HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: thorntn@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Duncan Peter G. Thornton)
Subject: Re: Neither_Here_Nor_There
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 17:20:45 GMT

In <1992Oct9.132841.6476@infonode.ingr.com> rusty@infonode.ingr.com (Rusty Wiginton) writes:

>	Has anyone read Bill Brysons latest yet? Once again he
>	has me in laughing at his travels. I knew I was hooked
>	after reading The_Lost_Continent. His journey through
>	America was so much like mine as a child that I want to
>	go back to those places to see how much they have changed.
>	But in Neither_Here_Nor_There, Bill leaves merry old
>	England to see the Northern Lights and travel as far east
>	until Europe is no more and Asia begins. It is a book well
>	worth dedicating a Saturday to. Please post or email me
>	and we will start a discussion about this book.

You're quite right - Bryson is just painfully funny (I read 
_Neither Here Nor There_ on a Greyhound bus and was in serious
trouble trying not to laugh so loud the other passengers would
lock me in the washroom). But I think what impressed me most
was that his bite, his vicious remarks about the follies he
saw, never obscured an obvious affection for most of the places
he saw, and for people in general. Maybe the most successful
warm-hearted satire I've ever read.

My real question, which I've asked before, is - what does Bryson
do when he's not writing books? Someone told me he was the 
editor of _Granta_, but he certainly isn't listed as such in any
of the issues I've looked at.

- Duncan


Duncan Thornton          | Astronomy teaches the correct use of the sun and
thorntn@ccu.umanitoba.ca |      the planets.   - Stephen Leacock
	

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mliau@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Alvin K Liau)
Subject: New book on Richard Feynman
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 22:40:23 GMT

	Hi. I heard from someone that there is a
new book out on the great physicist Richard Feynman.
I think its by Gleick (can't remember the first name).

	Can someone e-mail me more information? Thanks.


--------------------<<<<<>>>>>--------------------
          mliau@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
    "if you don't play soccer, you don't exist"
--------------------<<<<<>>>>>--------------------
From: ccsdgdc@gdr.bath.ac.uk (Douglas Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Brecht: Life of Galilei
Date: 12 Oct 92 12:28:49 GMT
Organization: Bath University Computing Services, UK

In the referenced article, anlyyao@igc.apc.org (An-Ly Yao) writes:
>
>Anybody, who knows about an English translation of Brecht's "Leben des
>Galilei"?


I possess the 1963 Methuen paperback of Brecht's Galileo
translated into English by Desmond I.Vesey.
-- 
Douglas Clark                                  Voice : +44 225 826039
Regional Services,                       JANET : D.G.D.Clark@uk.ac.bath
Bath University Computing Services, UUCP : ...uunet!mcsun!uknet!gdr!D.G.D.Clark
Bath, Avon, England BA2 7AY    ARPA : D.G.D.Clark%bath.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Literature Students/Small World
Date: 9 Oct 92 18:42:35 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1b4hloINN2hb@agate.berkeley.edu> maverick@fir.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick) writes:

>Well, it was enjoyed by me!  I don't know the Dillard -- what I've read
>of hers has struck me as lapidary, which may be the kind of unenjoyable
>"goodness" Jane was after.

Bingo!  And may I compliment you on your word choice?  "Lapidary" is
absolutely perfect, and it's one of the reasons I read -- and enjoy --
Dillard.

>I think what we have here is a failure of communication.  Perhaps
>there's some mental contortion I perform to reconfigure almost any
>complex reading sensation as enjoyment?  Who knows....

Wow.  An English teacher's dream student!  Read those sewer passages in
"Les Miserables" yet?



-- 
The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world --
if only from time to time.     -- Annie Dillard, "An American Childhood"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu
From: wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (John Wojdylo)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Attractiveness (was: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia)
Date: 8 Oct 1992 07:54:48 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: madvax.maths.uwa.oz.au

hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu writes:

>This is not just a "male thing".  If I had to choose between two
>equally qualified candidates, each with perfectly pleasant personalities,
>and one of them looked like Mel Gibson and the other like Pete Rose,
>I would choose the Mel lookalike.  Who wants to spend 8 hours a day
>working with (and looking at) someone who looks like Pete Rose?

