Lynn Sislo is concerned because her daily traffic has plummeted. I suspect it’s because her old URL just went inactive, and that I think she still has her old SiteMeter active instead of a SiteMeter that’s keyed to her existing URL, but still, if you’re not reading Lynn, you should be. She’s what blogging is all about: tons of good linkage representing a wide range of interests and curiosity, and occasional political commentary that doesn’t leave spittle all over the monitor. I kind of think of her as a more thoughtful InstaPundit, so if you haven’t been over there, go now.
Boldly going where I went a couple of years ago!
Drew appears to be doing a series of reviews of the Star Trek movies, starting here with ST:TMP and continuing here with The Wrath of Khan. (Drew went to the effort of doing a grab on TWoK‘s most infamous example of Shatnerian overacting, which makes me feel slightly churlish in pointing this out.)
For another take on this stuff, check out my “Star Trek Redux” series, which is linked under “Notable Dispatches” in the sidebar.
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Books — I like ’em
John did this, and John continued it (not the same John, obviously), so here’s my take on a fairly easy meme-thingie: fifteen random things about me and books. Some of this will be repeat info for longtime readers, but hey, longtime family members often tell each other the same stories over and over again, right? There’s a reason for that.
1. I constantly smell the ink of my books. My favorite book aroma is that of mass market paperbacks that were printed in the 1970s and before. If you own any of these, you’ll know the aroma I mean.
2. Whenever I’m at the bookstore, I’ll invariably pick up and momentarily thumb through copies of books I already own. And I’ll do this knowingly.
3. For a very few books that have impacted me greatly, I’ll strongly associate that book’s typeface with that book. This happens very rarely, but I can’t encounter the font that the original hardcover of Cosmos was set in without thinking of that book.
4. I don’t remember what I encountered first: Star Wars or this book, but I encountered both within months of each other. Taken together, this was a mortal wound from which I’ve not recovered. Nor do I wish to.
5. When I was a kid, if I misbehaved to the extent that I deserved to have my TV priveleges revoked, my mother — who knows a great deal about childrens’ lit — would always hand me whatever book she “just happened” to have handy, with the orders that I couldn’t watch any TV until I read said book. More often than not, this was the first book in a series. In this way she introduced me to John Bellairs and Lloyd Alexander. (The only “dud” she ever made me read in this fashion was this, which she hadn’t read either at the time of my punishment. I told her I hated it, and when she read it afterwards, she hated it too.)
6. One of my plans for reading in 2006 involves The Wife’s collection of romance novels.
7. I find those “rich people’s bookshelves”, where every book is a single volume in a set so that the shelves are very neat and methodical and homogenous, very creepy. Give me a haphazard set of shelves with books double-stacked and with books lying on their side any day.
8. I’ve always liked reading about UFOs and the paranormal (even though I know that it’s all total BS). I have a small collection of “conspiracy” oriented books whose contents range from delightfully loopy to downright creepy (two of these books actually have disclaimers warning readers not to believe readers if their authors are reported to have committed suicide or have been killed in “one-car accidents”).
9. I love poetry collections, but I don’t buy many of them since I don’t like to own too many copies of the same poem. My favorites poetry collections are this one (and I love this one so damn much that I’d almost say that if you’re going to own just one poetry collection, make this the one), this one (which I also own in an earlier edition from 1920 or thereabouts, which makes for significant difference in the contents), and this one (which I’ve owned since college). I also treasure my collection of selected poems by Tennyson, as well as my Library of America editions of the complete poetry of Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe. (Update: I’m also saving pennies for this one, which I’ve borrowed from the library six or seven times now.)
10. When I was studying music in high school and college, I amassed a small collection of full orchestral scores, including a number of Wagner operas, many of Berlioz’s works, a few Beethoven symphonies, and the like. These scores are all stashed somewhere at my parents’ house. Someday I need to get them, but first I need to conspire a way to acquire more space for bookshelves such that The Wife will not kill me.
