Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Old houses with hardwood floors have this peculiar problem, particularly if there is very little or no subfloor. They used to try to fill the gaps between the separating boards with putty mixed with sawdust, or chewing gum, or the blood of their enemies, or whatever. It never works.
Newer hardwood floors laid on subfloor is better! So I guess the only answer is to gut the old part of the house! Remove all of the flooring, add subfloor, then raise the ceilings because of the loss of height, then raise the second floor for the same reason, and then just nuke it from orbit!
Residents in Wang Fuk Court have said they repeatedly complained to the city's Labor Department about the flammability of the protective green mesh that was used to cover bamboo scaffolding raised around the buildings, only to be told that the fire risk was relatively low, Reuters reported Friday.
This is exactly the 3rd World sensibility that we are busily importing. Respect for human life is a joke in most of the world, but the West has managed to change that, by elevating the individual to primacy.
Respect for the law, in this case construction regulations, is a shell game in all but the West. Fake the paperwork, use fake and cheap materials, bribe the inspectors, do what you must to maximize profit, and if a few people die? Oh well!
And the state is no better. Building inspectors actively solicit bribes in most of the world! And the regulations written by the regulatory bodies are laughable in their lack of teeth.
But we are busily bringing that mindset to America! Sure, there is corruption in America, and there has always been, but our minimum standards, even with crooked officials are far higher, and more stringently policed than anywhere else. But the breathtaking thievery of the 3rd World is a level that we have never even approached here.
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-30-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (don't knock it 'til you've tried it!). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, finish off that pumpkin pie, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
I admire the dedication of the curators at Montpelier for their attempt to reconstruct the full library of James Madison. By the time of hid death in 1836 he had an extensive collection of over 4000 books. However, many of them have been lost to the mists of time.
STICK THE LANDING!
Patrick provides some useful advice to writers on how to end their books. He breaks his advice into the following patterns he's seen when analyzing book endings:
Rushed resolution - Does the book wrap up its main conflict too soon? Patrick says that the resolution should take up approximately as much space as the setup in the beginning. This is more a guideline than an absolute, though, as I've read many satisfying stories that were resolved in a fairly short amount of time, but were a slow burn at the beginning. The key, as always, is whether or not the reader will walk away satisfied by the ending. Give the reader some breathing space at the end, especially if the book is emotionally intense in the middle section.
Unearned happy ending - Happy endings should be earned by the characters. They are a reward for the growth and development of the characters as they navigate the conflict in the story. Characters who experience a happy ending, but haven't earned it, will feel fake and will be unsympathetic to the reader. We want to root for the protagonist in the story, even as they experience horrible tragedy, so that we feel like they will be all right in the end. Make their eventual happy ending MEAN something to them--and it will mean just as much to us.
Betrayal ending - Brandon Sanderson has three rules for writing: Promise, Progress, and Payoff. Whatever you set up during the Promise phase must come to fulfillment in the Payoff phase. Don't bait-and-swith the reader without warning. It's OK to throw in a genre shift if you want to do that, but give the reader enough clues so that they recognize that the story is changing in a new direction. Done well, readers will appreciate the twists and turns because you've promised them a good story from the beginning, even if the ending is unexpected.
Earned tragedy - Tragic stories should feel inevitable. The characters destined for tragedy should feel like this is the only way their life could go based on the choices they make throughout the story. In Zelazny's Jack of Shadows, for instance, Jack's descent into tragedy is quite clear halfway through the story when he gets his revenge, but is still unsatisfied. From there, he quickly descends into lust for power, which becomes his undoing. It's telegraphed quite in advance in the story, but we keep reading because we want to see how it plays out.
Emotional landing - Stories should resonate with readers at a deep emotional level. The best stories, as Patrick points out, end with us closing the book, and then just sitting there as we process the journey we've just been through. Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is a powerful example of this. I *always* feel deep emotion when I read that book. I've been that way since the first time I read it when I was about nine years old.
Epilogue debate - Some stories can benefit from an epilogue, while others should probably avoid them. If the story ends with "happily ever after" then we usually don't need an epilogue to tell us how things turn out in the end. If the characters (or the world) go through traumatic experiences, then an epilogue can show us the long-term consequences of the events in the book. In Lord of the Rings, we have a fairly lengthy epilogue section because Frodo is suffering from PTSD from his journeys to Mordor. The only cure is to go over the seas with the Elves, which is eventually what happens. In the Appendices, we find out more about what happens to Sam, Merry, and Pippin, but we don't need a full epilogue to go into details of their lives.
Can you think of any other patterns or rules for endings?
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It was also his last day...
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NOVELIZATIONS OF THE FILM
Anyone a fan of reading novelizations of movies? I have several in my library. For some reason I have all three novelizations of the original Star Wars trilogy as well as five out of six of the original Star Trek movies (I had Star Trek V but ended up throwing it out because it was in such poor condition). I think the oldest novelization I have is 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.
I sort of like novelizations because they often expand on the stories, providing details and context that are missing from the movies. Of course, because they novels are usually based on earlier drafts of the screenplay, the final cut of the movie may be vastly different than the novel in key ways because scenes may be cut or rewritten based on Executive Meddling or because audience test screening didn't go well.
