Joshua
1:9 “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
From The King James Version of the Bible
#Bible
Oct. 4, 2026 San Antonio, TX
Healing Arts Festival
Eagles Nest
1235 Basse Rd
San Antonio, TX 78212
Store phone: 210-354-7343
11:00 AM — 4:00 PM
Oct. 4, 2026 San Antonio, TX
NB: Bill King’s Brake-O
astrofish.net/travel
Kramer Wetzel’s Aura Photo
Quick Eliot
A snippet, making this “Quick Eliot?”
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.
Ash-Wednesday (1930 poem)
T.S. Eliot
Quick Eliot
Coming Sunday Oct. 4, 2026 San Antonio, TX
Healing Arts Festival
Eagles Nest
1235 Basse Rd
San Antonio, TX 78212
Store phone: 210-354-7343
11:00 AM — 4:00 PM
Coming Sunday Oct. 4, 2026 San Antonio, TX
NB: Bill King’s Brake-O
astrofish.net/travel
Kramer Wetzel’s Aura Photo
Operation Bounce House
The end cap filled with the tetralogy of Dungeon Crawler books certainly caught my attention. I checked the first one out from the library, read a few pages, realized it wasn’t exactly something for me at the time, but it was the heir apparent to much of the formative literature in my background. Think: Dirk Gently and Hitchhiker’s Guide, Myth Adventrues, et al. Others, too, of the same vein. Or similar? Sure.
Then, looking in a bookstore, I saw this title, advertised as a standalone. Took two tries to get it, but the writing is excellent, and the author’s own backstory is thoroughly engaging. Plus, rather than laboriously starting a series of epic tomes, it’s a great introduction to the author’s style and pacing, diction and voice.
When I looked ahead at my schedule, I realized there was going to be air traffic delays, and that having a good book to read, in hand, very important. Critical, in my mind.
Operation Bounce House
Classical space opera tropes with a modernized update?
“I was reminded of something Grandpa Lewis had once said: “Miserable people are fond of laying blame on someone else for their problems.” Page 229.
Author is brilliant.
The graphic design and bright colors? The books make an outstanding addition to a shelf — after reading.
Operation Bounce House
As a stand-alone? Fun, funny, but thought-provoking introduction to the author’s canon.
Atlanta
Up before the dawn, gone with the wind, dawn breaking over a sultry September airport departure made me remember going to the Austin airport half-dressed. Shoulder bag with a laptop, signage, and so forth, then, my customary suitcase.
With mixed mirth and mild merriment, there was a time — or two — I would arrive at the tony and tawny new Austin airport with boots and socks in hand, single bag slung over my shoulder, and, more than one January morning, the studs for my tux shirt and cuff links, still in my carry-on luggage, waiting to fully dress until after I made it through security screening.
No reason to dress twice.
It’s the odd travelogue memory that surfaces, years spent commuting across the greater Southwest, bouncing from town to town, journeyman astrologer — from Austin.
Atlanta
Pretty sure I’ve connected through Atlanta a time or two. This was for a season-ending series of home games for the Braves versus the Reds. Braves already clinched a playoff spot shutting out the Astros in Houston which calls into question the Astros management itself.
I was reading a baseball book about the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field, a personal favorite.
“and as sportscaster Red Barber once said, baseball is dull only to dull minds.” Page 161
First glance, Atlanta looks a lot like Houston, felt like it, too, hot, sticky, tall pine trees.
The Lyft driver acknowledged that the Atlanta drivers sound a lot like native Texas drivers, too. One hint of precipitation, and they all start sliding off into the ditches.
“My first winter here, they got ice and snow, and they can’t drive? All of a sudden — man, that’s crazy.”
Atlanta
Garden and Gun Club
(no membership required)
I’ve seen links, posts, and there’s a media feed I looked at, briefly, same name. Thought it was some kind of magazine (like) periodical, but that was probably just a media outreach, same name. But the restaurant itself was plush, stately, elegant. So for lunch, one morning, just seemed like the thing to do, try a completely different kind of dining. I mean, most of what is around a ball park is ball park food.
It was advertised as “Lobster sliders,” sounded good, but looked, to me, just like a Boston Lobster roll. Good, no question, nice cool chunks of lobster claw. Delicious, and we can pretend, healthy. The other crowning achievement was a deviled egg with crystallized oysters on top. I might have the name wrong, but I think it was called crystallized oysters, and that was a pair of minuscule fried oysters, topping a truffled deviled egg, served lengthwise.
Atlanta
Perhaps one of the best T-shirts I saw? Remember, it’s Atlanta during the faux-fall, a mom-like person escorting daughter-like person, and the mom’s shirt? “I only raise ballers,” with an image of a baseball. The kid? A Cincinnati Reds striped jersey, instead of a player’s name across the back? “Reds head.”
Atlanta
The way something is described on TV, the showmanship about certain baseball cuisine? Doesn’t add up when I’m standing in the concourse at the ballpark itself. Last spring, in Boston’s Fenway, the ballpark franks lived up to a new standard. Not even sure what happened, maybe I just got lucky with the left field gate, under the stands, just past the third base line. Surpassed my most recent experience in Chicago, for sure.
After a tour of the food courts at Atlanta’s Battery, it was clear that some of the promised products weren’t nearly as appealing, not in real life. However, to be fair, the $50 “Tomahawk” steak (thing) was up to $125, and really too pricey for my tastes in ball park food. I settled for a normal “Braves,” or “Los Bravos” hot dog: foot long, with onions, chili, cheese, on top, the bare ends of the dog itself sticking out at their individual terminus points. It was a meal unto itself. Good enough.
Hotdog at the ballgame
Part of that was a fried chicken sandwich dressed with peaches, pickles, and hot sauce. Turned out to be surprisingly delicious and no items I would place together. Remarkably refreshing.
“Food’s way better.”
Atlanta
Headed to the Atlanta Airport, early morning ride and all, another Austin airport memory surfaced, about the shuttle shuffle,. Think this is mentioned in part in an older horoscope, too. Or the old weblog? Gone are the days when a large Bowie Knife, think Roman short sword, long gone are the days when that was acceptable in carry-on luggage.
9:00 AM shuttle to West Texas, Saturday morning. Got the airport around 7:30, flying on a frequent flyer free ticket. Did not have the requisite piece of paper that proved the flight was free, and had to catch a cab home, fetch the ticket, and then get back the airport. Didn’t have time to check my bag, just threw the suitcase on the security belt, ran through the metal detector, collected the laptop and suitcase, and hustled to the gate.
Get to the hotel, might’ve been couch-surfing, but I found a flat, folding knife, my usual carry, in the bottom of the suitcase. Just an accident, and one I won’t repeat. I am much more careful with the increased security these days.
Atlanta
•Boston by day — Fenway
•Wrigleyville — Wrigley Field
•Dallas at night — Ranger Stadium
- A nice little place on the north side. Will, George F. NY: Crown, 2015. ↩
A Good Person
Think I checked this out of the library, never read it, and then it popped up again as a suggestion. In a momentary fugue, I opened it up and was instantly intrigued, as much by the voice as the subject material itself, putatively, the story.
The nature of relationships, at one point in life, the very nature of the relationships, that matters. Hook-ups, fly-by-nights, drive-bys, and the ubiquitous one-night-stand — all under scrutiny in the opening of the novel.
“I wish he was dead!”
Who hasn’t suggested that, on occasion? Well, not me, but I’m sure I’ve been on the receiving end of such ill will. Not by choice, nor intent, but that doesn’t matter, not now. The story unfolds that the stalker-like lover is all that’s left, and therefore?
“Basically, if there were human beings, there was a need for revenge.” Page 151.
True.
Twisty little tale set against the current climates, and yet, just weird enough to catch my attention, the author’s tone, the voice? Beautifully set. I mean, beautifully set with a strange outcome and plot that twists back upon itself, and the pacing, the structure is a well-wrought murder-mystery packaged as psychological thriller. A noir novel?
Darkly comic, in my own mind. Brutally so.
A Good Person
New Name
It’s no revelation that I like “grammar porn,” but as far as my name goes?
“Kramer, K-R-A-M-E-R.”
When they called my name, “Gray-mer?”
At the airport, first thing in the morning, I’ll take it.
Random Airport Observation
I couldn’t tell, was the shirt a camo knock-off, or a wild Hawaiian (style) print?
New Name
Curated Bookshop.org Reading List
Independent bookstores are little pockets of community, learning, and free speech. With individual tastes, and sometimes the elegant, unusual suggestion? Best places cater to local tastes. Bookshop.org raised $50 million for local bookstores.
Curated Bookshop.org Reading List
- This is Shakespeare by Emma Smith
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
- Neuromancer by William Gibson
- Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
- Alburquerque by Rudolfo Anaya
Curated Bookshop.org Reading List
- This is Shakespeare I got to Dr. Emma Smith via her Shakespeare podcasts, and, so it seems, much of the book is drawn from her series of lectures about the individual plays, with the frame being a quick synopsis, then a off-center question that illuminates much about the play. But in a larger sense the text helped me explore approach, and framing of questions for more than just Shakespeare. Since I still use it as a reference, I have both digital and hard copy.
- Stranger in a Strange Land I didn’t get a first edition of Robert A. Heinlein’s classic, but rather a 10th round paperback. I already had a shelf full of his “juveniles,” space opera for young adults. This was a weird, underground hit from the mid-sixties, pushing thoughtful analysis about culture. Also? Invented waterbeds. Reread every few years, and it seems to hold up for me. Think I have two or three copies including a re-released uncut version.
- Neuromancer is still a standout. William Gibson mythology suggests the novel was written on typewriter while inventing the notion of “cyberspace.” Still, as the foundation of the Cyber Punk grouping in speculative literature, stylistically, structurally, it is an important novel. I’ll reread it every few years. Wish I hadn’t loaned out my first copy, a rare, first edition paperback that was rather beat-up. One of the best opening lines in “Science Fiction.”
- Dreyer’s English I only know Benjamin Dreyer by social media, and of all the grammar porn that I have? This is more than a favorite, I have it as both a digital book and hard copy. It’s a happy place for my inner copy editor.
- Snow Crash Neuromancer, mentioned above, paved the way for my encounters with Neal Stephenson’s body of work, starting with Snow Crash. I don’t know if it changed my life, but I was excited by the novel the first time, and each subsequent rereading is still as vibrant. One of the best opening scenes in a post-modern novel.
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson’s work should be closer to the top of the list, and I’ve enjoyed some of his latter works, but this was the one that sealed it. Stands up to a rereading every few years, as it is one of the classics of American Literature. One of the best opening lines in any modern novel.
- Alburquerque I picked up my copy at a bookstore after I graduated the university, remembering Rudolfo Anaya as one of the leaders of Chicano Lit. Read it on a whim, loved the nature of the story, the background I knew something about the characters where even New Mexico itself took on a personality. Someplace in the series, there’s a scene that has forever stuck with me, possibly magical realism, but really, just shows the “enchanted” part of “The Land of Enchantment.”