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

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

Free knowledge ... the World Bank has for several years put all (?) of its publications into an Open Knowledge Repository (OKR), which has grown to 32,007 separate publications (a lot of them are different language versions of the same publication, but it's still a lot of publications).

The OKR is here: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/

I ended up here because I was directed to the repository to download a specific publication dealing with how public debt has grown over the last 50 years ... Global Waves of Debt : Causes and Consequences. Here's the download link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/h...

And this is why I want to read it: "As the authors of the World Bank report above point out in their discussion, rising debt does not automatically bring disaster. The sharp-eyed reader will note that the debt/GDP ratios for advanced economies are higher than those for emerging market and developing economies. There is a general pattern that as an economy develops, the financial sector of that economy also develops in ways that typically lead to a higher debt/GDP ratios. More broadly, the depth of the financial sector and the sophistication of financial regulation will make a big difference. "

SOURCE: https://conversableeconomist.blogspot...

But then came the pandemic.

POEM FOR THE DAY - 14 APRIL 2021

Places I Have Heard the Ocean
by Faith Shearin

In a cat’s throat, in a shell I hold
to my ear — though I’m told
this is the sound of my own
blood. I have heard the ocean
in the city: cars against
the beach of our street. Or in
the subway, waiting for a train
that carries me like a current.
In my bed: place of high and low
tide or in my daughter’s skates,
rolling over the sidewalk.
Ocean in the trees when they
fill their heads with wind.
Ocean in the rise and fall:
lungs of everyone I love.

SOURCE: https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio...

I noticed that one of our new members was reading Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin To Munger. That last name is Charlie Munger, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the company started by Warren Buffett. Is there really wisdom to be had from a business leader? I will say this. The one company's annual report that I read every year is Berkshire Hathaway's ... just to read Warren Buffet's annual letter. Year in and year out, it's amazing stuff.

Here's a link to a compilation of every annual letter that Warren Buffett wrote from 1977 through 2019.

https://medium.com/@r44d/every-berksh...

This is the one that my wife's oncologist recommended:


The Gift
By Sarah Holland-Batt

"In the garden, my father sits in his wheelchair
garlanded by summer hibiscus
like a saint in a seventeenth-century cartouche.
A flowering wreath buzzes around his head—
passionate red. He holds the gift of death
in his lap: small, oblong, wrapped in black.
He has been waiting seventeen years to open it
and is impatient. When I ask how he is
my father cries. His crying comes as a visitation,
the body squeezing tears from his ducts tenderly
as a nurse measuring drops of calamine
from an amber bottle, as a teen at the car wash
wringing a chamois of suds. It is a kind of miracle
to see my father weeping this freely, weeping
for what is owed him. How are you? I ask again
because his answer depends on an instant’s microclimate,
his moods bloom and retreat like an anemone
as the cold currents whirl around him—
crying one minute, sedate the next.
But today my father is disconsolate.
I’m having a bad day, he says, and tries again.
I’m having a bad year. I’m having a bad decade.
I hate myself for noticing his poetry—the triplet
that should not be beautiful to my ear
but is. Day, year, decade—scale of awful economy.
I want to give him his present but it is not mine
to give. We sit as if mother and son on Christmas Eve
waiting for midnight to tick over, anticipating
the moment we can open his present together—
first my father holding it up to his ear and shaking it,
then me helping him peel back the paper,
the weight of his death knocking,
and once the box is unwrapped it will be mine,
I will carry the gift of his death endlessly,
every day I will know it opening in me."

from the February 15/22 New Yorker issue.
Sarah Holland-Batt is a poet based in Brisbane. Her book of essays on contemporary Australian poetry is forthcoming.

John wrote: "This is a poem by Katie Condon, which is in the latest issue of the New Yorker. Condon is an Assistant Professor of English at SMU. I have not been impressed with the poetry in the New Yorker in recent years, but this one I liked. ..."

I liked this one also, John. And I like one from the New Yorker that my wife's oncologist recommended in his Twitter feed yesterday :-) ... but I stopped reading the poetry n the New Yorker about 30 years ago ... unless someone draws my attention to a poem.

It's an excellent poem. I really enjoyed reading it ... twice.

We've been lucky here in Northern Virginia with vaccinations. My wife and I got our second shots (of Pfizer) about four weeks ago. very smooth in terms of the operations of the vaccination sites.

