Pre Deep Creek Reading List

For all of you wondering what books to pack, here are ones I won't be bringing because I already read them.

Any Human Heart, by William Boyd. Continuing my romp through William Boyd, I finally made it to the one Mom recommended to me ages ago. I liked this one almost as much as Brazzaville Beach. It's constructed as a diary spanning the life of the fictional Logan Mountstuart, from his teenage years through his death. I loved the story and the span of life, the adventure of going from nothing to success, through war and disaster and loss, and climbing back to stability and fulfillment again. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't in the diary form, which tends to make it more personal but to me was a bit more constraining in how the story is told. Terrific book.

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, by Naomi Klein. If you're a Milton Friedman, Chicago School of Economics fan, you're either going to find this book to be an eye-opening expose on the impact of Friedmanism on people and countries, or you're going to fling it across the room shouting obscenities. Personally I found this to be an incredibly important book and I wish everyone would read it. Your mileage may vary.

Sacred Games, by Vikram Chandra. Back cover pitch: "the lives of the privileged, the famous, the wretched, and the bloodthirsty interweave with cataclysmic consequences amid the chaos of modern-day Mumbai." Between the pages reality: 282 pages into it, I was still waiting for something to happen that I could care about. Did not finish it.

We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, by Philip Gourevich. The real story behind the Hotel Rwanda movie. Philip Gourevich travels to Rwanda in the aftermath of the massacre there. He does a fantastic job capturing both what happened and how such a thing could happen. I suspect most of us place the Rwandan massacre in some kind of "tribal violence" sort of slot in our American heads, but it would truly be a lot closer to the Holocaust in its origins. How can such a thing happen, how do people experience it first-hand, and what does it do to people in its wake? Read and find out, then watch the movie (which is terrific, too.)

The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall. Can you believe that words can kill? This fiction/fantasy story follows a guy who wakes up with total amnesia and finds that he left a paper trail for himself before his memory was erased. He sets out to unravel the mystery in a fast-paced jaunt that stretched my literal-minded ability to believe. Still, maybe this would appeal the those who like talking fish fantasies (that's you, Sharon!)

Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black. This is a pen name for John Banville. I suppose writing a mystery like this requires a different "voice" than he normally uses, I'm not sure. The story follows a coroner who uncovers the activities of a Dublin group that routes babies to Boston to be raised in an orphanage, as a way to feed new people into the priesthood. You'll have to read a lot of pages to figure that out, so sorry for the spoiler. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded, but not being a big fan of (fictional) Catholic conspiracy theories, I wasn't happy with it when it showed up. Seems like to me we have way more wacky, truly dangerous evangelicals here in the US than can ever be cooked up in the Vatican.

The Butterfly Garden, by Chip St. Clair. How do you react when you discover that your father was one of America's most wanted criminals and your mother was a whackjob who helped him escape from prison? It you're interested, be sure to read this book. The story is more about the discovery process as this poor kid finds out that his life is not like other peoples', and how he manages to break out of it and uncover the lies that permeated and shaped his existence. It was interesting, but in hindsight was a bit too much like watching a bad Dr. Phil episode for me.

Lost City Radio, by Daniel Alarcon. The main character of this novel has a radio show that attempts to reunite families who have lost someone who has been "disappeared." (See Shock Doctrine for a non-fiction lesson on the role of government-sponsored "disappearing" in wreaking havoc on the population of South American countries.) She ends up being reunited with someone herself as she discovers what happened to her own husband, who had disappeared years ago.

Stars and Bars, by William Boyd. I have one more Boyd waiting after this book. Unlike the others I've read, this book was decidedly comic in style and quite funny. A shy English art dealer in NY is assigned to buy a collection from a wacky collector down in Georgia. Along the way he crosses the scheming redneck son who seems to have already sold the art collection himself, and a series of increasingly improbable and hilarious situations follow before he makes it back to NY and tries to salvage things. Very good. For those keeping score, I still think Brazzaville Beach was the best.

