A BOOK TO REMEMBER

"Catcher in the Rye"

by J. D. Salinger

was published on July 16, 1951.

I read the first page of "THE BOHEMIANS" and was hooked.

This is great fun in a great city that just ain't never gonna be like any other city in the world!

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

I got a note from Joe Blair, author of "By the Iowa Sea".  Joe is putting me behind on my chores because I can't put his book down.

Doug Terpstra@FDTerp       @JoeBlairWriter> Started reading your book today. LOVE IT! You have a new fan from La Crosse, WI. - 04 May Joe Blair @JoeBlairWriter   @FDTerp Doug, that makes my day. Thanks for letting me know. Very gracious of you. Joe

BY THE IOWA SEA

Scanning the shelves at the library, yesterday, the name BLAIR caught my eye.  Where have I heard that name before?

In this case, it was Joe Blair, the author of a memoir, "By the Iowa Sea".  I pulled it off the shelves, read the first couple of pages and was hooked.

How an east coast guy with a motorcycle, a leather jacket and a desire to do nothing but travel ends up, 15 years later, with a wife, four kids, a pipefitters job and living on the banks of the Iowa River during a spring flood has  all the elements of a great story.  There's even a trip to Luther College to fix the air conditioning!

 

And what a writer this Blair guy is! I started researching him and he gets nothing but praise from some of the best book critics in the country.

 

This is a delight to read!

Radio ain't what it used to be.

Bill Bryson is so good at writing great human interest stuff and in his latest book, "ONE SUMMER-AMERICA, 1927, he has plenty of it.

One story was about radio back in those days.  Of course, that caught my attention.

Radio was a new sensation back in the 20's and there weren't a lot of laws that covered broadcasting yet.  For instance, anyone could own a radio station.  All you had to do was buy the equipment and fire it up.  No license needed!  One of the first stations on the air was owned by Nushawg Poultry Farms of New Lebanon!  Oh, I would have loved to work there!

 

And, there were some hilarious ideas folks got into their heads about radio.  Lots of people complained about this "new evil" because they were convinced that the dead birds they happened to find had met their demise after being hit by radio waves!!

LATE 1927 SNOWSTORM

Reading the Bryson book on the summer of 1927 I found out that Detroit was scheduled to host the New York Yankees for a baseball game which had to be cancelled on May 14, 1927 because of heavy snow in Detroit.

LIBRARY WEEK

LIBRARY WEEK

Get smart like me.  Read a book.

WHAT I'M READING

A HISTORY OF
SAN FRANCISCO

WHAT I WON'T BE READING:
John Edwards mistress is publishing her memoirs.

WHAT A FUNNY BOOK!

I started reading a new book, today, and by the time I got to page 2 I was laughing so hard the tears were running down my cheeks.  I suppose I found it funnier than most would because of my years with the airline.

"Situations Matter" by Sam Sommers is, actually, a book about understanding how the context of a situation you're in affects how you react.

In the first instance, he's talking about arriving at the gate just moments after the aircraft door has been closed and locked and the gate agent won't re-open it for him, to board, even though there's still 10 minutes left before departure.

As Mr. Sommers points out, "Because, as we all know, once they close that door, there's no going back.  No, that's nonnegotiable and irreversible.  To reopen that door--the modern incarnation of Pandora's Box--would be unthinkable.  Doing so would undermine the very fabric that holds our society together, not to mention disrupt the space-time continuum as we know it."  and it get's funnier from there.

If you want to have a good laugh and learn a few neat things besides, pick up a copy of Sam Sommers "Situations Matter".

A NOTE FROM DONNIE

"Just finished the biography of George Kennan.  He started thinking about death at age 70.  He lived another 31 years."

George Kennan was ambassador to the Soviet Union in the '50's and ambassador to Yugoslavia in the '60's.  He once said, "The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be Americans is to let the Russians be Russian."

THIS WOULD BE FUN TO OWN

Ernest Hemingway's childhood home is for sale in Oak Park, Illinois.  Read all about it here in the Los Angeles Times.

THE SLOW DEATH OF BOOKS

DONNIE REPORTS:
"It is discouraging to witness the evolution of the bookstore.  Each month our nearby Barnes & Noble, a large store, gives more and more space to toys and games, greeting cards, gadgets and gifts and less room for books.  This week I discovered another entire row, last week full of books, now piled high with jigsaw puzzles."

RitaFeb 10, 2012 07:45 AM
I totally agree, yet the convenience and cost of a Kindle looks pretty good too.

FEBRUARY IS LIBRARY LOVERS MONTH

I love our library.  It's one of my favorite places in town.  Besides the books, magazines, newspapers and videos, it's a great place to "people watch".  There's quite a cast of characters that come through those doors.

COMMENT:

detFeb 1, 2012 07:35 AM

And you are one of them!

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS HISTORY

It was on this day, December 19, 1843, that Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol".

DO YOU USE OLIVE OIL? THERE'S A NEW BOOK YOU NEED TO READ

Tom Mueller is an expert on olive oil and I just love the title of his new book.  EXTRA VIRGINITY.

It's a shocking (or, at least, shocking to me) book about the out and out fraud involved in the sale of olive oil in the USA.  This sounds like a very interesting read so I'll be looking for it at the library.

In the meantime, watch this short video as the author tells you a bit about the subject of olive oil.

COMMENT FROM DONNIE:

"Seeing your weather report brings to mind a novel I just finished reading about an actual blizzard in North Dakota in 1984.  Neither of us reads many novels but this one is very entertaining.  It's full of wit and wisdom with "real-ish" Dakota characters.  It's called "Downtown Owl" by Chuck Klosterman."

BOOKS

I think I want to read Carrie Fisher's new book, "Shockaholic" simply because I've traveled the same road with shock therapy that she has.  Even though the treatment was much more gruesome in my day than it is now I think it will be interesting.  She can be a delightfully funny lady, just like her mother.

At 7 AM it was still so dark the street lights remain on.

It must be very heavy clouds that are bringing our rain which continues this morning.  Good day to be at home with a good book and a movie.  I have both plus pork ribs in the crockpot.  Am I ready or what?

A special message from Donnie:

"In our endless cleaning I have uncovered several recorded books about the Great Plains--great listening for drives across the Dakota prairies or R & R travels west.

If anyone wants these before I give them to Goodwill, let me know"