Quote of the Day #18

What better can one say on Thanksgiving?

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Song of the Day #2

If I'm in a funk, and I have been in some funky funks in my time (not to mention lately), there are certain songs I can go to for what one might call a quantum of solace. The 1978 Van Morrison tune "Take It Where you Find It," on his Wavelength album, is one of those songs. In this case, the life-affirming lyrics are expressed with soaring vocals and a classic Van arrangement, so it really is more than the sum of its parts. And it's not just one line or verse that picks me up off the barroom floor of my mind; there are a number of gems, such as:

1. "Take it where you find it
   Cant leave it alone
   You will find a purpose
   To carry it on"
   
   
2. "You will build on whatever is real
   And wake up each day
   To a new waking dream"
   
   
3. "I'm gonna walk down the street
   Until I see
   My shining light"

Here's the whole thing. Hope you like it.

Take It Where you Find It

Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it

Take it where you find it
Can't leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it

Many's the road I have walked upon
Many's the hour between dusk and dawn
Many's the time
Many's the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child

Take it where you find it
Can't leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it

Chorus:
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America

And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream

Take it where you find it
Can't leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it

Repeat chorus

Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin' about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over

I'm gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I'm gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I'm gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I'm gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light

You can download the song at iTunes.

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
As much as I consider myself a sensitive New Age guy, I got the distinct feeling while reading The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing that the novel wasn't written for me. I suppose the title should have been my first clue. But that's not to say I didn't find the book fairly enjoyable overall. The narrator, Jane Rosenal, is offbeat and a bit awkward, but she reliably delivers a droll retort to a boyfriend or otherwise unsuspecting man on about every other page. This adds some much-needed levity to the The Girls' Guide, which confronts some pretty heavy subject matter, from a parent with cancer to infidelity to the angst inherent in contemporary New York City courtship rituals.


View all my reviews.

Portnoy's Complaint

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an outrageously funny book, full of enough explicit sexual tales and graphic language to make the filthiest comedian blush. One can only imagine how it was received upon publication 40 years ago. And that's certainly what one notices immediately--the profanity, and to this reader, some frankly disgusting sexual habits of protagonist Alex Portnoy. But after one acclimates to the language and subject matter, there is a depth amidst the vulgarity that's well worth plumbing. Roth writes fearlessly from the perspective of a narrator consumed by fear—his own, his parents', and the existential dread that runs through all the Jews of this novel. Simply put, Portnoy's Complaint is a masterpiece.


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Quote of the Day #17

"I'm a pretty harsh critic of 99 percent of America's meat system, but there is that 1 percent I think is important to defend, because first there are good environmental reasons to eat meat in a limited way.

If you believe strongly in building up local food economies, there are places where meat is the best way to get protein off of the land. It's too hilly, too dry. Having animals is very important for sustainable agriculture. If you're going to have animals on the farm, they're going to die eventually, and you're going to eat them.

But I have enormous respect for vegetarians. They're further ahead than most of us. They've gone through the thought process in making their eating choices. They've just come out in a different place than I have.

I think we're going to focus on meat-eaters the way we have on SUV drivers. There will be a lot of pressure and education to show that a heavy meat diet is a big contributor to climate change, and that there are many good reasons to eat less meat."
-Michael Pollan

Deer Hunting With Jesus

Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War by Joe Bageant

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a fine, if imperfect, book. Bageant writes from an interesting and somewhat unique, perspective. A child of Virginia's white working class, he details his return after several decades in the bigger world, to the town of his birth, Winchester. What he finds is troubling, to say the least. While he was off becoming a liberal writer, his family and friends were left in near poverty to "cling to guns and religion," as an imprudent politician might put it. Bageant devotes most of the book to this tendency, portraying it as a symptom of the class war he blames on right-wing ideology and left-wing indifference. Where the author goes wrong is in his gonzo, take-no-prisoners style. It may be entertaining to read, but as social science, it's pretty weak. All too often, the book devolves into a series of diatribes against such familiar tropes as the latte-sipping liberal who sees himself as "too good" for Bageant's kin. But that's not to say there isn't value to be found here, particularly in the section on gun control, where Bageant's view that progressives need to drop this non-issue ASAP, may prove instructive.


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Quote of the Day #16

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. "
- Mark Twain

It's been a long time since I felt like supporting the federal government. I'm finally inclined that way now, but I reserve the right to be disappointed.

How I Spent Election Day '08

As I begin tonight, I still don't know who will be this country's next president. What I do know is that I had a wonderful day participating in the grand American democratic experiment. Starting at 7:08 a.m., when I took my place in the longest line of voters I've ever stood in, it's been nothing short of an inspiration. A huge white hawk soared up to alight on one of the lampposts high above my polling place at the Agassiz School and it felt like an auspicious sign. We would be watched over by this magnificent bird. Things would be all right.

I went on to wait another 35 minutes before entering the gym and getting my ballot. I carefully filled in the little circles with indelible ink—no touch-screen technology around here. As soon as I had fed my ballot into the hungry optical scanner, I turned tail and headed into the bright, crisp morning.

After a couple of hours racing through the New England foliage, trying my damnedest not to think about politics and all that is at stake in this historic election, I arrived in Rochester, New Hampshire, where I had agreed to spend my day volunteering for Barack Obama's get-out-the-vote ground game. On Main Street, I saw the Republican headquarters, decked out in signs for all manner of GOP candidate, most of whom I had never heard of prior to that moment. Directly across the street I found what I was looking for. I signed in at the Dems' HQ and was directed to a community center around the corner where I would get my assignment.

A few minutes later, I was teamed up with Katie, a mother of three from Framingham, who was every bit as enthusiastic and every bit as nervous about today as I. We picked up our contact lists and many pounds of leaflets and brochures and headed out into this unfamiliar town. Our first stop was the Silver Bell Trailer Court, where we had five mobile homes to canvass. As was typical for our day, Katie and I only found one voter out of five actually at home. Equally typical, at least for the people we met this morning, was the fact that the woman at trailer number five was intending to vote, but had not yet made it out. We offered a ride to the polls, but she assured us her friend was coming for her.

As we made our way to the other houses on our list, one of the first things that jumped out to me was just how desperately poor so many of the people in Rochester seem to be. A great many live in trailers, some of which were so dilapidated you worried that they might not make it through the winter. There were cars up on blocks, plastic children's toys scattered about, and an overall sense of despair. Maybe somehow this campaign based on "hope" can deliver for these people who've been left behind by so many politicians for so long.

Of the few people we actually did meet, two stand out in particular. The first was David, who has his own garage, where he restores antique cars for a living. He was chain smoking while tinkering with a '37 Chevy and was thrilled to talk to us about his cars, if not politics, though he did pledge to vote for the Big O. One other man who was for Obama was Leo, a 70-year-old white guy who told Katie and me that he had once owned 500 guns—not because he was starting a small army apparently, but because he was a collector—and yet only now is learning to read. He was completely pro-Obama, and so was his wife. If ever there was a stereotype buster, Leo is it.

Before I end here, let me say that I have just learned Barack Obama will be our next president. If we needed proof that this momentous event will have effects far beyond America's shores, the first phone call I received after the announcement came from my friends in Jaipur, India.

They were overjoyed, as am I.