C&F
Although you can skip the political chapters, which is handy.
If you haven’t read it already, The Spiral Dance by Starhawk. Very mind expanding.
My daughter gave me that book. I’m not sure exactly what she was trying to tell me. Maybe she was suggesting a new career as there have professional farters who could “play” simple tunes by farting. Since I’m retired I don’t really need a new career but maybe some of you out in whistleland could take it up.
Steve
My suggestions…
lets go for the obvious first…the entire Sherlock Holmes cannon by A.C. Doyle!!! 
Not what many might consider mind expanding, but if you read them enough you take away a few new skills…
Also fun is the How Green Was My Valley series by Richard Llewellyn…
How Green Was My Valley
Up, Into the Singing Mountain
And I Shall Sleep
Green, Green My Valley Now
If you’re in the mood for some lighter fiction, The Lord of the Rings is always one of my quick-read favorites. There are new lessons to be had with each reading–I try to get through it at least once every year.
That’s if you like some fiction…
If you fancy a bit o’ non-fiction, I just read 1776 by David McCollough last month…even if you’re not an American, it’s and interesting character study into George Washington and the near failure of the American Revolutionary War campaign of 1776.
If you like a bit of technical drivel, Tuning the A-Series Engine by David Vizard is most educational, even if you don’t own a car with an A-series engine (Mini, A.H. Sprite, MG Midget, MG Metro, about any Austin/British Leyland car 1960-1980) it’s still very educational if you want to know a few things about internal combustion engines…
as far as auto tech manuals, David Vizard is probably the most knowlegable author out there.
(Edited for deferred spelling)
Strange; women look better in pants, and men look better in skirts. Who’d a thunkit.
I recommend Home From Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler, if you want some non-fiction. Kunstler makes a good argument for profound change in American design philosophy.
Not me.
I suppose it really depends on who’s wearing the kilt… I don’t do it any justice. 
I recommend anything by Charles de Lint. A good one to try first is [u]The Little Country[/u], since it is a stand-alone novel rather than part of a series. De Lint writes what he calls “mythic fiction”: novels set in modern times, but containing strong elements of myth, magic and music. His main characters are often (usually, in fact) women; and, for a male author, he does an incredible job of writing female characters. (Even my wife says so.)
Cheers,
John
The Wasp Factory by lain Banks
And swarf is the word. I asked three different fitters and turners at work!
Yes, but no less than Phil Hardy himself calls it smarf (or at least, that’s what he called it in an email he sent to one of our members). And, as I said, we discussed this at length in another thread and concluded that smarf is correct.
Please go back to work and explain to the fitters and turners that they’re using the wrong word!
Best wishes,
Jerry
And all this time I thought the word was “grease”…
This from Webster’s New (1996; whatever) Universal (right) Unabridged (okey-dokey) Dictionary, FWIW:
swarf (swôrf), n. An accumulation of fine particles of metal or abrasive cut or ground from work by a machine tool or grinder. [1560-70; < ON svarf, akin to sverfa to file, or continuing OE geswearf, gesweorf.]
Smarf: no entry. Maybe the word’s too new yet. 
By the way, my sources tell me that “smarf” is an Ulster smurf.
Oh, and Jerry, I only just took up this thread again from this page; sorry I missed your challenging --albeit ever-reasonable-- entry on the 2nd page. I would have crossed terminologies with you all the sooner. I had no idea I’d started such a tempest over such a little word!
My God, you people are dense. Give it a rest, willya?
The word is SMARF!!!
Fergodsake, I read about it on CHIFFANDFIPPLE!! And you think you can cite fringe, fanaticist, agenda driven references like Webster’s “dictionary”? Hmmph. Not a credible debating tactic at all. Trolling, that’s all it is. Just trying to keep an argument going for sheer argument’s sake. I wasn’t born yesterday, ya know.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=29988&start=0
Best wishes,
Jerry
Here’s your Ulster smurf, or “smarf”:
…hurley stick and all.
Aha!!!
Now I see the error of my ways.
So this is what Phil Hardy removed from Stewy’s whistle:
I can imagine how having that inside a whistle would mess up the voicing.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Yes, it would seem to have possibly been a case of tweaking gone very, very wrong.
I hope he got the sliotar out, as well. If that little ball is still inside, it’ll sound like a referee’s whistle.