Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans

Customer Reviews:

Laugh out loud.......2007-03-16

I read this book just recently. The material made me laugh- Due to my Management storys. I reccomend if you ever Read Dunces you must flollow up with This book.

"...the result of all our travels will be to arrive back where we started, and know it for the very first time.".......2005-10-21

Lucky Dogs hold a Zen quintessence that can only be approximated by the sobriquet "Bourbon Street Steak," and are oddly more satisfying than Café du Monde beignets and chicory coffee in invoking memories of New Orleans and her pleasures.

Are Lucky Dogs, therefore, our petite Madeleine dipped in tea? Proust's ghost will not say, for now is discretion, and these are our memories, after all.

Historian Jerry Strahan has had a very American career. He is a respected and indeed famous and authoritative scholar of military history, but like many a family man needed to provide for his brood with a higher cash flow than itinerant academic leavings would provide, and fell into managing the Lucky Dog operation through those twin hands, fate and opportunity surrounded by less appealing alternatives. Over the decades he grew into the job, and even expanded the operation to Washington, D.C., where I was a happy customer.

Strahan's academic career is only a leitmotif in "Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans" for he places the characters of the vendors he deals with and his colorful memories front and center. For those not in the know, the "Ignatius" of the title is the immortal character of John Kennedy Toole's "Confederacy of Dunces" who has a comic scene selling weenies from a push wagon that is possibly one of the greatest memorable pieces of character and action reinforcing each other in American literature. To describe this scene as classic damns it with faint praise, for it simultaneously captures the character, the city, the soul, comedy, and tragedy in a single sustained breath. It should be a tattoo, and no American high school student should be unfamiliar with it.

And the primary emphasis of "Managing Ignatius" story is that Strahan works with many who are at the margins of employability, yet have personalities that draw you. "Managing Ignatius" therefore should serve as a management science alternative textbook, for indeed Strahan's goal is to sell weenies with a volatile cast and crew. He makes many bricks with very little straw.

Yet, there is a very tender side to his memoir, for Strahan never deprecates nor condemns even the most fricative people he must motivate. Indeed, he often observes that some of his most prickly characters end up being the best and most enduring vendors, and acknowledges that in an odd way many of them have found their calling in life, just as Strahan has found his.

This is an excellent, amusing, informative book that commands attention on multiple levels, and is not simply for tourists of New Orleans or Toole fans. For the story Strahan tells here is like our own as even the soul has a journey in life. In "Managing Ignatius" Strahan tells that story and "...the result of all our travels will be to arrive back where we started, and know it for the very first time." (T.S. Eliot)

Don't be a meanie!.......2005-09-23

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this--a great companion to John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. What I enjoyed most were the vignettes of collected memories of those who've pushed the weinie carts. I've probably purchased a weinie or two from some of those very people, which reinforces my belief that everyone has a story and that some of our stories are more interesting than others. I'd much rather read anecdotes about the fallen and runaways and drunks and misfits than bios of those more fortunate, like a Donald Trump per se. What you get a sense of in reading "Managing Ignatius" is the importance of life, its simplicity, its pain, its brevity, its humor and joy. There are lots of funny, laugh-out-loud sections in this book. The only detraction is the author's tendency to stray away from the weinie cart pushers and focus on himself and his personal endeavors. These parts I found mostly uninteresting, but not enough to diminish all of what's right with this read. Highly recommended.

Dahlin', Jerry is telling it for True........2004-07-20

I grew up in New Orleans and spent a lot of time in the Quarter eating "Lucky Dogs" aka Bourbon Street Steaks. The characters are not exaggerations. From the shake down cops, to the vendors from Mars, Jerry is tellin' it for true. A visit with these characters is a great way to pass a good time.

"Ya didn't hav ta be there".......2003-11-06

You didn't have to be there, however if you were, you'll know. Now, if you have ever been in the food service industry, regardless of the establishment, you will recognize these characters and know what it is to "manage" them. This is one of very few books that I read over and over again. I relish just opening it up and reading a few paragraphs. I was joyously
surprised with this gift of a book. It is fluid, fun and more factual then you may want to know! This IS New Orleans. I know. I was born, bread, and fried there. This may be a story for "our" eyes only. I can smell the streets and feel the night. The hot, sweaty, sticky nights, and sticky shoes. I can taste the bourbon from the bottom of the cart...I can feel their pain. This is a great read. Read it before you go there,
or read it on the bus home. Moreover, pass it along. This is a great afternoon read wherever you may be. This is a long story, with a long shelf life. Like my life, so far, it just goes on and on and on......

Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy

Average customer rating:

Salacious and trivial
Warning! Obsessively good writing from a master . . .
Heavy breathing among the Paphiopedilae
I'd love an update!
Orchid Fever

Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy
Eric Hansen
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Ornamental Plants | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679451412
Release Date: 2000-02-22

Amazon.com

At first blush, the subtitle of intrepid traveler Eric Hansen's floral account might seem, well, hyperbolic. After taking this whirlwind tour of the hidden world of rare orchid collectors, the reader will find the words well chosen. Hansen invites us into a strange demimonde of intrigue and desire, at the center of which is the orchid, that shadowy and somewhat sinister parasitic oddball of the plant kingdom. Orchid raising and trading is big business. Worldwide, the retail economy in orchids adds up to some $9 billion; in the United States, wholesalers ship nearly 8.5 million plants a year, while in Holland a single nursery produces 18 million. "Several million people worldwide now grow orchids," the author notes, "and this botanical craze has already eclipsed both the nineteenth-century frenzy for orchids as well as the tulip madness that gripped the Netherlands in the seventeenth century."

With such willing customers, it's no wonder that a thriving black market now exists. To serve it, orchids are taken illegally from sensitive ecological areas in places like Thailand, Borneo, and darkest Minnesota. In scenes reminiscent of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, Hansen follows the trail of orchid smugglers, pursuing money and plants in a whodunit tale that involves botanical gardens, scholars, scientists, ordinary enthusiasts, and "plant cops"--international eco-police whose job it is to stop the traffic in rare and often endangered plants. Those vigilantes have their work cut out for them, Hansen writes, especially because some of the current laws may be misguided, causing more harm than good and equating honest breeders with botanical desperadoes. The laws are bound to fail in any event, he suggests, if only because the plant trade, like that of the drug trade, is simply too big to curtail.

Orchid enthusiasts and admirers of good journalism alike will find plenty of interest in Hansen's vivid, richly anecdotal investigation. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

A seductive journey into the obsessive, outrageous, and mesmerizing world of orchids.

From the steaming jungles of Borneo to the hallowed hallways of Kew Gardens, from the clandestine orchid nurseries of Europe to the peat bogs of northern Minnesota, here are luscious, sexy flowers, orchid smugglers, fist-fighting botanists, moths with twelve-inch-long tongues, and government officials who raid orchid nurseries with attack dogs and automatic weapons. Strange tales of insect pollinator fidelity, the orchid ice cream makers of eastern Turkey, and man-crushing killer orchids weighing half a ton are blended with stories about a wide range of gentle people whose passion in life is the creation of scented, fragile flowers.

Eric Hansen spent seven years exploring the far corners of the earth -- marveling at flowers of uncommon beauty, studying the history of the orchid trade, and grappling with the vicious, bizarre, and petty world of plant politics that sometimes makes it impossible to protect endangered species. Hansen brings to life the colorful flowers and the even more colorful people who are attracted to them, as he illuminates a funny, weird, and poignant world of horticultural passion and pathos.

Customer Reviews:

Salacious and trivial.......2007-09-28

There's probably a good book about orchids and the recondite subject of international orchid policy in "Orchid Fever." In fact, I'm sure of it. Unfortunately, Eric Hansen spoils his effort with a lubricious, snarky brew of exaggerations, sneers, dubious anecdotes and invented suggestions.

