Hurl this man in the direction of out
Finished Exit Music, the 17th and final Inspector Rebus novel. Life now is empty and meaningless, though it will get more so when I've finished the last two Aubrey/Maturins.
Pretty solid end to the series, with Rebus and Clark investigating the mysterious death of a Russian poet. The mystery isn't particularly ingenious, though it does fit in well with the themes of the series. The story doesn't wrap things up completely, leaving things open for Rebus cameos in future novels, or possibly even further sequels. It's been suggested that sidekick Siobhan Clarke could be given her own series. I think that would be a mistake: she's not that interesting a character in her own right, despite the attempts to make her a Rebus mini-me.
Even so, I thought the ending brought the series to a fitting conclusion, though the fan response seems a bit mixed. You do get a sense of things coming full circle. If Rebus' original sin as a policeman was dividing the world into Them and Us, having him struggle to save Cafferty's life at the end shows a kind of redemption.
Excellent series, well worth reading. Guardian, Times reviews.
US politics
Well, I started out giving McCain a slight edge, but said
it wouldn't be clear until after the debates.
However, it looks like Obama has drawn well clear of him
now. In terms of the timing of the crisis, BO seems to have lucked
out. Wonder what would have happened if it had been a foreign policy
crisis instead: McCain might well have a similar lead.
Looks pretty good for his presidency too: whatever bad economic stuff happens in the first few years he can blame on his predecessor: all he has to do is take credit for some kind of late recovery.
One quality we haven't really seen for the last four Presidential terms is dignity. Be interesting to see if he can maintain it in an intermobloggy age.
Web
YouTube.
Italian 1950s motorcycle
display.
Reel
Geezers on political movies.
Bribing into a restaurant Articles. How to bribe your way to an NYC restaurant table. Joel on Sins of Commissions: Incentive schemes gone wrong.
Pics. Gargoyles and grotesques.
Atlas
of the real world
(BB):
liked this graph which scales country size by the number of different books published
per year:
Bailout Web
Via Naked
Capitalism:
Temporary
full state ownership is only solution:
Central bank liquidity provision, although necessary, has also failed to address the co-ordination failure and has only made it easier for banks to dispose of long assets to acquire short ones (cash).Not quite my view: I think whole banks should be taken over and used to give credit directly to the real economy, he thinks all the banks should be taken over. But we agree that taking part-shares isn't a lot of use: they just eat the profits and make their own holdings safer. The G7 plan seems to still be sticking with part-nationalization though.
Coming Soon
Current audiobook is
Skinny Dip
by Carl Hiassen. I'm also going to do a bit on what to do about
the financial system after the credit crunch subsides.
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