so pretty busy here. :)

but now I don't have the patience or attention span.

I like science fiction, although I'm not that up on the current stuff.

I suppose I like gritty, depending on what that encompasses... Dennis Lehane for example is easy to read and interesting.

Sometimes baseball histories or political books or biographies or education stuff or even actual literature. Depending on time and interest.

I'll also cop to a weird soft spot for bridge novels -- books in which the card play is integrated into the (generally humorous) plot. Please treat that admission as confidential =P

Heinlein -- For Us, The Living. A bit of a skeletal piece, but an interesting overview of his general philosophical outlook.

For fiction, I generally gravitate to historical themes, with a smattering of fantasy thrown in on occasion. I have, um, a secret fetish for Agatha Christie type stuff. I like to figure it out before Sherlock, Tuppence, or Poirot does ;} But I tend to read a lot of nonfiction too.

If you're bored and like fantasy a la Tolkien but without the (maybe kinda tedious?) entire world development thing, I recommend Stephen R Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" series. Good v evil with an antihero you hate to love.

Jitterbug Perfume will make you smile. It's just weird. Beets. I'll never think of beets the same way again.

Currently, finishing a biography of Isabella of France that I started a while back but didn't finish. Somehow I end up with a whole row of those on the nightstand.....

Also, just finished After the Ice, a comprehensive review of current knowledge of mesolithic societies, which, if you're into that sort of thing, you know is not an era that is well covered. Paleo and neo get all the press, but meso is overlooked, yet it's when all the cool stuff started happening.

I'm bored with politics too, right now. Until the Dem candidate is chosen, it's just cannibalism, which is painful to watch.

Ever hear that Neil Young song, "Sample and Hold"?

(Lyrics if you're interested since it is hard to make out at times.) It is from his electronica album Trans which was a total break from his other stuff. Anyway, it is about robotic sex partners. If only it had a few lines about ninjas!

I am reading Mythologies which is literary theory. I am also reading Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and a collection of Matthew Arnold's poetry.

I am lame like that. Besides Star Wars, I am not really a fan of sci-fi. I think we have enough unexplored territory left here to concern me with.

The problem is what happens when a whole bunch of poor business ideas go for that sustainable growth status and then we will end up subsidizing millions of inefficient or inferior companies.

How do you decide who qualifies for this, since they pretty much become welfare qualified companies.

there is almost guaranteed to be significant tension in the party because some Obama supporters, rightfully or not, would view her getting MI and FL seated and convincing the supers to overturn the pledged results to be a huge problem. So she would almost have to extend an olive branch to solidify her victory and be viable in the general.

Obama, if he wins a few more states by large margins and gets even a reasonable minority of the remaining superdelegates, will not face the same legitimacy issues from most Clinton supporters. This is not to say that there might not be sound political reasons for offering her the slot, just that it's not as necessary, and I imagine reasonable supporters on both sides realize that.

You know there are a lot of stupid gotcha kinds of attacks floating around and attempts to embarrass political rivals, most of which I pay no attention to...

but the whole Obama bowling a 37 thing kind of surprised me. It's not that I give a damn whether the eventual presidential nominee is a good bowler, but rather that to bowl that badly it has to have been pretty much your first time. I hate bowling but if I bowled less than a 80 I'd be mortified.

Okay fine- except he knew it was going to be a photo op. It's not like Obama just thought he'd bowl a few frames to blow off some steam. He and what's his name went there as a political press event.

And apparently it never occured to him that just maybe knowing how to bowl would spare him some embarrassment. I keep getting visions of Dukakis in that tank helmet (to say nothing of the tank itself).

WTF?