Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 1, 2021 – Yesterday’s Times included the review of a “big picture” book, just released, written by British anthropologist David Wengrow and the late American anthropologist (and “anarchy activist”) David Graeber. By “big picture” I don’t mean large illustration. I mean a book that makes you question what billions of us have taken for …
OCTOBER 20, 2021 – If you hadn’t heard of Mike Duncan . . . now you have. He’s the self-proclaimed “history geek” who narrates a 179-episode podcast, History of Rome. He’s produced another series on Revolution, which I found riveting just as riveting. His study of revolutions inspired his definitive biography of Lafayette, whose full …
OCTOBER 15, 2021 – Given the inner calm I’d achieved by avoiding “breaking news,” I worried about the detrimental effect of reading Peril by veteran journalist Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, national political reporter for The Washington Post. The flap copy starts with, “The transition from [You-Know-Who] to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as …
SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 – Long ago, Barnes & Noble maintained a large store in downtown Minneapolis. At lunchtime on most workdays, whether I was grabbing food, running errands, or enjoying a rare power lunch at Murray’s Steakhouse, my office-return path took me to Barnes & Noble. Often, I made the bookstore my only destination over …
APRIL 10, 2021 – Recently, I cleared a stack of books from one nook of our house and deposited them in another cranny. In the process a thin paperback escaped my grip and fell lightly to the floor. It was The Amateur Emigrant by Robert Louis Stevenson. On the cover was an illustration of the …
MARCH 3, 2021 -The big news on an otherwise slow news day: six Seuss classics banned for life. My reaction? Hmm. I’m an acknowledged American “leftist” (the equivalent of center-right in much of good ol’ Europe), and anyone reading my posts knows how I feel about the need for racial justice in the Disunited States …
FEBRUARY 16, 2021 – I have a dream that one day, every white person I’ve heard decry urban violence attributed to “Black Lives Matter” will read Taylor Branch’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Parting the Waters – America in the King Years 1954-63. Yesterday I read the 63-page chapter, “The Montgomery Bus Boycott,” a detailed account of the …
FEBRUARY 6, 2021 – The Contest by Michael Schumacher (see blog posts, 1/17 and 1/22) tells about Bobby Kennedy’s encounter with two young volunteers for his opponent, Gene McCarthy. The run-in was at the airport in Indianapolis early in the morning after the state’s Democratic primary. Kennedy offered to buy breakfast in exchange for conversation. …
JANUARY 18, 2021 – I’m a third of the way into The Contest – The 1968 Election and the War for American’s Soul by Michael Schumacher. As members of my family can attest, the book is so riveting, I had to “sneak read” during someone else’s protracted turn in a late-night card game. The book’s …
DECEMBER 30, 2020 – One of the books I’ve been reading lately is The Warmth of Other Suns – The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. The bookmark is approaching the index, and I will miss this book—and its characters—after I’ve finished. The title was lifted from a poem by American writer, …
NOVEMBER 13, 2020 – To distract myself further from the news, yesterday evening I watched the 2001 German film, As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me. It’s based on an allegedly true story, later fully debunked, about a German POW sentenced to 25 years in a post-World War II gulag prison camp on the …
OCTOBER 22, 2020 – Last night I finished reading Barbara Tuchman’s Stilwell and the American Experience in China – 1911 to 1945 (See my 9/3/20 post). Her thesis: America’s wartime policy toward China was a failure, and the outcome would’ve been more beneficial to our long-term interests had we not continued to back “G-mo”—Generalissimo Chiang …
OCTOBER 20, 2020 – Yesterday I launched my annual “bud-cap” operation in the tree garden. The work protects pine sapling leaders from foraging deer once the snow flies. The bud-caps are 4 x 6 paper folded over the leader and stapled in place. Conditions were perfect, and I bud-capped 292 trees. The operation continues today—before …
OCTOBER 8, 2020 – The inscription reads, For Eric, Who shares my interest in writing. With fond memories, Ruth “Ruth” is the mother of Jeff Oppenheim, my closest friend in college. The inscription appears inside the cover of her memoir, Beyond Survival, which I received Monday. By yesterday afternoon I’d devoured the book, savoring every …
SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 – If human affairs in this country seem to be spinning out of control, they’ve got nothing on China during most of the 20th century. I’m re-acquainting myself with China’s historical chaos, misery and outrages by way of a re-read of Barbara Tuchman’s Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911 – …
AUGUST 13, 2020 – Yesterday I left the Red Cabin late. I had a dental appointment back in Minneapolis, three hours away, and was cutting it close. A client’s early morning curveball had detained me. I’d need to follow up immediately after my teeth were cleaned. With ignition, the radio yanked me into the middle …
AUGUST 9, 2020 – Early on I was destined for Ayn Rand Land. One of my grandpas was “Ragnar,” the name of the hero-privateer in Rand’s best-seller, Atlas Shrugged. My other grandpa was a businessman. My dad was an arch-conservative, meaning my mom had to go along. Then the kicker: my oldest sister, an intellectual …
JULY 21, 2020 – On the porch recently, my wife and I were immersed in novels by Lisa See; stories about modern China. In each, the Cultural Revolution figured prominently. “When did Mao take over?” My wife asked, breaking the silence. “1949,” I said. Silence returned. Coincidentally, days later an acquaintance dropped off a book. …
JULY 14, 2020 – I’m not talking here about delusions inside the Naked Emperor’s head, accepted or acquiesced in by his supporters and enablers. I’m thinking of books labeled and acknowledged as full-on fiction. Over decades, my desultory book-reading career has involved mostly non-fiction. “With so much to know about the non-fiction world,” I’d say, …
JUNE 30, 2020 – I must confess. Over the years, I’ve often skipped the introduction to many a book I’ve read or attempted to read. “Why an ‘introduction’?” I’d silently ask every time. “If it’s important enough to include, why not incorporate it into the book itself?” Often written by someone other than the author, the …
JUNE 24, 2020 – I’ve never liked John Bolton, and now I like him less. Burned by the Naked Emperor, he decided to get even instead of mad. What’s “even” does little good. In an interview on the Late Show, Bolton said he wouldn’t vote for Trump in November but wouldn’t vote for Biden either. …
MAY 23, 2020 – Last night I hit the halfway mark of a “pre-galley” copy of my bro-in-law’s memoir, That Time of Year. I don’t want to prejudice the three, four people who have been assigned the task of critical review of the work . . . you know who you are; if you’re reading …
MAY 5, 2020 – The most influential book of my life is If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss. This book still fires my imagination as no other . . . literature . . . does. The story: A happy-go-lucky kid named Morris McGurk plays by the high, rickety, wooden fence surrounding a vacant …
APRIL 27, 2020 – Earlier this month (See 4/5, 4/6 posts) I wrote about the classic, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I mentioned that Don Simón Rodriguez, the boyhood tutor of Simón Bolívar, El Libertador, had said of Defoe’s classic, “Everything you need to know is in this book.” I’m now three-quarters into the account …
APRIL 17, 2020 – Yesterday evening my book club gathered via Zoom. Up for discussion was The Plague by French existentialist author, Albert Camus, winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature. It had been selected by the physician of our group, the inimitable Ravi Balasubrahmanyan. (Decades ago, I learned to spell his name by …