richardderus's fourth 2021 thread

101 Uses for a Dead Cat by UK cartoonist Simon Bond.
By December 7, 1981, it had spent 27 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. Its success was considered part of a larger "cat craze" in popular culture, which included the Jim Davis comic strip Garfield, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats.

I bought two. Sadly they have disappeared.

I miss them so.

In 2021, I stated a goal of posting 15 book reviews a month on my blog. This year's total of 180 (there are a lot of individual stories that don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; I need to do more to sync the data this year) reads shows it's doable, and I've done better than that in the past.

I've long Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I give up. I just don't care about this goal, so out it goes.




My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

First five reviews? 1st 2021 thread..

Reviews 6 all the way through 25 can be viewed in the thread to which I have posted a link at left.

The 26th through 36th reviews occupy thread three.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS

37 The Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry amused, post 17.

38 Dead Man's Mirror entertained, post 136.

39 The Theft of the Royal Ruby didn't, post 137.

40 Let's Get Back to the Party left me most gruntled, post 185.

41 Roadmarks wasn't the shizzle, post 224.

42 The Maytrees...oh dear, post 272.

43 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love stinks and so does this mediocre man's hold on our collective consciousness, post 290.

44 Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids (True Crime) was...um, post 299.

2020's five-star or damn-near five-star reviews totaled 46. Almost half were short stories and/or series reads. While a lot of authors saw their book launches rescheduled, publishers canceled their tours, and everyone was hugely distracted by the nightmare of COVID-19 (I had it, you do not want it), no one can fault the astoundingly wonderful literature we got this year. My own annual six-stars-of-five read was Zaina Arafat's extraordinary debut novel YOU EXIST TOO MUCH (review lives here), a thirtysomething Palestinian woman telling me my life, my family, my very experience of relationships of all sorts. I cannot stress enough to you, this is the book you need to read in 2021. A sixtysomething man is here, in your email/feed, saying: This is the power. This is the glory. The writing I look for, the read I long to find, and all of it delivered in a young woman's debut novel. This is as good an omen for the Great Conjunction's power being bent to the positive outcomes as any I've seen.

In 2020, I posted over 180 reviews here. In 2021, my goals are: –to post 150 reviews on my blog
–to post at least 99 three-sentence Burgoines
–to complete at least 190 total reviews

Most important to me is to report on DRCs I don't care enough about to review at my usual level. I don't want to keep just leaving them unacknowledged. There are publishers who want to see a solid, positive relationship between DRCs granted and reviews posted, and I do not blame them a bit.

Ask and ye shall receive! Nathan Burgoine's Twitter account hath taught me. See >7 richardderus: below.

I stole this from PC's thread. I like these prompts!
***
1. Name any book you read at any time that was published in the year you turned 18:
Faggots by Larry Kramer
2. Name a book you have on in your TBR pile that is over 500 pages long:
The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream
by Michael Wood
3. What is the last book you read with a mostly blue cover?
Wasps' Nest by Agatha Christie
4. What is the last book you didn’t finish (and why didn’t you finish it?)
The Perfect Fascist by Victoria de Grazia; paper book of 512pp, can't hold it
5. What is the last book that scared the bejeebers out of you?
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
6. Name the book that read either this year or last year that takes place geographically closest to where you live? How close would you estimate it was?
The Trump book; set in Queens and the Hamptons, so just down the road a piece
7.What were the topics of the last two nonfiction books you read?
The last successful rebellion on US soil and caffeine
8. Name a recent book you read which could be considered a popular book?
The Only Good Indians, a horror novel that's really, really good
9. What was the last book you gave a rating of 5-stars to? And when did you read it?
Restored, a Regency-era romantic historical novel about men in their 40s seizing their second chance at luuuv
10. Name a book you read that led you to specifically to read another book (and what was the other book, and what was the connection)
Potiki, which Kerry Aluf gave me; led me to read The Uncle's Story by Witi Ihimaera
11. Name the author you have most recently become infatuated with.
P. Djeli Clark
12. What is the setting of the first novel you read this year?
Hawaii and PNW
13. What is the last book you read, fiction or nonfiction, that featured a war in some way (and what war was it)?
The Fighting Bunch; WWII
14. What was the last book you acquired or borrowed based on an LTer’s review or casual recommendation? And who was the LTer, if you care to say.
There isn't enough space for all the book-bullets y'all careless, inconsiderate-of-my-poverty fiends pepper me with
15. What the last book you read that involved the future in some way?
Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason
16. Name the last book you read that featured a body of water, river, marsh, or significant rainfall?
Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky by David Connerly Nahm
17. What is last book you read by an author from the Southern Hemisphere?
Red Heir by Lisa Henry
18. What is the last book you read that you thought had a terrible cover?
please don't ask me this
19. Who was the most recent dead author you read? And what year did they die?
Agatha Christie, 1976
20. What was the last children’s book (not YA) you read?
good goddesses, I don't remember...Goodnight Moon to my daughter?
21. What was the name of the detective or crime-solver in the most recent crime novel you read?
Poirot by Dame Ags
22. What was the shortest book of any kind you’ve read so far this year?
The World Well Lost, ~28pp
23. Name the last book that you struggled with (and what do you think was behind the struggle?)
Lon Chaney Speaks, because I really, really don't like comic books
24. What is the most recent book you added to your library here on LT?
see #23
25. Name a book you read this year that had a visual component (i.e. illustrations, photos, art, comics)
see #23
I liked Sandy's Bonus Question for the meme above, so I adopted it:

26. What is the title and year of the oldest book you have reviewed on LT in 2020? (modification in itals)
The Sittaford Mystery by Dame Aggie, 1931.

I really hadn't considered doing this until recently...tracking my Pulitzer Prize in Fiction winners read, and Booker Prize winners read might actually prove useful to me in planning my reading.

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole **
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington *
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton *
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington **
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather **
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber *
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined) *
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder *
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck *
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell *
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings *
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck *
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow *
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey *
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren *
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway *
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner *
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor *
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee *
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury *
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee *
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner *
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron *
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner *
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty *
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara *
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow *
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever *
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer *
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole *
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike *
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker *
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy *
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry *
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison *
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos *
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike *
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley *
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler *
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx *
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides *
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz *
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD - Jennifer Egan
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr **
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen **
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead **
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles ** (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) -
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
1976: David Storey, Saville
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea *
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children *
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac *
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People **
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger *
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda *
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day *
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance *
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient * ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road *
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin *
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang *
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little **
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty *
2005: John Banville, The Sea
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question *
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending **
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings *
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think's important and not try to dig for more.

Think about using it yourselves!

One more time!

I hope I am not too early to present my felicitations upon your new thread, dear fellow?

>9 PaulCranswick: Nope! You're first.

Monday started with a bang over there?

Happy new thread!

Happy new one, Richard!

>10 richardderus: I'm "working" from home this morning which of course means I get no actual work done but can catch up on my reading!

Happy new thread!

Well, it can't be feline free, but maybe the facial tics will fail to appear.

>1 richardderus: I well remember that book and the craze. One of my best friends at the time loved Garfield. I always thought it was a mediocre comic strip. My opinion remains unchanged. I was a Bloom County fan, and even Heathcliff was better. Nowadays, I'm a fan of Breaking Cat News.

Happy New Thread, Richard! Love the Dead Cat topper!

37 The Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry by Anthony Abbot

Rating: 3* of five

This was a fun, twisty little tale of a mousy nebbish whose one great passion is for l'opera, and a grande dame thereof; he makes an ass of himself for his worshipful love of an artiste. What could be more romantic, especially to a man with an overbearing wife? The crazy things Digberry does, the knots he ties in the truth when he gets caught in a lie...well, stock stuff, all told by Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt's secretary, Tony Abbot, in the past tense.

The facts about Mr. Digberry have not been disclosed by the New York Police Department. Absurd as the statement may sound, Mr. Thatcher Colt, then Police Commissioner, actually connived with the little man to conceal all evidence of his singular misdeeds. Mr. Digberry was guilty of one felony and deeply involved in a second crime of peculiar fiendishness and horror. Yet he was allowed to go free, his pockets stuffed with money and his secret utterly safe.

The link is to the stinkin' PDF of the Fall 1941 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine starting on p58.

The Panther's Claw, the 1942 microbudget Producers' Releasing Corporation film of the story, gets three as well...sort of a tossed-salad version of the well-built little story. Obviously it can't use the same framing device, but it can do its damnedest to pack in all the crazy careening antics. What doesn't hurt is the choice of character actor Byron Foulger as the delightfully ditzy Mr. Digberry.

He seldom got this close to starring in a film, but the older folk among us will recognize him as Mr. Gibbs from Petticoat Junction, no doubt.

As was standard practice in Hollywood at that time, the names of many characters change and the presence of some who don't exist in the story all conspire to make the through line a bit harder to follow. The motive and the murderer remain the same. There are many, many worse ways to fill 70 minutes.

>16 msf59: Hi Mark! Thanks for the supportive comments about the dead cats I opened with.

>15 justchris: Hey Chris! Bloom County was, by every measure, a superior product to Garfield. Which is just plain AWFUL.

>14 quondame: Heh, don't count on it, Susan...people do get so irked when I mention my loathing for...them.

>13 PaulCranswick: An excellent result, PC, when one thinks about it. Paid for reading? Yes, please! (Not too often, though, or the catch-up is too grim to be contemplated.)

>12 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita.

>11 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

Another new thread. *sigh* Oh, hi, Richard. Happy New One!

Happy new thread, Richard.

>1 richardderus: I'm more of a dog person - but still



I hope it wasn't my offer on your previous thread that prompted your thread topper.

Just checking in so I don't miss it ;)

Happy New Thread, Richard!

Happy New Thread, Richard!

Happy New Thread kind sir. "See" you tomorrow.... :)

Happy New Thread!

I will ignore your topper sentiments and just wish you a happy new thread! Though it's practically not new anymore. Already.

>17 richardderus: Sounds like the perfect crime wasn't so perfectly written!

'Morning, RD, and happy Monday to you. Happy new thread, too.

*smooch*

>29 karenmarie: Thank you, thanks, and *smooch*

>28 thornton37814: Heh, no...not perfectly, but adequately. And at least it was silly fun for a while.

>27 jessibud2: Butbutbut Shelley! Twenty-seven weeks a bestseller! Surely you realize that means there are a lot of us who feel this way. Maybe ignoring us isn't a great idea?

Heh.

>26 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver!

>25 mahsdad: Indeed you shall, Jeff.

>24 trandism: Thanks, Nick! Happy to see you around.

>23 connie53: Thank you kindly, Connie.

>22 BekkaJo: Miss it?! As though you could!

Well...actually, it's very easy to miss a thread, isn't it. But you haven't, so yay!

>21 humouress: Ha! No, dear, I'm just Over the cat-worship. Like the Cult of the Mother, I dissent. And besides, since I'm doing the books of 1981 as toppers, how could I ignore a twenty-seven week run as a bestseller?

>2 richardderus: Hi Roni! I know, I know, how dare people come here to chat. Still, I have no legal grounds to prevent them from doing so.

*smooch*

Happy new one, RD!

>33 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie, same to you!

Hi Richard. I seem to be late to *this* party!
I used to have that book (at #1). I wonder what happened to it, 'cause it's not in my graphics collection anymore... (not expecting an answer)...