11. I don’t re-read favorite books in their entirety all that often, but I do “dip” into favorite books very regularly. I’ve read LOTR in its entirety five or six times (the most recent being during Little Quinn’s initial hospitalization), Cosmos and Pale Blue Dot four times, GGK’s Fionavar Tapestry three times (and I’m due to go through it again).
12. On the top shelf of the bookcase closest to my desk are my copies of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (of which I own two copies in hardcover), my Rand-McNally Atlas of the World, all of my copies of Guy Gavriel Kay’s novels, and one of my two Complete Works of Shakespeare.
13. I’ve posted on my feelings about libraries before, so I’ll just give the short version: I just don’t get people who refuse to use libraries because they’d rather own every book they read, and I’m nearly hostile to people who believe that libraries are a now-obsolete luxury. And I’m an absolute whore for book-buying, and I have the pictures to prove it.
14. I love to read cookbooks, and the more color pictures of the food and food-commentary to go along with the recipes, the better. (In fact, I don’t much like cookbooks that are nothing more than recipes without comment at all.)
15. It’s been years since I was in a really good used book store. (Shout out to Buffalo readers: where’s the best used bookstore around here?) I utterly adore, however, my local library’s quadrennial used book sale. I’ve bought some real treasures there, including old editions of books that I’ve auctioned on eBay.
And, a bonus item, since the movie’s out now: While I loved The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe when I read it as a kid, I bounced off Prince Caspian four or five times, and to this day I have never finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I did recently buy a single volume TPB of the series, though.
OK, one more, since now I can’t shut up: I have a bad habit of not taking books with me to places where I end up wishing for all the world that I had a book with me to stave off the boredom. The Wife likes to make fun of me in such situations: “Bet you wish you had a book.”
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“Maybe they’ll never go to the store two doors down….”
The other night I went out to do some Christmas shopping, and I stopped in at Media Play to hopefully take advantage of their liquidation sales. All the DVDs were twenty percent off the lowest ticketed price. I picked a couple of items (TV series box sets), along with a couple of books from the remainder table that I thought might interest The Wife, and headed for the checkout. Alas, in their closing madness, Media Play has stopped accepting checks as payment, which kind of annoyed me. I had to put back the DVDs and pay cash for the books, and then I headed to Circuit City to look for the same DVD sets, since I know Circuit City isn’t going out of business, and still takes checks.
And wouldn’t you know it: both items I’d selected at Media Play were cheaper at Circuit City, even factoring in the liquidation markdown.
And yet, when the news stories on Media Play ran in the paper last weekend, the company spokesperson said something about the chain not being able to “find their niche”. Well, I think they did find their niche; they merely chose a bad niche. I’m no MBA or anything, but even I know that “Being at least twenty-five percent more expensive than the guy a quarter mile down the road for the exact same thing” isn’t a market niche that’s going to lead to long-term business health.
Oh well. I still miss the Media Play that once was — lots of books, music, and movies for decent prices — but I won’t miss the Media Play that is (still a lot of movies, some books, and not much music at all for high prices).
(In a story that ran yesterday or the day before, some realtor was noting that the various Media Play locations shouldn’t stay vacant for too long, since they’re in good retail locations. I’d hope so — after all, those Media Plays all managed to stay open for upwards of ten years or more — but I hope this doesn’t mean more friggin’ dollar stores. Do other cities out there have dollar stores everywhere, like we do here? You can’t throw a rock in Buffalo without hitting a dollar store.)
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Evil. Pure evil.
That is the only thing that can be said of the demented soul who created this. I mean, Oh. My. GOD.
(I’m writing this post on Tuesday, 12-13, but I’m changing the date so it’s not sitting all by itself. Hence its grouping with the 12-12 posts.)
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Huh?!
Sentential Links #28
Hoo-ray! More sentential goodness. Bask in it, I tell you! BASK!
