HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele)
Subject: Call For Discussion: rec.arts.books.reviewed
Summary: I just wanna read reviews
Keywords: reviews books
Organization: TECHbooks of Beaverton Oregon - Public Access Unix
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 23:34:34 GMT

One of the nice things about rec.arts.books is the free-wheeling nature
of the discussions, which often jump quickly to subjects only
tangentially relevant to the book(s) which first provoked this
discussion.  But one of the bad things about rec.arts.books is the
free-wheeling nature of the discussions, which ...

I've been using gopher over the past week to poke around in the archived
rec.arts.movies.reviews and I'd like to see such a thing done with
books.  Whenever I finally get around to reading "The Secret History",
"Foucalt's Pendulum", or some of the other books that I have in the
queue, it'd be nice to be able to see what other people thought of them.

Charter of the group would be to consist mostly of independent reviews, 
with limited references to existing reviews.  The first problem will be
to get people to contribute reviews at all, of course.  But the second
problem will be the temptation to start a "is!", "isn't!", "is!",
"isn't!" series of "reviews".  Those are fun, but we already get that in
rec.arts.books and most magazines devoted to book reviews.  

The group would need to be moderated and I'd like to see at least one
"home" where past reviews could be looked up.  If nobody else volunteers
or is "volunteered", I'll do the moderation.  I would prefer that
someone else do it, however.  I don't possess the skills to tell someone 
"sorry, no" both firmly and politely without it degenerating into a pissing
contest.  A number of people with the requisite skills do exist among
the rabble and I'd like to see one (or possibly more - aliases would
allow for multiple people to scan incoming reviews) of them stand forth.
Or everyone else take 2 steps back ...

Similarly there would be better machines to host an archive than the one
here, which is of modest size and speed (both in terms of disk space and
the "pipe" to the internet), but if one can't be hijacked elsewhere, I
can set things up here.

I propose to discuss matters until January 2, then if there seems to be
sufficient interest, call a vote on that date lasting until the 15th.
I'm aware that some schools have vacation periods starting soon and
possibly extending past the 15th.  If enough people think that a
significant part of the net will be disenfranchised by the holidays, the
vote could be pushed back further.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re: decline in SAT scores very little genetic
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge 
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 14:13:38 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.125818.29756@ms.uky.edu>, fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis) writes:

|>        [Chuck offers among other things]
|> 
|> 1) the decline of reading
|> 2) the ascent of TV
|> 3) the apathy of parents
|> 
|> Yes on all three. 
|> Since snatching away the USAs electronic fix is unlikely -- scotching
|> 1 and 2 -- and the apathy of parents is beyond any known remedy, there
|> are a number of things that baffled educators have proposed (many
|> of which positively boost learning....amazingly enough):
 
 [several suggestions, ranging from the common-sense reasonable to
  the well-intentioned unfeasible]
 
 This one, however, strikes me as particularly out-of-touch.

|> 6) Don't track younger kids. Let the smart ones go off in
|>    a corner to help the slower ones. Knowing a subject well
|>    enough to teach it to a peer increases mastery waaaay
|>    beyond the usual level needed to pass a test, so putting a 
|>    smart kid in with a slower one doesn't have to hold back the
|>    smarter one.
 
 I think that whoever came up with this one never spent any time in an
actual primary school classroom. The smart kids will not go off in a 
corner to help the slower ones on their own - the smart kids will go
off in one corner and learn at their pace, while the slow ones will go
off in a different corner and do something else. Both will wind up 
ignoring the regular curriculum, for reasons of their own. 
 
