Happy Birthday, Edward Abbey

As Tom Chandler points out, today is the birthday of Edward Abbey, author of The Monkey Wrench Gang which Chandler calls “a groundbreaking novel about four people who sabotage development projects in the desert wilderness,” though I think it’s more about the frustration of the individual in the face of developers destroying our natural places in order to install yet another infestation of McMansions.

A sort of junior Monkey Wrench Gang is a wonderful book called A Heart to the Hawks by Don Moser (also from 1975 — influenced by MWG?), which I’ve written about here before. Sadly, it is (still) out of print, but you can still find used copies occasionally. It’s about a young boy in post-WWII Ohio who spends his free time in a small wood with a pond near his home that becomes threatened by development in the post-war building frenzy. While there are other coming-of-age themes (girls! with boobs!) in the novel, the boy learns a lot about monkey-wrenching and how maybe it’s not the best method of protest, and while I can’t always condone monkey-wrenching, there are other, more effective and less controversial methods of channeling the monkey-wrenching impulse into saving our wild places.

This book instilled in me a love of the outdoors and a desire to protect it as well as anything else in my life. I didn’t encounter Abbey’s books until I was an adult, but AHTTH served much the same purpose for me.

I love my big series of tubes

I got my internets access upgraded to 12Mbps (download; 1.5Mbps up) today, AND I got a new cable modem, too. The previous modem served well for over six years, but it was DOCSIS 1.1 and was starting to have “issues”. The new one (same modem, new version, pretty much) is humming along just fine now. Despite having some complaints about other parts of their service, the guy who came today was top-notch: fast, knowledgable, capable. That’s about all you can ask for in a cable guy, really.

Wasteland: the best comic series you’re not reading

Wasteland may be my new favorite comic. I was just turned on to it today, and I’m reading the first trade right now (there are two). While perusing it in the comics shop, I was thinking, “Damn. This is good. Who wrote this?” So I look at the front: Antony Johnston. That explains it. I first heard of him when he wrote the third Queen & Country: Declassified (Nicky Poole’s). Now I need to read all of Wasteland then hunt down the rest of his work. Read it.

UPDATE: I’ve finished the entire run and am eagering awaiting the next issue (#14 — due out soon). It’s great. If you like sci-fi, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, zombies, mutants, deserts, politics, religion, or just about anything, you’ll like this. But NONE of that describes what it’s about (other than post-apocalyptic).

Rating:

The lovelorn man and the Lands’ End catalog

Nice piece about “the erotic appeal of the Lands’ End catalog.” I’m getting old enough that this sorta hits home. The Victoria’s Secret catalog doesn’t do much for me, anymore, either.

The Magazineer — For people who make, and love, magazines

Derek Powazek’s new blog about magazines. I love magazines, so I’m enjoying this. Unfortunately, it’s Powazek, who has a tendency to start strong then wander away when he gets bored (or that’s my perception anyway). So, catch it now while he’s still hot on it.