Radar

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Steve

[This is a short story I wrote a few years ago. I was pretty pleased with it and asked my friend Joe — who was a published writer — to critique it. Unfortunately, his main objection about the story happened to be what I considered the crux of the story. So, I didn’t use his suggestions. Reading it over, I don’t think it’s quite as good as I thought it was a few years ago. Still, I think it’s kinda good. So, here it is.]

Some years ago, I was working downtown.  One nice thing about working downtown is that there are a lot of places to get lunch within walking distance.  Most days, I walked up to Lexington Market.  Besides the butchers and produce stands, there are lots of ready to eat food places: tacos, sushi, egg rolls, subs, you name it.  Once the guys panhandling at the entrance to the market recognize you and realize you aren’t going to give them any money it’s a fine place to find lunch.

I was walking up Greene Street one day and decided, on a whim, to walk down Redwood Street.  There was a small eatery that looked like it had been there for a hundred years.  Places like that are usually worth visiting; longevity indicates that the fare is good and cheap.  I walked in and peered at the letterboard that held the menu.  It was yellowed and there were a lot of places where the person who placed the letters on the signboard’s ridges had to improvise.  Phrases where a backwards 3 was used for an ‘E’.

“Hey, Steve,”.  I looked over the counter for the source of the voice.  I recognized Chuck, one of the guys from the old days.  Chuck was an occasional visitor to the Cockeysvile apartment where some serious partying went on years ago.  His brother, Radar — he got the nickname because he loved the Golden Earring song “Radar Love” — was a regular fixture there.

“Chuck, man, how are you?”

“Hey, I’m workin’, ya know?”

“Yeah, me too.  It’s good to have cash.”  I looked cautiously for someone who might be the boss.  “Food here, any good?”

“Yeah, it’s fine, man, what would you like?’

I placed my order and Chuck and I talked sporadically as he fielded orders from other customers and took their money.  When Chuck handed me my sandwich, I sat at one of the worn red top tables and ate.  It was good and, while it wasn’t as cheap as the stalls at Lexington Market, it was cheap enough.  It was good to know about this place.

As I was leaving, I thanked Chuck and said it was good to see him.  “Oh, hey, what’s up with Radar?” I asked.

Radar was one of the more extreme partiers back in the day.  He would and did do anything that came along.  He had a particular fondness for a drug that I mostly steered clear of:  PCP laced parsley which we called “Whoop.”  I smoked “Whoop” a few times but didn’t really enjoy it.  I can still picture Radar, sitting on the couch after a few hits, looking like a guy with a bad cold who had taken too many antihistamines.  Mouth open, eyes glazed, but, as with an antihistamine stupor, being spoken to roused attention almost immediately.

Oddly, Radar wasn’t one of the ones I worried about.  There were quite a few of those guys that I figured were just going nowhere.  We were all stoned most of the time but some guys just seemed so far into what they were doing that I figured they were sort of lost.  I saw Radar many times, totally fucked up on whatever but I didn’t think he was lost like the others.  He was smart and, despite his predilection for getting very high, he was reasonably careful.  We weren’t close enough that I knew what his hopes, goals, were but he seemed like he’d be OK.

I was one of the few in our group of friends who was going to college.  The others, for the most part, worked full time during the day and partied at night.  Since I was around during the day, I got the call when Radar needed to be picked up from the Baltimore County jail.  A few nights before, Radar was driving home, high on “Whoop”, and managed to get arrested.  He had stopped at a red light and then didn’t notice when it turned green again.  Or when it turned red again.  He said he didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there when he noticed the cop knocking his nightstick on the window.  In the jail, when Radar was straight enough he used his phone call to contact his mother, who promptly hung up on him.  So, he spent a few days in jail until she finally showed up and posted bail for him.  She didn’t wait around to take him home though and so he called me to get a ride.

Another thing that was different about Radar.  You could take him home to meet your mother.  Seriously.  Most of my friends couldn’t be trusted to not pass out, turn blue or say deranged things when they were with someone’s parent.  No such worries about Radar.  He was unfailingly polite and had a natural ‘good boy’ charm.  It was late afternoon when I picked him up and so I brought him to my house for supper.  He was broke and couldn’t find the keys to his apartment.  Although she tried not to think about it much, my mother knew what me and my friends were up to.  I’m sure she didn’t know the extent of what was going on but she knew in a general kind of way that we were smoking dope and stuff.  When my mother got home from work, I introduced her to Radar — I called him ‘Eddie’ — and she said of course he can stay for supper.  In the kitchen, I told her that Eddie had just got out of jail but that I didn’t know why, just that he’d asked for a ride.  Over meatloaf and mashed potatoes, Eddie was charming and communicative.  He told my mom about his mother and said he wished he didn’t make her worry so much.  Mom loved him.

After dinner we drove to the apartment in Cockeysville.  Radar told the story about how he was so high he didn’t notice the lights change and about the cop knocking on the window.  Lots of laughter.  Radar went on about how his mother was so pissed off she let him stay in jail.  More laughter.  Talking about the cops again, someone said “fucking pigs.’  Radar would have none of it.

“Hey, those cops were cool.  They coulda given me all kind of shit while I was so messed up but they didn’t, they were really nice.  And, they took my stereo,” — Radar had an Alpine car stereo he was really proud of — “and locked it in the trunk so the tow truck guys wouldn’t steal it.  They were cool.”

