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Just curious. I picked up "The Club Dumas" recently. After reading the first chapter I realized that it is the novel on which the film "The Ninth Gate" was based.


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Dubliners. (very good)


k



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Sabriel and Lirael by Garth Nix; the Skies of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.



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#77587 08/05/2002 1:45 PM
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Oh I love Dubliners, especially "The Dead." One of the few works that has made me cry.


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An oldie:"The Seekers" by Daniel Boorstein. In it I encountered the word "schism"
which an erudite clergyman taught me a long time ago is pronounced "sizzm".


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I am in the middle of "Word Freak" by Stefan Fatsis, about the competitive world of Scrabble...lots of anagrams, alphagrams, obsession and humor.


#77590 08/06/2002 12:58 PM
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"Oh I love Dubliners, especially "The Dead." One of the few works that has made me cry."

Finished last night. It didn't make me cry. Fine set of stories, though.

Few stories make me cry. Bicentennial Man and Man without a Country are the only ones I can think of off the top.

I think I'm going to take a few weeks of no reading and then start on volume I of Feynman's Lectures on Physics.

k



#77591 08/06/2002 1:07 PM
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Dear FF: If your "Man Without a Country" was the one about the guy condemned to life
imprisonment aboard a US warship because the said he hated the US, I would not have
expected a lachrymose reaction. I love my country, but that story is too much.

http://www.bartleby.com/310/6/1.html


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I'm just starting Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan. I haven't read it in several years and wanted to taste it again.


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physics textbook (my dip in and out book)
persuasion ( my comfortable, it's late and i'm tired book)
true history of the kelly gang ( my, i'd better read this quickly before i have to give it back book)
the amber spyglass ( my long bath book)
the womans handbook (my slightly self consciously listening to jazz and drinking red wine book)
small gods ( my, i drank too much red wine and i can't be bothered with/ can't comprehend any more book)
heart of darkness (my bus book)


#77594 08/07/2002 2:45 AM
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Dubliners is a favorite of mine,"The Dead" in particular. I mentioned in a post a few months back that I gretly admire John Huston's film adaptation of "The Dead" Huston did something rare in movie-making. He took the work of a great author and added his own artistic touch. If it's out on video, get it. You won't be sorry.


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Just started Lost by Gregory Maguire. It's already *very* different in style from his other works, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Wicked - but I imagine I'm going to like this one too!


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The Way We Live Now Trollope. Seems quite a good insoight into the social scene of the aristocratic but not affluent world of 1880s England. So far, it does not strike me as one of his better novels, although it is very useful background info. for me. I prefer Phineas Finn and most of the Barchester novels, especially The Warden.

I am also slowly reading Hell's Angels,Hi, Musick! which is a very interesting insight into the motor-cycle cult of California in the 60s and 70s. Fascinating reading, although a bit repetitivie at times.

Just starting Dennis Judd's Empire which charts the later rise of British Colonial power. This is definitely work, not pleasure, although it's a well written and well researched book. Sometime next summer, it will be regurgitated, synthesised with other books and presented to an unsuspecting public as a twenty-hour course on The British Empire (or some such title.)


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Oh dear Commando, i loved The Way We Live Now -- i read it two summers ago, and found it riviting.
That the dot coms were all going bust at the same time helped.. and goodness knows the corruptions, fraud and deceit Trollope writes about are all current events!

i haven't read the Barchester novels, i read The way we live now, because it was available on the shelf!


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a twenty-hour course on The British Empire (or some such title.)

How about the title being "Where the Sun never set"? -
http://www.friesian.com/british.htm

Learned quite a lot from this page; not least that "the Sun never sets where [the Union Jack] waves" was a literal truth.


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At the grave risk of yarting (not that that ever stopped me!) I should point out that the reason why the sun never set on the BE was because god wouldn't trust the Brits in the dark!

But it would- or something very like that - indeed, make a good title. My thanks to you Sir - you may claim a pint of good Lancashire ale at an appropriate time and place.

We could have it with fish cooked in herby batter at an appropriate plaice and thyme, as well.


#77600 08/07/2002 3:24 PM
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fish cooked in herby batter






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100 BIRDS : and How They Got Their Names

Great! Diana Wells writes with well selected detail.****

Visionares: interviews with fashion designers

Twenty-three of the world's most notable fashion designers are interviewed in depth in this picture sized book. The photographs are exotic, as are the designers whose eccentric nature is behooven to their job. ***1/2

Gods, Heros, & Kings: the Battle for Mythic Britain

Mostly one page snatches of the Pantheona, Deity types, Heros and Heroines, Sacred places and Objects, and the Sagas of the island of Britain. Never boring, never boggled down by unnecessary footnotes. *****

HOT DAMN!: alligators in the casino, nude women in the grass, how seashells changed the course of history, and other dispatches from paradise.

Paradise is Florida. James W Hall is a poet turned mystery writer. These light essays are interesting reading while you eat a snack or a sandwich. ***

NEAREST STAR: The Surprising Science of Our Sun


Of immense size, of immense importance, we rarely wrap our minds around the great star that shines in our own backyard. This book provides flesh for our favorite abstraction. *****

READING Between the NUMBERS: statistical thinking in everyday life

Joseph Tal's book will cause the interested reader to re-think his approach to, and interpretation of, statistics and numbers in today's world. Good book. ****


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How about the title being "Where the Sun never set"? -

interesting page fishsticks, i never realised we were such bastards


#77603 08/07/2002 9:16 PM
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i never realised we were such bastards

Rhuby did! But he's the expert. [bow]

Dunno, dode, I wouldn't say matters were that clear-cut. A lot of countries went right downhill after the British upped sticks. Although that was probably just because the British took everything of value with them when they left.


#77604 08/07/2002 9:49 PM
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[cross-thread alert]

I'm now reading Peter Mattheissen's stirring and frightful chronicle of the struggle for survival of our world's crane populations. I'm going along, minding my own (and the cranes') business, when suddenly, out of nowhere, I encounter this:

Northwest of Beijing, the teeming plain is left behind, the soft farm greens cut off abruptly by dark forest jades on the evergreen slopes of sudden mountains. Here the Great Wall--begun in the third centruy B.C., and the one evidence of man said to be visible from the moon--winds like a stone serpent along wooded ridges. Soon the mountains descend to the drier, less fertile landscapes of Inner Mongolia, which subside in turn into the harsh grays and yellows of the Gobi Desert.

I hope I can forget that one unfortunate throwaway aside and continue to appreciate this book.


#77605 08/07/2002 9:56 PM
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[cross-thread alert]



Condolences. I'm surprised it wasn't nunc dimittis straight off.


#77606 08/07/2002 10:24 PM
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>A lot of countries went right downhill after the British upped sticks. Although that was probably just because the British took everything of value with them when they left.



And sometimes that was nascent nationalism at work. At partition in 1947, My grandfather had worked his way up from being a guard to deputy traffic controller for what today would be the entire Pakistan Railway network. He was invited to stay on as a ticket collector. Similar stories abound, instances where the newly-minted nations felt the need to cut the umbilical too quickly and throw the baby out with the mixed metaphors.


#77607 08/07/2002 11:33 PM
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I saw an article about trying to take some endangeredcranes to the Barcelona zoo the other day to start a new breeding program. The flew them in on a 747 but the cage wouldn't go out through the door it went in at. Yep. The cranes in Spain stay mainly on the plane.



TEd
#77608 08/08/2002 9:31 AM
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the newly-minted nations felt the need to cut the umbilical too quickly and throw the baby out with the mixed metaphors.

Yup. And once you've lost a supposed source of all ills, you only have yourself to blame when things go wrong. This often leads to in-fighting.

Reminds me a wee bit of "What have the Romans done for us?".



#77609 08/08/2002 9:54 AM
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Kinda busy right now. Response in September, if the thread is still going and I haven't forgotten.


k



#77610 08/10/2002 7:37 PM
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that story is too much

... In the midst of a project ... coming up for air ...

As a former Army brat, I confess to getting a little teary-eyed when I hear a particularly well-sung rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. It's possible -even probable, in retrospect - unconscious patriotism underlay some part of my lachrymosity, but considering that such a word as patriotism is commonly conjoined with modifiers like "blind" and "foolish" and "bigoted" (and, unfortunately, far too commonly correctly so), I doubt I would have mentioned it.