I hope the thread is a happy place for you.

>35 SandyAMcPherson: I'm guessing a lot of us had that book at some point, since it was a bestseller. I'm not sure why it hit the artery of zeitgeistly success, since so many better books don't. Ah well, lightning strikes wherever it wants.

Happy new week's reads!

Last week i had my own RL Book Group to prepare for and helping out on the ZOOM memorial service for a Book Circle Friend so wasn't able to spend much time in the LT part of the woods.

Congrats on the new thread Richard. Woo-Hoo!

>37 magicians_nephew: Thanks, Jim!

Hi Richard, happy new thread dear friend.

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>1 richardderus: LOL!

-Harry Bliss

Hey, RD. COLD, with light snow. I have been hunkered down with the books.

>41 msf59: Ha!! Good boy!

>40 FAMeulstee: I know, right? Can you imagine such a title making it into stores in this climate?

>39 johnsimpson: Hi John! Thanks for the kind wishes.

'Morning, RD!

Today will be a quiet day reading, with infusions of coffee this morning. I hope your day is a good'un.

>44 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! Glad you're planning a quiet one. I'm not planning to make any forays either. And no one's going to dig up the parking lot next to my window, unlike your surprise workmen from yesterday. For one thing, where would they put the snow?

>43 humouress: How adorable, and covetable too! Thanks for sharing.

Happy new thread (a bit late, I know).
I'm not sure what to make of the thread topper. As a person who prefers cats to dogs I'm trying not to be amused, but failing, in spite of myself.

“Shoot, I guess it’s too late to nab him since he already left the bank.”

>46 Helenliz: *chuckle*

Well then! Happy to see you here.

Happy new thread, Richard. Not commenting on the topper but the cartoon at >47 richardderus: made me snicker.

>49 Familyhistorian: I love them both, obviously, but the bottom one is so on-the-nose it won't last long....

>45 richardderus: Isn't it cute and squigglesome? I love the tentacles. It's from a series of embroidered letters (O is for octopus).

Happy new Thread Richard?? Oh well.

>47 richardderus: Guffaw 🥴

Every time I see you or Paul listing the Bookers and Pulitzers it reminds me that I want to do that too but will I? Time will tell I guess.

>3 richardderus: You Exist too Much sounds like one for the WL! I must have missed your review...

>13 PaulCranswick: I knew it! People who work from home are really just reading books and hanging about!

>47 richardderus: Well. Indeed.

>53 LovingLit: Since this was not a company lap top I was at least able to admit as such. To be fair they need me for the key online meetings which I always participate in.

>52 brenzi: It is relatively easy, Bonnie. Just copy and paste from either my list or RDs. Then with minimal editing you have your own fully formed list. You just need to adjust for what books you have read is all.
I certainly have no qualms about you doing that.

>47 richardderus: Oh I have to steal that!

‘Morning, RD! Happy Wednesday to you.

>47 richardderus: My blood boils thinking about the asshat GOPQ making that argument.

Morning *smooch* RD!

>53 LovingLit: I'm glad that you're excited for the read, Megan!

>52 brenzi: It's a matter of record-keeping, at least for me it is, and I'm not inclined to make a serious effort to scale the mountains. At times I add to the review count by using reads of the prize winners but not, usually at least, things I've picked up and read specifically because they've won those prizes.

>51 humouress: Squigglesome is the *perfect* word for his little O-shaped self!

>58 katiekrug: Hiya Katie! *smooch*

>57 karenmarie: How do, Horrible. It's a weird line of defense for the reasons >47 richardderus: makes plain. Just completely illogical.

>56 sirfurboy: Welcome to it, Stephen, since I snagged it from the New Yorker. Since neither of us claims copyright in any way, active or passive, who cares?

>55 PaulCranswick:, >54 PaulCranswick: Hi PC!

Did I speak the last time I was here? Probably not. Hello, Richard! I'm always happy to see you reading and talking and flourishing!

>61 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Glad you decloaked, you Romulan Readeress you.

Happy New Thread, Richard!

I remember those dead cat books. I'm not surprised they were prized possessions.

>47 richardderus: Yes!

I hear Trump's lawyers are fumbling the ball every chance they get. As a friend said, you (drumpf) get what you don't pay for. I'm sure he'll stiff these guys as he has so many.

Have you perused the show "Vera" on the teletube? I'm finding the murder-solving in northeast England soothing during pandemic times.

>63 jnwelch: I concur...he'll stiff them as he has innumerable others. He *should* get things free. He's The Donald.

I wonder how long it will take for "Donald" to recover its already limited popularity from his malign miasma.

Yes, Brenda Blethyn's portrayal of Vera is a delight, no? She was so good at her fumbling apology to the young woman DC whose confidence she'd shattered by lashing out in her perfectionism...can't remember which story that was, unless it was her discovery that she had a half-sister...doesn't sound quite right...or the bridge one...?

>1 richardderus: Hmmm, that is just pure evil. *smooch*

Re ^^ -- how is there any soul left on Earth who thinks 45 will not stiff them or abandon them or whatever he sees to be in his own best interest???? Oh, and YES to Brenda Blethyn's Vera. Every time we watch an episode, we find ourselves calling people "lurve" and "pet." Not to their faces, you understand, but when they're not listening....

>47 richardderus: Too perfect.

Good afternoon, Richard dear. I told you a neat story about my intro to Graustark on my thread after your comment. *smooch*

Happy Thursday, Richard dear!

'Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday to you.

*smooch*

>68 karenmarie: Thank you, Horrible! *smooch*

>67 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita, same to you!

>66 ronincats: I read that just now...the Eisenhower Home! He's the Republican who keeps on giving not-awful things.

>65 EBT1002: I can not fathom it, Ellen. It's astonishing what people can make themselves believe when their Need to be Right gets involved.

I'll coddiwomple to your thread directly, see if there's news, pet.

Good morning! I hope you are staying dry and warm! Seems like a large part of the country right now is either in snow or threat of snow/ice/freezing rain etc soon.

>70 leperdbunny: Hi Tamara, it's snowed itself out here, at least for the moment; snowish stuff from the skies will return on Valentine's Day, it looks like, though not in amounts to cause distress.

Happy weekend ahead!

Looks like liberal Bruce Springsteen is in the dog house. Chrysler pulled the "Middle" Super Bowl ad from Twitter and You Tube. The excuse was that Springsteen was charged with drunk driving a few months ago in New Jersey. I think that is flap is very interesting. Why would they do that when they put up with that totally uninterpretable "Halftime in America" ad from Clint Eastwood?

>72 benitastrnad: Yes, the decision they made seems weirdly timed since his DUI was in November and no one can tell me the corpocrats didn't know about the minute it happened. What purpose was served there, I wonder?

Also, he blew a .02 breathalyzer which is a quarter of the NJ limit.

His Jeep commercial was stupid, but I still love him.

>74 katiekrug: ...then what the hell's the fuss about...? I don't see why this is the Story of the Day. I can certainly see why Jeep wouldn't want someone who was impaired talking up their vehicles. But this is something people want to shout about? When 45 and co. incited insurrection and solicited criminal acts from elected officials?

This isn't even *good* distraction!

>75 richardderus: - Got me.

If you're bored today, go to Twitter and enjoy Wendy's #nationalroastday...

>76 katiekrug: ?well?erm?

>77 katiekrug: I saw on your thread! Hilarious!

>75 richardderus:
I don't get the kerfuffle either? I thought the same thing when the Clint Eastwood Super Bowl ad for Chrysler came out. What did that mean? Why did people hate it so? In my opinion all of these Chrysler ads have been over the top in the Red, White and Blue category. They are vapid and vacuous, every last one of them, but people love them. The Bob Dylan one was just stupid. The Clint Eastwood one left me scratching my head, and Bruce's left me - Meh. The only one I hated was the Paul Harvey one because I couldn't stand Paul Harvey all the way from back in the 1970's. The only one I really liked was the Eminen one that ends with "Imported from Detroit."

I'm with you - the corporate heads knew about the DUI the minute it happened. They are simply using this as an excuse to pull the ad and keep it from being controversial. What has surprised me is that the backlash against the commercial seems to be coming from the Left. Most of the commentary is about Springsteen "selling out." He has never done a commercial before and so why now? And why for Chrysler? I wonder if those same critics said that about Bob Dylan when he did his Chrysler ad. That is the one that ends with "Let Germany make your beer. Let China make your phone. Let Detroit make your car." (I don't think you can get much more xenophobic than that.) I thought it was a stupid thing to say, so I totally ignored that commercial.

My suspicion is that this is a political backlash. Springsteen is a well known supporter of liberal left candidates and causes.

>79 benitastrnad: ...but it's the leftists lashing a liberal...this entire pointless brouhaha makes me gassy.

GLASS PEOPLE: Venetian-style dragon goblet from the Corning Museum of Glass YouTube channel.

>80 richardderus:
That's exactly what I don't get about it. It reminds me of what happened when people voted for Ralph Nadar in the 2000 election. I find myself in having a Rodney King moment.

As for Springsteen -just read his memoir. Then you know what his political and artistic philosophy is, and where he is coming from. Nothing strange about his orisons to the middle. Or is that muddle?

>81 richardderus: - That was fabulous! Reminds me of a workshop I took when I visited the Corning Museum. The piece I made was nothing that elaborate, of course, just a flower, but I sat in that same chair and watched this thing develop before my eyes! It was magic (I have photos of it, step by step, in my profile gallery). Thanks for this video, Richard.

‘Morning, RDear!

>72 benitastrnad: - >80 richardderus: Gassy is right. I don’t particularly like his music anyway. (sorry, Springsteen fans, but there are enough of you out there that my lack of Bruce love shouldn't matter). Don’t care that the ad didn’t get aired and agree that not airing a automotive ad with someone who gets a DUI seems like a no-brainer.

I'm actually more upset about the M&Ms ad with that gratuitous and cruel Karen bit that's put me off M&Ms forever.

>81 richardderus: Oooh. 11 minutes and 25 seconds of pleasure. Thank you.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Morning, RD! Frigid out there - hope you can stay warm and cozy inside...

Happy newish thread!

>85 katiekrug: Well, yes, it's right chilly but it's not windy. That's when I start to grouse. Luckily I'm housebound today anyway, nothing to go out after and no desire just to wander the icy sidewalks.

Lovely Friday to you!

>84 karenmarie: Hey there Horrible, isn't it silly to get this deep into what should simply be a company saying "our ad won't show today"? I get why. Everything else, all this outgassing about why and what it means and blahblahblah is the sort of Nōh theater that makes me roll my eyes so hard I see my brain.

Glad you liked the glass-blowing video!

>83 jessibud2: It's a wonderful museum to visit, isn't it? I love the experience, and when I went there were some 19th-century glass botanical examples that made my heart go pitty-pat...flowers, mushrooms, fruits...just glorious!

>82 benitastrnad: He's a stand-up guy, one I admire and (pace Horrible) whose music I enjoy, but this trumped (!)-up nonsense is beyond the "can't we all just get along?" stage. This needs to be held up as "oh for goodness' sake grow up!" incarnate.

>86 ChelleBearss: Hi there, Chelle, thanks for the well-wishes!

>Hi Richard. Just doing my rounds along the 75-ers. Happy Weekend and stay safe.

>87 richardderus:
That made me laugh. The statement about where we should place this stuff.

