Thugrade

I'm comparing the colorful photographs of Worldwide and OG on Facebook, and the gushing coverage in the local newspaper of the Triangle's Annual Gay Pride Parade with the decision of the Serbian government to cancel the planned parade in Belgrade this weekend in the interests of the safety of shopkeepers and public safety. I don't know the whole story, but I reserve the right to reject the decision unequivocally.

September Books

The full list for 2013 is here. Cowen's book is my favorite among this month's titles, but I enjoyed the Liebling (Hat tip Master P) and will visit more of his work.

Word Freak:Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players, Stefan Fatsis

Stefan Fatsis, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and National Public Radio regular, recounts his remarkable rise through the ranks of elite Scrabble players while exploring the game's strange, potent hold over them—and him.
Scrabble might truly be called America's game. More than two million sets are sold every year and at least thirty million American homes have one. But the game's most talented competitors inhabit a sphere far removed from the masses of "living room players." Theirs is a surprisingly diverse subculture whose stars include a vitamin-popping standup comic; a former bank teller whose intestinal troubles earn him the nickname "G.I. Joel"; a burly, unemployed African American from Baltimore's inner city; the three-time national champion who plays according to Zen principles; and Fatsis himself, who we see transformed from a curious reporter to a confirmed Scrabble nut.
He begins by haunting the gritty corner of a Greenwich Village park where pickup Scrabble games can be found whenever weather permits. His curiosity soon morphs into compulsion, as he sets about memorizing thousands of obscure words and fills his evenings with solo Scrabble played on his living room floor. Before long he finds himself at tournaments socializing—and competing—with Scrabble's elite.
But this book is about more than hardcore Scrabblers, for the game yields insights into realms as disparate as linguistics, psychology, and mathematics. Word Freak extends its reach even further, pondering the light Scrabble throws on such notions as brilliance, memory, competition, failure, and hope. It is a geography of obsession that celebrates the uncanny powers locked in all of us. This edition includes a new 2013 afterword by the author.

Note: The key to being good at competitive Scrabble is knowing all the allowable words of 2-4 letters, playing strategically and finding bingos. It also seems to require a touch of madness. Enjoyable throughout, though a trifle long.

Tales from Ovid, Ted Hughes

When Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun's ground-breaking anthology After Ovid (also Faber) was published in 1995, Hughes's three contributions to the collective effort were nominated by most critics as outstanding. He had shown that rare translator's gift for providing not just an accurate account of the original, but one so thoroughly imbued with his own qualities that it was as if Latin and English poetwere somehow the same person. Tales from Ovid, which went on to win the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, continued the project of recreation with 24 passages, including the stories of Phaeton, Actaeon, Echo and Narcissus, Procne, Midas and Pyramus and Thisbe. In them, Hughes's supreme narrative and poetic skills combine to produce a book that stands, alongside his Crow and Gaudete, as an inspired addition to the myth-making of our time.

Note: Not sure that verse adds anything to my favorite stories. Perhaps the opposite. Call me a rube, but I prefer Robert Graves.

How to Write for Children: And Get Published, Louise Jordan

Huge numbers of people want to write for children, but it is notoriously difficult to find a publisher in this increasingly competitive area. This inspiring and practical guide from acknowledged expert on children's publishing, Louise Jordan, offers the very latest information on market trends and gives valuable advice on: developing your ideas, themes and style; presenting proposals and manuscripts; approaching publishers and agents; and what you need to know once your book has been accepted for publication. Children's publishing has its own set of rules and demands, but this helpful guide will show you how to make your work stand out from the crowd and appeal to commissioning editors, and, of course, your intended audience.

Note: Do it well. Know the market. Be persistent.

Ecological Imperialism:The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, Alfred Crosby.

People of European descent form the bulk of the population in most of the temperate zones of the world--North America, Australia and New Zealand. The military successes of European imperialism are easy to explain because in many cases they were achieved by using firearms against spears. Alfred Crosby, however, explains that the Europeans' displacement and replacement of the native peoples in the temperate zones was more a matter of biology than of military conquest. Now in a new edition with a new preface, Crosby revisits his classic work and again evaluates the ecological reasons for European expansion. Alfred W. Crosby is the author of the widely popular and ground-breaking books,The Measure of Reality (Cambridge, 1996), and America's Forgotten Pandemic (Cambridge, 1990). His books have received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, the Medical Writers Association Prize and been named by the Los Angeles Times as among the best books of the year. He taught at the University of Texas, Austin for over 20 years

Note: Focus on the middle part of the guns, germs and steel troika. A little dry, but useful perspective on the creation of mini-europes around the world. Less about the other part of the exchange, but the flow of germs seems to have been largely one directional.

