Some six or seven years ago, the smart people at New Line decided on a marketing strategy for their absurdly risky venture. They would get the Mavens on their side. You see, there happen to be quite a few Tolkein…
Connectors are people who know everybody; I advise reading Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg for a great description of a Connector. Connectors are particularly good at spreading ideas for the obvious reason that they talk to more people than you…
OK, Gentle Readers, Your Humble Blogger is going to go on about the Tipping Point for a while; you have been warned. If you haven’t read the book, don’t skip the various points; I will be explaining the terms I…
Your Humble Blogger started The Tipping Point (Boston: Little Brown 2000) in 2003; my Best Reader and I took our time with it, as it’s That Sort of Book. I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s essays, particularly Six…
Your Humble Blogger has read one or two of Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion mysteries before, but this was the first time through More Work for the Undertaker (NY: Avon 1976). It’s a fine book. It’s pretty annoying in places, and…
Your Humble Blogger happened across an Anti-Defamation League survey, in which a quarter of respondents responded said that it was true or probably true that “Jews were responsible for the death of Christ”. Only 25%? I have to assume that…
So, Your Humble Blogger was over on The Blogging of the President: 2004, and noticed a note by Tom Manatos, Advisor to Nancy Pelosi on “online and youth outreach”. Mr. Manatos says that “Blogs have shown a new path,” and…
Your Humble Blogger liked the cover of John Clute’s Appleseed (NY Tor 2001), which just goes to show. —It is one of eleven similar roots, which twine around one another to form the walls of an abyssal central shaft �…
Your Humble Blogger owns some dozen or more Dick Francis novels in paperback, but by no means all of them. I took Knockdown (NY: Fawcett 1974) out of the library, since I hadn’t read it in years. It’s the one…
Once again, Andrew Cline makes an important point in his Rhetorica. He acknowledges that the upcoming attacks on Kerry’s record (and Bush’s) will be effective: Your best defense, as citizen, is to be aware that human communication is often not…