Tron is very similar to Ben Hur.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 11:58 AM on July 25, 2008

Mother London by Michael Moorcock is very good.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 4:03 PM on July 23, 2008

I would definitely second Perdido Street Station - fantasy, but a brilliant evocation of a sprawling, seething, fetid city.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 4:56 PM on July 23, 2008

Thank you all for your suggestions, which are nicely filling up the next coupe of weekends with a bit of exploring. Freya_Lamb: the one on a corner on RR might well be the one where I bought the trunk; just a little to the east of Grove Road as I remember.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:38 PM on July 21, 2008

Probably not even close, but:

Metonymy?
Motif?
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 2:22 PM on July 17, 2008

Seconding Netbros, I found volunteer work a strongly formative experience after I left university. Work takes up most of our time, but is hopelessly tangled up with the need to earn money. Working for free clarifies the intrinsic psychological - even spiritual - value of work. It's important to have a reason to work that isn't to do with making money, and volunteer can provide that. Plus, you help others, and even a little of that takes some of the sting out of the "what have I ever done... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:27 PM on July 16, 2008

Television by Mansun (1998)
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:48 PM on July 3, 2008

Of editing: "You can stick an olive in a glass of piss and it still won't be a martini". Variant of "lipstick on a pig".
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:28 PM on June 25, 2008

Yes, I use it to access my workplace Entourage account when I'm out of the office. It seems to work OK, nothing fancy, a bit slow sometimes. What would you like to know?
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:02 AM on June 18, 2008

Martin Amis's The War Against Cliche is a collection of mostly short essays and reviews on literature and pop culture. Thoroughly recommended.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:23 PM on June 12, 2008

Value engineering?
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 5:42 PM on June 11, 2008

The definitive study of the imagery of the undergorund in literature is Notes on the Underground: An Essay on Technology, Society and the Imagination by Rosalind Williams. You may be pleased to hear that MIT has just brought out a new edition with a new afterword. Scores of books and stories are discussed, mostly from the 19th century. You might find it interesting to get some critical insight into why you want to read about the underground ...

As... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 10:50 AM on June 2, 2008

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 7:27 PM on May 30, 2008

Lebannen: Yes, I checked the manual; the screenshots in the manual are black and white, but the icon is present in them, so I think it simply means "I'm in camera mode". Indeed, changing the mode (to video, playback, or whatever) changes the icon, but it's still red. It seems to be a red herring.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 3:51 PM on May 10, 2008

"The Power of Nightmares" is very good. It's about how governments exaggerate and manipulate the threat of terrorism to achieve short-term political goals. I believe it's all on Youtube; but in bits that you may have to piece together. BBC pages parts 1 2 3. Wikipedia page. Youtube results.

You may also enjoy the films of Nick Broomfield, who is brilliant.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:34 PM on April 14, 2008

As a sidenote, you might be interested in Gore Vidal's book Empire. It's set in about 1900, and part of the plot is the discussion of whether the USA should becom an imperial power, expanding int the Far East, China and Russia.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:48 PM on March 18, 2008

The Black Death was in 1348, and a variety of conspiracies spread about who "caused" it, mostly blaming the Jews for poisoning wells, etc. If your detective wants to clear someone of being involved in a conspiracy, an innocent accused of spreading the Black Death might be a good place to start. Plus yu have a backdrop of TOTAL CHAOS, the breakdown of society, thousands fleeing cities, etc. Philip Ziegler's "The Black Death" is the best text for a beginner. The work of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:35 PM on March 14, 2008

(PS Edward II was murdered, and it's a common bit of apocrypha that it was by red-hot poker up the jacksy. This is not true. He was probably starved or smothered.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:36 PM on March 14, 2008

Nthing Radiohead.

But I would also suggest "Mao Tse Tung Said" by Alabama 3.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 3:09 PM on March 6, 2008

The full Mao Tse Tung Said.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 3:19 PM on March 6, 2008

I think that it is Thola Amadlozi by the late, great Brenda Fassie, who was South African and sadly died in 2004. It's from the album Amadlozi. I think it's also on the greatest hits album. If you like Brenda, her best album is Memeza, which is superb.

