OPINION: The road to fascinating reading by Nevada writers starts here – The Nevada Independent

OPINION: The road to fascinating reading by Nevada writers starts here

This holiday season, give the gift of gritty insider accounts, compelling history and poetic beauty from Silver State scribes.

By John L. Smith, December 14th, 2025 at 2:00 AM

Opinion

Cars drive along the Las Vegas Strip on Aug. 2, 2025. (John Locher/The Associated Press)

Nevada’s literary road winds through fascinating country, some of it rough and rutted and much of it seldom seen by the tourist and tenderfoot.

At this time each year, I like to take a road trip through that rich and strange land and offer a few reading suggestions. Just remember, as that old sign of a bygone era warned travelers on the edge of the known world, “Beyond this place, there be dragons.”

And speaking of dragons, Anthony Cabot’s Casino Redux: Unveiling the Global Casino Network of Chinese Organized Crime is a sweeping compendium of stories about the use of casinos from Las Vegas to Macau for the purposes of money laundering and political influence.

Cabot, the longtime Las Vegas-based gaming law expert and author, knows his material and presents it in a straightforward style that sends a clear message that should alarm anyone concerned about the blending of the underworld and upper world in business and geopolitics.

It’s hardly a spoiler alert that many of the stories emanate from or lead back to the Las Vegas Strip, whose titans have long paid lip service to the fight against money laundering while managing to profit from the movement of illicit cash across the green felt. For those of us who have studied this subject and continue to investigate it, it is a welcome addition to the canon.

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Many of these stories have been told publicly, but their collective weight is a ringing reminder that overwhelmed Nevada regulators are under pressure to fight to maintain the credibility of an industry that traditionally hasn’t been overly motivated to do that for itself.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: OPINION: The road to fascinating reading by Nevada writers starts here – The Nevada Independent

#FascinatingReading #Nevada #NevadaWriters #Opinion #PoeticBeauty #Scribes #SilverState #StateOfNevada #TheNevadaIndependent #Writers #Writing

Scribes may have intentionally altered the pronunciation of God's name, according to research. The goal was to prevent non-Israelites from uttering the sacred name, believing it was too holy for them. #Yahweh #God #Scribes #Research #Hebrew

I am unable to tell the difference between a photographer and a copyist.
#photography #photographers #cameras #copyists #stenography #stenographers #scribes

@brettezeleliquide this is suitable for the #fediverse :awesome:

"Thoth, as the embodiment of wisdom, and the art of writing, was the patron of scribes." https://egypt-museum.com/statuette-of-thoth-as-ibis-bird #art #writing #scribes

Explore the heated debate as we delve into accusations against Jesus by the Scribes! Witness the clash as they question the source of his power to cast out demons. Is it divine or demonic? Join us to uncover the truth! #Jesus #Scribes #Accusation #Jesus #Scribes #Accusation #ReligiousDebate #BiblicalStory #DemonCasting #Faith #Gospel #Christianity #Theology

20 Essential Tools of a Medieval Scribe https://www.medievalists.net/2025/03/essential-tools-medieval-scribe/ #medieval #scribes #MiddleAges

I had forgotten how eloquent Rebecca Krug is:

Late medieval women in England “were involved in literate practice at least in part because it served male-dominated social hierarchies, especially the patriarchally structured medieval family." YES!

(From Reading Families: Women's Literate Practice in Late Medieval England)

#literacy #LiteratePractices #Writing #scribes #medieval

"Ruling a page is not like 'taking a line for a walk'; it is an attempt to control ahead of time the more freehand lines of writing..."

I feel this every time I try to use a blank journal!

#scribes #copying #MiseEnPage #ShapeThePage

Daniel Wakelin, Immaterial Texts in Late Medieval England

The #Pharisees and #scribes saw Jesus' #disciples eating with unwashed hands.

#Mark explained how Israelites washed their hands before eating according to the traditions of their elders.

The Pharisees et al challenged Jesus about this.

Jesus chastised them in terms of Isaiah 29:13, elevating human traditions to the level of commands.

Jesus then taught that nothing that enters a man can defile him, only that which comes out.

Ancient Egyptian Scribes Suffered Ergonomic Injuries

The scriveners of ancient Egypt were more than papyrus pushers, but they suffered many of the same repetitive ailments as desk jockeys today, a new study suggests. #Ancient #Egyptian #Scribes #Suffered #Ergonomic #Injuries

https://telecastindia.in/ancient-egyptian-scribes-suffered-ergonomic-injuries/

When I feel the loss of the network I had on Twitter, it's especially because of things like this.

Just discovered that Sara Charles has a book coming out THIS AUTUMN!! To my knowledge, she doesn't have a Fedi account, so I'll just enthuse about how she combines her medievalist academic work with hands-on practical explorations of the scribal arts. This will be one of my rare sight-unseen/unread purchases.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-medieval-scriptorium-making-books-in-the-middle-ages-sara-j-charles/21203672?ean=9781789149166

#bookHistory #calligraphy #scribes #medievalArt

Ancient Egypt had an ergonomics problem =O @artnet #egypt #scribes #ergonomics https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ancient-egyptian-scribes-back-pain-2507600

Word Search Puzzle 951

Word List : #caltha #osteoids #atli #befret #droll #gabbart #scribes #inark #behatted #evolute #uppuff #cabildos #burger #biome #elektra #awane #symplast #geezers

http://karafinance.com/2024/02/28/word-search-puzzle-951/

One of the things that early medieval Insular #scribes did brilliantly is to use the shapes of letters to create elegant combinations that look completely natural. In this half-uncial script, the ligatured "gn" in "cognosceris" makes a new graphic shape - which looks beautiful because it seems to flow from the pen.

Durham Cathedral Library MS B.II.30, 10r @medievodons @histodons #palaeography

Could #Jesus Read and Write?

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzQ0MTYxNS9yc3M/episode/Nzk4MjkyMzAtMjA1Mi00OTZlLWIwNDEtMmViYzc1MDU4ZGMx?sa=X&ved=0CKcCEM-BB2oXChMIwJ-H0euxggMVAAAAAB0AAAAAEAE

Nearly everyone today assumes that Jesus could #readandwrite. But is that historically plausible? There is only one story in the #NewTestament where Jesus is shown to be able to read (#Luke4) and he is never said to be able to write (except in the story of the Woman Caught in #Adultery that was added by #scribes only later #John7-8).

#christianity #christian #cult #atheism #apologetics #atheist #NT #history #bible #ancient #literacy

THEY Rewrote the ENTIRE THING | #BartDEhrman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkYDi7pKCtE

#Bible #christianity #apostlePaul #BartEhrman #Myths #mythology #NT #biblical #BibleHistory #scribes #scholar #atheism

I was reminiscing earlier about how my Sanskrit tests had bonus questions with sentences that you wouldn't expect. Example:

"The giraffe ate the king."

You'd expect it to go the other way around.

Now, let's assume a text was written in a way that was deliberately designed to shock the reader. Maybe in this text, giraffes really ate kings.

Now think about the scribes that copied this text. Would they read about the king-eating giraffes and decide that a fly had been squished in the wrong spot on the manuscript? Let's correct this. "The king ate the giraffe." There!

I can also imagine us in the West when we receive these texts, wanting to do the most charitable reading of the text, and ending up "correcting" things that don't need correction.

Note that I have no proof that this happened, no idea, nothing. I'm just engaging in a thought experiment.

What if some old sage took some psychedelic substance, had a trip and dictated his trip to a scribe? How much "sanitization" would the scribe do, and then later copyists, and then us?

#manuscripts #scribes #copyists #antiquity

#TIH #OTD 10 Sep 1482: Death of Federico da Montefeltro (b. 1422 Jun 07), lord of Urbino. He commissioned the construction of a great library, then perhaps the largest in Italy after the Vatican, with his own team of #scribes producing #manuscripts in his personal scriptorium. #BookHistory #MedievalManuscripts
@bookhistodons @medievodons

Hmm, so a twenty minute paper should be about 2000 words (especially as many of my audience are second-language English speakers and don't need me gobb(itt)ing away at fast speed... so, maybe, just maybe, i shouldn't have just added what appears to be a 600 word excersus into an interesting aside ;)

I'm presenting in Cologne on Thursday about the production of a 9th-century #Lombard #lawbook (Vatican, BAV, MS Vat. Lat. 5359) and the interactions of the #scribes who shared the writing process!

#BookHistory #MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #Scribes #Palaeography #Codicology #Memes #HistoricalMemes
@bookhistodons @medievodons