Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
 
Book Report: The Use and Abuse of Books by Leon Battista Alberti (1999)
Of course, this work was originally entitled De Commodis litterarum atque incommodis before Renée Neu Watkins translated it for us. I picked this book up over a year ago at the Carondolet YMCA Book Fair for fifty cents. Even though it's only 54 pages, it has taken me this long to power through it.

Apparently (the introduction tells us), Alberti wrote this tract early in his Renaissance career as a scholar because his wealthy family was begging for him to produce something to justify his existence as a freeloading scholar. This is his defense of freeloading: in it, he outlines that someone dedicated to books should seek only the higher knowledge and truth within and should not expect to get chicks, money, power, or reknown. Let's face it, a real scholar hits the books for 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, in ill-heated Renaissance apartments wearing rags--because all of the scholars meager moneys go into books.

The book reads as though it was written by any stereotypical scribe from a fantasy novel, but it was written by a young man romanticizing the hair shirt he'd chosen for his wardrobe and trying to lower his family's expectations. The prose is flowery and meandering, even where the text continues to say that the author is glossing over many things and is getting back to the point.

Still, the rhetoric comes from a different time, where arguments are advanced by reason without the intrusion of actual data points (although Alberti offers anecdotes, often at hearsay distance, to illustrate) or invective (which is the contemporary practice).

The book did not give me any advice on how to wean myself from book abuse, and it was my 50th book completed this year. I obviously need help.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:34 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
 
He Must Have Had a Heart Attack
Skydiver killed when parachute fails

I mean, if the death was immediate.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:24 PM   0 comments
Monday, May 28, 2007
 
Man Wastes Valuable Fuel
Mo. Man Burns Books as Act of Protest:
    Tom Wayne amassed thousands of books in a warehouse during the 10 years he has run his used book store, Prospero's Books. His collection ranges from best sellers like Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" and Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities," to obscure titles like a bound report from the Fourth Pan-American Conference held in Buenos Aires in 1910. But wanting to thin out his collection, he found he couldn't even give away books to libraries or thrift shops, which said they were full. So on Sunday, Wayne began burning his books protest what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word.
He certainly drew attention to his store, which probably boosted traffic, and that, ultimately, was his point. But Wayne is a foolish wastrel.

Not that I am paranoid, gentle reader, but I do have a plan B for my extensive library. Not only do the books have excellent insulation properties, but they are a handy fuel source for fires should civilization collapse.

It's not that I expect civilization to collapse that abruptly, but should it do so, I've got the books.

You can probably guess what Plan B is for the cats.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:14 AM   5 comments
 
Thousands Protest Unequal Proportion Of Women
Oh, sorry, no; since it's a bad thing for a particular woman, society should perhaps take extra steps to not do it: Texas woman on death row still represents rarity:
    A neighbor in a suburban Austin neighborhood appeared to be the perfect babysitter for Eryn Baugh's infant son and his 2-year-old sister.

    "She's the most sweet, endearing person in the world and put forward this good Christian front," Baugh said of Cathy Lynn Henderson, who lived two blocks away. "She could sell snow to an Eskimo."

    But just weeks after Henderson started working for the Baughs, 3-month-old Brandon was dead and Henderson had fled the state. The infant's body was found buried 60 miles away with his skull crushed, wrapped in his yellow-trimmed white blanket and stuffed into a box that previously held Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers.

    Henderson, 50, is set to die in less than three weeks for the 1994 slaying that made her one of the most hated women in Texas. She would be just the 12th woman among the nearly 1,100 convicted killers executed since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1977.
Where are the people who complain about the fact that most corporate structures at the top favor men? For consistency, shouldn't the underrepresentation of women on death row also be protested?

Silly boy; those who protest in their hearts of hearts often misquote Emerson: A consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:00 AM   0 comments
 
Bring Back "Finders Keepers"
Oh, no; a dispute over a sizeable sunken treasure find could derail the EU and cause Spain to send a vast armada--both of its remaining warships--up the Thames in an all-out war to break the backs of the English sea dogs: Deep sea treasure trove launches trans-Atlantic dispute:
    Odyssey has insisted it found the wreck in international waters in the Atlantic but has kept the exact site secret, but Madrid suspects the ship was discovered in Spanish territorial waters and a Spanish newspaper reported the vessel itself belonged to Spain.

    "What we're seeing here is a presumed incidence of plundering," First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Friday.

    Spain opened a probe into the exact location of the wreck last week after the culture ministry became suspicious of the circumstances in which the cargo, worth an estimated 400 million dollars, was found.
Yeah, Spain, who probably minted the coins from stolen Incan or Aztec gold, is on record accusing the American treasure hunting company of plundering. But that's apparently how it goes in 2007; any possession that was previously owned by someone from another country belongs to the previous owner as long as it's old.

Bonus additional snark: Iranian officials also claim that the Odyssey was in Iranian national waters and regrets missing the opportunity to seize it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:44 AM   5 comments
Sunday, May 27, 2007
 
Book Report: The Watchman by Robert Crais (2007)
This book is another Joe Pike book (like L.A. Reqiuem, I think). As you know, gentle reader, I have read and reported upon all of Robert Crais's work on this blog. I started out liking him with his early stuff, but later got a little bored with the "World's Greatest Detective" schtick of Elvis Cole. Crais must have, too, since he's veered off series, mostly, with some of his other books, but many of them set in LA return to Cole and Pike.

This book centers on a bodyguard gig that Joe Pike, the Hawk to Cole's Spenser, gets. He brings Elvis Cole into it, of course, but most of the book is from Pike's point of view, with flashbacks interspersed and other characters getting their chapters to show their emotional evolution.

Pike has to guard a Paris Hilton knock off who's in danger of getting knocked off after accidentally hitting a Mercedes on an after-club drive. The Mercedes contained two local real estate developers and a gopher for a South American cartel. The girl goes into protection, but someone inside is tipping off the bad guys, so a consultant goes way outside and gets Pike. Pike determines the best way to prevent anyone from harming the girl is to kill those persons first.

As a matter of course, lies are told to the protagonists and are investigated. The layers of the onion are peeled back, resulting in a climax that explains why I keep getting Google hits for robert crais republican.

A decent book, but Crais relies on a certain familiarity with Cole and Pike and might just play too much with shifting point of view.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:13 PM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad (1969)
I must have bought this paperback more than a decade ago, probably during college or immediately thereafter. It's been hanging around, and I've even tried to start it once or twice before, but I stalled out before passing through the narrative frame (introduction of Marlow relating the story while on a boat in the Thames). This time, though, it was the time to read it, and I made it through both the novelette ("Heart of Darkness"), the short story ("The Secret Sharer"), and the introduction/critical materials (and in that order).

"Heart of Darkness" is only 120 pages, but it's dense Victorian English. As some of you know, the movie Apocalypse Now was based on this work, and the three or four nights I spent reading it seem shorter than watching the movie. The plot varies in that Marlow is going to meet Kurtz, and Martin Sheen is going to kill Marlon Brando. So one almost wants to comment on the differences in the plot and how, thematically, the producers of the two works were talking differently and speculate as to why. But I have a real job, almost, so I won't waste too much time on it. I did get some of the thematic points of man versus himself at the same time as man versus nature and man versus primitive man. More than half the story spends its time getting up river, and the appearance, retrieval, and death of Kurtz happen very quickly, so if I find a hardback copy of Conrad's work, I would welcome an excuse to read it again.