The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney. A fun and absorbing cross between a detective story and frontier story, it takes place in the Northern Territory of Canada. A trapper is murdered in a small town, and the son of a neighbor family disappears. He's the prime suspect, and his scrappy mother sets off with another suspect to track him down. He's of course tracking the real murderer, and it all comes to a head in the middle of nowhere at a remote HBC outpost. Kind of Wilkie Collins-ish, but well done and enjoyable.

Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Adichie. This one's for you, Sharon!!! I scoffed at the talking fish fantasy recommendation Sharon sent me last time. However, when we saw Ken and Sharon in Naples not too long ago, she slipped me a post-it note with this title and author written on it. She must have seen enough of my reading lists to know I'm a sucker for African history and politics. This novel is about the birth of Biafra in the mid-sixties as it was carved out of Nigeria and made its way through war-induced famine. I enjoyed all of it and learned a lot in the process. Great characters that span the range from middle class academics to houseboys to pampered political insiders.

New Media Live

To feed my obsession with the transformation of journalism by the Internet, I went with Hal to Stanford to see a lecture by Josh Marshall. Marshall writes a blog called Talking Points Memo. He employs eight people, and in a lot of ways, they are a living example of how the Internet is changing journalism. He won the Polk Award for his role in uncovering the US attorney firings scandal, something that probably would never have been stitched together without the kind of information flow that results from his readers interacting with him and his staff. And fret not: while TPM is fundamentally a liberal site for political junkies, they claim to do as rigorous a job of fact checking on material they publish as any of the mainstream media. It was an interesting talk, with a number of interesting questions posed during the follow-up.

FSM Sighting

Today Dara, Rob, and I went to see the Annie Liebovitz exhibition at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. It was impressive to see the range of photography, from family photos, to celebrities, to landscape. The weather was chilly but clear, with spectacular San Francisco views of the city, Golden Gate, and Marin headlands. Here are Dara and Rob posing in front of what I believe must be a rendering of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by artist Dale Chihuly.

Thrillseeking or Darwin Award?

We may have a set of new world records tomorrow associated with Michael Fournier's planned parachuting jump from 130,000 feet. Fifteen minutes of fame -- literally.

If successful, Fournier will fall longer, farther and faster than anyone in history. Along the way, he can accomplish other firsts, by breaking the sound barrier and records that have stood for nearly 50 years.

Bizarre. Perhaps more interesting was the perspective of the guy whose records he will break, Joe Kittinger.

Reached by phone last week at his home outside Orlando, Fla., Kittinger, 79, said he was surprised his record had stood for so long.

Fournier and Kittinger correspond through e-mail. “I told him many years ago, it’s very hostile,” Kittinger said. “You’re in a vacuum, and your whole life is dependent on the pressure suit working properly. If the pressure suit fails, you die.”

Kittinger is contacted regularly by others interested in breaking his record. “There’s a whole bunch of them out there that are just like Fournier and just like the guy in England,” he said. “Most of them don’t have the money to do it.”

“It was definitely beautiful, but it’s also hostile,” he said. His right hand swelled to twice its normal size when his glove failed to pressurize properly.

From those lonely heights, the speedy return trip was a relief.

“Yes, it was nice to be headed back to earth, because it’s an environment that we can live in,” Kittinger said. “And it’s a beautiful planet, really.”

I have to say that if I had enough money to do something like that, I could find a lot better ways to spend it.

Graduation Report

Dara and I had a relatively free day on Friday while Kyla worked, so we went downtown to check out the WWII memorial which neither of us had ever seen.As memorials go, it was underwhelming. I'm not quite sure what it was trying to capture -- I suppose sheer scope of the war or something like that. Certainly it did not seem to aim at a human element except peripherally. So, to add to the human element, here I am in front of the Pacific theater end of the memorial, in support of Dad's contribution to the cause.

I had not seen the Korean War memorial either. You have to admit this is at least a little more human, as it catches these larger-than-life Joes warily trudging their way through to their next enemy encounter. For the sake of national security, we should all hope that this is the closest I come to the battlefield.

Here's the Master's graduate with the proud parents. We have a bunch of lousy pictures of the ceremony that I won't bore you with.

