Vacation Book Report #4

Mistler's Exit by Louis Begley

*** 1/2 out of five

I read Louis Begley's Wartime Lies when it first came out but hadn't read any of his later novels. I did not know that he wrote About Schmidt (later made into a memorable film with Jack Nicholson and Kathy Bates).

Mistler's Exit is a short book, about a powerful New York adman who had just learned he has terminal cancer. Rather than tell his wife and son, he takes a solo trip to Venice where he is somewhat surprised to find he is never alone. It's beautifully written. Definitely the point of view of a rich powerful man, which is interesting to me because it's so other. Enjoyable.

Vacation Book Report #3

A Million Little Pieces (2003) by James Frey

0 (nil, nada, nothing, zero, zilch) out of five

I was aware of the controversy about this book, that the author sold it as a nonfiction account of his six weeks in rehab, but much of it was either totally aggrandized or completely made up. It was on the shelf here in the library so I read it. What a piece of crap. The guy makes himself the hero of his own rehab. Despite having succumbed to the terror of what he calls "The Fury", the rage that rules his life and sends him careening down the road of addiction from age 10 to age 23, suddenly in rehab he becomes all Mr. New-age, Tao-Te-Ching-reading, stand-up tough guy who irrevocably quits drugs and alcohol by sheer willpower alone, eschewing AA. Right. The conceit became larger as the book went on and he went from vomiting scumbag to righteous saviour of others.

Frey writes in a very stylized way. Every paragraph (many of which contain only a word, or a sentence) is left-adjusted. There is no punctuation other than periods, and many sentences would be marked as "run-on" by a sixth-grade teacher. There is a breathless quality to the whole book which makes me see how Oprah could have been conned. Read The Smoking Gun's take-down for the truth of Frey's little memoir.

Now that I've read it, I want my six hours back.

On to the next book.

Vacation Book Report #2

Today's book is The Ladies' Man by Elinor Lipman (1999)

** 1/2 out of 5

A light frothy romantic comedy of a novel, true to the blurb on the back which compares her writing to a 'wryly perfect New Yorker cartoon'.

Perfect for a short-attention span vacation book, although my attention did flag a few times. The book is written almost exclusively in dialogue which kept making me think of turning it into a Broadway play. The kind of dialogue that is never actually spoke in real life, smart arch sentences, clever, no stumbling or filler words.

Vacation Reading List

OK, I know I said I was going on hiatus, but you know what? I lied. I have a access to a computer and I am reading up a storm. So, here's the first book I read on my vacation:

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family (2001), by Patricia Volk

Rating: ***** (five stars out of five)

I love books about food and this is a great book about food and family. Volk's family ran a series of restaurants in New York City from 1888 to 1988, but this book is more about her amazing family. I loved it. I laughed and I cried. And I drove Coach Mom crazy by interrupting her book several times to read her the parts that made me laugh out loud.

A favorite passage:

Maybe you've heard of my Aunt Ruthie. She's the woman who was taken hostage in her Bronx apartment by an ex-paratrooper on August 4, 1990. It was a hot night. She left her bathroom window open. Jose Cruz climbed in and held Aunt Ruthie at gunpoint for seven hours. BRAVE, the Daily News ran under her photo on page 1. YIDDISH CHARM NAILS SUSPECT, said the New York Post. He ate all her plums, a wedge of Jarlsberg, and three nectarines before the police exchanged her for two cigarettes.

"When you go to prison," Aunt Ruthie counseled him, "Take out some books. Learn a different profession. It's important in life to get hold of yourself."

Gooch Rerouted to St. James Park

Contrary to previous reports (shame, Sports Illustrated), Oguchi Onyewu has signed with the Magpies of Newcastle. He won't play with Franck Ribery, but he will play with Obafemi Martins, and he may play with Michael Owen (swoon).

International Herald-Tribune: United States defender Oguchi Onyewu joins Newcastle on loan

SI: Gooch joins the Toon
U.S. defender Onyewu headed to Newcastle on loan

FoxSports: Onyewu joins Newcastle on loan

Independent (uk): Onyewu eager to make Newcastle move permanent

Hiatus

Heading to the islands, mon, back in two weeks.

