What Are We Reading/What Books Did You Receive for the Holidays?

by | Dec 25, 2020 | Books, Fiction, Fun, Pastimes | 128 comments

Brett L

I would have read more this month, but I tore the pages out of my books to roll into cylinders so I could snort coke off a mirror. It’s done me good, I’ve lost ten pounds. It’s Diet Coke.

mexican sharpshooter

This month I managed to read The Night Before Christmas.  A tale of home invasion.

OMWC

Nobody gave me shit to read for Christmas. So I immersed myself in several long manuals for software. Pro tip: don’t bother reading software manuals. Oh, and a totally geeky magic book. You wouldn’t like it.

SP

I’m all about pizza, as anyone who knows me IRL can attest.

This month I’ve been revisiting some of the pizza-specific cookbooks I own. So as not to be totally nerdy, I’ll just tell you about one today.

The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani

We stopped by his place Pizza Rock in Las Vegas last May, and the pizza was very good. Sadly, we had to do take-out and we agreed that it was probably an even better product straight out of the oven.

(The menu item I really fell in love with was the Italian fries. Seriously delicious.)

But back to the book. If you want to up your pizza game, it’s worth checking out. The first section of the book is titled “The Master Class” and he does a very good job taking you through the why and how of making outstanding dough, then on through the entire pizza-making process to serving. It’s perfect for a pizza geek, or anyone who would like to become one.

The rest of the book is devoted to recipes for nearly every kind of pizza you could ever want to make, from Regional American to Regional Italian, Grilled, Wrapped and Rolled and on and on.

Definitely worth the price.

(Now I want pizza instead of the lasagna I am making today. *sigh*)

SugarFree

I finished up the Fafred and Grey Mouser series by Fritz Leiber. I became a bit unfocused after that, reading a few more of the Destroyer series in my re-read of the Warren and Sapir-written books. Then a sharp turn then took me to Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquis de Sade. It good to hang out with the old pervert on occasion. His imagination for degradation is oddly freeing; there truly is nothing new under the sun.

Riven

I’ve read a surprising amount since the last time I contributed to this! Starting off with Peace Talks and Battle Ground by Jim Butcher, the two latest and greatest installments of “How Are Harry and Co. Gonna Get Out of This One?” No spoilers, of course, but I thought these were fine additions to the Dresden Files. And I already can’t wait for the next one, like some kind of cocaine laced potato chip. I also started and completed the entire Iron Druid Chronicles, which felt like a faster, glibber Dresden Files, honestly. Bigger baddies, more unstoppable forces meeting immovable objects more frequently, greater fallout/damage and subsequent recovery. The whole storyline is pretty fantastic, as if you took the previously mentioned potato chip and dipped it in Brett L’s famous meth “clam” dip. I’ve just started and kind of stalled out on The Expanse. I might be about a chapter or two into Leviathan Wakes, but I should have a lot of time next week to read, if I’ll just use that time to read, of course.

 

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Glib Staff

Glib Staff

128 Comments

  1. slumbrew

    I just this morning received Ruhlman’s Twenty: 20 Techniques 100 Recipes A Cook’s Manifesto. I shall be reading that.

    Still occasionally grinding through “What Every Body Is Saying”, but I haven’t sat down to read anything in a bit.

    Going back to reading a physical book (the Rhulman book) will be interesting – it may hold my attention more than the Kindle.

  2. Fourscore

    I’m reading “Mr Polk’s War”, the Mexican War conjured up to grab TX, CA, New Mex. I bought myself a box of books from Hamilton Books, I think 7 all told. Enough for the winter and maybe beyond. Books without pictures, 3 presidential bios and 4 Old West historicals.

  3. DEG

    Finished:

    “Retief of the CDT” by Keith Laumer
    “The Broad Arrow” by Ian Skennerton
    “Retief: Emissary to the Stars” by Keith Laumer
    “Mauser Military Rifles of the World”, 5th edition, by Robert Ball.

    Starting soon:

    “Retief: Diplomat to the Stars” by Keith Laumer

    Once I get a few more gun history and Retief books read, I’ll move “The Barbell Prescription” up in the queue.

    • Fourscore

      I gave my grand daughter a dvd, “History of the Rifle” . About 2 hours long, enjoyable, ‘course I had to watch it first.

      • DEG

        Nice!

