What are we reading? 10 October 2022

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote:"Putin did comment that Liz Truss had been elected by 80,000 right wing party members rather than her electorate of around 40 million, i hate to concede anything to h..."

I might have voted Monster Raving Loony Party if they had fielded a candidate in my constituency!

[MK]

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "I felt quite satified with myself yesterday after I finished shelving mystery paperbacks on three smallish bookcases in my short hallway. Then I made the mistake of a wander around looki..."

I hate to say it, but there are a few in the mail. However, in my defence I'm finding a few - why did I buy thats? and weaning them from the pile.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote:"Putin did comment that Liz Truss had been elected by 80,000 right wing party members rather than her electorate of around 40 million, i hate to concede anything to h..."

Even a friend of mine who is not political at all has noticed that Liz Truss is having monumental problems.

Sometimes I think there just needs to be a change. When one party has been in power too long, they tend to go off the rails.

[CCCubbon]

If you have a little time try not to miss Ralph Ffiennes reciting TS Eliot’s Four Quartets on BBC iiPlayer - it’s magnificent.
I am taking one at a time.

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "I am more than happy to be corrected if I have my facts wrong."

In that case - be happy!

The current system is one member, one vote. How candidates get onto the ballot paper is convoluted and there is some union influence at that stage - as well as the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) and constituency parties.

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/h...

https://www.instituteforgovernment.or...

The union 'block vote' is a thing of the past; union members who have chosen (please note that) to be 'affiliated' to the Labour party vote on a one person-one vote basis, same as anyone else.

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that they are more likely to know the individuals than the general public."

Well, assuming the Tory membership "know the individuals", they certainly voted for an extremely right wing candidate whose uncosted £45 billion in tax cuts led to a total meltdown of the UK finances, with the pound crashing and the interest paid by the government on loans (to fund all this) rocketing... which in turn has a knock-on effect on mortgage rates for house byers. Trussonomics was so extreme that it was thus rejected by the markets which Tories claim are the ultimate arbiters of good business sense.

Nearly all the tax cuts announced by Kwarteng and Truss have been reversed as of today. This still leaves the UK having had to borrow an extra £20 billion to tide us over the stormy weather caused by their policies.

https://apnews.com/article/business-e...

In my book, 'right wing' is a good description for anyone who supported a pair who proposed massive tax cuts for the rich, a removal of the cap on bankers' bonuses (still in place ATM), and a likely refusal to raise benefits for the poorest in line with inflation.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I am more than happy to be corrected if I have my facts wrong."

In that case - be happy!

The current system is one member, one vote.

So still a bit like the Tory party members getting a vote? But non-party members not doing.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that they are more likely to know the..."

Regarding your last paragraph it seems like a considerable number of Tories did not agree with the proposals you mention. And quite rightly.

Well we have certainly wandered away from books haven't we?

[MK]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that they are more likely to know the..."

Maybe I lived in the DC area too long, because I learned not to take politicans at face value. How so many here swallowed that Trump's tax cuts helped them when the rich made out like bandits is difficult to fathom. It's a matter of believing rather than thinking.

Sorry I shouldn't butt in, but I'm hyper because Seattle is now redrawing City Council Districts and the neighborhood I live in is under the 'racial justice' knife to divide us which would diminish any clout that we have. It has gotten quite contentious.

@Clue - Have you been talking to Powell's? I just got a notice that they are doing a 2-day used book sale. Guess who has 8-9 used books sitting in her basket?

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that they are mor..."

You are welcome to butt in! I haven't heard of Powells 🙈 I will take a look, thank you.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that they are more likely to know the..."

the appearence of Truss in the commons today, for about 20 minutes was extremely odd, she sat without moving, a fixed expression somewhere between confused defiance and empty meditation, appaearing heavily medicated. It was almost like she was a ghost at a feast....a spectral presence on her way out

[MK]

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that t..."

I just took a look at Powells.com particularly their City of Books location which is downtownish in Portland. Oregon. Here is a link to a map - a huge, city-block of a building with stairs in odd places and 2 very quirky elevators.

http://www.powells.com/Portals/0/Imag...

It's a great place to visit, but my feet tend to rebel after a while.

[[deleted user]]

It was rather cold and wet today, and dark early. Time to light the first log fire of the season and to reach down… a Trollope? a Hardy? Certainly soon. At this moment, though, what I really wanted to read again was the golden parable of Silas Marner. The Lantern Yard sect, the false accusation, the years of seclusion, the bags of guineas, Godfrey Cass looking savage in the parlour. It’s great.

[Paul]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote:"Putin did comment that Liz Truss had been elected by 80,000 right wing party members rather than her electorate of around 40 million, i hate to concede anything to him, but he had a poi..."

Personally, I never understood how any country that didn't have guaranteed elections enshrined in law could call themselves a democracy. And I prefer gridlock to forced ideological consensus

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "So still a bit like the Tory party members getting a vote? But non-party members not doing."

Indeed... it's called democracy. Is that a problem?

However, when the Prime Minister is not chosen by the country but by a tiny homogenous group of wealthy people, that could be seen as a problem... Why not call a general election? That would provide legitimacy.... or a change.

I trust at leas that you feel happier after reading my correction!

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "Well we have certainly wandered away from books haven't we?"

True, but I didn't start it, and do care about getting the factual stuff right. We can have different opinions.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Well we have certainly wandered away from books haven't we?"

True, but I didn't start it, and do care about getting the factual stuff right. We can have different opinions."

Neither did I and we can, politely.

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that they are mor..."

I think your last sentence nailed it AB

[scarletnoir]

Potsdam Station by David Downing (John Russell Book 4)

So - to get back to books for a moment - but not to ditch politics for all that: in this fourth episode of the John Russell series, our protagonist contrives to enter Berlin in April 1945 shortly before its fall, with the help of a small Russian task force. The book expertly tells the tale of the fall of Berlin from three main points of view - that of Russell, his son Paul - who has been fighting for the German forces - and his girlfriend Effi, who has been helping Jews and other resistance figures within the city.

I won't discuss the plot to avoid spoilers - it is effective and though improbable, not absolutely impossible - in any case, I think the author's main purpose was to recreate as convincingly as possible the experience of the fall of Berlin as realistically as possible as seen through the eyes of Berliners. In this he succeeds brilliantly (IMO) - it feels as if a lot of research went into the descriptions of incidents during this period.

Apart from that, what is interesting is the soul-searching undertaken by Russell wrt whether the Soviets will be any improvement on the Nazis, sometimes in discussion with other characters:

The Bolshevik Revolution seemed like the first decisive breach in the wall, a great strike against privilege and exploitation, a wonderful harbinger of equality and brotherhood...

"My father and brother were killed by the Nazis in 1941. In the Donbass, where my family comes from. My father and brother were both miners, and my father was a Party official. When the Germans came in 1941 anti-Party elements handed over the list of local Party members, and they were all shot.’...

‘My father... used to say that before the Revolution, the sons of miners had no chance of going to university, or of becoming scientists. All such jobs were taken by the sons of the bourgeoisie.’

...He had seen through the lie that was Western capitalism, seen through the lie that was fascism. And soon he would see through the lie that was communism. He was too honest for his own good.
Moscow was no place for journalists interested in truth or criticism, and a Soviet-dominated Germany would be no different. Did he want to live in the dollar’s empire? Not a lot, but on balance it had more to offer than Stalin’s. The idea stuck in his throat, though. It had been Europe’s communists who had fought Nazism and fascism, who had given their lives while Americans had sat back and profited.

I hope that gives a flavour of the nuances that provide a great deal of the narrative's power. No easy answers - no 'good guys vs bad guys' or 'white hats vs black hats' - just some hats are blacker than others. This is IMO the best book of the series so far - and, fortunately, I have a few left.

It was also nice to see a famous Physicist name-checked - Paul Debye - as well as the better known Werner Heisenberg. Both had to compose with the complexities of politics in Germany at that period in their own ways.

[Lass]

Sad news about the death of Carmen Callil. Virago enriched the reading experience for so many of us.

[MK]

Lljones wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Pleased to hear there's a new Barbara Kingsolver: https://www.theguardian.com/books/202..."..."

To keep your "Not buying books in 2022?" 😉

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that they are mor..."

I like the AP's new word - UK leader in peril after Treasury chief axes 'Trussonomics' seen here - https://apnews.com/article/business-e...

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be argued that..."

Trussonimics sounds like treatment for a hernia.

[AB76]

Warm, sunshine after a misty, damp morning in the shires, fascinating to read Orwells short essay on boys weeklies in the 1930s.

Orwell is as sharp as a tack as usual in seeing how these publications are subtle conditioning and propaganda for the youth of today(1930s), not as so often happens from government but from private newspaper interests, in the case of "Gem" and "Magnet" by Amalgamated Press set up by the Harmsworths. He notes that the characters have all been frozen in time since around 1905, never ageing but forming a world where the sun has never set on english exceptionalism, like the Great War never happened. Foreigners are seen as rather odd and "over there", Brexit voters would enjoy these weeklies

also enjoying an LP by english rock maverick Peter Hamill "In A Foreign Town(1988)"

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote:"Putin did comment that Liz Truss had been elected by 80,000 right wing party members rather than her electorate of around 40 million, i hate to concede anything to h..."

autumn 2019 was fascinating for me,the commons had Boris snared in a mire of powerless sulking and could have kept him suffering if they had acted as one but it didnt happen, the divide and conquer tactics worked.

Gridlock for me is refreshing in the UK where prime ministerial power is so much stronger than american presidential power in terms of executive reach, the catch is that this island is a rotting capitalist experiment, while the USA still has a future. Part of that rot is prime ministerial power, especially with FPTP, in no true democracy (without power sharing coalitions) is 42% of a popular vote, an endorsement of a party to govern, except this stagant island of mine....sighs

[Gpfr]

Lass wrote: "Sad news about the death of Carmen Callil. Virago enriched the reading experience for so many of us."

Yes.
Russell mentioned "the delicious Emily Eden" and I said I had The Semi-Attached Couple and the Semi-Detached House - that's one of my Viragos.

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "Lass wrote: "Sad news about the death of Carmen Callil. Virago enriched the reading experience for so many of us."

Yes.
Russell mentioned "the delicious Emily Eden" and I said I had [book:The Semi..."

hear hear, Virago has given me so many good reads.....

[MK]

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "And how do you know that all 80,000 were" right wing." 😀 Overall the party members and MPs vote for the Tory leader, and it could be ..."

Thank you - I can always use a 😄 or two 😄.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote:"Putin did comment that Liz Truss had been elected by 80,000 right wing party members rather than her electorate of around 40 million, i hate to concede ..."

I'm glad someone is optimistic about the USA. I just hope that Trump will pass to another plane. Then, I might be optimistic.

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote:"Putin did comment that Liz Truss had been elected by 80,000 right wing party members rather than her electorate of around 40 million, i hat..."

the difference for me is that the USA can find a vote for something other than the slow trickle down selfish post-thatcher movements that have dogged the UK since 1979. New Labour was a bright period in patches but far too much of the last 44 years have been a giant collab between the right wing media, big business and the latest Tory nutter to win under 45% of the vote but gain large majorities in the commons

the USA has had a hard last 6-7 years, brexit and trump stained the world but i can see a way back for the USA, as its a far more powerful, dynamic and diverse place than a rotting island like the UK. it wont be easy but the USA can survive, as for the UK, the dreams that Britain is relevant in 2022 is the saddest thing

[CCCubbon]

Oh AB, cannot help feeling that you are being over pessimistic. Yes, the last few years have been awful here, I hate what Tory right wing ideology has done to our society, despise the self serving politicians, but still believe in the creativity, ingenuity, sheer bloody mindedness of people. At some point things will get better, probably then deteriorate again - we are only a small island - a small island which has produced some remarkable human beings and will do so again.

[Berkley]

AB76 wrote: "Warm, sunshine after a misty, damp morning in the shires, fascinating to read Orwells short essay on boys weeklies in the 1930s.

Orwell is as sharp as a tack as usual in seeing how these publications are subtle conditioning and propaganda for the youth of today(1930s), not as so often happens from government but from private newspaper interests, in the case of "Gem" and "Magnet" by Amalgamated Press set up by the Harmsworths. He notes that the characters have all been frozen in time since around 1905, never ageing but forming a world where the sun has never set on english exceptionalism, like the Great War never happened. Foreigners are seen as rather odd and "over there", Brexit voters would enjoy these weeklies

also enjoying an LP by english rock maverick Peter Hamill "In A Foreign Town(1988)."

The Orwell essays sound interesting - I often feel that I like his journalism better than his fiction, though I've probably read more of the latter.

I have a Peter Hamill question for you or anyone who has an opinion on the matter but perhaps I'll take it to the Music section.

[AB76]

CCCubbon wrote: "Oh AB, cannot help feeling that you are being over pessimistic. Yes, the last few years have been awful here, I hate what Tory right wing ideology has done to our society, despise the self serving ..."

CCC, you always speak sense, i hear you and yes maybe i was a bit over pessimistic....

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Warm, sunshine after a misty, damp morning in the shires, fascinating to read Orwells short essay on boys weeklies in the 1930s.

Orwell is as sharp as a tack as usual in seeing how th..."

will ansa in the music section....

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "and yes maybe i was a bit over pessimistic...."


Or grumpy?😄

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "and yes maybe i was a bit over pessimistic...."


Or grumpy?😄"

haha...nope...i wasnt grumpy

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "and yes maybe i was a bit over pessimistic...."


Or grumpy?😄"

haha...nope...i wasnt grumpy"


Are you sure?

[CCCubbon]

AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Oh AB, cannot help feeling that you are being over pessimistic. Yes, the last few years have been awful here, I hate what Tory right wing ideology has done to our society, despise ..."
Wish that were true AB, but thank you for the words.

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Warm, sunshine after a misty, damp morning in the shires, fascinating to read Orwells short essay on boys weeklies in the 1930s.

Orwell is as sharp as a tack as usual in seeing how th..."

the Orwell volume i am reading is the 1920-40 collection. i started around 1936 as was interested in extra remarks and letters regarding his time in Spain. the notes he made when writing "Wigan Pier" was a bonus.

i love his literature, "Keep the Aspidistra flying" was a delight to read during my student days in london, it just felt so relevant and accurate about london living. the diaries were a shocker for me, i read them expecting a literary style about 3 years ago and found the pootering jabber of a market gardener, i suspect with so much other output in the 1930s, the diary was more a private affair

[Gpfr]

I've just finished The Chianti Flask by Marie Belloc Lowndes in my much-liked British Library Crime Classics series. The book begins with a trial: a young woman is accused of murdering her much older husband. The first two chapters deal with that and the rest of the book tells of the subsequent events. As Martin Edwards says in his introduction,

The jury delivers its verdict, but this represents simply "the end of the beginning of (the) novel. Her prime focus is not on the trial itself, but on its aftermath. She charts the implications of a murder charge, both on the person accused and on those close to her.

Recommended.

Just before, I read the latest M.L. Longworth, Disaster at the Vendome Theater, a quick and fun read. I'm always a little perturbed by the description of Verlaque, juge d'instruction, as the "boss" of Paulik, commissaire, because I don't think one would say that the former is le patron of the latter. However, I suppose it's a way of dealing with the fact that he can tell the police officer what to do without going into the intricacies of the French legal system.

[Gpfr]

In non-fiction, I've just started reading About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks by David Rooney.
In the introduction, he speaks of a tragic event in 1983 and a navigational experiment called the Global Positioning System, with 7 military satellites carrying 25 high-precision clocks. These clocks could have prevented disaster. This already leaves my mind boggling (GPS/clocks?), but I persevere 😲

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Oh AB, cannot help feeling that you are being over pessimistic. Yes, the last few years have been awful here, I hate what Tory right wing ideology has done to our society, despise ..."

There is a problem for democracy - what is the best version?

In the UK, a party can elect a leader with less than 80,000 votes on a platform of tax cutting for the rich and penury for the poor - and straitened circumstances for most of the population... because their party won 42.4% of the vote, against 40.0% for the losing party giving them a HUGE majority in seats in the house of commons... and that majority was won by a previous leader (Johnson, not Truss). There was absolutely nothing in the 2019 Conservative manifesto to legitimise the Truss/Kwarteng mini-budget - and yet, they enacted it for a week, before the rejection of the markets forced them to backtrack.

In the USA, two recent presidents have been elected despite losing the popular vote (Bush, 2000; Trump, 2016). Perhaps not coincidentally, both of these were Republicans... it certainly seems, with the Trump stacking of the SC, that they are trying to ensure a legal (if not legitimate) way of conserving power, regardless of popular sentiment. (I'll leave US residents to express more expert opinions on that.)

The problem, though, is that these people - elected in a marginal way - claim to have a 'mandate' for extreme policies. There would not be a problem if their policies were 'a little bit' in one direction - but they are not. They are at the outer edge of what anyone could consider possible.

I have to say that democracy, if it is to survive as a legitimate system, needs to find a way to represent people's views better - probably by some sort of proportional representation. What we have in Wales isn't perfect, but much better reflects the range of views than what you get in the UK or the USA.

[Paul]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Oh AB, cannot help feeling that you are being over pessimistic. Yes, the last few years have been awful here, I hate what Tory right wing ideology has done to our soci..."

That I can agree with, but this is why the cyclicity of American politics resulting in gridlock (90% of the time mid-term elections got o the party not holding executive power) seems superficially preferrable to the idea of a popular mandate inherent to coalitions adding up tiny slices of the pie. The poop in the pool is of course the electoral college and the legalization of gerrymandering. The system here in Italy is even more laughable with frequent "technical governments" that do not contain anyone elected at any level of government.
I've had more Italian premiers than girlfriends, which makes my question many of the choices I've made over the course of my life

[scarletnoir]

Paul wrote: "The poop in the pool is of course the electoral college and the legalization of gerrymandering."

