50 books
kest
something down a couple months ago about books I'd read, but I can't find
it, so I'm probably missing something. For example, I've been on a
fiction kick, and everything below is fiction, but I really think I must
have read at least one nonfiction in there somewhere. Can't remember.
19 and 20) Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce
These were good, although the second one began to annoy me a little with
too much paperwork. There seemed to be a lot of 'and then they had a
meeting' and meetings are just boring. Top notch in a lot of other ways
though.
21) Sabriel, Garth Nix
Also good. Need to get the sequels.
22) A Girl Named Disaster, Nancy Farmer
African girl runs into trouble, leaves home with boat, has adventures.
Good for young adults, but I didn't like it quite as much as some of her
other stuff.
23) Black Juice, Margo Lanagan
This was short stories, mostly a little dark or having to do with the
dark side of human nature, and they were hands down excellent.
24) The Ill-made Mute, Cecilia Dart-Thornton
This was interesting. It was very much in the 'journey through a strange
world with a lot of description' mode, which I'm usually not so fond of
(like 'The Knight' by Gene Wolfe which I read earlier this year and
didn't like much), but I actually found this one readable and the world
interesting.
25) Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
This was excellent.
26) Codename: Baby, Christina Skye
In danger of exhausting my reading materials over Thanksgiving, my mother
loaned me this. It's actually a romance, with more than a few spicy
scenes (my mother loves this kind of thing, and I always feel a bit weird
when she loans them to me), but also has genetically engineered dogs and
people, with government and rogue agents, and a lot of action. Not bad
for holiday reading.
27 and 28) Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons
Putting these together, even though I read the first one before most of
the other books on this list and the second one after. Read these on my
boyfriend's recommendation, and found them quite good. Very well written
science fiction, with both description, character *and* plot. Might even
have been a theme or two in there.
Looks like I didn't make it anywhere near 50 for the year, although I
beat the halfway mark and almost made it to 30. We gonna do this again
in 2007?
k
Lynn
kest wrote:
>
> 19 and 20) Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce
> These were good, although the second one began to annoy me a little with
> too much paperwork. There seemed to be a lot of 'and then they had a
> meeting' and meetings are just boring. Top notch in a lot of other ways
> though.
I took a group of girls from my son's school to hear Tamora Pierce a
couple of years ago. She's a really fun speaker--hear her if you get a
chance.
>
> 22) A Girl Named Disaster, Nancy Farmer
> African girl runs into trouble, leaves home with boat, has adventures.
> Good for young adults, but I didn't like it quite as much as some of her
> other stuff.
Yeah, I agree. Not sure where I stand on _House of the Scorpion_.
> Looks like I didn't make it anywhere near 50 for the year, although I
> beat the halfway mark and almost made it to 30. We gonna do this again
> in 2007?
Not having been here long enough to have kept track, it'd keep me
coming back. I don't think I would have made it, but my husband might
beg to differ--he's always griping about how many books I have. He
even bought me a Sony Reader for Xmas, in the (vain, I'm sure) that
I'll stop buying paper books and just download.
Lynn
Dark Phoenix
"kest" <ke...@spamfree.nettrip.org> wrote in message
news:Xns98AA792BCEBE4...@kest.ninehells.com...
> Looks like I didn't make it anywhere near 50 for the year, although I
> beat the halfway mark and almost made it to 30. We gonna do this again
> in 2007?
I was wondering about that. Even though I said I wasn't embarrassed about
anything I read, I noticed near the end that I was avoiding some of the
really crap things so I wouldn't have to review them. (yes, I know some of
you will feel that I did indeed read a lot of crap, but you have higher
standards than I do) It sort of kept me looking for things that weren't
totally mindless.
--
Laurie Brown, Dark Phoenix, currently reading completely mindless crap, but
I'm sick so it's okay.
dark_p...@netw.com
"Vampires are make believe. Just like Elves, Gremlins, and Eskimoes."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GothicGardeners/
http://www.geocities.com/dark_phoenix54/50booksin2006
Dark Phoenix
Hah! Managed to sneak another one in before the end of the year.
Pretty much the usual Hamilton routine. The first half of the book is all
sex. Then some actual plot for awhile- raising a zombie. Unexpected things
happen; the heroine gets knocked out. She wakes up in the hospital and finds
out that all has been made well. The end.
Now, I have absolutely no problem with sex in stories- far from it- but I do
like to have some plot along with it. The earlier Anita Blake novels had
interesting things, like plot and action. Now the adventure takes the back
seat to the sex and her relationship problems. And I'm tired of the cop out
of having Blake losing consciousness, so that Hamilton doesn't have to
actually write the scenes that get Blake out of the shoot outs.
--
Laurie Brown, Dark Phoenix
Lynn
Dark Phoenix wrote:
> Micah, by Laurell K. Hamilton. Jove Books, 2006.
>
> like to have some plot along with it. The earlier Anita Blake novels had
> interesting things, like plot and action. Now the adventure takes the back
> seat to the sex and her relationship problems. And I'm tired of the cop out
> of having Blake losing consciousness, so that Hamilton doesn't have to
> actually write the scenes that get Blake out of the shoot outs.
I picked up _Mistral's Kiss_ the other day. 212 pages on events that
likely took half a day (and involved about fifteen fuckings). If she
wrote up her last lunch date it'd probably take fifty pages.
Lynn
Troia
Well, if you did fifteen fuckings in half a day, maybe you'd write a
book about it too!
Question is whether it was worth reading about. (?)
-- Troia
Kaos
<snip>
> Looks like I didn't make it anywhere near 50 for the year, although I
> beat the halfway mark and almost made it to 30. We gonna do this again
> in 2007?
I've been bit hard by the otaku bug lately. I don't suppose graphic
novels will count?
Matthew King
: We gonna do this again in 2007?
I'm thinking of following 50 beers with 50 fruits and vegetables.
Matthew
--
Dark Phoenix
"Kaos" <ka...@xplornet.com> wrote in message
news:op.tlh8l...@resurrection.cg.shawcable.net...
They certainly counted in 2006!
kest
> kest (ke...@spamfree.nettrip.org) wrote:
>: We gonna do this again in 2007?
>
> I'm thinking of following 50 beers with 50 fruits and vegetables.
>
I just ate an apple!
k
Dark Phoenix
I made corn fritters!
kest
>
> "kest" <ke...@spamfree.nettrip.org> wrote in message
> news:Xns98ABC8C8F5C5B...@kest.ninehells.com...
>> mak...@yorku.ca (Matthew King) scrawled:
>>
>>> I'm thinking of following 50 beers with 50 fruits and vegetables.
>>>
>>
>> I just ate an apple!
> I made corn fritters!
>
Peas with dinner!
k
Elder
Onions, in a Turkey(Frozen Xmas leftovers) Durban Curry
--
Carl Robson
Audio stream: http://www.bouncing-czechs.com:8000/samtest
Homepage: http://www.bouncing-czechs.com
Now Playing at home:My Chemical Romance-Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big
Enough for the Two of Us
erithromycin
>kest:
>>Looks like I didn't make it anywhere near 50 for the year, although I
>>beat the halfway mark and almost made it to 30. We gonna do this again
>>in 2007?
>I was wondering about that. Even though I said I wasn't embarrassed about
>anything I read, I noticed near the end that I was avoiding some of the
>really crap things so I wouldn't have to review them. (yes, I know some of
>you will feel that I did indeed read a lot of crap, but you have higher
>standards than I do) It sort of kept me looking for things that weren't
>totally mindless.
Och, that's not too bad. The important thing is to be reading. Has anyone
seen lunacia, by the way? We ought to poke her with a tinsel covered New
Year Stick. They are traditional.
--
erith - .sig
erithromycin
>kest wrote:
>:We gonna do this again in 2007?
>I'm thinking of following 50 beers with 50 fruits and vegetables.
That seems almost reasonable. Anyway, here are my final lists, and then (if
people would be so kind to snip) we can talk about next year's lists.
Actually, I'll maybe start another thread.
2006 BOOKS ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
001 Algebraist, The, Iain M Banks.
I'm still unsure what to make of it, to be honest, and it may merit
rereading later into my pile of unread. It sits uneasily as a post-Culture
novel, and while I don't think it spoils anything to wonder about the echoes
of Butlerian Jihad it's filled with, it saddens me somewhat that Banks seems
to have grown bored with the potential afforded to him by the Transhumanism
of the Culture. More humanism than I expected, in fact, after the
revelations contained within.
002* Shah of Shahs* Ryszard Kapuscinski
I like Kapuscinski's stuff, even though I've read only a little of it. His
speciality is fragmentary analysis of politcal downfall in the "third world"
(1945-1989), and SoS is his 27th revolution. His work on the end of Haile
Selassie's regime is similar in tone, not least, I suspect, because of the
ultimate similarities of the ends of Empire.
003 Who?, Algys Budrys
This is an acknowledged classic of the genre defined by Sturgeon as "a human
problem, with a human solution" brought about by science. I had not read it
before, in fact I picked up this copy on impulse from a zShop, I think. It's
excellent, if ultimately tragic. I've always liked Budrys' work, and,
looking back, I'm now somewhat surprised that I hadn't gotten around to this
earlier. My 'to read' pile currently includes a lot of things I've intended
to get around to for a while.
004 Asylum, Patrick McGrath
I became a fan of Patrick McGrath almost by accident. I discovered that
Cronenburg was making a movie called spider, so I bought the book, and loved
it. I hunted down Asylum when it was announced that it too was to become a
film. It's a staggering work. If I wanted to put on my pretentious hat I
would say that it's very similar to Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day in its
sense of melancholy inevitability, and I'll be quite interested to see how
it compares to Harris' Red Dragon which has been recommended to me and now
sits in my now marginally diminished 'to read' pile.
005 Pendragon 5th Edition, Greg Stafford
The roleplaying game of Arthurian adventure, heavily influenced by Mallory.
It's more complex than Prince Valiant, which I love, but it's easier to get
your hands on too. I'm looking forward to playing in a game of this at some
point in the future.
006 US Special Warfare Units in the Pacific Theater, 1941-45, Gordon Rottman
(Osprey Publishing).
I love Osprey because they have a narrow niche that they focus on with
knife-like efficiency. This is for a GODLIKE game that I intend to run at
some point in the future. It's also just really interesting reading if
you're one of those people interested in that sort of thing. Which I am.
007 Talent Operations Command Intelligence Bulletin No. 3: Marine Talent
Operations in the Pacific Theater, Dennis Detwiller
It's quite brief, but full of interesting ideas. The thing I like most about
GODLIKE is that it's an astonishingly brutal WWII game that just happens to
have superpowers in it. Ivey and Detwiller wrote a game where your only
chance to storm an emplaced bunker with machine guns and survive is to be
smart (really smart), lucky (really lucky), or bulletproof. That last one
isn't a guarantee either. Anyway, GODLIKE, in the Pacific. Just because you
can fly doesn't mean you won't get dysentery.
008 Anabasis, The Xenephon trans. Carleton L. Browneson
Ten thousand Greeks march from Greece to Persia to kick someone in, and then
march all the way back home again, kicking folk in along the way. I'm going
to need to investigate all manner of things in the University Library in
relation to this, because in addition to being a gazetteer, propaganda
piece, stirring adventure, autobiography, biography, and tactical
masterclass it also appears to be a condemnation of standing armies: They
keep rebelling, wanting to be fed, destroying things, and condemning their
leaders, and so on. The only way to deal with them seems to be to keep them
at war. Take note leaders of the free world...
009 Lord Valentine's Castle, Robert Silverberg
I reread this, and am rewriting my discussion as the last eight books I
added appear to have disappeared. I am displeased. This book was not as good
as I remembered it, and took too many pages to contain the few things that I
had retained in my memory. I much prefer the Torturer series by Gene Wolfe
(available as a Fantasy or possibly Science Fiction Masterwork in two
volumes in the series of the same name).
010 Stardroppers, The, John Brunner
Brunner has amazing ideas, but this is let down by the fact that it's
ultimately one of those 'subculture prove to have unheralded superpowers'
stories. I was tired of it before I got around to reading Slan, and it's
only the treatment of fads that makes this worthwhile. Still, when Brunner
writes I'm almost always tempted to read it.
011 The NEW Science Fantasy, impulse, ed. Kyril Bonfiglioli, ass. ed. Keith
Roberts
Short story magazine in novel form, monthly published in the past. Have
bought others in similar vein second hand, will continue to do so after
figuring out which ones I actually already own. Would buy similar thing if
came out now. Good Aldiss, reasonable Anderson, Ballard story with no good
idea therefore worthless, good Blish, good Harrison, something by Wilson, a
good Vance, and the first of Roberts' Pavane series, which I had read as a
novel and liked.
012 Lambda I and Other Stories, selected John Carnell
Penguin Anthology. Title story is weak, Hargreaves' "Tee Vee Man" is paean
to the skilled technology worker (in Space), others routine save "Routine
Exercise" by Malcolm - made into a career near enough for authors of Baen.
Moorcock story about a hero through space and time that isn't the Eternal
Champion (yet). Rackham story "The Last Salamander" good, reminded of "High
Tension", perils of power generation, also boredom inherent in waiting for
system failures.
013 Web, John Wyndham
The more Wyndham I read the less there is to look forward to. Nuclear weapon
testing, utopian dreams, post-colonialism, hexes. Excellent.
014 Doomsday 1999, Paul MacTyre
Post-apocalypse novel written by a Scot. Country reduced to labour camps and
a few hunters, watched over by the Emergency Powers and the Chinese. All
order breaking down. Mutant midges terrorise, boy and girl discover latent
powers, fall in love.
015 Ship of Shadows, Fritz Leiber
His SF is like his fantasy - it is all recognisable, but it is unmistakeably
different, and frequently better. Good short stories here, also novella 'The
Big Time' - sits uncomfortable with Haldeman's 'Forever War'.
016 Earth Unaware, Mack Reynolds
I like Reynolds' stuff. It is simple and straightforward and good. Here,
itinerant preacher develops astonishing powers. Civilisation suffers,
responds, is changed. The cover is a total lie.
017 Steam Powered Miniatures Combat, WARMACHINE, Privateer Press [Matt
Wilson et al]
I play Khador, who are every stereotype of Stalinist Russia crossed with
Finnish Nationalism and infamous Transylvanian nobility, earth tearing
warjacks that stand fifteen feet to the shoulder with steel sinews and axes
like safe doors, with magicks and witches arrayed against necromancers and
zealots who ride to war with tethered angels. The background feels right,
and the game is fast and fun. The models are a joy to convert too.
018 V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and David Lloyd with Steve Whitaker and
Siobhan Dodds
I like the graphic novel, but not the film.
019 Damage Land New Scottish Gothic Fiction, edited Alan Bisset
Some of it's quite good, but I already liked Ali Smith and Michael Faber.
There's on story that could be sfinal, but it isn't very good at that
either. All modern gothic too, and as such a little weak in places. Nothing
dates quite like it.
020 Dead Air, Iain Banks
It's good. I'd picked it up and someone told me about the way the main
character deals with a Holocaust Denier. It's clever, but I still haven't
figured out why nobody seems to have noticed that Banks keeps writing
Romances. For certain values of 'boy' and 'girl', anyway.