 If the peer-tutoring method is enforced, I don't think it will be as
successful in the real world as in the ideal case. The quick learners
tend to be regarded by both the teachers and themselves as an elite, 
and there's often some jealousy and even resentment of the average and
slower-than-average groups towards this. Kids will more readily learn 
from the teacher - a recognized authority figure - than from one of 
their own who has been assigned to teach them. Peer tutoring works 
quite well at the high school level, but in grade school many of the 
slower learners would probably get the impression that the students 
doing the tutoring were regarded as "better", and there'd be some 
resistance (whether conscious or not) because of this.
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Sam Adams,Spaten# Life is too short #Hudson Lager,Beck's 
     \_| Pilsener Urquell#to drink cheap beer#Pete's Wicked Ale
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 
  
 
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22593 alt.comedy.british:2796 soc.culture.british:17665 alt.fan.monty-python:10073
From: rob@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.comedy.british,soc.culture.british,alt.fan.monty-python
Subject: Re: Get fucked. Was: Re: Git (was re: Et in Arcadia ego)
Date: 16 Dec 92 14:14:38 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England

Francis Muir (francis@oas.stanford.edu) wrote:
: Sue Miller &al write:
: 
: 	Fuck, fuck ad nauseam (?)
: 
: In Oz there are persons for whom it is not enough to sprinkle fucks
: but must include intersyllabic ones too. Thus:
: 
: 	A bleedin' Eye fuckin' Tie.
: 
: Someone of Italian descent who has irritated you in some way.
: 
: 							Fido

The art of gratuitous fucking must have reached its peak with Derek and Clive
especially on their first albumn Derek and Clive Live, closely followed by
D+C Come Again and D+C Ad Nauseam.  3 LPs most likely to shock you mum. Totally
mindless, childish, swearing but bloody funny all the same.

R>
................................................................................
 Rob Stone, Dept of Psychology, University of York, YORK. YO1 5DD.  UK.
         rob@minster.york.ac.uk      Phone/Fax   +44 904 433160
         "I love lard;  Hands up if you like lard"  Emerson Lake 
................................................................................
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22654 alt.comedy.british:2806 soc.culture.british:17710 alt.fan.monty-python:10086
From: kate@cactus.org (Katherine M. Catmull)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.comedy.british,soc.culture.british,alt.fan.monty-python
Subject: Re: Get fucked. Was: Re: Git (was re: Et in Arcadia ego)
Date: 17 Dec 92 17:41:14 GMT
Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx

In article <724522831.18396@minster.york.ac.uk> pete@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>rob@minster.york.ac.uk wrote:
>> 
>> The art of gratuitous fucking must have reached its peak with Derek and Clive
>
>What about Lenny Bruce?!
>
>EMAIL: pete@minster.york.ac.uk `There's no room for enigmas in built up areas'




What about David Mamet?

"Great. Great, great great. This is fucking greatness."

Kate




-- 
- - - - - - - -
kate@cactus.org
Be the voice of night and Florida in my ear.
From: nichael@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Chicago Bookstores [was: Good bookstore (for a change)]
Date: 18 Dec 92 14:40:54 GMT
Reply-To: ncramer@bbn.com
Organization: BBN, Cambridge MA
NNTP-Posting-Host: kariba.bbn.com
In-reply-to: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk's message of 16 Dec 92 14:58:55 GMT

In article <BzCxM8.C56@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:

   sterbenc@ivhs.mot.com (Joe Sterbenc) wrote:
   > Hey, kids, I just discovered a new favorite bookstore in Chicago.  It's
   > also apparently a pretty big chain in the U.K. The name is...Waterstone's.

   What does that say about Chicago bookshop standards?  They're a subsidiary
   of the UK's largest and most mindless distribution chain, WH Smiths.
   Yuppie bestsellers only.  Something like the Book-of-the-Month Club with
   carpeting.  Further, Smiths have a record of randomly vindictive political
   censorship, like refusing to carry the UK's largest-selling gay newspaper.

   There *must* be real (i.e. non-chain) bookshops in Chicago, surely?

Concerning the Chicago Great Bookstore Search, can anyone say anything
about Great Expectations Bookstore?

The reason I ask is that Garry Wills dedicates _Lincoln at Gettysburg_
to Great Expectations (although it may be in Evanston, since that is
where Wills lives).

On the basis of Wills' implied recommendation, I put Great
Expectations on my check-it-out-if-I'm-ever-in-Chicago list and was
just wondering what I'm missing.