"The Secret Sharer" is shorter and more straight forward, although the first pages set the scene and don't jump right into the action. However, I kind of got the point here, too.

Then I read the critical essays and the introduction to learn a little more about Conrad and such. Wow, I hearkened back to my university days with the critical essays, which were people saying in nonfiction what the author meant in his fiction. The essays confirmed some of my takes on the stories, but my goodness. Somewhere in the world, people make a living explaining largely underread literature to each other and to their students. I am glad I didn't stick in the academy.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:53 AM   0 comments
 
Good Book Hunting: May 26, 2007
This weekend didn't really yield any good book fairs, but I got some books anyway. We started the day by hitting some garage sales that boasted books. In 2007, a garage sale apparently boasts books if it has two books, one of which is a self-help book and the other is a microwave cookbook from 1987. However, Christ the King church was boasting a deal that you could get anything you could fit into a grocery bag for $1.00. I couldn't find a bag full of books I wanted, but I found three that looked interesting, which left room in the bag for a Kodak Brownie movie camera circa 1966 and a Molecular Visions Organic Model Kit.

We did survey a "book fair" at the Book House, a used book store I vowed some time ago to avoid since it was pricey and smelled of incontinent cat. Since, it was a book fair, though....

Well, it looked as though the "book fair" was regular Book House stock with a tarp tent outside. I guess some bit of it went to charity. I actually had three books in my hands before realizing that the books were priced as marked, and that roughly-used Dilbert book really was supposed to cost $7.50. I looked around a bit, but didn't get anything; Heather picked up one book. We decided to go to Patten Books up Manchester and tell Mr. Patten we were there buying because we had been to the Book House looking. But he wasn't in; however, five John D. MacDonald paperback originals that I didn't own were, so I dropped $15.00 and change on them. Patten also had some later Gor books, as he often does, but I'm not far along enough to drop $20 on a paperback just yet. Maybe in a couple years.

So here's our take:

May 26, 2007 acquisitions


Titles include:
  • The End of the Night by John D. MacDonald
  • April Evil by John D. MacDonald
  • Deadly Welcome by John D. MacDonald
  • On Monday We Killed Them All by John D. MacDonald
  • S*E*V*E*N by John D. MacDonald
  • A collection of columns from the Lake Superior Journal
  • Around Africa in 99 Beds by Dottie Miller, a sequel to the book I almost bought in March entitled Around the World in 99 Beds. This book had its title page and inscription intact.
  • Two Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America, a scholarly-looking thing about how paperbacks influenced America
Heather got a book entitled The Great Compromise. Brownie and model kit not depicted.

So I was a bad boy by price ($16 for 8 books!) but a good boy by number, as I only increased my backlog by 8.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:18 AM   2 comments
Saturday, May 26, 2007
 
Snarkical Indecision
When presented with a story like this:
    A truck driver hauling more than 17 million bees was killed in an accident on Interstate 55.
I am torn as into which direction I want to snark.

Do I wonder Is this part of the great bee assassination conspiracy that's killing all the honey bees, or do I wonder Whom will the bees sue? and make a list that includes the truck company, the makers of the guard rail, the family of the dead truck driver, and the makers of Honey Nut Cheerios just because General Mills has deep pockets?

The possibilities are endless.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:48 AM   0 comments
Friday, May 25, 2007
 
Book Report: Outlaw of Gor by John Norman (1967, 1982)
As you know, I bought Tarnsman of Gor and this book so that I would have read the first pentagor of the John Norman fantasy series before I lit into the last half of the first 10. Here, I read #2, the Gor book for 1967 (although my copy is a later reprint with cover by Boris Vallejo).

In this, Tarl Cabot returns to Gor after seven years on Earth to find his home city of Ko-ro-ba destroyed and its citizens scattered--including his father and his love Talena. He also finds himself in unheralded armor, meaning he's an outlaw. He ends up going to Tharna, a city where women rule, and leading an uprising.

The book is the weakest of the first five, clearly a setup for the longer story lines that took place after the first one succeeded. Still, it's short and it's still a neat piece of fantasy. I articulated to my wife that good fantasy is very different from suspense/crime/mystery fiction in that when you want to find out what's coming next, you really don't have any idea. These books are like that; they contain enough detail into the world that you know Norman isn't making it up as he goes, but as you go, you're learning something about the setting and the laws that govern it. You really can have a sense of wonder you don't get from other kinds of fiction.

So I'm ready for the sixth book in the series one of these days.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:15 PM   0 comments
 
Obvious Restraint
So the family of the Cardinals pitcher who died while driving while intoxicated have announced its lawsuit pantheon:
    The suit seeks unspecified damages "over $25,000" from Mike Shannon's Steaks and Seafood, the owner and driver of a parked tow truck that Hancock hit, and the driver of a car the wrecker had stopped to help.
Over at Overlawyered.com, David Nieporent does my schtick and helpfully identifies some other lawsuit targets:
    * The cell phone manufacturer; Hancock couldn't have been talking on the phone if they hadn't been so negligent as to invent it, or if they had placed warnings on the side of the phone about not using it while driving.
    * Hancock's girlfriend -- she was on the other end of the phone. Plus, he was driving to meet her.
    * The owners of the bar he was driving to in order to meet his girlfriend. If they had been closed, he wouldn't have been driving there; if they were easier to find, he wouldn't have had to give his girlfriend directions.
    * The car rental company; Hancock was driving a rented SUV... because he had just had an accident in his own car. If they hadn't rented him the SUV, he couldn't have been driving it.
    * Anheuser-Busch, it goes without saying; no alcohol, no accident.
    * The Cardinals, for not trading him to another team; if he hadn't been in St. Louis, he couldn't have crashed.
Leaving aside that Mr. Nieporent missed some of the obvious big laffs (Missouri Department of Transportation, for building/maintaining the road, and the legacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower, for passing the Interstate thing in the first place), I am not going to participate.

For although the family and their helpful attorneys deserve all the scorn and ridicule we can muster, one suspects that their threshold for slander--at least enough to threaten a lawsuit--is probably very low indeed.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:52 PM   0 comments
 
Addicts Have To Steal
SUV crashes into store, perhaps in attempt to steal guns

With gas prices so high these days, vehicles are forced to a life of crime.

Or maybe it was planning an invasion of Venezuela to liberate some sweet crude.

(Link seen on Ravenwood's Universe.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:24 PM   0 comments
 
Your Rights Today
Because one's inalienable rights fluctuate daily here in America, I thought I'd provide a quick cheatsheet of what is or is not allowed today, May 25, 2007. Please, go by the cheatsheet and do not try to reason out what the authorities will let you do from day to day nor try to apply common sense, as these two mechanisms will lead you astray.

  • Your dog pooping on the lawn: CRIME.
    If your dog evacuates itself outdoors, as animals are known to do, you could be cited and given a ticket for it. In some areas, you can go to jail for not having a pooper scooper when you walk your dog.

  • Leaving dog poop on a political opponent's doorstep: LEGAL.