One example can stand for a multitude of sins. Hansen attends a three-day conference and trade show of orchid fanciers, trying to set up the idea that these people are wild, crazy, risk-taking guys and gals -- not far from sociopaths is the general view. His evidence: The conferees sang karaoke and after that, "What went on in the hotel rooms after dark between the orchid growers was anybody's guess."

You could write the same thing about an Amway convention. So?

The serious issue behind this unserious book is how (or if) to conserve orchids that may (or may not) be threatened by collectors, habitat destruction or whatever it is that threatens orchids.

The antagonists are, on one side, amateurs, businessmen and independent scholars; and, on the other, academics and international bureaucrats, who are accused of self-aggrandizement and appropriation. It is not an issue just with orchids or even just about plants. It comes up concerning ancient artifacts, fossils, sunken treasure, even -- in a non-material sense -- myths and legends. See my review of "A Dinosaur Named Sue" for an example with fossils.

A friend of mine who runs an orchid nursery confirms the difficulty. Under a treaty called CITES that purports to protect endangered species, he must prove that his commercial stock (450 species) does not derive from wild-collected plants. Of course, ultimately, any orchid derives from such stock, but CITES has rules. My friend got much of his stock from his teacher, now dead. How can he prove where the teacher obtained it?

My friend could have his business shut down. In the worst instance, he could be shut up in a prison. It has happened to others.

"Orchid Fever" has obtained wide publicity and wide sales. It was aimed at the thoughtless, the sensationalistic and the lascivious, and there are plenty of those people out there. It's sad that probably the most-read book about orchids turns out to be a piece of low-rent crap.

Warning! Obsessively good writing from a master . . ........2007-08-10

Having no interest in orchids whatsoever, I picked up "Orchid Fever" because I have been smitten with Eric Hansen's lucied and entertaining adventure writings (see previous reviews). This book is well researched and very well salted with Hansen's devastating wit and easygoing demeanor.

We are introduced to the orchid universe via the growers, scientists, show judges, "orchid police", and so-called smugglers who turn out to be not so.

Hansen once more captivates with these loosely linked stories of orchid obsessed people and the absurdities of the power brokers so bent on enforcing horticultural regulations that end up ensnaring the wrong people.

"Orchid Fever" is part expose, part travelogue, part literary journalism, and part horticultural history. This really is investigative writing at its very best, at turns tantalizing and educational. This man has a seriously clever wit which keeps the narrative light and fluid.

Hansen's abilities as a writer are superb: he knows his craft as well as any contemporary non-fiction writer. The seven years of creating this wonderfully woven bunch of stories is very much appreciated. From the first sentence, your attention is requisitioned and not released until the last - the mark of a Big League writer I think.

As always with Eric Hansen, my highest kudos.

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

Heavy breathing among the Paphiopedilae.......2007-06-10

"I thumbed through the pages ... Immediately I was confronted with centerfolds showing ... moistened, hot-pink lips that pouted in the direction of tautly curved shafts and heavily veined pouches." - from "Bodice Ripper", a chapter in ORCHID FEVER

A porn mag featuring your favorite XXX-rated stars? Um, no. An orchid catalogue, actually, as described by author Eric Hansen in his narrative exploration of the science, business, hobby, and collecting of orchids, ORCHID FEVER. Who knew flower breeding could be so titillating, or so lucrative? Indeed, as of the turn of the last century, orchids generated about $9 billion of worldwide business annually.

With so much money to be made, it's no surprise that the collection of wild orchids and their transport across national boundaries is so fiercely regulated, ostensibly to protect orchid populations in their natural habitats. But, of course, the cynical will recognize that it's all about the fees generated by the obligatory export licenses and certificates. Indeed, much of ORCHID FEVER is about the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), headquartered in Geneva, and its almost Gestapo-like enforcement powers, which, as Eric tells the story, have done virtually nothing to protect free-range orchids and have only increased their demand and value vis-a-vis breeders, hobbyists, and collectors.

Hansen illustrates his subject by traveling the world from California to Borneo to Minnesota to Britain to Germany to Turkey to France to New York and to Holland to interview the field's "horticultural extremists, pioneers, lone rangers, fantasy merchants, flower show flim-flam people, paid informers, rapacious nurserymen, international plant smugglers, pollen thieves, eccentric botanists, corrupt orchid judges, legendary growers, misfits, groupies, and camp followers". Though, as the author states, normal, balanced people are drawn to orchids, he found such only infrequently.

"Behind the cash register (of a neighborhood grocery store) sat a long shelf filled with mass-produced Phalaenopsis hybrids, selling for $19.95; every time I saw them I thought about the California orchid grower who shot and killed his partner and then mutilated the corpse because they couldn't agree on how to breed and sell these supermarket-quality house plants."

Perhaps the most engaging chapter, especially if you like frozen desserts, is "The Fox Testicle Ice Cream", in which Eric journeys to Maras, Turkey, the home of orchid ice cream, salepi dondurma, made from the tubers of the flower genus Orchis. Indeed, the chapter is so informative and interesting that a large segment of it was apparently plagiarized on a website I discovered sponsored by a Turkish-American business alliance. (After I communicated this fact to the author, he replied that it wasn't the first or last time such has happened, and he would pursue getting credit for the entry.)

When I began dating as a teenager in the late sixties, if I really wanted to impress the girl I'd buy a stalk of 5-6 orchids for 3 bucks from an elderly next-door neighbor that grew them. I don't recall that the expenditure ever helped me get lucky, but they sure were impressive in the giving. Nowadays, try buying just one on Mother's Day for less than an hour's pay. After reading Hansen's excellent volume, I better understand the orchid's mystique.

I'd love an update!.......2007-04-08

I read this with jaw agape most of the time. The main reason for this embarrassing state of affairs was the CITES ridiculousness that crops up again and again. Can people in positions of power REALLY be so stupid? Well, yep, they can, sadly enough for the thousands of plants that are destroyed in the name of "development," illegal to save by conservationists.
But the people Hansen meets are equally worthy of a jaw drop. Their passion--there's truly no other word, unless it is obsession--for their orchids simply astounded me. Wonderfully humorous, enlightening reading.
Now that I've read it nearly a decade after many of the encounters described, I am longing for an update. What's become of the CITES laws? Has common sense prevailed? What about the individual scientists and growers? Are they still as enthralled with their plants? What a terrific book, to leave me hungering for so much more!

Orchid Fever.......2007-01-05

Easy reading,interesting,and educational.After reading Orchid Fever,I read a comment in Orchids at Home,and having read Orchid Fever,I realized that ugly,just like beauty,is in the eye of the beholder.

Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter

Average customer rating:

Brainless Ann Coulter
A Lazy, Dreadful Book
Poor polemic
Tells it like it is
seriously!! this book is a breath of fresh air!

Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter
Joe Maguire
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0061243507
Release Date: 2006-10-10

Book Description

Nobody is more controversial in American culture and politics right now than Ann Coulter. A self–proclaimed "polemicist" who "likes to stir up the pot," Ann Coulter has infuriated both the left and Godless, she's taken her inflammatory approach to politics to a whole new level, offending just about everyone, from Christian Democrats to African Americans to 9/11 widows.

In BRAINLESS, journalist Joe Maguire takes an incisive look at Coulter, both the private and the public personas, and takes aim at those issues at the helm of her agenda–9/11, Iraq, abortion, Christianity, the Democratic Party, and gender and race issues to name a few–and uncovers her contradictory statements, her questionable research, and her insatiable and socio–pathic need to say just about anything to stay in the spotlight.

Tackling Al Franken territory, BRAINLESS is an irreverent, witty, and engaging must–read for anyone who wants to know the real truth behind one of America's most dangerous and hated conservatives.

Customer Reviews:

Brainless Ann Coulter.......2007-10-10

Excellent book, very well written. Shows the true Ann Coulter, and she is WORSE than she appears. The book is filled with facts, and back up information, unlike the books written by Ann herself. Highly recomended reading!!

A Lazy, Dreadful Book.......2007-08-15

I was expecting a lot more from this book. But it lacks focus and organization, it's all over the place.

Seriously, it's like the author wrote the thing in a weekend. It's painfully obvious that this book was not "researched." All Maguire did was read Coulter's books, pull some quotes, then attack their verity. (The endnotes confirm this--the majority of works cited are Coulter's own books, with little other source material.)

Maguire may be a decent journalist, but denunciating off the top of his head is no substitute for empirical research. You can't expose a lie (or lunacy) without citing the truth. Has Coulter said ostensibly loony things? Perhaps. But Maguire can't counter her assertions with facts of his own because he didn't do the legwork.

It's especially disturbing that Maguire more than once hints at Coulter being an anti-Semite. It's a dirty trick that is unsupported by facts.

Poor polemic.......2007-06-09

Despite having an easy target-Coulter says a lot of foolish things- Maguire misses the mark.. The author is as dishonest as much as Coulter is. (Bill Maher is not a liberal?) I also fail to see the similiarity between Coulter and Sam Harris (my favorite writer). Don't waste your time or money.

Tells it like it is.......2007-05-09

Reality has a liberal bias. Ann has converted more people to Democrats than any other person alive besides Jerry Falwell.

seriously!! this book is a breath of fresh air!.......2007-05-07

about time there were some books about ann coulter...the way she runs her mouth and that god-awful adam's apple spewing hateful comments...it's nice to see her get slapped for a changed!!! when is joe maguire gonna do the talk show circuit to promote this book?

The Healthy Obsession Program: Smart Weight Loss Instead of Low-Carb Lunacy

Average customer rating:

an excellant program for tackling weight management
This book lead me to the Promised Land
Chaned my daughter life!
Fantastic book!

The Healthy Obsession Program: Smart Weight Loss Instead of Low-Carb Lunacy
PhD, Daniel S. Kirschenbaum
Manufacturer: Benbella Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Nutrition | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Exercise & Fitness | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Accessories:

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 1932100717

Book Description

Seeking to dispel the myths surrounding low-carb diets, this instructional guide reveals the flaws in logic behind such eating methods while helping weight watchers develop a healthy and satisfying lifestyle. With both short- and long-term research indicating that consuming excess fat and protein increases the chance of heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer, and liver and kidney diseases, this book provides readers with an alternative weight-loss program that has a proven track record. Based on the principles of monitoring all foods eaten, watching the fat content of each meal, and exercising—no less than 10,000 steps a day—this guide allows readers to understand that the biological forces they are up against in their desire to lose weight are not necessarily their destiny.

Customer Reviews:

an excellant program for tackling weight management.......2007-07-22

I am a parent whose daughter is in the Wellspring Camp this summer and I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Kerschenbaum last weekend talk about his "healthy obsession" program. I had read all of the information online and in the enrollment package before deciding to send my child to this camp to help her begin to tackle her weight issue. I knew that the camp was based on solid scientific understanding of weight controlling. But my decision to send her was based on faith that we needed an outside intervention. However, hearing Daniel Kerschenbaum was inspiring...and reading his book has been edifying. More importantly, it is clear to me that following this program is something that we as a family can and must do, not only for my teens health, but our own. This program is based on their rendition of the KISS principle...keep it simple, scientific, and sustainable. Having the statistics on what is needed to let go of weight and seeing that it can be broken down into a doable and simple system has given me the courage and the information to tackle my own weight issue. This book is a must read for anyone with a weight concern.

This book lead me to the Promised Land.......2006-11-03

I've read all the books and tried all the diets; The Zone, Atkins, Protein Power, Sugar Busters, Eat for your Blood Type, etc. They all made sense and I followed intently and achieved significant weight loss in all of them. But none of it was permanent weight loss. This book is about a healthy lifestyle, not a diet. It is straight forward and backed by years of clinical research. By eliminating the fat in our diet, my whole family has lost weight...slowly and steadily it melts away, and I feel good every day. No bad breath or light headed feelings from the low carb luncay. I've been losing 2 lbs a week for months...this book will lead you to the promised land!

Chaned my daughter life!.......2006-09-17

Dr. Kirschenbausm book and program at Camp Wellspring has changed my daughters life. This book is the most honest, no nonsense and factual book on Healty Eating. This is one book I think should be in every physicians bookself who deals with adolescents. Any family dealing with obesity will find this research based book is the answer for making lifelong changes.

Fantastic book!.......2006-07-20

My daughter is currently in a boarding school (Academy of the Sierras) that helps teens lose substantial amounts of weight, as well as to learn a lifestyle that they will want to follow for the rest of their lives. Dr. Kirschenbaum is the Clinical Director for the school. I was fortunate to meet the author this past weekend at a Parent Workshop and to hear him speak about the program.

This book is very comprehensive and returns us to a very low fat eating approach, and to develop a "healthy obsession" for eating and exercise. From reading this book, I believe you will be inspired to take action to implement his approach. My entire family is now following the guidelines he sets forth, which are very simple. I know that it's easier for us to follow his guidelines because he has explained the program, via this book, in a way that is easy for us to understand.

His writing style is much like his speaking style....low key, empathetic, solid, factual and with some humor thrown in. You can tell he absolutely is an expert on the subject, yet the way he presents the material is not overwhelming, nor overly scientific.

I also recommend that if you are trying to find a way to solve a friend or loved one's obesity issue, that before you give up and go the way of gastric-bypass, etc, that you read this book and check out the school's web site. [...] I am SO grateful to have found this program for my daughter, and if you read this book, you may be able to truly help yourself or someone you care about.

Average customer rating:

The Misunderstood Search for a Perfect Language
Why we should stay on the Eco high-horse
Caveat Emptor
Food for thought
Brilliant thinking

Serendipities: Language and Lunacy
Umberto Eco
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Italian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Logic & Language | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Communication | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Linguistics | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0156007517

Amazon.com

The multitalented Umberto Eco--novelist, critic, and literary theorist--turns his attention to the history of linguistics. In linguistics, as in the other sciences, Eco explains, there are serendipities: "Even the most lunatic experiments can produce strange side effects, stimulating research that proves perhaps less amusing but scientifically more serious." In his earlier book The Search for the Perfect Language, for example, he discussed the project of discovering the language spoken before the collapse of the Tower of Babel. Although misconceived, the project by chance led to advances in mathematical logic, artificial intelligence, and even world peace--the goal of artificial languages like Esperanto and the unfortunately named Volapük. In the five essays in Serendipities, Eco explores some related serendipitous episodes in the history of linguistics; as always, his characteristic blend of playfulness and erudition is bound to be irresistible to any lover of language.

The first essay, "The Force of Falsity," discusses false documents with momentous repercussions, such as the letter of Prester John, which encouraged European explorers and conquerors to seek its supposed author, the Christian ruler of a distant and fantastically wealthy land. In the second essay, Eco considers Dante's relation to the idea of the perfect language. The third essay discusses early misinterpretations of Egyptian, Chinese, and Mexican ideograms. The Jesuit savant Athanasius Kircher, for example, devoted page upon page to mystical interpretations of a hieroglyph that later turned out to represent nothing more profound than the Greek letter lambda. The remaining two essays are devoted to single authors: "The Language of the Austral Land" concerns Gabriel de Foigny's instructive parody of contemporary attempts to devise the perfect language, while "The Linguistics of Joseph de Maistre" endeavors, with indifferent success, to make sense of the counterrevolutionary Savoyard's musings on the nature of language. --Glenn Branch

Book Description

Serendipities is a careful unraveling of the fabulous and the false, a brilliant exposition of how unanticipated truths often spring from false ideas. From Leibniz's belief that the I Ching illustrated the principles of calculus to Marco Polo's mistaking a rhinoceros for a unicorn, Umberto Eco offers a dazzling tour of intellectual history, illuminating the ways in which we project the familiar onto the strange to make sense of the world. Uncovering layers of mistakes that have shaped human history, Eco offers with wit and clarity such instances as Columbus's voyage to the New World, the fictions that grew around the Rosicrucians and Knights Templar, and the linguistic endeavors to recreate the language of Babel, to show how serendipities can evolve out of mistakes. With erudition, anecdotes, and scholarly rigor, this new collection of essays is sure to entertain and enlighten any reader with a passion for the curious history of languages and ideas.

Download Description

Unlocking the riddles of history, Eco explores the "linguistics of the lunatic", stories told by scholars, scientists, poets, fanatics, and ordinary people in order to make sense of the world. The bewildering anecdotes and scholarly rigor entertain readers with a passion for the curious history of languages.

Customer Reviews:

The Misunderstood Search for a Perfect Language.......2006-06-15

If you like Eco's nonfiction musings on semiotics, history, literature and philosophy you will love this wild ride.

The first chapter details some instances in history when false beliefs have resulted in benefits to society, provided some impetus to discovery or exploration, helped advance our understanding or correct some other misunderstanding. Examples include the Ptolemaic system, the notion of the flat Earth, the Donation of Constantine and the letter of Prester John, the Rosicrucians and the Protocols of Zion.

The second chapter addresses the ideal of a perfect language. Dante's Divine Comedy leads off. The Tower of Babel myth leads to a discussion on why Dante chose to write in vernacular. There is mention of radical Aristotelianism of the 14th century in Paris and the Modistae grammarians, including Boethius of Dacia. Then the Kabbalah, Abraham Abulafia and the Torah, the Tetragrammaton and the yod of YHWH. (Each letter represents a code for a whole name.)

The third chapter extends the idea of a perfect or constructed language and includes the idea presented in the first chapter of serendipitous misunderstandigs or misconceptions. People are said to react to meetings with new cultures in three ways, conquest, pillage or exchange. People base their interpretations on their own background books, their cultural frames.

Marco Polo in the Orient is given as an example of someone interpreting a new culture through the lens of his own. He apparently identified a rhinoceros as a unicorn, because he was firmly convinced that unicorns existed. Egyptian hieroglyphs are another example of how one culture applies its own cultural bias on a new discovery. Athanasius Kircher is cited as an example of another credulous explorer, who, although his conjectures were all false regarding the translations, provided a useful service in reproducing the originals so lovingly, that later scholars were able to discover some true meanings hidden within. Again, serendipitous misunderstanding. Francis Bacon and John Wilkins also appear in the search for a real character. Next we address the early study of the chinese ideograms and then Diego de Landa and the Maya hieroglyphs. The accident that the Maya writing were deemed early to be either heretical, diaboloical, or meaningless lead to their wholesale destruction. Yet Chinese and Egyptian were somehow deemed learned, correct or mysterious and worthy of preservation and study. The unexpected connection between Leibnitz, Boolean algebra and the I Ching was presented. Hermes Trismegistus ends the chapter.

Chapter four is a whirlwind of references; Dante, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Ramon Lull, Francis Bacon, Delgarno, Wilkins and Lodgwick, Kircher again, and particularly the Austral language of de Foigny, or rather a novel featuring a consturcted language. The arbitrary nature of assigning catagories, touching on Descartes, Leibnitz, d'Alembert, and Borges.

I would also recommend Six Walks in the Fictional Woods by Eco.

Why we should stay on the Eco high-horse.......2004-04-27

I have to confess that I haven't read this book as of yet. In fact I pretty much know exactly what his essays are going to conclude with, given the fact that I've read and am well acquainted with both his academic works, as well as his novels, satire etc. and also those elements he uses in his works which require a polymathic worldview in order to even appreciate some of their subtlety (e.g. Why was William of Baskerville in "The Name of the Rose" a "nominalist" or why is the title of "Foucault Pendulum" a reference to the French Deconstuctionist Michel Foucault and not the physicist, or why is the monk at the end of "The Island of the Day Before" not an illusion at all or ..."
I'm purchasing the book "sight unseen" and given that it's Eco he's getting five stars immediately.
As for my reasons in writing this review it's pretty much revealed by my title. As for answers to to my examples; I've listed them below:

"The Name of the Rose":William of Baskerville is a nominalist because he's a member of that philosophical school best represented by William of Oakham(Occam's Razor). That school of thought, arose as a result of conflicts between certain excesses of the Scholastics. Nominalism is considered to be one of the germinal thoughts which led to the development of the "Scientific Method"

"Foucault's Pendulum": The complete subtext of this book includes the underlying theme of "conspiracy theory." The reason that's important is that Eco believes one of those things which give rise to "conspiracy theories" is "unlimited-semiosis". Eco faults Michel Foucault and his excesses such as is embodied in "deconstructionalism" as an example of one of the dangers of "unlimited semiosis."

"The Island of the Day Before." The mad monk isn't an illusion. It's actually the protaganist whose not just a buffoon, but has actually gone mad(of course he's not an illusion either). The mad monk embraces Tycho Brahe's cosmology of the solar system. Unless one understands the "history of science" in this particular historic milieu, or the reasons why Tycho Brahe came up with his cosmology(which seems truly bizarre to the modern mind) you can't discern whether the monk is real or not. Hint: The monk embraced Aristotelian Physics. Tycho Brahe's cosmology resolved the contradiction which existed between that and Galileo's observations. One must remember this was prior to Isaac Newton's "Principia" and before these issues had been resolved!

Caveat Emptor.......2003-08-10

Please note: This book is approximately 75% paraphrased from Eco's "The Search for the Perfect Language," which contains a more thorough treatment of the material that the two books share. The material that is new in this book is interesting, making the read worthwhile for the dedicated reader who has already enjoyed "The Search..". For the casual reader, "Serendipities" is much shorter and more accessible than "The Search for the Perfect Language", making it a suitable alternative or possibly an introduction to the longer text. However, if you take offense at paying to read the same information twice, simply do not purchase both books. Enjoy!

Food for thought.......2003-01-10

Do you know what Christopher Columbus was trying to prove with his historic ocean voyage, and why the church elders insisted it couldn't be done? Eco asks this question in the first essay of this book, "The Force of Falsity", and you may be surprised by the answer. Throughout, Eco gives you that delightful taste of history that he's known for, while asking provocative questions about the philosophy of language and even the nature and value of truth itself.

Language is definitely the focus of this book, but each essay is more of an examination than a thesis, and the material is not as heavy as Eco's essays about language often are. On the other hand it is not as light and playful as, for example, "Misreadings" (also a worthy read). It's a casual, engaging read with some substance to it, and well worth reading if you like to think.

Brilliant thinking.......2002-06-27

Serendipites is a collection of five essays where Eco is debating questions that arose from his preceding text - The search for the Perfect Language. His style here is to debate several intrinsic problems in history that are tied to language and how human reaction to them has shaped our thinking. The essays neither seek to advise or educate, only to debate without answer, other than to nudge the reader towards areas that are yet open to answers and you leave the five with a multitude of thoughts, conjectures.
The first essay - The Force of Falsity - gives rise to that scholarly need to provide polarity. Eco states that if there be a force of Truth, then surely, there must be an opposite force. He acknowledges the danger for understanding of falsity requires a kernel of truth to exist and that the real discourse is, rather, to prove that which claims authenticity, is in reality, that. The essay provides many canonical examples of where a belief which is incorrect - such as Ptolemy, Columbus, the Donation of Constantine and others - has led to a truth. Simply put, experience and thus knowledge, is often only obtained by theorizing and then practical trial and error. The driving force is merely proof of curiosity. Eco proves that serendipity is perhaps a separate force in itself but it is no great surprise because, without absolute knowledge, enlightenment must follow a path of conjecture and proof.
The second essay - Languages in Paradise - of the five has the greatest capacity for disagreement. Eco opens by stating that Adam was the Nomothete yet claims that his use of the name Eve "is evident that we are dealing with names that are not arbitrary". This effectively contradicts the concept that Adam was nomothete, as a name-giver ascribes name first and meaning is a resultant. Either Adam was nomothete or, if he was not, then the names he gave were intrinsically correct. They cannot be both. A further question arose in that perhaps we are newly attempting to reach a primal language rather than return to one - to create, if you wish, a nomothete when we have a single universal language. There is a further problem with Eco's usage of Dante's statement that: "only a man is able to speak". You only have to point to modern studies of Dolphins to realise that speech in whatever form communication may take, is not unique to man. Indeed, communication is not limited to the oral sense, but also encompasses the other four senses, at the very least. The bulk of the essay is given over to Dante's attempt to take the vernacular and compose the perfect language but there is some intense debate over his use of four words and variants thereof which fundamentally alter the meaning of his philosophy. You could argue that if Dante's meaning is so obscure then he can hardly be using a perfect language. Eco proceeds to analyse Dante's search to create the perfect language, to become a linguistic Adam. He comments on Dante's apparent reversal of theory of the perfection of Hebrew by Adam and his potential connections to Abulufia who espoused that each letter already possessed meaning.
The third essay - From Marco Polo to Leibiniz - speaks of the five possiblities resulting from cultural meetings, though the predominant would seem to be acculturation and uses Marco Polo to demonstrate that naming conventions are based on a cognitive understanding. He briefly touches on the development of phonograms (hieroglyphs the example - though there are more detailed books out there on the matter) and proceeds to the reconciliation of the antiquity of Chinese language with that of Hebrew, discussing at length Kirscher's work on such a reconciliation. Liebniz's later efforts on searching for such a utopian language highlights, according to Eco, where understanding attempts to fit the unknown to a pre-guessed condition. It is searching for similarities with the known, rather than researching the differences.
The fourth essay - The Language of the Austral Land - begins by examining how we have tried to find the perfect language and how we have developed our existing. The usual theory was that experience dictated language. Then this was reversed to suggest that language dictated our experiences which does tie in with the concept of Adam as nomothete. Eco spends considerable time contemplating the Foigny Austral land utopia whose communication is designed to provide philosophers as everything is based on the elements. There is a very detailed technical discussion on Foigny and Lull's and Wilkin's additions and development of such a priori philosophical language and commentary on Descartes' criticisms of it. Ultimately, we see that the attempt to create such perfect languages results in an understanding of how linguistic imperfection can create some our greatest literary works.
The fifth essay - The Linguistics of Joseph De Maistre - is concerned with mimologism and achieving a recognition of the decscent of language. Theories that each language is able to rectify its own inconsistences reflects back a primal source. As such Eco shows the four theses of how languages achieve this development and Maistre's conclusion that in order to be able to reason one must accept a linked network of the development of language and its associated ideals.
Serendipities is Eco at his semiotic best and, whilst he espouses it to be a footnote or appendix to `The Search for the Perfect Language', it is much more than that. Highly recommended.

Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London

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Interesting slice of London life, but Lambs' hagiography undeserved
"Lunacy replaced moral defect as an explanation for violence in extraordinary circumstances."
Mary Had A Little Lamb, and A Knife.
Fascinating Story but Unfocused and Colorless Presentation
Murder, Madness, and Devotion

Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London
Susan Tyler Hitchcock
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393057410

Book Description

After the style of The Professor and the Madman, a dramatic story set against a backdrop of literary history.

Mary Lamb—a dutiful daughter, well liked by just about everyone—killed her own mother with a knife. She spent the rest of her life in and out of madhouses, yet the crime and its aftermath opened up a life that no woman of her time or class could have expected. Free to read extensively, Lamb discovered her talent for writing. She and her brother, the essayist Charles Lamb, embarked on a literary collaboration that resulted in the famous Tales from Shakespeare. Confidante to many of Britain's Romantics including Coleridge, Godwin, and Wordsworth, Mary Lamb stood at the vibrant center of a colorful literary circle. Through a deep reading of history, letters, and literature, Susan Tyler Hitchcock brings to life an intriguing portrait of Lamb and her world. This narrative of a nearly forgotten woman becomes a tapestry of insights into creativity and madness, the changing lives of women, and the redemptive power of the written word. 32 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting slice of London life, but Lambs' hagiography undeserved.......2007-02-18

Mad Mary Lamb provides an interesting look at various aspects of British society in late-Georgian London, as well as providing the story of Mary and Charles Lamb, two writers, brother and sister, who were as devoted to each other throughout their adult lives as any two married people. The book is really about both brother and sister, discussing their lives, their relationship and their friends. Both struggled with mental illness. Charles though was much less profoundly affected by it than Mary, whose life eventually became overwhelmed by increasingly frequent psychotic episodes. Mary was 10 years older, and in the grip of her first spasm of mental illness murdered her abusive mother with a kitchen knife. Her work is discussed in brief. In truth it can't be said to be memorable, even though their "Tales from Shakespeare" for children has been in print in many languages for almost 200 years. By avoiding a more substantial discussion of their work the author does manage to avoid interfering with her attempt at hagiography. In their version of "The Merchant of Venice", devoid of its poetic context and careful parsing the play becomes simply a crude anti-semitic story (easily accessible full text online) -- with an audience of children. In perhaps Charles' most well-known work, Essays of Elia, the essay "Imperfect Sympathies" (also available online) displays his smarmy and shameless dislike of Scots, Jews and Blacks hiding behind a veneer of discriminating taste and judiciousness.

"Lunacy replaced moral defect as an explanation for violence in extraordinary circumstances.".......2006-02-13

In 1796 Mary Lamb thrust a knife into her mother's chest, in that instant breaking free of the drudgery that consumed her days, but at what cost? Sent to Fisher House, a private, quasi-affordable madhouse in Islington, Mary underwent the usual brutal and humiliating treatments dictated by science at the time, similar to those King George III was subjected to ten years before. Whether the madhouse experience damaged her creatively is still a source of discussion, but certainly she fell into line, causing no further disturbance, eventually moving into rooms of her own with the help of her younger brother, Charles Lamb. Eventually Charles and Mary Lamb devised a manner of living, what he called "double-singleness", Mary accepted into her brother's literary circle and appreciated for her sharp intelligence and intellectual curiosity. Together they co-authored three books, Tales from Shakespear (1807), Mrs. Leicester's School (1809) and Poetry for Children (1809).

Mad Mary Lamb is an extensively researched, impressive reconstruction of Mary's life on the fringes of literary society, freed by the act that sundered her from family obligations beyond the society of her brother. London was teeming with literary genius, the country infused with political uncertainty and a rapidly changing world where ideas were exchanged in lively debate in salons all over the city. Most women were hidden behind society's restraints, great literary achievements solely the purview of the male gender. While Charles moved in and out of his own creative forays, Mary nurtured seeds of her own writing. Her contribution to Tales of Shakespear was certainly equal to her brother's, a challenging task in any case. Mary's ability to empathize enabled her to step inside the identities of others: "It was her deep and sympathetic feeling, coupled with her intellect, that brought her admiration from men of such high standards as Coleridge."

