A Smudged Moon and Mysteries

Karen told me that there would be a full eclispse on Monday night. I happened to notice the night before that a huge moon was filling my bedroom window. Well, that's what it seemed like to me. One of the advantages of never sleeping through the night is that you are sure to see whatever passes by. She said it would happen between 2:00 and 4:00. She said more numbers, like 4:24 or something like that, but I always ignore the last numbers.

I did wake at 2:00. No moon. I thought the fog was high and thick. Oh well. Then I woke at 4:00 and saw just this image. How nice that LAObserved had this picture on their blog today. It was about this size. Not window filling. But fascinating, even at 4:00. It didn't have the crisp lines of a waning moon. Smudged.

I've just finished two mysteries. I really have to put on my glasses when I select a book to read from my ipod. Many books come in two parts. I thought I'd picked the top book in the list, but I started listening to Kingdom of Shadows in the middle. What does it say about this book that it was okay anyway? Not a lot, I'm afraid. It was a little difficult to figure out who these guys where, but they did interesting stuff and I could follow what they were doing. It ended abruptly, but then it started abruptly. This has to be the all time champ of reading the end first.

Then I read the first half. That explained a lot. This is set in Paris pre-WWII (strange not to type www.) Wealthy counts rescue desperate people. The war advances, Nazi's are just high-stepping and arrogant, not unbearably brutal - yet. Furst was on the panel with McCarry at the Festival of Books years ago. He loves this era. He understands the texture of the time. For that reason, it's interesting reading, no matter how you approach it.

Talk about someone who understands a city and the period he is writing about. And talk about a reader who can croon a book. Will Patton is wonderful. Burke writes about detective Dave Robicheaux dealing with Katrina and Rita in The Tin Roof Blowdown. Sure there is the mystery, but there is New Orleans, too. He weaves a story that you enjoy unraveling. He tells about the impact of the hurricanes on the city, the 9th ward and the people living in and around those areas. He tells about what the people did and how life in the city before the disaster affects how they act during and after the storm.

Can you tell I liked it? Eric turned me on to Burke a long time ago and I've enjoyed him ever since. And now Will Patton reads with a dark honey voice that draws you into the city. Another plus is that I started to read it at the beginning. That was very helpful with this book. I had to keep going back to catch a little nuance I missed. Great writing.

And great joy in the old HelpDesk. Some guy is back and Clif is having a much easier life. We are still trying to work out exactly how things will work for this small group in the long run. But a burden shared is certainly easier to carry. I hope we are able to work all this out before I leave. We move into steady state at the end of the month. Yep, Friday. We are working like little beavers to get things completed. Michael Batton and Bill Urban are grabbing at loose ends and getting them under control. Fingers-crossed.

To Read or Not to Read

What do you do when you and a book don't see eye to eye? Do you finish it because you can't "waste" the book and the money? Do you finish it because it could be better at any moment? I once read a book in Paris that I hated. Hated. It was the Celestine Prophecy. I hated it and I finished it. When I was done, I tossed it across the room into the trash can. I was traveling with Rachelle and I'm sure she remembers the image of the flying book as much as I do. Why did I finish it? It just wasn't worth the trip in the end.



I have been faced with such a dilemma again this week. Twice. First there is White Jazz by James Ellroy, writer of LA Confidential. I liked his non-fiction book about the death of his mother. What is it about this one? First, I like the style. It's written like the clipped, hard-boiled detective fiction of the 50's. But like the 50's and, for that matter, Goodbye Darkness, it represents a time when people's opinions of others were expressed differently and the feelings were different. He uses more terms for black people that I would never use or think in a life-time. It reminds me of that detective Fuhrmann in the Simpson trial. "Did you ever use that word?" "Yes, but it was when I was helping a writer with a book." Was it this book? It's everybody but most white guys. Women, Jews, latinos, Armenians. Holy Cow! It's not just the words but how these people act. I hate this in the book. I like the writing, the story is fairly interesting, but is it worth it to relive the awful 50's?



Then there is the ghastly P.J. O'Rourke with his sick humor in On The Wealth of Nations. The idea is good. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a bitch to read. Some authors got together and thought it was good for us all if a modern writers could explain some of these classics. Adrian and I started to listen to this on the drive up north. We both finally looked at each other and said, "Bleek." I listen to a podcast of the NPR show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. It's a fun quiz-about-the-news show. They rotate in amusing people to be the panelists each week. The only one that makes me cringe is P.J. O'Rourke. The problem is, he thinks he's really funny. Wrong. But I thought maybe he had a governor on this self-image when he writes. Wrong.

Adrian asked who this guy is who thinks he's so darn funny. I agreed it was pretty horrible and we started to listen to Goodbye Darkness. But, you know, can't just not-read a book. So I tried again this week.

What am I going to do? Throw O'Rourke's book across the room into the trash can before I read another word. And just give Ellroy's book a pass. Dreck and racism be gone. Maybe when you finish something bad, you are giving it tacit approval. Can't do. So on to the search for new reading treasures.

Goodbye Brightness, Goodbye Darkness

Dean left on Friday. We have been preparing for leaving for so long that the actual leaving seems anti-climactic. It won't make Monday any less sad. Dean has always been a rock. He was my go to guy for a hundred things, not the least was all thing Mac. Maybe the leaving is different now that I don't need a go to guy, since I'm not answering calls. People at The Times do. They called him until the end about their Mac issues, because they knew there would be a long wait if the issue went to India and then the guys next door. Long, you understand is relative. My camera's battery died as I was taking pictures. This is one I took before I went to India.

