The Killers ( 1946 Movie )

This movie is adapted from the short story by Ernest Hemingway. However the story being short only tells the first twenty minutes of the movie. The movie provides the backstory.

In the movie two hit men arrive in a diner in Brentwood, New Jersey asking after a an man named Ole' Anderson otherwise known as the Swede. The Swede works as a pump attendant at the local garage and the people in the diner, where Ole' is known to take his meals have no idea why hit men would be looking for him. When warned that they are searching for him he appears to be resigned to his fate stating only that " he did something bad a long time ago."

The story is told from there as an insurance investigator looks into the murder as a life insurance policy is to be paid. Through a series of vignettes we learn the true nature of the murder.

Burt Lancaster plays Ole' Anderson in his film debut, Edmund O' Brien plays insurance investigator and Ava Gardner is the woman that causes all the trouble.

A fine movie that keeps you guessing.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

This book, considered one of the greats of the twentieth century, is a challenge. Told in stream of conciousness each chapter is told by one of the characters in the book. We meet Anse, his children Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell, Vardaman and Jewel all telling parts of the story of the death of their mother and her their subsequent traveling with her body to bury her in a distant town ( by wagon) of Jefferson where she was born.

The dialect as with much Faulkner can be difficult and the use of pronouns left me, especially early in the book, grasping at which he, she and they were being spoken of. Still with dilligence the book does grow to be something of great value. The characters are well drawn and by the end you do have ownership in the plot.

It is not an easy book to describe and it is one many would be threatened to give up on. I was. Still I am very glad I did not. I was up until 2 last night reading the last 100 pages after midnight as I wanted to see how it ended.

Subject matter such as race, abortion, religion, adultery, and a nascent feminism are brought to the fore in this book from 1930 making it clearly controversial in it's time. As always Faulkner is a challenge but one well worth taking.

Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry

This book subtitled Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game tells the story of a minor baseball game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings that began on April 18th, 1981 and ended on June 23rd of the same year. Along the way the game has gone 33 innings, 32 of those between the evening start on April 18th and just after 4 AM the following morning.

The book however tells us much more. We learn about the players and people involved in the game. We see Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken two future hall of famers. We see members of the 86 Red Sox heartbreak team such as Marty Barrett, Rich Gedman and Bruce Hurst. Perhaps most tellingly we learn about Ben Mondor the owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox, a man who saved the Pawtucket team and made the franchise one of the strongest minor league affiliates, a model for others to follow. We meet Dave Koza, the prototypical 4A player returning to the Pawsox year after year and never getting a chance. We see what the end of his career does to him and check on him thirty years later to see how he came out the other side.

In 1981 baseball went through a mid season strike and when this game resumed on June 23 it was a national news story. Dave Koza was a hero that day. It was perhaps the beginning of the end of life as he knew it and expected it however.

Fathers and son, lonely people, batboys and clubhouse attendants. We meet them all. If you love baseball and love the game as much for what it stands for and the meaning everyday people give to it as much as the prowess of any individual player this book is a treat.

Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift

I finished Gullivers Travels today. This was a book assigned to me in junior high but that I must confess I did not read. I should send my English teacher a book report. Actually this story was quite interesting.

The book certainly has a satiric bent as in visiting many different cultures we see the comparisons to the society of the early eighteenth century Swift inhabits through comparison.

I assume that teaches somewhere still assign this so I am not going to get into the book report issues and speak of what Swift was commenting on his satire.

I will say that the book itself was well written, intelligent and not without large traces of whimsy. I think most of us have heard of the Lilliputians where Gulliver is a giant and then the inhabitants of an island called Brobdingnag where he is small and to prevent injury he must be carried in a box. He also visits places where such as a floating island and a place where science is revered but there is no discipline to the science so only outlandish ideas are put forward.

The most interesting section for me was the visit to the Houynhnhms a breed of horses who are advanced beyond humans, called Yahoos who are primitive. This chapter with the travelers becoming entranced with the horses to the point that he finds his own humanness offensive.

A very good book.

Ray Lamontagne / God Willin and the Creek Don't Rise -- Concert in Bangor

Thursday night Ray Lamontange appeared on the Bangor Waterfront in concert. Lamontagne who has ties to Maine has become a leading singer of the folksy soulful ballad type. A few years ago his music was given a big boost by the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack and recently of course we have all seen the Travlers dog worrying about his bones to the tune of Trouble.

