Jerry > Recent Status Updates

The main character’s mother died and he doesn’t seem to feel much about that. He doesn’t seem to feel much about interacting with others except he seems to have a breast fetish.

So far I don’t see why so many have given this 5 stars. I don’t see any point or even a plot line besides this guy’s life. It’s only less painful than a mediocre vlog.

Welp, just started.

I have this book apparently from my ex, now deceased, wife who must have read it in college based on the signature. No clue why I retained it when I moved and culled my library.

So the Greeks saved the antiquities and the OSS Greek Desk helped the allied cause and sabotaged German efforts, but there’s not really a direct tie to saving antiquities.

Rodney Young wanted to set up a network to facilitate US post war interests in Greece but it met marginal acceptance.

Still, an interesting portrayal of us involvement in this corner of WW2

Several oss groups and subgroups in Greece. So far none of them have done anything significant or direct to save antiquities.

Book mentions German unit identifications, eg from shoulder patches, but Germans didn’t have those or mark their vehicles that way except for ss or elite units.

The title comes from the American School for Classical Studies in Athens and the OSS Greek Desk set up by some of its alumni.

Noting the OSS “paid Dorothy less than male spies” and many American archaeologists in Athens “came from rich families” seems both sexist and classist (and probably racist, but that hasn’t reared its head yet).

Also, the Ballantine-Young “ethanol-spewing breweries” represented the “new American vulgarity.”

I am concerned there is a clear bias to this book.

It’s been a bit fantasy-esque until just now.

I’m not sure if it’s fantasy or not. The library classifies it as horror but I haven’t seen that so far.

Some author quirks like overuse of names in conversation.

Got some twists and turns now.

And now it’s taken an interesting twist.

Opal wants to enroll Jasper in Stonewood Academy but hasn’t talked about it with him yet.

And Jasper seems to know what Opal does about Starling House.

Evolution: making ends meet

Stalin’s death: why mourn a tyrant?
Led during the Great Patriotic War
Made Russia a world power
“a new era of uncertainty had begun.”

It’s a bit like”A Man Called Ove” or “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”. Or Forrest Gump. Except it doesn’t include meeting any famous people so far. Or specific consequences. But that’s how it feels.

Seems somewhat repetitive in the dominant caste needs to be superior and ensure lower castes are kept/put in their place.

Despite calling it caste, the book is really about racism, either overt or covert. While there seems some basis, all her anecdotes serve to support her viewpoint even if some of them seem to be stretched to make that connection.

“The issue of caste was, to my mind, the basis of every other ism.”

Pillars of caste merit consideration. Starts w/ justification from religious texts & continues to “separate but equal”.

Wilkerson uses anecdotes of famous black embarrassments as justification for casteism.

Attends caste conference in UK & surprised most attendees UK or Indian. But sees parallels as an “American Untouchable”.

Wilkerson is laying out a structured case. She notes the Nazis studied US anti-myscegenation laws which were only overturned by scotus in 1967! A number of anecdotes are hard to understand today. Some date as recently as the civil rights era. Casteism is not as “in the past” as we might think even if its not as prevalent as its victims might perceive.

This book is problematic for me. I thought it was about class, but it’s about race, which it claims is a social construct, but also the basis for who has or doesn’t have agency in the US.

I’d hoped the book’s claimed anecdotal nature would provide context. So far the few presented seem oriented on proving a US racial hierarchy. There does seem to be some credibility in the caste system concept.

While interesting, it’s just a hodgepodge of anecdotes about FDR’s presidency and some events impacting it during WW2. Many, but not all, are espionage-related, but some are political, some personal, and some just events. It seems to generally be following the timeline of the war but it also jumps back and forth a lot, often without clarity as to the date currently being discussed.