HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rcrowley@donne.zso.dec.com (Rebecca Crowley)
Subject: Re: Reading as an addiction (Was: 92 in rabreview)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 19:23:32 GMT

Joseph O'Rourke (orourke@sophia.smith.edu) wrote:
: ...makes me wonder if reading can be a type of (benign?) addiction. 

An addiction, a habit, I'd say those are fair.  I'm as hooked on reading as
I am on food.

Other times this question has come up, I've heard stories from people
who, when children, sneaked flashlights into bed with them so they
could read under the covers.  Most of the times I got into trouble,
it was because I was caught reading by the hall light long after my bedtime.
It seems it starts young with most of us.

I discovered earlier this year that I was running out of mind candy (genre
fiction -- for me, sf)  -- hadn't read any new authors in a while, didn't 
know which of the new ones were good.  I started reading this (and
r.a.sf.written) largely in an effort to find neat new stuff to read.  It's
worked pretty well:  I doubt I'd have read _The Stars My Destination_, I know
I wouldn't have recognized Florence King when I read an excerpt from _With
Charity Toward None_ in Utne Reader, not to mention another dozen books I've
read, and who knows how many on the list of interesting stuff to look into
that I'll read one-of-these-days.

And, of course, reading r.a.b. is *reading*, which is just fine, all by
itself.
--
Rebecca Crowley	 --  spreading memes in .sigs  --  Standard Disclaimers Apply	
	  Curiosity never killed anything except a few hours.
	rcrowley@zso.dec.com	selene@blegga.cac.washington.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Subject: Re: Reading as an addiction (Was: 92 in rabreview)
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 18:10:43 GMT

hoosiers@carson.u.washington.edu (Mary Loveless):
>As far as light reading to pass the time, I think it is addictive reading
>when it's *two* mysteries...last night..._The Rabbi Finally Retires_ ...

When did this come out?  Is it in paperback?
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mtaranto@panix.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: A holiday reading
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 07:02:24 GMT
Organization: The Inner Clique

I was just thinking about Mike Morris going through his Christmas reading
ritual, and realized that there are other readings appropriate for the day.

There is more than one man who changed this world, and who's birthday is
celebrated on December 25.  I just spent some time reading selections  
from the work of Isaac Newton, who was born 350 years ago, today.

Perhaps he can be remembered as well.

Mark
From: 00hmhammer@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Dana Girls' Mysteries
Date: 2 Jan 93 04:07:44 GMT
Organization: Ball State University, Muncie, In - Univ. Computing Svc's


  Do you have Dana Girls' mysteries by Carolyn Keene in your
old books?  My daughter would love to complete her collection.
Send me any suggestions on tracking down these out of print
books.

00hmhammer.leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu
From: kassover@rumsey.crd.ge.com (David Kassover)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Encyclopedia Help
Date: 29 Dec 92 16:21:15 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: nope

In article <1hpkq4INN7ne@transfer.stratus.com> lmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:
>
>I briefly sold EBs ten years ago, and the EB was the second major purchase my
>husband and I made after our marriage.  I absolutely agree with you
>about "pushy salespeople."
...
>
>Some sales reps are silly and don't respond well to "I don't want the pitch, I
>only want to know how much it costs and can I afford it." which is why dealing
>with a local sales manager can be helpful.  I don't know if you can buy last
>year's edition at a cheaper rate, but it probably doesn't hurt to ask.

Some years ago, my wife had a job in which she was supposed to
give away an encyclopedia.  We cannot remember which one it was,
but it was not Britannica, Americana, World Book nor even Funk
and Wagnalls.  The idea was to seed the neighborhoods, and get
the neighbors to decide they wanted one, too.

In any case, Joan met with scant success.  The most common line
was "I don't want my kids wasting time reading books; they should
be out playing football, where they belong".


Someyears after that, we were visited by a Britannica salesman.
His main selling point seemed to be the "research service", in
which for a "nominal" fee, the Britannica staff would write a
term paper, to specification.  We wouldn't want to deprive our
children to be of this service, now, would we?  He wasn't very
happy when I told him that we liked doing our own research, we
would make sure our kids, if and when we have them, are capable
of doing their own research, and that using such services for
schoolwork was illegal in this state.

