Wednesday, November 30

Three key human pivot points:

We must live with ambivalence since the ones who can satisfy us can also frustrate us;

There is nothing inherently bad about the universe, so we can try to make it better, while guarding the tendency to want to be regarded as better than others.

Self is not determined solely in one’s head.

Tuesday, November 29

My wish for my writing is that one day a literary critic will comment, “He created a new genre whereby one could find more truth in his novels than in the media discourse of today’s current affairs.”

In terms of my speech I hope to be:

Fluid and open, good at listening to questions, engaging them on their own terms, and delivering prose quality responses extemporaneously.

Monday, November 28

Two new appealing biographies out in time for the holidays are:

Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie.  I read his great biography of Peter the Great while on the train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow with my wife and our newly adopted children; and

Something Urgent I Have to Say to You, The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams, by Herbert Leibowitz.  I have Williams’ complete collection of poems. He was a doctor with a daily practice and a poet.

Saturday, November 26

The Michigan Wolverines beat “Ohio” 40 to 34 in Ann Arbor, the game coming down to the final 4^th down play by Ohio which was intercepted by Michigan.  The seven year losing streak to Ohio is ended.

Sunday, November 27

My daughter invites a friend over to share in our traditions in putting up the Christmas tree.  They have ice cream, popcorn and pizza (in that order) while decorating and watching a Christmas movie.  They enjoy my struggles with getting all the lights on the tree to work, which my wife finally manages to do.

Thursday, November 24

Thanksgiving

Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

-The Mayflower Compact

Friday, November 25

Finished reading today Great Expectations by Charles Dickens which was e-mailed to me a page a day for 229 days by DailyLit on-line service.

Wednesday, November 23

The Oxford Union, one of the oldest and maybe most venerated debating societies recently debated the following motion, dubbed “the Silicon Valley Debate,”

"This House Believes That the Average Worker is Being Left Behind by Advances in Technology"

Proposition:
Erik Brynjolfsson - Schussel Family Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management & Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business.

Patrick Chung - Co-head of NEA Consumer investing practice.

Reid Hoffman - Co-founder & President of LinkedIn and Co-founder & Vice-President of PayPal.

Andrew McAfee - Principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business in the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Opposition:
Tom Hayes - Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Marvell & author of best-selling books on digital business and culture.

Kal Patel - Partner in Vantagepoint Capital Partners.

Kim Polese - Former CEO of SpikeSource. A 'Time' magazine former '25 Most Influential Americans'.

Padmasree Warrior - Chief Technology Officer and former Executive Vice-President of Motorola.

The debate was sponsored by the Said Business School of Oxford University, Oxford, England.

Tuesday, November 22

The heart of writing, said Israeli novelist David Grossman, is getting to know a book’s characters intimately, in a way that is impossible with other human beings.

Monday, November 21

The Michigan/Ohio State game looms this Saturday at noon.  My Wolverines are 57-44-6 against the Buckeyes, however not having beaten them since 2003’s 100^th anniversary game in Ann Arbor.

I first watched the game in the early 1970s before even attending Michigan while living nearby in Dearborn Heights.  Back then Bo Schembechler was in the midst of the great ten year rivalry with Woody Hayes, his mentor,  which became known as the “10-Year War” (1969-1978).  They were tight games often won or lost on a made or missed field goal.  Bo and Michigan went 5-4-1.  Classic.

Sunday, November 20

Treated to Starbucks by my daughter.  Eggnog latte and gingerbread.  Getting in the holiday spirit.

Saturday, November 19

Mom’s Taralo (spelling based on my approximation of the Abruzzo dialect word for Italian Tort, recipe based on my watching Mom on January 28, 2003 make one of her many unwritten recipes)

1 cup milk

1 stick Land-O-Lakes unsalted butter or olive oil

8 eggs (yokes and whites)

2 cups sugar

4 cups sifted flour

2 ½ tablespoons sifted Baking Powder

¼ cup orange zest or to taste

¼ cup lemon zest or to taste

Anise seeds, optional

Mix above then add to buttered Bundt cake pan.

Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over top.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until done.

Friday, November 18

I sense Americans are justifiably experiencing a loss of faith and trust in our bedrock institutions as the Washington debt crisis, the Wall Street mortgage/banking crisis and Penn State’s child endangerment crisis have all come to a head this year.

The crisis in each case boils down to a lack of honesty on the part of leaders, a desire to put off hard decisions and an inability to resolve conflict.

There seems to be a shortage of ethics at the highest levels.

Two favorite books of mine related to lying and ethics are:

Lying, Moral Choice in Public and Private Life by Sissela Bok; and

Approaches to Ethics, Representative Selections from Classical times to the Present, 2^nd Edition, Jones, Sontag, Beckner and Fogelin.

But you do not need to read a book to know that what is ultimately best for society as a whole and long term is to tell the truth.

Thursday, November 17

A tasty interlude off exit 368 between Dallas and Waco, the Fried Pie Shop (Arbuckle Mountain company originally started in Davis, Oklahoma).  I had two, a pumpkin and a sweet potato fried pie while driving with two pineapple ones placed carefully in the passenger seat for my wife and daughter once home.  The pies were fresh and smelled up the car and were still slightly oily to the touch even seeping through the wax paper pouch they came in.

Wednesday, November 16

About this time of year I like remembering the difference between Plymouth, Jamestown and Roanoke.

Plymouth colony was where 102 Pilgrims of the Mayflower settled in 1620 in Massachusetts seeking religious freedom.

Jamestown was settled in 1607 in Virginia by 104 individuals sent by King James of England for commercial purposes.

Roanoke Island, off the Virginia coast, was where 117 of the first permanent English settlers sent by the Virginia Company settled in 1587.   Nearly three years later when a supply team returned to the colony from England they found everyone gone, their disappearance remains a mystery.

Tuesday, November 15

There are three styles of gelato, Italy’s version of American ice cream.  In Southern Italy and Sicily, the gelato is made with just milk.  In central Italy, like Florence, the milk gets egg yolks added to it. In northern Italy where dairy products are more plentiful, cream is added to the milk and yolks.  Gelato has overall less cream and butterfat than ice cream.   Gelato is denser because with less cream and butterfat, there is less to bind with air molecules so ice cream seems lighter. The classic gelato flavor is pistachio. 

Monday, November 14

My wife’s favorite local jeweler had an opal show featuring a visiting vender.  The gems were mined in Australia’s Andamooka Opal Fields, mostly black and crystal.   Paul Christensen was the seller and he had cut and polished the stones himself on his own equipment.  Australia provides about 95% of the world’s opals.

The other gemstone varieties are:

	Emerald
	Ruby
	Sapphire
	Amethyst
	Opal
	Topaz
	Peridot
	Aquamarine
	Tanzanite
	Citrine
	Ametrine
	Garnets
	Tsavorite Garnet
	Demantoid Garnet
	Mandarin Garnet
	Tourmaline
	Rubellite Tourmaline
	Green Tourmaline
	Paraiba Tourmaline
	Yellow Tourmaline
	Blue Tourmaline
	Multicolored Tourmaline
	Lapis Lazuli
	Fancy Sapphires
	Quartz
	Zultanite
	Jade
	Zircon
	Iolite
	Spinel
	Fire Opal
	Moonstone
	Alexandrite
	Chrysoberyl
	Kunzite
	Beryls
	Morganite
	Chrome Diopside
	Andalusite
	Amber
	Turquoise
	Coral
	Agate
	Onyx
	Bloodstone
	Jasper
	Pearl
	Diamond