:: Niagara Falls’ casino was located in the old, leaky Convention Center. It’s the place to go to see septuagenarians smoke cigarettes in a public indoor setting. If you miss walking out of a place stinking like a carton of Lucky’s, this is your go-to place. If you can’t get enough of tan Buicks making right turns at 2 mph, get thyself to the Falls. (I’ve tried to hold my nose and accept the idea of casinos, but I just can’t do it. I hate the idea. Hate it. I hate the idea of seizing private property to turn it over to an Indian Nation to run it, forever taking it off the tax rolls. I hate the fact that not only does the state get a pittance from the casino profits, the average Indians themselves don’t much benefit. I hate the packaging of the casinos as a tourist attraction, when there’s gambling just about everywhere nowadays. I hate that the state is gung-ho about shit like this but doesn’t seem to notice that our state’s business climate is about as inviting as a speakeasy to which one doesn’t know the password. I hate this casino crap.)
:: We are eager to welcome such a musician and person to our faculty. (Snarfle!)
:: At the end of 1958, he’s still not drawn quite like the iconic Snoopy of today, but he’s getting closer. (I gotta read these!)
:: Tonight was one of the best nights out I have had in a long, long time. (Now I have two big-time U2 fans on my blogroll.)
:: There is a Buffalo story behind the “Biggest Rock Band In The World” and it was referenced a few times last night from the stage by Bono, the following is what I know: (Yeah, click to read the rest. It’s fascinating. Once again, the world owes Buffalo a debt of gratitude and doesn’t know it. Buffalo’s the Fox Mulder of cities, I swear….)
:: Over the past two days I made 6 batches of peanut brittle from five different recipes. (And she gives all five recipes, with results — one recipe resulted in some well-fed crows, and probably not in the way that George R.R. Martin had in mind. [Geek humor there.] Go look!)
:: One thing you have to give Chris Wallace. He is a supremely objective journalist who never lets any of his political views or ideological leanings be known. (I just found this blog last week, and I think it’s brilliant. I particularly recommend this post, as well as this one, for those who scoff at comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam. Maybe the answer to the question of why the MSM won’t report how wonderful things are over there is because, well, maybe they aren’t. Just a thought.)
:: I’ve heard a version of “Frosty the Snowman” that sounds as if it was recorded in the 1990s as a collaborative project between Portishead and Underworld, cold chilly techno complete with jaded female vocals. What did we do to deserve this? (OK, that’s the entire post. But it’s a good question: what did we do to deserve that?)
:: There are many classic authors that I am not yet a good enough reader to appreciate, but humility tells me that the flaw is in my understanding, not in the author’s work. Not that any author’s work achieves god-like perfection, but if millions have learned something from a given piece of literature and I receive nothing, perhaps I need to work a little harder. (I bookmarked this a while back and forgot about it. So here it is.)
:: This is what we adults do, isn’t it? Defer our dreams. Dismiss our dreams. Deny our dreams. Dash our dreams. (Not anymore, dammit. Let that be my son’s legacy.)
Enough for now. Enjoy.
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Sufferin’ Suckitude!
Yeesh. No sooner do I get done dissing Tom Brady over on Sean’s blog than do the Buffalo Bills run right out and make the guy look like the second coming of Johnny Unitas and Roger Staubach and just about everybody else who ever played quarterback well. Ach, the Fates are strange mistresses indeed.
Anyhow, there’s absolutely no sugar-coating this defeat. The Bills simply did not show up, and they failed to show up before a sold-out, hometown crowd and with the defending Super Bowl Champions in town. They rolled over and cried, “Don’t hurt me”, which is, in my mind, about as unforgiveable a football sin as anything Terrell Owens has ever done. Dammit, you make an effort when the Stupid Patriots are in town. Getting beat is no shame. Conceding defeat before you’ve even taken the field is.
I’m not going to bother noting all the ways in which the Bills managed to suck in this game, aside from noting that J.P. Losman was absolutely dismal; his offensive line is getting worse; Willis McGahee is somehow looking more and more like Travis Henry than Thurman Thomas; and the defense is an overrated bunch of poorly covering, bad tackling, and blitz-happy has-been’s. This franchise is a total mess.
