This is amusing:

If you read his book, you find that his solution to the problem of economic co-ordination in the absence of a price mechanism is “the allocation of resources [that] is largely the outcome of discussion between producers, consumers and other affected groups, but within the framework of overall decisions about economic priorities made democratically at the national and international level” (p.140).

That’s one interminable public meeting.

Then I came across this:

The four obtained secrets regarding steelmakers’ output and meetings of the China Iron & Steel Association from companies including Shougang Corp. and Laiwu Group, he said. That led to the failure of iron ore price talks last year, the judge said.

And what are “iron ore price talks”?  Annual meetings between iron producers and steel companies to set prices.  Quite possibly outside of the framework of overall priorities about the advantage of the spot market in reducing the risk of bribery in obtaining pricing information.

I have always enjoyed taking walks, but it is only because of my wish to keep the dogs’ walks somewhat fresh that we have explored practically every street within a thirty to forty-five minute radius from our house.  If it weren’t for the dogs, I certainly would have no need to go walk down the series of streets between 82nd and the freeway, most of which are still unimproved roads and none of which have sidewalks.  And then I would have missed the house below, the residents of which are presumably Raiders fans:

Right down to the mailbox:

I was reading this article and was immediately bugged by the assertion of “the following grammatical rule: there is only ONE space after a period.”  First, it’s nothing to do with grammar; it’s a typographical rule.  Second, I’ve been double-spacing after periods since I learned to type, way back in the wooly mammoth days when we learned on actual typewriters (electric, at least; it wasn’t like they were steam-powered).  Apparently these new-fangled word processors obviate the need for a double space after a period, but there’s very little chance I’m going to change.  My thumbs automatically twitch twice after I type a period, and I’m afraid the neural pathways are not to be rerouted.  At least I don’t feel the urge to reach for the carriage return as I approach the end of each line.  Ding!

I got on my bike this morning and as I rode down our street the sun was bright and warm, such that, as they might have said in France a thousand years ago:

Bels fut li vespres, e li soleilz fut cler

Then I turned into a street upon which the morning sun had not yet shone and up which a cold, biting wind was blowing.  I like to have died.  It is still winter.

This seems like taking unfair advantage.

I have been unable to interest any literary agents in my novel Anti-X.  Perhaps I just don’t know how to write query letters, or else the book is just not right for anyone to represent.  I have had a couple of requests for sample chapters, but nothing more beyond that.  So I am putting the novel up at HarperCollins’ Authonomy website.  You can find the book here.

Anyone who stumbles across this post can read a free book by following that link.  Additionally, anyone who wants to can register at the site and vote for the book; once a month the top five rated books are read by HarperCollins editors themselves.  This is no guarantee of publication, but I thought it’s worth a shot.  So, the book has been set free; read or not, as you choose.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X & Alex Haley

Oishinbo A la Carte: Ramen & Gyoza Tetsu Kariya & Akira Hanasaki

High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed Michael Kodas

One Ring Circus: Dispatches from the World of Boxing Katherine Dunn

Shot in the Heart Mikal Gilmore

First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History Colin G. Calloway

A History of Rome Marcel Le Glay et al

Roman Warfare Adrian Goldsworthy

So for my recent birthday, Mrs The Fyd got me a great present: an iPhone.  This very cleverly turned out to be good for her, since naturally she got one too.  Anyway this thing is absorbing, given the number of apps available.  While browsing through them the other day I saw that there was a free I Ching app.  Now I don’t credit such superstition, but I had to have it.  Why?  Because Marîd Audran, in the late, great, George Alec Effinger’s Budayeen novels, had an electronic I Ching.  Yes, I rate accessories depending on whether they have belonged to favorite fictional characters.

Audran also had a brain modification plug-in that allowed him to assume the persona of Nero Wolfe.  Perhaps when they develop the technology I’ll get the moddy that plugs in Audran plugging in Wolfe.

More books read recently:

The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection ed. Gardner Dozois

Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain

The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois

Ancient Greece Sarah Pomeroy et al.

To Make Our World Anew, Vol. II: A History of African Americans from 1880 ed. Robin D. G. Kelley & Earl Lewis

Invisible Man Ralph Ellison

Matter by Iain M. Banks

Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Tick-Tock by Dean Koontz

To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans to 1880 ed. Robin D.G. Kelley and Earl Lewis

Race And Revolution by Gary B. Nash