Another Casualty from That Lockheed Martin Missile Plant
Skier Accused Of Punching Teen Snowboarder:

A man is charged with assault after he allegedly beat a female teenage snowboarder who crashed into his daughter at Steamboat Ski Area over the weekend.

The collision knocked both girls to the ground but neither were seriously injured.

Randell Berg, of Littleton [Colorado], saw the crash and yelled profanities at the teen as he allegedly punched her in the head and neck, Steamboat police said.

Or maybe it's because of Bush or something. Please, Michael Moore, help me understand how this can take place in Colorado, that microcosm for America.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:33 PM   0 comments

 
Mother Nature Put On Notice
Rev. Jesse Jackson plans Katrina protest march in New Orleans.

Good luck on that whole boycotting the weather thing.


- posted by Brian J. @ 5:54 AM   0 comments

 
Kevin McGehee: Stuck on Seventies
Kevin McGehee, of Yippie Ki Yay, is stuck in the past. Case in point, this category: Truckin'. The last time I saw the word trucking without the g was probably sometime 1981 on a hand-me-down t-shirt with an iron-on decal with a hitchhiker's thumb in the air. Which leads me to wonder...is Kevin McGehee stuck on the Seventies? Let's look at the evidence:

• Kevin McGehee still has a Bruce Jenner poster on his dining room wall and keeps a Bruce Jenner Wheaties box on his bedside table. His wife has commented on the poster, telling him to take it down....so she can replace it with a Greg LeMond poster.
  
  
• McGehee has 7 letters. Writing McGehee 11 times (McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee McGehee) has 77 letters....like 1977! The numbers don't lie!
  
  
• Two words: Mus Tache
  
  
  
  

Granted, these are only a few signs, but I think they warrant an intervention by the blogosphere, or at least the two bloggers who like him. Yes, it's true I've got some truck with McGehee, but I only wish him the best, and hope that he comes to be stuck in the 1990s like so many of us.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:11 PM   1 comments

 
Brokesword Mountain
Fear of Girls. Yeah, geek, they're talking about you.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:55 PM   0 comments

 
Movie Preview
The Sentinel: Okay, Kiefer Sutherland as a shouting government agent, we can accept, but President Sledge Hammer!? Not so much.

The split second shot (no pun intended) of David Rasche along with the words "the President" were enough to pitch my wife and I into gales of laughter during the preview.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:25 PM   0 comments

 
Book Report: Peking Duck by Roger L. Simon (1979)
On my second attempt, I made it through this book by blogger Roger L. Simon. Of course, the book was written in 1979, before blogs. As some of you long-time readers know, I bought a number of the Moses Wine iBooks reissues in November 2004 and I read the two books (The Big Fix and The Lost Coast) in the first week I owned them. Then I tried Peking Duck. And it took me over a year to try it again.

The book centers on a trip Moses Wine takes to China. A liberal by philosophy, Wine has some sympathy and reverence for the Chinese Communists and their noble ideals. As he's belonged to a Chinese friendship society to please his aunt, he's invited on her tour of China. While in China, a crime occurs, and he's the one who has to solve the mystery and set the things aright, to make the world safe for Chinese communism.

One of my complaints with this book is the same as with The Big Fix: We get a complete enumeration of names and professions for the people on the trip with Moses Wine, but for the most part, they remain names and professions, and I couldn't keep many of them straight. Which wasn't too important, as they're just scenery. The book goes at length to describe the trip to China, the Chinese cities, and the Chinese line on communism in the late 1970s. As a matter of fact, it reads more like a fictional, sympathetically political travelogue. On page 120 or so, the crime finally occurs, and I knew who did it immediately.

So the book didn't really hold me in any suspense, nor did I really enjoy it all that much. However, I did make it through it this time. Roger L. Simon was nominated for an Academy Award for a screen play, and I think his strength must lie in that medium.


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:31 PM   0 comments

 
Movie Not Ruled Out
James Frey, author of the fictional A Million Little Pieces, says:

"I think writing a book about this experience would be trying to capitalize on it in some way and that's not something I want to do at all."

This does not, however, rule out a movie a la Shattered Glass.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:28 PM   0 comments

 
There Ought To Be A Law - Amusing Cartoon, Bad Governing Philosophy
Back in the old days, the Milwaukee Journal ran a cartoon in its Green Sheet called "There Ought to Be a Law", whose rejoinder/punchline "TOBAL." followed annoying day to day situations. One would suspect that many the current generation of revered legislators steeped themselves in this comic strip instead of the Constitution, the Federalist papers, or even the watered-down civics books that public schools offer. For behold, the stupidest St. Louis aldermanic idea since peeing in a trash can: Big stereo could cost you your car

City police would be able to seize cars blasting loud music under an ordinance passed Friday by the Board of Aldermen.

The ordinance, which would take effect once signed by Mayor Francis Slay, prohibits the use and even installation of some enhanced speakers.

Hell, you only own your home at the leisure of the leisurely ruling class. Why not your cars, too? Instead of ticketing you, they'll take your car. And what will they do with that seized car? Sell it at auction, no doubt.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:16 PM   2 comments

 
Book Report: The Olympics' Most Wanted by Floyd Conner (2001)
Like the Lupica book, I bought this book at Barnes and Noble (Ladue) off of its clearance table for $1.00. I mean, if I don't burn those points off of the card, the card management company will gladly do so for a certain number of cents every ten days until such time as they have to garnish my wages for the overage. So it's desperation, coupled with the twin desires of acquiring trivia knowledge and preparing for a historical perspective when the Torino Olympics start, I dove into the book.

It's a series of top ten lists which include different athletes and incidents within the past Olympics, sliced and diced by topic. Unfortunately, that's led to some repetition in the records. Also. as I read, I found that the trivia infusion only re-inforced the information I'd experienced. That Zola Budd was responsible for Decker's loss in some track event in 1984....Man, the number of times I retyped the decade digit indicates how powerful that bit of trivia is, so I better not indicate that I know how South African Zola Budd got to compete anyway, or else I'll be in jeopardy the next time the North Side Mind Flayers step into a St. Louis Trivia night.