    • KSuellington

      Merry Xmas DEG. The Barbell Prescription is good. I picked it up on Kindle last week after Tundra recommended it highly. I would recommend the hard copy as the tables get disjointed in the digital version. It has already added 15 lbs to my squat and 10 to my bench and dead. I was doing too many sets of warm up lifts and that helped cure that so my work sets could get heavier.

      • DEG

        I have the paperback copy. I just flipped through it. The tables I saw looked OK to me.

        First priority for me for fitness in the New Year is to drop bodyfat. Next is continue to recover from my disc herniation.

  4. Akira

    Started “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss a few weeks ago (part of my preparation for a possible move into a sales career). He’s a former FBI hostage negotiator. It’s pretty interesting stuff so far.

    I wish more people would read rhetoric, advertising, marketing, sales, and persuasion psychology. Maybe then, politicians and media slimeballs wouldn’t be able to pull their heartstrings so easily.

    • Chafed

      I’m about 2/3 of the way through. I like it but I’m a bit frustrated he doesn’t illustrate the techniques in anything but a hostage setting.

      • R C Dean

        The dynamic definitely changes when your fallback plan isn’t “you are cleared to take the shot”.

    • Mojeaux

      I guess they don’t get that Santa is a magical creature, and thus immune to everything and death.

    • Akira

      Oh yea, Gretchen Witmer had some event with a Santa character who was encouraging all the little children to wear their masks and take their vaccines.

      This is fucking dystopian.

      • Chafed

        It is. It is also turning pathetic. IMO, the powers that be can feel the control slipping away. Too many people are asking questions and some are openly defiant.

  5. Mojeaux

    My reading jag of women’s paranormal fiction tapered off, as did my cross stitching jag. Real life is just too much right now. I also decided to split my first novel into its respective romances, so I’m busy straightening up continuity errors that didn’t happen in the amalgamated one, writing the same scenes from different points of view, and transitioning time passing better since the novel takes place over 4 years and nothing happened to some characters for 2 of those.

    But, to answer the question, I was reading paranormal women’s fiction and cozy mysteries. Between November 1 and Dec 10, not including ones I DNF’d, I read almost 40 of them.

    • Count Potato

      ( ! ) This claim about the birth of Christ is disputed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        LOL

  6. Surly Knott

    It’s been a pretty ‘meh’ month for new reading.
    First up:
    A Cosmology of Monsters, Shaun Hamill. Barely Lovecraft adjacent, not terribly well written. Can’t decide if it’s a love story, a horror story, a family history & redemption story, or what. Not impressed.

    Next:
    Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series. I’m up to book 6, Ashes of Honor, and frankly I’d find it difficult to give the books better than a C, maybe a C-. It’s a pity, as I very much enjoyed her Wayward Children series.

  7. Gender Traitor

    Christmas get-together with my sisters & BIL has been postponed since single sister tested positive for the ‘VID this week. (She has no known comorbidities and says she feels as if she has a cold…though she HAS been known to minimize her problems until they’re outright crises…) One of my favorite writers, Jodi Taylor, typically releases short stories on Christmas, so I’ve downloaded one Christmas-themed one that actually came out a few weeks ago, and after I read that, I’ll download the other one, which was released today. The latter is part of her Chronicles of St. Mary’s series, of interest to history buffs and/or anyone who appreciates humorous writers like Pratchett.

  8. KOVIDKristen

    Got my Pa Gad Saad’s latest

  9. Not Adahn

    I received four books this Christmas:

    A hardcover of Kings and Wizards by the world’s best active cartoonist.
    What If and How To by one of the worlds worst active cartoonists.
    And Lost in Math by the world’s hottest active theoretical physicist.

    • Chafed

      I’m concerned “hottest, active theoretical physicist” is a low bar. But in behalf of Q, pics or GTFO.

      • But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

        Sabine Hossenfelder. We coulda used more like her back in my Economics days in Uni.

        You go, girl.

      • Not Adahn

        Pics don’t do her justice. You have to hear her lecture.

  10. juris imprudent

    Finished Sowell’s Wealth, Poverty and Politics and moving on to Murray’s The Madness of Crowds. I suppose I should read Churchill’s History of the English Speaking People this winter, as it is the full four volume work.

  11. DEG

    Merry Christmas!

  12. robc

    Pizza must include pepperoni. Vegans can’t eat pizza.

      • Ted S.

        If you really wanted to tempt the rusty can lid, perhaps you should have posted this

    • Dr. Chipping Pioneer

      Pineapple is vegan.

  13. Cannoli

    I have been reading the Dune books, and this morning I got 100 Techniques by America’s Test Kitchen, which I’m looking forward to trying out.

