Russell Atkinson's Blog, page 52
October 19, 2019
Varsity Blues update
As of today fifteen defendants have pled guilty in the Varsity Blues case. That’s the one where parents, using money to bribe coaches and test personnel, cheated to get their kids into colleges. Here’s a list of those people:
Felicity Huffman
Augustin Huneeus, Jr.
Davina Isackson
Bruce Isackson
Peter Sartorio
Stephen Semprevivo
Devin Sloane
Gordon Caplan
Gregory Abbott
Marcia Abbott
Jane Buckingham
Robert Flaxman
Marjorie Klapper
Toby MacFarlane
John Vandemoer
Vandemoer was a coach. All the rest are parents. The longest prison sentence so far is for five months (Huneeus), followed closely by four months for Semprevivo and Sloane. The coach, although sentenced to only one day in jail (time served), received six months of home confinement, the longest confinement sentence. Four other parents have pled guilty but they haven’t yet been sentenced. All of these convicted defendants were charged by way of information, the typical procedure used when a plea deal has been worked out in advance of charging. All those who were charged by indictment, seventeen more in all, have not pled guilty and have not gone to trial. Lori Loughlin and her husband are the best known of those.
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October 14, 2019
Gone to Dust by Matt Goldman
Gone to Dust by Matt Goldman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The author is a short, Jewish Hollywood scriptwriter, and the style shows it. The private eye cum hero Nils Shapiro is a short Jewish guy (sound familiar?) in Minnesota for whom all the gorgeous women fall head over heels; or, at least they want to jump in bed with him. He’s a smart alecky rule-breaker who violates a number of search and seizure laws with never a consequence. The dialogue contains a healthy dose of clever and entertaining banter, although of course no one could get away with all that smarm and insultery in real life. The local, small-town police hire Shapiro to assist in a murder case since he has experience with such cases from his prior police work in Minneapolis. The title refers to the sneaky method the killer used to conceal his or her identity. The victim’s house is covered in dust, more specifically, the contents of vacuum cleaner bags in vast quantity. Supposedly, this meant the killer is very very smart since now there is DNA from hundreds of people throughout the house. In reality, and even in the book, this instead narrows the field of possible suspects to very few.
The pace is pretty good, the dialogue is quite good, and the plot is almost reasonable. It’s not Harry Bosch or Sherlock Holmes, but it was entertaining enough for me. There were plenty of logical shortcomings, but they’re forgivable. My biggest objection is the typical Hollywood portrayal of the FBI as nasty, arrogant, and incompetent. That was gratuitous as it wasn’t necessary or even important to the plot. It merely gave Shapiro a chance to make fun of the agents with his rapier wit. That’s another thing I could have done without – there are more than a few insults based on physical appearance such as fat-shaming the women and referring to people with nicknames based on some unattractive physical feature.
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October 11, 2019
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Wanderers is a pitiful hybrid: one part The Andromeda Strain, one part Fall, or Dodge in Hell, and one part Zombie Apocalypse. Unfortunately, it mostly takes the worst parts of all of those. Nessie, a teen girl in Pennsylvania suddenly gets up one night and starts walking in a trance-like state. Her sister follows her, trying to get her to wake up. Soon others join Nessie in the same state and their family members also join in the wandering flock. If the walkers are held or confined, they explode. The CDC soon sets out on the case. There are side plots on religion, politics, and some romance threads.
Somewhere in there is the potential for a half-decent sci-fi medical mystery à la The Andromeda Strain, but without the plausibility. Not even a speck. How many other ways does it go wrong? Too many to count. First, it’s at least four times as long as it needs to be (almost 800 pages). I thought the days of getting paid by the word were over; the editor is a feckless coward who lost his red pen. Second, its cyber-fi plot line is ridiculously plagiarizing Fall, or Dodge in Hell, and in particular appears to have copied Stephenson’s bloated faux epic length for no fathomable reason. Third, it descends into oceans of foul language for much of the latter portions of the book. Why use one obscenity when you can use five? Fourth, the author has mixed in current-day politics with an unfortunate far left bias. I appreciate the pro-evironmentalist bent and the disdain of the hate-mongers that seem to have acquired so much political clout, but not every conservative is a violent white supremacist. It wasn’t necessary to paint that picture to make the environmental points. The only thing that saved it for me was the very end, which, surprisingly, I liked. If I were Black Swan, I would make the same choices.
