The Glass Castle

I finished this book several weeks ago, but waited to review it until after our book club met (yes, this was a book club selection – I don’t know that I would have read it otherwise).  The book is a memoir and tells the story of Jeannette Walls.  She was raised in extreme poverty by her very intelligent, yet free-spirited parents.   Jeannette and her siblings were very resilient and able to survive their childhoods to become successful adults (Jeannette is a correspondent for MSNBC, as well as an accomplished writer). 

I didn’t love the book.  The stories of the plights of the Walls’ family became tiresome after a while.  I also felt that a chunk of the story was missing – the kids survive their impoverished childhoods, and then the next thing you know, they are all successful adults.  I wish she had described the transition in greater detail.

However, the book was fairly well-written.  Walls’ style was simplistic; she kept her sentences short and choppy, giving the book a journalistic feel.  It was interesting to see how Jeannette’s opinion of her parents changed over time: at first, she idealized her parents and wrote about them in a manner that potrayed them as slightly loony but kind of cool.  As she aged, though, she began to view her parents as irresponsible and selfish. 

Tim believes that the entire memoir was fabricated.  Because the family lived in such poverty, it would be difficult to research to see if any of it was true.  We discussed this at the book club meeting, and some folks did concur with him. 

Everyone in the group liked the book, and I also know that it is a bestseller, so my opinion may not count for much, but I’ll give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Panda Poop and Panda Porn

In response to Tim’s post the other day about elephant poop paper, I wanted to let everyone know that people are also investigating how to make paper out of panda poop.  So, if elephant poo poo paper doesn’t float your boat, perhaps panda poop paper is for you (it is also a great alliteration).  And, now I can write my crap on actual crap.

On a related note, I read a second article on pandas today and had to laugh:

 Zoo keepers hope panda porn will get Chuang Chuang in the mood.

The furry guy is spending his days in front of a big screen TV showing scenes of pandas mating.

Well, if the porn doesn’t get him in the mood, perhaps they can try playing some Barry White.

Crime Prediction

I caught this story on Richmond.com this morning, describing how the City of Richmond is using computer software to predict and prevent crime. 

Currently, Richmond police turn to predictive analysis technology to foresee possible times and locations of crimes.

Predictive analysis uses a variety of information to determine future outcomes. Utilizing data on former crimes, including location, weather conditions, surrounding events and time, the police use that technology to preempt crime . . .

This seems like a good idea (most people would agree that preventing crime is a good idea), however, I am worried that a Minority Report-type situation could develop.  If you have seen the movie (or read the book, I suppose (although I have never actually read the book so I cannot vouch that the book discusses the same issues as the movie)), you know the basic plot: in the future, police use psychics to predict when and where murders will occur, and who will commit them.  The police then rush to the ”crime scene” prior to the murder actually taking place to arrest “the murderer.”  In this future world, no murders have occurred in many years, thereby proving that the crime predictions are accurate.

The movie’s conflict comes when the protagonist (one of the above-mentioned police officers) receives the prediction that he will commit a murder.  The larger problem, and more in line with what I am trying to discuss here, is how can you definitively predict when and where a crime will be commited, and, most importantly, who will commit that crime.  Just because someone is at the site of a former crime, in a bad neighborhood, and it is really hot outside, doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to commit a crime.  Even if they are thinking of commiting a crime, is it just to arrest them prior to the actual action?  It is feasible that people can change their minds.

I realize that Richmond’s predictive technology is no where near being so conclusive that it causes police officers to arrest people prior to commiting a crime, but could it go that way?  Who controls the technology? 

Weekend Recap

Perhaps this will become a weekly feature on my blog.  At least I can pretend that my life is interesting because it is on the internet.

As I mentioned in my Underwater Grasses post, I spent Friday evening at an Underwater Grasses workshop for work (this one was held in Arlington, Virginia).  We did not arrive home until about 11:00.  I had a quick snack and then we went to sleep.

