Cyril's Gleans

The two postings following this were truncated - I hope this makes it to complete the posting

Subject: Old Ed

(Story sent to me.)

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when
the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue
ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.
Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the
end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow
of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach.
Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and
his bucket of shrimp.

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a
thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way
toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their
wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to
the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him
say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave.

He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.
Invariably, one of the gulls lands on his sea-bleached, weather-beaten hat - an
old military hat he's been wearing for years.

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward
the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets
to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes
his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line
in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to
say. Or, 'a guy that's a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might
say. To onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird
world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very
empty. They can seem altogether unimportant ....maybe even a lot of
nonsense..

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.

Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in
Florida . That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero
back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific,
he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men
survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the
rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks.
Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran
out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no
one knew where they were.

They needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple
devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap Eddie
leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged.
All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft.
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.
It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still,
planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the
gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers
off, and he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for
eight men - of it. Then they used the intestines for bait.. With it,
they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait......and the cycle
continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to
endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days
at sea...).

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but
he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull.. And he
never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night
he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a
heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, In The Eye of the Storm, pp..221,
225-226)

PS: Eddie started Eastern Airlines.

the posting following this was truncated - I hope this makes it to complete the posting

Subject: Re: Old Ed

Thanks for the story - I enjoyed. Rickenbacker was one of my childhood heroes. I was living in Macon when the plane he was on crashed in Atlanta (Eastern Air Lines Flight 21 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) - and I was living in Zurich when he died there (Eddie Rickenbacker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - I append a portion of this article). I read his (ghost-written) memoir (Fighting The Flying Circus (Wings of War) (1919) - text in public domain) at an early age.

One of my favorite books is his (ghost-written) autobiography (RICKENBACKER an Autobiography by EDWARD V. RICKENBACKER (Hardcover - Jan 1, 1968)). I gave it to the son of a friend of mine in New Zealand. He later told me that it was his favorite book as a teenager.

All well with me and mine - to the best of my knowledge. My oldest is, I think, still in the South Island of New Zealand, but I have not heard from him in a couple of weeks. The last I heard he was planning to be here for my birthday in April.

Best to all, Cyril

BEGIN APPEND

World War I



Rickenbacker's uniform on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
[edit] Pre-U.S. entry
Rickenbacker wanted to join the Allied troops in World War I, but the U.S. had not yet entered the war. He had several chance encounters with aviators, including a fortuitous incident in which he repaired a stranded aircraft for T. F. Dodd, a man who later became General John J. Pershing's aviation officer and an important contact in Rickenbacker's attempt to join air combat.

During World War I, with its anti-German atmosphere, he – like many other German Americans – changed his surname; the "h" in "Rickenbacher" became a "k" in an effort to "take the Hun out of his name." As he was already well known at the time, the change received wide publicity. "From then on", as he wrote in his autobiography, "most Rickenbachers were practically forced to spell their name in the way I had..."[1]

He believed his given name "looked a little plain." He signed his name 26 times, with a different middle initial each time. After settling upon "V", he selected "Vernon" as a middle name.[2]

In 1916, Rickenbacker traveled to London, with the aim of developing an English car for American races. Because of an erroneous press story and Rickenbacker's known Swiss heritage, he was suspected of being a spy. En route and in England, agents closely monitored his actions.[3]

On a sea voyage back to America, he came up with the idea to recruit his race car driver friends as fighter pilots, on the theory that such men were accustomed to tight spaces and high speeds. His suggestion was ignored by the military.

[edit] Army service

When, in 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, Rickenbacker had enlisted in the United States Army and was training in France with some of the first American troops. He arrived in France on June 26, 1917 as a Sergeant First Class.

Most men chosen for pilot training had degrees from prestigious colleges,[citation needed] and Rickenbacker had to struggle to gain permission to fly because of his perceived lack of qualifications. Because of his mechanical abilities, Rickenbacker was assigned as engineering officer in a flight-training facility at Issoudun, where he practiced flying during his free time. He learned to fly well, but because his skills were so highly valued, Rickenbacker's superiors tried to prevent him from attaining his wings with the other pilots.

Rickenbacker demonstrated that he had a qualified replacement, and the military awarded him a place in one of America's air combat units, the 94th Aero Squadron, informally known as the "Hat-in-the-Ring" Squadron after its insignia. Originally he flew the Nieuport 28, at first without armament. On April 29, 1918, Rickenbacker shot down his first plane and claimed his fifth to become an ace on May 28. Rickenbacker was awarded the French Croix de Guerre that month for his five victories.



Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, United States Army Air Service, c.1919

Video clip of Rickenbacker conducting a bombing run over German lines
On May 30, he scored his sixth victory. It would be his last for three and a half months. He developed an ear infection in July which almost ended his flying career and grounded him for several weeks. He shot down Germany's hottest new fighter, the Fokker D.VII, on September 14 and another the next day.

On September 24, 1918, now a captain, he was named commander of the squadron, and on the following day, he claimed two more German planes, for which he was belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor in 1931 by President Herbert Hoover. After claiming yet another Fokker D.VII on September 27, he became a balloon buster by downing observation balloons on September 28, October 1, October 27, and October 30, 1918.

Thirteen more wins followed in October, bringing his total to thirteen Fokker D.VIIs, four other German fighters, five highly defended observation balloons, and only four of the easier two-seated reconnaissance planes.

The military determined ace status by verifying combat claims by a pilot; confirmation was needed from ground witnesses, affirmations of other pilots, or observation of the wreckage of the opposing enemy aircraft. If no witnesses could be found, a reported kill was not counted. It was an imperfect system, dependent on the frailties of human observation, as well as vagaries of weather and terrain. Most aces records are thus best estimates, not exact counts. Nevertheless, Rickenbacker's 26 victories remained the American record until World War II.

Rickenbacker flew a total of 300 combat hours, reportedly more than any other U.S. pilot in the war.

When Rickenbacker learned of the Armistice, he flew an airplane above the western front to observe the cease fire and the displays of joy and comradeship as the formerly warring troops crossed the front lines and joined in celebration.

[edit] Verified aerial victories
Number[4] Date Time Aircraft Opponent Location
1 01918-04-29 April 29, 1918 1810 Nieuport Pfalz D.III Baussant
2 01918-05-07 May 7, 1918 0805 Nieuport Pfalz D.III Pont-à-Mousson
3 01918-05-17 May 17, 1918 1824 Nieuport Albatros D.V Ribécourt
4 01918-05-22 May 22, 1918 0912 Nieuport Albatros D.V Flirey
5 01918-05-28 May 28, 1918 0925 Nieuport Albatros C.I Bois de Rate
6 01918-05-30 May 30, 1918 0738 Nieuport Albatros C.I Jaulny
7 01918-09-14 September 14, 1918 0815 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Villecy
8 01918-09-15 September 15, 1918 0810 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Bois de Warville
9 01918-09-25 September 25, 1918 0840 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Billy
10 01918-09-25 September 25, 1918 0850 SPAD XIII Halberstadt C Foret de Spincourt
11 01918-09-26 September 26, 1918 0600 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Damvillers
12 01918-09-28 September 28, 1918 0500 SPAD XIII Balloon Sivry-sur-Meuse
13 01918-10-01 October 1, 1918 1930 SPAD XIII Balloon Puzieux
14 01918-10-02 October 2, 1918 1730 SPAD XIII Hannover CL Montfaucon
15 01918-10-02 October 2, 1918 1740 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Vilosnes
16 01918-10-03 October 3, 1918 1707 SPAD XIII Balloon Dannevoux
17 01918-10-03 October 3, 1918 1640 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Cléry-le-Grand
18 01918-10-09 October 9, 1918 1752 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Dun-sur-Meuse
19 01918-10-10 October 10, 1918 1552 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Cléry-le-Petit
20 01918-10-10 October 10, 1918 1552 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Cléry-le-Petit
21 01918-10-22 October 22, 1918 1555 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Cléry-le-Petit
22 01918-10-23 October 23, 1918 1655 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Grande Carne Ferme
23 01918-10-27 October 27, 1918 1505 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Bois de Money
24 01918-10-27 October 27, 1918 1450 SPAD XIII Fokker D.VII Grand Pre
25 01918-10-27 October 27, 1918 1635 SPAD XIII Balloon St. Juvin
26 01918-10-30 October 30, 1918 1040 SPAD XIII Balloon Remonville


END APPEND

Eddie Rickenbacker

Those of you not familiar with Cap'n Eddie Ricketyback (as he was known in the comic strip Lil Abner (see append)) might find the forwarded email exchange of interest.

Cyril (GCW, P.E.)

BEGIN APPEND

Li'l Abner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li'l_Abner - Cached - Similar
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Al Capp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capp
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Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner was phenomenally popular in its prime, .... It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Li'l Abner (1959 film)". Read more ...
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END APPEND

List 14 - next are Lists 12 and 13 - next Lists 1-11

1. The below is in my opinion the best place on the Net to get started on a study of religion. It does what it says it does, that is, describes the major world religions ranked by size. But it does a lot more too.
   Major Religions Ranked by Size - Aug 9, 2007 ... This is a listing of the major religions of the world, ... The "World's Major Religions" list published in the New York Public Library ...
   
   Some Books and Authors I can recommend
   What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy by Thomas Nagel (Paperback - Oct 15, 1987)
   Quest for Certainty by John Dewey (Paperback - Jun 1960)
   What Is Life?: with "Mind and Matter" and "Autobiographical Sketches" by Erwin Schrodinger
   Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science by Werner Heisenberg
   Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About - Hardcover (Jan 1, 2001) by Donald E. Knuth
   Amazon's Karen Armstrong Page <== she is very hot at the moment
   Discover books, read about the author, find related products, and more. Visit the page.
   
   Mathew Arnold had an interesting thought on the subject:
   Matthew Arnold Biography - Biography.com - Learn about the life of Matthew Arnold at Biography.com. ... in an age of crumbling creeds, poetry would replace religion and that therefore readers would ...
   
   One more book
   Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) by Roy A. Rappaport (Paperback - Mar 28, 1999) (9)
   
   Ritual And Religion In The Making Of Humanity. - Review - book reviews
   Whole Earth, Fall, 1999 by Mary Catherine Bateson
   Roy A. Rappaport. 1999; 535 pp. $19.95. Cambridge University Press.
   Roy Rappaport writes in a time of urgency, when we must ask not only how religion fits in but what might replace or sustain its ancient contribution to meaning and social integration. In 1968 Rappaport published a groundbreaking ethnography of the Maring people of the New Guinea highlands, detailing the connections among their economy and its environmental impact, their endemic warfare, and their cycle of beliefs and ritual, which regulated the other two. Rappaport's curiosity then carried him into years of reading about ritual and religion, at the same time that he became increasingly engaged in environmental issues. This new book is what is meant when we speak of the culmination of a life's work. Rappaport delayed its completion for years while researching and rewriting passages again and again, until he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and finished it before his death in 1997.
   Anthropologists have argued that humankind and technology coevolved--the advantages of tool use, say, selecting for better and more opposable thumbs, nimbler hands, and greater intelligence, which in turn created better tools. The same argument has been made for the reciprocal development of language and intelligence. We suffer, however, the weaknesses of our strengths and the vices of our virtues. Human intelligence and technology have given us the tools to destroy the environment on which we depend, while language, which allows us to analyze the problem, does not seem to allow the creation of a consensus to address it.
   Rappaport proposes that ritual and language have Similarly coevolved, with ritual providing, from the very beginning, a necessary corrective for language-created problems that may otherwise be lethal. Language permits lies and permits any statement to be contradicted or opposed by alternatives suggested by experience or self-interest or speculation. However, by participating in ritual, in which invariable words and actions recur, men and women assume wider commitments which are forged at deeper levels of the psyche. Rappaport calls these invariable words and actions Ultimate Sacred Postulates. This does not necessarily mean that the participants believe the postulates. Indeed, they are ideally untestable and without immediate consequences: "In God We Trust." "Hear Oh Israel, the Lord Our God the Lord is One." But these postulates that cannot be questioned hold a key position in the governing hierarchies of ideas that Rappaport calls Logoi (the plural of Logos), and they have consequences for social life. The simplest example of ritual implementation of them would be the use of oaths to create metatruths that are more reliable than simple reports. The sanctity of the Ultimate Sacred Postulates underlies the authority of convention and of leaders, teachers, and priesthoods. It is what makes action possible as part of a larger social or ecological whole.
   Rappaport is not proposing the construction of a new religion; rather, he is describing the kind of ecology of ideas and actions that might include and sustain religion as an integral part of life. He points out that traditional religions can be interpreted in benign ways and that secular rituals (such as rock concerts or environmental clean-ups) also exhibit many of the unifying properties of shared participation. What is needed is not new theology (though some tune-ups might be helpful) but new forms of practice and social engagement. We can talk until we are blue in the face, but that may do more harm than good, creating new polarities; what we need to do instead is to march or dance or sing, as in the great civil rights demonstrations of the sixties that forged new convictions and new unity.
   The book draws on a great body of anthropological writing and on multiple scriptural traditions to explore the nature of the Logoi as they frame basic understandings of time and causality, space and human motivation. Side by side with examples from Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity, Rappaport sets examples of tribal Australians, of the Sioux and the Navaho, and above all of the Mating, dancing together and slaughtering pigs to create alliances sanctified by the spirits of the ancestors. All of these are used to illuminate philosophical concepts and ideas that have been drawn from cybernetics and communications theory (lots of Martin Buber and Charles Sanders Peirce and Gregory Bateson), explaining the universality of ritual and its necessary role in the evolution of humanity.
   This is a fat book, and a difficult one, occasionally defensive and constipated in its argument. But it is an essential one in the developing conversation about how human beings can deeply know their involvement in the biosphere and in each other and how they can act together to preserve it.
   "... high-order meaning ... is grounded in identity or unity, the radical identification of unification of self with other. It is not so much, or even at all, intellectual but is, rather, experiential. It may be experienced through art, or in the acts of love, but is, perhaps, most often felt in ritual and other religious devotions. High-order meaning seems to be experienced in intensities ranging from the mere intimation of being emotionally moved in, for instance, the course of ritual to those deep numinous experiences called "mystical." Those who have known it in its more intense forms may refer to it by such obscure phrases as "The Experience of Being" or Being-Itself. They report that, although it is beyond the reach of language, it seems enormously or even ultimately meaningful even though, or perhaps because, its meaning is ineffable.
   "Ultimate Sacred Postulates call a halt to the infinite regress that logic by itself cannot terminate.... Ultimate Sacred Postulates are taken to be ageless and do seem, in fact, to persist for long durations. The Shema of the Jews may have endured for 3,000 years; the Nicene Creed has remained unchanged since AD 325.... The Ultimate Sacred Postulates crowning these hierarchies of understanding are devoid of concreteness, low in social specificity, and taken to be eternal, immutable, ultimately efficacious, absolutely authoritative, fundamental rather than contingent or instrumental and, of course, intrinsically sacred.
   "In Sioux thought, and in the thought of other North American Indians, sacred pipes are "dominant" or "key" symbols, having in that respect the significance of the Cross for Christians. There are important differences, of course. The pipe's physical complexity contrasts with the simplicity of the cross, and the way in which the two are used ritually also distinguishes them. The intimacy of pipe, smoker and tobacco is unparalleled in the relationship of Christians to the Cross, but may be approximated in the relationship of Christians to the Eucharist.
   COPYRIGHT 1999 Point Foundation
   COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

Lists 12 and 13 - List 1-11 follow

1. As the more alert of you are aware, there are three BIG questions in philosophy: Why anything? Why life? Why me?
   Subsidiary questions have to do with entailments re space, time, infinity, and similar. (The old definition of time as "Nature's way of keeping every thing from happening at once" is specious but similar to eating Chinese.)
   An entertaining new book you might like to look into is: The Images of Time: An Essay on Temporal Representation by Robin LePoidevin (Paperback - Nov 9, 2009) - there is a first rate review on pages 9-10 of the 01/08/10 TLS
   Whatever:
   
   • Space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
   • Time - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
   • Infinity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
     
     
2. L’Esprit de Geometrie et L’Esprit de Finesse
   
   Yes, we are all
   By gin or thought
   Distraught.
   The violence of reason rules
   The subtle Schools;
   A dependent clause can curl yer cowl.
   
   I know such men
   Of strange conclusions.
   Martinis
   Cold as the serpent and as wise
   Have unfocused my eyes.
   Their icy depths have moved my pen.
   
