• Sancho's Avatar
    10-02-2023, 01:03 PM
    Dickens certainly creates vivid characters. With just a few of his words I can picture Barkis sitting there on the driver’s seat, staring at the...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    10-02-2023, 03:29 AM
    If the ancient Greeks used Homer as a guide for acceptable behavior, a whole generation of us used Seinfeld: — Did you just double dip that chip!?...
    24 replies | 9204 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    10-02-2023, 03:27 AM
    Haha! There it is. You can’t go back to coach after you’ve been in First. Here’s a Seinfeld moment in Dickens: It’d be funnier if my own...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    10-01-2023, 12:39 PM
    Oh yeah, I’ll bet Miss Murdstone had man hands. The quote (or at least the paraphrase) is from the TV show Seinfeld.
    24 replies | 9204 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    10-01-2023, 12:38 PM
    Ya know, it seems quaint to us now, but back in the day I’ll bet it seemed anything but. Also it’s got me wondering if it’s worse to be born in...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-30-2023, 06:24 PM
    …She had man hands. Man hands? Man hands. She was like a creature outta Greek mythology, part woman, part horrible beast
    24 replies | 9204 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-30-2023, 03:00 PM
    David Copperfield is going swimmingly. The words in my head are coming in with a London accent.
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-30-2023, 02:58 PM
    Haha I’ve gotta say, I wish they’d’ve given more of Jackie Chiles
    24 replies | 9204 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-29-2023, 12:20 PM
    No books in prison!? No prison library!? That’s outrageous, egregious, preposterous! I am mortified and stupefied! Shocked and chagrined! ...
    24 replies | 9204 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-29-2023, 12:14 PM
    Sancho replied to a thread Nature Writing in General Literature
    Exactly, Danik. I think that’s the point. Life can be brutal for the young in nature as well as in an enlightened society.
    58 replies | 12788 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-28-2023, 01:09 PM
    Sancho replied to a thread Nature Writing in General Literature
    Okay one more from Demon Copperhead then I’ll move on. Towards the end of the book Demon has hiked up a trail to spot where a number of significant...
    58 replies | 12788 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-28-2023, 01:06 PM
    Yep. I’m no expert, but I did watch a Netflix miniseries on the opioid epidemic… I think it’s just one example of how profit motive and patient...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-28-2023, 12:03 AM
    One word — Oxy. Ah well, I’ve never been able to leave it at one word. So Perdue Pharma has been one of the great boogeymen of American society...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-27-2023, 11:26 AM
    Finished Demon Copperhead. Here’s Ms Kingsolver in the acknowledgments at the end of the book: As mentioned earlier, I haven’t read David...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-19-2023, 10:25 AM
    I thought you could probably identify, Bounty. I seem to remember you were/are an educator. Speaking of archetypes, here’s Bob Nelson running...
    165 replies | 23696 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-19-2023, 12:26 AM
    There’s still a couple of weeks in MLB’s regular season, but football is back! Gotta say I don’t have much interest in the NFL, but I do like going...
    165 replies | 23696 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-15-2023, 02:23 PM
    Sancho replied to a thread Nature Writing in General Literature
    Here’s one from Ridgeline by Michael Punke. Crazy Horse, one of the main characters and also a real historical figure, has been tracking a small herd...
    58 replies | 12788 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-14-2023, 01:04 PM
    So I finished The Ridgeline by Michael Punke, a historical fiction novel about the Fetterman Massacre in 1866 out west between various bands of...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-12-2023, 05:06 PM
    Nice. Also a good hook, which I only say because I do believe I’m hooked. By way of comparison and contrast here’s the first two paragraphs of Demon...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-12-2023, 10:35 AM
    Alright, my friends, you’ve convinced me. As soon as I finish Demon Copperhead I’ll dive into David Copperfield, or maybe The Pickwick Papers. I’ve...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-11-2023, 11:49 AM
    Sit back and enjoy the ride with Frontiers, eh Danik? Also **palm slaps forehead ** I did not make the connection between Demon Copperhead and...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-10-2023, 11:34 AM
    Yup, I’ve been suckered into buying a book with a highfalutin prize sticker on the cover more than once (hasta). But I’ve come around to Danik’s way...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-09-2023, 11:39 AM
    Haha! Homework. Great characterization, Danik. Those books feel like something I hafta read rather something I get to read. After struggling...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-07-2023, 11:26 AM
    Hah! I only use google to diagnose serious illnesses. My first thought after reading your post was — hey I didn’t know McPherson wrote a book...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-06-2023, 12:54 AM
    Is that James McPherson any kin to the Union General of the same name? There used to be a Fort McPherson in Atlanta named for the Union General who...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-05-2023, 12:22 PM
    Good point. Reading is a great way to travel, and not just to a place but also to a time. I can read about the Iberian peninsula and then I can visit...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)
  • Sancho's Avatar
    09-04-2023, 02:54 AM
    Danik, you’ve got eclectic taste. I’m not sure I can keep up with the breadth of your literary interests. And thanks, I thought we all might like...
    38 replies | 4588 view(s)

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The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

by The Comedian on 01-03-2016 at 10:30 PM
It's been a long time since I last read Stoic philosophy. I think the last work of this type that I read was the brief Handbook of Epictetus as an undergraduate. I didn't like it much. Mostly because my girlfriend at the time (who was a major repair-job) loved it. She was using the emotional detachment ideas to get over this jerk she dated before me. Nice. As a result, I thought that stoicism was just a mask that emotionally weak people wore to hide the honest and hard-earned scars on their souls.

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I Think of the Small Things. . . .

by The Comedian on 01-03-2016 at 10:28 PM
We just finished final presentations in my classes. I teach -- community college, English & Philosophy (picked up Masters Degree #2 in Philosophy a couple years ago; this enables me to teach the love of wisdom to American CC students). I think of Sara's presentation of whether American Literature matters: it was expertly organized and focused on emotional intelligence. Sure, she picked up on a thread that I was communicatin' to them: that one of literature's practical uses is to train us emotionally.

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Updated 01-03-2016 at 10:47 PM by The Comedian

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What I Read in 2012

by The Comedian on 12-31-2012 at 10:48 AM
Here's a list of what I read last year with a brief rating of each book. At the bottom of the list are some reflections the reading year.

The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain. 4/5

Metamorphoses by Ovid (Charles Martin translation) 4.5/5

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. 4/5

Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain. 4.5/5

How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Forester. 4/5

Candide by Voltaire (Translated by Robert

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R.I.P Vanilla, a beloved pet rat

by The Comedian on 10-08-2012 at 12:50 PM
R.I.P Vanilla, a beloved pet rat

Vanilla was an albino rat, a "fancy rat" her tag in the pet store called her. We purchased her and her fellow female friend, later named Smokey, almost one year ago.

Vanilla, being an albino, couldn't see that well. And I could recognize this trait in her. As she crawled on my lap or on the arm of the Lazy-boy recliner that I was on, she'd extend her nose along the edges to test by feel and by smell whether there was anymore

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HARD TIMES and the Kitchen Counter

by The Comedian on 06-21-2012 at 11:53 AM
I'm nearly finished with Charles' Dickens' Hard Times -- quite an accomplishment for me. I hate Dickens. But I try to read him every year because, somehow, I feel that by not liking him (at least a little), then he wins. And I like to win. A very much lot, I do.

And here's the thing: I love Hard Times. If only I had tried to read this before Little Dorritt or A Tale of Two Cities then maybe I could have defeated my anti-Dickensian-ness much earlier. And I would have spared me from

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Updated 06-21-2012 at 08:58 PM by The Comedian

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