As a Flying-Car Guy...

...I expect I'll be getting some e-mail about XKCD #864:


Speaking of reading books on one's phone, I mentioned to my sister (a heavy Sony Ereader user) that I had some books on my Droid.

"I downloaded Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations," I said. "It sounded kind of interesting, and ever since high school I've sort of intended to read it. Now at last I'm getting through it, whenever I find a moment to read on my phone."

She has an Android phone, too. "Have you played Angry Birds?" she said. With great enthusiasm, she explained that you shoot birds at pigs, or something. (I can't blame them for being angry.) She intimated that one could spend quite a lot of time doing this.

"Let me get this straight," I said. "You think that I should spend my time shooting birds on my phone instead of finishing The Wealth of Nations?"

Usually she has been more willing to encourage my intellectual growth. In this case, one might well say, she has an unEnlightened attitude.

Friday Afternoon at the Blurb Factory

While browsing books recently I experienced a moment of pathos.

Jerry Corrigan was kind enough to hold up the paperback in question as I snapped a shot.
Return with me now, across space and time, to the DAW Books offices. It is 1981. We move down the corridor to the office of the Blurb Writer. It is littered with manuscripts.

It is Friday afternoon. The Blurb Writer is tired. It has been a rough week.

On the desk is the first novel of one Drew Mendelson, a science fiction story called Pilgrimage.

In the Blurb Writer's typewriter is a blank sheet of paper. The Blurb Writer begins to type.

( Read more... )