HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: harsha@ksr.com (Paul Harsha)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: the wonks are in: what do they read for fun?
Date: 9 Nov 92 18:05:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: ksr.18352

fi@grebyn.com (Fiona Webster) writes:

>In the meantime, I'm glad to hear I'm in with the Clinton crowd <thin
>smile> as a reader of detective novels.  Which authors are supposed to
>be _au_courant_--does anyone know?  James Lee Burke, perhaps?
>Lawrence Block?  Bill Pronzini?  Andrew Vachss?

Walter Mosley is supposed to be Clinton's favorite mystery writer.  I've seen
two books "Devil In A Blue Dress," and "Red Death."  I bought "Red Death."  Both
are set in L.A. in the 50's and feature a black detective named Easy Rawlins.
A friend of mine found "Devil.." to be "mediocre."  I'm enjoying "Red Death."

-Paul
--
   Paul Harsha (harsha@ksr.com)               Kendall Square Research Corp.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Subject: Re: Advice to the World Weary (was Re: The Eudaemonic Pie
Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
	<13081@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 7 Nov 92 08:57:20

Be thankful for small mercies Clayton.  Calling you just a semi-lunatic
is his first step toward politeness.  Formerly he would have added an
intensifier to "lunatic" like "ultra-right-wing".  You should pat him
on the head to encourage this trend.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.poems,soc.culture.french,talk.religion.misc,alt.feminism
From: beaver@castor.cs.psu.edu (Don Beaver)
Subject: Re: Advice to the World Weary
Keywords: Boris Vian, Bison Ravi
Organization: Penn State Computer Science
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 03:19:49 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.014151.17237@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny) writes:
>In article <1992Nov6.141447.25733@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
>amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell) writes:
>
>>Mikhail Zeleny, l'autorite supr^eme dans l'art de s'eduire, cites:
>
>MZ:
>>       La femme est ce que l'on a trouv\'e de mieux pour remplasser
>>       l'homme quand on a la d\'eveine de ne pas \^etre p\'ederaste.
>>		--Boris Vian
>
>MA:
>>Est-ce ceci correspond `a ton exp'erience ``Harvardienne''?  Voici une
>>petite chansson compos'ee par mon jumeau bien aim'e...
>>
>>	J'SUIS SNOB
>>
>>	Refrain 1

etc. etc.

Perhaps your discussion of women/men/child-molesting, your cute 
snob song and the ensuing battle of quips are more appropriate 
to alt.hasty.pudding.revue than to alt.feminism?

Don
-- 
beaver@cs.psu.edu                       Opinions from the PC-challenged
From: rachel@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us (Rachel M. Kadel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Douglas Adams in St.Paul, Minn.
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 23:37:29 EST
Organization: Princeton High School, Princeton, New Jersey

rao@moose.cccs.umn.edu (Rao Akella) writes:

> 
> 
> Douglas Adams will be at Odegard Books, 857 Grand Ave., St.Paul, MN 55105
> Friday, November 13 at 7:30 pm.
> 
> Minnesota: Where men are real men, women are real women, and small furry
> creatures from Alpha Centauri are...you know...
> 
> -- Rao Akella    <rao@moose.cccs.umn.edu, rao%moose@umnacvx.bitnet>
> 

Lake Woebegone: Where all the women are strong, all the men are 
good-looking, and all the children are above average.

                                          Rachel M. Kadel

There's an infinite number of monkeys at the door wanting to show us the 
script to Hamlet they've worked out...The school won't even LISTEN to me 
, much less let me speak for it...rachel@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: If Ripley were alive, he'd die
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 22:32:24 GMT

In article <1dbcc6INNar5@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:
>One or two weeks ago Tina's new NYer had a long, long article on viruses
>in general and one particularly nasty one in general. It described the
>agonal stage of the disease, with the brains of missionary nuns literally
>melting in their skulls, and blood squirting from their eyeballs and
>nipples. This was not breakfast table reading. My question is this: was
>this one of those typically overly long pieces of self-indulgent reportage
>that we have come to expect, or was it just a giant Hallowe'en hoax?