I found myself saying something like that back in 2016 after the election. I kept telling my friends to calm down. We have a system and the system will right itself. It takes a whole lot to upset a bureaucracy. I was right - but I was wrong. That Giant Orange Gasbag managed to almost take the system down. Fortunately, enough people came out of the woodwork and voted. This helped the system to work and now we have a rational person in the office who doesn't send out inflammatory tweets every 20 minutes. I sort of put the Springsteen kerfuffle into the inflammatory tweet bin. What has bothered me about it, is that the attacks are coming from the Left. That I just don't understand. I would like to think that we lefties have more to think about "like the house is burning down - NOW" than that an aging rocker has made an abstruse statement about getting along. But apparently after four years of GOG's antics my people have decided to muck about in the muck as well. I am so disappointed.

>90 benitastrnad: It's a scary truth that the leftists of the US are always squabbling about purity-testing nonsense and not focusing on fighting the rotten-souled scumbag fascist capitalist pigs.

Not that I have strong feelings about this.

But it explains why the absence of 45 hasn't stopped the stupidity-slinging, just moved the targets back closer to home.

>89 connie53: Hi Connie! Thanks for coming by.
***
Maxwell Perkins said this:
"The trouble is, very few people, even in the least provincial communities, seem to understand that the motive for fiction, or the impulse from which it arises, is a serious one. They think of fiction as having no value except that of amusing and passing the time; and so it is impossible for them to understand why it could not just as well be pleasant and pretty."
Genius.

>81 richardderus: Glass Art - if you have Netflix, there's a show you should check out... Blown Away. A game show in the style of, well, all of the crafty type shows. Do well, stay, do bad leave. Win a bunch of money and stuff. But with lots of heat, molten glass and the potential for a lot of breakage. :)

Happy Friday!

>92 mahsdad: Happy Friday! I'm right fond of that show, indeed, since it's almost always fun to see how they make those gorgeous things.

I also love Blown Away but I cringe EVERY TIME glass breaks, even when it's supposed to.

>94 MickyFine: I'm betting you cut yourself on some glass shards once...I do it, too, in memory of the window-glass impaling me through the palm.

Ow.

That "cricksnick" sound is pavolvian now.

>95 richardderus: I think for me it's the immediate panic of making sure none of my fur babies manage to wander through the glass before it's cleaned up. But I have also managed to get some small scale cuts on glass too in my childhood.

Smashed the bottom pane of a door with my head. Although I have no memory of doing it. I do remember the stitches in my eye socket afterwards, but that's a separate horror story.

When I was a chemistry student we had a glass blower on the university staff, and we had a lesson with him. We all had to make our own glass pipettes, and do "simple" things like a 90 degree bend and t junction. It gave us all a much greater respect for our glassware, just to get a feel for quite how impossible it is to get glass to do what you want.

>81 richardderus:
I had the pleasure of visiting the Corning Glass Museum a few years ago and the Contemporary Art Gallery was amazing. The art work in there was beautiful. There were a couple of pieces there that kept me thinking about them for weeks. In fact - at times I still think about them. One was an installation piece titled "Raining Knives." This featured some glass knives falling from above. Below them were several glass houses made of different colors of opaque glass, setting in a square of green artificial turf. It was beautiful and it was haunting. I keep thinking about what was the artist trying to say? I still look at it from time-to-time and wonder.

There were two abstract pieces done by the Czech art glass sculptors Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova that also captivated me. Through the Cone, and Red Pyramid. Both were monumental works in size and must have weigh a ton each, but they looked light and the way light played off of them and through them was fascinating. Red Pyramid looked metallic until I realized that it had light shining through it and absorbed by it.

These were the opposite of what I think a Chihuly art installation is. His is so ethereal compared to these. I like both kinds of glass work, but for different reasons.

>98 benitastrnad: "Raining Knives" is indeed haunting:

Deep, in the metaphysical sense and also very beautiful. I've really enjoyed learning about Silvia Levenson, the artist, so thanks!

I love the way glass is solid, liquid, colored, colorless, opaque, translucent, practical, artistic...whatever one needs it to be. Chihuly can make it all those things at once!

>97 Helenliz: There is nothing like fumbling a molten draw of glass to teach you terror and respect!

>96 MickyFine: I can imagine the sweaty-palmed terror of trying to keep a curious c-a-t off the noisy crunchy stuff!

>98 benitastrnad: Wow! Benita, I didn't know very much about Chihuly (https://www.chihuly.com/work/installations), but his sculptures are fantastic.

We have a newer building in downtown with one of his light fixture sculptures (https://donaldbcampbell.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/chihuly-in-saskatoon/). Truly magnificent and very unusual for this staid town.

>100 SandyAMcPherson: That's a lovely Chihuly sculpture indeed, Sandy. Have a lovely weekend's reads! *smooch*

I hope to visit the Corning Museum one day. My parents were able to take it in on one of their trips. Mom really enjoyed it. I'm tired of the COVID cooped-up feeling and ready to get out and explore. I can't wait for a time when it's safe to follow my dreams!

>101 richardderus: That Chihuly sculpture bowled me over. I hadn't known of this artist and now I take visitores (when we used to have some!) in to see this fixture as part of the local insider-knowledge tour. Besides which, on the corner just down the street, is an awesome café with the best espresso coffees, and lunch/snack foods made on site. So it is a good way to disabuse new-to-town folks that we're totally hicksville.

Best to you for the weekend, too.
Another really cold overnight (-37 oC, which in the USA is about -35 F, in case folks want to be shocked). I'm sure to be tucking up on the sofa tomorrow, with a pile of throw blankets and my currently-reading book.

I visited our local secondhand bookshop today (it felt a lot warmer today at -25 with no wind). I bought a leatherette, classic-type binding copy (1969) of ~ you're going laugh, I bet ~ Baroness Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel. I read it so long ago, I only recall that I enjoyed the romp and adventure. It is a copy obviously never opened because it is so crisp.

I really went there to look for Persuasion in good condition, to add to my TBR stack. I picked up the suggestion from an Austen fan here in the 75-er group but didn't note who was recommending I start there (I mean, make a note on my BB list). I have never finished an Austen novel. Always got kind of lost in the storyline and the societal machinations.

Edited to add that it was on Laura's thread in case anyone wants to pop over and see what was mentioned. She's re-reading (has finished, now, I think) the Austen oeuvre.

>103 SandyAMcPherson: Baroness Orczy had personal flaws, abundantly in fact, but se could whomp up a story like no one's business! Pimp yer Nel like no one's business while you avoid the chill.

That's a great thing to do, escort folks to see the unexpected beauties of your home. I used to take visitors to the Elisabet Ney museum and the Umlauf sculpture garden...beautiful places!...when I lived in Austin.

>102 thornton37814: I totally relate! Lemmee outta here!! And goodness yes, Corning's a terrific place to visit, beautiful on its own merits.

>100 SandyAMcPherson:
Chihuly's work seems to light - like it is going to float off somewhere. In reality it is heavy stuff. The framework for them is made out of steel and the ceiling's and floor's of buildings where they are installed have to made so that they can take the weight of the installation. All of the supports belie the fact that the thing itself weighs as much as those blocks of glass by the Czech artists that I liked. They weigh the same, but they look so different.

>99 richardderus:
I remember standing by this piece and just staring at it for a very long time. I was trying to figure it out. What are the knives? Is the universe just against this small little cluster of homes? It still makes me come back to it from time-to-time and stare.

>103 SandyAMcPherson: More fun to be had in Orczy than Austen any day IMHO. I have read three of her six major novels and appreciate them without ever really loving them - the plotting and sheer storytelling of Pimpernel is addictive and compulsive reading.

RD you have whizzed beyond a 1000 posts on your threads in this last 24 hours. Nicely done dear fellow.

>106 PaulCranswick: Sacrilege!

Just checking in, admiring, trying not to think about the various glass cut stories I know (ick) and waving on this chilly Saturday.

>107 humouress: I was never much of a worshipper at the altar of Ms. Jane. Admire the mannered subtlety of her at her best but don't really care which of the middle class toffs got squired and mounted.

Happy Saturday, Richard. Snowing again here and a deep freeze arrives again for tomorrow. We are really stuck in a relentless pattern. The good news is, we should be mostly done with this crap in another few weeks.

On your prompting, I did a little research on DFW, after finishing the collection. He sounds like a read a**hole but boy, could he write.

'Morning, RD!

Coffee, rain, lost power, restored power. Reading, of course. I'm still trying to wake up.

a very groggy *smooch* to you

>111 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible, I'm with you on the groggy-day feeling. I've had the usual amount of coffee but I'm not peppy. I watched a first-season binge of Time Team instead of reading this morning because I'm poorly focused.

Later today I will be a world-straddling Colossus, since PC tells me I've gone past 1000 posts before mid-February. *smooch*

>110 msf59: He was a jagoff. His fiction isn't to my taste, but I do enjoy his essays quite a bit.

ONOZ on the Weather Goddess's maltreatment of y'all! Sorry for that, Birddude, but hey...warmer days mean better lifers.

>109 PaulCranswick:, >107 humouress: I came late to the Janeite Cause and am, I confess, not the most passionate of her converts, but reading Pride and Prejudice in 2013-ish made me at least able to see her manifold acid-etched snorts of derision at The Way We Live Now.

>108 BekkaJo: *smooch* don't think about those ouchies, no sense making today suck wookiee balls.

>106 PaulCranswick: W00t! Thanks for the heads-up!

>106 PaulCranswick: Some folks will claim we're philistines, but I'm okay with not being a died-in-the-wool Austen fan. I make up for it by belonging to the Georgette Heyer fan club.

>113 SandyAMcPherson: Heh. I don't think the Austenites are by any stretch the worst finger-pointers and -waggers in le monde littéraire.

>114 richardderus: Didn't intend to say that Austen fans point fingers and wag them ... what did you have in mind as the worst finger-pointers and -waggers in le monde littéraire?
Or shall I step aside from asking and remark how sunny it is outside my studio window? Heh heh.

>115 SandyAMcPherson: The urge that some have to point-and-wag when they're urging you to read more like them is so unattractive. Let's focus on sunshine, popsicles instead of lollipops since it's cold, and rainbows! Much happier to be in that frame of mind than in the alternative.

How's the Baroness treating you?

>116 richardderus: how about in RL book club when you talk about how much you loved a book and then the next person goes on to rip it to shreds, calling it every name under the sun. Humph.
Boo hoo poor me.
*I need validation*

Count me as one of those who love Jane Austen. I first picked up Pride and Prejudice when I was about 14 and still think that the opening chapter is one of the funniest things I've ever read, and love how it just laid out each character for the rest of the novel. That being said, I fully support anyone reading what they enjoy and don't expect them to have the exact same response to books as I do - what a boring world that would be!

Hiya, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

>112 richardderus: Time Team is a good way to spend time not reading.

DFW had mental health issues all his life. This doesn’t excuse abusive and/or boorish behavior, but may partly explain it. Killing himself at the age of 46 was tragic.

>116 richardderus: The urge that some have to point-and-wag when they're urging you to read more like them is so unattractive. And thus the beauty of ATD.

>119 karenmarie: The magic of ATD indeed. *smooch*

>118 bell7: You're on the side of the solidest of majorities, Mary my dear. Most of the world adores her. I'm late to the party, but still pretty weak-kneed compared to her Partisannes.

It always strikes me as telling when someone complains to me about my strong opinions..."in your opinion, not everyone agrees with you and you should..." really means how dare you disagree with me!!

