Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Monday, October 06, 2008
 
Book Report: Resolution by Robert B. Parker (2008)
Well, it's a Parker Western. I picked it up because Appaloosa's movie version opened this weekend.

The moral bankruptness of the Parker universe progresses. In it, Cole, the marshal from Appaloosa, has left Appaloosa after his lover runs off with another man. Off-page, Cole hunts down the man and kills him simply for taking up with Cole's interest. Then, when he joins Hitch in Resolution, the town of the title, Cole takes up with a married woman. Does he deserve to die for it? Apparently not, for some reason that might include he's a gunman or the woman's husband has beaten her (but she still loves him and returns to him at the end after the empowerment-through-adultery trope that Parker repeats lately).

Forget it. I'm not even wasting money on Book Club Editions of the new Parker books. I'll pick them up at book fairs. Maybe.

Oh, for the plot of the book: Everett Hitch signs on as a lookout man at a saloon, and eventually Cole shows up and they navigate through a dispute amongst the homesteaders and their employer. The book meanders through a large number (70+) chapters-as-scenes with semi-unrelated fuguish subplots. Finally, when the word count is reached, Cole faces down the bad guys in a quick shootout. The bad man and his plot to build subdivisions (!) in the old West are thwarted.

Seriously. The man is running homesteaders off to build subdivisions.

On the plus side, unlike Ed McBain, Bush's name isn't invoked in his historical or contemporary works, not that I'll know anymore until the election is way over. I've also avoided Parker's new line of Young Adult novels, but part of me has a morbid curiosity to see how he injects adultery-as-affirmation thing into them.

And I now pose this question for debate, although none of you will debate it with me because you're all wiser than I am and have avoided the collected works of Parker, but here it is: Which was more detrimental to Parker's writing: whatever adultery occurred in the middle 1980s to make it the single biggest recurring theme in all of his subsequent work, or Parker's work for the Spenser for Hire television show that subsequently turned all of his novels into chapters scenes with simple stage management but mostly dialog along with the reliance on recurring guest stars and formulaic endings?

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:29 PM   0 comments
 
Some Remarks on Headlines

- posted by Brian J. @ 5:28 AM   1 comments
 
Book Report: Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais (2008)
My beautiful wife read this book before I did, relying on a library copy to keep her up to date with the comings and goings of Cole and Pike. Me, I bought the book to complete my enrollment with the Book of the Month Club. She expressed some disappointment with it which, ultimately, I think was unwarranted.

In it, Cole and Pike go back to an earlier case of Cole's: a fellow that Cole cleared of a murder charge dies from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound with a photo album of dead people in it. The photographs are taken moments after the deaths of the individuals, and the book includes the murder victim from the previous case. Cole is sure that the dead man didn't kill the woman from his case, so he looks into the man's death and finds a special police task force that might be protecting a political figure.

The book uses a couple of things common to Robert B. Parker's writing: the tough narrator and the tougher sidekick and the return to previous stories. However, Crais's writing still includes prose between the dialog, so Crais executes better than Parker anytime after, say, 1990.

The ending features a twist and a simple resolution that one could see a mile away, post-twist that is. Crais also incorporates some foreshadowing that's obvious as foreshadowing, but the meaning of the foreshadowing only becomes clear with the twist.

A good book overall and one that keeps me interested in the series, which makes it one of two contemporary series I appreciate (Sandford's Lucas Davenport being the other).

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 5:12 AM   0 comments
Saturday, October 04, 2008
 
Good Book Hunting: October 4, 2008
Oops, I did it again.

We're driving down Elm onto an errand and a couple of garage sales, and my beautiful wife sees the sign at the church up ahead: Book Fair. "It's dollar bag day," I said.

"Do you want to stop?" she asked.

I stopped.

An hour or so later, I ask if they have a box price since I don't want to put the books in bags to price them. $3 a box, we agree on even though my beautiful wife was quite ready to negotiate up.

Here they are:

Lots of books from Annunciation
Click for full size


Including:
  • The Unknown Patton, a biography of that guy Kelsey Grammer plays.

  • Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right by Bernard Goldberg. Polemics were cheap. I bought many.

  • Betrayal by Linda Chavez. As I said.

  • Shadow War, about George W. Bush and the war on terror.

  • Square Foot Gardening. Heather picked this up for me, hoping I'll get more than 20 cherry tomatoes, 6 raspberries, and 3 green beans out of our garden next year.

  • The President, The Pope, and the Prime Minister, a book about Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II and their roles in defeating communism 1.0.

  • Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, a John Stossel Snopes-like debunking of common tropes upon which policy is based. I'm currently reading it in the paperback, but I've upgraded my permanent copy.

  • Hollywood Nation, about how liberals are bad.

  • The Lessons of History by Will and his wife Durant. Hey, I have the story of philosophy, why not get the whole collection.

  • The Year of Decision 1846, a history book about that important year.

  • The Big Ripoff, a book about how crony capitalism will be the death of our economy. Timely, no?

  • Persecution by Limbaugh the Lesser.

  • 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America by Bernard Goldberg. My collection of his work is complete and mostly unread.

  • The Best Years 1945-1950, a history book about why those were the best years, apparently.

  • Build It Better Yourself, a book about building things. Good for a President Obama economy.

  • A five volume history of England. I hope it's only five; I got volumes I-V.

  • A Friend Forever, a collection of poems edited by Susan Polis Schultz.

  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy. Must be one of his flash fictions since it's 135 pages. Looking into it, I discover it's a pre-dialogued former university textbook.

  • Dynamic Freedoms: Our Freedom Documents, which collects the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and other selected bits.

  • Spain, a concise history of a great nation. Part of a series.

  • Fix It Yourself Small Appliances and Fix It Yourself Major Appliances, just in case the Democratic quartfecta manages to keep the lights on and the rest of the world does not veto our electricity usage.

  • Architecture: Style, Structure, and Design, an architecture textbook.

  • Near Eastern Mythology, a book about mythology in the near east. I think that's like Ohio and West Virginia.

  • 28 of the hardbound library editions of American Heritage from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Good for ideas, I hope, and burning for heat if the rest of the world doesn't want me to heat my house above 60 degrees in the winter.

  • Almanac of American Letters. I forget what it is.

  • The First Immortal, a science fiction novel.

  • Built from Scratch; given the Home Depot logo on it, you'd think it was about building things. No, it's about the building of the Home Depot company.

  • JOB: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein.

  • The Legend that was Earth by James P. Hogan. Science fiction.

  • The Gunfighter: Man or Myth?, a musing no doubt that tells us that nobody owned guns on the frontier.

  • Grumbles from the Grave by Robert Heinlein, co-authored by Heinlein's estate.

  • Disraeli, a biography of the English PM.

  • Nine Tomorrows, tales by Asimov.

  • Jude the Obscure, a mostly handome edition of Hardy's work. Except for the water damage.

  • You Can't Get There From Here by Ogden Nash. Because I was running low.

  • Tales of Edgar Allan Poe; I already own this book/edition, but this one looks better than the one I remembered here.

  • Danger! Explosive Tales of the Great Outdoors. The first book I picked up.

  • The Civil War. By the time we get to the end of an Obama presidency, perhaps it will be called the "First Civil War."

  • Misery by Stephen King. Didn't own this one yet, and this is not a book club edition. Most of what you find at book fairs is.

  • Shots Fired In Anger, a book about a couple island battles in the Pacific in WWII.

  • The Case for Extinction, a contrarian work that takes on the conservation movement. You can tell it's dated because it talks about conservation.

  • Man and his symbols by Carl Jung. I have so much Jung I haven't read. Certainly that means something.

  • AD&D Second Edition Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign. Brother, if you see a D&D sourcebook at a Catholic church's book fair, take it, for that one is blessed.

  • How to Photograph Cats, Dogs, and Other Animals in case I decide to try harder with the digital camera.

  • Consumer Guide Mustang, a book about the pony car.

  • The Mighty 'MOX, a history book about KMOX radio.

  • The Home and Workshop Guide to Sharpening. This will come in handy in about 2010, after President Obama takes the guns away.

  • Modern Handloading, which will come in handy if a Democrat-controlled Congress only passes microstamping....Ah, forget it, even I'm getting tired of the election-goes-bad humor. If only I'd have bought fewer books, I could have made it through the list.

  • Kohlhoff on Guns by Kohlhoff.

  • The Next 50 Years in Space. Written 40 years ago. Let's see how much we have to make up in the next decade to do this guy proud. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll only expect a couple space stations and trips to the moon by 2018.

  • Four Fugitive Slave Narratives.

  • Wizard by Ozzie Smith. For when I miss baseball, I guess.

  • Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. When I discover I already own it, it will make a good gift to that one guy I know who named his daughter after a Chicago Bears running back.

  • Tales from the Left Coast, another book about bad liberals.

  • Good Intentions by Ogden Nash. Sure, I already own it, but this one is blue.

  • Madame Bovary. Didn't have it previously. I don't think. Heck, I cannot see what I do own in here these days. Maybe I own a first edition in the original French. You know, I used to hate those used book stores with disarrayed piles of books blocking everything. Sadly, I'm patterning my office after that.

  • The World's Progress, a book about man's progress. It's an old book, obviously. If it had been written in the latter half of the 20th century, it would have told of the failures of the world.

  • Communism and the New Left, a 1970 U.S. News and World Report book. Let's see what they predicted for the 21st century based on it, hey?

  • Do As I Say, a book about celebrity liberals who don't walk the walk.

  • Scott's Quentin Dunward, Pope's The Rape of the Lock, and Milton's Comus, Lycidas, Etc., 100-year-old pocket editions of these classics. I think I own the same edition of the Pope book, but not in as good of condition.
The wife notes that she lost in the competition. Honey, it's not competition, it's compulsion.

The boys got a couple of books, too, and obviously, the one with vertical ambulatory capacity cannot wait.

So that's, what, 94 books for me? A year's worth of reading. Fifteen bucks. Good deal, except this means I need a $70,000 library addition on my house for the collection.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:22 PM   1 comments
Friday, October 03, 2008
 
Palin Debate Rally After Action Report
Last night, Gimlet, Froggie-Girl, Jack Straw, and a civilian attended the Palin debate watching party and rally at SLU's arena:

Hottest ticket it town


I drove down to the local state senator candidate's office, dragging two reluctant children including one who found a golf ball and decided to show his pitching arm in the office while I filled out personal information on attendees. No one collected the tickets at all.

Unlike the cool kids like Gateway Pundit, we didn't get to sit in the lower bowl or work the rope line. We sat upper deck amongst the plebes.

The Palin crowd
Click for full size


There are the floor level people gathering before the debate.

The Palin MC
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Here, an MC whose name I didn't catch tries to rally the troops. Me, I remained unrallied, at least to the point of the chanting.

Palin debates on-screen
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We watched the debate on the big screens.
Biden debates
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Biden on the big screen. To be honest, I applauded at some things that Biden said. Unfortunately for Biden, it was when he said things like John McCain clubs baby seals, at which point I clapped loudly because I hate the little carbon emitters myself. On several of the points Biden made and I applauded, a lot of people in my section applauded as well. Others thought I was a Biden plant.

Country and western while we wait
Click for full size


While we waited for Palin to arrive after the debate, a country and western singer entertained us with "God Bless the USA" and a couple of woman anthems. I set the odds at 3:7 that she'd sing "Gunpowder and Lead" by Miranda Lambert; I lost, but we did get a bit of "Independence Day" by Martina McBride, a different song about killing your man.

Some people say Obama cannot draw a mass crowd without a free concert. I have to admit the same holds true for Palin. I just came to see this singer. Whoever she was. I'm her biggest fan.

Palin arrives
Click for full size


The Straight Talk Express pulls right into the arena. It looks to be burning oil. Jack Straw asks, "Do you think they pulled it right into the arena?" Oh, yeah. Secret Service preferred it that way.

Palin at the podium
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There she is. She spoke for a couple minutes, using a bit of the same things she said at the debate.

Palin on the rope line
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There she is, working the rope line. Might be shaking Gateway Pundit's hand there or something. Wait, hang on.

Palin on the rope line, highlighted
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That's her.

Final thoughts: Palin did really, really well. It's the largest rally that I've attended, and frankly, it weirds me out to see that many Republicans having fun in one place. Also, the whole political rally was very close to a hockey game atmosphere, although they weren't serving beer. They couldn't have served enough beer to keep up with the Joe Biden drinking game. Also, I have a serious case of camera envy. Jack Straw's camera took pictures such that you can actually see the people in them.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:56 AM   2 comments
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
 
Senate To Vote On Higher Health Care Costs
A rising bailout bill raises all boats:
    The Senate substitute now runs over 450 pages. And tucked away in the tax provisions is a landmark health care provision demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses.

    Really a bill onto itself, the mental health parity measure has been a bipartisan priority for top lawmakers in both chambers but has stalled because of disagreements again over how to pay for its estimated $3.8 billion five-year cost. In the current climate, that seems to be no longer a stumbling block, and if the Treasury plan becomes law, it will also.
I'm just spitballing here, but won't imposing new services on insurance companies sort of make the insurance companies raise rates to cover them?

Leading to a din about the higher costs of health care, leading to more shrieks for government to do something, such as national health care plan?

Geez Louise, it's almost like that was "our" legislators' goal or something.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:20 PM   0 comments
 
If Vladimir Putin Says You're Controlling The Economy Wrong, Keep Doing It That Way
Vladimir Putin lashes US for economic failures:
    The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at the United States today for what he said was its inability to deal with the financial crisis affecting the global economy.

    In remarks unlikely to go down well in Washington, Mr Putin was especially critical of Congress's rejection of a $700 billion bank bailout – a rejection that hit Russian financial markets particularly hard.

    "Everything that is happening in the economic and financial sphere has started in the United States. This is a real crisis that all of us are facing," the former president told a government meeting in Moscow.

    "And what is really sad is that we see an inability to take appropriate decisions. This is no longer irresponsibility on the part of some individuals, but irresponsibility of the whole system, which as you know had pretensions to (global) leadership."
Sadly, Putin cannot vote for Obama this year.

Ha, just kidding! Thanks to the tireless efforts of ACORN, Mr. Putin will vote for Obama six times in Columbus, Ohio, alone.

(Link seen on The Other Side of Kim.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:33 PM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."