EDITOR’S Note – I’m otherwise occupied, so I am having the Hyperbole fill in. Enjoy!
Fourscore
I bought this book based on the title, Midland: Reports from Flyover Country. Sounds like something that came from MAGA Press, maybe a bit republican-conservative but what the heck. Edited by Michael Crowley and Jack Shuler. What a surprise lay in store for me.!
Printed in 2020, a reflection of everything that only democrat/liberal/progressives could fix that Trump had broken. Of course, more taxpayer/donations would be required. Twenty two diatribes of what the flyover bumpkins can’t seem to understand because they don’t follow the progressive agenda.
Touched nearly every slight that only dedicated leftists can feel. Lost elections, racism of every sort, environmentalism and many more.The editors call it a true cross section, geographically and ethnically but certainly not politically. They found what they were looking for, in mid-America, even if they had to work hard for it.
If anyone is wanting to commit intellectual sucide I’d be happy to send this one out. If not, winter is coming and it will make firestarter. If you have someone on your shopping list that you don’t like, this is the book for them.
Best of all you’ll be smarter by not reading it.
creech
Imagine a conventional war where U.S. forces suffered 7 million deaths in four years of combat. How would this carnage change American society and its ways?
It has happened; on a per capita basis, the Civil War produced just such a harvest of death. Indeed, 20% of Southern men of military age were killed; Northern forces suffered less. There was scarcely a person in the U.S. who didn’t know of a family member, a friend, or neighbor who died in service or was maimed for life. How did the survivors deal with this catastrophe? This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust (2008, Random House) provides a fascinating review of how the life of the nation was changed. Faust covers everything from embalming practices to mourning dress to burying the dead to what constitutes a “good death.” What I’m finding most interesting is his chapter on “believing and doubting.” A new religious idea had been slowly spreading in America: that the dead immediately passed to heaven and were in the company of their beloved ancestors, only waiting for those left behind on earth to rejoin them.
This was a relatively new idea, stemming from Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg’s publication, in 1758, of “Heaven and Hell.” Prior to this, the standard Christian teaching was that the dead were “mouldering in the grave”
until Christ’s second coming and Judgement Day. That their beloved was just behind a thin veil, and you would soon be joining them again, provided comfort to millions of the bereaved. And fortunes to the tens of thousands of spiritualists who sprang up conducting seances for the likes of Mary Lincoln and lesser mourners.
Countless others, however, went the other way; they began to doubt an all-powerful and benevolent God. The post war writings of Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Ambrose Bierce (who saw extensive combat), among others, reflected this growing sense of religious doubt. Faust ends with the observation that “The Civil War generation glimpsed the fear that still defines us – the sense that death is the only end.”
Dbleagle
Uncharted by Chris Whipple. This was the first book published on the 2024 POTUS race. The author writes for the NYT and it shows throughout the book. The book is subtitled “How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History” so you think it would spend most of the time with the Trump campaign. If you thought that, like I did, you would be wrong. Most of the book covers the Biden and Harris campaign and the first parts of who was covering up for PPP. Plus while the author puts straight forward facts on the page anytime there’s a chance to get a dig in at OMB, his campaign, or his supporters the author takes it. Of course J6 was an insurrection, no discussion at all of why millions of people believe there was serious corruption during the 2020 election cycle. The assassination attempts? The first get ~2 pages and the Congressional investigation 3 lines. The 2d attempt isn’t even mentioned. What the reader gets is pages on biden’s sister calling the campaign multiple times screaming at them about letting him on stage. DO NOT BUY. If you must experience this book, get it from the library if your blood pressure can take it.
On My Honor by Kim Christensen. The author examines the history of the Boy Scouts and their policy on dealing with people who abused Scouts. He also goes into the formation and the struggles of the Boy Scouts adapting to modern “youts” and the issues surrounding admitting girls and permitting gay participation. But the book really focuses on the abuse issue. I was Boy Scout and enjoyed my time with them. I heard nothing about any leader affiliated with my Troop to abuse the boys. I think if any of the WWII and Korea vets who were the adults had even got a hint of it they would have probably thrashed the perv. So it was disappointing to me to see how the Scouts had a system in place to try and remove the pervs, but they and law enforcement/the churches sponsoring Troops would almost always just make the problem go away and not prosecute. It was an interesting read, but not uplifting by any means.
Propaganda Girls by Lisa Rogak. After two downer books here is an thumbs up good read. This book follows four women who worked for the MO branch of the OSS during WWII. I already knew some about Marlene Dietrich and one of the other women but I know a great deal more about them and two others now. Virginia Hall (only female DSC recipient), rightly is known as an OSS badass, but the less glamorous MO branch and their propaganda efforts were also vital to the war effort. The sacrifices these women made were real, and so too were their accomplishments. The Germans made efforts to capture or kill Dietrich because she was viewed as a traitor to the fatherland. But despite knowing the risks she went up to the front lines over and over again to help with troop morale. The other three women were just as impressive in their own way, especially Zuzka. I am recommending this book.
Beau Knott
It’s been an extremely light reading month for me. I’ve sunk into one of my aperiodic video phases, bingeing all 6 seasons of Lucifer and about half of Sandman. At least these are based on comic books 😉
Lucifer does not hold to much of the comic book, and declines in quality during the last 2 seasons. Heretical, barely Biblical, Old Testament only. Still, well done. Excellent cast; Lucifer is particularly gleeful throughout; the cast makes a solid ensemble. Recommended.
Sandman seems to be more faithful to the comic so far. Well-cast, and the Sandman in particular is well played in the spirit & style of the Gaiman character. Recommended.
