47

We are spending Christmas in snowy Kansas with Sean, Carina and Cael.  All grandparents and great-grandparents will be here too.  One of the exciting moments for me was spending the night in Kentucky on the way to Kansas.  This is my 47th state on the way to visiting all 50 states. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested they didn't count if you don't sleep in them.  That's pretty rude, changing the rules along the way.  I think there are only four that I haven't slept in that I have been in, so I'm not going to worry about them.  I just have Arkansas, New Hampshire and Vermont left.  Considering how cold it is around here, I think I'll wait until spring to visit New England.

   
Riding in a car gives you a lot of time to read.  1421 was very interesting.  The author appears to be an old British Navy submariner who got a bee in his bonnet about where the maps came from that European explorers used on their voyages of "discovery."  They refer to the maps often, so it is known that they existed before these guys felt one gust of wind in their sails.  The book is like a proof of the thesis.  He says something like, "It was said that this, this and this happened.  Well, we need to find proof of that."  And off he goes to some far off country looking for skeletons of ships or pottery or Chinese genes in the natives of the country.  The writing is very clear.  The proofs are believable. It was fun going on this voyage of discovery with Menzies.  And thereby reliving the voyages of those Chinese in their huge junks.

Even more enjoyable was listening to Sarah Vowell read her Wordy Shipmates. My sister was put off by her voice at first and I could certainly understand why.  Whine, whine, whine.  I'm sure she didn't mean to sound like a petulant 13 year old.  But she does.  Eventually you get used to it. Mixed in with her whines are amusing smart-ass comments and more than a little sarcasm.  Now, I really like that.  Not only that, she has other people reading the writing of  various Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Every now and then she throws in more modern references, like Ronald Reagan.  Reagan references John Winthrope's speech about the "city on the hill."  Reagan made it shiny and talked about it all the time, referring to the United States as a beacon to all those poor beknighted countries around the world.  Ms. Vowell is a little sceptical about adding shiny and the whole beacon thing.  I highly recommend this book to give one a better understanding of the Puritans and the period.