>On the other hand, if the Mel lookalike were less qualified than
>the Pete lookalike, or I had reason to believe that his personality
>were such that I might find it difficult to work with him, and I
>hired him anyway simply because he was cute, then I would be a fool.


You're a fool anyway.



Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: scs@iti.org (Steve Simmons)
Subject: Re: Borders Bookstores sold to K-Mart
Organization: Industrial Technology Institute
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 14:11:14 GMT

Ann Arbor is the "home town" of Borders; the first day I went it (June
'74) I was hooked.  It's only relatively recently they started
expanding.  Since their expansion started, their service has been going
downhill somewhat.  They're taking much longer to do special-orders,
and their database definately has a bad time lag -- I tried to order a
book that had been advertised, and they said it wasn't even listed yet,
but later that day it was on the shelf at their main competitors
(Community News).

On the other hand, an 80%-efficient Borders is still one of the best
bookstores in the US, so I keep going.

I've been in their Columbes OH and Rochester NY stores.  The selection
is about the same, so they're being true to their heritage.  The Ann
Arbor store just expanded by about 30%, with the new space being split
about equally between crowding reduction, customer service area, and
more books.  We'll see what happens now that K-Mart owns them.
-- 
scs:  Tied for last on the Zwicky list with `zwicky'.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jsc@athena.mit.edu (Jin S. Choi)
Subject: Book on time management?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Distribution: rec
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 07:18:35 GMT

Didn't know the appropriate place to ask this, r.a.b. seems as likely as
any.  Anyways, can anyone recommend a good book on time management? I
mean, are there any established classics on the subject? I'm referring
to personal time management here, not in the corporate sense.

E-mail replies would be cool if possible, as I'm not sure how much time
I can afford to spend reading news :-)

Thanks,
-Jin
--
Jin Choi
jsc@athena.mit.edu

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: twain@milton.u.washington.edu (Barbara Hlavin)
Subject: Re: Literature Students/Small World
Summary: Can we say "I didn't enjoy it, but I know it was good" 
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 18:00:05 GMT

Vance:
>
>Now of course I realize I was being extreme, but I think it's worth
>our while as readers to ask, "So how accomplished a storyteller can
>she really be, if she doesn't make me want to read to the end of
>her stories?"  

Can't we just call this a matter of taste?  I don't share Joyce Carol 
Oates' obsessions, and I find her sensibilities actually repellent at 
times.  At least this is true on the scale of her novels; she has 
written some short stories I quite like.  

>Isn't the possibility of judgments like this the
>result of a fallacy of reification -- the isolation as a thing of a
>distinct "skill" like storytelling?

Are you saying that we can't meaningfully talk about abstractions 
like talents and abilities?  Or that there is not such a thing as 
a storytelling skill?  Or that we're defining it incorrectly?  
I'm not clear on what you're saying here.  

>Thought experiment: is a good writer imaginable whom *nobody* would
>want to read?

*laugh*  You've been channeling Borges again, haven't you? 


--Barbara 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: valas@sdc.com (Chris Valas)
Subject: Re: Callan spy stories.
Organization: Systems Development Corporation
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 18:37:30 GMT


>>Does anyone know the name of the author of the Callan spy stories?
>
>James Mitchell, also wrote/writes as James Munro.
>
>
>Alan Hunter
>Johnson Hunter Ltd


Does anyone know if the Callan stories were ever published in the
States?

I read them years ago as a kid living in England but they were all
lost during the move back home.  The television series _Callan_ was
running then as well: a young Edward Woodward was great in the title
role, but I digress....

cheers,
Chris
From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The White Man's Burden of Proof - New words!!
Date: 16 Oct 92 12:35:33 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <JMC.92Oct15004048@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU writes:

>By the way is everyone from Perth given to calling people who disagree
>with him fools and worse?

