Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

A very Zen-like poem, John. That one will turn over in my mind for a good bit.

And now a simple one, posted by a FaceBook friend this afternoon:

aluminium
this is a british haiku
aluminium

Cynda is on the return 2024 wrote: "Ron, Hollywood books can be so illuminating. Have you read other Hollywood books that you really enjoyed reading? A couple of years ago I read When Blanche Met Brando: The Scandalous Story of..."</i>

Ron, there is a series by a Facebook and RL friend, Robert James, on the Oscars over the years and "who should have won" in the major categories. The five books cover the years 1927 to 1981 and they're wonderful. Rob is also deep into science fiction and published an unpublished Robert Heinlein novel that he found in a trunk when he was going through Heinlein's papers in his estate.

[book:WHO Won?!?: An Irreverent Look at the Oscars, Volume 1: 1927-1943 is the first book in the five book series.

The GoodReads blurb really gives you a feel fo rwhat the books are like: "f you've ever wondered why the Oscars seem to go to the wrong movies, WHO Won?!? is the book for you. Beginning with the first Oscar ceremony, Robert James looks at all the major categories, slashing and burning his way through the bad, praising the good, and offering the best for your consideration. A comic, biting analysis of hundreds of films, WHO Won?!? is a guide to the wonderful movies you missed - and a warning against the ones you should never have seen in the first place. Volume One, 1927-1943 covers the Golden Age of Hollywood, from the death of the silent picture to the heights of studio Hollywood. Year by year, the author considers and discusses the Academy's choices, as well as those which should have been nominated, finishing each category with those which should have won. He often includes some of the history behind the making of the films, as well as how the movies reflect on America. More than just an examination of the choices the Academy made (or should have made), WHO Won?!? provides a yearbook of American cinema, both glorious and disastrous. Deftly switching from the ridiculous to the sublime and back again, WHO Won?!? will leave you both laughing and thinking." Oh, and you really have to read the footnotes ... they are great fun in addition to being informative.

Eileen wrote: "Larry, I imagine that paring down a home library must be a bittersweet process. I wish you all the best with that and hope you enjoy your new community.

Ron, the writing process can be so fulfilli..."

I have more books available on my Kindle than I could ever hope to read, but a well constructed physical book still fills my heart with such pleasure. It's not just the art books or so-called coffee table books, either. There are some books that mainly just have text--and not photos or graphics--in them that are so well made that makes you want to hold them and then peruse them.

I have been steadily selling books to one exceptional used book store here in Northern Virginia (McKay's Books in Manassas) but they really don't deal in fine collectibles. But I am selling some special books to Second Story Books in Maryland. When I asked them about security of leaving books with them to be evaluated and priced either for sale to them or for consignment, the man I have been dealing with assured me of their security, saying that currently they were holding several books worth $300,000 to $400,000 ... I only wish I had some books like that. I checked their web page and noticed that they were offering a watercolor done by President Kennedy for $18,000.

Eileen, I have MOCKINGBIRD on my Kindle. I’ll read it soon.

Eileen wrote: "I am reading the novel, The Man Who Fell to Earth, wherein the extraterrestrial character is reading the Collected Works of Wallace Stevens, so clearly his poetry has some universal a..."

I love the work of Walter Tevis, and especially the adaption of two of his works into the movie, THE HUSTLER, and the video series, THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT.

In today's new, Capital One is trying to buy Discover, with a consequent loss in competition in the credit card market. Once upon a time (yeah an allusion to fairy tales is appropriate), th eFTC cared about maintaining competion ... even in the pickle market.

"I have no deep insight into the entry and exit dynamics of the pickle industry, although it does seem to me that when the two biggest producers in a market seek to merge, the antitrust authorities are right to take a close look. But setting aside the narrow issue of gains to pickle consumers, the case led to a broader enrichment of our cultural landscape in the form of a poem by Thomas B. Leary, who served as a member of the FTC at the time. The poem was delivered at a meeting of alumni of the FTC on December 18, 2002. It’s called:

“The Spell of the Gherkin”

(With apologies to “The Spell of the Yukon” by
Robert Service.)

“There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold . . .”

So begins a story of grit and glory:
The Cremation of Sam McGee.
I remember when, as a boy of ten,
T’was the epitome of poetry.

We here unveil a gentler tale,
Which still will stir the blood,
Where heroes try, in coat and tie,
To serve the public good.

* * *

There are strange things done in Washington
When companies are sold.
And paper trails tell lurid tales
Of price hikes to unfold.

It is not nice to raise the price
When rivals have disappeared.
The problem, though, is how will we know
Before the deal has cleared.

The cases we face are all over the place
But, the strangest I’ve seen so far
Was the time we took a good long look
At pickles in a jar.

Now, you may say in a scornful way:
“Who cares what the parties claim?
A nickle’s a nickle and a pickle’s a pickle;
They’re all exactly the same!”

But, you see, they’re not. Some like them hot
And some like them cold and clear.
We had to say: “What will you pay
For one, if the other grows dear?”

We sacrificed leisure in order to measure
Elasticity of demand.
As we carefully counted, the evidence mounted.
The pickles, it seems, had been scanned!

