Author Topic: The Library (Read 2627767 times)

PatH · « **Reply #14240 on:** October 23, 2014, 02:43:51 PM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

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PatH · « **Reply #14241 on:** October 23, 2014, 02:44:32 PM »

For one thing, The Hot Zone isn't about current events. It was written in 1994, and describes events that took place from 1967 to 1993. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of politics in it; it's more of a scientific thriller/detective story.

MaryPage · « **Reply #14242 on:** October 23, 2014, 04:03:08 PM »

I think you meant to type 1987 to 1993. And no, there are no politics involved. Or should I say yes, there are no politics involved?

PatH · « **Reply #14243 on:** October 23, 2014, 04:11:46 PM »

Thanks for catching that, MaryPage. Actually, it's 1967, according to a squib in the front, though the earliest date I can recal at the moment is 1976.

MaryPage · « **Reply #14244 on:** October 23, 2014, 05:59:57 PM »

The actual beginning of the Reston, Virginia outbreak of Ebola in some laboratory monkeys was in something like 1989. The main thriller of the book lies in telling of how that was brought under control before it burst out into the general public. It was touch and go at the time, and would have brought about a huge panic had it become known before it was stopped. Now long, long years have passed since I read that book so avidly, and I read it both because Reston was in Fairfax County and quite near where I lived there, but also because I had read about it in The New Yorker.
I seem to recall that the book goes on to describe the first known cases appearing in Africa, which had happened much earlier. I think the author actually went to Africa to check it all out. I also seem to remember Fort Detrick in Maryland, the place where the United States secretly made biological weapons, coming into the story in some way. Maybe it was that experts on containment came from there to help out; I just don't remember clearly.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14245 on:** October 23, 2014, 06:27:42 PM »

Just got back from having my eye completely measured etc. for surgery on the 3rd - was able to share all my concerns about anesthesia and even now have an appointment with the anesthesiologist - I am feeling less scared - while there they took all that they needed for the cataract removal that will be done after this surgery proves successful - hopefully it will be done the end of November - nothing like having work done on both eyes - I am feeling OK on the cataract especially since I had the cataract removal done on the eye now needing this surgery but the surgery on the 3rd still has me jittery.

OK Judy here is the deal - decided to support you in your diet - for one week each month I will accompany you on your almost liquid diet - trying to figure out what to eat I came up with soup and cereal and yogurt and various fruit sauces and of course drinks from the blender oh yes and flan - it is the veggies that are difficult - I can see a loose mashed sweet potato may work but I think that is what i will miss most - the veggies - meat and fish is not a huge loss to me but the veggies and nuts - oh oh oh - but I am going to at least do it for a week each month for the next 6 months - please let us know of any filling foods you find and include in your diet.

I by passed ordering Grisham's Gray Mountain and now I am sorry - of course if you pre-ordered or ordered the day of publication it was over a dollar cheaper - I have so many to read and I will be out of commission to read for a lot of November so if I drool too much I can always order later - maybe by then someone will have a used copy that I can get even less expensively.

Another that looks good and I may put on my Christmas list if I do not break down sooner is the first of a trilogy, The Glassblower I still have some of my grandmothers glass ornaments from Germany that for all I know they could have been her mother's since it was her mother who came here from Germany - regardless it sounds like a story of courage among women.

Steph · « **Reply #14246 on:** October 23, 2014, 07:11:55 PM »

Oh Judy,I am so sorry. Bottom teeth are tricky at best. I am like MaryPage. I have uppers and adore them, since I had had three years of pain before I broke down and had them out.. But bottems.. I am trynng like MaryPage... keep them all.. so I brush and floss and brush.. etc.
Soup is good, but milk toast.. but then I truly hate milk.. Yogurt wonderful, cheese great.. but no milk toast for me.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14247 on:** October 23, 2014, 07:30:49 PM »

Jonathan long history of knowing about Meister Eckhart - Grade school for me was with the Benedictines and the nuns were Dominicans then High School it was the Carmelites - all three contemplative orders - then as a young women after two years of college my sister jointed the Dominicans - after about 35 years she did leave the order but remained as the Dean of the Philosophy department and then my good friend likes to read any work by an author that was or almost was thrown out of the church so Meister Eckhart fit that scenario as well - he and St. John of the Cross are my two crutches - funny because my sister takes to St. Anselm and the Desert Fathers.

Of his sermons the one that has me in awe is, "The Self-Communication of God" where he talks of the will, the Holy Ghost, grace and the soul communicating with God. What I love about his work is he is not dependent on a view of God as if a super human but as a God-head, a form of energy -

These mystics all seem to have in common a view similar to Taoism, Buddhism and Zen which of course feeds right into my education by contemplative orders.

Your suggestion of a book related to the Arab states created as a result of WWI has me curious - I am not finding an easy one book with all the answers but my curiosity is that we know the Arabs are a tribal people with this newfangled democracy where each person has a vote is new and a curiosity -

There are books about the politics in that part of the world that go into the Ottoman rule starting in the sixteenth century and the period before that, the Caliphate period but none of them show the tribal groups and which tribe supported what leader except for the division among the religious Shia and Sunni - what tribes were Sunni and which were Shia and then the Alawites and how many others??? - The Kurds were a nation of their own - do not know if Kurds use a tribal governing society and then, if I remember we learned of 6 groups in Afghanistan and the early groups Khazars, Bulgars, Avars, and the Turks - how did they fit into the puzzle that is the Middle East today.

It only hit me looking into this, the people of Iraq and Iran and the people from other close by middle eastern locations were the Assyrians of Bible fame - and so I am still trying to dope out the Arab tribes and how that form of governing power fit into their history. Was it because of competing tribes that one leader was needed to keep them together - how do they differ etc. etc.

My copy of The Arab lands under Ottoman Rule just arrived and I have a few others on my list but nothing that is devoted exclusively to explaining the tribes. I've got one that will arrive soon that sounds fascinating Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab. An excerpt says that it is a matter of pride and identity to be branded from a Tribe even today, almost like being a part of a prestigious frat house.

Nearly all the books about the region are written by westerners from a western point of view - I really would like to understand the dynamics from a middle eastern point of view. So if you hear of any books that will add to this discovery please share.

MaryPage · « **Reply #14248 on:** October 24, 2014, 07:40:58 AM »

Barbara, best of luck with your surgery.

I think you should, if you have not already done so, enjoy a book about Gertrude Bell, the incredible woman who INVENTED Iraq!

There are a number of them, but you might start with
Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia Paperback – July 12, 2005
by Janet Wallach (Author)

Frybabe · « **Reply #14249 on:** October 24, 2014, 08:42:32 AM »

The one I have in my TBR pile is Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell.

I'm looking up Meister Eckhart. His philosophy/theology interests me.

Steph · « **Reply #14250 on:** October 24, 2014, 01:18:50 PM »

Desert Queen is good.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14251 on:** October 24, 2014, 03:22:53 PM »

Yes, I too have it and started it but it is not telling me about the history of tribal politics and history - another that I liked is Full Tilt a gal from Ireland who rides her bicycle through the Middle East before it erupted that tells of her experiences with the hospitality as part of the Muslim lifestyle - so far the only book I found explaining any of the dynamics and best of all written by someone from that part of the world is The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr - he does have several books and the one that I would like is out of my budget even as a resale till after the holidays - Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism

Get this initial recap - "Nasr examines the life and thought of Mawlana Mawdudi, one of the first and most important Islamic ideological thinkers. Mawdudi was the first to develop a modern political Islamic ideology, and a plan for social action to realize his vision. The prolific writings and indefatigable efforts of Mawdudi's party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, first in India and later in Pakistan, have disseminated his ideas far and wide. His views have informed revivalism from Morocco to Malaysia."

I have never heard of Mawlana Mawdudi - that is what I want to learn - not more westerners giving their ideas, understanding and retelling the story of their meddling that they think is making things better when all it is, is with good intentions trying to turn that part of the world into something they can understand. Frankly they cannot help it - we all look at things from our own understanding that we see through our western experience.