As a native of Perth (Scotland) I'd just like to make it clear that we're
talking about the rude colonials of Perth (Australia) here :-)
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Re: This is so bad i could not put it down
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 17:44:50 GMT

William McGonegall has been described as "the Ossian of the ineffably absurd",
and it is true that his oeuvre -- if you can call it that -- defines doggerel.
But barrie saw him as a tragic figure. For many, many years he was the subject
of an elaborate popular charade. At his public recitals throughout especially
Central Scotland he was given extravagant receptions that led the poor man
to believe in his own genius. Why all this? Well, a neophyte netter has
suggested she might hold a McGonegall Night Supper rather than the now boring
Burns Night ditto, and did I know his, McGonegall's, birthday? I don't and
I doubt that anyone does since the year of his birth has been given variously
as 1825 and 1830. Perhaps a Dundee correspondent can help? 

							Fido
From: lnh@soliton.physics.arizona.edu (sometimes a Wombat)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:01:29 GMT
Organization: Society for the Appreciation of Janni Lee Simner

Francis Muir writes:
>In his *Letter to Maria Gisborne* Shelley wrote of another writer:
>
>				...let his page,
>	Which charms the chosen spirits of the time,
>	Fold itself up for the serener clime
>	Of years to come, and find its recompense
>	In that just expectation.

Why do I suspect this was the passage on Peacock?

	the shamefaced that the LETTER TO M.G. is the only major
	Shelley he hasn't read[*] Mr. E-----

[*] Correction for honesty: Tried to read.  I couldn't get anywhere
with THE REVOLT OF ISLAM, nor PETER BELL THE THIRD.
--

LNH@physics.arizona.edu     \   People ought to fight for their law as
GEnie: L.HAMMER2             \  for a wall.  -- Heraclitus, #100
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: argument from buoyancy (was ...from gravity)
Date: 8 Oct 92 04:12:07 GMT



William Sburgfort Smith writes:
 
        John McCarthy writes:
 
                Apropos of another post, consider writing a description
                of baseball for a foreigner intended to help someone
                watching the game to understand what the players are
                trying to do and tell whether they are succeeding.
                The foreigner should get something no matter how soon
                he stops reading.
 
                        <<< description of baseball game deleted >>>
 
        Excellent.  Now could someone post one for cricket.  I've never been
        able to figure that out.
 
 
As near as I can tell, the purpose of Cricket seems to be:
 
        1.  See how much purple you can rub off the ball onto your nice
            white pants.
 
        2.  Throw the ball at your opponent -- trying to hit him in
            the kneecaps.
 
When I explained this view to some Englishmen, I was corrected.  I was
told that the bowler is actually aiming for the head.
 
 
Mark
 
ObBooks -- see the wonderful Cricket Bat speech in Tom Stoppard's
THE REAL THING.


Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 17:22:03 GMT

In article <CB.92Oct8104552@tamarack13.timbuk> cb@tamarack13.timbuk (Chris Brewster) writes:
>
>Meg Worley:
>   Are you begging to be asked what you've read in the field you liked?  Very
>   well, I beg you:  Tell us what your nominees for fine books on the subject
>   are (and cheering words on Churchland's *Neurocomputational Nonsense* are
>   particularly sought).
>
>My nomination is Karl Popper: Logic of Scientific Discovery, the Open
>Universe.  This guy is good.

Given the title of this thread, you should recommend CONJECTURES AND
REFUTATIONS over L.Sc.D.; that book of essays and articles is far less
un-pick-uppable than THE LOGIC OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.


--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"Liberty resides in the rights of that person
mnemonic@eff.org| whose views you find most odious."
(617) 864-0665  | 
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --John Stuart Mill
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: spb0457@rigel.tamu.edu (SubGenius)
Subject: Re: Seeking: incisive essayists, any race, creed, or gender
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 19:05:00 GMT

Antonio Leal writes...
>Well, my taste runs more to the conservative curmudgeon, but you might
>get something out of these:
>- H.L.Mencken
>	Oldie (early 20th) but good.  Very sharp on the U.S. scene.
>	Offends everybody without prejudice.  Vintage has printed a
>	few collections.