The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox, John Freeman.

John Freeman is one of America’s pre-eminent literary critics; now in this, his first book, he presents an elegant and erudite investigation into a technology that has revolutionized the way we work, communicate, and even think.

There’s no question that email is an explosive phenomenon. The first email, developed for military use, was sent less than forty years ago; by 2011, there will be 3.2 billion users. The average corporate employee now receives upwards of 130 emails per day; by 2009 that number is expected to reach nearly 200. And the flood of messages is ceaseless: for increasing numbers of people, email means work now occupies home time as well as office hours.

Drawing extensively on the research of linguists, behavioral scientists, cultural critics, and philosophers, Freeman examines the way email is taking a mounting toll on a variety of behavior, reducing time for leisure and contemplation, despoiling subtlety and expression in language, and separating us from each other in the unending and lonely battle with the overfull inbox. He enters a plea for communication which is slower, more nuanced, and, above all, more sociable.

Note: People spend too much time informing themselves and others about unnecessary details. There is a sinister side of email that undermines personal and organizational productivity. Don't send, if possible; check only twice a day (never at the beginning or end of the day); and consider alternative media.

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, AJ Liebling.

The author shares his memories of Paris in 1926 and 1927 when he was a student there and describes French cuisine, customs, and urban life

Note: Like a cross between "A Movable Feast" and that show on Food Network where that annoying guy with the spiky hair visits diners; and I mean this as both compliment and criticism. Easy to read.

Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation, Tyler Cowen

The widening gap between rich and poor means dealing with one big, uncomfortable truth: If you’re not at the top, you’re at the bottom.

The global labor market is changing radically thanks to growth at the high end—and the low. About three quarters of the jobs created in the United States since the great recession pay only a bit more than minimum wage. Still, the United States has more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever, and we continue to mint them.

In this eye-opening book, renowned economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that phenomenon: High earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence in data analysis and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, low earners who haven’t committed to learning, to making the most of new technologies, have poor prospects. Nearly every business sector relies less and less on manual labor, and this fact is forever changing the world of work and wages. A steady, secure life somewhere in the middle—average—is over.

With The Great Stagnation, Cowen explained why median wages stagnated over the last four decades; in Average Is Over he reveals the essential nature of the new economy, identifies the best path forward for workers and entrepreneurs, and provides readers with actionable advice to make the most of the new economic landscape. It is a challenging and sober must-read but ultimately exciting, good news. In debates about our nation’s economic future, it will be impossible to ignore.

Note: Never boring predictions about the future from my favorite economics blogger: get ready for greater inequality and machine assisted living; make sure your children are comfortable with technology if you want them to succeed.

Piperade

Last Saturday, the red peppers were in, and everyone was buying sacks of them to make ajvar. When I came upon this situation 15 years ago in Skopje, I decided to buy one pepper to see what all the fuss was about, and the seller treated me with disdain: "One pepper," she sneered, taking a break from doling out orders of multiple kilograms.

My friend's father used to always ask me to tell that story when we came over to her house for dinner: he never failed to be amused by the idea of buying a single pepper.

So, mindful of this transgression, I bought half a dozen last Saturday, along with a kilo of tomatoes. Nobody said a word and I returned home with my dignity intact.

Except I forgot about them, and yesterday I found myself with an abundance of vegetables in the fridge that weren't getting any younger; so I decided to make some piperade. I had planned to serve it alonsgide some lamb chops or chicken, but the weather was so miserable yesterday that I spent the day indoors, and chose instead, to serve it over boiled potatoes. I'll do the same tonight with the leftovers, over rice or pasta, and this site has lots of other idea.

Piperade

Peel and dice six tomatoes (take off the stem, cut an X in the other side, put them in boiling water for ten seconds, and then into a bowl of ice water. When they have cooled, the skins can be easily pulled off). Heat some olive oil in a pan, and add some prosciutto, chopped. When it has crisped up, remove it with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add 2 medium onions, chopped and saute until they are translucent. Add 2 cloves of garlic, minced, 2 tbs smoked paprika, a pinch of red pepper flakes and 3 red peppers, diced. Add prosciutto, salt and tomatoes (you could use canned and no-one would notice). Simmer for ten minutes.

