New post by my sister over at the Park City Snowmamas site: a review of The Ski House Cookbook
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Plug plug pluggity plug.
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012Bad signs.
Saturday, February 11th, 2012I picked up a copy of Arika Okrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages
Now, this may be a fine book; I haven’t finished it yet. But I am a little put off by her opening sentence:
Klingon speakers, those who have devoted themselves to the study of a language invented for the Star Trek franchise, inhabit the lowest possible rung on the geek ladder.
Bzzzzz! Wrong! As we all know, the lowest possible rung on the geek ladder is occupied by “People Who Write Erotic Versions of Star Trek Where All the Characters Are Furries, Like Kirk is an Ocelot or Something, and They Put a Furry Version of Themselves as the Star of the Story.”
(Seriously, as much as I hate Trek, I have a lot of respect for people who can speak Klingon, or any other invented language. I don’t know anybody who looks down on the Klingon speakers.)
Obit watch: February 11, 2012.
Saturday, February 11th, 2012Jeffrey Zaslow, prominent author. (Link goes to the WSJ, but I don’t believe they’ve put this behind a paywall.)
The first time I heard of Zaslow, it was in the context of the legendary contest to replace Ann Landers (after she left the Sun-Times for the Tribune). Zaslow was assigned by the WSJ to cover the contest, entered it on a lark (and to get an angle for his story)…and won, writing an advice column for the paper for the next 14 years.
After that, it seems like he went on to books, mostly as a collaborator with other folks. The best known, and I think the most successful (also the only one I’ve read) was his book with the late Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
Also: Jill Kinmont Boothe, the skier who “The Other Side of the Mountain” was based on.
Stuff your sorries in a sack, Mister!
Friday, February 10th, 2012Sorry, folks. Yesterday got a big hole blown in it due to a flat tire and associated wrangling, but there really hasn’t been much going on.
At least, not much that hasn’t been well-blogged elsewhere, such as the “tuba raid” story. (No, “Tuba Raid” is not a sequel to the great John Varley story “Air Raid”. But I’d love to see someone write “Tuba Raid”. I’d suggest the idea to John Scalzi, but I suspect he’s busy editing the “Stunning Stoat Stories” anthology.)
I was doing a bit of research for a post snarking on Mexico’s confiscation of 15 tons of meth. However, Jacob Sullum got there ahead of me. (There was a great discussion somewhere, earlier this week, involving people pushing back against new laws requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine-containing drugs. I swear it was on “Hit and Run” but I can’t find it now.)
Lawrence asked me a few days ago if the news that Carolyn McCarthy’s district was going to be axed had me doing the happy dance. Short answer: no. When she’s out of office, then I’ll do the happy dance. With an AK-47 that has a 30-round magazine. And a shoulder thing that goes up.
TMQ watch: February 7, 2012.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Good news, everyone!
I’ve come up with a way for you to hear these columns in Professor Farnsworth’s voice!
Also, it turns out that this is the last TMQ of the season! Yes, no bad predictions review this year: just the Super Bowl column and then silence until draft time.
After the jump…
Obit watch and more randomness for February 3, 2012.
Saturday, February 4th, 2012Obit watch: prominent spy novelist Dorothy Gilman.
Ben Gazzara. I’m glad to see “Run For Your Life” get some mention in his obit; that’s another series RTN was re-running, and that I wish someone would bring out a full DVD set of. (And I’d also like to see “Anatomy of a Murder” sometime; I’ve read the book, but haven’t seen the movie.)
Hey, how about that lengthy Federal investigation into Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping? The Feds took their best shot…and turned up nothing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the guy has been tested so often that either he’s telling the truth and is totally clean, or his doping technologists are not only ahead of the curve, you can’t even see the curve from where they are.
Finally, I wanted to make note of a developing local story. Early Friday morning, a guy wrecked his car near a railroad crossing in the Avery Ranch area of Northwest Austin. The guy walked away from the wreck. A little while later, the wife of a homeowner in the area heard voices outside and saw a man (the same guy) lying under her car. Her husband went out to investigate, and apparently attempted to hold the man at gunpoint. The homeowner ended up shooting the intruder three times, killing him.
And the homeowner has now been charged with murder.
There are too many unknowns in the current press coverage to make me feel comfortable passing judgment in this case. I know the article quotes the homeowner as saying, “If you flee, I’m going to shoot you,” and then firing on the intruder as he tried to flee. But we don’t know what else the intruder did at this point; did he display a weapon? Was there a disparity of force involved (23 year old intruder, 47 year old homeowner)?
I think there is one thing we can say for sure:
Use your gun defensively, and even if it is a good shoot, your life is going to change; probably not for the better. Commvault Bryan and I were talking the other day about having an attorney on “retainer” and the various groups that offer that service for a small monthly fee; I need to get with Karl and get the name of the organization he recommends.
Today’s literary fraud update…
Thursday, January 26th, 2012…comes to us by way of our great and good friend Earl Cooley III on Google+.
It starts with the arrest of Mitchell Gross on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. According to the indictment, Gross defrauded a woman he met online of $3 million.