The days sun turned to mist and fog by the time Lamontagne took the stage but he was in fine form. I have read crowd estimates as low as 2000 but it seemed like more to me as most chairs seemed to be occupied. I am sure I am not a good judge of crowds.

Lamontagne played his earlier cuts such as Trouble and Jolene ( a personal favorite of mine ) but much of the setlist was from the most recent album. The title track of that album God Willin and the Creek Don't Rise was a highlight as was the radio hit Beg Steal or Borrow. Interestingly on the latter Ray changed the meter of the verse a bit with a stonger emphasis on the " Young Man " in the chorus.

Repo Man and Henry Nearly Died allowed the singer to stretch his musical feet and allowed me to enjoy the harmonica. Nothing makes my feet move more than a harmonica, not sure why that is.

Other highlights included New York City's Killing Me and another favorite of mine Like Rock and Roll Radio. On this song Ray compares asks if a relationship is over much like the lost relatinship between Rock and Roll and the Radio. This is a clever comment on the state of modern music.

The crowd was for the most part young granolas and some yuppie older folks. Comments I heard were that the singer had little stage presence which is true, Ray is notorioulsy shy and thank you was about all one heard. His voice is mesmerizing, no autotume here and clearly not tricks in the studio. This man can sing and play.

The only slightly offbeat part of the whole show was the abbreviated encore of only one song. Certainly there were many more anticapted songs that could have been played and an encore of one song is very rare. Looking at his setlists in other places Ray like most performers always plays two songs so one wonders why he cut the encore to one song...the eleven o clock curfew was not close. He did complain about being soaked which might have not been the smartest comment to a crowd in an uncovered setting.

Still the show was great, the man can sing and I strongly encourage you to pick up some of his music. Ray Lamontagne is a voice you will not forget

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

My son was assigned this book last fall. My middle son is not a great fan of sitting still, unless it is in front of a television, so, like most boys his age , he found this book a challenge. Then this spring my youngest, my daughter, was assigned the same book.

She is a reader but she was complaining about it as well so I decided that I would read it with her. It did seem to help her enjoy the book more as we compared notes and she enjoyed giving me my homework assignments.

Truthfully I thought the book was very good. It told a very interesting tale, was written well, in the first person for the most part and told at a good pace.

Long John Silver is a great character, switching sides more than a contestant on Survivor. The book, written for kids, comes to a fitting conclusion and while of course there is violence it pales in comparison to the gore in today's childrens books and movies.

My daughter ended up thanking me for reading it with her and telling me that she thought that given a chance it was a good book. In the end that is the goal to get kids to read for enjoyment and even on an assigned reading to try to get something out of of it.

That was my goal and I got to read what turned out to be a very good book.

If you have not read this you should..better yet read it with your kids.

Lady Gaga, Born This Way

Lady Gaga has been everywhere in the last week. She was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live's season finale but also appeared in several skits. I watched her on Letterman on Monday and Dave was a a little befuddled with her answers. She is a very odd duck of that there is no questions.

Watching her on the Idol Finale Wednesday I was struck that clearly she is the descendant of Madonna but with much more shock value.

The impetus for all this exposure of course is the release of her new album. Gaga even found a way to involve herself in the battle between Amazon and Apple by having her album sold on Amazon for 99 cents for a few days this week.

At 99 cents I purchased the album. Clearly much of the music is not my style or personal preference but that does not preclude me from recognizing how talented she is.

Edge of Glory which she performed on Idol is a hit waiting to happen with even some sax thrown in by The Big Man Clarence Clemons from the E Street Band.

You and I is perhaps the most accessible song on the album with nods to Mid American sensibilities such as muscle cars and Nebraska and believe it or not I hear Shania Twain influences. Crazy.

Bad Kids, Judas, Hair and Government Hooker odd more of the bad girl shock value in places but still are artistically very interesting and of course the first single, the title cut , Born This Way. Born This Way, depending on your outlook, a validation of being different or an appeasement of being gay or otherwise not normal has been a huge hit. For me personally I think the message is a great one.

Our kids have so many challenges and if you are born different or feel different anything that makes you feel accepted is a good thing. The It Gets Better You Tube channel is a wonderful thing for that reason.

Will Gaga burn out or be a long lasting influence. I do not know. For right now she is white hot and deservedly so.

Waylon and Willie/ Three Classic Songs

When Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson joined forces in the late 1970's they became bigger together than they ever were alone. Three songs from that era are eternal country classics, I have always enjoyed them and recently downloaded them

Good Hearted Woman is the best of the lot, a song that I myself find irresistable. This is a song I always sing along too. Waylon and Willie exchange lines and the song is backed with a strong arrangement. This version has crowd noise and one can only imagine that this concert with these two was a heck of a show.

Luckenbach Texas might be my personal favorite. It is a pretty song and easy to sing. I think my favorite verse might be Willie's with the nod to Jerry Jeff train songs. Not many reference Jerry Jeff Walker anymore.

Perhaps the most well known of all is Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys. This is a good song and everyone knows it but I find it to more of a novelty than a traditional country song. When one listens to Willie and Waylon they are not looking for anything much beyond traditional country. These songs deliver.

Then Everything Changed by Jeff Greenfield

This book starts out with an interesting premise. Alternate histories have been a game many political and history junkies have theroized for year. Greenfield takes three different actual events and twists the fates just a notch.

He has the would be assassin of JFK in 1960, after he was elected but before he was inauguarated, succeed leading to a constitional crisis and an eventual Johnson Presidency under different circumstances.

We also see what might have happened had someone spotted Sirhan Sirhan a moment sooner and RFK not been killed. An eventual convention fight between Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey leads to a President that sharply changes history.

Lastly and perhaps most interestingly we see what might have happened had Gerald Ford not made his mistake in the Carter debates about Eastern Europe. This history being one that has been considered less has more bite and is therefore the most interesting. How Ford's election and Carter's non election would have shaped the future's of both the Democratic and Republican parties is a very interesting exercise.

So the book has merit and was interesting. For me however much of the good of the book was taken away by the cutesy references that hinted at a future not seen such as LBJ proclaiming he could be caught having sex in the Oval office and still be elected. Of course knowing what did happen allows these references to be made but I found them to be clumsily inserted.

An interesting book but forgettable.

Upstairs, Downstairs 2011 Version

I never saw the original Upstairs productions in the seventies. I am sure I was too busy watching Happy Days and MASH. However when word came that PBS was going to be broadcasting a continuation of the series I looked forward to seeing it.

Set in 1936 , six years after the original ended in 1930, the shows are joined together by the character of Rose Buck played by Jean Marsh in both series. In this most recent version Rose now runs a domestic servicing agency and in being asked to provide staff for the new owners of the home she eventually becomes the head housekeeper.

I am not sure why this show attracts me so, no more than I am why I thought Downtun Abbey was so good. Perhaps it is that the characters are so well formed, but even more that they are honorable and good, for the most part that is.

In this new series the house has been purchased by the diplomat Sir Hallam Holland and his wife the Lady Agnes. They employ Rose Buck to staff the house and we meet and come to know the new staff. Rose herself becomes the head housekeeper. A Jewish refugee joins the staff and her daughter becomes part of the plot. The Fascists are in London and the King is abdicating. All of this is a backdrop for a wonderful series.

One note for me was that Lady Agnes is not that likable a character. We come to realize that she is not so much unlikable as a product of her times and so consumed with her own life and later pregnancy that she fails to appreciate all that is going on around her. One can suppose we all make that mistake at times.

I have read that there will be more of both Upstairs, Downstairs and Downtun Abbey and I for one, cannot wait.

Fire Season by Philip Connors

I should point out that when I comment that a book was dull or boring this is only a reflection of how I felt. Many books, perhaps most books that I read a good portion of people would avoid at all costs. Biography, History and Literature are not usually high on the list of most people.

Fire Season, subtilted Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout is a book by Connors about his exploits seven months a year in the New Mexico mountains serving as a Fire Lookout. It is a solitary existence, just he and his dog though he does get 4 days off after ten days on.

I thought the book looked interesting. I like solitude. However like Thoreau who I have had a hard time wading through the book did not offer much bite. I did not find him very ruminating on meaning of life issues and while I still have to try Walden again this book did not hold much for me.

It is true that I only read the first fifty pages and it might speed up. I rarely abandon a book, I usually choose to slog through but this book held out little interest.

Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer

This was an interesting book but it certainly was by no means a book that I would recomend. Perhaps the subject matter was not as interesting as I thought it might be, I like science books and the subject of memory is interesting.

In the book Foer tells us his experiences as he attempts to qualify for the United States Memory Championships. We learn that in past cultures to have an excellent memory was considered to be a genius. Before the printing press anything written was rare and if one was fortunate enough to read information off parchment he would not likely see it again. Therefore memory was imperative.

Foer learns about the Memory Palace technique. We learn how to place objects in places we are familiar with. I tried this method and it works. In short we need to tie items we wish to remember to items already in our long term memory. I have retraced my schools, houses, neighborhoods, and workplaces and used each for a memory palace.

The question remains though to what end. I fight a losing battle with my kids and even my educator wife about the need to have facts and figures on recall in our own mind while Google exists to answer any question in the time to type it. In fact Foer writes that we are now in an age of forgetting. We have taught ourselves to forget.

Foer also takes us to meet some memory experts and examines some savants and debates the differences. We meet the man named Daniel if whom was written the book Born on a Blue Day who claiming to be a savant has become famous and his book has been a bestseller. As Foer argues savants are people we find interesting while memory experts are thought of as tricksters with a minimum of respect. Interestingly Foer discovers that he believes that Daniel is not a savant but a memorizer. This too is a telent. But in terms of the interest of the general public it is not as interesting.

Actually in looking at this review the book must have been better than I thought. There were parts of this book that I found to be very tough slogging but there were many interesting sections.

There are methods to memory improvement that can be gained from this book and if interested in the subject one will enjoy this book.

The Stories of John Cheever

I enjoy short stories. I think that they are a prelude into an author's vision and have used these stories as my entry into the works of Hemingway, Faulkner and now Cheever. An appreciation for a good short story appears to be a lost art. In the mid nineteen hundreds each week many literary magazines were published many with stories by some of the great authors of the time on a regular basis. I suspect that in today's marketplace short stories are considered not worth the effort, certainly the financial rewards are meager compared to the riches from a bestselling novel.

I occasionally will show a favorite story to a friend but more often than not after humoring me with a reading, if at all, they do not enjoy it as I did. What is the point of it or I do not understand will be the response. As a short story is often a glimpse of a moment in time in the life of a character and not often a beginning, middle and end our current entertainment culture has spoiled them.

As we now watch Mad Men every season and celebrate the New York driven culture of the mid sixties the stories of John Cheever become even more relevant again. When published in 1978 this collection of stories earned Cheever the Pulitzer Prize.

I read several books at a time and have over the last couple of months made it a practice to read one Cheever story each night before bed. It is hard to describe why these stories are so good. Often they are just lonely people in a busy world. A sense of loss and optimism haunts these people. Cheever has an ability to allow his characters to move from real to imagined storylines and occasionally it is a challenge to follow along.

This collection is full. I enjoyed each one. A few such as Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor, The Swimmer, The World of Apples and Artemis the Honest Well Digger are reknown but these stories are wonderful.

This is a top ten collection of stories. Highest recommendation.

Twelve Angry Men

This 1957 movie was a great film. It has been remade several times in several formats and will inevitably continue to be redone. The reason is that the story is timeless.

The cast of this movie was very strong. Henry Fonda, Lee Cobb, Jack Klugman, E G Marshall, and Jack Warden lead the cast as twelve jurors being asked to determine the guilt of a young man accused of murdering his own father. The case is seen by the jurors as an open and shut case and they quickly vote 11 to 1 to convict. Henry Fonda's character is against the immediate conviction. He is not sure he is innocent but thinks that with a young man facing the death penalty they should consider the evidence more clearly.

A pattern emerges. The case was very circumstantial. The truthfulness of eye witness testimony is debated. One must judge the potential motive of a murderer but also the motive of a witness. The real truth in this movie is that so often jurors can be maniipulated much as advertisers manupulate consumers.

Often what is seen is not what is fact and this applies to a courtroom as well.

Through the course of the movie Fonda's side starts winning converts leading to a very strong ending.

This is a great, very riveting movie.

Bring It On

Sometimes you watch a movie you did not intend to. Sometimes you watch a movie your embarrassed to admit too. Sometimes you watch a movie that just happens to be about cheerleaders and when you tell your wife it was a mistake she just gives you the look.

All of these events happened to me last week when one of the kids left the television on USA and when I returned to the house after dropping them off to school I turned on the television to check out the last hour of Morning Joe.