If you’re interested, but not up to reading an 800-page tome, I recommend reading the first 200 pages or so to acquaint yourself with all the major characters, then skim chapter titles and first paragraphs to get an idea of the plot line until about page 450 or 500 where things pick up. Read until around page 600 or so, then skim or skip liberally until you get to the last 70 or 80 pages unless you spot things that look interesting to you. That’s how I did it, and it worked for me.
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October 4, 2019
Singing toilet fix
For a few weeks our toilet would sometimes sing or squeal in a high-pitched tone. My wife urged me to call a -plumber, but I valiantly searched YouTube for a video on how to fix it myself. I found lots of videos with the same problem, including the same brand of toilet (Kohler). I looked at the first two, but they described how to replace the mechanism inside, which looked like more than I wanted to undertake, since I’m all thumbs with that sort of thing. But I kept reading descriptions. They all seemed to require the same thing and talked about where to get the kits, etc. In position six or so I came across this one:
It claimed that you can fix it yourself in five minutes with nothing more than a plastic cup. I followed it, and sure enough, it worked and in less that three minutes it was fixed. This is the official Kohler video. The point is, don’t trust all those how-to videos on YouTube. You have to search carefully and determine which, if any is reliable.
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September 30, 2019
Art of writing
Brewster Rockit courtesy Tribune Content Agency
My thoughts exactly.
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September 25, 2019
For Better and Worse by Margot Hunt
For Better and Worse by Margot Hunt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This deliciously clever plot kept me guessing until the very end. The book opens with a prologue set seventeen years before the present day. The main characters, law students, talk theoretically about how they, smart as they are, could commit the perfect crime and get away with it. Jump to Chapter One where they are both successful attorneys, married and with a young son. The murder case that they eventually get drawn into unfolds in the later pages and is anything but the perfect crime. The suspense builds slowly and inexorably as things go wrong and then wronger.
There is no snappy dialogue and black humor. This is a pure page-turner. There is a good deal of irony and poetic justice, however. Whether you’re the type who roots for Bonnie and Clyde or for the cops, there’s something for you in this story. I literally had a hard time putting it down. It’s the best mystery I’ve read in quite some time.
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September 24, 2019
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a travelogue by the Nobel-winning novelist. I first read this book when I was in high school, several decades ago. I remember being disappointed in it. It seemed like a pompous old man pontificating arrogantly about a hard-drinking macho lifestyle I found repulsive. It was also rather boring, talking mostly about mundane things like stopping at gas stations and hassling with border officials.
This time around, mandated by my book club, I reread it. I found it quite enjoyable, perhaps because I’ve become a pontificating old man. Don’t get me wrong. Steinbeck is shamelessly egotistical and wedded to a male-dominated anachronistic reality that no longer exists, if it did even then. But I picked up on many more of his mostly astute observations about people in this reading. Steinbeck clearly was a hearty drinker and could be pompous, but he didn’t display a mean streak that I somehow falsely remembered. He showed considerable tact and tolerance and was successful in bringing out both the good and bad in the people he met along the way. The writing was a lot better than I remembered, too. It’s a craft I have come to appreciate much more now. His devotion to his dog, Charley, was mostly touching, although should have been toned down a notch, but the devotion to his truck/camper Rocinante was truly over-the-top. Steinbeck’s choice of the name was eerily fitting since in the end he came across as very much like Don Quixote, an unintentional parody of a wandering knight of bygone days.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Ron McLarty and the reader was outstanding, perfect for the role, all the way down to the regional accents.
