Early Voting in Florida

My spouse and I took advantage of early voting yesterday, the Saturday before the election. We had to stand in line for two and a half hours. Afterward, my feet hurt and I was very tired. But I got to cast my ballot for what is the most important presidential race of my lifetime. So it was definitely worth it. (Sorry, but I'm not saying how I voted, you'll have to guess! This blog is nonpartisan.)
The polling place was at one of the two local libraries where I visit frequently. Standing in line for those hours, I got to observe my neighbors. I wondered: For how many was it the first time they had come to this library? The East Lake Community Library is a great library ... They tend to have a lot of the newer books I'm interested in, and the building is homey and the librarians are very friendly.
To help voters pass the time while they waited, the librarians rolled out carts of old magazines. At one point, I looked down the line, and almost everyone was reading! It warmed my heart, it really did.

Happy Halloween!

I've been looking for some good Halloween-related reading, but I haven't been able to find much.
I checked out from the library "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," aka the story of the Headless Horseman, but it wasn't quite what I had in mind.
Reading it now as an adult, I can tell that it's supposed to be clever. Ichabod is the pretentious schoolmaster trying to win the hand of the lovely and rich Katrina Van Tassel. But Ichabod's devil-may-care rival Brom Bones triumphs using his country wisdom and the legend of the Horseman.
Maybe Ichabod's fall was an original storyline in the 1800s, but now it seems like just another page in America's long history of anti-intellectualism.
Not that I liked Ichabod, mind you. He clearly just wanted to marry Katrina for her money, the jerk.
Nevertheless, I will give Washington Irving lots of credit for vivid writing. Here's his description of Ichabod:

The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.

You can read the whole story for yourself here.

If you know of a good Halloween book or story, post it in the comments or send me an email. (You can use the "Email me" link on the upper right.)

High-tech Libraries

I am continually impressed by the technology my local library uses. Thanks to the Internet, I can browse the library catalogue from home. If my library has the book, I can put a hold on it. That means the library staff will fetch the book for me and hold it at the counter for a few days, until I come into get it.
If my library doesn't have it, I can search through the local library network. (Here it's called Alleycat.) It searches libraries within about 100 miles of my town. If one of those libraries has the book, they will send it to my local library. Then I get a phone call or email to let me know it's there, and I have a week to pick it up.
This is super nifty. It saves me lots of time, and I feel like I have access to just about any book I'm interested in.

TV B-Gone!

I ran across this and couldn't resist posting about it ... A guy in California has invented a keychain gizmo -- you click the button and it will turn off any remote-controlled TV. It works because he's programmed it with the "off" codes for every known type of remote.
This could come in handy in restaurants, airports, waiting rooms and other public spaces. Reclaim quiet reading space from the yackety idiot box!
Of course, civility would demand that you get the consent of your neighbors before punching the button. I image it might be tempting to secretly punch it and then say, "Oh darn, the TV must have broke!" But that wouldn't be very nice, would it?
This device confirms my suspicion that TV as a genre is in decline. The vaunted computer -- the networked computer, to be exact -- is displacing TV as the primary means of communication, entertainment, and recreation. In the way that TV eclipsed radio in generations past, TV won't go away entirely. It will remain important in many respects, but TV seems to losing its "top dog" status, at least at this moment. As a reader, I can't say I'm overly sad about that. I love the way computers are reaffirming the importance of the writing and reading.

David Sedaris and his book tour

Last night, my book group and I went to see David Sedaris. Sedaris regularly reads his work on National Public Radio and This American Life. He writes about his large, sarcastic Greek family and also about life in Paris with his boyfriend Hugh. Most of it is darkly humorous.
The theater was sold out. It was nice to see. Sedaris stood at a podium and read aloud from manuscripts. It was very writerly.
I wish we would see more authors tour like that ... But I imagine you have to have pretty broad popularity as a writer to sell out venues and make it work from a financial standpoint.
T.S. Eliot was reputed to be very good at reading his work aloud. When he toured the United States, back in the 1950s, he would sell out stadiums.

Spoonreader's inspiration

Yes, the book that inspired me to start my blog is We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. I wrote a review of it for Baltimore City Weekly, a publication I freelance for.

Technology is blurring the lines between journalists, newsmakers, and the audience, making information exchange more honest and robust, according to Gillmor, a nationally known technology columnist for the San Jose, Calif., Mercury News. And if news organizations are brave enough to embrace change instead of rebuffing it, we could all be the better for it.
“Tomorrow’s news reporting and production will be more of a conversation, or a seminar,” Gillmor writes. “The communication network itself will be a medium for everyone’s voice, not just the few who can afford to buy multimillion-dollar printing presses, launch satellites, or win the government’s permission to squat on the public airwaves.”

Check out the enire review here. Read my other book reviews here.

