Read This: Lucretia Borgia

Lucretia Borgia is quite famous still, considering she died in 1519. However as common as her name is associated with poisoning and other imprecations, few have read her history - no matter how literate.

To that end, I recommend elucidation via the excellent biography 'Lucretia Borgia', a translation from the German. Now over 100 years old, and concerning events nearly 5 centuries past, the book is accessible and interesting. Available in several formats from Project Gutenburg. Enjoy!

Fine Foods only on Whidbey Island.

Read This: The Lang Fairy Books

My favorite text site, the always interesting Internet Sacred Text Archive, has a large collection of The Lang Fairy Books. Dating from the late 1800's to the early 1900's, the Lang Fairy Books came with one of a dozen different colored covers. Each has dozens of fairy tale stories, only some of which will be familiar to you. If you're looking for a great source of bedtime stories, look no further!

Fairy Colors on Whidbey Island.

Read This: Space Logs

Space Log is transcripts of space missions, posted in a web-savvy format. The minutiae of these inter-stellar communications can be tedious, but then you get to historic passages - all is sublime. Three missions are online now: Apollo 11 (first manned mission to the moon), Apollo 13 (scary near-disaster), and Mercury 6 (first US orbit). Truly worth the time to immerse oneself in history - particularly since it doesn't look like the US will surpass, or even equal these moments in the near future.

Lots of Space on Whidbey Island.

Read This: A Dead Man's Party

Writer Craig Mitchell is finally almost finished with the long-awaited final chapters of "She Hates My Futon", a novella he started more than 10 years ago. Rest assured I'll feature it when it's done. Until then, here's my favorite story from Craig: A Dead Man's Party. Enjoy!

Party Time on Whidbey Island.

Thought for the Week/ Read This

Do not go about worshiping deities and religious institutions as the source of the subtle truth. To do so is to place intermediaries between yourself and the divine, and to make of yourself a beggar who looks outside for a treasure that is hidden inside his own breast.
- Lao Tzu

From The Hua Hu Ching, a probable supplement to the Tao Te Ching.

The Way of Whidbey Island.

Read This: The 56 Ethnicities of China

This is more of a See This, than a Read This, unless you can read (Mandarin?) Chinese. However, the intent and meaning of this page is quite clear -- document the various ethnic peoples of China, their instruments and occupations, in traditional dress, all with beautiful photography. Go see the People of China.

China comes to Whidbey Island.

Read This: Airplane Stories

I love flying. There's a certain romance to strapping yourself to a giant, powerful machine and hurtling through the air. The rituals, traditions, and processes involved often seem arcane, and so are fascinating. However, arcane processes are notoriously difficult to articulate, particularly in writing. Short stories or vignettes are perhaps the best way to share the rich feelings flying inspires. I present several sources of excellent aviation writing, all worthwhile reads.

Flight Level 390 is a blog written by an anonymous airline pilot. Tantalizingly laced with jargon, the posts are nonetheless accessible and very well-written. The author clearly has a romantic connection with his trade, and his topic never fails to be interesting, even poignant.

Published by the Naval Safety Center, the print document: Approach magazine is a treasure-trove of dramatic incidents. The quality of the articles is consistent, an amazing accomplishment since they are written by various Naval Flight Officers. Most of the incidents thus come to us directly from those involved. Because of the extreme nature of military flying, the intensity of the writing is interesting, but often documents tragedy. Now distributed on the web in PDF format, Approach is outstanding. Bravo Zulu!

My last selection is difficult to read, but not because of the writing, because of the format. On the Straight Dope Message Board, a regular poster named Broomstick has a series of posts titled 'Airport Stories:' that document her personal experiences learning to fly and flying. Very accessible writing, an interesting subject, and excellent narration make these stories compelling. The only problem is that the individual posts are buried in tons of other writing. I provide here a list of links to some of her posts, but there are more in the archives of the message board. You now don't have to be a member to search, so you can mine for more if you like:

Airport Stories: The New Guy Is Still Generating Problems
Airport Stories: Shopping for Taildragger Lessons
Airport Stories: Whole Lotta Pre-Flighting Goin' On
Airport Stories: Bouncing Tuna Salad Sandwhich
Airport Stories: Heiligenschein
Airport Stories: Tailwheel on Ice

Airplanes on Whidbey Island.

Read This: Afghanistan Summarized

Gary Farber over at Amygdala posted a tremendous article about our continued presence in Afghanistan. His excellent compilation from a wide variety of sources is long, but you won't find a better primer on the problems facing us in this cause.

Amygdala rules Whidbey Island.

Read This: On Football and Dogfighting

One of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell, has an interesting and controversial article in this weeks New Yorker. He writes about football and dogfighting in "Offensive Play". His comparison is sure to invoke anger in some, but his points are (as usual) well-reasoned and thoughtful. Even more thoughtful is the transcript of today's live chat on the subject.

I'm not sure what to do about the dangers of brain injury to football players, but I think that there needs to be some further discussion and eventual changes if the sport wants to continue. I'd welcome some form of touch football: in the same way that high-school girls basketball is more interesting than professional basketball; professional touch football should lead to a more pure version of the game, with teamwork and finesse supplanting brawn. Too often the playoffs are won by the team whose linemen have done the best job of hoarding painkillers throughout the regular season -- allowing them to do battle more effectively in the final games. In any case, football fans should read Malcolm's articles.

Football on Whidbey Island.

Read This: Olbermann on Healthcare

Keith Olbermann talked about Healthcare Reform on his show of October 7th. He devoted his entire show to a special comment on the subject, and it's powerful. I don't agree with everything he says, but he's largely on target, fair, and very informative. You can read the transcript here, and I've also embedded the entire show in the five videos below. Powerful stuff -- Read This, or Watch This, please.

Here's the link to the National Association of Free Clinics Keith spoke of in the last video.

Health Care on Whidbey Island.

Read This: UK Accent and Dialect Recordings

The British Library has a large collection of recorded stories from all over the UK. Accessible via a Google Map, the accents are interesting, even charming, but it's the stories themselves that are the best feature. You owe it to yourself to listen to some of these wonderful snippets of history.

Accents and dialects of Whidbey Island.

Read This: Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha

Both the Old and New testaments of the bible have undergone a number of edits and revisions over the millennia. The Internet Sacred Texts Archive has a couple collection of these.

Edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. in 1926, these books are both interesting and historically important. The New Testament Apocrypha were very popular in the early years of Christianity, but ultimately didn't make the grade as biblical canon.

The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha "The Forgotten Books of Eden" expands on the early years of man's existence, according to the early Jews. Interesting reading, but it's not clear to me the differences that make these works not worthy of inclusion in the Bible or even the official Apocrypha.

Bible Study on Whidbey Island.

Read This: Spider Woman

Every once in a while a publishing company forgets to renew the copyright on a truly important book. When this happens, the book falls into the public domain, and we get to read it for free. The Internet Sacred Text archive recently found a wonderful book newly in the public domain: Spider Woman, by Gladys A. Reichard.

Gladys Reichard was one of the foremost authorities on the Navajo; she spent 25 years doing research on the Navajo reservation. She eventually learned to speak the complex Navajo language fluently. We are fortunate that this, her ethnography of Navajo weavers and herders, "Spider Woman" fell into the public domain. In this book, Reichard explores the intersection between the fiber arts, mythology, and sand painting, all told in first person. It succeeds as an ethnographic technical document and, although completely factual, reads like a novel.

Looms on Whidbey Island.

Read This: Vacation '58

Legendary writer/ director John Hughes passed away today. In tribute, go read his short story that inspired "National Lampoon's Vacation": Vacation '58.

The opening line alone is fantastic; "If Dad hadn’t shot Walt Disney in the leg, it would have been our best vacation ever!"

Found at Other Crap

Vacation on Whidbey Island.

Read This: Theo Brown's Diaries

Geek find of the week: The Diaries of Theo Brown. Theo was an inventor, and chief of the experimental department at John Deere & Co., working there some 40 years. He also kept diaries of both day-to-day events and his ideas.

Theo's diaries make fascinating reading, and his illustrations are interesting too. I don't think anyone other than scholars will read them all, but the nice thumbnail layout in this gallery is easy to navigate and fun to browse.

Found at Hanuman

Tractors on Whidbey Island.

Comic Tuesday

Sorry, I took the week off from Comic Tuesday last week. Did you miss me? Posting has been light in general, but hopefully will get back up to speed soon.

Today we have a gem from the past, A Book of Drawings by Henry Mayo Bateman, published in 1921. Kept here at the Internet Archive, what really drew my attention to this is the nice movie from these drawings, made by Hanuman.

I guess this weeks comic actually qualifies as a Read This! entry, too. So double your fun!

Vaccuums of Whidbey Island.

My 15 Minutes...

We all get them, right? Well, my 15 minutes of fame are happening right now on Amazon.com! I was interviewed by Amazon about the Kindle 2.

I was one of the lucky ones, and got to hold it and use it for a period of time. Sadly, I had to give it back... (you would think they could make that a part of their advertising budget, don't you?) But in any case, it was fun to have an advance look at the latest and greatest Kindle reading device!

If you already own a Kindle, The features on the Kindle 2 are worth the upgrade. True, there's no SD card slot, but it has almost 2 Gig of on-board storage, and unless you're planning on having a mountain of lenghly technical publications, or a ton of music, it should be more than enough. (Besides, isn't that what you got the I-pod for? music?) I went through my e-book library, and even though I've been collecting books since July of '08 for my Kindle, I don't have enough to fill the on-board memory of the Kindle 1!!! And I currently have about 80 books on there, not counting what I have on the computer at home. Seriously, do you really think you need to have more than 1500 books at your fingertips while waitng at the Doctor's office? I read pretty fast, but I'm sure I wouldn't go through 1500 books on a flight to Europe, let alone a cross-country!

Another fun feature is the 'read-to-me' feature. Say you're waiting in line for the Ferry, now you have to move your car, but you don't really want to put down the book. You don't have too, just click on 'read-to-me' and set it down on the carseat while you drive! you won't miss a word!

Forgot your reading glasses? No problem, just increase the font size, you won't need them.

After I was forced to go back to my Kindle 1, it took almost a week for me to stop looking for the handy features I got used to on the Kindle 2! Highlighting passages, making notes, so easy to do on the Kindle 2...

If you are not a Kindle owner, now is a good time. There are tons of books available, not just at Amazon, but on a large number of other sites as well. Some are free, some cost a nominal amount (.01 to 2.49), others cost more ($5.99 - 9.99). Newer books cost more than older ones (hmmm, seems like it works that way with paper and ink books... first the hardback, pay through the nose for it, then a paperback, not so bad, then pick it up at the used book store, cheap.)

Kindle 2 Whidbey Island.

Rockhoppers Presents Tom Trimbath

Balancing money and life is a tough act. Writing about it takes a different set of tools. Tom Trimbath, the author of Dream. Invest. Live. read from his book and talked about the practicalities and implications of writing about personal finance. Here's the video:

Book synopsis: Define your dreams. Invest your money. Live your life. Define your own dream, and you can ignore the trappings most people chase. Invest your money yourself, and you can take advantage of your skills and experiences. Respecting your own knowledge and working to a clear goal that you defined gives you an advantage over the investment titans. America's pioneers understood the rewards available to those who also understood risk and the frontier. They built better lives for themselves. They can be role models for those of us in this modern world. Properly balancing your money, your goals, and your time can let you live a life now while you journey towards your dream. Pioneers had to bounce along in a covered wagon and survive brutal winters. Our journeys don't have to be as risky and can be much more rewarding.

Tom Trimbath is the author of the nature series Twelve Months at Barclay Lake, Twelve Months at Lake Valhalla, and Twelve Months at Merritt Lake, and the cultural essay Just Keep Pedaling (stories learned from bicycling across America). Thanks to frugal parents and some insightful reading, he was able to leave a life as an aerospace engineer before he was 40 and become a writer, photographer, entrepreneur, and cautious adventurer. Autographed copies of all Tom's books are available at Rockhoppers.

Dream, Invest, Live on Whidbey Island.

Read This: Ribald Humor

I thought about making this a Comic Tuesday entry, but it's a book, not a comic. This 1960's humorous treatise gives 'advice' on the right thing to say after several circumstances resulting in 'deflowerment'. Perfectly safe for work, provided you don't have a 10-year-old looking over your shoulder who knows what 'deflowerment' means. :) Enjoy "The Recently Deflowered Girl".

Found at Neatorama. Update: New source found and linked -- the original is gone.

Deflowered on Whidbey Island.

Read This: The Smoky God

Back to the Sacred Texts archive for this one, an early science-fiction story of the hollow earth genre. The Smoky God has nice illustrations, and is much more accessible than it's predecessor, Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery, also available at Sacred Texts.

Hollow Earth on Whidbey Island.