I looked this up recently myself. The MERCK manual lists "ebola"
as a "hemorrhagic virus" and states that there is no treatment for it.

In other words, the virus is not a hoax.


--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: neal@hpcndm.CND.HP.COM (Neal Bauer)
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 06:58:04 GMT
Subject: Columbus and the Egg?
Organization: HP Network and System Management Division
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books

Last month my book group read _Frankenstein_.  Those of us who read the
introduction were puzzled by this passage:

	Every thing must have a beginning, to speak in Sanchean phrase;
	and that beginning must be linked to something that went before.
	The Hindoos give the world an elephant to support it, but they
	make the elephant stand upon a tortoise.  Invention, it must be
	humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but
	out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded:
	it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring
	into being the substance itself.  In all matters of discovery and
	invention, even of those that appertain to the imagination, we
	are continually reminded of the story of Columbus and his egg.

If this was a test of cultural literacy, we all flunked.  Can anybody out
there enlighten us?  What is the story of Columbus and the egg?
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: msmorris@watsci.UWaterloo.ca (Mike Morris)
Subject: Re: Torturing Politicals
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 20:11:58 GMT

                    Thursday, the 12th of November, 1992

Francis writes:
   In fact, Bergson said "Heaven, Hell or Canada".

Yes, but I heard he said it of baseball, not laughter.
                
             Mike Morris
    (msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca)


Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: lew@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (lewis.h.mammel..jr)
Subject: Re: The Truth according to Mickie Medved
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 22:59:56 GMT
Summary: You can't have opinions about Truth

In article <1d6evbINN48k@morrow.stanford.edu>, francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:
> 
> It is a commonplace that most parents in this culture follow convention 
> and screen their children's reading. .................................

How very, very quaint. This may still be true in Timbuktu, or wherever
it is you're from, Fido, but here in the good ol' US of A it's more
of a commonplace for parents to ask their children to ask their
friends not to give it so much gas when they drive off, 'cuz they're
kind of tearing up the front lawn, if it's not too much of an imposition.

My strategy has been to say, "Why don't you bring your friends over
here and look at these interesting grubs that you exposed when you tore
up the lawn driving off last night." This helps because my kids get the
reputation of having a "Weird Dad", which enhances their social standing
and contributes to their emotional adjustment.

> .................................... I am neither for nor against the 
> practise but merely note it and ask the question, How would the generic 
> child -- labelled Joan Shields -- grow up if her reading was not controlled
> in any way?


Is that how they spell "practice" in Timbuktu?

Stanley Myron Handelman told the story of how he got some
monkeys and put them in a room with some typewriters to see if they
would type Hamlet. He checked on them after a few days and discovered
that, "They weren't typing! They were just messing around in there!"

> My opinion? I have none. Just curiosity.

So just sit back and watch the monkeys.


   - Thoroughly Modern Lew
From: starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: BOOK: Hollywood vs. America by Michael Medved
Date: 6 Nov 92 07:43:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: genie.1992Nov6.074322.25344
Organization: UDel, School of Life & Health Sciences

In article <1992Nov5.185720.29155@cbnews.cb.att.com> pmd@cbnews.cb.att.com (Paul Dubuc) writes:
}}If your goal is to raise your children where they won't be able to purchase
}}those things, then you should contract with the sellers not to do so, or make
}}some other peaceful arrangement.  These kinds of transactions don't violate
}}anyone's rights, so coercion (legislation) isn't justifiable on liberal
}}or libertarian grounds.
}
}Not that this is my goal, but this isn't a bad idea in itself.  I'd put
}the burden of making such contracts on the minority who want much broader
}access to these things for their own kids than the community generally
}allows.  I guess I just don't see all the world through liberal or
}libertarian spectacles.  I don't find any compelling reason to, in this
}case.

But if this sort of thing is generally prohibited, then such contracts will
be relegated to the black market, hardly a desireable place for children to
make their transactions in.


