More with the Mural

And! It comes about there is a solution to the Matter of the Mural that saves Mayor LePage's face and does not compromise his. . .let's be charitable and call them "principles."

The Maine Republican Party is campaigning to raise $60,000 so that they can buy the mural from the Federal Government and thus free Mayor LePage from "distractions."*

Think of this. Sixty thousand dollars they can raise to "save face." Can they find sixty grand to feed the hungry, or heal the sick? Um, no. But to rescue the Mayor from a "distraction" that he himself created? Oh, hell yes.

The obvious and reasonable solution to the Matter of the Mural is to put the damn' thing back, honoring the artist's contract and the agreement with the Federal Government. Then have the Mayor put on his big boy pants and apologize for not having read the directions before he acted on his, um, principles.

So, OK; I really don't expect the apology. But putting the mural back just seems, I dunno, cost effective and efficient.


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*As reported by the news service for WWMJ-FM, Bangor Maine, this morning.

Books Read in 2011

 Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Right-Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (e)
American Rose, Karen Abbott
The Bull God, Roberta Gellis (e)
Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (e)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (e)
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (e)
Unseen, Rachel Caine
Total Eclipse, Rachel Caine
Weight of Stone, Laura Anne Gilman
The Story of Chicago May, Nuala O’Faolain

A reader needs some help

As I prove every year with my Books Read list, writers -- or at least this writer -- have no time to read. You guys, though, read lots (*is jealous*), and are therefore in a unique position to help out a fellow reader.

The situation: Said reader has read and approves of Fledgling and Saltation; they have dabbled in Vorkosigan territory, but ultimately found that Miles didn't quite hit the spot ("slightly too Carl Hiaasen"). Their usual sort of pleasure reading tends in the direction of British and Scandinavian murder mysteries.

What science fiction titles, bearing in mind the above criteria, would you recommend to this reader?

I'm thinking maybe autopope's Laundry novels, and possibly CJ Cherryh's Foreigner novels, but after that, I'm stumped.

So -- go for it, Hive Mind. And thank you very much.