Herman > Recent Status Updates

It's amazing to me how advanced human civilization was "2000 FREAKING YEARS" ago. The scholars at the Alexandria Library and research center had already figured out the earth was not flat, calculated the diameter and circumference of the planet, invented geometry and trigonometry, and developed some medical techniques. AND, along the way, also collected about all the books (scrolls) of the known world. Impressive

Alexandria has a fascinating history. As this book accounts for. Alexander the Great never set foot in his namesake city. He came, he saw, and he decided to build a city at the location that connects three continents. After his death, Ptolemy took up the cause to get this city built. At this point, the city has been established, and the library is well underway to being the place to be.

VL has now retired from GB coaching and is serving as GM. He is not happy, and soon enough accepts a job as the Wash Redskins coach. He has a real problem dealing with all the changes happening in the 60s society, politics, and events. Plus he is experiencing some health issues. The Packers are now without many players of champion years.

At this point, the Packers just won the Ice Bowl of the 1967 season. What is remarkable is how many people involved in the game had given up before the game was completed. Mostly on account of the cold weather. And, Bart Starr made a last-second decision to QB sneak in the end zone. By now, Lombardi has cemented his legacy as an NFL great coach. And he is receiving accolades to prove this.

At this point, at the start of the 1965 season, VL is starting to show signs of pressure to maintain the mental state of his team to win. The previous 2 seasons, they came in 2nd place. Winning is the only thing.

I love this read—a bio of Vince Lombardi, a bad-ass dude in his time. I remember him from the 1967 Green Bay Packer football season. And by reading the Jerry Kramer book, Instant Replay.
Mostly, I like learning of his early life. His family background, growing up in Brooklyn. His being part of the "seven blocks of granite" at Fordham University. Now he is in Green Bay and has won his first game of 1959.

What a fascinating read. I've learned quite a bit about the cultural history of gold, silver, platinum, and iron already. And I've only just started. Who knew that humankind knew blood contained iron a long time ago? And they only surmised this because Mars was red. And that anemia is caused by iron deficiency. Platinum is rarer than gold; thus, platinum records.
And now I am learning the history of plutonium.

Montag has an encounter with Clarisse. She tells him goodbye. Montag and his associates burn yet another household with books.
Montag is beginning to question the history of his job. And asking questions about books...the biggest sin.
He has an extended conversation with his wife, Mildred. Mildred claims that Clarisse was killed but that she forgot to inform Montag.
Gus M is starting to change his thoughts.

I think I will like this book. It's a book about the Periodic Table and the author is taking a novel approach. It is not a scientific approach, rather it is a narrative of the history of a families of chemicals and how they impact our lives. A good interesting start.

Enter Guy Montag, the main character of this book. A fireman whose job is to burn books. He meets Clarisse, who reminds him that firemen used to put out fires, not start them.
Guy enters his house and finds that his wife has tried to commit suicide. The paramedics apparently do this rescue all the time and pump out her stomach and save her. And they go on to the next victim.
Guy is already confused.

The last part of the book focuses on F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. Also, EH shares his memories of living in the alpine country of Europe. Good living with plenty of skiing.

The account moves on to his relations with Ezra Pound (douchebag poet), Gertrude Stein (author, critic), Ernest Walsh (author, poet, editor) who died very young, James Joyce (Irish author), Evan Shipman (novelist, poet, newspaperman), a very good friend of EH, and, finally, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
FSF was quite the talker and social butterfly. But, he sure could drink.
Which, BTW, was quite the thing to do...drinking.

This is similar to verifying what I know about EH's life from some of the biographies I have read about him, from the Midnight in Paris movie, from his books.
The big difference, this narrative is in his own words. It's like reading a diary. I like this easy read so far.

This is taking me so long to read. My whole reading year has been hijacked by YouTube videos. Alas!
But, I am now at the part where the motley crew of vigilantes has caught up with the three men they've been looking for....frontier justice.

There actually is a Kurtz character in this story. Just like the movie Apocalypse Now. The story is dark already.

"How often had Shukhov in his youth fed oats to horses! Never had it occurred to him that there'd come a time when his whole soul would yearn for a handful of them."
Shukhov (Ivan) and his mates must endure indignities, suffering, and toil just to get their small ration of cold oats. Good grief!

"Because he had breakfasted without bread and eaten his food cold, Shukhov's bell felt unsatisfied that morning."
And this scene is one of Ivan's milder moments. The book describes in terrific graphic detail the things that Ivan and his fellow inmates must endure to just get through a typical day. What grief!

"Shukhov knew how to manage anything>
Work was like a stick. It had two ends. When you worked for the knowing you gave them quality; when you worked for a fool you simply gave him eyewash."
Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is our hero of this tale. He is a political prisoner in a gulag camp. The story does not start well for him. And it seems that it gets progressively worse.

The Civil War is over. Yancey Quimper is now General Quimper and a weasel. Somerset Cobb is now a successful senator from Texas. And Otto Macnab is now 61 years old and still a bad-ass Texas Ranger. Emma Larkin, missing nose and all, has married the Quaker Earnshaw Rusk and has established their ranch at the abandoned Fort Garner, and is now the Larkin Ranch. Texas is growing but still a wild, wild west scenario.

The Civil War is over. Somerset Cobb returns to his plantation minus his slaves, who are free now. He finds himself in a new world. As a free man, he makes arrangements with Trajan to help out with the farm.
A new chapter now starts, The Fort.

The narrative is now knee-deep in the Civil War. The story introduces the Cobb family. Immigrants from SC & GA brought their slaves with them. They make their homes near Fredericksburg, TX. Both male leaders of this family are KIA at Vicksburg. Quimper and Otto Macknab also return, a bit older, wiser, and just as deadly with fighting and conniving. A good analysis of why the South could not win this war.

The saga of the Otto MacNab Texas tale comes to an end. This, after the Battle of the Alamo, Goliad, San Jacinto, Otto becomes a ranger, meets Franzicka, and marries her. And the War with Mexico comes to an end...and Mexico gets screwed out of their land. And Otto gets to live in peace.
And now, a new chapter, with the Cobb family of South Carolina decide to move to Texas.