This is my latest get-rich-quick scheme.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015
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.
.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Saturday, July 25, 2015
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.
.
Friday, July 24, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
E-Mail Warning!
I don't normally post warnings such as this on the blog, but this one has me scared sh*tless.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
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.
.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
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.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Monday, July 13, 2015
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.
.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Thursday, July 09, 2015
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.
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
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.
.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Monday, July 06, 2015
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.
Saturday, July 04, 2015
Thursday, July 02, 2015
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
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.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
The Ants are my Friends; They're Blowing in the Wind...
Indeed, I've been inflicted with this all my life.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Dogs in Bed
Well, we have three little dogs instead of one big one. But otherwise, the graph is quite valid.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Book Excerpt for the Day
“American?
You are the enemy!” Said with a
smile.
“We have taken your democracy and given it to the polloi.”
“You Americans are like our former gods.
You come down from your mountaintop, make chaos, make fornications, many
problems, then you return to your mountain.”
Her brows were knit tightly here.
“That’s us all right.” I found it endearing the way she said “moun-tane.”
(from Little God
Blues by Jeffrey M. Anderson)
7*/10. The full review is here.
.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Monday, June 22, 2015
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Racism and Guns
The GOP-wad Presidential candidates are tripping all over themselves trying to lamely explain why we shouldn't think of the tragic church shooting in South Carolina as evidence of racism or the need for gun control.
Frankly, it makes them look like the racist hatemongers that they are. This was an act of racism, and it is a clear reason why we need to make it tougher for everyone to get guns.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Book Excerpt for the Day
“Anatoly, come back in,” Duvall said through
the window. “For God’s sake, you’re not
wearing pants.”
Kerensky turned around, following her voice. “This isn’t a ship,” he yelled up to the
window.
“No, it’s the Best Western Media Center Inn and Suites,” Duvall
said. “In Burbank.”
“Is that a planet?” Kerensky yelled.
“What system is it in?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Hester muttered. “You’re on Earth, you moron,” he yelled at Kerensky.
Kerensky looked around disbelievingly.
“Was there an apocalypse?” he yelled.
Hester looked at Duvall. “You
actually have sex with this imbecile?”
(from Redshirts
by John Scalzi)
8*/10. The full review is here.
.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
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