WATCH ME VIA ZOOM:  You can register here to watch my talk–“Why We Walk on Eggshells”– at Cornell University via Zoom.  The talk–which will be live and in person at Cornell’s Statler Hall in Ithaca, New York–takes place tomorrow–Monday at 5:30 p.m.  If you’re in the area, please come.

I checked out Ithaca’s weather this morning.  The expected low on Monday is just 8 degrees (though the high is expected to be a balmy 25).  I’ve been searching my bureau here in San Diego for a pair of woolen socks.  I’m not sure I’ve owned any since I live in Chicago in the 1980s.

OH, YEAH, AND IF YOU MISSED LAST NIGHT’S VERY LATE SHORT:  A Light In Time.

“ELECTED.”

FROM BLAKE SMITH:   A Kingdom of Glass: A Novel of The Garia Cycle.

In a kingdom of secrets and silk, one girl must choose between duty and her heart.

Zara has spent eleven blissful years in the sun-drenched kingdom of Garia, where she rides free across a vast grassland, shoots her bow beneath starlit skies, and calls her foster family’s castle home. But when a royal summons arrives, her golden world shatters like spun glass.

Thrust into the cold, formal courts of the East Morlans—a realm of rigid etiquette and deadly politics—Zara must navigate an arranged marriage to a stranger, reconnect with a family she barely remembers, and survive the unforgiving world of noble society.

Gone are the warm winds and open skies of her beloved home. In this land of marble halls and suffocating tradition, every word is measured, every gesture scrutinized, and falling in love might be the most rebellious act of all.

As court intrigue swirls around her and threats close in from every side, Zara must discover who she can trust—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to reclaim the freedom she left behind in the endless plains of Garia.

Some cages are gilded. Some prisons are palatial. But Zara’s heart belongs to the steppe.

Perfect for fans of court intrigue, swoon-worthy romance, and heroines who fight for their own destiny.

SURE, HE WENT TO LAW SCHOOL AND HAS PRACTICED LAW FOR ALMOST TWENTY YEARS, BUT HOW MUCH TIME HAS HE SPENT ON WIKIPEDIA?  Naval Lawyer Delivers a Kill Shot to the Left’s Uproar Over Trump’s Airstrikes on Narco-Terrorists.

MORE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FALSIFICATION:  There’s a old joke about looking for your lost keys in the dark near the lamppost because that’s where the light is. In this case it seems that BioNtech deliberately sabotaged one lamp so regulators would look under the other one and, amazingly, find nothing. Now if you shine a spotlight near the sabotaged lamppost all kinds of interesting things appear:  Layman’s description of RNA:DNA hybrids. An intentional game of “Hide the Ball”.

TLDR: ECONOMIC MODELS ARE TRASH AND PEOPLE THAT THINK THEY CAN USE THEM TO CONTROL AN ECONOMY ARE DELUSIONAL:  Rolling the Economic Dice.

ON SALE FOR 99c : Other Rhodes (Rhodes Mysteries Book 1).

Remember, if you buy for delivery on Christmas Day to someone’s kindle? They’ll never know you bought on discount!

When Lilly Gilden discovers a cyborg in her airlock, she should turn him in for immediate destruction—harboring any cyborg means death, no exceptions. These abominations are born from violent, illegal brain extraction, forbidden across all human colonies. But this tortured soul believes he’s Nick Rhodes, a legendary detective from the 20th century, and his fractured mind may hold the key to finding her missing husband.

The penalty for harboring him is execution, but Lilly is desperate. Her husband vanished while investigating a case that leads straight into the galaxy’s most dangerous criminal networks. With time running out and nowhere else to turn, she makes a fateful choice: trust the half-mad detective trapped in synthetic flesh.

Joined by a mysterious journalist with secrets of his own, Lilly plunges into the shadow world of interstellar crime syndicates, corrupt officials, and deadly conspiracies. As the cyborg’s detective instincts clash with his deteriorating programming, Lilly must navigate a web of lies and violence where one wrong move could cost her everything.

In a universe where love is the ultimate liability, how far will she go to bring him home?

A pulse-pounding sci-fi thriller that blends classic detective with high-stakes space adventure—perfect for fans of cyberpunk mysteries, noir whodunits and interstellar romance.

OPEN THREAD: Saturday night’s alright for blogging.

SHAKEDOWN STREET:

FROM ERIC S. RAYMOND, A POLITE WARNING: