In this rant Stern is clearly back to his roots (rated R for strong language).
Archive for January, 2011
President Hu of China visits our middle class survivors, offers condolences and packages of food and clothing.
Oneth by land, twoeth by space…”The ability of the Rulls to control light with the cells of their bodies was not even suspected until one day a ‘man’ was blasted while attempting to escape after being caught rifling the secret files of the Research Council. As the human image dissolved into a wormlike shape with numerous reticulated legs and arms, human beings had their first inkling of the fantastic danger that threatened…”–War Against the Rull (A. E. Van Vogt).
China’s prez visits the Grand Banana Republic but makes no promises about feeding our hungry and homeless.
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Related: Everyone has probably seen Obama bowing to various heads of state; most recently he’s been bowing to China’s president Hu Jintao. Even though Hu is from a prosperous and superior first world nation (unlike our third world landfill) Obama does not need to bow to show respect. Here’s what China Orbit recommends: “A brief handshake serves as greeting, as the majority of Chinese people who interact with Europeans have become accustomed to shaking hands and are surprised when someone offers a short bow. It’s advisable, when greeting a superior or equal, to direct your gaze downward and to avoid direct eye contact.”
Related: Grand Banana Republic leader experiences deer caught in Chinese headlights syndrome. Hilarious.
I hope he doesn't order me to take our flag down.
Reading? Nothing beats Raymond Chandler
Posted: January 5, 2011 in BooksTags: Raymond Chandler, Short story
For Christmas I finally got the complete writings of Raymond Chandler. Usually right from the beginning sentence or paragraph Chandler announces he means business with your attention. Take the opening of Trouble Is My Business (one of four stories in the collection of the same name):
“Anna Halsey was about two hundred and forty pounds of middle-aged putty-faced woman in a black tailor-made suit. Her eyes were shiny black buttons, her cheeks were as soft as suet and about the same color. She was sitting behind a black glass desk that looked like Napoleon’s tomb and was smoking a cigarette in a black holder that was not quite as long as a rolled umbrella. She said: ‘I need a man.’ “
Notice how the slobbering sounding (unkempt, piggish, sloppy) ’putty-faced ‘ is accentuated by its immediate nicely groomed implying contrast: ‘tailor made suit’.” Though reversed in order he makes the same contrast with ‘cheeks were as soft’ as ‘suet’–in other words, as soft as the white fat on the kidneys and loins of sheep.
