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But not the equal of the Fourth (and not later) editions of Roget's International.

Rebecca, it's no secret I'm a big fan of your story and I'll give it a five-star review when it hits Amazon, but that doesn't mean I'm satisfied in every way.  I was thinking of some things, and I think I see a weakness in what you might call framing.  I'll start the explanation with some illustration.

These are selected verses from the first two chapters of The Ballad of the White Horse, said to be the last great epic poem in the English language.  Leave aside that it is an amazing work, and consider that it deals with a figure of legend.  And although it does not pretend to be an exact history (having other ambitions, made clear in Alfred's prophecy in the last chapter--also amazing writing, but not pertinent here) it has an extraordinary sense of place and time-out-of-time, given in 'His days as our days ran' and 'Before the gods that made the gods ...'.

A very different work, a very different setting.  But note that all of the abstract promises end with a specific time and place.

Okay, how does this apply to you?  You've got a historical setting, and probably some pretty definite dates for a few points.  But the modern reader, ignorant of any history he didn't live through--and probably of two thirds of that!--needs help of a different sort.

The books are yours, and this is just a suggestion, though I think it would help.

I envision a preface, prologue, or preamble something like this:

Obviously, I'm ignorant of what places and names might go here, and the introduction for The Beast must be different.  Note though that you don't have to give exact dates; you need only give a tapestry that sets a tone and evokes a world now forgotten, except in the dusty stacks of old libraries.

I hope this helps, even if all it does is set you thinking on a better course.

For a really superb example of this sort of preamble, see the first two pages of the first volume of Manchester's The Last Lion.  (The last half-page, a breathtaking description, could be summarized as a want ad: Help Wanted: Messiah.  Experience required.  But it loses something in the condensation.)

I've been under the weather since Thursday last.  The clouds are thinning, but they're not gone yet.  I have to catch up on a bunch of things, some of them here, and I'm not going to get to all of them in the right order.  Sorry, but I want to get some ideas out before they give up on me and leave.

It isn't really snow that demands chains or studs.  It's ice, often ice under snow where you can't see it.  Any all-season radial can handle two inches of fresh snow on a hard road, and more if you've got a high-ground-clearance vehicle.  But when the snow is packed, the road surface isn't hard, the grade is quite steep, or the there is running water or ice under the snow, things change.

A tire must provide dry adhesion.  It must provide adhesion with thin and heavy films of water.  It must provide adhesion wet or dry when there is a little bit of oil on the road surface (from fresh bitumen or from engines idling above).  It must drain standing water away when it hits standing water.  It should get some adhesion both on cold ice and on warm, wet ice.  It should have some adhesion on hard-packed snow, and its tread must cut into and grip both mud and looser snow (packing the snow to some degree).  And of course there's slush ... .

It's possible for a tire to excel in some of these areas and stink in others.  I've had such tires: a set of Pirelli's at a very nice price that were superb at everything except snow, and the OEM's on my present Chrysler, which were terrible in the rain.  (I replaced them with a set of Gooyear Assurance for about $50 less a tire and got improvements everywhere--a much better balance between good and bad conditions.  Still not cheap, but I feel they were worth what I paid.  Probably lost about 1/2 mpg.)

In addition, tire manufacturers want the tread to last, because people don't want to replace tires every 15,000 miles any more.  (Pure snow tires get a partial pass on this; when driven in the snow they don't get as much abrasion.)  They try to make general-purpose tires (M+S radials) quiet.  The automakers especially want quiet in their OEM tires because NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) is a major sales issue.  And the automakers want the tires to roll easily, to improve the CAFE numbers.  (Note that the difference between 27mpg and 32mpg in my car can be nothing more than the quality of the bitumen/aggregate surface!)

The modern tire is a marvel in how well it meets all of these requirements, and of course the synergy between mechanical construction and the chemistry of the rubber mix is half High Art and half Black Art.  (See the New Hacker's Dictionary for that last term--and related terms.)

Now here's a challenge:  How does a tire work, structurally?  How is the weight of the car transferred through the wheel and the parts of the tire to the road surface?  This is a good one to chew on.  I posed it to a fellow with a PhD in physics who'd worked in the field.  He solved it overnight--I suspect on the ride home.  Most people take a bit longer.  I think I'll hold the answer for the new year, unless someone gets very warm.

When you blame government, remember that one of the foundation rules of both economics and management is that people respond to incentives. Remember also that when you hire an agent to do or manage something for you, he acts for you until his own self-interest is endangered.  (Economists call this the Agency Problem.)

These two things explain 90% of the problems we have with government doing things.  (You need to add Riccardo's Law of comparative advantage, brilliantly explained in PJO'Rourke's =Eat the Rich=, and a few other things like specialization and economy of scale.)

One Big Pickle

The problem in the Carter years wasn't the mortgage rates.  People plan for those.  It was double-digit inflation with the addition of OPEC oil shocks.  I remember the bumper stickers: FECK OPUC!

Even with front wheel drive, your rear wheels provide stability.  If you spin out, it's not because your front wheels have lost traction; it's because your rear wheels have lost traction.  And yes, I've spun out twice, once at about seven mph in snow over ice and once at highway speed when everyone hit what must have been an oily puddle.  I almost recovered before someone else nearly sideswiped me trying to regain control himself--and that's when I overcontrolled and spun out.

I don't think CFB will appreciate being called a Balrog.  Actually, I don't think he is one.

Per K, why is 'ZIP' code properly capitalized like that?  How did the name get chosen?

Experiencing a schedule shift, aggravated by a throat-and-nose infection.  They won't want to give me an antibiotic until about Tuesday, and I hope it doesn't get into one of my ears.  Last year's did.

Truth is I rarely sleep through.  Typically my bladder wakes me.  Depending on the hour and where I am in the sleep cycle (and how much residual caffeine I'm carrying) I might not be able to sleep for 30 or 40 minutes.

I'm not going to get much done until this bug is over.  I've made a couple of notes on how to work a reversal into the rescue of Merran's father, and I've got a couple of open questions to answer as well as a nice complication to add at some point.

Time to curl back up under the blanket.

See the second Nero Wolfe novel, =The League of Frightened Men=.  (Also the longest.)