The book's major flaw is that it repeats anecdotes in different sections as the author tried to leverage limited material into more pages. For example, we read about the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding incident in two chapters. One anecdote focuses on Kerrigan and one on Harding. This retreading of material gives one the idea that the author was indeed stretching to make his limited sources pay off. Hey, as a writer, I can't knock it, but as a reader, I can sure mock it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:13 AM   0 comments

 
Movie Preview
16 Blocks: Because The Gauntlet would have been much better without Sondra Locke.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:50 PM   0 comments

 
McGehee Gets the Silent Treatment
As some of you know, I have a disagreement with McGehee of Yuppie-Ki-Yay, a blog written from an aesthete cokehead's midtown Manhattan apartment. Just so you know, I am punishing him by giving him the silent treatment, which is apparently effective.

Mostly because tonight's photo manipulation historical research hasn't proven effective.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:56 PM   1 comments

 
If Chuck Norris Fought Jack Bauer, The Universe Would End
Facts about Jack Bauer, from television's 24.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:18 PM   0 comments

 
Kevin McGehee Has No Geek Cred
Some of you readers might know that I have this thing about Kevin McGehee of Yippee-Ki-Yay!.

"Why?" Some of you ask. "After all, McGehee is cool; he's got a Web log."

That's not enough.

Kevin McGehee Lacks Geek Cred

Signs include:

• First of all, let's address this.
  • Dude, where's the mad Photoshopping skillz? I mean, come on, Microsoft Paint comes with your computer; put your back into it!
    
    
  • Of all the characters in an obscure 30-year-old movie, you're comparing me to Riff Raff? Dude, the only character only arguably better in the movie is Eddie. I'm not suffering here.
  
  
  
• Word on the street is that Kevin McGehee actually welcomed the Second Edition Rules. I'm just sayin'.
  
  
• Kevin McGehee: DC. Me: Marvel.
  
  
• In the great debate of Microsoft versus Linux, Kevin McGehee answers, "Paper inside plastic."
  
  
• Kevin McGehee claims his first computer was a "386-16MHz PC with a 40MB hard drive and 4MB of RAM, and with Windows 3.0 installed." Brother, if your first computer didn't have a brand like Commodore, Apple, Texas Instruments, Tandy/TRS, or Timex, much less had a freaking hard drive, get out of town.
  
  
• Kevin McGehee doesn't know the difference between Florida DOT S1 Mixes and Wisconsin SuperPave PG 58-28 mixes. (Okay, so that's a bullet point that indicates that McGehee lacks street cred; however, I'll include it here because I need to flesh out this list.

Friends, I have met geeks in my life, and Kevin McGehee is nothing but a potential Commie cyborg from the past pretending to be a geek to win your confidence.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:53 PM   5 comments

 
One Good Discharge Leads to Another
Some people were just born to work in fast food:

Then everyone's attention turned to a woman in line - the one with a shredded sequined purse on the tile floor near her feet.

"She picked up her purse like it was some kind of disease," explained Shelley White, the store manager on duty.

"I ain't got no gun," was the only thing the stranger told the crowd in the restaurant before gathering her purse and teenage daughter from a nearby booth and running out of the place about 1 p.m. Friday.

But she did have a gun, investigators said, apparently a low-quality one that discharged by accident when she dropped her purse.

She had a secret too, one that she might have kept had White not rushed to the window and called out the license number for a customer to jot down. The fleeing woman was an off-duty St. Louis police officer.

After the woman inadvertantly discharged a firearm, fled the scene, and threw the firearm out of her window on the interstate before she was caught, she resigned when the internal affairs department of her police department opened an investigation.

As someone who travels into the city almost daily, I would hope the city of St. Louis would weed these people out before they're actually, you know, cops.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:18 PM   0 comments

 
Warrantless Searches in Waukesha
Waukesha County gives cash for trash: Selected homeowners given $100 for recycling:

Diane Penosky was tinkering in her garage when she heard someone - or something - picking through the family's recycling bin outside.

Bruce and Diane Penosky of Summit carry cardboard and plastic bags to their vehicle to take to the recycling center. The couple were chosen as winners of a $100 cash reward as part of Waukesha County’s recycling program.

It turned out the intruder was neither a thief nor a critter, but a Waukesha County employee who was sizing up Penosky for a reward for being a good recycler: $100.

Waukesha County is believed to be the first government agency in southeastern Wisconsin to distribute a friendly bribe as a way of encouraging homeowners to recycle.

The government of Waukesha County has employees whose job entails rifling through your recycling to make sure you're doing it properly:

Who gets Waukesha County's cash rewards is a matter of luck.

Moving from community to community, county officials pick a street by throwing a dart at a map. Then they head to that street on curbside recycling day and make a winner of the first homeowner whose bin is found filled correctly.

It's good that Waukesha County officials and employees have handled all of the city's other business, eliminated crime, and has reduced taxes as much as possible to cover all the minimums. It's just unfortunate that it spends all of its remaining effort and energy not on private enterprises of the individuals in the government, but on freaking going through citizens' recycling by hand.

Because that would never be abused once citizens become accustomed to it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:22 PM   2 comments

 
Guest Editorial
An editorial that could be coming soon from our legislators:

Meth Cooks Don't Support Our New Bill, Either

And Although It Will Inconvenience You, Citizen, You Won't Complain....Or Do You Have Something To Hide?

Meth cooks in America cannot be pleased about new legislation recently introduced in the Congress. They now know we have a new, better, more comprehensive plan to further cripple their ability to produce meth and to give law enforcement more tools, a workbench, and a buddy-who's-handy-and-will-waste-his-whole-weekend-at-your-house-for-a-sixer-of-beer to bring them to justice.

I've held 16 photo opportunities around the state to discuss Missouri's meth problem. Law enforcement agents of all stripes and also occasionally with spots, some with as many as 30 years' experience, have told me this drug is the worst threat they have confronted in their careers since smack, PCP, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, whip-its, or if after March 2006, insert latest drug scourge here. It is by far the worst drug I have seen in my nearly 20 years in public life, but, as a Republican,I don't get invited to the good parties.