>117 LovingLit: You've already got their validation of your opinion! No one shouts you down if you're wrong. They just ignore you.

I read Pride and Prejudice, and it was... fine? It was ok. Didn't hate it, didn't love it.

I got about halfway through Persuasion. Parts of it were hilarious, and yet I hated all the characters.

>47 richardderus: Exactly!! Grrrr.

And speaking of glass, I so miss being able to go to Bullseye Glass and use their equipment to play with glass!! Love the Raining Glass piece and just about everything Chihuly. Sigh. Someday.
My nephew has to use recycled things to make a project for his class and he wants to use my leftover glass scraps. I just have to find my cutting knife...it's been so long, where did I put it?

And I am an Austen fan. Truly.

Happy Sunday!

>122 Berly: It was a foregone conclusion; but the fact is that it demonstrates a rank, vile strain of rot in the social fabric. That can be useful...targets for surgical removal acquired.

Glass scraps are perfect for such a project, since glass in literally infinitely recyclable, and certainly should be recycled! Janeites are brazen in their open and unquestioning adoration of The Idol. Your enthusiasm is shining through.

*smooch*

>121 reconditereader: I felt about Emma the way you did about Persusasion. Literally despised each and every character. I suppose it's proof that Austen was, in fact, a genius since it takes a wild spark of same to create characters so powerfully as to make them possible to respond to as though they were real.

Haven't been on LT too much this weekend but am now getting caught up.

I love Austen, have read the major novels and Lady Susan, which is one of the funniest things I've ever read. I find much more to Austen than just the courting customs of ye olden days. So much humor and biting social commentary. It may have helped that I first read her (P&P) in school with a wonderful AP English teacher...

Sunday (and Saturday because I think I missed it!) smoches to you!

Dear Richard, I am sitting here waiting to listen to Zig Zag Claybourne read from Afro Puffs at Boskone! I bought the book but haven't read it yet. Here he goes!

Just never got Austen. After a group read with Liz, I have a better understanding of her writing, but I ain't ever going to love it. Too prissy. Read all 6 of the novels just to prove it too.

>126 Helenliz: I think that's not an uncommon response..."wait, that's IT?" isn't an irrational response to Emma.

>125 ronincats: Oh, how cool! Great news, and I hope it was all a lot of fun.

>124 katiekrug: "Biting social commentary" to you, "this BITES" to others....

*smooch*

>116 richardderus: Ah yes, the Baroness. Her writing is better as the book progresses (author of The Scarlet Pimpernel for those who wonder who the Baroness is).

I like this story, still (about 3/4's the way through as of this afternoon, while I was holding down the sofa, post a frigid outdoor walk). The dialogue comes across as a bit awkward in many of the scenes, and I'd have enjoyed a variation in the pace of the action. Not in the mood for hell-bent-for-leather. But the story is interesting and nothing as tedious as her Tea House Detective novels. I only finished one in that series (Unravelled Knots).

A funny thing about the setting ~ British aristos in Paris, French emigrés, swashbuckling heros ~ the story theme and execution compares poorly with the Heyer books I've read. A little dated perhaps, although written not that much earlier than These Old Shades, one of Heyer's earliest Georgian/Regency novels. In fact, I wonder if some of GH's stories were inspired by Baroness Orczy's Pimpernel characters?

>128 SandyAMcPherson: I just thought the Pimp was such a great yarn. Not read her other stuff and I have not - shamefaced as it is to admit - finished any Heyer books either. I have half a dozen or so on the shelves and really should correct that wrong soon.

>129 PaulCranswick: Heyer's formula is much more elegant than the Baroness's. It ought to be much more pleasant to put her words into your eyeholes.

>128 SandyAMcPherson: Oh, the Teahouse Detective stories...oh dear...um, not a delightful experience to me, either.

The idea that Heyer read the Baroness makes all the sense in the world. She did the lessons justice, if she did indeed read them.

Happy Monday, Richard!

I am hunkering down for a massive snow storm. Hope the bulk of it is finished before I go to work tomorrow!

‘Morning, RD, and happy retired day to you!

>123 richardderus: I’m still trying to read Emma, being the only one I’ve never finished. Sigh.

>132 karenmarie: Not-working-Monday wishes to you, Horrible! Seriously, don't force yourself to read Emma. Just let it slide into the mire and ooze of obscurity. Not worth it.

*smooch*

>131 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita, stay warm and powered all storm long. And to heck with the tomorrow-I-work part if it's too dangerous to drive.

Just got your lovely gift - *smooches* and many thanks

>134 bell7: Yay! Enjoy it at leisure.

38 Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie

Rating: 4* of five

What a pleasant read. A buck, an hour, and another will disinheriting two worthy souls for no reasonable cause. Dame Ags made a big tis-was about how the ingenue is a bastard, and how the foolish young well-bred lad who loved the bastard girl was crap at business...but somehow giving these two control of a huge fortune is a good idea...?

Anyway, good fun.

Agatha Christie's Poirot Dead Man's Mirror S05E07

Rating: 4* of five

Faithful adaptation, until the hilariously bad ending. The hilarity was what saved it from a ratings drubbing. I got a giant laugh out of Safra the Egyptian and the sheer wackiness of Vanda, the widow, behaving as she did throughout the show, and the Fauxgyptian sculptures around her room...!! Only ten years out of style in 1936, when this one takes place.

Still, it was fifty-three minutes pleasantly spent.

39 The Theft of the Royal Ruby by Agatha Christie

Rating: 3.25* of five

Standard stuff, not particularly memorable except for the absurd little game that the grandchildren play on Poirot. I am convinced that the Egyptian prince was based on someone Dame Ags actually knew, but I can't prove it. The entire thing depends on Poirot knowing things he shouldn't because he overhears and sneakily sees stuff he couldn't legitimately know.

Fairly fun. Not much of a puzzle. But Christmas! Poirot! And some silly seasonal shenanigans.

Agatha Christie's Poirot S03E09

Rating: 3.75* of five

"Daughter of a licentious camel!!" shouts the bratty prince. A whole half-star for that.

>137 richardderus: Ha! Excellent line.

Good morning, Rdear. Sending big waves from over the pond.

‘Morning, RD! Happy Tuesday to you.

>133 richardderus: I may get realistic and put it back in the Library. And there goes my planned Jane Austen-athon, started last year.

*smooch*

>140 karenmarie: Welllll...it isn't as though you *can't*ever* read it, Horrible. You just don't *want*to* at this moment.

*smooch* for a warm and snug Tuesday.

>139 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! Thanks for the warm wishes, most heartily returned.

>138 BekkaJo: I know, right?! So supremely petulant and childish and exactly what a brat would say.

"It had been impressed upon her in youth that experience was necessary and valuable, but no one had ever told her what to do with it; it was something which you apparently acquired in large or small packets, like Lux, and then put away in a cupboard. Experience so treated does indeed leave a sort of sediment of knowledge—the mere possession of those stored packets may give a certain confidence; but it does not make a very vivid contribution to life." Ann Bridge, Illyrian Spring ©1935

It's been a millennium since I read this book, forty when I plucked it off Mama's shelf; I can honestly say it's aged rather better than most eighty-five-year-old popular fiction. I flipped around in the Daunt Books Kindle edition and had the most peculiar sense of coming home. I felt utterly at peace with this older, unhappily yoked Lady and her boy-toy. Once I might've been Nicholas; now I'm Lady Kilmichael and Rob's Nicholas. (My dearly beloathèd roomie is the cold, nasty Kilmichael, and it suits him!)

What fun. I love reading!

>142 richardderus: "Like" that quote! I can see why you're having fun with the book. The phrase "Daunt Books Kindle edition" gave me pause - I didn't know there was such a thing. We love the Daunt Books store.

>64 richardderus: Vera's fumbling apology for shattering the confidence of the newbie with her perfectionism - it was one of the earlier episodes, and so well done. It seemed to me her character in shows after that was aware and trying to be careful to avoid doing it again to someone else. She also became more human with sidekicks like Aidan, although still a savvy curmudgeon. I'm on Season 8 of 10 (so far).

The Bruce Springsteen ad: I'm betting the corporate types saw it "failed", rather than being embraced as they hoped, and the DUI seemed a desperate excuse for canceling it. My leading suspect: money. It was costing a lot to run it, I'm sure, with poor results. The two complaints I heard: why break his "no commercials" stance for this lousy piece, and there apparently were churches shown too much, so that it seemed "Christian". (Of course, he is, but still . . .)

Glass blowing: that show made me wonder even more about the wizardry of Chihuly and his team. How in the world do they create those glass sculptures? We've gotten to see a lot of them in various places, particularly Kew Gardens and Seattle.

Now you and Benita are making me track down Silvia Levenson's work.

>142 richardderus: Alas, Amazon is not offering a Kindle of that one just now.

>144 quondame:, >143 jnwelch: Daunt Books does make Kindle editions, but one needs to be...flexible...about sourcing them.

Vera's an amazing creation, and Blethyn does her justice.

I think your idea about the Springsteen ad are very likely. He's not known for his commercial activities, and it would be a great "get" for the corpocrats. How disappointing for them if the result was substandard. So it'd have to be pinned on *him* so as not to reflect poorly on their vehicles.

Go get Silvia Levenson into your eyeholes! I'm not sure how it's ever a bad thing to spend some time looking at art. Like Chihuly, she spends her energies in making things that twist your perceptions...just on a wildly different scale.

Happy Wednesday, Rdear.

Thank you, my dear lady! I wish you the same there in Davos.

The second shot was administered mere moments ago! I'm here to tell you it *does* hurt a lot more than the first one, which never hurt me at all. Now we'll see if we can report absence of death....

Fingers crossed for absence of death!

>148 richardderus: that's because the second one has the chip in it, so that Big Brother can track your every movement.

*nods sagely*
*puts tin foil hat on*

>148 richardderus: Congrats on receiving the second one. When I'm a lucky lady I'll get my first one in late summer, probably more autumn.

Hooray, for Shot #2! Live, Richard, Live!!!!! Also, Read and Write, Richard, Read and Write!!!!!!

>148 richardderus: Sorry to read the second shot hurted more than the first, Richard dear. Glad you did get that second dose!
Keeping my fingers crossed for only mild side effects.

>151 Ameise1: Well, Barbara, I'm over 60, I live in a congregate-care facility, and this place lost over 30 residents to the first round of the plague, so we come by it a little faster than others. It makes sense when you think about the risk factors at play here.

I still think teachers should be earlier in line than people over 60 who live independently....

>150 Helenliz: I wonder if be quiet Bill I'm NOT buying cryptocurrency! that's not a good reason shut your piehole, Gates, NO WAY am I doing that to skip it after all OW NO NO NO I WILL NOT GO SHOPPING

>149 katiekrug: Not dead yet. 98 minutes and counting.

>153 FAMeulstee: The pain lasted a whopping five minutes, Anita, so it's not like it was a real hardship. Thank goodness!

...now if Gates would just shut up in my newly transreversed brain...

>152 LizzieD: After the cold, and the shot, and the Gates Investment Chip being activated, I don't know but what I won't go mad and become a capitalist, Peggy.

Please shoot me if I do.

>154 richardderus: I am very much in favour of facilities with vulnerable people being vaccinated first. It's the same here in Switzerland. There is simply too little vaccine and everyone else has to wait. That's ok, and I'm not complaining either. I have long since come to terms with the fact that we will live with all the measures for at least another year.

