Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

More books

Posted by Sari

While Jukka has been turning his brain to mush with barbarian rubbish, I have been reading popular science which actually mentions Conan the Barbarian. Maybe there is a pattern there.

Remember my project of listing my favourite books? I'll get back to it at some point, now I am going to talk about one of Clinton's favourites. Robert Wright's Nonzero. Bill think it is a work of genius. It says so on the cover. And it is an extremely interesting book with some really cool ideas. Wright's argument is that there is a direction in human cultural evolution and that there is direction in biological evolution: from simple societies/organisms towards more complex ones. And the way societies and organisms evolve towards greater complexity is by playing nonzero-sum games, games where both parties benefit. Which does sound appealing both because a) Human beings find meaning in patterns, and this is a very cool pattern. b) it gives a direction if not meaning to human existence and c) seeing cooperation as something basic is much more appealing than seing competition as something basic.

There are some points where he looses me, though. First is in the first third of the book which is outline of human history in light of nonzero-sum interaction and striving for greater complexity. Wright stresses the linearity of his view of history so that I think he glosses over the discontinuities, especially fall of Rome and the  Middle Ages. Just saying it was a local eddy in the great river of progress does not IMO really cut it.  There are ways to explain the more static periods in human history and still come up with reasonable theories of growing complexity. That seems to be a problem more genrally. Wright is more interested in presenting the cases that support his thesis than trying to explain those that seem to argue against it.

The second iffy moment  is in the end where he brings the idea of God and purpose into the book. Even if you buy the directionality of evolution, does that imply a maker? Here Wright boldly goes into pure speculation and my eyes glazed. There also seems to be some tendency to drop the cross-disciplinary buzzwords into the text: Genes and Memes, Second Law of Thermodynamics and entropy, some of it is necessary for the argument, some, it seems to me, is not.

There are also some eerie moments when he talks about globalisation and the dangers to it using the first WTC bombers as a throwavay refrence. He has a website where he among other things ponders on the impact of 9/11 on globalisation and the future of humankind.

The bits I enjoyed most were predictably those I knew least about. Anthropolgy, game theory, biological evolution. I enjoyed less the bits about history, the one discipline I know more about. It was not so much that there was something really wrong, it was just that I wanted to continously say "yes, but..." I would imagine any anthropologist, economist or biologist would feel the same about their area of expertise. But that is how it is always with popular science. So, it was interesting and appealing, but not quite a work of genius. No matter what Bill Clinton says.

My other finished book is Louis Auchincloss's Portrait in Brownstone. His books are sort of Edith Wharton lite and later: the life of the priviledged in early to mid 20th century New York.  He is a competent writer and creates the characters of his family dramas with care and has a great eye for the milieu he is writing about. Portrait in Brownstone tells a fragmentary family saga about a wealthy family in New York, especially of how the quiet and mousey main character comes to her own after her cousin's suicide rocks her world. This, like Auchincloss's other books hovers on the faultline between Literature and Entertaiment, but does it quite comfortably and competently. If novel of manners is your thing, give him a go. Auchincloss's books are pretty difficult to find nowdays, most of them are out of print, so if you see any in the second hand bookshops, tell me :-)

Kothar - Barbarian swordsman

Posted by jukkahoo

I recently acquired two Kothar-books ("Of all the mighty fantasy heroes - the greatest of them all!") from an English fan who offered these deliciously "bad" fantasy classics in one of the mailing lists I'm in. Another fan, a distinguished American, was bewildered: "Why would I want to own something as vile and bad, as Gardner F. Fox's books?" (I'm paraphrazing here slightly. At least I hope I am, otherwise I don't actually know what I'm doing. - "Doing" - such a queer word? A bit like "dung". "What's brown and sounds like a bell? - Dung!")

But I digress! I wasn't very sleepy the other night and I decided to check the first Kothar-book out. It consists of three short stories (I guess the first one, "The Sword of the Sorcerer", is technically a novella or novellette?), of which I read the aforementioned first one. And it is hideously bad. It's mainly... dull. It moves on all right, but everything that happens is in no way exiting, dramatic nor interesting. It's supposedly a "Thrilling Fantasy Adventure", but in reality, it's just plain bad. Not like a regular turkey one would enjoy, like say (and here we move to the Realm of Motion Picture) Invincible Barbarian or Barbarians (the one with the Barbarian Twins). Kothar seems to be more like Gor, you know - "bore".