Meth is highly addictive, highly destructive, highly high-making, highly toxic, and has high brand recognition amongst the news-consuming populace, which makes it more dangerous than other drugs because it gets the television coverage as dangerous. During the past decade, while law enforcement officers, in Promethean efforts, continue to bust record numbers of clandestine labs, meth use in communities has increased by as much as 300 percent. Unfortunately, this might lead some to believe that draconian laws aren't effective; however, some would legislate that those laws are not draconian enough.

Incorporating the needs of our law enforcement community, I've introduced the Combat Meth Act II (Combat Mether) with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California. Sen. Feinstein and I have the distinction of representing the legislature that leads the country in methamphetamine legislation production.

One of the most important features of our bill would make fire, an important ingredient to make meth, more inaccessible. Because fire is as a product or by-product of many appliances or other devices found in the household, meth cooks can purchase or ignite the ingredient in large enough quantities to make the drug. Our bill says that fire and fire-producing devices must be kept behind a store counter so that users cannot steal them without actually confronting a shopkeeper with a gun and perhaps leaving him in a pool of his own blood and that shopkeepers only sell fire-producing devices such as gas cook stoves, gas log fireplaces, automobiles with internal combustion engines, disposable or refillable cigarette lighters, kitchen or safety matches, magnifying glasses, or pairs of sticks to persons licensed to create fire.

After completing a fire safety course, passing a background check, and paying a nominal registration fee, licensed buyers can purchase up to 1 fire-building device within a 30 day period. Consumers would be required to present proof of identification and sign for the satellite RFID-equipped device upon purchase. This is without doubt a small burden for consumers, but law enforcement agents have told me it is the only way we can stop the meth cooks from poisoning our communities with this deadly drug. A couple of photogenic or at least camera-worthy Missourians know someone who has been hurt as a result of the meth epidemic. Keeping fire out of the hands of the common rabble will keep it out of our schools and neighborhoods.

Our bill is based on an Oklahoma law passed last year limiting the use of fire by the hoi-polloi. Since the law’s inception, meth lab seizures in Oklahoma have declined by about 80 percent, smoking declined 90 percent, arsons are down 70 percent, but salmonella and other undercooked meat illnesses are up substantially. Missouri's Governor Matt Blunt is also pushing legislation in the state legislature that is based on the Oklahoma law.

In order to ensure that rural communities without licensing bureau access are not negatively impacted, our legislation provides for the Director of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration to authorize others to act as Federally-Authorized Fire-Bringers so long as they follow the same procedure.

The Combat Meth Act Club Remix Edition also provides critical resources to local law enforcement, including an additional $30,000,000 under the ZEUS program to train state and local law enforcement to investigate and chain fire users to Mount Aetna so a giant eagle can pick at their livers. It also expands the methamphetamine "hot spots" program to include administrators, consultants, and meetings for enforcement, prosecution, and environmental clean-up, with actual funding for people who do things left to the next legislative session.

We also enhance the ability of local prosecutors to enlarge their fiefdoms by providing $5,000,000 to hire additional federal prosecutors, assistant prosecutors, and administrative staff to lobby for additional funds to hire additional federal prosecutors, assistant prosecutors, and administrative staff to lobby for additional funds to hire....well, you get the idea. The bill cross-designates local prosecutors who undergo this training as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys, allowing them to enhance their resumes for future political careers, such as United States Senator.

The legislation provides $5,000,000 in grant funding to fund studies and staff to study and staff studies on how to spend money to help children affected by the spread of fire and other bedwetters. The funding would go to heavily-armed Drug Endangered Children rapid response teams to promote collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies to assist, educate, or arrest children affected by the production of methamphetamine or the use of unauthorized fire.

To help unauthorized fire users who want help, our bill authorizes the creation of a Fire Denial Research, Training, and Technical Assistance Center which will help people improve their self-esteem while they grow accustomed to the cold, the darkness, and a diet of raw vegetables.

Within days of its introduction, 17 senators co-sponsored the bill and Congressman Roy Blunt of Missouri introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House.

The expansion of methamphetamine production continues to put a severe strain on federal and local entities as law enforcement officials have more laws to enforce and limited budgets are spent on an ever-expanding list of programs. But let's not get into that now. Fighting meth requires a comprehensive restrictive approach, where anything that anyone can do during the production of meth must be outlawed. The Combat Meth Reloaded Act is the most comprehensive anti-meth bill ever considered by Congress so far, but wait until next year.

After all, Senator Jim Talent, "R." MO, wrote this one, didn't he?
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:16 PM   1 comments

 
Whither Osama?
A lot of thoughtful, or perhaps only mostly thoughtful, people turn the discussion of the latest Osama bin Laden tape into an indictment of the impotence of the American military or allude to a possible conspiracy involving either the capture of bin Laden or allowing bin Laden to remain free to serve as a boogie man to justify the overreach of a warmongering neoconservative president. Why can't the greatest military on the planet find one man?

I have two words to rebut any conspiracy theory: Eric Robert Rudolph.

For those of you who don't remember, Eric Robert Rudolph is the fellow who bombed the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Law enforcement identified Eric Robert Rudolph as a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing on February 14, 1998. Rudolph went on the run and hid out on the fringes of a mountain town in North Carolina and was finally arrested on May 31, 2003.

Let's dwell on that for a moment: From the time Rudolph was named as a suspect and the search began in earnest, 5 years, 3 months, and 17 days passed. The FBI was conducting its manhunts through the woods and mountains of North Carolina and the southeast, using local guides and local law enforcement when possible, to comb and canvas the area with vigor. An area within the boundaries of the United States, peopled with Americans.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, at which point Osama bin Laden beat his retreat to Pakistan or wherever. Between then and now, 4 years and 3 months have elapsed, and the American military has not found him. For those paying any attention and trying to gain any perspective, bin Laden is rumored to be hiding on Pakistani soil. That is, he is not on ground controlled by American soldiers; indeed, the remote region where he's supposed to be hiding (or have hidden until his death) is populated with people who don't like Americans and wouldn't help if they could (some, though, would say the same about Murphy, North Carolina, but it's futile to try to talk with someone likes equate Christian fundamentalists with tribal Muslims in Pakistan).

