Cooler. The front arrived. It was 61F last night, and is likely to be cool most of today. Yesterday’s weather was a mixed bag, with a HUGE wind coming in with the cool front. One of my weather stations has a full memory, since 2014, and didn’t get a good windspeed today, the other didn’t see any wind above 13mph. It’s entirely possible that it didn’t as the wind was very gusty and mixed. Flags were tearing free but I felt no wind at ground level. My guess is 30-40mph gusts in places.
I did some domestic bliss stuff, laundry, cleanup, restock the kitchen fridge, that sort of thing. I also move a small bit of stuff around in my office. Man that needs a bunch more work. Spent about an hour on the pool. It was pretty sunny while I was working on the pool, but got very overcast later in the day. I also spent some time moving and cleaning some stuff in the driveway. I need to spray the house foundation with bug killer, but I’ve misplaced my jug of poison. I have that on my list for today again…
Also on the list, getting some stuff out of the house and over to storage. And moving some stuff around in the garage. I figured out where to put a cabinet I took down during the initial re-org. I’ve got to tetris some stuff around to get it into place. That should also expose some older auction stuff that just got buried and forgotten.
I don’t know if we’ll have a hamfest swapmeet in March, but I’m still gathering stuff as if we will. It’ll be fewer radios, and more random electronic parts and ‘stuff’. Switches and relays sold well, so I’ve gotten more of them. Power supplies and wire always do well too. In the mean time, it sits in bins in the garage.
Halloween should be a big deal this year, weather permitting. Last year we got rained out, and there is a LOT of pent up demand for ‘normal’ things. I’m going to do my part and stay distant while feeding candy to the little beggars. We’ve got a lot more little beggars in the neighborhood now than when we first moved here, and that’s nice. People have an incentive to support the area when they have kids here.
We got a note from the elementary school that they had a teacher test positive and enter self-isolation. The kids affected have been notified to ‘be mindful’ of their health. My elementary student has been virtual all this year so it didn’t affect us, but it did come right on schedule with the new crop of ‘in person’ learners. No indication of which way the infection went.
Still not seeing many Biden/Harris signs or bumper stickers. I see lots of Trump signs. They look much more ‘vigorous’ for lack of a better term. Trump supporters REALLY support him, Biden supporters seem to be kind of reluctant. Not sure how that translates at the polls, but I can hope.
There are moments when the weight and enormity of what I believe is probably coming just slams into me. My number one daughter and I had a very intense discussion about racism, BLM, and rioting last night. At the end she was looking for reassurance and asked me “would you shoot someone who was coming to burn down our house with a torch?” “Yes sweetheart. Right in the head.” “I love you daddy.”*
So take some prudent steps to secure you and yours if things do indeed go pear shaped. Decide when and how you’d leave, and where you’d go. Or what you’d do to stay. And keep stacking.
nick
*FWIW she initiated the conversation, and definitely brought stuff she’s getting outside our home. She’s angry and frustrated by the double standard for acceptable behavior depending on what you look like. She does not approve of rioting or violence toward innocents.
“EXCLUSIVE: Texas Poll Watcher Testifies On 2020 Voter Fraud In Houston, Has PHOTOS”
Why in the world would they have a stack of Texas driver’s licenses in the voting area ?
“Use this one. The picture looks like you. That pinchfaced white woman checking IDs won’t know the difference, and you can start crying if she tells you ‘no’. Remember, ‘No habla English.'”
A lot of unexpired Texas licenses in the old format are floating around since the Real ID requirement started this year and people renewed early in case they had to fly. DPS sent us multiple warning letters which we disregarded since I have a Passport Card and my wife has Federal ID from the VA, both of which are accepted for flights.
Not that we were planning to fly anywhere before next March, and that conference was just cancelled.
Thank you for the reminder! I’ll do that today too. I use Ortho Home Defense Granules, sort of 3X a year, and between that and caulking all the baseboards at the floor, it’s made a WORLD of difference in keeping little critters out. Even though we are technically “in town”, it is only one or two blocks in 3 directions before it is fields and woods, so insects of all kinds abound. The fall is a critical time, too, as everything is looking for a warm place and “up against the warm house” looks good to them.
The local stores stopped carrying the granules last year so there is one more product I can’t “buy local” and have to order via internet – and no, I won’t use Home Depot’s or Tractor Supply’s website to order “free ship to store”. I’ll buy from someone who doesn’t have acres of showroom in our town. They hurt themselves when they decide to reduce their offerings in the stores.
