KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life

On this week's installment of the Summer of the Rift, hosts John S. Drew (a high school teacher in civilian life) and Andrea K. Lipinski (a young-adult librarian in civilian life) provide a selection of books that would be great to give the teenager in your life to read during the long months between the school years.

You can subscribe to the Rift on iTunes, or get it directly from the Rift web site or podOmatic's Rift page.

Henry Hudson, discoverer of the Hudson River, and seven other men were cast adrift by mutineers (1611)

TRADITIONAL U.S. STATE INDUSTRIES #1

The top industries of each state, from A Perpetual Calendar by L.S.F. Pinaud, 1896:

ALABAMA: ranks fourth in cotton
ARIZONA: ranks second in silver
CALIFORNIA: ranks first in barley, sheep, grape culture, gold, and quicksilver
COLORADO: ranks first in silver
CONNECTICUT: ranks first in clocks
DAKOTA: is the finest wheat-growing state
DELAWARE: is way up in peaches
FLORIDA: ranks third in sugar and molasses
GEORGIA: ranks second in rice and sweet potatoes
IDAHO: ranks sixth in gold and silver
ILLINOIS: ranks first in oats, meat packing, lumber traffic, malt and distilled liquors, and miles of railway
INDIANA: ranks second in wheat
IOWA: ranks first in average intelligence of population, first in production of cord, and first in number of swine
KANSAS: ranks fifth in cattle, corn, and rye
KENTUCKY: ranks first in tobacco and has a world-wide reputation for thoroughbred horses and cattle
LOUISIANA: ranks first in sugar and molasses


Shadow is a color as light is, but less brilliant; light and shadow are only the realation of two tones.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

St. Jean Baptiste Day (Canada)

TRADITIONAL U.S. STATE INDUSTRIES #2

MAINE: ranks first in ship building, slate and grantie quarries, lumbering, and fishing
MARYLAND: ranks fourth in coal
MASSACHUSETTS: ranks first in cotton, woolen, and worsted goods, and in cod and mackerel fisheries
MICHIGAN: ranks first in copper, lumber, and salt
MINNESOTA: ranks fourth in wheat and barley
MISSISSIPPI: ranks second in cotton
MISSOURI: ranks first in mules
MONTANA: ranks fifth in silver & gold
NEBRASKA: has abundant crops of rye, buckwheat, barley, flax, and hemp
NEVADA: ranks second in gold
NEW HAMPSHIRE: ranks third in manufacture of cotton goods
NEW JERSEY: ranks first in fertilizing marl, zinc, and silk goods
NEW MEXICO: grazing facilities can't be beat
NEW YORK: ranks first in the value of manufactures, soap, printing and publishing, hops, hay, potatoes, buckwheat, and milch cows


Progress is a comfortable disease.
e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

An editor just e-mailed me saying that a novel deal that I thought I was going to have in May and then was told it wouldn't be until August, may now be back on for this week. This would be a huge relief.

The conference call to finalize this stuff is tomorrow, so with luck, I'll have more specifics to give y'all.

...but every once in a while.... *sigh*

Let me preface this by saying that our landlords -- a husband and wife, and the sweetest people in the universe -- are wonderful. We love them all to pieces. However, being organized is not something listed in their skillset.....

We haven't had hot water since Tuesday afternoon, when I tried to shower and was greeted with ice water. I told the wife about it Tuesday, and was told the husband would come by that night. When I called Wednesday after another ice shower, he told me he forgot to come by, but would that afternoon.

I just found out from The Cuz that he had her on the phone last night checking everything and insisting that we really did have hot water and made her check all the switches. (Apparently all four of us -- me, terri_osborne, The Cuz, and her roomie -- were all just making this up. *headdesk*

Finally, when I got back from the pshrink this a.m., the guy was there to fix it. Apparently there are half a dozen things wrong with it, including messed-up valves and an oil leak. Joy.

With luck, we will at last have hot water later this afternoon.

Sorry, I've been lax about keeping up with further installments of "Potato Moon," the parody of both Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and "Russet Noon," an unauthorized sequel/companion by copyright ignoramus "Lady Sybilla." (At least, I think she is. terri_osborne just posted this link, which reveals that she's writing a tell-all book, which may have been her endgame all along....)

Anyhow, the parody has been serialized by various insane authors (including myself) on Peter David's blog, and here are the latest installments since my last update:

Part 52 by Elizabeth Graham
Part 53: "Date at the Door" by Elliot Campos
Part 54: "Family Matters" by Mary Borsellino
Part 55: "The Pitch Meeting" by The Other David Mack infinitydog
Part 56: "The First Task" by Pamela R. Bodziock
Part 57: "If This is Love, Why Do My Teeth Hurt?" by Peter S. Svensson
Part 58: "Righteous Buttery Justice Will Rain Down Upon Us All" by Emily S. Whitten
Part 59 by Andy Bolt
Part 60: "A Vole New World" by Michael Pullman
Part 61: "Follow the Gin-gold Brick Road" by Ellen Fleischer

Here's a guide to the whole schmear.

Farrah Fawcett has died at the age of 62, having lost her long battle with cancer.

*insert bog-obvious Angel joke here*

Rest in peace, ma'am.

From today's New York Daily News, regarding Governor Sanford and his Argentinian tryst:

BUENOS AIRHEAD