The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

This book made my head hurt. The sub title is and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from The Periodic Table of the Elements.

I never took Chemistry that I can remember and so my exposure to the Periodic Table is what my son tells me and hearing Tom Lehrer sing about them years ago on The Dr Demento show. However I am always wanting to learn new things.

This book reminded me of Bill Bryson's book A Short History of Nearly Everything which I have read a couple of times and treat at times like a reference book.

The first 100 pages of this book held me and I learned somethings I did not know about protons, nuetrons and electrons. I think I have a basic understanding of how electrons move from element to element and the sharing and combining of chemicals. I still am lost however. The book written for the uneducated still made my head hurt. I still do not know how they count the atoms in a n element to know how to place it on the chart.

The stories of various scientists were interesting. One of the most interesting quotes was that Hydrogen makes up 90 percent of the universe's matter and helium 10 percent. Everything else including all the metals on earth and presumably the rest of the planets is an rounded off amount of the total 100 percent. That puts us in perspective.

A good book. I enjoyed it. But perhaps the time for learning this stuff is when you don't want to and your brains are better when you are young.

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

The second of the authors three books on Teddy Roosevelt is the tale of his 7 and a half years as President. He was an incredible President. It is ironic that as a Republican he turned into a progressive. Much like Truman he governed doing what he thought was right and with an extreme sense of ethics. Unlike Truman Roosevelt was self centered and thought no one but he should be President feeling it had been his destiny. If it was his destiny the country was rewarded by fulfilling it. Taking on big business and trusts and improving the lives of every American with the FDA, antitrust, an improved ICC , the Panama Canal and many other important ways.

Roosevelt is a President that more than any other we could use today. Today, reading an article in the New Yorker on the Koch brothers and there attempt to manipulate the Tea Party for their own personal gain one sees the parallels to today. Much of the regulation that T R set up has been usurped and changed in the last 20 years of deregulation fever and we are not the better for it. A man if his ethics and power would be a welcome addition to the political scene.

The last book in the series will be out this fall. I look forward to it with great excitement as this is a man one can enjoy learning more about.

The Pillars of the Earth on Showtime

I read this book years ago and consider it one of my favorites. Netflix has worked out a deal where they show programs that Showtime has just aired very recently. So I wanted to watch this.

We watched the first episode and it was well done. It is a very large book with many plotlines, it seems that it is a bit confusing to get all of this into the series on Tv.

We will continue to watch it however I am not sure that we will get the series complete before it goes off streaming and we have to order the discs.

Sh*t My Dad Says by Mark Halperin

Picked this little book up at the library. A funny little book telling about a man's relationship with his father. The Dad a specialist in nuclear medicine has a way of speaking...brutally honest and a bit vulgar, which make his observations comical and in some cases quite appropriate.

It takes less than an hour to read and there are a few chuckles inside. It is also being made into a sitcom this fall starring William Shatner which promises to be funny.

Broken Arrow

Watched another Western with one of my favorite actors Jimmy Stewart. In this movie a man helps a young wounded Apache boy back to health and slowly earns the trust of Cochise and his Apaches. He plays peacemaker, falls in love and in the end peace is accomplished.

It is a predictable story and white men playing Indians seems kind of lame. Seeing Will Geer 22 years before the Waltons is kind of funny.

Still anything with Jimmy Stewart is worth watching and this is too.

The Searchers

Watched this John Wayne movie the other day. The story is about a man whose brothers family is massacred by Indians and he and a boy adopted by the family trail the Indians trying to recover a young sister stolen.

Family life in the frontier is portrayed, John Wayne is John Wayne and some comical Swedish immigrants play a part. An interesting aside is a couple of men fight over a girl but show great manners in the process..in a comical way.

In the end the girl is recovered and despite John Wayne's stated intention to kill the girl who has " gone Indian" he does not.

A well filmed well done Western.

The Craig Ferguson Show

After the Tom Petty concert the other night when we got back to the hotel we were winding down and turned this on. I have sen bits and pieces of this show from time to time but never really gave it my full attention.

This man is funny. Witty, intelligent and funny. I need to find time to watch this from time to time.

