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

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

Carol, I love your explanations of European history.

One of the great fictions that exist is about the language abilities of the Swiss. There may be four official languages, but few Swiss speak them all. During the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, I made several trips to Geneva and discovered that the average shopkeeper there spoke French and only French. There was a story last week that some of the German speaking cantons had dropped French language instruction in primary schools in favor of English. The language wars continue.

Carol, (away from home so my responses don’t include your text) … water should be water, but Evian is really my favorite … there is a smoothness to it that the other bottled waters don’t have.

On the Republic of Tea matter, we have started ordering 250 bags at a time … and then refilling the metal tins from the big bags that come.

John, we appreciate your prayers. We just got a photo he took of a church in the city square.

We buy Most of our tea from the Republic of Tea. Our go-to black tea is ginger peach. We’ve been drinking that for probably ten years. I also like the double matcha green tea. My wife does not.

My son just landed in Riga, Latvia for an OECD conference this week. We’re holding our breath until he returns safely.

Carol wrote: "Larry wrote: "One scary thing is that there are worse Russian leaders than Putin."

Do you remember when liberal-minded westerners hoped the Shah of Persia would be deposed in order to have a sociey with less abuses and more tolerance?..."

Unfortunately, we live in an age of little reflection and little recall of history.

I agree with you about Godot being "boring and tedious." But the worst play I ever saw was Rhinoceros (French: Rhinocéros), a play by Eugène Ionesco. I don't have words to express how much I hated that play ... as a total waste of time.

One scary thing is that there are worse Russian leaders than Putin.

Same here, John. Another author I’ve never heard of. That said, these awards sometimes open me up to some writers I should be aware of.

John wrote: "A new biography and study of John Donne is available. The latest New Yorker has a review of it. I have not read Donne as much as other poets, but he has had a resurgence

[book:Super-Infinite: The..."

John, I bought it! It was the New Yorker review that did it for me.

John,

I finished it. It's not a poem that I can like, but it is a poem that I respect ever so much. It's probably the fourth time I've read it. I think that the first time was my senior year i fhigh school and then my junior year of college (second semester English Lit) ... an dthen another time ... but when???

And I think that it's a poem that has such importance in 20th English poetry that I do want to know more about it. I'll look for the Anthony Lane piece.

John, thanks for the link that gives us the whole poem. I'll read it tomorrow. It's been a long time since I read it.

It's probably overkill--in terms of redundancy, but I have three and my wife has two Paperwhites. The actual reading experience--in terms of the coolness of e-ink display--is available on Nooks & Kobos, but the dominance of Amazon in the marketplace made it easy for us to go with Kindle Paperwhites. Over the last year, our public library seems to have shifted more and more funds to acquiring ebooks earlier. It's rare that I put a paper book on reserve these days.

Our tablets, in the form of our iPads, still get a work out for reading periodicals ... the Washington Post and the Financial Times ... and many magazines ... but rarely for books.

Carol, get a Kindle Paperwhite … a small step up, but oh so good. I probably do 80 percent of my reading with my Paperwhites. I actually have three of them.

Carol, I hope that medical appointment goes well.

I was just saying to my wife yesterday that we should start watching Shetland when we finish our slow journey through INSPECTOR LEWIS.

As for Scotland, I finally started reading the Edinburgh-based Rebus mystery series this week. I enjoyed Knots and Crosses but found it pretty bleak ... but not so bleak as to stop me from beginning the second book in the series.

Carol,

Try this. I think you'll find it useful.

https://www.justwatch.com/uk

Larry

P.S. I actually had to open a different browser to get to the UK version .. because my default browser just automatically opened up the U.S. site, since that's the one I have a history of using.

Carol,

Almost everything is eventually available. And these days, as opposed to just a few years ago, it's usually just a matter of months instead of years. The biggest issue is where to find shows. I don't know if the JustWatch site works in the UK, but it's pretty brilliant for me here.

https://www.justwatch.com/

Carol wrote: "Have been watching two series of The Capture. I don't know if it can be seen in the US but if it is I would certainly recommend it. It is a thriller centred on the use of deep fake technology which..."

Carol,

At this point only the first season has been released in the United States. I'll give it a try.

Carol wrote: "It seems a shame that the Queen's coffin is not being taken by royal train down through England to be allowed to halt en route for people to pay their respects. It has proceeded slowly through Scot..."

I think that that royal train would have been the better idea.