Jacob's recent posts

Recent public posts (showing 1-16 of 16).

I keep thinking that Norman Rockwell had a connection to Rock Hill, SC, but it was Vernon Grant (inventor of the Snap, Crackle, and Pop characters), who painted in Rockwell's style. Grant lived in SC and did a lot of posters for local festivals: http://www.vernongrant.org/

I read this sometime back in 98 or 99 as part of a class on Science Fiction. We even had Ms Butler come participate in a panel of Sci-Fi writers. In the panel, she expressed surprise that we were reading this book and not one of her others, because she didn't consider this one of her Sci-Fi books :) She certainly has other books that are clearly Sci-Fi. This one is debatable, since it's just a "what if" story about someone waking up in the past, and doesn't have the harder elements that we normally associate with Sci-Fi. Anyway, Ms Butler was very cool. I should read more of her stuff...

The author is speaking in Watertown on October 21st: http://aane.org/upcoming_events/Francisc...

I had swiped it from another friend's list :) I have been a fan of naked mole rats since watching the children's cartoon Kim Possible -- her side kick (voiced by Will Friedle!) has a pet naked mole rat (they're kind of like a Shaggy & Scooby-doo pair). In one episode, they did the Naked Mole Rat Rap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6scHgACS...

Way!

If I've never read any of his other books, are there some that you would recommend first? The history of our relation with food is interesting, as are concerns about biodiversity and the effects of our mass factoryization (?) of food production (particularly plants, but I wouldn't exclude animals).

I just heard about this book. I was contemplating adding it to my to-read list. What did you think of it?

A combination of both. I had Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N Bitch as a reference but I also had various friends around to show me. Online video sites like YouTube can also be searched for how-to videos of how to do the basic things. One friend invited me to her weekly knitting group, which was a big help. I started by just making sample squares in different patterns, and then I jumped into a project.

I have not looked into books on Frederick Law Olmsted. This one seems to get high ratings and is about more than just his landscape work. Thanks for the tip!

Yes I did! I've just opened it to a page or two and it does have some fascinating stuff. For instance, I didn't know that the collision of two planes in 1956 over the canyon was a significant factor in the passage of the Federal Aviation Act in 1958, which created the FAA. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Grand_...

Actually, William Auld didn't write it; he edited it. It's a collection of short pieces from many famous Esperanto authors and publications. My favorite Esperanto short story ever, "Kolektanto de Ĉielarkoj" by Tibor Sikelj, is in there (and that's where I first encountered it). There's also an excerpt from someone's report of the first Esperanto convention, and I found that the author's amazement at being able to speak the language was exactly the amazement that I felt at my first convention.

Anyway, I think the pieces are worth reading. They were *not* written for beginners, they were written for Esperantists and Auld just happened to collect them in a book to use for "progresantoj". And I would suggest that you have to be a fairly advanced "progresanto" to read this book -- it was very difficult for me to read when I was a beginner. So I've actually not read the whole thing, but I feel that it's worth finishing some day. And, yes, you can ignore the questions at the end. Even if it didn't have the vocabularly list and the questions, I think it's a worthwhile book.

So please don't dismiss it because you think it's a beginner's book (and don't like the style) or because you think Auld wrote it, because neither of those is true.

I just started this book. It's this month's selection in my book club.

I went to a book signing that she did in Cambridge just recently. If I had known, I would have picked up a copy for you!

I added it because I saw that it was in your list. :) And then, at the same, in another friend's list! I've also always wanted to walk the trail.

No. I found out about the book because I saw that you added it to your list :) It looks interesting, so I want to remember to read it at some point, so I added it to my "to-read" list.

I was once browsing the shelves for how-to anti-racism books (for self and for teaching) and there were just so many. If you know (or discover) one that is particularly worth reading, please let me know.

That reminds me that I should add "Pacxjo, kio estas rasismo" to my "to-read" list. It's the Esperanto translation of the originally-french book, the Esperanto title is "Dad, what is racism?" but it looks like the original is Le Racisme Explique a Ma Fille and in English Racism Explained to My Daughter -- but maybe those are expanded versions, because mine is a thin book and those are 138 and 200 pages long. The original French for my book is from 1997. So maybe he expounded in a larger book, in 2005. Anyway ... I picked it up thinking I would read it some day.