Category Archives: Uncategorized

So I’ve just returned from a six-day river rafting trip in western Colorado, on the Gunnison River in Big Dominguez Canyon, which my pal Barack has recently approved as a Wilderness Area. Beautiful redrock canyons, great birds: We saw Bullock’s … Continue reading →

If I hear another idiotic, brain-dead plug of Twitter from the mass media I’ll be screaming like Robert Downey Jr.’s gay monk character in the trailer for Satan’s Alley (for this little gem, see the opening credits of Tropic Thunder). … Continue reading →

So I was surprised to see my name on the (on-line version) front page of the NY Times today, quoting a favorable blurb from my review of Abraham Verghese’s novel Cutting for Stone. Here’s the review in its entirety, published … Continue reading →

So I managed to stoop and watch some actual network television last night, with enough commercial breaks to make me want to throw a Christian Bale-like tantrum at the tube, and caught another much ballyhooed glimpse of a grim future … Continue reading →

Last Sunday’s New York Times featured an article about A.I. titled “The Future of Artificial Intelligence” (www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/weekinreview/24markoff.html?hpw)  that mentioned Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near (2006), certainly one of my oddball favorite books. (One disclaimer: It’s too long and I couldn’t … Continue reading →

So right now I’m into Marcel Theroux’s new novel, Far North, coming out next month. It has much in common with several other post-apocalyptic novels floating in the literary air lately: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, … Continue reading →

The following review appeared in the Dallas Morning News, 5 April 2009. The first half of the book is compelling and odd: You know something is up, but aren’t quite sure what it is and or what to foresee coming … Continue reading →

After watching the big-budget drivel that is A Night at the Museum you can’t blame Ben Stiller for wanting to do a film like Tropic Thunder, which seems underrated because only two things from this movie got much press: 1) … Continue reading →

So I realize that Facebook now has over 8.9 billion users and is spicing up the lives of so many by reconnecting them to all those people in high school that Lord knows we should never forget or move on … Continue reading →

The following review appeared in the Dallas Morning News, 1 March 2009. I liked the novel, although the misery level was rather high. I received a condescending email from presumably the author’s agent, complaining that I didn’t gush about the … Continue reading →