Tim Starr - Renaissance Now! - Think Universally, Act Selfishly
starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu

"True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten
oneself and others." - Voltaire
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires)
Subject: Re: Advice to the World Weary (was Re: The Eudaemonic Pie
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 92 09:23:17 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <0dsJ02nA2aC801@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> jjh00@diag.amdahl.com writes:
>
>  Kate Catmull writes:
>> 
>> 	Fashion note to Mark, Marko, & Nietschze: I wear black more 
>> 	often than not, neither to visit trendy nightspots nor to 
>> 	look more intelligent, but because I happen to know it makes 
>> 	me Invisible.

		She was a photograph just ripped in half
		A smile inside a frown
		And then the light the answer right
		Inside her coming down
		It said:
		You can go away
		You can leave here
		You can be invisible

			-- Dio, "Invisible"

Roger Squires
rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu

Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:19920 rec.arts.poems:11184 soc.culture.french:8409 talk.religion.misc:20869 alt.feminism:4179
From: beaver@castor.cs.psu.edu (Don Beaver)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.poems,soc.culture.french,talk.religion.misc,alt.feminism
Subject: Re: Advice to the World Weary
Keywords: Boris Vian, Bison Ravi
Date: 11 Nov 92 15:14:13 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.101851.4719@klaava.Helsinki.FI> amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell) writes:
>In article <BxJ7x2.IG2@cs.psu.edu> beaver@castor.cs.psu.edu 
>(Don Beaver) writes:
>
>>Perhaps your discussion of women/men/child-molesting, your cute 
>>snob song and the ensuing battle of quips are more appropriate 
>>to alt.hasty.pudding.revue than to alt.feminism?
>
>With a name like "beaver" I wouldn't talk.

Shoot.  I thought 7th grade was over.

Don
-- 
beaver@cs.psu.edu                       Opinions from the PC-challenged
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: Re: Yet another look at the new New Yorker
Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 17:39:31 GMT



lsmith@deci.cs.umn.edu (Lance "Squiddie" Smith) writes:
 
> I just wish there wasn't so much filler to page through to find
> the articles.
 
The filler is more a function of the season than of it being the new
NEW YORKER.  The NEW YORKER always gets heavier & heavier as Christmas
approaches, and then gets thinner after New Year's.  Come to think
of it, so do I.
 
 
Mark
From: br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Erofeev,Beckett and the Christian tradition?
Date: 12 Nov 92 13:26:59 GMT
Reply-To: br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


As to whether Erofeev, Beckett or any other writer belongs in a Christian 
tradition, whatever that means, I think Empson is a helpful antidote
to such thinking.

And also keep in mind what Tsvetaeva said  ( and this time I KNOW it's from
her work!!)

In this most Christian of worlds
All poets are Jews

Or--"The poet's a Jew" depending on how you translate it.

J. Del Col
-- 
Jeff Del Col      *   "Cats are loners, and the paths they take in prose      
A-B College       *    belong to them alone."   --Jacques Roubaud--
Philippi, WV      *                             LA BELLE HORTENSE
                  *
From: anita@devvax.mincom.oz.au (Anita Graham)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: A rose is a rose is a rose.
Date: 12 Nov 92 06:04:29 GMT
Organization: Mincom

In article <1992Nov5.190750.22281@mv.mv.com>, mem@mv.mv.com (Mark E. Mallett) writes:
> 
> Moses supposes his toeses are roses,
> but Moses supposes erroneously.
> 
> 		(From the movie "Singin' in the rain")
  Moses supposes his toeses are roses
  But Moses supposes erroneously,
  For nobodies toeses are posies of roses
  As Moses supposes his toeses to be.

		(From The Kingfisher Book of Nursery Rhymes)
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anita Graham
anita@mincom.oz.au
From: amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Advice to the World Weary (was Re: The Eudaemonic Pie
Date: 11 Nov 92 09:40:26 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In <1992Nov11.024620.27526@netcom.com> tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox) writes:

>	You're more Prufrock than von Bulow, I'm afraid, and more a 
>dispenser of saccharin than insulin.