As time went on, our group of devoted partiers diffused and evaporated.  It’s like this with all friends, I think.  Time and circumstances change and new habits and patterns arise.  That said, it’s always good to run into one of the guys from years ago.  It’s nice to reminisce a bit and see that whomever is still around.

“Oh, he didn’t make it, man.”  Chuck’s response to my question took me off guard.  It didn’t occur to me to ask what happened, in what way didn’t he make it.  I just nodded solemnly and said, “Oh.  I’ll see you again, Chuck.”  Chuck grinned and waved and went back to waiting on customers.

Walking back to the building where I worked, I kept repeating to myself, “he didn’t make it, he didn’t make it.”  It just rang in my brain.  I couldn’t really think about it.  I worked the rest of the afternoon and at five o’clock, I walked up to Baltimore Street and got the bus to go home.

Posted in Short Story | Tagged | 1 Comment

Denouncing Socialism

Posted on February 3, 2023 by Steve

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing socialism. Besides being the performative nonsense we’ve come to expect from Republicans the resolution was very likely designed to pwn Democrats who dared to vote against it. Heather Cox Richardson explained that the Democrats who voted against the resolution were wary that Republicans were using the resolution to set cup cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Richardson then notes that neither of those programs are actually socialist in nature.

This got me thinking about Social Security and Medicare. Although Republicans continually want to make cuts to those programs they are actually very popular. Dwight Eisenhower warned back in 1954 that “should any political party attempt to abolish social security . . .you would not hear of that party again in our political history.” While the animus toward social programs is probably a matter of ideological bent, any attempt to cut or abolish them has to be couched as either “reform” (cuts to make the programs “sustainable”) or denounced as “socialism” (a Republican shibboleth representing whatever the party finds objectionable at the moment).

As I considered these programs, it occurred to me that they are actually very capitalist — at least in the context of capitalism in the United States. What is Social Security other than a way to ensure that older people can still be consumers when their bodies are too old for labor? There is rhetoric about keeping seniors out of poverty and helping them live dignified lives — but that is essentially the same thing without the explicit nod to economics.

And what is Medicare if not a huge government subsidy to the health care industry? By guaranteeing medical care to seniors, the government provides a — predictable — bottom line to health care providers. Besides helping retirees live longer and healthier lives, the health care industry can count on the program to provide a steady stream of income and that income can be used to invest in innovation and efficiencies that benefit every health care consumer. In the context of other government subsidies, this is entirely consistent with how capitalism is practiced in the US.

I wish I was confident that, should they manage to cancel Social Security and Medicare, Republicans will realize that some replacement is necessary to offset the economic chaos that would result. However, as we saw with Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare, they weren’t thinking of the implications of doing so. There was no replacement. A Republican friend said the quiet part out loud when, commenting on Obamacare, he said “I’m sure glad I never needed that shit.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Denouncing Socialism

Election Day

Posted on November 8, 2022 by Steve

It’s election day in the US and as Jena Friedman (@JenaFriedman) put it in 2018 “It feels like all of America is awaiting the results of a biopsy.” Many pundits have expressed that, in this election, democracy itself is on the ballot. That may be an overstatement (I certainly hope so) but the anti-democratic attitudes and actions of the Republican Party make such a statement plausible. In some ways, state and local elections may be more important than the elections for Representatives and Senators — because, while those elections won’t affect control of the Congress they could have a serious effect on future elections. Tim Michel, gubernatorial candidate in Wisconsin, for example. said if he is elected Republicans “will never lose another election” in that state. To be fair, perhaps he meant that he would be such a stellar governor that his coattails would be long and durable. On the other hand, he has refused to say that he would concede the election if he is defeated.

As everyone knows, historically, the sitting President’s party tends to lose Congressional seats in mid-term elections. This election, though, may be different. One significant factor is last summer’s supreme court ruling that discarded Roe vs. Wade which guaranteed a women’s right to choose to end a pregnancy. Reportedly, in response, voter registration for women and young people generally surged. Ending abortion has been a (stated) Republican goal for decades and the three Trump appointees to the Supreme Court became the wedge that allowed the demise of Roe. It may be that Republicans will pay a political price for taking away a Constitutional right from nearly half the nation. In addition, former president Trump is embroiled in numerous civil and criminal probes and, though his ardent supporters won’t waver, more circumspect people may decide to sit this one out even if they usually vote Republican.

For decades, I have enjoyed voting in person on election day. My polling place was a short pleasant walk from my home and because I’ve lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, I knew many of the people in line or working the polls. I voted by mail (well, I put my mail-in ballot in a drop box) in the last two elections because of the pandemic. I was looking forward to returning to in person voting but, checking my registration last week, I found that my polling place had changed; and, it was no longer walk-able. So, I went to the early voting place nearest me and cast my ballot. Early voting nationwide has exceeded levels in 2018 (the last midterm elections) and has largely comprised young and female voters. Republican candidates and their buffoon-in-chief have urged Republican voters to vote in person on election day because of the (no evidence required) worries about early and mail-in voting. The surge in voter registration and early voting is a good sign for Democrats.

Many states have provisions that disallow counting of early/mail-in ballots before election day. Because of that — and because Republicans have urged their voters to vote on election day — there is likely to be a “red mirage” this evening where, in many races, Republicans will seem to be winning handily. That lead will lessen as the evening (and probably the next) progresses and tallies of by mail and early voting are added to the counts. This is a well established phenomenon and — though Republicans are likely to call foul — indicates nothing nefarious.