021 Starsongs and Unicorns, Eric Norden.
It's a short story collection with a barbarian on the cover, but it's the
one about a time travelling Jewish physicist who goes back to kill Hitler
that's mentioned in the blurb. I don't think I've read a story that managed
to be so disturbing by virtue of existing. It's not the why, or the how, but
the ending. I'm shocked that he thought it wise to write it, to be honest.
'The Curse of the Mohndoro Nkabele or The Revenge Of Stanley G. Weinbaum' is
really good, and quite funny too. He appears to enjoy picking on Harlan
Ellison. The Hitler story aside, it's a solid and fun collection, full of
proper little science fiction stories with twist endings. They are among my
favourite kind of things.
022 Planet of the Damned, Harry Harrison
This is one of those stories that could have been written about a lost
island or a hidden tribe before we found all that sort of stuff. Instead,
it's a planet. It's Harry Harrison, and it has a lantern jawed smart guy
kind of a hero. It's one of those Galactic Police Solve A Problem books. I
like 'em, but mainly as bus reading.
023 War Games, Brian Stableford
This is good stuff, and quite timely, in that it focuses on a small conflict
on a backwards desert planet that invokes Themes and Greater Issues. I think
I have read other Stableford, and intend to dig them out. It's just, I look
at my bookcase and I think, how did I read so many books? Then I remember I
am getting older, and having less time to read books. That just makes me ask
it all the harder. I suspect, though, that I did spend less time on the
internet. I probably spend just as much time reading. Well, looking at
pictures anyway.
024 Microcosmic God And Other Stories From Modern Masterpieces of Science
Fiction, Edited Sam Moskowitz
This collection has a Sturgeon, a Simak, a Wyndham, a Van Vogt, a Bradbury,
and a Farmer, and I hadn't read any of them before, which is good, and
they're all excellent, which is even better. It's a gem of a collection, and
I bought it knowing only that the cover was awful. I love it when this
happens, and it's finds like this one that keep me haunting secondhand
bookshops.
025 The Land of a Million Elephants, Asa Baber
It has a nice cover and was "first serialized in Playboy". Kurt Vonnegut
liked it, it says so on the cover. It's okay, in a "book about the Vietnam
War/military mindset that isn't Catch-22" kind of a way. Except it gets all
magical realist at the end, and is quite sad, which saves it. It could maybe
have done with some pictures of naked girls though.
026 Sirius, Olaf Stapledon
The biography of a dog who is as smart as a man. Stapledon writes alien very
well, if I remember correctly, but Sirius is always not just not like man,
but not quite like man, except when he's clearly dog.
027 Sword In The Stone, The, TH White
It's an Armada Lion, and was a bus book for a couple of days, and I really
enjoyed it. It's a great read, full of nice ideas and all sorts of charming
anachronisms. It is full of character, and bounces along jauntily. I'm quite
sorry that the film that was based on it did not induce me to seek it out
before, because it is so much better than my (admittedly hazy) recollection
of that slice of Disney.
028 New English Library Book of Internet Stories, The, Edited Maxim
Jakubowski
Half of the stories are about sex, and few are very good. What is amusing is
that it's from 2000, and as such is hopelessly out of date. What is more
amusing is that other collections of short stories I have read recently that
are five or eight times as old have not dated as badly. I think it says more
about how they are read.
029 Foresight War, The, Anthony B. Williams
Someone is catapulted through time to the past, specifically 1933. They are
a historian specialising in the Second World War. He wakes up, laptop and
calculator in hand, knowledge in mind, near Crystal Palace. The timeline of
the war is changed. Then they discover that the Germans have a "throwback"
too. What's criminal is that this appears to have been vanity published,
possibly because of it's appeal to a narrow market. The real shame is that I
can see this working as a film, a star-studded ensemble cast kind of job.
Not that that matters, as that's not terribly likely. It's well written,
pleasingly paced, though it does show the quality of its research on its
sleeve, and I may be more tolerant of that than others.
030 13 Great Stories of Science Fiction, Edited Groff Conklin
Another secondhand collection, full of excellence. I think I'd read Lion
Miller's "The Available Data on the Worp Reaction" before, and I know I've
read Damon Knight's "The Analogues" as the first chapter of "The Analogue
Men", and, well, let's see: It has a Budrys, Anderson, Qyndham, Guin (Wyam
of that ilk), Clarke, a Sturgeon, and some others that were also brilliant.
Is it any wonder new short fiction collections distress me so? These are the
ones that I raised myself on, where even the weakest story is so full of
ideas that, well, Damage Land has few stories to match the worst of those
here. Different goals, but still, execution is execution.
031 Prisoner of Conscience, susan r. matthews
It's light reading, a book I've read a few times before, even if it is about
torture and genocide. I try to read it as allegory for trying to operate
within the hippocratic oath, but really it amounts to mildly risque space
opera with lashings of ultraviolence.
032 Liaisons Dangereuse, Les, Laclos
I ought not to follow my previous 'the' convention into another language,
but it amused me. A novel of letters, the origin of 'revenge is a dish best
served cold' (allegedly), but really it's about amorality, morality, and
retribution. It did make me hungry for croissants more than it ought. I
suppose this is indicative of some form of aging.
033 worlds of robert f. young, the
Another short story collection bought on the strength of its cover. "never
judge a book..." is a lie, by the way. This is really good, in a "human
problem, human solution, produced by science" sort of way. Which is one of
my favourite kinds of Science Fiction, I ought to note. "Little Red
Schoolhouse" is a standout, as too, actually, no, they're all good, even
"Flying Pan", which is a bit of a cop out in terms of what it's about, but
still, enjoyable done. People are not the only sources of Science Fiction,
and Young is smart enough to know this, and deploy it to good effect. Now I
shall have to vaguely look out for more stuff by him.
034 Shadow, KJ Parker
The first of another trilogy. I really like KJ Parker's stuff, it's
humanocentric magic light fantasy, with credible killing and swordstuff.
It'd make an excellent roleplaying background, if only because of the sheer
variety of mechanisms of killing. Not to mention the fact that this trilogy
appears to be the newish HeroQuest - hero recreates the quest of a god that
the same fate fall upon the world. Here, apocalypse.
035 Pattern, KJ Parker
More of the same. It's a bit 'second part', unfortunately, though the
culture of 'the ravagers' is sufficiently interesting as to be worthwhile
spending a book with. They're a sort of communal consciousness post scarcity
scandinavia circa 1600 sort of a society. The cyclical nature of this story,
not to mention it's vaguely post-modernist take on religion in the aspect of
creating gods means that there's a risk of it being a little repetitive.
This novel starts a trend of repeating passages wholesale, which is
unfortunate, but they're nicely written.
036 Memory, KJ Parker
If you were the most evil person on earth, and you'd forgotten, would you
want to get your memory back? If you were an unwitting component in someone
else's plot, would you want your memory back of being an unwitting component
in a different plot? If you might be a god, can you take a joke if you're
not? Also, what does the end of the world look like?
Also, once again KJ Parker writes a humanocentric trilogy with plentiful
quantities of killing in the face. It would be a very good background for a
roleplaying game, I suspect, what with it being looseley sketched, focused
on individuals with plentiful quantities of martial prowess, and a distinct
tendency towards clever schemes that go horribly awry. His debut trilogy
'The Fencer' is a favourite of mine, and I'm slowly acquiring the trilogy
that comes after this one in paperback. I'll read it in the future I'm sure.
037 Under Compulsion, Thomas Disch
A short story collection. I notice now how many of thse that I read. I
really like them though. Anyway, this is full of Thomas Disch stories, as
you'd expect, some of which I've read before, particularly "Descending",
which is really only Science Fiction because that's what Disch writes,
instead of, say, fantasy, or a small horror story or such. Anyway, it's
worthwhile for "Casablanca", a story about what happens to an Amercian
tourist couple when America ceases to exist.
038 Red Dragon, Thomas Harris
I finally got around to reading this, months after buying it. I like this
for the same reason I like Manhunter, and almost nothing else associated
with Thomas Harris and his pet. Who's keeping who, I wonder? Anyway, I still
say Lektor is the best spelling, and Petersen and Cox the best pair of
manhunters. Though I haven't seen 'Red Dragon', so I can't comment on how Ed
Norton pulled it off. I noted, by the way, that here our detective is a
specialist in insect forensics.
039 Far Out, Damon Knight
More short stories. I don't think I had consciously discovered Damon Knight
until about, oh, two, three years ago, and since then I've been hunting out
and chewing up his stuff whenever I can. I think this is the biggest problem
I've got with books, music, films, etcetera - there's so much good stuff
coming out, but it can scarcely compete with all the good stuff that I
stumble across from the past. When the big studios knuckle down and get
their back catalogue digitised and monetised, well, then we'll see what's
what. Probably not a good what.
040 mocking program, the, Alan Dean Foster
ADF writes good stuff. This is basically a novelisation for a film that was
never made (and for which no screenplay exists), however - it rolls along,
and it's quite pleasant, but it's 'twist' is cripplingly obvious and it uses
'irregardless' twice.
041 Cure For Death, Victor Valentine
Cellular regeneration of adults grants the prospect of immortality without
the survival of personal identity. The world jumps for it (save a few), and,
well, corruption, idiocy, and then Deus Ex Machina resolve everything tidily
(apart from the apocalypse and stuff). It's predictive fiction in the
Wellsian pattern, but lacks his wit, verve, sense, or ability to plot.
Still, an enjoyable wee read, if only for what it says about the nineteen
sixties. Are we always to be recognised from our fictions? Aye, I'd say so.
042 Homecoming, The*, Harold Pinter
If you took the Pauses out Harold Pinter's plays would be about a ninth the
size. Still, it's time to digest the unremitting horror.
043 Elsewhere X3, Compiled By Damon Knight
It's three novellas. 'The Ugly Little Boy' by Asimov is another one of
Asimov's motherhood parables that probably helps to explain why I relate
poorly to women. 'The Saliva Tree' is, well, 'The Saliva Tree'. Aldiss is
almost always good, but sometimes the metaliterary pretensions grate.
'Fiddler's Green' is a hallucinatory consensus. I think it's the only
McKenna I've read, and every time I do read it I wonder if I'll like
anything else he's written.
044 Maelstrom, Alexander Scott
It's a Puffin roleplaying game, sorry "Adventure Gamebook". It's very much,
shall we say, a product of its time [1984], and a fascinating read. It's
full of things that wouldn't make sense unless you'd already played a
roleplaying game, and has a habit I absolutely detest, that of encouraging
players to make up their own rules as and when they see fit, with little
clue as to how to integrate them. Though it does suggest writing them in the
book. It would be about fifteen years before people started talking openly
about things like 'social contract', but, well nevermind. That's another
rant.
045 Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, Sillitoe
It's a classic apparently. I'm still not sure what to make of it. It's
clearly a product of its time. The past is truly a foreign country.
046 SF:17 new writings in sf-17, edited by John Carnell
Only really mentionable for 'The True Worth Of Ruth Villiers'. Who are you
Michael G Coney?
047 Spinner, The, Doris Piserchia
Spider guy from alternate earth eats city. Mankind is revealed as the real
monster. Etcetera.
048 sexmax, Hughes Cooper
An 'inevitable consequences of the permissive age' novel.
049 Mistress Of Mistresses, E.R. Eddison
Tolkien rated Eddison highly, and on some alternate earth this overwritten
virtually plotless impenetrable fug of world building might have spawned an
industry. I'm not so sure. I liked Worm Ouroboros, The, but Eddison's
tendency to quote things in the original Greek is a little off-putting.
050 Chung Kuo, David Wingrove
I read book five, I think, of this seven book series when I was eight or so.
I didn't really remember it too well, and the first book left a similar
impression. I don't have time for novels that are this thick and say this
little. I also find the whole China/not China quite creepy. There are some
nice ideas in it, but comparisons to Star Wars and Dune are clearly based on
the inanities and long dull patches of those two franchises. Not necessarily
respectively, either.
50 Books Completed (and I didn't even realise)
051 Storm Front,
052 Fool Moon,
053 Grave Peril,
054 Summer Knight,
055 Death Masks,
056 Blood Rites, Jim Butcher
'The Dresden Files' are modern occult detective stories in a sort of "only
freelance wizard in the phonebook" sort of way. It's fluff, but it's solidly
and entertainingly written, and manages to tie together it's faeries,
vampires, werewolves and so forth in ways that are both relatively novel,
interesting, consistent, and allow for typical pulp potboiler plot twistery.
Competently and enjoyably written, with bad puns and popular cultural
references scattered liberally, they only weakness I found with them was the
fact that as their covers are virtually identical it's possible to
accidentally read them out of sequence. Which I did. Oops.
057 Distraction, Bruce Sterling
This was a re-read, and, in fact, a procrastination strategy. It's got a
good take on the breakdown of American order, and emergent architecture.
Also, a good treatment of a variety of metnal conditions. It made me miss
'The West Wing' though. In a 'not on any more sense', not in a scheduling
conflict way.
058 The Man In The High Castle, Philip K Dick
It is heartbreaking. I also suspect it is why I like the work of Jack
Womack. I also recommend Jack Womack, by the way. I have similar percentages
of his work as I have of Philip's. What is the value of a thing?
059 Perfume, Patrick Suskind
A re-read. This is a gorgeous novel, that has almost immediately become one
of my favourites. I cannot recommend it to you highly enough.
060 Getaway Special, The, Gerry Oltion
This is a smart, fun, 'magic box' SF story, with a mad scientist and a bunch
of other cool stuff. It understands the internet and the space shuttle and
government, all at the same time.
061 Strange Invaders, The, Alun Llewellyn
It is an apocalypse. Communism as religion. The traditional sources of
power. It's an early, clever, critique of Stalinism and everything else. By
rights it should be up there with BNW and '84. Well, in there anywhere.
062 Grimmer Than Hell, David Drake
A collection of short stories. His previous collection featured his
humourous stuff. This, perhaps obviously, is the rest. Working Vietnam out
of his system, and the like. It is entertaining, but very grim.
063 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K Dick
Is this my favourite book? That is a silly question.
064 jPod, Douglas Coupland
It is, I think, a book written about high functioning autists and people
with Asperger's that has been designed as if it were written by and for one
of those groups. It really annoyed me. I think I shall have to go after 'The
Curious Incident...'
065 Twilight of Briareus, The, Richard Cowper
For some reason, I really didn't like this. I am as yet unsure as to why. It
requires more thinking. For now I have Ballard.
066 Non-Fiction, Chuck Pahluniak
This is where fight club came from. The stuff about the castle guys is top.
It's relatively easy to see where some of those ideas were born. Oh my.
067 Pashazade, Jon Courtenay Grimwood
It's a cunning little murder mystery in a cunning little alternate future.
Past now, I suppose. Alas, poor Boney. Well, not so much as Kaiser Bill.
068 Effendi, Jon Courtenay Grimwood
This too is a murder mystery. Actually, Peter F Hamilton has written a few
of thse. Human problem with a human solution, if you will, but the situation
is brought about by science. Here, alternate futurity, and a little bit of
science. The postulate that Napoleon could have defeated the nascent German
Empire (and the revisions to The Great War 1896?- that follow) is a nice
one. The presence of an expert system that teaches children to fight wars is
a nice one. Well, not nice nice.
069 Felaheen, Jon Courtenay Grimwood
This is the third. It has a murder mystery which is really cover for another
murder mystery which is really for hiding what's going on with the whole
business of the main character being (or not being) the son of the Emir.