Those do seem to be the main problems in the USA.

"...superficially preferable to the idea of a popular mandate inherent to coalitions adding up tiny slices of the pie."

'Tiny slices' is the issue with creating a viable and "fair-ish" PR system - it seems to me (from a fairly superficial knowledge) that extremist religious parties hold far too much power in Israel under their system... so I suppose that you need a not absurdly low threshold for any party to elect MPs. The system for elections to the Senedd in Wales works pretty well as a combination of FPTP and regional (party) lists with transferable votes.

To take an example from an election which favoured parties I sympathise with (I am not a party member and have hardly ever been one) - in 1997, Labour in Wales won 34 seats with 54.7% of the vote; the Lib Dems won 2 seats with 12.4%; Plaid Cymru won 4 seats with 10%; and the Tories - won no seats at all, despite polling at 19.6%. This seems absurd, though you won't get many Tories to admit it when the boot is on the other foot. (Indeed, Labour also seem wedded to the system for UK elections - a bad mistake, IMHO.)

FPTP is an inherently unfair system. Almost any PR system is 'fairer', but certainly arguments can be had about which is the 'best/least unfair' way of going about things.

[AB76]

The Fringe Dwellers by Nene Gare(1961) is a novel of the marginal Aborogine settlements of NW Australia in the 1950s.

Gare worked as a district nurse in some of the camps and reserves and based her novel on these experiences. The main characters are two teenage dual-heritage Aborigine girls, with white grandfathers, who return from a mission school to their family home, in an informal camp on the outskirts of Geraldton. Back then a small town, on the west coast of Australia.

The book ties in well with Randolph Stow's "To The Islands(1958) which covered the mission side of the aussie governents commitments to its native people, a few hundred miles further north. The petty racism and the living conditions of these folk is sad to read, also the wide eyed hope of Trilby and Noonah as they plan their futures far from the limitations of the mission school.

Realistic and well compiled data on the Aborigine population of Australia before the late 1960s is hard to find but the 1954 figures show 70,678 native people (of which 44% were classed as dual heritage). 23% of the total lived in Western Australia in 1954, while 26% were in Northern Territory. The dual heritage population in the south eastern states was high, between 89-90%

[MK]

I am definitely not 'with it' as I just saw that Joshua Cohen has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction - The Netanyahus. I had downloaded it from the library and listened to a portion before I quit and erased the darned thing. It got so whiny! I know being a Jew can be no fun, but this was just too much.

Perhaps another piece of this is I have been listening to A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir. The author was 10 when Perestrioka happened. He and his family left Russia (Kharkiv, Ukraine) and made it to the US. His young life in Russia was awful, no Jews were allowed to practice their religion which meant much of it was lost. At the same time they were bullied because they were Jews. It is no wonder that many refugees (of all stripes) have a difficult adjusting.

I don't recommend and am happy to recommend .

The weather - I had hoped to finish up a few tasks outside today, but no such luck. Our air is already in the red zone at 8 a.m. Hopefully, Thursday will be a little better as we are promised rain this weekend. It is late this year. I don't usually look forward to this season, but if it means the end of fire season, I won't complain too much.

Politics - We may have this ideal of democracy in the States, but it is important to remember that originally only MEN who held property could vote, the Senate was elected and sent to Washington by State legislatures, and the Electoral College (an anachronism if there ever was one) probably was another check on the riff-raff. Heather Cox Richardson touches on all this as a prelude to the main topic in .

If anyone here is interested in what actually happens politically here in the States (I don't even listen to NPR post-Trump because the 24-hour news cycle needs to fill time with lots of maybes) they could do worse than sign up for Heather Cox Richardson's daily (Monday-Saturday, with a photo of the Maine coast on Sunday!) newsletter. It's about what has happened that day. I think she began it as an exercise during lock-down.

Maybe I will go into local politics after 15 November. Now that's a teaser!

[MK]

I don't know if the nytimes.com offers any 'freebies' each month, but if they do, this about Trussonomics is worth a read - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/19/op...

[AB76]

MK wrote: "I am definitely not 'with it' as I just saw that Joshua Cohen has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction - The Netanyahus. I had downloaded it from the library and listened to a portion..."

The Cohen novel is on my list, after Mach recommended it to me

[Bill]

1970

[MK]

Here's a picture of Seattle's air. It is the worst I have seen to date.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...

I have just finished an oldie The Whisper in the Gloom by Nicholas Blake. I'll have to scare up another from my many stashes because I'm staying inside tomorrow.