Stupid Books
2004-01-28 @ 1:07 p.m.

My professors seem intent on depressing me this week: "Today we're watching Amistad. Please pay close attention to the violence and injustice." "Here, read this book about how the New Deal screwed over large segments of the population because FDR was too much of a pragmatist to do anything about it as he was too busy schmoozing white Southern Democrats." "Realize how crappy your recall of high school Spanish is by reading these Actos plays."

I am, however, reading a delightfully obessive book on Paul Revere's ride. The author includes 150 pages of appendicies that includes a Revere family history, weather and astronomical conditions, British troop strength reports, and revolutionary commitee memberships. He gets up to letter "S" and that's not counting an elaborate bibliography and a section on the historiography. He also writes in an interesting narrative style pointing out the communal efforts contributing to the ride and the sheer amount of dumb luck experienced by the colonists. It's fun, even if it is colonial history.

Thought of the Day:

::Torches Ken Burns in effigy along with copies of his documentaries::

before ~ after

Failing Miserably - 2004-10-08
So Not Dead/Catching Up - 2004-09-20
Murphy's Law - 2,629,163,298, Sarah - 2 - 2004-08-23
Listmainia! continues - 2004-08-04
Continuing the list - 2004-08-02