Re-read the Riddle Master of Hed trilogy by Patricia McKillip. IMNSHO, one of the 2 greatest works of fantasy of the 20th century. If you’ve not read it, treat yourself to an atypical, loving and lovely trilogy. For me, it’s comfort food for the soul.
Picked up The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, a British historical crime author. It was magnificent! Book 1 of an expected trilogy. The author’s background in writing mysteries is obvious — I don’t think I’ve ever read such a twisty, surprise-filled, nested puzzle box of a book. Published early this year, so be prepared to wait for the next 2 books. Based on this one the wait will be worth it. I expect to re-read this, possibly more than once, before the next book (Fox in Winter) is released. Highest recommendation for fantasy and mystery fans.
The Hyperbole
In keeping with my summer time reading slump I haven’t hardly read anything, a few Elmore Leonard western short stories, and the first few chapters of his crime novel Split Images. That’s it, mostly the books just sit accusingly on my TBR pile.
As always…
Remember if you would like to be included with all the cool kids email your reviews , criticisms , and or synopsis to whatarewereading25@proton.me by the last Monday of next month.
I need to find something more relaxing. This was my reading in preparation for my class tonight:
Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese (Learning Through Content and Multimedia)
https://www.amazon.com/Jpn-Tobira-Japanese-English-Mayumi-Oka/dp/4874244475/
I find it interesting that many of the reviews strength in Japanese character knowledge, but not grammar and find this book helpful. I’m the reverse, much stronger in grammar compared to character recognition. I suppose it is the result of being an auditory learner and beginning the language later in life.
I haven’t spent a significant time reading in almost a year. Maybe I’ll grab a book off the shelf at the gym and see if I can get myself interested again.
I was a voracious reader early in life and that dwindled down to nothing for several years. I’m reading more now but having difficulty finding things I like. Dystopian fiction is a lot easier to digest when you’re younger and haven’t lived through dystopia.
So true.
Now that I WFH and don’t smoke, I don’t have the hours to burn on the train or during smoke breaks so not much reading lately for me either.
As aggravating as things have been/are, we are a long way from dystopia, still.
Although there is that “gradually, then suddenly” thing . . . .
“There was scarcely a person in the U.S. who didn’t know of a family member, a friend, or neighbor who died in service or was maimed for life.”
Possibly apocryphal quote attributed to a CSA soldier retreating to Appomattox (and, yes, I assume most of you have heard it but still worth repeating):
“My shoes are gone; my clothes are almost gone. I’m weary, I’m sick, I’m hungry. My family have been killed or scattered. And I have suffered all this for my country. I love my country. But if this war is ever over, I’ll be damned if I ever love another country.”
Working my way through the Omega War Series. Space mercenaries are fun.
Our digital library had Empire of Silence audiobook. Very good for high space opera.
https://youtu.be/qLZly8pseOE
I thought EoS was decent although kind of a slog at times.
Neal Asher commented positively on the first two books, so I tried the first one. ‘Kind of a slog’ is perhaps a bit of an understatement. I gave up about 1/3 of the way through. Asher referenced Gene Wolfe’s Severian the Torturer’s introspective bits; I see the resemblance, but am probably not in the mood for Shadow of the Torturer either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Great respect for the series, but it’s not really a candidate for a re-read.
In the audiobook, the narrator had the perfect voice for a spoiled aristocrat.
Shadow… et al is kind of mind blowing on a reread. You see so many parts fitting together that he never makes explicit, it is like adding a drop of water to a glass of Scotch in how it expands the flavor.
Oof… the several chapters of that I made it through were a rough slog. Maybe I’ll give it another go some day.
I’d like to downgrade my recommendation for The Sandman to recommended with reservations. Some of the casting is spot on, some of it is gratuitous and rather annoying. Still barely halfway through, I’m growing to be of the opinion that for me at least the graphic novels provided a superior experience. YMMV
I just finished the 2nd season. Some good. Some not so good. Story arc is all over the place.
But, Gaiman has become “Persona non grata” for the woke. So, I felt compelled to watch out of spite. 😉
Look, I suffered through all of the American Gods, Preacher, and Y: The Last Man. I don’t need to see another graphic novel series that I loved get destroyed.
Since I’ve never read the graphics novels, I only care about the watchability of the show that I am being presented.
The 2nd season drives to a specific conclusion that then follows through without some magic intervention to save the day at the last moment.
I’ve dropped Netflix, but was wondering how they’d stick the ending of Sandman (I watched the first season and thought it was a wildly different take that made quite a few changes that I dislike, others that I reserved judgement on, and others that were at least interesting).
The pretty complete break between Lucifer the graphic novels and Lucifer the TV series was very much to the latter is benefit. It’s available on DVD; I definitely recommend at least the first two seasons.
Beau:
The girlfriend watched it (I think to the end). I noped out based on the description alone, and what they did to the Mazikeen. The Constantine show had a perfectly cast Constantine, but a terrible story to start with. The character had a couple of good moments in the Legends series, but was generally derailed into out of character moments.
Neph: I agree the Mazikeen of the TV series is nothing like the Mazikeen of the graphic novels. That said, I grew to quite like her in the show. The Constantines did nothing for me either way, although I like John much better than Joanna.
I enjoyed the first season. Haven’t started the second yet, although Mrs. Dean has. She’s not spoiling it for me, but she has says it kind of drags.
I tried to read “A Study in Scarlet” but Full-of-Shit Sherlock was so insufferable I had to put it aside. His unfounded conclusions and bullshit assumptions were so easily falsified with half a minute’s thoughts that I just wanted to reach through the book and punch Doyle.
You’re just sucking up to our Mormons!
