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Matthew
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Posts posted by Matthew
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In a state of high intellectual ferment, I watched this twice over the weekend.
Support Your Local Sheriff
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Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World by Jonathan Bate.
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9 hours ago, Brad said:
He struck me as more a manager than a brilliant tactician. Moreover, he wasn’t a great President and on top of that his failure to do anything to stop McCarthy, especially when McCarthy took on George C. Marshall was shameless.
To my mind, he's more than a manager. Can you imagine the pressure of Churchill and FDR watching your every move? Critiquing them, and knowing you're sending men to death, no matter what your decision? Also dealing with the massive ego of political / military leader of different countries? You have to get it right, and for D-Day, Eisenhower did.
How he did as president is another matter...
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What has become a D-Day tradition for me is to watch this CBS Special 20 Anniversary interview between Walter Cronkite and President Eisenhower. I get a glimpse into those leadership qualities Eisenhower had, and you can see his intelligence in how he answered the questions. It's also nice to see a quality interview and mutual respect between the two as they discuss D-Day. I always thought of Eisenhower as some kind of stumblebum, not that up on things, and this complete changed my outlook on him.
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10 hours ago, ghost of miles said:
Heading over to Cincinnati for Reds-Yankees this afternoon at Great American Ballpark. Forecast for game time is sunny and 70 degrees.
Lucky you, got to see a Judge homer. I that ball park as small as I hear?
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1 hour ago, JSngry said:
Three batters into the game, in the top of the 1st, the Rockies had the bases loaded with Jon Gray scuffling with 15 pitches on his ledger without an out to his name. At that point, you start to hope that Gray could get out of the inning in under 30 pitches with no more than a run or two on the board to allow the offense a shot at Kyle Freeland without too much of a deficit.
Instead, a shallow pop fly out to right field, a strikeout, and a lineout to center field later and Gray had wiggled out of the jam unscathed on just 29 pitches. More amazing, the final out of the inning came after starting the at-bat with a 3-0 count.
Ok, how much longer is this type of foolishness going to go on?!?!?!?
I bet the fourth batter swung at the first pitch also!
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6 hours ago, bresna said:
The political threads were crazy back then. With today's polarized political scene, can you imagine what it would be like now? Eeek!
Crazy is right! Some members would only/mostly post in the political section. If I remember, there was one, Johnny Z? would knew a ton about jazz, in fact was a jazz musician if I'm correct, but only posted in politics.
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3 hours ago, ghost of miles said:
The LOA’s Reporting Vietnam and their two-volume collection of civil-rights-era journalism are also outstanding collections. Re the lingering consciousness of WWII when we were growing up, so true. Weird to think that Vietnam is much farther back in the rearview mirror now than WWII was when we were kids.
I don't mean this in a political way (know that is forbidden), but it is interesting, and incredibly sad, that since WWI, there has been this continuous background of people who have gone through war in the USA. Maybe it's more of an undercurrent, but there is a lot of people walking around with war time trauma as a part of their emotional / physical makeup since 1914.
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2 hours ago, Brad said:
@Matthew One other thought. I don’t know how you feel about reading about the Holocaust. As I had a few distant relatives on my Mother’s side who died in the camps, I find it difficult to read about; I had Martin Gilbert’s book The Holocaust but found it a tough read and sold it.
However, Daniel Mendelsohn wrote a book called The Lost: A Search for Six out of the Six Million that is absolutely fantastic. Mendelson has a resemblance to his Uncle who died in the Holocaust and he decided he wanted to find out what happened to his Uncle, Aunt and their four daughters. It reads like a detective novel as he figures out what happens. It gives you a look into the Holocaust without being a litany of deaths.
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll look and see about the Mendelsohn book, sometimes, if I wait for awhile, the Kindle version will go on sale of a book.
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On 4/28/2023 at 7:57 AM, Brad said:
I was born five years after WW II ended so in a weird sort of way it has always felt like recent history. Have you considered Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy. They’re quite good. If you’re interested in D Day I can make some recommendations. There are a lot of general histories about the war. I like Max Hasting’s books. Antony Beevor’s books are also terrific. From a visual point of view have you seen HBO’s Band of Brothers. That gives you a great feel. I usually watch it once a year.
Thank you for the comments! I've read two of the three Atkinson's, but plan to read all three in the coming months, along with Ambrose's history of WWII. The one area I'm really looking for a recommendation on is the war Pre-Pearl Harbor, I still don't have a really good fix on that era for Europe. If you know of a good book on that topic, I'm all ears and eyes.
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Nik Turner, The Space Falcons & Youth: Interstellar Engery
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Reporting World War II. I've always wanted to read these two volumes, but kept holding back. Recently, I read a review by Alan Jacobs and it made me finally order it. Just started but the articles are very well written, makes me long for that quality of writing about events today. It'll take probably the rest of the year to finish.
To add: One of the things I've come to realize is how much WWII was in the background and social atmosphere when I grew up (lived in San Diego), and it was the reference for everything. A lot of the, to me, old people I knew were WWII veterans, it was just a part of the culture. Now, it's not. I don't have a nostalgia for the war, but now that the vets are dying out fast, I feel a need to learn about it more than ever. One of the persons I respected the most in my life made the D-Day landing and was wounded about a week after. It all seems so far away now.
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The Glass Menagerie. First time reading it, and it's almost too painful to read...
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Dinner at Eight. All time classic final scene.
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I've watched this a ton of times (watching many time today) and it really is an entertainment style that's long gone, but it really brings out how at ease everyone was on stage.
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In terms of books Kathleen Norris book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography is an interesting book that as the title implies examines both aspects.
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Dean & Britta: L'avventura
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Roger McQuinn: Back From Rio
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Poco: Live at Columbia Studios Hollywood 9/30/71. Very good music being played here.
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19 hours ago, ghost of miles said:
This is one of my favorite Merton books, doesn't get talked about enough, some great insights, and of course, some very dated material.
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Maybe I run with the wrong crowd, but I haven't heard or read the word statuesque in quite a long time.
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Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark. Such a great album and it stands the test of time. The Laurel Canyon Movement produced a lot of timeless music.
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On 2/19/2023 at 9:35 AM, Larry Kart said:
Hate this new rule. And who said extra-inning games should be "fun to watch." They're tests of skill, of the depth and makeup of one's roster. and managerial acumen. Thus they have consequences for further games, as it should be. If you use up your bullpen in an extra-inning game, you don't have relief pitchers left for tomorrow. We're talking about a season after all, not just one game, and it's up to the managers to weigh those risks.
Back in the day, when a bullpen was used up like that, the starting pitcher the next day had to go deep into the game. It didn't matter if he was getting shelled, you stayed in and pitched, to heck with your ERA!
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Ugh! I don't care for the rule, or a lot of other changes in the game. I know I'm an old geezer, but the game was better just twenty years ago that what we have now.
What Are You Watching
in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
Posted
Gravity Falls. I know it's a kids show, but it's great.