So I ended up watching the ten year old movie Bring It On cheerleading movie starring Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku. Certainly watching the cheerleading scenes was not bad on the eyes but the real thing about this movie was that I had a hard time deciding if the movie was a parody, a farce, or a real storylined movie.

I decided it was a combination. The movie tells the tale of Torrance (Dunst) who has been named cheer captain who when recruiting a new girl named Missy ( played by Duskhu) is made aware that her team's previous captains have been stealing routines from an inner city school in Compton.

Struggling to do the right thing she faces challenges from her own team who are more concerned with winning than doing right. There are all the stereotypical high school characters and some parts of the movie are laughable if not on purpose.

Still there is some drama and a little bit of merit in the story and the movie is not entirely bad. We have all known these characters and it is interesting to seem them paraodied and in some cases skewered so well.

An interesting movie, not one I would reccomend but I have to confess I did watch it. Does it count that I was reading John Cheever at the same time.

The Voice

So my wife loves singing and she loves singing shows. We only very sporadically check in on Dancing With the Stars and that ilk but she does enjoy American Idol a great deal, we will watch America's Got Talent in the summer and now with The Voice she has found another show she is interested in.

Set up differently than Idol in that contestants are chosen before being viewed brings an interesting take on the game. The singers are good, although some of them are a little extreme for my tastes.

Four strong celebrity judges add to the appeal. Christina Aguilera continues her effort to rehabilitate her image from this past winters gaffes. Blake Shelton homophobic tweets ( I did not take them as such) offers a country slant, Adam Levine from Maroon 5 and CeeLo Green ( since when does non single make you an authority) round out the panel.

The show is interesting but it feels interesting in more of the it is summer we have to watch something appeal rather than the this is a great show we should watch. It will be interesting to see over the next few weeks to see if the show has more and more twists and tricks to get us to our finalists. I have seen a commercial which promises that singers will be singing the same song at the same time...a duel no less.

I hope that the show dos not try so hard to differentiate itself that it loses what could be its appeal. The idea of singing teams each being coached by a star shows promise.

While interesting this show is one we have yet to see the finished product and as yet cannot really be judged for any long term purposes.

King's Cross by Timothy Keller

Subtitled The Story of the World in The Life Of Jesus this book by Keller is a very rewarding book on the life of Jesus. Interestingly it would seem that no theological writers have the same opinions but even so they can make wonderful points. In reading Gary Wills I have been struck by his emphasis on Paul and that of all the Gospels he relates Mark as being the one most likely to be made into a story form and less accurate.

Keller makes a compelling arguement in his book refuting that opinion. Keller tells us the life and meaning of Jesus through the Gospel of Mark.

For me a book such as this is rewarding if it makes me think and if potentially gives me an understanding I did not earlier have or a thought of how to be a better person. Keller's book is very strong in this regard.

A few highlights for me. Keller talks about the difference between religion and Christianity and the meaning of the message of Jesus. He states his belief that religion is advice, a series of tenants to live by. By understanding this one can understand that religion under that guise can be dangerous. If you are given a set of rules to live by and you do not follow them you feel disheartened. You might feel you have fallen from grace, lost God's love. Or you could by doing a good job following these guidelines build up a sense of ego or that you are better than those who do not. Jesus wants neither. There is one way to be saved by Jesus and that is not through any good works you do or rules to follow. It is by God's grace. Jesus paid the price for all our sins and once we acknowledge that we are redeemed. To think that our good works or actions can get us redeemed is to lessen the impact of what Jesus did. Keller takes Gospel from the ancient Greek as meaning News as in Good news. Jesus did not bring religion. Jesus brought good news.

In a section called the Healing Keller speaks about the cripple who Jesus cures. Jesus does not tell the man to rise. He tells him his sins are forgiven. The reason for this Keller asserts is that Jesus knows what we really need. He reasons that we all have had something we really wanted and asked for it and felt that were we to get it our lives would be complete and wonderful. Yet this does not happen. People win the lottery, marry the person of their dreams, get the job they want and while they may be happy for awhile it does not last. A quote is made that sometimes the worst trick in the book is to get your wish because then you cannot avoid the subject of Jesus. Jesus is what you need, his unconditional love and acceptance.

This book is to me a treasure trove. But the most powerful story related to me is the story of the man who asked Jesus to drive the demons out of his son. The apostles had tried and failed. The man asks Jesus " Would you heal my son?" and Jesus says " Everything is possible for him who beleives." The man replies " I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief." Keller explains how meaningful this is. The man states that he wants to believe but is full of doubt. Jesus heals the boy. He states that Jesus could have said purify your heart, believe in me with all your will and I will cure your son. He does not. The man had said that he was not faithful. That he was riddled with doubts and cannot muster the strength to be all that he should but begs Jesus to help him. This is saving faith, faith in Jesus instead of oneself. If one waits to be pure and righteous to come to Jesus one will never do so. You must admit you are not righteous and need help. Later in the book Keller states that Jesus teaches us that faith is important and Jesus begs us to try but we must know that it is not the strength of our faith but the strength of what we have faith in. That is Jesus himself.

These are just a few of the lessons and thougtful messags in this book. I read this book slowly, a short chapter a day because I wanted to savor and think on each idea through the course of each day. This book is revalatory.

Religion and fellowship are wonderful things and in fact Keller is a Minister with a large flock at his church. Still he makes clear that our relationship with God is a personal one and often religion as we practice it can get in the way.

I cannot reccomend this book too highly for those questioning how to live in God's grace

Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues

This album was released today. If you would like to hear it to see what all the fuss is about you can go to Rolling Stone.com and stream the whole album. This is surely one of those albums that you need to hear a few times. Amazon also has a one day special today making it available for just $3.99

As I write this I am on my second listen and it is a very good album. Music for me at this time in my life has a pretty high threshold between I like it and I will buy it. I have too much music now to listen to what I have properly. Still, the more I listened to this the more I liked it.

Clearly the folk, alt rock wave continues to rise. The harmonies on this album are wonderful. The influences are everywhere. At first I thought Crosby Stills and Nash and that is true but one also can hear the Beach Boys but for me I hear alot of Simon and Garfunkel though the instrumentation is a little trippier, in places it is like S & G were being backed by a little bit of Pink Floyd.

To compare it with something current you might call it a more etheraal Mumford and Sons. Listening to the title song and the harmonies makes your heart skip and soar and makes you want to hug someone you love. At least it does me. The rest of the album is just as intersting.

Great music. Buy it today

Here's Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos

This book, subtitled A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math, does not scram out exciting and interesting. However for me it was one of the more interesting books I have read in quite sometime.

I like to learn things, a few months ago I enjoyed the book about the periodic table called The Disappearing Spoon as it told me various nuggets about the elements that I did not know. Perhaps it was Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything ( another of my favorite books ) that opened the trend of these sorts of books.

In this book the author takes us down the path of several theories. Now the first thing I have to accept when I read a book like this is that many things in the book are just going to be beyond my comprehension. I have an inate gift for mental math and consider myself very strong at it. That said my brain does not do abstract well and so much of the higher math is something I have always struggled with.

In our house, for example, my wife rules at Wheel of Fortune while no one can touch me in Jeopardy. I need a definite answer to a problem for it to be in my wheelhouse.

The most interesting things learned in this book were about how humans relate to mumbers, that is in a linear way or logarithmically. The answer is interesting and outlines the difference between cultural influences and those that intrinsic to our gene pool.

We learn about the magic of the number 1089. In reality it is no magic it is just an algebraic equation proved but I prefer to think of it is as magic. We learn why the bithday trick works and why it is not so odd that a person at work shares your birthday and why it is even more likely that two athletes share a birthday. From our hindu friends we learn some interesting and in some cases faster way to multiply large numbers and then we learn that our Hindu friends most likely stole these methods from some ancient Europeans.

Lastly I learned about randomness and how to gamble, play the odds, and with a large enough stake you can almost always break even. I learned a neat little party trick to demonstrate the difference between random and what we our brains think is random.

Now if someone had a little more high math understanding they would either get even more out of the book or perhaps not have the sense of wonder of someone who it runs a little bit above. My rating on this book is excellent though. My wife says she can tell how much I like a book by how much I bug her with the information I am gleaning from it. She, for one, is probably glad that I am done with it.

American Conspiracies by Jesse Ventura

Years ago I saw a cartoon in a magazine showing a couple at home watching television. In it the husband was saying to the wife " Ok, lets watch this but if the Neilson people call let's tell them we are watching PBS. " To a large extent that is how I feel about this book. Ventura guides us through the various conspiracy theories of the last 100 years. King, Malcolm X, the Kennedy asassinations, the 2000 and 2004 elections and of course 9/11.