?
If you had kept on reading you’d have encountered a novella within a novella, which is shall we say not tremendously sympathetic to the LDS.
No, I did not get that far.
It wasn’t worth the frustration.
I am rereading Agatha Christie in order. I’m up to The Body in the Library
I liked Christie’s work… Except Orient Express. That solution was bullshit.
The Lindbergh case was very fresh when she wrote it, but yes I have always thought it was one of the weak
er ones, and never understood why the keep making movies.
also wordpress can join the commies for swimming lessons. I did not hit enter or touch the control key, so that premature post is on the site.
I loved the Holmes stories. Adult, child, read them as both and they were all good.
Speaking of Gaiman, I recently reread his “A Study in Emerald” which is set in a Lovecraftian version of Victorian London with a certain sleuth trying to solve the murders of green blooded “royals” by his arch nemesis.
Good turn on the trope.
Alsotoo, P.H. Cannon’s Pulptime, which had HPL, Holmes, and Houdini solving a mystery in NYC.
Constitutional right to anonymity would be a hell of a precedent
The new federal lawsuit, led by Democratic attorneys general from California and New York, argues the unprecedented data demand violates various federal privacy laws and the Constitution, according to a news release about the suit. The states are asking a judge to block USDA from withholding funds from states that do not turn over the data.
——-
“This unprecedented demand that states turn over SNAP data violates all kinds of state and federal privacy laws and further breaks the trust between the federal government and the people it serves,” Bonta said.
The government has no authority to access records of who is getting federal welfare payments? If the states want to keep it a secret they can put up their own money.
If someone said this to me in person, I don’t know that I could stop myself from slapping them upside the head a few times.
So, I have to report my business and investment dealings in detail in order to be properly extorted by the Feds, but if you are a deadbeat receiving my money you have a right to anonymity? Sounds about right. Can we start giving commies helicopter swimming lessons yet.
Not just to be extorted, but FYTW just because (FinCen beneficial ownership reporting).
Don’t forget prosecution for not exceeding reporting limits.
Government is just the identity theft we all do together.
Can we start giving commies helicopter swimming lessons yet.
You can’t swim on asphalt.
Are you sure? I think we need to have a few million commies try it to see.
Bobarian LMD:
Not on it, but if it’s heated enough, you can swim IN it.
Briefly.
Don’t forget not getting paid for your time to come up with the information.
Fuck the demands. Swat raid their offices and data centers and take the data. Fuck the locals with the horse they ride in with.
Such data used to be printed in the NYT of all places
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post_7690.html
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post_27.html
I would assume that the agreement between state and fed includes reporting requirements if they are to receive the money. That seems like the first and most obvious thing in making such an agreement. That would make sense….so they probably did not do it.
It’ll be like the right to privacy that only applies to abortion
Yeah, I don’t think “the federal government has no right to know who is cashing checks from the federal government” is going to fly.
What we need is, personal consequences for judges attempting this slow-motion coup.
They do.
Blue states are shoveling billions at illegals in order to pump up their numbers.
Gavin Newsom nods in agreement.
I would bet a significant sum that most modern-day people (including most modern-day Christians) believe that this idea is as old as Christianity itself. I certainly didn’t know that the idea of a heavenly afterlife is a fairly recent invention.
Me neither, I had no idea.
It wasn’t really hotly contested until the protestant reformation, since the RCC has purgatory as part of its orthodoxy. After the schism, protestants disagreed on the precise disposition of the soul immediately after death, as they did with pretty much everything else once orthodoxy was out the window. The “soul sleep” theory posits that you stay dead until the resurrection and final judgement; others believe you go to “paradise” or hades/sheol, which are intermediate destinations prior to the judgment. There’s a scriptural basis for both.
A new edition of Lovecraft is going on pre-sale.
In conjunction with publisher Insight Editions, we are proud to present The H.P. Lovecraft Experience: a huge and stunning set featuring the complete works of Lovecraft in two premium-bound volumes; an all-new original Reader’s Guide written by the HPLHS; and custom in-world collectible ephemera, all presented in a magnificently chilling 3-D sculpted case.
Not bound in flesh?
*sad trombone*
The word “Leather” does not appear in that product description. So I have to assume either plant or plastic.
You have to get the Charnel House lettered edition for that.
The states’ lawsuit is the second one to challenge the USDA’s data collection plan. A group of SNAP recipients, an anti-hunger group and a privacy organization sued weeks after USDA announced the plan in May. That suit is still proceeding. The federal judge in that case declined the plaintiffs’ request to intervene last week to postpone the agency’s data collection deadline.
More than 40 million people receive SNAP benefits across the country each month.
Just fork over the loot and fuck off with that “eligibility” foolishness.
I read a reviewed a military history book about Asian tactics.
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-brief-review-of-phantom-soldier-by-h.html
In other news, I reached out to the county mosquito control office to see if they’re hiring. That’d be a great job for me. Mosquitos can be controlled with artificial dragonfly perches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kx2im0ceCc
Regarding the war between the states, There is place a bit south from me called Yankeetown. It is not named in honor of Yankees.
***
Oh, I’m a good ol’ rebel, now that’s just what I am
And for this Yankee nation, I do not give a damn
I’m glad I fought again’ her, I only wish we’d won
I don’t ask any pardon for anything I done.
Three hundred thousand Yankees
Is stuff in southern dust
We got three hundred thousand
Before they conquered us
They died of Southern Fever, Southern steel and shot
I wish they was three million instead of what we got
I rode with Robert E Lee
For 3 years thereabout
Got wounded in 4 places
And I starved at Point Look Out
I cotched the rheumatism
a camping in the snow
But I killed a chance o’ Yankees
And I’d like to kill some mo’
I can’t pick up my musket
And fight ’em now no more
But I ain’t gonna love ’em
now that is certain sure
I’m glad I fought again’ her, I only wish we’d won
I don’t ask any pardon for anything I done.
