Here's a meander of MacDonald Creek in Glacier National Park -- probably about what it looks like right now. Locals (mostly republicans) are up in arms because Glacier and Yellowstone are delaying plowing their roads in the spring to save money, which will have a serious effect on local economies. Republicans don't want children to have school lunches, but they want those roads plowed on time so they can cater to the tourists. Keep the government out of our national parks!
I read so many books of history last year that I'm taking a hiatus and reading fiction. Just read Banville's latest, and am now trying the last two Pat Barker novels about WWI. I want to read her Regeneration series, but happen to have these later two so am starting there. Also have End of the Parade on order.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of when I read two books a week for a straight year in preparation for my exams and took time off at the end to read the biggest novel I could find. Decided on War and Peace, only to find out that it was a book of historiography. I guess there's no escaping history ....
Nice to know the US isn't the only one struggling with how to teach history:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1228938.ece
What always surprises me is how closely this debate parallels the teaching of science. Ultimately, we want an educated citizenry capable of understanding the world and our place in it and, most significantly, being able to think independently and weigh evidence. Alas, critical thinking and understanding evidence seem to be the sticking points on both sides of the pond.
Ah, yes we needed a good meander thread to lighten up the site. I've been reading a few works of fiction & other works lately and here's a listing:
ReplyDeleteAdventure:
Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews by Charles Gallenkamp
Reflections From the North Country by Sigmund F Olson
The Wilderness of Denali: Exploration of A Hunter Naturalist by Charles Sheldon
Three by Graham Greene:
The Quiet American
The Honorary Counsel
Travels With My Aunt
Other Non-Fiction:
Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster ... by Pope Brock
Me & My Dad by Paul O'Neill
More fiction:
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
Outlaw's Hideout
Sheriff of Hangtown
Tears of the Heart - all by Lauran Paine
The Saracen Blade
Bride of Liberty - by Frank Yerby
Just now, started reading via audio book
Amateur City: Kate Delafield by Katharine V Forrest
All good stuff!
That's quite a list!
DeleteAs a paleontology buff, I've always been interested in Andrews and that entire period of history of the American museum. But it's also fascinating to see the rise of eugenics at the same time (looking for the origins of man away from Africa).
In regard to your post, I got a kick out of Thune crying about campground closures in South Dakota, calling it a Democratic conspiracy,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.argusleader.com/viewart/20130312/UPDATES/303120026/Thune-suggests-Wind-Cave-campground-closure-was-political
Hadn't seen that one. But there are lots of calls to law makers in Montana and Wyoming over this. It is indeed political -- republicans want to kill the federal government. Maybe some of these red states will start to figure that out.
DeleteOn a lighter note, I've been reading gardening books, in particular William Robinson's classic work, The Wild Garden, for inspiration on a current project,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3350681/William-Robinson-How-the-wild-child-of-Victorian-Britain-came-of-age.html
Have you ever read any Witold Rybczynski? He's one of my favorite writers about landscape, architecture, cities, Olmsted, weekends ... he can write about just about anything and keep me interested. Looks like he has another new book out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.witoldrybczynski.com
I read Home a long time ago. May have to re-explore him.
DeleteI think he's a wonderful writer/thinker. Last Harvest, about the suburbs, wasn't as good as some of the others, but he rarely disappoints. I also enjoyed his biography of Olmsted.
DeleteMy reading is getting more and more disorganized. Glad I'm not alone. Recent reads (and re-reads) include Holy War by Karen Armstrong, The Era of Reconstruction by Kenneth Stamp, Albion by Peter Ackroyd, Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell, Homo Faber by Max Frisch, and Seneca's Letters of a Stoic.
ReplyDeleteWitolds book about Olmsted is one of my faves.As for gardening Beverly Nichols books are Great.Mary sent me Merry Hall years ago and got me hooked.I'm excited because there is a new James Salter novel out the start of April.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Polish writers (in name anyway), one of my favorites is Ryszard Kapuściński, particularly, Imperium, his excellent book on the last days of the Soviet Union,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review--biblical-thunder-and-steamy-cries-imperium--ryszard-kapuscinski-tr-klara-glowczewska-granta-1499-1441645.html
The last two times I have accessed this blog my Norton Security program has alerted me to malware problems.
ReplyDeleteNo malware that I know of. My suggestion is to download adblock to block unwanted ads that sometimes appear on the blog.
DeleteI just got a pop up link/page, too. Hmmm....
ReplyDeleteI submitted the blog to google to check for malware. I have no idea when they will respond. I don't get these pop-ups so it is hard for me to know what it is you are seeing.
DeleteThanks, Gintaras. This a.m. the blog address loaded a different page -- I think the same page that is now just an ad on the site (rotating financial ads). I am using a mac and need to get some anti-virus software. I spend way too much time on the computer to not have it. I should also reload firefox. I am just using the mac browser right now since I had to start over when I lost my hard drive (macs are great computers but they do seem to have drop dead dates programmed in).
ReplyDeleteI use adblock,
ReplyDeletehttps://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/
This one is for mozilla firefox, but it is available for all browsers.
Thanks. I'll try to download Firefox again, and then I'll add that. Since I pay for so little content, I feel like ads are part of the price I should pay, but I don't want some crazy link to start taking over my browser. What I really liked about Firefox is that it blocked videos. Now that is a real service!
ReplyDeleteFirefox is pretty good. I use Chrome with the adblocker. It got rid of those nasty pop-up ads.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm back! Thanks for all the advice. Hopefully this will work (no ads now). I'll pick up some software next.
ReplyDeleteI just got a Norton blocked a malacious(sp) toolkit when I clicked on the comments to this link.
ReplyDeleteA malicious toolkit is something that removes malware, and probably came up independently of this site. Here is one available through Microsoft,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/malware-removal.aspx
Sorry for these inconveniences, but there seems to be no way to control these pop-ups other than by using adblock or other forms of pop-up blockers.
Norton blocked Backhole toolkit just now.
ReplyDeleteI reported the malware again, but I also encourage you to get adblocker as I don't have these problems.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been seeing anything about malware when I access the blog using Firefox, so that looks like the way to go.
ReplyDeleteI spoke too soon . . .
DeleteAnd I'm not seeing ads any more either with firefox (and adblocker), which is fine with me! There must have been a link in there to open one of the ads as a full page, which happened to me using safari. Hopefully this will be the end of it for all of us. As I'm always telling Gintaras, it's a jungle out there on the internet.
ReplyDeleteCurrent reading:
ReplyDeleteThe Treasure of Pleasant Valley ~ Frank Yerby
and via audio book,
Rangers of El Paso & Fighting Marshal ~ Lauran Paine