Which brings me to Tom Donahoe and the coaching staff.
Since my original prediction of a 6-10 season would now require that the Bills win two of their last three, with two of those games being against current division leaders (home against Denver, on the road against Cincinnati), I suspect that 5-11 is more likely, with even 4-12 being possible. (They’re 4-9 right now.) Some factoids, then, about the Bills under the stewardship of Tom Donahoe:
:: The Bills have already clinched their fourth non-winning season, and their third outright losing season, under Tom Donahoe. (They broke even at 8-8 in 2002.)
:: With one more loss — and that’s almost certain to happen — the Bills will post ten or more losses for the third time in Donahoe’s tenure.
:: This is a team that has had offensive line troubles pretty much consistently ever since the end of the Super Bowl run back in 1993. The line is disastrously bad now, however, which led me to so a little digging. In supervising five college drafts for the Buffalo Bills, Tom Donahoe has picked 42 players. Only six of those were offensive linemen, and only one of those — Mike Williams, who is this close to being labeled the Bills’ worst draft bust of all time — is still with the team.
:: In yesterday’s game, with Mike Williams out of play, the Bills did not start a single offensive lineman who’d been drafted by the Bills.
:: Under Donahoe, Bills quarterbacks have posted a passer rating of 76.2.
:: Under Donahoe, the Bills defenses have yielded an average of 314 yards per game.
Some of that is average, and some of it is quite simply poor. Now, a bit of that might be unfair, since Donahoe inherited a team in salary cap trouble, which made 2001’s 3-13 record unavoidable to a certain degree. But four years later, the team is again an overpaid and underachieving mess. Just look at the debacle surrounding the suspension last week of receiver Eric Moulds, and the way the Bills played it. When the T.O. thing erupted in Philadelphia, Andy Reid and the Eagles were clear: he was suspended, and that was that. However, with Moulds we had numerous meetings with the coach, and Mike Mularkey insisting that he hadn’t suspended Moulds until the team owner came in and did the dirty work, and the general manager was nowhere in sight (well, he was in sight, going on the radio to call Bills fans “jerks”).
It’s not the fact that the team sucks that bothers me as a Bills fan. I can handle sucking now, as long as I can believe that the sucking is leading somewhere. But it’s the franchise that sucks, which means that if the current leadership sticks around, the sucking is going to continue.
And that, as Messrs. Beavis and Butthead would note, sucks.
Arrggghhhh.
(By the way, I have a sneaking suspicion that if the Bills get rolled this Saturday night in their nationally televised home game against Denver, the scene at Ralph Wilson Stadium might get a tad ugly. Make some popcorn, folks — we might have ourselves a show.)
(Oh, and a brief side rant here: I know that the Bills were busy doing their best Arizona Cardinals impersonation, but watching this game on TV was painful, with Randy Cross going out of his way to anoint Tom Brady and the rest of the StuPats’ heads with oil. It seemed as if every flag that was thrown against the StuPats was questionable, and every positive play was the result of staggering genius by the StuPats, and so on. Frankly, the ability to beat up on the Bills doesn’t make Brady look like Joe Montana — not when some guy named Sage did the same thing last week.)
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Water in, water out!
It’s been a while since I touted them, so here’s a MeFi thread about Neti pots. If you have any kind of sinus troubles, I heartily recommend using one of these gizmos. It took me a few days to get the “head angle” right so as to have the water nicely flow in one nostril and out the other, but once I did, it worked great. I still get the occasional cold, but the relief of literally washing all of the excess mucous and crud out of my nose — as opposed to constantly blowing my nose, and not that effectively, either — was heaven-sent, and it might have even helped to cut down on the colds’ durations somewhat. Anyhow, I like the Neti pot.
(And since the subject comes up in the MeFi thread, I feel I should note that I have absolutely no experience with these. Just in case anyone was going to ask.)
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Sunday Burst of Weirdness
Now this guy has a marketable skill. Well, it’s more marketable than anything I got, but still…the boy’s got game.
(via Tristram Shandy)