What Mad Mary Lamb points out most succinctly is the blossoming of her writing life after the tragic event of the murder. Her creativity stifled by a spinster's role in society that relegated her to little more than a domestic servant, albeit to family, the murder offered Mary a unique opportunity she might otherwise not have known. Never audacious or brave enough to tackle the more dangerous boundaries, Mary Lamb transgressed just enough to participate in a lively literary life, at the side of her prolific brother, Charles Lamb, who was also an accomplished essayist. Yet her life after the death of her mother and interment in the mental hospital was far more than the dreary spinsterhood that would have been her fare had she not committed the crime. Hitchcock's attention to detail is extraordinary and extensive, with copious notes, bibliography and index, Mary Lamb brought to life on these pages, her crime, tentative reach toward life and the fulfilling world of writing afforded by a violent transgression against society's most basic tenant. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

Mary Had A Little Lamb, and A Knife........2005-07-25

This is an example of the Nineteenth Century literary imagination coupled with the new style of writing 'history' which doesn't have to stick with the facts but can create a few for entertainment effects. Mrs. Hitchcock used letters to show the human Mary Lamb. She suffered a madness similar to Mary Lincoln. Only through the intervention on the part of her brother who helped her to write TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE, she was not confined to a mental institution for the long years of her life. It was the literary redemption and the 'power of the written word' which save her sanity and her life.

It is the compelling story of the English Lizzie Borden. If her brother had not been the famous Charles Lamb, we would never have known about this tragic life and death and the circumstances which compelled her to kill her own mother with a big knife in 1796. Lizzie, on the other hand, used an ax to chop her father to death because of a supposed indiscretion (his or hers?) and a nasty step-mother. Perhaps he had it coming, to sequester an old-maid daughter to watch him faun over and fondle that woman in her mother's house.

You don't have to be in the throes of a mental illness to kill someone. There is a popular song called 'Killing Me Softly With His Song.' There are numerous incidences in ballads and folk tales about murders due to unrequited love and perceived slights. Even extensive and unwarranted criticism can induce the killing instinct of self-preservation.

I'm not saying that any of these caused her to kill her mother. She alone knew the deep reason for such drastic actions. Sometimes, people are just driven too far and their minds 'snap.' It is a type of temporary madness due to circumstances; it is a compulsion beyond their control. When the young boys in Chicago killed a neighbor boy as explained in the book COMPULSION and a more recent killing of a partly-autistic boy by two neighbor boys happened, no one really knows what makes children kill children. Kids are mean until they are taught by the adults in their families that you cannot always act on your wants and desires of the moment.

Mary would have surely lost her mind except for the loving care of her brother and his literary friends. Charles died in 1835 at the age of sixty, and she lived to be past eighty. They'd lived a sheltered life prior to a few years before the murder. The move may have brought on Mary's inclinations to hit back.

Photographs of the luminaries of that time and some drawings enhance the narrative. It is interesting, but not unusual.

Fascinating Story but Unfocused and Colorless Presentation .......2005-04-26

1. The subject of this book is great!
2. The writing style is a bit wobbly at times.
3. The author jumps around and discusses way too many famous literary figures who have little or nothing to do with Mary Lamb's personal triumphs and failures.
4. Very little is actually told about Mary Lamb, who is supposed to be the featured character of this story!
5. The author inserts a lot of modernistic idealogy that would have been unknown to English men and women in 1795.
6. Gives a quick summary of a very complex woman.
7. Gives an even quicker summary of a very changing, difficult, and dramatic period of English history.

Murder, Madness, and Devotion.......2005-04-14

This is the story of the lives of Charles and Mary Lamb, a brother and sister who heretofore I knew primarily as the authors of a series of children's stories adapted from Shakespeare.

The full history of the Lamb siblings is much more complicated. Mary was a repressed and overworked daughter who suffered from some unidentified mental illness which, one day without warning, caused her to murder her mother. After spending several months in a madhouse, she was placed under the guardianship of her younger brother Charles, who looked after her the rest of his life through numerous committals to various institutions and several moves to different homes in London and its environs. Together and separately the Lamb siblings were responsible for many essays, stories, and other publications which established them as leading literary lights.

Besides this tale of fraternal devotion, this book also provides a good depiction of life in London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries among the Lambs' literary milieu.

Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy

Average customer rating:

Sometimes When Reading these stories, I Felt I was on the Expeditions Myself
Arctic and African explorations
Bureaucrat Barrow, his ideas and desperate explorers.
An excellent read
Accomplished Little But What a Time!

Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy
Fergus Fleming
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0802137946

Book Description

Barrow's Boys is a spellbinding account of perilous journeys to uncharted areas under the most challenging conditions. Fergus Fleming captures the passion for exploration that led a band of men into situations that would humble today's bravest adventurers.

After the Napoleonic wars, John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, launched the most ambitious exploration program the world has ever seen. For the next thirty years, his teams of elite naval officers went on missions to fill the blanks that littered the atlases of the day. From the first disastrous trip down the Congo, Barrow maintained his resolve in the face of continuous catastrophes. His explorers often died of sickness or at the hands of unfriendly natives. They struggled under budgets that forced them to resort to pulling enormous ships across floating ice fields; to eating mice, or their own shoes; and even to horrifying acts of cannibalism. While many of the journeys failed, Barrow and his men ultimately opened Africa to the world, discovered Antarctica, and pried apart the mandibles of the Arctic. Many of the missions are considered the greatest in history, but have never before been collected into one volume that captures the full sweep of Barrow's program.

Customer Reviews:

Sometimes When Reading these stories, I Felt I was on the Expeditions Myself.......2007-10-03

For those of you wondering about the title to this review, yes, that was Sarcasm. Having read Fleming's "Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration", I would recommend skipping this tome and reading that one instead. Many of the same people are covered in both books, but Fleming's talent is much better presented in 'Off the Map'.

I'm not totally sure how the stories in 'Barrow's Boys' disappointed me in that they suffered from "Michneritis". This is a virus that effects the writings of certain historians/academics and the like. They feel that they must include in their writings every piece of information that they have accumulated in preparing to write their book. Having spent so much time close to the info, they have lost the ability to exorcise any piece of data, not being able to tell the diamonds from the coal.

Putting all this aside, and keeping in mind that this was Fleming's first true stab at a mass market history, he has done a fine job. (Just wish he had left of some of the torturous descriptions of what people took along or how they managed to bring it back in written form for posterity.) He has written about both the sublime and inarticulate, not to mention the obstinate and insane. It's an engrossing story, just a little too gross.

Arctic and African explorations.......2007-08-30

A great book. All about the Arctic voyages in search of the North-West Passage and the interior African explorations mainly in search of the fabled town of Timbuctoo and the course of the Niger River. All of these adventures were conducted while John Barrow was Secretary to the British Admiralty, and thus under his watch. Most of the explorations were unproductive for the most part, though success was finally achieved for all endeavors. In the Arctic Fleming recounts the Ross, Parry, and of course, the John Franklin disaster (along with the numerous follow-up search expeditions for Franklin) [1818-1860]; in Africa he relates the Denham, Laing, Clapperton, and Lander explorations [1822-1831]. The hardships and privations endured by all involved often seem beyond belief. Fleming is an interesting writer and is able to capture the most intriguing details of each expedition as well as the personalities of their leaders, which are often pretty eccentric. The petty feuds among explorers (and Barrow) are also aired. Despite its 400+ page length, the book was hard to put down. Fascinating.

Bureaucrat Barrow, his ideas and desperate explorers........2005-03-13

It is amazing and fascinating book. Length to witch desperate explorers would accept years of being exposed to dangerous and deadly conditions of Arctic and Africa is unbelievable. Just to get recognition, sinecure or promotion, these brave people risked their lives and actually begged government and influential British societies for being sent to most climatically unpleasant, unfriendly and ramote places on Earth. All this to open new trading routes for England's riches and help them to get even richer in the future.
Explorers were truly a strange breed of human beings and Fleming presents them in an extraordinary fashion. Enclosed maps could be better though.

