S-Peak Leaders Toastmasters.

I will be presenting from the Advanced Communication Series, Technical Presentations manual, Project #5 at Thursday’s S-Peak Leaders meeting. That project, which is entitled “Enhancing a Technical Talk with the Internet,” has requirements beyond the actual speech.

The title of the speech is: “Planning a Trip to National Parks of the Southwest United States.”

I am directed to provide you with a link to online materials – a website – in which you will find information germane to the topic of my presentation.

Here is the website I have selected.

https://www.nps.gov/index.htm

You can all access that website and find information on a variety of National Parks and related facilities. In particular, with regard to Thursday’s presentation, you should look for information on:

Zion National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park

After I give my presentation on Thursday, I will be asking you to come to this blog to post any comments you may have.

Good Afternoon

This post is in the nature of a test.

I was last in this blog in April, 2018, some three months ago. Before that, I had not used the blog in a long time. I have determined that the blog is still alive. I can use it for new posts, provided I use the correct Google account and password.

I intend to make rather different use of this blog in the rest of 2018.

Renovation

Everything requires renovation, sooner or later.

I created this blog in 2007 with a focus on philosophy and reading. I thought it might turn into a sort of literary salon.

I haven't used the blog since 2014, and I don't think I want to go back to using it for the same things I was doing in 2007-2013.

Now I have an assignment for a Toastmasters project, for which this blog might just come in handy.

Stay alert. There will be changes.

Reading List: February 2013

So what was I reading early last year?

I continued re-reading the NIV Study Bible, finishing the books of Leviticus and Numbers, and starting Deuteronomy.

So here's the bare list:

NIV Study Bible
Simon Winchester, editor, The Best American Travel Writing 2009
May Sjowall and Per Wahloo, The Locked Room
George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life
Antonella Ansani, Complete Italian: The Basics
Poul Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Compiled by Hank Davis)
The Economist, The World in 2013
Lee Child, A Wanted Man
Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Cop Killer
Marcel Proust, A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs
Allan Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos 1857-1859
Dorothy Sayers, Unnatural Death

As you can see, some history, some biography, some mysteries, and a bit of science fiction.

From the sidebar, I'll remove the ones I finished in January 2013, and add the ones I started in February, 2013.

August 23, 2014

Years ago, my sister Nancy gave me A Book of Days for the Literary Year.  Here's an example of what the book contains.

August 23 Virgo - the virgin - begins (through September 22)

1799 William Blake writes to Dr. John Trusler: "You say that I want somebody to elucidate my ideas. But you ought to know that what is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men."

1851 Honore de Balzac's Mercadet le Faiseur, his most successful play, opens at the Gymnase in Paris, one year and five months after his death.

1869 Edgar Lee Masters, author of Spoon River Anthology, is born in Garnett, Kans.

I just happen to have a volume of Blake's poems handy, so here's a famous example of his verse.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was they brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Reading List: January 2013

These are the books I was reading during January 2013. Some of them had been started in an earlier month, and some were not completed until after the end of January. A few were started and completed during the month. They are also listed in the Current Reading sidebar on this blog.

For 2013 I am once again following a reading program which will complete the Bible in the course of the year.

The NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995. xxviii + 2,172 pages. ISBN 978-0-310-92588-6. $19.99. Begun January 3, 2013.
Genesis. Begun January 3 and completed January 17, 2013.
Exodus. Begun January 17 and completed January 31, 2013.
Leviticus. Begun January 31, 2013 and finished February 9, 2013.

Anderson, Poul. David Falkayn: Star Trader. Compiled by Hank Davis. Riverdale, NY: Baen Books, 2008. xi + 492 pages. ISBN 978-1-4165-5520-9. $22.00. Begun December 22, 2012 and finished January 9, 2013.

Ansani, Antonella. Complete Italian: The Basics. Edited by Suzanne McQuade. New York: Living Language, 2008. xxviii + 308 pages. ISBN 978-1-4000-2415-5. $10.95. Begun November 30, 2012 and finished March 24, 2013.

Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. New York: The Penguin Press, 2010. xxi + 904 pages. Acknowledgments. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ISBN 978-1-59420-266-7. $40.00. Begun January 13 and finished April 13, 2013.

Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat. New York: Bantam Books, 1987. 201 pages. ISBN 978-0-553-27585-2. $7.99. Begun December 28, 2012 and finished January 7, 2013.

Harvey, Greg. Excel 2010 for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing Company, 2010. xviii + 390 pages. Index. ISBN 978-9-470-48953-6. $24.99. Begun December 18, 2012 and finished January 21, 2013.