>156 Ameise1: There's really no one-size-fits-all solution to the issue of vaccination prioritization. But the good news is it's happening; the bad news is it can not happen fast enough.

Amen to that. 😘

When I got the second shot it didn't hurt until ...
About 8 hours after I got the shot it hurt and my arm got a hard lump on it about the size of a tennis ball. That lump didn't go away for 4 days. Of course - all that was better than the first shot. 48 hours after the shot I was in bed with aches and join pain. This lasted for a week and don't even ask me about the headache! It took me two weeks to fully recover. The Covid hotline here told me that everything I described was within "know side effect parameters." They also said that it was good that I had a strong reaction to the shot, because I was likely producing massive amounts of antibodies. OK.

That does not mean that I went out without a mask, or that I even went out at all. Now that I have all these antibodies, what's a body to do? Nowhere to go. Nobody to see. Of course, I do see the student every day, but they hardly count. They are not very entertaining.

^Hey, RD. I know you are not a big poetry lover but I finally started Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds. You may not be impressed by the verse but you might really enjoy the illustrations by David Allen Sibley, birder extraordinaire.

Happy Thursday, Richard dear.
I hope you stay side effect free, and hope that Gates did shut up ;-)

Just checking in to see how you're feeling today...

Hiya RD! Happy Thursday to you. Congratulations on your second dose. Mine's scheduled for next Wednesday.

*smooch*

Glad you’re all shotted up! Mother-in-law’s second dose is coming up soon, and we’re hoping that she remains side-effect free.

>148 richardderus: everyone we hear says the first shot is a breeze the second shot is like being hit in the back of the head with a brick. Keep your fingers crossed. For Judy and I first dose was a breeze we're scheduled for second dose mid March. As Bill Gates himself said its the best thing about being over 65.

>160 msf59: Poems about birds? Do they have "The Raven"? "Thirteen ways of Looking at a Blackbird"?

Second COVID vaccine really, really kicked my lily-white one. I feel like I did when I had it in March...backachey, congested, headachey, shooting pains up and down my legs...and the gritty-eyed yeccchhh makes me want to keep my eyes closed.

So it's working. Whee.

>166 richardderus: So, wooo and boooo! to that post. Glad it's working, but hope the side effects pass off soon.

>166 richardderus: That sounds really terrible! I still don't know when I get my first shot. Peet is probably first since he is over 70 and has underlying diseases. I'm turning 68 in March and I probably get my first shot sometime in the summer or late spring. My sister is scheduled for next week. she is 63 and that's the group that gets there shot in February (60 to 65).
I know the Dutch are making a big mess of vaccinations.

>166 richardderus: - I'm sorry to here you have to suffer through the side effects, despite knowing it will be worth it in the end. Hang in there!

Sorry to hear that you have such terrible side effects. Here is hope that you'll feel better soon. *smooch*

Oh goody good good, now we've added nausea to the pleasures I'm experiencing. Thank goodness I have a lot of calcium carbonate pills. I still feel queasy but not like I'm about to hurl.

>166 richardderus: I guess your immune system really ratcheted up.
This is medically very interesting, because you had the Covid infection already and I would have guessed your first dose might have activated all those reactions because of the previous exposure. Not that I know much about immune reactions etc. Glad to know you are going to be well-immunized to this slimy pathogen.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be better & I can come do visits. Until then I'm retreating into the Perseverance rover's landing on Mars.

Hello Richard! I hope all is well with you. Happy Belated New Year.

>7 richardderus: I love the 3 Sentence Review. Excellent advise for those stressed over how to say what they want to say.

>75 richardderus: I liked the ad and don't understand knee jerk culture these days. This is a perfect example. Especially, as you say, the liberals are lashing one of their own. To tell the truth, I didn't even recognize Bruce and that was okay. I liked the sentiment of the ad plain and simple. It reminded me of the Farmer ad from a few years back: earthy, simple, and a peaceful presentation.

I see you are enjoying Agatha Christie. I've been eyeing a few recent films that have been produced by Prime Video. Have you seen any of them?

Healing vibes out your way, Richard. May you wake up tomorrow a new (and symptom-free) man!

Glad the vaccine appears to be working, sad that that you have such pronounced side effects. I also hope that you are better tomorrow.

*smooch*

Yeah, that second shot is awful. I know some people are fine after, but I had a terrible evening and night after it. No nausea, though. Mostly fever, aches, and splitting headache. I was fine about 36 hrs later and I think it’s a small price to pay (and how lucky we are!), but I feel for you, RD. Feel better soon.

Which one did you get? Mine was Moderna.

My bad experience was with the first shot. It hit me about 48 hours after I got it and it knocked me on my butt for a solid week. It took two weeks for the joint and muscle pain to go away. I was just recovered in time to get the second shot, which I faced with trepidation because I wondered how bad it would be given the effects of the first one?

Second shot - nary a symptom except for a knot the size of a tennis ball on my arm. That went away in about 5 days. This makes me good to go for a year - until I have to get it next year.

I hope you feel a bit better today, Richard dear.

Hallo, RDear.

Side-effect-go-away whammies to you.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Happy Friday, Richard. I hope you are waking up much improved. Sorry this second shot, knocked you for a loop.

Just popping by to send best wishes your way that those reactions to dose #2 have ameliorated.

MUCH better today. Much. No more nausea, thank goodness, and the aches are down to a dull roar. Thank goodness! Now if I could stay awake more than 30min at a time, I'd be back to normal.

>183 richardderus: - HOORAY!

40 Let's Get Back to the Party by Zak Salih

Rating: 4* of five

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU!

There are a lot of things to celebrate among queer Americans at the moment. Progress has been made that, when I was a babyqueer, was inconceivable. (And yes, I do know what that word means.) Legal marriage? Common surrogate fatherhood?! Even, in some places, adoption?!? All this presupposes joint mortgages, life insurance left to one's partner, joint bank accounts, Social Security survivor benefits...holy carp, the GOP tomb-raiders who oppose even straight people getting back the money they put into the system must be plotzing. Believe you me, under-40s, not one bit of this was probable in a world with Don't-Ask Don't-Tell witchhunts in all branches of the military and the ever so inaptly named Defense of Marriage Act specifically, and unConstitutionally, forbidding same-sex couples from receiving the 1,049 (by some counts) benefits available to heterosexuals simply by speaking a few words to a County Clerk. (If you're wondering, the religious idiots do not have any thing at all to say about marriage. They can refuse to perform a marriage ceremony for anyone they choose, for any reason they choose; but the State is the only entity that can declare you married, and this has always been so in the United States.)

But what laws give, they can take away; and these rights which are justly ours as much as theirs can, with the wrong (aka right-wing) party at the helm of government, be taken away again by legal chicanery. And Oscar Burnham is bitterly aware of this. Beyond the fact that the extension of legal access to protection for couples strikes at one of the defining qualities of gay-manhood, unbridled and unfettered and unceremonious couple/uncouple relationships where everyone is Mr. Right Now, he's grouchy and squicked out about how the gays are becoming hipsters instead of threatening outsiders to be envied and feared. When he meets Sean, the elderqueer, the survivor of the AIDS years (aka "my direct contemporary") they bond over the Sad State of Things. Sean remembers what it was to be Other with a capital Q when one came out or was outed. Oscar, bless him, tries his damnedest to be there in Sean's head, attaches himself to the older man, becomes his happy shadow.

Sebastian Mote teaches for a living. Sebastian, after re-encountering youthful friend Oscar at a wedding, begins to think...well...sense...maybe perceive will do...that the unfinished business he brings to the table where Oscar's sitting should get more attention from them both. A dance begins, one that ended a decade before; one that wasn't ever resolved, though, so the emotional bonds are still firmly seated. Sebastian's so involved with his students, in the not-squicky way, that he doesn't quite see how Arthur is becoming an obsession...doesn't quite want to let go of his access to the youth's open, happy life awaiting him with boyfriend Raymond.

There is so much about what happens that you'll hate having spoiled. I need you to know, though, one big facet of this story is tragic and painful and life- and generation-defining. It will leave or open wounds for its ferocity and its outrageous reminder that Hate trumps all values thrown in its way because humans love the raw, red, bloody gobbets of The Other's flesh. I don't like that it's true, but nothing in my over-sixty years on Earth has ever come close to persuading me that it isn't.

I am, in a lot of ways, like Oscar: Grumpy, disillusioned by mainstreaming, in a strange, intergenerational love relationship that doesn't look like one anyone outside it understands. (I hope like hell that Rob doesn't feel conflicted about the same things Oscar does!) For that reason, I found this read very much an involving one. The relationship Oscar has with his parents, the emotional ties that bind but are ever looser he feels with Sebastian...all very much like my own life.

What in the end worked best for me about this read was my sense of its reality, its groundedness, and thus it earned my trust. I was always glad to read more and I returned to the read without hesitation. I'm so pleased that the publisher decided to offer me the book to review, and I'm just as pleased that the author wrote such a deeply personal story. The one thing you shouldn't expect is detailed sex scenes, à la Garth Greenwell mentioned in the blurb. It's just not needed to tell this tale the best way it could be told, so Author Salih doesn't do it for the sake of doing it. A big point in his favor.

Then there's the Tragedy I alluded to above, while handled sensitively, isn't so delightful; I wasn't all the way convinced that the event's aftermath was, in fact, not given short shrift. It felt to me as though it was no longer useful in the plot so let's just go now, k? And they did. It wasn't what I felt was enough given the scope of it.

While it did reinforce the solipsism of these men's on-again, off-again intimacy, it felt off, almost reductive, as it's presented in the book. That's a matter of opinion, I know, so take it as such and decide for yourself what you think of the ending.

Now we all have to sit and twiddle our thumbs until Author Salih brings us his next idea. I'm looking forward, and expect you will be too.

Happy weekend, RD. Congrats on getting the vaccine and navigating the challenges thereto. Hopefully another day of rest will find you back up to par.

Okay, I woke up again 20min ago and am already drifting back into somnolence. This is exactly how I felt in March! I'm getting the fast-forward version of the plague minus the anosmia. In two days I've had the symptoms that stretched over three weeks, and I'll bet money that tomorrow will be spent snoring, too.

Since the vaccine has been shown to *PREVENT*FATALITIES* and reduce hospitalizations by over 75% in the vaccinated, I will take it with a big grin.

When my Dad had his second shot (Moderna) he said he was crazy tired for about 48 hours. So fingers crossed it passes a bit faster than you anticipate. *smooches*

Finally stopped spinning out Bridgerton and finished the last episode today. :D

>185 richardderus: That sounds like a good one. Swamped.

Catching up with you. Sorry to hear that you had such a bad reaction to the second dose. Glad you are feeling a little better. I am hoping to avoid all the major symptoms that the second dose brings to many. Wishful thinking, I know ;)

Have a great reading weekend.

On of my friends working in a medical facility had the shot after having Covid and said his side effects were really bad too. I'm somewhat bracing myself for when I can get the vaccine (summer? maybe?) to need some time off work to recover. I get sore and tired/grumpy for 24 hours after my flu shot, so I half-expect to have a strong immune reaction to this one too. Anyway, hope the tiredness and other symptoms clear up for you soon, and hope you can continue to taste coffee through it all.

>183 richardderus: I hate the thought of jabs so I have my fingers stuck in my metaphorical ears. Done yet?

Hope you're feeling better.

Glad to hear you are feeling better, Richard.

Sorry to see you haven't been feeling well. Hope it passes today and you can get back to your normal waking hours

Happy Saturday, Richard. I hope you wake up feeling more refreshed. It would be nice to get some of your energy back. I really liked that egret painting you shared on my thread.

I guess my Side-effect-go-away whammies are slow-acting...

Here's hoping to a better day.

*smooch*

*aaahhh*

I woke up very rested and almost too refreshed. I'm delighted to say that side effect sickie has left the building!

Thanks, everyone who checked in and wished me a healthier tomorrow the past few days.

>197 richardderus: - Wonderful news! And just in time to enjoy the bright, sunshine-y day.

>197 richardderus: That is good news. Himself has his appointment for next Friday. Am not telling him about anyone's side effects quite yet.

What a lovely day. Just lovely. Yep...LOVELY.

>200 richardderus: I hope it is sincerely so.

So glad to hear you are feeling more the thing! I've been checking in in mute sympathy over the last few days.

Sorry to see that the second shot was not as easy as the first, Richard. Have a great week now that you are doing better again.

Hello there! Glad you got your second shot. Also glad the symptoms are flying by. Wishing you a blissful Sunday. Smooches. : )

>200 richardderus: Glad to hear that you feel much better. Sending big waves over the pond. *smooch*

Good morning, RD! Happy vaccined-up, coffee-infused, reading/video-infused day.

I'm getting my second dose on Wednesday and am trying not to think about the potential side effects.

So I'll re-start this Model T of a thread

now that I'm a recovered vaccinee who got to spend a day canoodling with his sweetie. See, >201 quondame:? It was a good day indeed.

Much, much better mood than sickie-me. How astonishing, right?
***
>206 karenmarie: How do, Horrible! Don't dread them. Just remember it means your immune system is *guaranteeing* you that this is not the disease that will kill you, and assuring you that you'll stay out of the hospital unless something totally unexpected happens like you develop immune-deficiency-causing underlying diseases.

ETA GIF size

>205 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara! *smooch*es flung back to the Alps!

>204 Berly: Happy birthday, Kimmers! Hope the next *mumble*ty-seven are as happy as 2020 wasn't.

>203 Familyhistorian: It was decidedly NOT, Meg, but the reason it wasn't makes it all okay with me.

>202 ronincats: Hiya, Roni! *smooch*

Great to hear that you've overcome the vaccination side-effects.
Although "side" makes those effects sound trivial, I know they weren't.

>209 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks, Sandy, it was an ordeal...but training your body to do new things is always tiring, isn't it.

Good to hear you are feeling yourself again, Richard.

Good to see you overcoming that second jab, dear fellow.

>212 PaulCranswick:, >211 connie53: It's a lovely feeling not to feel ill. And given the statistics on fully-Pfizered people's futures with COVID, it was entirely worth it.

Thanks for stopping in, Connie and PC!

I hope you feel better soon from your 2nd Jabby McJab!! May your fully-Pfizered state render you super human.

Two Thumbs up, Richard!

Glad you’re feeling better!

>216 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>215 magicians_nephew: (see comment above)

>214 LovingLit: *smooch*

Good to see that you have recovered so nicely from the second stab. I got all the pain with the first one. I am feeling better, but that vaccine knocked me down for about 2 weeks in total. Covid hotline here says that it is likely that I had Covid and shouldn't have had the vaccine at this time. Problem with that is that I didn't ever have any symptoms so how would I have known not to get the shot when it was offered? It's a bit of a conundrum.

Glad you are up and about and fully recovered :)

Good morning, Rdear. I wish you a gorgeous start into the new week. *smooch*

>220 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara, it's enough for me that I'm not still feeling like Death's unwanted child. *smooch*

>219 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! It's so much fun not to feel the need to sleep overpower me at irregular intervals. Yay for me.

>218 benitastrnad: Oh, that's just so idiotic. What public health guidance could be less useful than, "Have you had, or do you think you have had, the COVID-19 virus before? Then wait to get your shots until those in greater need have had theirs, or at {some indeterminate time in the future}."

YOU'RE THE PROFESSIONALS. YOU DO THE TESTING if there's not enough vaccine to go around. Or just say, "It's outside the door in the cold boxes. Do it y'all's damn selves, we're already vaccinated."

'Morning, RD!

Yay for canoodling with your sweetie.

*smooch*

>222 karenmarie: It was a lot of fun, and something we both needed very much.

Now it's back to reality, and the need to rebuild my strength from this miserable plague year's confinement. Masked-up boardwalking first.

41 Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny

Rating: 3* of five

Solid three-star effort to use the Amber/Shadow idea in a different way. Characters were flat, uninteresting puppets, which is a major disappointment in a Zelazny book. This man created Corwin and Brand! He can do better men than this, though his women are always this uninteresting. I suspect he was uninterested in them in a general sense. When the book stops, the story feels as though it wanted to keep going so I wonder what else is hiding in his papers.

Now his worshipful pal George RR Martin is executive producing an HBO series created by Kalinda Vasquez based on the book. Given how little I liked Nightflyers after he participated in adapting it for SyFy (and will they please undo that idiotic piece of misbranding already), I'm not expecting his name-cachet to spell much more than "access to the C-suite washrooms" does.

>224 richardderus: I know I've read it - who could forget the cover+Zelazny. I didn't even remember it existed until your review.

>225 quondame: ...and isn't that just exactly the problem with fair-to-middlin' reads. It was fine, better than watching TV, but some spark just warn't thar.

>225 quondame: huh? ;0)

-Horned Grebe

Morning, Richard. This lovely illustration is from David Sibley. He is also the illustrator of Bright Wings which I am currently enjoying. 44F today! Yeah, baby! We NEED a break.

>228 msf59: WOW! Stunning birds. Good picture, too :0)

Good morning, RD! Happy Tuesday. I hope the masked-up boardwalking gets you going.

I woke up at 6, read an article about T****'s tax returns and was happy, so rolled over and slept for another 2.5 hours. Now I'm groggy. Thank goodness for coffee.

>230 karenmarie: It's amazing what a little good news will do to a person's daily elevation, isn't it.

Stay caffeinated, Horrible, soon it will be Spring.

>229 humouress:, >228 msf59: Such gorgeous work! I love the smoothness of it, that adds to the sense of those overdressed-for-the-lake beings moving in the water.

44° sounds perfect given where y'all've been. I hope it stays there until the slush is but a memory.

>227 humouress: I assume you're addressing Susan?

>231 richardderus: Yup; just teasing her about the way she's juxtaposed 'forget' and 'remember'.

>224 richardderus: Interesting news about the Martin/Zelazny adaptation. Why was this one selected for television, I wonder? Surely there is more interest in an Amber series?

FTR, I visited the first couple of Amber books in middle- or high-school but didn't get far. That's probably a poor indicator of how I'd feel about them now.

Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past. — Anne Lamott

I'm not the biggest fan of Lamott's christian-drenched writerly viewpoint, but no one can outdo her pithy aperçus. That one's just flat-out brilliant!

>233 swynn: Skybound TV had a set-up at AMC but that, sadly, died. I don't know if they're simply sitting on their option to develop Amber as a series or possibly desultorily shopping it to, oh, Crackle or Home Shopping Network or someone.

Don't sprain anything getting the books. Gender relations are terrible, lotsa tobacco smoking (amazing how much that offends me now!), *brutal* ableism. I still have A Thing for Corwin, so I'm hooked, but ain't no woman characters to get interested in! They're labels with clichés for dialogue.

As to why develop this one: Dragons and interdimensional many-worlds time travel. All the yes.

>232 humouress: Ah! I rather thought so, but had to verify. *smooch*

>232 humouress: >234 richardderus: I figured the emoji meant I didn't need to explain. My compulsion to pedantry can only be checked by well, not much, but I occasionally catch it and delete.

>235 quondame:

I had to venture outside earlier for a super-fast errand and...I'm sick!

Lest hearts across the globe cease rhythmical function for too long, the juniper bushes were rusty red with pollen and after mere moments having them invigilated by the pollen, my eyes are *streaming* with clotted-cream-textured Pantone-2021-shaded itchy schlurglish glop.

Delightful. Though I have at last run across a use for the awful, ugly 2021 colors.

>236 richardderus: Well, to be precise...

TMI

>237 quondame: ...I could add some photeaux of the affected ocular units...

>238 richardderus: No need for more offended ocular units.

>236 richardderus: Thanks for the directions. The rest of it, not so much.

Hola, Ricardo. Good, thoughtful review of Let's Get Back to the Party. Along with all the other changes you mentioned, more books with grounded realism like this seems positive.

I love the Amber books, and your mini-review of Roadmarks matches my recollection. Kind of an Amber-lite book. There was one I liked that had somewhat similar themes from yet another angle - Jack of Shadows. I should find that one and re-read it.

George R.R. Martin working on a Zelazny tv project? I can't imagine. What a divide between them stylistically.

>241 jnwelch: Hi there Joe! Thank you for the kind words about Let's Get Back to the Party's review. I'm glad I got a chance to read it because that's what I want publishers to bring me: stories of what it means to be aging in a culture fast changing that is losing its main means of self-preservation.

That was one ugly sentence wasn't it. But anyway, I hope you know what I mean.

Martin was good friends with Zelazny, who helped the younger man out of bad financial straits occasionally. He's in the executive-producer role on this project, so isn't likely to do more than point out the path, not whack the weeds or trim the hedges or any of those other tasks with highly visible results.

I've always whizzed past Jack of Shadows in my travels, a blur out the train window, so I'll be interested to see if I need to ask the conductor for a platform stop if you read it again.

>240 humouress: *chuckle*

>239 quondame: *smirk*

EVERYONE WHO READS THIS THREAD: do yourself and your world a solid, get Evicted while it's $2.99 because Katie said so and, comme d'habitude, she's right.

*preens*

>244 katiekrug: And rightly so. A well-earned moment of self-congratulation for being perceptive and still managing to be not prescriptive is entirely reasonable.

On an unrelated tangent, romanticall historic writers should consider carefully their characters' names..."Vanecia Gans" is not far enough away from its dirty-minded misreading.

>241 jnwelch: My only problem with Jack of Shadows is there wasn't near enough of it. I thought I'd reread it recently, but apparently that doesn't mean within 15 years.

It will take me the entirety of the 20s to re-read this, but I was 22 when I finished it the first time and that was damn close to forty years ago.

It's still rattling around my head. I think of phrases that I think Arendt wrote every time I see news items about the nightmare scum to the political right. (To calibrate that for you, I consider Elizabeth Warren a centrist.)

Only $2.99 on Kindle with a very, very handsome new cover.

Charles P. Pierce, of >Esquire magazine fame, had this headline today and I can't stop laughing:
"If Pure Gall Ever Becomes an Energy Source, I Want the Drilling Rights to Senator Cancun"

>247 richardderus: - I read lots of bits and pieces of this in college, but never the whole thing.

>248 richardderus: - Priceless!

Wow, the NY Times has an article on the striking decrease of deaths from COVID in nursing homes following widescale vaccinations, already! Tried to copy the graphic but couldn't; here's the article.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/25/us/nursing-home-covid-vaccine.htm...

Hello Richard! Its been a while. I hope you are well.

Have you seen Lupin on Netflix? I think this would be right up your alley. Fun, clever, even whimsical. I am enjoying the heck out it. There are only 6 episodes in this first season.