I read Alien a week or so ago and then proceeded to watch the movie immediately afterwards. There are definitely some key differences. In the book, there's a scene where the alien's tail is caught in an airlock door trapping it before it can be expelled out into space. This is a key scene in the book that really hammers home the duplicitous actions of Ash the android. We also see just how corrupt and penny-pinching the Company is in the book, as air is strictly regulated with just barely enough to keep the crew alive as long as they spend nearly all their time in hibernation. In the movie, all of the characters start chain-smoking cigarettes as soon as they wake up from hibernation. I always find smoking scenes in space somewhat ridiculous because the particulates in smoke would play merry havoc with the air scrubbers aboard a space ship or space station.
In the novelization for Star Wars (also written by Alan Dean Foster), we see a few extra scenes, at least one of which made it into the Special Edition of the movie. Han Solo meets up with Jabba the Hutt, but at that point Lucas really hadn't defined the "Hutts" as we know and love them today (giant space slugs), so that scene is a bit incongruous compared to what we see a few years later in Return of the Jedi. In the book, Luke is assigned to "Blue Squadron" as an X-wing pilot, but in the movie his callsign is "Red Five."
In the Star Trek novelizations, particularly with Wrath of Kahn, Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home, we see more details about the stories that connect them more concretely to each other. The young engineer that Scotty cradles in his arms in Wrath of Kahn is his nephew, which is why Scotty is so devastated when the young man is killed in an attack. Lieutenant Saavik and David Marcus become lovers in The Search for Spock, giving David's death a little more emotional impact. And in The Voyage Home we see a few of the events from the perspective of the whales and the probe. The probe wasn't evil. It was a caretaker who saw that its charges were no longer alive, so decided to wipe out the planet and start over.
What about you? Any good novelizations of movies you've read? Any movies you think would make a good novelization?
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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:
The Black Hole by Alan Dean Foster
Written by Alan Dean Foster, this is the novelization of the movie produced by Walt Disney pictures once upon a time (1979). A research vessel searching the galaxy for intelligent life stumbles across something even stranger--the long-lost spaceship Cygnus, an earlier exploration ship thought to have been lost twenty years ago with all hands on board. Initially dormant, Cygnus wakes up to welcome the crew of the Palomino. Then things get strange as the Palomino crew explore the Cygnus and begin to unravel the mysteries hidden by its enigmatic commander, the megalomaniacal Dr. Hans Reinhardt.
Like a lot of novelizations, this story expands on a fair amount of lore and backstory, providing additional context for events within the movie. For instance, the psychic link between Dr. Kate McCrae and the robot V.I.N.CENT. is explained as a cybernetic implant in Dr. McCrae's brain that gives her a direct link to the robot. It's still a rare and unusual ability, though, as most implants tend to fail. We also see a more "scientific" explanation for what Dr. Reinhardt is attempting to do with the advanced gravitic technology he's discovered/invented. The ending of the book is considerably different than the ending in the movie, which ends on a very dark note indeed.
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
Unlike the previous Zelazny book I read--Jack of Shadows--this one has a far lighter, fluffier tone. Fred Cassidy is a perpetual college student who lives quite comfortably on a stipend from his uncle under the stipulation that the money will only continue to flow so long as Fred never graduates college. He's been a student for thirteen years and enjoys his life, although his advisors keep trying to graduate him. Then he's caught up in a farcical quest by aliens, Men in Black, and other factions who believe Fred possesses the mysterious "starstone," a token of galactic importance that was given to Earth to symbolize Earth's eventual acceptance into a galactic federation.
Definitely ends on a much happier note than Jack of Shadows, with a fair amount of tongue-in-cheek humor from our narrator, Fred. All he wants is his life back, but events keep conspiring against him.
Deep Storm by Lincoln Child
Lincoln Child is one half of the duo who writes the Agent Pendergast series, along with Douglas Preston. But he also has several stand-alone novels written solo, though I'm pretty sure they take place within the same universe as the Pendergast novels.
Former Navy medical doctor Peter Crane is summoned to an oil rig in the North Atlantic. The rig has been transformed into a scientific deep-sea research facility and the inhabitants are starting to exhibit bizarre behavior and maladies that don't fit any known pattern of epidemiology. Deep, deep beneath the platform is a facility where the real work is conducted--drilling even deeper into the Earth's crust, where it's reported "Atlantis" has finally been found. The truth is far, far stranger and deadlier, of course. Are aliens involved? Maybe...
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
In some ways, this has a lot of the same plot points as Child's Deep Storm above, even though it takes place 500 years in the future. Humanity has spread to the stars, with incredibly advanced technology, but we are still limited to slower-than-light travel. This makes for a slightly disconnected story as events take place years or even decades apart due to the fact that it takes A LONG TIME to get from point A to point B in space. An ancient civilization went extinct over 900,000 years ago and archaeologist Dan Sylveste will stop at nothing to understand why it was wiped out just as it was on the cusp of achieving spaceflight. He hooks up with a renegade crew of "Ultras" (humans who crew the "lighthugger" ships that travel at 99% the speed of light), who all have their own agenda about Dan's fate. One person was hired specifically to kill him. Others want him to use his link to his dead father to revive their almost-dead Captain. I thought it was hilarious that the captain is named "Brannigan," like the captain from Futurama, but other than the name, there's no resemblance.
This story provides an interesting explanation for the Fermi Paradox, which asks a fundamental question: If it's plausible for the galaxy to be teeming with intelligent alien life, where is it?
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Well, I finally read The Wind in the Willows. For the most part it's enjoyable. Grahame has a real gift for writing excellent lyrical prose. However, his world-building needs a bit of work. Although the main characters are all relatively small animals--a Mole, a Water Rat, a Toad, and a Badger--they interact with the "human" world as equals. So I'm not sure how the scale works here. At one point, Toad rubs his hand through his hair, which I found odd, since I don't ever think of toads having hair (or paws). So it's best to simply enjoy the story for what it is and try not to analyze the world-building too much. They also eat rabbit and bacon. Where do they get it? Do they find it problematic to eat other intelligent animals? (They have encounters with talking rabbits at least once.)
If at Faust You Don't Succeed by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley
I needed some lighter fare after reading Revelation Space, so I turned to If at Faust You Don't Succeed by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley. Like their previous story, Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming, thi is a farcical tale, this time about our good buddy Dr. Johann Faust. The powers of Light and Darkness are once again involved in a contest for the Millennium prize. Mephistopheles sets out to corrupt Dr. Faust, but unfortunately makes a pact with the thug Mack the Club, who just happened to be robbing Faust's home while Faust was knocked unconscious in an alleyway. Old Meph' didn't bother to check credentials. Dr. Faust finds out about the bargain Mack makes with Meph and decides that HE should have been the one to make the bargain. Now Faust is chasing Mack and Meph all over creation to set things "right." It's just a fun romp through the cosmos. Not meant to be taken seriously at all.
Probably, yes. You get that number by adding together desktop Linux, ChromeOS (which is Linux) and "Unknown" numbers.
Globally Linux numbers are about 50% higher, and looking at US government website stats, 25% of requests come from some flavour of Linux (including Android).
And Google has already been working to merge ChromeOS with Android. So this would bring a thoroughly-tested Linux variant with a huge collection of existing applications to the desktop, though half of those apps are Kairosoft games.
And the new Steam Cube is due to launch soon, bringing SteamOS - again, a flavour of Linux - to the desktop.
With Microsoft working tirelessly to destroy Windows, these consumer-oriented Linux versions may bring welcome relief.
Well, not in Australia, where it is significantly more expensive and also completely out of stock everywhere.
With SSD prices on the rise this may be a good choice for people looking to build a high-capacity NAS.
Speaking of SSD prices, an interesting thing is happening there. The shortage is affecting NAND flash generally. All versions, from high-reliability enterprise chips to the cheap stuff targeted at microSD cards.
Meanwhile PCIe 5 controller chips for consumer SSDs are coming down in price, meaning that the price gap between PCIe 4 and PCIe 5 drives is fast disappearing. At the start of the year it cost around 100% more for a PCIe 5 drive; now it's closer to 30%.
Someone tell Petronius the Arbiter that I've found the Door into Summer.
Now I just need to find the Door Back into Pleasant Spring Weather.
Updated my Minecraft modpack. It's still on 1.20.1 because some key mods aren't available on anything later - Minecraft doesn't care at all about mod compatibility between versions - but I found a single mod (Vanilla Backports) that bundles together backports of all six feature releases since then.
Dye Depot and Dye the World - which add 16 more colours to vanilla Minecraft and to 19 other mods respectively - have both been updated. And Create: Steam and Rails has a beta version with Create 6.0 compatibility. I took Create out of the modpack entirely because the update to Create 6.0 broke compatibility with a lot of other mods, and if I wanted Steam and Rails and included Create 5.0, that broke still more things. Looks like the great rift is finally healing.
And after a whole bunch of tweaks and changes and updates, it just worked. That never happens.
Tanya Interlude
Nine years after season one and seven years after the movie, anime's sweetheart is back. Tanya the Misunderstood will return for its second season next year. The original cast though not the director are also returning.
(For those who haven't seen it, The Saga of Tanya the Evil is set in an alternate universe where World War I didn't happen but the October Revolution in Russia - or something very much like it - did. Now it's the 1920s and the Great War has lit off with everyone fighting everyone else, and Tanya really does not like commies.)
Saturday Night "Club ONT" November 29, 2025 [The 3 Ds]
—Open Blogger
Alright, Christmas Tree... it is timber time. Junior, bring me the saw.
Welcome to Club ONT. A collaboration the 3D's - The Disco, The Dino, and The Doggo. Apparently today was Small Business Saturday. Yet another event I was this many days old before knowing.
Quote of the Weekend
Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like.
Will Rogers
Who is feeling festive and enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend? Family still around? Decorations? Leftovers!
A man was doing some last minute Christmas shopping when he spotted a beautiful parrot through the window of a pet shop.
The man walked inside to get a better look, and the owner of the shop approached the man.
"That's Chet," the owner said, "He's a very special parrot."
"What do you mean special?" the man asked.
The owner struck a match and held it under the parrot's left foot and Chet began to sing, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way..."
The man was totally amazed. The owner then held the lit match under the parrot's right foot and Chet began to sing, "Deck the hall with boughs of holly, Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la..."
The man had never seen any parrot like this one. He quickly paid the man for the parrot and rushed home to his wife.
Skeptical of her husband's purchase, the wife sat down and watched the man light a match, then hold it under the parrot's left foot. Chet began to bellow, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way..."
The wife was speechless. The man then held the match under the parrots right foot and Chet began to bellow, "Deck the hall with boughs of holly, Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la..."
The wife, still skeptical asked, "What would happen if you held the match under both of his feet?"
The man thought for a minute, then held the lit match under both of the parrot's feet.