  14. westernsloper

    The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani

    Bookmarked.

  15. Tres Cool

    One of you lot recommended (or cited from) “More Letters of Note”. Its hit or miss, but handy for sitting on the crapper.

    • Chafed

      That’s a review I can use.

  16. Mojeaux

    I keep wanting to try these cookbooks you all link, but then I remember, I don’t cook.

    • But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

      Yes you do.

      • Mojeaux

        Infrequently, and I’m no foodie.

  17. I. B. McGinty

    Got a book for my birthday about Franklin BBQ in Austin. Just started reading but interesting story so far.

    • Don escaped Two Corinthians

      seems like they had a fire of the unintended sort

  18. KSuellington

    Happy Christmas to all the Glibbers. I picked up The Barbell Prescription, The Daily Stoic and Gulag Archipelago at the recommendations here. The first two I’m perusing through as needed, have to start the third one still. Hope that 2021 will bring some respite from the endless onslaught of liberty killing edicts from the public health nazis, but regardless hope that everyone here can find their freedoms however in whatever ways under our control.

    • DEG

      Merry Christmas!

      I have a several volume unabridged set of “The Gulag Archipelago” in the to-read queue.

      I have mixed feelings about 2021 bringing respite from the public health Nazis.

      I see some good signs, like the article, I think P Brooks linked, about the incoming Montana governor wanting end the state mask mandate. I think the Idaho legislature’s composition hasn’t changed, and in the last term they tried ending the state of emergency there. The attempt failed because they did it in a special session, where they are constitutionally limited to an agenda the governor sets. The agenda did not include the state of emergency.

      I think the Newsom Recall (yes, I’m pimping the website again) will result in a recall election, but I’m not sure if Newsom will actually be recalled. I’ll defer to the Californians on that. California recalled Davis, so they should recall Newsom, but who knows?

      Here in NH, according to legislators I know, Sununu is furious the state House is pushing back against him. Behind the scenes he is fighting back. According to the legislators I know, he is having some success. It’s not looking good here in NH, though I will continue to do what I can to push against the governor.

      I think PA will get ugly. I doubt there will be any relief from the courts. The legislators don’t have the votes to override Wolf. Wolf isn’t going to back down.

      • KSuellington

        I also don’t think anything is for sure, I liked seeing that news from Montana (a state that would be on my list of places to move to) but at this point I don’t see the backlash from the public that I would have expected after almost a year of this shite.

        In California if there are enough signatures then an election happens within 180 days (if outside the normal cycle). There will be two questions , the first is a yes/no, should Greaseball be recalled. If no wins Greaseball continues in the Sacramento mansion. If yes, then it’s a choice of one of the candidates that gets on the ballot. I still think it’s a long shot, but hope springs eternal. The Davis recall was also a long shot, until Issa put his money behind it. The state GOP has, as expected, been pretty much a non presence in this thing, which sucks.

      • Ted S.

        On the other hand, if the GOP were a presence in it, the media and political class would be using that to prop up Newsom.

      • DEG

        It’s all in one election? I thought there were two. That makes things easier.

      • Chafed

        It’s too early to tell about Newsom but the signature gathering is making good progress. It’s a bad sign for him. This is pure conjecture but many small businesses are getting slaughtered. Many people who happily vote Democrat are noticing how screwed up things are. I think it’s possible he gets recalled.

      • Hyperion

        He doesn’t care. He can have elections rigged too and he’s now going to get a trillion dollar bailout from the feds to combat climate change and other important stuff to the elites. You peasants just shut up and get on the boxcars, there’s a nice gulag luxury hotel waiting for you.

      • DEG

        When I was holding signs at the polling place for Reopen NH endorsed candidates, I was talking with a woman doing the same thing. She was from California. She mentioned many of her friends back there who had been apathetic about politics got woken up by the lockdowns and by being screwed over by AB 5.

      • Chafed

        That’s exactly the idea. Plenty of apolitical people didn’t realize they would be affected by much of this. The realization they are getting screwed is changing their outlook.

      • The Last American Hero

        I would that it were so, but going from 1% to 2% of the population means jack and shit for liberty.

  19. Rebel Scum

    I’m reading signals of the universe because right after I gave the gf a white Christmas we got some flurries.

    Also, I recently ordered some more history-related books to add to my ever-growing collection of books I’ve yet to read. I swear I will start chipping away at them someday.

  20. zwak

    The Cold Six Thousand, by Ellroy.

