It Depends on What You Ask

I had dinner last Sunday with "those who have gone before me." It's always nice to see Russ, Dean and Jim. I'm so pleased that they have allowed me to join them. We ate barbecue, which was pretty good. The company was best.

We talked books a bit and Dean reminded me that Alan Furst is one of his favorite authors. I happened to have The Polish Officer lingering on my Ipod, so I read that this week. I like Furst's writing too. I've already written here about another of his books. Lots of stuff happens. It is, after all, WWII and Nazis and run-away Jews are all over the place. Knock twice, wink once. The only problem I have with the books are their endings. Spoiler alert. Here's the ending of The Polish Office. And then they continued to climb to the top of the hill. I can't put quotes on that because I don't remember the exact words. But he leaves you on the top of the mountain! That isn't nice. It was nice when the Polish Officer himself went down to Southwest France. He visited places I know well, even St. Jean de Luz. It took me back to a wonderful place.
I had finished Super Crunchers before I went on that trip to WWII France. When I look for images to put here, I go to Amazon and read the reviews while I'm there. I liked Super Crunchers. It makes you think about how important data is and how important good data is. When I was reading the reviews on Amazon, one reviewer wrote the title of this blog. I don't think Ian Ayres emphasized the importance of asking good questions to get good answers. We all know that you can get pile of bad data if you ask the wrong questions. You could ask Bush about that in regards to Iraq. He wouldn't know the answer, but you would feel better. Sister-in-law Cindy works with databases for a consulting firm. I wonder if she is a super cruncher. This is a good book to read to get an insight into the impact of information gathering.


The main shell of the building across from The Times is completed. Now we have masses of men putting together the insides of that shell. They have moved the giant crane north and have started to build up another building. More pictures of that next week. A lot of concrete is going into the base of the current structure. We have lots of cement trucks lining up throughout the day. I love watching this. I am alone in that. I could really sit in the cafeteria to watch the sparks from torches flying and steel beams flying through the air.