Non Civil War Books and Movies

And the Answer is.... by Alex Trebrek

The famed host of "Jeopardy!" wrote this memoir the year he died of cancer. Its quite businesslike, like Trebrek, and not very forthcoming about his emotions or relationships with his mom or hard drinking father. He is trying to put across the image of a regular family man who happened to be very good at and enjoy a particular job that delighted masses of people. His humility and steady courage are inspirational.

As somehow who has howled along the contestants for years, I loved it and recommend it.

Matt McKeon said:

And the Answer is.... by Alex Trebrek

The famed host of "Jeopardy!" wrote this memoir the year he died of cancer. Its quite businesslike, like Trebrek, and not very forthcoming about his emotions or relationships with his mom or hard drinking father. He is trying to put across the image of a regular family man who happened to be very good at and enjoy a particular job that delighted masses of people. His humility and steady courage are inspirational.

As somehow who has howled along the contestants for years, I loved it and recommend it.

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Alex can never be replaced, only imitated. He was a treasure of knowledge. .

O' Be Joyful said:

Alex can never be replaced, only imitated. He was a treasure of knowledge. .

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He was a bright spot in my day.

The Dig
Possibly the most English movie I have ever seen. Ralph Fiennes plays a rustic, self taught archeologist, who uncovered the fabulous Sutton Hoo treasure on the eve of World War II. Class conflicts, wistful longing looks at the high born widow landowner, history, Spitfires roaring overhead as Britain prepares for its Finest Hour, plenty of tweed, it was pretty good.

Matt McKeon said:

The Dig
Possibly the most English movie I have ever seen. Ralph Fiennes plays a rustic, self taught archeologist, who uncovered the fabulous Sutton Hoo treasure on the eve of World War II. Class conflicts, wistful longing looks at the high born widow landowner, history, Spitfires roaring overhead as Britain prepares for its Finest Hour, plenty of tweed, it was pretty good.

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I enjoyed this quite a bit! I often work with archaeologists and it was a fun trip. Kind of put me in mind of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.

diane said:

I enjoyed this quite a bit! I often work with archaeologists and it was a fun trip. Kind of put me in mind of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.

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My kid was on a dig in Ireland the last precovid summer. She loved it, partly because she liked the people, and partly the work. She said the thing about the "smell" on the dig is still a thing.

BTW, loved that movie.

Matt McKeon said:

My kid was on a dig in Ireland the last precovid summer. She loved it, partly because she liked the people, and partly the work. She said the thing about the "smell" on the dig is still a thing.

BTW, loved that movie.

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The smell is definitely unique. Funny thing - they were sticking little pink, orange and yellow flags all over...and they kept disappearing. I was sitting on a rock where they'd put me and noticed little tiny bony hands reach from behind me and grab a pink flag. Squirrel! This...this pink thing... I must have it... It was hilarious!

The Last Blockbuster
There is one Blockbuster video store left in the United States, in Bend, Oregon. This documentary describes the rise and fall of the media giant, and the hardworking and charming crew that manages the last holdout.

Shirley
Elizabeth Moss plays Shirley Jackson, author of "The Lottery" as she tackles her first novel. Struggling with agoraphobia, a complex relationship with her husband and a difficult book, Moss commands the screen. Gothic, overheated, claustrophobic, but interesting.

I'm almost done with Rick Atkinson's first volume of his Revolution Trilogy, which covers the American Revolution. You may have heard of him from his much praised Liberation Trilogy about the US Army in North Africa and Europe during WW2.

The Revolution first volume goes from Boston through Princeton & Trenton. I was quite pleased to find it gives extensive coverage to the invasion of Canada, beyond anything I've previously read, and covers small events like Great Bridge, Norfolk, Moore's Creek, and Sullivan's Island that would too often be skimmed over. Revolution books tend to focus on Washington's Continental Army at the expense of everything else, even worse than the Virginia bias in the American Civil War.

He usually takes 4-5 years between volumes so the rest of the trilogy will take awhile. I assume the second volume will run through 1779, since Monmouth is a good climax and the Carolinas Campaign will kick off the final volume.

Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon
This is the 3rd of a 4 part series featuring Ky Vatta, a naval cadet in a science fiction future of rayguns and spaceships.

Society is organized by big trading companies, and a monopoly on interstellar communications by a IBM like company, if IBM maintained a navy. The Vattas are a trading family/company who end phonecalls by repeating "trade and profit" instead of either "goodbye" or "Vaya con Dios."

The survivors must rebuild their company and in Ky's case, organized a space fleet to seek revenge.

On one level, its a story of building commerce with meetings with manufacturers, bankers, and exporters, while Ky drills her crews with principles straight out of current military manuals(Moon is a former Marine). Its quite interesting, quick moving and plausible as Ky and her sister face each challenge and surmount it.

Ky however has a little secret. Brisk, unemotional and coolheaded in battle, she takes a sadistic pleasure in killing her enemies. Fortunately for her, she is in a situation with lots of enemies who need killing.

