Just for all you getting your panties in a twist, what President Obama is suggesting is NOT socialism. It just isn't. To be sure, it's a change in our governmental policies and the banks have gotten themselves in quite a big mess -- but it's not socialism.
Critique on the facts, but do your homework first.
OK, back to the beach.
As I've been doing for the last four years or so, I'm keeping a log of what books I read during a given year. Here are the prior years, should be just that bored:
The Books I Read in 2008
The Books I Read in 2007
The Books I Read in 2006
In those lists, as in the one below, the following may be informative:
Books marked with blue are ones I really enjoyed.
Those marked in orange are titles I didn't even finish, for one reason or another.
The rest...somewhere in between.
| Book Title | Author | Rating (out of 10.0) | Thoughts |
| The Gate At The Stairs | Lorrie Moore | 4.0 | A BIG disappointment. Full review here. |
| Eating The Dinosaur | Chuck Klosterman | 6.0 | Another disappointment. Klosterman weaves a few interesting thoughts here and is often amusing, but -- and this may be due to the fact I read this during a heinous bout of food poisoning -- it felt both a bit precious and not nearly as funny as Klosterman often is. Several essays are great (football, Weezer) while too many others fail. |
| The Guinea Pig Diaries | A.J. Jacobs | 5.5 | Really disappointing -- Jacobs clearly has slapped old magazine articles here, but they all read as if they should be stand alone ... magazine articles. I hate that, and none of these were particularly enjoyable. |
| The Book Of Basketball | Bill Simmons | 9.0 | The fact that I - a disgruntled former NBA fan - could enjoy a 700 page book about basketball just shows how funny and readable Simmons is. |
| Land Of The Blind | Jess Walter | 9.0 | A follow-up to Over Tumbled Graves, Walter again shines here with a new mystery that continually surprises and delights. That sentence is sort of weak, but it's true. |
| The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books | J. Peder Zane (Editor) | 6.0 | A great idea - ask 125 authors what their favorite books are, and then make lists! I found a few new titles here, and made notes to read a lot of Tolstoy. It's a fun reference book, to be sure. |
| Man In The Dark | Paul Auster | 7.0 | Back to form. Part a story made up by the protagonist (and a good, surreal Auster story to boot), partially a story about a man coming to grips with his own mortality, it's a bit like Angle of Repose meets Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End Of The World, though that likely makes no sense. |
| Juliet, Naked | Nick Hornby | 9.0 | It's possible that Hornby could write instructions for my TV and I'd still find it gripping, funny and poignant. This one is no exception, and shows Hornby writes just as well from a woman's perspective as from his "lad lit" stereotype. |
| Apathy and Other Small Victories | Paul Neilan | 6.0 | Ultimately a disappointment, Apathy nonetheless contains a few laugh out loud moments and makes fun of the workplace so I have to give it props there. But it consistently felt like it should be ... more. |
| The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History | John M. Barry | 8.0 | A gripping account of the 1918 flu epidemic. It's more about how the science behind it and the revelations it led to, but a great read and certainly relevant in the wake of the current H1N1 breakout. |
| Over Tumbled Graves | Jess Walter | 9.0 | A phenomenal murder thriller - with this, The Zero and Citizen Vince Walter has shown he is not genre-bound, and succeeds wherever he goes. |
| The Zero | Jess Walter | 9.0 | Damn. Just ... damn. The full review is here. |
| Manhunt: The Twelve Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer | James Swanson | 8.0 | A great and incredibly informative account of the search for John Wilkes Booth. Tons of stuff I didn't know, and always entertaining throughout. |
| Stumbling On Happiness | Dan Gilbert | 7.0 | An entertaining book about the science and psychology of what actually makes folks happy. Bought it after I heard him speak on a TED podcast. Very good, but gets a bit "same-y." |
| Downtown Owl | Chuck Klosterman | 7.0 | The first novel from Klosterman, it is an uneven attempt. Bouncing between three characters, it ends up with a conclusion that feels unfinished. His writing is as usual crisp and witty, but I suspect his next attempt will have more meat. |
| The Gate House | Nelson DeMille | 6.5 | The sequel to the brilliant "The Gold Coast," this novel falls well short. For one, it's 650 pages long and could probably be 150 pgs. Not much happens, which is sort of a problem. It's good writing, but there isn't much plot. There's no there there. |
| Outliers | Malcolm Gladwell | 7.5 | Like all Gladwell writing, it's clever, informative and sticks with you for awhile. It makes great cocktail party conversation - but this felt thinner, less weighty, than his previous books. Not quite their equal. |
| The Girl Who Played With Fire | Steig Larsson | 8.5 | I liked the first in this series so much I ordered the UK version of this book because I couldn't wait for it. And while it's not quite the equal of 'Dragon Tattoo' it's still riveting, fun and clever. Lisbeth Salander kicks ass. |
| Out Stealing Horses | Per Petterson | 9.0 | A beautiful, quiet novel about a man entering old age, looking back on his life. Feels like the Norwegian Wallace Stegner at times, which is saying A LOT. |
| The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao | Junot Diaz | 8.0 | A victim of over-hype, I didn't love this the way many others have - but it is still a very, very good novel. Happy, sad, geeky and heartwarming - everything is there, it just didn't blow me away. |
