Tribulation Force, pp. 38-43 Chloe Steele is smitten with Buck Williams. Lest we judge her too harshly for this, keep in mind that unlike the reader, she's never witnessed him in Buck-the-Player mode, working his charms on Hattie or Alice, and she's never seen him as Buck-the-D-bag smirking behind the back of his female boss. Like Buck, Chloe is aware that the End of the World is not the most auspicious time to begin a relationship: "Sitting here talking about... Read more
Sooner or later we all become what we chose … "Paradise," Aztec Camera"Paradise," Bruce Springsteen"Paradise," Bryan Duncan"Paradise by the 'C,'" Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band "Paradise City," Guns N' Roses"Paradise City," Pat Boone "Paralyzed," Vigilantes of Love"Paranoid Android," Radiohead"Paris, Texas," Ry Cooder"The Park," Feist Yes, that Bryan Duncan listed above there is the same Bryan Duncan who sings the theme song from Left Behind: The Movie and one-time lead crooner for the Sweet Comfort Band. The track above... Read more
I wouldn't want to have to write a story set in 2037. That's 28 years from now — 28 years that will certainly bring about massive changes I couldn't hope to predict. Just look back 28 years. There was still a Soviet Union, an Eastern Bloc and a Cold War, but no cell phones, no World Wide Web and no rocket packs. Well, OK, we still don't have rocket packs, which is inexcusable. We were promised rocket packs, dammit. But... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 33-38 The awfulness of the remainder of this chapter seems — by LaHaye & Jenkins' standards — fairly mundane. The authors of the World's Worst Books usually set themselves apart as trailblazers, seeking out and exploring brave new forms of Bad Writing. But here they've wound up in the well-worn territory of the first blush of young love — ground that has been well-covered by Bad Writers for centuries. On this particular topic, L&J don't necessarily distinguish... Read more
Here was, to me, the most astonishing quote in the news last week, a staggering admission — a boast actually — of moral imbecility. From a Washington Post item on the resignation of Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter: "[President Barack Obama] says he wants to appoint judges who show empathy, but what does that mean?" said Wendy Long, chief counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network. "Who do you have empathy for?" The loathesome Wendy Long is proud to be... Read more
The flu came to town last week and the paper has been frantically on the story ever since. At any journalism outfit, stories like this will highlight the tension between those trying to figure out what readers need and those trying to figure out what readers want (as in what it is that makes readers want to buy a paper). During a flu outbreak, this tension manifests itself as a tug-of-war between the Don't Panic and the Panic! factions. The... Read more
This is a photograph, a visual recording. What you're looking at here is a European Space Agency satellite photo of what used to be the ice bridge connecting Charcot Island and the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Here's the caption that was supplied with the photo: "An Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) image dated April 28, 2009 and made available April 29 shows the breaking away of the ice bridge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Charcot Island,... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 28-32 "Three men and one woman are trapped in a building! Send help at once! If you can't send help, send two more women!"— Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho), in Duck Soup Bruce Barnes has a plan. That, it turns out, is why he's called this special emergency executive session of the Tribulation Force — even though it's taken him eight pages to get to the point, what with all the crying and male-bonding going on. But Bruce... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 21-29 The Left Behind books are filled with vast, massive impossibilities — every child on earth vanishes and everyone's daily routine continues unaltered; a jetliner makes a harrowing emergency landing, threading its way amidst the unprecedented wreckage of a half-dozen passenger planes, and no one on board ever gives it a second thought; a passage that reads, "I looked, and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and... Read more
Everybody needs some inspiration … "Naked," Avril Lavigne"Nan, You're a Window Shopper," Lily Allen"Nao Esperanto," Kirsty MacColl"The Narrow," Matt Jones"The National Anthem," Radiohead"Natural," Howard Jones"Natural Blues," Moby"Natural Gift," The Kinks"Nature Boy," Nat King Cole"Ne Me Quitte Pas," Nina Simone"Near You Always," Jewel"Nearer Than Heaven," The Delays"Nearly Lost You," Screaming Trees It wasn't until I saw the juxtaposition of Lily Allen and Kirsty MacColl here that I realized, ah, so that's who she reminds me of. Read more
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