Chet began to squawk louder than ever, "CHETS NUTS ROASTING OVER AN OPEN FIRE!"
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Went into a toy store to do some early Christmas shopping and asked the assistant, "Where are the Schwarzenegger dolls?"
Ingredients
2 ounces dark rum
½ ounce lime juice
½ ounce pineapple juice
¼ ounce Demerara Syrup (syrup made with sugar in the raw)
¼ ounce cinnamon syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
Directions
In a cocktail shaker, add all ingredients with ice. Shake well and strain into a coupe glass.
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Club ONT Department of Philosophy
Anyone know what the correct amount of woomba is?
Asking the important questions.
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Club ONT Trains
Ken Burns has rightfully been taking some heat for his revisionist Civil War series. Let's take a look at something interesting from the era.
The plan to steal a Confederate train, hatched by a civilian spy named James J. Andrews, had a dual purpose. It was meant to destroy Western and Atlantic Railroad and cut off Confederate supplies to Chattanooga, making the city vulnerable to capture by Major General Ormsby M. Mitchel.
***
James J. Andrews and his men targeted a train station in Kennesaw known as Big Shanty because it didn't have a telegraph station. If everything went according to plan, the Confederates would be unable to alert others to the train theft, thus giving Andrews and his men a healthy head start.
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Club ONT Permanent Record
No compatibility tests. Nor leadership. Certainly not intelligence test - we all know smart the Horde... well nevermind. The Club is going right to the jugular. Dictator and President tests. Which are you most aligned with?
This free online 45-question personality test will allow you to compare yourself with the personalities of 20 murderous dictators and terrorists, using a hybrid of the scientific "Big Five" measure of personality and the cognitive theories of C.G. Jung. Furthermore, this test will also match your personality scores with peer-reviewed university studies.
In his research, Professor Dr. John M. Berecz, Ph.D., studied the personalities of several U.S. presidents and concluded that each of them could be linked to a definite psychiatric pathology.
Which U.S. president do you resemble? For each of the following statements, indicate how well it applies to you below.
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Club ONT Science Update
Space trivia: Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977. It has been flying for over 48 years away from the sun at an average of over 38,026 miles per hour.
It is not yet one light-day away from earth. A light-day is the distance it takes for a beam of light to travel over 24 hours.
For comparison, the closest star is 4.24 light-years away. The closest star is Proxima Centauri, part of the Alpha Centauri system.
If the relative celestial locations remained the same (which they won't), it would take Voyager 1 over 74,000 earth years to reach Proxima Centauri at its current pace. Having said that, Voyager 1 was never built for top speed. More speed is possible, so other spacecraft could get there much more quickly.
If you are at Club ONT's Proxima Centauri location and you are waiting for drink delivery from earth, please be patient. Old copies of Compute! Magazine are in the lobby for you to read while you wait.
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Club ONT Music
Let's begin the Christmas season with a very Club-worthy tune from The Waitresses!
Check out that funky bass-line!
Bringing back a Club favorite - you will face scorn if you are caught not Wanging Chung!
Anyone here named Sharona? If so, this one's for you!
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Top 10ish Comments of the Week
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Club ONT was brought to you by: Cliff the Camel. He's with the moose out front.
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Club ONT is a small business - sometimes smaller than others. Thank you for your support.
Constitutional purists, in the main, adhere to the judicial philosophy of ‘originalism.’ That is, they do not believe the Constitution and its Amendments are evolving or subject to change in meaning based on the mood of the times. They try to understand the contemporaneous intent of the words by those who wrote them.
In the field of criticism, a close cousin to originalism is textualism or new criticism. The proponents of new criticism, when looking at literature or poetry or film, tend not to want to be distracted by anything but words on the page or images and dialogue on the screen. So it matters little to the textualist if a movie might seem racist by today’s standards or if it is a faithful adaptation of the source material. The new critic eschews these considerations to concentrate only on what he can see on the screen and judges the film by what it is trying to accomplish.
I kept coming back to these models of interpretation when reading Barry Diller’s recently published memoir Who Knew.
Even though I have devoted a large part of my life to cinema, I have never much liked behind the scenes stories or biographies of stars and studio moguls. I knew the name Barry Diller but almost nothing about what he accomplished. And that is because I see many memoirs and tell-alls as distractions. The play is the thing for me.
***
You can read the book to learn about Diller (in his own words) but, briefly, he was an aimless and troubled kid from Beverly Hills who grew up around Hollywood performers and executives. At 19, with no life direction, he called in a favor to get a job in the mail room at the William Morris talent agency. He worked his way up the ranks at William Morris but then leapt over to ABC where he impacted television in profound ways. Next it was on to Paramount where he resurrected that studio in the 1970s. After that, it was Fox, which he also revived. In his later years, he became a forerunner of internet commerce and content.
If you are a film and entertainment historian, you cannot ignore Diller’s legacy, though this begs the question: as one who leans towards textualism when watching movies, should I ignore him?
To give Diller the benefit of the doubt, I set aside the originalist lens to see what he had to say.
Right out of the gate, Diller disappoints. In the foreword, he declares he does not intend the book to be a teaching or business strategy guide (a la The Art of the Deal). The reason he states he wrote the memoir is, simply, because he thinks his life-story worth recounting. ‘Who Knew’ an angst-ridden kid with no education or prospects could succeed as he did.
