Linkspam, Book Review, Haircut

[redfiona99]

First the linkspam:

I decided (with the kind help of Missy) to revive the wrestling gen fic list. The link can be found here - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wrestlinggen/

apiphile and a few of her friends have started a sort of writers resource thingy on the topic of drugs. Personally I'm plundering it for locational background detail. Links below:

Meth - http://jumpthesnark.livejournal.com/12799.html
Ecstacy - http://apiphile.livejournal.com/2030780.html
Weed - http://strangecreature.livejournal.com/310223.html

The X-Men Movieverse ficathon has been revived this year, sign-ups and rules at this link - http://community.livejournal.com/xmmficathon/82145.html

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Book Review:

"Who Was Mr. Nobody? Debunking Historical Mysteries" by Ed Rayner and Ron Stapley.

LibraryThing link - http://www.librarything.com/work/5110127



I almost feel bad for giving this book such a low rating, as it is certainly well written. However, when the subtitle is 'debunking historical mysteries' and very little debunking occurs, one feels that the title is, if not quite a lie, certainly it's over-egging the pudding.

For most of the mysteries nothing new was added, certainly no new analysis, and, as I have read two of the books they use as sources for two of the mysteries, I know they leave a certain amount of explanatory detail and context out. They also leave out a lot about who some of the point and counter-point proposers are. For instance, in the case of the Tutankhamun "mystery" (Howard Carter: Deception Among The Pyramids pp73-83) the writers do not mention that Gerald O'Farrell, who they cite as a source for their contention that Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun about ten years before he officially found it and proceeded to loot it, also suggests, in the same text as the tomb robbery theory, that Tutankhamun was the real, historical basis for Jesus (The Tutankhamun Deception - my review here http://www.librarything.com/work/1207589/reviews/28961404). While the one does not necessarily counteract the other, information that O'Farrell may be a little 'alternative' would have been useful.

This is not to say the whole book is bad. I particularly liked the sections on Colonel Blood, Dick Turpin, Prince Frederick (son of George I) and on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

However, all in all, it brought nothing new to the field and is more of a scanty review of the mysteries than anything else.



Not enough people have it for suggestions or unsuggestions.

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Haircut

I have a new haircut. I like it. Even if it leaves me looking like an unholy cross between Joan Jett, Nikki Sixx and Chad from Mansun.