Fourscore
I’ll start with the good, at least from my perspective.
Sometimes we tend to think things have always been as they are now. The Old Days, the days we hear about from our parents, grand parents and teachers seem so far away, so distant. In many ways those days are the same as today, only without the internet.
The Audacious Scoundrels, Stories of the Wicked West authored by Steven L. Piott, takes us on a backward slide of some 125 years to the gold rush days of Alaska and gives some insight as to the morality of the miners, the con men and the politicians that aided and abetted, both the honest and the criminals that seem to always be everywhere that money is to be made.
The Copper Wars in Montana, the land frauds of Oregon and California and the graft in San Francisco are examples of people willing to compromise self morality that Piott covers in detail. If we think or believe that political malfeasance is a recent phenomena rather than a historical fact Piott will quickly dispel that idea. Western glibs should find the history interesting and detailed. No cowboys or Indians or cows, only some working stiffs, typical politicians and grifters looking for an easy buck.
Now for the lesser, from the title, The Reactionary Mind -Why “Conservative” Isn’t Enough led me to think this was libertarian oriented. I was wrong. The back cover reviews make it sound like it may be a mind challenging experience. Instead Michael Warren Davis wants to take on a road backwards a 100 years for us to find ourselves. A lot of Catholicism, a lot of wanting us to believe the old days were better ’cause real men worked with their muscle rather than their mind. Kind of a Little House on the Prairie existence. Looking at the picture of Mr. Davis made me think he hasn’t experienced the lifestyle he’s promoting. Recommended reading for someone you don’t like.
If there’s any interest in either of these (or the Vance Autobiography) I’ll be happy to send them on their way.
The book I just started is a history of the income tax, much more interesting but I’m only a few pages in.
DEG
The Peoples of Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien – This book primarily covers the drafting of the prologue and appendices of The Lord of the Rings. Some of the drafting took place before Tolkien retconned the riddle game from The Hobbit. In the first edition of The Hobbit, Bilbo won the riddle game, Gollum gave him the Ring as a prize, and they parted amicably. Some of these drafts reference the original riddle game. The drafts include timelines of the Second and Third age and genealogical information. Also included in the book are more drafts on Elvish linguistics, a draft of a history of Men and Dwarves, a short essay on Lembas bread, an abandoned draft of new story about a return of Evil in the Fourth Age, and finally a draft story of the arrival of Numenoreans in Middle-Earth during the Second Age from the perspective of the Mannish people living in northwestern Middle-Earth.
Swords of the Emperor by John E. Plimpton – This is a cataloging of swords for Japanese military officers, police, fire-fighters, civil servants, and the Imperial family covering the period from 1873 through 1945. The photography is great. There is some good background information.
creech
I picked up Damn Lucky by Kevin Maurer (Gale, 2022), the true story of B-17 bomber pilot 2nd Lt. John “Lucky” Luckadoo. My uncle flew 32 missions as a B-17 pilot for the Eighth Air Force, and I was curious to learn the first hand account of a bomber pilot.
Lucky, with the 100th Bomb Group in England, is tasked with flying 25 missions before rotating home. Very few crews make it past 10 missions: this is in 1943 when the Luftwaffe is still formidable, flak over key targets is heavy, there are no long range fighters to accompany and protect the bombers, and daylight bombing by the U.S. Army Air Force is still imprecise – even with the touted Norden bombsight – and operational tactics are in their infancy. Fear and fatalism drips off the pages as Lucky makes it through one mission after another. He misses a couple of missions but sees his crew make it through 25 and head home. As a pilot without a crew, he fills in and guides rookie crews. One crew he manages to bring home on their first frightful mission. The next day, flying in another bomber, he sees the rookies explode when hit by flak over the target. Attrition runs high, so the generals raise the mission goal to 30, but Lucky is grandfathered in and finally completes his twenty five. I wonder how many of us, if any, have the Big Balls to do what our fathers and grandfathers went through in World War II?
Beau Knott
Still in video mode, so only two reads to report. First up, a re-read of The Wicked and the Divine graphic novel, by Kieran Gillen. “You are of the pantheon. You will be loved. You will be hated. Within two years you will be dead.” Every century, 12 gods return. Things happen. There’s evil at the heart of the story. There’s also a trans character (trans is a minor point), some bisexuality, sex, blood, and gore. Just starting Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution. It looks promising.
Evan from Evansville
So What? – Short stories – Big Questions by Shayan Kashani
Best friend first publishes! Well, Shy was my best friend in Korea for several years, 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.
The stories are well-written and interesting. Each is around 15 pages and they tell an effective story, and so far have been both comedic and thoughtful.
It’s available on Amazon and also in print from Barnes & Nobles. Him and I always talked about writing and it’s great to see him accomplish the publication. Might or semi-has lit a bit of a fire under me.
