Eve of July 4th

Recent reads; generally all good subway reads:

Following up on a previous post that previewed this, I finally got to read the book (and FC already read it): “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” by Jennifer 8. Lee – what a great read! Not just a look at Chinese American cuisine, but also about what it means to be American. Highly recommended read (plus the official blog is pretty awesome too).

About two weeks ago, I attended Jennifer 8. Lee’s presentation on the book at an APA alumni event sponsored by another Ivy League institution (not Alma Mater); nifty! She’s engaging, and the slideshow she presented supplemented the book in a really invigorating and entertaining way.

“Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President,” by Lincoln Chafee – a read I got from the library. Chafee wrote about his experience in Congress as a frustrated moderate Republican – illuminating and disillusioning; but I’ll take off points toward his book as a moderate manifesto; it’s kind of hard to motivate moderates to become active fighters when the very nature of moderation is not to fight. It was an easy read, but sad – sad as in the sympathy I felt for Chafee, but I felt frustrated with him for how he described his frustrating situation – he could have done more to stand up to the problems with the Bush administration and the weak Congress, but he was only a junior senator who was dealing with his own Democratic-dominated state. Also, while I’m not as hard on either of the parties as Chafee may be, but he has an interesting perspective.

“Death by Black Hole” by Neil deGrasse Tyson – terrific read!! A collection of the astrophysicist’s essays, it makes you appreciate science. He’s opinionated, in a traditional NYC manner (he is a native New Yorker, after all), and smart and writes persuasively. Highly recommended read. Barnes and Noble has the hard cover edition as a bargain (well, that may actually depend on the store, but it’s available).

Neil deGrasse Tyson has also been a nifty host on Nova Science Now. See, I have a theory that if kids and adults watch more of this stuff, we might have a more educated populace. In theory, of course; I’m not sure what is the status of education as it is.

Hmm… okay, as noted in the previous post, I have a crush on Juan Diego Florez. 😉 He has such a charm and a voice, and can act very well (at least of the comic operas that I’ve seen so far on Channel 13). YouTube has quite some stuff, notably the report on how he got to those high C’s in such an easy sounding way (it probably isn’t easy!; plus, I didn’t realize and was fascinated that Pavarotti was made famous by that same role):

Sometimes I think that the NY Times has some fascinating obituaries of fascinating people – these are not just accomplished people – they’re people who cared about what they did and who they were; consider the recent passing of Kermit Love, the costume designer for various ballets – and behind Big Bird.