Bease!

BBC: DaMarcus Beasley completes the scoring 20 minutes from time as Manchester City book their place in the fifth round

FA Cup third round: Man City 3-1 Southampton

ObamaMania

NYTimes: Barack Obama at his fellow student Bradford Berenson’s apartment, where he watched the 1990 election returns.
Articles on Obama everywhere this weekend. Does he have the greatest press people ever, or did a memo go out amongst the corporate media?

NYTimes (Page 1): In Law School, Obama Found Political Voice

Boston Globe: (Page 1): At Harvard Law, a unifying voice
Classmates recall Obama as even-handed leader

LATimes: Early on, Obama showed talent for bridging divisions

WaPo: Harvard Experiences Sculpt Obama Appeal

WaPo: Obama Excites Entertainment Community

Sunday Times (uk): Secrets of Obama family unlocked

Just For Laughs

Bob Geiger: The Saturday Cartoons

And a bonus laugh: WaPo: Norm Coleman Injured in Dumpster Dive

Gooch Lands

SI: Oguchi Onyewu was a key member of the U.S. back line at last summer's World Cup.
FotoSports/WireImage.com
In France, where he will sign for Olympique Marseille. One of his teammates will be Franck Ribery, the exciting young French striker. Good luck Gooch!

Goal.com: Onyewu Set For Marseille Switch

SI.com: Onyewu to Marseille
French giants reportedly land coveted U.S. defender

SoccerTimes.com: Onyewu move to Marseille is completed.

Racist Injustice in Douglas County, Georgia

ESPN: If he had accepted the plea bargain, Wilson would've had to register as a sex offender and wouldn't have been permitted to live in the same house as his younger sister.
ESPN covers the Genarlow Wilson case. Look at the case they found to compare to his situation:

The position of Barker [the judge] and the district attorney, McDade, who refused to comment, is that Wilson is guilty under the law and there is no room for mercy, though the facts seem to say they simply chose not to give it to Wilson. At the same time this trial was under way, a local high school teacher, a white female, was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student -- a true case of child molestation. The teacher received 90 days. Wilson received 3,650 days.

This is a disgrace.

So, Did You Listen to Chimpy McFlightsuit Last Night?

Wonkette

I didn't bother, because when his lips move, I know he's lying.

Actually, blogger Greg Palast has discovered a Bush tell:

He sticks the tip of his tongue out between his lips. Like a little boy who knows he’s fibbing. Like a snake licking a rat.

In his State of the Union tonight the President did his tongue thing 124 times — my kids kept count.

If you want to see a real speech, written by the person who is giving it, watch Sen. Jim Webb's Democratic response. Crooks & Liars.

The real good news? Legislators in New Mexico have started the impeachment process. Drip, drip, drip, let's wash Bush out of our hair. Chimpeachment, baby.

News Round-Up, January 23, 2007

Stories I didn't get around to this weekend, in no particular order:

Yesterday was Blog for Choice day (see photo, above). Why am I pro-choice? Because I believe women are equal and free. In order for women to be equal and free, we have to have the right to make decisions about what happens to our bodies. It's that simple. Digby nails the argument.

Steve Clemons at the Washington Note asks Bill Richardson, do you have a problem with inappropriate behavior towards women? Making lewd gestures to women. Jeez. If I worked with him, I'd already have been fired for kicking him in the jewels. Welcome to the 21st century, Bill.

Scooter Libby is using the Marion Barry defense: "Bitch set me up!" The bitch being Karl Rove.

The NYTimes sez, lower your cholesterol the old-fashioned way, with niacin (vitamin B).

The NYTimes also has a ridiculous article peddling White House spin about how involved Chimpy McFlightsuit is in editing his speeches. Right. The guy doesn't like to read, but he's a great editor.

The US has created a new superbug, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, in Iraq; according to Wired News, 700 US soldiers have been infected to date.

