Learning Curve Ball

Tonight, I was helping Zac review the history/geography material for tomorrow's 9th-grade midterm. I'm not sure if it was a good thing. We got into a heated argument about the Alps. He said they were located right above Italy and I said he was full of shit because Alps was the goofy-looking, sarcastic alien on TV who kept trying to eat that family's cat.

Animal Attraction

Mind You...

Parenthood is having intense love for your child

sprinkled with fleeting thoughts of infanticide.

BOOK REVIEW: Delusion Redux

(Originally published 1977, Mass Market Paperback 518 pages)

The second book in Mr. Donaldson's trilogy is not a stand-alone work. It is important to read the first installment "Lord Foul's Bane" to appreciate Thomas Covenant's situation. If you're interested in tackling this trilogy, it's important to understand it is an almost 1,500-page commitment (Mass Market paperback total.) I am not much of a fantasy-book reader. I've read "Lord of the Rings," the Harry Potter series, as well as a few other works, but my reading habits are much more eclectic. I revisited the first Thomas Covenant trilogy because I was curious if I would still enjoy it as much as I did back in the early 1980s when I was in my early twenties. My answer is a resounding yes.

Though only about a month has transpired in Thomas Covenant's real world, forty years have passed in the Land. Many of the characters from "Lord Foul's Bane" return in this storyline such as Lord Mhoram and Bannor of the Bloodguard. Mr. Donaldson also injects three other key protagonists who have complex relationships with Covenant. There is High Lord Elena (a reminder of his past crime,) Amok (a mysterious messenger,) and most interestingly, Hile Troy (a blind man from Covenant's real world.) The structure of the book is similar to J.R.R. Tolkien's "Two Towers." Part One involves all the characters. Part Two and Three are separate adventures where one is seen primarily through the perspective of Warmark Hile Troy and the other chapter through Covenant's eyes.

"The Illearth War" is very much an adult fantasy work. It does not involve profanity, sex or very graphic depictions of violence as compared to today's sensibilities, but much of the musings are people wrestling with moral quandaries. The irasible, pessimistic Thomas Covenant is a more sympathetic character this time around. Also, there are strong female characters in the book. While "Lord Foul's Bane" was an introduction to Thomas Covenant and the Land involving many adventures, "The Illearth War" is a more robust, brutal installment. There is no way under the sun I'll be able to move on to another book before reading the last work in the trilogy "The Power That Preserves." 

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #340)

The Customer Is Always Good-Looking

I stood at the counter while the administrator typed in the information. She asked me, "And how do you feel?"

I replied, "My face feels like Marlon Brando from the Godfather movie."

The dentist's administrator as well as two other women behind the counter happily chimed in, "Oooooh, you look fine."

I paid the bill, walked out to my car, got in and looked into the rearview mirror at my novocaine-filled mouth. Those women were full of shit. I was one humped-back away from being Dr. Frankenstein's assistant.

Dressed For Success

This morning, my wife, Monique, said as Jon and I were about to leave, "After you drop off Jon at school, could you go to Hannaford and pick up some yogurts?"

I gestured to the crappy, old sweatpants and frumpy sweatshirt I was wearing and replied, "I'm not walking into a store looking like this."

Jon said in all seriousness, "Dad, this time of day, it's only ole grannies at the store. You'll fit right in."

If Only... If Only...