This weekend I watched the movie In Bruges, which instantly became one of my favorites of all time. I think anyone who knows me will know my favorite line the moment they hear it. I'll be buying a copy of this one when it becomes available.
29 June 2008
Suite Française
Just finished Suite Française, a novel by Irène Némirovsky. I really liked it. It was mostly about how some upper-middle-class French characters responded to Germany's invasion and occupation of France early in WWII. Excellent writing, great character development, really good stories. Sadly, the first appendix comprises a series of increasingly desperate letters between the author, her husband, and various friends, beginning around the time she was deported from France and murdered at Auschwitz in 1942. (I find that kind of thing tough to read, but I also firmly believe that it needs to be read, and remembered). Her husband followed not long after her, but they never saw each other again after her deportation. Fortunately, their two daughters were hidden from the Germans and so survived the war.
28 June 2008
A Terrible Glory (and some others)
Quite a while ago, my Aunt Nancy suggested that I write about the books I read on my blog. I love to read, and my taste in books is a eclectic (though it tends to run toward non-fiction, historical stuff), so maybe you'll find something interesting in here. I read almost everything on my Kindle, too, so I'll probably add some Kindle-specific stuff in these kinds of posts.
The last book I read on my Kindle was A Terrible Glory, by James Donovan (mentioned in a previous post). I very much enjoyed it, although it does run long so if you're not interested in this kind of history then you might look for something more condensed. The treatment of Custer's demise is pretty cursory, but when you think about it there isn't much to be done about that; nobody in his regiment lived to tell the tale, so we're all a bit light on the details. The book was filled up with all kinds of interesting insight into the life and times of Custer, Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, and Crazy Horse. Thumbs up.
Here's a quick summary of the other books I've read on my Kindle since I bought it, and what I thought of them:
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold: Excellent novel; thumbs way up.
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, by Naomi Wolf: Scary, but a must-read. Thumbs up.
The Ruins, by Scott Smith: A page-turner, as horror novels often are, by an author with a good track record, but... strange. Thumbs up, but maybe in a read-this-on-a-rainy-day-just-for-something-light kind of way.
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely: Very cool book about the irrational behaviors we all display when we make various decisions. Lots of "oh yeah, I do that" throughout. Thanks for the recommendation, Enoch. Thumbs up.
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic, and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson. Excellent book, just the kind of thing I really like, and I couldn't recommend it more highly. Two thumbs way up.
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust. I really thought I was going to like this one, but I just can't say that I did. While it was interesting in spots, I thought it was repetitive, and I thought there was something of an attempt to inject profundity into something that just wasn't that profound. Thumbs sort-of-down.
Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories, by Steven Millhauser: Delightful book, start to finish. Highly recommend it. Two thumbs up.
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam. Very enjoyable book, but here's one where the Kindle falls down a bit. Most of the illustrations (which are kind of important in this book) were a little hard to see, although the author did a much better job of getting the artwork into the Kindle than some others have been able to do. And, when I emailed Dan to suggest making a laminated copy of his codex available on his website, I got no reply. So, with the caveat about the illustrations, thumbs up.
Undertow, by Elizabeth Bear: The rare sci-fi/fantasy entry, and I kind of liked it. Thumbs up.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive, and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath. Great all the way through. Thumbs up.
The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan: I learned so much from this book about the Great American Dustbowl that I was able to look past some of the oddities in the narrative (like simultaneously asserting that there was no food to be had and that there was a huge surplus of crops). Fascinating stuff about a huge, man-made disaster right in our own backyards. Thumbs up.
Duma Key: A Novel, by Stephen King: Well, you can tell it's a Stephen King novel, because it was a page-turner (told you about those horror novels); I remember staying up awfully late one night to finish this one. Beware of the usual Stephen King swerve-into-goofiness. Thumbs up.
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote: So? I never read it before! Liked it. Thumbs up.
Pontoon, by Garrison Keilor: The guy is just a genius. Thumbs up.
Got Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens: Excellent work by a very bright author. I would think this book would be more approachable than Sam Harris's phenomenal End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason for most people, so if you're ready to be a little less dogmatic this is a great place to start. Two thumbs way up.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls. Very enjoyable. Thumbs up.
Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero. And it tells you why we don't, which is interesting all by itself. I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it; eye-opening, really. Dr. Prothero answers his email very politely and thoughtfully, too. Two thumbs up.
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Fun! Thumbs up.
No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. Didn't turn out at all like I thought it would (which is good!), but extremely well written and engrossing. Thumbs up.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer. It's telling that I bet you can't tell from the title alone which faith this book is about. A head-shaker. I learned a lot from this book. Thumbs up.
