)

    7*/10.  The full review is here.
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The Abecedarian Insult

    "Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic, coprolalial, dasypygal, excerebrose, facinorous, gnathonic, hircine, ithyphallic, jumentous, kyphotic, labrose, mephitic, napiform, oligophrenial, papuliferous, quisquilian, rebarbative, saponaceous, thersitical, unguinous, ventripotent, wlatsome, xylocephalous, yirning zoophyte."

    A positively pedantic delight.  FWIW, spell-checker only liked the H, I, M, R, S, and Z words.  Googling found all the rest.

Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic

Artist  :  Aerosmith

Album  :  Toys In The Attic

Year  :  1975

Rating : 8*/10

- Tracks -

01. Toys In The Attic

02. Uncle Salty

03. Adam's Apple

04. Walk This Way

05. Big Ten Inch Record

06. Sweet Emotion

07. No More No More

08. Round And Round

09. You See Me Crying

    I've never gotten into Aerosmith.  Can't really say why; they play good old Rock & Roll.  Liz has a couple CD's by them - Big Ones (good stuff); Honkin' On Bobo (not so good).

    A co-worker gave me this LP a couple weeks ago, along with about 10 others.  It was in wretched shape, as was true of all his LP's.  If God is an audiophile, this guy will surely spend Eternity in Hell.  So despite not having a big interest in the band, I digitalized the album, just to see how my De-Scratcher program would do.

    The program performed quite well.  About 95% of the scratches were removed, with only the last track, which is more ballady, still sounding like a wirebrush had been applied to it.  As background music, it sounded good.  On the good speakers on the PC, it was only so-so.  Unfortunately, what the de-scratch program couldn't touch were a bunch of forward skips.  Which became quite irritating once I knew where they'd crop up.

    Surprisingly, I found Toys In The Attic to be a very solid album.  Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion were the big radio-play hits, of course.  But really, there are no weak tracks on either side.  Favorite tracks are in pink above.  You could add the two hits as well, but I've heard them too often on the radio.

    Liz says Aerosmith albums are hit-or-miss; this one must be a hit.  We'll give it 8 Stars, and probably go looking for a better copy of it at the local used-record store.  Amazon sells with - sans any bonus tracks - for $8.99, which is kind of a ripoff.

Beach Reads

    Well I'm pretty sure this is Photoshopped, but jeez, wouldn't it be sweet to have something like this at your nearest beach?

Science Friday

    It's been a long week, but the weekend is at last upom us.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "Do you realize," Elizabeth said, mumbling a little, feeling that the words came from a long distance, "that I myself have hardly ever been out of Harwich?"

    "I know," Katarina said.  "The old folks do say the railway changed the world as surely as the constructs did.  Not so destructively, though; as I said, it can't hurt you unless you stand in front of it."

    "Because it can't think for itself," Elizabeth said.

    Katarina gave her a surprised look.  "The constructs can't either.  I thought you realized.  It takes three men each to make them go."

(from Timepiece, by Heather Albano)

  8*/10.  The full review is here.
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Wednesday Math Lesson

    How can you argue with that enthusiasm?

RIP - Sally Ride

    One of the few true heroes of modern history, Sally Ride, died Monday from pancreatic cancer.  She was 61.  First American woman in space; also the youngest astronaut ever.  And possibly the first gay astronaut.

    RIP, Sally Ride.  You inspired a whole generation of little girls to reach for the stars.  And a lot of other people, this blogger included.

TV shows I'd like to see

Leo Kottke - Guitar Music

    Album : Guitar Music

    Artist : Leo Kottke

    Year : 1981

- Tracks -

01.) Part Two

02.) Available Space

03.) Side One Suite

04.) Perforated Sleep

05.) Strange

06.) Little Shoes

07.) Jib's Hat

08.) Tumbling Tumbleweeds

09.) Agile N.

10.) A Song for "The Night of the Hunter"

11.) All I Have To Dream

12.) Sleep Walk

    An all-instrumental LP from a guitar maestro who for some reason never really got his due.  Nothing fancy; just Leo and his guitars - sometimes the 6-string; sometimes the 12-string.  No drums; no keyboards; no bass.  It very much reminds me of a Chet Atkins album - just one guy making an acoustic guitar sound as good as it can get.