Great link! Thank you for it!
FYI, Oklahoma only offers 3 days of “Early Voting”, and I’m not sure what their requirements are for Absentee Ballots, so they may look low, compared to Texas which has been doing early voting since the 13th, but Oklahoma polling places will probably have very long lines come Thursday! https://www.ok.gov/elections/support/earlyvote.html
The local stores stopped carrying the granules last year so there is one more product I can’t “buy local” and have to order via internet – and no, I won’t use Home Depot’s or Tractor Supply’s website to order “free ship to store”. I’ll buy from someone who doesn’t have acres of showroom in our town. They hurt themselves when they decide to reduce their offerings in the stores.
Bayer bought out Monsanto and brought all the subsidiaries like Ortho into the IG Farben orbit of companies. There must be some product line overlap. I remember Bayer having insecticide at Lowe’s/Home Depot.
The Allies dismembered IG Farben after WWII and put a bunch of the management on trial for war crimes, but the component divisions were not shut down. The company essentially still exists as the loose affiliation of BASF, Agfa, Bayer, and … Aventis (?).
Home Depot had Spectracide almost exclusively in our store when I went to buy granules a few weeks ago. US manufacturer with domestic ownership, but with Monsanto’s Roundup troubles and the sketchy histories of both IG Farben and Monsanto, maybe the big box stores decided to be ahead of the curve.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, y’all should enjoy the Wikipedia article on Hunter Biden. Especially this bit: “He and his father have been the subjects of debunked right-wing conspiracy theories”.
Interestingly, the talk page is dominated by people saying that the laptop/email stuff is not debunked at all, and the people controlling the article are demonstrating obvious bias. This hasn’t had any effect, but still, it’s nice to see that not all Wikipedians are idiots.
“The Allies dismembered IG Farben after WWII”
see THE CRIME AND PUNISHMENT OF I.G. FARBEN
by Joseph Borkin. Available on Kindle.
” Wikipedia article on Hunter Biden”
Wikipedia’s left-wing propaganda is why they never get a nickel from me when they appeal for money.
Like I said, me and the prognosticators disagree about the winter outlook for Texas. They threw their chicken bones and came up with warm winter in south Texas. I looked at the current Solar Minimum and said cold winter in south Texas. One of us is wrong. Probably me.
I think weather and wrong are synonymous.
It looks like Mr. Lynn has usurped Mr. SteveF as “King of the DownVotes.” We should have a ceremony or ‘sumpin. Maybe a trophy that is passes around.
A gilt-edged copy of _Uncle Remus_?
Free political incorrectness.
https://tomlehrersongs.com/
My first exposure to Tom Lehrer came courtesy of Tampa’s local horror host, Dr. Paul Bearer, in the 70s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu_wmomQeDU
The original Dr. Paul died in the mid-90s and a successor emerged in the last decade as WTOG refocused on being more of a traditional independent. I’m not a fan of the new guy, however.
The wife got her 30 crtificates of death for her father. The cause of death is listed as “Ischemic cardiomyopathy” for five years before he passed.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17145-ischemic-cardiomyopathy
“Ischemic cardiomyopathy (CM) is the most common type of dilated cardiomyopathy. In Ischemic CM, the heart’s ability to pump blood is decreased because the heart’s main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, is enlarged, dilated and weak. This is caused by ischemia – a lack of blood supply to the heart muscle caused by coronary artery disease and heart attacks.””
Long slow heart failure culminating at age 87. If he had not spent the last six years of his life in a nursing home then I would have said a very full life. Unfortunately, we did not have a choice for 6’2″ 300 lb man who could not walk anymore after four surgeries in March 2014.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/de-blasios-new-york-police-invade-private-homes-orthodox-jews-crack-gatherings-video/
I really don’t understand why american jews vote overwhelmingly for democrats. Blacks either for that matter, but the jews are supposed to ‘never forget’.
n
Everything under $750K in my neighborhood is selling immediately now. All of a sudden it is a seller’s market now.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/5839-carolina-cove-dr-richmond-tx-77469/2401957?lid=5599568
After two weeks of early voting, 205,000 people out of 482,000 registered voters have now voted in Fort Bend County. People were just waiting to vote. Still, I expect Fort Bend County to go solid blue as we voted 63% for Hillary in 2016. Makes me want to move two counties out west.
http://www.fbherald.com
The wife got her 30 crtificates of death for her father. The cause of death is listed as “Ischemic cardiomyopathy” for five years before he passed.