Aieehh!!  Get these witty jabs off me!

-- 
Marko Amnell
amnell@klaava.helsinki.fi
Graduate Student in Philosophy
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: fuller@athena.cs.uga.edu (James P. H. Fuller)
Subject: Re: A Small Election-Eve Diversion [was: The Truth ac
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 13:41:29 GMT

hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu writes:

>I hope you don't take this personally, Mikhail, but you really
>don't have to quote at such extreme length from the entire history
>of every thread.  The repetition is annoying -- something like being
>trapped in a rehearsal hall listening to a troupe of echolalic
>actors trying to perfect a scene. 


     Oh, I dunno.  In a certain sort of pothunter mood one can get into
the stratigraphy of midden heaps, if not the contents.  And these are
even inverted....
                                            -- jf
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: GENIUS:Life/Science of Richard Feynman
Date: 13 Nov 92 15:44:10 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: baldwin@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil (J.D. Baldwin)

In article <BALDWIN.92Nov12131155@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil>, baldwin@csservera (J.D. Baldwin) writes:
>One guy sure to be angered by the appearance of this book is Murray
>Gell-Mann.  Libel laws being what they are, I am loath to repeat any
>of the stories I've heard about him, but let's just say they are even
>less complimentary than those in "GENIUS."

Here's a complimentary story about Gell-Mann, with a key Feynman bit.

Wilson was starting graduate school at Cal Tech, and was told by his
father to look up either Gell-Mann or Feynman for thesis work, and ask
them what they are working on currently.  So he knocks on Gell-Mann's
office, and asks him what he's working on now, and Gell-Mann tells him
about how he's now trying to solve the 3-dimensional Ising model.
Wilson thanks him, and then knocks on Feynman's office, asks him what
he's working on now, and Feynman says "nothing".  So naturally Wilson
ended up working on the 3-dimensional Ising model--and his solution
was the heart of his own 1982 Nobel winning work.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
From: starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: BOOK: Hollywood vs. America by Michael Medved
Date: 6 Nov 92 07:40:26 GMT
Article-I.D.: genie.1992Nov6.074026.25223
Organization: UDel, School of Life & Health Sciences

In article <7913@transfer.stratus.com> jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:
}In article <1992Nov5.081803.417@genie.slhs.udel.edu>  
}> 
}> If your goal is to raise your children where they won't be able to  
}purchase
}> those things, then you should contract with the sellers not to do  
}so, or make
}> some other peaceful arrangement.  These kinds of transactions don't  
}violate
}> anyone's rights, so coercion (legislation) isn't justifiable on  
}liberal
}> or libertarian grounds.
}> 
}
}It's already against the law to sell beer to kids or to admit
}them into a topless bar.  Legislation IS justifiable, because
}we're talking about kids here, not adults (where I'd agree that
}legislation is not justifiable).  Kids are not adults: they
}don't have the experience to make certain kinds of informed 
}judgements. Thus, most societies create laws to keep children
}from engaging in certain kinds of activities (drinking, for
}example) until they are old enough to be able to make these
}judgements.

Your criterion for competency or legal adulthood of experience is contra-
dictory.  You seem to be saying that legal minors shouldn't be permitted to
conduct themselves in these ways until they've already had plenty of practice
at it.

You're mixing apples and oranges.  Alchoholic beverages impair dexterity,
and use of them as minor has a very high correlation with alcoholism, but
reading and looking at the pictures of Playboy and Penthouse neither impairs
dexterity nor causes "sex crimes".

Originally, the argument was that since "most" parents don't want their
minor offspring doing these things, all minors should be prohibited from
doing them, and all adults should be prohibited from contracting with minors
in such a way that enables them, such as selling them alcohol or a ticket
to a peep show.

What about the minor children of parents who don't want their children thus
legally constrained?  Don't they have the right to decide if their offspring
will be permitted to have a beer or a martini or read/view a Playboy or
patronize a bordello?