    My god, he doesn’t give you an easy, comfortable character to hide in.

    • zwak

      OK, gift books. A beautiful copy of Kiplings Mulvaney Stories, 1897. Just a beautiful title page, covers are nice and lightly embossed. Wonderful. Also, a book on the iron and brass home implements from before the modern era. Interesting to see how things like fire dogs evolved before the electrical era.

  21. dbleagle

    No gift books but recently finished “We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State” by Kai Strittmatter. Recently published study of the CCP’s efforts to totally intrude and force domination of every Chinese person, both domestically and recent emigrants. It examines the whats and hows of the CCP got here, including their increasingly effective use of AI. The early days of the Wuhan crises are covered but the book went to press before the full extent went on. The scariest parts of the book are how the CCP is the ever growing their use of these techniques outside of their borders, but for the CCP’s benefit.

    “Topsail & Battleaxe: a voyage in the wake of the Vikings” by Tom Cunliffe. An English family (dad, mom and 3 yo) retrace the Norse route from Europe to North America in a 100 year old wodden sailboat. Part sailing story, part history, part travelogue of Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland- I found it all amusing.

    “Come Hell on High Water” by Gregory Jaynes. The author decides to take a low cost round the world voyage on a freighter. The subtitle “A really sullen memoir” describes the experience. The major lesson I learned was do not book passage on a freighter with a Russian cook. Humorous but also a bit too much of Greenwich Village writer attitude.

    A few more titles in the Simon Scarrow SPQR army novel series.

    • hayeksplosives

      Thanks for the tip on Harmonized. Definitely going to pick that one up.

    • DEG

      The author decides to take a low cost round the world voyage on a freighter.

      That sounds a bit like Heinlein’s “Tramp Royale”.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Speaking of China, the Fang Fang episode has changed my thinking about the OPM data breech (and probably undiscovered stuff).

      I had thought it was about getting access to the contents of the background investigations, now I wonder if it was more about just developing leads for their cold calling lists. The part where Fang Fang started working on Swallow back when he was a city councilor of a minor city doesn’t make sense unless there are large numbers of agents, a desire not just to have outright agents or compromised people (although they wouldn’t turn those down!) but just cultivating relationships and outlooks, and a good list prospects with potential (either natural or maybe a little assist like winning elections of increasing importance).

      Speaking of which, if i wasn’t already married, I’d add a security clearance to my LinkedIn page along with some other honey pot stuff.

  22. kinnath

    I am slowly working my way through the Great North Road.

    • Surly Knott

      Ah, one of my favorites. I like it much better than any of Hamilton’s other books that I’ve read.

  23. hayeksplosives

    Just bout to start “The Social Singularity”.

    Will give a full report.

  24. hayeksplosives

    Santa brought Lou Malnati’s deep dish.

    Christmas meal is sorted!

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Ooh, damned good idea.

      • hayeksplosives

        Born from laziness!

        If the economy is heading for a recession/depression, as I suspect it is, ordering Lou Malnati’s pizzas to be shipped across the country with dry ice will be one of the casualties of household budget trimming.

        I wouldn’t complain at all about it if the depression were inevitable. But it’s entirely self-inflicted by our Top Men, so it’s infuriating.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Crap, I’d better get on that.

        And ditto.

      • The Last American Hero

        The last one was self inflicted too.

  25. Trials and Trippelations

    I’ve been enjoying making my way through the Age of… series by Michael Sullivan and the Dresden files

    Anyone know how to find or use the search function for comments. I wanted to look at some comments about comics from a few weeks ago. It was recommendations including Fable etc. i thought I remembered reading that it is possible to search the comments

  26. Urthona

    My nephew gave me an AOC action figure for Christmas as a joke. I just need a Rand Paul one and then I can have epic battles.

    • Chafed

      +1 Rock Em Sock Em Robots

  27. l0b0t

    SP – the Pizza Rock menu looks yummy. Even if their pies are ludicrously undersized, they more than make up for with the fried tomatoes. Apart from the several weeks per year that Creole tomatoes are available, I use heirloom browns for frying purposes; green tomatoes can go to the Devil with their flavorless meat.
    What make the fries Italian?

  28. Chafed

    Back when SNL was funny, they did this in 2001. It’s just as applicable today, especially the tail end.

    https://youtu.be/UihZm6T2T5g

  29. Hyperion

    Last book I read was ‘Radical Son’ by David Horowitz. I highly recommend it for anyone trying to figure out how the USA has wound up on the very verge of communism today. I reckon being able to rig elections at will with no consequence if the last step in our great transformation from liberty to tyranny.

