To be able to say "Noggle," you first must be able to say "Nah."
Checklist of things to do when Heather leaves:
Same as last time.
Buy My Books!
When I was in Milwaukee in October, I visited Downtown Books and bought a number of John D. MacDonald paperbacks, including this one, immediately after I read Judge Me Not. Well, okay, it was the next morning, but I plunked down $1.95 each for five of them.
On the Run runs long at 144 pages, but the title page indicates it was based on a story published in Cosmopolitan. A lot of the filler material includes long passages of declarations of love between the protagonists and a lot of early 1960s I’m OK, You’re OKism. Also, orgasms for women are good, and women who want them are not too much for a man to handle, they’re just right.
The premise, or at least the tease on the back cover, is that a man on the run from the mob is startled to find a beautiful woman who claims to represent his unremembered rich grandfather who wants to find his estranged grandchildren before he dies. The Man On The Run (MOTR) thinks it’s a scam, but he soon falls for the Cosmobabble of the liberated woman, who happens to be the rich grandfather’s nurse.
The book represents the worst pacing I have ever seen in a John D. MacDonald book, and I really hope he chalked this one up as an experimentation in style and a departure because he wanted to grow as an artist. However, at its slight weight, it’s interesting enough to follow to its conclusion, one of the darkest I have ever seen in a John D. MacDonald book–although the dark ending matches the beginning of The Green Ripper.
Well, sorry, MacDonald fans for blowing it for you.
Buy My Books!
Heather’s got a surprise coming when she returns from her business trip this weekend–I’m recarpeting!
Please, don’t anyone ruin the surprise.
Buy My Books!
My wife said to me last night, “Honey?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Never mind,” she commanded.
Which puts me in quite the logical bind. The next time she tells me to do something and I don’t do it, she’ll be angry, but I am only following orders. Of course, if I do the next thing she tells me, I am also not minding.
Just to be safe, I think I shall sit in the recliner and pretend I didn’t hear.
Buy My Books!
In this story, entitled “Rogue pilot ruffles feathers on migration“, we discover that some people do their part to improve the world by flying planes to lead migrating cranes south for the winter.
And sometimes those crazy calhouns get upset:
As a pilot, crane impersonator and chief executive officer of Operation Migration – the whooping crane migration organization – Duff’s emotional well-being relies upon making sure his cranes are happy and healthy.
So when a rogue ultralight pilot recently sneaked up behind his craft and cranes – as the whoopers were migrating south over Illinois’ Lee and DeKalb counties – Duff’s mood darkened.
“For the most part, the ultralight community has been very respectful” about the crane project, he said. If they see Duff and his flying family coming, they get out of the way and land.
But this time, an unidentified pilot decided to come in for a closer look.
“I’d seen them ahead of me – maybe about a mile or so in front,” he said. There were two crafts, he said. And they moved off to the side.
Not long after that, he noticed that his birds were falling out of formation and trying to fly ahead of him.
At first, this didn’t ruffle him too much.
The cranes see Duff and his plane as their parent. And, like any kid, they’ll occasionally challenge their sire’s authority. When young cranes do this during migration, they fly ahead.
But this time, Duff said, the birds looked more frightened than sassy. That’s when he realized something was wrong.
He was being tailed.
Man, there’s so much snark to be had that I only have time to offer a sample:
Bah, that’s enough for now.
Buy My Books!
For those of you who are paranoid enough to want a secret door but are trusting enough to buy one off the shelf, on your credit card, there’s Hidden Doors.com.
Buy My Books!
Drudge proclaims that UK PAPERS TRASH BUSH and displays the cover of the Daily Mirror, which features a headline How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB? (See it here.)
My friends, that’s not a blast at Bush. That’s a blast to those of us who voted for Bush, and indirectly a blast all of America.
Whether Americans who agree with the sentiment know it or not.
Buy My Books!
I’ve seen speculation on blogs this morning and heard it on the radio that Michael Moore must be depressed this morning. If you think so, you’re crazy.
Michael Moore has achieved greater infamy and fiscal success in the last four years of his ranting and raving (mostly raving) about George W. Bush. A John Kerry presidency would have proved limiting for Michael Moore’s “talents.” Fortunately, Michael Moore can continue now with the “work” that has proven so lucrative for him.
Buy My Books!
If the maelstrom of lawsuits comes, will Green Bay Packer safety Darren Sharper testify, as an expert for the defense, upon the theft of an election that was a guaranteed Kerry victory based on the unrelated and certainly non-causual occurrence regarding the Redskins’ wins and losses preceding a presidential election?
If so, the Republicans should call Manny Ramirez to testify that 2004 is an outlier, wherein historical streaks come to an end.
Buy My Books!
In an e-mail with a friend, I just referred to Israel as the Middle East’s oldest democracy.
How cool is that? That would be a legacy for a president, ainna?
Buy My Books!
