Category: Words

I just finished reading Mystic River. The novel has better detail about Boston, and greater depth of character for the detective character, than the movie. Lehane is mostly known as a genre writer (mystery) but this is a step up– sure, there’s a murder, and a mystery, but the characterization moves it into literary territory.

Next up are the books Megan brought back from the NEBA conference, where she represented theHarvard Bookstore (not that Harvard). As I read them (or fail to) I’ll provide opinions, which I’m sure you’re all just dying to hear.

On food, The Kitchen Detective, by Christopher Kimball (of Cook’s Illustrated), and Are You Really Going to Eat That? Adventures of a Culinary Thrill Seeker by Robb Walsh. I’ve been a big fan of Cook’s Illustrated ever since they ran an article about the gruelling and hazardous search for a perfect creme brulee, which placed their journalists in danger of exploding kitchen torches and exploding coronary arteries, but I’m more intrigued by the one about thrill-seeking. As I read them I’ll let you know.

On politics, Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, by Vidal. I don’t much like his fiction, and find his politics shrill, but he’s still an excellent scholar.

I’ve already flipped through The Metrosexual Guide to Style, which is basically the same as Paisley Goes with Nothing and all the other bullshit slightly-humorous how-to guides that explain what your deficient social upbringing failed to teach you. Is it so bad that we need books to teach us that clothes look best when they fit right, that one should not talk with one’s mouth open, and that paying attention to others makes them like us more? Hint: the word “metrosexual,” like the word “quirkyalone,” denotes a marketing demographic turned religion, and anything claiming to champoin it should be avoided.

I like the look of Wild East, a collection of stories by hot new post-Soviet authors. Megan brought advance galley proofs of Waterborne a novel set during the building of the Hoover dam, the new Goya bio by Evan Connell, and a humorous, possibly nonfiction, book called Join Me, about a guy who accidentally starts a cult of some sort. I hear the new Goya bio is great, but I’m probably going to pass on all three of those, although I’m not sure I can articulate my reasons.

Greg Easterbrook of TNR didn’t like the movie Kill Bill, and criticized the Disney leadership for glorifying violence in it, especially since they were Jewish and should understand that Violence is Bad.
Now, Superelectric has a point-by-point rebuttal in the kind of insultmonger style we’ve grown to know and love on the net.

Dude, can you go after Rumsfeld now? Because he could use an asskicking.

Button down that flapping upper lip of yours, goofy, before I staple it to the ceiling and watch you spin around like a fart-powered ceiling fan.

I wrote a letter to Mark Morford, the SF Gate Morning Fix writer, and he responded, sort of.

Mark, I love your column, I really do. But I want you to remember, occasionally, that patriotism isn’t the same thing as miniature flags on SUV’s. Patriotism can be a beautiful, wonderful thing, and if you reject patriotism because of the scoundrels who take refuge in it, then you lose, in a lot of ways, a cultural battle that is very important to win: the battle against the myth that liberals hate America. What I’m saying is, don’t recall patriotism: recall jingoism. I know that’s what you meant, but please be clearer! Think of all the good things about this country: freedom and organic food and voting and newspapers and having a job so you can feed your family. Believing what you want to believe. Public parks and and free education and teenagers making out in back seats without being beaten to death for violating public morals. The US isn’t perfect, no country is, but please don’t pretend that those who love it are all idiots– you love it too, you need to admit this, and if you’d get outside of it once in awhile and see what the rest of the world is like, you’d realize just how good you’ve got it. A lot of the left has abandoned patriotism and the American flag because they think it all means international empire and so forth. But the US does some good stuff too– international aid, the peace corps, Radio Free Wherever. Don’t give up on your country– you take too much for granted sometimes.

His response, as usual without the initial letter, was published in today’s newsletter. I’m not sure he got my point, but then again, his column is supposed to be totally off-balance, and my request for balance, if heeded, would totally ruin it.

— To verbal: Well this is the entire point, isn’t it? That thoseaccused of hating their country and of being traitors for calling Bush a dangerous small-minded warmongering idiot lo these past months tend to be, in fact, the most patriotic of all, and not just for celebrating their freedom of speech and questioning the direction of the nation, but for defending for what this country actually stands for, which is peace and nonaggression and the idea that we do not attack crappy little defenseless non-threatening countries just to further the desires of the president’s petrochemical cronies. Believe you me, I believe in patriotism. I understand it well. And hardcore lockstep GOP war hawks who want dissent silenced and want to wiretap your email have proven to be the least patriotic of all.

Unique, to say the least.

I guess it seems plausible that the Weather Underground movement switched from terrorism and violence to become mild-mannered meteorologists. After all, following the lead of Hooters, the group NWA, known for the hits “Boys N the Hood” and “Gangsta Gangsta” has started an airline.

Defininition of Caldera: a volcanic crater that has a diameter many times that of the vent and is formed by collapse of the central part of a volcano or by explosions of extraordinary violence.

But jeez, Neal, 3,000 pages? Newton invented calculus in less time than it’ll take to read about it.

Hot authors get more influence over their editors because they’ve got an established fan base, so they don’t have the discipline needed to cut, delete, tighten, a novel into something readable.

My writing teachers used to say that the one great lesson of good editing is “murder your darlings,” which means you should cut a sentence, paragraph, chapter if it doesn’t fit, even if you love it. It’s not the whole, it’s not the end product. Be especially harsh on the parts you love best: the more you like it, the more likely you are to leave it in, even if it needs to go.

UNIX Review reviews Linux in a Nutshell:

If you’re a Linux administrator and you’re not familiar with O’Reilly’s best selling Linux book, Linux in a Nutshell, or if you just don’t own a copy, you need to buy one. Although it costs about $40, its content is equally weighty and probably provides the most information on Linux per dollar of any book in print. It’s now in its fourth edition, and it’s still a must-own book for Linux administrators.

Amazon Rank: 1,108! Go go go!