HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ogil@quads.uchicago.edu (Brian W. Ogilvie)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Dissertation Abstracts OnDisc (was: Re: Request: History books)
Date: 2 Jan 93 03:19:09 GMT
Reply-To: ogil@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine

In article <11595@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> nall@ibm12.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall) wrote:
>Now, what we *really* need is some sort of national database which would
>allow us to have on-line access to all the dust-covered PhD dissertations.
>Undoubtedly many obscure items like this have been painstakingly researched
>by someone seeking their sheepskin in history, or social work, or something
>else relevant, if we just know how to search for them :-)

University Microfilms International publishes Dissertation Abstracts
International, an annual guide to US and some foreign dissertations,
which is now available on CD-ROM. I don't recall exactly how far back
the CD-ROM issues go, but I think it's as far as the early decades of
this century (a retrospective conversion, obviously :-). If UMI has a
copy of the dissertation on file (many Ph.D. programs require that the
dissertation be microfilmed and deposited with UMI), one may order a
photocopy for a reasonable fee (the last one I ordered cost $25).

The CD-ROMs themselves may be expensive, but a good research library
should have them (if not, the reference department should be told to
order them).

The Center for Research Libraries in Chicago maintains a large
collection of foreign dissertations, which may be available through
interlibrary loan. Since foreign dissertations don't usually wind up
at UMI, the CRL might be a good resource for someone really keen on
tracking down an obscure European dissertation. I've never used their
collection, so this is just hearsay.
-- 
Brian W. Ogilvie           DISCLAIMER: You think I have time to
b-ogilvie@uchicago.edu       think about everything I post?
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: RE: Mangled song lyrics (was: Cultural Appropriation and the New Age)
Organization: Clark University
Date: 30 DEC 92 14:05:04 GMT

The father of a friend of mine was puzzled throughout his childhood
by the line in the psalm:

  "Surely good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life..."

He grew up to be a Methodist missionary.

Heather
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
From: sph0301@utsph.sph.uth.tmc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: New Year's Resolutions
Date: 31 Dec 1992 21:11:40 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Texas School of Public Health


1.  Keep track of how many books I read this year.

2.  Exercise regularly (this is actually going to be a book-related
    activity - my husband got me a wind trainer for Christmas so I
    figure I can read while I ride my bike...)

kate
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.news-media
From: robj@netcom.com (Rob Jellinghaus)
Subject: Re: Morally good hypertext
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 21:55:15 GMT

In article <BzoFKz.B26@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:
>We *know* how the global
>media machine uses the information available to it; the ruling elite can
>lie in their teeth for years on end and if it's politically inconvenient
>will *never* be called on it (some may recall a certain retired actor at
>this point).  And you expect transnational communications corporations to
>make universally available a technology that would get them caught out
>lying?  Like every Joe on the planet being able to action-replay the US
>President and click to fact-check what he said?  Flap... flap...  flap...
>oink. oink.

I will just point out in passing that the kind of system Drexler
describes is much more like a massively extended Usenet than it
is like a more powerful TV.  No one could argue that discussion on
Usenet is censored according to the interests of the ruling elite.
Yet Usenet is growing exponentially.

>Book recommendation: Raymond Williams, "Television: Technology and Cultural
>Form" - on what makes technologies fly or plummet, and how little the state
>and the market care about techie subjunctives.

No one is claiming future hypertext systems will be a panacea.  But I
see no reason to claim, _a priori_, that any such system--no matter
how widely distributed, how anarchically organized, and how open to
general discourse--will simply wind up suffering from exactly the same
problems of our current one-way, single-source, mass media.  The
characteristics of the technology are fundamentally different; this is
a statement of fact, not a techie subjunctive.

-- 
Rob Jellinghaus    |  "Next time you see a lie being spread or a bad 
robj@netcom.com    |   decision being made out of sheer ignorance,
robj@xanadu.com    |   pause, and think of hypertext."
uunet!netcom!robj  |       -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: pingleto@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Mike Pingleton)
Subject: Baume's rush?
Originator: pingleto@troon.ncsa.uiuc.edu
Organization: Nat'l Ctr for Supercomp App (NCSA) @ University of Illinois
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 21:37:51 GMT

Dashiell Hammett's _The Maltese Falcon_ was my last book this year.  I
am wondering about a certain passage:

"...Spade licked his cigarette and smiled amiably at the boy.  "New York,
aren't you?"
    The boy stared at Spade's tie.  Spade nodded as if the boy had said
yes and asked:  "Baumes rush?"...

What's the orgin of this?  I've heard the expression 'bum's rush, but?

Incidentally, I couldn't read this book without the seeing the movie in
my mind's eye, a pleasurable experience (Eco's Name of the Rose is another)
for me.

Mike "52 books in 92, and damn glad to get 'em" Pingleton
From: bh419@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ted B Samsel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: John Sayles
Date: 23 Dec 1992 16:50:35 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


I've read most of Sayles' novels and I enjoy them.....
Try Los Gusanos or the one about the son of the Appalachian
coal miner who runs off to Boston in the '60s and joins
the radicals......can't recall the name though..
-- 
Ted....
From: goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: xmas list
Date: 28 Dec 1992 03:20:58 GMT
Organization: The Sinister Icy Black Hand of Death Club
Reply-To: goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb)
NNTP-Posting-Host: tornado.berkeley.edu
Originator: goldfarb@tornado.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Dec19.025039.13688@csusac.csus.edu> yarnot@babbage.csus.edu (Jan Yarnot) writes:
)Neil Bantock, _Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence_
)              _Sabine's Notebook: In which the Extraordinary Correspondence
)                        Continues_

	It's a bit late for Christmas, but here's the perfect birthday
present for your Philistine friends: _GaS_ and _SN_ in audiotape versions!

	(Yes, audio adaptations really exist. They star Marina Sirtis and
an actor whose name escapes me. They are put out by "The Publishing Mills".)

-- 
   David Goldfarb          | 
goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu  |      "Hey, mister! Your ninja's dragging!" 
goldfarb@UCBOCF.BITNET     | 
goldfarb@soda.berkeley.edu |
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Self-knowledge of bookstore workers
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 19:41:03 GMT

In article <1992Dec28.185136.3330@athena.mit.edu> kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan) writes:

>	First of all, I am reminded of a *book*, specifically one of
>David Lodge's (either *Small World* or *Changing Places*) where the
>academics play "humiliation" - the basic idea being to admit to books
>important to your field of study that you have never read. The punch
>line coming when the Shakespeare scholar (Philip Swallow?) blurts out
>that he's never read *Hamlet*.

Oh, but it's not Swallow, the transplanted English academic from a
redbrick university, who hasn't read "Hamlet." Not the least of the reasons
Fido will enjoy reading David Lodge is that Lodge quite correctly has an
*American* academic who hasn't read "Hamlet." The American is torn between
his need to win the game and the humiliation of admitting that he hasn't
read an essential Shakespeare play.

The book is the amusing CHANGING PLACES; its sequel, the even better SMALL
WORLD.


--Mike


-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"I'm waiting for the one-man revolution
mnemonic@eff.org| The only one that's coming."
(617) 864-0665  |                           
EFF, Cambridge  |                   --Robert Frost
From: rspence@mpd.tandem.com (Russell Spence)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Making notations in your books?
Date: 21 Dec 92 16:47:33 GMT
Organization: Tandem Computers (MPD) Austin, TX

In article <1992Dec21.024845.22015@mercury.unt.edu> jacob@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Tom Jacob) writes:
>> What are your feelings about making notes, highlighting, etc., in the
>> books that you own?  Although I wish I could do so in my books (it does

	Uck.  I would *never* make notes or highlight in any book that I own
	(unless it was designed specifically as a workbook).  I think of a
	book as a work of art.  I would never put a mustache on the Mona Lisa
	or add extra bits to a Van Gogh.  In the same vein I wouldn't change
	a book.  The book should contain the contents of the creative output
	of the writer, not the reader or anyone else (I hate introductions
	too).  If I feel the need to mark part of the book or add a comment,
	I use a slip of paper that can be inserted between the pages of the
	book or make an entry in my notebook (noting the page and line).

