Troutbirder II

Waiting For White Horses

2012-01-25T06:18:00.000-08:00

Waiting for White Horses, set in the tall pines of northern Minnesota's spectacular lake country, is a story of trusted friendship, loss and recovery, love and redemption. It's a book of wonderful characterizations of people, places and activities. The boreal forests of northern Minnesota, fishing and fall duck hunting made this book a real fun read for me.
The enduring friendship between Grant Thorson and Will Campbell is all that sustains Grant through a series of painful losses as the seasons pass. When Grant finds love in the arms of a beautiful woman it seems that happiness is once again within reach for him. But he is forced by yet another tragedy to reassess the high price he must pay for his dreams. From Minnesota to the White House, Grant must find a way to embrace the sometimes bitter struggle that is life. If this book were a movie it would be a hybrid chick flick written for men. I must say I'd never read anything quite like it!
If we are lucky, we all learn to wait for white horses... it's how we come to understand, through laughter and tears, the real value of the love of our lives. Indeed.....

The Iron Lady

2012-01-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

Meryl Streep is the greatest film actress of my lifetime. From first seeing her in The Deer Hunter and Sophies Choice on down through the decades to Julie and Julia, she simply has been the best. In her latest role, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, she once again has come up with an amazing performance. Unfortunately, the disjointed script, the lack of a central premise or plot to this biopic wasted much of that performance.
You won’t learn much of anything interesting about Margaret Thatcher, a remarkable woman indeed in terms of her personality and motivation. The circumstances of her controversial stances on labor unions, foreign affairs, terrorism etc. are vague at best. Presenting them without the heart and soul of the times makes for a poor film. Even wonderful acting couldn’t save it.
The part of the film, I found most compelling and yet many friends and colleagues of Thatcher felt was inappropriate, were the scenes of her as an elderly reclues suffering from dementia. Sad to say the film The Iron Lady might more realistically have been titled, It’s Tough To Grow Old.

2012-01-17T04:09:00.000-08:00

Tom Brokaw, the semi-retired 71-year-old former NBC news anchor, is now the of author of several recent-history chronicles, most notably The Greatest Generation. In The Time Of Our Lives: A Conversation About America, he focuses on the present-day difficulties facing present day America. As usual, he has his peer group firmly in mind, but he also wants to address the nation’s youngest adults. Comparisons to the way things once were inevitably abound, but without becoming overwhelming.

Time Of Our Lives is a survey, not a manifesto. It feels a bit a lot like like the patriarchal rock of the family orchestrating a current-events conversation around the Thanksgiving dinner table. Yet Brokaw has settled easily into his assumed role as a sage elder with Great Plains common sense. What’s the point of it all? he asks early on, for a moment letting his ’60s cultural roots get the best of him. "You are not expected to know," he quotes the late Yale president and baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti, who was speaking to a class of incoming college freshmen. "But you are expected to wish to know."
At 71, Brokaw still wants to know. So do some of the rest of us....

The Secret Soldier

2012-01-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

Back in the 70's and 89's I used to read a fair number of current novels. So called "thrillers" were often included in my reading list. Then, those interests faded as history and biography writing vastly improved in this country Historical fiction also became better grounded thus becoming a new interest. More recently a new "friend" shifted my focus once again. His name is John Wells.
John is one of those conflicted males who lives at several depths. He lost his beloved wife to a random terrorist attack. After that he seemed married more than ever to his job. . Office politics forced him to leave his work though yet he and kept going back to it. He is Muslim devoted to America and peace. He definitely prefers privacy and yet several books have been written about his activities.
In many of his books and The Secret Soldier by Alex Berenson is the latest, John Wells is presented as a real life character. Berenson wants his readers to understand that the hero does not always win and is not a super hero. Wells is written, according to Berenson, as "a compelling character not as the traditional action hero. He is more introspective, a searcher."
The Secret Soldier is a compelling, insightful, action packed book. Berenson was able to look at the rulers of the Arab World and explore how the regimes could lose their power. His main character is well developed and an intriguing personality. Anyone who wants a good political thriller with a very realistic scenario should definitely read this book.
There are literally thousands of novels on terrorism and you might think you’ve read one you’ve read them all. Bad guys, Allahu Akbar, bombs, and kick-butt spies and Delta Force teams to save the day. But Berenson works hard to make his novels stand out from the crowd. He also knows his history. With his journalist background, Berenson treats the reader to a fully fleshed out, but not boring or overdone, treatment of Saudi Arabian history and politics. It makes his novel seem authentic no matter how far fetched actual plot might be. They always seem current and close to today headlines. Yes, it's violent. So is life in The Age Of Terrorism....

Rin Tin Tin & Baron

2012-01-06T05:11:00.000-08:00

I grew up in the big city (St. Paul). My mom had asthma. Dogs and cats were not an option so goldfish, parakeets, frogs and turtles proved to be my only pets. Still, my father often spoke of the beloved German Shepherd he had as a pet in the early 20's. That breed had become the most popular dog in America in that era. World War I had brought them notoriety and super movie star Rin Tin Tin popularized them around the world. Heres some "glamour" pictures of the most famous dog in the world. (Yes, Lassie fans.... it's true)
When I moved to rural Minnesota and took up flyfishing and upland game hunting, I fulfilled my lifelong dream of owning a dog. There was a golden retriever/German Shorthair cross, and then two Chesapeake Bay retrievers. When a bad knee finally ended my hunting pursuits, I went without a dog for a while. I missed having them around and thought hard on getting a companion/guard dog in my retirement. A skeptical wife took some convincing that a German Shepherd was the answer. His name is Baron. And now a somewhat elderly boy, me, can romp thru the woods following trails, seeking out birds, wildlife and new adventures......
Naturally, visiting the local library, the following book caught my eye. It was Susan Orleans biography of Rin Tin Tin. Rin Tin Tin was more than a famous German Shepherd. He embodied the core paradoxes of the American ideal: He was a loner who was also a faithful companion, a brave fighter who was also vulnerable. I was astonished to learn from this delightful book that he has existed for eleven generations over a century. By chronicling his amazing ups and downs, Susan Orlean has produced a hugely entertaining and unforgettable reading experience."
Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto writes "Not only does Susan Orlean give us a fascinating and big-hearted account of all the many incarnations of Rin Tin Tin, she shows us the ever-changing role of American dogs in times of war and peace. This book is for anyone who has ever had a dog or loved a dog or watched a dog on television or thought their dog could be a movie star. In short— everyone . "
Here's a clip from one of Baron's favorite movie roles.... Dog of the North

The Dovekeepers

2011-12-10T05:17:00.000-08:00

There is only one ancient source on the story of the Jewish Uprising culminating in the stand at the fortress of Masada. Its veracity has been questioned by recent archaeological evidence. Still the story, whether entirely true or not, is an inspiring one. Novelist Alice Hoffman in The Dovekeepers tells the story from a feminist perspective. Hoffman is a prolific author whose books are both widely loved and frequently damned. Mix feminism with frequent doses of mysticism and controversy may be the result.
The Dovekeepers follows four very different women from the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem to the final suicide at the fortress of Masada. There a disparate group of men and women chose death over slavery. Strong stuff indeed. ( A view across the desert of the Dead Sea from the fortress of Masada).

I found the book much too long at points. This is because some the points of the beautifully evocative writing are repeated endlessly, losing their power in the process. Also because this fact oriented former history teacher wants his historical fiction to be believable.... mixing in a lot of dreams, visions and confusing allusions doesn’t work for me. That's a shame, because so much else about this novel is very good, from the characterization to the contrast between the shabby, hungry refugees and the magnificence of Herod's abandoned palace at Masada.

On a personal note, speaking of deserts, we'll be heading off soon to Arizona to visit the grandchildren for the holidays. Wishing all my blogging friends the best. See you in 2012.

Destiny of the Republic

2011-12-07T03:02:00.000-08:00

He was born in poverty, in a log cabin, on the American frontier. Through hard work, and a wonderful ability to educate himself, courage and an expansive personality he rose to be President of the United States. No. No. It wasn’t Abe. His name was James Garfield. He was from Ohio and was our second president to be assassinated.
Candace Millard has written a wonderful description of an aspect of the age which saw the transition from the end of Reconstruction to modern America. Her book Destiny of the Republic - A Story of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President tells the story of a little known President, cut off like John Kennedy, in the prime of his life. It was a time of great corruption in government, "robber barons" and the solidification of segregation as part of southern institutions and thinking.
The most interesting part of the book is the story of how a man shot in the back with what should have been non mortal wounds was basically killed by his doctors.
Over a period of about 11 weeks the President was repeatedly probed into his wounds with unsterilized fingers and instruments as the doctors tried to find the bullet lodged in his body. This all at a time when the world famous French doctor, Joseph Lister, had been demonstrating for years how his theories on the prevention of infection could save lives and limbs. The famous American inventor, Alexander Graham Bell also worked furiously to develop a machine which could locate the bullet. All to no avail.
Millard, whose previous book The River of Doubt was about Theodore Roosevelt’s near-fatal journey of exploration in South America, is again perfect in bring these people and events to life. This book of narrative history ranks right up there with others like The Devil in the White City as a classic of its type. I highly recommend it.

We Are Soldiers Still

2011-11-29T12:24:00.000-08:00

I had just finished reading We Are Soldiers Still - A Journey Back To The Battlefields of Vietnam. The book is by Lt. General Harold Moore and journalist Joseph Galloway. Why go back and read about a long ago, divisive and disasterous war? Simply because there are still lessons to be learned.

For me, an interest in the recent appearance of this particular book began several years ago with a movie. The title of the movie was We Were Soldiers - And Young. It was based on the book of the same name also written by Moore and Galloway. It starred Mel Gibson as the young officer Moore, who's task was to convert the 7th Regiment (Custer's old cavalry unit) into an effective component of the new airmoble 1st Cavalry. That division was about to be sent and tested in Vietnam.

An old Irish folksong "Gary Owen" was the 7th's marching song and greeting.. The 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) division would mount a fleet of helicopters instead of horses.

The 7th regiment was soon shipped in its entirety to the escalating war South Vietnam. There they were quickly helicoptered into the Ia Drang valley with the mission to locate North Vietnamese forces and to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail. The idea for airmoble unit was to be able to chose its own time and place for battle. In that valley, they were immediately surrounded and attacked by hidden and well entrenched regular forces of the regular North Vietnamese army. That army had been moving south to reenforce the Viet Cong .
With great difficulty and heroism, the 7th held its own, under Moore's brilliant leadership, against an attacking force that greatly outnumbered them.

Several days, later a sister unit from the 1st Cav. that was moving into the same area was ambushed and basically wiped out. That, of course, never appeared in the newspapers of the time. Fifty thousand Americans were killed in this war before it was over seven years later. Moore was obviously a fine man and a great leader. I'm sure there were many others like him. The movie as movies are wont to do, elicited a strong surge of patriotic emotion, during the battle scenes. One's fellow countrymen, putting there lives on the line to protect our freedom, it seemed . And yet. And yet walking out of that theater I couldn't help but thinking..... what a waste. What a godawful waste.... The wisdom of hindsight perhaps
I had remembered a Christmas family gathering a few years before, where I met my cousin who had just returned from Vietnam. He was a civil engineer working on water projects in Saigon. Today, I guess, he would be called a "civilian contractor." He had utterly shocked me with tales of massive corruption in South Vietnam's military government. How the Americans had to bribe people left and right to accomplish anything. How, except for some of the Catholic minority, the people despised that government and regarded them as lackeys for the American "colonialists," who had replaced the "true" nationalists. A generation later, Moore kept a promise he had made to his men, that someday they would return to that battlefield, to make peace within themselves and to their fallen comrades. After years of difficulties that promise was kept and a number of these heroes returned to the Ia Drang Valley. One of those heroes is pictured here, at that place and that time. His name was Rick Riscorla. A generation later, he was the new chief of security at the World Trade Center. There he died after his actions saved the lives of thousands of people on that fateful day. Hal Moore, Joe Galloway, and many of their comrades were to return to Vietnam. There they met and befriended some of the soldiers they had fought. Moore's counterpart in the NVA was among them. In fascinating detail we learn of the strategies of each side. More importantly, we read of their hopes, dreams and illusions. Given the delusions, that have at times colored our own foreign and security strategies, it is a tale well told and worth learning from. General Hal Moore follow up on the Vietnam war. We Are Soldiers Still - A Journey Back To The Battlefields Of Vietnam.
I highly recommend it.

Forbidden

2011-11-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

I’ve usually been somewhat of an omnivorous reader. Though, for fun, I used to read mostly fiction... from classical to best sellers on into the 70's. Fantasy and science fiction & thrillers were read but only rarely. At some point, I decided that the best American writers were doing history and biography. The following book doesn’t follow my usual reading habits....
Imagine a world, our world, where every person on the planet is dead and doesn’t know it. Not zombies according to the current literary fad, but rather a planet populated by people who are but shells of what they were created to be. A people devoid of all emotion with the exception of one fear.
Bestselling author Ted Dekker and co-author Tosca Lee conjure up just such a world in Forbidden, a dystopian novel which will appeal to some and horrify others. .. Dekker’s vivid imagination and at times almost maniacal focus on darkness and light coupled with Tosca Lee’s eloquence of prose is captivating Using interesting characters, the plot slowly builds to a riveting ending. The king where even if you favorite football team is on the tube it’s impossible to put the book down in the last hundred pages.
The book begins with
"In the year 2005, geneticists discovered the human gene that controlled both innate and learned forms of fear. It was called Stathmin, or Oncoprotein 18. Within 15 years, genetic influencers for all primary emotions were similarly identified.
Nearly a decade later, in the wake of catastrophic war that destroyed much of civilization, humanity vowed to forsake all that had conspired to destroy it. Out of the ashes rose a new world in which both the advanced technologies and the passionate emotions that led to its ruin were eliminated. A world without hatred, without malice, without sorrow, without anger. The only emotion genetically allowed to survive was fear. For 480 years, perfect peace reigned. Until now."
For some reason, I can’t quite fathom, Dekkers books have been wildly popular with some of those readers who favor "Christian" books. Other in the same category roundly condemn his writing. It may have something to do with ones take on current politics. Is it really about the dangers of "big government" or even worse "world government". Perhaps. But I’ve already read Orwells 1984. I suspect the devotees of Ayn Rand will find it fulfilling. For me, it's the dangers of science and technology used in defiance of humanity that is quite enough.

Secret Service Protection

2011-11-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

It is, however, scary to think that this one may not be the worst of the lot.....

Lincoln And The Border States

2011-11-20T07:38:00.000-08:00

Lincoln And The Border States - Preserving The Union by William C. Harris
Lincoln has often been quoted (whether true or not) as saying while he hoped to have God on his side in the Civil War, he must have Kentucky. And, no doubt, Missouri & Maryland as well. This book by Professor Harris (Univ. Of Kansas) is the story of how Lincoln accomplished the amazingly difficult and complex task.
Keeping the slave holding border states within the Union was the task for a great leader and in this case a masterful politician. Although that term has fallen into some disdain today, I use it in the best sense of the world now. Democracy rests, in part , on political leadership that is moral, wise, practical and inclusive above all. Lincoln had those qualities, perhaps, more than any President in the history of our country.
This book is not a history of the broader problems and events of the war. It requires some background to be fully appreciated. If political leadership is you interest though, the book is perfect. As a lesson in "how to do it" in the worst of times. That makes it well worth reading.
It’s not that much of politics today is lowbrow or even dirty. It was a bad then or even worse. Catering to the lowest common denominator and the politics of fear. Lincoln made the tough decisions, the moral decision but tempered it all with the possible and always an eye on the consequences for the future. We certainly could use a few more people like that in politics today.

The 1st MN Second To None

2011-11-13T06:06:00.000-08:00

My Civil War Book Of The Month is by local historian Richard Krom and titled The 1ST MN SECOND TO NONE. Here you can journey through the Civil War, along with Edward Bassett, the young farmboy from the Minnesota frontier, who rushes immediately to join the defense of his country. He encounters all the dangers and struggles that he and his comrades in The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment faced. While not a complete story of the war the book follows that regiments participation in the many famous battles and skirmishes that defined them as one of the most celebrated and honored of the Army of the Potomac. They were known as "The Regiment that never runs." And they never did from Bull Run to Gettysburg.
They saved the day at Antietam, charged into a wall of whistling death at Gettysburg, where ordered to fill a gap in the Union line by
General Hancock, this band of brothers faced six times their number and stopped the rebel advance. What makes this book special is that it consists of over two hundred previously unpublished letters of the young pioneer farm boy Ed Bassett to his parents, siblings and friends back in Minnesota. These letters and the accompanying narrative provide an illuminating look into the daily life of the common soldier, both in camp and on the battlefield. In explicit detail they reveal the elation, humor and sorrow of the soldiers toward the war and their longing to return to their homes. I loved it.

Some reenactors resting at the Minnesota monument at Gettysburg.

Stasiland

2011-11-08T04:53:00.000-08:00

It's the story of 17 million people living in a nation not of their own choosing. A few wanting it, some accepting it, many adapting to it and other stumbling into being it's "enemies" oten without intent. Many hunkered down, more than a few tried to flee often being killed in the effort. It was an all encomposing police state. The "stasi" were the enforcers. Equality was the idea. A communist totalitarian failure was the result. Stasiland: Stories From Behind The Berlin Wall by Australin author Anna Funder reads like a novel but actually is based on investigative reporting and the author personal experiences. What is actually revealed is a brutal world of indifference to humanity. A world of people caught in a nightmare. How sad..... Funder’s careful portraits of the people she meets from “Stasiland” shine a dazzling light on one of the world’s most paranoid and secretive regimes, and its effects on contemporary German society.

Souther Poverty Law Center

2011-11-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against White white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups, monitoring of hate groups, militias, and extremist organizations; and educational programs that promote tolerance.[
The SPLC classifies as hate groups organizations that denigrate or assault entire groups of people for attributes that are beyond their control.
In 1971, Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. founded the SPLC as a civil rights law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama.
A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story by Morris Dees with Steve Fiffer is an autobiography which reads like a novel. It is Morris' story of growing up in a share-cropper's family on a cotton farm in Mississippi in the post Depression years. He worked in the fields with the black laborers, whom he heard talking among themselves as no other white ears could hear. With a compassionate father who treated negroes kindly in a period and place when other whites treated them cruelly or unfairly, Morris' character was developed to be sympathetic to the underlings of society. He grew up to be a successful lawyer and founded the Southern Poverty Law Center, which fairly and without charging represents poor clients so they can receive just treatment in a legal system which still favors the rich, white accused. The book is a compelling and poignant read and one you cannot put down. It will pull your heart strings and educate you to cruel realities in America today. An excellent book you won't want to miss
I received a copy of his autobiography by joining the SPLC. It was money well spent.

The Big Year

2011-10-30T04:05:00.000-07:00

We came. To the Arizona desert for serveral weeks We saw. Our son Tony & his family: Kari, Ethan, Tensae, Leonard and new arrival Vanessa. We conquered. By surviving 100 degree days on the patio, adjacent to the golf course and swimming pool and enjoying our grandchildren. And on our return to Minnesota rushing off to see the newly released movie about birding, listing and an extreme form of competition - The Big Year.

Birder or not this movie was just plain a lot of fun. Seeing who can see the most birds in North American in one year is the basic plot as three main characters strive for this goal. They're not "nerds" but more than a little obsessed. The birding "hotspots" they visit are revealed with wonderful cinematography. All in all, this is a movie to be enjoyed by birders and non-birders alike. I highly recommend it.

Lincoln and the Civil War

2011-10-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

"Lincoln was more than the "black man’s president" or "the Great Emancipator"; he was also "the savior of the Union." But he was also more than that; by leading a successful war to preserve "government of the people, by the people and for the people," he was "the Vindicator of Democracy." He succeeded because he somehow managed to be strong-willed without being wilful, moral without being moralistic, and righteous without being self-righteous because he inspired confidence and affection; because he a preternatural understanding of public opinion; because his sense of political timing was exquisite; because he had developed and extraordinarily high level of psychological maturity and balance; because he masterfully kept the Republican party (and by extension the North itself) unified; and because he was supremely eloquent in articulating the aims of the war. Without those qualities, he wold have failed, the North would have lost the war, slavery would have long persisted, and the cause of democracy in the world would have received a severe setback."

With that concluding paragraph, author Michael Burlingame sums up his wonderful assesment of Lincoln as President. There have to be thousands of books on the Civil War and hundreds on Abraham Lincoln but this small book is one of the best. I highly recommend it.

The Vidocq Society

2011-10-06T03:10:00.000-07:00

The Vidocq Society is a members-only crime-solving club that meets on the third Thursday of every month in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Vidocq Society is named for Eugène François Vidocq, the ground-breaking nineteenth century French detective who helped police by using the psychology of the criminal to solve "cold case" homicides. Vidocq was a former criminal himself, and used his knowledge of the criminal mind to look at murder from the psychological perspective of the perpetrator. At meetings, Vidocq Society Members (VSMs) listen to local law enforcement officials from around the world who bring in cold cases for review.
VSMs are forensic professionals; current and former FBI profilers, homicide investigators, scientists, psychologists, prosecutors and coroners who use their experience to provide justice for investigations that have gone cold. Members are selected by committee invitation only, pay a $100 annual fee, and commit to attend at least one meeting per year.
The Society was formed in 1990 by William Fleisher, Richard Walter, and Frank Bender. It solved its first case in 1991, clearing an innocent man of involvement in the murder of Huey Cox.
Vidocq will only consider cases that meet certain requirements: they must be unsolved deaths more than two years old, the victims cannot have been involved in criminal activity such as prostitution or drug dealing, and the case must be formally presented to them by the appropriate law enforcement agency. The Society does not charge for its services, and pays for the travel expenses of the law enforcement agents who come to present cases.
The Society was featured in several cases of America's Most Wanted TV series, and was also a plot point in the finale of the 2007–08 season of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2010 it became the subject of a book, The Murder Room by Michael Capuzzo.

While reading the book is not for the faint hearted, I found it quite interesting. The clues of numerous horrific and unsolved murders are not skipped over. Still it gave me some insight into the subject that frightens and frustrates people when murderers appear to get away with their crimes. The new forensics popularized in many recent televisions programs. The subtitle of The Murder Room is The Heirs Of Sherlock Holmes Gather To Solve The World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases. The reference to Sherlock Holmes is appropriate indeed.

Finally, like many of the cases references in this book, the details are scattered and seemingly unorganized. In a word the book needs some serious editing. The author skipped between cases with other topics in between. It all made for interesting but very conflusing reading. Yuk!

An Empire Of Ice

2011-10-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

The book is An Empire Of Ice: Scott, Shackleton & The Heroic Age of Antarctic Science. If you might be interested in exploration and research under the most extreme conditions imaginable... this is the book for you. If you aren't into the scientific instruments and measurement techniques of more than a hundred years ago, do as I did, skip parts of it. That said, the author Larson's true tale is quite remarkable. The book also examines the "politics" of the race to the South Pole.

The crux of the "political" matter was that it wasn't a race at all. Roald Amundson, the Norweigian, got to the Pole first by ignoring scientific reasearch entirely. That research was the raison de'tre for the polar expedition to begin with according to the British. He also used sled dogs and other Artic survival techniques he had learned from the Eskimoes. Scott expeditions "manhauled sledges" a slower and more exhausting technique, that matched the Victorian view that exploration was a manhood test of will and courage. It certainly made for an interesting and might I add well research story.

Portrait Of A Spy

2011-09-30T04:34:00.000-07:00

Description:
Gabriel Allon, master art restorer and spy, returns in a new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva.

Gabriel Allon has been hailed as the most compelling creation since "Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond" (Rocky Mountain News),and"one of the most intriguing heroes of any thriller series" (Philadelphia Inquirer). A man with a deep appreciation for all that is beautiful, Gabriel is also an angel of vengeance who will stop at nothing to see justice done. Sometimes he must journey far in search of evil. And sometimes evil comes to him.

For Gabriel and his beautiful Venetian-born wife, Chiara, a pleasant weekend in London turns deadly when the newly retired operative spots a man exhibiting traits common to suicide bombers. But before Gabriel can prevent the attack, he is knocked to the pavement and can only watch as a scene from his nightmares unfolds.
Haunted by his failure to stop the massacre of innocents, Gabriel returns to his isolated cottage on the cliffs of Cornwall, until a summons brings him to Washington and he is drawn into a confrontation with the new face of global terror. At the center of the threat is an American-born cleric in Yemen to whom Allah has granted "a beautiful and seductive tongue." A gifted deceiver, who was once a paid CIA asset, the mastermind is plotting a new wave of attacks.
Review:
Sounds like todays (9/30/22) headline in the Mpls. Star and Tribune. "Anwar al-Awlaki., a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure in al-Qaida's most active branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks in the United States, was killed Friday in the mountains of Yemen, American and Yemeni officials said."
This book had a lot of strengths--good pacing, interesting characters, believable dialogue, and the incorporation or implicit prediction of current issues and events. But I can't get over how there were a number of points in the book that felt too overtly political. It was very critical and suspicious of Islam in general. And most importantly that the "end always justifies the means." Although never mentioned by name the current administrations "soft" approach to fighting terrorism is the enemy. It left a bad taste in my mouth at times and seemed like loosely-veiled propaganda. As recent events have shown, the real President does not oppose carefully targeting terrorists. But willy nilly "bull in the China shop" tactics and ignoring our core values are not the way to win friends and influence people. I agree.....

The Help

2011-09-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

We went and saw the movie The Help a couple of days ago. Mrs T. had read the book and highly recommended it. Afterwards, she said the movie was faithful to the book by Kathryn Stockett.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
Synopsis:
Set in Mississippi one hundred years after the abolition of human slavery, Jim Crow is beginning to come under attack.
The novel is told from the point of view of three narrators: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children, and who has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson, an African-American maid whose back-talk towards her employers results in her having to frequently change jobs, exacerbating her desperate need for work as well as her family's struggle with money; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman and recent college graduate who, after moving back home, discovers that a maid that helped raise her since childhood has abruptly disappeared and her attempts to find her have been unsuccessful. The stories of the three women intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help", with complex relations of power, money, emotion, and intimacy tying together the white & black families of Jackson.
Skeeter is a young aspiring journalist surrounded by friends and relatives who cling determidly to the racial attitudes of the past. The murders & terrorism of that era are only mentioned briefly in the movie. The menial work of the black "help" is locked in for each succeeding generation. It isn’t exactly slavery, but it is a caste system at the core. The black maids need the jobs but their lot is to be bombarded with the pain of disrespect, condescension and abuse. Skeeter struggles to find some of these women to dare to tell their personal stories.
The most telling white character is Skeeter's mother played by Sissy Spacek. Not a raving over the top bigot as some of the portrayals, she simply goes along to get along with her racist friends. This portrayal struck me as most sad and realistic.
Besides the broad strokes to portray some of the characters, there is the come uppance humor. Some very funny but way over the top unrealistic, involving some commodes scattered across one bigot's lawn and a fecal pie. Other than that, though, I highly recommend this movie. Sometimes it’s the down-to-earth stuff rather than those things that take up chapters in the history books that cuts closest to our own experiences of the heart.

David Brinkley

2011-09-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Desperate for something to read, I found myself in the long ago dusty section of our cash strapped local public library. Just because they don't have much money to buy new books doesn't mean I can't find something interesting to read, so I picked up a fifteen year old copy of David Brinkley's autobiography.

Back in the day (late fifties, sixties) I was a huge fan of the Huntley Brinkley Report. It was the best. Somewhat later I occasionally watched Brinkley's weekly news discussion show on ABC, although faux erudite panelist George Will didn't hit my slightly amused button nearly as well as fellow conservative William Buckley managed.

Brinkley's story from childhood to world acclaim managed to include the following "highlights." He didn't like his mother, he somewhat covertly despised unions, he sucked up to people of all political persuasions in the interest of getting inside sources, his large ego was slightly hidden under a few self deprecating witticisms, he loved to trash "class warfare" in the Rush Limbaugh manner, and took every opportunity to depricate "bureacracy and taxes abusing the put upon wealthy." He also took the opportunity to pronounce some of his favorite crackpot schemes, such as as advocating a "flat tax" in the interest of simplicity and "fairness."

Most often described as "wry," Brinkley once suggested on the air that the best way to resolve the controversy over whether to change the name of Boulder Dam to "Hoover Dam" was to have former president Herbert Hoover change his name to "Herbert Boulder". I found his "wryness" to come across mostly as sarcasm.

All in all I do believe I should have wiped the dust off this clinker before taking it home and years ago wish I'd stuck with Walter Cronkite.

The Midnight House

2011-09-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

In his fourth novel starring CIA superstar John Wells, author Alex Berenson presents a detailed description of how the United States might have employed torture during the past decade. It’s called The Midnight House. Not for the squeamish, it’s only worth reading for those interested in parsing both sides of the rendition issue, the importance of top-secret information to the safety of the United States and the brutality of torture and its effects not only on the prisoners but on those inflicting punishment on another human being.
The Midnight House of the title is a U.S. interrogation center tucked away in an obscure military base in Poland. It is, writes Berenson, a "concrete building at the edge of the base, the one everyone pretended didn't exist. Planes landing late at night, guards shuffling prisoners in and out." Part of the story is set there in 2008, when two Pakistani terrorism suspects disappear from official captivity and arrive at the Midnight House on one of those late-night flights. They are broken, in one indecent way or another, by the CIA interrogation team in residence.
The principal story line is set a year or so later, after some of the Midnight House team members have been murdered and Wells has been recalled to duty to find out what is going on. He learns more than he was supposed to and finds himself menaced by powerful members of the U.S. intelligence establishment. They are Berenson's main villains. While grasping power within the government, they carefully distance themselves from operatives in the field. When something went wrong, observes Berenson, these bureaucrats "told the prosecutors and the congressional investigators that they couldn't be expected to know exactly what was happening on the front lines."
Everyone involved in this complex story knows that torture has taken place, but no one denounces it. They buy into the idea that the pursuit of valuable intelligence transcends moral constraints. The implicit question running throughout the book is this: Should there be limits on how far Americans allow their government to go in the course of purportedly protecting the country? In Berenson's skillful hands, moral dilemmas and rousing action produce a novel that lays out these issues in an interesting manner. For me though, recalling the views of Mr. and Mrs Dick Cheney and their ilk on the question of "waterboarding", in the end, I found the whole interesting at the start and rather depressing the more I read ....

The Girl In The Blue Beret.

2011-08-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

You can’t judge a book by it’s cover they say, but I did. It showed a rain slicked city street somewhere in Europe. Possibly Paris, I thought. The cars were 1930's vintage for sure. It was twilight with a slight fog hanging in the air. The street lights were aglow and there were few people about. Still a young woman , wearing a coat and a dark beret was crossing the street. The whole scene was somber, mysterious even a bit frightening. Something about it all made me think of Anne Frank.......
Thus, I was drawn into readomg author Bobbie Ann Mason’s new novel, The Girl In The Blue Beret,
I was so glad I judged that cover...
It is the story of a recently widowed American pilot, Marshal Stone, who is forced into mandatory retirement at the age of sixty and wondering what to do with the rest of his life. He is the same man, who as a young bomber pilot crash landed in 1944, on a mission over German occupied France.
Inspired by the experiences of her father-in-law, Mason tells a tale of war, love and survival in "The Girl in the Blue Beret" that alternates perfectly between World War II and modern Europe.
To the surprise of Marshall’s friends and family, he picks up and moves to Paris, intent on finding the ordinary people who hid him and led him safely out of France during the war after his B-17 crashed. Through his eyes, we meet members of the French Resistance who sacrificed greatly and often risked their lives to help downed airmen. We also learn about a cocksure young man slow to realize the high price of war to those who lived through it.
Mason's writing is exquisite. Not a single word is wasted or out of place, and she never drifts toward sentimentality — even in her descriptions of combat and the wreckage left behind. Her extensive knowledge of aircraft, combat and World War II is readily apparent, but isn't heavy-handed. Perhaps most impressive, though, is her ability to experience the world through a no-longer-middle-aged widower.
Filled with mystery, guilt and self doubt, courage, and romance, this book has it all. It shows people growing and changing, sometimes but not always for the better. How some stood up with courage under terrible circumstances. Not just another book about World War II, it will be the "quest" story you will never forget. I highly recommend it.

Railroaded

2011-08-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

I think it must be the nostalgia thing. As a boy, I lived on the East Side in St. Paul. Below the bluffs, where I grew up, was the Mississippi River. Also across it wasthe Downtown St. Paul airport and at the base, the tracks of the Burlington, the Milwaukee Road, The Great Northern and perhaps several other railroads. Also the "yards" of the Burlington where my uncles worked and the Milwaukee where our neighbor Art worked. I even got to ride on steam engines, fire the coal box and guide the engines across the turnstile "roundtable" to tuck them in the repair shops. All this adds up to the fact I've always been enamored of trains.

In RAILROADED: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America by Richard White a new and incisive history of the transcontinental railroads and how they transformed America in the decades after the Civil War you get all the railroading you might ever want. The transcontinental railroads of the late nineteenth century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the U.S. economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life. Their discriminatory rates sparked broad opposition and a new antimonopoly politics. With characteristic originality, range, and authority, Richard White shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike, robber barons larger than life, and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age, often darkly funny, that shows history to be rooted in failure as well as success.

The corporate raider Gordon Gekko, in the 1987 film Wall Street, distilled the essential philosophy of the Reagan era, when we were supposed to get back to basic principles: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works." Although almost every ethical philosopher or religious leader of the past came out against greed as an emotion that distorts judgment and corrupts society, the Gekko-Reagan creed has usually been an easy sell in America. Running against that tradition, Richard White, doggedly persists in challenging the notion of greed as either rational or virtuous. He has a big job on his hands. No matter how many dot-com crashes or overleveraged credit debacles we go through, the core faith in greed as the engine of American greatness seems all but unshakable.

Based mostly on the letters and other writings of the "barons" themselves, you'll need interest and movtivation to plow through this tome. I had and I did. And was appalled at what I found. Apparently, the greedy uncontrolled "deregulated" people, guided by the "invisible hand," who recently screwed up our economy, had a good precedent to work from. Perhaps the "Populist Party" who fought against these horros at the latter quarter of the 19th century is due for a comback......

Lost In Shangri-La

2011-08-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

I love adventure/exploration/ survival stories. Needless to say, the newly published book Lost In Shangri-La fits those criterion exactly. One of the best of this genre I’ve read in a long time. From the New York Times Book Review
Picture of WAC Margaret Hastings & New Guinea Tribesmen
By MICHAEL WASHBURN
Published: June 3, 2011
"Adventure" these days is merely an experience that allows for a modestly elevated number of variables — renting a car without a GPS unit, for instance, or visiting a friend in East Flatbush. Not that the world is denuded of excitement. It’s just that true adventure requires something that defies an itinerary: failure. Failure is the engine of adventure.

Mitchell Zuckoff’s "Lost in Shangri-La" delivers a feast of failures — of planning, of technology, of communication — that are resolved in a truly incredible adventure. Truly incredible? A cliché, yes, but Zuckoff’s tale is something a drunk stitches together from forgotten B movies and daydreams while clutching the bar. Zuckoff is no fabulist, though, and in this brisk book he narrates the tense yet peaceful five weeks during 1945 that three plane crash survivors spent immersed "in a world that time didn’t forget. Time never knew it existed." Even at the level of exposition, the book is breathless.
In the final days of World War II, 24 bored soldiers and members of the Women’s Army Corps embark on an aeronautic joy ride over a newly "discovered" landscape — known today as the Baliem Valley — in the dangerously isolated mountains of New Guinea, mountains populated by thousands of combative "cannibals," where "a lifetime of war was an inheritance every child could count on."
Perhaps owing to a lethal combination of foolishness and inexperience, the plane crashes, eventually killing all aboard but a beautiful Wac and two all-American G.I.’s. They are unreachable except by parachute — or plane crash — and surrounded by startled warrior tribes; a contingent of Filipino-American paratroopers joins the survivors to aid in their rescue. With no place to land an airplane, the mountain air too thin for helicopters, and the threat of thousands of hostile Japanese soldiers hiding between the injured group and the sea, Army commanders decide on the most reasonable extraction: a cargo plane with a big hook. At this point, you should know if Zuckoff’s book appeals to you.
The pleasures — and values — of this story reside in admiration of fortitude in a vortex of treacherous circumstances. It is the 1940s, though, so primitive sexual politics — Margaret Hastings, the surviving Wac, is repeatedly praised for her unexpected "gumption," and the Army’s first airdrop includes food, blankets and lipstick — abounds, as does the lazy racism of "cockpit anthropoligists even after the New Guineans prove indispensable. Zuckoff doesn’t editorialize, probably because this is an adventure tale; insofar as nobody can confront ingrained gender bias or cultural chauvinism while looking across a clearing at a war-painted, spear-wielding expeditionary force, the book’s vitality derives from a contagious sympathy with its subjects’ circumstances. But it’s a fine line.
Technicolor chivalry and cultural atavism aside, "Lost in Shangri-La" tells of the first contact between disoriented, combative cultures, one of the final first-contacts in human history. It’s a tale of bravery, loyalty, trust and silly, often frightening miscommunication. For example, white sky gods figure prominently in the local eschatology, and unbeknown to the Americans, tribal leaders greet their arrival as a prophecy fulfilled. While the Americans run swap meets, debates rage over whether to kill the whites to stall the apocalypse.
Ultimately, Zuckoff’s story is heartbreaking. From the moment the New Guineans choose to aid the stranded Americans, their culture is jerked forward into a callous, evangelizing modernity. Each day, the American forces receive an airdrop, often containing weapons and cowrie shells — used as currency — inadvertently introducing two hallmarks of the modern West: firearms and inflation. Today, Zuckoff writes, "elderly native men in penis gourds . . . charge a small fee to pose for photos, inserting boar tusks through passages in their nasal septums to look fierce. More often, they look lost." By the end of Zuckoff’s narrative, it’s clear that the Americans, however painful and anguishing the ordeal, were hardly victims. After all, they experienced the thrills of adventure. The New Guineans, by contrast, inherited a tragedy.

The Silent Man

2011-08-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

I’m not a big fan of the "thriller" genre. That’s not to say though that I would never ever pick one up when I’m scanning the new novel shelf of our local public library. Alex Berenson’s thriller The Silent Man caught my eye. I read it.
The radical militants of the Middle East want to get their national, religious and personal revenge against the Americans. Their plot is obtain the elements needed to build a nuclear weapon, smuggle it into America and explode the device in Washington, D.C. How might they bring off such a scheme? How might our government's agents stop them? Alex Berenson's third John Wells thriller pits his CIA superhero against just such a plot Here is where I usually have trouble with thrillers. The super hero part is usually so hokey. On that point this book was to thrillers what reality TV is reality. Popular drivel. I'd already seen James Bond in the movies. I will say this tale is well written though in a descriptive sense. Berenson strings his plot together well and his adjectives do grab ones attention. The really intriguing part is where the author provides a realistic, detailed account of how the terrorists swipe two decommisioned nuclear "gadgets" from a Russian military base and transport them to the United States. There they are taken apart to patch together a nuclear bomb that could work. This is the part that caught my attention. I kept wondering if this kind of information should be available at Barnes and Noble.

We know in the end that superhero John Wells will save the world from a nuclear holocaust. What we don’t know is how plausable is the "science" behind the plot. Can a couple of amateurs build a nuclear weapon with a little luck, the right material and the internet. I think I became more and more convinced as I read this sophisticated account of the nuclear plot that it was not so far fetched as I thought. . Thrillers are supposed to be scary. It was. And that's what made it worth reading. In the real world lets hope our intelligence agencies are more prepared and aware than they were on 9/11.

The Final Storm

2011-08-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

"War is hell."

William Tecumseh Sherman

DAMN YANKEES

2011-07-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

THREE NUNS WERE ATTENDING A YANKEES BASEBALL GAME. THEY WERE FROM MINNESOTA AND HOPED TO FIND OUT WHY THE YANKEES ALWAYS BEAT THE TWINS IN THE PLAYOFFS. PERHAPS THERE WAS SOMETHING TO THE MOVIE "DAMN YANKES" THAT THE DEVIL SUPPORTED THE NEW YORKERS.GAME.

THREE YANKEES FANS WERE SITTING DIRECTLY BEHIND.... BECAUSE THEIR HABITS WERE PARTIALLY BLOCKING THE VIEW,
THE MEN DECIDEDTO BADGER THE NUNS HOPING THAT THEY'D GET ANNOYED ENOUGH TO MOVE TO ANOTHER AREA..
IN A VERY LOUD VOICE, THE FIRST GUY SAID, "I THINK I'M GOING TO MOVE TO UTAH ...
THERE ARE ONLY 100 NUNS LIVING THERE.." THEN THE SECOND GUY SPOKE UP AND SAID, "I WANT TO GO TO MONTANA ... THERE ARE ONLY 5O NUNS LIVING THERE..
"THE THIRD GUY SAID, "I WANT TO GO TO IDAHO ..
THERE ARE ONLY 25 NUNS LIVING THERE.." ONE OF THE NUNS TURNED AROUND, LOOKED AT THE MEN, AND IN A VERY SWEET AND CALM VOICE SAID,
"WHY DON'T YOU GO TO HELL .. THERE AREN'T ANY NUNS THERE.

Tuttie Frutti

2011-07-27T04:13:00.000-07:00

It had been a long hot day at the Minnesota Landscape and Horticultural Garden. We had gone with Mrs. T's cousin Joe and spouse Mary. Afterwards a dinner was in order at a local restaurant.

We all ordered a drink. Mrs. T: "I'll have that Hawaiian Special (or something akin to that)." Troutbirder: Beer, Leinis Honey Weisse, please." And then the song came flooding back in memory. Lil Richard singing...."A-Wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-lop-bam-booTutti Frutti, all over rootie,.....A-wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-lop bam booI got a gal, named Sue, She knows just what to do. .....I've been to the east, I've been to the west, but she's the gal That I love the best.Tutti Frutti, all over rootie,....A-wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-lop bam boo."
Some days I just can't help myself but on this occasion I didn't hold Mrs. T to her promise to take her turn and drive us home from the Twin Cities. :) That adult beverage must have been at least a quart.

The Greater Journey - Americans In Paris

2011-07-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

The weather here in Bluff Country has been quite uncomfortable for days. With temperatures in the nineties and humidity to match, outdoor activities have been mostly cancelled. Thus I've been mowing, gardening hiking and biking at the crack of dawn. By ten o’clock..... forget it. Therefore I’ve slipped into my "winter" mode. What that means is lots of arm chair sitting, bird feeder watching and reading. Yesterday was typical. After washing the truck, I headed into town on a mission. The mission was to come up with an alternative to my plans for some homemade split pea soup. You see I love it and Mrs T hates it due to some youthful oversupply of the stuff at the boarding school she attended. The alternative came in the form of a package of "Fifteen Dried Beans" I found on the shelf. The frozen ham bone I had carefully saved from Easter in the freezer would finally be put to use. Ham and bean soup would soon be on the menu. And many days afterwards as I always make big batches....
Soup is not only good food it’s a winter mainstay when those Minnesota blizzards arrive. So if one is trapped inside by inclement weather.... say really hot and muggy, who’s to say?
Now to the reading part. Mr McCullough has done it again. Two Pulitzer prizes ( for John Adams and Truman) along with numerous other award winning best sellers apparently weren’t enough. Now we have The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris. The theme of this book might be summed up the authors statement that "not all pioneers went West." These were the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians architects and others who set off for paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work. Most had never left home, never experience a different culture. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history.
They included (just to name drop a little) :
Oliver Wendel Holmes - Doctor, Poet.
Charles Sumner - Abolitionist, Senator
James Fenimore Cooper - Author
Samuel F.B. Morse - Painter, Inventor
Emma Willard - Educator, Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Author
Elizabeth Blackwell - 1st female Doctor
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Author
Louis Gottschalt - Pianist
George Healy - Portraitist
Mark Twain - Author
Henry James - Author
Harriet Beecher Stowe - Author
Elihu Washburne - Ambassador
August Saint Gaudens - Sculptor
Mary Cassel - Painter
John Singer Sarget - Painter
Over one hundred years later America has another gifted artist. Historian/biographer David McCullough. He knows how to tell a really good story.

Kids & Grandkids

2011-07-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

TEACHER: John , why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without tables.
TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L'
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water? DONALD: H I J K L M N O TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.
TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.
TEACHER: Charles, what happens to your body as you age?

CHARLES: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.

TEACHER: Sally, how is dew formed?

SALLY: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

TEACHER: Bill, how can you delay milk turning sour?

BILLY: Keep it in the cow.

First Grandchild Ethan - Born Fargo North Dakota

Second Grandchild Tensae - Born

Ethiopia

Third Grandchild Leonard - Born Rwanda

Fourth Grandchild Vanessa - In process of adoption.

Thelma and Louise

2011-07-04T09:09:00.001-07:00

Infidel

2011-06-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia, was raised Muslim, and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, she came to the Netherlands as a refugee, escaping a forced marriage to a distant cousin she had never met. She learned Dutch and worked as an interpreter in abortion clinics and shelter for battered women. After earning her college degree in political science, she worked for the Labor Party. She denounced Islam after the September 11 terrorist attacks and now fights for the rights of Muslim women, the enlightenment of Islam, and security in the West." (From her book Infidel)
From the books introduction: "one November morning in 2004, Theo van Gogh got up to go to work at his film production company in Amsterdam. He took out his old black bicycle and headed down a main road. Waiting in a doorway was a Moroccan man with a handgun and two butcher knives.
As Theo cycled down the Linnaeusstraat, Muhammad Bouyeri approached. He pulled out his gun and shot Theo several times. Theo fell off his bike and lurched across the road, then collapsed. Bouyeri followed. Theo begged, "Can’t we talk about this?" but Bouyeri shot him four more times. Then he took out one of his butcher knives and sawed into Theo’s throat. With the other knife, he stabbed a five-page letter onto Theo’s chest.
The letter was addressed to me."
I really disliked this book. I disliked what the author had to tell about her childhood and her experiences as a young woman in a Muslim world. And yet........ I’m glad I read it. I’m glad to know some important things about Islam, the culture it creates and its implications for the non Muslim part of the world. I have no idea how typical what is told in this book is of most Islamic cultures. I met an exchange student from Indonesia (the worlds largest Muslim country) and am reasonably sure the horror of what Ayaan Hirsi Ali experienced would not be typical there. It’s all very disturbing.
How well does anyone in the west understand both traditional and radical fundamentalist Islam, and all the things it does to people? Do we really understand female genital mutilation, beaten women, arranged marriages, the compuslive need to hide the feminine, and the complete loss of individual freedom? Americans still don't have a clue. This book makes a very real effort to explain a few things. It is painful, but important reading.

And then there is this. She now works for the American Enterprise Institute. A hotbed of neocon ideologues. There are many aspects to much of what is involved in her story. It might be a reason why it took me weeks to figure out what I wanted to say about this book......

Reminiscences On Montana

2011-06-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Some reminiscences on Montana and a book by EcoRover on The Big Hole River. Click on the picture above to go to Troutbirder.

In The Garden Of Beasts

2011-06-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

In the Garden of Beasts is quite simply a great read. Written by popular historian Erik Larson it is the true and haunting story of a real American family trapped in a time and place of ultimate horror. It is also a vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign. Chicago history professor William E. Dodd, who in 1933 became America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s regime, and his scandalously carefree daughter, Martha, along with his son and spouse are an odd fit among the extravagance and moral decadence of the Nazi elite. Dodd’s increasing concerns about Hitler’s ambitions are ignored by the State Department. His 24 year old daughter Martha, on the other hand, is hypnotized by the life style of a soon to be changed Berlin’s salon society. The rise of Nazi Germany is a oft told tale in history. For this reason, In the Garden of Beasts is simply amazing because it tells the story in a way that brings it all down to the level of the actions of real people acting in an unfamiliar situation. Each step along the way is such that we say to ourselves "oh my god someone must stop this before it’s too late."
Naive and diplomatically inexperienced, Ambassador Dodge eventually saw the darkness at the end of the road. The Nazi psychopaths had taken over a country, had begun killing people out of hand and the world did nothing.
Dodd mistakingly thought he could exercise a "moderating influence over Hitler and his government."
Martha was newly divorced from her first husband and out for a good time. This included a French diplomat, the head of the Gestapo and a Soviet spy... among others. This all amidst Jews and other "undesirables" being stripped of their livelihoods, property and basic civil rights. In one nightmarish mob scene, Martha and two male traveling companions witnessed the near-lynching of a woman who had a relationship with a Jewish man.
Hitler himself told Dodd that "If they (Jews) continue their activity, we shall make a complete end to all of them in this country." .
The Tiergarten was Berlins Central Park and zoo. The Dodds lived right adjacent to it. They took walks there. They admired the beautiful landscape. And met the animals who terrorized the world.

Public Library Closing

2011-06-11T03:23:00.000-07:00

Early-1971, in an effort to attract as many youngsters to the premises as possible, Marguerite Hart — children's librarian at the newly-opened in Troy , Michigan — wrote to a number of notable people with a request: to reply with a congratulatory letter, addressed to the children of Troy, in which the benefits of visiting such a library were explained in some form. It's heartening to know that an impressive 97 people did exactly that, including and below are just four of those replies, all from authors: Isaac Asimov, Theodore Geisel and E.B. White. (Although sadly a common situation these days, it's worth noting that Troy Public Library is currently in financial difficulty due to budget cuts.)
Update: The library is scheduled to be closed July 1, 2011.

Henry II - Eleanor of Acquitaine - Thomas Becket

2011-06-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

If you ever had the idea that history books (read textbooks & big thick tomes with lots of obtuse words and tons of footnotes) are invariably dull.... think again. Many of today’s great history writers, be they professional historians or amateurs write really good stuff. As in fun to read. When they pack it into an exciting story like narative you really can’t go wrong. In my view they are two versions of this trend. History and historical fiction.
Lets start with straight history and biography. This is nonfiction based on accurate and well researched background material. The best ones tell a true story and bring it alive. Think of authors like Steven Ambrose, David McCullough, William Manchester, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Shelby Foote and many others.
The other equally exciting development is the vast improvement in historical fiction writing. Here the authors knowledge of the subject combined with excellent writing/storytelling technique will surely get your attention. As long as the line between fiction and nonfiction is clear, I really don’t believe it to be a bad thing if that line narrows. That is IF the writing is honest and well done and IF it draws more interest in history from the general public.
There are more and more writers of historical fiction who are doing really great things. One of my favorites is Sharon Kay Penman. Her Eleanor of Aquitaine series is a good example of an ability to draw you into another time and place. In When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance and Devils Brood she brings the early medieval period alive as no one else ever has. In Time and Chance we learn of the tempestuous marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II in a magnificent story of love, power, ambition-and betrayal.

The book is wonderful telling of real history played out by real people where we can see: how issues of the separation of church and state bedeviled Henry II and his friend and counselor Thomas Becket upon the laters appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury. The degree to which the King might have been culpable in Beckets murder.

The reasons why Henry and Eleanor's marriage drifted apart. The reasons why Henry and Eleanor were well-intended but ineffective parents. "Reality TV" pales into insignificance with books like this.......

Fire Season

2011-05-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

"I was expected to sit still and watch mountains and long for company and something to do, like playing cribbage, I suppose. I was going to have to watch mountains for sure that was my job, but I would not be without company. I already knew that mountains live and move." -Norman Maclean, "USFS 1919

Many other famous American writers and poets, going back to Henry David Thoreau, Leopold, Dillard & my favorite Sigurd Olson have spent time in fire watch towers or others wilderness venues. Thus I was anxious to read Fire Season Field Notes From A Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors.

Combination memoir, essay & history, written from the experience of eight summers in the Gila wilderness of New Mexico, it draws us into a place of solitude, fire & nature. Connors left an office cubical job with The Wall Street Journal to spend a summer in the wild. How fortunate very for us that he did. I think this book could well be considered a classic someday. As regular readers of my Troutbirder nature blog might suspect, while basically not an antisocial person, I often have an innate impulse toward solitary moments on the trout stream, in my dreams and hiking forest trails with my GSD Baron. Books about these kinds of experiences naturally appeal to me.

No Shortage Of Good Days

2011-05-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

I think I’ve read all of author John Gierach’s previous books including among other Trout Bum, At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman and Standing in a River Waving a Stick. They make me laugh. They remind me of my own idiosyncracies. I couldn’t pass up his latest which appeared last week at out public library. It’s titled No Shortage of Good Days.
With a title taken from an Annie Dillard quote ("There is no shortage of good days; it’s good lives that are hard to come by"), the book is a collection of fondly remembered fishing trips and random fishing-related topics, along with miscellaneous other narrative odds and ends thrown in the mix. Gierach has for years set the standard for down home wit and wisdom in the genre of fly fishing "literature."

The Last Full Measure by Richard Moe

2011-05-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

The Last Full Measure - The Life and Death Of The first Minnesota Volunteers

"As the first troops offered to President Abraham Lincoln after the fall of Fort Sumter, the brave men of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment fought in virtually every major battle of the eastern theater during the first three years of the Civil War. From Bull Run to Antietam to Fredericksburg to their famed suicide charge at Gettysburg, these stalwart soldiers defended the Union and helped change the course of the war and their country's history." (from the book jacket)
The brand new state of Minnesota sent 11 regiments into the firestorm to defend the nation against the insurrectionists and traitors. The First Minnesota was the only one to travel east and fight with the Army of the Potomac. The other ten fought and made their mark in the West.
My state had grown twenty fold from ten thousand to two hundred thousand in the 50's. It was then on the far end of what was called the Northwest Frontier. The rallying point for the regiment was at Fort Snelling, situated at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. From here they traveled by steamboat down the Mississippi, picking up more volunteer militia companies at towns like Red Wing, Lake City, Wabasha and Winona. They disembarked at the rail terminuses of LaCrosse and Prairie Du Chen Wisconsin. Here at the end of the line (there were no bridges yet across the Great River) they embarked for Washington D.C. The route east was filled with thousands of people, all along the way, who cheered them on and provided treats.
They were young, naive and no doubt filled with the thought of a great adventure as well as of duty.
Their story drawn from personal letters, diaries and recollections is told by author Richard Moe.It is the real Civil War told from the ground up. That’s what makes this book very special. And brings it to life. We meet the men up close and personal. They fit into the grand pattern of events and circumstance but the focus always remains on who they were, what they did from day to day and most important what they were thinking. It all makes for wonderful reading.
The lasting fame of this particular group of heroes came at the tide turning Battle of Gettysburg.
Arriving on the battlefield after the first days battle, on July 1st, the Minnesotans were placed on Cemetery Ridge as part of the strong defensive alignment set by General Winfield Scott Hancock. Unfortunately, the adjacent III Corps was then ineptly moved forward by political General Dan Sickles, leaving a large gap in the Union lines. It was through this gap that Confederate general Longstreets forces attacked, threatening the whole position. General Hancock seeing disaster in the making quickly ordered some of his II Corps to move a quarter of a mile to the left but they were some minutes away. The first to arrive on the scene, overlooking the valley and the Peach Orchard below were 262 Minnesotans. They could see Longstreets forces overwhelming Sickles III Corps and pour thru the gap. Should they reach the ridge, the Union army would be split in half and the balance of the war would be at issue. Hancock, who was on the scene needed but a few minutes for the reserves to fill the gap. To gain those minutes he ordered the First Minnesota to charge the two brigades, over a thousand men strong, of Confederate Generals Wilcox and Barksdale. They did and at the cost of their lives stopped the attack long enough to save the day.

I also found the attitude of these men on the issue of slavery most interesting. Duty, honor and country seemed to be their concern. They were more curious than anything else about blacks. It was not a defining issue for them. As the "contrabands" poured into their lines they clearly were appaled at the condition of these "niggers". They had never seen anyone looking this miserable back in Minnesota. Battles too were hardening their attitudes toward the "seccesh" and opening them to the notion that these "slaves" had a humanity which did not deserve the treatment the had been living under.

It has been somewhat fashionable in certain circles of late to deny that the practice of human bondage was the root cause of this tragic war. That other factors were equally or even more important. That the slave owning class were really early Reaganites defending human liberty in the cause of "less government is better for everyone and everything." This is delusionary at best and a deliberate lie in fact. I rate it on the same level with the "holocaust deniers" who like to portray WWII as a well meaning effort to defend against Godless communism.

Gettysburg was the last battle for the First Minnesota as only a handful returned unscathed. They knew what they were doing. Why they did it makes this book well worth reading. I highly recommend it.

Spring Visitors

2011-05-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

It's always great when friends and family show up to visit as spring makes an appearance in Bluff Country. I was reminded of that this morning over pancakes covered in homemade maple syrup.

Don and Sandy K had stayed over for a few days visit and left some fond memories of the many good times we've spent together. Included was some of their maple syrup, produced at their home Kerkwood, along the Maple River. I did a previous post on that abode a few years back. It's quite the homestead. Take a look at http://baron-troutbirder.blogspot.com/2008/08/was-it-shangri-la.html

Also http://baron-troutbirder.blogspot.com/search?q=shangri-la

For Easter, Mrs T's brother and spouse Candy came to visit. Easter dinner was followed by Bill and I hiking the dogs through Forestville State Park. Working off a few calories is always a good idea.

Bill doesn't seem too intimidated by the large size and fierce demeanor of Baron the GSD.
The parks famous 1898 "general store" is closed due to it being Easter.

Dave Brooks

2011-05-09T03:35:00.000-07:00

America's Coach: Life Lessons & Wisdom for Gold Medal Success; A Biographical Journey of the Late Hockey Icon Herb Brooks, by Ross Bernstein. That's the title of book I just finished reading. It's awkwardness is a reflection of the fact that the book is a interesting but patched together collection of quotes, reminiscences and biography by Bernstein, who uses Brooks life as the basis for his motivational speech and publishing business. It will not go down in history as a literary classic. Yet, I found it very interesting. Particularly the the part about the "Miracle on Ice." The story of the legendary upset in 1980 of the invinicible four time Olympic champion Soviet National Hockey Team. Even more interesting to me is fact coach Brooks and I had something in common. No, not All Star coaching ability. He was big time hockey and I was small time basketball. It was common roots.

His and mine were in the blue collar working neighborhood of the East Side in St. Paul, Minn. The people were mainly of 2nd and 3rd generation immigrant stock. Hockey ruled in St. Paul and especially on the East Side. I saw Herb Brooks (who was 4 years older) and his brother Dave (one year younger) play for St. Paul Johnson high school. They were the big rivals of my high scool, Harding, also on the east side. Later, I followed their careers at my college alma mater the University of Minnesota. I think anytime a book touches parts of our childhood and growing up memories, it's bound to catch our interest. This one surely did for me.

This inspirational story of legendary coach Herb Brooks comes to life in a motivational biography that celebrates the legacy of a true American hero. As the architect of the fabled 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey “Miracle on Ice,” Brooks showed the world that through hard work, commitment and dedication, dreams really can come true.

Dark Hood

2011-05-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

I was never much of a fan of cowboy stories as a young boy. Now Robin Hood, that was another matter. The neighborhood gang played it often as this picture demonstrates. That's Robin (aka Troutbirder) lower right on picture, Little John behind him, Mary Anne (aka Maid Marion) front row left, etc.

So when I picked up Outlaw, by Angus Donald, I was surprised to see a new version of my hero. This was not the happy go lucky band of sweet misfits, clad in green, who made robbing the greedy rich and giving to the needy poor their thrilling lifestyle. It the earlier 12th century version.... it was all down and dirty. Later eras, like the Victorians and Disney spiffered up Robin's image. Perhaps Donals version was really Robin as a druid, playing a Mafia boss, Godfather style . Here the violence is very graphic. R rated actually. The darkness of this tale is present in descriptions of limbs sliced, tongues diced and eyes put out with gimlets. The narrator is Alan A Dale and most of the other familiar characters show up as well.

I think it might have been the good Robin, who fought for the little people against the evil oppressors, in a highly class structured society that first set me on the path to a liberal/socialist view of the world. Where a honest democratic system preserves the golden goose of capitalism while controlling its excesses and tendencies toward monopolistic oligarchy.

Now we see Robin, in this story, as a complicated hero. Who does or orders terrible things. Not to help the poor but to use them for his goal of regaining his upper class position. Of course, this is all done by touting the notion of justice for all. Good plan. Questionable movtives.
What to make of all this? Well it's a fun story, whose interesting characters, familiar, yet different, keep moving the story along in surprising ways. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to see a newer, shall we say more historically realistic version , of a very old tale. Which gets me to what I didn’t like about it. I like my childhood heroes to be good and heroic. Not good and bad. I’ll leave the conflicted ones to the psychiatrists .

News Of The Day

2011-05-02T04:19:00.001-07:00

E.T.

2011-04-28T03:58:00.000-07:00

No not THAT E.T.

This one. Elizabeth Tudor. The magnificent indomitable Queen Elizabeth I , who signed her personal notes E.T. Daughter of Henry the VIII and Anne Boleyn. She of the Spanish Armada & Mary Queen of Scots fame.
Historical novels are one of my favorite venues That is, if the book is well researched, historically accurate and written with a certain flair. Margaret George’s new best selling Elizabeth I meets these tests in every way.
This is an account of the last thirty years of the queen’s life. Written in both Elizabeth’s voice and also that of her childhood nemesis, Lettice Knollys. It begins with her greatest test, the Spanish Armada..... Armadas really. We get to see the queen who rules and brings England into its golden age. More interesting yet, we meet the woman behind the carefully crafted image. The image she created for herself.
Her dreams and loves are real. The nation, which above all, she the Virgin Queen, wed herself to. The men she wisely surrounds herself with as supporters and advisors. And also a few men she unwisely uses and coddles. Such a woman at the heart of history faces constant crises. Always short of money she pawn her jewels to build armies and navies and feed a starving populace. Just another day at the office she deals with the Irish rebels, Spanish would be conquerors, stiff-necked Puritans and prejudiced Catholics.
There have been many biographies written of this, perhaps most the interesting woman in history.
When I looked at the back of the books jacket and saw it was recommended by Sharon Kay Penman, I knew it would be worth reading. Occasionally, I get dragged to a "chick flick" by my spouse and find I really enjoyed the story. I guess this book might be labeled "chick prose." It must be said the majority of the really good historical fiction authors are women and their main audience (judging by comments on reviews) are also women. Well, I’m always happy to join them. I do love history. And when an author can realistically bring people, behind the events, to life, something magical has happened. This book does that.

Little Roundtop

2011-04-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if the following story is best representative of the fruits of an exciting and interesting middle school education or some serious irony. You judge for yourself.

We were on on way, with friends Gary and Rosie, to visit the (at that time) the new Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. to be followed by a first ever trip to Colonial Williamsburg.

Although I'd been there before, a side trip to Gettysburg's National Battlfield seemed in order. We had all seen the film Gettysburg and I wanted the opportunity to point out to my friends the actual site of Professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's and the 20th Maine regiments heroics. As we were standing on the now famous hill looking down at the infamous "Devils Den", several orange school buses pulled into the nearby parking lot.
Checking with my ever handy binoculars, they seemed to be from Alexandria, Virginia. Being teachers ourselves, we immediately recognized the drill, as the middle school teachers jumped off the buses and began creating order out of chaos. Soon the students were lining up in ranks facing the famous hill. "There going to charge us," I commented to my companions. Sure enough. There was a whistle, some yelling and 3 busloads of eager "civil war soldiers" started running up the hill. This was the moment that General Gouvenor Morris, who was standing right behind us had anticipated, when he ordered newly arriving Union regiments up the hill and to hold it at all hazards.

As one might expect, being a fairly steep climb, some and then more and more "soldiers" slowed down at the pace. Finally, only a few stalwarts were still running while their comades continued the slow trudge up the hill. Finally, three young men, all black, staggered to a halt right in front of us. Hands on hips, bent over gasping for air, they looked up at us, when I shouted at them, "WHO ARE YOU," I was,no doubt, expecting the name of their school. Straightening up with raised arms, they all shouted in unison, 'WE'RE THE REBELS." And perhaps that was their schools mascot or maybe in a moment of excitement and irony, they really were the rebels. We all smiled and congratulated them on their accomplishment.

Troutbirders Favorite Songs

2011-04-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

I ran across a website recently which offers some of those original "golden oldies." I scanned it and listed some of my personal favorites. Check it out by clicking on the following link ...... and your not required to donate to PBS.

http://www.my-3-sons.com/javascript-flv/flv-videos1.htm

Then comment by listing a few of you own favorites.

My list:

Crying by Roy Orbison

California Dreamin' by the Mamas & Papas

Mack The Knife by Bobby Darin

Chatilly Lace by The Big bopper

Summer In The City by The Lovin Spoonful

Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce

Only You by The Platters

The Great Pretender by The Platters

Little Darlin by The Diamonds

Rock Arond The Clock by Bill Haley and The Comets

Chances Are by Johnny Mathis

I Got You Babe by Sonny & Cher

Your Don't Bring Me Flowers by Streisand and Diamond

You'll Never Walk Alone by the Three Tenors

1861 The Civil War Awakening

2011-04-16T05:46:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Adam Goodhearts best-selling 1861 The Civil War Awakening. Their have probably been more history books written about the Civil War than any other topic. I found this newly published book among the very best. It’s not about the well known Generals and battles. Instead, it focuses on a little known collection of heroes and events who helped bring about the changes in thought that were required to win the war and set the nation on a new course of freedom and equality. When it all began at Fort Sumter that course and the end result would have been unthinkable to the majority of Americans both North and South. It was all sustained in an ideal that previous generations had either forgotten or negotiated and compromised away. The secessionist traitors tried to justify there betrayal of democracy as a "2nd American Revolution." This was done against the principle of majority rule which is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy. And it was all done in the name of freedom and liberty for some but not all. This was the slavery justifier’s ultimate hypocrisy. How the mind set of the American people changed in the early days of the war makes for a gripping and original story. Today this story is more relevant than ever. It’s relevant when the governor of Texas and others speak of secession as if it were a viable alternative to federal law they don't like . President Andrew Jackson, a slave holder himself, responded to that notion when he said he would lead the army himself into South Carolina during the so-called "nullification crises." Nullification was the "state rights" idea that states could pick and chose which federal laws to follow. What came then, was thirty plus years of weak leadership & compromise after compromise. Then most disastrous war in American History. It was President Lincoln himself, who so eloquently pointed out on numerous occasions, that democracy itself depends on union and majority rule. Goodhearts book reminds us of this fact in countless ways. May it ever be so. Beautifully written and thoroughly original--quite unlike any other Civil War book out there. I highly recommend this wonderful book to all of those who love liberty thru democracy above anarchy and dissolution.

The Old West

2011-04-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

Like many Americans I do have a certain nostalgia for an earlier simpler time. That is except for the benefits of modern medicine which are keeping me alive. I often think that I would be quite content to have lived in the 19th century. Not, of course, the part about about the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons. When corporate wealth ruled the country, as those some misguided people of today want us to reestablish. When child labor existed. When working people had no protection or rights and unions were regarded as an illegal conspiracy. The environment was being decimated. Think the Koch brothers of today, with their funding of right wing "think tanks" having their way. None of that. It was between 1887 and 1892, when John C.H. Grabill sent 188 photographs to the Library of Congress for copyright protection. Grabill is known as a western photographer, documenting many aspects of frontier life — hunting, mining, western town landscapes and white settlers’ relationships with Native Americans. Most of his work is centered on the Black Hill of South Dakota in the late 1880s and 1890s. He is most often cited for his photographs in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. (Click on pictures for close ups)

A Lakota tipi camp near Pine Ridge. 1891

Ox Teams at Sturgis. Today the HOG's (Harley Owners Group gather there in July.

Branding

Taking a ride. It was called "coaching."

Deadwood South Dakota. Gambling then. Today it's South Dakota's casino city. Wild Bill Hickok met his demise here during a poker game.

Outdoor group portrait of ten railroad engineers and a dog, posing with surveyors' transits on tripods and measuring rods, on the side of a mountain. Horseshoe Curve: On Burlington and Missouri River RR.

Armed guards carrying gold bullion from the Homestake Mine.

Horseshoe Curve.

Log Cabin

Montana miners.

Cowboys & a wolf in Wyoming. Today they chase and kill them using snowmobiles.

The Evil Empire

2011-04-06T04:02:00.000-07:00

The Twins made a comeback 5-4 win last night against The Evil Empire. I didn't watch the game because I hate to see my favorite team always look so pathetic. They have been SWEPT in so many playoff series in recent years, I've lost track.

This victory improved the Twins to 7-31 in the Bronx under manager Ron Gardenhire, including the postseason.

Censorship In Maine

2011-04-01T05:02:00.000-07:00

A recent small article in a local regional newspaper noted that Tea Party Republican Governor of Maine Paul Lepage had ordered the removal of a mural fromthe Maine Department of Labor. Portrayed on the mural was one Frances Perkins. Always interested in developments in the field of art (well maybe not quite so much) and future history I submit a short biography of the lady in question from the web site of the National Women's Hall of Fame

"From a comfortable background in Worcester, Massachusetts, Frances Perkins went to Mount Holyoke. There lecturers introduced her to the cause of social reform. While teaching in Chicago, she spent her free time at Hull House and she began to move into the new field of social work. She witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911. That tragedy stiffened her resolve to fight for better conditions for working people, especially women. After her husband had to be confined to an institution, she proceeded to support herself and raise their young daughter alone. She made conscious compromises to succeed as a career woman, adopting a grandmotherly style of dress she felt was less threatening to men. Perkins was appointed to Governor Al Smith's administration in Albany, serving on the Industrial Commission and the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration. She continued to serve after Franklin Roosevelt was elected Governor. When FDR swept into the White House in 1932, he appointed Frances Perkins Secretary of Labor. She was the first woman cabinet officer in American history. After serving throughout Roosevelt's four terms, she continued to lecture and write, and taught at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations."

Clearly she was a pioneer and heroine in several fields of human endeavor. And a "pro business" governor doesn't like her looks. Yuk!

The Battle Of Leyte Gulf

2011-03-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

Pacific Glory is a naval action thriller set in WW II by P.T. Deautermann. Think the movie Pearl Harbor. It’s what I would describe as a Hollywood style potboiler. Stunning women. Young dashing heroes. And all based on real and amazing events. Sort of....

It chronicles the WW II exploits of two naval officers who were roommates at the Naval Academy. In 1942, Lt. Marsh "Beauty" Vincent is serving aboard a heavy cruiser off Guadalcanal, while Lt. Mick "Beast" McCarty is an ace pilot at Midway. After Marsh is injured, he's shipped to convalesce in Hawaii, where he runs into Glory, a nurse who's the widow of his other Annapolis roommate, Tommy Lewis, who died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, Marsh strikes up a romance with nurse Sally Adkins, and the two of them wind up celebrating Christmas 1943 at Pearl Harbor with Mick and Glory. Marsh and Mick later cross paths on the eve of the climactic Battle of Leyte Gulf off the Philippines.

As I began reading the story I started to get the feeling that I’d read it before. Like the author was plagiarizing someone else’s book. Then I remembered I was reading a novel. In novels you can make up anything you want. Finally, it dawned on me. I had, apparently, read too many actual history books involving the people and events being portrayed. In the afterword, the author identified the rea l people and events portrayed in his book . Fair enough. Too bad though. I tend to think that the best historical fiction hews fairly close to the actions, motivations and emotions of the real people involved. These, of course, can only be guessed at based on careful historical research.

The sad thing in Deautermanns story is that the actual people involved in the naval battle of Leyte Gulf were far more interesting than his Hollywood stereotypes. Take the character Marsh "Beauty" Vincent. In the story, he became Captain of the destroyer Evans shortly before the big battle in Leyte Gulf. The light bulb went on when I read that name. There was no destroyer Evans in the actual battle but there was a Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian and Annapolis graduate who led his destroyer on the last great charge in the last great naval battle in history. A Medal of Honor recipient for his acts of bravery and leadership in the battle of Leyte Gulf, he overcame extreme poverty and prejudice to become a naval officer before the war. Knowing the story of his defense of the carriers of Taffy 3, I had always admired him as a great hero and still do. With his tiny destroyers ammunition all gone and the ship ablaze, he continued to attack the largest battleships ever built.

On the other side of the coin was Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines. He was, perhaps, the most intriguing of all. By means of a clever deception, which put Bull Halsey reputation at risk, Kurita's force of battleships fought and destroyed a portion of a smaller and outgunned American naval force in a night battle in Leyte Gulf. Then faced with the prospect of being annihilated by the power of Halsey's overwhelming carrier force, he choose a "mysterious retreat" in violation of his orders. He was later praised after the war as a "seaman of seamen," but never honored for "his humaneness, as a commander, who chose not to foolishly waste the lives of his men in a grand but empty act of bushido" In the hands of a skilled historical novelist, like Sharon Kay Penman, Colleen McCullough, Jeff Shaara, James Clavell and many others, what a wonderful novel this could have been. Instead of focusing on the minute details of the battle had he only told the story of the poeple involved it could have been great. Evan Thomas did that in his book Sea of Thunder.

I don't think one has to be particularly interested in refighting old battles from WWII to learn something worthwhile from from Evan Thomas's book. The vagaries of courage and honor in the face of cultural imperatives are a subject for any era. Think of things like the "doctine of preemption" as a basis for a national foreign policy or "enhanced interrogation" as best means of protecting our national security. Light entertainment Pacific Glory. The real stuff Sea of Thunder

Sand County Almanac

2011-03-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

It had been some time since I had read Aldo Leopolds Sand County Almanac. I reread it again yesterday. As I learn more and see more going on in the world around me, it gets better each time. One of the founding "philosophers" of what today is called environmentalism, his words speak for now and the future.

"I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness."

"Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to perserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?"

"Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middlemen that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry."

"We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land... In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such." "Cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays."

Mrs. T

2011-03-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

This is the famous, or is it infamous,? Mrs. T, whose great eye for things in the natural world keeps me well supplied with pictures to write about. Thanks sweetie!

2011-03-19T08:33:00.001-07:00

"...no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
-- written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s

St Patrick Drives the Norwegians Out Of Ireland

2011-03-17T03:27:00.000-07:00

Now before you read the historical facts here.... remember as a Minnesotan I have nothing against the Norwegians (including my sainted mother).

Did you know the reason the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is because this is when St. Patrick drove the Norwegians out of Ireland. It seems that some centuries ago, many Norwegians came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of the Norwegian winter. Ireland was having a famine at the time, and food was scarce. The Norwegians were eating almost all the fish caught in the area, leaving the Irish with nothing to eat but potatoes.
St. Patrick,taking matters into his own hands, as most Irishmen do, decided the Norwegians had to go. Secretly, he organized the Irish IRATRION (Irish Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians) Irish members of IRATRION passed a law in Ireland that prohibited merchants from selling ice boxes or ice to the Norwegians, in hopes that their fish would spoil. This would force the Norwegians to flee to a colder climate where their fish would keep. Well, the fish spoiled, all right, but the Norwegians, as everyone knows today, thrive on spoiled fish.
So, faced with failure, the desperate Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian fish storage caves in the dead of night and sprinkled the rotten fish with lye, hoping to poison the Norwegian invaders. But, as everyone knows, the Norwegians thought this only added to the flavor of the fish. They liked it so much they decided to call it "lutefisk", which is Norwegian for "luscious fish". Matters became even worse for the Irishmen when theNorwegians started taking over the Irish potato crop and making something called "lefse".
Poor St. Patrick was at his wit’s end, and finally on March 17th, he blew his top and told all the Norwegians to "GO TO HELL". So they all got in their boats and emigrated to Minnesota or the Dakotas —- the only other paradise on earth where smelly fish, old potatoes and plenty of cold weather can be found in abundance.
The End.

Michele "Ma Belle?"

2011-03-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

(By The Beatles)

MICHELLE MA BELLE THESE ARE WORDS THAT GO TOGETHER WELL

MY MICHELLE MICHELLE

MA BELLE SONT LES MOTS QUI VONTTRES BIEN ENSEMBL ETRES BIEN ENSEMBLEI

LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU

THAT´S ALL I WANT TO SAY UNTIL I FIND A WAY

I WILL SAY THE ONLY WORDS I KNOW THAT YOU´LL UNDERSTAND

Oh wait a minute! I don't think he (Paul Carrier at http://eightfits.blogspot.com/ ) meant that Michelle.

"Zealots often ooze hypocrisy. Uber-patriots claim to worship the Founding Fathers while having no knowledge of early American history. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party darling who probably makes some sensible Minnesotans ashamed to be from Minnesota, falls into that last category. Bachmann had this to say during a recent swing through New Hampshire: "What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty," Bachmann said. "You're the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord." Say what, now? The Lexington and Concord of Revolutionary War fame are in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire.
What’s next, Michele? Are you going to tell us that Paul Revere rode through the streets of Des Moines in 1802 to warn the people of Oklahoma that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was about to attack the Alamo? Maybe if Bachmann grabbed a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the American Revolution or U.S. History for Dummies she could get her facts straight the next time around. If she could get someone to read it to her, that is."

Regularly putting her foot in her mouth and making stupid assertions Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is definitely consistent. My favorite, as an embarassed Minnesotan, was the time the Gopher States most amazingly inarticulate and irrational politician, Bachman of the 6th district, (not my district) referred in a speech to the famous Smoot-Halley tariff as the HOOT-SMALLEY tariff. Roy Smalley, of course, is a former Minnesota Twin and current Fox North sportscaster.

A few additional lowlights:

“But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States,"

''Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas."

''I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?"

''Not all cultures are equal."

''A woman (Terri Schiavo) was healthy. There was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill."

“Unelected bureaucracies will decide what we can and cant get in future health insurance policy. Thats why theyre called death panels."

''This cannot pass. What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't pass."

''And what a bizarre time we're in, when a judge will say to little children that you can't say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it.

''If we took away the minimum wage — if conceivably it was gone — we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

''I don't know where they're going to get all this money because we're running out of rich people in this country."

And now for the almost unbelievable..... this woman is starting to make Sarah Palin sound like a genius.

Walmart Greeter

2011-03-14T03:18:00.000-07:00

Charley, a new retiree-greeter at Wal-Mart, just couldn't seem to get to work on time.Every day he was 5, 10, 15 minutes late. But he was a good worker -- really tidy, clean-shaven, sharp-minded, and a real credit to the company and obviously demonstrating their "Older Person Friendly" policies. One day the boss called him into the office for a talk. "Charley, I have to tell you, I like your work ethic. You do a bang-up job, but your being late so often is quite bothersome." "Yes, I know boss, and I am working on it." "Well, good. You are a team player. That's what I like to hear. It's odd though, your coming in late. I know you're retired from the Armed Forces. What did they say if you came in late there?"
"They said, "Good morning, Admiral. Can I get you coffee, sir?"

St. Denis

2011-03-12T04:11:00.000-08:00

It has been been a few years since Mrs T, myself and friends Steve and Jewel traveled to France.
For my spouse, it was the fullfillment of a promise I had made to her upon her retirement. Our tour took us through Normandy, Brittany and the Loire Valley. Then there was the City of Light - Paris.When we entered the city on the final leg of trip, Philip our tour guide, was pointing out the fact that people of Paris were rightly proud of their city. Also, that the millions of people who lived in the suburbs surrounding the city, were not considered to be "true Parisians." He noted that living in the city and some of its suburbs was quite expensive. Also , that there were areas where unemployment, crime, decay and other social problems were endemic. One of them was the suburb of St. Denis. I noted that last point but didn't catch the name.
That evening, we had dinner at a sidewalk cafe, alongside the famous Cathedral of Notre Dame. There, we had an important decision to make. We had a "free day" in the city the next morning. Our choices were optional tours, including the Louve or the studio's of several famous Impressionist painters or launching out on our own for the day. Three of the four of us had previously been to the Louve. Mrs T. hadn't but opted anyway for a day on our own. We left quite early the next morning by taking the underground to the end of the line, St. Denis. St. Denis is the location of a famous cathdral. I had proposed visiting there because in the long history of France, it turns out to be the burial place of all but three of their kings and queens. During the train ride we struck up a conversation with a young university student from Ghana. Upon arriving at the station, he pointed out the direction of the Cathedral and said it was about 8 blocks away. He also strongly advised us to wait and take the bus to the church because their were "drug dealers and gangs in the area." After a brief conference, with the women voting "yes" to take the bus and men voting "nay", we bravely stepped off toward the cathedral. The women were not overly impressed with this "macho decision", as they called it. It turned out to be 8 blocks of closed shops (things don't open till ten apparently)and very few people. There were some beggers, a few young men hanging on the street corners and about a dozen vendors sitting on rugs on the sidewalk with their wares spread on the ground. From the outside, the cathedral itself was not overly dramatic, compared to Chartes and some of the others we had seen. Still, when you stepped inside, you automatically look up to the rafters and can't help but being impressed. I tried to imagine solemn ceremonies, going back a thousand years, when the rulers of France were put to rest.We looked at the side chapels, memorials and the altar. Then we descended into the crypts. There were Louis XIV The Sun King, Eleanore of Aquitaine's first husband Francis and on and on including (pictured here) Louis the XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette.
I think we must have spent more than two hours there, including a walk around on the outside. Then we returned the way we had come. What a difference! The stores were open The street was jam packed with people. For a moment,I felt like I was on the Midway at the State Fair. Naturally, we had to check out some of the stores and make some purchases. There was also some big rugby tournament going on that week Finally we went back to the heart of the city and a walk down the Champs Elysees to a sidewalk cafe.
That evening, we rejoined our tour group for dinner on the Monmarte and a show at the Moulin Rouge. During the bus ride to the restaurant, Phillip had to ask where those that had gone that day on their own spent their time. We had already talked to him on this point. He prefaced his question though by pointing out that "the intrepid and daring travelers from Minnesota" had gone that morning to St. Denis. "I have led tour groups here in France (he was British by the way) for 16 years and I also talked to other tour guides and "NO ONE HAS EVER HAD ANYONE GO UP TO ST. DENIS BEFORE." They all looked around at us. There were a few giggles and then a small round of applause. We looked at each other not knowing whether to be proud or embarrased. Ok, so I had missed the part about the areas that might be unsafe for tourists!!! The country bumpkins from rural Minnesota . Hey... Troutbirder likes history. Can't you tell?

Goldy Assaulted

2011-03-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

I reported, in the previous post, that we attended a University of Minnesota gymnastics meet, last weekend at the Sports Pavilion. Apparently, I missed the most newsworthy event taking place on that occasion, judging by the space given to it and the number of comments, on it, in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
The report was that a St. Thomas University Professor, U of M graduate and fervant fan, who was annoyed by the antics of "Goldy" the Gopher Team Mascot, punched him out twice, and knocked him over in front of a group of trailing, excited and then crying children. It seems that the rodent (who job is to entertain the fans, had done the old tap on someone’s shoulder on the left side, while sitting behind them on the right side trick. This was for laughs. Twice. Then Goldy got slugged. Twice. This response was because the professors "space" had been violated. The action apparently was in lieu of saying something profound like "don’t do that I don’t like it" or taking the matter to a nearby usher. Good grief.
Now the amazing thing, to me, was the response of the many "commentators" to the newspapers article. That response was about even, as to who was to blame in this bizarre situation.
What a contentious, overly angry , society we live in these days.

The victim. No photograph was available of the perpetrator....

Wild Weekend

2011-03-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

So what do Mr. & Mrs Troutbirder do on a dreary, cold weekend in March in Minnesota? If cabin fever has taken over and they are bored silly? They head off to the Twin Cities for some fun and excitement, by visiting their good friends, Gary & Rosie.
We motored north. It’s about a two hour drive from the middle-of-nowhere to Apple Valley. Arrival meant catching up on family news and recent activities. Then we got going on summer vacations and travel ideas. We’ve camped all over the lower 48 with this couple and even did a six week trip to Alaska and back with them.

This has been going on since before kids. In other words, we’re compatible. A year ago, besides Minnesota outings, we went together, birding and Twins spring training watching in Fort Myers, Florida. With many options for this year explored, we grabbed a quick bite and headed off to the Sports Pavilion on the University of Minnesota campus.
The renamed pavilion was an old familiar venue from my college days at the U. Then it was the Golden Gophers men's hockey teams arena (Women’s college hockey hadn’t been invented yet.) Now, refurbished. it houses men's and women’s gymnastics, men’s wrestling and women’s volleyball. We were there for men's gymnastics. What fun to watch these most athletic of any athletes. The Gophers were taking on the hated Hawkeyes from Iowa and the Nittany Lions of Penn State.
Of course, getting in the collegiate spirit, after the meet we adjourned to another local establishment featuring adult beverages. Needless to say, Troutbirder and Co. stayed up much later than his usual appointed bedtime.
The next day found the crew attending a more age appropriate activity. It was a community concert featuring the Velvet Tones and starring friend Gary himself. They were in concert with the local elementary school choir. The groups consists of seniors 55 and up who just plain love to sing.

That's my "best man" Gary a few decades later, back row, far right singing his heart out. Non-profit, theVelvet Tones appear in various settings throughout the Metro area and even did a gig on the stage at the Guthrie theater in Minneapolis. They "rock" in surprising ways, doing contemporary as well as traditional music. The highlight of Sunday's performance was listening to the energetic seniors combine with the equally energetic elementary students in singing "Why We Sing. Great!".

Generals In Blue and Gray

2011-03-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

Wilmer L Jones has written an introduction to the Civil War. After thousands and thousand and thousands of books on the subject he is introducing it? Indeed! Let me explain. This volume uses biographical sketches of twenty-one Union generals to tell the story of the Civil War and examine the implementation of Northern strategy. Among these generals are prominent figures like Ulysses S. Grant, George McClellan, and William T. Sherman, as well as Daniel Sickles, whose actions sparked intense controversy at Gettysburg, and the lesser known John McClernand, a congressman who lobbied for his own appointment. In Wilmer Jones's accounts, which focus on character, personality, leadership ability, military skill, and politics, each general comes starkly to life.
This well written volume might appeal to two widely differenct categories of people:
(1) the total Civil War novice. That is the person who was more focused on the opposite sex in 10 grade history, feel asleep there or only recently came to the realization that it could be interesting and worthwhile to know about. The book is like looking over the cast of character description in an play before you see the play. Who are these people?
(2) the total civil war buff and expert. That is the person who has read hundreds of books on the subject, can describe in detail strategy, details and consequences of nearly every battle that was fought. The interest would be in finding out where these people came from, their family background, education, romantic interests and what happened to them after the war was over. Also when they died and where they were buried, in case you want to visit any or all of the cemetaries.
Would you believe believe I read every word? And plan to check out Volume Two: Davis's Generals.
Your right. I'm a Civil War buff. It's an obsession.

Makeover

2011-03-02T06:16:00.000-08:00

Hon A B Lincoln

Dear Sir

My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are.

Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.

All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty.

I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chautauqua County New York. I must not write any more answer this letter right off

Good bye

Grace Bedell
Springfield, Ill.

Oct 19, 1860

Miss Grace Bedell

My dear little Miss Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received— I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters— I have three sons— one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age— They, with their mother, constitute my whole family—As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?

Your very sincere well wisher

A. Lincoln

Today, as in pretty much all of my lifetime, where image seems to stand above substance, I don't believe Lincoln, beardless or bearded, would stand much of a chance of being elected.......

Timeline

2011-03-01T04:04:00.000-08:00

Michael Crichton is the highly successful author of science fiction, made into movie novels, such as the Andromeda Strain, Congo and Jurassic Park. He also writes historical fiction such as The Great Train Robbery, a personal favorite of mine. In addition, he was was the creator of the TV series ER.
So, what happened when he mixed science fiction with historical fiction, as in the 14th century Hundred Years War? Therein lies this tale.
A greedy corporate megamonster uses quantum mechanics and develops a time machine. Think H. G. Wells, Ray Bradbury and "beam me up Scotty" of Star Trek fame. Add in some intrepid time explorers stuck in the horrific circumstances of medieval war in France and what do you get? Knights with flashing swords, burning castles and monasteries, secret passageways, damsels in distress etc. This book has it all.
So what happens when a competent research oriented author, not known for character development and style, mixes science fiction and history. Disaster! Did you ever read a book and when you’d finished asked yourself why? I justdid! Its true, past, present and future are all connected. Just not very well in this clunky, swashbuckling, potboiler. And they even made a movie out of it, which was, unbelievably, even worse.

The moral to this disaster on my part is , don’t be caught short of a new book to read on a blizzardy Sunday afternoon, when the library is closed and there's nothing worth watching, as per usual, on TV.

A Family History

2011-02-26T03:23:00.000-08:00

I magnify the picture closer and closer. Horses, cattle, a dog, chickens, geese, farm implements, sheds and a house, partially hidden behind some trees, emerge. Then the people. It appears there are both children and adults. I can't see their faces though. Nor know their individual stories. The year is 1908. One year before my father was born. The people are, no doubt, his Uncle, Aunts and cousins.
They call it geneology. A subject of which I am quite ignorant. Now, I have a mission. Our son and his family presented me a leather bound "Family History" for Christmas. It is my job to fill in the pages with words and pictures. Fortunately, I have a head start. Rita, the wife of my 2nd cousin Bruce, has been pursuing a history of our extended family for some time. She sent me the picture of the farm house, which still stands (much altered) in Woodbury, Minnesota.
Woodbury in 1908, was a small rural crossroads east of St. Paul. Now its suburbia, with attendent housing developments and shopping malls. There my greatgrandmother established a farmstead on 160 acres with the help of several of her sons and a daughter.
They had left the German city of Bremen aboard the ship, General Werder. On that voyage my greatgrandfather ( who was a Lutheran minister) developed pneumonia, died and was buried at sea. Charlotte (my greatgrandmother) and three of her children arrived at Castle Garden, Manhattan , New York on September 29,1881. My great grandparents -
It's a long and complicated story of which I know only bits and pieces. My grandfather, another of Charlottes sons, had arrived in Chicago a year earlier. There he was working for a railroad. He later moved to St. Paul, where he was employed as a railroad chef on transcontinental routes. There are large gaps in his story, which I would like to learn. I began by visiting a Methodist cemetary in Woodbury. This was the home church of his mother. Hopefully, there is more to be learned.

Red Hatters - A Secret Cult Revisited

2011-02-23T04:23:00.000-08:00

It has been brought to my attention recently, that a group of possible extremists may be hiding their nefarious social plots beneath the guise of a flamboyent lifestyle. Who are these people and what are they up to? On the surface they appear to be local collections of grandmotherly types. But research reveals that they have "cells" scattered all across the nation.

Yes, I have a personal connection to this suspicious group. Last summer I was invited by Mrs. T. herself to "go along" for the afternoon to a local fishing hot spot. There number of ladies wearing red hats showed up and quickly commandeered the pontoon boat moored to the dock. The hapless husbands were enticed to remain behind on the deck by coolers full of beer and other adult beverages. "What gives here", I thought, when I noticed not a single female entering the pontoon had brought a fishing pole with them. It soon became evident that they were heading off to a secretive rendezvous. Perhaps to meet others of their own persuasion?

When the group returned, some hours later, they appeared to be in a frivoulous mood. It was then that I noticed several had brought binoculars with them. Again to what suspicious purpose? During the lighthearted conversation that occured during the beer and brats picnic that followed, someone let slip that the next meeting of the group might be at a casino in Iowa, a state known for its radical corn growing and hog raising types. Obviously these women were now prepared to take great gambles in their endeavors. I tried to imagine what this was all about, but couldn't draw any definite conclusions.

It was a fellow blogger who first spotted and then photographed , for the first time, one of their semi-secret headquarters, tucked away in the hills of southeastern Minnesota. A large silo like building, gaudily painted in purple, with a red roof on the top. A secret signal, no doubt. Extreme, yes, but brazen as well. This cult must be gaining quickly in self-confidence, whatever their plans are!

Warning by Jenny Josep,

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick flowers in other people's gardens And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

.But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

My Losing Season - Part 2

2011-02-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

Pat Conroy wrote best sellers like the Prince of Tides, The Lords of Discipline, and The Great Santani. Some were made into popular movies. And then their was My Losing Season, a memoir of his year playing on a losing basketball team, at the Citadel, a military college in Charleston, South Carolina. He will tell you in that book, that winning is easy. Sure enough. That Americans love winners. That losing is hard.... and that it saved his life. That last part got my attention and interest.
This is not a feel good jock book. It is, though, about basketball, which I coached and love. It’s also more about growing up, and a family where the father, an authoritarian, tyrannical Marine colonel, beat his wife and children. And a son, who finds athletics his escape and avenue into adulthood. It’s describes life in a military school and the "plebe system" common to all schools of that type. It was the most demeaning type of "character building" education you could imagine. Pat is front row, second from the left, on the team picture.

There is much in this book that I found truely appalling and ordinarily would not even consider reading. The authors writing style is often over the top, with plenty of seemingly exaggerated adjectives. There is also basketball jargon and "insider" talk. And yet, it was one of those books I couldn’t put down. Perhaps, it was my curiosity as to the bottom line. Where did all the physical and mental abuse at home, in school and on the practice floor lead ? Were there any redeeming qualities in this story? How did a boy with such a background become a world renowned writer? What happened to the men, whose promising team, was broken by another authoritarian and insensitive character, their college coach? That’s why I stuck with it to end. Was it worth it? Yes. Or as Conroy claims, loss is the experience that teaches us the most about dealing with life itself. I believe that...

My Losing Season

2011-02-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

This is a book review. It's about author Pat Conroys book, My Losing Season. It also gets personal. It's about some of my own experiences in coaching high school athletics. I'll start with that.... Small rural school districts, like the kind I taught in for nigh 40 years, often have a hard time keeping coaches. Ther are lots of reasons for this, starting with community gripes against "losing coaches & records", and parental complaints on the "fact" that my all star son or daughter doesn't get to play enough. That's always been there but the recent trend toward scapegoating public education for all the ills of modern society hasn't helped either.
When I was a young teacher, I was determined to separate myself from the image of history and social studies teachers as "jocks." Although I loved football, basketball and tennis, I wanted to focus purely on academics. I'm not even sure where that came from. But it was there and so for twenty years that's what I did. I had even turned down higher paying jobs and promotions because I was unwilling to coach.
Then, when my sons were mostly grown up and out of high school, I was ready to do something new. Our athletic directer, unable to find male teachers to coach, asked me to consider taking football & basketball. "Well if you want somerone to install a single wing offense on the football team, (that system was big in the 30's thru the 50's) I'll consider it," I replied. He laughed. I decided to take the basket ball job, of which, I knew even less of the modern game.
My reasoning was quite simple. Athletics was also under fire especially in the era of public budget cutting in education. I knew from my own experieces and that of my sons, how valuable sports could be to young people in growing up. That is, in terms of building self confidence, character, teamwork and friendships. I also was looking for a new avenue to relate to the boys in my classes. It was perfect for that. And so, halfway through my teaching career, I decided to become a jock... well sort of. This was after most of my friends and contempories had given the trade up.
I learned the modern game, in all its complexities and got, I must say, pretty good at teaching it. More important, I knew kids, their ups and downs, their families, and their hearts from classroom experiences. I shuffled them all in and out of games ,in situations where they could be successful and be the best they could be as a team. I'm often reminded by parents of games and situations they witnessed their sons grow and learn. Like the young man, of limited ability, but was a decent free throw shooter, who was sent into a game against an arch rival with a couple of seconds left. Our team was behind ( it was always "we" not I) by a single point. We set up a play inbounds under our offensive basket. Our best player got the ball and was swarmed by two defenders. He passed the ball ( as planned) to our twelfth man standing alone in the corner. That boy broke along the baseline to shoot, as instructed, gots fouled and in the final second made two freethrows to win. To this day, his mother reminds me of this and says it was the highlight of his school days.
It was so much fun. Yes, one year we lost every game. On a couple of occasions, after foul outs we had only four players left on the floor. And yet, I have fond memories of that team. They never quit. They never complained or blamed each other. It stood them well later n life. In more recent years , with several very talented teams, we won 57 straight games. And those teams played with class and humility. Which, in my roundabout way, of thinking leads me to a book about basketball and growing up. About coaches and fathers. About a military college (The Citadel) and the "plebe system." Above discipline and love. About failure and redemption. About heart and soul. Best selling author, Pat Conroy tells it all in My Losing Season. It's told in the language of athletics but it's really about life. I"ll tell you what fascinated, stunned and even appalled me about this intruiguing book.
Next......

Know Your Terminology

2011-02-16T04:12:00.000-08:00

Q: "What do you get when you cross an insomniac, an agnostic and a dyslexic?"

A: Someone who stays up all night wondering if there is a Dog."

Attributed to -

Snowy Roof

2011-02-12T04:23:00.000-08:00

We just got back from visiting relatives and birding in Florida (see my other blog for details). I found a ton of snow on my roof..... apparently caused by insurgent terrorists. :) Or was it the perpetual fear monger from Fix News?

Seabiscuit

2011-01-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

I read and reviewed Laura Hillenbrands smash bestseller, Unbroken, here several weeks ago. I was so impressed by that true and remarkable story of survival, I decided to go back ten years in time. Hillenbrands first success was another true story, this time about a super athlete..... a horse. Seabiscuit was under sized, unappreciated and an underdog, until a few men recognized his true worth and gave him the chance to be a champion.

One little tidbit, in l938, this racehorse drew more headlines, articles and ink that Franklin Roosevelt and Adolph Hitler. If as a child you enjoyed " I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can." — Little Engine That Could , try this one for a grown up version.

Seabiscuit. Yes, I saw the movie ten years ago. The movie was good. The book is great. Including a description of the greatest race of all time - Seabiscuit versus War Admiral. I loved it

Here’s how famed sports writer Grantland Rice captured the race in his prose.
"The drama and melodrama of this match race, held before a record crowd keyed to the highest tension I have ever seen insport, set an all time mark.
You must get the picture from the start to absorb the thrill of this perfect autumn day over a perfect track. As the two thoroughbreds paraded to the post there was no emotional outburst. The big crowd was too full of tension, the type of tension that locks the human throat.
You looked at the odds flashed upon the mutual board–War Admiral, one to four, Seabiscuit two to one.Even those backing War Admiral, the great majority of the crowd, felt their pity for the son of Hard Tack and Swing On [Seabiscuit], who had come along the hard way and had churned up the dust of almost every track from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
After two false starts,they were off. But it wasn’t the fast-flying War Admiral who took the lead.It was Seabiscuit, taking the whip from Woolf, who got the jump. It was Seabiscuit who had a full-length lead as they passed the first furlong. The Admiral’s supporters were dazed as the ‘Biscuit not only held this leadbut increased it to two lengths before they passed the first quarter.
The ‘Biscuit’ was moving along as smoothly as a southern breeze.And then the first roar of the big crowd swept over Maryland. The Admiral was moving up. Stride by stride, Man o’ War’s favorite offspring was closing up the open gap. You could hear the roar from thousands of throats“Here he comes, here he comes!”
And the Admiral was under full steam.He cut away a length.He cut away another length as they came to the half-mile post–and now theywere running head and head.The Admiral looked Seabiscuit in the eye at the three-quarters but Seabiscuit never got the look.He was too busy running with his shorter, faster stride.
For almost a half mile they ran as one horse, painted against the green, red and orange foliage of a Maryland countryside. They were neck and neck — head and head — nose and nose.
The great Admiral had thrown his challenge.You could see that he expected Seabiscuit to quit and curl up." .......