>251 brodiew2: Hello Brodie, welcome back! I have indeed seen Lupin and heartily approve of it. I'm particularly fond of the show's sense of whimsy.

>250 ronincats: It is so heartening, isn't it? The vaccine (which made me dog-sick) *prevents*COVID*deaths*100%* in fully vaccinated people.

Whatever else it might do, this is just stellar news.

>249 katiekrug: I read the whole thing, though not all at the same time; it was published as three separate books back then, and I really see why. The whole thing is intimidating!

Ain't that grand!

Hi Richard. I'm sorry you had that juniper-pollen event. I guess our pollen season luks closer. Helluva a thing that I outgrew grass pollen allergies only to succumb to whatever-the-hell-it-is in late winter, probably snow mould.

>247 richardderus:, Well, I didn't have to read this at Uni and I'd probably drown in text if I tried now. But interesting to see the book(s) being reissued, new cover and all.
My next erudite book is going to be The Debatable Land. But I have to finish some Thomas King fiction on my e-reader, first (Indians on Vacation).

(Edited to clarify that the snow doesn't go moldy, per se). And touchstones seem broken again...

Sweet Thursday, Richard. Good Lifer day. This did not include the male Surf Scoter, which I saw today. I saw a female scoter last year. Striking sea duck. (NMP) I tried but my zoom was maxed out.

Richard, you're too fast for me! But great illustrations all around. Glad you're the new, improved Richard after a couple pokes.

Hope you have a great weekend, Richard! Have the cold temps eased for you? Apparently is supposed to be starting to get warmer here, which I don't mind at all!

Nothing like stress about getting vaccinated and stress after getting vaccinated plus about 6 hours of feeling icky with side effects from getting vaccinated to keep me from posting on your thread, RD!

I return, humbled, to say happy Friday, hope the pollen ickies are gone from your system, and I hope you enjoy a day of coffee, books, video, and whatever else tickles your fancy.

*smooch*

>257 karenmarie: The ickies aren't any fun, are they? I am empathetic.

Happy Friday, Horrible dear, and a steadily-improving weekend ahead.

>256 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! We're seasonably cool, not a bit overwhelmed by frost demons the way the deep south is. I'm perfectly happy with this weather...and scared poopless by the climate trends.

>255 justchris: It's always a shock to see how fast threads move when you've been away for as little as a day, isn't it? I can always feel the elevator-drop stomach feeling when I see fifteen threads with double-digit unreads...

>254 msf59: I can't help myself...I look at that surfing scotus and think "Clarence Thomas on a surfboard."

>253 SandyAMcPherson: Oh, the twitchy-touchstone issue seems to be a constant. I am always annoyed by it. Unfailingly makes me angry and I grouse to my keyboard about how this feature, over a decade old, shouldn't still be twitchy.

Anyway. Indians on Vacation sounds like it'll be a lot of fun, so keep The Debatable Land for a time when the moors are a-callin'.

>258 richardderus: Oh so its not just me (seeing double, sometimes triple digit unreads). Sometimes it goes so fast some of the more popular hangouts are into a new thread before I get a chance to read the previous one. :)

Happy Weekend!

Happy Sunshine-y Friday!

>260 katiekrug: Thanks! Isn't this glorious? Exactly seasonable weather makes the sunshine feel like the blessing it is instead of a curse hurled by an angry, hateful goddess.

>259 mahsdad: Oh, far from just you, Jeff. It feels sometimes like we're all back in high school and trying to figure out how to do the whole friends thing all over again.

Happy weekend, Richard!

I hope you are feeling better.

>228 msf59: 44F = 6.6degC is a break??? That sounds terribly cold to me. We are looking at 25C/77F today (having survived a couple of 30C/86F days during the week).
We rarely go too high or low in these parts :)

>243 richardderus: dangit, haven't reddit yet.

>263 LovingLit: Christchurch is a lot like the Pacific Northwest's weather...San Francisco up to Vancouver. Never nasty hot for long, never so cold you long for a volcano to blow for its warmth.

Here, the formerly-usual February started around -10C and ended about 5C. March blizzards aren't unknown. In Chicago, it's more likely to start at -30C and end at -30C, with blizzards possible until May, when the first 40C days with 100% humidity can be expected.

It is, in short, Satan's Playpen and to be avoided at all costs.

>262 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! Chugging along in fine fettle, thanks for asking. *smooch*

Happy Friday Richard! We're getting a break with 44 degree F weather too! It's fantastic.

>258 richardderus: Re my >253 SandyAMcPherson:, I was rather disappointed in this particular novel. T-King is usually very palatable. This effort fell flat, although others found it 'funny'.

I'm going to venture out to the library on Monday (perhaps. Weather dependent...) and pick up The Debatable Land . A non-fiction like this one is likely just the thing for my brain this coming week.

Over here, it's 32ºC, feels like 37ºC (according to the IBM weather site) at 16:00 in the pm. I'm melting, I tell you, melting.

Here endeth your maths lesson for today.

>267 humouress: swop? We're at a high of 9ºC today, as it's sunny. We started at 0ºC with a frost this morning, after a clear night.
I love the heat, and was clearly born a few degrees latitude too far north.

Everyone who ever wonders if Stephen Fry is in point of fact an International Living Treasure should listen to this two-hour podcast where he speaks to Lawrence Krauss about pretty much everything. It's a glorious experience.

And let's not forget:

Hiya RD! Happy Saturday.

>270 richardderus: There aren't, although I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that unless I start double-stacking my unread books, there will be enough in my house. Not a final conclusion, but keeping roughly 5000 books here in the house, without floor stacking or double stacking, seems to be the stable number for chez moi.

>271 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! A biblioload of around 5000 is precisely where I've always operated. Formerly in tree books, and now in a mix; I might have ~500 tree books now, but won't be acquiring them at anything like the former rate.

Of course, the Kindlebooks take no real estate whatever. Hence my unbridled biblioconcupiscence moving online!

Sunday orisons, sweetiedarling.

>268 Helenliz:, >267 humouress: Precisely opposite to Helen, I was born waaayyy too far south and skedaddled northwards at top speed. It was 8.5C here and the sun reappeared about three hours ago. This is, I feel sure, my reward for not being hateful to them as richly deserves it.

>266 SandyAMcPherson: Oh hell! I've got it all Kindled up! I was hoping for his usual slyly snarktastic self, but it sounds like he missed the mark this time.

I mean, this is the man who wrote, "Everybody's related, Lucy told us. The trouble with this world is that you wouldn't know it from the way we behave." And not in a comedic book! *sigh*

>265 The_Hibernator: Rachel! Hello, and I'm very happy to see you. *smooch*

42 The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

Rating: 2.5* of five

I wasn't planning to revisit this book. I have a tree-book of it, and as I am the one who hooked my Young Gentleman Caller on Author Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (his comment: "Fuck Walden! This is what {nature writing} should be!"), when he was Kindleshopping here this afternoon and saw this was $1.99, I said he could take the tree-book and not spend the money. We flipped through it together for a while....

Three days a week she helped at the Manor Nursing Home, where people proved their keenness by reciting received analyses of current events. All the Manor residents watched television day and night, informed to the eyeballs like everyone else and rushed for time, toward what end no one asked. Their cupidity and self-love were no worse than anyone else's, but their many experiences having taught them so little irked Lou. One hated tourists, another southerners; another despised immigrants. Even dying, they still held themselves in highest regard. Lou would have to watch herself. For this way of thinking began to look like human nature—as if each person of two or three billion would spend his last vital drop to sustain his self-importance.

That made us both laugh out loud. I mean, given where I am, I'm in a position to say "oh HELL yeah" to the truth imbued in that. And Rob, since he actually seeks my company out, asks me things, and *listens* when I answer (!!), is au fait with it, too. (I preen a little that he speaks without scorn of them, exasperating as they are; he commented once that I was not to plan to go down that road or he'd biff me one.)

But that, most regrettably, was as good as it got.

If she…had known how much her first half-inch beginning to let go would take—and how long her noticing and renouncing owning and her turning her habits, and beginning the slimmest self-mastery whose end was nowhere in sight—would she have begun?
–and–
What was it she wanted to think about? Here it was, all she ever wanted: a free mind. She wanted to figure out. With which unknown should she begin? Why are we here, we four billion equals who seem significant to ourselves alone? She rejected religion. She knew Christianity stressed the Ten Commandments, Jesus Christ as the only son of God who walked on water and rose up after dying on the cross, the Good Samaritan, and cleanliness is next to godliness. Buddhism and Taoism could handle all those galaxies, but Taoism was self-evident—although it kept slipping her mind—and Buddhism made you just sit there. Judaism wanted her like a hole in the head. And religions all said—early or late—that holiness was within. Either they were crazy or she was. She had looked long ago and learned: not within her. It was fearsome down there, a crusty cast-iron pot. Within she was empty. She would never poke around in those terrors and wastes again, so help her God.

We kept reading to each other (I've made my hmmfyness about that well-known, but ya know what? it's different when you're in love with the reader! Go know from this shocking revelation, right?) as the hours ticked by and after about two were spent, we silently agreed to stop.

It's in the Little Free Library if anyone wants to go get it. So very disappointing.

>274 richardderus: The first paragraph after regrettably is gibberish to me, but the second I found more or less where my head goes when I bump up against religion.

>275 quondame: Yes, exactly that Susan. It's where *everyone*'s head goes. It's utterly unexceptional, if also unexceptionable. It's a giant, economy-size wodge of "so what?" as Rob put it.

>258 richardderus: ""Clarence Thomas on a surfboard." That is pretty funny but so disrespectful to my Surf Scoter.

Happy Saturday, Richard! The Maytrees fell short for me too. I was definitely hoping for more.

>277 msf59: I went to see your review of it, and I agree about the characters being silhouettes. They're recognizable but lack details needed to make them more than shadows.

Heh. Can't help my irreverent mental imagery, now can I? (And wouldn't bother trying if I could, TBH)

>273 richardderus: I hope you read his CBC Massey lectures (The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative ). That was superb storytelling. Many folks enjoyed the Indians on Vacation novel so read it with an open mind, unsullied by my opinion!

Edited to add that I loved this description: It's a giant, economy-size wodge of "so what?" I so want to apply it to some of my recent reading; except I'm a little reluctant because I sense that my mind is a tad affected by the effects of a pandemic, so perhaps unstable in the critical thinking department.

>279 SandyAMcPherson: Is it polite to fire BB on some one else's thread?

>280 quondame: Sandy shoots with my bibliogun, if you see what I mean. Bobbing and weaving are wallet-survival tactics best kept sharp everywhere!

>279 SandyAMcPherson: Heh, well, Rob is definitely witty, so he'll be pleased to hear you were in agreement with his observation.

I haven't read the lectures, but the library has let me down so it'll have to await the next stimulus check. $8 for a tree-book, no ebook available dammit.

>280 quondame: I have no idea whether it is polite to mention titles as 'good reading' on threads other than my own... Is it really that annoying or are you simply having some fun rattling my cage?

However, when I posted a review of The Truth About Stories, back at the end of September (2020), Richard declared this book was in his TBR pile and that it was moving up to the top.

I can't remember whether he reviewed it (cause he didn't pop by to mention it and I've scanned his old thread to look in the fall of 2020), but I'm pretty sure he did read it.

OK. That was long-winded on my part and I had to hunt the 2020 threads to remind myself about the topic...

