I’d tattoo that on my face.
1 Like
Cage would be perfect for the role of tattoo face.
Bork’s fears raised in the 1990s have only gotten worse IMHO.
Just starting the Limonov read to understand modern Russia more
1 Like
A lot of petit bourgeoisie scumbags on here in times past have accused me of being anti Canadian. 
My first Canadian book read in a very long time. Excellent book on the HBC.
What’s the scoop? How’d they fuck it up?
Lost the monopoly in 1859, court case in 1849 weakened it — more independent beaver hunters 
French Canadian trappers brought my grandmother’s family south into the Adirondack’s. We’ve trapped many a beaver.
Between roughly 1800-1821 the Hudson Bay Company and the North-West Company operating out of Montreal fought a wide-ranging conflict all over western Canada resulting in 22 deaths, in spite of the fact that both companies were under the British flag.
Also beaver hats went out of favour in Europe, devastating the trade.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Unexpectedly good short story about life of a particular convenience store employee in Tokyo and odd life situations and questioning what is an ordinary proper life, interesting if living in Taiwan with convenience stores being a key part of daily life.
4 Likes
I bought The Song of Achilles which I plan to read soon. I heard it’s really really good.
2 Likes
I also heard it’s good!
1 Like
I’ve been wanting to read it for a while now but I kept pushing it back because I didn’t want to read anything sad after A Little Life.
I’m reading the autobiography of one of my favorite rappers, Action Bronson.
Bam Bam Bronsolino up in this bitch
“In Praise of Elephants: An historical account of the nature, characteristics, and properties of elephants.” By Pieter Nuyts, former Governor of Formosa.
Pieter Nuyts came from a wealthy family and had a doctorate in philosophy from the famous university in Leiden. He seems to have been quite a character. He became Governor of Formosa while still in his twenties and performed so disastrously in the position (the wiki entry mentions him employing a translator under the bed to translate pillow talk with native girls) that the Dutch authorities actually agreed to have him shipped off to Japan to be punished as the Japanese saw fit. “Punished” with house arrest in Japan for a few years, Nuyts billed lavish expenses to the VOC and passed the time, as one does, by writing a learned treatise about elephants.
The book is chock full of learned references to elephants in greek, latin and biblical literature. There’s etymological analysis of the word elephant, which he traces back, incorrectly, to a Greek word for mountain. You’ll be interested, among other observations, to learn that the martial spirit in elephants is roused by the sound of a trumpet. I don’t know whether Nuyts ever actually saw an elephant - his treatise reads as if he’s just airing all the vaguely elephant-related material he’s ever encountered as a learned Leiden doctor.
Now I wouldn’t encourage anyone to go out and learn Dutch (17th century Dutch!) just to read this untranslated book, but I browsed through it with amusement and jealousy (being kept in luxurious house arrest in Japan, translator under the bed no doubt, and having the time and the pomposity to pen a tome on a topic you know little about. Pieter Nuyts - Wikipedia
4 Likes
Library had a book sale. It’s OK. It’s better written than Chris Christie’s book. He comes across as a guy you’d like to have partied with and one you wouldn’t mind hanging out with now. He was a technocrat though. Harvard Business School and all. I had no idea he had such a background in politics, not just campaigning for but working parts of HW’s campaigns from the 70s on. Personable.
Crazy! That book sounds awesome.
1 Like
About halfway through The Noise of Time by… somebody. It’s about the composer Shostakovich’s life in Russia. Not bad.
1 Like