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.
My parents, both newspaper writers and playwrights, are reading it with strong compliments, especially from Mom, certainly the more literary one.
Dad just published a new work, something *very* different for him. He wrote for the Bluefield Telegraph for ~10 years and the Evansville Courier for ~30. He’s written a couple baseball books, most-recently a play about Tennessee Williams, and much more.
Fractured: Country Song Titles– “I’ll Tree a Squirrel for Your Love”
by Garret [Uh. Doxx? He’d want me to. Do *I?*]
Oh, sweet Jesus. Bless me. (Or bless his heart?) Some are ok ideas, infrequently ranging into my Chuckle Territory. Often, I see the potential, but also his, uh, hobbled handling. I’m also as biased as it comes.
It’s a collection of 80 country song titles Dad thinks are fucking *hilarious.* It’s presented as a collection of comics, with each title overlaid on a cartoon, illustrated by an artist, whom I’m sure was thrilled to get a few $k for such work. The art isn’t bad. The simple style is perhaps appropriate, though I also predict some slackery. (I don’t know, but Dad’s an easy target.) All things considered, and with what the artist had to work with? They did a decent job.
As always… of now.
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. Whenever. We’ve become unstuck in time regarding the scheduling so I’ll just wait until five or six of you people send in submission and then throw together the next edition.
Thanks and good luck, The Hyperbole.
You are not worthy of my First.
Puts me in mind of Return to Order by John Horvat. I gave it a read thinking it was going to be some kind of treatise on the relationship between law and liberty. Turns out the author’s premise was – no shit, unironically – a return to feudalism as the ideal post-state social arrangement, because hey, a lord’s serfs were more or less like a big extension of the family unit.
It is a grand arrangement, as long as you presume you are the lord, which seems to be the prevailing fantasy of the advocates.
I recently finished Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life by Tiffany Jenkins. From the title, I assumed it would be a look at the loss of privacy in the modern digital panopticon, but it turned out to be a deeper dive into the history of privacy as a social and political concept, from ~16th century Britain to present. While familiar with most of the historical events chronicled, I hadn’t considered the author’s perspective on their relation to privacy. Good read.
That sounds interesting. I like history about what life was like for average people rather than what king took the throne in such-and-such year and added territory by his marriage to the Dutchess of wherever-the-fuck…
I have an audiobook on my wishlist called “If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home” that sounds like it might be enjoyable in that way.
Adjacent to that … kind of… is this:
https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/sex-in-the-middle-ages
Interesting, to a point. My interest is in how the Church adjudicated the act, and how people behaved.
Mojeaux sent me a Kindle book, so I shall endeavor to read it before the next installment
Every time I hear/read the word “endeavor” I think of Lone Watie and declare war on the Union.
To persevere”
I did?
Yep – last week!
I’ve tried to sleep since then.
I keep forgetting to send in my reads.
Anyway, I am in the middle of reading Lampedusi’s The Leopard, about a Victorian era Sicilian prince dealing with the changes to Italian society post Garibaldi. Also, I picked up a collection of Hemmingway’s short stores and am slowly working my way through it.
That is a good read. There are two movie versions. The older (1963) with Burt Lancaster and the newer from Netflix (2025). The classic B&W was nominated for Oscars and other awards. The other was not. However the Netflix version, probably since it is Italian in origin, skips LBGTQXYZMF## characters and DEI BS.
Since you are still reading I shall stop there to not give away plot points.
The color version is amazing for those who like period costumes. I will grant it that.
I have seen the three hour Burt Lancaster version, which is wonderful. Apparently the studios didn’t understand Viscounti’s vision, and had it chopped up and made a mess of it. The three hour version is the restoration of that to approximately the directors vision.
Well worth watching that.
The Netflix version is not bad. But the ending…ughh.
What am I reading?
First, your dreadful manifestos, rants, and masturbatory fantasies. Blech. But since Swiss is on light duty, I am wading in with the ould truncheon to bring some discipline and structure to you lot. You shan’t like it none at all, you shan’t.
Lovecraft in a Time of Madness (Write Like Hell Book 4) I’m on like the fourth story and am still mostly unimpressed. So far my impression is — less generic horror, more tentacles. The story referencing “The King in Yellow” is the best, so far.
I might check that out. I became enthralled with Lovecraft and blasted through the complete anthology in under two months, and I’m not a particularly fast reader. It left me hungry for more.
Did you like The King in Yellow? After I finished the Lovecraft box set, I was hungry for more and started looking into his influences and found that one. I thought it was underwhelming (a couple of the stories weren’t supernatural at all, if I remember right) but maybe I just went in wrongly expecting full-on Lovecraftian terror.
Been meaning to do that for decades. Some day.
For those looking for a Lovecraft anthology, The HP Lovecraft Historical Society just released a new anthology.