Over 300 of the Republican candidates have bought into Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 Presidential election was “stolen” from him. As with many conspiracy theories, this is believed even though no evidence validates it. In fact, for some, the dearth of evidence is itself proof that something has gone wrong.

Since the 2020 elections, Republican state legislatures have tightened voting rules in the states they control in the name of “election integrity.” As is repeatedly noted, there is no evidence that election fraud is a problem (I should note that any election fraud constitutes a problem but it is extremely unlikely to happen on a scale that affects the outcome of an election). Between gerrymandering and the efforts to suppress voting (“election integrity” rules) Republicans enjoy a significant advantage in many states in a normal election. But it seems clear that this is not an ordinary election. There are reasons to be hopeful.

Republican media has, for the last week or two, amplified polling that shows them winning. This is to hedge their bets in case Democrats prevail in some of the important (swing state) races that are likely to be very close. Undoubtedly, if their candidates fail they will cry foul and impress upon their voters that the race has been stolen (which many of their voters have been primed to believe will happen anyway).

I certainly hope the Democrats win enough races to keep control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Republicans have advertised their plans to impeach President Biden and Vice-president Harris (reasons TBD), to gut Social Security and Medicare (just before I start enjoying those benefits!) and to enact a nation-wide abortion ban. They are unlikely to have sufficient numbers to accomplish these goals but there is some danger associated with their likely attempts. And, come the next election, Republican prospects may be much better if they win enough key races this time around.

If Democrats keep control, there will be much gnashing of teeth and vocal complaints from the Republican leaders. Let’s hope that their efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of key elections is clownishly entertaining and doesn’t become violent.

Even though I know that many races won’t be decided until tomorrow, or the next day or the next) I’ll be watching the returns on television tonight so I can wake tomorrow with a sense of where we are and what needs to happen going forward.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Debt Limit

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Steve

If Republicans win a House majority in the upcoming election, Democrats must prioritize eliminating or suspending the debt limit during the lame duck session. House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, has indicated that Republicans will refuse to raise the debt limit when it becomes necessary (sometime next year) unless President Biden and the Democrats agree to spending cuts possibly including changes to Medicare and Social Security. Republicans are able to pull irresponsible stunts around the debt limit because most people don’t understand what it is.

The debt limit (or debt ceiling as it is sometimes called) is a cap on how much money the US can borrow to pay for expenditures authorized by legislation. Because the US’s budget deficit is a scary big number ($1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2022), almost everyone agrees that spending should be reduced to bring things in line with how most people understand budgets. In fact, raising the debt limit has no direct effect on spending. It is simply a way to ensure that the US can meet its — already incurred — obligations.

The debt limit was first established when the US began its involvement in World War I. The House basically delegated some of its spending power to the President to give him some flexibility in carrying out the war effort. The “debt limit” was established to ensure that the House could carry out some reckoning as the debt mounted. In 1979, Congress enacted a parliamentary rule that essentially automatically raised the debt limit when a spending bill was passed. Congressional Republicans repealed that rule in 1995 to try to gain leverage over the priorities of President Bill Clinton. This led to government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 causing furloughs for hundreds of thousands of government employees. Failure to raise the debt limit have resulted in several government shutdowns and caused the US’s credit rating to be downgraded.

Economists largely agree that if the US defaults on paying its debts it would create a worldwide financial calamity. Even the risk of such a default can produce effects in the world’s economy particularly with respect to interest rates (causing the cost of government operations (and mortgages, auto loans and credit card rates) to increase)– paradoxically increasing spending.

It may seem quaint from our current vantage point, after years of dysfunctional government, but the proper place to achieve (or thwart) spending priorities is via persuasion and compromise when debating and amending budget proposals. If a particular party hasn’t the numbers to impact spending by the majority party, well, as is often said: “Elections have consequences.”

Since House Republicans have threatened to employ a refusal to raise the debt limit to extract concessions from the Biden administration, it is incumbent among Democrats to take measures to prevent them from weaponizing the debt limit in this way. Democrats must also be very vocal about what they are doing and why AND they must counter specious argumentation about “out-of-control spending” with the facts about what the debt limit is.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Debt Limit

A New Era?

Posted on November 1, 2022 by Steve

It’s the first of November and the midterm elections are in one week. I have been meaning to start blogging again — not least because I just wound up auto-paying for another year of hosting. As long as I’m paying for it I may as well be using it. And who knows, maybe this time’s the charm and I’ll establish a regular writing — and pubishing — habit.

The other good reason to begin blogging again is that the results of the coming election could have dramatic effects on US politics and society. Not a few political writers have opined that “democracy” itself is on the ballot. Since the current occupant of the White House is a Democrat, Republicans should pick up seats in the House and the Senate. That is the conventional (and historical) wisdom. At the same time, we are in a situation in which that is far from certain. For a number of reasons, it’s possible that Democrats will maintain control of the House and may even pick up a seat or two in the Senate. I wish I could say that I’m optimistic; at the very least, I suppose, I can say that I’m hopeful.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Democrat. I recently noted on social media that I have never voted for a candidate — only against an other candidate. A friend, a Republican stalwart, thinks that that’s very sad. I live and vote in reliably blue Maryland. Consequently, because I know that the Democrat will win Maryland’s electoral votes, I have had the freedom to vote for 34d party candidates from time to time. Since I think we definitely need more viewpoints in our polity, I am interested in helping 3rd party candidates reach the level of votes to qualify for government assistance. I don’t actually know how that works but, again, because Maryland is a Democrat stronghold,I don’t’ generally need to worry that a Republican will win my state’s electoral votes.

