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I received yet another catalog from Eyewire today, in spite of my half-dozen faxes plus one voice call politely requesting to be removed from their list.
But today is a different day, for I’ve discovered a secret weapon, provided to me by the US Supreme Court and made easy to use by the good folks at Junkbusters.
In short, US residents tired of relentless direct-mail marketing can download Form 1500 from the USPS website and submit it via mail with a copy of the offending paper spam attached; the advertiser risks prosecution for sending even one more piece of mail.
I have never in my life, when filling out a form for the federal government, experienced this much joy.
My new passport will arrive today. I’m amazed! Perhaps if more government offices were run like profit centers, bureaucracy could be good all over.
Hiaasen’s “save local ecology” theme returns in Lucky You, a rambling story about a woman who wins a lottery ticket and two really dumb thugs who try to steal it. The protagonists, a veterinarian’s assistant and the newspaperman she disrobes at gunpoint when he comes to interview her about winning $14 million, are as purely drawn as all of Hiassen’s characters. The reporter’s exchanges with his editor are especially funny for anyone who’s had to work for someone not entirely qualified to be in charge.
Patronize these links, man:
This book is a must-read. It is the sequel to Ender’s Game (which you must read first!) and continues the story of Ender, 3000 years after the first novel ends.
Speaker is somewhat more of a difficult read than the first book, due to Card’s use of ethnic Portuguese names — and to his use of nicknames in place of all these unpronounceable strings of random letters. The book even has a pronounciation guide in the front, which I encourage you to ignore unless you’re a linguist.
This book, like Ender’s Game, won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
Patronize these links, man:
Throughout the first third of this book, I was convinced it would be among my favorites, but then it got a bit too outlandish. The story combines anthropology and science fiction to rewrite human history, and the result is fascinating. The plot slows toward the middle of the book, as if Becker wasn’t able to sustain the wildly imaginative pace of the beginning, but still, if you enjoyed Jurassic Park, the Indiana Jones movies, Total Recall, Sphere, etc., you’ll find something to like in Link.
Patronize these links, man:
