Hardyville Tales by Claire Wolfe “Like A Prairie Home Companion … with grenades!” — Michael W. Dean, filmmaker and gadfly See below for two ways to order. ONCE UPON A TIME … … there was a town called Hardyville. Truth to tell, it wasn’t much of a place. The nearest freeway passed about 200 miles away — and kept right on passing. It didn’t have a single sign of what people in the real world might have called civilization or culture. It was just one dusty intersection with one lone stoplight, a few encircling residential streets, a fair number of…
Category: Books and Movies
The Advisor heats up. New from Jake MacGregor this week: chapters 22 through 24. Start here and navigate forward if you’re already up to speed. Start with chapter one if you’re new to the adventure — and be prepared for a ride.
Three new chapters this week in Jake MacGregor’s novel The Advisor. Chapter 19 and 20 on Tuesday. Chapter 21 last night. Good news from the lemonade wars. Well, if anything can be considered good news in this business of cops and code authoritah shutting down kids’ front-yard ventures. Can you imagine the kind of person who would — with “official” blessing — go out of his way to yell at little girls for selling lemonade? The mind boggles. But then, I suppose we’re supposed to be grateful that the criminal little lemonade pushers weren’t beaten and tasered to death. (NOTE:…
A first-class rant from an ordinary small business person, Jim Garvin: Sad that he still feels a need to talk with the minions of Mordor at all. But I’ll bet you millions of folks who eventually listen to this will be cheering, “Yeah! What he said!” — starting with his very first question to His Betters: “Are all of you completely crazy???”
Two more chapters of Jake MacGregor’s globe-spanning novel The Advisor just went online. Chapter 17, in which we get a little blessed relief. Chapter 18, in which we don’t.
I installed Linux Mint 11 last night. And this morning. And again this morning. I think I’m done now. I’ve been using Linux Mint for several years and just loving it. It’s the most stable, most newbie-friendly, most media friendly Linux I know. Release 7 was terrific, 8 even better — and there I happily stayed until I began having browser woes. I knew there could be hassles jumping three versions forward, but Mint is so friendly I wasn’t worried. Ha! First time I tried to install, it insisted on a username and password long before any had been set.…
Going to see the final Harry Potter movie this weekend? I am. It’s actually playing — wonder of wonders — at the local one-plex. I’ll skip the midnight show, but get there before the weekend’s out. For anybody who might have forgotten parts of the story over the 10 years since the first film (that would include me), here’s a video brush-up: seven Harry Potter movies in six minutes. You wouldn’t think it, but the movie mashup and narration do a great job — and don’t contain any spoilers for movie #8.
Prosecutorial misconduct brings a mistrial in the Roger Clemens never-talk-to-the-feds case. How come we never see the feds on trial for lying to us? (ADDED: Good commentary.) Gary Marbut — bless his bold and principled heart — does it again. This time, he makes the Wall St. Journal. “The Good Short Life.” Touching. Cops are at it again, too. Portable facial-recognition and iris-scanning devices. Another gift of USACorp’s perpetual war machine. While junque shopping, I really would have bought that set of five poker-playing dog prints (especially “Pinched with Four Aces.”) They were too expensive (and does anybody really need…
I’m working on one of those Big Thought blog entries for later in the week. Meantime, between that and ongoing deadlines, posting may be “lite” around here. In case you’re looking for good reads to get you through your Monday morning (or any other day) … “Jake MacGregor’s” novel The Advisor has grown by four chapters since I linked to it last week. A world-class read, truly. This guy can tell a story. Via Brad at WendyMcElroy.com (and indirectly via C^2), here’s a great old one: Vernor Vinge’s “The Ungoverned.” Who says an anarchist society couldn’t protect itself against invaders?…
… but it definitely belongs on your preparedness shelf. —– The Prepared Family Guide to Uncommon Diseases Compiled by Enola Gay, et al. 148 pages May 2011, Paratus Familia Press I was pretty squeamish in my younger days. I felt faint at the sight of blood, especially other people’s. I imagined I had every grotesque disease my older female relatives described (“OMG, I’m coming down with pellagra!”). And they really liked to describe them. The more horrible the better (“No. Oh heavens, I think it’s tetanus!”). As I grew up, I got over that. I am (knock wood) immune to…