MaryPage · « **Reply #14252 on:** October 24, 2014, 03:42:05 PM »

Barbara, here are some you might want to have a go at. I have not read ANY of them myself.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2009/2009_one_tribe_at_a_time.pdf

http://cemmis.edu.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=280%3Atribes-and-tribalism-in-the-arab-spring&catid=77%3Apoints-of-view&Itemid=95&lang=en

http://www.meforum.org/1813/the-middle-easts-tribal-dna

http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520070806

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14253 on:** October 24, 2014, 04:04:18 PM »

OH WoW - oh oh oh MaryPage fabulous - oh my I cannot believe thank you so much - this is just what I am curious to know more about - this is just grand.

What is more interesting - I have never believed that much in all this 'when you ask things happen' but oh my, I must rethink because Here I was not only asking but reviewing some Gandhi remarks that I needed to feed my soul today that all worked never expecting when I come in here again to find this... just spectacular!

In case anyone else needs a boost here is a litany of quotes that I just needed a reminder today...

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“Where there is love there is life.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“God has no religion.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

PatH · « **Reply #14254 on:** October 24, 2014, 07:01:19 PM »

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

PatH · « **Reply #14255 on:** October 24, 2014, 07:08:32 PM »

For anyone in The Hot Zone discussion:

We are thinking of starting 3 or 4 days sooner than Nov 1, since the subject is so timely and the book is a fast read. Would you like this? Let us know here:

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=4472.0

We'll go with whatever people are comfortable with.

pedln · « **Reply #14256 on:** October 24, 2014, 10:55:00 PM »

I'm looking forward to the discussion, PatH, and ready to start any time. Pre NOv 1 is fine with me.

Steph · « **Reply #14257 on:** October 25, 2014, 07:41:35 AM »

I checked my old notes and I started Hot Zone twice and just could not do it.. So I will not be there.

Judy Laird · « **Reply #14258 on:** October 28, 2014, 07:49:29 PM »

Barbara
How kind of you to join me in my misery. When I read your post I thought "their must be 2 jUDYS HERE and then it dawned that you were talking about me. You see I didn't think of myself as being on a diet.
I am just muddel ling through and eating what ever e
My very favorite since I love potatoes anyway, I found these little one serving of ore-Idaho potatoes. i LIKE THE 4 CHEESE servings. Put some cold w-water in the cup and put it in the microwave and boy is that good. I usually have one of the individual cups of applesauce and that is dinner.
My dentist insists on insure at least one bottle preferably 2.
For breakfast I go down and buy a 4 pack of muffins, mostly bran. I smash them up totally with a fork and put them in the microwave then cover with butter and theres breakfast.
As far as my vita-mix goes I put a banana in some protein powder and any kind of fruit I have around either fresh or frozen and maybe a cup of yogurt.

Well my landscapers are here and I need to go out and seewhat they can accomplish as late as they arrived.
Horrible weather here rain, downed trees and leaves about a foot deep. I had a hugh butterfly bush break in the night and I assume they will cut it down. Welcome to Washington
Judy

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14259 on:** October 28, 2014, 08:26:33 PM »

Judy your potato trick gives me an idea - what I am doing is I have this powdered green stuff that is like eating every kind of green vegetable in existence - in the morning I fix that in the blender with blueberries - it is just thick enough and liquid enough and I know I am getting the vitamins and nutrients I need - and then my coffee - lunch is pretty much yogurt and a fruit sauce - started with apple sauce and then it was easy enough to cook up with an apple other fruit - I have one of those wand like blenders that I can use right in the pot.

Supper is the challenge till it dawned on me to use a veggie soup - even one with meat and using my wand blender it is like a thick potato soup that if it is chicken based I add some cream and if beef based I add some sour cream.

Haven't tried it yet but got the idea of using beef bullion cubes to cook some veggies and add a few tiny rolls of hamburger - again when it is cooked blend it and add to it some prepared Mariana sauce. I want to try this with those tiny tiny macaroni called Zita that soaks up liquid so that they become soft and fat.

I did do a sweet potato which is a favorite of mine but it kept attaching to the roof of my mouth - I may try it again and cut it with cooked carrots and see what that does - I could see if cutting it with carrot works I could have on my plate some cranberry sauce this time of year and I can even see having some gravy on the sweet potato but cooking for myself I am not going to cook either a chicken or some turkey just for the gravy and I am not fond of the packets of mixes that you can use to make gravy.