Not to be morbid, but you and your wife have documentation as having paid for the funeral expenses yourselves, right?
Everything under $750K in my neighborhood is selling immediately now. All of a sudden it is a seller’s market now.
Plugs promised a new first time homebuyer “credit” significantly larger than the $8000 Obama loaned — yes, it was a loan — via tax credits 10 years ago. I believe the new amount is $20,000 which would put a $700,000 floor under the housing market assuming 3% down mortgages continue to be available via the Fed printing presses.
Everyone will be worth $1 million soon.
I really don’t understand why american jews vote overwhelmingly for democrats. Blacks either for that matter, but the jews are supposed to ‘never forget’.
Jews aren’t forgetting anything.
The “Country Club” Republicans (think the Bush family) have only recently accepted Jewish people as possibly being equals, but, to be fair, the Club looks down on everyone, especially Trump.
The “Base Evangelical” Republicans pay lip service to the Jewish people as being “special” under their dogma, but, behind closed doors, the teaching is old school Protestant — the Jews are in denial about having betrayed Jesus to the Romans and will have to answer to God eventually.
I grew up in Southern Baptist primary education. We had a whole class in 6th grade which should have been titled “Everyone Else Is Wrong”. Ironically, the Church of Scientology, topping the list of who would burn in Hell according to the cirriculum, owns the school property today and runs one of their Delphi Academy institutions in the building. The big sanctuary became a gym!
It might take a couple of generations more … or a nuclear weapon detonated in Tel Aviv … before the Jewish faithful really start to believe that they have common interests with Conservative Republicans.
Maybe a trophy that is passes around.
A gilt-edged copy of _Uncle Remus_?
Thank but no thanks. I grew up in all that here in Texas and Oklahoma in the 1960s and 70s. I don’t need to read more about it. Things are so much better than they used to be.
I do enjoy “The Song of the South” movie though. Haven’t seen it in decades.
The wife got her 30 crtificates of death for her father. The cause of death is listed as “Ischemic cardiomyopathy” for five years before he passed.
Not to be morbid, but you and your wife have documentation as having paid for the funeral expenses yourselves, right?
Why, he asks ?
Lol, it was either Remus or a bootleg copy of Song. Uncle Remus is now un-PC, when it ought to be a bit of cultural heritage blacks could be proud of. Black-face was the sincerest form of flattery and now it might get you jailed for ‘hate speech’.
And how come GM hasn’t been cited for ‘cultural appropriation’ vis a vis Cadillac, Pontiac, and Chevrolet?
“Not to be morbid, but you and your wife have documentation as having paid for the funeral expenses yourselves, right?”
Why, he asks ?
Texas law grants special privileges to the person who pays the funeral expenses, the “Informant”, including the right to obtain certified death certificates for life insurance payouts and other purposes similar to an estate executor.
Be really careful as to who gets that designation. We learned this the hard way dealing with the “made woman” in the nurses’ racket at UT Southwestern who pocketed my father-in-law’s life insurance.
We would have been oblivious to the situation, but the woman was Asian. They all seem to have some degree of “You Ain’t Got No Ice Cream” going in their heads in that part of the world.
“Not to be morbid, but you and your wife have documentation as having paid for the funeral expenses yourselves, right?”
Why, he asks ?
Texas law grants special privileges to the person who pays the funeral expenses, the “Informant”, including the right to obtain certified death certificates for life insurance payouts and other purposes similar to an estate executor.
The father-in-law left a will designating the wife as his executor and left everything to the wife and her sister. And, the wife is listed on the death certificate as the “informant”. The FIL prepaid his funeral expenses about two decades ago but we did buy flowers and such. The wife is also on several of his bank accounts and his Fidelity IRA account as a co-owner.
The father-in-law left a will designating the wife as his executor and left everything to the wife and her sister. And, the wife is listed on the death certificate as the “informant”. The FIL prepaid his funeral expenses about two decades ago but we did buy flowers and such. The wife is also on several of his bank accounts and his Fidelity IRA account as a co-owner.
Ok. Cool. No funny business for the executor to deal with.
Sorry for your loss. I’ll write up the story about what my wife dealt with one day.