I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert: Absolutely hilarious from beginning to end. The illustrations were just about useless on the Kindle, though, which was pretty disappointing. Nonetheless, two thumbs way up for this first book I ever read on my Kindle.
Quarantine, by Jim Crace: A Booker prize finalist, and a really great novel. Thumbs up.
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds: Spectacular. Don't get the Kindle edition (I don't even think you can), as the book is just too beautifully done. Everybody who does presentations should read this, and we should work out a system of fines for those presenters who don't. Two thumbs way up.
Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Effective Modeling in RDFS and OWL, by Dean Allemang and Jim Hendler. A much-needed practical book by two talented authors which should help us get Semantic Web technologies and techniques put to use a bit faster. (Not a Kindle book just yet). Thumbs up.
OK, that's pretty much it. There will be more.
The last book I read on my Kindle was A Terrible Glory, by James Donovan (mentioned in a previous post). I very much enjoyed it, although it does run long so if you're not interested in this kind of history then you might look for something more condensed. The treatment of Custer's demise is pretty cursory, but when you think about it there isn't much to be done about that; nobody in his regiment lived to tell the tale, so we're all a bit light on the details. The book was filled up with all kinds of interesting insight into the life and times of Custer, Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, and Crazy Horse. Thumbs up.
Here's a quick summary of the other books I've read on my Kindle since I bought it, and what I thought of them:
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold: Excellent novel; thumbs way up.
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, by Naomi Wolf: Scary, but a must-read. Thumbs up.
The Ruins, by Scott Smith: A page-turner, as horror novels often are, by an author with a good track record, but... strange. Thumbs up, but maybe in a read-this-on-a-rainy-day-just-for-something-light kind of way.
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely: Very cool book about the irrational behaviors we all display when we make various decisions. Lots of "oh yeah, I do that" throughout. Thanks for the recommendation, Enoch. Thumbs up.
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic, and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson. Excellent book, just the kind of thing I really like, and I couldn't recommend it more highly. Two thumbs way up.
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust. I really thought I was going to like this one, but I just can't say that I did. While it was interesting in spots, I thought it was repetitive, and I thought there was something of an attempt to inject profundity into something that just wasn't that profound. Thumbs sort-of-down.
Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories, by Steven Millhauser: Delightful book, start to finish. Highly recommend it. Two thumbs up.
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam. Very enjoyable book, but here's one where the Kindle falls down a bit. Most of the illustrations (which are kind of important in this book) were a little hard to see, although the author did a much better job of getting the artwork into the Kindle than some others have been able to do. And, when I emailed Dan to suggest making a laminated copy of his codex available on his website, I got no reply. So, with the caveat about the illustrations, thumbs up.
Undertow, by Elizabeth Bear: The rare sci-fi/fantasy entry, and I kind of liked it. Thumbs up.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive, and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath. Great all the way through. Thumbs up.
The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan: I learned so much from this book about the Great American Dustbowl that I was able to look past some of the oddities in the narrative (like simultaneously asserting that there was no food to be had and that there was a huge surplus of crops). Fascinating stuff about a huge, man-made disaster right in our own backyards. Thumbs up.
Duma Key: A Novel, by Stephen King: Well, you can tell it's a Stephen King novel, because it was a page-turner (told you about those horror novels); I remember staying up awfully late one night to finish this one. Beware of the usual Stephen King swerve-into-goofiness. Thumbs up.
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote: So? I never read it before! Liked it. Thumbs up.
Pontoon, by Garrison Keilor: The guy is just a genius. Thumbs up.
Got Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens: Excellent work by a very bright author. I would think this book would be more approachable than Sam Harris's phenomenal End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason for most people, so if you're ready to be a little less dogmatic this is a great place to start. Two thumbs way up.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls. Very enjoyable. Thumbs up.
Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero. And it tells you why we don't, which is interesting all by itself. I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it; eye-opening, really. Dr. Prothero answers his email very politely and thoughtfully, too. Two thumbs up.
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Fun! Thumbs up.
No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. Didn't turn out at all like I thought it would (which is good!), but extremely well written and engrossing. Thumbs up.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer. It's telling that I bet you can't tell from the title alone which faith this book is about. A head-shaker. I learned a lot from this book. Thumbs up.
I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert: Absolutely hilarious from beginning to end. The illustrations were just about useless on the Kindle, though, which was pretty disappointing. Nonetheless, two thumbs way up for this first book I ever read on my Kindle.
Quarantine, by Jim Crace: A Booker prize finalist, and a really great novel. Thumbs up.
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds: Spectacular. Don't get the Kindle edition (I don't even think you can), as the book is just too beautifully done. Everybody who does presentations should read this, and we should work out a system of fines for those presenters who don't. Two thumbs way up.
Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Effective Modeling in RDFS and OWL, by Dean Allemang and Jim Hendler. A much-needed practical book by two talented authors which should help us get Semantic Web technologies and techniques put to use a bit faster. (Not a Kindle book just yet). Thumbs up.
OK, that's pretty much it. There will be more.
15 June 2008
Ferguson
Yesterday, Mason and I took my dad to Ferguson, MO, where he grew up. It's a pleasant place, not too far from where we live now. It was really fun to see where my dad used to live, where my mom used to live, and the trail that he took from his house to my mom's house, and all the other houses and schools from his boyhood. We talked about memory, and how it's not always the most accurate picture of what happened. I saw my mom's parents' old house, and it looked so much smaller than I remember it being.
We had lunch at the Whistle Stop, which is a sandwich shop/frozen custard shop/museum in Ferguson's old train depot. While we were deciding what to order, a super nice guy came up to us and asked which one of us was N6QXA. Evidently, he had seen my license plate in the parking lot. I told him that was me, and he introduced himself as being from a local radio club that operates CW (Morse code) out of the museum using the original railroad equipment. I couldn't make heads or tails of what they were sending, because instead of the International Morse Code that I know, they were using the much rarer "railroad Morse" or American Morse Code. They were very excited about it, and so happy to tell people about it, and it was nice to see some people doing that. My dad informed them that when he was a kid he used to go to the depot and watch the telegrapher sending. Evidently, that telegrapher died only recently at the age of 106.
We ended the tour at the Fee Fee Cemetery near Creve Coeur. If you follow the link and zoom in as far as you can, you might see a big sugar maple just northeast of the sourthernmost loop of the cemetery road. That maple tree is just about right in the middle of the perpetual Slater plot, where my dad's parents are buried, and their parents, and some other Slaters as well as some members of the Long family who are also our relatives. A couple of these Longs were Confederate soldiers, as indicated by the prominent "CSA" on their grave markers. One of the Slaters interred there, Herbert T. Slater (1895-1918), died in an interesting way. He and his girlfriend went out on a last boat ride on the river before he shipped out to fight in World War I, and they never saw either of them alive again.
As always, a really great time with my dad. He is so fun to have around. Photo credit goes to Mason Slater, who is also fun to have around.
13 June 2008
Teddy Slater's Best Friend
Today, my dad and Mason and I drove about an hour and a half to Clarksville, MO, to see my dad's father's best friend Kurt Owen. My name is Ted (not Theodore) because my grandfather's name was Harry; his friends all called him Ted. Or Teddy, evidently, as I heard Mr. Owen call him. Mr. Owen is "92 years young." We asked him to what he owed his longevity, and he said same as Mark Twain: he stayed away from hard tobaccy, hard drink, and fast girls... until he was 13 years old. Mr. Owen has let his driver's license expire. He says they don't renew it after you're 91-and-a-half years old, and anyway he has two girlfriends to drive him around when he needs it. He is sharp as a tack, and he has such a great, powerful baritone voice; he must've been able to sing just about anybody under the table back in the day.
Mr. Owen lives on a bluff with an unbeatable view of the Missouri River. The river is actually flooding now, and is going to flood some more in the coming days; people were filling sandbags down by the river, and there was a steady stream of dump trucks carrying sand to them the whole time we were there. When we left, Mr. Owen gave my dad (who promptly gave to me) a metate and mano that has been in the family for a long, long time, since 1900 or so, my dad thought. He remembers grinding some corn with it when he was a kid. Tasty. Remind me to tell you about the time my dad dyed all my underwear with walnuts.
Mr. Owen lives on a bluff with an unbeatable view of the Missouri River. The river is actually flooding now, and is going to flood some more in the coming days; people were filling sandbags down by the river, and there was a steady stream of dump trucks carrying sand to them the whole time we were there. When we left, Mr. Owen gave my dad (who promptly gave to me) a metate and mano that has been in the family for a long, long time, since 1900 or so, my dad thought. He remembers grinding some corn with it when he was a kid. Tasty. Remind me to tell you about the time my dad dyed all my underwear with walnuts.
12 June 2008
Good Stories
Did you ever meet one of those people who just know a million stories? You feel lucky when you meet them and talk to them, because you know there's just no way you're going to get those stories from anybody else. I'm pretty lucky, because my dad is one of those people. He rode his Harley from Socorro, NM, to see us here in Wildwood, MO, and we had a nice dinner with him this evening.
I told him that I was reading a great book called about the Battle of the Little Big Horn called A Terrible Glory, by James Donovan, which I thought he would find interesting. My dad's an anesthesiologist, and we lived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota when he was in the Public Health Service. The Pine Ridge Reservation is an Ogalala Sioux reservation, and it was against the Lakota Sioux and some of the Northern Cheyenne that Custer fought in that Battle. This got my dad telling a couple of stories from the time we lived on the Rez.
