Jan Reid: Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series)
Wonderful biography of the American Roots Music Master and one of the original cosmic cowboys.
Tom Nolan: Three Chords for Beauty's Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw
Well written and thoroughly researched biography of one of the real greats of the Swing Era. In the late thirties and early forties swing fans were either fans of Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw. While Goodman was easily the more popular, Shaw made music of rare beauty and was a much more mercurial figure. Unlike Goodman, Shaw retired fro performing in the fifties, but lived into his nineties to see his music reissued and revived. This book does a great job of telling his life and describing his music while unflinchingly describing his unnattractive personality.
Anthony Bourdain: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Effectively a series of short essays, some as short as a blog post about a variety of food and dining issues. If you've seen his TV show (highly recommended) or read his "discussions" on the internet, you've heard all this before. Entertaining in his normal neo-Hunter S Thompson style.
David Lebovitz: The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City
The author talks about his life as an American transplanted to Paris. Since is is a chef and cookbook author by trade, I would describe this as autobiography with recipes. The stories of Paris are quite good. So are the recipes.
Michael Lewis: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Riveting account of several big players who saw the financial crisis in subprime lending coming and made money based on their foresight.
David Weber: A Mighty Fortress (Safehold Book 4)
Book 4 of the Safehold series continues the trend of being more action packed as the adventure unfurls. This book will be especially enjoyed by lovers of nautical fiction.
Lynne Olson: Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
Very interesting book about the English politics that replaced Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill as World War two started. Much more interesting and complicated than you expect.
Nathaniel C. Fick: One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
Outstanding book that lets you see the front lines in our ongoing war on terror and the culture of the U. S. Marines.
Rick Atkinson: The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy)
Excellent detailed account of the US European campaign in World War II started with the Pulitzer Prize willing An Army At Dawn. Reading this while traveling in Italy helped to underscore the impact that terrain had in this hard fought theater in the war.
Dunstan Prial: The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music
John Hammond is one of the great figures in American music and an important figure in the early civil rights movement. He produced Bessie Smith's last record session and Billie Holiday's first. He was an important figure in the careers of Count Basie. He also signed Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to their first recording contracts. I much prefer Hammond's autobiography but this is is a well told tale.
« July 2010 | Main | December 2010 »
In my quick postgame recap of the game against the Charlotte Bobcats I wrote that "if the jumpers don't fall, this team doesn't win." The corollary to this of course is that if the jumpers do fall, then the Wizards are going to very pesky team to contend with on any given night.
Click here for full game recap from Bulletsforever
Omaha
DEAR Uncle Sam,
My mother told me to send thank-you notes promptly. I’ve been remiss.
Let me remind you why I’m writing. Just over two years ago, in September 2008, our country faced an economic meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the pillars that supported our mortgage system, had been forced into conservatorship. Several of our largest commercial banks were teetering. One of Wall Street’s giant investment banks had gone bankrupt, and the remaining three were poised to follow. A.I.G., the world’s most famous insurer, was at death’s door.
Many of our largest industrial companies, dependent on commercial paper financing that had disappeared, were weeks away from exhausting their cash resources. Indeed, all of corporate America’s dominoes were lined up, ready to topple at lightning speed. My own company, Berkshire Hathaway, might have been the last to fall, but that distinction provided little solace.
Nor was it just business that was in peril: 300 million Americans were in the domino line as well. Just days before, the jobs, income, 401(k)’s and money-market funds of these citizens had seemed secure. Then, virtually overnight, everything began to turn into pumpkins and mice. There was no hiding place. A destructive economic force unlike any seen for generations had been unleashed.
Only one counterforce was available, and that was you, Uncle Sam. Yes, you are often clumsy, even inept. But when businesses and people worldwide race to get liquid, you are the only party with the resources to take the other side of the transaction. And when our citizens are losing trust by the hour in institutions they once revered, only you can restore calm.
When the crisis struck, I felt you would understand the role you had to play. But you’ve never been known for speed, and in a meltdown minutes matter. I worried whether the barrage of shattering surprises would disorient you. You would have to improvise solutions on the run, stretch legal boundaries and avoid slowdowns, like Congressional hearings and studies. You would also need to get turf-conscious departments to work together in mounting your counterattack. The challenge was huge, and many people thought you were not up to it.
Well, Uncle Sam, you delivered. People will second-guess your specific decisions; you can always count on that. But just as there is a fog of war, there is a fog of panic — and, overall, your actions were remarkably effective.
The Army’s remote-controlled, bomb-finding robots aren’t finding enough bombs in Afghanistan. So the military is toying with a new notion: Let the robot drive itself; and make it bigger, like the size of a golf cart.
In a recent solicitation for small businesses, the Army expresses interest in a remote-controlled vehicle that’s bigger than most robots but (way) smaller than its fleet of tactical vehicles. Really, it’s a software system outfitted with sensors for detecting a variety of bombs — “pressure activated devices and command detonated explosive devices” alike — that can turn an existing “mid-sized” vehicle into a self-driving or remotely-controlled car. The so-called “Intelligent Behavior Engine” has to support “skid steer hydraulic arm attachments” — Doctor Octopus-like robot arms, to defuse the bombs it finds. And it’s got to weigh between 500 and 3000 pounds (the size of a golf cart, Smart car, or John Deere Gator), making it hypothetically “capable of traversing long distances on narrow, rugged paths.”
From a struggling reserve with a minutes limitation to a starter? It could happen for Gilbert Arenas only four days after it appeared that his return to form was going to be a prolonged endeavor. His jump shot was off target and he was slow to get in proper game shape after missing nearly three weeks of action with a strained tendon his right ankle.
see full article at: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider/2010/11/is-it-finally-time-for-gilbert.html?wprss=wizardsinsider#
