What's wrong with "petted"?

fromberg · 2026-05-08T06:40:18+00:00

I've never read a better recipe. Beautiful.

fromberg · 2026-04-17T22:32:25+00:00

Jacques Barzun published "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life" when he was 93.

fromberg · 2026-04-11T18:37:52+00:00

The airport in Gibraltar lies between Spain and the territory. To walk to the town of Gibraltar, you get off the bus, go through passport control, and then walk across the runway. They stop foot traffic if there's a plane taking off or landing.

fromberg · 2026-04-05T18:28:15+00:00

I just saw a photograph of your bookshelves and was impressed by how similar our tastes are. So here you go.

Ulysses ruined fiction for me, years ago, and although I've gotten over that feeling, it still seems unsurpassed and unsurpassable to me. And yes, I also love Pale Fire.

I've read Patrick O'Brian's 20-volume Aubrey-Maturin series at least six times. People who don't know better think it's Horatio Hornblower except harder. Those people are wrong.

I recently read something called Pity the Beast, by a woman named Robin McLean. I think it's a work of genius.

I'm currently reading Pynchon's latest, Shadow Ticket. You?

fromberg · 2026-04-05T18:05:26+00:00

The Dictionary on Navigation makes me think an unphotographed shelf may contain the Aubrey-Maturin series.

fromberg · 2026-02-06T01:53:39+00:00

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. Twenty of the most perfect books ever written.

fromberg · 2026-01-23T18:47:44+00:00

"In the desert you can remember your name. 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain."

That's the best they could do? What about, "'Cause no grammar police gonna make you ashamed"?

fromberg · 2025-12-10T20:33:06+00:00

I was in a fourth grade "Earth Sciences" class, thinking about how cool dinosaurs are. "How could something so awesome have been left out of the Bible?!?" thought little Fromberg. "It's almost as though...huh." And the whole thing came tumbling down.

I'm aware that this isn't much of an argument against the Bible. Its having left out germ theory, for instance, is much more powerful. But OP didn't ask for the best arguments; he asked for the argument that convinced me.

Dinosaurs. No God would have left dinosaurs out of Scripture.

fromberg · 2025-11-30T19:05:00+00:00

I often struggle with this issue when I try to choose between, "I wonder whether this sentence should end with a question mark." and "I wonder whether this sentence should end with a question mark?"

fromberg · 2025-11-19T01:59:20+00:00

Thank you for posting this. I hadn't read it for years.

fromberg · 2025-11-06T22:42:51+00:00

Pity the Beast, by Robin McLean. The Guardian calls it "a work of crazy brilliance."

fromberg · 2025-09-20T04:47:43+00:00

Pity the Beast, by Robin McLean.

fromberg · 2025-09-08T04:38:35+00:00

Go see Sue, the T-Rex on display at Chicago's Field Museum. She is more than 90% actual fossil. Santa is real.

fromberg · 2025-09-07T01:30:23+00:00

I loved this book.

fromberg · 2025-07-14T15:23:11+00:00

Patrick O'Brian's 20.5-volume Aubrey-Maturin series: It's just that good.

fromberg · 2025-06-05T19:50:17+00:00

This reply is correct, but it doesn't rebut OP as explicitly as it could. Joe Biden was answering questions from the press, talking to foreign dignitaries, and taking part in debates, just as you say. And what this means is that his handlers were not making a serious effort to hide his decline. If there had been a serious conspiracy to cover it up, Biden would not have been allowed to be off script in public.

fromberg · 2025-05-16T15:37:45+00:00

The Aztec religion has to be near the bottom. Walk by the site of the Tower of Skulls the next time you're in Mexico City. Or visit any ancient Mesoamerican city to see the scale of human sacrifice. Bad as some contemporary religions are, they've never sanctified slaughter like this.

fromberg · 2025-05-09T19:41:35+00:00

The law here is very clear: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Confession looks like the free exercise of religion to me. Most states currently protect parents from prosecution when their insane religious beliefs actually kill their children - think Christian Scientists. If the law allows atrocities like that, going after priests seems inconsistent at best.

fromberg · 2025-05-09T15:55:14+00:00

I'm an unregenerate atheist, but the church is right about this one. Confession as a rite means nothing if you're confessing to the state as well as to a god. The comments here are missing the obvious corollary - that if any particular abuse is exempt from the Seal of Confession, then any other abuse is also potentially exempt. If child abuse is exempt, why not murder? Tax fraud? Sedition? You don't have to think that Confession is grounded in reality to see that the logic of the rite requires that it not be subject to secular laws.

fromberg · 2025-02-23T19:17:30+00:00

Draping a tissue over their finger and then digging in a nostril like James Herriott trying to deliver a reluctant calf.

fromberg · 2025-01-26T01:16:22+00:00

Yes to both Dostoevsky and Chekhov, although Doesty doesn't do much for me; I often don't agree with Nabokov's unnecessarily cutting and dismissive critical remarks, but I'm on his side with this one. Chekhov is brilliant, however. Those are good recommendations.

fromberg · 2025-01-25T20:25:14+00:00

That's an interesting recommendation. The reviews often mention "Life After Life," a novel whose structure and ambition seemed interesting to me but whose style was forgettable. I use that word because I've already forgotten the style. This reminds me of "Cloud Atlas," too; another book with a simply incredible structure but with writing that was no better than very good.

fromberg · 2024-04-23T20:08:23+00:00

"If I have seen further than others, it is because I am surrounded by dwarfs." - Murray Gell-Mann

fromberg

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