I think these things so you don't have to

Best of?

2010-01-06T22:37:19Z

A friend just challenged me to name three albums from last year that I loved. Failing that, he wants a best of 2009.

A quick response would be:

1. Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
I bought this the day it came out. It's rare for there to be an album anymore where you actually need the entire album to enjoy the story. Green Day just rocks. This kind of effort isn't easy and it isn't for sissies. Who knew the doofus trio who wrote about masturbation in the '90s would still rock so hard?

2. Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
I'm pretty sure this is the only full-length release I've ever bought from iTunes. From the first strains of LDN on her last album, i was in love. There is nothing better than satire masquerading as bouncy pop music. I'd love to see her in concert. Or better yet, just hit a few bars with her.

3. The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You
Folk punk? Alt pop? I never know what to call bands like these, who write clear melodies and crisp songs with just enough edge to keep it interesting. Some might call it too tame. I find it sublime.

With such a short list, I know I've left a lot of good stuff off the list. For instance, i didn't hear the entire Neko Case, Regina Spektor or Muse releases this year, but I adored what I heard.

If I had more picks, I think I'd consider Franz Ferdinand, Wilco and Grizzly Bear, too.

Who else?

Books 1 and 2

2010-01-06T17:35:01Z

Book 1
There Is No Freedom Without Bread - Constantine Pleshakov

In the fall of 1989, I had just started a class that was to look at the politics of the Cold War. As turmoil in the Eastern European countries began to boil over, the professor told us to all take back our books and instead buy subscriptions to national newspapers. We would watch history unfold, and he would fill in the back story on his own.
This historian's take on the collapse of communism for the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling is to some revisionist. The chestnut that somehow President Reagan brought about the transformative change with his strong stance is the one best served when looking through American politics.
But to have paid attention to each country, and its unique history, is to see that the each place had internal struggles that were bound to erupt and put pressure on an economic system that was quickly running out of resources.
Pleshakov attributes the entire fall to a long uprising in Poland that mixes nationalism with Catholicism. In his mind, the elevation of Pope John Paul II did more to kill communism than any political speech made by either the east or the west.
That is not to say that he doesn't give credit to leaders like Reagan, for inspiring many, or even to Gorbachev, whose insistence that each Soviet country had to handle its own affairs he credits with freeing the GDR.
In the newspapers of the day, each incremental change was viewed as momentous. But looking back, it's easy to see why Pleshakov titled his book with wordplay from the Solidarity movement (There is no bread without freedom).
For as much as the Eastern Europeans wanted the freedom provided by capitalism, they did not want to jettison the security offered by communism. That those two cannot be easily reconciled is clear enough to see when not looking through the prism of politics.
In the end, throwing off communism was not an action but a process that continues today.

Book 2
Closing Time - Joe Queenan

Joe Queenan, whose acerbic wit can sometimes be simply described as bluntly cruel, came about his cynicism the old-fasioned way. He earned it.
His memoir could be seen as explaining those years earning it, in the shadow of a vicious drunk of a father and wraithlike absent mother who moved him and his three sisters in and out of public housing and rough neighborhoods in 1950s and 1960s Philadelphia.
But this is also a coming-of-age tale, an homage to two blue-collar men who stepped in and helped when Queenan needed them most in his bid to escape poverty, the underclass and, most of all, his brutal father.
Sadly, for as much as he shares, there are many gaps in the telling of his story. Near the end of the book, he mentions that his mother has a wonderful sense of humor. This aside runs counter to the book's entirity, wherein she is seen as someone who doesn't love her husband, never wanted children and hides whenever the man she married savages his children with belts, hands, bottles or whatever might be lying around.
Similarly, for all the tale of moving from various Catholic parishes and details of his time in a junior seminary, Queenan drops on his reader,w tihout explanation, that he does not believe in God. Again, this comes near the end of the book, set up in a dependent clause with no additional information.
Queenan is at his best, though, when he is in rant mode. He rails against poverty and those who find redemption in it. He rants against his family and hose who could have helped but did not.
And, like in the essay that made him famous, he attacks the notion of substance abuse as a disease in general and the AA 12-step program in particular. The most angry he ever was at his father, he writes, is when he attempts a scripted apology from the 12-step program.
Compared to the mundane lives that pass for fodder in memoirs these days, this one stands out. it is not Queenan's best work, but it will do.

Books

2010-01-02T02:50:28Z

I didn't quite read as much as I had hoped in 2009.

