Book Log 2007 #18: The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten

Steingarten quit his job as an attorney to become the food critic at Vogue, and his lawyerly focus and obsession with food are well documented in this volume of his essays primarly drawn from his work for the magazine. He opens the book by cataloging his own food phobias and his attempts to overcome them, and from there discourses far and wide on food subjects, from his attempts to become proficient at making bread to heading to the four corners of the globe to try something. He doesn't quite go to the cobra heart extreme that closes A Cook's Tour, but Steingarten does go quite a ways to becoming someone who has eaten everything.

That being said, I did find myself getting a little worn out by the end of the book, as there's only so much urbane self-deprecation I can take at one time. There are a few essays whose inclusion confuses me (one on pheremones comes to mind), and some show their age (such as the one on diets which refers the recent Atkins craze - the first one, back in the '80s).

Overall, it's an enjoyable collection, and well-suited to a commute, too.

I'd not really picked a favorite for the Stanley Cup finals, as once my adopted team (Buffalo) went out, I didn't think I had a BU-related rooting interest. Turns out I was wrong; former Terrier Joe DiPenta plays for the Ducks, though given their short bench I don't know how much ice time he saw during the finals. Even better, the Senators have a player from the dreaded rival on their roster. It's not quite win-win-win, but it's not bad. I can only hope Joe brings the Cup to campus when he has his day with it, but I assume he'll take it home.

Book Log 2007 #17: The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly

For every book that's still around there are several that have been lost in the mists of time, and Kelly does his best to mention all of them.

It's not a bad book, but it could have used some focus. I wound up bailing out about three-quarters of the way through, beaten back by the volume of information. In some cases the entry is more about the author and his life and times than it is any particular lost work, and as interesting as that could be, it just added more to a book that could have used a little restraint. It did have the commuting benefit of being broken up by author, so there was very little having to stop in the middle of a section. But still, it's probably a better book for browsing or looking at specific authors of interest than as something to read as a whole.

Book Log 2007 #16: Lost by Michael Robotham

Not related to the TV show, Lost is the story of a London police detective who is suffering from amnesia in the wake of being shot and fished out of the Thames. The only clue to what he was doing comes from a photo he had on him of a girl whose disappearance he investigated years previously - a case for which a man was sent to prison. We follow the detective as he puts together just what he was doing in the time before being pulled from the river, and begins to suspect that the missing girl was not, as previously thought, killed. Even as the girl remains lost and the detectives memory are recovered, we're shown other ways in which the detective is lost - to his fellow officers and to his family.

I really enjoyed this one, from the nicely-defined characters to the pace to an ending that made two or three unexpected jumps. Recommended.

My 20th high school reunion is coming up, and I'm undecided about attending. It's not so much the mixing with former classmates who I rarely see, but the idea that I'd have to pay $110 to do so. With a cash bar on top of that.

There are other logistical issues, too, but I'm finding myself particularly irritated over the cost, perhaps too much so. But comparing this to reunions past (my own and those of friends and co-workers), I think my umbrage is at least partially understandable.

There are a couple of people who I have not seen in ages that I would really like to catch up with, and that would at least give me some justification for coughing up the dough, but there's no guarantee that they'll be there.

So I open the floor to you, dear reader, and your well-crafted and possibly even offered-while-sober advice.

Book Log 2007 #15: The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester

Perhaps best known here for his book Krakatoa, here Winchester tells the story of William Smith, whose interest in rock strata led him to create the world's first geological map and helped to found the modern science of geology. A working man, he did much of his work as a side project while building canals or on his own after a rather spectacular fall from grace.

The science in this book is ably supported by its parts on religion (and how Smith's work changed the popular Biblical view of the world's origin) and biography (though I would have liked more personal information about Smith). It can drag a bit - there's a center chapter about a period of Winchester's life as a child which isn't as useful to the overall narrative as I think he believes it is - but it's a decent read, especially if you're interested in geology or the history of science.

From an AP story about Queen Elizabeth II's recent state visit to the US:

"The queen concluded a rigorous schedule of events marked by frequent changes in dress and a series of colorful hats."

I wasn't aware that the queen was here to put on her one-woman show about Bella Abzug.

Book Log 2007 #14: Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling

The first book in a series that's spun off from the Island in the Sea of Time series, the same event that sends Nantucket a couple of millenia back in time impacts the present day by eliminating electricity (and lessening the effects of combustion on things like explosives). As you can imagine, things go downhill pretty quickly as people realize that the juice isn't coming back.

It does help, apparently, to be a Wiccan, a former Marine, or an academic who has studied the Middle Ages. Communities form around characters who are all three, and their formation, growth, and interaction makes up the bulk of the book.

