Fans of the king of the jungle who want to know the other side of the story will rush out to buy this new tell-all book now. I'll wait until it comes out in paperback.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article4875066.ece
In the meantime, I finished listening to the audio version of The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber last week. It wound itself out to a very satisfying ending and I will definitely pick it up one day as a paperback for a read. Not least I'll remember it because of the amazing coincidence I recognized as it came toward the end. I've also been reading, off and on, a paperback copy of Little Man by Robert Lacey that Sam gave me. I could be wrong; but I think Gruber based some of his characters on Meyer Lansky's convoluted life.
The coincidence comes in because I picked up Air and Shadows soley because it was billed as being abut a lost Shakespeare manuscript. Then it actually turned out to be about a complex set of characters, including Russian Jewish mobsters, searching for and fighting over a Shakespeare manusript and the clues leading toward it. What are the chances I would be reading about Lansky and also listening to a book, some of whose characters are an awful lot like Lansky?
Finally, over the weekend I learned that some of you young-uns out there think political assassinations are mainly the work of right wing nuts. This false meme probably arises from the fact that left wing propagandists have been selling you that line - including on wikipedia where die-hard lefties insist that Lee Harvey Oswald was a pawn of the CIA against the simple facts in evidence. Here's a short memory list of recent political assassinations and attempts:
Ronald Reagan - shot by a complete loon who wanted to impress Jodie Foster
John Lennon - shot by a loonie rock music fan
Gerald Ford - shot at by a loonie hippie follower of Charles Manson and then almost shot at later
by a loonie housewife whose motives defy description
Martin Luther King - killed by a loonie multiple times felon, perhaps the exception that proves
the rule
Robert Kennedy - killed by a loonie Palestinian who believed Kennedy was too much a supporter
of Israel
John F. Kennedy - killed by a loonie Marxist who had defected to the Soviet Union and then
returned to the U.S. You're free to pick your own conspiracy theory, but if I'm forced to
vote for one I come down on the side of Oswald acting for Fidel Castro in some way. Castro
had a legitimate and timely beef against JFK since JFK and his brother Bobby had actively
and persistently plotted to have him assassinated in one of the more comic opera affairs of
recent history. Google Operation Mongoose and keep firmly in mind the fact that Saint
John F. Kennedy and his brother Saint Robert F. Kennedy were the president and
attorney general who pushed for it.
Look this all up for yourself if you don't believe me; but be careful to read deeply because propagandists on the left are very persistent and ingenious at twisting and embroidering the actual facts. Assassinations are mostly carried out by lone true believers, a species of lunatic which the left spawns much more frequently than the right. This makes sense because the left persistently sells the idea that simple and radical plans and actions can bring about Heaven on Earth while the right more typically believes that most attempts to change the existing order of things end badly.
Read the wikipedia entry on Immanentizing the Eschaton for more.
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5 comments:
Re the conspiracy theories. I too am of the mind that many of these crimes were perpetrated by individuals who had severe emotional problems and somehow managed to fly under the radar up until the time they acted out.
I personally have seen a number of sad scenarios in which people tried to provide rational reasons for irrational acts committed by a family member. It's called denial.
I think it's human nature to take the inexplicable and try to ground it in reality.
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On a more positive note, I would like to recommend that you read some of Peter Mayle's books. He is a transplanted Brit who found himself a home in Provence, France.
His novels aren't bad, but what I really enjoy are the books that give personal accounts of his life in the French countryside. They can be very funny.
Have your ever read anything by Bill Bryson?
Finally, since you appear to be an avid fan of Shakespeare, which of his plays would you suggest I read first?
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Another book that I found quite enjoyable:
The $64 Tomato
http://www.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential/dp/1565125576/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223407885&sr=8-1
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Thanks for reminding me of Peter Mayle. I read A Year in Provence quite some time ago but I haven't read any of his others. Amazon just informed me that he wrote the novel on which the movie I saw recently on HBO (A Good Year) was based. I'll have to get his other books.
I listened to the audio of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid recently and I read A Walk in the Woods a while back. I liked them both. Now Amazon is telling me he wrote a book on Shakespeare's life and times which I've put in my Amazon wish list.
I remember liking As You Like It the best; but it's been a long time since I last read a Shakespeare play and I've by no means read them all. They're hard going (like the bible) and I've always been lazy. Often I skimmed for the good parts even back then. They're much better in the theater or on film. We've long gone to them when they're put on locally and I think I've now seen most of them one way or another. You can now read them all free on Gutenberg.org or download them along with a lot of other books although it's presentation is sometimes annoying. Better than reading the plays is to go to worldofquotes.com and just read the good parts out of them or out of just about anybody's books.
That $64 Tomato book looks good. I've put it on my Amazon wish list.
By the way - we tried your roasted figs with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar recipe and found it excellent.
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