Category Archives: Library

Harry Potter snickup

Posted on July 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Harry Potter snickup

The postman did it. Delivered the book early to a Chicago family, then tried to get it back. One member of the family had already read it, but isn’t revealing the details. Me? I think Snape will be the only major character to die–besides Voldemort. Snape will die protecting Harry, and be revealed as a good guy, afterall. Dumbledore will make some sort of Gandalfian resurrection. Don’t forget. You read it here first.

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Democrats campaign for disgrace

Posted on July 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Democrats campaign for disgrace

Military historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson, whose fascinating "Ripples of Battle," I’m reading of late, sums up the history-making the Dems in Congress, and their MSM buds, seem hellbent to accomplish:

"Leaving Iraq with the enemy in control of the battle space would be the first time in our nation’s history that a US military army group had abandoned an entire battlefield (a Somalia or Beirut were withdrawals of only a few hundred troops)…To do what the New York Times suggests—skedaddle from Iraq now—would destroy the reputation of the US military for a generation."

Not that they would care, apparently. What would they do, I wonder, after Syria takes over Lebanon, and Iran gets the bomb and buys the missiles to deliver it? Send Nancy and Harry over to chat? 

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Posted in Library, The War

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Those timely hallows

Posted on July 13, 2007 | Comments Off on Those timely hallows

Mr. Boy is one of the lucky millions who Amazon is going to try and ship a pre-ordered copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," on a Saturday, the day of release. It’ll be interesting to see if it arrives.

"You don’t have to do a thing — just sit back and wait for the book to arrive on the day of release, July 21, 2007, guaranteed!*"

It’s the asterisk that usually gets you. But this one isn’t painful:

"…in the unlikely event that you don’t receive it on Saturday, July 21, we’ll refund the cost of the book."

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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy

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The Birth of Venus

Posted on July 6, 2007 | Comments Off on The Birth of Venus

Mr. Boy’s mom was a trifle embarrassed when I noticed she had gotten this romance novel from the library. Then I watched her zip through it in a fast, fascinated read. After the 4-page prologue I also was hooked. It’s got the formula sexual tension of a romancer, but a lot more besides, and it moves fast. A twisty tale of God-obsessed Italy in the late 1400s. Very modern, i.e. secular, in many ways. Sometimes too modern as when author Sarah Dunant has her characters saying things like "Whoa!" But I saw that one only once, and it was the worst, so I was only jarred out of my suspended disbelief that once. What a story. I was so involved, I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it, and I think of it yet. I wanted it to end some other way than the way it did. But it was not a typical romance. It was a tragedy and so had to end tragically.

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Imperial Grunts

Posted on July 2, 2007 | Comments Off on Imperial Grunts

Behind the times, obviously, as I just finished "Imperial Grunts," by Robert D. Kaplan, a really adept look at the GWOT. Not only in Afghanistan and Iraq (up to the 2004 cease fire in Fallujah) but with the Army and Marine advisers in the Phillipines, Mongolia, Columbia, and the Horn of Africa. I expected to discover that most of them, in those seldom reported places, were Army Special Forces, and that’s generally true. But not all. In the Horn, for instance, it’s one platoon of Marines from Camp Pendleton. Yes, one.

The gist of the book is that the trigger-pullers of our military are "spread thin" in more places than Iraq and Afghan. But it’s not a conscript’s war. Too complicated for mere cannon fodder. Lots of presence patrols and digging wells and building schools. Only when the intel from all the good works starts to flow in do they saddle up and go kill some bad guys–or, depending on the Rules of Enggagement, help the indigenous folks do it. Three years old as it is, it’s worth a close read. You’ll learn a lot.

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Goblet of No-install

Posted on June 26, 2007 | Comments Off on Goblet of No-install

Mr. Boy has had a lot of fun playing the Harry Potter PC games by EA Games. But we finally hit a big snag. We can’t load/install the fourth game, Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire. Tried several times, but no go. It hangs on the second disk. Thought registering might help. It didn’t. New install programs always tell you to shut down all programs running in the background, but that would take some time, even to find all the little housekeeping stuff Windows XP has going and turn it off. Wasn’t necessary with the first three games. I suppose that’s the next, logical step, however. You’d think… Well, maybe not.

UPDATE  Finally, on July 9, we got it to install, by following EA Games’ advice to pull all the files off the disks and double-click autorun.exe. It worked! Now all that needs overcoming is the commnands, which are different from the other three Potter games. Why do you imagine? 

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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy

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Fiction

Posted on June 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Fiction

Just for once I’d like to find some happy fiction. That occurred to me after I began "No Country for Old Men," Cormac McCarthy’s violent story about drug running down around Sanderson, just east of the big bend country of West Texas. Knowing the area, I’m captivated by the story, and will set aside the other two books I was reading, "Imperial Grunts," a look at the far-flung action of the GWOT–in addition to Afghanistan and Iraq–by John D. Kaplan, and "Carnage and Culture," military history by Victor Davis Hanson. I’ll go back to them when I finish NCfOM. It’s got echoes of "Blood Meridian," probably the most violent story I ever read. I’m not talking about "Mary Poppins" but a happy tale now and then would be welcome. Got any recommendations?

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