    Lately I’ve been watching documentaries between first and second sleep. Last night I watched one on the bog bodies from Northern Ireland and Denmark. Good stuff.

  30. Hyperion

    Today I am reading the labels on my can of beer. Real brain food.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    “Random” attack?

    A staffer in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan offices was bashed in the head with a cinder block on a Midtown street in a random and terrifying attack on Christmas Eve, police and sources said.

    Lisa Cavanaugh, 51, had just left work and was passing a construction site at Third Avenue near 48th Street at around 2:15 p.m. when a stranger crept up behind her, according to the NYPD and the sources.

    The man hit her in the back of the head with the concrete block before fleeing west on East 48th Street, cops said.

    Cavanaugh was temporarily knocked unconscious by the assault, law enforcement sources said.

    I’m struggling to keep a straight face.

    I would prefer the guy laid Cuomo out, but something something following orders.

    • Chafed

      The important thing is the attacker won’t have to post bail if/when he is caught. Only unenlightened states require cash bail.

      • Tulip

        Be interesting to see if that holds given her position. I bet he gets held.

    • l0b0t

      Lisa Cavanaugh, 51, had just left work and was passing a construction site at Third Avenue near 48th Street at around 2:15 p.m….” “The sources said it’s believed Cavanaugh was heading home from work at the time.

      That’s a pretty short work day for a salaried employee who is paid with money stolen from the commonweal.

      • Dr. Chipping Pioneer

        Check out Ebenezer here.

      • l0b0t

        I’m torn. On the one hand, fewer work hours means reduced opportunity for causing damage. On the other hand, when it comes to state apparatchiks, I lean towards James Cagney ordering Mr. Roberts and his men back to work with a sneering – “See that they work up a sweat!

      • Dr. Chipping Pioneer

        I hear you. I’m not trying to bust your balls.

        I don’t think that nickel-and-diming a half day on Christmas Eve will make a difference,though. I’m more of a “Cut government budgets by 60% as a starting point” kinda guy.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I don’t have a large bathtub. I’d like to Grover Norquist government.

        (Before Norquist revealed himself as the grifting fraud he always was, as are most think tank/talking heads/Youtubers even if they spout stuff I like)

      • Raven Nation

        Meh, most places do a half day on Christmas Eve

      • Tulip

        I give her a pass for Christmas Eve.

    • l0b0t

      Being NYC though, the attacker was likely one of our bog-standard crazy people. Whoever was occupying that point in space and time was gonna catch a cinder-block regardless of their occupation.

      • DEG

        Also note the mask under his chin in the picture at the end of the article.

        Dumbest criminal.

  32. Mojeaux

    Christmas danish made. Oven runs much hotter than it’s supposed to. 35-45 minute cook time and it was done at 30.

    Funeral potatoes also chilling in the fridge for later baking with the ham. Mixing that stuff hurts my shoulder (too much for the stand mixer’s bowl) and so Mr Mojeaux said, “Put that bowl you’re using under the mixing paddle and hold onto it.” Genius. Now I don’t dread making it so much.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Mo, you ever read The I Hate to Cook Book (Peg Bracken)? Funny as hell. Bonus: hilarious Hillary Knight illustrations, if you like Eloise. Have never tried any of the recipes.

      All this pizza ? talk is making me hungry. Why not a pizza Xmas? The colors are right.

      • Mojeaux

        Nope, never read it. I CAN cook and I like my standard dishes, but eating is a chore and food is th enemy.

        I really only cook for XY because he loves my food.

        I am not fond of pizza.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I bet I could murder some of your funeral potatoes.

        I thought I’d bookmarked your recipes but I can’t find them.

        I remember knowing how to cook and to read, once.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Merci buckets.

      • Mojeaux

        Welcome!

    • But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

      Ah, funeral potatoes. The American version of Schwart[z]ie’s Hash Browns. I have murdered many a pan of these delights in my life, and look forward to murdering many more.

      • Mojeaux

        Minor differences, yes. I didn’t know anyone outside Mormondom knew of it.

      • But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

        Ya can’t keep something that yummy a secret for long.