On Saturday, I unfortunately slept in a little late and had to rush around to finish the baby blanket I was crocheting for my first niece, Brynn (she is due to be born on May 7 – very close to my birthday).  I did finish a truncated version of the blanket, wrapped it and all the other gifts we bought Brynn’s parents (my brother Rich and his wife Sandi), and headed to Shackelford’s for the baby shower.  Fortunately, John and Mama Ronston had secured a private room at the restaurant, so we were all able to relax and enjoy the afternoon.  There was a lot of talk about babies at our end of the table and also some talk about work.  The food at Shackelford’s was ok, not great; however, the service was excellent.  We stayed nearly 4 hours, and our waitress was very attentive without being intrusive.  It was nice to catch up with my family.   The blanket was a big hit as well as a child-rearing book Tim and I bought for Rich and Sandi: Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting.  It is a pretty funny book and has diagrams (you gotta love a book with diagrams).  Examples include how to discipline an imaginary friend and proper uses for a stroller (a mentioned improper use was using the stroller to push your baby through the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona).

After lunch, Tim and I dashed to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for an appetizer to bring to Stacey’s birthday barbecue later that night.  I decided to make a rosated red pepper and pesto dip.  Here is the recipe, if you are tempted:

one package of cream cheese (I like to use neufchatel cheese since it tastes the same, is lower in fat, and is more malleable)
half a jar of roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
4 tablespoons of pesto
1 tablespoon of milk (if your cream cheese is a little hard)
1 box of Wheat Thins (or any cracker)

Put all the ingredients (except the Wheat Thins) in a food processor and blend them together.  Serve chilled with Wheat Thins.

We went home, made the dip, and soon thereafter headed to Stacey’s house for her barbecue.  It was a nice evening out and Stacey has a huge deck.  I don’t know many of her other friends very well, but we did chat with several people and ate some hamburgers and fixings.

On Sunday, we had our much heralded first football game.  Tim, John, and I are on a new team this year, and everyone seems pretty nice and laidback (which is good; some of the other teams take the games very seriously, even though we signed up for the “super social” league).  I have to say that our household (i.e. me and Tim) dominated the game – I scored our team’s first touchdown with a reaching grab for a pass, followed by a twist and dash down the sideline for a score.  Tim made a great grab on the sideline amidst heavy coverage for his touchdown.  Both of us slid in attempts to defend or catch other balls.  We got too much sun and a little sore, but felt pretty good about our first game (even though we did lose).

After football, we raced back to Church Hill to attend the St. Patrick’s Day Festival.  The weather was glorious yesterday and hence the festival was packed.  We did get there in time to catch the Atkinsons performing (a band we had seen at Poe’s Pub before and whom we liked).  They only played for a half hour, but they performed well.  Interestingly, there was a charity event wherein people agreed to get their heads shaved.  We saw some big burly guys with long hair and bushy beards go bald, as well as a couple of 8-year old girls who lost their long braids (I hope they don’t regret their decision today when they return to school).  They were grasping each other’s hands tightly as the razors buzzed off their locks.  We ran into Jake, Susan, Kate, Mike, Stacey, and Diana at the Festival, which was nice and provided a community-feeling to the festival.  On our way home, there were Girl Scouts selling their addictive cookies on the corner.  We had to stop and wound up buying about 5 or 6 boxes. (Why don’t they put more of those Samoas in each box?  I love those things.)

We rested on Sunday night, watching the newest James Bond flick (the one with Daniel Craig) which I thought was one of the better 007 movies.  I like that James felt some turmoil after killing people.  I also like that the deaths were portrayed more realistically (messy and violent, instead of the smoother James Bond assisinations we are accustomed to).   He also didn’t seduce and sleep with women everywhere he went (although he did use his sexuality to get information from one woman).

After the movie, we headed to Star-Lite for a quick bite to eat, then headed back home to relax and go to bed.  As you can tell, we were quite busy this weekend and are looking forward to a little rest next weekend. 

Underwater Grasses

I have had a very busy week at work, mostly because I have been assisting one of my co-workers with her workshops on underwater grasses.  Every year, the foundation I work for gathers volunteers to begin growing sub-aquatic vegetation (those in the know call them SAV).  The volunteers get equipment (tubs, pumps, thermometers, heaters, grass seeds, and lamps) and begin growing the grasses in their homes.  After 10 weeks, everyone reconvenes at a site on a river to plant the grasses.  A lot of teachers come to the workshops, grow the grasses in their classrooms, and then bring the kids to the river for a field trip.

You may ask, “Why are underwater grasses important?”  After having sat through two of these workshops, I can tell you.  Grasses eat nutrients (also known as pollution), thus preventing them from dirtying the water.  Grasses also produce oxygen, which helps the creatures who live in rivers.  Did you know that most soft-shell crabs are found in grasses?  The crabs hide in the grasses when they molt – the grasses provide them with protection as their new shells harden.  Without the grasses for refuge, crabs are much more vulnerable – the reduction in the number of underwater grasses has directly caused a decrease in the number of crabs.  What else?  Grasses help diminish the impact of hurricanes, tropical storms, and the like by acting as a buffer for the land.  When a storm surge heads toward the shore, grasses cause the waves to be disrupted and dispersed laterally rather than impacting the shore directly (and causing damage and erosion).  As you can see, underwater grasses are important!! 

As much as I am thrilled about learning about the importance of grasses, I was not thrilled at having to work until 9:30 on Thursday night and 10:45 on Friday night (yes, Friday night).  But, if you are interested in trying to make your waterways cleaner, please consider taking part in one of our projects.

Strawberry Street Cafe

As I mentioned in a previous post, Tim and I went out with Sparky last Saturday night.  After watching Zodiac, we headed over to Strawberry Street Cafe for dinner.  Strawberry Street, if you are unfamiliar with it, is sort of a Richmond institution.  The restaurant is most famous for its bathtub salad bar – an old-fashioned tub full of salad bar goodies.  Actually, the restaurant and the bathtub salad bar were once featured in a question on Jeopardy!

I decided to have a vegetarian burger with steamed broccoli on the side (I guess I was just in a healthy mood).  The burger was a bit dry, but pretty good.  It had cheese, tomatoes, and a cajun/mayo dressing on it.  Tim had steak tips, and he thought they were pretty good but not great.  I cannot recall what Sparky had, but I do recall that she ate it all.

The best thing about Strawberry Street, in my opinion, are the desserts.  When Tim and I began dating, I lived in an apartment that was within walking distance to Strawberry Street.  We would often go there for coffee and dessert.  The best dessert is the pound cake sundae – two huge slices of homemade, fresh poundcake with vanilla bean ice cream and hot fudge drizzled on it.  It is decadent and it is really impossible for one person to eat it (very good for romantic dating – having to share a dessert).  They have a similar dessert with fresh strawberries on it (instead of hot fudge).  Well, on this particular visit I decided to try the apple cobbler, mostly because I love cobbler and also because I knew I couldn’t manage the pound cake sundae.  The cobbler was ok but not as good as the sundaes.  (Incidentally, the best cobbler I’ve had is at Double T’s, a barbecue restaurant in Carytown.)  Tim had a peanut butter and chocolate silk pie and that was wonderful – rich, yet light and creamy.  I should have ordered that.

I’ve never been overly impressed with Strawberry Street’s entrees or sandwiches, although they are tasty and consistent, and something is to be said for that.  It is a nice “family” restaurant - the type of place you would bring your parents to for brunch (actually, the first time I met Tim’s parents (they came to Richmond), we took them to Strawberry Street).  Overall, I give Strawberry Street Cafe 3 out of 5 stars.