I should clarify. I don’t support the Democratic Party in most respects — only in the sense that it is not the Republican Party — and our system pretty much disallows any other party from gaining power. My late friend Kelley — a brilliant woman (and a communist!) noted that as the Republicans sink lower and lower in decency, those of us who want good things for all of our citizenry are effectively Democrats. Talk about the unkindest cut!

Even when I voted for Barack Obama, I was more interested in breaking the race barrier than I was enamored with his candidacy. His presidency proved my perception correct. He was an utterly center hugging President. I am sympathetic, though. He may have had more progressive desires but was necessarily constrained by the fact that he was the first black President. For the sake of future Presidents of color, Obama had to steadfastly avoid anything radical. His grounding in the center, of course, didn’t stop Republicans from painting him as a wild eyed radical. A communist even. But, the Republican Party, at least from the time of Ronald Reagan (when I started paying attention), has felt free to jettison truth when it’s inconvenient.

When Trump ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016 I voted for Clinton (rather than supporting the idea of 3rd parties) because such an absurd candidate as Trump needed thorough repudiation. I believe everyone was surprised — even Donald Trump himself — when Trump won the election. There are a number of reasons why that happened but I’m not interested in covering that ground. Rather, as Trump’s lawless and chaotic presidency unfolded, it became more and more apparent that the Republican Party’s fealty was to the party itself. And damn the country. As Trump angles for another run at the White House in two years, the Republican Party should be maneuvering to prevent him from getting its nomination. But it is unwilling to risk disaffecting the people who are ardently for Trump.

After Trump lost in 2020, we have been  informed continually about his attempts to stay in power. He lied about his loss — the election must have been rigged because there’s no way he could lose. In response to Trump’s lies, and the fact that the election put Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and the White House, the Republican Party has worked overtime to change state election laws where they are in control, to ensure “election integrity.” Historically, and practically, we know what “election integrity” means: the Republican candidates must win. 

Despite enjoying control of Congress and the White House, Democratic efforts to shore up and protect voting rights have largely failed. That is why, as the midterm election looms, people are saying that “democracy” is on the ballot. If Republicans gain control of one or both houses of Congress, we can be sure that there will be no national legislation to protect voting rights. If anything, there may be legislation to protect Republican seats — if they can find a way to do so that doesn’t tread on the Constitution. And, with the reactionary majority that Trump was able to install in the Supreme Court, they may not have to work too hard to avoid conflict with the Court.

When Obama was elected — and even when Trump was elected — I felt an impulse to start writing to chronicle the events of such extraordinary presidencies. But I didn’t get around to it and have only written the occasional piece about one thing or another.

Today, I’m beginning a week ahead of the elections to begin chronicling what may be the most consequential era of politics in my lifetime. If Republicans win, even if they only win control of the House of Representatives, we may be looking at the beginning of the downfall of the Republic. The House will concern itself with vengeance and the traditional Republican hobby horse: lowering taxes on the wealthy. There certainly won’t be any significant legislation passed. There almost certainly will be an impeachment or two. If Democrats maintain control of Congress, there may be legislation to codify voter protections and other things to contribute to the health of our democracy. Democrats aren’t especially likely to address all the ways our Republic is in danger — particularly if their margin of control is as narrow as it is now. No matter the outcome of the election, we are headed for interesting times. And you know what they say about living in interesting times.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

What I Read in 2018

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Steve

If I was the sort to make New Year’s resolutions, I would resolve to read more and write more in 2019. Last year, I read 18 books — far fewer than some other years, but significantly more than the 2 I finished in 2017. Normally, I write this post on New Year’s Day but I’m just now getting around to it. So, for better or worse, here’s what I read in 2018.

The first book I finished last year was Errantry: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand. I first came across Elizabeth Hand reading her Cass Neary novels. These stories are nothing like those novels but are intriguing and peculiar. When I announced on Facebook that I had finished this collection I noted that the sheer variety of voices in the stories is very impressive.

In 2017, having learned that Philip Pullman was writing a new trilogy related to his previous trilogy His Dark Materials, I reread The Golden Compass. My 2nd and 3rd books in 2018 were The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (the other two books of the trilogy). These novels are ostensibly for young adult readers but I would recommend them to anyone. They’re a brilliantly executed trio of novels. The first book of Pullman’s new trilogy The Book of Dust has been published and is titled La Belle Sauvage. I plan to read it this year.

Because I’ve been having trouble maintaining my reading habit for the last several years, I’ve been doing a lot of rereads (I’m not sure that that is good strategy but it’s what I’ve been doing). I reread The Dark Door by Kate Wilhelm. It’s sort of a mash up of science fiction and mystery and, while not great, is an enjoyable read.

Next, I reread The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. I read this novel the first time when I was in college and loved it. Rereading it in middle age made its dark and depressing story more poignant and moving. I’ve read several other Walker Percy novels over the decades and he’s always worthwhile.