The wayward-boy-makes-good story is interesting to a point, but what movies inspired him? What novels have moved him? Why did he want to become involved in storytelling--especially at such a grand scale?
Despite his disclaimers, I held out hope I could derive something inspirational from a man who helped shape studios and motion pictures for three decades.
And yet, after 320 pages, I was unsure what attracted him to fictional drama. He repeatedly affirms his love of problem solving, and in the film biz problems abound, but that tells me nothing about his process as a storyteller.
He also is not shy about sharing his distaste for MBA-style financial projections as an approach to crafting a successful film, and he is adamant in his disdain for the practice of packaging stars and material before ideas are hammered out.
I agree with those instincts, but Diller never digs deeper than that. Though he is responsible for some of the great movies in history, he has precious little to say about why they were special or what he understood their dramatic purpose to be.
Oftentimes, he will crow about a hit movie he produced but only to say it did well at the box office or won awards--not why it connected with audiences and what his hand was in setting the table for that connection to be made.
There are nuggets of wisdom in the book, but it is far too little, and as I read on, more and more, I was not only deprived of edification, but I also distrusted Diller.
***
I do not read many memoirs (movie ones or otherwise) because they are, ipso facto, self-serving. Diller confirms this instinct by painting himself in the best possible light. He feigns humility frequently, but like the screenwriting seminars teach us: to write a great villain you must make the bad guy believe he is the hero of the story. I am not saying Diller is a villain, but having dedicated his life to one of the most cutthroat businesses, too often he styles himself as merely an amiable –though driven — fixer.
These moments of doubt I had for his authenticity occurred not just with his professional life but also in the many personal things he reveals. He spends much of the first third of the book discussing his homosexuality, how he had to hide it, be ashamed of it, how it caused him panic and self-loathing. One sympathizes with him, but then, in his thirties he meets the fashion mogul and bon vivant Diane von Furstenburg, and it is a love affair for the ages.
He is smitten with her but clueless about how to be a heterosexual romantic. On her 29th birthday he gets her 29 diamonds; yet, he presents them to her in a Band-Aid box. It is supposed to be an adorable tidbit about his inartful amorousness, but any sympathy I had for him in the early going – as a closeted and confused youth — falls by the wayside as he never seems to mention this again, instead opting for tales of opulent jet setting with Furstenburg.
These personal notes about Diller are probably not germane to my pursuit of a better understanding of movies, but they did confirm my belief that too often Hollywood memoirs and histories are more of the TMZ, gossip-style flavor and thus not very useful to the serious cinephile.
And as for Diller himself, in the end, I concluded he was not really dedicated to telling great stories. TV and movies just happened to be the milieu into which he stumbled. He clearly had a knack for getting things done, and, though he tries to disguise it, there was great appeal in the flamboyant lifestyle his success afforded him.
***
For anyone who wants to be involved with or write about movies, basic cinema history is necessary to learn.
Of course it’s fun to know Kurt Russell was in the running to play Han Solo or to point out the cameos Hitchcock made in his movies, but, in the dark of the theater what good do these asides do for my relationship with and reaction to any given film?
Diller’s memoir and others like might fill in the blanks historically speaking, but they have no pedagogical or etiological value.
It will be a long time before I pick up another book like Who Knew. I would rather watch movies and absorb what I can in the moment.
I recognize it would be difficult for film reviewers and historians to write anything if they employed new criticism or textualism in its strictest sense.
But Constitutional originalism has taught us some of the most important lessons in American and world history. Applying some of its spirit to the study of film might not be that bad of an idea.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. A spin of the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) landed on advent calendars.
Are you thinking "I'm not into advent calendars and I can barely count, but I am eager to learn more. I can't wait to get into the content!" I knew it. Enjoy.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Pants are optional. Puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent. The time for preparation and anticipation of Christmas is upon us. If only there was a fun and clever way to track the countdown...
Where did Advent Calendars come from? Here's the explanation, thanks to a German Girl in America:
In literature, the earliest mention of a countdown Calendar comes in a 1851 Children's Book by Elise Averdieck. Thomas Mann also mentions the Advent Calendar in his novel Buddenbrooks. By 1902, the first "Christmas Clock" was sold in Hamburg. It counted the days, much like a clock counts the hours with a movable dial and hands.
It was German lithographer Gerhard Lang, however, who came to be known as the "inventor" of the modern Advent calendar in the years that followed. When he was a boy, Lang's mother would help him count down to Christmas by fixing 24 cookies to a makeshift calendar.
After World War I, Lang released his first Advent calendar with pieces of chocolate inside, paving the way for the modern versions.
In the U.S., Advent calendars saw a massive boost in popularity after World War II.
"President Dwight Eisenhower's grandkids had a picture in Newsweek magazine of them opening an advent calendar, because at that point, Advent calendars were still sort of a new thing in the United States, even though they had been produced in Germany for 50 years," Landau said.
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Has an advent calendar been part of your Christmas tradition?
Do you have a favorite in your house? Did you have one as a child?
Have you made a calendar of your own?
What fun treats have you put in an advent calendar? (Disclosure: interweb searching for "advent calendar" yields way too many expensive examples with high dollar goodies each day rather than simple and fun treats. I guess fools and their money are soon parted...)
Are there advent calendars out there you think would be particularly well suited for the Horde?
Any other favorite advent traditions?
Do you have three purple candles and one pink candle ready for your advent wreath? Do you use blue instead of purple?
