I know the feeling well. ;-)

"Civilians" don't understand what a huge amount of imagination is involved in understanding and attempting to recreate living in a previous historical context, down to the most mundane aspects of daily life. It is frustrating, to say the least.

With a rusty railroad spike.

I'm home sick with an Explosive Gastrointestinal Event of unknown but cruel and unusual nature.

You'll put your eyes out, Kid!

"Hey, Coach? I don't think the plane made it."

Lots of ethnic cleansing and genocide, too.

It's not good for your blood pressure.

Pissing all over the place.

The Blade Itself.

"Let's see: Clever and Devious or Unspeakably Violent tonight? Choices, choices." ;-) I love them all!

His idea of "a bit of a stroll" was to walk from London to Manchester non-stop. Clarie Tomalin's Dickens biography is quite good, as is her book on Samuel Pepys.

Stone built and even fired brick, low-rise buildings from as late as the early 20th will prove surprisingly durable, however.

Oh, what a give-away!

I love most of Stephenson's other books, but could not finish this.

One of the things that has been preoccupying me for several years is the continuous and ever-increasing pace of technological innovation and social change in human society since the development of the steam engine and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the late 18th and it's global consequences.…

I have two copies of Wynn Kappit's The Geography Coloring Book, one I color in and one I keep blank for student assignments. It is very soothing.

'Salem's Lot is dated, but it's still one of his best and one of my favorites.

Finished Feliepe Fernandez-Armesto's Our America and started his A Foot In The River, which argues that human culture is distinct and separate from the process of evolution. I'm also continuing Philip Blom's Fracture, reading the section on creepy old Oswald Spengler.

Are you kidding? If you're in the NYC area, he'll find you!