Science!
Forget the United Colors of Benetton, make way for the false-colors of Saturn: auroralink. By Jove, those images are beautiful!

Science!

The Queue
I was prematurely nostalgic for Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 before I'd finished the book & now that I have finished I am properly—if, I condede, preposterously—nostalgic. The monstrous thing's eight hundred fifty-one pages long, not counting the scores of pages notes & the bibliography, and covers a century in the Security Service (M.I.5), Great Britain's domestic intelligence agency, but for all that I wish it had been twice as long. I want more! I shall have to see what else I might find concerning M.I.5, starting with the other works of author Christopher Andrew & drawing upon Defend the Realm's bibliography. And then I shall have to see what might be found concerning Great Britain's foreign intelligence agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (S.I.S. or M.I.6). For whatever reason, this brings to mind a few lines from the extraordinary television miniseries adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; not the whole brilliant miniseries, but just these lines, spoken by Control, the head of "the Circus" (M.I.6), to his deputy George Smiley:

"Buying their way in with counterfeit money. Tell them that! Tell them anything, I need time. (pregnant pause)

There are three of them, and Alleline. Sweat them, George; tempt them, bully them, any damn thing. Give them whatever they eat, I need time!"

And now a few words on the next book in the queue, reprinted from the B.T.W. Forums. The Forums are the exclusive preserve of the members of Blue Tree Whacking, not fit for the eyes & minds of outsiders, but since this is my own product & does not concern any internal B.T.W. business, I think an exception is in order.

I was mildly disappointed by Len Deighton's Horse Under Water, but not so much that I'm unwilling to give Deighton another chance. Wagering that some of the problem with Horse Under Water might have been the unnamed protagonist & narrator, I'm going to try another character, this time Bernard Samson, protagonist & narrator of a trilogy of trilogies: Berlin Game, Mexico Set, & London Match; Spy Hook, Spy Link, & Spy Sinker; and Faith, Hope, & Charity. I'll only tread the second & third trilogies if I like the first and I'll only read the second & third books of that trilogy if I like the first; so, much may hinge on Berlin Game. Reading Berlin Game, Mexico Set, & London Match was going to be a hodge podge, because due to a random purchase at a used book sale several years ago, before I knew who Len Deighton was, I own a paperback copy of London Match, but neither of the others. The university library doesn't have the books, and the county library has only Mexico Set as an individual volume. All three books are available in one massive hardcover that drawfs even the behemoth of Defend the Realm. So, the plan of campaign was to read Berlin Game in the back breaker, Mexico Set in a much more reasonably sized library hardcover, and then my own copy of London Match. A short time ago, I unburdened myself of some ill-advised past acquisitions at Jellybean's & as part of the swap got ahold of a pristine paperback copy of none other than Berlin Game. I no longer have need of the back breaker!

A score or so pages into Berlin Game, it's not nearly so spare as Horse Under Water, a book that is spartan at all the wrong times.

Recently
Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
Anthony Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda
Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5

Currently
Len Deighton, Berlin Game

Presently
Len Deighton, Mexico Set
Len Deighton, London Match
Karen E. Olson, Pretty in Ink
John Toland, The Great Dirigibles
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Anthony Hope, Rupert of Hentzau
Anthony Hope, The Heart of Princess Osra
Saki, When William Came: A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns

Autobahn
On some level, I suppose I went off-roading in Lumi this afternoon, in order to park at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. The vast expanse of grass over which I motored was uneven & undulating, with dips & rises both significant & abrupt. Whee! The broken ground provided a very fun pair of bookends to an already fun afternoon (recounted in the next Project MERCATOR post).

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Grant-Lee Phillips, "Mona Lisa" from Virginia Creeper (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: A song of love of heartbreaking beauty.

Freitag, 24 September
The Hold Steady, "Chips Ahoy" from Boys and Girls in America (The Guy)

Commentary: Thanks, The Guy! I am most intrigued by these The Hold Steady chaps, & I doubt we've seen the last of them around these parts.

Donnerstag, 23 September
Elvis Costello, "Alison" from The Very Best of Elvis Costello, Disc 1 (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"Alison,
I know this world is killing you.
Oh Alison,
My aim is true."