July, 8, 2005 archives

“you make me want to be a better man.” — jack nicholson as melvin udall in as good as it gets, screenplay by mark andrus and james l. brooks

friday is usually my eat-lunch-out day, and rather just grab food from the grand central market, i’m trying to expand my horizons a bit. after lunch today, i can safely say i’ve eaten where the french-dipped sandwich was invented, whether that is actually philippe’s or cole’s p.e. buffet. of the two, i think phillipe’s wins out on the ambience and food, but they’re both excellent.

back biters and syndicators
standing all around the door
back biters and syndicators
standing all around the door
and there’s whisperin’ every day
hopin’ i’d go away to stay.

ooo-ooo-wee, ooo
almost ruin* my happy home
ooo-wee-ooo
almost ruin my happy home
i’ll be glad when the day come
you leave these syndicators alone

i can’t understand, little girl
that they don’t mean you no good
i can’t understand, little girl
that you don’t know they don’t mean you no good
you’ll find these kind of people
in every neighborhood

back biters and syndicators
can’t you see ’em standing around the door?
back biters and the syndicator
can't you see 'em standing around the door?
i’m gonna move on down the line
i don’t have to be bothered no mo’.

— “back biters and syndicators,” by john lee hooker

• this sounds like “overrun” to me, but i’m going with the lyrics sites here.

does it count as a sex dream if all you do is hold hands?

going postal by terry pratchett is the latest of the discworld books, and it is brilliant, of course. it’s the story of a con man who is is appointed postmaster general instead of being executed, and how he applies his talents to revitalizing the post office even in the face of the signal tower (“clacks”) monopoly. it is very funny, although it doesn’t have quite the heart that monstrous regiment did.

shadow puppets by orson scott card is the penultimate book in the whole ender saga, or so we’ve been led to believe. i think i agree with the reviewer on amazon that calls it a punctuation mark in the series. it’s fairly lackluster, and that makes the biggest flaw of this last part of the series stand out — the geopolitics are absolutely ludicrous.

there’s less of the bean-as-brilliant-mindreader schtick, which is a very good thing, but none of the characters are particularly strong in the book.