phil ringnalda

One of John D. MacDonald’s favorite devices whenever he wrote about organized crime was to set two rival families at each other’s throats, while the police would sit back and enjoy the fireworks, knowing that by the time both sides decided they were exactly even, that killing that numbers runner perfectly balanced the killing of the other muscle, both sides would be irreparably damaged. I’m not sure who our police are, though.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth is mostly notable for being long, but I’ve always like the saying from the sharklike banker species: “Pointing at the mud on another’s fins won’t improve your own swimming.”

Every time I think about categorizing my blogroll, or try to remember why I added someone, I come to the same conclusion: I like generous people who produce things, and explain things. Not because they explain why they are right, or because they explain why someone else is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again. Because they produce things, and explain things.

I’m going away for a long offline weekend. When I get back, as usual, I’ll be looking for things that generous people produced, and people’s generous explanations of things that are hard to understand. See you then, I hope.