The American military, and American law enforcement, are not omnipotent, no matter how loud the civil libertarians shriek about any advance in data-gathering or surveillance technology. Unfortunately, the American psyche believes them to be so. I think of it as the Star Trek effect: When we're confronted with fictional representations (like 24 or Tom Clancy) of the military's climactic successes, we tend to adjust our expectations to meet them. (I call it the Star Trek effect because science fiction has sometimes lulled us into not remembering how dangerous space flight really is currently.) If the military cannot pull bin Laden out of a cave after 42 minutes of prime time television, it's failing....or it's a cliffhanger leading to a suspenseful twist about the mole in the agency at the highest levels who is thwarting the effort or is misleading the American people.

We're not so far from the world where Nazi fugitives hid for decades at the edges of the civilized world, and we're not far at all from a world where a lone bomber in America can hide in the woods overlooking town for half a decade before a lucky break lands him in jail. Wherever Osama bin Laden is, if he's alive, he's still on the run, and if the American military and world law enforcement remains vigilant, we'll catch him eating out of a Save-a-Lot dumpster sooner or later.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:40 PM   0 comments

 
McGehee: Commie Cyborg from the Past?
Recent discoveries lead me to believe that McGehee, of Yippee-Ki-Yay, might be a commie cyborg sent from the past. For instance, the following photograph, faxed to a Killian, Texas, Kinko's in 1948 would support this hypothesis:



Apparently, the Reds knew their way of life was doomed after World War II. Using a time machine, they sent a cyborg into the future to.... Well, let's not dwell on the finer lines of the plot. However, let's look at the evidence that McGehee might very well be that cyborg:

1. Is it any coincidence he settled down in Georgia?
   
   
2. Obviously, his cover name was supposed to be McGee, but the translation from the Cyrillic alphabet led to the misspelling.
   
   
3. He's blogging at Yippee-Ki-Yay, the call of the American individualist. He's obviously covering something.
   
   

Keep in mind, this is just a theory. Why, some would even say the photograph is faked, to which I would respond....perhaps the Russkies did that on purpose for disinformation. We'll never know.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:17 PM   1 comments

 
A Plea For Mercy
Private communique from McGehee, in my e-mail box today:

From the looks of the traffic I'm getting from your faithful supporters, I know I'm beaten. Can we please enjoy a little who'd-nah so that I can rally my supporters and channel money from international sympathizers?

In a word: No.

There will be no quarter, McGehee.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:06 PM   2 comments

 
McGehee's Latest Salvo Falls Short
McGehee, in his ongoing futile resistance to my one-sided blog yee-hawd against him, says:

Bring it on, buddy. I’ve got a cupboard full of pickles and a freezer full of ice cream. We’ll see how your chosen method of attack works out.

So be it. You know what? He's a lot like Pajamas Media. How?

Top Ways McGehee Is Like Pajamas Media

1. Both have advertisements.
   
   
2. McGehee Zone/web log has five syllables. Pajamas Media has five syllables (if you sort of slur the end of media.
   
   
3. Neither can pick a name and stick to it. Blogosferics became Yippie-Ki-Yay. Pajamas Media became Open Source Media briefly, but it's back to Pajamas Media.
   
   
4. Chuck Norris doesn't know either of them even exists.

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg in McGehee's perfidy.


- posted by Brian J. @ 5:00 PM   0 comments

 
What Gives?
All right, I am getting a lot of referrers which list a local file as entry page. These files have a variety of names which seem to make them computer-generated, such as:

C:\Documents_and_Settings\sahil\Local_Settings\Temp\payday_259.html
C:\Documents_and_Settings\Joe_Sharkey\Local_Settings\Temp\golf0.html
C:\Documents_Settings\Admin\Local_Settings\Temp\GoldMine47.html

These come from a variety of ISPs around the world, including a great number here in the states.

What the heck is up with that?


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:37 PM   1 comments

 
Book Report: Wild Pitch by Mike Lupica (2002)
This book was on the deep discount rack at Barnes and Noble for only $1.00 when Heather and I made our way in to spend the season's gift cards. Only $1.00. I read Full Court Press in April 2004 (that long ago already?). I enjoyed that book and thought I would buy another. I did.

Wild Pitch tells the story of Charlie Stoddard, a pitching phenomenon with the 1980s Mets who blew his arm out and then served as a journeyman for a number of years. Five years out of baseball, Stoddard spends his days chasing women and booze, earning a living making appearance at sports memorabilia shows. A particularly vigorous sexual escapade throws his back out, and his partner puts Charlie in touch with a Chinese therapist who can not only fix Charlie's back, but also his arm.

At the age of 40, Charlie tries to put his life back on some sort of track, reconnecting with the ex-wife he wronged, the son who doesn't acknowledge him, and perhaps just to feel the thrill of pitching...and maybe even winning....again.

Lupica's deft characterizations of the lightly-comic people populating his books (damn, I tried to avoid characterizations of characters, and ended up with people populating....) drive the story along. I sympathized with the understated themes of redemption and growing older and maybe even up. The focus of the winning isn't winning it all, it's playing to win.

Man, this Lupica fellow is good. I'm looking forward to reading more of his novels, and they're sports novels, with nary a body to be found.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:15 PM   0 comments

 
Book Report: Suspects by William J. Caunitz (1986)
This book is gritty. A police procedural written by a former cop, set in New York City of the middle 1980s, the grit is in everything. The cops talk gritty, the scenes are gritty, and the grit gums up the smooth operation of the narrative, preventing me from really connecting with the inchoate characters.

Tony Scanlon lost a leg in a shootout, but thanks to the favors and back-scratching that grease the wheels of the Job, he gets to remain with the force as a detective squad leader in a backwater precinct. The precinct's quiet is shattered when someone hits a well-known and well-loved police lieutenant who's wired into all of the benevolent associations. Scanlon leads his team of detectives on the investigation, delving into the unspoken-of world of police parties complete with hookers, gambling, and booze, the world of police getting freebies on the arm, the world where police amputees with issues only find solace in the arms of hookers. Did I mention this was a gritty book?