-- 
David Kassover             "Proper technique helps protect you against
uupsi!khazad!kassover	          sharp weapons and dull judges."
kassover@aule-tek.com                   F. Collins
kassover@ra.crd.ge.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Subject: Re: Homeschooling
Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
	<scottj-311292082509@iamac-1.dml.georgetown.edu>
	<1992Dec31.152903.25127@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>
	<C04w5J.C8r@watserv2.uwaterloo.ca>
Date: 31 Dec 92 10:47:40

Surely, society benefits from there being a variety of ways of
educating children including home schooling.  There is enough
experience with it, some people educated at home having reached
their nineties, that we know it isn't a disaster.

My daughters went to public schools, perhaps not learning as
much science as I hoped, but there was more available than they
wanted to take.  My son is in second grade, seems to like school
and is advancing rapidly in reading and arithmetic, probably
much of it on his own.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: Morally good hypertext
Followup-To: rec.arts.books, alt.fan.lemurs
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 18:49:55 GMT

In article <JMC.92Dec23001836@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU writes:

>What can one recommend in the meantime?
>
>1. Be tolerant of people with different points of view.  Maybe they
>are taking into account some facts that you regard as unimportant.
>
>2. Resist demands for giving power to any revolutionary movement
>that doesn't say precisely and convincingly what it will do with
>the power.
>
>3. Prefer immediate benefits to hypothetical long range benefits.
>The theory promising the long range benefits may not be that good.

	4. Have a nap every afternoon.

	5. When you go out into the world, hold hands.



--

Keith Morgan kamorgan@athena.mit.edu
In the end nothing could be said of his work except that it was
preposterous and true and totally unacceptable. Edward Whittemore
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Project B.F.D. (was: An apology)
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 02:45:03 GMT

In article <1992Dec22.004439.17361@u.washington.edu> hoosiers@carson.u.washington.edu (Mary Loveless) writes:

>An aft (oops, I mean apt) comment.  Did you make that up or did you steal
>it from Dorothy Parker? 

I write my own material, or I steal from lesser-known authors.


--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 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jyc@leo.Stanford.EDU (Jon Corelis)
Subject: Re: Sjowall & Wahloo and other series
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: 31 Dec 92 18:09:25 GMT

lc1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Lori Cole) writes:


>Is anyone familiar with K.C. Constantine's books ...          

   I've several times mentioned Constantine here as being one of the
best novelists around.  One of his most powerful books, and perhaps a
good place to start, is the early The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes.
From: lc1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Lori Cole)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Sjowall & Wahloo and other series
Date: 31 Dec 92 17:21:02 GMT
	<1992Dec30.221426.813@eff.org>
Organization: Doctoral student, History, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Is anyone familiar with K.C. Constantine's books, set in the fictional
Western Pennsylvania town of Rocksburg (read Greensburg)?  His hero(?),
the half-Italian half-Serbian police chief Mario Balzic, evolves (as
does his family) throughout the series.  Plus wonderful working-class
characters.  The books are very different, from the more light _Upon
Some Midnights Clear_ (good holiday reading), to the very dark _Sunshine
Enemies_.  A friend who is off to France for a year's post-doc work,
took all his books along to remind her of home.  I've gotten my hands on
all but one; oddly enough most of them are out of print in the U.S. but
_are_ available in the U.K.  I'd be interested in hearing if there are
other fans of Constantine out there.  This is a psuedonym, by the way;
apparently he guards his privacy jealously.  Rumor has it that Universal
owns the rights to the books but has no plans to do anything with them. 
This might be a good idea since they are more about the ideas and
characters than about plot.

Lori Cole
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr)
Subject: Re: Anne Rice Fan
Organization: UDel, School of Life & Health Sciences
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 22:26:04 GMT

In article <105531@bu.edu> mcelroy@bu.edu (Carl Mackin) writes:
}Are there any Anne Rice fans out there anymore?
}--Mac
}mcelroy@acs.bu.edu
}

Yo, right here.  I went to her signing at Dark Carnival in Berkeley and had
her sign "Body Thief" for my sister's birthday.

