Sunday Puppy Zen

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The thought was ominous and intriguing – to be explorers of unknown lands.  The world she’d left behind had been fully mapped well before Willow’s lifetime so it was exciting to think there were other places out there still to be discovered.  A finished world is a sad thing, she thought.  When everything is understood and complete, there is nothing left but the cold hardness of reality – and reality is a thing with no time for fantasy and dreams.

    (from Voyage of the Pale Ship by Greg James)

  7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Zelda

    I don't know about you, but in the the old NES version of Zelda, I was happily content to spend hours and hours mowing the grass.

Completely Unfathomable

    If they'd only tell us what they want.

ROTSA

    I like it!  I think I'll use it on Facebook and confuse everybody.

Books That We've Read

    I think it's time to get rid of the books that Liz and I have already read.  Still, you never know when you'll find the TBR shelf empty, in which case you can always re-read one from the pile.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    A man was approaching from the northwest stepping out of the sun’s brilliance.  She shaded her eyes and watched as he moved easily down the slight incline from the village.  A scribal kit was looped over his shoulder and he carried a dagger at his belt.  She recognized him after a moment: the man who had knelt to speak with the children at the well, and had seemed to be grieving.

    He stopped beyond the well and stood waiting.

    “A man!” Henerte snorted.  “Just what we need to foul things up!”  She straightened and stared at him as he gazed back at her.  She raised her voice slightly.  “Well?  Why doesn’t he come here instead of dawdling there?”

    “Maybe he doesn’t want to disturb us,” Nebet suggested.

    “A considerate man!” said the Town Scribe’s daughter.  “Will wonders never cease?”

    (from Mourningtide by Diana Wilder)

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Punctuation Counts

     You could also put a period after the word Wine, and a comma after Day.  But we don't want to get pedantic about the whole thing.

Dog Zen

    The Zen of Doggyhood.

Bombing Syria

    Well, fair is fair.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Ever since reading about Benjamin Franklin in an American propaganda leaflet, kite, thunder and key, the undertaker has been obsessed with this business of getting hit in the head by a lightning bolt.  All over Europe, it came to him one night in a flash (though not the kind he wanted), at this very moment, are hundreds, who knows maybe thousands, of people walking around, who have been struck by lightning and survived.  What stories they could tell!

    What the leaflet neglected to mention was that Benjamin Franklin was also a Mason, and given to cosmic forms of practiced jokesterism, of which the United States of America may well have been one.

    (from Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon)

     8*/10.  The full review is here.

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Dementia Warning Sign

    Oh freak, am I in trouble!

Astrophysics Tuesday

Party On, Geezerette!

    I don't know who this lady is, but I think I'd really enjoy partying with her.

Happy Easter to all!

Book Excerpt for the Day

    My second point, in fact, was something the convicts had taught me.  They all believed that the White people who insisted that it was their Constitutional right to keep military weapons in their homes all looked forward to the day when they could shoot Americans who didn’t have what they had, who didn’t look like their friends and relatives, in a sort of open-air shooting gallery we used to call in Vietnam a “Free Fire Zone.”  You could shoot anything that moved, for the good of the greater society, which was always someplace far away, like Paradise.

    (from Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut)

  8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Friday Misspelling

    Excuse me, but it's *INNATE*.  You're killin' me, Scott Adams.

Happy Birthday, Ron Perlman

    Born 04/13/50.  And whom I will always remember for being in this fantastic movie: The City of the Lost Children.

Facebook Drama

    Yup.  I know peeps on Facebook like this.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Another sharp right.  The Honda screeches and skids the entire way.  At the end of the turn the car rocks back and forth slightly on its shocks.  This new road is clear of traffic.  The car starts to accelerate.  I turn my head towards the speedometer to see we are passing 45 mph.  That’s it?  All that screeching, bouncing and dodging of bag ladies to slightly go over the speed limit?  Should I even be fearful for my life?  Then I remember who’s driving.  Yes.  Yes I should be fearful.

    (from Chronicles of M, by Nicholas Forristal)

     7*/10.  The full review is here.

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Monday Pun Day

    A quadruple pun (Styx, Stones, Phones, Byrds), set up and delivered within a single cartoon panel.  I am in FREAKING AWE! 

And Bob's Your Uncle

    Without a doubt, the favorite expression I've learned from reading books by British authors is: "And Bob's your uncle". 

Kids and Cartoons

    Sage advice.  This was certainly true when our son was a toddler.

License Plates

    I once saw a license plate "RUA DV8", which I consider to be perhaps the best use of a mere 6 characters on a license plate ever.

    Runner-Up:  "IM YY 4U".

Reading Challenge Update

    I started this book exactly one month ago.  As of today, I've read 476 pages of it, with 300 pages to go.  Which is pretty much about  the pace I expected to do.

     And yes, I also read "lighter" material on the side.  If I had to read this book straight through, I'd never make it.

Sleeping Pit

    Yeah, this is definitely going on my list for Santa Claus to bring.

Why we don't have cats

    Cats and my OCD simply do not mix.

Orange

    There's nothing wrong with being pedantic.

Pancakes and Sausage

    Well, this is just so wrong.   Hmmm.  But on second thought... 

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Thor turned to look at her as if she was stupid.

    “We are immortals,” he said, simply.  (. . .)

    “Immortals are what you wanted,” said Thor in a low, quiet voice.  “Immortals are what you got.  It is a little hard on us.  You wanted us to be forever, so we are forever.  Then you forget about us.  But still we are forever.  Now at last, many are dead, many dying,” he then added in a quiet voice, “but it takes a special effort.”

    (from The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams)

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Slices of Dog

    OMG!! They're slicing up this dog into pieces!!

Tattoos

    I don't have any tattoos, and have no desire to get one.  But if I ever did, it would be something like this.

The Epitome

    And let's not even discuss how I used to think "cacophony" was pronounced.

Kindle Deals

    Both of these books are available for only $1.99 for the Kindle at Amazon today, and both are fantastic reads.

Mario Brothers Art

    Okay, I need somebody to come over and paint this on my garage door.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Hey, you’re up early.”

    I made a valiant effort to sound cheerful.  “Heck, I’ve already had breakfast.  Jan made it.”

    “Ah, Jan’s there.  That explains why you were out and about and not answering your phone.  How’s Jan?”

    I liked the way this was going.  No reason for Jenks to wonder if we’d been up to no good, because if Jan was with me it was a given, and he usually just didn’t want to know details unless he had to post bail.

    (from Just Needs Killin’ by Jinx Schwartz)

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Feline Healthcare

    I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or get angry at Trump's healthcare think tank. 

Lipstick Gluestick

    Groan.

It's almost Friday

    True dis.  At least until I go part-time.  Or retire completely.

A Star Wars plug

    Pretty subtle, Cubs TV.  But well done!