Now with your idea of cheese on potatoes I could even see Mariana sauce poured over that - Tomato sauce on potato would almost be like the sauce of meatloaf on a potato and with the cheese I think it should be a good meal -

All these winter veggies are possible to cook and blend or mash with butter or a sauce it is just the leaf veggies that are impossible - I did not want to have to take Metamucil everyday so now I've decided to have two yogurts - one as I have been at lunch but another small container with the probiotics along with my green drink in the morning - my daughter swears by that form of yogurt.

Frybabe · « **Reply #14260 on:** October 29, 2014, 06:45:30 AM »

Oh, I love mashed potatoes. I could make a meal of just them. In fact, I sometimes do. Occasionally, to give it a different flavor, I stir in some flavored cream cheese spread, sour cream, or shredded cheese until it melts. Since I don't need to mash everything, I add a veggie or two, mostly peas, corn or baby Brussels sprouts.

I like the idea of smashing up a bran muffin and heating. It would make a change from oatmeal when I want something warm for breakfast. It also helps to eliminate the crumbs I always seem to get on me when I eat a muffin straight up.

Steph · « **Reply #14261 on:** October 29, 2014, 08:41:50 AM »

The problem for me is that I love texture and chewing.. So I love pan roasted potatoes etc. and green things for breakfast would really cause me to give up food.. But good luck to all. When my top teeth went, before I woke from the surgery, they had inserted my new teeth.Very painful week or two and lost 5 pounds, but never looked back and ate normally..from then on.

marjifay · « **Reply #14262 on:** October 29, 2014, 10:28:56 AM »

I love potato salad made from leftover mashed potatoes.

When we were children, mom got us to eat carrots by mashing them with mashed potatoes.

Marj

Jonathan · « **Reply #14263 on:** October 29, 2014, 05:28:27 PM »

What a fabulous site. Food for the mind and food for the body. I love mashed pototoes and I love potato salad even more. How do you put the two together, Marj? What I really enjoy is a carrot cocktail. A carrot osterized with almost anything to add some flavour... an apple, an orange, a handful of raisins or grapes,a bit of ginger, etc, etc.

I'm almost through Georgina Howell's biography of Gertrude Bell. What a remarkable life. This book is hard to put down. She did indeed play a part at the birth of Iraq. With all her connections with the desert, tribal chiefs, and British officials, how could she not be consutled by everyone involved. Her adventures in the Middle East match those of T. E. Lawrence. And, of course, they were good friends.

Good Luck with the surgery, Barb.

salan · « **Reply #14264 on:** October 29, 2014, 07:52:46 PM »

I, too, love mashed potatoes. Also, potato soup and clam chowder. All of these would be easy to eat. When I had my titanium jaw put it, I was on a liquid diet for awhile.
Sally

mabel1015j · « **Reply #14265 on:** October 29, 2014, 11:01:26 PM »

O.k., what is it about mashed potatoes??? Is there anyone who doesn't like them?

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #14266 on:** October 30, 2014, 08:28:10 AM »

I like them, but only once in a while.. mostly with stuff.. gravy, cheese, etc.. So it ups the calorie count.

marjifay · « **Reply #14267 on:** October 30, 2014, 08:44:17 AM »

Jonathan, you make potato salad from cold leftover mashed potatoes by re-mashing them just a bit, adding some mayo. Then I add chopped hard-cooked eggs, chopped celery, onion and sweet pickles. I also like to add some of the sweet pickle juice. You probably don't need more salt than was already in the mashed potatoes.

I don't know what "osterized" means, but your carrot salad(?) sounds good.

Marj

MaryPage · « **Reply #14268 on:** October 30, 2014, 09:17:26 AM »

I am a huge fan of potatoes in many and almost every way, with mashed potatoes and gravy being way up there, but died and gone to heaven potatoes are the little peeled ones that have been roasted with a crown of beef. Wow! Their little corners have turned dark brown, they have developed a sort of second skin, and their taste, especially when eaten with some of the natural blood gravy, is nothing short of divine.

marjifay · « **Reply #14269 on:** October 30, 2014, 09:51:56 AM »

I just watched on the Turner Classic Movie channel an old Dick Cavett program from the 1970s in which he interviewed Alfted Hitchcock. Fascinating.

I probably shouldn't do this, but I'm going to post a joke Hitchcock told which tickled my funny bone:

There was a nice little English boy who was sent to a very pretigious school. His father went to visit him a week later and the boy's face was all scratched and bloodied. The father asked, "What happened to you?"

The boy replied that the other boys did not like him and called him a dirty Jew.

The father thought a bit, then said, "You just tell them that Jesus was a Jew; that should stop them."

Next week he visited again and found his son with two huge black eyes. "Didn't you tell them what I told you?" asked the father.

"Yes," said the boy, "I did try to tell them, but I forgot the gentleman's name."

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14270 on:** October 30, 2014, 03:28:07 PM »

Coming back and reading it a second time I could see the humor - I think you have to put on your Jewish cap to see it because at first I thought more about the physical damage to the kid and could not see the humor thinking it was making bullying OK as a joke.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14271 on:** October 30, 2014, 03:37:23 PM »

Tra la - Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin is on ABC tonight for a full hour - here, Central Daylight it starts at 7:

Dana · « **Reply #14272 on:** October 30, 2014, 04:31:39 PM »

Pat I think you asked here once (a while ago), how did I think the translations of the Iliad by Lombardo and Fitzgerald compare. I don't know what brought that to mind just now, but I was translating a rather pretty bit so I thought I'd take a look.

Here is the literal translation;

..and far shooting Apollo sent them a favourable wind, and they set up the mast and unfurled the white sail, and the wind blew the middle of the sail and the purple waves roared loudly around the stem of the moving ship and she, traversing her path, ran down along the waves.....

and Lombardo

They set up mast and spread the white canvas,
And the following wind, sent by Apollo,
Boomed in the mainsail. An indigo wave
Hissed off the bow as the ship surged on
Leaving a wake as she held on course through the billows

and Fitzgerald

and the Archer God sent them a following wind.
Stepping the mast they shook the canvas out,
and wind caught, bellying the sail. A foaming
dark blue wave sang backward from the bow
as the running ship made way against the sea,

Of-course one can't tell a thing from that, but it was fun to see....!!

Jonathan · « **Reply #14273 on:** October 30, 2014, 05:14:21 PM »

I think I see Homer shaking his head over these translations and thinking: mashed potato!

Frybabe · « **Reply #14274 on:** October 31, 2014, 06:08:41 AM »

Super, Dana.

I actually think I prefer the literal translation, for the most part. I went looking for my copies to see whose translation I had, but can't find them. Odd! I should at least still have The Odyssey because I remember participating in the online discussion. Anyway, they were both Modern Library versions from years ago. So, off to to a Google to figure out who did those translations.

Jonathan:

ginny · « **Reply #14275 on:** October 31, 2014, 07:09:31 AM »

And that appears to be Johnston's literal translation of the Iliad? But not written in the lines as he wrote it.

Sometimes translators are trying to do more than just convey the meaning. Sometimes they're trying to reproduce meter, as it is a poem, and other subtle things. Some of them rhyme.

I think there are something like more than 30 or 40 translations out there...really fascinating to compare.

Steph · « **Reply #14276 on:** October 31, 2014, 08:17:43 AM »

All three are wonderful, but so very different. Makes me wonder about modern writers who are translated. I do love Camilla Lackburg.. Would I love her in her original language??

Dana · « **Reply #14277 on:** October 31, 2014, 08:20:06 AM »

That's not Johnston....that's me!! (who is Johnston?

ginny · « **Reply #14278 on:** October 31, 2014, 09:09:14 AM »

He teaches in Canada, and has a published translation.

Good for you, then!

PatH · « **Reply #14279 on:** October 31, 2014, 09:51:19 AM »

Thanks for that, Dana. It's fun comparing different translations, even more so when one of them is yours, and you can appreciate the choices the others made. I like your translation a lot. How long does it take to do that much? I've tried some Spanish poetry, and it can take an hour to do a line.

Lombardo's translation has a gutsy strength to it that I like. He's great for reading aloud, too. This is deliberate, to match the fact that the original was meant to be recited to an audience. When we read the Iliad here, I did read almost all of Lombardo's translation aloud. Fortunately, no one caught me at it. His downside is that once in a while he gets unbearably slangy.

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Author Topic: The Library (Read 2627767 times)