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Bulletin Board
- Bad blogosphere news. Ken Blanchard’s Jazz Note is shutting down. While Ken and I are probably on opposite sides of the political spectrum, jazz is a beautiful common ground. Good news for Aberdeen area residents, though, as Ken will evidently begin hosting a jazz show on NSU radio. Thanks for the blog, Ken!
Headlines of the Week
Worthy Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
Where’s jazz going? I don’t know. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.
Thelonius Monk
An Arizona attorney is being suspended because, among other things, she told a client the spirit of his deceased wife was “inside” her, allowing her to communicate the wife’s thoughts to him.
A Wisconsin man shot a hole in the floor of his house when he tried to shoot an alien he had seen in a movie. Wonder if it’s related to him telling police “he had been smoking pot since getting up that day”? (via)
I think the headline says it all: Broken Penises and the Law (As an aside, the name of the woman involved seems a tad ironic.)
A Connecticut doctor is suing Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, alleging, among other things, that the insurer refused to pay some of his patients’ bills because “it is possible that the [doctor] is dead.”
Ontario police have identified a suspect in a burglary in which the suspect broke into a rental home and held a garage sale, selling thousands of dollars worth of woodworking machinery and tools. (via)
A West Virginia school district is removing swing sets from its elementary school playgrounds for fear of litigation. (via)
“A Texas power company is not liable for the injuries suffered by a man who hit a power line while riding on top of a moving house.”
A Montana teen was arrested after inadvertently sending his text message seeking to buy pot to the county sheriff. (via)
Saddest item of the week: A homeless Oregon man who sneaked into a hot tub was arrested after calling 911 and saying he needed “a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it.” (via)
The human mind is a delusion generator, not a window to truth.
Scott Adams, God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment
It is true. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
Due to publication dates and other somewhat time sensitive matters, I have three book reviews that are simmering and percolating. Bits and pieces have been written but the summer doldrums combined with the lack of a pressing deadline to push them to the back burner. Meanwhile, a serious stack grows on the nearby bookshelf.
In addition to the three pending reviews, I have four other books I need to read and review by the end of the month. Fortunately (or not) a couple have not arrived yet so it gives me breathing room. That breathing room, though, has been seriously hampered by the library.
First, two books for which I’d been on the hold list for a while were available at the same time. And, of course, the longest one is only a 14-day book. Then, when I was in a lull a couple weeks ago, I made interlibrary loan requests for three books I’ve been wanting to read. (As if they aren’t plenty of books waiting to be read around the house.) As things go, they all showed up the same time as the two library reserve books.
That gives me nine books with deadlines or due dates in the next three and a half weeks. So between the three reviews I need to write and making progress on those nine, I plan on hunkering down over the three-day weekend with my laptop and a pile of books. I know. Sitting on the deck reading is tough — but somebody’s got to do it.
The mere brute pleasure of reading—the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.
G.K. Chesterton, quoted in Dudley Barker, G.K. Chesterton
I actually made pretty good progress on my lust lists the last month. Of the 13 books the last two months, I’ve read eight, am on the library reserve list for two, have one on the TBR shelves at home and gave up on one. Hopefully, I can do as well with this month’s additions:
The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, Sarah Silverman — I’m not generally a fan of celebrity bios or memoirs but when I saw the local library had Sarah Silverman’s book, I figured I’d join the reserve list. Her humor intrigues me enough that I figured it might be worth taking a chance.
Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth, James M. Tabor — I saw the author on The Daily Show shortly after the book came out and so the book has been in the back of my head for a while. As with Silverman’s book, when I saw the library had it I joined the reserve list.
Comedy in a Minor Key and The Death of the Adversary, Hans Keilson — As I’m already reading the latter, it may not be fair to add these to this list. The fact, though, is I didn’t learn about them until early August so they didn’t make last month’s list. Keilson, a German author, wrote both books in the 1940s and the novels explore the rise of rise of Nazism and resistance to it.
Freedom, Jonathan Franzen — I figure this almost has to be on the list given some have already called it the best novel of the century. I often find, though, that rave reviews either create too much expectation in my mind or lead me to wonder what in the world the reviewers were thinking.
Kings of the Earth, Jon Clinch — Favorable reviews, including one I heard this past weekend, pushed this onto my hold list at the library. The novel was inspired by the 1992 documentary Brother’s Keeper, which I enjoyed, so I thought it worth a try. The novel and the doc are based on the death of one of a set of basically illiterate brothers living on a farm.
Report Card:
Year-to-date (January-August)
- Total Bibliolust books: 44
- Number read: 26 (59%)
- Started but did not finish: 4 (9%)
Cumulative (September 2008-August 2010)
- Total Bibliolust books: 130
- Number read: 86 (66%)
- Started but did not finish: 8 (6%)
If I had found the words I was looking for, I would not have read so much.
Mason Cooley, City Aphorisms, Eighth Selection
Worthy Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
These times are famine for the soul while for the senses it’s a feast
Title cut, Jackson Browne, Looking East
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Additionally, some links on this blog go to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you. Contact me You can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom.
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