see! even the BRITISH see that bush is some sort of reincarnation of julius caesar! :P

erm, by that i mean, they see the clearly roman mentality, as opposed to a monarchical air.

i'm a colonial brit, just so ya know. i'm a cymru :P

Actually, it sounds like snorefest. Give me people who KNOW how to have sex, not the ones who fumble around sheepishly, as if instinct passed them by.

rose:

i think you are not the audience for that book. perhaps a holiday bodiceripper from the airport stand is more your speed.

sounds like a shitty book.

norm, it's often that you speak of recent books you have read. how many are you reading per month?

I'm with Rose on this one. It might be a good book, but that passage hardly gets my attention. Nor, honestly, does this interview. McEwan seems almost bored with himself.

On the other hand, I've generally been impressed by what I've seen of The Hour w/ George Stroumboulopoulos. Interesting range of interview subjects.

norm, it's often that you speak of recent books you have read. how many are you reading per month?

It's a great book.

Before I started this crappy blog I was reading probably one a week. Since then I'm reading maybe half that. You can see the list of what I've been reading at my other blog.

ok been holding this back: veteran of d&d 1977: don't do it! don't do it, dungeonmaster! there's real elves, and paladins and monks counting on you! screw the balrog!-

my panicky reaction to norm referring to 1gm as "crappy". warning!warning!

jb, What, you worried that I'm all burned out and ready to close the gates to the kingdom? I'm just wondering what kind of a crowd I'm attracting these days that would not be excited by the writing of Ian McEwan.

Roth on Bush:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=351Ggfh0FZ0

How interesting that our "book critics" here do not write using proper (as in adult) rules of capitalization in their "brilliant" critiques of Ian McEwan's new novel. I do not believe our esteemed critics in this thread all have defective "Shift" keys on their computers.

So I wonder: What makes them so knowledgeable and worldly that I should heed their childish and vapid scribblings one iota? I typically pass over comments written in such a childish manner. Talk about boring and insipid! Grow up and write correctly. That childish "ee cummings" style of writing is annoying and creates a lack of clarity about what you're writing.

I, for one, refuse to take such laziness seriously. If you cannot take the time to write properly, I cannot imagine you apply much more effort to the "thoughts" and "ideas" you are trying to convey. So it's all gibberish to me. I do not have time in my life to parse out shards of "wisdom" from gibberish.

MAT, I...I...DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY. YOU'VE CUT ME TO THE QUICK.

Truthfully, 'jonathan,' so much of what you write in Norm's comments is meaningless gibberish for many more reasons than just your childish punctuation. I typically avoid what your write because I find your style annoying at worst, incomprehensible at best. You lack—how shall I say?—clarity when you write.

Proper writing yields better clarity of the message one is trying to convey. Clarity, therefore, is the key to effective communication. Any deviation from clarity takes meaning away from what is written, and hence what is communicated. Therefore, you are a lousy communicator.

However, if you feel the need to continue writing illogical gibberish, that is your prerogative.

Whether anyone reads your gibberish is their prerogative. I am on that side. Am I a jerk for being that way? Maybe I am. But that too is my prerogative. It certainly doesn't take away from the fact you write like a third grader high on some mind-altering substance.

So babble on. With great gusto.

Oh yes, my "tagline" name, 'mat_scheck1,' uses no capital letters. That's an old programmer’s habit born out of many computer programs (as in comments) not recognizing upper-case letters. But you do notice my prose written ABOVE my tagline is always, to the best of my typing ability, reasonably correct with respect to rules of grammar, syntax, punctuation, etc.

I freely admit no one is perfect, so even an arrogant, elitist jerk (such as I am) will make occasional errors while writing. But to deliberately muddy one's clarity is, I don't know, childish?

hey, i didn't ask for your permission, anger boy. i knew more about the english language when i WAS a third grader high on some mind altering substance than you ever will. and capitalization doesn't fall under the category of punctuation, homes. and what do you have against kids, anyway? you should seek professional help. or i could recommend some mind altering substances...

I agree mat.

The beauty is the more he posts the more people will see his posts as immature pointless nonsense.

look, you guys, don't fight over me. i'm just not attracted to either of you. but i'm flattered, really.

hey, i didn't ask for your permission, anger boy.

I am not the least bit angry. If you checked my pulse and bp right now, you would find I am completely calm and there's no indication of anger or even stress. In fact, you're the one who seems angry. Moreover, I am not asking for you to ask permission for anything. Where did you infer such silliness in what I wrote above? I am merely pointing you write poorly and your logic is typically quite loopy.

you should seek professional help.

Seek professional help for what? Pointing out you write mostly incoherent gibberish? Why does being an instrument of rational criticism of your (poor) writing ability mean I need professional help of some sort? Your poor writing needs serious "professional" help, as in professional (and adult) editing and proofreading. Or as in professional help of the teaching kind.

and capitalization doesn't fall under the category of punctuation, homes.

Apparently your reading comprehension skills are as poor as your writing skills. I shall not even address this piffle because I never made such a claim.

i knew more about the english language when i WAS a third grader high on some mind altering substance than you ever will.

Except for your inability to write english language correctly; therefore, I find it rather difficult you do "know" more than I. If you do, it is not readily apparent by what you write in Norm's comments.

Your debating skills could also use some polishing, along with your reading comprehension and writing. My original comment was not directed at you personally. I was merely pointing out that "critics" of McEwan's novel could hardly be taken seriously, considering their own childish writing skills. That you took it personally means what I said must have sunken in at some level. Why else would you lash out at me so childishly as you have with illogical rants and knee-jerk invectives?

Good luck. I mean that.

FYI, 'jonathan':

From Wikipedia:

Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters, including punctuation marks (listed at right), inter-word spaces, capitalization, and indentation.

This discussion is getting a bit too personal for my tastes. Let's end it here.

I would heartily agree, Norm, but my original intention was not to get personal.

Sorry to post again here Norm cause I know that you want to end it.

I just want to add that I enjoy jonathan's comments. He has a sense of humor and many of the things that he says are tongue in cheek and can be easily misinterpreted.

It would be sad if he stopped posting here because of things said about him on this thread.

I also enjoy dar's and mat's comments.

A variety of opinions and styles of expressing oneself make a forum or blog more interesting.

Thanks Joann, well said.

norm, ya beat me to it.

i seem to be dealing with some kind of semi organized phalanx of people who've been hatin' on me for a while, mostly in silence. mat,bernarda, dar...and now kali yuga basically punched me in the face when i opened my computer this morning. well, i learned from my dad, who learned from his dad, etc. etc., that if you're not pissing off the squares, you're doing something wrong. i also learned from him that there's always one guy in any organization you don't want to piss off, and that's norm in this case. the rest of those guys can go fuck themselves, as far as i'm concerned.

and if that last line gets me into trouble with the boss, what, not even a handkerchief to cover my shame, norm? :)

I will not even dignify this lunatic with any further banter.

My time is too precious to match wits with this creepy and obviously mentally-disturbed child.

It's a sad day when a sense of humor is a barrier to communication, or a light-hearted demeanor is a sign of mental illness. Humor is the suppleness of the intellect, and jb is so very, very supple. He can massage my scalp -- in a purely God-fearing, manly, heterosexual manner -- any old time.

The last word!!