    Seriously. So dog poop is a bad thing, a health or aesthetic hazard when a dog leaves it behind as a matter of its lifecycle, but it's not art. Or political metaphor. That, my friends, trumps health or ethical concerns regarding feces and urine.

  • Flyers with, you know, words on them: CRIME.
    A felony, no less. Sure, the circumstances of the case are off-putting; it was a vendetta, and it expressed a moral sentiment that our revered betters in the government don't often believe, but the girl is probably going to get jail time for pamphleteering.

Perhaps if you're walking your dog, you will not be in trouble if you bring political flyers for it to poop on, or perhaps you're protected from sensationalist hate speech prosecutions if you poop on your pamphlets before passing them around. Regardless, proper poop application seems to be the determining factor here.

Poop is protected speech, but words are not, except in those cases where poop is not protected speech. Ladies and gentlemen, the first amendment of your constitution as it stands today, May 25, 2007.

(One link seen on Instapundit.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:53 PM   0 comments
Thursday, May 24, 2007
 
Slandered by ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo, some sort of professionalesque personal search engine, crawls the Web and turns me up as working for almost any blog "company" where I appear on the blogroll. This leads to this particular bit of slander:

Brian J. Noggle, DotNetNuke Developer


DotNet Nuke developer? I dare say NOT.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:10 AM   2 comments
 
Satan Worshippers, Metal Heads Suddenly Flush
If you're hoping to buy the latest Slayer CD this morning, forget it; it's going to be And you wondered sold out before today is done, as will a lot of Jack Daniels and black candles:
    For the second time in a week and the sixth time in the past seven months, triple digits have been drawn in Pick 3. The numbers 6 - 6 - 6 were drawn in the May 22 evening Pick 3 drawing. This is the second time this combination has been drawn in the past two months. The triple 6 combination was drawn in the March 22 midday drawing.
Jeez, it's bad enough that I have to worry about fools and the corrupt in the world. I'd rather those with demonic powers not revel in their power so obviously.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:24 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
 
Book Report: Certain Prey by John Sandford (1999)
Well, that's what I get for having too many books on my shelves. I read the sequel to this book in February, completely unaware that I could have read them in order were I more organized.

This is the book that introduces the elite assassin Clara Rinker into Lucas Davenport's life. An attorney hires her through an intermediary to kill the wife of the man she wants. When the intermediary tries to blackmail the high-powered attorney, she calls the assassin back. They develop a friendship based on being sociopaths who happen to be women, and that's all spoiled when Davenport investigates the growing number of dead bodies.

The book is paced better than some Davenport novels, since it moves quickly throughout instead of a leisurely pace and then a hyperkinetic last hundred pages. However, the story does hinge on some coincidences and leaps of faith that made me go, hmmm. And contrary to what I said in previous book reports, there is a "hum" spelled out in this book, so the introduction of the aside utterances began and evolved gradually, I guess.

Still, a good enough read.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:18 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
 
Cronies Love Taxpayer Capital
Local development leaders support economic bill:
    Saying it offers more good than bad, regional economic development leaders on Monday expressed support for a maligned piece of legislation sitting on the governor's desk.

    The bill, known as HB327, is a wide-ranging economic package worth $100 million in tax credits aimed at stimulating job growth, venture capital and development of blighted areas. But it also deals with an odd mix of issues, including ticket scalping, beef-cow subsidies and biodiesel tax credits.
Wealthy developers get tax relief, individual citizens and families get....somewhere to go spend whatever money they have left over to enrich the wealthy developers and the government.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:04 AM   0 comments
Monday, May 21, 2007
 
How Can You Lose What You Don't Have?
Paris Hilton drops appeal


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:30 PM   0 comments
 
Fearing The Converse
Well, that's a relief, almost:
    A big rig whose trailer was stolen was actually hauling 28 pallets of commercial "shop vac" style vacuum cleaners and not five tons of fertilizer as authorities had announced, police said Monday.
Until one begins to wonder how many shipments of bad things haven't bothered the authorities because they only thought the criminals had gotten shop vacs.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:26 PM   0 comments
 
Sweet Home Missouri
It wasn't me, it was my evil twin brother:
    Twin brothers Raymon and Richard Miller are the father and uncle to a 3-year-old little girl. The problem is, they don't know which is which. Or who is who. The identical Missouri twins say they were unknowingly having sex with the same woman. And according to the woman's testimony, she had sex with each man on the same day. Within hours of each other.
Double ew.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:18 PM   0 comments
 
Send In The Trauma Counselors
Now that there's a name for the honeybees' disappearance:
    It's called colony collapse disorder.
The surviving honeybee population needs professional, certified help to allow it to feel its pain and to move on.

(Link seen via Instapundit, an academic blogging in Tennessee. Since he sent some traffic my way this weekend, I thought I'd return the favor.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:45 AM   0 comments
Saturday, May 19, 2007
 
Book Report: Chapter Two by Neil Simon (1974)
Of all the Neil Simon plays I've read (I Ought To Be In Pictures and Biloxi Blues recently), I like this one the best. It details two middle-aged (in 1974, this was 42 and 32) people coming out of their first marriages. The man is a widower still grieving for his wife, the woman a divorcée. Their friends are trying to set them up with people, and a chance meeting in a restaurant puts these two on a collision course of love. When the man dials her accidentally, it starts a whirlwind romance and marriage that aren't as rosy as they could be, as the man still wants to hold onto his self-pity in losing his wife.

Unlike Biloxi Blues, there's a unifying and identifiable theme here: the way middle-aged (in 1974) people deal with long-term relationships and the loss of the same. It's billed as a comic play, but it's definitely more serious than straight-ahead comedy. Also, I like the set designed by the playwright, which requires no scene changes even though it shows two scenes--the apartments of his and hers--and allows interaction via telephone. Smooth.

Side note: the original production used Judd Hirsch as the man character; I just read a complete episode guide for Judd Hirsch's comedy television series (Taxi). Isn't it funny how the mind imposes order on disorder (that is, my reading list and my wandering journey through the same)?

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:10 AM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Tuesday Night Football by Alex Karras with Douglas Graham (1991)
I bought this book for a dollar at a book fair this year because I liked Alex Karras as Mongo, and as Webster's father, and in all his television and film roles; I wasn't born when he played football (but man, they all became movie stars from that era, didn't they? Alex Karras, Bubba Smith, Merlin Olsen). Still, I bought the book because it was written by Alex Karras with Douglas Graham. And I think it was mostly Alex Karras.

What an absurd little book it is. It reads like a polished high school creative writing piece, like something I would have written in the tenth grade. Seriously, it reminds me of something my creative writing class group came up with when we were doing the "stories in the round" schtick, where every row of students working as a group would write a scene into a short story and pass it to the next group for them to write a scene, and we would get a story from another group and write a scene. We created an absurd character and inserted him into all of the stories.

In this book, the character is the happy-go-lucky or lucky-go-happy son if immigrants named Lazlo. He's eventually going to be on Tuesday Night Football, the also-ran behind ABC's Monday Night Football. But the first half of the book deals with the youth of the precocious Lazlo, who became an accordion prodigy, lived through a slightly cracked but within the bounds of normalcy family, and ended up as the Jingle King. From an early age, he has always connected to commercials and loved jingles because the people depicted within commercials are all happy, and Lazlo associates that with happiness. He's never anything bad to say about anybody and looks on the bright side of life.

