Jaq Greenspon's Blog, page 22

Review: Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven

FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book had such potential. The basic premise, that a storm wipes out contact with the skeleton crew of a Disney-esque amusement park, who then revert to literal tribalism and savagery fits in well with today’s YS dystopias and the tagline of “Lord of the Flies” meets […]

A few important rules to teach your daughters*

I stole this list from my friend Steve, who is the father of two girls and a boy. It’s a good place to start. I might add more as I learn more or delete some which I disagree with as time goes on. I might even change the order of importance as Monki comes into […]

Alice by Christina Henry

Alice by Christina Henry My rating: 2 of 5 stars Okay…not sure how to talk about this. First, the biggest problem is the characters are never in any real danger, they defeat the enemies much too easily and there’s never anything at stake beyond physical harm, which, as stated, was never going to be a […]

Stan Lee (1922-2018)

Well, True Believers, the time finally came. a month before his 96th birthday, Stan Lee passed away. Down the Tubes has a couple of nice pieces: In Memorium by Alan Woollcombe and Tim Quinn’s piece “How to be a Hero.” Both of these pieces, as well as many others, recount Lee’s history, his start as a teenager working for […]

How Lithuania embraced pop culture – NYLA

A few weeks back, I attended Comic-Con Baltics, a relatively new pop culture convention here in Lithuania. I was there at the behest of Nanook and their NYLA podcast to talk about How Lithuania embraced pop culture. It was a lot of fun, and I met some pretty cool people like Foxtail, a superb cosplayer, who won awards […]

How Do You Say the Plural Form of ‘Octopus’?

Is it octopuses, octopi, or octopodes? Source: How Do You Say the Plural Form of ‘Octopus’? | Mental Floss

These Maps Reveal the Hidden Structures of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Books – Atlas Obscura

I’ve long been fascinated by Choose Your Own Adventure books. For a long time, I had, if not the complete run, almost all of them. I even have a few ideas to write and update them for the 21st century, but the structure of them has always been a mystery (despite some interesting articles on […]

November 1 – National Author’s Day

So evidently, today, November 1, is NATIONAL AUTHOR’S DAY. While I didn’t even know that was a thing, I’m totally down with celebrating it! So in honor of all my friends who are writers already and those who aspire. Those who are starting NaNoWriMo today and those who write daily, I salute you all! And if […]

7 Fake Words That Ended Up in the Dictionary | Mental Floss

I love words. I love etymologies and origins and how things got to mean what they mean today and how that has changed from what they meant yesterday or last week. Over at Mental Floss, they have this article, 7 Fake Words That Ended Up in the Dictionary, which now has me asking the obvious question: […]

Candy corn: Halloween’s most contentious sweet, explained – Vox

People have been loving — and loving to hate — the tricolored candy for more than a century. Vox’s piece, Candy corn: Halloween’s most contentious sweet, explained, gives you the rundown and history of this, one of my top five all-time favorite candy treats (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are far and away the front-runner with a […]