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Manny Rayner's book reviews
I love reviewing books - have been doing it at Goodreads, but considering moving here.
Currently reading
The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence For Evolution
R in Action
Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies
McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture
Epistemic Dimensions of Personhood
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (Information Science and Statistics)
Relativity, Thermodynamics and Cosmology
The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition
Dick deterred;: A play in two acts
Nearly 40 years after Watergate, this brilliant Shakespearian parody is still funny. The basic joke is to cast Richard Nixon as Richard III. It fits very well, though Edgar is also happy to adapt quotes from other plays when he has a chance. He clearly loves Shakespeare as much as he hates Nixon, which is a great combination. Some quotes to give you the flavor of the thing:A goat! A goat! My kingdom for a scapegoat!
Opening lines:
Richard has just conquered the heart of Anne, a Republican cheerleader, and secured the nomination:Now is this winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this Texan bum
And all the crowds who never dodged the draft
Deserting are the bosoms of Saigon
Our brows now bound with wreaths of compromise
Our bruised armies are demobilized
Our napalm bombs are changed to Paris meetings
Our My Lai massacres to diplomatic measures
But I, that am not shaped for aught but tricks
Nor made to court an amorous CBS
I that am rudely stamped, and want capacity
To strut before a wanton East Coast liberal...
From Clarence's dream, a nasty confrontation between hippies and the forces of law and order:Was ever party in this humor woo'd?
Was ever party in this humor won?
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot
Myself to be a marv'llous proper man!
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass
And entertain a score of sycophants
To tell me what a super chap I am
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass!
I'll watch my face while others kiss my ass.
One of Dick's horrified aides describes material on the tapes:... but then this peaceful scene
Was banished by the coming of the fuzz
Their ID badges all disguised or lost
Armed to the teeth, and bulbous with protection
As if accoutred for a football game
Or wand'ring midst the mountains of the Moon
Scene from Macbeth that somehow snuck in:Here's details of a vile and filthy scheme
To further dredge the mud of Chappaquiddick
By gigolos seducing maidens chaste
That ever lived with Mary Jo Kopechne!
Ditto Hamlet:When shall we three meet again?
In San Clemente or in Key Biscayne?
Alas, poor Spiro!
Agnew him well