If I were aware that patriotism were the sole or even a major cause, I would probably have teared up anyway, but I would almost certainly have kept it to myself.

However, that's not what I thought the story was about. I thought the story was about taking rash actions in youth and facing the consequences of them for years beyond anything sensible.

I reflected on some the incidents of my own youth - pulling a knife on the kid in the second grade (and a few things much worse than this that I don't have the stomach to rehash). How might my life have been different had I plunged it into my attacker as I had threatened? With someone younger than yourself, maybe it would seem condescending to compare the actions of a 10 year old with those of a young man (early twenties late teens?), but in the glory of my pompous arrogance, I classify them both as "kids."

I also thought it was a story about the occasional lack of justice in extreme retributive justice.

When I was very young - about 2 - my biological father was sitting on his friend's front porch swing. He saw two men coming towards him and recognizing their intent, jumped up and ran around the house. They pegged him - twice in the head and three times in the heart - as he was bounding the fence into an alley. They each got a paltry five years for it. One of them died in prison and the other got out - to be promptly killed by my uncle, who then spent 20 years of his life behind bars. I suppose his lawyers weren't as good. I saw him very briefly about 10 years ago. He was such a shattered man it seemed to me. He took one look at me and - weird as it seemed at the time - this scraggly, bikergang-lookin' redneck started to tear up hisself. "You look just like your daddy," he said. Ah, well. Another story.

He made the same mistake as Camus' stranger -- failing to recognize and acknowledge the ultimate authority of those who make the decisions. But they taught him. When they said justice had been served, he ought to have accepted it and just gone on to live his life. (Completely irrelevant, but I have a cousin who spent 7 years in jail and 13 years probation for alledgedly selling marijuana. So murder is 5 years if you suck up to the judge and 20 years if you fail to recognize The People as the ultimate arbiter, and selling MJ is worth 7 years.)

On the other hand, when I read literature, I always wonder - am I understanding what this guy is really trying to getting at? Most of the time I'm pretty sure I'm not. Even when I think I'm on to something, I suspect I took a wrong track and am wondering aimlessly.

I guess it *was* a story about patriotism, after all. These other things I thought I saw were phantasms. But, heck, I've made worse mistakes than that in my life.




#77611 08/13/2002 7:20 PM
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That BBC Classic "The Pallisers" is re-,made and will be on Public TV this autumn Yaaaa-Hoooo!

Reading "Secret Soldiers" the camoflage men of WWII including, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, designer Bill Blass, the heir to the Ringling circus fortune and many more artists, sound men, engineers.
Better than any mystery I ever got into.
Highly recommend.

Opps - thinder storm. I'm gone.



#77612 08/14/2002 1:38 AM
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Gee, you finks don't read much these days do you?

Since the question was last asked, "What are you kats reading these days?" I've read five more books!
My heavens, simple people, have you all forgotten how to read?
Or, considering how busy you all are in today's axiomatic world, have you all forgot how to think?
Below I list books that you all apparently find tiresome. Great Goobly-Woobly!, it is time that you all begin to think...thoughts!

PAINTING AMERICAM : The rise of american artists:
Paris 1867 - New York 1948

The Traveler's Calendar new poems - Daniel mark Epstein

CORN 40 recipies: roasted, creamed, simmered, + more

Beyond The Deep: The Deadly Descent Into The World's Most Treacherous Cave.

And...

THE FUTURE OF SPACETIME: by folks that professes to know.

and, oh yeah, I almost forgot...

A MATTER OF DEGREES: What tempreture revels about the past and future of our species, planet, and universe.


Pretty Impressive, huh!

milum.

Thank you for your understanding,

milum.


#77613 08/14/2002 2:15 AM
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In reply to:

Below I list books that you all apparently find tiresome.. . . it is time that you all begin to think...thoughts!


On what do you base your assertion that others find the books you listed tiresome? To imply that one is not thinking simply because one has not read books that you feel one ought to have read is, at best, condescending and patronising, and at worst, openly insulting.