Edited to add,
OK, I took so long to find old posts, that RD answered the question. I am not sure what he meant by saying: "Sandy shoots with my bibliogun"...

>282 SandyAMcPherson: It means you're allowed to cause book-lust in all who enter here because I think that is the most important job we all have.

Also, it's fun to rattle your cage every once in a way. :-P

>282 SandyAMcPherson: Cage rattling. Somebody mentioned that I referenced a thread belonging to someone other than the group member I credited with the BB.

>268 Helenliz: I won't do a straight swap but I'll give you some of mine if you'll give me some of yours and we'll meet somewhere in the middle. Though I complain about the heat, I'm more grumpy if I'm cold.

Some years back I stayed with my aunt in London in summer and the thermometer hit the mid 20s (ºC). They all flung open the windows because of the heatwave while I sat shivering in the corner because I'd acclimatised to Singapore by then where nighttime temperatures are a pretty steady 27ºC and a degree or two drop in temps can have people flinging on the warm clothes and commiserating with each other on how cold it's getting.

>282 SandyAMcPherson: Well, you know it's good LT form to groan if you get hit by a BB, wherever it's aimed from. Doesn't stop us rushing out to acquire the BBs.

Good morning, RD! Happy Sunday.

>272 richardderus: Biblioload… I like that. I have 68 Kindle books in my catalog, but in looking back just now I seem to have bought ~237 – give or take a video or two. I need to put (most of) the rest into my catalog.

>274 richardderus: Philistine that I am, Dillard has never spoken to me. Somehow or other I ended up with her memoir For the Time Being on my shelves, don’t know why/how I acquired it except that it wasn’t Amazon. I don’t want it. Do you want it?

>286 karenmarie: Well, you know what Phyllis:

Why do we exist? Where did we come from? How can one person matter? Dillard searches for answers in a powerful array of images: pictures of bird-headed dwarfs in the standard reference of human birth defects; ten thousand terra-cotta figures fashioned for a Chinese emperor in place of the human court that might have followed him into death; the paleontologist and theologian Teilhard de Chardin crossing the Gobi Desert; the dizzying variety of clouds. Vivid, eloquent, haunting, For the Time Being evokes no less than the terrifying grandeur of all that remains tantalizingly and troublingly beyond our understanding.

That *does* sound more comfortably like her, so yes, please and thank you!

Happy Sunday, smoochling.

>285 humouress: 20C in London is a problem! Their houses are designed (wintertime appearances to the contrary) to defeat drafts and hence have *ZERO* air circulation. Our houses are designed for air flow so people don't suffocate. I am deeply concerned at the number of heat-exhaustion deaths coming northern Europe's way as their highs creep into our Summer lows.

>285 humouress:, >284 quondame: :-)

Yes, climate change is quickly making the world weirder than it already was. We have mountains of snow here now, all from Jan & Feb as we had nothing in December .... but it's pouring rain outside right now and +4c. Weird.

>288 ChelleBearss: I'll say it is! For people in Europe, 30C is life-threatening. For us, it's summer.

The mounds of plowed snow in the lot across my parking lot are melting, too, and have reached the desperately unattractive stage where the snow is asphalt-colored from top to bottom. Eccchhh.
***
Nude selfies get the highbrow treatment. And guess what? Every.single.one. is a naked woman. In The Guardian.

“It’s a Virgin Mary pose I strike,” writes Askew, raising a recurrent theme: the artifice that conceals the nakedness. The nude selfie now has its own industry – including specialist photographic boudoirs – to help with this. Shyama Laxman conjures up a call centre worker whose other, night-time job is as Nudes Editor “£20 for minor fixes … £50 for morphing – your face on a porn star’s body”. Molly McLellan imagines a gay photographer who sets up a boudoir shoot to rescue the residents of her granny’s care home from loneliness.

Sexism has a long, long, long way to go before it's dead.

43 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

Rating: 3* of five, because it's not *awful*

I don't know about you, but I've never really seen the fuss around Carver's writing...yes, I get the "unique, outsider" stuff that's been plastered on him, but I spent years reading outsiders' work when I was an agent and, with that deep pool of experience to draw on, I think the only reason you're seeing this review at all is Gordon Lish.

He latched onto something in Carver's writing. He polished that something. But he polished it into something it never was before, and this is incontrovertible because Carver's widow Tess Gallagher didn't much like what Lish did and undid it. Here's a whole Wikipedia article about it. Also the plot gets summarized, a task I don't want to do myself.

The specific story I'll refer to is the title one, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Originally titled Beginners (read the full, unedited story here, behind The New Yorker's paywall; you can have three free reads a month, and this one's worth burning one for), the story is a four-person Decameron of lower-class life, a series of sad, slatternly people narrating the dead ends of dead people. A modern name for that is grit lit, or use the older group noun "noir" that intellectuals in the 1940s slapped on similar stories (especially their movies) to shake the last drop of piss off them. Fancy labels make all things better, establish their Worthiness for Inclusion; it's why there are fads and rediscoveries.

But if you read Carver's letters to Lish (again, the paywall applies, but I'm less sure it's worth burning a free read for this), I think you'll see how much Carver was replaced by equal or greater quantities of Lish. Editors do, always, leave their own DNA in a writer's work. It's part of a collaborative process that, at its best, makes the read that much better for the reader, and the writer that much better for the outsider's loving attention. But this, from Lish to Carver in 1982, after the fallout from this collection's contentious birth soured things:

I’m aware that we’ve agreed that I will try to keep my editing of the stories {in Where I'm Calling From} as slight as I deem possible, that you do not want me to do the extensive work I did on the first two collections. So be it, Ray. What you see in this sample is that minimum: to do less than this, would be, in my judgment, to expose you too greatly.

EXPOSE YOU is telling, isn't it; you're flawed, you're talentless, but *I* am here to protect you from the consequences! I'm also more than a little offended on Carver's behalf that Lish "deems" his work to be the minimum to make the lumpen oddities presentable, an attitude I think Lish telegraphs quite clearly by using the verb "to deem":

deem (v.)
Old English deman "to judge, decide on consideration, condemn;, think, judge, hold as an opinion," from Proto-Germanic *domjanan (source also of Old Frisian dema "to judge," Old Saxon adomian, Middle Dutch doemen, Old Norse dma, Old High German tuomen, Gothic domjan "to deem, judge"), denominative of *domaz, from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put" (compare doom). Related: Deemed; deeming. Originally "to pronounce judgment" as well as "to form an opinion." Compare Old English, Middle English deemer "a judge." The two judges of the Isle of Man were called deemsters in 17c., a title formerly common throughout England and Scotland and preserved in the surname Dempster.

(This from the Online Etymological Dictionary, whose Chrome extension I use with great frequency and frequent delight.)

I borrowed my library's Kindle edition of this book, my own 1980s paperback having vanished decades ago. I read the Lished version; I read Carver's original; I can't say I liked one better than the other because I wasn't enamored of either. They're not bad. But I came away thinking "...and why was this work deemed (!) so marvelous as to deserve to be gefilted (gefilte fish (n.)
1892, gefüllte Fisch, not a species but a loaf made from various kinds of ground fish and other ingredients; the first word is Yiddish, from German gefüllte "stuffed," from füllen "to fill" if you're innocent of Jewish ancestors) into this allegedly superior work presented by Lish?"

Why bother? There is so very much work out there, quite a lot of it starting out better than Lish ended up making this collection, that one could more profitably spend one's time reading! Works by QUILTBAG authors, works by Black authors, Asian and Asian-American authors, Spanish-speaking or Arabic-speaking or Serbian-speaking authors...all so much more trenchant or squalid, if that is your kink; yet here's this nice-enough collection (I re-read this one story, it's widely critically hailed as the chef d'ouevre, and it is the only one I remembered the first thing about, so you "you're wrong, I think it's wonderful" commenters are deprived of the usual favorite opening line) sucking up money and attention forty years on and for no particularly compelling reason that I can see. There are books whose titles are plays on this collection's title! It's that well known, it's some kind of cultural touchstone.

Try this: Imagine a lesbian had written these stories. Do you still think this would be a venerated cultural artifact? Much more likely it'd be a forgotten typescript in some poor, beleaguered agent's archives.

I'm considering design colors for the new house on my thread, Richard. Your expertise is desired.

>274 richardderus: To calibrate that for you, I consider Elizabeth Warren a centrist.) And I consider her the rightful president lol.

I have to agree with you completely about The Maytrees Richard. Just not very good. And that was after reading and absolutely loving The Living which was her first novel I believe.

Glad you recovered from your second shot. I had a bad reaction too. About twelve hours after the shot I woke up in the middle of the night I woke up with a blinding headache and severe nausea. Lasted about eight hours. Then I was fine. 🤷‍♀️

*smooch* Thank you, Richard! I can't wait to get your reaction to my laundry room, now posted on my thread...

Sorry The Maytrees was so disappointing. Your quotes make me think that one might be a little flowery for my taste. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a co-worker, where we were both talking about how picky we've become about what we consider "good" writing, and that we both appreciate the ability to describe something perfectly, even prettily, but succinctly. Do you have a Little Free Library near your place, then? There's one down the street from me a short walk away and I'm going to have to make it a semi-regular stop. I just went by today for the second time, and not only were there quite a few books I hadn't seen the first time, I nabbed a copy of a Jane Yolen book I'd never heard of before.

By the way, I have Children of War out from the library and I'm hoping to read it in March. Nobody in our local system had it, so we had to ask for a "true ILL" which is what we call it when we get it in the mail instead of our consortium's paid delivery service, and have to slap our own temporary barcode on it to check it out. It came from Queens.

>247 richardderus: Thanks for the reminder, Richard dear, I want to read Hannah Arendt some day.

I consider Elizabeth Warren a centrist.
Agreed, in my opinion there is barely a real left wing in the USA. Many Democrats would be considered right wing over here.
We have national elections this month, and there are online questionaires to look wich party (of 37 parties this time) is closest to your opinions. I always end up near the upper left corner; horizontal axis going from left to right, vertical axis from progressive to conservative.

Good morning, RDear, and happy Monday to you!

>287 richardderus: Pulled, deleted from my catalog, ready to wrap.

*smooch*

About 13C here. Sunny. Blue skies. Sea looks tropical (really isn't).

Spring is threatening to become sprung - we will see...

Sorry, I meant hi and smoochies!

Monday greetings, RD!

44 Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids (True Crime) by Diane Fannon-Langton

Rating: 2.5* of five

Worth the $1.99 I paid for it...a lot more organization was needed to make this a real barn-burner, such as introducing the characters before the crime. Hard to care about Hattmann when I don't know who he was except a murder victim; why would I want to root for/against Rutledge, the murderer as we know from the get-go, if I don't know why he did it; since his wife was boinking Hattmann, and almost certainly pregnant by him, you'd best tell me why she went there.

The sordid story of a bored woman married to a monstrously jealous and self-regarding man who finds a friend at work and goes over the line with him is a guaranteed winner! So why didn't you tell it to me that way, o reporter-turned-author?

Like I said, worth the $1.99 but I'm the kind of reader who likes facts and lists. If you aren't...well...I just told you what the story's about. I don't think you'd enjoy the court-reporter speaks to crime-beat reporter style.

Walden isn't nature writing - its Mr. Knows-it-all explaining to you why he's smarter than you.

It's also piffle.

>300 magicians_nephew: Ain't it, though. Not even particularly interesting piffle.