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." - Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Flatulence (WAS Ngaio Marsh info requested)
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 08:03:36 GMT

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

	Rooty toot toot,


-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
	"That's a bird bone, chair, Bob.  I don't know if I should sit there."
				Tom Waits
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: lmollett@lunatix.uucp (Laura Mollett)
Subject: Re: Anne Rice Fan
Organization: Lexington Public Access Unix. -KY- (606) 255-9121
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 18:26:15 GMT


Well, I enjoy Anne Rice as well, though I've only read the original 3 vampire
stories (not _The Witching Hour_ or the Mummy one, nor the _Tale of a Body
Thief_).  The vampire stuff was pretty good.  I liked the first 2 better than
the last one (I think, it's been awhile since I read them), but the book that
really impressed me was _Belinda_ (written under the pseudonym Anne Rampling).
This has got to be one of the best books I've ever read.  It's about humans
ideas about sexuality, and art, and truth, and what makes art etc. etc.  There
isn't any "fantasy" in it at all, and it is only slightly sexually descriptive,
but is a fascinating read for inspiration purposes to anyone interested in
creating art or to anyone interested in questioning thoughts about sexuality
and people and maturity.  I haven't read her supposed more explicit bondage-
type works, but after reading this one, I think I'll give all her other stuff
a try.  My husband also enjoyed this book a great deal, and felt that one of
the most fascinating parts was her wonderful portrayal of a male protaganist.
He said she managed to express a male point of view really well for a female
author.  Anyway, I recommend it, for what that's worth :).
			Laura Mollett
From: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Ngaio Marsh info requested
Date: 18 Dec 92 19:07:17 GMT
Reply-To: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Organization: COMANDOS Project, Glesga Yoonie

prmiskel@apgea.army.mil (Patricia R. Miskelly <prmiskel>) wrote:
> jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:
>> There are dozens of good writers from NZ to read before you start scraping
>> the bottom of the barrel with hacks like [Ngaio] Marsh.  For a Christmas
>> (or perennial) recommendation: the Collected Stories of Frank Sargeson -
>> obviously influenced by Hemingway in their laconic style but a *lot*
>> better - or "Tama" by Bruce Stewart - an angry collection about Maori life
>> on the receiving end of institutional racism.
> Bottom of the barrel?  Hack? 
> Does all reading need to be intellectual and/or serious?  Why not enjoy
> a mystery every now and then?  I do, and Marsh is quite engrossing.

Neither Sargeson nor Stewart is invariably serious; "Tama" contains a
Rabelaisian piece about farting, and Sargeson's satire can be deadly.
I've found both of them far more enjoyable on any count than I've ever
found Marsh.

Since Marsh and the obnoxious Katherine Mansfield are what are a large
fraction of the outside world thinks of as New Zealand's major literary
products, this might well put off people reading further, which would be
their loss if they missed out on Sargeson.  And I don't know a better way
to counter that than to say right out loud that Marsh is dull, derivative
crap.

-- 
--  Jack Campin    room G092, Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,
17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, Scotland   TEL: 041 339 8855 x6854 (work)
INTERNET: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk or via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk    FAX: 041 330 4913
BANG!net: via mcsun and uknet     BITNET: via UKACRL    UUCP: jack@glasgow.uucp
From: BL.JYC@forsythe.stanford.edu (Jon Corelis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Non-rabelaisian farts were flatulence was Ngaio Marsh
Date: 22 Dec 1992 14:01:44 -0800
Organization: Stanford University
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: morrow.stanford.edu

In article <Bzo70n.39M@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk>,
jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:

>                                 An anecdote which I think comes from
>Wilfred Thesiger's "Arabian Sands" suggests there may be such: farting in
>public used to be deeply shameful in Arab society.  Thesiger describes
>a man, X, who had the misfortune to fart at a banquet presided over by his
>tribal chief, and went into exile as result.  Many years later, thinking
>his disgrace had been expiated, he returned home.  On the edge of the town
>he met a teenage boy, and asked him how old he was...  "I don't know, but
>I was born in the year that X farted at the chief's banquet".  X turned
>round and sadly went back into the desert.
>