It's pleasant, but part of me misses George Alec Effinger, and part of me
remains somewhat unimpressed with Grimwood himself. He seems a lovely chap,
but he used the same anecdote three times at Worldcon 2005. Poor show.
Later on, it seems important to note that these are much like the Dresden
files, but with less possibility for continuation. A trilogy, or a series of
three? From such questions are publishing empires born.
070 Complete Short Stories, The JG Ballard
There are 96, I think, in this connection, of which it emerges that I have
read no less than 27. The bulk of those 27 come from the short story
collection 'The Terminal Beach' and the hoard of 'New Worlds in SF'
anthologies that I have cached in my towering book cliff. Maybe horde. I
don't think this is complete, as it only goes up to the early nineties, and
I'm sure his (now resolved) spat with Melvyn Bragg motivated him to write
something. I intend to post about the ones that I've read before (which,
with the the exception of the Vermlilion Sands stories are pretty much the
only ones I like) seperately. There are clear motifs and the like in his
work, but some of his obsessions are quite pedestrian. Though that could be
said of Dick. I think it becomes problematic to read large quantities of
Ballard and Dick while working in a call centre. This Is The Modern Age. The
War On Terror Considered As A Call To Technical Support.
071 Five Years, Four Fronts, Georg Grossjohan, trans. Ulrich Abele hist.
commentary Keith E. Bonn w Wolf T. Zoepf
Grossjohan enlisted in 1928 as a 'twelvepointer', as his father said at his
birth, "the boy will be a soldier". He was. He served throughout the second
world war, fought on all the European Fronts (ie, not Afrika), and did not
die. He went from Sergeant to Major too. When you read it, it becomes clear
why a) Nazi Germany did so well at the start, and b) how they managed to
completely destroy themselves. Fascinating.
072 Five Fists of Science, The Various
Tesla & Twain versus the Lovecraftian horrors summoned by Edison and JP
Morgan. It is a lot of fun.
073* Mezzanine, The: A Novel*, Nicholson Baker
This is a course text. It's a pretty obvious example of the postmodern
novel, revolving, as it does, around the thoughts (and here's where it
becomes postmodern) the thoughts about those thoughts of a chap wondering
and wandering about on his lunch break. The shoelaces stuff is half
interesting, as is the focus on the way people actually use devices like
shoelaces and paper sugar packets, but the discourse on straws is
off-putting to me as someone who does not drink carbonated drinks. Also, it
uses footnotes extensively, though never more than one fresh footnote to a
page, which is, I hasten to add, a lie. There's one page that has two
footnotes, and one footnote that runs for five pages or so.
074 Cobweb, The, Stephen Bury, the pseudonym of Neal Stephenson and
Frederick George (the nom de plume of Professor George Jewsbury).
An Iowa and Washington set spy thriller with the usual microchemistry and
highschool wrestling Stephenson mixture. It's very much entertaining.
075* Thought Gang, The, Tibor Fischer*
More Post-Modernism course texts, and also annoying. Philosopher alcoholic
robs banks with partial Frenchman. The thing that annoys me about Literary
Post-Modernism, rather, than, say, New Wave Science Fiction, if one is to
acknowledge them as differentiated genres, and, indeed, I would suggest that
one does, is that at least in New Wave Science Fiction they only tended to
write short stories, which are over quickly. This is an Encylopedic novel,
which somehow managed to put me off that subgenre, which upsets me. I shall
have to go at another soon. Actually, it's more of a List novel, and i'm
thinking (or trying to think) of others. I know there's the Ballard glossary
one (of the assassination), but I'm convinced there are more.
076 Thud, Terry Pratchett
Discworld by numbers. It probably took me longer to read than it took to
plot. The point at which the characters of the Discworld ceased to change,
but simply became more numerous, was, I think, the end for me. Oh well.
Trapped by his own creation is he. I do hope he's writing something else
under a pseudonym, if only for his own sake.
077 Machine in Ward Eleven, The, Charles Willeford
Effectively a loosely linked set (ie, some recycled character names
mentioned in passing) of short stories that first appeared in Playboy back
when everyone who counted wrote for it, and lots that didn't did too.
Anyway, the Machine is not, as is suggested, a man, but an electroshock
machine. The titular story is less interesting than Endgame by Ballard. The
others were passable, but none immediately spring to mind. Though the
Confessional story does, after a moment, and was quite amusing, and the
Letter To A.A. is quite, quite depressing, and indeed almost SFinal if one
is willing to stretch.
078 Best of Amazing, The, Selected by Joseph Ross
There are some very good ones here, from the annals of Gernsback's Amazing!,
and some that show their age. It's got a Murray Leinster in it though, 'The
Runaway Skyscraper', which is top wasp.
079 Slave Ship, Frederik Pohl
Quite an odd one this, with a pre End of the Cold War post Cold War struggle
between the heavily mechanised Industrial Nations and animals crewing
submarines. No, actually, the other side are a peasant army of terrorists
based out of Madagascar. Though there are animal directed submersibles.
Also, some kind of ESP war that makes people explode.
080 Galactic Cluster, James Blish
Some of these I had read before, and some I had not. All good though.
081 Impartial Eye, An, Pierre Boulle
This is a novel about a former war photographer after the perfect
photograph, that of a Presidential assassination. Translated from the French
(my copy is currently on loan, so I can't find the translator), it's a short
book, more of a novella, but that's typical of Boulle. It's one of my
favourite short novels. Art versus morals, and all that.
082 Ossian's Ride, Fred Hoyle
It's actually just a more or less bog standard espionage story with SF
ground into the ending. It's pretty savage though. Petrol bombings and
stuff. Hoyle was a Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge. His stuff's
enjoyable in a boys' own sort of way.
083 13 Cent Killers: The 5th Marine Snipers in Vietnam, John J. Culbertson
This is an amazing memoir. I'd draw quotes from it, but it's an unedited,
almost unreadable mess. Culbertson talks about himself in the third person,
there is much killing, and Culbertson learns how to kill but good. 13 cents,
by the way, is what the US Marine Corps paid for a match-grade bullet for
their rifles. Culbertson complains about lots of things, in particular the
"crybabies" back home. In their "marijuana smoke".
084 Happy Birthday Jack Nicholson, Hunter S. Thompson
This is a penguin seventy, so hardly counts. It is amazing though. In
particular the whole Jack Nicholson chaos nearly killing phones cut off (not
by Hunter) phosphorous flares partially defrosted ELK HEART on his family
doorstep where they were effectively in Aspen hiding from stalkers, and they
told Hunter (!) where he lived.
085 Narziss and Goldmund, Herman Hesse
Asceticism vs Dionysism. I favour a mix. Though my beer list suggests
otherwise, I must confess.
086 -
097 Battle Royale, Manga, Volumes I-XII, Various
I'd forgotten about these until I was packing for Whitby and they fell on
me. I read them in one go, on the sofa, drinking tea. I thought these twelve
volumes were the whole, but no, there's another four, which are effectively
out of print. I think I'll just buy the novel.
098 A History Of Violence, John Wagner, Vince Locke
A re-read. Wagner says he intends to tell the story of an ordinary man
caught up in violence, but that isn't what happens. However, the stuff he's
doing in Dredd at the moment is astonishing, so it's not all bad.
099 Dark Knight Returns, The, Frank Miller et al
The fundamental conceit of Batman is his creation myth. Batman is all
origin, and that origin has been told in any number of ways. This is an end,
and powerful for that, but, well, the older I get the less fond I am of
Miller, and the more time passes the more this dates, at least a little.
Though I thought The Dark Knight Strikes Back was nowhere near as good,
despite its valiant efforts to update it.
100* Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An, David Hume
I think I'm going to need to re-read this. It's not technically a course
text, but I found it a useful companion to Locke.
101* factotum, Charles Bukowski
I think I prefer Burroughs. Actually, I know I do.
102 Rodent Mutation, Bron Fane
Is this the best book written in the English language? For certain values of
'best', I would say so. An amazingly entertaining read, but not always for
intentional reasons.
103 Brothers of the Head, Brian Aldiss
This was paired with a short story 'Where The Lines Converge' but it took me
a couple of pages to realise they weren't connected by anything more than
fitting nicely into a Grafton paperback. It's really good. I'm quite sorry
that I missed the film, but I'll have to try and catch it elsewhere.
104 Black In Time, John Jakes
White Supremacist and Black Pantheresque guys go roaming in time trying to
rewrite history. They want to kill Mohammed, they want to make sure 'Uncle
Tom's Cabin' is burned rather than published. The hero, such as it is, wants
to stop them. It's a fun read, but has the usual problem of most of Jakes'
work, in that if you stop reading it it suddenly makes no sense. Fortunately
it's a quick and enjoyable read, like most of his stuff. I've still not
tried any Brak the Barbarian though, but I'm unlikely to now.
105 Into The Slave Nebula, John Brunner
Brunner's work always has some measure of quality, even if it feels dashed
off in an afternoon. This is an enjoyable adventure, with the focus on
chasing the mystery of the death of a 'Citizen of the Galaxy'.
106 Vampires of Venus, Karl Mannheim
I picked up a lot of pulp at Whitby. It keeps me on a level keel when I'm
wading through Atwood and Amis. Anyway, it's got Martians in it too, and
death rays.
107* Time's Arrow*, Martin Amis
It got him a Booker nomination. Well done there. Time flows backwards for
Dr. Tod T Friendly. Can you see the death? It's inconstant, but perhaps
deliberately so (I may be less kind). Is it Post-Modern? IF it is a given
genre only by elimination of all other AND IF it problematises the act of
Reading. In other words, TRUE.
108 When The Earth Died, Karl Mannheim
This is in fact the prequel to 'Vampires of Venus', and, like most prequels,
manages to render the original even less sensible.
109 Non-Statistical Man, The, Raymond F. Jones
A short story collection - said Man is Intuitive to a great degree. It's
basically a 'hidden power' a 'Slan' but with an insurance adjuster. Also,
magic moonrocks, child with secret powers, and 'Society cannot be split'
story. Very much of its time, and, well, quite derivative.
110 Far Reality, The, Lewis Padgett
Global 'Cold' strife (effectively First vs Third World War), enemy get magic
equation that does something and drives those who try to solve it mad. A
Dickian espionage story that delves into observer physics theory. It was
both entertaining and pleasant.
111 Solarians, The, Norman Spinrad
It's a little obvious, but it's fun.
112 Case and the Dreamer, Theodore Sturgeon
The middle story of this trio 'On Vexvelt' I had read before (Sturgeon
really was a troublemaker). The first, not so good. The last, in which
person of enormous wealth attempts to recreate another struck me as oddly
familiar - I'm sure I've read a short story along similar lines by someone
completely different.
113* Alias Grace*, Margaret Atwood
University course text. It's very, um, literary. I would be less annoyed
with it if the essay question I was answering on it wasn't, well, wrong.
Such is academia.
114 Mind Switch, Damon Knight
Vintage Damon Knight this. If you like that sort of thing. It's got a
physics experiment that sort of accidentally ruins someone's life, with the
experimenters none the wiser.
115 Gadget Man, Ron Goulart
A quasi-fascist republic of Southern California is seeking the cause of
riots that are inexplicably devestating rich suburban areas. Like a lot of
Ron's work it's a trippy freakout that's got some startling ideas, but not
much in the way of execution. It's a convincing seperatist California
though.
116 Worlds of the Imperium, Keith Laumer
Parallel worlds and alternate histories abound, oh my. It hangs well
together, and is a rollicking adventure story. The alternate Algiers is well
detailed, but it's the Imperium itself that delights.
117 Galaxy Reader, The Fourth, ed. H.L. Gold
All good, all fifteen, and only one was not new to me ('The Gun Without a
Bang'), with a Sheckley, a Pohl, a Leiber too. Another set of authors to
track down more by, including Margaret St. Clair who in 'Horrer Howce' had
something quite interesting going on.
118 Beowulf, Unknown, trans. Michael Swanton
I do like Beowulf, but what sold this edition was the fifty odd pages of
notes. Fascinating reading.
119 WEIRD.... UNEARTHLY.... TERRIFYING... THE CREATURE VOR -The first alien
from outer-space, James Blish
Blish is good stuff, and so is this. Though I'm not sure what counts as
title and what does not, as the cover is a little confused. It has
aeroplanes and radiation. Both of these are good things.
120 Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
Pratchett is like popcorn. Start reading, can't stop, not filling, bit
greasy, leaves sick. The one thing I wonder is what is going to happen with
the Patrician. Is he immortal? He's certainly as smart as the author.
121 Scanner Darkly, A, Philip K Dick
I think this is one of the best books ever written. I also think it's
produced one of the best adaptations ever. Glorious.
122 Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks, The, Alan Moore et al
Awesome. The verve and inventiveness here show many of the same qualities
that makes his later work so powerful. They might be short, they might be
silly, but they're brilliant. One of them was also totally ripped off by
Martin Amis.
123 Day After Doomsday, The, Rena Vale
Not good at all, actually. A muddled mess.
124 6 Fingers of Time and Other Stories, The, ed. Unknown (A Galaxy
Collection)
It's good. I thought I might have had it already, but I did not. Or, at
least, I did not find it. It is a good collection.
[Note] Books marked with an asterisk are part of university reading. I only
intend to count them as half books. There were 8 of them as of Alias Grace.
BEERS - ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE
Orval Orval
Traquair House Ale
Tiger
McConiskeys
Stropramen
Peter's Golden Ale
Stella Artois [1]
Belleveue Gueuze
Budweiser Budvar
Duchesse De Bourgogne
Baltika
Deuchars India Pale Ale
Everards original
Guinness (also Extra Cold)
Miller
Newcastle Brown Ale
Copper Cascade
Duvel
Dark Island
Red Smiddy [Kelburn?]
Brahma
Hoegaarden
Valkenburg
Kanne
Zweic
Evarards Budding
Auld Copperheid
San Miguel
Grottenbier
[Peter's?] Old Ale
Belhaven Best [also Extra Cold]
Kelburn Misty Law
Fraoch
Lindeman's Kriek
Jurassic Ale
Courage Director's Bitter
Capstan Full Strength
John Smiths
Badger Champion [Ale]
Co-op Fairtrade Honey Ale
Carlsberg
Murphy's
Strongarm "The Ruby Red"
Hertog Jan Doppio Duvel
Young's Bitter
Peter's Cream Stout
Bishop's Finger
Mythos
Williams Black
Black Sheep
Peter's Honey Ale [2]
Lal Toofan
Tirril Brewery Brewster's Bitter
Whitbread Pale Ale
Brakspear Triple
Rolling Hitch IPA
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Grimbergen Dubble Bier D'Abbeye
Monty Python's Holy Ail
XXXB
Little Creatures Golden Ale
Palma Louco Brazilian Lager [3][4]
St. Peter's Suffolk Gold
Negra Modelo
Cobra
Red Stripe
Sun Lik
Everard's Sun Chaser
Kronenburg Blanc 1664
Chang
MW Dundee's Honey Brown (Honey Flavoured Lager)
Cusquena (The Gold Of The Incas)
Holsten Pils
TsingTao
Mongozo Banana
Amstel
Kirin
Roisin Tayberry
Williams Red
Sharps Doom
La Trappe Blonde
Kingfisher
Judas
Golden Promise
Marston's Single Malt
Marston's Firestoker
Black Douglas
Hoegaarden Grand Cru
Schehallion
Badger First Gold
Grozet
Tennant's VERSA [5]
Rhatas Whitby's Black Dog Brewing Company
Caledonian 80/-
Asahi (bottled Dry, not Super Dry)
Artois Bock
Krusovice Lager
Krusovice Dark (Schwarzbier)
Brooklyn Lager
Peterman Artois
Adnam's Bitter
Green's Explorer [100% Natural Stout, Gluten Free, Wheat Free]
Samuel Smith's The Famous TADDY Porter
Samuel Smith's (Contractors To Her Majesty's Forces) Imperial Stout
Nelson Brewery's 'England Expects'
St Peter's Honey & Ginger Spiced Ale
Guinness Extra Stout
Adnam's Broadside
Young's Winter Warmer
Young's 175th Anniversary Ale [6]
Young's Christmas Pudding
Young's Light Ale
Young's Ramrod
Leffe Brun
Everard's Sleighbell
Eidinger Weissbier
Samichlaus Bier [7]
Everard's Tiger
Ridley's Old Bob
Marston's Resolution [8]
[1] I believe that the list to this point is what I had consumed by the end
of January
[2] I know that this is what the list had reached by Monday the 24th of
April. That's 50 different beers in 114 days. At that rate I should reach
160 by 2007. How many of those beers I would enjoy I do not know. Now at 67
beers, after 201 days, at this rate it would be 121. The figure has spiked
as a result of a trip to Beer Ritz, and also a short succession of parties.