-- 
Russell Spence                                               Austin, Texas

"Foot-impelled bi-directional verticle transport asset"
				- staircase, as defined by the U.S. Army
From: ah@dunaad.co.uk (Alan Hunter)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: *Any* kind of r.a.b split, or at least a *serious* discussion
Date: 24 Dec 92 11:40:15 GMT
Organization: Johnson Hunter Limited

Dani Zweig writes:
>tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox):
>>A *joking* attitude, it's called, and is easily recognized as such
>>by anyone with either a clue or a sense of humor.
>
>Unfortunately, this is counter to fact.  Too many of the cues that
>tell someone you're joking are missing.  Body language and tone, the
>first lines of defense, are absent.  

Its my firm belief that, in so-called real life, facial
expressions, body language, pheromones and so on are used extensively by
frauds, cheats and charlatans (ie most of us plus politicians) to disguise
their real meaning. That if you listen to the words and ignore the warm
glow their expression or mien brings you, you have a better chance of
understanding exactly what they mean, how they are going to act.

Contrariwise there are a whole bunch of us who get out of the wrong side
of the bed this morning, maybe every morning, and no matter what anyone
says we are going to take issue. Its easier to let yourself go on the net,
but then a good safety valve is probably better than shooting up a diner. 
This is a public service.

Overall then its my belief that the net is a clearer medium for
communication, stripped of the everyday deceits of verbal chitchat, and
that the difficulties that arise through that clarity are ones which need
dealing with right up front, as they have to be on the net, rather than
being tucked away to fester, as they do in what passes for real life. 


Nollaig Chridheil
Alan
-- 
Alan Hunter
Johnson Hunter Ltd
Isle of Islay, Scotland
A.Hunter@dunaad.co.uk          fax: +44-496-2336         voice: +44-496-2286
From: dac@prolix.apana.org.au (Andrew Clayton)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Maddoxian flatus (was Re: Flatulence)
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 13:31:01 GMT
Summary: Maddox - a legend in his own vomitus
 <168C57F1A.TROUTMAN@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Dec23.080336.21181@netcom.com>
Organization: More like Dis~, really.
X-Newsreader: Arn V1.00

In article <1992Dec23.080336.21181@netcom.com>, Tom Maddox writes:

> 	Spaulding Gray's _Impossible Vacation_ has a farting um motif that
> I do not believe would be construed as Rabelasian unless one has circularly
> defined all farting stories as ipso facto 

If your books were as candid as your messages, then they would
certainly eclipse Rabelais' efforts, you fat fuck.

> (om mane padme hum, or, colloquially mad panda pad me home) Rabelasian.

A pointless exercise in bad pun creation.  You're visibly getting
better and better at knowing about less and less.

Is your next book going to be entitled _Hollow_?

> 	Rooty toot toot,

<fx bleych>

Hugs,

Dac
--
dac@prolix.apana.org.au              David Andrew Clayton.           // _| _  _
dac@prolix.sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au      Canberra, Australia           \X/ (_](_](_
                    <Using ARN on an Amiga 4000. Yay!>
From: hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: RE: Sjowall & Wahloo and other series
Date: 30 Dec 92 16:57:48 GMT
Organization: Clark University

libwca@emory.edu (Bill Anderson) writes:

>mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:
>:
>: For readers who like to follow the growth of a character over the course
>: of several crime/mystery novels, I recommend Robert Parker's first 12
>: Spenser books, beginning with THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT and ending in
>: VALEDICTION. (The books after VALEDICTION, which marks a natural
>: conclusion to the series, show a significant drop in quality.)
>
>Is that right before the truly ridiculous one in which Hawk and
>Spenser go out and kill everybody in the Pacific Northwest?

I have tried and tried to like the Spensah books, reading the earliest
ones, the later ones, the middle ones; but they've never managed to
grab me.  I enjoy the TV series much more, strange to say.  Perhaps it's
because of the spectacular Avery Brooks as Hawk.

Joan mentioned the Jan-Willem van de Wetering "Amsterdam cop" series.
These are a lot of fun -- I think the first one, _Outsider in
Amsterdam_, is the strongest -- but I don't think there's too much
development of character over time.  Sgt. de Gier goes through a
few different cats and girlfriends, but that's about it, as far as
I can remember.

I understand that the P.D. James novels featuring Adam Dalgliesh
delve more deeply into his character as the books progress.  I've only
read the early ones, though, and can't testify to that.