Tom Petty / Mojo Album and Tour

Earlier this year we purchased tickets to see Tom Petty on tour. With that purchase we received a free download of the Mojo album. This latest effort by Petty was a bit different from other albums. This was an album clearly driven by guitarist Mike Campbell. The reminds me of the Beatles I want you ( she's so heavy) thrum of Good Enough was the first single and correctly so. A couple more tunes grindingly led by Campbell show that on this album it was not typical Petty get me to the chorus rock and foll but a little more blues. And it works. This is a great album.

As the concert date approached we considered trying to sell the tickets. Actually we did try to. I am not very mobile. The walking concerned me. We are kind of tight in the finance perhaps we should save some money. The issue was moot however as we could not sell the tickets.

So we went to the show. I now walking with a cane walked slow and made it in. My Morning Jacket was the opening act and though I did not know any of their songs they were good. There were some younger folks there that were in rapture watching them, my wife told me I needed an imaginary instrument to play to fit in, but it was good seeing them.

Petty is not a great showman and at times one wonders if the still loves doing what he is doing. That said the show was flawless. He sounds like Bob Dylan from Alabama when he talks and his singing is spot on. The new numbers from the new album were well done and playing a range from Listen to Her Heart to Refugee to end with American Girl the show was great.

The only disappointment might have been the length. Being used to Springsteen and no opening act is surprised to see a show over in less than two hours. But that is the norm...

Caesar by Adrian Goldsworthy

I love Roman history. I have read much Roman history and loved the Colleen McCullough series starting with the story of Gauis Marius telling the story up thru Sulla and onto Caesar and Augustus.

Those being more fictionalized and inserting dialogue offer more of a story while of course this authors book is non fiction.

It is a good book. You must like the subject to delve however but there is no doubt that Goldsworthy has a clear grasp of the subject.

Roman history continues to be one of my favorite subjects. I look forward to Goldsworthy's next book.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

This very long book is one of the best reviewed of the summer. Described as a combination of Stephen King's The Stand and Cormac McCarthy's The Road it was a book I wanted to try. Like many of the best novels 15 pages in and you were hooked. The story was much like The Stand. End of the world stuff, army manufactures a biological weapon of sorts that goes haywire. The few survivors left have to deal with what is left and in The Passage the virals that are left behind.

A little campy is the assessment that many of the details of Dracula turn out to be true. Frustrating and a good thing as well is the information that this book does not come to an end and that at least two more books in the series will be published. I can see successful movies as well. Mr. Cronin has created something we will be living with for quite sometime.

A good book. A nice diversion. One I would tell a friend to read

Hot Tub Time Machine

We watched this movie the other night. My wife got a phone call in the middle and told the person calling she appreciated the interlude as she could feel herself getting stupider as she watched it.

She was not wrong. It is a movie that makes us remember the eighties and it is not a great memory. However parts of the movie are cute, others are funny and some are sexy. This movie does not bring back my nostalgia as much as others I have watched. I swear they modeled the stoner on Dazed and Confused after a very good friend of mine but I did enjoy the movie.

This is a movie I would tell a friend to watch.

Mad Men New Season

Mad Men is back and unlike last year that seemed like it was on prozac until someone lost an appendage about 5 episodes in this season has started out much stronger. Don is divorced, the whole gang is back and Bets is well Bets.

This season holds great promise. This is a show we will never miss.

Rubicon on AMC

This show has started out very well. After the two episodes I am perplexed, confused and intrigued. The issue on shows like this is can you stand the fatigue that comes with the twists and turns. Flash Forward lost me about 8 episodes in, 24 after five years, Fringe after 2 episodes.

I have faith in this show. I think it is going to be great. The first two episodes have made me program it into my Tivo.

NetFlix

My wife signed us up for this recently. It is a wonderful product. I am a person who wants to watch when I want to watch so for me the streaming is the feature I enjoy most. i assume I am not alone in this. I read an article that said that within 4 years Netflix expects to be doing 80 percent of it's business thru streaming. I think that is true, it is a great product and now with their innovative ways to deliver their product such as Wi and XBOX have given parents a way to receive the movies and put it on the big screens their kids were using for the video games.

A great product