Perhaps because it's in the Drinking Issue, Cornel Bonca's review of Paula L. Woods' new novel Strange Bedfellows (featured in Selected Reviews from the Weekly on the sidebar) reminded me both of my own experiences with bad novels and my favorite quote from one very good novel, Waguih Ghali's Beer in the Snooker Club:
What do people who do not drink do on such occasions? Face the facts perhaps. But facing a fact is one thing, and overcoming it is another. Cognac was going to overcome the facts.
Police State: Politicians of both major political parties who are frightened by police unions have written laws that give police incredibly wide latitude to use force against citizens and keep their own wrongdoings secret. And, of course, police departments routinely grab even more power for themselves. Case in point: buried in a Los Angeles Times article this morning on police misconduct at a MacArthur Park immigration protest was a jewel straight out of a Philip K. Dick novel. In 1996, LAPD w
