The Queue
Reading Ashenden is a sheer delight after the drudgery of the latter stages of the Fleming canon and the unadulterated horror of Faulks's hackery. Also, I've jumped ahead and sneaked a peek at the first ten or so pages of Horse Under Water and am already enamored of Deighton's prose. There are good days ahead, at least in the literary realm.

Sneak is an excellent word that I should more often use. Sneak, sneaked, sneakers. Fun for all ages.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Toxic Toast" from Question the Answers (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: "Toxic Toast" is the ugly, though one must assume personally meaningful to the songwriter, title of a beautiful song of nostalgia and the halcyon days of yore.

"Someone's always up to something,
One thing's always understood,
If nothing happened in a minute,
Wait another, something would.
Avoid the landlord, spent the rent,
Raising hell with reckless style.
And sure our time was poorly spent,
But 'toxic toast' still makes me smile."