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Thank you, dear Scribbler, for recommending Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris : Confessions of a Common Reader. I found it in stock at Amazon, in an $8.00 paperback version, which is hard to beat  . I noticed somebody mentioned PJ O'Rourke, and Geoff made reference to Patrick McManus (btw, geoff, there are a dozen or so of his books on amazon... which would you recommend most highly??). like most of you, i'm a voracious reader and would be most grateful for any recommendations you can offer. i suppose it's hard to narrow it down to just a few, but please give it a shot the first that come to mind, for me, would probably be Tender is the Night, Snow Crash, Last Chance to See and Watership Down.
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thank you, Jackie. believe it or not, it didn't occur to me to see if it was a YART. On the other hand, from i can see of that thread, it was a bit more general than what i was looking for; i'm not after a list of the 100 Most Imporant Literary Works or anything. i'm more interested in books such as the ones scribber and geoff mentioned; preferably more contemporary works that may have moved you in some way.
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AnnaStrophic steered me to THE PROFESSOR and THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester. It deals with the construction of the OED, so it's one everyone on this board should find interesting.
Patrick McManus' stuff appeals mostly to outdoorsy types, but all of his yarns have that essential "been there, done that" identification that makes his humor accessable to most all of us. Go to the library and browse all of his stuff!
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Since leaving the News Biz I read a great deal more fiction than I used to.
In working years I read a lot of non-fiction, some job-related, some not. And I dealt with facts in writing news so reading fiction now is a pleasure. Although I still read some "fact books" for research.
As an aside, I sang for many years and listened to vocal music ... my taste now is for orchestral. Hmmmmm.
How about you all? What is the preponderance?
Fact or Fiction?
wow
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How about you all? What is the preponderance? Fact or Fiction?
Nonfiction, mostly, if not necessarily fact.
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In reply to:
Fact or Fiction?
I rotate: a classic followed by something nonfiction (especially works related to language, architecture, forensics, or evolutionary biology) followed by science fiction, and then back to a classic.
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Oh My, Sparteye !
Way too organized even for me ... who was required by a brother, for his birthday gift, to promise that for one year I would not organize him before breakfast!
I tend to be a "Columbus" reader ... I discover an author or a topic and read all those books in one fell swoop then usually turn to something completely different!
(Not meaning to bring on another go-'round on Monty Python emoticon)
wow.
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I'm another rotatory. I try to rotate between fiction, non-fiction, and something in Indonesian, but then I get hooked on a particular author and try and read everything I can get hold of reasonably easily by that person. I'm currently reading St. Augustine's Confessions (in translation, I hasten to add, my Latin's far too rusty).
Bingley
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I read anything that isn't nailed down, and I even read things that are if I can see the writing clearly enough. But no organisation about it. You should see our collection of books!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Does anyone know the name of a book published in the last few years that listed names of US towns? Names such as: Lost Hope, Nebraska; Ruin, Nevada, etc. I made these up, but they are characteristic of some of the contents.
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i'm amazed... two pages of responses and not a single book recommendation. *sigh* - so much much for my "Buy five and receive free shipping" at Amazon.
going once... going twice.....
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some good fiction that i've read in the last... oh... 5 years.
The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx
Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
Bringing Out the Dead, by Joe Connelly
Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
and how about something by Jon Hassler...
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Peter Maas' The Terrible Hours about one for the first sunken submarine rescues--
-- a great read--
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Accordian Crimes by Annie Proulx was good too...
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Faldage reported in a post March 6 in Wordplay & Fun, that he was reading Alphabet to Email by Naomi S. Baron. I was intrigued, so I ordered it from Amazon, read it and was much pleased with it. It's a scholarly work, but eminently readable, very interesting and informative, and even funny in spots. I recommend it highly for all linguaphiles. By the way, Faldage, thanks very much for bringing this to my notice. 
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> (wow) ... to promise that, for one year, I would not try to organize him before breakfast ---
Alice curtsies and respectfully inquires, Your Majesty of Hearts, what were the OTHER five impossible things you sought to believe before breakfast?
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(YART alert)Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman. All OEDophiles should have this in their respective organic RAMs.
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organic RAMs?!
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organic RAMs
?! As opposed, of course, to the electric sheep dreamt of by androids... cheer the bladeruiner 
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the bladeruinerSo we gotta call you Shavi?
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Back to the original topic...
I only read fiction these days. I get enough nonfiction reading at university to completely turn me away from anything requiring brain power at home. So for fictional purposes I would suggest anything by Robertson Davies, Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Douglas Coupland, Carol Shields, W. O. Mitchell, W. P. Kinsella. Farley Mowat kind of crosses the fiction-nonfiction line. I just read Black Robe by Brian Moore and it was really good. (You may notice most of these authors are Canadian - I have been reading mostly Canadian authors these last few years because I can relate to them more than US authors, which I unknowingly overdosed on as a child.)
For junky mystery books which you can read in one afternoon, I would suggest the Maggody series by Joan Hess, the Aunt Dimity series by Nancy Atherton, the Her Majesty investigates series by C. C. Benison. I also read a book about cat crimes once but couldn't seem to track down the rest of the series.
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Does anyone know the name of a book published in the last few years that listed names of US towns?
One such book is All Over the Map, by David Jouris
It has collections of placenames in the US which fit various themes. Major categories are: artistic, natural, divine, historical, eccentric, everyday, personal and miscellaneous. Under eccentric is a map of the curiously juxtaposed. Michigan's curiously juxtaposed are Romulus and Remus, and Chase and Quarry. Of course, we also have both Hell and Paradise, and Cadillac and Pontiac.
Any requests?
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I read lots of fiction, with a little non-fiction stuck in from time to time when I feel like learning something new in depth.
I enjoy historical fiction a great deal, and have a couple of favorites. The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian is great, and at 18 volumes, can keep one occupied for some time. It's set in the British navy during the Napoleonic wars and is funny, thrilling, educational - really good.
Also, the Chronicles of Lymond, by Dorothy Dunnet, are great. It's a 6-book series set in Scotland in the 16th century. It's brilliantly written (she's very well read and it shows), lots and lots of fun, and as well executed a bit of suspense as I've run across.
For non-fiction, my favorite of recent years is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Really insightful and thought-provoking - and a great title.
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anna's "organic RAMs" reminded me of something offered by Wendalyn Nichols,
the editorial director of Random House Reference with whom we had a chat back in January:
"wetware"
i routinely use 'hardware', 'software', 'freeware', 'shareware' and 'treeware',
but i'd never heard this term.
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I spend and awful lot on technical books and various references for art, so for the rest of my reading time and funds I tend to spend on fiction. Especially mystery or fantasy/science fiction. Lord of the Rings, of course. I enjoy Tanya Huff's writing when she gets into humor, like in "Summon the Keeper". Anne Perry is enjoyable for her victorian mysteries, and Ellis Peter's for her medieval. Lynda S. Robinson for her ancient Egyptian mysteries. The Harry Potter series is fun for light reading and humor - good "bad day" books. For me, science fiction seems to excell when it's in the short story form. I'm saved from technobabble when words are at a premium. Names escape me, because I don't seem to retain them on my shelves any better than in my mind. Ali
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for real style in the science-fantasy realm, I can't recommend anyone more than Gene Wolfe; particularly his Book of the New Sun (an epic published variously in 2 or 4 volumes).
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"wetware"....pen and real ink? For good mysteries try the Dick Francis books. All set against the world of horse racing. I am not a racing fan but find his books informative, interesting and entertaining. Francis himself a former jockey in England brings a real feel for the game to his books. As for cat mystery books... could it be the series of "The Cat Who ....." by Lillian Braun. Best read in order as the protagonist's life evolves as the series progresses. My Library has a book that lists authors, their books and the order in which they were written. Bet yours does too! Anyone out there read Jack Finney's "Time and Again?" I am on fifth copy .... and *this one will *not* be loaned. If anyone has a copy ... or knows where one may be obtained ... of an old book, green cover, called "The Life And Struggles Of An Irish Boy In America" by Lawlor ....PLEASE contact me. I listed with a dozens of book finder services over the years but no joy. wow
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Anyone out there read Jack Finney's "Time and Again?" I am on fifth copy .... and *this one will *not* be loaned.
Oh yes!--there was just an article (NY Times I think, but it could have been else where) about the book-- which remain in print and perennial "good seller" --
I recently read City of Light byt Laurn Belfer-- about Buffulo at the turn of the century-- and Crichton's Timeline-- he had the neat trick of mixing together medial history and quantum physics!--
in non fiction-- i liked the series-- (I forget the authors name (husband & wife team)-- i should look it up--) on Life in a medial castle, and Cathedals, Mills and Forges-- technology in the middle ages.. (there are other in the series, i just haven't read them yet.
and "wetware"....pen and real ink? I thought is was a reference to the warm wet grey stuff between my ears...