Still no Tennants either. Go team. We're now at 73 in 218, which is a nice
spike. I've also discovered that there's about thirty excellent beers at my
local tesco at reasonable prices. Not to mention the 'making up numbers'
experimentation possibilities of Tesco Value Bitter and Tesco Value Lager.
75 in whatever it was. I left one out. They're not in the right order.
[3] This is a tentative identification.
[4] This is now more or less confirmed.
[5] This is the replacement for Tennant's Ember, and is, in fact, even
worse. It is truly foul. The only beer I haven't finished that isn't Innis
and Gunn.
[6] Limited edition. I had bottles 06743 and 06672
[7] This is only brewed once a year on December 6. This is the 2005. 14% by
volume. It's amazing.
[8] This is a low carbohydrate beer. It's nice though.
I acheived my goal of One Hundred bbeers my November's Whitby. Now I'm
gunning for One Hundred by April's. We shall see...
--
erith - .sig
erithromycin
>:We gonna do this again in 2007?
>I'm thinking of following 50 beers with 50 fruits and vegetables.
Well, I'm game for 50 books again, also 50 beers again, and I'll take fruits
and vegetables as welll. I might also take cinematic releases (or rentals,
as distinct from movies on tv, specific film watchings, but we'll go with it
as discussion for the moment).
--
erith - .sig
Satori
"erithromycin" <erithr...@ananzi.co.za> wrote in message
news:500fbjF...@mid.individual.net...
~Fi and I were considering 50 wines, as we're not much of beer drinkers. And
that would give us an excuse to drink 100 bottles of wine, between us.
-Satori
not that we need an excuse.
kest
> I might also take cinematic releases
> (or rentals, as distinct from movies on tv, specific film watchings,
> but we'll go with it as discussion for the moment).
I noticed that I did watch more than 50 movies in 2006 (and posted them in
my lj)...one in a theater, two on airplanes, a couple dvds owned/rented by
friends or roommates, and a heck of a lot of netflix. (Some of the netflix
was tv shows, but I didn't count those.)
k
kest
> If they count, flat field mushroom with Onions, baby Yellow peppers and
> Onions, in a Turkey(Frozen Xmas leftovers) Durban Curry
My microwave lunch had
3) carrots
4) broccoli
5) red peppers
k
Troia
The thing is, some of the finest films (IMO) are not available for
rental, only when very rarely shown on TV. One that comes to mind --
though I know others may disagree -- is Sullivan's Way. At that, I've
only seen it shown on TV twice in the last 10 years or more.
-- Troia
Renate
I say scrap the fruits and veggies, and go with 50 beers and 50
bottles of wine. There's a day's supply of veggies or fruits, in
either of them, and no complicated choices to make.
Renate
Dark Phoenix
>
> 2006 BOOKS ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
Yikes! I thought I was doing well to get 72. And that was with the help of a
long commute for part of the year. I stand in awe, sir.
erithromycin
>erithromycin:
>>2006 BOOKS ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
>Yikes! I thought I was doing well to get 72. And that was with the help of
>a long commute for part of the year. I stand in awe, sir.
I have always read a lot. Though even I am sometimes surprised at what I
managed to read when I was a teenager. The internet has changed the way I
consume books drastically, but that's largely because I don't think I read
any less now than I used to, it's just more of those words are in things
other than books. I've been sorting out my bookcase and managed to fill four
long-boxes with comics.
I'm also going to need to remeasure my Dick.
--
erith - .sig
erithromycin
>erithromycin scrawled:
I think I'd need a longer commute, an in-car DVD player, and a death wish
for netflix to add up for me. I see a lot of films as it is, but at some
point in my life I decided on the written word as my primary form of media.
Though I do like still pictures.
Anyway, I'm going to consider my fifties for 2007 ales, books, and cinema. I
can't be bothered now with fruits (and that) because I'd need a d and an e
as well.
--
erith - .sig
Dark Phoenix
> Dark Pheonix:
>>erithromycin:
>
>>>2006 BOOKS ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
>
>>Yikes! I thought I was doing well to get 72. And that was with the help of
>>a long commute for part of the year. I stand in awe, sir.
>
> I have always read a lot. Though even I am sometimes surprised at what I
> managed to read when I was a teenager. The internet has changed the way I
> consume books drastically, but that's largely because I don't think I read
> any less now than I used to, it's just more of those words are in things
> other than books.
Me, too. This whirring box is an incredible time sucker, but it has a hold
over me....
> I'm also going to need to remeasure my Dick.
Er, nonsequitur?
Dark Phoenix
> Anyway, I'm going to consider my fifties for 2007 ales, books, and cinema.
> I
> can't be bothered now with fruits (and that) because I'd need a d and an e
> as well.
Um, debaucheries and enemas?
--
Laurie Brown, Dark Phoenix, got nothing
Satori
"Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> wrote in message
news:grWdnUZ2dcCx-AHY...@povn.com...
>
> Er, nonsequitur?
I believe he's refering to Philip K.
Joseph Brenner
"erithromycin" <erithr...@ananzi.co.za> writes:
Well... it's been interesting having a ghostly (and largely
imaginary) crowd looking over my shoulder, kibitzing on my
reading, but I think that on a whole the "50 book challenge"
would have to be considered a failure as far as encouraging
discussion of books. Even the "bookworms" series has been better
in that respect.
I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
Let me take a stab at some rules:
(1) These should be Great Works from an alt.gothic point of
view (though not necessarily works that are gothic or goth).
(2) Anyone can nominate a book on the first of a month. After
that it's up to others to either "second" it or submit a
"blackball". If at the end of a month you've got at least
2 more seconds than blackballs then it goes into the
reading list of candidates.
(3) The reading list is a fifo stack. A candidate is taken
from the stack once every two months, and is read by an
ad hoc, volunteer jury (i.e. anyone who's hanging around).
(4) The jury is expected to discuss the book *as they read it*.
(5) A quorum of 5 readers is required to pass judgement on a
work. A two-thirds "yes" vote is needed in order for a
work to be declared one of the AG Greats.
(6) Ideally, there should be six rules, so someone is required
to invent one before we can proceed.
Joseph Brenner
> "Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> scrawled:
>> "kest" <ke...@spamfree.nettrip.org> wrote in message
>>> mak...@yorku.ca (Matthew King) scrawled:
>>>> I'm thinking of following 50 beers with 50 fruits and vegetables.
>>> I just ate an apple!
>
>> I made corn fritters!
> Peas with dinner!
We just had veggie burgers. I think that might cover all 50 in one shot.
Dark Phoenix
"Joseph Brenner" <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> wrote in message
news:878xgjo...@kzsu.stanford.edu...
> Well... it's been interesting having a ghostly (and largely
> imaginary) crowd looking over my shoulder, kibitzing on my
> reading, but I think that on a whole the "50 book challenge"
> would have to be considered a failure as far as encouraging
> discussion of books. Even the "bookworms" series has been better
> in that respect.
True, there were only a couple of discussions after a review was posted. It
did, however, teach me to actually think & write about the book, rather than
just write "Me like it!" in a large crayon scrawl, so it was quite useful
for me personally. And I became aware of a lot of books I wanted to read,
after seeing them on others lists.
--
Laurie Brown, Dark Phoenix
Joseph Brenner
"Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> writes:
> "Joseph Brenner" <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> wrote:
>> Well... it's been interesting having a ghostly (and largely
>> imaginary) crowd looking over my shoulder, kibitzing on my
>> reading, but I think that on a whole the "50 book challenge"
>> would have to be considered a failure as far as encouraging
>> discussion of books. Even the "bookworms" series has been better
>> in that respect.
> True, there were only a couple of discussions after a review was posted. It
> did, however, teach me to actually think & write about the book, rather than
> just write "Me like it!" in a large crayon scrawl, so it was quite useful
> for me personally.
Ah, well if you need encouragement about learning to blather
about your opinions, you've come to the right place.
> And I became aware of a lot of books I wanted to read,
> after seeing them on others lists.
True, I've been archiving people's lists, myself, I just haven't
gotten around to tracking any of them down.
erithromycin
>erithromycin
>>Anyway, I'm going to consider my fifties for 2007 ales, books, and cinema.
>>I can't be bothered now with fruits (and that) because I'd need a d and an
>>e as well.
>Um, debaucheries and enemas?
Well, 'drunks' might count, but I'm trying to cut down, and I'm not sure I'm
Kellog enough to go for fifty different enemas. I could go for 'dinners' and
'exhibitions'. Hmm. That'd work for me.
I shall think on it.
--
erith - .sig
erithromycin
>Dark Phoenix
>>erithromycin
>>>I'm also going to need to remeasure my Dick.
>>Er, nonsequitur?
>I believe he's refering to Philip K.
It's larger than I remembered, though I think a bit may have fallen off the
end.
By which I mean, yes, Phil.
--
erith - .sig
kest
> Well, 'drunks' might count, but I'm trying to cut down, and I'm not
> sure I'm Kellog enough to go for fifty different enemas. I could go
> for 'dinners' and 'exhibitions'. Hmm. That'd work for me.
>
How about desserts and exercises? (The one balances out the other.)
k
kest
probably only count if I can identify them.)
7) potatoes...do potatoes count as a veggie? I also had two bites of
really bad corn on the cob.
8) what about olives? maybe they're a fruit....
9) butternut squash
k
kest
The internet has changed the
> way I consume books drastically, but that's largely because I don't
> think I read any less now than I used to, it's just more of those
> words are in things other than books.
Yes, me too. Also, though, as I've gotten older the ratio of nonfiction to
fantasy fluff has changed, and I don't go through nonfiction anywhere near
as fast.
k
kest
, but I think that on a whole the "50 book challenge"
> would have to be considered a failure as far as encouraging
> discussion of books. Even the "bookworms" series has been better
> in that respect.
>
Oh, I disagree. We discussed a lot more, in total on the 50 books
threads. Just not as much about any particular book. And there was
greater thread drift.
> I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
> a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
>
CANON dammit. One bloody 'n' in the middle!!!
> Let me take a stab at some rules:
>
Fuck rules.
But maybe it would work to do sort of 'and next I'm going to read x, y,
and z' tags on our fifty books posts, so that if someone else thinks
we're about to read something interesting, they can read it too?
k
Joseph Brenner
> , but I think that on a whole the "50 book challenge"
>> would have to be considered a failure as far as encouraging
>> discussion of books. Even the "bookworms" series has been better
>> in that respect.
>>
> Oh, I disagree. We discussed a lot more, in total on the 50 books
> threads. Just not as much about any particular book. And there was
> greater thread drift.
Well it's true that you got at least one good one going -- that
I still need to reply to, some day -- and maybe there was one or
two others. That's not really such a great rate of response.
>> I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
>> a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
>>
> CANON dammit. One bloody 'n' in the middle!!!
Thanks. Not the sort of thing a spell checker can help you with.
>> Let me take a stab at some rules:
>>
> Fuck rules.
I always play by the fuck rules, but that's not the subject at the moment.
> But maybe it would work to do sort of 'and next I'm going to read x, y,
> and z' tags on our fifty books posts, so that if someone else thinks
> we're about to read something interesting, they can read it too?
Not a bad suggestion, and it has the virtue of being a one-liner.
Dark Phoenix
1. Fried potatoes (assuming we decide they do count)
2. Avocado
3. Red cabbage
4. Green cabbage
5. Yam
6. Romaine lettuce
7. Radish
8. Green onions
9. Celery
How much of an item does it take to count as an entry? If I have one radish
chopped up in a salad, is that an entry? And are all sorts of lettuce just
'lettuce', or does each variety count separately? If a houseplant leaf falls
into my mouth while I'm asleep, does that count?
Dark Phoenix
> Joseph Brenner <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> scrawled:
>> I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
>> a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
>>
> CANON dammit. One bloody 'n' in the middle!!!
But... but... you mean we don't get to blow things up?
>> Let me take a stab at some rules:
>>
> Fuck rules.
>
> But maybe it would work to do sort of 'and next I'm going to read x, y,
> and z' tags on our fifty books posts, so that if someone else thinks
> we're about to read something interesting, they can read it too?
That's a good idea.
Right now I've reading "Extraordinary Groups", about American subcultures
(it was written in the mid 70s) like the Amish, Mennonites, Oneida, etc.
Troia
1) Romaine lettuce
2) Celery
3) Orange sweet pepper
4) Snap beans
5) Snow peas
6) Ambrosia apple
7) Red flame grapes
8) Canteloupe
9) Banana
10) Yukon gold potatoes
11) Marionberries (in a pie)
12) "Baby" carrots
13) Eggplant (in a sandwich)
14) Pineapple chunks
15) Cabbage (in "oriental" cabbage-chicken salad)
16) Does orange juice count?
-- Troia
kest
> 9) Banana
ah yes, I had a banana the other day. forgot that.
k
fnordikins
Aubergine!
as if you coudlnt guess.
Bob Terwilliger
> 1) Romaine lettuce
> 2) Celery
> 3) Orange sweet pepper
> 4) Snap beans
> 5) Snow peas
> 6) Ambrosia apple
> 7) Red flame grapes
> 8) Canteloupe
> 9) Banana
> 10) Yukon gold potatoes
> 11) Marionberries (in a pie)
> 12) "Baby" carrots
> 13) Eggplant (in a sandwich)
> 14) Pineapple chunks
> 15) Cabbage (in "oriental" cabbage-chicken salad)
> 16) Does orange juice count?
1 apple
2 bananas
3 barley
4 beets
5 Belgian endive
6 black-eyed peas
7 blood orange
8 broccoli
9 Brussels sprouts
10 cantaloupe
11 carrots
12 celery
13 chard
14 collard greens
15 corn
16 green beans
17 kabocha squash
18 lettuce
19 mandarins
20 mango
21 Meyer lemon
22 mushrooms
23 okra
24 onion
25 papaya
26 pears
27 peas
28 persimmons
29 pineapple
30 potatoes
31 red bell pepper
32 rice
33 spinach
34 sunchokes
35 sunflower sprouts
36 sweet potato
37 tomatoes
38 turnips
39 Marionberries
40 asparagus
...and I've probably forgotten a thing or two.