I'm still looking for the rest of this stuff. Who knows, maybe it'll get better? "About that bridge...?"

I read the Peg Kerr's The Emerald House Rising. I liked this little fantasybook. It was more YA than I expected, but pleasantly so. It had charming ideas and a very nice, "new" magic-twist to it. Nothing spectacular, but as a very nice comforting fantasy it served it's purpose. The protagonist was an able young girl who wants to be a jeweller, but as a girl she is somewhat shunned by the guild. As it happens, she turns out also being an adept with them "magic things". Not actually a no-no, but somewhat looked down-upon profession in these here parts of this particular secondary world. Fun and games, with a dash of romance and good-natured humour and exitement. My understanding is that Kerr's latest book The Wild Swans is much more ambitious. Sari liked it quite a bit when she read it.

Other recently read book is by P. C. Doherty. Satan in St. Mary's is probably his first (?) novel, and on occasion it shows. Doherty knows his history (the 13th century England under Edward I; but he has shown later that he can also do ancient Egypt, Rome, Mongols... - you name it) and the murky medieval city that's London is here with all the appropriate smells and bawds and scurrilous tales and cutthroats etc. This is the first Hugh Corbett mystery, who's a clerk from the King's Court and (probably later) the trusted servant of Chancellor Burnell. This is an introduction to our sleuth, as well as his manservant, young and rather a scallywag of a character called Ranulf. The mystery grows from apparent suicide to black magic, satanism and attempted regicide, and the pacing is very well handled. This is a short novel (180 pages) and there is more than plenty material for a lot longer tome. In the end this goes past too fast and clues are too obvious, but there is still an element of excitement here. I really liked the parotagonist, an ex-fighter, clerk and a recently (well, OK ten years ago, but he is still rather sad about it) widowed Hugh. As said, London comes alive too and I wouldn't be too surprised if one of these I'd try more of this here Mr. Doherty. Marko has liked his later novels too and I hope that some of the arkwardness of this book is due to it being the first one. As such, a very commendable mystery at that. It's always nice to see people shouting "Hail, Lucifer!" in the medieval setting. Thoroughly recommended.

The annual Yhteistyökokous of the Finnish sf/f-clubs, associations and organisations (and few good magazines too) takes place in Tampere this Saturday, the 28th of Feb. I'll be there. Let's see what utterly fun stuff one can expect in the future!

Back to Bollywood

Posted by Sari

After doing some metablogging in Finnish, lets get back to really important things like Bollywood movies. Tarja and I had our Bollywood night last Friday, and on the menu there was a double feature consisting of Fiza and One 2 Ka 4.

Fiza was Hrithrik Roshan's second film and as different from his debute Kaho Naa... Pyar Hai as possible. (I have previously described KNPH I think accuratly as worlds best rich-girl-meets-poor-boy-desert-island-rockstar-action-police-comedy-drama-hindimusical-
not-happening-in-Switzerland.) Fiza is a story of a Muslim family where the son, Aman, disapears during the early 1990s riots in Mumbai. After years of wondering what happened to Aman, his sister Fiza decides to try to track him down. She finds him from an unspecified border region where he has joined an extremist group after sort of accidentally killing three people in the riots. Fiza manages to persuade Aman to return to Mumbai, but he finds it difficult to fit in after all the extremist activities. When two evil Hindu layabouts turn him in and taunt his mom and sis, he grabs a gun from the policemen, shoots the taunters and goes back to the terrorists. His mother then commits suicide, Aman is chosen to assassinate two political leaders, and when police is about to catch him after the successfull assasination, asks Fiza to shoot him. Which she does.