Welcome to the wonderful world of African pop!
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:33 PM on February 20, 2008

(You can listen to a snippet of the song at the first of the two links I posted.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:35 PM on February 20, 2008

How do you plan to teach? In premises, in groups, one-to-one, in Central Park?

You're going to have to advertise somehow - craigslist - and in order to advertise you have to be able to make a claim; figure out what that claim in, then place your ad. Tape your first few sessions, then have the results transcribed, and you're well on the way to an easy book.

Just the first thoughts off the top of my head. If this works, can I be John the Baptist or... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 2:14 PM on February 14, 2008

There should have been a question mark after the word craigslist in my post.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 2:15 PM on February 14, 2008

Operation Barbarossa wiped out the Soviet Union's dog population. The Red Army trained dogs to look for food under vehicles, then attached bombs to their backs and sent them trotting out towards Nazi lines; in response, the Wehrmacht started shooting every dog they saw.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:07 AM on February 10, 2008

My wife and I were troubled by a night-time rustling either under or behind our bed in our London flat a few months ago. After a long process of deduction and elimination, we established two things:

1. It was pigeons outside bedding down for the night.

2. We are terrible at telling the direction a noise is coming from when lying down in the dark.

One other tip from another, much older flat: no poo, no rodents. They're... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:01 AM on February 10, 2008

Don't go anywhere without a book - there are any number of little moments during the day when 10 minutes of reading passes the time very pleasantly.

Read during your lunch hour and commute.

Read in bed, before going to sleep; go to bed half an hour earlier, and don't worry if you get so engrossed that you don't want to sleep at the normal time - an hour of sleep lost to reading in bed does not make you as tired as an hour lost to watching TV or... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 11:42 AM on January 31, 2008

I think that some pundits suffer a commentariat variant on the sunk cost fallacy in business, where they believe that the amount of time/emotion/face "invested" in a line of thinking will be "wasted" unless they continue to invest time/emotion/face in it. In fact, that investment was already a "sunk cost", ie completely wasted, a dead loss, and the sane thing to do would be to abandon the line of thought and make a clean break of it. But no, on they trudge,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:04 PM on January 29, 2008

Brush your teeth immediately after every meal to kill the taste-craving. Plus, its good for your teeth!

This is a brilliant idea. I quit about three weeks ago and I only really feel the twinge after supper - this should sort that out. Thanks, Manjusri!

(By the way, I used the Allen Carr method, whcih worked a treat. YMMV.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:33 PM on January 26, 2008

Write to length and file on time, and all the other sensible things that others have said so far. Filing a piece that is too long is bad - filing one that is too short can be worse, and looks incredibly amateurish.

Learn to hate and fear the word "I". Unless you have been paid to write about yourself, never use the word "I". Avoid it at all costs. Build up a resistance to it, so that even when you have to use it you don't want to.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 2:16 PM on January 22, 2008

My old physics teacher: "Neutrons are great value. They weigh more, and there's no charge!"

A stupid joke, but I remember it, and the fact that neutrons weigh more and have no charge, so I suppose it worked. Then I studied medieval history at university.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 6:01 PM on January 16, 2008

Grim Fandango? It's a very good game, hours of fun.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:22 PM on January 14, 2008

A Call To Arms by Alan Dean Foster is a good example. A war is raging between two huge empires - the Amplitur Purpose, who are horrible brainwashers and genetic engineers, and the Weave, who are rather more likeable. The Weave discover Earth, which is a huge breakthough for them as humanity is unlike any other sentient race - we have many languages, many cultures, and we fight wars against ourselves. We are exceptionally aggressive, fierce and strong by alien standards -... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 4:12 AM on January 9, 2008

It'd be much harder to come up with sf that explicitly portrays humans as unexceptional.

