In his witty and informative Introduction, Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses the scientific basis of stupidity and confirms much of what Carlo M. Cipolla asserts about human stupidity.

The First Basic Law says: “Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.” We found that out in the last Presidential Election. And during the Pandemic! Later in his slim little book, Cipolla defines a stupid person as a person who causes losses to another person or a group of persons while deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses to themselves.

While I agree with Cipolla, I have to admit I have done some stupid things in my Life. Not to go into too much detail, but I was naive as a kid and there were times I was misled into stupid actions because I didn’t know any better. Later in Life, I fell prey to believing people who lied to me and that resulted in me making stupid mistakes because I trusted them.

There are consistently stupid people and there are people like me who occasionally do stupid things. I’m sure you know people who fall into both categories. In the May 2022 issue of The Atlantic, Jonathan Haidt in “After Babel,” shows how social media dissolved the mortar of our society and made America stupid. The future looks grim. GRADE: B

Margaret Atwood morphed into a world famous author when her The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1985 and she became in intergalactic figure when HULU broadcast the TV version of The Handmaid’s Tale in 2019. The tale of a dystopian future where women are marginalized and a few become breeding machines for the political elite resonated in the time of Trump.

But over Margaret Atwood’s long career, she’s written several compelling novels and dozens of brilliant essays. In Burning Questions the focus tends to be on women and the ways society and culture deal with them. In a review of Marilyn French’s massive three-volume work on the history of Women, From Eve to Dawn, Atwood cites the “horse sacrifice” of ancient India. The priests at that time forced the raja’s wife to copulate with a dead horse (p. 23). Religion has not been kind to women over the centuries.

I also enjoyed Atwood’s essay on her early career. “I continued with my secret life, which was the life of a writer. Like vampires, I had to pursue this life at night.” And, “There’s not much about Kraft Dinner with hot dogs cut up into it that I don’t know.” (p. 42)

Atwood’s book reviews are fun, too. Alice Munro, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Powers, and many more writers receive Atwood’s careful analysis. For Science Fiction fans, Atwood’s “Scientific Romancing” is one of the best essays on the SF genre I’ve ever read.

Burning Questions is a terrific book! Don’t miss it! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — xiii

PART I: 2004-2009. What will happen next?
Scientific romancing — 3
Frozen in time — 14
From eve to dawn — 21
Polonia — 28
Somebody’s daughter — 32
Five visits to the word-hoard — 37
The echo maker — 49
Wetlands — 60
Trees of life, trees of death — 67
Ryszard Kapuściński — 78
Anne of Green Gables — 83
Alice Munro: an appreciation — 92
Ancient balances — 105
Scrooge — 119
A writing life — 123
PART II: 2010-2013. Art is our nature
The writer as political agent? Really? — 131
Literature and the environment — 137
Alice Munro — 148
The gift — 150
Bring up the bodies — 156
Rachel Carson anniversary — 160
The futures market — 169
Why I wrote Maddaddam — 184
Seven gothic tales — 189
Doctor sleep — 195
Doris Lessing — 199
How to change the world? — 202
PART III: 2014-2016. Which is to be master
In translationland — 217
On beauty — 230
The summer of the stromatolites — 234
Kafka — 238
Future library — 243
Reflections on The handmaid’s tale — 245
We are double-plus unfree — 259
Buttons or bows? — 266
Gabrielle Roy — 271
Shakespeare and me — 293
Marie-Claire blais — 306
Kiss of the fur queen — 311
We hang by a thread — 313
PART IV: 2017-2019. How slippery is the slope?
What art under Trump? — 323
The illustrated man — 328
Am I a bad feminist? — 335
We lost Ursula Le Guin when we needed her most — 340
Three tarot cards — 344
A slave state? — 361
Oryx and crake — 363
Greetings, earthlings! What are these human rights of which you speak? — 368
Payback — 380
Memory of fire — 384
Tell, the, truth — 387
PART V: 2020-2021. Thought and memory
Growing up in quarantineland — 393
The equivalents — 398
Inseparable — 402
We — 408
The writing of The testaments — 414
The bedside book of birds — 424
Perpetual motion and gentleman death — 427
Caught in time’s current — 433
Big science — 440
Barry Lopez — 444
The sea trilogy –446

Acknowledgements —541

Credits — 552

Index — 458

Back in the early days of Rock’n’Roll, songs would played on radio pop stations and some of the songs would be instrumentals. Not so today.

And, in the early 1960s, a new genre–Surfer Music–made its appearance. Sure, The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean sang plenty of songs about surfing and beaches, but I enjoyed instrumentals like The Chantay’s “Pipeline” and The Surfaris’s “Wipe Out.” Of all the songs here–and there are some great ones!–my favorite is Jack Nitzsche’s “The Lonely Surfer.” Nitzsche would go on to do great work with Phil Spector and Neil Young.

I consider 1960 to be a milestone year for me. That’s when I got my first transistor radio! I listened to it constantly. And the songs on Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits–1960 are all very familiar to me. I listened to them tons of times over that time period. Do you remember these songs? Do you like instrumentals? GRADE: A (for both CDs)

In my quest to read books I’ve had on my shelves for decades, I finally picked up D. H. Lawrence’s Four Short Novels. I’m not sure the term “short novel” is appropriate for some of these stories. For example, “Love Among the Haystacks” is only 41 pages. That’s hardly a short novel in my book!