I do enjoy “The Song of the South” movie though.
Lol, it was either Remus or a bootleg copy of Song. Uncle Remus is now un-PC, when it ought to be a bit of cultural heritage blacks could be proud of. Black-face was the sincerest form of flattery and now it might get you jailed for ‘hate speech’.
We own “Song of the South” on VHS from before Disney got woke. Somewhere. Plus several Sing-A-Long VHS tapes with about 4 or 5 of the songs on them broken out as music videos.
https://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Sing-Long-Songs-Dee-Doo-Dah/dp/6300276554/?tag=ttgnet-20
“A Vintage Solution To A Modern Problem”
https://bustednuckles.com/2020/10/24/a-vintage-solution-to-a-modern-problem/
“Trying to run errands downtown and those pesky protesters keep jumping in front of your car?”
“Now you can scoop them up and release them unharmed on the other side of town so that they will forget all about protesting and be most concerned about getting home to change their shorts.”
Unharmed?
I guess the World Series is being played?
I had no idea. I started watching a game earlier in the year, saw BLM on the back of the mound, listened to the preaching announcers for a minute or two, and turned it off.
Haven’t watched since.
“The First Starship Gets Its First Sunrise”
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-first-starship-gets-its-first.html
“The nose cone section was stacked last night around sunset and work proceeded on it all night. This is the first time anyone has seen the full-sized Starship, approximately 50m (165′) tall, and a bit less than half the size of the final Starship and Super Heavy booster, a combination originally called Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). ”
That is so cool ! I can hardly wait to see it fly !
Exactly. I’m a baseball guy. We go to a Braves game at least once a year (4 hour trip each way, so it’s not a quick jaunt). I saw it reported before the abbreviated season started about the BLM crap, so I didn’t, and haven’t, tuned in. I probably won’t ever again.
“The SpaceX Starship is a very big deal”
https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/10/29/the-spacex-starship-is-a-very-big-deal/
“SpaceX has been working on some variant of the Big Falcon Rocket for almost a decade, with a publicly announced architecture for three years. The target performance figures are on the Starship website, endlessly dissected on Twitter, Reddit, and NASA spaceflight forums, and there’s even a livestream of construction.”
“Yet none of the oft-published mainstream articles seem to capture the magnitude of the vision that Starship embodies. Starship prompts superlatives, but by the end of this post the reader will understand not only how big Starship is, but also that it’s as small as it can possibly be.”
Hat tip to:
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-first-starship-gets-its-first.html
Unharmed?
Your choice.
Of course, you could be charged for screeching your brakes, coming to a complete stop while missing all of the idiot protestors walking on the freeway, getting beat up by the protestors, and getting charged for driving in a riot.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/522318-driver-charged-for-driving-truck-through-george-floyd-protesters-in
I’ve written before that my house originally belonged to a Subcontinent family.
Today, a creepy postcard arrived from VoteTexas.gov addressed to a name I assume is the wife of the couple, reminding her that, “who you vote for is secret but whether you vote is public information.”
Further, “After the election on Tues. Nov. 3, local organizations may contact you on your voting record.”
Singed only with a first name, “Judith”.
I wonder what that is all about.
I’ve written before that my house originally belonged to a Subcontinent family.
Today, a creepy postcard arrived from VoteTexas.gov addressed to a name I assume is the wife of the couple, reminding her that, “who you vote for is secret but whether you vote is public information.”
Further, “After the election on Tues. Nov. 3, local organizations may contact you on your voting record.”
Singed only with a first name, “Judith”.
This is voter suppression. In a righteous world, this would be actionable.
I got one today as well and I also viewed it as a subtle threat. It was paid for by the Alabama democratic party.
Strange times.
The wife is watching “Little House on the Prairie” on IMDB.com through the Roku. I did not realize that once they built the cabin in Kansas that they were actually on Indian land and had to move. That sucked.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071007/
The party of slavery and Jim Crow involved in voter suppression? Say it ain’t so, Joe!
“21 Groundbreaking Science Fiction Novels”
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/21-groundbreaking-science-fiction-novels/
I have read “Dhalgren”, “The Forever War”, “Ringworld”, “Childhood’s End”, “The Left Hand of Darkness”, “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “The War of the Worlds”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Neuromancer”, “Snow Crash”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “Slaughterhouse-Five”, “Foundation”, “1984”, and “Brave New World”. 15 out of 21.
