Cyril's Gleans

odds and bods at 7:40 PM MT, 12/31

odd flashback #1 - once whilst living in Chapel Hill (FPB was my neighbor, we each had three kids about the same age, and saw a fair amount of each other outside of work), I remarked to Fred that I preferred the "World Book" to the "Britannica" - he said that he did too - we both liked C. S. Lewis, but he liked Tolkien and I detested Tokien - that was one of our big fallings out - beards and the piano were also major points of discord.

odd flashback #2 - Duane, Fred and I dined together teetotally (Fred and I drank together only twice that I can recall but copiously - Asti Spumonte the first time, Soave the second) - Duane and Fred got along surprisingly well (I was nervous the whole time)

addenda

Cyril's Comments on the November 27 TLS

- great issue – as almost always nowadays

- Rishi Dastidar reviewed Andrew Lih’s recent book “The Wikipedia Revolution” – he did not like it. He said you could learn as much from the Wikipedia article on Wikipedia, but he also recommended Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody”.

- Some books which received more positive reviews were Karen Sanders’ “Bodies in the Bog”; Kingshill’s and Weswood’s “The Lore of Scotland”; Assouline’s “Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin”; Benton’s “Literary Biography”; and Daniel’s “Gertrude Stein”

- J.C. has some entertaining observations on Konner’s “You Don’t Have To Be Buddhist to Know Nothing”

- The lead review essay is on Willa Cather – must reading for Cather fans

- A letter to the editor recommends Rosie’s “Curious Scotland” (says “enthralling”)

- Thomas Nagel’s recommendation (p. 14) of Meyer’s “Signature in the Cell” created a still continuing tempest in the letters to the editor

- Fergusson’s third appearance (p. 20) is another must read for Old Bookpersons

- The Pepys item also on page 20 is well worth reading

- Good item by Ian Thomson on page 25 on Eric Ambler re Penguin’s reissue of five of his novels (compared them favorably to Maugham’s “Ashenden”)

- The two some what odd bookperson items on pages 30 and 31 are worth reading by bookpersons

- I liked the review on page 33 of Doran’s “The Shakespeare Almanac”

And One More of Cyril's Memorable Experiences

FacebookBobbers,

OK, Gang, this is my last go until I see some action out there in FacebookLand.

A third “Memorable Experience”: how I became a movie star (or at least moderately well-known worldwide).

My wife (pregnant with our first) and I were living in a one-room apartment in the house of a widow woman in Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne (Camberwell, Victoria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). I heard a tap-tap-tapping at our outside door.

I answered the door to see a young, attractive and well-dressed sheila. She said in an easily understood accent, “Would you like to be in the movies?” And I said, “Come right in.”

After a few par parlors, I agreed to meet with Stanley Kramer, and so it began.

As it developed, I found out that Kramer was making “On the Beach” in Australia (vide When Hollywood Came to Melbourne - Philip Davey's book‎) and had pissed off the U.S. Navy (I liked Kramer, but he did piss off a lot of people) who recanted on their promise to put a U.S. atomic sub ashore for the filming. So he had to find young males with U.S. accents. I was one (I played the planesman and sat next to the helmsman, the only young U.S. Afro-American in Australia at the time – he was way out of the closet and claimed his unique status was due to “friends in high places” – the only other way out of the closet guy in the film was Tony Perkins).

It was great fun, and I made about $300.00 U.S. for two weeks (12 hours/day, seven days/week) work plus another $300.00 playing nickel dime poker on the set. Kramer apparently worked 20 hour days seven days a week, and he and I got to be good buddies (the only other good buddy beside the helmsman I made was Fred Astaire – who had more charisma than anybody I have met). I got to know everybody fairly well - other than Ava Gardner who was a WCA.

Anyway, my wife and I attended the world premier in Melbourne in style. (At that time, we were living in Toorak (Toorak, Victoria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) – I think the local CIA head and his wife babysat out infant whilst we attended.)

Later, I worked with two authors who wrote books about the filming – I provided major input to Davey’s book and some input to the other (will provide reference when I locate it – I have a copy of the book somewhere).

Cyril

pre-1966 Movies Worth Owning

• All Alec Guinness Ealing Comedies
  
• All Deanna Durbin Flics
  
• All Francis the Talking Mule Flics
  
• All Fred Astaire Flics
  
• All Sherlock Holmes Flics
  
• Angels in the Outfield
  
• Bachelor Mother
  
• Bad Day at Black Rock
  
• Beau Geste
  
• Blythe Spirit
  
• Damn Yankees
  
• Down to Earth
  
• Easy Living
  
• Father Goose
  
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (the 1969 remake is even better)
  
• Gunga Din
  
• Harvey
  
• Henry V (1944 – the 1989 versions is as good or better)
  
• Here Comes Mr. Jordan
  
• It Happens Every Spring
  
• Miracle on 34th Street
  
• On the Beach
  
• One Touch of Venus
  
• Portrait of Jennie
  
• Romeo and Juliet (1968 so should not be in this list)
  
• Sgt. York
  
• Shane
  
• Singin’ in the Rain
  
• The Belles of St. Trinians
  
• The Bishop’s Wife
  
• The Brass Bottle
  
• The Canterville Ghost
  
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
  
• The Man Who Came to Dinner
  
• The Motion Picture Stunt Pilot (Paul Mantz)
  
• The Music Man
  
• The Parent Trap (the 1998 remake is as good, maybe better)
  
• The Thin Man series

A Coiincidence

A Coincidence



This is a note about one of the more unusual coincidences of my experience. It was most likely 1985, may have been 1986. I was working for IBM in Boca Raton, Florida, but was assigned to some task force at the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. One of my sons was in Delta Force at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, had long hair, and wore three-piece five hundred dollar suits.



I decided to stay at a new motel on the Chapel Hill – Durham highway. I do not remember the name, but it was quite posh and strove to imitate an American’s idea of a European hotel. One evening I was to meet my son in the bar. I went in at the appointed time, and he was not there. In fact, the barman and I were the only ones there.



On a whim, I ordered Arak (Arak (distilled beverage) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). It made the barman’s evening as he was from Turkey and homesick. So I sat at the bar waiting for my son (who eventually showed dressed to the nines and apart from the long hair looking more like a BMer than I) sipping Arak and letting the barman cry on my shoulder.



I had never ordered Arak at an American bar before – and had drunk it only a few times in Turkey and similar. Was it a coincidence? Or did I unconsciously recognize the barman as a homesick Turk?



Possibly the Shadow knows.

Cyril

Strange Books

StrangeBookBob,

A difficult undertaking. Off the top of my head I can think of only three consistently strange book authors: Ronald Firbank, Ivy Compton-Burnet, and Paul Bowles. (Some people would add Thomas Love Peacock, but I do not find his books all that strange - ditto Hermann Hesse.)

I recall reading a book in high school that I thought really strange, but I cannot remember the author, title, or even subject matter at this point (it was set in North Africa where most of Bowles' books are set - there must be something about North Africa).

SpottyMemoryBob

PS - William James is supposed to have said of his brother, "Henry writes better and better about less and less." I like one or two of Henry's book, but most of them are pretty strange - not in the class of the above triumverate - more in the class of Peacock and Hesse.

PPS - have you read

The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (New York Review Books Classics) by A. J. A. Symons and A.S. Byatt (Paperback - Mar 31, 2001) 6 new from $24.89 4 used from $24.85 (9)

A Recent MUGEE (Misc. Uber Guber Email Exchange)

Recent email exchanges among some MUGs (Misc. Uber Gubers) and Cyril (the MUG’s MUG) aka HiCoBob

Date: Dec 25, 2009 1:50 AM
TherelessBob,
The BBC Worldservice has apparently come to the conclusion that the big crash was caused primarily by the U. S. government's policy on housing loans, so guess you can smile modestly.
I continue to believe that the primary cause was computer technology, quants, and greed.
HiCoBob
PS - the BBC Worldservice also thinks
The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell by ...
the greatest thing since sliced bread

===========

The BBC Worldservice conclusion WRT the big crash and the cause - the U. S. government's policy on housing loans - is close but there are many villains and lots of blame to go to many individuals, groups and processes! Along the way, lots of money was made and, to this day, many villains remain at large.

[YanCoBob]

============

What do you mean, "smile modestly"? I am gloating immoderately. Let the names of Barney Frank and Christopher J. Dodd live in infamy.

The three factors you mention were all present in the economic debacle, but cannot be primary causes: (1) greed is omnipresent; you can no more call it the cause of specific events than you can call gravity the cause of aircraft crashes or water the cause of drowning. (2 and 3) Computers and the people who use them do not set goals and priorities -- that is the done by politicians.

[SmugBob]

=============

HiCoBob,

I totally concur with your thoughts on the ‘why’ our economy is flirting with disaster. However, I must add one more item, laziness plus our government money printing machine.
When the US dropped the last part of the Gold Standard in 1971, inflation became a larger factor in our economy. People thought they had more money but their ‘buying power’ was decrease at a higher rate than the inflation factor.
Another problem surfaced, what would replace the Gold Standard, perhaps you remember the oil crisis of the early 70’s. The price of then named sweet Texas crude became the standard for our monetary system, and we have been stuck with it ever since.

The ‘B’ schools certainly placed Greed on a pedestal, and then there is the computer which works faster and faster each year. (I worked as a thermodynamic engineer in the 50’s & it took me about a week to calculate and size a piece of equipment. Combustion Engineering, the firm I worked for, purchased a Royal McB computer full of tubes.) With this new technology it only took 17 minutes to do the same job. Our 30 engineers plus the 35 engineers in the Stress Analyst group was reduced to one department of 25 engineers plus added responsibilities than the original Thermodynamics group. At Bemis, when the computers of the late 80’s early 90’s appeared all the secretaries lost their jobs but two. Our work day was also increase by several hours. The stock price soared, as the P/E ration changed.

The way Washington is planning our future, I feel that it will be dark.

SoCoBob

================

I see no evidence from Washington (either party) of anything I would call a plan. Yes, there is a budget an income statement and an expense statement but that's not a plan. Do we have a health care plan, none I can see. Do we have a competitiveness plan, a manufacturing plan, an export/import plan, an education plan, a tax plan. a natural resource plan? What we have is "the market" and wars - Iraq, Afghanistan and drugs. We have huge unfunded liabilities that can only be funded by a combination of immigration and inflation - what a country!

[YanCoBob]

readings on education, 11:00 PM MT, 12/24

Readings on Education – December 24, 2009

A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play - Vivian Gussin Paley
Aims of Education, The - Alfred North Whitehead
American Education 1607-1980 (3 vols.) - Lawrence A. Cremin
Art of Teaching, The - Gilbert Highet
Art of Teaching, The - Jay Parini
Black Tom – Arnold of Rugby - Terence Copley
Boy Life on the Prairie - Hamlin Garland
Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter - Seth Lerer
Closing of the American Mind, The – Alan Bloom
Craft of Teaching, The - Kenneth E. Eble
Democracy and Education - John Dewey
Educated Mind, The - Kieran Egan
English Reader, The – Diane Ravitch (also The Death and Live of the Great American School System - in press)
Essential 55, The - Ron Clark
Far Away and Long Ago - W. H. Hudson (also, Idle Days in
Patagonia)
Harry Vernon at Prep - Franc Smith
Historical Roots of Elementary Mathematics, The - Bunt, Jones and Bedient
Honor: A History - James Bowman
I'm the Teacher, You're the Student - Patrick Allitt
In Plato's Cave - Alvin Kernan
In the Early World - Elwyn S. Richardson
Language & Human Nature - Mark Halpern
Lowering of Higher Education in American, The – Jackson Toby
Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, The – Iona and Peter Opie
Math Through the Ages: A Gentle History for Teachers and Others, Expanded Edition - Berlinghoff and Gouvea
Nebel’s Elementary Education: Creating a Tapestry of Learning - Bernard J. Nebel
Paideia (3 vols.) - Werner Wilhelm Jaeger
Paradoxes - R. M. Sainsbury
Prelude, The (all versions – try the Norton edition) - William Wordsworth (also, the Immortality Ode)
Quest for Certainty, The - John Dewey
Teaching Tips - Wilbert J. McKeachie & Graham Gibbs
Theory of Education in the United States - Alfred J. Nock
Vexations of A. J. Wentworth, B.A., The - Humphrey Francis Ellis
What Does It All Mean? - Thomas Nagel
What the Best College Teachers Do - Ken Bain

A Reading List for 2010

• Far Away and Long Ago: A Childhood in Argentina by W.H. Hudson (Paperback - Jun 21, 2006)
  
• Wodehouse on Wodehouse: "Bring on the Girls", "Performing Flea" and "Over Seventy" by P.G. Wodehouse (2)
  
  • The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston by Siegfried Sassoon
    
• Something About a Soldier by Charles Willeford (Mass Market Paperback - April 12, 1988)
  
• I Was Looking for a Street: A Memoir by Charles Ray Willeford (Hardcover - Sep 1988
  
• Legionnaire: An Englishman in the French Foreign Legion by Simon Murray (Mass Market Paperback - Feb 2003)
  
• A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews (Hardcover - Oct 1995)
  
• Boy Life On The Prairie (1899) by Hamlin Garland and E. W. Deming (Hardcover - Aug 18, 2008)
  
• Herman Melville : Typee, Omoo, Mardi (Library of America) by Herman Melville (Hardcover - May 6, 1982)
  
• Richard Henry Dana Jr.: Two Years Before the Mast and Other Voyages (Library of America) by Richard Henry Dana Jr. and Thomas Philbrick (Hardcover - Oct 6, 2005)
  
• Days of H.L. Mencken by H. L. Mencken (Hardcover - Jun 1991)
  
• Hurry Home Wednesday: Growing Up in a Small Missouri Town, 1905-1921 by Loren Dudley Reid (Hardcover - Jan 1979)
  
• Finally It's Friday: School and Work in Mid-America, 1921-1933 by Loren Dudley Reid (Hardcover - Jun 1981)
  
• I'll Let You Know When We Get There by Doris C. Baker (Paperback - Nov 30, 2007)
  
• The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version (Massachusetts Historical Society) by Henry Adams (Hardcover - Jan 19, 2007)
  
• History of My Life (Everyman's Library) by Giacomo Casanova and Willard R. Trask Abridged edition (February 6, 2007), Hardcover, 1512 pages
  
• One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty (Hardcover - Aug 1, 2007)
  
• Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy (Penguin Modern Classics) by Flora Thompson, H.J. Massingham, and Richard Mabey (Paperback - May 25, 2000)
  
• Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (Common Reader Editions) by Ronald Blythe
  
• Round About a Great Estate by Richard Jefferies (Paperback - Feb 11, 2009)
  
• Something of Myself: For My Friends Known and Unknown by Rudyard Kipling (Paperback - May 30, 2008)
  
• The Complete Stalky and Co. (Oxford World's Classics) by Rudyard Kipling and Isabel Quigly (Paperback - April 15, 2009)
  
• The Enormous Room by Edward Estlin Cummings (Hardcover - Aug 18, 2008)
  
• Chickenhawk and Chickenhawk: Back in the World: Life After Vietnam by Robert Mason
  
• Rickenbacker an Autobiography by Edward V. Rickenbacker
  
• The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr (Paperback - May 31, 2005); Cherry by Mary Karr (Paperback - Sep 4, 2001); Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr (Hardcover - Nov 3, 2009)
  
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson (Paperback - Sep 25, 2007)
  
• The Moon's a Balloon / Bring on the Empty Horses by David Niven (Hardcover - 1985) – Unabridged
  
• The Garden of Allah by Sheilah Graham (Hardcover - 1970)
  
• The Shorter Pepys [ABRIDGED] (Hardcover) ~ Robert Latham (Editor) - 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  
• Samuel Pepys and His Circle (Npg Character Sketches) by Richard Ollard (Hardcover - Nov 2000) – Illustrated

response to Salutor

To Salutor,

This is in response to your query in re poets. My original statement was: "Some of my favorite poets of the last 40 years are Turner Cassity, Philip Larkin, Les Murray, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Simon Armitage." At the moment, my favorite poem by Cassity continues to be

Hedy Lamarr and a Chocolate Bar

~ Turner Cassity

Showings are six a day, continuous.

No need to wait in line or be on time;

In any case the plot will be generic:

Boy meets. Scorning the concession stand

(I am austere for not much more than twelve),

Unfed by choice I go to meet the dark.