As part of my latest reading/learning project, I am currently reading Sand And Steel: The D-Day Invasions And The Liberation Of France by Peter Caddick-Adams. I am in the first third of the book and I promise a review when I'm finished. Part of my project is going to be a minute-by-minute time line of the invasion which will start at midnight June 5/6, 1944 and continueuntil I tire of the project or the capture of Cherbourg and the breakout from the beachhead.

Here is a review by Jerry Lenaburg in the New York Journal Of Books.

Matt McKeon said:

Shirley
Elizabeth Moss plays Shirley Jackson, author of "The Lottery" as she tackles her first novel. Struggling with agoraphobia, a complex relationship with her husband and a difficult book, Moss commands the screen. Gothic, overheated, claustrophobic, but interesting.

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I read the novel the movie is based on last night. The emphasis is quite different, more centered on the young woman house guest narrating the book. Jackson's husband, Stanley Hyman comes across as less insufferable than he does on screen. Jackson had four children, and they were absent in the film, but present in a complicated book. The image in both the book and film is the disappearance of Paula Welden, a young Bennington student, in 1946, a few years before the film is set. The book is set in 1965, and Welden's role is even more enigmatic: Shirley's victim, or her muse, or just grist for an early novel.

Thanks for reviewing this movie. I had been going to give it a pass - Hollywood has seen its day I'm afraid - but this sounds good. I've read some other works by Shirley Jackson - the Haunting of Hill House was the one impressed me most. She seemed to me to be something of Edgar Allan Poe come back, and she certainly had no illusions about the phantom 'sisterhood' of women! She also wrote Life Among the Savages - a book of tips for new moms, and was an inspiration for Nora Ephron - she's another of my favorites. You'd think Nora Ephron would be Shirley Jackson's opposite but there's a lot in common there.

diane said:

Thanks for reviewing this movie. I had been going to give it a pass - Hollywood has seen its day I'm afraid - but this sounds good. I've read some other works by Shirley Jackson - the Haunting of Hill House was the one impressed me most. She seemed to me to be something of Edgar Allan Poe come back, and she certainly had no illusions about the phantom 'sisterhood' of women! She also wrote Life Among the Savages - a book of tips for new moms, and was an inspiration for Nora Ephron - she's another of my favorites. You'd think Nora Ephron would be Shirley Jackson's opposite but there's a lot in common there.

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I love Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Hill House was wonderful, not a word wasted. You should read her essay on the reader reaction to the "Lottery".

Crip Camp
Camp Jenad was a summer camp for kids with disabilities in upstate New York. In this documentary, campers recall, with plentiful footage of the time, how liberating it was to be in a place where they were treated as kids, not as sick or crippled. It was the early 1970s, man, and the hippie counselors were not much into enforcing the rules and harshing people's buzz. The first cigarette, the first kiss, the sense of belonging, being an insider. "It was wonderful," sighs one former camper. There was a council of campers who helped make decisions, and some of the youngsters decide they can't go back to accepting their old place in a society where, "they want us to die." The 2nd half of the documentary recounts the battle for the rights of the disabled, ending with the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Sadly Jenad closed in the late 70s, but its influence continues.

Hangsaman
Early Jackson, its an account of a young woman's first year at a Bennington like college. Gradually she goes insane, then tries to claw her way back. Frightening, witty in places.

Ammonite
Kate Winslet and Saroise Ronan star in this early Victorian romance based on real people. The movie has little dialogue or music, its the roar of surf, cries of gulls. Winslet plays Mary Anning, a working class woman who made amazing finds of prehistoric dinosaur and plant fossils on the Devon coast in the 1830s. The wrong gender and class, she was locked out of recognition or membership in the scientific establishment. and supports herself selling "relics" to tourists. Enter Charlotte Murchinson, a melancholic, beautiful and neglected wife of a gentleman geologist.

Mary gradually thaws, and Charlotte comes out of her depression as they scour the coastline for fossils exposed the relentless pounding of the sea and tide. After an hour of longing looks, they fall on each other in bouts of intense lovemaking. But can their passion breach the walls of class and of gender expectations?

Winslet and Ronan make you care about them, although they bear little resemblance to the actual historical figures. Somewhat grim, but there is a funny sequence when the aristocratic Charlotte wants to help Mary prepare dinner. Mary has to keep lowering the bar to find something so simple that Charlotte can actually do.

Anning has inspired several books. One good one is "Remarkable Creatures."

The Post
Steven Spielsberg directs an account of the Washington Post newspaper's decision to print the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of Vietnam, part of which was leaked to the NY Times and part to the Post, a case that ended up in the Supreme Court. The crisis comes at a fraught time: the Post is being taken public by Kay Graham, the owner, and Nixon's retaliation could scupper the paper.

Its Tom Hanks and his crew of hard charging reporters vs. the lawyers, the suits, the Nixon administration and their archrivals the New York Times, invariably referred to as the "god damn New York Times" or the "f--king Times." One theme is the aristocratic Graham finding her feet and asserting her authority over the all male boardroom.