   I picked up the album for $2 at the local used-record store, and digitalized it last week.  There were no skips to contend with, and no major scratches.  But there were a zillion scrapes and small hisses - I suspect the grooves were filthy, and just wiping it with a cloth wasn't effective.  No matter, the DAK de-popper program cleaned it right up.  My favorite tracks are in pink., which is pretty much the whole Side 2.

Song for Scientist and Fundy

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "It's you I want.  Need.  You know.  Love."

    We Brits have it much harder than the French.  They've got their word 'aimer', which means to love, sure, but it also means to like.  So you can get away with telling someone you love them without nearly so much risk and commitment.

    I'd had it done to me.  A womans says, 'je t'aime' and then quickly adds 'bien' on the end, and suddenly it's just, 'je t'aime bien' - 'I like you a lot.'

    I guess we could achieve the same deflating effect in English by saying 'I love you' and then tacking on 'in that wig.'  But generally, when we use The Word, even as ham-fistedly as I'd just done, it actually means something.

    (from Merde Actually, by Stephen Clarke)

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Happy (Belated) Yellow Pig Day!

    Je m'excuse.  I completely forgot yesterday was Yellow Pig Day.

Yellow Pigs, all in my brain

Lately things just don't seem the same

I'm provin' theorems, and I don't know why...

Excuse me, while I kiss e^(\pi i).

Yellow Pigs, all around

Some in the sky, some on the ground

All of them singing out "Seventeen"

It's the weirdest thing that I've ever seen.

Yellow Pigs, all in my eyes

This vision, Yellow, I can't deny

I'm turnin' yellow, and grownin' wings

I fly away and shout, "Seventeen".

Just Wrong - Hendrix and Monkees

    45 years ago, this month - the Jimi Hendrix Experience opening for The Monkees.  Who came up with that pairing?  Who should be opening for whom?  And while we're at it, WTF is that apostrophe doing in "Monkee's"??

    FWIW, the worst concert pairing I ever experienced came in the early 70's when folksinger Danny O'Keefe opened at the Celebrity Theater for Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band.  Yeah.  For the first 45 minutes, it was just Danny, an acoustic guitar, and 5,000 stoned/drunk Springsteen fans foaming at the mouth and ready to PAR-TAY!!  We were not very nice to Mr. O'Keefe, who was only doing what he was being paid to do.  I can't say I'm proud of the way the crowd acted, but jeez, did anyone stop to think about  the difference in the two genres?

RIP - Jon Lord

    Jon Lord, keyboardist extraordinaire, composer, and one of the founders of Deep Purple, passed away today.  He was 71, and had been battling pancreatic cancer.

    Before they were an outstanding rock band ("Smoke on the Water"), DP put out a couple amazing prog LP's ("Deep Purple" and "Book of Taliesyn") that are still among my favorite albums from the 60's.  Both LP's featured tight composing, masterful keyboards, strong vocals, and bitchin' guitar work.  There simply aren't any weak tracks on either one.

    RIP, Jon.  You made Deep Purple something special, and you were part of it from the 60's thru 2002, when you finally retired.  It sux that you are gone.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The sea, inconceivably vast, constrained for landlubbers by a curved horizon, had opened itself and fallen on Mape.  Struggling towards the mill, delirious with exhaustion and worry, it seemed to Ralf that sea and Church were of the same.  Under a deceptive surface, both concealed teeming complexities, unknown terrors, inky and sinister depths.  Both were capable of wreck as well as creation: for both were manifestations of the Almighty, and unless he destroyed he could not also create. 

(from The Tide Mill by Richard Herley)

  8½*/10.  The full review is here.
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Demotivational Friday

    ...or that Milli Vanilli weren't really singing.  Or that WWF wrestling is fake.  Or that your vote really counts on American Idol.

mobi. files

    Hah!  I was wondering how my Kindle reader did its thing.  Via something called a mobi. file.  I'm sure Amazon keeps the books I download from them copy-protected, but it's nice to know if I write something, I can convert it to a mobi format, and e-mail it to others who then can read it on their Kindles.

Crossword Puzzles

    Listen, it's not even debatable.  Crossword Puzzles are infinitely more entertaining, more challenging, and more interesting than any Sudoku grid.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Those eyes.  I had to look, as though something was pulling me there.  It was like seeing death.  My own death, and the deaths of all the people I know and love.  Things weren't so funny anymore.  Not only did I have to witness the deaths, but I could feel them, too.  The uncertainty.  The pain.  The complete and utter terror.  I wasn't in that room anymore.  And then came things I've always feared as a kid.  Images of stuffed animals that came to life, with sharp teeth as mouths, razor blades for claws.  The usual stuff all kids are afraid of.  Werewolves.  Demonic clowns.  Giant spiders.  I viewed them all through the eyes of a child, and they absolutely terrified me.