Are you among the early birds bringing home a fresh Christmas tree before November ends? Are you already setting up an artificial tree?
1) Decide on a design (square, rectangular, or triangular)
2) Cut shipping tubes or dividers
3) Glue shipping tubes or dividers together
4) Fill each tube with a craft beer bottle or can
5) Decorate
6) Enjoy
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This looks like a fun little craft project. Click the photo for instructions:
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Cardboard tube (aka toilet paper roll) DIY calendar.
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From the Ore Mountains of Germany, known as Erzgebirge.
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For Doggo (and doggos):
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Fortum and Mason building in London:
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Mercedes-Benz in Munich:
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Get a part each day and assemble them into a finished product. From the Germans (naturally):
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Presume everyone already has this one:
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an boating theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
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Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute something from your personal hobbying. We will feature a different theme next time. What are you hobbying? We love showing off Horde hobbying. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
The horses of Iceland are the original Viking horses and one of the purest horse breeds in the world. Breed has been isolated on the rugged island in North-Atlantic since the settlement, or over 1000 years ago
Hi, KT, this is Caiwyn from the AoSHQ comments section.
I wanted to share the catio I built over the last month. My cats, Augie (short for Augusta) and Merlin both love watching the squirrels in the back yard. Merlin in particular wants to chase them outside, but his grey coat makes him nearly invisible at night and I don’t want to risk him being hurt. They are both indoor cats.
So to give them more of a taste of the outdoors I built them a catio! It’s 4-foot by 2-foot enclosure just outside the back window, made of 2x4 beams, 3/4-inch plywood shelves, and a large sheet of PetScreen. They access it through the window when it’s open, and it gives them multiple vantage points for watching birds and squirrels. So far they seem to like it!
Very impressive! A sure sign that your cats are loved! Thanks for showing us so many building details.
Meet The PetMorons
Hey, KT! This is my golden retriever Finn. He'll be a year old on 11/29, and has grown into a handsome boy. He's currently in full teenage hellhound phase, which we're hoping he'll grow out of soon!--Jordan61
Happy Birthday, Finn! We love you! You don't look like a hellhound.
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1. Treat time! Winnie (Left) is thinking that maybe this time she does not have to sit. Kroger (Center) flopped down quickly. I told Rose (Right) to sit and she climbed into bed with Kroger.
To give you an idea of my initial concern, Kroger does *not* share his space very well but for the sake of a Yaky Puff, he was willing to overlook Rose's transgression.
2. Kroger with his new bed and his bear.
3. Winnie (right) deigning to let Cole share a dog bed. With some help from great hoomans. Kroger will share with his bear!
NR Pax
Doggie siblings learning to be siblings!
* * *
Our Pepper dog in 2006. Miss her something awful.
Eromero
Awww. A sweet dog, still remembered.
* * *
Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today. I am missing details on a couple of submissions.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
This is a miniature Phalaenopsis, pretty undemanding! Found it in a grocery store plant department last year, in bloom. It bloomed again this month, with more blooms than before. It hadn't been tagged with a species name but after an image search this time I'm pretty sure it's Phal. Sogo Vivien. I keep it in an east window along with other plants, and a grow light hanging above them all.
I got curious and looked up SOGO. Turns out they're "SOGO Orchids CO., Ltd. is a leading global company specializing in Phalaenopsis breeding and young plant production based in Taiwan." There are a LOT of SOGO orchids for sale on the web!
Lirio100
Bet there are several "non-gardening" members of The Horde who could garden on a windowsill. Thanks for the great information.
our hazelnut tree bore fruit! We've had it for a few years, and it has flowered, but never made any nuts. While walking the yard recently, we saw one little nut cluster on the ground under it!
Some things we learned last week might help increase his yield. The details about pollination were remarkable.
*
From By-Tor:
Pecan tarts, one of my contributions today.
Easy to make if you have a mini-muffin tin and a tart shell press.
Here's the recipe I used but there are many out there, all about the same.
I would like to try them for Christmas with chopped, toasted hazelnuts.
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Gardens of The Horde
The Camellia bushes have suddenly started blooming in my neighborhood. I love the unexpected pop of bright color when all the other flowers are gone or are fading fast. I associate Camellias with southeastern states, but I'm wondering if they grow elsewhere.
The Pilot
How fun to have those flowers this time of year!
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At the bottom of this hill I found some Witch Hazel blooming down by the creek last weekend.
Witch hazel is a hardy shrub or small tree that produces eye-catching, fragrant yellow blooms in the wintery landscape. Native to North America, it grows best in mild climates, in full sun, and in moist, slightly acidic, well-draining soil. Witch hazel is also beloved for its tendency to attract pollinators and songbirds and for its deer-resistance.
Be sure to check out the hazelnut/filbert catkin photos from last week's thread (link at the end of this post) to see why witchhazel and hazelnuts may both have "hazel" in their names.
They kind of look like these slime molds (probably "insect egg slime mold) submitted by Aimee at Everything Backyard Chicken, too. At least in color.
Found in a backyard chicken run. It won't hurt you.
*
Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend! How many times did you hear, before Thanksgiving, "Are you ready for Thanksgiving"? Do you expect to hear in the upcoming weeks anything like, "Are you ready for Christmas"?
Who knows? Some things in life are predictable and other thngs are unpredictable.