Several of these have been made into movies. Al of these deserve to be made into movies.
The wife is watching “Little House on the Prairie” on IMDB.com through the Roku. I did not realize that once they built the cabin in Kansas that they were actually on Indian land and had to move. That sucked.
The late Hugh Wilson ruined that show for me forever. Every time I see an episode now, I wonder if they’re still on blind child #1 or one of the later versions.
Laura Ingalls Wilder is non-PC these days so the show isn’t seen much.
Had the pleasure of putting a couple of pounds of chlorine in the septic tank today. Every month I get to do this pleasure. And nobody else in the house is volunteering for the duty.
I have read “Dhalgren”, “The Forever War”, “Ringworld”, “Childhood’s End”, “The Left Hand of Darkness”, “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “The War of the Worlds”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Neuromancer”, “Snow Crash”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “Slaughterhouse-Five”, “Foundation”, “1984”, and “Brave New World”. 15 out of 21.
What? No “Hitchhiker’s Guide”!?!
“French President Macron Threatens a Devastating Electricity Embargo against Renewables Obsessed Britain”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/21/french-president-macron-threatens-a-devastating-electricity-embargo-against-renewables-obsessed-britain/
“Britain may be about to pay a heavy price for their mad dash for renewables, and neglect of energy self sufficiency. As Brexit negotiations enter a standoff, France is threatening to embargo desperately needed British imports of dispatchable electricity generated by French nuclear reactors, unless Britain permanently cedes fishing rights in British territorial waters to the EU.”
You know, if your backup energy plan is getting energy from your neighbors whom you have historic battles with, you might want to rethink that.
I have read “Dhalgren”, “The Forever War”, “Ringworld”, “Childhood’s End”, “The Left Hand of Darkness”, “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “The War of the Worlds”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Neuromancer”, “Snow Crash”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “Slaughterhouse-Five”, “Foundation”, “1984”, and “Brave New World”. 15 out of 21.
What? No “Hitchhiker’s Guide”!?!
I have tried. I keep on bouncing off.
“13 Most Uplifting Fantasy Books”
https://fantasybookworld.com/13-most-uplifting-fantasy-books/
Wow, zero for 13 here.
” I did not realize that once they built the cabin in Kansas that they were actually on Indian land and had to move. That sucked.”
–pa and the other white squatters made a bet that there would be enough of them for a fait acompli. As soon as he sees that it won’t happen, they basically move the next day. Pa had a bad case of itchy feet.
The little one and I are on “These Happy Golden Years” with Laura coming of age (she’s 15 but is being courted by Almonzo Wilder, she spends 2 months living with a nutball and teaching school, and she’s working as a seamstress.) Pa wants to move again, but ma doesn’t. She’s tired of starting over. He say’s they’ll stay until he proves his claim and “wins his bet with the government”*
n
* Pa explains that the Homestead act is a bet by the government that you don’t have what it takes to stick it out.
Out driving today I saw my first John Cornyn signs. Maybe he’s feeling the heat… and feels like he needs some visibility.
Akilah Bacy is spamming my text msgs with a bunch of very vague supporters. Her oppo is spamming me with very specific complaints “she makes a living defending criminals charged with violent crimes and wants to raise your taxes” is the latest one.
n
Re: Little House Books
Read them to my granddaughter. The one that truly sticks with me is “The long winter”. It would make a great horror film. Stranded in a small community in the middle of a once in a lifetime blizzard, running out of food and no idea if rescue will come in time. It gave me nightmares, still does. But she writes it so matter-of-factly that it doesn’t seem so horrific as you are reading it. Our great grandparents were tough people.
BTW: My grandmother met Mrs. Wilder at a talk she gave in Buffalo Missouri in the 20s.
Out driving today I saw my first John Cornyn signs. Maybe he’s feeling the heat… and feels like he needs some visibility.
Cornyn is up by 8 at Real Clear Politics. I think that he is more interested in raising money during this time.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/senate/tx/texas_senate_cornyn_vs_hegar-7047.html
@Lynn
If you completed Dhalgren, you’re more patient that me or Harlan Ellison. Did you win money?
It’s telling that in a list of 21 novels, 2 are short story collections.
And 2 are not much more than ten years old. What ground did they break, pray tell?
I’d toss the 2 unproven newbies, the 2 short story collections, and Butler, Le Guin, and Delaney.
