Synonyms of the Day
Truculent and pugnacious.
Page 51 of 224
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Adam’s Five-Word Review: get this woman an editor.
There’s definitely some entertainment to be had here in the fifth installment of J.K. Rowling’s wizard saga. But Rowling is definitely coasting, and the book’s 870-page length is a good example. The book is filled with subplots whose only function is to pop back in at the end to wrap up some other plot point. The characterizations are flat, other than the deliciously banal evil of new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge. And while the books are always plot-driven, that reaches epic proportions this time, where the real emotion that could have made the story more engaging is brushed aside to make room for more goings-on.
Other than Umbridge, I also enjoyed Harry’s adolescent anger, partly because I seem to be going through a second adolescence myself. I can identify with how other people, especially hypocritical and stupid adults, piss him off royally.
Mainly, I think the problem here is that Rowling has become so popular and successful, her editors have become unwilling to rein in her “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” approach to getting a story down on paper. If she keeps going like this, you’ll have to buy a wheelbarrow to drag the seventh book home.
Funny yet sad headline/subhead combo of the day
Bush wants marriage reserved for heterosexuals
Urges America to remain a “welcoming country”
Canada is looking better and better every day. The insanity around here is wearing me down.
“Gigli,” Ben and J.Lo’s “how we met” movie, opening this week, appears to be so brain-liquefyingly bad that I can’t wait to see it. I mean, who could resist ‘Jenny from the Block’ as a foul-mouthed lesbian hitwoman, paired with Ben Affleck doing a poor imitation of Tony Soprano? What’s not to love?
UPDATE: Even the Onion is jumping on the bandwagon.
Memo to self: There’s such a thing as too much posting in one day.
A profoundly disturbing account of how Iraq and 9/11 have become inextricably linked in the minds of many Americans:
A note of thanks to those who serve (courtesy of lies.com)
“To me, those troops were there to avenge the murder of my husband and 3,000 others.”
This woman’s grief at the loss of her husband is only natural. But how our national grief and anger over 9/11 has mutated into national insanity is the real tragedy of that day.
Quote of the day
“The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we *can* suppose.”
-John Haldane
On Monday at noon, Vice President Dick Cheney hosted a $2,000/plate fundraising lunch, getting supporters to pony up a total of $300,000.
Beginning late last Thursday, Howard Dean’s campaign launched a drive to outpace Cheney, mainly through contributions over the Internet. By the time Cheney’s lunch started, they had raised $344,000 from 6,558 donors. As of 1:30 a.m. today, the total brought in for Dean from this drive was $508,000.
How cool is that?
Second-class citizenship
Please read this beautiful post by John. He says it so much better than I could. Unfortunately, it needs to be said.
What I will say is this:
I can’t get married. I can’t serve in the military. There are a whole range of jobs I’m considered unfit to hold. A Supreme Court Justice says I have no fundamental right to exist. If that isn’t discrimination, if that isn’t second-class citizenship, I don’t know what is.
When I heard that the 9/11 report released last week was 850 pages, my first thought was, “That’s 20 pages less than ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.'”
I’m on about page 500 right now. (of Harry Potter, that is)
Spam, spam, spam, ham and spam
A post on Dave’s weblog about funny spam subject lines reminded me of something I’ve wondered about for a long time. Does anyone know why so many spam subject lines end in strings of nonsense characters? Like this:
Interracial Action at its Best! dgdpCoxfn|;edoo1frp
I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the software that spammers use to send mail. But wouldn’t they do everything possible to make spam seem like “legitimate” e-mail? Anyone know why this is?