It was just the two of us this year for Thanksgiving, and we tried to prepare for leftovers (especially after losing one of our refrigerators) by stretching the traditional Thanksgiving treats over several meals. But we still have leftovers. One faux pas so far: yesterday was "cook the turkey breast day", and I didn't realize that there was a gravy base packet inside the breast. I guess that makes up for the giblets and neck usually packaged with a whole turkey. But I had never seen one before. The gravy base packet got baked, too.
The plastic packet did not melt. I gamely tried to rescue the contents but some of the thickener had transformed into something resembling masses of amphibian eggs, and would not thin out. Oh, well. I added a can of chicken gravy and served it anyway.
I can't imagine anything like this occurring in, say, France.
Do people fry turkey breasts whole like they do whole turkeys? Frying one of these gravy packets could be a disaster. When I put the leftovers away, I added drippings from baking the turkey breast to the meat to keep it fresh-tasting, but the rescued gravy has been kept separate, perhaps for use with a future batch of aromatic dressing.
The roasted masterpiece that emerges proudly on Thursday afternoon will, by Friday morning, become a pale, slightly accusatory presence concealed in Tupperware or aluminum foil—what a food writer in The New York Times once called a “ghoulish reminder” of the day before—carved, dismembered, and waiting to be transformed into something, anything, edible.
By Friday, it will be turkey noodle soup. By Saturday, turkey enchiladas. By Sunday, turkey sandwiches. And by Monday, we will swear—once again—that we are done with turkey until next November.
But there’s a quiet wisdom buried in all that culinary improvisation. As the late Rabbi Robert Kahn of Houston’s Congregation Emanu El once said: Anyone can cook the turkey. The real creativity, the real art, lies in what we do with the leftovers.
Bible stories and intriguing thoughts at the link.
Whenever I think about leftovers—not food, but the leftovers of life—I find myself drawn back to Torah. As Jacob prepares to meet Esau after decades of estrangement, he divides his household, saying in effect: “If one group falls, perhaps a remnant will survive.” Jacob is planning for at least part of his tribe to become, well, leftovers. In the Book of Job, messengers come one after another with catastrophic news, each ending their terrible report with the chilling refrain: “I alone have escaped to tell you.” The last remaining witness. All that is left.
This year—as we look toward Thanksgiving—it feels impossible not to hear echoes of Job. Jewish anxiety has become a constant background hum, especially with the ever-increasing antisemitism coming from all sides. The simple act of gathering in joy feels both necessary and fragile. The story of Job is not ancient history. It is the emotional soundtrack beneath our holiday preparations.
So, before we even carve the turkey, we must ask: What do we do with what remains? What do we do with the fragments—the leftover hope, the leftover courage, the leftover faith—that we carry into this season?
Here is what I know: The Jewish people have become virtuosos of leftovers. . .
Earlier this year, someone started a viral trend of asking ChatGPT this question: If you were the devil, how would you destroy the next generation, without them even knowing it?
Chat’s responses were profound and unsettling: “I wouldn’t come with violence. I’d come with convenience.” “I’d keep them busy. Always distracted.”
“I’d watch their minds rot slowly, sweetly, silently. And the best part is, they’d never know it was me. They’d call it freedom.”
As a social psychologist who has been trying since 2015 to figure out what on earth was happening to Gen Z, I was stunned. Why? Because what the AI proposed doing is pretty much what technology seems to be doing to children today. It seemed to be saying: If the devil wanted to destroy a generation, he could just give them all smartphones.
The evidence keeps piling up.
* * * * *
Ready for technological changes?
There are some malevolent characteristics of tech described just above. But what if it quits working altogether?
AoSHQ got off pretty light in the recent Cloudflare disruptions. But how would we communicate if something more serious or long-lasting happened?
What if the electrical grid went down?
What are our back-ups? Know anyone who does ham radio?
I have decided that one thing I can do right now is give some people manual can openers that really work for Christmas. And get some cash on hand. I'll be thinking about communications, too.
Got any readiness plans for the near future?
These are some readiness plans at the UN. Makes you wonder if they have read any recent news:
Climate change is deepening inequalities — and increasing the risk of gender-based violence for women and girls.
VDH discusses a recent event in which he participated, in Bakersfield, CA. He is heartened by the development of some conservative organizations there, in a difficult state, climate, etc. Segment starts at about 41 minutes, just after he discusses the travails of the editorial process for a real book.
On this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Victor Davis Hanson and @jackfowler take aim at the six congressional Democrats who called on military members to defy “illegal” orders from the Commander-in-Chief.https://t.co/9GodSjgeSz
There has been some opposition to individual conservatives in Bakersfield in the recent past. If they can make progress there, maybe some other communities can do some similar things.
The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
[Follow The ScienceTM
*****
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Chetek)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice.
3) No, you may not run with sharp objects. Dull ones? Feeling lucky?
4) Have a great weekend!
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world As it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right If I surrender to His Will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life And supremely happy with Him Forever and ever in the next. Amen.
*****
Due to technical difficulties there is no AoSHQ Weekly Prayer List this week.
Do you have a prayer request request for AoSHQ Weekly Prayer List? Please submit any prayer requests to, "Annie's Stew" at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
To be fair, he made the right call, making Nvidia the most valuable company in the world, and that is his job. However, he is pushing his staff to use more AI precisely because if it works he won't need them.
I don't believe it will work, but he has to claim to believe it, because that is also his job. So one way or the other, he is lying.