+-------------------------------------SubG---------------------------------+
Strangely enough, I just yesterday purchased a volume of Mr. Mencken's
essays (for a paltry $0.85, no less).  Introduction by Aliester Cooke.
["Conservative curmudgeon" comments deleted]
+-------------------------------------SubG---------------------------------+

>- Gore Vidal
>	A cultured patrician with a sharp pen.  Some say his essays
>	are better than his novels (personally, I find Creation a damn
>	good novel).  Essay collections, grouped by date, out on Vintage.
>	Some of what he says about "(American) Republic and Empire"
>	ties in amazingly well with Mencken and (surprise) Chomsky.

+-------------------------------------SubG--------------------------------+
In his essays and novels, I find Gore Vidal to be a poor man's Nikos
Kazantzakis.
_Creation_ is indeed his best.  Worth a read.
+-------------------------------------SubG--------------------------------+

>- Kingsley Amis
>	Penguin has a book of Selected Essays out.  Covering, I think,
>	from the 60's to the 80's, many published in The Spectator.
>	He must be sorry for the way his son turned out.

+-------------------------------------SubG--------------------------------+
I recently saw a couple volumes of K. Amis' that I hadn't previously known
existed.  One of his poetry, and another of his essays.  Two snaps up.
[Now if I can just find a copy of his autobiography...]
+--------------------------------------SubG-------------------------------+

[deletia Paulo Virilio 'cause I don't know a thing about him]

>- Noam Chomsky
>	Apart from his childish belief in the good nature of man, and hence
>	anarco-syndicalist politics, he writes some very perceptive things
>	about U.S. politics in Deterring Democracy (Vintage).  Almost an
>	'outsider' perspective.  It's interesting to confront his piece about
>	the war on drugs with P.J. O'Rourke's (in Parliament of Whores).

+--------------------------------------SubG--------------------------------+
Is _The Chomsky Reader_ still in print?  I had a devil of a time trying to
find it, and in the end wound up just getting a copy from a friend on
extended loan.
[cheaper that way, in any case]









-SubGenius
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: akao@.com (Adam Kao)
Subject: Re: Only Connect
Organization: Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores, CA
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 19:10:49 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

In article <1992Oct8.142743.25874@cactus.org> kate@cactus.org (Katherine M. Catmull) writes:
>
>I am missing John's point here.
>
>Kate

That's the greatest thing about John, he doesn't have to make a point
in order to get attention.

Adam

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Dashiell Hammett
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Keywords: Red Harvest, mild spoiler
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 21:36:55 GMT

In article <1992Oct14.150036.7013@oracorp.com> harper@oracorp.com (Douglas Harper) writes:

>I'm afraid I don't see the likelihood.  My understanding is that the
>Finns are predominantly Lutheran, not Catholic.

That depends on whether you're talking Finn as in Finland or Finn as in
Mickey.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"I can solve this Orient Express thing without
mnemonic@eff.org| breaking a sweat. It's that simple."
(617) 864-0665  | 
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --Hercule Perot
From: janines@novell.com (Janine Schenone)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Seeking: incisive essayists, any race, creed, or gender
Date: 16 Oct 92 19:41:06 GMT
Organization: Novell Inc., San Jose, California

For lit. crit. essays, I recommend Bruce Bauer (sp?), whose titles
I can't remember. But I found him a refreshing literary critic.

For general essays, try Joseph Epstein's _Once More Around the Block_
and _Plausible Prejudice_. He is occasionally too high-toned for me,
and I sometimes find his subject matter trivial, but he has been
compared to Charles Lamb (a comparison Epstein likes to repeat).
Now that I think about it, _Plausible Prejudice_ contains
literary criticism. 

And if you haven't read Joan Didion's _Slouching Toward(s?) Bethelem_,
do.

Janine
From: janines@novell.com (Janine Schenone)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Sburgfort's Sleuthing
Date: 9 Oct 92 19:59:06 GMT
Organization: Novell, Inc.

Curses, man! Get the facts straight. My name is spelled 
"Schenone," not "Schonone." (How fortunate for you that no one
mistakes the vowels in your name.) And I was not sitting to your
right reading _Guns of August_. That was, uh, what's-her-name.

