-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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I really, really did, so thanks for the recommendation!
One of the funniest parts was when I read about the woman who played Lois on the radio show. She was fired, then put on a wig, and went to the auditions to fill her job, and she got the part! (Again!) I was laughing out loud!
From: Cincinnati | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Was that Joan Alexander?
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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The comic writer, P.G. Woodhouse, was severely criticized during World War II for broadcasting a series of talks from Germany about his internment in a civilian prison camp. Wodehouse had been living in France when the Nazis moved in; he was sent to the camp. It was early in the war; the detainees had shelter, simple although limited food, received some packages and mail and were not required to do heavy labour. It could have been far worse, but it was still a prison camp.
Woodhouse consented to do five broadcasts from Germany about his experiences. He was a comedian with no interest in politics - and, according to Donaldson, quite naive - so his talks were funny. The British were enraged; he was denounced in Parliament as spreading Nazi propoganda. It might be like Oprah broadcasting for Al Queda today - an iconic figure yukking it up with the enemy.
I'd read about this incident and found it baffling, but this is the first time I read the details. Of course, Donaldson is very pro-Wodehouse, and she has her own interpretation - but she interviewed a wide range of people and read the editorials of the day as well and presents the full spectrum of opinion about Wodehouse's actions.
Of particular interest in this book are the transcripts of the actual broadcasts. They're pure Wodehouse. They have his comic style, making fun of the dreary prison routine, the food, the other prisoners and the Nazi guards and officers. Some of the harshness and fear are there as well, but I can see why people got so upset about the talks. He was eventually "rehabilitated" and the matter was closed, but he went to live in America (despite a contentious pre-war dispute with the IRS), so I guess feelings in Britain remained rather tender.
The book is a full biography, starting with Wodehouse's childhood through to his death, but the war years were what I found particularly interesting.
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Thanks to the wonders of interlibrary loan, I have been steadily working my way through the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series: the originals by Dorothy L. Sayers, and the authorized sequels by Jill Paton Walsh. I'm about halfway through A Presumption Of Death; the final volume, The Attenbury Emeralds, is already waiting for me at my local library.
After that: two recent short story collections in the 1632 series were recently released in paperback, and I picked them up a couple of weeks ago: Ring Of Fire III and Grantville Gazette VI.
After that: I've been thinking, it must be ten years since I last re-read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings ...
-------------------- "Gee, Brainy, what do you want to do tonight?" "The same thing we do every night, Bouncing Boy: try to take over the United Planets!!" They're B.B. and The Brain ...
From: Monty Python's Flying Circus | Registered: Aug 2003
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While visiting my local library to return The Attenbury Emeralds, I spotted Captain Vorpatril's Alliance on the New Arrivals shelf; those 1632 books will have to wait a bit longer.
From: Monty Python's Flying Circus | Registered: Aug 2003
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Just finished reading Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss.
The 600-page book traces the history of Obama's family--starting with his great-grandmother's suicide in Kansas in 1926 and his Kenyan family's history preceding the birth of his father in 1934. Obama himself isn't born until Chapter 7, and the book ends after his first visit to Kenya and before his arrival at Harvard Law School at age 25, so it doesn't describe his meteoric rise in politics or shed much light on his politics, if that's what you're looking for.
What it does offer is a series of revealing profiles of the family members who shaped Obama's life and a glimpse into how unlikely this person would be born at all, let alone become president of the United States. The overall theme of the book is being left and leaving, and finding and being found--Obama's quest for identity in the absence of his parents (one of whom he met only once, while the other lived on another continent during his high school and college years). Maraniss interviewed Obama's college friends, ex-girlfriends, and various relatives to get the story.
Worth reading, regardless of your politics.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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Daunted by 600 pages as I am, I might pick up that book to see how it was fashioned. I like that it started two generations before he was born. What was "luck?" What were those subtle pieces that fit together?
Culture can be very subtle. I learned more about myself returning to my hometown than I think I ever would have discovered on the career path that had taken me to other places. Obviously not the same as President but in 110 years I have been until this last year the only college grad in my family and only the second to have what most would consider a "white collar" profession.
It was easy to think it was all "me" but there were so many influences (+ and -) I didn't realize as a kid that I can see as an adult who has returned to the old neighborhood and those I still no doubt see in a culturally filtered fashion.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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One of the fascinating parallels in the book is that, after his great-grandmother's suicide, Obama's grandfather (age eight at the time) and his great-uncle (age 10) were raised by their grandparents, just as Obama was raised by his own grandparents forty years later.
Obama's grandfather, Stan Dunham, was a very interesting character. He had a gift for gab and was a teller of tales (he claimed to have found his mother's body, but other sources dispute this). After marrying and becoming a father to his only child, Ann, he moved the family from Kansas to Texas, to Kansas again, to Washington, and then finally to Hawaii. After bouncing around from career to career (he wanted to be screenwriter at one point), Stan found his calling as a furniture salesman, but eventually gave that up to sell insurance--a job he hated but which paid better.
Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, arrived in Hawaii just after she graduated from high school and, during her first semester in college, met Barack Obama Sr., one of a generation of young Africans sent to college in the United States as part of a literacy effort.
Their entire relationship lasted less than a year--Barack II was born on August 4, 1961, and later that same month, Ann Dunham Obama took her newborn infant and fled back to Washington (the details on why are not clear, though considering how Barack Sr. treated his other wives, one can hazard a reasonable guess). Although Ann didn't file for divorce until their son was three, she apparently had nothing further to do with her husband. (He went on to Harvard and then back to Kenya).
The only time Barack Sr. met his son was during the winter of 1971-72, when he returned to Hawaii for a month-long visit.
One of the great things about the book is that it encourages the reader to think about his or her own family and the choices they made. I've been privileged to do a lot of family research over the last several years and have also discovered some interesting facts. Like you, BB, I'm the first person in my family to graduate from college, let alone grad school; however, my family did include one doctor and a Revolutionary War soldier.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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