   ~apologies to J. V. Cunningham
   
   Pirelli Calendar 2010: Lily Cole, Daisy Lowe and Marloes Horst photographed by Terry Richardson
   

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/picturegalleries/6608654/Pirelli-Calendar-2010-Lily-Cole-Daisy-Lowe-and-Marloes-Horst-photographed-by-Terry-Richardson.html

The 2010 Ava Gardner Museum Calendar is $10.00 and is available for purchase in the Museum Gift Shop or through phone orders. ...

http://www.avagardner.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98:2010-ava-gardner-calendar-now-available&catid=3:newsflash&Itemid=59

The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander - Pete Blaber; Hardcover

http://www.amazon.com/Mission-Men-Me-Lessons-Commander/dp/0425223728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259338717&sr=1-1

The Maverick and His Machine – Maney http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-His-Machine-Thomas-Watson/dp/0471679259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259340618&sr=1-1

A Passion for Wisdom: A Very Brief History of Philosophy - Robert C. Solomon; Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Wisdom-Brief-History-Philosophy/dp/0195112091/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259338914&sr=1-1

The Top 500 Poems - William Harmon; Hardcover

http://www.amazon.com/Top-500-Poems-William-Harmon/dp/023108028X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339009&sr=1-1

The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets - David Yezzi

http://www.amazon.com/Swallow-Anthology-New-American-Poets/dp/0804011214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339066&sr=1-1

Other Men's Flowers; an Anthology of Poetry by archibald Wavell

http://www.amazon.com/Other-Mens-Flowers-Anthology-Poetry/dp/B001HTLCSC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259345654&sr=1-1

Collected Poems by Philip Larkin and Anthony Thwaite

http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-Philip-Larkin/dp/0374529205/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259345723&sr=1-1

Biography: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) - Hermione Lee

http://www.amazon.com/Biography-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0199533547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339128&sr=1-1

Hume: A Very Short Introduction

http://www.amazon.com/Hume-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192854062/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339128&sr=1-2

Memoir: A History by Ben Yagoda (Hardcover - Nov 12, 2009)

http://www.amazon.com/Memoir-History-Ben-Yagoda/dp/159448886X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339222&sr=1-1

A Brief History of Infinity: The Quest to Think the Unthinkable by Brian Clegg (Paperback - Sep 12, 2003)

http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Infinity-Quest-Unthinkable/dp/1841196509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339347&sr=1-1

A Brief History of the Paradox: Philosophy and the Labyrinths of the Mind by Roy Sorensen (Hardcover - Dec 4, 2003)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=a+brief+history+of+the+paradox&x=0&y=0

A Very Brief History of Eternity - Carlos Eire; Hardcover

http://www.amazon.com/Very-Brief-History-Eternity/dp/0691133573/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339441&sr=1-1

The Counterfeiters – Kenner

http://www.amazon.com/Counterfeiters-Historical-Comedy-Archive-Scholarly/dp/1564784169/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339656&sr=1-1

De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things): A Poetic Translation (Joan Palevsky Book in Classical Literature) by Lucretius and David R. Slavitt

http://www.amazon.com/Rerum-Natura-Nature-Things-Translation/dp/0520255933/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339774&sr=1-2

Lucretian Receptions: History, the Sublime, Knowledge by Philip Hardie

http://www.amazon.com/Lucretian-Receptions-History-Sublime-Knowledge/dp/0521760410/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339989&sr=1-1

Language and Human Nature by Mark Halpern

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Human-Nature-Mark-Halpern/dp/1412808251/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259345446&sr=1-1

Design & Memory: Computer Programming in the 20th Century / Peter H. Huyck and Nellie W. Kremenak

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Memory-Computer-Programming-Century/dp/007031554X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259339844&sr=1-1

IBM System/38 Technical Developments (1978 IBM General Systems Division) – ISBN – 0-933186-00-2

Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity (Belknap Press) by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor

http://www.amazon.com/Naming-Infinity-Religious-Mathematical-Creativity/dp/0674032934/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259340214&sr=1-1

Plato's Ghost: The Modernist Transformation of Mathematics by Jeremy Gray

http://www.amazon.com/Platos-Ghost-Modernist-Transformation-Mathematics/dp/0691136106/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259340214&sr=1-2

Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About – Knuth

http://www.amazon.com/Things-Computer-Scientist-Language-Information/dp/157586326X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259340712&sr=1-1

The Royal Oak in Prestbury, Cheltenham, has the air of a true pub haven.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/pubs/6670010/Gloucestershire-Pub-Guide-The-Royal-Oak-Prestbury-Cheltenham.html

The Images of Time: An Essay on Temporal Representation by Robin LePoidevin

Good Books List of (11) Lists – 01/29/10 – a fair amount of overlap

1. Great Memoirs (some (all?) fictionalized) – January 22, 2010

- Binding Time: Memoirs of a Programming Man by George Cyril Wellbeloved, P.E.
- 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 - Hardcover (Jun 1981) by Loren Dudley Reid
- 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 Education of a Poker Player (High Stakes classic) by Herbert O. Yardley and
Jesse May (21)
- Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes by Ferdinand Mount