Just as Dean was about to leave, I went to the publisher's birthday party for all who had a birthday in August. I must admit being skeptical about yet another Chicago flunky coming in to take a top position at The Times. Sorry David, but from our view point, the line is very long. And without knowing you well, you all look pretty much the same. Remember Bohica? I learned that before Tribune bought us. Change happens constantly, it seems, at the top of this newspaper. After Otis left way back when, we've had VP's and publishers flowing in and out like water.

They were all sincere and caring men (mostly - mostly men, mostly sincere.) You want to trust. You want to believe that they have the good of the paper in mind. Old initiatives fly out the window, new ones come in. Trust me, trust me, trust me. I really want to. I can feel the hope rising again and it is scary. We saw Sam Zell on Thursday. He may have just bought the Tribune. Boy, I like that guy. Hope rising. Then the party with David Hiller on Friday. Hope continues to rise as he quietly takes notes about comments. I don't think he did that to mark who was bad or who marketed himself the best (and that guy would know who he was because he came with notes. Imagine.) It was a great discussion. I hope all these birthday parties help David get to know all who are staying.

Because I left that with uplifted spirits to come down to the Help Desk area and bid Dean farewell. Goodbye, brightness.

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Someone asked how I find these books. I have no idea how this one got into my book list. It was written in 1980. This is the one that Adrian and I started to listen to on our drive up to Sonoma. Manchester is a very good author. He wrote biographies of Krupp, Churchill and McArthur. He also wrote two books that I remember well, The Death of a President about the day Kennedy was shot and Portrait of a President about Kennedy's presidency. He really didn't like McArthur as a man, but thought he was a master tactician. I bet American Caesar would be a good read.

And that's how you find strange new books to read. As for this one, it takes us island hoping in the Pacific Theater of Operation in WWII from the view of a very young marine. Manchester was a student at Amherst when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He joined immediately.

This is a well written story of that part of the war and about the men who fought the war. It also tells about the United States in the 40's and the 80's. He is writing from his perceptions of that long past time, but he also tells about what we were thinking in 1980. For someone who loves history, this is enthralling. You do have to listen to a lot of battle and killing. That isn't so easy. It's hard to skip pages when you listen. Another thing that was hard not to notice was his feelings about the Japanese. He talks from time to time about how they were just like us, determined, hard-fighting men. But then he calls them Nips and Japs. Am I too politically correct? He didn't say it nicely, he said it demeaningly. It gave a good sense of his feelings, take them how you will.

You also get a sense of his pride in America and its fighting men. This is from a man who lived through Viet Nam and could see how times were changing. I was happy to hear it end, however. There is only so much horror that one man and one reader can take.

Goodbye darkness.

If You Get to be 60, You May As Well...

Invite your entire family to cook your birthday lunch for you. They did a fabulous job. We had so much fun cooking and playing with each other and our food. There we all are in the picture above. We've eaten. We've changed from our cooking clothes into our Indian clothes. For those who saw the skinny-legged pants for the boys and didn't know how they would fit - they fit. They are below as well, but here they all are in the picture above:

Top row: Gabriella and Chris, Trina and Mark, Sandi and Jeff

Middle row: Karen holding Torin, Ivan and Tara, Eric on one side of me with Cindy on the other, Julie and Adam, Peter

Bottom row: Natalie and Kevin and Maggie, Adrian and Palmer.

Pshew. That's a lot of folk. We cooked at Ramekins in Sonoma and they organized the day very well. Everyone had a printed recipe and the work station had ingredients that were pretty much measured out, knives and bowls. Chris and Gabriella aren't singing there on the right. They were studying the recipe for the grilled peach and blue cheese salad. The peaches were beautiful. Jeff was hanging around with the pretty young ladies. Tara and Julie had knives, he should have been careful around them. Trina appears to be grilling. Tara and Julie cut corn, asparagus and zucchini for the mixed vegetable ragout.

It wasn't all work. Who knows why Mark and Kevin decided to attack each other with cleavers. Maybe it was just the camera. They were involved with one of the sauces. I think it was the one that went on the steak. To their right is their chef/assistant.

I worked with the group on the left. Mary was our chef. Adam, Palmer and I made the dessert. Palmer is 7. He did a very good job with everything he touched. He got to use one of the very sharp knives to slice the peaches and strawberries. He used one of those hand squeezing juicers to squeeze a lemon. He had a ball. He got involved with different stations and was given a board scraper as a souvenir. His grandfather is in the background setting up his camera. Peter took movies of the whole event. I advise you not to ask. I carry the resulting DVD in my purse.

Jeff and Sandi prepped the mushrooms for the Mushroom Quesadilla. The quesadilla used hand made tortillas. Many in the group helped roll them.

Cindy and Eric are with the last chef, Elizabeth. Poor Cindy loves to cook. She got to make the roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Talk about a thankless job. Elizabeth had her run them through a food mill. Eric kept offering to help with that chore, but Cindy is tough. I'm not positive, but I think she did it all by herself.

Natalie and Adrian fixed a crowd favorite - shrimp skewered with basil and prosciutto. Num. Adrian grilled them later. They both helped make the mustardy mayo that was used as a dipping sauce. Wow, those were good.

Karen was the pied-piper of the two little ones. She and I have cooked at Ramekins a few times. And she does adore her grandchildren. We had thought the kids could help do things like roll tortillas. What they really wanted to do was play with Grammy. I got the three grandchildren together for a group shot in Indian clothes. Maggie looks like she will be asking for alms at any moment. There are more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/pnorman811

I think we all had a great time. And if you get to be 60, you may as well.