Category Archives: Library

The original game of golf

Posted on February 12, 2011 | Comments Off on The original game of golf

Golf:

” In the original game of golf, the clubs were used against the other players. It was only when the game spread beyond the borders of Scotland that the current refinements were introduced.”


Via Dr. Boli’s Encyclopedia of Misinformation.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Scribbles

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Egypt, Israel and a Strategic Reconsideration

Posted on February 10, 2011 | Comments Off on Egypt, Israel and a Strategic Reconsideration

Stratfor’s George Friedman says in an interesting analysis that whatever the apparent democratic tenor of the ongoing Egyptian uprising, it is being fueled by the Egyptian military’s young officer class which wants Mubarak and his aging officer cronies retired.

So far, GF adds, the Middle Eastern trend to Islamism isn’t dominant in Cairo, but if the Israelis don’t find a way to make peace with the Palestinians, that could well change. There is some heart to be taken in the fact that Egypt’s military (like Israel’s) now depends on American resupply, which will help control the war-making of both. But, then, Israel only has to lose once to be annihilated.

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Posted in Israel, Library, Scribbles, The War

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Nate Hawthorne, failed humorist

Posted on February 5, 2011 | Comments Off on Nate Hawthorne, failed humorist

Nathaniel_Hawthorne_by_Whipple_c1848

“Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Hawthorne intended The Scarlet Letter to be a work of humor, and was bitterly disappointed when no one seemed to get the joke.

“In a letter to his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, he wrote that he would have to make the comedy much broader in his next novel, The House of the Seven Gables.”

Via Dr. Boli’s encyclopedia of misinformation.

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Anat Cohen: Rule 5

Posted on February 2, 2011 | Comments Off on Anat Cohen: Rule 5

AnatCohen

She’s also a cool musician.

Indeed, she’s the Queen of the Jazz clarinet.

With an insightful interview here.

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Posted in Israel, Library, Music

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Fool’s War

Posted on February 1, 2011 | Comments Off on Fool’s War

This is a wonderful hard science fiction story, marred only by occasional repetition (characters show tension so often by running their hands through their hair that I finally decided they all needed a change of shampoo) and, in the Kindle edition, at least, enough typos, misspellings, and grammar mistakes to make an honest proofreader turn to drink.

Seriously, folks, the $6.99 price is just right, the story very surprising and well done, but the publisher (Little, Brown and Company) should be ashamed for this many text errors in one file. I suppose they consider the ebook a throwaway, which is remarkably shortsighted, even for a mainstream book publisher stupidly wedded to paper in the face of rising ebook sales. It’s also a pity because  author Sarah Zettel deserves praise and respect for her intriguing tale of machine intelligence run amok.

But no reader deserves to have to wade through so many mistakes in a text, particularly in the last half of the story. I was constantly trying to decide which word or tense was intended. Even the characters’ names are repeatedly misspelled. Not even a homicidal AI would be so cruel!

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space

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Juke

Posted on January 30, 2011 | Comments Off on Juke

GG_web_Murphy_main_1They say the juke joint was a black Mississippi invention. Howsomever that may be, Poor Monkey Lounge in Merigold in the Delta seems to fit the bill.

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Posted in Library, Scribbles

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Another “historian” bites the dust

Posted on January 26, 2011 | Comments Off on Another “historian” bites the dust

Add Dr. Thomas Lowry’s name to the pantheon of historian shame that includes plagiarist Stephen Ambrose and Vietnam combat-phony Joseph Ellis. Lowry is accused by the National Archives of admitting that he used a fountain pen to vandalize a document written by President Lincoln.

Lowry, whose forgery went undiscovered for fourteen years and even inspired Washington tour guides to repeat it to unknowing tourists, signed a confession to his vandalism, according to the National Archives which has banned his person from their halls henceforth. He is now denying all in the pages of the WaPo. How convenient.

I bring this up partly because Vietnam combat-phonies like Ellis really anger me. They damaged all of us genuine combat veterans for most of our post-war adult lives by “confessing” to dishonorable things. Tarring us with their liar’s brush. Fortunately for the “profession,” Lowry, is only an independent Civil War historian. His doctorate is medical. He’s a psychiatrist. Go figure that out if you can.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Civil War, Library, Scribbles

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