Good points all, John. I think what makes Chief Joseph so accessible is to some degree what also prevents it from being great poetry. This doesn't have to be the case. I find much of Billy Collins' poetry both great and accessible.

Elsewhere, Sher and I discussed some of the great epics, like the Odyssey, the Iliad, and the Aeneid. I found it hard to continue that discussion in detail ... for several reasons.

Anyway, the epic form has gone out of fashion. The most recent (published in 1982) example may be Robert Penn Warren's Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce: A Poem. Chief Joseph led his tribe "were pursued by the U.S. Army under General Oliver O. Howard in a 1,170-mile (1,900 km) fighting retreat known as the Nez Perce War. The skill with which the Nez Perce fought and the manner in which they conducted themselves in the face of incredible adversity earned them widespread admiration from their military opponents and the American public, and coverage of the war in U.S. newspapers led to popular recognition of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce. " It truly was an epic feet and deserved an epic poem. I think that Robert Penn Warren was smart, perhaps even wise to keep its length to about 80 pages. I especially like how Robert Penn Warren jumps in the last chapter of a few pages to modern times, describing how he meets some friends and drives several miles to some modest monuments honoring Chief Joseph, including one that reads,

"the words of Joseph:
“From where the sun now stands, I will fight
No more forever.” "

I am starting this poem again and will read it over the next week. I won't say that it's great poetry, but it sure commemorates a great story.

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence has just released a 140 page report, GLOBAL TRENDS 2040: A MORE CONTESTED WORLD. It explores a world that has more risks than the current one (that unfortunately is all too easy to believe) but also a world that has some possibility for improvements. I like the fact that the DNI puts this report out for public consumption, both in the United States and in other countries. I think that we may be better off we we have extensive discussion about these matters. Here is the link to the pdf of the report.

https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/docume...

Even the iris bends
When a butterfly lights upon it.
~Amy Lowell

Jim Kacian. Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (p. 4). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

Carol wrote: "The area and the event sounds wonderful. Such a delight to read about it. Quiet and sedate would suit me fine! I looked up the distance from Monterey to Monticello and see it is 63 miles. Will put ..."

"I looked up the distance from Monterey to Monticello and see it is 63 miles. " On a very winding road over a few mountains! My wife has motion sickness and luckily we had some Dramamine. But it was worth it. It is strange to me that the lest densely populated county int he United States east of the Mississippi is in Virginia and especially in this part of Virginia as opposed to farther south. but I think that an economic geographer can easily explain why that is. A state like Virginia has a lot of relatively lowly populated areas. Carol, you can look at this on a map (or better yer use Google Maps and take a drive with Street View) and see the two route out of Petersburg (south of Richmond).

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.75570...

One is the main north-south corridor for the East Coast. This is I-95 ... and it is very busy ... the other is I-85 (down toward Durham, North Carolina) and it is about as undeveloped now (at least through Virginia) as it was 40 years ago. When we drive down to Raleigh, we no longer take this route ... simply because of the lack of amenities as opposed to I-95.

Carol wrote: "The Economics of Biodiversity sounds extremely interesting. Did you mean David Attenborough, Larry, not his brother, Richard? He's now 94 and still going strong. A wonderful man.
I had never heard..."


Carol, yes, it was David!

Highland County has one big event each year ... the Maple Sugar Festival and hordes of people descend on it ... the rest of the year, it is very quiet and sedate. Unfortunately, for the last two years that festival (held in March) has been cancelled because of the pandemic.

https://www.highlandcounty.org/maple-...

We visited Highland County probably about 1985 ... and I think it was because of McCaig's book. There is a special B&B (The Highland Inn in Monterey) that may or may not still be operating ... it is quite large for a B&B and used to be the hotel for the train station.

What makes Highland County unique is that it's the least densely populated county east of the Mississippi. About ten years ago, the overall population was half of what it was in 1900. That makes it really hard for young people, who tend to leave for better occupations when they complete their education.

Jeffrey wrote: "Carol wrote: "Jeffrey wrote: "Small brag. Red, my 18 month old Belgian Tervuren, had a very successful weekend herding. He capped it off Sunday with First place in his class, High score in trial, a..."