Jolly, isn't it? As is traditional in hindi cinema, there is plenty of blood and violence mixed with a number of songs and dances. Especially noteworthy is Aman's training montage where he does kung-fu like moves and lifts weights to music in order to train for his mission as an assassin. 'Cause you need to be able to do spectacular leaps and jumps in order to shoot someone with a rifle from the window of a building... It just has to be seen to be believed. Hritrik is his very muscley self, Karishma Kapoor is fine as Fiza and Jaya Bachchan does again steal the show as yet another all-suffering mother. But somehow I prefer the other Hritrik as terrorist movie, Mission Kashmir. And believe or not, this gem is yours to rent from the nearest FilmTown! Or at least in the one at Pitäjänmäki. Mission Kashmir is not quite as depressingly bloody as Fiza, has one of my favourite musical numbers (Preity Zinta singing about bumblebees), Jackie Schroff as a totally over the top fanatic, and Sanjay Dutt's sympathetic performance as a policeman who adopts a child whose parents he has killed. Besides Fiza has only knives and rifles, whereas Mission Kashmir is all about bombs and missiles. Bigger is gotta be better, right :-)

After being depressed by Fiza, we went for comedy/detective-story/melodrama One 2 Ka 4 starring Sharukh Khan as a detective whose partner is single parent of four, Jackie Schroff. This was all about overblown comedy, Miami Vice-like colours and lots of broken glass until about one third into the movie Jackie Schroff is killed by a traitor in the department and Sharukh tries to find out what has happened and take care of the four now orphaned kids. Awww. The best thing in the movie? The scenes where the Police Special Branch is called to a crime scene and about twenty well-muscled desi men wearing sleaveless undershirts charge through the city on their mopeds. Close second is the female lead Juhi Chawla who does her babbling airhead/undercover cop thing quite convincingly. The rest? Not so much.

Politiikka ja bloggaaminen

posted by Sari

Kanerva Agripassa pohdiskeli Panu Rajalan hämmennystä siitä että hänen verkkopäiväkirjansa osoittautui julkiseksi ja Journalisti-lehden artikkelin kautta myös bloggaamisen liukumista yksityisestä toiminnasta kohti institutionalisoitua sellaista.

Kun en Hesaria yleensä lue, niin en tiedä tarkemmin mitä kirjailija Rajala on lehteen vuodattanut, mutta jos hän tdoella on ollut yllättynyt ja ahdistunut siitä että hänen verkkopäiväkirjansa on muuttunut pienen piirin lukemasta harrastuksesta mediatapahtumaksi, niin ei kyllä käy kauheasti sääliksi. Blogin, varsinkin sellaisen joka ei ole keskittynyt puhtaasti antamaan linkkejä uusimpaan väittelyyn "open source" koodin tulevaisuudesta, kirjoittaminen on tasapainoilua narsismin ja kirjoitusvietin sekä julkisuudenpelon välillä. Tällöin on tietysti turvallista ajatella että bloggaaminen on jotain vähemmän julkista kuin esimerkiksi pienlehden tekeminen tai kolumnistina toimiminen. Mutta täytyyhän jokaisen verkkoon mitä tahansa kirjoittavan tajuta että se on siellä aina ja ikuisesti ja että sinä päivänä kun Jukasta tulee bestseller-kirjailija tai minä aiheutan pahennusta kaatamalla oluttuoppini Kimmo Sasin päähän kuka tahansa voi googeloida käsiinsä koko historiamme verkossa aina jostain vuodesta 1991 alkaen. Bloggaaminen on kirjoittamisena erilaista siitä mitä perinteinen journalismi on: vähemmän valmista, enemmän sekavaa pohdiskelua siiitä sun tästä. Mutta yhtään vähemmän julkista se ei ole.

Siirtyäksemme sitten tähän politiikka-puoleen, niin jostain syystä tuo Journalistin artikkeli ärsytti minua aivan summattomasti. Osasyynä on varmasti irrationalinen ja tunnepohjainen lehtimiesvihani, neljäs valtionmahti kun on minusta keskimäärin aina koostunut laumasta ammattitaidottomia ylimielisiä idiootteja jotka ovat lähinnä välttämätön paha elämässämme. (Ja jos joskus rupean poliitikoksi tuo edellinen lause tulee varmasti puremaan minua persuksiin). Toinen syy on varmasti se jonka jokainen "insaideri" kokee kun hänen jutustaan kirjoitetaan artikkeli ulkopuolelta. Minun poliittinen tietämykseni tulee aika täydellisesti blogien kautta ja niiden käyttäjänä artikkeli vaikutti taas ylhäältäpäin kirjoitetulta naurettavia yleistyksiä tekevältä ja lukijakuntaa aliarvioivalta. Menen laskemaan sataan ja yritän joskus selittää miksi kun en ole ihan näin ärsyyntynyt.