The WaPo ran an attack-piece on the front page this weekend about the sale of John Edwards's house; TPM has been following the blow-back.

Steve Gilliard's News Blog moved. Note to self, update bookmarks.

Cheney is a Synonym for Warmongering Chickenhawk Moron

Sorry for lack of posts, I went to a family wedding this weekend and now am laboring to glaze my work for a sodafiring Friday.

For entertainment today, I recommend reading Liz Cheney's (yes, daughter of Dick) op-ed in today's Washington Post. Then read the hundreds of comments. 46 pages of 'em right now. Here's mine (page 22):

Fact-free BS masquerading as opinion in the WaPo. First off, Lieberman isn't a Democrat -- he's a member of the Lieberman for Connecticut Party. Second, winning is no longer an option. The time for winning was when we invaded Iraq, based on lies, with a too-small force and a ridiculous strategy conceived by the stupidest foreign policy team in the history of the United States. We're just enjoying the fruits of being greeted as liberators, like your idiot father said. Why is the Post letting the idiots who got us into this mess tell us how to get out? Why not give a column to someone smart, oh, someone like Scott Ritter, or Al Gore, or a liberal blogger, or any of the smart people who said, there are no WMD, this whole thing is being made up by Cheney and PNAC, the British tried this 80 years ago and it didn't work, why don't we stick with the real problem which is Al Qaeda and bin Laden and forget about secular Hussein? Oh, that would hurt your cocktail party reputation. Got to stay in the Kewl Kids Klub. Thanks for nothing, WaPo.

Charity?

dailykos: Salvation Army's War on the Poor

The Salvation Army is evicting low-income women from two buildings in Manhattan that were donated to the Salvation Army specifically to provide housing 'for women of modest income'.

The Salvation Army also discriminates against gays and lesbians. Send your charitable donations elsewhere.

Extremes

I keep telling people, global warming isn't just about warm weather. It's about more and more weather extremes as we lose the delicate balance of our temperate world. Witness, the past few days in Europe:

LATimes:
Huge waves lash into the port of Wimereux, northern France.
(AFP/Getty Images)

LATimes: 27 die in fierce European storms
High winds and heavy rain damage buildings and cancel flights.


It snowed in Malibu this week -- yep, that Malibu, surf city, Malibu Beach, sunny southern California: LATimes: Expected thunderstorm becomes snow and hail


Icicles cover oranges in a grove along Victoria Avenue in Riverside.
(Irfan Khan / LATimes) Jan 17, 2007

It's Hard to Keep Up

From Overheard in New York:

All I'm Going to Say Is That the First One Is Free

Old JAP: Alan, I'm thinking about upgrading my phone. I hear good things about the Blackberry, but will that be compatible to send emails to my friends with Crackberries?

Alan: Ummm, I'm not going to bother explaining, but yes, they are compatible.

--Kosher pizza place

Deja Vu: My Personal Financial Information Hacked - Again

First my alma mater, Boston College, then my hometown newspaper, The Boston Globe,, now Marshalls/TJMaxx:

The Consumerist: TJ Maxx & Marshall's Hacked, Tons Of Credit Cards Stolen

Boston Globe: TJX credit data stolen; wide impact feared

RIP Art Buchwald

When I was a kid, my parents used to read the Art Buchwald columns out of the paper and laugh uproariously. He had a wicked sense of humor, in a good way.

NYTimes: Art Buchwald, 81, Columnist and Humorist Who Delighted in the Absurd

WaPo: Newspaper Columnist Art Buchwald Dies at 81

Editor & Publisher: A Visit With Art Buchwald: 'Tell Them to Just Keep Writing'

Wikipedia: Art Buchwald

Gates Foundation to Review Assets for Social Responsibility

Reacting to the series in the LATimes, the Gates Foundation has announced that it will conduct a review of its assets to assess whether they are socially responsibility. Hooray, investigative journalism!

Hat tip to the Technology, Health & Development blog, which left this news in comments.