The indefatigable Aunt Missy drove all the way down from North East, through South East. Dara and Kyla texted back-and-forth during the ceremony (generally about Josh), and Missy got the job of entertaining me.

That evening, to celebrate both birthday and graduation, we went to the Melting Pot restaurant for a fun meal of fondue. It started with the cheese course, then on to the meat and fish course, followed by the chocolate finale. Here, Josh concentrates on the task at hand.

Congratulations Kyla!!!

Pointy Haired Managers Unite

Dara noticed a flyer at a local Peets coffee shop advertising a support group for managers of engineers. I captured the online version of their pitch above. Speaking from personal experience on the giving and receiving end, you would think that the support group for people being managed by engineers would much more in demand.

Mother's Day Video?

Saw this amazing YouTube video because of a NYTimes article about the owner's adventure in trying to sell it. When you watch it, be patient. When you get to the part that makes you want to look away, keep watching. Then when you get to the part that makes you wonder why I said that, keep watching again. Having said all that, even I could not bring myself to click on any of the related videos captured below.You have to draw the line somewhere.

Iris Lady on the Hunt

A few weeks ago, we visited Nola's Iris Garden in San Jose. We were a few weeks early for the peak, so today on the way back from arranging next year's apartment with Garrett, we stopped by again. As it turns out, the peak of iris blooming is the worst time to be buying them, so it's really about gawking at this time of year and buying online later. The Iris Lady was taking careful notes and documenting the proper colors to match.

An end to the Romanov mystery?

You may have read in the news recently that the remains last two Romanov children were found and identified. Some of you may have even noticed that AFDIL was involved in the identification, or you might be wondering who the mysterious "top US genetics lab" is (that'd still be us at AFDIL, not the University of Massachusetts Medical Laboratory as most articles seem to hint at). Worry not, I'm here to help clear this up for all you Russian history buffs.
The (brief) back story: After the Bolshevik uprising in Russia the whole Romanov family and 3 of their servants was basically kidnapped and taken out to a remote house and after period of imprisonment, were executed. Their bodies were then taken out to the woods and buried. The bodies of all but one daughter (Maria or Anastasia depending on who you as) and Alexei (the one sone of Nicholas and Alexandra), were buried in a mass grave that was revealed in 1991. The remains of the last daughter and Alexei were only discovered recently.
The controversy the first time around: When the original mass grave was discovered the remains were examined by the Russians, but also sent to Peter Gill at Britain's Forensic Science Services. Reference samples were obtained from maternal relatives of the Tsar and Tsarina. DNA showed exact matches between the remains of the Tsarina, the children and the maternal relative. The DNA from the Tsar and his maternal relative had one mismatch that could easily be explained, or so felt Peter Gill. Russian authorities were not satisfied however. The mismatch lead to questions as to the authenticity of the identifications. To resolve the mystery bone samples were sent to AFDIL (and the UMass Medical Lab), and the remains of Georgi (the Tsar's younger brother) were disinterred and also sent to the American labs. The UMass lab did not produce usable data. However, AFDIL confirmed that the DNA from the Tsar and his brother matched, containing the same mutation, and also duplicated the results from the FSS in typing the maternal relative. Given the results of AFDIL's testing, the identification of the remains as the Tsar, Tsarina, 3 of their daughters, and their 3 servants has been accepted. The missing remains of the one daughter and Alexei fulled the stories surrounding the potential survival of Anastasia and Alexei.
The latest: Recently two additional sets of remains were found nearby the original mass grave. Samples were sent to the lab at UMass, and AFDIL. The results were supposed to be kept hush-hush, but obviously there's been a leak somewhere... But now it's out there, the last two sets of remains have been ID'd as the last two Romanov children. We're not exactly sure what results the UMass people have, nor am I really allowed to discuss AFDIL's, but the remains do belong to the Romanov children. I'm sure there's more information to come, and more controversy, not to mention a race to publish the scientific results. One of the Assistant Technical Leaders in my section discussed the case with us today and it was really cool to hear about this stuff as it's happening. History in the making!