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September 23, 2019
Destined to be together
Here’s another meaningless pop analysis of famous couples. I surfed the U.S. Census baby names data base for male/female names that shared a similar history. More specifically, I checked by decade starting with the 1880s and looked at the popularity rank of the 200 most popular boys’ names and 200 most popular girls’ names in each decade and measured how far apart the boy’s name and girl’s name were in the ranking in each of the thirteen decades. The closer they were in rank over the decades, the theory goes, the more they were destined to be together. I tried it on several famous or infamous couples. This list is in order of “most compatible” to least under this theory.
Robert and Elizabeth (e.g., Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
John and Mary (actually just entered as a control)
George and Martha (Washington)
Franklin and Eleanor (Roosevelt)
Albert and Victoria (Prince/Queen)
Clyde and Bonnie (Barrow)
Johnnie and June (Cash)
Juan and Eva (Peron)
John and Jacqueline (Kennedy)
Charles and Diana (Prince/Princess)
Robin and Marian (Hood)
Bradley and Angelina (Brangelina)
Paul and Joanne (Newman/Woodward)
Frank and Ava (Sinatra/Gardner)
John and Priscilla (Alden)
Many couples could not be tested because one or both of of them never made it to the top 200 names for any decade. Examples include John and Yoko, William (or Bill) and Hillary, Martin and Coretta, Mark and Cleopatra, Adam and Eve, Sean and Madonna, Sonny and Cher, Romeo and Juliet, Rhett and Scarlett, Tarzan and Jane, Clark and Carole, Humphrey and Lauren. As long as both names make it to the top 200 in at least one decade, the couple can get a score, but the scores don’t mean much. If one or both didn’t make it for many decades, then the score is skewed against them, even though they may have been right together in 225th place. I just didn’t have any way to measure it.
My wife and I placed just under Brangelina. If you leave the names of you and your significant other (or some other couple) in the comments, I’ll run it through my program and tell you how you place compared to these famous couples in the list.
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September 20, 2019
Reapportionment
The U.S. Constitution requires that every ten years a census be taken (actually the word “enumeration” is used) to determine the populations of the various states and that the results shall be used to apportion the number of Congresspersons allocated to each state. As the population shifts, states may gain or lose the number of representatives they are allowed. Consider the following chart, compiled from U.S. Census data. The dark orange states are those that lost two or more seats from the previous census period. Light orange is loss of one seat. The light blue is no change, medium blue is a gain of one seat, and dark blue, two or more. For a clearer version, click on the image.
It is obvious that the Northeast and Midwest in general have been losing representatives, and thus influence, in recent decades. This appears to be continuing. The West gained greatly in 1980 – 2000, but that trend seems to be slowing. Texas and Florida have been steadily and rapidly gaining. Next year there will be another census taken. It should be very important in determining the balance of political power in the future. This is not only because of the number of congresspersons changing from some states to others, but because that number is also the basis for the Electoral College. In other words, it can also influence the presidential elections in 2024 and 2028. One question that comes up in the news is whether people need to be U.S. citizens or eligible to vote to be counted. The answer is no. It’s based on sheer numbers, including children and non-citizens residing in each state.
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September 18, 2019
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The story is set primarily in the 1950s and ’60s but covers decades. Kya has lived in a shack in a North Carolina swamp since her childhood. She is abandoned first by her mother, and eventually by the rest of her family. She is left alone as a teenager to fend for herself, digging mussels to sell to an elderly black man named Jumpin’. Kya loves the marsh and its animals, as does Tate, a boy who turns into her childhood love and teaches her how to read. Then Tate goes off to college and Kya feels abandoned once again. She takes up with Chase, the local roue. Kya eventually becomes a recognized expert on marsh flora and fauna. There’s a murder and an investigation and a trial. I won’t say more on the plot to avoid spoilers.
Kya’s character is very sympathetic, unbelievably so. Everyone except Jumpin’ and the black residents call her The Swamp Girl and make fun of her. The local whites treat her as retarded when in fact she is, of course, the smartest one of them all. The writing is almost poetic at times but the politically correct bias (poor black = good; rich white = evil) grates and as a law enforcement retiree, I felt the author could have treated the sheriff better. It’s a worthy read, but its flaws forced me to drop a star from its rating.
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