William J. Caunitz was no Ed McBain, no Joseph Wambaugh, and not even really Tom Philbin. He throws a lot of material into the book, a lot of flashbacks, subplots, and all of his notes. The book isn't unreadable, per se, but it could have been trimmed to about sixty percent of its current heft to great effect. Perhaps this book could serve as a gateway to police procedurals for Tolstoy scholars. I don't know; all I know is it took me too long to read this book.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:43 AM   0 comments

 
Underachiever
After a couple hours of off-and-on looking at the Mensa Intelligence Test, I'll stand pat with 19, the minimum level for genius.

Not as good as Sandy, but at least I beat Bucci.
- posted by Brian J. @ 11:02 AM   0 comments

 
When Nonfiction Writers Take Liberty
As much as I hate to admit it, I enjoyed Mark Morford's column "I Wanna Be A Crackhead Author: Hello, I am an ex-hooker heroin addict with AIDS who eats live puppies. Please read my book". A taste:

I shall start my story humbly, meekly, just like JT LeRoy and James Frey. Small town, somewhere in Idaho or maybe rural Montana, brought up by a sadistic pedophiliac Pentecostal preacher father who only has one good arm and a decimated colon, and a narcoleptic mother with 17 cats who sucks down cases of Tab and reads the "Left Behind" books as nonfiction and who passes out every night in a Percocet haze watching endless reruns of "Knight Rider."

Me and my two sadistic, ADD brothers will sneak off to the local zoo for days at a time and sleep with the monkeys and torture penguins with fireworks. I will suck on my first bong at age 4 and will be stone drunk by 7 and will regularly black out by age 10, but not before impregnating my pothead babysitter and stealing her credit card to buy a Game Boy and a small Cessna, which I will promptly fly all the way to Mexico before crashing into a tortilla factory and breaking my spine in 12 places and rupturing my kidneys, which I will pay a Mexican mafia doctor named Mannie 50 bucks to swap with black-market kidneys stolen from unwary tourists. Oh my yes. I can see it now.

It's not exactly discouraged in college narrative nonfiction writing classes that you enhance your memories or history to make a better narrative that's more gripping, illustrative, or humorous than the events that have actually happened to you.

Why, even I, your humble unreliable narrator have embellished certain things in my own essays to make a point. For example, I created this whole beautiful wife thing out of whole cloth, culminating in a fictional pregnancy to increase my traffic (or I have invented the invention of her to prove a point about embellishing--sorry if this paradox has caused unKirkian patched PCs to shut down and free the Enterprise crew and Harry Mudd).

The key, though, is to know a limit between embellishing and fabricating. In one, you're exaggerating for effect something that really happened, and in the other, you're exaggerating for effect something that didn't really happen.

I only hope that I know the line. If not, I hope to be very celebrated and successful with my undiscovered deception.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:53 PM   0 comments

 
Athletic Team Fears Offending Satan
Name could be big change:

At the least, it seems likely the word "Devil" will be dropped, as it already is in some official team references. Then a decision has to be made whether to continue associating Rays with the sea creatures or to connect with the sun. Or there could be a new name, such as the Tampa Bay Tarpons.

You know, that's one redskin you don't want suing you in the court of law. Because he sues for your soul.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:34 PM   1 comments

 
Blog Yee-Hawd
McGehee of Yippie-Ki-Yay, piqued because any time I feel like it I can beat him in Outside the Beltway caption contests, has decided that I am not worth trifling with:

Anyone getting more traffic than me wouldn’t notice me trying to pick a fight, and if I pick a fight with someone getting less traffic than me, he and I would be the only ones to notice.

Not true, sir; I proclaim this an official MfBJN Blog Yee-Hawd, and my glorious army of reader (singular) vow revenge!

Go get him, honey. He wouldn't hurt a pregnant woman.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:20 PM   0 comments

 
Too Bad the Only Fan Here Is Pregnant
24 Drinking Game

Jeez, one could get lit just from the promos during football.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:05 PM   0 comments

 
Conan O'Brien Skirts McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform
By making fun of the elections in Finland:

Finland's president finds her traditional support among women and the Social Democratic Party base, but lately to the surprise of many Finns — and her opponents in Sunday's election — she has gotten an endorsement of a different sort.

The redheaded late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien has been promoting President Tarja Halonen's re-election bid as part of a long-running joke about their supposed physical similarities.

"Why do I support Tarja Halonen? Because she's got the total package: a dynamic personality, a quick mind, and most importantly — my good looks," the comedian, whose show is broadcast on cable in Finland, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

- posted by Brian J. @ 12:43 PM   0 comments

 
Another Trauma for Brett Favre
Man accused of using credit card of star NFL quarterback:

Phoenix man was arrested Thursday after allegedly using a credit card account belonging to Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre more than 40 times, authorities said.

Some Green Bay fans will go to extraordinary measures to ensure that Favre does not retire, including ensuring that he needs the paycheck to pay his credit card bills.

Doubtlessly, radio call-in shows in Wisconsin are now figuring this into their calculations about whether he will return next year.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:41 PM   0 comments

 
Another Award for Brett Favre
Readers' List: Best acting performances by athletes.

Brett Favre wins it for his performance in There's Something About Mary.

Doubtlessly, radio call-in shows in Wisconsin are now figuring this into their calculations about whether he will return next year.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:03 PM   0 comments

 
Where Were You When.....
Pairs long program: Baldwin and Inoue make skating history:

Change sometimes happens at a glacial pace, as in an ice age. At other times, it occurs in an instant, such as the meteor that hit the earth and eradicated the dinosaurs.

Both types of changes occurred Friday at Savvis Center in the pairs competition of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. John Baldwin, 32, is the oldest competitor in the field and has skated almost exclusively in obscurity for 21 years at nationals. But in one fell swoop, he captured a national title and berth on the Olympic team, pairing with Rena Inoue on the first throw triple axel completed in competition.