Okay, so? Mitchell Gross is also known as “Mitchell Graham”; he published fantasy books with HarperCollins and mysteries with Tor and Forge.
And then this is where it really starts to get weird. Gross claims to be a championship fencer (there are some questions about that claim; it seems clear, at the very least, that he was not on the US Olympic fencing teams in 1984 and 1988). Gross also claimed to have been a practicing lawyer for twenty years, and that he quit practicing in order to go back to school and earn a doctorate in neuropsychology. (Gross was actually disbarred in 1990, and convicted of practicing law without a license in 1992.)
And then it gets weirder. Gross may have set up his own fake writing contest, complete with judging by Ben Bova, and used that to get published. (“Mr. Bova told us that he had indeed been hired as a contest judge–the only one, so far as he was aware. He was a bit surprised to discover that there was also only one finalist, but went ahead and did as he was asked–to read the manuscript and judge if it was fit to win.“)
The best roundup of this is at the Writer Beware blog. Be sure to read the comments, as people seem to be digging up more information on Mr. Gross. There’s also a lot of good stuff in the linked AJC article.
A show of support.
Thursday, January 19th, 2012Today is the first anniversary of l’affair TJIC.
“Brad in MA” apparently originated the idea of commemorating this date by going out on and purchasing something Second Amendment related, which we think is excellent. Our great and good friend Borepatch elaborated on this idea some more by suggesting folks patronize TJIC’s company, Smartflix, which rents learning DVDs. We also heartily endorse this idea; Smartflix has an amazing selection of firearms related DVDs for rent.
On this day, I encourage you to consider both options. As for myself, I’ve already set up a Smartflix account, specifically as a response to the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Arlington, MA police, and look forward to a long and pleasant relationship with the company.
I also wanted to make passing note of this tweet by TJIC about the firing of Boston PD officer David Williams for beating a suspect. As the article notes, Williams was previously fired in 1998, and rehired after winning an appeal in 2005.
As it happens, I am currently reading Dick Lehr’s book The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide
I’m not far enough into The Fence to feel confident recommending it, but the story of Michael Cox is appalling and deserves to be better known.
Holy Cow. (Part 3)
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012Rumor has it that these run for $50,000, so we’re talking lottery territory here. Plus there’s the cost of feeding it .45-70 ammo.
As Sebastian notes, this isn’t technically a machine gun so NFA doesn’t apply. And it would be an awesome weapon for certain stages of Lovecraft action shooting.
(Hattip: The Firearm Blog, by way of Sebastian. I do love the comment there: “I think [Colt’s] marketing strategy is to put a monkey in charge.”)
Edited to add: I can’t directly link to the “Gatling” westerns on Amazon, but here’s the “Jack Slade
Like Steve McQueen.
Thursday, January 12th, 2012Today’s NYT has an interesting article about an attempt to unearth and recreate the tunnel system used in Stalag Luft III.
It turns out that the team was unable to excavate “Harry”, but they did manage to dig down to “George”. They also constructed a new tunnel called “Roger”, “but in a trench just beneath the surface; anything deeper was deemed too dangerous”. (The original tunnels ran 30 feet below the surface.)
I am looking forward to this documentary showing up on PBS. (At least, I’m hoping it will show up on PBS instead of The Hitler History Channel.) I think this is a review of it from the Telegraph. Here’s a link to an older NOVA documentary. For any of my younger readers who are unfamiliar with the story, here’s the Wikipedia entry to use as a starting point. The Great Escape
Dear Warren St. John.
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012I really liked Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer
I notice that since that book was published, Alabama has won two national championships. The University of Texas has won one.
Question: do you think you could do a book about Texas football?
Cahiers du cinéma: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Monday, January 9th, 2012Here are my total lack of qualifications for reviewing this movie:
- I have not read this, or any of the Stieg Larsson books. I have heard people I trust say they’re great. I have heard people I trust say they are awful and overrated. I have heard people I trust say they may have been better in the original Swedish, but Larsson was poorly served by his English translators. My mother wanted to see this because she tried to read the book and couldn’t get more than 20 pages into it.
- I have not seen any of the Swedish movie adaptations of the books.
- I’m way behind in my David Fincher. I liked “Se7en
“, but haven’t seen anything since. I missed “Zodiac
” when it was in the theater (I really should get the DVD), and I have “Fight Club
” on (the extra-special) DVD, but haven’t watched it yet. I had no interest in “The Social Network
“, and I heard strongly negative things about “Benjamin Button
“.
All that aside, I thought “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was a solid 3 – 3 1/2 star movie. I didn’t feel like I spent my $7 in vain, and the actual movie going experience was pleasant enough. (Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to have the Alamo Drafthouse.)
I did have a few quibbles and problems with the movie. I’m going to put those after a jump, even though I’m going to try to avoid major spoilers (there may be some minor ones).
NFS: Not For Storage
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011The Unix-Haters Handbook (which I am proud to say I own a physical copy of) is now available for free download.
(Hattip: Unix tool tip.)
The OSU Sanction.
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011(I really liked The Eiger Sanction
(And I’m more than a little surprised that there’s been no FARK link yet.)
Christmas update.
Friday, December 16th, 2011Please do not purchase this book
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