***
Remove the “slavery issue” and I think a lot more of us would side with the Rebels.
I just finished To The Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, which was fantastic. It delves variously into the movement’s tactical approaches within the social and political systems of the Soviet Union, as well as the varying, quite disparate motivations of the individuals within the movement.
There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job
Halfway through, but back to not reading again. Was a good filler during my wife’s hospital stay.
Had meant to get this in earlier. I am reading Children of Lovecraft, an anthology edited by Ellen Datlow. I’m reading this because one of the stories shares a plot element with a Cthulhu mythos story I’m writing and I don’t want to be duplicative. Two full stories in and not liking it. The editing is atrocious; many, many typos which should have been caught by the editor, a lowercase “t” appears randomly in the middle of words across the stories I’ve read. While there are some interesting ideas, the stories are not generally well-told. While I enjoyed the grittiness of the narrator and setting of the story “Little Ease,” it was difficult to suspend disbelief because the vocabulary and experience of the protagonist/narrator do not match her stated life history. One gets the impression that Ms. Datlow believes being an editor only involves choosing which of her girlfriends’ stories goes first. Glibs writers well know that unless your editor makes you cry like a little bitch then he’s not earning his salary.
Twain on being edited as a young journalist
https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/journalism-in-tennessee/
***
I passed my manuscript over to the chief editor for acceptance, alteration, or destruction. He glanced at it and his face clouded. He ran his eye down the pages, and his countenance grew portentous. It was easy to see that something was wrong. Presently he sprang up and said:
“Thunder and lightning! Do you suppose I am going to speak of those cattle that way? Do you suppose my subscribers are going to stand such gruel as that? Give me the pen!”
I never saw a pen scrape and scratch its way so viciously, or plow through another man’s verbs and adjectives so relentlessly. While he was in the midst of his work, somebody shot at him through the open window, and marred the symmetry of my ear.
“Ah,” said he, “that is that scoundrel Smith, of the Moral Volcano–he was due yesterday.” And he snatched a navy revolver from his belt and fired–Smith dropped, shot in the thigh. The shot spoiled Smith’s aim, who was just taking a second chance and he crippled a stranger. It was me. Merely a finger shot off.
***
Unrelated to Lovecraft, amidst the review series articles, I also submitted a thought piece called “The Ancestor Question” which is not part of the series. I wasn’t sure if it was being saved for after the review series ends or if it was taken as part of that series.
Arkham House had at least one collection of Lovecract inspired stories: New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Its from 1980, but well worth looking for.
That said, Datlow is kind of a hack.
Thanks for the recommendation, Doc.
Oh, meow! I approve that comment.
The Blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-M6d6fBKq4
and The Grey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpSR0oI5zy8
Since I sent it in too late:
Clockwork Basilisk – The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler: Volume One by Ben Nicholson – Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler worked on revolvers in the early 19th century. This book covers their work with digressions on other early revolvers, early British patents, late 18th and early 19th century British gunmaking, and patent infringement suits involving Samuel Colt.
The War of the Jewels by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien – This covers the post-Lord of the Rings drafting of the Beleriand parts of The Silmarilion. The book includes a very short extra on Ents and Eagles. There are drafts of the story of Hurin’s wandering after he was released from Angband which included an interesting view of the culture of one of the tribes of Men in Beleriand. As an extra, there is an essay on Elvish entymology, Elvish early history, and notes on the language of the Valar.
Clockwork Basilisk – The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler: Volume Two by Ben Nicholson – This is a catalog of known Collier firearms and copies of Collier firearms. There is also a glossary of terms. At the time Collier worked, terminology around guns was different than today. There is a transcript of the NYT coverage of the lawsuit Samuel Colt filed against Hiram Terry and Edward Leavitt. Collier’s work was referenced in the lawsuit.
Just arrived and skimmed over. I have not read the comments yet.
creech: How much is the post-war drug problem discussed? From all I have heard, some from those who actually saw it, and second hand the post-war drug/alcohol problem made what we are seeing today seem like an AA meeting.
Also, I recently plodded through most of Aristotle’s ‘Politics’ and a lot of culturally important things jumped out at me.
I think our cultural evolution has run into a bit of a bump….as a species we are still in the animal stage but I strongly suspect the next rung may be within grasp.
Functional alcoholism was a feature of US life up (and beyond) the temperance movement.
No, but history.com had a nice article on it. Just search “Becky Little How civil war medicine caused America’s first opioid crisis.”
Damnation, forgot to send in my reads.
In any case, Dune has been reread, and I am almost done with Goodbye to All That.
Everyone here knows Dune, but I hadn’t read it since junior high, and it mostly holds up. I found the ending was weaker than I remembered, but the first half was much more interesting. I also think, branching out a bit here, that the new movie was not as good as the Lynch version. There, I said it.
Goodbye… is fantastic, if you like first hand accounts of WWI. The author, poet and writer Robert Graves served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, saw action at Loos, had a shell punch through his chest in the battle of the Somme, and rose to the rank of captain in his majesties expeditionary force.
Graves is considered one of the three great war poets, along with Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.
I’ve got two big ones! I thought I had sent them in. I’ll copy my notes on ’em here. Two biggies for me, one Dad’s latest offering.
I’ve got two big ones as well.
Fuckin’ tungsten.
I’ve always been fond of the Mark Twain quotation: “Just the omission of Jane Austen’s books would make a pretty good library out of library that hadn’t a book in it”
I have never read Jane Austin, but she had to have been better than Twain.
This criticism misses the Mark, Proud and Prejudiced, but lacking in Sense and Sensibility.
And between the Twain, Bierce is more fierce, while Bronte is not wanting.
‘So What? – Short stories – Big Questions’ by Shayan Kashani
Shy was my best friend in Korea soon after we met there in 2010. He was born in Iran and lived there for seven years, before spending the next two in Saudi Arabia. His family moved to Canada when he was ~11 and retains dual citizenship with Iran.
His command of languages is impressive. After leaving Korea he moved to Colombia, and quickly became fluent in Spanish, enough to read at the professorial level. Soon after he became a prof in Madrid for a few years, and has/is moved around Central America on a 6mo basis. He’s a freelance writer, now, with ties to certain companies.
The stories are well-written and interesting. Often short, they tell an effective story, and so far have been comedic or thoughtful.
It’s available on Amazon and also in print from Barnes & Nobles. We’ve always talked about writing, and it’s great to see him accomplish the publication. Might light a bit of a fire under me.
Oh no
A chief architect of Project 2025, Paul Dans, is launching a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, joining a crowded field that will test the loyalties of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement in next year’s midterm election.
Dans told The Associated Press the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions and cuts to federal programs are what he had hoped for in drafting Project 2025. But he said there’s “more work to do,” particularly in the Senate.
“What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans said in an AP interview. ”If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp.”
Dans, who is set to formally announce his campaign at an event Wednesday in Charleston, said Graham has spent most of his career in Washington and “it’s time to show him the door.”
He’ll destroy bipartisan collegiality and undermine good governance!
Yep. Cue the “Graham is a last vestige of the good ways” stories.
Practically writes itself.
OT – Feel better!
And now this is playing.
As well it should be. Hearing it on release in the 60s had quite an impact on me. I still find it chilling, and bitter.
Dad just this week published a new work, something *very* different for him. I’ll be brief. He thought he could write great country song titles as the idea as a sorta Blue Collar comedy piece.
‘Fractured: Country Song Titles’ – “I’ll Tree a Squirrel for Your Love”
Oh, sweet Jesus. Bless me. Some are ok ideas, but I don’t think they’re funny. I’m also not the audience.
It’s a collection of 80 country song titles Dad thinks are fucking *hilarious.* Um. Well. It’s presented as a collection of comics, with each title overlain on a cartoon, illustrated by some artist who I’m sure was thrilled to get a few $k for such. They’re not terrible. The style is appropriate, and considering what he had to work with? Did pretty well.
Examples:”I’ll trade you tonight for two tomorrows and a maybe”
“The only way I can say your name is in vain”
“My cellblock or yours?”
“I gargle your name every night”
Well. He had a passion for the project. In the 70s he used to write lewd comedy pieces. He sold a joke or two to Joan Rivers, which legit, greatly impressed me. Purposefully, he can be quite funny, though more frequently his jolly, anachronistic ways are the subject of family fun.
So two works out within the month that both have something personal for me. I’ve messaged my thoughts to an appreciative Shy. Good to stay connected. He’s the one I visited in Colombia in 2015. He was the one I went with to watch how local drug deals are done before successfully going out once on my own.
I’m starting to think I’ve got need to solidify a project of my own.
I thought of one years ago: “I keep forgetting to remember to forget you.” Your dad and I are cut from the same cloth.
That sounds like Heath Ledger to Jake Gyllenhall in that movie I never saw.
I have never read Jane Austin, but she had to have been better than Twain.
D’oh!
I need this for my completely non windowed case.
ASUS reveals new ROG Astral RTX 5080 ‘Hatsune Miku’ GPU with its own matching hardware series
Other stories suggest the up charge is 2x over already insane 50 series prices.
On point.
【Hatsune Miku】 World is Mine
Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, said he expects to have support from Project 2025 allies, as well as the ranks of Trump’s supporters in the state who have publicly tired of Graham.
After Trump left the White House, Dans, now a father of four, went to work at the Heritage Foundation, often commuting on weekdays to Washington as he organized Project 2025. The nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint, with chapters written by leading conservative thinkers, calls for dismantling the federal government and downsizing the federal workforce, among other right-wing proposals for the next White House.
Chaos! Anarchy! Madness!
I read Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman about a Rockefeller getting eaten by cannibals. I’m currently reading The Lunatic Express by the same author, where he takes all kinds of dangerous modes of travel around the world.
I also read Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, which was entertaining.
Notorious
But for the 38-year-old Famuyide and other Black wrestling fans and sports commentators, Hogan’s death this week at 71 has resurfaced an irreconcilable contradiction in the iconic wrestler’s legacy: Hogan’s undeniable role in broadening wrestling’s appeal to fans of all backgrounds versus his well-documented racism.
——-
But just as many people took Hogan’s death as an opportunity to recount Hogan’s more controversial behavior.
In 2016, a Florida jury awarded Hogan over $115 million against Gawker Media, after Hogan sued them for posting a video of him having sex with his former best friend’s wife. The litigation led to the discovery that Hogan had used racial slurs in 2007 to describe his daughter’s Black ex-boyfriend.
“I am a racist, to a point,” Hogan said, before adding the slur against Black people, according to a transcript.
Hogan apologized at the time and called the language “unacceptable.”
Around the same time, some outlets reported that Hogan used the same slur on a recorded phone call with his son.
Hogan’s enthusiastic endorsement of conservative political figures like longtime friend President Donald Trump made many people doubt the sincerity of that apology, Jones said.
