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Watching the Olympics helped keep me from the “publish” button on a political related post over the weekend but also from a few other things. The relatively lengthy political post now appears simply as one of the items below rather than a full blown rant.
- One of the things I missed was that Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union won the Hugo Award for Best Novel over the weekend, as well as the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. In a year in which I actually read all five Hugo finalists, I don’t know that it would have been my pick but don’t find the win surprising.
- My kind of spirtuality: The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen.
- Kudos to Homeland Security for actually having a blog post — including comments — about border laptop searches and seizures, including linking to the actual policy on it.
- How do you do on the Foreign Affairs Professional Reading List? I can say I have one — count ’em, one — on my bookshelves but that I haven’t read yet.
- Orwellian or Kafakaesque? Bush gives a speech saying we’re fighting extremists by promoting “freedom and liberty” as an alternative, the administration says that “the hateful ideology of the extremists by promoting a more hopeful alternative, one based upon freedom and liberty.” Just days before, his administration announced even if Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, had been acquitted, he would still be considered an enemy combatant and remain detained at Guantanamo. Oh well, more fodder for Students for an Orwellian Society.
- As long as we’re on the political, what does it say for conventional wisdom when Wal-Mart and Sears shoppers are in the Bush/McCain camp and those at Marshall’s and Bloomingdale’s are in the Kerry/Obama camp?
- I guess this is what most addicts would say but I don’t know how much rehab I need for my “sordid, needy addiction.”
- Not surprisingly, things in the hockey world are slow in August. How slow? Well, The Hockey News has resorted to ranking USHL team logos. At least the Stampede took second and that was to a brand new logo.
The good of a book lies in its being read.
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
One of the things that intrigued me on our Baltic cruise was the large number of wind turbines, including offshore ones, we saw around Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Now it looks like a wind turbine — or at least a small one — is coming to within about a half mile of my house.
Memorial Middle School is one of eight South Dakota schools selected to participate in the Wind for Schools program. At this point, I am a big supporter of using wind energy, particularly given the amount of wind we have in the state. At the same time, I know some oppose it because of noise complaints, conservation and aesthetic concerns, and whether it actually helps with either base or peak load given the wind doesn’t blow all the time or on demand. (Although I do recall growing up that all my farming relatives had and used windmills.)
Perhaps the size and the fact it will be half a mile away (although certainly visible) from my house makes it easier for me not to be a NIMBY (“not in my back yard”). Maybe that will change with experience but so far it strikes me that wind-generated power has less adverse impact than continued reliance on fossil fuels. So, I am kind of look forward to the turbine’s installation and use at the school.
Give me the restless power of the wind
“Power,” No Nukes
The cover story of the latest ABA Journal is the 25 Greatest Legal Movies. I’m not at all surprised at that top two but was very pleasantly surprised that My Cousin Viommy ws third. I never tire of this movie, which contains perhaps the most concise opening statement ever: “Everything that guy just said is bullshit. Thank you.”
Since I can’t resist a list like that, here’s my record on viewing the films. The ones I’ve seen are in bold and I’ve underlined those I think I’ve seen but don’t recall for sure (it sucks to be old).
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- 12 Angry Men
- My Cousin Vinny
- Anatomy of a Murder
- Inherit the Wind
- Witness for the Prosecution
- Breaker Morant
- Philadelphia
- Erin Brockovich
- The Verdict
- Presumed Innocent
- Judgment at Nuremberg
- A Man for All Seasons
- A Few Good Men
- Chicago
- Kramer vs. Kramer
- The Paper Chase
- Reversal of Fortune
- Compulsion
- And Justice for All
- In the Name of the Father
- A Civil Action
- Young Mr. Lincoln
- Amistad
- Miracle on 34th Street
For anyone wondering why I haven’t seen the three films in the top 15 I’ve missed, I can explain two by saying I am not a fan of Julia Roberts or musicals.
[H]e’s the Prince of fucking Darkness.
Mickey Morrissey (Paul Newman), The Verdict
I don’t know if it’s because of the current main library renovations, the fact the city is planning a new branch library on the west side of town or the glut of recent news stories nationally about how library usage picks up during s economic downturns. In any event, I participated in a telephone survey over the weekend on spending for public libraries.
Although there were a significant number of questions, they fell into three main categories: whether you consider public library services as essential as the fire or police department, whether you would be willing to pay more taxes to better support public libraries and whether you think your local public library is doing a good job. Not surprisingly, my answers were at the strong end of the “yes” range on each issue.
I don’t know where the survey firm was from or whether the survey had anything to do with Sioux Falls. [After initially posting this, I discovered a study of library support in America released in June by the Online Computer Library Center. Many of the questions it used are very similar to those I was asked so perhaps the survey is ongoing.] I did, though, get a kick out of the reaction when I answered the question about how many times I’d visited the local public library in the last 12 months. When I said probably at least 24 times, the man conducting the survey asked in a unquestionably surprised tone, “Really?”
Of course, given the fact I’ve been to the library twice in the last five days, maybe I underestimated.
The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
Kurt Vonnegut, I Love You, Madame Librarian
There’s been a slight modification to the blog. For a couple years I’ve had a page of my “to be read” stacks. I decided to remove it because I’m very bad at keeping it up to date and also somewhat embarrassed to see how long some books have been on it. It’s replaced with a page modeled after the desert island discs concept (and page on this blog.) With truly innovative titling, it’s the Desert Island Books page.
About a year and a half ago I culminated some “A to Z” book posts with an all-time top 10 list. As I noted then, that list is likely to change depending on when I made it. I decided to create the new page to allow the list to reflect books read more recently and changes in perspective.
The only change so far is that Dorthea Dieckmann’s novel Guantanamo has replaced William Manchester’s A World Lit Only by Fire. (Although, interestingly, the book I read immediately before Guantanamo, Per Petterson’s Out Stealing Horses, also got serious consideration and may make the list yet.) Since I read Guantanamo earlier this year, the designation may be premature although seems to fit with several other books on the list.
I still have no clue what the list reflects about me or my tastes. I just know these books made a significant and lasting impression.
His thoughts had run off and he had gone after them.
Dorothea Dieckmann, Guantanamo
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