The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Winter Vacation: Day 1
First of all, after I posted that I was bringing four back issues of Vanity Fair, I found three more under my travel computer case. So make it seven. On the full day of travel, I took out one of them and read an entire book.
A Separate Country, by Robert Hicks
Robert Hicks wrote Widow of the South
After the war, General John Bell Hood settled in New Orleans and married a nice young Creole lady. Had eleven children, made and lost a fortune. Died in poverty of yellow fever along with the wife and their oldest child. The novel imagines that life and Hood’s search for redemption. It is told from three perspectives – Hood, his wife, and a young man who was left an orphan after the Battle of Franklin.
Civil War backdrop, New Orleans, multiple points of view, and redemption. What is not to love? Well. It did get a bit gory, which you can’t easily skip over in an audio copy. But the production was great. The three narrators did multiple voices and accents and kept them up fairly well.
There are several interesting supporting characters and some philosophical questions. The big one is – what do any of us really know about each other? Do we only see what we want to see in people? Does it matter? I don’t think I am doling out any spoilers to say that the character Paschal was set up by his friends as a rather Christ-like figure in the narrative. Eli Griffin, the young narrator, starts to pull on a thread of that theory and it started to unravel. That was well done.
I am pretty sure I will read anything Hicks writes.
Heading Out
Somewhere, in the last day or so, I read that Chicago has gotten 50+ inches of snow in each of the last four winters. That breaks a record or something. I thought, “Huh. I don’t remember last year being that bad. The year before that was bad. And the year before that was bloody terrible.”
Well, Hello. Last year was the first time that I ever took a real, live, mid-winter vacation. And I am going back tomorrow.
Don’t try to rob my house. I have a dog, a cat, a mother and a security system.
I am bringing the Kindle. Four back issues of Vanity Fair. Four DVDs that I haven’t watched yet (which only puts a dent in the stack). And an audio book. That ought to do it.
Blanket Three
Third Project Linus Blanket:
You can’t tell from this horrible picture, but those colors are Purple, Dusty Purple and Linen from the Lion Brand that Vanna White promotes. Each block is one skein and they actually came out even. I used a larger hook which is why I finished it so quickly. That and the blizzard. Again, I finished with two rows of the Linen color around the edges:
I will not be taking any craft projects with me on vacation, so I am glad I got this finished.
1776, by David McCullough
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0743226720&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrBook 6
1776 has been in my library for years and is an example of a book where I really should have read the jacket first. It was described as a companion piece to McCullough’s biography of John Adams. Of the miniseries I watched not too long ago. 1776 follows Washington and the Continental Army throughout that epic year. I had been hoping for a bit more of the politics and a bit less of the blood.
I found an audio copy at the library, read by the author. Totally digging that.
There is plenty to be learned here, but I started to find the battlefield campaign stuff rather tedious. I guess that military history isn’t quite my thing – I don’t feel like I know Washington any better than I did before. Except for the fact that he really, really didn’t like New Englanders. Not sure I wanted to know that.
The descriptions of the Battle of Brooklyn are pretty brilliant. I kept thinking about how scary the Hessians were – and wasn’t the Headless Horseman a Hessian? Double scary.
The Crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton were set up nicely as the make-it-or-break-it stunt. I either hadn’t know or had forgotten that timing was of the essence because the enlistments were up at the first of the year. On the big long list of reasons that we needed a victory was that Washington was going to have to talk his men into re-enlisting. Pretty smooth.
This piece is really worthwhile. But I am not sure I could have buzzed through it had David McCullough not been reading it to me.
Recording the Event
I did not take pictures of the Blizzard of 2011. OK, fine. (walks to the window with a phone.) Here is one. Just to prove I was here. From my bedroom window, you can see the snow drift going almost to the top of my four-foot fence. The drifts were justs as high in front of my garage and my front door.
Yesterday, my office was closing early, so I called my dentist to see if my appointment was still on. It was. I arrived early and they took me early. When I walked out the door, the blizzard was in full swing. It took 45 minutes to drive the three miles home.
I live in a cul de sac, so there are three snow plows required to get us out. The big village truck goes down the length of the street. The little village truck does the circle. And we contract with a guy to do the driveway. The village trucks came at regular intervals. The driveway guy came at 2:30 a.m. There have been six or eight inches since then.
I woke up at about 5:15, confirmed that my office was still closed, and went back to sleep. Turned on the WGN and the Facebook at about 7am to hear about all of the people that had been stranded overnight. My friend Matt left his office in the city at 8pm and went to northwest station. He got home at 2:30. Tammy’s car died and her heat went out.