Happy Pictures make me cry

posted by Sari

I have no idea what will follow from the this decision (WaPo requires registration) by the San Francisco Mayor and County Clark's office, but these pictures make me think it will be worth it.

Now if Finland would only allow for a civil union for the straight people...

Crowner John

Posted by jukkahoo

Ja tällä kertaa kotimaisista kielistä sillä tutuimmalla!

Olen viikonlopun jäljiltä ollut hieman kröhimiskunnossa. Kurkussa on limaa, eikä maailma maistu aivan normaalilta, mutta uskoakseni kyseessä ei ole mikäänsen vaarallisempi tauti. Tämä vain kaikille tiedoksi jottei tule sanomista siitä, ettei näillä sivuilla puhuta enää vakavista sairauksista.

Luin joka tapauksessa loppuun Bernard Knightin Sanctuary Seeker -romaanin. Kyseessä on herran ensimmäinen Crowner John -teos ja lisää on vuosien varrella tullut (kohta kymmenisen kappaletta). Olen jo aiemmin tutustunut miekkoseen kolmen Crowner John -romaanin avulla ja on tilinpäätöksen aika.

Crowner John (De Wolfe) on "coroner" eli eräänlainen kuolemansyyntutkija/vallesmanni, joka asuu Exeterissä Richard Leijonamielen aikaan. Entinen ristiretkeläinen ja Rikun uskollinen kannattaja ei kuitenkaan ole alueen ylin rikosoikeudellinen päsmäri, vaan tätä virkaa ylläpitää ikävä sheriffi Richard De Revelle, joka on myös Johnin lankomies. Ja prinssi Johnin kätyri. Kummalliselta vaikuttava kaksois-poliisivoimat asetettiin voimaan Leijonamielen huidellessa maailmalla, kun tätä ennen oli Juhana (omaa sukua Plantaget, myöh. Maaton) pyrkyröinyt keräämään kermoja päältä, tarkoituksena oli mitä ilmeisimmin vähentää korruptoituneiden sheriffien valtaa, mutta mikäli tässä historiallisessa romaanissa on edes siteeksi totuutta mukana (ja yleensä näissä sen verran on aina), niin ainakaan "coronereille" ei annettu aivan liikaa näitä voimavaroja toteuttaa uutta lakia. Crowner Johnillakin on oikein yksi apulainen, Gwyn ja kirjuri Thomas De Payne.

Johnin ja sheriffin välinen ristiriita/viha ja samalla siitä syntyvä Leijonamieli/Juhana-skisma on vain yksi monista vastakkainasettelu-teemoista joita näissä kirjassa vilisee. Johnin avioliitto ei ole niitä onnellisempia, mutta toisaalta John harrastaa avioliiton ulkopuolisia suhteita aika vapaalla kädellä. Gwyn ja Thomas ovat jatkuvasti toistensa kimpussa (lähinnä sanallisesti, sillä siinä missä Gwyn on jättimäinen soturi (ja entinen ristiretkeläinen hänkin) niin Thomas on hintelä kyttyräselkäinen ex-pappi, jolle tuli hieman kiire lähteä kirkon helmasta hieman liian suuren lähemmäisenrakkauden takia. Yllättäen ongelmia on niin saksien ja normannien välillä kuin myös aatelisten ja alempien luokkien. Crowner John on tietenkin normanni ja ilahduttavaa kyllä, ei mikään poliittisen korrektiuden nimissä vähemmistöjen ymmärtäjä, vaan yleensä aika lailla sopivasti normanni-ylimyksen oloinen kukkoilija.

Sanctuary Seekerissä etsitään selkeästi Pyhältä maalta kotiin palanneen ristiretkeläisen murhaajaa. Johnin ja sheriffin välille syntyy tässä sarjan avauksessa jo melkoinen kuilu, sheriffin kiduttaessa ties ketä syyllisenä ja ummistaessaan silmänsä täydellisesti seutukunnan silmäätekevien ilmeiseltä syyllisyydeltä. Ikävä ihminen, ja siksi ehkä niin herkullinen "roisto" tälle sarjalle. Knight kertoo mukavan onnistuneesti ihmisten ja alueen historiaa. Voisi luulla, että tämä olisi sarjan vaikkapa kuudes teos. Taustat tulevat esille hyvin ja myöhemmissä kirjoissa sama tahti jatkuu. Mutta.