It was interesting timing as I had finished this book Saturday and the next day we get word that we have captured and killed Bin Laden. I suspect everyone has doubts about what really happens versus the official word. What I do not know is if we are more cynical in this age than perhaps people were in past generations or if we just have more ways to distribute information.

For me personally do I think that the killings of the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King can all plausibly be attributed the lone gunman. I think not and I think that is a rational opinion. Do I think Bush stole the elections of 2000 and 2004. Actually no, I think that his side fought harder after the election in 2000 and that the Supreme Court ruled in his favor. I do think that it is likely the 2004 election was stolen in Ohio.

Still all this talk of conspiracy theories can make people look at you funny. Everybody knows that person at the parties, and no one really wants to be him. For me while I have my doubts about many things including 9/11 there are some things I just do not want to know.

I have a busy life, three kids, a wonderful wife and a medical condition I try to deal with each day. I try to live the right way and ask God's help everyday to be the best person I can be and act as he wants me too. I think we have to be careful of investing too much time doubting events.

Of course it easy to doubt eveything. It is easy to be cynical. Still, is it the way we want to be? Is it what we want to teach our children? If there are people in authority misleading and misrepresenting to us we have to hope that it comes out, but we if we see two people in the muck and filth and jump in with them we are going to need to be washed clean too.

I accept that I do not the truth of many things and will not on this Earth. I think it is healthier if we accept that and concentrate on what is important.

Whatever happened on 9/11 many innocent people died. If we are going to invest any energy in that story lets spend it thinking of the victims and their loved ones. Those guilty will have to atone with thier God at the time he determines. I am satisfied with that.

Read some Psalms, Read some Thoreau, Read some Hemingway. Put this book back down. It will hurt your spirit.

Mad As Hell by Dominic Sandbrook

This recently published book tells the tale of the United States in the 1970's what Sandbrook calls the rise of the populist right. Sandbrook, the author of several timepiece British histories captures the 1970's culturally, economically and most of all politically.

I read the book and enjoyed it and yet in no way would I call this a must read. It was an adequate history that broke no new ground. I did not find there any new look at the cultural impact of rock and roll or the ERA movement. In short if one had read no history of the seventies this might be an adequate place to stop but how many people with no background would be reading this book.

The bar is set pretty high for this type of book as some great books have been written, the best far and away in my opinion being David Halberstam book The Fifties. Of course Sandbrook is no Halberstam. Few are.

The one thing you do come away with in this book is the absolute failure of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. Taking a look at his administration should be good advice for anybody who thinks it is easy to govern as an " outsider" or that a President with his party in control of both houses is a lock to get his agenda through. Of course Carter lived in the pre filubuster as government practices of today, no Carter's problems were his own party and his evident belief that he did not need them.

Thinking of interest rates of 20 percent and inflation in double digits annually in comparison with how things are now ( and how tough they seem now) makes us realize how the late seventies were a very rough time in America.

An interesting book but certainly nothing new.

On the Beach

This 1959 movie based on a novel by Nevil Shute tells the story of the aftermath of a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia. Gregory Peck plays Dwight Lionel Towers, Captain of the U S S Sawfish a nuclear submarine.

The submarine comes into port in Australia as it has been searching for air that is compatible for humans as they had been at sea when the exchange occured. Australia at this point not having been affected by the fallout but knowing that they soon will be is in a state of limbo not knowing if they will be safe or are just being an extended look at what their future will be.

Anthony Perkins plays a young Australian Navy Commander and Ava Gardner plays Moira Davidson a woman who has dealt with the crisis by never spending a night alone or sober. Towers as he is on shore falls into this orbit but refuses to acknowledge his feelings for Moira as he cannot accept that his wife and children are no longer alive in Conneticut.

Eventually the Sawfish is sent out to sea to investigate a theory that the raditation may be dissipating, and to investigate a radio signal that in theory should not be happening if no people are alive. They find that the radiation is not diminishing and that the signal is nothing more than a coke bottle bumping against a transmitter after being bumped by a curtain string in the wind.

The government is distributing suicide pills to the populace when the sub returns and each person has to deal with thier own feelings as the end approachss.

The banner at the end of the movie across the screen from the church rally's held remind us " That there is still time."

Realizing the movie was released at the height of the Cold War the impact was significant and we cannot really understand how people felt living in a time of drop and cover raids and missile gaps.

This is an interesting piece of movie history.