2013 — 16 April: Tuesday
Yesterday's warning of inbound items turned into this morning's wake-up call1 even before the cuppa that renders me vaguely coherent, not to mention civilised. But, even then, not quite at the unevolved level of the kind of low-life that blows up marathon runners.
Recall G E B?
I recently mentioned the two redwood blocks that Hofstadter designed and made for the front cover image on his marvellous 1979 book (and, my god, how my copy's front cover has faded!). Here's a close-up:
Now compare this:
I don't believe I've ever had dealings with a QR code :-)
Now that I've just...
... finished my own breakfast, shortly before it would have technically been "lunch", I found this little exchange...
... while browsing around links from Jamie Zawinski's always interesting site.
Still a classy act...
... always worth reading. Source and snippet, (delayed only by my unputoffable need to nip out to do some supplies shopping, followed by the downloading and upgrading of my [much] preferred text editor after a worrisome instability2 earlier this morning, and my consequent checking for updates):
What, to your mind, makes a good book review?
A good book review should do an evocative job of pointing out quality. "Look at this! Isn't it good?" should be the critic's basic attitude. Occasionally, however, you have to say: "Look at this! Isn't it
awful?" In either case, it's important to quote from the book. If more book reviewers had actually quoted from the mortal prose of "Fifty Shades of Grey," hardly anyone would have thought it was wonderful,
although they all would have read it anyway. Criticism has no real power, only influence.
Any reaction to the fact that Dan Brown's next novel, coming out a month after your "Divine Comedy," will be based on Dante and called "Inferno"?
Dan Brown's forthcoming "Inferno," of which Dante will be the central subject, has already got me trembling. Brown might have discovered that "The Divine Comedy" is an encrypted prediction of how the world
will be taken over by the National Rifle Association. When the movie comes out, with Harrison Ford as Dante and Megan Fox as Beatrice, it will be all over for mere translators.
Rather later
Just watched, and then ordered my own copy of, "The Bourne Legacy".