gleans + 1xORA(3xitems) + 1xaddenda at 1:45 PM MT, 5/17

 

 

Alien invader threat to pre-eminent black truffle delicacy

 

 

Von Trapp house to become hotel

The former Austrian mansion of the von Trapp family made famous by The Sound of Music is being turned into a hotel.

 

 

'Worst poet' outsells boy wizard

Poems by "the world's worst poet" bring in more than signed first editions of Harry Potter at auction.

 

 

Federer to Face Nadal In Hamburg Final

 

 

today's Ordinary Reading Assignment (three items - don't miss clickable at the bottom of item three)

1.  The Institution of Intellectual Values (St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy & Public Affairs) (St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs) (Hardcover)
by Gordon Graham (Author)

Product Description
This is a revised and expanded version of the much praised short book Universities; The Recovery of an Idea. It contains chapters on the history of the universities; the value of university education; the nature of research; the management and funding of universities plus additional essays on such subjects as human nature and the study of humanities, interdisciplinary versus multidisciplinary study, information systems and the concept of a library, the prospects for e-learning, reforming universities, intellectual integrity and the realities of funding, and spiritual values and the knowledge economy.

2.  Mandeville (Paperback)
by Matthew Francis (Author)

Synopsis
"The Travels of Sir John Mandeville" was one of the most popular books of the later Middle Ages. Purporting to describe the circumnavigation of an English knight through Africa, India, and the Middle East in 1322, the narrative is a fantastical collection of sights: seas, islands, phoenixes, pyramids, rocks that enchant ships and apes that contain human souls, interwoven with geographical descriptions that are perfectly accurate. Matthew Francis' new collection is a sequence of poems that celebrate and give voice to Mandeville, in his own words, caught as he is between physical and symbolic geographies, between a world that is round and one that has Jerusalem at its centre. And all of it narrated in the terse, solitary, conflicted and strangely passionate voice of this medieval Crusoe whose very existence was disputed.

 

3.  Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis (Hardcover)
by Kingsley Amis (Author), Christopher Hitchens (Introduction)  

Review

"Among Amis’s literary output the journalism on drinking, recently collected and published with an introduction by (who else?) Christopher Hitchens, is in no way the least achievement because it is a reminder and a record of a culture that is incrementally slipping away….Like a bottle of Laphroaig, this book is full of good things, many of them familiar though others are more intriguing."--New Humanist

“Studded with hilarious observations and much good advice.”--Kyle Smith

“Thoroughly worthwhile reading. Amis was incapable of constructing a dull sentence. His writing was consistently clear, lively, and precise (surely the envy of any who pursue this exacting trade) and above all very, very funny. "--Bookforum

Product Description

A gift for anyone who loves good liquor and high-proof prose: a collection of hilarious and deeply informed writings about drink from one of the all-time authorities.
Kingsley Amis was one of the great masters of comic prose, and no subject was dearer to him than the art and practice of imbibing. This new volume brings together the best of his three out-of-print works on the subject. Along with a series of well-tested recipes (including a cocktail called the Lucky Jim) the book includes Amis’s musings on The Hangover, The Boozing Man’s Diet, What to Drink with What, and (presumably as a matter of speculation) How Not to Get Drunk—all leavened with fun quizzes on the making and drinking of alcohol all over the world. Mixing practical know-how and hilarious opinionation, this is a delightful cocktail of wry humor and distilled knowledge, served by one of our great gimlet wits.

About the Author

Kingsley Amis was one of the best-loved British novelists of the twentieth century. He was the author of more than twenty books, including the classic Lucky Jim. He died in 1995 at the age of seventy-three.

 

 

Down in one

Did US rivals really have a Tallinn vodka contest?

 

addenda <== good one thanks to ElLocoBob

Subject: Window air-conditioner on suburban 'endangered' list

Date: May 17, 2008 9:39 AM

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=192590