Bob
Troia
**swoon**
-- Troia
Siobhan
<dark_p...@netw.com> wrote:
>How much of an item does it take to count as an entry? If I have one radish
>chopped up in a salad, is that an entry? And are all sorts of lettuce just
>'lettuce', or does each variety count separately? If a houseplant leaf falls
>into my mouth while I'm asleep, does that count?
Can I count spices if they're green?
How 'bout juice?
Siobhan
and what kind of vegetable is a clamato anyway
Siobhan
2) Red peppers
3) Carrots
4) Brocolli
5) Tomatoes
6) Cucumber
Do beans count? How about grains?
Siobhan
Dark Phoenix
"Siobhan" <ne...@virulent.org> wrote in message
news:nhe0q2h0ijkkhrbu5...@4ax.com...
>> Siobhan
> and what kind of vegetable is a clamato anyway
Genetically engineered. It's bivalve that grows on a bush; when it's opened,
there's a round red fruit inside.
Troia
While you're at it, how about ketchup, huh?
-- Troia
Dark Phoenix
"Troia" <troia....@gmail.removethis.com> wrote in message
news:45a0474e$0$97273$892e...@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net...
It counts as a vegetable for school lunch programs; who are we to hold
ourselves to higher standards?
--
Laurie Brown, Dark Phoenix, wonders about kim chee.
Renate
I think you only get to count clamato as 1/2. The pulverized little
clam dude parts blow it as a complete veggir.
Nobody's mentioned coffee yet? Y'all are slipping. That's definitely
fruit (berry). Which would mean I get about 1,000 times the
recommended daily fruit allowance... Then of course, there's the
non-dairy creamer, the sugar, and the occassional additives of
chocolate, cinnamon or vanilla. I knew there was a reason I could
survive for days on just coffee. It's packed full of fruits and
veggies!
Renate
Troia
> Siobhan <ne...@virulent.org> wrote:
>> "Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> wrote:
>>
>>> How much of an item does it take to count as an entry? If I have one radish
>>> chopped up in a salad, is that an entry? And are all sorts of lettuce just
>>> 'lettuce', or does each variety count separately? If a houseplant leaf falls
>>> into my mouth while I'm asleep, does that count?
>> Can I count spices if they're green?
>>
>> How 'bout juice?
>>
>> Siobhan
>> and what kind of vegetable is a clamato anyway
>
> I think you only get to count clamato as 1/2. The pulverized little
> clam dude parts blow it as a complete veggir.
>
> Nobody's mentioned coffee yet? Y'all are slipping.
I feel so ASHAMED !!!!!!!!
-- Troia
Dark Phoenix
"Renate" <rena...@runbox.com> wrote in message
news:6ma1q21qhqstot0dr...@4ax.com...
> Nobody's mentioned coffee yet? Y'all are slipping. That's definitely
> fruit (berry). Which would mean I get about 1,000 times the
> recommended daily fruit allowance... Then of course, there's the
> non-dairy creamer, the sugar, and the occassional additives of
> chocolate, cinnamon or vanilla. I knew there was a reason I could
> survive for days on just coffee. It's packed full of fruits and
> veggies!
And chocolate itself is a fruit/berry/something! And I eat lots of that!
Tetsab
> Well... it's been interesting having a ghostly (and largely
> imaginary) crowd looking over my shoulder, kibitzing on my
> reading, but I think that on a whole the "50 book challenge"
> would have to be considered a failure as far as encouraging
> discussion of books.
Remind me again where it wasn't a wholly imaginary kibitzing crowd? :D
> Even the "bookworms" series has been better in that respect.
I miss my monthly chats with ya'll and IX. Me and IX saying we liked
[or didn't like] some damn thing, you responding with a wtf? ;)
I see new bookworms has just popped up again. Ner done heard o' dat
book [upon a quick check it sounds interesting enough]. And it ain't in
either Laurier or York's systems. So that's that.
> I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
> a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
Thing is. We already did that [albeit, rather more light on The Rules].
I used it as the foundation of bookworms so that there'd be some books
in the hat to start with until participants started to suggest 'em:
http://members.tripod.com/~gothicbooks/agbl.html
> Let me take a stab at some rules:
I admire your belief that you'd get a quorum of 5. I'd also be cheered
up by seeing it come true [rather like I was cheered up by yourself and
IX, unexpectedly, regularly doing the bookworms thing].
I'd never nominate these days, but I would be open to reading, and also
to the novel experience of writing about a book as I read it.
This year I've started a series I'm calling "the unread and neglected
books of my apartment" [most of these books belong to Matthew since we
did that "glue the collections together" thing] due to increasing guilt
that I keep taking stuff out of the library when I have unread stuff
right at home. Anyone wanna talk about _Two Plays by Edward Albee_,
_Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales_, or Margaret Atwood's _Bluebeard's Egg_
and _Handmaid's Tale_?
[Today I'll probably start reading Atwood's _Life Before Man_ if anyone
happens to have that on a reading pile and wants to move it up to chat
with me for no good reason about it whenever we're both done. Heh].
Tetsab.
>^..^<
Tetsab
> 1. Fried potatoes (assuming we decide they do count)
The first thing I thought about 50 fruits and veggies was that it
should only be done if everybody promises not to get into the horrific
discussion of what's a fruit and what's a vegetable [as in, "is a
tomato an X or a Y". I didn't anticipate anyone saying howsabout
houseplants and clamato? :D (or, even, howsabout beans and tubers?)].
> How much of an item does it take to count as an entry? If I have one
> radish chopped up in a salad, is that an entry?
If I was to answer seriously on this I'd say it's supposed to be a "50
fruit and vegetables challenge" [like 50 book *challenge*]. To me
listing the wee bits of vegetables I find, say, in a tin of soup makes
this not so very much of a challenge.
So in order for this to be a challenge to me, as a veggie eater, I've
resolved that I can only count something if it's dominant in the meal
[like, say, if I wanted to be mentally ill about it I could post a
review of my meal experience with all the focus on X much like I could
post a review of one of the fifty books].
This means the only veggies that count for me so far, I think, are:
1) Carrots [were cooked in brown sugar & cinnamon as a side].
2) Sweet corn [another side dish, just outta the can though].
3) Potatoes [plate of homemade french fries (oil needed changing!)].
4) Spinach [as part of a spinach orzo casserole].
... Though if I wanted to make this really challenging for myself I'd
have to make it 25 fruits and 25 vegetables otherwise my list would be
pretty much all vegetables.
Now. If I was a fruit and veggie hater maybe I should count the bits in
my can of soup 'cause it's an accomplishment just to eat vegetable
matter as a veggie hater.
> And are all sorts of lettuce just 'lettuce', or does each variety
> count separately?
I dunno. Is eating different varieties of lettuce a challenge for ya'll
or something you do naturally [for me it'd be a challenge: I can't
remember the last time I ate a thing made of lettuce].
> If a houseplant leaf falls into my mouth while I'm asleep, does that
> count?
Only if you inhale.
Tetsab.
>^..^<
Dark Phoenix
"Tetsab" <Tet...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1168209939.9...@42g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...
Anyone wanna talk about _Two Plays by Edward Albee_,
> _Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales_, or Margaret Atwood's _Bluebeard's Egg_
> and _Handmaid's Tale_?
>
> [Today I'll probably start reading Atwood's _Life Before Man_ if anyone
> happens to have that on a reading pile and wants to move it up to chat
> with me for no good reason about it whenever we're both done. Heh].
>
I read _Bluebeard's Egg_ and _Handmaid_ so long ago, I don't know if I could
talk about them, really. I know I have _Life Before Man_ here, unread, if I
can find it, I'll put it next up.
Dark Phoenix
> If I was to answer seriously on this I'd say it's supposed to be a "50
> fruit and vegetables challenge" [like 50 book *challenge*]. To me
> listing the wee bits of vegetables I find, say, in a tin of soup makes
> this not so very much of a challenge.
If it needs to be a challange, then about the only thing that'd count would
be canned peas. Cannot abide those things, never could. Now, fresh off the
vine peas.... (insert slobbering noise here)
I *was* more or less being silly, anticipating the nitpicking that is sure
to follow on the announcement of anything of this sort...
kest
>
> If I was to answer seriously on this I'd say it's supposed to be a "50
> fruit and vegetables challenge" [like 50 book *challenge*]. To me
> listing the wee bits of vegetables I find, say, in a tin of soup makes
> this not so very much of a challenge.
>
I figured it was a challenge because once you get past the easy things, the
things you are already accustomed to eating and are in everything (like
tomatoes), you might have to go looking for new and different fruits and
veggies.
k
Joseph Brenner
>> Well... it's been interesting having a ghostly (and largely
>> imaginary) crowd looking over my shoulder, kibitzing on my
>> reading, but I think that on a whole the "50 book challenge"
>> would have to be considered a failure as far as encouraging
>> discussion of books.
>
> Remind me again where it wasn't a wholly imaginary kibitzing crowd? :D
Well, if you've got a bunch of thesis advisors hassling you about
gaps in your bibliography, then that's a non-imaginary kibitzing crowd.
>> I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
>> a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
[sic, already]
> Thing is. We already did that [albeit, rather more light on The Rules].
The lists that exist (that I know of) don't require more than a
single vote to gain entry.
Jennie's list of gothic films is a parital exception: the reader
is told the number of votes each item received.
> I used it as the foundation of bookworms so that there'd be some books
> in the hat to start with until participants started to suggest 'em:
>
> http://members.tripod.com/~gothicbooks/agbl.html
>
>> Let me take a stab at some rules:
>
> I admire your belief that you'd get a quorum of 5.
The idea of those Rules I was playing with, is not that they
would actually work in an sensible way, but that they would
require incessant discussion at nearly every stage of the
process.
If you don't ever get a quorum of 5, then nothing ever goes into
the canon. What's the problem? (Unless Napoleon attacks.)
> I'd never nominate these days,
And why would you?
Probably the biggest trouble with my Proposed Rules (from *my* point
of view, anyway) is that there doesn't seem to be any compelling
reason in this day and age to think about an alt.gothic canon, as
opposed to any other kind.
In all honesty, I'd be more interested in, say, books that help
define a bedrock understanding of the world. So the group would
would work on questions like "Dennet or Dawkins"? But then there
isn't much reason to do it on alt.gothic.
> but I would be open to reading, and also to the novel experience of
> writing about a book as I read it.
Myself, I don't like the way people have been maintaining a
respectful silence until they Finish the Book.
It's not at all unusual for a book to raise expectations that aren't
really fufilled, and I think there's a tendency to edit (some of)
those expectations out of your memory afterwards.
> This year I've started a series I'm calling "the unread and neglected
> books of my apartment" [most of these books belong to Matthew since we
> did that "glue the collections together" thing]
Ah. A serious step. There should be a ceremony for that.
> Anyone wanna talk about _Two Plays by Edward Albee_, _Hans
> Andersen's Fairy Tales_, or Margaret Atwood's _Bluebeard's Egg_
> and _Handmaid's Tale_?
Well, if you want to play by my Rules, you need to try to
convince us that there's some reason that we should.
The "Two Plays" would happen to be "Box and Quotations From Chairman
Mao Tse-Tung" would they? I saw a production of that many years ago.
whisky-dave
> <dark_p...@netw.com> wrote:
>
>>How much of an item does it take to count as an entry? If I have one
>>radish
>>chopped up in a salad, is that an entry? And are all sorts of lettuce just
>>'lettuce', or does each variety count separately? If a houseplant leaf
>>falls
>>into my mouth while I'm asleep, does that count?
>
> Can I count spices if they're green?
>
> How 'bout juice?
>
And how about drinking or smoking it ?
whisky-dave
"Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> wrote in message
news:s-KdndF707Z0GT3Y...@povn.com...
>
> "Troia" <troia....@gmail.removethis.com> wrote in message
> news:45a0474e$0$97273$892e...@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net...
>>
>> While you're at it, how about ketchup, huh?
>
> It counts as a vegetable for school lunch programs; who are we to hold
> ourselves to higher standards?
I tried organic ketchup on fish 'n' chips and it just didn't taste right,
it tasted of tomato's !. I was expecting sugary/sickly sweet taste to
complement the onion vinegar and gherkin.
Eeyore
whisky-dave wrote:
> "Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> wrote in message
> > "Troia" <troia....@gmail.removethis.com> wrote in message
> >
> >> While you're at it, how about ketchup, huh?
> >
> > It counts as a vegetable for school lunch programs; who are we to hold
> > ourselves to higher standards?
>
> I tried organic ketchup on fish 'n' chips and it just didn't taste right,
> it tasted of tomato's !. I was expecting sugary/sickly sweet taste to
> complement the onion vinegar and gherkin.
I love chips with horseradish cream.
Graham
enigma
news:1168210226.8...@i15g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
> The first thing I thought about 50 fruits and veggies was
> that it should only be done if everybody promises not to
> get into the horrific discussion of what's a fruit and
> what's a vegetable [as in, "is a tomato an X or a Y". I
> didn't anticipate anyone saying howsabout houseplants and
> clamato? :D (or, even, howsabout beans and tubers?)].
well, since it's fruits *and* vegetables, we should be able
to avoid much of the "is a tomato a fruit or veggie?"
discussion, because for this purpose, it doesn't matter (it is
a fruit though, speaking from a plant science POV).
as for houseplants, it depends on what they are. if they have
edible leaves, they'd be a veggie. if they're tomatoes, well,
fruit, but other than my weird tomato experiments, how many
people really grow tomatoes in the house?
clamato is only half veggie. they other half is yuck.
>> How much of an item does it take to count as an entry? If
>> I have one radish chopped up in a salad, is that an entry?
>
> If I was to answer seriously on this I'd say it's supposed
> to be a "50 fruit and vegetables challenge" [like 50 book
> *challenge*]. To me listing the wee bits of vegetables I
> find, say, in a tin of soup makes this not so very much of
> a challenge.
i agree.
> So in order for this to be a challenge to me, as a veggie
> eater, I've resolved that I can only count something if
> it's dominant in the meal [like, say, if I wanted to be
> mentally ill about it I could post a review of my meal
> experience with all the focus on X much like I could post a
> review of one of the fifty books].
>
> This means the only veggies that count for me so far, I
> think, are:
>
>. 4) Spinach [as part of a spinach orzo casserole].
can i have the spinich orzo casserole recipe, please? those
are 2 of Boo's favorites (he eats basil pesto out of the jar
too).
i bought a dragonfruit. at US$8/pound, i don't recommend it.
it was ok, but not worth the expense. it was bland, & slightly
sweet. if it was the same price as, say, bananas, it might be
worth bothering with.
pomegranites. i love pomegranites.
apples
pumpkin (as squash. i need to make some pumpkin custard &
maybe a pie or cheesecake. one of the few things that did well
in the garden was the pumpkins. fortunately they store well)
broccoli
potatoes (i have over 50 pounds... all blue potatoes make
really weird looking mashed potatoes. do NOT mix with all reds
when doing this or eat with your eyes closed)
we eat a lot of fruits & veggies.
lee
--
Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if
there be
one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of
blindfolded
fear. - Thomas Jefferson
Dark Phoenix
"Joseph Brenner" <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> wrote in message
news:87ac0u1...@kzsu.stanford.edu...