I called the rescue at 9am or so. Apparently, even if I got off my own street, I couldn’t get on to theirs. I tried to shovel, anyway. And decided that I need a snowblower. So I called every hardware store in a 20 mile radius – and every Target – and no one has any left.
11:30ish the cabin fever really hit. I was going out. I knew Target was open, anyway. I got my car out just fine, but the garage didn’t shut properly, which gave us a big scare when I arrived back home. I think it’s ok, though.
Target was awesome. And creepy. I saw exactly two staffers and two other customers. I nearly ran into a guy turning a corner and for two seconds, I could have sworn that he was a zombie and I was going to die.
I had to take a detour on the way home, as the plows were doing their thing, so it was a bit of a tour of North Glenview. Except for a few cars that were still stranded on the streets, it didn’t look too bad. But the best part?
McDonald’s was open. I love my McDonald’s.
So. Two feet of snow. Serious snow drifts up against my house and the fence. But assuming the plows finish up and the salt trucks get around tonight, we should be in good shape for tomorrow. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why I still live in Cook County.
The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood
I picked up this title when I realized that I hadn’t read any Atwood at all in 2010. This was the first novel that she wrote, but it wasn’t published until years later.
Marian, a modern young lady of the 1960s is working a dead-end job and dating a lawyer that has some kind of personal crisis and asks her to marry him. Because he is the prototypical perfect man, she accepts. But her subconscious is telling her that something is wrong, which manifests itself physically when one by one, she finds herself unable to eat certain foods. It starts with meat.
She starts hanging out with a really weird guy that is beyond self-absorbed, but at least honest. Duncan likes to live in a fantasy-land and as she is getting married anyway, she is perfect for him right that minute. There is also a subplot with a single roommate getting pregnant on purpose.
I spent most of the book thinking there is not one likable character there. Then Duncan started to grow on me. And by the end, I sort of empathized with Marian. A little.
For a first novel, it wasn’t bad. Sort of self-consciously trying to make a statement. It seemed less dated toward the end, also. But seriously, this is so far gone from The Blind Assassin
Financial Happiness
MSN had a good article: 5 Financial Habits That Will Make You Happy.
The article opens with a statistic that I heard no long ago:
“happiness rises as household income does up to about $75,000 ..but beyond that more money won’t make you happier”
I still don’t know how I feel about that one. Anyway. None of the five habits ticked me off – in fact I actually find them all to be true. My favorite is #1:
“Get Pretty Organized.”
Personally, I can’t manage to get really organized. I am too lazy to make a budget and too spoiled to stick to it. Example:
One trick my sister-in-law, Becky, uses is to grocery shop only every two weeks. To do that, she has to plan meals for two weeks together. I saw the list and was totally bewildered:
“But what if you don’t want that for dinner tonight?”
“Too bad,” was her answer. I have nothing like that kind of discipline.
I can, however, manage to stick receipts in a file folder. Archive e-mails. My taxes are always in order. I can tell you that I spent $1,500 on gasoline in 2010. American Express says so. I feel better now.
Bloody Crimes, by James Swanson
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0061233781&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrBook 4
Bloody Crimes, by James Swanson, is an example of a book that I would not have gotten to any time soon if I hadn’t been trying the audio thing. I really liked Manhunt
The production part was pretty good. iTunes didn’t have the tracks labelled with text the way the Coehlo did, but the transitions were better. Richard Thomas was the narrator and he was very good. Although I rather wish he had taken a shot at some Southern accents. Dude was quoting Jefferson Davis quite a bit.
So. The book opens by doing some compare and contrast in the lives of Lincoln and Davis. That was cool. It follows Davis as he “strategically retreats” from Richmond, and Lincoln as he camps out at the front. Dispatches from Lee, discussions with Grant and Sherman..all good stuff.
Then we get to surrender and assassination and who got which message and when. Suddenly, Life Before Internet seems very isolated. And frightening.
Then funeral arrangements and the “death pageant” at the same time that the army is trying to track down Davis. Sometimes, the detail was a bit much – like the list of invoices sent to the White House for the funeral. But some of that was probably in list form in the printed version. Such that I would have glanced right over it on the page.
There were 11 discs for this book and I rather think that is one more than was necessary to tell the story. But it is a really good story.
Science, Schmience
Weekend Assignment # 355: Science!
In this year’s State of the Union address, the President spoke of the need for better education, particularly in math and science, and the desirability of celebrating winners of science fairs – in other words, science geeks. How good were you in science in school?
Extra Credit: Whether or not you were actually good at it in school, how much of a science geek are you now?
The Next Dark Age 