Ikävä kyllä näitä kirjoja ei kyllä jaksa lukea tätä enempää, tai ainakin minä saavutin saturaatiopisteen tämän kanssa. Tarinoiden kaavamaisuus alkoi neljän rosmkun jälkeen olla selvillä: tapahtuu rikos (useimmiten murha; jos ei alussa, niin jossain välissä kumminkin) ja Crowner John ryhtyy etsimään syyllistä, sheriffi sabotoi hänen yrityksiään ja vangitsee viattoman syyllisenä, John riitelee vaimonsa kanssa ja norkoilee majatalossa uhkean Nessa-emännän kanssa, keksii syyllisen jne. Välillä Gwyn ja Thomas yrmeilevät ja jonkun pienen kylän asukkaat saavat sakkoja, koska eivät ole metelöineet tarpeeksi kuolleen takia ("failing to raise 'hue and cry'"). Suositellaan yksittäisenä viihdepläjäyksenä, eikä toinenkaan vielä pahaa tee. Hyviä henkilöhahmoja ja ajankuvaa.

Bad Movies

Posted by Sari

Jukka was kind enough to borrow the pakistani vampire musical from 1967 and I am eagerly waiting to see it. it will be my first fooray to the dark underbelly of Lollywood...

I spent a much more refined week-end with only one movie, Kal Ho Naa Ho, the other of 2003s two blockbuster hits from Mumbai. Link takes you to the official site, be aware that the flash will take some time to load. Anyway, Tarja and I had this plan to go over her place for one of our periodical Bollywood binges where we watch maybe even three whole films (remember that the shorter BW movies are around three hours long...) with her cheap DVD player which agrees to play even the crappy bollywood quality DVDs. Unfortunately, I was dogsitting and had to cancel, but when I told Tarja that KHNH had just been delivered by the post, she decided to accept my invitation to come over instead.

And great time was had by all. Or at least the humans, I don't think Mommsen and My were very impressed. See, Bollywood is my way to unwind. I love musicals in all their incarnations, from Busby Berkeley's rows of chorus girls and Arthur Freed Unit's cenemascope extravaganzas to Cameron McIntosh produced West Ends spectacles. Bollywood has all that golden age hollywood had but from the occidental perspective it has it with exotic twists. The dancing derives from indian traditions which stresses much more upper body movements and looks thus different, the music is at least to my ears very danceable ethnopop, and the unabashed melodrama of the plots is just something that you can't really find in western cultural producs. (One could argue soaps aim for similarily melodramatic plot twists,  but they lack Bollywood's fascination with the operatic themes of love and (filial) duty).

Add to this the totally unabashed sexualisation of male body by allowing both the male and the female stars to be the 'passive' objects of the "male gaze", the interesting structures by which Bollywood's romantic melodramas uphold (and sometimes even subvert) the cultural standards, and Shah Rukh Khan and I am sold.

Despite its James Bondey name Kal Ho Naa Ho (For Tomorrow May Never Come) is a big budget vingage romantic melodrama. It is the story of a Desi family living in New York whose father has committeda suicide which is tearing the family slowly to pieces. Things change when the nephew of their next-door neighbour comes to visit and starts to help everybody with their problems. The cast lead by Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywod's uncrowned king is excellent, fusion-pop music score works for me (the Bhangra-version of Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman just rocks), and production values are top notch.

It is of course cotton candy with large helping of cheese, but I like that rather unexpected flavour :-)

Sari

Somebody _has_ to do it

Posted by jukkahoo

Last weekend was a Great Feast of some Appallingly Bad Movies. There are motion pictures men are not actually meant to see. That's why some strong, silent types, the very ones that keep this planet sane and whole, are needed, in order for the rest of you to live your daily humdrum in relative easy and peace of mind.

Have you ever seen a movie starring Fabio? Or a Pakistani horror musical? Or a film starring William Shatner, Ernst Borgnine, John Travolta and Tom Skerrit, where the last twenty minutes contain mostly devilworshippers melting in the rain, in a very graphic way? Or a movie with over 500-year old giant conqistador, that snaps out of his deep slumber and starts to terrorise Southern California? Or a cheapo remake of a really cheapo barbarian movie, where the most impressive bits are the ones they ripped from the original movie, ghastly bad Deathstalker? Or how about something weird and far-out, like Queen Kong, a movie that was released 25-years after it was made and features not only female Giant Ape, but is also a musical, a comedy, a feminist spectacle and stars a skinny little blond guy as Ray Fay? Or...