A network executive catches him in his act in a Holiday Inn and decides to bring him to Chicago to be the third man in the booth with the play by play man, a veiled rendition of Howard Cosell, and an extremely randy color man. Thus, the second half of the book deals with the middle-aged young Lazlo coming to the big city, seeing what happens behind the scenes, learning the meaning of the University of Michigan fight song to Lance Allgood, and thwart the middle level executive and the professionals who think Lazlo will sink the sunken show.

But in the end, when Haywood's ex-wife incapacitates him with drug-laced cookies, Lazlo has to step in and briefly save the day. And he does, at which point the authors realize they've reached novel length and end.

The prose wasn't bad, the characters were obvious caricatures, and the plots outlandish. The book is billed as a comic novel, and while some of it is very, very mildly amusing, it doesn't reach the level of Hiaasen or Barry. It was designed and packaged with the football fan who reads in mind, as the cover depicts not Lazlo, but Alex Karras sitting in a cartoon chair in a cartoon living room watching football.

But I had a good time reading it.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:01 AM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Nick at Nite's Classic TV Companion edited by Tom Hill (1996)
This book, written right after Nick at Nite's 10th anniversary, comes from the days when Nick at Nite was TV Land before TV Land became its own channel and Nick at Nite began showing whatever it shows now.

This book is an episode guide for some of the more popular classic television shows that Nick at Nite aired, including:
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • Welcome Back, Kotter
  • I Love Lucy
  • Bewitched
  • Taxi
  • The Munsters
  • I Dream of Jeannie
  • The Bob Newhart Show
  • The Dick Van Dyke Show
I can almost count the number of episodes of these I've seen on television. A couple from Welcome Back, Kotter, certainly, and one from The Dick Van Dyke Show because it was on one of those dollar DVDs you can pick up in the grocery store that contains 4 old television shows. I know I've watched episodes of some of the others and snippets of all of them, but for the life of me, I couldn't match the scenes to the episodes.

Hopefully, I've picked up some useful trivia in the months I've spent working on this book a little at a time. The book also triggered in me a slight urge to pick up DVDs of some of the shows so I could watch them in the original order--imagine that; ten years later, the book isn't triggering an urge to watch the cable station whose brand is on the book, but to consume the shows in another format entirely. But I won't act on it that quickly.

The chapters are introduced with a section on when the show first aired on Nick at Nite and a compendium of quotes about the series from other books. Ergo, the introductory matter was meaningless. However, some of the episodic addenda was interesting: little footnotes about recurring actors playing different roles, singing and dancing numbers within the shows, or breaks in continuity.

Worth a buck if you have five hundred pages of reading time to spare and enjoy old television shows.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:23 AM   0 comments
 
One of These Things Is Not Like The Others
Let's see here:
  • A talk show host known for being acerbic and insulting says something stupid and insulting about a basketball team: fired.
  • A talk show host and former political "leader" says he thinks a rival talk show host killed his mother, who died in an accidental fire: Suspended, replaced by his son, a current political "leader" under several clouds.
  • A talk show host makes a humor bit about a crime in the community where the humor relies on mocking a local paper columnist: Fired, although the radio station was planning to replace her soon with syndicated material anyway.
In all of these cases, the target of the radio talk show host's ire was of a different race. In one, the radio talk show host was suspended. Because of White Privilege!, he must have been treated differently.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:47 AM   1 comments
Friday, May 18, 2007
 
It's Gonna Take Martial Law, Curfew Ain't Gonna Get It
They told us all along that reelection of George W. Bush would result in the further encroachment of fascism on the American public. Here's a new proposal in Baltimore to give the mayor the power to set up checkpoints and block off whole sectors of the city for, well:
    A city council leader, alarmed by Baltimore's rising homicide rate, wants to give the mayor the power to put troubled neighborhoods under virtual lockdown.

    "Desperate measures are needed when we're in desperate situations," City Council Vice President Robert W. Curran told The (Baltimore) Sun. He said he would introduce the legislation next week.

    Under Curran's plan, the mayor could declare "public safety act zones," which would allow police to close liquor stores and bars, limit the number of people on city sidewalks, and halt traffic during two-week intervals.

    Police would be encouraged to aggressively stop and frisk individuals in those zones to search for weapons and drugs.
You know, something's missing in that story. All the stories on the wire just lack a certain detail whose omission is glaring. What is it? I can't quite put my finger on it. Oh, wait.
    "Desperate measures are needed when we're in desperate situations," City Council Vice President Robert W. Curran (D, District 003) told The (Baltimore) Sun. He said he would introduce the legislation next week. [Emphasis added, as well as a big blinking D]
I guess we know why some Democrats want the US troops out of Iraq: so they can set up checkpoints, conduct raids, and do their pacification in the United States.

Fortunately, another city councilman takes a bold stand for civil liberties:
    Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., a mayoral hopeful, said Curran's idea was an interesting concept but it raised questions about civil liberties.

    "We have to make sure we're not declaring martial law," he said.     [Emphasis added]
An interesting concept? Forget it, we're done.

And you know, I made a big deal about Curran's party affiliation, but it's not so much democratic party as it is the new Aristocratic party:
    With strong family ties to politics (his brother is Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., and his niece Catherine Curran O'Malley is the mayor's wife and a District Court judge in Baltimore City), Curran was one of 10 council members to hire relatives for staff positions. Curran reportedly put a niece on the City Council staff payroll. Hiring a niece was legal, though the council found itself in ethical hot water because of it.
Like the Gores, Blunts, Carnahans, Bushes, et al., our country sure looks to be heading toward a rule by self-selected families instead of citizens, is it not?


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:25 PM   1 comments
 
Giving Downtown St. Louis Its Props
I'm the first to tut-tut the revitalization of downtown St. Louis, but this is a positive step: Schnucks planning downtown store:
    Finishing touches are being put on a plan for a 20,000-square-foot Schnuck’s to go into the first floor of the Desco-DFC Group garage development at 9th between Olive and Locust streets, several sources said Thursday. The Century Building formerly was at the location.
I've always maintained that an urban core is only as good as its supermarkets. With the inclusion of a Schnucks (no apostrophe) down there, it will help a lot, since the downtown dwellers won't have to drive out to the suburbs to shop or pay boutique prices.

I will note, though, that it's a DESCO development, which is the property company owned by the Schnuck family, so it's not as though Schnucks has to pay going rates, but on the other hand, the DESCO first floor won't sit empty for years awaiting a tenant. Besides, that's how the companies operate in the suburban locations, too.

Good work, downtown. It's a supermarket. If you can keep it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:52 PM   0 comments
 
It's Either A Dream Or Alternate Universes
I'm not sure how television people plan to pull this off:
    "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," is based on the character from the "Terminator" movies and essentially moves her and her son, John, to New York where they prepare to stop running and fight back.
They could easily run afoul of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and its its books which don't talk much about John Connor in New York.

But you know what would be cool? A Terminator-based series about Sarah Connor going to Washington and lobbying/protesting against the computerization of the military. Because that would have message, baby!


