Knights & Knaves Alehouse

The Del Rey omnibus collection of Howard's (mostly unfinished) Kull stories, Kull: Exile of Atlantis. It includes the three he did get published but restored to their original manuscript text, not the actual published versions.

Also finishing a reread of Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

Flambeaux wrote:Also finishing a reread of Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

If you like Liar's Poker, you might consider Den of Thieves unless you've already read it. Great story.

Chainsaw wrote:

Flambeaux wrote:Also finishing a reread of Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

If you like Liar's Poker, you might consider Den of Thieves unless you've already read it. Great story.

I haven't tried Den of Thieves. Thanks for the recommendation.

Flambeaux wrote:I haven't tried Den of Thieves. Thanks for the recommendation.

You bet. I work with some guys who were on the Salomon trading desk back in the day. According to them, it was just as entertaining as the book (Liar's Poker) describes. Even now, most trading desks pride themselves on their locker room antics - typically eating contests and occasionally physical challenges. Inevitably, some 21-22 year-old intern or first-year employee, determined to "impress" the more grizzled, veteran traders, overhears someone talking about one feat or another and pipes up, "I could do X." Next thing you know, someone's taking bets, a crowd of 30-40 people have gathered and the kid's thinking, "Oh crap." Some of the more entertaining events over the years: a guy doing almost 800 push ups in an hour, a little Asian chick eating 30 jelly donuts in 30 minutes, a guy attempting to eat one of every item in the vending machine, a guy eating liver flavored catfish bait and a guy failing to eat an entire chocolate hazelnut cake from Capital Grille. Thing is, there's no upside, because ACCEPTING the challenge in the first place shows poor judgement - so winning becomes irrelevant. Most managers don't like seeing employees they hired expose themselves to the potential humiliation. Fun for the rest of us to watch though, heh.

Anyway, I also work with a bunch of guys who knew Milken and marketed high yield bonds in the 80s. They have some great stories too. I think you'll enjoy the book though. It's written in plain English (as much as possible) and not meant to require a large finance vocabulary. I read it a few weeks before interviewing for my current job (writing high yield research for institutional investors - portfolio managers for hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, etc) back in 2001. Need to read it again.

Nobody can eat fifty eggs.

DungeonDork wrote:Nobody can eat fifty eggs.

Onion cheeseburgers, drums of guacamole...

DungeonDork wrote:Nobody can eat fifty eggs.

Haha, I don't know - but I'm sure someone will try if you pay them enough. We all knew the cake-eater was fucked from the very beginning. I have no idea what made him think it was a good idea. Peer pressure, I guess? He wasn't even allowed to use utensils for Christ's sake - he had to use his hands! That alone should tell you what these little challenges are really about and why avoiding them is the best policy.

I suppose the physical challenges can SOMETIMES work out for you (so long as you succeed, thereby "proving" you weren't risking anything). The push-up guy's demonstration was pretty impressive. Plus, he made well over a thousand bucks that day. I don't recall the exact formula for payment, but I think he got a buck each for the first 500 (as long as he did at least 500 in an hour) and two bucks for the next 100, three bucks for next 100 and so on. If he didn't reach 500, he owed the other guy $500 or some such nonsense. I can't quite remember how it was structured. I know he made over a thousand dollars that day though. Sweet haul.

DungeonDork wrote:Nobody can eat fifty eggs.

No, but I can crack better than 50 eggs a minute, with minimal to no yolk breakage.
Anybody feeling lucky?

If you guys ever want to see guys get talked into doing some really stupid shit, hang out on a construction site sometime. Oh the stories I could tell . . .

As for books, I caved in, went to my local "cat-piss lady" owned used book store (Foster, you know the one) and picked up the first The Black Company book for $3.00. Can't beat that. Considering the high praise it gets, I look forward to getting into it.

- Wheggi

Wheggi wrote:If you guys ever want to see guys get talked into doing some really stupid shit, hang out on a construction site sometime. Oh the stories I could tell . . .

As for books, I caved in, went to my local "cat-piss lady" owned used book store (Foster, you know the one) and picked up the first The Black Company book for $3.00. Can't beat that. Considering the high praise it gets, I look forward to getting into it.

- Wheggi

That lady creeps me out. Just remember when reading the book that it starts out slow, but picks up considerably starting about a third of the way through.

Just remember when reading the book that it starts out slow, but picks up considerably starting about a third of the way through.

Sounds like fantastic summertime poolside reading. Not on par with the 007 books I'm sure, but when it comes to reading materail in early summer, with a highball glass in hand, is anything?

- Wheggi

I'm reading Lin Carter's pastiche, Journey to the Underground World, which is actually quite entertaining! I know some can't forgive Carter and De Camp for their butchery of REH's Conan, but on his own, writing in a Burroughs pulp pastiche style, it's good fun. I'm also finishing up A Merritt's Ship of Ishtar, which is good, but I don't like it as much as The Moon Pool or Dwellers in the Mirage (the latter being my favorite by AM).

In these sorts of threads, I've never listed the many books I read with my kids, because I don't think you need to hear about The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Magic Tree House, Goosebumps, and the like, but presently I am reading The Hobbit with my 8 yr old.

Ghul wrote:In these sorts of threads, I've never listed the many books I read with my kids, because I don't think you need to hear about The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Magic Tree House, Goosebumps, and the like, but presently I am reading The Hobbit with my 8 yr old.

Don't be too fast to dismiss an interest in children's books. I'm a huge fan, and feel the genre is the most creative (art-wise and story-wise) in existance. In fact, it's always been my more ambitious dream to write and illustrate a children's book. I have the thing written, and tons of sketches for the art, but its a long ways to go. Designing kids books makes designing dungeons feel like a walk in the park!

Kids 'get it' better than we ever can as adults. While most adults' creative tolerance levels are hedged by knowledge, common sense, concerns of how we'll be perceived by others and an stubbron need to adhere to genre, children are not limited by such confines. They can accept that animals can talk, cloth puppets are both friends and authority figures, the moon is accessible to anyone with a tall enough ladder, or that their bedroom can transform into a night forest. That's why I've always looked to my kids for ideas, because there's are the best.

- Wheggi
NOW PLAYING ON RADIO WHGI: "Jealousy" by The Flower Kings

Bought The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in the Dallas airport and started reading it on the plane-ride home. Got a pretty decent chunk read during the flight but have barely glanced at it since

I finished the M.W. Wellman and Naomi Wolf books. I'm still reading Mythus, off and on, and I also started looking at Mythus Magick. I haven't started a new non-gaming book, yet. I'm thinking about starting Hiero's Journey.