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse is as silly as it sounds. On the other hand, Robert Rankin’s wordplay and plotting are delightful. It’s set in Toy City and most of the characters are toys of various sorts. As Rankin might write, it’s the sort of book that one would like if one likes that sort of thing.

Someone gave me a copy of Dark Light by Randy Wayne White. It’s a pretty good suspense/mystery novel with good characters and plotting. After a hurricane disturbs the Gulf of Mexico, a sunken boat is discovered. When the main character and his colleagues attempt a salvage operation, things get ugly and interesting. It’s quite a compelling story but, amazingly, there were a number of misspellings and grammatical errors (and not in dialogue!). Mr. White needs a better editor. I may look for his other novels because, as I noted, the story is compelling.

Donald Westlake is a master of the comic crime novel. I reread The Fugitive Pigeon and enjoyed it immensely. It’s about a loser who runs his uncle’s bar. The uncle is a mobster and Charlie Poole (the loser) understands that his main role at the bar is to occasionally receive a package and hold it until someone picks it up. One day, some hit men show up to dispatch Charlie. He manages to escape and the rest of the novel involves him trying to stay alive and learn why he is being targeted. It’s a lot of fun (as is any Westlake novel).

Next I read Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut. Remarkably, I had never read this Vonnegut novel before (I devoured them continually when I was younger). It’s the story of a boy who accidentally shoots and kills a woman when he recklessly discharges a rifle out his window. As with all Vonnegut novels, it’s funny and sad and deeply imaginative.

10:04 by Ben Lerner is a peculiar novel. The main character is an author who has just gotten a good publishing deal and, at the same time, learned that he has a medical condition that could cause him to die at any time. Meanwhile, his best friend has asked him to help her have a baby. It’s a very contemporary novel (set in current day New York with an awareness of climate change) and is very worthwhile. Lerner is a poet and, as you might expect, his prose is exquisite.

Another reread, Sweet, Sweet Poison is the 2nd novel by Kate Wilhelm I read this year (after The Dark Door). It’s a pretty good mystery in which Constance and Charlie (Wilhelm’s sleuth couple figured in several of her novels) are called to a small town to investigate the poisoning of a dog. Things rapidly get complicated.

Kathryn Kramer is a wonderful writer who is not as well known as she should be. I happened across her first novel — A Handbook for Visitors from Outer Space — years ago and loved it. I tried to find other novels by her but was stymied by the difficult fact that she shares a name with a prolific romance writer (this was before Google, etc.). I put out a query on the Usenet (do you remember Usenet?) group “alt.20thcentury.fiction” to see what I could learn. Thrillingly, the author Richard Powers answered me and told me that Kramer taught at Middlebury College and that her other two books were Rattlesnake Farming (which I loved) and Sweet Water (which I started but didn’t finish years ago). This year I finished Sweet Water and found it an excellent literary mystery and a solid story of the complications of married life.

Next I read Possessions by the psychoanalyst/philosopher/literary critic Julia Kristeva. It’s a surreal mystery about a woman in a mythical town who has been murdered and beheaded. It was a bit of a difficult book but the prose was lovely which really made me admire the translator. I understand that Possessions is a sequel. Perhaps I’ll read the first one this year.

On a roll reading public intellectuals, I next read The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag. It’s a “novel of ideas” but also a romance set in enlightenment Naples. It’s a very good novel (not really what I usually read) with lovely writing and flawed, almost unloveable characters.

Another reread, Icelander by Dustin Long is a baffling mystery of a novel. It’s difficult to summarize — but it’s a murder mystery that takes place in Iceland. It’s very strange but, nonetheless, very enjoyable.

The Toyminator is the sequel to The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse which I read earlier in the year. It’s silly and fun and Robert Rankin’s wordplay is entertaining.

Next, I reread The Tidewater Tales by John Barth. It’s a big, ambitious novel that, among other things, presumes to extend the stories of Scheherazade, Odysseus, and Don Quixote. It also extends, peripherally, the story of the main characters of Barth’s previous novel Sabbatical. I love John Barth and I love this book.

I read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler years ago. In my memory, it was a heartwarming story of an odd family in which one of the sons opens a restaurant that tries to serve customers what they need rather than what they would order. When I reread it this year, I found it to be the tale of an entirely dysfunctional family and its themes are loneliness and despair (perhaps that middle age thing again). Still, Tyler is a master novelist and it is, in fact, very good.

Next, amid the carnival that put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, I began to reread Generation of Swine by Hunter S. Thompson. It was the subtitle that caught my eye as I browsed my bookshelves while following the Kavanaugh hearings: “Tales of Shame and Degradation in the 80s”. I was enthralled for a while reading this collection of Thompson’s pieces from that decade and was amazed at how the writer’s warped style predicted the current state of our union. For some reason, I got bogged down and didn’t finish the book and, in fact, didn’t read a line for the rest of the year.

I did considerably better than the two books of 2017 but my hope is to do much better in 2019 than I did in 2018. Onward.

Posted in Books, Life, Uncategorized | Comments Off on What I Read in 2018

Arming Teachers

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Steve

In one of his later movies, The Shootist, John Wayne plays an aging gunfighter who’s dying of cancer.  He’s living at a boarding house with a widow (Lauren Bacall) and her son (Ron Howard).  He gives a shooting lesson to the son which prompts the boy to ask how it was that Wayne always came out on top in a gunfight.  Wayne replies:

“It isn’t always being fast or even accurate that counts. It’s being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren’t willing. They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won’t.”