“It’s one thing to get caught on tape saying these things in private. It’s another thing for you to decide publicly to align yourself with a cause that many Black people find antagonistic toward us,” Jones said.
He voted for Trump. He killed Gawker. Those were his real sins.
We can give rapists and murderers a second chance, but saying ‘nigger’ in private conversation is the unforgiveable offense. Even after death there can be no forgiveness!
JFC.
And I thought my hatred of the media was already sufficient.
Today has been a battle with the unforgiving, as Eric Weinstein would say.
I’ve been quite sick for the last 2 weeks. I’ve been out of town for most of that. I’m in the midst of a nearly 700 mile, 12 hour fucking slog of a drive back home, and I feel like fucking death. There is no respite. Reality gives zero fucks that I just want this drive to be over, for it will end only once we get there and not a moment sooner. Feel like shit? Too fucking bad. Deal with it because you have no other choice.
We would do well to put ourselves in such spots more often. They suck, but times like these are necessary for some perspective.
Feel better! I had to drive 8 hours with the stomach flu once and that was bad enough. I did it on pure adrenaline.
This is terrible. May you get home to your own bed safely.
Get well soon!
The hard times certainly bring perspective.
Truck on, soldier. You’ve got it in ya for this tough spell, and truth be truth, it just builds strength for the next bout.
Fuckers won’t know what they’re up against.
For many Black wrestling enthusiasts, Hogan’s death brings up familiar contradictions in how the sport deals with race.
Lyric Swinton, 27, a freelance wrestling writer, first fell in love with the sport when she was 8. She describes wrestling as “the most nuanced and colorful” form of storytelling.
Although she feels representation has improved, Swinton remembers WWE use racist tropes in Black wrestlers’ plot lines. Swinton recalls Shelton Benjamin having a “mammy,” played by Thea Vidale, invoking a racist caricature.
Are you looking for storytelling or sermonizing?
These people are caricatures. They should be summarily ignored.
…
Done.
“representation has improved”
Has she not heard of Koko B. Ware? Kamala the Ugandan Giant? The Junkyard Dog?
Which made me think Mamdani the Ugandan Racist would be a pretty good throwback character.
Pity that fool!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/07/breaking-ice-arrests-illegal-alien-employed-as-police/
WTAF?
Can we give Maine to Canada?
An illegal employed in any role of authority should be treated as an enemy combatant occupying the country.
….and if he had been involved in a shooting? Worse, a shooting like the one in MN where a cop shot a woman because she was there?
I wonder what the settlement would be?
Paid by the taxpayers. That’s what the settlement would be.
I was thinking something more personal
ACAB so the hiring has been a little less… selective… in recent years.
The NHLA is selling stickers as a fundraiser to celebrate the upcoming end of car inspections in NH.
Sticker 1
Sticker 2
Naturally NJ has a law against stickers on the front windshield only exempting it’s own inspection sticker.
EZPass sits in a grey area, but they pretends it’s OK.
Nice. Most of my family up there is convinced that People Will Die as a result of this repeal. I only found out recently Texas did the same thing.
I’m hearing a lot of “People Will Die” too. I ignore it.
The sticker requirement ends Jan. 31st, 2026 according to the version of the bill the governor signed. I’m removing my inspections stickers then.
We dont have them here but not for a lack of wanting them by the ruling class but for me the most egregious and transparently tyrannical tax is the poll tax. You exist therefore you must give me money. It is the very definition of entitlement and hubris.
I have always noticed sensationalism about taxes today compared to taxes of the past. What they dont take into account is that in the past money was scarcer than now and the actual burden was just as heavy then as now.
I forgot about window taxes and the like.
I support the wallpaper tax. I hate that stuff.
Great news everybody! There is a movie adaptation of Charlie Huston’s ‘Caught Stealing’ on the way. Never heard of any of the actors in it, loved the novel and it’s sequels. Hope it doesn’t suck.
Correction: I know who Liev Schreiber is.
I know about half the people on the cast: Lenny Kravitz’ daughter, a Doctor Who, Billy Crystals wife in PB, Private Pyle, the dead guy in American Werewolf, and so on.
I learned a new acronym today: FLINTA. Female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans, agender.
In Like FLINTA?
FLINTA,
meet the FLINTA,
It’s a modern social mystery.
From the
leftist commune,
It’s very self-contradictory
Is that supposed to be a group or an individual? It doesn’t make sense either way. 🙄
Someone mis-spelled “STUPID.”
I’ve survived the Lunatic Express a few times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyxJE4-J1_o
why?
Why not?
IDF soldier wears dinosaur costume to load and fire cannon at Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5JOiaNz9Ss
That was last year. Yeah, I think they won and proved their point. The grass has been mowed.
Also, they’ve been comparing Gazans to the slaughter of the Amalekites:
***
1 Samuel 15
Easy-to-Read Version
Saul Destroys the Amalekites
15 One day Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now listen to his message. 2 The Lord All-Powerful says: ‘When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Amalekites tried to stop them from going to Canaan. I saw what the Amalekites did. 3 Now go fight against the Amalekites. You must completely destroy the Amalekites and everything that belongs to them. Don’t let anything live; you must kill all the men and women and all of their children and little babies. You must kill all of their cattle and sheep and all of their camels and donkeys.’”
***
On the afterlife thing, I saw this on a sign at the nearby Kanapaha Garden:
***And if I go, while you are still here…
know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
behind a thin veil, you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when
we can soar together again,
both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest
and when you need me,
just whisper my name in your heart,
…I will be there.
***
-Emily Dickinson
She made a typo in a letter to a famous critic:
***
Mr Higginson,
Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?
