1. I have just spent the past hour leaving various comments on favorite blogs. I have a self-imposed moratorium on ChicagoBoyz commenting because I tend to get sucked into the “time loss” vortex around here.
2. With regard to my internet commenting, it appears that I am an internet know-it-all. Note to self: humility is a fine quality. And stay away from Twitter.
3. Whit Stillman has a new movie out*, Damsels in Distress. Joy and happiness.
4. Say, how do you minimize open windows on a Mac so that I can go back and forth between windows quickly and do the command-C and command-V thing? What’s that? But I don’t wanna go to the Apple Store (Macphobia/Mac-for-Dummies didn’t work for me). The Apple Store is so crowded and I don’t fit in with the “must have latest gadgets” crowd. No disrespect intended but the frantic and excited look in many an eye reminds me of the Nordstrom shoe department on sale day.
5. I love that shoe department.
6. Here are a list of books in a random corner of my home:
Neal Stephenson’s latest (I was at his recent book reading here in ChicagoLand), a book about the Soviets in Afghanistan, True Grit by Charles Portis, Mildred Pierce (yes, there is a book and not just a movie), a book of Salman Rushdie essays, Reagan In His Own Hand, The Long Walk, and a chicklit book called The Vintage Affair.
What are you reading?
PS: I figured out the Mac thing. Never mind.
*PPS: I guess the movie has been filmed but is yet to be released?
I wish I had more time to comment on posts too. It can suck you in. I don’t do a very good job of commenting or defending even here at Chicago Boyz. Dan from Madison is much better at it.
I figure if I have the time I might as well post not read or comment. Like the Onion says, mine is a one-way conduit of information :)
Also probably too many other blogs elsewhere but of course Dan beats me on that, too.
I need to get back to writing about energy and tax policy but the research involved can be intimidating. I’m not just writing 2 sentences on top of someone else’s stuff. Not usually :)
@Carl – sleep is overrated.
“Riding With Reagan” is excellent. I didn’t know he was in the Army Reserve for years (where he learned to ride the Army way) but flunked the active duty physical. When he was elected, the Secret Service had to find some one who knew how to ride a horse.
They wrote a book and a film about a Sonic Youth song? Yeah!
Book: Fertility Farming by Newman Turner.
I am reading:
The Age of Enterpirse: A Social History of Industrial America, Rev. Ed., by Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller,
and,
V.S. Naipaul, The Writer and the World.
I just finished The Origins of American Politics by Bernard Bailyn — which had one very good and useful idea. Specifically, the idea that was current in England, that a cabal of villains wanted to strip Englishmen of their liberties, was seized upon by the Americans, and, in their case, it was correct. The Americans were right to revolt. The Parliament by then had become an executive committee of a class, and it was determined to crush and exploit everyone it get onto its butcher’s block for carving — Scotland, Ireland, India — and they had their cleaver sharpened for America. We got out at the right moment.
I was also recently looking at M. Stanton Evans, The Theme is Freedom, Religion, Politics and the American Tradition — this is a masterpiece. I am referring to it for the book I am writing with Jim Bennett — that is also true of the Cochran book. The Evans is one that should be far more widely known. In Evans I ran across a reference to the Dutch Act of Abjuration, in effect their declaration of Independence from Spain. It is simply amazing that this document is so little known to Americans. Jefferson’s Declaration is very clearly based on it.
Oh yeah, also recently finished V.S. Naipaul, India: A Million Mutinies Now. That is a very good book.
One small comment on Democrats and Republicans; At the inauguration of Reagan in 1981, Nancy Reagan asked the secret service agent who had been her husband’s riding companion since the election, if she was in the right place. Rosalind Carter was shocked that she knew his first name. Shades of Hillary Clinton and her attitude toward the “help.
Michael – glad you like the book – I too thought it was excellent. You feel like you know Reagan by the time you have finished…
I have started – then stopped – have to restart – The Forgotten Man
Haha, I didn’t see Jonathan’s post before I posted this! Really! Shoes and maps! I like maps, I like shoes :)
Thanks for the comments everyone and I will look into some of the reading suggestions. Generally, I like to respond to each comment to my posts individually but I am still on my blog comment moratorium around here. Once I start commenting, I will not be able to stop….
:)
– Madhu
onparkstreet, you need to check out Protein Wisdom, where the real know-it-alls hang out. The in-your-face know-it-alls.
Unlike here, where everyone is on their very best behavior.