“The Flaw of Averages” by Sam L. Savage – Title is pretty self-explanatory. It deals with the real-world problems of using averages as a substitute for uncertain numbers and other ways that averages are misapplied. Those who enjoyed Ozy’s series on statistics would probably enjoy this, although it’s obviously geared towards business professionals, so some parts are a bit dry if you’re not part of that world.
Still working on these, which I believe I’ve mentioned in the last several reading threads:
– “La Peste” by Albert Camus. Using the dictionary less and less but still have to re-read pages a time or two so that I understand the grammar.
– “The Upanishads” by some robed Indian dude with a long beard a couple thousand years ago, I’d imagine.
I’m intrigued, I’ll have to check it out. It won’t benefit my actual work, but aligns with my utterly worthless education.
Neil Gorsuch’s Over ruled
Pretty good summary of how fucked up our judiciary is from someone who knows
Kurt Schichters American Apocalypse.
Civil wars stories from both sides, brutal and timely, he melt now and the near future quite well.
He blends current events with the near future quite well.
/6th grade writer
“World Walkers” by Asher. It has a large cast of characters and took me a while to get into it but I hit my stride a few chapters back and I’m rapidly nearing the end.
Not my favorite Asher but still damn good.
FIRST-O-MYTE
I found a copy of “Song of the South.”
I’m back to hating the Jews today.
Feelings may change by the time you post your article, of course.
I was planning on posting Wicker Man first. Easier to crank out a write up.
I stopped reading when I got the internet on my phone.
I (mostly) stopped reading when I began WFH and thus have no 1.5 hour train(s) commute and I quit smoking so no smoke breaks at work.
Spending six years at the dumbest place on earth didnt help my reading habits either. Having kids kinda finished it off.
I like to read when it’s QUIET. So that dosent happen at home. Running a business cuts into it. Throw in the phone and no reading is happening past the occasional article and magazine.
Similar excuses. I did order a copy of Air Stage. Should be here before Orange Bozo’s attempt to kill small overseas orders on Friday. Still hoping for a Taco Thursday.
Did start reading while wife was in the hospital but haven’t kept it up since. Too much other stuff. Would rather rewatch classic doctor who for the billionth time at the end of the day.
I’ve been reading The Good Earth while waiting for pizza and when I show up early for welding school. The book has many neat tidbits about early 20th century China. It’s great historical fiction and has made me thankful for my easy life.
I also started rereading Beowulf, both in Old English and modern. It’s more fun if I wear my plastic Viking helmet while I read. It’s fun to see how Chuck Norris characters show up in the lore of every culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdwC4vhc594
For the next installment I will submit a review of multiple books on the 2024 election. I am suffering through them so you do not have to.
Been doing some heavy reading for work and the 2024 election books so to lift my spirits I read a couple of Carl Hiaasen “Florida Man” mysteries. Both “Bad Monkey” and “Skinny Dip” were fun reads.
Not a new one from me, and I’ve heard differing thoughts on it here. Ignore his fucked up switch in wives.
Niall Furgeson’s ‘The Ascent of Money’ is one of two consistent books carried with me everywhere. Each a chapter on how banking, loans, interest, loans were created during the Medici. The later part goes into the China America tryst. It’s really well-written, clear and well-researched. He’s an Oxford Prof and was oddly conservative until her started fucking British Ilhan Omar. Huh!
Oh! Another I’ve kept with me: The Poisoner’s Handbook, by Deborah Blum. Gilded to Jazz Age stories of chemicals used for poison and the science that went behind catching the perpetrators.
It’s a phenomenal read. Fascinating stories. Sherlock Holmes shit. The stories of the murders, scientists and science are Venn Diagrammed. Engaging read. Strongly recommend.
India used fake minefields to deceive the Pakistani army. Perhaps a similar ruse could be used to secure the southern border. It’s cheaper and more humane than actual minefields.
The issue with decoy minefields is that you must still use real mines in them in order to make the deception work.
The Germans, Italians, and British laid millions of mines in North Africa. (America joined the game in 1943.) Real minefields, mixed minefields, and decoys. The Axis were gone, and the British and Americans busy after Tunisia fell to the allies, so the often poorly documented fields were just left to “whenever.” The world hasn’t got to “whenever” so the fields are still there, or more accurately- somewhere.
Mine removal teams found that many mines have migrated after years and decades of slow wedging by windblown sand. Other fields are buried deeply or left exposed on the surface by windblown sand. Which then shifts exposing and covering fields at odd intervals.
Bonus are many “spot” or small minefields that appear on no records. The northern Sahara from mid Egypt to Morrocco is still an explosive hazard once you move off of well-trod routes.
