mules might still have a place in warfare, replacing the helicopters and aircraft which had supplanted them in the 1960s.
"The updated remake of Apocalypse Now lacks some of the original's pace."
Just noticed that one of the recommended titles is a film about the struggle to bring down a black gangster who runs a massive heroin-smuggling operation.
That's not even remotely subtle.
87: not to mention Clear and Present Danger, one long screed about the folly of sending the army into other countries to solve a problem much better dealt with by the police and the courts...
70: or the Lovecraft version:
"Dear God! Even as I write he is inviting me out for dinner!"
69: I think I have a couple of Tim Powers books that were originally published by Harlequin.
54: Apologies if that came over as insulting - I certainly didn't intend it to be so, nor to imply that romance writers are any worse than any other sort of writer. It's just that that sentence - in an otherwise fairly standard notice - rather caught my eye as being slightly more romance-y than you normally get in an official statement.
Serge: like it. Please start writing irate press releases from the Hard-Boiled Cop Thriller Writers' Association, and go on until we tell you to stop.
Sometimes the wind of change comes swiftly and unexpectedly, leaving an unsettled feeling.
You can sort of tell that's from a press release issued by an association of professional romance writers.
About 20 years ago it was a common practice to vandalise the signs of the Australian roast chicken restaurant "Red Rooster" to make them say "Red Rooter".
Compare amending the sign on an "In-And-Out Burger" restaurant by removing the "B" and the "r".
I say it’s a way for a book to have two front sections, so you don’t have to choose whether your to-do list or your notes on your novel belongs in front, or your lined as opposed to your unlined paper. It also means your book can have two different covers.
From the video, it seems that the book can have three different covers - black, red and green in the vid. No?
What's the difference between that and JC Watts' comment on CNN that the Democrats were always on the side of the terrorists? Or Sarah Palin's comment about how the Obama plan would introduce "death panels?"
The difference is truth. The Democrats were not, as a matter of objective fact, always on the side of the terrorists. The Obama plan would not have introduced death panels. Those were lies.
But, AFAIK, one aspect of the Republican plan, such as it is, would deprive the poor of medical coverage (or rather keep them deprived) - the families of poor patients would be stuck with bills they cannot pay, bills which would grow in size the longer the patient remained in hospital. In other words, their plan for the health of the poor actually is "don't get sick, and, if you do, in order to avoid losing all your assets and bankrupting your family, either get better fast or die fast."
Could it have been ghost-written? Maybe Keegan gave his notes to somebody, or left the fact-finding to others and only wrote the final draft to give his style to it.
Like Stephen Ambrose? I read one of his recent books and was brought up short by a sentence that made it perfectly obvious that the author had used as his source the film "The Great Escape" - a reference to the recaptured escapees being rounded up, herded together into a field and machinegunned, which is one of the final scenes of the film but never happened in reality. (Actually, they were killed a few at a time in various different places, which is much less cinematic.)
In a lot of UK infantry battalions, the band doubles up as the medics (which wouldn't exactly put them out of harm's way) - however, traditionally, the pipe bands of Scottish battalions are trained as infantrymen, and normally act as the HQ defence platoon. Everyone drops, everyone fights.
53: that's not drag. Look more closely - that's just a long coat over trousers...
By George, you've got it! We'll outsource Congress!
By George III, would that be?
I am a middle-aged woman, and I am extremely visible in Home Depot, and Ace, and Lowe's.
To the other customers.
Apparently, a woman in khakis, a collared shirt, and sensible shoes, studying shelves of tools and taking notes, must be an employee, orange apron or no orange apron.
I get this a lot (30something male), regardless of what I'm wearing. My best was at the Tower of London, when a couple of tourists mistook me for a member of the staff and started asking me a series of questions about the Tower, history, kings etc., which is quite a mistake to make given that I was in jacket and tie and the actual staff dress like this.
I'd give 'em the benefit of the doubt and assume it's just that we give off an air of authority and competence...
elise's story reminds me very much of "A Civil Campaign". It's also a great example of invisible privilege.
I hold to the strong theory that if this universe was created by divine beings, it was done by a committee, probably of the Trickster gods, and it wasn't an authorised action.
That sounds familiar: ObPratchett!
"People said that clearly there had to be a Supreme Being because otherwise how could the universe exist, eh?
And this was obviously true. But, Koomi argued, given the state of the universe, it was obvious that the Supreme Being had not, in fact, made it. If he had made it, he would, being Supreme, have made a much better job of it, with far better thought being given, to take an example at random, to the design of the human nostril... The universe had clearly been put together in a bit of a rush by an underling while the Supreme Being wasn't looking, in much the same way as Boy Scout Association minutes are printed on office photocopiers across the country. It was therefore, Koomi reckoned, not a good idea to address prayers to a Supreme Being. It would only attract his attention, which might cause trouble."
350: Well, it began as a joke, but I think the idea of a worldwide gathering of Making Light commenters is a terrific idea, and I would show up if I can possibly manage it!
FOURTEEN HOSPITALISED IN PUN LODGE DISASTER
I can't remember where I saw the comment that "the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi haven't actually achieved that much either"...
There is a large element of confirmation bias in the assumption that criminals are stupid. The ones that are caught are stupid (or unlucky). The ones that get away are not part of the sample.
ObSayers: "Read the divorce court lists. Wouldn't they give you the idea that marriage is a failure? Isn't the sillier sort of journalism packed with articles to the same effect? And yet, looking around among the marriages you know of personally, aren't the majority of them a success in a humdrum, undemonstrative kind of way? Only you don't hear of them. People don't bother to come into court and explain that they dodder along quite comfortably on the whole. Similarly, if you read all the books on this shelf, you'd come to the conclusion that murder was a failure. But bless you, it's always the failures that make the noise. Successful murderers don't write to the papers about it. They don't even join in imbecile symposia to tell an inquisitive world 'What murder means to me' or 'how I became a successful poisoner'. Happy murderers, like happy wives, keep quiet tongues."
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