An excellent read.......2004-12-22

Barrow's Boys is an account of the British exploring efforts of the known (and unknown) world of the first half of the 19th Century. Spearheaded by Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty, the British Navy sent out a number of ships to diverse areas of the globe. Notably Fleming does not focus solely on the Arctic explorative efforts for which Barrow is most well known. Fleming argues that Barrow could well be considered the father of Global exploration. British explorers penetrated the frozen wastes of the Arctic, and Antarctic, as well as the African interior, all in the name of Science and Knowledge.

Fergus Fleming is a particular favorite of mine, since I picked up his book "90 degrees North" a couple of years ago. He has a particular knack for drawing fine textual character sketches of the individuals whose tales he tells. Barrow's Boys is no exception. Fleming relates with ease the characters and adventures (and tragedies) of John and James Ross, of Parry, Back, Richardson, and the doomed Sir John Franklin.

Lesser known names in the annals of British exploration are not neglected: Lyon and Ritchie's mission to find the source of the Congo via the Sahara is discussed, as is James Tuckey, on which the book first begins it's exploration narrative after having introduced Sir John Barrow in the first chapter. The stubborness and arrogance often found in Victorian Englishmen that often rendered them inflexible to changes in their environment- for example the wearing a heavy woollen navy uniform in the suffocating heat of Africa- is well portrayed by Fleming.

Barrow's Boys covers the period between 1816 (Tuckey sails to the Congo) to 1859 (the efforts to locate the missing Franklin exidition). A neat touch is the epilogue, in which Fleming relates briefly the lives of the British explorers after they had their moment in the sun. Barrow's Boys is authorative, but by no means academic, as it is a very easy read. Recommended for those with an interest in exploration, particularly from the viewpoint of the British.

Accomplished Little But What a Time!.......2004-11-19

Fergus Fleming does another great job at painting a picture of heroic adventure and daring discoveries that filled in some bland spots on the map in the early eighteenght century but achieved little of scientific or economic valure at the cost of a great many lives. Barrow's Boys is not truly a biography of Sir John Barrow but a look at all the explorations he launched during his tenure as Second Secretary to the British Admiralty. All the greats are here from William Edward Parry to James and John Ross, from John Rae to Lady Jane Franlin and John Franklin. The destinations range from Africa to the Arctic with shorter excursions to the Antarctic and Australia. It is a thrilling ride with much foolhardiness, some bravery, and a spot of cannibalism or two. A wonderful read.

Average customer rating:

A deftly amusing celebration of a widely beloved hobby and the people who embrace it
Gardeners: Their Lunacy Revealed
Laughing through the pages
You'll Never See The Flower Show The Same Way Again
Very Funny

Garden Lunacy: A Growing Concern
Art Wolk
Manufacturer: AAB Book Publishing LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Essays | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul, 101 Stories to Sow Seeds of Love, Hope and Laughter (Chicken Soup for the Soul)

ASIN: 0972973036
Release Date: 2005-01-01

Book Description

Garden Lunacy: A Growing Concern is a dead-on, laugh-out-loud look at the world of gardening, especially the world between each gardener's ears. The author pokes fun at the way they think, their odd habits, skewed view of the universe, and their inevitable confrontations with what the author calls, the "other human sub-species," namely, non-gardeners. In a continuous stream of colorful scenes, you'll be taken into a world inhabited by gardeners of all levels, from non-gardening "gardeners" to eccentric, covetous, and compulsive gardeners.

Most of all, you'll burst out laughing as Art Wolk shares his views on horticulture and describes his own oddball behavior as an award-winning writer, gardener, lecturer, photographer, and flower show exhibitor. From his vantage point as a lifelong gardener and horticultural voyeur, he gives gardeners an unforgettably accurate look at their domain.

Garden Lunacy is the perfect gift for gardeners of all levels of experience and looniness.

Customer Reviews:

A deftly amusing celebration of a widely beloved hobby and the people who embrace it.......2005-12-09

Garden Lunacy: A Growing Concern is an utterly irreverent gardening book. Not intended as an instructional about raising plants or gardens (though the astute reader will acquire many tips on what not to do!), Garden Lunacy offers sharp-tongued wit and humor about the unique manner in which gardeners see the universe: plants first, humans last. Eccentric, covetous, even compulsive gardener traits are explored with a wink and a smile, sure to sound a sympathetic chuckle in plant lovers everywhere. A deftly amusing celebration of a widely beloved hobby and the people who embrace it.

Gardeners: Their Lunacy Revealed.......2005-09-05

As a non-gardener who hates plants (all they do is give me allergic reactions!) and has no interest in gardening, I was as eager to read this book as most youngsters are to eat their vegetables. But I gave it a try, and what a pleasant surprise!
The author, a reknowned horticulturist who has won many awards for his gardening talents, demonstrates an uncanny ability to accurately depict the neuroses of gardeners as seen through the eyes of non-gardeners like myself. Wolk's stories about his frantic escapades while competing at the Philadelphia Flower Show, his battles with the local animal life threatening his plants, and his obsessive yearning to build compost piles had both me and my non-gardening wife laughing out loud.
What I thought would be a laborious book to read turned out to be a real page-turner. This was a very entertaining, fun book.

Laughing through the pages.......2005-04-12

It's been a long time since a book made me laugh out loud and this book does it over and over again. I found myself reading it aloud to my husband so that he would understand why I was giggling while reading a book on gardening. You don't have to even like plants to love this book. Art Wolk is the Dave Barry of the garden.

You'll Never See The Flower Show The Same Way Again.......2005-02-28

I've been attending the Philadelphia Flower Show for many years. From this day on, after finishing Garden Lunacy, I'll see the exhibits through an entirely different set of eyes. The way Art Wolk describes the frenzied pace and crazy antics associated with entering pots for judging in the flower show is hilarious.

Very Funny.......2005-01-30

Garden Lunacy is not a typical gardening book. The book is less about the plants, and more about the gardener, or as Art Wolk puts it 'the thing at the wooden end of the shovel'.

The name Art Wolk is perhaps familiar to many people, specifically those who attend the Philadelphia Flower Show. Art has won many Blue Ribbons at the show as well as Best in Show. However, he also has a very witty style of writing about his fellow gardening enthusiasts. Tales of travel problems in a late snowstorm with a car full of plants, an apartment overflowing with seedlings or plants, and a marijuana plant carefully being tended by a gardener in a public garden. These, and other logistical nightmares of the horticulturalist, fill the chapters. Of particular note is the area regarding a Gardener/Non-Gardener translation section that will help to clear up many of those misunderstood signals that pass between the two identities, not to mention bring a nod and a smile to many of us who have `been there, done that'. The book is indeed a wonderful remedy to help pass those rather tedious days of late winter when it is too early to dig, or the dog days of summer when it is too hot and humid to dig.

Beyond Political Correctness: Are There Limits to This Lunacy?

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Analytical View

Beyond Political Correctness: Are There Limits to This Lunacy?
David Thibodaux
Manufacturer: Huntington House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Social Philosophy | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1563840669

Customer Reviews:

Analytical View.......2003-10-01

This is the author's second book on the phenomenon of political correctness. He says he felt compelled to pursue the issue as he had become concerned that education had turned into a form of indoctrination. As a result, his writings are designed to expose some of the fallacies he's encountered. We're told "This movement (i.e., political correctness) has had its crosshairs trained on the very heart of American culture and the traditions (the Judeo-Christian tradition, the work ethic, the traditional family, etc.) upon which that culture was founded" (p. 6).
His documentation is strong. His logic is solid. He makes a good case for his point of view. This is a book worth reading.