On these occasions, regression equations
Are never considered a bore.
The pluses and minuses cleared out the sinuses,
And thrilled us all to the core.

“The Spell of the Yukon,” indeed! The next time I read
Those poems I loved long ago,
About the quest for gold in the bitter cold
And wolves that howl in the snow – –

I’ll say: “My lad, you’ve never had
A moment so sublime
As that shining hour when market power
Was checked in the nick of time!”

* * *

Today, throughout this favored land
The sun is shining strong.
The bands are playing everywhere,
As children skip along.
Because those pickles, those luscious pickles
Still are sold for a song.

Tom Leary
(With a last-minute nod to the
next-best poem in the language.)

SOURCE: https://conversableeconomist.com/2024...

In getting ready to move to a retirement community in a few months, we have been aggressively culling our library. It is hard to get rid of so many books. We will take perhaps 400 to our new apartment, store another 500, and sell or donate the rest. I will say that it is a chance to handle every book we have and that is actually pretty enjoyable.

John wrote: "This comes from poet Dana Gioia’s YouTube Channel. It is a 40 minute talk about Wallace Stevens. Gioia is an excellent teacher and guide to poets and poetry.

https://youtu.be/f2Djdm_Ykww?si=t5fie..."

In one of Ted Gioia's recent SubStacks, he discusses how his brother Dana was the one kid in their elementary school who liked opera instead of popular music.

Best is amazingly good at handling long stretches of time leading up to the battle and then capturing the chaos over five hours in five chapters when the battle is at first surprisingly close before things turn to the British side. He lauds British seamanship while he gives credit to the bravery of the French and Spanish crews … and he does reveal the incompetence and lack of courage by some of the French and Spanish commanders.

Nelson knows what is to come. He puts on silk stockings because it is easier for surgeons to deal with wounds … and tells a powder boy to take his boots off. Dirty leather in a wound is not a good thing. And then Nelson is wounded at the beginning of the battle. He will hang on to life for the next five hours and will learn that 14 or 15 enemy ships will have been captured although he had hoped for 20. He dies shortly after asking that Lady Hamilton and his daughter Horatia be taken care of.

There is a Delphi Complete Works of ebook for those who live in Canada. Copyright laws here in the United States mean that maybe in 50 years we can buy it. :-(

I love the imagery of this one, John. I find it deeply moving. Carol's comments are good, too.

Eileen, The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket is a good book. Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America is a great book. Really. I totally recommend this book.

I have finished the book and have learned so much about the food we eat and how it is produced and marketed ... and how much things have changed rapidly in just the last three decades. I think that it turns out to be a strength of the book that he uses the Cleveland chain Heinen's for examples. A lot of what he tells you about the changing of that supermarket chain can be transferred to whatever chain you shop in, e.g. the rise of prepared foods ... ready to be consumed when you take them home.

I worked for USDA for 32 years and know a lot about some foods, especially horticultural and tropical products. But I learned important things on almost every page about how our food is produced, is processed, is transported, and is marketed to us.

Let me respond to the aside first ... about A.I. Two recommendations:

Michale Woolridge's A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going

Fei-Fei Li's The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI

I think that the latter book would be a great book for a group discussion thread.

Li's book is highly recommended by Bill Gates and others. It's a personal story also.

What is especially important is that both books are recent. I read many more articles than books on A.I. Some of my reading comes from recommendations in the FaceBook Group Academic Integrity, which is especially aimed at matters of use of A.I. by both students and professors. It's run by Gary Pavela of the University of Maryland.

Anyone can join this Facebook Group ... most, but not all people seem to have an association with universities.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/12568...

Eileen, I’ll set those up this afternoon.

I had read 61 percent of Sandel’s book before I put it aside (I can’t remember why … probably just another book calling to me). I’ll restart it from the beginning.

I'm not sure where I read it, but it may have been Rick Atkinson's The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 where the fragility of these large warships is described, with an average lifetime of less than ten years. During the Revolutionary War, the ships were sometimes built with unseasoned timber which warped and made repairs on the ships almost constant. In the book, several decades later, the ships of the different navies still seem to need constant repairs.

I probably will just offer some random thoughts about the first half of the book. I know a good bit about Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo, and very little about Nelson and Trafalgar. That starts with the fact that Trafalgar occurred in 1805 and then Waterloo didn't happen until 1815. Trafalgar put an end to any hope of Napoleon for a successful invasion of England, but as the book shows there is much more to understand about the background of the sea battle.

This thread is for Larry and Cynda to discuss Trafalgar. The first half of the book takes place before the battle actually begins, and the story of what happened before and why it was important is gripping in itself.

"A brilliant, page-turning account of the most famous sea fight in history.Beginning with a vivid recreation of Napoleon's army assembling at Boulogne for the invasion of England, Nicholas Best tells how the French fleet joined with their Spanish allies and set out for a decisive battle with the Royal Navy.Following events through the eyes of eyewitnesses on the gun deck as well as the admiral's cabins, he takes us to the Mediterranean and the West Indies and back to the coast of Spain as the rival fleets manoeuvre for advantage. Then follows his gripping minute-by-minute account of the actual battle: a truly murderous affair as the rival fleets trade cannon shots as point-blank range."

SOURCE: https://www.abebooks.com/978178608069...