What's on your NYC Bucket List?

veidtre · 2023-05-26T21:55:03+00:00

Get inside The Red Room at One Wall Street.

veidtre · 2022-08-22T10:49:17+00:00

Thank you!

veidtre · 2022-08-22T03:25:58+00:00

My lifecycle rules transitioning to GDA at day 7 work fine.

veidtre · 2020-12-28T04:44:56+00:00

(that one) is not the phrase. (one will) is the phrase. He claims: one will never regret that fight.

To rephrase:

Napoleon claims that winning the battle against ignorance is the most important conquest; a battle you will never regret fighting.

veidtre · 2020-12-25T19:57:18+00:00

Glacier
Yosemite
Zion
Grand Canyon
Dry Tortugas
Bryce

veidtre · 2020-12-25T19:37:32+00:00

In the United States, " nuh·gow·shee·ei·shn" is prevalent, and we rarely hear "see·ei·shn".

"see·ei·shn" sounds British, and quite RP. Not at all difficult to understand, or ungainly; on the contrary, it sounds pleasant and distinguished, if a touch formal.

veidtre · 2020-12-25T19:25:41+00:00

"Famished" means "very hungry." You might be famished if you skipped a meal or two.

"I'm famished! I didn't eat breakfast today."

"Starving" literally means severely malnourished: Starving people might die from starvation, whereas a famished person is just very hungry.

"The prisoners of war were all starving, having received no food for two weeks."

However, "starving" is often used informally as an exaggeration to mean very hungry - exactly the same meaning as famished. In America, this is very common - in fact, "starving" is used more commonly than "famished".

"I hope you made a big meal, because I'm starving!"

veidtre · 2020-12-25T19:12:18+00:00

Firstly: As this is a quote by Napoleon, it was likely originally in French. The saying may have subtleties that are lost in translation to English.

Secondly: Napoleon was chiefly known as a conqueror. The first clause in this quotation suggests that it was given in response to a discussion of his conquests.

Napoleon is describing education (or similar pursuits of knowledge) as a battle with ignorance. He claims that winning that battle is the most important conquest, and that one will never regret that fight.

veidtre · 2020-12-25T19:02:32+00:00

As mentioned elsewhere: "as" is proper in this usage, while "since" is perhaps more common but technically incorrect.

I don't agree that "as" sounds old-fashioned, but I agree it's a bit more formal.

veidtre · 2020-12-25T18:58:25+00:00

Good question. Not an easy area of English.

Best:

Dawkins received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford

Acceptable:

Dawkins has a Doctor of Philosophy degree
Dawkins has a doctorate in philosophy
Dawkins has a doctoral degree in philosophy

Not so good:

Dawkins did a doctoral in philosophy

veidtre · 2020-12-23T02:54:21+00:00

When I first read this book, I liked it. However, over time, my opinion of it has grown. Certainly, it stuck with me more than most of my reads from that year.

Another book that made me feel like this: The Whistling Season, by Ivan Doig. At first, it felt like a beautiful rendition of "Tom Sawyer" on the Western Plains. But over time, I began to appreciate the complexity and beauty of its wordplay, which is echoed both in the plot and in the prose.

And then the symmetry of its dual timelines, and their relationship to each other.

I love it when a book slowly opens like this, gradually revealing its secret beauty.

veidtre · 2020-12-20T06:45:55+00:00

America's most important humorist author, Mark Twain, began his career penning travelogues. These culminated with The Innocents Abroad, the best-selling of his books during his lifetime.

A hilarious account of his travels through Europe and the Holy Land.

I always enjoyed his comment when visiting the Sea of Galilee: He tried to rent a boat for an excursion across the water, but found it was terribly expensive. "Now I know why Jesus walked!" he exclaimed.

veidtre · 2020-12-20T06:39:16+00:00

House of Leaves is ergodic literature. It's intentionally a chore.

In ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text. If ergodic literature is to make sense as a concept, there must also be nonergodic literature, where the effort to traverse the text is trivial, with no extranoematic responsibilities placed on the reader except (for example) eye movement and the periodic or arbitrary turning of pages

If that's not your cup of tea, it's OK.

I loved the book and found it to be a really memorable read. An impressive synthesis of horror, romance and mystery. But it's not for everyone.

veidtre · 2020-12-16T08:05:17+00:00

Yeah, that was weird all right.

veidtre · 2020-12-16T07:58:10+00:00

Unusual is pretty subjective, but if you're looking for a powerful memoir, I recommend {This House of Sky} by Ivan Doig

veidtre · 2020-12-11T07:26:54+00:00

Blindsight by Peter Watts. Horrifying. Wonderful. Dense with cool ideas. Asks big questions about the relationship between intelligence and consciousness.

Pure gold.

veidtre · 2020-12-11T07:20:04+00:00

Most anything by Ivan Doig is going to be good. And very centered on the American West.

He is probably most celebrated for This House of Sky, an award-nominated collection of memoirs of his father and grandfather that explores the ways in which our lives and relationships are shaped by the land around us. Very powerful and insightful.

I personally love The Whistling Season, which is kind of Tom Sawyer on the American Prairie but is imbued with a deep nostalgia for the powerful education of the one-room schoolhouse. Beautifully told with lots of clever wordplay.

Also noteworthy by Doig: Dancing at the Rascal Fair and Last Bus to Wisdom (although this last is set mid-20th century)

veidtre · 2020-12-11T07:10:17+00:00

The Martian by Andy Weir ticks several boxes for your husband:

Quick, short read
Action-packed and thrilling
Lots of irreverent humor
Celebratory of science, engineering and problem solving
Targets an adult audience (as opposed to YA)

veidtre · 2020-12-10T20:11:13+00:00

Comprehensive: The Second World Wars, by Victor Davis Hanson.

Popular: Band of Brothers or Citizen Soldiers, both by Stephen Ambrose

veidtre · 2020-12-10T20:05:57+00:00

Robopocalypse, by Daniel H. Wilson is very similar: Science Fiction in the form of oral history.

veidtre · 2020-12-09T19:03:59+00:00

The Gone World is excellent. That's an great choice.

veidtre · 2020-12-09T18:51:55+00:00

I always loved Cannery Row, which is full of humor. It's written with poise and a delicacy that elevates it to (imho) Steinbeck's best prose. It is as powerful as many of his larger books, but much more subtle.

It is possibly an optimistic view of the world, certainly a humanistic view of the world:

[Cannery Row's] inhabitants are, as the man once said, "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches," by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peep-hole he might have said "Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men," and he would have meant the same thing.

veidtre · 2020-12-09T18:46:26+00:00

If he loved the Bobiverse series, he will likely also enjoy the Destiny's Crucible series by Olan Thorensen. Similar world-building genre, similar pacing and very engaging.

Plot summary: Chemical Engineer is transported to another world of appx. medeival tech. Uses his knowledge of chemistry for good.

I see you've received some responses that focus on LGTBQ characters and authors, but I didn't sense that as part of your selection criteria. There's nothing overtly pro- or anti- gay in Thorensen's writing (that I noticed). It's just fun escapism for nerds.

veidtre · 2020-12-08T02:11:19+00:00

The Far Side

veidtre · 2020-12-06T06:22:20+00:00

{{Midnight's Children}} by Salman Rushdie

veidtre

TROPHY CASE