2. Cyril’s Desert Island Books (35 I think) as of 01/29/10

- A Choice of Kipling's Verse Made By T. S. Eliot, with and Essay on Rudyard Kipling by T. S. Eliot (Mass Market Paperback - 1962)
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Hardcover - May 6, 2003)
- Anabasis: The March Up Country by Xenophon and H. G. Dakyns (Paperback - Jan 2, 2007)
- Chapman's Homer: The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Lesser Homerica (2 volumes in slipcase) by Homer; Chapman (tr); Allardyce Nicoll (ed and intro) (Hardcover - Jan 1, 1967)
- Collected Poems by Philip Larkin and Anthony Thwaite (Paperback - April 1, 2004)
- Complete Memoirs of George Sherston by Siegfried Sassoon (Hardcover - Sep 1980)
- Days by H. L. Mencken (his memoir trilogy in one volume)
- De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things): A Poetic Translation (Joan Palevsky Book in Classical Literature) by Lucretius and David R. Slavitt (Paperback - Aug 6, 2008)
- Dickens, Pickwick Papers – the 2004 Penguin Classics edition with an afterward by Jasper Fforde
- Essays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) - Hardcover (Oct 15, 2002) by George Orwell
- Faulkner: Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner (Modern Library) by William Faulkner (Hardcover - May 18, 1993)
- Faulkner: The Reivers by William Faulkner (Paperback - Sep 1, 1992)
- Faulkner: Three Famous Short Novels: Spotted Horses Old Man The Bear by William Faulkner (Mass Market Paperback - Feb 12, 1958)
- Herman Melville : Typee, Omoo, Mardi (Library of America) by Herman Melville (Hardcover - May 6, 1982)
- History of My Life by Giacomo Casanova and Willard R. Trask (Hardcover - Feb 6, 2007)
- Jerusalem Delivered, Anthony M. Esolen translator
- Mark Twain : The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It (Library of America)
- Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation - Hardcover (Nov 15, 2009) by Ludovico Ariosto, David R. Slavitt, and Charles S. Ross
- 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)
- Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) by Alfred Tennyson (Paperback - Mar 25, 2008)
- Selected Poems by William Wordsworth and Stephen Gill (Paperback - Mar 29, 2005)
- Shakespeare's Sonnets (Yale Nota Bene) by William Shakespeare and Professor Stephen Booth (Paperback - Jul 11, 2000)
- The Adventures and Misadventures of Don Quixote: an up-to-date translation for today's readers. James H. Montgomery translation
- The Aeneid (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Virgil, Robert Fagles, and Bernard Knox (Paperback - Jan 29, 2008) (55)
- The Best Laid Schemes: Selected Poetry and Prose of Robert Burns
- The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) by John Milton and John Leonard (Paperback - May 1, 1999)
- The Complete Poems and Translations (Penguin Classics) by Christopher Marlowe and Stephen Orgel (Paperback - May 29, 2007)
- The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version (Massachusetts Historical Society) by Henry Adams (Hardcover - Jan 15, 2007)
- The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1918 by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (Hardcover - Mar 26, 1963)
- The Pilgrim's Progress (Everyman's Classics) by John Bunyan (Paperback - Jun 1985)
- The Portable Rabelais, translated and edited by Samuel Putnam
- The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850 (Norton Critical Editions) by William Wordsworth, M. H. Abrams, Stephen Gill, and Jonathan Wordsworth
- The Top 500 Poems by William Harmon (Hardcover - Jan 15, 1992)
- The World of Mr. Mulliner: The Mulliner Omnibus - Paperback (Jul 29, 1999) by P.G. Wodehouse


3. A TCotSerF Library

- A Brief History of Infinity by Paolo Zellini (Paperback - Dec 28, 2005)
- A Brief History of Infinity: The Quest to Think the Unthinkable by Brian Clegg (Paperback - Sep 12, 2003)
- A Brief History of the Paradox: Philosophy and the Labyrinths of the Mind by Roy Sorensen (Hardcover - Dec 4, 2003)
- A Companion to Epistemology (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) by Jonathan Dancy, Ernest Sosa, and Matthias Steup (Hardcover - Feb 22, 2010)
- A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) by Garry L. Hagberg and Walter Jost (Hardcover - Jan 19, 2010)
- A Passage to Infinity: Medieval Indian Mathematics from Kerala and Its Impact by George Gheverghese Joseph (Hardcover - Jan 30, 2010)
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
- A Very Brief History of Eternity by Carlos Eire (Hardcover - Nov 1, 2009)
- Destination of the Species: The Riddle of Human Existence by Michael Meacher (Paperback - Jan 25, 2010)
- From Five Fingers to Infinity by Frank J Swetz (Paperback - Mar 18, 2010)
- Lucretian Receptions: History, the Sublime, Knowledge by Philip Hardie (Hardcover - Dec 31, 2009)
- Mindworlds: A Decade of Conscioiusness Studies by J. Andrew Ross (Paperback - Jan 1, 2010)
- Money and Banking: An International Text by Robert Eyler (Paperback - Dec 24, 2009)
- Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity (Belknap Press) by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor (Hardcover Mar 31, 2009)
- Origami Toys: Paper Toys That Fly, Tumble, and Spin by Paul Jackson (Paperback - Mar 1, 2010)
- Philosophies of the Sciences: A Guide by Fritz Allhoff (Hardcover - Jan 19, 2010)
- Roads to Infinity: The Mathematics of Truth and Proof by John Stillwell (Hardcover - Mar 1, 2010)
- Science and Religion in Dialogue by Melville Y. Stewart (Hardcover - Jan 25, 2010)
- The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology (Cambridge Companions to Religion) by Charles Taliaferro and Chad Meister (Hardcover - Dec 31, 2009)
- The Cosmic Microwave Background: From Quantum Fluctuations to the Present Universe (Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics) by Jose Alberto Rubino-Martin, Rafael Rebolo, and Evencio Mediavilla (Hardcover - Jan 31, 2010)
- The Vanishing of a Species? A Look at Modern Man's Predicament by a Geologist by Peter Gretener and Nick Gretener (Hardcover - Jan 14, 2010)
- Time, Space, and Metaphysics by Bede Rundle (Hardcover - Dec 13, 2009)


4. The two best books on IBM are

The Maverick and His Machine – Maney

Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology -- Emerson W. Pugh

The book with the most flavor is

Inside IBM: The Watson Years -- William W. Simmons

The oddest book is

And Tomorrow…the World -- Rex Malik

The following are pretty much mandatory
IBM’s 360 and Early 370 Systems -- Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer
IBM’s Early Computers -- Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, Emerson W. Pugh
Father, Son & Co. – Watson and Petre
A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That Helped Build IBM – Watson (Jr.)
Cyril liked
The Computer Establishment – Katherine Fishman
The Sun Never Sets on IBM -- Foy
The Romance Division…a Different Side of IBM -- Deloca and Kalow
how they Achieved – Lucinda Watson (daughter of T. J. Jr.) – some nuggets

Cyril edited
IBM System/38 Technical Developments (1978 IBM General Systems Division) – ISBN – 0-933186-00-2
Indirectly about IBM
Design & Memory: Computer Programming in the 20th Century / Peter H. Huyck and Nellie W. Kremenak


5. Readings on Education
September 12, 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
Craft of Teaching, The - Kenneth E. Eble
Educated Mind, The - Kieran
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
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


6. Favorite Short Story Writers as of December 21, 2009 (2009 Winter Solstice for the Less Alert)

- P. G. Wodehouse
- Rudyard Kipling
- William Faulkner
- Scott Fitzgerald
- H. H. Munro
- Somerset Maugham
- Anton Chekhov
- Ambrose Bierce
- A. C. Doyle
- O, Henry
- John Collier
- A. E. van Vogt
- Arthur C. Clarke
- W. W. Jacobs
- E. A. Poe
- Nathanial Hawthorne
- Guy de Maupassant

7. Cyril’s Favorite Authors, a new list as of January 1, 2010

- P. G. Wodehouse
- Wordsworth
- Larkin
- Shakespeare
- Marlowe
- Milton
- Tennyson
- Longfellow
- (other poets include Keats, Byron, Frost, Robinson, Auden, Millay, Moore (Marianne - Thomas is not bad), Cummings, Muldoon, Thomas (Dylan))
- Orwell
- Hudson, W. H.
- Stoppard
- Twain
- Beckett
- Melville
- Adams, Henry
- Mencken
- Eliot
- Sassoon
- Faulkner
- Fitzgerald

Some Short Story Writers not listed above

- A. C. Doyle
- A. E. van Vogt
- Ambrose Bierce
- Anton Chekhov
- Arthur C. Clarke
- E. A. Poe
- Guy de Maupassant
- H. H. Munro
- Jack London
- John Collier
- Nathanial Hawthorne
- O, Henry
- Somerset Maugham
- W. W. Jacobs
- Washington Irving

Some Essayists not listed above

- Barry, Dave
- Benchley, Robert
- Bernstein, Jeremy
- Bryson, Bill
- Epstein, Joseph
- Halpern, Mark
- Murray, Les (pretty good poet too)


8. Cyril’s ten favorite scifi/fantasy writers as of 01/28/10

1. Heinlein Robert A. Heinlein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. A. E. van Vogt A. E. van Vogt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3. Arthur C. Clarke Arthur C. Clarke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4. Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5. Jules Verne Jules Verne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

6. Olaf Stapledon Olaf Stapledon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

7. Rudyard Kipling Rudyard Kipling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

8. Jack London Jack London - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

9. Jack Williamson Jack Williamson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10. E. E. Smirh E. E. Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NB – others are

John Myers Myers - John Myers Myers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philip Wylie - Philip Wylie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Collier - John Collier (writer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poul Anderson - Poul Anderson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Brunner - John Brunner (novelist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A. Merritt - A. Merritt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C. S. Lewis - C. S. Lewis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eric Knight - Eric Knight | LibraryThing

And don’t forget:

Bierce, Ambrose - Ambrose Bierce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doyle, A. C. - Arthur Conan Doyle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hawthorne, Nathanial - Nathaniel Hawthorne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irving, Washington - Washington Irving - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jacobs, W. W. - W. W. Jacobs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Padgett, Lewis - Lewis Padgett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poe, E. A. - Edgar Allan Poe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saki - Saki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Smith, Thorne - Thorne Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wells, H. G. - H. G. Wells - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


9. Much good poetry has been written in English over the past 110 years, and much is still being written – a good bit outside of North America.

A baker’s dozen modern poets Cyril likes follow:

- Philip Larkin - Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century; he was also a novelist and a jazz critic. He first came to prominence with the publication in 1955 of his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived, which was followed by The Whitsun Weddings in 1964 and High Windows in 1974. He was offered but declined the Poet Laureateship following the death of John Betjeman in 1984.
-
- W. H. Auden - Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973, pronounced /ˈwɪstən ˈhjuː ˈɔːdən/)[1] who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,[2][3] born in England, later an American citizen, regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.[4] His work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievements, its engagement with moral and political issues, and its variety of tone, form and content.[5][6] The central themes of his poetry are love, politics and citizenship, religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human beings and the anonymous, impersonal world of nature.
-
Turner Cassity - He was the son of Dorothy and Allen Cassity. He grew up in Jackson and Forest, Mississippi. He graduated from Millsaps College and Stanford University with a master's degree.[1] From 1952 to 1954, he was drafted and stationed in Puerto Rico. He attended Columbia University on the GI Bill, and received a master's degree in library science in 1955. He worked for the Jackson Public Library and then moved to South Africa. He worked at the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, from 1962 to 1991. [2] He also cofounded the Callanwolde Readings Program, which highlights poets and writers, with poet Michael Mott. He is buried in Forest, Mississippi. [3] His papers are at Emory University.[4]

- Robert Frost - Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech.[1] His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.
-
- Edna St. Vincent Millay - Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also known for her unconventional, bohemian lifestyle and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work.
-
Marianne Moore - Marianne Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was a Modernist American poet and writer noted for her irony and wit. Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of construction engineer and inventor John Milton Moore and his wife, Mary Warner. She grew up in her grandfather's household, her father having been committed to a mental hospital before her birth. In 1905, Moore entered Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and graduated four years later. She taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, until 1915, when Moore began to publish poetry professionally.