No doubt, this is a date which will define a generation.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:17 PM   0 comments

 
British Camera Surveillance Confirms No Explosives On Naked Woman
Another camera-based security triumph in Great Britain: Peeping tom CCTV workers jailed:

Two council CCTV camera operators have been jailed for spying on a naked woman in her own home.

Mark Summerton and Kevin Judge, from Sefton Council, Merseyside, trained a street camera into the woman's flat.

Good on the bobbies for ensuring the boobies were natural and not semtex implants.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:41 PM   1 comments

 
Now Appearing In The Rob McCormick Fiesta Room
Lohan, Moss' pole dance at topless bar:

New B.F.F.'s Lindsay Lohan and Kate Moss shook things up at New York's Scores strip club in the wee hours of yesterday morning putting on a bump-and-grind pole-dancing session for the club's 400 shocked patrons, reports the New York Post's gossip column 'Page Six.'

Lohan, Moss and a few of their female friends descended upon the topless club just before 3:00 a.m. and went directly into the club's famous Champagne Room, where the group downed a number of vodka shots, raspberry Kamikazes and beer and were treated to plenty of lapdances from the strippers that surrounded their table.

As other Savvis investors remember, this is where Rob McCormick spent $240,000, prompting his ouster as the CEO of the plucky little ISP that couldn't quite.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:45 PM   0 comments

 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Has Too Much Street Cred
Headline: Snitch's death frees murder suspect

Regardless of the circumstances of the confession nor the nature of the man's death, I think a professional journalist would have called the man an informant or a witness.

Instead, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch takes its street cred pose and applies the term popularized on the "Stop Snitching" streetwear.

Such shenanigans make me regret I had but one subscription to revoke for my disgust.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:01 PM   0 comments

 
Criminals, Regardless of Their Status, Must Not Be Treated As Criminals
Mexico Demands U.S. Allow More Immigration:

Diplomats from Mexico and Central America on Monday demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a U.S. proposal for tougher border enforcement.

Meeting in Mexico's capital, the regional officials pledged to do more to fight migrant trafficking, but indirectly condemned a U.S. bill that would make illegal entry a felony and extend border walls.

"Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals," they said.

No doubt, the undocumented workers and migrants within our country would elect you to be our leaders. Too bad we're a soveriegn country whose actual citizens get to elect our own feckless leaders.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:13 PM   0 comments

 
That's Why I Read Cosmopolitan
Muslim bashing seemingly in vogue:

What in the world do dietary supplements have to do with turbans and terrorism?

That political head-scratcher confronted at least some vitamin buyers around the nation who found a flier with their mail-order nutrients carrying the bold headline, "Get a Turban for Durbin!"

An image shows Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, wearing the headwrap, common in parts of the Middle East and south Asia and sacred religious garb in some faiths, including the entire Sikh religion.

The flier's kicker: "Keep Congressional Terrorists At Bay." The flier was distributed last month by a pro-vitamin and supplement group.

Critics say the flier is yet another example of Muslim bashing. The designer of the flier, who has since pulled it, admits that it was over the line but said he put it out to draw attention to what he thinks is improper action by Durbin.

Got that, America? According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a cheap mimeographed flier from some unnamed vitamin and dietary supplier represents trend-setting political and social thought.

When it's convenient for driving "news" articles into the well-traveled, predetermined concourses of thought.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:02 PM   0 comments

 
Subtitle Needed
A sequel without a subtitle is just no good. Ergo, Mrs. Doubtfire 2 needs our help.

My suggestions:

• Mrs. Doubtfire 2: Doubt Firer
• Doubtfire with a Vengeance
• Doubtfire: The Return of the Queen
• D2: The Mighty Doubts
• D2: Judged Bad Day
• For a Few Doubtfires More
• Doubtfire II: The Wrath, The Con
• Evil Doubtfire 2: Doubtfire by Dawn
• Doubtfirin' 2: Electric Buggin' Stu
• The Matron Reloaded
• Old Age Trans-G Doubtfires 2: Secret of the Ews

(Link seen on Ravenwood's Universe, curse him.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:05 PM   2 comments

 
The Question They Want to Ask
Judge Alito, assuming that your wife were raped by Satan and impregnated, would you not then support abortion? Indeed, would you not, for the betterment of mankind and service to God, use a spoon and a penlight yourself to rid this world of the demon spawn, even if your wife were in her third trimester?


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:06 PM   1 comments

 
My Junk Mail Offends Me
Junk mail tonight:



I tell you what, Svetlana, you've already mistaken me for a Canadian and a European man. By the time you hit upon the truth, I'll be less fooled than I would have been at the outset.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:23 PM   2 comments

 
Jumping the Fark
The January 2006 issue of Readers' Digest reprints several clever headlines from Fark.com as one of the end-of-the-story page fillers.

So how do you feel now, keen modern Gen X, Y, or Zer, to know that when you laugh at a Fark headline, your grandmother laughs with you?


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:34 PM   0 comments

 
A Strange Disturbance in the Internet
Was the Internet a little slow for you tonight? Blame Glenn Reynolds and his new Instapuncast. Yeah, I downloaded it:



Jeez, Louise, 16.5K per second down my T1? I'm almost flashing back to XMODEM days.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:33 PM   2 comments

 
Mighty Fine Fine Print
On Friday, I received a flyer in the postal mail telling me the HOT STOCKS ON THE STREET, wherein some unnamed entity has deemed Sniffex, Inc. (SNFX) as the stock to buy in 2006! A full eighth of the four page tome is dedicated to the disclaimer, reproduced here in its stunning glory:

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER & DISCLOSURE: This paid advertising issue does not purport to provide an analysis of any companies financial position and is not in any way to be construed as an offer to buy or sell and security. We are not investment advisors! This is paid advertisement and Sniffex inc (SNFX) is featured company Annecto Corporation (hereafter annecto) managed the publishing and distribution of this publication, annecto disseminates information via paid advertisements. Although the information contained in this advertisement is believed to be reliable, annecto and its editor make no warranties as to the accuracy of the description of any of the content herein and accept no liability for how readers may choose to utilize it. The information contained herein is being republished from already publicly disseminated information by third parties regarding SNFX and are assumed to be reliable, but annecto accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of such information. Annecto, or any of their assets, principals, officers, directors, partners, agents, or affiliates are not, nor do we represent ourselves to be, registered investment advisors, brokers, or dealers. Readers should independently verify all statements made in this advertisement. Annecto has a total production budget of over $500 000 and annecto is a non-affiliated third party, annecto is using its own money to disseminate this report. Annecto or its Affiliates own shares of SNFA and intend to sell them at a the open market. Be aware of an inherent conflict of interest resulting from such holdings due to our intent to profit from the liquidation of these shares. Shares may be sold at any time, even after positive statements have been made regarding the above company. Since we own shares, there is an inherent conflict of interest in our statements and opinions. Readers of this publication are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and expectations involving various risks and uncertainties, that could cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward looking statements. This is not solicitation to buy or sell stocks. We are not registered investment advisors, this text is for informational purpose only and you should seek professional advice from registered financial advisor before you do anything related with buying or selling stocks, penny stocks are very high risk and you can lose your entire investment. This is not solicitation to buy or sell securities and this newsletter is not a registered investment advisor. Please make special note that Annecto reserves the right to sell any or all of its shares in any company profiled at any time, be that before the date of a profile, during the date of a profile, or at anytime after the date of a profile. Further, specific financial information, filings and disclosures, as well as general investor information about publicly traded companies like SNFX, advice to investors and other investor resources are available at the Securities and Exchange commission web site at www.sec.gov and www.pinksheets.com . Any investment should be made only after consulting with a qualified investment advisor and after reviewing the publicly available financial statements of the company and verifying thatch the investment is approved within the respective investors state. Investing in securities is highly speculative and carries a great deal of risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The information contained herein contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27 A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including regarding expected continual growth of the featured company. The information contained herein includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Reference is made in particular to the description of SNFX's plans and objectives for future operations, assumptions underlying such plans and objectives and other forward-looking statements included in the information provided. Such statements, which contain terms such as expect, believe, anticipate, suggest, plan, indicate and similar terms of uncertainty, are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Factors which could cause such results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements include the size and growth of the market for SNFX's operations, regulatory approvals, the ability to fund its capital requirements in the near term and long term .All statements relating to operational results are hereby qualified in their entirety by the companies filings, including its financial statement filings, under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

That, my friends, is 768 words of cobbled-together gibberish (I was going to include [sic] to indicate the grammatical errata, but I gave up quickly. Like a child repeating a mantra under the blankets to protect it from the boogeyman, Annecto seems to have swiped and pasted legalese from a number of sources to create the repetitive cantation to ward off lawsuits.

Not registered financial advisors? You don't say! Based on the writing and editing skills contained within the forward-looking statements, I'd say that the authors/cobblers lack a diploma, much less whatever paperwork it takes to become a registered financial advisor.

No, Annecto looks more like a pumper and dumper from Yahoo! message boards with a desktop publishing program and a postage budget.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:57 PM   0 comments

 
Book Report: The Museum of Hoaxes by Alex Boese (2002)
I bought this book in a book story in San Francisco last May, or at least I think I did. It's hard to remember what I did in San Francisco, although I do remember it was hilly. I don't specifically remember buying this book, either, but its $4.98 price sticker reminds me of the others I bought there (Jump the Shark, The Action Hero's Handbook, and so on).

This book collects a list of hoaxes throughout history. It started as a dissertation, but turned into an Internet phenonmenon of which I'd never heard. Still, the book is a quick enough glimpse into some of the more foolish things our forebearers have believed, if only briefly. The book offers a number of pointers to the Web site, which kinda irks me; I mean, I bought the damn book, albeit at a reduced price; why not just freaking tell me the story? Oh, because I'm not an ongoing revenue stream as a book purchaser, but as a piece of the ad-price-setting aggregate traffic, I'm worth the effort.

Although I found the book a treasure trove of trivia, I was kinda disappointed on a couple of fronts:

• The author's political views seep in subtly, but not too badly. Although you couldn't really tell by the way the author excuses Janet Cooke's invention of Jimmy, the eight-year-old heroin addict, whose saga in the Washington Post earned Cooke a Pulitzer by saying, "In a way the story of Jimmy did convey a truth about conditions that existed in many inner-city regions of America, even though it did not actually tell the truth," or concludes the Tawana Brawley fiasco by saying, "More than anything else, the episode and its bitter aftermath displayed the deep racial divides that still haunted American society." Say what you will, but those aren't the conclusions I would make. Previously, the author had lauded some hoaxes from the Enlightenment era as rational men using hoaxes to educate. One could briefly sense he was hoping the Brawley case and the Cooke fictitiousness would enlighten the masses.
  
  
• Also, as the hoax snippets tripped into the later quarter of the last century and beyond, I suddenly realized that the reach of the grand hoax of old has faded, as we're slightly more skeptical. I mean, Bonsai Kitten? Only idiots believed that. So the hoax loses its allure with familiarity.

Still, it's a fair enough read if you've got the time and can get it cheap. But like most non-fiction crossover material from another medium (whether talk radio or the Internet), ultimately it looks more like the shadows on a Platonic wall than a complete whole.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:53 PM   0 comments

 
Conservative Opposes Transparency In Government
Owen of Boots and Sabers wants the government to do business behind closed doors.

Face it, someone was going to call him a hypocrite. I just wanted to do it gently, and from a homie.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:42 PM   0 comments

 
Marketing Tip
Although I am not a highly-paid marketing professional (I am merely a highly-paid technology professional who works for a marketing company), I'd like to proffer the following tip that might seem like a good idea, if not the obvious:


Pepsi One, Coca-Cola Zero

Never, ever name your product so that, if it's placed side by side with its equivalent product from your competitor, it sounds as though you've just lost a tightly-contested ballgame.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:14 PM   2 comments

 
Book Report: Johnny Mnemonic by Terry Bisson (1995)
I bought this book from a garage sale in my eBay days for a quarter. As you know, gentle reader, I don't shy away from novelizations of movies (see also The Enforcer and Desperately Seeking Susan). So I read this book even though I haven't yet seen the movie.