    • Tres Cool

      Cute Tres Sr. story: he retired a number of years before his wife (my stepmom), so he was in charge of making supper each night. He noticed that the oven didnt seem to cook things in the appropriate amount of time. To investigate, went and bought a thermocouple and temperature display (likely NIST-traceable, but certainly calibrated) and spent an entire day running the oven from its lowest setting to w/e he thought was highest, and logging the ▲T at each point for the oven display, and the one he bought. Then using linear regression, he made a chart on graph paper (by hand) with graph displaying the set point and akshual value. After testing over a couple meals and he was satisfied, he took said chart to the UPS store, had it laminated, and it sits in a kitchen drawer next to the oven for handy reference.

      • Mojeaux

        That was a lot of effort.

        OTOH, I’m googling how to recalibrate it.

      • Tulip

        Sugar should melt at 350 (I think, too lazy to verify) so that can be used to calibrate an oven.

  33. Tulip

    I’m reading Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson. A history of how our cooking technology has changed and shaped what and how we cook and eat. I think this is popular history at its best.

  34. Aloysious

    Got my fantasy fix with Stephen Brust: The Baron of Magister Valley.

    Yes, it is a retelling of The Count of Monte Christo, but with magic and stuff.

  35. Dr. Chipping Pioneer

    I CAN’T READ! DO NOT OTHER ME!

    I find I just don’t have the attention span to read anymore. I don’t know whether it’s age or the Internet effect. As a result, I’ve tended toward podcasts and audiobooks lately.

    If I need to look up how to do something for work, many vendors (Microsoft among them) have an X minutes to read in the help article header. If it’s more than 2 minutes, I’m likely skimming to get the answer.

    I got the wife Enlightenment Now for Christmas last year. I’ve started reading it recently. It’s going to be a slog.

  36. But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

    The spousal unit got me this book for Christmas:

    https://www.amazon.ca/Best-Places-Bird-Prairies-Acorn/dp/1771643269/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=best+places+to+bird+in+the+prairies&qid=1608924674&sr=8-1

    I’m not a birder, but many of the places are target-rich environments for photographers, and the better half does like her some pretty birds, so there’s that. Mebbe we can do some in-country traveling this coming year to make up for all the out-of-country stuff that our governments have largely forbidden us from doing . . .

    • l0b0t

      I always loved that Holling Vincoeur, from television’s Northern Exposure, gave up hunting but mounted a camera onto his old rifle-stock as it made taking wildlife photos easier for him.

      • But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

        It was one of those genius-moment mods that you actually see sometimes in the field. Lots of creative people out there.

  37. westernsloper

    Man, I want to try this.

    • Tulip

      Just don’t substitute rocky mountain oysters

  38. hayeksplosives

    The spousal unit bought me Thomas Sowell “A Conflict of Visions”.

    I think he’s been paying more attention to what I read than he used to.

    I’m happy. It’s sunny and 70 degrees here now. I’m outside loving it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      37 and dropping

      Low of 22 tonight

      • hayeksplosives

        Not bad, not bad.

        January was the most bitter in Minnesota. One year we set a new record for number of days with a high below zero in January. No fun.

        February is a tad warmer but very snowy. March teases with occasional sunny times but still snows or sleet-snow-mushes. April was generally the first I’d venture out into the back yard to check on crocus, tulips, and to let the cat out for a few minutes after months inside. May was pretty much the end of winter but could still dump snow if Nature felt like being a bitch.

        Then it’s nice for 5 minutes in June before the mosquitoes come. And July-August are hotter in MN than in SoCal.

        I’m not made of as stern stuff as Jimbo, Tundra, Forescore, and other MN Glibs.

  39. LCDR_Fish

    One of my presents today was my folks asking if I wouldn’t mind taking home 20 or so Tintin and Asterix books now that I’ve got space for them. Works out well and saves me from having to repurchase. Looking forward to revisiting some of the classics.

  40. Mojeaux

    One of these days I wantto put together a Christmas display with overlarge animatronic dolls. Santa, elves, workshop, snow, peppermint north pole, the works.

  41. Gustave Lytton

    Very strange. Reading about the Nashville bombing and there was a recording playing from/near the RV warning people to evacuate prior to the explosion. Location itself is near AT&T’s downtown C.O. (Nashville Main? Dunno what the office name is, not my turf). Seems a more likely target than bars. Doesn’t sound like there was much damage inside but AC power is interrupted and generator(s) is offline so batteries are in discharge.

    • westernsloper

      Disgruntled customer? Weird shit going on there.

    • hayeksplosives

      They went to a lot of trouble to warn people, but then blew up a bomb that still could’ve killed many.

      What an odd angle.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Correction: seems to be widespread outages in both ATT’s wired and wireless networks.