I thought about this exchange considering President Trump’s notion of arming teachers who are most adept with weapons to address our all too frequent shooting rampages in schools.  Knowing one’s weapon and having skill would both be important in confronting such a situation. But how many of those teachers “regardless of cause or need” would be willing to shoot an attacker (particularly one that very likely looks like the students they work with everyday) without hesitation.  And, if said teacher could shoot a threat without hesitation, would we want them teaching our students?

President Trump, when making this proposal to enhance the safety of our schools puts an emphasis on deterrence — making sure a would be intruder knows that some personnel are armed and that they’ll encounter “big trouble” if they enter a school.  This completely ignores the historical fact that most such attackers expect or intend to die as they execute their missions.

Preventing such tragedies is a complex endeavor.  Certainly, the root problem is the alienation and anger of young men (nearly always) to the extent that they are willing to murder and die to, I don’t know, exact retribution for how they have suffered?  That, I think, is the key element that must be understood and solved.  That could be a multi-generational effort.

I’m somewhat conflicted about gun control as an answer.  There is some level of truth that an angry young person will find a way to to the damage that he intends.  On the other hand, easy access to weapons that fire powerful rounds, very quickly and in great numbers makes it a simple matter to murder many people in a short amount of time.  Limiting access to such powerful weapons isn’t a panacea but it could help stem the bloodshed until the underlying problem (alienation and anger) can be understood and addressed.

Posted in Current Events, Gun Control | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What I Read in 2017

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Steve

Sadly, I only finished two books in 2017.

I reread The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.  I began rereading the series upon learning that Pullman would publish another trilogy that constitutes a companion (Pullman says it’s neither a sequel nor a prequel — it’s an equel) to His Dark Materials.  The first volume of that series was published in October of 2017 and is called The Book of Dust.  This year, I hope to reread the other two books from His Dark Materials and then move on to The Book of Dust.  The Golden Compass was just as delightful as it was the first time I read it.

I also read The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.  The novel posits an alternate history in which Charles Lindbergh won the election of 1940 denying Franklin Roosevelt a third term.  Lindbergh immediately puts the country on the path to fascism because a foreign power has leverage over him.  A particularly apt book for the past year.

I will try mightily to restore my reading habit.  I genuinely hope that the post I’ll write about a year from now:  What I Read in 2018 will be a much longer one.

Happy New Year.

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on What I Read in 2017

Books I Read in 2016

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Steve

I read more than many people do.  I always aspire to read more than I have.  I was a little dismayed this year when I finished a book in early November and couldn’t quite get myself to start another.  Looking over my list of what I’ve read though, this is consistent with a pattern.  In 2015, I finished my last book of the year in early December and then finished the next book in February of 2016.  For some reason, in the months of the year thought to be best disposed to reading, I fail to put eyes to page.

The first book I read in 2016 (finished in February) was a young adult novel Hoot by Carl Hiassen.  I’d enjoyed several Carl Hiassen novels previously so, when a friend gave me a copy of the novel, I read it.  It’s a fun story about a kid who discovers that a nearby development project will destroy the habitat of some birds.  Further, the developers have fraudulently gotten the go ahead for the project by hiding the existence of the bird population.  As with a lot of young adult novels, it’s a tale about how kids can get things done despite adult myopia and inaction.  One of my favorite things about the book is that a familiar kids’ book trope gets turned on its head.  That trope involves enemies finding common cause and working together.  Hiassen trolls the trope in front of the reader but the outcome is unexpected.  Good read for young and old.

Prodigal Summer by Babara Kingsolver was a good novel, deftly plotted and the writing is lovely.  There are a lot of intertwined stories stories and they combine to develop a theme that nature will take care of itself.  That mankind, despite his hostility to particular kinds of nature is within nature itself so the same sufficiency applies.  There are a lot of interesting and entertaining characters.

The Whole Story and Other Stories by Ali Smith represents a new addition to my lists of what I’ve read.  For whatever reason, I’ve only represented novels in my list.  I’ve decided recently to read more short stories and, moreover, to read collections together (rather than a story here and a story there).  So, this book of short stories is included.  I’ve also decided to include the non-fiction books I read so this year’s list will include those as well.

One notable thing about The Whole Story and Other Stories is that there is no story within called “The Whole Story”.  The other notable thing is that these are generally experimental fictions that read fluidly.  I’m given to liking metafiction and other flavors of writing that play with forms and words but often the writing suffers from the writer’s efforts in that direction.  This is a lovely collection.

The next book I finished was The Big Bamboo by Tim Dorsey.  If you’ve enjoyed Carl Hiassen’s Florida based mysteries, there is a good chance you’ll enjoy Tim Dorsey.  One might describe The Big Bamboo as a madcap mystery.  The two primary characters are (somehow) both vicious and lovable.  This book is far from a great novel but is wildly entertaining and, so, recommended.

The first non-fiction book (of my list):  Secrets of the Soul:  A Social and Cultural History of Psychoanalysis was written by Eli Zaretsky.  Freud’s reputation has suffered over the last several decades (although there are still large numbers of adherents and offshoot schools of Freudian thought) but that’s largely because most people’s understanding is a caricature of what Freud developed.  He did get a number of things wrong to be sure; and many of those things he that subsequently revised are those that still generate negative opinions respecting his reputation.

