Billenkoek

By John Brown | December 5, 2016 - 10:23 pm |December 5, 2016 Blather

So I lived for almost two years in the Netherlands and Belgium and learned the Dutch language, which is full of delights. Today’s delight is billenkoek. Now koek means cake. A koekje (small cake) is a cookie. Boterkoek is butter cake, this delicious sweet, to-die-for Dutch version of shortbread. So what does billen mean? Back →

I need your insight!

By John Brown | July 5, 2015 - 10:21 pm |July 12, 2015 Blather, John's Reviews - books, movies, whatever

2 Comments

Last year I posted about a service I’m working on to get ratings on books for sex, violence, and language. I posted similar thought about YA books in “Since When Did Young Adult Become The Cure For Cancer?“. I’m back. I did lots of customer discovery last August in an effort to see if book →

What Vox Day Believes

By John Brown | April 14, 2015 - 9:00 pm |September 9, 2018 Blather

152 Comments

I just had a conversation with the devil. Well, from what people have been posting, he seemed like the devil. But I know how the internet can be. Mitt Romney at one time was the devil. Now, I think he’s been degraded in those quarters to janitor of the hot place. Yeah, that one Romney →

Is Sad Puppies the right strategy?

By John Brown | February 7, 2015 - 9:24 pm |February 22, 2015 Blather

20 Comments

There are a number of great science fiction and fantasy authors who feel that the Hugo awards have become irrelevant because the folks voting–only those who are members of Worldcon–do not represent science fiction and fantasy fandom. Brad Torgersen describes it with this Venn diagram. But this is not only about the fact that the →