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:30 PM   0 comments
 
I Believe They're Called Insurgents Now
Gorilla Injures 4 in Zoo in Brief Escape:
    A 400-pound gorilla escaped from his enclosure and ran amok in a Rotterdam zoo Friday, biting one woman, dragging her around, and causing panic among dozens of visitors before he was finally subdued, officials and a witness said.
After all, he's only fighting for a just cause: he wants to be recognized as a man.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:23 PM   0 comments
Thursday, May 17, 2007
 
Google Hit Of The Day
Either way, the woman loses: breast cyst or noggle


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:42 PM   2 comments
 
A Stunning Turn Of Events
Public/private redevelopment effort requires more participation from the public portion:
    Glendale will have to borrow an additional $16.5 million to pay for public improvements at the Bayshore Town Center, bringing the total spending by the city to $57 million.
Don't worry, though. As this elaborate scheme is described in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the private half is getting its own soaking:
    RNC Capital Markets conducted a financial study of the city last fall and determined that Glendale could pay an additional $16.5 million toward the financing. The $300,000 or more will be absorbed by the developers as part of the agreement with the city dating back to 2004.
The developers will pay for the study that says the city could pay its millions. And don't fret, gentle Glendalean; the Journal-Sentinel waves its handy assertions wand to put you at ease:
    Home and business property owners in the city will not shoulder any of the borrowing for the project.
Because the city exists independently of your taxes, apparently.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:41 PM   0 comments
 
Another Thompson I Can Support
New Packers signing Paul Thompson:
    Paul Thompson (6-4, 215) is relatively green in terms of quarterbacking but has already established his reputation as a leader. He started four games at receiver and caught 11 passes in 2005 but was reinserted at quarterback in 2006.

    He started all 14 games as the Sooners went on to win the Big 12 championship. Thompson completed 204 of 336 attempts (60.7%) for 2,667 yards and 22 touchdowns last year. He was sacked 17 times and intercepted 11 for a quarterback rating of 142.45.

    "He can move around, he can make plays with his feet, but we thought he played the position of quarterback well enough to take a look," said Ted Thompson. "I know some teams were looking at maybe an alternate-position type guy but we wanted to see him as a quarterback."
I am about ready to call this the Year of Thompson at MfBJN.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:14 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
 
Maybe The Developers Are Trying To Tell You Something
St. Louis's Bottleworks District, one of its centrally-planned collections of retail and housing in an already glutted market, has run into trouble. However, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch rah-rahs that in spite of the developers backing away:
    The last initiative, announced in September 2005, called for three high-rise condo buildings on the approximately 16-acre site — the tallest of which would be 630 feet. The city pledged a $51.3 million tax break.

    At the time, Ghazi Co., based in Charlotte, N.C., was named co-developer and Clayco was the general contractor.

    Since then the project has stalled, and Ghazi dropped out about eight months ago, giving rise to speculation that the Bottle District may be dead.
51.3 million dollars given up by the strapped city of St. Louis apparently wasn't enough. Still, the optimism of the project in the article is based soundly on someone involved in the project saying that the project is recalibrating and is going swimmingly.

Except that no one's building it.

Probably because the stone doesn't have enough blood to wring.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:12 AM   2 comments
 
Another Horror of Reanimation
Not only are the results undead, but they're litigious:

Former Dead musician sues YouTube over unauthorized videos

Dr. Frankenstein never had this problem, but he was before the time of cell phone video.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:53 AM   0 comments
 
Wilding On Two Wheels
Another Critical Mass in Berkeley, another attack on a motorist. Instead of a mother and her kids, this time the hooligans targeted a 70-year-old man:
    A Friday clash between a Berkeley minivan and Critical Mass bicyclists continued to generate conflict Monday as the van driver said the bicyclists placed bicycles under his front tire during the violent melee.

    "A certain number of the bicyclists were prepared to do this with malice aforethought," said Harlan Head, 70, driver of the Chevrolet minivan. "They shoved bicycles under the car and attempted several other things."

    Critical Mass organizer Jason Meggs, 38, who filmed part of the incident on his digital camera, called Head's accusation "outrageously ridiculous."
How convenient that the leader of the bihadists had a video to upload to YouTube. So that next month's Critical Smash event is even more popular amongst the brown jerseys who think they're not only above the laws of the road, but the laws of the land as well.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:44 AM   0 comments
Monday, May 14, 2007
 
They Call It The Annual Firestone
But controversy has erupted because some members of the academy might have been corrupted:

Explorer rollover award must be reviewed

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:13 PM   0 comments
 
Brownback Loses Wisconsin
Football reference trips up GOP hopeful:
    Note to Sen. Sam Brownback: In Packerland, it's not cool to diss Brett Favre.

    The GOP presidential hopeful drew boos and groans Friday at the Wisconsin Republican Party convention when he used a football analogy to talk about the need to focus on families.

    "This is fundamental blocking and tackling," he said. "This is your line in football. If you don't have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history."
Next!

(Link seen on Outside the Beltway, where James Joyner underestimates the cataclysm and defends Peyton Manning.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:51 AM   0 comments
 
Framing, Dear Brian, Framing
A rapacious government doing whatever it can to extract money from its citizens to fund dubious programs? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch cannot tear itself off of the legs of the monied political class. Wait, it's not just poor governance! It's predatory bullying:
    Some homeowners fuming over reassessment left a town hall meeting here Saturday feeling bounced around by government with no way to fight the double-digit percentage jump in home values.

    "The politicians create a bureaucratic jungle," said Bill Powers, 72, whose Ladue home's assessed value rose 39 percent.

    "The county points to the state. The state points to the county — and they all point to the computer system" that compiles the numbers, Powers said. "The system is flawed, and it's predatory."
Well, yeah, that's how the governments that the Post-Dispatch continually rah-rahs work. They take more and more money from citizens to fund the development projects and other goofball projects for which the paper asks us to "Gimme a G! Gimme an O! Gimme a V! Gimme a E!" and so on.

One must wonder how much the landowners at the top of Post-Dispatch masthead got soaked to allow citizens to feel bullied in print.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:13 AM   0 comments
 
And Whosoever Shall Be Found Without The Soul For Getting Down
Must stand to face the hounds of hell and rot inside a corpsed shell:
    Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP likely will be the winning bidder to buy Chrysler Group from DaimlerChrysler AG, and an announcement could come as early as Monday, a company official said Sunday.
Jeez, what marketing genius came up with the idea to name a company after the three-headed hound who guarded the gates of Hades? How would you feel if the company you worked for was from the Greek for Hellhound? Seriously, someone either made a whacked naming decision or they're telling us something.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:09 AM   0 comments
Sunday, May 13, 2007
 
Good Book Hunting: May 12, Alton, Illinois
Yesterday, my beautiful wife and I loaded up the baby and excurted to Alton, Illinois, a small town in the upper northern reaches of the St. Louis metropolitan area. To get there, we had to drive for almost an hour, cross two rivers, and navigate the revitalizing downtown area of Alton.