The most interesting thing about Secrets of the Soul though is that it traces the development of psychoanalytic thought through the cultural and social movements and phenomena of the 20th century.  Since history, as it is taught in United States schools focuses largely on foreign policy and wars it’s quite revealing to get a glimpse of what comprised social thought in various phases of the 20th century.  One particularly striking thing that stuck with me:  prior to the Industrial Revolution there was basically no concept of a “private (individual) life.”  People were inextricably defined by their families and their employment.  While that may sound peculiar on the surface, Zaretsky spends a good deal of time explaining why and how that was so.  As with a lot of non-fiction, this book isn’t for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Next is Jasper Fforde’s One of Our Thursdays Is Missing.  I’ve read a number of Fforde’s books including several of the Thursday Next series and generally enjoy them.  I may have missed one or two of the novels in the series which may be why I didn’t like this one as much as those I’ve read before.  In the Thursday Next world, there is a Bookworld and a Real World.  The Bookworld has its own special police Jurisfiction charged with making sure that plots go on as designed with every reading.  However, characters in the Bookworld know that they are characters in books and so sometimes become bored and restless.  Thursday Next is a literary detective who is called upon to investigate malfeasance and other problems when they develop.  Whimsical but brilliantly written and a lot of fun.

The Very Persistent Gappers of Fripp is a sort of illustrated short story that sort of masquerades as a children’s book.  Like most of George Saunders’ ouevre, it’s quite strange and unsettling.

If you’re a Carl Hiassen fan,  A Death in China (which he wrote with Bill Montalbano) may not be your cup of tea.  Rather than a Hiassen romp through strange characters and situations, this is much more a taut thriller.  It’s not a great novel but it’s a good story and worth reading if you enjoy that sort of novel.

I had never read Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis before even though I read a good deal of postwar British fiction at one time.  The main character is a somewhat likable fellow with some rather self destructive tendencies.  This goes a bit further than merely pushing against the exasperation borne of the expected pageant of academic life.  Nonetheless, as the tile indicates, good fortune seems to find him.

Laura Lippman was chosen to edit Baltimore Noir — a collection of darkish short stories set in various neighborhoods and locales in Baltimore.  Baltimore Noir is part of a series of books set in a number of cities but following the same pattern.  As is common, the collection is uneven but there are a number of wonderful stories here.  It’s particularly enjoyable if you’re quite familiar with Baltimore’s neighborhoods and quirky charms.

A Son of the Circus is rather a departure (I think) for John Irving — although I haven’t read an Irving novel for quite awhile.  It’s the story of an Indian orthopedic surgeon who lives in Canada but spends a good deal of time in India volunteering his services at a children’s hospital.  The main character is equally at home in both cultures which is to say: not entirely.  There’s an exploration of racism and social mores in both countries.  What makes it unique for Irving (to me) is that there’s a decades long sort of murder mystery that weaves through the plot.  A quite good novel.

If you’ve never read a novel by Christopher Moore, remedy that right away.  I think that after finishing The Serpent of Venice I have read every one of his books (except a graphic novel called Griff that I just saw on the author’s Amazon page).  The Serpent of Venice is the continuing adventures of Pocket — hero of Moore’s prior novel Fool.  Fool was a retelling of King Lear from the perspective of Lear’s jester Pocket.  This novel is a mashup of “A Cask of Amontillado” and The Merchant of Venice.  It’s quite a good novel and is both wildly entertaining and well written.  It behooves me (“behooves” is a word that my son believes should come back in style so I’m trying to help that along) to mention Moore’s novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal which, the whimsical title notwithstanding, is one of the best novels I’ve ever read.

Karen Russell’s collection of stories Vampires In the Lemon Grove was my introduction to her writing.  I think there are two Russell books on my “to read” list but this was my first. I enjoyed the stories which were strange to varying extents.  The title story is about two vampires who, during their long (perhaps perpetual) lives have determined that much of what they believe about vampires (themselves) comes from popular mythology about them.  For example, the blood isn’t necessary.  In fact, it doesn’t help.  I will continue to look for Karen Russell at the library and in bookstores.

The first reread on the list:  Total Loss Farm:  A Year in the Life was written by Raymond Mungo and published in 1970.  Mungo’s first book Famous Long Ago chronicled the creation of the Liberation News Service in the 60s which aimed to be an Associated Press (if you will) for the alternative news magazines that were springing up around the nation as resistance to the Vietnam War and the grey flannel suit culture inherited from the 50s developed.  As many such endeavors do, the effort resulted in divisions, hostilities, rivalries and, eventually, disillusionment for a number of the principals.  Total Loss Farm chronicles Mungo’s and his friends’ lives after they move to a commune in Vermont — mostly city kids learning to live off the land and with each other.  I was happy to read it again and would recommend it to anyone.

The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner (poet and novelist) is a curious book.  It begins with a line from poet Marianne Moore “I too dislike it” (poetry) and the goes on an extended meditation about poetry as an object of scorn and the impossibility of writing it.  It’s a fairly short book and despite the fact that I’m glad I read it, I was glad it wasn’t any longer.

There has been a lot of literature coming out of Scandinavia recently — particularly crime novels.  Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason is such a mystery set in Iceland.  The protagonist is a jaded police detective, divorced and with a grown daughter that is always in trouble of some kind.  As with a lot of crime/mystery novels, the focus is on the character and the plot is a way of exposing the nuances and quirks that shape that character.  Still, the plot and intricate rape and murder story is engaging and satisfying.

