Something for everyone

Well, my advance post of yesterday was accurate, but decidedly incomplete. Not only did Amazon announce earlier today an impressive new color Kindle, the Kindle Fire, to compete in the growing tablet computer market, but it's also offering three (count 'em, three) new e-ink Kindles, as well.

Also impressive, across the board, are the price points. The sharp new Kindle Fire will go for a mere $199, and the most economical of the new e-ink Kindles will sell for the bargain-basement price of $79.00. And most of the other Kindle models will be priced only a little higher than that, especially if you choose the ad-sponsored versions of each new Kindle.

Needless to say, I'll be writing more on today's announcement by Amazon, but for now do yourself a favor and acquaint yourself with these sharp new products by visiting Amazon's web site. The product descriptions and demo videos are already up and ready for you to absorb.

Amazon's new slew of Kindle products will go on sale in November, with the exception of the $79.00 Kindle, which is available immediately (and will cost a little more than $79.00 if you decline the "special offers" ad-sponsored version of the device).

Finally, the various versions of the Kindle 3 (until yesterday, the latest model Kindle, and the one I only got around to reviewing on this site a couple of weeks ago), is not being discontinued. Re-dubbed the Kindle Keyboard and the Kindle Keyboard 3G, these Kindles will still be available for those stubborn souls who still like a physical keyboard on their Kindles. Who says that Amazon isn't full service?

Pictured with this post is the new $199 Kindle Fire. Cute, huh?

Heads up

Amazon will hold a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday, September 28), and rumor has it that the reason for the event will be to announce the coming of the Kindle Fire, the new backlit, color Kindle that will go on sale in November.

Like Barnes & Noble's color e-book reader, the Nook Color, the Kindle Fire will be able to perform a wide array of functions either not doable or easily performed by the regular e-ink Kindle, functions such as web surfing, playing videos, etc. Despite these added functions, however, the Kindle Fire will still be heavily oriented toward buying and reading e-books (again, like the Nook Color).

Also strongly suggested in the rumors is that the Kindle Fire will not replace the standard e-ink Kindle (the latest version of which is the popular Kindle 3), just be a new Kindle product offered to customers, specifically those customers who have been clamoring for a backlit, color e-book reader from Amazon.

Anyway, we'll know tomorrow how much of the above is correct. But for now, Kindle Taproom readers are at least aware of the buzz that's out there!

More silliness

Okay, it's time to move on to more adult concerns, but first, as promised, I'll quickly post a bit of silliness entitled, Jokes You Can Tell Your Kids, Part Two. And then we'll be done with it.

What do you give a seasick elephant?

Plenty of room.

* * *

What did the shy pebble say?

I wish I were a little boulder.

* * *

What do you get when you cross a lake with a leaky boat?

About halfway.

* * *

How do you keep a skunk from smelling?

Hold its nose.

* * *

Why did the lady blush when she walked past the chicken coop?

She heard fowl language.

* * *

That's it for now, honest. Still, you might want to try out a few of these on your kids. You'll probably give them a laugh or two.

Silliness

Let's put the sophistication and adult cynicism away for a while. For now, it's time for Jokes You Can Tell Your Kids, Part One. Let's take it away...

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?

He didn't have the guts.

* * *

Why is the sand wet?

Because the sea weed.

* * *

How do you make antifreeze?

Hide her nightgown.

* * *

How do you make an elephant float?

Two scoops of ice cream, some root beer, and an elephant.

* * *

What do cannibals do at a wedding?

They toast the bride and groom.

* * *

More to come! But not many more, I promise.

Charming spot

Ocean City, New Jersey's Ocean Manor complex consists of several historic buildings bought up over the years by the Ocean Manor people and made into vacation accommodations for daily and weekly visitors to Ocean City. Alison and I stayed overnight at Ocean Manor Saturday night into Sunday, September 17 to 18. While some people would undoubtedly find the place to be a little tired and weathered, we enjoyed the "seashore of the past" feel to it. And besides, the staff was friendly, the place was clean, and our mini-suite, located only a block from the beach, was less than $100 total for the night.

The first photo shows the facility's 1920's-era main building, which was acquired in 1979. As summer is pretty much over, this building was recently closed up for the season.



We actually stayed in the building seen in the second photograph, which is located right across the street from the main building. More recently acquired by Ocean Manor, it's not quite as historic but definitely still has that old-time feel to it. This building will still be available to shore visitors for another week or two, before it, too, closes for the season.



In case you're interested, Ocean Manor is located at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and 11th Street in Ocean City. Just think of the movie Ocean's 11 to remember its location.

The seashore was quite nice this past weekend, by the way. It was cloudy and a little chilly, but that didn't overly impact a few enjoyable walks on the boardwalk. There was even an exciting airshow, utilizing bi-planes and other historic craft, held in the skies over the beach and boardwalk on Sunday afternoon, September 18. It was a nice little bonus to an already pleasant mini-getaway.

Heroes and fans

The Kindle Single, Comic-Con Strikes Again!, drops readers right in the midst of the biggest comic book and multi-media convention in the world, letting us enjoy through the author's eyes all the rabid fandom, costumed craziness, relentless (and more sophisticated than I thought) efforts on the part of producers and publishers to create or expand interest in their intellectual properties, and- most of all- the heady mixture of intensity, fun, and weariness that comprises the San Diego Comic-Con experience.

Reminding me of the kind of long, meaty article to be found in my Sunday newspaper's magazine section, Comic-Con Strikes Again! is well worth its modest price for both readers already familiar with the whole convention-going thing, or curious outsiders. Douglas Wolk wrote a fun, informative article, and I look forward to his future writings about the entertainment industry and its fans.

Comic-Con Strikes Again! is available on Kindle for 99 cents.

Hard traveling

Without ever becoming self-consciously dreamlike, Cormac McCarthy's fine post-apocalyptic novel The Road, nevertheless effectively delivers a virtually unrelenting nightmare, as it tells the story of a beaten-down father and son making their way over a burned-out, blighted landscape in a probably vain attempt to improve their grim lot.

The book will probably reach you on one or more levels: as a survivalist tale; a post-disaster science fiction story (a kind of literary, more serious Mad Max), or simply as a drama about a family and how a huge outside force affects its internal politics. At various points, the book engaged me on each of these levels. Also, if you want to look for it, I suspect there's a lot of metaphor and religious imagery in The Road, too, though I pretty much focused on the book's primary (to me, anyway) facet: that of being a plain but strong story, simply told.

And for those of you who hate preachiness in their novels, don't worry: there's no obvious, clunky message, either from the left or right political spectrum, concerning how the Earth of the book got into its grim predicament, or what could have prevented it. The book is more subtle than that, and the characters have more immediate concerns to worry about than how things got the way they did.

However, though I was fascinated and engaged by the novel from beginning to end, it's nearly unbroken stretch of grim, grey scenes, the frequent discoveries of an increasingly horrible nature by the two main characters, and just seeing the Earth so ruined by an unnamed global disaster, made me glad that The Road wasn't a terribly long book. I'm glad I got in and out of it fairly quickly.

A movie adaptation of The Road now exists, too, and many fine, talented individuals took part in its creation. But I think I'll take a little break before experiencing this memorably grim, sad story a second time.

The Road is available on Kindle for $11.99.