I’ve posted the second chapter of my new book Terminal Departure: A Cleo Matts Novel: Chapter 2.

Update: Third chapter available Chapter 3.

The complete book is now available here:

Get the Kindle edition.
Get the Nook edition.

(You can also read on your PC by downloading the free Kindle for PC app or the free Nook PC app.)

We’ve all heard the old adman’s adage that any publicity is good publicity, so I guess I should appreciate the following review from Westboro Baptist Church. ;-) (Make your own fake sign photos here: Says-It.com.)

Frank Jacobs knows maps, and on his Strange Maps blog he’s posted more than a few good spins on the atlas.

His posts range from from a serious investigation into The Shotgun Tracts of the Lower Mississippi to enlightening twists such as his popular US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs.

And the Europe as Seen by Americans map displayed above–that’s his too (click on the map to enlarge).

That map is from a recent post where Jacobs takes several more worthwhile and hillarious looks at Europe:

In the kaleidoscope of cultures that is Europe, no matter from where you look at it, you’re always surrounded by ‘the Other’. It takes but a few small steps thence to paranoia, xenophobia, and worse. I remember speaking to a European about the neighbouring ethnicity, literally living up the road. “Oh yes, but they’re all racists,” she said, apparently undefeated by her own logic.

Just finished reading Ken Follett’s World Without End (after putting it off until I’d blown through the prequel, Pillars of the Earth, first).

Ken Follett doesn’t wow me with words like Henry James, or ideas like Vonnegut, and the dialogue is pretty average (Elmore Leonard has nothing to fear…), but Follett knows how to set up character conflict and weave plot strands, and he plants a legitimate (please, PLEASE take note of “legitimate,” Dan Brown) twist every couple of pages–and with the book weighing in at 1024 pages, the twists kept me up past midnight a few times reading one more page to see what happens.

The everyday life of people in the 14th century during the plague was interesting too, and depressing seeing as how it’s six centuries later and the same sorts of battles are still going on between rich and poor, church and science, rulers and peasants.

Thumbs up from me.

You can give the first chapter a try here: Chapter 1 - World Without End.

Also, Follett has posted a video of his History of the Thriller lecture on his website, which I found pretty interesting: The Art of Suspense.

Note: There’s a great short story link at the bottom of this post; don’t miss it because of my ramblings above the fold. ~Joe C.

So, I finally watched Food, Inc. last night, the Academy Award best documentary nominee I’ve been hearing so much buzz about the past few months. I’d been putting it off because not long ago I’d read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and thought I knew most of what would be on display, mainly that government subsidies make corn cheap, so we grow a lot of cheap corn, and since there’s so much cheap corn a huge percent of the food in your supermarket is a derivative of corn including corn-fed cow, pig, and fish (yep, they’re teaching fish to eat corn now, too.) And, let’s face it, being clued in on the crap I’ve been sticking in my mouth is not the delightful subject I usually want to take in on a feel-good Friday night.

But, for some reason I decided to end the procrastination, maybe because Food, Inc. was available for the “instant play” cue on NetFlix.

Let me tell you, there is a reason you can go to Disney World and book yourself into an Animal Kingdom themed resort, or a Sports or Music themed resort, or the Wilderness Lodge themed resort, but they don’t offer a Beef Slaughterhouse themed resort. My wife updated her Facebook status during the movie: “Watching Food, Inc. and seriously doubting that I’ll ever eat meat again!” I won’t go that far, because I do love an artery-clogging diabetes-inducing Big Mac on occasion, but I will be eating more beans, tofu, and broccoli this week.

Anyway, the essense of the film is not anti-meat, but our vanished lack of respect for meat. The gist of the film is that corporate greed — and more truthfully, the American people’s misplaced thrift that leads them to buy cheaper bad food instead of more expensive good food, organically-grown food that isn’t a subsidized corn-derivative — has caused Henry Ford’s assembly line principles to be applied to the production of the animals that provide meat. Besides causing all sorts of problems, from E. coli outbreaks to a generation where 1 in 3 will develop early onset diabetes, it’s caused us to lose respect for meat. In order to grow meat in the terrible way we do, we must either lose respect for it, let our conscience drive us insane, change, or ignore reality. Ignoring reality and disrespecting meat is a lot easier than the other two options.

No Respect for Meat

So, today while contemplating our lack of respect for meat, I surfed on over to the blog of Indigobusiness, God is Not an Asshole, and his post about Terry Bisson’s short story, They’re Made Out of Meat, slapped me in the face, because among other things, this short sci-fi story is concerned with a large lack of respect for meat:

“No brain?”

“Oh, there’s a brain all right. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“So … what does the thinking?”

“You’re not understanding, are you? You’re refusing to deal with what I’m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.”

“Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”

This short story, published in OMNI in 1990, was later published in Bisson’s 1993 anthology Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories. It’s short, even for a short story, and best of all, Bisson has posted it in full on his website: They’re Made Out of Meat. It’s a good light-hearted weekend afternoon read, especially after something heavy like watching Food, Inc.

If you’re like me — coming up a bit short on faith in your neighbors, and feeling not a little sickened of the seeming trend towards rampant self-righteousness, ignorant belligerence, and all-around bellicose
nastiness — then you owe it to yourself to take your eyes off the TV pundits for a few minutes and recalibrate your faith by tuning in to a gentleman who actually lived what he said he believed.

In other words, you owe it to yourself to check out 15 reasons Mr. Rogers was best neighbor ever.

If that warmed your heart, but didn’t quite part the clouds and let the sunshine in, check out this archival footage from 1969 in which Mr. Rogers goes to Washington, yep, and this mild-mannered wimp takes less just about six minutes to ignite an apathetic senate, crush Nixon’s funding cuts, and secure enthusiastic support to the tune of $20 million: Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate.

And finally, how about sitting back and listening to the man ramble like one of your own favorite, eccentric uncles: Fred Rogers - Archive Interview.

People who live the values they propose seem rare these days. But knowing that Mr. Rogers did, and remembering when he was here, helps me believe there must still be many good neighbors out there. Hats off to you, Mr. Rogers, and a life lived well.