And then.... well, Hillenbrand tells the rest of the story.

Parade

2011-01-26T03:38:00.000-08:00

The Grands. Ethan (Fargo, North Dakota), Leonard (Kilgali, Rwanda), Tensae (Ethiopia)

The Florists Daughter

2011-01-23T04:31:00.000-08:00

I left this place (St. Paul) “a provincial capital of the middling sort” (in Gogol’s words), as a callow young teacher, never to return. Left it for a small rural crossroads, in Bluff Country, married there, raised a family and now live there in mostly contented retirement. Award winning author, Patricia Hampl, has remained in St. Paul all her life, rooted to the city of her birth in the “blameless middle” of America. Her latest memoir, The Florists Daughter, tells the intriguing story of her relationship with her parents, the city of her birth and her desire to escape it and them. It culminates with the realization, sitting by the bedside of her dying mother, as to why she chose to remain there all her life. The Florists Daughter was highly recommended to me by two dear friends. Partly, I'm sure, because there are many allusions to places I knew intimately, as a child growing up. For instance, as Hampl reflects on her life and the influences of parent and place on that life, sitting at the hospital beside her dying mother. It turns out to be the very hospital in which I was born.

I'm not very familiar with the genre "memoirs." So, perhaps, I was expecting a literary version of a "chick flick." Not to be. Hampl, who is a Professor of English Literature at my alma mater, the University of Minnesota, takes on far deeper issues. I suspect that is why the critics love her writing which also includes poetry and essays.

It's probably sacrilege to compare the fundamental premise of this book to a trashy novel like The Bridges of Madison County but it comes to mind. Francesca Johnson is a romantic stereotype of longing and disillusion. Patricia Hampl, according to a New York Times reviewer, is a "conflicted daughter, a begrudging Midwesterner and a woman who has been besotted by illusions." Yet both protagonists make the choice of what now are identified as "traditonal values." Still, "Hampl proves that the material closest to home is often the richest." And she can write and dig deep into the human self. That must be the difference between literature and trash.

Washington's Crossing

2011-01-21T03:36:00.000-08:00

Just another book about the revolutionary war? Not really. Top gun historian David Hackett Fischer won the Pulitzer Prize for Washington’s Crossing. There must have been something special about it. There was.
Professor Fischer follows General Washington as he led the crossing of the iced Delaware River during Christmas 1776. On the surface, it seemed insane to cross to the other side to face an alleged much superior force of professional enemy soldiers. However, the author shows that the overwhelming odds were in reality not quite so insurmountable. During much of the year, the American rag tag army developed a new form of hit and run fighting. It was suited to the Americans capabilities and resources. It also lacked rigidity of the British troops and their Hessian mercenaries. Some myths that Professor Fischer debunks include the Hessians were not drunk, but bone weary from constant assault from guerillas and the weapon differential between the two forces was not even close to the legends
Thanks to modern computing and research methods, we know more about the past than ever before. This allows the best historians to present fresh insights in long ago events.
More importantly Washington's Crossing is a nonfiction book that reads like fiction. It represents the best of modern American history writing. Original, insightful, well researched , and best of all, so well written as to be what is called in the book trade, a page turner. Really!

The King's Speech

2011-01-18T12:35:00.000-08:00

The King’s Speech is a wonderful, heartwarming movie. Yes, I know some might be less than sympathetic to the notion that the King of Great Britain and Emperor of India and points in all directions, would have a serious problem with a speech impediment such as stammering. I mean, how tough can it be if your King, and have a beautiful Queen and two darling daughters? Well, think about it. We’re all human, king or not.

Really, if you’re an embarrassment to your parents and yourself, even a patient and super supportive wife might not be enough.
The Duke of York never expects to become King until his brother decides to marry a twice divorced American, who has had previous "experience" in China and the job falls in his lap. Then, there is Hitler looming on the horizon. And all previous attempts to "cure" his affliction have failed. That is, until his wife makes an appointment for him to seek help from a specialist, who doesn’t even have proper credentials. The plot is set..... and the movie is actually great. It’s a rare thing these days to see a real "adult" movie. That’s adult in the best sense of the word. Characterizations that ring true to the circumstances. Relationships that exist, change and develop in plausible ways. No gratuitous sex or violence. Leaving the theater and saying "that was a great movie." I liked it.

A Christmas Surprise

2011-01-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

We had gathered in the living room in Colorado to open family Christmas presents. The grandkids were all excited as children are wont to do on Christmas Eve. Santa would be coming later that night but that was another story. Gramma took a chair and parents and children gather round the tree. Grandpa remained comfortably seated on the carpeted stairway.

A rotation plan saw each child and adult take their turn opening a package. In the hubbub, no one but grandpa noted the large plastic ball that came rolling down the stairs and hit him in the back.

Engrossed in all the excitement, I absentmindedly picked it up and tossed it back up the steps to the landing. Some minutes later I was struck again. Now completely puzzled, I picked it up, when the stern teacher voice of Mrs T inquired as to why I was playing with a ball. "It keeps rolling down the steps on its own," I replied in my best dumbfounded manner. Whereupon, oldest grandchild shouted, "it’s because our HAMSTER is in it and wants to come downstairs." Sure enough, looking closely at it, for the first time, a small furry creature was inside. Setting the ball on the floor, off it went towards the Christmas tree.

Apparently the Hamster had been removed from his cage, put him inside the ball, and gets his daily exercise that way. Amazing!

You delicate flower you....

2011-01-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

I've been an upland game and duck hunter most of my adult life. Well, yes, the last few years I've been bird hunting more with my digital camera. Still, as a duck hunter in Minnesota, we were limited to 3 shells in the shotgun by law. Yet murderous lunatics can buy and use 30 bullet "clips" to massacre whole groups of people? Go figure.

Unbroken

2011-01-11T03:53:00.000-08:00

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is the best, most fascinating, narrative biographical history, I’ve read in a long time. It belongs to the "survivor" story category and while true, it’s as such stories often are, almost unbelievable.
While largely confined to her home, due to chronic fatigue syndrome, the author researches the life story of Louis Zamperini. This is mostly done by telephone.

Zamperini is a child with, what today would be identified, as a serious psychological problem. Today, in school, that would require medication. In my day, it would have been identified as "ants in his pants," later evolving into juvenile delinquency. Growing up poor, in California, he is somewhat rescued by a compassionate older brother and a growing interest in track. He sets all kind of running records in high school and at U.S.C. Goes on to participate in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Is caught up in WWII as a bombardier, shot down in the Pacific, endures a 2000 mile odyssey on a life raft before being captured, imprisoned and tortured relentlessly by the Japanese. And that's only half of it.
Hillenbrand is really good at this sort of thing, as she proved in her best selling horse story Seabiscuit. I must add the characterization of Zamperini lacks a whole lot of depth. The psychological part that is. Then, a few details are definitely questionable. So it’s not perfect. Still this is, as I said, the most fascinating story I’ve read in a long time. I highly recommend it.

Mark Twain "Improved?"

2011-01-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

From Paul Carrier at The Walrus Said
"I suppose it was just a matter of time. Alan Gribben, a professor at Auburn University at Montgomery, has edited new editions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that take out the nasty words. “Slave” is used in place of “nigger” and “Indian” is substituted for “Injun.”
Sacrilege (noun): gross irreverence toward a hallowed person, place, or thing.
Gribben argues that more Americans, including high-school students, will read Twain’s classics if offensive language is removed from them. Maybe he’s right. But if readers can’t cope with the language that Twain used then they should avoid his books instead of turning to sanitized versions compiled by someone who has the audacity to presume he can improve upon one of the greatest of all American writers."
As The New York Times said in a recent editorial:
"We are horrified, and we think most readers, textual purists or not, will be horrified too. The trouble isn’t merely adulterating Twain’s text. It’s also adulterating social, economic and linguistic history. Substituting the word “slave” makes it sound as though all the offense lies in the “n-word” and has nothing to do with the institution of slavery. Worse, it suggests that understanding the truth of the past corrupts modern readers, when, in fact, this new edition is busy corrupting the past."
When “Huckleberry Finn” was published, Mark Twain appended a note on his effort to reproduce “painstakingly” the dialects in the book, including several backwoods dialects and “the Missouri negro dialect.” What makes “Huckleberry Finn” so important in American literature isn’t just the story, it’s the richness, the detail, the unprecedented accuracy of its spoken language. There is no way to “clean up” Twain without doing irreparable harm to the truth of his work.
In its editorial, The Los Angeles Times acknowledged that Huckleberry Finn is right up there on the list of most-banned books in American schools, but the newspaper argued that “intelligent and sensitive discussion with students would be a better response” than altering Twain’s prose. The editorial continued:
"Twain's masterwork is a moving reflection of attitudes in the pre-Civil War South (and of its author's postwar sensibilities, which were ahead of their time with regard to race but behind our own). It's the struggle of a white youth, Huck, to reconcile his recognition of the humanity and equality of an escaped slave with the views of a society that considers him little better than an animal and uses epithets to describe him. The language, then, is very much part of the story and the history. Trying to protect students from the full ugliness of racism by softening that language does a disservice to them, and it's all too easy to imagine the crimes against literature that would result if this kind of thing caught on. We hope nobody gives Gribben a copy of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice," because the Bard's attitude toward Shylock the Jew was distastefully Elizabethan."

The Man Who....

2011-01-05T05:56:00.000-08:00

No, not George, even though he is the hero of this book!

The man who did everything but stand on his head (Newt Gingrich) to get Bill Clinton impeached for messing around with a "aide" is now a successful writer of historical fiction. Of course, Newt, the disgraced former Speaker of the House of Representatives, was busy playing the same game as Bubba about the same time. Along with his co partner William R Forstchen, a college Professor of History, he recently wrote To Try Men’s Souls and against my better judgment I just finished reading it.
It might have had something to do with the fact that my free book supplier had sent me an email telling me that she had the new book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand on hand and ready for me to pick up. Knowing that I love historical fiction, she tossed in a couple of Gingrich potboilers for good measure. Now not wishing to seem ungrateful by refusing the later books, on the grounds that the author was a jerk as well as a hypocrite, I gracefully accepted all three. So here goes.
If you can skip the long and gratuitously propagandist, not too subtle introduction, it’s not too bad. The book seems basically accurate in its depiction of the desperate lunge across the Delaware to attack the Hessians at Trenton. The characters, actual and imagined, like Washington, seems to speak their lines in an appropriate manner. The waning chances of a revolutionary army, defeated and without supplies clearly come through. Some of the scenes wander off into other venues but don’t seriously hamper the story.
Now, if only a tiny, but determined group of present dayTea tax hating patriots, can overcome the slackers, disloyalists, Congressional criminals, alien fascist communists and those who have forgotten the true ideals of Freedom, Liberty and elite democracy, while ignoring the existence of slavery.....things will turn out just fine. Oh wait a minute those were the not too subtle innuendos of the Introduction. As I said, except for that, the story was not too bad. I’d give it a C+.

Mark Twain Autobiography

2010-12-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

The new Autobiography of Mark Twain is a whopper. It weighs a ton. All 800 pages..... but in any case the subject was known for telling whoppers. And a wonderfully skewed and satirical sense of humor.
As you may know, Twain wanted his writings on his own life to be unpublished for a hundred years after his death. The team of "friends," that published this monster, took numerous pages to explain Twains complicated reasoning for his 'don't publish till death wish." Then, on top of all this, Twain did not believe a chronological life story was the way to go. Another fifty pages by the editors, were required to unravel this convoluted reasoning . Then there were the several authors whose previous biographies of Twain violated his wishes on this subject and using his voluminous notes and discarded autobiographical attempts published anyway. The editors of the current biography required much tut tuting and footnotes to show why the previous authors had screwed up. I figure about half the book is comprised of this kind of editorial gobbledegook. All of that might possibly appeal to those in depth literary experts and analysts who make a career of deciphering hieroglyphics and the like. Not for me though. I ended up skipping thru most of it.
Now as to what Twain actually wrote himself, it's as you might expect wonderfully interesting. I had to laugh out loud (lol) many times and then read it to my spouse who kept on giving me that "so what’s so funny look." There is much here in the way of little anecdotes and short sketches of people, famous and not so famous, that the author knew. Is the book worth purchasing? For the average reader, like myself, probably not. The parts that I read and really enjoyed I got from the book which was obtained at the public library. I reasons why I skipped about half of this book , I’ve already explained. I think Mark Twain might have chuckled at that.....

In Defense Of Christmas Letters

2010-12-20T06:20:00.000-08:00

As you probably know, I tend to try and find the humorous side of life, particularly in my first blog - Troutbirder. I've also been reading the new and complete autobiography of Mark Twain of late. That's the guy I'm talking to in the above "header." This is all by way of saying, I started out this morning with the thought of putting a somewhat satirical slant on the subject of the annual Christmas letter. After a quick survey of the bloggosphere, I found that several others have decided to write in the same vein. So being the contrarian that I am, I've decided to say that they are a wonderful tradition and if the grinches out there don't like them..... get a life. So with that thought (uncharitable as it is) I present the annual Troutbirder family Christmas letter (with a few minor adjustments according to FEDERAL PRIVACY REGULATIONS).

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Dear Friends & Family,
The year 2010 was a great one for the Barb & Ray. In the spring, we flew with our friends Gary and Rosie to Fort Myers, Florida. There we took in several Twins spring training games and went "birding"on Ding Darling NWR, Audubon’s Corkscrew swamp and Six Mile Swanp. We also cruised the Everglades to check out the alligators. This fall we went on a great trip to Ireland.

The news from Colorado is that both our son and daughter in law are working full time for a suburban Denver school district. She as a school psychologist and he teaching science. Our grandchildren also are working in the same school as students who happen to love reading and are doing very well. The newest is in pre school where his adjustment to life in America is an ongoing process.

Remembering Ted, and all those who have passed on, Deanne and our friends and family here and far away, good health, good cheer and Merry Christmas.
Barb and Ray

Historical Fiction

2010-12-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

Historical fiction are novels that re-create a period or event in history and often use historical figures as some of its characters. To be deemed historical, a novel must have been written at least fifty years after the events described.
Most of us read fiction for pleasure, but some of us gravitate especially to works about the past. People have enjoyed historical fiction since 800 BC when Homer wrote about the Trojan War in the Iliad. The worlds to which historical fiction carries us may seem utterly different from our own - but they really existed. A deep understanding of the past can help us understand our own time and our own motivations better. And by blending history and fiction, a novel lets us do more than simply read history: it lets us participate in the hopes, fears, passions, mistakes and triumphs of the people who lived it. It’s not history as such but a great writer. who has done meticulous research, can truly bring the past alive.
The following listed books are some of my favorite novels of historical fiction. I’ve read them all, some more than once. Now what are some of your favorites?
Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas

Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman & others in the Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine series
Steven Pressfield "Gates of Fire"

Shogun – James Clavell

First Man in Rome (and following books) by Colleen McCullough

Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follet
Killer Angels....Michael Shaara

War & Peace by Tolstoy

Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell

The Pacific

2010-12-14T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose was written as a companion to the HBO series of the same name. Ambrose follows five Marines to trace the character of the Pacific War. The vast and complex nature of that part of WWII makes the effort to give it depth, continuity and the personal touch to it much more difficult than the authors father faced when he described the European part of the war, by following a company of the 101st Airborne from training ground to victory. I rate this book "good" rather than excellent. The narrow scope of the narrative makes it difficult to follow the big picture....but to be fair it wasn’t supposed to do that anyway. Guadalcanal, Midway, Peleliu, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, etc. was war, which is always ugly and brutal, at it's very worst. The Japanese invariably chose death over surrender, offering no quarter. They did not accept any of the restraints of the Geneva Convention. The Marines often were forced to respond in kind. Take a look at a few pictures from the battle of Iwo Jima.... then and now.

Mount Suribachi overlooks the landing beaches. During the battle for Iwo Jima, Mt Suribachigave the defending Japanese forces a perfect vantage point from which to direct lethalartillery fire on the Marines' hastily dug positions on the beach.

Futatsune Beach, today known by visiting Marines as Invasion Beach, is where on19 February 1945, the Marines landed on D-Day of the invasion of Iwo Jima. This picturewas taken from near the top of Mt. Suribachi. Forward Observer's dream!

