– and more book-ey goodness –

Robert A. Heinlein: In dialogue with His Century: Volume 1 (1907–1948): Learning Curve.  It's not perfect.  Notes that should be footnotes are buried with references in the appendix.  I'm having to use several bookmarks to read the thing in one piece.  (It's like bad Fortran: goto this, return to here, goto another note...)  And what were those four lines that John Campbell added after the end of "Requiem" when it was first published in pulp, causing Heinlein to complain that it ruined the story?  I mean, the author goes on about them for a page or so, so they must've been important.  So why not just give us the four lines?  All that, and the title has just too many :'s.
But.  It's pretty damned amazing, the whole story of the Dean of Hard Science Fiction's life spelled out in one work.  (Well, at least through 1948.  We'll all have to wait for the second volume.)  I'm 2/3 of the way through, and it's worth the couch time.  Now that I'm past the childhood, Navy, and political years, I'm reading it with an old copy of The Past Through Tomorrow at hand so that it's easy to skim (or to sometimes even re-read) the short stories being discussed in the bio.
Get yourself a copy, ASAP.

Book Recommendo

Under Surge, Under Siege.  The happenings in this non-fiction were about a mile from my house.  Everyone's got their own story, but yes folks, this is the way it was.  And this is the way it still is.

Nativity Story...

...updated.  Here.
note: link repaired 6pm 12/19/10.

Right out of a Roadrunner cartoon.

Here.

The only way this could've been better is if a giant boulder had dropped on the guy at the last second.  Casually stepping back and clasping his hands added a nice comic touch though.

Electric Lightning

Over beers, met a fellow working with the Anglo American Lightning Organisation on the restoration of an Electric Lightning yesterday evening.  Amazing airplane.  So not only does Kiln "th' Kill" Mississippi field an an excellent microbrew, it also has at least one Mach 2 fighter jet.  Go read up on it at the above wiki link.

Downtown Success

Yesterday's post about going downtown worked out.  Dropped the Darling Daughter at an antique shop then walked down to Bay Books and picked up Under Surge, Under Siege and a CD copy of Wing's Band on the Run (my old quadraphonic eight track of the album gave out sometime during the Carter adminstration).  Then on to the Mockingbird, where the Jefferson Stout went really well with a Mockingburger.
BTW, that last item is not anything as advertised.  It is, in fact, made from ground beef, not ground-up mockingbirds.  Probably for the best.

Going downtown.

It's Black Friday, so I'm taking the Darling Daughter downtown to do some shopping today.  Main stops planned are Bay Books and lunch at The Mockingbird, then we'll see what else pulls us in.
Was a good Thanksgiving.  I'm still full from the one meal yesterday, and there's half a turkey still in the fridge; we're set for the weekend.