> Myself, I don't like the way people have been maintaining a
> respectful silence until they Finish the Book.
>
> It's not at all unusual for a book to raise expectations that aren't
> really fufilled, and I think there's a tendency to edit (some of)
> those expectations out of your memory afterwards.
You mean you want a sort of pre-review? Or a blow by blow of one's reactions
as they read a- "okay, I thought this guy had promise, but now he says that
we're all descended from monkey frogs having butt sex and he's lost me" sort
of thing?
Troia
> "Joseph Brenner" <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> wrote in message
> news:87ac0u1...@kzsu.stanford.edu...
>> Myself, I don't like the way people have been maintaining a
>> respectful silence until they Finish the Book.
>>
>> It's not at all unusual for a book to raise expectations that aren't
>> really fufilled, and I think there's a tendency to edit (some of)
>> those expectations out of your memory afterwards.
>
> You mean you want a sort of pre-review? Or a blow by blow of one's reactions
> as they read a- "okay, I thought this guy had promise, but now he says that
> we're all descended from monkey frogs having butt sex and he's lost me" sort
> of thing?
>
>
Uh ... what??
No, don't clarify.
Please.
-- Troia
Dark Phoenix
> Dark Phoenix wrote:
>> You mean you want a sort of pre-review? Or a blow by blow of one's
>> reactions as they read a- "okay, I thought this guy had promise, but now
>> he says that we're all descended from monkey frogs having butt sex and
>> he's lost me" sort of thing?
>>
>>
>
> Uh ... what??
>
> No, don't clarify.
>
> Please.
South Park. Where Mrs. Garrison tries to explain evolution to the class.
Joseph Brenner
"Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> writes:
> "Joseph Brenner" <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> wrote:
>> Myself, I don't like the way people have been maintaining a
>> respectful silence until they Finish the Book.
>>
>> It's not at all unusual for a book to raise expectations that aren't
>> really fufilled, and I think there's a tendency to edit (some of)
>> those expectations out of your memory afterwards.
>
> You mean you want a sort of pre-review? Or a blow by blow of one's reactions
> as they read a- "okay, I thought this guy had promise, but now he says that
> we're all descended from monkey frogs having butt sex and he's lost me" sort
> of thing?
What I mean is that there isn't any reason people shouldn't chime
in with comments like "Wow, there's some cool stuff in Chapter 3
about political control of nanotechnology, I wonder where he's
going with this."
You probably need to label all this stuff with "SPOILER" warnings
to keep from offending people of that persuasion, but that's no
biggie.
Joseph Brenner
Maybe a little exegesis is in order -- though just to make it
clear, I'm not under the delusion that this is the best or only
way that one might do this sort of thing...
Joseph Brenner <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> writes:
> I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
> a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
>
> Let me take a stab at some rules:
>
> (1) These should be Great Works from an alt.gothic point of
> view (though not necessarily works that are gothic or goth).
Right here at the outset, we've got some concepts that are
completely impossible to define precisely, and these are likely
to remain controversial. All part of the plan.
The specification that there be something uniquely alt.gothic
about the conception is important to avoid cut and pasting
someone else's list of great works. (Shakespeare? Well, okay...
but *which* Shakespeare?)
> (2) Anyone can nominate a book on the first of a month. After
> that it's up to others to either "second" it or submit a
> "blackball". If at the end of a month you've got at least
> 2 more seconds than blackballs then it goes into the
> reading list of candidates.
Note that: there's no specfication that the people voting have
actually read the work in question. Steering by sense of smell
is expected at this stage.
Further, if someone's serious about getting a book shot from the
cannon (or whatever) then they'd better be willing to make a case
for it.
> (3) The reading list is a fifo stack. A candidate is taken
> from the stack once every two months, and is read by an
> ad hoc, volunteer jury (i.e. anyone who's hanging around).
Probably the only step here that isn't over-planed.
> (4) The jury is expected to discuss the book *as they read it*.
Which is to say that different standards apply here than in
academic writing or newspaper reviewing.
The idea is to be biased toward saying whatever's in your head at
the moment. And discussion about the book being read should help
to remind people that it is being read, and help promote it to
people who might be interested.
> (5) A quorum of 5 readers is required to pass judgement on a
> work. A two-thirds "yes" vote is needed in order for a
> work to be declared one of the AG Greats.
As I was saying, it doesn't strike me as a problem if nothing
much makes it through the gauntlet.
But nothing prevents anyone from politicking in favor of a favorite.
("Could someone else *please* take a look at this book? We need
another vote!")
> (6) Ideally, there should be six rules, so someone is required
> to invent one before we can proceed.
Perhaps some side-bets on buzzword bingo cards.
Joseph Brenner
"Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> writes:
> "Kaos" <ka...@xplornet.com> wrote:
>> kest <ke...@spamfree.nettrip.org> wrote:
>>> Looks like I didn't make it anywhere near 50 for the year, although I
>>> beat the halfway mark and almost made it to 30. We gonna do this again
>>> in 2007?
>>
>> I've been bit hard by the otaku bug lately. I don't suppose graphic
>> novels will count?
>
> They certainly counted in 2006!
Anything counts that you feel like counting. A lot of Tenshi's
picks were graphic novels, as were some of mine.
Like most people, I felt the pressure to read less "crap"... though
a lot of that was a conscious choice I made at the beginning of the
year to make the challenge a little more challenging.
My year isn't over yet, by the way... I'm not through with my
year's worth of books:
Dark Phoenix
> What I mean is that there isn't any reason people shouldn't chime
> in with comments like "Wow, there's some cool stuff in Chapter 3
> about political control of nanotechnology, I wonder where he's
> going with this."
>
> You probably need to label all this stuff with "SPOILER" warnings
> to keep from offending people of that persuasion, but that's no
> biggie.
Cool! I get to innudate you poor people with *even more* book posts! (insert
evil laugh)
Sure you don't want to rethink this?
Maybe the book title should be in the subject line, since any post about the
book is apt to be a spoiler, unless it's just a "I'm going to read this
next"?
TenshiKurai9
> "Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> writes:
> > "Kaos" <ka...@xplornet.com> wrote:
> >> I've been bit hard by the otaku bug lately. I don't suppose graphic
> >> novels will count?
> >
> > They certainly counted in 2006!
>
> Anything counts that you feel like counting. A lot of Tenshi's
> picks were graphic novels, as were some of mine.
Excuse me, but I had two lists going. One was not graphic novels and
the other was graphic novels/similiar category items. I'll post my
final list for not graphic novels, which I almost made 50 with, and
there were no new entries for graphic novels. (I came home from work
New Year's Eve and read a.g. If I had read only two pages. . .)
-TenshiKurai9
Joseph Brenner
>> What I mean is that there isn't any reason people shouldn't chime
>> in with comments like "Wow, there's some cool stuff in Chapter 3
>> about political control of nanotechnology, I wonder where he's
>> going with this."
>>
>> You probably need to label all this stuff with "SPOILER" warnings
>> to keep from offending people of that persuasion, but that's no
>> biggie.
>
> Cool! I get to innudate you poor people with *even more* book posts! (insert
> evil laugh)
Yeah, that's the idea.
> Sure you don't want to rethink this?
Only if Atlanta learns to read.
> Maybe the book title should be in the subject line, since any post about the
> book is apt to be a spoiler, unless it's just a "I'm going to read this
> next"?
Myself, I think the book title should *always* be in the subject line.
Ganging up comments on ten books in one posting is an admission
that you don't expect anyone to reply to any of them.
Joseph Brenner
Joseph Brenner <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> writes:
> Further, if someone's serious about getting a book shot from the
> cannon (or whatever) then they'd better be willing to make a case
> for it.
Or shoved into it, you understand.
Joseph Brenner
"TenshiKurai9" <Tenshi...@gmail.com> writes:
> Joseph Brenner wrote:
>> "Dark Phoenix" <dark_p...@netw.com> writes:
>> > "Kaos" <ka...@xplornet.com> wrote:
Ah, I see. I didn't get what you were doing.
Tetsab
> I read _Bluebeard's Egg_ and _Handmaid_ so long ago, I don't know if
> I could talk about them, really.
I'm sure I won't be able to do it myself in a couple of weeks [well,
not without another flip-through. I'm not sure what my limit is on
being able to talk sensibly on a book even with a flip-through: when
memories expire].
There's always Brenner's school of bullshitting [not that this is
actually an endorsement here ;) ].
> I know I have _Life Before Man_ here, unread, if I can find it, I'll
> put it next up.
Well, if you do find it and feel like giving it a shot--and if you
don't it's, naturally, all cool--I've since finished _Life Before
Moose_ and would be interested in hearing your thoughts on it for two
main reasons:
The first would be because you've been an Atwood reader--even if it's a
little more on the gone side now--and so have had an experience of her
work beyond one book [so I share that with you now where I would not
have just a couple of days ago].
And, even more, I'd be interested in your experience of the book as a
non-Canadian, non-Torontoian because my sometime-status as one of those
firmly impacted how I read this book. It's hard to imagine what my
experience of the book would have been like without that.
[I know this post might then change how you experience it as it's hard
to ignore flags but your experience of that might be interesting too].
Tetsab.
>^..^<
--
"But the others are all playing a game that substitutes the word
'moose' for any other word in the title of a Canadian novel. It has to
be Canadian. This apparently is part of the joke." -- Atwood, LoM, 136.
Tetsab
>> Remind me again where it wasn't a wholly imaginary kibitzing crowd?
>> :D
> Well, if you've got a bunch of thesis advisors hassling you about
> gaps in your bibliography, then that's a non-imaginary kibitzing
> crowd.
Got a snare and cymbal in yer pocket?
I was just wondering how the scale of non-imaginary, largely imaginary
and wholly imaginary works. As in, did anyone at all comment on the
books you read as I couldn't actually recall [and doing an author
search on you and "50 books" turns up surprisingly little on first
flush (5 before the 'repeat with similar') but this is mostly 'cause
"Google groups" is pants].
>>> I think that what we should really be doing is working on forming
>>> a "cannon", an agreed-upon list of great works.
> [sic, already]
[... Wrong thread, but I never thought of that as a "vomit" kind of
word, more like "sic 'em, boy."]
>> Thing is. We already did that [albeit, rather more light on The
>> Rules].
> The lists that exist (that I know of) don't require more than a
> single vote to gain entry.
As I said: they're not so big on the rule thing.
The reason I brought it up is because I get fed-up with the endless
tossing out of what went before. I don't know how you'd get an a.g.
canon by setting aside great swaths of a.g. and trying to make
something out of the Now alone.
> Jennie's list of gothic films is a parital exception: the reader is
> told the number of votes each item received.
I haven't the foggiest how I missed this [ignoring the fact that I'm a
pretty darn pitiful film watcher].
> The idea of those Rules I was playing with, is not that they would
> actually work in an sensible way, but that they would require
> incessant discussion at nearly every stage of the process.
Sure it would require it, my point is that I'd be amazed to see you get
it; I don't actually believe folks really want to discuss planned books
here [hence my pleased amazement that you and IX did].
I like being wrong on this. It's a perception--right or wrong--I slip
into easily. Even right at the top I'm in it [as I said, I can't recall
if anyone said anything about your 50 books... if it wasn't a wholly
imaginary crowd].
> Myself, I don't like the way people have been maintaining a
> respectful silence until they Finish the Book.
Is there anywhere in the wider world where Talk After isn't the done
thing, such that a.g. would not be the first testing ground? [Book
clubs, conventional reviews, etc. are always Talk After. The closest
I've seen to talking through the process is in casual "I'm reading this
book. It's pretty good because of X, Y, & Z." Nothing as thoughtful as
end reviews usually are].
> It's not at all unusual for a book to raise expectations that aren't
> really fufilled, and I think there's a tendency to edit (some of)
> those expectations out of your memory afterwards.
Half the time I'm left thinking, "Why did you do *that*? How can I
re-write your book so that no one will figure out that I'm ripping you
off but fixing all the things you did wrong."
>> This year I've started a series I'm calling "the unread and
>> neglected books of my apartment" [most of these books belong to
>> Matthew since we did that "glue the collections together" thing]
> Ah. A serious step. There should be a ceremony for that.
Sadly none thought of here. Only happened 'cause we moved into a place
[two and a half years ago, hence the *increasing* guilt] that could
hold all of our books in one place.
> Well, if you want to play by my Rules, you need to try to convince
> us that there's some reason that we should.
... Or see if people will second or blackball the words "Handmaid's
Tale" on the first of the month since plenty of folks have already read
the thing already [Very Best Of All, continuing from the above, it's
the first book mentioned in the "general fiction" section by two former
a.g. types].
> The "Two Plays" would happen to be "Box and Quotations From Chairman
> Mao Tse-Tung" would they? I saw a production of that many years
> ago.
'fraid not. They're _Zoo Story_ and _American Dream_. Matthew noted as
I started into it that he went to a production of the former [also,
many years ago].
Tetsab.
>^..^<
Tetsab
> I figured it was a challenge because once you get past the easy
> things, the things you are already accustomed to eating and are in
> everything (like tomatoes), you might have to go looking for new
> and different fruits and veggies.
I thought that too and mentioned it to Matthew who then reeled off a
list of pretty everyday fruits and vegetables and it surprised me how
high up you could get with a pretty boring list.
... Then again, pretty much everyone who didn't pack it in was done
their 50 beers by mid-year too [so damn that as a challenge while we're
at it too ;) ].
Tetsab.
>^..^<
Tetsab
> well, since it's fruits *and* vegetables, we should be able
> to avoid much of the "is a tomato a fruit or veggie?"
> discussion, because for this purpose, it doesn't matter
I could never trust that sort of reasoning as those "is it a fruit or
is it a veg." people are wily...
> (it is a fruit though, speaking from a plant science POV).
See! See!
> can i have the spinich orzo casserole recipe, please?
Spinach and orzo for all!
8 oz orzo
3 tsp olive oil
8 scallions, sliced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tbs grated Parmesan
salt
pepper
nutmeg
20 oz chopped spinach (easiest w/ two packets of frozen stuff)
1/3 cup bread crumbs
- Coat shallow 2-quart casserole with no-stick substance.
- Cook orzo according to package. Drain, rinse, etc. Place in bowl and
drizzle with 1 tsp [I'm a little more liberal than that but the
original also recommended low fat cottage cheese, etc. etc.] of the
olive oil and toss.
- Warm remaining oil in skillet over medium heat. Add scallions, saute
for 4 minutes, add garlic for another one, then the orzo.
- In medium bowl lightly beat all the egg, cheese and spices. Add the
spinach, mix well. Add to the orzo pot and mix well again.
- Transfer to the casserole, sprinkle with the crumbs and bake at 350
degrees 30-35 minutes "or until heated through".
... I vouch for it tasting a whole lot like spinach and orzo [next
time, personally, I'm doing about half that amount of spinach and might
see about the integration of some tomato bits].
> i bought a dragonfruit. at US$8/pound, i don't recommend it.
> it was ok, but not worth the expense. it was bland, & slightly
> sweet. if it was the same price as, say, bananas, it might be
> worth bothering with.
Heh. I want more of these sorts of reviews. I've still got nuthin'
interesting [heck, I think I've only added tomatoes and spring onions
since last post].