   I've never read Thesiger's book, but there's a very similar story in
the Arabian Nights, which in the Burton version is called I think "How
Abu Hassan Brake Wind."
From: jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jonathan R. Ferro)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Mangled Text (Was Re: Mangled Song Lyrics)
Date: 3 Jan 93 04:01:27 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

GE.SPM@forsythe.stanford.edu (Suzanne Mills) writes:
> Is this a form of Freudian slip?  Evidence of creeping senility?  Or
> just that when reading cursorily the eye may sometimes go a little
> off-kilter?  I would be very interested to know if anyone else out
> there has had similar experiences.

I tend to notice that I am getting sleepy when letters from the line
below the one I am reading start migrating upward into the current line,
but, being sleepy, the nonsensicalness of the resulting mess often
doesn't strike me until I have an entire paragraph to reread to get it
right.  Also, sleepiness prevents the incidents from being memorable
enough to be reconstructed here as specific examples.

-- Jon Ferro               Einsprachigkeit ist heilbar
From: rcrowley@donne.zso.dec.com (Rebecca Crowley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Non-fiction (was _Dog Soldiers_ by R. Stone, a wild ride!
Date: 21 Dec 92 18:20:56 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Mark Taranto (mtaranto@panix.com) wrote:
: 
: alison@wsrcc.com (Alison Chaiken) writes:
: 
: > By the way, does anyone on this group ever read NON-fiction?   I read
: > non-fiction about 50% of the time, but I would guess that I am in the
: > minority here.
: 
: Sure, I read non-fiction.  I read a lot of poetry and have read a number
: of literary biographies.
:... 
: A number of regular posters read a lot of History (William Sburgfort Smith).
: And Mike Morris seems to read everything.  
: 
: Philosophy gets a lot of play in this group as well.

I've been reading a lot of science (unfortunately mostly popular science,
due to either an inability or unwillingness to focus on anything much deeper
than that) lately.  I particularly enjoyed Ed Regis' _Great Mambo
Chicken and the Transhuman Condition_, an entertaining survey of unusual
science, including nanotech, privately funded space efforts, the L5 society
and cryonics.  Regis seems to write as much about the people, as the science,
which can be both good and bad.  It is probably a more effective approach
in _Who Got Einstein's Office?_, which is also good, if somewhat chatty.

A friend of mine gave me a very skinny philosophy book entitled _Socrates,
Buddha, Confucius, Jesus_, by Karl Jaspers, which was actually a good
survey of their lives and beliefs (*not* even touching what happened
after they died, hence the thinness of the volume).  This is apparently
an excerpt from a larger work by Jaspers, which was incomplete when
he died.  Anyone read any of the rest of it?

Rebecca Crowley		rcrowley@zso.dec.com	selene@blegga.cac.washington.edu
	"The only thing curiosity ever killed was a few hours" 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jk@panix.com (Jim Kalb)
Subject: Re: Cultural Appropriation and the New Age
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 22:31:15 GMT
Organization: Institute for the Human Sciences

In <1h69a2INNjqr@flop.ENGR.ORST.EDU> irwinke@storm.CS.ORST.EDU (Keith Irwin) writes:

>I'd like to know what people think about New Agers (ie, Europeans and
>Euroamericans) appropriating the spirituality of various indiginous and
>small scale cultures.

What does it mean to appropriate someone's spirituality?  Is there
only a limited amount to go around?
-- 
Jim Kalb (jk@panix.com)
"Rem tene; verba sequentur."  (Cato)
From: cramer@optilink.COM (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Cultural Appropriation and the New Age
Date: 28 Dec 92 23:55:37 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <JMC.92Dec24112625@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>, jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy) writes:
> I think the statue on Interstate 280 south of San Francisco should be
> returned to Easter Island.
> --
> John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305

Don't insult the Easter Islanders.  That hideous montrosity should
be dumped back on whatever overpaid "artist" gave birth to it.