Heather
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
From: loosemore-sandra@cs.yale.edu (Sandra Loosemore)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Morison (was Re: Retrospection of My 1992 Reading)
Date: 1 Jan 1993 19:38:59 -0500
Organization: staff hacker @ Yale Haskell project
NNTP-Posting-Host: functor.systemsz.cs.yale.edu
In-reply-to: msmorris@watsci.UWaterloo.ca's message of Fri, 1 Jan 1993 22:06:45 GMT

msmorris@watsci.UWaterloo.ca (Mike Morris) writes:

   I have
   been meaning all year to draw up some sort of review especially of
   the books by Samuel Eliot Morison on voyages of discovery, but
   I'm afraid I just haven't gotten around to it, so I'll content myself
   with a word or two here. Morison I think is one of the great
   narrative American historians, this century's worthy companion of
   Parkman and Prescott. His style is always personal, and, above all,
   he makes it a story. Unfortunately for him, his style is also
   authoritative, dismissive of all he considers fools, and it
   gets him in no end of trouble with whippersnappers who go gunning
   for him.

Agreed on both counts.

I received the two volumes of Morison's voyages books as a senior in
high school, and it was enough to turn history reading into a passion
for me when I'd previously considered the whole field to be rather boring.
I've accumulated rather large collections of books dealing with naval
history and the history of discovery and exploration, from starting out
with this set.

More recently, I've been reading quite a bit on WWII naval history,
and I'd say the same comments apply to Morison's writings on this
subject.  They're certainly more entertaining than those by any other
author I've encountered, but hardly authoritative as the "official
history" they claim to be because many crucial documents were still
classified at the time he was writing.  (For example, in the volume
that covers Midway he glosses over just how Nimitz found out about the
Japanese battle plan in advance.)

BTW, I believe the only major cut in condensing his Columbus book from
two volumes to one was the chapter on syphilis!

-Sandra
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.environment
From: joan@med.unc.edu (Joan Shields)
Subject: Re: Education and the Environment by Gregory A. Smith
Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 17:56:58 GMT


John McCarthy writes:

>> Unable to convince enough adults, this propagandist wants children
>> to be indoctrinated.  What he doesn't realize is that such attempts
>> at indoctrination have always blown up in the next generation.

Isn't this something along the lines of the people who start a revolution
end up being the first against the wall when the next revolution comes?

Yea, indoctrination doesn't always work, there's always someone in the
back who says, "Hey, what in the hell is this shit?"  I've said it often
enough myself :).

Clayton Cramer writes about an experience he had in a class:

>The professor is a Marxist, and attempted to per-
>suade the class that the First Amendment includes the right of the
>government to regulate the contents of news broadcasts, control what
>sort of advertising can be refused, and what sort must be refused,
>etc. -- the entire liberal agenda, in brief.

Bad professors are everywhere, Clayton, they're both conservative as well
as liberal (btw, what does this word really mean?  I've seen it bounced
around a lot in the past 10 years and it seems to mean everything and
nothing).  I've run into some pretty strange ones myself preaching a
similar agenda who claimed to be conservative right-wingers.

>Fortunately, there
>were enough self-described conservatives in the class who cherish
>free speech -- unlike liberals.

Aw, come on, Clayton!  If you're so godamned shit hot why do you insist on
using such sweeping generalizations when you know as well as the rest of
us they don't mean anything?  You don't want to be lumped into a mass
stereotype so why do you insist on doing it to others?  Besides, you only
do it to annoy people so they'll ignore the body of your post and
concentrate on the "fighting words" you pepper it with.  Personally, this
confuses me since I've seen you write some pretty well-thought out posts.

By all means, stick with your politics and keep expressing your opinions
and ideas but leave those inane knee-jerk cliches out of it.  

Sorry, folks, but I just had to get this off my chest.  Name calling never
does anything but start brawls.

Yours in wet fishes,

Joan
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Project B.F.D. (was: An apology)
Date: 24 Dec 1992 14:50:01 GMT
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
NNTP-Posting-Host: oas.stanford.edu

Steve Dyer writes:

	Tourette's Syndrome includes an irresistable compulsion 
	to emit profanity at _inappropriate_ times.  Though it 
	appears rarely in females, perhaps you were thinking of 
	Heather's most recent articles.

I am quite enchanted at the way you all take it as a given that "Heather" 
is a female, and that this disenfranchises her/him from talking with the 
somewhat robust "voice" that we have all come to recognize. I don't know 
how these things work, but I have always assumed that "Heather" was in 
fact Mark Taranto who found it convenient to employ a disguise to cover 
up this side of his nature.

