Sunday, November 30, 2014

AOL, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION

Your readership, naturally, has a diversified range of interests for your news with pictures. However, it has become quite lopsided.  Many sports addicts prefer one click for just sports. Others may prefer scantily dressed female celebrities. Believe it or not, some like the morbid stories you report. Scientific discoveries fascinate many, even if they don't know much about science. The food stories need their own click. And so does Health. But more readers probably go for NEWS, especially international news, than anything else. Well, maybe real NEWS is second, for sports seem to be taking over. How about celebrating BOOKS, for a change? Or architecture? Or churches? Or just beautiful, sweet little babies? 

For a few days right after 9/11 you seemed to take life seriously. But it didn't take long for you to change, as if 9/11 didn't happen. The least you can do, is get sports out of the real news and let its devotees look elsewhere. 

Saturday, November 29, 2014

READERS IN FRANCE

What a surprise to find this morning 67 of the day's readers are in France! I can only conclude the interest lies in the blog about General Patton. He must have been both loved and hated by the French. That is the way war is: the winning side must destroy the innocent to defeat the evil. Patton was killed in Germany and was buried in Luxembourg. His body could not be brought back to the States and his widow would one day be denied her burial beside her husband. Eventually the family transported her ashes secretly and scattered them over the general's grave. 

If you haven't yet purchased Killing Patton, ask Santa to bring you a copy of it. You never know when you might be chosen to appear as a contestant on Jeopardy. You will learn much from this book.

Friday, November 28, 2014

TWO CHRISTMAS STORIES 

Two Christmas stories your children must hear and it won't hurt you to hear them again. Or your older children to hear them again. Both are available on film, but that is not what I'm talking about. I mean you should read these aloud to your children no matter what their ages are. These stories are Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Valentine Davies's Miracle on 34th Street. A Christmas Carol is a novelette and that means short. Davies wrote Miracle on 34th Street after the film was made but I do not remember if it is a novelette or not. 

I suggest reading Miracle early in the season, before doing your last-minute Christmas shopping, and Carol the night before Christmas. Allow no eating during the reading, and take everything seriously. I wish I could join all of you for this treat.

Monday, November 24, 2014

THE VOTE IS IN

The National Book Award for fiction went to Phil Klay, winning over four other finalists including two from Idaho. 

Klay's book is called Redeployment, a "debut collection of searching, satiric and often agonized stories by an Iraq veteran." You can find a handsome photo of him on your computer. 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

A STORY ABOUT A STORY

This same lady about whom I wrote a few minutes ago offers this one too. She had read the ex-war prisoner's story and told me it was the best thing she'd ever read of this sort. That may be true and when she asked me to read it, I agreed to do so. I have read many true war accounts, and quite a few of this variety. Thousands of these get written by veterans and they never get published. The authors usually never know why not publication. Little do they know that it isn't the story that sells the book, but the vocabulary and what the author can do with that. (Seldom does the story give such promise that a publisher will buy and have staff rewrite it in suitable vocabulary.) I am expected to write something about this story and I will, beginning with all the good qualities I see. I won't say much about the other, except to mention he needed an expert editor before he published. It's really too sad that everyone couldn't have had my fifth grade teacher and therefore know the correct usage of sit/set, lie/lay and rise/raise. If you learn grammar as a young child, you don't forget it. 

I am now in the reading of this story and a thick book called The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This one reminds me of All the Light We Cannot See. I'll say more about that later.
PUMPKIN DELIGHTS

There is a lady here who obviously has plenty of money and recently she told how she spends some of it. At CostCo she buys about a half dozen or more of its extra large pumpkin pies, scrapes the filling from the pie shells and spoons the filling into small freezer bags that then go into her freezer, to eat on a whim. 

I asked her what she did with the empty pie shells. She said, "Throw them away."

I thought about this waste for a few minutes and then prompted my reply. Why not flatten the edges of the pie shells with a rolling pin, spread the whole generously with butter (no substitute). Sprinkle over that a mixture of sugar and pumpkin spice (just a pinch). Place under a hot broiler and watch it constantly so as not to burn it. Remove from oven and let it cool in the pan. Break it up like peanut brittle. 

I have never tried this, but if you've been reading books like the ones I've been reading, this recipe would make those characters in war-torn areas a real feast.

Friday, November 21, 2014

O'REILLY AND DUGARD HAVE DONE IT AGAIN

Last night, at midnight, I finished reading Killing Patton. The book is well-named for it has to be accurate. When a controversial person, and especially one who is also well-hated by some, is killed in a car crash and all the paper work about the case disappears, it has to be murder. Add to that crime, no real investigation was conducted and no one was brought to justice.  

The so-called drunken driver of the offending vehicle, could have had the smell of alcohol on him and still not have been drunk. [No tests of this were made.] He seemed to know what he was doing when he swerved into the lane of Patton's limousine. Add to that, that while many heads of state and other dignitaries attended Patton's funeral in Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower and President Truman did not!

Patton had a foul mouth but he was a real warrior, a real fighter. He dared disobey orders from his superiors but he seemed to be generally right in his decisions. 

Perhaps O'Reilly and Dugard have opened a can of worms and maybe there will yet be a real investigation into Patton's death. But of course, most of the interested parties of this puzzle and surely the ones guilty of this crime are now dead. But closure for the family may be an important goal for investigation. 

So, we have Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus, and now Killing Patton, all excellently written. Will Osama bin Laden be next? 

Thursday, November 20, 2014

HURRAH FOR AT&T

Yesterday surprise visitors--one of my sons and his wife--brought me a lovely gift, a sensible telephone--made in the USA. It rings six times with a good interval between rings to give one time to get there. What a vast improvement over losing calls on a foreign-made device because it did not allow time for an answer. The set includes two white phones, one of which I keep with me as I move about my apartment. 

My visitors were on their way to Nampa, Idaho, to hear a speaker from England. This is a man whom they have heard before and know personally. In fact, he called Mike to tell him he'd be speaking in Nampa. I believe I heard once that the man speaks in some city every night of the year. His subject matter--I think--is Biblical prophecy. The audience is always a very large crowd. 

I lack only about 40 pages finishing the reading of Killing Patton. It gives a good picture of Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower as well as Patton. [One thing all of these men had in common was they all had mistresses.] What may shock some readers is that Eisenhower was primarily a politician while he had Supreme Command of the war in Europe. I know a story about that, one I read more than 50 years ago. Curtis Bean Dall wrote a book about FDR, his ex-father-in-law, in which he said that FDR's daughter, Anna, sat next to Eisenhower at a dinner, and then told her father that Eisenhower (a lieutenant, I think he was then) was just the man her father was looking for. After that, Ike went up in rank very quickly, angering other officers of higher rank and with war experience. At the cease of hostilities in Europe, Patton witnessed the politician in Eisenhower when Ike insisted Russia have a big role in their dividing up Germany among the victors. Patton clearly saw the future with the enemy, now Communism.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

THREE IMPORTANT BOOKS

We are into our fourth day of that predicted early winter with school-closing snow on the ground under brilliant sunshine. Sun Valley must be absolutely gorgeous and busy with the onset of the ski season. I remember its icicles that reached from the eaves of buildings to the ground, a new experience for me and for many of my German students. Today is a day for erecting a snowman for those who indulge in such. But also a great day for writing (and later on, reading) and that's what I'm here to do--write about a certain lot of books. 

Perhaps every one of these books I have mentioned onblog before for they comprise much of my favorite reading of all time. It is interesting to know most of them relate to World War II. About a week ago I took them to the Executive Director here for her and her husband to enjoy. After she saw the stack, she said, "I may have to quit my job to find time to read these." On Friday I checked on the reading. She said she's into the novelette The Silence of the Sea by Vercors [pen name]. Her husband is reading Wine and War by Donald and Petie Kladstrup. This is nonfiction, one of those hard-to-put-downables. One can learn much more about WWII from this book than from the typical textbook about the war. 

Man's Unconquerable Mind by Gilbert Highet, is not about WWII, but about any war, one could say, and especially one in the future. My blog (in 2010) about this book, which I call MUM, ranks fourth in the line-up of my most popular blogs. It also garnered an excellent comment from a reader. When the E D saw this title, she said, "This is what I need."

To be continued when time allows. 

Sunday, November 9, 2014

BELIEVE IT; IT HAPPENED

Just before the early winter that is forecast strikes, let me tell you about the magnificent sight you might have missed last Thursday night. It's possible the memory of this might help to keep you warm--if you saw it! 

As Amy started driving me home from shopping, it was dark and getting darker by the second. The sky ahead of us was a gorgeous deep periwinkle blue (at least by my eyesight). But at the 7:00 location behind us the sky was a spectacle as if millions of light bulbs were turned on. This was not the usual beautiful streaked sunset, but one that spread up as high as it was wide. I could hardly believe it, for it was so beautiful. But more was yet to come. In the last minutes of our drive, right in the middle of this marvel appeared a splotch of navy blue, as if God had put His signature on His art work. I shall never forget this. I hope you are one who saw it too.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

AN EPISODE WITH SENATOR RAND PAUL

Almost as soon as I arrived from the hospital to the Rehab center last April, a visitor surprised me, carrying a bouquet of yellow tulips and a large orchid-colored envelope. I recognized him as Rand Paul, Senator from Kentucky. Not long before my accident, I had seen and heard Rand Paul speak on television and I was most favorably impressed by what he said. Of all the names floating around of those who might run for president, I decided Paul was the best of the lot. And now he was visiting me in Idaho! The orchid-colored envelope was addressed to me and stamped, but had not been posted. He carried it. He told me about the tulips. Two years ago he had planted 100 tulips in his yard and left them in the ground all year long. This year he had a thousand! He wished I could see his yard with them in bloom, of course. 

All this time, I knew he was in Idaho unofficially campaigning for the presidency. Why choose to visit me? Perhaps he knew about my blogs and maybe I could get him a vote or two from readers. He was surely visiting other people in my state. Perhaps he had a plane at our airport, loaded with bouquets of yellow tulips.

When my friend Amy came that afternoon, she saw the flowers but when I wanted to show her the orchid-colored envelope, it was nowhere to be found. I described it to her: he had written all over the front and back of the envelope. About himself, his family, his state. Campaigning! What a gem this piece of paper would be when he was in the White House! But where was it?

Finally those drugs I'd been dosed with wore off and I realized--when he returned the next day--the tulip planter was none other than the head of therapy at the Rehab, not Senator Paul at all! And no orchid-colored envelope existed. But orchid is one of my favorite colors and I love yellow tulips. 

Monday, November 3, 2014

ONE VOTE FOR A BOOK

The Executive Director here said about 20 minutes ago that her husband says All the Light We Cannot See is the best book he's ever read! And he has read many, many books. He almost dreads reading the last ten pages, lest the story may not turn out the way he wishes it to. But it will be all right; the author wields a deft pen.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

ANOTHER LOST GENERATION

A whole generation of Americans does not know much about World War II. That is because teachers in public schools did not teach them about that war. They began the class year of American History from the beginning, most likely following some teacher's manual, seldom straying from the textbook. One of my dicta is that a good teacher knows when to stray from the textbook.

Teachers aside, people who have not seen war first-hand, up close and personal, have only a weak idea how horrible war can be. Those who return from the actual fighting don't usually like to talk about it. Therefore, Killing Patton may give some education in this matter. The chapter I read last night is an example. How horrible the conflict, how great the writing. 

I did not explain who Patton was in my earlier blog about this book. Suffice it to say for now that he was one of the most highly illustrious American Generals conducting the war in Europe in the 1940's. If anyone reading this says, "Oh, that was before my time [and it's not important to me]," I'll remind such a reader that "History repeats itself." The difference might be only the location. It could happen here. 

A big movie called "Patton," I believe, won awards years ago. George Scott won an Oscar for his role as Patton, and a great job he did. I also believe Scott much later apologized for getting the award or perhaps for merely playing the part. Perhaps O'Reilly and Dugard's book will bring back the movie, and maybe a little more knowledge can creep into some heads that don't read.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

BOOKS UPDATE

This evening must not go by without my writing at least one blog. About books, of course. 

I loaned my copy of All the Light We Cannot See to the Executive Director here where I live. She told me her husband took it right over and was reading it. (He reads several books at a time, also my custom.) She said he finds it a slow read. That must be because of the particular vocabulary Doerr uses in the novel. In spite of that, Doerr's book is a finalist in the National Book Award coming up in mid-November. You can see all the fiction books in the running on your computer. In the description of the novels, Doerr's is described first. A good write-up about the book. The third book shown is also by an Idaho writer, a Pulitzer Prize winner. 

This Director also told me her husband is reading Killing Patton, by O'Reilly and Dugard, which I also have started to read. I'm still reading Washington, A Life, of course, am on about page 60! Surely Patton will be killed before Washington becomes president, if you understand my humor. I had no idea Patton's death was a mysterious one, even quite likely murder, for many wanted to kill him, the authors say. As he lay dying, all the entrances into the hospital had armed guards around the clock, as well as at the door to his room.

There is hardly a period of even five minutes to read anything around here, even mail. Tonight, instead of getting an extra hour of sleep, I hope to read that hour.