(from I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore)

6*/10.  The full review is here.
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An Ode to Jerome

    Said Jerome K. Jerome to Ford Madox Ford,

    "There's something, old boy, that I've always abhorred:

    When people address me and call me 'Jerome',

    Are they being standoffish, or too much at home?

   (William Cole, via Michael Quinlan)

Surreal Sunday

   Just cuz we haven't done a Dali-themed post in a while.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "A friend asked us to come here, to do this," Tilda said.

    "Well, not a bloody good friend, I can tell you that.  A true friend would not send you nor drag you into such an awful sad mess as this."

    Tilda sighed through her nose.  "We will pay you, Fitz.  We will pay you well."

    "I don't want it!  There is not enough coin to get me under that cursed yellow rock again!"

    "How about a thousand gold pieces worth of Miilarkian banknotes?"

    Fitz blinked, and his jaw fell open within his sandy beard.

    "That, Miss Matilda, should have been the first thing you said."

(from Devil Town, by M. Edward McNally)

8½*/10.  The full review is here.
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Friday Night Appreciation

the power of prayer

Happy Fourth of July !!

    It's raining today here in Phoenix, with a predicted high of only 93°F.  Bad for barbecuing and hanging out at the pool.  Great for everything else.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "What is it like," he asked in the spring darkness.  "As a peasant, how do you live?"
    "We get up at dawn," Jan began.
    "As I do," the king said.
    "And we work all day, and at sunset we go to bed."
    "What do you eat?"
    "Cabbage, beets, we grind our own flour."
    "I mean, what meats?"
    "We never eat meat.  Well, at Easter, maybe one chicken."
    "And what do you work at, Jan?"
    "Whatever the master tells us.  Then six weeks each year for the duke.  And three weeks for you."
    "What do you work at?"
    "We till the fields.  We sow the grain.  We harvest.  And then we go to bed."
    ...
    "Jan, tell me again, what do you do when you fall sick?"
    "We die."

(from Poland, by James A. Michener)

8*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Promoting Capitalism

    Today's Zits comic.  My son was a Pizza Delivery guy a decade or so ago.  It was a dream job - he got to drive around for eight hours at a time, and got paid for doing it.  Plus tips.

    Once upon a time, he was a revolutionary.  I can prove it - that's what he listed as his profession when he got his passport.  Now, like the rest of us, he's a capitalist.  I think the pizza delivery job contributed to the transition, and I think this Zits strip captures the concept perfectly.

Dirty Dancing vs. Green Day

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Alice found prostitution to be an easy profession.  "Physical beauty is the sole preserve of woemen," Madame Lola was fond of saying.  "A man's beauty is in his money; the more of it he has, the better looking he is."

    It was a point of view that Alice took to heart, devoting herself to her 'relaxation' duties even when the utterly repulsive Count Honas Obese (who looked more like an asymmetrical merging of six fat frogs than anything conceivably born of woman) took a fancy to her.

(from Alice's Adventures in Steamland: The Clockwork Goddess by Wol-vriey)

6*/10.  The full review is here.
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Kindle Freebie

    Freebie Alert!  For today and tomorrow (Friday/Saturday) ONLY, Kindle users can download Book #1 of M. Edward McNally's "Norothian Cycle" series, The Sable City for FREE at both Amazon and Amazon-UK.

    Ed McNally is making this offer in celebration of the e-publication of Book #4 in the series, Devil Town, which I'm about 1/4 of the way through.

    This is epic fantasy, akin to AD&D and LOTR, but definitely in a world of its own.  I highly recommend it.  You can read my review of The Sable City here, and if you scroll upward from there, you will find the reviews for Books 2 and 3.

    The Sable City normally sells for $2.99, with the subsequent books in the series $4.99 each.  Which means if you like the first book, reading the rest of the series won't drain your piggy bank.  But take advantage of Ed's generosity and get acquaintred with Tilda, Phin, Zeb, Allison, amd the rest of the gang.

Healthcare Reform Passes

    Surprise, surprise.  Chief Justice John Roberts actually acted like a Supreme Court judge instead of a paid political stooge and admitted that Obama's Healthcare Reform was indeed a legal act.  Imagine that.

