Geoff’s posterous

Veterans Day

Veterans Day. A bundle of conflicting feelings and thoughts. Let’s honor those who suffered unimaginable deprivation and hardship or death around the world for our nation, and let’s also hold the generals and politicians accountable for using them wisely and sparingly in the future. Let’s praise the diplomats, artists, and ordinary people who bridge differences and keep us at peace. Let’s praise the courts and laws that hold society together and keep swords in their sheaths and guns in their armories. But when all those things fail, and darkness descends, we need people to step into the breach and keep the barbarians outside the gates. Thank you for your service.

Now Reading

Speaker For The Dead, by Orson Scott Card.

Now reading

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

TransAmerica

   

Click here to download:

transamerica-wwkHhayeJuxhBCghzdkA.zip (901 KB)

Utterly Deadly Southern Pecan Pie, from Cross Creek Cookery By Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

"True Southern pecan pie is one of the richest, most deadly desserts of my knowledge. It is more overpowering than English treacle pie, which it resembles in texture, for to the insult of the cooked-down syrup is added the injury of the rich pecan meats. It is a favorite with folk who have a sweet tooth, and fat men in particular are addicted to it."

"I have nibbled the Utterly Deadly Southern Pecan Pie, and have served it to those in whose welfare I took no interest, but being inclined to plumpness, and having as well a desire to see out my days on earth, I have never eaten a full portion."

Wonderful writing. (And she didn't even mention the four tablespoons of butter, cup of sugar, and four eggs the recipe calls for.)

Reading about the 1918 influenza epidemic.

I had not previously realized the awful connection between the war and the pandemic. Also fascinating is the outcome (or failure) of the Paris peace accords and Wilson's prostration and mental sequelae following a sudden and severe bout of flu during the crux of debate.

Currently Reading - Week of September 28, 2009

On the Kindle:

• The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History by John M. Barry. Not just a chilling tale of the most terrible viral conflagration to rip through humanity in recent memory, but a fascinating history of medicine, politics, social conditions, and war combined aid its deadly progress.

• The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright. Tracing the origins of modern Islamic extremism. Well written and well paced. 
• Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll. 
• The Forever War by Dexter Filkins. 

Yes, the Kindle makes it easy to order a bunch of books on a whim.

Also reading,

• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery to my six year old daughter. Great book about (and for) a young, precocious, imaginative, sweet girl.

On the iPhone:

• Rain Gods by James Lee Burke [Audiobook]. I'm a sucker for Burke, even though he often reaches for the same phrases and themes time and again. ("Why don't you get the mashed potatoes out of your mouth." Alcohol. The tough female deputy.) Much stronger than Swan Peak. Well read by Will Patton with a compelling bad dude.

Can one write a novel on the iPhone?

Can one write a novel on the iPhone?

Maybe not, but if you tried, WriteRoom.iPhone would be the app to do it in.

I don't use it on the Mac (my tools there are TextMate, Scrivener, and Pages), but it is a seductive little app.

Black and white theme. Pinch zoom to get rid of any extraneous display, turn it on its side for a wider keyboard. Close it and relaunch right back where you left off and you've got a surprisingly adequate writing environment, a least for shorter stuff.

On the desktop, the environment feels a bit too Spartan; on the iPhone it feels sleek and fast.

And oh, it's on sale right now for $1.99, as is TextExpander Touch (which it now pairs with to speed up your "distraction free" mobile wordsmithy).

Hmm, with those two, maybe I could write that novel. Bit by bit, in line for groceries and such.

Isn't it pretty to think so?

Currently Reading

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed
The Spies of Warsaw: A Novel, by Alan Furst

Your job is to do justice.

"Your job as assistant US attorneys is not to convict people. Your job is
not to win cases. Your job is to do justice. Your job is in every case,
every decision that you make, to do the right thing. Anybody who asks you
to do something other than that is to be ignored. Any policy that is at
tension with that is to be questioned and brought to my attention. And I
mean that." 

-Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States 
 
(Via boston.com)