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Somerville, MA, United States | Member Since 2005
As powerful and readable a novel about being a grunt in the Vietnam War as any I've come across. Marlantes builds his narrative from the kind of mud-spattered detail that only a veteran of such an experience could bring: the drudgery and exhaustion of patrols, the tension that precedes contact with the enemy, the ever-simmering difficulties between white and black soldiers, good officers vs those who want to further their careers, the simultaneous horror and thrill of combat, the mixed pride and resentment over having been sent to fight, and the simple truth that the young men who fight are, in fact, young men.
If it took him 30 years to write this book, it shows in beautifully crafted passages (such as the jaw-dropping TS Eliot-inspired one at the end) and rich, suitably profane character dialogues that express the complexities of duty, race, fear, courage, and the inevitable chasm between those who have "been there" and those who haven't. As in many of the best books about war, it's clear that the author's experiences have been filtered through much examination. Why do young men kill other young men that they don't even know, in a conflict with unclear motives, over a hill that no one cares about? What is the meaning of this violence? If the answers to such questions lie beyond the edge of moral understanding, Marlantes attempts to pull the reader out to that edge, the place where oblivion negates all conventional logic, and "what matters" comes down to that thinnest layer of self that separates all human action from the indifferent violence of nature.
Is this a perfect book? No. Marlantes' choice to jump unpredictably between different character viewpoints probably would have worked better in a screenplay. Some of his scenes, for all the stirring insight in seemingly off-the-cuff conversations about race, religion, or sex, can't escape feeling intentionally placed to make such points.
Small complaints, though. Ranks with the finest war novels. Good narr, too.
"A dark, fun ride"
Gone Girl is 2012's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, that gritty suspense thriller that everyone and their mother was reading. For the first half, it sucked me in with well-drawn characters, a setup that has its fingers on the pulse of the times, and a delicious sense of Hitchcockian misdirection.
The two narrators are Nick and Amy, a thirty-something pair of would-be yuppies whose magazine careers and New York City lives were derailed by the Great Recession. They have now downsized their dreams to the Midwest, characterized as the home of corn chip casseroles, bland earnestness, and shopping at Walmart. There, Nick took care of his ailing parents and opened a bar with the last of Amy's trust fund money. And, there, their marriage fell apart.
Starting from page one, we get Nick's side of things: a perpetually unsatisfied wife and a life that seems to be going nowhere. Then, on their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy disappears, leaving behind signs of a struggle and a trail of clues in the form of an anniversary scavenger hunt. Nick blinks and stumbles his way through the ensuing police investigation, and there's the sense that he's not telling us everything.
Interspersed with Nick's narrative are journal entries from Amy, painting a picture of a fairytale marriage that sours after a husband stops trying. And there's just a hint of control freak insecurity, perhaps triggered in part by being the inspiration for the goody-two-shoes protagonist of a series of saccharine children's books written by Amy's own parents over the decades, the source of her small family fortune.
It doesn't take long before the reader gets the sense that Nick, while somewhat evasive and not exactly the husband of the year, is falling into a trap. Clues in the investigation and public opinion are going against him.
Then comes a twist, and we learn that a few things about Nick and Amy's marriage have been misrepresented. Here, the novel began to get unbelievable for me, though the suspense remained enjoyable. Would Nick be arrested? How would his sleazeball lawyer, his media appearances, his oddball sister, Amy's wealthy, creepy ex-boyfriend, a deranged father, and a couple of desperate types in a short-term housing park play into the plot? As Nick's defenses steadily crumble around him, against a far craftier opponent, Flynn keeps us guessing, even rooting for a guy who was initially hard to like.
When the story reaches its endgame, it escalates into pure absurdity, a sort of screw-turning, Stephen King-like nightmare scenario (think of him in suspense mode, not monster mode). Somewhere, a few psychologists are doing face palms. But, if you're willing to shut off your brain, it's fun, in a deliciously dark way.
All in all, this novel showed a lot of promise for roughly the first half. Flynn obviously *reads*, and has a sense of craft. I loved the unreliable narrators and the ambiguity. Unfortunately, though, once the game is revealed, the novel morphs steadily into airport bookstore territory. This isn't necessarily bad, but I'd hoped for a bit more psychological complexity. Oh well.
The two audiobook narrators are good. Kirby Heyborne, who performs Nick's parts, ranges from bemused calm to barely suppressed anger. Julia Whelan, who takes Amy's, has a girlish chipperness that works well.
"A fine continuation"
I've already written a review of the Winds of War, the first half of this marathon two-part historical drama. War and Remembrance picks up right where that one left off, shortly after the Pearl Harbor attacks. Now, the US is fully in the Second World War, and Victor, Warren, and Byron all see action in the Pacific. Meanwhile, Byron's Jewish wife, Natalie, is trapped in fascist Italy, where a series of misjudgements and bureaucratic tangles have blocked the escape of her and her uncle. And there are a few other dramas, involving characters we'd met before, such as Leslie Slote and Pamela Tudsbury.
As in the previous book, Wouk masterfully illustrates how the war unfolded and how it looked to the Allies, with the much-pounded British grasping the full urgency of the situation while America was only beginning to get into gear. His overview of the politics and fighting takes into account the bumbling mistakes made by both sides, and the many opportunities the Axis powers had to achieve some devastating victories, on top of those they'd already had over the dithering Allies. If Wouk's narrative is to be believed, the fate of nations can turn on a single faulty report from a scout plane or a lucky accident of timing.
Compared to the first book, there are more scenes of battle and combat, which are well-written. There's a subplot concerning the development of the atomic bomb, involving Rhoda's lover, Palmer Kirby. We can see the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union on the horizon. There's more from the fictional German general, Armin von Ruhn, whose cerebral apologism for fascism becomes ever more disquieting, considering that his views don't seem all that far off from those held by present-day right-wing groups, though his analysis of the war remains compelling. And there's a subplot that exposes the horrors of the Holocaust, through both the eyes of a Jewish character interned in Auschwitz and the chillingly mechanical viewpoint of the camp's commandant.
If the plot turns are a little more soap opera-like, with the main characters getting into drawn-out dramas and crossing paths strangely often, they're still absorbing. Through the storyline involving Natalie, her uncle, Aaron, and her friend Leslie, it becomes easy to see how Holocaust denial paralyzed much of the civilized world, which wanted to believe that the terrible stories were mostly just propaganda by people with an agenda (I couldn't help but think of climate change deniers). The two Jews, as they struggle to find an out, get ever more inexorably trapped in the Nazi web, ending up in the sham showcase ghetto of Theresienstadt, and these desperate scenes are gripping.
Both this novel and the Winds of War should really be thought of as one long work, though not everyone will want to power straight through both of them in sequence, as I did. As before, my compliments to Kevin Pariseau for his spoken performance. When I at last reached the final page, while biking along a lake in Massachusetts, I felt that I'd completed a real journey across eight profoundly world-changing years of history. Through the sheer scale, vision, energy, investment in storytelling, and deeper truth-seeking of his drama, Wouk has left a work for the ages.
"Epic historical drama"
At over 100 hours, this audiobook and its sequel are a commitment, a 20th century War and Peace. Over 2000 pages, Herman Wouk spins both a family saga and a sort of "bearing witness" document, a detailed history of World War Two that leaves no one excused for humanity's greatest calamity (so far) and the many acts of blindness on both sides that allowed it to unfold as it did
The fictional narrative centers around an American naval family headed by one Victor "Pug" Henry, a stolid, unpretentious career officer of classic mold. Yearning for a battleship command, Victor is instead sent to be the US's naval attache in 1939 Berlin, at a time well before most Americans had any desire to get embroiled in another European mess. Because of his thorough reports, Victor finds himself coming to the attention of FDR, who makes him a high-powered informal go-between. Meanwhile, Victor's two sons have their own stories -- one training as a Navy pilot, while the other "finds himself" in Italy, where he gets involved with a Jewish author and his lovely, headstrong niece. These two, trapped in Europe, become significant viewpoint characters in their own right. Others enter the narrative, too, including Victor's wife, who is beginning to chafe at the sacrifices of being a Navy wife, and his daughter, who takes a job at a NYC radio station. While most of the action happens behind the lines, we do get a few tastes of the shooting war.
Wouk's style is a bit nostalgic, but the characters are well-written and credible. For all the contrivances in the plot -- such as Victor managing to meet Hitler, FDR, Churchill, *and* Stalin -- Wouk makes us believe that such path-crossings were plausible. Maybe one family wasn't in so many places, but history did have plenty of small actors who played such roles. In any case, the small details of the characters' thoughts and actions give events a full, living color. Sometimes Wouk pulls the camera back and explains in a clear, compelling way what was happening on the broader stage, which was a counterpoint that appealed to me, since the protagonists seldom have all the facts themselves. It's to his credit that almost nothing feels irrelevant -- personalities and family lives seem to dovetail neatly into greater events and vice-versa.
No, Herman Wouk isn't Tolstoy, but he's certainly a writer with a strong grasp of the forces of history, gentle insight into human behavior, the ability to connect small-scale events with large ones, and a storyteller's gift for putting it all in familiar terms, through the eyes of some memorable characters.
What pleased me most about this book, though, and a big reason for my enthusiastic recommendation, is its absence of simplistic rah-rah patriotism. Instead, Wouk soberly examines the causes of the war and the dangers of nationalism and ideology. He also notes the hypocrisies of British and American imperialism, and the self-absorbed apathy of both countries in the face of fascism's self-image of surety. One of the most fascinating features of the novel is the inclusion of the memoirs of a German general, translated decades after the war by Pug himself. There's a creepy familiarity to his critiques of the "decadent" West, and one begins to remember that evil is often rationalized away, sometime quite convincingly, by those who worship strength and power. This mattered at the time the author was writing, around the height of the Vietnam War, and it matters now.
Ultimately, this novel and its sequel are a rich mix of intimate and broad-scale human themes, 20th century history, and wistful nostalgia for a time when the American middle class family embodied all that was hopeful. Audiobook narrator Kevin Pariseau rises to the occasion, with some impressive imitations of certain famous figures, a range of accents, and a narration voice that has both friendliness and gravity. Put the sequel on standby, because you'll want to know what happens next.
"Beautifully unsettling"
This short, smart existential novella is a gem. After the protagonist, Soren Johansson, a devout Mormon, dies of cancer, he finds himself in a room with four other people. There, an officious demon cheerfully informs everyone that they've all failed to follow the one true religion (which I won't spoil, but suffice to say, it's not one of the obvious candidates) and consigns them all to a variety of hells.
For the protagonist, hell is a bigger-than-the-known-universe library containing every possible book (including those whose contents are just random characters, i.e. the vast majority). And the only way out, according to a posted notice, is to find the book containing one's own life story. Hell does operate according to a few rules, which can't be broken. There are food dispensers, which give out any meal requested. Non-carried objects return to their place at the end of each day. People who die are returned to life.
At first, Soren does what most people would do: he explores, forms relationships, tests the rules, and discusses solutions to the shared predicament. But days, then months, then years pass. The denizens of the library form societies. Soren experiences wandering and loneliness. He falls in love. Then violent religious mania hits people, and hell really does become hell. So, he escapes to deeper levels, in search of both his lost lover and answers.
I won't give away what happens from there, but Peck does eventually make it clear that there's no easy way out. The author's wry sense of humor makes the haunting philosophical questions go down easy, but that won't stop them from swirling uncomfortably in your mind later. As I see it, this is a book about what faith really means. What happens if God utterly defies all our expectations? Would we still believe? Could we let go of our belief? And I don't think Peck is letting non-believers off the hook, either -- if we contemplate the hell of a purposeless reality, might it be better to have some ray of hope in a greater meaning, however slender?
Beautifully unsettling questions. I'm glad I spotted this one in an audible sale.
"Gritty, hard-boiled space action"
The first in this series, Altered Carbon, was all the rage a few years back. It was a gritty, hard-boiled detective story set in the 25th century, complete with pithy first person narration by sardonic tough guy male protagonist. The universe is a little reminiscent of the one in the movie Blade Runner, with powerful corporations that run everything and crime syndicates and rebel groups in the shadows. The most notable technological feature of this reality is the ability to back human consciousness up on a "cortical stack" implant, allowing people to "resleeve" in a new body if the old one gets excessively damaged. The implications of this made for some interesting twists, both in terms of plot and human themes.
In this novel, a loose sequel to Altered Carbon, Takeshi Kovacs has put aside the detective work and is back to his former trade of soldiering. He's serving as a mercenary on behalf of a corporate power battling rebel fanatics on a planet whose civilian populace is receiving the brunt of the misery and suffering. He's feeling about ready to jump ship on his contract when a pilot points Kovacs to a xenoarchaeologist in a prison camp, who knows something about a gateway leading to an ancient, derelict alien starship -- the find of the century. Can he put together a team to stake legal claim?
As with many sequels to hot first novels, the dazzle factor of the author's style and universe has worn off a little, and this reader notices the formula a little more. For those who liked the grit, hard-boiled cynicism, manga-like universe, over-the-top sex scenes, and action movie machismo of Altered Carbon, Broken Angels brings more of that, but the characters and plot are more familiar and forgettable. While the part surrounding the entering of the long-dead ghost ship, the high point of the book, has a cool eeriness similar to the opening of the movie Alien and its own horror to deliver about the fate of a superior civilization, the story leading up this point isn't hugely riveting. Yes, the sequences about locating a corporate backer (without being screwed over by the same), recruiting a squad of soldiers from the colorful personalities found in a pile of discarded cortical stacks, battling nanobots, and discovering what became of a previous expedition to the alien ship, were a pleasant audio distraction while I was doing yard work, a lot of other science fiction novels could have done as much. The war going on in the background had potential to be interesting, but wasn't fleshed out much -- I suspect it will come more into play in the next book.
All in all, this is a recommendation for those who loved Altered Carbon and want to go further into the Takeshi Kovacs universe, but other readers could probably take it or leave it. Audiobook reader Todd McLaren has a square-jawed voice that suits the hard-boiled nature of Morgan's prose well and keeps it from coming across as too self-serious, but his sultry-voiced women can be a little irritating. Particularly the "sassy black girl" voice.
"Puts a lot in perspective"
I can't remember the history of the Islamic world rating more than a few pages in my high school AP World History textbook. And those pages were about the things that related directly to the story of Europe and the Americas, kthxbye. Oh, and oil.
This book is an excellent corrective for the distorted, limited picture most Americans have of the Islamic sphere, revealing it as a complex and fascinating parallel universe that had developed largely apart from Europe. This culture rose to great heights while most Europeans still lived in ignorant medieval squalor, became fragmented by Mongol invasion and the politics of empire in successive centuries, and was finally encroached upon by the modern West in the 19th and 20th centuries, an encounter that it's still in turmoil from.
Tamim Ansary, an author and lecturer, turns a millenium plus into an informal, engaging narrative, as a good professor would. There's even some humor ("pointing his cannons at Parliament and blowing it up was just the shah's way of showing that he some objections to the new agreement"). Good historical narrative doesn't judge the past from a modern perspective, but illuminates it as a complex set of relationships that evolved over time. There are many terms here that I'd heard before and had a vague sense of the meaning of -- Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Assassin, caliphate, 12th Imam, vizier, harem, Mamluk, janissary, Safavid, Ottoman, Great Game, Raj -- but Ansary puts them all into their place.
Thus, it became easier for me to understand how Islam is often (without irony) called a "religion of peace", while also having a warrior aspect. During and following the prophet Muhammad's life, the faithful saw themselves as creating a new vision for society, founded on peace, justice, self-discipline, religious tolerance, and egalitarian brotherhood (even sisterhood) for the once fractious people of the Arabian peninsula and the Levant. Muslims saw God's favor as being demonstrated by their success at liberating the oppressed inhabitants of neighboring lands and God's disfavor as being shown through military loss -- which was to have far-reaching implications.
Ansary also helped me see how Islam's source ideas played out in attempts to codify them into a framework for daily life. Elaborate bodies of law developed and scholars saw a unity of reason and divine revelation, bringing about advances in science and mathematics, and re-introducing classical Greek logic to the world. Of course, these noble goals did not prevent the usual conflicts between higher thinking and human nature from taking root -- politics, greed, war, dynastic feuding, cultural chauvinism, overly conservative thinking -- and so Islam fragmented into different visions. Mystics, enlightened progressives, and traditionalists all found footholds in different parts the greater empires. Interesting stuff.
The latter chapters, which deal with the Muslim world's encounter with the West, are the most revealing. I'd never fully considered how the Protestant Reformation opened the door for a culture of individualism and mercantilism, but it did, and soon European traders and bankers were making inroads into stratified empires in Asia Minor, Persia, and India, making deals that that decadent rulers couldn't refuse and securing more and more privilege for themselves. Never underestimate the corrosive power of loans! While Muslim intellectuals and secularists came to see the future as lying in the kind of democratic, constitutional governments that the west had (as Turkey is today), a combination of cynical Western imperialism and rising fundamentalism among large, impoverished lower classes that saw their elites as selling out on God's instructions (with no pope-like figure to intermediate), poisoned this dream in many places. Obviously, terrorism can't be justified under any system that claims respect for the innocent, but the resentment and sense of a stolen destiny that boiled over into extremism (enabled by oil money) makes more sense to me now.
For people who enjoy history and know that there are different ways of telling it, depending on who's in the "center" of a narrative and who comes crashing in from outside during Act Three, I can't recommend this one highly enough.
"Smart, witty altered-consciousness thriller"
Afterparty was a pleasant discovery for me, comparable to recent Neal Stephenson or William Gibson, but less geeked-out than the former and a little snarkier than the latter.
The initial setting is a near-future Toronto. A former neuroscientist named Lyda is in a mental hospital, in the wake of a series of breakdowns. It's about a decade after her biotech startup discovered, while trying to cure schizophrenia, a drug that enables users to experience God. Well, in a manner of speaking. More specifically, Lyda and her colleagues overdosed on the drug and each now experiences a very convincing hallucination of a heavenly spirit companion. In Lyda's case, it's a moralizing winged angel named Doctor Gloria. In more controlled doses, the drug, nicknamed Numinous, makes people feel that they're in the presence of the divine.
It's not the only mind-altering custom drug in this future. There's now a whole subculture of print-it-at-home drug manufacture, to say nothing of what more serious organizations do with the tech. Some products have amusingly harmless effects, but some alter consciousness in disturbing ways, such as one that removes one character's natural empathy and turns him into a temporary sociopath.
When a peculiarly troubled teenage patient shows up in the clinic, it dawns on Lyda that Numinous, which her and her colleagues swore to keep secret, is now on the street, being distributed by a strange new "church". So, Lyda must check herself out of the hospital, evade monitoring systems, get across the border, and track down her former colleagues in the US. Her only allies are a sweetly unaware young man who thinks his consciousness resides in the aquarium toy hanging from his neck, and a crafty American ex-intelligence officer whose own mind has been scrambled by too much "focus" drug over her career. And a cat. And, of course, the amusingly huffy Doctor G, who remains invisible to everyone but Lyda.
This is definitely a smart book, asking meaningful philosophical questions about the nature of being and the implications of messing with our brains/minds. Or of messing with other people's. It's also a witty one, with cleverly written scenes, oddball characters, and a lot of snarky quips from Lyda. For example, when a drug dealer sells a seemingly effective gay-for-a-day "product" to some straight dudebros at a college frat party, she retorts, "product? Don't you mean placebo?" (Well, it made me laugh.)
The story, once it gets going, is interesting. There's also a backstory that emerges, concerning the tragic events that took place at Little Sprout (the startup) ten years ago, what became of Lyda's wife and fellow scientist, who took too much Numinous, how Lyda ended up in the mental hospital, and what happened to her daughter, who she had to give up for adoption. While Gregory doesn't posit a drastically altered future, I also enjoyed the creative, incidental little ideas that he drops in here and there, such as a plausible successor to smart phones. Like the plot of a good thriller, all the pieces come together in the end, but with some room for taking the characters and setup further, should he choose to.
If there are a few believability issues and the ending is a little predictable, it's a thriller with a brain and an eye on an approaching bend in the road ahead. And the core questions -- if there is a better us inside ourselves, should we try to access it by tampering with ourselves? Or should we not? Is "divine experience" more about the divine, or the experience? -- are ones that Gregory keeps hovering in our peripheral vision throughout the book, but admirably never tries to answer for us.
"Beautiful, melancholic literary fantasy"
Last Dragon falls into a space somewhere between straightforward genre fantasy and literary fiction, which is probably why not too many readers have noticed it. The bones of the plot have a lot in common with the former: there's a teenage girl, destined to become an Empress (which we know because she's writing an epistolary from her older years), who leaves her nomadic people to seek blood justice against her grandfather, who has murdered her family and most of the rest of her village, then fled. Along with her slightly-older uncle, who is now technically the village shaman, she travels over the mountains and enters the more civilized, darker-skinned country to the south.
As we might expect, the young Zhan will find companions on the road who have their own histories and purposes, learn about the wider world, discover that the truth is more complex than the one she began with, and get sucked into a war that comes back to her people. Not everyone's stories, when fully revealed, will be quite as they seem. Several of the main characters have an ambiguous quality to them.
Unlike a lot of fantasy, which tends to proceed in a linear way, Zhan's tale is expressed in semi-ordered, dreamlike fragments, concentrating less on genre tropes, and more on how humans reveal themselves in their interactions. There are betrayals and surprises that will emerge, some of which seem to be a product of the older Zhan's unreliable memory. There's a definite Gene Wolfe flavor -- if The Book of the New Sun spoke to you, this probably will, too (and if you hated The Shadow of the Torturer, you're not the audience for this book). The format can be a little confusing, but there were enough contextual hints for me to mostly keep track of the plot.
But, man, McDermott can write. I loved the sparse, delicate beauty of the prose, and the haunting imagery that fills the book. Camp fires made from an intoxicating weed that grows in the mountains. A language that considers a bird to be any creature that sings. Ancient dragons that onced imparted their preternatural wisdom to a nation, an order of paladin who sacrificed their own lives to maintain the great creatures, and black-skinned soldiers from the south, who brought an end to this order (and many others) with their musketry. Ants that crawl in the masonry of a great city, and come to play their own disquieting role. An old warrior, from a place where different tribes modify their bodies to pay homage to different animals, telling a blend of personal and tall tales from childhood, which include a moment where a storm drops fish from the sky on a column of captives. There's an ambiguity and bleakness to the main story, which ends unhappily for most in it, but it's told in such a lovely way, including Cori Samuels's English-accented audio narration.
Not everyone will like this book. If you prefer novels to have a clear plot resolution, with all the characters' motives fully revealed, you should probably look elsewhere. However, if you accept that books can be puzzles, with meanings that are hinted at through allegorical imagery and invocation of themes, Last Dragon is worthy of your time. While the novel sometimes loses itself in its own dreamlike gauziness and structural experimentation, and perhaps a few of the author's ideas and characters could have been developed a little more, it's an impressive first novel.
"Hot times in the nineteen-o's"
This is one of those books I had to read for class in high school, but which was somewhat wasted on me at the time. I didn't know enough about history and adult psychology to really appreciate Doctorow's portrait of the roiling, chaotic, ever unsatisfied nature of turn-of-the-20th century America, with its class struggles, expanding immigrant population, media celebrities and their sordid scandals, racism, squalor, and energetic search for something better.
This is a novel where the author's technique shines as much as his story or characters. Assuming an omniscient, godlike point of view that seems to pay homage to John Dos Passo's America Trilogy, Doctorow swoops above the day, taking in the events of the newspaper headlines, then zooming down into dining rooms, meeting halls, and bedrooms, for a closer look into his characters lives, then diving into their thoughts and emotions, before flying away again. This approach creates a sense of urgency and burgeoning unrest, not surprising in a novel written soon after the late 1960s.
The story blends history with the lives of a fictional middle-class white family in a New York City suburb, who are named only as Father, Mother, Younger Brother, and The Boy. The bourgeois Father owns a business that sells patriotic supplies, and joins Robert Peary on his expedition to the North Pole, which seems to mark an apex of Father's life. Younger Brother is a troubled young man who obsesses over an equally troubled young starlet, the real Evelyn Nesbit, and loses himself in designing fireworks, then in radicalism. When Mother takes in a young, unwed black women and her infant, the family becomes involved with a successful, cultured black pianist named Coalhouse Walker, who refuses to back down from his demands for redress after his car is vandalized by a racist fire chief. Things escalate, and the Family finds itself connected to a righteous terrorist, who acts out a fantasy that many blacks at the time probably had.
This central plot, though absorbing, is only an eye of the storm for the rest of the book. Doctorow spends as much time with other figures, fictional or historical, whose energies intersect and rise into the same sublime madness. An immigrant Jew living in the slums of New Yorks, who struggles after a better life for his daughter and is pulled towards a new industry. Anarchist labor organizer Emma Goldman, who gives a scathing critique of capitalist society and its moral hypocrisies. Plutocrat J.P. Morgan, who searches for higher purpose, now that he's achieved the pinnacle of success and found it wanting, and fellow capitalist Henry Ford, who gives a folksy comeuppance. Escapist artist Harry Houdini, who pushes back against his own inner emptiness with ever more dangerous and unreal stunts.
This is a brilliant book, swirling with color and energy, but also wit and insight into the psyche of America at a significant moment. There's a strong whiff of counterculture and the kind of creative, what-if reimagining of hidden moments of history that I enjoyed in Doctorow's Civil War novel The March. Readers who dislike the cinematic, somewhat fanciful staging of such scenes, or prefer a more conventional, grounded plot might not enjoy this book, but I'd recommend Ragtime to anyone who wants to better understand the US, or this time period in particular.
Doctorow, who obviously isn't a trained voice actor, narrates his own audiobook. The recording isn't of great quality, being a little muffled in places and making him sound like he has a cold. Still, I appreciated knowing that all the verbal emphasis in the reading was just as the author intended.
"Fate Inescapable"
This is a fun little anthology. All the pieces here revolve around the same premise: the idea that there's a machine that can predict a person's death from a blood sample, spitting out its answer on a small card. The machine sometimes words its oracular messages in an ambiguous or poetic way, but it's never wrong. If it predicts that you'll die by drowning, moving to the desert won't save you -- you'll just die in the shower or by choking on a drink. Perhaps, like Oedipus, you might even suffer the paradoxical fate of being doomed by your attempt to escape fate.
Naturally, there are a number of logical, philosophical, and moral implications that can arise from the premise, and the various authors get pretty creative in exploring them. How would you act if you knew your death? What if your friends or family knew? What if your government knew? A few pieces are set in the present day, but the genres of most of the others run the gamut from sci-fi to dystopian to fantasy to zombie horror to time travel to Sherlock Holmes. There's even a choose-your-own-adventure. The most interesting ones, for my money, tend to weave in some other issue.
The tone of the stories ranges a lot as well. Some are witty, some are serious, some dark, some absurd, some poignant, some melancholy, and some cryptic. Some feature better writing than others, but there was a good deal of talent and imagination on display. Similarly, the various audiobook readers range from competent-but-unremarkable to skilled. I particularly enjoyed the voices done by the guy who narrated the story told from the point of view of an orc.
In sum, a collection I could recommend to any adult who enjoys creative short fiction (I say "adult" because of some profanity and a few grown-up topics). I would note that this is the followup to any earlier anthology, called Machine of Death. I haven't read that one, but the grapevine (well, the Internet) says that this is the more inventive of the two.
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subset: commoncrawl


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SOMERVILLE — Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano propose an uneasy relationship, since the piano — particularly in its modern incarnation — tends to cover the cello's low register. These pieces also record Beethoven's evolution as a composer: He wrote the first two in 1796, the third in 1808, and the last two in 1815. In their performance of all five at Tufts University's Granoff Music Center Sunday, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey and local pianist Lois Shapiro were tough, intelligent, and rewarding.
The conversation between cello and piano can be a relaxed one, as it generally is between Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, with the piano giving the cello ample room to express itself. Or it can be a confrontation, as it is on Wispelwey's Channel Classics set of these sonatas with Dejan Lazic, where the cello has to fight for space. Shapiro, who plays in Triple Helix and is on the faculty at Wellesley College, was as forthright as Lazic, but she would back off when Wispelwey had something to say. Wispelwey, with his usual dry, puckering tone, engaged in a battle with his instrument, struggling to get everything he wanted from it. He rarely looked at Shapiro, and yet they were always on the same page.


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Gregg Homme Beyond Doubt All Mesh Brief 110203
This product was discontinued July, 2014 and is no longer available. Please consider one of the Customer-Recommended Replacements above, or try a new search.
You will no doubt feel sexy in these sheer briefs. Features all-over sheer stretch mesh with a solid waistband. Made of Polyamide/Elastane.
Try these keyword searches with similar features:


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Up for sale is a Vader ANH Lightsaber with plaque and stand. The saber is semi complete, not entirely sure of the maker but I believe it is a parks. It comes with grips unattached but is missing the rear button/control module and D ring. However it does come with a nice stand and plaque. Both missing parts can be easily acquired. I am not 100% sure but I may have a D ring, I will include it if I am able to find it.
$110 shipped within the USA.


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Five Hot Careers for 2012
With the right education, you could pursue a new career with hot hiring potential.
Are you hoping for a fresh career start in 2012?
Going back to school to advance your education could help, according to new hiring statistics from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
NACE's Job Outlook 2012 reports that employers plan to hire 9.5 percent more new college graduates in 2012 than they did in 2011. The 2012 report is based on responses from 244 organizations that include General Electric Company, Ernst & Young LLP, and Raytheon Company.
So what careers have a hot hiring potential in 2012? Keep reading to learn about five career prospects you could prepare to pursue as the calendar turns on your future.
Career # 1 - Medical and Health Services Manager
Are you interested in a supervisory role in the growing health care field? If so, preparing to pursue a medical and health services manager position might be a rewarding goal for you.
Medical and health services managers keep a birds-eye view of the daily activities in a hospital to ensure everything is running effectively and efficiently. The U.S. Department of Labor notes that health services managers plan, direct, coordinate, and supervise the delivery of health care.
Click Here to Find the Right Health Services Administration Program.
Why it's the Best for 2012: The hiring growth for medical and health services managers is projected to hit 16 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to the Department of Labor.*
Education Options: A master's degree in fields like health services administration, health sciences, public health, or public administration could prepare you for this career, according to the Department of Labor. A bachelor's degree might be sufficient for some entry-level positions in smaller facilities and departments.*
Average Salary: $93,670*
Career # 2 - Teacher
Do you enjoy sharing your knowledge with others and mentoring young people? If you answered "yes," you could be an ideal match for a career as a teacher.
As a teacher, you could have an opportunity to figure out the best teaching methods to help others. Your responsibilities might include designing lessons plans, lecturing in class, and providing academic support to students, according to the College Board, an organization that administers academic aptitude tests like the SAT.
Click Here to Find the Right Education Program.
Why it's the Best for 2012: The job growth for elementary school teachers is projected at 16 percent between 2008 and 2018.*
Education Options: Earning a bachelor's in education and obtaining a teaching license may qualify you for most public school teaching positions.*
Average Salary: Elementary school teachers: $54,330*
Career # 3 - Accountant
For people who naturally like to bargain hunt, keep tabs of their fantasy football teams, or play math games, pursuing an accounting career could be a reasonable endeavor in 2012.
Accountants usually analyze and track important financial information for individuals and businesses. Duties could include preparing taxes and evaluating budget sheets, according to the College Board.
Click Here to Find the Right Accounting Program.
Why it's the Best for 2012: The accounting field is projected to increase hires by 22 percent between 2008 and 2018.*
Education Options: A bachelor's degree in accounting is considered the most common route of qualifying for entry-level accountant positions.*
Average Salary: $68,960*
Career # 4 - Network and Computer Systems Administrator
If you have a love for computers and technology, you might enjoy a career as a network and computer systems administrator.
Today's computer networks generally require administrators who are capable of working in a team environment. Network and computer systems administrators design, install, and support computer systems, and they usually need to direct the efforts of other workers.
Click Here to Find the Right IT & Information Systems Program.
Why it's the Best for 2012: From 2008 to 2018, the Department projects a job growth of 23 percent for network and computer systems administrators.*
Education Options: You might consider earning a bachelor's degree in a computers or information technology (IT) program to qualify for most entry-level positions as a network and computer systems administrator.*
Average Salary: $72,200*
Career # 5 - Social Worker
If you're eager to assist others and serve those in need, a career in social work could give you the fresh start you're looking for in 2012.
Social workers help people cope with a variety of issues that include relationships, disability, disease, unemployment, and substance abuse, among other things. The duties of social workers might take them to a variety of settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and courts.
Click Here to Find the Right Social Work Program.
Why it's the Best for 2012: The job growth for social workers is projected to increase by 16 percent between 2008 and 2018.*
Education Options: If you're interested in a career as a social worker, consider pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, or sociology.*
Average Salary: $52,270*
*Education options, job growth, and average salary information are from the U.S. Department of Labor using May 2010 data.
Written on


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Quest Canvas Cart - Black
by Narita Trading Company | Item #: 642233 |Model #: 015BK | (1) |
Quest Folding Carts and Tote Bags feature durable construction for years of dependable use.
Featuring a durable canvas bag, this cart works double duty as a mobile hamper. The water-repellant detachable bag includes a sturdy cover to keep contents dry and out of sight. The foam grip handle adjusts to three different height settings and heavy-duty ball-bearing swivel front wheels provide excellent mobility. This cart folds flat for easy storage.
Assembled Country
Component Country
Ask & Answer
Warranty Information30 days
There is no additional information available for this item.


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The Wild West. A long forest road-based ride, fun routes for families/beginners and a great blue grade trail, all with stunning scenery. Seasonal café, bike hire can be arranged.
Enter the Glentrool pageAccommodation & ServicesHow to get there
Home to some of the best singletrack in the country (and McMoab!). Something for everyone with the seasonal café, bike hire and children's play area.
Enter the Kirroughtree pageAccommodation & ServicesHow to get there
Great rocky granite trails of all grades. Includes The Slab and other notable features.
Enter the Dalbeattie pageAccommodation & ServicesHow to get there
Magnificent flowing singletrack for all, and a ride on the dark side of the North Shore timber trail will test the expert rider. Café, bike shop & hire.
Enter the Mabie pageAccommodation & ServicesHow to get there
A fine blend of family trails and rough & tough for for the more experienced rider. Includes a competition downhill course, featuring the infamous "Coffin Jump"!
Enter the Ae pageAccommodation & ServicesHow to get there
Probably the best biking centre in Britain. Everything from beginners' trails to extreme downhill. Café, bike shop & hire at Glentress.
Enter the Glentress & Innerleithen pageAccommodation & ServicesHow to get there (Glentress)
How to get there (Innerleithen)
Close to the Scotland/England border Newcastleton serves up a brilliant Blue Route and a riotous Red Route. Village based trailhead with great facilities and bike hire close by.
Enter the Newcastleton pageAccommodation & ServicesHow to get there
The 7stanes Mountain Biking Community Interest Company (CIC) is a not for profit organisation. The CIC includes representation from nine organisations listed below, including three business groups representing over 150 local tourism businesses.
The Company was registered in October 2010. Reg No. 386358.
The 7stanes CIC was set up in the wake of public sector reduced funding and is pioneering in its approach to sustain the future of mountain biking in the south of Scotland.
Independent - Les Jardine - Chairman
Forestry Commission Scotland - Bill Meadows
Scottish Enterprise - Rachel Meehan
Scottish Borders Council - Cllr Stuart Bell
Dumfries and Galloway Council - Cllr Ian Carruthers
VisitScotland - Paula McDonald
Tweed Valley Tourism Consortium - Chris Bryant
Tweed Valley Tourism Consortium - Matthew Morris
Newcastleton Business Forum - Barbara Elborn
Newcastleton Business Forum - Lee Musson
Dumfries and Galloway Mountain Bike Business Network - Richard Hermon
Dumfries and Galloway Mountain Bike Business Network - Pam Hazelhurst
Scottish Cycling - Graeme Mclean
The CIC will promote and market the 7stanes including management of the 7stanes brand. The main aim is to sustain the 7stanes project by increasing visitor numbers and generating revenue to make the project self-funding. The CIC will work closely with local stakeholders, partners and businesses for the benefit of the 7stanes and the economy of the south of Scotland. The management of the trails will remain with Forestry Commission Scotland.
If you would like to know more about the 7stanes CIC please email email@example.com
Company Number SC. 386358
VAT Reg. 106370542
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yes, WoW is just a game, but it's a very social game. Because of that simple fact, some aspects of real life will traverse into our little virtual reality where orcs roam the world and camping means something other than a pageant of s'mores and scary stories.
Basically, when you have something as social and wide-spread as WoW, comparing it to real-life aspects can create some actually interesting articles.
I hate when people shoo off some actually interesting and relevant information by saying "It's just a game." Yes, it is just a game, but that doesn't mean real life aspects are forbidden to exist within it.


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ADDISON COUNTY — When winter rolls into the Green Mountains, many Vermonters gear up for a season of fun. But while some look forward to the colder months, others, like Starksboro's April Parent, see only struggle on the horizon.
"Before winter even comes, in August or September, we start worrying about making it," said Parent. "What are the heating bills going to run? What are the electric bills going to run? It's really a struggle every year."
VERGENNES — The visiting Mount Abraham Union High School boys' basketball team played what its coach said was probably its strongest effort of the winter on Thursday, but it wasn't quite enough to derail the No. 1 team in Division II and the Eagles' No. 1 rival, Vergennes.
The Eagles led by seven late in the third quarter, but saw the Commodores go on a 16-4 run on the way to a 59-47 victory.
BRISTOL — The Mount Abraham Union Middle and High School board on Tuesday approved a proposed budget that would level-fund education spending for next fiscal year.
Under the proposal, overall expenses would increase 0.7 percent to $13,542,142, but education spending — the part of the budget that directly affects tax rates — would remain the same as this year at $11,309,068. Additionally, the per pupil spending rate would increase 4.1 percent next year to $13,552.
How might this proposed budget affect property tax rates?
BRISTOL — Before Tuesday's boys' basketball game at Mount Abraham Union High School, both Eagle coach Bill Leggett and Otter Valley coach Nathan Bellomo said their teams were continuing to hang together and work hard despite disappointing starts.
Both the Eagles and Otters also really wanted to add a W to their résumés: OV was 2-6, including a 44-41 home win over Mount Abe. The 0-6 Eagles were coming off a last-second loss at BFA-Fairfax that their coaches said was their best effort.
BRANDON — On Tuesday at Otter Valley Union High School, the Mount Abraham Union High School girls' basketball team improved to 3-0 by defeating the Otters, 36-33.
Two of the Eagles' three wins have followed Tuesday's template: They have gotten out to big leads, but needed key fourth-quarter baskets to pull out victories.
BRISTOL — Local teenagers are taking risky business into their own hands, aiming to rein in teen substance abuse and other hazardous behaviors.
After the Vermont Department of Health earlier this month released the results of this year's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) — a biennial look at everything from teen sex to bullying — a taskforce of Mount Abraham Union middle and high school students spent a day analyzing the Bristol school's results.
BARRE — The Mount Abraham Union High School girls' basketball team fought back fiercely in the second half of Saturday's Division II final in Barre but could not overcome an ugly second quarter and champion Lamoille's stout interior defense, anchored by center Chelsea Dunham.
BRISTOL — The Mount Abraham Union High School girls' basketball team used a big fourth quarter to defeat visiting Milton on Tuesday, 43-34.
The Eagles improved to 12-7 heading into Thursday's regular season finale, a home game vs. Middlebury. Mount Abe has already clinched no worse than a No. 3 seed for the Division II playoffs, but could move up to No. 2 with a win over the Tigers, coupled with a loss by Lyndon (13-6) in the Vikings' finale.
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|Stockton, Calif.
|High School:
|Lincoln HS
BRIEFLY: A Freshman All-American in 2003, Schreppel battled through injuries and now appears to be at 100 percent A starter for half the season last year, he will again jump into the rotation in 2005 as the Titans' Saturday starter.
TITANS `04: Appeared in 23 games, making 10 starts on the year finished 3-3 with a 6.03 ERA and a pair of saves best outing of the season came in a start against Sam Houston State on March 6, throwing eight strong innings, allowing a pair of runs on eight hits and striking out four in the Titans' 12-2 win also went seven innings against Houston on Feb. 22 for his first victory of the year, allowing three earned on seven hits in a 9-4 Titans' victory.
TITANS '03: Was honored with freshman All-American recognition from Collegiate Baseball despite missing two months after surgery to repair a torn lateral meniscus in his right knee Posted a 5-3 record and 2.45 ERA in 11 appearances (10 starts) His ERA was under 2.00 until he was roughed up for five runs in three innings by Arizona State in a Super Regional loss on June 7 Became the first Titan pitcher ever to earn wins in each of his first four appearances Opponents hit just .227 against him and he had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3:1 Allowed just a run on five hits in 5.2 innings vs. Notre Dame in the second Regional game, but was denied a win when the Irish tied it up against the Titan bullpen Named Kia Baseball Bash Most Outstanding Pitcher and Big West Co-Pitcher of the Week after holding No. 21 Tulane scoreless on just two hits in seven innings...he did not get a decision since the Titans rallied for the win in the ninth With two outs and runners on base, opponents had just three hits in 25 at bats (.120) Only losses came vs. Minnesota (3/7), Long Beach State (5/17) and Arizona State (6/7) In seven of his 10 starts, he allowed one run or less and five hits or less Allowed just a run in five innings against Stanford in his collegiate debut to earn the win Did not pitch at the College World Series.
LINCOLN H.S.: Was a three-year standout pitcher and first baseman at Lincoln H.S. in Stockton, Calif., where he played for Coach Randy Ortega Was a three-time first-team All-San Joaquin Athletic Association pitcher and area Pitcher of the Year as a sophomore (6-2, 1.85 59 Ks in 52 innings) and as a senior (7-1, 1.65 ERA, 69 Ks in 46.2 innings) His best game came against Tokay H.S.,when he allowed just one hit over five innings in an 11-0 win Helped the Trojans to a 25-8 overall record and 13-1 league mark as a senior Also batted over .300 in each of his three seasons Also the starting quarterback his senior season for Lincoln's football team.
PERSONAL: Born on June 2, 1984, in Stockton, Calif. Parents are Geoff and Kim Schreppel Has an older brother (Jason) Majoring in kinesiology Would like to be a teacher for the deaf Says his father has had the most influence on him Selected by Minnesota in the 20th round of the 2002 Major League Baseball first-year player draft Enjoys playing video games in his spare time Would like to see Miami added to the Titans' schedule Full name is Ryan Geoffrey Schreppel Favorites ... Barry Zito and Johan Santana (players), Oakland A's (team), The Best Damn Sports Show Period (TV show), Denzel Washington (actor), Jessica Biel (actress).


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The summer of 2011 was one of the busiest in decades, as numerous construction projects—including the $6million Student Center renovation— began to transform several of Randolph College's facilities.
"The College is working to update our facilities and to create better spaces for our community," said JohnE. Klein, president. "Beginning construction on the new Student Center has brought a sense of energy and excitement to campus. This project is going to add so much to our community and the student experience."
In addition to the construction of a new teaching and learning center on the main floor of the library, the conference room and lounge area near the dining hall were renovated to accommodate Randolph's new campus store. The College's tennis courts were also replaced.
"We have added something every year for the past few years so that when students return, there is something different and better waiting for them," said Bobby Bennett, director of capital projects. "This year, the changes were even more substantial."
Most of the work on the Student Center that occurred this summer was demolition of the interior of the building. The campus will begin to see more visible changes to the exterior of the building this fall and spring.
"One of our goals is to perform this work in a manner that is the least disruptive to our students, faculty, and staff," Bennett said. "This is a large project that is basically right in the middle of campus. And while this is going on, there is going to be some noise and dust. But if people have patience, it will all definitely be worth it in the end."


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Wolfgang's Steakhouse or Jar?
Looking for an amazing steakhouse to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday.
The epitome would be Cut, but I fear from all the reports that it would be waaay out of my price range. Would like to try to get out of there under $250 including tip for say, 1-2 starters, 2 entrees, 1 dessert, and a bottle of wine.
How do Wolfgang's Steakhouse and Jar stack up?
I know it's probably comparing apples to oranges where Wolfgang's seems more like a steakhouse proper and Jar is more romantic and does other things besides steak well? Any standout dishes at either that would tip the scales one way or another?
I'd appreciate any help since we don't often get to splurge on big meals out and would like to make the most of it.
A. You could pull it off at Cut if you both ordered the 35-day aged 10 ounce NY strip, which is no more expensive than Wolfgang's. And it's a brilliant steak. And worth the whole experience. And sides and starters are genius. Well maybe a bit more than 250 but not way more than Wolfgang's for same. B. Wolfgang's is very good! But not as sublime as Cut. C. Last couple of meals at Jar were less than the best. D. Steak for two at Lucques is my other favorite steak in the city (besides Cut). I say Cut or Lucques. (oh, and the Lucques steak comes WITH sublime potatoes)
re: la tache burger
Thanks la tache - that helps. I have a standing res at Wolfgang's on Open Table and will take a closer look at Cut's menu to see if I can swing it. Lucques is great but I thought it might be a bit casual for the occasion. Thanks again!
re: raspie
plus the lobster bearnaise on the steak with fries -- extraordinary.
re: raspie
Plus duck fried rice. Sounds crazy....but I was very happily surprised.
If your boyfriend loves a porterhouse, I would give the nod to Wolfgang's, which rivals the stellar one at Peter Luger's in Brooklyn; but Jar serves some of the best steaks in town. Jar pulls ahead on appetizers, sides and desserts, as well as variety for the non-steak eater. Among the items I love at Jar are the mussels, the lobster cocktail, the squash blossoms stuffed with lobster mousse, the steaks, the lamb shank, the pork shank, the pot roast, the lemongrass chicken, the fries, the Japanese purple yams, the duck fried rice, and the (frequent special) butterscotch pudding.
re: rickym13
i don't find Jar romantic, but I do find it far more luxurious than Cut. I found Cut to be cold and impersonal.
If you're looking for an amazing steakhouse then forgo either Wolfgang's or Jar and head over to BLT.
Jar is not even in the same league as either Wolfgang's or BLT so I suggest you mark it off your short list. I've never particularly like the food, service or ambiance at Jar. It's incredible noisy, probably even more so than either Wolfgang's or BLT and it's remarkably dark, which could be why some people find it romantic.
Wolfgang's filet and onion rings are the standout items but as for the steak for two, three, four... it's not remarkable. It's drowned in butter and lacking in flavor and tenderness. Although the rooms are noisy there's a terrific energy of testosterone that fills the restaurant. Wolfgang is quite gracious and makes you feel welcome in his restaurant. Hands down, Wolfgang's restrooms fixtures are not to be missed. You could spend hours in the ladies room and not want to come out.
Then there's BLT. The food is simply amazing. So delicious...everything was scrumptious. Chicken liver pate, gigantic Yorkshire pudding/popovers, tuna tartare, the onion ring tower, so many different sides and of course the steaks were phenomenal. So tender and juicy without the pool of sizzling butter. The chocolate & peanut butter mousse was divine. Across the board, presentation was beautiful and the service was flawless. BLT has got to be the best steakhouse in town. Simply fabulous and you probably could get out the door for under $250. But if it turns out to be a bit more than that, it would be worth every penny.
re: ElleElleInLA
ElleElleInLA - I totally agree with you. BLTY Steak is my favorite new steak house in LA
Wolfgangs really was disappointing..I found the sides boring, limited and frankly flat tasting. BUT, go for a few slices of BACON!
re: yummyinmytummy
Could not disagree with you more. My two meals at BLT have been utterly utterly disappointing with one of dinner companion swearing that he would eat his shoe first (with more flavor actually) than the food at BLT. Wolfgang's on the other hand is by far the best steakhouse in LA for porterhouse. As a rib-eye lover for my whole adult life, only Lugar and Wolfgang would ever make me seriously consider changing the rib-eye stance.
re: ExtraCheesePlease
What was up with the steak at BLT? Was it steak you ate? Am thinking of going tonight, haven't been yet.
re: la tache burger
It had this strange butane smell that just made the steak awful. I have a heighten sense of smell so I thought it was me but one of my dinner companion who would eat anything (like that Mikey commercial) smelled the same thing and couldn't even finish his NY strip. It happened both times I went and the second time, I sent it back and the second steak smelled the same. The waiter thought I was crazy but I swear I'm not. I eat out almost nightly for business (as my waist will attest) and I know what a steak should not smell like. Anyway, I would love to know if I'm the crazy one. LOL.
re: ExtraCheesePlease
fascinating. I was gonna go last night but couldn't get there on time. I'll be there soon and will definitely weigh in on the butane factor! (and agree that wolfgang's ain't bad at all)
Jar is more cal-cuisine with some good steaks, while Wolfgang's is more like Ruth Chris Steak house. I am not a huge fan of the traditional steakhouse, so I prefer JAR. If you are looking for a traditional steakhouse, try Wolfgang's.
THere are more options than simply cut, depending on what you like.
re: TracyS
re: TracyS
Was at Cut last year and had a $59 steak I could barely finish because it was very over-salted. Everything else on the menu there was fine.
I've been to Jar at least four times and have always enjoyed it. It's not the classic steakhouse like the Palm, but everything is very good, and the service is wonderful.
Jar easily wins. My wife and I ate at Wolfgang's last week, and the food was, at best, "ho-hum",
with my meat-loving wife feeling quite foul later (aged meat issue?). We've never had less than a
stellar plate of beef at Jar...after dozens of visits. The service at W was wonderful, though.
We much prefer the dark moody interior of Jar as well, as opposed to Wolfgang's streetside
window show.
re: DeePocketChopra
I have to say that I completely agree with you. Jar, in my opinion, is far superior to Cut based not only on the entrees and meats, but also in the veggies and side dishes. I have been to Cut twice, to give it a fair shake, and I am decidedly NOT a fan.
re: lotta_cox
I love Jar's steaks and go there regularly but was thinking to try Cut; thank you, for I shall stay on my track and go to Jar, ASAP
Reporting back on the dinner that ended up being at Cut (maybe makes the post heading misleading).
Similar to what's been posted, I was offered only a 5:30pm or 9:30pm reservation slot. We went with 9:30pm and what ended up to be a very pricey disappointment.
We had the kobe steak sashimi which was very tasty after our server returned a good half hour after we ordered to tell us that the kitchen was out of the bone marrow flan we first ordered. Very sad to not get to try it, but I guess that happens so late in the evening.
For entrees, we had the rib eye and petit cut new york steaks, both the Nebraska dry aged 35 days, along with the wasabi-yuzu kocho butter and shallot-red wine bordelaise sauces. We also ordered sides of creamed spinach with fried organic egg and morel mushrooms with sugar snap peas.
First the steaks while very beefy tasting were both overcooked by a degree - medium rare came out closer to medium, and medium came out closer to medium well. I considered sending them back because I think at $60+ a steak they should be cooked perfectly, but by this point it was 11pm and we didn't want to still be having dinner into the next day so we made do. Steaks were fine but just unremarkable - I was definitely expecting more. The bordelaise sauce was quite good and the butter sauce just okay. Sauces came on the side and were large enough that I think two people could split a single sauce easily.
The creamed spinach side as many people have reported was delicious. The morels and sugar snap peas were also very good but expensive at $18 for what was a very small portion.
Lastly for dessert, we had the "strawberries and cream" baked alaska which was very nicely done. Not too sweet and refreshing after all that meat.
Neither of us are big wine connoisseurs so with some help from the server we went with a Malibu cab at $64 which was definitely on the lower end of their wine list but was fine for us. It's worth mentioning that he was originally steering us towards wines upwards of $400 and when asked for a more reasonably priced recommendation he pointed towards a $1700 bottle (yes two zeros) - not sure if he was kidding or misheard us. We also had two bottles of Voss water.
Service throughout the evening was also just alright. I'm not a big fan of what seems to be the norm in a lot of high end restaurants now where the server pretty much just takes your order and delivers the check, while in between everything else is handled by other servers and bussers. We did a lot of refilling of our own wine and water glasses and it was a bit of an effort to flag down our server for anything.
Not sure if it's expected, but we did not receive anything by way of amuses or mignardises, except for those gougeres at the start of the meal and lots of breadsticks. I thought I did see on several reviews mignardises so perhaps these were also out at the end of the evening.
Another couple sat down next to us about halfway through the meal and insisted on having a server that was their main man at Bastide. Our server was introduced to them as "new and great" - they still got their guy but maybe that explains our spotty service.
Overall it was nothing bad enough to complain about, but I was pretty disappointed at having some better experiences both food and service wise for much less in cost. We'll probably not return again until we can afford to go Wagyu all the way. =)
re: TracyS
Sounds like your service was bad enough to complain about...refilling your own wine and water glasses? Your main Server didn't come by a few times during the meal to check if everything was okay? Especially immediately after each course was served? Your meat was overcooked? Ugh, actually those are all the sort of big misses that a manager would like to know about.
re: TracyS
I have to say that as sad I am at your disappointing service and food, my two experiences were similar. The first time I went with 2 female friends and we were disappointed we hadn't gone to Mastro's. At least we would have had some festivity. The second time I went with my husband and we ordered a 100+ bottle of wine and were again treated with indifferent service. I won't go back.
re: TracyS
Cut is an expensive joke. I can make a better steak for about 1/3 what they charge


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Yaesu VX-6R : Radio Equipment/VHF-UHF Handhelds/Yaesu VX-6R
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Scarpa Force
UKC Gear, Jul 2011
© Toby Archer It's a shame that 'middle of the road' has become a term of derision – suburban semis, Ford Mondeos, vegetable patches and all that – because the Scarpa Force is a very middle of the road rock shoe. Perhaps it reflects the ever closer onset of my middle age that I like them all the more for their middle-of-roadness. 'All rounder' might be a better description, but to me that always conjures images of Ian Botham. The Scarpa Force is a talented all-rounder then, but you don't need a mullet to wear them and I wouldn't walk from Land's End to John O'Groats in them. Sorry Beefy.
To sum up the Force, it's more shoe than slipper, despite its Velcro closure. It has a reasonably supportive midsole meaning plenty of support for edging. Nevertheless it doesn't have a thick sole and overall retains a slim toe profile meaning they slide in and out of thin cracks. Perhaps what is most noticeable about the Force's design overall is its flat profile. Compare its sole to the much more curved sole of Scarpa models such as the Booster and the Instinct and the difference is clear. The flat design makes the Force a comfortable shoe, much better for longer routes or all day climbing, something that I have been doing happily in mine, even in the summer heat.
Of course if you wear rock shoes with room for your toes to lie flat rather than curled, it does limit your ability to 'grab' smaller footholds with your toes, hence not optimal for steeply overhanging sport climbing on rock such as limestone. You could fit the Forces with your toes slightly curled. If you do buy them tight like this, then the Velcro is great for letting you slip your heels out easily. If you fit them with your toes flat, the shoes will be more comfy for long routes but obviously won't perform quite as well.
I had to choose between sizes 41 and 41.5, both of which could be said to fit me. Reflecting that the Force was designed as a mid-grade all-rounder rather than a high performance shoe, I decided to go for the slightly larger size. As it turned out I might well have got away with the 41s; with the 41.5 there is a little space around my heel but on the other hand I can happily wear and climb in the shoes for hours on end without any discomfort. Nevertheless, despite the feeling I could have worn them slightly tighter, I've been impressed with the performance the Forces have shown across a variety of styles of climbing.
I've always been a bit sceptical about those who claim they find major differences in the performance of different brands of rubber, at least amongst those of us who mostly climb in the low to mid grades. My pair of Forces came with XS Grip rubber, this year's shoes are soled with the updated XS Grip 2, which is the same as you'll find on top end shoes like the Scarpa Instinct.
Scarpa Force
More info on the Scarpa website.
To begin with I had a feeling the Forces were less sticky than other shoes. In retrospect I suspect that this was more a reflection of the rubber needing a little time to 'wear in'. I did manage to take a somewhat comedic flier off The Sod (a highly polished F5+/6a at Portland's Cuttings) when my feet simply slid off a shiny slabby foothold, but I think this was more to do with the very polished start of this route rather than the shoes. On non-polished granite slabs the Forces seems to stick now as well as any of my other shoes. Despite their decent smearing capabilities, the lateral support of the shoes' midsole also means they edge well. This might not be the pair of shoes to select for some long multipitch route with huge amounts of micro-edging, but for the vast majority of routes they offer plenty of support on matchstick-and-bigger sized edging footholds.
In 2009's Climbing Magazine the Scarpa Force was given the 'editors choice' award over a couple of dozen other new shoe models for being above average at everything. The review notes that one of their testers now uses his pair for all his Indian Creek climbing – the world's crack climbing Mecca.
Granite cracks - "Friends will be friends" (HVS 5a), Pärkänvuori, SW Finland.
TobyA, Aug 2010
© Toby Archer
Scarpa have given the Force one more clever design tweak to make them a good crack shoe; they have simply reversed the direction of the lower Velcro closure strap...
While I haven't had the chance to see if my pair of Forces will help me on my expected future onsight of Bellyful of Bad Berries, I can say they are a good crack shoe as now tested on numerous Finnish granite cracks but also on slippery limestone cracks of Portland and Symonds Yat, and the mighty sandstone of Nesscliffe (indeed if you can't afford the air ticket to test yourself against Indian Creek's Supercrack of the Desert, get yourself to Shropshire and plug those hands and feet into the wonderful Red Square).
Along with the above noted slim toe and flat profile, Scarpa have given the Force one more clever design tweak to make them a good crack shoe; they have simply reversed the direction of the lower Velcro closure strap. On not all but many Velcro shoes the straps both close towards the outer edge of the shoe.
As my old Mammut Velpros, otherwise a great shoe, proved on many occasions that this meant as you cammed your foot into hands to thin fist-sized cracks, the camming action would often rip open the lower Velcro stap – an alarming feeling when in extremis. With the Forces, the natural crack climbing foot motion actually keeps the lower strap closed. Scarpa have also added a slightly rubbery outer layer to that strap which will give the shoe a bit more protection when crack climbing and seems to make the shoe slightly more grippy when cammed.
Despite doing lots of climbing in them over the last year, the shoes have worn very well. The rubber is peeling away slightly on the tab that bulges up protecting the outer edge of shoe at its widest point – but it's nothing that a dab of glue won't fix. The rubbery bit on the lower strap on one shoe has worn through from crack climbing, but the leather below remains fine, showing what a good idea this is. The amount of climbing I've done in these shoes over the last 12 months shoes the quality of their construction and makes them excellent value for money. The Scarpa Force are a comfortable and competent all round shoe for the mid-grade climber. Mullets and charity walks are optional.
About Toby ArcherToby Archer is based in Finland.
He describes himself as: "a writer and researcher specialising in international security politics; finally no longer a PhD student; hopeless but enthusiastic climber; part-time gear reviewer; keen multi-role cyclist; idealist and cynic"
Climbing keeps him from getting too depressed about politics. He blogs about both at:
Light from the North - chilled thoughts from the top of Europe.
UKC Articles and Gear Reviews by TobyA:


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When this craft column was started in 2010, one of the elements I wanted to reflect was the generosity of crafters who use their talent to help others. As a result, the 845 Craft Guide has profiled many crafters and their creations under "Crafting for a Cause."
Hurricane Sandy is the latest cause to hit close to home. Residents of the Hudson Valley have had to deal with electrical outages, downed trees and loss of life from the storm; some of our neighbors in Westchester and Rockland counties, New York City, Pennsylvania and New Jersey lost all their property.
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In stressful times, crafters often turn to their hobby for comfort. This time your creation could help someone in need, making you a Sandy Samaritan. Sure, it's easy to look to the seamstresses, knitters, crocheters and quilters and place the burden in their hands, but all crafters can comfort others and you may even learn a new skill.
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Sept. 03--Belleville resident Shawn Chevalier has been acting for more than 20 years, and now she wants to give producing a try with a project she affectionately calls "the little webseries that could."
The name of the webseries is "Intervention," and Chevalier said she started the script a couple of years ago, setting it aside after a run-in with writer's block.
She picked it up again recently, and decided the story was too complicated for the big screen.
"It wouldn't work as anything but a webseries," Chevalier said.
The series will spotlight two women who have been close friends for 20 years despite being complete opposites. One, with her perfect husband and children, has a dark side in the form of sex addition. The other, with her abusive husband, has struggled through life, but has never really done anything wrong.
Chevalier said she was inspired by the lives of some of her friends when she created the lives of these women.
Now in the process of filming, Chevalier and her actors have run into one problem after another.
Filming began during tornado season, and with actors coming in from Indiana, Oklahoma and Chicago, a flooded location was disastrous. Chevalier said she had to find a new location at the last minute so that her actors' trip to Belleville wasn't for nothing.
Then, during a scene in which Chevalier's character is being beaten by her husband, Chevalier suffered an accidental blow to the face, which resulted in a trip to the emergency room.
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Just when things were getting back on track, one of Chevalier's actors, playing a main character, decided to leave the project, which forced Chevalier to reshoot all of the episodes she had.
Chevalier said, even though all of these incidents seemed like signs to stop the project, she is determined to reach the finish line, especially after receiving word that her brother in California, a fellow actor, had stage four cancer and would be coming home.
"I want to dedicate it to him," she said.
The series will contain 22 episodes when completed, with 10 episodes in the first season. Chevalier said she will start releasing episodes after she completes the fifth or sixth one on KoldCast TV or YouTube as a last resort.
The first episode, titled "Initial Shock," will set up the entire series with both women being kidnapped by a crazed preacher.
"Think Westboro Baptist kind of religious guy," Chevalier said.
The preacher's motive for kidnapping the women is to punish the sex addict for her unholy ways and to punish her loyal friend for being an accomplice to her actions because she never intervened in her lifestyle.
Chevalier said the series isn't meant to be suspenseful; it's more about the women's relationship and how they remained friends for so long.
While they are being drugged, they experience flashbacks spanning their 20-year relationship to show audiences everything they've been through together.
Chevalier said the project is low-budget, but it will be produced at the highest possible quality.
A website to promote the webseries is in the works. She is also working with local movie theaters to premiere the completed project.
Chevalier said she is always looking for extras, and will continue casting for main roles for future episodes. Anyone interested in being a part of the project can reach Shawn Chevalier at email@example.com.
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May 3 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar dropped against most of its major counterparts as a report showing the U.S. added more jobs than forecast in April failed to deter investor expectations the Federal Reserve will sustain monetary stimulus.
The greenback reversed a brief gain against the euro as America's unemployment rate fell to a four-year low. The Federal Open Market Committee maintained its commitment this week to buying assets under the quantitative-easing stimulus strategy until there's significant improvement in the labor market. The yen slid against all its major peers as investors left the haven of Japan's currency while seeking higher-returning assets.
"The initial reaction was that it was a great number, but then there was a realization that it might not be enough to get things going in terms of Fed tapering," Brian Kim, a foreign- exchange strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's RBS Securities unit in Stamford, Connecticut, said in a telephone interview.
The greenback weakened 0.4 percent to $1.3117 at 4:19 p.m. New York time after gaining as much as 0.2 percent. It fell 0.7 percent this week. The dollar appreciated 1.1 percent to 99.03 yen today, rising as much as 1.4 percent, the most since April 19, and trading above 99 yen for the first time in a week. The Japanese currency lost 1.5 percent to 129.91 per euro.
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Net-short bets that the euro will fall against the dollar declined to 30,149 as of April 30, from 34,275 a week earlier, CFTC figures showed.
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Trading in over-the-counter foreign-exchange options totaled $29 billion, compared with $22 billion yesterday, according to data reported by U.S. banks to the Depository Trust Clearing Corp. and tracked by Bloomberg. Volume in options on the dollar-yen exchange rate amounted to $12 billion, the largest share of trades at 40 percent. U.S. dollar-Canada dollar options were the second most actively traded, at $3.3 billion, or 11 percent, and Euro-dollar options were the third most actively traded, at $2.4 billion, or 8 percent.
U.S.-Canada options trading was 315 percent above the average for the past five Fridays at a similar time in the day, according to Bloomberg analysis.
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Olufela Olufemi Anikulapo Kuti (born 16 June 1962), popularly known as Femi Kuti, is a Nigerian musician and the eldest son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.
Femi Kuti
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors and is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. If you find the biography content factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. Find out more about our use of this data.
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- Official homepage at femikuti.tv
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Personal Relationships
- Child of Fela Kuti
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BBC Reviews
Day By Day 2008Reviewed by Jon Lusk
Business as usual...
Fight To WinReviewed by John Armstrong
Fela Kuti's son takes Afrobeat into the 21st Century. Modern, funky and righteous.