The foregoing doesn't challenge the claim that minors shouldn't have the
right to decide these things for themselves, which I find somewhat unreason-
able.  Our age of consent seems too high.  In the Netherlands, whose social
tolerance is the best in the world, it's 12.  Drinking ages are lower in
other comparable countries, too.  I don't really know where our age of
consent should be set, but I'd like to see it based upon some scientific
study of human development rather than the caprice of our legislators.


Tim Starr - Renaissance Now! - Think Universally, Act Selfishly
starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu

"True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten
oneself and others." - Voltaire
From: mgrimes@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Michael Grimes)
Subject: Film of A Thousand Acres
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 01:29:34 GMT

This month's Premiere magazine mentions that Jessica Lange and MIchelle 
Pfeiffer have bought the rights to Jane Smiley's beautiful Pulitzer Prize novel 
 A Thousand Acres.  Lange and Pfeiffer will co-star.  Can any other readers of 
his book share what they think of this casting? I can see Lange as the oldest 
sister, but who will Pfeiffer play?  I love both these actresses, but never 
would have thought of casting them in this film version.

MG


in thisrthought.ts. O
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: Re: Read THE RESIDENT today!!
Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 17:18:01 GMT


amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell) writes:
 
> Donald Winter and friends, were the youngest people
> in New York to start their own newspaper.  THE RESIDENT, a
> free weekly paper in Upper East Side and Upper West Side.
 
> It's simply that best newspaper in the City, folks!
> Forget the New Yorker, New York Times, pick up THE RESIDENT
> today.  It's free, but READ ALL THE ADDS 3 TIMES EACH! and
> tell all your friends to read it.  This especially means you,
> Mark Taranto!
 
Upper East Side?  Upper West Side?  Harumph.
 
I'm a downtown kind of guy.
 
Mark
 
 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: The Truth According to Mickie Medved
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 07:17:25 GMT

In article <BALDWIN.92Nov6144236@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil> baldwin@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil (J.D. Baldwin) writes:

>. . . or the now-legendary scene in "Top Secret" in which Val Kilmer's
>character passes out during torture (by East Germans dressed as Nazis,
>no less) to dream that he is back in school.  He returns to conscious-
>ness, deeply relieved that he is not back in school, after all, but
>merely being tortured by East Germans.  
>
>You may not find it funny, but to *refuse* to find it funny, due
>solely to the subject matter, is the mark of a truly humorless man.

Are you the one who decides whether a person has simply found a torture joke
unfunny, as opposed to "refusing" to find one funny?

I note that neither of the scenes adduced here involves toruring someone to
death.


--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
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: RE: Advice to the World Weary (was Re: The Eudaemonic Pie
Organization: Clark University
Date: 9 NOV 92 17:02:15 GMT


joan@med.unc.edu (Joan "Feminist with a Sense of Humor" Shields) writes:

>>>I apologize, I didn't think before I jotted that comment down.  If I had
>>>been thinking a little clearer I would have added a qualification.  Please
>>>forgive me.

>>Don't apologize!  Apologies are a patriarchal construct, a hegemonic
>>metanarrative of the female experience.  And we can't have that. 

>Thank you for the suggestion, Heather, I'll keep it in mind for future
>reference.  As I was not apologizing to you specifically, there was really
>no need for you to be concerned.  I can assure you, I am a big girl and
>am quite capable of making decisions regarding my behavior all by myself.
> 
>I do appreciate your concern but there really is no need for you to
>worry.

Well, I'm glad you didn't take it personally.

Heather
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.poems
From: lionel@cs.city.ac.uk (Lionel Tun)
Subject: Re: couple of questions - thanks!
Organization: City University, London
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 15:44:46 GMT

Thank you to all who offered suggestions on my questions.
I had a good idea about the Shakespeare (`though this be
madness, yet there is method in't`:"Hamlet") and the Elliot
("The Wasteland"), but I was not sure about the Wordsworth
(`A host, of golden daffodils':"I Wandered Lonely As A
Cloud".

--
Lionel Tun   (lionel@cs.city.ac.uk)
Vision Group, City University, London, EC1V 0HB. 071-477 8000 x 3889