Category: *heh*

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“Just the Facts, Ma’am”

I like J.A. Jance books for light reading, mostly as “palate cleansers.” *heh* The J.P. Beaumont books rank a wee tad higher on the “mystery” end of the scale of her books, while the “Arizona books” (centered around two different female protagonists) are slightly less appealing to me, not because of the central characters, but just because they offer less for me to solve before the characters do.

Still, Jance is a competent writer, and her stories read easily–just the thing for light palate cleansers. They’re also–thankfully!–pretty well line- and content edited, so my own copies don’t get marked up a lot. 😉

And then there are the little things, like a minor character (in a putative “mystery-cozy thriller, if there is such a genre *heh*) recruited to do security work named. . . Joe Friday. Oh. Funny, J.A. Real funny. *heh* I wanted him to walk up to the client and say, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

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I Should Have Content Editing Privileges

When Roger Simon wrote, “We don’t need elegant words, Republican John Kerry’s slavering all over us with diplospeak” in a recent column, I thought to meself, “Self, that would read much better with ‘dildospeak’ than ‘diplospeak.'”

Thatisall.

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Occasionally. . .

*sigh* Every now and then, I find myself reading five or so books at once. This is one of those times. (Plus a new Bible reading plan I’d not tried before.) I know how it happens. Books that are just barely well-written and interesting enough to continue reading, but not well-written and interesting enough to read straight through are the usual culprits. Every now and then, a book I need to put down and think about, or just absorb, for a while before continuing makes my reading list as well.

Now? One hardcopy book. A book on my “non-fiction Kindle” and another on my “fiction Kindle” plus three more in different instances of Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader. Between the six, they hold my attention. *sigh*

And then there’s that new Bible reading program. Ten chapters/day, each from a different book with specific instructions to just read them straight through without stopping to think on the text. Tried that. Can’t. So, I generally read half the day’s readings and then go do other things, while the chapters I’ve read percolate. Then, at the end of the day, I finish the readings.

In between, my daily work/chores/activities and. . . the other books.

I prefer keeping it to just one book at a time, but sometimes. . . nope. Not happening.

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Prisoner Exchange in the Future?

So, backtracking Sean Penn’s movements during his clandestine meeting with “El Chapo” Guzman, infamous Mexican “drug lord,” led Mexican authorities to finally REcapture Guzman. Again. Now, Mexican law enforcement is investigating/mulling over the criminality of Penn’s acts.

But wait! There’s more!

The U.S. has filed an extradition request with Mexico for Guzman to stand trial for crimes committed in the U.S. And Mexico has already said the request meets the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Mexico. Oh, why not? Mexico can’t seem to keep Guzman in prison (he’s escaped, what, three times?). Maybe the U.S. can.

But wait! There’s more!

Remember? Mexico ? investigating Penn’s acts? Imagine a prisoner swap: Guzman for Penn. Mexico trades a murderous head of a drug cartel for Sean Penn (’nuff said). We win that exchange.

As even ESPN Podperson, Dan Szymborski, notes, “Only Sean Penn can interview a murdering drug kingpin and somehow come off looking like the douchebag of the piece.”

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Wonderful, Wonderful TV Programs. . .

Ah, a night of Elementary reruns to look forward to: actors mumbling dialog at high rates of speed combined with “atmo music” designed cover the mumbles.

Nah. This Old House reruns are better. (Damning TOH with faint praise.)

Homeowner on TOH detailing a problem resulting from ice-damming: “Water came pouring out and just wouldn’t stop! It was like a quart of water!”

So, it did pour, briefly, and then stop, and the leak referred to resulted in a whole quart of water! A QUART! *yawn*

I love this show. I watch for a while and don’t feel quite so badly about my own stupid stuff. *heh*

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Killing Little Grey Cells

OK, so I started reading a novel. The premise: a “rogue” archeologist makes an amazing discovery. Yeh, Dan Brown-ish, but maybe it’ll get better. Problem #1: this “brilliant” archeologist is a moron. I find myself almost immediately wanting to take her by the scruff of her neck and shake some sense into her. Dislike much? Yeh, much.

So, enter another character: the archeologist’s estranged husband who is supposedly some sort of mountain climber of note. Yeh, problem #2: he’s a dislikable moron, too. Within about a page and a half of this character’s entrance, I wanted the writer to kill him off–quickly! Dislike much? Yeh, much.

Asked myself if I were willing to put up with the crap I’d have to in order to read a book built around two characters who’d be better written out of the story so it could be transformed into a much more pleasing story about Jack the Ripper’s rebirth or some such. Answer: nah. These are “people” whose story I do not want to know. Buh-bye!

What little I read was better than a similar sample of Dan Brown dreck, but that’s damning with no praise at all. At least it was free, even if I may never recover from the brain cells it killed.

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Grammar Matters

Seen various places:

A well tailored suit, being necessary to the appearance of a sharply dressed gentleman, the right of the people to keep and wear clothes, shall not be infringed.

So, according to the “understandings” applied to the Second Amendment by (wilfully) illiterate leftards, only “sharply dressed gentlemen” have a right to “keep and wear clothes”? That would certainly chap a few misandrists’ gizzards. . . (not to mention leading to some interesting sunburns and other such things. . . )

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Passing Shot. . . and Chaser

Food network cooks/chefs prove that fluency in English is obviously unnecessary for success in the kitchen. *heh* One example, of many: “paparika”.

Anthony Bourdain ain’t as classy as he thinks he is. (But that’s no surprise. No one could be.)

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Just One More Reason to Deplore the “New Truckers’ Version”

I’ve seen a few citations of John 3:16, as mistranslated by the “New Truckers’ Version” (NIV), in the run-up to Xmas:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I deplore the “New Truckers’ Version” (NIV) in part because of rather gross mistranslation like this. My only gripe with this is that “monogenes” does NOT mean “one and only son” but “only begotten son”. The two are rather profoundly different.

“One and only” is easily impeached by other scriptural passages, even without simply translating “monogenes” correctly. Adam is called a son of God; Israel is called sons of God, Jesus calls peacemakers sons of God; the resurrected, those who have faith in Christ, etc.: all “sons of God” according to scripture. Jesus is the only BEGOTTEN Son of God: unique, no other like Him.

Yes, I know more and more commonly illiterate folks nowadays might stumble on “begotten,” but that’s just another reason for Xians to be more literate, so we can explain things like the virgin birth, the miracle of the Incarnation.

Or heck, give ’em a dictionary.