I blame swine flu.

But, either way, the slate is marked clean for the 50-book challenge for 2010. I have already started in on three books. Yes, it's odd to read more than one at a time, but, well, I'm an odd gal.

I have yet to start the tome that's been waiting for me -- Slavery By Another Name -- or the few dozen I grabbed recently. And I know plenty more random ones will find their way to me.

But, as I gear up for a new year, any books I *must* read? And why?

Oh, and if you say anything related to Twilight or Stephanie Meyer, consider yourself off my real-life friends list....

Credit where credit's due

2009-12-30T15:41:12Z

I heard the strangest logic this week on the radio.

The speaker was basically berating Obama and the current administration for not having the swine flu vaccine ready in October, creating in her words "10,000 needless deaths."

I could not disagree more.

Obama did the right thing, in declaring the emergency that allowed vaccine producers to switch from the seasonal flu prep to the swine flu prep. Beyond that, it's not up to him or the companies to hurry anything along. Creating the vaccine takes time, and there isn't much you can do about that.

Was it frustrating to not be able to find the vaccine when I wanted it? Sure.

But kudos especially to the CDC on how they handled everything. I've been a reporter long enough to know something that the CDC seemed to realize in this case: tell people what you know, when you know it, and you'll be better for it.

It was unpleasant to say the least to get so ill with the H1N1 virus. But thanks to the CDC, I had plenty of information and awareness to use as I dealt with the medical community. And ditto, the doctors who ended up really helping me were incredibly up to date from information the CDC had given them.

There are a lot of things you can find fault with in any government or any person. But this time, let's give props to the ones who did something right.

Five years on

2009-12-28T23:54:00Z

Wow, to think, i started this blog on Dec. 27, 2004. And really, sadly for both of my readers, nothing interesting has really emerged.

So, I guess I will recount the latest holiday.

My biggest gifts were Mom coming to visit and Mom and CG agreeing to go to the candlelight service with me on Christmas Eve. Since I am Quaker, and there is no Quaker church here (only meeting houses, which do not have services), we again went to the UCC Church. It's lovely, and they're very kind and affirming there. Good times, good times.

CG outdid herself with prizes: a much-needed bike pump, the very fun board game Things and lots of gift cards for things like movies and massages (the latter from her ... score!).

We've already gone to see "It's Complicated," and also shared in an eve of Improv, my gift to them. The holiday will continue with trips to various restaurants (mostly steak places but also Season's 52) because Mom's gifts were mostly eatery cards.

Oh, and Dora made out like a bandit. With no kids around, she was the one to spoil. And so we did, with new toys, a new scratch pad, lots of treats and entire bag of catnip on Christmas morning.

Like I said, good times.

I have an old mugshot that ought to do

2009-12-23T15:25:08Z

I really need to renew my passport, but I don't want to get my picture taken yet again.

I never like having my photo taken, but i really hate it now that I'm all full of steroids.

Sigh.

That is all.

Songs of the Season

2009-12-18T15:07:56Z

I made a Christmas playlist last year for the iPod, and I am again firing up the tunes.

I think my favorite song this time of year is "Christmas Wrapping," by the Waitresses. I swear, this is not because they are from Akron - Holla!, or to those from the Tribe, Challah! - but because it's so bouncy and happy.

Christmas in the Scoop house growing up was a festive occasion. Everyone on both sides of the family, friends and random others packed into our home on Christmas Eve for a party, food and the unwrapping of select gifts.

That all changed when my brother was killed on Dec. 22. This was when I realized the concept of fair-weather friends. Yes, a great many people showed up on Dec. 24 as usual, expecting the party. This despite the fact my mom and stepdad and I had just returned from my brother's viewing.

Yeah.

So now, Christmas is a far more somber time. And I have long-since dispatched in my own life anyone I think enjoys what I might do for them, as opposed to enjoys me. I am now blessed with a wonderful family of a few blood relations and close friends I know would be there if I called. Which is what family is all about.

So, back to Christmas Wrapping. See, it's bouncy. I like the bouncy this time of year.

Aside from The Pretenders (Akron! Holla!) "2000 Miles," which makes me think of my brother, and adoring Aimee Mann's version of "White Christmas," my other seasonal faves are kinda peppy:

The Pogues - "Fairytale of New York."

KT Tunstall - "Mele Kalikimaka" (her version of 2,000 Miles is also pretty great).

Ray Charles and Betty Carter - "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

Give them a listen. Especially the Waitresses. I just love that song.

Book 62

2009-12-16T17:23:25Z

Book 62
Christmas Jars - Jason F. Wright

This novella has some odd pacing, sloppy character development and is too heavy on the melodrama without conveying much emotion.
Still, compared to what I just finished, it was a palatable story that tries (a bit too hard) to show the joy and healing that comes from giving.
In the story, a young journalist who is enduring a rough patch suddenly finds a jar of spare change and some bills on her doorstep when she needs it most. Sensing a story, she tracks down the family that started the tradition of giving away a year's worth of spare change to the needy and finds a true connection.
It's so formulaic, you know what happens next. But it tries.
And no, I am not being kind because this is a story about a reporter. Although the author is identified as a former journalist, his character bears no resemblance to the traits and abilities of any professional journo I know.
I might, however, have a weak spot for another reason. Growing up, my mother always put her change in a giant bottle in our living room. Pennies were rolled into sleeves, taken to the bank and traded for dimes. Dimes, eventually, gave way to quarters. And yes, that money often was all there was to buy for Christmas.
I don't have a Christmas jar or bottle of my own. But I do still save and roll change. Perhaps there is redemptive power in little family traditions, too.

Book 61 - now I'm gonna have to read something else

2009-12-15T20:49:55Z

Book 61
Animal Magnetism - Rita Mae Brown

Billed as a memoir of a life with animals, by an author who co-wrote a successful series of mysteries with her cat, Sneaky Pie, this seemed a fun and uplifting read.
No.
This is the single worst book of the year. Bad enough that Brown felt compelled to go on and on and on about her love of fox hunting and hounds. At least that's part of the pitch of the book.
Worse, she runs off on political tangents, about how authors with millions like her can't afford to pay minimum wage to people who work on their farms. Seriously?
She also loves to bash the federal government, because clearly it's all the politicians fault that the majority of people now live in cities and suburbs, not rural areas. You think I am exaggerating. I am not. This the argument of a woman who has the logical prowess of someone named Corky.
I got hives listen to her insult my intelligence, about how -- gasp -- at any time the market could turn, her books won't sell and then -- horror! -- what will become of her animals? This was a theme throughout the book.
She also managed, in just 256 pages, to belittle the readers of mysteries who made her all that coin; insist that only folks in the Appalachians are truly good souls; and take credit as the best pet owner ever, as she admits to -- oopsie! -- letting one of her dogs get torn apart by coyotes.
Awful, awful, awful. But nothing in my reading life prepared me for her aside, bemoaning - I am NOT making this up - the "loss of the servant class."
And now, thanks to this wingnut, I have to find myself some other books to read in the next two weeks. No way in hell this is the last book of my reading year.

Buster Voodoo

2009-12-15T19:29:48Z

You could think that acoustic guitar music from two Mexican performers wouldn't be ideal seasonal music.

You would be wrong. This stuff is fantastic, any time.

Enjoy.

TV or not TV

2009-12-14T18:21:45Z

I've never been a snob about television. But it's true, I didn't watch very much.

Largely, that's because I've spent the bulk of my adult life sans cable. I have had some favorite shows, to be sure. But I wasn't really in the know when people would cackle over lines from last night's "IT" show.

Until a few years ago, that is. I think Tina Fey is one of the funniest people on the planet. I'm sure we'd be besties if we ever met. Surely, Scoop humor would worm me into her heart.

And yes, I adore "30 Rock." As I explained to ArtBoy, though: As much as I adore my Tina, I think Alec Baldwin is genius on the show. Brilliant, in a way that a talented actor can make delivering the hard lines of comedy appear easy, effortless even.

So I die a little inside when I hear he is about to give up acting after this contract is up. I hope he changes his mind.

Nothing to do but wait. IIn the meantime, after I read this, I loved him even more.

www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/arts/music/13baldwin.html

Blue Christmas

2009-12-13T17:45:37Z

I'm feeling rather down this holiday season, moreso than usual (those who know the family history understand).

Part is that I am just not back to being "me." I keep saying I'm probably about 55-60 percent of normal. That is a huge improvement from being so sick, so I'm not whining. But I'd like to get back to 100 percent sooner rather than later. OK,so yeah, that is whining.

I did enjoy a few things, that made me think of departed family members. I watched "National Lampoon's Vacation" last night. It always makes me think of my brother. He had seen in the theater before I did, and he could barely stop crying and laughing, at the scene when Chevy Chase accidentally ties the mean dog to the bumper and drives off. I can still see his face repeating the line, "Poor little guy. Probably kept up for a mile or so, before his legs gave out ..."

And then, I saw this oddity. It made me think of my stepdad, who loved banks and, even more, loved strange things. Leave it to the Japanese.

(More info on the bank is here: www.crunchgear.com/2009/12/11/itazura-bank-the-cutest-piggy-bank-youve-ever-seen-video/)

Well, damn.

2009-12-10T20:44:51Z

I do promise to write again soon. But for now, back to some very depressing clicky action.

(Note: If you don't care about the state of journalism and news, feel free to skip today and maybe buy your local paper, instead).

1. The magazine that covers my industry and the magazine that reviews the printed word, both gone from the landscape as well as cyberspace.
www.poynter.org/column.asp

(Note: Both are up for sale to continue the brand. Anyone want to chip in and relaunch E&P. My best name: No one & Wordpress)

2. A look at what my colleagues will fight over in the coming year.
www.niemanlab.org/2009/12/next-years-news-about-the-news-what-well-be-fighting-about-in-2010/

3. OK, just for sticking with me, a link to a photo I never would have seen if it weren't for the lovely and talented Jump The Snark. All hail, JTS.
photos.bizzlepix.com/index.php

Book 60

2009-12-09T19:59:26Z

Book 60
By George - Wesley Stace

You wouldn't think a coming-of-age story told in parallel narratives of a young boy and an old ventriloquist's dummy would be hard to put down.
You would be wrong.
George is an English boy growing up in a Vaudeville/show business family in the 1970s. George is also the dummy - ahem, "boy" - of the schoolboy's grandfather, a World War II-era ventriloquist known for his heroic shows to troops on the front lines.
The book unfolds with first-person storytelling of a plot that focuses on absentee fathers - the two Georges are the only men in the family, or so it appears - and family secrets that slowly begin to explain new connections to one another.
And, by using the dummy as well as George and his grandfather's sometimes mute lives, the book also examines the idea of finding, and creating, your own voice. It might seem overt, but Stace writes with a subtly that is both moving and engrossing.
I didn't realize until I'd completed the book and read the artist blurb that Stace is actually the given name of folk singer John Wesley Harding. Knowing that a musical artist posed such questions on voice and writing somehow makes it even better.

Clicky clicky

2009-12-08T19:40:39Z

It's a link kinda day here in ScoopWorld, as I try to get back into daily musings.

1. I think Obama has coasted far too long on not being much more than "Not Bush." Here, Frank Rich -- who has been a personal fave for years -- strikes pretty close to my opinion of Obama and the surge and the latest news.
www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06rich.html

2. Revealing profile of a nice Ohio boy who ended up overseeing $700 billion with TARP.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402016.html

3. A sad (and nauseating) commentary on my fellow Americans. Out to get us? Blarf.
www.timesnews.net/pollindex.php

4. Some very, very good news. And trust me: versed makes a colonoscopy a breeze. Honset.
www.npr.org/blogs/health/2009/12/cancer_cases_and_deaths_declin.html

5. This is just a nice profile, a clean read and, an idea for work when this whole career of mine sputters behind a pay wall.
www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/sports/08otb.html

6. An under-the-radar clash of which freedom will trump the other: religion or association?
www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-dc-court-christians,0,807688.story

7. The best reviewers offer their 2009 Best of Lists, and I couldn't resist. (I'll soon be pilfering from these lists for my 2010 50-book challenge).
features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/12/04/best-books-of-2009-nonfiction/
features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/12/03/best-books-of-2009-fiction/
www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm

8. Best music of 2009, according to NRP listeners:
www.stumbleupon.com/su/4ZdKEw/www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

9. Time to think about these things ... just a few weeks to get it all done!
www.miamiherald.com/business/personal-finance/story/1368378.html

10. A good mid-day break. I have bought a few shirts here as gifts and one for me. I'm tempted, being from Ohio and surrounded by hippes in my current locale, to buy the Meat is Murder T-shirt. You can see the rest under Classics on the site.
www.threadless.com/

Limping along

2009-12-07T22:28:22Z

I've been bad at updating here, though my Facebook was and continues to be a trove of Scoop information of late.

The quickie update is that I am feeling better, better being relative. I still have some lingering health issues - mostly the Crohn's and the prednisone withdrawal, I think - that make me feel awfully weak and tired.

But I am back at work. I've written briefs and no stories, true. I'm getting there. it's just taking me longer than I would ever have expected. Seriously, i don't think I've ever been knocked down like this before.

So many thanks to those who sent notes and goodies to keep my mind occupied and spirits up. They worked wonders.

And if you haven't seen me, I promise, I am not avoiding you. I am just still mostly in hibernation mode when I'm not going to or coming from work. This works in my favor in avoiding unwanted holiday obligations. It does not work in my favor for missing desired holiday obligations.

So to sum up: Yes, I still recommend everyone get the swine vaccine. And yes, I also recommend everyone eat some ham. Or bacon. Show 'em who's boss, people!

Books 57, 58 and 59 - there's a favorite in here, people

2009-12-04T19:44:47Z

Book 57
Delusions of Grandma - Carrie Fisher

The thing about a Carrie Fisher novel is that they aren't really novels at all. They're stories of things that a scarred and quirky child of Hollywood has seen, done or wanted to do. Here, Carrie becomes Cora, a screenwriter whose romance to a nice-guy lawyer is doomed from the start but manages to survive as a safety net for a friend dying of AIDS and the, creates new life when Cora, er, Carrie finds out she's pregnant. Witty, quick and filled with heartache and faux self-awareness, it isn't literature. But the writing is clear, even if there isn't much to the plot. Even as interconnected stories, swipes and sorrows, it works well enough for what it is.

Book 58
The Woman Who Gave Birth To Rabbits- Emma Donoghue

Donoghue has been a favorite of mine since reading Stir Fry about a decade ago. Her writing is astounding, able to make simple everyday moments come alive on the page. True, you can practically hear her Irish cadence on the page. But it works, repeatedly, whether she is crafting a novel or one of her many collections of short stories.
This is the latter, a collection of her takes on historical moments like, yes, the woman who faked giving birth to a dozen dead rabbits. The history is quirky, but what makes the stories work are what serves the best historical writer well: the ability to weave a narrative around an event.
And here Donoghue is in prime form. Her imagination, for instance, tackles the historical fact that Mary Wollestonecraft worked briefly as a governess. In Donoghue's hands, the reason for her dismissal is told from one of her charges, a tomboyish and wilfull child named Margaret. Another historical fact: Margaret would grow up to befriend the daughter that Wollenscraft died giving birth to: Mary Shelley.
It is the mix of the imagination and reality and Donoghue's ability to write so intimately that brings these little scraps of history alive. I wouldn't have imagined that I would care about a trivial moment in history, when a drunken soldier is tricked into marrying a spinster. Or that I'd never heard of a religious cult leader who convinces her followers to fast for 40 days to prepare for End Times.
But Donoghue takes these obscurities of history and creates the sort of detail and reason that we all crave when trying to understand how or why something may have happened. Her imagination is so vivid, it becomes hard to believe the stories happened any other way.

Book 59
The Willoughbys - Lois Lowry

This is it: the best book I've read all year.
Sure, it is technically for children. And one reason it's been sitting on my shelf for ages was its slender 176 pages seemed to be something I could put off, indefinitely.
Silly, silly Scoopgirl.
This wacky story of the four Willoughby children and their odious parents (don't fret; the book includes a glossary in the back with a delicious description of odious) is a brilliant and hilarious slam on all the convention's of old-fashioned children's literature.
This parody offers twist after twist: four precocious children who want to rid themselves of their parents, without knowing the parents are as eager to be done with the children. Throw in a nanny, a baby left on the doorstep, a wealthy recluse with a sad secret, a few background cats and you have yourself the best send-up of faux nostalgia out there.
Lowry is overt with some of it - such as the constant musing of what "old-fashioned" people might do next) but slyly includes social commentary on capitalism and family as well as outright silliness and charm.
Everything I've seen online confirms that this, like Lowry's most known work, is for children. But I think it's actually a book for adults, masquerading as kids' book. What a wonderful find.

Prednisone and the single gal

2009-11-23T21:05:41Z

After a major flare a few years ago, fellow Crohnies told me about the Prednisone Closet.

See, taking mega doses of a steroid does remarkably odd things to your body. For me, my first time it:

Temporarily made me diabetic
Put 14 or 16 pounds on me overnight
Made my knee joints so bad, I didn't think I could walk
Filled my hands and face with so much fluid, I literally didn't have a single crease on either

Good times.

