Craftily arranged nouns, verbs, and more.
As my regular readers know, writing Roll the Bones has been taking up most of my time for the past few months. I’ve shared a few of the insights I’ve learned, but for the most part I’ve kept the project under wraps. Today I reached a significant milestone, so I’m making an announcement: I’m two-thirds […]
I know that I write frequently about Roll the Bones, my forthcoming book with Gotham, and I’m always referencing
While double checking the list of new arrivals from the Gambler’s Book Club against the UNLV catalog, I came across a singular title:Casino Cafeteria. This gem has the alternate title: What you always wanted to know about casino gambling but were to [sic.] intimidated to ask. It is allegedly “a smorgasbord of standard and unusual
“I don’t want to be the one to call it the dumbing down of Britain, but I think its the dumbing down of Britain.” –Warren Lush, chief oddsmaker at Ladbrokes, on the huge upswing in novelty betting on everything from televised talent shows to whether someone will live to be 100. You can read the
Daily Quote for 2/7/05 Read More »
gambling & culture, writingBen Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House, the story of the MIT count team, has sold a lot of copies. But, it seems, it’s not that popular with high school librarians. Still, kids in one Oregon high school will still be free to read the book for an assignment.
Bringing down the school district Read More »
writingI always tell my students that history has three components: source documents, without which we would have nothing to write about; historical writing, which puts the raw material of the past into context and makes it relevant; and readers, without whom the whole exercise would be fruitless. You write books because you want people to
GRUB STREET. A street near Moorfields, formerly the supposed habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers: hence a Grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures books for the booksellers. Read more: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Captain Grose
1811 slang, 01.12.05. Read More »
writingI found something neat on gutenberg.org while looking for a few older texts–a complete dictionary of vulgar underworld slang from 1811. Since it’s a slow news day, I’m going to regale you with a few words: FAT CULL. A rich fellow. TO VOWEL. A gamester who does not immediately pay his losings, is said to