Tolkein's Vogon Poetry

I've been trying to read Fellowship of the Ring again.

I read the series 35 years ago, and it was like slogging through Boston after the great molasses flood. Just agonizing.

Tolkein couldn't write poetry if a gun was held to his head and he was under threat of death to write a decent poem. And every chapter has one, two, or more of his awful fucking Vogon poetry.

I'll be just getting into the rhythm of the story when fucking JRR decides it's time to pull out his Prostetinic Vogon Jeltz mask and begin:

Fuck YOU, David Gerrold

Let me make this infinitely clear.

I have three kids, Lis, Ian, and Ava. They are my pride and my joy. I support them in their identities, their lives, their very beings.

Two of my kids are transgender. I am their number one ally. I will go to the mats against anybody who wants to tell me my kids are mentally ill for that, or that they are the gender that they were assigned at birth, or that they should be forced to use a room full of urinals instead of toilets, or any person who SUPPORTS somebody with those fucking ideas in their head (David Gerrold, I am looking at YOU, motherfucker!)

“If This Goes On—”: A Side-by-Side Look at Heinlein’s Warning and the United States Today

I've been working steadily on this article since mid-January. It has been harrowing, absolutely frightening, and just a little bit too close to reality these days for me..

I just reread Robert Heinlein’s “If This Goes On—” for the umpteenth time, and I can’t stop thinking about how quiet it is. Not the writing itself, but the way the collapse happens. No sirens. No big moment where everyone agrees something has gone wrong. Just a series of choices that all seem defensible at the time. That’s what got under my skin.

Andrea Yates

I recently read a book by Suzy Spencer, "Breaking Point" about the lead up to, the event of, and the aftermath of Andrea Yates drowning her five children. The book takes you through the years before the event and the Yates family's living situation and family dynamic, the murders, and the trial. It was a really gripping read, and had me in tears at times. If you have Kindle Unlimited, the book is free to read. Otherwise, Kindle is $2, and new copies start at $14 plus shipping, and go up from there...

Book Review: The Outsiders, by SE Hinton

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have you ever read a book that changed your life?

For me, it was this book, which I first read when I was fourteen years old, over forty years ago.

Ponyboy Curtis lives with his two brothers, Darry and Sodapop, in Oklahoma, on the wrong side of the tracks. Their parents died in a car accident some time prior to the events of the book, and Darry is struggling to hold what's left of the family together, while working as a roofer.