-
- E. E. Cummings - Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in all lowercase letters as e. e. cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. His body of work encompasses approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays and several essays, as well as numerous drawings and paintings. He is remembered as a preeminent voice of 20th century poetry, as well as one of the most popular.
-
- T. S. Elliot - Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (26 September 1888–4 January 1965), was a poet, playwright, and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Among his most famous writings are The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, Ash Wednesday, Four Quartets, Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail Party and "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". Eliot was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in the United States; moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at age 25); and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39. Of his nationality and its role in his work, Eliot said: "[My poetry] wouldn't be what it is if I'd been born in England, and it wouldn't be what it is if I'd stayed in America. It's a combination of things. But in its sources, in its emotional springs, it comes from America."[4]
-
- Seamus Heaney - Seamus Heaney (pronounced /ˈʃeɪməs ˈhiːni/) (born 13 April 1939 [1]) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He currently lives in Dublin.[2]
-
- Simon Armitage - Simon Armitage (born in Huddersfield, UK on 26 May 1963) is a British poet, playwright, and novelist. Before finding success with his poetry he worked as a probation officer, an undertaker's assistant and a supermarket shelf stacker.[1] He has received numerous awards for his poetry, including The Sunday Times Author of the Year, a Forward Prize, a Lannan Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for his song lyrics in the Channel 4 film Feltham Sings. In 2000, he was made the UK's official Millennium Poet during which time he wrote his 1,000 line poem "Killing Time" about news events of the previous year.[1] He was one of the judges for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize and in 2006 was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. His writing is characterised by a dry, native Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness." [1]
-
- Les Murray
- Stephen Edgar
- A. D. Hope


10. Thoughts on Thrillers – January 20, 2010

First
- a recent book: Amazon.com: The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and ...
- a second recent book: Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James (Hardcover - Dec 1, 2009) - Deckle Edge
- a third recent book: British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia by Barry Forshaw (Hardcover - Mar 5, 2009)
- a not quite recent book: Cloak and Dagger Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Spy Thrillers (Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature) (Hardcover) ~ Myron J. Smith (Author), Terry White (Author)
- an older book: Clubland Heroes by Richard Usborne (Paperback - Sep 26, 1983)
- the wikipedia article: Thriller (genre) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- list of Thriller Writers: List of thriller writers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- the Thriller Writer homepage: Official Website of International Thriller Writers, Inc.
- a recent article in the TLS

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6995057.ece

Is it true that crime novels and thrillers tell us more about society's ills than their more "literary" counterparts? Sean O'Brien weighs up the evidence, including novels by Stella Rimington, Peter James, Michael Crichton and others.

Second
I used to read a lot of thrillers. I read few now, so I am a little out of date - and have a fairly narrow focus. I think the genre more or less defined by Kipling's "Kim", published in 1900, Childers' "The Riddle of the Sands (1903), Buchan's "The Thirty-Nine Steps" (1915), and Maugham's "Ashenden" (1928). (For two good non-fiction books along the "Kim" line see
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe) by Peter Hopkirk (Paperback - May 15, 1992) (98) and Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game by Peter Hopkirk (Paperback - Oct 7, 1999) (10)).
Some list various by Poe, Cooper, Collins, Doyle, Conrad, and numerous others (Conrad often being cited as a major defining influence). A number of these are close to my focus, but I think that the thriller did not find its feet until after WWI with such as "Sapper", Oppenheim, Wallace, Wren, Yates, Charteris, and Ambler leading the dance.
The above were British (or British manque). In the U.S. for a time the hardboiled detective genre predominated: Burnett, Hammet, Cain, Chandler, McCoy, Ross MacDonald, John D. MacDonald et al. But it pretty much peaked and went out of business with Spillane – though the recent death of Robert Parker sparked an obit in the WSJ that claimed his Spenser novels revived it – I did not care for them back in the days when I read such (my favorite was John D. MacDonald’s “Travis McGee novels” - Travis McGee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
With the advent of James Bond (another Britisher and an obvious derivative of Simon Templer - Charteris and Fleming were big buddies), the thriller arrived in the U.S.: sometimes undiluted, sometimes diluted with the hardboiled genre.
Thriller writers I used to enjoy include: Lee Child (a Brit immigrant to the U.S.), Clancy, Coles, Deighton, Follet, Forsyth, Innes, Koontz, Ludlum, McCarry, Quinnel, Sanders.

11. Re Westerns
12.
There is the mythic Old West (e.g., "Shane") and the real Old West. There are novels depicting one or the other - most novels are a blend of the two. And there are purportedly non-fiction books on the real Old West - most of these should be taken with a grain of salt.

Some of the best purportedly non-fiction books are by John Myers Myers (John Myers Myers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). The following by Myers are purportedly non-fiction:
Non-Fiction
• The Alamo (1948) (the John Wayne movie was based on this)
• The Last Chance: Tombstone's Early Years (1950)
• Doc Holliday (1955)
• The Deaths of the Bravos (1962), a non-fiction history of the West (GREAT)
• The Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee, and Mountain Man (1963) (GREAT)
• San Francisco's Reign of Terror (1966)
• Print in a Wild Land (1967)
• The Westerners: a roundup of pioneer reminiscences (1969)
• The Border Wardens(1971)
I have read most and highly recommend - his fiction is good too (particularly "The Wild Yazoo").

A number of writers traveled in the Old West and wrote about it: Mark Twain being the first to mind (Mark Twain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) - Hamlin Garland (Hamlin Garland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) the second. Both wrote fiction and non-fiction about the Old West. There are lots of others.

You might like to read:
A Companion to the American West (Blackwell Companions to American History) by William Deverell (Paperback - Jan 22, 2007) (2)
I also recomment the Blackwell Companion to the American South - most Old Westerners came from Kentucky and other parts of the South:
A Companion to the American South (Blackwell Companions to American History) by John B. Boles (Paperback - Mar 19, 2004) (1)

There are a number of good biographies that purportedly describe the real Old West:
- James Bowie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Jim Bridger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- William B. Travis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Kit Carson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Sam Houston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And so on and so forth.

