CineCraft, what's that devilish sprite's place in God's Plan For Us?

You've got to read Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday if you haven't, yet. Travels With Charlie is good, too.

Osman's Dream looks fascinating. Let me know what you think.
I highly recommend SPQR, by the way.

I finished Mary Beard's excellent SPQR and am about two-thirds of the way through Bill Bryson's wonderful British travel book/memoir The Road To Little Dribbling. I am eagerly awaiting the (delayed) arrival of British journalist AA Gill's autobiography Pour Me.

My grandfather took part in the liberation of Dachau.

Boil-in-a-bag meals, to, from what UK armoured people told me during Desert Storm.

If a German farmer became particularly obstreperous when we conducted exercises on his land (which he would already be being paid handsomely for), we would make as many "neutral turns," where you reverse each track opposite to each other and grind the ever-living fuck out of whatever soil or pavement your tank is on,…

1930's, I'd read. It's useful as a heat sink, from an engineering POV, but I wouldn't like to be in a tank that had this vessel rupture from a hit that didn't actually penetrate the armor.
I'd have joined the Navy if I wanted to be boiled to death by live steam.

DRINK!

WHAT'S THAT GOBSHITE DOIN' DYIN'?!

DON'T YOU EVER [WHACK], EVER [WHACK] SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY AGAIN!

The first thing to understand is that The Gentleman of The Black Rod's role absolutely does not meet up with any preconceived notions you may have.

Well, that's a relief. Just keep in mind that I'm a man with a very peculiar set of skills. [bounces away on a Pogo Stick while Tuvan throat singing]

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL GENTLE HERPES?!

Work Out!

I know it when I see it.

I did it on purpose. I am getting every bit of my $60 worth, damn it! I played and replayed New Vegas for five years. The first DLCs are coming out this Spring, too.

I like to pace myself and savor it. The game is fucking huge! The idea isn't to beat it, it's to experience it. I don't really have any interest in other types of games. I want it to be like a novel and a film and an album together. I blame Planescape: Torment.

I need to see this and the recent Coriolanus.

Purim is hardly obscure. ;-)