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>medial history... medial castle
does this lead (ineluctably) to *remedial history??
[I'm guessing you mean medieval]
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"and "wetware"....pen and real ink? I thought is was a reference to the warm wet grey stuff between my ears..."
Nope, you had it right... Ms. Nichols confirmed that 'wetware' is indeed used in reference to our grey matter.
i suspect pen and ink would fall into the 'treeware' category, though treeware is traditionally reserved for description of the Japanglish instructions that come with electronics, hardware, etc.
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I see Geoff already made mention of The Professor and the Madman - oops  Is this the first instance of a YART in the selfsame thread? I love The Cat Who... mysteries that wow mentioned. Imagine, a 50-something hero with a checkered past, a bushy moustache and two Siamese cats. What's not to love?  I refuse to go there with you on the sheep thing, CapK [evil-grin e] ...and bridget, I dunno... "wetware" is a little too graphic for this skittish poster person.
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anna writes: "wetware" is a little too graphic for this skittish poster person.
ah, i see you too have been subjected to the "Hannibal" movie??
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...not to be confused (hopefully) with wetwork.
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Among my favourites are:
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast and Titus Groan but not Titus Alone (and I enjoyed the BBC adaptation)
Frederick C. Crews' The Pooh Perplex on literary criticism styles
and probably more relevant to this forum:
Lancelet Hogben's The Mother Tongue - probably way out of date now but I still find it fascinating.
and an absolute delight:
Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames and N'Heures Souris Rames
but not the German equivalent Morder Guss Reims
Rod Ward
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I generally stick to fiction for my leisure reading, in part because of all of the textbooks I have to read for my college classes. Some of the books I have really enjoyed:
Dune by Frank Herbert (my favorite SF book)
A Place of Greater Safety by Hillary Mantel (an excellent historical fiction book set in the French Revolution)
Anything by Dorothy Sayers or Ellis Peters (mysteries)
The Pendragon cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead (a series set in Arthurian England)
There are plenty of others, but these are the ones that came to mind at the moment.
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tsuwm : Re:wetware .. not to be confused with wetwork. do you mean a code word for sanctioned killing sometimes heard in spy movies, read in spy books?
Just heard (On CNN-2 BookTV) author Jane Katch on her book "Under Deadman's Skin, : Discovering the meaning of children's violent play."
The talk was recorded at the Harvard University Askworth Education Forum.
She talks about how children desensitize themselves from seeing violent films, playing violent video games and watching violent TV.
Katch suggests remedies including adapting play to a less violent mode suggested by children themselves. Further she gets a lot of input from children themselves and tells of some positive results from the talks with the children and parents.
If I had youngsters around I think this would be a must buy. I will read it in any case but from what I heard it would be worth a browse-perhaps-buying for any parent or grandparent who is dealing with children.
Those of you in US may be able to catch her talk on BookTV ... it was on about 8:30 a.m. EST.
BookTV.org has a site listing the books being discussed and the schedule, including repeats late at night.
Respectfully submitted
wow
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>wetwork. do you mean a code word for sanctioned killing
yup, it gets a hit at OneLook, curiously under the heading "Sports". <grin>
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Rapunzel (hi, welcome back) said that Dune by Frank Herbert is (my favorite SF book).
It used to be my favourite when I was in my early twenties (come back Time, all is forgiven, we found the money on the mantelpiece). I found Children of Dune and the subsequent books less interesting - I felt FH had rather lost his way. However, I found the new novel by Frank Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, House Atreides, to be surprisingly good and every bit as well-written as FH's great first and second books. It's the pre-Dune history of some of the Great Houses and how Duke Leto came to leave Caladan for Arrakis. I see that a second prior history book, House Harkonnen, is out, but I'll wait until the normal-format paperback hits the shelves for that. I expect it to be good, too.
However, the real point to this post was if you like imaginative alternative or future reality books such as Dune which wander down labyrinthine and unexpected paths and byways, then you may want to have a look at the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Like Herbert, he's written quite a lot of fairly mediocre stuff, but this trilogy, beginning with The Reality Dysfunction, is exceptional.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Thanks for the book recommendation, CK. I'll definitely check out Peter Hamilton. By the way, why does everyone keep saying "welcome back" to me? I didn't go anywhere.