The Friends of the Haynor Library hold this book sale twice a year, in May and in October. As such, they have a decent amount of material, but a lot of it is ex.lib. Also, I think the selection represents recent library remainders, the detritus from past book sales, and a couple or three donations from the last five or six months. As a result, there's volume, but it has a pre-picked over quality to it. The good books were already sold. As a barometer, Heather spotted a single Ed McBain novel--and I didn't even see that.

Also, the books were predominantly displayed on actual bookshelves instead of tables. Whereas this works in a bookstore, a book sale tends to have a larger number of people moving around, which doesn't lend itself to leisurely browsing. Books on the bottom shelves get short shrift as they're not at eye level, and I cannot browse disorganized shelves very quickly.

That didn't stop me from buying, though; as the picture below indicates, I found 11 books to Heather's 6. Which is a shame, since the books were priced well; fifty cents for a hardback, a quarter for a paperback. This is one step above bag day, my friends; if a book remotely tempted me, I picked it up. But I wasn't very tempted.

The book sale also had a large room full of other media, including cassettes, CDs, VHS cassettes, computer software, and magazines. As you know, you can rip a CD into MP3 format, so a quarter for a cassette is worth it if you know one song on it (versus online music services). I dug into these and found 7 (several are compilations of songs of easy listening) to Heather's 1; again, these were not merchandised well, as the cassettes were stacked on end so the name was not visible. It's just as well, since most of them were mixed tapes, bootlegs, recordings of various lectures, or theological programs. I have a greater patience than Heather, but even I wasn't that thorough when going through them.

Well, here's the picture; notice I've turned the spines toward you, gentle reader, so you can see what I've bought and so I have a record and can report faithfully where I got the books when I actually get around to reading them.

Alton Book Sale Pickings


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:00 AM   2 comments
Saturday, May 12, 2007
 
Book Report: Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon (1985)
I bought this book at the Kirkwood Book Fair this year, which is odd, since I bought I Ought To Be In Pictures last year. I have to wonder if the owner is trickling out his or her library at a slow pace, or if I just missed it last year.

This book isn't a complete enough play for me; I mean, it's about a man's experience at military training in 1943 and some things that happens there. From the outset, we don't know what's at stake, and then something happens, and the play is over, framed with a last scene very like the first scene. There are some amusing lines and situations, but ultimately, I'm not sure the play says anything or leads anywhere.

As some of you know, this is a sequel to Brighton Beach Memoirs; both were made into movies in the middle 1980s. I saw parts of this movie on Showtime, and I read excerpts of the first in Weekly Reader, for crying out loud. How old am I?

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:15 PM   0 comments
Friday, May 11, 2007
 
Book Report: Sein Language by Jerry Seinfeld (1993)
I must have bought this book for a buck at the Webster Groves Library book fair this year; it's a recent acquisition, so of course, I read it soon. It's the first nonfiction book I've finished in over a month (the last being The Prize Winner's Handbook, and heck's pecks, 1980 and 1993--they were almost the same year!)

Wow, I don't mean to make you feel old, but you do realize that Seinfeld's television show has been off network television for almost a decade, don't you?

This book takes some of his topical humor and presents it in prose form. Now, I've not been much of a Seinfeld fan, so I don't know how well the book works when he presents it; however, this book really only made me chuckle aloud a handful of times. The rest was wry, witty sometimes, but not what I'd call funny. As I go on in my quest to find really funny books by comedians (as you know, I've read Chris Rock, Bill Cosby, Dennis Miller, Rita Rudner, Sinbad, Judy Tenuta, Tim Allen, and so on, and so on). Of these, Bill Cosby and Dennis Miller come across as the best because they're storytellers or crafters of turns of phrase, and Rita Rudner's up there. Tim Allen's books (I Am Not Really Here and Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man) aren't so much based on his standup as booklength musings. Seinfeld falls in the middle of the pack with Chris Rock, Judy Tenuta, but probably above Sinbad in the book department. There's something to be said for showmanship, I guess.

As I read, I couldn't help but think that these books are something akin to riddle books for adults. Apparently, I'm hooked, and I'll keep picking them up.

Worth it? Well, as much for a 1990s time piece to show what were the concerns of that halycon era when Seinfeld ruled the world. A brief age of innocence lost like most are.

Books mentioned in this review:



PS: A note to future historians, ca 2010: No, you're thinking of Richard Lewis. Jerry Seinfeld was a different guy entirely whose popularity peaked a whole 8 years after Richard Lewis. But I see how you could make the mistake.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:40 PM   0 comments
 
Counterpoint: Let's Keep The Mother Fighting Tradition Alive
Some people argue that mother fighting is a brutal sport that civilized nations should prohibit, since in many mother fights, the mothers are often wounded mortally or to the point where they are euthanized. While this might be the case, mother fights are conducted in the most humane fashion possible, without the use of spurs or other sharpened implements to increase bloodiness.

While some people don't like mother fighting, it's important to recognize the cultural import of the sport to many nations. In some underdeveloped countries, mother fighting provides much need entertainment in relief of hardscabble lives where people lack sports teams that charge $100 a ticket, concert venues where washed-up acts charge $100 a ticket, or functioning democratically-elected legislatures whose entrances cost millions of dollars. It remains an inexpensive sport participated in village greens, small outbuildings, and wherever like minded individuals gather to gamble, drink, and enjoy the spectacle.

And what a spectacle it provides! Brilliantly-plumed hens strutting and preening as they enter the ring, only to circle on another as in a ballet and come together in a whirling, flashing dance of life and death. Tallons, teeth, and elbows fly through the air gracefully, with the sensuous motion of lovers until one triumphs over the other. The arena bursts into applause at that great cathartic moment!

Mother fighting, unlike many of the organized sports of the upper classes, does not require expensive equipment nor time and minivan commitment. All a boy needs is a mother, time to train, some grain, and a dream. And what dreams the boy has; he can feel the warmth of the lights and the lightness of head that comes when his mother enters the ring and emerges victoriously. The boy's name will live forever, and the boy will become a proud man.

Some opponents of mother fighting think that it's barbaric and want to institute prohibition. They seek to transmute Mother's Day, the annual festival of mother fighting and the day of some of the largest, most festive carnivals and biggest mother fights, into a day of peace, a day set aside to preserve and honor the mother. This foolishness cuts to the very heart of tradition and seeks to impose a set of beliefs not held by the majority onto the world at large. We should not let this come to pass.

(Read the Point, Let's reclaim Mother's Day for peace, by Jordan's Queen Noor.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:16 PM   0 comments
 
New Business Slang
Get your new business slang free here at MfBJN! Here's today's term:

Net of Command: A chain of command hierarchy that is so interconnected and confused that any decision becomes tangled in it.

Feel free to use it amongst yourselves.

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:23 PM   0 comments
 
iPacemaker
Apple’s iPods interfere with heart pacemakers, study shows:
    A teenager’s curiosity has uncovered an unsettling side effect of wearing an iPod: It might cause heart pacemakers to malfunction.

