Motley Moose – Archive

For those who are new … we discuss books.  I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading.  Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.

If you like to trade books, try Bookmooch

I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices

Just finished

(started and finished) Taken by Robert Crais. This is the latest in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. For those who don’t know the series, these are two very tough detectives. This novel begins when Cole is contacted by the mother of a young woman who has disappeared and then called with a ransom demand for $500. The mother thinks she has run off with her boyfriend,  but the truth is much darker: She has been captured by bajadores: Criminals on both sides of the US-Mexico border who prey on undocumented workers. After that, there’s a lot of action and violence and the plot keeps zipping along. NOTE: There are scenes of torture, not overly graphic, that may be disturbing to some.

Snakes can’t run by Ed Lin A mystery/police procedural set in NYC’s Chinatown in the 1970s. “Snakes” is a slang term for illegal immigrants.  Although there is some good atmosphere of Chinatown, the prose (and especially the dialogue) is kind of clunky.

Now reading

Cooler Smarter: Practical tips for low carbon living  by the scientists at Union of Concerned Scientists, a great group. These folk make sense, concentrating on the changes you can make that have the biggest impact with the least effort.

Thinking, fast and slow  by Daniel Kahneman.  Kahneman, most famous for his work with the late Amos Tversky, is one of the leading psychologists of the times. Here, he posits that our brains have two systems: A fast one and a slow one. Neither is better, but they are good at different things. This is a brilliant book: Full of insight and very well written, as well.

What hath God wrought? by Daniel Walker Howe. Subtitled “The transformation of America 1815-1848. I am reading this with the History group at GoodReads.  This is very well written, and does a good job especially with coverage of the treatment of Blacks and Native Americans.

The hard SF renaissance  ed. by David G. Hartwell.  A large anthology of “hard” SF from the 90’s and 00’s. I think Hartwell takes SF a bit too seriously, but the stories are good.

On politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present by Alan Ryan. What the subtitle says – a history of political thought.  

Far from the Tree: Parents, children and the search for identity  by Andrew Solomon.

The title comes from the phrase “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. This book is about apples (children) who did fall far from the tree (parents). This book got amazing reviews and it grabbed me from the opening:

“There is no such thing as reproduction. When two people decide to have a baby, they engage in an act of production, and the widespread use of the word reproduction for this activity, with its implication that two people are but braiding themselves together, is at best a euphemism to comfort prospective parents before they get in over their heads”

I don’t agree with all that Solomon says, but this is a book to make you think about deep questions of humanity.

Rayburn: A Biography by D. B. Hardeman. A very admiring look at Sam Rayburn, former speaker of the House.

He, she and it by Marge Percy. Really only a couple pages into it, but it’s near future dystopian SF set on Earth.

Just started

Nothing this week

I’m weird.

Not just in the ways many of us here are weird – liberal, progressive, etc.  No.  Not even just because I am an atheist. I was born on July 2, 1959, 7 weeks early, with no sucking reflex and no nails on fingers or toes.  Because I wasn’t that small, though, I was not given special attention in the hospital.  My parents have since told me they considered suing the hospital.  By the time I was 4 or so, it was clear that I was, in my father’s phrase “screwed up somehow, but not stupid”.  I was asked not to return to the same school after kindergarten.  A psychologist told my parents I would never graduate from college.  I did, by the way, graduate at age 20; my parents had a party for me.  I invited the psychologist.  He wrote back saying he was glad he was wrong.

My mother started a school for me, the [Gateway School of New York, because there were no schools for kids like me: I was what was then just beginning to be called learning disabled.  But the diagnoses my parents got were more like `minimal brain damage’ or or ‘minimal brain dysfunction’ or `mentally retarded’.  

My mother was, to put it mildly, a very determined woman.  She found another very determined woman (Elizabeth Freidus – pronounced freed us, and what a great name for a teacher in special ed)!  Elizabeth did everything that had to do with teaching, my mom did everything else.  I have two stories that may have some relevance (or may not  – but they’re good stories) regarding the founding of Gateway: One regards normality and the other regards rights.

This was originally posted in Orange.

I got the idea for this diary from Denise’s diary over on GOS Silence is still deadly. Denise’s sig line is

“If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition” Bernice Johnson Reagon

Let’s get uncomfortable, shall we?

Let’s make a big coalition.

Remember ACT UP?

Actually, you don’t need to remember them, they’re still around; you can find them online.

Silence does equal death.

But what if we ALL Act Up?

Not just regarding AIDS, and certainly not just people who HAVE AIDS or HIV; not even just their friends and lovers and relatives.

Of course, we are ALL related to people with AIDS. Just a question of how closely related. And even if it isn’t very closely (and how would you know? Do you know the HIV status of all your second cousins? At age 50 I discovered some second cousins I didn’t know I had.  Those are my great grand parents great grand children. That’s pretty close).  But everyone is related to everyone. But, as I said, even if we aren’t that closely related, we should be concerned. If you’re only interested in the health and welfare of your closest relatives …. well…..

But it’s bigger.

Let’s make a big coalition.

You know. With all sorts of people in it. All the people who make OTHER people feel uncomfortable, bad or icky. They might even make some of US feel uncomfortable, bad or icky.  Heck, some people make ME feel that way.

But they don’t make me feel like they are sub-human or unworthy of care.

I, personally, feel uncomfortable watching some public acts of affection (between two men, two women or one of each).

That’s my hangup, not theirs. And it’s OK. Everyone’s got some hangups.

One of the groomsmen (Ellen) at my wedding was a lesbian; I found out, years later, that one of the maids of honor told Ellen not to hold her hand. Oy. That’s not OK. That’s letting her hangup hurt someone else. Not OK at all.

So, let’s get uncomfortable.

When I see people with tons of body piercings, it makes me uncomfortable. Dunno why. Just seems weird to me. But that’s OK. That’s my hangup. Not theirs. Everyone’s got hangups.

But some people let their hangups hang others. That’s not OK.

Me? I’m a learning disabled atheist with glasses who likes to eat all sorts of food. Each of those traits makes some people uncomfortable.  (Food? Yes, some people feel uncomfortable with people eating jellyfish, for instance).

I’m a geeky nerdy guy who likes to spend a lot of time alone. Those traits make some people make uncomfortable too.

Let’s get uncomfortable.

Remember “Revenge of the Nerds”? It wasn’t a gem of film making, but it had one good line:

There’s a lot more of us than there are of them

Add up all the people who make someone else uncomfortable. There’s a lot of us. There’s a lot more of us than there are of them.

Let’s get uncomfortable.

Let’s make a big coalition.

Let’s Act Up.

Together.

Because silence = death. For all of us.

Anyone who thinks about it knows that you can be disabled and gifted.  But anyone who’s disabled can tell you that a lot of people don’t think.  Otherwise, why would people talk louder to people in wheelchairs?  Leg bone connected to the ear bone?

But what if your disability is related to …. your BRAIN?  Like mine is.  I’m learning disabled.  Well, TECHNICALLY, my label is MINIMAL BRAIN DYSFUNCTION.  (DYS?  WTF? That’s just to make life harder for the dyslexic folk out there).  But the label that fits me best is probably NLD.  Nonverbal learning disorder.  That is, I have problems with things that are NON verbal.  Well, except, the expert on NLD says I am not supposed to have a sense of humor.  OOPS!  Where do I go to return it?

Anyway, I’m learning disabled.  Or my brain is dysfunctional.  Something’s wrong, and whatever it is is related to my brain.  AND I’M GIFTED.  Gosh!  You mean my brain works too well AND too badly???? At the same time?  Yup.

But a lot of people don’t believe it.  I guess those people think everyone who is fat has to be tall.  (shhhh!  No sense of humor!).

It confuses people.  It sure as heck confused the psychologist who told my parents when I was 5 that I would never go to college.  ‘Cause, you see, I got my BA when I was 20, having skipped a year of HS and done college in 3 years.

Whatever you think of IQ tests (personally, I think they can be useful but are easy to abuse) my results are odd.  Long ago, on a WISC (that’s Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) I got subtest scores from 60 to 160.  More recently, in grad school (hey!  I wasn’t supposed to go to college!  What’s with grad school? Bad boy!)  I helped out a friend who was studying to be able to give the WAIS (ah ha! Wechsler Adult Instelligence Scales.  Shouldn’t it be WISA?)  I got subtest scores from 70 to unscored, because she didn’t know what to do when I answered some arithmetic questions before she finished asking them (well, I just figured the question, then the answer! Doesn’t everyone do that?).

Now, if your whole IQ is 70, you’re probably going to have some problems in life.  And if your whole IQ is 170, you are probably going to have some problems in life.  And if some of your IQ is 70 and some is 170….. well, life is just going to be smooth sailing, all the way!  (Just checking to see if you were paying attention!)

OK, I know a lot of people don’t like IQ tests.  I happen to know quite a bit about them (my PhD is in psychometrics, that’s the study of measurement of psychological traits) but this diary is not about their merits or demerits (and let’s not get into that in the comments…. if you want my thoughts on them, I’d be glad to write another diary).

What do people say when you tell them that you are learning disabled AND good at reading and math?  Different people react different ways:

1) “You can’t be LD, you’re so bright!”     IOW “you can’t be fat, you’re so tall!”

2) “You can’t be LD and gifted”    IOW “No one who is tall can be fat.”

3)  “All LDs involve reading or math” IOW “Children know everything adults do, except how to read and do math”

4) “How can that be?” or “What are your LD?” or something similar.  IOW “Hey! Maybe Peter knows more about being Peter than I do!  I might learn something.  Cool”

I’ll assume that you’ve all done something in the 4 vein.  

What are my LD?  An easy way to summarize them is that I’m bad at anything involving time or space.  But that summary might not help much.  

Things involving time subdivides into two categories:

a) When things happened

b) How long things take to happen

I am bad at both.  Some examples of the first:

As an adolescent, I was hit by a car and I had an operation on my eyes.  I don’t remember when exactly either of them happened.  

As an adult, I got a PhD and  became a father for the first time.  I have to THINK to be able to tell which happened first, it’s not intuitive.  I remember the date of my PhD (1999) and my older son’s birthday (1996) so…. child first!

Some examples of the second:  I have no intuitive sense of how long it takes to do things, unless I’ve done them MANY times before.  Like a dozen times.  And, if I haven’t done it in a while, I forget.  I’ve been from my apartment to LaGuardia airport a lot.  But not for a while.  Err…. half an hour? An hour?

How long will it take me to walk to my son’s school?  I’ve done it a lot.  But I have to figure it out:  It’s about a mile.  That’s about 20 blocks.  I walk about a minute a block, and voila!

On to space!

I don’t remember where I put things.  AT ALL.   I know, a lot of people will say this, but with me, it’s extreme, and it happens a lot.  Like, one day, I came home carrying a cup of juice.  I had to go to the bathroom, so I put the juice down.  Then I peed.  Then I looked for the juice.  For 10 minutes.  Our apartment isn’t that large!

I don’t recognize people.  (I can remember names much better than faces; for example, I remember the names of people I went to HS with, but not their faces).  Once, I ran into my father on the street.  I looked at him.  30 seconds later: Oh Hi Dad!

I can’t give directions.  Turn uhhhhh. left? right?  ummm one of those!

I don’t remember what is where.  One time, I asked my wife if we had a toaster oven.  She said “Yeah, it’s next  to the coffee maker you use every morning”  (I looked, and there it was!).  

So, can you be gifted and learning disabled?  You bet you can.  I am.  

I’ll try to answer questions.  

For those who are new … we discuss books.  I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading.  Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.

If you like to trade books, try Bookmooch

I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices

Just finished

Nothing this week

Now reading

Cooler Smarter: Practical tips for low carbon living by the scientists at Union of Concerned Scientists, a great group. These folk make sense, concentrating on the changes you can make that have the biggest impact with the least effort.

Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman.  Kahneman, most famous for his work with the late Amos Tversky, is one of the leading psychologists of the times. Here, he posits that our brains have two systems: A fast one and a slow one. Neither is better, but they are good at different things. This is a brilliant book: Full of insight and very well written, as well.

What hath God wrought? by Daniel Walker Howe. Subtitled “The transformation of America 1815-1848. I am reading this with the History group at GoodReads.  This is very well written, and does a good job especially with coverage of the treatment of Blacks and Native Americans.

The hard SF renaissance ed. by David G. Hartwell.  A large anthology of “hard” SF from the 90’s and 00’s. I think Hartwell takes SF a bit too seriously, but the stories are good.

On politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present  by Alan Ryan. What the subtitle says – a history of political thought.  

Snakes can’t run by Ed Lin

A mystery/police procedural set in NYC’s Chinatown in the 1970s. “Snakes” is a slang term for illegal immigrants.

Far from the Tree: Parents, children and the search for identity  by Andrew Solomon.

The title comes from the phrase “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. This book is about apples (children) who did fall far from the tree (parents). This book got amazing reviews and it grabbed me from the opening:

“There is no such thing as reproduction. When two people decide to have a baby, they engage in an act of production, and the widespread use of the word reproduction for this activity, with its implication that two people are but braiding themselves together, is at best a euphemism to comfort prospective parents before they get in over their heads”

I don’t agree with all that Solomon says, but this is a book to make you think about deep questions of humanity.

Rayburn: A Biography by D. B. Hardeman. A very admiring look at Sam Rayburn, former speaker of the House.

Just started

He, she and it  by Marge Percy. Really only a couple pages into it, but it’s near future dystopian SF set on Earth.  

Yesterday, in Aji’s diary on indigenous food traditions, I suggested a diary series on food from all over our country and  the world.

I think the diary series could be called Food, glorious food!  

My own cultural background is Ashkenazi and the food associated with that tradition is what is often (and mistakenly) known as “Jewish food” in the USA, partly because the vast majority of Jews in America are Ashkenazi rather than Sephardi (for more on these two groups see  this article I wrote on Yahoo Voices. When I lived in Israel I had an Iraqi Jewish girlfriend – I was going to write a book to be called gefilte fish and couscous.

But even what the Jews ate in Poland and Russia and Germany isn’t exactly what they eat here (although bagels and bialys were definitely known over there).

But I like food from many regions of the world.

I am not much of a cook, but I can certainly find recipes online.

Is there interest in this series?

Take the poll and let us know!

For those who are new … we discuss books.  I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading.  Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.

If you like to trade books, try bookmooch

I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:

Book reviews on Yahoo

I have asked many many people if they have heard of Irena Sendler.  I have not gotten any “yes” answers.  That’s a shame.  People should know about her.

Irena Sendler died on May 23, 2008.  She was 98.  During the Holocaust, in Poland, she saved Jews.  A lot of Jews.  Probably more than the better known Oscar Schindler.  We need a Thomas Kenneally or a Steven Spielberg to tell her story, too.

originally in orange

More below the fold

This is cross-posted from big orange Satan, where it is a long-running feature.

I list what I am reading, with comments and (sometimes) links.

You can do the same in comments.

If you like to trade books, try BookMooch

I’ve written some book reviews on: Yahoo Voices

Just finished

The van Rijn method by Poul Anderson. The first volume of collected stories that make up Anderson’s Polesotechnic League, when mankind spans the universe.

Now reading

Cooler Smarter: Practical tips for low carbon by the scientists at Union of Concerned Scientists, a great group. These folk make sense, concentrating on the changes you can make that have the biggest impact with the least effort.

Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahnemann.  Kahneman, most famous for his work with the late Amos Tversky, is one of the leading psychologists of the times. Here, he posits that our brains have two systems: A fast one and a slow one. Neither is better, but they are good at different things. This is a brilliant book: Full of insight and very well written, as well.

What hath God wrought? by Daniel Walker Howe. Subtitled “The transformation of America 1815-1848. I am reading this with the History group at GoodReads.  This is very well written, and does a good job especially with coverage of the treatment of Blacks and Native Americans.

The hard SF renaissance ed. by David G. Hartwell.  A large anthology of “hard” SF from the 90’s and 00’s. I think Hartwell takes SF a bit too seriously, but the stories are good.

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meachem.  An admiring look at Thomas Jefferson and his need for power.

The irrationals by Julian Havil.  The history of irrational numbers, nicely presented; not for the mathematically naive (lots of calculus).

On politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present by Alan Ryan. What the subtitle says – a history of political thought.  

Just started

Snakes can’t run by Ed Lin

A mystery/police procedural set in NYC’s Chinatown in the 1970s. “Snakes” is a slang term for illegal immigrants.  

Not in any particular order, except the last one, which is my favorite.

25.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

— Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973)

(I have seen this attributed to Truman, as well)

24.

The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

— Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) (quoting or paraphrasing John Locke)

23.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

— Galileo Galilei

22.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

— Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

21.

When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.

— Desiderius Erasmus (1465-1536) (Books were very expensive in the 16th century)

20.

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

— Epictetus (c.55-c.135)

19.

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice.

— Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

18.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi

17.

No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

— John Donne (1572-1631), Meditation XVII (the first piece of writing I memorized)

16.

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.

— Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)

15. This needs a little intro. It is part of Pratchett’s Discworld series; it is a conversation between DEATH and Susan (his granddaughter).

“All right,” said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.”

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little-”

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

“So we can believe the big ones?”

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

“They’re not the same at all!”

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET-Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point-”

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

14.

I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.

— Barbara Jordan

13.

The gods are amused when the busy river condemns the idle clouds

Rabindranath Tagore

12.

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

— Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

11. I love the precision of language in this one:

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

— William Pitt (1759-1806)

10. The motto of good blogs could be:

Pain shared is lessened, joy shared, increased

— Spider Robinson

9.

The good old days. I was there. Where was they?

— Moms Mabley 1894-1975

8.

All models are wrong but some are useful.

— George Box

7.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” but “That’s funny…”

— Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

6.

That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

— Hillel, upon being challenged to describe the Torah while standing on one foot

5.

If I am not for myself, who is for me?

If I am for myself alone, what am I?

If not now, when?

— Hillel

4.

Those who would give up a little freedom to get a little security shall soon have neither

— Benjamin Franklin

3.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let each man march to his own rhythm, however measured, or far away

— H. D. Thoreau

2.

There is nothing so horrible in nature as to see a beautiful theory murdered by an ugly gang of facts

— Benjamin Franklin

and, my favorite

1.

Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people’s souls, when we all ought to be worried abut our own souls, and other people’s bellies

Rabbi Israel Salanter 1810-1883