Tetsab.
>^..^<
Dark Phoenix
> Dark Phoenix wrote:
>> I know I have _Life Before Man_ here, unread, if I can find it, I'll
>> put it next up.
>
> Well, if you do find it and feel like giving it a shot--and if you
> don't it's, naturally, all cool--I've since finished _Life Before
> Moose_ and would be interested in hearing your thoughts on it for two
> main reasons:
>
> The first would be because you've been an Atwood reader--even if it's a
> little more on the gone side now--and so have had an experience of her
> work beyond one book [so I share that with you now where I would not
> have just a couple of days ago].
>
> And, even more, I'd be interested in your experience of the book as a
> non-Canadian, non-Torontoian because my sometime-status as one of those
> firmly impacted how I read this book. It's hard to imagine what my
> experience of the book would have been like without that.
>
> [I know this post might then change how you experience it as it's hard
> to ignore flags but your experience of that might be interesting too].
>
I did find Life Before, and started it yesterday. Not very far yet; been
spending time doing crafts.
I remember The Handmoose's Tale fairly well; Bluebeard not at all, I'm
afraid. Cat's Eye is my all time favorite Atwood. I can remember Oryx &
Crake pretty well (latest read Atwood), as well as Robber Bride. I have
Blind Assassin here, unread so far. I know I've read others, but can't
remember their names.
I'll report in on Life Before soon....
Troia
> enigma wrote:
...
>> i bought a dragonfruit. at US$8/pound, i don't recommend it.
>> it was ok, but not worth the expense. it was bland, & slightly
>> sweet. if it was the same price as, say, bananas, it might be
>> worth bothering with.
>
> Heh. I want more of these sorts of reviews. I've still got nuthin'
> interesting [heck, I think I've only added tomatoes and spring onions
> since last post].
>
> Tetsab.
>> ^..^<
>
course they appeal to a certain sense of taste. They're a crispy apple
with a taste very much like apples-and-honey (if they are good ones.)
Currently my favorite apple, and they have hit the markets hard this
year. [I am presuming I can't fill my list with different types of
apples, as that would cover about 40% of the total.] If you don't like
the Ambrosia, some others to try are Winesap (a very old apple but fine
in taste, hard to find), Macoun (almost impossible to find but white
flesh and an amazing flavor), Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Cameo.
The Teen Terror has a thing for Satsumas, but I don't like most
tangerines although I love Minneola Tangelos. The latter are actually a
cross between orange and grapefruit, but before you go "bleh!" know that
it's not all that noticeable except that they are not wholly "sweet"
like some oranges, have a delightful tang instead. Very very juicy, and
should be without seeds (as the seeded ones tend to somehow have less
taste & be not as plumply juicy. The Tangelos should become readily
available soon, the Satsumas are almost all gone.
This is also the time of year for seckle pears, although they only
appeal to a certain taste. They are "dry" and mild in taste. On the
opposite side of the spectrum is the comice, very soft and juicy and
sweetly flavorful (but don't let them over-ripen.)
I have cravings for snap beans and snow peas, so I eat them almost every
day, raw. Get stringless if they are available, just for convenience
and as there's definitely no less taste in them. Or don't legumes count?
For potatoes, if you have not had Yukon gold, you should surely try
them. I don't think I can properly describe their flavor, though
perhaps "buttery" comes to mind, but they are outstanding even just
roasted. We also do medium reds in slices, sauteed, sometimes slightly
spiced.
Hope that at least gives you some thoughts on non-routine variants of
ordinary fruits & veg's.
And I am not a vegetarian!
-- Troia
enigma
news:1168412814.0...@i39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:
> enigma wrote:
>
>> well, since it's fruits *and* vegetables, we should be
>> able to avoid much of the "is a tomato a fruit or veggie?"
>> discussion, because for this purpose, it doesn't matter
>
> I could never trust that sort of reasoning as those "is it
> a fruit or is it a veg." people are wily...
>
>> (it is a fruit though, speaking from a plant science POV).
>
> See! See!
i only tossed that in because i have to use my college
education somehow ;)
>
>> can i have the spinich orzo casserole recipe, please?
>
> Spinach and orzo for all!
<snip>
thanks! i have everything but the cottage cheese on hand.
>> i bought a dragonfruit. <snip>
> Heh. I want more of these sorts of reviews. I've still got
> nuthin' interesting [heck, I think I've only added tomatoes
> and spring onions since last post].
today's 'fill-the-freezers' trip added Blood oranges to my
collection. i love them. they're a bit less sweet than regular
oranges & have a faint almost raspberry undertaste. there are
two type of blood oranges. the ones i got today are Moros. i
like they other kind better, but they're a bit later to ripen
& not as common (not that blood oranges are common, at least
in New England. i'm hoping for a couple seeds so i can plant
them).
i bought a few different lettuces, including romaine &
raddichio because those are my tortoises favorites <g>, crappy
hot house tomatoes, sweet onions, & spinach. i still have
chard in the garden (unless the chickens ate it...) & my
tomato experiment going (i brought the tomatoes i never got
around to planting inside & have them in the dining room under
lights, still in the starter pellets. yes, they *are* bearing
tomatoes! now i know which heirloom tomatoes are impossible to
kill ;) (the best are the current tomatoes, white, yellow &
red))
Bob Terwilliger
> The Teen Terror has a thing for Satsumas, but I don't like most tangerines
> although I love Minneola Tangelos. The latter are actually a cross
> between orange and grapefruit, but before you go "bleh!" know that it's
> not all that noticeable except that they are not wholly "sweet" like some
> oranges, have a delightful tang instead. Very very juicy, and should be
> without seeds (as the seeded ones tend to somehow have less taste & be not
> as plumply juicy. The Tangelos should become readily available soon, the
> Satsumas are almost all gone.
Have you tried Cara Cara oranges?
> This is also the time of year for seckle pears, although they only appeal
> to a certain taste. They are "dry" and mild in taste. On the opposite
> side of the spectrum is the comice, very soft and juicy and sweetly
> flavorful (but don't let them over-ripen.)
Seckel pears are good for cooking. Try making Poire Belle-Hélène with them.
Bob
Renate
>Troia wrote:
>
>> The Teen Terror has a thing for Satsumas, but I don't like most tangerines
>> although I love Minneola Tangelos. The latter are actually a cross
>> between orange and grapefruit, but before you go "bleh!" know that it's
>> not all that noticeable except that they are not wholly "sweet" like some
>> oranges, have a delightful tang instead. Very very juicy, and should be
>> without seeds (as the seeded ones tend to somehow have less taste & be not
>> as plumply juicy. The Tangelos should become readily available soon, the
>> Satsumas are almost all gone.
>
>Have you tried Cara Cara oranges?
I don't think we get those here in the middle-west. Lucky to find
Tangelos that weren't picked purely green.
>
>
>> This is also the time of year for seckle pears, although they only appeal
>> to a certain taste. They are "dry" and mild in taste. On the opposite
>> side of the spectrum is the comice, very soft and juicy and sweetly
>> flavorful (but don't let them over-ripen.)
>
>Seckel pears are good for cooking. Try making Poire Belle-Hélène with them.
Asian pears have always been a favorite. Crunch of an apple, and
almost sweetness of a pear.
Renate
Troia
> Troia wrote:
>
>> ... The Tangelos should become readily available soon, the
>> Satsumas are almost all gone.
>
> Have you tried Cara Cara oranges?
I do not recall if I did, last year, but they are on sale this week and
I will take that as a recommendation (to try them.)
As may be obvious, I'm rather delighted by the growing range of fruits &
veg's that is available to us, new things each year and so very
different from when I was a child.
-- Troia
Troia
> ...
> i bought a few different lettuces, including romaine &
> raddichio because those are my tortoises favorites <g>, crappy
> hot house tomatoes, sweet onions,
But *what* sweet onions? Walla Walla sweets are totally different from
Vidalias.
-- Troia
enigma
news:45a57042$0$97236$892e...@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net:
true... they're NY State OSOs (O So Sweet is the variety).
Vidalias only taste 'right' if they're grown in a very
locallized area. Vidalias grown anywhere else aren't the same.
they taste more sulfury. they don't keep for crap either. you
have to freeze them for long term use.
the tomatoes are the bunching type sold on the stem, rather
like oversized cherry tomatoes. they do at least taste more
like tomato than cardboard.
is there something going on with red onions this year? i
haven't been seeing them around, just yellow, Spanish & white,
or Vidalias & OSOs.
Troia
> Troia <troia....@gmail.removethis.com> wrote in
> news:45a57042$0$97236$892e...@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net:
>
>> enigma wrote:
>>> ...
>>> i bought a few different lettuces, including romaine &
>>> raddichio because those are my tortoises favorites <g>,
>>> crappy hot house tomatoes, sweet onions,
>> But *what* sweet onions? Walla Walla sweets are totally
>> different from Vidalias.
>
> true... they're NY State OSOs (O So Sweet is the variety).
> Vidalias only taste 'right' if they're grown in a very
> locallized area. Vidalias grown anywhere else aren't the same.
> they taste more sulfury. they don't keep for crap either. you
> have to freeze them for long term use.
Walla Walla's are the same, have to be grown *there* (though one can buy
sets and grow sweet onions.)
> the tomatoes are the bunching type sold on the stem, rather
> like oversized cherry tomatoes. they do at least taste more
> like tomato than cardboard.
Yes, here they're just referred to as "vine ripened" but they are pretty
flavorful compared to today's market tomatoes. (Ugh, don't get me going!!)
Also some of the "grape" tomatoes (very small) are good here, and in
some mini-plum varieties.
>
> is there something going on with red onions this year? i
> haven't been seeing them around, just yellow, Spanish & white,
> or Vidalias & OSOs.
> lee
I haven't looked, but now I will.
-- Troia
Renate
>Troia <troia....@gmail.removethis.com> wrote
>>> ...
>>> i bought a few different lettuces, including romaine &
>>> raddichio because those are my tortoises favorites <g>,
>>> crappy hot house tomatoes, sweet onions,
>>
>> But *what* sweet onions? Walla Walla sweets are totally
>> different from Vidalias.
>
> true... they're NY State OSOs (O So Sweet is the variety).
> Vidalias only taste 'right' if they're grown in a very
>locallized area. Vidalias grown anywhere else aren't the same.
>they taste more sulfury. they don't keep for crap either. you
>have to freeze them for long term use.
Apparently something to do with the soil and growing conditions. We
have friends ship them up to us periodically, rather than get some
conterfeit (they are out there). Nothing like a large slice of
Vidalia, on a charcoal grilled burger.
> the tomatoes are the bunching type sold on the stem, rather
>like oversized cherry tomatoes. they do at least taste more
>like tomato than cardboard.
Also expensive. One nice thing about living here, is that there's
rarely any snow, and the growing season iis longer. I threw mulch
doewn over what I thought were "done" plants, and found more tomatoes
a few months later.
>
> is there something going on with red onions this year? i
>haven't been seeing them around, just yellow, Spanish & white,
>or Vidalias & OSOs.
I love to cook with them, and I've noticed that the bins aren't as
full, and the quality is way off. They appear old.
Renate
kest
> Ganging up comments on ten books in one posting is an admission
> that you don't expect anyone to reply to any of them.
>
Hm, and here I thought it was giving people more things to potentially
respond to.
k
NightMist
wrote:
>Troia <troia....@gmail.removethis.com> wrote in
>news:45a57042$0$97236$892e...@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net:
>
>> enigma wrote:
>>> ...
>>> i bought a few different lettuces, including romaine &
>>> raddichio because those are my tortoises favorites <g>,
>>> crappy hot house tomatoes, sweet onions,
>>
>> But *what* sweet onions? Walla Walla sweets are totally
>> different from Vidalias.
>
> true... they're NY State OSOs (O So Sweet is the variety).
> Vidalias only taste 'right' if they're grown in a very
>locallized area. Vidalias grown anywhere else aren't the same.
>they taste more sulfury. they don't keep for crap either. you
>have to freeze them for long term use.
We tend to get NY Bolds for most cooking. They are good and strong
and go further with better flavor in most day to day things.
I've only got post stamp sized space to work with and clay heavy soil
besides, so most onions are right out so far as gardening. I have a
spot sufficiently conditioned that I get some scallions and shallots.
Of course we have garlic spotted all over the place as a pest
repellent.
Really sweet onions are more of a treat at my house, only bought for
specially pre-planned things.
> the tomatoes are the bunching type sold on the stem, rather
>like oversized cherry tomatoes. they do at least taste more
>like tomato than cardboard.
I was so ticked off about my tomatoes last year! The huge sugar maple
in my neighbors yard kicked up and spread further over my yard so not
only did my tomatoes (early girls) not ripen, they were infested with
cutter worms. Going to have to move them closer to the house this
year.
>
> is there something going on with red onions this year? i
>haven't been seeing them around, just yellow, Spanish & white,
>or Vidalias & OSOs.
We did need a red for the holidays, had a hell of a time finding one
that was worth the price. May have been a poor harvest. Reds are
supposed to be quite blight resistant.
NightMist
--
Come to the dark side.
We have cookies.
enigma
news:45a5f3e1...@news.madbbs.com:
> On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:31:44 +0000 (UTC), enigma
> <eni...@evil.net> wrote:
>> true... they're NY State OSOs (O So Sweet is the variety).
>> Vidalias only taste 'right' if they're grown in a very
>>locallized area. Vidalias grown anywhere else aren't the
>>same. they taste more sulfury. they don't keep for crap
>>either. you have to freeze them for long term use.
>
> We tend to get NY Bolds for most cooking. They are good
> and strong and go further with better flavor in most day to
> day things. I've only got post stamp sized space to work
> with and clay heavy soil besides, so most onions are right
> out so far as gardening. I have a spot sufficiently
> conditioned that I get some scallions and shallots. Of
> course we have garlic spotted all over the place as a pest
> repellent.
i am putting a lot of the garden into raised beds. that might
be an idea if you want to grow onions, potatoes & carrots. i
use 2x8s for the boxes (4 foot square) & stack two for the
carrots & potatoes.
i'm a big fan of colored carrots. the purple, white, red &
yellows all taste much different than normal orange carrots.
the white are the least 'carroty' & the sweetest.
my grandpa had a HUGE garden in Kennedy & it was mostly sandy
loam, but their house is on a sand hill by the creek (not so
good when the well collapses). i wasn't aware there was a lot
of clay in the area too...
most of NY had a crap growing year with all the flooding. the
best onion & potato land is right along the rivers, so they
either washed out or didn't dry enough to plant until too late
in the season. onions are day length dependant, so the timing
is vital.
> Really sweet onions are more of a treat at my house, only
> bought for specially pre-planned things.
the allele for sweetness doesn't go with the one for keeping
ability, apparently (onion genetics aren't exactly my
interest). at least, IME, the ones that keep best are the more
sulpherous ones (they taste more oniony<g>). at least onions
are really easy to either dry or freeze. my cellar is cool
enough to store potatoes, but not sweet onions, so i buy as
needed also.
i did discover mice eat potatoes, as much of my 50 pounds has
been nibbled :p i'm now letting Faye hang out in the basement
if she wants. i know she won't use the dirt floor as a litter
box (something i don't trust the other cats about). at least
the mice haven't been into my seed potatoes!
