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

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

Carol wrote: "The treatment of Corinth was so harsh partly because they refused to surrender.."

I think that was exactly right, but I also think that Rome wanted it to serve as an example to the other Greek cities.

We probably caught about an hour of it, including the BBC’s 30 minutes of highlights. Glorious and magnificent … and I am not a royalist in any way. But in all that splendor, perhaps my favorite images were of Princess Anne riding with the Guard. She was herself … as she always is.

John, I think that they will get to see great spectacle ... especially if they are in London.

Ron, with respect to Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas, I posted a review of it. I had a few criticisms, but still the book 5 stars. I started my review with this: If you want to understand what the latest research shows about the peopling of the Americas, then Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff may be the book for you. Raff is an assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas and is the President of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics. How and when did the Native Americans of the Americas and the Inuit of the northern lands come to live in the Western Hemisphere? She explains that the theory until recently that all the inhabitants came in three waves out of Asia isn’t quite supported by the most recent evidence and that there is strong evidence to support some earliest inhabitants actually came by water along the Pacific Coast.

I thought the book really brought out the tedium of working in a DNA research lab, but I meant that in a positive way.

And then came Sulla, a very effective military leader but one who opened the gates to Hell with his proscription lists. He was more than just vindictive, as he promulgated reforms doubling the number senators to 600 and limiting the power of tribunes. But it was those proscription lists which cost thousands of Romans their lives that he is perhaps remembered for.

The arrogance of Roman nobles in dealing with its Italian allies cost Rome a lot. In the 120s BCE, Rome had a number of major problems with Italian allies.

The Social War — The War Against the Italian Allies which started in 91 BCE lasted until 89 BCE and involved all of Italy. Rome granted full citizenship to those who had not taken up arms against Rome OR who were prepared to lay them down. Rome now had a million citizens on the peninsula. But the Romans made it hard for them to vote.

Kay wrote: "Chapter 6:

Parallels to the US today: our current structure has Congress paralyzed, and the Electoral College makes a mockery of one-man-one-vote. Gerrymandering -- essentially, swindling voters o..."

What a chapter this one was:
146 BCE was Rome in its ascendancy: The destruction of Carthage. A few more months later after Carthage fells, the Romans sacked Corinth. The conqueror of Corinth was Mummius. Why the treatment of Corinth was so harsh is a bit unclear. (All the men were killed and all the women were sold into slavery.)

In some ways, this truly was Rome in its ascendancy. But the decline was relatively swift. Over the next century, civil ears, assassinations, and mass murder were to come. The last 30 years, dinging in Caesar’s assassination in 44 BCE, were the high point in Roman culture. During the period, violence became endemic. And that is what this chapter is about and explains so well.

Kay, so many good quotes to give us a chance to react. I'll add something later today.

John wrote: "Carol, I am curious if there is any kind of concern in your country about a wider war in Europe? Any type of ongoing war footing, so to speak?

When I briefly read the daily news from the war in Ukraine, it seems highly possible that Ukraine could defeat Russia. And then I wonder whether sane minds will prevail in some type of negotiated peace? Or do we get dragged off the cliff? My sense tells me the latter is more likely..."

We live in a such a dangerous time. Almost anything is possible ... and it is so hard to predict what comes next.

Since James Daunt, the British CEO, took over for B&N things have gotten better and better for the chain. The most important thing he did was quite simple. It was to give major autonomy to individual stores over which books to order and how many of those books. It doesn't make each B&N an independent book store, but it does grant them a lot of independence. I was in one yesterday for an hour, just drinking a coffee while I waited for my wife to be dropped off by her sister after they finished brunch with three other siblings. It's nice to get a discount even for coffee because of that B&N membership. I still get most of my books from Amazon (that's because they're Kindle books), but I also patronize this B&N and a truly independent bookstore also.

