Given that I have been posting daily for three years now, I feel justified in using a year in review post as a cheater escape to avoid actually talking about something today, because I feel like some of my better posts probably get lost in the sheer volume of material here. Maybe I will start …
Monthly Archives: December 2008
Burned Cheese
I couldn’t help but think of Haddock when I found this review of two photography books chronicling the early years of punk. Testicular feminization? Virgin births? Turkeys? The latest suspect in the death of the publishing industry: bargain books. Religious bias in the military? Most definitely. This argument encouraging Australians to commit to green energy …
Book 400: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
Is this the last Book Project review? Could it be? Is the insanity finally over? Quite possibly, given how hectic the rest of today will probably be. I suppose I should savor the moment, and I have to admit, I am glad to be going out with a Dahl, because he is one of my …
Book 399: An Unpardonable Crime
This story intriguingly integrates the life of a young Edgar Allan Poe into a larger story. Poe, in fact, is a rather marginal figure in the story, only really interesting because of who he is, and I kind of like that. It illustrates the way in which ordinary people can turn out to be extraordinary, …
Water Wars
Reading Bottlemania reminded me of an issue which I have long been interested in: water. It’s kind of hard to not be interested in water when you live in California, because water is a bit of a theme here. The entirety of Southern California is maintained with the use of stolen water, and there have …
Leaky Drafters
Is it capitalism, or a giant ponzi scheme? Being a location scout looks like it would be a lot of fun. People who make virginity pledges are actually more likely to get pregnant. Should we tax like it’s recession time? A researcher just repeated an infamous Milgram experiment, and found that not much has changed. …
Book 398: The Prison Diary of Arthur Longworth #299180
This brief collection of essays gives the reader the faintest of glimpses of prison life in America. The author was convicted of murder at the age of 18 and sentenced to life in prison, and his experiences in Walla Walla Prison are quite interesting to read about, especially given the fact that prison writings (including …
Not A Toy
Every now and then, our cultural attitudes about animals astound me so much that I am left momentarily speechless. The holidays are prime time for an assortment of articles about how great Christmas puppies and kittens are, followed by reports of overflowing shelters filled with unwanted Christmas presents. Every now and then, there’s a sternly …
Curried Loam
A third of the mammals in Britain are considered at risk, which just goes to show you that all those foolish people who fought to preserve British hedges and woodlands weren’t so foolish after all. Heavy bombing is going on in Gaza. Call me silly, but bombing a people who already think that they are …
Bodysnarking
I realized a few days ago that I had been throwing the term “bodysnarking” around, and that some readers might not know what it meant. Given that bodysnarking is a rather important issue, I think that it deserves its own post. We’ve pretty much all been victims of bodysnarking, and most of us have bodysnarked …