Marines race across the beach to experience a fraction of the experiences the Marines whofought for Iwo Jima might have had on D-Day of the Battle. The major difference betweentoday and 1945 is that today no one is shooting at them!

The guide for this trip asked the Marines to rush this dune to get an idea of what the Marineswho took Iwo Jima faced. Every step you take up, you slide down and into the dune. Youhave to work hard to get to the top. Imagine doing it with 100 lbs on your back while beingshot at and artillery raining down on you.

At this place at that time "uncommon valor was a common virtue." Admiral Nimitiz

An Ode To Minnesota

2010-12-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well it's that time of the year again. The first "close the airport blizzard" of the year. Yes, curled up in my easy chair, book in hand, looking out the living room window at 12 inches plus of snow already, forcasting sub zero tonight and winds tomorrow tossing the snow into giant drifts. Speaking of Giants, they are stranded in Kansas City, hoping to arrive tomorrow in time to crush the hapless Vikings. So, once again I drag out that famous ode to my beloved state.

It's winter in Minnesota And the gentle breezes blow, 70 miles per hour at 52 below! Oh, how I love Minnesota When the snow's up to your butt; You take a breath of winter air And your nose is frozen shut. Yes, the weather here is wonderful, I guess I'll hang around. I could never leave Minnesota, Cause I'm frozen to the ground.

Russia - Before WWI

2010-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

This is a bit off the beaten path but here is a link to series of wonderful pictures, taken before WWI and the Russian Revolution. The Russian Empire as it looked a century ago.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html?s_campaign=8315

Freedom

2010-12-04T05:08:00.000-08:00

No, it’s not War & Peace, although not happily married Patty identifies with Natasha. The enemy is not at the city gates of Moscow, yet there is an "enemy" that lurks within. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen is a rare best seller in the old tradition of classic nineteenth century novels. It has both style and substance. I believe Freedom does compare favorably with all those classic novels of the past. The book is a family socio-cultural tale that begins slowly and then draws you deeply into the hearts and minds of four people who struggle with their own versions of freedom. This serves to not only illuminate the society we now live in but also provides numerous opportunities for self examination. What could be worth more than a book that can help a reader look more closely into their own values and ideals? Some years ago, I’d given up hope on most contemporary American novelists. This was because I felt many history and biography authors had replaced them in terms of both quality of writing and substance. In the last fifty years, with few exceptions, American novels have diverged into those which have won critical acclaim and those which made the best seller lists. Franzen, the best American novelist of the 21st century (so far), has given me some hope for the future. Of course, their still is the disgracefully degrading and overwhelming mass impact of television on our culture....but that’s a subject for another day.For another bloggers wonderfully thoughtful outlook on freedom (both the concept and the book)you might find the following link interesting.....

http://beedrunken.blogspot.com/2010/10/freedom.html

Troutbirders Favorite Recipes

2010-11-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

In the late sixties my bride purchased Cooking The Sportman's Harvest from the South Dakota Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks. I'm not sure why due to the fact that my first effort to bring home game to the family hearth had engendered the following exchange. "What are they," asked an obviously disturbed Queen B. "Squirrels", was my proud reply, 22 in hand. "You can forget that. I'll be d#$%^&d if I'm gonna cook any skinned rats in this kitchen.

Here are some of the recipes which didn't get used. I wonder why?

Paddlefish squares (illegal to catch in Minnesota. Now on the endangered list.)

Snipe (Boys Scouts were often sent to search for these in the dead of night)

Fishloaf (probably carp with ketchup topping) or that all time favorite... Carp Chowder with PCB's

Pressure cooked Sage Hens (tenderizes geriatric birds of any type)

Sandhill Crane pie (popular also in North Dakota where if it has two or four legs and is not human it can be shot and eaten including tables)

Barbequed perch (not available at Famous Daves)

Fish Egg Soup ( for those with more expensive tastes) Also in the Moss Back Turtle variety

Fricasse of Young Racoon. Yes!

Also in the book were specialized recipes for Opposum, Beaver Tail, and Groundhog.

What it came too finally was that she was sure anything not certified Grade A by the Department of Agriculture was probably not safe to eat. I then presented her with a copy of Upton Sinclairs book The Jungle. The inside story of the meat packing industry in Chicago at the end of the 19th century. Having decided that Grade A was not a sure fire saftey guarantee either, Mrs To went on to devise her own recipes for pheasant, grouse, geese, duck and trout. What a woman! Squirrel never did make the "approved list" though.

Morning Glory

2010-11-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

There we were in the early afternoon have just completed a morning checkup at WFMC. For the uninitiated that would be the World Famous Mayo Clinic. "How about a movie," she said. "Ok dear," was my reply. Settling in to the afternoon matinee, popcorn in hand, I figure there were about 60 people in the theater. Me, my spouse, one other "senior" looking couple and.......the rest all female. A chickflick no doubt. Oh well. If it's funny as they often are I can handle it. It was.

Some of the critics didn't think it was worth anybodies time . "It's trying for the same mixture of romance and repartee and social observation, but it's pretty light on all three. Directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill), from a script by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada), the movie would like to be the Broadcast News of happy-talk morning shows, but it isn't just the setting that's sillier and more superficial; the whole film is really just a chintzy work-family sitcom. Yet I suspect that Morning Glory will find an audience, if only because as mediocre as the picture often is, it features the sort of tasty, ham-on-cheese movie-star overacting that's undeniable lowbrow fun." ( Owen Gleiberman)

Others saw an updated version of the Mary Tyler Moore shtick. "Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes) stars as Becky Fuller. She makes like Mary and buzzes upbeat through the role of a TV morning show producer. Her unenviable task: ramp up the ratings of the nation’s least watched network morning show. Through heroics found only on sitcom TV, and a predictable love story, Becky cajoles, inspires and propels her staff and the movie toward the expected and non-surprising conclusion.
McAdams teams with a dour Harrison Ford and a perky Diane Keaton. They play her morning show team. The film’s focus is Becky babysitting Ford’s Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. He’s on the downward side of a glorious career." ( Gary Wolcott)

Worth your time? On a slow chilly afternoon in early Minnesota winter a little warm humor and some decent over the top acting. Why not. I enjoyed it. Hey we're not talking Citizen Kane here. A far as much of TV goes these days the morning Today type news/entertainment shows are about as honest as you get.

The Fort

2010-11-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

So why did Henry Wasworth Longfellow make a national hero out of Paul Revere, when Revere was only one of the many riders sent our by Dr. Warren on that fatefull night? This in a poem written many years later just before the civil war.

And why was the biggest naval disaster to befall the American cause before Pearl Harbor, an obscure struggle unremebered in most history books?
And what were the British up to building a fort in the far north of Massachusetts at Majabogwadice (now Castine, Maine)?
Why was Paul Revere court martialed on charges of ineptitude, & derelection of duty bordering on treason?
Should Massachusetts have demanded and ultimately recieved payment by the federal government for a $300 million dollars(in todays money) disaster solely of its own making?
What role did young Lt. Moore later play in driving Napoleon from Spain?
And on and on with many surprising twists and turn in a factually based historical novel, The Fort by Bernard Cornwell. After reading Cornwell previous gem, Agincourt some month ago, I praised his writing as some of the best of modern historical fiction. He lives up to that standard again in The Fort. I would highly recomment this book without any reservation.

If your curiosity is at all aroused check out the following reviews on the interent. You won't be sorry.

Paul Carrier at The Walrus Said http://thewalrus9.blogspot.com/2010/11/reviews-fort-by-bernard-cornwell.html

Sam Stowe at California Literary Review http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=399515599170267990

The Rise and Fall Of The History Channel

2010-11-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

History is one of my things. I love reading it, especially biographies of interesting people. I tried to make it even exciting for my students. So it's no wonder when cable TV became available in our rural area, I jumped at it. Why. The Twins. The Gophers. And the History Channel.
How sad. Some place along the line that channel forgot about history.
First it took up bizarre spooky stuff from the past. The weird really. Then it’s ultimate downfall in recent years. The wildly popular, escape from reality, found on most channels. "Reality" TV. What a farce. "Real" people searching for monsters and fearsome aliens. "Real" people having "real" personality issues while logging, trucking, and about everything else. They pay people to think of this crap?
The only thing they haven’t got to yet is "Hookers." I’ve given up even checking to see if by chance something historically interesting is on this sad excuse for a history channel. I’ve even considered giving up on cable entirely. Or upgrading to something like HBO, which at least has the occasional well done movie on a historical subject.
The history channel. Or as the little old granny once said long ago, in a campaign ad for Walter Mondale, about his opponent, "Where’s the beef?"

Fall Of Giants

2010-11-17T03:16:00.000-08:00

As a young author, beginning some three decades, ago he wrote suspense/thrillers. Although not a big fan of that genre, I liked Eye Of The Needle, The Man From St. Petersburg and Lie Down With Lions. Then, in 1989, he wrote something completely different. It was Pillars Of The Earth, a wonderful story of love and devotion surrounding the building of a cathedral in the early Middle Ages. That novel of historical fiction remains, to this day, as one of my all time favorites.
I write, of course, of English author Ken Follet, who’s new historical novel, Fall of Giants, I just finished reading.
It is the first novel in The Century Trilogy, and follows the fates of five interrelated families-American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh, as they move through the world-shaking events of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage.
So what did I think of the book? It’s well done on the vast scale of historical events. The cast of characters, ranging from the real to the imagined, keeps you interested. Still, it's not War and Peace nor Pillars of the Earth. This lesser interest for me is fairly easy to explain . In Pillars I knew little about life in the twelfth century and even less about building a cathedral. The history in those two books, as well as the characters was quite fascinating. That combination was not there for me in Fall of Giants. The history of WWI and the countries involved were well known to me. And, of course, to Follet, who weaves the tapestry of people and events together quite well.
In many ways this book reminded me a good deal of another authors great historical novels. That would be Herman Wouk, whose best sellers set in World War II, Winds of War & War and War and Remembrance, had the same format.
As a history teacher, I like to see good history accurately portrayed in an engaging story. If that’s your cup of tea, I’d recommend it Fall Of Giants most wholeheartedly.

Baron

2010-11-12T04:44:00.000-08:00

Having just returned from our trip to Ireland I went to the local vets office to pick up my big puppy Baron. They have boarding facilities there which always seemed to be a good worry free combination. It proved to be so in this case as I learned the big guy had required a tooth extraction while we were gone.

It seems the bad doggie breath I had noticed before leaving had been caused by an abscessed canine tooth. I had requested a tooth cleaning when I brought him in and the problem was discovered then, as he was also not eating and had lost ten pounds since a previous visit.

He is eating fine now, getting antibiotics and seems as chipper as ever. Looking up the function of the upper canine tooth I found it is used to capture and hold prey. Since Baron is fed regularly here at home, I don't believe the loss serious. Well, on second thought, it may reduce the rate of his squirrel captures, but he'll just have to tough it out.

The Red Barons

2010-10-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

Manfred von Richthofen:
The Red Baron - The first Red Baron was one of those heroes whose life seems almost scripted. Discipline, pride, hunting skills, and Teutonic patriotism all combined in this man, bringing him to the pinnacle of fame which long outlasted the man himself. But Richthofen was no caricature, methodically claiming 80 aerial victories, before falling himself, in a Wagnerian finale.

Snoopy von Peanuts und Schultzberg

"Curse you, Red Baron," cried Snoopy, the Mitty-esque canine ace of Charles Schultz' Peanuts comic strip. Courage, determination, & perserverance against insuperable odds, characterized this indomitable canine, who launching from his doghouse, threw himself into the sky against the German flying ace.

Baron von Goofus Und Katsenjaegger

The ambusher supreme. He stalks and waits for the moment to strike. Unfortunately his feline enemy knows the boundaries of the invisible fence border which confines Baron's attacks on the maruading song bird killers. His commander in chief is sympathetic to this cause but wishes to prevent forays into foreign territory, thus avoiding incidents with the neighbors. He also defends the homeland against intrusions by the squirrel tribe.

Baron & Me (Part 2)

2010-10-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

This post is a followup to a post I made on July 27th, 2008. In the interest of exercising my 2 year old puppy, Baron the GSD, I was racing him full speed down a hill. Due to the appearance of two rabbits, I crashed into my dog vaulting over the handlebars. He survived quite nicely. I, as it turned out two years later, not so good.

Click on the original incident - http://baron-troutbirder.blogspot.com/2008/07/baron-and-me.html

Part II

It all started with a the potted plants hanging from the front porch. Mrs T said it was time to bring them in the house. Raising my left arm to support them while unhooking with the right...I couldn't do it. My left shouldner had given up the ghost. The next day I was in the doctors office. X-rays showed a seperated collar bone. Further examination suggested a torn rotator cuff . Yikes.

This all came as a big shock. The day following the bike accident, unable to raise my left arm, I had gone to the urgent care at a hospital in a nearby city. Nothing broken I was told. I considered myself very lucky. Now two years later the chickens had come home to roost. Slowly but surely it had gotten worse. And yes, being of German heritage, I'm stubborn. I put off having it rechecked way to long.

Today, I'm in my second week of physical therapy, and showing definite signs of improvement. The staff I'm working with is extremely competent and friendly. They clearly know what they're doing and the line between helpful excercise and torture! Thanks gals!

I'm still sticking with my original conclusion that the crash and burn experience could've been a lot worse. Here's my take (with a good bear story) on that.

http://baron-troutbirder.blogspot.com/2008/08/it-could-have-been-lot-worse.html

December 24, 1947

2010-10-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

It was December 24, 1948. Christmas Eve at my Grandparents home was being celebrated. All the Aunts, Uncles, cousins, my parents and new little brother were in attendence. Presents were exchanged. Cookies eaten. Family gossip was avidly discussioned. That night Santa Claus would arrive at our home. What he might bring was yet to be discovered. The war was not far behind and clothes not toys were still the currency of the time. But now there were exceptions. Troutbirder and his cousin Prudence stand excitedly in front of Grandma's Christmas tree. She, with the doll of here dreams and he with the electic train he always wanted. It was a Lionel O27 gauge. Made of iron and steel and a real whistle, not downsized and made of plastic like today.
In 1947 I had received a crudely made toy car, which was manufactured of aluminum, no longer needed for bombers.

I still have that car and my train, holding on to them and those memories of long ago.

Agincourt

2010-10-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

I recently finished a book by Bernard Cornwell titled Agincourt. It is the story of an young forester brought by his Lord to serve in Henry V's army. That army characterized by Shakespeare in Henry V as "we band of brothers.

"Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king,
Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day." William Shakespeare
Agincourt: Fought on 25 October 1415 in northern France, it is one the greatest battles in history.. In August 1415, Henry landed on the Normandy coast near Honfleur and set up his big guns in front of what was supposed to be an impregnable walled city. The bombardment destroyed the main gate completely, and the garrison surrendered.
But then an outbreak of fever seriously depleted his forces. Despite this, he set off across France with what was left of his army - 6,000 men, mostly archers. This was a very risky venture, for a French army of 14,000 was now shadowing him. When the French blocked his route, he had no alternative but to fight, with the odds against him more than three to one.
Henry knew that a general in command of a comparatively small but disciplined army had a good chance of bringing off a tactical success, provided he knew what he was doing.And he did. He chose to fight on a muddy field, with thick woods on either side. When the enormous French cavalry force hesitated to charge into the mud, Henry ordered his archers to advance within bow shot - 250 yards - and open fire. It was a manoeuvre that suggests they had had first-class training in battle conditions.The French tried to wheel their horses and back off, so turning the ranks of horsemen behind them into total confusion. The great struggling mass became an easy target for endless volleys of arrows.
The main plot, English archers versus the iron clad knights of France follows history very well. The sub plot of the young forester and his French maiden brings it all to life. Real life. I have never seen a book that so realistically describes the nitty gritty, down and dirty, aspects of medieval warfar like this. If the book was a movie I would rate it R for extreme violence, rough language, and sex.
Actually it’s been a movie several times. Henry the Fifth starring Sir Laurence Olivier. And later a new version starring Kenneth Branagh. Both outstanding films

Olivier

Branagh

History Mystery

2010-10-11T04:35:00.001-07:00

Today's History Mystery is to locate the scene of the Civil War era soldiers. Take a guess!

The Wisdom Of Yogi

2010-10-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

My beloved Twins appear to be on the verge of another playoff sweep by the New York Yankees. They're on their way to Gotham City now and its looks pretty hopeless. The Yankees probably have better players but all-time Yankee catcher and sage Yogi Berra summed up the situation best.....
"It's deja vu all over again" and "Only 50% of a team's success is because of the talent they have...the other 90% is mental"

History Mystery

2010-10-05T04:01:00.001-07:00

Can you identify the occasion? Take a guess. I'll post the answer in the comment section in a couple of days.