First Looks category archive

Off to drink liberally.

Edmund Crispin’s Gervase Fen mysteries.

They are extraordinarily fanciful and so extraordinarily well-written that suspension of disbelief comes easily.

In an interesting contrast, the novels are long and rambling and full of side trips and digressions and peopled with quirky characters, whereas the short stories, with a few exceptions, are short and quite bare-boned.

A warning, though: The author takes no prisoners. The stories are replete with classical and literary allusions, so have a dictionary and encyclopedia, real or electronic, at hand. Not looking them up does not interfere with the story itself, but looking them makes it richer.

Via PoliticalProf.

I’m trying to get into the Christmas spirit, but, I must confess, this year it is a struggle

Wait for it . . . .

. . . We have reached full pariah.

Via Juanita Jean.

Pauline Kael:

Kicked in the ribs, the press says “art” when “ouch” would be more appropriate.

Robin Hood.

Off to drink liberally.

I am somewhat relieved at the results of the election. I have been more stressed than I have let on in these electrons.

At the least, the Trumpling has been interrupted.

And I need a break.

Afterthought:

Perhaps “impeded” would have been a much better term than “interrupted.” I gather that today was a cavalcade of crazy in Trumplandia.

I’ll catch up with the news tomorrow.

As I said, I needed a break. Watching one’s country go crazy is rather stressful.

Look up these two words:

• venal
• venial

Compare the definitions.

Via Juanita Jean.

The Rude One points out, rudely, that not voting is not taking a stand or some how making a statement by not (ahem) making a statement. It’s abdication. A snippet (warning: language):

Not voting when you are ready and able to vote is privilege taken to the hilt. The non-voters on the left have decided that their beliefs trump (goddamn him for taking that word from us) whatever good can be done through elections as the parties stand now. If you don’t vote and that causes Republicans to keep both houses of Congress, you have condemned yourself and all the people you think you’re taking a stand for to at least two more years and the lingering effects of gutted social programs, of a war on women and non-whites, of an openly racist immigration policy, of inaction on climate change, and so very much more. You will be deciding that you would rather that happen, you would rather fuck up real lives of real people, than you compromised.

‘Nuf said.

My friend Andrew Jackson tells me that there will a Virginia Beach City Council candidate forum–likely the last one of this election season–on Thursday, October 25, at 6:30 p. m. at the Morning Star Baptist Church, 4780 First Court Road, Virginia Beach.

There is no URL that I can point you to, but I plan to be there (heck, for all practical purposes, it’s just around the corner for me). You can be there too.

Aside:

After that, I should be able to finish my PVF Endorsements, over there (——>) on the sidebar.

I don’t expect to have an endorsement for every contest, but I’ll do the best I can.