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Wow, you posted: If anyone has a copy ... or knows where one may be obtained ... of an old book, green cover, called "The Life And Struggles Of An Irish Boy In America" by Lawlor ....PLEASE contact me.
I was wondering if you might try E-bay. I've never gone there, I'm too scared, but I'm told you can find just about anything there. I don't know if they have a way you can post what you're looking for, but if they do, you just might turn one up.
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You are too scared of E-bay??
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Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
A word of warning on this one - the first book is, in my view, a bit too focused on the sex lives of the characters and overly loaded with fairly graphic violence. However, once Hamilton gets that out of his system, the remaining books are really full of some very clever ideas and exciting storytelling.
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You are too scared of E-bay??
Well, yeah. I don't know those people. How do I know they won't send me a piece of junk, and then won't give me my
money back? Nuh uh, I'm stayin' away--there's too much junk around here anyway.
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Has anyone mentioned ABE (www.abe.com)? It is a large consortium of independent second-hand book dealers. You can find almost anything there. Often, a number of dealers will have what you're looking for and you can choose among various prices, conditions, editions. The only difficulty I've ever had is establishing a correspondence with dealer once you've found them. This should not ordinarily be a problem, though.
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How do I know they won't send me a piece of junk, and then won't give me my
money back? Nuh uh, I'm stayin' away--there's too much junk around here anyway.Hmmm, so that's what KFC stands for - Kentuckienne Fulner's Chicken! If you're careful, it is quite possible to deal with reputable vendors at eBay - I have not yet had one bad transaction, and have got great deals in the process. ["He needed killin'"emoticon?]
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On another board I sometimes frequent, someone was asking about Azeis II. The poster had bought on e-bay a coin which was said to have been issued by this monarch, who was also alleged to have been one of the three kings who visited the baby Jesus. I had never heard of Azeis II and was unable to find any mention of him anywhere on the Internet except on e-bay auctions. Granted I'm not an expert on monarchies of that period, but I suspect that if he really was issuing coins and was supposed to be one of the three kings, I wouldn't need to be.
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The poster had bought on e-bay a coin which was said to have been issued by this monarch, who was also alleged to have been one of the three kings who visited the baby Jesus.
Ah, but my suspicions would have been raised by the mention of the three kings. The Bible record calls them magoi, which is nearer "astrologer" than "king", and nowhere in the Bible account does it say there were three of them, or give any number at all. So, if someone tried to sell me something belonging to one of the "three kings", I would ask them if they were also selling Brooklyn Bridge first.
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My fault. The post I was referring to did actually say that he was alleged to be one of the Magi, rather than one of the three kings. So he is alleged to have been a magus and a king. Put it down to the stress of a bad connection: I had to try three or four times to get most AWAD pages at lunch time.  Bingley
Bingley
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Caspar,Balthazar, and Melchior are names given the Three Kings aka The Magi, in my Catholic School ... although I found no listing for Caspar in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Or for Iz-whatsis for that matter. http://newadvent.org/cathen/a.htm for anyone interested. wow
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Really. In French we are taught Gaspar instead of Caspar.
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Gaspar instead of CasparIt's the Gaulloises, cherie...
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Caspar,Balthazar, and Melchior are names given the Three Kings aka The Magi, in my Catholic School Does anybody know where these names comes from? Since the Magi in the Gospel are both numberless and nameless, who decided that there were three of them, and that they were called C(G)aspar, Balthazar, and Melchior? Is this just a case of some ancient reading his kid a story , and being pestered,"But Dad, what were their names?"
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Tsuwm recommended John McPhee in a post some time ago, and the only book of his my local branch of the library had was something called "The Pine Barrens". Now, if this were the title of a novel, I might have at least picked it up to read the summary, but never in all my born days would I have just wandered by and picked out a book about a tract of land. But it's good! Mr. McPhee has clearly done
firsthand investigation into his subject area, and has a writing style that will keep your interest. Ex.: "In the vernacular of the pines, huckleberries are blueberries, wild or cultivated. Huckleberries are also huckleberries, and this confuses outsiders but not pineys. Fred explained to me, when I pressed him, that "hog huckleberries" are huckleberries and "sugar huckleberries" are blueberries."
There are some words in here that I'd never heard of, too,
such as 'fykes' that are used to trap snapping turtles. I learned that relatives of one of our members live there, a rare tree frog, Hyla andersoni.
I wrote to tsuwm that I'd finished this book, and he informed that his favorite is "Coming out of the Country", a story of Alaska and Alaskans. Sounds intriguing.