The sad, precipitous decline of Walt Disney World

My mom and I were in Orlando this weekend, and, not wanting to pay a $50+ entry fee for Disney World, we decided we would instead go to Downtown Disney, which is Disney's shopping/eating/nightclub complex near the park.
I should interject here that I was practically raised on Disney. As a youngster, I had albums of songs from Disney movies like "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," "The Jungle Book" and "Snow White." I adored, adored, adored Winnie the Pooh. Years later, in high school, I was thrilled by Disney's animation revival through films like "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin." (Read an astute review of "Beauty and the Beast" and its place in the Disney canon here.) I remember seeing "The Little Mermaid" in high school with one of my best buddies, Liz G. When the credits rolled to the song "Under the Sea," we ran down to the screen and danced like lunatics to the calypso-inflected tune. (Back then, I was prone to giddy outbursts when I wasn't listening to The Smiths and morosely contemplating the futility of life.) As an adult, I've come to appreciate even more the amazing soundtracks to movies like Mary Poppins, and the easygoing, intimate charm of a Walt Disney World ride like Peter Pan's Flight.
So it gives me no pleasure whatsoever to say that Disney has gone into utter and complete decline. Disney movies leave me cold, I can't remember the last one I saw in a theater. The parks are not being kept in good repair -- there were water spots clearly visible in the ceiling of "It's a Small World" the last two times I went to the park, for instance. The (relatively) new ride Alien Encounter is cool, but a lot of the other rides added in recent years are just dumb, like Mickey's Toon Town Fair and Space Ranger Spin.
So mom and I headed off to Downtown Disney this weekend, and really, I should have known better. First off, the music was blaring, even outside the shops. Then, there were so many people jammed into the shops that it was hard to stop and look at anything without being trampled. Then, when we did manage to stop and look, 9 times out of 10 the items were plastic crap -- the worst kind of gewgaws and trinkets. Mom thought the stuff was ugly, too.
I'm not saying that Disney shouldn't make money. They absolutely should, because the good Disney movies are nothing short of art, and artists should be compensated for their work. But I am left with the inescapable conclusion that Disney Inc. wants to wring every cent from its tourists, and the company is willing to whore out their characters -- pardon the expression, but that's what it is -- to make a lousy $3 off some wretched disposable tchotchke. Is that what Walt would have wanted? I can't imagine it.
Interestingly, Walt Disney's nephew, Roy Disney, has broken with the company and started an intriguing web site, www.savedisney.com, that seeks the ouster of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, among other goals. (Roy's resignation letter from the Disney board in 2003 is here.)
Which all leads me to the book I wanted to mention ...
For all these reasons and more, I am so excited about the impending publication of James B. Stewart's new book Disneywar: The Battle for the Magic Kingdom. (Amazon shows its release date as Nov. 15, 2004.) Stewart is one of my favorite writers and a superbly talented journalist. Meticulous reporting allows him to reconstruct events and write about them in an almost novelistic style. He used to work for The Wall Street Journal so he has an acute sense for the decision-making strategies of the rich and powerful. (His book Den of Thieves covered the insider trading scandals of the 1980s stock market, for instance. ) I haven't been able to find much written about Disneywar yet, but based on the title and Stewart's previous work, I expect it will be about Disney's recent travails in the business world, Roy Disney's split from the company, and the sad decline of the Disney parks.
I will definitely buy this book as soon as it comes out. I can't wait to read it.

UPDATE, 11/19/2004: Apparently publication of Disneywar has been delayed until March 2005. I will have to wait a little longer for it than I thought.

Hem

I love Ernest Hemingway, and his novel The Sun Also Rises is one of my favorites. In the original manuscript, he referred to the narrator Jake Barnes as "Hem."
I mention this because I bought a new album I like a lot, by a band called Hem. It's kind of vintage country music, very mellow, and the lady singer has an ethereal, sweet voice.
I think Hem got their name from Papa Hem. At least, I hope they did, because that would be really, really cool.

October magic

I have always liked the month of October. My birthday is in October, and my favorite holiday, Halloween, is also in October. I love the way the weather turns cool in October, and I love the magical, mysterious atmosphere created by big orange moons, carved pumpkins and pointed witches' hats.
But a few years ago, I got into baseball. And if you are into baseball, October is the most exciting, magical month of all. The playoffs and the World Series take place in October. It happens every year, just another part of baseball's almost intrinsic connection to the seasons.
Now we are in the midst of October baseball, and the lovable, scruffy Red Sox are going up against the formidable, privileged Yankees. Oh the human drama of it all!
One of my favorite journalists, Michael Lewis, author of hilarious books about the business world (Liar's Poker and The New New Thing, for instance), has written an excellent book that unravels the economics of baseball talent. The book is Moneyball. Its scope is quite remarkable: business, sports, psychology, the human form. If you are interested in such things, you must read it.
If you're just interested in watching baseball at its finest, then tune in tonight when the Red Sox play the Yankees. The winner goes to the World Series.