I think some of the best writing about the old and new, real and mythic American West to be by Larry McMurtry (Larry McMurtry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

PS - many think the best novel about the mythic Old West to be "The Virginian" (The Virginian (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). It is good but my taste is for the more popular, such as: Max Brand (Max Brand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), Clarence E. Mulford (Clarence E. Mulford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – a Brit by the way), and Zane Grey (Zane Grey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Cyril's favorite scifi/fantasy authors as of January 28, 2010

1. Heinlein Robert A. Heinlein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. A. E. van Vogt A. E. van Vogt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3. Arthur C. Clarke Arthur C. Clarke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4. Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5. Jules Verne Jules Verne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

6. Olaf Stapledon Olaf Stapledon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

7. Rudyard Kipling Rudyard Kipling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

8. Jack London Jack London - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

9. Jack Williamson Jack Williamson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10. E. E. Smirh E. E. Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NB – others are

John Myers Myers - John Myers Myers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philip Wylie - Philip Wylie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Collier - John Collier (writer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poul Anderson - Poul Anderson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Brunner - John Brunner (novelist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A. Merritt - A. Merritt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C. S. Lewis - C. S. Lewis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eric Knight - Eric Knight | LibraryThing

And don’t forget:

Saki - Saki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bierce, Ambrose - Ambrose Bierce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poe, E. A. - Edgar Allan Poe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wells, H. G. - H. G. Wells - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Smith, Thorne - Thorne Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doyle, A. C. - Arthur Conan Doyle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jacobs, W. W. - W. W. Jacobs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Padgett, Lewis - Lewis Padgett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Short List of Books on IBM

The two best books on IBM are

The Maverick and His Machine – Maney

Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology -- Emerson W. Pugh

The book with the most flavor is

Inside IBM: The Watson Years -- William W. Simmons

The oddest book is

And Tomorrow…the World -- Rex Malik

The following are pretty much mandatory

IBM’s 360 and Early 370 Systems -- Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer

IBM’s Early Computers -- Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, Emerson W. Pugh

Father, Son & Co. – Watson and Petre

A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That Helped Build IBM – Watson (Jr.)

I liked

The Computer Establishment – Katherine Fishman

The Sun Never Sets on IBM -- Foy

The Romance Division…a Different Side of IBM -- Deloca and Kalow

how they Achieved – Lucinda Watson (daughter of T. J. Jr.) – some nuggets

I edited

IBM System/38 Technical Developments (1978 IBM General Systems Division) – ISBN – 0-933186-00-2

Indirectly about IBM

Design & Memory: Computer Programming in the 20th Century / Peter H. Huyck and Nellie W. Kremenak

Cyril's most recent thoughts on poetry (01/22/10)

First, a poetic definition of poetry:

What is Poetry ~ GCW, P.E.

Poetry is
A rainbow of words
Arcing across eternity:
Escaping the now,
Achieving
The ineffable.

Second, a prose definition:

What is poetry?

1. Written or voiced words in a natural language that you understand.
2. The words sing (as architecture is frozen music, poetry is verbal music) – rhythm and rhyme are not enough - the words must make you feel good, even give you a frisson, without regard to their immediately perceived meaning (i.e., have good connotation/resonance – so what is song to one may not be to another).
3. The words must make you think after the song – not in a puzzled way but in a reasonably memorable way.

IT Epigrams revised as of 5:30 PM MT, 01/18/10

• A programmer is a person who had rather talk to a machine than to another person.
• A programmer is a programmer is a programmer - except on his resume where he is either a Software Engineer or a Systems Analyst.
• A rose by any other name does not have to follow the standards for roses.
• A true AI system has built-in people.
• Amateurs write BASIC, clerks write COBOL, professionals write FORTRAN, fools and geniuses write APL, academics write toy languages (examples may be supplied at will), hobbyists write Smalltalk, bit-diddlers write C#. A programmer feels about his favorite language much as Elvis felt about his blue suede shoes.
• Native English speakers are, on average, better programmers than non-native English speakers.
• Ninety percent of IT problems are people problems.
• Ninety percent of the time, IT consultants are hired hit men.
• Programmers rush in where analysts fear to tread.
• Programming instantiates the old magic of making things obey our words: Open Sezme.
• Real scientists stand on each others' shoulders, computer scientists stand on each others' toes.
• Symmetric interfaces have lock-up conditions.
• The more secure a system, the more difficult to use: a totally secure system is totally unusable.
• The most heated arguments in programming are simple, though esoteric: 1. The big endians vs. the little endians (are you inside the machine looking out? or outside the machine looking in?); and 2. Where does counting start: zero or one?
• The shorter the feed-back loop, the less stable the system.
• Three is the magic number (cf. the 3-body problem): beyond three recursions (or three levels of indices) lies madness.

(There is an old one from the early days of OS/360 in Poughkeepsie: On a clear disk you can seek forever.)

Perlis’ Epigrams Reworked

- Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
- Everything should be built top-down, except the first time.
- One man's constant is another man's variable.
- Programmers like to read their own code when it is fresh, sometimes when it is not so fresh. Almost all programmers dislike reading others’ code however fresh.
- Programming is an unnatural act.
- Science analyzes. Engineering synthesizes. Programming creates.
- Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
- The IT world is built on the law of the excluded middle. There is no such law in the real world.
- Twenty years at the bitface can convert one to Zoroastrianism
- When we write programs that "learn", it turns out that we do and they don't.
- You think you know when you learn, are more sure when you write, even more sure when you teach, but are certain when your program performs to spec.