I thought I had read The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells before but, unless I forgot it entirely, I was mistaken.  I’m sorry to report that, although there were a lot of things I liked about the novel I didn’t enjoy it very much.  Among the good aspects — there are disadvantages to being invisible as well as advantages; also, I liked the technical issues associated with being invisible.  For example, after eating, the invisible man must hide because his meal is visible internally until such time as it is assimilated with his body.  I may try another H. G. Wells book but this didn’t really move me.

To me, Richard Powers is perhaps the best English language novelist who is alive and still producing.  Generosity:  An Enhancement is a very good novel.  The central character is an Algerian woman who, despite having grown up in civil war and having lost much of her family, is nonetheless preternaturally happy.  The surrounding story has to do with high technology and its promises and perils.  There is interest in doing a genomic study on Thassadit (the Algerian) to determine if there is a genetic basis for her disposition that could be used to enhance the lives of others.  The mix of intelligence and superb prose makes for a fantastic read.  I recommend this and any of Powers’ work to anyone.

I was happy to find a novel by Elizabeth Hand at the library.  I read her novel Generation Loss a few years ago after buying it at a used bookstore.  I enjoyed that and was surprised to find that she wasn’t represented at all in the local library system.  A few months ago, I found Hard Light in the stacks and snatched it up.  It features the same protagonist as Generation Loss:  Cass Neary, once a photographer of the New York punk scene on her way up, now living and drinking hard.  Although there is a plot, the novel reads more like a continuing saga of this tough, albeit broken, woman than a traditional novel.  Neary is reminiscent of one of James Crumley’s characters — taking drugs and boozing through the curious things that keep happening while, almost by accident (seemingly), a story develops in the background.  As for recommendation, I’m reminded of someone’s quip “you’ll probably like it if this is the sort of thing you like.”

That makes 19 books for the year — a total of 5,532 pages.  I hope to read more in 2017 and I look forward to spending even more time describing the books this time next year.  If you made it this far, thak you for reading.  Please feel free to comment and/or make suggestions.

Posted in Books, Life | Tagged | Comments Off on Books I Read in 2016

Free Speech and the National Anthem

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Steve

At the time that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on September 11th, 2001, I was working as a Division Manager for a company that did work, nearly exclusively, for the Federal Government.  Shortly after the attacks, the higher ups in my company distributed little flag lapel pins to all the Division Managers including me. Although I’m hardly a fan of US militarism and imperialism, I wore the pin because it was expected — just like the sort of silly accoutrement called a necktie that I wore every day. As a Division Manager, I met with customers and potential customers in the federal government nearly daily.  Thus I was representing the company to those federal agencies and wore the pin not as a patriotic statement but as a marketing ploy — which it surely was.

If I was asked to distribute the pins to my employees I would have done so but may have balked if I was told to force them to wear the flag.

I was thinking about those flag pins over the last week or so after observing how much vitriol was directed at Colin Kaepernick (and a few supporters) for failing to stand for the national anthem.  The attacks on him got silly:  conflating his refusal with disrespecting troops that have died while on military tours, “love it or leave it” sorts of comments and other nonsense.  There were also rebuttals, some from veterans, that claimed that Kaepernick’s right to sit was the sort of freedom they had been defending.  There was also the rather apt observation that few if any people, preparing to watch a game in their own home on television, stand, hand on heart, as the anthem is broadcast.  It’s a different story at the stadium, though, because we are on display and if we don’t participate in the ritual, we call attention to ourselves.  I’m not denying that some of us feel real patriotic feeling while standing for the ritual, I’m saying that social pressure rather than patriotism is the main motivation.

In fact, the reality of this ritual and its associated social pressure is precisely the reason that Kaepernick stayed seated.  He was protesting and protest is futile if unnoticed.  He, and the several players around the league that have joined him in exercising free speech know that such statements carry risk:  loss of product endorsement opportunities and other by products of their celebrity.  Yet the subject of their protest, the perceived maltreatment and injustice directed at black people in this country seemed worth the risks.

This morning, the Baltimore Sun offered an editorial in response to Baltimore Oriole Adam Jones’ comments that the reason such protests weren’t happening among baseball players was that baseball was a “white man’s game.”  He noted that Donald Trump has said far more offensive things with garnering anything close to the hostile vitriol  that Kaepernick and others have suffered.  The editorial board wrote:  

What’s the difference between Mr. Trump’s speech and Mr. Kaepernick’s? Mr. Trump is talking about the concerns of working-class whites, and Mr. Kaepernick and his supporters are talking about blacks.

This made me think:  what if the original protester who sat during the national anthem was a veteran and he was protesting the deplorable treatment many of our veterans experience after their service is complete?  I think nearly everyone in the country would agree that no veteran should be homeless, no veteran should be hungry and begging on the side of the road, no veteran should be unable to receive needed medical and mental health services.

I doubt the reaction would have been so blatantly hostile, so vitriolic, so damning of the protesters’ failure to adhere to the ritual.

We are very uncomfortable with the idea that our social and civic institutions are rife with racial injustice.  So, uncomfortable that many of us deny it entirely.  I can’t help but think that it’s Kaepernick’s message, rather than the protest itself, that is the source of the anger and hate directed at him and his supporters.

 

Posted in Current Events, Life | Tagged , , | 3 Comments