The result of all this fluid retention, blood sugar wackiness, bloating and fat distribution is, not surprising, you get much, much bigger.

Enter, the closet. A Prednisone Closet is where you have clothes in sizes 1-3 times bigger than normal, so you can comfortably get something around you. And since pred has an amazing half life, you need those clothes for months and months on end. For me, it took almost a full year for the swelling to truly drop.

I've been more-or-less healthy since. And last year, I did a very silly thing indeed. I figured I'd remain healthy-ish, and I gave away the clothes in the Prednisone Closet. I kept a few big shirts and one pair of pants, but for the most part, the Big Girl Clothes were all gone.

Flash forward to this month, when they put me on prednisone again as an anti-inflammatory for the pneumonia. It worked ... I can breathe ... but the side effects are all back. And I have no damn clothes.

Which is why I'm proud to say I did manage to fly back to Ohio (not as easy task in my current wobbly state) for my birthday and Thanksgiving. Yes, I've already enjoyed the food -- last night had Lake Erie perch with paprika and today enjoyed pierogies and a Slovene sausage -- but I've also enjoyed the retail climate.

The Prednisone Closet has slowly been replenlished: $3 sweat pants, $5 jeans, two $7 shirts and $10 dress pants. OK, none of these clothes are what you might call remarkably flattering. But they fit. And they're cheap. And this time, I am not throwing any of them away...

Book 56

2009-11-20T06:27:34Z

A Knock At The Door - Margaret Ajemian Ahnert

Growing up in Northeast Ohio gives you a unique placeholder on history in the last century.
For instance, hearing about the "Hunkys" was a common theme in my mom's upbringing, when the Hungarian revolution in 1956 led to hundreds and thousands of refugees to find shelter in the Rust Belt towns in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Even by the time I born 20 years later, I knew what a Hunky was, and I surely know how to tell a Hungarian name with the properly placed sz.
It was before my mother's time, but the concept of Starving Armenians also survived her parents, her and made its way to me. This despite the fact I was in high school before I could actually point to Armenia on a map (the traditional homeland, akin to the Palestinians, is actually part of Turkey, what is now Armenia, Iraq and bits of Iran).
The historical fact, sadly, is in dispute. What is not is that as a Christian minority in a crumbling Islamic empire, Armenians suffered a 30-year pogrom by a succession of Ottoman and Turkish rulers. Many historians view the scapegoating of the Armenians - a religious minority with a knack for business and education - as the model for Hitler's Final Solution.
Too few people know of this history. But if you want a primer, down to a person, this historical memoir is a fine place to start. In it, Ajemian Ahnert tells the story of her mother, Ester, who as a teen was among those forced to walk in the death marches, surviving only to become a slave, rape victim and, ultimately, a refugee bound for America.
It is nasty, heart-rendering stuff. It's also illegal to read or discuss in Turkey, as that country still has not owned up its ethnic cleansing. And yet, Ester's tale is one of the hope - of finding humanity at the moments when it matters most and for triumphing with wit and inner courage instead of violence and fear.
The writing may be a bit workmanlike, but the story shines clear. I just wish more people would hear it.

Book 55

2009-11-19T14:51:52Z

A Journal for Jordan - Dana Canedy

Dana Canedy grew up an Army brat, determined for a different life. She found her way in journalism, working in Florida and Cleveland before vaulting to the New York Times. She had become what she wanted: independent, smart and world-savvy. And, alone.
Then, she has a chance meeting with an Army sergeant at her dad's still-military home. A love story begins to unfold, even as both cling to the lives they have reached on their own into middle-age.
By the time it's clear that Sgt. Charles King will deployed to Iraq, they have danced around the idea of marriage, decided to get pregnant and tentatively begun to fit their lives together.
Just before King leaves, Canedy-the-word-person gives him a blank journal. King begins writing immediately, adding entries in Texas, Kuwait and Iraq, all addressed to his unborn son.
The journal survives the war. King, felled by an IAD, does not. He meets his son on a two-week leave, when the baby is 6 months old, and dies just a month before he is to be discharged.
This book is Canedy's addition to that story, filling in the gaps of her life with Jordan's father and a life fractured by war. Her writing is deep and moving, and she is willing to showcase her own weaknesses to further honor the man she loved.
Still, though Canedy is the principal writer, she acts mostly as a guide for someone who could never have known Charles King. Readers, and his son someday, need this narrator to follow through what is basically a father-son conversation from a man who, rightly or wrongly, put duty above family.