I was a little dubious going into the book, fearing kind of a nerd utopia vision, but enjoyed it more as it went along. I'm still not clear on what can burn and what can't - gasoline seems to work in bonfires, but steam engines can't get up the requisite pressure to function properly. There are other little bits along the way that I found odd, but overall it's a decent book if you're into this sort of thing.

So in the last three minutes I learned that Randy Moss is now a New England Patriot, having been shipped out of Oakland for a fourth round draft pick. That seems like a bargain, except that we're talking about Randy Moss here. He's still a top-level talent, but as he only tries on about half the plays he's even in the game for, I'm wondering if picking him up is such a good thing.

On the plus side, on the plays where he is sufficiently interested to play, the Pats now have a pretty lethal combination in Moss and Donte' Stallworth. The Pats also have a developing track record for being able to host problematic stars, given the recent Corey Dillon era. Moss is a whole level or two above Dillon in being problematic, though.

I guess I'm just very confused. This is either going to be one of the personnel coups of the Scott Pioli era, or Moss is going to obliterate the good karma surrounding the team and they'll finish 4-12, kicking off a new decade of Patriot futility.

I did not watch last night's debate in South Carolina, as it is April 2007 and I am already sick of the 2008 election. It does not help that, out of the eight announced candidates, I cannot get excited about any of them. The best I can do is nominal interest; will 2008 be the year that I - gasp! - vote in the Republican primary?

Probably not. My only motivations there would be to (a) continue my string of voting against Mitt Romney, and (b) being the only guy in Beverly to vote for Sam Brownback. And even then, I think the guy who drives around with the "ARREST ALL CRIMINALIENS" sign on his car may be a Brownback voter.

I was just on the Massachusetts secretary of state's website, and have discovered that it only takes 2500 signatures to get on the Presidential primary ballot. That's tempting.

Book Log 2007 #13: The Philosopher and the Druids by Philip Freeman

In the first century BC, the Greek philosopher Posidonius wrote about his experiences with the various peoples in and around the Mediterranian, including several Celtic tribes. That work is lost, but through surviving fragments and other writings, Freeman tries to put together what Posidonious would have written about the Celts he encountered.

It's a valiant effort, but I can't say it's a wholly successful one. The book winds up being an overview Celtic life in that time period, which is interesting but not exactly groundbreaking. Biographical information about Posidonius is more interesting, while the reaccounting of how Julius Caesar defeated the Celts that appears at the end of the book is pretty standard. To be honest, I got kind of bored halfway through.

So not something I'd recommend, but it may be worth a look for those with a particular interest in the subject.

So like a true friend, I've been sitting on these interview questions from Paul for a couple of months. Thanks for nothing, right? Anyway, here's the interview, and if you'd like to revive this meme leave a comment and I'll send you five interview questions.

1) Now that you've entered into the homeowners club, what do you miss most about being a renter?

Not having to fix stuff. The combination of not being handy and buying a house in need of TLC is a great thing if you like to spend. I worry about getting to the point where we'll put too much money into the house and not at least break even on the resale. Of course, we could stay there for the duration, but that seems unlikely.

2) In your opinion, who is the best former Terrier hockey player that did NOT make it to the NHL?

This is a tough one, given how many former Icedogs had a cup of coffee (which is more of a baseball term, but I'm at a loss for hockey equivalent; feel free to suggest one) in the NHL. I actually went back and looked at some stuff on the Internet Hockey Database (which is a fantastic resource), and have determined that the best player who I've seen play who didn't make it to the NHL was Mike Pomichter, who had three seasons with great point totals, but who left to go pro the season before we won our last title. He then went on to have a long and not particularly successful minor league career.

I'd also considered Petteri Koskimaki for this, as he had a couple of strong seasons while playing on teams loaded with future NHLers (McEachern, Amonte, Tkachuk, among others). He doesn't appear to have played anywhere after BU, even in Europe. That's surprising, though given his senior year numbers I wonder if he took an injury that put him out of hockey for good. I honestly don't remember; the seasons are starting to run together. Google doesn't even return post-BU stats for him.

Another possible answer: Jack Parker. I've occasionally wondered how things would have gone had he actually taken the Bruins job back in the early '90s. I'd like to think he'd have found success, but given that the average tenure of a Bruins coach seems to be about three years, the idea that he'd have wound up back at BU before too long isn't unlikely.

3) Among all your quiz bowl journeys, away hockey games, etc.., what was your best road trip (elaborate)?

In terms of actually getting to see things, I'd have to go with last year's TRASHionals trip to Austin, as we took a couple of extra days and actually saw things in Austin and San Antonio. Usually on these trips you don't see anything more than the host school and your hotel, but on this trip I actually got to see the Alamo and a bunch of other stuff. It was a nice change.

For weekend quiz bowl trips, there's more trips to the Philadelphia area that had at least one funny story than I can remember. For hockey trips, I do fondly recall our fan van trip to Lowell (well, Chelmsford, actually) where we wandered up the street and found that Chinese place. How we didn't get lost or hit by a truck I don't know.