| The Watchmen | Alan Moore | 8.0 | Finally decided to see what all the fuss is about -- and it's about a pretty awesome story and saga. Worth playing for. |
| The Given Day | Dennis Lehane | 9.0 | Fantastic book by a fantastic writer. Full review here. |
| World War Z | Max Brooks | 8.0 | Remember the Zombie War? The one that swarmed the earth and left nobody untouched in some way? No? Well, this is the 'oral history' of that and it's close to brilliant in its own, amusing way. |
| Lush Life | Richard Price | 8.0 | Price's style makes it hard to immediately sink into the story, but this is a successful crime novel by the writer of Clockers, The Wire and Freedomland. |
| The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo | Steig Larsson | 9.0 | Just a phenomenal (debut) mystery novel, from a Swedish writer who apparently died after just three books. Highly recommended, and I'm buying the next one soon. |
| A Few Seconds Of Panic | Stefan Fatsis | 8.0 | A very engaging, interesting account of a sportswriter who participates with the Denver Broncos as a kicker - not just to write about the experience but to assimilate into the team and understand that. He's successful on both counts and there are some great insights to the personalities of the locker room, player motivations, etc. (Calling Mike Shanahan 'Coach for Life' turned out to be quite premature, however. :)) |
| What I Think About When I Think About Running | Haruki Murakami | 7.5 | A memoir, focused around his passion for running (he runs at least one marathon per year) and how it relates to his writing and way of thinking. Interesting and often amusing, it's not heavy lifting but still good stuff. |
| The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty | David Harris | 8.0 | First, I miss Walsh and the good years of the Niners. So it was great in that respect, even detailing some games I remember vividly, and some I'd forgotten about. It does delve into his personal life, which I'd known little about, but is largely focused on football. Very well done. |
| A Firing Offense | George Pelecanos | 5.5 | An obviously early mystery for Pelecanos -- it helped establish him as the great writer he is now, but it feels dated and not particularl special. He's definitely grown as a writer. |
| Cryptonomicon | Neal Stephenson | 9.0 | I shied away from it for two main reasons - Stephenson is known as a sci-fi writer, and it's over 900 pages. Neither mattered - it's phenomenal. Full review to come. |
This is both a funny and incredibly nauseating site, all at the same time. This is why you're fat.
Yeah, that's a "Bacon Cheese Pizza Burger" alright. Wow.
But it's almost dwarfed by the sheer concept of this dessert:
That, my friends, is a "Deep Fried Peanut Butter-Covered Brownie Wrapped In Cookie Dough."
No words. Check it all out at This is why you're fat.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to take a harder line with the Senate after a trio of Republican senators forced Congress to trim billions from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
It’s not clear how far Pelosi is willing to go in standing up to the Senate — or, realistically, what effect Hoyer and Pelosi combined could have in the face of the 60-vote hurdle Senate Democrats face.
But after last week’s stimulus votes, Hoyer called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to force Senate Republicans to mount actual filibusters if they want to stand in the way of bills "so that the American people can see who’s undermining action."
I never figured this out when George W. Bush was in office - why Democrats wouldn't pass things with 55 or so votes, and then force Bush to live up to his veto threats. If this happened as much as it could and should have, then the tired meme that the GOP used (to little success, it's worth pointing out) to say that the Democrats did nothing while in power of Congress would have been even more obviously a falsehood.
Too quiet.
And that's not going to change any time soon, largely because I'll be on a two-week vacation in Kauai, for which I leave in about a week. Feel for me.
In the meantime, you may have to settle for this guest post I just did on The Candy Gurus.
Yes, this is what passes for a commissioner in Major League Baseball -- emphasis below are mine:
Bud Selig says Alex Rodriguez has "shamed the game," though the baseball commissioner indicated no plans to punish the three-time AL MVP.
"I am saddened by the revelations," Selig said in a statement issued Thursday, four days after Rodriguez admitted he used unspecified drugs from 2001 to 2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers. "What Alex did was wrong, and he will have to live with the damage he has done to his name and reputation."
Players and owners didn't agree to a joint drug program until August 2002, and testing with punishment didn't start until 2004.
"It is important to remember that these recent revelations relate to pre-program activity," Selig said.
"Under our current drug program, if you are caught using steroids and/or amphetamines, you will be punished. Since 2005, every player who has tested positive for steroids has been suspended for as much as 50 games."
Much of the statement was a recitation of Selig's efforts to get a drug agreement with the union and then toughen it. With baseball officials under pressure from Congress, negotiators from management and the union strengthened the program in January 2005, November 2005 and April 2008, toughening the penalties and tightening the rules.
