Pun Salad

I think that promotion from "Multicellular Microorganism" to "Wiggly Worm" in the TTLB Ecosystem was a transitory screwup at the Bear's end; I'm now back to lowly MM status. Bloggy bigtime continues to elude Pun Salad.

But as long as you're here, my friend, that's all that really matters. Thanks for reading.

• When both Ann Althouse and Power Line gush about Dion's new album, it's as good as a voice from a burning bush. So click and buy, like I did.

• Andrew Roth at the Club for Growth blog reads the Boston Globe so I don't have to; he finds this article describing a poll of Massachusetts emigrants:

  A majority of people who moved out of Massachusetts last year report they are very satisfied with life in their new state and would not move back … The results showed New Hampshire was the top destination for people who left Massachusetts.

  UNH's own Andy Smith did the poll, and he's quoted: ''I see so many people who move from Massachusetts and say they will never move back."

• But all those incoming NH residents will apparently find "REAL ID" awaiting them here, thanks to the Republican-controlled NH Senate. Weekend Pundit is extremely pissed.

I don't often (or, more precisely: never) read books in this genre, but the author is a great writer of non-fiction on libertarianism and economics, so I thought I'd give it a try. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure this is a genre, since I've never read a book with the particular combination. The technology is vaguely medieval and the characters human, and there's no magic, but the history and geography are entirely invented.

It's also one of those books that just plunks the reader into a world, and the reader has to make some effort to deduce the way the world works via dialog and descriptions. Plus, people talk funny. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't pass a pop quiz on exactly who was related to who, or other major plot points. Someone more acclimated to this type of writing would probably have done better.

There's a great deal of edged-weapon warfare in the book, but the blood, gore and screaming horror is underplayed; it's more like one of those strategy games played in the back of the comic book shop translated into prose. The tactics, insofar as I could understand them, were clever, and served to let the good guys prevail over the bad guys in most cases.