Adds:
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Wells, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man
Shelley, Frankenstein
Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (John Carter 1)
Frank, Alas Babylon
Laumer, Worlds of the Imperium
Heinlein, The Puppet Masters (uncut), Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Simak, Way Station
Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Crichton, The Andromeda Strain
Zelazny, Lord of Light
Card, Enders Game
Weber, On Basilisk Station
Flint, 1632 (Ring of Fire 1)
Scott, Burning Bright
Ring0/Taylor, Von Neuman’s War
Much of the truly ground-breaking science fiction took place in short stories. Laumer’s Combat Unit comes to mind.
And the other end of the scale is the multi-book universe. Asimov’s Foundation. Herbert’s Dune. Star Trek. Modessitt’s Recluse and Imager. Weber’s Honor Harrington. Ringo’s Legacy of the Aldenata and Black Tide Rising.
I have omitted some series, which personal opinion groups in the “by the pound” category as described by Barry Longyear. ymmv.
With regard to the fantasy list, I’d recommend Pratchett, which is another multi-book universe on the fantasy side.
Things are done differently in Oz:
http://a.msn.com/00/en-au/BB1amkOC?ocid=se
They neglect to comment on pumped hydro that is being worked on as well and will be needed soonest. Tony’s batteries have been doubled in capacity since inception and have already been paid for directly and indirectly by grid stability.
Adds:
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Wells, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man
Shelley, Frankenstein
Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (John Carter 1)
Frank, Alas Babylon
Laumer, Worlds of the Imperium
Heinlein, The Puppet Masters (uncut), Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Simak, Way Station
Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Crichton, The Andromeda Strain
Zelazny, Lord of Light
Card, Enders Game
Weber, On Basilisk Station
Flint, 1632 (Ring of Fire 1)
Scott, Burning Bright
Ring0/Taylor, Von Neuman’s War
Much of the truly ground-breaking science fiction took place in short stories. Laumer’s Combat Unit comes to mind.
And the other end of the scale is the multi-book universe. Asimov’s Foundation. Herbert’s Dune. Star Trek. Modessitt’s Recluse and Imager. Weber’s Honor Harrington. Ringo’s Legacy of the Aldenata and Black Tide Rising.
I have read all of these except for the “Frankenstein”, “Burning Bright” and the “Star Trek”s (except the Star Trek Log 1 – 10 books). I thought some of Ringo’s other books are ground breaking also, The Council Wars, that discuss a future utopia that goes wrong in a hurry.
https://www.amazon.com/There-Will-Dragons-Council-Wars-ebook/dp/B00BER04VI/?tag=ttgnet-20
“‘New Deplorables’: Biden calls Trump supporters CHUMPS, Kellyanne & Twitter light him up. Plus vid of ‘chumps’ themselves!”
https://therightscoop.com/new-deplorables-biden-calls-trump-supporters-chumps-kellyanne-twitter-light-him-up-plus-vid-of-chumps-themselves/
I knew that I was a deplorable but I did not know I was a chump. I learned something today !
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
@drwilliams -=- Hooray! Another person who has read and appreciated Melissa Scott. I’ve read everything I could get that she ever wrote.
Ground breaking, Pat Cadigan? What about Neil Stephenson inventing cyberspace and google earth? Shelley’s Frankenstein? Gibson with cyberpunk?
(I always want to punch the new snowflakes who think there weren’t any female SF authors. Melissa Scott and Willamina Baird were killing it back in the day. Sherri Tepper was pretty big too with Gate to Women’s Country, even if I didn’t especially care for her. And they completely disregard the Grand Dames of SF.)
In fantasy, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has been prolific and was writing vampires long before it was cool.
WRT the list,
Dahlgren- yeah made it thru. I was still in the ‘if I start it I have to finish it’ mode. What a piece of cr@p. Someone needed to do a word count graph and hand him a thesaurus for any that showed up every 3 pages…. ‘cuz F me I was tired of reading that one.
DV -remember reading it, couldn’t list the stories.
never liked Butler.
Remember reading Forever War. Haven’t thought much of it since, certainly haven’t re-read.
Windup Girl has drawn my ire on these pages before. ONE novel idea, of course the science had to be arm-waved, and terrible trite ending. Gotta love the forcible sodomy and digital rape scene…
The Body problem is several barely related stories published as a book, is tedious in the extreme, and if published by a white male would have sunk to obscurity.