4) If you could design a flavour of ice cream for Ben & Jerry's what would it be called and what would it include?

I was coming up with one when I saw that Dairy Queen kind of beat me to the punch with their Kit Kat Blizzard. But I'll do them one better with Kat Food: dark, milk, and white chocolate Kit Kat pieces in a combo of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. I was considering cinnamon as a secondary flavoring, which would pretty much make this my standard Angora Cafe frozen yogurt order from about 1993 to 1995.


5) Favorite Seinfeld episode and why?

A tough one given the options. There's "The Strike," which precipitated all the Festivus nonsense late last year. There are also some of the iconic episodes like "The Contest" and "The Chinese Restaurant." And after the two months I've had to come up with something, it turns out I don't have a favorite episode. There are several that I really enjoy, but none quite reigns supreme. Aren't you glad you waited for that answer?

According to Google Maps, the distance from Boston to College Park, Maryland is 435 miles, which, at highway speeds (or perhaps just a shade over them) would take about 7 hours to cover. The return drive to Beverly is a little longer, 455 miles, but at similar speeds would take 7 and a half hours to cover. Of course, the problem is the assumption that you can drive at highway speeds during the entire trip.

This was an especially bad assumption this weekend, as our drives to and from College Park took between 9 and a half and 10 and a half hours.

I blame myself for the delay on the drive down, as given our departure time I should have known that 95 through New York on a late Friday afternoon was an invitation to gridlock. I remember passing the exit that would have taken us to the Tappan Zee Bridge and wondering if I was making a mistake. I did not have to wonder for too long. We entered New York state just at 5 pm, and didn't get on to the George Washington Bridge until after 7 pm.

I'll also assign some blame to AAA, whose Trip-Tik didn't seem to think this would be a problem. On the other hand, it's not like you enter a time for your trip, so perhaps that's a suggestion I should make. In any event, I don't know if the Tappan Zee would have saved us any time, but I can't imagine it would have cost us any more.

And for what it's worth, traffic was pretty bad from New Haven to about Newark, so it's not like this was a New York-only problem. I also encounted what might have been the most empatic stop-and-go traffic ever in New Jersey, as we'd be moving right along at highway speeds and then have to come to a complete halt in about 100 yards. Not good.

On the trip home, the Jersey Turnpike was busy from exit 5 on up, though it moved pretty well from exit 9 to the tolls by the Meadowlands... after which things jammed up nice and tight. It took us about 20 minutes to get from the tolls to the exit for the Vince (perhaps longer), a distance of about two miles. Things didn't really thin out in the time during our stop, but we were at least given good information about the local route being the best way to get back over the GWB. We could have easily added another hour to our trip if we stuck to the "express" route.

I did learn during this trip that I do get agitated pretty easily at driving in such delays, I think from a combination of losing time and not being able to actually drive. On the positive side, I do not then resort to horn honking, multiple lane changes, or driving in the breakdown lane. So I've not completely lost it.

As you can imagine, it was a tiring weekend, but a fun one.

Book Log 2007 #12: Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee

In this collection, McPhee turns his eye towards transportation, following an independent long-haul trucker, crews from freight trains and barges, and even himself as he makes a canoe journey in the oar strokes of Thoreau.

The essays are full of his usual beautiful prose, but I never quite felt connected with his subjects as in some of the older books - even when he was his own subject. I'm not sure where the problem lies; in one way I found the people in the books fairly similar in their oddball character, so perhaps there was a repetitive aspect that was turning me off. I'm also not sure if the essays brought about the same sort of revelations that the books on more offbeat subject did.

If you're a fan, you'll probably get something out of this, hopefully more than I did. For a first-timer, though, this may not be the place to start.

Book Log 2007 #11: The Ethical Assassin by David Liss

Liss is better known for historical mysteries with a financial bend, like The Coffee Trader that I'd read previously. But he's also pretty adept at mysteries in the present, as this book demonstrates. It follows a kid whose selling encyclopedias who gets caught up with the sort of Floridian criminal element that Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen have made popular. I don't read much by either of those authors, so it's hard for me to say if my enjoyment would have been diminished by comparison.

Even with that caveat, I'd recommend the book highly. Fun story, good characters, and better written than the usual commuter fare.

When I was working in residence life, the one issue that caused more personal discomfort than any other was student mental health. I was OK with the other difficult issues, but psychological issues always made me a little uncomfortable as I'm not a mental health professional. Even with the good guidance and support from other on-call staff, I always felt a little out of sync when working on these cases.