-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
C++ is to C, as lung cancer is to lung.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mtaranto@panix.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: Re: Shouting at robots
Organization: The Inner Clique
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 22:25:03 GMT


Many have said that it is alright to scream at the robot, because it is
a soulless object, like a car, VCR, stereo or a Math Professor.

This is not true -- the Robot has a soul, and should be treated with the
same respect that we have for other objects, such as cats and books,
which have souls.

It is hard for all of us to confront the fact that we are not the only
beings with souls.  Perhaps Tom Maddox can tell us how his character, 
Gonzales, dealt with the realization that his MEMEX had a soul.  It was
certainly different (and may I say more humane) than P.K. Dick's solution 
(in DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRONIC SHEEP) of killing them.

I would write a story about this, but I do so like David Stein's, and he is
hungry, and I don't need the $25.00.  But I do feel morally superior for
mentioning two books :-)



Mark






Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Subject: Homeschooling (was  Re: Education and the Environment by Gregory A. Smith)
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 15:29:03 GMT

In article <scottj-311292082509@iamac-1.dml.georgetown.edu> scottj@magic.dml.georgetown.edu (John L. Scott) writes:
> Michael McDonald then wrote:
> 
> >   Thus far, the arguments proffered here in favor of homeschooling strike me
> >   as profoundly selfish, as primarily a matter of wanting to ensure that 
> >   children are good little reflections of their parents.  Talk about
> >   indoctrination!
>
> [Scott continues]                      In case that isn't enough: here is
> my goal in homeschooling.  I want my kids to have to the skills to learn
> anything they want about the world, to pursue any interests they have, to
> try to do anything they want to do.  I want them to be able to think, to
> have confidence in that ability and all their other abilities, and to have
> respect for themselves and their own minds.
> 
> They are free to do with all that what they will.  If they decide to become
> environmental activists, that's fine with me.  If they decide to become
> nuclear engineers and build nuclear power stations, that's fine too.

I would agree with Michael McDonald, but for entirely different reasons
than he puts forward.  (Well, okay, I might say "shortsighted" rather
than "profoundly selfish.")

If one believes (as I do) that a society benefits by educating all its
members, than for people to say, "Well, the school system is bad, so
rather than work to fix it, I will pull my kids out."  I certainly
believe that parents should be concerned about their children's
education, but it seems to me that this can be done in addition to
sending them to public school, rather than in place of.  If you take your
children to museums, or talk about history, or do any number of things,
you can add to the public school system, not replace it.

Why is this important?  Well, you may be committed to homeschooling
your children.  But what about the single parent who has to work
full-time (or more) just to *support* his/her children?  What about the
parents who for whatever reason can't homeschool their children?  Maybe
they can't speak English very well.  Maybe they are illiterate.  Maybe
they are handicapped.  These children need a decent education, and
abandoning the public school system and saying homeschooling is the
answer seems to me to guarantee that the next generation will be even
worse educated than the current one.

And you say your children can become environmental activists or nuclear
engineers.  Can you homeschool them to do this?  Do you have the
science labs, the language labs, all the accoutrements that come with
having a school that serves hundreds of students?  Can they really
pursue any interests they have, regardless of cost?

Evelyn C. Leeper  |  +1 908 957 2070  |  att!mtgzy!ecl or  ecl@mtgzy.att.com
--
"God does not play dice with the universe."  --Albert Einstein
"Albert, stop telling God what to do."  --Niels Bohr
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: dmccrea6@mach1.wlu.ca (doug mccready F)
Subject: Re: Merry Christmas
Organization: Wilfrid Laurier University
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 11:58:45 GMT

We have been wished God's Mercy and we probably need it badly in North
America. Indeed, the past two days have been a wonderful time for the
renewing of the spirit and I hope many people got the books to keep them
happy - I asked for one particular book - got it and two others so I
couldn't make up my mind which one to read. Thanks to other netters, I enjoy
your posts!
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books