Change Management

At home, we don't use a lot of cash--most transactions are plastic--but we do occasionally, and the change builds up on my dresser, where Worldwide periodically dumps her numismatic detritus. Every so often I go on a change management kick to clear it off, using cash for smaller purchases. People always look at you funny when you give them exact change, as if you are putting them out by making them slot all those coins into the four different bins in the register; as a result, I never use more than four pennies, or coins totaling more than a dollar--I'm not a sociopath for crying out loud. The automatic checkouts at the supermarket are great for this, as they are one of the few machines that accept pennies, and you don't have to interact with a human. I'll sometimes go to the Harris Teeter in the middle of the night and patiently use a jar of change to pay for an order of groceries.

OK, that was a joke; I don't obsess over it. But it is a little game I can play, where I win when I have a neat stack of quarters on my dresser for the air pump at the neighborhood gas station. Thanks to modern technology I no longer need them for parking, or on I-95.

But people in the WC do obsess over change. There are 80 denars to the dollar, and bills run from 10,20,50,100,200,500,1000,2000; coins 1,2,5. Cash machines dispense 1,000s  and 2,000s (although a select few also have 500s) and if you give a cashier at the supermarket a 1,000 note for an order that totals 821 denars, she will ask you if you have 21 denars and check your wallet as you look, suspicious that you are keeping the precious change to yourself. When you don't, she will often have to check with her colleagues or the manager to find the proper bills and coins; nobody ever seems to have any small bills or coins.

The woman at my local bodega always clucks approvingly when I give her exact change. It's a little thing, but it gives me a tiny spark of good feeling. They say one of the easiest ways to increase your happiness is to make other people happy. It's not a big deal, sure, but it makes my and her life run just a little bit more smoothly; and that should be, if not celebrated, at least noted.

Underestimating The Challenge of Systems Integration

My girl, Megan Mcardle, an economics writer with an IT background, raises a few technical issues regarding the exchanges that will soon make it as easy to buy healthcare as it is to order a book on Amazon:

People tend to think that computers doing things they couldn’t do must be very smart and advanced, while computers doing things they can easily imagine -- like making a Travelocity-style website for health insurance -- must be basically pretty simple. After all, any clerk or insurance agent with the right security clearances could do basically what the exchanges were supposed to do, minus one shiny interface. So why would it take longer than three years? Startups build websites in a few months!

But as any developer will tell you, it’s more likely to be the opposite. Teaching a computer to calculate a ballistic trajectory, which is something that people have difficulty doing quickly, is pretty easy; that’s why NASA could launch the Apollo 13 missions with computers much less powerful than your laptop. But it’s really hard to teach a computer to recognize faces, which is something that you do instantly, hundreds of times a day, without thinking about it. Computers are incredibly specific -- every little thing has to be broken down for them just so. Moreover, when you’re trying to put different computers together, all those very specific instructions begin to clash. Suddenly you realize that one computer thinks that dogs are an example of “pets” and one computer thinks that dogs are an example of “animals” and how do you get them to talk about dogs without accidentally telling one computer that a crocodile is a pet?

As someone who has worked on a slew of failed integration projects over the last 25 years (with a few, small victories scattered here and there), this rings awfully familiar. I said before the election that the President deserves a chance to implement his signature piece of legislation. I hope he knows what he's doing.

Too Many Trophies

Interesting Op-ed in the paper about the problems with today's generation getting too much positive feedback and how this does not prepare them well for a future in which, as my boy Tyler Cowen points out in his new book (which I've just started), an increasing share of the pie is going to a decreasing number of people.

I've read two books on the subject that focus on children over the last couple of years, Mindset and Grit, and I recommend them both, although they are sometimes a little slow-going. I've also been following the recent back and forth about the legitimacy of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule, which I think is a little misinformed, and I think his response demonstrates what is the basic point: that talent only gets you so far, and hard work is what separates you from your similarly talented peers.

I suspect, like most things, the answer for parents is a balanced approach, along with the acknowledgment that not all kids are the same. That's thin gruel, but it's better than the extremes on either end of the spectrum.

W.H. Auden

Nice piece by Worldwide favorite Alexander McCall Smith on W.H. Auden. I was introduced to him in English 140, Introduction to Poetry, at the University of Toronto in 1987. It is no longer on the calendar, although my professor, John Reibetanz, seems to be still on the faculty. The poem was "As I Walked Out One Evening," and, looking at it this morning, I can't remember why it resonated--I would love to have a transcript of our discussion that day.

I've found him to be hit or miss, but "At the Party" is in my poetic pantheon:

Unrhymed, unrhythmical the chatter goes,
Yet no-one hears his own remarks as prose.

The full poem is here. I revisit it often.