August 2025
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Yesterday I received the following email from Typepad, the blogging service on which this blog is built: It's not a total shock, though it is a shock. I've known for some time that Typepad was not doing well. WordPress long ago surpassed them in customer numbers, and I doubt their respective counts are within an…
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I made a mistake in the way I read this book, with the result that I am a little vague about the details of the plot. Well, more than a little, really–I'm usually a little vague about the plot of a detective story. This is part indifference, as long as the story keeps me interested,…
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I expected to like this concerto more than I had the first, which I had found, overall, somewhat difficult and hard to love–see this post. Nevertheless I felt a faint tension as I put the needle down: was I about to get a challenging full-orchestra blast, as in the first? No, not at all. I…
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Andy Weir is the author of The Martian, which I have not read. But I have seen the movie of the same name which was based on the book, and quite enjoyed it. The title character is not a sentient extraterrestrial alien being, but rather one of us, stranded alone on Mars when the mission…
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I've always thought that it's slightly odd to open a sentence with "To be honest." The implication is that being honest is a departure from your usual practice. Yes, of course, I understand that it means you're telling the other person something he or she may not want to hear, and which in the normal…
Light On Dark Water 