    Of course, his defense of the ruling was tepid at best, implying that anybody who didn't like it could vote Obama out next November.  But we'll take it, John.  See ya on Election night.

    My dittohead co-workers had their panties in a ruffle all day, and it will only be worse tomorrow, after they've had a chance to chew on their defeat.  And of course, 10 million FaceBook members all have an opinion to share...

Mugly !!

    Meet Mugly, the winner of the 2012 "World's Ugliest Dog" competition held recently in Petaluma, California.  I don't want to second-guess the judges' decision but, c'mon now, Mugly is adorable!

    Mugly wins "a trophy and a $1,000 prize, will participate in a photo shoot with Nuena Photography, will receive a VIP stay at the Sheraton Petaluma and will chow down on a year's supply of dog cookies".

    I suspect the photoshoot is already done, and that the above image is from it.  And the Union Jack decor is apropos, since Mugly is British.  So CONGRATULATIONS MUGLY!!  The judges are wrong, but you deserve your rewards anyway.

Stand Your Ground - Bullsh*t

   There was new police evidence released today that greatly supports the contention that George Zimmerman deliberately instigated the confrontation with Trayvon Martin, even though he had several opportunities to avoid it.  You can read MSNBC's article on it here.

    It's a lethal combination when you're both a bigot and a gun-nut.  You're itching to finally shoot your pistol at somebody, and you go around just looking for an excuse to do so.  And when you think your a$$ is completely covered by the NRA-inspired "Stand Your Ground" law, any black male is fair game, as long as there are no witnesses.  The hoodie is proof that he either has just committed a crime or is about to.  Just ask Geraldo.

Mostly Dead

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Among the more outlandish recruits was a man of indeterminate age, hairless but for a small waxed topknot, his nose cosmetically removed - the practice of his western tribe - and the two nares forming the centres of whorls of tattooing in green and blue, which descended to his throat and spread out in fans across his chest.  Another, dressed wholly in black, was a deaf-mute who conversed in a fluent and eloquent sign-language, refused to eat any food of vegetable origin, and insisted on sleeping in the open, even if snow were falling.

(from The Flint Lord by Richard Herley)

8*/10.  The full review is here.

Guilty

    Justice was served on Friday, when Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of the 48 charges, and shipped off to jail.  Which is poetic justice since inmates are notoriously brutal to child molesters.

    So one predator has been removed from society, pending appeals and sentencing.  Penn State will recover with time from this tragedy, probably rapidly.  There is no reason why this can't happen anywhere else; nothing is unique about the Penn State atmosphere.

    Which raises the question - what will be done to minimize this from happening again?  Sadly, I'm afraid the answer is 'nothing'.

    Sex molesters know the best ways to ply their trade.  The common thread is to be an Authority Figure to the kids.  Priests molest altar boys; fathers molest foster children; and administrators molest "troubled kids" at Boys' Homes like Sandusky's preying ground.

    It is time to start heavily monitoring such situations that attract predators.  The administrations certainly won't do it themselves.  Pope Benny thinks activist nuns are more of a threat than predatory priests.  CPS has neither the will nor the resources to scrupulously check for abusers.  And top dogs like Sandusky certainly won't police themselves.

    But we have to do more than monitor.  At-risk kids need to be repeatedly educated about what is unacceptable behavior by adults.  If the predator-harboring institutions don't go along with it, then take away their tax-exempt status, their charter to operate, or their credentials to assign vulnerable kids to dangerous guardians.

    You should get two strikes before sanctions take place.  The first embarrassing incident should motivate you to vigorously monitor your own operation.  The second means you didn't try hard enough, you're incompetent, or your predators are running the show.  You need help.  Strike three means you're out.

Good Point

Happy 64th Birthday, LP Records

    According to Wikipedia's entry for June 21, LP records were introduced by Columbia Records on this date in 1948 via a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

    According to Wikipedia's entry for LP records, it happened on June 18, 1948, at a press conference at the same hotel.

    I won't quibble.  LP's have been a major influence on my life since I bought my first one ca. 1960.  The fact that it was an Engelbert Humperdinck album is something that I'm trying to downplay.  My tastes improved with time.

    So HAPPY BIRTHDAY LP RECORDS!  You're making a comeback, and I still am having fun buying old records for next to nothing and digitaliziing them.

Happy Summer Solstice!

   Hello, Summer!  It hit 112°F today here.  Tomorrow, it will be one degree hotter.  Somehow, this picture suggests itself.