Mammary Monday After Dark.
https://static-ca-cdn.eporner.com/gallery/Wn/5Y/cokHxLO5YWn/41957-amazing-tits.gif
NSFW.
https://dfbgyww8acr0ps.archive.is/MnAK3/e5d3ed0d0a7517012e3ef558f1b6e548f215209d.jpg
NSFW.
https://d1xkcawqppv19c.archive.is/JGOAX/b42799cee86377c65065c3c66cdb0b1d95a7aa20.jpg
NSFW.
https://dfcp4r3vkh9vky.archive.is/ZkJLm/d32ad2c389b2a22bfc1c0b0c4196e3595a91feec.jpg
NSFW.
https://d81aqmdzifdsir.archive.is/vXYbd/15274e69bf0068c8375b8990ab77780641d71ada.webp
NSFW.
#5 Fabulous, wow
Dad was watching a WW1 documentary, and the soundtrack was obviously mid-1930s jazz music. That’s like if a documentary about the Vietnam War was scored with Janet Jackson and Madonna.
They could have at least used Nora Bayes. 1900-1919 is a musical period that really got buried for some reason.
All This and World War II is on YouTube in some dodgy copies.
https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2025/0825_01_en.html
Back to 2020. Except no Chinese virus excuse this time.
leftovers for breakfast. 😋
Yes, I’m up early.
Up all night drinking beer. Again. Yay me. Here’s a Chinese android that can beat human runners:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHyUUFU0BpI
It runs about a 5.5-minute mile.
Perhaps some sleep before it’s time to get up?
I know from experience that staying up all night doesn’t work as well as it sounds on paper.
These days, I usually go to bed around 0600. It was my NSA and golf cart factory schedule. I admit it is easier to sleep when everyone else is. I can reset my sleep cycle with enough caffeine. How great it would be to have passive income and not need to keep a schedule.
Here is an abandoned ICBM base in Texas I infiltrated:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2014/09/defunct-atlas-missile-silo-near-vernon.html
The famous swordsman Musashi said:
***
Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose. Be put in jail and extricate yourself by your own wisdom.
***
It was probably easier to escape from old Japanese jails. The cell I was in seemed pretty solid.
Good morning all.
Is anyone else having trouble loading Youtube? I get a grey window where the video plays and nothing else, just white space. It has been doing that for a day or so.
I have not had that issue, no.
That’s a new one for me. Restart your browser and/or device and try this:
Mr. Rogers debunks transgenderism with song about 40 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNl17ZTP3U0
Main stream media wants you to sleep in and be late for work. Don’t be a patsy for the commies!
🇺🇸🫡🌄
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGD9i718kBU
🎶🎶
Does not Compute.
I can’t explain it to you. Put these sunglasses on.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/gun-philadelphia-high-school-thomas-edison/4259244/
Future Glib or future felon?
Yes.
https://www.fox13news.com/news/florida-man-dies-after-woman-pours-acid-him-suspect-charged-murder-police
Poor Florida man. That’s a harsh way to go.
Reichstag fire?
Nietzsche said the secret to happiness is to live dangerously.
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-not-so-secret-nsa-language-school.html
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-weird-glitches.html
No, it’s not.
QUIET, YOU!
All the great explorers lived dangerously to accomplish their feats. Should Neil Armstrong have refused NASA for comfortable retirement?
***
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
***
Now there’s a guy who deserves a statue or two.
You keep stealing bases in your arguments.
First you assume that there is an argument that must be won.
Second you move the goalposts to meet some random unrelated quote you dug up.
It’s okay to just go “different things make different people happy”
***
It’s okay to just go “different things make different people happy”.
***
That’s a very odd thing for you to say. I welcome it though.
While my opinion is obviously the most correct, I am not bereft of perspective.
FWIW, the Bob Moog biography is living up to its promise.
Mornin’ all!
Good morning, Beau, Derpy, Suthen, Ted’S., Sean, and U!
Morning, GT.
How are you today?
Still not on the correct sleep schedule.
🙁
Did you at least get a few hours of sleep? 😟
All afternoon and evening ~3pm-~11pm
Well… Eight hours is eight hours! 🤷♀️
I’d just rather have it in the middle of the night instead of the afternoon
If you can move it just a little later each day…you might be back on track just in time for the end of Daylight Savings. 😄 (At least it’ll be the one where we “gain” an hour!)
If normal sleep times move an hour away, it’ll be even longer to get back to them 😱
Or will they move an hour closer? 🤔
If 1am-2am takes 2 hours one day, it pushes the times away from someone approaching from day.
“Unstuck in time”
A Babylon 5 reference. I dig it.
Morning – How have you been, haven’t seen you comment in a while.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey! I’ll almost need a jacket when I leave for work, but I think I’ll tough it out. Not bad for August!
I’m lovin’ it.
Ba-da-ba-ba-baaaah.
It’s in the low 50s up here
Of course Im in the office and not out on a job where I can enjoy it.