It has a 9" OLED display with a resolution of 2400x1504 at 165Hz, which is not drastically more than (for example) the Switch 2's 7.9" 1920x1080 120Hz screen.
But it also has an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, the same CPU powering the recent raft of $2000 home AI computers. 16 CPU cores and 40 graphics cores, packed into a handheld.
The only drawback to smoothening the sharp edges of the M3 MacBook Air is that the polished area is prone to oxidation, but nothing like a simple wiping job will do the trick.
There's a fun but bittersweet meme called "What They Took From Us." The idea is that you show something nice that we used to have, which has now disappeared.
I first saw the meme about Pizza Hut's old distinctively-roofed buildings versus the Ikea Construction Company boxes they have now.
So they idea is that you offer an overwrought lament that you've lost a major part of your cultural patrimony, but then you just link some trivial mass-market nostalgia-bait.
So here's a What They Took From Us: Insanely hot girls on TV who are on TV just because they're insanely hot and people like looking at insanely hot girls.
Computers weren't so advanced in the 1970s, so to train tank drivers, they created a miniature battlefield and had the trainees "drive the tank" through the miniature field, viewing it through a small camera that moved across the diorama.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform, as he often does. The Friday afternoon post stated, "Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect. The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States." It is unclear how significantly this could impact governmental programs and policies, but certainly it will shake up the federal government.
Next, Trump went so far as to say that Joe Biden was so totally incompetent mentally and physically that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the autopen scandal and would be lying if he said he did.
The president insisted, "The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him. I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally. Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
I suspect they will claim that any document with the claimed signature of the president is presumptively real and therefore lawful, and that any undoing of that presumption must be on a case-by-case basis and by clear and convincing proof.
Incumbent Senator John Cornyn (RINO - TX) betrayed his party and his country by voting in favor Biden's Afghan resettlement bill in 2021. Cornyn voted to bring in the Afghan who shot two National Guard soldiers on US soil. A vote for Cornyn is an endorsement of importing unvetted, radicalized murderers. [Buck]
Podcast: Jim Lakely of Heartland Institute joins CBD for a discussion of their recent polling that shows a majority of 18-39s want socialism, the Epstein files, what will Mamdani do, and more!
Podcast: Buck Throckmorton joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the cultural and business shift away from the insanity of EVs and Climate Religion, his calm perspective on last week's election, Tucker is a toad, and more!
Our Favorite British Couple Exploring True America Experiences Flora-Bama And Sees A Side Of The Deep South Rarely Seen. [dri]
Tucker Carlson claims that it's weird that Ted Cruz is interested in the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, because he has "no track record of being interested in Christians," then blows off the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, saying it might or might not be a real concern Tucker Carlson enjoys using the left-wing tactic of "Tactical Ignorance" to avoid taking positions on topics. Is Hamas really a terrorist organization? Tucker can't say. He hasn't looked into it enough, but "it seems like a political organization to me." Are Muslims slaughtering Christians in Nigeria? Again, Tucker just doesn't know. He hasn't examined the evidence yet. He knows every Palestinian Christian who said he was blocked from visiting holy sites in Bethlehem, but he just hasn't had the time to look into the mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria that has been going on since (checks watch) 2009. He doesn't know, so he can't offer an opinion. Wouldn't be prudent, you know? Don't rush him! He'll sift through the evidence at some point in the future and render an opinion sometime around 2044. Of course, if you need an opinion on Jewish Perfidy, he has all the facts at his fingertips and can give you a fully informed opinion pronto. Say, have you ever heard of the USS Liberty incident...? You'd think that the main issue for Tucker Carlson, who pretends to be so deeply concerned about Palestinian Christians being bullied by Jews in Israel (supposedly), would be the massacre of 185,000 Christians in Nigeria itself. But no, his main problem is that Ted Cruz is talking about it, "who has no track record of being interested in Christians at all." And then he just shrugs as to whether this is even a real issue or not.
Whatever we do we must never "divide the right," huh?
Tucker is attacking Ted Cruz for bringing the issue up because he's acting as an apologist for Jihadism, and he can't cleanly admit that Jihadists are killing any Christians, anywhere. There is no daylight between him and CAIR at this point.
One might conclude that Tucker Carlson himself isn't interested in the plight of Christians -- except as they can be used as a cudgel to attack Jews. Just gonna ask an Interesting Question myself -- why is it that Tucker Carlson's arguments all track with those shit out by Qatarian propaganda agents and the far left? That if Jews crush an ant underfoot it is worldwide news, but when Muslims slaughter Christians it elicits not even a vigorous shrug?
I once glimpsed Garth in the penumbra betwixt my wake and sleep. He was in my dream, standing afar, not looking my way, nor did he acknowledge me. But I felt seen. And that's when I knew I was a traveler on the right path. I'm glad he's still with us.
Greetings, Traveler. If you still have not experienced Garth Merenghi -- Author, Dream-weaver, Visionary, plus Actor -- the six episodes of his Darkplace are still available on YouTube and supposedly upscaled to HD. (Viewing it now, it doesn't appeared upscaled for shit.) I think the second episode, "Hell Hath Fury," is the best by a good margin. Try to at least watch through to that one. It's Mereghi's incisive but nuanced take on sexism.
Podcast: The elections! NYC, Virginia, New Jersey, Texas, California, and the future prospects of the Republican party...
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Alright, Christmas Tree... it is timber time. Junior, bring me the saw.
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