Nichael
From: kathrynw%radian@natinst.com (Kathryn Whitworth)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Goober, a Southernism??
Date: 15 Dec 92 23:41:52 GMT
Organization: Radian Corporation, Austin, Texas

In article <NICHAEL.92Dec15134440@kariba.bbn.com> ncramer@bbn.com writes:
>
>If you're intent on pursuing this line of thought, you might be
>interested in knowing that in his collection of Texan expressions,
>_Texas Crude_, Ken Weaver cites the use of the term "booger" --note
>that this an anagram for your "goober"-- as denoting a section of
>feminine anatomy (unspecified, but situated at the top of the legs).
>

The most common usage of "booger" in my part of Texas is as the noun for
the solid or semi-solid globs of nasal mucous that may be extracted from
the nostrils.

Kathryn Roth Whitworth
 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: RE: Books with a sense of humor (was: A modest proposal)
Organization: Clark University
Date: 16 DEC 92 17:39:23 GMT

joan@med.unc.edu (Joan Shields) writes:

>In article <15DEC92.21531894@vax.clarku.edu> hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu writes:
>> 
>>Here's an idea: for all you sensitive folks out there, I suggest forming
>>the Roaring Panties Club -- kind of a support group for the chronically
>>offended and the humor-disadvantaged.  
> 
>Great idea, Heather!  A club is just what you need to keep yourself
>occupied and out of trouble.  I knew the electro-shock therapy would work 
>eventually.

The lady doth protest too much, because
It's evident her lingerie's abuzz.

>As this is rec.arts.books how about a thread about books with a sense
>of humor.  For instance: I thought Dostoyevski's _Notes From the
>Underground_ was very very funny. 

How about books by witty women?  THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS
by Gertrude Stein, for example.  Especially fun if you dislike Hemingway,
as I do.

Heather
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: fuller@athena.cs.uga.edu (James P. H. Fuller)
Subject: Re: Git (was re: Et in Arcadia ego)
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 03:21:12 GMT

kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan) writes:

>>    Besides, the only significant difference between Cambridge and the 
>>    third world is that the third world is slightly better because there
>>    are fewer mimes there.
>
>	Whoa, hold on! I've lived in Cambridge for two years now and
>*never* seen a mime - jugglers, yes, mimes, no. And surely the only
>significant difference between Cambridge and the third world is that
>Cambridge is slightly better because there are more bookstores here.


     Speaking strictly of used book stores, I have had considerably
better success in more out-of-the-way places than I ever had in Cam-
bridge.  During the interval I spent at the H-school and cruised the
dusty-book joints within smelling distance of the Charles I got the 
impression that a great many people of educated taste and discrimina-
tion had gone through their bookshelves and sold off the trash.  In 
particular I have never before or since seen so many broken sets of 
the Waverley novels in one small neighborhood.

                                              -- jf

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: Re: A note on Modal Logic that has nothing to do with Ikky Sex
Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 15:45:58 GMT


zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny) writes:
 
 
> But this is mere background.  Consider Kaplan's paradox, as reported by
> Lewis.  (I have a dim recollection of Kaplan's disquisition in a 1986
> seminar, but my memory is tainted by a bad case of modal skepticism,
> which I managed to overcome in the interim.)  We have a set of possible
> worlds M, which gives rise to 2^{card(M)} (>card(M)) distinct
> propositions.
 
 
Ah, if this is the case, it does not address the problem that I brought
up about quantifying over all possible worlds.  I agree that there are
solutions when we limit our set of possible worlds M to a set.  But the
collection of ALL possible worlds is not a set, and has no cardinality
which can be attached to it.
 
I've seen too many papers in Modal Logic which ignore this fact.
 