Mmmmm . . . Donuts

Krispy Kreme has introduced a new whole wheat donut, I assume to get in on the new whole grains fad that is sweeping the country.  Perhaps they are trying to trick people into thinking that a whole wheat donut would somehow be nutritious?  Don’t know, but the idea seems a little silly, although, on second thought, my favorite pancakes at IHOP are the Nutty Harvest Grain ones made of whole wheat flour (I like how they are more dense and substantial).  Perhaps I ought to give these whole wheat donuts a try before criticizing. 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, being the hard-hitting journalism outfit that it is, conducted a taste test, using a baseball team of pre-teens to see if the new whole wheat donut is edible.  Apparently, it is, and some of the youth even preferred it to the original glazed donut.  My favorite commentary came from Justin Black, a twelve-year old with simple tastes:

Original or whole wheat? Wheat. “It tastes like coffee, and I like coffee. Favorite doughnut: anything

He’ll eat whatever donut you stick in front of him – smart boy!  Once Tim and I conduct our own taste test, we’ll let you know the results.  As of right now, though, I have two favorite Krispy Kreme “flavors” - either the raspberry jelly-filled glazed or the chocolate cake.  Next time you are in Richmond, we can drive by the big Krispy Kreme store on Broad Street – we can either go through the 24-hour drive thru (whoever came up with that idea is a genius!) or go inside and watch how they make the donuts (they have a plexiglass partition between customers and the donut-making machine – you can watch them roll down the conveyor belt). 

Bird Languages

I read this article this morning about nuthatches comprehending the chirps of chickadees and found it quite interesting: 

It’s not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that – interpreting the type of alarm and what sort of predator poses a threat . . .  

The “chick-a-dee” call can have 10 to 15 “dees” at the end and varies in sound to encode information on the type of predator. It also calls in other small birds to mob the predator, Christopher Templeton of the University of Washington said in a telephone interview.

“In this case the nuthatch is able to discriminate the information in this call,” said Templeton, a doctoral candidate.

Perhaps I can teach the nuthatch to understand me when I say, “Peck out the eyes of that conservative nutjob” (I’m sure this would require a large number of “dees” at the end – many more than the number required for the agile pygmy owl – those conservatives can be sneaky).    

Weekend Recap

For lack of anything better to write, I thought I would tell everyone about what we did this weekend.  The excitement started on a cold and rainy night (last Friday) when Tim and I ventured out in the said cold and rain to pick up dinner at Panera Bread.  I have never had a great sandwich from Panera and the sandwich I had on Friday was awful – I could not even finish it.  I will not go back there again.  After coming home, we watched Catch a Fire on DVD.  It was pretty good but it could have been better – it was based on an interesting and true story of a South African man who fights apartheid.  It did cause us to draw some interesting comparisons between apartheid and the Bush administration, which made me sad.  You know (not to get off topic), we were watching a little Bill Maher on TV tonight, and he made an interesting comment about how politicians keep saying that the American people have not had to sacrifice during our current War on Terror, whereas the citizenry has sacrificed during other wars (most notably, WWII), and, if we did have to sacrifice, then perhaps we would be more supportive of the war.  Maher made the interesting point that Americans have sacrificed – 6 of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights (Maher further noted that all we have left are religion, guns, and the right to not quarter British troops in our homes).

Anyway, back to the weekend.  Saturday, we ran some errands, then met Lauren (aka Sparky) at the movie theatre to watch Zodiac.  Zodiacwas ok, although very long.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be.  As the title indicates, the movie tells the story about the Zodiac killer who terrorized San Francisco during the 1970s and who was never captured.  The movie shows how the hunt for the identity of the killer became an obsession for the detective assigned to the case, a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle who wrote about the case, and an editorial cartoonist at the Chronicle who is interested in the case and who becomes so engrossed in it that he sacrifices his family and career to investigate and write a book about it.  The movie was good but not captivating.