Alrighty. BUD SELIG, YOU SUCK ASS.
Then it's a pretty good one.
I'm talking about this article in the New York Times, called "You Try to Live on 500K in This Town" which just might be one of the more offensive and idiotic columns I've read in awhile. I honestly can't tell if it's satire, but I'm thinking it actually isn't.
The gist of it is a response to President Obama's edict that any CEO receiving federal bailout money can't make more than $500,000 a year in annual salary. The article argues, unpersuasively, that this is actually a huge burden.
Some choice snippets:
Private school: $32,000 a year per student.
Mortgage: $96,000 a year.
Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year.
Nanny: $45,000 a year.
We are already at $269,000, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet.
Many top executives have cars and drivers. A chauffeur’s pay is between $75,000 and $125,000 a year, the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards, said a limousine driver who spoke anonymously because he does not want to alienate his society customers.
A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.
The work in the gym pays off when one must don a formal gown for a charity gala. “Going to those parties,” said David Patrick Columbia, who is the editor of the New York Social Diary (newyorksocialdiary.com), "a woman can spend $10,000 or $15,000 on a dress. If she goes to three or four of those a year, she’s not going to wear the same dress."
Total cost for three gowns: about $35,000.
1) $2,700 for six wall sconces.
2) $5,000 for a mirror in his private dining room.
3) $11,000 for fabric for a "Roman Shade.”
4) $13,000 for a chandelier in the private dining room.
5) $15,000 for a sofa.
6) $16,000 for a "custom coffee table.”
7) $18,000 for a “George IV Desk.”
8) $25,000 for a "mahogany pedestal table.”
9) $28,000 for four pairs of curtains.
10) $35,000 for something called a "commode on legs.”
11) $37,000 for six chairs in his private dining room.
12) $68,000 for a "19th Century Credenza" in his office.
13) $87,000 for a pair of guest chairs.
14) $87,000 for an area rug in Thain's conference room and another area rug for $44,000.
15) $230,000 to his driver for one year’s work.
16) $800,000 to hire celebrity designer Michael Smith, who is currently redesigning the White House for the Obama family for just $100,000.
From 15 years ago...wow. 
(You may need to click on it to expand it and see it in full.)
For what it's worth, I still miss Calvin and Hobbes.
Sometimes, I feel like this picture needs more exposure:
In recent days, Democrats were bemoaning how President Obama has seemed to be bending over backwards to cater to Republicans in an effort for bi-partisanship over getting a stimulus bill passed. The GOP has responded as you'd expect - they've demanded tax cuts and nothing else, as if the last eight years haven't shown that this is resoundingly bad policy. (How on earth is a tax cut ALONE going to help an out-of-work steel worker? By giving his ex-bosses more money so that they can presumably create that old job again? The idiocy and short-sightedness here is jarring.)
But, as he proved during the entire election season, you do not mess with the Obama. Today, he penned an Op/Ed in the Washington Post (just like George W. Bush did all the time when-- oh, right), and the juicy parts are right here:
This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education. And it's a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent.
In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.
I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.
Awhile back (ok, it was yesterday), I bitched about a class at Cal State Fullerton about the Harry Potter books. I still think it's insanely stupid.
But this? This is awesome.
A class on The Wire
UC Berkeley is offering a class called What's so great about The Wire?
Discerning critics and avid fans have agreed that the five-season run of Ed Burns and David Simon's The Wire was "the best TV show ever broadcast in America"--not the most popular but the best. The 60 hours that comprise this episodic series have been aptly been compared to Dickens, Balzac, Dreiser and Greek Tragedy. These comparisons attempt to get at the richly textured complexity of the work, its depth, its bleak tapestry of an American city and its diverse social stratifications. Yet none of these comparisons quite nails what it is that made this the most compelling "show" on TV and better than many of the best movies. This class will explore these comparisons, analyze episodes from the first, third, fourth and fifth seasons and try to discover what was and is so great about The Wire. We will screen as much of the series as we can during our mandatory screening sessions and approach it through the following lenses: the other writing of David Simon, including his journalism, an exemplary Greek Tragedy, Dickens' Bleak House and/or parts of Balzac's Human Comedy. We will also consider the formal tradition of episodic television.
(First of all, who is Pete? And what's that expression all about?)
But really, I'm reacting to this piece of 'news':
STUDENTS at an American university studying the work of Edinburgh author JK Rowling have been split up into the four Hogwarts' houses due to the popularity of the course.
The class, focused on discussing the marketing and cultural significance of the best-selling Harry Potter series, as well as the literary influence of JRR. Tolkien and Charles Dickens on JK Rowling, attracted more than 100 students at California State University in Fullerton. This is three times the size of a normal English class, and so students have been split into Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw house.
Professor Erin Hollis said the different houses would earn points for attendance and trivia over the course of the class, and added that interest in the class had been unprecedented.
Professor Hollis is reportedly developing other classes focused on popular literature.