Not surprisingly, I've been thinking about this a bit this week. I've not come to any good conclusions, though. I have had the feeling that securing a college campus is next to impossible, which is hardly comforting. And I'm also pretty cheesed at the Boston Herald for their use of one of the photos sent to NBC as their front page. It's one where the gun is pointed at the camera, so you can imagine how that looks. I didn't need any confirmation that the Herald has lost what little taste it used to have, but there it is.

And to close, I'll pass on a request. The folks at Virginia Tech have asked that people wear orange and maroon tomorrow as a sign of solidarity with their community. That seems like the least we could do.

How lucky am I? We're having a phone problem on campus right now that's affecting 16 phones - and one of them is mine. You know this is stealing the karma that was going to land me a major lottery jackpot.

Funny thing is, today's the first day of fall registration using our new information system, and for all of the concern and the late nights put in over the last few weeks, it's working fine (so far). Not that anyone could call me and tell me otherwise.

Book Log 2007 #16: The Sack of Rome by Alexander Stille

I'd read Excellent Cadavers, Stille's book about Italy's war against the Mafia in the 1980s and early 1990s, and enjoyed his mix of biography, politics, and story-telling. So I was very pleased to see this book, in which Stille examines the rise and eventual fall of Silvio Berlusconi.

In a way, it's a particularly Italian story, as Berlusconi is able to use the existing system - both legal and extra-legal - to enrich himself and gain control over commercial TV, and then get the system changed so he can take political power. As an object lesson for what can happen to a political system is dominated by such a figure, it's instructive in what's been happening in some of the developing democracies and, to a point, here in the US.

That being said, the book does repeat information a little too much, and it does go on for a bit too long. Even so, the story it tells is engaging, informative, and worth reading. And I'd certainly recommend Excellent Cadavers, too.

While I don't support the message that Michigan State is our reigning national champion in (div 1) college hockey, I will admit to a fist pump due to the demoralizing nature of the game winning goal. Anything that helps tar the folks up the street with the "can't win the big one" brush is OK in my book. Can we talk a little bit more about how they went from 1949 to 2001 without winning one, too? And how their rink has a lousy sound system and ample seating without back rests? I don't know how that's related, but it couldn't hurt to throw that in.

(I know, I said I wasn't going to watch, but between the game, a Sox game that went from uninteresting to laughable way too quickly, and a desire not to embarras myself at spades yet again, I had no choice.)

Easter, for what it's worth, was about as much fun as it can be. We went to the church where we'd gone the last couple of years for Christmas, and it was interesting in that:

1. They get a much bigger crowd for Easter than for Christmas, though there are more options at Christmas. That being said, we somehow got a whole pew to ourselves. Either we were too recognizable as outsiders or we should have sat at an end rather than in the middle.

2. While this church has a regular priest, I don't think we've ever seen him. He has three parishes to tend to, so I think we keep getting a pinch hitter while he's off at one of the other churches. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - we actually had a couple of great subs at one of the Wellesley churches - but this guy was, well, rambling. I am still not sure I understand the theme of the homily, even when he revisited it before the benediction. He also called for a hymn before that that wasn't listed as part of the day's music; given the relative lack of confusion among the musicians, though, I'm assuming it was planned. It certainly made more sense in context than the homily did.

3. Kids at midnight Mass tend to sleep. Kids at Easter Mass have clearly dipped into their Easter baskets. Chocolate before 10 am is problematic in kids under five. Or over five, I suppose.

4. During Communion, one of the servers ran out of wafers. I don't think I've ever seen that. This led to several minutes delay (all while I was trying not to think about how badly padded the kneelers are) while they tried to find some more. In the end, the priest gave the server some out of his bowl, and resorted to snapping the ones he had left in half. A good solution, albeit a little tardy.

Wrapping up Easter and the Lenten season, my attempt to give up swearing was better than the last one, but not particularly successful. Part of it was that while I didn't say as many swears, I thought more of them. Anyone who wants to give a ruling on the spirit versus the letter of the thing is welcome to do so.

I was also marginally more pleased with the recurring personal bit, as there were more interesting stories and less talking about someone who may not have actually existed. Plus, I got to talk about an inappropriately sexy children's TV host and a cadaver that was put on trial, so how bad could have it have been? I just have to find a way to combine the two for next year.

Sioux lose, Hyph wins. With North Dakota losing a wild national semifinal to Newton College, our Frozen Four pool ends with the points unchanged from the last update. So ends a less than enthralling year of the pool.

It doesn't help that this year's Hockey Christmas (tm Craig Barker) has turned into Hockey Passover, with many of us who were in the pool playing the role of the Egyptians. Going into the title game, I have no options: can't root for NC for obvious reasons, and was turned off enough by Sparty in its native environment to not want to root for them, either. I'm reduced to rooting for rolling blackouts or some sort of non-lethal disruption that would force them to call things off. It's a sad day when that's the best we've got.

On the other hand, I now have three free hours tomorrow, so I've got that going for me.