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The Flamethrowers 2
Art Arfons and his Green Monster I went to a great lecture earlier this month. Richard Tapia, a renowned mathematician at Rice University, spoke on “Math at top speed: exploring and breaking myths in...
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A World on Fire, 3
I finished Amanda Foreman’s long history A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War two Fridays ago. I had started it back in March, when I wrote my initial post. Then I...
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Book of the Week
I can’t pass up mention of a new book, Beyond the Quadratic Formula, which appeared for sale just three days ago at the eBooks Store of the Mathematical Association of America. I understand that a...
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Sentinel
A month ago, I wrote about Emma’s seventeenth birthday. I thought at the time that she had retired from active duty. But with warmer weather and longer days, she’s been resuming some of her outdoor...
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Bridge Fear
Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tomorrow’s NYT has an article on the fear induced in drivers by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which runs for a little over four miles from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to a point on...
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Felix Hernandez Bobblehead
According to this history of bobblehead dolls, the bobble head doll seemed to be deemed a 20th century relic by the turn of the century, but Major League Baseball again brought back the bobble head...
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In the Queue
Edsel Ford, detail from Diego Rivera’s murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1932. Limited posting lately. Sorry about that. It’s not just that there are things to do at work. Also, our house is a...
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Safeco Diamond Club
I haven’t gone to many Mariners baseball games in recent years. Until last weekend, the last time I was at Safeco Field was almost two years ago. The year before, my brother-in-law Jim had won an...
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Methland
A few years ago, my friend Werner had just finished Nick Reding’s Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town and told me about it over lunch, urging me to read it as well. I looked at...
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Antiques Roadshow at the Burke
Dzoonokwa Mask, George Walkus. Wood, paint, and human hair. From the Burke Museum. The PBS hit series Antiques Roadshow came to Seattle recently, with an episode that aired just last week. During their...
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Our Sweet Emma
Emma, June 1, 2013 Emma turned 17 six weeks ago. As I wrote at the time, “just getting up onto the bed is chore enough … but Emma remains determined to get around. … She’s a tough old gal.” About a...
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French Open Blackout
Rafael Nadal A historic tennis match is taking place right now at the French Open and I’m not watching it. It’s the men’s semifinal between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two best players in the...
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Scalia Dissent
I learned last week that like the stopped clock that’s right twice a day, Supreme Court Justice Scalia is right, too, when given the passage of sufficient time. The court decided last Monday in a 5-4...
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Edward Snowden Interview
The Guardian has released an interview with Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the disclosures on NSA surveillance published by the Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian this past week. If you...
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The Summer of Beer and Whiskey
Three weeks ago, at the New Yorker blog, Jon Michaud wrote about a book I might otherwise have missed, Edward Achorn’s The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a...
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Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere
A week ago I finished Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town, Nick Reding’s account of life in Oelwein, Iowa, in the first years of this century. This morning I finished The Summer of...
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Keeping Us Safe
As we continue to learn more about what President Obama does to keep us safe from terrorists, it may be worth reviewing Article 2, Section 1, Clause 8 of the US Constitution: Before he enter on the...
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The Blackhouse
I’m about 120 pages into The Blackhouse, the first book in Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy. I’ve intended to read it since Marilyn Stasio’s short review in her regular Sunday NYT crime novel roundup last...
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Nocera on Obama
President Obama delivering speech on national security, May 23, 2013 [Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP] I keep my quoting of NYT columnists to a minimum. Their work is easy to find. Their views are widely...
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Anniversary Dinner, 2
We were married 28 years ago today at the Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle. As I wrote last year, “we therefore make it a habit to return to the Olympic for our anniversary dinner. Not every year,...
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