“Algiers” a frame or two before the end,

And in her big close-up Gaby departs,

Rogue Helen at the railing of a ship,

To wreck the blood as on the wall of Troy.

It is a vision that transfixes. Gel,

Dead center in the aisle, I cannot move

So long as ecstasy stares out ahead.

The vision vanishes, and Charles Boyer

Come on to suffer who cares what. By now

I am so shaken that I turn around,

Retrace my steps, and thank the taste of Mars.

If, showings later, I become aware

That my experience is every man’s,

And every man, if she is on the screen,,

Is rooted in the aisle as I was, too

Exanimate to stumble toward a seat,

It does not mean that under Mitterrand

I womanize. And at our age who wants

Algeria. But I know what I know.

I have seen beauty stop men in their tracks.

I am currently reading his book Devils & Islands: Poems by Turner Cassity (Paperback - May 1, 2007). You might like to start with Turner Cassity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Instead of recommending a poem by Murray, I will recommend his book of essays The Paperbark Tree - The Paperbark Tree: Selected Prose by Les A. Murray (Paperback - Oct 25, 1993) 4 used from $41.86. You might start with Les Murray (poet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seamus Heaney has written himself out and now largely does translations. I recommend his Beowulf - Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition) by Seamus Heaney (Paperback - Feb 2001) Buy new: $13.95 $10.04 59 new from $7.56 259 used from $3.50 (258). You might start with Séamus Heaney - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Muldoon is exceptionally prolific and has as yet not written himself out. I do not have a good recommendation for starters (His poetry is known for his difficult, sly, allusive style, casual use of obscure or archaic words, understated wit, punning, and deft technique in meter and slant rhyme. [1]). Try some of the following:

Cows

Holy Thursday

Promises, Promises

Cuba

Anseo

and see Paul Muldoon - Poems, Biography, Quotes

Simon Armitage is young and perhaps more prolific even than Muldoon. Again, will not provide a recommendation. You can go to

Simon Armitage
Biography. Poet and novelist Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in Huddersfield, .... This is the first of a number of poems that draw parallels between poetry ...
www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth165 - Cached - Similar
Biography - The Simon Armitage Web Site
Other anthologies include Short and Sweet – 101 Very Short Poems, and a selection of Ted ... Simon Armitage on wikipedia. Biography and links on the online ...
www.smithylad.modwest.com/armo/armo_pages/biog.htm - Cached - Similar
The Simon Armitage Web Site
Simon Armitage on wikipedia. Biography and links on the online encyclopedia, wikipedia. ... Wild Blue Yonder (Penguin) is Armitage reading poems from Kid, ...
www.smithylad.modwest.com/armo/ - Cached - Similar
Simon Armitage: Biography
May 9, 2006 ... The transcript of Xanadu, Armitage's first film-poem. ... Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in the village of Marsden and lives in West ...
simonarmitage.typepad.com/homepage/biography/ - Cached - Similar
Simon Armitage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Reater Issue 3 (Wrecking Ball Press); AQA GCSE English/English Literature Anthology - Simon Armitage's poems and short stories are included throughout ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Armitage - Cached - Similar

and decide for yerself what to do.

Cyril (GCW, P.E.)

Gleans at 3:10 PM MT, 12/10

Ordinary Reading Assignment for Saturday, December 19, 2009

Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern: The Men Who Made Musical Comedy by Lee Davis (Hardcover - Nov 1993) - http://www.amazon.com/Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern-Musical-Comedy/dp/0870081454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261260096&sr=8-1

P. G. Wodehouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hyperlinked encyclopedic article about the English writer including his life, writings, characters and screen adaptations of his works. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.G.Wodehouse

Anything Goes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to Musical numbers‎: Sung later in the musical, near the Act I Finale. ... Anything Goes, Sung by Reno before the Act I Finale when she considers ... - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anything_Goes

Cole Porter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1919–1954) «start: (1919)–end+1: (1955)»"Marriage: Linda Lee Thomas to Cole Porter" Location: (linkback: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Porter ) ... - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Porter

Cole Porter: Selected Lyrics (American Poets Project) by Cole Porter and Robert Kimball (Hardcover - April 6, 2006) - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=library+of+america+lyrics+of+Cole+Porter&x=0&y=0