ScoopHiatius

2009-11-16T08:16:53Z

I suspect -- ok, I pretty much know -- the blog and emails will be on hold for a bit.

That ache in my back and the dizziness and cough and struggling to catch my breath all add up to the bronchitis turning into pneumonia. This according to ScoopFriend MD and ScoopMom RN.

The plan, after meeting with the doc on Saturday, was to try at-home meds and return Monday with the hopes of seeing about 50 percent improvement. I

nstead, I've gone about 50 percent down. I'm getting a chest X-ray tomorrow, but I think it will just be protocol. I can't see a way he won't send me to the hospital.

So, I'm about to become one of those swine statistics you see in the CDC data: still contagious with the original flu and now felled by complications.

All positive cosmic whirlies most welcome that the lungs will win this fight against the complication: supine flu.

Books 53 and 54

2009-11-13T19:07:20Z

Book 53
Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea - Chelsea Handler
Crass, sarcastic and raunchy, Handler is less a stand-up comic than just a cranky storyteller who embellishes and offers tangents as she sees fit. She rarely makes you laugh out loud, but it can happen. I loved her analysis of why Angelina's son from Cambodia looks so pissed off in every photo (he didn't realize getting adopted by her meant constant visits to other third-world countries and would just have preferred to stay in the US) and her recounting of expanding her dating pool to redheads. But some of the other stories try to hard to be mean or cutting edge and just fall flat. It was unveven, at best.

Book 54
Mentally Incontinent - Joe Peacock
Ever go to a party and meet a friend of a friend of a friend who has no filter to share a random story? You listed and think, hmm, mildly amusing. But the filter never kicks in, the guy keeps going and you end up thinking the guy is a total douche?
Gotham Books has given that guy a book. It's a collection of stories -- supposedly all true - from his "unlucky life" in and around Atlanta. Like that time - oh, no! total kneeslapper - an ex-girlfriend called him gay and so his mom thought he was!
Oh, and then, there was that one time he totally landed a corporate job but, like, didn't have anything to do once he set up the IT and web stuff, and he, like, met a stalker by calling a 1-800 number. I know! Hilarious!
Like I said, there are some bits that are really funny. But if Handler was uneven, Peacock is unstable. Does telling stories about when you were a douche not make you a douche because you're willing to share them? Um, no. How about a point beyond the, "oh, the crazy hijinks of my youth."
That said, there is some promise here. But the "social editing" experiment from his website may grab readers, but it doesn't make him a better writer.

Dora has started looking like this in water

2009-11-12T03:27:43Z

Books 51 and 52

2009-11-11T21:45:44Z

Books 51 and 52
Chosen Prey - John Sandford
Hidden Prey - John Sandford

A friend in Florida was reading the books in the Prey series when I visited last spring, and I grabbed a few at a book sale for her to have. But now that I'm felled with the flu, I've read two of the ones I found.
Sandford - the pen name of Pulitzer-prize winning journalist John Camp - wrote the series in order. Chosen came out in 2001. Hidden is from 2004.
Both, like the rest, feature Lucas Davenport, a no-nonsense cop and character living in the Twin Cities who deals specifically with high-profile crime. Sometimes, as in Chosen, you learn who the killer is right from the start. In Hidden, you see the killer but don't know motive until much later in the book.
It's escapist reading for someone like me, who also likes Cold Case and Law & Order. But the books also have got plenty of wry humor and gentle subplots that keep things going nicely.

Oink

2009-11-11T17:45:35Z

On Saturday, I would have told you that getting diagnosed with the swine flu was no big deal. It just felt like a nasty cold.

On Sunday, I would have said that yeah, it's a flu, because I was so fatigued. I slept all day.

On Monday, I would have figured the reports were overblown, because I felt much, much stronger. That barking cough I had did get worse, though, and ended up keeping me up all hours.

On Tuesday, I understood. The fever spiked. New symptoms appeared. I could barely make it to the bathroom and back. The coughing wouldn't go away. I desperately wished somebody could be there and desperately didn't want to infect anyone else with this wickedness.

Today, I have kept down breakfast (an improvement); kept down the medicine (an improvement) and am taking it easy. It's not hard, given I have to work up the energy to get back upstairs and into bed.

So that's why if you've been calling or emailing, you haven't heard from me. All positive cosmic whirlies welcome, however.