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There was a young guy from Pamplona
Who fell for a girl named Fiona
They hugged and they kissed
A passionate tryst
Then both came down with Corona

Well it’s that season so I’ll use a baseball metaphor: “swing and a miss” by the NYT reviewer. And at the risk of mixing metaphors I’ll say I don’t think he tried very hard to peel the onion.

Yet...

Thanks, Manichaean
And a happy Passover to all

“The Flaming Meteorites” What a great name for a band! I’m thinking a metal hair band, a band who likes likes to light their instruments on fire at the end of the show. Oh yeah. Can’t miss.

That’s...

Yup, yup, yup, Boy-Howdy. Texas English is a whole other thing.

You know I’ve heard “route” pronounced both ways here. You rout yourself to the root. The old verb-noun thing, very confusing. Or...

Danik, my friend,
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’m afraid I’m a reader not a writer. My attempts at writing have consistently produced results like my attempt at dentistry last week -...

Sex and Religion. Whooeee. Though topics. Sounds about right though, M. I think it’s hard to write about about sex without coming across as creepy. Best to go full Seinfeld and “yada-yada-yada” your...

Howdy, M. It’s good to hear from you.

Concerning your dental metaphor - no dentures yet, but I have had extensive dental work in my life. So, the other day I was down in LA and I found myself...

Been thinking about a book I read as part of the monthly book club right here on this website:

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka

St Luke! Long time, no see (or read as the case may be). I miss all those pics you used to post back in the day. Art, as a visual medium, is something I’ve never quite tuned in to. I sense there’s...

There’s some great writing about the natural world out there. Danik and I got to talking about it over on another thread, but I think nature writing deserves a thread of its own. So here it is. A...

Whatever happened to yes/no? I’ll check out the rough writers. They sound like my kind of people.

The story about Christopher Knight is true. There was an update about him not long ago. He’s...

I’m still slowly reading Waterlog. Here’s a short sample of why Deakin’s writing is so much fun to read slowly. It’s a wonderful and vivid description of a flying insect. He first compares the fly to...

I like finding gems like the Wolfgang Büscher book when I’m not expecting it. Last year I read Michael Finkel’s A Stranger In The Woods. It’s about a 20 year old guy, Christopher Knight, who decides...

I like nature writing as well. But it seems to work better when it’s encompassed in a broader work. Last year I read Hope Jarhen’s Lab Girl. It’s mostly a memoir about the writer finding her way in...

Well, since we’re talking about reading fast and slow, I’ll mention the book I’m reading now: Roger Deakin’s Waterlog. I’m reading it slowly. It was written in the 90s when the writer was in his 50s...

You know, I’ve always shied away from reading literature in translation because I get the sense I’m missing too much. Languages are so complex and nuanced that unless there are copious footnotes it...

I’ve gotta agree with you concerned sci-fi, Danik. I’ve gained a new appreciation for the genre. I’d actually gone to the bookstore interested in one one his more recent novels: The Ministry for the...

Well I’m coasting in for splashdown on the Mars Trilogy, and it’s been a most enjoyable trip. I’m sorry to see this ride end. It’s been almost 2000 pages of densely written prose, but it’s been a...

I’ve got a little Herman the German in me as well. My grandfather was German. Or rather his parents were. They’d come to America in the late 1800s. He was borne here. Most of the rest of my people...

Hey! That reminds me of a joke. Stop me if you’ve heard it before:

The Germans have come up with an extremely strong and extremely thin type of wire, stronger and thinner than anyone thought...

I do remember Dolly. In fact I think she was borne after these books were published. More frightening now we have a couple of gene-edited twins running around - CRISPR babies. Seems like over and...

Hey, Danik, I as well read the story about using pigs to grow human organs. And into my head pops Ann Clayborne from the novel - “what gives us the right?” Then I listened to a story on the radio...

Ha! I could use a longevity treatment myself.

I think the numbers concerning the 1st 4 planets in the solar system are accurate. I get the sense the sci-fi genre needs to anchor itself to solid...

Good story. I didn’t know about Dostoyevsky being sued and found guilty after he’d died, but it somehow doesn’t surprise me considering everything else that man suffered in life. I think I’ll read a...