The Mind is so near itself – it cannot see, distinctly – and I have none to ask –
Should you think it breathed – and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude –
If I make the mistake – that you dared to tell me – would give me sincerer honor – toward you –
I enclose my name – asking you, if you please – Sir – to tell me what is true?
That you will not betray me – it is needless to ask – since Honor is it’s own pawn –
***
The IDF literally going Roman on Hezbollah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH-nkCj7Ncg
Bored reservists are almost always the correct answer.
Home at last!!
12h 17m. 675 miles.
What a fucking slog. The last 3 were just plain brutal. Now for a shower and sleep.
Hoping this WuFlu fucks right off here soon.
I haven’t read for pleasure in quite a while. Graduate school in literature has a knack for killing the love of reading. I do read non-fiction books. Mostly reference books.
That said, I just listened to the whole Murder on the Orient Express on this horrible drive back and was highly entertained.
Graduate school in literature has a knack for killing the love of reading.
Seems like it should do the opposite if anything. Kinda sad that these are the educational institutions we have.
I already knew K-12 did that since if I mention reading any book that was ever assigned in school, people look at me as though I just told them I shove needles under my fingernails as a hobby. I’m convinced that K-12 “teaching” any specific book just makes 99% of people hate it.
Just another day in Manhattan.
NYC shooting news: Off-duty New York officer killed, civilian shot in Midtown, Manhattan; suspect dies on Park Ave., sources say | abc11.com https://share.google/QpP5sYNDgs7aXMZcm
Also how the King’s men make money on the side. Although here it didn’t work out so well.
Bonus, just got a LINE from my friend in Japan about this. It must have made the international news.
Hard to tell from the pic, but that “high-powered rifle” sure looks like an AR to me.
Wonderful weapon though it is, it ain’t “high-powered”.
But does it have the “thing that goes up”?
The packaging on Wolf rifle ammo sucks.
I’m trying to break down three cases of Wolf 5.56mm into ammo cans, because ammo cans are more convenient and more weatherproof than the factory cardboard case. So I have to open every single 20-round box, and pry every individual round out of the little plastic carrier. It’s driving me nuts.
This has been your first world problem of the day.
You’re supposed to take a shot of vodka, slam the box onto a table to break the ammo loose, and shout “suka blyat!”
like so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7_D1ZlrD1U
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Ammunition
***
Most of their ammunition is primarily being manufactured by the Tula Cartridge Plant in Tula, Tula District, Russia, from 2005 to 2009.
***
It is now being made in Barnaul, Siberia. Possibly by gulag prisoners.
This is why surplus 7N6 is superior.
I don’t bother with breaking down rifle ammo until I need to refill stripper clips. Right now I think I’ve got around 800 rounds in stripper clips, so the other ammo stays in the factory boxes.
Pistol ammo also stays in factory boxes, unless it’s bulk ammo that comes in plastic bags. Those I dump into ammo cans, because bag-o-ammo is just weird to me.
You’re in Arizona, right? You probably don’t have the humidity that we do here in the East. I like to store my ammo in something weather-resistant.
Plus it’s easier to load ammo out of an ammo can…
It was nice to open a window… last week.
Plastic? Oooh, fancy!
The Wolf I have from the before-times is wrapped in paper inside the cardboard box.
Minor correction: Drew Gilpin Faust is a lady.
Reading wise:
Just finished The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin; it was fine but more science fantasy than fiction, which I don’t love.
Ironically, I’m reading Royal Gambit by Daniel O’Malley, 4th in The Chequy series of urban fantasy, which I just love – secret British department that deals with the supernatural, staffed largely by supernaturally gifted individuals.
Quite funny and very British. Trying not to read it too fast.
I can’t remember if I saw the PBS movie first (1979) or read the book.
Either way it made a big impact on mini-me.
That first one sounds like a real page turner
Yes, Harvard’s first female president.
I’m reading (scratch that: slogging through) “We Who Wrestle With God” by Jordan Peterson. I don’t want to be too harsh because it actually is fantastic with tons of new-ish biblical interpretation of the (((Bible))). (I don’t know if he’s planning a follow up on the New Testament). That said, it is also fantastically dense, slow and sesquipedalian. If you wanna learn some stuff and are willing to put up with a reading-a-textbook experience, this is it.
I’ve heard him interview about it.
He’s a rather remarkable man. I enthusiastically support him. His talks have gotten awfully Christian, but he’s exceptional at laying out how the Teachings are, pretty much, just ‘standard code’ for social primates in a large web of individuals.
That’s how I take, at least, and I know I’m quite biased. I don’t have to skew the lens far to perceive his motives. Well-accomplished.
I’d put him with Sowell in my contemporary Top 3 of ‘Influential Thinkers’ list.
My reading time has been severely impacted this summer and will likely stay that way till the fall.
I have been picking up and reading a chapter here and there of a book my MIL got me for Christmas.
Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik. Exploring the materials that make up our world. The science is basic but the history behind the materials is interesting.
I met my new neighbor yesterday. He is now going to be kept an eye on.
I would describe him as having way too much Methergy! He reminded me of John Leguzamo’s character in spun.
Yikes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_u3AlMIzjyU
I’m reading “A Soldier With the Arabs” by John Bagot Glubb. Much went on in Middle Eastern history between 1917 and the present that is little spoken of.
Interesting. I’m listening to the audio version of “Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires”. I’m only on the part where some guy named Mohammed shows up on the scene, but I’m sure it will at least touch on that period.
It’s part of my greater effort to get more familiar with the details of the Arab-Israeli mess.
RIP Ryno.
A big fave of mine growing up. Man could play.
