A gem of wisdom from Hijinks Ensue, the webcomic/blog I like not just because it has three dots in a row in the first word:
“Is it just me, or have you all enjoyed this break from TV? I started to realize how little I actually enjoyed some of the shows I was watching (Prison Break), and have been able to let them go. I feel like a contrived, poorly planned, monotonous burden has been lifted from my shoulders.”
Looking at a list of branches of the Berkeley Public Library, I noticed the Tool Lending Library. I expected it to be a book library on Tool St. or something, but NO! They lend out tools. If I could get an electric snake from my library, I totally would.
The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt, Ray. Non-fiction. This was a book club recommendation, and it was extremely informative. Pathetic fallacy (the stone having a sense of humor, the stone having made up its mind to be deciphered by a Frenchman) distracts badly when it appears. Fortunately, it does not appear all that frequently. The work naturally goes into far more detail than the corresponding section of The Codebreakers, and gives a substantially different view of the early work of the two folks who were key in arriving at a translation.
There is a section in which the author offers some awfully tortured rationalizations why keeping artifacts away from their countries of origin is okay (“where would it end?” “who’s to say where its home really is?” like that), and while I’m not passionate about returning the marbles or the stone to where they were fashioned, that’s mostly because I’m likely to get to London before Athens or Egypt, and I can’t pretend I have any justification for my selfish preference.
If you want to be a beta-tester for Cook’s Illustrated recipes, sign up for their recipe tester program.
via Serious Eats.
A short film of age: 1 to 100, plus a drum. It’s really sweet, and actually makes aging look quite nice.
Lifehacker publishes tips on how to get our of voicemail hell (and phone menu hell) by pressing keys that will get you a human operator. I merely add the request that you make sure that you don’t already have the human operator you crave, since pressing buttons in her ear isn’t the way to super-friendly service. Just saying. Though it is interesting to see how many times you have to yell “Hello? Yes???” until they knock it off.
A wee proto-dalek.
A giant plastic bust of Lenin was found in Antarctica. Which reminds me that I must see if I can find out more about the Lenin medallions on the moon.
Later: Correction! Only some of them had Lenin on. They seem to be called “pennants” since they have a trailing ribbony thing, but they look a lot like explodey metal soccer balls. And having just seen two strange re-cuttings of a USSR SF film about landing on Venus, I am less surprised to see that the pennants made it to Venus, too.
Here are my five-star reads from 2007: You can see some of my reading jags in here, with lots of communism and Warren Ellis. Not a lot of super-great teen reading, though.
The Cold War: a new history by John Lewis Gaddis
1984, Orwell
Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million, Martin Amis
The secret world of American communism, Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov
Nextwave, agents of H.A.T.E. Vol. 1, This is what they want, Warren Ellis
Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis
Fell. Volume 1, Feral city, written by Warren Ellis, illustrated by Ben Templesmith
The campfire collection: thrilling, chilling tales of alien encounters, edited by Gina Hyams
Teen reading
Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie ; art by Ellen Forney
The wall: growing up behind the Iron Curtain / Peter Sís (Y)
Again Sís does a fantastic job combining a great story with great illustrations. I really liked it. Five stars.
Horseradish : bitter truths you can’t avoid / Lemony Snicket (Y)
I got a recommendation from a pal, but was let down by the fact that, while amusing, it seems like a Jack Handey retread. Two stars.
Monkey portraits / photographs by Jill Greenberg (Y)
Fun to make your face recognition fight to interpret monkey faces. Great portraits. Four stars.
I’d tell you I love you, but then I’d have to kill you / Ally Carter (Y)
At first thought it was just a (well paced) teen spy school book, but developed much more as the book went on. Well done. Three stars.