Mark
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books for Christmas
Date: 17 Dec 92 20:29:21 GMT
    <1992Dec17.202440.7463@u.washington.edu>
Organization: Austerlitz, Gershovitz, and Carmichael

Mary Loveless writes:
>doug mccready F writes:
>>There is a lady who writes books about a business man who solves mysteries,
>>mostly in New England settings. I can't remember her name which I do
>>remember is a pseudenym - I would like to get some of her books for Xmas if
>>somebody would remind me of whom I am thinking.
>
>Sounds like Emma Lathan, whose detective, John Putnam Thatcher, is a
>mucky-muck with the Sloan Guaranty Trust on Wall Street.  "Go for the
>Gold" is a banking mystery set at the winter Olympics.  The setting varies
>from Manhattan to Puerto Rico, and I have read some set in New England. 
>Let me know if this is it!
>

2nd hand review: my wife, who finishes almost every book she starts,
read some of these...the Thatcher books...that she "put by" for
another day. It could be because of the business oriented,
technical nature of the mysteries, but I'd be guessing. The books
were in one of those 3-fers, and she kept starting the subesquent
mystery in the hopes of hitting one she liked. I think she finished
1 of the 3.
-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu> Don't be a stranger.
From: bh419@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ted B Samsel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: RE: Books with a sense of humor (was: A modest proposal)
Date: 16 Dec 1992 18:57:39 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Florence King has a sense of humor.
-- 
Ted....
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22507 rec.food.historic:885
From: bh419@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ted B Samsel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.food.historic
Subject: Re: Goober, a Southernism??
Date: 16 Dec 1992 13:28:06 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


An alternate meaning of "goober" is roadkill. At least that's
what my acquaintances who are possum cops or wildlife science
types say.
  (Possum cop...game warden)
-- 
Ted....
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: bil@burka..aix.kingston.ibm.com (Igor Belchinskiy)
Subject: Re: Literary SF
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 20:02:04 GMT
Organization: Be. I am.
Keywords: bucket coffin ada

In article <1992Dec17.173633.21673@blaze.cs.jhu.edu> callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu (Paul Callahan) writes:
>matt@physics.berkeley.edu (Matt Austern) writes:
>
>>In article <wfT=CC@engin.umich.edu> rcj@engin.umich.edu (R o d Johnson) writes:
>
>>> Not to mention "Ada," which is one of the great alternate-world
>>> novels, in my opinion.
>
>...
>
>>I certainly agree that it's a great novel, though, no matter how you
>>classify it.
>
>Personally, I found it nearly impossible to read.  In contrast I really
>enjoyed _Lolita_ and later, _Despair_.  It just seemed to me that in _Ada_,
>Nabokov had written something that only a few people in the world (himself
>among them) had enough language ability to understand and enjoy.  I should
>probably reread it.  I found parts of it engaging, but the whole never
>solidified in my mind.

Dunno. _Ada_ was one of a very few books that I read without gloves 
at Moscow in winter, on windy busstop with temperature around -20 C.
(And no, I wasn't a hero - the other was Foundation trilogy).

Of course, _Ada_ is fun and non-stop game with the reader, but at the same 
time it's the most revealing Nabokov's English book. It may be considered
as preface to _The Gift_ - as a moral consideration of necessary
conditions to became a "decent" person (whatever that means). 
And happy childhood (of kind Nabokov got itself) is necesssary and only
prerequisite (not to mention natural gift) - there is nothing else man 
may ever have right to ask.  Memories, principles from childhood are only 
available and safe equipment "to climb that mountain called life".

_Ada_ links very strongly to his return-to-Russia-dreams verses - but as
a final decision and counter point too. He creates anti-Zoorlandya with 
izbaches, interconnecting all has pasts in imaginable acceptable world, 
and through (and, maybe, because of) fantasy transparence and lesser 
than usual foolproof constructions reader may see kind and joyful writer 
with Buckets of wisdom.

(imho; and no, I don't have handy quotes or will to prove anything)
(and hopefully, Nabokov's coffin isn't turning bloody cemetery)

>--
>Paul Callahan
>callahan@cs.jhu.edu

	-igor
From: mossman@dipso.Berkeley.EDU (Amy Mossman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Making notations in your books?
Date: 18 Dec 1992 18:48:35 GMT
Organization: CEA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: dipso.cea.berkeley.edu
Keywords: books notations

A related subject: I once found in a used book, a letter. Envelope with
address and stamped with the letter inside. It was a whole story on it's own.
From one man to another concerning a woman they both apprently loved. The gist
of it was, "If you truly love her and will make her happy, then tell me and I'll
go away. ". The letter was about twenty years old and I never tried to track down
the address but it has always intrigued me. Esp. as it was in a copy of Julius
Ceasar.  That seemed the most incongrous. And how it managed to make it through
the years in this book. The book had a name in the inside cover (where I sometimes
write my name or write a dedication to the person I give the book too) but it
didn't match any of the names and initials in the letter.

