Time for a post, I reckon.
Some things have actually happened in my life recently.
1. I have just finished reading two wonderful books; "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson, which richly deserved a Hugo and didn't get it, and "Ignition!" by John D. Clark, which I first read in 1972 when it came out. It's a PDF now, at http://sciencemadness.org
Go to the sciencemadness site and click on "library." There is so much wonderful stuff there about the chemistry of nitrates (Kaboom!) and yes, alkaloids.
I'll save most of my thoughts about the Stephenson book for my next post, as those thoughts are many. I will say that the idea of Platonic ideals leaking from cosmos to cosmos and infecting human brains seems perfectly plausible to me.
2. I went to an unusually long Divine service on Sunday Eve, or Saturday Night. The Bishop was present and confirmed some people, including the guy who gave me a ride. (So _that's_ why he wore a suit!) Later, at the feast, I was talking to one of the guys in the choir and he let slip that he was present for the great horrible USS Enterprise fire in 1969. He was sitting on the hopper in the head, doing his business, when he felt, or heard, a voice in his head telling him to stand up, draw trow, and get out of there right now. He was barely through the door when there was a, not Earth-shattering, but ship-shattering kaboom. The exploding Zuni happened right over where he had been sitting. He described his fire-fighting efforts, and that this was the first step on his particular Road to Damascus. This, too, deserves a more discursive post. More later. Honest!
1. I have just finished reading two wonderful books; "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson, which richly deserved a Hugo and didn't get it, and "Ignition!" by John D. Clark, which I first read in 1972 when it came out. It's a PDF now, at http://sciencemadness.org
Go to the sciencemadness site and click on "library." There is so much wonderful stuff there about the chemistry of nitrates (Kaboom!) and yes, alkaloids.
I'll save most of my thoughts about the Stephenson book for my next post, as those thoughts are many. I will say that the idea of Platonic ideals leaking from cosmos to cosmos and infecting human brains seems perfectly plausible to me.
2. I went to an unusually long Divine service on Sunday Eve, or Saturday Night. The Bishop was present and confirmed some people, including the guy who gave me a ride. (So _that's_ why he wore a suit!) Later, at the feast, I was talking to one of the guys in the choir and he let slip that he was present for the great horrible USS Enterprise fire in 1969. He was sitting on the hopper in the head, doing his business, when he felt, or heard, a voice in his head telling him to stand up, draw trow, and get out of there right now. He was barely through the door when there was a, not Earth-shattering, but ship-shattering kaboom. The exploding Zuni happened right over where he had been sitting. He described his fire-fighting efforts, and that this was the first step on his particular Road to Damascus. This, too, deserves a more discursive post. More later. Honest!
posted by Justthisguy at 6/13/2010 08:35:00 AM
4 Comments:
Discursive. A wonderful word, terribly underused.
Of course, today at the Castle you were just vomiting high-dollar words on Bill's post.
Or was someone rubbing your belly?
I do love to say anything and everything to Bill, hoping for a response. Whatever the subject, he seems to know more about it than I do, (or most other people) and never fails to show some razor-sharp wit.
You made it through Anathem? I tried and tried and tried. Got all the way to page 80 and man was/is that the most boring pointless book I've ever read.
I have to fly to Bahrain next month, maybe I'll take it on the plane with me to see if I can push on to the good part of that 935 page monster.
Ignition! Bless you, sir; I've been looking for that since I saw it mentioned on Derek Lowe's blog.
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