Dead Mann Walking: A Hessius Mann Novel, Petrucha. Yes. Petrucha has created a unique (to my knowledge) first-person narrator in Hessius Mann. I am looking forward to the next installment to see if he can maintain the level of interest, given Tana French’s rationale in giving each of her Dublin Murder Squad books a different protagonist: it’s hard to justify life-changing events happening to the same person over and over. Some aspects of DMW resonate with another recent work I also enjoyed; I think it rather validates Petrucha’s vision that a different group of talented writers went in a similar direction given a related premise. The only passage that pulled me out of the narrative was the improper (and strained) use of “to coin a phrase.”
Reaper Man Review
Reaper Man: A Novel of Discworld®, Pratchett. Yes. Again, Pratchett provides reliable entertainment. This one introduces a particularly entertaining minor character, and Death can always be relied upon to add that certain something.
The universal translator merely burbles quietly
My favorite animal chronicler, Sy Montgomery, has written a great article on the octopus and the bewildering nature of octopus intelligence.
Read the article and imagine yourself in the distant future, aboard a galactic ship crewed by beings from across the universe. You’ve got a new roomie, one from your home planet. Oh, boy! Another human, after years of being the only one onboard! Nope. It’s an octopus. She eyes you from the comfort of a brown beer bottle as you nervously search for a copy of the Octopus Enrichment Handbook in the All-Earthican Digital Library.
Antique radiation
After the excitement over the Fukushima nuclear plant, people in Japan are (understandably) a little jumpy about radiation. This seems to have led to the discovery of a bunch of antique radiation sources. A recent radiological survey of the Puget Sound area was done to establish what the normal baseline radiation level is (because the similar surveys in Fukushima had not had a pre-reactor-problem level to compare to). They were expecting to find a lot of non-disaster related radiation, and I wonder if they found any old bottles of radium, too?
November Reading
The Delightful Brad MacNeil
As mentioned in Stop Podcasting Yourself, the delightful Brad MacNeil performs at Senators games in exchange for tickets. Here are a few I found at the Sens YouTube account:
“Stronger”
“Friday”
Goliath Review
I’m willing to believe there are 99, and it’s definitely photography; I’ll give them that
It has, again, been a while since we’ve had any good FP examples here, so I was initially thrilled to see this link to 99 self-declared “Excellent Examples of Forced Perspective Photography.” When I followed the link, though, I was disappointed to find that while several of the photographs are excellent, very few of them use FP very well, if at all.
Tears of Autumn Review
The Tears of Autumn, McCarry. Yes. I’m tempted to believe that every aspect of the theory presented in this 1974 political thriller is true, it hangs together so nicely. The writing is also very good.
The Lighter Side… of Horrible Flooding
Some thoughts on the (astounding, as always) collection of pictures from Alan Taylor’s photo feature on the flooding in Thailand.
#2: Important! Does the “hang loose” gesture mean the same thing in Thailand?
#4: I’d like to imagine this as a sitcom about two slackers who live in a perpetually flooded apartment.
#7: I was relieved to see that these were flooded hedges rather than rapid algae growth on local boaters.
#15: The yellow flags looked similar enough to the symbol on a shirt I got at Goodwill that I was able to track down its meaning: the Personal Flag of H.M. King King Bhumipol Adulyadej (Rama IX) in honor of the 60th anniversary of his accession to the throne. Neat!
#26: This guy will jokingly propose this picture for the family’s holiday update letter. His wife will merely scowl.
#33: Not only napping during a flood, but doing it on a bus stop anti-nap bench. He may win the nap championships.
#41: Best dad ever!