"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Unsolicited opinions on books, movies, TV shows, consumer products
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. In Arizona, the banned book debate rages on. Tucson school district officials insist they didn’t ban any books. A local paper, the Tucson Citizen, asks why then did Tucson school district officials interrupt Mexican American classes in mid-session, confiscate students’ […]
“There’s a hundred thousand streets in this city. You don’t need to know the route. You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you’re on your own. […]
I shouldn’t say odds & ends. It sounds too final. What I should say is odds, ends, & re-beginnings. Is re-beginnings a word? Sure, why the hell not? In Wyoming, during 8th and 9th grade, I had a best buddy. I moved to California but we kept in touch, and when I graduated from high […]
“Nobody could have held it against the guides at Eigergletscher Station if they had refused to take a single step onto the Face when they heard of the accident. But there was one man still alive. They were all determined to rescue him, to snatch him, if possible, from the clutches of that fatal wall.” […]
“In Poland, we don’t ask, we do. Why problem make when you no problem have you don’t want to make?” — Robert Stoltenberg as the Polsk bjørnejeger (Polish bear hunter) in TrollHunter Contagion (2011, USA) Contagion is the best virus epidemic movie to date. Extremely realistic and gimmick-free, a straight depiction of what it would […]
“On the very day that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine disappeared on Everest, another party of British climbers slowly made their way to the summit of a quite different mountain and in very different circumstances. At 2,949 feet, Great Gable was not a serious or difficult climb, but it was said to be ‘the most […]
I finished my first real ebook yesterday. Wait a minute, I hear you saying, you’ve been using an electronic reader for more than a year now and must have read a lot of ebooks. True, but this time I’m talking about a dedicated ebook, published through Amazon and offered as a $2.99 Kindle download. The […]
“Jesus lady, help can’t even help us.” — Shea Whigham as Dennis Farrell in Splinter Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010, Canada) I didn’t know until just now, looking at the reviews, that this documentary movie was released in 3D. I watched it at home in 2D (albeit high def) and was blown away. I’m not […]