    The discovery appeared in a study announced Thursday during a research presentation in Denver. The finding, initially reported by Reuters, shows that iPods generate enough electromagnetic interference to hamper effective function of implantable pacemakers, and in some instances cause them to stop working entirely.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:47 AM   0 comments
Thursday, May 10, 2007
 
Book Report: The Retaliators by Donald Hamilton (1976)
I saw the Dean Martin Matt Helm movies before I found this book at a book fair, cheap, so I didn't know whether to expect the Austin Powers tone in the novel. It's more of a straightforward paperback thriller: Matt Helm, counteragent, finds himself framed as a traitor, so he runs south to Mexico with the wife of a tycoon. Her brother was a copatriot of Matt's, and he was killed when captured during the frame-up. There, Helm finds details about their mission that was about to start before the frame-up takes place: kill an assassin who has his eyes on a revolutionary Mexican general.

Helm relies on assistance from a Mexican colonel he trusts from a previous mission, but too many people are shooting at Helm for his comfort or for his trust.

The voice is a bit wordy, probably looking for a certain braggadocio in the character. The pacing a bit slow, and the first person narrator keeps things a little close to chest. The plot itself is a little too clever for its own good and relies on a bit of Helm making cognitive leaps that I wouldn't have seen coming. The result is a second tier paperback thriller, way below John D. MacDonald's work, but good enough for some throwaway time.

Apparently, Helm has a legion of fans; perhaps the earlier books in the series are better.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:11 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
 
Crony Capitalists Giveth
And crony capitalists taketh away:
    The Washington County Board has refused to pay a $4 million subsidy to Cabela's Inc., the world's largest direct marketer of outdoor gear, for construction of a store that opened in Richfield in September.

    A slim majority of supervisors Tuesday voted against borrowing the funds that the board had pledged to Cabela's in September 2005 as an incentive for building the store in the county.
I know, I rail on crony capitalism in the form of governments giving incentives to certain developers or corporations for selection of one municipality over another, but I'm even more disturbed that governments are becoming brazen in not holding to their words, resolutions, promises, writs, and whatnot.

Pardon me while I synchronize my watch with the continuing countdown to the end of our Western civilization.


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:31 PM   0 comments
 
Mass Murder of One
The layering of charges to get around that nasty prohibition against double jeopardy continues unabated. Within this terrible story, note how a death through negligence becomes mass murder:
    The couple were found guilty May 2 of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. A jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.
That's three charges for the death of one individual.

Recognizing the possibility of prosecutorial overreach might have been the only thing preventing additional charges of child abuse, battery, and assault with intent to kill negligently.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:58 PM   0 comments
Monday, May 07, 2007
 
That's a Bold Marketing Tagline
Seen in the current issue of Leatherneck:

V-22 ad
Click for full size


"No other aircraft gets Marines into and out of danger like the V-22."

That's just climbing into the aircraft.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:12 PM   0 comments
 
Celebrate Brutality with the New York Daily News
So apparently Paris Hilton is going to jail, and here's the New York Daily News reveling in the brutality behind bars:
    Hotel heiress Paris Hilton better watch her back in the Century Regional Detention Facility, visitors who were at the jail yesterday warned.

    "If you act like you're all high-class and uppity," Denise Chavis said, "you're done."
The paper goes on to describe the deplorable nature of life in jail. With glee and a slight taunt. Finally, we've brought her down low.

How pathetic. However Paris Hilton emerges from prison, she'll still be Paris Hilton, and the mean-spirited Daily News West Coast Bureau Chief will still be only that.


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:30 PM   1 comments
 
Book Report: Another Part of the City by Ed McBain (1986)
With the cover of this novel, it's easy to assume it's one of the 87th Precinct novels. Of course, it doesn't actually say that, but it's easy to make that mistake, which I'm sure the publisher helped along with the cover matching the mid-80s 87th Precinct novels. I didn't realize it until all of a sudden they were actually in New York.

This book deals with Bryan Reardon, a detective in the 5th Precinct, and the rest of the 5th squad as they deal with one of the infrequent murders in their precinct. Reardon also has to deal with a divorce in process that he's not in favor of and a new romance, maybe, with a researcher for Forbes. So a restaurant owner gets whacked while Mob guys watch, but it looks to be a result of some financial shenanigans and perhaps a touch of geopolitics as an Arab got whacked at LaGuardia by the same perps.

The mid-80s novels set in New York are very, very bleak in their outlook on the safety in the city. Definitely progressed toward that Escape from New York future. Then a certain mayor came to lead the city and turn it around in the 1990s. Wow, if that mayor was running for president, he'd definitely be my Plan B. Fortunately, Ed McBain isn't around to see me linking up his books to politics with which he (McBain) would probably disagree.

So it's a one-off as far as series go, but it's classic McBain and worth a read.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:11 AM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Under a Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy (1871, 1983)
Hey, sometimes you're in the mood for a Hardy Boys book, and if that's the case, don't make the same mistake I've obviously done.

Just kidding. I read Tess of the d'Urbervilles in college and saw The Marriage of Bette & Boo that same year, so one has to wonder why I didn't become a total Thomas Hardy head. Except that it's Victorian literature, and I'm a contemporary American, more Hemingway than Faulkner much less Victorian.

Still, when this book was remaindered from the Bridgeton Trails branch of the library, I couldn't pass it up (I also got A Pair of Blue Eyes). It's a fair enough into to Hardy, as it's only a hair over 200 pages. It tells the story of a young man named Dick Dewy and the new school mistress Fancy Day. It comprises a fairly short number of scenes, some of which are less important to the forward progress of the story than their overall length would suggest. However, like with any serious novel and any old novel, you have to read it for the joy of the language and the archaism of the world it depicts.

Is it a good Victorian novel? Heck if I know; I haven't read enough bad Victorian novels to know the difference. But I know a little more about the time period in which organs replaced quires in the Anglican church and a little more about Thomas Hardy's work, so it was worth the quarter. Also, I've read more Hardy than you have now (probably), so feel my arrogance. Go ahead, put your hand right here on the monitor -> X <- Feel it?

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:50 AM   0 comments
 
I Has Time Killerz
I Can Has Cheezeburger. Cat pix with captions in txt.

(Link seen on Trey Givens.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:47 AM   0 comments
Sunday, May 06, 2007
 
Don't Remake the Remake
The blogosphere, built of fanboys of science fiction, politics, or sometimes both, is abuzz about the Entertainment Weekly The Sci-Fi 25 top 25 science fiction things in the last 25 years, has this to say about #16, The Thing:
    Recently, there's been talk in Hollywood of remaking The Thing. Please don't. For the love of God, we're begging you. After all, this streamlined exercise in subzero paranoia cannot be improved upon.
This is amusing to some of us who realize the 1982 film was a remake of a 1951 film entitled The Thing From Another World.

Don't remake the remake because its subzero paranoia could not be improved? Hollywood 2007 surely differs; why, it's a parable about modern politics, somehow, making George W. Bush and the American military responsible would speak more truth to power.

In the pool, I'm taking the spot where alien is replaced with military experiment on Iraqi/general Arabic prisoner gone wrong.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:31 AM   0 comments
 
Cop Killer, 25 Years Later, Full of Wrong Adjectives
Convicted killer fears his last moments:
    Workman said he doesn't feel much like a person anymore. He has become a pile of legal briefs, appeals, depositions.

    And he is angry, sorry, scared and depressed.

    Of the officer who was killed, Workman says: "Any loss of life is a tragedy."
No, sir; the loss of the officer was tragic, but the result of another man's actions. When that life is lost, it will be justice, not tragedy.