I was the voluptuous femme fatale seated on the floor, licking
the last drops of wine from my glass. (Perhaps you did not
recognize me in my disguise.)

99
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: scs@iti.org (Steve Simmons)
Subject: On the Zwicky list
Organization: Industrial Technology Institute
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 20:24:39 GMT


Yeesh, you make one posting and get deluged with mail . . .

The Zwicky List is a short study done by Elizabeth Zwicky
(zwicky@erg.sri.com) on name and login id frequency on the Internet.
In her first pass, "steve" was the most frequent human name and "scs"
and "zwicky" were effectively last with 2 of each (throwing out the
ones that only appear once).  I found it amusing to be simultaneously
first and last.  Elizabeth continues to gather data, and will be
publishing a more current list some time in the near future.

FYI, the other "zwicky" on the internet is her father.  I was quite
surprised when one correspondant found a third, and have passed the
data on to Elizabeth.

New sig follows, based on more current data.
-- 
scs:  Currently tied for 2536th on the Zwicky list with `zwicky'.
From: hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Henry James Baseball Abstract? (was: Once I put this book down...)
Date: 8 Oct 92 22:59:20 GMT
Organization: Clark University

When forced to read Henry James in college, I found that he had a
soporific effect.  I'm sure he's really wonderful, but he hasn't
struck the right chord with me yet.  Maybe in my dotage I will
turn to his books and they will suddenly be exactly what I was
looking for all these years.

His brother William, of course, wrote many great stories of
the West ("Smoky the Cow Horse", "Cow Country", etc.) under
the nom de plume "Will James". I enjoyed these quite a bit.

Possibly Bill James of Abstract fame is a relation.  He also
puts me to sleep.

Heather
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: cruz@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Nancy Cruz)
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Organization: New York University Ultracomputer Research Lab
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 17:16:38 GMT

I've been following this interesting thread and will now add my .2:

Most of the works read in the classroom where I grew up were
contemporary.  Therefore when I began my lit classes at NYU, which
included folks like Chaucer (whom I'd never heard of), Shakspeare,
Marlowe..., I noticed a profound difference in my views (vision of
reality, if you will).  One of the most important things I got from
reading "The Duchess of Malfi", "The Merchant of Venice", "Faust"....
was an understanding of humanity and how throughtout the period these
very human artists represented their vision, concerns, of changing
times, conflicting times -- basically no matter how things change
they remain the same.  There is a profound realization when you can
say 'hey, this dude Shakespeare is pretty cool; I can relate to his
visions of capitalism, or X's fear of knowledge...'  It is an
incredible experience to step through time in the most personal of all
manners available to us, through someones thoughts, desires, and see
someone not a whole hell-of-a-lot unlike oneself, and realize that
times are always changing and always remaining the same.

Nancy
 

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nancy Cruz - a.k.a. "Tensha, the Icewoman" |   New York University    |
|      cruz@lab.ultra.nyu.edu                |Ultracomputer Research lab|
+--------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Dashiell Hammett
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Keywords: Red Harvest, mild spoiler
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 17:33:42 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.210104.20569@oracorp.com> harper@oracorp.com (Douglas Harper) writes:
>A mild spoiler follows:
>
>From near the end of Chapter XXV (pp. 181-2 in the 1972 Vintage edition):
>
>	    "You come first," Reno ordered, "with your mitts on the top
>	of your head.  The others come out one at a time, same way,
>	after you.  And half a minute apart is close enough.  Come on."
>	    We waited a moment, and then Pete the Finn appeared in the
>	dynamited doorway, his hands holding the top of his bald head.
>	In the glare from the burning next-door house we could see that
>	his face was cut, his clothes almost all torn off.
>	    Stepping over wreckage, the bootlegger came slowly down the
>	steps to the sidewalk.
>	    Reno called him a lousy fish-eater and shot him four times
>	in face and body.

Under the circumstances, and given the name of the victim, it seems
likely that "lousy fish-eater" is an anti-Catholic slur.


--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"Liberty resides in the rights of that person
mnemonic@eff.org| whose views you find most odious."
(617) 864-0665  | 
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --John Stuart Mill