It's not true of all young musical performers, but my impression is that so many want the fame without enjoying the thrill of performing. I think that this is an attitude that usually doesn't translate into success. A commitment to one's craft and enjoying performing seems to be a better strategy. It was a strange place to read it but the current London Review of Books has an article which mentions that Taylor Swift by last year had received $70 million from Spotify alone. Over the years, I have become increasingly and very impressed with Taylor Swift ... for both her musical talent and for her career management.

The article is actually on Spotify and has some interesting information:

"Whether or not you share that view depends on what you understand the music industry to be. Two-thirds of all the music that’s streamed is controlled by the ‘Big Three’ record labels: Universal, Sony and Warner. They’ve done very well out of streaming: Universal made $4.8 billion from it in 2021. But as the authors of Spotify Teardown point out, Spotify’s ‘very existence remains dependent’ on the Big Three’s willingness to keep making their music available. "

Few musicians get much at all from the streaming services. But for those with many fans, you get this result:

"Still, the numbers can add up. The two most played songs on Spotify, The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’, have each been played more than 3.4 billion times; ten of Sheeran’s other songs have each been played at least a billion times. It was estimated last year that his total earnings from Spotify up to that point came to more than $80 million. Even Taylor Swift, once Spotify’s most high-profile critic, has made her peace with it. Swift removed her music from the platform in 2014 – ‘Valuable things should be paid for,’ she said – but relented in 2017. By last year, Spotify had paid her an estimated $70 million in royalties."

SOURCE: LRB 4 MAY 2023 issue.

John, I agree with everything you say here in your previous posting ... and add in atheists also.

Carol wrote: "An inherited monarchy here and we are just a few days away from the coronation. It is no good you all wishing things had worked out differently. You decided to leave us and so you have to suffer th...I love watching the soldiers marching to the bands. It will be a spectacle of immense colour and it is a moment of history, whether you agree with an inherited monarchy or not"

I'm not sure that any nation does spectacles (weddings, funerals, and now this coronation) better than the United Kingdom. I just treat it as great entertainment, but I mean that kindly.

Carol wrote: "John wrote: "Mostly a rhetorical question. Would not the placement of the Ten Commandments in public schools require placement of edicts from other religions?"

I don't think fairness probably come..."

Yeah, that's totally right. The Evangelical Right is always surprised when it is pointed out to them that the Ten Commandments are different for Protestants than for Catholics. Their first response is usually something along the lines of "We have the right version." Sigh. Deep sigh.

SOURCE: https://www.learnreligions.com/differ...

He seems to believe in the power of Four ... his Netflix show, Cooked, has four episodes. Quite a good show, which "explores food past and present through the four elemental categories — fire, water, air and earth."

Great message, Cynda!

Ron, I totally understand how upsetting this is. Perhaps the best thing I can say is that it is such an overreach that I think that nothing in these bills is likely to take effect. We live in trying times.

I can reveal a bit of myself here, too. I'm an ordained Presbyterian elder in the liberal PC-USA denomination. I'm no longer serving our church in any official capacity although this last year I helped teach Sunday school with our pastor... a course on the origin of the Hebrew Bible. I think that religion has become so weaponized that I have come to believe that tax deductions for churches should no longer exist. I used to think that they should only exist for the maintenance of the church property and operations, but I believe that the nation would be better off if there were no tax deductions at all.

A good selection indeed, Ron. And the Diamond book is one of my all time favorites!

Cynda Reads Mighty Slow these days wrote: "He lives in US now where is known by friends as being the Spanish-speaking Jew. The comic book: El Iluminado: A Graphic Novel. It is written in English/Spanglish. You can ask me to translate...."

Our public library has gotten very good at acquiring graphic novels. Alas, not that one. I put in a request. But as good as our library is, my own history of those requests is that that almost always are ignored. I don't feel singled out ... it's just that requests for books is not something they seem to pay attention to. That's not terrible, because our public library is so good in so many ways ... but it is a minor frustration.

Cynda Reads Mighty Slow these days wrote: "Dear Ron, many of us find our tribe when they read like us, garden like us, talk like us, laugh like us.

Goodreads is my tribe."

Really nice thought, Cynda.