The dead cop didn't get 25 years to build up a good set of anger, fear, or depression. He doesn't feel like a person any more, either, because Workman killed him in a Wendy's parking lot. Poor bastard is nothing but a footnote in a CNN cause célèbre.

Meanwhile, pliable proletariat reader, feel sympathy for some poor soul who's had 25 years to reflect on what he's done, and the best he can do is a sideways sorry amid his own turmoil for his punishment.

I'd say shame on CNN and shame on Workman, but there's no shame any more. Some people have moved beyond it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:22 AM   0 comments
 
Why Does Jim Doyle Hate Real Estate Investors?
Maybe he doesn't hate them; maybe they're just dogs whose blood he wants to suck:
    Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's plan to double the fee paid by sellers of homes and other property - a fee increase that would cost sellers of property $142 million over the next two years - survived the first attempt by Republicans to kill it Thursday.
No doubt, Jim Doyle's blue-ribbon BOHICA commission assume that this will not impede real estate investment and rehabbing, particularly in blighted areas in the throes of gentrification. No doubt the crony capitalists in charge of Wisconsin government will redistribute some wealth to favored developers to offset the new fee increases they're saddling the honest men with.

But cause and effect aren't tied together when effects are bad and the cause is "more taxes" or "more government."


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:11 AM   0 comments
 
A Tale Of Two Commencement Speakers
One routinely says things that don't make sense, and the other is Yogi Berra.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:57 AM   0 comments
Friday, May 04, 2007
 
New Democrat Voter Outreach
Not really, but come on, we all know who this object will vote for, don't we?
    In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV. But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person—at least not yet. In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26- year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person."
Remarkable. Even better, look at this splitting of hairs:
    "Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights," said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.

    "We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions," Theuer said.

    "We're not talking about the right to vote here."
Where have I seen that before? Oh, yes: All animals are equal. But some are more equal than others.

(Another link seen on Boots and Sabers.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 3:46 PM   0 comments
 
That Holds Me Back, Too
Want to know why I never went to Hollywood? Because my stone-cold attractivosity would melt the cameras. Jessica Biel understands:
    Last summer's The Illusionist may have given her résumé a prestige boost, but Jessica Biel says "it's still a struggle" to get the parts she wants – partly because she's too sexy.
We should form a support group, but I think my wife would disapprove.

(Link seen on Boots and Sabers; in lieu of actually finding something on my own, I am merely republishing their content.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:32 PM   1 comments
Thursday, May 03, 2007
 
Why Should IE 8 Differ?
Microsoft sez:
    Microsoft's solution would be to make developers shoulder the responsibility if their sites break when rendered by IE 8.
Sounds a lot like their "solution" to a lot of broken things.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:19 AM   0 comments
 
Trust the Administrators
Whenever some developer or project manager tells me that a software application does not have to provide bulletproof validation for administrators because they're not as dumb as normal users, I pause a moment to reflect upon administrator genius:
    trumwill: Over the weekend the company changed everything on the network. They sent out an email with our new network passwords.

    morequen: Wait, they sent out *an* email?

    morequen: with everyone’s password?

    trumwill: Everyone’s password being the same, yes. They advised us to create a new one.

    morequen: wow

    trumwill: Which would be possible if we could, you know, log in to see the email. Which of course we couldn’t because our passwords didn’t work.
Administrators are just users put in charge of other users. Smarter? Maybe sometimes. But software shouldn't be written as though its users are Steven Hawking, because sometimes those presumed genius-level administrators are nothing but users tasked with administrative responsibilities.

(Link seen on Dustbury.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:47 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
 
Book Report: Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1981)
In March, I read Ringworld's Children, but that book did not mar my longstanding default view of Larry Niven's work enough that I didn't pick Oath of Fealty right away. The book centers on a collision between the city of Los Angeles and an "arcology"--a large, mostly self-contained living structure housing hundreds of thousands of people with its own government, economy, and security. A humanist terrorist group wants to destroy "The Hive," so they send some young people on a dry run with only mock weapons. The security force of Todos Santos responds with deadly force, leading a showdown with the political and law enforcement forces of the city that surrounds it.

The book presents a lot of thought-provoking themes, such as a contrast of the way of life for regular city dwellers who live freely and the residents of Todos Santos, who accept certain security measures--the omnipresence of cameras, for example--to make living together in a confined area possible. Todos Santos, aside from the cameras, offers many amenities and philosophies--police are again peace officers, the government does not regulate business and in fact offers loans on good terms, and the citizens are not citizens, they're also shareholders in the corporation that runs Todos Santos.

It's got a bit of the political going on and a large cast of characters, but because it's not built on a number of books preceding it (as Ringworld's Children was), these flaws are forgiveable and aren't so dramatic; one only has to pause to sort out who the character is, not try futilely to remember who the character was from a book one read a decade ago).

Written with Jerry Pournelle and published in 1981, this book precedes the Reagan era and comes out of the 1970s milieu, but it doesn't seem dated. One of the characters carries a communicator/calendar/portable computer that, unfortunately, he has to plug in. Sounds familiar enough 26 years later. Unfortunately, the characters do describe a large set of computer files (27,000,000 bytes) that will take a long time to download at 300 baud. True, but I was downloading faster than that a mere five years after the book was written.

So it's a good book, and I'd recommend it. Especially if you can snag a cheap copy like I did.

For those of you keeping track at home, this is my 38th book of the year, so I am on a good pace to reach my annual goal of 75.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:28 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
 
May The Biggest Kickback Win
City officials in Milwaukee have a dilemma: Developers want free money:
    More than three years after the Park East Freeway spur was torn down, 16 acres of prime downtown land remain barren - and developers say it's time for city officials to help make something happen there.

    "There's gridlock right now, and I'm concerned this thing is going to blow up," said Gary Grunau, who is building the new Manpower Inc. headquarters, just north of the Park East area. "Somebody's got to show some leadership."
"Leadership," of course, is a euphemism for "government giveaways to private business" in forms of tax abatement, zoning variations, and loan co-signing. Of course, this would be a no-brainer, as government officials tend to want to hump the legs of all developers they can.

But:
    Concerns about city financing for hotel projects have been raised by Greg Marcus, executive vice president of Marcus Corp., which operates three downtown hotels: InterContinental Milwaukee Hotel, Hilton Milwaukee City Center and the Pfister Hotel.

    Marcus, in a March 6 letter to Mayor Tom Barrett, said efforts to "subsidize construction of hotel rooms without first stimulating demand for those rooms" will "simply siphon off demand from existing (privately financed) hotel rooms."
It sounds like there's trouble in paradise, right? Heavy hitters in the local industry making noises like this, sounding almost laissez-faire.

Aw, if I believed that, I wouldn't be a good cynic. The government has enough favors for all fat cats. I expect the city of Milwaukee will cosign the loans for the speculative development and will throw sops to existing businesses, maybe even before they're failing on account of the city's meddling in a market economy. After all, there can never be too many cronies in crony capitalism.

Ah, Milwaukee. Briefly, you were more than St. Louis, but you're in a hurry to sink to its post-industrial, post-unsupported business level.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:00 PM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."