LeCarre, John. A Murder of Quality. New York: Bantam Books, 1991 [1962]. 151 pages. ISBN 0-553-26443-5. $4.95. Begun January 13 and finished January 16, 2013.

__________. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. New York: Ballantine Books, 1963. 248 pages. ISBN 0-345-37737-0. $6.99. Begun January 20 and finished January 31, 2013.

Mantel, Hilary. Bring Up the Bodies. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2012. xix + 411 pages. Author's Note. ISBN 978-0-8050-9003-1. $28.00. Begun December 5, 2012 and finished January 1, 2013.

Martin, George R. R. A Game of Thrones. New York: Bantam Books, 2011 [1996]. 835 pages Appendix. ISBN 978-0-553-59371-6. $8.99. Begun January 13 and finished February 9, 2013.

Proust, Marcel. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Paris: Gallimard, 1988 [1919]. xxvii + 568 pages. Notes.

Sayers, Dorothy. Clouds of Witness. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1927. 279 pages. ISBN 0-06-104353-2. $4.99. Begun January 20 and finished January 23, 2013.

____________. Whose Body? New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1923. 212 pages. ISBN 0-06-1043575. Begun January 19 and finished January 20, 2013.

Sjowall, Maj, and Per Wahloo. The Abominable Man, with an Introduction by Jens Lapidus. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2009 [1972]. x + 215 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-39090-5. $14.00. Begun January 24 and finished January 26, 2013.

____________. The Locked Room, with an Introduction by Michael Connelly. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2007 [1973]. xii + 311 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-39049-3. $14.00. Begun January 31 and finished February 4, 2013.

Smith, Jean Edward. Eisenhower In War and Peace. New York: Random House, 2012. xx + 950 pages. Acknowledgments. Notes. Bibliography. Illustration Credits. Index. ISBN 978-1-4000-6693-3. $40.00. Begun December 12, 2012 and finished January 14, 2013.

Winchester, Simon, editor. The Best American Travel Writing 2009. Jason Wilson, series editor. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. xxvii + 351 pages. ISBN 978-0-618-85866-8. $14.00. Begun January 25 and finished February 18, 2013.

A Note on the "Harm Principle"

Harold E. French, Jr., has written a book called Anarchist Solidarity.

According to Harold French's statements on Facebook, and elsewhere, one of the most important concepts in this book is what Mr. French calls "the harm principle." Oddly, for such a critical concept, the "harm principle" is mentioned only three times in the index to Anarchist Solidarity (page 277). There are references to pages 203 and 204, to page 245, and this item: "explained, 22." Therefore, one would expect to find, on page 22, an explanation of the harm principle.

When one looks at page 22 or Mr. French's book, one finds that the index is incorrect. There is a section entitled The Harm Principle, but it begins on page 21 and continues on page 22. This section reads, in its entirety:

The Harm Principle

                Individuals grow, develop, and mature in a variety of ways. We do this because of our genetic make up[sic]. All healthy human babies develop the capacity for language at approximately the same time. Children are able to separate reality from fantasy at approximately the same age. They develop the capacity for moral reasoning at approximately the same age. The exact onset of puberty, the exact end of physical growth, and the exact psychological growth and development curve of all humans is approximately the same. * All of this is grounded in genetics, and the study of human growth and development is a science. In order to flourish[,] a plant requires a certain type of soil, the right amount of water, light, humidity, temperature, et cetera; in the same way, all human beings need certain things to live well. The theoretical point I am trying to make is that, like the plant, what constitutes full psychological and biological development of a human individual is genetically determined. You need to ask yourself whether you agree, or at least ask yourself if you see what I am pointing to. Basically, I am saying the process of growing from an infant into a physically and emotionally mature adult requires certain things. Those things are called goods.** Anything that interferes with this natural process of growth into an emotionally and physically mature adult is said to cause harm.

                Please bear in mind that there is a distinction between stress and harm. Exercise stresses the muscles, but this is what makes them grow strong. A plant's roots grow deeper because of water stress. The absence of harm does not mean the absence of stress; however, too much stress is harmful.

That is all Harold French says about the "harm principle" at this point in his book, Anarchist Solidarity. I think it is obvious that, far from explaining this principle Mr. French does not even state a principle regarding harm. Rather, he has merely strung together some statements about what might be considered harmful in relation to normal human development.

*Why, then, does Mr. French state that individuals grow in a variety of ways? All of his examples point to all individuals developing in very much the same way.

**If natural growth is genetically determined, in the strict sense, then no goods are required. In fact, maturation and development occur as a result of a complex interaction between genetics and the environment, and genetics alone are not determinative.

The Principle Principle

One of my correspondents likes to refer to what he calls the "harm principle." I think it offends him that some of us find this so-called principle incoherent and unintelligible. What is a principle? Are there criteria something ought to meet so that it can be called a principle and not a slogan?

I always like to start with the dictionary. What is a principle? According to The American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition (Office Edition) (1994), a principle is:

n. 1. A basic truth, law, or assumption. 2.a.A rule or standard, esp. of good behavior. b. Moral or ethical standards or judgments. 3. A fixed or predetermined policy. 4. A rule or law concerning the functioning of natural phenomena or mechanical processes. 5. A basic source. Page 658.

Webster's College Dictionary (2003) gives us this:

n 1 a: a fundamental law or doctrine b: a rule or code of conduct c: devotion to right principles d: the laws or facts of nature underlying the working of an artificial device (trying to grasp the principles of radar) 2 a: a primary source : ORIGIN b: an underlying faculty or endowment (such principles of human nature as greed and curiosity) 3: a constituent that exhibits or imparts a characteristic quality (quinine is the active principle of cinchona bark)

The New Roget's Thesaurus in Dictionary Form, Revised Edition (1976), at page 324, has the following entry:

principle, n. regulation, law prescript (RULE)

All of which goes to this point: A principle is similar to what Kant called a maxim, a rule of behavior, a guide to practice. We are, thus, in the realm of practical reason, and we would expect to find guidance. The form of a statement of such a principle should be along the lines of "One should always act in such a way as to ...," or "One should never act so as to ...," and so on.

An example of a principle might be: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

A principle, looked at another way, is a statement which could serve as the major premise of a practical syllogism.

The Death of a Blog

I maintain a little list of blogs on the sidebar of this site, and I probably need to check on them more often. I looked at Anthony Bourdain's blog on the Travel Channel site, for example, and found that the last post was in November 2012. It appears that No Reservations has been cancelled, and Mr. Bourdain will no longer be blogging on that subject.

There was another blog called Apocaloopsis, and I found that the last post on the site was in May of 2012, with the last previous one in November 2011. Doesn't seem very active, does it?

Finally, I went out to Cafe Third Edition, another home for old Great Books Cafe habitues, and found that no one had posted there in almost three years. And the last post was mine!

So, in the interest of diminishing clutter, I've removed those three blogs from the list.

Suggestions for new blog to which I might link are always welcome.

Reading List: December 2012

During the month of December 2012 I finished two books that I had previously started, continued reading in one books that was underway, started and finished two books, and started five books that I did not complete by the end of the month.

H. V. Morton, A Traveller in Italy (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002). H. V. Morton was a fine travel writer, and his book on Italy, originally published in 1964, is very good on the northern part of the country. (He has another book which deals with Rome.) I started this book on the fourth of November and finished it on December twenty-third.

Antonella Ansani, Complete Italian: The Basics Edited by Suzanne McQuade. (New York: Living Language, 2008). If I keep at it long enough, I'll actually learn some Italian. Magari! I started this book on November thirtieth, and I'm still working on it.

Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny: A history of Italy since 1796. (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Compnay, 2008). The title, taken from a Verdi opera, indicates Duggan's thesis that the risorgimento, the unification of Italy, was really a conquest of the regions of Italy by Piedmont, under the leadership of Camille Cavour. Most of Italy was never enthusiastic about being taken over by the Piedmontese, and resentment still rankles. Together with Gilmour's book, The Force of Destiny paints a rather pessimistic picture of the prospects for a united and prosperous Italy. I started The Force of Destiny on September fifteenth and completed it on December ninth.

Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2012.) The first book of Hilary Mantel's trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, Chancellor to Henry VIII, won the Man Booker prize. So did Bring Up the Bodies. This is a rare double triumph, and a very, very good historical novel.

David Drake, The Road of Danger. (Riverdale, NY: Baen Books, 2012.) By my count, this is the ninth in Drake's Royal Cinnabar Navy series starring Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy (Mundy of Chatsworth). Space opera, nicely done.

Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace. (New York: Random House, 2012.) I found this one-volume biography of General Eisenhower both readable and informative. Smith takes Stephen Ambrose to task for his literary sins in various biographies of Eisenhower and Nixon, and he may make too much of the Kay Summersby affair (take that however you like). But he is thorough and even-handed, and I've seldom found 950 pages so easy to read.

David Sanger, Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. (New York: Crown Publishers, 2012.) This is a very interesting book, and one which gave the Republicans in Congress and opportunity to criticize the administration for letting Sanger know too much. One supposes that President Obama's Machiavellian ways are partly natural and partly due to the financial and political constraints he faces.

Greg Harvey, Excel 2010 for Dummies. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing Company, 2010.) I found this very helpful in my work, as proficiency in Excel is one of the mainstays of keeping my customers happy.

Poul Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader, compiled with an introduction by Hank Davis. (Riverdale, NY: Baen Books, 2008.) This is a collection of stories, including one short novel, by the late Poul Anderson. Baen Books have now put out an extensive array of Anderson's work in about seven volumes. Many of the stories in this set were first published in magazines, largely Astounding/Analog, but including Boy's Life, and then previously collected in The Earth Book of Stormgate.

Robert Crais, The Monkey's Raincoat. (New York: Bantam Books, 1987.) I first heard of Robert Crais on National Public Radio. NPR aired a series of interviews with authors talking about how their work related to the cities they lived in. Crais, like Michael Connelly, is a Los Angeles writer. I was sufficiently impressed with Crais that I looked him up at Barnes & Noble. The Monkey's Raincoat may be his first novel; it was the earliest I could find. I believe we'll be reading more of Robert Crais.

Marcel Proust. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Paris: Gallimard, 1988 [1919]). The second volume of Remembrance of Things Past. A long-term project. I didn't get any reading done in this book during December 2012.

Reading List: November 2012

During the month of November I finished three books that I had previously started, continued reading in three books that were underway, and started and finished two books, and started a second run through an instructional book. I've been thinking about doing some categorical breakdowns of my reading, but, for the moment, I'll continue to present the books according to the date during the month when I took them up.

David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). Contemplating a trip to Italy in the spring of 2013, I thought I'd read up on the country. I started Sir David Gilmour's The Pursuit of Italy on October 2, and I finished it on November 6. The title tells the story: Gilmour's thesis is that Italy, divided by geography, history, economics, and culture, is not, and never has been a unified country. Declarations of Italian unity have been aspirational, rather than descriptive, and the attempt to impose an artificial uniformity on a diverse country led to the monstrosity of fascism.

Bruce Feiler, Walking the Bible (New York: Harper Perennial, 2001). This is a very well-known travel book, describing Mr. Feiler's efforts to visit locations mentioned in the Pentateuch. One of the major problems facing Feiler is that the present location of many of the place names in the Bible is unknown or disputed. (My personal crochet is that I think the Garden of Eden, if it existed, would have been located much farther north than is generally accepted.) Since no one knows if there was an exodus from Egypt, it's hard to follow the putative route of the alleged migration. Also, Feiler is very inconsistent, which may just reveal his humanity, about whether he's a doubter looking for faith, or a believer looking for confirmation.

David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A human history of the Mediterranean (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). This is a book of immense scope. It's beautifully written, and the maps are very helpful. The Mediterranean has sometimes unified the countries and peoples of its islands and littoral, and sometimes divided them. This is a book well worth reading.

Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny: A history of Italy since 1796. (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Compnay, 2008). The title, taken from a Verdi opera, indicates Duggan's thesis that the risorgimento, the unification of Italy, was really a conquest of the regions of Italy by Piedmont, under the leadership of Camille Cavour. Most of Italy was never enthusiastic about being taken over by the Piedmontese, and resentment still rankles. Together with Gilmour's book, The Force of Destiny paints a rather pessimistic picture of the prospects for a united and prosperous Italy.

H. V. Morton, A Traveller in Italy (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002). H. V. Morton was a fine travel writer, and his book on Italy, originally published in 1964, is very good on the northern part of the country. (He has another book which deals with Rome.)

Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Murder at the Savoy (New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2009 [1971]). This is the sixth in the famous Scandinavian series of mysteries, or romans policiers, The Story of Crime, by Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Good writing and a fine eye meet social criticism.

Alan Furst, Mission to Paris (New York: Random House, 2012). Another of Furst's fine novels of pre-World War II Europe. In this case, a Hollywood actor of East European origins get caught up in a web of Nazi intrigue in the film industry.

Marcel Proust. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Paris: Gallimard, 1988 [1919]). The second volume of Remembrance of Things Past. A long-term project.

Antonella Ansani, Complete Italian: The Basics Edited by Suzanne McQuade. (New York: Living Language, 2008). If I keep at it long enough, I'll actually learn some Italian. Magari!

The Difference between Anarchy and Anarchism

I'm going to turn to my old friend The American Heritage Dictionary, third edition. This is the paperback edition of 1994 from Laurel Books. On page 30 there are two definitions of interest.

anarchism n. 1. The theory that all forms of government are oppressive and should be abolished. 2. Terrorism against the state.

anarchy n. pl. -chies. 1. Absence of governmental authority or law. 2. Disorder and confusion.

I think that reproducing the full article from the Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy might overstep the bounds of fair use. The first sentence gives the flavor:

anarchism n. a theory or a political movement which interprets the ideals of human freedom and equality very strictly, so as to exclude all relations of domination; particularly important is the refusal to accept the legitimacy of state power.

Beginning the New Year, a Little Late

My first post since November. It's good to be back!

I spent some time finishing up what I started in November. I had posted my October reading list, but I had not updated the sidebar with the current books. This evening I made those updates. In some cases, that means you now know which books I've finished since October 31, of those which were in progress at that point.

The only book on that list that I'm still reading is the Proust. Okay, I can read French, but Proust is slow going. I need to concentrate my efforts on A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs.

As noted, I finished Complete Italian: The Basics in October. I am, however, working on it again. We're planning our trip to Italy for late April, and I want to be able to order una bella cena without sounding like too much of an idiot.

Reading List: October 2012

October was one of those months in which I finished more books than I started. I was continuing to read in a stack of library books I picked up at East Library in Colorado Springs. In fact, as of today's writing (November 15), I'm still working on that stack of books.

Listed in the order in which I started reading them during the month, here are the books of October.

Marcel Proust, A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Published in 1919. I read only a little of this work in this time period, taking in a couple of pages on October 1.

Antonella Ansani, Complete Italian: The Basics. Edited by Suzanne McQuade. Between October first and twenty-first, I finished working my way through Complete Italian, including the accompanying discs. Del primo ottobre al venti-primo, ho letto Complete Italian.

Michael Alexander and John Walkenbach, Excel Dashboards and Reports. I finished up this excellent guide to the construction of reports in Microsoft Office Excel on the second and third of October.

David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy. This is one of two histories of the Italian peninsula I've been reading, and both of them cast doubt on the degree to which Italy can be treated as a nation-state, given the importance of regional differences. It's interesting to me that the Italian "reunification," which was not a reunification at all, was occurring at the same time as the American Civil War and the unification of Germany. Of these three attempts to establish the supremacy of the centralizing state over diverse regions, the Italian seems to have been the least successful.

George W. Bush, Decision Points. Since reading this book, I like Mr. Bush, and I respect his thinking, more than I ever did while he was President. This is immediate history worth reading. Seeing what the Republican Party has been coming to, many of us will be looking back with nostalgia to the days of "W."

Bruce Feiler, Walking the Bible. There are some ludicrous errors in this book - a "Toyota Land Rover," for one example. The big problem is that Feiler can't decide where he stands, and his process of "discovery" doesn't seem likely to lead to any resolution of his questions. Is the Bible true? Did the Israelites escape slavery in Egypt? Can Jews and Arabs live in peace? Big questions, but I don't think Bruce Feiler is up to finding believable answers.

Joseph Schmuller, Ph.D., Statistical Analysis with Excel for Dummies. Either you like statistics, or you don't. More Americans are as allergic to statistical analysis as they are to economics. And you either like Microsoft Office Excel, or you don't. I like Excel, and I use it a lot at work. For some unfathomable reason, I also enjoy statistics. I found this book readable, informative, and pleasurable. Not everyone shares my tastes.

Daniel Silva, The Fallen Angel. This is the only book on this month's list that I both started and completed during October. It is also the only work of fiction on the current list. I'm still not sure why I like Daniel Silva's books when his "hero" is an Israeli assassin who cooperates with the Vatican. Even so, these are fast-paced and enjoyable thrillers.

Keith Heyer Meldahl, Hard Road West. If the many, many settlers who set out from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, back in the 1840s and 1850s had been able to read Meldahl's excellent merger of science and history, some of them would have gone back to Ohio or Indiana to live out their lives without experiencing the Snake River Canyon, the Forty-Mile Desert, or Donner Pass. But what would life be if everyone could the safe and sane path. Recommended for readers of the Roadside Geology books, aficionados of the westward migration, and anyone who liked John McPhee's Annals of the Former World.

Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny. This is the other history of Italy to which I referred earlier. You know, Napoleon Bonaparte has a lot to answer for, not only in Egypt, Russia, Germany, France, and Louisiana, but in Italy. Bonaparte's invasion of northern Italy in 1796 to fight the Austrians set off a chain of events that led to Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi. The mind boggles. Very well written, but you do have to be able to keep track of Italian names and place names.

David Abulafia, The Great Sea. This may actually be the best book on this month's list. It's a long book (783 pages), it is technical in places, and its focus is on the surface and immediate littoral of the Mediterranean Sea. Just one of the virtues of this book is that it has inspired me to re-read a number of classic books set on and around the wine-dark sea, from Homer and Aeschylus to Shakespeare and Gibbon. Whether I'll actually do all that reading remains to be seen.

Reading List: September 2012

In September, 2012, I continued to read some books that I had started some time earlier, as well as some newly begun works.

Joseph Schmuller, Ph.D., Statistical Analysis with Excel for Dummies, second edition (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2009.) xx + 480 pages. Index. ISBN 978-0-470-45406-0. $29.99. I started this work-related book on August 23.

Michael Alexander and John Walkenbach, Excel Dashboards and Reports (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010.) xviii + 434 pages. Index. ISBN 978-0-470-62012-0. $35.99. Read 9 August - 3 October 2012.

Emile Zola, Germinal (Paris: Bookking International, 1993 [1885].) 473 pages. ISBN 2-89393-415-X. Read 1 July 2004 - 28 September 2012.

Antonella Ansani, Complete Italian: The Basics. Edited by Suzanne McQuade. (New York: Living Language, 2008.) xxviii + 308 pages. Italian in action. Supplemental vocabulary. Internet resources. Summary of Italian grammar. Verb charts. ISBN 978-1-4000-2415-5. $10.95. Read 12 July - 21 October 2012.

Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.) 641 pages. Acknowledgments. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ISBN 978-1-4391-2770-4. $32.50. Read 28 July - 3 September 2012.

Marcel Proust, A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Paris: Gallimard, 1988 [1919].) xxviii + 568 pages. Bibliographie. Notes. Resume.

Lee Child, Tripwire (New York: Berkeley Books, 1999.) 401 pages. ISBN 978-0-425-20622-5. Read 6 - 9 September 2012.

Bruce Feiler, Walking the Bible (New York: Harper Perennial, 2001). 451 pages. Index. ISBN 978-0-06-083863-8. $14.99. I started reading this book on September 7. As of October 21, I was at page 148.

Keith Heyer Meldahl, Hard Road West (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007.) xxi + 329 pages. Epilogue. Acknowledgments. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Figure Credits. Index. ISBN 978-0-226-51960-9. $25.00. I began reading Hard Road West on September 15. As of October 16, I was on page 51.

Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796 (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.) xxiii + 653 pages. References. Index. ISBN 978-0-618-35367-5. $30.00. I started reading the book on September 15. On October 16, I was at page 60.

George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown, 2010.) xii + 497 pages. Epilogue. Acknowledgments. Index. ISBN 978-0-307-59061-9. $35.00. Read 15 September to 19 October 2012.

David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.) xxxi + 783 pages. Further Reading. Notes. Index. ISBN 978-0-19-532334-4. $34.95. I began reading this history on September 30.

Reading List: August 2012

I was reading the following books during August, 2012.

Alexander, Michael, and John Walkenbach. Excel Dashboards and Reports. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010. xviii + 434 pages. Index. ISBN 978-0-470-62012-0. $35.99. Read 9 August - 3 October 2012.
For those of us who use Microsoft Office Excel every day at work, this book is essential. If you just want to produce some nice looking reports with cool graphs and interesting analytic features, it would be a joy.

Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. xiv + 320 pages. Acknowledgments. Notes. Index. ISBN 1-4000-4031-0. Read July 29 - August 20, 2012.
This is a very good short biography of Washington, based largely on the release of a new edition of his letters. I found particularly interesting Washington's struggles with the economics of slavery at Mount Vernon and his other farms.

Gibbs, Nancy, and Michael Duffy. The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012. 641 pages. Acknowledgments. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ISBN 978-1-4391-2770-4. $32.50. Read 28 July - 3 September 2012.
Someone did a biography of Woodrow Wilson entitled When the Cheering Stopped. This is an interesting and entertaining book about life after leaving the White House, and how ex-presidents can help out the current occupant. Sometimes it seems as if Richard Nixon had his coffin in the White House basement, where the bowling alley used to be, and he rose up out of it at night to give advice to the current occupant.

Living Language. Complete Italian: The Basics. New York: Living Language, 2008. xxviii + 308 pages. ISBN 978-1-4000-2415-5. $10.95. Started on 12 July 2012. As if 20 August at page 131.
Language instruction with compact disks.

Nesbo, Jo. The Snowman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. 384 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-59586-7. $25.95. Read 19-31 August 2012.
Norwegian author pens another crime novel starring Harry Hole of the Oslo police. Suspenseful, thrilling, with a fair share of hairpin turns in the plot.

Proust, Marcel. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Paris: Gallimard, 1988 [1919]. xxviii + 568 pages. Started on 1 July 2004. As of 13 July 2012 I was on page 174.
This is the second volume of A la recherche des temps perdu, known in English as Remembrance of Things Past.

Schmuller, Joseph, Ph.D. Statistical Analysis with Excel for Dummies, second edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2009. xx + 480 pages. Index. ISBN 978-0-470-45406-0. $29.99. Begun on 23 August, 2012. As of 27 August 2012 I was at page 30.

Sjowall, Maj, and Per Wahloo. The Fire Engine that Disappeared. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2007 [1969]. x + 213 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-39092-9. $14.00. Read 3 - 12 August 2012.
Another gem in the remarkable Swedish crime novel series.

Zola, Emile. Germinal. Paris: Bookking International, 2993. Phidal pour le Canada, 1995. Original publication 1885. 473 pages. ISBN 2-89393-465-X. Started 1 July 2004 and finished 28 September 2012.
I probably made my life unnecessarily difficult by choosing to read Germinal in French, but it's been an interesting experience.

Unemployment and Education: A Note

This is a preliminary look at the problem of unemployment in the United States, focusing on the role of education, or the lack thereof, in determining an individual's employment prospects.

It is apparent that we have a number of problems in the employment area. Unemployment has been over 8% for many months, record numbers of people have been out of work for more than a year, many people have become so discouraged that they have exited the labor force. One fact stands out for me in this sea of gloomy numbers: Not everyone has the same risk of being unemployed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announcement of September 7, 2012, included the following statement, "The unemployment rate edged down in August to 8.1 percent. Since the beginning of this year, the rate has held in a narrow range of 8.1 to 8.3 percent. The number of unemployed persons, at 12.5 million, was little changed in August."

 

But the BLS also stated, "Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (7.3 percent), teenagers (24.6 percent), whites (7.2 percent), blacks (14.1 percent), and Hispanics (10.2 percent) showed little or no change in August. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.9 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier."

 

Is there good news in that? Since it might as well be impossible to change one's gender, one's race, or one's linguistic identity, it doesn't appear that there's much hope for blacks or Hispanics in the fact that whites have a lower rate, and Asians a lower rate still. It may be hopeful for teenagers that their 24.6% unemployment rate may fall as they get older, but there's a long wait involved, and there may be hazards along the way.

 

But here's another set of figures from the August 2012 BLS report: Total unemployment for those 25 years of age and over was 6.8%, but for those with less than a high school diploma, the rate was 12.0%. For those high school graduates with no college experience, the rate was 8.8%. Those with some college or an associate's degree had an unemployment rate of 6.6%, and those with a bachelor's degree and higher had a rate of only 4.1%.

 

While race and gender may be immutable, and age is uncontrollable, education is clearly something about which an individual can take action. I am not suggesting that everyone with less than a high school diploma should enroll in a four-year college and seek a bachelor's degree, and I'm certainly not suggesting that, if everyone in the United States had a bachelor's degree, the unemployment rate for college graduates would necessarily continue to be around 4%. What I am suggesting is that a lot of people could definitely enhance their prospects of gaining full-time employment by entering into a program of post-secondary education.

Reading List: July 2012

During the month of July, 2012, the books I was reading included the following.

Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. xiv + 320 pages. Acknowledgments. Notes. Index. ISBN 1-4000-4031-0. Read July 29 - August 20, 2012.
This is a very good short biography of Washington, based largely on the release of a new edition of his letters. I found particularly interesting Washington's struggles with the economics of slavery at Mount Vernon and his other farms.

Furst, Alan. Dark Star. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002. [1995]. 446 pages. ISBN 978-0-375-75999.4. $14.95. Read 13 - 24 July 2012.
If you liked Eric Ambler, say, or if you're interested in the German-occupied areas of Europe during World War II, or if you just like terrific, atmospheric reads, there's Alan Furst.

Gibbs, Nancy, and Michael Duffy. The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012. 641 pages. Acknowledgments. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ISBN 978-1-4391-2770-4. $32.50. Read 28 July - 3 September 2012.
Someone did a biography of Woodrow Wilson entitled When the Cheering Stopped. This is an interesting and entertaining book about life after leaving the White House, and how ex-presidents can help out the current occupant. Sometimes it seems as if Richard Nixon had his coffin in the White House basement, where the bowling alley used to be, and he rose up out of it at night to give advice to the current occupant.

Living Language. Complete Italian: The Basics. New York: Living Language, 2008. xxviii + 308 pages. ISBN 978-1-4000-2415-5. $10.95. Started on 12 July 2012. As if 28 July at page 61.
Language instruction with compact disks.

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. A Critical Edition with an Introduction and Apparatus Criticus by Peter Laslett. Revised edition. New York and Scarborough, Ont.: New American Library, 1963. A Mentor Book. xiv + 576 pages. Bibliography. Index. $1.95. Started 30 March and finished 6 July 2012.
One of the great books of the Western World, and a must read as an antidote to the nonsense said about the ideas upon which the United States was founded. Yes, "was founded," not "were founded."

Proust, Marcel. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Paris: Gallimard, 1988 [1919]. xxviii + 568 pages. Started on 1 July 2004. As of 8 June 2012 I was on page 172.
This is the second volume of A la recherche des temps perdu, known in English as Remembrance of Things Past.

Zola, Emile. Germinal. Paris: Bookking International, 2993. Phidal pour le Canada, 1995. Original publication 1885. 473 pages. ISBN 2-89393-465-X. Started 1 July 2004 and finished 28 September 2012.
I probably made my life unnecessarily difficult by choosing to read Germinal in French, but it's been an interesting experience.

Reading List: June 2012

During the month of June, 2012, the books I was reading included the following.

Caputo, Philip. Acts of Faith. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. 669 pages. ISBN 0-375-41166-6. $26.95. Started on 4 June 2011 and completed on 11 June 2012.
I took a big hiatus in the middle of this book, but it is a marvelous, engaging novel about the strife in southern Sudan.

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. A Critical Edition with an Introduction and Apparatus Criticus by Peter Laslett. Revised edition. New York and Scarborough, Ont.: New American Library, 1963. A Mentor Book. xiv + 576 pages. Bibliography. Index. $1.95. Started 30 March and finished 6 July 2012.
One of the great books of the Western World, and a must read as an antidote to the nonsense said about the ideas upon which the United States was founded. Yes, "was founded," not "were founded."

Prose, Francine. Blue Angel. New York: Harper Collins, 2000. 314 pages. ISBN 0-06-019541-X. $25.00. Read 4 March - 20 June 2012.
Francine Prose is a marvelous writer. In Blue Angel, she gives away the plot in the title, but she brings her penetrating observation and sardonic humor to bear on late twentieth-century ideas of political correctness.

Proust, Marcel. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Paris: Gallimard, 1988 [1919]. xxviii + 568 pages. Started on 1 July 2004. As of 8 June 2012 I was on page 172.
This is the second volume of A la recherche des temps perdu, known in English as Remembrance of Things Past.

Russo, Richard. Mohawk. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1986. 418 pages. ISBN 978-0-679-75382-7. $15.00. Started on 3 February and completed on 26 June 2012.
A really terrific first novel from the (future) author of Nobody's Fool and Empire Falls. Growing up in a dying small town in Upstate New York.

Smiley, Jane. Good Faith. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. 417 pages. ISBN 0-375-41217-4. $26.00. Started on 18 May and completed on 14 June 2012.
Like Independence Day, a novel about a real estate agent in the Northeastern United States in the 1980s. But not like Independence Day, in that her protagonist is notable for his lack of angst. A very good read.

Zola, Emile. Germinal. Paris: Bookking International, 2993. Phidal pour le Canada, 1995. Original publication 1885. 473 pages. ISBN 2-89393-465-X. Started 1 July 2004 and finished 28 September 2012.
I probably made my life unnecessarily difficult by choosing to read Germinal in French, but it's been an interesting experience.

Don't Turn Your Back on Egypt

Robert Kagan published a very good column on the situation in Egypt on September 13.

The suggestion that we cut off aid to Egypt and, in essence, disengage from the largest country in the Arab Middle East is part of the dysfunctional American tendency to withdraw from contacts we fear might contaminate us. This is the first democratically-elected government in the history of Egypt - that's 8,000 years of history, folks. We should be celebrating that fact, and then assisting the Egyptians to deal with the challenges to come. There are certainly aspects of the Morsi government that raise serious concerns, the first being that Morsi represents the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun). But the correct response, as Kagan indicates, is to work with the Egyptian government to encourage them to move toward positions we would see as improvements. Abandoning Egypt at a moment when it has finally done what we long urged it to do is not a productive stance.

I might note that there is a business slogan: Work Smarter, Not Harder. One interpretation of this motto is that one should work with an existing process, application, or tool, and make incremental improvements to it, rather than discarding the existing system and starting from scratch. Trust me, I've seen both approaches at work, and I am fully convinced that making improvements to one's existing processes is the right course.