Literally required reading

If you had a magic wand, and could make everyone in America today read one book, what would it be?
If you conducted a poll on it, I imagine a lot of people would choose The Bible. The more politically minded might choose the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights or the Declaration of Independence. I'm sure there are some who would choose an allegorical morality tale like The Giving Tree or a universal how-to like All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. And I bet some people would pick a novel such as Grapes of Wrath. I loved Grapes of Wrath; that's one of the great American novels.
But if I had the magic wand, I'd pick something more current and policy-oriented. I would pick Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else, by David Cay Johnston. I read this book recently on a long plane trip, and it really made me mad about how the IRS and the government have virtually stopped enforcing tax collection on what Johnston calls "the political donor class." After reading this book, I concluded that a lot of people who make $500,000 or more a year are just not paying their fair share of taxes, because of either exemptions in the tax policy or lack of enforcement of existing tax law. This is particularly true of people who make most of their money through investments or deferred compensation plans.
I know the tax issue seems as dry as it can be, but if you are remotely interested in this topic, I would urge you to read this book. Johnston, a New York Times business reporter, is a good writer, and he keeps the book moving along fairly well.
Hopefully the problems this book raises will be resolved one day, and then I could pick something like Grapes of Wrath.
What book would you pick for the country's required reading?

Best places to read

My spouse and I are going away for a long weekend. I'm having such a good time deciding what books I'm going to bring with me on the plane.
I think I'm going to bring Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen, which is my book group's choice for this month. I think I will also bring The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larsen, about a serial killer at the World's Fair of 1893. It looks excellent, and I'm excited to read it. Larson also wrote Isaac's Storm, about one of the worst storms in U.S. history, the Galveston hurricane of 1900. (Read my recent post on Hurricane Jeanne, a wee little baby storm compared to Galveston.)
Here's my list of best places to cram in reading time, the places where I can blissfully read lots of pages without interruption:
1. On planes. The gentle thrum of the engines help me concentrate.
2. At the car dealership when I get my car worked on. They always take forever. I just have to find a quiet corner away from the piped-in music.
3. At the doctor's office, especially if the doctor is running late. And, I bring my book with me to the examination room because they always make you wait there, too.

What's your favorite place to read?

The hawk

I was leaving the exercise room this morning, but the gate that leads back to my apartment was broken, so I had to turn around and go the other way. That's when I saw a hawk, not more than 10 feet away. I've seen her before in that general area -- once sitting on the playground equipment.
But never as close as she was today. She was following two cawing blue jays, probably chasing them away from her nest. (That's what makes me call her "she".) Then she stopped atop the wrought-iron gate, turning her head to look over her shoulder. She was spotted, white on brown.
It was something to see such a beautiful creature in such a mundane moment!
Florida is like that sometimes. The coastal areas are filled with wildlife trying to survive amidst suburban development.
Of course it made me think of the beautiful poem in Spoon River Anthology, "The Unknown." Here's an excerpt:

Daily I search the realms of Hades
For the soul of the hawk,
That I may offer him the friendship
Of one whom life wounded and caged.

The Washington Post on blogs, sex and feminism

One of the best newspaper stories I've read in recent weeks is "Blog Interrupted" in The Washington Post. You may have heard the story already: A young woman working as a low-level Senate aide in Washington, D.C., chronicles her sexual exploits in her blog, called Washingtonienne. The blog gets attention from a more prominent site, and all of sudden everyone in D.C. knows exactly what she's up to, and with who -- "including a married Bush administration official who met her in hotel rooms and gave her envelopes of cash," as the story puts it.
The tale strikes me as sad and almost pathetic. But April Witt, the reporter who wrote the Post story, brings a lot of introspection and seriousness to the episode. Among other things, Witt brings up a topic near and dear to my heart -- the role of feminism in 21st century America. For instance:

Feminist author Naomi Wolf ... says modern sexual conduct offers a window into what's been gained and lost in the nation's values revolution. The sexual revolution, now stripped of much of its feminist political ideology, has left legions of young women free but confused. "I think the tipping point came three or four years ago with the first generation to grow up with the Internet," Wolf says. "They were daughters of feminists. The feminist message of autonomy got filtered through a pornographized culture. The message they heard was just go for it sexually.
"What is gained is they totally reject the double standard and believe they are entitled to sexual exploration and sexual satisfaction," Wolf says. "The downside is we've raised a generation of young women -- and men -- who don't understand sexual ethics like: Don't sleep with a married man; don't sleep with a married woman; don't embarrass people with whom you had a consensual sexual relationship. They don't see sex as sacred or even very important anymore. That's been lost. Sex has been commodified and drained of its deeper meaning."

I think Wolf is getting at a crucial point here with no easy answers.

PS Let me know if the link to the Post story doesn't work. I'm not sure how long the link will remain active. That's the problem with linking to newspaper stories, the darn things expire pretty quickly. I'm hoping this link might last longer as it is one of their high-profile, feature-length stories.

Happy to be wrong

It looks like my earlier prediction about the presidential debates being boring was dead wrong. Last night's first debate between Bush and Kerry was just about as substantive and informative as I could hope for. They tussled long and hard over the issues, and Jim Lehrer did a fine job of moderating.
Nevertheless, I think Open Debates makes an important point that the debates' organizing authority should be nonpartisan and independent. I hope their argument isn't lost in the weeks to come.
But I'm glad I was wrong!