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Book Reviews
 Parnassus Book Reviews: "The
Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland a Book Review by MARY
GUSS - Although it is fiction, "The Forest Lover" is
based on the life of Emily Carr, an actual historical character.
Carr is already known to many Southeast Alaskan's. Others will
newly come to appreciate her through this novel.
Emily Carr was born in Victoria,
British Columbia in 1871. Before she turned twenty she left Canada
to study art in San Francisco. From there her studies took her
to London, from which she returned in 1906. Back in British Columbia
-- in the wildest parts of that province -- she searched for
inspiration and escaoe from everything that hemmed iher in. The
first page of Ms. Vreeland's novel relates: - More...
Thursday - April 12, 2007
Parnassus
Book Reviews: "The
March" by E. L. Doctorow a Book Review by MARY GUSS - I
have heard it said that two of the three most written-about events
on earth are the sinking of the Titanic and the American Civil
War. The March is a novel about the latter, fictional, but weaving
in characters who lived and died during that time. It is a very
linear novel -- the progress of the march is linear, the ragged
lines of people are linear -- but there is periodically a bulge
in the line where events or people are expanded. Those bulges
are the most satisfying parts of the novel, balancing somewhat
the frustration of losing people out of the line, never to see
them agarin or to know what ultimately happens to them.
The march referenced in the
title is William Tecumseh Sherman's march across Georgia to the
sea, then northward through the Carolina's, in the company of
thousands of his Union soldiers. He is obviously one of the main
nonfiction characters in the book. Depending on which other character
is speaking of him, Sherman is either heaped with praise or villified:
- More...
Thursday - April 12, 2007
Columns - Commentary
Ben Grabow: Fighting
the illogical tyranny of bottle water - Yes, I'll admit it.
I pay for water.
I buy my water at pre-Bush
gas prices - about a dollar a gallon. It's store-brand, sold
in repurposed milk jugs, and as economical as bottled water gets
without owning your own break-room cooler. But it's still 93
cents I shouldn't be spending.
I'd gladly pay five cents for
the jug's worth in plastic, and two cents for that tamper-proof
lid. But I cannot open my wallet for something that flows freely
from my sink, garden hose, and showerhead without feeling a slight
twinge of liberal guilt and the sharp sting of plain logic.
I feel the cold smack of logic
every time I hoist five individual gallons of spring water into
my shopping cart. But I suffer the blows for good reason - in
fact, for the only good reason to go against one's own common
sense. I do it for love. - More...
Thursday - April 12, 2007
 Jason
Love: Fishing
with Dad - My dad came down the mountain -- Big Bear -- holding
one commandment: Thou shalt go fishing. Dad is an old fisherman
and I ... well, I carry Purell.
My dad thought I was a natural
when he caught me, age three, plucking fish from the aquarium.
He freaked out like I was eating them, when it was strictly catch
and release.
Why, anyway, would I hunt for
something that costs a dollar at McDonald's? And while we're
asking questions, isn't "Filet-O-Fish" a little ambiguous?
Filet o' what kind of fish? Goldfish? Gefilte fish?
McDonalds: Ask us no questions;
we'll tell you no lies.(tm)
At least my dad didn't charter
a boat. Fish aren't the brightest of God's creatures, yet we
come on with radar, sonar, migration charts. Some fish just lose
their nerve and jump in the boat as you pass. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 11, 2007
 Preston
McDougall: Chemical
Eye on Giving Mules Their Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake,
a Memphis-born pop superstar, was recently dissed by the State
Senate in Nashville - apparently he is too sexy. If Idaho
Gem were to make an appearance during Mule
Day (April 12 - 15) in Columbia, Tennessee, I'm sure that
he would receive a hero's welcome - from the mules at least,
since he represents them getting their sexy back.
Mules, as you may know, are
a hybrid species created by crossing a jack with a mare. Farmer
Brown has 23 pairs of chromosomes, Sire Jack has 31, Dam Mare
has 32, but, like all mules, Idaho Gem has 31 and a half pairs.
This odd number of chromosomes
makes mules incapable of reproducing - the old-fashioned way.
However, cloning provides a reproductive pathway for sterile
animals, such as mules. Modern cloning technology made headlines
in 1996 when Scottish scientists took the nucleus, which contains
all 27 pairs of sheep chromosomes, from a mammary cell of a mature
ewe, and inserted it into an evacuated egg cell from another
ewe. The lamb went to full term, and was named Dolly in consideration
of her origin, which was ramless. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 11, 2007
 Bob
Ciminel: Things
I Don't Care About - I don't care how Anna Nicole Smith died
or who fathered her daughter. I don't care what Sean Penn thinks
about George Bush. I don't care that the Justice Department fired
eight Federal prosecutors, just like I didn't care that Bill
Clinton fired 92 of them. Heaven knows we can always find more
lawyers!
I don't care what Al Gore thinks
about global warming. In fact, I don't care about global warming.
If we stopped global warming today, tomorrow the liberals would
begin complaining about global cooling! Besides, if you listen
to the enviro-wackos, all we have to do is elect a Democrat in
2008 and the globe will stop warming.
I don't care if Hillary Clinton
wins the 2008 presidential election or that the Democrats control
Congress. In the four years they have to totally screw up our
government, judicial system, tax code, and war against terror,
they will guarantee a Republican president and Congress for the
rest of my lifetime. I will go into retirement comfortable in
the knowledge that my grandchildren may have the opportunity
to live in a world at peace, but if they don't, at least they
will live in a country that can still kick butt in any part of
the world that does not want world peace. Are you listening,
Iran? - More...
Wednesday AM - April 11, 2007
 Dan
K. Thomasson: Trumpets
sound for global warming - What's that old line: "The
end of the world has been delayed indefinitely because of a shortage
of trumpeters"? Well, there's an increasing number of them
now. Hardly a day goes by when someone hasn't signed up to trumpet
the Apocalypse, from Al Gore to international scientific panels
and even the U.S. Supreme Court.
Whatever your feelings about
global warming, the political realities of it are here to stay.
If there was any doubt about that, the high court dispelled it
with its narrow ruling that puts the Environmental Protection
Agency on notice that claiming lack of authority to regulate
greenhouse gases in auto emissions won't cut it.
Between the lines of the court's
opinion is the recognition that "yes Virginia, there is
a boogeyman" and it comes in the form of chemical elements
that are trapping the heat of the Earth, an opinion that preceded
by only a few days a long anticipated international report that
90 percent of the problem is manmade. For any agency or administration
to ignore this issue in the face of such an overwhelming chorus
of warnings is to flirt with political suicide. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 11, 2007
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