How to Be Black by Baratunde R. Thurston My rating: 5 of 5 stars I won this book at a conference a few years back (Baratunde was one of the keynote speakers) and I finally had a chance to read it.  For someone who didn't spend all of my formative years in the US, I think the subject is approached in a humorous and approachable manner. Heck, in some segments,

Star Trek: The Stardate Collection Volume 1 by Scott Tipton My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was fun to read. This collection puts together comics in chronological order, so we get to see the original commissioning of the Enterprise 1701, we are introduced to "Number One" as a cadet, and later on we get to see Captain Pike and some of the "original" crew, pre-Kirk.

Να και ο Σεπτέμβρης.  Κάθε σεπτέμβρη με πιανει μια μικρή μελαγχολία για το καλοκαίρι που μόλις πέρασε.  Όσο και μακρή να φαίνεται το καλοκαίρι πάντα θες να έχεις παραπάνω χρόνο για να ευχαριστηθείς την ζέστη, τον ελεύθερο

Οι κατάσκοποι στο πανεπιστήμιο μου έστειλαν μερικές φωτογραφίες από τα έργα που εκτελούνται στο πανεπιστήμιο αυτές τις μέρες. Αφού είμαστε όλοι στα σπίτια μας και δουλεύουμε εξ’ αποστάσεως λόγο κορονοϊου, το πανεπιστήμιο

Well, the one thing about this COVID-19 crisis hitting in the summer is that we have a lot of television to catch up on. This year is also the year of many final seasons of television shows.  I don't know if this was planned, or it was a good opportunity with the on-going pandemic.  I suspect a little bit of both (depending on the show).  Here are some quick thoughts on some recent

Seems like Scratch Kitchen is the latest casualty of the COVID-19 closures.  Cinema Salem (our community movie theater) was first, then Beerworks (although I am hoping they'll relocate), and now Scratch Kitchen. Scratch was set apart by having local produce, and organic (oh yeah, and lots of bacon).  The thing that stunk was that their hours were not always predictable...

Το ριμαδοκαλοκαίρι προχορά με γοργούς ρυθμούς.  Πρίν το καταλάβουμε θα είναι πιά Σεπτεμβρης και θα ήμαστε πάλι στα θρανία...  Καλό μας μήνα λοιπόν! :-)

The Orville #4: The Word of Avis Part 2 of 2 by David A. Goodman My rating: 5 of 5 stars More of a comment on both parts of this story: Interesting commentary on religion (in a way that only a comedy can do it). I did find the story a bit unbelievable - anthropologists converting from (essentially) atheists to the religion of the Krill just by studying their sacred writing, but

The Orville #1: New Beginnings Part 1 of 2 by David A. Goodman My rating: 5 of 5 stars More of a comment on both 1+2 of this series.  Interesting story. Gives a bit of background on the "federation" equivalent in the Orville universe.  It's interesting that the old-style uniforms had rank insignia like TNG ;-). We also get to see sentient fowl, which was very Mighty Max :-).

DS9: Hearts And Minds by Mark A, Altman My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's interesting how much play the gamma quadrant gets in the comics, yet in the series I don't recall them ever making such a big deal of it (most issues on DS9 seems alpha and beta quadrant related).  This mini-series is all about the Klingons and the Cardassians butting heads because the Romulans make it look