#77614 08/14/2002 12:34 PM
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hey brainiac, not everyone has unlimited funds or access to books, keep your high horsing to yerself


#77615 08/14/2002 12:42 PM
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I reading a book about Corn too, it is history and social commentary... really facinating.. (don't remember the author, it just caught my eye as being interesting)

i envy you your reading time.. NY is having yet an other heat wave, 7 more days in a row of 90+ (average over 95-- for the rest of the world, close to 37C.) with high humidity, 79 to 85%, and ozone alerts.. the idea of carrying a book to read is too much. i make do with a paper that i can throw away and not have to carry both ways to and from work.

at home, i am attempting to pack for a move.. piles of my own stuff to sort through and pack and bigger piles of my kids stuff, abandon at the family homestead.


#77616 08/14/2002 1:08 PM
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"Gee, you finks don't read much these days do you?"

Like of_troy, I envy you your reading time. I do read a lot, but it's mostly technical stuff which I don't include. A big chunk of that is OPC - other people's code. Also reading a bunch of specifications for stuff I barely understand so I can design a new system. On the relevant stuff, though, I accidently got started on Les Miserables and I think I'm going to read a Turing (personal hero) biography next. Feynman will have to wait. These will keep me busy at least through November and possibly into next year.





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just finished: Longitude, by Dava Sobel (crossthread to books by women)
now reading:
Child of the River: The First Book of Confluence, by Paul J. McAuley (crossthread to equitably vs. equably)
The Birds of Heaven: Travels With Cranes, by Peter Matthiessen (crossthread to... here, actually)
Slant, by Greg Bear (crossthread to the Book Swap (hi Faldo))
coming up next:
The Circus Fire: A True Story, by Stewart O'Nan (this space for rent)



#77618 08/17/2002 7:13 PM
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[Book Review]

CCO ORRNN


40 recipes: roasted, creamed, simmered + more
________________________by olwen woodier

the red fox's cornmeal oysters
with salsa and r`emoulade


the Red fox restaurant is located on the 4,800-foot-high spruse-lined ridges of Snowshoe mountain in Pocahontas county, west Virginia. Owned and operated by Brian and Margaret Ann Ball, this alpine hideaway houses a trio of restaurants offering fine cuisine and a wine list that has won awards from Wine Spectator magazine. Try this recipe and you'll understand why Foder's Travel Guide lists The Red Fox as one of its 25 favorite restaurants in the United States.


1 cup cornmeal______________ 30 select oysters
1 cup all- purpose flour______ 1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt_____________ 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder___ 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon white pepper___ 1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 cup vegetable oil
six 8-inch corn tortillas, crisped in a warm oven
(The red Fox uses tortilla "bowls")
9 cups spring green mix with Ancho Buttermilk Dressing
(see recipe below)
3 cups Corn and Black Bean Salsa
(see recipe below)
6 teaspoons Poblano R`emoulade
(see recipe below)

1. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, cumin, salt, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and peppers. Pour onto a plate or a sheet of waxed paper.

2. Heat the oil in a deep saute pan over very high heat. dredge the oysters in the cornmeal mixture. when the oil is spitting hot, deep-fry the oysters for about 1 minute, until golden brown. Remove immediately and drain on two thicknesses of paper towels.

3. Place a tortilla on each plate, pile each with 1 1/2 cups of the spring greens, and top with 1/2 cup of the salsa.

4. Arrange 5 oysters around the salsa on each serving and top each one with 1 teaspoon of the r`moulade.

Yield: 6 servings

___________*************___________

poblano remoulade

1/2 cup mayonnaise________ 1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt__ 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper_ 1 small poblano chile, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients. Cover; refrigerate until ready to use.

Yield: 3/4 cup

_______________***********______________

corn and black bean salsa

1 cup black beans, rinsed, drained, and cooked
1 cup fresh corn kernels, lightly steamed and removed from the cob
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup chopped plum tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped poblano chiles (wear gloves when handling chiles)
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 sup chopped scallions
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground corlander
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients. cover; refrigerate or leave at room temperature until ready to use.