As you might know, it's based on a screenplay by William Gibson based on a short story by William Gibson. Instapundit once repeated a question from Stuart Buck:

STUART BUCK on the novelization of the Narnia movie: "If you make a movie out of a classic and beloved children's book that has sold millions of copies, why on earth would you want to have someone write a book based on the movie?"

Duh! Because if the original novel sold more copies, the movie studios wouldn't get a cut. But with the synergy of rewriting the source material and releasing it as new, preferably by one of the parent company's subsidiaries, you get an alternate source of revenue for the property. Heck's pecs, I haven't even been to Hollywood and I grok that.

But I digress. This book details the story of a courier with a flash drive (or the 1995 predicted equivalent) wired into his head. A pair of scientists hire the courier to carry a large secret to Newark, but as the upload completes, organized criminals burst in and put the courier on the run. Also, the courier has overextended himself; the scientists uploaded 320 gigabytes (not megabytes), so the overload is beginning to to impair him. He races to Newark looking for his contact, but the organized crime figures are on his tail, driving the courier underground with the Lotek gang and an enhanced but attractive young woman.

It's a quick little cyberpunk book which preceded the mainstreamization of the cyberpunk genre. It's also interesting to read about Johnny Mnemonic, portrayed by Keanu Reeves in the movie, as jacking into the matrix--several years before Reeves jacked into the film that revitalized his career. Many people see this story as a precursor for The Matrix, but that stretches reality a little bit--there's no paranoia fiction aspect to it at all.

A quick read, worth the quarter.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:09 AM   0 comments

 
Already Have One, Thanks
Excellent opportunity in the mail yesterday:

Brian,
I'd like to talk to you concerning a full or part time management opportunity with my company. Please call me at 636-xxx-xxxx.
                    Thank you,
                    Len De Clue

Come on, if you're looking for suckers, don't insult their intelligence on the first contact. Although, in retrospect, this is probably a good mechanism for vetting leads. If they want you, Len de Clue, they're ripe for the harvest.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:07 AM   0 comments

 
I Don't See That
Neither will anyone else, which makes one wonder what the point is:

SIRIUS Satellite Radio to Launch New Playboy Channel


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:09 PM   1 comments

 
Guess How The Headline Would Have Differed
for this story: Republicans say they have fixed economy if the legislature or government had been in the hands of Democrats?

Oh, yeah, it would be stacked with numbers and facts about how the economy had improved, instead of merely quotes from Republicans claiming the economy had improved.

But numbers are hard, and aspersively parroting is easy.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:02 AM   0 comments

 
Private Property Hijacked By Owners
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's headline identifies whose side it comes down on: Casino's parking is hijacked:

How much is too much to pay to park a car in downtown St. Louis?

At the very least, it's a bit less than $25, according to the President Casino on the Admiral.

In an apparent power play over control of the much-disputed "Cherrick" parking lot, its owner has jacked up more than tenfold the price the President pays for customers to use the lot.

So it's the owner hijacking its own property. Well, sort of. As I read the article, the owner wants to squeeze the government-subsidized entertainment venue (the President Casino) into buying the parking garage before the new government-subsidized entertainment venue (the new casino and go-kart track) seizes the property for a "fair" price. Somewhere in there I got confused about the blighted area infighting for the same profitable resource and stopped paying attention.

Which is probably just what they wanted. All the better to rule me.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:26 PM   0 comments

 
February Down to 23 Days in Certain St. Louis County Municipalities
You thought eminient domain was bad:

Maplewood-Richmond Heights revises calendar
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:24 PM   0 comments

 
Pot Calls the Kettle Iron
Pete Townshend Warns IPod Users:

Guitarist Pete Townshend has warned iPod users that they could end up with hearing problems as bad as his own if they don't turn down the volume of the music they are listening to on earphones.

Surely, it was the headphones, not playing guitar in front of large stacks of amps and monitors for decades.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:21 PM   0 comments

 
MfBJN Gets Results
After a post last night (take that, you Johnny-come-latelies like Instapundit and Ace--what am I, chopped liver?), Jack Abramoff dresses differently.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:14 PM   0 comments

 
Conspiracy Theory
Rest assured: somewhere, somehow, a crack team of expert conspiracy theorists tonight are finding a way to blame Ariel Sharon's stroke on the Jews.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:12 PM   0 comments

 
After All I Do To Make It Look Good
Jack Abramoff makes the black trenchcoat and fedora look bad.

Note to self: Continue belt cinched around expanding belly abstinence. Also, don't bribe congressional representatives.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:29 PM   0 comments

 
Now That's What I Call A Good Submission Guideline
Writers, take note:

And don't blow up Cleveland. Somebody's going to need that later on.

The power of the pen is mightier than the neutron bomb.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:38 PM   0 comments

 
Book Report: Mine the Harvest by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1954)
Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister Norma published this book after Ms. Millay died, so its works contain a gamut of the good to the filler material selected from the poet's incomplete or unpublished work. Oddly, the linked Amazon listing says that the first edition is 1949; however, the stated first edition I have has a 1954 copyright. Perhaps Norma was just planning ahead.

I paid $10 for this stated first edition at Hooked on Books in Springfield, and it's a former library book. That said, perhaps it's only worth ten bucks to me, but I've enjoyed Ms. Millay's work since college. Actually, in college I read a great deal of her work and her biographies and whatnot. Early in our relationship, I gave Heather a collection of Millay's sonnets. So let's just establish that I am somewhat biased.

In this volume, Millay's thoughts muse more on death than on love, partially accountable to her advancing age and partially accountable, I would expect, to her sister's selection for poignancy. But Millay can still turn a phrase, and the poems within this volume which are not incisive nor insightful are tolerable, which puts her in an upper league on merely that account. A couple of memorable lines in decent poems scream for quotation, and I'll reread the book in the future and will enjoy it then, too.

So it's probably worth the ten dollars even though I never attended Albernathy High School nor used its library. It's mine now.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:22 PM   0 comments