Surrounded by Idiots: Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America

Average customer rating:

Surrounded by Drivel
A proud conservative
Doesn't Go Far Enough
Good start, now let's get serious
SAVE YOUR MONEY

Surrounded by Idiots: Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America
Mike Gallagher
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060737980
Release Date: 2005-06-28

Customer Reviews:

Surrounded by Drivel.......2006-05-07

As a conservative it never ceases to amaze me that nationally syndicated talk show hosts feel compelled to write books. Obviously it is a testament to their inability to get their point across within fifteen broadcast hours each week. Gallagher's opus is no exception. From Sean Hannity's sycophantic forward with its grammatical faux pas to the closing self-deprecating remarks in the final chapter it is a mediocre read at best and fails to offer any convincible solutions toward "fighting liberal lunacy in America".
This book is much like his show: considerable drivel about how things should be in his opinion and how those who don't share his philosophy are `idiots'. According to Wilkipedia.org an idiot is defined as "... a person with a very severe mental retardation or a very low IQ level..." Mike's opponents on the Left are not idiots. Idiots, by the above definition, would be incapable of holding public office or maintaining successful careers in entertainment or academia.. The root cause of their lunacy is driven more by ingratitude to this great nation more than anything. Gallagher fails to grasp this simple fact.
He writes: "The thrust of the book that you now hold in your hands is political". Gallagher himself has incorrectly assessed his own writing. It is anything but political. Bashing politicians, entertainers, and academicians who are left of center does not provide for interesting reading, is tantamount to childish name-calling, and is hardly a persuasive political strategy. Rather than harp upon the ills of society, comparing them with the "back when I was a kid" mantra, Gallagher would have been better served to focus on the political issues that have aided in the political and cultural decline in which we as a nation find ourselves. Sadly, Gallagher is incapable of such critical thinking. If he is, he has certainly squandered a golden opportunity to get to the core of the issues that his limited time on air prohibits. And should we be surprised? His book follows a format similar to his radio show. He touches on certain pet peeves, titillates the reader with a few anecdotes to invoke emotions, and then moves on. There's no expanding on an issue to provide a historical context as to why certain shortcomings ever came about and offers no solutions to the same.
Ridiculing people because of their physical appearance is rhetoric echoing across high school campuses from coast to coast. Gallagher's profession demands a higher acumen of the English vernacular as opposed to calling overweight people "fatties". His reference as such lacks empathy and condescending comments like this are better left unwritten. Accept it, Gallagher. Some people are not as motivated toward personal weight control as you are. Kudos to you for your accomplishment. Don't use it as a soapbox to disparage others.
Surrounded by Idiots is no more a political read than Mother Goose. It is a biographical retrospective written by a Rush Limbaugh wanna-be, who is one of the worst talk show hosts in the business and who has managed to convince enough of the right people that his opinions are worth syndication on national radio, but have little or no potential of making significant cultural or political change.

A proud conservative.......2006-02-04

Mike Gallagher is a proud conservative and he is not ashamed to say it. This book is a collection of personal stories about Mike's encounters with various Liberals. It is easy reading and entertaining. His down to earth logic and common sense comes through page after page. He is one of the few celebrities that is not shy from bringing his family and personal lives into the discussion. It is frank and refreshing. I'm glad he is one example where a staunch Conservative can get along with his Liberal spouse. Why can't the politicians in Washington learn a lesson? We can disagree on issues but still get along. Keep up the good fight Mike.

Doesn't Go Far Enough.......2006-01-05

As the author states at beginning, "The Left is trying to destroy the pillars of our great country. Their targets: every value and standard, principle and idea, concept of God, family, honor, duty, country, and decency we hold dear". Its very clear: Mike Gallagher gets it. The greatest threat to our country? Al Queda? Iran? North Korea? Hardly! The greatest threat to our country are everyday homegrown Americans.

We've all seen them. They may look and talk like real Americans, but make no mistake. They're not. They're liberals. The threat posed by Osama Bin Laden is small potatoes compared to the potential threat posed by a trio of country singers with big mouths. And what's the deal with that mother of a slain soldier? She's got a lot of nerve, interrupting the President's month long vacation. Her son made a noble sacrifice, so she should just shut up and bake cookies or something.

I'm quite disturbed that Mike himself is married to one of these idiots. As he states in chapter one, his wife Denise is a Democrat! Can you imagine? What was he thinking? I shudder to think of the sick, perverted things she makes him do behind closed doors. She's probably cheating on him, too. As everyone knows, liberal idiots have no moral standards whatsoever (see Chapter 1). He claims that they're soulmates, but he must be lying. How could he possibly be soulmates with an idiot liberal scumbag??? Maybe he just likes slumming. He should divorce her immediately. He'll probably have to when they ship her off to the planned internment camps, anyway. Best to go ahead and do it now.

Sadly, I must deduct one star from this magnum opus of pure genius because Mike Gallagher offers no real permanent solution to this problem. Sure, while its always a good thing for those in power to claim that they're being persecuted by those with no power (it worked out great in Germany), it simply is not enough in a post 911 world. THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH US SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO SPEAK. We're at war, and we must take any necessary means to achieve total victory. You see, the enemy hates us for our freedoms. So if we empower our leaders to take our freedoms away, the enemy will no longer have a reason to hate us. Who can argue with that logic?

Good start, now let's get serious.......2005-11-23

I find it amazing that people are now using the book review section of Amazon to post there political opinions. Even if they haven't read the book. "I skimmed this book in a bookstore just today." All this reviewer did was skim the book and now they can form an honest opinion? Wow, I need this person to help me save time with term papers. No need to read all of the research material, I can just "skim it."

And this quote from a "reviewer", "I have not seen ONE book by a liberal or Democrat that shows the sheer vitriol and hatred that many of the conservative books do." Obviously this reader has never heard of Al Franken, Clint Willis, or Molly Ivins.

But I digress. This was a good first attempt at a book. A lot of what I read I was familiar with because I listen to the show. Some things were new and interesting. There were even times when I felt Mike was just expressing his views and telling us a few stories in a casual conversational tone. Not unlike some conservative authors who leave me angry when I read their books.

Mike, get a little more in depth next time. I look forward to the next book. God Bless America.

SAVE YOUR MONEY.......2005-11-03

Another right wing radio show host writes a book. Also another book by someone who has done nothing but flap his lips for a living. Must be something about being soft that allows the mind to go stale and become arrogant. Saw a picture of this man a few years back. He looked like he put butter on his cheese. He's trimmed down, and his sagging skinned body has produced a book.

I'd advise people not to buy this book new, because it will soon be a major remainder, available in flea markets and shelved in the Salvation Army. You night get luck and buy it for a dime.

Poor thinking seems to be a criteria of right wing radio: US versus the liberal. Our side. Kooky liberal ideas. "Left wing consiparacy by the liberal media.," is a common phrase. All that is wrong with the USA today is because of liberals, Mr G. declares. The one sign of a crank is absolute belief he has the answer, filled in with persistant neologisms and catch phrases.

Let's see: in one chapter Mr. G. says he was in a restruant having dinner with his wife and a loud noisy kid interupted his enjoyment. Somewhere in his thought porcesses, Mr. G. envisions that this kid will grow up to be a whiney liberal.

Eh? How's that jump in logic justified?

AH Yes, Mr G. professes to Christian ideals. He had a section on his web site for "Pin head of the week." Great Christian ideal. Name calling.

A few days after the release of this pile of doodles, Mr G. got annoyed with the idea of silent prayer and protest for the remberance of the 60th anniversery of Hiroshima. Wasn't the dropping of the bomb supposed to have been good, preventing Americans from dying needlessly?

Uhm, I think Mr G. forgot to read the stories in the papers further: what happened can not be eradicated from history. The protest was staged for the bomb not to be used ever again for the purposes of war. Poor thinking.

As said, you can pick this book up in a few months in a Goodwill store. It'll be next to those unread copies of Rush Limbaugh's books.

Remember liberals: they gave women the right to vote, freed the slaves, pressed for equal rights, fed thehungrey helped the homeless, helped reverse the great depression,... all truely kooky ideas.

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