Project GLOWWORM
I've been a hypocrite, I recognize this, I am chagrined over this, & I mean to make amends if only I could devise a method. I've complained long & bitterly about my inadvertent membership in the "tattoo club," by which I mean the habit of other tattooed lads & lasses to strike up conversation with me specifically if not solely because I am inked, too. In the months since the shorn aftermath of the Banzai Beard Bonanza II: Bonsai's Revenge & the Magnificent Moustache Malarkey gave way to whiskers as a way of life I have been guilty of pressing blokes into a "beard club." I've gone out of my way to compliment impressive beards & moustaches, speaking to chaps I would otherwise have ignored to exhort them to keep up the good work, little enough different than was done to me courtesy of my first tattoo.

I received a large number of compliments in kind on my moustache, though that was never my purpose in exhorting others. This is what first gave me pause. I was mortified at the idea that someone might think I was fishing for compliments about my own whiskers. I then began to ponder what I might inadvertently be doing. What did I hope to accomplish by praising other beards & moustaches? My whiskers been pilloried from certain quarters, both by those who think them genuinely unattractive & those who denounced them as simply unfashionable. I presumed that other beard- & moustache-wearers had also faced such slings & arrow & sought to lend them some moral support. I've examined my conscience & do believe that my motives really were that pure, & that naïve. Yet naïveté is no excuse for such rank hypocrisy! I should have either regarded more kindly my fellow tattoo-wearers or I should have held my tongue toward my whiskered fellows. I did neither, painting me as a base hypocrite. For this I am sorry.

I am open to & would be appreciative of ideas for how I might make amends for my hypocrisy.

Project MERCATOR
I face a trifling conundrum of a sort I have not too often confronted of late: dual social invitations. Or should than be dueling social invitations? The Action Hero has invited me to a bonfire at his house in B.F.E. The Impossible Ingenue has invited me to a screening of the new motion picture Green Lantern.

Update: The die is cast, I've decided for Green Lantern &, 'tis hoped, crossed into Project PANDORA's bailiwick by extending the invitation to The Redhead… about whom I've not published (read: composed) the relevant "Project MERCATOR | Project PANDORA" post. Would you believe that I'm getting to it?

The Queue
Now that I've read the finale of Queen & Country I remember why I stopped reading the series short of its finale: I am not nearly so enamored of series protagonist Tara Chace as was writer Greg Rucka. Heroine worship trumped all other story considerations, dooming the venture. Little enough time has been lost, & such experimental reads are one of the great advantages of borrowing from a lending library. Back to gentleman thievery I go. Raffles! Raffles! Raffles!

Recently
Drew Karpyshyn, Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman
Greg Rucka & various artists, Queen & Country: Operation: SADDLEBAGS & Operation: RED PANDA

Currently
E. W. Hornung, The Black Mask

Presently
Anthony Hope, Rupert of Hentzau
John Buchan, The Thirty-nine Steps
John le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy
...
Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Sam & Dave, "Soothe Me" (live) from the Rhino Hi-Five: Sam & Dave E.P. (T.L.A.M.)