Jeffrey, have you read any of Donald McCaig's books about working dogs? The only one I have read by him is about him moving to Highland County, Virginia but it does contain quite a bit about his experiences with dogs also. This is An American Homeplace.

The following is from the Amazon blurb and I think that it captures the essence of this book very well:

"On a September day in 1971, Donald McCaig and his wife, Anne, arrived at their new home, an abandoned farm in the least populated county in eastern America. Over the next twenty years they learned - one challenging day at a time - how to raise sheep and grow enough food for themselves and their stock.

The story of the McCaigs' farm, from the time it was first cultivated in the eighteenth century to the McCaigs' struggle to keep it productive today, is at the heart of An American Homeplace. Amplifying that personal account are the voices of farmers, storekeepers, horse breeders, mechanics, and other country people.

McCaig writes wonderfully about his working dogs, the animals he raises, and the wild animals he encounters; the seasons of the farmer's year; the ways of rural society; the ageless challenges of agriculture; and the modern dangers of agribusiness."

FOR FREE: The Dasgupta Report on Biodiversity. This link is to the 80-page abridged edition, but it's great and has an introduction by Richard Attenborough.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov...

Tim Taylor of the Conversable Economist blog says this: "I despair of writing a blog post that captures a sense of The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review (February 2021) The report is 600 pages. It is a UK government-backed report, technically the "Final Report of the Independent Review on the Economics of Biodiversity led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta." If you know Dasgupta or his remarkable output of deeply insightful, nuanced, and humane work, you need no further persuasion to take a look. If not, this is a chance to get acquainted. "

And if you want the whole 600 page report, go here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov...

How does one become a good poet??? "Robert Lowell's early work is a reminder that most young poets are terrible until suddenly they’re not ... "

A fun and meaningful read: "Footloose after spending spring 1937 in Nashville, the Harvard escapee asked if Tate could give him a place to stay. The older poet apologetically demurred, explaining that his house was so packed with visitors Lowell would have to live in a tent. Tate assumed the exiled Bostonian would understand that Old South politesse did not conceal an invitation. Lowell soon returned from the local Sears, Roebuck, however, pitching his new umbrella tent under the lotus tree on Tate’s front lawn."

https://newcriterion.com/issues/2021/...

John wrote: "Larry, Carol, and others: I golf with a retired high school history teacher. He taught here in North Carolina. We were discussing the Revolutionary War and he recommended I visit Moore’s Creek Nati..."

John,

I have two ancestors who were both German immigrants into North Carolina and who both became captains in the North Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War. They were out in the Western part of the state for much of the war and saw action at the Battle of King's Mountain. They hanged nine of Tarleton's dragoons after the battle ... in retaliation for what Tarleton's men had done in the Carolinas earlier in the war.

Larry

John wrote: "A new book coming out by Malcolm Gladwell.

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War

I entered the giveaway for it. I must admit that ..."

John,

I pre-ordered it. Bomber Harris and Curtis LeMay were monsters. Perhaps necessary monsters for the darkest days of the war ... but monsters nonetheless.

POETRY FOR THE DAY (23 March 2021)

Staying at Grandma’s
by Jane Kenyon

Sometimes they left me for the day
while they went — what does it matter
where — away. I sat and watched her work
the dough, then turn the white shape
yellow in a buttered bowl.

A coleus, wrong to my eye because its leaves
were red, was rooting on the sill
in a glass filled with water and azure
marbles. I loved to see the sun
pass through the blue.

“You know,” she’d say, turning
her straight and handsome back to me,
“that the body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost.”

The Holy Ghost, the oh, oh … the uh
oh, I thought, studying the toe of my new shoe,
and glad she wasn’t looking at me.

Soon I’d be back in school. No more mornings
at Grandma’s side while she swept the walk
or shook the dust mop by the neck.

If she loved me why did she say that
two women would be grinding at the mill,
that God would come out of the clouds
when they were least expecting him,
choose one to be with him in heaven
and leave the other there alone?

SOURCE: https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio...

John, this is a really good interview with Jill Lepore in Rolling Stone.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics...

The interview also shows that even though Rolling Stone has seen a slow but steady decline over the past decade, even two years ago some good work appeared in it. (I've been a reader of RS for fifty years ... but I only continue to read it these days, because I can do so for free through our public library with the Libby app.)