								RABworm
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.written,news.answers
From: drm@esl.com (Don McGregor)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The in-crowds of usenet
Date: 1 Jan 93 19:08:36 GMT
Reply-To: drm@esl.com

In article <1992Dec31.174402.25244@athena.mit.edu> kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  
(Keith Morgan) writes:
> 
> So, is this us: Populist, argumentative, and in the know?  
> 
Everyone who isn't a Gucci-wearing elitist knows the answer to this  
question, and which FTP site to get it from.  

--
Don McGregor | The Revolution will have an alt newsgroup.
drm@esl.com  | 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,misc.books.technical,alt.internet.services,comp.org.eff.talk
From: levy@csrd.uiuc.edu (Merle Levy)
Subject: Re: The Online BookStore Announcement: The Internet Companion
Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 15:33:45 GMT

In general, book club sales can contribute to bestseller status before a 
title hits the stores.  That's how titles hit the top before they have 
been out very long. Also, the front matter (title page, copyright notice,  
introduction, etc.) is printed as a separate "signature," often numbered 
in roman numerals so that last minute changes can be made without 
extensive revisions and foreign editions and new printings can  show the 
current status of an author or even a publisher who has changed its logo 
or name.




Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:23316 sci.philosophy.tech:4618
From: twain@milton.u.washington.edu (Barbara Hlavin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Celebrating McGonagall
Date: 3 Jan 1993 00:42:15 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
NNTP-Posting-Host: milton.u.washington.edu

In article <1993Jan2.224613.12367@psych.toronto.edu> dsy@psych.toronto.edu 
(Desiree Sy) writes:
>In article <9932npr@rpi.edu> kasprj@rpi.edu writes:
>>|> William McGonagall (1825-1902) was one of the
>>|> lesser lights of Victorian poetry -- indeed, some would say, among
>>|> the very dimmest lights -- a handloom weaver from Dundee who styled
>>|> himself a Poet and Tragedian.  Those who have been exposed to his
>>|> deathless verse can never quite forget it.
>
>Is this the man who wrote those series of (for lack of a better
>word) verses on the beautiful bridge on the silvery Tey?  If so,
>please *do* list any titles of his collected editions -- I'd love
>to get my hands on a set.  This is some of the best bad poetry
>I've ever heard (to give you some idea of how memorable his stuff
>is, I last heard the beautiful bridge on the silvery Tey stuff
>when I was 15).


Can one of you fans explain to me what's so appealing about this stuff?

I can see that it's worth a chuckle in passing, but not investing in 
volumes of it for your library, reading it again and again, and 
celebrating it annually. 

Would I be off the mark in assuming that you take pleasure in 
his inanity, as you might that of a dotty uncle?  

And do you have to have been there when he was smoking his cigar? 


--Barbara
From: ac999239@umbc8.umbc.edu (ac999239)
Subject: Too generic?
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County Campus
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 20:58:06 GMT

Shouldn't there be perhaps some subclasses to r.a.b? Such as maybe:

rec.arts.books.sci-fi
rec.arts.books.mystery
rec.arts.books.drama
rec.arts.books.nonfiction
rec.arts.books.misc

I may have overlooked some ;)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mlbm@lanl.gov (Mark Martinez)
Subject: Anyone read "The Turing Option" yet?
Keywords: turing novel
Reply-To: mlbm@lanl.gov
Organization: Los Alamos National Lab
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 14:51:15 GMT

Has anyone read "The Turing Option" by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky?  
Apparently it is a thriller about a fellow that develops a true AI and becomes  
the target of an assortment of villainous agencies who want it. Or something  
like that. I haven't seen it in any local bookstores yet but here is the LofC  
listing:

Type of Material:	Book
LC Call Number:	PS3558.A667 T88 1992
Author:	Harrison, Harry.
Title:	The turing option : a novel / by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky.
Publication Info:	New York : Warner Books, c1992.
Phys. Description:	422 p. ; 24 cm.
Other Names:	Minsky, Marvin.
LC Card Number:	91050396
ISBN:	0-446-51565-5 : $21.95 ($26.95 Can.)

Mark Martinez
mlbm@lanl.gov
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books