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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1917 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 20, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I tried a couple Poirot short stories recently. Not super impressed. Sherlock Holmes if he only had 10 pages to work it out. Not that there aren’t some redeeming qualities, but it didn’t wow me at all.

My wife and I are continuing our tradition of reading aloud before bed. We started with Wodehouse but the current novel is Chandler’s The Big Sleep. My God, this is incredible. Marlowe just sort of stands around until people get uncomfortable and either leave the evidence or try to kill him. And there are so many hilarious phrases.

Least expected feature: Los Angeles. I always assumed noir was a New England thing.

Chandler is a very good writer. Less cynical in a way than Dashiell Hammett, but the amount of corruption in the police he describes (and which seems to be pretty historically accurate) is breath-taking. You can tell an honest cop because his clothes are shabby and he looks poor. But that's how business is done in LA!

He has a way with language, I think my favourite bit is "crazy as two waltzing mice" but there are plums in all the books.

She had lovely legs. I would say that for her. They were a couple of pretty smooth citizens, she and her father.

I can’t say why this one hit me so hard. It’s so stupid. I love it. Material for the Lyttle Lytton contest.

But the best scene so far has been the four-way confrontation in some jerk’s apartment.

I hit Agnes on the head with less delicacy than before, kicked her off my feet, and stood up. Brody flicked his eyes at me. I showed him the automatic. He stopped trying to get his hand into his pocket.
"Christ!" he whined. "Don't let her kill me!"
I began to laugh. I laughed like an idiot, without control. Blonde Agnes was sitting up on the floor with her hands flat on the carpet and her mouth wide open and a wick of metallic blond hair down over her right eye. Carmen was crawling on her hands and knees, still hissing. The metal of her little revolver glistened against the baseboard over in the corner. She crawled towards it relentlessly.
I waved my share of the guns at Brody and said: "Stay put. You're all right."
I stepped past the crawling girl and picked the gun up. She looked up at me and began to giggle. I put her gun in my pocket and patted her on the back. "Get up, angel. You look like a Pekinese."
I went over to Brody and put the automatic against his midriff and reached his Colt out of his side pocket. I now had all the guns that had been exposed to view. I stuffed them into my pockets and held my hand out to him.

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