Ball Diamond Ball

This is a reprint of a review I wrote published over a decade ago in the Daily News of Galveston County. It was one of my favorites leading to a long article in National Herald, where I did an extended interview with the author.

Seawriter

Author outlines influence of Byzantium

By Mark Lardas
The Daily News

Published September 3, 2006

“Sailing From Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World,” by Colin Wells, Delacorte Press, 335 pages, $22

In “Sailing From Byzantium,” Colin Wells explains how Byzantium influenced the development of three civilizations: that of Western Europe, the Arab World and Slavonic culture. The influence of the Byzantine Empire on these three civilizations is a story largely forgotten today.

You may never have heard of Byzantium, or … Continue reading →

Adam West, the TV Batman, died at 88.

The TV program in my opinion beat the movies in creativity. The shows had some over the top ways to do away with the Dynamic Duos. They also had some great cameo appearances going up the “side” of buildings. You had to like the villains too. They were in a sense pre-Colombo-ian. That is they used the formula of taking a famous actor and making them a villian. Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, and Victor Buono to just to name a few.

What are some of your best Bat Memories?

The script writers and and the prop guys had a lot of fun, too.

Continue reading →

I have just posted a new Web edition of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine.  This story (at around 33,000 words, it would be considered a long novella today), was originally published in 1895.  Wells continued to revise it over the years, with the final version published in 1935.  My edition is based upon that text.  I originally posted a Web edition in 2002.  This revision updates the documents to current Web standards (XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS3) and improves typography, formatting, and navigation.

The story can be read in one or two sittings, and is much better and more interesting than the two Hollywood movies loosely based upon it.  Given Wells’s attraction to socialism and communism, it is an interesting view of the ultimately pernicious consequences of eliminating … Continue reading →

Part of me feels for former Dir. Comey. It is no fun to be publicly fired and everyone wants to justify themselves. The only thing is how does one do it wisely. People take a myriad ways of handling this.

Usually people fall between two extremes. The one extreme is their whole lives are consumed by telling everyone about that painful experience. They are the hero of the tale of how they were right. The other extreme is they just never talk about it and get on with their lives. My key word is life is balance or symmetry. We need to talk but never letting go is bad.

The thing that I have seen in life is people who no longer grow because they live in the … Continue reading →

I watched a six foot eight weasel attempting to act like a power broker. I am sure the folks who sent him there thought this would work. I am sure the Progressive Senators thought it would be a killshot.

I was getting worried about the Deep State. Now I am wondering if they are an Austin Powers villain.

The Media and their DNC lackeys did everything they could and it was one big yawn. Careful phrases like ‘Obstruction of Justice” and “Improper behavior” and “Collusion” have been uttered past the point of having any meaning.

The Deep State put on a show for the Deep State and even the Deep State thought is was a bust.

Oh well, when in doubt, follow the advice of the esteemed Mr … Continue reading →

Let’s all pile into the chatwagon for the Comey thing! *** VIDEO LIVE ON THE CHAT PAGE ***
I plan to watch the thing live, hang around in BDB Chat, and keep another window open to Twitter (Follow @BallDiamondBall).  Oh, and a couple of beers.  You see, for me, this thing kicks off at 10PM.

Don’t hate me — I usually get the sharp end of this stick.

This is one bright spot from a string of bad news from the Sceptered Isle

http://hotair.com/archives/2017/06/06/man-counter-attacked-three-london-terrorists/

England is still there, under the PC crap and an even worse political class than ours.

Too bad it is the codger generation.

(From the main feed “over there”; with my permission: “Quote of the Day”)

What, then, of this final stripping, this complete cleansing? The more one thinks about it, the worse it becomes. He got through so easily! No gradual misgivings, no doctor’s sentence, no nursing home, no operating theatre, no false hopes of life; sheer, instantaneous liberation. One moment it seemed to be all our world; the scream of bombs, the fall of houses, the stink and taste of high explosive on the lips and in the lungs, the feet burning with weariness, the heart cold with horrors, the brain reeling, the legs aching; next moment all this was gone, gone like a bad dream, never again to be of any account….How all his doubts became, in the … Continue reading →

It’s that time of the week again, when we connect for another townhall meeting in the Village of the Darned.

If the software tells you that you’re the only caller, don’t you believe it!  Press on with the access code and you’ll probably find us in there!

Tomorrow, the UK deathwatch either speeds up a lot or a little.

Parliamentary composition after the 2015 election was:

Conservative Party 330 Labour Party 232 Scottish National Party 56 Liberal Democrats 8 Democratic Unionist Party 8 Sinn Féin 4 Plaid Cymru 3 Social Democratic & Labour Party 3 Ulster Unionist Party 2 UK Independence Party 1 Green Party 1 Speaker 1 Independent 1

Anyone care to … Continue reading →