The State of the Art by Iain M Banks portrays Earth, and humanity, as just another bog-standard sentient species in a galaxy teeming with far more interestin intelligent life. The story/novella centres on the decision not to contact us for the time being, and leave us be until we grow up a bit. The entire story is a discussion of whether we... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 12:10 PM on January 9, 2008

It's got to be OK Computer. Really, if you don't like OK Computer, there's no point in pursuing Radiohead further. The Bends is probably more accessible, yes, and there are some superiorities in later albums, but OK Computer is THE album.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:46 PM on January 5, 2008

Oh, and I disagree with dydecker - the albums are greater than the sums of their parts. But that's a very personal opinion from someone who's very backward about downloading music.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:48 PM on January 5, 2008

The new hardcover Yale edition of EH Gombrich's A Little History of the World is beautiful. As is the new Phaidon edition of Gombrich's Story of Art. Ben Schott's Miscellany series are very nicely made.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:10 AM on December 31, 2007

The Black Death in 1348 brought the Hundred Years War between England and France to a halt - it only resumed in 1356 when England had recovered somewhat.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:00 AM on December 31, 2007

You may be interested in this article.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 3:46 AM on December 4, 2007 marked best answer

How about some Alan Moore? Start him on Watchmen, then V For Vendetta, then From Hell. These are graphic novels, but more intelligent than many novels, and they involve plenty of reading and attention-span-building.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:10 PM on December 3, 2007

Greenback: The Almighty Dollar and the Invention of America by Jason Goodwin is a brilliant book, and deals with the Civil War from an unexpected perspective.

Not non-fiction, but may I recommend one of my favourite authors, JG Farrell? The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip are two of the finest works of historical fiction ever written, IMHO, set during the Indian mutiny and the fall of Singapore to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:01 PM on December 3, 2007

"They'll never sell any ice cream going at that speed" - old Morecambe & Wise joke that I think of whenever I see what the OP describes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 9:03 AM on November 7, 2007

Thanks for all these answer so far. I didn't expect so many so quickly! It's good to have one anecdotal instance of a cat quaffing the red stuff - thanks, InnocentBystander!

Some more detail:

Drinking the wine does not actually kill the cat, it just makes it woozy and causes it to vomit. (It's actually killed by the lid of a grand piano falling on it, an indirect consequence of its bender. Whether it is still drunk when the lid falls is unknown... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 1:42 PM on November 5, 2007

On second thoughts, I'll explain this part of the plot in some detail just to make it more clear. (I suppose I should have said all this in the question, but I didn't want to make it too long.)

Earlier in the story, the houseminder discovers that the cat loves to play with a wine cork after one gets dropped on the floor. He plays with the cat and the cork for a while, kicking it about at first, and then tying it to a piece of string and pulling it about like a small... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 2:03 PM on November 5, 2007

Thanks everyone. From 30+ responses, there are three or four anecdotal instances of cats drinking red wine; that's enough to restore my confidence that the scene is comfortably within the realms of possibility. It's also reassuring to hear that Susanbeeswax's cat knocked over bottles.

AskMe will get an acknowledgement when the book comes out, if there's an acknowledgements page.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 5:50 AM on November 6, 2007

Thirding JPowers, and I speak as a writer who doesn't care much for most of Stephen King's writing. It's not a "How to write like Stephen King" book.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 7:05 PM on November 5, 2007

Quit drinking.

Closely followed by: quit antidepressants; quit sleeping pills; actually started talking about how I felt.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 4:03 PM on September 18, 2007

My Grandmother announced my birth in the Daily Telegraph. I was born in a remote part of rural India (my parents were aid workers) and the details that made it back to the UK were rather scanty, so the announcement reads: "WILES, William, born Khariar, India, on or around 8th March ..." etc.

I love that clipping. It's just a nice thing to have. The vagueness adds to it.

I enjoy looking over the birth announcements... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 6:15 AM on September 7, 2007

1. Keep writing the novel. I imagine you didn't start writing simply in order to publish - you are wrting because you enjoy writing and you have a great story you want to tell. So don't stop writing because you don't think it will sell. There is no better practice for writing than writing, and finishing a book (even if it is never published) is an incredibly valuable experience. It means that when you start another, you know that you can finish it. If you've finished one book, you can finish any... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 5:24 AM on June 21, 2007

dead_: I'm looking for something that would maybe find more use as an instructive text in a college class, or something I can work through from beginning to end, rather than a reference guide.

Evans' Essential English is structured to be read from beginning to end.

I'd also say that although Troublesome Words is an a-z reference, Bryson's writing makes it a pleasure to read casually.
posted to Ask Metafilter by WPW at 8:45 AM on June 20, 2007