Book List (part 1)

As many know, we here at Random_Speak continue to lead the blogosphere in informing the public on art, politics, medicine, sports, and all that science stuff. Of course, literature is no exception, so we are now posting the first in a series of book suggestions for interested readers. Each of these titles is currently available online.


1.Oozing Medical Poems for Kids by Nick Krasner and Bryn Binyard-- We haven't actually read this book yet, but our top reviewers are forced to recommend it highly, based solely on the title. It's probably one of the most valuable gifts you can give your child.

2. How to Avoid Huge Ships by John Trimmer. Generally, the best way to avoid huge ships is to never travel by sea in the first place. However, this book is a necessity for those who cannot avoid this dangerous activity. It is rumored that the author will soon have additional guides in a useful series: How to Avoid Sticking Forks in Electric Sockets and How to Avoid Running with Chainsaws.

3. Highlights in the History of Concrete by C.C. Stanley -- While the history of concrete may not be as popular as the history of wet paint or the history of thumbtacks, it still remains a fascinating subject of study. Here, the armchair historian is treated to a comprehensive introduction to concrete's historical highlights.

4. The Biggest Secret by David Icke-- this truly mind-blowing book reveals the hidden evil of the real-life "matrix": our world is secretly run by extraterrestrial shape-shifting reptiles from the constellation Draco. Members of this reptile class include George W. Bush, Hilary Clinton and Tony Blair, so it's recommended that you pick up a copy right away.

5. Reusing Old Graves by Douglas Davies and Alastair Shaw -- this highly informative "how-to" guide takes all the guesswork out of reusing that old cemetary plot you just have lying around. Recommended for the "do-it-yourself" types.

6. Planet Earth 2000 AD: Will Mankind Survive? by Hal Lindsey-- This thrilling book is truly an anxious cliff-hanger for readers who love to sit on the edge of their seats in suspense. I can't wait to see how it ends.

7. The Gourmet Gator Cookbook. Recipes for people who know their place in the food chain! by Lindy Stevens -- Typically, we wouldn't focus on a cookbook, but this one is clearly a work of genius. Highly recommended for native Floridians or those who wish to move here.

8. How to Be Pope: What to Do and Where to Go Once You're in the Vatican by Piers Marchant -- for those enterprising Catholics who are seriously interested in applying for the Papacy, this handy little reference book explains everything from the papal wave to choosing a new name.

9. Joy of Chickens by Dennis Nolan -- seriously, the title says it all.

10. Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality by Glenn Ellenbogen -- truly an important contribution to contemporary psychiatric research, this book delves seriously into the subject of one of the most disturbed personality types known to man: the vegetarian.

I was TRYING to behave, but.....

.... I accidentally bought a charming used book yesterday while attending Dali Fest with my lovely and earnest friend Brian. It's titled Dali by Dali, and it is an odd little first edition of random full color reproductions interspersed with Salvador Dali's various musings, mostly on himself.

Chapters include such gems as: "The Molecular Dali" and "The Hallucinogenic Dali", among others.

Favorite quotes:
"If someone, even a handsome person, talks to me about horoscopes or asks me under what sign of the zodiac I was born, I never telephone him again. You see how miserly I am and how exceptional my intelligence must be."

"I began a happening in New York by announcing in front of three thousand spectators that Cézanne was a catastrophe of congenital awkwardness -- a painter of decrepit structures of the past. I was applauded, principally because nobody knew who Cézanne was."

"Salvador Dali, monarchist and anarchist, and consequently opposed to a consumer society, is naturally against automobiles, to which he prefers a triumphal chariot..."


He sounds as if he must have been a thoroughly sensible person, as I also prefer a triumphal chariot over an automobile. His moustache was also quite alarmingly charming.

More Book scans

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous post of book scans...

Anomalies and Curiosities Part II

More quotes from the informative and chatty Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1896):

"Le Cat speaks of the bite of an enraged duck causing death, and Thiermayer mentions death shortly following the bite of a goose, as well as death in three days from a chicken-bite."