Needless to say, the films in question were very entertaining and should be consumed with maximum amounts of alcoholic beverages. Beer is the best, but cheap whisky is a jolly good "kyytipoika".

21 movies in 48 hours. Not a lot of sleep. Tired now.

I finished with the The Assassins of Tamurin by S. D. Tower. She (the author) is apparently an internationally published author of espionage thrillers. Good for her. The book was a mixed bag of good ideas and solid writing, and some silly padding plus mediocre plotting. I have never liked books that tell "what is going to happen next" in two lines and then take fifty pages in order to "flesh it out".

But I was more pleased than aggravated with this one. It reads a lot like a romantic YA novel, but is a bit more "adult" than that. I liked most of the characters, even thou not that many were "fleshed out" enough (the protagonist was good). Little bit of everything you'd expect from a fantasy novel was in this one. The setting "sounded" more like Far East, than it actually "felt" like, but it was a pleasantly different from the "normal" pseudo medieval setting of phat phantasy. Recommended with slight reservations, entertaining.

Byatt and Kritzer

Posted by Sari

As you may or may not know I generally detest short stories. With few notable exceptions I find them boring and pointless writing excercises which may well benefit the writer but offer little to the reader. I also know that the above is not exactly a fair and balanced view. So, I have been trying to read short stories trying find some that I like. I have dutifully read one short story a night from the Picador collection, and when my sister, the Byatt scholar lent me thelatest collection of Byatt's short stories I actually sat down and read the damned thing.

Byatt's Little Black Book of Stories is actually a genre collection. The five stories are all horror stories and three have supernatural elements in them. I found three of the stories totally pointless and boring ("The Thing in the Forest", "A Stone Woman", and "The Pink Ribbon"), and two which were readable. "Body Art", a story about an encounter between eminent Irish Gynaecologist, and a down-and-out art student who is into installations and body-piercing is vintage Byatt in that it takes the title and spins it into many different directions. Reading it, you can actually feel how words, descriptions, events make connections in your brain. If I was still doing a lit-crit class this would be a great work to analyse, but it isn't interesting enough to do pick apart on my free time, and I suspect it really is one of those stories that would greatly benefit from being picked a part.

The other readable short story in the collection is "Raw Material" which is a sort of a story about a creative writing -teacher. His class writes and demands melodrama, stories about abuse and rape and violence whereas the teacher finds that the most satisfying excercises are those of an old lady writing about how household chores were done in the olden days. As it is a story about writing it can't escape being on some leve a metafiction, and in that light its ending is really interesting.

So, two out of five, not bad. Certainly better than the Picador collection which at the moment scores one out of fifteen.

I have also been reading Naomi Kretzers fantasy duology Fires of the Faithfull and Turning the Storm. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Firstly just because it turned one of the usual fantasy tropes around. In Kretzer's world everybody can do magic, and those who do not are suspected of heresy. And the heresy is Christianity with little tweaking here and there. It also has a nice understated lesbian romance, interesting characters and evil is not something epic, but something very human, and can be seen both sides of the conflict. I was not too fond of the first person narrative, and the plot itself flounders a bit here so that sometimes there is a feeling of deus ex machina plotting. But overall, quite nice.

Luminous tags and other paraphenalia

Posted by jukkahoo

I'm well.

Or so my doctor says. Sirpa (sixth!) saw me last Friday and we decided that my lump has melted a bit and will probably continue to do so, and therefore there is no reason for me to continue seeing a doctor on a weekly basis. Next check-up: Ides of Mars.

This has been a bit of a drag: waking up one morning with an irritated lump, just after you've been told you're OK and normal life lurks just around the corner. January was a bad month and February has started with a flu, so things aren't too shiny or happy in Casa Tali. But we shall endeavour to change our combined sour face to something far more cheerful, healthier and positive.

I have also been to a dentist. I don't really want to talk about it.

Have you noticed how gad-awful cold it is?

...