RIP.
“La Peste” by Albert Camus: Still slogging along in the original frog-language. It seems to take between 5 and 10 minutes to get through a page. I’m finding that I know most of the words, but I have to read over it a few times for the grammatical structures to click. It’s a big improvement over this time last year, when I was taking half an hour to get through a page of the bilingual stories book. I’m not really grasping the finer points of the story since I’m so busy trying to understand the language, but I guess that will come with fluency.
“The Upanishads” translated by Eknath Easwaran: I would love to read at least some of the core texts of major religions (as well as minor ones that are just interesting) and see what is common in all of them. It’s an amateur comparative religion study, I guess.
“Provoked” by Scott Horton: Almost done now; I think 100 pages to go. If someone truly cares about the Ukrainian people, they would find it sickening how the West pretty much used Ukraine as a pawn to weaken Russia for their own ends, which has gotten tons of Ukrainians killed. “Supporting Ukraine” my ass.
And this one time, at Glib camp…
🏕️🪈🙀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlkTVMMkCP4
🎶🎶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P41MHEz6CM
Wrong video in that post. Was supposed to be this.
🎶🎶
https://billypenn.com/2025/07/21/labubu-dolls-philly-chinatown-kpop-trend/
Never heard of them.
Never heard of them either, and the thought that this came courtesy of K-Crap musicians makes me even more desirous to avoid it.
NPR had a story about how great they are. Otherwise, never heard of them.
But it’s this summer’s must-have collectible!
collectables don’t belong in videogames.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/couple-robbed-nj-philly-ritz-carlton/4244034/
That’s crazy.
Philly and Jersey go together like shit and piss.
Washington Township Police Chief Patrick Gurcsik said he believes the couple was scouted after leaving one of the restaurants they visited in Philly and were followed the 20 miles back home.
Sounds… personal.
Mornin’ all.
Good morning, DEG!
Stole the 30K Rolex? Idiot.
I met Alberto Fujimori’s father once. The guy wore old dirty deck shoes, cutoff jeans, a button up shirt with ripped off sleeves and a dirty ball cap. He drove an old Toyota taxi. No one ever gave him a second look and he moved around Lima as he pleased. Never got robbed once.
A criminal pair? That’s unusual. I wonder when one is going to shoot the other.
People who never let their phone battery hit zero often display these 9 distinctive traits, according to psychology
Blah, blah, blah. My trait is putting my phone on a charger when I’m sleeping.
Number 4 will shock you.
I thought three was The Shocker ?
You shouldn’t charge with a frayed cord.
I’m more surprised with the idea that people regularly let their devices run down to zero.
Doomscrollers need their fix.
No, they need to be fixed.
Spare a thought for the slideshow lists.
I am from the era when batteries have memory effects.
Pop psychology is useless trash. Hell, academic psychology is useless trash.
I see. You have a deep seated hatred for authority. I am prescribing a year of extensive
reeducationtherapy. Have a good day. Guards?I’d say who doesn’t hate authority, but recent years have shown lots ot people crave it like Brawndo.
I was a psych major and it’s all a sham except for behaviorism which is boring.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey, Stinky, Ted’S., Roat, and Sean!
Morning
Good morning, U. How are you today?
Meh At best
So, normal? :-p
Mornin’, reprobates!
Good morning, ‘patzie! At the Joisey Shore yet?
Not yet, going on Friday. First stop: massages for me and Mrs. Patzer.
Second stop: happy endings?
Happy endings
Of course. Just like a Hallmark movie.
Hallmark movies are happy?
Not that I’m aware of
Note, I’ve not watched any since I was a kid and my mother had TV authority.
It looks like it is time to replace some 16 year old kitchen appliances. Will new ones allow me to use them without connecting to WiFi?
You should be able to find ones that don’t have wifi. Since the IOT craze started I bought a washer and a stove without it. The only thing I couldn’t get was a garage door opener, but it doesn’t have to be connected.
Without a connection how will I know when it is ready to take something out of the oven or when ice is ready in the fridge?
Non-wifi appliances are out there.
Stay away from Bosch. They have wifi in their entire dishwasher line. Miele does not have it in their lower end, though their lower end is a bit expensive.
I recently found a microwave, oven, and fridge without wifi. Whirlpool and Maytag if I remember correctly for those.
There are a lot. You just need to look around. No particular brand has wifi vs no wifi. Even if you did find one using wifi, it tends to be optional.
Heading to West Virginia for a couple days of boiler testing.
Say “Hi!’ to Mountain Mama for me.
boiler testing
These euphemisms…
I impulse bought a gun yesterday. In my defense, it was cheap and I do have a use for it.
(2″ snubnose Colt Agent with a shrouded hammer. I’ll use it for BUG revolver matches.)
How big are these bugs?
Would you like to know more?
Are you familliar with the Palmetto Bug?
“Why are scientists dressing pigs in clothes and burying them in Mexico? ”
https://nypost.com/2025/07/29/world-news/why-are-scientists-dressing-pigs-in-clothes-and-burying-them-in-mexico/
You’re not supposed to put lipstick on a pig, but nobody said anything about clothes.
It’s rude to call cops pigs and foolish to call the cartels scientists!
And it’s not just Thailand’s monks that are forgoing earthly pleasures.
A Buddhist Monk’s Alleged Indulgence in Money and S.. Transfixes China
https://www.wsj.com/world/china/a-buddhist-monks-alleged-indulgence-in-money-and-sex-transfixes-china-4b8b55f4?st=iuAKtf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Mornin’ all!
Heat and humidity continue to torment mid-Michigan. IOW, it’s late July, heading for August.