"In commenting on suicides, in 1835, Arntzenius speaks of an ambitious Frenchman who was desirous of leaving the world in a distinguished manner, and who attached himself to a rocket of enormous size which he had built for the purpose, and setting fire to it, ended his life."

"Pantophobia is a general state of fear of everything and everybody. Phobophobia, the fear of being afraid..."

"There is a tale told of a Hungarian monk who affirmed that he was able to decide the chastity of females by the sense of smell alone."

"Sometimes in the older writings we find records of incredible abstinence. Jonston speaks of a man in 1460 who, after an unfortunate matrimonial experience, lived alone for fifteen years, taking neither food nor drink. Petrus Aponensis cites the instance of a girl fasting for eight years."

"The theories advanced by the advocates of spontaneous human combustion are very ingenious and deserve mention here.... From an examination of 28 cases of spontaneous combustion, Jacobs makes the following summary:--
1) It has always occurred in the human living body
2) The subjects were generally old persons
3) It was noticed more frequently in women than in men
4) All persons were alone at the time of the occurrence
5) They all led an idle life
6) They were all corpulent or intemperate
7) Most frequently at the time of occurrence there was a light and some ignitible substance in the room
8) The combustion was rapid and was finished in from one to seven hours
9) The room where the combustion took place was generally filled with a thick vapor and the walls coverd with a thick, carbonaceous substance
10) The trunk was usually the part most frequently destroyed; some part of the head and extremities remained.
11) With but two exceptions, the combustion occurred in winter and in the Northern regions"

Anomalies and Curiosities!

* Kathie, Brandt, Colin and SAS popped on over for dinner the other night along with a couple of frisbee acquaintances who managed to not run away screaming from our ** conversation. An added bonus to the charming evening was the book (pictured at left) that Kathie and Brandt decided to give me as part of a belated birthday treasure trove of goodness.

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (George M. Gould, M.D. and Walter L. Pyle, M.D.) was written in 1896 and contains a wonderful smorgasbord of information ranging from "monstrosities", "colored saliva", "men suckling infants" and "the odor of insanity" to "perverted appetites", "spontaneous combustion of the human body", "death from joy and laughter", "the dancing mania", and "presentiment of approaching death".

A few notable excerpts:

"One of the most remarkable forms of idiosyncracy on record is that of a student who was deprived of his senses by the very sight of an old woman. On one occasion he was carried out from a party in a dying state, caused, presumably, by the abhorred aspect of the chaperones."

"Another curious fact associated with pregnancy is the apparent influence of the emotions of the mother on the child in utero. Everyone knows of the popular explanation of many birth-marks, their supposed resemblance to some animal or object seen by the mother during pregnancy, etc. ....Plot speaks of a child bearing the figure of a mouse; when pregnant, the mother had been much frightened by one of these animals... The Lancet speaks of several cases-- one of a child with a face resembling a dog whose mother had been bitten.... "

"Bijoux speaks of a porter or garcon at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris who was a prodigious glutton. He had eaten the body of a lion that had died of disease at the menagerie. He ate with the avidity the most disgusting things to satiate his depraved appetite. He showed further signs of a perverted mind by classifying the animals of the menagerie according to the form of their excrement, of which he had a collection. He died of indigestion following a meal of eight pounds of hot bread."

below are some sample illustrations







































* for those who are interested, she is having a solo show in Las Vegas at the beginning of March

** you can see affordable prints of some of their work at CircusPosterus

Lazing about ....

Took the day off.... bwah ha ha ha ha ha!! I hope everyone had fun at work without me today!

Went shopping for books and picked up a very cool hardbound facsimile of the Visconti Hours, a book of hours commissioned in the early 1400s by Giangaleazzo Visconti, the ruler of Milan.


I scanned a few of my favorites out of about 166 high quality plates (unfortunately my scanner needs to be replaced -- the scan quality isn't very high, and the metallic gold doesn't show).

1. The Creation of Birds
2. Sacrifice of Cain and Abel
3. Spies Before Jericho
4. The Nativity