After the movie, we headed for dinner (I’ll review that restaurant later).  We got home around 10:00, just in time to watch the first Formula One race of the season.  My favorite driver, Kimi Raikonnen, won.  Yay!  There was one really awesome crash (no one got hurt, so it is ok to think it was an awesome crash).  You can see it on You Tube, if you like. 

Sunday was our much anticipated first football game of the season.  Unfortunately, the cold and rain from Friday flooded the field and it had not dried out enough for us to play.  We’ll have to wait for this week to meet the rest of our team. 

Sunday evening we headed to a concert that was part of the Richmond Festival of Music.  A group of revolving musicians played different chamber pieces.  The Festival lasted about 10 days and this was the last performance.  The show was being held at the Virginia Holocaust Museum; hence, the musicians chose to play music composed by Holocaust survivors and other Jews.  Most of the musicians performed well with the exception of the clarinetist (and if you are familiar with Yiddish music, you know that the clarinet plays an dominant role in many of their compositions).  She was not awful, but she just was not great.  The acoustics were exceptional at the museum and the music selections were fitting.  I was very pleased with the performance and encourage others to attend the Festival when it returns next year.

All in all, it was a busy and fun weekend.  Next weekend is looking much the same – we have a baby shower (for my first niece!), a birthday party/barbecue for Stacey, our first football game, and the St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Church Hill. 

Ahab’s Wife or, the Star-Gazer

I finally finished Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund last week (you know when you see the word “finally” that it is probably not going to be a very complimentary book review).  The book tells the story of Una, the wife of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick (of course, after reading the book, you find out that she is also the wife of two other people).  The story is written in the first person and describes Una’s life from the time she was a little girl in Kentucky, to living with her aunt at a lighthouse off the coast of Nantucket, to going to sea disguised as a boy on a whaling ship, to living in Nantucket, marrying 3 different men, and becoming a mother.  The book is long and doesn’t need to be.

The most disappointing part of the book was the character of Una.  She is living in 19th century Nantucket, yet she is an atheist while also holding no prejudice against black people or homosexuals (and not just abstract “no prejudice,” but is completely accepting of them without even thinking about it).  She lives with men without getting married to them, she lives as a boy on a whaling boat, etc. and there is no discussion about how all these things would be difficult and challenging to anyone (especially a sheltered woman living in the 1800s).  The book would have been more interesting (and realistic) if Una had grappled with these issues.

Another big problem were the immaterial scenes scattered throughout the book that serve no purpose except to persuade us that Una is exceptional.  For example, Una decides to visit a friend in Boston.  Her friend is not at home when she arrives, and Una is told that her friend is visiting Ralph Walden Emerson in Concord.  Una hops on a wagon and travels to Concord to find her friend.  She wanders through the woods and comes across a stranger (who turns out to be Nathaniel Hawthorne), who, of course, is quite impressed with Una after a brief conversation.  After wandering through the woods, Una decides to head home.  This scene is extraneous and has nothing to do with anything (but to show that Una is a remarkable person according to the great author, Hawthorne).  Una has a similar encounter with a young Henry James, Frederick Douglass, and others -  completely unnecessary vignettes used to manipulate the reader into believing that Una is uncommon and extraordinary.  Since Una is supposedly writing this book, I do wonder if Naslund purposefully had it this way to show that Una herself thought that she was exceptional (and that we, the readers, are supposed to think that Una may be something of a braggart).  However, after further thought, I believe this is untrue, as Una’s character is not boasting when she describes these scenes, and the people she encounters aren’t famous yet; I think Naslund just did it to show off.

The book is fairly well-written, and Una’s life is interesting, but her character is just too perfect.  And if she is so independent and impressive, why is the title of the book Ahab’s Wife (defining her as a spouse and not as a separate entity)? (That would be a good question for discussion.)  Also, the novel is very long and feels it.  Overall, I give this book 1.5 stars.