> I was so ticked off about my tomatoes last year! The huge
> sugar maple in my neighbors yard kicked up and spread
> further over my yard so not only did my tomatoes (early
> girls) not ripen, they were infested with cutter worms.
> Going to have to move them closer to the house this year.
are you sure it's a sugar maple? my sugar maples make a far
less dense shade than the damned Norway maples (which will
meet their demise this year! i *hate* the damnable things!
fortunately my state recognizes they are a noxious weed & no
one can buy, sell or propagate them here anymore)
i have a horrible tomato habit, i confess. i started only 82
seedlings last year... and i already have a few new-to-me
heirloom seeds this year, on top of the types i had last
year... BTW, if you can find current tomato seeds in any of
the colors (red, yellow or white), i highly recommend them for
flavor, production under adverse conditions & cuteness.
they're smaller than cherry tomatoes, & grow in big trusses
(up to 20) on the vines. i also liked the Summer Cider
tomatoes.
>> is there something going on with red onions this year? i
>>haven't been seeing them around, just yellow, Spanish &
>>white, or Vidalias & OSOs.
>
> We did need a red for the holidays, had a hell of a time
> finding one that was worth the price. May have been a poor
> harvest. Reds are supposed to be quite blight resistant.
must have been the flooding...
NightMist
wrote:
>night...@gmail.com (NightMist) wrote in
>news:45a5f3e1...@news.madbbs.com:
>> We tend to get NY Bolds for most cooking. They are good
>> and strong and go further with better flavor in most day to
>> day things. I've only got post stamp sized space to work
>> with and clay heavy soil besides, so most onions are right
>> out so far as gardening. I have a spot sufficiently
>> conditioned that I get some scallions and shallots. Of
>> course we have garlic spotted all over the place as a pest
>> repellent.
>
> i am putting a lot of the garden into raised beds. that might
>be an idea if you want to grow onions, potatoes & carrots. i
>use 2x8s for the boxes (4 foot square) & stack two for the
>carrots & potatoes.
We are thinking of going to raised beds were we can.
Daughter3 wants to do strawberries, and in a small space you pretty
much have to do those in raised beds.
Since I dont have a lot of space I try to be picky about what I put
in, things that are expensive at the grocery or highly space
efficient.
> i'm a big fan of colored carrots. the purple, white, red &
>yellows all taste much different than normal orange carrots.
>the white are the least 'carroty' & the sweetest.
> my grandpa had a HUGE garden in Kennedy & it was mostly sandy
>loam, but their house is on a sand hill by the creek (not so
>good when the well collapses). i wasn't aware there was a lot
>of clay in the area too...
In a lot of places you go about three feet down and you find some of
the nicest white kaolin. In my case the yard is on the edge of the
old clay pit that used to supply Potters Alley. Plus a former tenent
got the bright notion of leveling the yard with dirt the construction
crews had left over when they redid the road out front. So the back
yard is a right mess.
Last time I put in a few carrots I got big lush tops and roots that
were seriously weenie, like smaller than fingerling weenie. There
really isn't the room to make cheap root crops worth the bother
anyway. I am trying to get a decent yield of shallots though, those
are pricey.
> i did discover mice eat potatoes, as much of my 50 pounds has
>been nibbled :p i'm now letting Faye hang out in the basement
>if she wants. i know she won't use the dirt floor as a litter
>box (something i don't trust the other cats about). at least
>the mice haven't been into my seed potatoes!
They keep better and it keeps the mice off if you store them in tubs
of sand. My stepfather-in-law used to put at least two acres to
potatos, and my grandad used to do about half that. sFIL made a proper
root cellar and grandad ised baskets, but they both layered sand with
the taters those kept very well indeed.
>
>> I was so ticked off about my tomatoes last year! The huge
>> sugar maple in my neighbors yard kicked up and spread
>> further over my yard so not only did my tomatoes (early
>> girls) not ripen, they were infested with cutter worms.
>> Going to have to move them closer to the house this year.
>
>are you sure it's a sugar maple? my sugar maples make a far
>less dense shade than the damned Norway maples (which will
>meet their demise this year! i *hate* the damnable things!
>fortunately my state recognizes they are a noxious weed & no
>one can buy, sell or propagate them here anymore)
Oh yes.
Problem is it filled in the last sunny spot. There are all kinds of
trees bounding the yard out back, and so I had just one small area
that I could grow plants requiring direct sun. The backyard is now
delegated to full and partial shade only. I am in the planning
process of putting in raised beds to grow some hot ticket barter
items, golden seal, mandrake, ginseng, angelica, and the like. All
shade plants, all worth triple their weight or more in good veggies
and such. A pain in the butt to prep for, you have to embed screening
to keep off the root nibblers, and take a lot of precautions to keep
off woodchucks and such who think the tops are a fine feed. But being
in town I actually have a bit of advantage re varmits.
> i have a horrible tomato habit, i confess. i started only 82
>seedlings last year... and i already have a few new-to-me
>heirloom seeds this year, on top of the types i had last
>year... BTW, if you can find current tomato seeds in any of
>the colors (red, yellow or white), i highly recommend them for
>flavor, production under adverse conditions & cuteness.
>they're smaller than cherry tomatoes, & grow in big trusses
>(up to 20) on the vines. i also liked the Summer Cider
>tomatoes.
I buy plants living here. I do starts every few years, but don't get
enough sun in any of my windows to make doing it worth the bother for
anything but difficult germmination issues.
I usually do slicers one year and paste tomatos the next. I only put
in cherry or grape tomatoes if one of the kids wants to have a go at
gardening.
I've always been fond of brandywines and romas. Tried the early girls
last year to see if I could get a better yield in this small space.
I'm not sure what to put in this year, but I know for damn sure I
don't want another year of having to buy the dammned things!
NightMist
thinking of trying tarragon again in a more sheltered spot
Joseph Brenner
"Tetsab" <Tet...@gmail.com> writes:
> Joseph Brenner wrote:
> I was just wondering how the scale of non-imaginary, largely imaginary
> and wholly imaginary works. As in, did anyone at all comment on the
> books you read as I couldn't actually recall
Oh, there were one or two remarks, but that's pretty much the
case for everyone's lists. I'm not whining about people ignoring
mine -- I find that I can't really comment on anyone else's either.
(I'm happy to play a nearly empty hand, but if you haven't even
cracked the book it's a little much to add your comments on it).
Books take a long time to read, and there are a lot of them.
If there's no agreed upon book to focus on, getting any
discussion about it is nearly impossible.
> [and doing an author search on you and "50 books" turns up
> surprisingly little on first flush (5 before the 'repeat with
> similar') but this is mostly 'cause "Google groups" is pants].
Let's see is that "fifty" or "50". Or maybe it has to be "Fifty"?
>>> Thing is. We already did that [albeit, rather more light on The
>>> Rules].
>
>> The lists that exist (that I know of) don't require more than a
>> single vote to gain entry.
>
> As I said: they're not so big on the rule thing.
>
> The reason I brought it up is because I get fed-up with the endless
> tossing out of what went before. I don't know how you'd get an a.g.
> canon by setting aside great swaths of a.g. and trying to make
> something out of the Now alone.
Okay, that's a good point.
But then how do you deal with the old list that has the complete
works of Charles DeLint tossed in because one person liked his
stuff?
Though looking at this one (beware, obnoxious advertising):
http://members.tripod.com/~gothicbooks/agbl.html
There's only one DeLint book that made it in.
>> Jennie's list of gothic films is a parital exception: the reader is
>> told the number of votes each item received.
>
> I haven't the foggiest how I missed this [ignoring the fact that I'm a
> pretty darn pitiful film watcher].
Well, I like pitiful films, myself.
Actually, I don't know where I got the idea it was Jennie's project...
the Ferret started it, and Peter handled the count:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.gothic/browse_frm/thread/55d11ded4240a5cd/fdfa64c55eab7ee5
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.gothic/browse_thread/thread/ea0ee152e2521ea4/62ca89ab44b39a4a
(And if those links don't work, try searching on "the man with
the x-ray eyes".)
>> The idea of those Rules I was playing with, is not that they would
>> actually work in an sensible way, but that they would require
>> incessant discussion at nearly every stage of the process.
>
> Sure it would require it, my point is that I'd be amazed to see you get
> it;
Well that's a problem. I might not feel like it, myself.
> I don't actually believe folks really want to discuss planned books
> here [hence my pleased amazement that you and IX did].
Your idea here was maybe "have planned book discussions"?
>> Myself, I don't like the way people have been maintaining a
>> respectful silence until they Finish the Book.
>
> Is there anywhere in the wider world where Talk After isn't the done
> thing, such that a.g. would not be the first testing ground? [Book
> clubs, conventional reviews, etc. are always Talk After. The closest
> I've seen to talking through the process is in casual "I'm reading this
> book. It's pretty good because of X, Y, & Z." Nothing as thoughtful as
> end reviews usually are].
Everyone once in a great while you'll see some enthusiastic
remarks from somone who's just started a book.
I'll write things like that myself on occasion, usually closing
with a tag like "It'll be interesting to see where this is going."
>> It's not at all unusual for a book to raise expectations that aren't
>> really fufilled, and I think there's a tendency to edit (some of)
>> those expectations out of your memory afterwards.
>
> Half the time I'm left thinking, "Why did you do *that*? How can I
> re-write your book so that no one will figure out that I'm ripping you
> off but fixing all the things you did wrong."
I have that feeling on occasion. Often it's a more low-level
thing like "Hm, you left out a line of dialog here. You needed
to have someone say something like *this*."
If you don't mind wandering far afield: I think this is a problem
with the way handle our literature, with the idea of text owned
by one particular author. Once upon a time, texts were developed
in a more collaborative fashion, with multiple people making
changes over generations.
It's conceivable that the wiki/creative commons folks will
re-invent this at some point.
(If you don't like the "vote on a canon" game, there's always
the "let's write a novel together" game.)
>>> This year I've started a series I'm calling "the unread and
>>> neglected books of my apartment" [most of these books belong to
>>> Matthew since we did that "glue the collections together" thing]
>
>> Ah. A serious step. There should be a ceremony for that.
>
> Sadly none thought of here. Only happened 'cause we moved into a place
> [two and a half years ago, hence the *increasing* guilt] that could
> hold all of our books in one place.
Perhaps a ritual burning of one of the other person's books.
One last chance to object to an inclusion into the library.
>> Well, if you want to play by my Rules, you need to try to convince
>> us that there's some reason that we should.
>
> ... Or see if people will second or blackball the words "Handmaid's
> Tale" on the first of the month since plenty of folks have already read
> the thing already [Very Best Of All, continuing from the above, it's
> the first book mentioned in the "general fiction" section by two former
> a.g. types].
I'm like to do the shunning thing myself. I have a block on
Atwood, that I admit is not a rational block, but I don't care
enough about it to work through it.
She's on the Never To Be Read list, along with people like Philip Roth.
Troia
> ...
> the allele for sweetness doesn't go with the one for keeping
> ability, apparently (onion genetics aren't exactly my
> interest). at least, IME, the ones that keep best are the more
> sulpherous ones (they taste more oniony<g>). at least onions
> are really easy to either dry or freeze. my cellar is cool
> enough to store potatoes, but not sweet onions, so i buy as
> needed also.
Have you tried Walla Wallas? While they won't be the same as those
grown in that place, my experience of them is that they keep relatively
well in a cool place. I used to buy the "salad onions" which is when
they are small but sold with the tops on, and put in the fridge, and
they'd keep (with decent flavor) for perhaps 2 mos. that way. (I don't
have a cellar to work with these days.) And they are so very good raw,
just straight in a salad or sandwich or whatever.
>BTW, if you can find current tomato seeds in any of
> the colors (red, yellow or white), i highly recommend them for
> flavor, production under adverse conditions & cuteness.
> they're smaller than cherry tomatoes, & grow in big trusses
> (up to 20) on the vines.
(Not being nit-picky but just trying to understand) is this a reference
to something called "currant tomatoes", do you mean? We have "grape
tomatoes" here, even in the markets, and they are smaller than cherry,
more of a "plum" tomato shape,, and in various colors and very tasty
usually.
-- Troia
enigma
news:45a684b7$0$97248$892e...@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net:
> Have you tried Walla Wallas? While they won't be the same
> as those grown in that place, my experience of them is that
> they keep relatively well in a cool place.
hmm. do tomatoes like onions? i usually interplant them with
lemon marigolds (lemon scented, although they tend to yellow
flowers too)
>>BTW, if you can find current tomato seeds in any of
>> the colors (red, yellow or white), i highly recommend them
>> for flavor, production under adverse conditions &
>> cuteness. they're smaller than cherry tomatoes, & grow in
>> big trusses (up to 20) on the vines.
>
> (Not being nit-picky but just trying to understand) is this
> a reference to something called "currant tomatoes", do you
> mean? We have "grape tomatoes" here, even in the markets,
> and they are smaller than cherry, more of a "plum" tomato
> shape,, and in various colors and very tasty usually.
yes, it's a type of tomato. the fruit (sorry, Tetsab) is
about 1/2" across. very tiny & very tasty. i have seeds for
red, yellow & white ones. they're a short indeterminate (that
is, mine didn't get over 6' or so) plant that bears pretty
heavily. they rarely make it from the garden up to the house.
so far i already have 31 varieties of tomato seeds & i
haven't started ordering yet.
is there a 12 step program for heirloom seed junkies? i seem
to be getting quite the pepper collection too (only 9
varieties so far, but still!)
Troia
> ...
> so far i already have 31 varieties of tomato seeds & i
> haven't started ordering yet.
> is there a 12 step program for heirloom seed junkies? i seem
> to be getting quite the pepper collection too (only 9
> varieties so far, but still!)
> lee
The program would do you in: you have to move to a place that doesn't
have a yard,
*sigh*
I'm afraid that, from what I've seen, "heirloom seeds" are a lifelong
obsession for most who have it. Roses work that way, too.
-- Troia
Dark Phoenix
"Joseph Brenner" <do...@kzsu.stanford.edu> wrote in message
news:87d55lz...@kzsu.stanford.edu...
> I'm like to do the shunning thing myself. I have a block on
> Atwood, that I admit is not a rational block, but I don't care
> enough about it to work through it.
>
> She's on the Never To Be Read list, along with people like Philip Roth.
>
Okay, I agree wholeheartedly on Roth, but I'm interested in what you have
against Atwood. Do you feel it's chick-lit?
fnordikins
>
> I'm afraid that, from what I've seen, "heirloom seeds" are a lifelong
> obsession for most who have it. Roses work that way, too.
>
*drool*
Black From Tula, Rose de Berne...
enigma
news:pan.2007.01.11....@yahoo.com:
have you seen the new climbing deep purple Night Owl rose?
http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/66773-product.html
the photo on Wayside Garden's site makes it look a deeper
plum color, but i suspect White Flower Farm's photo is more
accurate.
roses don't seem to like my microclimates, although i haven't
killed my Fourth of July climber yet. i had a rosa rugosa kick
the bucket last summer. that's depressing considering rugosas
are pretty tough.
the previous owner planted totally inappropriate roses
(stupid hybrid teas), most of which have died, or died to the
rootstock at least. i have one that blooms from both the graft
& the rootstock so in early summer it's red & in late summer
it's tangerine. both look like hybrid teas of some type, but
i'm not a fan so i couldn't even guess what they are.
now, old roses.... i could get addicted to those...