Let’s start with “Love Among the Haystacks.” It’s the story of a couple of young farmers and a couple of young women finding romance among the haystacks. I found it very ho-hum. GRADE: C

“The Fox” concerns two women who are living together and trying to turn a patch of wilderness into a farm. A young man visits them, stays for a time, and all hell breaks loose! This is a strange story that takes some bizarre turns. GRADE: C+

“The Ladybird” features a young woman in love with an older man. The older man, of course, is married and a prisoner of war. The young woman visits the wounded solider and when the man asks her to sew him a shirt, she does so. Why? The story really seems to go nowhere. GRADE: C

The final story in this collection is “The Captain’s Doll.” A gifted artist has a crush on a military man. She makes a doll that resembles the Captain, the man she would love to marry. The Captain tells her that he only cares to take care of a woman and have her obey his commands–he cares nothing of love. Of course, they end up together. GRADE: C

I’ve never been a big fan of D. H. Lawrence’s fiction. Lawrence wrote a brilliant non-fiction book, Studies in Classic American Literature, in 1923. Read that instead!

Last week I blogged about The Band’s Stage Fright and The Best of the Band. Just by coincidence, the new Criterion Collection version of The Last Waltz arrived the next day and I spent time watching it. I have a couple different versions of The Last Waltz, at least one DVD version and a Blu-ray. This new Criterion Collection disc is a Blu-ray and the quality is very good. The colors are crisp and the sound is sharp.

Not only do you get to see and hear The Band play its final performance, you get to see them share the stage with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, the Staple Singers, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, and Mavis Staples. Martin Scorsese’s classic rock documentary from 1978 looks remastered for the 21st Century! Terrific! GRADE: A

MUSICAL NUMBERS:

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Martin Scorsese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack supervised and approved by musician Robbie Robertson
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Two alternate soundtracks: the original 1978 2.0 surround mix, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, and an uncompressed stereo mix from 2001
• Two audio commentaries, featuring Scorsese; members of the Band; members of the production crew; and performers Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, and Mavis Staples
• New interview with Scorsese, conducted by critic David Fear
• Documentary from 2002 about the making of the film
• Outtake
• Interview from 1978 with Scorsese and Robertson
• Trailer and TV spot
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Amanda Petrusich

Daniel Holzman & Matt Rodbard’s Food IQ is subtitled: 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts. With years of cooking experience Holzman and Rodbard share many of their cooking secrets.

I, of course, went directly to their advice on baking wonderful pizzas! Despite the many different kinds of pizzas you might want to bake, the authors focus on the importance of the dough. Most people do not have pizza ovens in their kitchen (able to reach over 600 degrees) so some temperature compromises must be made.

The chapter on pasta dishes also drew my attention. I learned by pasta always tastes better in a restaurant–unless you know the secret.

Finding out the strengths and weaknesses of various kitchen tools was useful, too. If you want to become a better cook and prepare more tasty food, check out FOOD IQ. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — xi

Misunderstood, undiscovered, overlooked, and underappreciated … ingredients — xxi
Tools and technology — 44
Hacks, technique, and really good advice — 84
Busting some myths — 138
This sounds fancy. This sounds intimidating. What is it? — 194
12 favorite (essential, life-changing) things to cook forever — 238
Weekend cooking projects: is the juice worth the squeeze? — 282

Epilogue — 324

Acknowledgements — 325

Index — 326

Forty years after a devastating war between Old Earth’s Central Governance and its space colonies, the sisters of The Order of Saint Rita embark on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard a living starship called Our Lady of Impossible Constellations.

Lina Rather covers a lot of ground in 159 pages with Sisters of the Vast Black (2019). The nuns are unaware of the surprises that lurk aboard their starship. Their mission of mercy turns into something much more sinister. My favorite nun is Sister Faustina–maybe the most intelligent sister who solves the puzzles threatening her Order. I also liked Sister Gemma who has to make a life-changing decision.

Sisters of the Forsaken Stars (2022) picks up where Sisters of the Vast Black left off. The nuns are on the run from Old Earth’s Central Governance. Two women show up to “join” their Order, but both women come with secrets. This blend of politics, violence, betrayal, and religion produces a couple of engaging space operas. If you’re in the mood for some off-beat SF, Lina Rather’s nuns will surprise you! GRADE: B (for both)

John Jakes became a best selling writer with his Civil War trilogy, North and South, which has sold millions of copies worldwide. He is also the author of The Kent Family Chronicles. But, before all this success, John Jakes wrote Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Although best known for his Brak the Barbarian (a Conan clone) series, Jakes also wrote a couple of paperback originals for Lancer Books in the early 1970s. Master of the Dark Gate (1970) introduced a solider of fortune named Gavin Black who found himself in an adventure involving multiple Earths and a cabal that was about to invade our Earth and conquer it.

Witch of the Dark Gate (1972) picks up where Master of the Dark Gate left off. Gavin Black battles the High Kings of Shulkor (rulers of Earth Three) to stop them and their evil plans. Jakes provides plenty of fighting, battles, and lovely women. But, to be truthful, the best thing about Witch of the Dark Gate is Frank Frazetta’s classic artwork on the cover. GRADE: C

Last week we learned of the death of Teen Idol Bobby Rydell at the age of 79. My sisters loved Bobby Rydell and even joined his Fan Club in the early 1960s.

In 2006, Time Life issued an 8 CD set of Malt Shop Memories. I only have two of these compilations but Malt Shop Memories: Jukebox Gems includes two Bobby Rydell hits: “Wild One” and “Volare.”

I remember Bobby Rydell best for his role in Bye, Bye Birdie in 1963. In the 1980s, Rydell joined a trio called The Golden Boys with fellow former teen idols Frankie Avalon and Fabian Forte and he continued to tour up until his death.