• A couple from my tsrly quotes:
  • It’s St. Paddy vs. Jesus this year as the Easter Holy Week overlaps St. Patrick’s Day. Quite a conundrum for the Irish Catholics, eh? Luckily, my personal beer worship won’t be affected.
  • The hairstyles of Japanese women might reflect the state of the Japanese economy. Or it might be a coincidence, but people don’t bother to mention that.
  • Dick Cavett has fond memories of chess genius (and batshit crazy anti-semite) Bobby Fischer
• I’ll admit that it makes me a little nervous to even link to this.
• Parents: praise hard work, not natural ability.
• The Wife’s reaction to this story, which took place about a mile from our house: “Who the heck robs a Hobby Lobby?!”
• Still unsure if your favorite TV show is coming back after the writer’s strike? Here’s the 411.
• The Wife is on a comic kick right now, so here’s a list of 8 comic books to read before you die, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

That is all.

Going for my walk/run today in 15 degree (F) temps wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting. Until my calf started cramping. That had nothing to do with the cold, though. It was ready to go from the activity earlier in the weekend.

Junk I’ve run across:

• Parkour and free running are – without a doubt – the best thing to happen to action movies since martial arts. This article focuses on one of the American early adopters.
• Last Friday there was news of a car found in bits (along with the three people who were in it) in nearby Louisville. Turns out the car was doing over 100 miles per hour. It also turns out the folks taking the ride were drinking. At least they were “doing what they loved.”
• Leonard Cohen is going on tour after fifteen years off the road. I’m sure he’s past his prime, but I might actually go see him. This live disc is absolutely essential, I don’t care who you are.
• What does it say about me that I think this thing looks like a lot of fun?
• Brozo‘s pal and mine, John Croghan, is playing some shows in the near future. I told him he should play “More Than Words” by perennial Boston favorite, Extreme. He said he’d do it if I actually came to the show. I’m gonna do my best, even though it’s way past my bed time.
• Another buddy, Wil Herren, has taken off to Dubai, where the rate of construction is only outstripped by the importing of sex workers (or so I hear). Wil’s off to a great start on his travel blog, even if he might be misusing the “pages” paradigm. The captions on the pics are gold.
• Brozo has the run down of our send-off for Wil, if you’re interested in a bunch of past-their-prime white boys rolling between dive bars in a limo.
• Oh, yeah… Go Pats!
• So, Clinton won Nevada, but Obama got more delegates? WTF? No wonder people don’t bother…
• I’m reading The Golden Compass right now. It’s actually good fun, IMHO. Not sure if I’m all that interested in the movie, though.
• I grabbed Superbad onto my TiVo via Amazon Unbox, though. That’s bound to be just about perfect for one of these nights when the television dial is utterly devoid of worthwhile entertainment.
• Speaking of, anyone have the early word on Breaking Bad? I’ve got it recorded, but haven’t watched it yet.

Perhaps this tendency isn’t only a Beantown phenomenon, as illustrated by this NYTimes article about tracing a large portion of the modern slang dictionary to the Irish Gaelic tongue. The book, for which the article is basically an advertisement, is actually called How the Irish Invented Slang.

Like I said, though, it’s kind of easy to fall for these types of hypotheses (for whatever reason). Luckily, the intarwebs are full of differing opinions on just about any subject you could imagine. In this case, the counterpoint is solid:

In January 2005, I challenged Cassidy to present all of his evidence. I told him that I’m the descendant of three strains of Irish, four strains of empiricist, and the son of a bluster-catcher, and I said he was going to have to do better than trot out the same-old “they’re all against me!� argument of every perpetual motion inventor.

To date, what he’s provided as evidence is flimsy and fouled by scholarly incompetence.

Just fair warning, if you’re at all like me and tend to fall for the various romantic myths of the various Celtic peoples. Besides, everyone knows the Scots invented everything! ;^)

Here’s tae us
Wha’s like us
Damn few,
And they’re a’ deid
Mair’s the pity!

—

Track o’ the Post: Erin Go Bragh from Dick Gaughan‘s Handful of Earth. (Dick Gaughan, it’s worth noting, is a Scot and something of an internet geek. Nice!)

I just finished this one in audiobook format, and it’s really quite good. Granted, there are probably two types of people who will read this book: Those who already believe what the author, Christopher Hitchens, is saying, and those who need to try to disprove him. It’s not like any of these atheist tomes are really likely to achieve their goals of rendering religion obsolete. That only happens one person at a time and it’s really unlikely that this book or any like it are going to move ranks of believers into the atheist camp. So the atheists (and even the agnostics) can read it and say “Right on!” and the others can read it and think “Well, he’s going to Hell.”

Of the two groups, of course, I fall into the former. At least mostly. I try not to be an asshole about it as is the current trend with the so-called new-atheists. I can’t tolerate Dawkins and Harris. They seem too feverish. They froth and moan with so much conviction they tend to lose the appearance of reason (in my opinion, of course). In my view, proselytizing is proselytizing no matter which direction you’re trying to pull.

I hear Hitchens can be prone to the same patronization and name-calling as the others, but his book (at least) is very well reasoned and for the most part, lays out the argument against religious belief (and organized religion, in particular) quite well. As I’ve indicated, though, I’m not really sure what good it does. It helps me and those like me expand our list of things we don’t like about religion, mostly. Good for me, I guess, but I’m not the guy that gets into those arguments with the religious. I don’t even enjoy debating the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses that come to my door — I just send them away. What about those who do get into these confrontations? Well most of the ones I know already had all the ammo they needed.

I suppose this book will be a good study guide to save the next generations some time.

Oh, I’m not done yet, either! But I’m getting close and it’s getting rather interesting, so I thought I’d tell you about it. (This is me telling you about it.)

Set in England during the war with Napoleon, when behaviors were formal and people spelled normal words oddly, this book tells the tale of two very different magicians and how they bring about the “rebirth of English magic”. I’m no Harry Potter reader, so I can’t make any comparisons (if there are any to be made), but this is a fun story overall. Some parts are a bit slow and some parts are real page turners.

The books been around forever – I know I had my eye on it for a good long while. If you’ve seen it around and thought maybe you’d like to check it out, i can definitely recommend that you do.

I’m listening to the audiobook on my commute. It strikes me as incredibly meta. There’s a definite undertone of

“Here’s how you can make yourself and expert and sell information to other people — just like I did with this book! (Sucker.)”

He also explains everything he’s doing (“tricks of the trade”-wise) on the book’s companion web site.

That said, it’s also quite interesting, plenty entertaining, and disturbingly inspirational. (Lord help us…) It’s really not as slimy as I’m making it sound, but it’s in there.

Let me know your thoughts if you have read it, are reading it, or plan to read it. I actually think I might pick up the dead-tree version in order to cement my own feelings about it.

So… I guess it’s recommended…?

There’s plenty going on these days, but that’s all I can think of to share at the moment.

Related note: I like the new Craft magazine even more than I enjoy it’s big brother, Make.

Now I see that they’re releasing a movie based on the novel, and the trailer doesn’t look half bad.

I make no claims for the film, but the book is highly recommended.

It’s really a great book and really a great relief to me that, all-joking aside, I definitely have very little in common with the Autistic.

Seriously, though, read the book. More diligent readers than myself can easily plow through it in a day or so.