Missive #232 Published 2 March 2024
First published in 1940, James Still's masterful novel has become a classic. It is the story, seen through the eyes of a boy, of three years in the life of his family and their kin. He sees his parents pulled between the meager farm with its sense of independence and the mining camp with its uncertain promise of material prosperity.
Missive #231 Published 1 March 2024
24. GOOD GOOSE, BAD GOOSE…
I have 'Scheduled' this posting for today while I'm driving to my next camp. If what I have written here needs to be edited due to changes along the way I'll do that tomorrow. The drive was 321 miles with a breakfast stop at Sofia's in Gila Bend. Then a stop to fill Desperado's gas tank in Eloy. I also had to do a very slight detour for a stop at RV City to get my propane tank filled; I should have done that in Wellton during my last shopping trip. The route: Old US80/Los Angeles Ave, William St, I-8, Pima St (in Gilla Bend), I-8, I-10, AZ90, AZ82, AZ80, Davis Rd, Frontier Rd & Double Adobe Rd.
Missive #230 Published 29 February 2024
This is an interesting book but in my opinion is muddled . He moves the chronology around such that I found it difficult to keep track of when events were happening. There does not seem to be any continuity to an overall story; each of the '21 laws' stand alone for the most part. I may try some of his other books.
Missive #229 Published 28 February 2024
A week in the life of a 22-year-old grifter in the Hamptons.
Cline does pretty-but-creepy like no one else and now takes her brand of alluring ickiness to the wealthy enclaves of Long Island (the location is unnamed but clearly recognizable) in the last week of summer. We meet Alex swimming in the ocean, high on painkillers she's stolen from her man of the moment, a "civilian" named Simon who doesn't know Alex is a working girl and who has invited her to spend the month of August at his place "out east."
Missive #228 Published 27 February 2024
It not very common that a physician practicing both pediatrics and general medicine would also be a poet and novelist. However, that is what Williams was, he also served as the Passaic General Hospital's chief of pediatrics from 1924 until his death. I'll be reading the rest of this trilogy just to see what happens to Flossie.
Missive #228 for Tuesday Read More »
Missive #227 Published 25 February 2024
Continuing The Federalist Papers.
Federalist No. 15
The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of the State of New York:
Missive #226 Published 24 February 2024
Critically acclaimed science journalist, Mark Buchanan tells the fascinating story of the discovery that there is a natural structure of instability woven into the fabric of our world, which explains why catastrophes— both natural and human— happen.
Scientists have recently discovered a new law of nature and its footprints are virtually everywhere— in the spread of forest fires, mass extinctions, traffic jams, earthquakes, stock-market fluctuations, the rise and fall of nations, and even trends in fashion, music and art.
Missive #225 Published 23 February 2024
23. NASRUDDIN TAKES SIDES
Two men who were quarreling came to Nasruddin.
“Please help us, Nasruddin!” said the first man.
“We need you to judge between us!” said the second man.
The first man presented his case, and when he was done, Nasruddin exclaimed, “You’re right!”
The second man shouted, “You haven’t even listened to my side of the story!”
Missive #225 for Friday Read More »
Missive #224 Published 22 February 2024
The quietly repressed tension in the opening chapters here—a dead-eyed young stranger appears in the black section of St. Adrienne, Louisiana—seems to be revving up a subtly gripping and artfully shaped narrative. What Gaines (The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman) actually delivers turns out to be neither subtle nor shapely, nor especially original, but on every page there's an authentic moment, or a dead-right knot of conversation, or a truer-than-true turn of phrase—enough of them to carry you through to the overly theatrical finale.
Missive #223 Published 20 February 2024
Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, he feels no real calling—despite his lively faith—and he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris, and then hanging his sign in Oxford.
Soon after, a local lord asks Hugh de Singleton to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspool.