To be able to say "Noggle," you first must be able to say "Nah."
I was not particularly impressed with this book. Perhaps I read it too soon after The Lost Ones and found too many of that book’s flaws in this one. In this book, a New England Patriots linebacker hires Spenser to look into some people who were following him. Spenser is not sure if it’s someone […]
This book is the second in the three books that make up the complete set of stories that Howard wrote featuring Conan the Cimmerian. As you will remember, I read the first, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian in January. This book features three tales: “The People of the Black Circle” features Conan carrying off […]
Studying Finnish: Michael Brown’s long hours of studying the exotic language of Finnish may seem like a pretty noble use of time. An American international-relations major at the University of Washington in Seattle, he aims for a life in foreign service. Finland’s strategic role in the Arctic and as a vocal member of the euro […]
Brian J., you ask, why do you keep everything like you do, especially books, pamphlets, and some ephemera (but not as much as Lileks)? Because someday I might need it. For research. Of course, when I was young, I imagined it would be for important works of literature that would speak to readers about the […]
This book is far less topical and dated than Dixie Convoy, which was definitely stuck in the 1970s with its CB focus. This book has a more typical Executioner excursion into the heart of Mafia territory: Manhattan. The bosses in New York are scrambling for power after the recent death of the Boss of all […]
I bought these books at Redeemed in the local interest section because I thought they were both little reminisciences of life in the Ozarks. They’re very short–each about six pages or so (but I’m counting them as two books, dammit). But I was wrong. They’re short and independent like this because their the tracts of […]
How long have I owned this book? Here’s a photoshopped cover of it I did in July 2005. Oftentimes, I’ve picked it up when looking for something quick to read between weightier things, but Robert Hegyes, who played Esposito in Welcome Back, Kotter died, and I heard “Welcome Back” by John Sebastian on the radio […]
Someone on my twitter feed retweeted this: The next time someone says something bad about Pakistan compared to the US, I’m going to point them to this: Pakistan has taken the landmark decision to allow transsexuals to have their own gender category on some official documents. You know, in the United States, we don’t have […]
The Internet has produced another list to measure yourself upon, this time some list of 50 things every guy should know from a Web site called Guyism. As you can guess from its presence on a guy Web site, it involves essential skills dealing with beer and babes. Which is only “essential” in college, and […]
As Tam predicted when I bought the book two and a half years ago, I enjoyed this collection of roadside attractions, cut-rate museums, and silly tourist traps you find on the edges of US and state highways. It’s interesting to read about the obsessions people of previous generations have had, with things from nuts to, […]
This book stems from an era, lo those 25 years ago, where it was slightly fashionable or at least humorous to oppose the impersonal answering machine. I didn’t really recollect it until I saw this book. But there were lots of books in that era about having funny answering machine messages and this book about […]
This book proves that there are some things that should be left untried, some experiments should remain conceived in the mind of the inventor and not carried out to their horrible, unholy result. Edward Hoch should never have tried the novel form. I love Edward Hoch’s Nick Velvet short stories. Short and snappy. This book […]
The piece is entitled “The Case for Killing Granny“, so you know you’re in for it. The very lede identifies the core issue of a government health plan: My mother wanted to die, but the doctors wouldn’t let her. At least that’s the way it seemed to me as I stood by her bed in […]
Or maybe ObamaDontCare. Cal Thomas: . McCaughey discovered buried in the bill a new bureaucracy called the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. Among other things, it means a Washington official will “monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.” Some of that occurs now, […]
This book collects a handful of Sartre’s stories, including “The Wall”, “The Room”, “Erostratus”, “Intimacy”, and “The Childhood of the Leader”. If you have read a Sartre short story, you have read “The Wall”. It’s the best of this anthology, and in an odd turn of events, the whole thing starts well and progressively gets […]
Brazen robber shot Overland store clerk: Overland Police Chief James Herron said a surveillance camera showed police what happened next: The robber pulled a small-caliber semiautomatic handgun and demanded money. The clerk did everthing right, Herron said. He obliged — opening the cash register drawer and stepping back, just as management had taught him to […]
You know, this is the same fellow that was the contemporary of Lovecraft and whose representation was slain in the Lovecraft story of “The Haunter of the Dark.” I picked the book up because I recognized the name. It’s also the fellow who wrote “That Hell-Bound Train”, which I read as part of some anthology […]
James Joyner looks at a Congressional Budget Office report requested by Congressman John Murtha, D-PA about the feasibility and impact of bringing back the draft, and Joyner wonders: One wonders, then, what he hoped the CBO study would accomplish. Well, here it is in Time magazine. Reports indicate that the government is studying the feasibility […]
When we looked for a new home last winter, our real estate agent mentioned that there were some really nice houses in the city of St. Louis. No thanks, I said; I already have to pay a city income tax for the luxury of getting to work there. I don’t need to suffer through what […]
Hey, I could easily save the county government some time and money for any topic that it commissions committees or outside firms to study by cutting right to the answer: higher fees or taxes: After studying the issue for more than two years, St. Louis County is finally ready to talk trash. St. Louis County […]