No, it isn't like inflammable and flammable

I mean tolerance and intolerance.  Though that is pretty weird, that thing about flammable and inflammable.  English, huh?  What a language.

Tolerance Thoughts from the White Board - March 31

Source: Political-humor.org

Do you pronounce that "Fay-Ree"?

Darn.  Another question as a blog title.  I suppose I am full of questions lately.  Like if "Faerie" is the same as "Fairy," or if they are different things altogether.

Book Review: Wards of Faerie: The Dark Legacy of Shannara

Today's book review is book one from another fiction series.  However, this time I haven't read the rest of the series yet, and so what happens after the book reviewed is anyone's guess.  Well not anyone.  Not really.  Lot's of people have already read this series, I'm sure.  I guess I should say, it's my guess as to what happens next.

You know, that calls for some speculation on what happens in the follow-up books.  How about the protagonists from Wards of 'Fair-iee' all discover they are living on the surface of some sort of giant mushroom, and all that has been going on is an analogy of the politics of fungus, set to fantasy fiction themes?  No?

I'm just spit-balling here, of course.  If you haven't read the book, then you will have to read my review and then you can join in the conjecture too.  Yeah!  Conjecture party!  Is that anything like a slumber party?  Or a surprise party?  Or a party of the first part?

Source: Jantoo.com

What's the password?

The title of today's book being reviewed is Who Goes There?  That evoked the title of today's post.  So you see where I went with that.  Right?  I didn't confuse you.  No, wait, don't wander off.  Hey!  Stop!  Wait a second!

(to self) OK, so my goal is to stop asking questions in post titles.  I can achieve my goals.  I'm a big, strong, smart, blog poster.  I can achieve my goals. Deep, soothing breaths, man.

Book Review: Who Goes There?

And for more PSA on password security, click the video below.  Go on.  Click it.  Click it!

Jog World, Smog World, Dog World, Fog World...

... Blog World?  Today's book review is for a humorous little title called Mogworld.  It's by Yahtzee Croshaw of "The Escapist" online magazine, whom I've mentioned in previous posts on this blog.  A pretty good novel, all things considered, but not one I'd probably read more than just the once.  It's an older review from my moldering notes, so it's done in my "what I liked/what I didn't like/what I learned/why you should care/why is the sky blue"-type of format.  So there you go.

Book Review: Mogworld

Source: Nuklearpower.com

Speaking of video game-related humor, anyone remember sprite comics?  It's where some clever soul takes the images from a video game (usually an older system - the old NES - "Nintendo Entertainment System" for those of you too young to understand what an "NES" is - was especially popular) and marries them to some clever dialogue?  It's so last decade, as the kids say.  But the one above, 8-Bit Theater, is one I used to read regularly.  It's cleverer than clever, for the most part.  See the link here if you want to read more.  The series has been complete for years now, so you won't have to slog through 85% of the story and then be stuck in limbo from week to week 'til the thing finally crawls to its conclusion.  Like getting in on a popular cable TV series and then having to put up with the bogus later seasons that are being made now.  The Walking Dead, I'm looking your way here.

Good to great-ish?

The title of today's book being reviewed, pulled from the dusty pile and spruced up for your consideration, is Good to Great.  But as those who will peruse the review will find, not only is the review dated now (2013 was when the notes were made - the book was published before the subprime mortagage crash of 2008), but the book itself talks about companies that, for the most part, have gone by the wayside.  So I suppose the title of the book, if you look at only that side of things, would be better like I have it.  Great-ish is much more accurate.

Book Review: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

Speaking of the recent "Great Recession," here are two clever chaps who explain what all that meant.  If you haven't heard enough about it before.  Funny Brit humor.

I thought of several versions for this title

None of my title ideas seemed particularly - uh-hem - appropriate.  Let's just say there was one about how, "One good 'Screw' deserves another."  But since yesterday's post was The Screwtape Letters, and today is The Turn of the Screw, you can see why I'd go there.

Book Review: The Turn of the Screw

Source: rondotheatre.co.uk

And some added good news to those of you who like brevity in your reviews!  This one is probably a tenth the length of The Screwtape Letters review.

What do these two things have in common?

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Source: wikipedia.org

They both feature prominently in any competent repairman's tool box?

They are both adequate solutions when you're trying to put the bumper back on a 1986 Ford Taurus?

Neither is something you want to step on in the dark?

Both control the fate of human destiny as we know it?


Think harder.

Yes, that's it.  Screwtape.  That old fiend himself.  Today's review is for that seminal classic, The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis.

Book Review: The Screwtape Letters

It's always a dark half somewhere

Book Review: The Dark Half

Source: shutterstock.com

Kinda like that part of the commercial for the less-than-savory Gremlins 2 movie (see the clip below if, unlike me, you don't recall seeing this ad in 1990).  That line struck my young teenage mind as pure logic.  "It's always midnight somewhere."  See, as a kid, I wasn't allowed to watch the original Gremlins.  But I'd heard the rules.  Yes indeed.  And that whole, "can't feed them after midnight"-thing?  I recall thinking, "That's just dumb.  How does this little critter know what time it is?  And why midnight, of all times?" 

My adult self breaks in here and reminds me, "It's just a movie, dude."  Thank heavens for the adult voice, eh?

Thoughts from the White Board?

It's been since November since I published one of these.  I decided today would be worth an effort.  Though to be honest, my mind is elsewhere.  So I wouldn't call it the best Thoughts I've done in the history of time.

I was thinking...

Source: pmslweb.com

“It feels kind of cool to come back from work every day without having killed anybody.”

That is a quote from today's reviewed book, The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning, by Hallgrímur Helgason.  The novel often has that deadpan humor that you're not quite sure whether to laugh or cringe at.

Book Review: The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning

Source: plus.google.com

There's a screenplay in that picture's headline.  And while we're at it, I want that job!

Lucy! You got some splainin to do!

Whaaaaaa!!!!

Movie Review: Lucy

Source: metacolor.org

Scarlett Johansson's grandmother, perhaps?  Nope, it's actually Lucille Ball in her younger days.  Could Johansson ever pull off Ball's legendary physical comedy and be taken seriously (if you can take comedy seriously, and anyone who knows anything knows you should be very serious about your comedy)?  Somehow I doubt it.  But hey, let's see her try.

I'm feeling a touch zombie-ish today myself

Had a persistent cold or some such virus that has been hanging on awhile.  Just feeling tired.  That, or perhaps it was the third graders today that made me feel a bit thick in the gray matter.  One class got five minutes of library check-out time, and the other one - that is usually a pretty good class for me, for some reason - got no check-out time at all.  Maybe it's the cold snap and the snow we had yesterday.  Or maybe it's just one of those weeks.  Who can say?

Book Review: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Book Review: World War Z

Source:  Uhmm....  embarrassing as this is, I forget.  If you are the owner of this one, drop me a note and I'll rectify.

Oh I get it!

As in she's really gone.  As in Gone Girl.  Gone.  Long gone.  Way gone.  Gone around the bend.  Gone and not left a forwarding address.  A goner.  Gone.......zo.  Gone to market to buy a fine pair of monkeys.  Gone away and won't be checking her messages.  Gone with the windage.  Get up and gone.  Gonorrh-ee yeah, gonna skip that one.

Movie Review: Gone Girl

Source: pintrest.com

Could that potentially make Monday be gone too?  I'll have to try it.