Ringworld. THAT was groundbreaking. And spawned a whole industry of derivative works.
Childhoods End. Owned it, can’t recall ever reading it.
Never cared much for LeGuin either.
Like Heinlein, don’t recall reading this one. I know, anathema.
The movie was better than the book….
20K Leagues – I was very familiar with the Disney movie before I read it. Paid by the word and serialized leads to a lot of redundancy. Still liked it. And Around the World in 80 Days.
Don’t Panic! – excellent advice. I read it but was exposed to the radio play and teleplay first which colored my experience. Still great.
Ah, there’s the Gibson. Burning Chrome too.
Huh, there’s Stephenson. Guess I should have actually read the article first, oh well, this is the internet….
Not a big fan of Bradbury. DOn’t remember reading this.
DADES- watch the original movie release with the voiceover. Skip the book. Read Through a Scanner Darkly instead.
School ruined Vonnegut for me, but I did read this on the toilet while living with my folks after leaving college… no memory, never re-read.
I read a lot of Asimov, I was reading thru our local library. I liked Poul Anderson much better for these kind of stories. I did read them, never re-read.
1984 is required reading and as such has been made to suck for many. I’ve been thinking about re-reading it lately. Only the once.
BNW is another I’ve been thinking about re-reading. Pneumatic!
compared to the stuff I’ve read and reread, like Dune, Black Tide, any Stephenson, all the early Gibson, Ringworld, most of the other cyberpunk got at least a couple of reads…. most of the modern message fiction sucks beyond belief. School ruined more of what would have been good. Name one character from Brave New World though….
n
Dang it Lynn, you had to mention the Council Wars… now I’ll have to fight to keep from re-reading it again.
n
Most populous state in Oz.: NSW records third consecutive day with no locally transmitted coronavirus cases.
http://a.msn.com/01/en-au/BB1amzbC?ocid=se
Borders closed effectively (surrounded by water…). Contact tracing and quarantining.
Second most populous state did not have proper contact tracing in place and paid the price. Only now are they getting to single digits.
Other than the prachett I’ve not read a single one of the fantasy books listed. ALMOST bought the Goblin King book when it came out, but then forgot.
n
How very ‘white saviour’ of her….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8875115/Chelsea-Handler-explains-called-50-Cent-endorsing-Trump-Biden-tax-plans.html
“‘I had to remind him that he was a black person’: Chelsea Handler explains why she called out 50 Cent for endorsing Trump over Biden’s supposed tax hikes for the rich”
n
The Body problem (sic)is several barely related stories published as a book, is tedious in the extreme, and if published by a white male would have sunk to obscurity.
Nick, you nailed it with “… is tedious in the extreme…” I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first book in the trilogy and wondering if I were the only one who found it a bit … slow. You just convinced me that I have better ways to spend my declining years.
Like you, I no longer feel that if I’ve started a book I have to finish it.
False metric. Its contagious, everyone not vaccinated WILL get it. The correct metric is number of hospitalizations. If 10,000 people get infected but less than 10 need hospitalization, its a win, a big win. You can hide from the virus only so long without killing the economy, look at the UK. We will all be exposed at some point. Destroying your country to reduce exposure is a fools errand.
I specifically included the uncut version of The Puppet Masters in my list above. After SiaSL, it was the second of the uncut versions released by Virginia Heinlein in the mid-1990’s.
Some of the background is here:
https://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/works/novels/strangervsstranger.html
Heinlein was forced to cut Stranger from 220 to 160,000 words. Rule speculates that “Maybe a perfect middle ground exists somewhere around 190,000 words.” I might agree with that to a certain extent. Reading the restored version thirty years later, I did notice that some parts dragged due to cultural references of the 1940’s/50’s, but it’s questionable whether it would have been noticeable on original publication.
But I digress.
My real point is that The Puppet Masters was brutalized by a magazine editor, not carefully edited by Heinlein.
RAH is widely recognized as the successful inventor in description of the water bed and “Waldos”. One web site makes a comprehensive list of 119 “inventions”
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/13601/have-any-of-heinleins-then-fictional-inventions-been-developed-into-actual-on
Some of these are a long stretch.
But absent from the list is one device that is glaringly obvious in the first few pages of the uncut version of TPM.
If you haven’t seem it, link to an article on the Colorado Springs home built by the Heinleins in 1950:
http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/pm652-art-hi.html