Yield: 3 cups

_______________************________________

the red fox's ancho buttermilk dressing

1 cup buttermilk_________________ 1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro____ 1 ancho chile, minced
1 small clove of garlic, minced__ 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a small deep bowl and whisk to blend. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups




#77619 08/17/2002 7:42 PM
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let me be the first to congratulate you!

i don't think we have ever had a guy turn a thread into an out right food thread before!

i too am reading a book about corn.. but it is The Story of Corn; The myths and history, the culture and agriculture, the art and science of America's quintessntial crop.

the arent't any proper recipes, just some generic ones so far.. it has some word origins for pone and other corn words, (Pone-- for the Algonquin appone.. and Samp from the Narragansett suppawn)

i call my corn bread pone, too.
1 cup yellow corn flour
1 cup wheat flour
(i like whole grain, stone ground for both)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup yogurt (plain)
3 to 4 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons honey (warm it in the same cup you melt the butter in or at the same time)
1 egg
(milk as needed)

preheat oven, 500º (High) lightly grease cast iron pan, and put in oven to preheat too.

mix together dry ingredients. then mix together wet..
Mix wet into dry, (add up to 1/4 cup of milk, if needed) to make stiff batter.

Do not over mix.

pour into preheated cast iron pan, reduce heat in oven to 350º, bake for 15 to 20 minutes till done.

I have a cast iron pan in the shape of ears of corn.. but a plain round frypan might take longer.

the yogurt/honey combo are acidic enough to both temper the corn and to work with the soda for a nice light result. the hot pan creates a crunchy crust. for a super rich corn bread, use sour cream instead of yogurt. (i think its to cake like then.)
serve warm.




#77620 08/17/2002 10:16 PM
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Below I list books that you all apparently find tiresome. Great Goobly-Woobly!, it is time that you all begin to think...thoughts!

Ok, I did not want to appear to be one of the Cognoscente so often admonished hereabouts. BUT. "'nufs enuf!"

What I have read since June:
The Oxford Companion to World War II ( well, honestly, still at it) General Editor I.C.B. Dear and Consultant Editor M. R.D. Foot


Books by Evelyn Waugh "Men At Arms" & "Officers and Gentlemen" with "End of the Battle" just in and awaiting pickup at the Water Street Bookstore.

The Terrible Hours" by Peter Mass sub title "The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History" The true story of the rescue of the men aboard the sunken "Squalus" (off the N.H. coast) by Swede Momsen who also invented the Momsen Lung.

Ghost Soldiers"- by Hampton Sides - the account of the 1945 WWII rescue mission for survivors of the Bataan Death March in the Philippines.

Two novels by Willianm E. Butterwork aka W.E.B. Griffin :
Under Fire (Marines in North Korea) and Special Ops set during Che Rivera days.

I am also often dipping into The War 1939-1945 by Desmond Flower and James Reeves as time allows. Actually it's my bedtime reading. The authors tell the chronological story of WWII - on both fronts - through meticulously documented diaries, letters, journals, reports,official communications and other documents by the men who fought the war including (but not limited to) Eisenhower, Regular GIs, German and Japanese soldiers, Patton, Goring, Hitler, Churchill, DeGaul et.al.
This weekend, to let my brain rest I read two light and charming books by Lillian Jackson Braun from her latest "The Cat Who ..." series.

Since The Oxford WWII is 1,342 pages of tight, concise, in-depth, densely factual writing, I'd say that, all things considered, although it may diverge from the areas of interest others have, it does require some thinking!
And believe it or not I have still made time to enjoy life, lunch with friends, write a few real letters and work on my own writing. But it does help that I am retired and haven't the pressures of a job or children at home as many of you have. And Thank Heaven for book sale tables and a decent Library.

AS the old saying goes - Men of good will may disagree and still remain friends. Or at least respect each other.

#77621 08/17/2002 10:46 PM
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Wow, isn't The Terrible Hours an incredible book? i read it just before the russian submarine accident last year, and cries when all those submariners died..

there are some good links on the web, and better pictures


#77622 08/17/2002 10:58 PM
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Did you know they made a TV movie around the event? It was highly publicized around here and was on one of the regular -not cable - stations as I recall. Not bad if a bit shallow (no pun too serious a subject.) Forget title.


#77623 08/17/2002 11:50 PM
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AS the old saying goes - Men of good will may disagree and still remain friends. Or at least respect each other.

Dear wow your old saying is an old wives tale. It was not for agreeing to disagree that the Second World War was fought. This board becomes mere chat if the exchange of ideas are not offered for the purpose of resolution. Men of goodwill without a life in search of truths are self-righteous buffoons who disgrace the human species. What's more, they rarely have a sense of humor.

I do, see ----------> .


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