I don’t know which is worse, the headline “Dutch filmmaker accused of ridiculing Islam slain“, with its passive voice implication that maybe he had it coming to him since he was, after all, accused of ridiculing Islam, or the first paragraph:
A controversial Dutch filmmaker accused by Muslims of ridiculing their religion was stabbed and shot dead in Amsterdam on Tuesday, shocking the Netherlands where the killing was denounced as an attack on free speech.
Pardon my Midwestern simplicity here, but I think that a more basic right was violated somewhere along the line. But to some people, the metaphor’s more important than the concrete, and the abstract more important than the specific, and you cannot suffer along with the oppressed dead guy if it’s just murder–but if it’s suppression of free speech, it’s just like Bush’s America!
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
Buy My Books!
Preposition A: Shall the St. Louis County Charter be amended so that any County assistance of value, whether direct or indirect, to development of a professional sports facility, requires prior to any assistance being given that the County Auditor first prepare a fiscal note and that the governing body proposing to take action to provide financial assistance hold a public hearing and that the financial assistance be approved by a majority of the qualified voters of the County voting thereon?
Jeez, in the last ten years, they’ve built or funded a new hockey/basketball arena, a football stadium, and a baseball stadium. This will pretty much eliminate a new professional dog racing track or perhaps an Olympic venue.
On the other hand, if this passes, it will be funny to see how the politicos in power deal with the trigger in the St. Louis Rams’ current lease that they can leave if the Edward Jones Dome falls out of the top ten facilities in the nation. Undoubtedly, the County and the city will find money to refurbish professional sports arenas without a pesky hearing.
Buy My Books!
Spare us the enlightened citizens’ re-education through First Person Shooters. From the Entertainment Weekly profile of the forthcoming Halo 2:
Clearly, there are political and religious dimensions to Halo 2 that were absent from the first game. (“You could look at [the story] as a damning condemnation of the Bush administration’s adventure in the Middle East,” admits Staten.) Such provocative themes were bound to come under the scrutiny of Microsoft’s legal team. Even as the game was getting its final polish, lawyers forced Staten to change the name of an alien antagonist, arguing that it carried Muslim overtones. Staten objected. Nonetheless, some of the voice actors (who include Michelle Rodriguez, Ron Perlman, and Miguel Ferrer) were called back to rerecord dialogue only weeks before the final version was delivered.
My knee jerk reaction is to condemn it out of hand, but hey, he’s a storyteller, and he can tell the story he wants. We in the West allow people to express themselves and seek to better our own consciousnesses by understanding other cultures, even those completely at odds with our way of life.
Hey, that’s well and good. Just so we don’t forget that our culture affords tolerance and certain parts of ours does not, and our culture, though imperfect, is better than the peak of Islamicism and we defend it.
(Link seen on The Bleat, which is a daily column from some obscure Minnesotan newspaperman.)
Buy My Books!
The friendly woman at the gym did really say that the friendly staph was there to serve us?
Buy My Books!
I guess, then, as the opposite of disenfranchised voter, an enfranchised voter is a voter whose product, votes, is available in many different locations, such as several different polling places or states.
Buy My Books!
In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bill McClellan favors a draft for important reasons:
The military used to be the Church of the Second Chance. If a youngster got in trouble, he was often given the choice – the military or jail.
I think that’s the only actual reason why he favors a draft. The rest is a ramble.
Buy My Books!
It looks like Neil Steinberg said this:
That isn’t enough, however. Christianity never seems happy unless it is on the march, and why be satisfied practicing your faith when you can also try to impose it upon others?
Outrageous. Absolutely outrageous.
Buy My Books!
Okay, so read this bit in Ann Althouse’s Dick Cheney’s Hawaiian visit:
5) Another very pretty girl whom I could only conclude was a Secret Service groupie. She came in and as I gave her a lei she held up her Bush Cheney sign and asked where she could get autographs from Secret Service guys. I pointed them out to her but told her I didn’t know if she’d have any luck. I saw her after the event and she had managed to get several!
So here’s the question from your shidoshi of paranoia:
Buy My Books!
Note to Pediatrics: Instead of banning BB guns and paintball guns because FOUR CHILDREN A YEAR or fewer die from them, how about we focus first on the more dangerous schnucking STAIRCASES and BATHTUBS, which kill far more?
Because they don’t look like EEEEEEEEVIL GUNS? Okay, then, as long as we understand the real goal here.
Coming soon in this month’s Musings magazine: a study about how deadly raging academic stupidity is. Never mind the study or the methodology, the press release announcing the study is the important thing.
Buy My Books!
I picked this book at a yard sale some years ago and have just gotten around to it now. It’s a thin book, 124 pages, broken into chapters that provide different puzzles/means of cognition and intelligent ways to approach them. Memorization tips, visual skills, and whatnot.
It’s an interesting little book, with nice little tricks. However, it’s not going to put me over the cusp into the warm embrace of Mensa, mostly because the book doesn’t cure lazy. But if you’re motivated to improve your thought, it’s a quick enough read.
Buy My Books!