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if my amazon order ever shows up (supposedly it has already shipped), it will include McPhee's "Annals of a Former World", which is a compendium of four of his previously published works: Basin and Range, a study of the mountainous lands between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas; In Suspect Terrain, a grand overview of the Appalachian mountain system; Rising from the Plains, a history of the Rocky Mountains set largely in Wyoming; and Assembling California, a survey of the ongoing volcanic and tectonic processes; plus a fifth unpublished book, Crossing the Craton, which introduces the continent's ancient core, underlying what is now Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. Reader reviews indicate that there is a bit of repetition, and a lack of clear diagrams to explain some of the more technically challenging processes, but overall it has received stellar feedback.
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Sounds like the case of the supposedly priceless coin bearing the date "252 B.C."... Flatlander
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veteran
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veteran
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The 3 Kings
It's verifiable by checking the N.T. text that they were called "wise men", not kings, and no number is specified. Apparently there was, early on in the history of Christianity, the assumption that there were three of them because three gifts are mentioned. Also, there seems to have been the assumption that they were kings because the gifts were extraordinarly costly (and the journey would have been a huge expense). I'm not sure when/where the names were made up; Google might help.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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We ought to ask thea when she comes back:
Of the names Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior
Balthazar comes Bal=lord or owner and X. (as in Balzebub, from Bal and Zvuv -- Lord of the Fly; or the common BalHaBait: head of or owner of the house (homeowner, head of household)). The odd thing here is the t, since there is no "th" in Hebrew. If it were BalHaHazar, it would be lord of swine--but it isn't, so the question is what is "zar" (Ha being the prefixed article (whatever that's called).)
Melchior is likely M'El Ki Or = from God as (like) light. The prefix mem (M) has a grammatical function turning a into an action upon something, as I remember.
Caspar would be "like" (C again) X.
My guess would be that the three wisemen weren't wisemen at all but an angels (M'luchim -- messengers or agents of God), that is, that they were themselves the gifts.
IP
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McPhee also has a book. Travels with the Archdruid, which is about several trips he made with David Brower, one of the progenitors of today's environmental movement, who died last year. It's a very enjoyable book, and offers some really interesting insight into a great person. Info on hyla andersonii : http://www.uga.edu/srel/pine_barrens_treefrog.htm - beautiful critter. Hyla verbosii
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sounds like the case of the supposedly priceless coin bearing the date "252 B.C."...
Hey, I bought me three of them, from some guy called Caspar. Are you saying they're duds?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Info on hyla andersonii...- beautiful critter.But surely not more beautiful than thou, Hyla verbosii.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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<<hyla andersonii>>
A term of endearment I have used: "My little tree toad," but Hyla is so much simpler.
-Binky
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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Bridget
Have thought about it for a while and decided my favourite 'comfort' books (the ones I return to again and again) are:
The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery - for children, and everybody's read it, but hey, surely that's still allowed)
Leave it to Psmith (P G Wodehouse - where the urbanity of Psmith is the perfect foil for the madness of Blandings Castle)
Feet of clay (Terry Pratchett - funny, touching - a detective fantasy that's a plea for humanity)
Death in the afternoon (Ernest Hemingway - not fiction, and full of bllodlust, but gripping, and endlessly fascinating)
Kim (Rudyard Kipling - which I never get bored of recommending - for me the ending is like Eliot's shantih - the peace that passeth all understanding, and always makes my day happier)
cheer
the sunshine ('om shanti om') warrior
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Kim (Rudyard Kipling - which I never get bored of recommending - for me the ending is like Eliot's shantih - the peace that passeth all understanding, and always makes my day happier)Damn! And there was me, rooting for Sher Khan!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have just this minute finished reading Deric Longden's
_The Cat Who Came in from the Cold_, and at the risk of sounding like my teenage daughter, it is adorable! I read it straight through--wonderful!
I suppose if I had to say that any one book is my favorite, I would have to say _Daddy_, by Loup Durand. I like my books and movies with a lot of action, and this has some
heart-stopping suspense, as well as teaching me some things about WWII that I had not realized.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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One a couple of us like and more others don't is "Do the Windows Open," by Ann[e] Hecht. It is a collection of short stories originally published in the New Yorker and published sequentially as something vaguely similar to a novel. It is , to my mind, a hilariously--and sensitive--trip through the racing thoughts of a Neurotic CT housewife.
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