The first story he told was about Ben Black Elk, who was Black Elk's son, and who translated Black Elk Speaks to John Neihardt (who was an interesting guy in his own right; my dad used to see him walking around campus at Mizzou in Columbia). Ben Black Elk came in to see my dad as a patient a few times. He told my dad that Black Elk was 13 at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and that he and a friend of his were walking through the dead and wounded soldiers after a fight, scalping them with their dull kid knives. It was standard procedure for dead and wounded enemies to be mutilated by the women and children; one's enemies are not to go comfortably into the afterlife. Ben Black Elk said that his father scalped one soldier who was still alive, the soldier started grinding his teeth. How's that for stoicism?
Another story was about a Sioux named Ben Irving. Ben showed up at my dad's office with all the classic symptoms of diabetes. My dad prescribed some medication for him, and Ben came back after a while feeling a lot better (which, according to my dad, is what they always do). Ben was effusive in his thanks, telling my dad how much better he felt and everything, and he reached out his hand to give something to my dad. Dad was thinking that Ben had some interesting Native American craft or something, and that he was going to have to say something about not being able to accept a gift like that. What Ben put in my dad's hand was all of his urine test strips showing his good blood sugar results. Ben must've been awfully proud of those things.
One thing about Ben Irving was that he was kissed by the Queen of England. How that happened was that it turns out that Ben was the Littlest Indian in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. One performance was attended by Her Majesty, and at one point a couple of her guards went out and lifted the Littlest Indian from his pony and brought him to be kissed by the Queen. That is definitely something to tell the grandkids about.
My dad didn't tell this story this evening, but it's one that I've always liked because I think it changed my history. One time my dad was helping some Indians on the reservation break a horse. He said that at one point when the horse was really kicking, he saw one of the horse's back hooves come right up toward his forehead. Luckily, it didn't hit him (I can tell you from experience that those animals can really kick hard). But later that evening when he was home, he happened to look in the mirror and he noticed a red horseshoe-shaped mark right in the middle of his forehead.
Mitakuye oyasin.
I told him that I was reading a great book called about the Battle of the Little Big Horn called A Terrible Glory, by James Donovan, which I thought he would find interesting. My dad's an anesthesiologist, and we lived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota when he was in the Public Health Service. The Pine Ridge Reservation is an Ogalala Sioux reservation, and it was against the Lakota Sioux and some of the Northern Cheyenne that Custer fought in that Battle. This got my dad telling a couple of stories from the time we lived on the Rez.
The first story he told was about Ben Black Elk, who was Black Elk's son, and who translated Black Elk Speaks to John Neihardt (who was an interesting guy in his own right; my dad used to see him walking around campus at Mizzou in Columbia). Ben Black Elk came in to see my dad as a patient a few times. He told my dad that Black Elk was 13 at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and that he and a friend of his were walking through the dead and wounded soldiers after a fight, scalping them with their dull kid knives. It was standard procedure for dead and wounded enemies to be mutilated by the women and children; one's enemies are not to go comfortably into the afterlife. Ben Black Elk said that his father scalped one soldier who was still alive, the soldier started grinding his teeth. How's that for stoicism?
Another story was about a Sioux named Ben Irving. Ben showed up at my dad's office with all the classic symptoms of diabetes. My dad prescribed some medication for him, and Ben came back after a while feeling a lot better (which, according to my dad, is what they always do). Ben was effusive in his thanks, telling my dad how much better he felt and everything, and he reached out his hand to give something to my dad. Dad was thinking that Ben had some interesting Native American craft or something, and that he was going to have to say something about not being able to accept a gift like that. What Ben put in my dad's hand was all of his urine test strips showing his good blood sugar results. Ben must've been awfully proud of those things.
One thing about Ben Irving was that he was kissed by the Queen of England. How that happened was that it turns out that Ben was the Littlest Indian in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. One performance was attended by Her Majesty, and at one point a couple of her guards went out and lifted the Littlest Indian from his pony and brought him to be kissed by the Queen. That is definitely something to tell the grandkids about.
My dad didn't tell this story this evening, but it's one that I've always liked because I think it changed my history. One time my dad was helping some Indians on the reservation break a horse. He said that at one point when the horse was really kicking, he saw one of the horse's back hooves come right up toward his forehead. Luckily, it didn't hit him (I can tell you from experience that those animals can really kick hard). But later that evening when he was home, he happened to look in the mirror and he noticed a red horseshoe-shaped mark right in the middle of his forehead.
Mitakuye oyasin.
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