Amy Mossman
From: rhogan@aludra.usc.edu (Ronald Hogan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: From titles to names
Date: 12 Dec 1992 01:14:07 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

ah@dunaad.co.uk (Alan Hunter) writes:

>It was revealed by Peter Cook last night on Britain's premier news analysis

I just want to make sure that this is *the* Peter Cook.  Dudley Moore's
partner in genius, etc.  It's a damn shame his American sitcom was never
syndicated, but I'm glad to see he's working.

If it's him.

And having found out that you're from the UK answers the nagging
question I had had, seeing your name on the nn menu for r.a.b,
as to whether or not you were *the* Alan Hunter, the former MTV VJ.

ObBook-- I may even get a chance to start HARLOT'S GHOST over Xmas
break if everything works out the way I plan.
From: loosemore-sandra@cs.yale.edu (Sandra Loosemore)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"
Date: 19 Dec 1992 09:23:14 -0500
Organization: staff hacker @ Yale Haskell project
Distribution: rec
NNTP-Posting-Host: functor.systemsz.cs.yale.edu

A few months ago, I picked up a copy of Richard Rhodes' "The Making of
the Atomic Bomb" at a remainder sale, and I've finally gotten around
to reading it.  This has to be the best book about the history of
science that I've ever encountered.  My primary recollections of the
modern physics class I took as an undergraduate are of a lot of
disjointed formulas, but Rhodes manages to tie everything together by
talking about the concepts and experimental techniques instead.  He
conveys a real sense of the excitement of the period, when a
discovery by one scientist would initiate its own chain reaction of
insights and breakthroughs by others within a period of just days 
or weeks.  I recommend this book highly.

-Sandra
From: U48073@uicvm.uic.edu (Cole Kendall)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books about Coca-Cola
Date: 12 Dec 92 15:40:47 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago

In article <1992Dec12.011308.1653@uts.uni-c.dk>, idathon@uts.uni-c.dk (Hans O.
Nymand) says:
>
>Here's an odd question: Does anybody know of any books about The Coca-Cola
>Company or their products? I would like to find anything related to Coca-Cola
>such as historical accounts of the Company and regular coffee-table books.
>
Oliver, Thomas _The Real Coke, The Real Story_, Penguin, 1986 has a somewhat
simpleminded history of the company and in particular a description
of the introduction of New Coke and the Coke-Pepsi "Cola Wars".

Cole Kendall
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: catstyle@cathouse.aiss.uiuc.edu (Jason R. Heimbaugh)
Subject: Anyone have a (complete) Wodehouse bibliography?
Reply-To: jrh@uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:46:23 GMT

Subject says all.  If you have any other info on P. G. Wodehouse, send
it and I'll make it available via anonymous ftp.

Thanks,

--
Jason R. Heimbaugh (CatStyle)
jrh@uiuc.edu
"If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?" --Ronnie Van Zant
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: It fills us. We arrange it. It decays.
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 18:23:08 GMT

Fiona Webster writes:
>>And yet for all the existential _douleur_ it entails, that "dream" state 
>>Wilde describes is where I have to make my dwelling-place.  I'm but a 
>>visitor in the realm of action.  (Is this true for many of us booky 
>>people?)  I only wish I could feel so confident as dear Oscar, about the 
>>completion one finds in the realm of imagination. 

Heather Henderson writes:

>Have you ever seen the film "Barton Fink"?
>
>Every writer should see it.

	Indeed, "I'll SHOW you the life of the mind."



--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Morgan		 	|A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  	|		Jonathan Swift
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bh419@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ted B Samsel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: alcoholics synonymous
Date: 14 Dec 1992 18:59:27 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Translation:
Do you like this garden that is yours?
Keep your kids from ruining it ..

Old Malcolm.... what a guy....
"un copita mas, Se#or cantinero"  Ajua!
-- 
Ted....