I've been reading a bit, not too much since I was a bit on the gloomy side of things and I couldn't be that interested in anything more demanding than tube-watching. I actually watched several dozen episodes of Enterprise. How sad is that? But I did read few books.

Like John Maddox Robert's Hannibal's Children. It's an AH with the point of convergence at the gates of Rome, whilst Hannibal is outside, waiting to get in. And he does. It is a good, solid book, which smells a LOT like Roberts is going to be write a number of novels in this world. I'm personally looking forward to that. No real review here, since it's one of my Kutspah-books for the next Tähtivaeltaja. As is Ian R. McLeod's The Light Years. A superior book that ranks high on my list of great, new speculative fiction books. Something like China Miéville, something like Sean Stewart, something like (ghasp, a Real Author!) Charles Dickens. Look for it, you'll like it too.

Another book I read just recently, is Simon Winchester's The Surgeon of Crowthorne (it is in fact one of our dozen or som BookSale-books, more of that later). This here is a biography of sorts, about two men, who both had a wee bit more than just a bit to do with Oxford English Dictionary. Dr W. C. Minor was a millionaire Civil War (American, that is) surgeon - and a madman and a murderer. Dr James Murray was the editor of OED. Minor moved to London after Civil War and lived in various "ill-reputed areas" of London, before he killed a total stranger and was sentenced to mental institution, since he was considered to be totally bonkers (most probably paranoic schizophrenic). English correctional system had just "invented" humane methods and since Minor was also American, he got sent to a spanking new Broadmoor Asylum. From there he assisted as a volunteer contributor (reading LOADS of books and collecting words from them) of the OED for several years.

Murray was also somewhat oddball himself. Since the family was poor he was forced to quit school when he was 14, but he was so smart and eager to learn more, that at 17, he was the vice-principal of the said school. He also tried to teach Latin to cows and, my personal favourite: "[]...comparing, in lexical terms, the sheep-counting numerology of the Wowenoc Indians of Maine with that of the moorland farmers of Yorkshire". Eventually he managed to find himself with the Best and the Brightest of the British scholars and was finally chosen as the editor of OED.

This is microhistory, interestingly told and with a sensible ratio of serious academic jargon mixed with genial banter and humour. Liked it a lot, not the least because it's rather short (200 pages) and it tells a tale worth telling. Winchester has a good sense of telling a good story instead of the facts (which he also mentions, but on occasion very cursorially). This has all the ingredients for a very nice BBC-drama. Will Self calls this "Tour-de-force", so it must be good.

As said, we went and checked the BookSale last... (Thursday?, no) Friday - and managed to spend far too much money. Not that there was that many really interesting books, but because the Sale-part of this hullabalooza has been lost, probably forever. OK, half-price is good, but if one compares the sale-prices with, let's say six-seven years ago, the gap is huge. Those days you could really make some finds and save a LOT of money, but now - in order to do the same thing - you have wait for the very final days of the Sale and count your blessings. Not that much to write home about, me reckons. I have these few items I'm interested in, but not really that much, that I'd be willing to pay the price that is there right now. We'll see what happens.

And if you don't already own a copy of China Miéville's The Scar, go NOW. Akateeminen is selling for measily €5,90. Buy it, buy two and give the other one as a present.

I went to HKL ticket service at the Railway station and loaded some value to my Travelcard at the counter. The nice woman servicing me decided that I needed new covers for my card (she was right, the old ones were pretty torn) and gave me them. But only after she had taped a luminous tag to it. I kept wondering the need for that the whole time I was sitting on the bus. I keep my Travelcard in my pocketsies, no car (nor the actual driver of any vehicle) can see the reflection from there. What a silly idea! Am I now supposed to  wave the blasted card in my hand while promenading the dark streets and alleys of our fair town? And then I saw the light. Just like with them fri£@$€ng Rose petals!!! By the way, Tuhkis-Yuza is a complete moron, a regular nimcampoop: he figured out the solution in 15 seconds! Ha!

Does anyone know which is the first actual Finnish comic book? And when it came out? I came across this rather delightful sequential picture book today and it is from 1905.

Next weekend promises to include only turkey and more turkey. Syksy is in Finland and Da Prufussionaals are having a real good old honking turkey-film festivities at Nalle's place. Hot diggity dang!