Category Archives: books

faraway lights

“The Nutcracker serves up an idealized Christmas on a platter full of treats that everyone has been promised at one time or another – by our parents or by books and movies and TV specials. Christmas can be a joyful … Continue reading →

Posted on 25 December 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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due diligence

November Bookcrossing was a Zoom with just a few people. I volunteered to arrange it, then decided I’d rather be at Punctuation, then E arranged it and I joined anyway. It was nice to see BCX people. Obviously no takeaway … Continue reading →

Posted on 14 November 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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a distant mirror

I, too, could not believe that they would railroad Nixon through until I read a [Walter] Lippmann column a few days before they did, who explained to my satisfaction how it had all been planned for weeks and months ahead; … Continue reading →

Posted on 14 October 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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first Bookcrossing meetup since March

Posted on 11 July 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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partial explanations

Red alert, day 74. Lockdown, day 64. More of Warren Weaver, this time on scientific explanation. Many of us have thought the following, for example when reading bad wall texts in science museums, but Weaver, with the confidence of the … Continue reading →

Posted on 25 May 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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polarity problems

Red alert, day 73. Lockdown, day 63. Here’s a more durable excerpt from the autobiography of Warren Weaver, the science administrator discussed yesterday. Relevant to studies of qualia and evaluation/Appraisal: [I have had a lifelong curiosity] about the magnitude of … Continue reading →

Posted on 24 May 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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scene of change

Red alert, day 72. Lockdown, day 62. I continue to note the counts for each day in a notebook, and they are still alarming. Marscon (January, Virginia) now takes the prize for farthest-off cancellation. The house cleanout in 2018 unearthed … Continue reading →

Posted on 23 May 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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Ladeco flight 115 from Asunción, Paraguay, was about to land an hour late at Santiagoäs Pudahuel airport. To our left, Aconcagua, at 23,000 feet, appeared as a steel promontory in the moonlight. The plane dipped its left wing with terrifying … Continue reading →

Posted on 1 March 2020 by Diana ben-Aaron
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Eastercon: twilight of the booksellers

Brian from Porcupine Books is making this his last con. He’s turning 65 and has had it with the schlepping. After Worldcon he was thinking of selling up, but now he’s planning to carry on online.“I imagine the driving back … Continue reading →

Posted on 16 April 2017 by Diana ben-Aaron
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Eastercon: Geoff Ryman workshop on literary analysis

The text was “What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky,” Leslie Nneka Arimah, which I did not have, but the talk was crystal clear anyway. Geoff took this as an example of African writing generally and ponted … Continue reading →

Posted on 16 April 2017 by Diana ben-Aaron
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Eastercon: military panel

At this con I have seen a dozen people who are confusable with people I know back in Boston. That always happens. There is also a guy I would swear was Terry Pratchett if Terry Pratchett weren’t dead. Maybe he … Continue reading →

Posted on 15 April 2017 by Diana ben-Aaron
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before the fall

Signs of the apocalypse, stateside trip edition: The success of the For Dummies series, which now have entire sections of their own in bookstores. Do readers really think are dummies? Do they really want to own these ugly, condescending books? … Continue reading →

Posted on 1 January 2007 by Diana ben-Aaron
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